#Francis Per Episode

[fataldrum]

The Magnus Protocol and The End of History

In episode 21 of TMP, Leonardo Kennings, co-treasurer of the Magnus Institute, debates the Institute’s plan to participate in the London Millennium Exhibition.  

The calculations provided by Dr Welling and his team presuppose that any outputs from the site will be broadly balanced; that as a symbol of the future it captures both optimism and despair – the belief in a better world and the terror that a new millennium will bring nothing except new ways to suffer. It is my belief, however, that the actual balance of energies involved will be profoundly skewed towards the fearful and despairing[…]

This modern social and political order, following the fall of the USSR, has taken root in the popular imagination as a natural and final state of society with an emergent and inherent stability. The turning of the millennium is therefore felt as an “end of history” to borrow a term, and in this context the Dome may be seen as a monument to this order. A full stop. 

I’ve been hearing a lot about The End of History lately and wanted to share some information for those who are unfamiliar. Note that this is based on secondary sources like Philosophy Tube and the podcast If Books Could Kill, because I’m not about to read 400+ pages of a neoconservative being deeply wrong about everything.

In 1992, political scientist Francis Fukuyama wrote The End of History and The Last Man. In it, he makes a pretty bold claim: Western liberal democracy is the final stage of society. After the recent collapse of the Soviet Union, people worldwide would accept capitalism and American-style democracy as the objectively superior way of life. 

Once every country adopted liberal democracy, there would be no real need for major social change. Small events would continue to happen, but the overall shape of history is an arc that ends with liberal democracy. Everything else would just be minor adjustments. That’s it, guys, we won. History is canceled!

Admittedly the word end can be a bit deceptive. On one level, Fukuyama was describing liberal democracy as the final destination of society. But he was also using end in the sense of a goal, borrowing from the works of Hegel. 

I don’t need to tell you that Fukuyama was full of shit. Every major event since 9/11 has been a massive callout post for him specifically. To be fair, he wasn’t alone in his bullshit. Plenty of Western political scientists assumed the fall of the Soviet Union would lead to mass adoption of liberal democracy. 

There was a lot of misplaced optimism at the end of the Millennium. Take, for instance, the Millennium Dome in London.

A massive undertaking, this 48-acre building would cost £789 million and be the ninth largest building in the world. Tony Blair, the Prime Minister at the time, declared confidently that it would be "a triumph of confidence over cynicism, boldness over blandness, excellence over mediocrity." Critics called it a Museum of Toxic Waste, based on the site’s history as a gasworks. 

The Dome contained 14 zones aiming to depict modern British life. There was a concert by Peter Gabriel. There were daily acrobatic shows, and a special Blackadder film.

In the statement, Kenning asks the foreman how long the Dome will last. He went quiet for a moment, then told me he wasn’t sure. “Could be there forever!” he said, with an odd manic edge to his voice. “Or it could be gone in a year. You just… never know. Do you? You never know what’s coming.” 

Organizers predicted the Dome would bring in 12 million visitors per year. They got just over half that. It was closed after a year, and even then, it cost over £1 million per month to maintain. The government couldn’t even sell the damn thing, because who needs the world’s ninth largest building? It ruined a fair number of careers. To quote the Sunday Times: 

At worst it is a millennial metaphor for the twentieth century. An age in which all things, like the Dome itself, became disposable. A century in which forest and cities, marriages, animal species, races, religions and even the Earth itself, became ephemeral. What more cynical monument can there be for this totalitarian cocksure fragile age than a vast temporary plastic bowl, erected from the aggregate contribution of the poor through the National Lottery. Despite the spin, it remains a massive pantheon to the human ego, the Ozymandias of its time.

Kennings describes the Dome as “almost uniquely dangerous to our work as a place of power, adding, “It is my firm belief that not only is this site already on its own journey to become a decidedly hostile locus, but that the future it represents, and that we are being pushed to incorporate into our grand ritual, is unfit being so profoundly and irrevocably poisoned.”

The Magnus Institute burned down on December 24th, 1999. The Dome was officially opened to the public on December 31, 1999. It appears Kennings was right about one thing: the Dome was a very bad idea for the Magnus Institute.

[juneatmidnight]

the ignored relevance of chapter 66 (and ‘filler chapters’ as a whole) in the Kuroshitsuji anime adaptation

It’s not the first time ‘filler chapters’ are ignored by the anime adaptations, and it was never a good idea to do so in the first place.

With ‘filler chapters’ I mean chapters who are not part of arcs per se, but tend to separate the newly concluded arc with the subsequent.  While these chapters are more slice-of-life-ish and comic relieves for readers after the heaviness of the main plot, and while their exclusion does not alter the plot that much, they still are important, since they give us the opportunity to get deeper into the character’s feelings, personality and psychology.

The first one to receive such treatment was chapter 14.

In chapter 14 not only we get to meet one of the most important secondary characters of the series, Francis, but we also get to know our co-protagonist even more. O!Ciel, who was mostly passive and sort of a damsel in distress in the previous chapters, brings out his competitiveness and acts with bravery protecting Lizzie without hesitation.  Also, we get to know that O!Ciel is very much loved by the people surrounding him : he’s not a child left all alone, but a nephew loved by his family and a master loved by his servants.

The most recent exlusion was the one of chapter 66 by season 4 : even though most of the chapter is just a silly and fun Easter egg hunt, it’s very important especially for one thing : Lizzie suspecting of Ciel.

One of the most mind blowing things about the ‘twin revelation’, was the fact that it was not even in slightest random.  The evidence were all over the place in the tiniest of details, the responsability to actually notice them was ours and ours only. In chapter 66 we discover that Lizzie is not so sure about O!Ciel’s identity because things simply don’t add up : the fact he got a cold so easily and quickly while on the Campania and most importantly, the fact that he lied about remembering something that actually never happened. This chapter is one of the most important clues, and pretending it doesn’t exist will just make the twin revelation (if the anime adaptations will go on until that point) random when it actually never was.

That said, I do understand that this may not be proper material for a first episode, maybe it could have been too confusing for anime-onlys or for people who will get to discover this series for the first time.

Still, I really hope they’ll at least make this an OVA, maybe using it as a way to separate the series (since, from what I’ve understood, season 4 will air in two parts). Not only it’s important for the later revelation, but it’s also a funny warm chapter that I personally enjoy very much. 

Thank you for reading ♡

[nalyra-dreaming]

Good morning Nalyra! Hope you are not too tired and burnt out with everybody’s ceaseless questions already!

I rewatched S2E3 last night and honestly, I think it’s the best episode so far! There are two things I kept on thinking on but can’t find lots of discussions on,

1. Who is Santiago’s maker—lots of emphasis on this mysterious vampire still in the death vault. I see some discussion on the possibility of Lestat being his maker—hence mimic and can fly—and super strong. I mean it is not impossible, Santiago/Francis being a good actor/artist is a plus for him in Lestat’s book…what is your theory on that?

2. The “wife” who is buying the painting for “her husband” in Dubai—lots of setups and screen times went in there as well, who are the buyers? I thought it might be Jess —a la Talamasca’s rescue team coming for Daniel. Or the real Marius? Or Lestat? If he is not in a coma in the penthouse but somewhere else becoming a mega rockstar in realtime or it’s all red herring?

Hey!

Thank you I'm good, hope you're as well!

Yeah, I have seen the discussion re Santiago as well - but that would imply that Lestat must have left Louis and Claudia during the years they had thrown him out of the house, right? - and I cannot quite see that. Because Louis noted how the gifts came in waves, like the tides. So I think Lestat actually went and searched for gifts and tried again, and again, and again, and I don't think he went to New York and left his two (vampiric-wise very weak) vampires alone. ESPECIALLY since he knew Louis was healing and back on his rat diet.

OR it would mean that he had done that with Louis around? IDK. IF that's the twist they introduced, then they better make that solid, time-wise^^.

And as per the "wife" - I have reblogged a post a while ago that I also thought about - namely that wife being Pandora.

I mean... the triptych was not up for sale, right? So someone had to know they had it. And knew what he had to offer to rouse their interest at all. I'm not sure.

Someone is keeping an eye on Daniel in that penthouse, including on what is spoken. And I firmly believe that call from the lawyer was intentionally at that point to give Daniel a moment to look at the files.

I mean... it could all be a set up by the Talamasca as well of course - and then someone in the penthouse would need to spy for them.

But... I am of the opinion that real Rashid IS actually "real Rashid"... and if he is then he has a connection to Marius. I mean... what would the Talamasca offer any of the vampires in that penthouse? And the servants in there would always need to fear to be killed, and know that, too.

So... I don't think we can tell just yet?

But... I am very much looking forward to it clicking into place :P

[ophelialoveshandsomemen]

Got to thinking today, about some cartoons I watched when I was a kid, called the Saints and Heroes collection( great stuff), and how it's all, y'know, saints! St. Bernadette! St. Francis Xavier! St. Nicholas! The Fatima story! Yeay! They're great 30 min. episodes for kids to learn a bit about catholicism's greatest saints! And in the heroes sections, they got Columbus: which is fine, they mainly focus on navigation and how he worked hard to achieve that level of education, lots of catholic stuff floating around in that one. They got Ben-Hur; classic jewish/early christian story, though not real, per se. Really good stuff. Great for christian kids.

Then we got the bloody ODYSSEY?!?!? Like, Greek pagan Odysseus running around the seas, killing monsters and suitors and tricking his way across the Mediterranean, all narrated by a Grandpa Owl?!? telling the story to his grandson owlet?!?! Very princess bride style... super weird in this context. None of the other films are narrated by animals. I'm not saying that kids shouldn't know the story of Odysseus, I'm just saying you can get serious whiplash watching chill saint movies for kids and then coming across The Odyssey, with no catholic connections, ( at least that's easily grasped by a child), getting thrown in the middle of the list and once you're done, brother you feel like you been in a fever dream. It's so bizarrely disconcertingly different in style to the rest of the films, too.

But at least they keep the fact that Odysseus 'slept around'( for lack of a better term), during those years at sea completely absent from the story. So it does have that in it's favour.

Still lots of fun to watch!

[bugtransport]

@asanjou okay so in the podcast rude tales of magic (which i enjoy quite a lot) in the second episode there's a demon named strayd plancis who offers the group One Boon and then (because he's a demon) after giving them the boon it goes wrong right after and strayd disappears. but in the process of giving them said boon there's a lot of back and forth discussion over whether it's one group boon or one boon per person or one boon per day or what the actual terms of the boon are. anyway i was listening to this episode with a friend in the car once and he mentioned that it sounded like they were calling him Straight Francis instead of Strayd Plancis and now my mind goes:

boonboomger -> boon -> strayd plancis -> straight francis

[frary-us]

Same. Team Francis Forever!!!🥰. Of course, Mary loved Francis more. There was never any doubt.👸🏻😍🤴💞

[hannibals-hoe]

Classical Music Parallels in Hannibal

Hi I’m back with another classical music in Hannibal analysis!!

Ok so per my previous posts: Hannibal’s “theme” is Bach’s Goldberg variations. It plays in various pivotal moments in the show, including the first shot of Hannibal himself, after he kills Tobias Budge, the momentous season two finale, and also in the very last episode before he and will murder Dolerhyde. I also mention how this piece begins to represent Will as well. It’s “their song.”

But anywho I also noticed in season three, the relationship of Dolerhyde and Reba is meant to signify Will and Hannibal’s. I recall Reba’s line: “I try to avoid people to foster codependency and feed on it. The blind attract them.” And Will’s response: “Not just the blind.” Will and Reba have both found themselves entangled with some terrible people- yet they are both survivors. So, like Will and Hannibal, Reba and Francis’s also have a “song.” Theirs is Debussy’s Claire de lune. It plays the first time Reba comes over and they share a drink while Francis flips through his creepy slideshow. It also plays during their final scene together where Dolerhyde fakes his death and Reba escapes the burning building.

As I’ve said before- every aspect/plot detail of Hannibal can be explained further or confirmed by the music selections. (see my other posts for more, linked below)

[avalencias]

tagged by my beloved @atimeofbeing, thank yoooou

last song: oh god. a glance at Spotify says I’ve been listening to my cristian nodal mix again, so it’s dime cómo quieres by cristian nodal and angela aguilar. it’s a mood but I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled music sooner or later

favorite colour: ok actually theo I DO love phthalo green, it’s such a lovely color. in general though I am particularly partial to bluer reds, a lil deep and dark but closer to a pink than a brown. ah colors. I also love an olive green

currently reading: 🫣 I’ve been rereading soccer in sun and shadow by eduardo galeano in english bc trying to force my brain to read for leisure in spanish is a bit much for me rn. I’ve also had various other books in varying states of “read” for months but still put on the harrow the ninth audiobook for my commute to [redacted] so yk. there’s that

currently watching: oh god well. I finished my annual greys rewatch a month or two back and stopped during the season after the plane crash (as per usual) BUT I picked it back up for season 19 bc I love adelaide kane and I heard she and midori francis finally kissed, so. I’m also watching the agatha show bc I’m predictable like that. oh this is also a reminder to myself to watch the john oliver episode on dollar general bc my supervisor keeps reminding me to do it and I have to know what she’s so worked up about

last movie: uuuugh I’m so not a movie person. I want to say I last watched the daisy ridley movie where she swam across the channel for the first time (I did enjoy myself though)

sweet, spicy or savoury: I have a sweet tooth a mile wide (and unfortunately cannot handle spicy)

relationship status: single baybee

current obsession: god. my job?? it’s been kicking my rear end so I’ve certainly been obsessing OVER it. uhhh in all seriousness, it’s probably still critical role? I love bh :( and I’ve been rewatching the m9 too (ohhh forgot about that one above…)

tea or coffee: always been a coffee gal myself

the last thing l googled: god. I had a consult a little bit ago so probably something immigration related (so many consults are me mumbling hold on while I google “what…is…this…inadmissibility…ground”). oh Google on my phone says I last googled the menu of the ice cream shop around the corner bc my brother was going to get us some while I was in my consult

tagging: oh goodness. @kienava, @sourslip (if you haven’t already done it…) and… @rain-sleet-snow ❤️

[hovelicher-unsin]

So.

The following happend and derailed my evening (and therefore the evening of my best friend too).

I was wondering, if there was a German translation of Tristan (Gottfried von Straßburg) available on the internet. And there is, from 1904 by Wilhelm Hertz, here.

It's a scan of a old library book and apparently someone (an English speaking person) wrote the names and relations of the characters on one of the first pages which I am normal about (/pos). They probably didn't get further than the Marjodo episode or Isot (Iseut? Isolde?) with the white hands or her brother would have been mentioned. Anyway, besides the point!

The book itself starts with this absolutely insane Latin quote.

Amor est quaedam mentis insania,

Quae vagum hominem ducit per devia;

Sitit delicias et bibit tristia

Crebris doloribus commiscens gaudia.

Now, of course I needed to find out, where to find this quote and also what it meant. The translation is roughly (and please be nice about it, this is only backed up by another translation that I'll mention in a bit):

Love is such a mental insanity that leads the wandering human astray; it thirsts for happiness and drinks misery, often mixing pain with pleasure.

So naturally ... I needed to find out where the quote came from even more! It took me 15 minutes to figure out "Romania IV, 383" meant Romania, the journal that is being published since the 1870s, the fourth volumen, page 383, found here.

I was so stoked to find out the entire journal (or at least from their first edition up until 2020) was freely available on JSTOR. So, there I was, giddy because I thought my side quest of the evening was over. LIES, I TELL YOU!

The article was in French. I do not speak French and my pitiful Spanish and — without a dictionary almost equally pitiful — Latin knowledge can only get me so far. On page 383 I found my quote, but I was also at a crucial point of helplessness.

Luckily just at that moment my partner (not involved in the detective work) asked what I was doing, I explained my situation and then my best friend offered to take a look at it. After two minutes they pulled out their own phone to google around, meaning I had gotten them invested. And with their excellent help I got some answers out of the French article!

First things first, the author of the article is saying in a footnote (following those three quotes) that the French translation is bad. I can't say anything about that, but I thought it was important to mention.

Then they (friend) figured out that the quote was from a book a certain Francis Douce had had in his collection and which he left to the Bodleain Library after his death. This particular quote came from book number 139, page 148.

The books from this collection are being digitized and a good portion of them is available already right here (there are so many old playing cards!!). The book from which this quote was taken has not been digitized yet, but a starting page can be found here. More information on the whole book can be found right here.

So what we are left with is this:

The quote is from a 13th century manuscript that mostly features songs, as far as I can see.

It will probably be digitized some day since the project is still ongoing.

The quote itself is not from Douce, since he only collected the books. We don't know who said/wrote this, at least neither my friend nor I could find out more about it.

I am tempted to ask @bodleianlibs if they can tell me more about this particular book/the quote in it, but I also really just want to fuck around and find out, so it doesn't have any priority I fear. Contextualizing the quote in relation to my blorbo medieval piece of literature is probably not enough of a reason.

Anyway, that's how I spent a good hour of my evening and I am so hyped now, this was so incredibly interesting to do!

[frary-us]

The romantic pull was there from the start.👍 Francis tried to resist Mary since he knew that his duty as a royal might end in another arranged marriage and Frary heartbreak😨💔 -- but it was useless. The way they looked at each other😍, their instinctive tender touches🫶 and desire to protect each other🛡 all showed the undeniable truth: Frary was Reign's OTP & headed to a forever love.💗🤴💘👸🏻🙌

What I show people when they say Frary didn’t love each other in 1x02

[persephones-journey]

Okay. It’s been 2 days since The Last Kingdom wrapped up with its movie. So, I have had time to ponder, and cry, and think, and be in denial, but I think it’s time I share what that show has done for me and how it may have changed my life.

All right, so picture this, I am scrolling on Tumblr on my desktop bored out of my mind, not writing, in fact I think at this point I hadn’t written anything in months. And then suddenly there’s this gif set.

I can’t tell you which person I follows that posted it but I do remember my first reaction: Is that Francis from Reign?

And I was right. It was a gif set of Aethelflaed and Aethelred’s wedding. I was mildly interested but kept scrolling. And then came another gif set; same wedding but this one had Finan and Aethelwold.

I did not know the characters names then but I did know that 1. Aethelwold called Finan an Irishman and I really do have a soft spot for guys with accents and 2. Finan saying ‘I’ll kill ya in your sleep’ had exactly no business being that sexy.

That gif set made me write down the name of the show ‘The Last Kingdom’ into my notebook of tv shows/crime documentaries to watch.

BUT

I did not watch it until later… You guessed it lockdown from COVID. I had so much time, so I binged the series.

And waited all through season 1 for Finan, he didn’t show and man, not going to lie, Uhtred was not making the best decisions. I almost quit the show… but I had a goal: sexy Irishman.

(I’m halfway joking about that…)

When I did reach season 2 and Finan, I found I had fallen for other characters; Ragnar, Hild, Leofric, Beocca, hell even Alfred was all right. But season 2 also brought Thyra, Sihtric, Gisela, and Osferth.

I loved the whole found family dynamic. And it helped a tiny bit that a lot of the actors were fairly good looking.

But I don’t think I actually fell in love with the show until season 3.

I know, all of you are like ‘we get it. Season 3 Finan was sexy, you have mentioned it before’ and I have. But honestly, look at him:

But it was more than just Finan looking sexy, (all my friends are like ‘you’re lying’) it was the Coccham Squad as a whole. They had grown closer and tighter. The storyline for season 3 was the perfect balance of heartbreak and triumph for me. Finan was a smartass, always saying what I was thinking. Sihtric had his spy moment and fake turn. Osferth was sweet and caring. And Uhtred, surprisingly he had grown as a character, unsurprisingly he was still making stupid decisions.

But this season is my fave for more than that. This season, it got that writing spark going again.

And as I moved onto season 4, that spark became a flame.

So I wrote like 600 pages, no chapter breaks, one doc per season of this idea I had. And I told myself that would be it. I didn’t expect the desire to write to last, and if it did I was a hardcore Supernatural girl. I had stories I needed to finish for that fandom.

Finan though, that sexy Irish bastard would not be denied.

And I found myself rewatching the series… I mean, I started at season 2 the episode where Finan shows up. ( sorry Em)

And I got another idea. And I just decided: Fuck it. And signed up to get an Ao3 account and started writing and posting.

Now, this is the part where I get a little emotional. It was through my fic that I met some of my closest friends. I got an invite to a Discord server and the rest is history.

I have laughed with these awesome peeps, cried with them, celebrated their victories, and shared in their defeats. Spent far too many hours talking about how sexy certain characters are *cough cough* Finan and Sihtric.

I found my own family, you could say.

So, yes, The Last Kingdom is over, there will be no new adventures with Uhtred and his pretty boys.

But I will still have my own adventures with the Bread team. @emilyhufflepufftlk @lauwrite1225 @morosemagick @solinarimoon @blah-blah-blah-bla @muddleofnervouswords @medievalfangirl @cibs @93xdiagonxalley @anotherwinchesterfangirl

And I have Uhtred, Finan, Sihtric, and Osferth to thank for that, along with the many other great characters who made that show so damn compelling.

So thank you to The Last Kingdom for bringing me my people.

Oh, and for dropping this incredibly sexy but so nerdy Scotsman on my radar…. But that’s another post 😉

[steampaul]

i've started a little series of weekly posts documenting every MoC i made (digitally) over the last few years:

Week 3: the first part of 2019:

a movie reference, francis of the filth, that robot dog and set MoCups of The Forest and Satisfactory

making apocalypseburg Mod inspired me to make a Mod based on the thing it was referencing.

i also tried out the gif-maker for Stud.io at that time and even though i liked the result, i nevere really used it again because rendering took waaaaay too long.

i still like and use the rockwork in this, because its simple and effective.

ah yes. Boston dynamics' Spot. i had seen those first few videos and i liked the concept and almost immediately built a minifig-scale version of that adorable little robot dog. (i never anticipated that it would be used as a weapon.) we will revisit this one in the 2020 post.

these two are the SunCorp laboratory in Okinawa (based on absolutely nothing) and the sea of the wretched how i imagined it (featuring the basic rockwork i like so much)

i've never posted these anywhere. which is because they're pretty bad. i built them a bit after finishing Francis of the FIlth, the Book George Miller, aka Filthy Frank wrote before becoming Joji. it wasn't that well written, but i was a biiig fan and i loved it anyway.

here is wave 1 of the set MoCups i made for The Forest

i really wanted to make these feel like real lego sets. that's why i built the Trees a lot simpler and rendered the MoCs as PNGs and added a background based on a random screenshot from the game. i quickly realised that this was a bad idea and i only used it in wave 2 of this series.

this was also the first time where i built a whole series and posted those builds over a few weeks.

wave 2 of the Forest. i built these later on because the first series turned out to be really popular on reddit (and a lot of new episodes of the let's play i've been watching had come out)

i still like some of the ideas i had with these sets, but i think the idea of more simplistic builds = more realistic as a lego set is really stupid by todays standarts.

Satisfactory is a pretty cool game. still really like the way these turned out, especially the way i made the conveyor belts. i had to redo the cables for some of the machines in Paint.net, because some flexible parts had a rendering problem it that version of Stud.io.

this series was so popular that i got asked to give an interview for some french (or canadian?) magazine over discord.

i also got really salty when a similar but better version of the fabricator turned up on lego ideas, even though i had planned to post some of these over there myself. but whatever.

after the forest, SCP should technically be next. but i'll post those Sets next week because of tumblr's 30 images per post limit.

last week first week next week

[kissandships]

Faye & Henry: Per Episode

Faye & Henry Onscreen Together, 3

2x1: Hearts and Minds

They kissed. They kissed.

Anya’s Random Note: I wonder if Frank Reagan got his name from Frank Furillo? Both are named Francis Xavier

Anya’s Random Note 2: Faye’s hair has improved!

[magicalgirlagency]

Someone PLEASE ask me about Barbie trivia; I am SO normal about her and her brand, I promise.

EDIT: The beast has been unleashed.

Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts. Meanwhile in real life, the doll was named after Ruth Handler's daughter, Barbara (while Ken was named after Kenneth);

Ruth was Mattel's co-founder, alongside her husband Elliot and their friend Harold "Matt" Matson (the company's name is a junction of the names Matt and Elliot). Of course, the Barbie brand is the most profitable one;

The doll was based on another doll, Bild Lilli, from Germany. It was originally intended for adults, but it became mostly popular with children. When Mattel acquired Lili's rights after a legal fight, the german doll's productions ceased in favor of Barbie;

According to Mattel, Barbie has had over 200 careers, recently including more STEM fields. Each career is created to give the child an option to explore new things and motivate them in pursuing a future passion;

There were several controversies about Barbie's body. Not because of her impossibly curvy silhouette, but also because of her mature looks. Many parents would be unhappy about the fact that the doll had breasts and such;

Other controversy would be the Teen Talk Barbie doll, a toy that would say superficial and vapid "dumb-blonde" phrases such as "Math class is tough!". The Simpsons had an episode referencing this fiasco (Lisa vs. Malibu Stacy, in 1994);

As an addendum, there was a group known as the Barbie Liberation Organization, which its members have secretly modified Barbie dolls' voice boxes into G.I. Joe dolls;

Barbie debuted in 1959, while her boyfriend Ken debuted in 1961. As much as we love to riff on him being Barbie's Trophy Husband/Himbo, he's also got the extensive list of careers, ranging from Olympic Athlete to Doctor;

Barbie has a cousin named Francie, who was marketed as "her modern cousin". She had a "colored" variant, which would later prompt the creation of Christie, the first black doll ever created to not be a derivate of a white doll. Francie also had other two friends, named Casey and Becky;

Speaking of black dolls, there is another one named Brooklyn. Actually, that's her nickname, as her real name is Barbie. She's nicknamed after her birthplace, Brooklyn, NY, to make things less confusing;

Midge was introduced in 1963, and had less makeup than Barbie, after the doll was considered "sexually intimidating", and would be often be discontinued and brought back constantly. Her Happy Family series was the most controversial, as it was the target of many accusations of promoting teen pregnancy;

Midge's boyfriend/husband, Allan, was initially marketed as Ken's best friend in the 60's, but he was also discontinued after rumors of two of them being boyfriends began to spread;

MyScene (unironically, my favourite Barbie doll line) was created to compete with MGA's Bratz, and had many controversies surrounding it that have led into another legal fight, which have caused the Bratz line to be temporarily discontinued;

There was an attempt in a virtual world à la Club Penguin called BarbieGirls.com, and while it was ambitious for its time period (it had a customizable MP3 player!), it has suffered several issues such as a lack of diversity and discrepancies and inaccessibilities per country;

Another addendum to this story, is that there is an actual group of people working on ressurrecting BarbieGirls (known as BarbieGirls Rewritten), making it more diverse and with less microtransactions;

The BCU (Barbie Cinematic Universe) so far has 42 movies, starting with Barbie in The Nutcracker in 2001. Fairytopia was the first movie to not be based on an existent storyline, and spawned its own trilogy (Fairytopia ➡️ Mermadia ➡️ Magic of the Rainbow);

[patrocles]

when the terror finally came to the uk i think it was shown across one week with two back-to-back episodes each night, no ad breaks because it was on bbc. it was on fairly late as well and i was watching it alone though sort of being hand-held throughout via messenger by my friend who is a major terror fan. but even so it was probably the most existential viewing experience i've ever had and to this day i still sometimes throw on the track 'polar sirens', hit the repeat button, and just space out thinking about those cold, cold men so far from home in a place that wants them dead and oh god oh god the terror.

the terror is that show that i’ll always go back to; it’s not a horror to me by the traditional genre standards but in it’s pure misery and melancholy and watching everything go wrong and wrong and wrong and they just want to go home and cant because the arctic doesnt care, but francis does cus he loves them more than god loves them

10/10 will revisit every summer per tradition

[darth-salem-emperor-of-earth]

On the topic of Ivy possibly coming back to the Villa to make her totally not Hannah/Meera 2.0 copycat entrance, a terrible realization dawned over me earlier while I was at work. I have seen a lot of people assuming Ivy will pick Elliot because she might be the girl in shower CA postcard with Elliot. BUT remember in the episode of her departure, she mentioned a guy ‘having a beard’ is on her list of boxes to check off. And which future Islanders do we know of that haven’t made their debut yet has a beard that might tickle Ivy’s fancy? Francis (maybe) and Marshall. Sure, there is also Jamal but depending on who you picked in the beginning of the game, he might not be in the Villa anymore and you could argue that Roberto just has growing facial hair and it’s not a really a beard, per se. Hell, maybe for Ivy, she has a strict or an exact measuring method on a what a ‘true beard’ is to her. Either way, if she does make a comeback to the Villa and couples up with a guy, I am starting to suspect she might go for Marshall based on that lusciously groomed beard of his (and among other things), and also because FB likes to torture us with characters we want but can’t have, regardless if they’re an actual LI or not. 

So if FB makes me witness Ivy walking back into with Marshall (that man better have a route, FB! You made him too attractive for me not to be a little intrigued), I won’t be amused. Especially if Lewie (and the other LIs) let me down.