#everyone has their own idea of mary-ann | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

suffersinfandom · 2 months

Text

I don't care when people have takes that don't agree with mine or love characters that I don't. What does get under my skin is when people are smug and self-congratulatory about a take that's just wrong.

"The story of the show in season one was that it was a bunch of people with conflicting personalities shoved onto a boat together."

The story has always centered Stede, Ed, and their relationship. The initial idea of it came from the fruitiness of historical Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard's whole situation, and David Jenkins always meant for it to be a romance about those two guys. (He talks about it in this interview. The romance wasn't added partway through filming, it was changed because of the way Rhys and Taika played it.)

"Season two of OFMD was an ensemble show and season two wasn't."

OFMD was never an ensemble show. Stede and Ed are the primary characters and everyone else, however much we love them, is secondary. Even Jim, the only other character who gets a flashback and a through-line in season one, is a supporting character. And their story is fantastic! It's about finding a place where you can be who you are, learning who you are beyond assigned roles, and finding belonging and family -- and that's also what our A-plot is about. Jim's story supports the main story.

The crew does have considerably more screen time in season one, and that's because season one has more time. I truly, sincerely wish that season two had the space to feature the crew the way season one did because I love almost all of them and wanted more of them. I think that the crew's relative absence in season two is, overall, to the show's detriment.

But let's think, just for a second, about why there was less time devoted to the crew in a season that was much shorter. If the crew's storyline was the main one and if all characters were equally important, why did David choose to spend the time he had focusing on Ed, Stede, and their relationship? Is it because he lost the plot of his own show?

No.

Season two is shorter. Cuts had to be made, so David cut back on the crew's stories and kept the main story -- the Gentlebeard story -- intact. A writer does not sacrifice their primary story for subplots. When you show me that season two has more Gentlebeard per episode, you're not proving that the nature or focus of the show changed. You're underscoring the importance of the story that has always been the show's center.

If you liked the show better when it had more time to commit to the supporting cast, that's okay. I sincerely don't mind that some people liked season two less because it was heavier on the Gentlebeard. I just don't understand why it's so important to downplay the importance of Ed and Stede in the first season. OFMD has always been their show, and insisting that that's not true is bonkers to me.

Literally no one is saying that Ed and Stede should be the only characters onscreen. No one who loves Gentlebeard hates the crew; I'm deep into Gentlebeardie tumblr and there's tons of love for every single character (with maybe one exception). No one is saying that Ed did nothing wrong or Izzy is the devil incarnate or time given to characters who aren't Stede and Ed is time wasted.

There is a right answer when we're talking about what OFMD is about and who the main characters are.

Also: anyone who's still struggling to understand Anne and Mary's importance should read this. Atticus wrote a lovely and concise essay that ought to clear everything up.

Also also: anyone who harasses people, anonymously or not, is the worst kind of fan. There are no fandom opinions that warrant racism, transphobia, homophobia, doxxing, etc.

#ofmd discourse #gentlebeard #i'm so irritated with people today #and i'll probably regret this #but jfc y'all #sorry for the negativity #life's not going great #and neither are the general fandom tags

135 notes · View notes

queerfandomtrifecta · 8 months

Text

So a lot is bothering me about the narrative structure of season two. If I didn’t have my own novel to work on and didn’t have several more edits commissioned, I’d write a fix-it fic for all of season two to fix the narrative stuff and to really delve into character arcs that felt off. Maybe I will anyway. Idk. If someone who actually has time wants to take any or all of this and write a fic, go for it. Can’t wait to read it. Anyway, this is a very rough outline that’s subject to change if I do write the fic, but from a developmental editing perspective, here’s my two cents nobody asked for on season 2:

Thematic elements: Atonement and coping with trauma, the crew leaving (especially in regards to Stede’s emotional wound where he’s worried about people being better off without him) and identity (especially in regards to Ed/Stede/Izzy). These are present in the show as-is, but they don’t play out well just yet. I’m focusing on these to make things cohesive.

Episodes 1-3: mostly perfect. Loved these and the pacing felt correct for the most part. I would keep the tone from these episodes through the season. Ricky would be introduced here. Zheng is fantastic and all of her stuff stays here.

What I’d change: Ned Low would be the primary antagonist for this season. Ricky would be set up through this season to be the primary antagonist next season. Ned Low’s record is Ed’s original suicide by proxy plan, and that needs to be introduced here. There needs to be a scene showing how Ned tortures people in these episodes. Izzy needs to bring it up as a concern to Ed. Ed doesn’t care about the crew’s safety, obviously, someone (Izzy) needs to mention Ned’s record and possible repercussions here. I’d also NOT play Lucius’s trauma reveal with Stede like a comedy beat. (Like seriously, I HATE that the show played SA as a comedy beat.) Black Pete would be shown crying of Lucius so it’s not just told randomly after the fact. Olu would be shown missing Jim.

Episode 4: The unicorn thing with Izzy was beautiful and I’d keep that. Stede and Ed going to Mary and Anne’s is fine. Buttons can APPEAR to turn into a seagull.

What I’d change: The Kraken Crew and Lucius need to stay paranoid longer. They need to tally things up and realize that Low’s record has been broken (I think Ed was too checked out from reality/high on rhino horn to even realize he’d broken it; Izzy has bigger things going on and likely also lost track) but that record being broken was NEVER shown in the original, just told after the fact. In order to NOT switch to a speculative genre randomly for a convenient metaphor, Buttons appears to turn into a seagull but he doesn’t literally. Revealed to the audience but not to Ed/Stede (more on this later). Stede doesn’t put it to a vote that Ed can come back. He’s the captain and decides that that’s how it’s gonna be. The crew is also gonna look to former first-mate Frenchie (whose trauma is in a box) for direction when Izzy is struggling. It’s Frenchie’s idea about the leg. Izzy is still struggling a little more after his new leg, and I think he should be shown happy at the end but with a bottle of something not far from him (but more in that later).

Episode 5: Ed’s influencer non-apology clearly written by Stede works. Ed and Stede need time apart. The cursed suit can stay for the levity of it. Ed and Fang can go fishing. The moonlight kiss scene works for the most part.

What I’d change: Izzy can be sassy with Lucius, and a bit of a mentor to Stede, but he’s going to be drinking in this episode. Not plastered drunk like ep 4, but it’s gonna clearly be a struggle and everyone is just Not Talking About It. Lucius might start to parallel that a bit and I’d like to see more interaction with them there. I’d also like to see the Kraken Crew (all the crew really) treating Izzy as their captain. Stede says he doesn’t feel like the captain and there should be a reason for that. If he forced them to let Ed back on the boat in ep 4, that can be addressed here. Izzy is following Stede so he can eventually persuade everyone they have to as well, though Izzy’s earned more trust than anyone at this point. I’d delve into him doing for Stede what he did for Ed pre-season one (“massaged the crew” when Ed’s moods seemed off to keep things running (I can’t remember the exact quote past that, but that’s essentially the idea). The Kraken Crew needs to be wary of Ed longer. They do not believe Buttons is a seagull. They all think Ed killed him and Stede says he didn’t see Buttons turn into a seagull, but he takes Ed’s side and doesn’t think Ed killed him. That starts a rift and an “us or Ed” thing that’ll play out later. Ed can try to interact with the crew and get the cold shoulder. He’s done nothing to restore his reputation. As far as the cursed suit goes, I would have them receive some sort of warning from Ned Low when they go to pawn the suit off on the other ship. Stede or/or Izzy would keep it quiet from the crew, who are only just now starting to follow Stede as the captain. Ricky needs to be shown here wanting to end piracy, and interacting with Zheng. After the moonlight kiss, I’d have them holding hands as they walk off. I think maybe Lucius would want to leave the ship here. The Swede and Buttons are gone already, and it makes sense for Lucius to want to leave but Black Pete to want to stay. They’ll both still be on board here though.

Episode 6: Calypso’s Birthday will be the plot for 7/8.

What I’d change: let me preface this by saying I haven’t worked Zheng’s plot fixes out fully. But. If we’re moving this to the next two episodes, something has to happen here. I’d keep the bit with the guilt room and with Ed giving away treasure to the urchins saying don’t be pirates, but have him say more in front of Stede about how piracy is bad for specific reasons that Stede just doesn’t clock as Ed wanting to stop. I think the plot will be along the lines of Stede engaging in more piracy. Ed will quietly be struggling with the fact that Stede is becoming a more and more proficient pirate in his own way, Ed himself not wanting to pirate anymore, and his tentative new relationship with the captain of a ship he is definitely not wanted on by anyone other than Stede. Zheng needs to interact with Ricky here about him wanting to end piracy. Izzy is a good first mate here but he’s still drinking. Lucius may start to parallel that here. Former first mate Frenchie picks up the slack and falls into a leadership role when Izzy is struggling too much, and this is eventually gonna cause him to have to deal with his trauma that’s bottled up, when he has to talk to Izzy about clearly not handling his own. Eventually, things will come to a head with the crew not wanting Ed on board. It becomes an “us vs him” thing with the crew threatening to leave if Es doesn’t. Stede will try to smooth things over but Ed will interrupt and say don’t bother, he’s leaving. He doesn’t know who he is but at least fisherman would be better than pirate. Episode ends with Stede heartbroken and Ed going off to fish in something that isn’t his leathers, so he wouldn’t be recognizable from a distance. Low pinpoints Stede’s ship but doesn’t see Ed on it, and plans to bait him out by boarding and torturing the crew.

Episodes 7-8: Nope. I’d keep almost none of this.

What I’d change: This part is also still rough and I need to flesh it out a bit more, BUT: Calypso’s birthday would be episode 7. The crew would wanna party but also wanna cheer up their sulking captain. They’re glad Ed is gone. Izzy is a good first mate here but still drinking. He encourages the party to Stede who agrees. They’re spending Ed’s treasure that he’s left, turning the poison into positivity by getting rid of the bad memories the Kraken Crew has of obtaining it. Stede and Izzy bond a lot here. Ned Low does interrupt the party (I think maybe he’s also “working” with Ricky but not really, he has his own agenda) planning to bait Ed back. The scene in Stede’s quarters would be Izzy and Stede, not Ed and Stede. Once again the crew are suffering for Ed’s actions, and THAT is how Ed can atone for it. He can save them, probably with the help of Zheng who he’ll have met when he goes off to be a fisherman. So there’s some camaraderie going there. Also, with help from Lucius and Black Pete, who will have to trust him in order to save the crew/themselves. Stede will be the one to kill Ned Low, and he and Ed will still impulsively sleep together as a coping mechanism at the end of episode 8. Izzy is still alive and well (though still drinking a lot; and I think this could be a key to Frenchie having to confront trauma instead of locking it in the box), and things aren’t smoothed out with Ed and Izzy yet, that’s for next season, Ed has ACTUALLY done something to earn the crew’s trust back, and it appears to be a happy enough ending for Ed and Stede. Also, IF Ed says “I love you”, Stede is GONNA say “I love you too” because WTAF was that in the show?! But I’d end the season with La Vie en Rose and fireworks, Izzy happy and celebrating with the crew, a happy moment for Ed/Stede, the antagonist defeated, and Ed actually having atoned for his previous actions.

All of this is rough, but it’s my original thoughts. If anyone wants to use the base of this to write a fix-it fic, go for it. I may do it myself if I can find the time between work writing responsibilities.

#ofmd spoilers #ofmd fix-it #ofmd #ofmd season 2 #ofmd season 2 spoilers #izzy hands #Ed teach #stede bonnet #Lucius spriggs #the crew of the revenge #ofmd fanfic #someone please fix this I don’t really have the time but this would work so much better #ouizzy #gentlebeard #zheng yi sao #david jenkins

217 notes · View notes

bethanydelleman · 1 year

Note

I just watched Persuasion (2022) and I am beyond upset. I watched it with my parents so I had to sit through the entire thing. They don't know much about the Regency Era and they haven't watched any other period dramas so they think that piece of trash is actually a good adaptation.

"He's a ten and I don't trust a ten." WTF?????? Persuasion is my favourite Austen novel and the way they literally ruined Anne is sick.

What was your first reaction to watching it? I wish I could wash all of it away. Any words of comfort that will hopefully cleanse my mind?

I'm so happy you sent this because I've been working up a little rant.

The reason Anne is so wrong, with her near hatred of her own family, rolling her eyes at the camera, the fact that they gave her masculine leaning clothes even, is that Book! Anne Elliot is the poster girl for the unseen, unacknowledged, and underappreciated labour of women.

There is something very fundamental to women's experiences from Austen's time to ours (and I'm sure before) where women do the dirty, mindless, emotional, and unpaid labour that keeps our whole society rolling and get zero credit. And yeah, it's getting better but this problem IS NOT FIXED. Now Anne is upper class so she's not mopping the floor, but this is her experience. Anne plays piano without thanks because without her no one can dance. Anne watches the sick kid so her sister can go to a party. Anne smooths over all the little arguments so that the family can function. She visits sick friends (lifted right out of the movie). She gives and gives and gives of herself and she's "just Anne". Because nothing she does is showy or important in the eyes of the world even though it is vital.

One of the worst scenes in Persuasion 2022 (I mean it's hard to pick there are so many), is how Mary basically manipulates Anne into staying back with little Charles. In the book, Anne clearly has the idea first and offers. In the movie, Mary has the idea and Anne rolls her eyes and groans before offering.

No!

Anne in the book is constantly giving of herself without complaint. Also, she does not want to see Wentworth for the first time! It's going to be painful for her, so she does something selfless but also spares herself from distress.

In that scene in 2022, Anne is a doormat giving in to her ridiculous sister. She also deeply regrets not going to dinner. In that scene in the book, Anne is a compassionate sister who after first attempting to reconcile Mary to her duty, offers to take over. She makes the choice of her own volition and she doesn't regret it.

She knew herself to be of the first utility to the child; and what was it to her if Frederick Wentworth were only half a mile distant, making himself agreeable to others?

It's this complex and emotional scene that was just ruined.

The triumph of Anne Elliot is not just getting Wentworth back, it is that people begin to see and acknowledge her labour and value. The Musgroves are absolutely devoted to her after she helps Louisa. Wentworth sees her worth and declares it in front of everyone. One of the best moments in the book is:

"but if Anne will stay, no one so proper, so capable as Anne."

SHE IS FINALLY SEEN! And valued, and loved! Not romantically (though that too) but because everyone (except Sir Walter and Elizabeth) finally realize how much they need her. The woman who stayed back from a dinner party to nurse a sick child becomes the person they need in a crisis. She goes from the last thought of to the first. In Anne, the necessity of women's labour is finally recognized.

Persuasion 2022 DESTROYED that, and it's infuriating.

Everything else sucks too. To finally give us the scene where Wentworth takes the kid off of Anne but then make him call her stupid? Gah! I was cringing so hard it was painful.

#persuasion 2022 #anne elliot #mary musgrove #question response #I could rant about that movie forever #But the real problem is Anne #they destroyed Anne in so many ways #and the story doesn't work with Miss Sassy Pants #it's a crime against humanity

236 notes · View notes

sarucane · 6 months

Text

Stede Bonnet's Stories (S2)

In season 2 of OFMD, Stede has finally figured out the stories he wants to tell about his life--and has even begun to believe them. But he hasn't figured out how to make those stories real. How to tell a story with others, rather than to them.

When season 2 begins, Stede is isolated within his stories. He's telling his most important story--his romance--to anyone who will listen (and anyone who can listen in the case of his roommates). He's writing letters to Ed every day and telling his love story again and again, cementing it, willing it to be real. But he's avoiding true vulnerability. He's scared that connection will bring pain, will send him back into an old story he is trying to escape, and his fear is controlling him. Pure storytelling isn't going to move Stede's life forward, as Zheng points out to him.

And he's not wrong to be scared. Stede's stories in this episode aren't going to come true the way he envisions them, because they're too disconnected from reality. This isn't a new problem for Stede: in the first season, this same problem made Stede vulnerable to mutiny and manipulation.

But Stede's grown since then. In the second season, Stede knows there's a disconnect, knows his stories are in tension with reality. He admits it in his letters, that he knows Ed probably doesn't want to see him, will probably never read his letters.

But he keeps writing them, every day. Because even though he's scared, he does want Ed to find the letters. He does want to tell his story.

And his stories will shape reality--but not until after reality shapes them.

It's not bad that Stede is cultivating this story. But it's part of why, in the first episodes of s2, Stede is purely reactive. He is so preoccupied with his own insecurities, with a story that disconnects him from everything around him (like how he yells at Richie in an alley about wanting privacy), that he doesn't go looking for Ed. And by the time he finally reaches Ed, it's almost too late. Ed's story has broken him off from everything and everyone.

But Stede does reach Ed, does manage to reconnect with him. And he does this by not clinging to his misty-eyed romance. Lucius forces Stede to let go of his ego-driven idea that Ed's life is "better without me," and to let go of his misty-eyed romance. To look at Ed's crimes and think about what they mean. To think about how Ed experiences himself and his own story, not just how Stede experiences it.

And then Stede understands that the only way to move forward is to weave together his story, reality, and other people's stories. And that lets him move from vision to action.

After three episodes of passivity, it's Stede who makes the decisions that determine how the story of Ed and the Revenge mutiny are going to end. And that lets him do more than he ever could before. Be more than he even understands he can be.

But in an achingly human development, Ed and Stede go two steps forward and three steps back. Because Ed has a whole different story, all his own.

Ed rejects the story Stede brought with him. He's fighting Stede's stories all through the scenes at Anne and Mary's, right up until Stede corners him with reality.

The entire complex reality of their story now--the problems of their original relationship, the truth of Ed's hurt and Stede's failure, the difficulty of what lies in front of them if they want to move forward--is stronger than Stede's romantic dream that Ed would "melt back into his arms."

And that's a good thing, because Stede's story was as reductive as a story of an impossible bird. Stede'll never be a swashbuckler who can defeat Izzy in a duel, Ed'll never have a beard that long again.

The stories Stede told himself about their relationship being "on a break," the story Ed told himself that his time with Stede was "the best it's ever gonna get for him," those stories weren't real. But the core truth of both of their stories was love. And though love has as little objective reality as hope or mercy, it can be real.

When Ed and Stede talk at Anne and Mary's, Stede puts aside any hopes he'd had in a reunion, his idealized fantasies of what he and Ed can be to each other. Instead, he focuses on love. On a bond with Ed that is entirely unconditional, that asks nothing of Ed. That gives Ed space, to accept Stede's story--or to reject it. Stede sets aside all his stories to focus on the most basic building block of true connection: vulnerability.

And when Ed doesn't reject him, Stede connects his vulnerability, his love story, to the simple reality in front of him: Ed's life.

In the past, Stede's vulnerability through stories has led him to become self-obsessed, to get caught up in his own ego and what he wants the world to become. But as the season goes on, Stede learns to listen to other people's stories. To embrace the vulnerability of changing his stories, so he can connect other stories to his own. So he can let go of some things (like a cursed suit) but hang onto others (like a red velvety shirt).

This is far from a perfect transition. Stede holds onto the suit for so long he has a near-mutiny on his hands. But he also sets aside his own story so he can respect Ed's vulnerability and fears, helps Ed and the crew turn poison into positivity, then slips through a hole (literally) in Ned Lowe's story.

But then Stede gets caught up in his own story, in his own fears and insecurities, and messes up with Ed. He clings to Ed too tightly, tells a story that goes too fast for Ed at the end of ep 6. And in episode 7, Stede gets completely caught up in his own story, to the point that he again disconnects from Ed.

He brushes over the nuance of what actually happened with Ned to enjoy the benefits of righteous fame--until he loses literally track of Ed, and of Ed's story. Until he's addressing Ed as "Blackbeard."

And then, Stede's tested. His out-of-control story runs headlong into Ed's. What he thought of as the best day (and probably night) of his life turns out to have been a crisis point for someone he loves.

Stede could have panicked or frozen when this happened. Could have disconnected, could have ;lashed out with a story where his vulnerability led to victimhood, or retreated into the story that swept him up last year (the fear that he'll bring Ed nothing but ruin). Could have told his preferred story as loudly as he can, just as he has in the past.

Instead, he listens. And he does everything he can to connect with Ed, even mirroring Ed's body language in this scene. He meets Ed's vulnerability with his own, recognizes the truth of Ed's different experience, and seeks a way that they can connect and tell their story together.

Stede can do this because he spent the season learning how to listen to other people's stories. How to decode the tales of his own crew, Ned Lowe's crew, and Ed, and how to connect his own stories to theirs.

So when Ed announces he's leaving, Stede knows what's actually happening. Knows that Ed isn't invalidating their relationship. That life is hard, change and dealing with insecurities are scary, and sometimes we panic, and we react in ways that aren't useful. Stede's still hurt, but he isn't broken by this.

And so, even when Ed and Stede are separated and confused, their bond survives. And it turns out that Stede's commitment to Ed, the story he wove at the beginning of the season--it wasn't everything, but it was enough. Enough that even when all their plans and the world have fallen apart, Ed and Stede can put it all back together.

Because Stede wasn't alone, even when he feared he was, when he wrote those vulnerable letters daily on a lonely beach. We saw in the first episodes that Ed was thinking of him, right when Stede was thinking of Ed. And Ed did get one of his letters--and right when he needed it most.

Stede's stories have led him down a lot of mistaken paths, have nearly gotten him killed more than once. But when he consciously told stories that made him vulnerable, that spoke to what he truly wanted, he became more himself than ever. And when real vulnerability is met by vulnerability, it can turn into strength. Instead of Ed and Stede knocking each other over, as they did in the opening fantasy scene of 2x1, they hold each other up when they meet in 2x8.

When Stede and Ed reunite, Stede doesn't get hung up on resolving conflicting stories or worrying about his own insecurities. He just accepts Ed. Offers Ed a story in which he can make mistakes not because he's a bad person, or doesn't love Stede, but because "life's a dick" and sometimes we fuck up.

And when Ed offers Stede his story, offers his vulnerability, Stede doesn't try to match it with something identical. Doesn't echo it or risk overwriting it with his own words. He listens to it. He lets Ed know that he's safe with Stede and always has been. He folds Ed's words into his own story--and just like that, (like Lucius and Pete with their wedding vows) Stede and Ed really can tell the same story, with two voices.

From disconnection comes connection.

Ed's and Stede's stories intertwine, and then they shape reality around them. Together, they throw themselves into a fight against the British. When Stede makes the plan to sneak out--to slip through a hole in another enemy's story--Ed is the one we see stripping the soldiers to carry out the plan. When Izzy's dying and Ed demands help, Stede's the one who goes to get bandages.

The season ends with Ed and Stede setting out to tell another story together. One that balances both their stories--Ed's need to not be a pirate, Stede's and Ed's desire to give their relationship a real chance--and has space for both of them to tell.

And in the last lines of dialogue, Stede tries one last time to impose his own idealized story on reality, talking about how the house "smells like the future." It's a pretty story, but not helpful. So Stede lets it go. He and Ed'll find whatever's making that stench, they'll clean it up--and they'll make a safe space where they can tell their story together.

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #ofmd spoilers #ofmd meta #ed teach #stede bonnet #blackbonnet #been writing this for 3 days and i need to STOP #so if something doesn't make sense do me a favor and comment cause really this is 1 meta written 5 times #it's ALL about: vulnerability; disconnection and connection; linking fiction and reality; linking one story to another story/stories #legit these writers are godly

45 notes · View notes

doll-elvis · 10 months

Note

I like Priscilla and I appreciate that she has managed to keep Graceland afloat along with Elvis’s legacy but it irks me how people act like she was perfect. Everyone acts like Elvis is the sole reason their marriage failed but no one talks about how what she did, like having affairs herself

thank you so much for the ask <3!! sorry y’all this is longg

before I give my opinion, I just want to say a quick disclaimer because it’s important to acknowledge that I was obviously not apart of their marriage or their relationship and therefore my opinion is essentially irrelevant. I always find it weird when people talk about celebrity relationships with authority as though they were actually apart of it 😩, so I just want to say that at the end of the day it wasn’t my relationship, I don’t know the full truth, anything I say is just from what I’ve gathered from books/interviews

and just from what I have read, I honestly think their marriage was doomed from the very start because when Elvis married Priscilla in 1967 he essentially married a caricature version of her🤧 Priscilla created a look and personality that she believed embodied all of the traits that Elvis found ideal in a woman, and by doing so she created a fantasy that she wouldn’t be able to uphold as she grew older and became her own person. And when it comes to her and Elvis, I always felt like they fell in love with the idea of each-other, which is probably not the best foundation to build a marriage on😩 As the years went by and as they changed as people, they definitely grew apart and grew separately. I think Priscilla even said it was like they both lived separate lives

(Red West speaking on Elvis and Priscilla in “Elvis: What happened?” ⬇️)

as for affairs, Priscilla did indeed confirm that she had an affair with her dance instructor who she refers to as “Mark” in her book, soon after Lisa Marie was born. To give context this was also when Elvis began withdrawing from her s*xually, as she tells it, because he had pause about making love with a woman who had given birth to his child. She said the affair with Mark was very brief and it ultimately made her realize she wanted more out of her relationship with Elvis. The Memphis Mafia have also alleged that Priscilla had an affair with one of the male dancers in the 68 comeback special but she hasn’t spoken on that specific allegation herself. Then of course there was her affair with Mike Stone which is much more infamous and is what gave Priscilla the final nudge to ask for a divorce from Elvis. Tbh I’m really curious to see if the upcoming Priscilla movie will acknowledge the affairs on both her and Elvis’ end… like if they show Ann-Margret and they better include Mike Stone also 😩

And yeah while she did admit to being unfaithful while being married to Elvis, obviously in comparison to Elvis’ affairs, hers were much fewer in count. But on those grounds, like you said they both went against their vows and again, I don’t think we are in any place to judge either one of them because we didn’t live the relationship 🤷🏻‍♀️

Your ask also made me think about how they were incompatible on many levels which I’m sure put strain on the marriage. The biggest one to me is the lack of interest on Priscilla’s part in Elvis’ spirituality, and books on the subject. And again I’m not placing any blame on Priscilla because you cannot force interest in a subject, you either like it or you don’t. And to be fair to Priscilla, Elvis didn’t exactly support all of her interests, like how she wanted to pursue modeling in the 60s. But there’s one passage from her book that I think really summarizes their incompatibility on a mental/emotional level ⬇️

“Although I was striving to be his soul mate and subtly becoming more aware of myself as a spiritual being, my heart longed for the very temptations he was fighting to conquer”

The very first sentence of this quote is very telling ⬆️: you don’t strive to be someone’s soulmate, I feel like you either are, or you aren’t 🤧

“As his soul mate I was expected to search for answers as fervently as he did, but I just couldn’t bear reading the ponderous tracts that surrounded us in bed every night. Usually within five minutes of opening one, I’d be sound asleep. Annoyed at my obvious disinterest, he woke me to share an insightful passage. If I voiced the slightest protest, he’d say, ‘Things will never work out between us, Cilla, because you don’t show any interest in me or my philosophies’”

Priscilla was extremely unhappy during this time and their relationship was really rocky as Elvis explored his spirituality. And in an effort to please her, he agreed to burning all of his spiritual books, which I always thought was so sad because he felt like he had to abandon such a major part of himself just to keep peace in the relationship

I think divorce was definitely inevitable for these two, and like you mentioned it’s just not fair to place all of the blame on Elvis when they both didn’t fit each other’s needs as partners

#thank you for the ask!!#marriage is not easy #sometimes I wonder if their relationship would have lasted longer had they not gotten married 👀#elvis presley #elvisaaronpresley #elvis #priscilla presley #elvis and priscilla #elvis history #elvis fans #elvis asks #elvis book excerpts

54 notes · View notes

margaritaville · 22 days

Note

For the made up fic title game... how about "ship in a bottle?"

i don’t know why i reblogged this ask game bc i have enough trouble naming my own fics so the idea of working off of a name is actually a nightmare. anyway. ship in a bottle ship in a bottle……….. this might be predictable but:

so i know we have been talking nonstop about tiny ed or borrower stede with doll ed (rightfully so) so this might be redundant but there is a ship in a bottle on mary and doug’s mantle and doug tends to it day after day with his long ass tweezers and the day has finally come: the ship is ready and he’s going to introduce some little figurines to it. enter tiny stede and the tiny crew of the revenge. it’s kind of a toy story situation where while people are around/when doug is tending to them no one moves but as soon as no one’s nearby they’re all over the place. everyone except stede is. yknow. grubby. filthy. (it’s a stylistic choice doug made) so stede is made captain because who else is it gonna be. in his fancy outfit and all. they all scurry around like little bugs looking at the little model treasure chests and having little sword fights and little pete and lucius fall in love and little jim and olu fall in love and it’s all very sweet but it gets to be monotonous. and little stede is like. what’s the point of all of this. just waking up and walking around this ship but not coming across anyone else obviously. sailing the mantle for the rest of time. the most excitement they get is when they see doug or one of the kids coming and have to scurry back to the places they were last in. and stede keeps thinking. what if we just didn’t. what if doug and mary and the kids knew we were living in here? doug is so gentle with them when he fixes them up or switches their outfits. maybe he wouldn’t freak out!!

enter ed and the crew of the queen anne. and ed is new and exciting and immediately he and stede are plotting their escape from the bottle and the ship And They Fall In Love Of Course. eventually they spend so much time plotting and planning that they realize they don’t need more than this: just the two of them together on their little ship. co-captains. and yes eventually after finding little ed and little stede together in the captain’s cabin when he last put them in the crow’s nest one too many times he takes them from the ship and puts them in a little model cabin on the other end of the mantle where they live happily ever after.

#save #send me more of these actually bc this was really fun

12 notes · View notes

mastermindmp3 · 1 month

Text

or: the epilogue of a murder ballad

Florida!!! is a song about escaping. Wait out the shit-storm back in Texas / I need to forget, so take me to Florida. The narrator (or perhaps, narrators, if you interpret Florence's feature as a separate speaker) was accused of being a "cheat," and escapes to Florida to bury her regrets. Love left me like this, and I don't want to exist, so take me to Florida.

Textually, the narrator has either left or been left by a lover she needed like a drug, and now, she wants to escape everything, escape to the land of retirees and sand and heat. Florida, especially for Americans in the east of the country, is associated with vacation, so it's no wonder it's many's idea of an escape.

Florida!!! also contains my favorite couplet: All my friends smell like weed or little babies, and the city reeks of driving myself crazy. The through line of the sense of smell, and how real the line feels. Yeah, everyone my age does smell like smoke or diapers. There's also the underlying idea: When you associate a place* so heavily with your own destruction, isn't it only right to want to bury it?

*Place, here, is more than simply the city itself, I think. The Place can be anything. A person, a relationship, a job. Florida!!! tells you that you can just walk out!

And like the rest of Tortured Poets, the song is also filled with death as metaphor. The narrator tried to forget the memory of her previous lovers, the ones who seem to trouble her so:

And in my mind, they sink into the swamp. She smirks at the audience. Is that a bad thing to say in a song?

Hear me out: Florida!!! is a murder ballad.

Rather, it is a murder ballad as metaphor for the killing of a relationship, and the needing numbness and escape that follows. After all, Florida!!! is one hell of drug / Fuck me up, Florida. The death, the bodies in the swamp here are not literal, but a symbol of the "bad past" the narrator wants to escape. But that's kind of the point of a murder ballad.

The murder ballad is an important part of country and folk music. We love to tell stories about death, and there's a reason we joke about how often women in country music "kill their husbands." It's not actually about glorifying violence, it's about what the murder represents. From Mary Anne's and Wanda's cathartic freedom in Goodbye Earl, to a little girl's revenge against her abusive father in Blown Away, to the law's puppet show that leads to a brother's hanging in The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia, all the way to Este's best friend's retribution for her murder in no body, no crime.

What comes after is rarely discussed. The Night the Lights Went Out ends at the narrator's bother's hanging. Blown Away leaves the narrator in the remains of a blown out house. The odd man out, Goodbye Earl, tells us about Mary Anne's and Wanda's happy life together, now free from Earl. Even no body, no crime only ends with the narrator's knowing grin, that she wasn't going to get caught.

Florida!!! is what happens next. The bolting, the finding yourself again after leaving it all behind. The narrator didn't kill anyone, but with all the damage she's worried about, she feels like she might as well have.

#ttpdminutes #the cassandra speaks #Florida!!!#Taylor Swift #florence and the machine

18 notes · View notes

teecupangel · 1 year

Note

Hello. Hope you're feeling good.

I was wondering if assassins in modern au weren't assassin and just lived like normal people what was their job?

Hi, nonny. I'm doing good. Just found some time to rest up after all the moving and unpacking XD

Oooohhh, I like this ask, nonny, but Imma cheat a bit and use a lot of my answers from the modern-day fic I wrote last year XD

Altaïr

I think this will depend on how much you want to reference Altaïr’s upbringing in AC1.

If you want an almost beat-by-beat reference, Altaïr will be heading some kind of PMC that he ‘inherited’ from his foster grandfather. He’s born into the family business and it’s the only life he knows. Reading about new tech helps make the PMC always be up to date with their equipment but Altaïr usually reads any kind of scientific advancement on his down time.

If you want to give him more freedom to choose his own path, his scholarly nature would make him a job in the field of science or history (with philosophy being a favorite hobby of his)

History: more on archaeology who mainly does fieldwork, sometimes goes to conventions and symposiums to talk about his team’s latest finds. His journals detailing each day when he’s in the field are usually published and a lot of people in the field enjoy reading his thoughts… even if he sometimes gets off track and there’s suddenly a drawing of the person he loves in one of the pages…

Science: owner of a privately-funded research and development company (might even have funded it from the inheritance he got from his foster grandfather) and actually leads one of the teams. The company focuses on researching and developing new tech that would make life easier for everyone although Altaïr does have a notebook filled with the deadliest ideas for weapons that he doesn’t really have any plans to make.

Ezio

Definitely born into a rich family that operates one of the oldest banks in Italy and he’s being trained to be a COO. Would have summer jobs in one of their banks.

His passion though lies in the arts and he would paint whenever he needs to relax. His parents agreed for him to take art classes because they want to support him (and Federico is meant to inherit the business anyway).

He meets his best friend in art class and they start a friendly competition of painting the same thing.

His friend is the one who gets recognized but that’s fine with him. He paints because it relaxes him, he’s not there for the spotlight.

Their banks would have framed paintings of his and he still paints as a hobby.

He mostly works for the family bank as a foreign representative, going to other countries to help out a new branch, train the new management, and sometimes talk to possible clients and partners.

Ratonhnhaké:ton

His father wants him to inherit the family business but he decides to take over his mother’s job as the representative of their tribe and the usual liaison that talks to outsiders.

His mother is currently a judge in tribal courts.

He also works similarly to a park ranger and would check their lands regularly, making sure nobody trespasses or hunts in the nearby forests.

The Kenways:

Edward married a socialite named Tessa Kenway a few years after the death of his first wife.

Before that, he used to be a captain of a freight ship. With Tessa’s money, he started his own freight shipping company.

He’s now retired with his son taking over his company and lives with his wife in Kenway mansion. He sometimes visit his son and grandson to annoy his son and to just ‘hang out’ (“Isn’t that what you kids say nowadays?” “… yes. I suppose so?””) with his grandson.

His oldest daughter (from his first marriage) ran away from home after they tried to get her engaged to a rich dude, Edward knows she’s living with Mary and Anne, two old buddies of Edward during his freight ship captain’ing days and visits sometimes. He didn’t tell Tessa though (it was Tessa’s idea to marry her off) because he doesn’t want things to escalate and Tessa has a suspicion that he’s having an affair with Mary or Anne (or both!) while Haytham learned that his sister is fine and living her best life when he tried to catch his father cheating for his mother.

Even in a modern day AU, the Kenways will still have drama. Them’s the rules.

Desmond:

Ran away from a very isolated community that may have been cultists or just really ‘we don’t trust the government’ kind of hippies. Desmond likes to joke both.

Works for a bar that has a new owner who isn’t afraid to try out new things.

Desmond thinks he’s flying by the seat of his pants but his heart is in the right place so Desmond tries to be supportive.

Also… he was given the go signal to adjust the drinks menu and make new drinks so that’s an automatic ‘that’s my boss and I support his decisions!’ for him.

Shirley Templar is his signature drink. He’s other signature drink is “Desmond Take The Wheel” which is just him preparing whatever the hell he wants for a customer who cannot take back the drink because that is what they ordered.

Shay:

Used to work for a freight ship with his dad being his captain together with his best friend Liam.

Hope works as a logistics support for the company they work for and also a radio operator when things get hectic. Shay and Hope may have been flirting on the radio for a while (much to his father’s amusement).

The company they’re working for started making really bad decisions after the owner lost his wife and son. Liam was transferred to another freight ship to be its captain and, during just a routine job, they got hit by a massive storm too far off the nearest coast which they wouldn’t have hit had their course not been switched an hour before their departure.

Shay’s father and a lot of the crew died that day and Shay blamed the owner because the route was approved by him. He refused to settle and lost with the cause being given as damnum fatale.

Haytham scouted him soon after and he was a captain first before being elevated to Head Logistics Officer.

Arno

He owns a cafe that once belonged to his uncle (not related to him but was a close friend of his father).

He’s been arrested for disorderly conduct (he was suppppeeer drunk and his longtime girlfriend/childhood friend just broke up with him) but the officers pitied him so they just let him sleep it off in one of the cells. The dude on the other cell started singing along when Arno began to sing sad love songs. Both of them were drunk though so they made the police officer giving them an easy time… well… a hard time.

He uses the profit he got from the cafe he inherited to buy more establishments.

He’s now focused on learning how to make a bar profitable… by buying a bar.

Jacob

He was the one in the other cell. He got into a bar fight but he wasn’t that drunk. The officers heard the fight happen because some slurs about Jacob’s sexual preferences were shouted by the other dude so the officer just left Jacob with a warning.

He’s actually the owner of a small orphanage and has an out-of-school youth program that usually helps children from high-risk areas. All of this is funded by his family (to be more exact, his sister).

He has a degree in pediatrics and this is his dream job.

This might (if the rumors were true) have been because he had been an unwitting accessory to a tragic fire as a young man that led to the death of children.

He has an adopted son named Jack.

Evie

Doctor, got top marks in her batch, and continued their late father’s job as a concierge doctor. She took over her father’s patients who are all quite wealthy (including the Kenways).

On her vacations, she would join her long-time boyfriend (“You married yet?” “No, Jacob. Jayadeep and I believe-” “Yes, yes, if it happens, it happens, blah, blah, blah.”) who is part of Doctors Without Borders.

She’s officially the head of the Frye family which she inherited from their father but she always gives Jacob his share (“So you’re still a trustfund baby.” “Pretty much, I guess. My sister loves me… as long as she doesn’t have to hear about my latest dumb stunt.”) while also donating a lot to his orphanage and program.

There are rumors that it’s a money laundering thing but that’s unfounded.

Bayek

The police officer who had to suffer thru Arno’s drunken singing of his ex’s beautiful flaming hair and Jacob’s sulking.

Almost always gets the graveyard shift so his fellow officers can go home and spend them with their families.

Used to be married, and had a divorce after a hit-and-run killed their only son, he still has a picture of his family on his table and everyone knows he still loves his ex but the death of their child was too much for both of them.

His ex may or may not be part of the government’s secret intelligence gathering bureau… maybe. Bayek does not know and does not want to know as he doesn’t want to risk her job in any way IF she was an actual spy.

Layla:

Still works for Abstergo and still has a feud going on with Sofia Rikkins.

Kinda friends with Lucy and Daniel Cross, enjoys adding chaos to annoy Berg if she knows she can get away with (or make someone like Robert take the fall).

Likes to drink in Desmond’s bar (technically Arno’s) and always takes the “Desmond takes the wheel” option.

Okay, so these ones aren’t Assassins or Hidden Ones (officially) but I kinda felt bad leaving them out since I wrote about Bayek.

Kassandra

MMA fighter who came from a military family.

Had a falling out with her stepfather when she was young and she left. It’s not clear if she left on her own or if she was kicked out and she doesn’t like to talk about it.

She only talks to her younger brother although her mother is trying to mend broken bridges… it… isn’t really working… unfortunately.

Her brother is in the army per the traditions of their family and she always worries about him.

Eivor

Spokesperson for her foster brother and working to help out for his reelection at the moment.

Her passion is in poetry though (and drinking everyone under but that’s more of a pastime) and she’s working on compiling her poems into a book. Her poems are quite beautiful but tend to be on the side of trash-talking certain types of people.

It took months but the ravens/crows around the area of her home now recognize her and would leave trinkets as a thank you for always feeding them.

Note: not a lawyer so I’m not sure if damnum fatale can be used for Shay’s part but Imma wave my fanfic writer card.

88 notes · View notes

schmirius · 6 months

Text

okay but what if... a different ofmd s2

I tried several times to make a less tl;dr version of this post, but it's not happening. BEHOLD: a season I just like better. It fixes things that I personally didn't like (and I have a strong Ed and Izzy bias). I wanted to do a few major things:

Keep 2x01-2x03, because I love them so damn much. this unfortunately sets the stakes *really high* for the rest of the season, so...

Rework the characters that canon s2 introduced, to be able to focus more tightly on the Revenge's response to the 2x01-2x03 atom bomb.

Give Ed and Stede more focused arcs (individually and as a couple). Ed and Stede were, emotionally, at completely opposite poles in 2x01-2x03, and in canon I think they didn't connect much after that. So in my version, they'll do basic work to understand why their s1 meet-cute failed and how they can move on to having a real relationship.

Address Ed's very vividly depicted violence from 2x01-2x02. I found the amends depicted in canon somewhere between "unsatisfying" and "horrifying." Jesus did I need to fuck around with that!

the three major acts in the season:

ACT 1 (2x01-2x03) – Trauma! These episodes remain largely the same as in canon.

ACT 2 (2x04-2x06) – Recovery I've edited these episodes so Ed + Stede are entirely separated from Izzy + the Crew. This gives the OTP space to work on themselves and their relationship. Likewise, Izzy has space away from Ed to go through his arc of self-discovery and consider if he wants to reconcile with Ed. Izzy and the Crew all get a chance to recover from The Trauma on their own, together as a community. ACT 3 (2x07-2x08) – Reconciliation Act 2 has given everybody time to process Act 1 and how they might come out of it as better versions of themselves and a stronger community. Now the OTP and the Crew reintegrate and, in the 2x08 climax, prove all their work has been worth it by fighting together against an external menace. (It's Hornigold. It's got to be Hornigold. This is so obvious to me.)

* * * THE CHARACTERS:

Each crew member is talented brilliant incredible showstopping spectacular, but in the interest of brevity, the characters in the imaginary episodes are going to be:

Ed and Stede → The OTP – Ed and Stede as a couple. Color-coded red so you can follow their arc.

Izzy

The Crew, who begin in Act 1 as three separate crews: → the Castaways (everybody Ed marooned/tossed overboard at the end of s1) → the Breakup Boat (everybody from canon s2 on the Revenge with Truly Insane Ed → the Girls (introduced below)

THE BOATS:

Most episodes are going to have two plots running, taking place on two ships:

The Revenge

The Pearl Diver (again, below)

Last terminology note: I'm going to be comparing "canon episodes" vs. "imaginary episodes" or "new episodes" a bunch.

Ready? Alright, let's kick it.

* * *

ACT 1 – 2x01-2x03 – TRAUMAAA

Ed + the Breakup Boat: The action on the Revenge remains basically the same, with the torture and the murder-suicides and all the crimes. Stede + the Castaways: I'd cut the Republic of Pirates in 2x01. Instead, I'd start with everyone at sea on the ship that rescued them (which also creates an atmosphere of everyone still being trapped by the awful shit that happened in 1x10). What ship? I think introducing Zheng the historical pirate is a really cool idea, but I also think it's one idea too many. Zheng's objectively cooler and more successful ship is always, implausibly, overshadowed by the lovable misfits on the Revenge, since the Revenge is the workplace that the show is about. This is annoying to me (and probably Zheng). Instead I'd make the rescue ship one of equal goofiness: Mary and Anne's ship. I'll call it the Pearl Diver, just because I can. We can lift the formula from Ed's ship in s1:

s1: gay men // s2: lesbians!

s1 power couple on the ship is Ed+Izzy // s2 is Mary/Anne

s1 crew members who later join Revenge are The Boys, Fang+Ivan // s2 will have the Girls, a surgeon and her competent sailor girlfriend. one of them is a trans woman, I said so

the set is just the Revenge with different props on, lol

Okay, that's our lesbian ship set up. It'll last five episodes and be a very easy foil for the Revenge. Stede: His 2x01-2x02 bit seemed to be "I love Ed, I'll get back to him no matter." I'd push that harder. New s2 will open with Stede as a brave romantic adventurer sallying forth into true love (the same way he was a brave romantic adventurer sallying forth into piracy in s1). So: "I love Ed, I'll get back to him no matter, and the force of our newfound love will be what straightens this all out." The OTP: Ed and Stede are both hopeless romantics, of course, but they're coming at it from opposing genres. Ed thinks he's the doomed villain in a big-R Romantic novel. Stede thinks he's the little-r romantic hero in a bodice-ripper. Their job in new s2 is to shift ideas of self & genre to meet somewhere in the middle.

ACT 2 – 2x04-2x06 – RECOVERY

I think a lot of what s2 tried in mid-season succeeded, but it didn't really add up to anything. In order to advance Ed and Stede's arc(s), I'd isolate them from the Crew. This gives everyone space to start clearing up the Act 1 wreckage.

(quick 2x03 note:) The major change I'd make here here would be moving the Breakup Boat crew off of the Revenge sometime mid-episode so they can recuperate on the Pearl Diver instead. They get to leave the trauma boat, which gives them and us the audience some breathing room as we transition out of the murder-suicide portion of the season. In the Pearl's infirmary they meet the Girls – surgeon and girlfriend – and reunite with the Castaways. There's a palpable sense of each group feeling isolated from the others.

2x04 – really intense cleanup

Time skip: The Breakup Boat crew have been declared physically recovered enough to start repairing the Revenge (and therefore prepared to grit their teeth and return to the scene of their trauma). The Castaways offer to help; the Girls come along in solidarity with their new friends. The Revenge: (this is also 2x04 in canon) Izzy never left the wrecked ship, is doing Bad. The three separate crews do ship repairs, but then come together as one Crew to declare Izzy their unicorn.

The Pearl Diver: (this story has no equivalent in canon)

Ed: never leaves the Pearl's infirmary, is doing Bad. He's trying to come to grips with the fact that he did all that shit, the kind that his dad and Hornigold used to. Stede: is focused on telling Ed about their true love rather than trying to understand how awful Ed feels, to the point that he's telling his newfound love~ story super loudly to avoid talking about Ed's pain.

The OTP: They have a moment where they stop talking past each other.

Ed hears Stede when he says that he really does love Ed. (Ed doesn't necessarily believe it, but he's willing to listen.)

Stede hears Ed when Ed says he feels trapped worse than ever (though he's weirded out Ed thinks he's a doomed villain). (Stede, our favorite Ed stan, literally doesn't care what Ed did except as far as how Ed feels about it.)

2x05 – letting loose

Time skip! Again, everyone looks slightly less haggard. The Revenge: (this is 2x06 in canon; I've moved it to 2x05) The Crew: have Calypso's birthday, paid for with the treasure they wouldn't throw overboard in 2x01 because it's their treasure and not Ed's, ffs. Joyful, queer, "we're surviving, we're getting through this together." Izzy+Ed: I'm aiming to untangle the shitty parts of their codependency and eliminate Ed's outright domestic abuse. I read canon s2 as Izzy fully untangling himself from Ed and then presenting Ed as a gift to Stede, and I did not like that for anyone. I'm aiming to conclude new s2 with Izzy+Ed acknowledging how bad it was at the end (with a little more emotional insight than they might have been able to do in s1 – maybe this huge event in their lives leads to self-reflection and growth!) and how they could move forward maybe as very complicated friends. Izzy's going to be taking the lead on this one, because the codependency very much ended in Ed doing violence to him. He gets to decide what the fuck happens. So: Izzy: is finally somewhere without Ed, first time in 30 years. Now that he's been unicorn'd (feels supported), he has room to unwind and start discovering what he might like to do. So he does drag. And also sings about his complicated feelings for Ed, come on, Izzy has love for him. In new s2, Izzy still gets to bloom, but he remains closer in personality to his grumpy cunty s1 self, not quite consciously understanding how he's changing. The Pearl Diver: (this is 2x04 in canon; I've moved it to 2x05) The OTP: have the bonkers Mary/Anne dinner party (their f/f co-captain counterparts). They do their awkward exes bit. In canon s2, they see Mary/Anne as "these guys are so weird, wtf"; in new s2, they're more like "these guys are so weird, omg. remember how weird we were last year? that was so fucking great." Conclusions:

Ed and Stede have more in common than they'd feared (since, like, 1x10)

They see they can be dramatic assholes in love like these bitches and that's great.

But also: maybe they need to be less self-centered than "burn down your ship which is your entire livelihood without considering that this might kill your crew." Maybe Mary/Anne rowing off cackling in a boat together (to, say, China) isn't the W they thought it was.

also also: caught up in the adrenaline of understanding they're mad lads, Ed/Stede do the impulsive "taking it too fast" (canon: 2x06) and BONE.

Lastly: The OTP ask to reboard the Revenge now that there's no Pearl Diver, mentioning hopefully that they've learned a lesson. The Crew are not convinced. They maroon Ed/Stede on land at close of ep.

2x06 – restucturing

The Revenge: (this plot is similar to Izzy+Stede's story in canon's 2x05)

Haven't thought of a frame story I like here, honestly. But the point of the episode is that Izzy helps Crew to be better pirates. This does two things:

Izzy's getting a chance to choose to manage people for himself, rather than as Ed's minder or Ed's goon.

Crew are getting competent advice from someone who genuinely gives a shit (Stede or Ed do not fit the bill). This allows them to keep running things in a fairly democratic structure where they do make decisions based on actually, for real, Talking Things Through.

Crew: consider what they're going to do about Ed and Stede – who maybe have had time to sort themselves out a bit? – replete with silly company restructuring metaphors.

Izzy: probably does shirtless swordplay considers how he wants to deal with Ed. Talking to Crew he decides that he, too, can try airing grievances with Ed in workplace metaphors. (It doesn't take much to convince him. Izzy will always love being a professional.)

On Land: (this episode has no equivalent in canon)

The OTP: in true OFMD style, they attend a modern couples retreat that has 18th c trappings. It is run by the straightest dude ever (Steve Carell levels of Kinsey 1 in 18th c khakis).

This dude is obnoxious, but he does remind them to strike a balance between demonstrating their love by talking through their needs (e.g. 2x04 infirmary, 2x05 dinner party) and by taking action (which will always be bonkers for them, like 1x09 act of grace, 2x05 impulsive boning). I'm thinking of it like: Ed/Stede realize they're whim-prone (as in canon 2x04), and also there's this tool nearby.

They're like, hey, actually I really love you, and make out sappily for a while then wonder, bemusedly, why they didn't do that before fucking a bunch. ("but the fucking was still good?" "oh yeah mate, we should definitely always be fucking")

Unfortunately: The retreat ends abruptly when they spot pirate hunters closing in on the B&B and have to make a run for it.

ACT 3 – 2x07-2x08 – RECONCILIATION

I really couldn't tell what canon was going for at season's end, starting from about "Stede kills Lowe" at the end of 2x06. I found a lot of it contradictory and kind of ass-pull-y. Major divergences to follow.

2x07 – reintegration

(this episode is similar to canon episode 2x05)

The Revenge: Having spent 2x06 thinking about what they want to do next, the Crew decide they can take on Stede + Ed on their flight from pirate hunters. Everyone's back on the boat. I'd probably make the frame story here something silly and light-hearted like the Cursed Red Suit. Everyone can mingle in groups that are different from the ones they started out in during Act 1 – permutations of people from the three distinct crews, Stede and Izzy and Ed thrown together with people they haven't seen in a while. These different groups can brainstorm deeply stupid solutions to this probably fake problem. I'd probably make the frame story here something silly and light-hearted like The Cursed Red Suit. Everybody can mingle in different groups and brainstorm deeply stupid solutions to this probably fake problem. Ed/Stede: Crucially, Stede and Ed aren't together in any of these groups. They separate and see everyone and understand that they're not, actually, in charge of Crew anymore. It's weird but okay. They both have to legitimately listen like they've been practicing all season. Ed doesn't apologize but he at least doesn't fuck with anyone, so that's... fine. Izzy+Ed: They haven't seen each other since the murder-suicide farrago in 2x02.

Izzy: "You can do the big gestures but you're a shit captain, Ed. You can't be there on the everyday stuff." (with subtext: you need to give a shit about me all the time, not just when I can be convenient to you.) It's not any kind of forgiveness, and Ed can't offer an apology because he still doesn't understand them. But this is Izzy saying he'll talk to Ed (with more pushback than canon's 2x06 "oh look it's scowly face").

Lastly: This has been a monster of the week ep where the first five minutes were like, there's a problem which will affect us in the future! and then the middle of the episode is, but it's not affecting us right now so let's do interpersonal stuff! Sadly, whoever they dump the Suit on at the end of the episode reminds them the problem still exists: the pirate hunters are worse than they thought. Hornigold is on their trail.

2x08 – IT'S REAL PERSONAL

(this episode has no equivalent in canon.) And here we reach the locus of all my frustrations!

Nose Guy doesn't exist in new s2, so we don't need to blow up the Republic with no foreshadowing as in canon 2x08

Zheng's awesome fleet doesn't exist in new s2. The foreshadowing that she was planning something incredible doesn't have to come to nothing like it did in canon 2x08, when her fleet also blew up with no foreshadowing. (what was that badass montage from canon 2x02 of her crew portaging ships thru the jungle even for ;_;)

Canon s2's sudden decision to make the stakes of the entire season "oh, uh, everyone wants to destroy piracy?" and completely ignore all the interpersonal problems set up in Act 1 – that doesn't happen!

Probably nothing in imaginary s2 will be as intense as 2x01-2x03 were. But new 2x08 will be a claustrophobic, high-pressure situation where everyone will have the resolutions they made in Act 2 tested, in a situation as dangerous as the worst of Act 1.

HERE WE GOOOOO Cold open on the Revenge:

A scene that looks about as bad as Ed's storm in 2x02: Izzy is dead from a headshot, Crew are panicking, Stede is alone and can only shout to Ed that he loves him from far away.

Ed is kitted out as Blackbeard at his worst – makeup and all – and seems ready to, again, blow the whole ship up. Viewer is perhaps worried that Ed has, again, lost it. We balance on the precipice!!

TITLE CARD!

Chronological start of ep:

Wind back the action!

Time skip from 2x07: The Revenge has been running from Hornigold for weeks, hiding themselves in ever smaller spaces as they get jumpier and jumpier about the pursuit. (Think on deck → main cabin → galley → the secret fucking deathbed under the galley.)

Ed, off by himself, is beside himself at the thought of meeting Hornigold for real once more. He failed to kill him all those years ago – what must he do now to solve the problem for good?

Intercut with Hornigold's ship:

Hornigold is chasing them, being a dick in his sumptious cabin. It's light on the action, heavy on letting us know who he is.

He's cruel and violent, like Act 1 Ed, except (a) he's less concerned about covering up his awfulness with charm and (b) he's perfectly open about "I hate this guy I used to own and I want to kill him" (about Ed) in contrast to Act 1 Ed not being able to say anything of the sort about Stede or Izzy.

We already know what kind of evil shit Hornigold used to pull because mostly-dead Ed told us in 2x03, so, you know, good enough.

Ed has to kill himself and also his dad again, lol, we get it

Climactic stuff on the Revenge!

Hornigold catches up to them; there's some fighting or whatever; it leads us up to the cold open. But then it pushes through to: it was all a fuckery!!

(do not ASK me what kind of fuckery. they are hard to write, they are both deeply psychological and incredibly goofy. This is just an outline of a fake season LEAVE ME ALONE)

Ed was a distraction, acting how Hornigold expected him to act! It works: Stede kills Hornigold!

The OTP: The murder addresses how each wants to deal with violence in their respective genres:

Ed, when he did patricide on behalf of someone he loved (mum) got caught up the cycle of dreadful murder and trauma he wanted to escape. And now he sees that he can – he's not the doomed Romantic villain!

Stede, in doing step-patricide on behalf of someone he loves (Ed), commits in a real way to ruthlessly murdering bullies. He's a swashbuckler! He definitely likes it! Finally, he's found a way to express romantic love in a grounded* way. (*by OFMD standards.)

It's a deranged pirate sitcom way of turning their tentative courtship into a healthy adult relationship.

Ed + Izzy:

During the fuckery: Izzy is playing murdered-by-Ed, so he's "dead" on deck (vulnerable) amidst the chaos.

Ed throws himself over Izzy to save him from getting shot.

This doesn't erase all the shitty things Ed did! It's a big gesture instead of an everyday thing, just like Izzy was complaining about! But it's definitely an indicator that Ed would prefer not to drive Izzy to suicide and Ed does, even, ask if Izzy's okay afterwards, checking him over, before someone else points out that Ed got shot.

Lastly:

With final approval from Izzy – after a lengthy pause where Izzy looks at Edward panting and bleeding on the deck – the Crew decide to journey forth to find Super Good Medicine to save Ed.

THERE ARE HINTS THAT s3 MIGHT SHOW US:

Blackbeard's historic raid on Charleston (who is playing Blackbeard at that point? who knows!)

Ed and Izzy working on being weird-ass friends again, but without so much murder-suicide

Stede and Ed finally talking about how they want to spend their life together: what's between retirement and piracy?

This is all pretty okay because new s2 ends in a hopeful place where nobody FUCKING DIED jfc where everyone's grown a bit but, as always, still has room to grow more.

the end!

#ofmd s2 #some fic #imaginary s2

23 notes · View notes

almdragonrend · 1 month

Text

Hey, so I found a new Hamefura x pokemon fanfiction and had a short talk in the comments and I wanted to show how it got as you see my stands on OG Katarina and how I feel about her and it always feels freeing when I get to talk about it. So here's it

That was when it hit me ‘Wait… How am I gonna get food for everyone, let alone myself. I don’t think there’s many employers that’ll be willing to hire a teenager or former noble as a mercenary or bodyguard so I won’t always be able to get jobs, If only I could get a Pokémon that makes food for me’

That is really hate OG Keith and Geordo and Maria, OG Katarina was just fighting for her 7 year long relationship and all the promises made to her, and they send her Fu*ing die for it, they CHOOSE to be Monsters!!!

Page_Plague on Chapter 5Wed 24 Apr 2024 02:23AM CEST

Yah, I mean OG Katarina is a b*tch, especially to Keith, but she definitely didn’t deserve to starve to death and OG Geordo most certainly could’ve attempted to try and fix some of the behaviour but he probably didn’t because of apathy.

AlmDragonrend on Chapter 5Wed 24 Apr 2024 08:11AM CEST

OG Katarina isn't really that bad, we see how she interacted with Sianna and Anne and even some of her group to an extent in VoD and she was certainly a lot Kinder than 99'9,8% of the Noble's of Sociar, and the only people we have seen her openly be mean to are Maria and Keith both of which she has pretty strong and justified reasons to Hate, in case of Keith his me presence has torn her parents relationship apart, I know it wasn't his fault but she was a little Girl than he showed up and her family got torn apart how can anyone expect from her to take that well ? + he had it we better with the Claes than with his Original family the Colemans who.. ah yes WANTED TO KILL HIM!!!!! The funny thing is Keith has that "I'm don't want to be a Monster *crying noise*" thing going on the thing is when he partook in the Conspiracy against Katarina he very much CHOSE to be a Monster!!! What he did made their made him a Monster no qustiones ask, Luigi saved him from being killed of by his own family sacrificed the state of the Claes family in the process and how does this little parasite thank him ? By helping send the Daughter of his Savior to her demise! I think alone for that he should have left him with the Colemans!

And when it comes to Maria, Original Maria is literally a Bitch, she is the main character of FL and chose the route she wants to go which means she actively pursued 5 different Mann of high political status and while I'm not against polyarmoy if everyone involved is okay with it, in this case two of them already had a fiancée and both of those fiancée but a lot of afort in this relationship they had for half their lives and now they are expected to give up all they worked so hard for their entire life and take the L just because Miss Campbell comes out of nowhere with no idea of how a princess has to act and non of the training both Katarina and Mary had to endure for years on end !!! just because miss Campbell thinks she deserves to be Princess, and when one of them justified fights back she steals everything this girl has her home, her family, her parents, her birthright, and send her over seas to die! And Don't make me start on how she used Sophia to get close to Nicole, Original Maria is a greedy, malicious, underhanded, selfish and heartless Monster !!!!

Page_Plague on Chapter 5Wed 24 Apr 2024 09:16AM CEST

Oh ok, I didn’t read Verge of Doom cuz I didn’t think it was all that different to the main series Manga and Anime that I did finish (I’ll read it later)

Also good argument

AlmDragonrend on Chapter 5Wed 24 Apr 2024 03:06PM CEST

Thank you, I'm just glad more people start to realize those facts, that is a pretty good sign I think

7 notes · View notes

inposterumcumgaudio · 4 months

Note

Uncle Jack & Foggy Jack

So if you're asking about both of them, I'm assuming that's because you're into the idea that they are one and the same.

I don't dislike the concept, but I like it much more for that the game seems to push that notion while simultaneously giving you nothing to substantiate it and, at times, even giving you details that seem to contradict it than the idea for its own sake. Good shit!

It's another one of those things you'll never have a canon answer for!

And frankly, I've never really found the question of whether Uncle Jack is Foggy Jack that interesting. It's a little contrived, a little obvious, a very basic bitch story. The most famous man in town has a mental breakdown and becomes a serial killer? And he somehow does this despite being instantly recognizable by everyone? And also he's doing this while he's still filming his show every day and looking all normal and shit?

Too, the whole Foggy Jack thing intrudes on the natural predisposition of fledging fanartists to make serial killer OC's.

Foggy Jack also exists as an urban legend in the town in a way I think predates even the toxic fog (and I was given a separate ask about this as well so I'll save my thots about that for then!)

But suffice to say, because I do not find the whole Uncle vs Foggy Jack thing compelling and I'd never really devoted much thought to it, I struggled to think of something interesting to say about it. The only chapter I ever wrote about the subject was actually about why Ollie's surface-level investigation of the crime scene in "A Pomaceous Puzzle" did not arrive at the correct conclusion. It simply doesn't fit the MO.

However... in reviewing what we know concretely about Foggy Jack from the main game, I actually did arrive at a fascinating new theory.

Because we think of this as a duality, do we not? Uncle Jack is one side of the coin, Foggy Jack the other. That's why you asked about both.

Let us go over what we know for sure about Foggy Jack, that was reported in the game, to separate out the unreliable information given in "Lightbearer". There are only two sources of "solid" information about Foggy Jack in the main game:

In "The "O" COURANT - Article 3", we learn that five Wellie women - Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, Mary Jane Kelly, and Mary Anne Nichols - have been found hacked to pieces in the streets. All of these women are named for real-life victims of Jack the Ripper.

Stated in the above and reiterated in "Interrogation Report", these murders seem to take place on particularly foggy nights. "Interrogation Report" also states that the witness, Daniel Dunglass, reported that the apparent murderer's face looked "oddly familiar" to him.

One further piece of information that we learn in Ollie's act is that Foggy Jack apparently kept a hideout in the Gardner House, at least until plague wastrels overtook it. We know this from the suitcase which contains a cleaver and the "Mystery Note" with the only the phrase "I'm afraid you've come to the end of your time" on it.

And here we learn that Foggy Jack has some interest in Margaret. And that makes sense if he's actually Uncle Jack.

But... what it's it's not a duality.

What if it's a triptych?

What if it's not Uncle Jack, but someone who would have us come to that conclusion? Someone who would want us to think Uncle Jack is avenging his murdered daughter, but is in fact trying to frame him for it?

Why, who would have motive to do that?

Who indeed.

But DJ, you say, that's crazy. You play through Ollie's entire act and not once do they ever imply that he could be Foggy Jack.

Yeah, well, there's a lot of stuff they don't imply through his act, ain't there?

And just like with Uncle Jack, the details don't say anything conclusive but consider.

Ollie is said multiple times over his act to have periods of lapsed memory, both due to the Oblivion he took and excessive drinking. Margaret mentions specifically in both "The Camp of Thine Enemies" and "Cache as Cache Can" that Ollie has trouble remembering things due to his drinking. And it's an interesting coincidence that Ollie also "vaguely remembers" leaving himself a cache of supplies in that quest and its the same sort of vague notion that leads him into Gardner House where he finds Foggy Jack's suitcase.

He's also in deep denial about the limits of his morality and how far he'll go to see traitors get theirs. Still, killing innocent women just to make Uncle Jack look bad? Surely not! Maybe Ollie ratted out a little girl and got her chased down and murdered, but he's not a serial killer!

Then again, if there's one thing Ollie hates, it's a collaborator. Deutschland Über Alles special and all. And you know who about the first people to start collaboratin' with an occupying force are?

Prostitutes.

All of Foggy Jack's not-hallucination victims are named for the "Canonical Five" of Jack the Ripper's victims, all known prostitutes. Which, sure, maybe that's just the reference, but we actually meet Elizabeth Stride before her apparent death. As Ollie. At the Jack O Bean Club, where she works as a cook serving a bunch of collaborationist traitor lovers. She has no love for them, calling them toffs and wankers as she does, but she does also muse aloud to herself about it: "Take the job, she says. You'll never have to suck another cock, she says." Which sounds an awful lot like a thing a (former?) prostitute would say, making it two separate issues to Ollie, really. And why else would a fine upstanding Wellette be out on the streets at night anyway? That's how Foggy Jack gets you!

And for my most tenuous point: remember that guy from the Interrogation Report? Daniel Dunglass. I looked his ass up and

Reminiscent!

Dunglass (the character, not the actual guy) also says that the murderer's face is "oddly familiar" to him. Uncle Jack is familiar, but not oddly so. Ollie isn't exactly a nobody in town, but he's definitely odd looking in a world that conformist.

And as long as we're drawing specious connections, Daniel Dunglass (the real guy, not the character) was a Scottish medium famous for levitation and speaking with the dead. You know who else does a lot of that?

But... even if Ollie is Foggy Jack, I don't think he killed the constables at the apple tree. Which means there's copycat killer pretending to be the guy who's pretending to be Uncle Jack pretending be urban legend Foggy Jack.

#uncle jack worthing #foggy jack #we happy few #ollie starkey

10 notes · View notes

thedarkone121 · 3 months

Text

Random Stuff about my Jekyll & Hyde/Glass Scientists OC, because I am too busy to do any art at the moment!

Yeah... Final semester before going out into the world. Really leaves ya busy.

Moving on from that, I just got too anxious to not post anything about this character and I really wanted to get these ideas out there. I promise, once I am free to draw to my heart's content, I will post pictures. But for now...

Everyone, meet Anne-Marie Jekyll!

The eleven-year-old daughter of Doctor Henry Jekyll...and technically Edward Hyde but we'll get into that later.

She is not his biological daughter; she is an orphan he adopted when he was visiting an orphanage for an event. She got his attention when she told him that the music he was originally humming to himself was awful. They bonded over theater and music and Anne-Marie ended up loving the Scottish songs he would sing to her.

Everyone knows she's adopted, everyone except Layon.

She is a musician, her main instrument being a piano. Anne-Marie also has a passion for theater and show, who often uses music to express herself.

Jekyll is the only one who is allowed to call her Annie. When Edward does, it really annoys her.

For those of you wondering if Anne-Marie recognizes Hyde and Jekyll as the same person, well... A while ago, Anne-Marie was involved in a chemical accident in Jekyll's lab and chemicals got into her eyes. It left her with vision loss that has slowly gotten worse overtime.

The story the public knows is that Anne-Marie had gotten curious of her father's work and snuck into the lab while he was away. The accident was caused by her touching something she wasn't supposed to. That's what Anne-Marie wants the public to believe. She is a naturally curious child, after all.

In actuality, Jekyll was the one who brought her into the lab. He was busy prior to that day, and he finally found time to spend the day with her, so he thought showing her what's new around the lab would be good thing. He was so tired that day, but he wanted to spend it with his daughter. He didn't realize he mixed the wrong chemicals until it was too late, causing the explosion that took away Anne-Marie's eyesight.

Anne-Marie and Jekyll have a very close relationship, something that is considered very unorthodox for the time period; he lets her pursue her passions, takes an active interest to what she's doing, and lets her help around the Society in regards on how to set up the Exhibitions — cause, you know, she's a theater and performer kid, she knows how to run a show to gather audience. He’s also looking for ways to make sure everything he owns goes to her if something happens but shh!

As far as Anne-Marie knows, Edward Hyde is her father’s assistant and her unofficial babysitter, much to her annoyance. She views him as a troublemaker who adds onto her father’s stress. Hyde, meanwhile, is often stressed around her because he knows that out of everyone, she would figure out his true connection with Jekyll. So he tries to be annoying as possible so that she would want him out of the room. It works, though his hands do suffer from getting slammed by the piano lid shutting. But make no mistake, if Anne-Marie is actually in danger, lord help the poor soul because Hyde is not holding back against the jerk that hurt her.

That’s all I have for right now! Until then, folks!

#the glass scientists #tgs #tgs oc #dr jekyll and mr hyde #tgs jekyll #tgs hyde #oc: anne-marie jekyll

14 notes · View notes

laceratedlamiaceae · 1 year

Text

I usually don't get into omegaverse stuff but I've had this idea rotating in my head for a while so here's this:

Izzy is an omega bonded to Ed. Ed isn't a great alpha by traditional standards--he does the bare minimum to get Izzy through his heats, he barely spends any time with Izzy, he doesn't even touch Izzy--but that's fine by Izzy, who hates all that shit, even if he does feel a bit empty inside. It's fine; he's lucky to even be a first mate, since everyone knows that omegas aren't fit for leadership; how could he possibly ask for more? The one time he was put in charge it went horribly (because nobody would ever respect an omega in a position of authority). He does love Ed, but in the privacy of his own mind he wishes he was the alpha and Ed was the omega.

Then Ed meets Stede, another alpha, and has the audacity to fall in love with him. Izzy is even more left out, and when Ed breaks their bond (idk exactly how that works yet) he feels awful of course, but also relieved. Meeting Jim has given him some Realizations, and he sets off to live as an alpha. He gets some perfume meant to mimic an alpha's scent, he starts carrying himself more assertively (going against a lifetime of being told to make himself small and be subservient), and he builds up a crew of his own, now with the confidence to do it right.

Meanwhile Jack (or some other guy you want to ship with Izzy) is an alpha with a secret omeganization(?) kink, but it's hard to find anyone willing to fuck him the way he wants. Sure, anything goes at sea, but even when he's fucking another alpha, they're not doing it the way an alpha and an omega do it, they're doing it the way two alphas do it--there's no nesting or scenting or cuddling, it's just two people going at it hard. Anne went along with it to an extent, but then she met Mary--an actual, proper omega--and Jack was left alone.

Eventually Jack comes across the new Izzy and is immediately stricken--he had already thought that if he had to be with an omega, it would be Izzy, and now Izzy is an alpha. He begs Izzy to join his crew, but Izzy is his own captain now and he won't work under anyone else ever again. So instead, Jack joins Izzy's crew. It takes them a while to get together at first--Izzy isn't interested in alphas; he wants to be the alpha, and he wants an omega to take care of--but eventually Jack's secret comes out and he becomes Izzy's pretty little omega and they become the Caribbean's new power couple

#i already have too many fic ideas i want to write but i'm kind of feeling this one so i might write it next #thank you to everyone on discord for enabling me #our flag means death #ofmd #izzy hands #calico jack #cjizzy #jackhands #omegaverse #fanfic ideas #nsft

39 notes · View notes

olreid · 2 years

Note

would you perhaps be willing to post a syllabus of sorts for your tag "a long wish to be elsewhere"? i'm curious what sorts of things you consider essential to it!

hi! that one's fairly new as far as tags go so i don't have anything resembling essential readings compiled yet, but i can tell you what's on my list so far!

i guess the first thing to say is that the phrase itself comes from louise glück's poem unpainted door, which includes the line "i remember my childhood as a long wish to be elsewhere." i started thinking about childhood while watching paper girls and - what else? - shameless tv, and thus the tag was born. as i've done more research it has sort of morphed into family abolition research storage, which i'm not mad about tbh!

things i've read/watched/listened to so far that have been helpful:

everything for everyone: an oral history of the new york commune, 2052-2072 by m. e. o'brien and eman abdelhadi

histories of the transgender child by jules gill-peterson

jgp's gender reveal podcast episode

the queer child, or growing sideways in the 20th century by kathryn bond stockton

raised in captivity: why does america fail its children? by lucia hodgson

the idea of children by madeline lane-mckinley

recorded sessions from this psychosocial foundation course on the family, particularly the sessions with m. e. o'brien, sophie lewis, and fred moten

reliving childhood? the temporality of childhood and narratives of reincarnation by akhil gupta

abolish the family: a manifesto for care and liberation by sophie lewis (this was not actually incredibly helpful but the bibliography was so. whatev)

things i haven't gotten to yet but that are on my list to check out:

full surrogacy now: feminism against family by sophie lewis

children's liberation: autonomy and control course taught by sophie lewis

heroes of their own lives: the politics and history of family violence by linda gordon

family abolition: capitalism and the communizing of care (forthcoming june 2023) by m. e. o'brien

the children's rights movement by beatrice and ronald gross

the case for children's liberation by john mcmurtry

kinderkommunismus: a feminist analysis of the 21st century family and a communist proposal for its abolition by k.d. griffiths and j.j. gleeson

alexandra kollontai's writing on communism and the family

the anti-social family by michele barrett and mary mcintosh

unthinking the family by madeline lane-mckinley

the child to come: life after the human catastrophe by rebekah sheldon

family values: between neoliberalism and the new social conservatism by melinda cooper

its all in the family: intersections of gender, race, and nation by patricia hill collins

imperial leather: race, gender, and sexuality in the colonial contest by anne mcclintock

black 'feminisms' and pessimism: abolishing moynihan's negro family by tiffany lethabo king

that's it so far! others are welcome to add topical recommendations if they have any. this was fun to compile, i didn't really realize i'd read so much relevant stuff already : ) hope this answers your question !

#asks #anon #a long wish to be elsewhere #ETA didnt think i would have 2 say this but obv i cannot vouch for anything i havent read yet do NOT @ me.#wanting to read about something does not equal an endorsement of said thing. thank you and goodnight

91 notes · View notes

tepkunset · 2 years

Photo

X-Men Evolution ft. Alpha Flight

Been enjoying X-Men Evolution recently, and it made me think about how great an Alpha Flight episode could've been. Hell, there was a Captain America one, so why not?

Anyway, some thoughts about what an Evolution version of the characters might be like:

KIDS -

JEAN-PAUL BEAUBIER / NORTHSTAR:

Age 16, Québécois

Super-speed, flight, can create blinding light by linking with his sister

A jerk, but in his defence is straight up not having a good time. Only does homework for the classes he likes

Backstory only semi-unlocked because it's none of these clowns's business: Kid on his way to being an Olympic-level skier who is hinted to having been blackmailed into joining AF by Guardian, but mostly remains for the sake of his twin sister he only recently reunited with

I didn't bother designing new superhero outfits for JP and JM because why mess with existing perfection?

JEANNE-MARIE BEAUBIER / AURORA:

Age 16, Québécois

Super-speed, flight, can create blinding light by linking with her brother

Either very outgoing and bubbly or very shy and quiet, (depending on if she's Aurora or Jeanne-Marie of course). Definitely forgot about the homework

Backstory unlocked: Raised in a very old-fashioned Catholic boarding school hinted at to be abusive, until running away as Aurora and was found and recruited by Guardian. Really not sure how her DID might be handled in a kid-friendly cartoon, but I think it should still be present because I don't see why children can't be educated on such things

I originally had her civvies designed to reference her 2.0 yellow costume, but then I liked the idea of JM wearing blue and JP wearing pink too much

MARRINA SMALLWOOD:

Age 14, Newfoundlander

Super-speed underwater, can breathe underwater as well as on land

Just happy to be here; tries too hard to seek validation from everyone older than her. Agonizes over not being able to go to public school due to her looks

Backstory unlocked: Was adopted by a small coastal family and raised in a very happy environment, joined AF because she wanted to see more of the outside world and genuinely believes Guardian is teaching them to do good

I literally just drew her in a wetsuit for a superhero outfit lol

ELIZABETH "LIZ" TWOYOUNGMEN / TALISMAN:

Age 15, Albertan / Tsuut'ina

Deus ex machina mystic powers

Running on anxiety and bitterness towards Guardian. Won't let you copy her homework but will help you with your own for as long as it takes

Backstory unlocked: She and her father were recruited to Alpha Flight as what she believes is a PR stunt for so-called Reconciliation. Her magic circlet helps her control her mystical powers, but unlike in the comics she's capable of taking it off

Of all the characters I was most excited to design a new age-appropriate look for her, since 90% of her outfits in the comics look like they're racist Spirit Halloween costumes

ANNE MCKENZIE / SNOWBIRD:

Age 17, Nunavummiuq / Inuk

Animal shape-shifting

Easily forgotten from being so quiet, very prim and proper behaviour that can sometimes come off as up-tight. Studies above and beyond regular homework because she feels like she has to work twice as hard to be respected

Backstory semi-unlocked: With her parents divorced, Anne was used to spending the school year down south with her father and summer up north with her mother, but when her powers started manifesting, her father scorned her and wanted to give up his custody. Instead she now spends her school year under the care of Department H

I hate Snowbird's comic backstory so much; the whole "she's 100% white because her mother was a goddess who temporarily transformed into a white woman to appeal to her white father" makes zero sense and also has gross connotations, so I decided since this is my adaptation, she's not a demigod but rather just a mutant, because why not...

I thought about giving her tunniit, but since I know so little I figured I wasn't the best person to depict them

WALTER LANGKOWSKI / SASQUATCH:

Age 17, British Colombian

Super-strength, super-stamina (when in gamma form)

Biggest nerd in any room, pretty chipper. Will do your homework for you just for fun

Backstory unlocked: Walter was taken in by Department H after being branded as a failed experiment by a group of scientists playing with gamma radiation—except the experiment didn't fail, turning Walter into a gamma mutate, but one with control over himself and the transformation

I had such a hard time trying to decide what to do with this bitch... His power is to turn into a 'cryptid' that is just lifting from spirits across multiple Indigenous cultures so that's really awkward, but I didn't want to leave him out since that felt weird? I do imagine this version of him having a different personality though, where he's less annoying

ADULTS -

JAMES MACDONALD HUDSON / GUARDIAN:

Age 35, Ontarian

Flight and super-strength granted by super-suit

Thinks acting like a Cool Dad™ will make children like him. Believes recruiting kids to work for the government is justified because they have superpowers, but at the same time hypocritically insults the X-Men

Backstory unlocked: Oil corporation research and developer who designed a super-suit for oil extraction, except then the Canadian government put him on the payroll to head Department H for monitoring superhumans in Canada

I knew I still wanted him to be decked out with the maple-leaf because it fits his asshole nature, but I wanted to make him look like he's trying too hard to be Hip

MICHAEL TWOYOUNGMEN:

Age 40, Albertan / Tsuut'ina

Healing mystic powers

Is the actual Cool Dad because he's so chill and actually cares about the well-being of the kids

Backstory Unlocked: A surgeon who turned to traditional medicines in attempt to save his wife when western medicine failed her, and though he he did not succeed, he did discover he had innate mystical powers, putting him on Department H's radar. Just here to protect and patch up the children the best he can

EUGENE JUDD / PUCK:

Age 42, Saskatchewanian

Super-durability

Says thinks like 'back in my day' and 'eh' unironically way too much, low-key waiting on that inevitable divorce between the Hudsons

Backstory semi-unlocked: Is mostly there to train the kids how to be superheroes and survive the experience

Like Snowbird I think Puck's backstory is some bullshit that they should've just left alone instead of trying to create this magic explanation for his dwarfism and chronic pain... just let him be disabled! Disabled superheroes exist! So again, in this version he's just a mutant who happens to also have dwarfism and chronic pain

HEATHER MCNEIL-HUDSON:

Age 37, Albertan

Guardian's wife, tries to be a Team Mom and make up for her annoying husband

#alpha flight #x men evolution #jean paul beaubier #northstar #jeanne marie beaubier #aurora #marrina smallwood #snowbird #walter langkowski #sasquatch #james hudson #guardian #michael twoyoungmen #shaman #eugene judd #puck #heather mcneil hudson #art

84 notes · View notes