#Considering how Duncan was acting in Action

[luminosityspecter]

Aleduncan is an objectively hilarious ship. The two worst men you know are making out right behind you.

[hobisfavoritespritecan]

Tourniquet

DUNCAN VIZLA X READER

⚠️ Warnings: Uhhh kinda extreme gore, I mean I definitely go into intense detail about some of the way these people die so probably don't read this if you're squeamish, blood, death, murder, language, mentions of drugs and alcohol, I think that's it but yeah ⚠️

Duncan comes to save you and risks his life in the process.

Duncan had originally wanted nothing more than to retire from this god-forsaken line of work he'd been in for over thirty years. To succumb fully to the relaxation that was unemployed bliss, somewhere far off in the lost woods with a glass of whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Maybe he'd try for another dog again, although he wasn't too lucky with his PTSD responses around Rusty. Wherever in the world he may be or whomever he'd be with, he just wanted some goddamn peace and quiet, thankyouverymuch.

Today, he was not so lucky. Of course, he had to take the one job offer to end his career with a bang and to coagulate all of the money he'd originally been promised to begin with. One job after another, one shot fired towards a man's head and a stapler gun to his ankles, all led him here. At the front of this house. On a rescue mission. Which would then lead to a hitman mission. Obviously. Unfortunately.

Duncan sighed and took in the landscape with his one good eye, courtesy of the copious amount of torture he'd pushed through over the past month. Although his wounds were still healing and he felt their burn underneath the folds of his fabric coat, he had to act fast as there was no time to waste. He needed to put his life on the line once again; as he had for so many years working as a hitman. But now, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. A reward to his revenge. Nothing that was false promises of money or strippers or nights out at the bar that would only situate him for a week before he grew bored. No, at the end of this mission was the promise of your safety and the potential of the two of you living this retired life he'd dreamt of for so long.

He only had to kill 30+ men and his former "mission mates" before getting to you and fleeing this Damocles shit for good.

Easy, in theory. In actuality, he was probably going to end up dead. Unless he could control himself through his rage and use it as an adrenalin boost rather than a distraction to his plan.

The mansion was huge and lavish in comparison to the wood houses Duncan had come to love in Montana. It was almost entirely frivolous; the magnitude of Blut's weath, all gained from those who did his dirty work and never out of his own aspirations.

Seeing the coast was fairly clear, he crafted a plan in his head as to how he was going to make it in and out of the place unscathed. Two guards to his left on the rooftop, facing outwards. Meaning that there must be at least another two on the other side, not knowing from which direction he'd come. Another one in the upper right window that could easily be taken out with a sniper. A few fifteen or so on the ground in hidden positions, all of which he knew considering he used to work for the damn place. Assuming Blut's usual stupidity would mean that the plans for an attack on Damocles would be unchanged, minus those who were inside of the place itself.

Time for action. He took off his heavy coat and draped it on the tree nearest to him so as not to be weighed down by the material. His thick wool sweater would be more than enough to keep him warm, alongside his steel-toed boots. Underneath his coat and concealed by his initial wardrobe was a now visible belt with two loaded guns on either side. His hand was clad with brass knuckles and he had a knife in his boot, only for an extreme situation. Worse comes to worse, he still had that piece of shrapnel under the second layer of his skin from one of his older missions he could cut out if he really had to. Eyepatch in place and hair tied in an up-do, he was ready to start shooting people.

Hey, maybe if they were all dead he'd finally get his $8 million he'd been promised.

It happened as quickly as the next snowflake hit the ground; Blut's mansion was under attack. They'd been expecting him, but as he was called The Black Kaiser, he was the best of the best. He knew their ins and outs and was now thankful he kept a friendly but protective distance from everyone while he was in the org so that they wouldn't know the specificities for his own attack. One skillful shot to the top left roof was enough to pierce through the necks of both the men standing atop it, one falling off after the other and landing on the ground with a thick thud. Blasted through arteries and a fuckton of blood pooled out the edges from where they'd fallen, creating intricate patterns on the wintery terrain and leaving giant stains on the sides of the building.

Now understanding their mission was a go, the man from the window received the hint and withdrew himself from the window, racing back inside most likely to tell Blut about the outside commotion. No matter. He'd take his time to paint the entirety of the green estate red with the fallen victims of Damocles.

He'd been right about the guards from the top of the building being on the other side, except there were three instead of two. They rushed around looking for the potential places Duncan could be hiding, so as to scope him out first and be the ones to receive the praise from their fat ass nepo-baby boss. They must all be younger and have no idea the amount of years and experience he'd had in this industry because Duncan was in plain fucking sight with his guns readied in both hands.

"Bye." He said, and shot them at the same time, making two of the guards meet the same tragic fate as their friends. One, two, they hit the ground with more thuds and guts, spreading their entrails further out than most people would think the human body could reach. One of their intestines had wrapped around the edges of the window panes, a man still alive wishing he wasn't. He was screaming from the upper floor awaiting his fall as he was held up by the gaping wound in his stomach where Duncan had shot him once more. The last guard at the top of the roof looked down in horror and jumped himself, taking his own life and going limp once his neck made a loud snap against the pavement under the soft snow.

PTSD flashbacks edged the corners of Duncan's one-eyed vision, trying their best to stop him as he witnessed the horror of human death via his hands. He was used to this feeling, of wanting to curl up and revert into himself, to never see anyone or anything again and be tortured as payment for his crimes. He was just a man, not a deity. Why should he choose- or rather- listen to who chooses who should meet an untimely death? What makes him above the others within his species?

Because of their frequent visits, he shut his visions down and went soulless. That was the only way to truly do his job and to continue to do it well within the moment and not fight with the side that was desperate to live in peace and an understanding of humanity. He was a pacifist at heart, truly. And even though it went against his psychological beliefs of the world, he had to pretend that intentions outweighed his actions in the sense of his killing and this mission; that getting to you was worth the rampant murderous spree of all these people, paid by their boss just as he was to do the same tasks he's doing.

Burrowing into himself, he rolls to the nearest icicle filled tree, grabbing the man who was hidden here with the gun and twisting his neck until he heard the sounds of life escaping his throat. He discarded his now empty gun for the one in the holster of the other man, making sure it was fully loaded before proceeding to also extract the menthols from the upper part of the stranger's jacket.

"Mange Tak." He said, Danish for thank you. He could have a little class while he was at it.

Noticing the tree he was under and the man whom he'd just killed, Blut was either following their Five-Ten plan or the Outskirts plan, both of which were effective in combat. The Five-Ten plan was created by Vivian herself meaning that there would be five on the perimeter of the compound, five on the rooftop, and ten within the building before whomever was entering made it inside. Then, after getting through the frontlines of security (if they made it that far), whomever was infiltrating would meet the guards who allowed their cohorts to be killed as preparation time for the main show.

The Outskirts plan, however, would mean that every man who wasn't directly appointed as an assassin to Blut's side would be out in the fields which were now covered in snow, using the trapdoors hidden in the earth to prepare their weapons for combat and kill the intruder as he (or she) approached the compound.

He was going to take his bets with the Five-Ten.

Heart barely going over an easy 65bpm, he calmly readied his guns for the next part of the infiltration where a few other guards would pop up and flock to his sides, hoping that they might catch him off-guard. Which they wouldn't. Another few shots took care of those and as he wiped the blood off his face from the splatter of one of them, he lit a cigarette and started walking towards the front of the compound, taking his chances that he knew which plan they had chosen considering he'd killed most of the other ones when he'd killed Vivian during their surprise attack not even hours before he got here.

Stepping over the walkway and opening the doors to the inside, he'd been proven correct in his intuition and flanked to the wall, keeping himself out of sight to those in the building. There were three open entryways leading from the main hall to the upstairs where the pig himself resided. Which meant around six of those corners could be another guard and he'd have to take his shots carefully, unless he wanted to engage in hand-to-hand combat which didn't always end well when your opponent had a firearm. He checked his inventory quickly.

Six bullets left. He'd have to be stingy about it.

Holding the trigger and aiming the barrel towards his right, he took a shot through the ornate pillars holding up the entryway's corbel arch, a bullet forcing itself through the small opening in which the wall met the pillar. He heard an "oomph!" which he gathered triumphantly signified his tactic of approach was also correct.

Can't teach an old dog new tricks.

Rolling to the floor into the room from whence the sound came, he staggered over to the next wall and shot through the entryway, shooting the man in the room in the leg. Fuck. Slight misstep on his account (or the other guy's considering he no longer had the bottom half of his leg). He dodged the man's bullets and lifted one of the cylindrical vases decorating the hallway and bashed it into the man's skull, once, twice, and then dropping it as he watched blood ooze from his nose. A sound from behind him meant another and he was met with hands wrapping around his throat and a gun being pressed to his temple.

This man was much bigger in stature than Duncan, but it was no matter. He swiftly acted as though he were aiming for his opponent's side as they would have practiced for upon initiation training. Seeing the man respond confidently to where he'd presumed Duncan would strike meant he'd left his nuts unguarded to which Duncan kicked in with precision. The man screamed, letting go of his counterpart and went to hold himself in anguish. Duncan mercilessly grabbed the weapon from his hands and shot through the one holding his injured manhood, shooting off his limb and probably the area underneath.

A few more men appeared from the entryways, and, after killing them all with a few more bullets than needed considering he had two guns now and maybe a hit to the face with his brass knuckles; he made his way to the top of the stairs, ready for whatever else would come. He could take on twenty more of them before expressing any ounce of fatigue as he'd trained his whole life for missions like this.

However, it was just you in the room.

Almost entirely taken aback by the slumped position you were in bound to that chair in the middle of the room, Duncan froze in his advances. He didn't let his guard down, no, but he took careful detail to the contortions of your face and the state of your being from which he could make out from this distance. Your long hair fell from the roots of your head which seemed to still be intact (thank god), but your skin was an ashy grey and blood had littered your hands and chest area. It was deep and dark and so red, redder than he'd felt he'd ever seen before and the PTSD was back, clawing at his chest and vision through his one good eye, all of his labors seemingly returning to dust. If you were dead, it would be the death of all deaths despite having only known you for a short period of time.

It had been the way you'd entered his house for the first time that caught him winded, hands tucked into the pockets of your long coat that kept you warm and smelling like the vanilla candles that littered your house. Your flushed cheeks from being out in the cold. Your smile as he'd offered you a sip of his hot chocolate, only to find out it had an added hint of whiskey. Your face when he'd kissed you for the first time. The hug you'd given him after.

It took fifty years of his life to finally admit it to himself and to anyone else who'd listen to the raspy notches in his throat as he exclaimed that he was, indeed, in love. And it was, indeed, with you.

"Something caught your eye, Kaiser?" Blut's agonizing and cruel voice caught the echos of the marble flooring and flooded the room, signaling his emergence from the darkness. He was wearing his stupid, douchebaggy jacket with a shit eating grin nearly reaching the corners of his eyes. This was the man whom he'd worked for all these years, pledged his loyalty to despite having no ounce of previous companionship with him. The one who owed him $8 million and the one who'd sent out his own personal hitman army to kill Duncan and get away with it so he would no longer be a liability to the company.

"She'd better be alive, or I'll skewer your head on that fucking Damocles sword you have above the mantle." He nearly spat out, taking his time to enunciate the weight of every word that escaped his lips, forcing them out in such an anger that anyone would feel in the depths of their bones. Blut, however, could care less.

"Oh she's alive." Made sure to keep her that way for you." He said, sauntering towards her seemingly lifeless body and tilting her chin upwards to finally reveal her face. "Thought she could use some plastic surgery though, don't you think Duncan?"

It was as if a knife had pierced his chest then and there. Your face, which had been absolutely perfect upon anyone's first glance, now was missing an eye on the opposite side of his own. Flesh had been carved out around it, which meant it would leave a scar possibly even nastier than his. He wanted to throw up at the idea someone could've taken something so important to you and destroy a piece of your life forever. He then thought maybe that was how his victims' families felt, learning that their fathers or brothers had passed due to the brutality of murder.

But you were still beautiful. And he had to save you still.

"Duncan... you're not responding?" Blut taunted with his awful voice, ringing the question in his ears and twisting the metaphorical knife even further into his chest. Duncan knew he'd need to snap out of the hold of his traumas and force himself to swallow anything else other than the situation at hand in order to save you...and himself.

"You're fucking dead. Don't you fucking touch her." Duncan said, grabbing the hefty sword of the supposed Damocles mansion from the mantle near him, letting the blade drag on the floor before discarding his gun entirely and picking up the sword. It had to have been at least four feet long with a shiny hilt and an even shinier blade which would be stained with the blood of the man before him in the time it'd take to say the sword's name. He would avenge this piece of your life that had been wrongfully taken from you.

A little less smug now, Blut reached into his pocket and withdrew a gun. "Y-y-you fucking stay back Kaiser! I won't hesitate to blow your head off!!"

"Where are your other men? Or are you truly so out of options that you're here alone?" Duncan growled, his discarded gun going into the fireplace, and, with a loud boom, caught the floor and curtains surrounding it on fire. The flames twisted and danced against in the reflection of his newfound weapon, a proper visual to the fire that licked his veins with the rage he felt. He continued his progression to your chair, sparing you a softer glance, before focusing everything onto the man before him who was now cowering by the window on the wall.

It was as if he were a child who'd been told hiding under a blanket would save him from the monsters under his bed and in his closet. He shrunk into the glass and tried his best to aim his gun with a shaking hand at Duncan's head. Duncan was now eye-to-eye with the man whom he'd fucking rip to shreds faster than any job he'd done as a hitman in his life.

"Blut...you're not responding?" He sneered, dodging the bullet that flew from his opponent's barrel. He lifted the sword and thrust it from the nape of his neck to the back of his skull, brains flying out against the widow he was in front of. Blood spurt from the open wound like a the lake outside of Duncan's house in Montana, where he'd resided before all this madness. Eyes bulged out of his skull with the optic nerves sliding down the forefront of his face and falling just above his mouth. Duncan dismantled the head from his torso still attached to the blade and spear tossed the sword of Damocles out the window and onto the grounds below, the sharp end getting stuck in the ground and displaying Blut's upside down head like a totem pole.

"'Suck my fucking dick."

Duncan freed you from the chair, taking you outside and down the winding trail, mansion burning to the ground in the distance. Back to Montana where now, at last, he would fucking retire.

[aviyx]

Discussing Caitlyn Kiramman

Caitlyn, especially in the second season, reminds me of Macbeth in all the worst and most concerning ways.

At the start of Macbeth, Macdonwald is a character who had committed treason and was killed by Macbeth, as at that point he still had his morality.

This is similar to how at the start of Arcane, Caitlyn was an enforcer who did her job, and did it well without engaging in any of the corruption that seemed pretty rampant at this point.

Later, Macbeth's wife Lady Macbeth, in a self serving manner, manipulates Macbeth into committing regicide by killing the king. He's obviously hesitant to do this as it goes against his morals, but with the encouragement, he does go through with it on his own accord. Despite having the power of being the Thane of Cawdor and Glamis, he still does this in attempt to get more power. After this, he successfully becomes king.

Now, I don't think Caitlyn is acting how she is in attempt of power, however thats definitely one of the outcomes of her actions. Ambessa, who is who I see in Lady Macbeth's role in this analogy, is also manipulating Caitlyn in order to gain personally, and to encourage war so that hextech weapons are made and she can use them to fight her own battles. Caitlyn has a moral code, yet despite this she does do bad things. She uses the grey as a tool to clear out the streets, when that is a literal war crime. She knows this is wrong, emphasised by her mothers words that go starkly against her actions playing right before the scene. She also takes the position of power Ambessa presents her with despite her in earlier episodes likely being against Ambessa's whole cause, and the war that she's about to start.

Macbeth, before this, has a friend called Banquo, who suspects that he killed Duncan for the throne and power. Macbeth then gets him assassinated.

This is, albeit less so, reminiscent of Vi, and how after being called out on her actions, Caitlyn hits her and leaves.

Considering we only have 3 episodes of season 2, I cant be sure whether this continues progressing, but if it does, there are a few things I am assuming will happen in arc 2 and 3.

I think Caitlyn is going to start hallucinating more. The hallucinations might be of Vi, as Macbeth hallucinates seeing Banquo after causing his death, but they could also be of her mother, Jinx or even Isha, as she could've easily killed either of them had Vi not stopped her.

Now if you have read Macbeth, you'll realize i haven't mentioned one of the main reasons Macbeth turns into a usurper. The witches and their prophecy. And this is honestly because I'm not sure.

I think its entirely possible that the witches could be symbolised through the hextech, as we know the hextech weapons act up sometimes, as shown in episode 3. Its possible they may lead to hallucinations, similar to that of Victor, if they're used repeatedly while acting up, which I can imagine Caitlyn doing.

Otherwise, I think the witches could be symbolised through Jinx, and possibly Sevika and Isha to maintain the symbolism of threes. This is because the 3 of them represent the power Caitlyn wishes she has- the power to avenge her mother.

Either way, I'm hoping that Caitlyn doesn't stay on this path, as Macbeth is a tragedy for a reason.

[real-total-drama-takes]

@courtney-deserved-better here to settle the "does noah get bullied" debate with my own analysis including citations from his td biographies and audition tape bc im unwell about this show

"Being the runt of a nine-sibling litter, Noah has found a way to use brains over brawn with clever manipulation. He never got picked on in the schoolyard because he knew how to draft some lunkhead into smashing somebody's face if they got too close." - Noah's TDI biography

"Best memory from childhood? I made the school bully cry at assembly, just by making fun of his shoes." - Noah's TDWT biography

based on his actions in the show i do think noah has the potential to get bullied but he has, as of the start of tdwt, either been able to avoid it or been able to hide evidence that he's been bullied from super fans like sierra.

remember, in the celebrity manhunt episode, sierra & co. hadn't been able to find any information on noah besides a blurry picture when he was a) working for chris, a notable figure in the public eye and b) sought after by sierra who canonically can get all sorts of private information about contestants.

so it's conceivable that noah has been bullied and has been able to hide it from anyone associated with total drama/the press or he hasn't been bullied at all.

one specific thing to note in the his biographies is that it specifies he hasn't been bullied at school ("never got picked on in the schoolyard" and "made the school bully cry at assembly") so it's possible that he has been bullied outside of school.

the assumption that noah would be bullied is a reasonable one considering how he behaves toward his team in tdi, how he's constantly sarcastic/disparaging, and how duncan treats him in general. but this is reality tv where things are much more heightened/higher stakes than everyday life.

the one moment we do see noah at school in canon (his audition tape), he's congratulated by a passing classmate for winning class president (saying he deserves it) and noah responds simply by thanking him, no snark at all.

now, is noah smart enough to stage that interaction to make himself look better in his audition tape? absolutely. but if we take it at face value, we learn that the way noah presents himself in school is different than how he presents himself on total drama.

so, my conclusion is that the most likely scenario is that noah doesn't get bullied at school because he's able to use his wit to deter people from doing so when acting more likeable doesn't cut it. the second most likely scenario is that noah does get bullied and uses his intellect to cover it up from people like sierra + the press.

(the funny thing is i literally did not care about this debate at all until i saw the ask saying noah would be bullied and went "wait a minute im pretty sure i remember a line from his biography contradicting that" and here we are. further proof i am unwell about this show)

[total-drama-brainrot]

What if Geoff wasn't the nice, chill surfer party dude who had no problems with anyone and was friends with everyone?

No, nobody can be that nice. No teenager can be that okay with every person in the camp. No, Geoff hid it. It was a common tactic he used to get people not constantly pissed at him before (it was just annoying). Pretending to be this dumb party dude fooled everyone into believing he was that because why would you ever question HIS motives? He's just a dumb party dude!

But pretending was so, so hard. You see, he had to pretend he liked these people.

Too hard.

And one day, he slipped up.

Interesting. So Geoff's friendly demeanour and sufer boy energy is all, what, a ruse he uses to portray himself as less of a threat in the competition?

It would be an effective game plan; Geoff makes it pretty far into the game in Island, and a lot of his survivability stems from his social strengths and the fact that he's not really seen as a threat in the competition - he's a lot like Owen in that regard, just less intense with his friendliness. You could have Geoff intentionally imitate a lot of Owen's mannerisms after he notices how generally liked (or at least tolerated) he is, and it'd explain their similarities quite nicely.

It does make me wonder what Geoff would be like underneath his act. Your ask implies that he's, if not entirely misanthropic, then a lot less easygoing and amicable as he's shown to be in canon. Someone easily annoyed by others, who perhaps doesn't really have the patience to deal with a lot of the shenannagins that happen on the show, even if he pretends he does... and even if his whole game plan revolves around maintaining that misconception.

That's not to say that he isn't the Geoff we all know and love from canon. He's still the same person, he's just... not as benign. At least not internally.

You could take inspiration for this Geoff from his portrayal in Action, or maybe even his vindicitiveness from World Tour (against Blaineley, just make that energy universal) to base a lot of his real character on; a Geoff who isn't exactly antagonistic, but has a mean streak and a tendancy to hold grudges. And, of course, he'd keep the same natural charisma canon Geoff has, even if his "himbo charm" is fake.

Then it's just a case of replacing his usual good-natured aloofness with cool apathy, or even a spiteful disrgard of others, and you've got yourself the perfect canvas for a wolf in sheep's clothing.

And he's also got his friendships with the Bass boys - Harold excluded, of course - which, considering Duncan's influence, would be a nice outlet for his less sociable tendencies. A way to let loose without having to expose himself as less good-natured than he lets on.

Bringing it back to Owen, and their shared similarities: Geoff could esaily attach himself to Owen post merge, similarly to how Heather attaches herself to Lindsay, as not only a social buffer (though Geoff doesn't really need one, unlike Heather) but as a sort of pawn in the competition. The "boy's alliance" would be the perfect time to have Geoff try to integrate Owen into his social circle, which is pretty much what happens in canon anyway.

Keeping Owen as close as possible is the most strategically sound move on Geoff's part. The closer he is to Owen, the easier it is to cherry pick what aspects of Owen's personality he's going to imitate. He's also got himself at least one secured vote (in theory, since Owen's known to be easily swayed).

The issue with this?

Geoff finds Owen almost unbearable to be around.

Which is ironic, given that he's conciously and intentionally trying to be as Owen-like as possible, but it's true. He can't understand how anyone can be as unconditionally and authentically cordial as Owen is, and it pisses him off. He has a hard enough time acting friendly and warm around people he doesn't like, but when it comes to doing the same with someone he actively despises?

It's enough to wear his already thin patience down until it snaps.

[trillscienceofficer]

I think it's actually quite interesting to see “Someone To Watch Over Me” still considered among the Voyager best (needless to say, I disagree!) Here are two perspectives, one ‘unofficial’ from shortly after the episode aired, and another more official for the show's 25th anniversary, which just ends up borrowing from the former, by then already 20-ish years old, source!

from Cinefantastique Vol 31 #11, April 2000

from Star Trek: Voyager - A Celebration (2020)

Transcription under the cut:

From Cinefantastique:

MY FAIR BORG Behind-the-scenes of fifth season's “Someone To Watch Over Me.”

By Anna Kaplan

When thinking back on VOYAGER’S fifth season, executive producer Brannon Braga enthused, “One of my favorites of the year is ‘Someone to Witch Over Me’, the Doctor-Seven show. It’s very, very charming, and heartbreaking." In the episode, Seven finally decides to go on a date, and the Doctor coaches her on proper etiquette. Along the way, the Doctor realizes he is falling in love with Seven.

Noted scripter Michael Taylor, who worked from a story by Braga, “When an action show finds that it can do a comedy, it’s gained a certain level of confidence in its actors, in its writing staff, just in a general sense of what the show is about, that it can loosen up a bit." Enthused Jeri Ryan, “Even the editors were coming up to me on the set and saying, ‘This never happens, but everyone was coming in out of the other editing room, and stopping what they were doing and watching this show while we were cutting it together.’ They said it was just so charming that everybody loved it.”

Robert Duncan McNeill, who plays Tom Paris, directed the show. “It was a very unusual episode for STAR TREK, because it’s a very traditional romantic comedy,” he said. “I have to admit, when I first read it I was a little nervous. I thought, this is not what someone would expect from a STAR TREK show. But the response has just been incredible. A lot of people are saying it’s going to be one of our best episodes. It’s got the Doctor and Seven of Nine in a kind of MY FAIR LADY situation, with the Doctor trying to teach Seven about love, and improve her social skills, and in the process finds himself having feelings for her.”

In a subplot Ethan Phillips as Neelix gives a tour of the ship to a repressed alien monk, played by Scott Thompson of KIDS IN THE HALL. “We want to get something from his race,” said Phillips. “They arc a highly moral race, and before they can give it, we have to make sure that they sec us as an equally moral race. I am entrusted to show him our ship and all our functions, so that he can assess our righteousness. The guy turns out to be a lush, and a complete drunk. It’s kind of like that movie with Peter O’Toole, MY FAVORITE YEAR; the guy is entrusted with keeping him sober. It's a funny part and a really neat role.”

McNeill continued, “I really enjoyed working with Bob. He never gets tired of figuring out new ideas, and funny moments, and quirky things to do. Jeri found, I think, a different kind of humanity in Seven of Nine than we have seen before, a real kind of child-like sense of humor in her character. Seven and Bob sing together in a real nice, little moment."

McNeill added, “The ending wasn’t written when we shot the whole episode. When the whole script wasn’t written, we were just sort of making it up, shooting it as it was being written. It’s very hard to plan ahead and say, ‘You don’t want to give away too much in this moment. You want to save it for the end when you realize your feelings.’ It definitely kept us on our toes, kept us aware of how much we were telling, in what order we were telling the story, and not to have the Doctor fall in love with Seven in Act One, to really find the whole journey, and fill it out fully. It’s a real actors' show, so I felt particularly excited, being an actor, to work on a show that really depended on the performances and the subtleties that the actors could bring to it.”

What about the end? Said McNeill, “Because it’s two series regulars that are playing around with love, that’s always a very dangerous subject. If you go too far with it, you’ve got to live with the consequences. If you are not ready to deal with it on an ongoing basis on the series, then you have to be really careful with how far you go.”

The ending was filmed some time after primary shooting finished. Laughed Robert Picardo, “This episode is like the movie CASABLANCA, because we shot it without knowing what the end will be. It’s like shooting a romantic story, without knowing the payoff. But CASABLANCA turned out pretty well. I’m hoping that we will be equally fortunate.” The writers chose not to reveal the Doctor’s feelings to Seven. At the end, the Doctor is alone at Sandrine's, playing the Gershwin tune “Someone to Watch Over Me.”

****

from Star Trek: Voyager - A Celebration:

SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME

SEASON 5 EPISODE 22

AIR DATE: APRIL 28, 1999

Teleplay by Michael Taylor

Story by Brannon Braga

Directed by Robert Duncan McNeill

Synopsis The Doctor teaches Seven about dating, then realizes he may have feelings for her himself.

One of the most popular episodes of VOYAGER is a bottle show, with the captain barely seen and no serious peril, unless failed diplomacy and a broken holographic heart count.

That Robert Picardo's EMH was going to be standout character was obvious from his first scene in VOYAGER's pilot episode. Three seasons later Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine revitalized the show with her debut. Pairing them proved to be a magic formula.

The Doctor established himself as a mentor for Seven, helping her come to terms with her humanity, a complement to Captain Janeway's maternal approach. The on-screen rapport between the two was self-evident. Ryan agrees: “I loved any of my scenes with Bob Picardo's character the Doctor. I love their dynamic. He's a delightful human being to work with and be around anyway, So that was always fun.”

In season 5's ‘Someone to Watch Over Me’, when Seven reveals a curiosity about human mating behaviour, the Doctor eagerly a lesson plan for her first steps into romantic relationships. His class is initially played for laughs. with the Doctor performing a farcical interpretive dance in front Or the image of an ovum. When Tom Paris adds his own input, he turns the tuition into a wager, which the Doctor happily agrees to. However, when Seven discovers that she is the subject of a bet she is genuinely hurt, leaving the Doctor to realize how insensitive he has been.

If the plot seems familiar, it is. “It's My Fair Lady with Seven,” cowriter Brannon Braga smiles. “‘Someone to Watch Over Me’ is one of my favorites. I thoroughly enjoyed writing that episode." Cowriter Michael Taylor summed up the setup. “Putting those two characters together in that episode, it's not the blind leading the blind, but it's the partially sighted learning from each other and also standing apart from the rest of humanity.”

A key early scene has the Doctor select a tune for Seven to sing. which she does with aplomb. Taylor said, “I remember walking around with all these ideas I had for what the song should be, and Brannon just picked this much simpler song, which was all that was needed to really focus their interaction.” The Doctor and Seven perform a duet of the much-covered 1939 ditty, ‘You Are My Sunshine’ which elicits a look of pride, or first hint of love on the Doctor's face. The story was becoming more than an amusing look at Seven's clumsy dating efforts, though her at dinner with Lieutenant Chapman at Chez Sandrine was a comedy highlight.

This episode marked cast member Robbie McNeill's third stint in the director's chair. “That was one of my favorite episodes to direct,” he says. "It had more comedy than we'd typically have. It had rom-com silliness. reached out to some actors who were very good friends of mine play some of the supporting roles that Seven went on dates with: Brian McNamara (Chapman and David Burke (who played the hologram Steven Price) Was one of my best friends and a wonderful actor."

The parallel story involving Neelix's ordeal with visiting Kadi ambassador was also farcical. "That was the episode where we had the comic actor from The Kids in the Hall [Scott Thompson]." McNeill continues. "He was the alien that came on board. the Drunk Monk We cast an actor who had a lot of comedy chops. It was one of the better light-hearted, but also really meaningful and heartfelt episodes."

The story shows just how versatile VOYAGER could be. It's a romantic comedy involving an artificial intelligence teaching a former Borg drone how to be human. There are no action sequences or alien threats and yet it is one of the series' best stories.

“There is nothing wrong with that episode,” Braga says. He was particularly pleased with one shot. “The Doctor realize he's in love with Seven of Nine and that she isn't in love him, when she's singing. Robbie McNeil does this when shes nice little push in to the Doctor as she's singing ‘You Are My Sunshine”—a great moment. That wasn't planned and you know it kind of ended there for most part, unrequited.”

The ending for the episode was yet to be written when shooting began, leaving the director and crew having to wing it. McNeill remembers, “It definitely kept us on our toes, kept us aware of how much we were telling, in what order we were telling the story, and not to have the Doctor falling love with Seven in Act One, to really find the whole journey. and fill it out fully.”

On the last scene between the Doctor and Seven Jeri Ryan reflects, "I thought that was so lovely and so touching. [The end] just broke my heart.” The conclusion is deliberately subdued as the writers were not planning to develop a romance between the Doctor and Seven of Nine. And so, the Doctor returns to holo program Paris 3 Chez Sandrine for what would be a final visit, to perform the title tune for the episode—‘Won't you tell her please to put on some speed, follow my lead, oh, how I need someone to watch over me.”

[dailyanarchistposts]

F.2.1 How does private property affect freedom?

The right-“libertarian” either does not acknowledge or dismisses as irrelevant the fact that the (absolute) right of private property may lead to extensive control by property owners over those who use, but do not own, property (such as workers and tenants). Thus a free-market capitalist system leads to a very selective and class-based protection of “rights” and “freedoms.” For example, under capitalism, the “freedom” of employers inevitably conflicts with the “freedom” of employees. When stockholders or their managers exercise their “freedom of enterprise” to decide how their company will operate, they violate their employee’s right to decide how their labouring capacities will be utilised and so under capitalism the “property rights” of employers will conflict with and restrict the “human right” of employees to manage themselves. Capitalism allows the right of self-management only to the few, not to all. Or, alternatively, capitalism does not recognise certain human rights as universal which anarchism does.

This can be seen from Austrian Economist W. Duncan Reekie’s defence of wage labour. While referring to “intra-firm labour markets” as “hierarchies”, Reekie (in his best ex cathedra tone) states that ”[t]here is nothing authoritarian, dictatorial or exploitative in the relationship. Employees order employers to pay them amounts specified in the hiring contract just as much as employers order employees to abide by the terms of the contract.” [Markets, Entrepreneurs and Liberty, p. 136 and p. 137]. Given that “the terms of contract” involve the worker agreeing to obey the employers orders and that they will be fired if they do not, its pretty clear that the ordering that goes on in the “intra-firm labour market” is decidedly one way. Bosses have the power, workers are paid to obey. And this begs the question: if the employment contract creates a free worker, why must she abandon her liberty during work hours?

Reekie actually recognises this lack of freedom in a “round about” way when he notes that “employees in a firm at any level in the hierarchy can exercise an entrepreneurial role. The area within which that role can be carried out increases the more authority the employee has.” [Op. Cit., p. 142] Which means workers are subject to control from above which restricts the activities they are allowed to do and so they are not free to act, make decisions, participate in the plans of the organisation, to create the future and so forth within working hours. And it is strange that while recognising the firm as a hierarchy, Reekie tries to deny that it is authoritarian or dictatorial — as if you could have a hierarchy without authoritarian structures or an unelected person in authority who is not a dictator. His confusion is shared by Austrian guru Ludwig von Mises, who asserted that the “entrepreneur and capitalist are not irresponsible autocrats” because they are “unconditionally subject to the sovereignty of the consumer” while, on the next page, admitting there was a “managerial hierarchy” which contains “the average subordinate employee.” [Human Action, p. 809 and p. 810] It does not enter his mind that the capitalist may be subject to some consumer control while being an autocrat to their subordinated employees. Again, we find the right-“libertarian” acknowledging that the capitalist managerial structure is a hierarchy and workers are subordinated while denying it is autocratic to the workers! Thus we have “free” workers within a relationship distinctly lacking freedom — a strange paradox. Indeed, if your personal life were as closely monitored and regulated as the work life of millions of people across the world, you would rightly consider it the worse form of oppression and tyranny.

Somewhat ironically, right-wing liberal and “free market” economist Milton Friedman contrasted “central planning involving the use of coercion — the technique of the army or the modern totalitarian state” with “voluntary co-operation between individuals — the technique of the marketplace” as two distinct ways of co-ordinating the economic activity of large groups (“millions”) of people. [Capitalism and Freedom, p. 13] However, this misses the key issue of the internal nature of the company. As right-“libertarians” themselves note, the internal structure of a capitalist company is hierarchical. Indeed, the capitalist company is a form of central planning and so shares the same “technique” as the army. As Peter Drucker noted in his history of General Motors, ”[t]here is a remarkably close parallel between General Motors’ scheme of organisation and those of the two institutions most renowned for administrative efficiency: that of the Catholic Church and that of the modern army.” [quoted by David Engler, Apostles of Greed, p. 66] Thus capitalism is marked by a series of totalitarian organisations. Dictatorship does not change much — nor does it become less fascistic — when discussing economic structures rather than political ones. To state the obvious, “the employment contract (like the marriage contract) is not an exchange; both contracts create social relations that endure over time — social relations of subordination.” [Carole Pateman, The Sexual Contract, p. 148]

Perhaps Reekie (like most right-“libertarians”) will maintain that workers voluntarily agree (“consent”) to be subject to the bosses dictatorship (he writes that “each will only enter into the contractual agreement known as a firm if each believes he will be better off thereby. The firm is simply another example of mutually beneficial exchange.” [Op. Cit., p. 137]). However, this does not stop the relationship being authoritarian or dictatorial (and so exploitative as it is highly unlikely that those at the top will not abuse their power). Representing employment relations as voluntary agreement simply mystifies the existence and exercise of power within the organisation so created.

As we argue further in the section F.3, in a capitalist society workers have the option of finding a job or facing abject poverty and/or starvation. Little wonder, then, that people “voluntarily” sell their labour and “consent” to authoritarian structures! They have little option to do otherwise. So, within the labour market workers can and do seek out the best working conditions possible, but that does not mean that the final contract agreed is “freely” accepted and not due to the force of circumstances, that both parties have equal bargaining power when drawing up the contract or that the freedom of both parties is ensured.

Which means to argue (as right-“libertarians” do) that freedom cannot be restricted by wage labour because people enter into relationships they consider will lead to improvements over their initial situation totally misses the point. As the initial situation is not considered relevant, their argument fails. After all, agreeing to work in a sweatshop 14 hours a day is an improvement over starving to death — but it does not mean that those who so agree are free when working there or actually want to be there. They are not and it is the circumstances, created and enforced by the law (i.e., the state), that have ensured that they “consent” to such a regime (given the chance, they would desire to change that regime but cannot as this would violate their bosses property rights and they would be repressed for trying).

So the right-wing “libertarian” right is interested only in a narrow concept of freedom (rather than in freedom or liberty as such). This can be seen in the argument of Ayn Rand that ”Freedom, in a political context, means freedom from government coercion. It does not mean freedom from the landlord, or freedom from the employer, or freedom from the laws of nature which do not provide men with automatic prosperity. It means freedom from the coercive power of the state — and nothing else!” [Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, p. 192] By arguing in this way, right-“libertarians” ignore the vast number of authoritarian social relationships that exist in capitalist society and, as Rand does here, imply that these social relationships are like “the laws of nature.” However, if one looks at the world without prejudice but with an eye to maximising freedom, the major coercive institutions are the state and capitalist social relationships (and the latter relies on the former). It should also be noted that, unlike gravity, the power of the landlord and boss depends on the use of force — gravity does not need policemen to make things fall!

The right “libertarian,” then, far from being a defender of freedom, is in fact a keen defender of certain forms of authority. As Kropotkin argued against a forerunner of right-“libertarianism”:

“The modern Individualism initiated by Herbert Spencer is, like the critical theory of Proudhon, a powerful indictment against the dangers and wrongs of government, but its practical solution of the social problem is miserable — so miserable as to lead us to inquire if the talk of ‘No force’ be merely an excuse for supporting landlord and capitalist domination.” [Act For Yourselves, p. 98]

To defend the “freedom” of property owners is to defend authority and privilege — in other words, statism. So, in considering the concept of liberty as “freedom from,” it is clear that by defending private property (as opposed to possession) the “anarcho”-capitalist is defending the power and authority of property owners to govern those who use “their” property. And also, we must note, defending all the petty tyrannies that make the work lives of so many people frustrating, stressful and unrewarding.

Anarchism, by definition, is in favour of organisations and social relationships which are non-hierarchical and non-authoritarian. Otherwise, some people are more free than others. Failing to attack hierarchy leads to massive contradiction. For example, since the British Army is a volunteer one, it is an “anarchist” organisation! Ironically, it can also allow a state to appear “libertarian” as that, too, can be considered voluntary arrangement as long as it allows its subjects to emigrate freely. So equating freedom with (capitalist) property rights does not protect freedom, in fact it actively denies it. This lack of freedom is only inevitable as long as we accept capitalist private property rights. If we reject them, we can try and create a world based on freedom in all aspects of life, rather than just in a few.

[xoangel-dust]

Yet another Total Drama Controversy Meme: SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR SEASON TWO OF THE REBOOT

Favorite Character: Dawn - I’ve been a fan of hers even before the season aired back in the day (I was able to watch the French version that leaked). She’s probably considered “overrated” today but she’s still a decent character.

Despised Character: Chase - he’s funny but…then he opens his mouth and how he treats Emma irritates me.

Favorite Season: Total Drama Island (2007/2008)- I can rewatch this season many times over it still holds up to this day .

Despised Season: Total Drama Action - this season just makes me mad. It broke both Duncney and Gwent up, derailed the four of them and it dragged way too much for having a smaller cast.

Most Overrated Character: Julia - I feel like they tried way too hard to get people to like her and every “villainous” act she’s done as been OFF SCREEN! Then they made her the villain for season two of the reboot which just made her worse. I never saw the appeal and genuinely didn’t like her from the beginning.

Most Underrated Character: Dakota - she was done SO dirty during revenge of the island and did not deserve being exposed to radiation.

Favorite Couple: Alejandro x Heather - their chemistry is UNMATCHED, they’re made for one another and I genuinely cannot see them not being together and married.

Despised Character: Gwourtney - don’t hate me y’all but I’ve always found them to be so fake. They were “friends” for maybe one episode during world tour then Gwen kissed Duncan. Not to mention them probably voting for one another in said season. Then all stars happened with Gwen saying,”oh Duncan and Courtney weren’t together when I kissed Duncan!1!1!” Then we have Courtney’s list being exposed showing that she didn’t actually want to take Gwen to the final 2 or whatever. Nothing but backstabbing. (Plus I ship Gwen with Leshawna!!)

Favorite Song: Her real name isn’t Blaineley - Blaineley deserved it. It’s a hilarious and catchy song.

Despised Song: Shearing Sheep - horribly off beat which makes it hard to listen to.

Favorite Episode: If You Can’t Take The Heat - easily top 5 of my favorite episodes of the series. Entertaining from start to finish, Heather getting locked in the freezer after getting her eyebrows burned off HILARIOUS! Beth being the reason her team was on a losing streak.

Despised Episode: Sunday Muddy Sundae - looking back I think action derailed her the most of this episode just…stress…the way Mal just MAGICALLY found her list pisses me off to this day. The way everyone turned on Courtney simply for playing the game.

[fraudulent-cheese]

[ACT III AND IV - Crescendo of a Descent] or : Gwen in the TQCC AU

For context, this is for the au i just detailed here, but have been fleshing out for a while!

Originally, Gwen wasn't a huge part of it, but over the last month i've gotten way more interested in her character progression and journey over the course of the entire show and i thought that hey! exploring it sounds fun!

So i'll start with this: Yes, the cheating plotline still happens, the way it resolves itself changes; Gwen is sorry, and does break up with Duncan in the EX Files episode, then votes herself out in the Australia episode, not before trying to apologize to Courtney for the cheating in the first place, but she gets pushed out of the plane before she can finish.

Since the episode hasn't aired yet, the most recently aired episode is London. The eliminated contestants and Aftermath crowd were too busy celebrating Alejandro being eliminated at all to question him about any events that had happened since Noah's arrival, so they all found out as the episode aired.

Right before Gwen arrived at the Hotel they're staying in.

Needless to say, she is not welcomed well by the other cast members, with reactions ranging from people going after her again for her stupid love life ; remember, some of these people were hard on her for the Gwent break-up during Action, and it was nowhere as bad as this. That and the likes of Geoff hate cheaters, and wouldn't be nice to 'the other woman' to me, especially not when she was aware of the relationship Duncan was in. Not many like Courtney, but they can agree she didn't deserve to have her one friend on her team betray her like that!

Gwen's been through the whole song and dance of being painted as the vilain in romance drama, but this time it's different. It's different because she knows she's in the wrong, she wants to make up for it, and to her she already has right? She's dumped Duncan and apologized to Courtney!

But the cast isn't aware of that yet. They're still processing it even happening. And frankly, she knows the following two episodes won't paint her in a better light considering this is Total Drama. Most of the cast settles on giving her the cold shoulder for now, with some being more hostile towards her. It's highschool all over again.

Hey! At least she doesn't have to share her room with anyone right? That, and not every camper's hostile towards her; outside of Leshawna who was willing to hear her out, there's Noah who's generally disinterested in romance drama (and was considering betting on how fast it would fall apart but shush) and there's Alejandro, weirdly enough. She's not sure why he'd want to interact with her, she figures it's just because he hasn't screwed her over on the show.

She generally doesn't go in the common room of the Hotel anyway. She'd rather be alone than deal with the weird tension that settles in whenever she's there, it's just awkward enough that no one feels distrubed enough to call it out, but still present and felt by everyone there.

Eventually, Aftermath Aftermayhem rolls around and mostly stays like in canon, aside from possibly Blaineley trying to press her about Duncan again before the musical number, and she blows up a bit before immediatly trying to walk it back. She stays quiet for the rest of the episode afterwards.

By that point, most of the tension around her has defused and none of the cast are activally hostile towards her as the episodes air. She still mostly sticks around the few that didn't turn on her after the whole Duncan debacle; hanging out with Leshawna and Trent during the day or when she's feeling sociable, and with Noah and Alejandro whenever she wants quiet but not solitude, and sometimes at night.

Yeah she's part of the titular "Quiet Corner Club" after the third aftermath. Izzy's also sometimes there, and she's the one who coined the name (Gwen was on board, Noah thought it was neat and Alejandro thought it was ridiculous but had to go along with it anyway)

And that's mostly it for the TDWT period! That's not the end of her arc however, she knows for a fact the second the season's over and she'll go back home that the backlash for her actions this season won't be fun to deal with. But for now, she settles on rereading her warrior cats collection, trying out painting and playing Uno with the other cast members right before any episode airing.

[destinygoldenstar]

Tbh I expected everyone to hate TDDRI Duncan.

I do not care if my story is fanfiction or not. It’s still a portrayal of the character. You HAVE to give a reason for your audience to care, and not rely on other sources to do that for you.

You won’t believe how many fan fictions I’ve countered of media I’ve never seen or even heard of.

You gotta treat your fanfiction audience like they’re oblivious to the media it’s a fan thing of. It helps.

You would think that I would just make my favorite character the protagonist of this fic, right?

Wrong.

In the canon show, I have a love/hate relationship with this character. On the one hand, he’s an asshole, he’s done bad things, and his character development in the show is forgotten about in All Stars. When he gets beat up, I don’t really care and I’m usually routing for the person doing the beating.

On the other hand, he’s one of the most intriguing characters to me and an interesting one to study. That’s one of the reasons why I took on the challenge.

This isn’t an average Joe. This isn’t a talentless nice hopeful bean. This is a criminal with a reputation of playing people, bullying, and arson, and is overall a tough shell with some pride of his status.

Nobody can relate to this. (If you do… I’m concerned) That’s not the point here.

TDDRI is its own separate universe from Danganronpa universe rules. So I can say this without it being like I’m referring to what the games did: TDDRI is a lot of things. The desperation for peace and happiness in a bleak world, the murders, trying to figure out about this island and how to get off of it before they’re all wiped out, what the motivations of television and fan bases can do to the mindsets of the people involved, despair being inevitable to avoid and figuring out how to deal with it, who really is at fault for your suffering. But for me, at its core, it’s a character driven story about these kids with damaging labels of identity trying to find redemption in themselves and who they are without them. Peace of sticking to things, or Drama of letting go.

My criteria for any protagonist I write is: Are they fun to read? Are their actions understandable? Do they get consequences?

That’s especially true for a character intended to be unlikeable.

Imagine if his behavior was never called out and everyone loved and praised him for it right away.

Not the case, because Duncan’s actions deserve to be called out and given significant consequences for. Consequences that affect him. And whatever praise he gets, he has to EARN.

I plan to dive even more into it later, but there’s established reasons why he acts the way he does. He’s burdened with his label of being the bad boy and believes it’s the only thing he can be without backlash. You can see that he really does have emotions under there that sometimes come out as reactions to the things that happen. Emotions that make him human.

On top of that, he’s also fun to write. Which I never imagined I would say that. There’s plenty of overconfidence moments to jab at, and some takes of his mischievous side. It’s a take on a character that’s interesting to read about because there’s some entertaining traits.

I should really hate TDDRI Duncan. If you look at it on the surface, I should hate this guy in this story and therefore it should be awful. But I love it. It’s crazy to me that I thought this fic would fail back when it was in its first chapter. Nobody in my comments have said they hated Duncan as well.

Both him and GoldenStar, I consider ‘unlikeable protagonists’. With Akane Hoshina/GoldenStar, she has more redeeming qualities than Duncan does, as she’s just ‘the school bully’, and she strongly cares for her best friend and her mother and wants to work to help them. But she’s also snarky, a hot head, a bitter teenager, non self aware of the faults in her worldview, and puts in no effort at life and instead chooses to yell at it. As early as Chapter 2, she faces a consequence that affects her and haunts for the rest of her life, where she gets powers, uses them for a selfish reason and causes a crime that puts her best friend in a coma. And she’s stuck with the burden of trying to live up to the name of the character in her book, but also find a way to save her friend and the other people who are in a coma because of her. She feels all the guilt in the world and it’s the first wake up call that actually phases her. And she’s younger than Duncan in TDDRI, so there’s that explanation (not excuse).

Writing an unlikeable protagonist is NOT ‘cool’.

It’s really hard. Because if your audience hates the MC, the whole story suffers for it.

What matters about it is that there’s a character driven narrative behind that purposeful unlikeability. To give the characters enough flaws to be problematic, then strip those away through character development until they become a loveable character by the end.

The idea that unlikeability is ‘cool’ is plain wrong. Don’t reward negative traits. Unless they’re the villain.

[leonave]

Hmmm, opinions on all seasons?

AMAZING question anon!! under the cut :-3

island: 8/10! its silly, a little edgy but not distractingly so. i love the background, casual moments between characters. its light on plot and drama but it is a great introduction to the cast, their relationships, and the tone of the series. great comfort watch!

action: ?/10. i rate it like that because it really depends on my mood lol! there are parts of action i really love and others i really hate with like. no middle ground? i thought the duncan/beth finale was fun and the justin antag arc was both hilarious and genuinely cool. its kind of a chore to watch though, the strongest feeling i remember while watching action was a sense of "how did they stretch this into 25 episodes"

world tour: 7.5/10 i really liked world tour on my first watch but the more i consider it, the more im neutral on it. i love sierra and alejandro but a lottt of characters got derailed in turn. mainly gwourtney and everyone who fell for alejandro. the characters feel kind of one-note too? conflicts come and go super quickly as well. but the constant action works in its favor! i was never bored :-) also noahs back which is good

revenge of the island: 8.5/10! incredibly fun with so many lovable characters who all provide some unique but still grounded qualities to the show. also one of, if not THE funniest season. i just remember it feeling so incredibly empty. its not the size of the cast bc i didnt feel that way about all stars or pahkitew island, its just something abt the tone and the way shots are framed. its definitely still getting used to the feeling of a smaller cast lol. great season i like it a lot!

all stars: 5/10. i dont hate any season of total drama but this comes Close. which ik is not a new opinion but still. the dialogue is so unnatural and fake, and while i actually enjoy the direction they went with some characters (scottney and much sillier alejandro) a LOT of them went completely unhinged. also there werent many g1-g2 interactions as i expected? sadface :-( the elimination order is kinda strange too and the zoke finale was a snoozefest.

pahkitew island: 10/10!! you knew where this was going. yes i love pahkitew island so much its unreal. it clearly doesnt take itself seriously and is just a really fun watch to me. the characters are all cool and likable in their own right, with a surprising amount of detail in the form of background conversations and unassuming friendships!! theres a lot of ambiguity behind everything too, from the setting to the characters, so its fun to theorize and headcanon about :-D its pretty different tonally from the rest of the show, which is honestly a really nice refresher from the drama-heavy all stars and world tour. A+ my fav

i havent seen enough rr to rate sorry :-(

td2023: 6/10: pretty funny! i like the character designs and concepts, they were all likable and decent enough for me. i just dont have many thoughts on it? it doesnt feel like total drama, and i have no clue why. the voice acting? the subplots? idk!! its like a really good fanmade show, which isnt a bad thing, its just A Thing. it also suffers from the roti emptiness, it feels really like. muffled. idk confusing thoughts on 23. definitely dont hate it though!!

[rockislandadultreads]

Introducing the 2023 National Book Awards Longlists!

The National Book Foundation has officially announced the longlists for the 2023 National Book Awards! These are just a handful of the titles chosen for the fiction category. To see all of the titles selected, be sure to click here.

Chain-Gang All-Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

Loretta Thurwar and Hamara "Hurricane Staxxx" Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE, or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment, a highly-popular, highly-controversial, profit-raising program in America's increasingly dominant private prison industry. It's the return of the gladiators and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom.

In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches, a fact she carries as heavily as her lethal hammer. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games, but CAPE's corporate owners will stop at nothing to protect their status quo and the obstacles they lay in Thurwar's path have devastating consequences.

Moving from the Links in the field to the protestors to the CAPE employees and beyond, Chain-Gang All-Stars is a kaleidoscopic, excoriating look at the American prison system's unholy alliance of systemic racism, unchecked capitalism, and mass incarceration, and a clear-eyed reckoning with what freedom in this country really means.

Ponyboy by Eliot Duncan

In the first of three acts, Ponyboy’s titular narrator—a pill-popping, speed-snorting trans-masculine lightning bolt—unravels in his Paris apartment. Ponyboy is caught in a messy love triangle with Baby, a lesbian painter who can’t see herself being with someone trans, and Toni, a childhood friend who can actually see Ponyboy for who he is. Strung out, Ponyboy follows Baby to Berlin in act two, where he sinks deeper into drugs and falls for Hart, a fellow writer, all the while pursued by a megalomaniacal photographer hungry for the next hot thing. As Ponyboy’s relationships crumble, he overdoses and finds himself alone in his childhood home in Nebraska. The novel’s final act follows Ponyboy to rehab, exploring the ways in which trans identity, addiction, and recovery reforge the bond between mother and child.

Eliot Duncan reveals, in precise atmospheric prose reminiscent of Anne Carson and Allen Ginsberg, the innate splendor, joy, and ache of becoming oneself.

The End of Drum-Time by Hanna Pylväinen

It’s 1851 at the edge of the arctic circle, and things are changing quickly. The church outpost that Lars Levi, a fervent Lutheran minister, mans is a rugged, sparsely populated one. But as the zeal of his teachings mounts, so does the attendance at the weekly services he holds. The Sámi reindeer herders he’s been sent to minister to are skeptical of the Christian values—and strict rules—he preaches, but when Biettar, one of the Sami’s most respected herders, has a dramatic religious awakening on the shortest day of the year, more and more of the Sámi people become ready to let their long-held traditions and beliefs give way to new ones. Biettar’s new commitment to Lars and his teachings means that Biettar’s son, Ivvár, is left to tend the family’s reindeer herd alone, an increasingly impossible task.

Meanwhile, Lars’s daughter, Willa, has always been the picture of obedience, until a chance encounter with Ivvár leads to an infatuation that gradually becomes something more. When a catastrophic illness threatens the life of her young brother, everything she’s ever believed is called into question, making her feel reckless—and free—in a way she’s never been before.

Gorgeously written and stunning in scope, The End of Drum-Time is both a powerful immersion into a rich and sometimes forgotten culture and a celebration of a beautiful, ancient way of life. It masterfully weaves together the complex geopolitics and rich tradition of nineteenth-century Scandinavia; brings to life a people caught between an old way of life and the new; and asks how what we believe shapes the course of our lives.

This Other Eden by Paul Harding

In 1792, formerly enslaved Benjamin Honey and his Irish wife, Patience, discover an island where they can make a life together. Over a century later, the Honeys’ descendants and a diverse group of neighbors are desperately poor, isolated, and often hungry, but nevertheless protected from the hostility awaiting them on the mainland.

During the tumultuous summer of 1912, Matthew Diamond, a retired, idealistic but prejudiced schoolteacher-turned-missionary, disrupts the community’s fragile balance through his efforts to educate its children. His presence attracts the attention of authorities on the mainland who, under the influence of the eugenics-thinking popular among progressives of the day, decide to forcibly evacuate the island, institutionalize its residents, and develop the island as a vacation destination. Beginning with a hurricane flood reminiscent of the story of Noah’s Ark, the novel ends with yet another Ark.

Full of lyricism and power, This Other Eden explores the hopes and dreams and resilience of those seen not to fit a world brutally intolerant of difference.

Temple Folk by Aaliyah Bilal

In Temple Folk, Black Muslims contemplate the convictions of their race, religion, economics, politics, and sexuality in America. The ten stories in this collection contribute to the bounty of diverse narratives about Black life by intimately portraying the experiences of a community that resists the mainstream culture to which they are expected to accept and aspire to while functioning within the country in which they are born.

In “Due North,” an obedient daughter struggles to understand why she’s haunted by the spirit of her recently deceased father. In “Who’s Down?” a father, after a brief affair with vegetarianism, conspires with his daughter to order him a double cheeseburger. In “Candy for Hanif” a mother’s routine trip to the store for her disabled son takes an unlikely turn when she reflects on a near-death experience. In “Woman in Niqab,” a daughter’s suspicion of her father’s infidelity prompts her to wear her hair in public. In “New Mexico,” a federal agent tasked with spying on a high-ranking member of the Nation of Islam grapples with his responsibilities closer to home.

With an unflinching eye for the contradictions between what these characters profess to believe and what they do, Temple Folk accomplishes the rare feat of presenting moral failures with compassion, nuance, and humor to remind us that while perfection is what many of us strive for, it’s the errors that make us human.

[itspileofgoodthings]

Suddenly a new ambition is presented to [Macbeth]... and he realizes that nothing lies across his path to the Crown of Scotland except the sleeping body of Duncan. If he does that one cruel thing, he can be infinitely kind and happy. Here, I say, is the first and most formidable of the great actualities of Macbeth. You cannot do a mad thing in order to reach sanity. Macbeth's mad resolve is not a cure even for his own irresolution.

The Macbeths, G. K. Chesterton

[akumatizedpuns]

Courtney Defense Post

This is a post made to clear up misinfo and hopefully provide people with a better/comprehensive understanding of Courtney's character. Courtney receives excessive hate from many Total Drama fans that has only in recent years begun to dissipate. Let's get right into the post.

The Love Triangle

This post will be frequently mentioning the love debacle between Gwen, Duncan, and Courtney. If you ship any of these, especially Gwuncan, this might not be an easy read. Just letting you know in advance.

The Network

Since it will be brought up a lot in this post, lets start with talking about the cast/crew of the network. I'll keep it short.

During its active run, Total Drama ran on two channels, Teletoon and Cartoon Network.

The creator shipped Duncney and Gwent. The network coerced the writers/creator of the show into breaking up Duncan and Courtney for the sake of 'drama' and 'realism.' It's a little bit important to note that they didn't have to break up Gwent, but they did have to create a love triangle out of the scenario somehow and weren't really left with a choice.

Duncan's VA, who also ships Duncney essentially stated that Duncan didn't actually love Gwen more than he did the idea of her and them being together because Duncan liked the fact that they had so much in common more than anything else.

Of course, he's a VA so it's safe to take his words with a grain of salt, but it's likely he asked the writing team and ended up recieving this as an answer.

Gwen

Let's start with Gwen. I feel like no one focuses enough on her betrayal/actions toward Courtney. I very much believe in the 'don't blame the 'sidechick' ideology, but that doesn't rid her of accountability. The fact that the show ALSO framed her as somehow being the victim of Courtney's actions is sickening and problematic.

Even more so when you consider the way the show wrote other BIPOC besides Courtney in the show during the earlier seasons. But I'll go more into that later.

So Gwen was basically your goth, laidback, not like the other girls archetype with depths beyond her appearance. Cliche, albeit, not extremely so, so she was very likable. Personally, she was once my favorite character and one of my first fictional crushes.

What a lot of Gwen fans and people who watch/watched the show, in general, fail to acknowledge is her snakey behavior towards Courtney.

From going out of her way to assure Courtney that absolutely NOTHING was going on between herself and Duncan only to date/flirt with him hardly a season later to admitting to kissing Duncan whilst knowing he was in a relationship with her closest friend only to take it back and claim that she did nothing wrong because 'the boy was free' (which, is a plot hole, as I mentioned earlier, but still was inexcusable for Gwen to declare nonetheless).

Pretty much, she gaslighted Courtney, which is absolutely NOT okay. And when Courtney decided to place her trust in her, she played with that, too.

Gwen is wishy-washy in general. One example is when she got pissed at Trent for leaving her buried (mind you, Trent was dealing with his own fear/trauma). Then in the next episode, they'd made up. Then episodes later, she decides she's still pissed at him for leaving her buried.

This behavior was also shown through her relationship with Duncan. I'm not mad at Gwen for being moody. She's a teenager. But the fact that this is never called out by the same fans who say they wish Courtney would die jars me.

It's also crazy how people call Duncney toxic, but don't consider Gwen's moodiness and then her refusal to communicate it not toxic as well? There are episodes wherein she straight up ignores Duncan or acts passively-aggressively toward him. Meanwhile, Duncan has no clue what's even going on.

On a psychological level, it's been proven that even if you have to scream at your partner whilst you're communicating with them, it's a lot better than being passive-aggressive and ignoring them. This also happened with Trent. Except, Gwen actually appeared to eventually get past this and learned to communicate better thanks to him. Of course, with the forced writing, they ended up devolving Gwen's character back to the way it was once Gwuncan came around.

Being Betrayed

What kills me is the way fans criticize Courtney for the way she treated Gwen and Duncan. AFTER they had both betrayed her. This is no justification, but Courtney was a person who was acting out of pain, betrayal, and broken trust. Lots of fans believe she just got over it in no time when in reality she was just processing and then conveying her pain in a more crass manner.

There's also the argument used that Courtney mistreated or abused Duncan.

There is no denying that she nagged and yelled at him. But she NEVER abused him. And in multiple instances, Duncan is shown to actually enjoy the fact that Courtney's on his ass all the time. Duncan has an inclination toward feistier girls and toward the end of their relationship it was shown that he didn't like (neither did he deserve) Gwen's more laidback way of confronting issues and going about things, for better or worse because he's a slightly more high-strung person and thrives off of motivation from someone more or at least equally as high-strung as he is (this isn't to say Duncan is high-strung, he just is in comparison to Gwen).

People often bring up that list she gave him of things he needed to change to maintain their relationship. I agree that this was extreme. But she literally acknowledges this and starts to realize she likes his imperfections less than a few episodes later.

Courtney was a teenage girl navigating what was very likely her first relationship. I could understand a lot more if she hadn't been shown to learn from her actions, but she did.

Gwen versus Courtney/Subconcious Biases

Let's backtrack a bit again into the inner-workings of the show.

Total Drama was a show that ran from the late 2000s to the mid-2010s (at least this applies to most of the seasons that involved the original cast). This was a period where internalized misogyny and microaggressive forms of racism among other things were rampant in all sorts of media but wasn't really acknowledged by those who consumed said entertainment.

It's important to note that before I say this, Courtney is mistaken by some fans to be of Latinx descent.

Anyway, Gwen fits similar archetypes as the following characters in fiction: Jade West, Sam Manson, and Mal Bertha. All of them fit the 'not like the other girls' archetype I mentioned earlier. Only the first regularly faces consequences for her actions and without the narrative regularly or semi-regularly framing her as being in the right. But all of them to this day are adored by fans. The latter two also have rivalries with WOC (Women of Color). With all said women of color often being villainized in some way, shape, or form (Descendants luckily broke this trope in their final movie).

The writers usually make the women of color 'popular' or 'feisty/strong' or somehow give them the upper-hand in the story/situation in an attempt to empower them. But it ends up framing the non-woc in the situation as someone who is being victimized or someone who is saintly or morally superior. Even if they were actually wrong or the one being antagonistic in the beginning, they'll find some way to make the WOC do something to show the audience that 'Omg, (non-woc) was right after all!' This is highly apparent in total drama when Courtney's plan to eliminate Gwen ends up being exposed.

Lots of fans tend to lean toward Gwen because of her aesthetic and as a result of subconscious racism without even being aware that this is the mindset that they are perpetuating and is what they're doing.

I'm not trying to say 'Courtney's black, feel bad for her' or even trying to make this about race when I point this out. I'm just acknowledging the racist subtleties. I highly recommend watching the second episode of Danny Phantom to gain a better idea of what I'm talking about in this section of the post.

Anyway, unless someone comes with a valid reason as to why they loathe Courtney but love Gwen I'm gonna be side-eyeing them from now on. Just because Gwen is a more subtle kind of terrible, that doesn't mean she's any better than Courtney. She's actually worse if that's the case. That said, I'm not accusing anyone who does have this stance of being a racist. Just saying that they should most definitely mull it over. If you can excuse Gwen's terrible behavior but can continuously bash Courtney, then please think twice.

[real-total-drama-takes]

Duncan’s over-hated

I’m gonna go ahead and elaborate on this, but beware: English isn’t my first language and im sorry if I’m not getting my point across in a way it’s easy to understand-

Firstly, he’s someone who’s obviously had a hard upbringing. It’s stated several times that he’s gone to juvie, he puts on a ‘tough bad boy’ act in front of everyone he meets, verbally and psychically. I’m no psychologist but people don’t do this for no reason. He’s been shown to hide his emotions easily, and fake them too (Him crying in world tour was faked) meaning it’s probably something he had to do growing up a lot, for reasons that aren’t so good.

Now, onto things that he gets lots of hate for, starting off with the worst; Cheating on Courtney. (I do not condone cheating or defend that in itself) in Duncan’s case, things are a little more different.

In island, him and Courtney were a healthy relationship. He was loyal to her and genuinely loved her, growing an attachment to her (he kept a picture of her under his pillow, obviously missed her) until action. She wrote an entire document detailing everything that was ‘wrong’ with him, and that needed to change. Of course, he did seem unbothered as he usually does, but he tried his best for her because he loved her.

Even after losing a full nights worth of sleep over her? it wasn’t enough. When he tried complimenting her like she wanted? still not enough. Let’s not forget the amount of times Courtney psychically hurt him.

Here’s the important part: When he met Gwen, he found her to be someone he related to. Both of them have similar styles, love horror movies, and have been showed to bond in island (which at that point, was only a friendship and nothing more) he grew attached to her because she was kind to him, didn’t yell at or hit him. When he realized how toxic Courtney was, yes, part of him still adored her, but part of him wanted out of it (as any one would) when he and Courtney weren’t ‘technically dating’, and Gwen was single, he saw it as a sign to make a move on her because he knew he would be treated with respect, and would feel safer. Was this wrong? Yeah, cheating isn’t okay. Did Duncan has his reasons behind it? Yeah.

No one would want to be in a relationship where if you do anything that upsets the other person, you get psychically beat as punishment. That’s literal abuse, and it’s understandable why Duncan would want to get out of that toxicity. He kept going back and forth between Gwen and Courtney because of his attachment issues, he knew it was wrong but he felt like he had to keep coming back to her because he does genuinely care about people. (He considered ending his rivalry with Harold after talking with him once, gave DJ a new rabbit so he doesn’t get upset, stood up for other contestants etc etc) so it’s shown time and time again he feels remorse for people and doesn’t always want to hurt them, yet he tends to hide his emotions a lot. This is what he felt with Courtney especially.

This isn’t to defend the wrong things he’s done, for example bullying Harold and messing with Courtney and Gwen’s friendship, probably more. This is just me going over why I think he gets a little too much slander. He’s not my favorite character, but I don’t hate him. He’s had his moments, great and terrible ones. I think this is what makes him more realistic. Duncan is a complex character, not saying he didn’t hurt other people or that he’s innocent, just stating this.

Thank you for reading (if you did read all of it) another apology if this was hard to understand

.

[noco7]

NO BECAUSE YOU'RE RIGHT: Sierra didn't have character development, like, at all. It kinda made sense: abusers often don't change.

I feel like the whole Cody-Sierra sub-plot could have been an amazing opportunity to show us something really mature about consent, trauma (remember Cody is supposed to be a child-neglect victim which btw explains some behaviours of his) and victim-blaming.

The actual thing wasn't only rushed and as we say in Italy "written with the asshole", it was straight up offensive. As a SA victim myself I felt MOCKED.

It's so sad, I wonder what happened to Cody by the way, like. We saw him naked in the shower on Sierra's phone in All Stars so it means she not only knows where he lives but also stalks him. Such a terrible ending for a character like him. :[

I agree completely, anon. Also I have a habit of making really long posts, so here's a read more link:

I really really agree about it being C*derra being an amazing chance to write about serious issues, and could even act as a guide to recognizing abusive relationships, and how to help someone you know get out of them. Also could say smth about the nature of parasocial relationships. In my fantasy rewrite of TD, C*derra starts as a relationship that goes sour. It begins with Cody in a bad place , for several reasons, and he latches onto his fan, Sierra, for comfort. Things seem to be going smoothly, until he realizes that Sierra is a terrible abusive person. And there's a lot of victim blaming and manipulation, a lot of guilt-tripping, but he learns to raise his standards and escape the relationship. So in essence, the flipside of what happened in canon.

To me, it's really hard to advocate for platonic C*derra. I understand that others love the idea, but it's really hard for me to look past her actions. I'm not a survivor, but imagining a friend of mine going through what Cody went through, and then them calling me and saying "well she made me a birthday cake, so I've forgiven her for everything and we are BEST friends now." I don't know. It seems terrible. I don't think Cody should have to do anything with Sierra other than leave, and honestly for Sierra to grow as a person, I also think she needs to take herself away from Cody until she is ready to act healthy to him. I don't think they should grow together - like, what, is Cody supposed to be like "yeah she grabbed me today, BUT she didn't kiss me! Woo! Baby steps!" ??? There is no reason for Cody to be there for Sierra's character growth - and for me, the real sign of character growth would be Sierra admitting her presence was unhealthy and removing herself. And not in a "let me die," situation, but a "let me go to therapy first," situation. To be fair to TD, it is a kid's show and maybe they couldn't talk about topics like consent and trauma. I know some kid's shows talk about that, like She Ra, but TD was before that, and also it had a completely different focus. Still, given that, perhaps they shouldn't have introduced a stalker to the show in the first place, when they couldn't deal with her properly.

It could be even considered irresponsible, considering it could trigger real Survivors, or give the entirely wrong message. I've actually seen real people say they used to think Sierra did nothing wrong.

At the very least, I don't think they should have rushed the best friends angle as they did. Yes, there were times Sierra was nice to Cody, but they weren't really differentiated from how she normally acted. She always compliments Cody, so for her to praise him with Duncan is nothing out of the ordinary. And neither is the birthday cake. It's like they didn't know Sierra was going to end up being friends with him until that episode. It's weird.

The solution would be to slow down her character development until it's an actual ARC. Or as most people in the fandom do - change her actions so they aren't that extreme in the first place. I'm not really a fan of that last option, because Sierra is kinda defined by how extreme she is, and I personally think an abusive antagonist makes for a better story then a mildly annoying girl, but. I understand why others wouldn't. But that's why I write Sierra like I do.

I'm very sorry you had to go through that, and that you had to watch WT and see it happen. Dealing with a topic respectfully is something you should do, not just because it's better writing, but because it's the moral thing to do when you're writing a CHILDREN'S CARTOON.

As for what happened to Cody after WT, I believe that his friendship with Sierra didn't last long, and she proved herself to still be as possesive as she once was. That's what happens in my fic, and that's whats backed up with the weird shower photo. However, extra clips reveal that after her elimination in All Stars, Sierra lands back into Area 51, with all the Cody aliens. Perhaps she stays there, and Cody is effectively free.

Also, I have to admit that as a Cody stan, that guy's arc with Gwen also had problems. Cody's still not Sierra level creep, but it's hard to argue that he's learned from his own actions in Island, considering how he acts in WT. And personally, and this is my hot take for this post - I'm not even sure his character developed during Island.