Hear Hear

What are you talking about? These are high art

I could make serious fanart

Or I could make some of the stupidest shit anyone has ever seen

"Et tu, Boöts?"

Keep it up @neil-gaiman, it will be over soon

Someone else, can't find where or who, pointed out that Slowik is definitely the kind to know *everything* about his regulars, so knew the Tech Bros. were bullshitting but he and his crew committed to the bit anyway for the jollies. So you are on the mark about the whole cake analysis

I just saw The Menu and I want to talk about this fucking cake. (Spoilers)

I'm curious if it's intentional. This cake looks kinda amature. It's a minimalist fondant cake with a sugar bowl slapped on top. It's straight up Pinterest material. It's something an experienced homebaker could pull off with practice. And it's not perfect. The cake is tapered at the top and the fondant is sloppy.

It's not something that would be served at a place even with a fraction of prestige as Hawthorne.

To me, that cake represents the trickle down of the innovations that Chefs like Slowik have to keep inventing to stay relevant. That's why he invites his Lilian to the dinner and why he plans on killing her. If he isn't constantly surpassing her increasing standards then she can write a story about how far Chef Slowik has fallen and gain more prestige.

Avant Garde trends always changes to be adopted by the masses. It's the nature of art.

Another example is the trend of servers hitting or smashing food as is it served before the guest can start eating. (Example starts at 1:47)

That has turned into restaurants charging $25 for a chocolate pinata that guests break themselves at their table.

They serve a cake that represents their art being changed to be more attainable (which is not a bad thing, mind you. It's always going to happen). Most people would have fun smashing a chocolate pinata, but it's something that the people attending that dinner would scoff at.

They want to be presented and served. They want a true experience, not simple food or fun.

A cake with all of that meaning is served before a dish that aimed to elevate a simple, common dish to an absurd degree. It's the only way people like the guests would consume a dish that simple and beloved.

That is, if the cake was intentionally made to represent that. If not, I kinda look like a fool.

[I don't have an issue with Cecil's dumb hubris nearly as much as I do with the fact that in the Invincible universe, not only can you survive after your head's been shattered into a literal pile of goo, but you can still talk to request medical assistance]

I just chalk that up to Viltrumite's having a slightly slower version of Wolverine's healing factor and call it a day... 😅

I like to think Conquest always whispers his darkest secrets to people he's about to kill because he has nobody to chat with. "I love rainy days, fluffy kitties, and double rainbows. Take that to your grave." *CRUNCH*

I don't have an issue with the believability of Cecil's dumb hubris nearly as much as I do with the fact that in the Invincible universe, not only can you survive after your head's been shattered into a literal pile of goo, but you can also still talk to request medical assistance.

I actually think Jaime and Cersei won't make out of twow. Aegon will hold King's Landing against Daenerys, not Cersei i.e, a much more likable monarch, making Dany's actions even more horrific. And Jaime's plot for S7/S8 didn't even make sense. But they will die together, of that I am sure.

(in reference to this post)

I agree. I think Dany's choice to take KL from Aegon is far more interesting than for her to fight Cersei because killing Cersei would have no personal significance, debating whether or not Aegon is who he claims to be, deciding he is a fraud whether that’s a genuine belief or merely a convenient one, it allows a lot more inner turmoil. Also, I believe Martin said something about us getting a little Targ war, a mini dance of the dragons 2.0, so it seems likely the two will have a fight over the throne. But even without Martin's comment, in the books themselves he's ramping up to it with this:

"A dragon eating its own tail, aye," Valena said. "From the days of Aegon's Conquest. He did not conquer here. Elsewhere he burned his foes, him and his sisters, but here we melted away before them, leaving only stone and sand for them to burn. And round and round the dragons went, snapping at their tails for want of any other food, till they were tied in knots." (TWOW, Arianne I)

which is yes, history, but also signaling what is to come for House Targaryen. They fight and kill each other, it’s fitting that that is how they go out. And we know they will, that although Rhaegar was "the last" and that Viserys thought he was the last, in truth, Dany will be the last:

And saw her brother Rhaegar, mounted on a stallion as black as his armor. Fire glimmered red through the narrow eye slit of his helm. "The last dragon," Ser Jorah's voice whispered faintly. "The last, the last." Dany lifted his polished black visor. The face within was her own. (AGOT, Daenerys IX)

So for her to kill a Targ claimant to take the throne and then be killed in turn makes sense to me.

I now can’t remember if there was a specific line that convinced me Jaime and Cersei would die together, maybe it was just Jaime saying it (“We will die together as we were born together”) that planted the idea, but before s8 I had accepted it as inevitable. There is an entire section of this post by @istumpysk with quotes/spec about how. 

you know what would have been great? if ron got sorted into slytherin.

imagine– we have this kid on the train, the first friend harry meets, with his corned beef sandwiches and smudged nose. ron is eleven years old and he wants gryffindor, because he’s a weasley and that’s what always happens. but it doesn’t happen.

what a way to redeem slytherin house– or, god, at least complicate it. because ron is petty. he is mean and sharp and ambitious and jealous– and he is loyal to the ends of the earth. he is all those things, and he is and always has been good.

potter becomes before weasley in the alphabet, so harry says not slytherin please and gets told might as well be gryffindor. percy and fred and george are all sitting there in red and gold, ruffling the already-ruffled hair of the boy who lived, smug, and then ron sits down and the hat spits out slytherin!

c'mon it’d be fun. just imagine–

the weasleys freaking out– but even that first christmas molly sends him a sweater in beautiful green and silver.

snape taking points from gryffindor when ron breaks rules or mouths off. “i’m in your house.” “hm, couldn’t tell which weasley it was…” /drifts away

sitting with harry in potions and in flying– whatever classes they happen to share. meeting up to study. scarfing down their breakfasts at separate tables so they can go hang out in the empty classrooms before the day starts. hermione reads while they play exploding snap.

the trio signing up for all the same electives third year. this friendship being something they earn and work for; not just the one that looked easiest. (not to bash canon ron&harry, the bros to end all bros, but by putting this very obvious obstacle between them– it makes it that much clearer to the reader that this is a love worth fighting for, because they’re fighting for it).

ron being jealous that harry and hermione get to share this house, this home, these hours, while he’s stuck with malfoy and parkinson and goyle– because that would eat him up some days, some months, this insecure kid who’s been the last at everything all his life. this kid who always leaves and always comes back.

ron, who constantly compares himself to his brothers– not as smart, not as popular, not as good. one more nail in that coffin, here, yeah? he’s not a prefect, not a quidditch star, not a troublemaker– and even when he becomes those things, someone else has always gotten there first. 

well, i guess he got to this house first at least

ron still snaps at snape in potions, after hermione’s been ignored three times, “you know, sir, i think hermione might know the answer.” he still pulls the bars off harry’s window with a stolen, flying car. he still shows harry around the burrow shyly, not knowing what a wonder a warm home is. he still stands up in the shrieking shack as best as he can with a broken leg and tells a mass murderer that if he wants harry he’ll have to go through him first. 

ron weasley is a lot of things, but one of them is absolutely a true friend.

in their second year:

when everyone calls harry the heir, they eye ron at his side and sniff.

when hermione lays petrified in the medical ward, ron sits at her side and reads her homework assignments aloud and thinks my house this was my house. 

when ron hugs ginny’s damp, shaking frame after the chamber, ron says sorry and sorry and are you okay and i’m so sorry and ginny calls him an idiot.

the trio spends more time in the library with hermione, since ron can’t come to gryffindor tower to study, and homework remains a thing that has to happen. fred and george constantly try to sneak him into the tower anyway. 

“c'mon, ronnykins, you belong here, you deserve it, no one’s gonna fuss, it’s your BIRTHRIGHT,” and ron fusses and rolls his eyes at them

and then in fourth year in one of those periods where he’s not talking to harry and harry’s not talking to him– he just snaps at the twins

because it’s not, alright?

not his birthright, not his house, and maybe no one would fuss if he snuck in, maybe no one would care, and that makes it worse not better, because then he’s just that weasley who should’ve been gryffindor

and isn’t

(and harry overhears this caterwauling, feels his heart fall to his toes, and goes and awkwardly asks ron if he wants to go a few laps on his firebolt). 

(because, god, harry-the-chosen-one, harry-in-the-cupboard-under-the-stairs, harry-who’ll-save-us-all– he knows what it’s like to have should have beens on your shoulders, and he knows what it’s like to not be wanted).

ron cheers for gryffindor during quidditch matches in those first few years, and sits with hagrid and hermione and neville. harry’s seeker, and fred and george are beaters, and ginny becomes chaser eventually, and honestly screw the slytherin team. they have each and every one of them said disparaging things about ron’s mother.

harry and hermione badger ron into trying out for keeper fourth year; he and harry have been practicing on the quidditch pitch because its a non-library-shaped place to hang out where both of them are allowed. ron makes the slytherin roster, and malfoy grudgingly provides ron a team broom after the captain chews him out for a bit.

“he may be a weasley, but he’s our keeper, don’t you want to win, draco”

but the sort of things they spit in the locker room, the words the players hiss or snigger, the slurs that come easy to their tongues– ron would like to say that he considered just walking out of the cesspit, but instead he snipes and sasses and shouts and sometimes tries to spell slugs at the worst of them. 

it doesn’t do much, that one irritated voice of protest– except that it does. and he’s got a new (hand-me-down) wand, after the gilderoy fiasco, so the slugs even come out the right end.

fred gives him a black eye with a bludger one time (though ron does manage to block the quaffle) and molly sends a howler to gryffindor table with the morning post. (“RON DID YOU TATTLE”) (“IT WAS CLEARLY PERCY, FRED, SIT DOWN”)

(the weasleys often have family conversations across the great hall, with hufflepuffs and ravenclaws covering their ears long-sufferingly between them)

in the lake, it’s still ron hanging there in the water, still and bloated. it’s still harry’s heart that stutters in his chest, for all it’s just a game, just a game, just a game, right?

ron listens hard and tries to talk himself out of fist fights, all that next year in the slytherin common room as they read aloud rita skeeter articles.

when hermione calls dumbledore’s army to its first session in that pub, there are green scarves in that crowd– ron and one of the beaters who ron’s gotten to help glare to rest of the slytherin quidditch team into submission.

ron beats draco to being prefect (i think i remember it was dumbledore and not mcgonagall who seemed to award prefect status– snape doesn ’t get a say).

percy is SO PROUD, as usual, but so are fred and george. “did you see the little malfoy git? green with shame, my god.”

when harry has the dream about sirius, ron isn’t there to wake. but when draco’s pulled out of bed to be a professional bully– er, i mean inquisitorial squad member– ron follows at a careful distance and curses draco from behind. 

they ride thestrals over london. harry finds the prophecy and ron thinks about the sorts of things that get decided at your birth.  

sirius black was a son of slytherin who had a lion living in his chest that he couldn’t hide away. 

ron was meant to be gryffindor, and through a haze of injury and fear he watches sirius die just out of harry’s reach.

just imagine: ron with his temper and his sharp words and his fierce loyalty. ron who looks into the mirror of erised and sees house cups and prefect badges and ambitions earned– he could belong in slytherin. there is nothing wrong with wanting things, and he wants them so bad.

there are so many reasons to fight a war, and so many ways. harry and his sacrifices, his loving resignation. hermione’s good right hook and bottomless bag of supplies. luna, brilliant and a bit batty. lee jordan’s radio and mcgonagall’s burning patience and brittle, certain bones.

just imagine: when the last battle comes, there is a slytherin on the field who is not snape.

when draco and his parents walk away, in that last battle, ron–

who slept in the same dormitory as the boy for six years

who heard draco’s nightmares and saw him paling and desperate all sixth year

who is as pureblooded as lucius’s spoiled whelp

who remembers grimacing at the thought of squibs

who has known magic all his life

who spotted draco penning letters home to his mother every sunday and hiding them when the other boys could see–

ron sees them going.

he sounds no alarms. he says no farewells.

he turns back to his friends, and his fight, and lets them be.

just imagine: when harry kneels on the train platform and his second son asks him “but what if i get sorted slytherin, dad?” harry can say, “the bravest man i ever knew was in slytherin house. whatever you are, wherever you go, we’re going to be so proud of you." 

and they can both gaze over to where ron is squawking beside his daughter’s trolley of luggage because crookshanks (who will live to be forty eight million years old) has latched onto his shins with a violent fondness.

All the love and respect to Dave McKean

The covers of the Sandman comics were always so orginal and captivating, being largely photographs of collage art pieces; will those play any part in the show, like as title cards, inspiration, or on camera recreations like Morpheus in the magic circle?

You know, lots of people think they were collaged, but they weren't. They were built...

Here are the covers to 1, 2 and 6 respectively.

And yes. If you keep an eye out in Burgess's mansion in Episode 1, you'll see a lot of the things on the shelves of the cover to #1 in display cases on his walls...

How sweet of you, Mister President Trump 🙄

Reminder for when he “saves” it. He was the one who wanted this, and now he gets to be the hero and win favour with young constituents. Don’t give him the credit for fixing his own problem.

Same silly hand-wringing, different format. No wonder Neil is at home here on Tumblr

below is the letter received by Neil Gaiman from the “concerned mothers of america” in ‘92, and his response :)

he mentioned this letter in a recent interview with Pink News:

“I remember getting a very grumpy letter from the ‘Concerned Mothers of America’, informing us that due to the number of gay characters in Sandman they would be boycotting us and we had to repent,” he said.

“We never repented and the sales just went up, and up, and up. So I never really worried about their boycott.”