#HOW CAN I TELL MY AUDIENCE THAT I AM SO FUN AND SILLY EXCEPT WHEN I'M EVIL AND HORRIBLE AND THE WORST... | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

bbbellamywrites · 1 year ago

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i just wanna start this with a note that i don't go here ( read: i lurk in the back of the class but don't participate, usually getting others (@lionheartedmusings) to share my answers for me ) but i've got thoughts and feelings about how things were going before i stopped watching last night. ( this got long so i tossed in a read more )

obligatory note that even if i don't add a q! i am entirely talking about characters here, not the creators.

q!bad is being accused of so much - some of which he is doing, sure, but honestly it feels a bit rich coming from most people on the server. some are newer and only have whatever people have told them to go off of, so i can understand their view to an extent, but there are others that have been here long enough to know different. to know bbh, to know the others, to know how the island is.

bagi saying bad is becoming evil - is he? outside of the fact that he's a demon of some sort and i think applying the human/mortal concepts of good/evil to beings that are not human/mortal doesn't work, what about how bad has been is evil?

telling her he was going to eat her pets? he wouldn't, and if he did accidentally kill one of her pets he would've felt guilty and replaced it asap. it was a terrible joke, but i think it's important consider bad's humor with his other friends - because he did come to think of bagi as a friend. if he'd said that to baghera, or foolish, or forever, or any number of other people, they would have known he wouldn't actually. they might have taunted him with a "oh yeah? do it", or showed up to punch him a time or two - but at most he would've put the pet in a cage and hid it away and giggled while searching his backpacks so he could give it back.

leaving mines in federation and public spaces? lets ignore the fact that he's trying to get the federation's attention. he isn't putting them in player bases, at least not in any way that would do damage to those bases ( he dug down and used the ghost blocks, yes, but from what i've seen he's only done that in spaces that wouldn't screw up builds ), with the exception of quackity's ( which i think he put down prior to this whole mess, if i'm remembering correctly ). even then... he is far from the first person on the server to put the mines everywhere, and i only vaguely remember at this point, but i don't think most people have been as careful with their use of them. plus... maybe i'm wrong, but i feel like he's only doing it because the eggs aren't here. i wouldn't be surprised if he went through and cleaned up as much as he could as soon as the kids come home.

stealing, or "liberating" furniture? this isn't a new behavior, and more recently when i've seen him pick something up, he just ends up putting it right back down. it was a fun little game, a little habit that was annoying but overall didn't hurt people. i even remember there being a little game of it between him and cellbit, a back and forth that might have been annoying but read as affection.

does any of that make him evil? because if it does, i think we may as well just mark down everyone on the island as being evil.

next up we have the kidnapping stuff. did he kidnap a worker? sure, but the only one that knows that is baghera. the others have no evidence, and are speculating, and most are just getting that information from tubbo. (for this we're gonna ignore that the evidence tubbo found was pretty clearly meant more for bad to find, because that doesn't matter anymore unless they force a retcon which i don't see them doing.)

• bad has, on a few different occasions, imprisoned people : - usually foolish, in those little cage traps - just a silly game between two ancient non-human creatures, a back and forth that no one seems to understand when they try to explain it. its a game, just like the fish slapping or inviting people to live in the dragon. • with cellbit and phil (with tubbo as an audience), caging forever and pac was done to save them. they were caged, and downed, so they could have their pockets cleared and then they could begin the detox to get them off the drugs the federation had them on. they were worried for their friends and were willing to go to extremes to save them. • ron. ron, who bad has had for ages at this point. he tortured him once and felt bad for it and hasn't done it again, as far as we know. he healed him up. bad gave him his name, if i remember correctly. he has come to care for ron, has given him as nice a cell as he can - nicer than the federation would have given them, if i had to guess. ron who, in some twisted reverse-stockholm syndrome moment, bad has come to think of as part of his family. he is using ron, and keeping him captive, but i fully trust him to find a way to let him go safely, and probably even get him set up somewhere.

one of those is pretty clearly wrong by the standards most people have, but he's already expressed he's willing to do whatever it takes to get his kids back. everyone is always ready to destroy the federation without a thought, without thinking about the details ( are any of the workers (canonically) in the buildings they're fucking with? are the workers going to get in trouble and punished for the things the residents are doing (look at walter bob, who was punished for looking different after mike's haircut, or when he was being kind/helping them in the prison)? are the workers the ones that are going to have to clean up the mess they make (the federation probably could've done it in a snap, but still sent workers to remove the cobble after the lavacast that fit/phil/tubbo did)?

so bad, from all of that, is evil and a problem and all that, right? what if we look at the things the others have done, or planned to do:

• that lavacast we mentioned up there? not end of the world, but the server is pretty quick to grief, especially to get attention. the melons in the church, the mines everywhere, the drills that were nerfed at least partially because people kept using them to break into federation buildings? most people on the island can be lumped in on this one. • the mines, by the way, that not only destroyed land and builds but downed (killed?) players? could've easily killed the eggs? • forever's plan from ages ago, in which he intended to kidnap philza and annoy (torture) him until he loved him back. • foolish taking pac & mike directly to cucurucho to be arrested, happily willing to arrest anyone else. • cellbit killing abueloier, straight up murdering the man. for what... saying he was gonna tell roier not to marry him? • quackity/elquackity? kidnapping - even if you don't count richas (who was still 1% his son), he kidnapped and threatened dapper and had tried repeatedly to take tallulah. constantly threatened the eggs, had plans to kill them various times.

but most of them aren't evil, right? sure they did bad things, but they're not evil?

i don't know, i simply think things on the island are too grey to use black and white words like "good" and "evil".

....also real tired of people saying bad is grieving his 'son' as if he doesn't also have pomme, as if he didn't love all of the other eggs like his own. he spent so much time with the kids. gave them so many resources, and was so quick to help them however he could - to give them any number of things they asked for. but now they're gone and he's lost, and his moral compass (dapper & pomme) is gone.

he's not bending over backwards to help people - he's playing the same games the others were playing in the beginning... and people are so quick to decide he's the problem.

because they care.

they're breaking into his house and ignoring the sign (which tubbo read out loud to phil and forever, which i'll give them that maybe they didn't know that was the direction forever went? because tubbo and phil went back to spawn briefly, but context clues should've told them.). they sneak around instead of talking to him.

because they care.

telling others and not needing proof to believe what's said. they know him, and the report tubbo's talking about doesn't sound too much like the bbh they know, but it makes sense.

because they care.

they refuse to believe him. because yeah, he lies a lot. sure he's been one of the most reliable people on the island, and even when he does lie it's usually harmless and playful. and sure when he does have something he might play for a few minutes but usually gives it back. but this time they don't believe him.

because they know him. because they care.

#qsmp #q badboyhalo #cw drug mention #cw torture mention #cw murder mention #a vent post #note this is not about creators - they're playing their game and that's fine!!#this is about the characters - the same way i'd rant about characters in any story/media #i just have opinions is all

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iwillseeyouinanother-life · 3 months ago

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So I started reading The Summer I Turned Pretty

Howdy bitches 🤩

- quickly learned that I am not the target audience for this book— but one thing about me is I am nosy. (I am queer and this book is very hetero so far but I’m nosy and wanna understand the hype)

- I have n e v e r seen the tv show so I’m going in blind. 🫨

- I like Belly’s inner monologue— she is very observant and optimistic which is fun because I just finished The Hunger Games

- this feels like it’s going to be a love triangle and I hate love triangles 🫣

- I think the appeal is one of them is silly and nice and the other one is grumpy and kinda mean

- so far I low key relate to Conrad because he is a hater— but he kind of a hater in a douchbag way and not a fun way 😛

- Conrad is mentally ill. I can just tell. This kid is depressed. Quit a college attraction sport, got dumped, started smoking, irritable, kinda half present in the moment— my next question is when are we booking that therapy appointment team???

- Belly expanding upon how she hates feeling like an outsider in the house— good shit folks good shit 😎

- I literally know next to nothing about Jeremiah except that he is a silly goose

- I will not accept freckle slander— freckles are forever perfect. This is a hill I will die on.

- question for the public— tell me now— is there ANY gay ppl in this book? Are we seen literally anywhere??? It’s okay if we aren’t I’m just nosy.

- idk how this has 42 chapters yet it’s half the run time of Catching Fire and that book has 28 chapters

#the summer i turned pretty #tsitp #tsitp belly #tsitp conrad #tsitp jeremiah

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andysandfordcomedy · 2 years ago

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Standup Musings: Openers

Openers are probably the weirdest part of stand up to me. Whatever I say seems disingenuous, because the audience came to see comedians, and here I am, a comedian doing my comedy. I don’t know why but it’s just weird, and only the opening is weird to me. A comedian never looks silly just doing comedy to me, except for the opener. My best openers have either mocked the idea of an opener, or got past the opener hump so quick and smoothly that boom, we’re somehow past that already. I like when ya get em with a good opener, but I dislike having to, ya know? I’m sometimes tempted to open with, “don’t worry, I’m good.”

Two of my favorite openers are from Kyle Kinane: “so, this is what I look like.” And Myq Kaplan: “Thank you for that round of applause. Let’s have another one when I’m done.”

Ever since my second or third year of doing comedy, I have purposely written as many openers as I can. All of which with the same goal of sounding like something a comedian would open with and then taking a turn somehow. Some that I remember are...

-”It’s good to be here right now, because earlier, I was back there *point to back of the room* and NO ONE noticed I was telling jokes.”

- “how are you guys doin tonight?...uhh, ok I believe you.”

-”*set mic stand off to the left* how are you guys doin tonight? (crowd cheers) ummm, I was talking to them *point to a couple to my immediate left*...but ok”

-”Give it up for the comics you’ve seen...Now really give it up for me tho!”

- “Heyyy...how am I doin on time? Ok, I’ll leave you with these...”

- “I never know what to say up front. But comedy is a form of public speaking, and I read this book on public speaking once that said with most public speaking it’s good to start with something funny, like a joke...Damn, I shoulda done that.” (either works or bombs)

-(after following any comic who is nothing like me) “This is awkward, but the last comic just closed with MY opener. Guess I’ll have to wing it.”

-(brought on stage to very not-me song) “Thank you, thank you for playing the song I requested.” (fav song I did this to was “Ante Up”)

- “Good to be here, things are goin well for me career-wise. Last week, I shot a pilot. That’s nothing to brag about really, but, I also landed the plane... Again, not tryin to brag, but I killed a man, took his job. Not easy to do.” (was my opener on my album “Me the Whole Time”

- “Hey guys, here’s a lil joke I do...”

- “I’ll be honest, this is the first thing I’ve done all day.” (did this opener on Conan and I think it helped me get booked)

- “Feelin pretty good, just got my 4th Moderna shot.” (booster shots killed this opener)

Comedy is so fun when you have a perfect/fun/timely opener, and so frustrating when you don’t. I’m about done opening with “it’s been a few years but I think 2020 is almost over,” and I don’t have an opener I’m excited about on deck as of yet. Farting into the mic is such a risk, and makes it hard to follow yourself; And “I ain’t scared of you mfers” has already been done. I like telling jokes to people, but I don’t like initiating conversation in any context; even when it’s my favorite thing to do, and how I make a living. That’s what makes me come up with an opener at all: the fact that if you want to do a set, you have to have an opener. I could do the CK “open with your old closer” thing, but it seems weird opening with “ok, I’ll get outta here on this.”

Ok well I’ll get outta here on that.

Toodles,

-Andy

#comedynerd comedymusings standupbullshit Comedy standupcomedy

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citrina-posts · 4 years ago

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Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

I love Avatar: the Last Airbender. Obviously I do, because I run a fan blog on it. But make no mistake: it is a show built upon cultural appropriation. And you know what? For the longest time, as an Asian-American kid, I never saw it that way.

There are plenty of reasons why I never realized this as a kid, but I’ve narrowed it down to a few reasons. One is that I was desperate to watch a show with characters that looked like me in it that wasn’t anime (nothing wrong with anime, it’s just not my thing). Another is that I am East Asian (I have Taiwanese and Korean ancestry) and in general, despite being the outward “bad guys”, the East Asian cultural aspects of Avatar are respected far more than South Asian, Middle Eastern, and other influences. A third is that it’s easy to dismiss the negative parts of a show you really like, so I kind of ignored the issue for a while. I’m going to explain my own perspective on these reasons, and why I think we need to have a nuanced discussion about it. This is pretty long, so if you want to keep reading, it’s under the cut.

Obviously, the leadership behind ATLA was mostly white. We all know the co-creators Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino (colloquially known as Bryke) are white. So were most of the other episodic directors and writers, like Aaron Ehasz, Lauren Montgomery, and Joaquim Dos Santos. This does not mean they were unable to treat Asian cultures with respect, and I honestly do believe that they tried their best! But it does mean they have certain blinders, certain perceptions of what is interesting and enjoyable to watch. Avatar was applauded in its time for being based mostly on Asian and Native American cultures, but one has to wonder: how much of that choice was based on actual respect for these people, and how much was based on what they considered to be “interesting”, “quirky”, or “exotic”?

The aesthetic of the show, with its bending styles based on various martial arts forms, written language all in Chinese text, and characters all decked out in the latest Han dynasty fashions, is obviously directly derivative of Asian cultures. Fine. That’s great! They hired real martial artists to copy the bending styles accurately, had an actual Chinese calligrapher do all the lettering, and clearly did their research on what clothing, hair, and makeup looked like. The animation studios were in South Korea, so Korean animators were the ones who did the work. Overall, this is looking more like appreciation for a beautiful culture, and that’s exactly what we want in a rapidly diversifying world of media.

But there’s always going to be some cherry-picking, because it’s inevitable. What’s easy to animate, what appeals to modern American audiences, and what is practical for the world all come to mind as reasons. It’s just that… they kinda lump cultures together weirdly. Song from Book 2 (that girl whose ostrich-horse Zuko steals) wears a hanbok, a traditionally Korean outfit. It’s immediately recognizable as a hanbok, and these dresses are exclusive to Korea. Are we meant to assume that this little corner of the mostly Chinese Earth Kingdom is Korea? Because otherwise, it’s just treated as another little corner of the Earth Kingdom. Korea isn’t part of China. It’s its own country with its own culture, history, and language. Other aspects of Korean culture are ignored, possibly because there wasn’t time for it, but also probably because the creators thought the hanbok was cute and therefore they could just stick it in somewhere. But this is a pretty minor issue in the grand scheme of things (super minor, compared to some other things which I will discuss later on).

It’s not the lack of research that’s the issue. It’s not even the lack of consideration. But any Asian-American can tell you: it’s all too easy for the Asian kids to get lumped together, to become pan-Asian. To become the equivalent of the Earth Kingdom, a mass of Asians without specific borders or national identities. It’s just sort of uncomfortable for someone with that experience to watch a show that does that and then gets praised for being so sensitive about it. I don’t want you to think I’m from China or Vietnam or Japan; not because there’s anything wrong with them, but because I’m not! How would a French person like to be called British? It would really piss them off. Yet this happens all the time to Asian-Americans and we are expected to go along with it. And… we kind of do, because we’ve been taught to.

1. Growing Up Asian-American

I grew up in the early to mid-2000s, the era of High School Musical and Hannah Montana and iCarly, the era of Spongebob and The Amazing World of Gumball and Fairly Odd Parents. So I didn’t really see a ton of Asian characters onscreen in popular shows (not anime) that I could talk about with my white friends at school. One exception I recall was London from Suite Life, who was hardly a role model and was mostly played up for laughs more than actual nuance. Shows for adults weren’t exactly up to par back then either, with characters like the painfully stereotypical Raj from Big Bang Theory being one of the era that comes to mind.

So I was so grateful, so happy, to see characters that looked like me in Avatar when I first watched it. Look! I could dress up as Azula for Halloween and not Mulan for the third time! Nice! I didn’t question it. These were Asian characters who actually looked Asian and did cool stuff like shoot fireballs and throw knives and were allowed to have depth and character development. This was the first reason why I never questioned this cultural appropriation. I was simply happy to get any representation at all. This is not the same for others, though.

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

I don’t speak for South Asians, but I’ve certainly seen many people criticize Guru Pathik, the only character who is explicitly South Asian (and rightly so. He’s a stereotype played up for laughs and the whole thing with chakras is in my opinion one of the biggest plotholes in the show). They’ve also discussed how Avatar: The Last Airbender lifts heavily from Hinduism (with chakras, the word Avatar itself, and the Eye of Shiva used by Combustion Man to blow things up). Others have expressed how they feel the sandbenders, who are portrayed as immoral thieves who deviously kidnap Appa for money, are a direct insult to Middle Eastern and North African cultures. People have noted that it makes no sense that a culture based on Inuit and other Native groups like the Water Tribe would become industrialized as they did in the North & South comics, since these are people that historically (and in modern day!) opposed extreme industrialization. The Air Nomads, based on the Tibetan people, are weirdly homogeneous in their Buddhist-inspired orange robes and hyperspiritual lifestyle. So too have Southeast Asians commented on the Foggy Swamp characters, whose lifestyles are made fun of as being dirty and somehow inferior. The list goes on.

These things, unlike the elaborate and highly researched elements of East Asian culture, were not treated with respect and are therefore cultural appropriation. As a kid, I had the privilege of not noticing these things. Now I do.

White privilege is real, but every person has privileges of some kind, and in this case, I was in the wrong for not realizing that. Yes, I was a kid; but it took a long time for me to see that not everyone’s culture was respected the way mine was. They weren’t considered *aesthetic* enough, and therefore weren’t worth researching and accurately portraying to the creators. It’s easy for a lot of East Asians to argue, “No! I’ve experienced racism! I’m not privileged!” News flash: I’ve experienced racism too. But I’ve also experienced privilege. If white people can take their privilege for granted, so too can other races. Shocking, I know. And I know now how my privilege blinded me to the fact that not everybody felt the same euphoria I did seeing characters that looked like them onscreen. Not if they were a narrow and offensive portrayal of their race. There are enough good-guy Asian characters that Fire Lord Ozai is allowed to be evil; but can you imagine if he was the only one?

3. What It Does Right

This is sounding really down on Avatar, which I don’t want to do. It’s a great show with a lot of fantastic themes that don’t show up a lot in kids’ media. It isn’t superficial or sugarcoating in its portrayal of the impacts of war, imperialism, colonialism, disability, and sexism, just to name a few. There are characters like Katara, a brown girl allowed to get angry but is not defined by it. There are characters like Aang, who is the complete opposite of toxic masculinity. There are characters like Toph, who is widely known as a great example of how to write a disabled character.

But all of these good things sort of masked the issues with the show. It’s easy to sweep an issue under the rug when there’s so many great things to stack on top and keep it down. Alternatively, one little problem in a show seems to make-or-break media for some people. Cancel culture is the most obvious example of this gone too far. Celebrity says one ignorant thing? Boom, cancelled. But… kind of not really, and also, they’re now terrified of saying anything at all because their apologies are mocked and their future decisions are scrutinized. It encourages a closed system of creators writing only what they know for fear of straying too far out of their lane. Avatar does do a lot of great things, and I think it would be silly and immature to say that its cultural appropriation invalidates all of these things. At the same time, this issue is an issue that should be addressed. Criticizing one part of the show doesn’t mean that the other parts of it aren’t good, or that you shouldn’t be a fan.

If Avatar’s cultural appropriation does make you uncomfortable enough to stop watching, go for it. Stop watching. No single show appeals to every single person. At the same time, if you’re a massive fan, take a sec (honestly, if you’ve made it this far, you’ve taken many secs) to check your own privilege, and think about how the blurred line between cultural appreciation (of East Asia) and appropriation (basically everybody else) formed. Is it because we as viewers were also captivated by the aesthetic and overall story, and so forgive the more problematic aspects? Is it because we’ve been conditioned so fully into never expecting rep that when we get it, we cling to it?

I’m no media critic or expert on race, cultural appropriation, or anything of the sort. I’m just an Asian-American teenager who hopes that her own opinion can be put out there into the world, and maybe resonate with someone else. I hope that it’s given you new insight into why Avatar: The Last Airbender is a show with both cultural appropriation and appreciation, and why these things coexist. Thank you for reading!

#this deleted idk why #so here is me reposting it #atla #avatar #avatar the last airbender #cultural appropriation #meta #atla meta #racism

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three--rings · 2 years ago

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Kinnporsche ep 14 liveblog

My thoughts as I watch the finale. Warning a lot of them are complaining about the execution. I’ll write something coherent later about the show as a whole.

Okay, so once again I’m super confused with how this show cuts between scenes. Porsche went off with Vegas on his bike, then got into the main family’s house, put a gun to Korn’s head, then somehow directly after the cliffhanger ending of “your mom was my sister” he’s at his own house on Vegas’ bike again? Like...maybe we find out this is a flashback before he confronts Korn but I don’t have faith in that given past instances of this in the show.

This makes no sense....grr, anyway okay.

Okay I’m sorry but Porsche’s father getting shot was like the most fake getting shot reaction I’ve ever seen.

Oh, okay I guess this is a flashback okay fine show point to you.

So...do we believe Korn? IDK IDK. And I mean that would be truly shitty for Porsche, to find out his mom killed herself and left him and his brother alone. Somehow I don’t quite buy it.

So...he’s just dead? Great so now Porsche stressed Kinn’s dad into death? Fantastic.

And now he was poisoned? Show you have GOT to be better about giving the audience information. Seriously, like plot is NOT what this show does well. Am I watching this show for Serious Mafia Drama? No, no I am not.

If this whole episode is Mafia Plot there better be some sex at the end.

By “head of our branch” does Chan mean Porsche? Cause like isn’t he officially not a bodyguard anymore? If not Porsche then I have no idea who he means. See, this is what I’m talking about this shit is so fucking poorly written and confusing. Oh wait, does he mean Pete? Sigh. Extra confusing by the next scene where Vegas tells Porsche he has to decide. Decide WHAT precisely?

Oh, Vegas, what is Pete going to think when you just murdered all his friends. Also fun watching the dead bodyguards breathing while we get the tragic last cigarette.

Yunno, maybe if you paid less for homoerotic bodyguards and more for like basic security like elevators you can lockdown this wouldn’t happen.

Fucking KINN. I knew that was coming with other gun, but like COME ON.

30 guys and they all suddenly don’t have bullets? I’m sorry this is just a level of cheese I can’t take. I’m honestly TRYING here. But come on. Surely we could come up with a better way to make this a knife fight.

Suddenly we’re in Home Alone...okay. Like, I can’t even figure out what the tone of this is supposed to be anymore.

CHAY! You did NOT just put headphones on your hair dye infused hair. WTF.

Does Chay even know Kim is there? He’s just gonna turn around from his product placement spot to find a bunch of corpses? WTF Kim.

Okay thank you Vegaspete for giving me the first scene in this episode I’ve really enjoyed. I love unhinged bloody-mouthed Vegas declaring his love to the man beating him up, kissing him, and then immediately ducking and running. And Pete is just majorly confused. Saving Vegas’ life by shooting him a little, beating him bloody, just...poor confused boy.

Okay, points for me not really seeing Korn still being alive and REALLY not seeing Porsche’s mom still being alive.

Okay but like clearly there’s something Korn doesn’t want known and that’s why he shot Gun right then. And the Vegas standoff was so silly, like sure that’s how that would have gone down with mafia dudes. But honestly, I’m like mostly in this for Vegaspete now which I would NOT have foreseen a handful of episodes ago.

Bible is really skilled as an actor, though, damn.

I just don’t EVEN know what to say about Kinn and Porsche and his mom and Korn and like that’s such a mess IDEK.

Okay, so LOVE the Vegaspete scene again. Except for the part where Vegas gets shot. Actually probably will love that part too because I don’t believe he’s dead. Pete’s screaming after was a little unfortunate but whatever.

I kinda saw this coming way back when, that Porsche was going to be expected to be Kinn’s right hand like Gun was to Korn.

Chay, baby boy that shit’s been on your hair so long you’re gonna be bald.

Time jump?? Okkkaaay

Well my cat Weasel, who is very musical, enjoyed Kim’s song.

Yeah okay so S2 bait I suppose.

Oh hey credit song in English! Neat.

OMG why are Vegaspete the actual cutest? Why do I feel more about them than Kinnporsche at this point?

God IDK IDK, this episode was messy and not playing to the show’s strengths, which are character and romance rather than plot and action. As for the show as a whole, I’ll write something about that later.

I’m a little disappointed? But it’s been a ride and I’ve mostly enjoyed it and I hope we do get S2 (which considering the success I can’t imagine we won’t.)

Not sure how they’ll actually make a S2 fully interesting but there’s enough plot hanging to I guess make it work.

#kinnporsche #kinnporsche spoilers #threerings watches kinnporsche

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salcreus · 4 years ago

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Hermits Helping Hermits, and why it’s so brilliant

Excuse any grammar mistakes, it is very late and I am very tired as of writing this haha

First off, if you don’t know, there’s this new thing that the Hermits came up with called Hermits Helping Hermits- HHH for short as I like to call it. Here’s twitch’s VOD of Ren’s POV if you want to get to know that better, instead of reading a badly written paragraph about it by yours truly. (This one is by far the one with the most interactions with it, but there are far more hermits involved in this event :) <3 Check their twitch streams and/or Youtube VODS channels for more of that chit-chatting spicy goodness)

But, if you don't want to sit through two and half hours of video footage (which honestly I don't blame you), the best resume that I can give of it is- actually very explicit in the name. It's just a bunch of hermits helping out another hermit with a certain task, something that is repetitive and would take that hermit absolutely aeons to get done with. It's a very small resume, but at the end of the day, that /is/ the core of this "Event" of sorts.

Now that you got that out of the way, excuse me as I indulge in all of the details that make this simple concept fry up my brain with joy.

Collaboration. That's a word that we thrive for and love whenever a new stream or episode comes out, it brings out the best of all hermits involved while combining their skills and humour (which I'll touch upon in a bit). It's just overall a bomb fest of creativity and oh boy do we eat that shit up whenever we can (If you need any more proof of the fandom's love for collaborative works, check out the poles our beloved miners and crafters have done to us, audience, asking about which content we prefer. Really. It's absurd how much collabs destroy the other options of the polls).

And honestly... HHH is exactly all we have ever wanted in terms of interactions between hermits. You have a bunch of buzzing bees that are together, in this calm environment, doing tasks that don't quite require that much brainpower, and you got yourself this podcast-Esque vibe going on that just works wonderfully with the stream format that they have going on- And that's not even mentioning the use of the voice chat mod! The way that they don't have to just jumble about in VCs, and can just fly away to talk, promotes this easier way of being part of the action (In this first stream we could see hermits just showing up midway through, or leaving, which, unlike having to click away from Minecraft and onto Discord and switch VCs and all of this tedious process- It doesn't feel forced. It's organic, and they are the ones that have the power to do whatever they want.)

(Also quick note not to ever pressure the content creators into talking or joining in yada yada don't be a prick about it <3 They are human beings too, not your personal TV show)

Humour. (Told you that we were going to talk about this) ...Actually, I'm lying, this is more to analyze their interactions and tie with the thing that I talked about above, but I don't actually want to make two separate tabs for this text so like ehhhh- Okay okay so. We all know that putting different types of personalities into a room is bound to give some good shenanigans, we all know that show and tale, so I am not going to re-tell it (Unless someone someday wants me to write about that which I doubt because I'd be a massive nerd about it). No, I want to focus more on the environment itself and how /that/ is one of the tricks on how their conversations turn into this amalgamation of chiller, more daring topics.

Now, by more daring topics, I don't mean that they are going to start cursing out their viewers, but it overall feels like we get to retire a bit from the Minecraft Funny Persona, and focus more on the humans being behind it. Of course, their personal lives are none of our business, but it's nice to see them acting like the nerdy adults that they are- Which I feel is a bit forgotten in this fandom, yknow? The fact that they, too, are absolutely silly and would laugh at 69 jokes as much as we do (season 5 chatting my beloved). This chill, lowkey profile induced by the conditions I talked about above impacts their humour, and thus, their way of interacting in this free for all space where they can just vibe!

Also, I cannot mention this ^ without congratulating Rendog for his way of giving everyone their own moment on the spotlight. If it hasn't been clear before by the Hermitcraft panel at Minecon a few years ago (which he was the host of :) <3), Ren is bloody AMAZING at sparking conversation, and overall debate managing; I blame his cockiness and his lack of shame, but who am I to judge. The way that he managed the tasks given, and was able to put everyone on track when the train was moving away from the action, really shows his skills when it comes to entertaining an audience. I am NOT going to forgive him for the pee talk though, hate the furry </3 /j

Creativity! This is just a small thing that I catched on when I was watching, but I really liked how Bdubs was giving tips on how to make the spikes on the biome pop up more (by the use of walls, stairs, slabs). It wasn't something that was really the centre of attention in this "episode" of HHH, but I appreciate the possibilities that this gives in terms of hermits learning as they work together on something, the sentiment of giving tips and tricks as to how to make something pop up, or how to improve on a certain detail- Another moment involving this was when Xisuma was talking about that lava cast shemanty machinery that I am far too dumb to talk about but you know what, he sure was saying words and I am sure they are very useful. The collaborative process of coming up with ideas and solutions is one that always fascinates me (Maybe that's why the mayoral building is my favourite one of the season so far) and I cannot wait to see what else they can bring to the table, even if it's small.

If this hasn’t convinced you yet I don’t know what it will, but, to be fair, I'm just someone that is Far Too Excited about HHH :pensive_emote: But to wrap things up very badly because I am awful at closing statements, the hermits look like they are having fun with it, which is what matters at the end of the day! They are all kind, wonderful individuals that treat us far too good, and this is not exception. Can't wait to see what they are going to do next, and how this event series is going to develop :) <3

(I was also going to go more on topic about the interactions that happened and jokes, but honestly I think that's a side document for another day dsjffsdmf;;)

#I am nooooot proof reading this #i have an essay to do and this aint it chief!!#hermitcraft #mcyt #long post #rendog #tagging as that since i am showering the man in praises jsdfnsdf #hermits help hermits #salty rambles #bdoubleo100 #xisuma #since they are also specifically mentioned here #i give all of the hermits some choccy milk #hermits helping hermits

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asherlockstudy · 4 years ago

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Uncomfortable close-up to their Valentine Newlywed answers

Since Rhett was a tad reluctant to compliment Link sincerely I decided to use my psychoanalytical skills (anyway whatever) and seek the underlying honest answers they wanted to give. This could be a bit much at times and perhaps you shouldn't read if you are not a Rhink shipper, that's why I used a cut.

"What he loves about me" Link's expression is a little confusing - maybe an attempt at doubt or self-deprecation but it looks to me more like the embarrassment of the blushing bride.

"I love your..."

Who wants to bet that the first thing that came to Rhett's mind was ass but then he changed it to the first word that came to his mind after ass? A-ccent. Like, there's just no case accent was the first thing he thought because Link's accent isn't even that strong at this point. When Link got surprised at that, Rhett simply replied that he was trying to find something funny. But even so, like I said earlier, Rhett does love Link's accent. I am sure he is fond of it, he finds it adorable. And let's not forget he said "there was so much he could choose from"!

Link looks disappointed that it's not his guess, his eyes. An interesting thing here is that although he used a personality trait for Rhett, he expected / hoped for this physical trait for himself. But don't feel sorry - Rhett has talked about his baby blues and has even gone to the ridiculous extents of planning to make a blog exclusively for Link's eyes. So don't worry; it is known that Rhett at least acknowledges the beauty of Link's eyes. At least. And Link was expecting this from a place of knowledge and not as an attempt to be silly-sappy.

Things Rhett thinks Link loves about him:

voice (Link will later say he loves his laugh and this is close, he's also enchanted every time Rhett sings so...)

height (Link once said he is attracted to "people of extreme heights")

hair (we know that)

beard (lie detector test)

giving spirit (lol totally)

creativity (they've talked about this many times)

eyebrows (if Link has said he likes Rhett's eyelashes then liking his eyebrows is certain)

Rhett was guessing from a place of knowledge too.

Rhett then said he loves stories of Link's grandma doing weird things with him and I don't like being the weirdo to spell out the weird thing but Rhett's interest in that is vaguely associated to his weird mind being always in the gutter. I don't mean it turns him on of course but he loves hearing weird stuff that border on creepy. You know it's true. Sometimes he's like that. Link took revenge for the accent joke with the psoriasis.

Wow we saw some Rhett teeth. Link answered sincerely with a super cute "I love your laugh" but Rhett just said "I love the sound your mouth makes when you don't chew". Oh well. Link regretted being sincere and Rhett, after some good laughter, defended himself by saying "he (Link) walked himself into it". This makes exactly zero sense and I am wondering whether he meant Link walked himself into it by choosing the vulnerable / sincere way. Or if he just didn't know what he was talking about.

Rhett then asks for the next answer to be complimentary. He then repeats he has strong feelings about Link's accent. Again, I believe this! In a positive light. IDK, I do believe this. Link said he has strong positive feelings for Rhett's car which I found weird like Rhett because I thought it was established Link has the better car of the two. Who knows, maybe he lied about the positive thing. Unless he connects it in his mind with memories / experiences.

Link's guess a little later:

Link: If I wanted to, I could easily... start over.

Rhett: Start over?! Like, whole life?

L: ...Yeah, just like, get a re-do.

R: Huh.

L: And I would be like "Really? How?"

R: Mmkay. I said "If you wanted to, you could easily kill me".

Okay, this gets a little deeper. I think what initially Link meant was a joke about starting over regarding his relationship with Rhett. Rhett didn't get that and asked him if he meant his whole life. Link considered that "mmyeah..." and realised it wasn't that far off from what he meant, all jokes aside. Link does wish he could start over and redo many things in his life. This surely has A LOT to do with their religious upbringing. And maybe how it affected Link's choices. Stevie's laughter is so out of place sometimes. Rhett does not laugh and tries to rush this moment. Rhett's answer about Link killing him is not exactly weird or offensive or mean as I saw some people consider it. It shows, maybe subconsiously, several things; Link's intensity, Rhett's pliable nature especially to Link and it might be more indicative of how Rhett feels about Link than anything else, at least in this video.

And then, out of nowhere, or maybe so it seems to us, Rhett goes ballistic against everyone. He starts complaining about those complaining when they didn't give each other heartfelt compliments. Link joked he agrees with them. Rhett attempted to let this slip although it angered him. The crew laughed with Link's joke, meaning they kinda sided with him, and Rhett turned basically mad at Link.

He accused Link that he did the same that day and Link entirely deflected the conversation. All I'm gonna say is that don't think they don't communicate with each other about how they approach certain situations. I wonder if at times they misunderstand each other or one changes opinion suddenly and leaves the other hanging. Link tries to stop Rhett from going on but Rhett is unstoppable at this point.

You might say Rhett was straight out mean right there and I sure was like "whoa where did this all come from, man" but mean is not a reasonable explanation. He was angry and his words show he is in a pressured state. Unless you tend to have mood swings, which Rhett doesn't really have as far as I know, you don't go from all cutesy and mischievous to furious in milliseconds. Except if there is an underlying suppressed cause. And you may ask, okay does he feel pressured to say a compliment to Link? Is this such a big deal? Well, yes and no. I don't think Rhett meant "we're not gonna hold hands" or "compliment each other" when we ask it. I think we know what he means. I think he's talking about the - well, in his words - elephant in the room. The actually serious consideration that there is something more there. The expectation that it might get revealed at any point - whether intentionally or unintentionally. Rhett loses control at that moment, which is why Link, who knows him well, warns him to not go there but Rhett still does. And again, you might say: well, no fan asked them to kiss or to confirm anything! We asked them simple stuff that can be normal between platonic friends too. Yes, but there is something we don't take often into account. The mythical crew. The mythical crew are actually the ones who monitor closely what the fans believe, want and prefer to watch. This means that the crew has to inform and discuss with Rhett and Link how much they are gonna please the audience and in what ways. Which means that a crew of 50+ people have an elaborate opinion on what fans think of Rhett and Link's relationship (next to their own opinion of course) and this has to be communicated with them face to face. In short, Rhett and Link have their privacy invaded not only by the fans but by their employees and, moreover, they are forced to always have fun with it and take it lightly. Again, you could think: well, they could forbid any rhink reference to the crew from now on. And you would think this WOULDN'T make the crew MORE suspicious at this point? All I am saying, they are fine when they make rhink insinuations / jokes voluntarily but most of the time is forced upon them by both the fans and employees and this can be uncomfortable at best if they are just friends or tyrannical if there is something more there that they still keep for themselves. So, Rhett's frustration comes from a deeper place than being expected to give a compliment. If I were in their place as I imagine it (I could always be entirely wrong) I would feel like a muppet trying to balance all my reactions towards thousands of people, with several dozens of them being paid by me to scrutinize me and order me how exactly to act!

There is a cut following Rhett's vent and you can see that Rhett is trying to calm himself down.

He speaks to himself, mumbling "yeah alright yeah ok ok" and by the expressions I can tell he acknowledges he lost control. That doesn't mean he regretted what he said - just that he said more than it benefits him to say and apparently he said a lot more in the unedited video. Kudos then to Link, who actively tries to calm his friend down and make him feel more comfortable.

This might be unpleasant to some but from his stance I conclude that Link agrees with Rhett or at least understands him. He was just wise enough to not say it out loud. Link first warned Rhett to not speak and then stayed quiet as Rhett was venting. After the cut, we see him trying to help Rhett calm down and relax and he characteristically invites Rhett to focus his attention on him and find something he really loves about him. This is not a complaint - Link is smiling and is warm to Rhett. What he essentially does is trying to help Rhett forget he is being watched by thousands and his every word is weighted, which of course is Rhett's main problem. He just says "forget about them and focus on me and just say something you love, it's all good". I just love Link here. He's supportive and caring.

The next question is what Link loves when Rhett blanks his blank and Rhett is trying to picture it-

I have no doubt Link loves that. The ear thumbing, I mean.

So, then I am adding the stills that redeemed Rhett in the fandom:

But not to be that person, it's obvious that Rhett plays it up a ridiculous lot. And not even to appease the angry fans but probably to make fun of their anger. That's why Link laughs with his face and his answer "I love remembering the time we met".

This doesn't interest me at all. Instead, I am much more interested in Link's nonsensical answer "I love remembering the time we died" because what?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Link tends to say occasionally stuff that doesn't make sense but I don't think he would pass on the chance to say something even remotely meaningful in an opportunity like this and especially regarding his relationship with Rhett. Link clarifies: "...when we died. This is heaven". There are two possibilities and only two: a) this makes ZERO sense and it's the worst and most pointless joke ever and b) this is symbolic or something only Rhett could understand. Rhett does not dismiss this as stupid or silly with his usual done look. He asks questions about it and they discuss at length about how it happened that they died and why they went to heaven since it seems they killed each other. Well, it's because they killed each other in the exact same time with a prod-like tool and they escaped Good Ol' God's (in Link's words) notice. Okay. I'm just leaving this here and you can all draw your own conclusions. Personally, I am torn between a symbolical death and rebirth when they left their religious selves behind and death being used as a well known old metaphor of a certain physical state. It would work even more if it was both. Or Link was just talking nonsense. Let's not exclude that. So yeah. That's all I had to say................

#rhink #rhett mclaughlin #link neal #gmmore #good mythical more #don't read if you don't like rhink #mythical corner #mythical

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florrickandassociates · 3 years ago

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TGF Thoughts: 5x09-- And the end was violent...

It’s been a busy week, but I didn’t want to wait until after 5x10 aired to write this. This recap may be a bit rushed (read: I am going to make an effort to just skip over scenes I don’t care about; we’ll see how many of those there actually are). I didn’t love this episode overall, but I thought it was a huge improvement over 5x08’s parking ticket fiasco and wish it had immediately followed 5x07.

Bless these episodes for not being overly long

Oooh, the opening sequence is long and I have nothing to say about it! Thanks for making my life easier, writers!

The point of this opening is to show that there are lots of problems with the official court system—inefficiencies, inconveniences like broken elevators, overcrowding in prisons (though, uh, I don’t think the actual problem there is that there’s not room to incarcerate more people)-- that might make cops open to an alternative like Wackner’s court.

I know the cop thread kind of started with last week’s parking nonsense, but surely there was a way other than the parking nonsense to bridge the gap between 5x07’s prison system and 5x09’s focus on Wackner’s court suddenly being a replacement for criminal court, too.

(Y’all, I have SO MANY questions about how Wackner can POSSIBLY judge criminal cases, but they’re all just variations on... UH, GUYS, ISN’T THIS ILLEGAL? LIKE SUPER DUPER ILLEGAL?)

I see that there is a filming notice when the cops bring a dude into Wackner’s court, and that the notice says that by entering on the premises you consent to being on film. I do not think that this sign being displayed would hold up as evidence of anyone consenting to be sentenced to a private prison on criminal charges.

New question: How did Wackner Rules get on the air so fast? And are they just filming endless episodes in real time? They just film anyone who walks in?

I think there is supposed to be a subplot about Marissa liking fame and attention; it is almost a little too subtle to be meaningful. I see a through line from her sleeping with that editor dude last week to her smiling at the flowers in this scene to her scenes with Carmen later this episode. Unfortunately, I need a lot more for this to work.

I don’t need Marissa to be a hero who constantly does the right thing and calls out Wackner on crossing the line, but I’m really sad that this is what they’re using Marissa for when we were due for Marissa calling Wackner out (in a meaningful, lasting way) like two episodes ago. It’s felt odd to me that she just sticks around and assists Wackner and Del when they’re doing things like putting people in private prisons and comparing the show they’re making to The Apprentice. Any subtle shift in Wackner’s decisions that has signaled to me that he’s gone too far is something that I can say with certainty would signal the same to Marissa. Marissa’s outspoken and passionate, and we have seen enough reaction shots to know she knows things are going bad, fast. Am I really meant to believe that because she likes Wackner and she likes fame, she’s not going to do anything more substantial than look upset from time to time? Not only does that feel out of character, it’s also just boring.

And, it speaks to another problem I’m starting to have with the arc: they needed to get to the point faster. Once Wackner said “David Cord’s private prison,” this stopped being fun. It would’ve stopped being fun for Marissa and it stopped being fun for viewers (seriously though, the change in tone on Reddit between 5x07 and 5x08/5x09 is VERY noticeable). So why did we follow that up with some repetitive filler bullshit about parking spaces and then start getting back to the point in this episode? I’m sure they’re going somewhere big in 5x10, but you can’t follow an explosive reveal with more status quo.

(Also, lol, I think the parking space thing was meant to be a fun silly absurd little way of entering into themes about authority and Wackner trying to legitimize his court, but it was about an issue so relatable and illogical that I think it feels even harder to believe than the, like, whole concept of a secret court in a Copy Coop.)

Time for Marissa to look concerned again! She’s confused about if the case is real or not, and when Wackner says it’s real, she says it’s not for their court and it’s crossing a line. She is absolutely correct. Wackner’s like, let me know if you think I’m crossing a line after I rule, and then he makes a silly flailing gesture that Marissa can use as a signal.

I actually don’t hate that scene; it is a good scene. I am only snarking on it because it feels like familiar territory and it belonged in an earlier episode.

Am I correctly understanding that these cops wanted to be filmed bringing a man against his will to a fake court with a private prison? And that they wanted this to air on television? Okay.

I will say that I believe the motivations of everyone involved except Marissa. Wackner thinks he’s doing good for the world. Del is getting good TV (I mean, I still think that Wackner Rules title sequence is shit and the show Del seems to be making is terrible, but that’s besides the point). Cord has so much money he’s untouchable and this is fun for him. The cops just don’t want to deal with bureaucracy when it comes to someone who they basically caught in the act.

Court! Stuff! Happens!

Wackner sentences the guy to one year in “David Cord’s private prison.” Again, I know they have to say this for exposition/storytelling reasons, but I continue to find it hilarious that David Cord would want his name to be used in this way (because he like, absolutely would not want his name to be used this way).

The cops like Wackner’s verdict so they tell all their friends to also take their cases to Wackner. What could possibly go wrong!

Like, yeah, there are problems with the criminal justice system—and some of them are even the ones these cops are mad about—but this is ABSOLUTELY not the answer!!! You cannot just take people off the streets and place them in private prisons because they were forced to enter a filming zone for a TV show what the actual fuck

Love David Lee still having candy on his desk. Some things never change.

Allegra, who was welcomed by the partners of RL last week, is interviewing for a job with David Lee. I don’t understand. Doesn’t David Lee have to approve new partners at RL?

Please don’t mention real estate on Mars, Allegra. You’ve made me think of Jason and how bad season seven was.

Allegra is feeling a bit different from Elsbeth this episode, though she very much still has some Elsbeth energy. She is very strategic and blunt in a way Elsbeth isn’t, and she seems a little more focused and intense.

“I notice, in a partisan world, the person in the middle controls the agenda,” Allegra says of her alliances with both Liz and Diane. This is interesting. What are Allegra’s goals here? Just to have power? Does she have a vision for RL? Is it just a good paycheck?

(My guess is it’s about power and money for her. I don’t think she is going to be the ally Madeline wants. I don’t think anyone who voluntarily signs up to be a name partner at a firm owned by corporate overlords is a natural ally for Madeline though, tbh.)

(I really hoped this arc would explore that just a tiny bit more. The longer this conflict drags on the more convinced I become that the whole question of if it’s appropriate for Diane to lead a black firm is moot. It’s an interesting and complicated question, but with some distance from the plot, it becomes pretty clear that in this particular situation, RL isn’t a black firm. It’s a subsidiary of a large multinational corporation.)

(The show seems very aware of this and keeps having plot points like Diane using David Lee to keep her job and having Madeline call out all the awful clients they have... but it needs to go somewhere.)

(This also may be why I’m more down on the end of the season—in the middle of the season, nods at the things I’ve been thinking are appreciated references. At the end, they’re more like plotholes or reminders of the questions we should actually be spending time on.)

“Are you shitting me?” David Lee storms into the room as Liz and Diane are working. “David, we are shitting you about so many things, you’re gonna have to be more specific,” Liz responds. God, funny!Liz is maybe my favorite part of season 5?

Liz calls David out on his power, noting that he also reports to STR Laurie. So it seems like Liz and Diane can make decisions on their own, and STR Laurie can overrule them, but not stop them in advance?

This little ad about an ice cream chain is like, 15 seconds too long.

Carmen is back!!!! She’s helping Rivi sign a deal with an ice cream chain so that they’ll turn into a distributor of weed.

Why do we have to watch a SECOND commercial?

The farm wants Rivi to stop dealing other drugs if they’re going to enter into this deal.

Allegra, another character who seemingly has no qualms about representing drug kingpins, quickly impresses Rivi.

I understand why there is an interpreter for Rivi’s wife. I do not understand why the interpreter interprets conversations BETWEEN Rivi and his wife. And then he’s translating the sign language into Spanish? But also Rivi speaks fluent English in half of these scenes? WHAT is happening?

Allegra is also different from Elsbeth in that with clients, you’re NEVER going to underestimate her. You might not follow her at first, but she’ll get to the point clearly and concisely and without telling you how much she likes your lipstick.

But like at 13:44 Rivi signs something to his wife, and when she signs back the interpreter tells him what she’s saying. This is so so so clearly for the audience but I wish it had just been captions because it makes NO SENSE that the interpreter is in on this private conversation between two people who both know sign language!?

Rivi and Isabel now LOVE Allegra. Diane and Liz are like, okay!

Cop stuff happens.

Credits!!! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out indiewire’s piece on the making of the credits—it's fascinating.

Brooke directed 😀

Marissa the celebrity is signing autographs in Wackner’s court when the cops bring in some young men affiliated with Rivi.

NO, GOD NO, NOT THIS DEVIL’S ADVOCATE FUCKERY. The problem I have with the Devil’s Advocate, in addition to it being fucking annoying, is that it is also the exact opposite of what Wackner’s court is all about. Wackner is about facts and really hearing people out, and from what we’ve seen, Devil’s Advocate is about... stereotypes and pop sociology so bad it’s essentially just racism?

“These young men are the victims of a system that arbitrarily declares some drugs illegal, and others, like alcohol, not. They should be released. To hold them is to perpetuate an unfair system,” Devil’s Advocate says. Good lord, a 7th grader could write a more persuasive speech than this bullshit.

WHY IS DAVID CORD PROSECUTING THIS, WHY IS THE TRIAL ABOUT WHETHER OR NOT DRUGS HARM COMMUNITIES, WHY IS THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE SOUNDING LIKE A WHITE BOY IN AN INTRO TO SOCIOLOGY CLASS WITH HIS REFERENCES TO THE WIRE, WHY IS ANY OF THIS HAPPENING OMG MAKE IT STOP HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS BAD

Why is Marissa the court clerk being called upon to be defense, WHY IS THE DEVIL’S ADVOCATE JUST SCREAMING “DEFUND THE POLICE” WHAT THE FUCK

I’m sorry, I am going to rant about this more, I truly cannot get over how fucking stupid the Devil’s Advocate is. He just starts screaming “defund the police”??? To what end?! Why does Wackner want this in his court?!

I revise what I said earlier. Devil’s Advocate isn’t just sounding a white boy in an intro to sociology class. He is sounding like a white boy who showed up to an intro to sociology class absolutely hammered.

Marissa, correctly, argues that the arrestees should be taken to Cook County. Then she hears that they work for Rivi and she knows this is bad.

Cord calling Marissa out for her firm representing Rivi: Another thing that would NEVER air on Wackner Rules.

David Lee seems surprised Liz and Diane did not get rid of Allegra. I don’t know why he is surprised, I think they made it very clear they don’t see him as an authority figure.

STR Laurie is now demanding (another) 10% in cuts to pay for Allegra. Liz says they’ll pay for her with the money that used to be for Adrian and Diane notes that Allegra has more stature than Adrian. Interesting.

David Lee then decides to be both sexist and racist for really no reason at all. Pleasant!

Showing Carmen as competent but not yet as strategic as Allegra is a really nice way to underline that Carmen is still a first year even if she is very very good.

Liz, Diane, and Allegra talk about cost cutting. Allegra is like, no, we need to spend more, which makes sense, both for the reasons she outlines and because when you bring on a powerful name partner, your need for lower level support does not DECREASE, it INCREASES.

I know this scene is meant to show Allegra thinking outside the box, but I am a bit surprised that (1) Neither Liz nor Diane push back on the 10% cut and (2) When Allegra suggests hiring back all the associates and then some, Diane seems to think Allegra doesn’t understand they’re talking about cuts? Like, obviously she knows the topic of conversation, Diane.

“We don’t run our own business. We work for a global conglomerate,” Liz notes. Yup. Right point, wrong context lol.

Diane and Liz are just too smart and strategic to have to be told ALL of this by Allegra... especially Diane, who is not only smart but also used to dealing with management.

And worse... Liz and Diane think they made a mistake with Allegra because of this? I mean, I guess if your goal is to permanently work for a big corporation that will slowly chip away at your budget because they can and to never make any waves because that might disrupt the status quo, sure, Allegra isn’t who you want! But do Diane and Liz REALLY want the status quo?

I hope they find a way out from under STR Laurie next year, as much as I hate the firm switching, because it’s just such a boring dead-end when Diane and Liz don’t actually have power or control.

OOOH I like Del asking Liz what SHE wants wrt the whole Diane situation. She says she wants to “stop fighting” and for Diane to “stop using her racist clients to keep her job” and for “the firm to be led in the right way by the right people.” So sounds like she wants to work with Diane, then? That last one is as vague as can be, but I think we can infer at this point that Liz is more concerned with stability and a work environment she likes than idealism.

God, Liz and Alicia would’ve gotten along so well as adults lmao.

Del tells Liz that “women at work always want to be thought of as nice. Women always want consensus. But you know what, baby, sometimes you just gotta say, ‘Fuck you, and you and you and you. Alright? This is my business and it’s my decision.’” I see where he’s coming from (even though this sounds like something my nemesis the Devil’s Advocate would say) but I am not sure I agree that’s Liz’s problem here.

Actually, maybe I do agree with Del. I think Del’s saying to say FU to Diane, but what Liz clearly actually wants to do is say FU to Madeline lol

Liz asks him to change the topic. Where ARE they? Is this a restaurant or an incredibly nice backyard?

Del changes the topic to how his boss wants him to come back to LA, but he wants to get Liz’s thoughts on their future. Liz asks him to start since men are better at saying what they mean (ha, love her giving him shit for that).

He basically tells her he wants to stay and she says he should stay. Aww.

Rivi’s house is... certainly something.

Isabel is concerned because three of their boys have disappeared. She, naturally, suspects they’re at police blacksites.

I’m sorry, did Marissa not elevate the Rivi case in Wackner’s court to the partners’ attention!? Rivi blames the dairy company, even though this does not... make that much sense?

This escalates into the murder of cows?? What... the fuck.

Now Marissa finds Carmen and loops her in! But only now that she knows Rivi’s looking for them and Rivi’s about to, like, kill Christian Borle’s character whose name I’ve forgotten.

Marissa’s position on this is that Wackner will just let the boys go so Rivi shouldn’t know about any of this. Rivi would just kill Wackner. And Carmen is like, Rivi will just kill Christian Borle if we don’t tell. Fair point.

Carmen, being an actual adult (sorry Marissa, I usually love you), is willing to admit when she’s in over her head, so she walks off to go get Liz for help. Yay!

Rivi is not impressed with Wackner’s court or Marissa. He and Isabel want either Carmen or Allegra. Liz says Carmen will do it, I think meaning Marissa will do it but Carmen will be client facing.

I love it when we get to see Liz just be super competent. It’s not a rare occurrence, but it’s just very, very clear in this scene how much better Liz is at handling this situation than Carmen or Marissa would’ve been and I like it when the show makes time to emphasize that even on a show full of hypercompetent people, some people are more skilled than others at handling some situations.

Liz, Diane, and David meet with STRL over Zoom. Allegra somehow pops up on the meeting but also joins as a cat because you know what the cat lawyer on Zoom needed? To be parodied on TGF. Ugh

OH MY GOD I DIDN’T PUT THIS TOGETHER SOONER BUT IT’S A CAT LAWYER YOU GUYS. This will mean NOTHING to any of you because it’s about an inside joke I have with the friend who got me into TGW, but indulge me in a little nostalgia here, ‘kay? So in like 2012, there was a trend on Tumblr where everyone would photoshop cat ears onto their favorite TV characters and my friend and I were like, why would I want to put cat ears on my favorite character, idgi. So then we started photoshopping cat ears on to the most unlikely characters and we landed on David Lee. We referred to David Lee as a cat for a really long time. Like, if we were to talk about David Lee today we would probably still call him Cat! David Lee.

Allegra starts trying to work her magic on STRL. Diane literally runs down the stairs to try to stop Allegra. I am not sure why Diane and Liz are so anti-Allegra during this conversation which is only happening so they can have the funds to keep her on board!

Allegra tries to share a burrito with Diane and Liz and says she stands by her strategy. Liz finally says she’s not sure this will work. Allegra is understanding.

I respect that. Allegra may as well go all out and see if she can make this workable.

(That said, this is pretty much the opposite of her whole staying neutral thing from earlier!)

No one is in the audience at Wackner’s court when Carmen shows up, yet the musician who I like only very slightly more than Devil’s Advocate is still on call. Just STOP.

Overall I’ve liked the Wackner arc and I’m excited to see it wrap up tomorrow, but lemme tell you: it had better wrap up tomorrow. I am NOT open to dealing with this for another season.

The musician takes orders from Cord? The cameras are rolling? Rivi is there? WHAT?

I know that NONE of this makes sense, but some things make exceptionally little sense and I just can’t.

Guys, remember the parking tickets?!

Oh, excuse me, the ice cream company is actually a yogurt company.

Rivi notes that there are three boys missing. Wackner only has two.

I am a little surprised Rivi has managed to be successful with that temper. Idk what skill set you need to be a top drug dealer, but he attacks people like three times an episode and that seems like a really good way to not build trust and to also get yourself killed?

Liz and Del talk about what happened in Wackner’s court. Liz asks how they deal with liability. I guess she isn’t Del’s lawyer, then. Del says they have releases and people want to be on TV. Liz says what I’ve been saying, which is that Rivi doesn’t want to be on TV. Del says there are ways around that and references the show Cops as though that’s enough to make this question go completely away.

Liz references The Apprentice, for those of us who didn’t catch the reference last week and/or for those of us (me!) who wanted to pretend that Wackner wasn’t somehow a commentary on Trump and star power. Ugh.

(I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad point, I just am not sure that I think it is the most interesting point about the Wackner plot.)

“Remember how we all watched and laughed and thought it was funny when they fired people?” Liz says. “We? No, no. Hmm, you... you never watched The Apprentice,” Del responds. She did not. Hahahahahaha I love this exchange. It feels very real.

Liz seems less concerned with Wackner and more concerned with Del’s eagerness to turn Wackner into a larger than life personality with a devoted following, which, yes, thank you, Liz, this is actually a much better and more interesting point!

“That came out of nowhere,” Del says. “No, it didn’t,” Liz responds, correctly.

Del talks about how Liz represents Wackner, along with murderers, rapists, drug dealers, and yet she wants to draw the line at reality show producer who makes people famous? He’s got a point, even if I’d argue that choosing a romantic partner is not the same as running a business.

“Would your firm turn down [the producer of The Apprentice] if he wanted to join the roster?” Del asks. “Good point,” Liz sighs, resigned. She’s not happy he’s right, but she knows he is.

Sigh. I already said some variation of this, but this season seems to have all the right ideas floating around, it’s just choosing the wrong ones to explore deeply and the wrong moments to mention other ones. Things like Liz worrying that someone she’s considering starting a serious relationship with might have some personality traits she doesn’t love can be done through throwaway lines that quickly come back to being about work/plot (that’s what happens in this scene, basically) and I love that. But the existence of STRL and the influence it has over whether or not RL is a black firm at some point can’t be dealt with through references. Wackner becoming increasingly off the rails can’t be turned down to a simmer after reaching boiling point. RL’s unsavory client’s can’t just come up in moments like this; they have to play into a central conflict.

Like, what good is it to constantly remind the audience that RL represents a ton of “bad guys” if you’re not going to go anywhere with that other than making Liz and Diane occasionally be like, “hmm, good point.” when called out on their client list? This could be a really, really good piece of a larger puzzle about the culture at RL, and instead it feels like it’s a card they play whenever they need some moral complexity. Just... go somewhere with it, please. Either stop pretending that RL are the good guys or have them seriously deal with their client list.

Anyway, then Liz and Del talk about his possible LA move. It’s kinda inconclusive; they talk about work just being work.

Outside of court, Carmen doesn’t believe that Wackner only has two of Rivi’s boys.

“I don’t know why you’ve been wasting so much time with this joke court, because it’s not gonna magically turn you into a real lawyer, Marissa,” Carmen lashes out. Oooo. Now this is interesting, can I have an extended version of this scene and also all the other Carmen/Marissa scenes that we should’ve gotten in the episodes Carmen was barely in?

I understand Carmen’s frustration, especially since I imagine she worked pretty damn hard to get into/get through law school. And, as fun and smart as Marissa can be, she does get bored easily, try to skip over the dull moments, and moves on and still always lands on her feet. I can see how that would rub Carmen the wrong way, especially during a stressful moment.

Carmen isn’t exactly a rule follower, but I’d say she is someone who is very conscious of the rules, and, I think someone who values structure more than she lets on (I especially see this in her decision to stay at RL instead of work independently/with Lester).

Marissa calls Jay for help!

Allegra talks to David Lee, with Liz and Diane in the background. Allegra makes her argument to David Lee again and it goes over well. I think the writers think there’s more suspense in this plot than there is; it’s pretty obvious from the start that Allegra is correct and Diane and Liz are only correct if the goal is to avoid all conflict.

What is David Lee’s role at STRL? Is there anything else in that office besides awful HR and RL? He talks like he is more RL than STRL and that doesn’t track with what we saw of STRL last year.

Marissa spots a flyer that leads her and Jay to where the missing boy is: another fake court. This was inevitable—I think one of the very first things I said was that Wackner himself seemed fine and decent, but what happens when someone else decides they, too, want to be a judge because they said so—and I’m glad to see the writers go this direction. I actually think this would’ve been an effective build after 5x07 and would’ve kept turning up the tension, so again, most of my issues with this arc lie in 5x08’s momentum killing bullshit. It’s hard to get back into this plot when they lost me last week.

Shocker: Wackner having a reality show inspired more copy cats who take cues from the show and think Marissa is a celebrity.

Vinetta, the judge of the second court, puts people in “time-out” (read: imprisons them in her basement) and... yeah, I don’t care how kind she is to them, this is not okay! The solution to the prison system is not for people to turn their basements into prisons!

I don’t know that the writers are TRYING to comment on this here, but there is definitely something to be said about communities that the legal system repeatedly fails finding alternative measures of justice.

Vinetta is nice and seems reasonable as a judge, but she also has a basement prison her judgments are influenced by her religious believes so, uh, yeah, not good!!!

Wackner, however, thinks Vinetta’s court is GREAT! He wants to go see it, because “it’s finally happening.” What’s happening? “Justice,” he says. Uhhhhhhh, no. This is just so dangerous, even if everyone involved so far seems to mean well.

I’m very curious to see how this little thought experiment wraps up (again: I say wraps up because I cannot deal with the thought of this being more than a one season arc).

One thing I love about the Wackner arc—my 5x08 issues aside—is its slow burn. The writers did a phenomenal job of getting me to take Wackner seriously at first, then slowly started to take all the things that seemed great and reasonable about Wackner’s court to their extremes (while still making his judgment on any individual topic* sound). It’s a very fun and entertaining thought experiment, and I think that’s why this arc has largely succeeded for me, even though it’s so far removed from reality.

* Exceptions to this include policing, prisons, cancel culture, and, of course, parking spaces.

#the good fight #tgf thoughts

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thewhizzyhead · 3 years ago

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Hey, your misfits musical thing sounded super super interesting! Any other details about it that you're willing to share? Minor plot points? Gay Relationship stuff? :0

oh boy this is gonna be long *cracks knuckles* here we go

SO FUN BACKSTORY BEFORE I GET TO THE PLOT PARTS TJXJJS: my sunday school has a tradition of um holding productions of christmas musicals every december. My teachers would find american christian christmas kiddy musicals productions on youtube and then basically um translate all the dialogue to Filipino (the songs stay in English) and have us um reenact the whole thing and ngl it was a lot of fun! I even acted as some of the main roles there when I was like 10-13 so um I can kinda say that I have some experience with musical theatre YAYYY (jk jk that doesn't really count djsff).

When I was around 12-13 years old, I became obsessed with A Very Potter Musical and wondered what it would be like to make AVPM but Christmas so that my church could perform it (very silly idea but shh i was 12 and I was obsessed) and then over time a plot that Was Definitely Not Harry Potter started to form and them um here we are fjsjd so thank you Starkid for making me go down this hellhole

Oki backstory over, now here comes the very long part:

(Also um warning this musical concept involves a lot of religion talk since majority of the thingy is me criticizing a lot of the hypocrisies in religious institutions here based on my experience so um yea proceed with caution if ur sensitive to religion-related stuff)

p.s. ari i am so so sorry but this is so fucking long and definitely more than what you asked for so um yea goodluck fjxjsjf

SO BASICALLY Misfits is about 5 "narrators" - these guys serve as the "floor directors" of the show and um yea they make sure that the plot actuall happens and everything goes exactly according to the script given by the church higher ups or "producers" - who have to bring 3 teens branded by their church as "Misfits" back to Bethlehem 1 CE in order to "teach them a lesson about God" aka convert them to Christianity thus removing the "Misfits" branding. (Also they can only go back once they successfully arrive at the manger because um that's how the producers want it to be tjxjs)

I have to emphasize that although this tackles a lot of stuff related to Christianity and religion as a whole, this really isn't a Christian Musical and that this very morally questionable mission (through the power of Stage Magic and Super Powers, the Narrators essentially bring the Misfits back to the past against their will for the sake of completing their mission) goes horribly, horribly wrong very very quickly.

Throughout the course of the musical, the 5 Narrators struggle to stick to the given script and get their mission done as the 3 Misfits prove to not only be very freaking stubborn but also quite insightful as well as they bring up really good points in regards to religious hypocrisies and socially questionable, prejudiced and backward views commonly held by most religious institutions here i.e gender roles, homophobia, the demonization of science and technology at times, elitism and classism, etc etc (i can only speak in behalf of the Philippines so um yea Philippines). Overall, this is kinda a case study on as to how religion can influence and shape people's mindsets for either the better or the worse and how it is often used by the authorities to simultaneously give hope to the people (especially those of the poorer sectors wherein because of how hopeless the present seems here because a very flawed system kept in place by the exploitative privilged here, they choose to just trust in God instead and also hope that the afterlife is much much better than this shit) while also keeping them in line and like preventing them from rioting. (Church and politics undeniably go hand in hand here even though we have legislations enforcing the separation of the church and state and um yEA THIS WHOLE THING HAS BEEN VERY PROMINENT THROUGHOUT PHILIPPINE HISTORY AND WE CAN ALL THANK THE SPANIARDS but um anyways that'll be a rant for another day)

On a more personal and emotional aspect, this thingy also tackles a lot of stuff I find rather common among kids my age, especially those who had a very Christian upbringing (aka 99.9% of the philippine population tjxbdbf). There's a lot of questioning involved in regards to one's faith, sexuality, perspective and purpose in life and all that fun stuff and how oftentimes said questioning is discouraged due to the church (and ph society overall) wanting us to just like um sTICK TO THE STATUS QUOoOoO and just comply with what is seen as appropriate and godly cause anything out of the ordinary is ngl treated like it's heresy. (YES THERE WILL BE A LOT OF SELF PROJECTION HERE)

One final and important thing to note is that the show is essentially a musical-inside-a-musical in a way fjsjf I originally designed this thing to be like um produce-able on my church's stage (because they were supposed to help me produce the first version of misfits which um yea that's def not gonna happen now tjxjdv) which um kinda looks like the OG Spring Awakening Stage (and yes Misfits is very much inspired by Spring Awakening God I love that show) which is why the show is kinda stylized like a concert with handheld mics and all wherein um the 5 narrators are aware that they are putting on a show to the point of even directly addressing the audience a lot while the 3 Misfits (except for 1 which i'll get to in a bit) aren't aware that they are in a show. The three do eventually find that out and that's when all hell breaks loose to the point that the "producers" (represented by Hades-ish voices) have to intervene by literally changing and manipulating the show's setting and plot to make sure that their script gets followed and that's when the characters really try to break the show to get out of it bUT THE POINT I WANNA MAKE HERE IS THXJD keeping in mind that I had initially planned for Misfits to be produced by my church prior to the many drastic changes, the show the narrators were putting on (aka the musical-inside-the-musical) was made with the intention to pander to a Very Religious Audience. Successfully convincing people to convert to Christianity, especially those of the youth, is what many religious audiences want to see and that is exactly what the "producers" have written for the 5 "narrators and floor directors" to enact. Now don't get me wrong, I'm a Christian and preaching the Gospel and bringing in new believers isn't essentially a bad thing; if they want to believe in the religion then woo good for them! But, such preaching becomes detrimental when you take away one's agency and basically force them into Christianity by means of guilt tripping and manipulation which is sadly very much a reality here (again, a rant for another day) and a representation of such is shown here in the show where um the 3 Misfits were basically forced into this show that 5 Narrators are putting on and, through the influence of the 5 Narrators, the 3 Misfits have to decide to become "good Christian youths" for the show to conclude because that's show the "producers" have written. So when the 3 Misfits stubborness goes to the point that even the 5 Narrators start questioning the morals of their mission, that's when the show starts to go off-script and that's when the production starts to like umm "break" and whenever that happens, the "producers" start speaking to the Narrators, reminding them that they have an audience that they need to please and a message that they need to convey.

So while the Misfits (2 of them, at least, cause um the third one has um yea i'll get to him in a bit) mainly focus on figuring out what in the everliving fuck is going on (while also dealing with their um unfortunate circumstances, childhood trauma, a shit ton of guilt and the concept of salvation and self-forgiveness), the Narrators are tasked with the burden of carrying the show and making sure that the audience finds it appealing while trying to convince themselves that what the church wants them to do is "right" and what the Misfits keep telling them is "wrong" ala um Holier-Than-Thou mindset. Once they eventually start becoming more willing to see the true nature of both the Misfits and the Producers despite the fear of disappointing everyone who's watching, that's when the Narrators and Misfits all start breaking the show by going off-script and completely destroying the plot and production that the Producers have made for the audience - thus making a statement of refusing to comply with a flawed system for the sake of audience approval while also making the first step to fixing that system for the good of all.

Also fun fact: Although it'll make my job a lot harder because I am more fluent in English than in Filipino, i wanna write the thingy in both English and Filipino fjxjdf the dialogue can be Taglish but um the songs that are "part of the script" aka what the Producers want the characters to sing are in English while the songs that aren't part of the script are in Filipino; songs that are both in Filipino and in English are um i guess indicative of the struggle to follow the script while also trying to do what you believe is right (an example of a song with that style is Interpretasyon - which means Interpretation and um Ezekiel (one of the Misfits) sings in Filipino while Joshua (leader of the narrators) sings in English and um just imagine Wallflower cuz IT IS VERY MUCH LIKE WALLFLOWER GJDJNF) and um yea i kinda imagine it to be some sort of rock-pop musical concert thingy so um woo thank you pma for once again influencing my work

SO ANYWAYS UM THAT WAS LONG SO LET'S GO TO THE GAY SHIT

Okay so far 4/8 of the characters here have queerness directly related to their individual plotlines here but um yea honestly i'm tempted to make all of them queer CAUSE IT'S FUN oki so um anyways on to the character dynamics (I won't be able to include more in depth descriptions because im hungry and GOD THIS IS LONG so um yea)

June & Anna (Narrator 2) - oki so June here is one of the Misfits and she's from the poorer sectors (i'm still working on her backstory to make it more believable but um yea) and she isn't able to go to school due to having to prioritize providing for her family first. Due to a very unfortunate childhood event (one that involves Zack, another Misfit), she had to grow up fast and now appears to have a rather jaded view of the world. Anna, one of the Narrators, is the very opposite of that - she's privileged and wealthy-as-fuck and seems to be very optimisitc and friendly. However, ever since she has been blackmailed by her own churchmates for merely questioning her sexuality (true story), she became a more reserved and emotionally closed person despite her very friendly and cheerful demeanor. So when she finds out that June's music carries a lot of beautiful insight and hope in spite of her unfortunate circumstances (the two girls bond over music btw that's how Anna got June to trust in her), she becomes confused because how can June, a girl who has nothing, not even faith, still have hope that she'll be able to find some semblance of happiness while Anna, who has everything, has such a downtrodded view of the world? So um basically their dynamic will also consist of Anna checking her privilege, June explaining how good people turn against the world when the world turns against them (YES A LOT OF TALK ABOUT POVERTY AND HOW THAT IS A RESULT OF CAPITALISTIC EXPLOITATION) (yes June will talk about that a lot), and um what it means to hope with or without faith and what it means to trust another and oneself again. Oh and also lots of philosophy talk and emotional expression through music wie

Zack and Mikael (Narrator 3) - Zack, another Misfit, is a childhood friend of June and a younger stepbrother of Ezekiel (the third Misfit). After Zack and June lost contact after the 'unfortunate childhood event' (i am not sure on what exactly it'll be but in the earlier drafts a fire burned both of their homes and killed both of their dads and rn I have a song concept describing that called "Umaapoy" which means "Burns" but i dunno i'm still working on it), he became best friends with Mikael and um yea said best-friendship was Definitely Not Platonic. After a picture of them kissing was sent to not only the school principal but to basically everyone in the school, both of their parents were called to the principal's office which led to both of the boys moving to different schools to um mitigate the damage i guess gjdjd while Zack's mom eventually learned to accept her son's sexuality, Mikael um wasn't so lucky - I'd say he went through um a lot of religious intervention almost akin to conversion therapy which then um yea has caused him a lot of internalized homophobia and um yea Mikael and Zack haven't been able to talk or even chat in about 3-4 years so imagine Mikael's surprise when he found out that his mission involved Zack - who does not and cannot recognize Mikael because welp not part of the script. Zack, a bit braver now, takes a liking to Mikael and wants to at least be friends with him partly because he somehow finds him really familiar while um Mikael tries to maintain a strictly professional demeanor out of fear that Zack will recognize him and out of fear that he'll fall in love with Zack again. Their dynamic will also include um learning to trust one another and oneself again (like June & Anna's dynamic), to learn how to be brave and be sure in one's beliefs (Mikael um doesn't really speak up that much out of fear while Zack is not only outspoken, but is also an activist - this is another one of the many reasons why Zack is branded as a "Misfit" aside from the fact that he's gay and um yea Ezekiel spends almost 2 minutes berating Joshua for this out of pure anger and disgust), and what it means to reconnect with the past and to forgive oneself (although that is much more expounded upon with June & Zack's dynamic).

Ezekiel and Joshua (Narrator 1) - SAY HI TO THE RILEY AND CAIRO DYNAMIC WOOOOOOO but yea ari dude your analysis on Riley and Cairo (and Kate) being the Main MAIN characters and everything about cheerwives gave me a lot of think about and SO I PUT IT IN HERE WOOOOOO so basically um Ezekiel is the older stepbrother of Zack and the first of the 3 Misfits to figure out that they are in a show. He figures this out because he recognizes Joshua aka the leader of the Narrators aka his former churchmate and ex-bestfriend. He also realizes that they are in a show because he recognizes their tricks which he knew about because he had participated in these missions before as one of the Narrators (Joshua and Ezekiel are older than the rest of the cast and the other narrators don't know that Ezekiel was once a Narrator as well). Due to an Unfortunate Incident (that i'm still working on) 3 years prior to the events in the show, Ezekiel cut off all ties to the church but he is still viewed as this "perfect role model golden boy" which is why the 4 Narrators were shocked to find out that Ezekiel was part of their mission. Joshua, knowing that the real reason to his sudden involvement is due to "producers" somehow finding out their secret about the Unfortunate Incident, lied and told the others that he was just included to make converting his brother a lot easier, which they believed. Out of all the narrators, Joshua is the one who tries his best to stick to the script the most because he knows that if he doesn't, the true nature of that Unfortunate Incident will not only be revealed to his companions but to everyone else watching. Meanwhile Ezekiel, who doesn't know that him being involved in this mission is some sort of um penance for his involvement in that Unfortunate Incident, tries his hardest to sabotage he show by being the most outspoken when pointing out a lot of hypocrisies within religious institutions and in ph society in general (he refuses to tell the other two that they are in a show though because if that happens, he knows the Narrators, Joshua especially will um get very heavily scolded by the producers and despite everything, he still cares for Joshua a lot). I'd say that these two are the ones that push the plot the most - one wants to push the show accordingly to plan in order to please the audience and the producers and in order to not let his and Ezekiel's secret go out while the other wants to push the show off-script in retaliation against the producers (and yes the Unfortunate Incident involved the time travelling thingy which is why he really wants to sabotage this). In fact, these two have 2 duets that are basically them trying to convince the other to go along with their plan ("Interpretasyon" which means Interpretation and "Sikreto" which means secret). This dynamic involves um yea trying to convince the other to switch sides gjxjd and um reconciliation, responsibility out of guilt, and what it means to forgive oneself (forgiveness is a common theme here) and to start to heal from trauma and to not deny the existence of said trauma any longer.

NOW ORIGINALLY I REALLY DID NOT INTEND THE JOSHUA AND EZEKIEL DYNAMIC TO BE GAY BUUTT WHEN I WAS THINKING OF THE LYRICS, I REALIZED THAT OUT OF CONTEXT, IT SOUNDED VERY GAY SO UM HERE'S AN EXCERPT OF SIKRETO (still not finished writing the thingy)

Joshua: (singing to Ezekiel) (this is also the first time Joshua sings a Filipino solo so this is him breaking the script for the first time) (also um yea the translations aren't direct translations cause I wanted to make them rhyme fnxnf) (So to those who know filipino i am terribly sorry cause yup this isnt an accurate translation fjfjd)

Ang natitirang alaala ay aking binura (I have scrubbed away all the memories that may have still remained)

‘di ko na sila kilala (I don't know them anymore)

Kinalimutan na kita (I have forgotten about your name)

Ngunit ang bigat ng pagsisisi ang aking dinadala (But the weight of regret, I carry all the same)

Ang sakit sa balikat, lagi kong dinarama (I constantly feel the sting of my shoulders' pain)

Pero masasabi ko pa rin na sinusubukan kong itama (But at least I can say, I tried to right-)

Ang aking mga pagkakamali (all that's wrong)

Ikaw, saan ka pumunta? (What about you? Where in the world have you gone?)

Tumakbo ka lang at iniwan mo ako (You ran, you just ran, and left me behind)

Sa pagbubuhat ng kasalanan at sikreto (In carrying the sins and secrets, and you paid me no mind)

Pero pinapanatili ko paring malinis ang ating munting kwento (But I stillade sure I kept our little story clean)

Patuloy na sinisigurong ‘di nila malalaman ang totoo (I kept on making sure the truth would never be seen)

Alam na natin ang kwento (We already know the story)

Alam na natin ang kwentong kailangang itago (We know the story that we need to hide)

Itong munting sikreto ay kailangan burahin (This little secret that has to be erased)

Ating pagkakamali, patuloy na bubuhatin (We will have to always carry, our sins and our mistakes)

Alam na natin ang kwento (We already know the story)

Alam natin ang katotohanan ng nakaraan (We very well know the truth of the past)

Ito'y nakabakas sa isipan, ‘di natin malilimutan (We'll never forget what will remain ingrained in our minds)

At sa Diyos na lang natin mahahanap ang kapatawaran (And from only God could we find forgiveness for what we left behind)

Habang buhay bubuhatin ng konsensiya (Forever will our consciences bear the weight and carry

ang ating pagkakasala, ang kwento't sikreto nating dalawa (our sins kept in secrecy, the story of you and me)

Pero ngayon, ‘di ko alam paano pero nalaman nila (But now, I don't know how, but somehow they know)

At ngayon, dinedemanda na nila ang penitensya (And now, penitence is what they demand)

Kaya ngayon, naghihingi ako ng pasensiya (So now, patience and forgiveness is what I ask)

Sa iyo at sa kanila (From you and from them)

Sa aking gagawin at mga nagawa (for what I'll do and I've done)

Baka nga (Perhaps)

Tama nga mga sinabi mo (What you've said all this time is right)

Na ‘di tayo ang tanging may sala rito (That we aren't the ones only at fault here)

Pero ‘di ko matatakasan ang aking naging tungkulin (But I can't really escape my little role here, because)

Sana ‘di mo nakalimutan: lahat sila nakatingin (God I hope you haven't forgotten: they're all looking at us)

Lagi silang nakatingin (Always looking at us)

Kahit ano man ang iyong gawin (No matter what we do)

Tayo'y mananatili sa entablado (On the stage we shall stay)

At lahat sila nakatingi- (And the stares still won't go awa-) (He then realizes that he's on stage and Should Not Be Having A Breakdown In Front Of The Audience Because Duh and Because That's Not Part Of The Script)

SO UM YEA IN RETROSPECT SOME OF THOSE LYRICS COULD ALSO REFER TO SOME SECRET NOT-PLATONIC RELATIONSHIP THAT THE AUDIENCE DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT YET (because the Secret doesn't get revealed til much later) WHEN IN ACTUALITY IT'S ABOUT THE TRUTH BEHIND WHAT HAPPENED 3 YEARS PRIOR TO THE EVENTS IN THE SHIW AND NOT GONNA LIE,,, THEM BEING IN A NOT-SO-PLATONIC RELATIONSHIP KINDA ALSO WORKS SO I'M CONSIDERING MAKING THEM HAVE SOME ROMANTIC HISTORY TOO JDHXBSJF

Oki that's all for today hdhdh there are two more characters (narrators 4 and 5) but i'm still working on them and i kinda wanna make the both of them not cis cause WHY NOT also i have been typing this for like 6 hours now and i'm tired and hungry so tjjxjs anyways if you read to the end, I'm sending you carbonara-

#I HAVE TYPED THIS #FOR 6 HOURS #I AM SO FUCKING TIRED GJXJSJJD #ARI I AM SO SO SORRY I WAS NOT EXPECTING FOR THIS WHOLE THING TO BE THIS LONG #but i guess thats what happens when you work on a thingy for 4 years fjsjf #FBZJSJJF ARI MY DUDE UM GOODLUCK AAAAAAA #God i hope you make it to the end gjxjdjf #um feel free to like reblog this in the tags if you wanna express ur thoughts there! i'd love to know what you think about this clusterfuck #the same goes for anyone woo feel free to rb if u wanna!!#SO ANYWAYS I AM TIRED AND WILL NOW EAT CARBONARA #once again ari i am so sorry jfhxhf #ari! (wattblr tag rambler yay!)#ask me stuff #izzy's rambles and shit #religion tw #ask to tag

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beck-a-leck · 3 years ago

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13, 17 & 23 for the writing ask meme!

Thank you for the questions!!

13. Do you prefer writing multi-chapter fics or oneshots? Do you prefer reading multi-chapter fics or oneshots?

Both? Both. Both is good.

I'm not sure if I really have a preference for writing. it really depends on the idea and how long I think it will take to complete (and/or how excited I am to start sharing it) Oneshots are nice because I get the idea, I write them, I post them, I'm done. And they work great for simpler stories or ones I can tell in 10k words or less. Or if they get a bit long and I have a good place to take a break, I'll make them a 2-shot.

But there are some ideas I get that I know I couldn't tell the way I want in only one chapter. And I do love getting to sit with and marinate on a story for a good long while. I am not a fast writer so when I commit to a multi-chapter fic it's probably gonna turn into a multi-year project. Mostly because I don't know how to finish one long WIP before picking up another new long WIP and the list just keeps on growing.

As for reading. I like both. Oneshots are great for when I only have a little bit of time to read, multi-chapters are so nice to get deep into.

17. What has been the proudest moment for you so far since you started writing?

Hmmm... that's hard to pin down. I've literally been writing fic for half my lifetime now, and there have been a lot of moments I am proud of, from gathering the courage to posting my first fic all those years ago, to participating in various fandom events. But I guess if I have to pick a specific one, it's probably finishing my longest (to date) 100k fic in ~1 year from having the first story idea to posting the final chapter. That was my first fic back after a long dry spell of not writing much and not posting anything, and it kind of rekindled my love for writing again. Also. Being a SLOW ASS WRITER i wrote and posted 100k worth of fic in about a year!

23. What's one piece of advice you would give to anyone who wants to start writing or posting their fic online?

Just one piece of advice? Oh, it's tough. I kinda wanna say Write For Yourself First, but also I feel like I can tie that into a broader piece of advice and that is: Write Fearlessly!

Especially when you are brand new to writing or even just writing fic it can seem really intimidating and scary when there are people out there posting masterpieces of fanfic, and Actual Published Authors also out there, and you're just a brand new writer with an idea you really like. It can be very easy to get bogged down with doubt and comparing yourself to others or saying "others have done something similar, so I shouldn't bother with mine" and to that I say a hearty and encouraging "Fuck that!"

Nobody can write Your story except You!

Nobody experience the characters in the same way you do!

Nobody will execute your idea in the exact same way you will. And that makes your story unique!

"But what if it's bad?" Bad words on a pager are better than No words. You'll never get better if you don't practice. You can also Always go back and clean things up in the future. You can worry about grammar and structuring After you get the story written down. Proofreading is wonderful, and Beta readers are Angels.

"But what if Nobody likes it?" Why do other's matter? Do you like it? Did you enjoy the writing process? Do you like the story you've written? If you're enjoying the fanfic you're writing, you've already won over your most important audience.

"What if this idea is stupid?" Stupid ideas can be a TON of fun! Be fearless! Go crazy! Write that silly idea! Who's gonna judge you?

Learning to let go of preconceived notions of what you Have To Do To Make Good Fic will provide you with so much freedom and growth.

Write that ambitious story that you think might be above your skill level. Write Bad Fic. Write Short Fic. Write Long Fic. Write silly fic, stupid fic, serious fic, angsty fic, smushy romantic fic, smutty fic, fic that is so cliche and tropey it's basically a link to TVTropes, write the fic that's been done a thousand times by others, but never by you.

Write the fic that you want to. Post what you want to. (You don't have to share everything you write if you don't want to.)

Write fearlessly! You can be careful when you're proofreading.

#replies #ask box games #jake-marshall #i feel like I could go on for pages expounding on that advice but I'll resist temptation

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pbandjesse · 3 years ago

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Happy Halloween! I had such a great day. I am tired but I am in a great mood and I feel really happy. I hope I can hold onto this feeling.

I couldn't fall asleep last night. My back hurt a lot and I was just tossing and turning forever. But I did sleep. I woke up around 9 and tried to not feel like crap. I got up and shook it off and got washed and was very excited for my costume.

James wore their little doctor costume and I had to cut out the gems for my tears. I loved my makeup. I was super proud. I was super excited that we were doing a couple's costume. Ive never done that with anyone except Jess so I was really happy.

But it isn't just Halloween!! It is also sweetP birthday!! We kept screeching that at him. And giving him cheese and other treats. He got lots of love and we played fetch for like an hour on and off at the end of the day. Best little boy.

Once we had our costumes on though we wanted to get out into the world. The big plan for the day was do to photos of our costumes, then go have lunch, and go help at the theater and see the show.

So off we went. I had a great time taking pictures. I had worn a sweater under my jacket but it was warmer outside then it had been inside the apartment so I would take that off pretty fast. We found some dying sunflowers to take my portrait in and then we went to Mt Vernon square to take pictures near the marble. We had lots of laughs. But it was a little to bright in my eyes so we didn't get as many pictures as I hoped but I still love the ones we did.

A few people got really excited about our costumes. I was a little sad no one else was really dressed up. But a few people's faces completely lit up when they saw us and I loved that.

We made a stop at the Monument to see James's uncle and dad. They gave us candy bags for wearing costumes. It was a very fun day.

I was getting a little worn out though. Mostly because I had had no food or anything yet. So after some googling we decided to go to Soups On.

We got soup and a sandwich to share. We sat up in the window cove they have and shared the pictures we took and it was just really nice being together and eating soup and bread. We had popped into the convenience store to get me a fountain soda because they don't have them at Soups on. Which is their only negative to me. But I was pleased to have my soda and my soup and my fiance

It was still more then an hour before we had to be at the theater to check vaccine cards so we walked home to drop off the leftovers from lunch and so I could change my shoes. We drove back to the theater (which is literally one block from the place we ate lunch so it would feel silly to walk there again). And it was fun!

It was a lot less people then the other night. But it was all good. I had a nice time being out there and people watching. When we had almost everyone on the list there I went inside to tell Alex at the desk as much and someone was speaking not super nice to her about the program being digital. And I just shut her down with a "we will think about it for next time". I did not appreciate how she was speaking to Alex and honestly she ran out of there at the end of the show so I dont think this was her thing. She was sort of unpleasant.

I got to meet the actors again. I really loved their show last time so I was looking forward to it. The group is called Happenstance and they are a vaudeville inspired clown/mime troup and it was so fun to watch. There was some audience participation, lots of jokes and music and fun. It was a tiny crowd but they were all so lively that it was a blast. My face hurt a little from smiling.

We headed home after that though and got home around 430. We put on comfy clothes. And watched the trick or treaters outside. James made us flat bread pizzas and then I went to lay in bed and watch tiktoks for a while.

But as the sun went down we put on The Rocky Horror Picure Show and it was fun watching that and singing together. Though they say in the movie t takes place in late November so its really a Thanksgiving movie and not a Halloween one. But it was really fun and I felt good.

James got on a call to play a game with friends and I took a bath. Exfoliated everywhere because my psoriasis is hurting and it helps for putting medication on. And put my jams on again.

And now I am ready to sleep. I just fixed up my nail polish but its basically dry now. I am happy.

Tomorrow is November! And there is much to do. I have to make a bunch of bear bodies this week and I have styling and chores to do. And I work at the museum and at camp! So send us good thoughts. Happy birthday sweetP! Happy Halloween! Goodnight everyone!!

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mallowstep · 3 years ago

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speech anon! i'm not responding to your main ask, not ur fault there's just some stuff in there i don't really want on this blog. /nm

anyway, i'm actually referring to something Completely different. not Presently in the mood to discuss, but you can probably track it down in one of my hollyshine posts.

anyway, i did a lot of public speaking in high school, so here's my quick tips, if you want them. can't promise they'll work, but:

if you can, memorize whatever you have to say. even if you don't have to. even if you still hold the papers/cards as something to do with your hands. i used to recite stuff walking to school.

that's just generally good advice, high schoolers. don't make cards for presentations. just learn what's on your slides. you will Sound Better. exception: if you're allowed to have a computer in front of you, then you can have cards there. but it has to like. you can't be looking down and speaking. if you start now, when teachers inevitably say no cards, you'll already be prepared

(also, i'm drifting but, if you're doing a foreign language presentation, do not make your notes/cards translations. write them in the language you are presenting in. do not let a single word of your other language enter your cards. the only exception is if you need to give the translation of a word in the presentation, and even then, i'd say you don't know your presentation well enough if you need the translation)

anyway, memorizing what you have to say helps with confidence. and confidence Will make you sound better

remember that it Will get easier with time.

and it sounds a little silly, but if you have a lot of stuffed animals, sometimes you can emulate an audience by setting them up.

if you're allowed to, i was always more comfortable speaking off the cuff. i know sometimes you have to read something as written (which is when you memorize), but for model un, i gave all of my opening statements by bullet points.

seriously, though, giving yourself permission to go off the cuff can help. i know this contradicts my first point, but if you often forget words or get stuck on words, knowing that you can just work around it is helpful.

like, okay, sometimes i get stuck on a word and i just can't say it. or, because i had to do my Least Favourite Activity today and record my own voice, i can't move on to the next part of a sentence. i had to do my Least Favourite Activity today which meant i just had to repeat the last few words until i could move on but at least i'm in therapy for the voice thing, not the fluency thing.

i took an improv class and i cannot tell you how helpful it is in my everyday life. this might not help you, but like. insanely helpful. it was...maybe eight weeks? twelve weeks? best experience of my life.

because i Hate Thinking About Speaking, the whole slow down or count breaths stuff doesn't really work for me. like please stop i don't want to think about how i speak i have a Problem with it.

so what i did was listen to slam poetry. i'm good at reciting things, i can do a Lot of poems from memory

(fun fact! i once filled in for a poetry reading because i had the right poem memorized. hope is a thing with feathers. that perches in the soul. and sings the tune without the words. this isn't impressive because i could've just looked it up but it was cool at the time.)

anyway, listening to them, and reciting them, helped me just naturally find a speaking rhythm

i did it a lot, now if i have to read something out loud i default to it

again i'm approaching this all from like. i have a speech impediment and a fluency disorder. i have a Lot of feelings about speaking that are all very complicated. so maybe none of this is helpful

i don't have a ton to say about stage fright? except okay when i had an oboe solo in my sophomore year and there was a senior who was lowkey highkey bullying me because he was intimidated by me (why i have no idea i was like. i should not have been intimidated. he got paid money to go to college. god i hate him. but this is all another story.)

okay anyway to summarize, had a panic attack when my boyfriend threw me into his ensemble without warning, had to do a solo in spring, cm was staring at me like he Knew i was going to fuck this up

and of course when you have anxiety you do worse and I Knew This so i just.

balled up my anger real tight and said no! i am going to do this with every ounce of air in my body because fuck you cm, you do Not know what i am capable of

so i really recommend being motivated by spite. it's not like. i'm not saying long term. i'm just saying it can get you through a tight spot.

anyway, high school is a rough time. it's four years, you can get through it.

#okay to be clear #any more asks on this subject have a 95% chance of being deleted #i'm answering this one because i have some public speaking advice #stuff that worked for me #it's all fairly basic but it worked for me #but please don't come to me with #like #these kinds of struggles #re both high school and speech issues #my sympathy has been poured into this post i do not have any left #just a lot of anger #about not being able to speak #the way i want to #ask #anon #personal #not about warriors #talk

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sophieakatz · 4 years ago

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Thursday Thoughts: My Top Ten Muppets

Listeners of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour recently cast their votes to rank the best Muppets – an impossible decision, really. And yet, once the top ten list was read aloud on the podcast, I found myself completely unsurprised. It’s a list that made sense, a list of safe bets. It’s also an incredibly Muppet Show-heavy list, even though the competition was open to Muppets of all properties, including Sesame Street and my beloved Dark Crystal. The full top 25 list, available here, reveals that a few Sesame Street Muppets ranked in the teens, but still. We all know the top ten is where it’s at, and this top ten was neither creative nor representative. It struck me as a list of popular Muppets, not a list of the best Muppets. Most of my favorites weren’t on that list at all!

So, here’s my take on the ten best Muppets – and because I don’t believe in objective Muppet rankings, I want YOU to reblog this post and tell me your favorites!

10. Swedish Chef

The Chef came in ninth on NPR’s rankings, and I gotta be honest, I’m on the same page with them on this one. Maybe it’s the fact that when he comes onscreen, there’s no way to predict how the sketch will end. Maybe it’s the bizarreness of human fingers on Muppet arms – and knowing that those arms indicate a frankly superhuman feat of teamwork going on under the table. Maybe it’s just the Popcorn video, which always brightens my mood. Whatever it is, the Swedish Chef is definitely tenth best.

9. Fozzie Bear

I like Fozzie. He’s an underdog, never giving up in his pursuit of fame and audience acclaim. And even though his whole shtick is that he can’t succeed – Statler and Waldorf always get bigger laughs during his bits – he objectively has succeeded, because he’s still around and making us laugh after all these years.

What puts Fozzie in the top ten for me, though, is that I genuinely find his jokes funny. Honestly. I really do. So maybe Fozzie Bear sketches don’t really work for me, but Fozzie Bear himself does.

8. Rosita

I mentioned my disappointment before in the “official” ranking’s lack of Sesame Street characters. Sure, the cast of The Muppet Show has had a notable cultural impact, but it would be a disservice to Muppetkind if we ignored the impact of their friends on Sesame Street.

I could never forget Rosita. She’s not the most popular Muppet; she’s never had a super catchy song or a roll-on-the-floor-laughing one-liner to rival the others’ success. But her “Spanish Word of the Day” segments have a permanent spot in my memory. She’s sweet, she’s sincere, and she’s an excellent friend to her more famous fellow Muppets. (And as a bilingual Muppet, she’s really hecking important – there’s an episode where she deals with some kids making fun of her accent, and it’s equal parts heartbreaking and heartwarming!)

7. Rowlf

While other Muppets have one-note personalities – see number 10 on this list above, and number 5 below – there’s also Muppets like Rowlf. He’s not an “Anything Muppet,” by any means – he’s a character in his own right – but Rowlf is a dog who rises to any occasion. He sits at the piano to bring both beautiful classical pieces and hilarious parodies to life, and it’s all music to my ears. He can be the Straight Man to more chaotic Muppets’ antics, but just one clip of “Veterinarian’s Hospital” proves that he’s got enough silliness in him to take center stage.

And all the while, no matter what role he’s playing, he’s still that chill dog I adore – calm and adorable, with that round black nose, those big fluffy paws, and those floppy ears just begging to be scratched.

6. Deethra

As much as I love the original Dark Crystal film, the Netflix prequel series Age of Resistance has one big thing going for it: its characters. The protagonists of this show draw me in and make me care, quickly and continually. And best among them all is Deet. Deethra the Gelfling – small and beautiful, kind and powerful. She cares wholeheartedly about the world around her, and that care begets a wisdom that balances out her naivete in fascinating ways.

Muppets are so often silly, and we love them for it. But Deet embodies the Muppets’ potential to tell a serious story, a potential we would be remiss to ignore.

5. Animal

Oh my god, Animal. If you want to talk about the sheer silliness of Muppets, you need to talk about Animal. There’s just no way around it. He’s loud – in both sound and color scheme. And he’s absolutely bonkers. I know every drummer has an Animal in them, and it’s likely that all humans do. We’re just not all comfortable with letting him out to play.

That’s what’s so great about watching Animal do his thing. He has no inhibitions; he is freedom, he is chaos. And he lets me feel a little freer by association.

4. Hup

I talked a bit about underdogs in the Fozzie Bear section above. There’s an essay to be written about the Muppet as underdog; it’s an essential Muppet quality. Muppets are characters you logically wouldn’t expect to succeed, but they persevere, nonetheless.

Hup is the underdog of Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance. He’s the Podling who wants to be a paladin. Dear god he’s adorable, dear god he’s funny, and dear god do you root for him (and his spoon) to save the day! Of all the characters in this show, he feels the most Muppety – and that’s why he’s higher on the list than Deet. He’s still a serious character in a serious story (when he cries… my goodness), but he’s got that classic Muppet spirit to him.

3. Elmo

You know, I just don’t get why Elmo gets such a bad rap. Is it that people think he’s annoying? Sure, he is! Muppets are objectively annoying characters – they all are. Yes, even the one you’re thinking of right now. But I fricking love Elmo. He’s joyful, he’s spirited, and he’s exploring the world around him in that carefree way only a child can – and he brings you along on that adventure! “Elmo’s World” is your world. “Elmo’s Song” is your song. Elmo’s laugh is fricking infectious. And yeah, I’m probably biased by nostalgia (my dad’s Elmo impression cracks me up to this day), but Elmo is a darn good Muppet and he deserves our respect and admiration.

2. SkekSil

On a completely different note… let’s talk about the Chamberlain. There aren’t really that many Muppet villains. There are plenty of Muppet henchmen, providing comic relief for a human actor who isn’t supposed to be seen as that much of a threat anyway. The Skeksis of Dark Crystal are a notable exception, and SkekSil, better known as the Chamberlain, stands out among them. He is evil and he is smart. I hate him, and at the same time, I am fascinated by him. He knows what he wants and how to get it, even though he’s nowhere near as strong as the other Skeksis. He is, in his own way, an underdog. He believes in himself, and he wields that confidence as a weapon, calmly explaining to his enemies why they should do what he wants. You just can’t look away. He’s an amazing character, embodying the dark side of Muppethood.

1. Cookie Monster

When my mom first shared that episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour with me, in which the hosts talked about their favorite Muppets, I first thought, “How could you decide?” And then Stephen Thompson said his favorite was Cookie Monster, and I shouted “YES!!!” out loud. Because he’s right – Cookie’s the best.

Cookie Monster is eternally funny, whether you’re five or fifty-five. Everything that comes out of his mouth is pure gold (“Why me not get royalties?”) He’s got the best songs – not only the classic “C is for Cookie,” but also “Me Want It (But Me Wait),” “Me Am What Me Am,” and the “Healthy Foods” rap. All the stuff I love about other Muppets on this list – the unpredictability, the ability to fit into any role a sketch requires, the lack of inhibitions, the confidence, the chaos, the unexpected moments of wisdom – he’s got it all. He’s irreplaceable, he’s lovable, and he’s the top of my Top Ten Muppets list.

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citrina-posts · 4 years ago

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Avatar: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

1. Growing Up Asian-American

2. My Own Biases

Obviously, one can only truly speak for what they experience in their own life. I am East Asian and that is arguably the only culture that is treated with great depth in Avatar.

3. What It Does Right

#reposting this without the cut so that it survives with my new url!#avatar #avatar the last airbender #atla #cultural appropriation #culture #atla crit #meta #criticism #racism tw #self rb #citrina writes

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