Edwardian script generatorc
Mary and Lavinia as friends?
2024.05.11 09:29 feralheathen Mary and Lavinia as friends?
I'm doing a rewatch and it's been a while since my last full one. I'm watching S2 again and for the first time, I wonder how genuine Mary's friendship with Lavinia was. Mary was truly in love with Matthew. Given what we'd seen from her up until that point and in seasons after (Mabel Lane Fox comes to mind), it doesn't seem in character for her to have been so kind and so genuinely friendly toward Lavinia. I don't mean she had a problem with her personally, but Mary was always ready to fight for her man, other people's men, and even men she didn't want! Given "what you read about the Edwardian these days" as Robert put it, I wonder if the audience was meant to assume/speculate as to whether Mary felt maybe she couldn't be the Countess of Grantham due to the Pamuk scandal, but still had Matthew's heart and wasn't going to give it up. There were plenty of married people who had long-term affairs that were open secrets. There was a Duchess of Devonshire, known as the "Double Dutchess" who'd been married to a Duke but had a decades-long affair with the Duke of Devonshire. When their spouses died years later, they married without scandal. It seems so unlike Mary to accept Lavinia lying down. I wonder if JF may have originally had plans to do something along these lines, but a bit later in the show. Dan Stevens' leaving was a surprise to JF so maybe he had to push things up a bit? I'm always preaching that we can't assume things if they're not in the script, but I can't imagine Mary being so quick to give Matthew up before he got married- or after.
submitted by feralheathen to DowntonAbbey [link] [comments]
2024.04.13 23:21 SanderSo47 Directors at the Box Office: Guillermo del Toro
 | https://preview.redd.it/ssgcrty5dbuc1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=840fd130b74c5be5023b84779deac50ee8ef1874 submitted by SanderSo47 to boxoffice [link] [comments] Here's a new edition of "Directors at the Box Office", which seeks to explore the directors' trajectory at the box office and analyze their hits and bombs. I already talked about a few, and as I promised, it's Guillermo del Toro's turn. When del Toro was about eight years old, he began experimenting with his father's Super 8 camera, making short films with Planet of the Apes toys and other objects. One short focused on a "serial killer potato" with ambitions of world domination; it murdered del Toro's mother and brothers before stepping outside and being crushed by a car. Del Toro studied special effects and make-up with special-effects artist Dick Smith. He spent 10 years as a special-effects make-up designer and formed his own company, Necropia. Eventually, he would get his chance to direct films. From a box office perspective, how reliable was he to deliver a box office hit? That's the point of this post. To analyze his career. Cronos (1992)"An ancient device. A modern discovery. A terrifying tale of the eternal."His directorial debut. The film stars Federico Luppi, Ron Perlman, Claudio Brook, Margarita Isabel and Tamara Shanath. A mysterious device designed to provide its owner with eternal life resurfaces after four hundred years, leaving a trail of destruction in its path. The film struggled at the box office, as there wasn't a lot of support for a Mexican film back then. But del Toro made a very good impression with critics, helping him launch into cult cinema.
Mimic (1997)"For thousands of years, man has been evolution's greatest creation... until now."His second film. Based on the short story by Donald A. Wollheim, it stars Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin, Charles S. Dutton, Giancarlo Giannini and F. Murray Abraham. Three years ago, entomologist Dr. Susan Tyler genetically created an insect to kill cockroaches carrying a virulent disease. Now, the insects are out to destroy their only predator, mankind. While del Toro was excited over working on his first American project, he had a very rough time dealing with Miramax. When Harvey Weinstein saw early footage, there were fights between him and del Toro regarding the tone, with Weinstein claiming the film was not scary enough. It has been reported that one day Weinstein was so infuriated with del Toro that he stormed onto the Toronto set and attempted to instruct del Toro on "how to direct a movie". Weinstein would eventually try to get del Toro fired. Following an intervention from lead actress Mira Sorvino, Weinstein backed down, and principal photography would be completed with del Toro as director in early 1997. However, Weinstein still insisted on having control over the final cut. Producer B.J. Rack later compared making the film to "being a prisoner of a war camp", as del Toro was not given final cut privilege. While the film had the backing of a big American studio, the film failed to recoup its $30 million budget. The film also received mixed reviews, who noted problems with the story and pacing. Del Toro has expressed his disappointment with the film, calling it "a horrible, horrible, horrible experience."
The Devil's Backbone (2001)"What's a ghost?"His third film. It stars Marisa Paredes, Eduardo Noriega, Federico Luppi, Irene Visedo, Fernando Tielve, and Íñigo Garcés. Set in Spain, 1939, during the final year of the Spanish Civil War, the film follows a boy who is left in an orphanage operated by Republican loyalists and haunted by the ghost of a recently-deceased boy. Del Toro wrote the first draft before writing Cronos. This "very different" version was set in the Mexican Revolution and focused not on a child's ghost but a "Christ with three arms". According to del Toro, and as drawn in his notebooks, there were many iterations of the story, some of which included antagonists who were a "doddering ... old man with a needle," a "desiccated" ghost with black eyes as a caretaker (instead of the living Jacinto who terrorizes the orphans), and "beings who are red from head to foot." The film received highly positive reviews, who noted as his best film yet. While the film wasn't exactly a megahit, it made a very good amount of money in Mexico.
Blade II (2002)"Faster. Sharper. Deadlier."His fourth film. The sequel to Blade, it stars Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Ron Perlman, Leonor Varela, Norman Reedus and Luke Goss. The film follows the human-vampire hybrid Blade in his continuing effort to protect humans from vampires, finding himself in a fierce battle against a group of mutant vampires who seek to commit global genocide of both vampire and human races. Blade and his human allies are coerced into joining forces with a special elite group of vampires. After the success of the original film, New Line Cinema and Marvel quickly commissioned a sequel. David S. Goyer had planned to use Morbius but Marvel wanted to keep the character for a franchise of his own. When Stephen Norrington turned down the offer to return, Goyer personally asked del Toro, as he admired his previous films. Del Toro was a big comic book fan, and decided to accept the offer. Del Toro was tired of the romantic concept of "vampires being tortured Victorian heroes" and wanted vampires to be scary again. Del Toro chose not to alter the script too much from the ideas created by Goyer and Snipes. According to del Toro: "I wanted the movie to have a feeling of both a comic book and Japanese animation. I resurrected those sources and viewed them again. I dissected most of the dailies from the first movie; I literally grabbed about four boxes of tapes and one by one saw every single tape from beginning to end until I perfectly understood where the language of the first film came from. I studied the style of the first one and I think Norrington used a tremendous narrative style. His work is very elegant". Del Toro usually consulted with Snipes on the script, as he believed he was the best person who knew the character. The film was highly anticipated, and it delivered by earning $155 million worldwide, del Toro's first film to pass the $100 million milestone. But critical reception was mixed; while the action was praised, others criticized the story and lack of character development.
Hellboy (2004)"Here to protect."His fifth film. Based on the Dark Horse Comics character created by Mike Mignola, it stars Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Jeffrey Tambor, Karel Roden, Rupert Evans, and John Hurt. In the film, a charismatic demon-turned-investigator named "Hellboy" works with the secretive Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense to suppress paranormal threats, but a resurrected sorcerer seeks to make Hellboy fulfill his destiny by triggering the apocalypse. Despite working heavily with Mignola, del Toro struggled in finding studios interested, as they disliked the title, script and Perlman's casting. Vin Diesel was linked to the role when the film was being proposed at Universal Pictures, and Jeremy Renner was offered the "title role" but turned it down due to having no attachment to the source material. David Hyde Pierce was hired to provide the voice for Abe Sapien due to Pierce being a "bigger name" and having a "more recognizable sound". Pierce refused to take credit, perform press tours, or attend the premiere out of respect for Doug Jones. The film received a great response, particularly for del Toro's style. But that didn't translate at the box office; it hit almost $100 million, which was far below its needed break-even point. As a consolation, however, the film was a massive hit on DVD.
Pan's Labyrinth (2006)"What happens when make-believe believes it's real?"His sixth film. It stars Ivana Baquero, Sergi López, Maribel Verdú, Doug Jones, and Ariadna Gil. The story takes place in Spain in the summer of 1944, during the early Francoist period, five years after the Spanish Civil War. The narrative intertwines this real world with a mythical world centered on an overgrown, abandoned labyrinth and a mysterious faun creature, with whom the main character, Ofelia, interacts. For 20 years, del Toro had a notebook with doodles, ideas, drawings and plot bits for an unspecified film. At one point during production, he left the notebook in a taxi in London and was distraught, but the cabbie returned it to him two days later. Del Toro got the idea of the faun from childhood experiences with "lucid dreaming"; every midnight, he would wake up, and a faun would gradually step out from behind the grandfather's clock. The film employs some computer-generated imagery in its effects, but it mostly uses complex make-up and animatronics. Del Toro himself performed the noises for the toad. The mandrake root is a combination of animatronics and CGI. Del Toro wanted the fairies "to look like little monkeys, like dirty fairies", but the animation company had the idea to give them wings made of leaves. Disappointed with the subitles for Devil's Backbone, del Toro himself decided to make the subtitles. While the film is titled Pan's Labyrinth in North America, del Toro said the faun is not Pan. When the film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, it was met with a record 22-minute standing ovation. It received del Toro's greatest reviews and was quickly named as one of the best films of the century, and of all time. The language barrier didn't stop it from finding an audience: it earned $83 million worldwide, making it one of the biggest numbers for a Mexican/Spanish film. It received 6 Oscar nominations, with del Toro achieving his first nomination for Best Original Screenplay. It won for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Makeup.
Hellboy II: The Golden Army (2008)"Believe it or not, he's the good guy."His seventh film. The sequel to Hellboy, it stars Ron Perlman, Selma Blair, Doug Jones, Jeffrey Tambor, and John Hurt. In the film, Hellboy and the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense must battle a mythical prince who plans to reclaim the world for his magical kindred. While Hellboy wasn't a box office success, it earned a huge amount of renue through DVD sales. This convinced the producers that there was enough interest for a sequel. After Sony chose to pass on the project, Universal picked it up. Del Toro and Mignola started considering what comics to adapt, before deciding that a completely original idea seemed best for the project. Thanks to Pan's Labyrinth, del Toro didn't struggle in getting the film made on his own terms. The film received great reviews, and some noted it as an improvement over the original. The film's hype really seemed on point, as the film opened with $34.5 million on its opening weekend, far bigger than the original. However, the arrival of a small indie flick called The Dark Knight on its second weekend heavily damaged its legs. It went from #1 to #5 on just one weekend, falling a disastrous 71%. It never recovered, and closed with $75 million domestically and $160 million worldwide, failing to recoup its $85 million budget. Like the original, it performed quite well on home media. While del Toro and Perlman were insistent that a third film would happen, it was eventually scrapped.
Pacific Rim (2013)"Go big or go extinct."His eighth film. It stars Charlie Hunnam, Idris Elba, Rinko Kikuchi, Charlie Day, Robert Kazinsky, Max Martini, and Ron Perlman. The film is set in the not-too-distant future, when Earth is at war with the Kaijus, colossal sea monsters which have emerged from an interdimensional portal on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. To combat the monsters, humanity unites to create the Jaegers, gigantic humanoid mechas, each controlled by two co-pilots whose minds are joined by a mental link. Focusing on the war's later days, the story follows Raleigh Becket, a washed-up Jaeger pilot called out of retirement and teamed with rookie pilot Mako Mori as part of a last-ditch effort to defeat the Kaiju and their secret masters once and for all. While walking on the beach near Santa Monica Pier, Travis Beacham imagined a giant robot and a giant monster fighting to the death. He then came up with the concept of the robots being controlled by two pilots, wondering what would happen if one dies. Legendary Pictures bought his script, and del Toro was fascinated by the concept. When one of his projects was cancelled, del Toro decided to focus on Pacific Rim. He introduced ideas he had always wished to see in the genre, such as a Kaiju birth and a Kaiju attack seen from a child's perspective. At $180 million, it was his most expensive film. He cast many actors based on his familiarity with other projects. For example, he cast Charlie Day because he liked his performance in It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. In return, the show got del Toro to play Pappy McPoyle in 2 episodes. The film received great reviews, particularly for its special effects and action sequences. Although that didn't exactly translate into a box office hit. The film had a modest performance in North America and other territories, which was quite bad considering its budget. And so China came to the rescue; it grossed a huge $111 million in the market, becoming the biggest territory for the film and allowing it to pass $400 million worldwide. So not a bomb, but not exactly a huge hit as expected. Too bad there were was no sequel.
Crimson Peak (2015)"Beware."His ninth film. It stars Mia Wasikowska, Tom Hiddleston, Jessica Chastain, Charlie Hunnam, and Jim Beaver. The story, set in Edwardian-era England, follows an aspiring author who travels to a remote Gothic mansion in Cumberland, England with her new husband and his sister. There, she must decipher the mystery behind the ghostly visions that haunt her new home. Del Toro convinced Universal in greenlighting Crimson Peak, as they kept in touch during the making of Pacific Rim. He said he wanted the film to take the horror genre to its roots, "I think people are getting used to horror subjects done as found footage or B-value budgets. I wanted this to feel like a throwback." He wanted to create a large-scale horror film in the tradition of those he grew up watching, such as The Omen, The Exorcist, and The Shining. The film fared solid, but not great reviews. While the film was praised for its visual style, it was also criticized for its thin story and weak characters. It also struggled at the box office; it made just $74 million against its $55 million budget. Ouch.
The Shape of Water (2017)"A fairy tale for troubled times."His tenth film. It stars Sally Hawkins, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Doug Jones, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Octavia Spencer. Set in 1962 Baltimore, Maryland, the film follows a mute custodian at a high-security government laboratory who falls in love with a captured humanoid amphibian creature, and decides to help him escape from death at the hands of an evil colonel. The project was primarily inspired by del Toro's childhood memories of seeing Creature from the Black Lagoon and wanting to see the Gill-man and Kay Lawrence succeed in their romance. After failing to convince the Universal executives in accepting his pitch, Searchlight Pictures got involved. Del Toro cast Sally Hawkins after watching Fingersmith and Happy-Go-Lucky, wanting her to emulate Stan Laurel's performances. He also wanted Ian McKellen to play Giles, as he based the character on his performance in Gods and Monsters. Unfortunately, McKellen was unavailable and Richard Jenkins was cast instead. The film received critical acclaim, quickly named as one of del Toro's best films. And despite the weird premise, it was a huge success for del Toro, as it earned almost $200 million worldwide, becoming one of Searchlight's biggest films. After winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, it received 13 Oscar nominations. It won Best Production Design and Best Score, and del Toro would finally get his first Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture.
Nightmare Alley (2021)"Man or beast."His 11th film. Based on the novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham, it stars Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, Willem Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Rooney Mara, Ron Perlman, Mary Steenburgen, and David Strathairn. It follows a charming and ambitious carnival worker with a mysterious past who takes big risks to boost his career. The film was a huge deviation from del Toro's works, as it features no supernatural or fantasy elements. The novel was previously adapted in 1947, but del Toro was more interested in making a more faithful adaptation. Leonardo DiCaprio was eyed to star in the film, but Bradley Cooper replaced him. Del Toro stated that he and Cooper quickly connected with each other when del Toro met Cooper in the latter's house to discuss the role. The film received a solid response, although some criticized its length and story. Despite a $60 million budget, the film didn't find an audience, earning just $39 million. Despite that, the film still received 4 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Pinocchio (2022)"Love will give you life."His 12th film. Based on The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi, it stars Gregory Mann, David Bradley, Ewan McGregor, Burn Gorman, Ron Perlman, John Turturro, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Tim Blake Nelson, Christoph Waltz, and Tilda Swinton. Set in Fascist Italy during the interwar period, it follows Pinocchio's life as he adventures the world. The film was a lifelong passion project for del Toro, who watched the 1940 Disney version when he was a kid. He loved it, and by his teenage years, yearned to make his own dark version. In 2003, he discovered Gris Grimly's illustrations for the 2002 edition of Carlo Collodi's book, portraying Pinocchio as a puppet with a long, pointed nose and spindly limbs, with gestures that del Toro felt captured the energy of an unruly but otherwise goodhearted puppet. This was the vision that del Toro wanted to create, but he wasn't getting support from the studios in greenlighting the stop-motion project. Fortunately, Netflix saved the project in 2018, allowing him to fulfill his dream. The film was acclaimed by critics and audiences, particularly for its dark tone. As it was a Netflix original film, there are no box office numbers available. Over its first seven days of digital release, the film logged over 10.91 million hours viewed worldwide. Del Toro won his third Oscar, now for Best Animated Film. The FutureHe's currently filming his new film, Frankenstein, for Netflix. It will star Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Mia Goth, Lars Mikkelsen, David Bradley, Christian Convery, Charles Dance, and Christoph Waltz.Other ProjectsHe has written some films that he never directed, such as The Hobbit films, Don't Be Afraid of the Dark and The Witches.He is also an executive producer on films like Megamind, Puss in Boots, Kung Fu Panda 2 and Kung Fu Panda 3. He was also a producer on Rudo y Cursi, The Book of Life, Pacific Rim: Uprising and Antlers. In television, he created two shows. The first is The Strain, which is based on a book he wrote with Chuck Hogan, and he directed the first episode. The other is Trollhunters, which is based on his novel. The Unrealized FilmsWell, you couldn't make a post on del Toro without bringing up the projects he never got to make. So let's delve into a few of them.
MOVIES (FROM HIGHEST GROSSING TO LEAST GROSSING)
The VerdictInconsistent.Del Toro has crafted an impressive resume. Even his weaker works still have their charms. The problem is that he has been struggling with the budgets, and that in turn prevents his films from breaking even. As he said, DVD sales were the reason Hellboy II was greenlit, but it was the decline of that market that made it more difficult to get a third film made. And that's before we even get to the amount of unrealized projects. A unique director that simply struggled in having the box office success he deserves. And that's a shame, as you can tell he is very passionate about his work. Hope you liked this edition. You can find this and more in the wiki for this section. The next director will be Todd Phillips. Very fitting, considering we just had a teaser trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux. I asked you to choose who else should be in the run and the comment with the most upvotes would be chosen. Well, we'll later talk about... Wes Craven. A horror legend. This is the schedule for the following four:
And the theme is: Actor-directors. And I'm not talking about directors that occassionally act, some just in cameos. I'm talking celebrities more known for acting, that regularly direct. So there are two requirements here: the director must have a prominent acting career, and he must have directed at least 5 films. That means actors like Kevin Costner, Bradley Cooper, Greta Gerwig, John Krasinski and Jordan Peele are ineligible here. So what actor-director should be? |
2024.03.21 10:38 Rc-1138-Boss What do you guys think of my handwriting?
 | I was taught to write in cursive from a young age and switched over to a script that kinda looks like copperplate and Edwardian (idk if I'm remembering correctly) absolutely no one can read it (even me sometimes) what do y'all think? submitted by Rc-1138-Boss to Handwriting [link] [comments] |
2024.03.03 03:30 Timeraft F4M Practice date with a Tsundere witch [Witch Speaker X Client Listener][Fairy Tale with a twist][Older Woman][Plus Sized][Reverse Comfort][We're both Low Key Awful but hey]
So this one is a remake of the first script I ever posted here (https://www.reddit.com/ASMRScriptHaven/comments/u5csav/f44\_witch\_forces\_a\_jerk\_to\_shape\_uptsundere/). I don't really like the original version. I was in a mean spirted mood when I wrote it and if you know me as a person you'll know that's an unusual mood for me. But I like the character and I wanted to give her a second chance. So here's my first and probably last remake of a script!
Good to monetize and/or modify!
Like my Stuff? Check out the archive: https://www.reddit.com/ASMRScriptHaven/comments/x9hb9v/script_archive/
Want to tip me?: Swing by my Ko-Fi!: https://ko-fi.com/timeraft
Listener is sitting in their car. Apprehensive. They take out their phone and listen to a voicemail
“Hey listen, It's me. I’m tired of waiting.”
“We made our deal five years ago. I got you your dream job, and in exchange you promised me your firstborn kid. Well I know for a fact that you haven't been dating anyone. Look I don't know if you’re just like shy or what, but I’m tired of waiting. So I’m taking you on a practice date. Meet me at my office. I work in Red-Brick town now. I have an office in that little building that has the flowershop and the Mexican grocery store.-y’know down by the Bigby. Friday Night. 8PM. Wear something nice-like lower end of semi-formal- and don't be late. If you stand me up I’ll hunt you down and turn you into a toad or something. Don't play with me, I know where you work and I know where you live. Call me if you have any questions. Friday at 8. And nobody gets hurt, more or less.”
Car door opens and shuts.
Knocking
Door Opens
Hey! Right on time! It's nice to see you agai- Is that really what you decided to wear? Cargo shorts and a graphic Tee?
No I mean its not baddddd but I explicitly said something nice.
Deep Breath
Y’know what, never mind! Practice date. This is a teachable moment. I'll just Cinderella your ass.
SNAP
Listener gets magicked into a formal outfit.
Poof! Semi-Formal! I know it's probably a little more dressed up than what you’re used to, but we’re going to the free Jazz concert down at the riverfront plaza tonight. We’ll dance and then maybe walk around the park a little. I‘ve got it all planned out.
Here let me straighten you out a bit.
They straighten out the listeners tie and stuff
You clean up real good by the way. You look pretty sharp. Real handsome.
You can keep this outfit after tonight if you like, just be careful if you’re out late. You’ll turn into a pumpkin at midnight.
Listener gets nervous
Laughs
Oh stop it I’m just messing with you. Mostly. Let me change into mine.
SNAP!
Not too bad eh? Can't go wrong with a little black dress right? It's hard to put together an outfit that looks good with green skin, but I think I did a pretty good job.
Listener is stunned
Apparently you do too, you’re gonna catch flies if you keep your jaw open like that.
Now let's be off shall we? The concert is like a block away.
They start walking
So this job? Was it really all you'd ever dreamed it would be? Worth cutting a deal with a witch?
It really was eh? That's good, I’m really glad it worked out. I know what it's like to pursue your dream career. To have something you just want so bad Y’know? I've been there.
I wasn't born a witch. Nobody is. I wanted these powers so badly that I decided to go out there and take them no matter the cost. I crossed the plains and I drank from the well. I was tried and tested and was not found wanting. And it cost me, it cost me a lot.
So I guess I can relate is what I'm saying.
Do you ever feel like you missed out on something? Like you put so much into your career and everything and you step back and like there's just nothing? Nothing left for yourself?
They realize they got too deep and change the subject
Er uh -Hey do you have like a tinder or a bumble or something?
Can I see your profile? I want to look it over.
Alright we're gonna have to work on this. It's kinda sparse.
You've got some good matches though.
She zooms in on one match
Look at her! She's super pretty! And she has lots of cool hobbies! Why haven't you messaged her yet?
Alright later we'll brainstorm some openings for you.
More walking. Awkward silence
If you’d like, we can hold hands. I mean if you want. It's good practice.
Don't be shy, my hand is right here, just waiting for some brave soul to snatch it up.
Laughs
JAZZ music starts.
Ahhh here we are. It's not as crowded as I thought it would be. I love this band, they’re local and they’ve been around a long time. There's a lot I don't like about this town, but we've got a great jazz scene.
It's a pretty night isn't it? I love all the stupid little fake Edwardian street lamps they've got out here.
Now have you ever danced?
Laughs
Don't worry sweetheart. I’ll lead. We’ll start with just a simple box step.
I step forward, you step back. Yeah like that. Then we step to the side like so. I step back, you step forward. We slide again. Close your feet andddd there! Right back where we began. Think you can handle that?
Watch my feet now. I've toaded people for less.
They begin dancing. Closed position but keeping eachother at a distance.
So why haven't you been dating anyone?
Like are you shy? Scared of intimacy? Just happier alone?
Listener admits they don't really think they're good enough
Hey hey hey, you have a lot to offer somebody. You’re smart, you’re talented, you’re cute, you have a decent job. I mean hell I like you, and I don't like anybody.
You have a lot going for you, whether you see it or not.
Oh shut up, you're not an imposter. You want to know how I helped you get that job?
You made a good impression on me and your work happened to be a client of mine so I put in a good word for you. I didn't even use magic. And honestly I think they would have hired you anyways.
Plus coaching you through the job interview helped. All I did honestly was just serve as a reference and help you prepare for something you were already capable of doing.
Hey! I never said I was going to use magic! All you asked for was my help, and I helped. And it worked didn't it? So I’m still gonna take your firstborn.
They ask why they want a kid so bad
Oh I don't know I’ll probably make them into baby back ribs! Or feed them to the forest spirits in exchange for arcane power! Or maybe I'll turn them into a hideous beast and use them to destroy my enemies! I’m a wicked old witch after all.
Listener is freaked out
No no I’m just messing with you.
I guess I’ve just always wanted a kid y’know? Somebody to raise as my own. Maybe a legacy of sorts. And I’ve never had the time to settle down with somebody.
I think I intimidate people too much anyways. For some reason.
I thought about foster care, but then you popped up. And I mean it's a classic witch thing right? I do something for you and you promise me your firstborn in exchange? And then you try to wriggle out of it. We haven't even gotten that far yet though.
Honestly now that we're here it all feels a little bit silly doesn't it?
You're getting the hang of this dancing thing. Let's get a little closer.
Shhhh don't be shy, c’mon let's slow down a bit. Have a real intimate moment. I can feel your heartbeat. You smell really nice.
Has anyone ever said that you have really beautiful eyes?
Shhhh don't turn away.
They almost kiss the listener but stop themselves and break away from the dance.
No no this was a terrible idea! What am I doing! I tried to kiss you! I'm sorry I-I should go.
They run away into the park. Listener follows.
How dare you follow me! I-Ill turn you into a snail!
I'll do it! Stay back! Don't test me!
This was a bad idea. I shouldn't have tried to do this.
Deals off! You're free to go. I don't need your firstborn anymore. Just-just go.
I said you can go! Just leave me alone! I can't believe I did that. I feel so humiliated. Like what was I thinking? A practice date? I don't even go on dates! So what do I have to teach you? And then I try to kiss you? What's wrong with me?
I'm sorry. It's so obvious now why you were dragging your feet. I mean how could you even have that conversation with somebody? “Hey Honey wanna have a kid and then immediately give them up to some fat freak with green skin?” Like of course that wouldn't go over very well. And you’re a decent enough person that you’d never force that on somebody. And I was going to just make you do that.
Realizing the implications of their actions
Oh-oh my god. I-I’m a monster. I’m a goddamned monster.
Crying
Why are you still here!?
No don't, I don't deserve- I don't deserve a shoulder to cry on.
What were we thinking? We’re both just so awful. I’m so much worse though. I led you down this path. I don't have any right to try and be a mother. I’m just a mean ugly old witch.
Hey stop I’m not pretty! I’m short and kind of chubby a-and my hair is going grey early and my skin is green!
I hate the green skin, it makes me look sweaty and gross all the time and it reflects light all weird. I hate it.
I have to have it! It's part of the deal we made with the witch hunters. We can't practice magic outside of the seven cities without making it obvious what we are.
Being a witch is all I got. Without this I'm nothing, maybe that's why I wanted a kid. I don't know!
I don't have a life outside of this. I thought that it would be enough. I thought that this was all I wanted, but now I’m just alone. All these magical mysteries never gave a single thing back.
I’ve got clients and business partners, but when I get home it's just me. And I hate it. I hate it so much.
I need so much more, but I don't deserve it. I'm going to die alone in a godamned swamp somewhere.
I really mean it. You don't owe me anything. You can go. I'm gonna go home and rethink my life.
You're still here.
Hey, that's my hand!
What? Didn't get your fill of dancing?
Oh right we were gonna try and message that girl. Let's do that.
Or not? Ok what's gotten into you then?
Incredulous
You were having a good time? For real?
So you're serious huh? You actually want this to be a real date? With me?
I guess I can make that happen. If that's really what you want.
Smooch
Let's walk for a while down the river path and we'll let fate be our guide from there on out. If this is what you want then you'll get it. We'll make this the best date of your life.
-30-
submitted by Timeraft to ASMRScriptHaven [link] [comments]
Good to monetize and/or modify!
Like my Stuff? Check out the archive: https://www.reddit.com/ASMRScriptHaven/comments/x9hb9v/script_archive/
Want to tip me?: Swing by my Ko-Fi!: https://ko-fi.com/timeraft
Listener is sitting in their car. Apprehensive. They take out their phone and listen to a voicemail
“Hey listen, It's me. I’m tired of waiting.”
“We made our deal five years ago. I got you your dream job, and in exchange you promised me your firstborn kid. Well I know for a fact that you haven't been dating anyone. Look I don't know if you’re just like shy or what, but I’m tired of waiting. So I’m taking you on a practice date. Meet me at my office. I work in Red-Brick town now. I have an office in that little building that has the flowershop and the Mexican grocery store.-y’know down by the Bigby. Friday Night. 8PM. Wear something nice-like lower end of semi-formal- and don't be late. If you stand me up I’ll hunt you down and turn you into a toad or something. Don't play with me, I know where you work and I know where you live. Call me if you have any questions. Friday at 8. And nobody gets hurt, more or less.”
Car door opens and shuts.
Knocking
Door Opens
Hey! Right on time! It's nice to see you agai- Is that really what you decided to wear? Cargo shorts and a graphic Tee?
No I mean its not baddddd but I explicitly said something nice.
Deep Breath
Y’know what, never mind! Practice date. This is a teachable moment. I'll just Cinderella your ass.
SNAP
Listener gets magicked into a formal outfit.
Poof! Semi-Formal! I know it's probably a little more dressed up than what you’re used to, but we’re going to the free Jazz concert down at the riverfront plaza tonight. We’ll dance and then maybe walk around the park a little. I‘ve got it all planned out.
Here let me straighten you out a bit.
They straighten out the listeners tie and stuff
You clean up real good by the way. You look pretty sharp. Real handsome.
You can keep this outfit after tonight if you like, just be careful if you’re out late. You’ll turn into a pumpkin at midnight.
Listener gets nervous
Laughs
Oh stop it I’m just messing with you. Mostly. Let me change into mine.
SNAP!
Not too bad eh? Can't go wrong with a little black dress right? It's hard to put together an outfit that looks good with green skin, but I think I did a pretty good job.
Listener is stunned
Apparently you do too, you’re gonna catch flies if you keep your jaw open like that.
Now let's be off shall we? The concert is like a block away.
They start walking
So this job? Was it really all you'd ever dreamed it would be? Worth cutting a deal with a witch?
It really was eh? That's good, I’m really glad it worked out. I know what it's like to pursue your dream career. To have something you just want so bad Y’know? I've been there.
I wasn't born a witch. Nobody is. I wanted these powers so badly that I decided to go out there and take them no matter the cost. I crossed the plains and I drank from the well. I was tried and tested and was not found wanting. And it cost me, it cost me a lot.
So I guess I can relate is what I'm saying.
Do you ever feel like you missed out on something? Like you put so much into your career and everything and you step back and like there's just nothing? Nothing left for yourself?
They realize they got too deep and change the subject
Er uh -Hey do you have like a tinder or a bumble or something?
Can I see your profile? I want to look it over.
Alright we're gonna have to work on this. It's kinda sparse.
You've got some good matches though.
She zooms in on one match
Look at her! She's super pretty! And she has lots of cool hobbies! Why haven't you messaged her yet?
Alright later we'll brainstorm some openings for you.
More walking. Awkward silence
If you’d like, we can hold hands. I mean if you want. It's good practice.
Don't be shy, my hand is right here, just waiting for some brave soul to snatch it up.
Laughs
JAZZ music starts.
Ahhh here we are. It's not as crowded as I thought it would be. I love this band, they’re local and they’ve been around a long time. There's a lot I don't like about this town, but we've got a great jazz scene.
It's a pretty night isn't it? I love all the stupid little fake Edwardian street lamps they've got out here.
Now have you ever danced?
Laughs
Don't worry sweetheart. I’ll lead. We’ll start with just a simple box step.
I step forward, you step back. Yeah like that. Then we step to the side like so. I step back, you step forward. We slide again. Close your feet andddd there! Right back where we began. Think you can handle that?
Watch my feet now. I've toaded people for less.
They begin dancing. Closed position but keeping eachother at a distance.
So why haven't you been dating anyone?
Like are you shy? Scared of intimacy? Just happier alone?
Listener admits they don't really think they're good enough
Hey hey hey, you have a lot to offer somebody. You’re smart, you’re talented, you’re cute, you have a decent job. I mean hell I like you, and I don't like anybody.
You have a lot going for you, whether you see it or not.
Oh shut up, you're not an imposter. You want to know how I helped you get that job?
You made a good impression on me and your work happened to be a client of mine so I put in a good word for you. I didn't even use magic. And honestly I think they would have hired you anyways.
Plus coaching you through the job interview helped. All I did honestly was just serve as a reference and help you prepare for something you were already capable of doing.
Hey! I never said I was going to use magic! All you asked for was my help, and I helped. And it worked didn't it? So I’m still gonna take your firstborn.
They ask why they want a kid so bad
Oh I don't know I’ll probably make them into baby back ribs! Or feed them to the forest spirits in exchange for arcane power! Or maybe I'll turn them into a hideous beast and use them to destroy my enemies! I’m a wicked old witch after all.
Listener is freaked out
No no I’m just messing with you.
I guess I’ve just always wanted a kid y’know? Somebody to raise as my own. Maybe a legacy of sorts. And I’ve never had the time to settle down with somebody.
I think I intimidate people too much anyways. For some reason.
I thought about foster care, but then you popped up. And I mean it's a classic witch thing right? I do something for you and you promise me your firstborn in exchange? And then you try to wriggle out of it. We haven't even gotten that far yet though.
Honestly now that we're here it all feels a little bit silly doesn't it?
You're getting the hang of this dancing thing. Let's get a little closer.
Shhhh don't be shy, c’mon let's slow down a bit. Have a real intimate moment. I can feel your heartbeat. You smell really nice.
Has anyone ever said that you have really beautiful eyes?
Shhhh don't turn away.
They almost kiss the listener but stop themselves and break away from the dance.
No no this was a terrible idea! What am I doing! I tried to kiss you! I'm sorry I-I should go.
They run away into the park. Listener follows.
How dare you follow me! I-Ill turn you into a snail!
I'll do it! Stay back! Don't test me!
This was a bad idea. I shouldn't have tried to do this.
Deals off! You're free to go. I don't need your firstborn anymore. Just-just go.
I said you can go! Just leave me alone! I can't believe I did that. I feel so humiliated. Like what was I thinking? A practice date? I don't even go on dates! So what do I have to teach you? And then I try to kiss you? What's wrong with me?
I'm sorry. It's so obvious now why you were dragging your feet. I mean how could you even have that conversation with somebody? “Hey Honey wanna have a kid and then immediately give them up to some fat freak with green skin?” Like of course that wouldn't go over very well. And you’re a decent enough person that you’d never force that on somebody. And I was going to just make you do that.
Realizing the implications of their actions
Oh-oh my god. I-I’m a monster. I’m a goddamned monster.
Crying
Why are you still here!?
No don't, I don't deserve- I don't deserve a shoulder to cry on.
What were we thinking? We’re both just so awful. I’m so much worse though. I led you down this path. I don't have any right to try and be a mother. I’m just a mean ugly old witch.
Hey stop I’m not pretty! I’m short and kind of chubby a-and my hair is going grey early and my skin is green!
I hate the green skin, it makes me look sweaty and gross all the time and it reflects light all weird. I hate it.
I have to have it! It's part of the deal we made with the witch hunters. We can't practice magic outside of the seven cities without making it obvious what we are.
Being a witch is all I got. Without this I'm nothing, maybe that's why I wanted a kid. I don't know!
I don't have a life outside of this. I thought that it would be enough. I thought that this was all I wanted, but now I’m just alone. All these magical mysteries never gave a single thing back.
I’ve got clients and business partners, but when I get home it's just me. And I hate it. I hate it so much.
I need so much more, but I don't deserve it. I'm going to die alone in a godamned swamp somewhere.
I really mean it. You don't owe me anything. You can go. I'm gonna go home and rethink my life.
You're still here.
Hey, that's my hand!
What? Didn't get your fill of dancing?
Oh right we were gonna try and message that girl. Let's do that.
Or not? Ok what's gotten into you then?
Incredulous
You were having a good time? For real?
So you're serious huh? You actually want this to be a real date? With me?
I guess I can make that happen. If that's really what you want.
Smooch
Let's walk for a while down the river path and we'll let fate be our guide from there on out. If this is what you want then you'll get it. We'll make this the best date of your life.
-30-
2024.01.29 10:16 Sea_Bear_6162 The Ultimate Font Tier List
 | Looks like a few offenders in AusCorp with their choice of font. submitted by Sea_Bear_6162 to auscorp [link] [comments] Sourced from https://typographyforlawyers.com/ |
2023.12.27 02:07 KKD0611 Any help with this ring
 | This ring was my grandmas who died in 1984, so I know it’s that old. But that’s all I got. When the jeweler saw it he agreed it was odd the makers mark was split up by the “14k”. I’ve searched everywhere online and can’t find the mark. None of the “Daisy cluster ring“ or “Edwardian cluster ring” examples online look like mine, particularly with the center stone raised above the rest. Makers mark seems to be a script F and a script L to me. I don’t know where she got it. She had an extensive jewelry collection of items bought herself, by a man she was having an affair with, and my grandfather who owned an antique store. Anyone have any clues? submitted by KKD0611 to JewelryIdentification [link] [comments] https://preview.redd.it/wxnix2opmq8c1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f46c5a5106781e7a047613e5112888eb1fbd287f https://preview.redd.it/5djg5jyrmq8c1.jpg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=69ae5245a042503485c955a24b441ed869f0d274 https://preview.redd.it/82xi3gxxmq8c1.jpg?width=1852&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2072cf2f6c15554f77ac7d0862275b30c7d0bc69 |
2023.10.28 18:28 drake_burroughs LSH # 41-48, Annual #4 - Do we call this a slow, gradual decline or a fast, painful one?
 | Welcome back to the Legion reread. This week is probably going to feel a little different than before for one very specific reason - we are done with issues that I remember. What does that mean? Up until now, going back and rereading these books always came with a memory of the stories attached. Good or bad, I was reading something that had left an impact on me, a sense of nostalgia. Now, we're covering books that I read in the past, but had completely left my memory. submitted by drake_burroughs to LegionofSuperheroes [link] [comments] Insert a joke about an old man's failing memory. So for this reread and the next, I'm reading these again but with somewhat fresh eyes. For example, I remember some moments about the Mordru saga, but none of the specifics. I'm also going to try my best to be as positive as I can... this is going to be difficult. On an aside, as I was reading over these books, I was kept continually thinking that these books have become the comic equivalent of the Fast and the Furious series. Things look pretty, everyone has whatever abilities they need regardless of their history or experience, and once you start thinking about the story, you're bound to have a bad time. LSH #41 - In case you were wondering which team is more important, who gets the cover? This is really two books in one - the regular story that wraps up the old Legion's time on Earth and the second that introduces the Legionnaires, the team made up of the SW6 Legion. You can already guess which team gets more respect. We start with Jacques resigning as President of Earth, handing the title to Troy Stewart, and then rejoining the Legion. Wow, even with a new era, the writers striving their best to respect Legion history and make old, less-popular characters important again, they still don't want to do anything with Tyroc. I was pondering this and actually think that this version of Tyroc, the one who never shows his powers and just stands in the background doing nothing, may be a bigger waste of the character and slightly more offensive than when he was introduced in the 1970's. Tyroc, the first Black super-hero in the DC Universe, and this is what he's reduced to. He just stands around and watches everyone else act. Then Jacques and Rokk start wandering around the Earth trying to recruit Legionnaires and no one really wants to join. From the Legion of Substitute Heroes to Danielle, Jacques' little sister, none of them are sure they want to commit to the team. But, of course, on the Legionnaires, both Cham and Danielle immediately sign up, they get all new names and costumes, they resurrect the old Legion clubhouse, and, in Cham's words, they're going to inspire the youth of today, not their grandparents. Ouch... So I have to wonder, do the Bierbaums even want to write the old Legion at this point? Are they just taking a paycheck and scribbling down whatever they want? Do they care at all? Or have they just not gotten the character assassination they love out of their systems? What this series has gotten out of its system, though, is anything connected to what Keith Giffen was doing artistically. With each issue, they move further and further away from everything that was established before. No more nine-panel grid, no more Edwardian costumes, no more grim and grungy style, no more pouting, no more characters who actually look the age they're supposed to be... except Dream Girl. They still want to make sure you know that she's old and overweight. As much as I love the work that Stuart Immonen does on this title, I do think that his biggest failing here is that he doesn't really even try to make these characters look the ages they're supposed to be. I was complaining last week about Devlin O'Ryan never looking like a teenager (He's supposed to be 15 but looks the same as everyone else), but now I'm amazed that no one is even trying to make any of the other characters look their age. Cham looks the same age as the SW6 Legionnaires. Ayla looks like she's in her 20's again. Jo the same. I wonder if there was a conscious effort to de-age the Legion to reach new readers. Perhaps with Giffen off the book, they wanted to try to get younger readers to try it out and figured the best way was to stop drawing everyone like they're in their late 30's... which is how old they're supposed to be. But to flip to a more positive take, both Immonen and Chris Sprouse, who's going to be drawing the Legionnaires book, are doing really well here. Just wish they had better scripts to work with. Next week, I'm going to start on the Legionnaires series and jump back and forth until we get to Zero Hour. LSH #42 - I quite like this cover, even if I have no idea when Rond Vidar took ProFem I mentioned last week that one subplot they introduced was Imra getting kidnapped off Winath by some mysterious robot, which was followed by Garth really not looking all that worried or concerned. I can understand that married couples want some time apart every once in a while, even the happiest ones, but he was really nonplussed by her disappearance. This issue, this one issue, wraps up that plot line about as quickly as a writer could. This is the first issue Tom McCraw, who is the series' colorist, plots. Once the Bierbaums leave this series, he takes over with issue #50. This does kinda read like it's been plotted by someone learning how to do it. The story jumps around, there are a ton of plot holes, and there are a few moments where we're a little confused about what's going on. I'm honestly not sure if he showed enough with this to make me excited about what's coming next. We discover that Glorith, still weakened from her battles in the past, has sent this robot out to capture all the Legionnaires who attacked her after she killed every Daxamite. First, Luornu disappears. Then Rond Vidar is attacked in the home he shares with Laurel, who's the next target. A battle ensures and Laurel, after her hair is miraculously turned green for one page, is captured as well. Back at Legion HQ, Brainy and Cham, who's come back because they need someone who's good at investigating, I guess, are discussing these disappearances. Brainy has a theory, mentions something called Code Six, which is never referred to again, and they discuss. Finally, the robot takes Brainy himself and they arrive at Glorith's palace where the big reveal takes place: The robot is actually controlled by the second body of Luornu, the one they thought Glorith killed six or seven years ago. But no, Glorith didn't kill her. She just de-aged her and then, after the fight, raised her and turned her against her friends and herself. A battle ensues, we realize it's not Brainy but actually Cham, who uses a transporter to pull Brainy to the fight and, for some reason, the Glorith-raised Luornu continually regrets her actions and feels sorry for what she's done. So I guess the idea is that nature is more important than nurture. Or she was still Luornu, even though she would have had none of the same memories or experiences. Oh, and Brainy's naked. For comedy?? Luckily for our heroes, Brainy genetically coded Luorno (the one who survived, not the one raised by Glorith) with a force field so she uses it against Glorith, who isn't strong enough to get out of it. She tells the Legionnaires to leave, so they do... no idea how. No idea why they're wouldn't imprison Glorith for, I don't know, genocide. They just head back to the Legion HQ off panel and everyone's all good. And for the happy wrap up of the book, new Luornu is back living with old Luornu and Chuck, who's just happy to have two wives instead of one. I believe the assumption is that, when the two Luornus rejoined, the old one's memories overwrote the new one's. Or they're always connected and share the same emotions. Or, even though she was reduced to protoplasm, her memories remained. None of those really make sense, because you could just argue that new Luornu would overwrite old Luornu and they'd want nothing to do with Chuck. The most fascinating, and best written, section is the text page at the end, where they reveal a much darker side of Luornu's split personalities. It shows how much one of Luornu's personalities despises the Legion for letting one of her bodies die in the battle with Computo. Yes, it's stunningly dark, and yes, it kinda goes against everything else we've seen from her, but it would've been a fascinating angle to work with. Which means, of course, that they didn't. It also makes me wonder which personality was reborn under Glorith's eye. LSH #47 - Warning, the images here do not reflect what you'll actually see in the book Instead of going through each book, I'm just going to talk about the entire Mordru and the zombies story. It runs from #43 - 48 (6 long issues) and, unlike the Terra Mosaic story, this one sticks to this one plot and doesn't meander around with fill ins. We also only focus on the Legion, which is nice to see. One of the tough parts of reviewing this is the simple fact that most of my complaints about plot holes and moments that make no sense can be wiped away with one simple phrase: "It's magic!" As I was reading this story, all I could think was that so much of this makes no sense but the writers could just wave everything away and simply shout "It's magic!" over and over and you'd be stuck having to concede. For most of the problems, anyway. Here's the high level plot: Mordru wants more power and determines that the best way to get it is to merge with Mysa, who's found the powers of Amethyst, the spirit of the old Sorcerer's World. The only way this can happen is by making her so angry she wants to kill him. Which is what happens. To punish the entire universe because Mysa didn't surrender to his abuse quickly, he casts a spell that resurrects every dead body in the universe. No more thought than that. No more plan than that. Just simple revenge. But because this is the entire galaxy, the Khunds and their empire have the same problem. So they call the Legion for help. Who give it to them. No, not going to rescue anyone in the UP. No, let's go off and help the empire that invaded them just a short time ago, maimed Vi, and almost destroyed Orando. And everyone's just okay with this. We get four new Khundish Legionnaires: Firefist, the co-leader and military hero, Veilmist, Firefist's possession who can teleport, Blood Claw, a tall fighter, and Flederweb, a bounty hunter. The Khundian leader gives much more flowery introductions. And did I mention that J'onn J'onzz is back? Yep, the Martian Manhunter is somehow still alive after 1,000 years and he's the green guy that Nura asked for help before. He tries to help Mysa, gets blasted, and then goes to the Legion HQ to see what else he can do. Kono gets possessed by the spirit of Amethyst and she takes J'onn and Tenzil to Tharn, the new Sorcerer's World and home of Mordru. The new Legion head to Sklar and fight zombies. Zombie who aren't Sklarians (the blue-haired, yellow skinned female warriors) but skeletons dressed as 20th century superheroes. So we get to watch them destroy Robin, the Justice Society, and Vigilante. Why? Why do this? Why go to all this trouble to draw the Golden Age Flash (literally down to the helmet) when it makes zero sense for this to happen? It's as if they knew they needed to distract from the horrible plot and chose this. In true 5YL Legion fashion, they retreat when they're overwhelmed. Yes, a bunch of super-powered fighters are overpowered by a bunch of powerless zombies who can only fight with spears and swords. I hate to say that I end up agreeing with a Khund here, but when Firefist yells about the shame of retreating, I think he's right. These are dead bodies come back to life... with no brains or spirits... and the Legion is afraid of actually fighting them. Kind of. It's just so insanely confusing. Once again, it's as if the Legion entered a battle with absolutely no idea what to do or what they were facing. In this book, Rokk is a terrible leader. Because we need someone to do magic, and Mysa is occupied, Projectra is suddenly a magic user and starts communing with these weird spirit creatures. Okay, I know what you're thinking - her powers have been tied to magic before. And I agree. But we've never seen her do what she does in these issues. She's casting spells, talking to spirits, and explaining Mordru's spells to the team. She's never done it before, not even in the 5YL issues, but who cares? It's the Glorith timeline and we can do whatever we want. Here are some of the important zombies who wake up:
More zombie fighting ensues and they learn that Mordru's spell will eventually lead to the zombies becoming solid, powerful, and immortal. The Legion shuts down the zombies on Sklar, but no where else. But that new wrinkle doesn't come into effect anywhere else. Just Sklar. It was just for those zombies, I'm guessing. The Legion finally defeat the zombies on Sklar and Veilmist teleports them all to right outside Mordru's castle. To a planet she's never been to before, never seen, and a specific location that would have no idea how to find. "It's Khund magic!" Projectra casts a spell, separating Mordru and Mysa. Why didn't they do this first? Why go to Sklar? Why not go to Mordru directly? What was the point of the previous issues? But since Mysa still wants to kill Mordru, it doesn't work and the separation doesn't work. He's still all-powerful and buries the Legion under a thin layer of rocks. He does, however, take the time to craft individual tombstone for everyone, including J'onn J'onzz, who he's never met before. So that's kind of him. Luckily for everyone, Devlin O'Ryan is here. Thank goodness the teenager who looks like a middle-aged man is there. He walks into the courtyard and starts yelling at Mordru, confident in his power of reflecting blasts back at the attacker. And it works. Mordru is blasted back into a tree, unconscious. Everyone is, of course, still alive and they all start crawling out of the rubble. Kono, still possessed by Amethyst, heads over to Mordru and somehow fuses the Amethyst spirit with him. The three battle and the argument turns to this: Mysa doesn't hate Mordru, she still and always has loved him. On an aside, I know that spousal emotional abuse wasn't as publicized back in the early 90's and most people then wouldn't find this whole plot point as offensive as it is today. Mysa, who has been abused by Mordru for years and years, and finally has broken free and found her spirit again, just goes back to the same trope of loving the wrong guy and only wanting to help him. It's really horrible to read. She drains Mordru of all his magic power and gets close to killing him. So who stops her? Projectra, who I would say is the one Legionnaire who would be most accepting of someone killing for revenge. They honestly could have picked anyone else to stop her and I wouldn't have been as surprised by the choice... especially after the scene where Projectra, once again, killed Nemesis Kid as revenge for his killing of Karate Kid. Man, that wasn't good. You know, when I started doing these rereads, it was fun to go back over the title that I loved so much. This week was work. Random thoughts about the series that weren't the main plot:
LSH Annual #4 - This book should come with an apology When making a list of the worst Legion stories of all time, I think this one wins it for me. It's just a horrible book all around. It's one of those stories where you wish you could wipe it out of your memory as soon as you finish it. In 1994, DC thought it would be a good idea to connect all of their annuals with a central theme. In this case, it's Bloodlines. Basically, these evil aliens came to Earth, attacked people, and if their attacks were stopped in time the people they were trying to kill gained superpowers. Every creative team was asked to create a new superhero. Only one was any good. In the pages of The Demon, they introduced Hitman. Every other one was pure garbage. And yet the Legion hero, a horrible person called Jamm, was the worst. Just don't read this garbage. Save yourself the horror that is this book. That's it for this week. That was... less fun... than before. Here's hoping the beginning of Legionnaires will be more enjoyable. As always, please leave any comments or memories below. Perhaps we can all commiserate together. I think I need a drink (or a few) after these stories. |
2023.10.10 13:02 Saif_Rafiq Offset Shapes tool in LightBurn
 | Offset Shapes is an incredibly valuable tool in LightBurn that allows you to create an offset of any design. submitted by Saif_Rafiq to laserengravinglearn [link] [comments] It allows you to set various parameters like offset distance, direction of the offset, shape of the corners, etc. While there are numerous applications of this tool, I personally use it to create cut outlines for personalized keychains. It is the easiest and most convenient way to enhance the appearance of Name keychains and make them stand out from the competition. You can either access the Offset Shapes tool from the toolbar on the left side of the screen or press Alt+ O on your keyboard. https://preview.redd.it/h129k8q7xctb1.jpg?width=1366&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9f3a429bd0d670280c49a9b1827f19ea372165ec https://preview.redd.it/ah0uhos6xctb1.jpg?width=712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d22714410d446075ff3a55ac16c3ea3831e14fbd |
2023.10.06 13:36 Saif_Rafiq Significance of the "Welded" option under the Text Editor Toolbar in LightBurn
 | Have you tried using the Create Text feature of LightBurn to add text to your project? submitted by Saif_Rafiq to laserengravinglearn [link] [comments] I recently used the "Create text" tool in LightBurn to add a customized name to a project. After exploring various fonts, I settled on an elegant cursive style. While everything seemed perfect, the output was not what I expected. Upon closer inspection, I found that each alphabet in the font was treated as a separate element and overlapped the next one, causing the design to cut improperly and fall apart. To rectify this, you have to ensure that the "Welded" option under the text editor toolbar is turned on. Turning on the weld option joins the individual elements of the font and creates a seamless text for your project. https://preview.redd.it/hcbev89ijksb1.jpg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=efbf52187b8e296e9b030e458921096f20836e4d https://preview.redd.it/ww2si1chjksb1.jpg?width=886&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fb5744706d7505803b3f0cc20d8fe092163c7626 https://preview.redd.it/7kyelseejksb1.jpg?width=888&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f2228121c0df5668c0fa83ac992e0dc3e501cba1 |
2023.10.05 22:23 TomerGamerTV Weird fonts on some websites
 | For some reason, some websites that I visit the font gets messed up and shows up like this: submitted by TomerGamerTV to brave_browser [link] [comments] website: https://tria.ge/ I tried with private window and with Edge and they also show up like this but on my iPhone on Safari not, can somebody help me fix it? Edit: it seems like Edwardian Script ITC was the issue although I can’t 100% confirm because the site suddenly started working before I deleted the font 🤦🏻♂️ |
2023.09.27 18:12 kurai-tsuki Looking for replacement Smithie mug
Hi there - I'm not an alum but I'm making a request on behalf of one (class of '08).
My partner has a dark blue coffee mug with "Smithie" in a white script font - it looks similar to Edwardian Script ITC or Connecticut - that got irreparably damaged when we accidentally ran it through the dishwasher with one of those dishwasher cleaning pellets. It was one of her favorite mugs and I've been trying to find a replacement to no avail.
Is there anyone who has one of these and would be willing to part ways with it, or knows of a lost trove of 10+ year old Smith merch? Happy to Venmo, Paypal, Zelle, or whatever if it'll make her day. Thanks!
Edit: Picture of said worn out mug: https://ibb.co/cbqHyN9
submitted by kurai-tsuki to smithcollege [link] [comments]
My partner has a dark blue coffee mug with "Smithie" in a white script font - it looks similar to Edwardian Script ITC or Connecticut - that got irreparably damaged when we accidentally ran it through the dishwasher with one of those dishwasher cleaning pellets. It was one of her favorite mugs and I've been trying to find a replacement to no avail.
Is there anyone who has one of these and would be willing to part ways with it, or knows of a lost trove of 10+ year old Smith merch? Happy to Venmo, Paypal, Zelle, or whatever if it'll make her day. Thanks!
Edit: Picture of said worn out mug: https://ibb.co/cbqHyN9
2023.07.22 00:28 Heath-Relecovo Infographic Comparing Typographic Styles As It Relates to Mood and Psychology
 | submitted by Heath-Relecovo to CourtingWonder [link] [comments] |
2023.07.07 00:45 manape4400 Looking for the script font in these images. I don't believe it's Edwardian Script.
 | submitted by manape4400 to identifythisfont [link] [comments] |
2023.05.31 22:49 benpreis Wedding Program/Menu Typeface Recommendations?
My fiancee and I are designing our wedding typefaces and menus, and I would love some ideas/opinions. Our program will have information about the officiants, wedding party, traditions, etc. So probably need two fonts, one for headings and one for body text, maybe as many as three fonts?
The wedding is more on the formal side. Our invitations were in ITC Edwardian and Engraver's Gothic, with mailing addresses in Sackers English. I love Sackers Gothic, but that doesn't feel like a particularly legible typeface to use for programs or menus.
Thanks!
submitted by benpreis to typography [link] [comments]
The wedding is more on the formal side. Our invitations were in ITC Edwardian and Engraver's Gothic, with mailing addresses in Sackers English. I love Sackers Gothic, but that doesn't feel like a particularly legible typeface to use for programs or menus.
Thanks!
2023.05.25 20:00 fairly_forgetful wedding recap and budget: 85 people in Chicago, garden party/church wedding in the city
I've found these super useful while planning my wedding (5/19/23- a week wed tomorrow!) so I thought I'd give back and share some of our thoughts, figures, regrets, etc!
So we started with a budget of 20k. We tried to allot it towards the stuff that was going to be expensive no matter what (venue, food) and to the stuff we cared about (photos, flowers), moreso than to "wedding stuff" that was traditional. I think we for the most part succeeded, however we did end up overbudget by far. I knew there would be surprise expenses but I underestimated them.
Overall goals: we both wrote down some dream goals for the wedding when we started to plan. It is a bit bittersweet to look back on those notes now because the wedding definitely took on a bit of a life of its own, and I think our goals did get a bit lost along the way. I wrote: Cinderella (2015) garden party wildflowers, black cat motifs, Taylor Swift, Mamma Mia vibes, delicate, whimsical, floral. He wrote: live band, ice cream cake, food truck, vibey, lowkey, fun.
Venue: (ceremony): $750. We got married at our church which could have been even cheaper but we added a few hundred for a donation to the general fund. The breakdown was a $100 cleaning fee, $300 musician fee (would have been lower but we asked the music director to learn a few new pieces for the service and wanted to compensate him for the extra work). The church is a gorgeous old Chicago church that we've been attending just over a year. We loved getting married there- the religious element was important to us, and our church community was so happy for us to get married there. It was a pretty church so we didn't really need to decorate it, which saved money as well.
Venue (reception): Firehouse Chicago ($6k). link. We looked for venues for a while and toured a few. Our guest count was sort of in between the cozy dinner party vibe we wanted, and the giant repurposed warehouse/ballrooms that most of the venues felt like. Smaller spaces that were still beautiful were wildly costly. But we liked Firehouse- it was pretty/unique enough looking that we wouldn't have to cover the place with decor to make it look halfway decent. My only regret about the venue is that it rained on our wedding morning, so they set up these big white tents outside, covering up the courtyard- and the tents were not very cute- the tops of them all stained from tree debris, etc. The courtyard was beautiful- fairy lights, flowers, Chicago brick buildings surrounding it, old trees- it felt like a little secret garden. But with the tents up... you are just in a white tent with stains on the top. I wish I'd made a better plan for rain or thought seriously about what to do and if I still liked the venue in rain mode. And it wasn't even raining by the evening! D: The tents weren't even necessary. But they were up and everything in them setup so there was no taking them down. Oh well. The venue also could have been cheaper - we added their candles for $150 (they strew a bunch of candles around for you) and their getting ready room ($500) for my bridesmaids and me to get ready in. We also took a bunch of pictures up there- it's a beautiful getting ready space. Very vintage feeling. The staff was very helpful to work with, though there were a few restrictions on vendors which we didn't love. They wanted us to use a catering vendor off their approved vendors list, and literally every single caterer would have been over 10k. We ended up going off the list (which would have incurred a small charge- not greater than the difference between that and 10k!) and since they had worked with that caterer before, they didn't charge us the fee- but still. Approved vendor lists sometimes are just a list of pricey people you can't opt out of. The staff of Firehouse was great, and the cost included people to set up your decor for you in the morning, a drop off time the day before with someone to listen to how you wanted things set up, and someone at the event all day to handle any emergencies / guide the staff for the room flip. Dinner is one setup of tables, and then you go outside for a toast/cake cutting, and the staff changes the floor around / takes away some tables to clear space for a dance floor, which was nice optimization of the space. The staff was awesome- they listened to my thoughts about what should go where, took my hampers of table numbers and a giant crossword and a guestbook tablecloth and card box and favors and 50 plus vases of flowers- all this stuff- and set it up beautifully. Prettier than I could have. I didn't have to fix a single thing. When I came downstairs in my wedding dress to go to the church, the place looked incredible. Husband wants me to add that we might have gone with a different reception space if we had known when we started planning that we were going to do the ceremony elsewhere. Part of the appeal of Firehouse was it had the pretty outdoor space where we could have a ceremony. But if we'd gone with a restaurant elsewhere, it would have been probably half the cost (since it would have combined food and venue).
Catering: City BBQ ($4,728, this is with gratuity included.) We had barbecue catering and it was delicious- we got a lot of compliments on the food. Brisket, turkey, mac n cheese, green beans, corn bread, potato salad, buns, and chocolate cake for dessert. They also did some fruit and cheese trays during cocktail hour. It took us weeks of searching last fall to find a caterer that wouldn't be over 10k for our number of guests but it was so worth the search. Chicago ups the cost on sooo many things but there are still some places you can find something cost effective if you put in a lot of time looking. We had wanted to do a food truck, particularly a taco truck, but they were all super expensive. We talked to three of them and it was going to be over 12k, some closer to 15k. We decided we didn't care that much abt the food truck and just wanted something tasty- ideally not the plated classic wedding dinners. So we had the buffet from City BBQ, and it was lovely. They were super nice to work with, and their head caterer came to our walkthrough at the venue a month prior and worked out the timeline etc with the venue coordinator. They did all the serving, setup, clean up, behind the scenes- they were awesome. So worth the money. I saw a lot of recommendations of just get some big tin trays of food and have family / friends manage the serving, but to me it was sooo worth it to have people working the event. I wanted my family and friends to be enjoying themselves.
Bar: Drinks On Us ($2k, gratuity included). The drinks were good. They provided two bartenders (one for the inside bar, one for the outside), and all the alcohol. I went with the package that had one red wine, one white wine, three kinds of beers, all sodas and such, and one custom cocktail (grapefruit fizz and vodka). The going back and forths with this vendor was a little frustrating- they have a faulty system, so as soon as I made a payment, the next day they send an email with vaguely grim language about a payment being over due- "take the easy way out and pay now before incurring 15% fees". The first time (initial deposit in December) I emailed them all alarmed. They said oh don't worry it just does that. The second time (paying the full balance in early May), I was more irritated. I'd just paid $1400, I'm managing giant payments to vendors left and right, and it's telling me I'm overdue and need to PAY NOW. It was unprofessional and a little menacing. The people were great, but the email system they have in place really soured me on them. They were very apologetic. I think I'd still recommend them, but know that you might get faulty emails warning you about late payments and fees.
Cake: Bittersweet Pastry, $140 (link we got this cake in pink and white for the cake cutting picture. Guests had chocolate cake from the caterer. The cake was beautiful, but not that good lol. But still worth it I think. This was a semi last minute addition as I realized we didn't have anything to cut for a picture.
Rehearsal dinner: A restaurant near our church. I believe this was around 2k, but my husband's parents paid for this. We had sliders and french fries and an open bar. The rehearsal was a lot of fun- the format of the room was a little restrictive, but it felt private to just our group, and it was super close to our church so we could walk right over after the rehearsal.
Marriage license: $60
Officiant: $0 (our priest officiated, she did not take a fee since our church considers marriage a sacrament and part of the duties of the church. We do donate to the church regularly though so you could consider that to be part of the fee.)
Ceremony music: see above church fee- it was about $300 but tied into the church fee
Photographer: Artbelka (Mariya Byelikova) Photography, $3,800. link. This got us seven hours of shooting, and we will have a gallery of pix as soon as she is done editing them. Photos were very important to me and I loved her style. We did engagement pictures with her, and both my husband and I are a little nervous in front of the camera. She set us at ease and got great movement pictures of us- very natural and candid and documentary style, while still having that stylish cinematic sort of feeling. We loved working with her- I'm hoping to do yearly pics with her or something. She was incredible. She also came to our rehearsal the day before because our church is in the round and is a slightly awkward space to photograph. And we last minute added an hour (we were originally set to do six hours) because we were either going to miss getting ready pics for me, or the special dances on the other end of the day, and she added an hour like 3 days prior to the wedding, no problem. Highly recommend her!
Videographer: Initially, Birch Films (James Birch Eiesland), for what was supposed to be $750 for a local Chicago videographer. It turned out he was from Minneapolis and finishing up school so he'd have to travel to Chicago and added a $200 travel fee. ok... well why are you listing yourself as local? Anyway... 12 days before the wedding he cancelled and refunded our money due to a family emergency. We scrambled and a friend of a friend who has a photography business was able to jump in. Paige Evans photography. This cost about $1200 but they also were doing it SUPER last minute, and they in general seemed more professional than James. (When we asked him how he was going to capture audio during the ceremony since vows are usually kind of quiet, and the videographer is standing a ways away, he said "his camera will pick up the audio". When we asked Paige how they would get the audio, she said they have a mic for the officiant and one for my husband. Just a glimpse into - you get what you pay for sort of thing.) They shot video of the entire ceremony, entire set of speeches/toasts, first dances- and caught highlights of other moments like dancing, guests, etc. They'll be sending me a 1 minute highlight reel in the next week or so I believe for social media, and the full videos will come later. Husband's parents paid for video, so I am not counting it towards our total.
Flowers: Romee Willow Floral, ($2k) link. Flowers were one of the most important things to me- I wanted a wildflower sort of feeling, a garden party vibe even though our wedding is in the city. I got quotes from a few florists and I really liked Romee Willow. I sent them my Pinterest board of flower inspo and they made a mood board and we talked through which flowers would be available right now, and the most important colors to me (yellow, light pink, light blue) and the shape of the bouquet, etc. They provided one bridal bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouquets, 10 boutonnieres, 2 mom wrist corsages, a flower crown and basket of petals for the flower girl, and 54 bud vases of flowers for the tables at the reception. We originally were going to rent the vases and return them, but we wanted people to be able to take the flowers home (we couldn't, since we have cats) so we ended up getting vases off amazon link and everyone was able to take the flowers home in their cute vases. LOVED our florals. She beyond delivered. It would have been cheaper if we hadn't had the rental vases in our original contract, but she added more flowers to make up for the difference of not having the rentals. She perfectly caught the vision of what I wanted, and even though some of the flowers I wanted weren't in season (rip black eyed susans, queen anne's lace, etc) she made great substitutes. link to some pics we snapped of the flowers
Flower preservation: Bloom and Make ($600) link This was a last minute addition as I panicked two weeks prior to the wedding and realized I would want to preserve the bouquet. I wanted it pressed into a flat picture frame to hang on the wall, and I also added a pair of flower earrings. We'll be working together on this as the flowers come out of the press to see which ones look nice still and how I want to do it. I kept my bouquet in water overnight and we drove it to her house the day after the wedding. Very excited to work with her- I love her stuff on her website. She had great insight about colors too- apparently white flowers don't press that well, and reds turn brownish? She was excited to press my bouquet because it was so colorful. I can't wait to see how it turns out!
Other Decosignage/DIYs: $600ish. This was all very random stuff. Little gold wire stands to put the table numbers on. Templates to make the seating chart and name cards and table number cards. I got the templates off of etsy and made them on templett, and printed them at Staples. We did a custom crossword from etsy which was about $40 (on sale!) so we provided about 40 questions and answers, and this lady assembled it into a gorgeous "sip n solve" crossword for us. We printed it on laminated paper and got expo markers and a big poster board on an easel for cocktail hour. We also had little paper ones I printed at home if people wanted to try the crossword themselves. Probably about $60 to get the poster printed. I got a tablecloth off of ebay (still in package) for $20- super nice linen hemstitched tablecloth- and we had that set up almost like a blank canvas, for people to sign as a guest book. We also had a board of family wedding pics from our parents and grandparents' wedding days, and had that leaning on the wall behind the card box and matchboxes. All this stuff was super fiddly and time consuming- nothing individually that expensive, but just took time to make and think through what I wanted. I think they all turned out really nice though- especially the tablecloth. I plan to embroider on everyone's messages, and bring it out for holidays and have whoever attends the holiday sign it and date it- trace kids' hands, etc. A living heirloom. :) Our card box was a big yellow bread box from Michaels for $12- I didn't want a "card box" I'd literally never use again, so I got something I think is cute (I love yellow) and I'll use it as decofun storage. We also had an embroidered guest book from Rifle Paper co that was an impulse purchase in the last cpl weeks- I got worried that older guests might not sign the tablecloth and would be looking for a traditional "guest book". That did in fact happen. I'm going to try and transfer their signatures over to the guest tablecloth if I can. I made the matchbook design on my ipad and sent it to someone who had them made into matchboxes for me- about $100 for 100 matchboxes as our wedding favors. I was briefly worried no one would take any but MIL marched around with the basket and gave everybody a matchbox so we only have about 30 left which is a true miracle. Bless her heart. link to tablecloth results / inspo, and some other DIY stuff.
Invitations, Save the dates, postage: $400. I used a template on canva for the save the dates, and those were prob about $60. I found a template on Etsy and made the invitations on templett for the wedding- it's a beautiful art nouveau Mucha green frame. Those were also probably about $60-70. Most of the money here went to stamps. I love stamps. I made envelopes that match the garden party / floral vibe, but also that sort of corresponded to each guest's personality a bit. My sister who likes turtles, got a turtle stamp. My friend from ballet class got a ballerina stamp. I just really like stamps. This was an excellent excuse to get a lot of MNH stamps off of ebay I'd been eyeing for years and use them on my stationery. stationery pics
DJ: Just Press Play Productions (originally $550, but we had $9.60 added on). Very mixed feelings on this vendor. I think you get what you pay for. Most DJs were like 2k and we were reaaaally looking to save money by this time. This one was on the preferred vendors list, and they were super cheap, and brought the speakers / microphone themselves, and all we had to do (in theory) was provide the playlists and a device for the music to be played on. When I paid them, I got an irritated email about the fact that I turned on purchase protection (they requested we pay thru venmo, to avoid the credit card fees.) They requested I pay the extra nine dollars and sixty cents, and said it didn't benefit them to have the protection on, and that "they have never not shown up for their customers". I was like ...... but I paid the nine dollars, and decided to reserve judgment. They told us to make a couple of playlist- one of fast songs, one of slow songs, and one with the special music for the first dances, anniversary dance, last dance, etc. We did so. We had a call with the DJ a few days pre wedding and went over his script/transitions. He was going to announce tables for dinner, announce the speeches/transition between them, announce the dances, etc. He did some of those things. We had to do some of the transitions ourselves- everyone gave their toasts and speeches, and then we had to kind of say "that's all the speeches, thank you" and he was just standing there. The music was way too loud. We asked him a few times to turn it down, but if he did, it never took. It was super super loud during dinner, and during dancing. He texted me during the ceremony (I didn't see it till i got home that night lol) "where is the cocktail hour playlist". I didn't know we needed to make one of those- we made a slow song playlist and a fast/dance song playlist, as they had said most people do. It wasn't that he was bad... it just wasn't ideal. We should have looked into it a little more and realized we needed a cocktail hour playlist. And the email chiding us for the purchase protection thing and requesting the nine dollars really made me laugh.
Attire (groom): Husband got his suit made from scratch from an online try on place called Lords of Wool. I'm not sure if we would do it again. It was a lot of hassle to take the measurements and try and figure out what was going to be the closest fit, and when the suit arrived (cost abt $500) he still had to go to a tailor to get it altered. I think it would be easier to just go to someone to get a suit made for you locally. The suit was a light blue linen- really pretty- which was why we didn't go with a bigger name brand - nobody had that specific color. His parents paid for his suit, so I am not counting it towards our total.
Attire (bride): Here's where I really would do stuff different. I got my dress ($2k originally, more like 3.5 with alterations) from Diana's Bridal (not to be confused with David's Bridal!). The alterations cost a lot- even though there really wasn't much that needed to be altered. It fit me pretty well. They took the bust and waist in a little bit, and hemmed the dress, and added a bustle. I think we got "wedding charged" a bit. And then the real reason I am a bit bummed about this aspect is I ultimately decided to wear my mom's wedding dress for the ceremony. 3 grand later- I'm wearing a dress I had all along. So fricking silly. I wore my Diana's bridal dress to the reception, but it was a very full ballgown on little spaghetti straps. Beautiful (I still love it!) but super super heavy. Not very danceable. And I still have welts on my shoulders from those beaded spaghetti straps chopping into my shoulders with the weight of the giant ballgown all night. The bustle failed bc of course it did- it is a super heavy skirt- and my mom had to safety pin it up. I never ended up wearing the veil I got for this dress (it was this one but it was only $100 when i purchased it because the veil was for the ceremony. And by the week of the wedding I was eyeing stuff like this on ebay and just wishing I'd been more true to myself and gotten some vintage dress for less than a thousand dollars, a little more danceable, maybe even rewearable- and not felt like I had to get a "wedding dress". Oh well. You live and you learn. dresses
Hair and makeup: Nika Vaughan ($1430) link. This cost included hair and makeup for me and for two of my bridesmaids- so six hours and six services. My stylist was Lia. She did a great job for the most part! When we did the trial in March, I thought I was going to be wearing the ballgown for the ceremony. So we did loose curls and a little braid for the veil to sit in, and it was beautiful! Get to the wedding day and I'm wearing my mom's dress which has this Edwardian like high collar. I have long hair- curls/down is going to fight with the collar of the dress. But I knew I was going to switch to the ballgown later. So I said what can we do hairwise that's still sort of Rapunzely, that I can take out later and it's still curly and pretty down. So she had to sort of improvise on the day of, and she did a french braid, which isn't my favorite. Oh well. And the flowers she wove into my hair looked sort of straggly- there were daisies and things but she picked these little evergreen looking things that didn't go that great in my hair in my opinion. Oh well. The makeup was beautiful! And the hair came down post ceremony and had gorgeous curls still. I would definitely recommend them- I didn't like "bridal makeup" and wanted something more natural and modern, and they definitely delivered.
Rings: I just used my engagement ring as the wedding band again- it doesn't stack well- ($140 off of etsy, can't find the link anymore but here it is on me) and he got this ring from Ethereal Bloom for $55.
Other outfits (mostly bride): $350. I got a dress from Asos link for the bridal shower and somehow have no pictures in it. It's a great dress though, I will wear it again! Got a little clip in veil from Lulus for $30 for the rehearsal dinner, and a dress from Anthropologie for $176 for the rehearsal dinner, and shoes from Target for $26. rehearsal dinner dress.
Bridesmaid and groomsman and flower girl/ring bearer attire: I wanted each bridesmaid in a different color- we did lavender, light blue, light pink, and light green. I wanted yellow originally but they all begged me not to make them wear yellow. So I put the flowers girls in yellow lol. I did a survey of each girl's size, budget for a dress, and requested color of (pink lavender green blue yellow), and once each had a color, I looked online and found 5 dresses for each girl within the price range they listed, with their size available, in the sort of garden party fairy vibe I wanted. They then picked the dress they liked best from the 5 options. Somehow, all four bridesmaids ended up picking dresses in almost the same cut and fabric, so it looks like I told them "this dress!" but it all worked out. They looked great. two of the bridesmaids. I had a flower girl and ring bearer who were kids, and two babies to be "jr" flower girl and ring bearers. I put the girls in adorable yellow dresses, and the boys had kids / baby versions of what the groomsmen wore. I did not care about the groomsmen attire at all- they did khaki vests because they all had khaki pants already, over a white shirt. I sent each of them a link to a tie in a color matching the bridesmaids- pink, green, blue, lavender. They looked great too.
Other costs: Thankful registry ($30). Definitely recommend registering with Thankful! So convenient to use different websites across the internet- can do literally any store you want, and can attach your paypal/stripe accounts for people to send cash. They also compile a thank you note list with who gave what and when, and little notes from the gift-givers. Other random costs... we used Minted for the wedding website which was free. Definitely recommend! Our website is beautiful and looks like us, and has my lily of the valley motif which I love. We also did both digital and physical RSVPs which worked really well. Plenty of people mailed their RSVPs but a lot of the younger ppl did online. And we could just go in and enter the online stuff for people who lost their card in the mail and/or weren't tech savvy. We had a bridesmaid suite for us to stay in night before the wedding: $218. Half of us ended up not even staying there lol- one of my bridesmaids brought a plus one and she was going to be staying there with us without us knowing that ahead of time... so me and one friend just slept at our own houses (we live in Chicago) and the bridesmaid suite became moreso this one girl and her plus one, and one of my sisters. Oh well lol. For the wedding night we thought abt a hotel room but it never happened and we were happy to just come home to our cute cats and our nice apartment.
total cost: $26,524
tldr; we had a beautiful wedding. We were 6k over budget... some of that was stuff I would definitely change (skip the Diana's bridal dress and get something 3k cheaper), some of that was stuff we forgot to include (we added tip into the totals on things and hadn't had that factored into the original budget, that was definitely over a grand across all the vendors), and some of it was just stuff you don't know you need until you're buying gold wire table number holders on amazon two weeks before the wedding. If I did it again I'd do it different in some ways, but most of the things came out great. And I am SO relieved and happy to be done. Thank goodness we are married and it's done and it was beautiful. Despite the rain.
If you have any questions about anything let me know! I hope this helps other Chicago brides/grooms on a budget. It's expensive out here but we did our best to keep costs low.
submitted by fairly_forgetful to weddingplanning [link] [comments]
So we started with a budget of 20k. We tried to allot it towards the stuff that was going to be expensive no matter what (venue, food) and to the stuff we cared about (photos, flowers), moreso than to "wedding stuff" that was traditional. I think we for the most part succeeded, however we did end up overbudget by far. I knew there would be surprise expenses but I underestimated them.
Overall goals: we both wrote down some dream goals for the wedding when we started to plan. It is a bit bittersweet to look back on those notes now because the wedding definitely took on a bit of a life of its own, and I think our goals did get a bit lost along the way. I wrote: Cinderella (2015) garden party wildflowers, black cat motifs, Taylor Swift, Mamma Mia vibes, delicate, whimsical, floral. He wrote: live band, ice cream cake, food truck, vibey, lowkey, fun.
Venue: (ceremony): $750. We got married at our church which could have been even cheaper but we added a few hundred for a donation to the general fund. The breakdown was a $100 cleaning fee, $300 musician fee (would have been lower but we asked the music director to learn a few new pieces for the service and wanted to compensate him for the extra work). The church is a gorgeous old Chicago church that we've been attending just over a year. We loved getting married there- the religious element was important to us, and our church community was so happy for us to get married there. It was a pretty church so we didn't really need to decorate it, which saved money as well.
Venue (reception): Firehouse Chicago ($6k). link. We looked for venues for a while and toured a few. Our guest count was sort of in between the cozy dinner party vibe we wanted, and the giant repurposed warehouse/ballrooms that most of the venues felt like. Smaller spaces that were still beautiful were wildly costly. But we liked Firehouse- it was pretty/unique enough looking that we wouldn't have to cover the place with decor to make it look halfway decent. My only regret about the venue is that it rained on our wedding morning, so they set up these big white tents outside, covering up the courtyard- and the tents were not very cute- the tops of them all stained from tree debris, etc. The courtyard was beautiful- fairy lights, flowers, Chicago brick buildings surrounding it, old trees- it felt like a little secret garden. But with the tents up... you are just in a white tent with stains on the top. I wish I'd made a better plan for rain or thought seriously about what to do and if I still liked the venue in rain mode. And it wasn't even raining by the evening! D: The tents weren't even necessary. But they were up and everything in them setup so there was no taking them down. Oh well. The venue also could have been cheaper - we added their candles for $150 (they strew a bunch of candles around for you) and their getting ready room ($500) for my bridesmaids and me to get ready in. We also took a bunch of pictures up there- it's a beautiful getting ready space. Very vintage feeling. The staff was very helpful to work with, though there were a few restrictions on vendors which we didn't love. They wanted us to use a catering vendor off their approved vendors list, and literally every single caterer would have been over 10k. We ended up going off the list (which would have incurred a small charge- not greater than the difference between that and 10k!) and since they had worked with that caterer before, they didn't charge us the fee- but still. Approved vendor lists sometimes are just a list of pricey people you can't opt out of. The staff of Firehouse was great, and the cost included people to set up your decor for you in the morning, a drop off time the day before with someone to listen to how you wanted things set up, and someone at the event all day to handle any emergencies / guide the staff for the room flip. Dinner is one setup of tables, and then you go outside for a toast/cake cutting, and the staff changes the floor around / takes away some tables to clear space for a dance floor, which was nice optimization of the space. The staff was awesome- they listened to my thoughts about what should go where, took my hampers of table numbers and a giant crossword and a guestbook tablecloth and card box and favors and 50 plus vases of flowers- all this stuff- and set it up beautifully. Prettier than I could have. I didn't have to fix a single thing. When I came downstairs in my wedding dress to go to the church, the place looked incredible. Husband wants me to add that we might have gone with a different reception space if we had known when we started planning that we were going to do the ceremony elsewhere. Part of the appeal of Firehouse was it had the pretty outdoor space where we could have a ceremony. But if we'd gone with a restaurant elsewhere, it would have been probably half the cost (since it would have combined food and venue).
Catering: City BBQ ($4,728, this is with gratuity included.) We had barbecue catering and it was delicious- we got a lot of compliments on the food. Brisket, turkey, mac n cheese, green beans, corn bread, potato salad, buns, and chocolate cake for dessert. They also did some fruit and cheese trays during cocktail hour. It took us weeks of searching last fall to find a caterer that wouldn't be over 10k for our number of guests but it was so worth the search. Chicago ups the cost on sooo many things but there are still some places you can find something cost effective if you put in a lot of time looking. We had wanted to do a food truck, particularly a taco truck, but they were all super expensive. We talked to three of them and it was going to be over 12k, some closer to 15k. We decided we didn't care that much abt the food truck and just wanted something tasty- ideally not the plated classic wedding dinners. So we had the buffet from City BBQ, and it was lovely. They were super nice to work with, and their head caterer came to our walkthrough at the venue a month prior and worked out the timeline etc with the venue coordinator. They did all the serving, setup, clean up, behind the scenes- they were awesome. So worth the money. I saw a lot of recommendations of just get some big tin trays of food and have family / friends manage the serving, but to me it was sooo worth it to have people working the event. I wanted my family and friends to be enjoying themselves.
Bar: Drinks On Us ($2k, gratuity included). The drinks were good. They provided two bartenders (one for the inside bar, one for the outside), and all the alcohol. I went with the package that had one red wine, one white wine, three kinds of beers, all sodas and such, and one custom cocktail (grapefruit fizz and vodka). The going back and forths with this vendor was a little frustrating- they have a faulty system, so as soon as I made a payment, the next day they send an email with vaguely grim language about a payment being over due- "take the easy way out and pay now before incurring 15% fees". The first time (initial deposit in December) I emailed them all alarmed. They said oh don't worry it just does that. The second time (paying the full balance in early May), I was more irritated. I'd just paid $1400, I'm managing giant payments to vendors left and right, and it's telling me I'm overdue and need to PAY NOW. It was unprofessional and a little menacing. The people were great, but the email system they have in place really soured me on them. They were very apologetic. I think I'd still recommend them, but know that you might get faulty emails warning you about late payments and fees.
Cake: Bittersweet Pastry, $140 (link we got this cake in pink and white for the cake cutting picture. Guests had chocolate cake from the caterer. The cake was beautiful, but not that good lol. But still worth it I think. This was a semi last minute addition as I realized we didn't have anything to cut for a picture.
Rehearsal dinner: A restaurant near our church. I believe this was around 2k, but my husband's parents paid for this. We had sliders and french fries and an open bar. The rehearsal was a lot of fun- the format of the room was a little restrictive, but it felt private to just our group, and it was super close to our church so we could walk right over after the rehearsal.
Marriage license: $60
Officiant: $0 (our priest officiated, she did not take a fee since our church considers marriage a sacrament and part of the duties of the church. We do donate to the church regularly though so you could consider that to be part of the fee.)
Ceremony music: see above church fee- it was about $300 but tied into the church fee
Photographer: Artbelka (Mariya Byelikova) Photography, $3,800. link. This got us seven hours of shooting, and we will have a gallery of pix as soon as she is done editing them. Photos were very important to me and I loved her style. We did engagement pictures with her, and both my husband and I are a little nervous in front of the camera. She set us at ease and got great movement pictures of us- very natural and candid and documentary style, while still having that stylish cinematic sort of feeling. We loved working with her- I'm hoping to do yearly pics with her or something. She was incredible. She also came to our rehearsal the day before because our church is in the round and is a slightly awkward space to photograph. And we last minute added an hour (we were originally set to do six hours) because we were either going to miss getting ready pics for me, or the special dances on the other end of the day, and she added an hour like 3 days prior to the wedding, no problem. Highly recommend her!
Videographer: Initially, Birch Films (James Birch Eiesland), for what was supposed to be $750 for a local Chicago videographer. It turned out he was from Minneapolis and finishing up school so he'd have to travel to Chicago and added a $200 travel fee. ok... well why are you listing yourself as local? Anyway... 12 days before the wedding he cancelled and refunded our money due to a family emergency. We scrambled and a friend of a friend who has a photography business was able to jump in. Paige Evans photography. This cost about $1200 but they also were doing it SUPER last minute, and they in general seemed more professional than James. (When we asked him how he was going to capture audio during the ceremony since vows are usually kind of quiet, and the videographer is standing a ways away, he said "his camera will pick up the audio". When we asked Paige how they would get the audio, she said they have a mic for the officiant and one for my husband. Just a glimpse into - you get what you pay for sort of thing.) They shot video of the entire ceremony, entire set of speeches/toasts, first dances- and caught highlights of other moments like dancing, guests, etc. They'll be sending me a 1 minute highlight reel in the next week or so I believe for social media, and the full videos will come later. Husband's parents paid for video, so I am not counting it towards our total.
Flowers: Romee Willow Floral, ($2k) link. Flowers were one of the most important things to me- I wanted a wildflower sort of feeling, a garden party vibe even though our wedding is in the city. I got quotes from a few florists and I really liked Romee Willow. I sent them my Pinterest board of flower inspo and they made a mood board and we talked through which flowers would be available right now, and the most important colors to me (yellow, light pink, light blue) and the shape of the bouquet, etc. They provided one bridal bouquet, 4 bridesmaids bouquets, 10 boutonnieres, 2 mom wrist corsages, a flower crown and basket of petals for the flower girl, and 54 bud vases of flowers for the tables at the reception. We originally were going to rent the vases and return them, but we wanted people to be able to take the flowers home (we couldn't, since we have cats) so we ended up getting vases off amazon link and everyone was able to take the flowers home in their cute vases. LOVED our florals. She beyond delivered. It would have been cheaper if we hadn't had the rental vases in our original contract, but she added more flowers to make up for the difference of not having the rentals. She perfectly caught the vision of what I wanted, and even though some of the flowers I wanted weren't in season (rip black eyed susans, queen anne's lace, etc) she made great substitutes. link to some pics we snapped of the flowers
Flower preservation: Bloom and Make ($600) link This was a last minute addition as I panicked two weeks prior to the wedding and realized I would want to preserve the bouquet. I wanted it pressed into a flat picture frame to hang on the wall, and I also added a pair of flower earrings. We'll be working together on this as the flowers come out of the press to see which ones look nice still and how I want to do it. I kept my bouquet in water overnight and we drove it to her house the day after the wedding. Very excited to work with her- I love her stuff on her website. She had great insight about colors too- apparently white flowers don't press that well, and reds turn brownish? She was excited to press my bouquet because it was so colorful. I can't wait to see how it turns out!
Other Decosignage/DIYs: $600ish. This was all very random stuff. Little gold wire stands to put the table numbers on. Templates to make the seating chart and name cards and table number cards. I got the templates off of etsy and made them on templett, and printed them at Staples. We did a custom crossword from etsy which was about $40 (on sale!) so we provided about 40 questions and answers, and this lady assembled it into a gorgeous "sip n solve" crossword for us. We printed it on laminated paper and got expo markers and a big poster board on an easel for cocktail hour. We also had little paper ones I printed at home if people wanted to try the crossword themselves. Probably about $60 to get the poster printed. I got a tablecloth off of ebay (still in package) for $20- super nice linen hemstitched tablecloth- and we had that set up almost like a blank canvas, for people to sign as a guest book. We also had a board of family wedding pics from our parents and grandparents' wedding days, and had that leaning on the wall behind the card box and matchboxes. All this stuff was super fiddly and time consuming- nothing individually that expensive, but just took time to make and think through what I wanted. I think they all turned out really nice though- especially the tablecloth. I plan to embroider on everyone's messages, and bring it out for holidays and have whoever attends the holiday sign it and date it- trace kids' hands, etc. A living heirloom. :) Our card box was a big yellow bread box from Michaels for $12- I didn't want a "card box" I'd literally never use again, so I got something I think is cute (I love yellow) and I'll use it as decofun storage. We also had an embroidered guest book from Rifle Paper co that was an impulse purchase in the last cpl weeks- I got worried that older guests might not sign the tablecloth and would be looking for a traditional "guest book". That did in fact happen. I'm going to try and transfer their signatures over to the guest tablecloth if I can. I made the matchbook design on my ipad and sent it to someone who had them made into matchboxes for me- about $100 for 100 matchboxes as our wedding favors. I was briefly worried no one would take any but MIL marched around with the basket and gave everybody a matchbox so we only have about 30 left which is a true miracle. Bless her heart. link to tablecloth results / inspo, and some other DIY stuff.
Invitations, Save the dates, postage: $400. I used a template on canva for the save the dates, and those were prob about $60. I found a template on Etsy and made the invitations on templett for the wedding- it's a beautiful art nouveau Mucha green frame. Those were also probably about $60-70. Most of the money here went to stamps. I love stamps. I made envelopes that match the garden party / floral vibe, but also that sort of corresponded to each guest's personality a bit. My sister who likes turtles, got a turtle stamp. My friend from ballet class got a ballerina stamp. I just really like stamps. This was an excellent excuse to get a lot of MNH stamps off of ebay I'd been eyeing for years and use them on my stationery. stationery pics
DJ: Just Press Play Productions (originally $550, but we had $9.60 added on). Very mixed feelings on this vendor. I think you get what you pay for. Most DJs were like 2k and we were reaaaally looking to save money by this time. This one was on the preferred vendors list, and they were super cheap, and brought the speakers / microphone themselves, and all we had to do (in theory) was provide the playlists and a device for the music to be played on. When I paid them, I got an irritated email about the fact that I turned on purchase protection (they requested we pay thru venmo, to avoid the credit card fees.) They requested I pay the extra nine dollars and sixty cents, and said it didn't benefit them to have the protection on, and that "they have never not shown up for their customers". I was like ...... but I paid the nine dollars, and decided to reserve judgment. They told us to make a couple of playlist- one of fast songs, one of slow songs, and one with the special music for the first dances, anniversary dance, last dance, etc. We did so. We had a call with the DJ a few days pre wedding and went over his script/transitions. He was going to announce tables for dinner, announce the speeches/transition between them, announce the dances, etc. He did some of those things. We had to do some of the transitions ourselves- everyone gave their toasts and speeches, and then we had to kind of say "that's all the speeches, thank you" and he was just standing there. The music was way too loud. We asked him a few times to turn it down, but if he did, it never took. It was super super loud during dinner, and during dancing. He texted me during the ceremony (I didn't see it till i got home that night lol) "where is the cocktail hour playlist". I didn't know we needed to make one of those- we made a slow song playlist and a fast/dance song playlist, as they had said most people do. It wasn't that he was bad... it just wasn't ideal. We should have looked into it a little more and realized we needed a cocktail hour playlist. And the email chiding us for the purchase protection thing and requesting the nine dollars really made me laugh.
Attire (groom): Husband got his suit made from scratch from an online try on place called Lords of Wool. I'm not sure if we would do it again. It was a lot of hassle to take the measurements and try and figure out what was going to be the closest fit, and when the suit arrived (cost abt $500) he still had to go to a tailor to get it altered. I think it would be easier to just go to someone to get a suit made for you locally. The suit was a light blue linen- really pretty- which was why we didn't go with a bigger name brand - nobody had that specific color. His parents paid for his suit, so I am not counting it towards our total.
Attire (bride): Here's where I really would do stuff different. I got my dress ($2k originally, more like 3.5 with alterations) from Diana's Bridal (not to be confused with David's Bridal!). The alterations cost a lot- even though there really wasn't much that needed to be altered. It fit me pretty well. They took the bust and waist in a little bit, and hemmed the dress, and added a bustle. I think we got "wedding charged" a bit. And then the real reason I am a bit bummed about this aspect is I ultimately decided to wear my mom's wedding dress for the ceremony. 3 grand later- I'm wearing a dress I had all along. So fricking silly. I wore my Diana's bridal dress to the reception, but it was a very full ballgown on little spaghetti straps. Beautiful (I still love it!) but super super heavy. Not very danceable. And I still have welts on my shoulders from those beaded spaghetti straps chopping into my shoulders with the weight of the giant ballgown all night. The bustle failed bc of course it did- it is a super heavy skirt- and my mom had to safety pin it up. I never ended up wearing the veil I got for this dress (it was this one but it was only $100 when i purchased it because the veil was for the ceremony. And by the week of the wedding I was eyeing stuff like this on ebay and just wishing I'd been more true to myself and gotten some vintage dress for less than a thousand dollars, a little more danceable, maybe even rewearable- and not felt like I had to get a "wedding dress". Oh well. You live and you learn. dresses
Hair and makeup: Nika Vaughan ($1430) link. This cost included hair and makeup for me and for two of my bridesmaids- so six hours and six services. My stylist was Lia. She did a great job for the most part! When we did the trial in March, I thought I was going to be wearing the ballgown for the ceremony. So we did loose curls and a little braid for the veil to sit in, and it was beautiful! Get to the wedding day and I'm wearing my mom's dress which has this Edwardian like high collar. I have long hair- curls/down is going to fight with the collar of the dress. But I knew I was going to switch to the ballgown later. So I said what can we do hairwise that's still sort of Rapunzely, that I can take out later and it's still curly and pretty down. So she had to sort of improvise on the day of, and she did a french braid, which isn't my favorite. Oh well. And the flowers she wove into my hair looked sort of straggly- there were daisies and things but she picked these little evergreen looking things that didn't go that great in my hair in my opinion. Oh well. The makeup was beautiful! And the hair came down post ceremony and had gorgeous curls still. I would definitely recommend them- I didn't like "bridal makeup" and wanted something more natural and modern, and they definitely delivered.
Rings: I just used my engagement ring as the wedding band again- it doesn't stack well- ($140 off of etsy, can't find the link anymore but here it is on me) and he got this ring from Ethereal Bloom for $55.
Other outfits (mostly bride): $350. I got a dress from Asos link for the bridal shower and somehow have no pictures in it. It's a great dress though, I will wear it again! Got a little clip in veil from Lulus for $30 for the rehearsal dinner, and a dress from Anthropologie for $176 for the rehearsal dinner, and shoes from Target for $26. rehearsal dinner dress.
Bridesmaid and groomsman and flower girl/ring bearer attire: I wanted each bridesmaid in a different color- we did lavender, light blue, light pink, and light green. I wanted yellow originally but they all begged me not to make them wear yellow. So I put the flowers girls in yellow lol. I did a survey of each girl's size, budget for a dress, and requested color of (pink lavender green blue yellow), and once each had a color, I looked online and found 5 dresses for each girl within the price range they listed, with their size available, in the sort of garden party fairy vibe I wanted. They then picked the dress they liked best from the 5 options. Somehow, all four bridesmaids ended up picking dresses in almost the same cut and fabric, so it looks like I told them "this dress!" but it all worked out. They looked great. two of the bridesmaids. I had a flower girl and ring bearer who were kids, and two babies to be "jr" flower girl and ring bearers. I put the girls in adorable yellow dresses, and the boys had kids / baby versions of what the groomsmen wore. I did not care about the groomsmen attire at all- they did khaki vests because they all had khaki pants already, over a white shirt. I sent each of them a link to a tie in a color matching the bridesmaids- pink, green, blue, lavender. They looked great too.
Other costs: Thankful registry ($30). Definitely recommend registering with Thankful! So convenient to use different websites across the internet- can do literally any store you want, and can attach your paypal/stripe accounts for people to send cash. They also compile a thank you note list with who gave what and when, and little notes from the gift-givers. Other random costs... we used Minted for the wedding website which was free. Definitely recommend! Our website is beautiful and looks like us, and has my lily of the valley motif which I love. We also did both digital and physical RSVPs which worked really well. Plenty of people mailed their RSVPs but a lot of the younger ppl did online. And we could just go in and enter the online stuff for people who lost their card in the mail and/or weren't tech savvy. We had a bridesmaid suite for us to stay in night before the wedding: $218. Half of us ended up not even staying there lol- one of my bridesmaids brought a plus one and she was going to be staying there with us without us knowing that ahead of time... so me and one friend just slept at our own houses (we live in Chicago) and the bridesmaid suite became moreso this one girl and her plus one, and one of my sisters. Oh well lol. For the wedding night we thought abt a hotel room but it never happened and we were happy to just come home to our cute cats and our nice apartment.
total cost: $26,524
tldr; we had a beautiful wedding. We were 6k over budget... some of that was stuff I would definitely change (skip the Diana's bridal dress and get something 3k cheaper), some of that was stuff we forgot to include (we added tip into the totals on things and hadn't had that factored into the original budget, that was definitely over a grand across all the vendors), and some of it was just stuff you don't know you need until you're buying gold wire table number holders on amazon two weeks before the wedding. If I did it again I'd do it different in some ways, but most of the things came out great. And I am SO relieved and happy to be done. Thank goodness we are married and it's done and it was beautiful. Despite the rain.
If you have any questions about anything let me know! I hope this helps other Chicago brides/grooms on a budget. It's expensive out here but we did our best to keep costs low.
2023.05.20 03:44 chickenstalker99 Ed Benguiat - creator of Tiffany, Bookman, Panache, Souvenir, Edwardian Script, and the eponymous Benguiat and Benguiat Gothic, as well as hundreds of other fonts - got his start in design by covering up cleavage
 | submitted by chickenstalker99 to Design [link] [comments] |
2023.03.09 05:39 ZeroCentsMade The Doctor, Re-Doubled – The Enemy of the World Review
This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.
The Enemy of the World is one of the most unusual Doctor Who stories of all time, produced in the middle of arguably Doctor Who's most formulaic Season of all time. That might seem like a bold claim, but there just isn't another story particularly like Enemy in Doctor Who. It's got elements from some earlier stories of course. The Doctor looking exactly like a villain from the story is taken from The Massacre, and the political drama that forms the backbone of the story is reminiscent of another David Whitaker script, The Power of the Daleks.
But for a story set in the future, there's something rather obvious missing here: no aliens. In some ways this story is like the now-defunct "true historical" format where a time period is presented without alien intervention.
This means that it's up to writer David Whitaker to invent a futuristic society compelling enough that we don't need any aliens. Fortunately if you've seen Power of the Daleks you'll know he's up to the task. In fact in many ways Enemy plays out like Power without Daleks. With political machinations a-plenty (and if you've read my review of Power you'll know that's right up my street) this story drops us head-first into a world with people of differing allegiances and aims, leaving us with a story that, especially at first, feels a lot more grounded than most Doctor Who at this time.
Not five minutes into the story and the Doctor is nearly assassinated by two men because he looks like Salamander, only for him to get saved by Astrid Ferrier whose boss Glies Kent is nominally working with those same men. That opening sequence establishes an exceptionally dangerous world, especially if you happen to be stuck with the Doctor's current face. It also helps us establish the big advantage that a story without aliens has – the writer can pin all of the story's problems on humanity, which the Doctor does when Victoria asks if the people shooting at them are monsters: "They're human beings if that's what you mean. Indulging in their favorite pastime of trying to destroy each other."
This also makes it difficult to know who to trust. Usually in Doctor Who the Doctor is pretty quick to figure out who the bad people are, ally himself with whoever's fighting them and get a move on defeating the bad people. Here we find the Doctor being a lot more circumspect. He's unwilling to take Giles Kent's word that Salamander is bad, and even after he comes to that conclusion for himself, he's still unsure of Kent's motivations. This story sees the Doctor at his most canny and devious because he has to be.
Kent of course turns out to be a villain in his own right, and as the Doctor points out there were hints all along. When the reveal comes to pass he comments to Kent that "Any man who resorts to murder as eagerly and as rapidly as you must be suspect," and indeed, Kent seemed more than a bit eager to have Salamander killed without trial throughout the story. But it was also justified as a man desperate to defeat a man who was trying to control the world.
And it's worth noting that his second in command, Astrid Ferrier, trusted him completely, but she turns out to be a decent person. Astrid is our main action hero for the story, just the second time we've seen a woman play that role after Sara Kingdom filled it for most of Daleks' Master Plan. I found her acting to be a bit overwrought at times, but mostly good otherwise. Also, since Astrid is the action hero of the story, it's probably worth noting that Enemy has some of the better fight scenes we've seen in Doctor Who to this point. Nothing amazing, but everything does flow better than fights can.
As for her personality, Astrid is difficult to get a read on at first. Whitaker is clearly trying to disguise which characters we can trust and which we can't and this is part of that. Astrid often comes off as brusque and sometimes even uncaring, She also does kill a few people, albeit only in self-defense or defense of others, drawing a clear line of distinction between her and Kent. While this is happening though, this helps us wonder if Astrid might not be someone we can rely on. And then, late in the story she meets a wounded man named Swann (more on that subplot later) and we learn exactly what kind of a person she is by how caring she is and the extent to which she feels the need to help his people. Overall, Astrid is a genuinely great character in this piece, and kind of a perfect example of the story doing fairly unique things with its characters.
Continuing on with the characters aligned against Salamander we have Fariah. Fariah is Salamander's food taster, appearing in episodes 2-4. As time goes on we learn that she actually hates Salamander but has been coerced to work with him anyway. She ends up allying with the Doctor and Astrid, but what I really want to give special attention to is the performance by Carmen Munroe. Munroe gives an always captivating performance, whether it's her interactions with Victoria and Chef Griffin where she's genuinely likable, or in scenes where she seems constantly able to find the dark humor in her position. When she reveals that she hates Salamander, it feels believable, and even earned. Fariah also stands out for being by far the most prominent black character on the show so far aside from Toberman in Tomb of the Cybermen, and while she dies by the end of episode 4 her presence was always a treat.
In Salamander's camp we should start with Donald Bruce, the well-meaning World Security Chief. Initially seeming to be solidly in Salamander's corner, over time we get the sense of a genuinely principled man. One wonders how he's managed to be so successful essentially working for Salamander when he clearly has issues with the man's methods, but that aside, the character is quite compelling. He naturally ends up siding with the Doctor by the end but getting there is quite the journey.
I should also mention that Colin Douglas, who played Bruce, hated working on Doctor Who, claiming that the show was low-grade children's fare and beneath him. He still gives a very compelling performance, and appears to have softened on his initial stance of never wanting to do the show again, as he would appear years later in Horror of Fang Rock. I've seen people claiming that you can tell his disdain for the show through his performance, but honestly, that's just the character.
The funny thing is, while some of Salamander's subordinates are genuinely awful people, there's also a number of people like Bruce. A security captain balks at being told to "shoot to kill", another one has genuinely pleasant interactions with with both his prisoner Denes and Astrid. Whitaker seems to have wanted to avoid the cliché of having Salamander's forces be entirely staffed by terrible people, and this allows the story to speak to the banality of evil. Yes the aforementioned captains seem to want to do the right thing but are constrained by the man that they work for a man that they are convinced is doing what is best for humanity.
Of course, an organization like Salamander's can't be entirely staffed by well-meaning people. And so we get Benik. Benik is a genuinely terrible person, sadistic and absolutely remorseless. Worryingly, there's something entertaining about how Milton Johns plays him, a petty and cruel man without any redeeming qualities.
And talking of entertaining characters, a bizarre highlight of the story is the perpetually pessimistic Chef Griffin. Apparently a genuinely amazing chef, Griffin is always convinced that things are going terribly, and I want to highlight yet another excellent performance (this story is full of them) by Reg Lye who perfectly embodies the always grouchy cook. For just one example of how absurdly fun this character was, at one point he tells Victoria to write up some menus and then says this: "First course interrupted by bomb explosion. Second course affected by earthquakes. Third course ruined by interference in the kitchen. I'm going out for a walk. It'll probably rain."
And okay, we've talked around it enough. Let's talk about Salamander.
Salamander is, of course, played by Patrick Troughton. In fact the majority of the plot revolves around the fact that these two men look exactly the same. Except…they don't quite look exactly the same. Yes this is the story where Patrick Troughton wears brownface (albeit very light)…and then later, onscreen, the Doctor also puts on brownface. I've said my piece on this in my review of The Savages. Not very well I will admit, but honestly I'm not really good at talking about these things.
Oh, Troughton also tries on a "Mexican" accent for this story, and if you're wondering why I've put the word "Mexican" in quotes, then you clearly haven't heard Patrick Troughton attempting a Mexican accent. It could be worse. Apparently his earliest attempts at the accent sounded Welsh. I do wonder why they wanted Salamander to be Mexican. It doesn't meaningfully impact the story, The Doctor has more trouble with the accent than he has with the skin tone so Salamander could have easily been, say, French, and I'd imagine Troughton would put on a better French accent.
Thing is, if you can look past all that, this is probably Troughton's best performance on Doctor Who. No joke, he's absolutely fantastic in this. The last time we did this basic concept in The Massacre, The Abbott in that story was more or less the polar opposite of the Doctor. Salamander though, is something different. Yes he's thoroughly evil, but he's also cunning, manipulative, fiercely intelligent and a scientist. In other words, he is very much like an evil version of the 2nd Doctor.
Earlier episodes see all of this on full display. We see him blackmail Fedorin into being his subordinate in such a way that he never actually says anything untoward. Later on in the conversation when he says "I've done nothing but praise you ever since we first met," that is technically the truth, and it gives us the sense of man who is very good at implying a lot while stating nothing. In another life, he would have been a very successful mob boss.
And then we get a brand new version of Salamander. The bunker stuff is weird, and I'll have more to say on it below, but this is where we get to really see Salamander the politician at work. The funny thing is, because the majority of the story has Salamander talking to his people, we've seen a version of him that is not trying to hide who he is quite so much. To the general public, he must be a very different man. In the bunker, we get to see him play the generous, self-sacrificing, hard-working benefactor of humanity, though it is, of course, an act.
But this isn't just Troughton's best performance because of Salamander. Let's talk about the Doctor. David Whitaker might be the best writer for the 2nd Doctor. Whitaker seemed to understand better than most how to present the 2nd doctor as cunning, devious and manipulative while still maintaining his kindness and charm. This story doubles down on all of that. I love the opening of this story in which the Doctor arrives on the beach and starts wanting to play sandcastles and run in the ocean. Then he's very conscientious about who he's going to help. As the story progresses we see him using all of his guile and intelligence by impersonating Salamander.
Troughton does an excellent job doing the Doctor playing Salamander bit. It starts off slow. In the first scene he impersonates Salamander he does so without any practice, slipping in and out of the accent and just barely fooling Bruce as a result. As the story goes on, he slowly gains more confidence in it, fooling steadily more and more people, eventually managing to fool his friends and even Kent.
Those last two moments I mentioned really tie into how Whitaker gets how to write the 2nd Doctor's more manipulative side. We saw this in his last script, The Evil of the Daleks. Here we once again see the Doctor manipulate his friends by pretending to be Salamander as a way of convincing Bruce what kind of a man Salamander is, Victoria nearly attacking the Doctor at the end of that scene, and Jamie needing convincing (which is accomplished by the Doctor miming playing the recorder, because of course it is). The other one has the Doctor pretending to be Salamander to get Bruce to give himself away, and is a masterclass in manipulation by the Doctor.
Jamie and Victoria don't get a tremendous amount to do, but they do have moments. Episode 3 is definitely their highlight, as they play the role of spies. They're ultimately found out by the end of the episode, but Jamie gets a bit of the action hero role, Victoria gets some fun stuff to do, and it's just a really fun time. Outside of that episode, they get pretty limited action as the story is more focused on the secondary cast and the Doctor, but it does give us enough good Jamie and Victoria moments.
The plot of the story is where a few small cracks to begin to show. For the first 4 episodes of the story we're just following along with the manipulations of Salamander as he tightens his control over the world. But then, late in episode 4 and really taking center stage in the final two episodes, we get the big twist of the story: the bunker. See Salamander has a secret bunker which he's put 30 or so people in. He's told them that the world is currently engulfed in a nuclear war and that they have to stop it by creating natural disaster (which he uses to tighten his political control on the surface). While not bad exactly the stuff in the bunker doesn't quite hit the same highs as earlier material.
As mentioned up above it does allow us to see Salamander playing the politician, which is a good thing, but the bunker characters, as they have significantly less screen time, end up feeling a bit underdeveloped. There's Swann who serves as Salamander's deputy in the bunker until he discovers evidence that Salamander had been lying to them. At this point he comes off as a bit stupid, especially considering the point being repeatedly made that nobody has ever come back from a trip to the surface with Salamander alive. And yet Swann goes on a trip to the surface with him.
The rest of the bunker characters don't get too much to do. Colin and his girlfriend Mary end up acting as the bunker leaders once Salamander's treachery is revealed to the whole bunker. Colin is a bit of a rebel, but only within the framework that Salamander has given him. Again, the stuff in the bunker isn't bad, I think it's pointing at something rather poignant about human nature and the whole thing feels a bit like Salamander running his own little underground cult, but it just doesn't quite live up to how good everything else is.
The bunker plot also doesn't really get a resolution. While Salamander's treachery is revealed, and Salamander himself gets a horrific death after trying to sneak aboard the TARDIS pretending to be the Doctor (shot off into the Time Vortex, genuinely disturbing), we end the story not knowing the precise fate of the bunker people. They're probably fine? While something that Kent did (it's unclear but probably has to do with Salamander's natural disaster machine) puts them in danger, they do survive but with their normal method of transit cut off. They could possibly still escape through the tunnel that Salamander pretends is how he gets to the surface, but that method of escape is cut off at the end of the story. Again, they're probably okay, Astrid was very motivated to help and Colin is on the surface to speak for his people, but we leave them technically trapped in their bunker.
If I have one actual criticism of the story that doesn't have to do with having Patrick Troughton play a Mexican man, it's the music. It's rather unusual for the time, consisting largely of orchestral pieces in a classical style. The music itself is pretty good, but it's often played without the sounds of the scene, which has the odd effect of making it feel like you're watching a silent movie. At other times it tends towards the overdramatic, with wildly over the top musical stings when something nefarious happens, which, as you can imagine, is fairly often. Still, even there I think the music is good, and it's only in occasional moments when I thought it was being used poorly.
I want to end by talking about the reputation of this serial. As you might have inferred by this already fairly long review, I really like Enemy of the World, I think it's one of Troughton's best. And that is the general consensus of the story. But it hasn't always been.
Before The Enemy of the World was recovered in 2013, it was largely seen as one of the 2nd Doctor's weakest outings. And the funny thing is, it doesn't really have the profile of a story that would do particularly poorly without the visuals. The dialogue is snappy, while there are a fair number of actions scenes they're generally on the shorter side. Sure some of the acting is overwrought and there is Troughton's awful Mexican accent, but in general this is a story whose reputation shouldn't have been hurt too much by being missing. And yet when it was recovered, it was suddenly being held as a forgotten classic.
I've seen the argument that the story's reputation was hurt due to episode 3 being the only surviving episode prior to 2013. Episode 3 is the episode set almost entirely in a kitchen and in a corridor outside said kitchen. And sure, episode 3 is the episode that probably needed its visuals the leasts to be appreciated but it's also got the stuff with Griff in it, some genuinely great character moments for side-character Fedorin and Salamander, it's not like it's a bad episode, in fact it's quite good.
I've never seen the Loose Cannon reconstruction of The Enemy of the World. When I originally started watching the Classic Who it was not long after its recovery in 2013 and by the time I got to it, I was able to get the recovered version. So I have no idea what I would have thought of the reconstruction. What I can tell you is that the first time I watched it, I absolutely loved it and on every subsequent rewatch, I have absolutely loved it.
And I wouldn't I? This story is absolutely right up my street, has great character moments for both main and secondary cast, and has Troughton's best acting performance…as long as you can deal with him pretending to be Mexican.
Score: 9/10
submitted by ZeroCentsMade to gallifrey [link] [comments]
Serial Information
- Episodes: Season 5, Episodes 17-22
- Airdates: 23rd December 1967 - 27th January 1968
- Doctor: 2nd
- Companions: Jamie, Victoria
- Writer: David Whitaker
- Director: Barry Letts
- Producer: Innes Lloyd
- Script Editor: Peter Bryant
Review
I'll expose [Salamander]. Ruin him. Have him arrested, but I won't be his executioner. No one has that right! – The DoctorThe Enemy of the World is one of the most unusual Doctor Who stories of all time, produced in the middle of arguably Doctor Who's most formulaic Season of all time. That might seem like a bold claim, but there just isn't another story particularly like Enemy in Doctor Who. It's got elements from some earlier stories of course. The Doctor looking exactly like a villain from the story is taken from The Massacre, and the political drama that forms the backbone of the story is reminiscent of another David Whitaker script, The Power of the Daleks.
But for a story set in the future, there's something rather obvious missing here: no aliens. In some ways this story is like the now-defunct "true historical" format where a time period is presented without alien intervention.
This means that it's up to writer David Whitaker to invent a futuristic society compelling enough that we don't need any aliens. Fortunately if you've seen Power of the Daleks you'll know he's up to the task. In fact in many ways Enemy plays out like Power without Daleks. With political machinations a-plenty (and if you've read my review of Power you'll know that's right up my street) this story drops us head-first into a world with people of differing allegiances and aims, leaving us with a story that, especially at first, feels a lot more grounded than most Doctor Who at this time.
Not five minutes into the story and the Doctor is nearly assassinated by two men because he looks like Salamander, only for him to get saved by Astrid Ferrier whose boss Glies Kent is nominally working with those same men. That opening sequence establishes an exceptionally dangerous world, especially if you happen to be stuck with the Doctor's current face. It also helps us establish the big advantage that a story without aliens has – the writer can pin all of the story's problems on humanity, which the Doctor does when Victoria asks if the people shooting at them are monsters: "They're human beings if that's what you mean. Indulging in their favorite pastime of trying to destroy each other."
This also makes it difficult to know who to trust. Usually in Doctor Who the Doctor is pretty quick to figure out who the bad people are, ally himself with whoever's fighting them and get a move on defeating the bad people. Here we find the Doctor being a lot more circumspect. He's unwilling to take Giles Kent's word that Salamander is bad, and even after he comes to that conclusion for himself, he's still unsure of Kent's motivations. This story sees the Doctor at his most canny and devious because he has to be.
Kent of course turns out to be a villain in his own right, and as the Doctor points out there were hints all along. When the reveal comes to pass he comments to Kent that "Any man who resorts to murder as eagerly and as rapidly as you must be suspect," and indeed, Kent seemed more than a bit eager to have Salamander killed without trial throughout the story. But it was also justified as a man desperate to defeat a man who was trying to control the world.
And it's worth noting that his second in command, Astrid Ferrier, trusted him completely, but she turns out to be a decent person. Astrid is our main action hero for the story, just the second time we've seen a woman play that role after Sara Kingdom filled it for most of Daleks' Master Plan. I found her acting to be a bit overwrought at times, but mostly good otherwise. Also, since Astrid is the action hero of the story, it's probably worth noting that Enemy has some of the better fight scenes we've seen in Doctor Who to this point. Nothing amazing, but everything does flow better than fights can.
As for her personality, Astrid is difficult to get a read on at first. Whitaker is clearly trying to disguise which characters we can trust and which we can't and this is part of that. Astrid often comes off as brusque and sometimes even uncaring, She also does kill a few people, albeit only in self-defense or defense of others, drawing a clear line of distinction between her and Kent. While this is happening though, this helps us wonder if Astrid might not be someone we can rely on. And then, late in the story she meets a wounded man named Swann (more on that subplot later) and we learn exactly what kind of a person she is by how caring she is and the extent to which she feels the need to help his people. Overall, Astrid is a genuinely great character in this piece, and kind of a perfect example of the story doing fairly unique things with its characters.
Continuing on with the characters aligned against Salamander we have Fariah. Fariah is Salamander's food taster, appearing in episodes 2-4. As time goes on we learn that she actually hates Salamander but has been coerced to work with him anyway. She ends up allying with the Doctor and Astrid, but what I really want to give special attention to is the performance by Carmen Munroe. Munroe gives an always captivating performance, whether it's her interactions with Victoria and Chef Griffin where she's genuinely likable, or in scenes where she seems constantly able to find the dark humor in her position. When she reveals that she hates Salamander, it feels believable, and even earned. Fariah also stands out for being by far the most prominent black character on the show so far aside from Toberman in Tomb of the Cybermen, and while she dies by the end of episode 4 her presence was always a treat.
In Salamander's camp we should start with Donald Bruce, the well-meaning World Security Chief. Initially seeming to be solidly in Salamander's corner, over time we get the sense of a genuinely principled man. One wonders how he's managed to be so successful essentially working for Salamander when he clearly has issues with the man's methods, but that aside, the character is quite compelling. He naturally ends up siding with the Doctor by the end but getting there is quite the journey.
I should also mention that Colin Douglas, who played Bruce, hated working on Doctor Who, claiming that the show was low-grade children's fare and beneath him. He still gives a very compelling performance, and appears to have softened on his initial stance of never wanting to do the show again, as he would appear years later in Horror of Fang Rock. I've seen people claiming that you can tell his disdain for the show through his performance, but honestly, that's just the character.
The funny thing is, while some of Salamander's subordinates are genuinely awful people, there's also a number of people like Bruce. A security captain balks at being told to "shoot to kill", another one has genuinely pleasant interactions with with both his prisoner Denes and Astrid. Whitaker seems to have wanted to avoid the cliché of having Salamander's forces be entirely staffed by terrible people, and this allows the story to speak to the banality of evil. Yes the aforementioned captains seem to want to do the right thing but are constrained by the man that they work for a man that they are convinced is doing what is best for humanity.
Of course, an organization like Salamander's can't be entirely staffed by well-meaning people. And so we get Benik. Benik is a genuinely terrible person, sadistic and absolutely remorseless. Worryingly, there's something entertaining about how Milton Johns plays him, a petty and cruel man without any redeeming qualities.
And talking of entertaining characters, a bizarre highlight of the story is the perpetually pessimistic Chef Griffin. Apparently a genuinely amazing chef, Griffin is always convinced that things are going terribly, and I want to highlight yet another excellent performance (this story is full of them) by Reg Lye who perfectly embodies the always grouchy cook. For just one example of how absurdly fun this character was, at one point he tells Victoria to write up some menus and then says this: "First course interrupted by bomb explosion. Second course affected by earthquakes. Third course ruined by interference in the kitchen. I'm going out for a walk. It'll probably rain."
And okay, we've talked around it enough. Let's talk about Salamander.
Salamander is, of course, played by Patrick Troughton. In fact the majority of the plot revolves around the fact that these two men look exactly the same. Except…they don't quite look exactly the same. Yes this is the story where Patrick Troughton wears brownface (albeit very light)…and then later, onscreen, the Doctor also puts on brownface. I've said my piece on this in my review of The Savages. Not very well I will admit, but honestly I'm not really good at talking about these things.
Oh, Troughton also tries on a "Mexican" accent for this story, and if you're wondering why I've put the word "Mexican" in quotes, then you clearly haven't heard Patrick Troughton attempting a Mexican accent. It could be worse. Apparently his earliest attempts at the accent sounded Welsh. I do wonder why they wanted Salamander to be Mexican. It doesn't meaningfully impact the story, The Doctor has more trouble with the accent than he has with the skin tone so Salamander could have easily been, say, French, and I'd imagine Troughton would put on a better French accent.
Thing is, if you can look past all that, this is probably Troughton's best performance on Doctor Who. No joke, he's absolutely fantastic in this. The last time we did this basic concept in The Massacre, The Abbott in that story was more or less the polar opposite of the Doctor. Salamander though, is something different. Yes he's thoroughly evil, but he's also cunning, manipulative, fiercely intelligent and a scientist. In other words, he is very much like an evil version of the 2nd Doctor.
Earlier episodes see all of this on full display. We see him blackmail Fedorin into being his subordinate in such a way that he never actually says anything untoward. Later on in the conversation when he says "I've done nothing but praise you ever since we first met," that is technically the truth, and it gives us the sense of man who is very good at implying a lot while stating nothing. In another life, he would have been a very successful mob boss.
And then we get a brand new version of Salamander. The bunker stuff is weird, and I'll have more to say on it below, but this is where we get to really see Salamander the politician at work. The funny thing is, because the majority of the story has Salamander talking to his people, we've seen a version of him that is not trying to hide who he is quite so much. To the general public, he must be a very different man. In the bunker, we get to see him play the generous, self-sacrificing, hard-working benefactor of humanity, though it is, of course, an act.
But this isn't just Troughton's best performance because of Salamander. Let's talk about the Doctor. David Whitaker might be the best writer for the 2nd Doctor. Whitaker seemed to understand better than most how to present the 2nd doctor as cunning, devious and manipulative while still maintaining his kindness and charm. This story doubles down on all of that. I love the opening of this story in which the Doctor arrives on the beach and starts wanting to play sandcastles and run in the ocean. Then he's very conscientious about who he's going to help. As the story progresses we see him using all of his guile and intelligence by impersonating Salamander.
Troughton does an excellent job doing the Doctor playing Salamander bit. It starts off slow. In the first scene he impersonates Salamander he does so without any practice, slipping in and out of the accent and just barely fooling Bruce as a result. As the story goes on, he slowly gains more confidence in it, fooling steadily more and more people, eventually managing to fool his friends and even Kent.
Those last two moments I mentioned really tie into how Whitaker gets how to write the 2nd Doctor's more manipulative side. We saw this in his last script, The Evil of the Daleks. Here we once again see the Doctor manipulate his friends by pretending to be Salamander as a way of convincing Bruce what kind of a man Salamander is, Victoria nearly attacking the Doctor at the end of that scene, and Jamie needing convincing (which is accomplished by the Doctor miming playing the recorder, because of course it is). The other one has the Doctor pretending to be Salamander to get Bruce to give himself away, and is a masterclass in manipulation by the Doctor.
Jamie and Victoria don't get a tremendous amount to do, but they do have moments. Episode 3 is definitely their highlight, as they play the role of spies. They're ultimately found out by the end of the episode, but Jamie gets a bit of the action hero role, Victoria gets some fun stuff to do, and it's just a really fun time. Outside of that episode, they get pretty limited action as the story is more focused on the secondary cast and the Doctor, but it does give us enough good Jamie and Victoria moments.
The plot of the story is where a few small cracks to begin to show. For the first 4 episodes of the story we're just following along with the manipulations of Salamander as he tightens his control over the world. But then, late in episode 4 and really taking center stage in the final two episodes, we get the big twist of the story: the bunker. See Salamander has a secret bunker which he's put 30 or so people in. He's told them that the world is currently engulfed in a nuclear war and that they have to stop it by creating natural disaster (which he uses to tighten his political control on the surface). While not bad exactly the stuff in the bunker doesn't quite hit the same highs as earlier material.
As mentioned up above it does allow us to see Salamander playing the politician, which is a good thing, but the bunker characters, as they have significantly less screen time, end up feeling a bit underdeveloped. There's Swann who serves as Salamander's deputy in the bunker until he discovers evidence that Salamander had been lying to them. At this point he comes off as a bit stupid, especially considering the point being repeatedly made that nobody has ever come back from a trip to the surface with Salamander alive. And yet Swann goes on a trip to the surface with him.
The rest of the bunker characters don't get too much to do. Colin and his girlfriend Mary end up acting as the bunker leaders once Salamander's treachery is revealed to the whole bunker. Colin is a bit of a rebel, but only within the framework that Salamander has given him. Again, the stuff in the bunker isn't bad, I think it's pointing at something rather poignant about human nature and the whole thing feels a bit like Salamander running his own little underground cult, but it just doesn't quite live up to how good everything else is.
The bunker plot also doesn't really get a resolution. While Salamander's treachery is revealed, and Salamander himself gets a horrific death after trying to sneak aboard the TARDIS pretending to be the Doctor (shot off into the Time Vortex, genuinely disturbing), we end the story not knowing the precise fate of the bunker people. They're probably fine? While something that Kent did (it's unclear but probably has to do with Salamander's natural disaster machine) puts them in danger, they do survive but with their normal method of transit cut off. They could possibly still escape through the tunnel that Salamander pretends is how he gets to the surface, but that method of escape is cut off at the end of the story. Again, they're probably okay, Astrid was very motivated to help and Colin is on the surface to speak for his people, but we leave them technically trapped in their bunker.
If I have one actual criticism of the story that doesn't have to do with having Patrick Troughton play a Mexican man, it's the music. It's rather unusual for the time, consisting largely of orchestral pieces in a classical style. The music itself is pretty good, but it's often played without the sounds of the scene, which has the odd effect of making it feel like you're watching a silent movie. At other times it tends towards the overdramatic, with wildly over the top musical stings when something nefarious happens, which, as you can imagine, is fairly often. Still, even there I think the music is good, and it's only in occasional moments when I thought it was being used poorly.
I want to end by talking about the reputation of this serial. As you might have inferred by this already fairly long review, I really like Enemy of the World, I think it's one of Troughton's best. And that is the general consensus of the story. But it hasn't always been.
Before The Enemy of the World was recovered in 2013, it was largely seen as one of the 2nd Doctor's weakest outings. And the funny thing is, it doesn't really have the profile of a story that would do particularly poorly without the visuals. The dialogue is snappy, while there are a fair number of actions scenes they're generally on the shorter side. Sure some of the acting is overwrought and there is Troughton's awful Mexican accent, but in general this is a story whose reputation shouldn't have been hurt too much by being missing. And yet when it was recovered, it was suddenly being held as a forgotten classic.
I've seen the argument that the story's reputation was hurt due to episode 3 being the only surviving episode prior to 2013. Episode 3 is the episode set almost entirely in a kitchen and in a corridor outside said kitchen. And sure, episode 3 is the episode that probably needed its visuals the leasts to be appreciated but it's also got the stuff with Griff in it, some genuinely great character moments for side-character Fedorin and Salamander, it's not like it's a bad episode, in fact it's quite good.
I've never seen the Loose Cannon reconstruction of The Enemy of the World. When I originally started watching the Classic Who it was not long after its recovery in 2013 and by the time I got to it, I was able to get the recovered version. So I have no idea what I would have thought of the reconstruction. What I can tell you is that the first time I watched it, I absolutely loved it and on every subsequent rewatch, I have absolutely loved it.
And I wouldn't I? This story is absolutely right up my street, has great character moments for both main and secondary cast, and has Troughton's best acting performance…as long as you can deal with him pretending to be Mexican.
Score: 9/10
Stray Observations
- This was Innes Lloyd's final story as producer. Script Editor Peter Bryant, who had previously produced The Tomb of the Cybermen as a sort of test of his suitability for the role would take over production starting next show. Derrick Sherwin would take over from Bryant as Script Editor.
- On a related note this was also the final story overseen by Sydney Newman in his capacity as BBC Head of Drama. Newman had had pretty minimal involvement with the show for some time mind you, but still worth mentioning given he was the show's creator.
- This was Director Barry Letts' first credit on Doctor Who. Letts is of course best known for his time as the show's producer for almost the entirety of the 3rd Doctor era.
- The story takes place in or around 2018, according to Astrid's helicopter registration. This would have been 50 years in the future from when it was made.
- Like in the previous story, the Doctor explains why he and his friends have been out of touch by referencing the last story. In this case he says that they've been "on ice".
- Like with the previous story, this story was partially built around contemporary concerns about food production keeping up with population. Episode 1 mentions that this is the problem that Salamander managed to solve (via his Sun Storer machine) that gave him his initial popularity.
- When Astrid says that she's meeting someone under a disused jetty the Doctor mishears her due to a bad connection and thinks she said a "disused yeti". Naturally he's concerned, and amusingly the line does make sense in light of The Abominable Snowmen.
- Victoria trying to pretend she knows how to cook: "you just sort of woosh it all up together". Victoria, being the daughter of a wealthy Edwardian man had servants to take care of cooking.
- A guard insists that Denes not be allowed a knife to eat with, even cutting up his food for him, but for some reason lets him keep a fork.
- Astrid's last name is Ferrier. The other prominent female character in this story is Salamander's food taster Fariah. This does get a bit confusing a couple of times, especially since most of the actors in this story have accents that drop the final "r" sound in "Ferrier".
- Jamie and Victoria do not appear at all in episode 4. In story they were captured at the end of episode 3 and Salamander had intended to question them personally. As is standard for these sort of absences, the reality was that Fazier Hines and Deborah Watling were on holiday at the time.
- I like that Salamander, in episode 6, calmly shoots Kent. It helps to show that, while he doesn't like to get his hands dirty and is very good at maintaining deniability in earlier scenes, if push comes to shove he's capable of just about anything. What I don't love is the evil laugh that follows. It feels a bit too clichéd.
2023.02.16 14:55 lazymentors The Psychology behind Type Choices
 | submitted by lazymentors to typography [link] [comments] |
2023.02.16 14:55 lazymentors The Psychology behind Type Choices
| | submitted by lazymentors to Marketingcurated [link] [comments] |
2023.02.08 20:50 Beautiful-Cupcake929 Hello! I need to know the cursive font used for "The" Fonts I know it's not: -Penultimate -Edwardian Script -Brock Script -Vladimir -Kunstler -Palace Script Please help because the font squirrel can't tell that I want the word in white and not the pieces cut out around it.
 | submitted by Beautiful-Cupcake929 to identifythisfont [link] [comments] |
2023.01.01 23:33 i-d-even-k- Looking for an artist to bring my floral tattoo sketch to a nicer, more realist style
I will put a disclaimer here that I don't have a huge budget, as I am saving for the actual tattoo, so my budget is ~30 dollars, but for someone whose portfolio I really like, I am willing to go higher and, of course, negotiation is king. I don't wish for the price to be a dealbreaker, really.
The design of the tattoo is quite simple: a half circle of eight flowers connected with intertwining vines, with a short sentence in cursive text around it and a date within the circle. Within the flower circle there is also a specific flower on a stem. For the text, I would prefer a standardised cursive font, either Brush Script or Edwardian Script or another cursive font the artist suggests, as long as it looks tidy and nice enough. It's really the flowers and the stems connecting them that I'm most concerned with.
I have sketched the design, but wish to go to the tattoo parlour with as finished an image as possible, instead of just an amateur's pen sketch. I will share the sketch and any further details through DMs, for anonimity's sake.
For the style, I am looking for something between realism and watercolour, styles similar to this or this or this or this. As long as the final product isn't too dark and looks clean-lined and realistic enough, I am happy.
I hope this little idea sounds fun to some of y'all ;)
submitted by i-d-even-k- to hireanartist [link] [comments]
The design of the tattoo is quite simple: a half circle of eight flowers connected with intertwining vines, with a short sentence in cursive text around it and a date within the circle. Within the flower circle there is also a specific flower on a stem. For the text, I would prefer a standardised cursive font, either Brush Script or Edwardian Script or another cursive font the artist suggests, as long as it looks tidy and nice enough. It's really the flowers and the stems connecting them that I'm most concerned with.
I have sketched the design, but wish to go to the tattoo parlour with as finished an image as possible, instead of just an amateur's pen sketch. I will share the sketch and any further details through DMs, for anonimity's sake.
For the style, I am looking for something between realism and watercolour, styles similar to this or this or this or this. As long as the final product isn't too dark and looks clean-lined and realistic enough, I am happy.
I hope this little idea sounds fun to some of y'all ;)
2022.11.10 18:39 Pericles_89 Help: I have too many fonts I have like over 250 of them is there any way I can organize all my fonts in a way that works with adobe products??
 | submitted by Pericles_89 to identifythisfont [link] [comments] |