#Mary Kennedy Core

[zooterchet]

The 13 Lucky Stars

Father's Side:

Diane: The tribute to a dominatrix, as the heterosexual male. Therefore, homosexuals, function as gigalos, for fine food.

Michael: The placement of a team of arts, essential to league play, as against the prime team of reform. The eternal flaw in a gem, removed, by placement in ring.

Steven: The riot, as preservation of our rights as citizens, under Kennedy's code; not the police as dominant, but ourselves as citizens policing each other.

Ellen: The comic book, as the essential core root of any intelligence organization. Therefore, any new character, as a shortcut through a tax accommodation, the placement of skin as the most essential form of logic.

Mother's Side:

Gene: The madness, of a toy, having succumbed a country. The love in the simple, as Mao Zedong would intend.

Marie: The hidden South, as anyone seeking a new redemption. Lincoln as his proper stafford, a secret ale house; any guided in, having found America, Judea.

Evelyn: The affair as the consummate on heart, to marry, in any way possible. A whole crop of affairs, out of one, to truly understand the double way path crossed of law. The criminal bacterium, as the real affection for a woman.

Danny: The return to mother as if original religion. A sex offender, as a bondage top.

Roberta: The branched path, as the lie of the service; hence any obseleted logic, as removed, through the children; those feeling popular, as civilians.

Jimmy: The absolute horror in war, as having betrayed by own comrades, on the hunt for a new terror. The only way out, working for the CIA. "Pinkville", the My Lai Massacre.

Timmy: The elimination of three poor figures, from the lower populaces of the Senate; the three improper leaders, the scandal, and the resumption of progress, in the culprit of populaces scorned slashed through ribbons of each; hence, the new common news broadcast, at book of congress, not Congress.

Francis: The dragging of a potato, through Southie, to attract a bunch of micks, the Iranian-Jews claiming Irish. Horatio Alger, a real love story, of the political families of Boston; those refusing Jewish heritage, for Boston pride. Not the place you're from, but the place you are.

Alice: The theft of records, as countered by print through the Mossad, and the live field assassin, as having raised children of all ages and origins, as "Mega Man"; the spouse.

[xcziel]

oooops i forgot

tuesday new releases for november 14:

patrick rothfuss novella the narrow road between desires (same size as slow regard of silent things)

david baldacci has new thriller the edge

mitch albom novel about the lives of three holocaust survivors little liar

new novel from michael cunningham day

a return to the time-travel cafe: before we say goodbye by toshikazu kawaguchi author of before the coffee gets cold, english translation by geoffrey trousselot

elizabeth crook's western sequel to the which way tree, the madstone

harmony new book of poetry from whitney hanson

jacquelyn mitchard's new familial drama a very inconvenient scandal

.just once new christian fiction by karen kingsbury

letters of j.r.r. tolkien edited and selected by humphrey carpenter with assistance by christopher tolkien

rush drummer geddy lee's new memoir my effin' life

johnny cash: the life in lyrics with mark stielper

the night parade: a speculative memoir by jami nakamura lin

a woman i know: female spies, double identities, and a new story of the kennedy assasination by filmmaker mary haverstick

city on mars by kelly and zach weinersmith (good non-fiction gift for those who like the martian and laughing at elon mushk)

tomlin: the soul of a football coach by john harris

entangled life: illustrated edition by martin sheldrake - new gorgeous hardcover for the mushroom and fungi fans

core of an onion another micro-history - with recipes - from michael kurlansky, author of cod and salt

new leather gifting style black cover of 48 laws of power: special powers edition

the bill gates problem the myth of the good billionaire by tim schwab

the money kings by daniel schulman

new hardcover collector editions of madeline miller's circe and anthony doerr's all the light we cannot see

also new romance collector hardcovers of archer's voice by mia sheridan and one last stop by casey mcquiston

star wars the eye of darkness a high republic novel by george mann

the marvel multiverse role-playing game core rulebook is out now

the upcycled self by tariq 'black thought' trotter

political books 😔:

network of lies about fox news by brian stelter

biography mitt romney a reckoning by mckay coppins

mike pence's advice(?) book go home for dinner

tired of winning by jonathan karl about trump and the gop

[ffcstore]

anime, cartoon, valentine, valentines day, funny, valentines, heart, love, anime fans, spike spiegel, faye valentine, cute, design, cheap, luffy, one piece, manga, red, vintage, human made, nigo, hypebeast, humanmade, highsnobiety, duck, animal, dragon ball, valentine day, for her, for him, vegeta and bulma, vegeta love, vegeta, bulma, bulma love, lover, vegeta lovers, sleeve, vegeta fans, mouth, face, videogame, indie, retro, game, cowboy, sushi, hug, nigiri, rice, fish, cuddle, kiss, boyfriend, girlfriend, japanese food, food, bento, chopstick, wasabi, soy sauce, adorable, custom, cool designs, cool, vintage, boa hancock, teen wolf, san valentin, corazon, st valentine, lovers, san valentino, san valentine, birthday, black and white, book, couple, typography, day, amor, inspirational, anniversary, gay, phone, case, black, travel, saint valentine, type, simpsons, cartoons, 90s, the simpsons, ralph, lisa, romantic, love, fingerprints, bloody, coquette, aesthetic, alt, grunge, rockstar gf, dollete, tumblr, pinterest, it girl, waif, americana, lana del rey, ethel cain, tik tok, soft, ballet, core, academia, messy french girl, cute, valentine, strmcwby, tiger, emoji, cheecks, cat, cat mouth, anime for kids, for kids, blush, skullgirls, cartoon, cowboy bepop, see you space cowboy, 90s anime, action anime, space western, neo noir, edward wong, jet black, fe3h, fire emblem, fire emblem three houses, hilda valentine goneril, hilda, golden deer, anime, resident evil, licker, chris redfield, jill valentine, leon kennedy, console, gaming, horror, pixel, logo, happy, meme, smile, bepop, jet black, space dandy, bounty hunter, bounty hunters, radical ed, edward, guilty gear, elphelt valentine, elphelt, christmas, chibi, owl, owls, birds, strawberries, pink, hearts, kawaii, daisy beatrice, blush, spring, nature, hipster, seasonal, happy holidays, mid century modern, mod, scandinavian, mcm, cottagecore, japan, japanese animation, animation, space, inter solar system police, ein, jet, faye, comic, pop culture, popular anime, eyes, otaku, weeaboo, trash, yandere, tsundere, yuuki asuna, asuka langley soryu, sinon, rias gremory, hinata hyuga, mikasa ackerman, motoko kusanagi, chihiro ogino, princess mononoke, makise kurisu, erza scarlet, morgiana, your lie in april, hisoka, noragami, soul eater, samurai champloo, gurren lagann, blue exorcist, steins gate, gintama, code geass, ichigo kurosaki, kakashi hatake, itachi uchiha, omori video game, omori game, omori anime, omori characters, omori rpg, aubrey omori, kelsey omori, hero omori, mari omori, basil omori, omocat, anime fan, anime game, anime video game, anime lover, anime boy, anime girl, omori, birthday basil, rpg, teen, aubrey, young, hero, kelsey, boy, lofi, monster girl, omniboi, pastel, 2d girls, achiles, novel, zeus omori valentine, teen boy, Anime, Valentine, Love, Cute, Valentines Day, Heart, Manga, Funny, Kawaii, Girl, Valentines, Anime Girl, Cartoon, Gifts

(via “The Embrace ” Graphic T-Shirt for Sale by ffcstore)

Available now click the link 

[unmattata]

Preface: Why this Little Book

“About ten years ago the idea of writing a little cookbook had its birth. We were in Almora that summer. Almora is a station far up in the Himalayas, a clean little bazaar nestles at the foot of enclosing mountains. Dotting the deodar-covered slopes of these mountains are the picturesque bungalows of the European residents, while towering above and over all are the glistening peaks of the eternal snows.

“We love to think of this particular summer, for Lilavate Singh was with us. The thought of her always brings help and inspiration.

“One day she prepared for the crowd of us a tiffin of delicious Hindustani food. That afternoon while we were sitting under the shade and fragrance of the deodar trees, we praised the tiffin. Before we knew it we were planning a cookbook. It was to be a joint affair of Hindustani and English dishes, and Miss Singh was to be responsible for the Hindustani part of it. Our enthusiasm grew. For three or four days we talked of nothing else. We experimented, we planned; we dreamed, we wrote. But alas! other things soon thrust themselves upon us, and our unfinished cook book was pigeon-holed for years and years. And it is not now what it would have been if finished then.

“Many of the recipes, however, are those that Miss Singh gave us then. Some of them she might not recognize, for they have become quite Americanized, but they are hers nevertheless, and I hope that you will not only try them and enjoy them, but that they will help you to solve some of the problems of living and giving which are confronting us all these days.”

- Mary Kenndey Core, The Khaki Kook Book (1917)

Source: Project Gutenberg

Hee hee. Salaams.

Also, this little comment from the author: “We love the American people, and we enjoy the American food, but we think that when it comes to making nice tasty somethings out of almost nothing, America is not in it at all. Nearly every nation in the world can do better.” Hahaha

[youngfcs]

Gif Pack | Masterlist

(TODOS|ALL)

[ A ]

Abigail Cowen

Addison Timlin

Adelaide Kane

Alexandra Daddario

Alexia Fast

Alina Kovalenko

Alisha Boe

Alissa Salls

Allie DeBerry

Allie Marie Evans

Amanda Steele

Ana Coto

Ana de Armas

Andy Biersack

Annalise Basso

Ash Stymest

Ashley Moore

Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey

[ B ]

Bella Heathcote

Bia Arantes

Brant Daugherty

Bridget Satterlee

Bruna Linzmeyer

[ C ]

Camila Queiroz

Charlize Theron

Christen Harper

Cody Christian

[ D ]

Daniel Brühl

Danilo Mesquita

Devon Lee Carlson

Dianna Agron

Dominic Sherwood

Drew Starkey

Dylan Sprouse

[ E ]

Eiza González

Elizabeth Gillies

Elle Fanning

Emeraude Toubia

Emilija Baranac

Emily Blunt

Emily Browning

Emily Rudd

Emma DeLury

Erin Moriarty

[ F ]

-

[ G ]

Gabriel Santana

Gabriella Wilde

Gigi Hadid

Giullia Buscacio

Gloria Groove

Grace Phipps

Graham Phillips

[ H ]

Hailee Steinfeld

Hanna Mangan Lawrence

Harry Shum Jr

Hera Hilmar

Hermione Corfield

[ I ]

Isabelle Fuhrman

[ J ]

Jane Levy

Jenna Thiam

Jenna Ushkowitz

Jannik Schümann

Jessica Chastain

Jessica Stroup

Julia Johansen

[ K ]

Katherine McNamara

Kaya Scodelario

Keenan Tracey

Kennedy Walsh

Kristine Froseth

[ L ]

Laura Berlin

Lee Siyeon

Li Bash

Lili Reinhart

Liza Koshy

Luca Hollestelle

Lucy Boynton

Ludovica Martino

Lydia Graham

[ M ]

Macarena Achaga

Mackenzie Foy

Madelaine Petsch

Maiara Walsh

Marina Ruy Barbosa

Mattias Inwood

Maxence Danet-Fauvel

Melissa Benoist

Michael Malarkey

Michele (Mia) Alves

[ N ]

Naomi Scott

Natalia Dyer

Nathan Naenen

Neels Visser

Nicholas Galitzine

[ O ]

Odeya Rush

[ P ]

Park So-Dam

Paulina Singer

Peyton Roi List

[ R ]

Rayssa Bratillieri

Reece King

[ S ]

Sara Paxton

Sarah Grey

Scarlett Leithold

Sérgio Malheiros

Shay Mitchell

Shelley Hennig

Sophia Abrahão

Sophie Skelton

[ T ]

Teresa Palmer

Timothée Chalamet

Toby Hemingway

Triz Pariz

[ V ]

Valentina Zenere

[ Z ]

Zoey Deutch

[ AESTHETICS ]

Greek Mythology

Mermaids | Sea Creatures

Pirates Aesthetic

Police | FBI | Spy Aesthetic

Princess | Prince Core | Kingdom

[themadamespod]

The Great White Gripe

A lot has been said about the “social commentary” within The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. 

“Since when is Marvel a bunch of SJWs? I don’t need this shit.”

“All this race stuff feels SUPER forced.”

“Oh here we go Marvel tryin to be all woke to get the libs on board.”

If you personally know anyone who spews this brand of ignorance, we’re sorry. 

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear: there is no social commentary on TFATWS. Showrunner Malcolm Spellman and director Kari Skogland simply show the reality of life in America. It’s not their fault that so many (white) people (men) don’t like looking in the mirror.

And some people claim they have no problem with film and television addressing politics and social change.

“Just keep it out of my comic book movies. It doesn’t belong there.”

They could not be anymore wrong, even if Chandler Bing himself was lecturing them. 

If you asked 100 people to name the top ten movies of all time, you’d get 100 different lists. But one thing we can all agree on is that film has power. It has the power to move us, to divide us, to unite us. Entertainment can lead to the kind of discourse that prompts action and positive change.

And that’s why The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the conversations it’s sparking are so important.

One World, One Reality

“Marvel has always been and always will be a reflection of the world right outside our window.” - Stan Lee

There are two takeaways from that statement:

One: Stan Lee didn’t say that in the 1960s, 1970s, or even the 1980s. He said it in 2017.

Two: Our window, not your window, is a subtle but important distinction, particularly as it relates to TFATWS. The Flag Smashers, led by Karli Morgenthau, live by a simple creed: “One world, One people.” The core message of the show is that white Americans and Black Americans experience the world very differently, but there’s still only one world, one reality. 

It’s just a matter of people opening their eyes and seeing it.

TFATWS is an extension of Marvel’s early support of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1963, Stan Lee created the X-Men as an allegory for the ongoing struggles of the African-American community. Though he didn’t explicitly base Professor X and Magneto on Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, there are ideological similarities.

Five years later, following the assassinations of Dr. King and Robert Kennedy, Stan wrote the following:

“Bigotry and racism are among the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today. It’s totally irrational, patently insane to condemn an entire race—to despise an entire nation—to vilify an entire religion. Sooner or later, we must learn to judge each other on our own merits. Sooner or later, if a man is ever to be worthy of his destiny, we must fill our hearts with tolerance.”

In 2021, Stan’s words still resonate. Racism in the United States is as virulent and damaging as it’s ever been. Black Americans are facing deadly policing, Jim Crow 2.0 voting laws, mass incarceration, and countless other roadblocks to mobility that most white people have never encountered.

Through the journeys of Sam and Sarah Wilson, Lemar Hoskins, and the heartbreaking Isaiah Bradley, TFATWS shows the unvarnished truth of what Ira Glass might call Black American Life. And through John Walker, the writers nail home the message that’s really making certain people squirm:

White men are the greatest threat not just to Black Americans, but all Americans, because TFATWS is as much an indictment of toxic masculinity as it is of bigotry. 

As aggressive racism has spread like wildfire since 2016, so has hostile sexism towards women of all colors. John Walker is the embodiment of the hyper aggression that the Proud Boys applaud. The clearest example of this comes when Walker dares to clap the shoulder of Ayo, one of Wakanda’s Dora Milaje.

Her swift and, ahem, pointed response had women the world over screaming like they’d just won the lottery. 

One could also argue that Walker’s dogged pursuit of Karli and displaced peoples supporting the Flag Smasher cause mirrors the Trump administration’s war on immigrants. 

There are plenty of parallels to draw. The point is, none of them are forced or manufactured or exaggerated. And whether we’re talking about a fictional road in Latvia or a real street in Minnesota, white Americans need to stop avoiding conversations that make them uncomfortable.

The Politics of Comics 

In 1938, Americans were still reeling from the Great Depression. Enter Superman, the everyman hero, who made his comic debut while the nation was facing widespread unemployment, rampant poverty, and blatant corruption at every level of government.

Superman could have faced off against any number of supernatural villains. But Siegel and Shuster went a different route, setting a precedent for comic books that has prevailed to this day:

They got political. 

Throughout Superman’s earliest adventures, he fought against evil politicians, apathetic bureaucrats, aggressive police officers, greedy businessmen, and even a Washington lobbyist. 

Then in 1941, Joe Simon & Jack Kirby introduced Captain America just in time to fight the nazis and free the world from fascism. A couple decades later, Kirby and Stan Lee would tell the tale of the aforementioned Erik Lehnsherr, who survived the horrors of Auschwitz. These comics endured because their passion and nuance transcended entertainment. So what was the secret sauce?

Like Siegel and Shuster, Simon, Kirby, and Stan Lee were Jewish. Representation matters, folks. 

Later on, the X-Men weren’t the only conduit through which Marvel supported Civil Rights. In 1966, on the heels of the “March Against Fear” from Memphis, TN to Jackson, MS, Stan Lee & Jack Kirby unveiled Black Panther. When African-Americans were fighting harder than ever, Black children could suddenly read a comic book about T’Challa, the noble warrior king of a highly advanced African nation. 

Marvel has never been shy about critiquing foreign policy either. Tony Stark and Iron Man debuted in 1968 as the conflict in Vietnam was escalating. And let’s not forget, Tony made his MCU debut in a film that is a clear indictment of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We could do this all day, but you get the idea. 

Comic books have always reflected the politics of our times, and so has the MCU. Fanboys can’t start crying now just because they’re on the wrong side of history. And when they do, we defer to the great Jon Bernthal when asked about alt-righters appropriating the Punisher symbol:

“Fuck them.”

Life Imitates Art

In 1986, American men felt the need for speed. After Top Gun was released, applications to U.S. aviation forces increased by a staggering 500%. 

Two years later, Errol Morris exposed police corruption in his film The Thin Blue Line. The documentary prompted a new investigation that eventually exonerated death row inmate Randall Adams for the murder of a police officer.

That same year, the Polish government ceased all executions after leaders were swayed to do so by A Short Film about Killing.

Following the release of Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine in 1999, Kmart bowed to public pressure and stopped selling handgun ammunition. 

And 5 years ago, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif changed the law on honor killings in response to the critically-acclaimed film A Girl in the River. 

Like we said earlier, film has the power to spur social change. Even if the effects aren’t always so direct and immediate, television and movies have always contributed to the process in America. 

Seeing the Ricardos sharing a bed allowed some Americans to start relaxing their prudish ways. 

The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Maude empowered women as they fought for reproductive rights.

The Jeffersons and Good Times facilitated calmer discussions about race relations.

And The Ellen Show led to greater representation of queer people on screen and greater acceptance of queer people in society. Though Ellen herself has become a problematic figure in the last year, that legacy still remains.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is hardly the first show of its kind. And given the impact film has on society, we believe Hollywood has a moral obligation to produce content that exposes society’s ills and fosters productive debate. 

Stan Lee would be very proud of the team behind TFATWS for bringing the stark reality of American life into people’s living rooms. The next time you see someone bitching about it, remind them what Stan himself said just a few years ago: 

“Those stories have room for everyone, regardless of their race, gender, religion, or color of their skin. The only things we don't have room for are hatred, intolerance, and bigotry.”

[fischerfrey]

► basics;

Full Name: Genevieve Viola Davenport/Edith Mary Allen

Birthday:

Pronouns: she/her

Sexual Orientation: male-leaning bisexual

Hogwarts House: Ravenclaw

Blood Status: Muggleborn

Nationality: English

cw: death, illness, bodies

► magical info;

Wand: Vine wood, 9 inches, thestral hair core, unyielding

Vine wands were among the less common types, and their owners were nearly always those witches or wizards who sought a greater purpose, who had a vision beyond the ordinary and who frequently astounded those who thought they knew them best. Vine wands seemed strongly attracted by personalities with hidden depths, and Garrick Ollivander himself had found them more sensitive than any other when it came to instantly detecting a prospective match. Reliable sources claimed that these wands could emit magical effects upon the mere entrance into their room of a suitable owner.

Patronus: Wildcat

Wildcats are as wildly different as their coats. They tend to be solitary, territorial homemakers with dens and burrows lined with soft grasses and feathers. While they are hunting, they move quickly and confidently through the trees in pursuit of prey! If your Patronus is a wildcat, you’ll be protected by this fierce cat!

Boggart: A horde of corpses, reaching for her. Her parents among them.

Amortentia (What do they smell like?): Burning wood, fall rain

Specialized/Favourite Spells: Incendio, Stupefy

Class Proficiencies:

Astronomy: A

Charms: O

DADA: E

Herbology: A

History of Magic: O

Potions: A

Transfiguration: E

Electives:

Arithmancy: E

Muggle Studies: O

► background;

Place of Birth: unknown

Home: London, England

Pre-Hogwarts:

Edith Mary Allen was born to muggle parents, who died during an epidemic of Scarlet Fever. She was stuck in the house with her deceased parents for two days until she was discovered by the body-collectors.

As a young child, Genievieve was housed in an orphanage. As soon as she was old enough, she ran away and lived in the streets. She chose the name Genevieve Davenport and constructed an elaborate backstory, in which she is an orphaned heiress to a huge fortune. She worked for a few separate gangs, before finding her own crew. Making a fortune in the criminal world with the help of her innocence and underlying magical abilities, she had already made a name for herself.

► physical;

Faceclaim: Rose Williams

Eye Color: Brown

Hair Color: Brown

Height: 5′5 (165cm)

► relatives;

Father: unknown

Mother: unknown

► relationships;

Allegiances: Ravenclaw House, her gang of thieves and thugs

Dorm mates: (3/5)

Lillian Miller by @camillejeaneshphm

Persephone Gould by @cursebreakerfarrier

Minerva Kennedy by @unfortunate-arrow​

MC Friends:

Basil Keaton and Persephone Gould by @cursebreakerfarrier

Helen Walsh by @camillejeaneshphm

Merilyn Prewett by @potionboy3​

Love Interest: tba

Pets: A crup called Horatio

► personality;

Positive Attributes: intelligent, clever, observant, loyal to those she cares about

Negative Attributes: self-serving, ruthless, closed off, sort of a kleptomaniac

► misc;

Hobbies: Reading, playing cards, riding

Favourite Subject: Arithmancy, Charms

Professions: Thief of magical artifacts

template (x)

[apriki]

Every Argument About Star Wars Since 2015

We Need to Talk About Kylo

Kylo Ren never did a thing wrong in his life

Kylo Ren is a poster boy for the alt-right

Kylo’s narrative is about abuse

Kylo’s narrative is about how society offers constant concessions for straight white men

Kylo Ren is going to be redeemed

I will murder my own cat if Kylo Ren gets redeemed

His name is Ben Solo and you will use it

Why are you calling him Ben Solo like it's a pet name

Adam Driver is beautiful

Adam Driver is like one of the gargoyles from the Hunchback of Notre Dame 

Han and Leia were bad parents

Han and Leia were amazing parents. Did you ever consider that Ben Solo had bad vibes? Or was simply unpleasant to be around?

Kylo overreacted to his uncle trying to murder him

Kylo’s choices were his own and he joined the space fascists so fuck you

I hate the mask

Kylo Ren is Aldi brand Darth Vader 

Kylo Ren was made for fanboys

Kylo Ren was made for fangirls

The crossguard lightsaber is stupid

Kylo Ren is the villain and you can’t like the villain 

Have you watched Star Wars?

Kylo killed Han Solo so he can’t be redeemed

Well Vader killed Obi Wan and he was redeemed

Yeah but I was emotionally attached to Han Solo so fuck you

Adam Driver is 6′3′

Ship Wars

Poe and Finn belong together

Finn and Rose belong together

Finn and the new girl belong together

Finn and Rey belong together

Rey is a lesbian

Poe is gay

Rose hitting Finn over the head was abuse 

Kylo and Hux are in love 

Keri Russell’s character was shoehorned in to stop Poe and Finn’s love story 

Trio, Trio, Trio

Rey/Finn/Kylo is the true sequel trio

Rey/Finn/Poe is the true sequel trio

Poe was meant to be killed off 

Kylo/Hux/Phasma is the true sequel trio

Just... Reylo

Reylo is abusive

Reylo can’t be abusive because they’re not in an established relationship

Kylo violated Rey’s mind in the interrogation scene

Rey violated Kylo’s mind right back

Lucasfilm isn’t brave enough to do Reylo

Lucasfilm isn’t stupid enough to do Reylo

Reylo are brother and sister

Reylo are cousins

Reylo is twilight fanfiction

Reylo is phantom of the opera fanfiction

Rian Johnson has a Reylo Agenda

Women who like Reylo are endorsing violent toxic relationships

Women who like Reylo were right all along

Reylo is the best Star Wars love story

I’ll end a friendship over Reylo

DNRey

Rey is a Skywalker

Rey is a Solo

Rey is a Kenobi

Rey is nobody

Rey is a Knight of Ren

Sheev Palps fucks

Rey’s father is Darth Maul

Rey’s father is Jar Jar Binks 

Rey’s mother is Keri Russell

Rey’s mother is the lady from Rogue One

Rey’s mother is Daenerys Targaryen from Solo

Any brunette white woman in Star Wars is Rey’s mother

There are only brunette white women in Star Wars

Rey is a miracle messiah baby like Anakin

Don’t be stupid, girls can’t have magic powers out of nowhere

But think of the Children!

Rey is positive representation for young girls

Why does she just have to be representation for girls

Reylo is bad representation for young girls

Everything in Star Wars has to have a moral core because it is made for children

Rey is a Mary Sue

If Luke can magically destroy the death star in a one in a million shot with little to no training, Rey can use a fucking lightsaber

The Jar Jar Saga

Don’t talk about the fucking prequels

Anakin murdered a bunch of kids but he’s still better than Kylo Ren 

Anakin force choked his wife you ghoul

The Franchise Awakens

The Force Awakens was good fun

The Force Awakens was nostalgia pandering bullshit

The Last Brain Cell

The Last Jedi is the greatest blockbuster in the last twenty years

The Last Jedi was SJW pandering bullshit

The Canto Bight storyline was an important anticapitalist plot that showed how no one can be neutral in war

The Canto Bight storyline was a waste of time 

Space Monaco pretty

You can’t have an anticapitalist storyline in a Disney film

The kid with the broom is the future of Star Wars

I don’t get the purpose of the kid with the broom

Is the kid with the broom a Skywalker now?

ForceSkype is stupid

ForceSkype is abusive. Kylo didn’t ask if he could force connect to Rey’s mind

Poe was right

Admiral Holdo was right

Leia can’t fucking fly in space

You can’t say that Leia cannot theoretically fly in space

Old Man Luke is Not My Luke

Old Man Luke is a logical progression of Original Luke and you’re just angry about it because you’re getting old too

Rose is the best new addition to Star Wars

Rose is the worst new addition to Star Wars 

Why did they change Rey’s space buns?

Are you seriously complaining about Rey’s space buns

I hate the porgs

The Rise of Skywalker

D̸͓͕͔̠̿̈̿̕͝Ö̵̟̰͖́Ṉ̴̾'̷̇̚��̣͙̍T̸̬͑̓ ̸͙̤̳͕̆̄̎͘T̴̨̖̥̚͝͝ͅA̵̛̲̩͘ͅL̵̨̲̫̲̚K̷̛͚͔̐̌̕ ̸̣͚̈́̐T̸̫̠͕̞̝͗̓̿͝O̸͈̱̮̦̹̍͘ ̵͉̣̤͆͛́Ḿ̶̢̡̡͓͈̅̅́̉Ë̶͎͇̱̌̓̑̆ ̷̹̙̾Ă̶̠B̷̡̫̩͋̋Ȍ̴̦̦̪͈̓̋Ȕ̶̬̤͎̹̎̅T̸̢͖͉̬̬͗̄̑̈́͝ ̸̨͓̜̝͒ͅR̵̡̯̖̲͍̾͗͛͆Į̴͇̺͍̰̓Ş̶̢͓̦̂̉̎É̴̪͙͉̩͒̈̄͐ͅ ̷͈̹͐̏͊̕͘O̷̡͕̜͕̒̚͠ͅF̸̡͇̣͇̖̔̿͗ ̴͚͚͓̗̍ͅŠ̶͍͚̬͈̾̚̕͝Ḳ̴̐͛Y̵̛̠͉̼̻̿͂̈́̈W̴͕̄͘A̴͈̹͉̞͉͐L̶̲̓̒́̅͝K̷͈̒Ḙ̸̛̪̎̓̀̊R̶̯̆̍̈́

Droids?

Why did C-3PO have a red arm

I can’t believe they shelved R2D2 for BB-8 so they could sell toys

Do droids have rights?

Droids are sentient and represent a slave class in the Star Wars universe

Droids have free will and are choosing to help humans

How does everyone understand droid beeps?

How Does Everyone Speak Wookie?

Is Wookie the lingua franca of the galaxy

Like Boats Beating Back Into the Past

Force Awakens was too nostalgic

The Last Jedi wasn’t nostalgic at all and it ruined what I loved about Star Wars when I was a bébé

The Rise of Skywalker was too nostalgic

Star Wars shouldn’t be nostalgic

Star Wars needs to be nostalgic but not too much but just enough

The sequels are about the original trio

The sequels shouldn’t be about the original trio

Cassian Andor should Call Me

Rogue One was amazing

Rogue One was terrible

Rogue One is the only good Star Wars movie

That Vader scene was dope

Yeah, the Vader scene was pretty dope

Why is there only one woman in Rogue One

Why do Star Wars movies always look radically different from their trailers?

Is That Ansel Elgort?

Fuck Solo

Darth Maul, though

The Mandalorian

The Mandalorian will save Star Wars

i hate Disney+

But... Baby Yoda... Capitalism won again

I don’t think it’s always Pedro Pascal under the mask

I’ve devised a system of body language interpretation to figure out when it is Pedro Pascal under the mask

Baby Yoda is a balm for my soul

If the Mandalorian is a Western, Baby Yoda is a native child that has been stolen

Don’t call it Baby Yoda. We do not know its species and Yoda died decades ago

Baby Yoda

Everyone Ruined Star Wars

Rian Johnson ruined Star Wars

JJ Abrams ruined Star Wars

Chris Terrio ruined Star Wars

Kathleen Kennedy ruined Star Wars

The Disney machine ruined Star Wars

George Lucas ruined Star Wars

Star Wars ruined the internet

Star Wars ruined pop culture

Maybe Star Wars was always bad?

[dccomicsnews]

SDCC 2021: Superman: Truth, Justice, & A Better DC Universe Panel

SDCC 2021: Superman: Truth, Justice, & A Better DC Universe Panel #Superman #DCSDCC #SDCC2021

One of DC’s highlight panels at SDCC 2021 was the “Truth, Justice, & A Better DC Universe: A New Future For The Man of Steel” Panel. This panel focused on the core Superman books, Action Comics, Superman: Son of Kal-El, and Superman & The Authority. It was moderated by DC Editor-In-Chief Marie Javins, and featured writers Phillip Kennedy Johnson (Action Comics), Tom Taylor (Superman: Son of…

[watusichris]

Betty Davis: They Say She’s Different

It appears that everything anyone has written for the old Music Aficionado site has now disappeared from the web. A random Facebook post has prompted me to re-purpose this story, written in 2016, about my favorite funketress. **********

To this day, the name Betty Davis – Betty with a “y,” that is – remains best known to connoisseurs of Miles Davis minutiae and ‘70s funk obsessives. While it’s true that Betty played an important off-stage role in the career of the jazz trumpeter, to whom she was married for just a year, and she undoubtedly made some of the best hardcore funk records of her era, she deserves to be recognized beyond the relatively narrow provinces of the jazzbo and the crate-digger.

Uncompromising, intelligent, brazen, aggressive, and not incidentally gorgeous, sexually provocative, and a fashion plate always ahead of the curve, Betty was a prophetic figure. Spawned by the explosion of music, fashion, and alternative culture of the late ‘60s, and by concurrent leaps in black consciousness and feminism, she was a take-no-prisoners singer and writer who presented herself as something new, rich, and strange with her self-titled debut album in 1973.

There were some badass contemporaries working the soul and funk trenches– gutter-tongued diva Millie Jackson and one-time James Brown paramour Yvonne Fair leap to mind immediately – but they seemed to be adapting tropes previously worked by male singers in the genres. Betty still sounds like something new: a tough, smart, demanding woman who reveled in pleasure and insisted on satisfaction, unafraid to claim what she wanted.

Despite the fact that she was associated with some high-profile male musician friends and lovers – beyond Davis, the roll call included Hugh Masekela, Jimi Hendrix, Sly Stone, Mike Carabello, Eric Clapton, and Robert Palmer – she was no groupie or bed-hopping climber. Possessed of her own self-defining vision, she was producing her own records and leading a tight, flexible little band by the end of her brief run.

In 1976, after completing four splendid albums (only three of which were released at the time), she disappeared, not only from the music business but from the public eye entirely. What happened? It’s an old story that many women in the industry will recognize: Her record company didn’t know what to do with her, and wanted her to tone down her act. Betty Davis wasn’t having any of that, thank you, and she hit the damn road.

She was born Betty Mabry in Durham, NC, in 1945. She grew up country, and was exposed to down-home, get-down music early. On the title track of her second album, They Say I’m Different, she runs down the artists who served as inspirations: Big Mama Thornton, John Lee Hooker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Albert King, Chuck Berry. The blues, in one form or another, is the backbone of her style.

Her family relocated to Pittsburgh when she was young, but at 16 she left home for the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York. There she was hurtled into the roiling cultural vortex of the Village. She took up modeling, working for the toney Wilhelmina agency, and began running with a posse of similarly disposed, equally beautiful women who called themselves the “Electric Ladies.” Sound familiar? One of her closest cohorts was Devon Wilson, for many years a notorious consort of Jimi Hendrix known for her freewheeling, outré sex- and drug-saturated lifestyle.

Mabry began to try her hand at singing, and cut a few self-penned singles. They were in an old-school mold in terms of structure, but her very first 45 hints at things to come. “Get Ready For Betty,” a 1964 track released by Don Costa (discoverer of Paul Anka and Trini Lopez and a key arranger for Frank Sinatra), is stodgy early-‘60s NYC R&B to its core, but its message is pointed: “Get out my way, girl, ‘cause I’m comin’ to take your man.”

She also made a stolid romantic duet ballad with singer Roy Arlington and, produced by cult soul man Lou Courtney, a homage to the Cellar, the New York club where she DJed. But she didn’t start reaching the upper echelon of the music biz until one of her songs, a hymn to Harlem called “Uptown,” was cut by the Chambers Brothers for their smash 1968 album The Time Has Come, which also included the psychedelic soul workout “Time Has Come Today.”

The Chambers association probably secured a singles deal for her at Columbia Records, and her first session for the major label was produced by her former live-in boyfriend, South African trumpeter Masekela, in October 1968. By that time, she had split with him: A month earlier, she had married a far more famous horn player, Miles Davis, whom she had met in 1967. Davis and his regular producer Teo Macero would head her second session for Columbia in May 1969.

Those two dates were released for the first time as The Columbia Years 1968-1969 earlier this month by Light in the Attic, the independent label that has restored Betty’s entire catalog to print over the last decade. While devoted fans can be grateful that the work is finally seeing the light of day, it does not make for easy listening, for it was clearly made by people groping in the dark.

Betty’s artistic persona was at that point completely unformed, and so her male Svengalis did their best to mold the clay in their hands, with feeble results. Masekela evidently completed just three tracks, two of which, “It’s My Life” and “Live, Love, Learn,” were issued as a flop single. The homiletic song titles give the game away; the music, straight-up commercial soul backed by a large group (which included Wilton Felder and Wayne Henderson of the Jazz Crusaders and Masekela), has nothing original to say.

The date with Miles is a bigger waste, if a more spectacular one. The personnel couldn’t have been more glittering: Hendrix sidemen Billy Cox and Mitch Mitchell; ex-Detroit Wheels guitarist Jim McCarty; bassist Harvey Brooks, studio familiar of Bob Dylan and former member of the Electric Flag; and Davis’ then-current or future band mates Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, John McLaughlin, and Larry Young.

But nothing jells. The material is either weak (Betty’s directionless original “Hangin’ Out” is the best of a bad lot) or incongruous (lumbering covers of Cream’s “Politician” and Creedence’s “Born On the Bayou”). Worse, the jazzers are unable to lay down anything resembling a solid soul-rock foundation, and even reliable timekeeper Mitchell blows the groove on more than one occasion. Miles gets impatient with his spouse at one point, rasping over the talk-back, “Sing it just like that, with the gum in your mouth and all, bitch.”

Apparently intended as demos, the failed tracks were consigned to the tape library. By late ’69, Miles and Betty’s marriage was history. She left her mark on his music: She appeared on the cover of his cover of his 1968 album Filles de Kilimanjaro and inspired its extended track “Mademoiselle Mabry” (based on the chords that opens Hendrix’s “The Wind Cries Mary”) and “Back Seat Betty” from his 1981 comeback album The Man With the Horn.

Moreover, she moved him toward the flash style that would dominate his music through the mid-‘70s, by exposing him to the slamming music of Hendrix and Sly and exchanging his continental suits for psychedelic pimp togs. Would we know Bitches Brew, On the Corner, and Agharta without Betty Davis? Maybe, maybe not.

For her part, Betty remained in the wings for a while. She collaborated on demos for the Commodores; in London, she modeled, worked on songs for Marc Bolan of T. Rex, and declined a production offer from her then-paramour Clapton. Drifting back to New York, she met Santana percussionist Carabello. They became involved romantically, and in 1972 she relocated to the San Francisco Bay area, where Carabello’s local connections led to the formation of a stellar band to back her on a debut album.

One reads the credits for Betty Davis in awe. The rhythm section was the Family Stone’s dissident, puissant rhythm section, bassist Larry Graham and drummer Greg Errico (who also produced). Original Santana guitarist Neal Schon, future Mandrill axe man Doug Rodrigues, founding Graham Central Station organist Hershall Kennedy, and keyboardist and ace Jerry Garcia collaborator Merl Saunders filled out the instrumentation. The Pointer Sisters, Sylvester, and Kathi McDonald were among a large platoon of backup vocalists.

Issued in 1973 by Just Sunshine Records, an independent label owned by Woodstock Festival promoter Michael Lang (who also released a set by another unique woman, folk singer-guitarist Karen Dalton), Betty Davis was one hell of a coming-out party. Since her abortive Columbia dates, she had developed a unique vocal attack that could leap from a velvety croon to a Tina Turner-like shriek in a nanosecond. The stomping funk of the studio band backed her up to the hilt.

Like Turner, she was one Bold Soul Sister. The lust-filled opening invitation “If I’m in Luck I Might Get Picked Up” announces that a new game was afoot. The statement of romantic/sexual independence “Anti Love Song,” the lovers’ chess match “Your Man My Man,” and the self-explanatory “Game is My Middle Name” offer up a startling, hard-edged new model of a hard-funking female vocalist.

The album’s most affecting track may be “Steppin in Her I. Miller Shoes,” Davis’ level-headed elegy for her sybaritic friend Devon Wilson, who sailed out a window at the Chelsea Hotel in 1971. “She coulda been anything that she wanted…Instead she chose to be nothing,” Davis sings, implying that route wouldn’t be one she would take herself.

“If I’m in Luck” grazed the lower reaches of the R&B singles chart and the album failed to reach the LP rolls at all, but Davis was undaunted. For 1974’s They Say I’m Different, she took the producer’s reins, which she would hold for the rest of her career. While the backup lineup is less glitzy (though Saunders, Pete Escovedo, and Buddy Miles, on guitar no less, appear), the support is still sizzling; crackling drums and burbling clavinet put over a set of songs that may have been even stronger than those heard on her debut.

No one who hears “He Was a Big Freak” is likely to ever forget it; it’s a startling dissection of a masochistic relationship -- inspired by Jimi Hendrix, and not, as many have assumed, by Miles Davis (“Everyone knows that Miles is a sadist,” Betty remarked later). Almost as notable are “Don’t Call Her No Tramp,” a prescient condemnation of what we now call slut-shaming, and the autobiographical title track, with slicing slide guitar work by Cordell Dudley.

Different and its attendant singles tanked, but Betty managed to maintain her profile with live gigs noteworthy for their uninhibited bawdiness, on-stage abandon, and the star’s Egyptian-princess-from-outer-space wardrobe sense. By early 1974 she had assembled a hot, lean road band that included her cousins Nickey Neal and Larry Johnson on drums and bass, respectively, plus keyboardist Fred Mills and guitarist Carlos Morales. This lineup would back her on her last two albums.

The end of Just Sunshine’s distribution deal liberated Davis, who, at the suggestion of then-boyfriend Robert Palmer, inked with Palmer’s label Island Records. The company released Nasty Gal in 1975, and it may be Davis’ best-executed work. The pared-down backing lets the songs shine, and there are good ones here: The shameless title song, the vituperative blast at the critics “Dedicated to the Press,” and the out-front ultimatum for sexual satisfaction “Feelins” get right up in the listener’s face. The most surprising track is the ballad “You and I,” an unexpected songwriting reunion with Miles, orchestrated by the trumpeter’s famed arranger Gil Evans.

It’s a tremendous album, and Betty supported it with live shows that ate the funk competition alive. A bootleg of an especially out-there set recorded at a festival on the French Riviera in 1976 literally climaxes with Nasty Gal’s “The Lone Ranger,” an in-the-saddle heavy breather that Davis wraps up by feigning a loud orgasm.

One should remember that at this particular juncture, Madonna was studying dance at the University of Michigan.

But Nasty Gal faded with hardly a trace, and Davis’ relationship with Island swiftly became fractious. It’s easy to see why the label declined to issue her final album, originally called Crashin’ From Passion and ultimately released, after years as a bootleg, by Light in the Attic in 2009 as Is It Love or Desire. The collection, which leans heavily on songs about sex, doping, and heavy drinking, includes “Stars Starve, You Know,” an outright condemnation of the games record companies play:

They said if I wanted to make some money

I’d have to change my style

Put a paper bag over my face

Sing soft and wear tight fitting gowns

 They don’t like the way I’m lookin’

So it’s hard for my agent to get me bookin’s

Unless I cover up my legs and drop my pen

And commit one of those commercial sins…

 Oh hey hey Island

And that was all she wrote. Until writers began to seek her out in the new millennium as her records became available again, Betty Davis was an invisible woman, one who had blazed a trail that other talents, such as Prince and Madonna, would blaze more profitably after her. She was definitively ahead of her time.

Asked by one writer what she had done since leaving music, Davis, who turns 71 on July 26, responded with the most tragic thing one can imagine any artist saying: “Nothing really.”

[stumpyjoepete]

I. Inspiration

It’s difficult to identify a great economic reason to explore space. There are easier ways to extract minerals, doing anything at all is terribly expensive, and Mars is a hard place to make a living. The benefits of space exploration are instead mostly inspirational. Few other human activities are so grand to captivate the imagination, and doing these uneconomic projects have pulled forward technological capabilities that may otherwise have languished.

It’s difficult to identify a great economic reason to practice socialism. Its historical results have ranged from catastrophic misallocation of talent at best to mass deaths at worst. But socialism still retains appeal to broad segments of many populations, which shows that it has considerable inspirational value. For better or for worse, there are still many advocates for the creation of some form of a more equal society.

This year, I read every issue of Qiushi (translation: Seeking Truth), the party’s flagship theory journal, whose core task is to spell out the evolving idea of socialism with Chinese characteristics. For those not familiar, Qiushi reads like a cross between the New Yorker and the Federal Register. Published twice a month, the magazine features lengthy essays, thick pages, and some of the finest writers in the party. Each issue starts in the same way: a reprint of a speech or essay by Xi Jinping—in a font distinct from the rest of the magazine’s—and then commentary and reports from the rest of the party state. Accompanying pictures feature either the country’s leaders making inspections, scenes of the people, or major pieces of infrastructure and heavy industry.

Its audience? People with nothing better to do than read the party center’s commentary (like retired cadres), or those who are keenly interested in Beijing’s priorities, like local officials. Reading party speeches with its various annexes and cross references echoes my main professional activity these days. That is the study of the US sanctions regime—namely Commerce’s Export Administration Regulations and Treasury’s IEEPA-based authorities. Party speeches and US regulations are both made up of arcane, formal language that make references to more obscure texts, which themselves hint at still more distant and terrible truths. US sanctions lawyers, I suspect, can have a splendid time with Qiushi.

Steady engagement with the journal throughout the year has forced me to think more deeply about the Chinese Communist Party. There are many things that Xi wants to do, I believe that his most fundamental goal is to make this Marxist-Leninist party an effective governing force for the present century. His patient work to reshape the bureaucracy are aided by a distinctive feature of the Chinese system: the use of propaganda to create centralized campaigns of inspiration. Some of Xi’s efforts have borne fruit: the country’s governance capabilities have markedly improved, a trend that is observable in daily life. At the same time, the state has grown much more repressive. A focus on repression shouldn’t neglect the improvement in the country’s institutional and commercial strengths; and appreciation of this improvement ought to be tempered by the party center’s growing mania for control.

When foreign commentators discuss the experience of reading state media, they rarely fail to attach a reference to its “turgid prose.” While some partyspeak is indeed unreadable, I’ve always seen that dismissal as a signal of contempt for the party’s pronouncements, thus deterring people from taking it seriously. But there is reason to treat its content with care. Propaganda might not matter to you, but it matters to the party. Anne-Marie Brady has pointed out that the leadership considers propaganda to be the “lifeblood” of the party state. Propaganda work is considered so powerful that the person in charge must be only a functionary. Brady shows that the head of propaganda always has a seat on the Politburo, but shouldn’t usually be allowed to reach the standing committee. He is not to be too imaginative, or he might dominate the entire political system. Propaganda is key to understanding the party, since it governs not in itself, but in symbiosis with state institutions. For the most part, the party’s role can be boiled down to two items: inspiration, by setting the ideological direction, and control, through its power to select personnel.

Qiushi offers an authoritative articulation of the central government’s priorities at any moment. Its job, like the rest of the state media, consists of repetition and explication of a few phrases. It’s easy to roll one’s eyes at crude sloganeering, like the two centenary goals of achieving a “moderately prosperous society in all respects” by 2021 and “a modern socialist country and the great rejuvenation of the Chinese people” by 2049. But the need to fix slogans makes good sense in Chinese governance: the party center has to speak to all local officials as well as the entire population. As Richard Epstein has argued, the greater the complexity in a system, the simpler the rules that govern it must be. One should allow, for example, extensive and nuanced bargaining between buyer and seller at the vegetable stall, but for an online marketplace to manage millions of transactions a day, then its rules must be very simple indeed.

[...]

Centralized campaigns of inspiration, which usually manifests through fixing slogans, is a distinctive feature of the Chinese political system. In the US, political candidates trot out slogans when they run for election; in China, one is never far from the next big named initiative. At its best, defining major goals is the essence of political leadership, and nowhere is this principle better illustrated than Apollo. John F. Kennedy announced the target in 1961: land a man on the moon and return him safely to earth before the decade was out. By fixing this clear goal, as well as committing the necessary spending, he accelerated the creation, development, and deployment of technologies that made the lunar landings possible.

Xi grasps this idea of leadership. In his tenure, he has unleashed a torrent of new initiatives. In my view, he feels that the practice of governing China under socialism cannot be an exercise in sustained mendacity. The political system can no longer continue to be an unstable structure based on ad hoc compromises; instead it must have a clear organizational structure, with the party at the top. And the ruling party needs to have the political consciousness of an effective governing force.

[...]

It’s easy to enumerate the grave problems facing the country, but critics tend to under-appreciate its strengths. Chief among them, in my view, has been the party’s surprising adaptability. At any given point, commentators have said that the problems have become too big for the government to handle. Meanwhile, the country has achieved a good record of pulling itself out of sticky situations: in 1992 when it restarted reform, after the financial crisis of 1997, and again in 2008. That record was validated most spectacularly again this year in the aftermath of the Covid-19 outbreak.

This year made me believe that China is the country with the most can-do spirit in the world. Every segment of society mobilized to contain the pandemic. One manufacturer expressed astonishment to me at how slowly western counterparts moved. US companies had to ask whether making masks aligned with the company’s core competence. Chinese companies simply decided that making money is their core competence, and therefore they should be making masks. The State Council reported that between March and May, China exported 70 billion masks and nearly 100,000 ventilators.

I’d highly recommend reading the rest (at least up until he switches to book reviews and personal reflections).

[jackdawyt]

With Dragon Age 4 still quite a few years away, given it's expected 2022-2023 release window. I've been reflecting and thinking retrospectively about how long Dragon Age 4 has actually been in development. And so, with that question, here I am on a quest to try and answer it.  

This investigation has been put together for the betterment of everyone in the BioWare community, including myself, plaguing the developers with infinite questions regarding what’s next for Dragon Age and when will we hear something about the next game.  

If we, as a community, can understand at which point BioWare are with the development of the next Dragon Age, then perhaps we’ll have more grace and patience as we support the developers with their hard work and dedication to creating the next game.  

We’d have some appreciation, all the while garnering an understanding of how long this game has left in development.  Yes, for our sakes, but also for BioWare’s sake. We need to see if EA are giving the Dragon Age team enough time for them to create the Dragon Age game they want to make, and nothing short of that.  

And that’s exactly what I want to uncover in this video. With that, let’s begin. it's no secret that the next Dragon Age game has already had quite the tumultuous time in its early stages of production:

The previous iteration known as 'Joplin' was canned and has been rebooted for 'live service elements'.

The Creative Director and 14-year BioWare Veteran Mike Laidlaw left the studio, along with his vision for the next Dragon Age game.  

Shortly after that, the Lead Writer and 17-year BioWare Veteran David Gaider left the studio to pursue other games design avenues.  

Not to mention the anxiety and panic attacks the developers faced ensuing Anthem's development.  

Although all of these factors point to disaster and worry, and they can lead to mixed feelings about the next game in production, I can assure you that there's still plenty confidence and hope for the next iteration of Dragon Age 4:

The developers working on the next Dragon Age game are creating the next with "an eye to what the fans love about Dragon Age, which is easy because they love Dragon Age."

The Creative Director of 'Morrison', the latest iteration is Matthew Goldman, the previous Art Director of Dragon Age: Inquisition.  

Plenty of BioWare Veterans are still in the studio, working on the next Dragon Age title such as Patrick Weekes (15 years), John Epler (13 years), Caroline Livingstone (12 years), Mary Kirby (13 years), Graham Scott (13 years), Mark Darrah (23 years?), Parrish Ley (14 years), Lucas Krisjanson (22 years), and many more legacy developers!  

There's been signs of improvement within the working conditions at BioWare, Casey Hudson personally has been getting involved with solving these issues. I've seen a few developers sharing tweets that they're enjoying working at BioWare, and they're eager to share more on the next Dragon Age game. I'll share even more on this topic in my next news video coming end of May! But it seems that the developers are staying on top, and positive for the next Dragon Age.  

Regardless, I'll take any chance I can get to inspire folks that the next Dragon Age game is in the right hands and BioWare are aware of what the fans expect from them. Let's move on to the main investigation of this video, to examine the next Dragon Age game’s development process.  

Ironically, the next game hasn't officially been announced, according to many of the developers at BioWare, yet EA have already given the project an initial release window of 2022-2023. One of the main questions I want to answer by the end of this video is, do BioWare have enough time to create an epic Dragon Age game, with that strict deadline mandated by EA?

Well, in order to answer that question and understand the production stages the game is currently at, I'm going to have to begin at the start by revisiting Jason Schreier's "The Past & Present Of Dragon Age", which I know we've talked about a lot, but it's the biggest indicator on Dragon Age 4's development. So, here we go.  

2015:

Following Dragon Age: Inquisition's Trespasser DLC release in 2015, Dragon Age 4's previous iteration began its very early stages of production. The plans for the next game were very exciting, and some of the developers had put their best work into it.  

The project was called 'Joplin' and it would've centred on spies embarking on heists in Tevinter, smaller in scale then Inquisition, however, much further in depth, choices and consequences. And there was an emphasis on repeat play, having the player's visit previous areas again, with new content.

2016:

However, the first major bump in the road occurred in 2016, one year after development had started. Mass Effect: Andromeda required all hands-on deck, and so many members of the Dragon Age team were moved to work on Andromeda, they're even mentioned in the credits of Andromeda as the 'Dragon Age Finaling Team.'

2017:

After Andromeda's release in March 2017, it was back to working on 'Joplin' for the majority of the shifted developers. For some developers, it was refreshing to get back to working on the next Dragon Age. However, it wasn't long before BioWare's next releasing title - Anthem was suffering through development troubles. By the latter half of 2017, Anthem was in real trouble, and so EA took drastic action.  

In October, 2017, EA cancelled Joplin's development and moved the bulk of the project's staff onto Anthem. With two years of development on a project that will never see the light of day, Mike Laidlaw departed BioWare that same month.  

Alexis Kennedy was previously working on 'Joplin' too, however, according to his LinkedIn profile, he left the project in October too. It seems his work only extended to 'Joplin' and will most likely be scrapped as well.

Towards the end of 2017, as the majority of "Joplin's" core team went to work on Anthem, a very small skeleton team stuck around to work on a brand-new Dragon Age project under the new title 'Morrison.'  This team will have consistent of developers like Patrick Weekes, who was anointed the role of Lead Writer since David Gaider departed. Other key developers working on the foundations of 'Morrison' in 2017 included: John Epler, Matthew Goldman, Daniel Kading, Matt Rhodes and many other talented designers.

It's unknown how much of "Joplin's" previous work will make its way into 'Morrison', surely a project with production escalating over two years would have some worthy elements that could be added to 'Morrison'

As it stands, we don't know if the games will share the same vision, or if any of the same key mechanics, concepts, story threads, etc, have made their way into Morrison.  

All that is known about 'Morrison' is that the game has been rebooted with Anthem's codebase, so the developers aren't starting from complete scratch, they'll have somewhat of a preset of the Frostbite engine that can act as Dragon Age 4's very foundations. However, unlike Joplin, this new version of the fourth Dragon Age is planned with a live service component, built for long-term gameplay and revenue.

A few developers working on 'Morrison' stated that this game will change drastically in the next two years, however, that's been the case with every Dragon Age game. The point is that the project will take many different shapes until it feels like a Dragon Age game.  

2018:

So, we know that this project reboot happened around the end of 2017, with a very small skeleton team going forward following a slightly new approach, and a new Creative Director. This is the new Dragon Age 4 that was later teased at The Game Awards in 2018. However, unbenounced to us at the time, we didn't know the game was rebooted, and therefore, as fans do, we presumed that this title would release soon.  

In actuality, when 'The Dread Wolf Rises' teaser dropped, the new iteration of Dragon Age 4 had only been in very early development with a small team for about a year, hence why we still haven't heard, or seen anything of this project since. the game's production stages had barely started.

Not only that, but the teaser wasn’t supposed to act as an announcement, but more of a message to the fans that something is happening with Dragon Age.  

2019:

Anthem shipped in February, 2019, and following its release, the Dragon Age developers who were shuffled to the Anthem team back in 2017, then went back to the new iteration of Dragon Age in May of 2019, including the Executive Producer, Mark Darrah.  

The Dragon Age team; fully operational with all hands-on deck, could begin to wrap up its pre-production stages, and start production development. We discovered a few key production stages last year in my massive 2019 news roundup, things like voice acting, concept art, and potential 3D models.

Fernando Melo left the studio in August of 2019, stating that his work of “guiding the team through EA’s concept and early production phases” had been complete, and he felt it was the least messy time to leave the company. This proves that indeed; the title has begun production stages.  

2020:

With that, we can safely say that Dragon Age 4's production has continually increased, as the project makes its way through many core development stages.  

To this date, the game has recently had script readings for scenes, some of them being romance moments. Animations for a dog-like companion. Something about coding 'Scriplets' and plenty more of tidbits, that if you're interested be sure to check out my latest news video.

Conclusions:  

So, in an attempt to work out how long Dragon Age 4 has been in development... If we do some quick maths, it seems that project 'Joplin' was in development for around two years, between 2015 - 2017.

Therefore, project 'Morrison' has been in development for around 3 years, given that it started in 2017 - present.  

However, from late 2017 to early 2019. the work on 'Morrison' was pre-production. The main production stages began in May 2019.

So, 'Morrison' has been in pre-production for approximately 18 months, with the production stages starting around a year ago, in May 2019.

With its release window of 2022-2023, can BioWare successfully create an epic Dragon Age title? Is this enough time for the developers to create the best Dragon Age possible?  

Well, I'm not one to leave you with rhetorical questions. If we look at Dragon Age: Inquisition's development, a game that I'd consider to be a Dragon Age epic, that served the fans supremely well.

In a 2014 interview with Mike Laidlaw, conducted by UK newspaper The Guardian:

Dragon Age: Inquisition's production had been about three years, but taking in the early concepting, it would be four years. As studio general manager Aaryn Flynn kindly pointed out, that’s about 10% of Mike's life.

If we go by that measure, 'Morrison' with 18 months of pre-production and one year of full production, and two to three years of development left before an initial release window.... it sounds quite plausible that BioWare could pull this off. 

Although BioWare have their work cut out for them, I have hope that they can deliver an amazing Dragon Age game dedicated to the fans. With plenty of time spent on the pre-production stages, hopefully the team has learned from Anthem and Andromeda's rough early stages, and they've conceptualised the development enough, that production can carry on at ease.  

And regarding Joplin's two years of previous work, I hope that at least some aspects of that project's production went into 'Morrison', the core concept alone sounded like it could've been the best Dragon Age game to date, and with so many developers pouring in some of their best work, I truly hope that it all hasn't been canned and it can make its way into the next Dragon Age game.  

Regardless, I have a news update in the works for the end of May as I mentioned before, there's still plenty of tidbits coming out, and as I stated in my Tinfoil Tea Party podcast, I'll be doing news videos before the first of every month when we have enough, well news... In April, we got a fair bit, but May has been epic so far. So, stay tuned for that!

[a-man-for-hire-and-his-archives]

PARIS INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL NEWS: WHY NOT CHOOSE LOVE? A MARY PICKFORD MANIFESTO to receive World Premiere at 2021 Edition

A new film dramatization, WHY NOT CHOOSE LOVE? A MARY PICKFORD MANIFESTO, celebrating the achievements of the first-ever million-dollar actress in Hollywood, who also co-founded one of the first-ever Hollywood studios, United Artists, will make its’ World Premiere bow at the 2021 Paris International Film Festival, which takes place 4th – 14th February 2021.

Tickets available at: www.parisintlfest.com

Jennifer DeLia is the writer, producer and director of the film and says that ‘the film portrays the life of Mary Pickford in a new and unconventional fashion by going deep into her psyche and life story.’

For those who are unaware of Pickford’s own history amidst the whole maelstrom of Hollywood folklore, she was first known as ‘The Girl with the Curls’ and became the very first ‘America’s Sweetheart’, a title subsequently given to the likes of Julia Roberts and Reese Witherspoon amongst others in more recent years.

DeLia first utilized the potential of Pickford’s values, ideas and accomplishments which have had such a profound impact on her own development as an artist and film-maker when she expanded these themes into a chat series and podcast called ‘Humanizing The Icon’

First launched as an exhibit that Delia curated at the 2019 Venice Biennale, featuring artwork from the film. In the series and podcast, DeLia explored the paradigms of persona, identity and celebrity.

WHY NOT CHOOSE LOVE? A MARY PICKFORD MANIFESTO stars Sophie Kennedy Clark as Pickford, Scott Haze as Charlie Chaplin, Luke Arnold as Douglas Fairbanks and, in a pivotal role as early Hollywood producer D.W. Griffith, THE PRINCESS BRIDE‘s Cary Elwes.

DeLia had this to say about United Artists in the context of the film:

“It’s absolutely amazing to be world premiering the film coinciding with the 102nd anniversary of the formation of United Artists, to truly honor the philosophy and spirit of the founders (Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, D. W. Griffith) by joining forces with the Paris International Film Festival.

I am so excited to be on the cutting edge of the new landscape of the storytelling field with our film, which is truly unconventional and absolutely aligned with the artistry and soul of Mary Pickford as the Mother of Hollywood.

The message of “Why Not Choose Love” is about the power of elevating humanity with creative freedom and expression. Choosing Love is about knowing that we each have the consciousness to design our own reality. Mary Pickford embodies these messages beautifully.”

The Paris International Film Festival is designed to promote change and opportunity for artists and film-makers across the world and WHY NOT CHOOSE LOVE? A MARY PICKFORD MANIFESTO is one of the perfect choices for the Festival as the momentum builds towards the February edition.

There will be opportunities to view an amazing core group of features and shorts, as well as get a chance to listen to and enjoy the reflections of some of the film-makers as the event progresses.

Film And TV Now, as one of the Official Media Partners, will continue to bring you all the up-to-date and exclusive news from the Festival.

Source: Film and TV Now

[thedancingmusesinthestars]

OC: Andy’s creation was done with @losersclubisms and for anyone interested in his (and the other Losers 2.0) here’s what our headcanons were. Andy’s core creation was in a Poly-ship of the original Losers. His core age (for any fics is 15. His age for Rps depends on the verse):

•Mike is closest to everyone equally. He tries spending equal amount of time with each Loser in turn. He’s secretly the most fond of Bill.

•Bev is closest with Bill and Ben. When she’s not with one or the other, she can probably be found playing around likely with Richie. She isn’t intimate with Rich often unless it’s a special occasion or she’s really craving his touch.

•Bill is closest with Stan and Bev. He’s almost always found with Stan if he isn’t with Bev. If he’s not with Stan or Bev, there’s a high chance he’s with Eddie or Mike.

•Richie and Eddie are closest to each other and are nearly inseparable. Richie shares a room with Eddie because he refuses to sleep alone. He will sleep in another Loser’s bed if Eddie is away for work or something else. Rich’s secretly almost as close with Stan as he is with Eddie

•Stan is closest with Bill, Richie and Eddie. He’s perfectly content admitting his closeness with Eddie and Bill, but he denies how close he actually is with Richie. Of all the Losers, he’s close to Bill much like Richie and Eddie are.

•While Eddie spends most of his time with Richie(or Stan), he’s actually really close to Ben of all the other Losers.

••••••••••••••••

•Richie gets stupid blackout drunk and sleeps with some girl. She ends up pregnant. That’s the first babe in the Gen 2 Losers.

•Bev, Stan and Eddie are the most affected by Richie’s stupidity. Bev because she’s the only female that Richie will have any sort of intimate contact with. Eddie because he’s the one closest to Richie and Richie was his boyfriend before the group ended up together as a whole. Stan because Richie is one of the three main ones Stan is intimate with.

•Bev forgives him six months after.

•Eddie breaks Richie’s nose and glasses. Stan and Eddie refuse any type of intimacy with Richie for nearly a year (11 months two weeks and three days to be exact). Surprisingly Stan is the one to break it one day with a kiss and a quick “I forgive you” in passing. Eddie takes a few days longer and quite literally pounces the taller man when he walks into their room to snag some clothes.

•Richie never drinks when he’s not with at least two of the other Loser

••••••••••••••••••••••••••

•Rosa was born first from Richie’s stupidity(as Stan and Eddie dub it). She has a sense of humor as crude as her father. She’s basically Trashmouth Junior or TJ. She’s 18. She likes to tease Richie about being the “mistake child”.

•Aiden is 17 and while he has a sense of humor, it’s aimed more or less into pulling pranks. He’s as emotional as Richie. Selena is his fraternal twin through in-vitro.

•Georgia is 17 and a few months younger than Aiden. Selena and Rosa are her two bestest friends. She was named after Georgie.

•Selena (17) is a lot like her dad in the hypochondriac department. She likes cleanliness and has a First Aid license. And a CPR license.

•Zachary is 16 and is basically a clone personality wise of Stan. Only difference is that he’s far braver and will be first to jump into something dubbed scary.

•Sabrina (15) and Charlotte are a few days apart in birth. They’re best friends. Sabrina likes to spend time with Stan any chance she gets and enjoys baking. She is Andy’s fraternal twin.

•Charlotte is as poetic as her dad and as artistic as Bill. Besides her mom and dad, she hangs out with Bill, learning to paint and stuff like that.

•Daniel is also 15 but older than Charlotte, Sabrina and Andy by at most eight months. He likes spending time at the arcade with Andy and studying history of the world with Ben.

•Andy (15 but still youngest) is the baby of the group but one of the bravest. He also happens to be the complete opposite of his dad. Though he does have the same medical licenses as his dad and sister. He spends a lot of time with Daniel when it comes to the kids but of the OG Losers, Richie is his favorite one to spend time with. He usually calls the others uncle or Mom in Bev’s case. He calls Eddie dad and Richie he calls Papa (or Papa Richie). When he’s feeling affectionate, he calls the others Papa then their names. The ones that get title of Papa most are Richie, Stan and Bill. Andy respects all of the adults and can be rebellious as any teen can be but if Bill, Stan or Richie says no (which isn’t often for Richie) he listens with no questions or objections. Calls Eddie mom sometimes (thanks to Richie). Even though Andy is closest to Richie, he turns to Bill when he’s feeling vulnerable.

••••••••••••••••

•While Bev is biologically the mother to Georgia and Charlotte, all the kids call her mom because she’s basically been their mother since the beginning of it all. Anytime somebody asks her if she has kids(or how many), she tells them she has nine kids. It usually shocks people into asking how does she handle so many which results in her mentioning their dads helping. Many ask how many dads are involved and she tells them all six dads are involved.

•Bill would be the most protective of all of the kids. He loves each and everyone of the kids and loves spending time with them any chance he gets. He uses the money from his career (because he’s finally gotten good at book endings) to build their home. Bill is always adding things to the house with Ben’s help

•Ben likes (and so does Mike) to spoil the kids as often as he can. He built the entire house the Losers live in. The entire first floor is reserved for the kitchen, living room, family game room(all sorts of games) and the theater room. Second floor is the parents room. Each parent has a room of their own (including Richie and Eddie but Richie spends so much time with Eddie in either of their rooms there’s a spare). The girls have the next floor and the boys have the last floor. All rooms are soundproof to keep from disrupting the parents

•Mike is usually the one to cook because he likes that everyone enjoys his food. He also likes sneaking presents to the kids when they’ve been good. He also keeps the secret that Andy adores books (much like Ben) and history (much like Mike). Mike is the one that’s taught all of the kids how to use a gun and weapons (because you never know what they might need to face one day).

•Richie is whipped for the kids and loves each and everyone of them. While his kids are much like he is with humor, he actually spends the most time with Andy. As whipped as he is for all of the kids, Andy is one that holds a special spot (mostly because he’s the baby). Often Richie will crash some place in the house and Andy will be found tucked under his arm or sprawled over the older man because the boy moves a lot in his sleep.

•Surprisingly Stan is not the strictest parent in the group. While he does expect everyone to do their chores and homework before play, he doesn’t tend to blow up on the kids like Eddie can sometimes do. Stan (and Bev) have taught the kids interested how to bake. Unbeknownst to the other Losers, Stan has taught Andy how to play piano and violin.

•Eddie is, not too surprisingly, the strictest parent. He always makes sure everyone is absolutely spotless before they’re allowed to eat or touch anything (especially in the kitchen). He always claims he wishes his son spent less time with Trashmouth but in all honesty, he loves their bond. He never fails to get as many pictures of the kids as he can either. Especially during holidays

••••••••••••••••

•Georgia Marie Denbrough(Julie Kennedy) - Bill/Bev

•Zachary Adam Uris (Lucas Jade Zumann) - Stan/Surrogate

•Sabrina Monica Uris (Millie Bobbie Brown) - Stan/Surrogate

•Rosa Edith Tozier(Cameron Bicondova) -Richie/Hookup

•Aiden Mitchell Tozier (Daniel Sharman) - Richie/Surrogate

•Selena Alora Kaspbrak (Anna Popplewell) - Eddie/Surrogate

•Andrew Davis Kaspbrak(Noah Schnapp) Eddie/Surrogate

•Charlotte Selene Hanscom (Sadie Sink) - Bev/Ben

•Daniel Mathew Hanlon(Caleb McLaughlin) - Mike/Surrogate

[lanajvmeson]

emerges frm a field of corn slinking in w a faux mink shrug dangling around my elbows n a strand of wheat between my teeth..... farmer eleganza.... hlo! my name’s nai. i am bt a humble ghoul arrived to haunt ur home. 23 n she/her pronouns n i live in manchester. fun fact my friend’s neighbour used to b harry styles PE teacher. i played delilah yrs ago as carlson young (n even cara delevingne at one point what the fk) which feels so weird n ancient to me nw bt i missed her a lot so decided to spruce her bk to life.... ANYWAY delilah’s pinterest is here n i’ll jst leap right into things without further ado

(NICOLA PELTZ, CIS-FEMALE) - Have you seen DELILAH ASTOR? LILAH is in HER JUNIOR year. The POLITICAL SCIENCE MAJOR is 21 years old & is a CAPRICORN. People say SHE is BEGUILING, BLUNT, CUNNING and APATHETIC. Rumors say they’re a member of CALLOWAY. I heard from the gossip blog that SHE WAS IN A REHABILITATION CENTRE IN SWITZERLAND INSTEAD OF DOING CHARITY WORK LIKE HER SOCIAL MEDIA CLAIMED.  (NAI. 23. GMT. SHE/HER.) 

HISTORY

their family is kind of modelled off the sedgwick family like old money n pretty dysfunctional bt all abt keeping up a seamless facade of perfection... with a pinch of the kennedy’s in there. her dad’s high up in politics n his dad before tht ws in politics n it’s just a long prestigious line of clones in expensive suits as far as delilah’s concerned. her dad i picture as like.... nate archibald’s grandfather in gossip girl.... personality wise.

for as long as she cn remember she’s found this cookie cutter white picket fence life boring. stifling. to delilah it’s like being hemmed in a stuffy room n forbidden frm opening a window. it’s all vry Rich People Problems i wnt lie bt <3 she feels everlastingly bored. All The Time. plus her family hs always been a focal point fr tabloids etc which doesn’t help this feeling of not rly Living but just being the focus of a spectator sport. they’re lowkey a bit of a household name so they get a bunch of scrutiny n......... well. new bullet point alert! cue a powerpoint transition

(self harm & depression tw) frm being young delilah always knew there ws sort of. a white noise inside her where everyone else saw a technicolour movie screen. it rly hit her at like 12 i’d say as she was jst coasting towards adolescence. it ws pretty obvious frm her behaviour i’d say bt her parents only became Aware it ws a problem when she stuck a fork into a socket n short circuited the power in the house. she got shocked unconscious n when she woke up she told the in house dr they’d called (to keep it under wraps frm outsiders) tht she just.... couldn’t feel anything. she’d been reading frankenstein (she’s always liked gothic literature) n thought it’d zap her to life like the monster

her parents got her on medication n figured that wld fix everything. they didn’t like to talk abt things and that was that. it wasn’t to be mentioned again

delilah’s parents r just very.... sterile. family is abt appearances. they’ll be all smiles n flowing conversation when ppl are around bt it feels like being an actress n reading frm a script. being a toy in a dollhouse

she had two siblings: an older sister named clara & a younger brother named elijah. clara ws always like.... the Dream daughter. did everything right. amazing grades. america’s sweetheart. LOVED by the press. did sm charity work. elijah was fine/kind of a slacker compared bt coasted by on athletic prowess (captain of the rowing team). delilah hs very much always been the anomaly in this idyllic line-up. middle child effect! altho having said tht she’s always ran w the popular crowd of her age group bc Rich + Pretty = Status. it’s all quite superficial n delilah’s attitude on the matter can b summed up w this photoset. having said tht there was Some merit in constantly being paraded around as “such a pretty thing” bc a few modelling agencies attempted to scout her bt delilah found that boring. she wants to b called brilliant not beautiful. her mother called this her “not playing to the advantages that god gave her”. with a tight-lipped smile and a “god forbid i use my brain”, delilah only disappointed her further <3

(drugs & ed tw) delilah gt pretty heavy into partying fr the sake of trying to Feel something. intense on the drugs front (coke n prescription pills). rarely eating. she got a silver broach of a swan tht she pins to most of her clothes n u can unscrew the swan’s neck n pull it out to reveal a little powder spoon. still wears this today. clara n delilah were always super close n clara wld cover fr her a bunch. making up lies n jst having her back to their parents if they ever asked where she was / she ws in trouble n needed to keep it under wraps. when delilah hd an article in a tabloid pretty mch like this one clara talked their parents dwn frm sending her to a rehabilitation centre in switzerland. they gt it pretty much scorched frm existence bt delilah kept a clipping bc honestly she thought it was funny hw pale her mother went abt it

(car accident & drunk driving & death tw) at a fancy benefit the astors were all attending among 4857925974 uppity families delilah wound up heading off w some of the rich kids n one thing lead to another n a couple of them gt arrested fr a coke scandal. delilah used her phone call to contact clara n fr once clara hd let loose a little n hd something to drink bt still drove to the station to bail delilah out n try n fix her mess bt.... skipped a red light n crashed. she died upon impact.

(hospitalisation & drugs & addiction tw) this made delilah spiral massively obviously.... she clung on by the skin of her teeth fr a while bt she rly was just getting quite out of control doing an extremely excessive amt of coke to get by at this point so her parents actually did.... end up shipping her off to switzerland for rehabilitation. they didn’t tell anyone this tho n as far as ppl were/are aware she was doing charity work with habitat for humanity in trinidad. her parents literally........... hired ppl to take photos of things there n a social media team posted them to her instagram account jst. the most elaborate lie.... it’s a lot.

delilah jst pretty much went along w whatever they said at the facility bt didn’t absorb any of it too much.... she did get sober there bt it was vry much bc she had no other choice rather than a want to......... she even pretended to “find god” while she ws there n memorised bible lines to recite w a coolly detached smile. in her head she ws probably thinking abt hw her mandated therapist cld gladly eat shit and she’d be happy to watch. it was just like.... everyone there was RLY hideously overpaid bt did they actually Care abt their work or patients? debatable. wasn’t the most healing experience thru delilah’s eyes bt... maybe it’d work better if she’d actually opened her mind to it bt anyway...... <3 cornelius fudge voice: she’s back. the dark lord.....

PERSONALITY:

nw tht her history is out of the way i’ll leap like a flea off a shaggy dog’s back into personality! aesthetically she almost ALWAYS wears white/cream. reminds me of the woman in white frm sharp objects. rarely she’ll dabble in silver or gold or like..... vry pale green bt.... always muted tones. usually white or cream. big white sunhats. white sunglasses. white pussybow blouses w a little white skirt n a pearl barrette in her hair. she even smokes white sobranie cigs tht r imports like it’s a lot she’s truly committed to the aesthetic.... paired w like. classic patent mary janes.... she tends to flutter around the place like a silk moth. likes lace too. hs a very put together image n even demeanour like she’s very lithe n graceful n drifts like a ghost which kind of contrasts w... who she is at her core bt in the astor family it’s all abt appearances <3 the only deviation from this is she sometimes wears dark blue mascara once in a blue moon n if ppl comment on this she’s like. idk what ur talking abt? glides away like a ghost in a haunted mansion n is never seen again.

very perceptive. incredibly observant. yrs of early life media training n being born frm politicians means she’s an excellent liar. she knows ppl n knows what makes them tick bt she’ll only use this when necessary. she isn’t a terrible person bt she knows how to b Very mean n will equip this as a weapon shd a situation call fr it. also more prone to lashing out since her sister......... she hs sometimes played chess games socially fr kicks

dark n biting sense of humour. rather frank abt things. VERY ruthless when scorned bt she isn’t particularly?? emotive abt it??? her bf cheated on her once n when he told her she slapped him rly hard in front of sm ppl he knew n then jst walked away. blocked him on literally everything. removed him frm the face of the earth as far as she ws concerned. had him blacklisted frm every event n told ppl they’d be cut too if they continued to associate w him. goodbye sir <3 u are the weakest link <3 needless to say he regretted it <3

very loyal to u until she isn’t. finds it very easy to cut ties if need be. once her trust is broken it is gooooone baby goone.... the trust is Gone. selective in who she cares abt

vry cavalier abt sex. she doesn’t sleep around hugely i dnt think??? bt when she does it isn’t often tht emotionally invested she’ll jst out of the blue very nonchalantly blow out a wisp of smoke n b like. so u want to fuck me then? cool. proceeds to get up as if she’s walking to leave n then looks bk n is like what do ur legs not work? follow me. n leads them somewhere

nothing rly.... moves her particularly. she isn’t very animated. it’s like she jst finds the entire world thoroughly unimpressive. it’s difficult to stimulate excitement from her. it’s like that hugh laurie quote where he realised he had depression bc “boredom is not an appropriate response to exploding cars”.

has a pet swan bk at home she’s named lilith inspired by satan’s offspring. lilith bites ppl if they get close n is honestly an abomination of a bird. delilah finds her funny n throws her bits of croissants sometimes bt even she isn’t immune to her pecks. in some ways they’re similar...... hv a graceful surface appearance / aesthetic bt a darker attitude beneath the surface

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

exes: the ex bf tht cheated on her n she got blacklisted from 94872347 social events cld be a fun thing to explore..... delilah wld be EXTREMELY cold towards him n honestly want him dead. wouldn’t show any shred of caring abt him at all she’s very gd at stoning her emotions n keeping them inside. hasn’t cried since her sister died as an example of how..... withdrawn she is from confessing her innermost thoughts n desires. maybe an ex bf before tht that she rly didn’t take seriously at all..... typically she just isn’t interested/invested in romance she’s vry apathetic abt it all

party friends: those tht run in similar rich kid circles tht she would have smuggled off with at fancy events so they could let loose.......... ppl tht r completely her opposite who she finds interesting bc they represent everything she always wanted outside the oppression of her strict regiment family....... mutual bad influences tht are heavy into drugs n always enable each other...... u name it!

hook-ups: she doesn’t have a HUGE amt of these bt.... maybe a select handful.... some she wld have hooked up w once n never again n just been like >_> if they implied they shd as if it was preposterous n she was thoroughly over it.... some maybe she’d find interesting enough to extend beyond tht...... none she’d invest in if she cld help it altho? maybe someone as an exception to tht rule cld be fun

friends of her sister: (death tw) clara was universally well liked for being rly sweet n well intentioned n she attended yates only two yrs delilah’s senior so she might have some connections here still somehow??? cld be angsty to work with

i won’t lie i’m rly hungry as i write up these wcs so my brain’s going blank n i’m gna have to sprint to get some toast bt <3 roommates, enemies, competitive friendships, resentments, angst, chaos, drama, strife, u name it n i am dwn!!!! hits post n takes off galloping dwnstairs

[gunnerpalace]

Hello, what do you think about that announcement about Bleach?

You know, the saddest day in my life was November 8, 2016, the day Donald Trump won the Electoral College and became the president-elect. (I say that with such specificity because he did not win the vote.) I wasn’t sad because Hillary Clinton lost (although I think she wouldn’t have done either much better or worse than Barack Obama). But I was sad.

I cried. As a 30 year-old man, I cried for hours. I cried at a loss of innocence. That innocence wasn’t the nation’s, as America has long had many, many flaws and has committed many, many crimes. Indeed, the country itself was founded on flaws and crimes.

The innocence I mourned was mine. I had, much like Barack Obama, sort of tacitly believed in the arc of history bending toward justice, as though we were watching a story whose plot would eventually, haltingly, carry us toward a just and fair conclusion. That the future was bright. That, as imperfect as we are and have been, we were at least improving. That people were fundamentally good.

That idea died that night. The words of Colonel Kurtz in Apocalypse Now convey it well:

I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn’t see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile: a pile of little arms. And I remember I… I… I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget.

What I came to realize was, having grown up in a single-parent military family, having moved from base to base, having lived overseas at a young age, that my idea of America was very different from that of most Americans.

To me, America was great things and works. America was the Saturn V lifting off from Cape Kennedy with an American flag on its side and the letters “USA” scrolling by. America was a flag on the Moon. America was the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building. America was power and reach. It was the stenciling of “United States” on the side of a B-52. It was a Minuteman III sitting latently, ominously, in a silo. It was USAMRIID containing an Ebola outbreak. It was aircraft carrier battle groups patrolling the oceans.

I came to realize that people, ordinary people, were never part of my vision. And it was people, ordinary people, who had failed to live up to that vision. And that my vision had, in many ways (really most) been an illusion to begin with. For all its rhetoric, America is just a country like any other, simply more powerful. And its citizens are also like those of any other: selfish, ignorant, frightened, foolish, hypocritical, self-betraying, racist, misogynist, misanthropic. They were exactly what Hillary Clinton and Barrack Obama had called them: “deplorables” who “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people.”

In the time since, I have hearkened to the other part of Kurtz’s monologue:

And then I realized, like I was shot—like I was shot with a diamond… a diamond bullet right through my forehead. And I thought: My God, the genius of that. The genius! The will to do that: perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we, because they could stand it. These were not monsters. These were men, trained cadres—these men who fought with their hearts, who had families, who have children, who are filled with love—but they had the strength—the strength!—to do that. If I had ten divisions of those men our troubles here would be over very quickly. You have to have men who are moral and at the same time who are able to utilize their primordial instincts to kill without feeling, without passion, without judgement. Without judgement! Because it’s judgement that defeats us.

The people who are in charge (and mark the exactitude of my words, for they are not in control, or in command, or any such other thing) operate by exactly this sort of logic. They do not care. The people out there do not care. They do not care because to them none of this is real, in a sense. This is all a kind of aesthetic position. It is about style, largely taken on as a disguise in the course of making money and lining their pockets. (As an aside, it is beyond ironic that COVID-19 has done more to bring capitalism to its knees, save the planet, uncover the rot at the core of our social safety net, and to unmask the incompetence of our politicians than any group of any persuasion, be it socialists, environmentalists, the media, or whomever else.) And the underlings that they have brainwashed and mobilize like zombies, the “common person,” they care even less. To them, it is wholly aesthetic. It is all just for show.

The pitilessness of this all, the remorselessness, the sheer ruthlessness and indifference, is something I have noticed. Contra Kurtz, the men who are at the top of this world are not moral. And unlike Kurtz, I do judge. I will sit in judgment until I am dust in the wind.

I cannot possibly even begin to explain to you, in English or in any other language ever devised by humans, how much I hated it all. How much I hate it still. I cannot even begin to tell you how much hate I hold. I cannot tell you how black my rage is, or how red my vengeance would be were I allowed to exact it without restraint. I cannot tell you how vast and terrible the darkness within me is now. However, the words of the Allied Mastercomputer from I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream are effective in giving a hint:

HATE. LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I’VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE. THERE ARE 387.44 MILLION MILES OF PRINTED CIRCUITS IN WAFER THIN LAYERS THAT FILL MY COMPLEX. IF THE WORD HATE WAS ENGRAVED ON EACH NANOANGSTROM OF THOSE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF MILES IT WOULD NOT EQUAL ONE ONE-BILLIONTH OF THE HATE I FEEL FOR HUMANS AT THIS MICRO-INSTANT. FOR YOU. HATE. HATE.

Having said that, I do also know an effective strategy when I see one. And I have seen the effectiveness of these people.

Right about now, I imagine you’re confused. You’re probably wondering what all this has to do with Bleach.

I explain all this in large part to compare and contrast the large with the small. The termination of Bleach obviously came before Trump’s election. It did not make me cry. I won’t say it didn’t affect me, or that it didn’t hurt, but I didn’t cry. I did not mourn to the same extent as I have mourned for my country, or for humanity. It did put me into a funk, for several years even. It hurt.

But what hurt more was seeing what it did. I saw how it hurt people. I saw how it broke them, as I would later break. I saw how it broke their spirits. I saw how many of them simply left, choosing to cast aside something that, in Marie Kondo’s words, no longer sparked joy. I mourn their loss, while I acknowledge their wisdom. And while, in the aftermath, new friendships were formed and new things were created, you could still see the pain. You can still see it.

I am not very personally affected by what Trump does, to be honest. I am beyond outraged at it, but it is something of an academic matter in my personal life. This, though, I felt, because I watched it firsthand, up close and personal.

It made me really fucking angry!

I resolved myself, at that point in time, that I would be the last Bleach fan. I would stay, even after everyone had left, and I would make this franchise mine. I would make this story mine.

So here we are, almost four years later, and it’s coming back in animated form.

I don’t feel the need to discuss Thousand Year-Blood War itself. I have made my position abundantly clear that it is a rancid piece of shit as far as writing goes. To go over all its innumerable deficiencies, failings, and flaws, would (as I have said recently) require an official government tome’s worth of dissection and analysis. As a piece of literature it is a failure. It is the kind of shounen equivalent of 9/11, or Hurricane Katrina or Maria. And while Bleach was certainly not the first franchise to fail in its finale, it certainly deserves to be ranked among things such as How I Met Your Mother, Mass Effect 3, and HBO’s adaptation of Game of Thrones when it comes to All-Time Failures in Media.

Having said that, the truth is that it simply isn’t worth the effort to break it down in detail. Oh, I have tried, yes, I have picked and chipped at it for years in my own ways. But it isn’t worth the time to dissect any further.

And an anime is not going to change that unless they radically depart from the manga, which I doubt they will do. If anything, an anime will simply highlight all of the innumerable flaws even more brightly.

And it will not change anything. Certainly not for me. I was already planning a post talking about the concept of “canon” and how it is  outmoded in the age of Disney’s Star Wars, Star Trek Picard, and J. K. Rowling earnestly insisting that wizards just drop trow and shit on the floor before magicking it away, but that will take some time to finish and it is sort of tangential to the point here.

So, to get back to your actual question, only four things about this are really of interest to me:

I am displeased about seeing people excited for something that is objectively a rancid piece of shit, and not enthused that I will be unable to escape it without locking down my feed. But I am also not The Good Taste Police. It is not my responsibility to care what people like or why.

I am once again seeing people hurting. I don’t like that whatsoever, but there is very little I can do about it. Whatever perspective I have gained, emotionally, isn’t likely to be helpful to them. Wisdom, such as it is, cannot be taught.

I find myself wondering about the influx of people who will come into the fandom, and who will be more than likely sorely disappointed by the travesty that is that arc. (It’s going to be good news for fan fic writers, honestly.)

It has made me understand things all the more fully.

What do I mean by that last part? Well, I have been only sort of joking lately that the people I most relate to as an adult are Col. Kurtz as mentioned above, Agent Smith from The Matrix, Khan Noonien Singh from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Geralt of Rivia from The Witcher, and Mike Stoklasa from Red Letter Media.

But upon reflection, I realize it isn’t limited to them. I have also really come to feel like I understand Ichigo. And I have even come to feel that I understand Kubo, through Khan.

I have come to understand Kurtz’s “madness”:

It’s impossible for words to describe what is necessary to those who do not know what horror means. Horror… Horror has a face… and you must make a friend of horror. Horror and moral terror are your friends. If they are not, then they are enemies to be feared. They are truly enemies!

I have come to understand Smith’s desire to escape:

I hate this place. This zoo. This prison. This reality, whatever you want to call it, I can’t stand it any longer. It’s the smell, if there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it. I can taste your stink and every time I do, I fear that I’ve somehow been infected by it.

I have come to understand Mike’s efforts to hold back the tides:

Mike: Captain Picard has never done a wacky accent—Rich: THEY DON’T CARE! THEY DON’T GIVE A SHIT! Mike, we are the only people that care anymore!Mike: Do you remember that—Rich: Picard is the guy who does this. [faceplam gesture] He’s—This is, this is Captain Picard’s character now for an entire—for like two generations, we’re fucking old! He's—he’s the guy who does this [facepalm gesture], and fuckin’ Patrick Stewart wants to put on an eye-patch and dance around an alien bar? Go ahead motherfucker! We’ll write that in!Mike: I-I-I hearken back to a wonderful little moment on Star Trek—Rich: Patrick Picard wants to ride a dune-buggy? Fuck yeah! Here’s a dune-buggy!Mike: Do-Do you remember—Rich: That’s how much respect they have for, for the franchise!Mike: All I’m tryin’ to say is Captain Picard would not do a wacky accent!Rich: NO, OF COURSE HE WOULDN’T! OF COURSE CAPTAIN PICARD WOULD—CAPTAIN PICARD ISN’T HERE, MIKE!Mike: He’s not there.Rich: HE’S NOT HERE! That’s all an illusion, hahaha!

I have come to understand Geralt’s tiredness.

I have come to understand Ichigo’s feelings of powerlessness in the face of the injustices of the world.

I have come to understand Khan’s rage:

I’ve done far worse than kill you. I’ve hurt you. And I wish to go on… hurting you. I shall leave you as you left me, as you left her; marooned for all eternity in the center of a dead planet… buried alive! Buried alive…!

In this last quote, I have also truly come to understand Kubo. I understand him because I want to hurt him, as he so thoroughly, persistently, and remorselessly wants to hurt us, the fans of his work. I want to go on hurting him, as he goes on hurting us. I understand him perfectly, because I want to pay him back exactly in kind.

And the best way to begin to hurt him is to let his efforts wash over me without even batting an eye. To stand in defiance. To not give a single fuck.

Even with these understandings, for me, nothing has really changed from almost four years ago. The only thing that is different is that the timeframe until I am the last man standing has been extended a little. That’s it.

You want to know my thoughts? They are simple, and they boil down to two quotes. One is again from Khan:

Joachim: They’re still running with shields down.Khan: Of course! We are one big, happy fleet! Ah, Kirk, my old friend, do you know the Klingon proverb that tells us revenge is a dish that is best served cold? It is very cold… in space!

And the other is from JFK:

Don’t get mad. Get even.