#I’ll do another ranty review when I’m done

[lucysweatslove]

Need to rant.

I spent an hour and a half working on The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. I only got 50 pages in. The reading is easy, but I’m annotating a LOT so it’s going super slow.

But I’m annotating a lot to remind myself of all the bullshit, so I can properly roast it. There are some good ideas and points in there but omg he sounds like an insufferable asshole writing a book for himself, ignoring that other people can have totally valid ways of being. Fatphobic undertones, implying there are definitely good values and like, limited ways to correctly prioritize them. I’m now 45% through. I am hate-reading at this point, and I’m torn between:

do I just want to finish it off quickly from here on out? (he has started going into specific things that are negative that he thinks everybody should value highly, versus talking more about his general philosophy)

Or do I want to keep going through slowly making notes ripping him apart.

On one hand: I’m definitely enraged and I kinda want it to end because it’s so irritatingly wrong. On the other hand: i want to give it such a scathing review because of its wrongness that I want to have everything wrong with it detailed meticulously because I enjoy that level of thoroughness.

I’m hoping there will be less to annotate tbh.

[thattimdrakeguy]

I am very sorry for what you are going through, think that in adittion to that unpleasant people who attack you, there are also many more who enjoy, respect and follow your content, and want the best for you. I really like your reviews and opinions, and although I do not always agree with you, I respect and validate your opinion as much as anyone's because that is to be respectful with others and have common sense.--

--You should not take into account what people who are unable to respect another human being like them say, that they cannot even separate reality from fiction, all for a simple opinion different from theirs about a FICTIONAL CHARACTER, you cannot even take them seriously. If those people need to insult, despise and make someone feel less for a reason like that, it simply speaks of how miserable they are as humans on and off the internet.--

Please don't take into account what these people say, listen to those who appreciate you and show respect. I hope you feel better and I am sorry for what is happening in your life, but you can always forward with your will and the people around you.(Hugs)

I only read these ones this morning, or afternoon more accurately cause I have a very bad sleep schedule for weeks cause I been playing video games too late into the day, but I’m slowly working on it. I’m just really bad at it.

And all I can really say to accurately give my reaction to it, was that it was something I definitely needed to read first thing in the morning. If it wasn’t for those messages yesterday, and a friend helping me out I may not have even been calmed down enough to go to bed at all. I could’ve easily not gone to sleep literally at all and had been even worse today because of it to the point of having another meltdown of a day.

Like I don’t wanna make myself sound too good, because if I did, I’d feel like I was lying, because my mind feels like a bloody nose filled up with tissue paper, if that even makes a darling lick of comprehension.

I find it so entirely weird, and patronizing, and frustrating how the fandom can be, if not worse. Like I say something unpopular, I do it a lot, probably with literally every freaking character. Even Tim, because I know that quite a few Tim fans don’t like me either.

I don’t read every comic and go “Oh this must just be how it works”, because that’s not how my brain is wired. I’m Autistic, I go in-depth, I do a lot of research, that is how I am wired when I get a hyperfixation, I want to know everything. So I say a lot of unpopular stuff because I don’t just accept things, because I don’t work that way.

But it goes like this when it comes to people just being miserable, they have to make me out to either be a bigot or bias, they either don’t even read what I say, or just don’t acknowledge what I say.

My biggest point they will leave out completely to focus on other things that are either completely irrelevant and just there to make me look bad even though it doesn’t really make sense what it has to do anything once you think about it a lick more, or just make me look straight up like a crappy person.

I got really ranty and rambly after this, and I try not to take up people’s dashboards as much. So I’ll put this here. If it’ll work, cause one time I don’t think it did, and it made me panic once cause I felt really bad. But it just would not show up.

Because trying to make a bad face out of a real life living person isn’t that bad, compared to the horrors of having to acknowledge the arcs and actions that their favorite character been through evidentially.

Sorry to say and everything, but I don’t see how on Earth Tim cheating on Ariana has anything to do with a literal whole other arc of Steph being abusive and doing really horrible things, or all those “teases” that were actually flirts that were making Tim genuinely uncomfortable to the point of sexual harassment, and told her not to do, which she didn’t actually always listen to sometimes, surprisingly to some. I also don’t see why it’s so hard to comprehend that Tim kissing Steph just because he got ahead of himself because he was euphoric he was about to die, yet it was made clear he didn’t do sexually or romantically, isn’t as bad (comparatively because it’s still insanely inappropriate and weird, but I wouldn’t call him a pervert over it) to me as Steph literally pinning Tim down during a gun fight to kiss him against his will, or taking advantage of Tim believing she was dead and giving her CPR to do it again. Like I don’t really see why saying “Just read the comics” has to do with anything, because I don’t have the art skills to just make all those panels up like that. Which by the way, I don’t give a single fuck about what bad thing Steph has done. I don’t like her because a lot of her stories are badly written, and a lot of her fans are straight up assholes. Which they conveniently ignore, because I must be villainized, because they can’t handle me acknowledging something that isn’t their idealized image. But let me also state that there are assholes in literally every fandom, I just have certain ones that decide to be assholes to me. And I don’t remember the part where I said teasing was bullying either. I can’t find that on my list of thoughts in my brain. Almost like they don’t actually know how I think or what I meant. 

And I don’t know why on Earth Tim not trusting Damian to the point of being kind of scummy has much to do with Damian doing horrid things in comics they like as well. They’re their own separate people ya know? I’m not comparing characters, because I’m not actually trying to shit on the characters you should realize. Not every negative thing is formed out of toxicity. Toxic positivity where people act like not just enjoying everything is so bad is actually a thing. And I see it quite often in fandoms, and it comes from a good place, but my goodness, just let people express themselves sometimes. It’s not going to hurt anybody as long as they’re not actually an asshole or you just have a fragile ego.

It seems pretty irrelevant to me. Implying that I hate the characters because of these actions is also pretty dumb to me as well, because that’s not the case nor how it works. They keep acting like me not acknowledging the bad thing Tim does in the same posts is some showing of my bias, but no, I just view it as fucking irrelevant, because I do bring up when Tim does something bad when ever it is relevant. It is that simple. I think the only time I’ve ever even could truly come across as trying to baby and defend Tim was me saying Tim cheating on Ari with Steph was out of character, which I still hold that opinion too, but I don’t simply make shit up, I just notice how rushed it was, and how it goes against how Tim is about morals, Steph, and his literal stance on cheating. Stuff that you would actually judge what’s in or out of character on.

I just give everything the same standard. I’ve never denied Tim wasn’t passive aggressive or conscending to anyone, or has violated privacy, or was immature. If I had it was probably me caught up in the moment, and pretty weird, because I’ve actively talked about it before.

And I’m referencing stuff in the past with these oddly specific examples, that hasn’t bugged me truly in a while, but when I find a new example of stuff, I can’t help but have it come back to mind and make me question how people got to just be shivery little jerks over things like made-up characters.

I’ve acknowledged the fact that my blog was too anti-Steph plenty of times, even as it was happening, because it was mostly through anons and not me. Some of which I defended Steph on. I just had too much anxiety not responding to them, because I’d feel a sense of guilt for ignoring someone. Which I’m over and past.

I’m not going to be held down by stuff I already corrected about myself.

It’s been so heavily implied to me before, that groups just talk mad shit about me, and made up this horrendous little reputation for me among themselves, and it is so disheartening, considering I’m just this baby faced geek that read too many comics, simply explaining stuff that had happened in actual comics without actual bias. I don’t run DC Comics. I’m just a blogger that they really really don’t like, and take it as a personal attack of some kind, at least going off of how they act.

Maybe it’s what I get for expecting people to treat fiction as fiction and not a big freaking deal when I say something or don’t say something, because they’d understand the context I’m trying to explain literal events in comics as they are, and other things that happened in other situations have no relevance to what I’m saying, because I’m not making a bashing piece like they seem to think.

I know I take fiction very seriously, because I just really want good content again. But I don’t make real life people’s lives miserable. Do ya think I talk shit about Bendis all the time? Not really. I’ve genuinely probably sang his praises more than otherwise. I think Tynion’s the closest example of when I could’ve, but that was years ago at this point. I’ve made it so much more clearer it’s about the comics than them, because simply I’ve realized how scummy it is to mock an actual person, who’s probably actually a really cool guy to know. Do I fuck that up sometimes, probably. But I’m definitely not telling him to kill himself.

If they can’t acknowledge what I actually say, and continue to just try to make me look bad. I don’t personally view myself as the bad one. That’d be utterly redundant.

It always boils down to that I just acknowledge stuff they refuse to, and they just play ignorant about, and pretend they just can’t possibly understand why anyone would say it. I didn’t pull the stuff out of my ass, I have the panels. I didn’t skip anything out. At most I just don’t find the excuses they have to be freaking relevant or over power the action at hand or sometimes the literal motivation she/he had going into it.

And it’s 100% okay, but even though this is a space on the internet, and I’m practically a loser shut in. I still live in the real world and when I’m not having a bad anxiety attack or whatever else, I try to be as reasonable as possible.

I just look at it, look at the context and past contexts, look at the motivations, judge it for what I see, and move on. And never consider it a big deal until someone else makes a big deal about it.

I don’t even view every person that does it against me to be a bad person, some of them most definitely are because they go too far with it, but some of them literally have no idea proper context anymore, or they’re just very very insecure.

It’s very difficult to outright go ‘THEY’RE ALL EVIL’, but when there’s so many that are just putrid humans that want me to take my own life, it’s a wee bit overwhelming, and understandably so, yeah?

People sometimes just don’t properly process what they’re doing, because they’re so caught up in their insecurity, or possibly even a mild ego, but there’s others that will do it because they’re so quick to anger and hatred over fucking nothing.

Welcome to reality. It’s a lot like taking a train ride through a diseased rectum sometimes. But other times it’s like taking a trolley though a nice field. It’s a mixed bag, but it’s a ride that never stops but once.

An important thing I do wanna say though, is that I have everyone who supports me in my heart. I may lose my sight of that when I’m going through an episode I’m having a heckuva lot of trouble controlling, but I’d be in a much worse spot without them. Some of them are so dang respectful, and some are just so legitimately sweet and kind that it’s a blessing to have ever had an interaction of any kind or level with them.

I don’t take any of you for granted even if sometimes I seem ignorant of it during a terrible depressive episode.

You often don’t agree with me and can make it very clear, but it’s the respect you give me nonetheless that I take as precious, because it’s some of the best stuff to receive when all else seems so bleak and lifeless. It’s not an honor everyone sadly receives, so I treasure that a lot. And when I’m feeling so down and out, it sometimes can be the one thing that keeps me even near level, and that’s such an honor that even if it’s such a small amount, because obviously it’s a Tumblr blog I’m always aware of that, it just does mean a lot to me, because it genuinely is an honor to me.

I love you guys a lot. I hope that’s always obvious even when I’m making a mess out of myself. You guys are some of my favorite people on this planet.

[mia-cooper]

2019 fanfiction in review

I usually put more effort into pimping my favourite fics of the year, boosting a few new writers in my fandoms, etc. This year, however, I have not, for reasons both within and beyond my control. Which is pretty much my excuse for not Doing Better with writing for the past month or so, but hey. At least there’s this.

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1. Best fic(s) you read all year, and why?

How can I even begin to list all the beautiful, shocking, feel-good, feel-terrible-but-in-a-good-way, envy-inducing, page-turning, soul-destroying, fluffy, hilarious, infuriating and horny fics I’ve read this year? I can’t. So I will instead list three that come immediately to mind.

@curator-on-ao3 – The Dismissed Protocol (rated T, VOY, TNG, Janeway & Crusher)

This fic made me angry. So angry that I left a ranty and incoherent comment, slammed down the lid on my laptop and stormed around the house for a bit. Why was I so pissed, you ask? Because this fic hit a good few of my personal triggers around bodily autonomy and the right to make informed choices, and because although the fic ends triumphantly, it’s somewhat of a pyrrhic victory and it left a really bad taste in my mouth. Which, considering this is fiction, is the mark of some really good writing. When it comes to tackling difficult topics with a fresh and thought-provoking perspective, and without opting for the easy answers, Curator never disappoints. This story is just one of many examples of that in her work.

@love-in-the-time-of-kolinahr​ – it will take place without witnesses (rated E, DSC, Pike/Number One)

Okay so let me start by saying it was the author’s fucking EXCELLENT pun of a pseudonym that made me read this in the first place. Then it was the poem they quoted (Discovery by Wislawa Szymborska, which is like a portentous rocket in the guts). Then it was Una’s scales-off-the-eyes, we-are-true-equals, don’t-bullshit-me-lover candidness in the way she sees, talks to, knows Chris Pike. I adore Pike in his laconic-space-cowboy-with-a-heart Disco incarnation, I like him a lot as the CoolDad in AOS, but this fic? This fic gives me smart, forthright, deeply tender Number One, and Pike as the fractured and very human hero I hope like hell we’ll see more of because they are definitely making a Pike series RIGHT? It is written. Anyway… this fic is beautiful and harsh and deft and real and sexy and poetic and at its core it’s about love, and who doesn’t love love?

@captacorn​ – Stars in a Ruined Sky (rated M, VOY, Paris/Torres)

It took me a while to read this one because CaptAcorn was posting it at the same time I was writing my epic, and I had no brain space to maintain a hold on someone else’s dark and compelling plot. But when I picked this one up, I couldn’t put it down. It is AMAZING. A Timeless AU, set in a universe where Voyager crashed and most of the crew survived, this goes where no other 100k+ epic I’ve read before has dared to tread, and it does so without flinching. The details are what make this unforgettable – there’s no magic reset button, so when something bad happens to the crew, there are actual lasting consequences – but it’s the humanity of the characters (if I can use that word to describe a crew that includes aliens) that makes it unputdownable (fuck off, my nana said that’s a word). This is not an AU I want to think happened, but CaptAcorn makes it one that rings true. And I’ll definitely read this again when I have the emotional fortitude for it.

Wow, there’s no Janeway/Chakotay in my top three. What? So here’s a bonus:

Northernexposure’s trilogy – Soft Light, Aftershocks and Resolution (rated E, VOY, Janeway/Chakotay) – three for the price of one! I mean, when northernexposure posts a new fic I race to read it no matter what, but smut! Beautifully written, true to character, sexy sexy smut from one of my all time favourite authors! How could I turn that down?

2. Best fic(s) you published all year, and why?

Mmmyeah to be honest I kinda feel as though my writing peaked in 2017, but here we go.

Desperate Measures (rated E, VOY, Janeway/Chakotay and other pairings) – because there’s angst and smut and the plot is twisty as fuck and I feel like there’s a pretty satisfying payoff. And it’s really long and relies on the reader engaging with my OCs which people seem to have done, which makes me think that if I ever do want to go write another original novel, maybe I won’t want to burn it as soon as I’m done.

This Is The Moment (rated M, DSC, Pike/Tyler) – because these two have exhausting chemistry and I couldn’t not write this but it was hard to make it come out of my brain the way I wanted it. But I’m really happy with it.

And I have a soft spot for First Officer’s Log (rated T, VOY, Chakotay & Tuvok, implied Janeway/Paris), because I just really love Threshold, okay? And while the episode is wack on so many levels there are really dark and heavy themes to explore there which I feel have gone very unexplored and I hope my fic struck that same balance between moral philosophy and holywhatthefuckery.

3. Favourite opening line(s) in a fic you published in 2019:

From Bad Maquis (rated M, VOY, Janeway/Chakotay):

The only thing more restrictive – and bosomy – than this outfit, Kathryn mused as she stared at her reflection, was her holodeck governess costume.



Still, at least she didn’t have to leave her quarters wearing this getup, and thank goodness for small mercies. Because she was on the verge of backing down from this challenge as it was, and Kathryn Janeway did not chicken out. Ever.

I mean, it sets the scene, doesn’t it? Who doesn’t love Janeway in leather.

4. Favourite closing line(s):

This is maybe cheating a little bit because this fic isn’t finished, but this first chapter can stand alone and I won’t be continuing it for some time (first, I have to finish the two prequels, haha). Anyway, these are the closing lines from Inertia (rated T so far, VOY, Janeway/Paris and others):

When the daze clears and Tom looks up to discover that his hovercar is parked in front of an address he’s never visited but has nonetheless memorised, maybe he should feel a little bit surprised.



He doesn’t. No matter how far he tries to go or how long he stays away from her, turning up at Kathryn Janeway’s door is inevitable.

Why do I like it? Well, I have an everlasting appreciation for Janeway/Paris, for one thing. For another, if you read the rest of the story and understand what Tom has just learned, you’ll want to know what happens next. I hope. I sure want to know.

5. The fic that was best received, and your favourite comment(s) on it:

That would be Desperate Measures again. It’s my longest fic by far and I was absolutely bowled over by the response to it, but one of my favourite comments on it is this one:

It actually looks like Janeway is saying gimme and it cracks me up.

Honestly though… the depth and kindness of comments on that fic in particular, the time and thought and effort that people have put into their reviews … it made up for every moment I wanted to chuck it in and never look at that fic again, or any other.

6. The fic you wish had gotten more love:

Honestly, I was surprised there was so little response to my @voyagermirrormarch​ fic trilogy, Heaven in the Shape of Hell. I really thought they’d be crowd pleasers, but it shows what I know, lol. I haven’t even finished the third one because the lack of interest made me wonder if they were just really shite, but I’m not so butthurt about it anymore and I will come back to it someday.

7. How many fandoms you wrote for in 2019, and which inspired you most:

Does Star Trek in all its incarnations count as one fandom? If so, I wrote for two (Trek and Marvel). If all the different versions of Trek count separately, I wrote for seven (MCU, AOS (that’s Trek Alternate Original Series, not Agents of SHIELD), Disco, Mirror, Enterprise, DS9 and Voyager).

Anyway, I guess I’ll never stop being inspired by Voyager, so even if Disco season 3 and the Picard show do nothing for me, I’ll always have that.

8. Your favourite pairing(s) to write for:

I mean, Janeway x Chakotay, for sure. But I’m deeply, deeply invested in Janeway x Paris at the moment.

9. What you’re writing now/next:

I’m struggling through the second part of what was supposed to be my contribution to @25daysofvoyager​. I’m actually going to post the first part once I’m done with this quiz in the hope it’ll kick my ass into gear. I’m also on semi-hiatus from Kinetic Friction, but I’ll be going back to it as soon as I’m done with my 25 Days fic. At some point after Kinetic there’ll be the sequel, and then the rest of Inertia. I’m also contemplating something for Threshold Day, possibly throwing something into @voytalentchallenge​ (don’t count on that one), and I have an idea for a pre-Enterprise D, pre-Voyager meeting between Picard and Janeway (with smut, obvs), plus all the other fics I’m definitely going to write …

And of course there’s my meat raffle. Time to pimp that one again. Donate to AO3 and if I draw your name out of the hat of randomness I’ll write you a fic to your specifications (roughly).

10. Writing goals for 2020 (word count? new fandoms/pairings? anything?):

Look, I’d just really like to actually write to some of the prompts I’ve had sitting in my ridiculously complex filing system without getting sidetracked by the newest shiny thing to catch my eye. In terms of fandoms, I hope I’ll write more for Discovery, I’m looking forward to Picard, and I would like to branch out from Trek a bit. More MCU, definitely, and maybe others if I get inspired. The main thing I want out of writing fanfiction at the moment is for it to continue making me happy, though, so I just hope I keep having fun with it.

[an-aura-about-you]

An Extremely Personal Take On Disability Representation in Christmas Is Here Again

I thought I could just sit with these thoughts, but they’re stewing too much in my brain and I need some kind of outlet. What I’m about to talk about is tied into my own personal experience, hence the title. I’m not about to speak on behalf of such a varied community, even a community I’m part of, when the only person I can attempt to represent accurately is myself.

So this is me talking about my life, my disability and how it affects me, and how I felt watching the movie Christmas Is Here Again. Under the cut because I imagine this is going to be long and a bit ranty.

History time! I live in a house on top of a hill that isn’t very high up but does have a dangerously steep angle. Back in early March of 2013, my hill was covered in ice, and I fell down to the street below in an attempt to get to work. This accident resulted in me severely breaking my right leg at the ankle. (Related note: NEVER risk your life for your job unless you’re a fireman or the like and it comes with the territory.) Putting it back together required two surgeries, screws, clamps, and a metal plate that goes about halfway up my shin. The ER doctor said that amputation was a possibility. I was fortunate and have my whole leg, but with that came two big changes:

1.) I most likely will never be completely free of pain for the rest of my life.

2.) Though I was able to walk again and don’t have much if any of a limp anymore, there are some days when my right leg simply can’t support me. On those days, I use a cane to help me walk.

I think it’s important for me to specify this because as time goes on and I get stronger, the days when I need my cane are fewer and farther between. That won’t last forever, of course, but things still look relatively good for me in the present. Most days I don’t need my cane at all, and I tend to surprise coworkers on the rare days I actually need my cane. But the point I’m trying to make here is the days when I don’t need my cane do not erase the days when I do need my cane. The days when I can don’t take away the days when I can’t.

I’d also like to bring up, as this is going to be relevant to later discussion, that I love to cook. I went to culinary school and had a few kitchen jobs, and while I ended up learning the hard way that doing what you love for work leaves you hating what you love, the before and after of my accident did present some new challenges. Cooking means being on your feet a lot, usually with no choice but to stay if you’re a short order cook. And one of my post-accident kitchen jobs involved me both working by myself and occasionally needing to use a ladder. That is TERRIFYING if your leg can give out at any moment. Sure, usually I know beforehand if I can handle something, and I’ve learned how to get around in my home kitchen, but I’ve still been surprised by an unexpected wet spill or the like.

And now that I’ve set up exactly where I’m coming from, let’s talk about Christmas Is Here Again. Or, more specifically, let’s talk about Christmas Is Here Again’s protagonist, Sophiana.

Now, I am a sucker for Christmas schlock and kid characters have more of a tendency to tug on my heartstrings as I get older. (I actually was horrified the first time I sat down and properly watched Child’s Play not because of the murderous living doll angle but any time it cut to Andy crying or screaming in terror because THAT IS A BABY.) And I’ll admit, Sophiana had one moment where she got to me, though that was related to her situation of being an orphan in the Standard Horrible Orphanage because let’s be real we’ve ALL been in a situation where we wished we could just fly out of it.

Sophiana, like me, is a cane user. It’s never specified why, though the implication is that it’s something she was born with as opposed to my situation where it was the result of an accident. (If I’m wrong about this, let me know though.) Sophiana is also like me in that she has a passion for food and cooking. And, also like me, Sophiana doesn’t seem to need her cane all the time?

Diva of Musical Hell mentioned the short version of this in her review of the movie, specifically that Sophiana’s disability never seemed to have a detrimental effect on her and her cane might as well be just a prop to garner audience sympathy. It got me wondering what it would be like to try to represent someone like me in media. On the one hand, it is necessary for people to see that a disabled person having a good day is still a disabled person. That, for example, a wheelchair user that is able to walk a short distance is not faking being disabled. On the other, it takes a fine touch to make that believable and not fall into the trap of only using it as a convenient way to hamper the heroes. It might not really be possible, falling under the realm of Reality Is Unrealistic.

It kept coming back to my mind after seeing the Musical Hell review, which sometimes happens with me. And I decided I would watch the movie myself and see what Sophiana had and what she was lacking.

So, here’s something else about me: Most of my good days are good enough that I won’t have my cane with me. If I did, it would indeed be just a prop. I’ll sometimes bring it along if the forecast says it’s going to be cold or humid because that specifically hurts my leg where the metal plate is. This sort of pain isn’t necessarily metal plate specific, though, so I wasn’t really surprised by Sophiana having her cane with her out in the winter cold while climbing a tree.

Actually climbing the tree, though? I don’t know. Climbing up it is one thing. Maybe it’s because I’m in my 30s, but the thought of trying to climb back down the tree and possibly landing on my bad leg wrong leaves me shuddering. I suppose it’s just as well that she ended up falling out. But if she had climbed back down, that would have been a better way to show Sophiana’s disability impacting her. It’s okay for a child to do something like this and learn the hard way that they’ve gone a bit past their own capabilities.

Sophiana also uses her cane weird? I guess I can’t say it’s the same for all cane users, but the recommended way I learned to use a cane is opposite the bad leg. Since my right leg is my bad leg, I use my cane in my left hand. Sophiana seems to limp on the side she holds her cane. I say “seems” because it’s very slight in the animation. It’s a bit similar to how I walk I suppose, so there is that. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be as exaggerated as, say, Duster from Mother 3.

Based on my own experience, a better way to show Sophiana having trouble getting around might be having her climb up or down some stairs. Even on my good days, I sometimes take the stairs one at a time, stepping first with my good leg and then bringing my bad leg on the same stair to join it. It’s slow going, but sometimes I just can’t take the stairs the way most people do it.

There’s a scene when Sophiana climbs out of her bedroom window, hooks herself on a tree branch with her cane, and then drops to the ground landing on both feet. I felt myself cringe from the pain I would have felt if I had done the same thing with my bad leg. Good day or bad day doesn’t even figure into that. If I did a drop like that on a good day, it’d turn into a bad day from that point on.

That actually brings me to another point: even on good days, there are some things I can’t really do. I can’t do any jumping or hopping because of the impact on my leg. As goofy as this will probably sound, this means I can’t jump rope, play hopscotch, or even play Dance Dance Revolution if we want to talk about more modern-yet-outdated things. (I miss playing DDR, guys.) Maybe something like that could have been incorporated into the movie to show us a way Sophiana’s disability impacts her ability to play.

Related to that, Sophiana does cook in the movie and she is knowledgeable about food. This could have been a great opportunity to show how she manages her disability while doing what she loves, but we never actually see that. All we see is her bring a finished plate of food out, where she’s able to walk while carrying it without needing her cane. That, by itself, is pretty reasonable, but it’s not really enough. Cooking is physically demanding. I don’t necessarily bring my cane in the kitchen, but if I’m having trouble that day, I usually get around by using my counters for support and sitting down at the kitchen table whenever I can. I’m also probably going to be a bit pickier about what I cook. I may like sabayon, but that’s a standing commitment of at least twenty minutes and at most possibly an hour.

It sucks because this could have been better than it is. There were opportunities that just weren’t taken. In particular, we don’t see a lot of young cane users. Again, I’m in my 30s but still young by cane user standards. That kind of visibility is important because disability knows no age. Even if they didn’t go the route of depicting a life like mine where I have more good days lately than bad, there could have been more of an effort to make it clear that Sophiana’s cane is something she needs. As it is, Diva was pretty much right. It is just a prop, and not even a terribly important prop as Sophiana’s locket has more impact on the story.

[christinaroseandrews]

Part 4

This is the last ranty Part, I swear!

You can read Part One here! Part Two is Here! Part Three is Here!

When we’d left off, the heroes -- and I use that term lightly -- had separated to pursue their own leads.

Mary joins forces with Minnie to go check out the lead that she got from a witness who used a tanning bed and that’s where he was robbed by the Assassin. The author goes into loving detail of each business in the strip mall which might as well be flashing a big giant sign of “THIS IS IMPORTANT PAY ATTENTION TO THIS!!!”

And if you’ve watched The Accountant you know why... A car wash, a tanning bed business, and a strip club are all cash heavy businesses. And this is where the connection to that movie becomes even more pronounced... do I think it’s deliberate, no. But I’m pretty sure that the author was influenced.

Anyway this scene was filled with more of our favorite thing ever... body shaming!

And remember, it’s not just one character who does it it’s all of them!!! Let’s count how many in this one scene alone...

Mary and the dead assassin.

Minnie!

Random car wash cashier.

Yep so much body shaming.

So while the body shame train is going on, Crash has managed to track down the guy they refer to as Mr. Turtleneck.

While he studies the family (and fat shames a little girl.) He waxes poetic about his life...

Badly. So.. I want to know where the streetlights are out in the desert and on boats. I mean there are some right around the exits/towns/harbors which you can see from miles away. But most of the time there isn’t much out there.

He beats up Mr. Turtleneck in front of his daughter and dislocates his arm... because that’s what good guys do.

Or they do if they’re named Jack Bauer.

Pretty much.

But thanks to it, we get some info.

Now while the detail is good, it highlights another quibble, “white” shouldn’t be capitalized when referring to Caucasians. There is no universal White life experience. No shared background. Whereas Black has a distinctive culture, shared experiences, and challenges. Most white people if you ask them “Where do you come from? Or where did your family traditions come from?” will answer with a European country. They identify with the country of origin. Most Black people can’t do that because of Slavery. So their shared experience comes out of Slavery, Jim Crow, Civil Rights, and Black Lives Matter.  This article explains it better than I can.

And I’ll get off of this soapbox now. And it’s a quibble. The style guides and dictionaries are on the fence about this. But here’s another good reason not to... White Supremacist  websites capitalize White. So it depends on if you want to be counted among racists or not.

So while I ranted but ultimately gave the author a pass for racist language/connotations for the “White” thing. I can’t for this.

Yep... the G-word strikes again.

Please. Please. Romancelandia... stop using the G*psy to describe your characters or style of dress. The Roma community have asked people to stop. I’ve ranted about this before. This is a harmful stereotype and it is not okay to use anywhere.

But this is just the beginning...

Brace yourselves. This is going to get bad. Like Really Bad.

They go back to the strip club.So of course, there’s more body shaming...

It’s almost expected at this point.

Then we get this description for a Black man.

Which is so problematic I can’t even...

They find the first hijack victim and beat him up... again. Because they haven’t done that enough. And because they think he’s the boss.

Spoiler Alert... he isn’t.

Mary has a flash of insight and realizes what’s been staring them in the face the whole time.

Yep...

Oh but it gets worse...

So we have four super problematic tropes in play right now and I kind of feel I need to break down why they are so bad.

1. The Good Guys are white. The Bad Guys aren’t.

Even though the ultimate big bad is white. Every other evil or bad character in this story has been a Person of Color. This feeds into a racist narrative that the only good people are white people. This is how a Black man got killed when trying to stop a white shooter.

2. Homosexuals are Evil and Depraved.

By making both the Assassin and the Big Bad gay. It’s feeding into the narrative that gays are bad. That homosexual people don’t have morals. That they don’t have a conscience. That they are wrong. This leads to so many hate crimes, but it also leads to suicide by gay people who feel that by being their true self is shameful and wrong.

3. Bury your Gays.

Aka the only good gay person is a dead gay person. Every single homosexual person is murdered. It doesn’t matter that they’re the villain. They’re killed. And the supposed Hero gets away with it.

4. Fridging.

Fridging is when a love interest is killed to cause a man pain. That’s what happened with Conte (the Assassin) the only reason he existed was to die to cause the Big Bad pain and make him want to take revenge on Crash and Mary. In most cases, it’s a woman. But it can happen other places. It turned Conte into an object. And objectifying is bad. It is always bad.

So yeah.

I bet you want to know who the big bad is now...

Remember the super neat Lawyer from before? The one who had a Pergola and Mary wanted to father her children? Yep... him.. (Hi all Lawyers are Evil trope)

Mary and Crash rush to confront the big bad and then we get this lovely bit...

Mary has the worst case of Plot Convenient Clumsiness I have ever seen... and I’m including Bella Swan in this.

Her bout of clumsiness means that the Villain can capture her and threaten her. It also means that the hero is given permission to kill him “because he didn’t have another choice...” yeah.

But no hospital. No cops. And no consequences.

There’s a half-hearted attempt to reform Crash. And it is magical. As in it takes place entirely off the page.

The story ends as it began... with more fat shaming.

So good to see that Mary hasn’t changed any. Even though her character was set up from the beginning to have a redemption arc. She never does.

And now that I’m done with this book. I just need to write the actual review review.  And then I will be able to purge this book from my life.

Feeling sorry for us?  Consider buying us a coffee!

[lexidanger]

My TLJ (way longer than expected) analysis/rant/review

DISCLAIMER: I work for Hasbro but knew NOTHING behind the scenes for this movie like I did for TFA, so I didn’t have any outside influence...also

SPOILERS GALORE, IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THIS MOVIE I SUGGEST SEEING IT FIRST ESPECIALLY IF YOU’RE A SW FAN

I honestly have a lot of mixed feelings about this movie, because while there were things I absolutely adored in it, but there were also choices made that I really still can’t wrap my head around and ultimately have left me pretty disappointed, I’m not going to go over every little thing but if you have a question about how I felt about a certain character/scene etc just shoot me an ask and i’ll rant at you there. Anyways I’m gonna start with the good shit since I might get a tad ranty with the bad

THE GOOD

The opening sequence- The opening scenes were phenomenal imo, that was absolutely the way to start off the movie, It honestly held a lot of that SW nostalgia and felt really great action/tone wise, it pulled you in like a good hook should.

Leia- So i’m legit a huge emotional baby when it comes to stuff I love, I was already crying as soon as the opening crawl hit, but it wasn’t until they showed Leia the first time that both me and the girl next to me started sobbing (she turned to me and offered some tissues saying she made sure to bring a bunch so it was nice to have some emotional solidarity) But anyways Leia was great and i’m beyond happy with how they handled her which leads me to my next point…

LEIA USING THE FORCE- Everyone in the theater was crushed when she was thrown out into space, and as soon as the shot closed in on her body and she began to use the Force to bring herself back, you could hear the sigh of relief and amazement come from the crowd (as well as the sniffles because everyone was crying at this point) and it was such a magical moment to see her finally use the Force in a tangible way and shut up the fanboys who thought she wasn’t Force Sensitive. And speaking of one half of the twins...

Luke- As always Mark is an absolute delight and gift to this role, and it was so nice to see him back on screen again. A lot of people are crying out about how this movie “””””ruined him”””” by showing his more grey morality (THAT HES ALWAYS HAD B T W) but even as a dark sider I’ve always adored Luke and his views and he made me super proud in this movie. I’m honestly not ready for people to start demonizing him for "almost killing their precious Ben bby uwu” because again that was a moment with a lot of complexity on both sides that I think could bring up a lot of great conversations about Luke’s trauma in the war and wanting to prevent the loss of billions of lives.

Also as a side note I just want to say how heartwarming it was to see Luke reunited with R2, the moment he recognizes him the bitter old facade melts away and we see that sweet excited boy from Tatooine when he gets to talk to his best friend again after so long.

I’m so so sad to see him go, but honestly I couldn’t think of a better way for him to go out, I’m glad it was done in such a peaceful way (except maybe him actually going to Crait and pulling an Obi proper but thats a whole other issue)

Snoke- I adored Snoke, plain and simple. The few scenes he was in he commanded attention and I was honestly captivated by Serkis’ skills as a character actor once again. The CG work done on him was remarkable, his personality was actually very enjoyable and I really wish we got to see more of his Force mastery, it’s so rare we get to see it controlled on that grand of a scale and so effortlessly too (For those of you who read Darth Plagueis you know the difficulty that comes with using the Force on someone over hologram/long distance, so it was definitely a treat to see that). The potential of this character is remarkable and if anyone involved with SW media is smart they will tap into it and release more content with him ASAP

Rey’s Parentage- As someone who was an avid Rey Palpatine theory supporter, I just want to say how glad I am that Rey’s parentage proved to be of no significance, because in a way it still holds kind of what I wanted to see from her being related to Palpatine. I wanted them to show that really in the end, your bloodline doesn’t make you who you are, you decide who you want to be, not your past, and in a way they did that. They showed that someone from humble beginnings, like Rey and even Finn, can rise up to do amazing things, you don’t have to be part of a dynasty like the Skywalkers to be great.

Imagery/Portrayal of the Force- If theres one thing I can really commend this movie for, it’s the visuals. From the color contrasts of Crait to the trippy Force shenanigans everything was visually stunning. Leia using the Force to glide through the void of space to safety was such a magical moment I will never forget (and anyone calling it Mary Poppins or Superman flying is honestly just afraid to have whimsical moments in their SW and therefore a coward) the blend of CG and puppets was super great and using a puppet for Yoda’s return was such a great callback to the original trilogy. After watching so many Transformers movies its nice to watch an action flick that doesn’t rely on shaky cam to sell the intensity of a scene, but instead uses the art direction and imagery as it should.

Also as far as the Force goes, i’ve been so happy that we’re moving away from the two extremes. The Dark Side in not completely evil and the Light Side is not completely good, i’m just glad we’re finally showing that in the movies, and if it makes people mad then good, the truth hurts but they need to understand not everything is black and white.

Humor- Some might argue that a lot of the humor was oriented more towards the younger audience, but tbh most of the bits really hit with me (probably because I am a child) and provided some nice warm moments in what might be considered a tense and dark movie. We’ve been debating for years now how Luke’s first interaction with Rey would go, what would he say to her? What would he do? and it’s my belief that they could not have gone with a more appropriate choice than for him to toss the saber over his shoulder as he did (Luke’s “reach out” moment with her was also so nice and I’m 1000% convinced it was improv by Mark) The bits with the guardians of the island were great, the porgs were surprisingly enjoyable (if not still a bit bizarre) and my favorite running joke of all, turning Hux into what i’ve always seen him as, a huge joke, a slapstick prop to be tossed around and ridiculed, it was quite satisfying.

Additional things- Despite the fact that there wasn’t a saber on saber fight the entire movie, the Snoke’s Praetorian guard fight scene with Rey and Kylo will go down in history as one of the great fight scenes in SW history. Rose was such an amazing addition to the cast and Kelly is so talented, I’m happy she’s a part of the SW family now. And BOY you want to talk about memorable moments, Holdo’s lightspeed crash into Snoke’s Supremecy was absolutely breathtaking. The way it was shot, the sound design, everything was perfect and people are going to be talking about it for a very long time.

THE BAD

Snoke’s Death- The moment Snoke was killed off is the moment I feel like everything shifted in the movie, I was enjoying it quite a bit up until that point, and then as soon as the saber bisected him this huge wave of disappointment and disbelief washed over me, which is why this is probably one of the biggest mis-steps in the movie besides Phasma’s treatment. For years now we’ve been theorizing and trying to piece together who Snoke could possibly be, whether it be the return of an older character or him being his own thing and with every tiny piece of info that came out we were further pulled in to the mysteries that surrounded him. Who is he? What is he? Why does he look that way? How did he come to power? I never expected all of these questions to be answered in TLJ, but a piece of info or two thrown our way to reward our patience and interest in him would have been appreciated.

Instead what we got was nothing and a swift ridiculous death half way through the movie. To say that i’m crestfallen is a bit of an understatement. Those that know me are aware that I’m a huge dark side fan and an even bigger fan of Sheev Palpatine, he’s a compelling character in a lot of the ways Snoke has the potential to be, so to see another great antagonist along the lines of Palpatine just thrown away without any second thought or explanation is an awful thing to see.

And I’m aware that they are probably going to throw his backstory into a book or comic, which part of me is grateful for (especially since James Luceno, author of Darth Plagueis might possibly be writing it right now) but tbh you shouldn’t throw the responsibility of portraying a character off on someone else when you have more than enough time and opportunities to show it in the film. As someone who is heavily invested in the alternative media surrounding SW I still don’t think that you should put your viewers through that, making them ask questions about a character, pay for a ticket to possibly have some of those questions answered and then pull the rug out from under them like “Nope sorry you’ll have to buy the book when it comes out next year” it’s very in-accessible and just downright disrespectful to the writers that set him up for a decent arc.

Plenty of uninteresting things were prioritized over the interesting so don’t tell me they couldn’t have taken 10 minutes out of something inconsequential to slip in some context for this character. It’s such a shame to see an opportunity to flesh out a compelling character passed over for the purpose of subverting everyone’s expectations, cheap and unsatisfying. #AndySerkisDeservedBetter

Phasma- I want to say for the record that I am absolutely outraged, not only did we get even less Phasma than we did in TFA, but they “killed her off” in a way they can either bring her back and do what they said they were going to do after TFA which was give her a decent amount of screen time, or leave her dead. It’s honestly a travesty that they continuously recruit these talented actors to portray these characters and they get shafted as far as content and inclusion goes. I can’t even put my excitement into words when Phasma was first announced, I just wanted female Stormtroopers period but having a woman play a fierce Stormtrooper commander meant everything to me. But alas, just as Snoke it seems these directors can’t seem to find a place to put them amongst the other pointless plots that are stuffed into the film which brings me to…

Canto Bight- A beautiful planet/setting but very unnecessary as a whole. I mean the whole idea of them needing to go to a planet to get a random codebreaker to get on the ship in the first place is absolutely absurd when they’ve had countless ways upon these ships in the past. And the fact that they had to call up Maz so they could poorly stuff her into the movie for 2 minutes as she quickly rattled off their mission in a very Battlefront 2 manner was absolutely ridiculous. The casino itself was neat and I’m glad they touched upon the fact that these people got rich by selling weapons to both sides, but the whole animal chase sequence and everything with DJ felt so out of place and long and distracting from things that would have far better served the characters and plot.

Length- As someone who sat through Age of Extinction after drinking a large soda at the beginning of the film, trust me when I say I know when a movie feels long and this one felt unbearably so. Every time I thought to myself “oh this is it this is going to be the climax and resolution” they would set off on another escape plan. It’s like they came up with 5 different endings and couldn’t decide which one to use so they just kinda tacked them on to the end of each other. After learning that this movie was 3 hours at it’s original cut, I cannot imagine sitting through another hour of squished together side-plots and escape plans, if those cut scenes had more Snoke and Phasma it might’ve been worth it but something tells me it didn’t. We wont know until the bluray with all the deleted scenes comes out next year.

Rey as the future of the Jedi- There was fanboy outcry at the end of TFA saying that Rey was a “”””mary sue””” for being able to defeat someone like Kylo Ren with no lightsaber training/understanding of the Force, but all their arguments are bullshit and there was nothing unbelievable about Rey’s skill with a staff translating to a saber and embracing the Force to gain an edge over Kylo and defeat him.

Now in TLJ Luke’s training of Rey was set up (like many things) to be a main focal point in the story when in reality, it lasts maybe two days and in that time not much training happens at all, in fact Luke tries to show Rey why the Jedi should NOT continue. But in the end it’s very much eluded to that it’s now up to Rey to continue on the Jedi ways and teach a whole new batch of bright eyed young light siders. Rey was skilled enough in TFA to handle herself, but she was still very much a student in need of a teacher herself, something she got only briefly. I honestly have little faith that they can convincingly portray this if they choose to go this route.

Confusing moments with Holdo/Mutiny- I don’t know if was just me but with the movie as a whole being an overwhelming stream of events and developments, the whole Poe mutiny against Holdo was an absolute clusterfuck to me. It was obvious that Holdo was planning something and wouldn’t share it with Poe to the point where it was almost as if she was a traitor/spy and was running everyone into the ground on purpose, and I thought my suspicions were confirmed when she broke back out of custody, but then suddenly Leia shows up and stuns Poe?? Was she a Changeling??? What the fuck was going on??

And then it turns out that she just had a plan to stay with the ship and to get everyone to the Rebel base on the planet below THAT SHE WOULDN’T TELL ANYONE. Like if she would have been a little more up front with this plan I think things would have gone smoother and the whole Poe mutiny thing could have been avoided. It was all very necessary and created conflict and complexity where there didn’t need to be.

Confrontation- While the final confrontation between Kylo and Luke is impactful in it’s end, I think it would have been even more so had it not been needlessly complicated by having him project from Ahch-to. I mean he probably wouldn’t have survived the Walker blasts, but if he could project across the galaxy like that then he could’ve figured something out. When he showed up at the base out of nowhere my suspension of disbelief was already running thin with the loss of Snoke and Phasma, but seeing him look so different from what he looked like minutes ago just ruined the surprise of him not actually being there. I would have liked to see him reunite with Leia in person before becoming one with the Force, and I just think him being there and pulling an Obi Wan by disappearing and leaving the cloak behind just as he did with Vader would have been a nice call back.

Rose/Finn- This moment I did not see coming because tbh, there was no build up to it, and just like the infamous Steve Rogers/Sharon Carter kiss from Civil War, it was awkward and unnecessary and I’m fairly convinced this was added last minute to subvert fans from the whole Stormpilot ship, because you know, how dare us gays want to be included in SW right? Rose is a BRILLIANT character, and even tho Finn suffered the short end of the stick as far as development in this movie went, neither of them needed this rushed moment to make her action or their friendship any more meaningful.

Payoff- Although I was happy with Rey’s parentage I don’t like that it was made to be such an issue that ultimately ended up not being a big deal. Now a lot of this comes from the fact that Rian took it upon himself to “fix” some of JJ’s weaker elements from TFA, but instead of fixing them he eliminated what would have been really nice payoffs for the fans who’ve invested so much time and love into discussing this series. This also goes for Snoke, why create this mystery around this character and have people talking about him if you aren’t going to give them some kind of payoff in the end. That bit of satisfaction that we hoped to get just slipped away and  we’ll have to wait another 2 years to have another chance at it, or maybe not at all and thats incredibly frustrating.

In the end I had fun, but that fun just can’t make me forget about the glaring issues this movie had. And they’re not just issues, they’re needless issues, things that could have been easily avoided or fixed. At this point i’m not even really invested enough in the characters that are left to be excited for the next film.

So yes this film had problems, but is it the worst SW film ever? Is SW really dead? Absolutely not, everyone is being far too dramatic, which honestly isn’t surprising seeing as most of them still pretend the prequels had nothing of value and don’t exist.

It had problems.

Fix them.

Do better next time.

It’s as simple as that and if the filmmakers can’t recognize this film’s shortcoming to avoid making the same mistakes again, then it’s their own fault for the criticism they get. The film isn’t a total loss in the slightest and hopefully some of the deleted content will shed some light on a few things we so very much wanted to see.

[wonderlandsangels]

Hello Angels! I did hint at this on my Twitter, but a few weeks ago I did a post called ‘Don’t Get Me Started’ and it went down well. I think I’ve found my comfort zone: I rant a lot, people find it funny, it gives me an excuse to rant more.

So, I went back to my group chat and asked for numbers: what I cut out were all the times that we had to re-pick numbers because I’d done them in the last post, which I will link here. Please ignore my time stamps; they were screenshot weeks apart, my battery doesn’t run down so quickly, don’t panic.

As with last time, I will add in other mini side rants if I can, and the aim of the game is to try and connect them all up into a comprehensive rant, which means I will have to get creative because NONE of these things link together. I will highlight the ‘Don’t get me started’ parts in bold, so you can join me in counting up the rants. The main things I have to rant about are

Terrible contestants on American Idol

Inflatable dancing tube men at car dealerships

13 Reasons Why

Hotel Rooms

Good lord, wish me luck. On with the ranting…

Don’t get me started on hotel rooms. Most hotel rooms I’ve been in are okay in all honesty; as long as there is a bed and a kettle, I’m fine, my necessities are covered, but there are some horror stories that honestly put me off: if the rooms aren’t cleaned properly or the beds are changed, you have no idea who you’re sharing a bed with, do you? If the sheets aren’t changed, do you know what could be on them? If you don’t, you’re not old enough to be reading this post, run while you can. Then there’s the fact that there may be hairs lying around in showers or baths and I DON’T KNOW THAT PERSON. There are nice hotels; I’ve seen the luxury ones and those look delightful, but I don’t want to spend all my money on a hotel and have nothing to spend on the actual holiday. Some of us gotta downgrade a little, and finding the right hotel is difficult; you can’t trust those websites; people might pay for reviews (don’t get me started on that, if you’re shit, accept you’re shit and fix it, don’t pay people to give positive reviews and try to build a bridge over your horrible hotel room, that’s not gonna fly, I smell your shit hotel room and your bullshit).

This was all made worse after watching Four in a Bed and don’t get me started on Four in a Bed: the name sounds awful and the people on it are usually also awful, it’s guilty pleasure TV. Like, a lot of the time, it’s posh competitive snobs fighting against posh competitive snobs, and trampling on the one couple that is just there for a good time. These snobs often lose because of tactical voting and because they found a spec of dust on the carpet and now they can’t stop sneezing, and then complain about activities planned when they also have activities planned, but make the other people sound childish. It’s a dust and hair obsessed train-wreck, and they rely on gimmicks. I’ve found, the more gimmicky the hotel and the more they try and drag you in, the more faults you’ll find with it (and it won’t just be dust, let me tell you). They spend so long trying to be unique and eye catching with advertising, they let the side down: just have a nice hotel and calm it with the neon lights and the overkill of gimmicks, just let me rest in a fluffy, clean bed, have a hair free bath and drink my tea, that’s all I’m asking of you.

On that note, don’t get me started on gimmicky people and things, like why? Unless you have already made it, then go wild, but don’t rely on them to grab attention. I’m all for standing out, I’m a big lover of not following the crowd, but come on people: you’re acting as pointless as the waving tube men outside of dealerships. Don’t get me started; what’s the real point in them? You could have an actual person stood there waving, like the people who spin boards to draw attention. I don’t know about all of you, but I’m more likely to go somewhere if they have gone to the effort of hiring somebody to flail and dance outside a place for hours; they’re supporting the unemployed (don’t get me started on the employment system: I need experience for the job, but I can’t get a job because I need experience? Bitch in what world? I’ve dealt with a psycho ex wife of Santa while I was dressed as an elf and kept the whole thing quiet, what more do you need?) But, I digress: the waving men are funny for five minutes, then they bore me and people forget about them, and then you see an identical moronic blow up tube man a mile away. Take on my idea of hiring people to attract people, or I don’t know, actually work to build a name for yourself? I know, it’s nuts, but sometimes you’ve gotta actually work for success: not everyone can be successful and famous for being stupid.

You know what this actually reminds me of? Reality TV: you have 5 minutes of fame and then you’re just seen as an idiot who was moronic on TV, and you lose your fame and go back to your job and your co workers take the piss out of you. The tube men are the reality TV stars of the blow up/ inflatable doll world, and their reality TV show is based in a car dealership. Don’t get me started on reality TV: it’s often people just losing all their dignity, unless they fit the bill and what is ‘in’ that year to a T. I’ll be honest, I used to love the X-Factor and American Idol, but it’s all so fake and dramatised I can’t fathom it now I’m older. I get it: we have some amazing musicians to come out of it, but at the same time, think of all the people turned away and made a fool of.

The X-Factor is bad, but don’t get me started on terrible American Idol contestants. As a stereotype, us British people are ranty (hey waddup hello) and are awkward (hi, I’m the stereotype British person, how you doin’?) but by the stereotype of Americans, they are out there and don’t give a fuck, and that’s great. But the American Idol contestants think they’re the bees knees and often they’re shit, and don’t realise it. Yes, it does happen in Britain too, look at cringey auditions on YouTube, but there’s something about Americans that make it look as if they think the judges and the public are wrong. You see a hint of shame in British, but in Americans, you don’t see any shame at all, and I admire them for that, you do you boo. Just you do you quietly and not on my TV screen. The TV shows on the whole though are just over dramatic when they don’t need to be.

Don’t get me started on things which are over dramatic. I’ll go this direction then: you read a book, and it’s stunningly written, the drama is done perfectly, you sob because it’s heart wrenching, but no details are gone into, making it more heartbreaking. For me, that’s 13 Reasons Why, and do not get me started on it. I loved the book to bits: it was stunningly written, and the fact that no massive details are gone into it (the passing mention of a funeral, the fact very few details were gone into about the suicide: all makes it worse for me personally) but the TV program? It was overly dramatic; the stroy was there, the acting got me, but my main issue? It didn’t stick to the books. There was no need to show the suicide; it’d have hurt me as much if they hadn’t shown it: just mentioned it in passing. It added a layer, sure, but it triggered so many people, and that wasn’t the aim: the aim was apparently to spread awareness at what bullying can lead up to, what staying silent and not speaking out on somebodies behalf can do, the fact that there are two sides to a story. But it got lost in drama and triggering moments. I will say it was acted amazingly, but it didn’t stick to the book. Don’t get me started on that, that’s a rant for another time (hint: start following the books more, they got popular because people like the characters and story).

  This was a difficult one. The topics were so different, I’m well aware I was reaching at times, but you try connecting all of these things together and ranting about them, it was bloody hard to do.

Do you want this to be a weekly thing? Like, an end of week rant about random topics people pick for me? I’d be down to do that, but would you wanna read it? Let me know!

  Stay safe and stay happy, Angels ❤

  Don’t Get Me Started: Part 2 Hello Angels! I did hint at this on my Twitter, but a few weeks ago I did a post called 'Don't Get Me Started' and it went down well.