#AND BACK TO THE BEING NICE THING. Ash and May both got growth from their nice rivalries but not what they got from Gary/Drew.

[torchickentacos]

The pokemon anime subreddit fascinates and frustrates me on equally deep levels

[alyjojo]

Love Reading 🎇 - April 2024 - Aquarius

Singles:

Who is Coming In: Page of Cups, The Devil, The Magician, 7 Swords

Regarding: The Tower

Long-Term Potential: 6 Pentacles

Someone is acting like they’ve changed, Phoenix would indicate this is probably someone you know as a damn liar 🤥 Tower, Ace of Swords rev & The World, so there was a lie that destroyed everything, blew it up into smithereens, the end. The Devil with The Magician and 7 Swords I’m just…this is one clever mfer. Sneaky. Strategic, everything they do and say has a motive behind it, they literally think they’re smarter than anyone around them - heavy ego energy. Smarter than you? 🤭 Or - they may have had a history of shady bs in the past, it’s been some time between you, and they’re coming back around. This is someone that could’ve been in prison for someone, Justice indicates law, they could’ve been involved with drugs or on them when you knew them. 2 Cups clarifies the toxicity, this may not have had anything to do with you at all but rather - their last relationship, a baby mama/daddy could be involved and you/they feel “bound” to them in that way, meaning you would have to deal with it too. This person was a liar and a player in the past, but I’m hearing “Jesus dined with thieves”, so you don’t judge. Not really. I looked that up and see “sinners” being the word actually used, but I specifically heard “thieves”, they could’ve been a thief or dated one, have friends that are, have just had something stolen recently idk. Somehow a thief is involved.

Long term potential is both of you giving what you’ve got to this connection, moving away from the drama, possibly putting some actual distance in between you and this toxic…thing…ex, druggie friends, old memories, whatever. Justice & 6 Pentacles would indicate maintaining balance between you is the top priority, whether you’re with them or not. Some probably aren’t, it’s the ex, but you’ll still be cordial and forgiving towards them. The Hanged Man rev indicate they’ve learned their lesson and have gained the necessary perspectives on things - Phoenix rises from the ashes. This is saying not to hold people’s pasts against them (within reason) if they’re proving they’re doing the work, and they do seem to be. If this was a sudden ending that’s staying ended, you could’ve just been like…no, and gave them the space to figure themselves out, have a nice life. They could be coming back around now.

Messages:

- You’re the perfect person for me 😍

- I want to approach you but don’t know HOW.

PHOENIX 🔥

- New Phase & Rekindle

- Renew & Growth

- Changed Mind

- Rise from Ashes

Signs you may be dealing with:

Aquarius, Pisces & Capricorn

Couples:

Them: Knight of Swords, 2 Wands, King of Cups rev

Regarding: Knight of Cups

I’m seeing a couple of different stories. One, if this is a long-time committed relationship, I’m seeing a typical male/female conflict of the man thinks it’s his job to mow grass, work, and control everything, and the woman is over here with 10 Wands and the responsibility of literally everything on her shoulders - doing too much. Even working herself 💯 like “scuse you buttercup, grab a sponge 🧽.” Doesn’t have to be these genders, it just describes the dynamic between you, of any gender.

If not that, then this may be someone you’re casually seeing that’s not only stating but *demanding* a commitment from you, and you would have other options on the table besides just this person. You’re showing up as the Cups pair, with this person inverted, manipulative, extremely emotional, not the most mature energy. The Emperor rev is a controlling fkhead as well…Knight of Cups being loving actions, so their actions show up as loving, teamwork, we’re in this together, Knight of Swords is dictating what steps need to be taken to achieve xyz…verbally, in a controlling or manipulative sort of way - or that’s their intent. I don’t like this energy, it’s coercive and slimy, because they act like they’re being honest and a straight shooter - but are not actually at all. Words and actions show two different things. Or that’s exactly what they’re pointing out about you, because you’re the one with secrets, options, sudden silent treatments. If you’ve been dating or entertaining someone for awhile and suddenly go ghost 👻, they definitely have something to say about it, or they don’t appreciate being treated as casual, that wasn’t their intent. You don’t seem to have been clear with your own intentions. I do see them being extremely pushy & manipulative, and you’re quiet to avoid that bs. This can also show something going on for a long time that this person refuses to handle or do something about, and you’ve been silent thus far.

Messages:

- Unrealistic Expectations

- STATUS 😎

CUPID’S ARROW 💘

- Have Faith

- Love is Coming

- Surprise Invitation

- Struck by Love

Let go of the helm of life, and let the current pull you in your chart’s direction.

You: Queen of Cups, The High Priestess, 10 Wands

Regarding: 7 Cups

The cards describing your character are very kind, possibly empathic, and it’s like you’re on to this person’s game. They’re increasingly frustrated that you’re not speaking…your mind, what you want, how you feel, etc., and you know that is because this is a coercive and pushy person. Like back the fuck off, yeah? You’re not allowing them space to dictate your decisions, not with guilt, intimidation, aggression, emotions, you don’t give af. You are confused though, you don’t know what you want, something may have happened suddenly that puts a lot of pressure on you, a disaster or some *right now* sort of thing, whether that’s regarding this person or not, and it’s like not only do you not trust this person, but you have no time for their bullshit either so…hope they have a nice day 👻 Date shows you being casual, looking at your options, and this cups energy in you feels like actually sorting through your feelings. ALONE. Because you need to. You can’t make decisions until you know what you want, and you can’t know what *YOU* want so long as some person is dictating what you should want, feel, or do, via the world according to them. There could also have been some sort of episode where this person acted in a very negative way, and you’ve kinda shut down and started questioning everything. In that case, it’s a new beginning with this person that you question. Or whether someone else might be better for you altogether - no matter how deep this connection has been. This relationship may feel like work more than love. At least right now.

Messages:

- Really Tall

- Considerate

DATE 🥂

- Get Back Out There

- Meeting Someone New

- Setting a Date

- Date Online

To keep yourself from becoming an empath - that is, absorbing the pain of others - keep mirrors around you that deflect negativity.

Mutual: 10 Pentacles rev, The Hanged Man rev, The Moon

Regarding: The Lovers rev

I mean this kinda feels like a realization that the two of you just aren’t on the same page. I see clarity & truth here, but no swords, none of the necessary information or clarity that would provide that truth - and that’s why The Moon is here. You both come to your own solutions on things rather than talking them out, maybe you/they have tried before to no avail. A breakup could be on the horizon, or if you’ve already ended something, this could just be validating your experience. If you’ve had other options and this person was under the impression they were it, it’s not going well. If you have several options and they’re trying to manipulate your decisions, that won’t either. I see apologies being held back on both sides, two stubborn betches holding tightly onto their point of view and probably preferring to be apart rather than together. Because of the Cups pair, it may have been tossed around that someone thought they were a soulmate, and you’re (both) realizing now that no, this isn’t the one for you. At least not in this way as it stands.

For the couple fighting over who does what or trying to control who has what job and other such petty shit - it’s being said that both people could stand to walk in their partner’s shoes & to see things from their perspective, or this dynamic won’t/can’t improve.

SWORD & ROSE 🗡️🌹

Clarity & Truth

Revelations

Honor & Protection

Determination

Be careful that negativity doesn’t lodge in your body. Visualize a green light around you for protection.

Signs you may be dealing with:

Cancer, Aries, Scorpio, Virgo, Pisces & Gemini

[magnusmysteries]

Part 4: The Sixteenth Fear

The Magnus Archives was a horror podcast. It is now completed. Many of the show’s mysteries were never explained on the show. I intend to explain them. Spoilers for the show, but also spoilers if you wanna solve these mysteries yourself.

In part 3 I said every fear has an opposite. But the Flesh didn’t exist before the industrial revolution. So there would have been 13 fears then, an uneven number, and not every fear could balance against an opposite. So how could that be?

The answer is, there were only 12 fears before the Flesh. The Corruption and the Desolation used to be the same fear. 

Diego Molina of the Lightless Flame cult worships Asag. A Sumerian god of disease that could make fish boil. So Asag seems to be of both the Corruption and the Desolation.

In Infectious Doubts Arthur Nolan complains about it: “Not like I can vent to the others about what a prat Diego is. Got a lot of funny ideas. Still calls the Lightless Flame Asag, like he was when he was first researching it. I just really wanna tell him to get over it; I mean Asag was traditionally a force of destruction, sure, but as a church we very much settled on burning in terms of the – face we worship, and some fish-boiling Sumerian demon doesn’t really match up, does it? Plus there’s a lot of disease imagery with Asag that I’ll reckon is way too close to Filth for my taste, but no, he read it in some ancient tome, so that’s that –“

Ancient is the key word. The tome predates the industrial revolution and the Flesh. Asag probably isn’t a thing anymore and Diego is indeed a prat for worshipping it.

In The Architecture of Fear Smirke writes “I know you say the Flesh was perhaps always there, shriveled and nascent until its recent growth, but to grant the existence of such a lesser power would throw everything into confusion. Would you have me separate the Corruption into insects, dirt, and disease? To divide the fungal bloom from the maggot?”

It is not random that Smirke uses the Corruption as an example here. The Corruption is the opposite of the Flesh, so the Corruption is the fear that Smirke believed had no opposite for hundreds or thousands of years.

In part 3 I said vampires where Corruption/Desolation/Hunt. This is a little far-fetched, but I wonder if the vampire’s we’ve seen have been old ones that predate the Flesh. And that’s why they are part Corruption, since Corruption and Hunt used to be next to each other. Maybe there are more modern vampires without the long sucking tongue. Maybe instead of sucking blood, when they bite you begin to burn or boil. Since the Hunt is now next to the Desolation instead of the Corruption-Desolation combo.

In Vampire Killer Trevor says “I have killed five people that I know for sure as vampires, and there are two more that may or may not have been.” There is a missing middle part of Trevor’s statement. Maybe there he talks about killing two vampires that are modern and therefore different so he’s not sure if they’re actually vampires.

Speaking of fears splitting up, why is the Darkness the opposite fear of the Slaughter? In Last Words we hear of the first fear “A fear of blood and pounding feet, a fear of that sudden burst of pain and then nothing.” 

And of the second fear “The fear of their own end, of the things that lived in the darkness, became a fear of the darkness itself.”

I think the first was a general fear of violence. It includes what became the Hunt “Blood and pounding Feet...” and the Slaughter “...Sudden burst of pain and then nothing”, and the End “The fear of their own end…” And the second fear was the Darkness. They were the opposite by default, simply for being the two first fears.

When the Buried became a fear, the Hunt split up from the Violence to oppose it. When the Vast became a fear, the End split up from the Violence to oppose it. All that was left of the Violence was Slaughter, still opposing the Dark. When humans began warfare, fear of war fit nicely with the Slaughter.

The Eye might have been part of the Dark at first. Still from Last Words: “...because they knew the dark held flashing talons and shining eyes…” 

When the Lonely became a fear, the Eye split up from the Dark to oppose it.

So what about the Extinction? Does it have an opposite? Yes! There is a sixteenth fear. And what can be the opposite of the fear of the end of the world? The fear that the world isn’t real. That we’re all just living in a computer simulation. If you think the world isn’t even real, you’re not gonna be so worried about it ending. I’ll call it the Simulation.

Here is how the fears are arranged on the wheel, with the two latest fears added:

Description of image: A circle with 16 spots similar to a clock. On each spot is a number and the name of a power: 1. Corruption. 2 Extinction. 3. Desolation. 4. Hunt. 5. Slaughter. 6. End. 7. Lonely. 8. Stranger. 9. Flesh. 10. Simulation 11. Spiral. 12. Buried. 13. Dark. 14. Vast. 15. Eye. 16. Web.

The Extinction is next to the Corruption. Disease and garbage are both gross. Possessive is an Extinction episode, even if not acknowledged as such by any of the characters. It’s about garbage. And Maggie is creating people out of garbage. She is making the inheritors mentioned in Time of Revelation. There are also creatures made of garbage in Concrete Jungle. And Maggie was full of moving insect legs, showing Corruption influence.

Quote from Adelard Dekker from Rotten Core: “I’ve spoken before about how keenly I’ve watched news of possible pandemics, which is where I suspect the Extinction may pull away from the Corruption during its emergence.” Adelard knows the Extinction is next to Corruption.

The Extinction is next to Desolation. That fits, nuclear weapons cause fire. Quote from Times of Revelation, describing corpses: “They were stiff, and desiccated, mummified by some process Bernadette could not begin to guess at, but that rendered their flesh like tightly packed ash” Ash as if they were burned.

The Simulation is next to the Flesh. The Flesh makes you think humans aren’t people, they are just meat. The Simulation makes you think humans aren’t people, they are just NPCs.

The Simulation is the next to the Spiral. Both make you question what is real. The Spiral makes you doubt your mind, the Simulation makes you doubt your world.

There are four episodes about the Simulation: Binary, Zombie, Cul-de-sac and Reflection.

In Binary Sergey Ushanka uploads his mind into a computer. He becomes a simulation and it hurts. There is influence by the Spiral, the statement giver isn’t sure if she’s going crazy. And there is influence by the Flesh. Ushanka uploads himself into a computer and then he eats the computer. So that’s cannibalism.

In Zombie the statement giver thinks other people aren’t real, they’re philosophical zombies, In other words they like simulations or NPCs. The man that follows her repeats the phrase “Just fine, thank you for asking” and says nothing else. Just like some NPCs in video games will say the same phrase over and over. The man is identical the three times they meet, except for his t-shirt changes color. Sometimes in video games some NPCs will be identical, except for some colors are changed. (Because it’s less work to recollar a character than to draw one from scratch.)

John thinks Cul-De-Sac is about the Lonely. And yes, the statement giver was lonely. But the people affected by the Lonely choose to be lonely, and the statement giver didn’t. His boyfriend broke up with him because of cheating and then he lost his friends because they sided with his boyfriend. 

I think the theme of the statement is unreality, not loneliness. In the Magnus Archives, when someone gets marked by a power it is because they made some wrong choice. The choice the statement giver makes is to return to the place he found dead and soulless. He drives back to his ex-boyfriend to deliver the moose, rather than send it by mail. He specifically wants to meet his ex. Not an act of loneliness, quite the opposite. Also he is returning a moose that is angular and creepy, in other words it is unreal.

When the statement escapes from the nightmare it’s because he got a phone call from his ex. And he says “I love you.” and that fits neatly with the Lonely. But it also fits with escape from the unreal. He escapes because he communicates with a real person.

The road signs says “Road” and “Street”. Generic and unreal. All the houses look the same. Like in a computer game. The statement giver wonders if they are the same house. Like in a computer game where one might reuse the code for a house many times.

The house he enters has stock photos. Unreal.

The people on TV have something wrong with their eyes, similar to the eyes of the zombies in Zombie. And it's a fake cooking show, and a fake infomercial.

The dead woman upstairs was someone who had social media profiles, and that nobody notices had died. Meaning she lived her life online. That sounds like she was lonely. But living online also makes her a good victim for the Simulation. Everyone she talked to was on a computer, she couldn’t know for sure if they were real.

The woman had killed herself with a mirror. I think what happened was she had looked into the mirror and seen that her eyes were wrong, like the eyes of the people on TV. And she had thought she was just a simulation, like everything around her. And therefore she killed herself. Or perhaps she wasn’t reflected in the mirror at all? Like in…

Reflection. Adelard speculated that this statement was about the Extinction, but I don’t think so. The protagonist was in a world that seemed unreal. A fun fair is artificial so that fits the theme. The people were playing games, which fits the theme via computer games maybe.

Adelard says “I can’t quite get past the detail that there was no reflection at all in the mirror he used to return.” It is almost at the end of Adelard’s letter, it’s clearly meant to be significant. The no reflection might be symbolic for the statement giver starting to think he isn’t real, which might be what happened to him after he gave the statement.

Reflection has influence by the Spiral, with the maze of mirrors. There is influence by the Flesh, with the cannibalism.

[radiantresplendence]

The Dark Knight Class - Fire Emblem Three Houses

In my opinion, the Dark Knight is on the high end of the “viable” classes in the late game. I think that a lot of the mage girls have better options where they’d excel, because females horse mages have access to classes like Valkyrie. This isn’t a jab at Dark Knight however, for what it’s worth, it’s a good class. I just feel that its desire to be hybrid physical and magic holds it back for a lot of characters. 

The class exam wants C in lance, B+ in reason and A in riding. This is annoying, to say the least. In most cases, the characters that you’ll want as a Dark Knight won’t see a horse until they qualify for this class, being that (though hybrid) the class favors magic and there are no mounted mages until Valkyrie at level 30 (which is both gender-locked and a better class, I’d argue). Essentially to qualify for this class by the time it becomes available, you’ll need to have someone’s goal set to riding for most of the game with little payoff until you get here. C lance is neat, and opens up the possibility of potent lance Combat Arts, particularly Frozen Lance, without going too far out of your way. Basically, I like the lance requirement and don’t like the riding, but while you’re on a horse, you might as well pick up Movement +1. 

Analysis

The Dark Knight’s notable bases are 17 magic, 14 dexterity and 16 speed. These bases are fine, but are a little low for level 40 and probably won’t affect your stats much, seeing as the Warlock that you were probably in before qualifying for this class also grants 17 magic. You’d have to be really statscrewed to get any serious buff just for passing the exam and even then you’d have to get here off of a class like Fortress Knight. The stat boosts that Dark Knight provides are 1 strength, 2 magic, 2 dexterity and 1 speed (but you lose 2 while mounted). They’re not anything to write home about, as you’ll hit ever-so slightly harder as a Warlock, at the cost of having significantly less mobility. 

The Dark Knight boasts a solid 7 movement while mounted and 6 while dismounted. Every point of movement counts, especially with Canto and being placed in the mobility tier right below the likes of Dark Flier is not a bad place to be. 

Dark Knight’s Class Skills are good. They’d be better if the Class just opted for the faire that the student in question had access to though. As it stands, they have Black Tomefaire, Dark Tomefaire and Canto. The class’s Mastery Skill is Seal Resistance. 

Black Tomefaire is great. +5 damage for being a mage that stacks with a copy of itself once you max out your reason is great free damage. 

Dark Tomefaire is really just here for Hubert. It does the same thing as above, just most characters won’t get any use out of this. 

Canto is always good. You melt someone with magic and then use the rest of your movement to leave. It’s great. 

Seal Resistance sucks and shouldn’t be used in favor of more reliable skills to give you more kill potential. If you deal damage to someone, they suffer -6 resistance until the next turn. I suppose you could do interesting things with Deadeye Ashe on NG+6 though if you really wanted to. 

In terms of growths, Dark Knight gives a 5% increase to strength and a 10% increase to magic. Like most mounted classes, you suffer a loss in speed growth, in this case 5%. They’re solid growths for a Master Class, to the extent that they’ll help much that late into the game. 

Good Dark Knights

Lorenz is the poster child for the class: Solid strength and magic, solid reason spell list (albeit lacking much spice), access to Frozen Lance at C+ lances, and strengths in everything that he needs to get here. Lorenz makes a strong Dark Knight, even if he’s a little lackluster until he gets here. He’d be better if he had a cooler faith spell list though. 

Ingrid lacks the same kind of punching power and the ease of access that Lorenz enjoys in regards to this class, but she has a lot going for her to make up for it. She too learns Frozen Lance, albeit at an A lance investment and she’s fast enough to not really care about the speed penalty in most cases. She also learns Thoron and Physic, despite having a more limited spell list. She may lack the reason strength that Lorenz has, but if you build her as a mage, she should be able to reasonably get the the B+ to qualify by level 40 pretty easily. (Additionally to note, I think the optimal way to use Ingrid if you’re playing Blue Lions is as a mage and this class is the best class for her to do it.)

Using Sylvain as a Dark Knight is also viable. He’s arguably the only unit I’d have on a horse before qualifying for this class. His reason budding talent grants him Black Magic Avoid +20 which is a good skill, even if finding a golden use for it is a little difficult on Sylvain outside of NG+. He has a more robust spell list than Ingrid, and notably picks up Seraphim at the cost of Thoron. I’d argue he’s better as a Paladin for Swift Strikes though. Interestingly, he also can learn Lightning Axe but not Frozen Lance... but I’d only really get his axe rank that high if I were making him a flier. It could be of note in NG+ maybe, but you’d have to pick that over making him a Black Magic dodge tank with Alert Stance. Basically, Sylvain can do some neat stuff as a mage and Dark Knight is probably where he should wind up if you’re doing that. 

While I’m on the topic of NG+, Bernadetta can fit fairly comfortably as a Dark Knight, especially after a couple of playthroughs of training. Thoron, Physic and Rescue are in her surprisingly robust spell list, despite being a pretty lacking mage. C+ lances can get her Vengeance to go with her Personal Skill Persecution Complex and she has a budding talent in riding that grants her Pass. I’d build Bernie normally through Brigand and Archer into Sniper to get here, but I could see some value in going Paladin for maximum Vengeance with a guard adjutant. Just understand that if you keep her in bows, she’ll have exceptional versatility in the class with with Deadeye and Encloser. If you’re playing Blue Lions and recruit her, you can even give her Failnaught. This may be the only unit I’ll include who may get a magic boost for qualifying for the class. 

This is probably Hubert’s best class, all things considered because it’s the only way for him to get a real Class Skill to act as a boon to his dark magic. He can even pick up Frozen Lance as a budding talent. It’s a real bummer that Hubert’s faith list is as bad as it is, but I suppose it makes sense given his character. Much like my thoughts on Dark Bishop, Hanneman and Hubert are surprisingly similar in their roles. I personally feel like Hanneman loses more than Hubert does when moving up to a Master Class though, not to imply that it’s a bad transition, more like a give and take. After all, Canto and that added mobility is really nice, even if you lose out on some versatility/double meteor. 

Edelgard is the only unit that can make use of both of Dark Knight’s faire skills. Make mage Edelgard a Dark Flier instead or don’t do it at all.

Conclusion

Play Blue Lions, recruit Bernadetta and Lorenz and make everyone a Dark Knight. Felix doesn’t get to complain because of his budding talent in reason, Dedue dies during the timeskip and has Vengeance and Dimitri won’t let you train him anyways. Dark Knights of Faerghus: It’ll be rad. 

Dark Knight is pretty okay. Boys kinda get shafted as dedicated mages. This review kind of got away from me. 

Here’s hoping you enjoyed this. If you’d like to read more of my thoughts on FE3H classes, here they are. 

[beyond-the-mirror]

DMC x Pokemon AU - Which pokemon they would choose

So an idea appeared out of nowhere in my head: If Pokemon somehow existed in the DMC universe and pokemon training and battles were officially a thing too, which pokemon would the crew choose as their companions?

For these headcanons, I will give each character two kinds of pokemon: the first one will be a pokemon they would totally choose as a friend and partner for adventure as well as competitive battles, and the other will be one they would keep at their side mostly as a cute or silly companion, whether it’s a baby pokemon or a fully evolved one, it’s one they are really fond of and always look after.

So let’s get started! More bellow the cut because it’s a really long post.

Dante

Ideal partner: Houndoom

He considers Houndoom’s general appearance as cool and badass, of course he would love having a literal hellhound in his team.

If you think about it, they share lots of similarities: The same color palette, the devil motif, the fact that Dante has horns too when in DT or SDT form… it’s as if this pokemon was made with him in mind.

Dante found him when he was a little puppy Houndour. The poor thing was all alone in an alley near his shop and seeing him crying out made his heart ache.

So he brought the little one back home and nursed him. Now he’s a powerful Houndoom who loves nothing more than to fight alongside his trainer. There’s nothing that can stop those too when together.

Silly companion: Alcremie

Obviously.

One reason only: Infinite strawberry sundaes.

That’s it.

Would totally have an entire team made of Alcremies. He wouldn’t even battle or anything. He just wants to enjoy his lifetime supply of strawberry sundaes.

Vergil

Ideal partner: Aegislash

Vergil is a man of the sword, so it’s clear he would choose an Aegislash as his partner.

The first time he spotted this particular Honedge, he knew. He could see the great power dormant in them, so it was a matter of awakening said potential.

He trained them vigorously, making them evolve into a Doublade, and finally, into an Aegislash. To this day, not a single pokemon has managed to defeat them, the only exception being Dante and his Houndoom.

That won’t stop them though. They are both too prideful in their quest for strength and power.

Silly companion: Snom

Yeaaah, this is a weird one. Snom is such a cute baby, maybe this adorableness can melt Vergil’s heart?

It was Dante who gifted his twin a Snom. To quote him: “You’re too grumpy. Maybe this cute little guy can help you ease some of that grumpiness away.”

Wherever he goes, the little baby follows behind. Vergil will never admit this out loud but he does smile at the peaceful sensation his silly friend gives him.

Also imagine him trying to pronounce their name in that nasal voice of his. SHnom. 

V

Ideal partner: Corviknight, Umbreon and Dusknoir

It was a tie between these pokemon since they represent V’s three demon familiars: Griffon, Shadow and Nightmare respectively.

Corviknight may have a playful personality, but during battles he’s dead serious. He’s down right merciless and enjoys tearing apart his foes.

Umbreon is as calm as a housecat, but beware! She is a fierce one and won’t think twice to attack those who step out of line. Even more ruthless than Corviknight.

Dusknoir is as mysterious as the man himself, but V still trusts them and lets them do pretty much their own thing. Despite V never giving them orders, it almost looks as if Dusknoir can understand his thoughts telepathically. No one is sure how the hell he does it though. Quite a mystery indeed.

Silly companion: Mr Rime

Both wear a coat. Both carry a cane. Both love to tap dance. See what I’m getting at?

The first time V spotted a Mr Rime and witnessed their comical moves, he couldn’t help but laugh in endearment.

You will often find them enjoying a nice cup of tea together. They may speak different languages, but somehow they understand each other so perfectly.

When feeling in a dance mood, he and Mr Rime will dance together in perfect harmony and sync. Singin’ in the Rain is their favorite musical btw.

Nero

Ideal partner: Toxtricity

It only made sense to grant our punk boy Nero a punk pokemon like Toxtricity.

Both share an explosive and energetic personality, as well as an identical inclination towards rock and metal music. They especially love taunting their foes by doing an air guitar together.

The way these two fight is absolutely brutal. Do not anger them, you cannot defeat them.

However, despite their looks like they could kill you, they are actually sweet cinnamon rolls in front of the right ones. Pet them, they are good bois after all.

Silly companion: Mankey

Two grumpy bois grumpying around. Don’t talk to them, they are angy.

Kyrie often teases them with how identical they are. They literally share the exact same expression when angry.

Nero says it’s not funny. It is.

Little Mankey only calms down when given pets and cuddles. “Just like you Nero!” she teases again. 

Trish

Ideal partner: Luxray

Step aside everyone. Two bewitching and electrifying devils are coming through.

Trish was new to the world when one day she encountered a Shinx, except their fur was yellow? Wasn’t the fur supposed to be blue??

She took them to Dante and Lady for an explanation. Their eyes widened in complete awe. “Trish… it’s a shiny. You found a shiny!” “…Oh.”

Now the two are an inseparable and lethal duo. Many have made the mistake of challenging them, only to end up battered and humiliated.

Silly companion: Yamper

Just look at this good boi.

A cute pupper? AND with electrical powers?! Trish is so in!

You bet she spoils her Yamper rotten. She particularly adores baby-talking her lovely companion to no end.

“Have you seen my puppy? He’s not lost or anything, I just wanted to show you how awesome he is” Yep. She did this at one point or another. 

Lady

Ideal partner: Inteleon

A couple of ‘Walking Arsenals’ indeed. Ready to take on any challenge they may encounter.

Lady remembers how she met her partner when they were a tiny and shy Sobble. Now that they’ve become such a strong pokemon, Lady feels so proud of their growth.

Extremely resourceful, even in dire situations. Will use all the tools at their disposition to finish their job.

Their sniper skills are unparalleled so you’d better watch out. In a battle of wits, there’s no beating this duo.

Silly companion: Eevee

Lady is such an Eevee fan, her childhood dream was to befriend one and have numerous adventures together.

So when she finally got one many years later, she actually started crying happy tears. (It was a gift from Dante. He figured she deserved a companion after what happened in the Temen-ni-gru incident.)

She spends her free time playing with her adorable Eevee, there’s even a whole collection of toys for their playtime together.

If you happen to have an Evolution Stone with you, DO. NOT. COME. ANY. CLOSER. Lady adores her Eevee just how it is. You have been warned.

Kyrie

Ideal partner: Gardevoir

I personally consider Kyrie as a woman with a righteous heart and a strong sense of justice just like her brother Credo, so it’s no surprise her pokemon partner is actually a Gardevoir.

Mess with them and hoo boy. So you have chosen death.

She and Gardevoir are actually among the strongest teams in the region. In fact, to this day, Nero and his Toxtricity haven’t been able to defeat these two in a pokemon battle.

Do not underestimate these girls. They can and will drag you through the mud if you dare hurt them or their loved ones.

Silly companion: Wooloo

Kyrie melted at the sight of Wooloo. So soft, and adorable, and puffy!

She loves knitting, so they would be perfect to provide her with lots of top quality wool. 

Once during Christmas, she donated handmade sweaters to the children at the local orphanage. Wooloo and her were so happy to help the little ones, they made it a tradition for them to do every year.

The sweaters and scarfs she knits with the help of her friend are actually very fashionable and pretty. Everyone in the crew loves showing theirs off any chance they get.

Nico

Ideal partner: Arcanine

A fire pokemon with majestic fur, excellent speed and an extremely keen sense of smell. Nico knew Arcanine would be a perfect partner to have.

She can count on their powerful fire to melt the metals she needs to forge her weapons. Her works of art have been made possible thanks to them and she could not feel more thankful.

Using their olfactory sense, Arcanine can track and retrieve any demon parts or carcasses which can later be used to create Devil Arms.

Although they are not that interested in competitive battles, they’re still a very strong duo that should not be taken so lightly. 

Silly companion: Rotom

So one day a wild Rotom sneaked into Nico’s van, causing a ruckus everywhere. Despite the disaster, Nico was incredibly fascinated since Rotom sightings are extremely rare.

She befriended the poltergeist pokemon almost right away. She even built a device for them to inhabit (just like Ash’s Rotomdex in the anime).

Now they’re Nico’s very own pokemon assitant! Thanks to her device Rotom can communicate, take pictures and save files and notes, which is perfect for her work.

Also they’re really nice to have a chat with! Just beware the unflattering pics they may take during battles.

Lucia

Ideal partner: Absol

It’s easy to see the similarities between Lucia and her Absol.

With Absol being erroneously blamed for natural disasters and Lucia being an artificial demon her creator labelled as ‘defective’, you could say they both share similar backstories. They felt outcasted by everyone else.

These two are incredibly agile fighters, using graceful and precise moves that prove to be lethal to their foes.

Personality wise they both appear to be stoic and aloof, but they’re actually very kind. They do tend to worry a lot about their friends though.

Silly companion: Espurr

Espurrs are known to constantly try to control and contain their enormous psychic power with all their might. Lucia understands her cute little companion all too well.

Being with each other has helped them both a lot, their shared company feels therapeutic for them.

Also Lucia enjoys cuddling Espurr. They feel so soft like a plushie!

Often have staring contests with each other. They always end with a tie though.

[littlemisssquiggles]

Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar’s Golden Circle

Man, Oscar’s got one heck of an awesome golden circle of friends. 

Not only is this magical little barn prince bestie buds with the little red Grimm Reaper but he’s also the adopted baby brother of a White Knight, the Goddess of thunder and a literal freaking Ninja from a hidden leaf village. I mean that’s just cool on so many levels.

Fun analogies aside, this squiggly Pinehead is hoping that Oscar sharing close bonds with Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie will be an integral part of his story and development going forward into the Atlas Arc.

Similar to how Ozpin had his own inner circle consisting of Qrow Branwen, Glynda Goodwitch, General James Ironwood and Professor Leonardo Lionheart, I’m anticipating this being repeated with Oscar where the RNJR gang will become his circle of close confidantes and most trusted allies.

(Holy shit, I’ve been using this .gif for the longest while and I’ve only just now noticed that the camera is framed on RNJR looking at Oscar in this known shot of Ruby complimenting Oscar on his new combat gear. I didn’t even realize that that Ren, Nora and Jaune were behind Ruby and my Pinehead heart is flipping out now because, if I needed any more signs about these four becoming Oscar’s Golden Circle, this is one of them). 

Since Ozpin’s Circle comprised of known characters from the Wizard of Oz since Ozpin himself draws inspiration from the Wizard of Oz, this squiggle meister really, really likes the idea of Oscar’s Circle representing characters from the Little Prince since Oscar seems to be influenced by his character.

Already I can picture Ruby obviously representing the Rose in Oscar’s little prince story while Nora is the Fox. You’ve heard me voice these thoughts time and time again.

However, I’m not quite sure who Ren and Jaune will be from the Little Prince. 

For Jaune, I’m toying with the idea of him being the Narrator or the Pilot in Oscar’s story since the Pilot was a character who befriended the Prince and told his story after they parted ways. 

I think Jaune being the Pilot for Oscar’s story works very well for me. Personally, I really would love for Jaune to become a big brother character to Oscar; growing to care about him deeply and looking out for him just as much as Ruby does. 

I still really love the idea of Jaune helping Oscar to sharpen and improve his tactical skills on the battlefield. I once shared a small theory about Jaune and Oscar bouncing off of each other with battle plans after Jaune noticed Oscar’s potential as a good strategist (similar to how Pyrhha acknowledged his potential). So Jaune, being the big bro that he is, does his best to nurture and encourage that side of the young boy, just as Pyrhha helped him long before.

I’ve grown weary of the Writers constantly fast-forwarding or downright omitting certain aspects of Oscar’s growth. It’d be nice if they took the time to show his progression and one idea I hope they do is showing more of Oscar’s growing bond with Jaune.

While I didn’t particularly like or enjoyed how they executed Jaune learning to appreciate Oscar’s presence on the hero team outside of Ozpin, I still recognized it as a highlight to indicate Jaune starting to chum up to Oscar. 

Outside of Ruby Rose, Jaune Arc is the second character I’m hoping Oscar grows closest to. If Ruby is to be Oscar’s best friend (and potential love interest), Jaune, in my eyes, will be his big brother---both in arms and off the battlefield. 

I’m looking at Ruby and Jaune to represent Oscar’s right and left hands---the people he turns to the most for guidance and comfort while Ren and Nora will form his legs (ironically)---representing the strong, firm, pillars that are meant to keep Oscar grounded and standing firm and tall.

 It is for this reason why I’ve been advocating so much for Jaune to personally ask Oscar to join JNR so that Team JNPR can be revived. 

And yes, I said JNPR. Not JNOR. Not even ORNJ. The leaders of each respective huntsmen team are always the first initials in their team name. This is why I never supported the ORNJ substitute team name since if Oscar is to join JNR, I don’t want him to be immediately appointed as the new leader---at least not right away while he’s still very green as a huntsman and certainly not while Jaune Arc is alive and well.

I wouldn’t expect him to. Jaune has always been the leader of his team. His part as a frontrunner has been important to his story since the get-go and I’d like for him to remain as leader of Team JNPR and continue to mature with that tactical and leadership role since my assumption has always been that Jaune Arc is destined to become a great leader at some point for his foreseeable future arc (like a Commanding General in the Second Great War of Remnant who goes down in history as the valiant commander who ended the second war to devastate the world).

Besides; JNR retaining their JNPR name after being revived is more meaningful to me. I like the idea of JNR once believing that their original team was lost after they lost Pyrhha only to have it rise from the ashes through Oscar who they will all soon realize is a perfect fit for them. 

I really like the notion of Oscar’s presence in JNPR and his comradery with the remaining three symbolizing that he’s meant to complete them and make their family feel whole again. Because at the end of the day, that’s what JNPR was and who they will continue to be: A family.

Seriously, all arrows seem to be pointing to Oscar joining JNR and reviving JNPR. Not only is Oscar’s last name Pine (adding back the ‘P’ in JNPR) but who better to revive them than the kid whose theme is reincarnation. C’mon. It is too perfect!

So yeah, Jaune is Oscar’s Pilot, in my books. 

This leaves Mr. Lie Ren. Who can Ren be in Oscar’s Little Prince Story? 

If I may be very honest here, I don’t have the slightest clue. In rereading the descriptions for the characters from the Little Prince, none of them really stands out to me for fitting Ren at all.

It is for this reason why I’m starting to lean toward  the thought of Ren sharing the role of the Wise Fox in Oscar’s Little Prince Story with Nora. 

Ren and Nora have been together since the start of the series. They’ve even known each prior to the main story of RWBY. So much so that the show has drawn attention to it once or twice.

“...We’ve been friends for sooooo long. What are the odds we’d still be together. Well, not together-together...”

They are always together and the series constantly likes to emphasize just how powerful their bond is along with their devotion to one another is. Ren and Nora have been through a lot together after surviving the fall of Ren’s former home in Kunoyuri while living on their own as orphans alone in the world at such a tender age. And through it all, they stayed together. They stood by each other through thick and thing and their strong friendship is what eventually made for an even stronger and very fitting love and romance.

In a way, I’d like to believe that Renora are the embodiment of the important lesson that the Little Prince learnt from the Fox.  The fox in the Little prince was a red fox and it is stated that red foxes are usually together in pairs. 

Therefore, I think both Ren and Nora can be Oscar’s Fox. Yeah, that works well for me.

Overall, this just affirms what I’ve been saying for the longest while. 

RNJR are meant to be Oscar’s Golden Circle. 

JNR will become Oscar’s surrogate family and siblings in arms whereas Ruby will become Oscar’s best friend, closest confidante out of the four and possibly, the love of his life.

I’d expect nothing less given the small hints between Volumes 5 and 6. Then again, I wouldn’t put it past the Writers to make sudden changes to certain previously established character dynamics after seasons of build up so…perhaps I should just keep my theories to myself and wait and see what’s to come for V7.

But all in all, I still would like for this Pinehead headcanon to be something to become canon in some shape or form. Maybe. Possibly. We shall see soon. 

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019) 

[emeraldtawny]

Why I Love The 7 of Hearts

...I said I would do it. And now that it has officially been one month since his route release, the official banner for spoilers is now lifted! That being said, I’ll put a disclaimer now: I will be talking about key aspects and spoilers from Kyle’s route. Be warned.

Alright, now onto my thesis. Title: Why Kyle Ash Is My Favourite Otome Husband To Date - An Incredibly Biased Review, by Tawny ^w^

Part 1: Before his route

Before we talk about the actual route itself, let me explain to you guys why this man already had my heart before even getting to date him. I’ll be honest; when the game first came out, he was already in my top 3 but he was not the best boi (that went to Fenrir and stayed like that for a bit). That is, until I played through Lancelot’s route. Being able to get more interactions with Kyle gave me more insight into the kind of person he is, and I honestly liked what I saw. He condemned Lancelot for throwing his life away needlessly without concern for his safety (important note to come back to) and made it clear that his affiliation with the Red Army didn’t mean anything when there are lives on the line (another impotant point to revisit). I honestly respected that about him and sure enough, he snuck his way into top spot and has stayed there since. And if I’m being real, his route has completely solidified that. He ain’t moving. Ever.

Personal Rambling #1

Okay, now comes the fun part hehehe >:3

With the question “did you enjoy Kyle’s route?”, is there an option for “everything” and also “yes yes yes, holy shit yes”? Because, Kyle’s route is a big fat YES out of 10 for me, and I say that as unbiasedly as possible. I noticed that there didn’t seem to be any dev notes released before Kyle’s route dropped (my poor boi getting shafted :c), so allow me to give you my own variation:

Kyle

Recommended if you like: Yukimura (brusque yet sweet, kind of an idiot but means well) and Mitsunari (oblivious genius)

Sexy…7

Drama…7

Romance…9

Dev Notes: For a man so smart, he’s awfully clueless when it comes to you. This weirdly approachable doctor may lack tact, but that doesn’t stop the blood pressures rising and the hearts racing - both yours and his. Get ready for an angst road bump at part 20 (as well as his Dramatic Ending), but rest assured that the doctor is here to see you now.

When I say he’s a combo of Yuki and Mitsunari, I’m not kidding. He’s basically Yuki without the full-on tsun tendencies (he has a few, but you could call it more embarrassment and awkwardness compared to being a tsundere) and then a touch of Mitsunari’s infuriating obliviousness and bam, you got Kyle!

I won’t give a synopsis of the route, since you’ve all likely read it or know most of the story (why on earth are you reading this far in otherwise?) so allow me to share with you, my personal favourite chapters/parts of his route!

Chapter 7 - the first (and definitely not last) instance of a blushing Kyle in his natural habitat. Bonus for glasses uwu

Chapter 14 - the introduction of Goo, the new best pet in Cradle (sorry Chutney). Legit, I recorded that entire section where Kyle and MC are naming Goo and I was just squeeing like a deranged lunatic because I loved it so much like bdjxbgdkfnxfkd

Chapter 24 (His POV) - DRUNK KYLE POV. Of course, he’s still cognitive to have proper thoughts, it wasn’t Masamune levels of drunkenness. But...jealous Kyle. That right there is a rarity but WOW, it’s a treat ;3

Towards the end of the route when MC finds Kyle’s confession written on his freaking hand (Kyle you doof) and just...him burying his amused smile into the crook of his elbow when she says she likes someone…..HNNNNNGGGGGGG yes

Part 2: Character Development

This man has such strong convictions to his profession that it’s honestly admirable. He may only have one pillar to stand on, but that pillar is strong and immovable. I’m of course talking about this line: “I absolutely despise people who are ready to throw away their lives”. Sound familiar at all? Remind you of...a certain Red King? Honestly though, this commitment to his work as a doctor when he seems to do nothing else except drink himself into a stupor most nights (if not every night) is awe-inspiring, and I’m not the only one who thinks so.

The MC in Kyle’s route is my new favourite. I love how the romance she develops for Kyle starts off as simple admiration, just her wanting to follow in his footsteps and prove useful to people without provoking the war occurring around her. She’s grounded and has a clear purpose, which is refreshing compared to other iterations of her being more meek and more better categorised as a “damsel in distress”. Don’t get me wrong, I”m not criticising those types of MCs. It’s just nice to see a driven MC with a clear goal and a motive for why she wants to do the things she does, enough for her to stay longer than the allotted month (something NONE OF THE OTHER ROUTES DO, HELL YEAH KYLE!). She actively chose to stay in Cradle - even when her ticket home was right in front of her - because she wanted to help Kyle save lives. It’s refreshing. And it makes for some great interactions between her and Kyle, especially later in the route when they’re more comfortable with each other. Which leads me onto my next point…

It felt like a real relationship. The slow growth and blooming of feelings, the cute interactions they’d share (every time Kyle stroked her hair or bopped her on the head, my heart exploded into confetti), and how awkward they both were with each other. God, if you guys could have seen me reading his route with my dumb dopey grin and squeaking like a lovesick children’s toy every 10 seconds...I was a mess gielkdsnglkd.

I love how they let us see into Kyle’s world. It may be a simple outlook on life, but you can’t fault the man. His strong conviction to save as many lives as he can because he feels it’s what he was made to do, and his importance on smiling and presenting a calm, friendly image of himself as he treats his patients (remember the line “People are like mirrors.”. It’s important.). He’s a very “my pace” kind of person, and it was fun to just kind of...relax a bit. Sure, war preparations were happening but wait one moment, please. I need to educate Jonah on what is needed for a balanced nutritious breakfast. It was refreshing to see a route that was surprisingly chill for most of it until the ending crescendo, and I welcomed it.

Alright….angst time. All of the little hints we were getting, like his role of the 7 of Hearts not being “set in stone”, had me squinting at the screen like “boi, what you hiding?”. When we got to drinking with Kyle, Oliver and Blanc and the conversation of Kyle having a brother came up, I was like “....oh. This is gonna be baaad.”. And this wasn’t even including Colin (because when a character gets named, you know they’re important.). But…..Chapter 20. It actually came out of left field, sucker-punched me in the kidney, cracked my heart and left me crying as I’m just reading this whole thing unfolding. Colin’s heartbroken cries, Kyle’s unmoving unresponsive form as he lets Colin punch him, the symbolism and connection of both Kyle and Colin having lost an older brother because of the war. I’m….. ;~; aaaaaa. And then in the Avatar Challenge following the angst, MC throws the “people are like mirrors” line back at him to get him to break down a bit, to let some emotion out, and I was just a blubbering mess at this point. The route is generous enough to give you a floof and mild spice break, but then if you choose the Dramatic Ending…..you…..you visit...his brother’s grave...and the waterworks begin again.

Continuing on from the point above, this means Kyle also has connections with The Day That Went Dark, along with Fenrir and more importantly, Ray. From the way it was described in Kyle’s route, he himself doesn’t know for certain if Ray used magic or not. He only knows that Ray was there when shit went down. So even after his brother passed from the tragedy, Kyle held no animosity or desire for revenge against Ray; very fitting for his character. This route made me realise just how similar Kyle and Ray are: they’re both very determined in their ways to keep the peace and they both hold strong to their views of freedom and honesty (Ray and Kyle respectively). And you can tell that Kyle doesn’t hold it against Ray for whatever happened on The Day That Went Dark.

I would honestly love to see a scenario of the two of them sitting down together in a room and just awkwardly yet honestly expressing all of their pent-up emotions about that whole ordeal (angst writers, if you’re reading this...only if you want to ofc ^w^).

Personal Rambling #2: Gushing Edition

So those were my structured notes, but now let me indulge you on my messy bullet points that I made throughout reading his route. A lot of these are pointless to character building and things I just thought were cute and needed attention drawn to sooo….ye ^w^

Like the rest of the Red Army, Kyle was born into a family that carries the mantle of 7 of hearts. All of them doctors.

Cute theme of beds??? (his bday story and them sleeping in the same room)

“When he wasn’t talking, he’s actually quite attractive.” (wow, r00d)

His palm notes are work and other things related (and he doesn’t always remember why he wrote it down bgrkdgn)

Not a sweet tooth (dammit Kyle, that’s your only downfall :c)

Easily embarrassed despite his earnest and straightforward mannerisms

Doesn’t dote on MC and teaches her what he can

His importance on smiling and presenting a calm, friendly image of himself as he treats his patients (“People are like mirrors.” - ch 8)

Head pats. Lots of head pats

Awkward sweet love (kill me it’s too adorable)

Edgar’s silent envy yet sweet support of their romance (this boi istg…)

Super proactive MC (she’s my new fave, seriously I love her)

Lots of touching (head pats, forehead bonks), he doesn’t know what personal space is (and I love it)

His pig is the cutest thing in the entire world, I need 20

Really good with kids…...yes.

“I absolutely despise people who are ready to throw away their lives” (incredibly strong convictions - doesn’t have many, but the ones he does have he is incredibly dedicated to)

Stays longer than the allotted month (FUCK YES)

His brother’s death strengthened his convictions to be able to handle being an army doctor (direct and honest, no bs about sacrificing your life etc etc)

The “People are like mirrors” line is tearing my fucking heart apart (makes sense in chapter 20 avatar challenge)

The angst…..his brother...and Colin….I’m rdfkgndkjfnxclk ;-;

His realisation of love….and his confession….lord, IM DROWNING IN UWUS

Saving Amon despite him murdering many innocent people, a big decision that could have changed the tide for the future, but he stuck with his beliefs

MC’s insistence that Kyle doesn’t like her that way, and Kyle’s inability to realise it’s love (help me it’s so fucking cute I’m dying)

Whether intentional or not, he’s good at diverting the attention away from him when he wants it off him (maybe MC just assumes he’s an idiot?? lmao)

So his glasses are for sentimental reasons (but does he need them???) and his alcohol drinking habits are from his father (not a coping mechanism)

Incredibly kind...but not good at showing it (helping MC distract herself by giving her work(?))

MC’s obsession with Kyle’s eyes and collarbone (same sis, SAME) and Kyle’s obsession with her hair (fsekfbksfnjweksdgn kd,nAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA)

Conclusion

Overall, Kyle’s route is very solid. It may not add much to the overarching lore of Cradle (aside from another victim in The Day That Went Dark), but the route was still adorable, enjoyable and incredibly sweet. I had no moments where I felt bored throughout his route (then again, that’s likely the bias talking) and the balance between cute floof, tear-jerking angst and then hot hot spice (that he FULLY deserves, mind you) came together into a wonderful experience that left my heart full and sad when it all ended.

My final message to you all: Kyle Ash is the sweetest, most adorkable nerd that has ever graced my presence and I hope that even a tiny portion of my love for him rubs off on you, just so you can see how amazing this boi is. Thank you for your time and for listening to my ramblings gesgnsk ^^;;

Bonus: my two favourite screenshots from his route

[stageonmay]

so let’s talk about this wallace cup thing a repost, purely for organization’s sake.

subject of discourse: who should have won: may or dawn?

disclaimer: now i’m gonna go ahead and acknowledge that we as RPers obviously have our biases for our characters. but what i CAN say is that i didn’t warm up to may until WELL after i watched DP and tbh i’ve held this opinion for some time. believe me or not--i’m going to go through this step-by-step.

what i want to do, to make this as simple as possible, is address the most common arguments (and also maybe some off the dash lol) i see for Dawn’s victory and tell you why they’re bologna.

everything under the cut cause it is LONG.

Exhibit A: Their Parents.

it is REALLY easy to say “well dawn’s mom was a coordinator” and bam. we’re done. but i want to challenge you to not... do that. let’s look at may first.

may is the daughter of a gym leader and a ???? housewife i guess. one would assume that she naturally loves training and is damn good at it. but, not only was she not allowed to watch gym battles (which is why she and max were so excited to watch ash’s battle), but she turned out to be literally afraid of pokemon and only left the house to get away from them. she then ends up falling in love with coordinating because she sees that pokemon can be beautiful, graceful, and fun.

now dawn. dawn is the daughter of a top coordinator, and we know nothing about her dad. she looks up to her mother to the extent that she worried a lot about living up to her legacy, but not so much that it overly crippled her. it’s heavily implied that dawn didn’t actually spend much time training with her mom. johanna really emphasizes dawn’s need to learn on her own--we in fact hardly see her give advice even as she’s on her journey. dawn doesn’t break away from the “family tradition” per se, but over the course of her journey she worries less about living up to “mom” and more about being the best “her” she can be.

the important takeaway here is that these stories have a core theme in common: that your parents do not define YOU. and as such, this argument doesn’t really work. it in fact defeats the purpose of their entire arcs, and, even on a technical level it’s pretty flimsy for reasons i pointed out above.

Exhibit B: Glaceon was a brand new evolution.

honestly there’s not much to say here um. charizard beating aerodactyl. ursula with her flareon & vaporeon appeal. Kkngler in the pokemon league. Swellow to win that tournament. Pignite to beat Shamus.

not only is winning via recent evolution a common pokemon trope, but the very concept is that if you understand your pokémon well, you can easily adapt to this change and succeed.

if you need further proof, just consider when the opposite was the case. ash was so used to winning after evolutions that when turtwig evolved, he got overconfident and misused him because he didn’t consider how his body had changed. So in that case a lack of understanding hurt him.

but given that may explicitly wanted a glaceon, i highly doubt she lacked that understanding of what she was getting into. this is just a really flimsy excuse at best.

Exhibit C: Literally any nitpicking about the battle itself.

you guys. the characters aren’t real. the writers decide how the battle goes. the writers make these choices. and if you felt at all upset when ash lost the kalos league? then you understand.

Exhibit D: Dawn needed a win.

ah, yes. my personal favorite. (which is to say I hate hearing this and from this point forward will demand 10 USD from everyone who says it to me.) first, a reminder: may was participating in the wallace cup because she needed a win herself. this was a high-stakes battle for BOTH of them so honestly I’d LOVE to end the counterargument here but I have more.

the thing is, guys, yes. dawn needed a win. but there’s no reason, at all, plot-wise, that that win needed to be against may.

a better thing to do would have been to give her an opportunity to conquer someone like zoey; someone in her realm of rivals, who is a challenge for her, but who could easily bounce back from a loss.

“But ky, what about the wallace cup??? how would you change it?? wouldn’t may still lose?????”

actually, no. we can do one of two things with the wallace cup:

a) push it earlier. maybe even allow more cameos. this could possibly even be the start of dawn’s temporary downfall rather than the end, which would be interesting because she would write off that loss at first. well it WAS may. no big deal. can’t be mad about losing to someone so nice and experienced. and to paraphrase geoff, it would give sort of a parallel. this is what dawn could become. woulda been nice.

b) push it later. let dawn have her win, and put the wallace cup closer to the grand festival. it could be a BIG DEAL around the world because the wallace cup is considered like a “warm up” for all the festivals and one of the LAST opportunities to get a ribbon. competition is FIERCE. only the best make it through. dawn’s loss is far enough away from her past ones that rather than take it hard, she becomes DETERMINED to train up for the grand festival. woulda been nice.

And lastly, (Exhibit E): I want to address the issue of skill/talent.

may simply showed more growth in a shorter period of time than dawn did. that’s a fact. whether dawn had more experience with her mom or not, she still loved pokemon. was around them. had a sense of what she was doing.

but may went from being afraid to even pick her starter to competing in a grand festival on her first try (this included conquering cheating in that season at least twice). she then went on to travel more regions, become more seasoned and no--i don’t want to discredit dawn at ALL. but it says something about your talent and skill to be able to grow so fast, and may should only have kept going up and up. it doesn’t make sense that dawn would have surpassed her having only started her journey.

and like... is it so bad? to let your old character shine? what’s the point of bringing them back if not to celebrate them?

obviously people are still going to disagree with me. but i think it was a HUGE disservice to may’s character for her to lose. like, if they were going to do her wrong, then just. don’t bring her back.

and that wraps up my hopefully-not-too emotional opinion about the wallace cup results, feel free to like, reblog, reply, whatever you like !

[thedeaditeslayer]

Ray Santiago On the End of Ash and the Future of Evil Dead.

Ash vs. Evil Dead was a beautiful, disgusting, hilarious and horrifying show that deserved a much bigger audience. With Bruce Campbell reprising the role of Ash Williams for what would turn out to be the last time, the show followed an aging has-been stumbling his way through a demonic assault on Earth. Along the way, he and his companions covered in blood, guts and pretty much any other fluid you can think of. If you haven’t been watching this show, you’ve been missing out. And hey, now’s the perfect time to fix that. With the first two seasons on Netflix and the third out on blu-ray and DVD today, you don’t even have to have a Starz subscription to see the whole thing.

Though Bruce Campbell was the biggest star of the show, Ray Santiago’s Pablo is the heart. Over the course of three seasons, you get to watch him grow from a nervous, directionless kid into a full-fledged horror-action hero. Santiago talked to us about his character’s growth and how he looks back at the show now that it’s all over.

“Overall, I’m just so happy that everybody sort of welcomed me into the franchise, and that Pablo made such an impact on the story,” he said. “He started as this naive loyal sidekick, and we got to really see him evolve and become his own hero. And in a weird way, it’s all because of him following Ash and idolizing this bogus guy.”

On the show, Pablo grows into a hero because he follows Ash. Things weren’t that different on set between Campbell and Santiago. The difference is real-life Campbell sounds like a much nicer guy than Ash. If you’ve ever seen Campbell speak in an interview or at a comic con, you know he always brings a show. His bombastic personality fills the stage, and it’s almost enough to make you believe he is Ash. When you work with him, Santiago says, that’s not so much the case.

“Bruce tends to amp up the personality when he’s doing the cons and interviews. He is that way, but he’s also such a warm father figure, and such a great leader. He took such good care of us, and I learned so much from him,” he said. Campbell taught Santiago technical things, like how to hit his mark so the camera could pick up what he was doing, as well as some general acting advice. “Little things like if you’re not having fun, then you’re doing it wrong. I’m so glad I got to work with Bruce on this TV cult classic.”

Santiago clearly loved being part of this show. He described filming with the rest of the cast and crew in New Zealand as feeling like being at camp. He learned not to take horror too seriously and, as we all did after the show’s sudden cancellation, that nothing good lasts forever. Playing a character like Pablo, and growing into a hero, also meant a lot to Santiago.

“As a kid, I grew up watching horror films, and I wanted to be the person being chased by the monster, and I wanted to save the world from evil. On Ash vs. Evil Dead with Pablo, we got a chance to see me become my own superhero. As a latino actor, and Pablo being an illegal immigrant, we got to see… well, I feel like both of them are heroes in their own special way,” Santiago said. “I was really happy to have that, Pablo in general, having him out there so somebody who’s younger could turn to the show, as fun as it is, and see somewhat of a role model. See that it doesn’t matter where you come from, how naive or vulnerable you might be, you might be able to save the world one day. If you believe in yourself.”

And that all comes after the show subjected Santiago to some pretty disgusting stuff. For him, nothing was quite as gross as something that happened all the way back in Season One. “I birthed demons out of my mouth,” he said.

I’ll give you a second to let that image fully form in your head. Got it? Good, because Santiago went on to describe exactly what that scene entailed. “So… never in my life did I think I’d call my mom and say, ‘hey mom I just finished doing my birthing scene.’ But on Ash, we did. And the way that it went down, they were like ‘OK, sooo your mouth’s a portal for the demons, the baby demons, and we need you to put this in your mouth, and we need you to spit it out slowly.’ And I was like, ‘What? That was definitely not in my job description, but uh OK?”

Despite all the gross things that happened to him, Santiago says he had the most fun doing all of it. Including the time he was a Deadite and they took his fingers away. “It takes about an hour to put each hand on, so once they put those hands on, you’re not going to the bathroom,” he said. Santiago didn’t even get the worst of it. Though he feels like everyone got their share of blood and “gross torture” on the show, nothing really topped Bruce’s morgue scene in Season Two.

“Bruce was covered in shit and cum, so you can’t really beat that, can you? I almost didn’t say it, but it’s the truth! You know what? Season two, shit happens and Season Three, we blew our load.”

SPOILERS

If you’ve seen the show, you know it has a very Army of Darkness-like ending. Spoilers from here on out, so be warned. Ash ends the season by waking up in a post-apocalyptic world. Sadly we won’t get to see what Season 4 would have done with it, but Santiago told me what he was envisioning. First of all, yes, Pablo is still alive. Santiago said IO was the second person to ask, and his first reaction is “Why wouldn’t he be?” He explained what he meant.

“I think Pablo and Kelly are definitely still alive. I think what you saw was Bruce (Ash) has been taken to the future, but I still think that we exist in the present day or the past. What you would have seen in Season Four would have been the journey to get back to the same time zone. Whether it’s Bruce coming back to save us or us trying to find him,” he said.

Santiago said we’d see Pablo trying to fill Ash’s role, which would have made for great TV. “I think there would have been two parallel universes going on. You would have seen Pablo leading the Ghost Beaters in his own way, trying to keep what Ash taught him alive and doing his own thing.” He also hinted at where the love story would go, which I’m always a sucker for. “And maybe you might have seen a little Pablo and Kelly baby with, like, Pablo hair and Kelly’s voice.” That would have most likely happened in the future timeline. Man, why did Starz have to deprive us of that?

Their ideas for Season 4 got real weird too. If you wondered what Pablo would have looked like in the post-apocalypse, Santiago has an answer. “We had this idea of me in a glass case. It would just be my head and hair in a glass case. And I was like, ‘uhhhh… OK, that sounds fun.'”

It’s not quite the post-apocalyptic Mad Max version of Pablo I envisioned, but when I mentioned that, Santiago appeared to have given the matter some thought as well. “We could have gone so many different ways. In the future when we see Bruce, he could get in his car, drive somewhere and then we’re there. And we could explain how we got there, so you might have seen a Mad Max version of Pablo.” Santiago even knows exactly what that would have looked like. “In my head, if that were to happen, I would have completely shaved my head and gone full blown warrior mode. Shed the young, innocent version of Pablo and be more, sort of, kick ass.”

SPOILERS END

While the show is ending though, Santiago doesn’t necessarily think it’ll be the end for the Evil Dead franchise. “It’s been really nice to be part of a franchise that will live forever. It’s been 30-something years, and I think that we’ll, you never know, we’ll be wheeling Bruce out in 30 more years. You never know what will happen.”

Though Bruce Campbell is retiring the character of Ash, that doesn’t mean the end of Evil Dead. As the excellent 2013 remake proved, Evil Dead can (and probably will) continue on without him. “[Bruce retiring Ash] doesn’t rule out Dana and I, and the Fede Alvarez version with all the people in the remake,” Santiago said. “You never know. I think what’s going on right now is basically what happens in the Evil Dead franchise all the time. Which is giving it some time to breathe and then something will definitely be coming your way soon enough. No one’s ever truly dead in this franchise, and the franchise itself is never truly dead. I would say keep your eyes open for another version of what you might want out there.”

As far as a spinoff goes, it’s definitely a possibility. The show has been performing well on Netflix, and we know how much they like to bring back shows with dedicated cult followings. Santiago says Campbell, though he wouldn’t be in it, is all for the idea. Bruce has given us his blessing to move forward and do a spinoff if we want. I think right now, I’m working on another show and I’m working on two films. It’s nice to sort of do a different thing, but I do miss Pablo… If the offer came in for me to revive the Ghost Beaters on Netflix, I’d have a really hard time saying no,” he said.

For now, you’ll be able to catch Santiago on a new Hulu show from horror production studio Blumhouse called Into the Dark. Santiago describes it as an anthology series where every episode is basically a horror movie, each one with a different cast. Santiago is one of the leads in the first episode which premiers October 5. Despite it being a very different character from Pablo, Santiago couldn’t help bringing some of his Evil Dead mindset with him.

“I was on set and I was like, ‘We need more blood, this isn’t enough blood,’ and they were like, ‘this isn’t Evil Dead man,’ and I was like ‘yeah, but still we need more blood.’ So I’m still traumatized, and I’ve become very masochistic with blood,” he said.

Ash vs. Evil Dead may be gone, but its spirit isn’t going away anytime soon. Season Three was the wildest season of a show that went all the way from the very beginning. If you missed out, or if you just want to watch it again, it’s available on Blu-Ray and DVD August 21.

[shirtlesssammy]

13x19: Funeralia

Then:

Rowena’s back and better than ever (and so is Billie)(and so is Gabriel)(Asmodeus, not so much)

Now:

In Portland, Oregon, our favorite witch Rowena gets a call from the three musketeers Team Free Will. 

They need her help with Michael. She takes the time to compliment the cutest angel in the universe, but can’t be bothered with assisting further. She’s at a party, and has things to do. Namely: dance the tango and set a woman on fire.

Later, in the bunker’s kitchen (Dean’s comfort zone and Cas’s comfort zone!...still a table between them though), Dean and Cas try to brainstorm ideas for tracking Gabriel that doesn’t require Rowena.

Dean needs a beer to get the brain juices flowing, and despite Cas’s quick decline, he gets him one too. #goodhusband Cas comes up with asking the angels for help.

*Boris Determined Soon-to-be Classic Dialog Alert*

Cas: This would be something of a Hail Mary

Dean: Hmm

Cas: It’s a sport’s term, like slam dunk or ball handler

Dean: That’s uh, mm...I don’t think it’s a good idea.

Ah, they’re really talking here, discussing angels, Donatello, and being on the same page but approaching things from different perspectives. Interrupting Sam interrupts so I guess the rest of the episode won’t be domestic Dean and Cas chatting over a beer. Missed opportunity, I’d say.

Sam reports on Rowena’s recent activity. Dean gets testy with him about helping her and now Sam’s got to make things right. He then tells Cas that he can contact the angels, but adds, “don’t get dead again.” Guh, he couldn’t look at him until he said those words. He doesn’t like what Cas wants to try, but only makes eye contact when he really wants to make that last point clear. #worriedhusbandisworried

Cas heads to the playground and finds Indra, one slightly inebriated angelic guard.

Indra doesn’t really have any fight left in him. “If you want to say we fought and angel blade me right now, that’d be ok.” “Is that a joke?” Cas implores. Nope. Things are bad in angel land.

Cas finds the throne room empty. Duma and Co. arrive. He tells them about Gabriel and Michael and Jack and Lucifer. (But she says nothing back about Lucifer --and where the heck is he anyway?) The lights power up and down, and Duma tells Cas that they can probably help each other.

On the road, Sam can’t get a hold of Rowena. And then Jessica the reaper pops into the back seat. She’s apparently been keeping an eye on the brothers. She also points out that Dean hasn’t spilled about his time chilling with her in the veil. Jessica is here to help them with Rowena. She’s already killed four people before their time, and she needs to be stopped.

Omg, Rowena has a picture of Fergus on her desk. She also has limited patience with the Brothers Winchester. They keep calling, and soon they’ll find her. She reminds Bernard that she’s capable of anything now.

At the scene of “spontaneous combustion”, Sam reads about the victim. She wasn’t necessarily a good human. They look at the ashes and see another marking --the remnants of a reaper.

Dean calls for Jessica. Yep, it seems that Rowena is really going after reapers. She also talks about Ashton’s second best movie the butterfly effect. (Sidenote: Just look at Dean’s growth here. In season 6, he made it clear there would be no Kutcher references, and now he’s ranking his movies? Dean Bean.) Anyway, she talks about fate, death, and the cataclysmic repercussions of people dying before their time. (Uh, this is the opposite of saving everyone on the Titanic. I need to rewatch “My Heart Will Go On” --do they remember that other timeline at the end?) Jessica tells Sam that he is the one that will kill Rowena (NOOOOOO!!!)

*Cute Montage Alert*

Cas waits in heaven and I just want to squish this ferocious wavelength of celestial intent.

Duma finally comes back, and she brought a friend: Naomi! WoooOOOoooh. (Sidenote: another flashback to a previous episode.) She tells Cas, “it’s not that we won’t help you, it’s that we can’t.”

On the road, Sam finds another possible victim, and Jessica pops in to inform the boys that he’s dying as they speak. He’s bleeding out in his backyard. Rowena is there to scan the yard for a reaper, and finds him. She wants to have a chat with Death, but Billie does not negotiate with witches. And the man and reaper go up in flames.

Velvet pants swoon.

When Sam, Dean, and Jessica find the torched body Rowena calls them and suggests a chat in person. Rowena plans to try to convince them to stop pursuing her...or be stopped in turn. Dun dun dun.

Back with Castiel, he faces the torturer that made him do this:

While we love seeing Naomi again (I love Amanda Tapping), I also remember her as someone who really fucked Cas over. He remembers her this way as well. He's still angry with her for stealing his memories, threatening him, and making him repeatedly act out Dean's murder. Naomi shrugs. “Those were simpler times.” She doesn't apologize.

Naomi was hiding out until recently when the Heavenly power grid went down. We learn that angels power Heaven like batteries storing power. And now there are just nine angels left in Heaven, including Castiel. DAMN, ya'll. Naomi tells him that angels can't help Cas find Gabriel because no angels can leave or risk the ruin of Heaven. If the power grid falters, Heaven will crumble and everyone who's been living in Heaven will plummet to Earth and get their haunt on. That's...not good at all.

(Boris: My heart breaks a little for how affected Cas is on hearing the angel news. And is Anael in heaven? I presume that Lucifer can come and go as he pleases since he has his wings still. Will heaven remain closed for the foreseeable future - this season?)

Rowena settles in for drinks with Dean and Sam. She tells them she's only targeting bad people who've been responsible for the death of thousands. But Sam brings up that she's still killing reapers so the whole vigilante schtick doesn't ring true. She tells them that she's killing reapers to try and get Death's attention so she can get Fergus (Crowley) back. She blames his death (and presumably everything – his damned soul, his ascent to the throne of Hell) on her decision to leave him when he was a boy. Oh, Rowena. My heart kind of breaks for you.

“Are only Winchesters allowed to come back from the dead?” Rowena asks them acidly before she tells them she's going to continue her mission. Dean decides to tell her that Sam's responsible for her death which is...a lot. It's a threat. It's a promise, a warning. It's a hell of a lot to put on both Sam and Rowena. Sam's not ready to kill her though and tries to cuff her instead. She grins and fades out. She was astral projecting! Nice work. Rowena waves at them from the door and heads out of the bar at top speed.

Dean and Sam give chase when Dean gets closelined by Rowena's lackey.

They have a great drag-down fight featuring harsh moves, hotel props, and two blasé people riding an elevator.

Outside, Sam corners Rowena in the alley. He tells her to stop messing with the “machinery of the universe” and when she tells him she won't stop, he shoots. (Like. Sam. Pot, kettle much?) Rowena freezes the bullet. She's shocked that he would have shot her and puts him to sleep.

Jessica the reaper shows up while Dean continues to fight. She tells him to hurry which...thanks Jessica. Super helpful. When Dean finally defeats him, Jessica gives Dean reluctant props while Dean heads out to find Sam. He finds Sam's gun in the alley.

Pretty shot alert

Cut to Sam tied up in Rowena's room. He tells her the increased magic in her system has made her crazy but Rowena counters with a different story. She has new clarity. All she'd done for money or power was meaningless, ultimately. Everyone she loved – Oscar and Fergus – are lost to her. She wants to redeem herself somehow. (I have to say of the two redemption arcs – Ketch versus Rowena – I definitely believe Rowena's to be more genuine.) Anyway, since Sam's destined to kill her then she should kill him first. She rips his shirt open.

Rowena apologizes but still slams killing power into Sam. Death shows up and Rowena recognizes her from that one time they worked together to harness a ton of souls. “If we'd just exchanged numbers,” Rowena notes, “none of this would have been necessary.” Billie warns her off her risky scheme and tells her she doesn't do blackmail. If she kills Sam, nobody's gonna be happy in the future, but it's Rowena's choice. And Crowley is staying dead.

Sam begs for his life and Rowena turns at the last minute and blasts Billie instead. Billie, mid-attack, just hangs out casually. No big. (Though notice she didn't bring her scythe with her tonight. Probably a smart choice.)

Billie bends down and she and Rowena have a heart to heart. Rowena breaks down. “I don't know what I'm doing,” she confesses.

“Sometimes life isn't fair,” Billie tells her. “And sometimes we lose things. And sometimes we make mistakes. And some of these things can never be fixed, no matter how powerful you become. Some things just are.” She won't kill Rowena.

Billie greets Dean as he breaks down the door, Jessica in tow. “See you again soon,” she says to Dean before flapping out. Yikes. Ominous.

Outside the Heavenly sandbox, Cas continues to be a total angel and holds a very civil conversation with Naomi. She'll stay in Heaven to protect the grid and wishes him luck on his quest to find Gabriel. The gates of Heaven are closed. After she leaves, Cas grabs a handful of sand from the sandbox that is now just a sandbox. He looks despairing over Heaven's fate.

Rowena, Sam, and Dean touch base. “What have I done?” Rowena asks. Sam tells her that what happened with Crowley wasn't her fault. “Every one of us has done something we have to live with. That we're trying to make up for,” Dean tells her. Sam tells her they may need her help to save the world. No pressure, as always.

Sam tells her Lucifer is back. “I'm horrified and scared and my heart may have stopped but...Lucifer isn't the one who's going to kill me, is he?” Rowena returns. Sam vows to change her fate.

Quoternalia:

Hello, boys.

I'm surprised you recognize the sound of a party since you're all work and no play.

You know, she’s right. You never go to parties.

You were “handling it”

Death doesn't negotiate with witches.

She's powerful. She's gorgeous. And she's paying me a small fortune. That woman didn't have to cast a spell on me.

Everything ends.

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive!

[heartsoftruth]

until now i thot Ney@PSG was just a way for him (and his pai) to get more money/advantages from barca by using PSG as a pressure point ... But now, after what Geri and Masche said, he apparently really considering leaving ... It's not just a mind game with barca's direction, he is actually serious. I still don't know what to think about it ...

Anonymous said:“Do you wane be someone who we hear of when you play in the CL only or one we also wants league matches live?” This got me thinking, maybe PSG could bring him a little more peace. Less media exposition, less pressure. On a personal level, i think it could be good for Ney … On a professional level, Barca is way more competitive of course. I understand why he take his time to truly think about it even if for the fans it is a hard time.

He wants to win the BdO. If he wants to win it in France he or has to score 40+ but especially win the CL. That will be historical. 

Anonymous said:I want him to leave. I think he needs it for his growth. But not like this and not PSG 😭

@imahighfunctioningdisaster​ said:I just really don’t see what’s appealing in going to PSG. (Except maybe for the money, but that what’s interest NSr, not NJr.) Ligue1 is so bad, like there is nothing spectacular or interesting to play in french football. There aren’t good opportunities or way to make yourself more famous, no good club (bc PSG is not a good club, not at all). (And it’s coming from a french person who doesn’t follow la Ligue 1 because of how bad it is.)

I dont see the appeal either tbh. I really dont see it. STAY!

Anonymous said:Neymar, it doesn’t get any better than Barca. You are a part of the best trio in football. You’ve won cups & you get praised for how incredible you are. But you’ll throw it away for money? A Brazilian friend persuading you too? If he leaves to PSG he goes to a shitty league with no competition. No one will care how many goals he scores. He won’t be alongside some of the best players in the world. But at least you got that money right? What a disappointment. Even if he stays, I don’t care.

Anonymous said:Ney will be hated by the fans bc of thinking about leaving. Ofcourse he’s thinks about leaving his dad wants him to go to psg. But I think Ney should man up and tell his father what he wants for once.

Anonymous said:I’m mind blown at how his father is sitting back and letting all this backlash happen, why is he ruining his sons reputation. Money is great and all but as a father your child should come first, his happiness should come first always.

Anonymous said:The damage is done already, Cules don’t want Neymar to stay even the once who really liked him are turning their backs on him. At this point he might as well just leave. I don’t know if he’s even aware of it. But he will be when the Camp Nou welcomes him with boos and whistles.

Exactly, it doesn’t get better than Barça and hell to the no at P$G…

I hope he stays. I’m keeping positive. I hope tonight will be a good came again and maybe some stay Ney chants and he will see what he can achieve with this team. 

He will just have to make up a lot with the fans. 

Anonymous said:Hi i’m sorry to bother but why would JB fans be mad at him? Did something happen? Again sorry for bothering youHi, you don’t bother me. I just dont remember what I said about JB… Anonymous said:hey ash well am a madridista but i wanna say that i really wish ney to stay although this will harm and threaten real Madrid but i want him to stay bec i love him and if he stays within a couples of years he gonna be the best player in world and 2nd its amazing to see such a unique talent in la liga :) am sorry if i interfered in barca issue while i am a Madrid fan good night all xoxox

Aaawh thank you! Thats very nice of you to say! I didnt know RMA fans visited my blog, but your words are too kind! It;s great to see how you appreciate him

Anonymous said:I feel like Geri messed up, meant positive about Neymar, but some things he said come out negative, he made him sound like incompetent child who can’t think for himself, and made it sound like he’ll never lead club cuz he’s not Messi. Not a good msg to send out there. I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that but it came out like that. We all know Ney is still under influence of his dad but he made big choices against him in the past and hes not a compete idiot, I think ppl underestimate him too much

Geri spoke his mind and the truth. I know what Geri means with the child comment and it isn’t as negative as it may seem. I thought he said some interesting stuff in a time where the subject of all this drama isn’t speaking. 

Anonymous said:watching stories from Neymars friends pisses me off even more, they really are such fucking parasites! he does all the work, in the middle of this hot mess they’re just fucking around, partying in messy hotel rooms, all just follow him around and live of of him and his success like leaches, they are no use. How can he be grown up surrounded with ppl like that 24/7?? Are they gonna still sit in his living room when they’re 50? pathetic….

I hvae no idea. I hope they tell him fucking stay at Barca idioto.

Anonymous said:If its abt leadership eventually ney will leave cos lio is the undisputed leader here&he fought his way to be here. Its not like he randomly became the leader over the years he has cemented his place. At the start it was a struggle even for him and right now tbh it would be extremely disrespectful and wrong to ask leo to step down because why should he he isnt declining? Or has shown any signs of it either even at the juve game both goals he was the starting point of it his inch perfect passes

True. He knows Leo won’t step down and is the natural leader. That;s why he might wanna  leave. 

Anonymous said:It’s not lio imposes himself on others infact last season he played in the midfield and became Europe’s top scorer he didn’t exactly took away chances from others but rather he is that good he can play in all positions. He by his talent is the natural leader of the squad. He is the best player in the world. Some people try to make it look like lio is a dictator hence ney is going& nobody acknowledges that even messi on his part sacrificed his play to suit msn. He isnt exactly self centered

Exactly! Leo shouldn’t even be brought into this discussion. Every player knows to what team they go to and who the natural leader is. Leo is a team player, not selfish but everyone respects him as the leader. 

Anonymous said:Sorry…. he said that his making this very clear he loves Neymar more then Barca and better then being with the best player in the world and that he won’t find this somewhere else, and that he needs to enjoy the team, the city which is Barca and he won’t find it anywhere elseAnonymous said:Nah Neymar has massively dissapointed me! Is he really that stupid that he will lose whatever goodwill he has left with fans even his teammates for carrying this on WAY too long. If it was a silly brumar rumour or something to do with Bruna he would be the first person calling out the journalist or posting some silly posts to end the drama but with HIS own life and career and the integrity and respect for a club that has done their best to accommodate him he keeps mute! He should leave tbhAnonymous said:Okay bye Neymar 👋🏽😒!!! I’m sorry if he really wanted to stay as Barca he would have said something by now, which just shows that his actually considering leaving Barca for a club where he’ll only be recognized in the Champions League?! I’m done he has strung everybody along far too long! I’m disappointed in him!!

I get the disappointment because same, but I still want and hope he will stay. Lets hope he makes the right decision. 

Anonymous said:I’m soooo tired of this Neymar drama. Thank God for Lewis, at least one of my faves is treating me right.

Well Lewis also has a lot of drama surrounding him always haha. 

Anonymous said:Neymar’s father did the impossible…Congratulations 👏👏👏*sarcasm* A majority of FC Barcelona fans (90%) now hate Neymar.he Can’t really say anything??This situation is so annoying.If he wants to leave, he need to SAY. EVERYONE is tired of this waiting.

It’s such a mess… 

[team-adults-blog]

4.08-4.13

Hi friends. I haven’t written since Ep 4.07. And then I didn’t want to write them all individually, so here are the highlights of the season, broken down by character. I waited until after the finale to see if any of my issues would be resolved. Would not recommend reading in one sitting. Below is 6,750+ words (10 pages single spaced in word) and some tangents. Please don’t read it in one sitting, I’m sure you have better things to do.

Warning: A higher emotion to jokes ratio.

This gets pretty critical. I loved the first half of the season, but the second half was hit and miss.

Octavia (? /+)

Wowwieee what an arc. Wasn’t sure exactly where she was going the whole time, but I generally enjoyed the ride.

Kane’s body guard. Fight with Dad!Kane. Pushed off a cliff. Ilian. Still have mixed feelings about Ilian. INDRA LOVE.

I’m happy she got to talk to Bellamy in the finale, but of course, after trying and failing to tell each other they loved one another all season, the radio cuts out, preventing it again. Typical. It still hurt. But then it hurts that much more after when Clarke doesn’t get to talk to Abby.

I like the reluctant leadership role Octavia finds herself in a lot. She acknowledges she’s not a natural leader like her brother or Clarke, but she’s being pushed to lead anyway. Indra’s council that all leaders have help/ a team is so so so so so so so so important for O to realize. She’s not entitled or arrogant like Jaha. She’s strong and humble and it will make her a great leader. I’m also glad she’s like a queen or emperor or whatever and not heda or commander. It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day. It’s a new life. And they’re feeling [claustrophobic.]

And this old world is a new world and a bold world for me- would have been another appropriate lyric to throw out, but it lacks a joke and is not as obvious a reference. Same song btw.

Indra (+)

Indra had a fantastic season. I loved the depth her character got and like whoa! Daughter! Lets go back and rewatch S1-3 with this knowledge as we look at how she interacts with Octavia. I need to talk about 4.10’s conclave because holy bajobie. Such good acting. Much emotion. Give Adina Porter a series regular role. Why the hell did they make Roan a series regular when he just died. SHE DESERVES MORE. SHE IS INCREDIBLE. Ok so. We got Indra rebuilding a relationship with her estranged daughter, who have different ideas of faith and leadership. We get serious Octavia mentorship. Her conversation with Kane when he’s telling her that if Octavia makes it out of the conclave it’ll all be because of her and he’s thankful and also like I miss you, we were friends. And She’s like… you can have multiple mentors that teach you different things. And also I hope she’s ok too. We can try and be friends again. Then boom. Guess who ruins it? Fricking Thelonious Jaha. Kindra better have rebuilt in that time gap. I need them to be friends again. Plus they’re both really important influences and mentors to Octavia so they WILL interact, even if they’re disagreeing. I’d like to see that too. Show me the friendship rebuild. I need it.

Gaia (+)

From the first moment she was on screen I said, I don’t know her, but I love her. And then I found out she’s Indras BLOOD daughter. Not adopted. BLOOD. Her face is so expressive. I would love to see where S5 takes her. She’s obvs in the bunker, right?

Ilian (eh)

A generally nice boy. He took Octavia home to meet the parents…that was a poor joke, but not bad enough that I feel the need to remove it. I can feel cringes already. He helped O out of some bad situations and helped her grow. I wasn’t a fan of the cave sex, but I think I get where it came from. I still have no idea how he blew up the Ark without being stopped. He was a decent one season character. OH. It was nice in his first ep that we got to see the destruction A.L.I.E. caused on a more personal level for the grounders. While Ilian’s story can’t represent the experience of all grounders who became chipped, it does a good job of letting the viewer see the devastation she caused. By feeling sorrow for this grounder family, you can imagine that multiplied across all the clans and boom. Lots of sadness all over the coalition.

Echo (+)

She may have done some pretty messed up things but I’m still loving her. I loved her when she and Bellamy met. I was thinking, “wow we get another badass warrior woman. This show is great.” Then she helped blow up Mount Weather and I was all. “I don’t know if I can still love her… I still want to and sort of do, but I don’t know if I should.” She made sure Bellamy wasn’t inside though, you’ve got to give her credit for that. AND THEN. She wants to be buds with Bell and he’s all like. You’re a frickin spy and you killed my girlfriend. I can never trust you. And her face falls and I’m like oh, Echooooo. Someday you’ll be buds or more. In the conclave she’s a sneaky little cheater which I want to be mad at, but it was so smart and she was just trying to save her King. Her face falls AGAIN and you get where she’s coming from. She’s exhiled. King ded. Riding in to save Bell/ sneakily following him to try and find safety. One cool grounder. I really like her. I’m glad she made it into space because that will be really cool for future plotlines/ flashbacks while she’s learning how everything works.

Roan (eh)

Everything he does makes sense for his character. Most of the conflict in the 4A storyline comes from a lack of/poor communication between him and skaikru. Banishing Echo was just, but you died 5 min later and without her Azgeda literally has no clear leader. He was p cool but not my fave. They could have explored his backstory a lot more and gone in some interesting directions had they chosen to.

Clarke (?)

-a little confused?

-I get her plans fall through at every turn

-bellamy? You’re worth something to me. She saves bellamy in the rover/ tank scene. Then at some point Jaha’s influence becomes more important. Jaha potential mentorship made for interesting parallels, and made me actually a little interested in Jaha. But then he screws her over with the bunker.

She shoots at Bellamy?!?!?! But only a warning shot. And then 30 min later she’s forgiven? Man he must really love you.

Finale: wow lots of emotional Bellarke. Wowieeee. Ofc Clarke goes to the tower. Ofc she lives. But. How? How much food was left in the lab? Assuming they actually left enough for Raven, was it 5 years’ worth? How did the bunker get buried in rubble and ash (I know it was in the temple) but Becca’s lab stay perfectly fine AND sealed? It survived the first time, and has medical equipment so Clarke could treat her radiation poisoning. HOWEVER. She should have had some scars 6 years and 7 days later. What is Clarke dying her hair with? It’s really cute that she talked to Bellamy all that time to stay sane. He gave her hope. That’s really nice.

With some kid named Maddie (spelling?) now. How’d that happen? And she’s a nightblood? I’m sure this will all be explained to me so I’m not going to spiral here.

Bellamy (+)

What a great season for Bellamy. He gets emotional fixing from S3, emotional development with his sister and Kane and Clarke. He was an absolute hero in the finale. That was prime Bellamy. Holy cow was that his episode. Sure Clarke was doing things too but. Wow. He talked to Octavia, sad. He comforted Raven. He comforted Echo. He was on fiaahhh. Very happy with his season. We need a new name for this season- Bellamarie or Bernie or something that shows his growth.

Murphy & Emori (+)

Good teamwork. Glad Murphy is happy with his gal.  Glad they’re both alive and in space. He’ll be the fun conflict/ complaining guy up on the Ark but still do what needs to get done. Emori is going to learn to trust these 6 other people and then no one else. I’m here for it.

Nate Miller (+)

He got rid of that trash that is Bryan. Bryan bugged Miller’s jacket in S3 or did y’all forget? Bryan wanted to let everyone die on the trip to Azgheda. Nate deserves better. He GOT better. Jackson is pure and morally right most of the time and is just way way better.

David Miller (+)

So he gave into the masses and shocked Kane. He understands mob power and mentality, but I thought they were buds. It hurt a little, but I see why he did it.

Father son guard duty was awesome.

Sacrificing for Nate was heart wrenching. I want more of the Millers.

I became strangely attached to his character after he interrupted Kabby’s reoccurring eye sex back at the start of S3. Also if you read about the casting of the millers it will break your heart even more. (link) this was all I could find in a 2 min search, but they’re really tight and it’s lovely.

Raven (+)

-so so so happy Sinclair came back in 4.11. I love him. So so much. We deserved more of him. When I saw Allesandro Juliani’s name on the opening guest credits (and not having watched any promos) I was so excited. Guys. He had a wife that I never got to meet. Will we ever get to meet her??? Abby’s already adopted Raven but you can never have too many adopted parents. I adopt them all the time. You don’t have to tell them. It’s fine. They need a good kid like me to look after. I’m cry if I keep thinking about Cindy, who was too young to actually be my mom, but was my high school mom all the same. But cooler. And with fun verb songs. Kay now I’m cryin about my Spanish teacher brb y’all. (I actually was for the record)

Ok. Back to Sinclair and Raven. Everything was beautiful. He validated her for her, not just for her super mind. That love and support was just so lovely because raven only sees herself as valuable if she can contribute with her brain. The tank scene where they touched the glass? I know that’s also common for love and hope in prison glass/grate scenes but like. Ian directed this ep. It was not a coincidence. Not at ALLLLLLLLLL. Especially with DNR written on Jasper’s hand held up to the glass. And we know Kane trying to open the bunker was a deliberate call-back to the hatch because the writers tweeted it. At this time I would like to thank Bailey and Peter for telling me I would like Lost so that I may make these connections. The ep was great because of all the emotionnnnn (4.11). Sinclair deserved better.

her surprise at the delinquents returning/ Bellamy hugging her is another emotional stab at my heart.

Raven Reyes is one bamf and I love her with all of my heart. I’m so happy she got to spacewalk, and it was really sweet Clarke figured out why she was happy about that.

Jackson (+)

Oh my gosh Jackson got a first name and a boyfriend this season and I’m so happy for him! Honestly, he delivers a lot of “the viewer needs to know this so we’ll give the lines to Jackson as him talking to Abby,” so it was really nice to see him get some development. Jackson, Nyko, and David Miller were characters that I was happy to see getting lines and screen time. Now all I have is Jackson. I’m considering getting attached to Costa but he just stands there so. Maybe not.

Nyko (-)

Nyko sacrificing himself for Luna was ok when it was for the greater good and all that, but with how Luna’s story ended up being, I wish he’d just lived. It wouldn’t have been as meaningful if someone else had died, but she doesn’t do anything that makes him dying for her worth it. It just makes me sad.

Luna (-)

I understand Luna’s resentment of being used for her nightblood. However, I don’t completely follow her path to wanting everyone to die. All of her people died, so there’s pain there, but Luna was supposed to have turned her back on violence, despite being good at it. The shift from I am reluctantly helping you (when Raven convinces her and Nyko dies) to I hate this one group of people so much I have now changed my perspective on the human race that they are all terrible and need to die. If I have to spend significant time retracing Luna’s story in my mind to try and figure out how she got to this point, the writers aren’t doing their job in tying episodes together and making her arc progress logically. I’m a nerd. I’m willing to take the time and try and figure it out. But really? Luna could have entered the conclave with the idea to share the bunker, which would have made sense to me? But then Octavia wouldn’t be able to have that growth. So. I don’t really know. Generally disappointed.

I will say, I love a good parallel or call back. When Ariana (that kid who came to Arkadia with Luna and Nyko back when Flokru died) was dying, she said something like “from the water we are born to the water we return.” When she said it again as she drowns Roan it was so cool. I’m sorry for Roan and all, but it was a cool variation of yu gonplei ste odon which all the other grounders seemingly say. I find both expressions pleasing because of the ability to shift their meaning based on tone and context. Mercy and comfort vs basically die bitch. Love it.

Kabby (+++, End--)

Kabby, as a unit, because these characters are more than their relationship. Holy cow. 4.01: we see guilt and forgiveness and love and a face caress in front of Clarke, who we see is cool with it, but also a little sad. 4.02: SEX BA-BEEE. Jake’s rings. Heart eyes. Then Abby takes the rings off- off camera. Which is not super cool because we didn’t get to see her make that decision, but they just had sex and I will pick my battles. Hug. Abby returns to go where she can be useful. I LIKED THIS because it recognized they are individuals with different skill sets and allows them to have plotlines and conflicts of their own. Abby is not just hanging around Polis and all those grounder strangers and popping onscreen to be Marcus’ girlfriend lady. I respect the separation. I HATED THIS because it separated them. Which meant less kabby scenes because they were not in the same physical location. The walkie scenes warmed my heart. That was beautiful. BUT THEN. They were apart. For ten episodes. Ten. There were thirteen total episodes in the season. They were together for three. I know Clarke’s story is the A plot darling and more important and I accept that. But her narrative and decision making process was all over the place this season and I do NOT accept that I was denied a reunion scene after Kane and Abby were apart for ten. Episodes. And then completely left out of the finale. It’s disrespectful and rude. To the characters and their storylines, which now have unanswered questions (to follow below) and a 6 year time gap. We’d better get some fucking flashbacks or something because last time there was only a THREE MONTH time gap and the emotional consequences of Mount Weather was mishandled or brushed off until Bellamy had to get a redo to fix the shitshow that was his S3 this past season. I have concerns.

Abby (started off +, end of season MAJOR--)

Kabby amazingness at the beginning and then Abby getting her own plotlines was super satisfying. I had some issues with Abby and medical ethics, but SO DID SHE! Those are hard questions to grapple with and I’m not mad at her for anything she did there. She got talked into a lot of the questionable things she did- which is good in that I can defend her to these assholes, but not good in that she was able to be talked into a morally grey decision. Abby and Raven were great. As they always have. Even when they fight and I have to explain the fight and why it’s ok to someone who will continue to say, “Whatever. I still hate Abby.” You’re entitled to your opinion, but it’s wrong. Kids these days don’t want to empathize with the adult and try to see things from their perspective. Ofc Abby doesn’t want Clarke putting herself in danger. She’s her MOM. Ofc kids identify with Clarke. But take a sec and try to understand where the other person is coming from too. Abby and your own parental unit. Sympathy and empathy are important. I don’t want anymore “oh I didn’t think of it that way.” Once you’ve considered Abby’s side of conflict, and you decide you still don’t like her (and not just to make me mad), that’s totally fine. You can feel that way, Z.

Didn’t like that Clarke and Abby were in the same room and not talking to each other? Yeah, idk.

Freeing Bellamy was awesome.

Not telling Kane about being sick- I have conflicting opinions. On one side, she’s sick and doesn’t think she can do anything about it, so don’t worry Kane until you’re together. They haven’t really had alone time since they reopened the bunker, so are we surprised she didn’t tell Kane yet? Not really. Then there’s the “don’t worry anyone at all by keeping it a complete secret” method. By keeping it a secret, you don’t have to face it full on. Your loved ones don’t know, so they don’t treat you any differently. I don’t know if this is super common or just in my head, but with cancer, it’s not uncommon for parents not to tell their kids that they’ve been diagnosed until they’re in later stages and showing symptoms? Alternatively, if their relationship is as solid as it is in my heart, there’s no real reason to keep her illness from Kane. He’s hurt, but aside from her own fear and denial, there’s no real reason for omission.

UNLESS. She’s not sick. Hear me out- Raven is having multiple seizures each day, and Abby began having hallucinations around roughly the same time. So if the illness was affecting them the same way, she ought to be symptomatic. Unless she’s not? It could be affecting her differently. But there were other people in the lab who know about Abby, and I have faith in Jackson that he can be subtle, but how did he avoid spilling the beans in front of Kane before Raven? Abby is his fam and you know he’s gonna be checking up on her even if he does have a super cute new relationship. So that means Abby isn’t progressing with her illness at the same speed Raven is, which is plausible, but she apparently hasn’t had a seizure or any other issue since the one hallucination. So I’m feeling the Clarke with radiation was a dream. BUT Jackson did a scan back in the lab, which is how we know she’s sick, so how do we explain that away? Why even bring up the fact that Abby is still sick and that Kane didn’t know, just to LEAVE THEM BOTH OUT OF THE FINALE AND NEVER ADDRESS THE UNANSWERED QUESTIONS OF: 1) how will Abby get better? 2) how will Kane and Abby deal with the fallout of a secret?

We don’t know. We time jumped 6 years and 7 days and don’t know. Flashbacks are the only solution.

Deciding to die? Let’s tear that apart. It happened right after David Miller wrote Nate’s name down, sacrificing himself. Abby’s feeling hella guilty, but I blame Jaha for making her feel like shit. Abby is the most hopeful, stubborn character on the show, and it felt a little out of character for her to decide she wanted to die, straight out. Not sacrifice herself for someone else. If the sickness and the guilt are supposed to be the motivators I’m still not convinced Abby wanted to die. Maybe just me. This scene was awesome for Kane, great writing, but Abby was just there for him to be a great character off of? A little confused.

Kane (++/eh)

I would like to start calling him Marcus at this point but I think that would make everyone uncomfortable?

Sillyness first: SHIRTLESS TWICEEEEEEEE. Ok done. Kane could not catch a freakin break. Abby leaves, which sucks but it’ll be ok. Then his daughter starts causing trouble and he has to ground her, but she dies on the way and he’s thrown in jail with his son. But they find out she’s ok. A little awk talk with stepdaughter Clarke (pre-clack phase) is a momentarily nice, but then no one wants to listen to him and he’s right about everything, but what use is that when no one will follow you? What’s a being to a mob? Jaha ruins everything (again) right when he had helped get Octavia back on track. He’d just started to fix things with his bff Indra too. Everything comes crashing down.

Like Jackson, Kane said things that were advicy but in character, but that maybe weren’t always merited? I don’t know how to explain it, but there were times when it felt like the show was going HEY. MORALS. HEY. THIS IS IMPORTANT. But Kane’s saying it so it’s THEME important instead of the viewers need these deets, Jackson tell ‘em, son. After the diplomat stuff early on, I’m not really sure what Kane as supposed to be doing? He was just sort of there in a leadership role, saying these wise things. Which he did beautifully, I might add. But he didn’t have a clear story going with all the worry and distress he went through. Unless that in itself was the point? Looping back to the issue of being right vs being an effective leader- if Kane and Jaha were being presented in that light I get it but there ought to have been more?

Dad!Kane was fantastic. Lots of hugs. I’m happy with this side of his character. Beautiful and emotional acting. Ian is my fave forever.

Jaha (-)

How dare you bring up Jake. It’s NOT the same situation. And Clarke? Was? Standing? Right? There? Rude. Abby told Jaha about Jake thinking she was talking to a friend. She ain’t yo friend no mo. She thinks you’re an insane but charismatic leader. Marcus was a good man. Damn right! I was screaming HE STILL IS SHE’S GONNA SAVE HIM! And then Abby gets to say the predictable and extremely exciting He still is. And then stab him. Justice. The entire world cheered. She should have stuck him with something more lethal, but that’s not who Abby Griffin is, and I respect that.

Jaha is a dick and I hope he died in the S4/S5 time gap. But I would also like to see his death. Is that too harsh? Ok so. Jaha as Clarke’s leader was interesting when I thought he was relating to her, and I was on board to explore where that would go. We know they would have had a past relationship on the Ark, and an actual personal one because of Wells at that. But all he wasn’t a positive guiding figure for her. He made her hate herself. He made Abby hate herself. He made Kane hate himself. But get this: He made them hate themselves by putting the blame for HIS OWN IDEAS AND ACTIONS ONTO THEM. He has no soul. He takes zero responsibility for what he did on the Ark, or Allie, moving into the bunker or like. Suggesting the lottery system. He says it, even if he didn’t think it was a good idea, at the Clarke and list incident in Arkadia. He RESUGGESTS it in the bunker in 4.12, only to go “Marcus, this is a shit idea, we can’t do that. They’re already about to riot. How can you make them stop?” Thelonious frickin Jaha. This was your idea. You moved these people into the bunker. YOU are the reason they are comfortable and just got used to the idea of surviving and now it’s being taken away. Marcus Kane had NOTHING to do with that. Don’t you put that evil on [his soul], Ricky Bobby. And you also TOLD the dude with the kid to fight against the grounders- which would get EVERYONE kicked out of the bunker if they lost (which ofc they would) according to Octavia’s rules. Everything that’s going wrong right now is your fault.

I have some serious issues with his wardrobe. The monk hood was a little silly, but I preferred that to the forever 21 boob shirt he was rocking for the second half of the season. If you’re going to wear a chesty shirt, go on and show some cleavage, Jaha. Don’t wear a shirt under it. They should have just left him in the normal zip up from 4.01. He looked normal. It was nice.

We loved to hate him, but now that he’s making everyone feel bad about themselves, good riddance. Be gone foul demon.

How the show talks about/writes/deals with death

Killing main characters is good for keeping viewers on the edge of their seat with the knowledge that no one is safe. With warring factions, plague, and radiation, we’d be fools to think that any character (aside from Clarke, probably) is completely safe. Grey’s Anatomy has killed-off a huge number of their cast when actors decide to leave the show, so I’m super used to the concept and also super worried all the time. SPOILER: I was so worried they were going to kill Stephanie instead of writing her off the show, but they didn’t. Her exit was strong and hopeful and I’m v. emo about it. However, Shonda Rhimes and the Grey’s writers, at least I hope and think, have learned that killing characters for dramatic effect and because you’re running out of plot ideas, so let’s just kill someone is poor writing. Thus the last few main and secondary characters to leave the show have been write-offs instead of kills. It’s more fulfilling. Still, in the setting of the 100, it makes more sense for characters to die than to disappear into the background. Yet when killing characters, writers have to be careful about the message they’re sending.

Lexa and Lincoln both had deaths that upset the fandom because of the real-world context fans are living in. The show got a lot of backlash for the killings and gay-baiting with Lexa appearing in the finale. Plot wise, Lexa was badass and really interesting as a character past the love relationship with Clarke; her relationships with Indra and Kane, and her role as commander and a peace broker were much more interesting to me. However, her character development was inconsistent- she died fighting for peace and “blood must not have blood” which, come on, they could have come up with a new catchy slogan, but then pops up in the C.o.L. all slashy and war-time-killing-machine-Lexa. Lincoln’s fall-out was because the show was killing another P.o.C. when white characters had been in near-death situations and survived.

Because of the blacklash, the show brought up the two again, giving them some respect and saying that their deaths still affect the characters. BUT. I liked that they did this, more-so with Lincoln because it felt so important for Octavia’s character development, saying “look where you’re headed, is this who you want to be? This isn’t who Lincoln would want you to be.” Which worked well, provided the characters saying those lines to her actually knew him at least a little. Abby talking to Clarke about Lexa was perfect and sufficient for her respects because it shows Abby accepting her daughter as Bi and Clarke’s pain over lost love.I don’t really get how Niylah and Lexa would have met, but Clarke being able to talk to her about Lexa was good, I just wish Niylah did something outside of that “support Clarke” role for most of her scenes.

BUT. Maybe I’m cynical in thinking that the only reason Lexa and Lincoln are brought back up is because of the backlash, but other characters have been completely forgotten. Pike is mentioned a bit, but no one got super attached to him over his villain-arc and redemption episode that came too late in the season to gain him much sympathy. Monty’s mom, on the other hand, would have played significantly into Monty’s character development, but is never mentioned (?) Monty tells Clarke that she’s not the only messed up one, which is sort of him saying that he’s going through grief of killing his mom. Twice. But he’s apparently fine other than the one fight he has with Clarke over the List™, which was actually more about his part in Mount Weather than his mother. Hannah Green has not been mentioned since her death.

Which leads me to serious concerns about how Jasper’s death has been and will be handled…

Jasper (major -)

So this is where shit’s gonna get real for a few minutes. This plotline hurt me. The whole season I was thinking, “I hope Jasper doesn’t die like this. I’m ok with him dying, but not like this.” I didn’t want Jasper to commit suicide. His narrative has gone from goofball to grief to depression and if you’re telling me the only end to depression is suicide- on one of my favorite shows- I have a problem with that. I have an even bigger problem with Jasper being semi-responsible for a mass suicide pact.

I don’t think showing serious topics such as suicide is wrong; a show representing real emotional and mental thought processes is good. But they cannot drop the ball and not face the real world consequences of showing that story in a way that doesn’t deal with Jasper’s story after he’s dead. His story isn’t over just because he’s not on screen, and that’s an important message the writers need to show. I need to see how fucked up Jasper’s death leaves Monty. My point is, it’s important to see how killing yourself doesn’t end the pain. Let Monty be mad. Let him be hurt. Let him be upset. But show us it. Don’t tell me that he went through his grief process in space and is now A-ok. We need to see it. Otherwise. Jasper’s death has no emotional consequences- like Fox or Monroe, except that he was a main character and needs to have consequences.

This season was so dark. If Jasper’s death doesn’t come back in the emotional ways Lincoln and Lexa’s were, and instead is relatively forgotten like Hannah Green, showing that storyline was irresponsible. Don’t make people hurt just for the dramatic effect of it and then treat that hurt like its meaningless.

Harper (-)

If Harper is meant to be the opposite of Jasper in that she decided to live, and is the “hope” character, or the character that came close and then realized not wanting to live is different from wanting to die, I see what the writers were going for, but they failed. Here’s why: Harper has only functioned as a love interest for most of the season. In S3 she was working for Kane with Nate Miller and it was awesome. S4 has her going down a dark path, which it perfectly believable any one of her plotlines from the start could turn someone dark: crash-landing as a delinquent, being drilled in Mt. Weather, being around for all the darkness of S3 plot, and leaving the guy to be trampled. So I understand how she got here, I just don’t like that we’ve only seen it through her interactions with Monty. Let her be a person outside of the relationship too. So my issue with Harper is more of a Monty issue. We don’t get to see Harper making the decision not to drink the tea. We see her say “I love you” back to Monty, which as its own story independent of everything else happening would be fine. She realized she wanted to live. Good. However, when she said it wasn’t the right time on Monty’s side. His best friend just killed himself in front of him. He’s afraid his girlfriend has killed herself too, which would amplify the pain he’s already experiencing. Harper’s fine on her own, but when I compare her to Jasper (as I’m thinking I should) I hate her storyline because it didn’t fully get to the level it needed to. Monty tried much harder to be there for Harper, which could happen, but it pisses me off because Jasper is his best friend and you don’t abandon that just because you’ve got a girlfriend.

Monty (-)

Sometimes it’s hard to be sympathetic when you can’t empathize at all in the situation. Monty cannot imagine what Harper/Jasper’s going through, and that’s hard on both of them. It’s frustrating not to understand. I’ve been Monty, hating someone for “not trying hard enough” when they were just doing their best to stay alive. I’ve been Jasper too. It sucks to know you’re a mess, but you can’t explain it to make someone who hasn’t been where you are to understand. It’s frustrating to see how you’re affecting people you care about, but you can’t stop being the way you are.

We didn’t get to see Monty deal with the death of his mother. We need to see how he deals with Jasper’s death. Or if they decide not to flashback in S5, we need to see that the death of his best friend has changed him. I’m worried that the show will glaze over it or say Monty’s ok because he had Harper to help him get through it. Jasper’s death has to have real consequences for Monty so that we see how suicide affects the ones you leave behind for both Monty’s development and to make Jasper’s death mean something on the show. He could have died in the black rain if they didn’t want to carry the emotional weight of suicide and upset viewers and they should have thought that through.

Why I’m glad Bryan was written off instead of killed (+)

The whole gay-killing would have been worse after Lexa, even though I predicted his death. Good on them for writing him off. Bryan and Miller had important, basal, essential differences. The show demonstrated how you can love someone, but can’t be with them because of irreconcilable differences. If there had been more time to show the emotional fall-out from their break-up, it probably would have been clearer that it was actually a break-up…

Predictions made back at the start and how they worked out

 My death predictions were Bryan or Harper dying. I didn’t want Harper to die, and I saw problems with Bryan dying, so I’m glad he was written off instead. 

 I got tired of writing and stopped. I didn’t proof read this.Trying to remember 6 episodes worth of stuff was hard. Never again.

Kabby baby 2k17// Radiation + 6 years and 7 days. Make it so. Or like. Give them that little boy Jaha has no business acting as a guardian for. I maintain that Wells was good despite his father/ because he didn’t like the coldness of Thelonious, not because he was a good father to Wells. I’d prefer they take that child.

I cannot believe you read this whole thing. You are a very nice person for doing so.

If Kabby is not together is S5 I will no longer be watching the show because on/off relationships make for annoying writing and in reality probs unhealthy relationships. Do better writers. No Ross/ Rachel. No MerDer (But that actually was ok because it wasn’t forever and then they had real issues to work through which was good). More Jim/Pam. Ben/Leslie. Coach and Tami Taylor. Time man/ Penne. Time man and Penne x infinity tbh. Can Sonya guest star on the 100? Please?

Happy Hiatus.

My attention turns to GoT: Ser Jorah and Petyr (Bae)lish.

Hopes: Daniel Portman keeps his real life facial hair because I would like Pod even more

[stageonmay]

so let’s talk about this wallace cup thing wow wallace is oddly coming up a lot today

subject of discourse: who should have won: may or dawn?

disclaimer: now i’m gonna go ahead and acknowledge that we as RPers obviously have our biases for our characters. but what i CAN say is that i didn’t warm up to may until WELL after i watched DP and tbh i’ve held this opinion for some time. believe me or not--i’m going to go through this step-by-step.

what i want to do, to make this as simple as possible, is address the most common arguments (and also maybe some off the dash lol) i see for Dawn’s victory and tell you why they’re bologna.

everything under the cut cause it is LONG.

Exhibit A: Their Parents.

it is REALLY easy to say “well dawn’s mom was a coordinator” and bam. we’re done. but i want to challenge you to not... do that. let’s look at may first.

may is the daughter of a gym leader and a ???? housewife i guess. one would assume that she naturally loves training and is damn good at it. but, not only was she not allowed to watch gym battles (which is why she and max were so excited to watch ash’s battle), but she turned out to be literally afraid of pokemon and only left the house to get away. she then ends up falling in love with coordinating because she sees that pokemon can be beautiful, graceful, and fun. 

now dawn. dawn is the daughter of a top coordinator, and we know nothing about her dad. she looks up to her mother to the extent that she worried a lot about living up to her legacy, but not so much that it overly crippled her. it’s heavily implied that dawn didn’t actually spend much time training with her mom. johanna really emphasizes dawn’s need to learn on her own--we in fact hardly see her give advice even as she’s on her journey. dawn doesn’t break away from the “family tradition” per se, but over the course of her journey she worries less about living up to “mom” and more about being the best “her” she can be.

the important takeaway here is that these stories have a core theme in common: that your parents do not define YOU. and as such, this argument doesn’t really work. it in fact defeats the purpose of their entire arc, and, even on a technical level it’s pretty flimsy for reasons i pointed out above.

Exhibit B: Glaceon was a brand new evolution.

honestly there’s not much to say here um. charizard beating aerodactyl. ursula with her flareon & vaporeon appeal. Kkngler in the pokemon league. Swellow to win that tournament. Pignite to beat Shamus. 

not only is winning via recent evolution a common pokemon trope, but the very concept is that if you understand your pokémon well, you can easily adapt to this change and succeed.

if you need further proof, just consider when the opposite was the case. ash was so used to winning after evolutions that when turtwig evolved, he got overconfident and misused him because he didn’t consider how his body had changed. So in that case a lack of understanding hurt him.

but given that may explicitly wanted a glaceon, i highly doubt she lacked that understanding of what she was getting into. this is just a really flimsy excuse at best.

Exhibit C: Literally any nitpicking about the battle itself.

you guys. the characters aren’t real. the writers decide how the battle goes. the writers make these choices. and if you felt at all upset when ash lost the kalos league? then you understand.

Exhibit D: Dawn needed a win.

ah, yes. my personal favorite. (which is to say I hate hearing this and from this point forward will demand 10 USD from everyone who says it to me.) first, a reminder: may was participating in the wallace cup because she needed a win too. this was a high-stakes battle for BOTH of them so honestly I’d LOVE to end the counterargument here but I have more.

the thing is, guys, yes. dawn needed a win. but there’s no reason, at all, plot-wise, that that win needed to be against may.

a better thing to do would have been to give her an opportunity to conquer someone like zoey; someone in her realm of rivals, who is a challenge for her, but who could easily bounce back from a loss. 

“But ky, what about the wallace cup how would you change it wouldn’t may still lose?”

actually, no. we can do one of two things with the wallace cup:

a) push it earlier. maybe even allow more cameos. this could possibly even be the start of dawn’s temporary downfall rather than the end, which would be interesting because she would write off that loss at first. well it WAS may. no big deal. can’t be mad about losing to someone so nice and experienced. and to paraphrase geoff, it would give sort of a parallel. this is what dawn could become. woulda been nice.

b) push it later. let dawn have her win, and put the wallace cup closer to the grand festival. it could be a BIG DEAL around the world because the wallace cup is considered like a “warm up” for all the festivals and one of the LAST opportunities to get a ribbon. competition is FIERCE. only the best make it through. dawn’s loss is far enough away from her past ones that rather than take it hard, she becomes DETERMINED to train up for the grand festival. woulda been nice.

And lastly, (Exhibit E): I want to address the issue of skill/talent.

may simply showed more growth in a shorter period of time than dawn did. that’s a fact. whether dawn had more experience with her mom or not, she still loved pokemon. was around them. had a sense of what she was doing.

but may went from being afraid to even pick her starter to competing in a grand festival on her first try (this included conquering cheating in that season at least twice). she then went on to travel more regions, become more seasoned and no--i don’t want to discredit dawn at ALL. but it says something about your talent and skill to be able to grow so fast, and may should only have kept going up and up. it doesn’t make sense that dawn would have surpassed her, having only started her journey.

and like... is it so bad? to let your old character shine? what’s the point of bringing them back if not to celebrate them?

obviously people are still going to disagree with me. but i think it was a HUGE disservice to may’s character for her to lose. like, if they were going to do her wrong, then just. don’t bring her back.

and that wraps up my hopefully-not-too emotional opinion about the wallace cup results, feel free to like, reblog, reply, whatever, it’s not like i do much here anyway. cx

[josephkitchen0]

The Joy of Growing Horseradish (It’s Great With Almost Anything!)

By Sue Robishaw – Cold-climate gardeners can boast few crops that prefer their freezing winter abode, but the sturdy horseradish not only prefers it that way, it requires that cold. It does need a long enough growing season to grow healthy leaves and good roots, but if you plan on growing horseradish, know that the horseradish plant doesn’t need to be coddled through those unexpected frosts. It may not be a main eating crop, but it can enhance many less wild fare.

A hardy perennial of the mustard family, grated horseradish root has been enjoyed as a condiment for centuries. Not as common as mustard sauce in this country, it is still a favorite for many and well deserved of its special status. There are few crops that give so much for so little work.

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I started growing horseradish in our first few years of gardening. Having read that it was good to plant when growing potatoes to keep potato bugs at bay, I carefully put roots at each end of the potato plot. As I was also diligently rotating all my crops in those days, following the expert advice I’d read, the venerable horseradish followed our potatoes through the garden. As I gained more confidence in my gardening skills and growing horseradish, I began to depend more on my own thinking and observation than the book lore. And it was soon obvious that the horseradish/potato team was one of those “better in theory than practice” recommendations. Not that they didn’t do well together, but the horseradish left a trail of persistent offspring behind while the potato bugs were content to follow the potatoes wherever they went, with or without the horseradish.

In spite of frequent and careful digging, I wasn’t able to clear the plots of horseradish until we moved our garden right out of that area. Even then the horseradish persists, and 20 years later it is still there among the grasses and plants of the field.

Growing Horseradish

Though horseradish will grow in such conditions, it grows better roots for harvesting if given its own space and attention. It favors rich, deep loam and will not thrive on overly sandy or dry, gravely soil. And being a deep root crop, it needs depth to grow, so a hard subsoil won’t be to its liking either. But in the wide area between the extremes, which is pretty much any healthy garden soil, it will give you a good crop with little fuss. Plan on growing horseradish where its spreading habit can be contained. It’s a large-leafed, tall perennial plant so make sure it won’t be overpowering a more delicate neighbor.

Three years ago, in one of my many garden rearrangements, I invited our horseradish out of the field and back into the garden. I had space at the end of the new rhubarb bed which seemed the perfect spot. Being at the edge of the garden, it has tilled or hoed border on two sides, rhubarb on another, and a well-mulched path on the inside. A great home for growing horseradish. Though the bed was new, it was part of the old garden so the soil was good. Both the rhubarb plant and horseradish responded to these fresh, rich digs with such enthusiasm that I will be happy when the soil wears out a bit.

Though horseradish flowers, it seldom sets viable seed so propagation is by root or crown divisions planted in early spring or in the fall. It doesn’t take much of a root piece to get it growing. Horseradish is so hard to eradicate once established, but you’ll get a better plant (and root) with a good sized start of root or crown. Plant the crowns as they were growing originally, with the top level with the top of the soil, and the roots horizontally several inches deep in the soil, 12 to 18 inches apart in the bed. Mulch it well and let it grow, adding more mulch later as needed. As with most crops, if you have decent soil and a good mulch, you won’t need to artificially water the plants. They can handle the wet years and the dry years, the cold and the hot.

If well grown, the horseradish coexists amiably with the various insects that enjoy the plant. Flea beetles like to pepper my plants in the spring, but the leaves soon outgrow the onslaught and everyone is content. I’ve never had a problem with root maggots, but if you do, a sprinkling of wood ashes around the plants during the early season should help, as it does for the related radishes and cabbages. If your horseradish is overrun with pests, it’s likely your soil is not adequate for good growth. Work on the soil and let the horseradish and birds work on the pests.

The plants grow and the roots enlarge and thicken as the season progresses, working toward those tanned skinned, white fleshed, fairly firm roots that have such a fiery reputation to, as the 1937 Taylor’s Encyclopedia of Gardening says, “tickle the jaded appetites of the overfed.” Or simply to add some welcome spice to the homestead meal.

Digging

Horseradish roots can be dug any time the ground isn’t frozen. But as with most root crops, it is at its best in the fall, and even better after cold weather has arrived but before the ground freezes. This is generally when the bulk of the roots are harvested. You can harvest the first fall after you begin growing horseradish, but it might be better to let it grow another year to let it get established. The plant grows a large, long taproot with many branches and long side shoots. If you are going to grate the root by hand, you’ll want only the sturdy main root. But if you are going to chop or use a blender, then you can also make use of the larger of the side shoots.

When ready to harvest in late fall, I rake off the mulch, roughly dig up the main plants with a garden fork, and take the often branched main root and a number of the long slender shoots. There are many shoots and roots left throughout, and I rake the dirt back and let it go at that. Of course, there goes the nice and neat spacing, as next spring the plants will now grow here and there as they will. But it works and is an easy way to manage the plot. However, you can be more diligent in harvesting roots, pulling all you can find, then replanting six or eight-inch lengths of a pencil or small finger-size roots, or divisions of the crown of the main root as you did originally. There will still be many missed roots putting up small shoots, but the main plants will be as you planned and planted. This will probably give you a better crop.

You can also just dig up roots as you need them. If you have a thick mulch or deep early snow, the harvesting period can be extended until the depth of winter. Roots can also be dug in late winter/early spring when the ground thaws. But you’ll find when growing horseradish that the plant starts growing early so this harvest window is fairly small. Once growth has started, it’s best not to disturb the growing horseradish so it can put all its energy into producing good roots for fall, and not have to spend time repairing the damage done by mid-season harvesting.

Root Storage

If you want a continuous supply of horseradish sauce, you’ll need to store roots for making fresh sauce throughout the winter and spring. If well stored, roots can probably be saved and used on through the summer, but so far I haven’t had enough roots left to try that. Besides, for us, horseradish sauce isn’t as much desired in the summer.

Roots can be stored in slightly damp sand or leaves in a cool cellar or space. Use the smaller and damaged roots first, as the better roots will last longer. You could also dig a trench in the garden to store the roots with other root crops such as potatoes and carrots. Buried and covered with a thick mulch, they can be harvested until the snow gets too deep or the ground freezes. In early spring, these roots will be much fresher and in better shape than cellar stored ones. You run a risk of unexpected deep freeze or rodent damage, but the quality is worth the chance if you have enough roots.

The longer the roots are stored, the less pungent (relatively speaking) they will be, which can be a positive or negative effect depending on your taste. The prepared sauce also becomes mellower with age.

Sauce

Our sauce experience is rather mild compared with true horseradish aficionados, though we’re quickly becoming heavy users. I barely remember the first sauce I made from a few roots grown in our first backyard city garden almost 30 years ago. But I do distinctly remember the result when I took the lid off the blender for the first time — gasp, gasp! Great stuff for clearing the sinuses. Instantly, and cheaply. Highly recommended.

After we moved to our northwoods homestead and having grown the stuff for several years, I decided I really needed to do something with it. At that time, I felt I had to can or preserve in some fashion everything I grew or could harvest. But the only thing I knew to do with the sauce was as a condiment with meat. And, living without refrigeration for the first time, we were well on our way to a non-meat diet. I did harvest some roots though and decided to make a sauce.

Our electricity was limited then and came from our sole solar panel. Besides, we had left the blender and other such encumbrances behind. So I got out the simple but effective common box grater and (the earlier horseradish eye-watering experience still fresh in my mind) took it out in the yard on a breezy day and grated up a half pint for sauce. It did wash out a few tear ducts but not nearly as violently as the blender in the kitchen had. I think I mixed it with vinegar, per the preserving books I had, but still didn’t quite know what to do with it. We not only weren’t eating meat, we didn’t have refrigeration. Living in our small cabin, we didn’t even have much of a cool spot. And the books said you had to keep the prepared sauce refrigerated. So we gave the sauce to my Mom and Dad.

But my growing horseradish was thriving, and I wanted to use it, so I figured I’d have to can it. Not knowing quite how to do that, I wrote to the one source I thought might be able to help, Countryside magazine. How, I inquired, does one can horseradish sauce? Hoping they (not knowing who “they” were at that time) might print a reply in a future issue. To my great surprise, I received a hand-written note back from the editor (also publisher, manager, writer, man-of-many talents), JD Belanger. One doesn’t can horseradish sauce, he (I assume with some restraint) kindly explained, it would ruin the flavor. He said he regularly made quarts of sauce, simply keeping it in the refrigerator, and eating it with breakfast eggs every morning. Quarts?! Wow.

Even when I moved my horseradish from field to garden, I didn’t seriously consider making sauce. It was as much for having good roots to give away that it made its way back into my life. A good friend, gardener and amateur chef, Peter Copenhaver, mentioned wanting to get some horseradish growing on his and Melissa’s new place. So the first harvest from the prolific new plot was a bucket of roots and crowns for him to plant and for sauce. Later he kindly gave us several half-pints of prepared sauce in return. So of course, we had to at least try it. But with what? No meat to eat it with, and since our years of raising chickens was long past, we seldom ate eggs.

A common supper for us in fall and winter is potatoes (baked if the heating stove is going) with various vegetables–whatever is in season or in storage-sautéd and steamed with onions and garlic. That’s what was on the table, so that’s what we tried Peter’s horseradish sauce with. Wow! It was delicious, and a great side for the potato dish. We were hooked. That sauce went fast.

It was too late in the winter to dig roots, but the following fall I harvested a good crop for both Peter and myself. We were back to making and eating horseradish sauce. But this time, there was no problem with how to store it. We ate it too fast for one thing, but I also found the sauce keeps just fine for many months in our cool root cellar.

Although I knew I could grate the roots with the grater, it’s a slow process. So the next trip to the St. Vincent de Paul store gained us a small, used blender. Our solar array was much larger now than our early one-panel system, and we could afford the electricity. Although still not fond of kitchen gizmos that take up too much space and time, I do like the blender for making horseradish sauce. However, we did the job outside in the woodshed this time which was much more pleasant. Mid-winter we took the blender out to the shop building to make sauce.

Recipes

Peter’s sauce had a great flavor, so I asked him for his recipe. He didn’t have exact quantities, but this is what he thought he put in:

2 cups grated horseradish root

2 large cloves elephant garlic

2 tablespoons cane sugar

2 teaspoons coarse Kosher salt

1/8 cup extra-virgin olive oil

2 teaspoons ground prepared mustard

1/4 cup white distilled vinegar (maybe more)

Being a homesteader, I adapted Peter’s recipe to my own preferences. The second batch I remembered to keep track of the quantities. This is what I came up with:

Wash and scrape horseradish roots with a knife or carrot peeler. Grate or cut into pieces for blender

2 cups chopped horseradish root

4 cloves regular garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup maple syrup

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup cider vinegar (approximately)

If using a blender, add small quantities of root at a time with as much vinegar as needed to keep it working. Add other ingredients and blend to your liking, adding vinegar for a good consistency. Put in clean jars. Makes 3 to 3-1/2 half pints.

Be prepared, the fresh sauce is pretty potent. Some like it hot; while I like it better after it’s mellowed for a month. Either way, it’s a great accompaniment for a variety of meals, whether plain or fancy. You’ll find it on a healing herbs list as it is great for congestion, coughs, bronchitis and sinus problems. A great addition to the cold climate garden.

I hope this inspires you to start growing horseradish this season!

Originally published in Countryside in September / October 2005 and regularly vetted for accuracy.

  The Joy of Growing Horseradish (It’s Great With Almost Anything!) was originally posted by All About Chickens

[timothyakoonce]

Transcript of Is Being Congruent the Secret to Making More Money?

Transcript of Is Being Congruent the Secret to Making More Money? written by John Jantsch read more at Duct Tape Marketing

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Transcript

John: Can being congruent be the secret to making more money in your business, I think it can. Listen to me talk to Carrie Wilkerson on the Duct Tape Marketing podcast.

Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast. This is John Janstch and my guest today is Carrie Wilkerson. She is a best-selling author, international speaker and sought-after nice person. She is the author of the Bare Foot Executive, in fact I think we had you on for that as well as at least another time, this might be your third time here so welcome Carrie.

Carrie: I think so. I think this is the trifecta, the hat-trick so to speak.

John: So let’s talk about the Bare Foot Executive. Does the Bare Foot Executive — you and I were talking off air that you’ve made some significant changes in your business so maybe let’s talk about what your business was as the Bare Foot Executive brand and then we can transition into where you are now.

Carrie: Yeah that’s a great question and actually I had a business even before the Bare Foot Executive brand as service provider which then kind of morphed into the Bare Foot Executive as a coach/consultant and helper of others who wanted to do the same thing and now we’ve evolved again so now maybe I learned my entrepreneurial lesson that you don’t have to start a new business every time, you can kind of evolve, evolve your current business. So the current evolution is the brand is just Carrie Wilkerson which is just me and I am doing writing and speaking only, I’ve moved into a kind of self and professional growth and now as a sought-after keynote and content provider which is kind of a fun new space for me.

John: So what — did you just get bored where you were or was there some sort of impetus for this change?

Carrie: You know I think as entrepreneurs we’re wired to always be growing and changing, so I don’t know I would say bored. But I would say that as the Bare Foot Executive my intent was always to be a connector and motivator and encourager, keyword, encourager of people that were working a side hustle or a home business, or their own gig. And I got pulled a little bit into the teaching how-to instead of why-to and I kind of stayed there for a long time because of my skill set and because it was working honestly. And now I just really am pushing through to the why-to and the why-to keep going and how to structure your day and how to balance all these kids and life and technology oppressing demands on us and really to kind of be a voice of encouragement and hope.

John: So obviously that’s a message that has pretty broad target market so how are you getting that message to a market?

Carrie: Yeah it sounds like it has a broad market but I’ve chosen to niche, I tend to specialise and find favour with companies with sales forces so we could think real estate market or insurance market or any of the direct sales companies, anybody that has independent contractors or a sales force that need to balance many hats that need to create their check from their own results instead of just clocking in and clocking out. There really is my kind of target market are people in sales forces.

John: So when considering this change and maybe it happened you know like a lot of things a lot more gradually than it appears to the outside world but when making a change like that — I mean you had some assets, you had some recognition, you had some relationships but how does somebody pivot that thoroughly and kind of not lose all their momentum?

Carrie: Yeah I think pivot is such a deceptive word or maybe we’re just all using it wrong in the business space because pivot is something that happens quickly like figure skater pivot. Something like this is more of an evolution or erosion of something that happens over a period of time. This process has probably — and you’ve watched closely because we’re friends, I would say it’s probably been a two year process honestly. The shift from Bare Foot Executive as the brand to Carrie Wilkerson as the brand, the shift in colours, a lot of people think rebranding has to do with your colour palette, it’s really not colour palette or photos. It’s a little bit John like a body transformation which you know I’ve also had, I’ve lost 145lb now but people didn’t start noticing until about 60lb and then they go, did you cut your hair? Have you done your eyebrows different? What are you doing? And then 10lb later they say, holy cow how did you do that so fast? When really it’s been every day for a long period of time. So yeah, it’s been a long process, there are hurdles in the process, it’s not something you can just drop everything and pick up all new things because number one cash flow, current customer base, current audience expectations and when you have recognition and an audience and a brand and a book, it’s almost more complicated I think because other people are more hesitant to let go of that then you are.

John: I think that though that you did hit a key point I think that even the decision to let go has to be sort of full at some point. It may be — and I remember talking to you several years ago and actually you were talking about a change of your model and I don’t think you had figured what that looked like but I remember that. And so I think you do start that process but at some point it has to be total [00:06:26] doesn’t it?

Carrie: It does! And that can be difficult because we love what we do and we love the people that we serve and we have blood, sweat and tears and bone marrow in what we’ve created and so it does have to be that, otherwise you create brand confusion, marketplace confusion and your attention is split. So just recently I posted in a private group that you and I are both in about a decision to burn the ships and it really was a no going back measure and even though it took me almost two years to get to the burn the ships moment but at that point I knew there was no going back.

John: I talk to a lot of people that are in jobs that want to be consultants so they have one foot in one and one foot in the other, there’s really just no way to serve both of those and at some point before you’ve got it all figured out you just have to make the choice and until you do you really — I don’t think you get any measure of momentum.

Carrie: Yeah. I think it was Mary K Ash that said you can’t chase two rabbits and catch either one and then that incredible philosophical movie Sweet Home Alabama, where Rhys Weatherspoons’ Dad says you can’t ride two horses with one hiney, I’ll paraphrase, can’t ride two horses with one hiney sugar bean, and it’s so true, you have a hard time devoting yourself. You know, even with multiple streams of income within one business is a difficult thing to fragment your attention, not to mention if you have two sets of audiences and two sets of products and services and those kinds of things.

John: Yeah so let’s go there, if somebody’s full committed and they’re passionate about what they’re doing but then you know the next thing that comes up is oh and I’ve got 47 opportunities to do all these things so how does one you know short of millions of dollars and dozens of staff members, how does one pursue those 47 opportunities in any sort of accurate way?

Carrie: Yeah I think entrepreneurs like Jay Lo and [00:08:44] and all the musicians we see that branch into all these different areas have done us a little bit of a disservice because we just simply don’t have the same resources they have as far as staff and delegation and built in networks, so I think we have to choose a little differently. If it’s opportunities within your current niche then you have to look at what your motives are, you have to look at what’s going on in your business right now, does it add to or take away from what you’re doing. Is it just because you’re bored or you have a resistance with hanging in there or is it really something that’s going to benefit your boutique or brand? If it’s something that’s radically different opportunity so for instance me moving into personal growth and departing from just a home based business audience then I think you have to say — well I did this when I sold my service based business too, my first instinct was to sell it, to sell it, to bail out, to abandon it and the coach I was working with at the time said no I really want you to hire somebody to replace you, to manage it while you transition into this other area, get a little separation between you and the brand, do this other thing don’t bail out on that income just because you’re burned out you know.

So I did, I hired someone to manage it. Now, at the point two or three years later that it became a conflict of interest because the market I was serving didn’t want me serving other markets, then I had to make a decision whether or not to sell or hold and I did sell at that point and it was a good move, but it would have been premature if I had done it a couple of years before, so I think you have to weigh all those options but many times as emotionally driven, bright shining driven entrepreneurs we just say I’m done, I’m over it I’m done, let’s get rid of this and move to the next thing I can do so much better with the next thing but we have to govern ourselves a little bit, maybe that comes with age maybe not, maybe it just comes with having done it a few times before but have a transition plan.

John: So as you’ve moved into a little bit of a new market and a new approach at least, what does your marketing look like that?

Carrie: Right now my marketing — because I have a presence already because I have a book, because I have a really great network of colleagues and relationships, you know that’s my number one marketing is my relationships it really is and I believe there’s no value I can place on my friends and their networks and there’s no substitute for that but my marketing right now still looks like radical social visibility, showing up in social media, showing up on podcasts like this, being heard, being seen and being helpful so I guess maybe that’s a three point marketing strategy, being heard, being seen and being helpful. I think that [00:11:37] 2007 I think is when we crossed paths online and I think maybe that has summed me up always, been heard, being seeing and being helpful, I like that I’m going to have to write that down and use that again.

John: Alright so here comes the hard part of the interview, no maybe it’s not the hard part you’ve been very open talking about the — you know the health and weight loss journey, how does that or does that because you know you don’t wake up one day and go by gosh, I’m going to lose weight. You know that’s something that you — I know you and I talked about before that was part of what you’ve struggled with in various ways and various businesses and various times of your life, is there some correspondence with now it occurring and this new path?

Carrie: Umm you know it’s actually been a 15 year journey, so it’s been almost all of my entrepreneurial journey but I dropped a chunk of weight and then I got complacent and comfortable and then the last three years so yeah probably around the same time I decided that the number one thing I could do was be in alignment, alignment and congruency are so important. We are in a world right now where it’s very popular to talk about [00:13:06] and it’s very popular to talk about being epic and you and I have shared about this online both of us, I love your thoughts on that. And the fact is I don’t know that I’m worried about being epic or hustling or grinding, I want to be in congruency and alignment with who I say I am, who I feel I am, who my kids think I am and how I teach in other areas, so that meant getting my health in order, that meant daily discipline yikes! That meant consistent so yeah I cranked it up a little bit, I made the decision that that was the one hold back I still had on being my best self I thought, so it’s been a slow process, it has been three more years on top of that initial journey and I’ll say that’s actually part of my marketing as far as being seen and being heard and being helpful I am less afraid of being seen, I am more audacious about being heard because I have congruency and alignment in my body and in my business and my beliefs right now.

John: Yeah and that’s really the point I was trying to make is and you said it beautifully has that congruence then in itself had a positive impact on your business?

Carrie: Yes and I think that a lot of people will look at photos or videos and say holy cow she’s so happy or so joyful that must be because of the weight loss and the fact is that girls been there the whole time, you know I haven’t [00:14:39] core changed but I think that I am just turning it up a little bit because I’m now feeling more congruent and feeling more bold about it and as a result it’s drawing more people to me it’s making me more magnetic so my marketing is actually easier now I think.

John: And can I make an observation I have absolutely no right to make?

Carrie: Okay go ahead.

John: And this is again just from knowing you. You’ve always had extreme confidence and now I feel like you have no doubt.

Carrie: Yeah that’s a daily conversation with myself thank you for that. I do feel like my money is where my mouth is so to speak now and you know I’m able to dress more confidently without as much concern about all that, I’m able to — I’ve spoken at some amazing venues and events lately and didn’t have to walk in and hide if that makes sense, I was able to hold my own and be really proud of it. And again, that doesn’t come from skinny, that comes from congruence and I can’t — that’s really hard to explain but that alignment — I heard the same from people that finally quit smoking or people that finally gave up a sugar habit or people that finally gave up gambling or whatever their lack of congruence was. For me it happened to be really visible and I feel like I’ve got this crazy glow right now and I can’t hide it honestly, I just have this joy because I’m in congruence instead of conflict and it matters.

John: Okay let’s just take it down a notch then.

Carrie: Okay sorry.

John: No no I’m just teasing, I always like to ask this question about two entrepreneurs, what’s the hardest thing about what you do?

Carrie: Showing up every day. Today’s a great example, it was hailing when I got out of bed this morning, my husband travels around 90% of the time, I don’t post about that a lot in social media because the girls and I are alone a lion share of the time and I don’t need people feeling sorry for me, I just do what I do, it’s our choice. But today was dark and hailing and the girls were sleeping so soundly and the dogs were nervous and it would have been a really easy day to stay in the pyjamas, turn all the alarms off and even let them stay home. We’re so close to the end of the semester I bundled them up and we went anyway and I came home and thought I really don’t want to do anything today, I really don’t want to you know be productive, I don’t have any appointments until 2 o’clock and the fact is I just had to show up anyway, I knew I had some big goals I’m working on so I even wrote a post about it because sometimes writing a post and stating things out loud to myself as if I were a client helps me move through a block so I did, I got up, I showered, got cute, I came in here I [00:17:59] the coffee, I put on some [00:18:02] essential oils you know and I wrote a post about it to hold myself accountable and I have pushed through the day. And action breeds momentum even when you’re not feeling it, you almost can’t help it. So I think showing up even when you don’t have to is the hardest thing.

John: it took all of that for you to prepare to be on the Duct Tape Marketing podcast didn’t it.

Carrie: All of that!

John: What are you reading right now?

Carrie: I have a stack but —

John: We always do.

Carrie: I’m reading necessary endings by Dr. Henry [00:18:34] and I am reading — let me think what’s the name — Dr. Henry [00:18:42] endings… oh the Brain Warrior Way by Dr. Daniel [00:18:47]

John: Awesome. So what are some of the topics that you’re speaking about specifically?

Carrie: Yeah so one of the things I talk about is your life, your business, your way which is creating a business around your life, not necessarily in the [00:19:08] but so you can be profitable and productive but also keep your priorities intact, that’s a popular topic. Another topic is life on a tightrope which is work life balance and other fairy tales we’re [00:19:21] do it all right now and it’s just a struggle for so many people of both genders and all ages. Another topic I’m working on is something that I’ve only worked on with clients and myself and you’ve kind of seen this evolving and that is the motive matrix and that’s how to decide what to do, if to do it and when to do it and so that’s a strategy process on creating all of that.

John: The — you know that — I’ve seen some of your writing about that and I have for years you know talked about how — you know the way to get more done is to have fewer priorities and I think that’s such a hard thing with entrepreneurs but you know I even look at my business and I’m — what I do on a day-to-day basis has changed but you know I still need a lot of help staying focused on the two or three things that we kind of indentify as my priorities for the quarter and I think we all struggle with that.

Carrie: Yeah and it’s something that I actually re-evaluate quarterly for that reason because drift is a real thing, the studies that talk about how many times an aeroplane course corrects in a one and a half hour flight is just frightening to me and we’ve all — we all know the historical story of the titanic, if you don’t course correct early enough right? The drift gets you in trouble. So that’s something I do quarterly, if I hit my goals early enough in the quarter then sometimes I readjust them mid quarter but it doesn’t allow me to get into that crazy drift where I’m chasing experts, chasing launches, reading so many things. The things I’m reading right now are by those two authors and it’s because I’m studying the brain and I’m studying boundaries and so those two things are what’s contributing to your work right now. There are all kinds of things on Amazon that I could scoop up, all of our friends are publishing books as you know and I could scoop those up but I’m focused on those two areas for a reason, to keep me from the drift.

John: Yeah and I think the thing that gets challenging is you know somebody in your position probably gets asked to speak at places that don’t make sense, gets asked to be on the virtual summit once a week, gets asked to evaluate their marketing plan you know that somebody sends you and I think the tough thing — at least for me because I want to — at the heart I want to help everyone and so you know one of the most difficult things I think as you become a little more well known it gets tough to say no.

Carrie: It does and this is something I worked with my small group last week, the more I’m speaking, the more these request spike right after a speech and because I am maybe a little more approachable or touchable than somebody like a [00:22:26] or Mitch [00:22:28] or one of the more what we would see as untouchable or distant personalities and because I’m so accessible and social I’m asked every day about a summit or an interview or a pick your brain every day and then I have all the local request for we want you to come consult with the church on a social media plan and we want you to come do this and do that, so what I talked to my small group about last week was boundaries without you know being a hag about it, how do you say no without being a diva? At the core of that are my kids and my home and my marriage and the priorities I have within my shareholders first and foremost and when I am thinking about what’s the ROI for them, what’s an hour away from them then I have to be really judicious about that so there are times I say thank you so much for inviting me to be on your summit, what a great model I’ve had those myself in the past, however I’m saying no to all those requests this quarter because of some immediately priorities in my business. Please check out so and so and so and so, and consider me again next year if you feel this model works well for you. So I have a lot of those responses already drafted up and template out depending on what the quarter looks like I do not do pick your brain type business, I tell people my book is available, it’s 260 pages of my brain, honestly I don’t know if I could even cover at lunch or coffee what is in that book so I always recommend that plus 60 YouTube videos that I have absolutely free and on my blog post. So the fact is saying no is really easy for me these days.

John: By writing those pre-done, pre-drafted emails you’re less likely to write something in a passive aggressive moment too.

Carrie: Exactly. And you know we can’t be reactive we have to be proactive and especially as a woman who might you know a friend was teasing me this morning about being famous and I was like yeah I’m totally famous, my dog just peed all over the floor and I’m the one mopping it up, that’s the reality check right there, that’s my life. So — but if somebody makes an ask of me right after that when I’m frustrated or something has gone wrong or I’ve been turned down for a speaking engagement, they don’t need to bear the brunt of my emotions either, it needs to be a thought out decision ahead of time.

John: Amen, so Carrie where can people find more of you and what you’re up to?

Carrie: So I’m pretty involved on my Facebook business page which is Bare Foot Executive facebook.com/barefootexecutive, my website is carriewilkerson.com I spell Carrie the way Steven King spells it in his scary movie, carriewilkerson.com lots of videos, podcasts and then of course my books are available on Amazon.

John: Awesome Carrie thanks so much for joining us today and hopefully I’ll run into you in Dallas or you in Kansas City or somewhere out there on the road.

Carrie: Soon! We need to make it happen soon.

John: Hey thanks for listening to the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast, if you like this one you might also like my other podcast The Consulting Spark where I interview independent marketing consultants and agency owners. Talk about how they built their business and the struggles they face and what they love about being in this business so you can check it out at ducttapemarketingconsultant.com

from Duct Tape Marketing https://www.ducttapemarketing.com/being-congruent-secret-to-more-money/

[personalcoachingcenter]

Have You Heard? A STRATEGY FOR BUSINESS GROWTH Is Your Best Bet To Grow

New Post has been published on https://personalcoachingcenter.com/have-you-heard-a-strategy-for-business-growth-is-your-best-bet-to-grow/

Have You Heard? A STRATEGY FOR BUSINESS GROWTH Is Your Best Bet To Grow

Good afternoon, so I wanted to start today with one of my famous quotes. We’re toast in the water, and you might look at that and say well that doesn’t really make sense. You got that wrong and you’re right.

I did get that wrong, but it’ll. Allow you to understand how my brain works, so I did want to warn you that I may use more of these expressions today that don’t really make sense, and I would advise you to never use them in public and just pretend leave them At home you would look like an idiot, so let’s start with some stats.

Let’s, get the boring stuff out of the way. So at least 85% represents the amount of business owners leaders, managers that work in their business, that are firefighting, and you know trying to do the same thing over and over again.

Looking for a different result, which is funny enough, that’s, the definition of insanity, the fifteen percent and I’ve, been in both areas. The 15 percent are those of us who get to take a moment to breathe and be strategic, and I’d.

Argue that even those who are doing that are really just refining things. We’re, trying to put out the fire a little faster. We’re trying to change things so that the fire won’t be as big, so I would argue it’s fairly close to the 85 % it’s.

It’s like being insane. It’s like not being fully diagnosed with insanity, but being very close. It’s similar to my mother, sorry, mom, sorry, mom. Okay, so look, I wanted to tell you some stories about how we went back to the drawing board in a very challenging industry and the incredible results we’ve had from that – and I’d – hope to inspire you to be able To do the same, so where does this all begin? It starts 14 years ago, right here in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

I entered in the private security industry, so security guarding and you know it’s, a tough industry, it’s been commoditized. Even though it’s, it’s. Human beings, its major priced drives from the which, which was really putting the entire space in a commodity racket.

There hasn’t been any changes in years and even being this space, I thought you know what we’re, pretty good problem solvers. You know, I remember five years ago a Bon Jovi concert up in Moncton. There was probably twenty five.

Thirty thousand people there we had 150 security and so halfway through the show, the RCMP that come to me and I said Ron, we have a problem. I said what is it they said. We have people peeing all along the fence line there’s.

Hundreds and hundreds of people peeing everywhere, so I said, ok, ok and they said, and if you don’t fix it, we’ll shut the concert down. So you know this is a problem I’ve got to solve it. Of course I say: ok, we will.

Ve got this wasn’t our fault, you know they didn’t have enough porta-potties, but as security brought it we did have to to solve the problem. So I gathered 20 security around I said. Look. I need six volunteers to come with me on a mission and what we’re going to do.

We’re gonna go up. The fence line will stand about five or six feet back on the outside of the fence line. It’s, an 8 foot tall fence, so we will, be nice and safe and we will go up and down and we will make fun of everyone of those wiener sizes and I guarantee if we do a good job it up.

They will stop being, and lo and behold, six female volunteers said we would love to come on that mission with you. So what we go we go up and down the six of us, okay and sure enough. We made fun of all the wiener sizes.

You know big small, the different sizes and shapes, and within minutes there wasn’t a peer in sight. We were good, we could always solve problems, but you know it wasn’t enough. I would argue that our competition could solve that same problem.

They might have done it differently, but they could solve the same issue. And so you know in this space it’s. It’s, it’s very challenging, and so I I had some hard moments of do. I even want to stay in it.

Wasn’t enough to win, and so I went through this process of going back to the drawing board, but the first time I didn’t make it all the way back. The first time I actually started with a border, and I got to a question – and the question was: if I had a million dollars of my hard earned money, my retirement funds and I was going to buy my business, knowing what I know about my company.

What would I do differently? Who would continue to work that who, by who would I be excited to work with what clients would I keep? What systems would we use, and it was okay, but I’d, argue with her back into that 15%.

We were being a little strategic, it wasn’t enough, and then we went back again and this time I took the border out and we went back to the drawing board clean slate different question this time. The question was what, if I had to restart the industry today, you know knowing the challenges internally and the external client challenges.

If I had a blank slate using technology and resources that I have today at our fingertips, how would I recreate a model to service this industry? And you know I feel like that’s. What Uber did you know? Uber, the creators are uber, they didn’t own, a taxi company.

They, you know they weren’t the taxi business. They were. I’m sure they were a customer on multiple occasions, and here you are taxi companies that were probably asleep at the wheel: okay, thinking about how to refine their business.

How do we, you know pick up customers faster? Maybe we should get a radio system that works a little better, but uber went back to the drawing board that’s, what they essentially did they, they kind of said well, knowing what I know today, if we had to recreate this industry, how would We do that with technology and everything at our fingertips, so we started to do that.

We actually landed on a purpose of changing the security industry and that was powerful because it started to drive everything that we did. So we started with simple, simple things. Like the Golden Rule, you know my mother always told me growing up always go by the Golden Rule, treat those is.

You would like to be treated. I don’t know where I think my mom’s from here, but – and you know we thought about that – we said let’s, go back to the drawing board, cuz! Think about the golden rule that we all know you know.

I know when I meet someone for the very first time. I would love you to take off my shoes and give me a foot rub for a half hour, but I don’t know if you would like me to do that to you. So we said: let’s, go back to the drawing board.

Let’s. Let’s! Think about this and we re-engineered it and said what about treating those as they would like to be treated, and so we started to push that out with our customer service model and we we had some great results.

Then we looked at policy in our industry. It’s, very policy driven there’s tons of policy and it becomes who can implement the best policy and have the you know the most efficient policies and policies are like rules from, and we said, look some of the challenges in This industry are people, don’t, get to think for themselves.

They follow policy. So what? If we created a decision-making process? What do we gave people their brains back, and we said you know what, before you do something just make it go through this process number one.

If it’s, the right thing to do for the customer, yes or no, then is it the right thing for our business based on our purpose and our values and number three: are you willing to be accountable if it’s? Yes, yes and yes, don’t ever ask anyone just do it and we started to see some results.

We gave people their brains back and then you know on this journey of changing the industry. We got to a very difficult place that we said. Look, we need everybody on side and the toughest challenge we faced was: could we get employees in this business to become stakeholders, not shareholders, not own a piece of the business but a stakeholder? Someone who had a stake in the decisions of this business? Someone who wanted to be a part of it and ever said you can’t, do that it’s impossible.

You know this is a high turnover industry. People are treated like garbage, it causes horrible morale, and so we were up for the challenge we had to do it to win. We had to get everyone on side.

So off we went brings me to a story in Toronto. We took over a customer in the trucking space and the manager there, the security manager, a fella by the name of ash Hwanhee, so ash wanti is the security manager.

He’s, worked there for 10 to 15 years for multiple companies, because in our space, what happens is when you gain a security contract. The individuals might work there for years, and then they put the new company’s uniform on and off.

They go so I get a phone call from him. He says mr. Lovett. First I’d, like to congratulate you on the contract. Said thanks, Ronnie. Yes, I have a question. He said we need a vehicle here I said yeah.

He said what kind of vehicle are we gonna buy? I said: well ash Ronnie, you’ve, worked there for 10 plus years. Why don’t you tell me what kind of vehicle do we need? He said, oh well, sir. We need one with four-wheel drive and it’s got to have space, we need space, it’s, got to, be safe.

I said okay! Well, I’ll. Tell you what ash whining? Why don’t? You go out and find the vehicle you go, buy the vehicle, you know what we’re looking for and if you can get us a great deal, we will pay a commission.

I can tell you that you could hear a pin drop on that phone call. He’d, never been challenged. He’d, never been able to be a part of something and use his brain and anyways. He was very excited.

He said, sir, I will find the best vehicle for you. I will you, I accept the challenge I will go and I will do this and so fast forward. Six months later I had coffee with his old boss, who used to manage the contract and he was a schwa knees.

Boss, and I said you guys had a vehicle there. He said yeah yeah, we did, I said so. Let me ask you a question: was that vehicle clean? He said: no, it was a total mess. He said we had to go down there and clean it up multiple times, because that vehicle was so messy.

I said okay, so now I run into someone else from our business who was at the site and he came to me and said you know I was just at that client location. He said we have a very nice vehicle. I said yeah, you know why she wanted bought it.

I said, let me ask you a question: is it clean inside he said man, you could eat your breakfast off the floor and right then right there. I knew we were on to something we had changed. An employee that had worked for five or six different companies biggest company on the planet as an employee into a stakeholder, someone who had a stake in our company in our decisions, so I was very excited, so we start moving along.

We we had multiple instances of these types of situations which was great and then finally, one day in rural Nova, Scotia, we had an individual named Paul and we had a client issue come up and we needed a shift covered and it was on his birthday.

Now. I can tell you these security guards space when someone gets a day off and it’s. Their birthday. They don’t, go to work. They are not interested but Paul. Who’s a stakeholder? He decides he’s, gonna go in on his birthday.

So look I was very proud. I sent him a tax. I said, thank you Paul for going in on your birthday and he writes me a text back and it says no problem. This is my company, my family. I get that text and I am so excited.

I was gonna go to Mount Kilimanjaro and stand on the roof of that there, not the roof. This top sorry about that Jim say see. I was gonna stay on the top of the mountain and say I’ve got proof. I now have proof in writing.

We did it, we are. We are doing what we said we were going to do and this is very exciting, but instead I was on a flight from Halifax to Toronto and I thought well, what I can do is I’ll, cut and paste this text and I’ll, send it around to a thousand plus staff that we have across the country to show them how proud I am of this moment.

So I do that. I cut and paste I put it in okay. I send it off now, unfortunately, as a fast-moving entrepreneur who is dyslexic and has ADHD and is overly passionate. If you wrap that in with autocorrect you don’t get a good result, so I’m moving quickly.

I’m trying to be you know they. I want to keep it in service and sure enough. If you can’t see it. Hey guys want to share a powerful text. I just receive from Paul who stepped up on his birthday to cover off a shift after thanking Paul, he replied with no problem.

This is my company, my family, so my reply or my texts, my email says very proud that we have suc dedicated and patio. Our people spoken like a true stakeholder. Now there’s, two parts here you know the first part I don’t, think anybody knew what I meant.

The second part I think they did, but what I wrote was this so sure enough. The plane takes off. I’m high-fiving myself. I am so so excited that I you know I was able to move quickly and get this email off sure enough.

My assistant runs in to see my wife and she says this is bad. You know this is really bad. He really made a mistake this time this went to all staff everybody. So I get home that night I get in the house and my wife says you sit down.

We are gonna talk. So at this point, didn’t know what was going on sit down. She said you’re, the CEO of this company. You cannot write emails like that without proofreading them. I said honey. I proof read that twice so now you know.

I have bigger problems than messing up expressions. Okay, so look the question. Now is: what are the results? What are the results from all this stuff, and I can tell you there’s. Lots we’ve had 60 percent growth in our business this year we are doubling the industry average in profit.

We’re very proud of that, and you know I really look at this. If you can go back to the drawing board, not just on your end product, okay, you’re in service, but everything that you do and have all your people going back to the drawing board on.

You know how you hire your culture, how you train everything that you do, then. I really believe that you & # 39. Ll have an explosion of growth, and this this chart really shows how technology moves, but when a computer can build a computer.

This is the theory of singularity and how it how it applies to technology technology will go, go crazy, okay, it’ll advance so quickly and I believe the same thing for your business. I absolutely feel you have.

You will have the same growth like we are. So look in closing if you are a CEO, a manager, a leader and you’re, not pushing your people to go back to the drawing board to creatively seek solutions with a blank slate.

Okay, shame on you because you should be and if karma gets you, you’ll, probably get disrupted by a board 13 year old, with a heavy imagination in their basement, and if you’re on the other side of that coin, you Report to a leader or CEO, and they aren’t, pushing you to go back to the drawing board to be created tap into your 4 year old mind of when there were no herbal, not –.

We’re, no borders, then I think it’s, time to get a new leader. They had to said they’re saying. If it’s, not broken don’t fix it, and I’ve heard this for years. So many people tell me this well.

We believe that you should go back to the back to the drawing board in that too, and if it’s not broken break it and put it back together better than you found it.

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