#but it felt fairly irreverent if i remember right. which is the right way to go about it

[gins-potter]

Casting Thoughts

Yes, I did a long post when the rumours first dropped but hey now it’s confirmed plus we have characters descriptions, and I’m bored so let’s do this all over again people.  Under the cut because it got long

Sisi Stringer as Rose Hathaway

I said this in my other post but I’m pretty happy with Sisi as Rose.

Visually I think she’s a great fit, I love that they casted a WoC in the main role, and I think if she can bring Rose’s humour and sarcasm to the role, she’s going to do great.

The character description mentions Rose being “fiery and outspoken”, happy to jump into the action, and the strongest fighter in her class but struggling to toe the line, which is all very Rose-esque, especially in the first book.  It sounds to me like they have a good grasp on her character.

I’m a little disappointed we didn’t hear more about Rose as a character since she is the lead - it felt like the descriptions for Lissa and Dimitri both gave us a little more to go on - but it is only a very preliminary description so I’m happy to wait for more.

Daniela Nieves as Lissa Dragomir

Daniele is another one who I was happy with straight away.

She’s probably not what I imagined for Lissa visually but that’s not a bad thing either; I will be interested to see if they dye her hair a lighter colour (like a caramel-blonde) but personally that’s not something I need to see for her to be a great fit for Lissa.

I think she has a very sweet face which works well for a character like Lissa but I think she’s also going to be able to stand up in Lissa’s more fiercer moments which is nice to see as well.

The character descriptions mentions her as being “carefree and kind-hearted” who “coasts” through life until a death in the family thrusts her into a new role.  That sounds a lot like pre-series Lissa so I wonder if we’re going to see a bit of that in the show before Andre (and her parents??) die and see that change.  

It’s curious though that she’s described as the younger sister of the heir apparent - which would be Andre - so it sounds like they’ve changed it so Andre was supposed to be King.  Obviously a deviation from the books but I don’t hate it?  I don’t think it would change Lissa’s arc all that much because obviously she was always going to grow up to be an influential royal figure, this just slightly changes the dynamics of it.

The description also specifically mentions that she’s uninterested in “political machinations” and the “hypocrisy of the moroi royal society” which sounds very accurate to book!lissa as well.

All in all I’m very happy with what they’re doing with Lissa.

Keiron Moore as Dimitri Belikov

This is one who’s really grown on me since the rumoured cast list started circulating.  At first I was kind of eh about him but I can really see him as Dimitri now.

I will be curious to see if he grows out his hair or not though.

As far as I know Keiron is not Russian, there’s not a lot about him online, but there’s some instagram activity on his account linking him to UK based companies so that would be my guess as to where he’s from.  They’ve kept Dimitri’s incredibly Russian name so I guess we’re to assume Keiron might be doing an accent and they’re keeping Dimitri’s backstory relatively the same?  I’m not gonna be super mad if they change it just because I think it’s doable for him not to be Russian (I know, I know a whole book is set in Russia but lbr here they could make him from anywhere and just send Rose there in that book).

The biggest thing for me will be his chemistry with Sisi, Danila and Zoey had great chemistry (imo anyway) which saved the move a little for me, so it’ll be important that Sisi and Keiron do as well.  They’ve interacted a few times online which is cute so I’m hoping they were able to do some chemistry reads and that will translate on screen.

The character description mentions Dimitri as being “lethal, disciplined, discreet, and totally committed” as well as living by “a deep moral code” but with more going on “beneath his stoic, watchful surface” which sounds exactly like book!Dimitri to me.

They don’t really specify what his role at St Vlad’s is going to be but they do mention that he is a guardian so I’m assuming they’re keeping some sort of age gap between him and Rose.  They also don’t mention anything about their relationship in the description, be it student/teacher, platonic, romantic, whatever, but they do say he has “an expansive spirit that could threaten to expose the underlying tension between his sense of what’s right and his formal duty to the Moroi.” which seems like a nod to their relationship.

Andre Dae-Kim as Christian Ozera

This was one of my favourite casting choices from the original rumoured cast list and I still love it.

The idea of a non-white Christian makes a lot of sense to me and I think Andre could do a great job of Christian’s aloofness (in the first book) as well as his sarcasm and growing confidence across the other books.

His character description confuses me a bit though: “Intelligent and thoughtful, Christian is the pariah of the school and royal court, due to his parents’ unforgivable societal sins.” sounds accurate enough to the book (although idk if thoughtful is quite the word I’d use for Christian - maybe they mean it in the sense that he’s quiet and keeps to himself?).

Even “Well-read and hungry for knowledge” doesn’t sound that far off, idk if he was *that* particularly studious in the books, but it doesn’t necessarily not make sense either you know?

But “he searches for faith-based answers and discovers a kindred spirit who is also looking for the truth” ??? My cynical, irreverent asshole Christian is now a man of faith? I’m assuming Lissa is the “kindred spirit” (again weird word choice but maybe they mean she’s feeling lost because of the death of her family?) but I just cannot see Christian as being particularly religious.

I’m trying to keep an open mind about these changes because you never know they might play out totally different on screen, but I really hope they didn’t make these changes, particularly that Christian is studious and religious, just because they cast an Asian actor as him (because they feel a little like Asian stereotypes).

J August Richards as Victor Dashkov

This is one that didn’t appear on the original rumoured cast list (as far as I saw) and it’s so different to his description in the books that I kind of don’t have an opinion about it as a casting choice.

I’ve never seen him in anything before so purely on a visual level I think he could be a great fit for Victor, I just think it’ll really come down to how he plays it.

As for this character description: “Victor is a Moroi noble vampire with a heart of gold who’s highly regarded for his role as advisor and political strategist to Moroi dignitaries.” as well as mentioning that he has intelligence and influence, sounds pretty accurate to the book.  Obviously if Andre was the heir to the throne, Victor had to be shifted out of that role, but I think his book 1 arc could still work if they wanted it to.

The “heart of gold” bit obviously made me chuckle and I really hope they threw it in there as a kind of decoy to throw non-book-readers off the fact that he’s actually the villain in book 1/s1.

As for giving him a husband and two daughters, my thoughts are: why the fuck not? He didn’t have a love interest in the original books and I’m always down for more lgbtq+ rep.  My only concern is it maybe playing into the trope of evil/villain characters being queer-coded.  And as for having two daughters, well as long as one of them is Natalie I don’t mind.

Anita-Joy Uwajeh as Tatiana Vogel

Okay this is the most bizarre one imo, not because of the casting, but just the character description.

I mean “Tatiana is a Moroi vampire and political underdog who slowly takes the royal court by storm. Motivated by love and a sense of justice, Tatiana has a unique skill of making herself seem of no consequence until we realize much too late that she was always the one to watch.” sounds extremely Tasha Ozera to me, so like why not just make this character Tasha?  Nothing about this sounds like Tatiana, and Tatiana wasn’t even a Vogel anyway (well Vogel wasn’t even one of the 12 royal families), she was an Ivashkov.

In terms of Anita-Joy herself, well I mean we don’t really have a character to compare her to, is she supposed to be more like Tasha or Tatiana?  She looks fairly young, so my guess is actually on Tasha, but we’ll have to wait to see I guess.

Mia McKenna-Bruce as Mia Karp

This is another one that I was instantly a fan of.

I was so not a fan of Mia’s casting in the movie (I can’t even remember who played her tbh but I really didn’t like it) so this Mia is a lot closer to how I imagine her.

I think she’ll be able to carry Mia’s transformation from bratty social-climber to badass fighter really well.

The character description is interesting though.  “Witty, cutting, and just the right kind of ruthless when necessary, non-Royal Mia has a long-term plan to social climb her way into the ranks of royalty, with all the privilege and freedom that entails.” sound pretty bang on to Mia in the first book.

“A plan complicated by her instant chemistry with Meredith, a Guardian-in-training, as Mia struggles to reconcile her attraction to Meredith with her lowly status.” is an obvious deviation though, and one I kind of love???  Give me all the queer rep, and if we get to see Mia confront the issue of comp-het I’m so here for it.  

It’s kind of funny though because I’ve seen theories that Meredith is a replacement for Eddie and Mia/Eddie has always been my sort of rarepair ship.

The last name Karp is weird af though.  Is she supposed to be Sonya’s daughter?  And if that’s the case I wonder if we’re going to actually see Sonya turn Strigoi in the show’s first season or something and that triggers the change in Mia?  Interesting concept but I’m not sure how the timeline will work.

Rhian Blundell as Meredith

So this is another new one, and tbh I hadn’t given Meredith *that* much though in the past but she’s probably close to how I would have pictured her which is cool.

The elephant in the room with this casting is that Meredith’s role in the books was relatively minor - she was just kind of that character that got brought up whenever R.M needed a dhampir who wasn’t Rose/Dimitri/Mason/Eddie.  So clearly she’s going to have a bigger role in the tv show which I don’t mind but I do wonder if we’re going to lose a character - probably Eddie lbr - in order to have her.  They haven’t casted an Eddie yet as far as we know, but I have seen it pointed out that Eddie’s role in book 1 was pretty small so maybe they just aren’t announcing it.  But there’s also the possibility that maybe Meredith will sort of replace Eddie and be the third part of Rose and Mason’s friendship.

I’m very interested by this part of her character description though, “She has little patience for Rose’s volatility or Mia’s elitism, and regularly calls both of them out.”

Jonetta Kaiser as Sonya Karp

I don’t necessarily dislike Jonetta as Sonya but I am confused by this choice.  She looks fairly young, which tbf Sonya was young-ish I guess, but if Mia is supposed to be her daughter she doesn’t look old enough to have a teenaged daughter.  So maybe Sonya and Mia are sisters? Cousins? Just have each other’s last names for no reason? I really don’t know.  They also look nothing alike.

Other than that, I don’t really have an opinion about Jonetta as Sonya.  Obviously looks nothing like how Sonya was described but that’s not new nor a massive concern for me.  

I can’t really tell just from looking at her, and I haven’t seen her in anything, if she would play a good Sonya.  I think with a lot of the characters it’s going to come down to the personality they bring to the part and the writing.

I looooooove her character description though:  “Quiet, careful and decidedly odd, Sonya is not of royal bloodline and sits out on the fringe of Moroi society, preferring to spend her time in the library or her gardens. Not a person who likes a scene, nonetheless she has a quiet but profound power of her own. She is taken by surprise when a Dhampir Guardian named Mikhail shows interest in her, a relationship that will expose both the brightest and darkest parts of her heart.”  It’s everything I would probably want from a description of Sonya and I’m more and more convinced that we’re going to see Sonya’s descent into madness and transformation into a Strigoi play out in maybe the first season which I am so curious how they’re going to work into the timeline.

Andrew Liner as Mason Ashford

Our last one and another one who doesn’t look remotely like his description but again? Not a surprise and not a problem for me.  He looks like he could play Mason’s goofiness really well as well as be a solid contender for a love interest for Rose.

“Charming, loyal and popular, Mason is Rose’s main competition in the quest to become the No. 1 Guardian-in-training. Though their relationship is casual on her side, he is hopeful she will finally look at him and see him as something more.” His character description makes a lot of sense, maybe him being Rose’s main competition is a bit of a deviation? But I think that’s more an indication that he’s supposed to be a strong fighter which isn’t inaccurate to the books.  The rest sounds great.

Other Thoughts

Descriptions of the show specifically mention friendship and classism as major themes which I am very happy to hear about because those are the two parts of VA that I love the most.

Am a little more worried about it being described as “sexy” though, if they shove a whole bunch of meaningless sex scenes in it just because it’s a YA show I’m not gonna be happy.

Seen the show compared to “Game of Thrones” and “Bridgerton” which at first had me like oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck not good not good not good.  But thinking about it more and trying to understand where Plec’s coming from with that description I wonder if means similar to GoT as in the cut-throat nature of the Moroi/Dhampir society cause I can kind of see that.  And as for Bridgerton I wonder if she’s referring to the kind of social-climbing aspects of it, because again that makes sense and it seems like a theme she really wants to concentrate on.  I hope that’s what she means by those comparisons, or that she just wants to compare it to popular shows to get people to watch it.  The worst would be if she tries to throw in a lot of unnecessary sex scenes to make it like those shows, because I hate when they do that, especially when the characters are teenagers.

Interesting to hear that Plec has known about the series since before Twilight or TVD - not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.

Seems like it’s actually mostly (or all??) written by Marguerite MacIntyre which is interesting because I know people were worried about Julie Plec - I’ve never watched anything by either of them so I’m neutral at this point.

#wow this took me most of the day to write so i got absolutely no uni work done #oh well #worth it #vampire academy #va #va tv show #rose hathaway #dimitri belikov #lissa dragomir #mason ashford #meredith (va) #mia rinaldi #sonya karp #christian ozera #respond to this and tell me your thoughts cause i want to hear what everyone things #*thinks #keep things respectful tho guys

[7deadlycinderellas]

If the summer of our lives could just come again, ch18

Ao3 link

 On the King’s Road

On the journey back to Winterfell, Sansa tells Shireen the whole story.

She’s a good listener, or perhaps it’s just a good story.

The weather is too terrible to camp very much. Sansa does not feel she misses much travelling in the wheelhouse this time. The few inns they pass cost a great deal, and food is stretched thin.

The two of them sleep in the wheelhouse, pressed close together as though they were sisters sharing secrets. Maybe in a way they are.

And so, these stories shared under moonlit cover, must sustain them. At least that’s how Shireen tells it.

She weeps the day that Sansa is forced to tell her how she died. She shakes her head violently.

“My father wouldn’t do that - he loves me!”

Sansa nods softly.

“Of course he does. That’s what made it so awful.”

Shireen sniffs, and wipes her eyes.

“Did it even help?”

Sansa’s heart breaks in two.

“No. Half your father’s men deserted him. Who would have thought that burning a child alive was bad for morale? He still attacked Winterfell, still tried to take down the Boltons. His remaining forces were crushed. He died later that day, executed by Lady Brienne for using the Red Woman’s black magic to kill your uncle.”

Shireen laughs through her tears.

“Maybe Ser Davos was right to take me away all those years ago.”

Sansa turns solemn. She reaches out to brush a tear off Shireen’s cheek.

“I never met you before. I only knew of you from Davos’s stories. He loved you, mourned you as if you were his own child. His very first thought when he returned with us was to get you to safety. It’s worked so far.”

Shireen slumps, and rests her head on Sansa’s shoulder.

“I used to have dreams of being burned to death in a dragon’s fire,” she says.

“Dragons are just huge beasts,” Sansa assures her, “The real most frightening monsters look just like men.”

Once Shireen’s sobs have subsided a bit, Sansa tries to cheer her up.

“Lady Brienne was the very first woman knight in the seven kingdoms.”

Shireen’s wet eyes blink in surprise.

“How?”

Sansa laughs, “Any knight can make a knight, it’s merely convention that women can’t be knights. She was knighted properly before the Long Night by Jamie Lannister, though she’d been acting the role of true knight for many years before. “

Shireen’s tears have ceased and been replaced by a confused look.

“Jamie Lannister? He’s- well, I wouldn’t call him mean, but…”

Sansa snorts.

“You can call him mean all you want. He pushed my little brother from a window- twice now. He couldn’t walk at all after the first time, and even though it wasn’t all that bad this time, he still can’t run or walk without a cane. Brienne claims he’s a good man underneath, but extracting that man is not within my skill set. Apparently the first step needed is a complete twin removal.”

Shireen sniffs.

“I never had siblings, always wondered what it was like.”

“It’s got its ups and its downs.”

Shireen suddenly purses her lips, remembering something from long ago.

“When Davos took me to Storm’s End, he said he was trying to rescue one of my cousin’s. Said in a different time he could have even been a prince. I guess that’s the closest thing I’ve got.”

Sansa cackles at the word ‘prince’,

“Oh, I am so going to tell him that Davos told you that. That was Gendry he was speaking of, one of your late uncle’s bastards. Davos got him out of King’s Landing fine, he married my younger sister.”

Shireen’s eyes go wide.

“Oh! That means we actually are family already!”

Seven hells, Sansa thought, no wonder Davos was so desperate to protect this girl.

It’s later in the journey, they’re about to cross into the North properly when it happens.

They’d been up early to get a quick start. The day was miraculously clear, and they could cover a great deal of road if it stayed that way.

Sansa had just been standing with she felt her skin prickle. She couldn’t put her finger on anything, just a sudden feeling of wrongness. She feels Lady shift at her side, picking up on her ill at ease. Rotating slowly, she managed to silently catch Brienne’s eye.

They don’t need to speak, Brienne sees her gesture with her eyes off into the tree line.

She pulls, nocks and looses her arrow silently.

All she does is graze the man, splitting the leather of his doublet and slicing the skin underneath, but the yell he lets out it enough. Brienne and the other guards can put him on the ground within a moment when he lurches from the cut on his arm, losing grip on his own bow.

They get him down easily, get his bow from him, but don’t trap his arms fast enough. He pulls the dagger from his belt and cuts his own throat.

With barely a second to think, Ned orders one of the guards to sweep the treeline and see if there was anyone else.

Looking at the man dead on the ground, Sansa feels her stomach lurch. He had been so close....She grasps Shireen’s elbow, her fingers pressed so tightly to her face that she’s left marks on the skin.

The others are arguing.

“That’s a Lannister cloak-”

“But he’s got the Baratheon colors underneath-”

“Which ones though?”

“He’s not one of Renly’s, I’ve never seen him before-”

“A sellsword? But why dress him up.”

Quietly, Sansa walks beside the man’s head, lolling back above the deep cut where his blood gushed free. His dagger has fallen from his lifeless grip.

With a wrinkle of her brow, Sansa knocks it from his hand and picks it up.

“Sansa-” Ned interrupts her, and she tests the items weight.

“He sent it with a catspaw before...to think he knew nothing of how valuable it could be. “

She turns to Ned.

“Don’t think too much on whose man he is. Likely a sellsword, they wouldn’t ask questions. The colors are probably deliberate, meant to confuse. I’m not even sure who he was targeting is important.”

Her stomach sinks with the thought. She isn’t sure herself, it could have been Father or her, or even Shireen and Brienne. She can’t picture the dead man’s sights from where he was standing. They don’t know if he was waiting, watching, or anything.

“Lord Baelish spoke often of the value of chaos. This is Valyrian steel. It was given to a paid assassin before, in an attempt on Bran’s life. I don’t think he was the one who ordered it, but it still ended up in his hand.  It did exactly what it was intended to here, it spread discord.”

“Sansa,” Ned starts, “How do you…”

She turns the dagger over in her hand.

“That’s likely what he wants, to turn us on each other, make us suspicious. He clearly didn’t pick this man for his stealth.”

Ned takes a deep breath.

“What do you suggest?”

Sansa thinks. She’s still unused to people looking to her.

“We keep going. Keep an eye open. Don’t think too hard about it.”

She finds a rag and wipes off the dagger, then tucks it into the pocket at the waist of her skirt.

“And I’ll keep a hold of this.”

 At Winterfell

During a clear day, the raven announcing Sansa and Ned’s return makes it to Winterfell. There is rejoicing. Even Robb looks relieved at the thought of being able to pass the mantle of lord back to his father.

At least by most.

Catelyn sits at the breakfast table long after most of the rest of the keep has left, and the dishes have been cleared. She sits, and thinks.

It would be a lie to say she was not overjoyed at the thought of seeing her eldest daughter again. It would also be a lie to say the thought of seeing Ned again did not fill her with an array of mixed emotions

It’s been over three years. She feels like she should have become more accustomed to things now. Like maybe she should have been able to move past the lies.

Then she hears how her other children, who have lived so many more years than they should, speak of Jon, and of their father.

They can love their brother-cousin, and still look at their father, knowing he lied to them about Jon for so many years. Why can’t she?

Her reverie is broken by the sound of her second youngest re-entering the Great Hall. Bran walks carefully back up to the table, and sits roughly, reaching under the bench to retrieve his cane where he’d left it.

“I nearly made it all the way out to the training yard this time,” he admits to her. He’d managed to lose the last cane somewhere, and when Gendry had given him this one, he’d threatened to ram the next one through the back of his hand if he lost this one.

“Is it easier in the morning?”

Bran nods.

“Sometimes. The ache doesn’t really start up until I’ve stressed it more than a bit.”

Catelyn feels a rush of tenderness at her son’s attitude.

“I know the gods have given you quite a burden to bear.”

Bran laughs.

“The gods didn’t do this me, Jamie Lannister did.”

He doesn’t tell her how small of a burden it seems this time, how his last life he had spent certain he would never do any great deeds like he had dreamed of as a child, never marry, never have a family and likely die alone.

Catelyn raises an eyebrow at him.

“I never took you for one to deny the power of the gods.”

“Given my own experiences, I have grown fairly sure that they must exist, but doubtful that they are at all concerned with us.”

Catelyn looks like she’s going to open her mouth to object to Bran’s irreverence again, so he changes the subject, to what he recognizes is likely troubling her.

“You’re worried about seeing Father again, aren’t you?”

Catelyn nods softly, not seeing the point in denying it. Bran had always been the kindest of the Stark children, the most empathetic. It made sense that he would be able to read it all over her face.

There’s a long moment before Bran responds,

“It was like that for us at the beginning too. We were all so excited to see you again, but we were terrified. Worried about how you would react. “

“I’m not concerned with how you’re father will react-”

Bran cuts her off.

“Wondering whether he felt any guilt at all about the lies he had told.”

Bran looks thoughtful for a time. Catelyn had often seen the ghost of the years in his sister’s eyes, but she’s seen it on him far less often.

“Believe me Mother, I’ve known plenty of guilt about actions in the past that I couldn’t change. Forgiveness is an incredible gift if you’re willing to give it.;

He leans over the end of the bench to hug her.

“You’re allowed to still be angry with him. None of us hold it against you, most of us were angry at him when we found out, at least for a little while. The question is whether or not you want to still be angry at him.”

Bran pulls himself up and rests his cane on the ground.

“You should think on it before they get home. Father always said he did his best thinking in the Godswood. It’s clear today, and no one will bother you there.”

Catelyn doesn’t respond to his suggestion before Jojen sticks his head into the hall and tells Bran that one of his ravens has returned, and with a gesture of his cut hands explained that the bird was “rather insistent” that it’s message be read with haste.

It’s barely a few more minutes before she decides that his suggestion is a good one.

The Godswood is a bit alien to Catelyn still, its pools and ancient woods a part of a faith which is not hers. But it is peaceful, and empty. Sitting below the weirwood, she can pray, undisturbed by anyone but Gray Wind who trots by. Her furs are thick, and blanket her from the biting cold.

She thinks to pray for the ability to forgive Ned, but what she actually prays for is her own forgiveness.

She prays to the Mother, to the Maiden too, and once more, to the Crone. She’s not sure who will respond to her pleas. She wonders which of them would touch Jon, which of them might soften his heart. She knows that emotions are usually considered the domain of the Mother, but would he be touched by her, when the woman who acted as his own mother had been so cold?

She’s been out for maybe an hour or two when her peace is interrupted by Arya.

“Sorry Mother, there’s a letter come for you- it’s from Aunt Lysa.”

Oh dear, she thinks, this can’t be good news. Sansa had been rather light on the details about Lysa, but none suggested that Catelyn’s sister is doing well at all.

 Over the Wall

The weirwoods all speak the language, and their roots go deep. Rowan teaches Jon, that they all speak to each other, in their own way.

“Despite this, there is still the effect of distance. A voice spoken on one end of the continent will reach a voice on the other, but it may not be true in strength.”

“So if I ask one if another one…”

“You will get an answer, but it may not be as complete or accurate as if you asked one right here.”

The trees of the far flung north are screaming. The night king is gathering his army. The trees don’t call him that, the name they call him doesn’t translate well. All of the dead, are to the trees ‘other’, and their king is THE other, the great one. The trees don’t know what he’s doing.

“He’s trying to get past the wall,” Ygritte tells him, “Same as us.”

Jon spares a glance to Rowan. She had told him before that after joining with Gilly and the others, their group had sought out and destroyed a horn that Mance Ryder and his men had been seeking, believing it to be the legendary horn of winter, which could bring down the wall.

“That does seem likely,” she concedes, “Seeing as the others are aiming to bring about a winter that will never end, that they would seek the other sides of the continent.”

“They can’t get over the wall,” Jon says, with firmness, “The stories are always that there were enchantments upon it. And whether or not that’s true-”

Rowan chuckles to herself, and Jon rolls his eyes. All the things she has shown him and he stills feels the urge to doubt any words speaking of magic.

Some time later, Jon asks her.

“My brother Bran...he said that the raven never finished teaching him because they were forced to flee this cave.”

Rowan nods.

“The night king touched your brother while he was in a vision. Because of this, he could find your brother, could pursue him wherever he went. That was how he found this place.”

Her eyes turn faraway, in a way they often do when speaking of her fallen brothers and sisters.

“I have often questioned why Brynden Rivers seemed to not think it worthwhile to explain to him the reasons for the rules he gave your brother, and their importance. That he would just take him at his word and not question.”

Like they had said before, Jon thought, Bran was young. Might be he might not have even listened. Anyone who had ever had any sort of interaction with children should have known better.

He breaches the subject he’s been thinking on for much of the time in this cave.

“Rowan...do you think you are really the last child of the forest? Like, there is no one else in the world- I mean, I don’t imagine your kind could have children with humans, but there are giants and other types…”

Rowan lets her eyes fall upon the ground, her ears drooping.

“No. Even if I were still in my child bearing years...Even if I tried, I will be the last. I may die in the battle that is coming, I may live another hundred years...but I will be the last.”

There is pain in her words, pain that cuts Jon deeply.

“My sister had a child,” she continues, “A young son. I haven’t seen either of them...they are gone now of course.”

Later in the day, while they have paused their lessons, Jon takes Ygritte aside. Rowan is helping the others mix some of the green moss into a thin broth they’d made of the bones of a hare Ygritte had caught earlier that week.

“Can you come with me to the weirwood? I’d rather not do this with Rowan around.”

She looks at him curiously, opening her mouth as though she wants to mock, but holds it in.

She lets some of it out during the walk. The rest of the time, she talks about what the other wildlings had been planning to do to get past the wall themselves.

“Really? You were going to try and climb it? You’re mad, the lot of you.”

“We’d have done it too.”

She wrinkles her nose, deep in thought.

“We would have gone over it, I wonder if anyone’s ever tried to tunnel under it.”

That gives Jon pause.

“That...would take a great deal of effort and work. Don’t think you could do it without being noticed.”

Ygritte shrugs.

“Guess we ought to be glad that the dead aren’t strong as giants.”

They reach the weirwood, and Jon sits by its side, Ygritte off on the other end of the cave opening, trying not to stare.

He asks the tree of his home, of Winterfell.

The words he gets back are immediate, they are coming from Winterfell now, not past. To his surprise, the first thing it speaks of is Lady Catelyn. Jon knew she was a very devout follower of the Seven, and he had never seen her in the Godswood. Yet, she is still there to pray. The fine lines on her face are deeper now, and Jon is suddenly hit with the realization that his siblings must have told her about their past lives too.

To Jon’s shock, the feeling he is overcome with from the trees words is her guilt. She is both praying for serenity in her own heart, to be able to let go of her anger, and for someone else to let go of their own. Her prayers are softly spoken aloud, but the trees can read her face as easily as Jon would read a book.

With a rush, he realizes she is thinking of him. He is quiet when they return to the camp, even when Ygritte tried to rile him up by pulling his curls straight and letting them go.

“Tree got your tongue?” she asks.

He cranes his head over his shoulder to look at her.

“Have you ever had someone treat you unfairly for so long that it actually threw you that they might feel guilty about it?”

Ygritte furrows her brow.

“Who did you asks that tree about?”

“I asked it to show me my home, and it showed me...Lady Catelyn, my father’s wife.”

“Your father’s-”

“I grew up a bastard, and she never once let me forget it.”

“That’s not very motherly,” Ygritte admits, “Though I guess I can sort of see her perspective. You southerners basically blame women for the smallest of weaknesses and yet expect them to forgive men of all of them. Maybe it just finally hit her that you weren’t at fault.”

Jon pulls his knees up to his chest.

“But why couldn’t she have seen that when I was still at Winterfell?”

Ygritte leans over and rubs the tip of her nose softly against a soft spot she’d found behind his ear.

“Jon Snow, you’re a man grown now. Don’t trouble yourself by the thoughts of someone so far away. If she wants you to forgive her, she can ask when she sees you again.”

Jon wraps an arm around her, taking her in, with her rough furs and crooked teeth.

“I wonder what Lady Catelyn would say if I tried to bring you home?”

“Probably some of that fainting you insist Southern women are so fond of doing.”

Jon’s dreams that night are troubled. They start with mostly memories, twisted ones, of Lady Catelyn’s scoldings and admonitions from his childhood. Her words, once just cold and stern, turn venomous and hateful. Then suddenly, her mouth becomes a black hole and Jon shakes himself awake.

Then his dreams shift to his last conversation with uncle Benjen before they had left for the wall. He sees his uncles face, and then it turns dark, cold, and twisted. His misshapen head tilts back, and he screams.

Jon wakes again, and lies there, Ygritte snoring an inch away, and hopes with all his heart that his dreams aren’t prophetic like people speak of.

#game of thrones #a song of ice and fire #gendrya #jongritte #fic #time travel fix it

[jisforjudi]

'Queen Victoria always liked sex...' Judi Dench and Stephen Frears on making Victoria and Abdul

 Jessamy Calkin

2 SEPTEMBER 2017 • 6:00AM

It was a story that was crying out for a film. Queen Victoria, old, fat, bored, widowed and still grieving, had pretty much given up and was slowly eating herself to death. Her dissolute son Bertie was impatient to get rid of her so he could be crowned Edward VII.

It was 1887, her Golden Jubilee year, and she was bracing herself for the onslaught of tributes and fealty from overseas royalty. Britain had ruled India for the past 29 years and as a gift she was sent two Indian servants, Mohammed Buksh and Abdul Karim. Karim, a clerk at the prison in Agra, was 24. He came over for a couple of months and stayed for a decade.

Initially his duties were as a servant, but after less than a year he had become the ‘Munshi’, the Queen’s teacher (she learnt Hindustani from him) and official Indian clerk. Victoria was Empress of India and fascinated by the country, but had never been there. She became besotted with Abdul: there were daily lessons, a salary increase, portraits commissioned and he introduced her to curry, which became a staple on royal menus.

As her infatuation increased, her family and the Royal household grew increasingly resentful. Racism was fairly endemic at the time, and Karim had started to get a bit uppity. The Queen put him in charge of the Indian servants, gave him his own cottage, shipped his wife and mother-in-law over from India, put him in his own carriage on the royal train, and his father – a medical assistant in the Agra jail – was awarded a knighthood.

Abdul was devoted to her, but hierarchy was everything in those days. There was a rebellion in the Royal household and a stand-off with the Queen. (Even her beloved John Brown, despite his closeness to Victoria, had always remained  a servant.)

It was a narrative with a lot of charm but it was bound to end badly. And it did. After Victoria’s death, Karim’s house was raided by Bertie and almost all of the many hundreds of letters from Victoria were destroyed. Karim was packed off back to India, where his health declined and he died eight years later, aged 46.

But no one thought to destroy the Queen’s Hindustani journals, a product of her daily lessons with the Munshi. And when writer Shrabani Basu was researching a book about curry she became curious about its prevalence in the Victorian household, and equally curious about the portraits of the striking Indian courtier in the Durbar Wing at Osborne House.

She discovered that 13 volumes of the Queen’s Hindustani journals were kept in the archives at Windsor Castle, and asked to see them. Then, in Agra, she came upon Abdul Karim’s tomb and tracked down his relatives – which led to the inevitable trunk containing his journals, and a whole new light was thrown on the relationship.

When producer Beeban Kidron heard about Basu’s book on the radio, she couldn’t believe her luck. Cross Street Films, the production company she runs with husband Lee Hall (who wrote Billy Elliot), pitched for the rights and won. ‘We wanted to do it from the point of view of Abdul, the stranger looking at the strangeness of court. And to be funny and accessible,’ says Kidron.

Cross Street teamed up with other production companies, including Working Title, to produce the film. Hall wrote the script and Stephen Frears was asked to direct. ‘He’s brave and irreverent,’ explains Kidron. ‘And I felt he would get the humorous, fable-like take on the subject.’

And Frears, everyone hoped, might bring in Judi Dench to play Victoria. ‘Nobody else made sense,’ he says. They had worked together on Philomena (2013), and Dench had famously played Victoria in John Madden’s Mrs Brown, the 1997 film about her relationship with the Scottish servant (played by Billy Connolly). So it was a nice conceit that, 20 years later, Dench might play her again.

Did her heart sink or leap at the idea? It cautiously leapt, Dame Judi Dench tells me on the phone. For several reasons.  ‘I have sometimes been back to re-examine something, but not in film, only in Shakespeare. But I did think Lee’s screenplay was really very good indeed, and I can’t resist Stephen Frears.’ She was riveted by the story, and had already done the homework in her last foray as Victoria.

She cites a particular scene, when, to the consternation of the Royal household, Victoria took Abdul to a remote little house called Glas Allt Shiel, on the Balmoral estate, where she used to retreat with Brown, and to which she said she would never return after he died. ‘They don’t understand anything, those stupid aristocratic fools,’ she says of her family in the film. ‘Toadying around. Jockeying for position… They couldn’t bear me bringing dear John Brown here. Yet I was happier here than anywhere in the entire world. Oh, I miss him, Abdul. And Albert… I am so lonely. Everyone I’ve really loved has died and I just go on and on.

‘No one really knows what it’s like to be Queen. I’m hated by millions of people all over the world. I have had nine children, all vain, and jealous and at loggerheads with each other. And Bertie’s a complete embarrassment. And look at me! A fat, lame, impotent, silly old woman. What is the point, Abdul?’

‘It must have been glorious to have somebody to talk to,’ says Dench now. ‘Somebody to learn from, and to exchange ideas with. And she was proprietorial with him; he kind of belonged to her – I’m sure that just having somebody to relax with must have been wonderful for anyone in that position.’

Abdul is played by Bollywood star Ali Fazal, alongside a stellar theatrical cast: Tim Piggott-Smith, Michael Gambon, Olivia Williams, Paul Higgins, Eddie Izzard – there is even an appearance from Simon Callow as Puccini.

Kidron and Frears headed to India to find Fazal. After the audition, Frears said, ‘I can see Queen Victoria being quite taken with him…’, and Fazal came to the UK for a screen test, his first time in the country. Frears instructed him to watch Peter Sellers in Being There as a reference.

‘I remember reading Victoria’s letters,’ says Fazal on the phone from India, ‘the ones that survived, and being unable to describe their relationship – was it love? Was it intimacy? Was it friendship, or maternal? There were letters she signed as “your loving mother”, or she would say, “I miss my friend,” and on one occasion, “Hold me tight.” Those are strong words for a monarch.’

There was no evidence that their relationship was sexual, but there was a romantic element to it. According to Frears, Victoria liked to be held: ‘Brown would lift her down from the horse and put his arms around her, and she liked that very much.

‘Anyway, she always liked sex. It was just the children she couldn’t stand.’

For all that Abdul was devoted to her, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a chancer as well. ‘What appealed to him was the intellectual stimulation they shared,’ says Fazal.

‘But there was a manipulative side to him too, and I still believe he was an opportunist, though I think it was called for to be an opportunist in a world that was not yours, in a country that was not yours. You’re going to have to climb up the ladder with constant obstacles and people against you, and it requires a lot of balls to do that; you have to be a bit street-smart.’

One of the best things about the film is the glorious sets. The court routine would be for the Queen and the Royal household to spend the late summer in Scotland, at Balmoral, then return to Windsor for the autumn, and move to Osborne House on the Isle of Wight for the winter and Christmas, then back to Windsor in February.

In the spring there would be a European sojourn – Florence, say, or Nice. The film was shot in India and the UK. Windsor and Balmoral were recreated at Greenwich, Belvoir Castle and Knebworth, but the biggest coup occurred when the film-makers were granted permission to film at Osborne House, which has never happened before.

This was the Queen’s seaside holiday home, which she and Albert acquired in 1840 (and which was given to the nation by Bertie upon her death in 1901), an Italianate house with wonderful gardens. It added a whole new dimension to the film, and the actors were elated to be there.

‘It was glorious to be sitting at a desk and looking out of a window at the same view Victoria would have seen 100 years ago,’ says Dench. ‘Walking down those corridors and glancing about, you think, well the paint might have changed – but it was still really exciting.’

During filming, visitors to the house were treated to an occasional glimpse of Queen Victoria, or Bertie, which must have been surreal. They must have thought they had stumbled across a historical re-enactment, or an amateur pageant, except the actors were Judi Dench and Eddie Izzard, who had nipped down to the Durbar Room in full costume just to have a look.

Paul Higgins, who plays the Queen’s doctor, Sir James Reid, was the only cast member with a build slight enough to wear real Victorian clothing. He relished walking to the set from his hotel every day, taking the old chain ferry and striding up the hill to the unit base in the grounds of Osborne House.

‘I always walked to the house in Victorian clothes much like Reid would have worn, over lawns that he would have walked over as he chatted to the gardeners – he was very interested in gardening. It was such a great way to get into character.’

Alan Macdonald, who worked with Frears on The Queen and several other of his films, was the production designer. ‘Osborne House would have been the most difficult location to recreate because it’s based on an Italian villa, and within it they created a sort of new fashion, which is a departure from the ornate heaviness and subdued nature of Victoriana wallpapers and textiles.

Windsor Castle and Balmoral were tricky enough, but Osborne House is a whole other world that hasn’t really been seen on screen before – the colours are like Neapolitan ice creams and sorbets, and it was all about letting in light.’

A designer’s job, says Macdonald, is to reinforce the narrative tone of the film. ‘It’s not just creating rooms. Finding the location is a challenge, as is finding the furniture, or building a garden in Hampshire – but the real challenge is in creating this sort of jigsaw puzzle, putting all these pieces together, and reflecting some kind of psychological aspect of the story.’

English Heritage was happy to comply, because of the obvious benefits it will reap from tourism. But there were restrictions. ‘We had people from English Heritage saying, “Don’t step there; no, don’t sit there…”’ says Dench. ‘And if you wanted to move your glass slightly to the left, someone would have to put gloves on and move it for you.’

Some of the furniture was very delicate, says Macdonald. Too delicate to sit on. ‘So you might have a scene where 20 people are meant to be sitting in a room but only three people can sit down. So there’s a bit, for example, where Olivia Williams [Lady Churchill, Lady of the Bedchamber and friend to the Queen] looks as if she’s sitting on a chair but, in fact, it’s a sort of crate.’

One of Macdonald’s favourite moments was during an outdoor tea-party scene in Scotland (filmed in a glen where some of The Queen was also shot), in which the Queen and senior members of her household were having a miserable formal picnic at a table buffeted by the wind. A car pulled up during the filming, the door opened and a high-heeled boot poked out. Eddie Izzard.

He wasn’t required on set that day but, says Izzard, he likes to be where the action is. ‘Film is my first love and it was one of the first scenes we shot, and I just wanted to be there – so I drove myself up.’ It was a cold windy day and Izzard lay down in the heather to keep warm.

He looks like Bertie. How did his casting come about? It was the casting director who suggested him, and Frears went to watch him do stand-up. ‘My character’s interesting – very damaged by his upbringing, and his mother blamed him for the death of Albert. But he was the only one who could tell her to f— off really.’

Bertie was one of Karim’s chief detractors. ‘Victoria was on her way out; she’s eating herself to death – she’s going to go in the next couple of years and the throne will be Bertie’s,’ says Izzard. ‘And then suddenly she gets a whole new lease of life; she’s got something to live for. So you can see that Bertie would be pissed off.’

Izzard gained 26lb to play the part, and was given a beard and a cane. He relished working with Frears and was already a friend of Dench, who often goes to see his stand-up shows. Accordingly, he arranged a show to take place in the Isle of Wight during filming, to entertain all the other actors and raise money for charity.

‘It keeps me match fit, and we all had this great sense of community – we’re on the Isle of Wight for a month – so I thought it would be fun for the locals too. It’s like the circus coming to town for one day. Where I grew up, in Bexhill-on-Sea, the circus never came to town. So if I can ever make the circus come to town, that’s such a good thing to do.’

Dench attended this event, and it was if the Queen herself had arrived, says Macdonald. ‘She is perceived as regal, but she’s so warm and open and amusing and irreverent – not grand at all.’

It sounds like a very entertaining film to work on. The principal members of the cast stayed in a small hotel with 12 rooms. There was much playing of Scrabble and other games. And Dench made them all watch University Challenge.

Frears stayed elsewhere. ‘I went to a holiday camp, which I rather preferred, but I could hear their whoops of laughter while I was there. Judi is very good at all that – she’s Brown Owl. She looks after everybody.’

Dr Reid was a key character. He was in permanent attendance to the Queen, seeing her several times a day, and became her trusted companion. He was a Scot who hated Scotland. Higgins read his biography, Ask Sir James, in order to prepare for the role. ‘Apparently he was an exceptional doctor. Unlike some of her other doctors, he really kept up to date. Victoria gave him time off to travel to London and visit hospitals and keep in touch with technology and learning.

‘She came to rely on him and trust him, except when he told her not to eat so much and so quickly. She had a gargantuan appetite.’ (In one scene, Dench had to munch her way through 27 boiled eggs. Everyone was very impressed by this.)

Queen Victoria died in Reid’s arms on 22 January, 1901, at Osborne House. She was 81. ‘She was a monster, but she was also rather brilliant,’ says Frears. ‘I admire her more and more.’

‘I grew up being very sceptical of Victoria,’ says Lee Hall, ‘but when I read more about her, I found she was a much more interesting character than I had assumed and I really fell in love with her. She was more broad-minded than all the people around her.’

After her death, the Munshi was allowed to spend a moment alone with the Queen as she lay in her coffin. Then, on the orders of the King, came the raid on his house and the destruction of the Queen’s letters. He returned to India, and the land that Victoria had given him in Agra, a wealthy and titled man, and according to Basu, spent his last days sitting by the statue of Queen Victoria and watching the sun set over the Taj Mahal.

www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2017/09/02/queen-victoria-always-liked-sex-judi-dench-stephen-frears-making/#comments

--- 

the part that worries me is the sentence One of the best things about the film is the glorious sets.  Makes me think it’s going to be a stinker

#judi dench #stephen frears #ali fazal #victoria and abdul #1841 #2sep2017

[therewillbebeauty]

look what you made of me - julius & suzaku

Word Count: 2000 Major Spoilers for the “Akito the Exiled” movies May not be strictly accurate as there was no way I was watching all five Akito the Exiled movies a second time just for canonical accuracy. This is just based on what I can remember and what the Wiki can provide.

VI.

Suzaku really wishes that Julius would stop begging for water.

There’s fucking water right in front of him, for God’s sake! Well, to be fair, it’s spilled on the table, but maybe if he’d stop flailing around like a madman, like he’s lost control of his limbs, then he’d stop knocking it over all the damn time. Suzaku swears he’ll go just as mad as Julius if he has to fetch the latter another pitcher of water just to see it fall to the ground one more goddamn time—

“Suzaku,” a familiar voice croaks.

Suzaku’s frown is a permanent fixture on his face, has been ever since his audience with the Emperor. He can understand why the Emperor would be loathe to let such a valuable tool go to waste, can see why the Emperor chose to recreate his son, but he also knows that the Emperor severely underestimated how fucking annoying his son would be.

“Suzaku,” Lelouch—no, he’s Julius now—Julius groans again, like he’s dying of thirst, even though Suzaku just refilled his water pitcher five minutes ago. Honestly, if this were anyone else, Suzaku would probably feel sorry for them. Julius is pitiful, a hollow shell of a man quivering with mania as his memories war inside his mind and reduce him to a pitiful excuse for a human. But Julius is really Lelouch, even if Suzaku is the only one who knows, even if Julius himself doesn’t know, and Lelouch committed far too many atrocities for Suzaku to ever feel anything like pity for his once-friend ever again. Julius is barely a man, barely human, but Lelouch discarded his humanity long ago in favor of bloodshed and senseless violence.

“Su-suzaku,” Lelouch—Julius breathes, gritting his teeth. Suzaku casts one more gaze of disgust upon the murderer before exiting the train car, leaving Julius alone.

V.

Suzaku had begun to wonder how much of Julius really resembled Lelouch.

Since Julius spent most of his time in agony, clutching his eyepatch and muttering nonsensical gibberish, it was hard to get a grasp on his personality. It wasn’t until they arrived in St. Petersburg that Suzaku saw who Julius really was—or, rather, who Julius really believed he was. He who, just moments prior, had been clutching his left eye and groaning in agony now confidently proclaimed his military genius. And then, during their audience with the Grand Duke, he refused to kneel. Suzaku watched in horror as Julius simply smirked, and he was pretty sure they were dead right then and there.

One thing was for sure: Lelouch wasn’t normally this flippant. He was too afraid to be. If a noble looked too hard, too long at his face, he could be discovered, either as Zero or as the lost prince. Quiet superiority suited his friend more than brazen irreverence.

Julius was the opposite, flaunting his power and position with every step. It took Suzaku a while to understand, but the truth was clear: Julius was who Lelouch was meant to be. Julius was who Lelouch could have been in a different life, if he hadn’t been cast out of the imperial family and abandoned in Area Eleven. In a way, Julius and Zero were similar, as well: each favored a blatant disregard for rules, and were inclined towards showy ways of demonstrating it.

But seeing the parallels between his ex-friend and his current charge made Suzaku uncomfortable, angry, disgusted, and strangely saddened. This was the Lelouch that could have been if he hadn’t been dealt such an unfair hand.

Suzaku closed the case housing the Imperial Scepter and left the throne room of the Grand Duke.

IV.

As their stay in St. Petersburg draws on, Suzaku finds more of Lelouch in Julius.

The first night, at the dinner table, Suzaku stands at attention as Lel—Julius sits down at the head of the table. Julius begins to eat, and then looks up, confused. “Come, Suzaku,” he beckons, “And sit down with me.”

Suzaku declines, and Julius looks almost hurt for a moment before he shrugs it off. “Suit yourself, Knight of Seven.”

But that casual invitation, like it had been weird for Suzaku not to eat with Julius, stays with him for several days.

Julius also shares Lelouch’s passion for reading. The place in which they are staying has a fairly impressive library, and Julius spends every free moment of their first several days holed up in the back corner with six or seven books on strategy, war, and/or history. Oftentimes, Suzaku has to remind him to eat.

He finds Julius in the library one day around lunchtime. There is nothing unusual about today; Suzaku is carrying a silver tray, upon which has been placed a sandwich, an apple, and a glass of water by the cook. He delivers lunch to Julius in the libraries most days; his normal routine is to place the tray down beside the young lord and leave as quickly as he’d come. Today is a day like all others. He carries his usual silver tray, upon which has been placed Julius’ usual lunch. He finds Julius in his usual hiding spot; books of his usual calibre are scattered around him.

And yet, today is different. When Suzaku finds the young lord, he is asleep, curled up on the floor in the sunlight, a stack of books for his pillow.

Suzaku nearly drops his tray.

In his several days of caring for Julius, he’s never seen the other man sleep, not once. He’s seen Julius faint from exhaustion, whether from the mental war waging in his head or from lack of physical respite, but he’s never seen Julius look so … relaxed.

So relaxed, in fact, that a thin string of drool is creeping out of his mouth.

Suzaku can hardly believe that Julius can look so normal, so young, so innocent. Watching him sleep like this, one would never guess that the man upon which their gaze is focused has slaughtered millions of innocent lives.

Suzaku realizes, belatedly, that watching Julius sleep is, in fact, creepy, and places the tray beside Julius’ snoozing figure. The metal clangs softly against the floorboards; Suzaku winces. He’d hoped not to wake Julius.

Julius’ eyelashes flutter rapidly, but he does not wake. Suzaku breathes a sigh of relief, casts one last (almost fond, but he’ll never admit that, not even to himself) gaze upon the sleeping face which he recognizes so clearly and loved—loved, as in past tense—so dearly, and departs.

III.

Suzaku takes back that whole ‘innocent’ thing.

Julius has just proposed a plan which involves the loss of millions of civilians without batting an eye (and indeed, he only has one to bat).

His terrorism tactic had worked well; the EU is in a panicked state of disarray and darkness. Now is the perfect time to strike. Truly, His Majesty must be proud of his son, even begrudgingly; his military genius surpasses all other. Suzaku had even felt a grudging sense of pride for his friend.

And then Julius had to go and ruin it.

Suzaku wishes he could just let Grand Duke Velaines punch the shit out of Le—Julius, but he can’t, and he delivers a spinning kick to the perpetrator. Assaulting Sir Kingsley is tantamount to treason, after all, in the sense that Sir Kingsley is acting in persona Charles. As annoying as Julius may be, he still must be protected.

Besides, it feels wrong to have anyone but Suzaku assault Le—Julius. That’s Suzaku’s job.

II.

Chess, too, is an important parallel between Lelouch and Julius.

Suzaku should really stop being surprised at how similar the two are, given that they’re the same person. Or, technically speaking, that Julius does not really exist.

Julius seems to be becoming self-aware, seems to notice at times that he’s a construct, that he’s an imposter living in Lelouch’s body. An already delicate experiment, the slightest things, and sometimes nothing at all, can trigger a fit. Suzaku hopes that the war is finished soon enough; at this rate of deterioration, Lelouch will resurface in just a few weeks, if not sooner.

His Majesty’s greatest experiment will eventually end in failure.

The question is not, has never been whether or not Lelouch will regain his memories. The question has always been when, whether it would be before or after the conclusion of the war, whether he would lie dormant long enough for the plan to work.

Suzaku had been fairly confident, if not steadfast, in his belief that it would be enough.

It appears he was wrong.

Julius summons Grand Master Shaing for a friendly (well, not really friendly, but certainly not hostile) game of chess. He wins. Easily. He even proclaims his perpetual loyalty for the Emperor.

And then, in the subsequent seconds, everything goes to shit.

Lelouch sweeps the chess pieces, as well as his glass of wine, off of the table, staggers away from the board, collapses to the floor, clutching his face, pulling his hair, muttering to himself. Lord Shaing wears an expression of self-triumph, like his suspicions have been confirmed, and then everything really goes to shit.

Lord Shaing knows that Julius is Zero.

He knows that he’s been brainwashed, been repurposed for the Britannian military.

Which means that not only does he know Zero’s identity, but he also knows about Geass.

Suzaku knows what he must do.

He must eliminate Lord Shaing.

He fails. Terribly.

But, hey, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter who killed Shaing, just that Shaing was, in fact, killed. Which he was.

Suzaku breathes a sigh of relief, which instantly proves to be a mistake because oh shit.

Julius is dead.

And Lelouch has taken back his rightful place.

I.

They’re in jail.

The fool who put Suzaku and Jul—no, he’s Lelouch now—in the same cell is going to be fired, because Suzaku is this fucking close to killing his ex-friend right here and now.

And then Lelouch has the audacity to ask for water.

Suzaku gets up very slowly, and makes his way to the water pitcher. He pours a glass and hands it to Lelouch, who accepts it gratefully, with a smile on his face.

The sight of that smile makes Suzaku snap. He grips Lelouch’s throat, pressing his thumbs into the latter’s esophagus, intent on killing him then and there.

But Lelouch has to take even that from him, of course he does, just like he’s taken everything else from Suzaku, because then he asks for Suzaku to kill him. The look in his eye (the other one is still covered by an eyepatch, though it’s plain this time, in contrast to the tacky thing he’d worn earlier) is that of a broken man with no reason left to live.

It infuriates Suzaku enough to let the traitor live after all. Lelouch should suffer for what he’s done. He deserves pain.

But Suzaku won’t just let Lelouch sleep on the metal bench without a pillow. He’s not a monster, after all.

Which is why when Lord Kimmel comes, he finds Lelouch asleep on Suzaku’s shoulder.

Lelouch stirs gently, and when he wakes there’s a look of confusion on his face, like he’s not sure why he’s in a cell. Like he can’t remember all the sins he’s committed.

Suzaku hopes that he never forgets those sins. But now is not the time for vengeance. Now is the time for another audience with Emperor Charles.

Suzaku hopes that whatever plan His Majesty has concocted this time is successful. He hates Lelouch, he really does, but a part of him still hates to see him suffer under the overwhelming power of Geass. He hopes that His Majesty is strong enough to bury Lelouch vi Britannia forever this time.

(It’s strange, he muses later. He misses his friend, misses the simple days before Lelouch lied to him, betrayed him, but he wants Lelouch erased. He hates Lelouch for using his Geass power, and yet hopes that the Emperor can use his Geass power.

Suzaku’s mind drifts to Lloyd. He’d said that contradiction would get Suzaku killed one day.

Suzaku hopes that he’s right.)

0.

For a second time, Suzaku pins a bound Lelouch to the floor, covers his left eye, drags him upwards by his hair.

For a second time, Suzaku listens in horror as Lelouch’s screams of agony fill the throne room.

#suzalulu #suzaku x lelouch

[componentplanet]

Best Games for Laptops and Low-End PCs in 2020

When I first became interested in computers, the idea of gaming on a low-end laptop or desktop was a contradiction in terms. Your options were: Intel, if you could afford them, AMD if you needed a cheaper but good-enough option, and Cyrix if you hated yourself. In the modern era, we aren’t nearly so constrained. Modern games target every type of device and form factor, making it comparatively easy to find titles to play.

We’ve rounded up some of the better ones below.

In this list of our favorites, we’ve tried to blend a mixture of modern titles and a handful of older classics. If you’ve been gaming for a number of years, we strongly suggest Googling “best games of X,” to remind yourself what hidden gems you might have missed the first time around. A game that required a midrange PC to play in 2011 likely runs just fine on an integrated GPU in 2019, especially if you’ve got an Ice Lake-based notebook or Ryzen Mobile 4000-based laptop. Integrated graphics don’t have to mean unplayable games.

The PC gaming news cycle often doesn’t serve the interests of the larger PC gaming community when it comes to game discovery. This is particularly and sadly true for low-end gamers. Lost in the endless churn of new titles is the fact that there are literally thousands of amazing PC titles released long before you bought your system. Don’t be afraid to go digging for gems you might have missed in previous generations.

One way to express a love of PC gaming is certainly by investing lots of money in gaming hardware, but it’s certainly not the only one. What matters isn’t the amount of money you can plow into the hobby, or how new the games are, but whether you enjoy them.

This time around, I’ve added a “Runs on” listing to give the minimum specs for the game. I cannot guarantee how good the experience at the minimum spec is, but this way you can eyeball games and get a sense of whether your hardware can run them.

All games should be assumed to require Windows 7 or above unless specifically stated otherwise.

Poly Bridge

Your Inner Civil Engineer Requires: Pentium 4 2GHz, 2GB of RAM, GeForce 7200 GS, 150MB of storage.

Poly Bridge is a great puzzle game, somewhat in the tradition of now-ancient titles like The Incredible Machine. In this case, you must design bridges that can carry a certain number of vehicles while also coming in under budget. These two simple goals can be difficult to achieve in later levels (there are more than 60), since the game adds various hazards and the need to deploy construction techniques I’m fairly certain the Army Corps of Engineers does not approve of.

The game recently got a sequel (which I haven’t played yet). Reviews of it seem a bit less enthused than for Poly Bridge, with one noting it felt more like an expansion pack to the original. It is, however, excellently rated on Steam.

Disco Elysium:

Stagger Drunkenly at an Adequate Frame Rate: Intel Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM, 20GB HDD space, 512MB graphics card.

In Disco Elysium, you’re an alcohol-and-drug-abusing amnesiac detective who has been hired to solve a murder mystery. This sort of thing happens so often in games, you’d think there’d be some kind of agency in charge of ensuring would-be detectives still knew their own names.

As you work to solve a murder you’ll remember things about yourself as well and have access to a system of traits with which to flesh out your character. There are 24 skills in the game, and they all have an impact on how the game evolves. Pick the wrong (or right) ones, and you may end up arguing with yourself over the correct course of action. It won Game of the Year from several publications, and it’ll run on 14-year-old hardware.

Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden

Search for Scrap On: Core i5-760, Phenom II X4 965, GTX 580 / AMD Radeon 7870 HD, 6GB RAM, 8GB HDD.

This XCOM-meets-Fallout title is based on the tabletop Mutant Year Zero game. If you’ve played the modern XCOM games, you’ll be familiar with most of the gameplay elements, though Mutant Year Zero gives you direct control of your squad outside of combat and fuses XCOM’s gameplay with some light RPG elements.

The worst thing we can say about Mutant Year Zero is that you’ll have to do some Googling to figure out which buttons are tied to which keyboard functions. The game’s plot and post-apocalyptic setting recall the best parts of Fallout, and while the game isn’t as deep as one of those sprawling titles, it still feels like a spiritual sequel. Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden feels a bit like a “AA” game, for lack of a better phrase. Reasonably well-polished with solid aspirations, but you won’t mistake it for a 400-hour dungeon crawler.

World of Warcraft Classic

Visit Beautiful Molten Core if You Own: Is your PC literally old enough to vote? No? You’re fine. Officially, Core 2 Duo E6600 or AMD Phenom X3 8750, 8800 GT or Radeon HD 4850, or Intel HD Graphics 4000. Unofficially, you can run probably run Classic on less. I’ve tested it on a 2015 Razer Blade Stealth with Intel 520 HD graphics and the frame rate was high enough to make me think there’s some headroom in those already-low-end graphics options. Interestingly, WoW Classic isn’t listed as requiring a DX11 GPU.

Lakeshire, Redridge Mountains. Left is Retail, right is Classic.

Revisit a simpler time, when an MMO that largely takes place outside and requires you to congregate with large groups of people didn’t feel fantastical (at least not for those reasons). WoW Classic is everything you loved (or hated) about original World of Warcraft. I’m a biased fan, to be clear, but just because I’m biased doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

It’s World of Warcraft: Classic, which is to say, #NoChanges (except for a few of the changes, but really, there aren’t that many).  There’s a lot to love in the original version of Blizzard’s MMO classic, especially if you like games of this era in the first place. It may use the modern WoW engine, but Blizzard re-used original WoW’s textures and assets. The result is a game that runs just fine on a low-end PC, including Carrizo-powered AMD ultrabooks and Intel integrated graphics.

Alternately, you could pick up Runescape Classic, which literally runs on mobile phones now. Your move, Blizzard.

Untitled Goose Game

Chase People Like an A****** With: Core 2 Duo 8500, Nvidia GeForce 510, 4GB of RAM, 820MB storage. The 510 is a bottom-end card from 2011, which means midrange or high-end cards from 2011. As long as your GPU can handle DX11, you’re fine.

Untitled Goose Game challenges you to find the Canadian goose inside yourself. Yup. This is a game about being an unrepentant asshole. Since the joys of honking and flapping don’t require a high-end PC, Untitled Goose Game is another game that’ll run on just about any toaster you can drag out of storage.

Honk. Flap. Steal objects, trick humans, annoy pets, wash, rinse, and repeat if necessary. It’s a brilliant game for people turned off by “typical” titles looking for a silly, funny, low-key experience.

Arkham City

Soars Through Gotham On: Any dual-core CPU at 2.4GHz or more, Nvidia 8800 GT or AMD Radeon 3850, 2GB of RAM. Supports Windows XP.

I’m sticking with Arkham City in this update, rather than moving on to one of the newer titles. Arkham Asylum is, to be sure, still an excellent game, and it runs on an even lower-spec system than Arkham City. But between the two of them, Arkham City is the better overall Batman game. Batman’s overall bag of tricks gets polished and AC offers you playing time as characters like Catwoman, with her own distinct moveset and animation style.

Arkham City feels as though it genuinely captures what it would be like to “be” Batman, with a clever twist on why you face a never-ending army of thugs. If you want to find out if you’re going to like the Arkham game series, I’d say this is the best one to try. If you need something even gentler on system specs, try the original Arkham Asylum.

Into the Breach

Calculate Strategic Micro-combat Using: Any 1.7GHz CPU, 1GB of RAM, 300MB storage, and an Intel HD 3000 IGP.

Into the Breach is a turn-based strategy game that takes place on small maps of 8×8 grids. From the makers of FTL, Into the Breach challenges you to beat back waves of attackers in turn-based combat. There are no XCOM-style probability fields to deal with here — you get full transparency into what actions will be taken by both your own characters and the enemies you engage with.

Into the Breach launched in 2018, but it’s still winning recognition for its unique approach to turn-based combat today. Definitely worth checking out, if you’re looking for some turn-based combat options.

West of Loathing

Spittoon-and Snake-Themed Exploration Needs: An Nvidia GeForce 7200 GS, Core 2 Duo 7400, 2GB of RAM, and 4GB of storage. Runs on Windows XP SP2+.

West of Loathing is a “graphical” adventure game that could run on a Lite-Brite. Don’t let the black-and-white stick-based graphics fool you — under the hood is a classic adventure game with RPG elements, killer clowns, demon cows, snake oil salesman, and a heap of spittoons to dig through in search of loot. The dialog is laugh-out-loud funny and the game’s irreverent humor recalls the best adventure game writing of earlier eras.

West of Loathing came out at the end of 2017, but it’s still a top pick if you need a game that runs on anything and offers some genuine laugh-out-loud moments.

Stardew Valley

Want to Farm Crops and Help People? You’ll Need: Any CPU at 2GHz or more, any GPU with at least 256MB of RAM and SM 3.0 support, 2GB of RAM and 500MB of storage.

Stardew Valley was heavily inspired by the Harvest Moon series of video games but adds its own spin on the concept. Explore Pelican Town, make friends, fall in love, and restore your grandfather’s farm to health in a gentle, open-ended title that will tease your curiosity as opposed to yanking you hither and yon with frantic quest demands.

Stardew Valley received a major endgame update last fall in Patch 1.4, with new monsters, fish ponds, a new mystery to solve, various bug-fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and similar updates. Multiplayer support is also now available.

Cuphead

Visit the Era of Classic Animation (and Try Not to Die) if You’ve Got: An Intel Core 2 Duo E8400, AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+, 2GB of RAM, Nvidia GeForce 9600 GT / AMD Radeon HD 3870, 20GB HDD space. Only needs DirectX 9.0c support, but still requires Windows 7.

Cuphead’s visual aesthetic is truly unique — it’s the only game we’ve ever seen that mimics the “rubber hose” animation style of the early 1930s in a frenetic 2D game. You’ll need sharp reflexes to beat the game, but not much in the way of PC horsepower.

Cuphead is a great game for someone looking for a game you might fairly call “Nintendo hard,” particularly if they enjoy its animation.

Minecraft

Fend off Creepers and Illigers With: A Core i3 3210 or A8-7600, 4GB of RAM, 180-1GB HDD space, Intel HD 4000 or AMD’s Radeon R5 family, and a 1024×768 display.

The open-world sandbox of Minecraft has been used to create everything from 1:1 scale models of the starship Enterprise to functional (if simple) CPUs. In between, there’s an easily accessible game with a rich crafting system, dangerous mobs, and huge worlds to explore. If your ideas of gameplay run more towards “give me a big space and lots of tools,” and less towards coherent narrative and story-driven play, you may find Minecraft much to your liking.

That doesn’t actually tell you nearly enough about Minecraft, a game that’s inspired millions of people to spend billions of hours stacking blocks on top of each other. Minecraft is a phenomenal crafting and building game.

Orcs Must Die, Orcs Must Die 2

Revisit the Simple Joy of Spring-Loaded Traps and Acid Bombs: Any dual-core CPU at 2GHz or above, a GeForce 6800 or ATI Radeon x1950 with 256GB of RAM, 2GB of RAM, and at least 256MB of VRAM. Supports Windows XP.

I recommend both, but OMD2 is definitely the better game.

Orcs Must Die and Orcs Must Die 2 are some of our favorite titles for mindless slaughtery goodness and have a permanent space on my hard drive. This hybrid tower-defense/action game tasks you with burning, blasting, freezing, smashing, dissolving, shooting, and generally wreaking mayhem against wave after wave of orcs, trolls, ogres, and other various bad guys. It’s easy to learn and sometimes surprisingly difficult to master.

OMD excels at offering a variety of fun ways to slaughter monsters in quick succession. Spring-loaded traps that hurl creatures through the air? Check. Acid sprayers and arrow traps? Check. Trinkets to transform you into a massive ogre, hurl fireballs, or turn orcs into chickens? Check.

Darkest Dungeon

Explore Your Ancestor’s Darkest Secrets: 2GB of RAM, a GPU capable of supporting OpenGL 3.2 (released in 2009), 2GB of storage. 1080p, 16:9 displays recommended.

Darkest Dungeon is a 2D, side-scrolling dungeon crawler with a side helping of Lovecraftian horror (hold the racism) and a mental health management simulator. As your heroes wind their way through the stygian abyss, they’ll face the dripping claws and rasping moans of the eons-damned creatures that dwell beyond the stars. Safeguard them carefully, or you’ll find the abyss staring back at you when you least expect it…

Darkest Dungeon can be legitimately annoying, but if you love mods like “Longest War” for XCOM, this series is a treasure. DD doesn’t pull punches, and if you think you’ve figured the game out, that probably means there’s a DLC or difficulty level waiting to kneecap you around the corner.

So that’s our list. Feel free to chime in with your own. What older games or titles still have a cherished spot on your hard drive, and what games do you find yourself returning to, long after they’ve supposedly been surpassed by more recent releases?

Now Read:

Microsoft Flight Simulator Ships on 10 DVDs

Report: Nvidia Ends Production of RTX Turing GPUs, Ampere Is on the Way

Microsoft Details How the Xbox Series X Achieves Its Storage Performance

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/gaming/269774-best-games-you-can-play-on-laptops-and-low-end-pcs from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/07/best-games-for-laptops-and-low-end-pcs.html

#Best Games for Laptops and Low-End PCs in 2020

[jessicakehoe]

Antoni Porowski Talks Food, Fashion and Finding Simplicity During Quarantine

Please note this interview and photo shoot with Antoni Porowski for FASHION Canada took place prior to the historic events and peaceful protests that have occurred over the past several weeks.

“I’ve cooked more in the past six weeks than I have in the past 2½ years. That’s been the silver lining to it all.” Antoni Porowski, the 36-year-old food and wine expert for the hit Netflix series Queer Eye, is describing his current (quarantine) status in relation to the pop culture juggernaut he has found himself on. Porowski spoke to us in April from an Airbnb in Austin, Tex., where he’d been holed up since the lockdown began. His much-loved show, which launched its fifth instalment of episodes in June, was just beginning to film another season in the southern metropolis before everything came to a standstill.

Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top, $1,250, shorts, price upon request, and hat, $2,600, Dior Men. Jewellery (worn throughout), Porowski’s own.

Porowski, who hails from Montreal, says he has used the isolation time to “lead a much simpler life.” And it’s undoubtedly much needed; he and his co-stars have had an intense few years, with each of the five personalities going from relative anonymity to the kind of superstardom that saw them host Elton John’s Oscars-night viewing party this year. It was a major pinch-me moment for Porowski, who recalls the “beautiful burgundy Zegna couture tux” he wore to the annual AIDS fundraiser. “I was standing there thinking, ‘Elton John is performing right now and I’m four feet away from him.’ I felt a chill go down my back. And I couldn’t sleep that night because I wanted to remember every sensation and moment of the night.”

Photography by Ashlee Huff. Suit, $995, Boss. Top, $50, Hugo.

That L.A. evening must seem like a lifetime ago now, and Porowski—who is typically based in New York City—has switched his focus to less star-studded but no less admirable networks, making the most of the local flavours (pun intended) that he’s surrounded by. “I got obsessed with this new app called Vinder,” he says about an Austin-based digital hub that connects restaurants and home cooks with local agricultural businesses. “I’ve been ordering all kinds of farm goods. In some ways, I’m living my best Martha Stewart or Ina Garten life.”

Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top and shorts, $290 each, Boss. Shoes, $350, Axel Arigato at Ssense. Belt, $395, Toga Virilis at WDLT117. Socks, $15, Hugo.

It’s not hard to conceive of Porowski following in the footsteps of such legendary lifestyle gurus. His first cookbook, which was released last year, touts the appeal of easily achievable cooking for people who are “too busy to make dinner.” That describes plenty of the guests made over in each episode of Queer Eye—“heroes” as they’re dubbed on the show—so Porowski has become an authority on getting people excited about uncomplicated food, be it chicken Milanese or mac ’n’ cheese. (Both recipes are found in Antoni in the Kitchen.) “We’re given so little information about the heroes,” he says. “I always come up with 10 different recipes to teach them. Then I meet the person and realize that some people want to be taught and they want to expand their palate. And other times, it’s really just helping someone do what they already do but more efficiently.”

Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top, $625, Dsquared2 at North42. Shorts, $130, Hugo.

Porowski inspires people from many walks of life through an approach that favours connection over pontification. “I do my best not to come in and be preachy because for anybody who’s ever tried to be preachy with me, it never really falls well,” he laughs. This gentleness in spirit translates to Porowski’s own philosophy about eating, which he says is rooted in a harmonious mix. “It’s about listening to your body,” he says about how he navigates a love of noshing with taking care of his well-being, noting that he’s just as much a fan of fried chicken as he is of raw beets. “I think balance is the key.”

Photography by Ashlee Huff. Jumpsuit, price upon request, Dior Men.

These complementary contrasts are found in Porowski’s closet, too. Favouring a “uniform of a nice pair of jeans and the perfect white T-shirt” (the kind that come from brands ranging from The Row to Sunspel), he’s had to amplify that covetable nonchalance since starting on the show. “When we got our mood boards for Queer Eye and specific visuals in terms of what they wanted us to lean into, for me it was ‘We want the James Dean look.’ I thought: ‘OK, how do I make it a little different? What am I going to do?’”

Photography by Ashlee Huff. Hat, $90, Hugo.

Pops of his personality have come from the brightly hued vintage bandanas around his neck—ones he would typically wear around his hairline while taking a run—and the quirky message shirts he’s now known for. Tees from his favourite musical acts are rooted in watching bands like Arcade Fire rise to fame in Montreal’s thriving music scene. “You can tell a lot about a person from their taste in music—kind of like food,” he says.

His selection of non-music-related tops—which includes a T-shirt that boasts the names of influential women in the art world, like Louise Bourgeois and Yayoi Kusama, and one featuring the logo from Montreal’s Expo 67, a nod to his hometown—also tells us so much about Porowski (an avid art and design fan) without him uttering a word. “I think that’s a Canadian sensibility,” he says. “I’m not an aggressive person. I like to do things sort of covertly.”

Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top, $1,620, Louis Vuitton. Jewellery, Porowski’s own.

Within his collection there are some pieces that retain a special sentiment that begs to be shared, in particular a handmade cashmere sweater from California-based nouveau-hippie brand The Elder Statesman. (Porowski has several of the label’s eclectic slogan sweaters in his wardrobe.) “People just think it’s badass,” he says of the piece—a bright-red pullover that replicates the iconic Marlboro cigarette packaging but with the word “meditate” replacing the brand name. “When I saw it, I remember thinking, ‘This is a beautiful sweater that is hand-stitched and high-grade cashmere.’ It made me reflect on the life I have now, where I’m in this incredible position where I can afford to have such a beautiful piece,” he says, adding that the sweater is also a clever juxtaposition of his previous and present pastimes. “When I was in my teens and partying like a monster, I used to smoke so many cigarettes. Now, I’m a non-smoker and I meditate every morning.”

Photography by Ashlee Huff. Top, $4,850, Pants, $1,500, and necklace, $720, Hermès. bracelet, Porowski’s own.

Though Porowski might favour comfortable casualness for his every day, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t enjoy expressing himself with clothing when the occasion suits—or, rather, in the case of the premiere of the Cats movie last winter, not in a suit at all. Instead, he hit the red carpet wearing an unconventional Thom Browne ensemble composed of a private school-style cardigan, a starched white shirt and a pleated skirt.

“I’m so obsessed with Thom Browne,” he says. The New York-based designer’s celebrated irreverence speaks to Porowski’s wilder side and lets him tap into the captivating quality that great clothing can have. “I consider myself fairly conservative, but I have busted into more colour and had some daring looks,” he says. “Clothing can be so empowering.”

Photography by Ashley Huff.

Photography by Ashley Huff.

1/2

2/2

Photography by ASHLEE HUFF. Art direction by MALINA CORPADEAN. Creative direction and styling by GEORGE ANTONOPOULOS. Hairstyling direction by DAVID D’AMOURS for KÉRASTASE. Post-production by VALÉRIE LALIBERTÉ. Foundation and brow pomade provided by SURRATT.

The post Antoni Porowski Talks Food, Fashion and Finding Simplicity During Quarantine appeared first on FASHION Magazine.

Antoni Porowski Talks Food, Fashion and Finding Simplicity During Quarantine published first on https://borboletabags.tumblr.com/

[drink-n-watch]

Here we are, the penultimate episode, and I’m already a little sad. As much as I’m going to miss this surprisingly loveable little show, I think I might miss our after reviewing tradition even more. OK maybe not more, it really is a very sweet show, but just as much!

It’s been great! I hope you’ve felt as creatively free as I have!

Crow (crowsworldofanime.com) and I have been pretty united in out praise of Zombieland Saga so far but this was an odd episode. Let’s see if the trend can stay true to the end. Not that I’m teaching you guys anything but Crow is bold man.

Well, bold-ish…

this is meta, why is Zombieland showing me watching the show?

Straight off the bat, this episode was a bit of a gamble for Zombieland. Not that it’s unusual to have the before last episode take a tonal turn, it’s actually fairly common. However, this week’s Zombieland wasn’t only uncharacteristically sober, it reframed the main character into something that may not be as likable to the core audience. Effectively throwing out a lot of character clichés and even robbing Sakura of any real redemption arc. Any feelings about the narrative shuffle?

You’ve honed in on exactly the part of the episode that left me feeling uneasy — at least, emotionally jolted. Sakura’s despair and self-reproach are almost too familiar! And at the same time, those apparent failures in her life, and her reaction to them, robbed her of the ability to understand something important: That she really helped those old ladies. That she really had friends who rooted for her. The insight changed how we have to interpret the entire Sakura arc, and it also raises an important psychological “what if…” But let’s leave that for later.

sort of…

As soon as the episode started I got excited. Last week’s cliffhanger was one of the best I’ve seen in a while and I couldn’t wait to see how they were going to resolve it with so little time left. I never expected them to play it straight. Although, I’m not sure what I expected at all.

You and me both! The show’s conditioned me to expect subtle irreverence at every turn, but this time, they plowed straight ahead.

Sakura has lost her memories of being a zombie but remembers her life. Which turns out to be frustrating and unsatisfying. Moreover, her traumatic death is just the last straw in what she considers an utter failure of a life. Completely demoralized, Sakura more or less shuts down, and pushes everyone and everything else away.

she’s pretty much always like this

The opening scenes, with Sakura freaking out over the zombies, were a nice way to call back to episode 1 and bookend the series though. Even the visuals were parallel.

And, of course, she just had to meet Tae first! And Tae has such a gentle way of saying “Good morning!”

Saki looked so worried about Sakura and it was adorable!

All of their reactions were just heartbreaking!

agreed

I must say, that was an impressively down to earth portrayal of depression. It was a bit obvious, although I’m not sure they could have done otherwise considering the time constraints, but it was also unflinching. There was something weirdly admirable about Zombieland’s resolve to not just let Sakura magically snap out of it.

That’s another aspect that left me feeling so unsettled — and I don’t mean that in a bad way. It was too spot on. But given who Sakura is, and given what this show’s presented so far, I can think of only a handful of other shows that could trigger this kind of reaction.

this framing is brilliant

Equally laudable, in my opinion, was the grim repercussions on Saki, Junko and Lily who attempted to help.These situations don’t just affect one person, they affect everyone around as well. And they affected them all in different ways. This was far from a flattering depiction of Sakura but sometimes, when you fall far enough, you just don’t have the strength to empathise anymore.

I couldn’t believe how bad I felt for the others as they tried to help her! Especially Saki and poor Lily! For Lily to go from “Before you said you thought that star and my smile were cute!” to sobbing uncontrollably into her pillow drove home a critical point: That until now, these zombie idols have supported each other; and now that one of those pillars of support is crumbling, all of them are in turmoil.

and the repetition makes it truly special

Once again, Zombieland Saga is tackling a fairly serious and not at all funny subject openly and resisting the urge to turn it into farce. I really didn’t expect any of this when I started the show!

I remember the old M*A*S*H series. Great comedy for its time, but because of the comedic expectations, it had an opportunity to make powerfully dramatic points — as long as they didn’t do it too often. I get that vibe from this show!

You know what, I see it now. I loved M*A*S*H (use to watch reruns with my folks). That cutting sensibility is very much like Zombieland!

most of us feel this way

After having hurt the people closest to her (and having them retreat helpless, not knowing what to do), Sakura just aimlessly wanders the night ending up in a park.

Here we see the return of the creepy police officer. He didn’t really have much to do other than once again instill the feeling of déjà vue. But just like everything else this week, the familiar scene played out completely differently. The downtrodden and hurt Sakura was almost pleading to be shot. A sort of balm to her intangible pain. The entire thing was extremely unsettling and yet, oddly pretty.

I remember thinking it was tragically beautiful.

this scene was delicae, poignant and solemnly meaningful…

I should have realized it sooner of course. Sakura has always been a bit helpless after all. I should have seen that she was being set up as a damsel in distress. Still, such an unusual distress for anime.

In the end though, Sakura at her worst, brought our Kotarou at his best. Manager made his glorious entrance in the nick of time. Knocking out the cop (that poor guy has to have some long term brain damage by now) and swooping in to save the day.

Maybe that’s why he’s so creepy? One (or ten) too many blows to the head?

he’s had a few shocks

Manager has never been that great with words. It’s part of the gag. And although Zombieland played the scene seriously, he still wasn’t exactly inspiring. Sakura was more confused than motivated. This said, there was enough feeling, care and passion behind his words to at least give her something to latch onto!

May favourite line of dialogue was manager exclaiming “It doesn’t matter if you don’t have it, because I do!” The I’m good enough to make you good pep talk is not what we usually hear and I loved it. Would have worked on me! How about you?

It would have been so unexpected that it’d have a good chance at loosening my defenses. And did you catch how the show played with the trope of the voice of reason (the manager, in this case) storming off to let the main character wallow in a miserable soliloquy? Just as Sakura is descending into a self-loathing speech, Koutarou startles her with “Yeah, you thought I was done, huh?” Loved it. This show knows how to teeter right on the edge of melodrama!

surprisingly, that might be true

One of the few straight up jokes in this episode, was Yuguri dressing up in full geisha get up, and looking mightily impressive I might add, just to realize Sakura’s already left. I really would have loved to see Yuuri in that outfit longer. Any thoughts?

My first thought was the typical male response. I mean, Good Lord, she looked amazing! But then I had this sudden chill and realized that Yuguri had slapped before, and she could slap again! I was in fear for Sakura’s face!

I’m not thinking about anyone else’s face

This episode brought up a fascinating question: Just how profound an impact do our life experiences have on our hopes? In Sakura’s case, she weathered a seriously frustrating series of events. From an operant conditioning perspective alone, I can understand her reaction! But to be running out of the house, all excited to be back on track, and get killed? Jeesh!

But in her case, and apparently in her case alone, her amnesia was a complete blessing.

I still can’t get the image if Lily sobbing into her pillow out of my head. All of them are standing on such thin ice…

Saki is all of us

For me it was Saki. Frustrated, lost and a little scared Saki. First time we are seeing hr shaken up. If Saki can’t just make it all better and shrug it off, what are we going to do?

Seeing her check her thumb nail was such a perfect way to show her pain.

[ Did you want to mention anything about Koutarou’s conversation in the bar? In the comments on the ZLS 11 review on Random Curiosity, https://randomc.net/2018/12/13/zombieland-saga-11/, users Nene and Panino Manino had some really interesting theories…

This was a difficult episode to watch — and to review! Thanks for setting up the frame! ]

risk it, it’s worth it

Guys, this little bracketed text is in fact just meant for me. I’m leaving it in. I like seeing behind the curtain stuff on posts so I think you guys might enjoy it too. I also really like that Crow pays attention to his fellow bloggers and readers. He often points out comments or posts I have missed and I am very much richer for it.

You should go read Nene and Panino’s theories.I unfortunately don’t know enough to add anything interesting.

This said, manager’s bar scene was very intriguing. I didn’t originally comment on it in the post proper because I had so many things to get to, I didn’t want to overcrowd it but you know what – clarity has never been my brand.

flashback scene without warning or context!

There’s a reason your blog’s so popular! (dawwww)

These are my random takeaways from that scene. The village of Saga itself is responsible for the zombie phenomenon in some way, and Koutarou is not the only one who knows. He also plans to make it public at some point.

Koutarou himself has been around for a while. Since it’s very reasonable to think that he’s also not quite human, he could be hundreds of years old for all we know. This may be one of dozens of attempts to save Saga.

Maybe that’s why Saga’s still there at all?

this took a turn

The bartender seemed to have a very close personal relationship with Yuguri. Considering the family theme so far, I’m tempted to say he’s her dad.

Yuguri is a courtesan, which implies a lot of things. Although she is certainly charming and imposing, she has so far avoided being openly seductive or sexual. This could simply be because of the tone of the series but it may also have something to do with her life. Did she leave someone important behind?

I’m still wondering about the scar around her neck!

what do you mean just one episode left?

There cannot just be one episode left. We have so very much to explore still!

I’ll second that. It seems like this season has just given us a brief glimpse into a zombie world that’s coexisted with the human world — apparently for hundreds of years! Are there other zombies out and about? It seems they’ve kept themselves private, but I think you’re right when you say Koutarou wants to make it public — why else do something as obvious as an idol group?

And I’m just not ready to say goodbye to Franchouchou!

Despite using do many in the post, I actually still have a few screencaps left. I hope you enjoy them. This week was great for caps.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Irina and Crow in Zombieland (Saga) ep11: It’s Always Darkest Before the Dawn Here we are, the penultimate episode, and I’m already a little sad. As much as I’m going to miss this surprisingly loveable little show, I think I might miss our after reviewing tradition even more.

#anime #CGDCT #Collab #comedy #episodic #idol #Zombieland Saga #zombies

[viralhottopics]

Geena Davis: Thelma & Louise changed everything for me

It was the moment she realised how few inspiring women there are on screen. Now the actor is on a mission to fix that

Somewhere in a parallel universe, Geena Davis is having the time of her life. Yes! Enjoying this new era in American history! As one of the few women to have played a US president on screen, in her parallel universe Davis is having a lovely conversation with me about how fabulous it feels to see a woman finally make it to the White House.

This isnt the first time the actor has found her presidential fantasies preferable to reality. Eleven years ago, she was President Mackenzie Allen on the TV show Commander In Chief. It had been the number one new show, and it was going to run for eight years. I was going to do two terms, Davis grins ruefully. She won a Golden Globe for the role. Then internal studio politics intervened and the show was cancelled after a single season. For a long time after, I felt like, in an alternate universe, I was still on that show. In my mind, she says, laughing, I wanted to set up the Oval Office in my garage and pretend I was still the president.

Davis hoots at her own absurdity, but for the record she did receive a fairly presidential greeting on arrival at the restaurant where we meet. The Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills hotel is a fantastically kitsch extravaganza of salmon-pink table linen and bad taste, but a Hollywood institution nonetheless. While I waited, the lunch tables filled with industry types, and my requests for a quieter corner were defeated by the expert indifference of waiters who understand the rules of Hollywood hierarchy better than I do. But the instant Davis arrived, the matre d descended into an obsequious froth Miss Davis! Welcome back! and whisked us off to a coveted booth.

So good to see you again! he purrs, before blanching in horror. Davis has a white napkin on her lap, but her trousers are black. Quelle horreur! The offending item is whipped away and replaced with a black one, while Davis tries not to giggle.

With Susan Sarandon in 1991s Thelma & Louise. Photograph: Allstar

Davis has no publicist in tow, and nothing about her outfit would suggest celebrity: she is wearing a loose white T-shirt and the sort of plain and comfortable black jacket and trousers one might put on for Sunday lunch in a nice pub. Were she not so tall (6ft), I might easily have missed her when she arrived, full of apologies for being all of 10 minutes late. I take the matre ds instantaneous excitement to mean she must be a regular, but as soon as hes gone, she whispers, No! I cant even remember the last time I was here. Its this very weird phenomenon. If I go to hotels, they always say, Welcome back, even when Ive never been there before. That must be rather disorienting. Yes, weird! She nods cheerfully. You have all these people saying nice things to you, and it can really be like, Wow, Im very fortunate, arent I? Im very, very grateful for it, you know?

When lunch arrives, she gets the giggles again: her salad is a strangely regimented platter that looks like someones idea of gastro-sophistication circa 1974. Its so kitschy! I was going to show your tape recorder my salad, but that wont work, will it? When her phone rings, the mother of three murmurs the universal prayer of working parents everywhere: Please dont be the nanny, please dont be the nanny, please dont be the nanny. It feels like lunching with a gloriously irreverent and relaxed old friend.

Davis has been a Hollywood star for 35 years, but at 61 her status now is a curious hybrid of insider and outsider, a bit like cinemas Ofsted inspector. When starting out, shed have been astonished to know shed devote the later years of her career to exposing her industrys flaws. Back then, she admits, she couldnt see anything to worry about.

With William Hurt in 1988s The Accidental Tourist, for which Davis won an Oscar. Photograph: Ronald Grant

When I was first starting out was also when I first started really paying attention to the Oscars and stuff like that. And I remember thinking, wow, everything is great for women in Hollywood, because Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Jessica Lange, Sally Field: theyre all doing incredible work. Every year, fantastic movies were coming out: The French Lieutenants Woman, The Postman Always Rings Twice, Sophies Choice. I think I did hear that, for women, when you get older it can be a problem, but these actors were already in their 30s, which seemed ancient to me then. So I thought, whats the problem? I started getting really cool parts left and right and centre, and I was like, well, even if it turns out theres a problem, its not going to impact on me.

After making her debut in 1982s classic comedy Tootsie, Davis averaged a movie a year, and could easily have made more had she not been fussy. She did sci-fi horror in The Fly, comic fantasy in Beetlejuice and literary drama in The Accidental Tourist, for which she won a best supporting actress Oscar. She played a baseball star in the sports comedy A League Of Their Own, a bank robber in the crime drama Quick Change and, most memorably, a housewife turned outlaw in the feminist road trip Thelma & Louise. Then she turned 40 and in the entire decade that followed, we saw her face only in Stuart Little.

By the time she turned 50, she was fed up. The neglect of women in film and TV was definitely happening she knew that but to prove it the Mensa member realised she would have to measure it: Because people just make assumptions, dont they? Even when the reality might be completely different. I remember talking to a woman editor of a magazine about all this a while ago, and she said, Oh no, no, no, thats just not a problem any more. I told her it still was. She said, and Davis begins to laugh again, But it cant be. Look at Meryl Streep, she works all the time! I was like, Er, Meryls schedule is the exception.

So, 10 years ago, the actor founded the Geena Davis Institute On Gender In Media. I am completely obsessed with numbers and data. I have become a scientist in later life. The institute conducts exhaustive research to establish the facts of gender representation in family entertainment, and they are grimly arresting.

Male characters outnumber female in family films by a ratio of three to one, a figure that has remained startlingly consistent since 1946. From 2007 to 2014, women made up less than a third of speaking or named characters in the 100 top-grossing films distributed in the US, of which less than 7% were directed by women. Of the female characters that did make it on to screen, fewer than one in five were aged 40-64. Last autumn, the institute partnered with Google to launch the Geena Davis Inclusion Quotient (the GD-IQ), a software program that measures the amount of screen and speaking time given to male and female characters. The results were even more confronting: in the top 200 grossing films of 2014 and 2015, males, Davis discovered, enjoyed literally twice the screen time of females, and spoke twice as often.

Its easy to see why this would matter to Davis, or any other female actor, but why should the rest of us care? This gender bias is so ingrained in us, and stuffed into our DNA from when were little, from our first exposure to popular culture. If kids movies and TV shows have profoundly fewer female characters than male characters, and theres nobody saying, By the way, honey, this isnt real. Thats not how the real world is. From 2006 to 2009, not one female character was depicted in a G-rated family film working in the field of medical science, as a business leader, in law or in politics. Our motto is: if they can see it, they can be it. Completely unconsciously, boys and girls are getting the message that girls are less important and less valuable to our society, because theyre not there. And if they are there, theyre not talking.

Playing the first female president in the TV series Commander In Chief. Photograph: ABC

Another way of looking at it, I suggest, would be that what we see on screen is, in fact, uncannily accurate. In a typical crowd scene, female extras account for just 17% of the faces we see a figure close to this crops up across all sorts of sectors in real life in America. Fortune 500 boards are around 20% female, as is Congress. Fewer then 20% of US legal partners, the military and cardiac surgeons are female.

Yes, Davis agrees, but I think the impact of media images is so profound that we actually could make life imitate art. You know, you see a dog or something and you say, Oh, hes cute? The default is always male, and its because weve had such a male-centred culture. And its because its what we see and hear from the very beginning.

I remember I was once with my boys [she has 12-year-old twins, and a 14-year-old daughter] in a park and they saw a squirrel. I consciously decided to say, Look, shes so cute and they both turned to me with surprised expressions and said, How do you know its a girl? I was like, wow, Ive already failed. They were four years old.

Davis takes all the data to Hollywoods decision-makers and creators: heads of studios, production companies, guilds. Does she come in for a bit of oh-no-here-comes-the-feminist eye-rolling? Oh no. No! If I was going in just saying, Youre making fewer movies starring a female character than male characters, theyd say, Yes, we know that. Were fully aware of that. We hope we can do better. We wish we could do better. And they would probably turn to this myth in Hollywood that women will watch men, but men dont want to watch women, so were forced to make all the stories about men.

Instead, Davis shows them the GD-IQs findings on profitability. Films featuring female leads make on average 15% more than those with male leads, while films featuring male and female co-leads earn almost 24% more than those with either a solo male or female lead. Their jaws are on the ground. She grins. Everywhere we go, its the exact same reaction. They are floored.

***

Had anyone told Davis in her youth that she would one day be an activist and advocate, she would have been equally floored. She grew up in a small town in Massachusetts, a bookish child and church organist, and was constantly shy. Just totally shy, especially about men. I had one date in high school, that was it, and he didnt ask me out again, she laughs, because I was taller than everybody. I was very gangly and awkward, and I wore weird clothes that I made. I think my fondest wish as a kid was to take up less space.

My fondest wish as a kid was to take up less space. Photograph: Amanda Friedman for the Guardian

Most peoples childhood self-image can seem surprising by the time theyre in their 60s, but in Daviss case the discrepancy feels comical. She is 6ft and appropriately proportioned, so occupies as much space as you would expect someone with the dimensions of an imposing man to fill. Her voice is gutsy, soaring from throaty depths to gales of laughter, and her beauty is unlike anything Ive observed in an actor. Beautiful women who have lived their life in the public gaze tend to convey an awareness of others admiration that can sometimes seem self-conscious, and sometimes almost pointedly detached. Davis, on the other hand, reminds me more of my cat, a ludicrously gorgeous creature who seems to take as much pleasure from its beauty as any admirer ever could. If I picture Davis looking at herself in the mirror, she isnt frowning anxiously but smiling back at her famous dimples.

And yet she goes on, I think I really wanted to take up less space. It seemed like every time I was exuberant or free, I would get pointed at. Things that really stand out from my childhood were incidents where people told me to tone it down. Like my beloved aunt Gloria, who was a role model and just everything to me, and who adored me, and would say things like, Youre really going to have to learn to laugh more quietly, because boys arent going to like a loud lady.

She knew from the age of three that she wanted to act, and studied drama at Boston University. But the most important thing was that people like me and think Im no trouble. It was as if I lived in some bubble of extreme femininity where you must never say your feelings. I had people who wouldnt date me because I couldnt even decide what restaurant I wanted to go to, literally. I never said my opinion about anything. I was afraid to.

Everything changed in 1990 when she made Thelma & Louise. Davis played Thelma, an unhappy wife who takes off with her friend Louise, played by Susan Sarandon, for a two-day road trip in an old Thunderbird convertible. When a man they meet in a bar tries to rape Thelma, Louise shoots him dead. Convinced the police will never believe their account of events, because Thelma had been drinking and seen dancing with the man before he attacked her, the pair take off. Liberated from the constraints of social convention and the law, they embark on a raucously anarchic adventure from which they will never return.

With then husband Jeff Goldblum in 1989. Photograph: Getty

Davis had her agent call Ridley Scott, the films director, every single week for a year in a concerted campaign to land the part. So it was really, really a passion project for me. And I was aware of womens position in Hollywood by then. But then, when the movie came out and I saw the reaction women had, it was night and day: completely different from anything that had ever happened before, you know? Women wanted to really talk about how it impacted on them. Theyd tell me, This is what I thought, this is who I saw it with, this is how many times Ive seen it, this is how it really changed my marriage. Sometimes Id even hear, My friend and I took a road trip and acted out your trip. Her eyes widen as she laughs. Im like, I hope the good parts? But that really struck me, and it made me realise how few opportunities there are to feel inspired by the female characters we watch. That changed everything for me.

Working with Sarandon changed everything, too. Every day on set, I was just learning how to be more myself, you know? Just because she was such a role model to me. Davis would arrive each morning with her notes tentatively framed in the apologetic, would-you-mind-awfully register of regulation feminine decorum. Sarandon would bustle in, open her mouth and speak her mind. Davis still beams at the memory, and credits it with revolutionising the way she operated.

Her institute is now in its 10th year, but has yet to generate any measurable change in onscreen representation. I feel very confident thats going to happen in the next five to 10 years, though. I know it will. Theres one childrens network that tells us, every time someone pitches a new idea, someone asks, What would Geena say? She roars with laughter. Which is exactly what I want! The parallel between her work and recent increasingly successful campaigns for greater ethnic onscreen diversity in Hollywood speak for themselves, she says. Its exactly the same problem, with exactly the same solution. When a sector of society is left out of the popular culture, its cultural annihilation.

Davis does still act; in recent years, she starred in the TV shows Greys Anatomy and The Exorcist, and appears in the forthcoming sci-fi thriller Marjorie Prime. Shes also in Dont Talk To Irene, an indie film about an overweight cheerleader, which premiered recently in Canada. But its very clear that acting is no longer her driving ambition. She gets much more excited talking about the film festival she co-founded in 2015, the only one in the world to offer its winners the prize of guaranteed distribution, both theatrical and through DVD. The Bentonville festival explicitly exists to champion and promote female and other minority film-makers, and last year became the eighth biggest film festival in the world; this year, it will open in early May in Arkansas and more than 100,000 people are expected to attend.

With husband, Reza Jarrahy, in 2013. Photograph: Getty

The most conventionally starlet thing about Davis these days is probably her marital history: she is now on her fourth marriage. The first, in 1982, lasted less than a year; her second, to the actor and her sometime co-star Jeff Goldblum in 1987, lasted only slightly longer, and was over by 1990. In 1993, she wed the director Renny Harlin, but divorced again in 1998. She has been married to her fourth husband, Reza Jarrahy, the father of her three children, and an Iranian-American plastic surgeon, for 16 years now. Giving birth for the first time at 46, followed by twins at 48, is not an entirely advisable maternal strategy, she laughs. I dont know how I assumed I could wait that long, and I wouldnt recommend it. Id always known I wanted to have kids, but somehow, before then, there wasnt any time I was planning it.

When we part, she gives me a great bear hug and her phone number, and it strikes me that she must be one of the happiest movie stars I can remember meeting. The parallel universe she inhabits appears to have much to recommend it. I had assumed she would put Hillary Clintons defeat down to her motto If she can see it, she can be it so ask if she thinks America would have voted a different way last September had the notion of a woman in charge of the country looked more familiar.

You know, she surprises me, I dont know. I like to just think that she won the popular vote by an enormous amount. She was not this horrifically flawed candidate everyone wants to paint. I mean, OK, she didnt win the electoral college vote. But, in another way, she did win. In Daviss parallel universe, the popular vote determined who would move into the White House, and all is well with the world.

Read more: http://ift.tt/2o3eFff

from Geena Davis: Thelma & Louise changed everything for me

#Geena Davis: Thelma & Louise changed everything for me

[thotyssey]

On Point With: Daphne Sumtimez

This fierce queen made her start in Manhattan, became huge in Brooklyn, and is now owning Manhattan once again. Singing, dancing, writing parodies and being damn funny are just a few tricks of her trade, but this performer is a philosopher at heart. Her new party at Easternbloc debuts this week: it’s Daphne Sumtimez!

Thotyssey: Hey girl, thanks for talking to us! You just pulled a double, hosting the Pieces happy hour and then appearing at Misty Meaner and  Mocha Lite’s show at Phoenix. How did it all go?

Daphne Sumtimez: Glad to be chatting with you! The children at Pieces and Phoenix were supercharged yesterday. The air in this city has been electric this weekend, and it feels good to have the engine revved, to be out and making moves. 

I was able to attend some protests on Friday and Saturday before shows, and nothing gets my blood pumping to perform like marching and shouting. It’s invigorating to get every person at Pieces to cry out in unison, “No Trump, No KKK, No Fascist USA!” It’s rewarding to see every mouth at Phoenix lip-syncing with you to “I’m Every Woman,” hours after the Women’s March.

Amazing! You know, my first pessimistic thought was that the protesting wouldn't do much good this early on, but you can tell that it has already gotten under Trump's skin.

Honestly, I don’t give a fuck about his ugly skin. His name just happens to be synonymous with white supremacy, misogyny, transphobia, Islamophobia, etc., which are the real targets of protest. I’m heartbroken and terrified about the absurdity of his administration, and it will be crucial to continue to express outrage at every ludicrous, dangerous action it takes. 

That said, inequality and violence have been woven into the fabric of this country for over 200 years, and if putting an awful buffoon in office has finally gotten people mad enough to speak out against them en masse, there’s hope. 

Also, I’m hoping Kellyanne Conway is stressed enough to buy some more blanched yaki to staple into her dumb head to hide the hair loss. Support the wig industry!

Amen on all counts! So Daphne, I must say that this past holiday season, I really enjoyed those cute Christmas videos you made with Elle Emenope. You two were just singing carols and making corny jokes, but it hit the spot with all the impending doom that's now upon us! Was that your intention when you made them?

Oh, thanks! That’s exactly what Elle and I were getting at. The two of us and our videographer Adam Harden really did have a day of cookies and egg nog and tree decorating and caroling, and I did sincerely catch a case of the warm fuzzies. It felt like being a kid at home with my family, but imbued with the sparkle of drag and celebrated with chosen family.

I’m so happy to know the videos brought you a bit of cheer! The whole reason I’m a drag queen is to feed an insatiable need to make people happy!

And you do it well! Okay, so let's get to the beginning. What's your hometown, and what was growing up like for you?

Alas, growing up in Roseland, New Jersey was fairly uneventful. I spent all of my free time alone in my room reading the encyclopedia until I was like 14. Then I did some theater in high school and fell in love with being on stage, but I never wanted to play anyone but myself or my mother, who is a lovely riot (as are my sisters and father). 

In fact, I never actually came out to them. One Tuesday night, when I was about 13, my mother said, “Get in the car. We’re gettin’ Starbucks.” On the car ride she was looking at me expectantly, and asked “Don’t you have something you want to tell me?” I had no idea what she was talking about. Then she said, “Goddamnit, you’re gay.” I said, “What?” She said, “Don’t you feel better now that you said it?” 

10 years later, I’m a fuckin’ drag queen living in the city. Go figure.

Thanks Mom! Love that. So what turned you on to drag, and when did you start doing it?

The first drag queen I really got excited about was Kelly, the YouTube sensation best known for “Shoes.” I think what drew me in was how something so silly could make statements about gender, class, and authority. I saw drag as something irreverent, goofy, and totally enjoyable for a simple laugh, but with layers to peel back and stuff to examine if you want to. 

Once I devoured all of Kelly’s content, I dove into the realms of Miss Coco Peru and John Waters films, then somewhere along the line a high school boyfriend introduced me to Drag Race and I was hooked. I started going to Rocky Horror in proto-drag, and I tasted blood and I wanted more. 

So, I chose to go to college at NYU so I could live in the city, and Daphne came bursting out of me. I got in drag as often as I could for whatever reason I could come up with. Five years later, people people pay me and put me on stages and screens!

I got to watch your performance at Dusty Ray Bottoms’ anniversary show at Pieces recently, and you sang a parody of “Impossible” from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, and it was amazing! Kind of obscure for the casual drag fan I think, but even if you didn't know the original song it was still funny. How long have singing and parody been part of your act?

Oh, I’m glad you enjoyed it! I love my stupid little ditties. I’ve been doing them for a little over a year now, and they’re my favorite numbers to perform. I love language and wordplay, and parody stands out to me as one of those grand traditions of drag. I’m actually about to start music rehearsals for a one-woman show of philosophizing through parody!

I actually recall that the first time I saw you many moons ago. You were Daphne J. Twinkle, and you wandered into Holly Dae 's old show at Boots & Saddle, and she let you do a number. That's the reality when you are starting drag, right? You have to go everywhere and do everything.

I remember that night! I was in a rainbow sequin dress, with a fuchsia Jem wig and a black-beaded bolero, and I had the time of my life to Christina Aguilera’s "Candyman.” I was over the moon that Holly let me do a number. 

In my opinion, that’s where good drag starts: joy. Ultimately, whether on the global scale of RuPaul’s Drag Race, or the personal scale of chatting with a lone stranger at the bar, drag is about reaching people. And people are much more receptive to letting you reach them if they can tell that you are happy. 

As far as building a “drag career” goes, I think you have to be in it for the sheer joy of being a drag queen. You show up everywhere you can because it’s your pleasure to do so. You want as many people as possible to love what you do, because you love it so much yourself. If you don’t genuinely believe that what you’re offering is exciting, then there’s no reason for anyone else to get excited about it.

What made you go with "Sumtimez?" Is it just as simple as, sometimes you’re Daphne?

Yup! I have a terrible fear of commitment and I’m emotionally inconsistent, so I didn’t want people expecting me to be anything *all* the time.

How far into your drag were you when you signed up for Season 4 of everyone’s favorite NYC competition, “So You Think You Can Drag,” and how did you enjoy that experience? And bonus question: what did you learn from it?

Aw, I look back on SYTYCD4 warmly! I’d been running around the city in drag for about two years at that point, but that was the first drag show I was a part of on a weekly basis. The other girls and I got along well enough, and I’m pleased to call a few of them friends still. 

I’m not a terribly competitive person, and I never expected to win, but surrounding ourselves with other artists is how we improve. The challenge of responding to a specific prompt definitely pushed me creatively, while watching how audiences react to different queens gave me a better feel of how to read the energy of a room. In those ways, competitions are like drag boot camps, where you learn the skills of the trade, so I think everyone should try it at least once. 

That said, I’m quite relieved that my competitive days are behind me. I’m too much of a control freak for all that!

Most gals from that competition traditionally work the Manhattan circuit after its over, but you embraced Brooklyn, and got several gigs there. How did that come about?

Scarlet Fever at TnT, girl! It was the Friday night rage for years. Scarlet Envy was already a good friend of mine, and I tricked her drunk ass into letting me on that stage so many times that Brooklyn had no choice but to put up with me.

Then, as I think these things tend to go, you look around you one day and realize that you’re a part of a family. Brooklyn became home, and I’ve been very lucky that her audiences like what I bring to the table. Funny enough though, most of my gigs now happen to be back in Manhattan.

That's happened to a lot of Brooklyn girls, particularly since TNT closed. Was that a shock to you when that happened?

Not really, to be honest. Rumors had been floating around for months, and plenty of property around it was getting bought up. It was just a matter of time. Turns out that home bars, like most things in life, come and go, you know?

You had a happy hour show at TNT on Fridays that you've successfully reprised with a new name--Funtimez with Sumtimez--at Easternbloc in the East Village a few months ago. Lots of displaced Brooklyn gals have repositioned themselves at that place. What makes Easternbloc so Brooklyn compatible?

Honestly, it surprised me just how well Easternbloc took to Brooklyn drag. A lot of that has to do with the fact that the staff and management are a bunch of sweethearts, and everybody treats each other with a level of respect and appreciation. The room itself also carries that delightful campy dive bar feel that’s so appealing to Brooklyn sensibilities.

What's the show like?

Fun Timez With Sumtimez has been a hit over there! I treat the show like I’m having a bunch of people over to my living room, so there’s this intimacy that edges deliciously on too-real. Some favorite bits include “Affirmation Circle,” where I share a tongue-in-cheek glimpse into my devastating emotional fragility, and “My LTR with LDR,” where I try to make Lana Del Rey songs performable. Everyone’s been eating it up and a nice crowd has been building! 

In fact, Frankie Sharp and I are about to partner up in carrying the happy hour festivities onwards all night with our new Friday night twirl: Dumbclub!

Let's talk about that. Frankie is of course a legendary producer and DJ of NYC nightlife, the man who brought us Westgay and Metrosensual and Frankie’s at the Jane, and he's been spinning a party at Easternbloc called Beef for some years now. What's Dumclub gonna be like?

Frankie’s at the top of the game, and the fact that I get to kick off every weekend with him has me grateful and inspired. I loooove what he spins, and it turns out that manic, hyper-energetic drag mixes super well with sexy boys, great asses, and a killer DJ set! We’re really pumped to join forces in whipping up a debaucherous, unpretentious night of uninhibited fuckin’ fun. 

One of the best parts for me is that we’re having new guest performers and hosts every week. There are so many awesome people in this city whom I haven’t gotten to work with as much as I’d like, and now there’s finally a Friday night bash where all of us from different circles of nightlife can come get stupid and really enjoy how much we have in common. Now’s the time to get back to the basics of loving on each other and having good, easy fun.

Sounds amazing! What else is going on?

Come see me as go-go hostess at The Box: legendary venue, truly spectacular shows, and me at my zenith of capricious charm!

Usually I’’m there on Wednesdays, but sometimes a few days a week. Anyone interested in hearing more should reach me at [email protected], because the Box tends to be a bit exclusive about these things. You know the old saying: a girl who's swanky, stanky, and skanky, gets herself some hanky panky.

Preach. Okay, in closing, let's jump on this meme wagon: what is a major #alternativefact about Daphne Sumtimez?

I am a healthy, self-sufficient adult who loves herself and doesn’t need a man to be happy. #alternativefacts

Well played Thanks Daphne, and have Fun Timez on Friday!

On Fridays at Easternbloc, Daphne Sumtimez hosts Fun Timez With Sumtimez (8pm) and the DumClub with Frankie Sharp (11pm). Follow Daphne on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube.

On Point Archives

#onpointwith #daphnesumtimez #alternative facts #Easternbloc