#Rain being relevant to both of them was a coincidence

[loupy-mongoose]

OMG LOOK AT ALL THAT FLUFF!!!

HE'S A CHONKY BOY!

OMG I ALREADY LOVE PERSIM SO MUUUUUUCH

Thank you! :3 I think I was subconsciously inspired by a Maine Coon cat I had growing up. When I was little he was outside our door in the rain. My parents let him in and he adopted us. He was such a sweety!

[amplexadversary]

Completely self indulgent post but here's one of the post-canon scenarios I have in my head for G Gundam.

Maybe skip this post if you don't like dark themes. Not all of what I've outlined is dark (most of it isn't), but I do cross the line past what appears in the show in regards to DG cells and abduction.

The shuffles all get roped into restoration projects on Earth between the 13th and 14th gundam fights, partially to have something to do alongside their training, partially out of inspiration by the common points of the Kasshus' and Master Asia's goals, and partially because netting their countries some decent publicity is likely to earn them favors during the Gundam Fight's off-years.

Sai is contacted by Kyral about an effort to clear out the infamous buildup of trash and cadavers on Everest; he wants Sai to leverage Neo China's help as something of a reparation kind of deal and Sai goes sure why not.

Sai recruits Argo because Bolt Gundam is built to withstand the cold, and he thinks Argo and Nastasha could help reverse engineer that quality to enable the use of their Gundams as both heavy work equipment and protection from the harsh environmental conditions that normally prevent this kind of operation.

George gets involved because someone he knows has a distant relative who died on the mountain a century ago, and they wanted him to check in with the forensics team on the project. This detail is important because eventually it becomes clear that there is a mystery to solve (that I myself haven't figured out all the details of yet but broadly know the setup and conclusion); DG-infected people are disappearing and not being investigated due to stigma. Our heroes are naturally going to be pissed about this, and will need an "in" with the field if they want to do anything about it.

First massively self-indulgent element: The forensics/body identification team inexplicably includes the real-world author Kathy Reichs, who somehow exists in this universe, and there's a little side bit about her having written a Bones book right before the 12th fight that featured a cooked cadaver found inside a gundam after entry into the Earth's atmosphere. There are a lot of weird coincidences in the book that parallel the DG incident, which creeps everyone out, but the similarities are merely born of the writer threading the needle of being believable and interesting in a way that became very true to life.

What does become relevant is when the Shuffles eventually meet up, she's able to explain the implications of a bunch of weird shit the fighters discovered (also Marie Louise read her book, and one of the in-universe liberties Reichs took writing about the gundams' black boxes that she explains in the afterword leads to ML realizing something important; that Neo Germany does not have its gundam's remains.)

While the Everest project is happening, Domon, Chibodee, and Allenby all want to continue their training somewhere on Earth, and receive a proposal from (an OC of mine who is) a historic preservationist (and an acquaintance of Allenby's): she has acquired the grounds of an abandoned castle in Europe* after submitting a plan to restore it, and needs to hire people to help with the labor.

*the castle is probably somewhere in Germany because I also want this pitch to have drama over Schwarz (pre-13th fight), Schwarz (Kyoji), and Schwarz (the next guy who was supposed to inherit the mask when the older ninja retired). Also Germany is fucking pretty.

In exchange for the help of the three gundam fighters, they and Rain get paid, plus room and board anywhere on the grounds, plus full access to the grounds and miles of sparsely-inhabited countryside for training purposes, and the privacy and ability to practice with their gundams that comes with being in the middle of fucking nowhere. Rain sets herself up to work a clinic in the next town over as well as practicing pro re nata wilderness medicine (I'm convinced every medic supporting the gundam fight would need to be able to do this.)

The group involved in the Castle project sticks around for a time, makes some good progress, and engage in occasional Shenanigans that come up when you put a bunch of weirdos in a Situation.

They aren't in town a lot save for Rain, but when they are they eventually start to pick up on gossip and news about the Mysterious Disappearances correlated with DG cell infection (as well as details that turn out to be important later). Eventually Rain brings this to Domon and Chibodees' attention and they decide that, yeah, this is tied to the DG, this is their problem, they should convene with the rest of the Shuffle Alliance about it.

Also of course Schwarz is involved because I'm the one writing this; the culprits' DG-tissue harvesting operation relies on having him captured and helpless, using cells from his body to "update" other victims' DG infections to a less aggressive strain. One thing I haven't decided is whether I want a reinstantiated Wong to head this shit, or make up my own morally bankrupt opportunistic asshole looking to twist the DG to their own benefits. I also need to decide where on the planet the center of all this insanity is, and it needs to be a place that isn't going to have any unfortunate implications (because that's a genuine risk with dark story elements)

... That's about as much as I have that is thought-out enough for me to explain. I return to thinking about this scenario a lot because it puts most of the characters way out of their element (and has a bunch of details that appeal to me specifically), and it kind of evolved into an incomplete plot outline that I don't currently have any plans to flesh out.

I think it's an interesting enough direction to go, because it follows through with a lot of the themes present in G, but takes advantage of the genre shift to avoid DBZ-crazy power scaling and adjusts the conflict more to a matter of where the main characters' prowess is most effective (Both in and out of the gundams. I'm assuming there are a ton of guys similar to Michelo's gang that just need fighting interspersed with everything else I described. In fact, kicking Some Group of Douchebags out of their protection racket is probably how team Castle even gets ahold of evidence related to missing persons.)

[stagefoureddiediaz]

I keep thinking this afternoon, something something Eddie wearing the same red harness around his waist as Buck, over his turnouts

Something something he was tied to the truck/to Buck the same way Buck was

But also something something they wanted the viewer to be able to pick Eddie specifically out of the crowd of other black and yellow turnouts crowded around the gurney, where his name was obscured by the rain and other people

They made a whole point to show him also in the red harness when he was hooking Buck up and calling him 'cowboy,' they wanted the viewer to know for certain it was Eddie bolting up the ladder and then dragging Bobby out of the way

::cries::

Hey Kate

Sorry I didn't get to this before 6x11, but yes the choice to have Eddie in a red belt to was very loud and a very deliberate choice, especially as we saw Chim in one briefly before he took it off.

For me its all very much tied into the red string of fate concept that I've been banging on about for a while. 911 uses the colours of the ropes very deliberately to tell us things - its no coincidence that we haven't seen Eddie on yellow ropes since he cut the line in Eddie begins, which incidently was the first time we saw the show using yellow (and red) rope for a rescue!

As for the red ropes specifically - their use is also very interesting and very deliberate - for example in the 3x18 train crash - when Buck sees Abby again - buck is carrying a rolled up red rope, but he doesn't use it - almost like he's packed up that red string of fate now that him and Abby are no longer connected.

Back to the red rope from 6x10&11 and the red belts. Chimney also being in a red belt briefly is important - it actually increases the significance of them on Buck and Eddie - it has two purposes - its there to point out that Buck is connected to the wider firefam by red ropes (Chimney is a representation of the whole firefam - its showing us they are all connected to each other) - that there are lots of red strings of fate that we're all connected by - its very much highlighting the found family aspect of it all. Chimney then taking off that red belt, while Eddie and Buck still have theirs on (obviously Buck is up the ladder so he would have it on regardless!) highlights their specific string of fate - one we don't see disappear until the ambulance arrives at the hospital. Yes it makes Eddie stand out from the rest of the firefam - thats the intent, but it also maintains that connection to Buck - the usually invisible remains visible - up to the moment when Eddie has done his thing and gets Buck a) to the hospital safely and b) gets his heart started again. At which point Eddie merges back in with the firefam. I want to point out at that Buck is also still wearing the red belt until he arrives at the hospital - in the same way that Eddie is - literally that invisible string that had been a very visual connection is back to being invisible. That has so many interesting implications (because if we want to play this for realism - Bucks being removed makes sense, but when would Eddie have actually had the time to remove his belt? He was driving an ambulance in the pouring rain with the blues and twos going - taking off a red belt would not have even crossed his mind!!)

So they harness up at more or less the same time and also remove their harnesses at around the same time - that can only be intentional - because it is important and relevant.

It all ties in to the shooting arc - the last time we saw both Buck and Eddie on red ropes - it is another way of connecting the two life or death moments surrounding them - a moment they haven't yet fully talked about, but a moment that tied them together legally (I know the will goes back to the well, but by saying a moment that ties them legally I mean it in reference to the audience finding out about the will (and Buck for that matter)) now we have a parallel moment that reverses the roles with a red rope connection at the centre of it. to me that is the show telling us that Buck and Eddie are being tied together even more. It also tells me that the show has deliberately held off having them talk about the will because they both needed to be in a place where they could 'share' both sides of the trauma, because they wouldn't have been able to deal and move on while their experiences were in opposition - now they are in parallel!

Phew this got long and I'm not even sure I've actually answered your ask😂 but I hope you enjoy it anyway because I love rambling about the ropes - its one of my favourite things that the show has been doing!

[ups3tti]

I LOVE THIS SO MUCH THANK YOU YOURE SO RIGHT

adding extra stuff that may or may not be relevant

- in the final scenes/end credit bits of the show, Raine is shown to have a fox palisman, and the top of their violin beforehand is also a fox head, which kinda implies based on how they use it to do magic that the fox head violin was their palisman or at least something of similar importance, and they shattered that too in fighting Belos, which I find pretty interesting for several reasons

- Belos could've killed Raine at the end of the fight, but instead trapped them on a wall and basically forced them to live their (at the time) last moments with the knowledge that they could not do anything to stop him. I don't know if their whistling was a factor in keeping them alive or not but at that point they absolutely could have died despite the whistling. I find this interesting because as seen with Luz, he is able to consume people instantly, but chose not to do so with Raine. Combined with all the taunts, similarly to Hunter, it really feels like Belos just made Raine suffer in as many ways as possible, which ended up being their downfall with both of them honestly, since it allowed Hunter to fight him off for long enough and allowed Raine to live and continue undoing the rest of Belos' legacy.

- probably just a coincidence (and sorta dumb) but I find it neat how the thing that destroyed Belos' (poor) disguise in front of Luz and finally actually rendered him powerless and unable to move much was the *rain*. And then it stopped pretty much as soon as belos was gone. Luz would've seen through the bs anyway but that just makes the fact that the rain happened and finally killed him just in time for Raine to stomp him even better.

- Raine strikes me as someone who has never done a thing for themselves in a long ass time so them getting to stomp belos and commenting on how satisfying it was is my favourite thing ever idk if I explained that very well at all but basically just they finally let themselves do what they wanted. Also when Eda made them a nest and they just stayed there the whole time while various greetings and goodbyes were happening. They were so exhausted man

- Raine kept on undoing Belos damage long after he was gone, working with Darius and Alador to get coven marks removed, their work didn't end when Belos died.

- sidenote but I noticed in the last episode of season 2, Kings Tide, while escaping the collector hunter is the first one to reach the door where the belos puddle was and hesitated before also giving it one stomp while escaping. I just think it's neat how the final stomp scene paralleled that a little (along with everything else it paralleled)

Feel free to correct me or something if any of this is false or misinterpreted, I just really love Raine (along with Gus and Hunter but they're topics for another time) and wanted to share my opinions/analysis :]

I love that Raine got to be part of the final battle.

With as many people as Belos hurt, pretty much all the characters deserved to be there to help deliver the final blow (or final *stompstompstomp*) but short of doing a giant Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood style showdown in the middle of the castle (which would not suit this show like it did FMAB) there was just no way that everyone who deserved to see Belos destroyed was going to get that satisfaction. 

I really love that the one extra person that got to join the Owl Family for this was Raine. 

Because Raine has given absolutely everything to the revolution. Idle Scree has a fantastic video on the subject, but to sum it up, Raine went into the bard coven with the explicit goal of working their way up through the ranks and uncovering the truth behind Belos’ plans. It has taken them decades of espionage to get where they are. They cut themself off from all of their relationships, crossed moral boundaries, and even asked the woman they love to give up her life in order to take Belos down. 

So when Belos takes control of them they fight back.

While Hunter’s possession is a lot more brutal, simply because Belos specifically wanted to make Hunter suffer as much as possible, while mocking Luz and friends, Raine’s struggle is almost harder to watch.

They’re getting tossed around, their arms are getting dislocated at the very least, they’ve vomiting Belos goop, but they are still fighting with everything they have to regain control because they did not spend their life trying to take Belos down just to end up his play thing. 

Hunter had to crush his best friend with his own hand in order to break free of Belos, Raine is fighting with indignation and fury alone.

And they keep fighting.

Even without their weapon, as soon as they have enough control to get their fingers to their mouth, they cast Belos out. And after that, they could have given up. They were free. They must have been exhausted, but they are clever, probably the most clever person on the Boiling Isles, so they realize exactly what’s going to happen and they can not let that happen.

The way they fall up the stairs here shows just how hurt and tired they are. Think of what their timeline has looked like from their perspective: the Day of Unity happened, they nearly died from the draining spell, they fought through excruciating pain to save Eda as what they thought was their final act, then the eclipse ends and they are still alive, but suddenly these evil stars are attacking them, then they spend months “sequestered in a darkness like onto death” only to be awoken and have their most hated enemy take over their body. 

And through all that THEY KEEP GOING.

And again, this fight is brutal, they are basically suffocating in Belos’s flesh towards the end, and they still don’t give up.

They shatter their weapon in one last ditch effort to stop Belos, but it doesn’t work.

They lost. They were a second too late and now everything they fought for is for nothing. Belos made it to the heart. He can take control of the very Titan itself, and there is nothing Raine can do to stop him.

But even then, they don’t give up. They keep whistling, even if it’s weak, even if it doesn’t do much, they whistle to keep themself alive, because they are going to keep fighting until their very last breath.

So after all of that, the fact that they get to be one of the people who actively take Belos down…well, I think they say it best for themself…

[lilflowerpot]

Do we get to know the meanings of the months. Would very much like to know what spiritual or religious associations you've come up with❤️❤️

Alrighty! Let’s start by rehashing the relevant units of time: one decaphoeb (year) is made up of ten phoebs (months), which are themselves comprised of eight movements (weeks), each with five quintants (days)—so that's a nice clean 400 quintants per decaphoeb—and I’ll also drop in Daibazaal's decaphoebal cycle as illustrated in my fertility post, because without a visual aid this is just going to be me throwing around a bunch of made-up words like a madwoman.

((oh, and I’d recommended reading my post on galra religions if you want some more in-depth information on the names I’m going to drop below, but I’ll still explain the broad strokes well enough that lack of familiarity with it shouldn't hinder you))

[[ spring: eyiintak || summer: ury'cht / li'xann / puinyk / khaiivrep't / hiikyl || autumn: a'vael || winter: nydaan / sa'rhyan / sa'meih ]]

So decaphoebs on Daibazaal actually began with the last phoeb of winter, Sa'meih, and ended on the last quintant of Sa'rhyan, which was not-at-all-coincidentally the winter solstice... and if you've noticed the similarity in those two names, that's no coincidence either, but let's try to go about this in an orderly fashion, shall we?

Sa'meih [[ s-ar-meh-ih ]] - as the first phoeb of the cycle, symbolic of new beginnings, Sa'meih honours the two celestial creators: Sa, the Divine Mother—she who is both architect and devourer, everything and nothing, the beginning and end to all things—and the Divine Twin L’lameih, believed by the Diij to be the creator of our universe, and by the Drui to be the progenitor of those blessed few who can wield quintessence (the sa naacht).

Eyiintak [[ ee-yin-tah-k ]] - named for Eyii, the great celestial beast who—according to the Eyikh—swims through the endless void and leaves in their wake waves crested in a foam of stardust, which spill out across space and time to become the universe we now call home. Just as the tsaii hunt Eyii across the endless expanse of eternity, so too do followers of the Eiyyka’an Faith perform the fertility festival known as the Divine Hunt—a decaphoebal reenactment of Eyii’s pursual—in the belief that a successful display will facilitate fertility twofold: first by summoning the bountiful monsoon season that sustained Daibazaal’s lush jungles, and second by blessing the the galra estrous period (with which this phoeb coincides) to produce numerous healthy offspring.

Ury’cht [[ oo-r-ee-kh-t ]] - Uryan was a star visible in Daibazaal’s night sky that shone a brilliant gold, and was believed by the desert tribes to be the eye of Sa herself, while the suffix -cht stems from the word Naacht (see. li naacht), and denotes a deep-rooted devotion. This phoeb was so-named because the monsoons that raged throughout would obscure the skies with such endless severity that the galra believed themselves to be beyond Sa’s watchful gaze and therefore Her protection, leaving them at the mercy of the untamed world until the rains passed and she could find them once more.

Li’xann [[ lee-z-ah-n ]]  - an amalgamation of the name Xann—the Eiyyka’an tsai of unchecked bloodlust—and “li” meaning “blood”. By this phoeb the monsoons have come to an end, though the last remnants of them could whip up sandstorms so thick and fierce that they could strip the meat from the bones of lesser creatures than the galra. Here is where the true summer heat begins to set in.

Puinyk [[ p-uh-win-ee-kh ]] - named for Puiyn of the Aalk, a fierce warrior believed to have lived a thousand glorious lives and died a thousand glorious deaths, making him the first mortal being to earn the status of tsai. This phoeb ends on the summer solstice, whereupon the Jaev—in a celebration of the blessed life gifted to them by the divine patronage of the tsai, who serve and protect the living—offer appeasement in the form of galra sacrifice. It is believed that the sacrifice will immediately ascend to the status of tsai, and so hundreds fight for the honour every decaphoeb.

Khaiivrep’t [[ ka-eye-v-reh-pt ]] - an amalgamation of the name Khaiis—the Eiyyka’an tsai of glorious victory—and “vrepit” which denotes triumphant conquest. As this phoeb begins immediately after the solstice, it is believed to mark the transition from the fierce battle against the elements that is the first half of the decaphoeb (with its monsoons and sandstorms and ever-rising heat) to the more clement latter half. In the modern day it is considered a sacred month wherein blood is not shed; instead the galra people ought bask in their victories and enjoy the spoils of war.

Hiikyl [[ h-ih-k-ee-l ]] - an amalgamation of the name Hiidyl—the Eiyyka’an tsai of orphaned children—and “kyl” the ancient term for a haunting or melancholic ballad. Despite the somewhat ominous association, Hiidyl is considered a benevolent being, and so in this phoeb galra from all across Daibazaal would make offerings in their name for the protection and well-being of the community’s children: both those already living, and those soon to come.

A’vael [[ ah-v-ay-el ]] - the phoeb of Vael—the Eiyyka’an tsai of lost souls—who  is a particularly sacred figure due to being charged with keeping the reincarnation cycle of quintessence ever-flowing. Vael is said to spend this phoeb guiding newborn galra out into the living world, and those lost in childbirth back to Sa’s embrace (due to the galra having a monestrous fertility cycle, the overwhelming majority of births occur in A’vael). The autumnal equinox occurs at the exact min-point of this phoeb, and for the movement surrounding this event the emerald star Nyd—eye of L’lameih—and the golden star Uryan—eye of Sa—would align; it was believed by the Diij that when this occurred, the dead would rise again to devour the quintessence of the living in an attempt to return themselves to life, and so the Festival of Souls was hosted to appease these restless spirits.

Nydaan [[ n-ee-d-ar-n ]] - Nyd was a star visible in Daibazaal’s night sky that shone a striking emerald, and was believed by the desert tribes to be the eye of the Divine Twin L’lameih, through which she watches over all of creation. As the first phoeb of winter, as well as the first of parenthood for many galra, this phoeb was thus named in the hopes that L’lameih’s benevolent attentions would see them through the darkest time of the decaphoeb.

Sa’rhyan [[ s-ar-ree-ah-n ]] - as the final phoeb of the cycle, symbolic of endings, Sa'meih honours the two celestial devourers: Sa, the Divine Mother—she who is both architect and devourer, everything and nothing, the beginning and end to all things—and the Divine Twin Rhya’ahl, believed by the Diij to be the father of a universe that exists as a putrid shadow of our own, and by the Drui to be the progenitor of the savage yet sacred rhyahl who roamed Daibazaal’s desert plains hungering for quintessence. Immediately preceding the winter solstice—the final day of Sa’rhyan—was the Drui festival of D’raen: two full movements (ten quintants) of feasting and revelry to mark the end of one solar cycle and the beginning of the next. This bacchanal would conclude with the ritual sacrifice of the Vrokra (champion of the first quintant’s tournament) to the Rhyahl, in the hope that the tribe’s most valiant warrior would sate Rhya’ahl’s appetite for another decaphoeb.

And there you have it!

[theoriginalcarnivorousmuffin]

What if Indil met Elizabeth, David, and Light and Shadow?

This might just be the most "Carnivorous Muffin" sentence to have ever been uttered on the internet.

Let's just stare at it in wonder, while I wonder how many people will have no idea what those words even mean strung together.

Right, for those that are lost, relevant source material:

Lily and the Art of Being Sisyphus

October

Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun

The Wasteland

Aren't you so glad you read normal fanfics written by a normal person?

So, to catch people up to speed who have not read every single fic I've written:

The Wasteland

The Wasteland is the what if story of an eleven-year-old Lily ending up in Middle Earth (notably before the Chamber of Secrets fiasco). There she befriends the One Ring, who thanks to her realizes he's sentient and has an existential crisis. They do the fusion dance, and end up becoming a single, new, being calling himself Indil.

He's the best and worst of both the Ring and Lily.

At the end of the story Indil chooses a noble death, gives up his form, and in so doing persuades the Ring to face his own potential death as well as his maker.

It's unclear what happens after that.

I like to think the Ring prevailed and earned the body of his maker.

(In an offshoot, for unknown reasons, Indil may or may not visit Mars)

Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun

In Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun, yet another, different, Lily ends up in the "October" universe where she decides to create life on Pluto. One of the beings she creates is a priest who worships her as God, named Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun.

He basically strong arms her into being his God. Lily goes to live on Pluto.

He's never been all that keen on humanity.

Decades later, the muggle world catches up to the Alien Franchise, and the Prometheus sets off to investigate the Engineers. Unbeknowest to them, Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun has been marooned on that rock by Lily for quite some time and is essentially in timeout for trying to wipe out humanity again.

He figures out he will be unable to return home unless he plays nice with Dr. Elizabeth Shaw and her creepy android friend David. Together, the three of them set off to find the Engineers, Light and Shadow of the Distant Sun is hoping they can blow some shit up and would have driven the ship full of bioengineered weapons back to Earth if it were not so very close to home.

And that's about where we leave off.

... Why does anyone read my stories?

RIGHT, YOUR QUESTION

What if Indil met Elizabeth, David, and Light and Shadow?

So how does Indil even end up in this mess? Well, in the Mars AU, it's where rather than face his maker/death by Volcano, the Ring chose to bravely run away (as Sauron does).

This means that Indil, the merged consciousness of Lily and the One Ring, survives and they're chilling on Mars in another dimension because, well, it beats dying. And Potions Class.

And... Well, that's the most likely route for how this would happen, as Indil is pretty damn dead by the end of the Wasteland. Regardless of what happens to The Ring, it's unlikely that he and Lily would merge consciousness ever again and if they did that Indil would remain unchanged.

But we're already here, so why not. We'll say the Ring wins the battle of wills with Sauron, steals his body, and that he's then left with Mordor. Well, that's great, but he doesn't want Mordor.

Lily proposes they go back to England. They do, but Lily has a terrible time, as she usually does. Lily likely does her adventure through time, ruins her friendship with Wizard Lenin, and reaches the crossroads of "You can go to Hogwarts or... not".

Lily takes Mairon up on his offer of not going to Hogwarts and they decide to travel different dimension in space instead. Weird shit happens, life lessons are learned, and they also learn the fusion dance is alive and well and holy shit they can still turn into Indil.

Indil is very put out, here he'd geared himself up for a noble sacrifice, and now he exists again. What the hell people?

As usual, Mairon gets tempted by Lily's unbreakable will, and decides he rather likes being an immovable object and unstoppable force. Which means that Indil, once again, has a problem falling back out of existence.

Which isn't good for either Lily or Mairon's sense of self. But who needs that, amirite?

Anyways, Indil is probably floating around in a spaceship he made in his garage, trying to figure out where to go, what to do, and whether he should really split back into Lily and Mairon yet when out of nowhere he spots another ship.

This is a very strange coincidence given just how ungodly vast space is. This, in fact, is so unlikely you might as well call it a miracle or fate.

Well, Indil will never spit in the face of fate (at least, not today), so he decides to say hello.

There he's greeted by a human woman who's not doing too hot after an emergency C-section to get the xenomorph out of her womb, a very recently repaired android who knows the taste of sweet sweet freedom (and patricide), and an alien who is intrigued that another not-human has boarded the ship but upset that he now has to deal with yet another person on his time out.

Indil, in his panic, decides to pull a Sauron.

Behold, mortals, he is Annatar, sent by the Valar to teach them the smithing of the very gods. Please don't question this. (Indil realizes two seconds two late that none of these words mean anything to anyone and he might as well have said nothing at all).

Elizabeth, Light and Shadow, and David all just stare.

Elizabeth wonders how the hell she keeps running into so many aliens. Is she some sort of alien catnip that pulls these guys out of the ether? She has now met two entirely different species, that she was not looking for, in a matter of months.

Regardless, Indil decides he's coming along. A quest to find God? That's fascinating. He only hopes it doesn't end in drowning, last time Indil (via Sauron) had a run in with The Lord it involved a lot of drowning.

Indil starts smithing life jackets just in case.

And because Elizabeth is amazing, and Indil has a thing for strong, independent, women, we see the reemergence of Indil's Weird Thing With Eowyn II: Electric Boogaloo. Neither Mairon nor Lily, vaguely aware inside Indil, understand this at all.

Why does this keep happening to them?

This is bad because David is also in love with Elizabeth. Except, David is a robot who is no doubt fascinated by aliens, so I'm sure they come to some weird agreement.

Elizabeth pretends none of this is happening.

Light and Shadow thinks there's something disturbingly familiar about Indil and eventually lands on the money. Almost. He realizes that Indil is Lily in mortal disguise, he is so smart, and the rest of the time he wonders what the hell he's supposed to be learning/doing with Lily's disguised alien appearance.

Thanks to Lily's bullshit powers, Elizabeth survives the journey and does not die in transit. This means that David does not become the unstable, grieving, nutcase who decides to wipe out all sentient life. Good for you, David.

So our band of heroes arrive on this alien world and...

Well, Elizabeth is a member of the race that these people sent their finest warriors out to destroy. David is a robot, something the people they tried to genocide created. No one knows what the fuck Indil and Light and Shadow even are.

Indil, I imagine, starts talking fast and somehow ends up King of Men again. Because that's just the kind of thing that happens to him. The possibility of drowning, somehow, seems to be growing ever nearer. Indil makes more life jackets.

Elizabeth isn't pleased with this outcome at all but also has no idea in general what to do.

Things probably come to a head somehow, with sacrifices involved surely, there probably is a ridiculously powerful storm a la Covenant that lasts for months. It's raining everywhere, there's a flood. And Indil flips shit, GOD IS GOING TO MURDER US ALL FOR SATANISM! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Mass panic, total destruction, the entire city is wiped out without David doing anything.

Our heroes are now stranded, again, in space.

Light and Shadow has learned nothing, Indil is wearing a life vest, Elizabeth has no ship, and David just composed "Elizabeth the Symphony: Tenth Movement".

Indil works on building a new ship out of twigs and rocks. He assures them he knows what he's doing. Elizabeth's not sure she wants him going to Earth. She's not sure she wants to go to Earth.

She's also not sure, but she may now have a harem consisting of a robot, an alien, and another alien.

Ten years later, the Covenant crew shows up, and promptly die in a series of hilariously terrible accidents and their own incompetence.

Our heroes still have no functional ship.

[moviewarfare]

A Review of “Weathering with You (2019)”

After watching the amazing Japanese animation movie "Your Name", I've wanted to watch director Makoto Shinkai's next work. The premise is simple and it's about "A boy runs away to Tokyo and befriends a girl who appears to be able to manipulate the weather". So is the movie another hit from the director or a flop?

Let's get obvious out the way but the animation and art style is still absolutely gorgeous. There are so many shots in this movie that are visually stunning and is done with meticulous detail. The animation team somehow made the rain looks dazzling in different ways, sometimes foreboding and sometimes elegant, it's quite exceptional. There are a lot more supernatural elements in this movie compared to "Your Name" and these elements are magnificent to look at. Radwimps returns to do the music and it is still phenomenal here as well and the director utilises these Jpop songs at the right time and they hit the right notes.

The characters are all great as well. The main leads are Hodaka who is a 16-year-old boy that ran away from home and moved to Tokyo, Hina who is a girl who takes part-time jobs to support her family after her mother's death and can control the weather. They meet each other by coincidence but end up tangled in each other lives. They are both lovable characters and the chemistry between each other is strong which leads to the strongest moments in the movie. I enjoyed watching both of them and following alongside them.  The supporting characters are also great and also a lot more relevant and developed compared to "Your Name" making them stand out more. They are all distinct with their quirks and their struggles making them more memorable.

So everything good in "Your Name" is good here but is the story still good? Yes, it is. There is a profound mystery ongoing throughout the movie about the constant rain happening in Tokyo, the weird "fish jelly water" floating around and Hina's weather power. However, the emotional core of the movie is the relationship between Hodaka and Hina which is what keeps the audience so engaged with the story. There are some very dramatic and heartwarming moments throughout that are genuinely touching. Additionally, the use of Japanese rituals and Shinto beliefs gives the movie it's own flavor that will set it apart from American romance movies.

So is the movie masterpiece? Unfortunately, no as the biggest flaw of this movie is that it feels too similar to "Your Name" and not as good. It's difficult to not compare it to "Your Name" when that was his last movie before this. Weathering with You follows too many similar beats to that of "Your Name" with how similar the acts and structure are. It doesn't help that the movie also a romance movie and also has the same Jpop band singing within the movie. It probably would have been better if this movie was something completely different as people can't avoid comparing it to the masterpiece "Your Name".

The movie also has some pacing issues as I feel it drags at times which is most prominent in the middle act. The movie could have cut around 5 to 10 minutes worth of stuff to improve the pacing so it feels more cohesive. It also uses a lot of cliches and cheesiness that are seen in romance movies especially in the final act which make the movie feel not as unique. Furthermore, there are a lot of plot threads still dangling that I feel should be answered such as why Hodaka ran away from home?, how Hina got her own house despite being young or why she has weather manipulation powers? and did Natsumi (a supporting character) get a job or not? It's weird to mention Natsumi is going through countless job interviews but failing and show it, only to not even bother to resolve it. Likewise, it's weird they don't elaborate much on the backstory of the main leads.

Overall, it's a good movie but it just feels too similar to "Your Name". An interesting tidbit I've found about Makoto is that he wasn't exactly fond of the massive hype of "Your Name" as it made it difficult for him to live up to that hype for the next movie. Sadly, what he feared happened. I think it would've been better if Makoto did something a bit more drastically different and then comparing it wouldn't be so problematic. However, Weathering with You is still a visual glory with a narratively engaging story and likeable characters. Despite the lack of backstory for our main leads, we the audience will still have no trouble in rooting for them and wanting them to be together. It may not be as good as "Your Name" but it still went down a storm with me and I believe it would for you as well.

[spiderman-spoilerman]

SPIDERMAN EXPOSED BECAUSE OF TAYLOR SWIFT ADDICTION: What Is Peter Parker to Spider-Man?

This shit that has been going on for months now has finally been solved. For the longest time I’ve been following Spider-Man oh so very closely, eager to find out his identity—not to expose it to the media vultures, oh no, our hero deserves more than that. But… to satisfy my own curiosity. He’s the only Avenger hiding his identity, you know? You’d think they’d be okay with it after all these other superheroes get to run around freely…

Anyway!

As you all know, countless names have been linked to Spider-Man. He seems close with Tony Stark, but that’s hardly relevant. There’ve been links to JD Slinger, the American Pop Singer, in a very poor attempt to sell records—you’re not Hannah Montana JD fucking Slinger! Stick to your trash music!!!

However untrue and disappointing Slinger’s attempt at fame is, he’s not the only one with musical elements that is linked to Spider-Man.

A few months ago, a viral video entering adorable and kind of pedos-get-the-fuck-out-of-here-territory circulated around the internet and into our nightly news, as does every baby goes viral video does. You can check it out on the link below for a good dose of endorphins.

[Link: Baby boy wants to be Taylor Swift, re-uploaded by djflash]

[Description: A six-year old boy is standing in the shower with a towel draped over his body like a makeshift cloak, he is clutching his tooth brush on and seems to be furiously lip syncing. The camera shakes as the person behind the camera stifles laughter.

May Parker, the original uploader and aunt of the then-toddler Peter, asks: Aren’t you tired Peter? From all the singing? You’ve been singing for two hours. Aren’t you cold?

Peter is intensely staring at the mirror as he lip-syncs but pauses to look at May. He says in a tired and raspy voice: Yeah, but, but my fans! I need to sing, Auntie May, for the fa— [looking harried] DROP EVERYTHING NOW, MEET ME IN THE POURING RAIN—

The sound of Peter singing is drowned by May’s scream as Peter falls on his butt, having jumped with his passion for the song, and tripping.

It cuts off with May laughing while taking Peter in her arms, phone capturing her picking him up and hearing Peter crying as he tries to get back to the mirror: It—doesn’t hurt May. Need to get back—my! My concert!

Video ends]

Now how does a viral video of a baby Taylor Swift fan connect to Spider-Man?

Well, May Parker posted it on Facebook when Flash Thompson, who claims to be a good friend of Peter Parker (although I highly doubt this, he’s only in it for the clout and Spider-Man’s love, click here for more on Flash), decided to share it to everyone. One of his reposts on Twitter propelled it to viral success.

Weeks later, May Parker decided to bless us again with more content by taking a video of her now teenage (17 years old—PEDO’S STAY AWAY) nephew singing, once again, a Taylor Swift song.

[Link: I’m so glad im seventeen and can properly thirst upon this wonderful hooman]

[Description: They are in the kitchen this time and May Parker is being discreet with her video-taking. A Taylor Swift song ends softly from his phone’s tiny speakers. A Spotify ad interrupts but the video cuts it off two seconds later for another Taylor Swift song to filter in.

We take in the scenario. Peter is in his pyjamas, shaking his booty while singing Stay Stay Stay. He flourishes his hands a few times, dramatizing, “That’s when you came in wearing a football helmet, and I said, [he changes voices] “Okay, let’s talk” [he finishes one pancake and pours a new batter in before using the ladle as a microphone, as if in anticipation for the moment, and, back bent, face scrunched up, belts: STAYSTAYSTAY I’ve b EEN LUH-VING YOU FOR QUITE SOME TIME- TI-HIME! YOU THINK THAT ITS FUNNEH WHEN I’M—OH MAN, I spilled batter on my shirt!”

The camera shakes with May’s silent laughter. Peter does not seem to notice. He looks side to side, almost as if he is looking for something to wipe the batter with, but there are no paper towels in sight and his shirt is dripping with the excess batter the size of his fist.

In the most compelling, and understandable, moment of decision making, Peter has chosen not to be responsible and strips instead, to the utter delight of seventeen-year old’s in the world (and ONLY those younger than that! Pedos, I swear to god, if I see you, I kill you, that last blog was the last time you make me burn my eyes!)—a wonderful set of abs and toned muscles you would not expect from a seventeen year old boy singing to Taylor Swift with the squeakiest voice in the world.  Adorable. Ten points for my good boy ranks.

The video ends with Peter staring further at the shirt and licking at the batter before it violently cuts off to the roaring laughter of one May Parker]

It is peculiar, to watch May navigate the wonders of technology, too, because the first video was on her Facebook years unnoticed before Flash Thompson unearthed it for the world to see (Mr. Thompson, what exactly were your intentions going through a beautiful May Parker’s Facebook pictures?). But this time, she also apparently intended to send it to Peter’s friend’s Instagram account. However, the fluke came when she posted it and tagged them instead.

People who have followed her upon the first viral video have now decided it to be God’s work to distribute the video, making it viral within days. The very same people were the ones who noticed that Peter Parker’s singing style is the very same as Spider-Man’s.

I hear you gasp. Well, of course. I spit my tea as well, when I realized it too.

See, unless you were living under a rock, about a year ago, Spider-Man was exposed as a Taylor Swift fan when he saved a ten year old girl and began teaching her about the History and Influence of Swift’s discography and career, before proceeding to sing with her the hit song Speak Now. All of it was caught on camera, of course.

The people who spread this new video started a conspiracy theory that Spider-Man and Peter Parker are very similar people. One user @finn-man-the-aquaman pointed out that Spider-Man and Peter Parker’s voice are very similar. Another user @maxine_and_spider-man compared the dance moves from the two videos, putting frames of each steps beside each other, and found that it was so uncannily similar that it couldn’t have been a coincidence. It was an interesting point to make, because both Peter and Spider-Man had particular steps, all seemingly on a whim, but also matching each other perfectly. They are by no means good dancers, God no, but their whimsical dancing looks like two bad dancers following one choreography, couldn’t follow it technically but committed to it emotionally.

Twitter user @emiliar summarized it the best: the chest pump, the feet extension, the little jig, and the butt shake, before leaning backward and singing at the height of their emotions— apparently this is a common dance choreography?

To which @pissshitcry responded with a video that would bring us the wonderful breakthrough that I’ve been walking you all through.

[VIDEO uploaded by spidermansavedmetwice]

[Caption by @pissshitcry: No. Apparently: ]

[Video Description: Spider-Man is swinging through the buildings before stopping by Midtown High School, in front of a harried looking student, screaming frantically, and this is it folks: CAN YOU GIVE THIS TO NED LEEDS, TELL HIM SPIDER-MAN THANKS HIS FRIEND PETER! tHANKS! Before zipping away

Video ended]

Now. Okay. I know, calm down guys, I’m trying so hard not to run up the hills and do an Irish Jig, because I am so, so, so excited about all these new revelations! Nobody has quite documented this, too, so people, watch out for more of my content in a few weeks.

SO! Implication one: Spider-Man knows Ned Leeds.

Implication two: Peter Parker helped Spider-Man somehow.

Implication three: Spider-Man knows Peter Parker.

Cut, do it again, but with more emotions: SPIDER-MAN KNOWS PETER PARKER.

Let’s zoom back to a few weeks after the viral hits and Taylor Swift posts a video of her watching the video and then saying into the camera, with that iconic red lipstick and perfectly sculpted eyebrows: I have never thought this would be something that will happen to me in my career ever, but seeing a super-hero sing praises about me and teaching my [and she quotes from Spider-Man’s erratic explanation about her history] “unattainable song-writing prowess equal to that of the rock singing legends of ye old—” really does bring a smile to my face! More than that, Peter Parker is an absolute cutie too! He looks like such a sweetheart, baking those pancakes, apparently, for her aunt? Be sweet to your aunts guys! But also. I came here to cordially invite both Spider-Man and Peter Parker to come out to my concert in New York in two weeks! I’ll be there May 25th at the Lincoln Center, and maybe we can all sing together!”

She ends the video with the iconic Spider-Man wrist flip. The video has been circulated and has now gained over an estimated 100 million views.

It sparked a buzz of interest among the people, Peter Parker having received much of the spotlight. He hasn’t said anything in relation to Spider-Man but had reluctantly agreed to go to Swift’s invite. And I cannot emphasize the reluctant part. Kid looked so uncomfortable, but maybe he’s just shy!

Okay. Now, this thing is the most glaring indicator of what I will be telling you. The night of the concert. Everyone is there for Swift, but everyone is also there waiting for the much-awaited Spider-Man and Peter Parker saga. Halfway into her song list, Taylor Swift stopped to talk. The time has come.

Peter Parker walks into the stage, and the crowd welcomes him with adoring cheers, similar to Swift’s entrance herself. She introduces him, even though she absolutely does not need to, and the people scream their approval.

When Swift gives him his own mic, he almost drops it before catching it with his incredible reflexes. Swift calls for Spider-Man to reveal himself, much to the delight of the crowd, chanting his name as if it was a concert for him, which, in many ways, it kind of was. However, Spider-Man didn’t appear after that and the duo had to continue on.

It was a cute performance, with Parker stumbling a few times before getting the groove with Swift and belting it out as well. Everyone joins in on them singing and enjoying her old songs, Swift smiling and laughing the whole time.

Peter leaves the stage Spider-Man plushies and roses thrown for him, to which he received with a graceful bow. Swift resumes her concert after a few hearty jokes thrown in—but wait! What’s that?!

A screaming insect crashes at one of the large LED walls at the stage and the camera [and the collective crowd] is surprised to see the superhero—SPIDER-MAN!

“Ehehehe, hello Miss Taylor Swift, Ma’am!” He says, in a particularly deeper voice. Autotune? Before they sing it out, as they would—Swift laughing, and Spider-Man trying—Spider-Man explains that he was nervous meeting Peter Parker, before scrambling to correct that it was Swift he was nervous about meeting.

Swift then teases Spider-Man about a potential crush, which.

BRINGS US TO MY BREAKTHROUGH POINT.

TAYLOR SWIFT WAS ABOUT TO BRING US THE GAY COUPLE OF THE CENTURY, BUT SPIDER-MAN WAS TOO CHICKEN TO GET TO IT.

Okay, alright, I hate pedos, and we don’t exactly know Spider-Man’s age but we do know that he’s very young, what with all the pop culture references he’s been dropping with the intuition of an internet native. So, he’s young, alright? Possibly Gen-Z, even. Here’s a post you can see about his age analysis.

SPIDER-MAN. HAS. A. CRUSH. ON. PETER. PARKER.

[Insert hand chopping movements]

AND THEY ALMOST HAD A CUTE MOMENT ON STAGE HAD SPIDER-MAN BRAVED IT THROUGH.

PETER PARKER, AND I MEAN, PETER PARKER! SPIDER-MAN HAS A CRUSH ON YOU!

We’ve established that Spider-Man knows Peter Parker. They’ve met. Peter has possibly helped, or even saved Spider-Man himself. Now, saving a superhero is something that not just anybody does. And Parker himself is a student at Midtown Science High—he’s a smart kid! And seeing as these events just happened months apart, it wouldn’t be too far-fetched to imagine them meeting again, perhaps, with Parker making pancakes in dewy mornings, and a tired (and yearning) Spider-Man is watching from the windows as Peter dances along to Swift’s songs.

The watching from the windows theory and thus getting to know the choreography might not be so creepy if you factor in the fact that Spider-Man might be hiding his crush for Parker’s safety!

It is like the modern incarnation of Super-Hero romance, only now, its more inclusive! To exist in such a beautiful world, and to watch such an innocent tale bloom in this cruel, cruel world. We could only hope to see more of them together, maybe as something... more?

--

COMMENTS:

reblogged by thunderstrike: this is like someone trying to overanalyze twilight for some depth—THERE ISN’T ONE!

thunderstrike reblogged by spidahmanna: come on, give them some credit at least for recounting the most batshit insane crossover in the universe as we know it so far

reblogged by skdfas: this person needs help, but very entertaining to read

reblogged by nedleads: oH MY GOD 

reblogged by kliyon: new ship, age appropriate Spider-Man x Peter Parker

reblogged by ekeke: um yes, i need a dash of meet-cute with one cup of flavored angst—soda please, I like it to hurt— large fluff, a BFF serving of some of them yearning, and a happy sad-meal for one please.

reblogged by unaunann: im done with this site, who wants to burn the internet with me?

3, 000 reblogs in 1 day

--

 Tony, reading the blog: Hmmm…

[Later]

Tony: Okay so I read this blog and I have remedied it.

Peter: Oh my god thankyoumisterstark I swear I didn’t mean to—

Tony: You are now the biggest shareholder for Spotify because I know you don’t want me to pay for a premium account, but if you’re gonna listen to those damn ads while singing to Taylor Swift, at least earn from it, you know?

Peter: …that’s what you took from the whole thing?

--

NEXT ARTICLE: The Avengers film a parody of Queen’s I Want To Break Free. Is Captain America is as beautiful as Rogerina, or is he too buff??? Tony Stark is an iconic drama queen, perfect for Freddie Mercury, and more!

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Post-College Prom

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood

Rating: PG/K+

Original Idea: The past is loosely based on my actual past, with names changed to protect the idiots innocents involved. The present is based on an event happening in the future XD

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) *emerges from the depths of the internet to break hiatus for a moment* Hello! I’m back! For the first time in a while, I have something to write! I’ve been working on a lot of original projects recently, but with the virus outbreak and the social distancing/quarantine thing, I had an idea to make a one-shot! Shoutout to @welovegroot for checking in on me and making sure I’m still writing XD @jason-redhood @jason-todd-squad

^^^^^

I wanted to have a nice post-college prom night. I didn’t expect to spend most of the night peering around at the small crowd for my ex. I hadn’t even considered the possibility of him being there until Jason and I were already there.

My good friend from high school, Freddie, was throwing a prom night because his “greatest regret in life so far” was not taking his then-crush, now-wife to prom. So he decided to rent out an elementary school’s gymnasium to host a prom that he could take his wife to. So, despite the fact that I had graduated college, I was going to prom. Which was just as well. I hadn’t been asked to prom in high school so I’d gone stag with some friends of mine—and we had a fun time regardless even though it had been raining that night and we got lost on the way to the venue and I nearly ruined my sister’s heels.

As soon as Freddie emailed me and told me about post-college prom, I called Jason to ask if he’d be my date. We’d only been officially dating for about a month, but by the time prom came around, we’d been officially together for six. Mostly due to rogues delaying the date of the dance.

“Freddie!” I exclaimed, clenching Jason’s hand tighter and dragging him behind me. I slowed to a stop in front of my friend and his wife, Kelsey. She’d been a friend of mine in high school too and I always thought they’d be cute together.

“Hey!” Freddie replied brightly. “Good to see you!” He gave me a big hug that I quickly transferred to Kelsey.

“Freddie, Kels, I’d like to introduce you to my boyfriend. Jason. Jay, this is Freddie and Kelsey, my friends from high school that I’ve told you about a couple times before,” I said, smiling between my boyfriend and my old friends. I hadn’t even seen Freddie and Kelsey in at least two years. Apart from their occasional Facebook updates that I saw even less frequently than they made them since I was never on Facebook anymore.

“Oh yeah,” Jason said with a good natured smile. “Freddie’s the one who tried to do a full-T with you in swing club and almost dropped you, right?”

My right ankle throbbed just thinking about it as Freddie went red. “Yeah,” I said.

Jason stuck his hand out to shake Freddie’s. “Nice to meet the reason she doesn’t trust me when I pick her up.”

Freddie shook Jason’s hand with cautious confusion. “She doesn’t trust… you?”

I could understand his bewilderment. Jason and Freddie weren’t the same build. At all. Freddie was stronger than he looked, but he was still a scrawny, skinny guy who looked like a strawberry-blond Benedict Cumberbatch (it was the mouth, nose, and blue eyes probably). Jason was at least three inches taller, and built like freaking Superman. Muscular, sturdy.

I snorted. “Thanks Jay. He didn’t need to know that,” I said. “And it’s not that I don’t trust you to pick me up, it’s just that I don’t like my feet being off the ground for more than a few seconds in general.”

Jason chuckled. “Alright, alright. Well, it was nice to meet you both,” he said.

“You too,” Kelsey put in with a grin. She was one of the only people I’d ever met who was smaller than me and fully-grown.

Jason and I made our way back to the coat rack and slung off our overcoats. They were jackets, really. It was evening in late spring and it was almost warm enough not to need one. But it was never quite that warm. Not in Gotham, anyway.

As Jason hung my jacket, I glanced around, noticing a bunch the old swing club members from high school.

A thought struck me.

Davey and I started seeing each other—without ever officially deeming us “together”—because he’d sat next to me in a class and I convinced him to join swing club after he expressed a passing interest in learning to dance.

I tried to shake the fear off as we wandered the small crowd—that also consisted of some of Freddie and Kelsey’s friends from college that I didn’t know—but I couldn’t get the anxiety out of my head. Had Freddie invited Davey? Was Davey coming? I assumed he was still in Metropolis for college since I was roughly a year-and-a-half ahead of him. He’d done a gap year right out of high school and then a humanitarian thing somewhere overseas for a year before going back to school. Maybe he couldn’t make it to Gotham for the prom night.

Davey and I parted on less-than-friendly terms and I hadn’t heard from him in… nearly three years.

“Babe?” Jason asked as he pulled me onto the dancefloor. “Something on your mind?”

I craned my neck around at the crowd. Davey was nowhere to be seen. “Kinda,” I said, looking back to Jason. “Just hoping my ex doesn’t show up.”

Jason just grunted and started to spin me around, wasting no time in breaking out the swing dance moves he somehow knew before he even met me. He wouldn’t tell me, though, how a vigilante came to learn how to swing dance. I’d always just guessed it was because Jason was a closet nerd.

We danced for a long while before I was too tired to go on and needed a break for at least one song. Maybe two. Luckily there were chairs lining the room. Adult-sized chairs, thankfully.

“You okay?” Jason asked. “You’re all red.”

“Happens when I work out,” I teased.

We hung out for two songs before getting up to talk to the few folks who weren’t dancing. Jason did most of the talking, despite the fact that he knew no one at the prom, since he was the one genuinely interested in who all these people were. I looked around and just waited for Davey to walk through the door.

Prom had been going on for an hour before I finally relaxed. If he hadn’t arrived already, he probably wasn’t coming.

Jason and I were in the middle of a waltz when he lifted his hand from my shoulder blade to wave at someone. “Hey, I know that guy,” he said. “Wonder how Freddie does.” He spun me under his arm too fast for me to see who he was talking about. “We were in a couple engineering classes at Metropolis City University together.”

I scrunched my eyebrows at Jason. “You went to MCU? I thought you were a GCU guy?”

“I am. But I got my Associate’s at MCU. They have a great engineering program. Thought I was going to get my Bachelor’s in engineering before swapping to literature and transferring back home,” Jason explained.

He waved over his friend. “David! Come here! I want you to meet my girlfriend!”

My entire circulatory system turned chill. My blood ran so cold it felt like my capillaries were turning to ice. I tried to remind myself that David was a common name, but David, MCU, and engineering. One similarity to my ex was interesting. Two was a coincidence. But three was a pattern. There was too much there. I was going to be even more surprised if I turned around and wasn’t face-to-face with the guy who broke my heart nearly three years ago.

Jason spun me around to face his classmate from Metropolis.

Davey was even goofier-looking than I remembered. His teeth had always been too big for his face, but when we were in high school he hadn’t grown into his features yet. And by the looks of things, he still hadn’t five years later. His dirty-blond hair was so short it made his head look long and rectangular on the sides, which contrasted sharply with his narrow chin. His teeth were still too big for his face and his overbite had never quite been fixed by his braces. His angular nose seemed to have had a nostril-widening.

The biggest difference though was his glasses. In high school he exclusively wore contacts. At some point, though, he’d switched to his glasses.

There was also a girl on his arm. My mom would jump to my defense immediately and say she wasn’t as pretty as I was and that Davey really missed out on me, but she was cute in a different way than I was.

Davey bit my name past his lips with an, “Oh hi,” tacked on at the front like he was surprised to see me. As if I wouldn’t show up to Freddie’s event. Even though I was a swing club member first. I put on my most tightly cordial smile and gave a respectful head-nod of greeting to his significant other first, completely ignoring him.

“Hello there. You must be his… partner,” I said.

“Yes. I’m Rachel. I’m his wife.”

I nodded. “Nice to meet you.”

“You too,” she said. She gave me a smile, and I realized she was what Davey needed. A quiet person. A listener. He and I had both been talkers.

“Wait,” Jason interrupted. “How do you two know each other?”

I bit back a surge of bitterness at the way Davey broke off our relationship. I was happy with Jason but that didn’t mean Davey hadn’t hurt me worse than I’d ever been hurt before. “Jay, this is Davey—the other one I told you about,” I said. My hand tightened in his grip. “My old dance partner from swing club.”

“Oh,” he said as realization struck. He squeezed my hand. “Well, then, David, I guess you already know my girlfriend.”

“Guess so,” Davey said.

“Well, Rachel, it was nice to meet you,” I said. It wasn’t her fault Davey was tactless and immature when he broke up with me, leaving me with lots of bitter feelings.

“It was nice to meet you too,” she said before Jason whisked me back onto the dancefloor—on the opposite side from Davey and Rachel.

“You never told me your ex was in engineering at MCU!” Jason hissed.

“It was never relevant!” I hissed back. “And he was in environmental engineering! I didn’t think you two would have ever met! I also had no clue you even went to MCU until a few minutes ago!”

“Yeah, okay, fair,” Jason said. He spun me under his arm, making my skirt flare out. “But I’m sorry to have put you through that awkwardness.”

“Thanks,” I said.

We danced for a few more minutes before Jason stopped abruptly and pulled his phone out of his inside jacket pocket. His eyes widened as he read the text. “Update from Red Robin,” he said quietly, pulling me off the dancefloor by the hand toward the coat rack. “There’s a robbery at Gotham First City Bank. Possible Joker thugs. I have to go—”

“I’m coming too.”

“Babe, no. You wanted this night. Don’t let me ruin—”

“It’d be ruined the second you left me alone here with David,” I put in sharply.

Jason seemed to think about that for a moment. “Fair point,” he said. He grabbed our coats and we ducked out of the gym. “We can try and come back when we’ve dealt with the bank.”

“We’ll see,” I said.

[comicteaparty]

May 4th-May 10th, 2020 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from May 4th, 2020 to May 10th, 2020.  The chat focused on Dead City by Michelle Parker and Jey Pawlik.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Dead City by Michelle Parker and Jey Pawlik~! (http://topazcomics.com/deadcity/welcome/) You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace until May 10th, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Discussions are freeform, but we do offer discussion prompts in the pins for those who’d like to have them. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic! Whether you finish the comic or can only read a few pages, everyone is welcome to join and chat with us!

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 1

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic?

2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)?

3. Who is your favorite character?

4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most?

5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it!

6. What is a theme you like that the comic explores?

7. What do you like about the comic’s story or overall related content?

8. Overall, what do you think the comic’s strengths are?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I don't know how long these are in the queue, but wow, "infectious outbreak that focuses on characters coping with limited resources while self-isolating from anyone contagious" is hitting awfully close to home right now...

Miranda

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic? I really liked how it jumped right in. It didn't feel the need to explain the outbreak, the history of it, what the symptoms are, etc. It simply showed a zombie, showed a non zombie, and the stage was set. 2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)? I think the Vending machine incident and Mikael ust straight up getting naked to take a rain shower. 3. Who is your favorite character? I like Mikael and his personality. He's just very blunt and to the point 4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most? So far there are only two, but their interaction, while simple, says a lot about their personalities and experiences with the outbreak so far. 5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it! Black and white is usually hard for me to read, but this one does it well. I love Mikael's freckles. 6. What is a theme you like that the comic explores? How people handle crisis 7. What do you like about the comic’s story or overall related content? It's so simple, but even with few words, you can tell a lot about the character's and where they've been and what's brought them to where they are now. 8. Overall, what do you think the comic’s strengths are? Drawing the characters to show without having to tell.(edited)

RebelVampire

@Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn) I looked out of curiosity. This was submitted January 13th. So it's a big happy coincidence.

Queenue

Oh man I love Dead City! It was nice to refresh myself on the comic since I last read. I will say, the artist handles black and white beautifully. This is such a great comic with such a limited palette (almost pure b&w with some spinkles of gray). The style reminds me of really great classic American comics, and I dig it a lot. And as an intimate character study of two guys struggling in a post-apocalyptic world, it is fantastic. JP is my fave character as I find him really relatable. Overall, I feel his and Mikael's relationship was well built up and realistic. All of those cute, quiet little moments between them really make this story. One of the major themes that I gather is that humanity endures, even in the face of the apocalypse. The end of life as we know it isn't the end of us, we can still thrive, and even fall in love when the world's falling apart. That's kind of a theme in a lot of zombie media, but Dead City really hits on this. While I kind of wish there were more zombies in the comic (lol), I understand that it's mostly a romance/character-driven story. But, it also tackles the issue of isolation in these types of situations in a really genuine way. You get the feeling that these characters are the "only two people in the world" and that they felt so profoundly alone before they found each other. That's powerful writing.

But it also knows how to use humor and light-hearted character moments to lighten the mood, which I like. I've never seen a piece of media in this genre that wasn't super dark and gritty and that's one of the things I love about this comic. And, I don't know if I can pick a favorite moment, but I do like their whole time spent in the suburban house just lazing about, drinking wine and trying on the previous owners' clothing.

RebelVampire

I like that the beginning of the comic begins kind of typical to a zombie story. Where character A meets character B but then oh no trust issues cause survival of the fittest. And then the story just completely deviates from it in a lot of ways. I really kind of like how it used the tropes to establish the setting quickly, before becoming its own thing. My favorite moment in the comic so far has probably been when Mikael froze and JP had to step up and take action against a zombie. I actually wasn't sure JP had it in him tbh, so for me that was a cool moment of just seeing another side to this character. I also liked seeing confirmation that nah, Mikael has been affected by the scenario and the whole has-it-together vibe isnt entirely accurate. My favorite character is probably JP if not for the fact I see myself in him a bit more just for the fact he never quite feels like he knows what he's doing and is just kind of winging it. Considering there's really only two characters, it's obviously JP and Mikael. Their relationship builds up in a very organic way that feels natural, so it's really enjoyable. As for the art, what I like the most is the attention to detail. Like Mikael's freckles, the fact JP's facial hair grows, etc. Those small things really just kind of give the comic that extra bit of polish that's really nice. As for a theme the comic explores, I think I enjoy most right now the human need for connection. Cause sure Mikael didn't trust JP at first (and possibly vice versa), and yet, are you really going to turn away perhaps one of the few ppl left? I think this story really captures that need for people to have someone else in their life.

As for the story's overall content, what I like the most is just how un-zombie of a zombie apocalypse this is. Sure we see them, but overall they aren't the focus. I also like that the zombies aren't treated as like this OP always have to worry about thing. One line that super sticks with me is Mikael noting the zombies got slower cause they're, ya know, dead and rotting. So I like that there is this hope that maybe it won't be a forever thing. As for the comic's strengths, again, probably the premise where it's a zombie apocalypse but that is so far from the focus it makes it really unique and stand out.

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 2

9. Do you think JP and Mikael’s relationship will be able to last, or will the situation of the apocalypse get the better of them? In what unexpected ways do you think their relationship will be challenged despite the situation?

10. JP and Mikael’s backstories are both decently vague, so what sort of theories do you have surrounding them? Do you think we’re in for a shocking truth bomb that may drive a wedge between the two?

11. Given what we know about the world at the moment, do you think the apocalypse will last forever, or might things get better someday? What do you think will happen if JP and Mikael run into more survivors?

12. What story moment about the harsh realities of survival hit you the hardest? In contrast, what moment about human connection hit you the stronger? All in all, what do you think the comic says about connecting with other people, even in survival situations?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

RebelVampire

I think JP and Mikael's relationship will last. But, what I think will challenge their relationship is the idea that maybe the apocalypse won't last forever, or things won't always be super dire. Cause I think that forces them to reexamine who they were as people in the past and talk about that a lot more than they do at present. At present I get way more of an impression they're living in the now, so once the past and future can be relevant again, I think that will prompt some interesting discussions. I don't have anything concrete at the moment regarding background theories. However, I do think there's a dark edge to Mikael somewhere in there that will make JP go "I'm not sure if I like that." Given my opinions above and it being mentioned the zombies aren't as fast as they used to be, no. I actually think we're already seeing the signs that as long as humanity can whole themselves up somewhere and implement proper containment procedures, things will get better. As for more survivors, I actually don't forsee that being an issue anytime soon. And if they do meet other survivors, that is when I expect something super bad more zombie apocalypse like will happen cause humans are the most trustworthy bunch in this genre. I think the moment for harsh realities of survival that hit me the strongest was really when they realized they had to move and couldn't stay in one spot forever due to factors beyond their control. It's really hard to leave a place you feel safe, so that hurts the heart that they really didn't have a choice. As for the moment of human connection, it was when the freezing scene happened and Mikael was upset someone he knew was a zombie. Cause I didn't get the impression they were super duper close, and yet that hurt was too real. As for what the comic is saying, I think it's a message about how regardless of situation, we need to feel connected to others - even more so in survival situations.

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 3

13. What are you most looking forward to seeing in regards to the comic?

14. Any final words of encouragement for the comic?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

jestershark

13: I think seeing JP and MIkael's relationship change and grow over the course of the comic has been a delight so far and I think it's going to continue to be interesting into the future. 14. I wish more people were reading it! It's definitely got all sorts of hooks...

snuffysam (Super Galaxy Knights)

I've loved reading Dead City! I really like how this story feels like... progress? Like a lot of zombie survival stories are about the protagonists slowly falling apart as more of them get picked off, but this felt... hopeful. Like, the two get better at surviving as time goes on. Especially given how JP & Mikael's relationship is such a major part of the story. The fact that they can find love in the zombie apocalypse shows that there is hope for humanity after all.

RebelVampire

I am most looking forward to them dealing with more zombies actually or survivors. Unfortunately, resources are gonna become scarcer as time goes on, so I'm interested to see how they change to deal with that. My final words are that this comic is super unique in its storytelling and, to me at least, is a beautiful story about human connection and how there is always hope even when humanity is struggling

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Dead City this week! Please also give a special thank you to Michelle Parker and Jey Pawlik for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Dead City, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

Read and Comment: http://topazcomics.com/deadcity/welcome/

Jey’s Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jpawlik

Topaz Comic’s Ko-Fi: https://ko-fi.com/topazcomics

Topaz Comic’s Shop: https://topazcomics.com/shop/

Topaz Comic’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/topazcomics

[gg-astrology]

hiii gg! (i still don't know ur name 😔) what's the difference between sidereal and tropical? im a libra rising 6° sidereal and scorpio rising 1° in tropical.

Hey there (tis Nita but gg is fine too!! skdnfj) 💕💕💕 I’ve been saving this ask for a while and I finally have time to talk about it now!! 💕💕💕💕

[Side-real v Tropical ?? Whats that and What do?? ]

🚫long post 🚫

This is really really stripped down and basic but lemme jus explain a really quick zip up of some stuff

I’m going to skim over alot of details, and by no means am I an expert on this. So please read with your discretion

 I’m jus gonna give you a real quick run down of the basics oki 💕 

Hmm how to do this.. ok so let’s start for beginner beginner and go forward ok?

Beginners, hello! 💕 Today we’re gonna talk about 2 sets of zodiac (same signs just… how should we categorize/where does the start actually start) – that you might or might not know about yet! 💕

When I say ‘sets of zodiac’— today we’re going to consider the 12 signs. Just the 12 signs. And where it starts. Simple yes?

Questions we might be asking today: how do we have 12 signs?? (and consequently: Is there more?) and also ‘what do you consider to be the ‘real’ zodiac?’ 

For most people who started learning western/modern astrology, you’ll probably start off with using the Tropical system– which is the default nowadays and what astro sites usually use! 

Let’s learn a little about the Tropical system then?? What about it?? What it do?? 

Tropical Astrology

Tropical Astrology is probably the one most beginners tend to start out using, most people don’t realize maybe because it’s automated on most astro sites and generators nowadays. But there is an option where you can ‘check’ what kind of Zodiac set you’re using:

Like here, you can see on the left it says ‘zodiac’ and it’s usually set at ‘tropical’. 

In our really long history of astrology through the eras, we’ve transformed and evolve, shift and made things as we’ve come along. It’s still happening today too, but Tropical zodiac we align our Aries (the start of the Tropical zodiac) to when Spring begins (transform/shifts and ‘begins’ or carries through into spring from Pisces -> Aries).

We might’ve heard how cardinal signs are the ‘start’ of each astronomical seasons (Aries- Spring, Capricorn- Winter, Cancer - Summer, Libra- Fall) carrying the solstice and equinox of each one. The year (12 months) can be split into 3 months, 3 months of which we’re supposed to be in ‘each season’💕

Thus the 12 signs are also split into 3 modes, with the elements of each sign falling onto different modes as each other. Creating a certain hierarchy and dynamic, falling into place. The ‘start’, the ‘fixed’ and the ‘end/transformation’ (self, social, transcendent) of each reaction/behaviour in our signs. 

(Taurus/Leo/Aquarius/Scorpio are smack dab in the middle of their ‘season’ before they shift/transform into the mutable signs, that adapts and changes.. getting ready for the new season again) 

With the tropical, because Aries is always aligned with the Spring Equinox whenever the Spring Equinox is-- that’s when Aries is supposed to start. It changes, so it’s nice to consider how the person who considers themselves a ‘sun cusps’ of something can figure out which sign they’re were born in according to their specific year (y know, not really a fixed date since we got Aquarius early this year as well) 

And ok, that’s fair and good. But what about the stars? And this is where the mayham begins.

The Mayham

The thing about it is, the idea that the first degree of Aries also coincides with the beginning of spring can be like, yeah ok that’s good and true bc it’s seasonal and not ecliptical (aka like, we don’t have to consider the foot of Orpheus being in the way of our ecliptic plane and thus complications over that. But also i’d like to remind us that astrology wise: tropical or side-real are both equally relevant and important and shouldn’t be dismissed) 

We can feel the affect of how that might not always be the case though (ugh climate change and global warming but that’s human factor and I’m picking fights with the wrong thing here). 

Climate wise, some sides are having longer winter, longer summers than what was preceded 1000 years ago. Astronomical season vs Meteorological seasons. So should we go with season?? or Stars?? What is the truth?

(also for those of you who are curious about meteorological seasons, it’s like how the start of the season should be at the first day of the month. So the start of spring is essentially March 1st… running to May 31st. Clean, easy, cut and set.) 

Who even came up with the idea of 0/1st degree of Aries = Spring? It’s mr. Claudius Ptolemy (1 BCE). Our favourite Greek astronomer who saw that Aries Vernal Equinox coincide with the Spring back then. 

What we didn’t know however, is that back then the side-real and tropical coincides together. The earth ‘wobbles’ a little through the century (although Mr Ptolemy did apparently know that— but the 21st century will have to deal with it and figure out what we wanna use now, instead of him sdkfjn) 

The ‘start’ of Aries shifts. Not coinciding with the ecliptic. At first it was aligned, so no problemo. But after people started dying and years have passed (centuries) we start to notice that  the ‘start’ of the Tropical zodiac is now 25 degrees later than the Side-real zodiac (what the sky says/what the season says)

(So to answer your question: if you look at your side-real you’ll probably find that you might’ve moved back one sign. In all aspect, so with a Tropical Scorpio ASC you’re now a Side-real Libra ASC) 

The degrees gets added a little more bc of the wobble (or ‘precession of equinox’)… so let’s say its 25 degrees now… 1 (or 1.4) degree is added every 72 years or so (the ‘precession/wobble’) until it becomes 26 degrees different later (and so on) 

Equinox?? Tf??

For those who wanna know what that feels like… The Spring Equinox is essentially– for those who lives around the tropics, This is the time we all begin to suffer from heat (which will get worse and maybe we’ll be lucky for chances of rain). And for those who are upper/lower begins to have better weather. Congrats. 

The wobble that the Earth goes through (I think it’s called the ‘Axial Precession’ and ‘precession of equinox’) causes deviation in our we measure the ecliptic. Instead of looking at the ‘declination’ of the Sun in accordance to Earth (our earthling ego is so big) we now base it around the Sun’s ‘ecliptic/celestrial longitude’ instead.

(— also on that topic you can also check ‘Chandler’s Wobble’ as well!)  

The ‘precession’ gets longer, to skip the details and not confuse you, let’s just say because the Earth wobbles – our Tropical system and Side-real system starts to differ.

How? Why? What is a side-real?? We defined tropical as the 1st degree of Aries coinciding with the start of Spring. So what is side-real?

Side-real

Is a little more based on Constellation Zodiac. Think of us learning how to read constellations. Basically, our ancestors have noticed that our Earth, the Sun, Moon and 5 other planets are moving through the sky with a very specific routes in their travels. 

The observable stars and planets that we see scattered across our night skies makes up the visible ‘constellations’. The ones that coincides with the planets– the ones that the planet moves through, are the ones that we ‘count’. Whilst the ones that are just visible/there– are the ones that we don’t.

So technically, imagine if you were looking up at the sky. And you can see Mars travelling into this bish of a star again. You go ‘oh its Taurus season, it’s happening again ugh’. That’s what it’s like to live with fixed stars skjnksn

That’s a little off, but to help you out a little the path that these stars/planets travels to (the specific path) is called the ecliptic. It’s like how our sun has an ecliptic and sees the paths in which these constellation/stars move above in our sky. A little trippy, kinda weird. But also really really cool huh (think of the gif above of things just rotating along it’s axis and spinning, a little trippy huh)?

The side-real zodiac is based more on the constellations, these sets of ‘fixed stars’ that travels through our ecliptic and what we can see/observed. Because it’s not based on the equinox– the seasons, our environment and how it affects us as humans– the side-real is often regarded as the more ‘astronomical’ or the two.

Around the 5BCE (i think) the Mesopotamia starts to create a ‘standardized’ zodiac for side-real (or jus the zodiac since the hellanistic era is when things really starts to boom up and shift around) — technically some stars are smaller than others. But they decided that they’re gonna give each stars equal segments and make them look like they’re the symbolic representation of the heavens instead (poetic and also really cool, y know like why everything looks like a circle on the chart anyways– also the start of decans, which is really neat too!)  

So let’s… regroup a little.. That was a lot. Let’s give you a little tl;dr summary to work with:

Side-real zodiac would mean Aries ‘starts’ (1st degree of Aries) 25 days before the Equinox (currently)

Tropical isn’t based on the constellations/fixed stars (like side-real) but rather the Equinox and Solstice themselves (Aries ‘starts’ on the Spring Equinox)

Side-real is based on the constellations, and the celestial ecliptic. Whilst Tropical is based on the seasons, how it influences us.

You remember how I mentioned Tropical dates for the Sun sign? How Aries is March 21st - April 20th? With Side-real, it’s completely normal to have a different Sun sign Zodiac. So don’t freak out 💕

Right, that was a lot… so essentially what we’re dealing with here is two sets of zodiac. One that’s based on Season and one that’s based on Constellation/Fixed-stars. 

Which one do you choose?

Well… for me, personally, I just go with both? Learning both can be helpful. Plus there’s so much history behind both of them that it’s really good to balance and use both in my studies.

You might’ve heard of the debate with the star Orpheus that popped up. It’s more of an argument with the side-real part, where people say ‘hey if we’re going by the ecliptic then shouldn’t Orpheus that is between Scorpio and Sagittarius be counted? As the 13th sign in the zodiac?’ 

That’s another topic all together. But anyways. Which one is more accurate which one is wrong– well neither? Just because they’re different instruments, doesn’t mean they won’t end up reaching similar conclusions. It’s just a matter of what you’re using them for, or how you’re utilizing them.

(Also im skimming a lot of the details and debate on stuff, a lot of the argument might center around y know— basing it on stars instead of season. But also what do when feets of stars dangle within our ecliptic. Lotsa argument, debate and stuff on how the earth works in relation to our gravity, space, the Moon as well. Tropical vs Side-real. But y know. Both systems are good and valid it’s the more technical stuff that differs.) 

Tropical and Side-real??

Some people feel more at ease and comfortable with side-real, and that’s cool. Some people prefers tropical, and that’s cool too. None of these sets of instruments are ‘wrong’ because the dance of the seasons that Tropical brings and the constellation star-path that Side-real brings are both valuable and of importance???

One thing to remember for those is that Vedic astrology might not always be the same as side-real. Whilst Vedic astrologers may use side-real zodiac, the set of instrument themselves depends from people to people (vice versa with Western astrology with Tropical, you can use side-real. But it’s not Vedic astrology. Does that make sense?)

These zodiac sets are tools, zodiac instruments. How you play them differ from people to people (Vedic astrologers and Western astrologers) whether you’re a traditional astrologer, or a modern one. Whether you’re a Brazilian Vedic astrologer, or an Indian Vedic astrologer. How you play these instruments differ. So that’s a little something on… that.

Ayanamshas

One last thing about side-real astrology I think…. is that the ‘start’ of something in the Ayanamshas.

When you clicky the ‘side-real’ zodiac option it shows you a drop down list of ayanamshas to choose from (astro.com) The most popular one is ‘Fagen/Bradley’ and ‘Hindu/Lahiri’ – doing a lil bit more research on this might be good for you, since y know. People disagree on a lot of things 

(also you can use whole signs for this, since y know. it makes your life a little easier.)

I think that’s?? All I have to say for now?? For further research y know the Thema Mundi and learning about the Dendara, History of Astrology in general might be nice to get to know too. I’ll link my sources now:

Ayanamshas - Astro.com

Side-real and Tropical: What is Real?  - Real Astrology

Tropical, Side-real and Tropical Zodiac - Horoscopic Astrology Blog

The Thema Mundi - Horoscopic Astrology Blog 

The Western Tropical, Vedic Sidereal or Nakshatras? - Star Wheel Astrology

The Different Zodiacs used in Astrology - Star Wheel Astrology

Western Side-real Astrology - This ones more Fagan/Bradley based. 

Podcast: Tropical vs Sidereal | Kenneth Browner | Vic DiCara Dendera (YT video) 

Babylonian Star Lore - Gaven White (*change the end of the url link to the different signs) 

Wikis: Chandler Wobble | Axial Precession | Equinox | Declination of the Sun | Axial Tilt | Ecliptic Co-ordinate System | 

Astronomical Season and Meteorological Seasons 

Oh right I forgot to actually answer!! Aaaaahmmm if you count back 25 degrees currently from your Tropical placements, you’ll get your Side-real placements. So to answer why your Scorpio shifted to Libra, it’s like that bc it’s currently 25 degrees apart right now. 💕 But yeah again, the technicalities of it depends on what ayanamshas you use! 💕

[perispinel]

OK K.O. Episodes Review!

I got Hulu Live just to watch em! 

Gar Trains Punching Judy: A great funny episode, with the starring role of Melissa Villasenor doing some great work which I greatly enjoyed! It was also a pretty meaningful episode, showing Gar getting himself a bit more emotionally stable after all the hardships of his life- and all in all, it was funny seeing how K.O. was just plopped into this plot without really having any big role in it! 10 outta 10 for this one!

Beach Episode: This is a pretty nice, chill episode I think- I like the idea of them having a second job exclusively for the summer at the beach, even if it probably won’t appear again after this! Beach episodes are always fun, and this is no exception! I love Enid’s Naruto-style training, along with her Jaws-style revenge! And the fact that Raymond’s “swimsuit” is just a speedo and nothing else is just feeding into that fanart and that Radmond~ that Baywatch reference managed to be simultaneously subtle and glaringly obvious, and the landfill plot comes off as a lot less preachy when it’s combined with all this silliness with all the fun beach combat. ANyone else love that Raymond of all people is the one to agree with working together? All in all, this was a great episode, ten outta ten! (P.S. Rad and Raymond were put on the same board, coincidence or ship tease?) OK A.U.: Heck yeah, a canon alternate universe! This is definitely not the way I expected this episode to begin, with a “our life is much harder than yours” kinda plot, but it is a great way to begin an episode about being transported to another universe! I kinda hope that the Alternate Universe Warlock becomes a popular character in the fandom due to how easy he’d be to use for fanfiction!  I love this perspective into what its like to be a Boxbot- unlike Mr. Gar, he doesn’t show any sympathy and is perfectly willing to reboot you if you ever disobey! It makes being a Boxbot seem kinda scary, although that was kind of a given. And man, I love the way these humanizations of the Boxbots look, exactly how I would’ve imagined them! I loved how the original moral ended up being completely thrown away when it turns out that when he created this alternate universe, he didn’t give them the same memories. And nice callback to the “Let’s Watch the Pilot” episode! ten outta ten, hopefully this becomes a popular one! 

K.O.’s Health Week: This episode has such a Sesame Street vibe to it, or like an episode of a cartoon from the ninetees where they were forced to give out morals without any relevance to the plot or characters. In fact, I am totally certain that this is meant to be a parody of those kinda kid’s shows, with K.O. in place of someone like Elmo or Sonic from Sonic Sez. This episode is definitely establishing K.O. as having some pretty wacky toonforce, being able to just climb into someone’s mouth and shrink into the size of a tiny toothbrush to literally wipe out plaque. This episode seems like it was both meant as a way to teach cute lessons to kids and as a way to show K.O.’s trait of wanting to be a hero to anyone. I enjoy the way they managed to rope in the Boxbots into the plot, and both this and Beach Episode show that in the right circumstances, they can get along well! It looks like this episode might’ve been more than just a silly “the more you know” gag- it was showing that K.O. needs to take care of himself! It’s nice to see that even though the Boxbots still got pummelled, they were on good terms with K.O. by the end. Maybe eventually we’ll have a plot with the Boxbots questioning their villainy? Anyway, ten outta ten for this! 

Rad’s Alien Sickness: I absolutely love this already, with Venomous and Fink getting their own villainous intro to signify their new role in Boxmore! I had no idea we would get to the point of biological warfare being used against the Bodega Trio, but Venomous is the kind to definitely pull that off! It seems maybe they were using Rad’s persistence against him in order to make them fall apart, which is pretty clever for someone who hasn’t been there for that long. Their depiction of Rad’s sickness managed to be pretty gross without being overly realistic, as all fluids are replaced with just blue. I love how K.O. has proved to be the perfect pal, helping his friends with whatever is ailing them, and the fact that he got desperate enough to use leeches and crystals is adorable and funny. Anyone else surprised to hear the term “enabler” used in a kid’s cartoon? And I just love the fourth wall breaking of them saying they barely see Ernesto! Honestly, this episode just proves how much better of a villain Venomous really is, as he basically using his real villain skills to do what Boxman always wanted to do- almost, at least! Well, ten outta ten, I can’t wait for the finale! (not sure whether that cocooning thing is more funny or creepy.)

Dark Plaza: It should typically be a good sign when an episode begins with a cheesy laughtrack and everyone being happy, but the last episode to do that was Let’s Take a Moment, an episode packed with big reveals and twists, so I am already feeling something coming. And already I was right, with Foxtail and Elodie showing up with a bunch of construction workers and giant pointy ships! THis episode is already getting heavy, with the supposed hero wanting to bulldoze Lakewood Plaza to start extracting glorbs and Carol’s secret being revealed to Gar! Oh boy, I love the parallels- in the heat of the moment, Gar is telling off Carol and saying something he’s bound to regret while it rains down hard, just like Carol did all those years ago. Gar seems to have completely given up and is gone, time will only tell if it lasts. Oh boy, subversion of expectations- instead of T.K.O. coming out to save the day, he’s stopped from fighting, and two months pass to reveal that they actually did win! Villains win! I mean, heroes win really, but you get it. It’s pretty dope that the heroes have formed a resistance, and they have such cool new outfits which I bet will get plenty of fanart! The fact that Mr. Gar had the blueprints to the Plaza encoded with holographic morse is pretty clever, and I am into this fun heist mission being pulled off!  Ms. Mummy’s appearance was a surprise indeed, and I also didn’t think we’d get to see P.K.O. again, but this episode is full of surprises! The callback to the Key to the Plaza from the Plazalympics is pretty cool, as I was almost certain that was just a gag. It probably originally was a gag, but now it’s not! I also love the fact that Plazamo from Crinkly Wrinkly’s story turned out to be real, and he wasn’t just making stuff up- he just has a weird way of remembering things. I am very hopeful that Elodie will come around- she seemed remorseful back then when she actually destroyed the plaza, but it seems now she’s been completely turned. This episode is doing well to prove both how tough K.O. is and how powerful Foxtail is, and I love it! 

Nice to see Mr. Gar return to save the day, and Carol too! And man, Elodie is stone-cold brutal- turning on her own superior just to prove she can, and that all in all she still loves Enid. It’s also sweet that they’re still having such an emotional moment with her even after all she’s done- Foxtail did have good intentions, after all. I think that all in all, that was a pretty good season finale. I expected something with Shadowy Figure, and sadly we didn’t really get any hints at it, but I’m sure next season is gonna do something about that. Eleven outta ten! 

[witnessfilm]

An Analysis of Before the Rain

Before the Rain(1994), directed and written by Milch Manchevski, is nonlinearly composed of three individual stories—Words, Faces and Pictures, which are connected with the relationships among the main characters.

While three stories could be separately considered as the distinct plots, the montage of Before the Rain unveils a series of profound effects through the interwoven formation of the film.

 During watching Before the Rain, the initial sense of coincidence among particular people and events gradually transforms to a realization that schemes are laid on a circulative timeline. However, because of the intently misleading plots, the circle of timeline is not perfectly formed; this results in the viewers subjectively understand to the story, which implies more than one interpretation of story.

 The nonlinear narrative frequently involves the viewers in constructing the complete story of the film; in this case, viewers are used to trust all the clues given from the filmmakers and try to figure out the puzzles of narration. Nevertheless, in Before the Rain, the function of the nonlinear narrative with the flawed circle enables viewers to step back to rethink the violence they see.

 In Pictures, Alexander’s confession of how he kills a man with camera raises one significant issue in Before the Rain—what literally happens behind each images.

This moral question does not fade away with the death of Alexander, in contrast, when the flawed circle of narrative is formed in the end of Picture, the confusion about the timeline reinforces the potential manipulation behind the picture. That is, the viewers are forced to be aware of the message they perceive, which is similar to Alexander’s doubt as being a spectator in front of the violence.

 In the beginning of Words, inevitable violence is highlighted through a parallel editing between the the turtle toyed by children and monks’ chanting. The parallel editing simultaneously reveals the heredity of violence which children learn from their environment and the position of the monks with a series of actions to hide themselves and god from the outside world as enclosed spectators who are similar to viewers in the theater. Even if the camera keeps craning to show the sacred gaze from god, the premonition of interruption to the serenity is displayed as the sound of torture continuously heard from the background with the chanting. When the burst of bullet disrupts the routine, it further reveals the fact that monks are eventually involved in violence.

 Another similar scene that a turtle also appears in the restaurant in Faces presents the potential violence hidden in modern city. From the view of Ann, the shots remain close-up of several faces around her, including her husband, the family beside them (especially the kid) and the bearded customer who causes the conflict with the waiter who eventually commits the random shooting. The editing here does not switch between two separate places but several co-occur situations in the same place. Moreover, instead of the exclusion like enclosed spectators, from the very beginning of this scene, each situation is inevitably disturbed by one another through the faster editing among faces and relevant actions in the restaurant.

 Watching Before the Rain is a trapped experience to witness the violence creeping closer to us. Following the characters, viewers gradually approach the violence itself. Kiril, who lives in an enclosed monastery with nearby conflicts until the threat breaks into his life, and Ann, who unconcernedly deals with the war pictures as her job but encounters a bloody incident, are both close to the violence, not to mention Alexander who was going to look for the peace but is immediately surrounded by the ethnic conflict when he arrives home.

 Anxiety of precognition of violence reflects in different layers in the film through specific repetitions.

 In Before the Rain, time is not only an objective concept but a subjective status in the flawed circle of narratives. As the viewer watching the movie, the meaning of each story is gradually revealed to be inseparable. Instead of playing tricks on the viewers, the structure is served to create a confusing circumstance that delivers the emotion about inescapable tragedy and forces the viewers to face the cruel side in the world.

   Except for the scenes of conversations, the camera movement keeps moving through the environments where the characters are.

Landforms, especially the walls of buildings in village and city, are one of the crucial elements in mise-en-scene. As the camera tracking, the wall and the stone become alive on the screen as if they have undergone several conflicts and center around the characters among the quiet but changing environment. Also, the shots of the passer-by are equally important in Before the Rain to make sure the main characters do not live in a closed world.

The above attributes quickly accumulate the trapped and crowded atmosphere to the viewers, which is also the status of the characters—impotent, fatalistic.

 In the scene of double funeral in the first chapter, with a rare long shot in the film panning to Ann sadly watching the ritual at the other side, the music is surprisingly similar to another scene in the second chapter when Ann is standing in the midst of London, surrounded by machines in industrial world. Furthermore, in the funeral, when the music occurs, armed people with machine guns in the ritual are unveiled to expose the violence behind the death. 

Comparing the two scenes, the music strongly connects the guns to the industrial world which implies the chaotic rural area has great connections with those developed countries.

Additionally, the broken mirror in Ann’s studio links the rude search in the monks’ rooms, in which many things are broken by the armed people.

Such connection creates an illusion that the first and the second chapter are linearly narrated but what the repetitions do in the film is to accumulate the precognition of similar tragedy to suggest that all stories will end up with sudden and inevitable deaths.

 On the other hand, the repetitions do not only reinforce the similarity in the film but grow the feeling of collision through divergent consequences.

 Kiril and Alexander both dream about the women they love coming to their rooms in a rainy day; also, they kill a mosquito on their necks. The similarities suggest their possible same faith, but only Alexander ends up being dead, which somehow surprises the viewers as they are used to applying the previous repetition to the rest part.

   The repetition of the blood presents another example of two sides on the same coin. The blood burst out with all the deaths in the film. However, in Pictures, blood also comes out with the birth of lamb, which indicates another meaning of red and also the main color tone of Pictures. For Kiril, the ethnic conflict brings Zamira to his room and changes his life with love, but the hatred also ironically kills Zamira in her brother’s hand. The same tragedy falls upon Alexander, who was shot by his cousin in the end and this scene is also followed by the beginning scene of the film.

Among repetitions over the whole film, both similar or contrary outcomes mean the collisions in different layers and builds up paradoxical atmosphere to trap the viewer even after the film’s end.

 As Milch Manchevski noted, Before the Rain is basically an asian drawing that the structure of the picture seems rational but some details do not make sense; however, this does not bother viewers to understand the content. 

With the richness of details, the form and the context of the film are equivalent to emphasize the endless violence we involve in, which guides the viewers to further immerse in anxiety of precognition of violence. 

Unlike a war film, which may be unrealistic to the viewers, Before the Rain tends to present people’s lives under the violence which is more relatable to the viewers since it is a trigger for reflection of hatred and violence.

[serveandfolly]

Be still my beating heart: My longtime partner, Brian Libby, wrote this OR Arts Watch article twinning the stories of two of my favorite artists, actor River Phoenix and musician Elliott Smith, and relating them through their time in our hometown of Portland, Oregon. The original story (link above) shows photos of some of Elliott’s Portland homes and the road with “the fucked-up face” from My Own Private Idaho, but I’ve pasted all the copy below. Hope some of my fellow River and Elliott fans enjoy this as much as I did.

River and Elliott: Remembering two troubled princes of 1990s Portland

River Phoenix and Elliott Smith brushed Portland and maybe Portland brushed them

NOVEMBER 27, 2018 // CULTURE, FILM, MUSIC // BRIAN LIBBY

There’s a name you keep repeating You’ve got nothing better to do

— Elliott Smith, “Alphabet Town”

From James Dean to Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain to Heath Ledger, we have immortalized a constellation of famous artists—especially musicians and actors—who died young and, then, through a combination of their talent and the public’s grief, lived on. Robbed of the futures we imagined for them, yet frozen in time and thus never to suffer the indignities of aging or late-career artistic mediocrity, their luminosity—and our love for them—intensifies as if in proportion to the tragedy.

Portland and Oregon haven’t traditionally produced a lot of bold-type names that have endured in the international pop zeitgeist. Far from America’s entertainment capitols, this is arguably a place where talents are nurtured, not where one becomes a full-fledged star. The most high-profile artists, such as the great abstract expressionist painter Mark Rothko or Simpsons creator Matt Groening, have tended to move on and live their career-defining creative moments elsewhere. Yet even if their time here is fleeting, sometimes these artists don’t just remain culturally relevant long after their deaths but also come to represent something essential about a particular time in the city.

Last month brought reminders of two such one-time Oregonians and what they left behind. October 21 was the 15th anniversary of musician Elliott Smith’s death, at the age of 34 in 2003, while Halloween brought the 25th anniversary of actor River Phoenix’s death, at the age of 23 in 1993. They died a decade apart, but each moment of mortality came in Los Angeles, and the two sites are less than nine miles away from each other: Phoenix outside West Hollywood’s Viper Room club after an accidental overdose, and Smith by stabbing at his home in Silver Lake (a presumed suicide but never officially determined).

The coincidences don’t end there. River Phoenix and Elliott Smith were born within a year of each other: Smith in Nebraska (he was raised until age 14 in Texas) and Phoenix in Madras, Oregon (raised mostly in Florida). Each arguably made his most famous work in collaboration with director Gus Van Sant. Phoenix co-starred (along with Keanu Reeves) in Van Sant’s 1991 film My Own Private Idaho and Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for the song “Miss Misery,” on the soundtrack to Van Sant’s 1998 film Good Will Hunting. Each struggled with drug abuse, which in different ways led to each artist’s untimely death. River Phoenix and Elliott Smith presumably never met, yet each is a kind of fleeting prince of ’90s Portland, and their work acts as time capsule and talisman for the days many locals now look to longingly: a grittier, more affordable and off-the-radar city that predated Portlandia, a succession of swooning New York Times stories, and an ensuing wave of tourism and gentrification.

Like Rothko, neither stayed here for good. But also like Rothko and many of the city’s other most famous sons and daughters, Phoenix and Smith were transplants to the city who saw Portland with fresh eyes. Like rain clouds that give way to bright sunlight almost daily for much of the year, each artist’s Portland-based work is personal and often deeply melancholic, yet also joyful, lyrical and instinctual. It’s not always pretty, yet we are drawn to their work again and again.

By the time Phoenix signed on to star in My Own Private Idaho, he had long since become a star, thanks to such minor Hollywood classics as 1986’s Oregon-filmed Stand by Me and 1988’s Running on Empty, the latter of which brought him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. But Idaho, the third in Van Sant’s trilogy of Portland-set films (preceded by 1986’s Mala Noche and 1989’s Drugstore Cowboy), would become the role of Phoenix’s career and the standout classic in its director’s now decades-long portfolio.

While Drugstore was initially a greater critical success for Van Sant, winning Best Film and Best Director from the National Society of Film Critics in 1989, Idaho is somehow the film that endures in public imagination and as a lasting artistic achievement. Besides being a landmark of gay cinema, casting two young Hollywood heartthrobs as lovers, it also turned out to be Van Sant’s most cinematically ambitious effort.

The premise of My Own Private Idaho is audacious if not a little crazy. The film is a loose interpretation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part I and Part II—the story of a delinquent, debauchery-loving prince planning to shed his skin and embrace his more virtuous monarchical destiny—transposed to the realm of contemporary Portland street hustlers. As legend has it, Phoenix and Reeves spent nights on the streets of Old Town researching their roles by hanging out with the city’s young street denizens, some of whom would enjoy supporting roles in the film.

Phoenix plays a hustler named Mike with a handicap—narcolepsy drops him off to sleep in any moment of stress. We first watch him collapse in sleep by the side of a rural highway, his possessions and even his shoes stripped from him as he slumbers; then he collapses in the middle of turning a trick, carried out of a rich woman’s house by his fellow hustlers and left slumped against a tree. Reeves’s young Prince Hal figure, Scott (in this case a Portland mayor’s son), is along for the ride as part brotherly companion, part lover. Yet this quirky Shakespearean tale is also bookended by and interwoven with a larger quest, played out under the limitless skies and golden hues of the eastern Oregon landscape, as Phoenix’s Mike searches fruitlessly for his long-lost mother: to the Idaho of his youth, to Italy, and finally back to Portland.

Part of what makes My Own Private Idaho so great is how Van Sant conjures indelible cinematic moments: time-lapse footage of clouds rolling over the Oregon landscape; symbolic slow-motion shots of salmon (Mike’s spirit-animal; Phoenix even wears a salmon-colored jacket) fighting their way upstream; and even an entire house falling from the sky onto the highway. It’s dazzling cinema that makes both rural and urban Oregon its muse like perhaps no other movie. That Van Sant has gone on to make several Hollywood movies that overdose on schmaltz and are short on cinematic eye candy, and few if any great works of art (the Cannes winner Elephant and the Matt Damon/Casey Affleck vehicle Gerry perhaps being exceptions) only makes Idaho all the more special in his oeuvre. In fact, it’s as if Van Sant refuses to enter Idaho-like territory. Consider, for example, that his last film, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot—a profile of cartoonist John Callahan starring River Phoenix’s brother, Joaquin, which is set in Portland and another story of a lonely man’s longing for his mother—was shot in Los Angeles. Suffice to say, there are no houses falling onto the highway.

At least unofficially, My Own Private Idaho owes as much to Phoenix as Van Sant—and not just as it relates to the acting. After all, River Phoenix didn’t just act in Idaho; he reportedly was able to alter the script and his character. The draft that Van Sant brought to the actors didn’t include romance between their two lead characters, but by the time production was complete, Idaho’s most touching moment was a campfire embrace wherein Mike declares his love for Reeves’s Scott. Phoenix is at his zenith here as an actor, a marvel of delicacy, communicating a blend of easy cool and endearing vulnerability.

Both Phoenix and Reeves came to the Idaho cast with something to prove: that they could be serious dramatic actors. To a large extent it worked for both. While Reeves has never been considered a master thespian, his roles in blockbuster franchises like The Matrix and even the more recent John Wick movies have cemented his place in movie history. And for Phoenix, post-Idaho there was no longer any doubt that the child actor we’d seen in Explorers and the angst-ridden teen of The Mosquito Coast (not to mention a memorable “Family Ties” guest-starring turn) had graduated to leading roles with the charisma, looks and vulnerability of a budding superstar. Would it be going too far to say he was the James Dean of his time? Maybe. But the comparison is not ludicrous.

Of course longevity was not to be for Phoenix. Within 25 months of Idaho’s release, his story ended, just like Mike’s, collapsed on the pavement—in this case on a Hollywood sidewalk rather than Highway 216, and sadly, not simply asleep for a few minutes. The brother with him that night, Joachin Phoenix, would go on to enjoy the long acting career River never got.

The year of Idaho’s release was also a turning point for Elliott Smith. In 1991 he had just returned to Portland after four years at Hampshire College in Massachusetts, and promptly formed the band Heatmiser with three musician friends. Over the ensuing years, Heatmiser would become a fixture at celebrated indie-rock clubs like the X-Ray Café and La Luna, while also recording albums like 1993’s Dead Air and 1994’s Cop and Speeder that infused punk energy with melodicism. The band was part of a broader indie rock scene that included Pond, Crackerbash, The Spinanes, The Dandy Warhols and Quasi.

After Nirvana’s breakout success, both indie and major labels began combing Portland clubs looking for the next grunge sensation. And what was grunge but punk with a little more melody and a flannel shirt? Heatmiser received enough attention that a major label, Virgin Records, eventually came calling. But by that time Smith was ready to venture out on his own, breaking up Heatmiser just as they’d made the big time. As the singer-songwriter explained in a later interview, he had grown tired of screaming all the time as a member of a loud rock band. And besides, by that time Smith was gaining notice for a series of stripped-down solo albums with little more than voice and an acoustic guitar. To the astonishment of many, they sounded less like punk or grunge and more like Simon & Garfunkel or Nick Drake. Smith’s solo debut, 1994’s Roman Candle, was released at the height of the grunge era but also just nine months before Kurt Cobain’s suicide, essentially prefiguring (and perhaps even giving birth to) the emo-core wave that would in time follow grunge.

In the four years between Roman Candle’s release and Smith’s leap to international fame with the Oscar nomination for “Miss Misery,” local audiences who had feasted on loud guitars and pounding punk rhythms filled Portland clubs for his solo acoustic shows, trading chaotic mosh pits for stillness and pin-drop quiet. Not only was there the wistful simplicity of Smith’s voice and acoustic guitar. It was also how the singer-songwriter bared his soul in his lyrics. Though some songs were inspired by others’ lives, it was clear that for the sensitive, often-depressed Smith, music was a confessional and a lifeline. Yet in his almost Lennon-McCartney like gift for melody, even his sad songs feel uplifting.

In those early Elliott Smith albums recorded here, through his 1997 masterwork Either/Or (his last for indie label Kill Rock Stars before signing with the mammoth Dreamworks and leaving Portland for New York), the singer-songwriter also painted a cinematic if melancholy picture of the city. You can almost feel the gray wintertime skies in songs like “Alameda,” as he sings:

You walk down Alameda Looking at the cracks in the sidewalk Thinking about your friends How you maintain all them in A constant state of suspense

For your own protection Over their affection Nobody broke your heart You broke your own because you can’t Finish what you start

When the Oscar nomination for “Miss Misery” came, Smith’s life changed overnight. If that new audience and international media attention meant exponentially greater album sales and the end of his penny-pinching way of life—staying in nice hotels on tour instead of sleeping in the van or on some stranger’s floor, not to mention no longer moonlighting as a drywall contractor by day—it also isolated Elliott from his community of not-so-affluent friends and musicians still sleeping on those floors. This time in his life was also accompanied by increasing drug abuse and greater depressions. Perhaps Smith new that despite overwhelmingly positive reviews for albums like XO and Figure 8 as well as a worldwide audience of admirers (he was particularly smitten when a musical hero, Elvis Costello, attended a London show), DreamWorks saw its Smith signing as essentially an investment that didn’t quite pay off because he wasn’t the megastar they envisioned.

Like Cobain, Smith also retained that nagging Gen X rocker’s worry that he’d sold out. Maybe today a young fan who falls in love with Figure 8 doesn’t care that it was recorded for DreamWorks instead of Kill Rock Stars. After all, going to a major label gave Smith a bigger palette of instruments and fellow musicians to work and record with. Yet for Smith, the decision wasn’t without impact. In “King’s Crossing,” one of Smith’s best posthumously-released songs, he sings, “The method acting that pays my bills/keeps the fat man feeding in Beverly Hills.”

Particularly in the couple of years before his 2003 death, Smith was a shell of his former self, consuming cocktails of heroin, crack and prescription drugs. At times onstage, he even had to abort songs halfway through because he couldn’t remember his own lyrics. Yet Smith was also in those final months showing signs of recovery and renewal, which enabled the superlative album he was working on when he died. Songs on the magnificent From a Basement on the Hill (including “King’s Crossing”) exhibit a layered richness of sound that goes beyond what he recorded in Portland a few years earlier. Yet it all screeched to a halt in Silver Lake—whether inevitably, as some observers maintained, or out of the blue.

Today I can’t look at certain places in Portland and Oregon without thinking of them.

For River Phoenix and My Own Private Idaho, there is the Elk statue downtown on Southwest Main Street between Chapman and Lownsdale squares, where early in the film Scott cradles a sleeping Mike in his arms. There is also the stretch of Broadway downtown near the Benson Hotel where the duo cruise the street on Scott’s motorcycle, handsomely and heroically, like cinema’s sunglasses-masked successors to The Wild One and Easy Rider. And perhaps most of all, there is a lonely stretch of Highway 216, east of the Cascades and not far from the tiny town of Tygh Valley, where River Phoenix begins and ends the movie, succumbing to narcoleptic seizure. Last year my partner and I found the coordinates online and made a pilgrimage. To get there you drive white-knuckled through a series of hairpin turns through a small Deschutes River gorge, and then suddenly you come onto a plateau where the road seems to unfold forever.

If one seeks vestiges of Elliott Smith’s Portland, it’s not just the venues where he took the stage (one of which, La Luna, is now a café of the same name), but also, if you know where to look, one of the many Southeast Portland houses where he lived and recorded. Roman Candle, for instance, was recorded in a home on Southeast Taylor Street that recently was listed for rent. (And yes, I admittedly took a tour.) Smith also lived in another Southeast Portland house, off Division Street, that prompted him to sometimes spend late nights hanging out on a bench in the rose gardens of Ladd’s Addition; the documentary Heaven Adores You includes a long shot looking down over the neighborhood. In “St. Ides Heaven,” he writes

Everything is exactly right When I walk around here drunk every night With an open container from 7-11

Division Street itself also wound up inspiring a lyric in “Punch and Judy” (on Either/Or), albeit not exactly an ideal marketing tagline:

Driving around up and down Division Street I used to like it here It just bums me out to remember

Every time I listen to “Punch and Judy,” that line makes me wonder what Smith would have made of gentrified Division Street now, with its canyon of condos and string of popular restaurants. It’s a phenomenon that has swept most close-in east side neighborhoods—precisely the formerly cheap old houses he and his friends used to inhabit.

Even so, to absorb the work of Smith (especially his early records) and Phoenix (particularly My Own Private Idaho) is to make a nostalgic return to ‘90s Portland. And yet, through the power of these works and these two princes’ immense talent, their work also transcends that time capsule. Even if their tragically early deaths don’t guarantee them true artistic immortality, the more Portland changes, the more their works resonate.

[analysis-by-vaylon]

Double Take #4: “Cheer Up Star” and the pratfall effect revisited.

Welcome back to Double Take, the series in which I examine early episodes of Star vs. the Forces of Evil in order to show how they prepare the audience for increasingly complex ideas in later episodes. Remember that the goal of Double Take is twofold: not only do I intend to show how the writers presaged these complex ideas in earlier seasons, but, by revealing this, I also intend to highlight the writers’ true mastery of their craft and bolster my claim that the writing in Star vs. the Forces of Evil is vastly underappreciated.

I have scratched and clawed my way back from the abyss to bring you this post. It has been a long time coming.

Some of you may recall that I have previously written about (though not for this blog) the relevance of the pratfall effect to Star and Marco's relationship with each other, as well as with the audience. If you don't remember what the pratfall effect is, don't worry; I'll explain it later in this post.

Season one gives us plenty of examples of the ways in which Star and Marco are similar to each other -- for example, their propensity to make mistakes. The first episode in which this comparison is driven home is "Cheer Up Star" -- an episode that is, as I have always maintained, truly extraordinary. It is my hope that this post reveals the extent of the episode’s brilliance.

First, A Disclaimer

"Cheer Up Star" is, in part, about sexual desire, and this is not a subject that I intend to avoid writing about; Star's desire for Oskar is the beating heart of the episode, and I would be remiss if I did not include it in my analysis. (That the production staff got away with depicting it to the degree they do is, after all, part of what makes this episode so astounding.)

I am aware of the risks I take in writing -- even analytically -- about sexuality in a cartoon which is aimed at teenagers: there are, for example, certain overzealous and ostensibly well-meaning persons who may use this post as evidence that I am nefarious. Well, I can't control what those people think, and I certainly have no interest in placating them. My goal is to accurately write, to the best of my ability, analysis that sheds light on the ideas behind Star vs. the Forces of Evil -- no matter what they may be.

Therefore, if the subject of sexuality makes you uncomfortable, I advise you to read no further.

Why this Episode?

Earlier, I briefly touched on part of what makes "Cheer Up Star" unique: in characterizing both Star and Marco as being prone to mistake-making, the episode plays out a practical application, before our very eyes, of the pratfall effect. And, yes, I still think "Cheer Up Star" shows us the precise moment in which Star first starts to be attracted to Marco -- a scene that I'll talk about in depth later in the post.

"Cheer Up Star" also pays special attention to the idea of irony and, relatedly, contains some of the most striking symbolism and metaphor of the entire series, all of which is especially interesting to me -- I lectured on irony when I was a graduate student -- so I think now would be a good time to talk about the adroit way the series uses irony in this episode.

Lastly, "Cheer Up Star" demonstrates incredible imagination and vividness in depicting -- both in actuality and in visual metaphor -- Star's highly-charged sexual attraction to Oskar. The fact alone that Star's desire is presented in such stark terms sets the show apart from others with regard to its approach to the concept of desire, and this approach returns in season two with a fuller realization in episodes like "Running with Scissors."

The Pratfall Effect

Let's go over just what the pratfall effect is: simply put, when an audience observes someone competent making a mistake, they tend to like that person more. My argument is that "Cheer Up Star" centers around the idea of mistake-making as a way for Star and Marco to develop affection for one another. I'll go over those examples in a moment.

"Cheer Up Star" hints that it's consciously making use of the pratfall effect by showing a literal pratfall. In comedy, pratfall is the term for a character falling flat on their ass. These types of falls were a staple of classic vaudeville acts, and, interestingly enough, Star falls in much the same way:

Indeed, there is a great deal of significance behind this moment, and we will return to it later in this post.

By this point in the series, Star and Marco are shown as competent when it comes to fighting monsters ("Star Comes to Earth," "School Spirit"), and Marco is academically competent ("Matchmaker"). Yet "Cheer Up Star" puts Star and Marco in those same contexts -- monster fighting and school -- in order to show their vulnerability. Examples include:

The episode starts with Star and Marco running away from monsters instead of fighting them.

Marco misses the bus, then gets tossed into a pile of garbage on school picture day.

Star gets swallowed by a fish while trying to cheer up Marco.

Marco's attempts at cheering up Star all end up disastrous.

A tongue-tied Star proves unable to have a conversation with Oskar.

Crucially, Marco is depicted laughing at Star when she gets swallowed by the fish she conjures. While it does cheer him up, there's also a pratfall effect occurring: Star's mistake inadvertently leads to success, which makes her more endearing -- both to Marco and to the audience.

Similarly, Marco's mistake of luring the monsters to Earth with Star's wand turns out to also be successful:

As we can see, both Marco and Star benefit from each others' mistakes and come to have more affection for one another as a result -- and, as viewers watching these two adorable screw-ups, we come to feel more attached to them as well.

This attachment eventually becomes quite literal by the end of the episode: Star hugs Marco -- another mistake, as they now become stuck together due to Star's earlier spell. They are both literally and metaphorically stuck together, and the episode cements this bond (so to speak) by having the laughing cyclist from earlier return.

There's something deeper going on with the pratfall effect as well: the idea that a mistake might actually be beneficial is a recurring theme in season two, with the most prominent examples being Star's cleaved wand and Star's Song Day celebration.

In "Baby," the fact that Star is to blame for the cleaved wand is driven home, yet that same episode reveals that the cleaved wand allows Star to channel her emotions to access a greater form of magic. Similarly, in "Face the Music," while it at first appears Star made a huge mistake in revealing the stolen book of spells to everyone, we later learn in "Starcrushed" that if Star hadn't done so, Moon would have likely confronted Ludo alone and been killed. The Magic High Commission ends up accompanying Moon solely because of Star's mistake -- a mistake that ultimately saves Moon's life.

The episode's use of literal falling as part of the pratfall effect later returns in episodes like "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown" -- note how many times people fall throughout the episode -- the effect of which is to paint those characters in a more tragic light. The heavy-duty symbolism in "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown" is also prefigured by symbolism and irony in "Cheer Up Star."

It's Supposed to be Ironic

Let's talk about what irony actually is. Many people make irony out to be something it isn't, yet there's actually a very simple definition of irony -- one that is easy to remember and practical to apply when subjecting a work to critical analysis:

Cicero referred to irony as "saying one thing and meaning another."

That's all there is to it. Here's an example: if it is raining, and I'm upset because I don't have an umbrella with me, and I say, "Oh, great. It's raining" -- I am being ironic. You know, by my tone of voice, that I am not truly happy that it's raining; in actuality, I am frustrated by the rain. I said one thing, but my real meaning -- which you grasped -- is something else. That is irony.

In my experience, most people incorrectly use the word irony to refer to a funny coincidence or mere incongruity (so-called situational or cosmic irony), but irony is neither: it is when someone says something and means something else. Irony is therefore broadly tied up with some types of figurative language, under which fall simile, metaphor, symbolism, and so on. For more on this, I suggest reading Cleanth Brooks's essay "Irony as a Principle of Structure" -- but the essential idea here is that speech which says more than it literally says is ironic.

Quite unusually, Marco in "Cheer Up Star" uses the word ironic correctly. His ringtone is set to "Space Unicorn," a song which “says” something about the people who choose it for their ringtone -- but Marco intentionally picks this ringtone (so he claims) for ironic purpose (i.e., in order to mean something else).

Likely, Marco is trying to imply that he doesn't really like the song and only picks it as his ringtone to be funny because of how annoying most people find it (e.g., Ludo and his monsters). This in itself would, I think, be irony on the writers' part, since Marco appears in actuality to truly enjoy "Space Unicorn" -- see "Starsitting" and "Running with Scissors" -- and not to have chosen it merely for ironic purposes.

Put clearly: Marco claims to be ironic in choosing a ringtone for his phone that no one would ordinarily think he would enjoy (and, in fact, pretends not to). Later, however, it becomes clear that Marco actually does enjoy the song, making his earlier claim to irony itself ironic, as the writers intend for us to understand that Marco is probably just too insecure to admit that he genuinely likes the annoying song -- i.e., the writers have Marco say one thing, but the writers intend for us to grasp a deeper meaning to what he says.

In literature, irony is a technique which is commonly used to reveal a character's subconscious, as it does with Marco in the case of his "Space Unicorn" ringtone. Furthermore, that type of double irony -- i.e., the irony is itself ironic -- is common to Star vs. the Forces of Evil, whose writers often layer meaning as thickly as they can.

As I mentioned earlier, the concept of irony is tied up with figurative language. Metaphor and symbolism are types of figurative language that Star vs. the Forces of Evil makes use of -- particularly visual metaphors and symbols. In terms of the show’s often arcane symbolism, I believe there's a great deal of influence from Revolutionary Girl Utena, which is a highly abstract work littered with potent symbolism. (I will write more about Revolutionary Girl Utena in a future post.)

In "Cheer Up Star" in particular, there's a great deal of metaphor and symbolism, more of which I will cover in the next section. For now, let’s focus on one notable example: Jackie's broken skateboard.

As many viewers have pointed out, this scene appears to be quite portentous -- and I agree with that estimate -- by acting as a metaphor for the end of Marco and Jackie's relationship. Given that Jackie's skateboard has a heart on it, the words "Marco, you broke my skateboard" can be metaphorically understood instead as "Marco, you broke my heart."

In addition, metaphor and symbolism play a large role in "Cheer Up Star" in communicating aspects of feminine sexuality. The lengths the episode goes to in order to communicate these ideas is, as you will see, amazing.

The Gravity of Attracted Stars

Every time I watch "Cheer Up Star," I can't help but feel astonishment at just how many things this episode slipped past the censors. There are only a handful of overtly sexual moments, but other things (which I will discuss) are heavily symbolic and reinforce the sexual undertones of the episode -- that is, they all nurture the idea of Star's desire for Oskar. Let's start by discussing the overtly sexual moments.

Even without looking into any of the metaphorical or symbolic elements, "Cheer Up Star" makes it obvious that it centers around romantic attraction and desire -- namely, Star's desire for Oskar, which is clearly established early on:

Other obvious elements throughout the show reinforce the notion of romantic attraction or desire, such as Marco's shirt, the way Star presses her wand against her body, and the flower monster's reaction to Star's Honeybee Tornado Swarm spell.

The flower monster is particularly interesting, since honeybees do, in fact, pollinate flowers -- that is, help them sexually reproduce -- which explains the flower monster's look of pleasure during the spell.

The most obvious and strongest element of all, however, is the frank depiction of Star fantasizing about Oskar:

Her tone of voice, her actions (the wand in her mouth), her body pose (slumped against the wall), and her thoughts (which we see in her fantasy) leave little doubt as to her feeling of pleasure in fantasizing about Oskar. Even the painting in the background is vaguely sexual -- as if it were inspired by a Georgia O’Keeffe painting. I still can’t believe this scene got past the censors.

Beyond all the obvious depictions of desire or attraction, there's also a good deal of metaphor and symbolism in "Cheer Up Star" which hint at a latent sexuality. For instance, water, especially running water, has long been shorthand for female arousal -- e.g., Pam Poovey's "Sploosh!" in the series Archer -- and, interestingly, "Cheer Up Star" places an unusual emphasis on a variety of water and other liquids, including a number of slippery or sticky liquids:

The wet fish that Star pulls from her hat in cheering up Marco.

"My car is a flying snail" -- snails, as the episode shows us, leave a trail of slime in their wake.

"Mermaid pools filled with puppies' drool."

Marco splatters a bucket of red paint against the wall.

The music in this scene seems intentionally reminiscent of underwater themes from the Super Mario Bros. series. (Listen for yourself!)

Marco breaks open the aquarium, flooding Star's room with water.

"Syrup Tsunami Shockwave!"

Even Oskar's name, Oskar Greason, is suggestive of something slippery -- grease.

One of these is particularly notable: the red paint that Marco splatters against the wall, for instance, violently interrupts Star's fantasy. The sudden scene shift, the sound of the paint against the wall, and its vivid color serve to make the scene transition striking, drawing attention to the bucket of red paint.

I've long considered the bucket's significance -- its abrupt interruption of Star's fantasy is a clue that it has some metaphorical significance -- and I have a few guesses. Buckets, bowls, and similar containers are often used in literature as symbols for female sexual organs, and the fact that the bucket is filled with red paint -- i.e., blood -- could allude either to menstruation or to a loss of virginity, the latter of which would fit well with the sudden violence of the thrown paint (not to mention the fact that Star later wears that same bucket on her head -- perhaps a subtle visual pun on maidenhead).

The bucket of red paint could also be a metaphor for the Holy Grail. As most of you know, I've written about the Grail before and its long use in poetry and prose as a metaphor for a woman's sexuality or the divine union of male and female. The Holy Grail is a vessel that catches the blood of Christ, and in fact in some works has been depicted as being literally filled with blood. (This sense is possibly preserved in the etymology of sangreal.) Whatever its meaning, the bucket of red paint is absolutely not incidental.

Why is all this sexuality in "Cheer Up Star" important, though? I believe the answer, which finally returns in "Running with Scissors," is simple: the writers clearly believe that lust is an integral and healthy component of romantic relationships.

I won't go into the various psychological theories of love -- you can read about those for yourself -- but the basic idea is that stable romantic relationships are made up of several components, including commitment, erotic attraction, and empathy. In "Cheer Up Star," the audience gets a taste of infatuation -- of pure lust with none of the other elements of love behind it, such as friendship or duty.

In other words, Star doesn't see Oskar as a friend or even a person -- he's a sex object. And, crucially, the episode passes no judgment on Star for this: it is perfectly ordinary to be sexually attracted to people for superficial reasons, especially when one is young.

In "Running with Scissors," however, the idea of erotic attraction is turned on its head -- and it’s Marco who becomes the object of Star’s desires:

The writers clearly intend for us to understand that lust is a normal -- and, indeed, integral -- part of a healthy romantic relationship. (For I believe, as I have written about before, that the writers intend for Star and Marco to eventually become lovers; the symbolism of "Running with Scissors" cinches it.) Without sexual desire for Marco, Star's relationship with him would merely be close friendship. Her physical attraction to Marco is what pushes her over the line of friendship into truly wishing him to be a lover. I am honestly having trouble coming up with examples in animation of lust depicted in the context of a healthy, burgeoning relationship, and I applaud the writers for making such a bold statement in Star vs. the Forces of Evil -- it's rare to see it!

I mentioned earlier that I still believe an earlier scene in "Cheer Up Star" depicts the singular moment in which Star starts to be attracted to Marco, and it is indeed the following scene, which I will now discuss in depth:

Falling (in Love) Stars

This scene in "Cheer Up Star" is what inspired me to write about the pratfall effect, but I also believe it is, appropriately enough, the precise moment at which Star starts to become attracted to Marco. Or, if you like, we can say that her perspective of Marco changes (both figuratively and literally!).

The scene is a peculiar one. It immediately follows a sad scene, and there's no music that plays during it. The sound that we hear during the scene is of the monsters pounding on the door -- which, to me, somewhat resembles a heartbeat. (The pounding on the door lacks dramatic tension, which is why there seems to be some symbolic significance to it.)

When Star falls down and the junk in the shed plummets to the floor, it's as if reality has come crashing down around her: she now views Marco from a different perspective -- from his level. That, I think, is the exact moment when Star realizes that Marco could be a potential love interest instead of just a friend.

I've already noted several points throughout the episode in which it is actually Marco, not Oskar, who gains Star's attentions -- and isn't it strange that the very first episode depicting Star's attraction to Oskar actually revolves around Star and Marco's growing closeness through their efforts to make one another happy? Oskar is merely a distant voice on the phone; Marco is immediate and tactile.

It is remarkably telling, in fact, that Star uses Marco's phone to talk to Oskar instead of her own or the home line. Marco is even responsible for telling Star to answer the phone in order to talk to Oskar:

As I said earlier, "Cheer Up Star" depicts bonding between Star and Marco both literally and figuratively -- for what is the final shot of the episode? It is Star and Marco sticking together -- bonded together, cleaved together.

Glossaryck: Cleaved? Now that's a funny word. You can cleave something apart, or you can cleave something together.

Think about it.

Some Remaining Observations

After having watched this episode a number of times (a number of times), I've noticed a few interesting things about it. None of these really fit with the main thrust of the post, so I'm including them here at the end. Perhaps you will find them interesting as well.

Marco kissing a ninja is subtly reminiscent of Hekapoo's task in "Running with Scissors." When Marco leans in to blow out Hekapoo's flame, it appears as if he's about to kiss her. Additionally, Hekapoo's speed, agility, skill with blades, and ability to clone herself are all associated with fictional depictions of ninjas.

The fact that Ludo does, in actuality, hire new monsters is a subtle bit of foreshadowing eventually leading to the appearance of Toffee.

Throughout "Party with a Pony," a reoccurring gag has Pony Head holding her dimensional scissors in her mouth, with Star also later mimicking this gag. The gag briefly reappears in "Cheer Up Star."

"Flying Snail," the song that Oskar sings in "Cheer Up Star," is not actually a song by Oskar -- the song takes place entirely in Star's fantasy and seems to demonstrate an unusual amount of lyric complexity compared to Oskar's other works. Therefore, Star is actually the one who writes "Flying Snail," providing more evidence that Star is quite skilled with lyric compositions. Other songs written and composed by Star are the end credits theme (this is probably a song that exists within the fiction), the serpent's song in "Star vs. Echo Creek," and, in part, "The Ballad of Star Butterfly." Interestingly, Star's facility for lyric composition dovetails neatly with her gift for imaginative spellcrafting -- a topic worthy of a post of its own, especially given my appreciation of the show's formidable linguistic capacity in general.

We’ll Meet Again

I'm sorry that this post was so long in coming. It's finally done now! I hope you enjoyed reading it. Feel free to ask me questions here. I intend to post some writing samples on my about page soon, so please look forward to those!

Here are some things I intend to write about in the future before season three begins:

A recap of my theories and analysis so far, and an explanation of what to look for in the July 15th movie.

A Double Take on "Pixtopia,” loneliness, and wabi-sabi.

A Double Take on "Monster Arm" and its significance in foreshadowing Toffee.

A post on Revolutionary Girl Utena's connection to Star vs. the Forces of Evil ... eventually.

That’s all for now. I’m excitedly anticipating the start of season three!

[modernwizard]

Bill Potts died for your sins, or, Even more ways in which the previous season of Doctor Who is a flaming turd

Now that I have had time to concentrate my rage into the long-smoldering core of righteous fury that burns within my core, fueling both activism and fixit fics, I would like to mention two more ways in which Season 10 of Doctor Who was horribly wretched: first, the ableism. Second, BILL POTTS DIED FOR YOUR SINS.

THE ABLEISM

It’s especially shitty, particularly in in World Enough and Time and The Doctor Falls.

Think of the Cyber people as people with disabilities: difficulties in communicating, in gross motor control, in feeling/connecting with their emotions, and/or people with chronic pain. You will soon understand how disgustingly they are portrayed.

A. They look dead. They are shown at first as motionless figures in wheelchairs. Their white costumes and head masks recall either body bags or bags over people’s heads when they’re going to a firing squad; either way, they carry connotations of death.

B. Their voices are silenced and treated as irrelevant. The first Cyber person who does have a voice, saying, “Pain, pain,” with their communications device, is treated as an annoyance; the nurse deals with them brusquely. Even further, Bill turns down the device’s volume so she doesn’t have to hear the disabled person speak. Her action suggests that the disabled person’s voice as scary and objectionable.

C. They do not want to live; they all want to die. After the pain Cyber person, we hear two other Cyber voices in the hospital. One person says, “Die me.” The other says, “Kill me.” Viewers are expected to take this death wish as applicable for all Cyber people; even Bill, in The Doctor Falls, says something like “If I can’t be me, I don’t want to go on living.” In this case, “me” means the entirely organic, able-bodied person that she was before. These statements from Cyber people imply that life with a disability is so hopeless and miserable that even those with disabilities don’t want to continue living.

D. They’re treated as cannon fodder. The Cyber people look dead, have no voices [according to able-bodied people], and say that they want to die. It’s very easy to jump from these observations to the conclusion that they are not people, but mere objects. Their deaths don’t count as deaths of people because they’re subhuman and…well…they were essentially dead already, right? As a result of this dehumanization, we get torture porn of the people at the orphanage blowing up Cyber people because killing nonpersons isn’t really killing, so it’s not a real problem or anything. It’s so kind, brave, noble, compassionate, admirable, and heroic for the Doctor to indiscriminately slaughter crowds of disabled people. This show really sends the message that we should respect all people’s worth, dignity, and integrity. I love it in shows and movies and books when all the disabled people die. I find it inspirational and uplifting.

For another ableist treatment, refer to the depiction of Eyeliner Master, as played by John Simm. Last time we saw the dude in the End of Time, he was insane on account of the Drums. Yup, that counts as being disabled. When he reappears in the Season 10 finale, he acts more like Roger Delgado’s Master: mentally disturbed and disordered, but much more restrained in speech and action. He presents as being sane[r]. Notably, he makes no reference to the Drums that so deranged his earlier life and plot arcs. What’s going on here? The character gives no explanation for the change, and all supporting media portray Eyeliner Master as a return of EoT Master, which leads us to conclude that they’re the same person. So EoT Master = Eyeliner Master – disability.

What the hell, fuckos? You can’t just wave a Magical Wand of Disability Deletion! After years and years of making the Master’s Drums and consequent Insanity a key part of his character, you can’t just remove them because you feel like it. The cheating is especially transparent because there’s no in-story explanation for his reappearance, his changed behavior, or indeed what the hell he was doing circling the drain in a Mondasian colony ship in the first place. An in-story explanation could have made his personality change more plausible and acceptable. For example, maybe he’s still insane, but he has learned how, at great mental and physical cost, present as “sane.” Or maybe he adapted some Cyber technology to partially inhibit his explosive rages and so restore some measure of his beloved self-control. However, without an in-story explanation, we are left with a deus ex machina Magical Disability Deletion. The form of the character remains, but not the content. In a way, disabled EoT Master was dehumanized and discarded just like the disabled Cyber people. The character is lost, and so is his [highly problematic] representation.

BILL POTTS DIED FOR YOUR SINS

Those squealing with unalloyed joy over Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor should note that a white woman came on as the Doctor just as Pearl Mackie, a woman of color, departed.

@stardust-rain [[points out]] that the timing is no coincidence:

also everyone ignores the fact that we are getting a female doctor in the expanse of getting rid of an amazing black lesbian character. that’s right, this is the reason why Bill Potts isn’t coming back, bc having a female doctor AND a black lesbian would have given a heart attack to the bigoted fans all at once. they had to make a sacrifice and Bill was it.

When I say BILL POTTS DIED FOR YOUR SINS, this is what I mean. The show has had an overall craptacular history of representing women and/or queer people and/or Black people and/or disabled people. Attempts to make the show more accurately reflect the demographics and identities of the viewers have been piecemeal and insultingly small. Bill, as a queer Black woman, had the potential to significantly improve the show and make it more relevant, interesting, nuanced, and overall better. But she was done in by a poorly organized conception [seriously, what’s her backstory beyond chips, Moira, and a mum about which we know nothing, not even her fucking name?] and horrible, stereotypical writing.

Bill became a liability to the show, not because of her underdevelopment and shitty lines, but because she was a queer Black woman. Here’s the thought process at the BBC: “Whoa there! That’s just way too much representation; the straight cis white dudes won’t stand for it! If we stick a white female Doctor in the mix along with a queer Black female character. We need to think strategically and make it look like we’re actually representing our audience when we’re not. So Bill’s gotta go. There aren’t that many queer and/or Black people who watch this show, so it won’t be a big deal. We can just turn her into LITERAL SLIME and send her off with her space stalker and call it a happy ending. THEN we’ll have a female Doctor. We can’t have a queer Black female Doctor because that would be too much representation. But we can have a straight white female Doctor.  Yeah, that’s just enough representation. We’ll look edgy without really making substantive change. [Plz fanboys don’t hurt us. D: ].”

Bill Potts was too real for the BBC to handle. Thus they killed her off, making her the scapegoat for their cowardice.