#IT'S ALMOST ALWAYS PAUL LIKE LITERALLY 99% OF THE TIME.

[dolokhoded]

"judas and peter both denied christ but judas couldn't face it while peter repented" shut the fuck upppp peter wasn't in a similar vulnerable psychological state should we throw a party should we invite god what did he even do after christ anyways he teamed up with paul. one would argue that's worse than betraying jesus

[strawberryblondebutch]

What do you know about this Garrett Crochet character the red sox signed

Quite a bit! My parents got a (literal) front row seat to watch several of his starts this year, given how bad the White Sox were. The Phillies were in the mix for him, but I never wanted him — not because he’s bad, but because I feel comfortable saying we already have the best rotation in baseball, and if we’re going to sell the farm, why would we get another starter and not a right-handed outfielder?

Crochet is one of those guys where you have to do something I hate, which is look at his hypothetical stats. 99% of the time I hate a “look at the xERA” bitch because baseball is played on the field, not on spreadsheets. However, his middling stats (6–12, 3.58 ERA) fail to take into account that he was on the worst team in all of baseball since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders.

Pros about Crochet:

He has the best fastball in baseball. Yes, even better than much-lauded Rookie of the Year Paul Skenes. The most impressive part about this is that his fastball got BETTER when he became a full-time starter, whereas you almost always lose the juice when a guy goes from the pen to the rotation.

He gets strikeouts. Lots of them. Which, if you have a subpar infield defense, comes as a major relief. Groundball pitchers have their place, but on teams like the Cubs, where you don’t hold your breath every time something bounces up the middle.

He has four pitches: a four-seam, a sweeper, a cutter, and a sinker. I’m a firm believer that a true ace has at least four pitches. Relievers can get away with fewer, but there will be days that one of your pitches just isn’t firing. When that happens, you need backup options. Spencer Strider would periodically get rocked (pre-TJ) because he needed his fastball to sit 97 and his slider to break at least two feet if he wanted to get anywhere. Zack Wheeler has six strikeout pitches, and if he feels one isn’t working during warmups, he tells JT and they work around it.

He’s part of the long-term future. One of the reasons Crochet was so expensive on the trade market is because he has two more years of control before hitting free agency, and he said he wanted an extension with whoever got him from the ChiSox. Considering how much the Yankees gave up for 22, who ended up being a rental, control is great.

Surely this all seems too good to be true! And it… kind of is, because he has one major risk: injury history. He missed the entire 2022 season while recovering from TJ surgery, and he missed parts of 2023 with elbow and shoulder issues. This season he tossed a respectable 143 innings and made all 32 of his starts. But he never threw more than seven innings in a start, and after June? Never went more than four innings. Yeah, four.

So — you got a legitimate flamethrowing ace, with the durability problems that these types usually come with. His closest comparable is probably Glasnow, a guy who’s electric when he plays… you just have to hope he isn’t on the IL when it matters.

[notthatangry]

I was bored :)

1.Favourite Slipknot era?

vol3 subliminal verses and self titled

2.Favourite song/s?

The virus of life The shape prosthetics the nameless me inside iowa scissors purity Everything ends spit it out diluited

3. Have you ever seen them live? If so what was your experience like?

It was brutal literally I almost die and im 99% sure that corey saw me throw up

4. If you could spend a day with any band member who would it be and why?

Corey bc im almost 100% sure the we would love each other or hate each other no in between and i wanna know

5. Favourite lyric/s?

-SUCK DEEZZ NUTZZ

-I am not a dog but im the one you’re dogging

-You won’t bother me if you let me bother you

-Keep in mind, I watch you Never leave my side, never leave me, fucker

6.When and how did you discover the band?

When i was like 9/10 I downloaded a song and had the all hope is gone album cover and i was so curious about it i look it up and they where Slipknot i loved the masks and I found it kinda halloweenish what i loved but until 13 I didn’t actually hear their music

7.A song that means a lot to you?

Everything ends helped me to accept my rage and actually let me be mad at things

8.Favourite album/s?

Self titled ofc

9.Out of every mask each member has had which one do you like the best and which one do you like the least?

I love mick jim and joey masks those are top tier i like craig and corey masks too i like almost all of them my least fav is that bandage clown mask

10. Favourite Paul Gray photo/s?

11. Favourite music video?

Duality and psychosocial classics

12. If you could choose any artist/band to

collaborate with Slipknot, who would you

choose?

Man idk MGK lmaooo nah mmm chino moreno

13. Ever been to Knotfest?

yes again brutal i loved it

14. How do you feel about the newest members?

They’re good I don’t like to compare, very different vibes tho

15. Favourite group picture?

16. If you could make the world listen to one Slipknot song which one would it be?

Dead memories or snuff bc those are pretty chill

17. Favourite gif?

18. Do you have any band merch? If so what?

I have like an obsession with band shirts so yea

19. What do your friends/family think of the band?

That they scream a lot and my mom says that she likes the “jason masks”

20.What's your dream setlist?

Purity,Scissors ,The virus of life,The nameless,Vermillion ,Prosthetics,Me inside,Nero forte,Everything ends,Disasterpiece,Get this,(Sic),Eyeless,Liberate,Snuff,Gehenna,Killpop,Spit it out,Yen ,The shape,Metabolic

21. Tag your favourite Slipknot blogs

If i follow you you’re my fav

22. Name a song that gets you pumped

Nero forte get this people = shit

23. Favourite Corey Taylor quote?

“I can’t take full credit but i will”

“Pay attention to ME!”

“Lust gets me in trouble so wrath”

24. If you could be any band member for a day who would you be?

Sid bc I would jump everywhere like crazy (i have both feet fucked up too) or mick i like how scary he looks

25. Favourite song that's been performed live?

(Sic) the blister exists purity

26. Use one word to describe Jim's beard

HIPSTER

27. Any songs that have helped you through tough times?

Everything ends snuff

28. First impression of the band?

HALLOWEEN BOIS

29. What do you think of the newest album?

Good but the old vibes is on top always

30. Ever heard of the tribute band Knotslip? If so what do you think?

They r better than Slipknot lmao

31.Did you discover any other bands through

Slipknot? If so which ones?

Stone sour murderdolls

32. You're feeling angry which song do you put on?

People = shit nero forte everything ends

33. You're feeling happy which song do you put on?

Me inside the shape vermillion spit it out custer killpop yen

34.Have you met any band members?

Sadly no hopefully corey someday

35. What song would you love to hear Slipknot

cover?

The summoning by sleep token if you know what i mean ;)

36. Got any Slipknot related tattoos?

No but i want the knot

37. First song you heard?

Psychosocial

38. Vermillion part 1 or Vermillion part 2?

Part 1 aghh

39. Got any cool pictures you've personally taken of the band that you'd like to share?

40. Your chance to say anything you want about the band.

Sometimes I would like to have been born earlier or they would have been born a few years before me ;(

[screenphotography]

A look into Killing Eve’s S3 photography: Camera Angles

"A film is never really good unless the camera is an eye in the head of a poet” - Orson Welles.

Last time I talked about the rule of thirds and the importance of making the audience experience the character’s feelings through the framing and composition using the rule of thirds.

This time I’m going to talk about the most important camera angles used in the show to help telling the story.

Zoom vs Static Shot

With the zoom effect, the frame itself is “moved” by adjusting the focal length of the lens through the duration of the shot. It magnifies what’s in focus without changing the perspective of what’s in the frame, it compresses the background, which serves to pull your eyes even closer into the subject.

We see an example of this technique for a few seconds during Villanelle and Hélène’s meeting in episode 7. In this scene, Villanelle seems about to answer Hélène’s question “Do you have anything you would like to get out of your chest?”

This zoom effect can make a character seem more powerful, but at the same time the compression effect can make it feel like the world is closing in on them, making the viewer feel trapped and claustrophobic. The zoom can also draw us into the feelings of a character by focusing on their expression and isolating it from the scene.

My interpretation here is that it makes the viewer feel interested and somehow nervous about what her answer is going to be. Is she going to say anything she shouldn’t?

Now, what happpens if the camera does the opposite thing and it doesn’t move at all?

Let’s keep in mind this hard to forget scene from episode 5:

Sometimes what’s happening in the scene is all that’s needed to tell the story. The lack of movement from the camera draws the attention of the audience deeper into the action and intensifies the feeling that they are experiencing.

I think we can all agree that this short scene is one of the best in the whole season and thanks to the static shot, the interpretation, the fact that we can’t hear the music and that there’s nothing that distract us, it makes it an unforgettable scene that gives such a haunting feeling difficult to move on from.

High and low angles

This technique is seen in the series all the time, certain characters are almost always shown with the same high or low angle. Why is this? In the case of a camera shot from a low angle it conveys power, and inferiority if the character is shot from a high angle.

So, who does usually get filmed from a low angle?

See the pattern here? It really builds power.

A dominant or powerful character will be shot from a low angle, forcing the viewer to look up at them. While on the other hand, characters that are in a position of inferiority are shot from a higher angle. It forces the viewer to literally look up at the dominant character and look down at the inferior one.

Now, this doesn’t mean that every character always gets the same camera angle, of course (except for hélène who gets the same type of angle 99% of the time, because well...she’s kind of the big boss, right?). It depends, once again, on the narrative of the scene.

Let’s get into something even more interesting now...

Camera angles varies all the time, and as I said before, it goes along with what the scene is telling us. Let’s take an example from this one in episode 6:

These characters start this point in the dialogue filmed from these camera angles. We have two very powerful and dominant characters face to face, but it’s Carolyn who starts asking first if he’s working for youknowwho, so, she gets the low angle first.

(I mean, he’s being literally framed thanks to this genius shot as the door closes)

Then a few seconds later...

“Are you, Carolyn?”

Low angle for Paul as well:

But then as we get this shot, the camera starts moving up and completely changes the angle for both characters.

- Why on earth would you ask me that?

- Well, the same reason you asked me, because we don’t trust each other.

- Should I trust you?

- Heavens, no. None of us are to be trusted, that’s why we work here.

We got them in the same camera angle now.

“The Dutch angle” (or “dutch tilt”)

This is one of the types of camera angles that most emotion can add to the screen. Commonly used in thrillers and horror scenes, it gives an obvious discomfort feeling, showing that something in the scene is off, portraying a sense of psychological trauma, emotion and tension. It can bring us into the mental state of the character in that moment.

The angle of the camera can be described as being horizontal to the bottom of the shot's frame. The horizon isn’t leveled and is off by at least 30º degrees or more:

Overhead shots

In this analysis we’ve seen different camera angles and how it conveys a certain feeling from the characters to the audience.

We’ve seen how if we film a character from above it can be seen as inferiority. So, what happens if we take this type of shot to the extreme?

Remember how Villanelle was feeling at this point in the series. We could say this was the lowest we’ve seen this character.

An overhead shot (or birds eye view) is when the camera is placed above the subject. This type of camera shots are a perfect technique to show that the character feels that it has no way out of the situation he/she is in. It isolates the character.

“I’ve got to get out of here” “I don’t want to do this anymore”

On a final note, I’d like to talk about a type of camera angle that we have seen multiple times this season:

We’ve seen that filming a character from a high angle can make it seem vulnerable, inferior, making the audience understand that he/she is in a situation of distress. By also using a shallow depth of field (the distance between the nearest and furthest elements in a scene that appear to be “acceptably sharp” in an image) we intensify this feeling. As Killing Eve’s director of photography Tim Palmer said in a recent interview, this technique is used to metaforically get inside the brain of the character.

Remember the rule of thirds that I talked about in the previous post. If we place the subject where the air of the picture should be, it conveys a certain feeling of emotional disconnection or discomfort in a dialogue scene, right? In this camera shot all of this gets reinforced with this shallow depth of field:

.

All original images belong to Killing Eve (BBC).

.

More photography analysis:

Rule of thirds

Leading lines

If you want to learn more about all of this:

Storytelling through all the filming elements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE-6M7IbNSI

Depth of field: https://www.photopills.com/articles/depth-of-field-guide

.

References:

https://wolfcrow.com/how-filmmakers-manipulate-our-emotions-using-camera-angles-and-movement/

[theyreonlynoodlesmike]

I will read anything with Marko! Head cannons, fics, the lot! Whats it like living with him? Or, maybe a first date scenario

Oooh living with Marko is something I've never thought about. This is gonna be living with Marko at the cave. I'm probably gonna end up doing a first date for all the boys on one big post, so look out for that!!

Human S/O living with Marko:

Before you moved in, Marko would 'help' you bring stuff to the cave. By help, he would pocket your stuff and you'd find it the next time you were at the cave

When you finally agreed to move in, Marko was HYPE. But he definitely wouldn't show it. The only thing that would give him away is his grin, covered by his thumb in his mouth of course

He tries to help you organize your stuff, but the boys are basically hoarders. What do you mean they can't play with all your stuff? Your favorite mug? You mean our mug? Your music collection? You mean our music collection? Marko assures you that it's just easier not to fight it, and that it means pretty much all of their stuff is fair game as well

Marko is always the first to wake up. He tries to catch glimpses of the passing sunset, so you either paint/take photos of it for him

If it's a photo, he carries it with him everywhere in one of his jacket pockets

If it's a painting, he makes a specific spot for them. In fact, if you're artistic he'll have an entire corner of the cave dedicated to your paintings/artwork. He buys you spray paint so you can paint whatever you want directly onto the walls

He helps you make a little cot nest in the front room for you to sleep since you can't hang upside down with them. He'll crash with you on your bed and just hang out with you until they go to the boardwalk

You and Marko are always half-way through a game. Checkers, chess, monopoly. Y'all play just to play and never end up finishing the game. But if you do, whoever wins gloats about it for a week

If you live with him, you'll end up having to adjust to his sleep schedule. Marko still insists on buying you breakfast food though to start off your day. Diner or McDonalds, your choice

Marko gets you steals you a mini fridge for any food you may want to keep around the cave. You have to keep it locked so you won't wake up to find blood bags next to your leftovers. Marko doesn't tell you that the locks don't do shit when it comes to the boys and the only reason it hadn't been broken into is because Marko put Paul in a headlock when he caught him trying. Marko didn't let him out until he swore on Van Halen that he would never attempt to break it open again

You have to put a curtain around your little bedroom because Marko wakes up early and likes *wink wink* as soon as he wakes up and you two have been caught far more times than any of you would like to admit

Marko let's you steal all of his clothes and actually encourages it. Your home clothes are basically just a pair of his boxers and one of his crop tops. He thinks it's adorable seeing you in his clothes, and he gets very grabby

You force him and the others to actually wash his clothes and you take them to a public laundromat. Marko will come with you 99% of the time, and will sit on top of the washers and lean over to watch them spin. Even if it is too high for a regular human to climb. He also helps you take off any of the metal on their jackets and clothes, and then puts them back on for you. But most of the folding is up to you because a) he doesn't really want to do it and b) this boy cannot fold for shit

Marko is definitely a PDA type of guy, but he somehow becomes even more affectionate when you're at the cave. He wants cuddles, kisses, and pretty much any sort of touching all of the time. He does not care if the boys see, but if you do he'll try to keep it to a minimum until they're gone. As soon as they are, all bets are off

If you work, Marko is a totally baby about you leaving. What do you mean you can't watch movies all night with him? Or finish an epic game of Life? He will literally lay on your bed as he watches you get ready and try to pull off whatever clothes you put on because why do you have to leave

He drives you everywhere on his bike, including work. If it's a restaurant or something on the boardwalk, he'll hang out a bit before you're off and then sing-song "time to go home" as you pack up

He loves the fact that the cave is your home, even if you're still human. He brings it up as much as he can. It's almost just as important to him as turning, and he sees it as a major milestone in your relationship

I hope you enjoyed!!!

[aspiestvmusings]

My wildest WandaVision Theory

SPOILERS for WandaVision..thoughout season 1 + several MCU films

This is the wildes theory I have had, I think. And I am 99% ertain this cannot be correct. But then again, I expect some surprise twists, so...

In this theory I focus on some things/details/facts from the MCU (and coming films) & some comics details & ignore others. And even though they like to use the comics as the building blocks for their films & shows, they do also change things up, so I do not expect them to follow the “comics canon” hence I’m prepared for surprises:

What we know of the MCU:

Infinity War events takes place in 2018. Wanda & Vision have had a secret relationship for two years by this time. And though many are wondering “when did he/they buy the property & how does that fit into all of their story”, I personally found that those “flashback” memory scenes filled the missing pieces from the puzzle grom past films. And it fits perfectly. With the “what if I don’t go back” scene, etc. I suspect that Vision bought that plot before the events of Infinity War. And Wanda was given the envelope along with other of his belongings after she returned from the Blip. The “love persevering” scene showed us how they connected & fell in love...while watching TV (he learned to be human also through the sitcoms & though her & she learned to not be so afraid of her “weirdness” thanks to him).

Wanda had to kill Vision in 2018, then see Thanos reverse time & bring back Vision only to kill him again...”for good”. Then she got Snapped (dusted).

When she returned “10 seconds later” she learned that 5 years had passed, and it was 2023. She didn’t find Vision next to her. But she had no time to process the Snap, Blip & losing Vision, because she was immediately thrown into the Endgame fight. (where she almost killed Thanos...until Tony used the ultimate “misdirection” trick and helped them defeat Thanos & his army for good.) Then shortly after she went to Tony’s funeral, where she had that lakeside talk with Hawkeye about those they lost (I still say that they were talking about Nat & Vision, because those are the losses that affected them the deepest personally, cause they were the closest to them)

Then a few days/weeks after that (just a few weeks after the Blip/she returned), and after she had been caught up on the 5 years she missed, and she was given his belongings, she went to SWORD to get him back/so that she could bury him (give him a goodbye ceremony). Then she created the hex out of her grief, when she was denied a proper goodbye to her soulmate (that whole things was, no doubt, a show put on by Hayward...that was made obvious in ep 8: and I’m still unsure about the colours: The “just died” Vision in IW turned basically gray, the “taken into parts” Vision on the disply tables was almost normal tone purple”, & the “brought back online” White Vision a week later was all white...with a “Tony’s triangle-shaped arc reactor element” instead of the Mind Stone in his head. The colours & small timeframe confuse me a bit).

Then she has been living in this “fantasy reality” for the past week or so...in real-world-time. Everything we’ve seen in WV has happened during a week or so in real world time. And for her everything from Scotland to WestView has happened in less than a month.

While creating the hex (from her red magic), she also created a Vision 2.0 (we have now been explained that she can create things “out of nothing”, not just transform them as Jimmy-Darcy-Monica suspected) from  her “yellow magic” I might be wrong, but I think the IW blast (and possibly the Sokovia experiment blast) not only awakened & heightened the superpowers in her, but that she was also blasted with the energy of the Mind Stone...the same one that gave vision life originally. So that mindstone energy has been “inside her” ever since & she “transformed it” into the new Vision. The Vision from her memories. and I think that just like her kids, Vision is “real” (how else can Hayward track the vibranium decay signature)...aka she created both Vibranium, and possibly a new Mind Stone even (though it is possibly he is powered by her magic alone & the stone is just accessory), but this Vision in this form cannot survive outside the hex.

We know that they brought up (via Darcy & Visions talk) that Vision is a mixture of many things. Part Jarvis. Part Ultron. Part Mind Stone. Part Tony & Bruce, and not only... We know that Vision has evolved thoughout his existance. And he wants to be/do good, and wants to be more human. But this Vision does not remember anything prior the hex because he was “rebooted”, so he does not have real memories of their time prior this really. And while he acts like her Vision, the hex Vision is not her old Vision either, really. Just one part of what made him him, and that made them connect.

We know that Shuri was able to download some of Vision’s conciousness/memories & would have been able to remove the Time Stone and still have had him live..if she’d had more time.

We know that Hayward has had Vision’s body (physical form) for a while, and he’s been trying to bring him back to life...for the purpose of using him as  weapon against “threats”. We saw that thanks to getting access to Wanda’s magic powers he was able to bring his re-assambled White Vision (colourless, soulless, empty shell...without a soul) back online...to life. What I want to know from finale is how did SWORD got  hold of The Visions body & what is that “iron man” arch reactor (triangle) in his forehead? Cause they have changed the design, a bit. 

Why wasn’t he still in Wakanda (the vibranium he's made of belongs to them), or with Avengers (Tony was gone when he died, but he returned 3 months later & though the team has been busy lately, why was it not with them? I guess V. was transported there sometime during first two years after Snap, when Maria was still running SWORD, cause Tony/Avengers kinda trusted her. And he stayed there even after... Tony was one of the few who saw Vision as “human”, he was kind of one of his “kids”, so I think this is one of the reasons he didn’t want to hold onto the body himself. But he also understood that Vision had evolved, and that Wanda was the his “next of kin”, not him, so he was holding onto the body until she returned, cause I think he was sure/had hope they’d undo the snap. And I guess he trusted Sword/Maria, because he “trusted” Fury, hence he probably decided to let them hold onto the body. Unless Hayward used tricks to get a hold of it once he took over, since Avengers/others were probably focused on “Thanos”, so no time to deal with government baddies. Also, maybe based on the Sokovia accords the vibranium in Vision’s body belongs to the government, not Tony, hence he let them keep the shell? Cause based in Haywards comments they've had the body longer than past weeks... after Tony died. )

And we can be 100% certain that in the Finale the two Visions will fight each other. [sidenote: Paul Bettany is the best! I love his “inside joke” of getting to act with an actor he’s always wanted to have a scene with...himself...as Two different versions of Vision. It’s the best!] The questions remain: will both die...from Wanda’s hands and/or due to the hex collapsing? Will one die (hex-vision) leaving us with just the empty body without the soul (until in some future film they are able to unite the two). Or will they both kinda surive aka will they merge into one, and we will get our old Vision kinda back already?

I am also almost certain that White Vision in WV finale will be voiced by the same man, who voiced Ultron...that would be such a “shock” to hear. (only RDJ being the voice would be as worthy of an inside joke...cause originaly Paul voiced his/Tony’s AI, Jarvis & now he’d voice Paul’s/Vision’s AI...so opposite, but not as “shocking”)

I do not think both the Twins & Vision will survive. I doubt they’ll give Wanda a happy ending... like the sircoms she watched as a kid. So one has to “die”. Since they made it a big deal to show the twins manifest their powers...at age 10 (10 = X), just like their mom, Wanda did first...at age 10 (X = X gene), and there will definitely be X-men & mutants in the future of MCU, I don’t think they'd get rid of the kids after laying the groundwork (Billy & Tommy will definitely get access to their powers & help mom & dad fight the bad guys), so I’m leaning towards the kids surviving. Because she did not just create them, she gave birth to them, so I’d say they can/will survive outside the hex. As Monica put it: Wanda’s kids are real. And even if the sitcom reality looks fake, everything there is real (as real as possible...she actually created the materials & all)

One possible happy, but sad ending would be that both survive: Twins, who stay with her & Vision, who will not be her Vision anymore, but the empty shell. And since she “can’t feel him” in the new form anymore, that’s the sad part. That even though he, too, survives, he’s not hers anymore.

But there is another possibility...that the Twins won’t make it (and they’ll be reborn somehere later... or Wanda doesn’t know they survived, and re-united with their parents...just like in Parent Trap...). But Vision will survive..either as his old self or as just a shell. And that’s the unhappy ending... she gets Vision back, but not her Vision, not The Vision. And she has to help him evolve... it’ll take time for him to “have emotions”. But the twist will be that Wanda was and is pregnant IRL actually.

I am basing this on the timeline we have.

Because the events of WandaVision take place in 2023 (sometime in summer-autumn) & Spiderman 2: Far From Home takes place 8 months after the Blip & 7-8 months after WandaVision. Now...since it’s literally been just a few weeks since Infinity War for Wanda....what if she is actually pregnant? What if she was prior to the Snap? That would make her story here even more heartbreaking - sad, but also happy. Cause based on FFH we know the world is slowly healing from the events, but it’s not in full chaos, so there has to be a “pause” between now & then. Otherwise...Peter/SpiderMan would probably have been more sure about multiverse & there would be more chaos or something than we see in FFH?

And... the events of Spiderman 3 & Dr. Strange 2 will most likely take place right after FFH, so about 8 months from now, and we saw how everything “glitched” when she was giving birth inside the hex. So what if all hell breaks free when she does that in real reality then? And that’s what sets the multiverse events rolling in the upcoming films? Cause why is it happening 8+ months from the Blip/WV/now, not right away. It seems that she won’t be ripping open the multiverse just yet. If she were, wouldn’t Peter/Spiderman have had inside info of it being certain [he seems to not be in FFH, when he talks to the Fake Mysterio] Why will it happen only about 8 months from now? What’s the delay?

I know...crazy wild theory. But I’m just trying to look at the timeline here. Cause either she’ll just spend the next months recovering and/or practicing her new-found skills (her mom did not teach Agatha, but Dr. Strange will guide Wanda on her journey to learn to understand & use & control her powerful abilities) and hence the “calm before the storm” time. Or there’s another reason. And the timeline would fit. Though it could be 8 months simply because the FFH events had to take place during summr vacation... But the kinda calm state of the universe & the specific 8 months “timejump” in FFH makes me suspicious.

FFH also tells us that to the knowledge of general public the fallen Avengers include Tony, Nat, and Vision. But also Cap. So... either Old Cap dies soon of old age/somehow OR the informtion released to the public is not completely accurate. If it’s the first, then Vision cannot make it alive from WV (but could be resurrected at some future time, cause Wanda can create the soul, SWORD has the original body, and Shuri has some of his old database, so...) If it’s the latter then either it’s not the same Vision anymore, but a different one or they’ll just keep him a secret so that other Hayward’s won’t come after him to use him as a weapon. Until the show started I presumed that Vision is gone, for certain.

 But...he’s not a regualar human, he’s part machine, so he is one of those characters they can bring back...even if in a different form. (question is: will they & would they.. would Wanda/Avengers do that...if it goes against The Visions living will? They could & would, I think..if the fate of the universe depended on it..if they needed him on their team)

Because...as they said in WV...it’s all for/because of the children... 

And I know... he is a synthezoid (essentially a robot/machine). But... that’s the thing. In this magical universe the laws of our regular world don’t seem to appy (or rather: tech is so advanced it seems like magic?) at times. The thing is...he is not juyst a robot, an android. He is part machine, part human. And weve seen he’s evolved...beound what “parents” (Tony & co) thought was possible & what Vision himself thought was possible. He got distracted during a missio, because he developed feelings (at age 2 years or so). He’s been shown to be able to feel, cry (produce tears). So..who knows... maybe he can also procreate... with the help of Wandas magic (who can make anything she wants happen...). Even though logic tells me it’s not possible, and his tears etc are synthetic, and he’s kind of a  different species...then I’ve decided that the laws of the world as I know don’t have to apply exactly...in this world. 

I mean...the MCU has a character whose mother is a human woman & father is a planet (in human form). Hence I’ve accepted that what I know to be impossible could be possible in this MCU fantasy universe. Hence I don’t question how or why could Wanda & Vision have offspring...for real. 

THE END

PS. Once again...this does not fit the comics. This is not the simplest route. But it’s one of the wild theories I’ve had. And I wanted to share it. Even if I don’t think that it could become canon. If it were based on comics, then Billy & Tommy would be reclaimed by Agatha’s master & we’d know how & why all this...

[xx-sikki-nixx-xx]

NSFW A-Z  Duff Mckagan

Requested by many MANY horny anons 

Aftercare(what they’re like after sex)

Duff is a fucking kiss machine after sex, like I mean after you two have come down from your highs and caught your breath he will pull you into his chest, put his face in your neck and kiss all over your neck, ears, jawline and face while you run your hands through his fluffy blonde hair in pure ecstasy.

Body part (their favourite body part of theirs and their partners)

Duff’s favourite body part on you and him is the same… legs. He loves his legs because he takes pride in his height (fucking giraffe man) and he loves your legs because he thinks they’re super sexy, no matter how long or short they are he thinks they are absolutely perfect and loves to run his hands and lips up and down them. 

 Cum (anything to do with cum…basically I’m a disgusting person)

I’m gonna be blunt here… Duff likes to cum on your tits (just sayin) and he’ll usually finish there as long as you let him, and because he’s a gentleman he will always get you a cloth or something to clean you up afterwards because he’s considerate like that.

Dirty secret  (Pretty self-explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs)

Duff loves it when you pull his hair, when you two are going at it and you run your fingers through his locks and tug lightly on the blonde strands he lets out the most animalistic groan you’ve ever heard and his eyes roll back in his head in pure bliss at the feeling, he can’t explain why he likes it so much but he just can’t help himself. 

Experience (How experienced are they? Do they know what they’re doing?) 

Do I even need to answer this? It’s Duff fucking Mckagan we’re talking about here he’s almost as experienced as Axl (of course the singer gets the most action) he knows all the tricks and techniques to make you moan his name and will employ them whenever he feels it necessary. 

Favourite Position (This goes without saying.)

Duff likes to fuck you on your back with your legs over his shoulders so he can get the best angles while still having full access to your legs because he loves them so much. 

 Goofy (Are they more serious in the moment, or are they humorous, etc)

Duff’s middle name is goofball so yea he’s not serious during sex… I mean how could he be? He’s never been serious in his entire life, he’s always flashing his signature smile at you and mimicking your moans on occasion, you always slap his arm when he does that and he just fake moans louder (he’s a prick but you love him). 

 Hair (How well groomed are they, does the carpet match the drapes, etc)

Duff’s hair is pretty wild like the hair on his head, but it’s not a mess or anything because his body hair is pretty light, there’s like a thin layer of blonde hair covering areas of his body like his legs and arms (and down there) but his chest is pretty much bare. 

Intimacy (How are they during the moment, romantic aspect…)

Duff shows his romantic side by kissing you all over, like his lips are permanently attached to your body because he loves the feeling of your skin on his mouth and how you react when he places kisses all over your body teasing you during foreplay. 

 Jack Off (Masturbation headcanon)

Duff has an unnaturally high sex drive tbh, you wouldn’t think it when you look at him but he’s incredibly horny 99% of the time so when you aren’t around to help he’ll masturbate but it’s an absolute last resort when there’s no chance of any other relief and he always feels guilty afterwards and tells you what he did as if he cheated and you always giggle at him and kiss his cheek telling him that you don’t care and that it’s ok that he sometimes has needs he needs to resolve. 

Kink (One or more of their kinks)

As previously mentioned Duff has a kink for your legs, kissing you and hair pulling but Duff also loves giving you hickeys… and I mean EVERYWHERE, he’ll mark you all over with bruises made with his mouth because he’s a very protective and possessive lover and wants everyone (especially his band mates) to know that you are his and they better not try shit because he’ll break their nose. 

Location (Favourite places to do the do)

Literally anywhere, if he gets horny and needs you he doesn’t care where you are, he’ll rip your clothes off in a damn interview if he needs to because nothing and no one gets in the was of Duff Mckagan getting what he wants. 

 Motivation (What turns them on, gets them going)

When you wear shorts because he gets a perfect view of your legs, even if you rarely ever do it be sure that the shorts won’t be staying on for very long because he’ll rip them off of you in an instant, he also goes wild when you lean over and kiss his neck while playing with his hair, he loves the sensation of your soft lips on his cool skin in combination with your delicate fingers playing with his messy locks makes him crazy.

 NO (Something they wouldn’t do, turn-offs)

Duff will absolutely never be submissive, it’s not his thing because he’s the big dominant bass player and he likes to keep that image in the bedroom so when you two are going at it expect to be the sub because he is after all Duff “dom” Mckagan (I bet $100 someone has called him that at least once).

Oral (Preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc)

 This man will lick you like a lollipop without hesitation, he fucking loves it when you sit on his face, he’ll place his hands on your hips while you ride his mouth and feel your hips shake uncontrollably as you finish, he also loves eating you out while you lay down because he can kiss up your legs and thighs and make eye contact with you as you come undone on his face. As for when it comes to him receiving this man fucking loves it, his pre show ritual is getting a blowjob from you before he goes on stage because he is convinced it focuses his mind and blocks out all of the other shit going on in his head so he can focus on playing bass. 

Pace (Are they fast and rough? Slow and sensual? etc.)

It really depends on the mood, if he has got an inconvenient boner and needs to get rid of it quickly you two will have a quick fuck and get on with whatever you were doing beforehand but when you two are having proper sex together he’s slow and sensual like in all of those romantic movies.

Quickie (Their opinions on quickies rather than proper sex, how often, etc.)

Duff prefers proper sex because he wants you to enjoy the experience as much as he does but he accepts that sometimes quickies are the only option so you two will have quick fucks on occasion but if given the opportunity he will always choose proper sex. 

Risk (Are they game to experiment, do they take risks, etc.)

This man is like the god of risk, I’m not kidding he gives people like Axl Rose and Nikki Sixx a run for their money when it comes to risk, he’ll try anything once if you wanna try it and he also has a list of things that he wants to try but of course because he’s a gentleman he won’t try the things on his list unless you want to.

 Stamina (How many rounds can they go for, how long do they last…)

This boy can go all night if he really wants to, round after round non stop like a fucking sex machine (oh my god is that what Freddie meant in don’t stop me now?) he gets past his finish so quickly that by the time your breathing has returned to normal he’s already hard again and ready to go for another round. 

 Toy (Do they own toys? Do they use them? On a partner or themselves?)

This kinky fucker has handcuffs (and like the strong reinforced kind so that they don’t break) and a special silk tie he only wears on special occasions to cover your eyes with and a gag because he’s a slut like that and he loves to use them on you when vanilla sex gets a bit played out (I mean you two do it so often you gotta spice it up sometimes).

Unfair (How much they like to tease)

Biggest tease known to earth, but it’s not like you don’t deserve it with how much you tease him, it’s like a mutual teasing, seeing who caves first, like a competition… he usually caves first and ends up fucking you up against a wall to get all of his frustrations out. 

Volume (How loud they are, what sounds they make)

Duff Mckagan has the sexiest deep throaty moans you will ever hear in your entire life, it’s like music, or poetry, he throws his head back, his eyes close and a deep moan will erupt from his chest making you moan in response like a wolf calling to its mate.

Wild Card (Get a random headcanon for the character of your choice)

When you and Duff I can guarantee that 90% of the time KISS songs will be playing in the background, I can’t explain why but Duff has a thing about sex and KISS (maybe he wants to fuck Paul Stanley I dunno but like who can blame him) his favourite ones to play are “Heavens on fire” “Lets put the X in sex” and “You make me rock hard”.

 X-Ray (Let’s see what’s going on in those pants)

Solid 8.5 inches on the tall blonde bass player, and he’s proud of it ;).

Yearning (How high is their sex drive?

We’ve already established he’s like a dog in heat, constantly at least a little horny and to be honest you love that about him because whenever you’re horny he’s ready to go.

ZZZ (How quickly they fall asleep afterwards)

He drifts off slowly after sex, he doesn’t pass out straight away but he will cuddle you close to him inhaling your scent and close his eyes falling into a beautiful deep sleep.

[magiclingua]

Top 11 Spanish YouTube Channels you should try!

To the beginning of the year, we make ourselves promises to upgrade our lifestyle and now is the time to put our new year's resolutions into actions. Eat healthier, do more sports or learning a new language? Although we have neither a new fitness program which promises you the look of Ryan Gosling in 6 weeks nor we will tell you that a salad with flea seed tastes way better than a burger. ;-)  But we have a clue about language learning. That’s the reason why we researched the best Spanish Youtube Channels among language learners for you. So if you want to learn Spanish like a native in 2019, you really have to check this out!

(without order) 

Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com

With almost 270.000 subscribers on Youtube “Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com” is one of the biggest Channels for learning Spanish. You can look forward to new Videos, which combine audio and video lessons, every Tuesday and Friday. They have a wide range of different topics which they explain handsome in their really nicely designed videos. Additionally, you can get many useful learning materials on their website! 

Learn Spanish Step by Step

Is a channel with almost 60.000 subscribers. They mostly have short videos which always covers one small topic (for example special vocabulary about one topic), which is perfect to learn it step by step and not getting overwhelmed by too much information! But additionally, they also have longer videos which almost provides you a whole course.  

Spanish and Go

On the first glance, with nearly 30.000 subscribers, Spanish and go doesn’t seem like one of the big players in the youtube Spanish learning business. But firstly thank god it’s 2019 so that we always have a second look now and secondly everything which Spanish and go seems to be missing - for now - when it comes to subscribers gets blown away with the enthusiastic and sympathetic attitude from Jim & May. The two combine their videos with their travels so that you will get real-life Spanish experience. While improving your listening skills and learn useful phrases you will discover interesting places! Yes, I know what you think! That sounds great!!! And in fact, it is. So don’t waste time and check them out!

ButterflySpanish

With almost 450.000 subscribers ButterflySpanish is probably the biggest channel on youtube for learning Spanish. With grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, general tips & tricks and cultural aspects, it covers everything which is important to learn Spanish. With her enthusiastic attitude, the summary below every video, the fact that she produces videos for every level you will realize really quick that Ana spends really much effort to not just making a good video, but much more, really making a good and confident Spanish speaker out of you.

Lirica – Learn Spanish with Music

If you like music clap your hands now! If you think logically about it, almost 100 per cent of the people who read this should have clapped their hands. But honestly, I think I am the only one whos sitting here and clapping his hands - still...

Anyways! Lirica gives you the wonderful possibility of connecting your studies with music. So if you love music (clap, clap) and want to learn a new language this could be the real deal for you! They are playing a Spanish song in their video and show you the translation, meaning, and subtitles of it. They even have an app in the Play store and Appstore where you can also learn the grammar! 

Spanishland School 

One big objective for the Spanishland School is to get you speaking and thinking Spanish like a native. Andreas lessons will cover pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, slang and much more. Additional to their channel they also have a blog where you can find material and articles for practice and a podcast which is 99 % in Spanish. In this podcast they talk about music, culture, food, movies, shows literally about everything. And you also can download the transcript of every episode! 

Easy Spanish 

All their videos are subtitled in both Spanish and English. And they have two kinds of videos. Every Wednesday comes to a video with street interviews with local language and culture in everyday situations. And every Sunday comes an explanation video for beginners and advanced learners. And if you become a supporter of them you will get more extra content!

Learn Spanish

Instead of teaching you abstract grammar explanations or vocabulary which has very limited use, the Learn Spanish-team teach you structures which can be used in multiple contexts. So you will get a variety of useful knowledge, in a short period of time, which you can use in many different situations. This is a highly effective method which will lead you to success much quicker than many other approaches!

Lecciones Español

Lecciones Español gives you a selection of videos which are designed interestingly and cover up many different basic topics. If it comes to numbers, food, prepositions, adjectives or many many other topics you will get an interesting explanation in English on this channel.

Maria Español

If you have already learned Spanish and you want to refresh it now or, in principle, you like to learn a language from the very beginning in the appropriate language? So you want to learn Spanish in Spanish? Then Maria Español is the right person, for you! You can look forward to new videos every Sunday. And if you like what you see, and maybe you can’t get enough from Maria ;-), then you can be happy now! She also offers private online lessons! 

Spanish with Paul 

The combination of Pauls beautiful designed videos and his soothing voice is very pleasant. This makes it really easy to concentrate and follow him while he shows us how to learn words and vocabulary way faster than you did before! Additionally, he also offers course books which you can download on his website. 

                                               Author - Janis Keudel

[recentanimenews]

THE GREAT CRUNCHYROLL NARUTO REWATCH Hunts a Rogue Shinobi in Episodes 106-112!

  Welcome to the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! I'm Paul Chapman, and I'll be your host this week as we make our way through all 220 episodes of the original Naruto. Last week, we covered Episodes 99 - 105, where Tsunade faced the first challenge to her authority as Fifth Hokage and Team 7 took a mission to the Land of Tea. We continue this week with Episodes 106 – 122 and the conclusion to the Land of Tea arc, as well as some shocking shake-ups for the youth of Hidden Leaf Village.

  This batch of episodes was an emotional roller coaster, and we witnessed Naruto and Sasuke's rivalry boil over into a deadly duel, Sasuke decide to abandon Hidden Leaf Village in order to seek power from the villainous Orochimaru, and Sakura confess her love in an effort to convince Sasuke to stay! (Also, some dude won a footrace in the Land of Filler.) It was a heck of a ride.

  Now, let's see what the Crunchyroll Features team thought of this week's episodes!

    How do you feel about the conclusion to the Land of Tea arc? Does the fact that the local daimyo was already gathering intelligence to dethrone the wicked Wagarashi Family downplay the accomplishments of Team 7 in their efforts to help Idate win the foot race?

  Kevin: Hooray, it’s done! Now back to the actual plot. Honestly, I cared so little by the end of the arc that I barely even registered that the lord did anything beyond making a counter excuse to ensure the good guys won.

  Joseph: The final episode of this was probably the best one, and not just because it marked the ending of a pretty dull arc. With that said, I’m with Kevin in that I clearly didn’t think deeply enough about the resolution and how it affected the efforts of Team 7!

  David: I recognized that and it didn’t bother me at all. The reason being, this last episode had an unexpected payoff for me: we finally get to see the kids overcoming an enemy and achieving their mission without something going horrifically wrong requiring the older, stronger ninjas to step in. Silver linings.

  Jared: I don’t think it takes away from what Team 7 does as they were still able to outsmart and defeat a powerful foe. The lord was just a stickler for the non-rules and had to make sure that a made up deal wasn’t enacted. Even without that, I don’t think what Team 7 had done would’ve dethroned that family anyways, so it makes sense to have the lord come in and kick them to the curb for good.

  Danni: Honestly I just walked away from that arc thinking it was funny they had to make Sasuke get injured so that the next arc could still pick up with him in the hospital.

  Noelle: I didn’t really feel it. I understand what the arc was trying to pull off, but I still didn’t have much of an investment in it to get an emotional reaction in the first place? It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t do too much for me.

  Kara: I was kind of ambivalent about it. I didn’t hate it, but it didn’t get me as jazzed to watch each day as other episodes have. And now with Danni’s comment on re-injuring Sasuke, it’s just funny.

  Carolyn: I’m of the camp that was just glad to see the arc end. It was a little odd to end the whole thing with a race, that felt almost anti-climactic.

    The hospital roof confrontation between Naruto and Sasuke was pretty spectacular. Were there any specific details about the fight that you found especially thrilling? How do you feel about the fight’s resolution?

  Kevin: The conclusion of the fight, specifically seeing the damage that Rasengan and Chidori did to the water towers is one of the images that I remember whenever I think about Naruto. As for the fight, I found that it was amazing on paper, and okay in practice. The choreography seemed a bit off, like trying to translate the manga panels to animation revealed some continuity errors or something, but when the fight was good, it was great.

  Joseph: This is such a pivotal fight, and I loved all the raw emotion conveyed through it. Beyond the battle itself, that moment when Sasuke feels victorious only to see how the Rasengan would have basically torn his body asunder is *chef’s kiss*.

  David: I agree with Kevin about the fight itself. Watching Sasuke somehow hold his own against a whole bunch of shadow clones is cool, and I’m always down for the hand-to-hand combat in this series, but the execution was messy. The conclusion, of course, is wonderful and incredibly important, and the good moments are great, so it’s not like I’m down on the whole thing.

  Jared: The fight does a good job of showcasing just how much powerful both Sasuke and Naruto have gotten in the past 100 episodes, especially by the end. I think it also did a good job of showing Sasuke’s jealousy coming through fully as the fight continued. Having it be interrupted and leaving it unresolved isn’t bad, since you know they’ll have some huge fight sometime in the near future.

  Danni: The visual execution left a little to be desired, but I liked seeing Sasuke’s taijutsu prowess up against Naruto’s barrage of shadow clones. The tension between the two was portrayed really well, and the conclusion with the water tower was the icing on the cake. I can’t wait to see these two have it out for real.

  Noelle: I loved it. Overall, it’s pretty short, and it could’ve gone better, but I think that what it sets up was really, really good. The two of them may be friendly, but here they were completely out to destroy each other, and that meltdown was something I enjoyed.

  Kara: I think the reasons behind the fight were what got me going even more than the fight itself. We had all this time of Naruto feeling like he was stuck in Sasuke’s shadow—like literal months of that, both in-show and in the show’s pacing. Then we flip the script and Sasuke gets a taste of that, and it’s interesting to see how he takes it. Granted, he’s got that paired with a long-standing vendetta, so there are mitigating factors as to how hard he takes it. But their very different reasons beyond wanting to fight were not lost on me.

  Carolyn: I think my main quibble was with the way they prompted the fight in the first place. There didn’t seem to be much of a valid reason for Naruto and Sasuke to end up there. But once they got going, I thought it worked out fine.

    In the past we've criticized how Kishimoto treats his lady characters, but it's worth exploring how the physical prowess of characters like Naruto and Sasuke is contrasted against Sakura's moral fortitude and emotional strength. How do you feel about Sakura's evolution from a selfish brat into the conscience of Team 7?

  Kevin: Sakura easily has the most emotional development of the three, but I really wish that she was given more to work with. Basically keep everything the same, but have her be the one to directly intervene in the fight (like Kakashi did) instead of running herself into danger and all of the emotional weight is still there, but the audience also gets to see that she is on the boys’ level, just in a different way.

  Joseph: Yeah, it might have been better to have her stop them rather than run out as a potential casualty of the fight, but I don’t think there was any way for anyone other than a character at Kakashi’s level to successfully intervene. Sakura’s emotional moments are some of the most powerful here, though, and I love the interaction between her and Naruto when he promises to get Sasuke back. There’s a mix of sorrow, gratitude, and frustration at the fact that she can’t do it herself.

  David: The scene where Sakura tries one last time to stop Sasuke from leaving is still one of my favorites in any anime. She really has gained a lot from their misadventures together, and it’s soul crushing to watch her desperately attempt to keep their dysfunctional little family together. So I guess the answer is, yeah, I am pretty on board with Sakura’s arc so far. She’s changed a lot, for the better.

  Jared: I was honestly expecting her to get hit at the end when Naruto and Sasuke were going at each other with their respective attacks as she ran to stop it. She definitely is trying to keep the group together, but there’s still so much more you could do with her character, but she gets constantly pushed to the sidelines.

  Danni: I’m glad to see her grow emotionally, but really all it translates into is her crying and needing someone else to step in and do what she can’t. She deserves better than just being Team 7’s den mother.

  Noelle: While I do appreciate the development that Sakura has, it still isn’t really enough. For one of the protagonists, it sets her up to be sidelined once again, to cry over the boys, and that’s a real shame! She has a lot of potential here, and it’s a huge emotional burden for her to take, but instead of exploring that, Kishimoto falls flat. Sakura really does deserve better than this!

  Kara: It’s another version of what I call the Super Robot Wars Effect. Games I love very much, but that have a tendency (with exceptions like Gunbuster) to cast female-piloted units almost exclusively as healers. It falls to the woman to be the “healer” for the men, which is a very traditional storytelling mechanism and not inherently awful in and of itself—I have occasionally seen it done well. But Naruto as a whole kind of has this underlying idea of like. Boy ninjas are for these things, kunoichi are for those things, which only surfaces once you’ve forgotten that it was there the last time. I have no problem with Sakura being Team 7’s conscience, since God knows they need one, but I’d prefer a more “tough love” approach.

  Carolyn: I wasn’t very happy with Sakura’s pleas to Sasuke, to be honest. It felt so desperate. She’s been pining over him the entire series and now she’s just outright begging a boy to stay with her. I understand this scene is bigger than just her crush, but it was pretty disheartening to see her cry and beg just for Sasuke to call her annoying … and then thank her! Kind of emotionally manipulative, that.

    Charismatic villains such as Orochimaru and Itachi often sprinkle grains of truth in their evil schemes, and Sasuke's thirst for revenge does seem incompatible with the values of the Hidden Leaf Village. What are your thoughts on Sasuke's heel turn? Are you excited to see him take on an antagonistic role?

  Kevin: Without spoiling anything: I really like how they set up Sasuke as a villain, and will have many things to talk about when we get much later in the Rewatch.

  Joseph: This and the arc it kicks off is my favorite part of the 70 or so percent of Naruto I’ve read. Sasuke’s turn has been a long time coming, and it seems like the most logical step for the character. I can’t wait!

  David: Considering literally everything he has said or done has essentially been setup for this, yeah, I’m excited for it to finally pay off.

  Jared: It feels strange to think that we’re over 100 episodes in and I still kind of felt like it could’ve happened a bit later, but Sasuke turning heel was gonna happen eventually. I’m more curious to see just how he handles that new role and whether it’s just going to be him consumed with jealousy and revenge or with we start to see a new sinister side to him emerge.

  Danni: I’ve been waiting for Sasuke to go full Vegeta, and am thrilled with where this is going. I especially liked that it wasn’t so much a full heel turn as it was a real conflict brewing inside him. It really did hurt him to leave Team 7 behind, I thought.

  Noelle: No spoilers from me, but this had definitely been in the works for a while. It still is upsetting, but mm, it does have its payoffs.

  Kara: This was absolutely coming. I came into this knowing minimal stuff about the series as a whole, but there was no way Sasuke was going to not go Dark Side on us. Heel turns are a personal fave of mine in stories (see also: Sailor Mercury in live-action Sailor Moon), so I’m excited.

  Carolyn: I also love when good guys turn bad, even for a little bit. I feel like it’s somewhat more realistic than the perfect, never-faltering hero.

    I was surprised when Shikamaru was the sole applicant elevated to Chunin status, but his actions as the head of the Sasuke retrieval squad demonstrate that his leadership and problem-solving skills are a cut above his peers. What qualities do you think separate the Chunin from the Genin, and who do you want to see promoted next?

  Kevin: They actually touched on that back during the Chunin Exam. Shikamaru was better than everyone else because he was able to correctly evaluate the situation he was in, even during combat, and realized his own limitations. By that metric, probably Sakura or potentially Neji would be the next to be promoted.

  Joseph: I suppose the exact qualities demonstrated during episode 112 are what separate the Chunin from the Genin. I love Shikamaru’s balance of extremely capable and extremely bothered to be doing anything, which in some cases is definitely a front.

  David: Comparing Shikamaru to every other member of his ragtag Sasuke retrieval team, the difference in temperament and patience is very clear. I thought most of his choices when Tsunade asked him to put a squad together were bizarre and felt more like plot necessities, but when he explained their formation it went together so well I couldn’t complain. Later when they are stuck in the rock igloo, I found most of the episode to be kind of dull, then Neji explained how every action and order Shikamaru gave were part of a careful plan to figure out how to get out, and it ended up being incredibly satisfying. I remembered Shikamaru being the ‘smart tactics guy’, but I definitely wasn’t expecting to be reminded of stuff like Legend of the Galactic Heroes while watching him do his thing. As for promotions, Neji is definitely the strongest genin right now, but he can be hot-headed in his own way which is probably the main thing holding him back.

  Jared: It really seems like having the ability to think under pressure is gonna separate your traditional Genin from a Chunin. Shikamaru clearly demonstrates that when the group gets trapped and also with how he’s able to come up with an opening strategy before they leave. I’m assuming at some point we’re gonna see Naruto get his promotion since he’s already done things that would put him on that kind of level in terms of fights.

  Danni: Shikamaru’s level-headedness and intellect really seem to be his greatest assets as a Chunin. Obviously Chunin are in command of any Genin working underneath them, so the ability to lead and strategize is a must that few of the other Genin seem to share. I assume Naruto will be promoted next for plot reasons, but the most logical promotions I can think of are Shino and Neji.

  Noelle: As you’ve said, strategy is definitely key. The exams were designed to test people on more than just combat, and Shikamaru seems to have been the only real choice that had qualifications beyond that. Leadership, for sure, but also analysis, being able to keep your cool in a drastic situation, and putting the needs of the mission over yourself. As my colleagues said, Neji seems like a good candidate, as long as he cools off a little.

  Kara: Shikamaru knows what he’s doing and acts like he can’t be bothered, which is a downright diabolical combination. He had us fooled for the first several episodes, too! Along with what everyone else said, I think what he has going for him is that he’s (at least for now) the one with the least emotional baggage. Compared to people like Naruto, Sasuke, and Gaara, who are all still motivated by personal issues, Shikamaru can focus up on the task at hand and isn’t bringing anything personal into the mission. That’s valuable for a leader.

  Carolyn: I think part of the reason Shikamaru seems lazy and bored is simply that he’s thinking so far ahead of everyone else. He’s just sitting around waiting for everyone else to catch up with him. I think Sakura would make a great choice, given her own intellect. Naruto definitely deserves some recognition for his incredibly fast learning ability.

    And finally, what are you personal high points and low points for this batch of episodes?

  Kevin: High - Sasuke in the hospital. Admittedly, this high point is a bit more of a “what could have been,” but seeing Sasuke trying to come to terms with simply not being good enough, and comparing himself to Naruto, was honestly far more compelling than I thought it would be. In another world, the depression and inferiority he was feeling might’ve turned into character motivation and development later. Instead… we’ll get to that. Low - Lee’s recovery. Lee deciding whether to go into surgery or not was quite possibly the single heaviest emotional side plot in the show. Then, over the course of an episode or two, through two or three scenes, Lee says that he’ll take the chance, then next time we see him he’s with Neji, who’s congratulating him and talking about when he’ll get back to training. Welp, so much for that tension and emotional resolution.

  Joseph: High - The resolution of the battle between Naruto and Sasuke and the moment Sasuke makes his own mind up to leave the village and acts upon it. Low - I don’t know, I guess the end of the Land of Tea story? Aside from that these episodes are all pretty spectacular.

  David: As I said earlier, the scene between Sakura and Sasuke as he is leaving the village is one of my favorites in anything, so that’s definitely my high. I’ll also give an honorary mention to when Naruto assures a crying Sakura that everything will be OK, giving a thumbs up, which then reminds Lee of Guy, inspiring his trust indirectly as well. It’s one of those great scenes that show Naruto’s latent leadership abilities, and I didn’t get to bring it up elsewhere, so here it is. Low point is the first episode of this batch, not that it was actually bad or anything, but being the conclusion to a subpar arc just pales in comparison to everything else going on here.

  Jared: High point would be finally getting see what Sasuke and Naruto could potentially do in a fight with the tease of what that fight will ultimately end up being. Sasuke’s heel turn was also good. Naruto putting on a brave face for Sakura and pushing away his own feelings was really well done. Low point was the non-surprise that Shikamaru makes his babyface team and it’s just dudes after his misogyny rant a few weeks back.

  Danni: The low point for me was all the nonsense about the curse mark and its phases. The more logic and details they try to add for how it works the less sense it makes. The high point for me was most certainly Kakashi’s final words to Sasuke. I realized that we still know surprisingly little about Kakashi, despite him being one of the show’s most interesting characters. I’m looking forward to finally learning his backstory and what makes him tick. Runner up goes to Shikamaru’s encouragement of and faith in Choji. It’s nice seeing him get some respect for once. Runner runner up was Shikamaru standing up for all the curvy wife guys out there.

  Noelle: High point, Naruto and Sasuke dropping the act and having a giant brawl. Short but sweet. The emotional breakdown in that portion was honestly so satisfying . Low point, I’d have to say the filler arc, because Sasuke leaving the village was really emotionally charged, and contrasted greatly from the filler.

  Kara: High point is absolutely Sasuke’s Heel Turn. You know he’s all in when a bunch of strangers go, “Don’t worry, we won’t kill you, we’ll let you only kinda die, trust us, we work for Orochimaru,” and he’s like “Seems legit.” I’m excited to see where this goes. Low point was probably the Land of Tea resolution being this kind of comedy of errors thing. “Hey, that’s illegal! You’re disqualified!” “It’s not illegal, and also we knew you guys were up to no good!” Eh. Glad to see the end of the Land of Tea.

  Carolyn: I mean, anything with Rock Lee is great. But Rock Lee overcoming adversity is especially sweet. I think my low point would have to be the Land of Tea conclusion or Sasuke’s reaction to Sakura trying to get him to stay.

    COUNTERS:

Bowls of Ramen: 6 bowls

“I'm Gonna be Hokage!”: 0

Shadow Clones Created: 3 + 2 uncountable scenes

  Total so far:

Bowls of Ramen: 42 bowls, 3 cups

“I'm Gonna be Hokage!”: 52

Shadow Clones Created: 343

  And that's everything for this week! Remember that you're always welcome to join us for this rewatch, especially if you haven't watched the original Naruto! Watch Naruto today!

  Here's our upcoming schedule:

- Next week, on May 10th, CAROLYN BURKE will give us the deets on the Sound Four.

- May 17th, we'll visit the Valley of the End with JARED CLEMONS.

- May 24th, NICOLE MEJIAS plays referee for Naruto vs. Sasuke, Round 2!

  CATCH UP ON THE REWATCH!

Episodes 99-106: Trouble in the Land of Tea

Episodes 92-98: Clash of the Sannin

Episodes 85-91: A Life-Changing Decision

Episodes 78-84: The Fall of a Legend

Episodes 71-77: Sands of Sorrow

Episodes 64-70: Crashing the Chunin Exam

Episodes 57-63: Family Feud

Episodes 50-56: Rock Lee Rally

Episodes 43-49: The Gate

Episodes 36-42: Through the Woods

Episodes 29-35: Sakura Unleashed

Episodes 22-28: Chunin Exams Kickoff

Episodes 15-21: Leaving the Land of Waves

Episodes 8-14: Beginners' Battle

Episodes 1-7: I'm Gonna Be the Hokage!

Thank you for joining us for the Great Crunchyroll Naruto Rewatch! Have a great weekend, and we'll see you all next time!

Have anything to say about our thoughts on Episodes 106-112? Let us know in the comments! Don't forget, we're also accepting questions and comments for next week, so don't be shy and feel free to ask away!

  -----

Paul Chapman is the host of The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast and GME! Anime Fun Time.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: news+feed@crunchyroll.com

[lilmajorshawty]

8th house your lesson part 1/2

8th house Aries cusp:

You were born with an aura of the independent pilot. The world itself seems to move slow and almost in a sense out of your orbit. You’re not at all a stranger to intensity or the idea of loss which can come as both a massive hurt to those around you but also an air of emotional absence in the times it matters most. Aries being the child of the zodiac translates to the realm of transformation and rebirth via personal immaturity which in itself means that you often travel down the road of trial and error longer than most and at times to your own detriment. Your lesson is to realize that as much as you’ve mastered self preservation you must also realize that the world is made up of plenty of main characters besides you and some of these characters love and care about you if you’d take your foot of the gas for a moment to see.

Who you share it with: Jay z, Madonna, Keanu Reeves, Walt Disney

Fictional characters like you:

Alfie Solomon & Arthur Shelby(peaky blinders)FX

Nora durst & meg(The Leftovers) HBO

Noah solloway(The affair)Showtime

☄️Arctic monkeys - if you were there

☄️The Kills - pull a u

8th house Taurus cusp:

You were born with a natural sense of stability. The world to you seems easy, people in your eyes throw a fit for nothing, for what reason is there to shout about your discomfort when you could simply create a comfortable situation? You always seek bliss and at times this can cause others to walk around you as if glass were laid about the floor as no one wants to be left in the dust after you deem them to much of a damper to your good mood. It’s easy for you to discontinue something that’s not providing in a sense which is both good and bad as sometimes those you let go are oblivious to the slow burn that’s been taking place underneath your unfazed exterior. Your lesson is to learn that others shouldn’t be casualties in your search for the sensuality and security you seek and security shouldn’t be your sole hold to this world! For what should happen where you to lose all you have?

Who you share it with: Leonardo DiCaprio, Beyoncé knowles, Britney Spears, Adolf hitler.

Fictional characters like you:

Clay Jenson(13 reasons why)Netflix

Wolfgang & Lito Rodriguez(sense8) Netflix

Sydney Barrett(legion) FX

🍃Arctic monkeys - 505

🍃jack white - would you fight for my love

8th house Gemini cusp:

You were born naturally in a pair of two on a emotional level. Parts of you are presented to a situation as is whilst there are often entire personalities inside you bustling around like the streets of New York. Due to your back and forth and often immensely “screened” nature it’s hard for people to truly meet you, which is often further intensified by the way this energy manifest in true Gemini like fashion which is all around like a cyclone never directly landing on target. In emotional times it’s easier for you to hop into one of your varying personas rather than outright dealing with it thus causing venom to build up until it becomes its on separate persona. Your lesson is to realize that the more you try to hide in a crowd inside yourself the less you’ll be able to successfully bring out the real you; let go of the fear you have of confronting the real hurts in you.

Who you share it with: Nicole Kidman, Katy Perry, Bjork, Tom Cruise

Fictional characters like you:

Dexter Morgan( dexter) USA

Rosita & Eugene(The walking dead) AMC

Sansa Stark(game of thrones) HBO

🌴Daughter - dreams of William

🌴Daughter - no care

8th house cancer cusp:

You were born naturally with the ability to embody sincerity and the moon itself. Love and intimacy come easy to you but that same internal forethought is lost externally. It can be hard for you to express your more sensitive and emotive side to those whom you’re untrusting, doubly so to those you actually care for. With cancer here there is a tendency to get carried away with ones emotions often drowned in whatever sea of emotion they happen to be feeling be it anger, sadness, hate, love, and even nothingness is felt with a deep rooted intensity. Your lack of a healthy medium can at times make those around you feel like they’re being given a silent but overwhelming ultimatum. Your lesson is to learn to dial back the lever. Not everything needs to be a black or white end or be all sensation! Try and find a healthy calm before the storm.

Who you share it with: brad Pitt, Scarlett Johansson, Bruce lee, Kim Kardashian

Fictional characters like you:

Jon snow & arya Stark(game of thrones) HBO

Barry brown & pope(animal kingdom)USA

Mr-robot, Angela moss & Darlene Alderson(Mr. robot)USA

🌑jack white - Love is blindness

🌑ane burn all my tears

8th house Leo cusp:

You were born with a inner flame that serves as a driving force between much of what you do. Your ego is both endearing and something to admire out of how through sheer will and individual reliance you push through much of your turmoil. The issue here lies in the spectacle you make of your own misfortune as some inner part of you needs to be recognized for your sorrow, your pain. The innate desire you have to be recognized at times devours the actuality of what you’re going through, it removes the depth that’s been bestowed upon you. Your lesson is to learn to navigate away from public recognition! Not everyone needs to know what lies deep in your closet-nor do you need to relish in telling them about it.

Who you share it with: Jesus Christ, Taylor Swift, Oprah Winfrey, Ariana grande, Virgin Mary

Fictional characters like you:

Micky milkovich & frank Gallagher(shameless) showtime

Ulrich Nielson(dark) Netflix

Francis underwood & Thomas Yates( House of cards) Netflix

⛅️The smiths - how soon is now

⛅️The psychedelic furs - Love my way

8th house Virgo cusp:

You were born with a rather reserved and impartial energy. There is a noticeable preference to stay out of involvement or as one would say to keep an observant yet detached liaison with ones surroundings here. Ideally you seek intimacy of the mind rather than physical intimacy outright which occasionally clashes with your unconscious need for “touch.” The cutting nature of Virgo is extremely amplified here often creating literal Barriers between you and the outside world around you which may be good in some cases but not always. Unfortunately your more sacrificing and caring traits are shadowed by the cold and often meticulously thought out side you present. Your lesson is to understand that people are flawed, but most importantly as a human your too are indeed flawed.

Who you share it with: Barack Obama, Megan Fox, Nicki Minaj, Russell Crowe, Naomi Campbell.

Fictional characters like you:

Doug stamper & Claire underwood(house of cards) Netflix

Javier pereira(good behavior) USA

Bette Davis(feud: Bette and Joan) FX

🍂The dead weather - rocking horse

🍂Johnny cash - mercy seat

8th house libra cusp:

You were born with a almost unbelievable amount of innocence and charm. Socially your impeccable always capable of giving the world and those around you exactly what they’ve wanted and more. Ironically the weighted nature of libra here actuality provides a bit of clarity on the darker themes associated with the 8th house. You find transformations something more on the side of beauty rather than something on the side of the vulgar and obstructive. There is a dying goddess syndrome associated with this placement being the fact that those whom have this seem to see a gradual death of their beauty only to be completely remodeled even more beautiful than they were previously. Though despite the ease presented here shallowness and inaccessibility cloud you, as often speaking upon real and dark matters with you seem to scare the child in you that wants to see the world as jolly and amicable. Your lesson is to see the beauty in not only the pure side of life but also the struggles and pains that exist; not to turn a blind eye but to see the truth before you.

Who you share it with: michael Jackson, George Clooney, Orlando bloom, David bowe, Whitney Houston.

Fictional characters like you:

Joshua ‘j’ Cody & Catherine brown(animal kingdom) USA

Tyrese, Gabriel stoked & Paul “Jesus”(walking dead) AMC

Celeste wright & ed Mackenzie(Big little lies) HBO

🐿nena - 99 luftballons

🐿Tracy Chapman - fast car

8th house Scorpio cusp:

You were born with an atmosphere of death, like that of a one winged angel out of sight of the sky. Much like Aries intensity is no foreigner to you Nor is the concept of darkness in the life around you. Unlike most you’ve seen the hardships, the falls, the wounds, the scars of the broken. Scorpio is at home in this house-often in such a way that these natives seem the most alive despite the overwhelming flow of contempt that surrounds them. You’re capable of deep healing-healing that could bring someone out of the very clouds themselves but this is something deep within you that just first require you to meet the winged demons lurking around in your own mind and soul. People are frightened by your true nature and because of this at times you wear a cloak around those be it a smile or an exaggerated sense of happiness just so they don’t leave you. Your lesson is to realize that just because people can’t expect your truth doesn’t mean your to much nor does it mean you’re evil or too dark it means your path is unique and your path is one unlike any others.

Who you share it with: Rihanna, Shakira,zayn malik, James Dean, Ryan gosling.

Fictional characters like you:

Ellen barkin & deran Cody(animal kingdom) USA

Maeve Millay & Dr Robert Ford(westworld)HBO

Sun(sense8)Netflix

8th house Sagittarius cusp:

Many sag in the 8th house natives are born with a very obscure but unique two Time life trait. Often these natives live life in stage one, infantile and erratic, living life without remorse or commitment-flying from the next fleeting feeling to the next then crashing into phase two the more quietly observant years-viewing the world yet reacting only when necessary, optimistic and deeply self spiritual in what they deem as the unknown. Commitment is something that you grow into, not necessarily something that comes naturally like with most people which can cause you trouble in the realm of romance and the realm of overall projects and even things as small as a job. At some point in these natives lives there is a turning point in which they no longer are a horse prancing about they become a true centaur capable of deep and often soulful commitment to another or whatever calls them forth but as with the 8th house this is a trait that takes time to cultivate. Your lesson in this life is to learn that settling down and committing in no way shape or form takes away any ability for you to live or explore the world any more than you would’ve been capable without! It’s okay to love and belong to something the world won’t stop moving I promise. Stop sabotaging relationships that are good for you just because you’re afraid of missing out on a party that’ll never come.

Who you share it with: Martin Luther king, Mikey Cyrus, Lana Del Rey, Mariah Carey, snoop dog.

Fictional characters like you:

Kevin Garvey & matt lamison(the leftovers)HBO

Lenny busker & Kerry loudermilk(Legion)

John Shelby & May Carleton(peaky blinders) Netflix

🐎kid bloom - I kissed a girl and she kissed me

🐎Roosevelt - Montreal

8th house Capricorn cusp:

Ah Capricorn in the 8th your were born with wisdom, wisdom that both to your befit and detriment has aged you before you were even able to waddle across the ground. You have a more astute nature about you, one that makes it clear to others that you’re not to be trifled with. Often there is a heavy energy that shrouds you, capable of bringing a room to a complete stand still once mastered-though in the same token this ability of respect also causes alienation amongst those closest and dear. The world in your eyes is a constant high rise uphill battle, one you refuse for any reason to let get the jump upon you. The bravado and tenacity you’re capable of at times can get you to the top but at what cost? The question for natives of this placements is wether or not power and prestige tower over love and care? Money and glory or intimacy and vulnerability? Your lesson plain and simple is to open your heart, allow the inevitability or a let down or a sad day to touch your heart! Because even though you’d like it not to be true you feel pain and you need a gentle hug as much as the person besides you.

Who you share it with: Albert Einstein, lady Gaga, Sandra Bullock, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson.

🐺Chris isaak - wicked game

🐺placebo - running up that Hill

8th house Aquarius cusp:

You were born with a natural detachment from your own body, There has always been a at times cold, yet alarmingly far away nature about you. These natives where often the unproblematic child when growing up on an emotional level, sure outburst were occupant from time to time-but that more childlike and often emotive nature present in us all just wasn’t there with these natives. The older you get the more detachment begins to embody you often leading to the creation similarly to Gemini of alter egos, varying emotional responses, along with altogether emotional alienation. The processing of emotions is either non existent-or a painful process for you leading to avoidance of the big picture which is usually that these natives repress childhood trauma and even present trauma to the point of numbness-leading to a plethora of random, and seemingly obscure emotional reactions at inappropriate moments or moments of aloneness. Either you feel it or you don’t and often times you prefer it to be the latter which can often create an aura of being out of reach which causes many who romantically or even are related to these individuals to seek out reactions from the natives by any means which only serves to further cause the native to dive into themselves. Your lesson is to confront the big bad red door that you’ve placed so many chains upon, take it day by day, year by year if need be and slowly but gradually confront all those demons! Learn their names, their triggers, their motives and their sob stories-and feel every painful rushing feeling-let yourself be alive.

Who you share it with: Angelina Jolie, Julia Roberts, bill gates, will smith, Mel Gibson, Tyra Banks & George w. Bush.

Fictional characters like you:

Legion(legion)FX

Elliot alderson & Joanna wellick(Mr. robot) USA

Lydia & Allison argent(teen wolf)MTV

🌫Stardust - music sounds better with you

🌫 Daughter - run

8th house Pisces cusp:

You were born with a deep receptivity to this world. Often times emotions much like Scorpio and cancer here are the theme but in a much more powerfully cosmic sense! You feel the world around you-it’s tension and quiet underflow which often can be easily overwhelming for these natives unknown to those whom happen to be close to them. Their is a sense of grief for these natives one that colors them even in their happiest moments it always seems like something is wrong and slightly adjacent. Intimacy is something that comes naturally for these natives but is also something that’s subtly avoided out of fear of being so dependent on another that the ego itself is lost in the transaction. They deeply fear the loss of their own selves through another which often causes a repulsion to the idea of sex or commitment yet Pisces nature always somehow leads them directly into the fray as if it were a moving train. Your love is very genuine and true but it can also be so honest and sincere that those whom aren’t ready often find themselves either attracted to what they can take from you or feel as though they don’t deserve you. Your lesson is to grasp yourself from the world of the spiritual-to create an earthy manifestation to ground yourself with, to learn and feel through the energy around you and see who’s deserving and who’s using you-to love the world but also to allow yourself to be loved in the same passion you do it. Stop absorbing all the personalities around you and cultivate your own otherwise you’ll lose track of the real you.

Who you share it with: Marilyn Monroe, Donald trump, Johnny Depp, Drake, Selena Gomez

Fictional characters like you:

Dolores(westworld)HBO

Alison Lockhart & Helen solloway(the affair) showtime

[howaminotinthestrokesyet]

Behind The Album: Chinese Democracy (The History)

There exists only one way to describe the more than 10 year odyssey that was the album, Chinese Democracy, surreal. To put it into the words of a famous Doors song, strange days. Work on the album began in 1997 after a new lineup of the band has been confirmed upon the departure of Duff McKagan. The roster would change substantially throughout the next 10 years sometimes depending on the mood of Axl Rose. Geffen Records had hoped to release the album in 1999, but it was delayed again and again causing the budget to balloon to $13 million when it was all said and done. They pulled any financial backing of the album in 2005. This album became the most expensive one ever produced in the history of rock music. Many people, fans and writers alike, never thought that it would ever see the light of day. Writer Chuck Klosterman even wrote a fake review of it for April Fools’ Day for Spin Magazine calling it the greatest album ever made. Let me now take a look at the surreal odyssey that would probably be really hard to think up, if it had not happened for real.

The inspiration for the album began in 1994 when Axl Rose became quite enamored with electronica and industrial rock with an eye towards the work of Nine Inch Nails at that time. By 1997, lead guitarist Slash had already left the group leading Rose to replace him with Robin Finck. He was the touring guitarist for Nine Inch Nails. That same year Matt Sorum was fired for objecting to the inclusion of Rose’s friend Paul Tobias in the band. He was replaced by Nine Inch Nails drummer, Chris Vrena. Yet, his tenure with the band did not last long, so he was replaced by Josh Freese. Former replacements bassist Tommy Stinson would replace Duff McKagan by 1998. Several producers were approached to help with the album including Steve Lilywhite and Rick Rubin. At one point, they even considered asking Moby to sign on as producer. Surprisingly, he had nothing but good things to say about the possibility of working on the album. “They're writing with a lot of loops, and believe it or not, they're doing it better than anybody I've heard lately." By the middle of 1998, the producer Youth was brought in to work on the album. Previously, he had worked on projects with U2 and the Verve. He immediately felt very pessimistic about any recording sessions that could occur because of Rose’s state of mind. “He kind of pulled out ... He was quite isolated. There weren't very many people I think he could trust. It was very difficult to penetrate the walls he'd built up." Youth quickly left the project after growing increasingly frustrated by the lack of interaction from Axl. For his part, the singer was still reeling from his break up in the mid-1990’s with Stephanie Seymour. He would go on to talk about this in a later interview saying he had stopped writing any music for a couple of years due to it. Rose completely disappeared from anything to do with the album, but he told recording engineers to write down any ideas other band members had for songs. He would receive CDs and data files each week that eventually were combined to make almost 1000 discs.

The goal of the album was to create a Guns N’ Roses record with an electronica influence. Mainstream media had described it repeatedly as an industrial rock album, but Rose argued with that assessment saying that many different genres would make up the album. In 1998, the band began working at Rumbo Studios in the San Fernando Valley, which was the same place that parts of Appetite For Destruction were recorded. Geffen Records had offered to pay the band $1 million to finish the album by March 1, 1999. This was on top of the initial payment of $1 million. Of course, the band completely missed that deadline, but by the spring of 1999 they had recorded 30 songs. Brian May had been brought in to play on the song “Catcher in the Rye.” His part was eventually removed, but nobody from the band told him that until the record was released in 2008. The album had been originally titled 2000 Intentions, but Axl changed it to Chinese Democracy in 1999. He would say, “There's a lot of Chinese democracy movements, and it's something that there's a lot of talk about, and it's something that will be nice to see. It could also just be like an ironic statement. I don't know, I just like the sound of it." According to Rose, the band had recorded enough material for two albums by 1999. Singer Sebastian Bach who contributed on the album said that Rose told him the initial plan. They were going to release one album, then tour for a year or two, then release a second album. The hope was to eventually release a trilogy of albums. At the end of 1999, GNR released their first song in several years as part of The End of Days soundtrack entitled, “Oh My God.” Reviews of the song were quite mixed as it did very little to increase the enthusiasm for the new album. The song had been personally selected by Jimmy Iovine, the head of Geffen/Interscope, after listening to all the tracks. At the same time, several members of the band left to join other projects. Robin Finck rejoined Nine Inch Nails, while drummer Josh Freese joined A Perfect Circle. Current producer Sean Beavan, who worked on 35 tracks, also left the project. In 2000, Axel said in a Rolling Stone interview that one big reason for the delays was the fact that he needed to learn the ProTools technology.

In early 2000, manager Doug Goldstein said that the album was 99% finished, which meant most likely a summer release. Yet, Rose hired Roy Thomas Baker as a new producer at that time, who persuaded him to completely re-record the entire album. Around the same time, he also hired a new guitarist by the name of Buckethead, who always wore a white mask and a Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket on his head when playing live. Based on Buckethead’s recommendation, a drummer by the name of Brain was hired to re-record all the previous drum parts from Freese. The issue had been that Axl wanted people currently in the band to be heard on the record, but the problem was Freese had done a very good job on all of the tracks. They essentially asked Brain to literally copy the style of the previous guy rather than use what had been produced in the first place.

In March 2001, Geffen head Jimmy Iovine hired Tom Zataut as a kind of middle man to get the band moving on finishing the album. The irony being that Zataut had been fired two years previously by Geffen. Yet, they brought him in because he had guided GNR successfully through other albums. At first, Rose did not want Zataut’s inclusion on the project. He did begin to change his mind was as he helped to re-create the opening drum sound of Nirvana‘s Never Mind for Rose. He was then welcomed with open arms after the approval by Axl’s personal psychic, who judged his aura based on photographs. The next crisis was that Buckethead decided to quit the band after the apparent lack of progress on the album. Zataut was able to convince him to return by building him a chicken coop within the recording studio, metal wires and all. The building of it was always downplayed as nothing serious, but a bit of a joke for Buckethead’s very unique sense of humor. A problem sprang up when he began to bother Axl in the studio by playing hardcore pornography too loudly in his chicken coop. Zataut also discovered that the band was spending almost $75,000 a day renting equipment that was not being used because Rose never came into the studio half the time. “These fucking people are getting paid shitloads of money and they're sitting on their arse doing nothing because Axl's not coming to the studio and they can't get him on the phone." In 2001, the band had completed 48 songs for the album, while they still had probably 5 to 10 more in development. Before the end of 2001, Rose fired Zataut because he failed to get him a private screening of the movie Blackhawk Down because Ridley Scott had asked if he could use “Welcome to the Jungle” in the film.

The band played the occasional live show as well including a headlining slot at Rock in Rio in 2001. In August 2002, they debuted their first new live song in over a decade playing “Madagascar” at the MTV Video Music Awards. That same month, Rose gave two conflicting statements to MTV about the status of the album. In one, he said they were just wrapping it up, while the other statement said that he would not use the word soon about its release. His reason for the delay now was the fact that the record company was not doing anything to help him as he had taken on many more responsibilities than previously on any other record. In the middle of 2003, they started to re-record the album once again. Tommy Stinson talked about why the album took so long to create. “What really happened was the record company stood back and left Axl to his own devices. He had to basically produce himself, and that's not what he (wanted to do)... the record company really dropped the ball on this one ... everything changed when Geffen merged with Interscope. Axl was told that Jimmy Iovine would play more of a role (than he did).” A sound engineer also had a particular insightful comment about the delays mentioning that Rose was too much of a perfectionist trying to make the greatest album ever made. There are going to be lengthy delays in that kind of attempt. By 2004, Buckethead had officially quit the group, but they were supposedly doing the masters at the end of the year. Another issue emerged at that time when the record company withdrew all funding for the album. They removed it from its release schedule and any future promotional efforts were abandoned. Rose would be required to fund the remainder of the album. Two years would pass before any news of note came from the band until early 2006 when several songs leaked online. Later that year, another song leaked within a Harley Davidson ad causing even more controversy. Leaks continued to come out for the next two years until the album was eventually released in 2008. Yet, the album did finally have a supposed release date of November 21, 2006. In anticipation of this, Rose held 10 listening parties throughout New York City showcasing some of the new tracks. In December, he quickly did a U-turn announcing that he needed more time to work on the album. The release date was pushed back to 2007, and for the first time there was an official date. Of course, the band missed this date as well.

By this time, Buckethead had been replaced by another guitarist with another unique name, Bumblefoot. The final vocals were recorded in January 2007 for the album, with the hope that it could be mixed by the end of the year for a Christmas release date. In January 2008, rumors spread all over the Internet that the album had actually been handed to Geffen Records. Yet, once again arguments between Rose and the record company ensued as they could not agree on any marketing plan for the album. In September 2008, the album had its first track released “Shackler’s Revenge” made available for the game, Rock Band 2. The full album would be released in October 2008. The fight with Geffen continued after the album's release. Rose did not give a full interview about the album until February 2009. There was literally zero promotion of the album except for advertisements for Best Buy, who exclusively sold the album. For his part, Rose refused to answer any phone calls or emails from the record company asking him to do anything related to promotion. Billboard would later report that both sides completely dropped the ball on the most anticipated rock record of the entire decade. In China, the album was banned because of the negative connotation the title had towards their treatment of government. In another development, Dr. Pepper had pledged to give anyone in the country a free Dr Pepper, if the album was released in 2008. Upon his release, they decided to maintain that pledge, but their servers crashed when too many people went on their site for a free coupon. This would end up in court as well as Rose blamed a part of the lack of promotion of the new album on Dr. Pepper’s failure to successfully manage this free giveaway. The group now went on tour for almost 3 years to promote the new album. They also needed to make money as their former manager had sued them for almost $2 million. The lawsuit was settled in 2011 for an undisclosed amount. The question now becomes as to whether the album was any good.

[angelic-guardienne]

I just realized that I, a lifetime resident of Ignis Hell, never made a post on my thoughts on Episode Ignis!! So I’ll do that now I guess while everyone is asleep and not tag anyone because... yeah.

Spoilers galore bc I don’t know if I can write a coherent review w/o spoiling some things. Just a head’s up, this isn’t really the most comprehensive review, it’s more just me rambling a bit, maybe I’ll do a deeper one later but for now it’s just a bit of a ramble. (this got progressively less comprehensive as the post goes on so just... process with caution)

Cut!!

Um where to start... okay, the gameplay. 

I’d actually played with Ignis a bit in the main game before heading to his DLC, meaning I had a brief familiarity with his controls (so I wasn’t panicking like “hoLY SHIT bells and wHISTLes”), I just hadn’t known what the specializations were for, so that was nice. I like the way he controls. He’s very smooth, sometimes he moves a bit too fast for my eyes (looking at that lightning magic) but other than that loved it. Loved him. Wonderful controls. Heard the blizzard power was OP and I concur. I used it a lot, mostly switched between blizzard and fire, was rarely seen hitting that lightning unless it was for a Total Clarity attack, and even then... the fire. the blizzard.

Ignis’ battle cries! Lovely. I don’t understand the “you’re mine!” trend that seems to appear in every game I play, but it sounded great coming from his lips, so yeah, seal of approval. 

I thank the lord every day for Adam Croasdell.

Ignis taking down those huge MT armors with the lance in two blows! (i’m talking before that segment with Ravus... which I’ll address later i’m sure) I’m a big fan of that. If I saw him do that irl i’d literally collapse. I almost collapsed just watching him do it in the game, but i was already sitting so i didn’t. 

(There were many moments during the dlc where i literally collapsed, but let’s get into that later)

But going back to the voice acting. I heard that some people thought it was rather poor but I found it really great? Ignis sounded a little bit whiny at times and completely done with everyone and everything at others and I loved it. He always conveyed the right emotions. 

There were those moments of course (you guys know the one. where he pushes off the MTs in the “resist” timeline. and just. keeps screaming. you know the one) but they just made me laugh a bit instead of driving me away. I look fondly on them.

There were actually a lot of moments that made me laugh in this dlc, serious as it was, i just. must have a very lowkey sadistic part of me. I always laughed at the sad parts of movies as a child. anyways. before i talk about those let’s get into these

these being ravus

ravus ravus ravus. my boy. i loved him before and i love him even more now. i’ve had a ravus/oc in the works for a while now and... and now i have a soulmate au in the works as well. help. this just came to mind. i’m sinking further and further into ravus hell on a daily

won’t even get into ardyn hell

back to ravus

love my boy. wanna hug my boy. i knew he was gonna take luna’s death very poorly but i thought we were gonna get a grief scene and be done with it but we got a grief boss battle (which... was hard. he’s so op like... help. the whole time he was on my team i was so happy i didn’t have to fight him and then...) and not one, but TWO grief heavy scenes so i was beyond satisfied. it was great. 

uhhhh ravy’s beard. 3/10 lol. it’s starting to grow on me though (in a metaphorical sense. i can’t grow a beard.) someone give him a candy cane and put him in red and call him kris

uhhh

(this is getting less and less coherent as we go and i’m sorry)

i’m sorry ravus’ beard is so hilarious. did he grow it because there wasn’t anyone around anymore to tell him not to? whoops made myself sad haha 

Oh! let’s talk about ardyn!

loved all the ardyn content. ardyn made me laugh and curse a lot, mostly laugh because... so theatric. the hat (you know the lil pat pat he gives that MT soldier he puts his hat on) and his little scandalized noises (the gasp he makes when ignis presents the ring in the alt ending) and that fucking scene where he’s revealed to be a grave robber and summons the armiger like it’s snowing outside

which it probably was

beside the point

Ardyn was good in this dlc. thank you Darin de Paul. lovely. his evil laughs... chills down my spine. but he evil laughs in a way that makes me both want to punch him and laugh with him. ardyn ignites emotions in me that i cannot name. not good ones, but ones all the same.

seriously though even if i wasn’t a fan of ardyn, ardyn was great in this. he’s slimy as hell and honestly... wow. he seemed like he was losing him mind a bit in this dlc and i love it. i’m 99% sure it was because of the ring. ardyn’s always a little bit crazier when it comes to the ring and this was allllll about the ring. so kudos for making it a trend

i... have a lot of thoughts about ardyn here. i just can’t express them correctly right now. ask me about them later and maybe i’ll be able to articulate. i’m sick and barely awake and all my brain is giving me is an “ardyn? cool bro” help.

there was more i said i’d come back around and talk about. um.

that mini stealth segment with ravus! wild. literally collapsed and almost missed the quicktime event in the second one. now i wanna replay the episode just to see what happens when i miss the quicktime events. i wanna do that with all of them actually. catch me doing that after i pick up my controller again. missing literally every. quicktime. event.

WAIT CAN WE TALK ABOUT THAT PART WHERE IGNIS FUCKING FLINGS HIS DAGGER INTO THE FACE OF AN MT

BECAUSE THAT WAS HOT AS ALL HELL

HE JUST CASUALLY THREW IT

ALSO IGNIS HOLDING HIS DAGGERS BACKHAND IS MY WEAKNESS

WILL NEVER GET OVER EITHER OF THOSE THINGS

ohhh let’s talk about the parts where i literally collapsed.

1) when the eastern bridge collapsed just as ignis was about to cross it and he looked so done

2) when ravus and ignis did their stealth takedowns

3) when ignis was all “i presume you weren’t born with a prosthetic” like igNIS

4) when ardyn summoned his entire armiger to fire at ignis in the alt end

5) every time ignis screamed in general

6) when ardyn’s sword hit igs in the face and knocked him out

7) “This world means nothing to me. Do with it as you wish.”

8) AND THE LAUGH THAT IGNIS LETS OUT AFTER THAT LINE

9) when i got the bad fucking end because time limits

10) when ravus found lunafreya’s dead body and immediately went into rage mode

11) when ragey ravus attacked ignis

12) when ardyn showed up as gladio

13) obvi. ignis taking down the huge mts

14) while screeching in frustration, whenever ignis fell off of the fucking rooftops

15) oh, when ignis ripped off his earpiece

now let’s talk about the moments that made me laugh bc there were... admittedly quite a few

1) “Don’t be asinine.”

2) the way ardyn fuckin gasped when he saw that ignis had the ring in the alt ending

3) ignis pushing those MTs off of him in the “resist” timeline

4) ignis sprinting?

5) caligo immediately (and... ineffectively) trying to drag Ravy’s edges as soon as the man was out of earshot

6) ignis talking in his little earpiece 

7) “Have you lost your marbles?”

8) “I wouldn’t do that if I were you” Ardyn says a solid number of seconds after Ignis puts on the ring

9) actually all of ardyn’s quote regarding ignis wearing the ring? the man was just like... “wow who is this kid”

10) ravus calling ignis “boy”

11) ardyn just fucking tossing noctis

12) and then tossing ravus as well

13) ignis going full halt next to pryna even though noct is right there, seems even he can’t escape the power of dogs

14) “Let your hair down!”

15) ardyn summoning his entire armiger to attack Ignis with

16) gladiolus “if you’re alive then pick up the damn phone” amicitia

17) the fact that the empire just carries around coeurls for no other reason than to drop down on ignis as cannon fodder

18) ignis sounding (cordially) ticked off with literally every altissian aside from weskham

19) fuckin. watching caligo control his mech in the boat chase

and moments that produced emotions i cannot explain

1) ignis always getting close to the altar/noctis and then getting knocked away by a freak accident

2) iggy getting healed by the crystal’s light (you know the scene. his hair is all down and that’s... the most beautiful i’ve seen him)

3) ardyn going to stab noctis and the dramatic irony bc we know he wouldn’t actually kill him and is just getting a reaction from ignis

4) ravus throwing the dagger at ardyn!!

5) quick recipeh

6) getting fucking. knocked off the edges of buildings. and taking fall damage

7) “I don’t want to die without him”

8) ignis seeing the claw of the fallen mt and immediately thinking “hookshot”

9) one-man army ignis

10) ignis being so very realistically tired after every single battle

11) ignis with his hair all the way down

12) fire eyes

13) fire body

14) generally ignis living up to his name

15) fuckin. father christmas over there

16) ignis asking noctis not to complete the journey and noctis turning it around so quickly jk that actually really really hurt

17) having to watch ignis feel around for everything

18) also i don’t know if anyone else caught this, maybe it’s just my game but i noticed in the ardyn v ignis fight in the alt ending, a lot of the recorded sounds of noct warping/fighting are mixed in the jumble of ardyn and ignis’ fighting sounds. i can’t tell who is making said sounds but i hear them all the time

so yeah

my general view of episode ignis? heartwrenching, 10/10, would recommend, would play again, will play again, all the best things, love it very much, will hold it near and dear to my hear. lovely lovely dlc.

[bthenoise]

Q&A: Aaron Gillespie Details The Almost’s Epic Return To Rock Music With First New Album In Six Years

It’s been 6 years, 4 months and 7 days since we’ve heard a new full-length album from The Almost. Thankfully, for all of us desperately awaiting a follow up to 2013′s Fear Inside Our Bones, that’s all about to change. 

Hitting stores and streaming services this morning, mastermind Aaron Gillespie has released a brand new album of open-minded, honest rock anthems fueled by his need for getting things off his chest.

“I think the best records come when you feel like you have something to say,” explains Gillespie, “and I just felt like I had something to say. So I started writing songs and I don't think I initially planned for it to be an Almost record or anything. Sometimes you just therapeutically or cathartically write songs, you know?”

Detailing more about his new Joshua Tree-influenced record Fear Caller, Gillespie told The Noise he was a little unsure about how many Almost fans were interested in hearing a new album.

“You know, you go to these Emo Nite things and you're the old guy. Then you go on tour with Korn and Alice in Chains like we did this summer and we're the babies. So I feel like I'm in this weird limbo as a musician, a public musician if you will, where it's like, ‘Is anyone even going to remember this?’ So it was a really pleasant surprise to have people that are, like, stoked.”

To read more from the multi-talented musician, including the wild story behind Fear Caller’s artwork as well as the choice to cover U2′s “In God’s Country,” be sure to look below. Afterward, make sure to grab a copy of Fear Caller and pick up tickets to see The Almost out on tour as they plan to play 2008′s Southern Weather in full. 

At what point did you know you wanted to write another Almost record?

AARON GILLESPIE: I don't know that I did. I think the best records come when you feel like you have something to say and I just felt like I had something to say. So I started writing songs and I don't think I initially planned for it to be an Almost record or anything. Sometimes you just therapeutically or cathartically write songs, you know? We were home for a couple of months with Underoath and I was just going to my studio every day and writing a song. I do that for other people and for "work stuff” but I was like, recording these songs and I was just going every day and writing and I think probably five or six songs in I was like, “I should make an Almost record.” And then I did the whole battle where you're like, "What makes this an Almost record versus something else?" But I always loved the vibe of that band and what it stood for and so we just made the record and it kind of just happened. I made it in six days in a house in the desert. It's a really kind of thrown together thing. I feel good about it though. I feel like the songs are pretty revealing for me. And I didn't do the whole, "I'm trying to make this type of song or that." I just kind of diarrhea-mouthed those songs out and I think that's why they feel the way that they do. So I'm pretty excited about it.

When you released “Chokehold” as your first new Almost single, was the reception what you were anticipating? 

I mean, more than I thought. You know, you go to these Emo Nite things and you're the old guy. Then you go on tour with Korn and Alice in Chains like we did this summer and we're the babies. So I feel like I'm in this weird limbo as a musician, a public musician if you will, where it's like, "Is anyone even going to remember this?" So it was a really pleasant surprise to have people that are, like, stoked. So I don't know, in 2019 it's hard to know what success means musically. And for me, it always just meant people singing along and getting something out of it. So I think [the album will] do that, but you don't know untill it comes out. People have loved the first three singles, I don't know how many [people] or how they remember it, but I'm stoked.

Talking about Emo Nite and all of the nostalgia The Almost represents for some people, on your upcoming tour, you'll be playing Southern Weather in full...

We might skip a song or two but we'll play 99% of it.

Who's going to play with you for those shows as far as your band goes?

A bunch of guys that actually work for Underoath. Our production manager is going to play drums. He's a hell of a drummer. My drum tech is going to play bass. And then I have a friend from Florida who's playing guitar. We're just doing a four-piece band this time not a five-piece band.

You've covered some classic rock/folk-type stuff in the past playing Tom Petty and artists like that. Are you planning to keep that going for this tour?

I don't really make setlists. For The Almost tour, we have a setlist now because I haven't played some of the songs in 10 years so you kind of have to. I haven't done any preparation yet but the other guys needed prep time. Other than that, I just fly. I'm one of those people that's like overly musically spontaneous. I'll hear something one day and I'm like, "I gotta figure that out" and I'll play it the next night. I guess for me, that's the outlet of what I get to do with my own stuff. With Underoath, there's a production. It's not calculated, but it's planned. 

Similar to when Underoath came back and played They're Only Chasing Safety and Define The Great Line, what has it been like for you personally to go back and revisit these Southern Weather songs?

Oh, it's funny because you're 23 and you're like, "What the hell?" Like, "Is that really how I felt about that?" I think the same thing all the time with Underoath though. When we did that tour playing They're Only Chasing Safety, I was like, "Oh my gosh." You know, you're 21 and you're like, "What am I even talking about?" You know, because it's things that you've already worked through and you've already figured out and you're over it. But you go back and sing it and to some people, you know, it’s still where they are. It still matters. So I think that’s what gives you the juice to do it as other people are still there. They're younger than you or they're older than you but they're still there. And that helps you sort of take ownership of it again.

The desert is a very big theme with Fear Caller. You went out to Joshua Tree to record it. Were there any spiritual experiences that Joshua Tree brought for this recording?

It's weird when you go somewhere like that. I went there years ago for vacation, like I just love the desert. I live in Utah on five acres out in the dirt and it's something that I like. And I had never been to Palm Springs or Joshua Tree and we actually went to Palm Springs to like a Hard Rock. I have a friend who is a talent manager for a Hard Rock. It's not there anymore. It's called something else but he still works there. But he had me and Spencer [Chamberlain] out to do some like commercial drops for him and then just gave us the penthouse for a week. And I was like, “This is really cool. I've [already] been in Palm Springs, it's hot as shit. I want to see some stuff though.” So we got in a car and someone drove us out Joshua Tree and I had never been there. [Immeditely,] I was like, "This is my place, man. This is it." So I knew that I wanted to keep going back there and I knew that I wanted to make music there.

The thing about the desert is you just you get a sense that it never ends, especially out there. You get a feeling that it's just old. Like the people that lived there and like if you read old Louis L'Amour books -- I'm reading all that cowboys shit, you know. So like, it's super cool to go out there and kind of see it and just weird stuff happens out there. The reason the record is called what it is, the first day I was there (I go running every morning or ride a bike for a long way a couple hours a day) I got up one more morning to go running and there was a giant jackrabbit, like huge, two feet tall, and he just followed me on my route. It didn't spook, it was really strange. And then we got kicked out of the Airbnb for making noise even though they knew what we were doing. This is day one, we recorded the drums and the guitar to one song and I'm like, "Fuck." So we left. We had to pack up and I literally brought in a whole studio. So it took hours. Packed it all out, put it in a van and we were homeless. So everyone back in New York is making phone calls, we found another house and that's where we ended up making the record. But as we got to that house, I set up the vocal mic out of this living room window so I could see everything and there was that fucking rabbit, man. Or one that looked just like it. And every morning, there he was.

Then we went to a bar in this town in Joshua Tree called Pioneertown, it was built in the 50s and 60s by like all the old cowboy movie guys. It's a set to a film for Clint Eastwood movies and stuff and they never tore it down. So hipsters kind of moved in and bought it and made clothing stores and record shops but there's still like no people there. There are no paved roads. And there's this bar that has been there forever. It's called Pappy and Harriet's. It's this famous thing and like live bands play there, semi-recently Paul McCartney showed up and played piano for an hour. Shit like that happens. It's just really weird. So we go there and there's a band playing. I don't remember who it was. And me and Matt [Squire, producer] are just having some drinks in the back and this guy, this like homeless dude, is just in a patio in the back with a rabbit on his head sitting there. So at this point, I'm like, “This is getting weird.” It's constant. I've never seen a jackrabbit out here and I've definitely never had it come this close. So we started looking into it and it's like a Native American totem for anxiety and creativity and it's kind of just who I am. And I see [the rabbit] everywhere now when I'm out in that part of the world, so lots of weird shit happens out there, man.

Being that writing and recording this album was pretty therapeutic for you, now that it's finished, how do you feel?

I haven't been able to feel any way because I've been so busy. You know that kind of happens in the music world where like, if you're a "professional musician" or whatever the hell that means, you're always doing [something]. Like I'm doing something today that has nothing to do with that. I'm kind of a compartmentalized person where I'm all the way here right now. Or if I'm working on someone else's song, I'm all the way there. So it's been hard. The records comes out [soon] and we don't tour until January, so I'm just sort of just like, I don't know. I don't even know what to think yet.

What are you most excited for people to hear on the record?

I'm still kind of precious in the sense that I like making whole packages, records as a whole. So I'm excited for people to sit down and listen to the journey of the whole thing. It's not conceptual or anything but I always felt like, in Underoath, we always spent so much time sequencing records and obviously, it's 2019 and we're in the age of Spotify and "tracks" but I'm just excited for people that do listen to the whole thing. I don't know how many people actually do that, but I'm excited for them to do so.

You chose to cover a U2 song from their Joshua Tree album, "In God's Country." It's an interesting choice considering how outspoken you've been about religion lately. What was behind you covering that song?

I mean to clear the slate, I don't have issues with God. I have issues with people. You know, I don't have any issues spiritually. I have issues religiously and socially, but I ain't got no issues spiritually. So I feel like that land and those expansive spaces and just that untouched country, that's God's business. You know, babies are God's business how they're formed in the womb. And for me, it just feels like that. You know, this record feels like it wasn't really my business. Not to say that God made a record but you know, it's not my business. It's God's country, you know?

[grimelords]

very long post about podcasts because someone sent me an ask about podcasts and I love podcasts and you can't do read mores on mobile sorry.

Hello I just wrote this incredibly long post about all the podcasts I listen to and would therefore recommend. Before you ask, I work alone so that’s how I have so much time for this many podcasts, plus audiobooks and music listening and everything.

Comedy Shows I Listen To Every Week

Comedy Bang Bang - always good, always funny, and if you have howl or stitcher premium the month of tour shows they did last year is really the best thing the medium of podcasts has ever produced, I really love it.

Hollywood Handbook - the best podcast. notoriously ‘hard to get into’ because it apparently takes people a little to adjust to the mindset these guys are in, and it requires you to be a little bit of a podcast person and also to have listened to this show for 100 eps to get certain things but it’s really incredible if it’s your thing. Their latest episode where they designed cards is maybe one of the most accessible episodes they’ve done in a while and if you’ve ever listened to Spontaneanation the episode they did with Paul F Tompkins a couple of weeks ago had me absolutely crying laughing.

With Special Guest Lauren Lapkus - Lauren Lapkus is the funniest person on the planet, undoubtedly. This show varies pretty wildly depending on the guest because it’s so conceptual but it’s never ever bad. Also please watch the web series The Earliest Show she did with Ben Schwartz because while the show is really good, the hour of outtakes is one of my favourite videos ever.

My Brother, My Brother And Me - you already know what it is. Good show, fun time.

Spontaneanation - Paul F. Tompkins really is a gift and this show is very very good, it’s fun and silly and good natured which is a nice change of pace from a lot of the world. The recent episode with Lauren Lapkus and Tatiana Maslaney is really really good on both sides.

Comedy Shows I Listen To Sometimes

Hard Nation - this is a really good political satire that almost always becomes very absurd. I’ve stopped listening to it as much in the last few months as politics news has sort of outstripped the pace of a weekly satire which is insane, but the show is still great every episode.

Never Not Funny - pretty easygoing chat show that I’ll listen to depending on the guest, it’s always good even if it’s someone I don’t know.

improv4humans - Matt Besser is one of the worst human beings alive and I really wish literally anyone else would start a show with this exact format but for now it’s all I’ve got. Any of the Wild Horses eps are incredible if you want a recommendation.

The Adventure Zone - you already know what it is, it’s those brothers playing dungeons and dragons. I’m lightyears behind but I listen to this sometimes and I’m slowly catching up.

Victrola - Improv combined with tight editing in a similar vein to Superego.

Pappy’s Flatshare Slamdown - a british panel show in podcast format, very good.

Handsome Rambler - Hannibal Buress’ podcast, great if you’re a fan and pretty infrequent so it’s easy to keep up with.

The Todd Glass Show - Todd Glass is an incredibly odd man and his show really reflects that. There’s a live band and lots of code words. The recent ep with Paul F Tompkins is an all timer, please listen to it if nothing else.

The Smartest Man In The World - I have no idea what this show is. As I understand it it’s just Greg Proops talking to a crowd about whatever’s on his mind and sometimes they bring him books to read out of? Very strange but Greg Proops is so incredibly good at just talking that it’s a great listen.

The Comedian’s Comedian - Stuart Goldsmith interviews comedians about making comedy. Really illuminating if it’s someone you love. Bizzare if it’s someone you don’t like cause they’ll explain their incredibly involved process for coming up with shit and boring jokes.

Politics Podcasts I Listen To Most Days

Is It On? - Buzzfeed Australia’s politics podcast. Really good light wrap up of the week in federal politics mixed with interviews with politicians that are a lot more personal and engaging than a lot of political interviews.

AM - ABC Radio National’s daily morning show. It’s only half an hour so it’s a really easy way to stay in the loop on the way to work or something.

The World Today - same thing but about world news and longer if you’re really interested.

The Daily - The New Yorker’s daily podcast. Great way to keep up with whatever the fuck Trump is doing today without having to go scrying through half baked twitter takes every morning.

Podcasts That Most Closely Fit Into The Genre Of ‘Podcast’

Song Exploder - breaking down songs note by note with the writers, incredibly well produced and a pleasure to listen to.

Reply All - really interesting show about the internet and all the evils it contains. Their episode Very Quickly To The Drill is the most interesting story about locksmiths you’ll ever hear.

Heavyweight - Jonathan Goldstein helps people make peace with their past. This is one of the best podcasts I heard last year and I really cannot wait for a second season.

Black List Table Reads - full quasi-radio plays of unproduced film scripts from The Black List. An incredible show that I wish were more popular.

99% Invisible - great stories about architecture and design.

Invisibilia - similar but about your emotions and brain

Gunsmoke - oldtimeradio.com presents the original 1950s cowboy radio serial Gunsmoke! and thank god!

Radiolab - it’s podcasts baby!

This American Life - baby, it’s podcasts!

Shows That Are Finished Series

Wiretap - Incredible show that I can’t believe I never heard of before. Hard to explain but it feels kind of like if Seinfeld was a radio show and happened mostly via phone calls.

Reality Show Show - the Hollywood Handbook guys’ previous show. A lot more accessible and incredibly listenable for what you’d think would be a pretty time specific show about reality tv.

Dead Authors Podcast - Paul F. Tompkins as HG Wells interviews comedians in character as famous dead authors. Surprisingly well researched and incredibly funny.

Wild Horses: The Perspective - I am absolutely begging for more episodes of this show from Lauren Lapkus’ improv group because it is so so good.

U Talkin’ U2 To Me? - please listen to this show, even if you don’t like U2. In face especially if you don’t. Adam Scott and Scott Aukerman try to review U2’s discography but very quickly devolve into some of the most absurd podcasting ever.

Superego - tightly edited improv with music and everything. Incredibly strange in a good way and it takes a little to adjust to the tone but it’s a great show.

Mystery Show - still gutted this never got a second series. Detective show in the vein of Serial about incredibly benign mysteries like how tall Jake Gyllenhaal is.

Rum, Rebels And Ratbags - great Australian history podcast from David Hunt who wrote the very good Australian history books Girt and True Girt.

Not Available On Stitcher But Very Good

Dead Pilots Society - like The Black List Table Reads but for unproduced comedy show pilots. Hilarious, well produced and an interesting look at how getting a tv show made works.

Night People On WMFU - this show’s finished, but it was a late night call in show on some american radio station. Perfect oddball show for driving at night or falling asleep to.

Please reply to this post and tell me more podcasts you think I’d like, or even ones I wouldn’t but you do - who cares. If you reply to this post and tell me to listen to Cum Town I will block you.

[dbarajas03-blog]

NORTHSTAR

Northstar formerly Jean-Paul Beaubier is an incredibly dashing hero, literally. His incredible speed and energy projectiles make him a great hero and will be getting into how amazing this underrated character really is in this blog post.

Powers and Abilities

First off what he is best at and known for is his speed. He possesses the ability to propel his body at superhuman speed, becoming a living projectile. Through an act of concentration, Northstar can channel a portion of the kinetic energy of the atomic motion in his body’s molecules in a single direction. This can accelerate his body in a velocity in direct proportions to the amount of kinetic energy he has tapped. It was once theoretically possible for him to reach 99% of the speed of light (186, 272 miles per second in a vacuum), although he never traveled at anywhere near that speed since if he did, he would wreak great damage upon himself and his environment. Northstar can also move a portion of his body at superhuman speed at a time.

Bio

He was only a baby when his parents died in a car crash. Though he was adopted, the family had died as well in an accident, leading Jean-Paul to live a lonely childhood. As a teen, he attempted to steal from a man named Raymonde Belmonde, who was himself involved in shady dealings. Belmonde helped the young Jean-Paul deal with his emerging super-human powers and perhaps with his homosexuality as well. Jean-Paul eventually left Belmonde and joined a circus in France as an acrobat. Always fiercely nationalistic, Jean-Paul returned to Quebec and joined a radical Separatist movement called "Le Front de Liberation du Quebec." However, he discovered their terrorist activities and left the group after stopping a bomb on a bus, with no official recognition that he was ever a member. Jean-Paul then decided to turn his passion for skiing into a career, and with his powers of speed quickly became a champion at the Olympic Games. After gaining notoriety as a sports star, he was contacted by James MacDonald Hudson, who had already met Beaubier's twin Jeanne-Marie. Jean-Paul was intrigued to meet the sister he never knew and joined Department H as Alpha Flight's "Northstar." He was present when Alpha Flight first fought the X-Men in Calgary in an attempt to reclaim Wolverine, who had once been Department H's "Weapon X." Unfortunately, Jean-Paul's abrasive personality made staying a member of Alpha Flight difficult. He was increasingly disdainful of Jeanne-Marie's relationship with Sasquatch (an attitude which may actually have been jealousy), and eventually left the team after a fight with his sister over an implied insult to her propriety. (Aurora then had Sasquatch manipulate her powers so that she was no longer identical to her brother.) While he was not officially a member at the time, Northstar later joined Alpha Flight when Loki's Fire fountain opened in Ungava Bay, Canada, because Aurora was suffering from a bout with her schizophrenia at the time. When Phoenix attacked Alpha Flight, blaming them for a psychic distress call she received from her father (Cyclops), Northstar chose Rogue as a target. Rogue kissed Northstar to drain his powers, and immediately became privy to all Jean-Paul's secrets, presumably including his sexual orientation. Interestingly enough, during the ensuing encounter with the Fire Fountain and the people transformed by it, Northstar agreed to touch Rogue's skin to see if Anodyne had cured her. Later, Northstar was forced to rejoin Alpha Flight at the Eye of the World when Talisman issued a mystic summons for help in their efforts to free Sasquatch's soul from the realm of the Great Beasts. Upset at being manipulated, he almost left immediately, but Snowbird used her powers to force him to stay. With Northstar's help, Alpha Flight managed to rescue Walter's soul, though Sasquatch's body was destroyed and his soul was now trapped in the box armor. It was not long before Sasquatch tried to regain a more human form, which led him to locate a humanoid body in another dimension. Unfortunately, it turned out to be the Hulk, and Sasquatch refused to displace his former colleague and friend, so his soul again was lost. When Alpha Flight responded to calls to put down the returned (and rampaging) Hulk, Northstar and Aurora tried to use their gestalt light powers, but instead, their touch shorted each other's powers out, due to the genetic changes Sasquatch had performed on Aurora. Northstar stayed with the reconstituted Alpha Flight for quite sometime after that. Eventually, his past as a terrorist was revealed to all (though Alpha had known for some time) when his former commander began killing off his subordinates and Jean-Paul was forced to save them. Fortunately, because he took part only in very limited terrorist activities, none of them murderous, Northstar was pardoned by the Canadian government. 

Northstar remained an active member of a reorganized Alpha Flight for a while, surviving through the apparent abduction of his sister and then finding her again as a prisoner of Headlok. Following Headlok's defeat and Aurora's return to active duty, Jean-Paul discovered a baby abandoned in a dumpster, while in combat with the rest of the team. The child was HIV-positive and had already manifested AIDS symptoms, but Jean-Paul adopted her and named her Joanne. Sadly, Joanne died shortly thereafter, but her life and death catalyzed something inside Northstar, and he called a press conference at which he announced: "I am gay". Northstar remained a member of Alpha Flight while the team was in existence, but left angrily during a suspension of operations due to anti-mutant sentiments. 

Northstar spent much of his time in this period searching for Aurora, who had disappeared following her breakup with Weapon Omega/Wildchild. He managed to stop her from killing Wildchild in a fit and brought her back to Canada for treatment, but she was abducted (and later released) by the Brotherhood of Mutants. Northstar eventually found her, half-insane, in the school in which she had grown up and taught. Though she eluded his grasp, Jean-Paul eventually got her treated with the help of his original Alpha Flight teammates, who discovered that Jeanne-Marie's worsened condition was part of a plot by Department H to destabilize certain mutants. The original team was reinstated, but Northstar stayed only a short time. With the "outing" of the X-Men as mutants and the vast expansion of the Xavier Institute, Charles Xavier himself approached Northstar with an offer to teach business and economics to his students. Jean-Paul refused at first but did grant a request by Xavier to support the X-Men field team operating nearby as they collected a new mutant. The mutant, a boy named Peter, turned out to possess an explosive field that decimated everything within a three- to four-foot radius, and Northstar insisted on flying him to a hospital so the Blackbird aircraft would not be damaged. Along the way, the two mutants struck up the conversation and came to accept each other (despite the ten-year-old's uneasiness towards homosexuals), but then Peter's powers flared twice more, and on the second time, Northstar was knocked out and they fell to the ground. Peter suffered severe internal injuries, and despite Xavier's assistance, the boy died. Northstar himself was heavily wounded, but as soon as he regained consciousness he accepted Xavier's offer and transferred to the Institute's faculty. During his convalescence, Jean-Paul found himself attracted by Bobby Drake, although these feelings did not go further.

As his old friends reformed Alpha Flight, Northstar returned to Canada and began living with his husband. He refused to rejoin Alpha Flight at first but reconsidered so he could keep an eye on what he believed to be troubling behavior from his sister.

Significance

Northstar is a great character to certainly means a lot to Marvel as he is to be their first openly gay character. It is important to them due to the fact that they try to stray away from doing so to characters. This, however, was definitely that a lot of people have been wanting and asked for. Now, I understand that it brings controversy and makes it feel like he needs more representation now because of the character’s sexuality but I think that it really doesn’t matter all that much. Granted, it creates a bigger fanbase, but I truly think his powers and backstory alone are incredible enough to show how great he is and underrated a character is which can definitely be shown more.

References:

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Jean-Paul_Beaubier_(Earth-616)

[lodelss]

Samuel Ashworth| Longreads | September 2019 | 13 minutes (3,389 words)

  Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) are nestled in one another’s arms, sweat glistening on their muscled chests. They kiss softly and tenderly. It’s the middle of the night in a hotel somewhere on the campaign trail, and they are in love.

“So, if you were an animal, which would you be?” asks Ted.

“Let me think,” says Marco. “A manatee.”

Welcome, friends, to the glorious world of congressional fan fiction. If you’ve always associated fan fiction with the kind of people who hand-sew their own Star Trek jumpsuits, think again. Since going online in the late ’90s, fan fiction — a fan-created spinoff (sometimes way, way off) of an already-existing pop culture presence — has exploded. Its protagonists range from fictional, like Han Solo, to real, like Ariana Grande or members of the British Parliament. Published stories, which can range from a few hundred words to a few hundred thousand, number in the tens of millions, and boast an immense readership. The genre also remains one of the few resolutely not-for-profit corners of the internet: Since the work often involves trademarked intellectual property, fair use rules forbid fanfic authors from making money off their writing, unless they change all recognizable details, as E.L. James did with her BDSM Twilight fanfic story, Fifty Shades of Grey. Stories about congress fall under the penumbra of “Real-person fiction,” which isn’t bound by copyright laws in the same way.

For as long as people have been telling stories, people have been telling stories about those stories. It’s a basic human impulse: The Greeks wrote fan fiction about the Trojan War; the Chinese wrote it during the Ming Dynasty; the Spaniards wrote it about Don Quixote; the Victorians about Sherlock Holmes. Typically, we date its modern iteration from the late ’60s, when Star Trek fans began to circulate mimeographed zines full of their own adventures aboard the USS Enterprise. It was the punctuating backslash in “Spock/Kirk” that created the genre for stories which literalize unspoken sexual tension between same-sex characters: slashfic.

While not all fan fiction is erotic or romantic, a lot of it is. Pop culture mega-properties like Harry Potter or the TV show Supernatural have the biggest constituencies, but niche fandoms abound (for example, there is even one — mercifully chaste — story devoted to my favorite podcast, NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour). One growing niche is political fan fiction; the influential fanfic site Archive of Our Own (AO3), with more than 2 million users, has a thousand stories dealing with 21st-century American politicians alone.

Fanfic is inherently delightfully goofy, but it’s also worth taking seriously. Fandom has become one of the driving forces of American pop culture. When provoked, fans can rescue a TV show like Brooklyn 99 or One Day at a Time from cancellation, or they can kill a project in its infancy, as numerous young adult novelists have found. Even though fan fiction is necessarily noncommercial, the world of fandom is an economic behemoth, and with economic power, inevitably, comes political power — whether it’s wanted or not.

Most political fanfic features world leaders: AO3 features dozens of erotic romances between Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau, or David Cameron and a rotating harem of male British MPs, while the past two years have seen a proliferation of meme-ready “Trump/Shrek” slashfic. Sample line: “Donald Trump was building a wall. No, not to keep out the Mexicans. He built it around his heart, to keep anyone from getting there and breaking it like Shrek did.”

But since the 2016 election, as American political engagement has boomed — the 2018 midterms had the highest voter turnout percentage for any midterm in 104 years — fan fiction scholars have noted a spike in stories featuring the U.S. Congress. What makes this boomlet strange is that at its core, fan fiction “is about genuinely liking a person,” says Dr. Amber Davisson, coauthor of Politics for the Love of Fandom: Fan-Based Citizenship in a Digital World. And historically, well, not many people like Congress. As of August of this year, the institution’s average Gallup approval rating was 17 percent — somehow an improvement over the first half of this decade.

And yet, the more I spoke to authors, the more congressional fan fiction began to make perfect sense as a response to our high-strung political moment. To Ehren Hatten, a prolific fanfic author living in Austin, Texas, people gravitate to fanfic because it’s “writing something you want to see.” During the Obama administration, Hatten wrote a series of stories modeled on the “Hetalia” universe — a Japanese webcomic turned manga and anime series featuring nations personified as broadly stereotypical characters (France, for instance, hits on every woman who crosses his path). In her tale, the embodiment of America storms onto the floor of Congress and delivers a scorching tirade against the Affordable Care Act, which he calls an unconstitutional attack on the “will of the people.” The law, he warns direly, will bring about another Civil War — and a justified one at that.

Even though fan fiction is necessarily noncommercial, the world of fandom is an economic behemoth, and with economic power, inevitably, comes political power — whether it’s wanted or not.

“I was trying to point out how wrong and out of touch Congress has been for years,” Hatten told me. What she wrote was mostly “a way for me to get ideas out of my head,” but at the same time, she was annoyed by other Hetalia-based fan works “that would portray things like America being a superfan of Obama.” In the climax of her story, America triumphantly punches Obama in the face.

Similarly, Amanda Savitt, an ACA supporter, said writing fan fiction “made me feel like I had a little bit of control.” In her story, Steve Rogers is divorced from his role as Captain America’s alter ego and is now a young diabetic art student. (This is typical of the “alternate universe” genre of fanfic, which takes characters from one world and reimagines them in another, often with completely different characteristics. One such story features Rand Paul as a high school goth tormented by/in love with rich bully Donald Trump.) Afraid the Republican Party will kill the ACA and take away his access to health care, Steve and his best friend Bucky Barnes decide to marry so Steve can secure health insurance. Eventually, Steve and Bucky attend a town hall led by a Paul Ryan–esque figure. Steve delivers a scorching tirade against the repeal of the ACA. In the climax of her story, Steve triumphantly punches the Paul Ryan–esque figure in the face.

For many political fanfic writers, this catharsis is the main point of the exercise — to blow off steam. While William Wordsworth defined poetry as “the spontaneous overflow of emotion recollected in tranquility,” fan fiction omits the tranquility part, which may explain the sheer ferocity of a lot of the eroticism. One author in Alaska who wrote a story about Mitch McConnell (R-KY) having intense and almost feral sex with Paul Ryan (R-WI 1) after failing to repeal Obamacare told me they banged the whole thing in an hour when they were feeling ground-down and angry.

***

Somewhere in Washington, rain is pouring outside as a young person curls up under a blanket with their girlfriend, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY 14). Suddenly, a blackout ripples across the city, plunging them into darkness.

“Don’t be afraid,” she whispers. “I’m here.”

Yet for all the rage that has soaked into our political rhetoric lately, stories wherein characters physically attack politicians are rarer than you might think. Instead, most congressional fan fiction, even the really out-there stuff, is all about the romance. In one story, Senator Kamala Harris (D-CA) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA 12) get intimate after a spirited game of one-on-one basketball. In another, Paul Ryan and former Rep. Aaron Schock (R-IL 18) long for each other from across the House floor. The exception to this rule is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose stories, so far, are loving but pointedly nonsexual. This has much to do with the fact that fanfic authors are overwhelmingly female, making sites like AO3 something of a refuge from the male gaze. “When the media reports on AOC and ‘girlifies her,’” Davisson explains, “they’re diminishing her. … [Her fans] care about her as a person.”

All of which brings us to Rubio and Cruz nuzzling, flushed with the thrill of new love and discussing their spirit animals. There are no fewer than 24 separate stories under the “Crubio” tag on AO3, but one of the first, “Fifty Shades of Red,” was written in 2016 by two high schoolers, who asked, not unreasonably, to remain anonymous in this article.

“Fifty Shades of Red” runs over 15,000 words long and chronicles a sweet but relentlessly raunchy (a phrase that could capture fan fiction at its core) senatorial affair, culminating in the two men admitting their love on a debate stage. They then exit stage right to apologize to their wives — who, in a classically Shakespearean twist, have also fallen in love with each other. “Our first taste of politics was Trump,” said one of the young writers, who collectively published the story under the nom de fan MikeRotch. “So it was kind of fun to turn the shitshow that was that election and make it into something more funny, and try to imagine that there’s something else inside these men aside from terrible policies and homophobia.”

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Both writers describe themselves as left-leaning and queer, and their story began as a dare during a sleepover. “We were just spiteful,” they said, but as they kept going, something unexpected happened. They became profoundly attached to their characters — Cruz as the gruff, masculine daddy, and Rubio as the besotted, timid younger man. A narrative which began as pure raunch turned into Cruz tenderly reading his favorite W.S. Merwin poem to Rubio, and Rubio confessing that “every day, I wake up questioning everything. Who I am. Who I want to be. Who I should be.” Their farce evolved into a real romance, fueled by an empathy that the authors never expected to feel for two men representing everything they loathed. That empathy stayed with them even after the story was written, and many of the other writers who wrote their own Crubio slashfic preserved it in their stories, too. On March 15, 2016, when Marco Rubio dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination, one of the MikeRotch authors called the other, crying.

Fan fiction is no different from any other kind of fiction: Empathy is its fuel, its AllSpark, its galvanic jolt. Without the writer’s willingness to probe the motivations of each character, good or evil, the story will not go. The plot will sit there, limp as wet cereal, and convince no one. This is why so much overtly political fiction is lousy: Instead of empathizing, the writer sets out to convince and condemn. The story groans under its own seriousness. But resonating fan fiction revels in humanizing its villains — there are 33,995 works on AO3 wherein Harry Potter hooks up with his nemesis Draco Malfoy. “I think there are a few reasons for that,” Savitt told me, “one of which is the fact that in popular media, unfortunately, villains tend to be queer-coded.” Just look at Disney: Ursula from The Little Mermaid was deliberately patterned on the immortal drag queen Divine. In Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent’s magical powers are just an outlet for her overflowing top energy. Male villains from Jafar to Hades to Scar (the Jeremy Irons version, not Chiwetel Ejiofor’s butch performance) are heavy-lidded, louche, effete. In fan fiction, authors have the power to overwrite that coding, to rethink the knee-jerk contempt we’re supposed to feel for these characters and depict them instead with an empathy the source material rarely affords.

This empathy makes congressional fan fiction remarkable in a political reality so divided that empathy isn’t just rare, it’s almost impossible. According to “The Perception Gap,” a 2019 study from the nonprofit group More In Common, the more politically engaged an American citizen is, the more likely they are to be wildly misinformed about the other side. Democrats flail around trying to divine the humors of the Trump voters, and Republicans believe that half of all Democrats are ashamed to be American.

Fan fiction is no different from any other kind of fiction: Empathy is its fuel, its AllSpark, its galvanic jolt.

Fanfic authors, on the other hand, tend to delve into objective research about characters and their worlds. Most stories about congresspeople feature direct quotes from speeches (in “Fifty Shades of Red” Cruz makes Rubio read one of his speeches while they have sex — something the authors spent “an embarrassing amount of time” researching), nuanced conversations about policy, and often, strikingly honest presentations of the villains’ arguments. In Ehren Hatten’s stories, Democrats assail America’s embodiment with real talking points (uninsured people “drain the system when they end up in the emergency room”). America has his answers ready, of course, but Hatten’s congresspeople are far from straw men. “I’ve been called a bigot and a racist more times than I really thought possible,” Hatten told me. “However, I still feel humans in general want to remember that the people they disagree with are still human and not some creature from the black lagoon. At least that’s my hope.”

That hope — the hope that maybe some of it isn’t fictional — is what drives people to write stories about Congress. Authors who write humanizing stories about politicians “are hoping in some sense that they are that human,” says Anne Jamison, an assistant professor of English at the University of Utah. If you can imagine a world where all Mitch McConnell needs is the love of a good man, or one where Susan Collins has a backbone, then you can convince yourself that maybe, just maybe, it could be true.

***

On the senate floor, senators are voting on whether or not to end the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. Dean Heller (R-NV) weeps in the strong embrace of Mark Warner (D-VA), torn between his desire for moderation and his fear of a primary challenge.

“Be brave!” Warner urges him. Heller sniffles into a handkerchief.

Ten years ago, it might have seemed ludicrous to think that people would be penning heroic epics about members of the U.S. Congress. But troubled times are fertile soil for heroes. In Bertolt Brecht’s play The Life of Galileo, Galileo says, “Unhappy is the land that needs a hero.” Judging by our recent cultural diet, we live in an unhappy land. In the movies, heroes flourish: The Avengers, Star Wars, The Fast and the Furious. These blockbusting franchises depend upon the absolute, indisputable goodness of the hero’s quest (and, in the case of The Fast and the Furious franchise, the limitless redeemability of villains). Meanwhile, we’re living in the new golden age of television, which derives its popular and intellectual voltage from daring us to fall in love with charismatic antiheroes: Game of Thrones, Fleabag, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, Succession. The West Wing is dead, long live Veep.

In our fiercely divided time, the politicians we agree with aren’t just leaders, they’re held up as saviors. It’s not enough to just support them; we want to love them. We’re fans of them. This distinction is crucial: “Fandom is perverse,” says Davisson. “I mean that in the best possible way. Fandom is about love, and love is seldom a rational thing.” Rather, love is blind, jealous, obsessive. What it really wants is more — more access, more story, more flesh, more time. More content.

As Davisson points out, “we’re very aware that everything we’re seeing is being produced. A lot of [fan fiction] is about wanting to see behind the curtain. [People] want to see that these politicians that they see on TV have real passion — something genuine.” It is this perceived sense of genuineness which gives us permission to trust — and therefore permission to love. And increasingly, the savviest politicians — like movie studios and TV networks — are learning how to operate the levers of that love.

Much of Donald Trump’s appeal as a politician is the way he offers completely transparent, un-stage-managed access to his inner thoughts. Being a fan of Trump is probably delightful, even addictive. At all hours of the day — or in the dead of night — his fans have access to his unfiltered inner monologue, stripped not only of the political calculus with which virtually every other politician speaks, but of any inhibition or caution whatsoever. In essence, Trump is a fountain of glittering content; he is pure fan service. He is the triumph of quantity over quality. And his fans are hammered drunk with love.

Few politicians have understood popular love better than Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose Instagram feed offers fans an unprecedented level of access to a politician’s personal life. From her first days in Washington, she has created a self-produced reality show. She brings followers (that word is significant here) into the madcap world of a freshman congresswoman. She takes them on trips up to her roof garden where she asks for advice on how to harvest her spinach plants, and she offers long, thoughtful reflections about shifting from a bartender’s salary to a congresswoman’s (she can now afford oat milk). She is perhaps the most relatable politician in the country. In addition to the tender, puppy-love-like stories about her on AO3, there is also a comic book, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the Freshman Force. The cover features her in a gleaming suffragette-white pantsuit, standing astride the prone form of a red elephant, holding her phone in one hand and beckoning the reader to join her with the other. “New party,” she says, “who dis?”

The politicians we agree with aren’t just leaders, they’re held up as saviors. It’s not enough to just support them; we want to love them. We’re fans of them.

Drawing an equivalence between AOC and Trump is common to the point of cliché, and to do so ignores a crucial distinction between them: the nature of their fandoms. Fandom, at its best, is what patriotism should look like — loyal, welcoming, but not infinitely forgiving. Good fandom, according to Ashley Hinck, an assistant professor at Xavier University, “will hold you accountable.” But at its worst, fandom looks like patriotism at its most toxic: hostile to outsiders, utterly entitled, deaf to criticism. And increasingly, it’s getting harder to tell the difference.

On any given day in America, the president might signal-boost a doctored video of Nancy Pelosi. Theories floated on Fox News find their way into White House policy. Tweets intended as parody are accepted as legitimate. An echo chamber of commentators swiftly warp political developments whose audience does not care if they are accurate, so long as they are angry. In this world, the fear that fictional narratives — even those meant as jokes — can overwhelm the actual facts is well-founded. But for better or for worse, we are in an age of political fandom, and there’s no going back.

“We’ve entered a world in which fan identities matter,” says Hinck. “And if we underestimate fandom — and the importance of fan identities — it’s dangerous.” According to Hinck, the old demographics are outdated. The political world populated by easily targeted union members and soccer moms and Rockefeller Republicans is gone, and it is not coming back. The internet has broken the old molds of identity, and now we are gluing the shards back together into shapes that fit us better. “People are looking for new sources of belonging,” says Hinck. “People are members of these fan communities in the millions. These are huge voting blocs.”

“That’s true,” agrees Amber Davisson, but she points out that “the day you organize fandom, you destroy it. Creative work exists at the margins because they’re exploring the thing we don’t want to talk about. Fans need to exist at the margin because they need to push the rest of us. There will always be people pushing at the edges. And sometimes people pushing at the edges win.”

* * *

Samuel Ashworth is a regular contributor to the Washington Post Magazine, and his fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Hazlitt, Eater, NYLON, Barrelhouse, Catapult, the Times Literary Supplement, and the Rumpus. He is currently working on a novel about the life and death of a chef, told through his autopsy.

Editor: Katie Kosma Fact-Checker: Samantha Schuyler Copyeditor: Jacob Z. Gross