#Does warriors have Syphilis?

[wolfiethedestorur]

Idk how many of the LU fandom watches helluva boss but if yk yk

[fetus-cakes]

Furiosa: some jumbled thoughts

I genuinely think Mad Mad: Fury Road is one of the best modern movies ever. I rarely ever like prequels/sequels to beloved 80's franchises and yet Fury Road had me thinking and talking about the themes and storytelling for literal years after the movie was out. I even got the soundtrack and played it constantly while driving.

So! That means I had insanely high expectations for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. I don't think I was ever going to be 100% happy with any origin story for Furiosa, as nothing can really beat the limitless potential of an untold story. I still tried to go to the theatre with an open mind. Alas I was disappointed.

My verdict: Mediocre! much like when Nux ate shit right in front of his idol, this movie fails to stick the landing.

so my first complaint is: SHE HAD LONG HAIR WHAT IS UP WITH THAT SHIT

it's not just an aesthetic choice, in a world where a person fights all the time and she got to repair the engine while the truck is moving, long hair is a LIABILITY. it's going to get caught in a wheel and rip her WHOLE scalp offfffffff her whole scalp!

plus. it looked like a perfectly coiffed wig, which is so out of place in the WASTELAND. how does hair the wasteland look? it should be DIRTY and OILY, there's no fucking shampoo. instead her wig only got a little dusty at the end. here's my actual biggest complaint: it felt that they were contractually obligated to use the exact same sets, costumes and characters as Fury Road; we BARELY got introduced to any new people or places. EVERYONE looks the exact same as they do in Fury Road, which takes place NINETEEN YEARS after the events here

it's so so fucking boring that Immortan Joe, People Eater and Bullet Farmer look THE EXACT SAME as they do in Fury Road

in Fury Road there's the implication that Joe is slowly dying of various tumours and diseased flesh, but he used to be younger and healthier. we should have seen fit, strong Joe at his prime and maybe this was the START of his health problems; if this movie was any good we should have seen why he wears that teeth mask (it's to hide his possibly cancerous jaw)

People Eater has both syphilis and elephantiasis, both implied to be diseases he got from being a cannibal, but by the time you lose your nose and your leg looks so swollen those are later stages of those diseases, he's close to death in Fury Road. if he has no nose and a swollen leg at the start of Furiosa, that means he held on to life and sanity for nineteen years, which is very very unlikely Fury Road makes a BIG DEAL that Joe cares about his "wives". He treats them like property and obviously is a rapist piece of shit, but he does care a lot about what happens to them

you're telling me that Joe of all people wouldn't rip the entire citadel inside out looking for Furiosa went she went missing?

that he's so stupid he couldn't put two and two together that a little girl went missing from his harem and later a teenage girl appears "out of nowhere" among his warboys? and this teenage girl seems unusually healthy and capable, unlike most of the children of the wasteland? Furiosa SHOULD have been about her victimization at the hands of Joe and her many many attempts to escape, WHICH ARE MENTIONED IN FURY ROAD. instead we see her trying to run away once (1) and she never gets punished by Joe. her anger at him in Fury Road makes no sense now

I wouldn't say I want to see rape in a movie like this, but we got set up to think there's a lot more sexual violence in the wasteland. it's explicit in the Road Warrior, it's implicit in Fury Road

we got set up to think Furiosa was a "wife" or was at least the victim of Immortan Joe in a way like that we know for a fact that JOE has set up a system in which women, especially healthy women who can have children, are at a premium and he gets first dibs there's a very unsubtle gender divide in the Citadel that we know is Joe's doing because he's the one obsessed with having healthy babies and knowing this, they're expecting us to believe Furiosa was never the target of unwanted sexual attention? in this society that Joe specifically set up so women could be victimized? I have a hard time believing it

I really am not saying I want Furiosa to be the victim of sexual assault, but I do want them to give us a good reason why she is NOT when the previous movies have established this is a regular thing.

like we could have a scene where she escapes the harem very violently but gets caught, Joe might decide she's too much trouble to keep as a breeding stock but she's feisty and strong so he will give her a chance as a War Boy, and he gets to imply that he will force her to bear children if it she's not a good fighter what we get instead is that she dressed up as a boy (and somehow doesn't get caught for years despite her disguise being shit) and then gets taken up under the wing of Praetorian Jack and she doesn't disguise her gender anymore; and Joe doesn't care?? huh???

I WISH this movie was more about Immortan Joe establishing his own cult of personality that we see fully formed in Fury Road.

it would have been so good to see War Boys not quite as manically loyal to him until he comes up with the idea that HE is a god-king that will take the boys to paradise (Valhalla) 19 years is a good timeline to establish that sort of lore about himself. the fact that they ALREADY have it when Furiosa comes to the citadel is so SO boring

it's so boring that basically NOTHING changed in the citadel for 19 years, there was no power grabs or changes in hierarchy or changes to the lore that Joe has about himself everything was consistent and running smoothly for Joe for nearly twenty years? in a wasteland where resources are extremely scarce and people are CONSTANTLY murdering each other for water, gasoline and food? stability? in THIS economy?

it would have been more interesting if part of the movie was that someone else had the Citadel and then Joe came and took it and established his own society; and we see Furiosa trade one insane warlord for a different (perhaps worse) one literally one of the things that makes the Mad Max universe cool and fascinating is that the more fractured society gets, the more people in their own little pocket cities reinvent society with their own set of insane rules the only good thing about Thunderdome was the the fact that they had the Thunderdome to settle their disputes!

loyalty is a biiiiiiig theme in Fury Road, both in how Immortan Joe artificially enforces it with his cult of personality and how Furiosa and Max have the real thing for each through shared trauma it's so insane to me that loyalty from Furiosa to Joe is not addressed ONCE, it's something that he would demand from her he just accepts that she works for him? Joe is 1000% the sort of man who would force Furiosa to shoot her own friend to prove her loyalty to him, but we don't see anything like that

(this point is minor compared to the rest) I never understood chris hemsworth as Lord Dementus, like what the fuck is his deal he got better towards the end of the movie, but the first half he was so over the place was he gonna rape Furiosa's mom? no? why does he want to have the pretty girl-child so badly? is HE a pedophile? no? he likes children, but not in a creepy way? then why does he act so weird with her is he a capable war lord or just an idiot? hard to tell! why doesn't he sell Furiosa to Immortan Joe as soon as Joe expresses interest? slaves are a premium resource! if he really likes Furiosa, then why does he relent and give her to Joe when it's clear she's going to be breeding stock? it's like they saw Lord Humungus from Road Warrior and said "we want this character but without the S&M gay shit, oh oops but if he's interested in little girls that's bad in a different way"

we barely see Furiosa kill anyone in this movie, she doesn't even join in the WAR (the war that she SHOULD join to show her loyalty to Joe so he would trust her with the war rig!!) in Fury Road she is both ruthless and efficient killer. She's not cruel, but she has zero time to compassionate. someone explain to me how the hell she got to that point without murdering people up close and personal as a younger woman. in Fury Road she is NOT afraid to get into close quarters violence with Max, despite not having a gun and having the handicap of missing her arm (and not having her prosthetic one on). this tells us she's someone who KNOWS how to fight, someone who doesn't hesitate to kill

final thoughts: the music was so anemic, during one of the war rig fights I literally found myself thinking "where's the music? the music is supposed to get us pumped up for the action right now. I don't feel the adrenaline these characters feel!" did they record ANY new music for this movie? or was it all from the Fury Road soundtrack?

final final thought: Lord Dementus being used as living fertilizer for the peach tree is so stupid and impossible. It would have been better to shown him as a corpse, rather than someone who impossibly stayed alive for months or years for a sapling to grow. Did she implant the peach pit in his dick?

Showing clips from the original movie on a sequel should be cardinal sin in filmmaking. It's like they don't trust the audience to remember, or they're telling us "you liked this right? remember how much you liked this, you'll have positive associations with this current one!" do not remind me I could be watching a better movie instead of this

[niamh-sims]

Replies

morgaine2005 replied to your photoset

... If they spread the flu across the neighborhood, does that make it the Sims equivalent of an STI?

Hmmm.... Can I work a syphilis outbreak in to the story?!?

sadoalicesims replied to your photoset “And, the Whorehouse is open for business!”

Are they like... Willingly prostitutes or just doing it out of necessity? Just curious about it, though it's a weird question. Love your gameplay btw.

I think for the purpose of this neighborhood, they’re willing.  They are my ‘extra’ family in this ‘hood, so planned to be marries off to single men.  Each lady keeps her own earnings (not taxed), and is considered to be class fluid.

withlovefromayre replied to your photo “Kinky things going on at the Whorehouse!”

Ha ha!

I love how the speech bubbles can sometimes be translated!

squeezleprime replied to your photo “Kinky things going on at the Whorehouse!”

maybe she's worried about law enforcement?

Maybe... but I have a feeling my Viking Warriors won’t worry too much about the legalities of prostitution.  And this neighborhood is fairly liberal when it comes to loving and all things sex!

mortia replied to your photoset “These two are one of my favourite couples!”

i love his tattoos!

This is the first neighborhood where it’s really appropriate to use them.  I love them too!

veetiesims2 replied to your photoset “The men get sick from their lady-loves!”

Brings a whole new meaning to lovesickness, doesn't it?!

It does, indeed!

withlovefromayre replied to your photoset

aww such a cute little puppy

It’s been so long since I’ve had puppies and kittens in the game.  They are adorable (but bloody hard work!)

nimitwinklesims replied to your photoset “And he does it again!  Seriously, Magnus is awesome.  He has saved...

It's the ponytail. It has to be the ponytail. Who can argue with the ponytail??

Grim definitely can not argue with the pony tail!

solori replied to your photoset “Puppy time!”

aww! :)

I know!  So cute!

[ascending-sunsetbutterfly]

Anyways, when will come the day where women can just go out and enjoy themselves at clubs without worrying about having their drink spiked, or a creep grinding up on them or basically groping them? when will come the day where we stop being crept upon regardless of what we wear? when will the day come where we’re not called ‘sluts’ for wanting to sleep with lots of guys whereas guys are seen as some sort of ‘warriors’ who ‘won’ lots of one-night stands? when will come the day where creepy douches will stop sizing us up and down and making us feel unsafe and worthless everywhere we go? when will come the day where we won’t be treated as inferior for the only (and stupid) fact that we’re women in whatever we do or say? when will come the day where I stop seeing comments or hear stupid attempts at ‘joking’ mentioning ‘go back to the kitchen’ or ‘make me a sandwich’??? because were it to be us telling you something like that you’d behave like a spoiled brat who throws a tantrum in the middle of the mall for no reason. Or pointing out that you want the girl across the counter to suck your little d*ck? You’re not funny, especially if you say it out loud to our faces and we barely even know you (and btw, us smiling at you while serving food at a restaurant is not a sign for you to approach us or think we’re ‘leading you on’, it’s our damn job to play that part at work). when will come the day that men will accept a ‘no’ without acting like victims or trying to coerce us into saying ‘yes’ or even killing us for it? when will come the day where women will be able to be themselves, express sexuality or be confident in their own skin without an insecure little man going off the charts with insults at us or jealous stares from fellow women who’ve fallen prey to sexist rhetorics of those same little men? when will come the day where men get across their heads that doing a little favor for us (even if not asked for!!) does not give them the ‘right’ to require sex from us? Or that if you’re doing it with someone you have no right to discard the condom halfway because ‘oh, it feels better like this’?????  I have a friend who contracted syphilis because of it, honestly go fuck yourselves for making women fall pregnant or transmitting STDs to your sexual partners (regardless of them being female or male).

The fact we can’t seem to enjoy things the other gender often enjoys like going out with friends without having to worry about someone trying to harm you in any ways possible or insulted at for the fact that you slept with lots of people or for what you wear even and let’s not mention the fact girls as young as 10 or 12yo are harassed on the daily. Or even condescending men who don’t treat women with decency at work or home because ‘they’re women, they don’t know anything about life.’

It’s the 21st century and misogyny and sexism still exist and it does not have any reason to. And so many women end up just ‘dealing with it’ or ‘getting used to it’ when they HONESTLY DON’T HAVE TO. We’re sick of it, we’ve had enough! I seriously just want to force all of those that ever degrade us, put us down to be a woman for a full week or a month and make them go through the shit they constantly put us through and see how they’d feel. But I bet not even half of them would even get the point or gain a little bit of empathy in the end.

[dear-wormwoods]

Reasons why Eddie Kaspbrak is a Gryffindor:

As a child...

- He stands up for justice even if it gets him punched in the nose, even if he’s terrified.

- He went BACK to the house on Neibolt street after being sexually harassed by a hobo with syphilis, just out of morbid curiosity, even though it was dangerous and terrifying. 

- He took responsibility for the baby dam along with Bill and Ben to Officer Nell, even when it meant possibly getting in trouble and his mom finding out, because it was the truth and the right thing to do.

- Even before outwardly defying his mother, he would find little ways to break the rules and assert his independence - eating things he wasn’t supposed to, playing where it was dangerous. Even little things like that show bravery when you’re an abused child. 

- He thinks, repeatedly, that he would die for Bill if it ever came down to it. Eddie consistently puts his friends before himself and defends them despite being smaller and physically weaker. 

- He participated in the rockfight without question, despite never having met Mike before. Even when he got a rock to the face, he got right back up, more determined than ever, and kept fighting.

- He was given the option of not participating in the smoke hole due to his asthma, and refused to take the out. Then he stayed down there as long as he possibly could, lasting longer than Stan or Ben.

- Maybe he doesn’t stand and fight Henry Bowers and his gang when he’s by himself, but he freaking LAUGHS in Henry Bowers’ face as he’s getting creamed. He laughs!

- Even after Henry breaks his arm, he KEEPS MAKING IT WORSE because of the sheer cosmic injustice of the situation, and because Eddie Kaspbrak is no coward, and has no sense of self preservation. He calls Henry crazy even as his arm is in searing pain! Henry was scared of him, because of his fearlessness.

- He gets clarity and acceptance through the pain - he realizes that pain isn’t so bad, he realizes that he IS brave and WILL survive, and most importantly he finally accepts what Mr. Keene told him about his mother, and takes it in stride.

- When he finally stands up to his mother, he does it not for his own self gain or because he wants to hurt her, he does it for his friends, and to get justice for himself. She’s scared of him NOT because he’s some cunning, manipulative person - but because this was Maturin intervening, because Sonia’s grip on Eddie was possibly too strong, and there Needed to be Seven. 

- AGAIN - THIS IS NOT HIM BEING MANIPULATIVE AND DECEITFUL FOR PERSONAL GAIN - THIS IS HIM BEING BRAVE!! THIS IS THE PEAK OF EDDIE’S BRAVERY! ADULTS ARE THE REAL MONSTERS, SONIA IS THE REAL MONSTER! EDDIE STANDS UP FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FRIENDS OUT OF BRAVERY! He speaks openly and honestly with her for the first time, with full clarity, and THAT is BRAVERY. 

- He did not go into the conversation intending to win a power struggle or gain anything from her. He went into it to fix an injustice done to himself and his friends, who he would gladly die for. He wanted her to admit that SHE is the manipulative one. He wanted her to admit that SHE is the passive aggressive one. He didn’t resort to any of her tactics. He spoke plainly, openly, and bravely. 

- He doesn’t even really blackmail her. He plainly states that MAYBE Mr. Keene was joking with him, and that he will keep an eye out for his friends and keep on using the inhaler. She gets the idea without a fuss, because he’s telling her exactly what she wants to hear - that he’ll stay sick, for her. 

- Right before they go into Neibolt again, Bill gives Eddie the option to opt out, and - again - Eddie refuses. Someone who puts themselves first would not have done that. But Eddie Kaspbrak is selfless to the point of being foolhardy. 

Bill nodded, then looked sharply at Eddie. “Cuh-Can you d-d-do this, EhEh-Eddie?” 

Eddie nodded. “Sure I can. I was alone last time. This time I’m with my friends. Right?” He looked at them and grinned a little. His expression was shy, fragile, and quite beautiful.

- Richie gives him the option of not even going with them to fight IT, because of his arm, and again he refuses, again thinking to himself that he would readily die for Bill if he needed to. Selfless. Brave. Foolish. 

- Eddie, despite being terrified of filth and disease, and despite seeing Bill as the brave leader of the group, is the one who fearlessly and confidently navigates the entire sewer system beneath Derry, going only off of instinct, and without knowing what he could end up running into. 

- THE EYE. THE FUCKING CRAWLING EYE!!! The scene speaks for its damn self. Eddie is the only one not being grabbed and pulled in by the tentacles, and he is given, by his own mind, the option to leave AGAIN - and he DOESN’T TAKE IT. He knows full well he can navigate his way out - if he was a selfish boy, if he was a real coward, he would have taken the chance. But no. Eddie Kaspbrak is the bravest Loser, hands down, no questions asked. 

Eddie’s paralysis broke wide open—It was trying to take Big Bill! 

“No!” Eddie bellowed—it was a full-blown roar. One might never have guessed such a Norse-warrior sound could issue from such a thin chest, Eddie Kaspbrak’s chest, Eddie Kaspbrak’s lungs, which were of course afflicted with the most terrible case of asthma in Derry. He bolted forward, jumping over questing tentacles without seeing them, his broken arm thumping his  own chest as it swung back and forth in its soggy cast. He fumbled in his pocket and brought out his aspirator. 

(acid that’s what it tastes like acid acid battery acid) 

He collided with Bill Denbrough’s back and slammed him aside. There was a watery ripping sound, followed by a low eager mewling that Eddie did not so much hear with his ears as feel with his mind. He raised the aspirator 

(acid it’s acid if I want it to be so eat it eat it eat) 

“BATTERY ACID, FUCKNUTS!” Eddie screamed, and triggered off a blast. At the same time he kicked at the Eye. His foot went deep into the jelly of Its cornea. There was a gush of hot fluid over his leg. He pulled his foot back, only dimly aware that he had lost his shoe. 

“FUCK OFF! CRAM IT, SAM! GO AWAY, JOSE! GET LOST! FUCK OFF!” 

- In this scene, Eddie doesn’t just harm IT with pure, selfless belief, and fucking kick it so hard he broke into the eye’s jelly. Eddie also brings all the Losers out of their respective trances, and encourages them to start fighting back. Eddie is the reason Bill fights the Eye. Eddie is the reason Ben tries harder to get Bev out of its grasp. Eddie is the reason Richie overcomes his WORST fear and joins the fight as well. Not only is Eddie Kaspbrak the navigator, and the bravest Loser, he is also he heart of the group. And IT knows this, which is why it targets Eddie FIRST in its next manifestation. 

“Fight It!” Eddie raved at the others. “It’s just a fucking Eye! Fight It! You hear me? Fight It, Bill! Kick the shit out of the sucker! Jesus Christ you fucking pussies I’m doing the Mashed Potatoes all over It AND I GOT A BROKEN ARM!” .....

“Just an Eye! Just a fucking Eye!” Eddie was screaming deliriously. He triggered his aspirator again and felt It draw back. The tentacles which had settled on him now dropped away. “Richie! Richie! Get it! It’s just an Eye!”

- IT also has it out for Eddie when it manifests as Georgie. IT knows that Georgie will be Bill’s weakness - it also knows that Eddie is strong, stronger than Bill, and is the only one Bill might listen to. So even though Eddie isn’t the only one screaming for Bill to kill IT while its acting as Georgie, Eddie IS the only one IT reacts to.

“Kill It, Bill!” Eddie shouted. “That’s not your brother! Kill It while it’s small! Kill It NOW!” 

George glanced at Eddie, cutting his shiny-silver eyes that way for just a moment, and Eddie reeled back and struck the wall as if he had been pushed. 

As an adult...

- He is the quickest of any of the Losers, aside from maybe Bev, to pick up and leave his old life behind without thinking much of it - because it was his duty, and his friends needed him. He doesn’t throw up, he doesn’t need to get wasted, he just packs a suitcase and leaves. 

- He fucking MURDERS HENRY BOWERS!! Henry comes into his room, a fair amount taller and a hundred pounds heavier, catching him off guard and calling him a fag, repeatedly, and overpowers him, and Eddie doesn’t just accept that this is the end, he fights back. He has a broken bottle as his only weapon, gets his arm broken again, and still doesn’t give up. He straight up murders Henry. Even though Henry was weakened by Mike, Eddie took a chance on fighting him. That shit is brave. 

- He refuses to go to the doctor for his newly broken arm, despite having spent the last 27 years seeing a doctor every two weeks for “check ups”, because it would mean not being able to fight IT again, and possibly getting the whole group in trouble for Henry’s death.

- He still is willing to do anything for his friends, especially Bill, 27 years later, despite spending those 27 years living in fear and being manipulated by Sonia and then Myra into believing he is weak. He ALWAYS puts his friends first and acts with extreme bravery when the situation calls for it. 

Bill nodded again. “Can you do it? With your a-a-arm broken?” 

“I can for you, Bill.”

- This one goes without saying, but while Bill and Richie are trapped in the shadow/in the deadlights, Eddie is watching and frantically thinking that the rest of them should be DOING something. But he doesn’t act, because Richie seems to have it under control. Then, Richie doesn’t anymore - Eddie hears him in his mind that he’s losing it, and instantly leaps into action. He tries the same act of selfless bravery he committed a child. Foolish, selfless bravery. And it works - it frees Bill and Richie. But...

- Eddie spent so much time thinking about how readily he would die for his friends, and he eventually does. But even in that moment, when he’s literally dying, he feels absolutely no fear, only - at long last - self acceptance, and love. His final act of bravery is casting away his mother’s hold over him at long last, feeling true clarity for who he is and what that means, and almost ALMOST gets the words out before dying. 

In the movie...

- He slaps Pennywise even though in his mind he’s about to die, because he’s not going to take it lying down.

- He overcomes his fear of greywater to run around the sewers, for his friends, and because it’s for the greater good.

- He overcomes his fear of blood and germs to help patch up a kid he literally just met.

- He’s the first to run out of the sewer opening to help Ben when Ben falls into the stream, hurt.

- He leaps out into the front lines during the rock fight because he’s brave as shit and doesn’t care what happens to him as long as he’s defending his friends.

- He is the one who is MOST concerned with keeping the group together in the sewers - he’s the first to scream for Mike in the well, he’s the first to notice Stan is missing, and he runs after Bill with the most desperation, screaming for him, not caring at all that he’s getting dirty and germy,

- He stands up to his mother in a different way than in the book, but the message is just the same - my friends need me, so you can’t stop me from helping them.

- He freaking kicks Pennywise right in the face.

- He consistently overcomes his fears, coming back braver and braver each time he does so. 

IN CONCLUSION: EDDIE KASPBRAK IS A GRYFFINDOR. Just my humble opinion but like... don’t even try to tell me I don’t “know this character” for not sorting him in Slytherin. Believe me, I know him. 

But honestly, point me to the moments in the book or even the movie where it shows that Eddie values ambition and cunning over bravery and selflessness and I’ll concede that your reasoning has validity. Everyone is entitled to their own headcanons, but don’t just say that your opinion is fact without evidence to back it up. Post those receipts, friends!!

[buffster]

Pangs (BTVS 4.08)

This is part of my ongoing Buffyverse Project, where I write notes/meta for every episode in an attempt to better understand the characters and themes of the shows. You can find the BTVS list here and the ATS list here. Gifs are not mine.

I ended up watching Pangs twice because there was a lot to digest. It was a good episode for many reasons--Angel lurking, Spike joining the gang for the first time, Thanksgiving--but also an uncomfortable one because of the racial issues. Let’s just say this straight off: if you don’t have any POC in your main cast, you probably shouldn’t make the villains POC or attempt to have conversations about race. As far as some of the more intricate issues within the episode, I don’t claim to be an expert. So if you have some thoughts on the issue feel free to reblog and add them. 

Giles: It's not fair. You know that's what she'd say. You can see her and she can't see you.

Angel: Believe me, I'm not getting the good half of the deal. To be outside, looking in at what I can't... I'd forgotten how bad it feels.

Buffy has a couple of relationships throughout BTVS, but Angel and Spike are the only ones we see her be physically aware of and really have a connection to. There are multiple scenes in Pangs where she’s off her game because she feels something...and that something is Angel, lurking in the shadows watching her. I know the plot required he not reunite with Buffy in order to entice viewers to Angel, but it’s in character. This guy loves to lurk and avoid difficult emotional conversations. He does have a point about their interactions, though...both of them are an emotional mess in I Will Remember You. 

Xander finally gets a dignified job as a construction worker and Anya is loving it. My policy is to live and let live when it comes to headcanons, but personally I think Anya is about as straight as they come. She’s all about the rippling man bod (and, as some have pointed out, she’d probably mostly date women if she was attracted to them at all). 

Xander’s first project is a new cultural center for UC Sunnydale, which is where we get our plot. He falls into a pit and awakens the spirit of a Chumash warrior. The warrior then infects him with multiple diseases because that’s what happened to his people. One of the diseases is syphilis, which is where we get the “his penis got diseases from a Chumash tribe” line in OMWF. 

Willow: Thanksgiving isn't about blending cultures, it's about one culture wiping out another. Then they make animated specials about the parts with the maize and the big big belt buckles. They don't show you the next scene where all the bison die and Squanto takes a musket ball in the stomach.

The most emotionally affected is Willow, who has inherited her concern for indigenous peoples from her mother. Ironic that Shiela refuses to participate in certain holidays for concern of others but can’t pay attention to her own daughter. She’s bad at personal relationships but very firm in her beliefs and ideas. Willow is fighting to make some kind of peace with Hus throughout the episode while Giles is firmly for taking him down (as the one with diseases, Xander is on Giles’ side). This is one of the first times we see Giles and Willow start to clash and her begin to question his authority and wisdom. 

Buffy: The thing is, I like my evil like my men: evil. You know, straight up, black hat, tie you to the railroad tracks, soon my electro ray will destroy metropolis BAD. Not all mixed up with guilt and the destruction of an indigenous culture.

I can’t really explain why, but I love when characters/the narrative acknowledges something the audience has noticed (i.e. Buffy’s interest in evil guys). Although it is a little out of place here because she hasn’t had anything with Spike yet. I don’t think we can say she’s into the dark side until it becomes a pattern, and at this point it had not. Anyway, they all go back and forth throughout the episode about what to do with Hus. Giles thinks it’s too late to do anything. I like the “Vengeance is never sated, Buffy. Hatred is a cycle...all he will do is kill” line. I also believe, as the famous quote says, ‘Hate does not drive out hate. Only love can do that.’ No matter how many times Hus takes revenge he will probably remain angry. (( Since this is Tumblr, I’ll over explain so as not to be willfully misinterpreted: I’m not saying fighting back is never the answer. Just that getting revenge is never going to make your bad feelings go away. It might make other changes, but I think hatred and anger just grow. ))

We start to see some clash between Xander and Anya because he blurts out “you don’t talk to vengeance demons. You kill them.” He prefers to ignore Anya’s past misdeeds and I don’t think he ever really reconciles them. As long as Xander didn’t see you commit evil he’s content to ignore it.

Giles: Tell me again why we're not doing this at your house.

Buffy: Giles, if you want to get by in American society you have to learn our traditions. You're the patriarch. You have to host the festivities or it's all meaningless.

Giles: And this is in no way an elaborate scheme to stick me with the clean up.

Buffy is feeling lonely and particularly protective of Thanksgiving. She’s upset her mother won’t be doing it as usual and says “everything is changing”. But she “smells a turkey and (I’m) eight years old” so she’s hoping she can keep the spirit alive herself. Buffy really is about growing up and we see Buffy move farther and farther away from childhood comforts as time goes on. Her obsession with Thanksgiving this year is her attempt to cling to the past. While Giles and Willow worry about Hus, Buffy mixes ingredients and worries about all the little cooking details. 

Buffy invites Riley but he has his own plans in Iowa.

Riley: My folks are there. We always do Thanksgiving at my grandparents farm. Little place just outside Huxley. Corn and pigs.

Buffy: That sounds wonderful.

Riley: It is. After dinner, we all go for a walk down by the river with the dogs. And there's... trees, and I know what you're thinking, it's like I grew up in a Grant Wood painting.

I know Riley doesn’t exactly fit with our band of outcasts, but that’s not necessarily a bad point for his and Buffy’s relationship. Since Buffy doesn’t have that he could have been an avenue for her to gain it. 

Riley: What's the line --"Home's the place that, when you have to go there -"

Buffy: "-- they have to take you in." That's what they say.

Spike attempts to go home to Harmony, but she’s “in control of (my) own power now” and threatens to stake him. He finally turns to Buffy. 

Spike: I'm saying Spike had a little trip to the vet and now he doesn't chase the other puppies anymore. I can't bite anything. I can't even hit people.

Sensibly, the gang is still planning to turn him away until he says he has the inside scoop on the soldier boys. He’s tied to a chair and sits through all the chaos. 

Spike: You won! All right? You came in and you killed them and you took their land. That's what conquering nations do! That's what Caesar did, he's not going around saying "I came, I conquered, I felt really bad about it"! The history of the world is not people making friends. You had better weapons, you massacred them, end of story!

Spike: You exterminated his race. What could you possibly say that would make him feel better? It's kill or be killed here. Take your bloody pick.

Xander: Maybe it's the syphilis talking, but some of that made sense.

Giles: I made several of those points earlier, but that's fine, no one listens...

Spike’s pretty cold about what happened to the tribe, but he’s evil so it’s expected I suppose. The gang thinks he has a point about there not being anything they can do at this point and decide to fight. It was kind of a strange conclusion to the story. “Thanksgiving is a sham! So many atrocities! What can we do? Nothing. Ah well.” The message was just a little unclear and I think the story was more about plot than a political message.

The gang battle the spirits and finally triumph, but not before Buffy turns the main warrior into a bear. It was fun to watch Spike reacting to everything during the episode (and I love his smirk when Xander spills the beans Angel was there).

During the fight, Angel leaps up and breaks one of the warrior’s necks and he, according to the script, “drops like Jenny Calendar”. Anya then wonders what he’s like when he’s evil and we get one of our rare Angel-and-Angelus-are-in-fact-not-totally-seperate moments. Willow tears into the warriors as much as anyone else and feels guilty later.

Xander: I don't know. It kinda seemed right to me. A bunch of anticipation, a big fight and now we're all sleepy.

Character Notes:

Buffy Summers: Her mom is visiting Aunt Pauline for Thanksgiving this year. Buffy mentions she stole and lost Willow’s hairbrush, proving she’s still an annoying roommate--Willow is just more accommodating than Buffy/Kathy. 

Willow Rosenberg: She mentions there are some great spells that work better with an ear. Giles and Willow talk about Angel losing his edge because everyone but Buffy saw him.

Riley Finn: Forrest calls him “mama’s boy” in reference to Maggie and we see he is already attached to her.

Xander Harris: He accidentally says Anya is a strange girlfriend and she lights up at the word. But he claims to be delirious. 

Angel: He leads Buffy to Father Gabriel, apparently an old contact. When he first shows himself to everyone they all assume he's evil.

Spike: He explains that vampires that don’t feed become living skeletons.

[edwardfrost0-blog]

Why Prostitutes Don't Kiss

(and why she's not yours just because she spreads her legs) As a physician to many women who worked in the sex-for-money business, as lover to many women of many ages, nationalities, and careers (including x-prostitutes and dancers), I've had the privilege of having the trust and the insight to the emotions and physical bodies of a unique type of woman. In escorts Tokyo of learning from them and of loving them, I also gained much insight to the minds and emotions of the 3,000 plus women who came to me for help with their sexual and physical problems (during my years working with the hormone replacement of menopausal women). It comes as a surprise and as a mysterious fact to most men when they discover that most prostitutes will not kiss their clients. Why will prostitutes not kiss the same man they will spread their legs to--and more importantly what very important lesson does that teach us about the emotions of women in general (and people in general)? Most men have the mistaken idea that when a woman spreads her legs to him that he is gaining access to the most important and sacred part of her. This can give him a sense of power and accomplishment that makes him feel like a bull when he goes back out into the market place. Taking with him the idea that this goddess has opened and surrendered herself to him, he now feels like he can conquer the world and takes that confidence and leaves the castle to face the world as a warrior. On the flip side, when his princess denies him or rejects him for another, he can feel castrated and powerless to face his foes and inner demons. This is why men who give this power to their lover can have great strength when she is open to him but become powerless and depressed when she rejects him. It's why men who are very dependent upon this feedback from one particular woman can lose their balance and take the life of the woman and her new lover when she rejects him--in his mind she has literally castrated him and made him feel worthless. There are several possible areas for great power and accomplishment in this flow of emotion and energy but there are also areas where men can open themselves up for destruction. So, what does all of this have to do with the idea that prostitutes don't kiss. It's this (and more). She does not give up herself when she opens her legs to you, she gives up herself when she opens her mind and emotions to you--when she lets you plug into her soul. As a medical student, we learned of a form of syphilis that infects the brain. When this happens, the pupil does not react to light (become smaller) but does react when focusing on an object that moves from far to near (accommodation). The trick for remembering this change due to neurosyphillis is that the pupil accommodates but does not react (as does a prostitute who is at risk for syphilis). So, the prostitute accommodates your penis and your simple idea that when you put your penis inside of her that now you are a powerful man. But, she does not REACT to you, she only ACTS for you. She becomes an actress so that you might imagine yourself powerful and then go out as warrior and fight your battles. It's an illusion. You do not own her or any woman simply because she spreads her legs to you. You only own her when she determines that she feels safe enough to trust you with her life--when she feels like you would die for her safety and happiness, and when something spiritual happens that can be facilitated but not fully explained. Then, and only then, she will long to GIVE herself to you. You cannot take a woman, she must invite you to come in. She must want with every part of her being to be owned by you. Then and only then can you take her. When this happens, then you will have the most sacred part of her--her emotions, her mind, her soul, and her true kiss. Of course when this happens, you will have access to her body, but you will not take it for your simple pleasure. At this point, you will take her body and her kiss and her thoughts the way manna is received from heaven, the way Moses received the sacred commandments, the way the Buddha receives enlightenment--as a gift from heaven. I have interviewed literally thousands of women about the intimacies of their sex life, most of them married, most of them having sex with their husbands, and most of them acting. Most of them in love with their husbands, most of them caring for their husbands, but few totally surrendered to their husbands--most of them (not all) actresses.

[classicfilmfreak]

New Post has been published on http://www.classicfilmfreak.com/2018/03/22/20624/

Young Winston (1972) starring Robert Shaw, Anne Bancroft and Simon Ward

Indolent student, Bore War soldier, prisoner, fugitive and Member of Parliament—all from the life of a young Winston Churchill before the age of 27.

The critically successful Darkest Hour (2017) concentrates on Winston Churchill’s leadership during the Dunkirk retreat and evacuation in World War II.  Young Winston, made almost half a century earlier, represents a somewhat broader time span in the great man’s life, from boyhood to his first parliamentary election in 1900.

The release of the British film in 1972 was partly the result of a renewed interest in Churchill’s life, inspired by his passing in January of 1965.  Some people saw his death as the last vestige of the glorious British Empire, though, in every practical sense, the Empire had ended with World War I.  Then called “the Great War,” who could know there would be one even more catastrophic!  To historians and intuitive citizens at the time, the Empire’s decline had already begun by the turn of the twentieth century.

With England’s antiquated film industry in the 1930s, it was Hollywood which championed that country’s past—its mastery of the seas, its imperialistic success (and arrogance), most evident in its abuse of India, and its amassing an empire upon which the sun never set.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push();

Hollywood made Mutiny on the Bounty in 1935 and its remake in 1962.  It filmed The Charge of the Light Brigade (1936), climaxed by the infamous British blunder in the Crimean War.  The studios seemed fascinated by the British exploits in India: Clive of India (1935), The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935) andGunga Din (1936).

In 1940, it was Hollywood which contrived a morale-building script for the Errol Flynn swashbuckler The Sea Hawk, relating its story of King Philip II’s sixteenth-century Armada to England’s current attacks by Hitler’s Luftwaffe.  In much the same way, Mrs. Miniver (1942) extolled the bravery of the island’s citizens against Nazi fighters and their courage and national pride during the evacuation from Dunkirk.

From the ’60s to ’80s, before epics became largely too expensive, the British themselves began glorifying their past on film, either on their own or, usually, with American financial backing.  They made Lawrence of Arabia in 1962 and remade The Charge of the Light Brigade in 1968.  Khartoum (1966), about another Empire misadventure, now in the Sudan, stars an American, Charlton Heston, as Englishman General Charles George Gordon, the central character, but it is a Brit, Laurence Olivier, as Gordon’s nemesis, the Mahdi, the supposed redeemer of Islam, who, in history, does him in and, on screen, out-acts him.

And there is always the British indulgence in the Edwardian period and its attempted continuance, at least in thought and spirit.  Film scholar Leslie Halliwell refers to the E. M. Forster adaptations of A Passage to India (1984), A Room with a View (1985) and Howards End (1991) as “filmed in a mood of nostalgic Edwardiana.”  This can also be applied to the milieu of many other British films that relive the past—Chariots of Fire (1981) and The Remains of the Day (1993).

More recently, Edwardian aristocratic life is microscopically detailed in the British TV series Downton Abbey (2011-2016 on PBS).  The six-year-long screen diversion begins in 1912 with the sinking of the Titanic and ends in 1926; in between comes World War I, the rude intrusion of the modern age, British estate taxes and the dissolution of most of the landed gentry.

Young Winston, which takes places in both the Victorian and Edwardian periods, has a fine ensemble cast—all British save American Anne Bancroft as Churchill’s beautiful mother, Jennie.  It can only be assumed that John Gielgud was otherwise occupied, reason he didn’t join the impressive cast of Robert Shaw, Jack Hawkins and John Mills and Patrick Magee as two generals.

There is also Edward Woodward, Robert Hardy (who would play Churchill in five separate British TV series), Laurence Naismith, Colin Blakely (a reliable Dr. Watson to Robert Stephens’ detective in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, 1970), Jane Seymour, Anthony Hopkins (here as Lloyd George), Nigel Hawthorne and Ian Holm (the athletic trainer in Chariots of Fire).

Relative newcomer at the time, Simon Ward is the mature, mid-twenties Churchill.  Two other child actors play Churchill at seven and thirteen, and Ward dubbed the voice of the thirteen-year-old (Michael Audreson).  Ward was deprived, for whatever the reasons, of any great movie success, and the small part in the poorly drawn Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973) somehow symbolizes his career.

The story line of the film moves from 1881 to 1901, the year the namesake of that age, Edward VII, came to the throne.  When the movie opens, for it is a flashback with a reflective Winston narrating, it is already 1897 and the twenty-four-year old is in India.  As a journalist for London’s Daily Telegraph, he craves battlefield glory and a writer’s fame.

While he is annoying the commander, Lord Kitchener (Mills), who cries out, “Who’s that bloody fool on the gray?,” Winston recalls his life in a boarding school.  Lonely, he writes his parents fallacious letters that everything is jolly fine.  He repeatedly asks them to come and visit, but they rarely do.  (At about the same time, an unhappy fifteen-year-old Franklin Roosevelt is also writing home, he from Groton School, about the “wonderful” time he, too, is having.  In the 1940s, the two men’s lives would cross in a way that, some say, “saved the world.”)

When Winston is physically abused in the boarding school, it is “Wommy,” as the child calls his beloved nurse, Mrs. Everest (Pat Heywood), who insists to his mother, Lady Randolph, that he must be removed.  Later, at the British military academy of Sandhurst, he proves a poor student.

His father, Lord Randolph (Shaw), while highly disappointed in his son’s performance yet professing love for him, begins acting erratically and becomes unreasonably angry toward him.  Soon after he resigns as Chancellor of the Exchequer over an issue in Parliament, two doctors (Clive Morton and Robert Flemyng)—in a frank discussion, even for 1972—inform Lady Randolph that her husband is suffering from syphilis.

After Lord Randolph dies, money lost in the American stock market leaves the family destitute.  Thanks to Jennie’s connections, Winston receives a commission in the British Army, which enables him to continue as a reporter, now for The Daily Mail.

His later transfer to the Sudan satisfies, at least for the moment, his appetite for action and bravery.  When he warns Kitchener of advancing Muslim warriors, the Dervishes, he is regarded as more than a naive nuisance.

Back in England, thanks to pressure from Jennie, Winston runs for Parliament, but lack of experience and a stuttering speech impediment lead to defeat.  At the start of the Boer War in 1899, Winston receives another military commission, now in South Africa.  He is captured by the Boers and imprisoned, but miraculously escapes, hides on a train and eventually returns to England.

He is hailed as a hero and wins a seat in Parliament where he gives a resounding speech in the House of Commons.  Soon afterward, Jennie, in discussing his future, happens—not so coincidentally, perhaps?—to introduce him to a young lady, soon-to-be wife Clementine Hozier.

Young Winston’s musical score, by Alfred Ralston, basically an arranger, is saved by the use of music of Sir Edward Elgar, the Edwardian composer par excellence.  The Caractacus and Imperial marches enliven some battle scenes, the Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 is fortunately substituted for the famous No. 1, everyone’s graduation march, and “Nimrod” from the Enigma Variations serves well whatever a composer needs a bit of ready-made British solemnity.

As a final footnote, actors who have played Winston Churchill over the years are copious, and a complete list is far beyond the limits here.  One of the earliest names, Dudley Field Malone, is attached to Hollywood’s now notorious, pro-Russian propaganda, Mission to Moscow (1943).

Later come Patrick Wymark in Operation Crossbow (1965), Leigh Dilley in The Eagle Has Landed (1976), Howard Lang in the TV series Winds of War (1983), Albert Finney in the TV movie The Gathering Storm(2002)—title of the first of Churchill’s six-volume The Second World War, Timothy Spall in The King’s Speech(2010) and, most recently, Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour.

While these titles represent the Winston Churchill of World War II, Young Winston provides glimpses into the earlier life of this soldier, writer, historian and statesman.  Already a full, exciting life at twenty-seven, Churchill’s next sixty-three years would make him world famous, with his unheeded warnings of the menace of Hitler and his defiant leadership of the British people during World War II.