#rapha talks

Here is the tracker so you can follow the ship.

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.

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.

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.

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: "..."

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.