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maxwell-grant · 3 years

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Brazilian character review: Jose Carioca

I can't say I have too many strong feelings on Zé Carioca as a character, but in retrospective, I think the existence of Zé Carioca is very emblematic of the way Brazil is viewed overseas, and the contrast between this sort of idyllic postcard fantasyland version of Brazil that gringos see, and the reality.

The first thing that comes to mind when I look at Zé Carioca, other than he's a popular Disney mascot, is that contrast. He's intended to look like a carefree young carioca (a term we use for people that come from Rio), but he's perpetually dressed like a 1920s caricature, the kind you only really find in pictures of your grandpa, and attempts to modernize his look have robbed him of his charm. His name is "José", which is a common Portuguese name usually abreviated to "Zé", but in pretty much every media he shows up in, they always say his name the Spanish way, instead of the Portuguese way.

The Zé Carioca that people outside of Brazil know is a character that only exists in the context of an ensemble with Donald and Panchito, mostly defined as a suave, romantic party goer, the phlegmatic opposite to the choleric Donald and the sanguine Panchito (I haven't checked out the new Caballeros cartoon, although I intend to). The Zé Carioca that Brazilians know is largely defined as a charismatic scammer who keeps going to great lengths to avoid work, the joke being that usually he goes through a lot more work to do so than he would have otherwise.

It's based a lot on the stereotype of cariocas as lazy beach-dwellers who look down on honest work to instead cheat and take shortcuts. Every region of Brazil has it's own stereotypes, in fact, Zé Carioca in Brasil has a lot of relatives to embody those, but gringos treat Brazil like Rio is the only city in it, which is why this stereotype gets applied to Brazilians in general, and, well, it is a stereotype to begin with. It's a change that allows him to work as a solo protagonist, but it also leads to a disconnect where fans of Zé Carioca don't quite see eye-to-eye with most depictions of the character not made locally, because it's not really the same character.

I gotta stress that I don't dislike Zé Carioca, not at all, I do think the idea behind his creation was a good one. I can't think of any Brazilian character, either created here or just coming from Brazil, who was a popular name overseas during this time period (could be wrong though, but nothing comes to mind). He gets credit for that, if nothing else. He's a fairly cute character and I do like seeing him when he does show up. But Zé Carioca seems like one of those characters who is popular as a mascot, but not so much as a character.

I think the best way I can explain this disconnect between what Zé Carioca is by sharing this text I found, written by Gabriel Bayarri here, that I translated and post below. I think this kinda gets to the heart of how I feel about Zé Carioca, which is not a dislike, just a disconnect.

Brazil was the land of Zé Carioca, he who had shown the world in 1942, during WW2, a Brazil that seemed cordial and happy, a Brazil that valued it's mixed heritage as a symbol of national culture. The parrot presented to Donald Duck a city proud of itself, joyfully beautiful, where samba, cachaca, parties and romantic rascals all mixed together.

Now, he's watched, terrified, as his wonderful city embraced armed heroes, and took flight perplexed, trying to understand what had changed in a city he recalled painted in watercolor strokes. Zé Carioca flew to the heart of the tropical city, where spaces of resistance stood symbolized, straggling remnants of a democracy that he used to think was harmonious and shielded against the monsters that ruled it.

The parrot fluttered its wings between the hills, and rested its feathers in its beloved square in Cinelândia, and breathed its history, of which he only recognized the harmonious part: the square had become a central place for beginnings of the 20th century, representing the Belle Époque of Rio de Janeiro. Cinelândia acquired French features, so desired by the recent Brazilian Republic, and it tried to become a Tropical Paris. At it's center, slaves recently freed from plantations arrived, while the square acquired a cosmopolitan personality. This was all familiar to the parrot, who found in history a joyful account.

From abroad, the narrative of a happy and harmonious Rio de Janeiro recovered the idea of a cordial Brazil, without racism and without violence, promoted by Zé Carioca. In addition, this imagery of the city was promoted to foreigners as the period of a “Golden Brazil”: the drop in poverty rates, the increase in investments and the enormous influence in the Latin American and global context.

The bird breathed the chronicles of literary bohemians who populated the surroundings, and who built in their writings the characters who walked the square, its muses, its rogues, its carnival heroes or its capoeiristas. Authors built at that time a model of the “carioca people” that the parrot Zé Carioca repeated and synthesized in his image: a kind, cordial and warm character who crossed borders, transmitting to the world a image of Brazil harmonized and absent from conflicts and violence. It was that conception that, in Brazil, everything would tend to soften and adapt.

Cinelândia had begun to fill with cinemas, rooms of spectacle. Hotels, restaurants, night bars. The arrival of hotdogs at the Square was a revolutionary bridge, from North-American influences to the carioca lifestyle.

The parrot was proud of his city, until a woman approached him: “Our hot dog is carioca to the core”, explained the street vendor who was carrying a T-shirt with the face of Marielle Franco. Who was this woman who wanted to explain to him what was like to be brazilian: Who was this woman on her shirt? Where was Carmen Miranda, with the fruits on her head?

Then, the parrot listened in the square to the story of the murder of the councilwoman Marielle and her driver, and the new reports of violence on “carioca nights”, and its police conflicts against immigrants.

But Zé Carioca did not believe that his beautiful city was affected by these issues.

The parrot was aware that Cinelândia represented an image of the essence of what it was to be Brazilian, the construction of its own unique soul in a public space, the creativity and trickery and joy.

But he was surprised to hear that his happy and dancing people were also active warriors, who had used this square over the decades as a historical space for building demands, from The March of 100.000 against the military dictatorship, and the recent manifestations against the new president.

In one of its streets, the square bore the name of Marielle herself, the murdered councilwoman whose plaque had been broken publicly by the current governor of Rio, and whose death had become a symbol.

The parrot had Disneysified the image of his city, in a portrait of heroes, castles and tropical princesses, which made it difficult to understand now the political victory of monsters.

It seemed as if the history of Brazil was rebuilding itself before his eyes, and its people were now made up of activists, women warriors, LGTB+ collectives and anti-racism movements that defended civil rights and identity demands, of a Brazil that could not be pigeonholed, because it wasn't made for beginners.

What had happened to his colorful Brazil? – he asked himself nervously, replacing his straw hat and plucking his feathers.

Something transformed in the parrot's gaze, and after a brief disturbance, he decided to regain his composure. The bird spread its wings and took flight to Copacabana Palace, the place where it had been born from the hand of Walt Disney 77 years ago. He needed to reflect, think of the the gray tones of truth that splashed in his colorful costume, and seek new spaces to resist the monsters.

Perhaps the world had believed Zé Carioca's colorful report, in the palette of illusions that an emerging Brazil offered, and they had forgotten that, like every grown child, Brazil had nightmares. Kicking up at night over its racism, structural militarism, murderous violence, patriarchal inequalities.

Perhaps Zé Carioca had fallen in love with the exuberance of a land of fruit, sailors and smiles, and the world had listened to his account, a lovable sales pitch to tourists and sporting mega-events, and they had forgotten the voices of their people who watched helplessly the approach of a military parade from congress.

Zé Carioca's flight transformed the parrot, and in his old age, he went through a rite of passage to adulthood. After years of blindness to the violence of a post-colonial society and it's extended torture under jackboots, Zé Carioca opened his eyes, and faced the hidden part of a wounded Brazil.

A Brazil that had been dressed up in tropical colors and that now had to be sincere, with the world and with itself, in order to overcome the times of monsters.

#replies tag #disney ducks #jose carioca #zé carioca #brazil #BRASIL HUE PORRA #olha pra ser honesto eu nunca tinha realmente parado pra pensar no zé carioca na minha vida #mas tu quer um textão vai ter textão #não que eu ache ruim que o personagem seja meio antiquado #mas eu achei bem interessante a ideia de isso ser parte de uma história #em que o zé carioca é um simbolo de uma coisa que simplesmente não existe mais #e talvez nunca tenha existido #acho que isso pode ser uma ideia interessante pra explorar

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night-unfurls-its-splendour · 3 years

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The Critique of Manners Part IV

~Or~

A Very Amused Review of Emma (1972)

One doesn’t really know where to begin with this one. I’ve watched a few of these 70’s/80’s period drama adaptations, but I’ve never written a review for one. I think the tricky thing is it doesn’t feel fair to judge them against more recent adaptations because the approach and quality are so very different to modern television making.

But people do. I’m sure it’s different for people who grew up watching these, who are just used to them and their objectively terrible, stagey quality and can look past that particular weakness on the sheer power of nostalgia.

So I’m going to try and find a middle-ground here where I ignore the stagey and obviously dated aspects and judge it primarily on its value as an adaptation – is it faithful to the book?

Let’s dive in.

Cast & Characterization

Normally I would start with Emma and Knightley but this time I’m gonna switch it up a bit and do them last because… well we’ll get there in a bit.

Let’s start instead with Mr. Woodhouse. I have to say, I kind of like this take. The 1996-7 and 2009 adaptations all kind of went for the same type of older man: a bit stout, or in Michael Gambon’s case… however you would describe Michael Gambon. With Donald Eccles, however, this version goes for a rather more frail looking Mr. Woodhouse; in fact to compare him to any recent Mr. Woodhouse, I suppose he comes closest to Bill Nighy (although the general characterization is of course very different.) He’s a ridiculous but lovable soul who seems always, of course, worried about his own health and comfort, but in his own selfish way, concerned for his friends and family as well. My only complaint is that maybe they over-utilized him.

I thought the casting of a plump Mrs. Weston (Ellen Dryden) was an interesting choice, and definitely different from other versions. Her acting was actually really good too.

I wasn’t quite so pleased with the characterization of Mr. Weston, on the other hand. I have huge issues with this script vis-à-vis the men, but Mr. Weston and Knightley in particular. The problem with Mr. Weston is how he’s written as just verging on uncouth at some points. There are way too many rustic contractions here: “Ain’t I looking well too, Miss Emma?!’ “’Ark at that eh? The sly young rogue!” “Oh I think it looks tolerably gay and festive, don’t it?” and then just throwing himself back on the grass and chortling when Emma makes her fateful Box Hill faux pas? Like, what the hell? I’m not saying he shouldn’t use a few casual contractions (“How d’you do?” for example) but he seems almost like a positive country bumpkin and I don’t think it’s appropriate; he doesn’t talk like that in the book and I’m just all-around not here for it.

Constance Chapman, a well-respected character actress of the time was cast as Miss Bates, while Molly Sugden, of Are You Being Served? fame was WASTED in the bit-part of Mrs. Goddard. If you ask me, they should have swapped this casting, since I think Sugden, an outstanding comedienne, could have done so much more with the Miss Bates role than the usual wittery-old-lady style chattering Chapman delivered.

Mr. Elton was played by Timothy Peters (Right) and was, eh, adequate. They did slime him up a bit by having him over-eagerly offer to fix Emma’s bootlace, which she points out isn’t entirely appropriate for a man to do, especially the vicar and it’s pretty funny; but other than that, he has all the appearance of being a pleasant young man, as Mr. Elton should – becoming less pleasant as the story progresses.

One John Alkin (left) played Mr. Robert Martin, and he, too, was adequate. There’s not much of him and, since Mr. Martin wasn’t one of those characters this version decided to approach more three-dimensionally, there’s not much to say about him.

Frank Churchill is… OMG IT’S PRINCE HARRY FROM BLACKADDER!

Ahem. Yes, Robert East (BETTER KNOWN AS PRINCE HARRY FROM BLACKADDER) plays a very agreeable (and smarmy, but not too smarmy) Frank. I think honestly this is as good as this part could get in the 70’s, although at 29 he was a little too old for the part.

John and Isabella, in an interesting (?) casting choice, were played by brother and sister duo, Yves and Belinda Tighe. I actually really liked Yves’s John Knightley (he’s actually one of the more handsome John’s, in a 70’s kind of way; for note-taking purposes I have nicknamed him “Not-Harrison-Ford”), but his sister as Isabella seemed kind of old and had just a really annoying voice. Also she doesn’t look at all like Doran Godwin, and Emma and Isabella are supposed to look somewhat alike.

The real casting stand out for me in this version is Fiona Walker as Mrs. Elton, although she too was a little old for her role, I’ve said before that there are no bad Mrs. Eltons (only bad accents) and she just absolutely nailed the insufferable chatter to a definitive standard (until the recent adaptations – 2009 onward).

I did however, get the feeling in this version that they kind of wrote in a through-line where Mrs. Elton is putting the moves on Mr. Knightley (to the point where they actually wrote out Mr. Elton from scenes he should be in) which was one of those unnecessary deviations which made me raise an eyebrow and also was just… weird.

Now my question is – why do all of the young women in this series kind of look like evil dolls?

Debbie Bowen, from a strictly book accuracy perspective is one of the most accurate Harriet Smiths I’ve seen – in fact we don’t get another this accurate (to my way of thinking) until Louise Dylan in 2009, who fits roughly the same model (fair and shapely). Its Bowen’s acting I don’t like, but I know that in the 70’s, this kind of simpering acting for this kind of character was just unavoidable. It was the style at the time, so I’m cutting her a break critically; but the performance just doesn’t cut it for me.

This Jane Fairfax (played by Ania Marson) is not my favorite interpretation of this character. At first I thought she was going to be alright, but in her first scene she bursts out and actually shouts in frustration at her chattering aunt (which she has some basis for, I’ll admit, since Miss Bates, in her muddle-headed way, could very well have unwittingly spilled the beans about Jane and Frank) but this is far more feeling than we should even have a hint of from Jane at this point. The whole reason Emma doesn’t like Jane (other than the fact that Emma is an attention whore and Jane steals her thunder by being so admired and accomplished) is because she’s timid and demure and reserved.

But the biggest problem I have with this Jane is that she can’t even fucking sing. I know they write it away as her having a sore throat (Which I think is a pull from a different part of the book?) but this was just egregiously bad to me. This is the only time in the series they show Jane singing so it’s never actually established that Jane really is more accomplished than Emma (although they don’t show Emma herself singing or even playing at all either.) Could the actresses just not sing well so they decided to write around it? You could have dubbed it; you had that technology in the 70’s!

OK. Now it’s time to talk about Doran Godwin. I’ve never seen her in anything else so I don’t know if it’s just that she can’t act, but I have no idea what she was going for with this portrayal of Emma, and this is something so consistent and unique to her that I, for once, can’t justify blaming it solely on the director because you can’t direct crazy-eyes. They just happen; and they happen A LOT in this series.

I’ve struggled to find the words to sufficiently describe my feeling about Doran Godwin’s facial expressions and her acting in this adaptation. In my ribbon rating notes I think I describe her as a “witchy automaton”? I stand by it. Every time she talks to someone her eyes go very wide and she sort of looks like she’s trying to hypnotize everyone in Highbury. The effect is just absolutely inhuman. I never thought I’d ever see anyone with more patently crazed Crazy-Eyes than Timothy “Crazy-Eyes” Dalton – but man, Doran “Hypno-Witch” Godwin just stole the prize. Perhaps she escaped from the set of a Doctor Who? telling of the story where Miss Woodhouse has been replaced by an android.

You have scenes such as this in episode 2 , where Harriet is trying to get Emma to acknowledge Mr. Elton calling after them as they walk past the vicarage, and Emma ignores her by mechanically continuing to talk, looking straight ahead with laser focus. Of course, Emma is intentionally ignoring Harriet because she wants Mr. Elton to follow them, but that wasn’t quite apparent to me until the end of her ramble – which I had assumed she was forced to complete due to some directive in her programming. I have more to say on her characterization, but we’ll get to that in a dedicated section of the review.

John Carson might actually be one of the better Knightley’s, but I’m sorry – at 45 he was just too old. This is something you can play around with in other characters (Mr. Weston and Miss Bates after all, have no stated ages in the book) but not only do we know how old Mr. Knightley is in the book, they state in the show that Emma is 21 (Doran Godwin was actually 28) and that Mr. Knightley is sixteen years older than her – 37 or 38 – and John Carson is CLEARLY no 38. This obviously-over-forty appearance does have an effect on how I view his banter with Emma, and it’s more avuncular than the older-brother feel that Mr. Knightley and Emma should have.

Whether by direction or actor’s choice, Carson’s Mr. Knightley speaks in a way that just doesn’t feel period to me. He has a very sort of 20th Century, stock British, hearty-good-fellow manner, that dates this adaptation pretty badly and feels old-fashioned (but not in a Regency/Georgian way) even in the 70’s.

Sets & Surroundings

Normally at this point in the review I would talk about the British manor houses and estates used and how they measure up to the book descriptions but the publicly funded BBC ran on a much tighter budget in the 70’s (apparent in the production values and number of obviously bad takes that they just decided to leave in, in everything they made) and as such they couldn’t afford to film in and rent out large estates quite as much, so this has the trademark 70’s/80’s BBC sound-stage quality of all of their other productions of the period. That said, this production actually has some of the better sets I’ve seen and that’s saying something, for being made in the 70’s. The walls didn’t actually shake when doors were closed, and it didn’t feel as stagey as some other Austen serials of the time. (This doesn’t improve the very “on-cue” acting in the series, but I have to give credit where it’s due.) I believe they may used a real manor house for the exterior of Hartfield (and not a landscape pastel) and maybe some of the interiors too? I can’t say for sure, and I would love to tell you what house and where it is but I can’t find any credits on it. I’ll just say that I think it’s very suitable and leave it at that.

Costumes

Much like today, the BBC almost exclusively used, re-used and rented costumes for their period productions. Almost every costume in this series was also used in the 70’s and 80’s BBC productions of Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park, and Pride and Prejudice (P&P being the overwhelming common denominator – almost every one of Emma’s evening dresses and pelisses was seen, primarily on Caroline Bingley.) Some of the shawls have been picked out in BBC Austens as recently as 2008.

For being made in the 70’s the costumes in this production are really kind of nice. They don’t date themselves too badly. The ones that do feel 70’s retro, in fact, were mostly styles borrowed from period accurate fashions that just happened to coincide with contemporary 70’s tastes, and which aren’t often used in Regency costumes today because, well they don’t coincide with our modern tastes. For the most part, they look well-made (although some of them do have that stiff, dingy polyester look to them and there are definitely some plastic pearls here and there).

I’m quite pleased with the silhouettes which don’t suffer from Square Bust/Boob Droop syndrome the way the 1980 P&P does. All of the assets seem to be lifted and shifted in the right places.

Daywear

I like Emma’s blue day dress the best of all her day-wear looks. It’s a rich color and has pleated cups (Also on her white day dress) which is a style I really love.

Emma wears the gauzy… let’s be kind and say ivory instead of “Yellowish” ruff during the day A LOT (Emma Pic 2). It’s a popular look on Jane Fairfax too (Jane Pic 2) and I just… I don’t like it. Not that it’s not period appropriate (because it unfortunately is) it just makes them look like Dr. Seuss characters to me, especially worn with short sleeves which is something these dramas do a lot and I hate it. It just makes the person in question look very awkwardly disproportionate to me, especially because. if they had long sleeves to go with it (which would be more correct from a historical authenticity standpoint) it would even it out so much better. Compare Jane and Emma to see what I mean. The single layer ruffle (Emma Pic 1) is much more agreeable to me. (I wanna point out that Jane wears the same green dress without any partlet or undersleeves for strawberry picking at Donwell, which is blatant Eveningwear-For-Daywear™ and looked really out of place since everyone else was wearing day-appropriate attire).

Emma’s wider, cuffed, long sleeves and Mrs. Elton’s puffy segmented Renaissance sleeves are exactly what I mean about period accurate styles that suit the 70’s in a way that they just don’t jive today. Even Harriet gets some.

Mrs. Elton Orange ™ is another crayon color Crayola should consider I think.

Harriet gets stuck with a lot of brown outer wear but her day clothes are otherwise pretty nice. I especially like the ivory and blue number (Bottom right) and her white day dress with blue accents (Top right) which I think is the nicest thing she wears in this whole series.

Evening Wear

Emma’s evening wear confines itself pretty exclusively to cool purples and blues except for her white ball gown. I find this interesting because other versions tend to dress Emma in warmer colors and pinks (As I’m very partial to purples and blues, I love all of them). I can’t say it’s inconsistent with Emma’s cold characterization in this version. Mrs. Weston’s evening gowns are uniformly amazing. I especially love her blue party dress, which is my favorite in the series.

Both of Harriet’s party dresses are characteristically pretty and girlish. The pink is a bit fussy for me but I love the blue one (which has a lot more detail but I couldn’t get a full length shot of it.)

I’m pleased that Jane is given a bit of a break from the Jane Fairfax Blue ™ trope with her evening wear. She has one light blue evening gown and gets a few green numbers, most notable being her mint ball gown. Her beige party dress is absolutely tragic though.

Mrs. Elton’s evening color seems to be chartreuse (Which I think was also the case in the ITV version? ITV fans back me up.) Her black overlay/spiky number is iconic of the Austen Bad Girl, but her ball gown is a bit disappointing in its simplicity to me.

I would love to have seen a full length shot of Isabella’s black and purple number because I have a suspicion THAT would have been my favorite but I just can’t make out enough detail on it.

Zig-zag patterns on the skirt are a huge theme in this version, which is so of the period. Mrs. Cole (shout out to another future Are You Being Served? familiar, Hilda Fenemore) looks straight out of a fashion plate in her dark green party dress, which has (drumroll please…) a padded hem!

Outerwear

This version has SO MANY PELISSES AND REDINGOTES. Are they all nice? No. No they are not; I particularly hate Emma’s fugly salmon number that she wears for Strawberry picking/Box Hill. Mostly because she looks SO over-dressed compared to everyone else who’s wearing loose fitting light clothes (except Jane, who’s wearing an evening dress). Just looking at her makes me hot. I’m also NOT a huge fan of her pink winter cloak. The one trimmed with… faux ermine? One can only assume. It looks awfully tacky.

That russet pelisse tho! This is one of my all-time favorites. It’s SO. PRETTY and so detailed (See this number on Jane in P&P ’80). I think her gray fur-trimmed pelisse is pretty fabulous too, but I do not like the hat she wears with it. The brim is kind of a funky shape to me.

I know I’ve criticized brown before, but I do like it in moderation and this version is astonishingly brown-free for being made in the 70’s, so I really like her red/brown velvet spencer, especially with the cream dress and gloves, and her hat has some amazing decoration.

Jane and Mrs. Weston are the only other characters who get pelisses/redingotes. I’m not a fan of Mrs. Weston’s fuchsia number, and while I like Jane’s, it does put itself solidly in the Jane Fairfax Blue™ category.

Harriet gets pretty much only one form of outer-wear, her brown school cloak (a different brown school cloak from the one in the ‘97 version, in case you were wondering) and while it’s pretty dull, it’s hardly unexpected. Here it is paired with her rather ugly blue bonnet, with yellow ribbon. The bonnet features heavily in this episode.

To be honest for the most part I totally forgot about the…

because a lot of it is very standard. No dandy standouts here, but overall it’s pretty okay and I’m really pleased to say that there are no bib-cravats. That’s not usually so much a problem in Regency Era stuff (Since ruffles were going out at around this time), but you can really distinctly see that the ruffles (where ruffles there are – usually on older men which is good) are part of the shirt and distinctly separate from the cravat. Also there are LOTS of high collars and they’re not comically high to the point where they get wrinkled, like they were in Emma. (2020), so points for that also. These are the screencaps I gathered going back over it for posterity.

Mr. Knightley doesn’t really get a lot of cool outfits. His best is his purple velvet evening jacket which somehow manages to not look ostentatious (but is his only dress jacket), and his gold-topped Prussian boots (which you should just be able to see bottom right.) The worst though… I’m sorry, (looks up costumer’s name) Joan Ellacott – do you really expect me to feel the weight of Emma’s cock-ups when Mr. Knightley is rebuking her in such a cartoonishly proportioned top hat? It’s like being scolded by the Mad Hatter. All of the men’s hats are pretty flared in this series too, and I’m not totally sure but, I’m pretty sure I read somewhere that flared top hats are not right for this period?

I think Mr. Weston only has one day outfit (which, in keeping with his characterization is pretty farmer-chic) and one evening outfit. Frank’s dark green day-jacket is a pretty standard look on him and I don’t think we get a fresh look until his fabulous blue jacket/yellow waistcoat combo that he wears for Strawberry Picking/Box Hill. I believe his evening jacket is also dark green but it was tough to tell. Again I think he has only one set of evening-wear. I would expect Frank to have more, since he’s such a dandy.

Mr. John Knightley doesn’t have much to write home about in terms of evening kit, but DAYUM, his blue traveling coat is DOOOOOPE.

Let’s Talk Script

This adaptation was directed by John Glenister and Dramatized by Denis Constanduros.

Now I’ve seen a lot of positive reviews for this on IMDB calling it the… let’s see here… “The best Emma I’ve ever seen” and “The most true to the novel”… *Takes off spectacles and sighs heavily* I’m afraid I have to disagree. Several people also really love Doran Godwin’s Emma (We’ve already gone over why I don’t, and I have also seen reviews that name her and her lack of charisma as the main sticking point preventing them from really enjoying it, so I’m not alone). I’ve also heard it described as “sensitively handled” “Intimate” and “The most faithful to the spirit of Austen” and so forth, and again maybe it’s that prejudice against the stagey production and… no there’s definitely some other reason I have a problem with this version.

Let me make this clear – I don’t totally hate it, and I’m not here to shame the people who really love this version. Once again – if this version gives you what you want from the story I think that’s great for you. I, myself, like it pretty well and I think it’s one of the better early BBC Austen serials. It’s certainly not boring; but I do want to go over some of the changes that were made and choices in the script.

Some of them aren’t really that egregious, but they’re annoying in that I think they didn’t need to be made and don’t really add anything. Characters being added to scenes where they didn’t need to be and written out of scenes where their presence was missed. Like writing Mr. Elton out of Box Hill (And really the whole second half of the series, to facilitate Mrs. Elton flirting with Knightley), and adding Miss Bates into the after-dinner scene, I think at the Randalls Christmas party? I’m sure this was done for expediency but you have six episodes. It’s not as though you’re strapped for time.

Particularly praised, as far as I’ve seen, is the scene at Christmas when Knightley and Emma make up after their argument over Harriet. It takes place in the nursery, which I suppose isn’t an unreasonable place for Emma to be fawning over her niece (in the dramatization she seems to have been feeding the baby, where in the book she is playing with her). The book doesn’t specify where the scene takes place, although I assumed it to be a downstairs room, and I’m not sure that it’s entirely appropriate for Emma and a man (even one connected to her family through marriage) to be alone in an upstairs room together with the door closed and no more chaperone than a baby. But in spite of this, perhaps inappropriate, level of privacy, the scene feels less intimate to me than the book, where in the course of the conversation, where Mr. Knightley takes the baby from Emma “in the manner of perfect amity” and holds her himself and it is very adorable and sweet. In the dramatization, Knightley sort of just stands next to Emma’s chair and leans down a bit. After this conversation in the book, John comes into the room to talk to George, while in the show Emma puts the baby in the cradle and they leave the room to go downstairs.

But there are more outstanding changes that just feel wrong to me. When confronting Emma about her meddling in Harriet’s response to Mr. Martin’s proposal, Constanduros changes “What is the foolish girl about?” to “What is the stupid girl about?” it’s not that big a change, but it makes Mr. Knightley sound unnecessarily mean.

I’ve already mentioned the, er, additions regarding Mr. Weston’s dialogue and Mrs. Elton, and Jane shouting at Miss Bates; but by far the biggest, worst additions were made with Emma. The worst, I think, is the handling of this scene in Episode 4 when Harriet is feeling heartsick following Mr. Elton’s marriage.

And for those of you who don’t wanna follow the link, here’s a transcription:

Emma: Now Harriet! Your allowing yourself to become so upset over Mr. Elton’s marriage is the strongest possible reproach you could make to me!

Harriet: Miss Woodhouse –

Emma: Yes it is! You could not more constantly remind me of the mistake I made, which is most hurtful!

Harriet: Oh Miss Woodhouse, it was not intended to be!

Emma: I have not said “think and talk less of Mr. Elton” for my sake, Harriet, because it is for yours I wish it. My being hurt is a very… secondary consideration, but please, please Harriet, do learn to exert a little more self-discipline in this matter.

Harriet: {Looks down} Yes, Miss Woodhouse.

Emma: We are all creatures of feeling; we all suffer disappointments, it is how we learn to suffer them that forms our character. If you continue in this way, Harriet, I shall think you wanting in true friendship for me!

Harriet: Oh, Miss Woodhouse! You, who are the best friend I’ve ever had? Oh what a horrid, horrid wretch I’ve been!”

Emma: Oh now Harriet – (She’s gonna console her now, right?)

Harriet: Oh yes, I have, I have!

Emma: Harriet, control yourself! (ha ha bitch, u thought) Now, you will tie your bonnet, and you are coming with me to call on Mr. And Mrs. Elton at the Vicarage…

Harriet: Oh, Miss Woodhouse –

Emma: Yes you are! And I’m sure you will find it far less distressing than you think.

Harriet: Oh, Miss Woodhouse, must I?

Emma: Yes, Harriet; but you may borrow my lace ruff if you wish.

Harriet: Oh may I, Miss Woodhouse? Oh, thank you!

(Look how evil she looks! She looks like she’s planning on baking Harriet into a pie!)

While this scene is in the book and much of the dialogue is also from the book, it’s the lines that were added that stick out to me. Emma does tell Harriet that her allowing herself to become upset over the Eltons is a reproach on Emma more than anything else and reminds her miserably of the “Mistake [Emma] fell into” but from this point, the script takes a left turn from the firm but kind appeal to Harriet to move on for both her happiness and Emma’s own comfort, to a far more manipulative strain.

Even after Harriet apologizes, she goes from simply appealing to Harriet to let herself move on, to basically telling her that she’s a bad friend. She treats Harriet like she’s unreasonable for feeling this way, where in the book Emma is very understanding and feels that “she could not do too much for her; that Harriet had every right to all her ingenuity and patience…” and only after Harriet goes all afternoon with Emma soothing her and no improvement in her spirits does Emma take any kind of reproachful tack whatsoever.

In this scene, Emma says that her own happiness is a secondary consideration (this is stressed much more in the book) but from the way she says it, it seems more like she just wants Harriet to shut up about it rather than actually meaning it. (This is a very prominent example of Emma’s not seeming to really like Harriet at all in this version, only tolerating her presence.)

AND THEN she does something which Emma in the book most certainly did NOT do and forces Harriet to come with her to visit the Eltons, as if to put her on the spot and test how good a little friend she will be. I can’t express how disgusted I am by the changes and interpretation here. This is the culmination of the general through-line of Emma’s manipulative characterization being taken to an extreme. She looms over Harriet sounding, by turns, like a school marm and a saccharine nanny. She’s like a (very) low budget version of Tilda Swinton as the White Witch in The Chronicles of Narnia.

My question about all of these changes is simply: Why? They don’t improve the story or the characters. They’re not big, but a lot of them just strike me as weird and unnecessary, but I guess there’s no accounting for artistic license.

Final Thoughts

So is it a faithful adaptation? I often find this a more complex question to answer for myself than one would think, since inflection and line delivery and even, at some points, intention behind what the characters say tends to be up to the interpretation of the person reading the book.

Is the dialogue faithful? Other than the many changes I’ve mentioned (and the numerous cuts and edits I didn’t – and besides no screenplay can be 100% faithful), for the most part yes.

Are the characters accurate to description / faithful in their portrayal – again this tends to be subjective and opinions vary. In my opinion, Emma is not. I’ve mentioned that Knightley is too old, and Emma not only seems more intentionally manipulative than I believe she’s meant to be, and also just does not seem 21. She acts and looks like a much older woman, especially when preaching at Harriet) but she’s also very gawky, and Emma is supposed to look very healthy and glowing.

So my book accuracy rating meets in the middle at a 4.5. It’s NOT the most faithful adaptation I’ve seen, nor is it the most fun or the most intimate, but it’s not totally a travesty either and there are good things in it, even with a robot witch playing the main lead.

Ribbon Rating: Tolerable (43 Ribbons )

Tone: 4

Casting: 5 (Witchy automaton Doran Goodwin plays opposite avuncular good-fellow John Carson. Fiona Walker stands out as Mrs. Elton.)

Acting: 5 (Doran Goodwin is by turns crazed and mechanical with some momentary touches of what might be actual emotion. Raymond Adamson way over-acts Mr. Weston as a hobbeldy-hoi, verging on uncouth.)

Scripting: 4

Pacing: 4

Cinematography: 4 (A bump up from the usual 1 or 2 for TV dramas of the time. Surprisingly less stagey than expected.)

Sets and Settings: 5

Costumes: 7 (Very clearly of the 70’s but drawing on perfectly accurate styles that jived well with contemporary taste)

Music: 1 (Plinky, poorly played piano music. Only used for intro and outro I think? Jane Fairfax can neither play nor sing.)

Book Accuracy: 5 (They changed a lot of small details. Lines are changed unnecessarily (Calling Harriet “Stupid” rather than “Foolish” – Why?) Mrs. Elton seems to have a thing for Knightley? People present when they shouldn’t be, others absent when they should be present, again without any apparent reason.)

#jane austen emma #jane austen #regency #period drama #costume drama #emma 1972

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bbclesmis · 5 years

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‘Valjean is like Spider-Man’

DOMINIC WEST FIGURES he's played his share of awful people. The serial killer Fred West in Appropriate Adult? Jimmy McNulty, the Baltimore cop in The Wire? A lovable rogue, but a rogue nonetheless. Noah Solloway, the lead in The Affair? "He's deeply silly," West contends. "Just a silly man!" In the film Colette (out this Friday), he plays a sadistic husband who locks his gifted wife (Keira Knightley) away and makes her write books for which he claims credit.

"As an actor, you do live with these people and experience what they're feeling," sighs the actor, 49. "If they're a******s, it's exhausting and ultimately degrading. So it was such a relief to play someone who's great." And he smiles that irascible smile, the one that makes you root for West even when he's playing murderers and pretentious, adulterous novelists.

Jean Valjean, West's character in the BBC's adaptation of Les Miserables, is not only "great" in the actor's eyes. He is nothing less than the "greatest hero in all literature": a superhero ex-convict who has spent 19 years in prison being tortured by Inspector Javert (David Oyelowo) for stealing a loaf of bread, but who determines on his release to be the best possible man he can be... with heartbreaking results.

West considers Victor Hugo's French revolutionary epic to be the "greatest novel ever written", too - "much better than War and Peace!" - and certainly much better than the famous musical (he's not a fan).

"Valjean is not just a good guy, he's an amazing guy. Like Spider-Man!" he beams. "He climbs up the sides of buildings to rescue kids. And he has the legitimacy of intense suffering; he's done 19 years of hard labour. That knocks Iron Man into a cocked hat! Then you get into the humanity of Valjean, his demons, his desperate need to redeem himself... He's trying not to be the brute that the prison has turned him into. You become a better person by spending time with someone like that."

He has asked me to his home, a converted brewery in Wiltshire that he shares with his wife, Catherine FitzGerald, and four children - Dora, 11, Senan, ten, Francis, nine, and Christabel, five - "I'm trying to cut down," he jokes. (He has another daughter, Martha, from his first marriage, who is studying English at Oxford and wants to act.) "I think all households should have a five-year-old girl running round," he says. "I just think it's better for children. Stops them from becoming little princesses. It's much harder to be a spoilt brat as one of four."

HE OPENS THE door unshaven and unkempt with a general air of bohemian bonhomie. He puts on a succession of silly voices as he leads me through to his kitchen. "Teas? Light refreshments? Do we want hot milk in our coffees? Yes?" He's such a chameleon as an actor that even his own accent sounds as if it's put on. He was educated at Eton, but his family isn't proper posh. His Irish father owned a plastics factory in Sheffield, his mother was an actor and he's the sixth of seven children.

The Wests have been doing up the house for about three years, but only moved in last summer - there are paintings waiting to be hung, pieces of Lego, mugs, antiques scattered around... The house used to be a "very manageable cottage next to a derelict brewery, but having decided to connect them all together they're only now getting used to the layout. "There are about five different doors to choose from. I didn't realise how spread out it would be. It's enormous!" They moved from west London to give the kids more space to range around when they're teenagers: "I want my kids to be around trees and animals more."

We take refuge in his office, up in the rafters of the old brewery, where he sinks into an armchair and resumes recounting his love affair with Les Miserables.

THE BBC VERSION is written by Andrew Davies and picks up more or less where his adaptation of War and Peace left off. It opens on the field of Waterloo in 1815 in the aftermath of Napoleon's defeat. Back in Paris, the royalists are resurgent - but can't quell the forces unleashed by the Revolution.

In the first episode, we follow Valjean's ill-starred attempts at redemption after his nemesis, Javert, releases him; meanwhile, the grisette Fantine (Lily Collins) falls for a cad (Johnny Flynn) and becomes pregnant with little Cosette - whose path will cross with Valjean's in the future. Six episodes, much heartache and many improbable coincidences will take us all the way up to the 1832 June Rebellion in Paris.

West hadn't read the epic novel, but now that he has, he's a convert. He even loves Hugo's digressions into the design of the Paris sewers. "Actually, I'd have loved it if we could have made six seasons out of it," he says. 'There's more than enough material and it's all important and relevant. As with any great classic, it's big enough to handle any amount of interpretations."

Javert's antipathy to Valjean is one of the engines of the plot - but it's also something of a mystery. Why does Javert hate him so much? "I always like to trace motivations to sex," West says. "I said to David, 'Javert obviously fancies him!' But he thought that was crass."

Did the rivalry extend off-set? "You're never quite sure where the character ends and the actor starts," he laughs. "But the key to David is that he's actually royal. He's a prince in Nigeria. And he doesn't drink. He's very religious. He's been married to his wife since he was 19 and they have four beautiful children. I hadn't realised people like that existed in the acting world! He's a very inspiring guy."

The co-stars decided it was the shared trauma of being institutionalised that set their characters against one another. "Valjean doesn't think he deserves anything other than brutality. Javert is constantly reminding him he's just a common criminal who breaks rocks and murders people."

Oyelowo is one of a number of non-white actors in the cast, marking a departure from traditional costume-drama casting. West jokes that he really wanted to do it all with 'A1lo'Allo accents, but: "Like any classic, it's not a museum piece. It has relevance to modern life. Eponine and the girls all talk like modern London girls. And therefore it looks like modern Britain, too."

THE PRODUCTION LOOKS likely to make Collins, as Fantine, a star. "She's incredible," says West. "It's an exhausting part. So harrowing. Any actress who goes for it deserves all the accolades she gets..." The first scene they shot together was Fantine's death, filmed in a freezing manor house outside Brussels at 5am. "She really went for it. I was like, 'Oh my God! How did you do those spasm things?' She said, 'I just made it up'." I imagine it's reassuring to have West on set: he is very experienced, but doesn't take himself too seriously. Do the younger actors come to him for advice? "Pfah! No. I'm jaded and lazy."

The Wire was the show that brought him fame, as well as a credibility not usually open to Old Etonians. But originally he didn't want to be in it. "And it turns out to have been the one thing that everyone knows me for and it was one of the best shows ever made! I think [creator] David Simon is almost the Victor Hugo of our time... certainly the Charles Dickens."

The Affair offers more escapist pleasure, its marital rows interspersed with good-looking people having sex (even if he doesn't think much of Noah). The Wests are about to decamp to LA for the filming of the final season, but it will be without Ruth Wilson this time. Last February, she disclosed in a Radio Times interview that she was "sure" she earned less than West. "I don't want more money, I just want equal money," she added. Not long after that her character Alison Bailey was killed off. What was all that about? "Oh, not related!" West yelps.

He remains good friends with Wilson. The main point of contention on set was whose behind would be visible in the sex scenes. "We used to fight about it. 'You're on top this time', 'No! I was on top the last three times!'"

He'd never given much thought to who was paid what, he says. "I never asked what the money is on a show. It was more a question of if I wanted to do it. So it woke me up to the issue. I never realised the disparity and the injustice."

It's one of a number of changes he has noticed since the #MeToo movement gained ground. "One thing that's happened is a positive discrimination in favour of female directors. But the main thing is that unacceptable behaviour from male directors or actors is now either not possible, or you can call them out on it. There was one guy in particular whose behaviour was disgusting. Particularly to young females in minor roles. I tried to counter it on several occasions. But now it wouldn't be so hard to get rid of them."

'Treatment of women has taken a big step back in television'

He twists his face in derision at those who feel the feminists have gone "too far". "Treatment of women has taken a big step back in the past 20 years," he says, his voice rising. "Particularly in television, which has become more pornographic and the burden of that falls squarely on young women. Things like Game of Thrones, where you get a pair of bare breasts every five minutes... I mustn't say this, but..." Say it!

"I'm fairly sure that 20 years ago young actresses would not have had pressure put on them to take their clothes off. The parts young actresses get, particularly pretty ones, involve violent rape. When I think about my daughter going into the profession... I'm just really glad that #MeToo has started to counteract what has happened in the past 20 years."

He puts it down to internet porn - "It's made boys feel that women are sex objects who are easily available" - as well as social media. "If you can swipe someone's face because you don't think they're pretty and it costs you that little... I haven't done it myself, but it cheapens it."

HE's CONCERNED AT the turn the world is taking: he mentions Trump, climate change, teenage boys becoming addicted to the online game Fortnite. A wariness of modernity seems to have inspired the move to the countryside; he and his wife are "luddites", he confesses. "I'm not one of those people who say, 'How can you bring children into this world?' But I do want to spend a lot more time hanging out with my kids and running around in forests."

Once he has finished filming the last season of The Affair, he plans to hire an enormous camper van, bundle the entire family into it and spend a few months driving around the States.

"It's the last chance we have," he explains. "They're nearly teenagers, so they're not going to want to spend that much time with their old man for much longer. I've spent a long time away from them. So we're taking six months, four months of it travelling. I've taken them out of school - there are no big exams. We'll home school them. They'll read. No screens. You're not going to get a better education than that. If you travel with as little as possible, you get much more interesting experiences."

Radio Times 5-11 January 2019

#les mis bbc #bbc les mis #dominic west #Jean Valjean #valvert #david oyelowo #javert #Lily Collins #fantine #Interviews #articles #radio times

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gadgetgirl71 · 4 years

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Amazon First Reads October 2020

Wow October all ready!! Halloween seems as though it’s just a few days away then before we know it, it’ll be Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night. I digress as it’s all about Amazon First Reads for October and again Amazon are letting their Prime Members choose two books instead of just the one.

So now I need to decide which books I’m going to choose, I always get so excited when we get a chance to choose more than one free book. As you know I can’t resist free books.

This months choices are:

Memoir

The Boy Between by Amanda Prowse & Josiah Hartley, Pages: 286, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: Bestselling novelist Amanda Prowse knew how to resolve a fictional family crisis. But then her son came to her with a real one…

Josiah was nineteen with the world at his feet when things changed. Without warning, the new university student’s mental health deteriorated to the point that he planned his own death. His mother, bestselling author Amanda Prowse, found herself grappling for ways to help him, with no clear sense of where that could be found. This is the book they wish had been there for them during those dark times.

Josiah’s situation is not unusual: the statistics on student mental health are terrifying. And he was not the only one suffering; his family was also hijacked by his illness, watching him struggle and fearing the day he might succeed in taking his life.

In this book, Josiah and Amanda hope to give a voice to those who suffer, and to show them that help can be found. It is Josiah’s raw, at times bleak, sometimes humorous, but always honest account of what it is like to live with depression. It is Amanda’s heart-rending account of her pain at watching him suffer, speaking from the heart about a mother’s love for her child.

For anyone with depression and anyone who loves someone with depression, Amanda and Josiah have a clear message—you are not alone, and there is hope.

Suspense

Girls of Brackenhill by Kate Moretti, Pages: 330, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: Haunted by her sister’s disappearance, a troubled woman becomes consumed by past secrets in this gripping thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Year.

When Hannah Maloney’s aunt dies in a car accident, she returns to her family’s castle in the Catskills and the epicenter of a childhood trauma: her sister’s unsolved disappearance. It’s been seventeen years, and though desperate to start a new life with her fiancé, Hannah is compelled to question the events of her last summer at Brackenhill.

When a human bone is found near the estate, Hannah is convinced it belongs to her long-lost sister. She launches her own investigation into that magical summer that ended in a nightmare. As strange happenings plague the castle, Hannah uncovers disturbing details about the past and startling realizations about her own repressed childhood memories.

Fueled by guilt over her sister’s vanishing, Hannah becomes obsessed with discovering what happened all those years ago, but by the time Hannah realizes some mysteries are best left buried, it’s too late to stop digging. Overwhelmed by what she has exposed, Hannah isn’t sure her new life can survive her old ghosts.

Thriller

The Cipher by Isabella Maldonado, Pages: 332, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: To a cunning serial killer, she was the one that got away. Until now…

FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera escaped a serial killer’s trap at sixteen. Years later, when she’s jumped in a Virginia park, a video of the attack goes viral. Legions of new fans are not the only ones impressed with her fighting skills. The man who abducted her eleven years ago is watching. Determined to reclaim his lost prize, he commits a grisly murder designed to pull her into the investigation…but his games are just beginning. And he’s using the internet to invite the public to play along.

His coded riddles may have made him a depraved social media superstar—an enigmatic cyber-ghost dubbed “the Cipher”—but to Nina he’s a monster who preys on the vulnerable. Partnered with the FBI’s preeminent mind hunter, Dr. Jeffrey Wade, who is haunted by his own past, Nina tracks the predator across the country. Clue by clue, victim by victim, Nina races to stop a deadly killer while the world watches.

Book Club Fiction

This Magnificent Dappled Sea by David Biro, Pages: 255, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: Two strangers—generations and oceans apart—have a chance to save each other in this moving and suspenseful novel about family secrets and the ineffable connections that lead us to one another.

In a small Northern Italian village, nine-year-old Luca Taviano catches a stubborn cold and is subsequently diagnosed with leukemia. His only hope for survival is a bone marrow transplant. After an exhaustive search, a match turns up three thousand miles away in the form of a most unlikely donor: Joseph Neiman, a rabbi in Brooklyn, New York, who is suffering from a debilitating crisis of faith. As Luca’s young nurse, Nina Vocelli, risks her career and races against time to help save the spirited redheaded boy, she uncovers terrible secrets from World War II—secrets that reveal how a Catholic child could have Jewish genes.

Can inheritance be transcended by accidents of love? That is the question at the heart of This Magnificent Dappled Sea, a novel that challenges the idea of identity and celebrates the ties that bind us together.,m.

Historical Fiction

The Last Correspondent by Soraya M Lane, Pages: 336, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: When journalist Ella Franks is unmasked as a woman writing under a male pseudonym, she loses her job. But having risked everything to write, she refuses to be silenced and leaps at the chance to become a correspondent in war-torn France.

Already entrenched in the thoroughly male arena of war reporting is feisty American photojournalist Danni Bradford. Together with her best friend and partner, Andy, she is determined to cover the events unfolding in Normandy. And to discover the whereabouts of Andy’s flighty sister, Vogue model Chloe, who has followed a lover into the French Resistance.

When trailblazing efforts turn to tragedy, Danni, Ella and Chloe are drawn together, and soon form a formidable team. Each woman is determined to follow her dreams “no matter what”, and to make her voice heard over the noise of war.

Europe is a perilous place, with danger at every turn. They’ll need to rely on each other if they are to get their stories back, and themselves out alive. Will the adventure and love they find be worth the journey of their lives?

Gothic Fiction

The Haunting of Brynn Wilder by Wendy Webb, Pages: 288, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: From the #1 Amazon Charts bestselling author of Daughters of the Lake comes an enthralling spellbinder of love, death, and a woman on the edge.

After a devastating loss, Brynn Wilder escapes to Wharton, a tourist town on Lake Superior, to reset. Checking into a quaint boardinghouse for the summer, she hopes to put her life into perspective. In her fellow lodgers, she finds a friendly company of strangers: the frail Alice, cared for by a married couple with a heartbreaking story of their own; LuAnn, the eccentric and lovable owner of the inn; and Dominic, an unsettlingly handsome man inked from head to toe in mesmerizing tattoos.

But in this inviting refuge, where a century of souls has passed, a mystery begins to swirl. Alice knows things about Brynn, about all of them, that she shouldn’t. Bad dreams and night whispers lure Brynn to a shuttered room at the end of the hall, a room still heavy with a recent death. And now she’s become irresistibly drawn to Dominic—even in the shadow of rumors that wherever he goes, suspicious death follows.

In this chilling season of love, transformation, and fear, something is calling for Brynn. To settle her past, she may have no choice but to answer.

Historical Fiction

Spellbreaker by Charlie N Holmberg, Pages: 300, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: A world of enchanted injustice needs a disenchanting woman in an all-new fantasy series by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Paper Magician.

The orphaned Elsie Camden learned as a girl that there were two kinds of wizards in the world: those who pay for the power to cast spells and those, like her, born with the ability to break them. But as an unlicensed magic user, her gift is a crime. Commissioned by an underground group known as the Cowls, Elsie uses her spell-breaking to push back against the aristocrats and help the common man. She always did love the tale of Robin Hood.

Elite magic user Bacchus Kelsey is one elusive spell away from his master-ship when he catches Elsie breaking an enchantment. To protect her secret, Elsie strikes a bargain. She’ll help Bacchus fix unruly spells around his estate if he doesn’t turn her in. Working together, Elsie’s trust in—and fondness for—the handsome stranger grows. So does her trepidation about the rise in the murders of wizards and the theft of the spell-books their bodies leave behind.

For a rogue spellbreaker like Elsie, there’s so much to learn about her powers, her family, the intriguing Bacchus, and the untold dangers shadowing every step of a journey she’s destined to complete. But will she uncover the mystery before it’s too late to save everything she loves?

Contemporary Fiction

Perfectly Impossible by Elizabeth Topp, Pages: 314, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: In this witty debut novel, Elizabeth Topp crafts a story that ventures behind the fanciful facade of Park Avenue and into the life of one lovable type A assistant.

Anna’s job is simple: prevent the unexpected from happening and do everything better than perfectly. An artist at heart, Anna works a day job as a private assistant for Bambi Von Bizmark, a megarich Upper East Side matriarch who’s about to be honored at the illustrious Opera Ball.

Caught between the staid world of great wealth and her unconventional life as an artist, Anna struggles with her true calling. If she’s supposed to be a painter, why is she so much more successful as a personal assistant? When her boyfriend lands a fancy new job, it throws their future as a couple into doubt and intensifies Anna’s identity crisis. All she has to do is ensure everything runs smoothly and hold herself together until the Opera Ball is over. How hard could that be?

Featuring a vibrant array of characters from the powerful to the proletarian, Perfectly Impossible offers a glimpse into a world you’ll never want to leave.

Children’s Picture Book

Some Days Written & Illustrated by Maria Wernicke, Translated by: Lawrence Schimel, Pages: 24, Publication Date: 1 November 2020

Synopsis: From an Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award nominee comes a touching story of family, security, and loss.

A young girl tells her mother about a passageway in their yard. Down this passageway, it is not cold, there is no danger, and nothing bad can ever happen—and the person she longs for is with her again. The only problem is that, on some days, the passageway is not there. But maybe, together, mother and daughter can find a way to carry that feeling with them always.

First published in Argentina, this lovely picture book will tug on the heartstrings of anyone who knows what it means to miss a loved one.

#AmazonFirstReads, #Amazonkindle, #AmazonPrimeMembers, #BookClubFiction, #Books, #ChildrensPictureBook, #ContemporaryFiction, #GothicFiction, #HistoricalFiction, #Kindle, #KindleBooks, #Memoir, #Suspense, #Thriller

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ivemetyouathousandways · 5 years

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Let the rain wash it all away

Kvennesviga - Skålevik - Norway - Saturday 12:00 pm

The sky was still relatively clear when a deafening explosion made me near jump out of my skin. Agent Brager had a small jump in his seat but kept his cool, hands firm on the steer wheel, foot on the pedal, everything under control. Sven slipped an arm around me and pulled me to him, not giving a damn that we were in fact in the back of a patrol vehicle, and not a taxi, and just about as I was signing the oh so beneficial “let’s not burst straight out of my chest” peace treaty with my heart, the skies opened as if the conglomerate of currently available, and ready to take your queries, gods, all decided to flush some heavenly toilets in some sort of Olympic synchronized grandiose spectacle, letting the Holy Mother of all downpours descend upon us like a wondrous cataclysmic waterfall. All of a sudden, the windshield was a beautiful liquid curtain, in the very literal sense of the poetic expression, a moving 3-D special effect in the absolute practicality. Agent Brager quickly put the wipers to maximum capacity but the poor mechanics were barely delivering a second of clarity per stroke.

Time seemed to have almost stopped and trapped us in some sort of odd intemporality, captured in the heavy, furious, raindrops clapping hard against the roof, their thick isolating liquid veil blinding us from all sides, the wipers struggling against the flooded windshield. On one front, I could literally feel Agent Brager behind the wheel, tense, on edge. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, on the backseat, Sven, his arm around me, was about the human manifestation of a warm snug blanket and pillow in which i was gladly sinking in. I vaguely wondered at which point I adopted his nonchalant perspective on our situation and stopped caring that we were in a patrol vehicle and not a cab.

“Home sweet home!” Agent Brager declared joyously from the driver’s seat.

I pulled away from Sven, instantly missing his warmth. The rain had lost about a whooping ten to twenty percent of it’s original intensity, still roaring proudly, still a deluge. I looked at the water curtain on the back passenger' window and hugged my purse tight to myself. I had left the house in my turtle neck alone, Sven had grabbed a light jacket coat at the last moment, and we were now equally soaked; me hugging my small bohemian purse in a vain attempt to protect my deck of cards and my passport from the wet beast from the skies, Sven struggling a little with the key and lock.

“At least the rain washed the blood off.” He smiled back at me, holding the door open.

I shyly stepped in, minimizing the dripping zone as much as possible.

“Come, come, you’ll catch death if you stand there!” And again a gentle arm behind my shoulders invited me to step in.

I awkwardly stepped in the space between the kitchen and the living room and stood in a very concise spot, dripping away in an Illy puddle.

Sven rushed back with a blanket and stopped in front of me. Yes, a blanket would keep me warm but, the underlying problem was still very undeniably wet and cold against my skin, making me tremble from shivers.

“Would you like to take a warmth bath?”

I nodded.

“Can you check in my purse if my deck is okay?” I asked after Sven filled the bathtub with near boiling hot water to my request. “And my passport.” Because, accessorily, my passport was also important, but my cards, they were special to me.

He nodded and left me to my bath.

From one water to another - from freezing cold downpour to a burning hot comforting bath. From one man to another - from cold and distant King of Swords, to a warm and welcoming King of Cups. From the unbearable stress of being on the same social media at the same moment to the -

To the soft knock on the door.

“I brought you clothes.”

“You can come in, Sven.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mmhm.”

I had my eyes closed but I imagined him carefully putting down a small pile of clothes on the closed lid of the toilet, stopping, surprised, maybe a little unease - was my nakedness too soon? - one more step, kneeling down by the tub. I felt hot water been squeezed out of a sponge hit and run down my shoulder. A simple gesture filled with care and tenderness. The soft caress of the sponge on my neck and under my chin, plunging in the water to pick up some more to be soon squeezed out on the my opposite shoulder.

“I’m sorry for all of this mess.” He apologized, a little tired. “I never meant to drag you in this mess.”

“Then, what good do I serve in your life, if I can’t take any of the load off your shoulders?” I asked, and I wondered if we weren’t going too fast, too deep.

“Your cards are alright” I felt his finger on my cheek “they are dry.”

Dry. Wet. Water.

Water. We are constituted from 70% of water, we need water to continue living, I mean, sure oxygen is the biggest non-negotiable dependable element to our operational state of being, but water was unquestionably the second most important. Water soothes. Water heals. Water cleans and cleanses. The sound of water relaxes - rain, ocean, bath water’s gentle tingle and dripple.

“How do you say water in Norwegian?”

He soaked the sponge and squeezed it out on the back of my neck.

“Vann”

One last run.

“I’ll let you finish up.”

“Thanks for everything, Sven.”

“It’s nothing.”

My heart melted when I saw that the clothes he was lending me were his own. A black hoodie cut in the shape of t-shirt with white sleeves and the mention “cult leader” on the chest, a pair of dark grey sweatpants with a cord to adjust the waist, and a nondescript pair of new, clean, pair of undies. Aww! Thank you Sven! For a second I thought of sporting only the panties and hoodie and go down like that but it could be too much. Too much, too fast. My mind ran in the hypothetical alternate reality and my heart raced a little. His hand slipping under the hoodie, freeing me from the whooping five minutes it had been in service. My tongue swirling around his. Would it be long, slow strokes or would be caught by fire and rushing it a little? A hand was bound to rid me of the undies, a finger or two would soon press against Satan’s doorbell… Unless it had another appellation when someone else maneuvered the rosebud?

I drained the bath water, trying to cool my thoughts. It would be a mistake…

You mean another one on your extensive list of?

You’ll have to agree he’d be one hell of a hot mistake though.

We are trying to heal from the last one. Snap out of it!

I pulled my tongue at my other self in my head. Party pooper!

Was I that desperate or that weak? Now, this is a question to be dissected later on, with a proper cooled down head, back at the B&B. Apparently, it was suggested that rape victims get back into the swing of things and have sexual experiences fairly shortly after their traumatic encounter, but was that method samely valid for broken hearts?

I dried my hands and went down to find Sven sitting on the floor of the living room, like we were on our first morning, cards laid out on the coffee table before him. He picked up one, studied the illustration and put it back, carefully, with the upmost respect, as if some ancient, unknown, powerful fairy would suddenly jump out straight at his jugular.

“They don’t bite, you know.”

He looked up, caught red handed. Why was he so goddamn adorable and charming and… Sven, you weren’t meant to… Oh, wait, I never had the power to decide how others would make me feel by simply existing and tumbling in my life.

Space was tight but I snuck in between the table and him, sitting between his legs. Is the message clear enough, Sir? I was happy, though, that he couldn’t see my flushing face because my attitude was causing a serious cheek burn!

“What were you asking them?” I asked, leaning back against him, making myself comfortable.

Right on cue, his arm comfortably rounded itself around me, blessing my prosperous attitude with the answer I was hoping for.

“The first row, I asked if a girl I been seeing recently, has any mutually shared interest and feelings.”

Ace of Wands, Ace of Cups, Lovers.

“How is said girl?”

“Hard to pinpoint.” He kissed the back of my head. “Only known her for the past three days.”

I snort giggled. Well, then, the cards have spoken and blatantly betrayed me.

“The Ace of Wands can be a young passionate person, a lovable rogue, they like action and are fiery. Could be an astrological sign ruled by fire. They like action, travels, diversified experiences, expanding knowledge, philosophy.”

“I am fairly certain she likes to travel, yes. Sadly don’t know her astrological sign nor if she likes philosophy.”

I swallowed my saliva as discreetly as I could and combated stress induced stiffness.

“She’s a Leo and she loves poking the mind’s terra incognita.”

Sven dropped a kiss behind my ear.

“Favorite intellectual or philosopher?”

Cornered.

“I don’t really know. I often drop Nietzsche’s name but it’s mainly because of that one nugget of gold he had left us.”

“Det som ikke dreper oss, gjør oss sterkere.”

“I’ll have to trust you on that.” I picked up the Ace of Cups. “New romance, new feelings, elation, a sense of conquering the world. Heart is overflowing with bounty, happiness. And the Lovers is the nail nailing the coffin shut. Especially in a love and romance reading, it’s one of the best omens you could hope for.”

Second row had the King of Cups surrounded by the five of cups to the left, the past, and the eight of wands to the right, the future.

“What was your question here?”

“How does she - you - perceive me?”

“You are the king of Cups" I started.

“Do I feel that old to you?” He cut me off, picking up the card where a long,shaggy, silver white haired king held a cup and looked at the horizon.

The king of Cups had one of those very strong, thin, sharp, conquering style noses that added even more severity to his already serious face where forehead wrinkles accentuated the sharp attentive eyes under which tired eye bags were added, as if the crows’s feet weren’t enough to show the long lived tiredness of the King. He wasn’t per se frowning, but he wasn’t smiling either.

Among the Court carts, in the Dark Mansion Tarot deck, the King of Cups was undeniably the eldest king, as if Emotions were the first kingdom from which the fire of the wands, the mental stealth of the swords and the earthly bounties of the pentacles all flowed from. The original fountain of eternal life, the core essence of all human matters : emotions.

“An emotionally mature man” I reprised, like a teacher subtly scolding a misbehaving pupil, “who is in full control of their emotions. He, the King of Cups, is calm and caring, diplomatic, affectionate, romantic, charming.You are surrounded by grief, and sadness, mourning, a heart break, but that is in your past; the Five of Cups. Ahead of you, or what you may be hoping for, you want to move away from the pain and hurt, is the Eight of Wands; movement, action, being swept off your feet, infatuation, strong positive forward energies.”

Next row had the Six of Cups framed by the the three of Swords to the left and the queen of Pentacles to the right.

“You miss your previous life with your wife and daughter. You were happy and fulfilled. You can’t quite stop reminiscing about the past, it brings you comfort but also heartache.”

“I didn’t tell you what my question was.”

But the sadness in his voice, even though subtle, was loud and clear enough. A muted cry of despair, silenced by his own strength.

“What was your question?” I whispered solemnly, as if I was talking with the dead.

He let his head rest on my shoulder.

“I don’t need to repeat it, you and the cards can see through all too well.”

“What happened with your wife?” I wanted to regret my question but i didn’t find it in me to do so.

“She was bored.” A whisper, a cry out to who wanted to hear his side. “I had accustomed her to fancy parties and cocktails, varnishes and somewhat big shots, celebrities. I groomed a monster.”

I didn’t move and fought myself violently to not drop judgmental bombs.

“I’m a sculptor, an artist.” He thought good to give me context. “You known how those things go, you must have seen some in movies. It’s exactly like that; fancy gowns and dresses, tailored suits, expensive jewelry, whispered secrets, enough compliments to drunken Satan himself, luxury left, right and center, connections. So and So is the proprietor of this or that estate in the mountains or near a lake, would love to have us over for brunch and discuss a custom piece. And it’s a beautiful illusion that hides unforgiving, merciless sharp teeth.”

I could just about taste and swallow the sour regret, the sharp burn as I was hearing out his long held truth.

“She had made herself a diamond river necklace of wealthy influential friends. And soon enough I was relegated to the influence the shadow of my name had to open even more influential doors. She wanted a bigger house to show off our wealth and prestige. A loft or a condominium in the capital. I didn’t share her views. I wanted our daughter to grow up in a healthy environment, rocked by the sounds of the ocean, eat healthy foods, be grounded.”

He sighed.

“Enough rambling of things long gone and past.”

“I guess, but, I have learned that keeping stuff inside is not exactly efficient or helpful.” I nudged and awaited his contratempo, realizing I been holding things back myself.

“Like you not fully letting your pain out to be examined and healed.”

What did I say!

“We have nothing in common.” I mumbled. “He’s secretive, not much of his personal life is out there to be looked at. I, on the other hand, I am too open, apparently I open my soul and heart. He speaks with his voice, I speak with the silence of my written words.”

Can you get any less… I dunno, vague?

Yeah, sure! Gimme a sec.

“Oh and he’s a YouTuber and I’m a fan, so, already there, it starts off all sorts of wrong.”

“Why?” He asked, dumbfounded as if it otherwise wouldn’t have any substantial impact.

“Because it has the same dynamic as a regular fan has for a celebrity, with all the potential” I waved and rolled my hand “the potential to ... You know how it can be. The only thing I demand and require from any man who has sparked fires in my heart is help in my sleeping process and inspiration for my writing.”

He hugged me tight and dropped a few more kisses on my neck. Sven, I swear, if you continue like that, we’ll be, sooner than later, end very naked and very entangled on the floor… And I’m not entirely against the potential of that, to be completely honest.

The very last row had five cards spread out and I wondered why or what had been happened in his thought process.

“What was your last question and why five cards?”

A hand finally snuck under the hoodie. I thought he’d never have the nerve to, but he remained a perfect gentleman, only gently brushing my side.

“What do the cards tell, overall?” He whispered in my ear and the warmth of his breath made me wish I was under some heavy duvet with him. I wanted his skin, his damp breath, his energy, his warmth against me, in me.

Is this a trick question?

The Devil was surrounded by The Fool at the far left extremity, then the Knight of Wands and the Hierophant to the far right and the Emperor right next to it.

“Well, what ever you asked, it’s… Very mixed.” I interpreted the overall theme, not wanting to project my own desires in the cards.

“The central card, the Devil is about addiction, seduction, superficiality, sexuality, taboo practices. It’s a very material, physical card. It’s usually the lower instincts of mankind.The Fool, on the far far left is about new beginnings, taking a leap of faith, being open minded to new things, an innocent view on the world, he’s just ready to experience the Grand Everything without fear or tainted thoughts.” I loved the fool, he was the innocence the world has lost. “Give me a clue, Sven. Is this card representing the past? A person?”

“Not the past.” He picked up the Fool. “Maybe the girl - or an aspect of the girl - who this reading concerns.“

"So then, let’s say that the left of the Devil is me, and cards to the right of the Devil is you.”

“Let me guess, left, the feminine, right the masculine.”

I nodded.

“Would it make sense?” His warm breath in my ear caressed my senses, sparking electric discharges.

“Yes. The emperor is a mature, family man, he likes structure and he’s protective, he likes stability." I showed him the card in question, another long bearded crowned figure, expecting, awaiting a snazzy comment that didn’t come. “And you see this Hierophant, he stands for traditional values, conventional and conform ideas and practices, whereas the Knight of Wands is hasty, adventurous, rebellious, daring, a bit of a hot head who likes to make their own beaten dirt paths.

I looked over at the cards, not convinced, not sold.

“You sure you don’t want to tell me what your question was?” I asked pouting a little, hoping to pull some emotional strings.

“Ja."

I wanted to pull my tongue at him, but I wasn’t physically in a position where it would advantage my desired intention. I shuffled the cards, asking what he had asked about, what his intentions were, but the cards only offered conspiratory giggles back at me. The moon and Temperance.

“I asked what you meant, in that last question, but the Cards seemed to have sided with you.” I pouted. “The moon is something hidden and Temperance is patience and balance, a chemistry of opposing forces, alchemy, in sorts.”

Hm.... that should bring an interesting light, eventually when inspiration and insight would hit and tingle my brain. I sighed and gently started assembling my crew to put them away in their box.

“What ate your plans for this afternoon?” He asked holding me tight to him.

“I don’t know… Wait for the rain to calm down and head home.” I was also starting to feel a little hungry. “Unless you have a better offer.”

“You are already home.” He corrected. “And we could upgrade our position for the sofa. Netflix and chill, as you younglings say.”

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qrhymes · 7 years

Text

Tales of Berseria Analysis - Laphicet (Phi)’s and Eizen’s character arcs - Coexistence and Romanticism.

Three and counting.

I don’t have problem with child characters (And when I talk about child characters, I mean genuine child characters, no adults or teenagers looking like children or immortal children or characters that age different and looks like child but in reality are legally adults…they are a complete different subject)…conceptually. I don’t like when they are used as plot devices, I don’t like when they are pointless and I specially dislike when they behave like fucking adults without a motive.

…Therefore you may suppose that I really like Elise from Xillia

…and you would be right reader, I love her, she is a great character and Teepo would be the best Tales mascot if not for Rollo…

(…He is a god in comparison with other anime (Videogame) mascots…)

But if you want to have a child character, with clear motives, good development, a meaningful arc, etc. I say go for it, and make it great…and Laphicet (Phi) is indeed great.

First of all, he is adorable, he can cast Indignation and he also is the middle-ground between emotion and reason that the game wants to reach.

If Eleanor is the constant inner-conflict between the ideas, Phi would be their natural coexistence.

Phi starts as blank page, a puppet just referred as Number 2 and a representation of the Malakin subdue for the Abbey, then he is “taken” from Teresa and joins for the party and then…he just start to learn, to grow, to know these flawed people…and even if he cannot understand the totality of each one, he can acknowledge the inner goodness that he sees in each one of them. And in that matter, we as the players get to know a lot more of the cast trough his interaction with him (Eleanor also serves to this purpose but is with Phi that we get to know the best of the party because…). He is an adorable, cute and innocent child and the party, conscientiously or not, TRIES (and I emphasize the tries, because wanting it or not, the Menagerie is still the Menagerie and there is still conflict here, these most notorious been Velvet’s seen him as a replace for her brother, that gets resolve in a really heartwarming scene, I loved that scene… or Rokuro intent to kill him during the encounter with Kurogane) to be the best to him, teaching him, explaining and in reward we, and Phi, have this amazing little insiders for each one of the party members; Velvet’s first redeemable traits are shown us thanks to her interactions with Phi, seen Rokuro and Eizen playing the wiser older brothers is hilarious, Am I right, Rhinostragros? But it also let see us that Rokuro and Eizen have a genuine concern about been good examples for Phi with they “Don’t be like us” and fuck it, some of the first shades to Magilou’s true character are through her interaction with Phi. And in the end he takes the best all of this knowledge and experiences, this great and epic journey, and grows thanks to that travel.

He is the moral compass of these less than perfect people (Eleanor also tries to play this role, although with less success than Phi) and thanks to him we get to know the better of them.

He is also the best developed character in the cast and seen him grow from this helpless and quiet child to this determined badass who will fight for what he thinks is right (And been honest, leaving Magilou’s monologues to Melchior, he has the best scenes in the game)

“Eat my arm! I don’t care just leave me the other one! I need It to clobber the jerk who made my Velvet cry!”)

It is just fucking amazing.

In regard as his ending as Maotelus (And his eventual fate in Zestiria)…Is fitting. This kid that was nourished for this amazing journey with Velvet and the Menagerie, for all of these different experiences, points of views and teachings…He grows assimilating both ideologies and now he stands as the ideal manifestation (With Eleanor been the practical) of the healthy coexistence of reason and emotion…and the literal hope to reach Velvet’s endless and idyllic dream, …it gets the better of me in the same way that Velvet does and it’s just a beautiful ending for Phi’s arc and the game.

And that was the four…Uff…uff…you know what they say about pointless worries…

…MAGIKAZAMAZAMAZAM…

Eizen is awesome; he has the height, the posture, the voice, the long coat, the quotes, the family connections, the dorkiness, the “Perfect Mayhem” one of the most kickass designs of the franchise, his character screams “I’m fucking badass”

…Badass indeed…

…he is also one of the most interesting members of the cast.

Eizen is 1000 years old Malak afflicted for The Reaper’s curse which cause misfortune to the people that surrounds him, he is also a pirate, the second mate of The Aifread’s pirates, who ends joining Velvet quest in order to seek pass through one of the Abbey’s fortress and later for the possibility to find clues of the missing Captain Aifread whose disappearance maybe connected with one of the highest ranks of the Abbey.

Eizen is pirate, a ruthless thief, a man with little regards for the rules of the Abbey or the Kingdom, someone who has no moral compass other than his own convictions, an intrepid and dorkish adventurer who travels the eleven seas for the pure joy of doing it, loyal to his crew, to his captain, and his creed…

Wait a minute…He is still a bad guy, right?…

Let me see, thief? Check. Inclination to punching people? Check. Does business with morally questionable people? Check….oh he is also a second in command of a well knowing pirate crew…double check …then why he still looks like he could be one the good pirate characters in One Piece?…Well because that is the point.

In the same way that One Piece (Or the first Pirates of the Caribbean) explore a heavy romanticize vision of what a pirate is, Eizen is the romanticize vision of what a life led by emotions is. His arc doesn’t deal with themes like obsession or blindness or about losing yourself in your own overwhelming emotions (through there is something like that in regard to his arc during the Zaveid side quest, but is played in a different manner but don’t worry we’ll get there) like Rokuro’s or Velvet’s. No, his arc revolve about why emotions are so important for us and how following our own path, our own believes, is the only way to live our own life to the fullest, and in that regard he is the biggest contrast with the oppressive ways of the Abbey.

Eizen is someone that live adventures with his friends, he travels to exotic places, he doesn’t answer to anyone, a man that values his freewill above anything else and that will not letting that anything or anyone take it away from him, but as I said in the begging he’s not an auto-destructive person nor an anarchist, he plays the role of the lovable rogue (Despite that we actually don’t see much of thesem because the game isn’t about the adventures of Eizen and Benwick in the Van Eltia) with a stoic attitude and tough demeanor but also with a heart of gold a dork and in that regard he is the most enjoyable and funny member of the party (Aside for certain witch)…he is the most open to express his appreciation for the group aside for Phi, maybe, his completely honest fanboy rants about history or relics or just expressing his more pure inner feelings about his ways of life…He is amazing…Live hard and day young, Am I right, Eizen?… but in that regard, how many people have the raw muscle to decide their own fate? But even more important than that. Do you have it, Eizen?

Eizen has a role in the narrative and goal in the game, but they are just little bifurcations in a much greater story about Eizen fighting his own fate.

His natural affinity as an earth Malak, The Reaper curse, the laws of the Abbey, the Malevolence that slowly has started to overcome him and even the event of the game are no more than other rock blocking his way to…well, nothing. Eizen journey is just an endless resistance test that will have an abrupt end (In the context of the life spam of Malikhim/Seraphim), a romantic one for sure, fighting for the sake of the word against a future Lord of Calamity, and later, after becoming a dragon, killed as a way of saving him and putting him to rest of his madness state, but an end after all.

Eizen’s story is one of a man against the world, an endless path which mere travel through him symbolize the quest of men for freedom in his lives…Eizen is the coolest, and he was made to be the coolest, a romantic hero who has been throw it in a cynical story about clashing ideas as one of the idealist and inspirational parts of the emotion side…and again he does amazing in his job.

Part 1: Tales Series Retrospective

Part 2: The Elements of a Wonderfull Game

Part 3: Velvet’s character arc - Blindness and toxicity

Part 4: Rokuro’s and Eleanor’s character arc - Obsession and Conflict.

Part 6: Magilou’s character arc - Contradictions.

#tales of berseria #velvet crowe #magilou #laphicet #eizen #eleanor hume #rokurou rangetsu #tob #tales series #tales of #tales of series #maotelus #edna (toz)#zaveid

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netherwar-rpg-blog · 7 years

Photo

Welcome to the Wardens, Lash! Your application for a ROGUE OC has been accepted with a Katherine Winnick FC.

The application can be found under the cut. You have 48 hours to create a roleplay account (cannot be a sideblog) for your character and we will be updating our opening date soon!

O O C - I N F O

Name: Lash

Age: 24

Timezone: Eastern

Activity Level: I am free for the summer!

Extra: (Specific triggers or any important information here)

C H A R A C T E R - I N F O

T H E - B A S I C S

THE RISEN

Name: Thalia Yadira

Gender: Female

Age: 30

Class: Rogue

I have a come up with some lore on the Dark Union training that states there are certain parts of the process in which members can be rejected. Thalia was marked twice before failing her trial. This does not banish or exile her from the Dark Union but she left in shame to follow her savior to the Wardens.

Faceclaim: Katherine Winnick

Nationality: Norvik mother, Carnish Father

Appearance:

Thalia is riddled with scars across her knuckles and hands form brawling with any man who thought they could touch her. She is very beautiful by Norvik standards and her Carnish roots can only be detected internally. She is cold and unfeeling, having never been afforded the loving embrace of any single soul around her. She doesn’t want to be loved or touched or held, at least that is the façade she assumes.

Thalia loves the color blue and the feel of brand new leather boots. When she was very young she was found to possess a strange affinity for the shadow elements. Being from Norvik and Carnish decent, and an orphan; she decided to pursue the affinity in the Underworld. The environment proved to be as harsh as the name entailed.

Before she could pass the appropriate trials she was injured severely. The wound took many days to heal and if not for the Priest in the city she would have died. The scar is grizzly to behold and few ever have the pleasure of seeing it. The rough puckered flesh, a tale-tale sign of fatal wounds, sprawls across her chest just below her breasts. The sword gashed her open so critically that she did, for a moment, pass on to the next life. The nightmares she has as a result of that experience has been difficult to bear. It has separated her from all manner of interaction and relationships. Thalia keeps to herself as if she lacks the confidence to be anything more than

Thalia lacks confidence after her near death experience. She does still hold true to her Norvik attitude but it can sometimes come across as trying to hard or false bravado. When she stares at someone with a look of pure hatred it is simply her own views of her self-worth projected onto the world around her. She doesn’t feel like she can be loved or have the capacity to love another person.

Personality:

Negative: angry, critical, and ashamed

Anger from failure

Critical from pressure

And ashamed of herself

Positive: Determined, Careful, Adaptive

Determined to rise above

Careful to stay alive

Adaptive of her surroundings

History:

Thalia has always been the odd one out. Her mother, a Norvik and her father the Carnish assassin. It was certainly interesting to watch her mother and father’s wills collide. He left them in the Norvik countryside after it became too dangerous to be a part of their lives. Her mother found another, a good-hearted Norvik who treated Thalia like his own. It was now something she recalled with bitter longing, her mother and step-father were both taken from her, murderered with her baby sister. She was the only survivor in the household, or at least she assumed. Now that she is older she understands what sacrifices her father made to keep the family safe and together. He disbanded from the Dark Union and lived in Norvik with her and her mother, even formally pledged themselves as husband and wife. Her father was a good man but he was also a rivalry for the Dark Union’s strict code. He had been inside their ranks, knew their secrets, and he let it all go. He wanted to live peacefully with his family but the Dark Union could never allow the threat to exist. He left to keep them safe and yet her mother and step father were killed and fourteen year old Thalia was taken to live with her father’s relatives in the depths of Carn. Perhaps it was the darkness of the underworld that kindled the shadow affinity inside of her, or simply her father’s genetics rising to the surface at the perfect time. Thalia was now one of the few children to be selected to vie for the title of the Prodigy. She was branded with the hot iron symbol. It hurt badly but she said nothing to protest in front of the crowd who gathered. Norvik stubbornness was what it really amounted to. Thalia took it like a grown man. Many boys found her to be attractive for it too, however she found herself disinterested in relationships. She never felt pretty or lovable. She was then Shadow Bonded to a great mentor. This mentor was the rival to the Poisoner. Thalia loved to hear the stories about their killing competitions. She found it funny that one could argue over such trivial matters as killing reputation. Her mentor taught her all the skill she could ever want to be a successful assassin but her failure was fated.Thalia was injured just before the final marking. This resulted in a failed trial, a shame to her family and to herself. She was nearly killed and all could see was the disappointment on her aunt and uncles faces. The wound had actually killed her briefly. She was revived with lasting side effects. This is a secret she keeps to herself. She can hear voices and sense the dead around her. It frightens her terribly. The only redemption she can hope for is to please her mentor. Perhaps they might take her back if she brought them the head of the poisoner on a platter. Thalia doubts she could even bring herself to take the life needlessly. She is not nearly as ruthlessly blunt as she pretends to be. Deep down she is a fragile little girl longing for love and affection.

Reason for joining the Wardens:

Thalia has been down a dark depressing road. She isn’t even sure if she is skilled enough to be Rogue, however, she is determined to lift herself from the ashes and continue her training with or without the help of the Dark Union. She has joined the Wardens to redeem herself and become the powerful woman that she knows she can be. This will ultimately lead to confrontation with the poisoner but when push comes to shove, how far will Thalia go?

Desired Connections:

VALTYRA VAANHANEN (The Poisoner)

Thalia’s shadow bonded mentor was the rival of the poisoner. Thalia knows what she looks like but they have never met. She plans to try and win back her reputation by gifting her old mentor the assassins head on a plate.

PRIEST – (Whoever wants this or an NPC)

A priest saw her dying in the underworld after winning a sword duel. The priest was moved to act despite the repercussions it might have and they saved her life. Most likely a younger female given the sympathy they must have felt for the dying girl.

Most of these connections would be old acquaintances your character met on a passing trip (which you can determine with the other player, a comrade in the same faction and so on.)

R O L E P L A Y - S A M P L E

The blades were hot, glowing a sickening orange with each revolution. The swings were powerful but she blocked them all in straining defiance. Her own blades, ice cold steel, were no match for the opponent before her. She was an orphan and she could not afford better weaponry like this older child before her. Thalia had forgotten why they had come to blows, probably her smart mouth. The boy swung around again with his heated steel. Thalia jumped back just as the point sliced a sliver of her armor loose. She cursed as it fell to the floor with a thump. It was her leather breast plate, not that it could stop the Hell Blade. Sher wanted this to end. She couldn’t outrun him or stand up to the strength of his weapon. She tried to counter move but he smacked her blade aside and it shattered to pieces; weaponless and fearless she faced him with the hilt and remaining pieces of her steel. His sickening smile was likening unto a cat that had a mouse cornered against the wall, waiting for the gratification of her desperate trembling.

Thalia was not going to give him an inch because he would take a mile. She stood straight mouthed, broken blade leveled at his eyes. He muttered something in an ancient tongue as he looked to his mentor for approval. Thalia’s mentor had slipped into the cloak of shadows as the fight became too much to watch. He did adore his apprentice but her skill against this advanced pupil had shamed him. Thalia looked back at the boy who had begun a more careless advance toward her. His footing was more forceful and confident given her lack of weaponry. Thalia calculated the distance in her head. He was too close but she needed him closer. She thrust her blade just as he swung his and everything went black.

The boy lay mere inches from her own body with her crippled blade lodged deep into his chest, dead. Thalia could feel herself growing lighter and her vision blurring. No one would win this fight. She brought her hand to her chest. The blood was too thick, the wound too deep. She gasped and coughed while a crowd formed around her. The last one to die was the winner but their eyes shed no tears and their mouths echoed not with praise for her desperate kill. Thalia laid alone and cold in a mingled mess of blood. Her skin was charred form the burnt blades blow.

She looked up just before her vision blurred too much to see. A radiant aura seemed to push through the crowd. Thalia lost her consciousness soon after but she did not lose the visions of darkness. Demons grabbing her, the dead whispering inside her head from everywhere and nowhere; Thalia was dead for an eternity before she shot up from a fur lined mattress. “What the hell!” She gasped and felt her bare chest for blood but there was nothing aside from a grizzly scar. “What did you do?” She closed the distance between herself and the figure standing at the brightly lit window. Her voice was full of the exclamation of fear, the unknown. “I saved your life. Try to show more respect.”

#accepted #rogue oc #admin notice #follow!!!

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