#But he also has a drop of morality in his body and knows that aspiring to be a space dictator isn't good for his karma nor for his people | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

helisol · 4 years ago

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dude im not sure you will get it after reading this either, but you Can read it now

okay so first of all do not expect me to adhere to rules of grammar or Proper capitalisation, I am writing from the heart

so it’s been said before by other people but if Quark and Odo didnt look like the aliens that they are but instead like two regular prettybois the fandom would do cartwheels over their dynamic and Not call them a crack ship. because really, their dynamic fucking SLAPS and I’m here to tell you Why.

their surface-level dynamic is “Respected and Talented Security Chief and Cunning Immoral Businessman who are in Love but pretend not to be” and that's just an off-brand version of enemies to lovers! which is excellent and for some people that’s all you really need to get invested in a ship.

but some people look at it and go “Hm, no, that’s not enough. I mean, they work as friends but it doesn’t really have to be romantic.” and to that I say you are Absolutely Valid, not everything has to be romantic.

it just so happens that these two fuckers have one of the most compelling romance stories ever, and it’d be a shame not to explore it.

so before I dive into the internalised homophobia and repression, I’d like to take a moment to talk about Quark as a character.

because if you have brainworms like me you can kind of see that its an honest to god greek tragedy.

this guy comes from a race of people where being kind, ethical and fair is considered Abnormal and Horrifying. and I’m not gonna call Quark out of all people kind, ethical or fair but,,,

you ever notice how he’s A Much Better Person Than Pretty Much All Other Ferengi?

dont get me wrong, Quark is still a bastard, but every once in a while his True Character shines through. and I say True Character because guys,,, the way he behaves around other people is an Act. he’s pretending to be something he’s not.

he has to try so hard to be a good ferengi it’s honestly painful to watch at times. because he is a SHIT ferengi!

he loves his friends- because that's what the ds9 crew are. they’re his friends! and it makes him miserable because that's not! normal! for a ferengi!

let’s compare Quark and Rom for a second.��

Quark reeks of self loathing because a lot of the time he just Doesn’t act like a ferengi is supposed to, and this drives a lot of conflict in the show. he knows how a ferengi should act, it’s just that he can’t!! fucking!! do it!! but he still tries and tries to fit into that mold, which straight up ruins his life on multiple occasions.

Rom is also not a Model Ferengi, but he lives without hating himself. and it’s mostly because he doesn’t care about how a ferengi Should act, he’s loved and cared for even when everybody knows that he’s a shit ferengi! because his non-ferengi-ness works to his benefit. it encourages and highlights his abilities as an engineer. the success and love he finds make it easy for him to be content with his true self. Unlike Quark, who doesn’t get unconditional love from anyone.

its so!! tragic!! because you can see what Quark is really like!! his true self!! he’s a nice guy who cares for people!

its right there all the time and it's so blatantly obvious. especially in episodes like “Body Parts”, “Bar Association”, “The Way Of The Warrior” and “Ferengi Love Songs”

his own wiki page literally calls him “a compassionate and generous man by ferengi standards” which pretty much translates to “not really a good ferengi”.

anyway so Quark is a tragic figure or whatever but we’re actually here for the REPRESSED! HOMOSEXUAL! TENDENCIES! that he and Odo both exhibit.

with characters like garak you don’t really need to have brainrot to pick up on those tendencies, because that was something andrew robinson chose to do, on purpose.

and to be fair, Quark wasn’t intended to be Any kind of representation, not even by the actor. I’m just pointing out that he Does look and act and talk like a little gayman.

I will admit that he is Painfully Straight in the text of the show, but on a meta level he’s just. a dude who has a serious case of repressing his real personality. and taking it a step further- he also represses his feelings towards another man.

and that man is Odo.

a few things on him:

Odo is literally desperate to be a person. unlike Quark, who at least has the comfort of belonging to a society of people with a set of rules and expectations, Odo has never met anyone or anything like him in all his years of life.

like, we all know Odo basically grew up in a lab, right?

with people who didn’t know anything about him. who he was so unalike that they literally called him “Nothing”

but he still learned to look and talk and act like them (because if he didn’t he’d feel *pain* which is very fucked up by the way?)

so we know for a fact that Odo wants to be recognised as a person- which is why he tries really hard to conform to the ideals of the society that raised him. instead of exploring his nature as a shape shifter he maintains a humanoid form, picks up a job and creates an entire personality around what he wants to be seen as. but not what he really is.

and that's the thing that causes all the conflict between Quark and Odo. the type of person odo wants to be seen as is the polar opposite of whatever the fuck quark wants to be seen as.

In the same way that Quark acts like a Normal Ferengi, Odo acts like a Normal Security Officer. and in a cruel twist of fate, the Ferengi happens to be the antithesis of the Security Officer.

If you only look at them as the things they act like, and not the things they are, you might say they’re way too different to like each other, right?

but,,, if you think about the fact that they’re both putting on this act,,, this performance of idealised versions of themselves,,, you can see that they are The Same. They Are Both Gay Repressed Loser Aliens Who Try To Act Like Things That They Aren’t!

Imagine you’re Odo.

Imagine that you’re Nothing, because you’re not like anything anyone has ever seen- and because you are Nothing you don’t fall in love with anyone for years and years. since who could love something that isn’t like them at all?

But then one day this Thing shows up in your path and you just hate it. Because it’s not like anything *you* have ever seen. It’s disorderly and looks grotesque and it’s criminal to boot.

It’s all the things you learned would make a “Bad Person” It’s everything you aspire not to be, because if you were any of those things you would BE PUNISHED.

But the trouble is, eventually he’s not an “it” anymore, he’s “Quark” and you see him every day of your miserable little life because you live on the same damn station in space and it’s hard to avoid each other.

He also happens to be one of the only things in your life that are constant. He will never leave because he is stubborn and greedy and you just *hate him so much* that you’re convinced he must be doing all of it to spite you. And yet you also can’t seem to leave him alone.

So Odo Must Hate Quark. everything else is a non sequitur for him. he can’t not hate Quark.

because Quark is, and i’m sincerely sorry to apply christian fucking imagery to this, The Forbidden Fruit.

If he liked quark he’d admit some kind of moral failing. it would be the end of his act. but on the other hand...it might be a good thing, because at least he could have quark.

but Odo can never go through with biting into this apple because the consequences are horrifying to him. he could never have quark because, according to his performance, he would Never like quark to begin with.

and here’s a take for you: Odo's Brand Of Internalised Homophobia Doesn't Stem From Heteronormativity. It Stems From The Fact That He Was Kind Of Assigned Asexual At Birth.

and the show sort of alludes to this, for real! not just subtext! canon! except the writers used the wrong person.

because instead of Odo having these Forbidden Feelings for Quark he has them for,,, Kira.

but since this is My Quodo Manifesto you’ll understand that i am 100% willing to just toss that part of canon out the airlock.

so Odo does canonically have that mindset of “no one could ever love me” for decades he repressed any and all feelings of love to avoid getting hurt. in the show he breaks this cycle of repression when he takes a chance and enters a relationship with Kira. yay?

but we all know that aint it chief. and part of the reason why That Ship Ain’t It is the fact that Quark is Right There. and he is simply the more interesting choice for odo.

he and Odo literally share the same problem and have weird intertwined character arcs! they are both dreadfully afraid of not conforming to the ideal versions of themselves, so they reject everything that could challenge their Performance!

on some fucked up level they hate each other *and* themselves individually. and this hatred makes them reject parts of their real identities for the sake of protecting their image. which. yknow. in gay people. is internalised homophobia!

so you can see that they’re both repressing A Lot even if you view them as Friends, but the most important thing in this kind of romantic dynamic is usually,,, when the characters *stop* repressing.

and the thing is. the thing that Kills Me with these two. They Never Get That Moment. Thats Why You Need The Brainrot To See Them As Romantic.

The Ascent gives us an example of what happens when they both take their act too far. I mean, who could forget “Fascist!” and “Fraud!” That is what odo thinks of quark’s performance and vice versa, but we don’t really hear them adress the fact that they *are* playing these roles to a ridiculous extent.

We also never get an example of what would happen if they dropped their act instead of over-performing it. or rather we don’t get to see both of them drop it.

And the reason why we never get that moment is because there’s this one key difference between Quark and Odo.

Quark knows that he’s constantly repressing his true nature and his feelings for odo. We pretty much hear him say so in the iconic root beer scene in Way Of The Warrior. he knows that he’s not a good ferengi but he keeps up his act.

So quark is aware enough to feel that sweet sweet self loathing. But Odo isnt self loathing as much as he is just self sabotaging.

and this subtle difference between them is why, at the very end of the show, we get “That man loves me, can’t you see? It was written all over his back!”

this moment is quark dropping his act and asking odo to do the same. he wants to hear a genuine Goodbye from him because they have known each other for Decades and they are Friends. but odo is so unable to express the feelings he’s been repressing all these years. that he self sabotages again and just walks away.

even though this is like. very anticlimactic. considering I just spent 2000 words talking about how Odo and Quark are Most Certainly Gay For Each Other.

The fact that their ending is so Weird is the reason why quodo is so engaging and appealing to me? especially post-canon quodo.

like, the amount of “what if’s” this ship has are Astounding.

What if either of them had dropped their act a little sooner? What if they both did, for just a moment, and it was the straw that breaks the camels back?

What if Odo comes back after a few years? What if Quark comes to get him?

What if, in that moment in the finale where Quark drops his act, Odo had returned the gesture? What if Gag-Reel Quodo Kiss.gif Real?

with the depth that I read into their relationship, those what ifs are really fun to think about.

anyway its 1 am and i’m not an english major so literary analysis is not like, my strong suit. plus most of this was written in a late night screaming session with a friend who has the exact same opinions as me. i just think aliens hot and in love. thats all.

#the SOUND of my HEAD hitting my DESK with TERMINAL VELOCITY #quodo #star trek

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inhonoredglory · 4 years ago

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I thought this needed to be its own post, since it’s a huge meta and I really loved writing it.

The following is my attempt to analyze the symbolism and staging of @tenyai ‘s impeccable storyboards to Douxie and Merlin’s farewell, in the final episode of Wizards: Tales of Arcadia.

Teny, your boards and the thoughtfulness, heart, and passion you put into them have legit inspired me to take up boarding as a truly narrative, imaginative, and character-driven art. Thank you for these and for all the love. Your skill and craftsmanship and sincerity of emotion come shining through in these arts, and it warms my heart and fills me with absolute joy. I’ve been in awe of your handle of cinematographic symbolism ever since you teased so much meaning out of the final scene in Killahead Part 2, and I’ve changed my entire view on how to analyze scenes and characters on screen because of it. I cannot wait to see your analysis of this scene. It’s rich and powerful in ways I cannot even express.

People, please go check out her boards on her blog and at her professional portfolio on the website in her bio!!

______

Waking up in Merlin’s Study

First up, parallelisms… Merlin’s study is the symbol of everything Douxie is aspiring to in his life. It’s the heart of Merlin’s knowledge, his position as a master and a wizard. It’s full of things Douxie is off-limits to (like the safe or the time map), as we saw in the second episode. He’s always been a student and an inferior in this room; that’s why he considers it an ironic Hell. But unlike in “Dragon’s Den,” when he wakes up in this room on the floor, scared and confused––here instead, he wakes up on the table, surrounded by Merlin’s books, Merlin’s knowledge. And he’s much more comfortable and relaxed. Symbolically, he’s not scrubbing the floor anymore as an inferior.

I almost want to say that Merlin’s tables represent the places where Merlin crafts and makes things––like in “History in the Making” when he is shown making the amulet over one of the tables in his study. But in this case, the person Merlin had a hand in crafting was Douxie. And being a father to Douxie, by saving him from the streets, is Merlin’s greatest accomplishment. He may have saved Douxie, but Douxie took on a life of his own and surpassed Merlin’s wisdom, in a way much like the amulet took on a foresight far more wise than Merlin could have ever predicted (choosing a human to be the Trollhunter, despite Merlin’s belief that a human wasn’t enough).

Walking to the Light

After Douxie wakes up, we get the walk towards the Light, with Merlin starting out in the Light and by the end of this scene, falling into Shadow. Symbolizing Douxie’s growth and perception of Merlin, and symbolizing Merlin’s position as Master Wizard of this realm and his willful relinquishing of that role to Douxie. At first, Douxie wakes up, thinking about his past in this room and all the service he did for his master––who in this shot appears as a hazy halo-ed vision speaking down at him from the unattainable glow: “Hello there, boy,” said with the kind of judgmental snide Douxie’s used to from Merlin.

Then they start walking and then we hit the window at the far end of the room, a kind of apex in the parabolic staging of Douxie and Merlin’s movement through the scene––with the arc going from the back of the room and the table, to the window, and swinging again to the back, this time from the right side of the room. Merlin’s dialogue when we hit the window is important. He’s first talking about how he’s dead and vaporized into soot, etc, and then he opens the time map and asks, “The question really is, Why are you here?” A charged, thematically rich question placed right when we see the mingle of blue and green light from the time map’s lenses––the mingling of these two’s lives through the ages, the summation of all Douxie’s insecurities and all Merlin’s expectations, all Douxie’s greatest mistakes and his greatest triumphs.

Why Are You Here?

Why is he here? At this point, Douxie’s finally let go, he’s accepted Merlin’s death, accepted the title of successor, accepted his gifts and powers and heroism. And he’s accepted that death is part of the job of Master Wizard if it means saving those he’s sworn to protect. So why is he here? Because he’s done everything and more that a true Master Wizard is supposed to do. He’s equalled Merlin, nay––surpassed him in heroism, wisdom, and responsibility. The mingling of the time map’s lights symbolizes that Douxie has achieved everything Merlin represented to him, and more.

And then Douxie touches the Light, looking out into the glow of the hereafter, saying nothing (I love that and makes me crave for his thoughts).

There’s something so fundamentally and chillingly introspective and metaphysical here in this shot for me. It comes on the heels of not only “Why are you here” but also “I am most certainly dead. You saw me vaporize into soot.” Cuz that’s what happens when we all go, isn’t it? You might be the wisest person on this earth, mastered all there is to know about life, become the greatest wizard, lived a thousand years and more, and still in the end, you will die, and to the dust you will return. Maybe Douxie’s thinking, Am I here because I’m dead too? Because my body is gone, because somewhere out there beyond the stained glass is the explanation of the mystery of what happens when we die? Because even if you master life, there is no mastery over death, because none of us will ever feel what it truly is to be on the other side until we get there?

Separate and Equal

Symbolically, with the lighting, it also means Douxie’s touched Wisdom/Maturity in a way. If the hazy glow of Merlin at the start was from this Light, from this Unattainable Essence––then by the time of this staging’s apex, Douxie has achieved what Merlin has. He’s touched the thing that he has sought for so long. He too can be framed by the Light of the person he wanted to be. So now, we see Douxie talking back to Merlin, and not being silent anymore.

Merlin and Douxie are on the same plane now––as equals. We get the vitally important shot of them side by side, Douxie laughing off Merlin’s disapproval, both of them framed by the Light, both of them standing on their own, balanced by the pillars and the light, each of them solid and independent, separate and equal.

Douxie’s Need for Validation

And then we get to the other side of the parabola, the shift in Merlin’s dialogue from disapproval to one of admiration and pride. “I can see you no longer need my validation.”

This line kills me, because you can see in Douxie’s face that yes, he does. Oh how he desperately wants it. But he’s worked so hard to NOT need it, so that he can grow and flourish. And Douxie falls back into that quiet again, waiting on Merlin’s every word, because his rebellious veneer is stripped right now. Merlin’s hitting on the core of his needs, the source of his insecurity. In the film version, he’s even holding his hands together in front of him, and if that body language means anything to me, it’s Douxie feeling small and childlike again, needing and wanting something from his Dad but not having the courage to tell him.

Staging-wise, Douxie’s still very much following Merlin. He’s behind him, chasing after him, looking up to him. The “ancient Draconic” stand-off was the first and most important show of Douxie’s growth, born from Douxie’s own gumption and sass, when Merlin for the first time in this scene walked up to *Douxie* instead of the other way around, even if it was to judge him:

But like any good hero’s journey, after one win, our hero gets a setback, a reminder of his failures, before he wins again. And this time, it’s Douxie feeling like this latest monologue from Merlin is again some kind of judgement, some kind of backhanded lecture. Would his show of strength and independence fall on deaf ears?

“Remember when I told you that magic is mastery over life?” Merlin says, holding up an alchemy bottle and then a book––tools of the trade, spellcraft and tricks. All the things Merlin taught him. In a huge way, Merlin wasn’t there for the real lessons Douxie learned to become truly wise. Douxie became strong and selfless and kind because he had to, because those were the ways he knew in his heart would take him on the path to reaching that wisdom of life Merlin was talking about. I wonder if there’s something to the fact that once Merlin starts saying, “Nine hundred years you’ve guarded this realm…” he puts the book away––putting away his own knowledge and symbolically recognizing that Douxie’s wisdom has taken him far past Merlin’s own teachings, and that in the 900 years that went by, Douxie has guarded this realm with a mastery of life all his own.

In the final version, the moment Merlin says, “You’ve disrupted time, freed ancient beasts,” that’s when Douxie drops his hands, stops walking, and looks down––a brushstroke reminder of his guilt on doing these things, things that Merlin disapproved of, but things Merlin is now seeing as good and right things to do.

And then we get to the shot of the amulet blueprints, and the wonderful crowning statement of Douxie’s morality: “You’ve… fought to save one life at the risk of countless others.” Meaning Jim, meaning the very person who inspired Douxie to take his selflessness that one step further and set aside his own life so that he could save everyone. Because every life is precious. I find it fascinating that on this line in the boards, Douxie silently fist-slams the table, disappointment all over his face. While Merlin, now in Shadow, has a look of wistful regret.

This shot is so pack full of meaning, and I keep adding to this interpretation...

Douxie for so long has been stripped down for everything he’s done, been criticized by Merlin for being different from him. In some ways, he thinks this latest monologue is more of the same, more ways in which he’s disappointed his father. And clearly, despite his growth, it still hurts him.

And it hurts him that while Merlin is talking about saving Jim’s life, Douxie never really was able to save him. Douxie died while Jim was still corrupted. He died only seeing Jim lose himself to the Green Knight. He never saw Claire’s heroism in bringing Jim back. Personally, Douxie failed.

But even more than that, it hurts him that for all his love for Merlin, he could not save him. He might give his life to save the world, but he cannot bring Merlin back from the grave. Every life is precious and he would risk countless to save just one. But he couldn’t save the one that meant the most to him.

Merlin recognizing he’s wronged Douxie

In the end, Merlin here isn’t talking Douxie down, even as he’s pointing out their differences. He’s in awe at this idealism Douxie possesses. He’s not criticizing him, he’s not being wry or ironic. Merlin looks up at the portrait, knowing that it wasn’t him who gave Douxie this outlook on life. It wasn’t his harsh treatment that gave Douxie his beautiful soul. Douxie had it all along, and Merlin was too dense to see it and nourish it.

So what Merlin says next hits even deeper––

“And yet, despite such relentless hardships…” Merlin’s looking up at the portrait. He’s looking at himself. He’s looking at everything he’s done to Douxie that’s burdened his son with that guilt, that insecurity, that fear, that emotional abandonment. He’s acknowledging here his part in the trauma of Douxie’s life, and his regret is that all this time, it was Douxie who was the better man than he was.

And then we get the symbolic shot––“Despite such relentless hardships, you managed to protect those dearest to you”––with Merlin in Shadow and Douxie lit from behind with the Light. A reversal of the opening shot of this scene, when it was Merlin in the Light and Douxie, unsettled, in the Shadow. This is finally Merlin laying down his ego, seeing in Douxie the strength and force of love and protectiveness he never had. The very thing Merlin didn’t do, when he didn’t protect Douxie all those years, when he let his son down, when he left him and ignored him and took him for granted. When he didn’t give the person dearest to him the love he deserved.

Resolution

And finally, it’s Merlin walking *up* to Douxie, Merlin falling in Douxie’s shadow, and Douxie being once and finally again on an equal plane with his master and peer. “My Hisirdoux, what a life you’ve lived. What a wizard you’ve become.” This is the climax of Douxie’s parabolic hero’s journey in this room. Merlin has at long last given to him what he desperately needed to hear––pure, unadulterated pride in his father’s eyes, and an honest and sincere expression of love, kindness, and emotion.

It’s too much for Douxie’s desperate heart, and he collapses into his father’s arms, releasing 900 years of pent-up emotions and need.

(Is that symbolically why Merlin’s always in armor and Douxie never had any––cuz he’s fragile and bare in the face of Merlin’s cold, callous exterior?)

After that hug (waaaah TEARS, every. freaking. time), we once again are treated to the Light symbolism. First again to show how equal these two men are––Merlin importantly a step down from his son, with the light behind Douxie. And then to show the time map, glimmering with a calm, peaceful, happy equality.

Life and Death

And now we’re in scene denouement, as Merlin and Douxie walk to the end of the parabola (past the first table and eventually out the door). Fascinatingly, in the boards, Douxie glances around the room and then his eyes I believe land on the table he woke up in earlier, before the scene cuts and we get a shot of that same table, panning up to reveal Merlin and Douxie facing the doorway to the hereafter.

And in my brain, it’s like we’ve come full circle in Douxie’s life arc. If waking on your back is birth, snarking about your tough childhood, and now after all you’ve gone through, you look back on that time at the end of your days, ready to face what comes after death…. (well, that’s what it means to me anyway).

Douxie’s fully prepared to leave the mortal world. That’s how far he’s come in his maturity. He closes his eyes, accepting the unknown and resting in the confidence of who he is.

The Hero’s Journey

But like any good hero’s journey, the end isn’t to leave the ordinary world with the boon of your new knowledge and wisdom. It is to return to your home and share that knowledge with others, to use what you have gained and become a teacher and protector for your family and community.

Merlin gives him one last lesson, one last parting gift to tell him, Hey, you have more power than you even imagine you possess. Your rebellious spirit made you who you are today, and it’s what will keep you alive and fighting because it’s your gift and how you protect the world. Your way.

Merlin’s parting sign of the horns is the cherry on top of this whole thing, a perfectly subtle way of Merlin acknowledging who Douxie is, accepting it, and celebrating it. Saying goodbye to his son in a language meant for him. Douxie’s tears at the end (wish they got into the final oof!) speaks volumes to his beautifully mingled emotions––amusement at Merlin’s gesture and a poignant love that he did it for him. I tear up just thinking about the look on Douxie’s face and what it all means in his heart.

Anyway, that’s a wrap, folks. I love Douxie with my entire soul. Thank you for sharing these boards, Teny, and for putting your heart and tears into this masterwork of a scene. (I listened to “Moving On” to write this for the Mood and guhh, it’s a tear-jerker gosh.) This fandom is incredibly lucky to be the recipients of your favorite sequence in your career to date. It’s been an absolute pleasure to see your work and feel the heart you poured into them.

#tales of arcadia #toa wizards #douxie #hisirdoux casperan #toa meta #toa wizards meta #tales of arcadia wizards #douxie meta #merlin #douxie x merlin #*mine #*mymeta #tenyai #toa wizards storyboards #long post

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im-gettingby · 4 years ago

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30 Days of Carry On

posted (and written by?) @captain-aralias

(I’m doing most of these at once because I said so. it’s long so under the cut)

1. Favourite major character

I literally thought — Simon no Baz no Penny no, Agatha!

I guess I will pick Simon, since I relate to him the most — or at least, my connection to him led me into the fandom.

2. Favourite minor character

I think we all know this one 🐑🐑🐑

I have written many a treatise on Lamb Rights. I’ll spare everyone now

3. Character you relate to the most

Oops— I already answered this, kinda. I relate to them in different ways: I relate a lot to WS Simon because he has abandonment issues and “kid who was told he was extraordinary and then grew up to be ordinary” issues. We also both have a “fix all the things for everyone” complex, too.

Baz — It took me a while to get into Baz’s head, but I would say, I relate to him because of his intense emotional world and tendency to see the world through an intensely romantic/tragic lens. But also he’s a Pisces. and I’d never do that like a Pisces does. (Sorry, not sorry.)

4. Which character would you like to go to lunch with?

SHEPARD obviously. I don’t feel the need to elaborate.

5. Favourite non-Snowbaz ship

Ooh! Probably Lamb/Baz or Simon/Shep or just...literally anything. Like, I will read anything as long as it’s well written. The weirder the better. (Within...legal and moral limits.) in my other fandoms I’ve been a big multishipper and there’s not a lot of options for that in CO - which is fine - but wholeheartedly support rarepairs :D

6. Favourite non-romantic OTP

So, obviously Simon/Penny and Baz/Penny are great ones, but I think the nearest & dearest to my heart is Simon/Agatha. The kind of siblings/unwillingly dating/weird exes dynamic and the way they both shaped each other’s lives is just so interesting. And while Simon & Penny are closer, Agatha and Simon represent their aspirational selves to one another. And the way that they were both tied to one another along with their gender roles/places in society and both broke away at the same time is just...mwah

7. Favourite Baz outfit

I honestly dress kinda like Baz. Anything involving a printed silk shirt or a floral brocade suit, so like, all of them? I love WS Baz, his fashion sense is so thoughtful yet fun. He’s so expressive with it — in the sense of both being guarded, being sexy, and playing with masculinity/femininity.

8. How do you feel about Wayward Son?

In case it wasn’t obvious, I absolutely love it. I mean, from a writing/narrative standpoint, I don’t think it’s the most elegant or engaging book ever written, but it’s just so raw and fresh. I don’t see many examples of an author trying to do what Rainbow did, which is build a complex emotional AND plot-driven story with so many characters and so much lore. I’m very excited for AWTWB.

9. Favourite scene from Carry On, besides Chapter 61

I like what the book does/sets up overall. Honestly probably the first scene, where Simon walks to the bus stop & takes the train and just thinks about his life and makes lists -- I love Simon. I know Rainbow said she thinks that bit is boring, but it honestly says so much about his character in a short time. (and he’s an extremely complex character!) Also, Baz’s dramatic entrance. Also, the chapter where Baz says “and I’m hopelessly in love with him” because it’s just so dramatic, and it comes out of nowhere

10. Favourite scene from Wayward Son, besides Chapter 41

Baz and Lamb’s journey across the Strip - vampire lore, jealous Simon, Baz getting to be his own character— it’s beautiful.

11. Remind us about something in canon readers might have forgotten about

Ahahaha um. Simon says he thinks Baz’s cousin Marcus is fit. That’s pretty funny.

12. What are your hopes and fears for Any Way the Wind Blows?

I don’t have any hopes because I don’t want to be disappointed - and that’s not a cynical thing, I just want to go into it with an open mind. (I’ll take a break from fandom and reread the books beforehand so I’m (more of) a blank slate) I guess just...interesting emotional journeys, whatever that ends up being. There’s a lot that Rainbow has to do in the book and I don’t think any one person could get through all of it -- that’s why we have fanfiction.

Fears? I don’t know. I think just...the series ending. Even though I’ve been in fandom for less than a year I just really love this fandom & the thought of that kind of eroding away is sad. But also I don’t think that will happen immediately, and change is a part of life. I’ve never related as much to Cath as I do now :’)

13. An unpopular/cracky opinion you hold

unpopular: Lamb is the best character; I don’t want Simon to get his magic back; both Simon and Baz should have other romantic options.

14. Something from your head fanon

Hmmmmmmm well. Just mean things about Baz really. Like that he’s weird looking, not that great at football, and actually has kind of garish fashion sense. (which is a self-roast as well - see above.) I just feel like Simon/fandom put him on a pedestal, and Simon’s an unreliable narrator re: Baz anyway. So I like the idea that Baz is this average looking kinda strange nerdy guy who is everything Simon has ever wanted in life.

And before you tell me that Baz was hot at Watford and Agatha was into him, have you ever been to a tiny boarding school? Standards get weird 😂😂😂 and Terry being into him — come on. The guy’s a violent pervert.

also - back to Watford being a tiny school. Baz doesn’t have much competition to be the star of the football team. (also, does anyone except Simon even think that he is?)

16. Favourite location other than Watford

Vegas!

17, Favourite location in Watford

I’m pretty bad at Watford lore/geography bc again, I’m way more into WS. Probably the floor in the Cloisters where everything happens the same way, just a day later. There’s a fic there, but I can’t wrap my head around all the time travel implications enough to write it.

18. What would be your favourite subject at Watford?

Any potions-esque subject because I loved chemistry lab. Latin because I loved Latin in school. Uhhhh I don’t like history class, so not that — maybe a literature course focused on the derivation of spells.

19. What would your magical implement be?

Ooh! This is a good one. I’d like to think it would be a weird body piercing. Or a belt a la Gareth. Maybe some kind of traditional south Asian jewelry, like a nose chain or mang-tikka or something. maybe a hat. like, imagine your magical instrument being a fedora and you just have to...wear a fedora all the time.

21. Favourite canon spell

Hm. Kiss it better? Candle in the wind?I should try to think of a non-horny one. honestly they’re all so cool and clever - I love the magic system in CO/WS.

22. What would your eighth year spell at Watford be or do?

Maybe something from a poem I love. That would probably be pretty but not very functional. Or a healing spell.

23. Who would you want as your roommate?

Agatha is uptight, Penny is passive aggressive, Simon is a slob, Baz is both uptight and passive aggressive.

Definitely Shepard.

24. Favourite item of merchandise, official or unofficial

My @subparselkie sticker

25. Favourite book cover design

WS. Oh, another unpopular opinion - I don’t like the kevin wada cover of carry on. their faces look so weird and the colors don’t work for me. I own the version with the blue and yellow cover art instead

26. Do you want a movie? If yes - any fan casts for the movie?

Probably wouldn’t want a movie! Because I am way too possessive of these books/this version of the story. And I am historically extremely disappointed by adaptations — I get upset with the smallest of changes 😂

27. If they made a movie, what scenes do you think they’d cut that you’d be furious were missing?

See above. A LOT haha

28. If you could ask Rainbow Rowell one question, what would it be? (If you have already, you can share if you like)

What is Lamb’s full name????? Is it actually Lamb Lambert Lamborghini the third???

What is Rainbow’s relationship with sheep and goats. Why are there so many references to them

29. Have you read any of Rainbow’s other books?

Only Fangirl

30. How did you get into Carry On and/or Carry On fandom?

I read fangirl & the pages at the end mentioned carry on, so I read that, and enjoyed it but I wasn’t obsessed. Then I read WS spring 2020, reread it a bunch of times, reread CO, freaked out about the cliffhanger/cool vampire stuff/unresolved sexual tension, had pandemic cabin fever, got on AO3, and the rest is history.

As @annabellelux knows, I wrote my first (published) fanfic after reading her amazing fic Drop The Game. and the first fanfic I read was @captain-aralias’ Greener Grass. I was so obsessed that about a month later, I searched through the AO3 tags for it, because I couldn’t remember the title or author but kept thinking about it.

#tag game #30 days of carry on

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greenreticule · 4 years ago

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cw: fatphobia

Thoughts On Another Fat Star Wars Character Because I’m Still Pissed About What They Did With Bib Fortuna In The Mandalorian And How Mando: Gallery Treated It Like A Good Artistic Decision What The Hell

(Rogue Pod does a good breakdown of the Bib Fortuna issue here with a transcript here)

There are two types of Early Imperial Era takes on Dexter Jettster:

The Last of The Jedi (tired): "Dex is fat, therefore he can't actually go on the adventures, because that would require movement."

The Smuggler's Guide (wired): "Dex is fat and takes a 12-day jungle hike by himself to help others. Fuck you."

Honestly, with whatever other good stuff The Last of the Jedi had, I just can’t get over the fatphobia with Dex. Even beforehand, with Jedi Quest, there’s a weird obsession Jude Watson has with describing his weight. Every time she mentions a body part (foot, finger, etc.) she HAS to let you know that he’s fat, and it’s not in a good way.

In Jedi Quest, she doesn’t write him with his characteristic guile, keen observation skills, or compassionate nature that shows up in every other depiction of him. He actually comes off as oblivious and caring primarily about profit.

Which would just be an annoying OOC writing for him if she hadn't also hyperfocused on Dex being fat in her descriptions, using terms that are intended to elicit disdain from both the audience and Obi-Wan.

Watson's writing makes Dex's size one of the reasons why Obi-Wan and Anakin react to him as a lesser substitute to a previous informant character; being fat is part of the reason Dex is to be endured rather than loved.

What an ugly message to send to fat kids reading this series

Then in The Last of the Jedi, Watson does a complete 180 on Dex's personality. Suddenly, he's cunning, a respected leader in a burgeoning rebellion, sacrificially compassionate. It's one of his most heroic portrayals.

And yet. She just can't get over his weight.

She still hyperfocuses on it in her descriptions. She treats it as a liability, something that makes him require assistance. The indication that he's bouncing back from near death isn't him diving back into the intel network he just mourned losing; it's him yelling for food.

And then to cap it all off, his NEAR DEATH makes him lose weight down to half his size, and that is treated like A HAPPY ENDING.

The Last of the Jedi acted it like it was better for Dex to have nearly died than to be fat.

(thank God this series isn't canon anymore)

That is such a goddamn dangerous notion to put out into a kid's book, because that is how our society treats fat people: that it is better if they do harm to their bodies and their mental health for daring to be the size that they are. That fat bodies are deserving of violence.

Now I picked Dexter Jettster as my example here, because I know the character pretty well, but this is an overarching issue in Star Wars.

It's not that we don't have thin evil characters; it's that when fat characters are introduced, their size is usually used as a shorthand for villainy or some lack of moral character. Orn Free Ta, Bib Fortuna, Ugg, Agruss, Azmorigan, etc.

The few fat characters who are good - even arguably heroic at times - consistently have their weight treated as a punchline or worse.

And the fact that they are almost all aliens is another way in which fat people are being “othered” in the GFFA. For more discussion on this, I recommend the fatphobia three-parter from the Lousy Beautiful Town podcast.

Lucasfilm can drop those "Star Wars is for Everyone!" shirts every dang day if they like, but that sentence is an aspiration, not a statement of fact. Because as long as their stories are sending messages like these, they are also sending the message "...but not for you."

Fat fans, fat kids, and fat people deserve so much better.

If you want to start learning why it's important to fight fatphobia, here's a quick overview with many links.

#star wars is rife with #fatphobia #and the mando finale and the mando s2 gallery just REALLY loved doubling down on fat=corruption or laziness #just... fuck off with that #dexter jettster

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nylucas · 4 years ago

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( BRANDON LARRACUENTE + CIS MALE ) — Have you seen LUCAS MORALES? This TWENTY-FOUR year old is a PERSONAL TRAINER/ASPIRING ACTOR who resides in BROOKLYN. HE has been living in NYC for HIS WHOLE LIFE, and is known to be HARD-WORKING and FRIENDLY, but can also be RECKLESS and STUBBORN, if you cross them. People tend to associate them with WORKOUT PLAYLISTS and AUDITION WAITING ROOMS —

.tw domestic violence (skip the strikethroughed part if you wouldn’t like to read it)

@codstarters

Lucas is the oldest son of Gloria and Eduardo Morales. Their family moved from Puerto Rico to NYC when he was only eight years old. He doesn’t remember much about his hometown but he plans on visiting someday.

His father worked as a truck driver and was often gone for long periods of time. Whenever he was away, Lucas was the man of the house. He was in charge of paying the bills, helping his mother with the children and running errands outside. His mom was not allowed out of the house and, back then, it never struck him as odd. It was the only normal he knew.

Their family was happy most of the time. Then there were the times his father would arrive drunk and yell at his mother, accusing her of cheating on him while he was away or making eyes at the neighbors. His mom would tell Lucas to take his siblings away and he would take them to his bedroom where they sat down and watched DVDs together. Those children’s movies weren’t exactly a sixteen year old’s idea of entertainment but they helped him escape.

He felt guilty every time there was a new bruise on his mother but he was too afraid of his father to stand up to him. And he loved the man’s good side, the one that provided to them and joked around with him. This was the same man that didn’t hesitate to hug him when he came out to him. It was only when he was drunk that he turned into a different person. He thought they could live through it, maybe help him quit drinking.

One momentous night, Lucas arrived home later than usual after being out with some friends only to find his mom was badly beaten on the kitchen floor while his little sister bawled. He saw red and before he could process what the hell had happened, he had his drunk father pinned down to the floor and beat him until his knuckles bled. The neighbors barged into the Morales home after his little sister ran outside screaming for help and pulled him off his father. He believes he would have killed him had they not intervened.

The police was called, his father rushed off to the hospital and, as for Lucas, he was arrested. His mother refused to say anything to the police, his six year old sister was not a reliable source and the only witness testimony they had were from the neighbors that walked in on him almost killing his father with his bare hands.

He was sent to juvie for about six months which felt more like six years and his life was never the same once he got out. The judge didn’t allow him to move back in with his father nor did his family seem to want him back because they never tried to contact him. He was placed with an Uncle instead.

His uncle was a nice enough guy, never married, a bit of a gambling addict. There were no rules in his house except one: Lucas had to get a job. The only thing that would be provided for him was a roof over his head, everything else he had to work for.

He worked part-time flipping burgers for awhile until a good friend of his hooked him up with a better job at a restaurant/video store place. He got to sit at the counter and watch movies most of the day. It was a sweet gig.

It was during one of those long shifts while watching John Travolta thrust his hips at Jamie Lee Curtis that he realized what he wanted to do with his life: He wanted to be an actor.

The obvious course of action for a wannabe actor would have been LA but he never cared much for the West Coast and he had no money to move out there. Plus, there was nothing wrong with starting out in theater even if Broadway was not exactly his cup of tea.

He dropped out of high school as soon as he turned eighteen. He was behind in his studies due to his time in juvie and he didn’t wanna waste anymore time in school. There would be no use for a diploma once he became a Hollywood star.

His good looks landed him some gigs as a model but they weren’t ever big jobs and a lot of the times they paid in exposure or, as was the case of this one local restaurant, a meal.

He’s watched the interviews, seen the movies about struggling actors-- he knows how hard it is to get started in the business but he didn’t know it would be this hard.

His other passion in life, fitness, started while he was in juvie. Working out helped him with his anger and he liked feeling stronger, healthier. He became a little obsessed with working on his body.

Tired of working at a minimum wage job, Lucas took a personal trainer course. There was, however, the small matter of a high school diploma being required. Luckily, one of his buddies sold him a forged copy and he was able to finish the course.

He currently works as a personal trainer to mostly older, rich, Upper East Side women. Their husbands are never happy when they see him but little do they know that he’d rather sleep with them than their wives.

#it's 5am this is probably awful but wtv #dm me for plots #codintro #tw domestic violence

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arcanalogue · 4 years ago

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The Book of Symbols: King/Queen

I've been dipping into random entries from The Book of Symbols each morning, and yesterday's pull was "KING/QUEEN."

There's lots to unpack there, especially in terms of tarot cards. And also, as someone who has been telling my nephew a lot of fairy tales lately, it's a great reminder of the layers of meaning that are buried there. Like in Rumpelstiltskin, when you explain that the king is really greedy, there's implied danger there, because there is literally no higher authority for anyone to appeal to.

This ties into something that has been bugging me since 2016. I know the US President is pointedly not a king, but the symbolic associations are similar. Figureheads are important. It actually matters who occupies that position!

According to The Book of Symbols, monarchs “reflect what is sovereign within the psyche of an individual or a society, the principles or beliefs that hold sway.”

This is why people get so upset about the possibility of elevating people like Obama, H. Clinton, Biden, Sanders, et al to that office, and why it brings qualities like racism, sexism, and antisemitism to a boil. The possibility of being represented on a superlative level by a figure whom you deeply mistrust or hate on an unconscious level is bound to result in some intensely divergent and divisive conscious behaviors.

This also explains the absurd moral scrutiny candidates are placed under, and our abstracted interpretations of their past decisions. Sometimes these instincts serve us well, other times our judgment is being unduly affected on a symbolic level. And this is something that folks may even embrace consciously, saying things like "I don't agree with this person on many points, but I admire what they symbolize." Because of the strange and selective way we interact with the unconscious, this doesn't feel like an admission of having suspended rational judgment. It feels like an expression of personal truth.

So many people couldn't conceive of Trump as a viable candidate until it was too late, because it simply didn't gel with their idea of "the principles or beliefs that hold sway" in this country. And once he was there, it was very hard to accept that these principles WOULD hold sway, but among those with low awareness or whose unconscious is very susceptible to this kind of symbolism, reality readily conforms to whatever narrative is presented. If Trump believed he could be king, and then was elected, and then began acting as a king, there was virtually no way for some to resist that impression.

This is what's been so exhausting for those of us desperate to keep our head above water throughout this: it takes real effort to resist these impressions day after day, moment after moment. We had to keep telling ourselves: "Trump is not king. Our government was crafted to preclude that possibility, and there are safeguards in place to help us withstand instances like this. He is NOT protected by divine fiat. All this will end." Even as many others were energized by this symbolic elevation, we were constantly drained by it. And some definitely grew to accept elements of it, because on a symbolic level they became increasingly impossible to dispute.

Hence the frustration of my progressive friends who were deeply disturbed by the possibility of a Biden coronation -- sorry, I mean inauguration -- which on a symbolic level probably does feel comparable to Trump's, even though these men aren't really the same at all. When a person embodies ideals you find repugnant, the fact that they'll come to "reflect what is sovereign within the psyche of an individual or a society" is simply intolerable.

But the symbolic isn't everything, and our awareness is affected by many other factors. This is why, despite all the depression and fear and isolation, it's important for us to keep our minds flexible, and to scrutinize our own thinking and remain open to the possibility that we really DON'T see the whole picture, we DON'T know how this will end.

The symbol-laden stories we treasure, such as fairy tales, really only give us the broad strokes. Yes, everything we see around us is on par for what we dreaded in a Trump monarchy. But it's also not the whole story, and his eventual defeat is an outcome many could not bring themselves to believe was possible. For years our impressions have been unconsciously affected by this intense symbolism, allowing us to lie to ourselves with a completely straight face.

As the leadership shifts, so will our symbolic interpretations. Everything won't magically "get better," but new stories will seem plausible, new characters will emerge, and reality will undeniably change around us, as if by magic. We are part of that magic. And the more consciously you examine these symbols and the effects they're having on you -- and on your fellow humans -- the more honestly you may be able to engage with the present moment.

But that too takes effort. Conscious engagement can be just as tiring as resistance. The mind wants to drift, to dream, to react, to run purely on the fuel that symbolic realities provide so abundantly. We want the ease that comes from being told a story, we do not want the responsibilities and lessons that come from being a character in one.

My own (limited) awareness of all this was not enough to help me engage with the more "symbolically affected" over the last four years. I was lucky if I could even just keep my own head up at times. This is why we tend to see any mob as adversarial: they're under the influence of something so strong, we can't reason with them or break the spell. On a primal level, we see this as dangerous.

But also, from within the mob, there can be a sense of freedom, and rejoicing, and strength in numbers. Mobs can accomplish incredible things. They are our own weirdly human form of murmuration, the way birds and fish move in unison, appearing united in purpose, the conscious mind utterly bypassed so that something greater can be expressed. The shapes they create in the air and the water are thrilling (and sometimes terrifying) to behold.

I have been part of many murmurations over the past four years, related to the airing of sexual trauma, to celebrations of gender diversity, to demands for justice in the face of violent disregard for life. I have felt horror in these instances, feeling myself to be part of a headless body, a mob.

But when the symbolic head of the nation (and of so many departments and corporations therein) is completely diseased and actively rotting away, that "headlessness" ripples downward, and will express itself in wild, unpredictable ways.With a somewhat better "head" on its shoulders, perhaps many in our nation will have somewhat less occasion to murmurate. That does not automatically signify weaker engagement. If anything, it allows for more strategic and conscious responses to events as they unfold.

This is why I'm inviting people to resist the temptation to cling to all the ways they've engaged in the last four years. Some of it will still prove useful, but some of it won't. Copying and pasting that awareness over the events of the future will not serve you, and could actually end up prolonging the influence of everything we've just survived together.

Birds keep murmurating, but they never create exactly the same murmurations, nor do they swarm constantly and foresake other forms of flight. If they did, they'd gradually just drop from the sky, one by one, missing out on other aspects of bird life.

It matters who is king! But if you are still aspiring to remain sovereign over your own psyche, you've got to remember there are many other kingdoms, including ones which have yet to be founded. And since you are a kingdom in microcosm, it still matters who and what you allow yourself to become, which alliances you form, and how (or whether) you accept victory as well as defeat.

#the book of symbols #king #murmuration

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jq37 · 5 years ago

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The Report Card – Fantasy High Sophomore Year Ep 15

Love Wins!

Welcome to an insanely chaotic episode of Fantasy High--even by the very high standards of this show. How chaotic you may ask? Well, the first thing that happens is that Bill Seacaster point blank shoots Gilear to death for being in a relationship with Hilariel. Full dead. He is full dead. Strangely, his plan to bring him back as a janky devil does not do much to comfort Fig. Imagine that.

Bill’s pirates are looting the Bottomless Pit (Gorthalax’s domain in Hell) and Vraz orders Fig to make them stop. When she instead orders Vraz to eat her ass, Vraz nullifies all warlock deals Gorthalax made and brings none other than Johnny Spells (and his greaser pals) to join the fight!

Really, this fight is insane and it’s better served by a highlight real than a play by play so I’m just gonna give you some bullets:

All the PCs rolled super low initiative this fight which really kinda screwed them. Like Fabian was down to 16 HP one point and it was like, “Lol, this is the end of round 1.” YIKES.

A big part of this fight was just surviving long enough to get to the second level of hell and rescue Riz’s dad which I think was probably good for morale because the thought of this fight dragging on for more than a couple of rounds exhausts me.

Fabian rolls off against Johnny right off the bat for the Hangman’s loyalty and Fabian wins with a 25 (and by coming out the gate with the word ENSLAVED which isn’t the word *I* would have used but a 25 is a 25 I guess).

He also has to contend with fighting Allistair who has a massive hole in his head filled with fire from Wicklaw eating his brain. It seems like Chungledown Bim is in hell too based on how Allistair keeps saying he’s gonna get him so he can shit in Fabian’s mouth. Of course, Fabian gets the better of him, but not before he deals out a fair bit of damage.

Adaine uses an Arcane Hand plus her portent roll to just whole-ass throw Johnny off the ship. Like, he gets back up but it’s so funny to instead of fighting an enemy to just throw him off a set piece (see eg: Bloodkeep ep2).

Kristen Revivifies Gilear and Bill, the mercurial sunuvabitch is like, “We love the same woman! I just want her happy!” and gives him a gun. Kristen immediately is like, “Bro, you need to hide,” and Gorgug protects him while he does so (in a sarcophagus that has a 50/50 shot of being launched as ammo).

Penelope shows up to the fight, eyes all black, wearing a shredded prom dress, and with shards of silver embedded in her forehead like a crown. Dayne and Daybreak also join the fight as messed up Harvestmen! It’s a veritable Smash Bros lineup of people the Bad Kids have killed!

Adaine and Fabian are christened the “Posh Squad” which is important to me, not to the fight.

Adaine gets to counterspell a counterspell from Penelope, one of the sexiest things you can do in D&D.

Fabian declares toxic masculinity dead. Shortly afterward, he makes Brennan eat a die when Daybreak tries to Frighten Fabian, a condition he is immune to due to his eyepatch I gather based on the table reaction.

Daybreak’s punishment in hell is a complete lack of self-awareness of why he’s there. He still thinks he should be sipping Mai-Tai’s in corn heaven with Helio while Kristen and Ragh are attacking him with gay spit (their words, not mine). Gay spit and, also, a ton of radiant and thunder damage.

Ragh gets some emotional catharsis by getting to body Dayne before Gorgug decapitates him. Very important step in the stages of grief. Decapitating the source of said grief.

Penelope gets Sparta-kicked off the edge of the boat by Fabian after Ayda dispels her protective globe and Riz shoots Daybreak again for old times sake. Unfortunately, Penelope Misty Steps back up and Daybreak is hurt but not killed. Ayda does a cool Dr. Strange teleportation thing and does a bunch of damage to both of them. Fabian finishes off Penelope with a sheet/sword combo and between Booming Blade and a Psionic Blast (does she have this ability as a Bard or as a Warlock? Relatedly, when she felt something leave her was that her Warlock deal being nullified or was she feeling the deals leave her since she is sort of the temporary Gorthalax?) Fig destroys Daybreak. Johnny just falls off the ship with no PC intervention because he sucks.

Bill also falls off the ship but Fig (with an assist from Gorgug) saves him and steals a scroll from Vraz on the way back up. By the by, earlier in the fight, she also had Baby Invisbly steal a random item from her.

Anyway, as they reach the end of the end of the fight, Bill loads Riz into a canon (!) and shoots him into the city, hopefully towards his dad (to the distress of his party). He crashes through the window in a familiar looking building and, when he finds a hallway that he’s pretty sure leads to his dad, he goes towards it.

He sees a familiar light coming out of a doorway (the interrogation room light) and a doorway next to it that is slightly open with steel thrones in it. There’s a two-way mirror between the two rooms and if he goes into the open one, he can see who is in with his dad. After checking for illusions and finding none, he stealthily walks in and sees, in the other room, his dad with a hulking pit fiend (30 ft tall, winged, almost dragon-y devil).

The pit fiend is questioning Pok about any regrets he had in life and Pok answers very uncharacteristically from the man we saw in the video saying he had nothing but high hopes for baby Riz. He says he had no regrets, his job was just a job, and that he only had a kid because Sklonda wanted one before going into a snarling goblin rage. The pit fiend smiles at that and says that Pok has promise so they won’t create a lemure out of him (a lemure is a weak, blobby devil). Two devils in the room with them whip him unconscious and then leave the room to go send more people to deal with Bill.

Riz Misty Steps into the room and does a self-imposed Wisdom check to steady himself after what he just heard--Nat 20 baby. Then, he opens his Briefcase of Holding, ready to scoop his dad into it when, the two lesser devils open the door and catch him in the act. But Riz persists in the scooping. They try to grapple him and he rolls a Nat 1 to avoid it. He *still* tries to get him dad. But then he notices, his gun is missing.

BLAM. The devils heads are blown clean off. He turns and he sees his dad has taken the gun--his gun originally--and shot the devils. Pok, who is amazed that Riz is there and no longer feigning apathy for the situation asks for an extraction into an earpiece, causing a halo to appear over his head and a beam of holy light to come down like a tractor beam.

“Wait,” says Riz. “You’re an undercover angel?”

“You got it, kid.”

Murph goes feral. The table goes feral. I go feral. What a way to end an episode!

And now for an all-Dad round of superlatives:

Detention

Bill Seacaster for KILLING GILEAR

I feel like I shouldn’t have to explain myself here.

Honor Roll

Pok Gukgak for Officially Joining the Fantasy Fathers of the Year Club

Here either.

I will, however, add a Hell Yeah!

Random Thoughts

If you haven’t seen it yet, the trailer for S5 of Dimension 20 just dropped and I won’t spoil it but, from the looks of it, it is gonna be a doozy.

“Do not metagame with my freaking Dad!” Oh to have the support of an NPC Emily Axford has decided to imprint upon.

Gorgug: It’s been one year. We’re sophomores.

“We support you as a DM and as your friend but also you’re our enemy.”

I think it’s very interesting that with just a little space and time from his dad, Fabian is finally having the proper reactions to his dad doing what I will charitably call shenanigans.

The level of distress and outrage from Emily when Gilear got shot was just *chef’s kiss*. I aspire to create an NPC that provokes that level of reaction from one of my players. Similar energy in a different direction from Ally when Daybreak attacked Tracker.

“Adaine, the jocks are being feisty! Get out of there!”

Vraz calls Fig “the Faithless” as her devil title and she insists on instead being called, “the InFaethable”. I wanna know how long Emily’s been sitting on that one or whether she came up with it on the spot.

Fabian upon seeing Johnny: Fuck off dude. I have too much going on right now.

Brennan being the eternal DM mood: How do I get out of this?

Very wild how little time has passed since Leviathan. Like, Fabian’s had this whole arc and grown so much but, like, OF COURSE Allistair still wants to murder him! It’s been like two days.

“I want to crumple up Gilear like a wrapper.”

A seven is a Murph 10.

The very specific way Brennan does foley for sword fighting (“Clang! Cling! Clang!”) is so funny to me.

Cannot overstate how much of a power move it was for Kristen to go, “I’ve been PRAYING FOR YOU,” at Daybreak and knock him on his ass.

I feel like I bring this up all the time but I love when Brennan is counting dice for a ton of damage and all the PCs are BSing reasons that it’s not a big deal like, “He’s just getting D4s,” or “Well I should get advantage for the reason just made up,” with everyone else fully playing along. ”

Allistair Ash, man. He is fascinating to me. I am so curious about what Brennan had planned for him originally because I feel like we barely scratched the surface before things took a TURN. He had two little moments in this ep that made my heart break for him a little: (1) When he says to Fabian, “If I die, I just come back a little bit worse but, if you die, you’re stuck down here with me.” and (2) when Fabian kills him and Bill grabs his soul and is like, “You know it’s gonna cost you X gold to revive you,” and he sighs and says, “Put it on my tab I suppose.” Like, I know he spent all ep trying to kill Fabian but I can’t help but be like, poor guy. He just has this pathos in his haplessness. I’m surprised Fabian didn’t make more of an effort to connect with him instead of being like, kind of like, “I will throw hands if I must.” Talking is a free action my dude. Anyway, I would love to see Brennan’s DM notes for this guy.

Lou was really doing some expert D&D with all the second winding and bonus actioning and burning spell slots for extra damage he was doing. He was like, “My initiative is trash so I have to do approximately a million damage per turn.”

Lol at Ayda asking if it’s weird to talk about sex stuff in front of friends in a group that involves both Kristen and Adaine.

Fig wishing she could do something cool in front of Ayda as if Ayda didn’t try to flood Hell on her behalf last week. My girl. You’ve already locked that down.

Not really an issue that’s we’ll run across during the run of FH but tieflings live 20-40 years longer than humans according to the official D&D lore. So lets say Fig lives to be 120 years old. And let’s say she sticks with her high school girlfriend and marries her. It’s possible they die at around the same time and then Ayda has to Deal With That in her next life but that’s not what I’m interested in. What happens if you’re a full elderly woman and your partner phoenixes into a child? What are the ethics of that? How do you deal with that? Chronomancy?

The horrified, “Love wins!” from Daybreak.

Is there a reason the viewing room Riz was in had thrones in it or is Hell just very about the ~aesthetic~

Every time a DM asks for a HP total, my entire being clenches in prep for a Power Word Kill.

“I’m gonna need a Dexter--”/”Counterspell.”

“You guys murdered me too but we hashed it out.”

I totally forgot that the Bad Kids lied that Ragh had shat his pants until the moment Adaine was saying it this episode. Freshman Year was WILD.

Also, just wanna take a second to talk about the elevation of Ragh from this side-note bully to a fully fledged, likeable character with depth and and an arc and gay spit. D&D is crazy.

Summoning Boggy via Bloody Mary is such a delightful image.

So, Kalina is the one that led Riz down the path that led to him finding out Pok is an Undercover Angel (!!!), which means one of three things: (1) She knew but miscalculated hard, (2) she didn’t know and made a different but also big miscalculation, (3) she did know and she’s doing some kind of 4-D chess thing we don’t know about yet.

Ayda hitting Fabian with a portent and then swooping in and saving Adaine. So clutch. What a good NPC to befriend.

Speaking of, I think we all kinda figured, but Brennan officially said on Twitter or the Discord (I don’t remember which) that Ayda is autistic. Like, I was pretty sure but I didn’t wanna assume.

Lol at the absolute lack of respect Kalvaxus got in this episode.

Pok as an Undercover Angel is SO GOOD. Like, I didn’t think he was really bad for a second but I never could have guessed he was an UNDERCOVER ANGEL. That’s such a dope combination of words. Undercover Angel (which my computer keeps trying to correct to undercover agent which isn’t wrong to be fair). Man. I love this. I love this for me and I love this for Riz. Riz deserves this. After so much crap in his life and so many mind games from Kalina and all this turmoil, he deserves to know that not only is his dad a good person who loved/loves him, he’s SO good that he’s an ANGEL and he was such a good spy in life he still is a secret agent in death. God, what a reveal. I can’t believe Riz got Spy Kids-ed TWICE by the same parent. Can’t wait to hear what exactly is going on with him.

Wait, what’s goblin heaven like? Which god is sanctioning this? Who is he working for exactly?

This episode, Kristen and Gorgug rolled 1 Nat 20 each, while Riz, Fabian, and Brennan each got 2. On the flipside, Adaine got 2 Nat 1’s, Fig and Fabian each rolled 1 that was cancelled, and Riz rolled 1 (in addition, Murph rolled two more which were lair actions and one of which was cancelled by a luck point so they don’t really count but it was very funny so I wanted to note it).

#fantasy high #fantasy high live #fantasy high spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 spoilers #wow a recap that isn't a million pages for once #turns out I can do it

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thecosmicsen · 4 years ago

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✮ ┆ D-6 COUNTDOWN TO INÉS’ BIRTHDAY WITH @shesin

he stares down at the muted twinkling of the metal band situated on his ring finger, thumbing idly at the glimmers that catch the cosy dim lights of the bar. the incandescence of fidelity. once the lustre used to spark a slew of comforting warm trickles of utmost bliss that would curl his toes from the simple happiness he would gain from observing the proof of his lifelong ardent dedication to the one woman who he truly loves with all his aching heart. but now he cannot say the same anymore as the dreamy euphoria has now dissolved into a slush of bitter resentment of what he perceives to be the worst betrayal to their adoringly spoken vows.

another sip of his bourbon on the rocks is an unconscious reminiscence to what his treacherous love enjoys indulging herself for a choice of drink. there is some woman perched besides him on one of the stools at the bar but he hasn’t taken a glimpse of her face yet despite the fact that she is relentless with her pitiful attempts of sultry engagement. you’re not Inés. you never could nor ever will be her. she is on a different level to you all. please shut the fuck up.

he continues to thumb and thumb at his ring, his eyes flitting half-closed as he sharply inhales the aromatic scents of the bourbon. it all reminds him of her. no matter what he fanatically throws himself into to at least get out of his mind for a few minutes, her presence refuses to leave. she has leeched her roots and implanted them far too deep in his heart that all he can do is sit at this bar, close his eyes, take in the earthy warm scents of vanilla and butterscotch that tugs on the strings of his heart with a gory twist of resentment that oozes out all his incubated hate towards her. what have you done to me ? she has made sure that all his mental fixation remains solely on her and only her. it drives him insane, his knuckles whitening as his grip tightens fiercely around his glass, teeth gritting in nostalgic agitation as the fog of Inés Inés Inés wholly engulfs his system. this is the drink she likes take in that one crystallised whiskey tumbler she sets aside for the times they relax together in the bath together with. these are the honeyed hints of what tastes off her skin with such tantalising allure. this is all Inés Inés Inés.

“ what is she like ? ” is the one question from the incessant woman sitting next to him that pierces through his whimsical despise-tinged recollections of the woman who has destroyed him worse than any of his family members did to him. he will make her pay for it, that is for certain. if she thinks she can shovel out his presence in her life, she is about to become sorely disappointed. he has always told her this before, he is here to stay by her side and never leave.

without any disruption to his spiteful revenge fantasies that begin to manifest in a lustful storm of appeasement, his gaze remains on the ever glimmering wedding ring band on his finger and how painstakingly perfect it naturally looks to be placed there. another excruciating stab to his heart elicits an imperceptible flinch from him as he wonders what she did with her wedding ring yet.

“ she is unlike any other, ” he smugly narrates to the ever curious female although the metallic tang of blood pools in his mouth as he bites down on his tongue in vicious spite to be admitting such a thing. “ a fucking nightmare. a daydream. all the clichés of that paradox can be applied to her. she is someone you aspire to be but you know that you will never even be able to glimpse the unreachable level she is at. she can make you feel like you don’t mean shit to her but you will try your best to appeal to her with your redeeming qualities anyway. she creates a new set of conduct and morals in you. she isn’t untouchable though. she is here. she is present. everyone follows her on social media. I can reach out to her. I can touch her if she wants it. but she is a demon and makes no attempt to hide it. she will rub your face into dirt and then make you lick it clean off her shoes. you will have the illusion that you managed to secure her emotional intimacy and trust for you that you begin to think that you know the emotions surfacing to her eyes. when she is deep in thoughts, calculating and observing you, you won’t be able to stop staring at her lips. she has a habit of licking over her teeth and folding her arms when she is examining you — taking amusement from whatever you said or did. over time, if she lets you, you will get to know all her quirks. believe that you got touch and gently bring out her emotionally attuned functions. but in the end, you forget that she is a demon. she hunts prey for fun. she will get countries starting world war three over her just because she feels a little bored and wants to purposefully start shit as long as it doesn’t affect her wealth and assets too much. lures you in with a false sense of security. brings along her demon boytoy because she doesn’t know how to commit to the one person who is willing to accept every part of her. she is smart. she knows how to play her games. she is a menace to the fabric of society by doing whatever the fuck she wants without any consequences. ”

willing himself to take another deep breath, the action merely comforting and placebo from the mere habit of doing so, he takes another sip of his bourbon with a forlorn sigh mingling with an uttered groan of annoyance. a twisted smile upturns the corners of his lips, his heart dropping to his stomach as he whispers out, a few syllables cracking under his distressed state of mind. “ but what do you do when you find out that this demon also gave birth to two of your baby boys who are the most beautiful ones to ever exist ? this woman who lives to hurt managed to mother my children with so much love. where is her love ? I can’t see it for me. I can see it in our beautiful baby’s eyes that light up when they see their mother. I can see it lining their bodies with their fat rolls. how they wiggle in happiness when she comes into their view. she loves them but she doesn’t love me. is it so wrong of me for wanting to spend time with my own boys ? she drives me insane . . . I love her and I fucking hate her with my entire heart. she is the only one who owns me and is allowed to have me. Min Inhye. that is who she is. the love of my life. the mother of my children. my fucking downfall. ”

he spits out the last few words with utmost venom before he aggressively chugs down the rest of his bourbon, the liquid scorching his already parched throat in the process but he pays no mind to it. slamming the glass back down on the counter, he glances down at his ring once again. something stirs within him, a pathetic sense of all I want is her and to take me back. but now she has his sworn enemy by her side now and that is something he cannot allow. he will not lose this fight. his heart craves for respite and reconciliation. is it really too late to hope for that still ? but he remembers how she gave birth to their gorgeous baby boys all on her own, already damning their life without a stable father figure that he knows he can be. he remembers how she has so cruelly parted him from his own children without a single word of his say in this matter. he remembers how she had the nerve to attempt to talk him down the moment he witnessed with his own eyes with how that fucking demon boytoy of hers just casually strolled in her living room to start playing with his babies. the babies that are supposed to be carrying down the Ahn family name. his baby boys, the ones he always dreamt about having when the blood was still flowing through his veins. she took it all away from him.

he yanks the wedding ring off.

finally, he looks up to observe the face of the woman who provoked his bitter tangent about Inés. you don’t look like Inés. he eyes her distastefully from head to toe, his mind automatically distinguishing her with repulsion on all the points that separate her likeliness to Inés. no, he needs someone like her. it will make it easier for him. after all, why should he fuck someone who is five foot three with fried split ends ? he gives a curt dismissal of disinterest before moving on. it has to be someone like Inés with the same gorgeous raven locks, the amber hues of her eyes, the tapered ends of her canines, the proud impressive lifted back slope of her shoulders, the legs that go on for days . . .

where is she ?

#I'm....... so sorry #I just love how I start this off with hella angst #also for those who may be reading #THIS IS NOT MAIN VERSE JAEWOO #pls disregard this .#this is an angst verse I made up exclusively with Nas and uhh yeah #he isn't like this cRIES #haha anyway happy early birthday Inés!! :))#shesin #* : ✮ ┆ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑑𝑎𝑟𝑘 𝑒𝑦𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑢𝑙𝑙 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑎𝑟𝑠𝑒 𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑜𝑓 ℎ𝑜𝑛𝑒𝑦 (𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠).#tw // infidelity

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aftermathdb · 5 years ago

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DEATH BATTLE review: All Might vs. Might Guy

First Atlantis^2, then Widow^2, then Marvel^2, then ONE^2, and now Might^2.

(Holy Hell! I have exactly 100 screenshots for this episode!)

All Might′s Preview.

We open on a world where superpowers are common.

A world where schools are everywhere so that people can harness their powers.

These “Quirks” are varied, and some are… not that great.

But one aspiring hero would rise up to be the greatest hero around. Toshinori Yagi, who was given the greatest Quirk of all: One for All.

The hosts go over how badass this Quirk is. But more specifically how it’s the Quirk that can be passed down to other users.

Toshinori got his from Nana Shimura, and he became the ever-smiling All Might.

All Might keeps that smile on his face to ensure that everyone around him feels safe.

Thanks to All Might’s Quirk, he’s got everything from Super Strength, speed, stamina, and durability.

Aside from Boomstick’s apparent ability to manifest seafood, the hosts go over All Might‘s main powerset.

Interestingly enough, All Might’s tendency to name his moves after the US is kinda accurate.

For example, the Texas Smash and Oklahoma Smash both create forms of tornadoes. And guess what states are smack-dab in the way of those things?

But All Might can combine those States together in one extremely powerful attack: The United States of Smash. PLUS ULTRA!

The power of the USoS is actually quantifiable. Given the size of the storm compared to the buildings around it, the force would be over 11,000 tons of TNT.

All Might can also move at speed around Mach 29.

Now, here’s the thing: All Might’s doing a lot of this with a handicap. So these moves are still impressive. Since DEATH BATTLE takes a look at these characters in their prime, those are the stats that would be used. In his hayday, All Might would be 60 times more powerful.

He’s on par with many a fighter, like Nomu, whom he had punched 300 times in ten seconds.

Even when crippled, All Might’s proven exactly why he’s been the number one hero for years.

Might Guy′s Preview.

In the world of Naruto, there exists schools that train the best Ninjas around. These schools would essentially teach Ninjutsu and Genjutsu, or in Boomstick’s terms, Ninja Magic.

But one ninja doesn’t really have that. Rock Lee was never really that good at the whole “Ninja Magic” thing, so when he found a mentor, it was a good thing for him.

Enter: Might Guy.

Despite not having that great of skill when compared to the other guys, Might Guy and his dad opted to focus on one thing and become the undisputed master of it:

Punching people (Thanks for the description there, Boomstick).

Strong Fist is a subset of Taijutsu, or hand-to-hand combat. A hard martial art that is focused on breaking the bones of the opponent.

Only the toughest people can really use Strong Fist according to the hosts, and it comes with it’s own set of skills.

But it’s a really big double-edged sword.

And we get more into that double-edged sword by an animated segment.

Regardless, the technique Guy and Duy developed was the Eight Gates.

With these Gates, they can unlock a whole slew of crazy abilities by way of removing limits on the body. From mental inhibitions, to physical limitations.

Some of these Gates are safe to use. Numbers 1-3 are good to go, but once you go past that, you’re in trouble.

At Gate numero six, Guy moves so fast that his fists ignite the air around him and can be used as projectiles.

In order to ignite the Hydrogen in the air, Guy’s swinging at speeds at 40000 km/h.

For reference, that’s nearly five times as fast as the X-15 Rocket Jet, the fastest man-made jet that has been made so far.

Gate Seven is still relatively safe for Guy, according to the hosts, but the final Gate is a fatal attack.

That’s not some sort of “Battle Aura” you’re seeing around Guy, that’s his blood burning. With this, he can use… “Night Guy.”

Yeah, I’m a little unimpressed too.

This form was able to decimate Madara. You should know that guy by now. He’s the deadly villain that could take on Naruto and easily defeat him in base mode.

Naruto’s super modes are definately better that Guy’s best mode, but it’s also way better than Jiraya’s best move.

Guy is also a match for Kakashi, who could catch lightning.

Kakashi’s speed clocks in at around 763000 m/s, so Guy is definitely in that ballpark.

And with all the feats he has, he’s proven to be a badass through and through. It takes a lot to bring down this Mighty Guy.

… Yeah, the end quote doesn’t exactly inspire greatness, but eh, it’s probably iconic (Really sorry, not a Naruto fan).

The Battle Itself.

Torrian is back to head this project, All Might will be voiced by Kaiji Tang, while All Might was voiced by a guy named “Dick Splitter” (No, I’m not making that up). "Mighty” by both Brandon Yates and Therewolf sprite artist (If there are any), and audio lead by Chris Kokkinos.

Our fight starts with Guy sitting in a park, reading a bit of Manga. For those eagle-eyed viewers, you’ll notiice that he’s reading a My Hero Academia book. I’ve circled it for you.

Anyways, All Might drops in and does his dramatic enterance. After geeking out, Guy challenges him to…

An ARM WRESTLING CONTEST!

Which All Might readily accepts.

I want to go on record and say that this initial explosion is in essence, them just starting.

And can I also point out the absurdity in the ground being cratered before the table? Like what is that table made of?- Adamantium?

Well, my accusation is unlikely. The table breaks, and then the two duke it out. Not out of jealousy or because one of them accused the other of sabotaging the contest, but because they’re just that hammy.

So with the fight underway, these two go at it. It’s readily clear that All Might has the edge up in strength over Base Guy, but Guy is certainly faster given how often he dodges the attacks that All Might dishes out.

He even gets a perfect 10 on his dodging!

I want it to be known that Might Guy actually dodged this attack. He clearly has the speed advantage.

And these two just keep complimenting each other! Like, come on! Who am I supposed to root for here?

Anyways, Guy opens his Sixth Gate, which gives him an edge up over All Might.

And you want to know what’s better than a beam struggle?- A Barrage attack struggle.

What’s better than that?

When the barrages are fire vs wind!

They make an explosion that brings Guy to the ground, and he opens the Seventh Gate.

He unleashes his Daytime Tiger, and actually puts All Might on the defensive.

Here’s my question: How is it that all that power is being condensed in that one park? Those buildings should have destableized by now!

Anyways, Finishing Blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Might Guy gets impaled! Well, it was a good run, and he certainly put up quite the fight…

And he’s also not done yet. We still have one more Gate.

REAL finishing blow iin

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

You gotta wonder what the report by the authorities and news is going to be like.

Verdict + Explanation.

So, right off the bat, this fight actually is close. Guy’s Gates were really the big thing that was letting him keep up with All Might and his speed was certainly nothing to sneeze at.

Now, As for All Might, since DEATH BATTLE was looking at him in his prime, they had to scale accordingly.

All Might himself claimed that a fight he finished in 300 punches could have been done in 5. So that means that the All Might that is being used is 60 times stronger.

Take this feat for example, All Might’s foe Gigantomachia, once blew a hole through the mountain. Adding in the X60 multiplier, and All Might’s batting in the 154.8 Gigaton range.

However, Guy is still way faster, add in his better training and more versatile arsenal, Might Guy just needed to hit All Might harder than All Might could hit him.

All Might’s feat of changing the weather clocks in at about 1462 Gigatons of TNT.

Now, that’s impressive and all, but Guy hasn’t really shown his full power.

So we have to compare him to another person that we’ve seen all too many times before: Naruto.

Now remember: Base Naruto < Madara, and Night Guy > Madara.

As we’ve seen all too many times before, Naruto’s Base Chakra was enough to blow a hole through the moon.

How much force is that?

About 480 Petatons of TNT.

How much is a Petaton?

A million Gigatons. Simply put All Might > Might Guy, but Night Guy > All Might. Sure, Guy goes down not too long after using the attack, but he wins in the moment, and that’s what matters.

The winner is Might Guy.

Overall impression.

I came into this thinking “This feels more like season premiere material.” Something to hype up the crowd for the upcoming season. And I was right in the absolute most wrong sense of the word. The fight is spectacular, and it makes me want to read up on MHA. In all honesty, if this were a season premiere, everything after it would feel boring in comparison.

Now, admittedly, this was basically just a fistfight. A battle of who could punch harder than the other guy. Which isn’t very exciting on it’s own, but is still interesting given the characters.

Plus, given that no sane parent would ever give their kid the name “Richard” if their last name was “Splitter” I’m going to take a shot in the dark and say that this is the official VA for Guy.

I’m not going to link to his twitter, I’d rather he not get in trouble, but it’s still pretty cool.

Then again, my dad knew a guy named “Richard Head” so I guess the name “Dick Splitter” isn’t that farfetched. Who knows, maybe this is a real name.

Tangent aside, this battle was epic in all sense of the word. I’m sure there are a lot of references that I missed because of my lack of knowledge on these two, but it was a joy to see, and the music is awesome. Definitely looking forward to downloading it.

9.6/10.

Next Time…

I’m calling…

… Well shit. I don’t know what to call. But I recognize Miles Morales, Beerus, and Danny Phantom, so who knows?

Though the end colors for the start of Season 7 makes me think of… Harley Quinn.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

A DEATH BATTLE.

#Death Battle #Deathbattle #review

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livable4all · 5 years ago

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What is rich-washing?

INTRODUCTION

What is rich-washing? It is when cultural products and advertising make it seem like everyone is rich.

It's similar to whitewashing, where a problem is covered up and made to seem fine, when it is not; or Hollywood whitewashing, where white actors take roles over people of colour; or activist whitewashing, where white activists are spotlighted over people of colour; or greenwashing, where things are made to seem environmentally good, when they are not.

Much has been written about the media biases regarding sexism, racism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, harmful depictions of mental illness, and other biases that stereotype or denigrate specific groups of people. However, not as much has been written about classism in North American media and entertainment.

Rich-washing is a type of classism, but it is much more than that.

Rich-washing completely flips the facts: in the real world, there’s a huge majority of financially precarious people at the bottom and a tiny minority at the top.

And for those at the very top in the U.S., their wealth is growing.

Rich-washing takes the bulk of people on the planet and makes them disappear –– they are over-looked, glossed over, cropped out of the picture, written out of the story.

Rich-washing is gas-lighting on a grand scale. It is so wide-spread that it is almost invisible. Like the dish soap ad used to say, we’re soaking in it.

Because it is such a blatant misrepresentation of the world, rich-washing has many harmful effects on people and the planet. It is important to expose this type of propaganda to reduce its harm.

However, the answer is not to change entertainment to only reflect social reality. No, this is not a call for censorship, but to point out how pop-culture is currently censored by those who hold the purse strings. Ultimately, the answer is to change our social reality to make it less harsh and more livable for everyone. More on this at the end.

Pop-culture is being censored by those who hold the purse strings

Most people are not rich but you’d never know that in today’s 21st century North American TV shows, movies, print media, social media and especially advertisements. (For whatever reason, entertainment in the UK has more social realism and much less rich-washing.)

Images of the rich and super-rich have come to dominate everything in a massive cultural mono-crop of shining hair shining teeth shining cars and shining homes filled with shining gadgets.

Yes, there are exceptions (see end). However, these exceptions are mostly “drowned in a sea of irrelevance” (as Aldous Huxley said).

Ursula Franklin called this general effect “censorship by stuffing”. Specifically with rich-washing, the ‘rich’ images are so numerous that they obliterate every other view of society.

“It is all too easy to confuse the sheer quantity of media with diversity of viewpoint. We do not notice that essentially the same messages are being repeated.” –– Mediaspeak, 1983

Get out the corporate pressure-washer, aim it at the public, turn it on max.

Or as Bertolt Brecht said: “The powerful of the earth create the poor but they cannot bear to look at them.”

Advertisers also don’t like it when the poor look at each other.

“In the 1960s... CBS dropped a number of popular prime-time shows such as ‘The Beverly Hillbillies’ and ‘Andy Griffith’ because they attracted the wrong audience –– elderly, low income, and rural viewers. Advertisers had become keen on young, affluent urbanites…” ––Social Communication in Advertising, 1986

One of the worst things rich-washing does is make people think they are in a minority when in fact they are a huge majority.

Most Americans, for example, live paycheck-to-paycheck according to Forbes.

Rich-washing takes an enormous psychological toll because it creates the idea that lack of income is some kind of personal failing, rather than a systemic economic failing that affects many, many people. That’s one reason why unemployment is a huge factor in suicides.

“When the money isn’t there... feelings of deprivation, personal failure, and deep psychic pain result. In a culture where consuming means so much, not having money is a profound social disability.” ––Juliet Schor, The Overspent American,1999

Rich-washing also creates social solidarity and affinity with the rich, since proximity creates affinity.

People get used to seeing things from the point of view of the rich and may also take on the idea that their own riches are just around the corner. This has political implications (more on that below).

In addition, it’s common for negative characteristics to be attached to people who are poor.

Laziness, criminality, stupidity, and lack of morals, are often characteristics attributed to fictional poor people. This has real world consequences.

Film critic Roger Ebert famously said that movies create empathy.

“...the movies are like a machine that generates empathy. It lets you understand a little bit more about different hopes, aspirations, dreams and fears. It helps us to identify with the people who are sharing this journey with us."

While many movies have indeed had a positive effect on society because of this empathy effect, entertainment products can also empower negative stereotypes. And when it comes to the war on the poor, Hollywood most definitely is not on the side of the poor.

“In a lot of films, especially coming out of Hollywood, less fortunate families are portrayed as imbeciles.” ––Chris Stuckmann, movie review of Parasite, Nov. 6, 2019

“It’s a central assumption of our pop-culture that people who have nice shit are good, and people in poverty are bad.” ––Cracked Podcast, “Why pop-culture hates poor people” 2015-03-02

“There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” ––Warren Buffet, quoted in Plutocrats by Chrystia Freeland, 2012

With all the vilification and humiliation of poor people in pop-culture, who would want to identify with the poor and not the rich? Who would want to identify with the economic losers and not the economic winners?

“…it is the general policy of advertisers to glamorize their products, the people who buy them, and the whole American and economic scene.” ––Elmer Rice, quoted in Mediaspeak, 1983

Advertisements are highly polished rich-washing because companies need their products associated with winners not losers.

But rich-washing sells more than just consumer products.

Rich-washing sells political ideas.

Rich-washing reinforces policies and laws that benefit those at the top of the income pyramid. So it is not surprising when we learn that income inequality and wealth concentration have been getting worse.

Income inequality and wealth concentration in the U.S. increasing since 1980s.

“Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of the world’s biggest hedge fund, says income inequality in the U.S. has become so dire that if he were in the White House, he would declare it a national emergency.” Barron’s, 2019

Instead of looking at the big picture and wondering why is it that so many people are poor, people assume or are told that it is their own fault if they are poor. People point fingers at themselves, at other poor people (lateral violence), but almost never up at the top.

“If there was ever a system which enchanted its subjects with dreams (of freedom, of how your success depends on yourself, of the run of luck which is just around the corner, of unconstrained pleasures…), then it is capitalism.” ––Slavoj Zizek, First as Tragedy, Then as Farce, 2009

This type of deflection ––away from the rich and scapegoating the poor–– was also behind the witch-burning craze of centuries ago.

Anthropologist Marvin Harris in his book on “the Riddles of Culture” noted:

“the principal result of the witch-hunt system (aside from charred bodies) was that the poor came to believe that they were being victimized by witches and devils instead of princes and popes.” ––Mavin Harris, Cows, Pigs, Wars and Witches, 1975

It turns out that if you get people fearful of imaginary things and suspicious of their neighbours, they are less likely to join together in a peasant revolt and storm the castle, pitchforks in hand.

“It is from us and our labour that everything comes, with which They maintain Their pomp [!]” John Ball of the violent Peasant Revolt of 1381

When it comes to numbers, it should be obvious that the one percenters at the top have a precarious hold on power.

“Why has the response to rising inequality been a drive to reduce taxes on the rich? ... It’s not a simple matter of rich people voting themselves a better deal: there just aren’t enough of them.” ––Paul Krugman, The Great Unraveling, 2003

Rich-washing protects the status-quo by reinforcing the idea that most people are rich, and if you are not, it is your own fault. Rich-washing thus deepens poverty and enlarges the holdings of the super-wealthy.

Rich-washing can also push people into unhealthy behaviours –– everything from compulsive shopping and debt, to self-medicating, and even crime.

As it turns out, when people started watching TV in America in the 1950s, a particular type of crime suddenly rose: larceny (theft of private property). Researchers attributed the increase in larceny to feelings of “relative deprivation and frustration” and that upper- and middle class lifestyles were “overwhelmingly portrayed” on TV. (Impact of the introduction of television on crime in the United States, 1982, noted in Mediaspeak, 1983)

Another troubling by-product of rich-washing is how people become very vulnerable to scams and schemes.

“We are no longer ‘family’ we are ‘warm prospects.’ ––anonymous reviewer of False Profits, 2015

People want to believe the promises of all kinds of scammers offering them the American Dream. (Check out Season 1 of The Dream podcast). Because of the shame and pain of being poor, because of being an outcast from the perceived norm of upper-middle class consumption, people are desperate to get some dignity and hope back. Many women get into recruitment marketing for “the sense of community, friendship, and purpose that comes with being a vendor.”

However, less than one percent of Multi-Level Marketing participants make a profit.

“Failure and loss rates for MLMs are not comparable with legitimate small businesses, which have been found to be profitable for 39% over the lifetime of the business; whereas less than 1% of MLM participants profit. MLM makes even gambling look like a safe bet in comparison.” (PDF) John M. Taylor, 2011 Consumer Awareness Institute paper at FTC.gov.

Ironically, the stories of big-time con artists and scammers have become popular entertainment themselves and are the subject of many documentaries, movies and podcasts.

Finally, the biggest harm from rich-washing is to the environment ––our biosphere upon which all life depends.

“Modern economies expand, but the ecosystems that provide for them do not.” ––Steven Stoll, The Great Delusion, 2008

Mass consumption is a requirement of the current economic growth model and rich-washing helps keep it all going. So we end up with things like ‘fast fashion’, disposable everything, and planned obsolescence.

“Left unconstrained by other forces, the free-market system is one of the most restless, destructive arrangements ever contrived ––tearing down and building up, obsoleting last year’s fashions and praising this year’s, ... and scheming always to reduce the arts and sciences to sycophancy. None of which is a secret...” ––Thomas Frank, The Wrecking Crew, 2008

Rich-washing irony ––who is ruining the environment: rich or poor?

“World's richest 10% produce half of global carbon emissions, says Oxfam” ––Guardian, 2015

Rich-washing has another sadistic effect on low income people’s mental health. The world, it seems, is waking up to the potentially catastrophic harm being inflicted on the environment. And yet poor people are still made to feel like pieces of shit, even though they consume the least and do the least harm to the planet. So really... f*ck off with your spectacle of sparkling gold-plated glorification of the wealthy, please.

Three reasons for rich-washing

As previously mentioned, one reason for rich-washing is that corporations want their advertisements to reach higher income viewers. Another reason for rich-washing is for political propaganda: it protects the status quo by pushing the idea that everyone is mostly rich, and if you are poor, it is your own fault.

A third reason for rich-washing is that media creators, like everyone else, need to survive financially. Creators need to attract viewers. In most cases, this has led to an overwhelming focus on the rich and famous.

“Sponsors prefer beautiful people in mouth-watering decor, to convey what it means to climb the socio-economic ladder...” ––Mediaspeak, 1983

Today, due to an increasingly crowded arena and variety of cultural products, this is a bigger challenge than ever before. What’s going to get people’s attention? What’s going to be popular escapism? Very often this will be flashy settings, fancy costumes, a focus on the wealthy or the royal. Just how many shows about royalty do we need? Never too many apparently.

And when a story goes for gritty settings and characters, this usually means crime, jolting action and high conflict.

As Jerry Mander wrote in his now ancient 1977 book about television, things like violence, death, jealously, lust, materialism, conflict, the loud, the bizarre, the shocking and the superficial are easier to depict on television than their quiet, cooperative, and nuanced opposites. He laments that this is the type of world that TV “inevitably transmits”. No wonder he argued for the elimination of television.

(However, it should be noted that people used to worry about bad effects from “penny dreadfuls” and pocket-books, although Mander points out that watching TV puts people in a passive state, but reading does not.)

David Simon, creator of The Wire, one of the most critically acclaimed TV series ever made, had this to say about the impact of advertising on media:

“And how exactly do we put Visa-wielding consumers in a buying mood when they are being reminded of how many of their countrymen - black, white and brown - have been shrugged aside by the march of unrestrained bottom-line capitalism?” ––David Simon, The Wire, Truth Be Told (book), 2009, HBO

(Read more about The Wire below, under “Exceptions”)

Another irony about media rich-washing…

Low income people often consume a lot of escapist media because it is a cheap and easy way to get a break from the health-ruining, cortisol-producing daily grind of life on poverty incomes. Fictional and fantastical worlds are often the only affordable escape for those of meagre means. Thus, it is not surprising when people get an intense attachment to their favourite entertainment if it provides them with stress release, comfort and meaning.

“… a 21-year-old in Michigan, finds it easier to get excited about playing games than his part-time job making sandwiches…” ––Andrew Yang, The War on Normal People, 2018

The opening scene of the movie Ready Player One envisions an extreme dystopian version of this. Rickety trailers in squalid surroundings are stacked sky high. Those living inside wear virtual reality goggles to escape from their over-crowded lives into limitless virtual worlds.

It’s important to note that escapism as a form of coping with stress and trauma has its place. The answer is not to take away people’s beloved forms of escapism. (E.g. the excellent book by Raziel Reid “When Everything Feels Like the Movies”.) The answer is for humanity to strive to create a healthier and less stressful world where people don’t feel such a tremendous need to escape from reality.

But you don’t need to watch dystopian movies to see that public spaces are shrinking and becoming more unlivable. Even city benches are designed to be a miserable experience. (You know. To solve homelessness of course.) It is no wonder people stare into their screens like never before. We are ruining the public sphere and forcing people into private spaces where the goodness or badness of those places is determined by how much money you have.

The bright glare of rich-washing might be dimming

“Am I alone in being disgusted by excessive wealth? It seems like a moral failing rather than something to celebrate or aspire to.” ––Nigel Warburton Philosophybites (twitter), January 19, 2020

In 2019 there were three movies that ripped the shiny bandaid of rich-washing propaganda off the reality of mass income inequality: Jordan Peele’s US, Bong Joon-Ho’s Parasite, and the controversial Joker... a character study only remotely related to the comic book story.

There’s been much written and spoken about these movies already. Suffice to say that poverty and the underclasses jump out of the screen in unexpected ways and the wealthy are not shown with shining virtuous haloes.

Even the super-rich (in real life) are starting to notice the current economic system is a disaster:

“At least a dozen billionaires have made public statements that call for the super-rich to pay more in taxes.” Forbes, Oct. 15, 2019

Meanwhile, support for a universal income benefit is spreading rapidly. (Thanks in no small part to Andrew Yang.) People are calling bullshit on the idea that there can ever be a living wage job for everyone who needs one. People are also calling bullshit on the idea that only paid work is real work. There’s a huge constituency of people who provide unpaid care for their loved ones. These unpaid carers have been diminished and ignored for far too long by both the political right (who are full of cheap platitudes about ‘the family’) and the political left (who are full of out-dated platitudes about ‘the workers’).

People are also calling bullshit on poverty itself since it’s obvious that there is more than enough for everyone on the planet to live with dignity and health. There is no reason for poverty to exist at all ––other than out-of-control greed and massive economic lies. Both of which are propped up by rich-washing.

Because of the increasingly obvious and growing gap between the haves and have-nots, cultural products might finally be moving away from rich-washing to something similar to what Brecht brought to the theatre 100 years ago:

“...the higher world of upper class sentiments is presented from the ruthless viewpoint of the common people.” ––Martin Esslin on Brecht, 1959

Rich-washing erases the vast swath of humanity from seeing any dignified reflection of themselves. It’s time to identify this assault on regular people.

To quote the Vancouver poet Bud Osborn*:

“north america tellin lies in our head make you feel like shit better off dead so most days now I say shout shout for joy shout for love shout for you shout for us shout down this system puts our souls in prison say shout for life shout with our last breath shout fuck this north american culture of death shout here we are amazingly alive against long odds left for dead shoutin this death culture dancin this death culture out of our heads”

*Bud Osborne 1947-2014, from Amazingly Alive and Other Poems, Vancouver, BC, 1997, Independent release, Lonesome Monsters

TO SUMMARIZE...

Here’s the thing. Public spaces are becoming increasingly harsh. Jobs and incomes are ever more unsteady, unpredictable and unlivable. People’s anxiety is on the rise. Healthy ways to relieve stress are few if you are broke. So people turn to entertainment as a form of escape. But this subjects them to rich-washing which is harmful to individuals, to society, and the environment.

Entertainment and advertising media have been teaching people that it is ok to hate, denigrate, or laugh at people in poverty. In addition, it has been teaching people who experience poverty to blame themselves, or even hate themselves.

“Propaganda offers him an object of hatred, for all propaganda is aimed at an enemy. And the hatred it offers him is not shameful, even hatred that he must hide, but a legitimate hatred, which he can justly feel.” ––Jacques Ellul, Propaganda, 1962

It is important to expose this type of propaganda to reduce its harm.

However, the answer is not to change entertainment to only reflect social reality. The answer is to change our reality so it is not so harsh for so many people.

Art can’t be censored. But it can be bent by those who hold the purse strings for their own purposes.

There is no reason for poverty to exist. Letting poverty exist is the costliest, stupidest and most tragic thing society can do. As described in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, people first need to eat, we need shelter, we need health care, we need a material foundation before we can hope to have healthy, happy life. When people struggle to meet physical needs, they can’t pursue happiness needs. Or to put it another way:

“Even honest folk may act like sinners, unless they've had their customary dinners” (“How to Survive” from Threepenny Opera)

Ending poverty with a universal income benefit (aka Freedom Dividend, Guaranteed Livable income, Universal Basic Income ) is the most affordable and doable solution for people and the planet. It is our best bet to create a livable economy, a livable natural environment, and a livable social and cultural environment for humans.

In a world with income security for all, we might find our entertainment would drastically change for the better. Advertisers would no longer dominate entertainment. Creators would have more freedom to create. People would no longer seek so much escapism.

Of course, we will not have utopia ––nor should we try to create a utopia. But at least we would not be flinging ourselves into a certain dystopian future because we think there’s no other choice.

A livable income for everyone gives us a choice. #Livable4all - now- for people and the planet.

***

But wait! There’s more....

***

EXTRA SECTION 1: FAKE POVERTY TROPES

Fake poverty tropes in popular culture are different than exceptions to rich-washing (see examples next section). They are not. They are just story-telling short-cuts. They can be fun escapist entertainment, but they are ultimately rich-washing wolves in sheep’s (cheap) clothing.

i) Rags-to-riches: When someone starts poor and ends up rich. In the past, these tales were called Horatio Alger stories, where hard work and honesty bring success to the hero. A sub-genre of this trope is the criminal rags-to-riches story. Riches are won through criminality, violence, hustles, or scams. This usually ends badly for the anti-heroe(s). However, usually not before a display of luxurious settings and wardrobes. Or in some shows, just piles and piles of cash, gold, jewels, etc.

ii) How can they afford that?: This is when people with very marginal jobs and incomes somehow have homes and/or lifestyles that would be impossible with a similar income in real life. These are the kind of TV shows that leaves the audience wondering: “What? how can they afford that?”

iii) Rich Relations: This is when financially poor characters live on the periphery of rich people. These characters might be broke and in debt, but they have close family or friends who are very well-off. Again, even though the main character might be ‘skins’, the audience is shown some fancy settings and aspirational fashion.

iv) Magic Money Wand: This is when the poverty problems of the hero are magically solved when the hero gets a sudden windfall of money from a wealthy family member, friend, mysterious benefactor, or by winning something.

EXTRA SECTON 2: RECENT EXCEPTIONS TO RICH-WASHING

There are a few notable exceptions to rich-washing described here. Note: UK productions (except for one) are not included because, for whatever reason, the UK has an abundance of TV shows and films from a working class perspective. (See also the films of Ken Loach and Tony Garnett.)

The Wire began in 2002, was only 5 seasons, and is now considered a masterpiece of television. One reviewer describes it as being about “post-industrial collapse” and “institutional dysfunction” in an American city (Baltimore). Sounds bleak, but it was rare social realism with unconventional heroes and story-telling. It had low ratings at first. Apparently, showing that the “American Dream was dead” did not catch on right away. However, HBO, which relies on subscriptions, not advertising, was willing to “simply let it be” said creator, David Simon. He also describes just how much the mass media has failed America’s disenfranchised

The Wire (TV series)

“The Wire avoided victories, preferring to show corruption, failure and decay. ... The Wire was as much journalism as entertainment – a form of protest television.” ––Dorian Lynskey, The Guardian, 2018

The Wire began in 2002, was only 5 seasons, and is now considered a masterpiece of television. One reviewer describes it as being about “post-industrial collapse” and “institutional dysfunction” in an American city (Baltimore). Sounds bleak, but it was rare social realism with unconventional heroes and story-telling. It had low ratings at first. Apparently, revealing the “American Dream was dead” did not catch on right away. However, HBO, funded by subscriptions, not advertising, was willing to “simply let it be”. according to its creator, David Simon.

“…how can a television network serve the needs of advertisers while ruminating on the empty spaces in American society and informing viewers that they are a disenfranchised people, that the processes of redress have been rusted shut, and that no one - certainly not our mass media - is going to sound any alarm?” ––David Simon, The Wire, Truth Be Told (book) 2005

Atlanta (TV series)

“...the show’s brilliance [is] at combining absurdist comedy with heartbreaking reality to create something entirely unique.” ––Yohana Desta, Vanity Fair, 2017

Atlanta is a mix of sharp social realism, sudden comic moments, gut-wrenching scenes and hard-hitting parody that includes a searing fake commercial for children’s cereal. It is like the Eduardo Galeano of TV, but with some Salvador Dali, Brecht, and comedy thrown in. Series creator Donald Glover needed to disguise his vision in order to get it made.

“I was Trojan-horsing FX. If I told them what I really wanted to do, it wouldn't have gotten made." ... My struggle is to use my humanity to create a classic work—but I don’t know if humanity is worth it, or if we’re going to make it. I don’t know if there’s much time left.”––Donald Glover interview, New Yorker, 2018

Black Mirror - Fifteen Million Merits (series)

“What archetype dystopian future does Black Mirror’s “Fifteen Million Merits” choose to model itself after? Orwell’s or Huxley’s? The answer ends up being: a little bit of both.” ––Den of Geek, 2018

Fifteen Million Merits stars Daniel Kaluuya (also the star of Get Out). The episode begins with a dystopian-lite near-future story. However, it quickly compresses the characters ––and viewers–– into a painful claustrophobic nightmare vision of a capitalist hostage-taking entertainment monopoly.

Breaking Bad (TV series)

This was massively popular show that ran from 2008 to 2013. The main character is a chemistry teacher named Walt who was first motivated to be Bad due to a cancer diagnosis and fear for the financial future of his family. However, once he started down the bad path, he quickly accelerated to the far reaches of very bad badness. Partly this was because of his ‘almost-got-rich’ backstory. In one episode he goes to the house party of his former business partner who is now very wealthy. Walt’s feelings of poverty, failure, and humiliation are stark. In real life this pain is usually turned inward, but in the show it becomes grist for the monster that the character becomes. Millions of people related to this character who lived under the fear of poverty in the land of plenty.

However, Breaking Bad is mostly a rags-to-riches fake poverty trope even though it was a lower-middle class character’s fear of rags that sparked his need and greed for riches. With its very individualistic focus, the story continues the myth of independence carried over from the fictional old wild west of heroes and outlaws. But in this case the outlaw is the hero.

But perhaps its lasting legacy will be an oft seen meme showing how Breaking Bad would have had no story at all had it been set in a country with universal healthcare. It’s accurate to say the real monster in Breaking Bad is a modern wealthy country without healthcare.

Shameless (TV series)

“Few shows have attempted to situate themselves in the living nightmare of poverty—the country’s quiet shame, the marginalized that the middle and upper classes don’t want to see next to the numbing comfort of Modern Family. Television ignores the poor just as Americans do.” ––Flood Magazine, 2016

In a lot of ways Shameless is a big brash bold exception to rich-washing. The creator of the semi-autobiographical British version said “It’s not blue collar; it’s no collar.” However, after 9 seasons, the US version succumbs to several fake poverty tropes. Nonetheless, it is unique, and its many fans find the characters in the chaotic, desperate, scrounging, scamming, and poverty-stricken Gallager family relatable.

“I love how it addresses sex, drugs, poverty, absent parents, and other topics like those.” ––commenter, TV Criticism blog, 2014

Critics have questioned the series for its condescending stereotypes, for turning poverty into entertainment, for relying on too many nude scenes, and for their treatment of black characters.

But the overarching message and source of comedy for this show is in the title, which tells us that if you are poor, you should feel shame. This family doesn’t feel shame about their poverty. They are ‘shameless’, some more than others, and comedy ensues from their rude, crude, shocking behaviour and occasional truth-telling observations about society.

EXTRA SECTION 3: WAY BACK EXCEPTIONS

In the 1970s there were many more TV shows featuring regular people: Sanford & Sons (set in a salvage yard); Laverne & Shirley (factory workers); and, in Canada, The Beachcombers (salvage).

There were even some down-market detectives including the very popular Columbo who wore rumpled clothes and drove an old jalopy. Fans loved how rich villains would be caught because of their arrogance and snobbery: they assumed Columbo was a bumbling idiot because of his humble presentation.

The Rockford Files detective (1974-1980) also had a shabby vibe. The main character (Rockford) had done time, lived with his father in an old trailer, and had no office or secretary ––just an answering machine on his cluttered desk. He did, however, have a fast car and was played by James Garner, former star of the popular TV western Maverick.

Rural set TV series were also fairly common.

“Over one-third of shows in 1950 were set in small towns or rural areas, mostly Westerns and comedies.” ––Brookings Institute

The Beverly Hillbillies was popular comedy in the 1960s. It was a rags-to-riches and fish-out-of-water story. However, the show regularly made rich people look ridiculous even though the suddenly oil-rich hillbillies were also comic characters. But they were the heroes of their story. This show got cancelled despite its popularity as advertisers wanted younger urban viewers and not the rural and older viewers that show attracted. (Social Communication in Advertising, 1986)

Other rural set shows were Green Acres (inept rich people try to homestead with comic results), Petticoat Junction (another comedy), The Waltons, and Little House on the Prairie (dramas). There was also 17 seasons (1954-1973) of Lassie (a dog) with farming and wilderness settings.Going waaay back... growing up Canadian in the 1960s and 70s meant watching The Forest Rangers and Adventures in Rainbow Country, both shows featuring child characters who showed off skills such as fishing, wood craft, horseback riding, and wilderness survival.

EXTRA SECTION 4: THE WORLD’S LONGEST RUNNING SOAP

“So I'm a British guy who had an overnight stay in Toronto to connect a flight, and I noticed Corrie is shown in primetime on CBC... I’m just astonished anyone outside of Northern England would give a toss about it.” Reddit comment, 2018

You can’t talk about exceptions to rich-washing without talking about Coronation Street, the world’s longest running soap. Set ‘on the cobbles’ of a small fictional corner of working class Greater Manchester in Northwest England, it began in the 1960s and is still going strong. (Update May 2020- the pandemic has in fact interrupted Corrie.)

Coronation Street has grit, unlike US soaps, which would never have characters working in an underwear factory and organizing actions against management, or working in a fast food shops, barber shops, driving taxi, or grease pits fixing cars. With a few exceptions, most homes on the street look over-stuffed and very lived-in. The real living room of the street is the local pub, a cosy nostalgic setting, and nostalgia is a big part of the show’s popularity.

The street has changed and expanded over the years, but it has changed slowly. Characters who come and go with frequency except for the core characters. This includes several very popular and very elder actors who get substantial storylines. In addition, “Corrie”, as the fans refer to it, is also known for having snarky battle-axe women characters. One of the oldest was Ena Sharples, and one of the newest, Evelyn Plummer. And unlike U.S. entertainment, younger characters don’t all look and sound like glossy over-polished models-slash-actors.

In recent years Corrie has tackled numerous serious social issues such as suicide, homelessness, mental health, addiction, male rape, human trafficking, teen pregnancy, life after jail, and spousal abuse (to name just a few). These storylines are done carefully with advice from experts and advocate groups. They also frequently address classism. However, the show is not all doom and gloom. Coronation Street blends silly comedy, murderous villains, crimes big and small, and many ridiculous eye-rolling storylines. Fans heap an equal amount of complaints as praise. But big picture, Corrie is notable for the fact that it almost never got onto the airwaves at all.

Contrast between a working class UK soap and a US soap

Other Resources:

Books:

Deer-hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant, who writes about populism in southern rural poor communities in the U.S. (and his hometown) and why they might vote against their own self-interest.

Somebodies and Nobodies by Robert W. Fuller who writes about abuse of power by those who have higher status or rank against those of lower status.

From Movie Lot to Beachhead by Look Magazine (1945) Written at the end of WWII, the publishers wanted to show how Hollywood was not shallow but could rally for a cause and be on the right side of history. A big contrast to today, when it comes to the war on the poor, entertainment is very much on the wrong side of history.

Upside Down by Eduardo Galeano “a crushing satirical expose of the glaring inequalities and injustices of a world turned upside down that many has come to be desensitized as ‘normal.’” (Goodreads review)

The War on Normal People by Andrew Yang (free audiobook on youtube).

The Rebel Sell - Why the culture can’t be jammed by Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter. “But these gains [civil rights, social safety net] have not been achieved by ‘unplugging’ people from the web of illusions that governs their lives. They have been achieved through the laborious process of democratic political action.” (All forms of counterculture end up being just another marketing opportunity).

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman “As Huxley marked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny ‘failed to take into account man's almost infinite appetite for distractions.’ Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”

Websites Classism in Children’s Movies (a study) - Classism.org A Guide to Basic Income FAQs - scottsantens.com/basic-income-faq

Podcasts

Why Pop-Culture Hates Poor People - Cracked.com 2015-03-02 “Movies don’t seem to understand what it’s like to make less than 200K a year…. If you look and live like a poor person, you might be a serial killer.”

5 ways Hollywood tricked you into hating poor people - Cracked.com 2015-02-23

***

The author was raised on books & nature and almost no TV and movies but became a telly addict & movie fan late in life.

#popculture classism TVshows shameless atlantaTV thewire

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brownstonearmy · 5 years ago

Text

2020-03-22: The Money Pit, Part 2

July 9 (Friday afternoon)

It's a beautiful clear Friday in Brownstone, and the party takes a break from administrative duties at SHART to check out what's happening at the weekly auction. Nothing stands out to the party at first; it's the usual clutter of people trying to unload whatever junk they have for whatever some poor sap is willing to pay. But Lucky's eyes go wide as Harold, the town crier and auctioneer, announces a special auction of a Mystery Item! Harold pulls back the sheet to reveal a porcelain bowl with two two wide handles. A small spout under the lip of the basin continuously emits a stream of clean and pure water, but the bowl never overflows. The outside of the basin is engraved with an intricate pattern that runs in a single band around the object.

Bidding starts at 2,000GP and the wealthier citizens unleash a flurry of bids. The bids get higher and higher, and Q (who goes by Dazzle today) notices two street urchins creeping up to the stage. The two boys leap up to the auction block, snatch the basin, and start running. The crowd erupts into chaos, but the party gives chase. Spleenifer clips the edge of a wagon during a tight turn, and Dazzle almost gets clubbed by an overzealous guard who is actually aiming for the fleeing children. Lucky gets out her trusty Fishing Pole of Haemurteem, invokes the power of its stylish pants, and manages to hook the street urchin carrying the basin by teleporting right in front of them. Don't worry, the hook got his belt, so he didn't get hurt. He did trip and fall, though, and twists his body to save the basin from hitting the ground.

Dazzle knows the kid that Lucky snagged, and Dazzle grabs both boys by the ear for a quick interrogation. Pip, the kid holding the basin, does some work at Robin Stormblossom's ranch. He's not a bad kid normally, just a victim of circumstance who tends to act out when he's feeling lost. Dazzle chastises the guard who attempted to knock out the boys and tells the guard that they can handle the situation from here. Pip puts on a big display of tears and wails to underscore just how terrible this situation, but Dazzle is a talented performer who knows when people are just putting on a show and tells the poor kid to calm down and look more believable.

Spleenifer makes an attempt to defuse the situation by giving Pip a small boop on the nose, but forgets to say something. Pip gets snarky, because a tall strange lady just smacked him on the nose out of the blue. But Pip nevertheless starts talking. According to Pip, the basin was stolen from the Order of the Immaculate Shadow, and he was helping to get it back to its rightful owners.

Lucky remembers a bit about the people in the Order of the Immaculate Shadow, in that they are a religious movement whose members periodically shun interaction with the outside world. The Order is currently undergoing sequestration, and even if a sacred artifact of their faith, members of the Order would likely not report the theft to outside authorities. When Pip is questioned about how he knew about the theft, he confesses that his mother joined the Order a few months before the sequester started. She's taken her holy vows and is supposed to abstain from all contact with anyone in the outside world, even family. But some members are a little lax in their adherence to this precept. Pip sneaks occasionally sneaks over the wall to the Order's compound to see his mother, who reported the theft to Pip and asked him to look for it. He doesn't know who stole it or why, only that someone stole it. And that's how he came to recruit a friend to steal it back and return the basin to its rightful owners.

The information seems plausible enough, and the party is empathetic about the situation. Spleenifer understands the importance of sticking to a principled moral code, even if its not entirely legal. Dazzle entertains the possibility of "returning" the basin and then stealing it back from whoever buys it. But Lucky has a different plan. With a thunderous sneeze, she turns invisible along with Pip and his companion. The boys start running toward their destination, unencumbered by people watching them.

Spleenifer breaks off a tactical tree branch for paladin reasons, while Dazzle runs to the retreating guard to spin him a sob story about how the children are under the influence of a spell and that they wouldn't normally do something like that. Dazzle's performance is solid, and the guard promises to go to the authorities and step up investigations into who might be responsible for casting spells on children. While Dazzle is distracting the guard, Lucky conjures up a minor illusion of the basin on the auction block.

Harold can see through the illusion, but the crowd doesn't seem to realize it's an illusion. He's not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, so he immediately starts the bidding back up. An excitable gnomish inventor by the name of Cornelius wins the bid, but just as Cornelius is about to pay for his purchase, the illusion disappears. Harold declares that all sales are final, but Cornelius declares this auction is a fraud and stomps off without paying.

The party members excuse themselves and head back to SHART. A regular party of adventurers might find this auction fiasco to be enough action for one day, but these fine folk is prepared to deal with many more of fate's shenanigans today. And fate, it seems, is happy to oblige them.

Halfway back to SHART HQ, a curious scene unfolds. Lucky and Q/Dazzle are carrying a treasure chest off in the distance, but the Lucky and Dazzle we've been following throughout this adventure are still with Spleenifer. How can there be TWO Dazzles and TWO Luckys? OG Dazzle and Lucky are gonna find out, and charge screaming toward the impostors. Spleenifer, meanwhile, says a quick prayer to keep her psyche in check after seeing double.

Lucky the Second looks over toward the party. "Spleenifer!" she screams in a raspy voice. "YOU CAME BACK TO ME!" This isn't Lucky at all, but Trashpit in disguise. Trashy drops his end of the treasure chest and finds something suitably odoriferous in the street to roll in for a quick touch-up to his natural musk before closing the distance to the object of his infatuation.

Meanwhile, Dazzle the Second drops the treasure chest and makes a break for it. The real Dazzle grabs D2 by the shoulders and demands to know who they are and why they are impersonating such a talented performer. Dazzle II's answer doesn't come from their own voice, but someone else: Grinnin' Brynnan. He touches the puka shell necklace he's wearing and a flash of energy washes over some random townsfolk. "Help me out!" Brynnan screams, and the townsfolk are suddenly ready to fight for their new best friend. Dazzle yanks that necklace clean off Dazzle II/Brynnan, but Brynnan worms out of Dazzle's grasp and starts running.

Real Dazzle casts Dimension Door to get ahead of Brynnan, and brings Lucky along for the ride. Lucky busts out the Mizzium Apparatus to cast Watery Sphere and traps Brynnan in it with a few (luck-assisted) rolls. One of the townsfolk also got stuck in the sphere and they end up exploded from a stray Chaos Bolt, but that's just the cost of doing business in Brownstone when you only have 4 HP. Brynnan spends the next little while getting smacked around with various implements of violence, but he eventually breaks free of the sphere's grasp and falls to the ground.

Across the street, Spleenifer is chatting with Trashpit to suss out the details of the evil plan that was just interrupted. Trashpit isn't good at keeping secrets from someone as tall and well-perfumed as Spleenifer, and spills the beans about everything. The people that normally ask the ratfolk to do their dirty work also enlisted the help of Brynnan because he does magic. With the help of a magic spell and a hat of disguise, Trashpit and Brynnan impersonated two SHART employees and walked out with treasure. The plan was to dump it in the sewer where Trashpit lives with his ratfolk roommates, where the roommates could move the gold to another location. In exchange for all of this information, though, Trashpit would like a second date, and Spleenifer agrees to the terms.

Back in the combat zone, Brynnan tries to teleport out of the situation. Lucky counterspells the teleport away. Dazzle breaks out a Hypnotic Pattern to pacify some of the townsfolk, and Brynnan gets ready to unleash a destructive Chain Lightning spell. But Lucky is quicker: she counterspells the lightning and saves a bunch of lives in the process. With his options dwindling, Brynnan surrenders.

Spleenifer and Trashpit leave the scene without saying goodbye to the rest of the people. But Spleenifer is a considerate paladin and scrawls the word "Spleen" on a scrap of paper taken from her holy book. She wedges the paper into a manhole cover and hopes the signal will be enough for the party members to find her whenever they get done with whatever it is they are doing with Brynnan.

Once in the sewer, Spleenifer explains her aspirations of elevating the collection of her tithe into an art form. She would like to see if she can "help" Trashpit have a projectile poop in such a way that it could stand on its own as a coat of arm. Trashpit is down for this weird little experiment. Spleenifer gets the projectile part of the equation right, but not the aim. Now there's just poop on her shield, and Trashpit ends up blissfully fainting afterward. Spleenifer uses this bit of unsupervised time to explore the rest of the Trashpit's lair and discovers a curious locked gate with a message saying "Speak today's truth." On the back of the message card is an equally curious list of statements.

Our Truths

Sunder the intangible weapons of disloyalty, lest you die upon its blade.

Money and the control of it are the primary methods of power.

To sedate an institution requires an appropriate anesthetic.

Wedge subterfuge into the cracks of the shadows in order to remain undetected.

Thuggery of the mind is superior to thuggery of the blade.

Frivolity in word or deed is to be punished sevenfold.

Satisfaction comes from the control of those weaker than ourselves.

Back on the surface, Lucky has confiscated Brynnan's Hat of Disguise and left Brynnan groveling for his freedom. Brynnan offers up his friend Bierzenstein, an animated beer mug that can do its own keg stands, as a bribe to let Brynnan go. He doesn't get off that easily. Dazzle expresses interest in his reported ability to do a keg stand, and Lucky agrees that perhaps some sort of drinking contest is the way to settle Brynnan's fate. Of course he also has to do the walk of shame back to SHART with the treasure chest in tow and return it, before the party will let him demonstrate his drinking abilities.

The party doesn't take Brynnan to a bar. That would be too easy. Instead, they take him to Jangles's house. Mr. Jangles answers the door and Lucky asks if Jangles has some untested potions he can spare. Jangles ALWAYS has unusual concoctions available for testing, so Dazzle and Lucky set up a game of beer pong. No magic allowed except for what the potions do, and the first team to sink two shots decides Brynnan's fate. The stage is set and the game begins.

Lucky wins the coin toss and goes first. She sinks her shot, and Brynnan chugs the first potion. Nothing seems to happen at first, but smoke starts pouring out of one of Brynnan's pockets as he tries to make his first through. A candle somehow lit itself and screwed up his aim. Dazzle goes and sinks their shot, forcing Brynnan to chug again. Brynnan looks panicked and starts talking about a shadow that is following him. Since Team SHART has officially won at beer pong, Brynnan's fate is sealed.

...Or is it?

He pleads to leave before the shadow catches up to him, and the party surprisingly agrees to let him go. As long as he chugs the rest of the potions, that is. Brynnan doesn't second guess his chance at freedom and starts chugging. The next potion results in the cup getting adhered to his face, and the fourth cup causes random blood to begin seeping through Brynnan's robes. Nobody knows what happened with the fifth cup, but everyone agrees that Brynnan drank it. Brynnan gulps down the final potion as quickly as he can manage with a cup still stuck to his face and starts coughing. A few seconds later, he's managed to vomit up a completely intact cup. Brynnan flees, but Lucky follows him at a distance and manipulates the shadows with cantrips to really play up the psychological warfare angle.

Now that Jangles and Dazzle are alone, the two discuss their plans for the afternoon. Dazzle unleashes equal amounts of charm and innuendo, and Jangles picks up on it. We won't get into it in much detail on this blog, but know that there was heavy petting involved.

Brynnan flees toward the sewers where he was supposed to drop off the treasure. He realizes too late that the sewer is not a very good place to avoid shadows. Lucky is still in pursuit and making those shadows extra-spooky. Spleenifer is still puzzling her way through the gate situation, and inspired by the words on the back of the card, places the Wait Watcher stone between some of the bars and sets it to expand and bend the bars to allow her passage. The strategy appears to work, and Spleenifer slides through the gap to discover a ladder leading up. Only one way to find out where it leads, and that's to climb the ladder.

At the other end of the sewer, Brynnan is running in terror and screaming the whole way. "Frivolity in word or deed is to be punished sevenfold!" he screams as he approaches the gate. A chime sounds and the gate swings open. Brynnan starts climbing the ladder, but Spleenifer is already above him.

"You pervert!" she yells and stomps Brynnan square in the face. He is undeterred and screams at her to open the trap door. Lucky follows close enough behind to see and hear all this unfold, and also ascends the ladder. Brynnan and Spleenifer tumble onto the floor of a large conference room filled with stacks of papers. Brynnan nopes right down the stairs, but two people enter the room before Lucky and Spleenifer can give chase.

Holden Harcourt, a human landlord who owns many properties in the city, and Zaribeth Quickfingers, a wealthy halfling businesswoman, are blocking the only exit to the room. Lucky swipes some of the papers to read later. Zaribeth chastises Holden for leaving the gate open to let strangers in, and explains to Lucky and Spleenifer that this is a restricted area and they are not welcome here. As the pair are escorted out, Lucky recognizes this place as Vine House, an apartment building for halflings and other smaller races. Lucky reads the papers she snatched as soon as it's safe to do so and sees mention of a special election. But whatever election that's mentioned on that paper hasn't been announced publicly yet.

The adventure ends for the evening on that mystery. Stay tuned next time for more!

#shits and giggles #Dungeons and Dragons #5e #fishdavidson #adventure log #sewer #beer pong

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lipvincent · 5 years ago

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hi im samuel i am feral and excited 2 write with u all . its been a minute since ive hopped on tumblr for a bit of the ol rp..... but ill give this lil personal rundown a shot

i live in beautiful sunny california baby....... soaking in the rays Mmmm-mmm life is good . im 20 n i like to eat plain oatmeal and prunes therefore my diet is that of a 90 yr old and i think thats very sexy of me . lip is a brute and rly doesnt deserve to b liked whatsoever...... lets get on w tha show...

CIS-MALE — ever hear people say PHILIP GLASPY-VINCENT looks a lot like FINN COLE? I think HE is about 24, so it doesn’t really work. The HEAD OF A DEALING RING is here because HE’S LOCKED DOWN UNTIL HE CAN FIND BETTER SOURCES FOR HIS STOCK and they are from NEW JERSEY. They can be RESOLUTE, but they can also be DEPRAVED. I think LIP might be TIER 3 SHEPARD.

TW: DIVORCE, SUICIDE

phillip glaspy-vincent . heir to his gross fathers throne . ultimate douchebag and product of a bad decision gone extra wrong . half-brother to another delinquent

crimelord gangster mikey v had an affair w the wife (nora beatrice glaspy) of some hotshot politician staking out his competition fr a week in ny . big meeting of big men with national notoriety . nora took the pregnancy home n tried to pass the baby as her husbands son . worked fr a while until it didnt... around the age of three, poor sap puts the pieces together after a visit to the doc turns south . its a rough time for everyone involved

divorce comes swiftly and without mercy . tears up their marriage . the press crushes his mothers reputation and shreds her self esteem in countless records of newspaper shaming and petty broadcast reports . its humiliating n they end up moving from manhattan to a far off district in new jersey, holed up in the only apartment she can afford (and is struggling to consistently secure rent checks for) . lots of government disputes, money problems, etc

TW: SUICIDE

hes six when his mom takes a bath that lasts a little too long . walks in on her and shes already dead . the blade is rested on the edge of the bathtub and is collected by the police once he works up the courage to dial 911 . chides himself to this day for takin so long because he was covered in his own snot on some nicotine stained tile in the middle of who knows where…. n now his whole lifes been hollowed out to tha flippin core . he hasnt cried since then and frankly ? i dont think hes going to unless he is actually throwing a goddamn tantrum.... which he has the tendency of doing

authorities track down his only living biological parent . in comes mikey fr round two . they drop lip off like a poorly delivered fedex package…. be careful! fragile! bt none of tht shit is heeded in the slightest so does it even fcking matter? hes raised alongside his half sister n though they have varying personalities n clashing morality…. they actually get along quite well n are stable sources of support fr each othr on a daily basis

mikey is as hes expected to b . terrible guy . head of the dealing ring which lip is taking over on the downlow nowadays . hes real good at it n models after his father in being a snake oil salesman….. slowly picking up the slack n is becoming one sadistic yung man w a taste for nothing bt horrible news . he doesnt realize hes taking on characteristics of his dad and doesnt want to in the first place bc its the last thing he ever aspired to end up like . he is vry bitter abt it and by being somewhat aware of his dickish behavior it accelerates the process of becoming Even More of a Dick

he wears a lot of suits bt dresses them down….. plain t-shirts n black trousers . has two big white dogs that he walks around w sometimes and they arent vry nice & have to have muzzles on them 24/7 (nobody knows where tha fuck they go when he isnt walking them… fair to assume his buds take care of them for him) . still plays neko atsume . has buried more bodies than hell ever admit . talks to everybody like they are his absolute bitch . adores lesley gore and ballroom dancing . has driven a car into a lake on multiple occasions to show crazed dominance over the rest of his posse whom follow him around n tend to come in 3s (notable names r sweeney, klautz & don) . carries a gun w religious symbols on it…….. kinda like in leo dicaprios romeo + juliet (keeps tht sucker under his pillow tho…… fr everybodys safety) . wears ski masks most of tha time and gets attached to ppl really easily but would never admit it . hes kind of like a date? the fruit…. except a sour date with a mushy pit and the skin sticks to ur teeth when u bite into it. a date gone rotten . a rotten date :)

anyway . this is supr rushed . blease……….

i vant all ze connections n that isnt an exaggeration in the slightest im a hongry little stinker so give em UP!!!!!!! give this post a like n ill come barreling towards u without mercy POW POW POW like that....

#livingintro #suicide tw #divorce tw #gun mention tw #dealing mention tw #covering all of our bases .....#hopefully ....

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douxreviews · 6 years ago

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The Umbrella Academy - ‘We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals’ Review

Right from the comics, by illustrator Gabriel Bá and My Chemical Romance vocalist Gerard Way, comes the winter hit of Netflix nobody saw coming. Picture a love child between the X-Men and the dysfunctional Bluths, and you’ll have the Hargreeves siblings of The Umbrella Academy.

I must confess that I myself have yet the chance to read the comics this series is inspired by, but from what I understand, the premises don’t differ much at all. On the same day down to the same minute, 43 women across the globe give birth despite not showing any signs of pregnancy up until labor. Irregular and reclusive billionaire Sir Reginald Hargreeves scouts out these women and is able to compensate only seven of them in exchange for adopting their children, all which supposedly have been born with unique abilities. For reasons known only for himself, Hargreeves raises these youths, with assistance from an android-caretaker (appropriately referred to as ‘Mom’ by the children) and an exceptionally intelligent chimp named Pogo, into becoming a team of superheroes called ‘The Umbrella Academy’.

Right away, a premise like this that takes its own shot at subverting the superhero genre had my attention and, after the pilot episode, went on to dominate the rest of my week as I binged through its first season. From the get-go, it became clear that The Umbrella Academy is a show that is much more character-centered than it is plot-centered. This is not to say The Umbrella Academy lacks any signs of a narrative, but the series’ heart and soul is the dissection and exploration of the seven Hargreeves siblings who, in ‘We Only See Each Other at Weddings and Funerals’, are reunited years later after hearing the news that father Hargreeves has passed away.

#1: Luther Hargreeves/Spaceboy. The former leader of the Umbrella Academy, Luther is the teammate with incredible super strength that is practically mandatory at this point for every group of superheroes. Presently, he operates as an astronaut exploring Earth’s moon, but returns to Earth once he learns of father Hargreeves’ passing. Picture Superman if Superman wasn’t very talented at inspiring morale or teamwork in his Justice League compatriots, and you’ll have Luther.

#2: Diego Hargreeves/The Kraken. In many ways the antithesis to Luther, Diego is a reckless hothead on the outside, and a bit of a momma’s boy on the inside. And unlike Luther, who maintained complete trust and faith in father Hargreeves until the end, Diego (as well as #3 and #4) has a fiery hatred for their father due to his cold, unfeeling, and abusive manner towards the children while they were growing up. Diego has the ability of accurate and expert marksmanship, and a dagger is his preferred weapon.

#3: Allison Hargreeves/The Rumor. Currently an aspiring actress, Allison returns home with her siblings while in the midst of a divorce, and if that weren’t bad enough, she has also lost complete custody of her daughter. Though her distaste doesn’t seem as passionate as Diego’s, she too harbors resentment for father Hargreeves. She has the ability to alter reality itself by beginning her wishes with the phrase “I heard a rumor…”

#4: Klaus Hargreeves/The Séance. Eccentric, drug-addicted, and in possession of a wardrobe that reaches every point of the spectrum, Klaus could be seen as the academy’s ‘wild card’ currently. On the surface he appears to demonstrate wit and an infectious energy for life, but internally, he loathes father Hargreeves, and blames him as well for being the catalyst for Klaus turning to his unhealthy habits. Klaus has the ability to talk to the deceased, but can only perform this when he is sober.

#5: Number Five/The Boy. Years before the start of the series, Number Five mysteriously vanished without a trace, and soon after, the Hargreeves siblings would begin to go their separate ways. In the pilot, Number Five returns, still in the form of his thirteen year-old self, with a warning from the future – the world will end in eight days, and Five has no idea what causes it. Though Five does genuinely seem to still care for his siblings, so much time spent lost in the space-time continuum has made him cynical, jaded, arrogant, and with a very relatable dependence on black coffee. Five has the ability to teleport, both through space and time.

#6: Ben Hargreeves/The Horror (Deceased). Killed or passed away by unknown means, Ben’s death seems to have been another factor that drove apart the Hargreeves siblings. Aside from the fact that he has an ability to generate monstrous limbs and tentacles from his body, (which he does not relish) little else is known about Ben. Thanks to Klaus’ ability to talk to the dead though, Ben is still able to keep in touch with at least one of his siblings.

#7: Vanya Hargreeves/The White Violin. A talented violinist, Vanya seems to be the only sibling without any sign of an ability. Her entire childhood under father Hargreeves’ roof has consisted more of her acting as an assistant to train the other, powered children, and being told that there just isn’t anything special about her. Despite this, Vanya doesn’t hesitate to return home and reunite with her siblings once she hears the news about Sir Hargreeves. Since leaving home, Vanya has published a book detailing the secrets of the Umbrella Academy, and outing her siblings’ identities as well, which seems to have created a rift between her and Diego.

This is show that has nicely mastered the practice of raising some mysteries and inquiries, while also still giving the audience just enough answers to chew on for the current episode’s forty-five minute run. From the memorial service onwards, the pilot continues with scenes upon scenes dedicated to simply fleshing out these characters: what they’ve been up to since they parted ways, their relationships with each other, which siblings they bear grudges against, and which ones they’re still loyal to. But because this is the introductory episode, it does have its moments here and there that are committed for pure exposition. For example, a scene featuring Vanya reuniting with Pogo and touring the old mansion where everyone was raised abruptly transitions to the two of them specifically discussing how many days it’s been since Five disappeared, which feels less like natural dialogue, and more like something needed to catch the audience up on Five’s backstory.

As a result of this being a setting where individuals with super-powers do exist, it’s evident from the beginning that this isn’t going to be a world exactly like the planet Earth the spectating audience is used to. What’s so engaging about The Umbrella Academy is that it just doesn’t stop there; there’s a lot of effort here put into the world-building to distinguish this series’ timeline as something that bears some similarities to our own timeline, but is clearly another world altogether. By the time we are introduced to Grace, the children’s android caretaker, and Pogo, I actually realized I didn’t even need elaborations from this show on their own backstories; I had just become so accustomed that this was a world with its own unique scientific advances and phenomena. Once you’ve laid down the law that time travel can and does exist, pretty much anything else goes.

Time flew by during my first viewing of this episode and once Five dropped the bombshell that the world is heading towards an imminent apocalypse and the credits rolled, I was hooked. The Umbrella Academy has a great start for those that enjoy nuanced characters as much, if not more, as they do good story-telling. Because only one episode is a little early for someone to be playing favorites, I suppose I won’t mention then how charmed I immediately became with the characters of Klaus and Five. Then again, from the looks of the internet around me, I seem to not be alone with that favoring.

Name That Tune:

Another wonderful takeaway from this series is its soundtrack, which sifts through multiple genres each episode, and while it often falls back on the trope of playing an upbeat tune to an otherwise extreme fight sequence, it has given me plenty of new additions to my iTunes library, starting with ‘Istanbul’ by They Might Be Giants. Never a song I would’ve thought I’d hear play during a gunfight conflict in a coffee-and-donut shop, yet here we are.

Hargreeves Humor:

Luther: “Look, I know you don't like to do it, but I need you to talk to Dad.” Klaus: “I can't just call Dad in the afterlife and be like, 'Dad, could you just stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call?'"

Five: “An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, but no, not a single drop of coffee.” Allison: “Dad hated caffeine.” Klaus: “Well, he hated children, too, and he had plenty of us.”

Five: “Guess I missed the funeral.” Luther: “How'd you know about that?” Five: “What part of the future do you not understand?”

Aaron Studer loves spending his time reading, writing and defending the existence of cryptids because they can’t do it themselves.

#The Umbrella Academy #Vanya Hargreeves #Klaus Hargreeves #Allison Hargreeves #Diego Hargreeves #Luther Hargreeves #Number Five #Ben Hargreeves #The Umbrella Academy Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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gyromitra-esculenta · 6 years ago

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Synchronicity 16

Notes: After hitting brick wall, restructure! So, that one’s a bit of Frankenstein’s Monster. Introducing: Remnant, references to past happenings that were supposed to be referenced much, much later, and morally (VERY) questionable actions (if you get the reference). Jack’s still high on morphine.

Previous parts under this one link: gyromitra-esculenta(.)tumblr(.)com/post/173374189022/synchronicity-15

Jack grimaces when from behind the APC a figure shambles out, a man in a stained dress shirt with a suitcase held in his right hand. Something unsettling in how strangely his neck twists to the left.

"I wonder, Sunshine," the Beast teases, "fight or flight?"

***

(…) And all I see is war path ahead of me Each and every step I welcome readily And if my lack of fear bring the death of me Let the spirits of my ancestors envelop me (…)

His fingers still grip the rifle, the knuckles white on the dark surface of the gun, and he still stares into dark crimson eyes. The last words reverberate between them – him and the Beast – the talk of ashes and charred bones left in their collective wake somehow does not sound like merely a pretty metaphor anymore. Jack swallows back another question and slowly lifts himself off the floor.

The walker is gone in the minutes that had trickled by and he tries somehow to justify its lack of awareness of his own position – was he shielded by the structure or was a single signature not worth the hassle, or, maybe, the interference had messed with the mech’s systems?

There is also a different possibility, one that now is not as far-fetched as one would imagine otherwise, and he knows it’s the morphine talking as he glances back to the Beast.

"I’m dead, aren’t I?"

"Now, what makes you say such a thing, Sunshine?" The Beast tilts its maw to the side, playfully contrarian – yet under the light timbre something darker lurks with the intensity of razor-sharp fangs biting into the nape of his neck.

"This is limbo. Tartarus. The ceaseless punishment," Jack shakes his head, picks up the pace.

"Do tell me, Sunshine, how does one escape from such a predicament?" The Beast now keeps his stride slinking forward at his side, the words simultaneously mocking and paternalistic.

"One doesn’t."

"One doesn’t unless one has their own guide," the Beast chortles.

"I don’t remember ever being so goddamn fucking vague."

"You’re learning yet, Sunshine. You're learning yet."

"Goddamn fucking morphine," Jack murmurs. His vision is focused and swimming at the same time. His breath coils around his tongue with a taste of rusted iron. "If you're my guide, I'm fucking lost."

"Oh, Sunshine, did I ever aspire to such a title?" The barbwire lull of the laughter pierces his ears together with the roar of the fire, and the smell of burning plastic and artificial fabrics suddenly becomes dominant. The plane.

One wing is broken off and missing, the other is buried deep in a collapsed building. The fuselage is smashed into three neat pieces - the tail rests sideways on the street.

The inside of the craft is still on fire and the asphalt is soaked by fuel. No bodies. No blood. The luggage is strewn around. No body parts. Nothing. There's a ripped in half pink suitcase in front of him with a small plastic hand sticking out of the bundled clothes.

"Who's there? Please!" A woman. Jack turns towards the voice and a greenish silhouette swivels there with its hands outstretched as if fumbling in the darkness. A child cries. "Please, say something!"

"They're all dead," Jack whispers taking a step back.

"Yes, they are, and it was us who killed them, Sunshine, or did you so conveniently forget?" The Beast seethes with smug satisfaction. "Only ash and charred bones, no evidence and no witnesses," it hisses as it focuses the glare of its crimson eyes on him, like he is a mere insect under its scrutiny, "this is what remains in our wake. This is," it bares its fangs in a feral growl as it punctuates every word, "what we are, what we were, and what we are to become yet again."

"No," Jack backs further, a stumbling step after a stumbling step, away from the encroaching darkness that swallows him only to spit him out in a green-lit hell. "No."

His fingers move over the panel covered with a delicate synthetic mesh designed to evaporate on blast. A child cries. The explosive arms without a sound. The goggles give him fleeting vertigo with a split-second delay of the processed image.

"Please, say something!" The woman moves in his direction, slightly off to the side, and Jack evades her. The carpet muffles his steps. "I know someone's here!"

The child is still crying. A man screams in anger somewhere down the corridor.

"One. Two. Three. Boom," the Beast intones with a static of bad reception raising in the background - its voice morphs into that of a newscaster, "...that Mehdi Benjelloun has just claimed the responsibility for the bombing for..."

White noise. Everything drowns in white noise. The clock is ticking. The hands do not move, do not even strain, and the room is white.

"Mr. Morrison," the psychiatrist whose name he cannot recall smiles, the kind of impersonal smile one could expect from a professional detached from the situation. "Did the change in the prescription have any adversarial effects? Any notable differences you have experienced regarding your frame of mind?"

The Beast stings behind his teeth, scrapes the sides of his throat, looks through his eyes.

"No. Can’t think of any. Can’t…" Jack turns his gaze to the tree in the painting hanging above the vibrant ficus to his left, to the maelstrom of the painted sky behind it. The rapid strokes of the brush give it an illusion of a slow deliberate motion. "Felt worse for the first week but I don’t think I really thought about killing myself since then."

"That’s good to hear," the man types something on the keyboard.

"You redecorated."

"Excuse me?"

"This picture, it’s new. It’s different from the one before."

The doctor looks at him quizzically, maybe even slightly alarmed. The Beast whispers of danger, a hissing kind of murmur seeping into his thoughts.

"And what do you see in the picture, Mr. Morrison?"

"Morbid landscape with a tree," Jack swallows, eyes darting to the other side, searching for a route of escape from some undefined peril that now sits heavy on his shoulders. Its claws dig deep enough below his collarbone to draw blood that seeps through and stains the fabric.

"Visual hallucinations. This merits additional evaluation." The man extends his hand under the desk and the Beast roars in fury, it roars as everything is white noise again.

The white room. The chair is covered in dark rust, no - not rust - old dried blood, cracking and flaking off. The infernal ticking thunders louder and louder until he wants to scream just to drown it away.

"Getting lost in your own head again, Sunshine? We can't have that, not yet," the Beast whispers. "Inhale." Inhale. "Count." Count to five. Count against the ticking. Don't lose focus. "Exhale." He exhales, slowly pushes the air out of his lungs. "Remember..."

"Remember my training," Jack repeats opening his eyes - when had he closed them? The plane is yet again in front of him but in the meantime, he must have passed it. The cockpit looks almost intact - if not for the missing panes of glass and something still sparking inside.

He's hunched behind a concrete barrier - it seems the street had been closed off to the traffic before. Jack leans to the side to observe the plaza. There are several cars and a bus, one unmarked APC lying on its side. Recreational area primarily. He can see a bright red restaurant umbrella halfway thrown through a display window. A lot of bodies on the ground he can safely identify as Blackwatch personnel.

Jack grimaces when from behind the APC a figure shambles out, a man in a stained dress shirt with a suitcase held in his right hand. Something unsettling in how strangely his neck twists to the left.

"I wonder, Sunshine," the Beast teases, "fight or flight?"

The man turns away and Jack mentally reconstructs the area mapping the best route. He licks his lips, runs his tongue over the chapped skin. Changes the grip on the Patten and moves hunched - eyes darting between the man and the ground - trying to find safe footing. Seconds he measures in breaths trickle by as he makes his way towards an overturned cart painted with happy pastels now greyed with settled ash.

Jack stops to take another look at his surroundings. Crumbled building blocks the nearest street - he could climb over the rubble but the prospect is risky especially if he wants to avoid meeting the civilian or whatever else the man with the suitcase actually is.

Slowly, as the figure disappears behind the APC, Jack raises. Maybe he can circle him. A blink, and the man stands before him in a cloud of swirling black ash. No. Not a man anymore. Something that used to be human. The lower jaw is missing, the eyes are white, the broiled skin sloughs off the meat.

The creature shrieks with an unearthly tone; the wave of sound hits with a multitude of stabs and knocks the breath out of him. Jack falters and almost drops the rifle, scrambles to regain his composure.

Twisting tendrils of purplish light lash out but not towards him, no, to the side, and with growing dread he sees a body dragged upwards with the entrails flopping from under the vest, and limbs swinging in disjointed tugs like a ragdoll shaken erratically by attached strings. It raises the gun and turns towards him. Jack ducks behind the collapsed decorative gazebo. Bullets thunder against the cement.

A shriek again, his vision darkness for a second, and another body joins in the puppet dance. Shots spray wildly in a wide swipe rising clusters of dust where they hit.

Jack emerges quickly from the side and aims at the closest enemy. Two shots send the helmet flying, the third one shatters the brow, and the glowing tethers snap as the body hits the ground.

It’s not enough, the strings spring out from the creature anew and latch onto the fallen cadaver, sink and dig into the flesh, and bring it upright again.

"A resourceful abomination, isn’t she?" The Beast rumbles with glee, its presence growing, enveloping him, and mucous darkness shifting against his skin. The taste of mildew and rot steals into his mouth. "She tests our patience. We will kill her."

"We will kill her," Jack echoes as yet another puppet joins the fray.

"We will grind down her bones between our teeth," the Beast purrs. Claws rest over his hands, and then he runs between the bullets sailing with deadly grace through the air.

The Beast keeps his pace; the loud empty thumps explode in the sudden eerie silence as its paws hit against the pavement rising up clouds of ash. It bares its fangs, its maw low to the ground, and then it jumps through the motionless air swamped in the iridescent afterglow.

The Beast’s jaws close around the creature’s neck with a nauseating crunch. It turns and twists thrashing its head from side to side until meat, tendons, and bones separate. Mutilated head rips off and freezes midflight in the air.

With a snap, the movement resumes. Hunks of meat hit the ground with wet squelches, the violet tendrils dissipate, and the risen corpses fall over once again.

The Beast roars triumphantly, and Jack, with his hands buried to the elbows in the creature’s clawed apart chest smiles mirroring its expression: all teeth and savagery.

#sometimes I write #fear!AU #r76 #reaper76 #violence #body horror #proper part #the beast is an asshole #it has reasons

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