#rapha talks

[rapha-reads]

Guys, something historic is happening right now and we all need to turn our eyes to the Madleen ship of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla. They are right now (June 9th, 2am EEST), under attack by quadcopters of the IDF. Everyone, go their Instagram @/gazafreedomflotilla, follow the 12 heroes who are on board, go follow Rima Hassan on Twitter if you're still on Twitter, and write to the representatives concerned (UK, France, Sweden, Germany, Turkey, Netherlands, Brazil, Spain).

Here is the tracker so you can follow the ship.

Don’t lose the Madleen [Barcarole]. Track her journey for safety, accountability, and solidarity   In partnership with Forensic Architecture

Al-Jazeera is doing live coverage (link below), I also recommand following the UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese, she's in direct contact with the ship.

Freedom Flotilla’s Madleen nears Gaza as Israel issues threats

Israeli media says activists face detention if they fail to comply with Israeli army orders.

[rapha-reads]

No, but, I adore Dhawan!Master. The way he reacts to the Doctor isn't just his manic energy, his unhinged, feral madness. It's not just Simm!Master's hatred and anger, it's not just Missy's lunacy and uncaringness disguising her desire to get close to Twelfth. Dhawan!Master is so, so in love with the Doctor, he can't stand in. The moment she steps into the same space as him, he cannot help but feel all his love for her, poisoned by his anger and pain, but he can't shut off the love and he haaaaates it. He hates that he perks up whenever she pays him attention, hates that he even needs her attention. But he can't help himself. He hates her and he loves her and he hates that he loves her and he loves that he hates her. And every time someone says to the Doctor "your Master", it's not "your" as in, the possessive article, it's your as in, endearment. He is your Master not because he is your superior, he is your Master because he is entirely yours.

Aaaaah, Thoschei makes me insane.

[rapha-reads]

*wheezing* Okay, okay, one of the best characters in Love Like The Galaxy if not the actual best is Consort Yue.

What the hell her deal is, I don't know, but she rocks. Wants to be left alone, refuses to scheme, never participates in anything, but sometimes makes an appearance, ROAST the hell out of everybody from the Emperor to all the kids to the Emperor's aunt (apparently only the Empress is spared), without a care and without anyone having the courage to tell her anything, least of all the Emperor himself, spills the family's entire tea and then sashays away.

Who is she, what does she want, why is she so savage. I love her. Even if she's an antagonist to our main leads I'm team Yue Heng. She can do no wrong in my eyes.

Seriously, every single one of her appearances gives me LIFE.

[rapha-reads]

I hate to do this but I really need help.

My father is a farmer in the Moroccan mountains. He has 90 walnut trees, 260 cherry trees and 45 almond trees, all organic, that he takes care of on his own at 68 years old, treating them, watering them and harvesting them.

He just got the entire harvest of walnuts of the year stolen. 120 kilos of walnuts, harvested by his own elderly hands, gone in one day. And there's no insurance, no law and no justice in this country.

He's devastated, his physical and mental health are at their lowest. It's the work of an entire year of care, but also his entire life, that's just gone.

Here's my ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/rapha45133

Can you please help me so I can support him through this hard time and try to safeguard next year's harvest? So I can make sure he can live through the winter with food and wood for heating?

Thank you very much, I'd be so, so grateful.

[rapha-reads]

Fifteenth Doctor: "I don't live like that, one day after another, in the right order."

Fourteenth, who's been staying with Donna for two years now: "..."

Twelfth, who stayed in St Luke's University for close to 70 years: "..."

Eleventh, who stayed a year with the Ponds during the cubes' invasion: "..."

Tenth, who lived in the 60s with Martha when the Angels took the blue box: "..."

Third, who was exiled on Earth and worked for UNIT: "..."

"What are we, jokes to you??"

[rapha-reads]

Been rereading my thesis on folktales, rewritings and Beauty and the Beast to prepare for writing my PhD thesis proposal, and although it's not a part I need to save for that, I reached that passage and felt like sharing, because it's a little paragraph I'm quite proud of:

There is a crucial distinction to be made between the notion of kindness and that of niceness. In the simplest of terms, being kind implies a conscious choice to go towards others and help them for the sake of helping them, while being nice is a social act that expects a reward. One can be kind without coming off as nice, and nice people are not necessarily kind. Niceness comes with social repercussions and expectations: I will be nice to these people so that they will talk positively about me, and it will bring me popularity and social standing. But behind closed doors, the mask falls and all these actions turn out to be pretence. On the other hand, kindness is often invisible, and does not offer any compensation. Being nice is acting as society expects you to because you are afraid that if you do not, you will not be accepted. Being kind is acting selflessly for the good of others without thinking of society’s requirements, nor even thinking of one’s own self.

[rapha-reads]

Ghost Files x Puppet History crossover in the next episode of Puppet History, Watcher fandom, how are we feeling?!!!

And Ryan is going to prove the existence of ghosts by talking to ghost Shane, now that, I didn't see coming.

[rapha-reads]

Villains, clowns or misunderstood characters?

A study of Tybalt and Mercutio, from play to movies

Introduction:

Most movie adaptations only focus on the star-crossed lovers and often cut or misunderstand the roles of Tybalt and Mercutio. The goal is to shed another light on these two characters through a study of the text and an analysis of chosen scenes in the movies.

Part 1A

Part I – A royal jester, a mercurial clown: who is Mercutio?

A – The one who talks a lot: five centuries of analysis and interpretations

Mercutio’s weapon of choice is language. He loves to hear himself, he loves puns and jokes. He goes from prose to verse incessantly, showing his volatile and erratic temperament. He also strives on public admiration, and often makes a spectacle of himself to attract attention.

Part 1B

Part I – A royal jester, a mercurial clown: who is Mercutio?

B – The Queen Mab tirade: Mercutio’s bravura

One of the most famous tirades of Romeo and Juliet is said by Mercutio. He launches into the phantasmagorical recital of his dream after Romeo reveals that he had a dream. The Queen Mab speech is riddled with innuendo. But it is not just a long speech made of puns and funny, goofy, Mercutio-esque jokes.

Part 2A

Part 2 - Tybalt, honour and loyalty: the angry Prince of Cats

A – Villain?

Tybalt is skilled with a sword. Indeed, Tybalt’s first appearance in the play is sword in hand. He is the second main character to appear, after Benvolio, and his very first course of action is to insult and seek a fight. The same way Mercutio’s weapon is words, Tybalt’s is his skills with a sword.

Part 2B

Part 2 - Tybalt, honour and loyalty: the angry Prince of Cats

B - Or another victim?

There is something else already in these two lines, the first he speaks: his attention to ranks and social value, his obsession with the system of Verona. The realisation that Tybalt is perhaps not all that he seems to be sheds another light on his behaviour on the streets and towards the Montagues.

Part 3A

Part 3 - A strange rivalry: Tybalt vs Mercutio

A – Through each other’s eyes

Their personalities, beliefs and views of the world end up clashing and the resulting fight is the turning point of the play. Up until the Duel, the play was more axed towards comedy than tragedy, but the fire that Mercutio and Tybalt alight by meeting tips the play towards tragedy. But who are they to each other, really?

Part 3B

Part 3 - A strange rivalry: Tybalt vs Mercutio

B - Death comes for everyone

The Duel is the tipping point of the play. While the prologue says that the feud is ancient and has been reawakened with a new rage, the Prince’s warning speech in act 1 scene 1 implies that the fights had not yet been deadly – nobody has died because of the feud.

The END

Conclusion

References

Tybalt is often misrepresented as the villain of the play, when he is just as much a victim as the rest of Verona’s youth. As for Mercutio, he is most of the time only remembered for his puns and innuendos, even though there is much more to him than just a clown.

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