hiding the notes imao

I trust you, _. I'll always trust you.

This place holds more magic than any palace in the world.

Mother Night! Fold your dark arms about me.

 Protect me in your black embrace.

Looking upon these frail creatures, one would not think that they could contain such power.

One could rule the universe with it!

I require the solace of the shadows and the dark of the night.

Sunshine is my destroyer!

Every wolf suffers fleas. 'Tis easy enough to scratch!

What is Light without Dark? What are you without me?

Maybe innocence. Maybe sweet. Ain't half as nice as rotting meat.

Higher, higher, burning fire, making music like a choir!

Did nothing untoward happen?

Love you say? Well love is another matter.

She was so sweet, I could eat her brains like jam!

Nobody knows but you. It's our secret.

I could be anything you want me to be, even your heart's desire

A fairy's love makes anything possible.

What you did is forbidden.

Are you afraid to kiss me, _?

I'm afraid you'll break my heart.

Then still your heart. You're dear to me as life itself!

All the heavenly angels must envy your beauty!

It has been an eternity since I have felt such desire. What am I to do?

Even now the evil seed of what you've done germinates within you.

You're nothing but an animal!

We are all animals. Most are too afraid to see it!

he dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity.

My dream is of eternity with you.

I'll do what you ask if you'll kiss me.

I'm warn and alive and want to be in your arms.

Human hearts don't work that way.

What care I for human hearts, soft and spiritless as porridge? 

Starter meme based on the 1985 album by Kate Bush, change pronouns as needed

Running Up That Hill 

It doesn't hurt me.

Do you want to hear about the deal that I'm making?

If I only could, I'd make a deal with God, and I'd get him to swap our places

Is there so much hate for the ones we love?

Tell me, we both matter, don't we?

Hounds of Love

I've always been a coward.

I don't know what's good for me.

Oh, help me, someone, help me, please!

I found a fox caught by dogs. He let me take him in my hands, his little heart, it beat so fast. And I'm ashamed of running away.

Do you know what I really need?

The Big Sky

I'm looking at the big sky.

You never understood me. 

You never really tried.

That cloud looks like Ireland.

C'mon and build me an ark.

Mother Stands for Comfort

She thinks that I was with my friends yesterday.

Fear escapes and takes possession.

Make me do this, make me do that.

Am I the cat that takes the bird?

Mother will stay mum.

Cloudbusting

I wake up crying.

What made it special, made it dangerous.

But every time it rains you're here in my head like the sun coming out.

I just know that something good is gonna happen I don't know when but just saying it could even make it happen.

I can't hide you

And Dream of Sheep

Light will guide them to me.

My face is all lit up.

Let me be weak.

Let me sleep and dream of sheep.

Wish I had my radio I'd tune into some friendly voices.

Under Ice

It's wonderful everywhere.

The river has frozen over.

There's something moving under the ice.

Get out of the cold water.

Someone help them

Waking the Witch

Can you not see that little light up there?

Confess to me.

What is it, child?

Bless me, father, bless me father, for I have sinned.

I question your innocence

Watching You Without Me

I should have been home hours ago.

You don't hear what I'm saying, do you?

There's a ghost in our home.

Don't ignore, don't ignore me.

You won't hear me leaving

Jig of Life

I know your face well.

Will you look into the future?

Never, never say goodbye to my part of your life.

C'mon and let me live, girl!

And you will dance with me in the sunlit pools.

Hello Earth

Peek-a-boo.

I can blot you out.

Get out of the water.

Go to sleep.

Why did I go?

The Morning Fog

The light began to bleed, began to breathe, began to speak.

I love you better now.

I am falling like a stone.

I'd love to hold you now. 

My parents were so poor they got married for the rice. 

I've got more legs than a bucket of chicken!

Why do I feel like I'm in the Tournament of Roses Parade?

Do you like my nails?

Internal combustion, the ultimate accessory.

What in gay hell?

We are three young career girls...

Now she's going to get herself kidnapped by some mountain man and we will have to go rescue her!

I want you to believe in yourself, imagine good things, and moisturize.

If we're going to be friends, there really is something I should tell you...

Your approval is not needed.

Approval neither desired nor required. 

It's the age-old dilemma- style... or substance.

I've waited my whole life to hear those words said to that name. 

After all we've done to include you, you would leave us so quickly?

Hun, do you like, ever, not cry in this room?

I think of you as an angel.

Does everything have to be a joke with you?

This is not a masquerade! This is real life!

Patience mon cheri. 

You have the potential of a lifetime and you are squandering it.

No. There are times when you help people, and there are times when if you help people you might get killed, so you don't help people.

No one say anything frivolous for the next few moments. I am having a significant experience.

I've had enough of this conversation, I'm hungry.

You know, I used to know a lawyer guy who had a car just like this, and I said right then and there I was gonna have one for myself. 

I mean, now I realize that... you gotta take chances. 

I mean, what the hell! I'm not gonna worry about if people accept me or not. 

Why she always gotta have the last word, huh?

It's like living in a Tex Avery cartoon.

Ready or not, here comes mama!

Maps are for cheating.

Don't do that! Don't do that! What are you doing?

I'm a loser, I hate myself, I hate my life, I hate everything!

Oh no! No You're a winner, why you look like! You are a winner!

While your powers die, mine will flourish!

For as evil is a part of all things, evil is a part of magic.

There was time between the waning age of enchantment and the dawning age of logic when dragons flew the skies, free and unencumbered.

Good would be totally impotent, without the contrast of evil.

May the rocks crush your skull!

Blade with whom I have lived, blade with whom I now die, serve right and justice one last time, seek one last heart of evil, still one last life of pain. Cut well, old friend, and then farewell.

Go, and you may never return to the magic realm. 

And whenever man needs magic, we will be here.

Whither dost thou command me, oh, master?

Well, I, uh, like to do things by the book.

I have weapons you wouldn't dare use. 

Fear rules man. 

Stop! This must not be!

We want none of your dark magic.

While your powers die, mine will flourish. 

This is an heirloom. It must be worth something.

Your heir didn't loom too big. If I gave you 50, I'd be fired.

"What? Never had gemstones in your craw?

I should know a limpid pool of time when I see one!

So what are you going to do? Sit around like a bunch of old nannies and let it happen?

You are not what you were born, but what you have it in yourself to be.

I once fought two days with an arrow through my testicle.

Whoever dies here today, you will certainly be among them.

Be without fear in the face of your enemies.

What man is a man who does not make the world better?

A queen never walks. And yet you are walking.

How can you be in hell, when you are in my heart?

I've seen too much religion in the eyes of too many murderers. 

Holiness is in right action, and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. 

The whole world is in chess. 

Any move can be the death of you. 

Do anything except remain where you started and you can't be sure of your end.

I felt in that moment that I should live to be one hundred, now I know I shall not see thirty. 

None of us know our end really, or what hand will guide us there. 

A King may move a man, a father may claim a son. That man can also move himself. 

Remember howsoever you are played, or by whom, your soul is in your keeping alone. 

When you stand before God, you cannot say "but I was told by others to do thus" or that "virtue was not convenient at the time." This will not suffice. Remember that.

The law can go too far... 

I am what I am. Someone has to be.

If the war's to be now or later, I would have it now.

You're your father's son. He was my friend. I'm yours.

May God be with you, he's no longer with me.

There'll be a day when you will wish you had done a little evil to do a greater good.

No kingdom is worth my son alive in hell. I shall go to hell instead.

Your quality will be known among your enemies before ever you meet them.

If God does not love you, how could you have done all the things you have done?

God has made us men. We must suffer all. 

If you want anything of me, take it now.

What could a king ask of a man like me?

Your ass is six months over-due, and it's mine.

You're all under arrest.

All humanity shall bow to me in humble gratitude.

You still refuse to accept my god-hood?

Keep your own god! In fact, this might be a good time to pray to him. 

If good men do nothing, that is evil enough.

You can't sing. You can't fight. You can't even act.

For you, the day I graced your village, was the most important day in your life. But for me, it was Tuesday.

I'm sorry that I listened to you.

You've made me a happy man.

You lost your balls.

... You got paid?

You come here prepared to fight a madman, and instead you found a god!

I'm okay. I'm just half dead.

The enemies of peace and freedom are at our halls!

Our boss is the enemy of freedom and peace these people have come all over the world to stop him. 

All I want to do is rule the world, is that so much to ask?

Anyone who opposes me will be destroyed.

What do I have to fear from you? Worker ants scurrying about with their pitiful weapons, afraid of the purity, of unarmed combat!

This War Is Not About Your Personal Vendetta. It's About Mine!

That was beautiful.

The temple above us was the wonder of the ancient world.

Men who crave power look back over the mistakes of their lives, pile them all together, and call it 'destiny.'

The dark can embrace the light, but never eclipse it.

Yes! Let this be our final battle!

Everything comes to he who waits. And I have waited so very long for this moment.

I must possess all, or I possess nothing.

Outnumbered? Outclassed is more like it.

Did you have any luck?

I ache to smash you out of existence! To drive your cursed face from my memories forever!

I wish I could change things.

That only happens in fairy tales.

Never think while you’re hungry.

It is not too late to undo this madness.

It is my right! Nothing will deter me from it!

Where is your strength? Where has it gone?

Are you ready to kneel now, proud warrior?

I'll never kneel to you!

Fool, you are no longer my equal. I am more than man, more than life... I am a GOD!

Tell me about the loneliness of good. Is it equal to the loneliness of evil?

I dare anything. I’m _

Let them rot.

Really. How sensitive you are. Can you feel - this?

I am not in a giving vein this day.

Save your pity for yourself if you fail. 

starters from the 1995 film, change pronouns as needed

“Can I persuade you to take a sandwich with you, sir?”

“I'll get drive-thru.“

“One man is born a hero, his brother a coward. Babies starve, politicians grow fat. Holy men are martyred, and junkies grow legion. Why? Why, why, why, why, why? Luck! Blind, stupid, simple, doo-dah, clueless luck!“

“You're ruining my big party! Are you insane?“

“Patience is hell! “

“You really are quite bright, despite what people say.“

“Has anybody ever told you you have a SERIOUS IMPULSE-CONTROL PROBLEM?“

“Broken wings mend in time. One day _ will fly again. I promise.”

“Please! You're as blind as a bat!“

“A man's got to go his own way. A friend taught me that.“

“I imagined it was him that I was fighting, even when I was fighting you. And all the pain went away. Do you understand?“

“Then it will happen this way: You make the kill, but your pain doesn't die with _, it grows. So you run out into the night to find another face, and another, and another, until one terrible morning you wake up and realize that revenge has become your whole life. And you won't know why.”

“Why? Why can't I kill you? Too many questions. Too many questions.“

“You're a genius!“

“I read your work. Insightful. Naive, but insightful.“

“For if knowledge is power, then a god am... I!“

“Show me how to punch a guy!”

“Joygasm!“

“My life's an open book. You read?“

“You like strong women. I've done my homework. “

“You haven't called me that for a long time.“

“You were supposed to understand!... I'll make you understand.“

“You, above all, should know the consequences of the life you choose.“

“Ah. Fortune smiles. Another day of wine and roses. Or, in your case, beer and pizza!“

“ You demented, bizarre, unethical toad! “

“I... I'm sorry. I... you, uh, sounded like you were in... in, uh... uh... you know, trouble.“

“I prefer healty expressions of violence, as opposed to breaking and entering.“

“Why can't you just die?“

“I was scared at first, but only at first.“

Starter meme based on the 1969 album by Buffy Sainte-Marie, change pronouns as needed

God is Alive, Magic is Afoot

Magic loves the hungry.

Magic is no instrument, Magic is the end.

They came to God in secret.

They said that God was dead.

Time itself is the magic length of God.

Mary

How bright it's burning.

Ask the man for some room to spare.

My fate's been told to me.

Do I see an Angel?

Better to Find Out for Yourself

Take his heart and run away as he would do to you.

Take it from me that a man can be more trouble than you'll ever know.

He'll love you some and when he's done, he'll laugh and let you go.

He'll beg and tease and vow on his knees, and then betray you.

You can have mine and all the rest, you know I've had my fill.

The Vampire

Shall I tell you of the night? It was long ago.

Someone came from far away.

I looked into his eyes but no reflections came.

How I miss you so.

I am farther from you now than the two ends of eternity.

Adam

His heart is warm, his heart is full and he can see.

He is afraid but he believes all that he sees.

He begins to believe in magic.

Now he realizes his biggest mistake.

The Dream Tree

The dream tree is sighing and shaking.

Oh how my poor heart is crying and aching.

Long are the hours and long is the waiting.

Let him only, one day, some day return and touch my hair again.

I am longing for one who is longing for me.

Suffer the Little Children

Take a little drink from the liar's cup.

Mama don't really care.

She clips their wings off, they never learn to fly.

Teach them that evil dwells across the sea

The Devil dresses up and keeps his nails clean. Did you think he'd be a boogeyman?

The Angel

Leave your dying desert to the rains.

Give up your treasured wounds

Let go the tempting memory of the pain

Give up the vows you've taken

And you will live my love

With you, Honey

People smile and tell me I'm the lucky one.

He will be like she and me, as free as a dove.

I'm so in love with you, honey.

You bring a tear of joy to my eyes.

This boy will never be the same

Guess Who I saw in Paris?

Guess who invited him up to her room?

Guess who made him some tea?

Guess who got lost in his eyes?

Guess who kissed him goodnight?

He’s a Keeper of the Fire

He's a prophet of a new day.

He's a keeper of the fire.

He can say it like an angel.

I could see him through the trees.

I saw him talkin' to the moon there.

Poppies

I tippy-toe across your dreams each night so as not to wake you.

I come down the soft white path, bouquets of poppies, spilling from my heart.

I came to find a king... and I find a boy instead.

We all risk our lives on this journey! My risk is no greater than yours!

A girl of ancient name shall become queen. 

You have been brought here for a marriage.

You cannot escape me. You will be my queen.

It is in your power to stop the killing and burning!

I need weapons, not symbols!

There are kingly virtues other than bravery! Courtesy is one of them!!

Horrible! Horrible! There was a terrible creature over there! 

Join us, then. All men need company.

I cannot forgive myself; I have already forgiven you.

Tell me... what can I see for you?

What you ask is beyond my power.

You cannot stop time. Go now. 

He who seeks the knowledge must lead me. No one else may approach.

Power is fleeting; love is eternal.

How can anything grow in that place? It smells of death.

Death and power are close cousins.

Whatever army I have I'll lead against them. Till I've won, or am dead.

From this day, my kingdom is no more.

He gave his life for us.

We're your family now.

My place is with you.

Do you love me?

Rocks in our pockets and gravestones above our heads is all we'll get from this journey.

How could I have left you?

My father says that good fighters make bad husbands.

That depends on whether you expect a husband to follow you around. Jump every time you clap your hands.

Wouldn't you jump for me? No of course not. You're a warrior.

A reputation is like glass, once cracked it can never be replaced.

I have a life to live and a chance to live it.

And that's another thing, don't start giving advice...

The closer you are to him, the farther you are from me.

Oh, you would think of the future. Because the past is too painful.

It's a lovely story. And so are you.

You'll always be beautiful to me.

I had won. I was trying to smile but it was the smile of desolution.

Inside, I felt only the pity and the terror and the waste of it all. 

Everyone I had ever loved, and who ever loved me — all gone... all gone down...

They say that when you're unhappy, time slows to a crawl. On the other hand, when your happy ... my childhood must have been very happy, for it was over in a flash.

I'll kill you anyway I can ...but I will kill you.

Magic has no power over the human heart.

You've been sliding down the ladder of success so quickly these last few years you must have got splinters in your backside.

You are so cold! If I would punch you in the heart I'd break my fist.

Good king. Bad king. You judge too easily. You will learn.

Faith is Supreme, of course. But love is even better.

I don't know what I'll do or what I'll become. Only know what I am.

Handsome is as handsome does. What does that mean? I never really understood the phrase.

That is a mistake many of my enemies make. They think before they act. I act before I think.

Beauty is always only an illusion. Didn't you know that?

No, I only let her die.

At last. A good man, a good king.

Wrong again...I'm winning.

In the end, you must uphold the law.

I can't believe that I'll be condemned for all eternity for one mistake.

Am I still beautiful?

Why didn't you kill him

I’m a wizard, that’s my business.

Let me Preface this by acknowledging Dune has yet to be released so it may very well be that many if not all of my concerns and frustrations will prove unfounded. Furthermore Dune was a novel published in 1965 by an extremely homophobic*, cis-gendered and heterosexual white man so I am by no means arguing deviations shouldn’t be made from the original text. They absolutely should especially because the series themes about human complexity and questioning authority seem depressingly timeless and deserve repeating. 

However- in the original novel the Fremen were explicitly based on the Bedouin cultures of North Africa and MENA inspired elements permeate all aspects of the culture in Dune, both Fremen and Outsider. Yet despite two adaptions (three if you count SyFy’s adaptions of Dune Messiah and Children of Dune) none have cast MENA performers or tapped anyone of MENA origin to work behind the scenes (Denis Villeneuve’s adaption included). 

This current adaption has instead chosen to cast almost exclusively Black actors as the Fremen. I say ‘almost’ because Stilgar, one of the Fremen leaders in the book is played by the white Javier Bardem.

While there is some potential narrative justification for the Fremen being Black as it’s mentioned in the book the Fremen are descended from a slave race and the term Fremen is actually derived from ‘Free men’ after several of these former slaves escaped into the desert. 

Fremen tradition says they were slaves. . . for nine generations. -Terminology of the Imperium, Dune

Though that potential justification is weakened since Javier Bardem is again white. It also doesn’t help that Paul Atreides (played by the equally white Timothée Chalamet)  is poised to also take on a leadership role both secular and religious amongst the Fremen as a long awaited warrior prophet and messiah.

MENA actors make up less than one percent of current television roles and have equally small presense on the big screen. When they are shown they usually only given stereotypical roles and rarely make any kind of headway in genre films like science fiction and fantasy. It’s a depressing lack of inclusion of people who are quite literally the inspiration for the novel. 

Which brings me to the character of Liet-Kynes who’s casting I am most disturbed by. (Spoiler Warning for the 55 year old book from here on out). In the book Liet-Kynes is a half-Fremen man who acts as not only a leader amongst the Fremen but is also able to pass largely undetected in non-Fremen society because of his mixed heritage. Something he uses to protect his people from a largely hostile ruling class but as a man of science remains deeply skeptical of his peoples’ prophesies surrounding Paul Atreides’ messianic potential. (With good reason it turns out as those ‘prophecies’ were largely planted by the outsider Bene Gesserit Sisterhood for their own ends) While he’s initially won over by Paul and his father Duke Leto’s charisma he later comes to regret giving them his allegiances realizing as he dies the danger a messiah like Paul poses to the Fremen culture’s integrity. 

No more terrible disaster could befall your people than to fall into the hands of a Hero. . . Dune, Chapter 22

Frank Herbert even has Liet’s body circled by hawks who are the traditional emblem of the Atreides to hammer the point home that the Atreides will be feasting themselves on the vulnerable Fremen. 

To put it bluntly Liet’s narrative purpose is to die leaving no room for the Fremen or the larger Dune universe the chance to escape the chaos Paul’s messianic destiny will bring. And Denis Villeneuve has chosen to cast Sharon Duncan-Brewster a Black woman in this role. Assuming Liet-Kynes’ character follows a similar narrative arc as presented in the original novel we are going to be presented with a Black woman who comes to believe a white boy is her long awaited messiah and then be disposed of.

We are in something of a long needed cultural reckoning. Where we have been forced to acknowledge how constantly we have treated not only Black people but Black women as disposable. So in addition to the deliberate lack of MENA cast in any roles let alone Fremen I find this particular change not only tone-deaf but down right despicable. Even worse the film will be including the characters Jamis and Harah. Jamis is a man who Paul kills early into his introduction to Fremen society and who’s widowed wife Harah then tries to seduce to secure her own life but that of her two orphaned children. Which smacks of a multitude of racial stereotypes. 

As a queer fan of the books who frequently enjoys dragging Frank Herbert for his authorial inconsistencies and eccentricities (he had a recurring obcession with athletically built red heads with oval shaped faces and wide generous mouths) I am all for radically altering the books’ text. But I am not seeing that with this adaption. Instead it feels like a poorly thought out attempt at diversity as conceived by three white, cis-het white men and I for one will not be watching. 

Foot Notes and Sources Cited

“Where does it come from? The rage?”

“You said you didn’t care for what the world thought of you. Nor will I.”

“Haven’t you ever wished for a completely new life?”

“I don’t believe there’s such thing as actions without consequences.”

“Is evil stronger than good?”

“I found how to achieve what I always wanted- to be the knife as well as the wound.”

“He put a dark place in me and I can't forgive him for that, but it's part of me now, and how can I regret what I am? Though it often makes me sad.“

“I have an illness- call it a fracture in my soul, something which left me with a taste for oblivion."

“I feel differently with you. Why should that be? You still the rage."

"My answer is always "Yes.""

"He came out of the dark as if he was made of it."

“When we had our talk, you refused to say you hated your father. Why?”

“Sadness, that can't helped. That comes in like the tide.”

“I am the bandit. He is merely the cave in which I shelter.“

“I always knew you'd be the death of us.“

“ I mean, suppose you were able to do absolutely whatever you wanted, with no consequences and no regrets? Then what?“

“I wanted the night, you see. And here it is.”

“I'm not going to bite you.“

“It was the only way he could devise to set you free. “

“I am sorry. I thought you were planning to stay a while.“

Dialogue

“You’re not meant to understand it. You’re meant to accept it. Graciously. “

“I suppose I shall simply have to rise to the Occasion and do something spectacular, yet again.”

“Forgive me? How dare she/he forgive me?”

“No one will recognize you for what you are. People seldom do.”

Why Can’t I be Two People?

“We are bored and suffer from ennui.”

“For a royal prince there's no such word as "me".”

“Maybe one of us would have a chance to live before we die!”

What has Love got to do with Getting Married?

“Find a mate, dear, find a mate.”

“Love is highly overrated and makes marriage complicated.”

“Happiness can always wait.”

Once I was Loved

“My fanciful dove has tears in her eyes.”

“Once I knew I was loved.”

“And yet, my heart will not despair.”

What a Comforting Thing to Know

“He did nothing ignominious yet beside these noble brutes and knaves and drunks and skunks he lies.”

“He lies in state, serene and great still getting nothing done.”

“There's a prearranged spot in the family plot where my royal bones will go.”

Protocoligorically Correct

“Good form must never suffer from neglect.”

“To what clings a tottering kingdom if not to its protocols?”

“We’ve a system to protect.”

A Bride-Finding Ball

“Every maiden's bound to laugh at me, the royal fatted calf.”

“It's nauseating. Can't you just imagine it?”

“Hope springs in all.”

Suddenly it Happens

“Suddenly, thirstily you're drinking in your fill of light.”

“Secretly you just can't believe it's true.”

“Wonderfully, beautifully it happens and your world is new.”

Secret Kingdom

“Could you be content with only me?”

“What is my life to me without my love for you?“

“We would love forever in our secret kingdom, far away, somewhere.”

He/She Danced with Me

“My world became a magic blending of dreams and hopes and love.”

“I know tonight is all there will ever be.”

“My heart will never be free.”

Position and Positioning

“The lady of my choosing is a world away from me.”

“Never court your colonel's daughter, or he'll have your guts for garters!”

“That's how it is; how it was and how it always shall be!”

Tell Him Anything (But Not That I Love Him)

“What seemed right simply seemed to fade away in the light of day.”

“Make him hate my memory.”

“Tell him I’m unworthy of what he feels.”

I Can’t Forget the Melody

“Although our song is through I can't stop loving you.”

“Our song is through.”

“I tried to stop remembering.”

Secret Kingdom (Reprise)

“There’s a secret kingdom lovers’ find.”

“It comes shining into view when the one you love loves you.”