#and i don’t think that is the real motivation behind the bill it’s just a way to get it through but

[dashiellqvverty]

i have very complicated feelings about how much opposition to KOSA is centered around it being a danger to LGBT kids because - that’s the point of the bill. the republican co-sponsor of the bill marsha blackburn has literally openly said she wants the bill to protect kids from “the transgender.” So when you go around saying the bill is dangerous because it could censor LGBT content and put young LGBT kids in danger - they know that already and it’s why they want to pass the bill. And for people who haven’t thought about it that way, wel now a lot of them have found a new thing to like about the bill. You’re more likely to make a point with that argument if you’re talking to a democrat, but just because this is a right wing culture war it’s not like there aren’t transphobic democrats. Ultimately I feel like the only way to fight KOSA in a productive way is to focus on it primarily as a free speech and privacy issue - which it absolutely is, for everyone - because the more it is treated solely as an LGBT issue the harder republicans are going to go in favor of it which just puts everybody in more danger.

[rotknox]

Cryptic Comforts | B. CIPHER X M. READER

Work on AO3 | Work on Wattpad | Masterlist

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DIMENSION #5150

NEUTRAL ZONE

Outside of Time

She watched his triangular form through the cameras, he hadn’t moved or blinked in about an hour, he was just toying with the safety scissors he had stolen from the Crafts room. She felt a tinge of regret after locking him away into maximum security, perhaps there were other ways of healing him…

Dr. Prismatis sighed and picked up her communicator, “Hello, guards… Will you please bring Mr. Cipher to my office? Thank you very much.”, she sighed and set the communicator down, propping her elbows on the table and setting her chin on her palm.

After a few minutes of waiting, the doors slid open and two guards held Bill behind them, “Here he is, ma’am.”, the taller of the two said as they sat Bill down, the shorter one spoke up, “Do you need us to stay inside?”

The Luminara shook her head, “We’ll be fine on our own, you two may step out…”, the guards nodded and left the room, leaving Bill and Dr. Prismatis alone.

She took off her glasses and set them on the table, “Bill, I’d like to be frank with you…”, she began. Bill, who had seemed catatonic until just then, piped up and chuckled, “Frank? I thought your name was Ethara.”

Dr. Prismatis just frowned and Bill sunk in his chair. She sighed and shook her head, “I’ve tried everything with you… The walls in your room are covered in motivational posters, for Axolotl’s sake! I managed to cure PHEN-228 but I cannot seem to better you.”

Bill just whined a little bit, “Am I gonna move into isolation or what..?!”, he asked in a bit of panic. She shook her head to that, however, “No, Bill… Look, Axolotl and I discussed various techniques to better you. We decided on one that would work best and, well…”

She seemed to falter for a bit, Dr. Prismatis looked away and rubbed her hand. Bill looked at her and frowned, “Well, what?”, he asked a bit urgently.

She sighed and looked at him, “We decided on forgiveness.”, she said. Bill stared at her dumbfounded and he couldn’t help but start to laugh, “REALLY?! THAT’S THE SOLUTION TO ALL MY PROBLEMS!? Oh, doc! Oh oh! Oh, you’re a real kidder!”

The Luminara went from concerned to slightly annoyed, she sighed and deadpanned, “Do you even know what this method entails?”

Bill giggled, “Oh, lemme guess! I have to write a ‘heartfelt’ apology, film it, and then send it to all my enemies?”, he asked, his question followed by a loud laugh. Dr. Prismatis sighed and stood up gazing out her window, “This method is simple. We’ll send you to the INTACT area where you caused the most trouble and you will work for your rehabilitation… I’ll check in now and then to make sure your process is working.”, she explained sternly.

Bill rolled his eye and crossed his arms, “Yeah? And where exactly where I go, smarty? I’ve caused chaos in many places, y’know!”, he said with a huff, she narrowed her eyes at him, “That’s not something you should be proud of, Bill.”

She then clasped her hands and looked at him, “You will be going to Earth.”

Bill shot up and stared at her wide-eyed, “WHAT?!”

“I know it may not be the place you want to be in but… It’s the only other method anyone can think of for you.”, she said calmly, placing her prism-like hand on Bill’s back.

“Trust me, Bill… As your Head Doctor, I will never put you in a failing situation.”, she promised and Bill almost banged his face against the edge of her desk, “I’m gonna cry on you, doc.”

Dr. Prismatis opened a portal and gently nudged Bill over, “Don’t worry, Bill…”, she then pushed him inside.

Bill screamed at the top of his… lungs? Well, he screamed loud, that’s for sure.

Before he knew it, he hit the floor. Bill groaned loudly against the grass and sat up, he spat out some grass that had gotten on his tongue- wait what.

Bill paused, “Since when do I have a mouth?”, he asked himself. He looked down to see a pair of tan hands that belonged to... HIM?!

“WHAT THE HELL?!”, he yelled as he began to run his hands over himself. Slight muscle, messy hair, a scar that was a little too similar to the one he had thanks to that oaf Stanley Pines… And a lazy eye mimicking the fact that he was one-eyed before.

He immediately checked to see if he was naked. And thank god, he wasn’t.

Whatever Dr. Prismatis did, she gave a simple outfit: a baggy shirt, shorts, and sandals. “Wow… Couldn’t even give me something fancy, huh? Cheap woman.”

He stood up on slightly wobbly legs, using a nearby tree for support. He heard distant voices and frowned, “What the hell… Where even am I?”

He sniffed the air and looked at the trees, it was all too familiar… Oh my.

Did that stupid doctor put him back into his hunting grounds?! Oh, this was golden.

Bill grinned wickedly and cracked his knuckles, “Oh this is going to be golde-” “Cipher?”

Bill warily turned around to face whoever just correctly guessed his name, and there was only one person who had the balls to call him by his last name.

He came face to face with a shocked Stanford Pines. 

The older man immediately scowled and spoke to him with noticeable venom, “Stanley killed you. He lost most of his memories thanks to you. And all of a sudden you show up in a new form?!”

Bill rolled his eye and held his hands up, “Relax Sixer… I’m only here because my doctor said so. If it was up to me, I’d be in The Bahamas! Hey, maybe Area 51 too…”, he was met with the barrel of some freaky gun to the nose.

“You won’t be going anywhere, Cipher. I will not allow you to wreak havoc across my home ever again.”, Ford said sternly and loaded his gun. He was quickly interrupted by Bill though.

“Well, will you let me finish?! Jeez, Sixer… Did your mom ever teach you any manners? And don’t lie to me, I know damn well she did.”, Bill said as he pushed the gun away, “I���m not here to cause chaos or anything, my doctor kicked me here.”

Ford paused and lowered his gun, “Your… doctor? What the hell are you saying?!”, he asked and Bill groaned. “UGH. STANFORD FILBRICK PINES, YOU UTTER DUNCE.”, the demon yelled and almost pulled his own hair out.

He took a deep breath and then groaned a bit, “Stupid heat… Say, Sixer? Mind if I coop up in that shack of yours from this torturous temperature?”, Bill asked as he wiped his sweat and scoffed, “My flesh bag is queasy…”

Ford looked at him, “Are you insane, Cipher?!”, he asked loudly. “Yeah, very.”, Bill giggled but then shut up when Ford glared at him. Bill huffed, “Alright, what’s the ish?”

“You tried to kill me and my family and you think I’m going to let you inside my house?!”, he asked angrily, and Bill huffed with annoyance, “Look, IQ. I was a little too violent but where else will I stay?”

Ford was conflicted. On one hand, he was letting none other than Bill Cipher into his home — his safe space, the only place he was ever safe from Bill’s claws… But then again, he had his lab there, and he had Bill here…

Ford sighed, “Under one condition, Cipher.”, he said firmly. Bill perked up and leaned close, “Yeah?!” Ford leaned away and sighed deeply, “You will be my experiment. You’ve been my greatest mystery, Cipher… I have to study you.”

Bill blinked and grinned a bit, “Sounds promising~”, he said with a chuckle but immediately yelped when Ford grabbed his wrist and yanked him along aggressively, “HEY WATCH IT!”

EARTH

GRAVITY FALLS, OREGON

Mabel and Dipper were in the shack. Mabel was currently doodling in her notebook while Dipper was reading a random book. Dipper frowned and looked up, “Hey, [Name]? What language is the Voynich Manuscript in?”

[Name] looked up from the floor he was mopping and furrowed his brows, “...The what..?”

The door slammed open and the three all jumped. In came Ford hauling a squirming Bill, “LET GO OF ME, SIXER. YOUR FINGERS ARE ALL OVER MY FLESH STICKS.”

Mabel raised a brow, “Flesh sticks?”

Dipper looked up, “Sixer? Wait… BILL?!”

Stanford sighed, “Calm down, children! …Oh hello, [Name].”, Ford greeted the taller man. [Name] sighed and waved, “I’m not even gonna ask…”

“Anyways… Children, this is indeed Bill Cipher. Worry not though! He’s weak.”, Bill shot him an offended glare, “I am not weak!”

Ford raised a brow, “Yeah? Burn me.”, Bill flushed up and glared at him, “I’m going to scalp you while you sleep, brainiac.”

Dipper immediately flailed, “GRUNKLE FORD IT’S BILL CIPHER HOW ARE YOU SO CALM!?”, he asked urgently. Bill laughed and leaned close, “Hey kid, no hard feels! I’m here thanks to therapy! I’m a healed man!”

Dipper looked at him questioningly and held Mabel close. Mabel hummed but smiled a tiny bit, “Well… According to Uncle Henry, therapy is the best medicine… Sooo…”, Dipper chewed on his bottom lip, “And how do you think Uncle Henry would react if we told him a space demon god got therapy?”

“...He’d probably laugh at us until he passed out.”, Mabel rubbed her arm. “But look at him! Does his face look like the face of a man who would hurt us?”

Dipper took one look at Bill and then at Mabel, “Absolutely, yes.”

Mabel looked over at [Name] and gave him puppy eyes. The janitor rubbed his eyes, “What do you want me to say, Starlight? I don’t even know this man.”, Bill got a little too into [Name]’s personal space, “Well I certainly know YOU, big guy!”

[Name] looked at him and chuckled, “You’re a weirdo, guy…”

“Anyways, I’m clocking out. Good luck…”, [Name] walked away and left the shack. Ford sighed and dragged Bill into the lab.

“We’ll need some explaining…”, Mabel muttered.

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

The lab was as dark and humid as Bill had recalled. 

“Soooo, who was the big cleaner guy? He looked hot.”, Bill giggled as he looked around. Ford sighed and sat down at his desk, “That’s [Name]. He’s a sweet young man and I want you far away from him.”

Bill rolled his eye and looked around, “Why? Cuz I’ll ‘hurt him’?”, he asked and Ford nodded. “Precisely, I don’t want you trying to bring him any harm nor do I need you corrupting him.”, he said sternly as he took out some equipment.

“Now hold still, Cipher.”

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

[Name] was about to leave the workshop. He counted his personal belongings; cellphone, wallet, house and car keys, thermos… Shit, he forgot his jacket at the Mystery Shack.

He drove back to the Mystery Shack, windows rolled down so the cool summer night air could calm his tired mind. He pulled into the parking lot and got out of his car, going into the gift shop and looking around.

He saw a certain blonde man laying flat on the floor. He came up to him and knelt beside him, “Hello?”, he raised a brow.

Bill turned over and furrowed his brows, he was bandaged and slightly bruised… What the hell happened while [Name] was gone? 

[Name] looked at him, “You okay?”, Bill just huffed, “No.” [Name] tilted his head as a wordless way to ask ‘why?’. Bill sighed a bit and sat up, “It was Sixer… He poked and prodded at me for like an hour.”

He then realized [Name] didn’t even know who he was. Bill looked away and rubbed his healthy eye, “No worries though. I’m tired, however.”, his usual enigmatism and flashiness was really low.

“Oh, do you sleep here?”, [Name] asked and Bill shrugged. The [Hair Color] haired male sighed and shook his head, “Well, I don’t know your story but… I’m here for you if you need anything.”

A weird tingly feeling grew in Bill’s chest and he looked at him, he laughed slightly and stood up, “No need! But uh… Thanks for the offer, uh…?”

“Oh. [Name]. [Name] [Last Name]. And you?”, he held his hand out and Bill’s breath hitched, “Bill…”

He gingerly shook [Name]’s hand, he couldn’t help but marvel and the size difference. [Name] smiled charmingly and pulled away, “Well, sleep tight, Bill… See ya.”

[Name] grabbed his jacket and left the gift shop.

Bill stared at the closed door and hummed, “Oh, I’m so screwed.”

═════════•°• ⚠ •°•═════════

Chapter One ->

taglist: @cyber-dump-171

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[fllnrdr]

I would really love for the rdr community as a whole to stop trying, (and failing), to defend Dutch, and shift the blame entirely onto Micah. Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption II are both beautiful and well thought out games both in the gameplay and the storytelling. But I think a lot of people simply ignore those things, hence my long rant of a post.

TLDR: I think Micah was intentionally written to be one dimensional, and Dutch was manipulative from the start. Arthur is just a unreliable narrator.

We play through Arthur's eyes and see/believe what he does. We can see Arthur's loyalty blinds him (and by extension, us) to Dutch's behavior. I would know peace if some folks to took a media literacy class. Red Dead one & two are shining example of the bias in an unreliable narrator. Video games are not exempt from literary tools because you control part of the story. That control is limited to the actions of your bias protagonist, in this case John and Arthur.

The same applies to Micah. Arthur never trusts Micah from day one, and so we as the player don’t trust him either. It would be incredibly lazy on Rockstar’s behalf to created as one dimensional of a character as Micah. But the thing is, Arthur views him that way, a no good money-hungry thief from the start. Arthur is able to see through him, but he is blind to Dutch’s similar behavior because of his loyalty. It’s an incredibly smart tool to use in video games. Once you replay the game without the blinders on of your first playthrough, you’re able to see that Dutch has behaved the very same ways from Chapter One, all the way through Chapter Six. The only difference is that Arthur (and we the player) is slowly becoming aware of the patterns for the first time.

Now, for the blatant mischaracterization of Dutch entirely. To blame everything on Micah diminishes Dutch’s character to such an extent it completely disregards the decades long manipulation he inflicted on the gang, that is very real and very obvious. I won’t get into the way each individual character’s behavior was effected by this, but I will speak about Arthur and John briefly.

Dutch takes in people that are vulnerable and that he knows he can manipulate for his own gain. Children included. Multiple children, in fact. He always has a plan, not to keep folks safe, but to keep everyone comfortably under his thumb. It was always, "Are you with me, or against me" from the beginning. Everyone was either a means to his end, or they were worthless. The second someone did not agree, it was a betrayal, and an attack. I don't doubt he did some things out of kindness, but there's always ulterior motives. Dutch is nothing but a man of pretty words that hide his manipulation.

Dutch maintains an air of grandiosity amongst the gang. He obviously holds the belief that he is above them in all ways. He believes he is their leader because he is simply better than the rest of them. He’s smarter. He’s this god-like figure in his mind. He’s their savior. Hence his distaste for any doubt, or even being challenged.

Lenny and the conversation he has with Dutch about Evelyn Miller for example. Lenny indirectly call’s Dutch’s empty words out and points out that both Miller (Dutch’s idol) and Dutch himself hide behind their flowery words and phrases. Or Arthur and Hosea voicing their concern about robbing Leviticus Cornwall, it’s seen as a betrayal. Or when Uncle pokes fun at Dutch in camp and Dutch says to him, “I would really like to kill you right now.” Dutch may not be entirely self aware, but any attack at him does dig at him for a reason. And this is all from chapter two! There has always been a pattern.

Dutch says he "saved" them. He saved Bill, and John, and Arthur and Lenny and Javier. He saved all of them, and he is above all of them. Dutch sees people as nothing more as tools to meet his goals. There are instances where he does seem to genuinely care, but the ulterior motive is always there.

Dutch and Micah were written with the idea that we see the story through Arthur’s eyes. Arthur is blinded by his decades long to loyalty to Dutch and slowly coming to the realization of the truth. Micah is incredibly one dimensional cause Arthur sees through him and views him as a rat from the start. The truth of the story can be seen through repeated playthroughs. Dutch’s paranoia from the start, questioning Arthur’s loyalty from Colter. Micah sniffing around about the Blackwater money from the beginning. Arthur’s journal entries about the his biased version of the truth. Media literacy is necessary even in video games. God.

[siryouarebeingmocked]

SYABM comic 70 “Donation Aggravation”.

[ Older comics | Chronological order | Subreddit ]

Some people get really mad about a computer asking them to give pennies.

AP says this meme is false.

Customer donations aren’t income, legally. So they can’t be ducked from the company’s tax bill.

Tax Policy Center says the same thing, and points out that consumers forget to deduct their donations.*

This meme was apparently popularized by, of course, TikTok.

Also, if they get a tax break, so what? 

The point of that is to encourage charity and social benefit. If you care more about the tax break than whether they’re actually helping anyone, I think your priorities are skewed.

And getting a tax break means the company has more money to spend on stuff like...the charity. Or employee raises. Or just staying open.

I know the implication is that they must be insincere, but it doesn’t actually prove anything. It’s just point-scoring.

I recently saw people complaining that Panda Express falsely takes the credit for their charity, which is entirely funded by donations from customers and employees. PE Cares openly and explicitly says so on their website.

PE also covers the admin costs for PEC. All of them.

And as someone pointed out, they could just as easily...not have the charity. In fact, it would be easier.

Heck, during the Hawaii Wildfires, PE donated meals to first responders and displaced people. And, oh yes, they matched donations to the Red Cross.

...It’s a “Cancel” button. 

Those are often different from regular choices, so people don’t click them accidentally. Heck, sometimes they’re made that way so they’re easier to see.

No 5D chess subliminal messages required.

And if you’re so easily influenced that a button color can change your mind, that’s on you.

“Saying your assumptions about us are wrong are gaslighting, even when I have no actual evidence  I am also confident that everyone does this, which justifies my assumption that any given company does this.”

It’s especially irritating because gaslighting is about perception. But assumptions are not actual perceptions, and perceptions are wrong all the time.

I also saw people in the Youtube comments complaining about grocery store food waste, because apparently stores love to waste money, and are not influenced by picky consumers or legal concerns (PDF).

I’ve argued with these types before, and naturally, they defaulted to attacking me instead of my argument. Didn’t even pretend to have any actual evidence. Unlike me. Just doubled down.

And, again, what does this have to do with charity?

Plenty of companies actually, quietly donate everything to charity that they can. But that doesn’t make the news as much. Sometimes because that leads to people trying to take advantage.

Incidentally, during the Texas blackout a few years back, one grocery store tried to donate their food to a charity. Except it was physically impossible for them to get there before the food expired, due to the bad weather.

People saw the store throw out the ruined food (under police guard), and said the store was selfish.

One Youtube comment said the Bible claimed people shouldn’t give openly. Okay, but that’s about self-aggrandizement and egotism, not just asking for donations and trying to set an example for others, out of actual caring.

I think the real motive is a combination of anti-corporate NPC hate, and the desire to attack the requester instead of admitting they just don’t want to donate.

And I gotta wonder what the overlap is with the folks who insist billionaires can “easily” afford to pay taxes that are more than what many people make in their entire lives, because it’s a small amount relative to their total wealth.

* Did see someone once claim that people pay higher taxes for donating. They may have been referring to people not knowing they can deduct donation. Which is, um, not the company’s fault. At all.

Behind the Scenes: This is the first comic drawn in Krita that I’ve animated. In fact, it’s my first Krita animation, ever.

And unfortunately for me, Krita can’t animate Vector layers or groups. I only figured that out after a literal hour looking up tutorials (which didn’t help). And it’s a tad irritating, because I often use vector layers AND groups.

So I had to manually create each frame. Three different elements with three different timings. Had to break out the paper and pencil and plot it out.

Kinda fun, actually.

This is also the first commentary in a long time that I didn’t write before I finished the comic. In fact, I’m doing it completely raw. All I had was the saved image and a link to the Youtube thread in question.

Comic Inspirations:

That one freakout scene in Bocchi the Rock.

The kiosks at my local McDonald’s.

Whatever this is;

[normiedoctorwho]

I think about the massacre episode of doctor who a lot. Not only is it the rare companion driven story, but I truthfully love the character drama. Doctor who was originally billed as an educational program for children. The time travel so children could learn about historical events and the future stuff so they could learn about science. And what the massacre does is makes Steven an audience surrogate because he doesn’t know about this tragedy at all.

Doctor Who is a British tv show and this event was a French tragedy, so they might not even be aware this happened. Granted I’m coming at this from an American perspective and like it might’ve been mentioned in a AP European history course I took in high school but not in depth. Just another tragedy of the Protestant reformation.

But here in Doctor who, you learn what happened through Steven’s interactions with those who were there. And as it all plays out you’re forced to contend with the fact that this happened. This was real. They were real people, not just a page in the history. Steven’s reaction of shock and anger to the Doctor asserting that he was right to do as he did and that he wasn’t guilty of Ann’s possible death is how we’d all react. How could he turn that girl away! He saved Katarina from the fall of Troy after all!

But then you’d remember how that played out. What happened to Katarina. And suddenly the Doctor’s motives for leaving Ann behind become more muddled. Was it actually to preserve history? Or was it because he thought Ann had a better chance of surviving the St Bartholomew day’s massacre than she did in the TARDIS?

But Steven doesn’t think of this, and most of the audience probably doesn’t either. So he storms off. Not even caring where the TARDIS lands next. Granted Steven comes back like 5 minutes later and we don’t know why, and the Doctor is absolved of Ann’s murder via Dodo’s existence, but still.

I know I went off topic there at the end but the point is doctor who expertly educated it’s audience on a historical event. And it gets the audience invested in what happened by leveraging their lack of knowledge. So that like Steven, you never want anyone to needlessly die like that again.

It’s probably my favorite who story after remembrance of the daleks and I wish people would give it a chance, despite it being lost. The audio drama version on audible is very well done.

Edit: last thing. A subtle detail I really like is when the Doctor realized what’s about to happen, he called Ann by her name before he told her to leave asap. The first Doctor always called the young women he met my child, so the gravity of what was going to happen hit him hard and they were hiding in a somewhat famous Huguenot’s house. The Doctor was genuinely trying to save her within the rules he thought he had to go by.

[eruden-writes]

Room & Board - Part 14 (Vampire x Reader)

Anon submitted this prompt: For the prompt submissions a vampire that feels guilty after feeding/attacking someone so they leave obscenely valuable ancient artifacts as payment/an apology?

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The dinner passed without further hitch, thankfully. Ewan, Tabaeus, and yourself managed to fall into an ebb and flow of mild conversation while eating. Talking of experiences - mostly you and Ewan - and interesting tidbits of information - this time, mostly Tabaeus and yourself - had stumbled across recently.

Near the end of dinner, after leaving out your debit card to split the bill with Ewan, you duck off to the restroom. On your return, a prickle of agitations crawls up your spine before a hand closes around your elbow. With a start, you yank from the touch and spin around. With heart pounding, you find yourself glaring up into the face of a stranger.

They stand tall, raven black hair cropped fashionably and clothes milquetoast in style, but expensive. A pair of round glasses - with transition lenses - perched on their nose. You can’t shake the notion their deep brown eyes are somehow distorted, but focusing on that makes your head hurt. Their smile takes on an amused curl the longer you stare up at them.

“My apologies, I didn’t mean to startle you,” they finally chuckle, holding their hands up with palms toward you, as if to show they mean no harm. Before you can ask them what they want, they nod to your table. Tension weaves through your muscles as they say, “I simply wish to tell you that your friend is very entrancing.”

“Why tell me?” You cross your arms, shifting a little on your feet. “Go tell them yourself.”

The atmosphere around the stranger feels off. It raises your hackles and makes goosebumps rise to your flesh. Something is wrong. Without thinking, you throw a glance in the direction of the table. Neither Ewan nor Tabaeus seem to have noticed you and this stranger.

You wonder if something would happen, if either should look in your direction.

“You are funny. I wouldn’t dare get closer with that dog there.” Their chuckle is one without humor, though they continue to smile as they shake their head.

That gets your attention. With a whip of your head, you turn to face the stranger again. However, they are gone. You stare at the spot they were, realizing the sounds of the diner are suddenly loud and obnoxious in your ears. Had it always been so loud? Or had speaking to that stranger made everything else go quiet?

Shaking your head, you return to the table. As you approach, both Ewan and Tabaeus smile up at you. A new sense of dread - not as serious as with the stranger - crawled over your thoughts.

They are planning something. With food in their stomachs, you had half-hoped they’d forgotten their little joint venture to tease you. “What are you two grinning about?”

“We have decided on a theater venue.” Tabaeus claps their hands together.

“Theater venue?” Ewan snorts and rolls his eyes. He stands from the table, handing you your card and receipt. “It’s not that fancy. Just a drive-in.”

“A drive-in,” you repeat deadpan, raising an eyebrow. As you put your debit card and receipt away, Tabaeus also slides from the table. They take up a position at your elbow, close enough for you to sense their presence.

“Ewan explained it’s like a theater you can drive your car into.” Well, at least Tabaeus sounded excited. Their red eyes are shining with delight behind their sunglasses. You wonder if they’ve ever seen or been to a drive-in before, but something subtle shifts in their expression. A lowering of their eyelids, a hint of teasing in their tone. “And the dog says he has a roomy vehicle.”

“A roomy vehicle. Right,” you snort, heat licks across your cheeks as the pieces fully fall into place. Ewan did indeed have a van, but you also remember he’d tell quite a few stories about such set-ups. Mostly in regards to a girl he was hoping to bed. “With the mattress and pillows in the back?”

“Ah, you remember.” Ewan shoots you a wink before offering you his arm. Beneath your hand, you realize how warm the man is and, suddenly, you recall you’re wearing his own jacket. His scent has sunk into you, enveloping you. Woodsy and warm and tickling at something in your chest.

As you accept Ewan’s offer, Tabaeus flanks your other side, coiling their own lanky arms around your free arm. Where their skin touches you, you can sense the somewhat cooler body temperature.

Stuck between the two, your thoughts shift to the contrast of their relative body heats. Which distracts your imagination with other imaginings. Knowing it was a better idea to avoid such thoughts - especially as you climbed into the enclosed van with your companions - you try to focus on other things.

Which is a bit difficult, you realize, as you’re squashed in the three-seat front of the van. Pressed close to Tabaeus on one side and only having the gear shift buffering the space between yourself and Ewan. You try to focus on anything but your quickly guttering thoughts.

Overhead, a full moon hung bright, spilling across the environment. The van rumbles around you and the radio is low enough to miss but just loud enough you occasionally catch static. Tabaeus and Ewan manage to hold a civil conversation as you input vague replies in turn.

It’s not until you’re near your destination you focus back in on the situation at hand. You cast a curious look to Ewan as he drove past their presumed destination. “We’re not going into the drive-in?”

“Nah, I know a better spot that can still tune into the drive-in’s FM station.” Just beyond the opening of the theater, the van pulls into an almost-unseen road that cleaved through a copse of trees.

Your lips curl with a wry grin, very much aware of Ewan’s unorthodox penny-pinching ways. Your words are sarcasm-laden as you say, “Oh no, this is a plot to get me out into the middle of nowhere to have your way with me, isn’t it?”

“I am more than capable of protecting you from him, amata.”

You’re not sure if Tabaeus caught your banter or is merely playing along with the game. Either way, you shift until your back leans against their form, tilting your head back to look up at them. With your eyelashes batting, you croon, “My hero.”

“I do not know about that.” As Tabaeus stares down at you, there’s a brief catch of conflict in their gaze. You’re about to say something when their cool hand presses to your throat, pulling you back further against them. Then their hand is cupping your jaw, tilting your head to the side. Tabaeus leans down, their breath ghosting over the side of your neck as their free hand traces the front zipper - not undoing it - of the bat pajamas you were swindled into.

A soft sound escapes you and you angle your head, stretching your neck to invite further touch. Their teeth scrape over your throat, pulling a sharp gasp from your lips. Just as Tabaeus’s hand delves between your thighs, making you arch, Ewan yelps and the van suddenly swerves and bounces.

“Keep your eyes on the road, fleabag.” The words tear out of Tabaeus so fast and guttural, you almost don’t believe they said them. A flush bleeds across your cheeks as you move to sit up straight. You find yourself unable to with the vampire’s strong hold on your shoulder and palm against your crotch.

“Then don’t be distracting, bloodsucker.” Ewan refuses to look at you two, his hands tight on the steering wheel. In the light of the moon, you think you see their eyes flash briefly. Narrowing your eyes, you think his usual five o’clock shadow seems a bit fuller, but that could be a trick of your mind.

Tabaeus only hissed at the excuse, to which a growl rumbled from Ewan. Neither sounded particularly ferocious, reminding you more of play-fighting theatrics than serious antagonism. Though Tabaeus does grumble and loosen their hold on you, the sensual moment passed.

Soon enough, the van pulled into a clearing that overlooked the drive-in. After some maneuvering so the back of the van faces the screen and relocating, you find yourself once more between the vampire and werewolf. Over the van’s speakers, the sound from the previews plays.

It turned out the mattress at the back of his van was really the second row of seats folded down with something like a tatami mat rolled atop. Blankets and pillows littered the back, making for a comfy lounging space. With a dividing curtain separating the front from the back and the curtains blocking out the view from the side windows, it felt relatively cozy.

You lounge back on a pile of pillows, staring at the flickering images on the distant screen. The van’s rear door thankfully doesn’t have bisected windows, but a singular pane. Tabaeus cuddles close to your side, head on your shoulder, as Ewan sits a little further from you two.

“Do you sleep in your van?” Tabaeus asks, their nose wrinkling a little. You jab them in the stomach with your elbow, but it doesn’t seem to faze the vampire.

Thankfully, Ewan doesn’t seem offended by the rather judgemental comment. From the hunch of his shoulders, you still think he’s a bit awkward when answering, “Sometimes I do, when I’m between housing situations. I have an apartment right now, though.”

Unable to read the room or your displeasure, Tabaeus continues, “Huh, won’t your little pack of hounds help you?”

“Don’t got one.” Ewan shrugs a shoulder, leaning back against the wall of the van and turning his attention to the movie screen on the other side of the window.

Well, that seems like a big deal, you think. You hadn’t thought about it before, but now you realize you thought Jemma might have been another lycan. Most likely part of Ewan’s pack. Why else would she tell him about Tabaeus?

But Ewan had no pack.

Before you can stop yourself, you ask, “Why don’t you have a pack?”

His lips curl into a snarl more than a smile, though his tone is soft - if bitter - as he responds to you, “Well, the last one was my family pack and let’s just say I don’t get along with them.”

For a beat, you let that information sit with you. You knew Ewan couch hopped and changed apartments a lot. Hell, he also lived in his van on occasion, as he mentioned. Now you wonder how much of that was by choice or by necessity.

Likely by choice, you decide. Ewan had plenty of friends and positive acquaintances when you worked with him. Just as he was happy to help others, surely there were plenty willing to help him.

“Much like lone wolves in nature, a lone werewolf is a sad affair.” It seems Tabaeus’s thoughts traverse the same path as yours. Tilting your attention to them, you can’t help but feel the vampire is putting a little too much aloofness into their own words. “From what I recall - take that with a grain of salt considering my memory issues - most lone lycans are not the most stable.”

“No, you’re right.” Ewan still isn’t looking at either of you. With his face turned away and in the dimness of the van, you can’t quite tell what his expression conveys. Something in your chest knots at the sound of his voice. Resigned, quiet. “It gets difficult, but I find my ways.”

Tabaeus narrows their eyes. “How?”

“The stress of working to make ends meet, mainly.” Tilting his head toward you two now, a helpless grin tilts at Ewan’s lips.

“What about when your passions rise?”

Heat flares down your back and you push into a more upright position. You shove the vampire in their chest and hiss, “Tabaeus!”

Ewan snorts with good humor. “Come on, I’m a grown man that’s fully capable of controlling myself.”

“More than I can say for others in this van,” you sniff, crossing your arms and shifting your pillows to be a little more equidistant between the werewolf and vampire.

“No need to tell on yourself, dear,” purrs Tabaeus, leaning back on their hands with their long legs crossed at the knee and extended before them.

Another flare of embarrassed heat burns down your spine. Before you can control yourself, you’ve snatched up a pillow and whacked it into the vampire’s midsection.

Your strike takes Tabaeus off-guard and they squawk in surprise. Leaning close to them, you point in their face, mock anger making your voice lower as you frown. “I’ll remember that slander the next time you want a bite to eat.”

A pout puckers at Tabaeus’s lips, but before they say anything, Ewan’s laugh cuts them off. You both turn to the werewolf and something about him seems softer, wilted. “Sorry, it’s kind of surreal to hear you talk like that.”

“Like what?” You raise your eyebrows.

“I don’t know what it’s like for vampires, but I was always fed these stories of keeping my secret and not getting close to humans. We see it all the time in shows and books too.” Ewan rubs the back of his neck, a rueful smile coloring his lips. “It’s just nice, y’know? To not have to guard myself around you.”

Before you can even think to say something, something dark passes over you and the van shifts abruptly. Where Tabaeus once sat is their brown beret. In the blink of an eye, Tabaeus - through some ridiculous vampire super-speed, you think - has traversed the width of the van and is sitting astride Ewan. Something in the air shifts and the lycan tenses, eyes wide and a blush burning under his stubble. You can’t say your own expression is much better.

Once more, heat claws through you as you drink in the image of Tabaeus straddling Ewan, their skirt inched higher up their stocking-covered thigh. Ewan’s hands raise, fingers flexing, as if uncertain of what to do. Either to pull Tabaeus closer or push them away.

Tabaeus grasps Ewan by the collar, leaning close to the man’s face. “We came out for fun, not for further tense conversations.”

Ewan’s green gaze bounces from Tabaeus’s hands to their face. The flustered shock melts away when he meets the vampire’s gaze. You’re not sure if it’s bravado or not, but Ewan raises his eyebrows as a smirk curls at his lips, flashing sharp canines. His hands slide along Tabaeus’s thighs, until he grips their hips. “Oh, so you want to have some fun?”

“Perhaps. We did discuss some things at the diner involving our friend, did we not?”

“Oh, that’s right.”

Tabaeus turns back toward you, Ewan leaning to peer around the vampire. Their expressions are similar, but diametrically different in feel. Tabaeus peers over their round glasses with a soft cunning smile while Ewan’s roguish crooked smirk tilts at his lips. Both have a particular effect on you, bringing goosebumps to your skin and heat to your center.

Resisting the urge to fan yourself to bring the temperature down, you laugh weakly and nod toward the movie screen the three of you are supposed to be watching. “Hey now, what about the movie?”

As you speak, Tabaeus slides off Ewan and begins crawling toward you. Though you’re not against having the particular brand of fun they’re implying, you still can’t help but scoot back. Well, until your back hits the wall of the van.

“Yeah, see, I thought about that. Halflight is playing tonight.” Ewan laughs, also following Tabaeus’s lead.

When you finally register his words, your eyes widen. Halflight was a book series, followed by movie adaptations, that had a huge following nearly fifteen years earlier. The most notable thing about it was it entailed a human teenage girl stuck in a triangle between a vampire and werewolf. And the fans had been absolutely savage when it came to their ‘teams.’

The implications claw through you and you barely keep the laughter from your voice as you cry, “Why Halflight?”

As you’re trying to choke down amusement, Tabaeus’s cool touch brushes your cheek. Your gaze jumps up to them and they smile down at you. Amusement glitters in their eye as their thumb brushes your burning cheek again and you realize just how flushed you are.

“I figured we could roast the shit out of it.” Ewan’s voice tears your gaze back to him. In the dark of the van, your heart patters seeing his green eyes glow. With his shoulders hunched as he moves across the van and the way the muscles in his arms flex, Ewan appears much more animal. As he nears you, opposite of Tabaeus, you can feel just how hot his body heat is running. “Or we wouldn’t miss anything too engaging if we got, ah, distracted.”

In an instant, you recall your earlier thoughts concerning both companions’ body temperature. Hot and cool. The way it’d feel to be touched by both. Your breath catches in your throat, a tingle cresting over your flesh as you realize you might have some practical knowledge of that very musing very soon.

Ewan’s hand brushes against your leg, burning hot through the fabric of the damned bat pajamas. “So, what do you say? Wanna have some fun?”

A whimper bubbles out from you at Ewan’s touch - both of their touches - and you press your face into your hands. “You two are too much.”

The air in the van suddenly shifts. Tabaeus pulls away and you think the way the vehicle jostles, Ewan is sitting back on his knees. They’re both giving you space.

“Ah, my apologies, amata.”

“I’m sorry. Kinda much, I guess.”

Both of them speak at once, their tones synchronized with sincere apology. Slipping your hands a little down your face, you peer at them from just above your fingertips. Tabaeus appears uncertain of what to do, stricken even. Their hand is half-raised to touch you but not daring to close the final gap. Ewan has retreated some, a guilty expression on his face.

You let them hang for another beat or two, before piping up in a small, bashful voice, “I didn’t say it was a bad thing.”

Those words perk them up. Tabaeus’s hand finally bridges the last few inches, gingerly touching your shoulder as Ewan scoots closer, like a dog hoping for a treat. He grins, cocking his head to the side as he leans in closer. Your heart catches again, flicking down to his lips. “Sooo…?”

From Ewan to Tabaeus, your gaze swings. They, too, are leaning closer with anticipation. The way they smile makes you think they already know your answer. Part of you wonders just what sort of plans Ewan and Tabaeus could concoct to release the vampire of their jealousy.

They certainly had to be good plans, right? Can’t let good plans go to waste, temptation croons. Not quite believing your own actions - or maybe your good fortune - you let go of the breath you’ve been holding. Both of your hands reach out to the other two, hooking your fingers into the neckline of both their tops.

“Yeah, sure. Let’s have some fun.”

[thecaffeinebookwarrior]

Why do you think Kylo hasn’t been called a Mary Sue? I actually see him as a male example of one. He’s also badly written: we never know his motivations, he’s written to be sympathetic even though we firsthand witness him being cruel and remorseless about it, we don’t know why he wants to be evil, every character is forced to be nice to him even after aforementioned cruel acts and a shitty ‘redemption’, etc.

He’s the worst character of the new trilogy. He’s not intriguing, he’s not relatable, he’s not cool, he’s got no charm or pizazz. I know others feel differently but I just can’t stand him at all. What’s your analysis of this?

Thank you!

Hello there! Going to geek out for a bit and share some controversial opinions here.

I think all the flaws in Kylo's writing that you mentioned are 100% valid, though I will also say that I do personally find him to be a better written character than Rey. Why? Because there's an element of narrative tension to Kylo's character that Rey's character lacks.

This isn't a compliment to the writers. It's a byproduct of the fact that they themself didn't know what they were going to do with Kylo, and were waiting to see audience reactions to base their decisions around that.

This is true for a lot of elements of the Star Wars sequel trilogy (and the original trilogy to an extent to, though in lieu of the internet, it all felt a little bit more spontaneous and less...algorithmically generated).

But Rey was always going to stay good, and we, the audience, never doubted that or were given actual reason to suspend disbelief about it (like, yes, the odds of Luke following in Darth Vader's footsteps were also negligible, but the pull of the Dark Side felt way more real and tangible as Vader and Palpatine were tempting him).

I DO think Rey had a lot of potential as a character, and liked her in the first movie especially, but she was just increasingly blandly written. And a lot of that blandness came from a lack of narrative tension. There was no seduction from the Dark Side, no moment where we were really forced to question if we'd give into it in her position.

Now, Kylo had SO many narrative flaws, probably more than Rey. But at least we didn't know whether he was going to rejoin the Light Side, because the writers themselves didn't know. He could be REALLY villainous and unlikeable, but there was also a door left open for redemption - because the writers were waiting to see if that's what audiences wanted.

I can't speak for anyone else, but to me that's personally why Kylo ended up being a more interesting character than Rey, albeit not a particularly well-written one.

As to why he's never called a Mary Sue, obviously there's a big gender element to that - the term is almost exclusively applied to female characters, often by people who don't like women very much.

But I'm going to dip my toe into the waters of controversy here: a lot of producers, directors, and writers try and hide behind "strong" female characters to justify bad, shallow writing. A female character being "strong" won't make her interesting, likeable, or iconic.

Granted, people who don't like women will call ANY powerful female character a Mary Sue (or similar terms) but a well-written female character can usually attract enough adoration to drown those complaints out more.

Like, for example, The Bride from Kill Bill. Jackie Brown. Ellen Ripley from Alien. Katniss Everdeen from Hunger Games. Clarise Starling from Silence of the Lambs. Agent Scully from X Files. Elle Woods from Legally Blonde. Evelyn and Joy from Everything Everywhere All At Once. Princess Leia!

Yes, misogynists are going to hate, say, the most recent incarnation of She-Hulk (who's AMAZING in the comics, I'm so mad about it), but their hatred doesn't make her a well-written character by default. She's simply badly written in the show (in my opinion. Please don't kill me).

And I really, really want more iconic characters, male and female. That's why I demand better writing for both, and won't accept any cheap cop-outs.

Okay, this has turned into sort of a rant that doesn't have much to do with your original question. Forgive me.

Looping back to your original point, I do actually agree with all of your points about the flaws in Kylo's writing! And I hope you don't mind me using it as an opportunity to vent some of my Opinions.

P.S. Please don't jump me Star Wars people, the reason I'm opinionated about it is because I do really love it, especially the original trilogy (and more controversially, the prequel trilogy). Also, you guys make some beautiful fanworks, and really give a lot of these characters the depth and care that they deserve.

[kovajean]

As someone whose favorite movie (second only to Whiplash) is Karate Kid III, I’ll never understand people that think it’s a bad movie.

Although my reasons aren’t entirely objective, it’s still worth writing about. It’s crazy how nearly tailor-made this movie is for me.

&

The over the top villains in Mike and Silver are perfect, because they have hardly any motive. I love simple shit like that.

Why is Silver doing this? Because his best friend was embarrassed. Why is he doing it in this way? Because he’s evil. Why is he evil? Because he is. Let’s also not forget the fact that he’s a corrupt oil barren. That shit’s hilarious. He’s also hot as fuck and I, as a gay man, am allowed that as a reason.

Why is Mike doing this? Money. Why is he doing it this way? Because he likes beating people up. Why does he like beating people up? Because he does. Who cares that there’s no deeper meaning behind it? I certainly don’t. I like when villains are bad because they like to be. I don’t want anything different. And I especially love that Cobra Kai didn’t retcon his insanity, like they’ve retconned other people’s wrongdoings...

&

The dialogue is both great and fucking awful at the same time. Here are some of my favorite lines from the movie:

“They made you suffer, so I’m gonna make them suffer—and suffer, and suffer, and when I think they’ve suffered enough, then I start with the pain.” (This line fucking SUCKS LOL)

“When I'm finished with that kid, he'll be begging me to be his teacher. And you know what he's gonna learn from me? Pain. In every part of his body. And fear—in every part of his mind. And here's the kicker: He's gonna thank me for it.” (This is probably my favorite line ever from any movie. It’s so good. The first time I showed this movie to my ex-boyfriend he would quote this shit at me every single day.)

“Johnny, by the time that little twerp steps into the ring to defend his title, I’m gonna have him thinking he’s invincible. Then he’s gonna find out what pain and fear really mean. Right in front of a thousand people.” (This line gives me chills. So good. Would be better if he used something less Disney bully than “twerp”, though.)

“It’s okay to lose to an opponent—Must not lose to fear!” (This along with the majority of Miyagi’s lines are great. I don’t need to go through them all. This is just my favorite one.)

The thing about these movies is that each one has varying levels of dialogue quality. KK1’s dialogue is fucking awful. But at least some of the lines are funny enough to laugh at. There are some good lines in there, but that’s just it. Good lines. Not memorable. Same thing with KK2. The dialogue in that movie is just good. That’s all. I can’t recite a single line from that movie. Because the lines aren’t memorable. Except for, of course, “honk”. Do not get me wrong though. I'm not saying this movie is the best Karate Kid movie. No way. It's just my favorite, and it's not as bad as people make it out to be.

&

The score had me looping it for 3 months straight. I'm not even hyperbolizing here. The whole of it is just wonderful. The reused and remixed songs like Kata Training are great. But when I get to Silver’s theme, that’s a whole different thing. Listen to this shit:

How is this real? I’m a huge classical music fan, and I could not stop playing this song over and over and over again. Listen to this one:

Did you know that this song wasn’t even used in the movie? This is an alternate version of Terry’s Next Move, which plays over the Kreese and Silver phone call as well as the Mike Barnes Magazine Car Ride. The one they went with certainly works better for the scene, but I love, love, love this one. So much more. 

I never thought I’d be hooked on a series of songs from a Karate Kid movie composed by the same guy who did Rocky, but here I am. 6 months strong, too. I was in a high school theater production when I watched this movie for the first time, and every free moment I had backstage was spent looping each piece with any bit of Terry’s theme in it (such as Terry Silver, Terry’s Next Move, Terry Sneaks In, and Daniel Submits. I also had Terry Owns Daniel on loop occasionally, but that song doesn’t have any real instances of Terry’s theme in it–it just sounds similar. And yes, these are the official names of the songs in case you weren’t aware.) I also listened to these songs on loop while doing an art class project (which was of, you guessed it, Karate Kid characters).

&

I love Daniel in this movie. Love him. More so than any of the other movies. He’s exponentially sillier, he becomes best friends with a girl instead of dating her, he demonstrates color theory, and his irritability and sass are on full display. I also like that he's not super skinny anymore, and that he actually looks his age. (My love for him may also be aided by the fact that I relate most to his personality and appearance in accordance with this movie versus the first two).

I LOVE JESSICA! You will never meet a bigger Jessica fan than me. I love her so, so dearly.

She brings out the good in Daniel.

She shows us that Daniel is good with rejection. When she tells him she has a boyfriend, his opinion of her stays the exact same. He doesn’t push her. He lets it go, and they immediately become best friends. All because she told him that she hadn’t made any friends yet.

I like that Daniel is protective of her despite the fact that they’re not dating. He really cares about her, and he doesn’t expect anything in return. He’s not spoiled. But I also like that Jessica gets mad at him, because he went way too far. She doesn’t let him get away with it or treat him like a hero. She gets upset. Because Daniel just assaulted someone who hadn’t done anything deserving of violence (yet). And when she leaves, Daniel recognizes his mistake. He recognizes all of his mistakes. All because of Jessica. I can promise you, had she reacted positively, the movie would have ended differently. She was the step he needed to snap out of his power trip. And I love her for it.

She also trains with Daniel! None of his love interests did that!

I’m saving the color theory section for a separate post where I will go over every Daniel outfit and what they mean for the scene because I have the free time to do so and dammit I’m not hyper fixated on Karate Kid III enough already so I might as well let myself get worse. You feel me?

Despite the fact that Daniel's clearly nervous around Silver, he’s still a piece of shit during their training sessions. I respect that. He’s also incredibly snappy towards Mike and his gang even though he knows he shouldn’t be. His morals are also on full display if you think about it. He’s mean to mean people, even if being nice to them will work out better in the long run. Because he refuses to be nice to people who don’t deserve it. As well as vice versa. Except for when he snaps at Miyagi. Hmm, I wonder why he does this? Perhaps, is it maybe, the fact that he’s being manipulated to use anger as a coping mechanism?

People go on and on about how whiny Daniel is in this movie, but they don’t seem to consider why.

Daniel is assaulted over and over again by Mike and his gang, and his new best friend gets roped into it. He stores this anger because he has nowhere else to put it. Then he meets Silver, someone who gives him an outlet for it. He finally has something to do with this pent-up rage, until he’s given mixed signals by the people around him when he uses this newfound coping skill. Miyagi gets upset, Silver praises him, Jessica leaves him. How is he supposed to know what to do? Of course he has a mental break. He rants to Jessica about it, then to Miyagi, and he thinks he has his problems fixed. Then, to make matters worse, he finds out that Silver was tricking him the whole time. Now he has to relearn Miyagi-Do. That fucking sucks. I’d go crazy too. This, along with the fact that he wanted to compete in the All-Valley so badly that he brought it up to Miyagi on multiple occasions, was shot down every time, finally gave up, and then was forced to care again? AND Miyagi refuses to train him even though it’s hardly his decision anymore? How Daniel kept going in this movie is beyond me. He’s not whiny, he’s livid. He can’t catch a fucking break.

I’d say his anger is accumulated throughout the movies. This one year has been more eventful than the rest of his life was prior. Everyone he meets seems to want his head on a stake and there’s literally nothing he can do about it. He just wants to be a normal guy, and no one will let him.

He’s also certainly not weaker in this movie in comparison to the second. He’s been broken down by everyone trying to fight him and he’s at a point where he’s trying not to care. He’s trying so hard, but when Mike shows up it’s difficult for him to keep pretending. The fact that Daniel loses to him is meant to show you that Mike is strong, not that Daniel is weak. Anyone that can defeat Daniel after Daniel’s torment in KK2 deserves to be feared. And don’t forget that Mike had the ability to kill Daniel in the bonsai scene. The only reason he’s less threatening than Chozen is because his acting is bad.

If you want to argue that he’s weak throughout the entire movie, then you’d be half correct, I guess? He’s a different sort of strong for the last half of the movie. This is because Silver teaches him different moves. Daniel stops using what he used to know (the style of Karate that we’ve seen him use up until this point), and is now using exclusively this new style. And when you consider that this new style only has 3 different moves, of course he’s going to look weaker. The All-Valley scene Daniel also isn’t weaker if that’s your argument, because there is genuinely no other way he could have beaten Mike than with Kata. Mike is immune to Miyagi-Do. That’s why Daniel never beat him in any of the scenes leading up to the All-Valley. Daniel is also overcome with fear thanks to Silver. The ineffectiveness of Miyagi-Do on Mike and the lasting fear of the manipulation he dealt with is not a good combination. He beat Mike with Kata because he caught Mike completely off guard. That’s how you beat him. We know that’s how you beat him because it’s the first time we see him genuinely lose, other than when he lost to Miyagi multiple times, which is another instance of Mike being caught off guard and losing, because why would he expect an old man to be that good at Karate (and also, it’s Miyagi, of course he’s gonna lose to Miyagi. He’s not comparable to Daniel). Can you assume that Silver told Mike to be wary of Miyagi? He’d never seen the guy fight.

&

Anyways this movie has been on repeat in my brain since March and nothing I can do can stop it so why not indulge in it, huh? Just a look into my dark and twisted mind

[goat-and-a-pig]

Chapter 10

Present

“So Stud, I’ve got a question for you.” Icarus glanced over nonchalantly, his face betraying no hint of his plot.

“Sup,” said Stud. He glanced over his shoulder. He obviously wasn’t paying attention.

Perfect.

“Spud Potatoes?!? Seriously?!?” Icarus burst out laughing. Stan turned the color of a ripe tomato. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, that wasn’t my… best alias.” He grimaced.

“Wasn’t your best one? Does that mean you have more than one? Is Stud Pilfer even your real name? What is your real name? Do you really spell it P-I-L-F-I-R? Seems a bit tacky-” Stud cut him off. “NO, they’re just terrible at spelling!” He glared at him. “Also, I don’t really “do” backstory. But I am fascinated by yours! I assume I can’t ask about Bill.”

“Nope.”

“Or your weird name.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“Or your sidekick, Invisi-Girl.”

“Hey!” Mabel shouted. “I am a person, and I am right here. Any questions about me you ask to my face, punk.” She stuck her tongue out at him. “Sheesh, okay.” Stud (if that even was his name) chuckled. “So here’s my question- why’d you never leave the spaceship? You figured people were looking for you- right?” Icarus squirmed. “Well, Bill said I was too weak for the first year, and for the next nine I needed to build up my immunity to the radiation-”

“I never got mutated,” Stud interrupted. “And Mabel hasn’t been there for ten years, right?” She nodded. “So why wasn’t she mutated either?” Icarus frowned. What he said made sense, but it didn’t agree with what Bill said-

A shout arose from the tunnel. “PILFER!” A mustachioed guard yelled at them with more guards behind him.

They booked it.

When they got outside, Icarus could see the guards plus a big man and a small child with big white hair (or maybe it was an extremely short old person; Icarus couldn’t tell the age or gender from here) in handcuffs. Wait… Is that guard a centaur or just riding a horse? He’s too far away… He looked around at his settings, losing his train of thought. They were in a clearing with a canyon and a wooden dam. Who builds a wooden dam? That is so structurally unstable! I mean, come on-

“Dam it,” Stud puffed, breaking Icarus’ internal rant. Icarus looked pointedly at him and then at Mabel, to which Mabel rolled her eyes at. “No, dam it! As in, if we get them all down there and you stay up to break the dam-”

“-We can flood the canyon and get away!” Finished Icarus excitedly. “Yep,” said Stud, a bit miffed that Icarus stole his thunder. “What about the prisoners though? Are they good guys or bad guys?”

“Bad guys,” Stud and Mabel replied in unison. They eyed each other suspiciously. Stud broke first. “I, uh, might’ve cheated them off of their fair share of the profit,” he admitted. “But to be fair, they deserve it! Lil’ Gideon is so annoying! How is he so evil for a ten-year-old?” Mabel scoffed. “He deserved it,” she said darkly. Seeing their looks, she explained. “He’s my ex (sort of). And he’s really clingy! He wouldn’t stop sending me these creepy love letters and- ugh. Forget it.” Yikes. “Here, I’ll be motive enough to get Gideon down there. Bud will follow him from there. You get the guards.” Icarus grabbed her shoulder. “Are you sure about this Mabel?” He asked quietly. She looked up at him, determination gleaming in her eyes. “Icarus,” she said softly. “I know I’m twelve. But I’m more capable than you think I am. I’ll be safe, I promise.” He nodded uneasily.

“I’m gonna need a weapon, because you’ll need my gun. You got any?” Icarus felt around. “Here, take this.” He handed Stud his D, D, & More D rulebook. “Seriously?” But Stud went with it, waved his arms and shouted, “Catch me if you can, suckers!” while running down into the canyon. Mabel went over to Gideon (whichever one that was) and got both of them out of their handcuffs, pretending to help them. He caught the last part of her monologue. “So you’ve decided to take me back?” The short one asked. Guess that was Gideon. Eugh. “Heck no!” She smacked Gideon’s hand that had been creeping its way toward hers. “W-what?” He asked bewilderedly. “I said NO, Gideon! I think you need to learn what that means!” She sprinted down the path.

Gideon took the bait. Icarus could practically see the steam coming out of his ears as the other man (Bud?) lifted him onto his shoulders and ran after her. Down there, it looked like Stud was almost out of luck. He looked up at Icarus who mimed a hitting motion. Stud lifted the book and hit the guard forcefully on his head, knocking him out. “Hey! Your nerd thing is pretty good at putting people to sleep- in more ways than one!” His voice carried as he laughed. He continued to whack people. Icarus rolled his eyes and began to shoot.

Being made out of wood, the bullets went through easily. And being old, it didn’t take long for all of the strategically placed holes water was bursting through to make it collapse. The wood started to creak. Icarus only had to place one more bullet.

“Stud! Mabel!” He cried. They began running up the pathway. “Well I beat the-” he glanced at Mabel “-crap outta those guys. I don’t think you need to shoot it open.” He handed Icarus his book back. “Oh, okay,” Icarus agreed.

Then the dam flooded and swept them all away.

_____

“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!” They screamed. They held tightly to one another as they were swept away. The guards and prisoners screamed too as all three groups were rushed onto different paths from a three way fork. Icarus, Mabel, and Stud spotted a cave and swam for it to escape the rapids. But as soon as they entered, rocks fell, blocking their exit and leaving enough tiny holes for water to start flooding in.

“No, no, no, no, no,” muttered Stud, panicked. He tried to get some rocks out of the other wall of the cave so they could break free, but with the water rising in the pitch black cave, it was futile.

“It’s useless. I can’t see.” Stud sighed. Mabel shivered and Icarus pulled her closer, his hair dripping on her forehead.

“Stan Pines.”

“Huh?”

“You asked me what my real name is; it’s Stanley Filbrick Pines. Feels like something I should get off my chest before I die.” Mabel gasped softly. “No way,” she whispered. Icarus smiled. “You know, I think I like Stan better.” Icarus felt Stan shrug. “Eh, suit yourself.” They sat in silence for a second, then Icarus spoke up.

“My eye glows when I say an incantation,” he offered. Then it struck him. “My eye glows when I say an incantation!” The water had almost completely filled the cave. He began to speak quickly.

“A-X-O-L-O-T-L!

My time has come to drown!

I invoke the ancient power-”

The water filled the room.

Icarus hesitantly opened his eyes- and could see! It had worked! Stan began to move the rocks frantically, scraping his hand in the process. He moved a rock and found a hole for water to leak from. Then another. And another. With each stone removed, they had a greater chance of living.

Suddenly, the wall broke and they tumbled out with it.

[denimbex1986]

'We Have Become Death

We f’d up,” are the simple, clarifying words of Mo Gawdat — author of Scary Smart and former Chief Business Officer at Google X — on a recent episode of the podcast The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett.

He was referring to the release of ChatGPT and similar Generative A.I. systems, which have exploded as the latest in a series of global crises we’ve been faced with in the last several years. An urgent open letter has been written by leaders in the tech industry requesting a “six-month pause” on experiments and advancements as they assess potentially catastrophic consequences. The Center for Humane Technology is racing to governments with a desperate plea to “regulate before it’s too late.” (You can see their talk on A.I. and its various implications here.) Members of Congress are pushing for an A.I. bill. And, the “Godfather of A.I.,” Geoffrey Hinton, exited Google with dire warnings. Collectively, the community behind the creation and dissemination of this iteration of A.I. is having what Gawdat calls its “Oppenheimer moment.”

If they are having such an (in relevant terms) immediate mea culpa, then the question becomes: Why proceed without caution before the release of this species-altering technology? The answer, as it turns out, is very similar to what J. Robert Oppenheimer contended with in the 1940s, and what Gawdat describes as the first inevitable: “X advance (a weapon, a new technology, A.I.) will happen… ‘because of the other guy.’”

In an interview with the New York Times, Dr. Hinton said, “I console myself with the normal excuse: If I hadn’t done it, somebody else would have.”

If I Don’t Do It, They Will

“The other guy” is a primary motivator for a host of human ills. For the most part, the people we know (personally) are human and flawed, but not psychopathic soul-sucking wormholes who seek the destruction of all they encounter. Yet, society at large often functions in a pathologically self-destructive manner. So there is some inherent disconnect between how we function in individual interactions, and the organizational and collective choices we make.

That break can be found in the avaricious, fear-based, survival impulse of the “other guy” ethos. “If I don’t do it, then they will.”

And, if that happens, I will lose: money, position, power, authority, and in the deepest recesses of our lizard brains, all resources and ability to survive.

It’s irrational, and makes us behave in ways that are counter to our long-term well-being. It reflects a deep distrust of our fellow man. It also indicates that we don’t have a lot of faith in our own ability to adapt and pivot with changing landscapes, while maintaining a focus on integrity and keeping things like generational well-being top of mind. Because sometimes the right thing to do in the face of a new technology is to go very slowly, or opt out entirely. The competitive, and fearful, instinct to rush ahead is also pathologically megalomaniacal, because, in this interpretation, the “I” is the only one worthy of holding real power.

In recent months, many of us have been pressured to implement tools like ChatGPT into our daily business activities: to test, learn, and master them as quickly as we can, always with the hope of gaining advantage over “the other guy” and with the baseline assumption that “if we don’t, they will.” But the reality is, in the long term (which few think of in the context of earnings reports), the other guy has just as much to lose as we do. But we’re scared, so we panic, and make moves that are too quick and with too little thought.

So what does any of this have to do with Oppenheimer or Barbie? Quite a lot as it turns out. Oppenheimer reflects the stagnant patterns of thinking that got us into this mess, Barbie is — both overtly and subtly — representing new ways to address problems, and a more collaborative leadership style that just may free us of the perils we, ourselves, have created.

Those warning against A.I. (largely leaders in the space) say that it is an extinction level risk as great, or greater than, nuclear weapons and/or global warming due to the staggering speed with which it is, can, and will evolve. (Yes, evolve, not advance.)

Why Oppenheimer? Why Now?

So shouldn’t we care about Oppenheimer’s story more than ever? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on the interpretation — and director Christopher Nolan’s new film fails to embrace the moment. Oppenheimer (based on the book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin) follows Cillian Murphy as the titular character in his early academic life through his work on the Manhattan Project — leading the charge in the creation of the atomic bomb. This is set against some explorations of his personal life, connections with the American Communist Party, and, importantly, two government hearings. One, a hearing in 1954 to determine his security status, and the second, Lewis Strauss’ Senate confirmation hearing for Secretary of Commerce in 1959.

One description of the film says it “thrusts audiences into the pulse-pounding paradox of the enigmatic man who must risk destroying the world in order to save it.”

That sentence is the essence of an alarming lack of personal responsibility on Oppenheimer’s part (a deficit that the film tacitly endorses). It also captures the rather heroic lens that is afforded the character. This isn’t a story about understanding how we allowed one of humankind’s greatest disasters to happen; it’s a film about the feelings (or lack thereof in interpersonal matters) of the man who ran the project to do so — half of which focuses on his hurt feelings after losing his security clearance years after said large-scale homicide of the citizens of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Oppenheimer’s security level forfeiture was primarily due to the paranoid and wounded feelings of a petty and small man: Strauss (played, admittedly, gorgeously by Robert Downey Jr.). Hours of screen time dedicated to a small-minded squabble in the telling of the choice to burn the world.

What should have been the essential focus of the story links to the excuse given for releasing and implementing Generative A.I. today: “the other guy” dynamic. Sadly, Nolan’s Oppenheimer isn’t so much interested in honing and questioning the validity of that reasoning, other than offering a brief mention of it. If anything, it leans into and plays up this dynamic sans investigation.

“We can’t let the Nazi’s make the bomb first.” That’s the entirety of the discussion regarding why they initiated the Manhattan Project.

What Oppenheimer Fails (Refuses) To See

A fair, and pretty hard to argue with, assertion… Yet, creating the weapon actually wouldn’t have necessarily prevented Germany from doing the same. So, what was the plan once both sides had it? Weren’t there other options? Like striking key research targets either via bombs or assassinations? How about kidnapping the scientists to our side?

These first few violent ideas aren’t necessarily advisable or viable. However, we might retroactively brainstorm the first bad ideas that come to my mind, because if we do that, eventually we’ll land on better ones. The point is we must not simply stop at “we have to” without doing the work of probing that premise thoroughly.

Because, ultimately, the Nazis lost before the completion of the Manhattan Project. However, as seen in Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Russia was able to make progress on an atomic weapon as a result of it — sending us into a Cold War and decades-long specter of mutually assured destruction. One which is still very much playing out on a global stage.

The U.S. was not wrong to do everything in its power to prevent the Nazis from gaining ground. At all. Nor was their motivation to “beat Germany to it” nearly as morally bankrupt as the “I’ll lose free-market competitive edge if I don’t release my potentially civilization-ending A.I. system before the other guys,” excuse that tech leaders used. What’s important to note is that the film breezes past the crucial question of “Why?” in favor of far less essential (and interesting) explorations.

The movie notes that the war was all but over by the time the weapon was actually, and sickeningly, deployed. However, again, it’s wishy-washy in its portrayal of accountability. It does little to question the U.S. having taken this action when they so clearly didn’t need to: choosing to rain fire on people who had nothing to do with the decisions that arrogant leaders made behind closed doors. Oppenheimer as a film is entirely non-committal about, nor seemingly deeply interested in, the essential parts of this story and what truly matters: personal responsibility in the face of global catastrophe.

Essentially, why we are the way we are and how we can be different.

It gives Oppenheimer an out by having him relay “both sides” of scientific opinion. Yet, he was in no way “neutral” in reality. Oppenheimer was in the rooms and a part of the discussions about which cities to target and did indeed have “blood on his hands.”

Again, the film fails to make much of this other than a cursory acknowledgement. In fact, we pointedly don’t ever see Japan or its citizens. Instead, we bear witness to a few heady sequences wherein Oppenheimer imagines destruction hitting his own home turf. Indeed, he chooses to look away from actual footage of the destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki — footage Nolan does not show the audience.

Okay, you don’t want to be exploitative, but you don’t have to be in order to acknowledge the lived experience of those who actually suffered.

Much of Oppenheimer is beautifully made, and it’s brimming with brilliant performances, centered by Murphy’s. But it’s laboriously — and unnecessarily — mired in flabby side-stories. Saliently are the issues of what it chooses to focus on.

It drags us through a story of a fight between Oppenheimer and those who would stymie his influence in Washington. Opposition that is centered largely on the respective egos of the players: Murphy’s Oppenheimer vs Downey Jr.’s Strauss. Essentially, Strauss wants to strip Oppenheimer of his security clearance in order to sideline his authority and damage his reputation. A large piece of Strauss’ motivation is that Oppenheimer embarrassed him once, and he (incorrectly according to the film) thinks Oppenheimer gossiped about him with Einstein.

This is so off the mark for a film like this.

If we want to watch an endlessly empathic and powerful depiction of how our base natures, traumas, and smallness drive the fate of humanity, we’ve got Succession.

What’s relevant here is that Oppenheimer (the movie) is choosing to focus on hearings that weren’t really all that consequential to anyone other than the people involved. Given his role in history, why bother? This is a creative choice that supports an egoistic focus on the centrality of an individual who is “larger than life,” which is fundamentally toxic at its core — because it outsizes the importance of “some” to the detriment of the many.

In other words, what Nolan sees as central to Oppenheimer’s story is this one man and his (fairly petty) needs. Not what he did, why he did it, the damage he created, and how we might, right now, choose something better.

Later, during a Congressional hearing to confirm (or deny) Strauss’ Cabinet appointment, Oppenheimer is effectively “vindicated” via testimony condemning Strauss’ role in Oppenheimer’s demotion. Ultimately, they are both “denied.” Oh, the humanity!

Real, perhaps. But is this the piece of this story we need, rather than the bigger picture of the ramifications of the atomic bomb on and for the world, as seen through a personal lens. If the Washington hearings-centric part of the film had touched on Mccarthyism in some new way, perhaps that might even make some sense. But they don’t.

This is in addition to time wasted on shallowly threaded themes about Oppenheimer’s romantic nature. Who cares if he’s a womanizer? That’s a bit irrelevant in the face of the start of the weapons that could still equal our collective demise. This is to say nothing of the poor use, and inexplicable nakedness, of international treasure Florence Pugh. There is waste everywhere in this film.

Perhaps there are some cries of “But it’s based on a book.” So what? It didn’t have to be. Nor did it have to adhere to that book sans imagination. It’s an adaptation of a life, whichever way you slice it.

Who and What Deserves Our Attention?

There is a decent (though, not revelatory) movie about building the bomb and wrestling with its consequences (the latter of which, again, there is shockingly little of) in about an hour and a half. An hour and a half that could have also easily humanized Oppenheimer, allowing us to understand more of what was driving him as it relates to the weapon, which, again, this film fails to depict in a manner we can sink our teeth into. Seemingly, it was his dream to work on a physics project in New Mexico. If that self-motivated goal is reason enough, well then, we have our answer on why we as a species may actually extinct itself.

There is a potentially great movie here, if the filmmakers had chosen excise all the (overwrought, though gorgeously shot) nonsense, and take that extra hour and a half (of a three-hour runtime) to focus on the depiction of a fully developed character who represents those global consequences via a specific story: The story of a specific (and known to us, the audience) Japanese citizen, seen in the same time periods that we follow Oppenheimer, until their lives inevitably, tragically, and profoundly consequently, collide.

That may have felt resonant.

Yet, Nolan’s choices inevitably default to what has been done before cinematically, rather than offering a new, and needed, perspective.

Once upon a time, we believed that the story of the creation of Facebook was about how Mark Zuckerberg outsmarted two hulky twins. But, it’s not that at all, as we’ve seen. It’s everything it wrought, which he didn’t stop. The story of a man overcoming his geekiness, having sex with lovely women, and succeeding professionally is just the story we’re used to. It’s not actually what’s meaningful — to us.

The fact that this film thinks that Oppenheimer’s reputational woes are what’s crucial says everything. The truth is, his feelings are irrelevant. As is whether he was an a**hole, or not. It’s of no consequence if he was wronged (maybe) by a man he accidentally humiliated. And discovering that he was vindicated in their little boy’s fight (and given a shiny medal for his efforts) is utterly devoid of value.

It’s all ego, ego, ego… What’s essential is that over a hundred thousand people died as a result of a terrible idea implemented by brilliant (yet staggeringly limited) minds, who wouldn’t listen to reason when they could have. We need to hear the stories of those people who lost their lives in an (entirely unnecessary) show of force. Only one reason is that their ancestors are likely the ones motivated to think through actual solutions for what we’re facing now.

But, Oppenheimer doesn’t care about them, and it’s got nothing new to say.

Do you want to know why filmgoers will know that the sequences featuring government procedural hearings are weighty and essential? (Oscar-worthy, even?) Because they’re shot on 70mm black and white film and have lots of (again, very good) acting. (In other words, it can’t wait to tell you just how important you need to understand that it is.) Its high-brow razzle dazzle at its best. But at its center, it’s just as devoid of crucial, fresh ideas as anyone saying, “We’ve gotta do it before the other guy does.”

Oppenheimer is outdated and clinging to the past in all the ways that are harmful, and avoiding innovation in the manner that matters to us if we’re to save this planet (or the human species): one of the mind and spirit. The film does not seem to have the ability to put its gaze anywhere other than the most obvious, and often least meaningful, targets.

Its worst crime is that it is structurally built to (cinematically) “sell” the successful test of the bomb as a triumphant moment. There’s lots of important and fast-paced walk and talks, a propulsive feel, setbacks, obstacles, and driving sound. Everything is (very well) designed to tell you that this is leading somewhere astonishing. Then, just before the bomb drops, silence… followed by the infamous recitation of the Bhagavad Gita line, “I have become death the destroyer of worlds.” Well, congratulations on a successful set up and sequence. There was clapping in my theater when the bomb hit.

Brava! Everyone gets to — soul-crushingly — miss the point together.

And the thing is, Christopher Nolan is too good of a filmmaker not to understand the tension that he was building and releasing. This was meant to feel like an achievement, and we’re trained (by what we’ve watched previously) to subconsciously interpret that as “good”: a positive outcome. He could have just as easily used the tools of cinematic storytelling at his disposal to subvert that, and deliver a different (better) conscious and subconscious message to the audience.

As to that now-famous line, some say that Oppenheimer was effectively proclaiming himself a God. While others say he meant he was “compelled by the God/new power nuclear energy to be a force of destruction.” Neither is true. He was a man who made bad choices.

There were scientists that didn’t take part in the project, and later, many who advocated against using the bomb, particularly with the war all but over. Oppenheimer made neither of those choices. In fact, as the film depicts, there was an “almost zero” possibility (meaning some degree of potentiality) the bomb would have ignited the atmosphere, quite literally destroying all of the planet just in the testing phase. Again, a phase they reached when they were already pretty much victorious, and certainly the Nazis weren’t getting a bomb of their own. Yet, they pressed on, without the knowledge or consent of the very lives they risked.

At one point in this film Oppenheimer’s wife (played by Emily Blunt) says of death related to his infidelity, “You don’t get to commit the sin and then have us feel sorry for you that there were consequences.” This is as close as the film gets to holding him accountable, and it really is a cop out. Because, Oppenheimer (the film) does want us to feel sorry for him in the end. Again, over a really petty gripe that equalled him losing some privilege.

Perhaps this film isn’t asking the truly salient questions because the creators aren’t able to step outside of their own embedded systems to know that there are more important questions. In other words, they’re taking it as a given that Oppenheimer had no choice, and was acting, therefore, heroically — and again, the film structurally sets us up to see him in this light. If that’s the case, then we need creators, and thinkers at large, who are able to open the door to better, more useful questions and perspectives. Those who won’t take norms as a given. Because the norms we currently have are driving us on an inevitable path to our own end.

These aren’t just stale notions: they’re going to, quite literally, destroy us.

Barbie and the Art of Being Relevant, With a Sense Of Humor

It would be unimaginable to propose that Barbie (the film, not the literal world-polluting plastic doll nor the cultural symbol that attacked women’s sense of self for decades) is the solution to the problems that Oppenheimer, and his ilks’, thinking created. (But what if we did?)

We frequently dismiss the most relevant aspects of our lives as being less so, because they don’t come with the grave approval or consideration of an (imagined or real) outside validating source. We may limit the investment in our relationships in favor of our careers, and so on. How often do we undermine something, naming it fluff, because, at its core, it’s joyful — and centered on the heart?

The basic premise of Barbie, the film, is that things are all but perfect for “Stereotypical” Barbie (Margot Robbie) in Barbieland. Though not so much for Ken (Ryan Gosling), who is — along with the other Kens — all but an accessory to the primary dolls (the Barbies). When Robbie’s character starts to experience inexplicable (human) flaws, she must travel to the “real world” to seek the girl who is playing with her, and thus creating this unwanted frailty. Ken decides to travel with her, and discovers the joys of the patriarchy.

A battle for Barbieland, and for their individual and collective identities, ensues.

Barbie is a genuinely brilliant, funny script that is executed with a stunningly deft hand. It also has something real to say, and a novel approach to do so. Two hundred writers could have walked into a general meeting with Mattel and walked out with a solid take on a story, which may or may not have generated an entertaining film that sold dolls. What co-writer and director Greta Gerwig’s film is doing is adding to a real conversation that has implications well beyond anything as limited (and, candidly, condescending ) as “girl-power.”

It’s been fascinating to see the various takes on “what myth” the film is telling. Is it the hero’s journey, or the heroine’s? There’s one interpretation that makes note of some interesting links to the myth of Inanna (the story of a Queen reclaiming her throne after a visit to the underworld).

The truth is, Barbie can’t be boxed in (yep) that way, because it contains aspects of various mythological stories and structures, while also boasting of a (Oscarcast-worthy) dance number, and perhaps the best Snyder cut joke to date. We won’t go too far down the rabbit hole with either the hero or heroine’s journey, here, but a (very stripped down) focus for the sake of this piece is that the hero’s journey offers a bit more in terms of receiving external accolades and rewards in the end (as one point of distinction). The heroine’s journey, in a very broad sense, kind of picks up where that leaves off.

After abandoning femininity in favor of masculine systems, the protagonist attains a certain level of cultural achievement and says, “Huh, I have all this stuff. I was a part of the system… Now what?” This brings on a crisis in which they ultimately ask, “How do I integrate the depths of myself and my soul with ideas of external reward and cultural significance?” It’s more complex, but one thing it’s asking us to think about is: “What does happiness truly mean and look like to me as my most complete self?” And, importantly, outside of the context of cultural validations such as money, ego-driven success, and accolades.

Barbie is a movie that celebrates humanity in all its simple, sometimes ugly, often easily missed glory, as seen through the eyes of a doll meant to represent an idealized version of it. There are several sequences in which Robbie’s Barbie soaks in the subtle, and not so subtle, pieces of joy available to us every day if we look for them (and aren’t distracted by pain-causing drives): the wind in the trees, laughing with family, the sunshine while waiting for a bus, and the face of a woman who is old enough to have seen it all, and love herself through it.

This is important, because, as noted, the ambition to win (often financially, but also in other respects) at all costs has stripped of us our ability to act in accordance with our own, long-term, interests. Barbie, effectively, suggests that we slow down and put our eyes back on what’s truly essential.

The heroine’s journey is about coming into our own sense of self, fully, putting external drives in their proper place, and in so doing, changing the world around us. What’s interesting about this film is that a number of characters experience this transformation, perhaps most centrally Robbie’s Barbie and America Fererra’s Gloria (a mom who works for Mattel and is struggling with the loss of connection with her teen daughter). There is also an element of healing the mother/daughter split that is present in the heroine’s journey, which Ferrera’s character embodies, along with Ariana Greenblatt’s Sascha, her daughter. The point is, multiple characters are taking their own hero and/or heroine’s journey, which impacts the whole. It’s the intersection of the community and (true) individual good that saves the day in this film.

(Interestingly enough, this last season of the Max comedy The Other Two really captured the heroine’s journey.)

Barbie doesn’t actually fall squarely into the trajectory of the hero or heroin’s journey, and that’s part of the film’s brilliance. The heroine (in that mythological structure) must travel into her darkness, the underworld, and her shadow. (The hero must do some of this as well, of course, it’s simply more central in the heroine’s journey.) Barbie’s underworld is our world, the “real” world, where she must face the consequences of the pain she (as an idol) inadvertently caused. Barbie, the film, is subversion and acknowledgment of what that symbol has meant in the world, as seen through a specific, individual lens.

This is part of personal responsibility. Truly owning — feeling — the pain we have caused. Of course, Barbie also doesn’t have the immediate answer for this pain. Nor should she. She needs the wisdom of those who suffered from it, among others.

Robbie’s Barbie is very reluctantly called to action and to leave her comfortable existence (as in the hero’s journey). She’s compelled, quite literally, by a force outside of herself. But, it’s not because she is the sole savior of this — or any — world. Quite the opposite.

This is a movie that is, in many ways, about cooperative leadership and co-owned responsibility. In Barbieland, there are the structures of our world: the President, lawyers, doctors, authors, and so on. However, there is a fluidity to how they step into leadership, based on need and available expertise.

Matriarchy or Patriarchy?

In terms of the myth of Inanna, there are some fascinating parallels. Barbie must travel to the underworld (Los Angeles) and reckon with her own objectification, and loss of (overt) power. While there, Ken, who has no sense of purpose or authority in Barbieland separate from the Barbies, becomes enamored — and frequently confused about — symbols of masculinity: like horses, and, as Clueless so aptly put it, complaint rock.

Ken returns these ideas to Barbieland, upending their order, and implementing the manosphere version of the patriarchy. So, he’s kind of the worst for that section of the film. However, in many ways, understandably so, having been so disempowered previously. This is one of the insights that the film is offering, which a lesser story may not have.

There is a key distinction between this film and the Inanna myth, and it’s salient to what Barbie (the movie) is getting right. Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie is not reclaiming her own throne. Not entirely. She’s actually giving it to the rightful person. The leader of Barbieland is Issa Rae’s President Barbie, not Stereotypical Barbie. The reclamation is for all of the women who have been displaced, not just herself.

Importantly, Stereotypical Barbie isn’t able to accomplish this on her own. In fact, she’s entirely shut down until America Ferrara’s Gloria steps in. When Gloria feels doubt in her ability to succeed in saving the Barbies’ world, her daughter says “we have to try, even if it’s not perfect.” That’s likely a choice point for many of us at this time in our history, where action seems futile, but we must try anyway. Gloria chooses to accept that calling, and in so doing, she becomes the primary driver of the rescue mission. Though again, all of the Barbies (including Robbie’s) must actively participate in order for them to be successful.

Gloria is also the one who called Barbie to the real world initially, as she was experiencing a devastating split with her daughter and sense of place in the world. She activated an initiation for herself, for Barbie, and both of their worlds, all born of a desire to create a greater union, rather than a desire to advance the self or ego. The pain of those circumstances earned Gloria the wisdom she needed in order to activate, awaken, and re-empower all the Barbies. They, in turn, have the humility to listen to one who has experienced what they have not, but have (inadvertently, perhaps) been a part of creating.

In the end, there’s a joke in which Rhea Perlman’s character calls Robbie’s character “Self-Effacing” Barbie, because Robbie acknowledges that she didn’t, singularly, save the day or create a change.

It actually matters that we engage with this healthy level of humility, because no one person — or persons — will solve the existential reckoning we’re in. This is going to take a radical shift in how we perceive polarities like the individual and the collective. This kind of thinking is in direct opposition to the Oppenheimer-esque point-of-view that “only I am qualified,” (I being an individual, a nation, or a company) and “if I don’t do it, then…”

In the end, Stereotypical Barbie exits Barbieland. She doesn’t return home to rule as in the hero’s journey (or the Inanna myth). She chooses her humanity. She selects this world (in all its mess), rather to remain an ideal. She wants to have the ideas, rather than be one. The last moments of the movie solidify its genius. Because it wasn’t about Barbie becoming a CEO, or world leader, or gaining some other validating title. Rather, the focus was on her embracing a very human, often humiliating (though necessary), deeply vulnerable, and ultimately life-affirming medical need: tending to her pussy.

As to “the bad rap” that Barbie is giving men, this feels like a misreading. If anything, Barbie makes the point that a sure sign that you’re still trapped in the patriarchy is the idea that the antidote to it is the inversion: the creation of an imagined, utopic matriarchy.

The Kens are infantilized and disempowered to the degree that they are dangerous (and sad). They don’t represent men in total. They represent men out of alignment with their own dignity. Just as the Barbies, once infected with the patriarchy (which is just a system like any other, and does not represent every member of said system) are disconnected from their grace and intelligence. Barbieland isn’t a utopia and the problems haven’t been solved. It’s not an aspiration. It’s simply a mirror.

The answer to the life and death crossroads we face today isn’t to invert our systems. It can’t be found in thinking that small. Every one of us (no matter our job or role in life) is faced with daily questions as consequential as, “How do I make an ethical choice in an inherently unethical system?”

As such, we must find a path forward that looks unlike any we’ve tread before. And a “dream land” or house, or imagined intellectualized paradise that discounts our essential humanity isn’t going to cut it. Barbie actually gets this.

We’ve Got Questions, Barbie’s Got Answers

Solutions to embedded problems aren’t going to be found with the same thinking that created them — a true pattern interrupt is needed. So, it’s equally unlikely that the people who are thriving in these systems will be the cure for them. At least not on their own, and without the benefit of those who have new ideas. Ideas that were born because the people offering them have needed to develop ways to exist without the immediate benefits of our current structures. In other words, those outside of the system. Also, possibly, just everyday people, as Barbie proposes via America Ferrera’s character.

In the movie version of life where a tidal wave shatters Los Angeles and 13 very special and important people get on a ship, I have no illusions about where I’d be. I’m drowning in that wave with everyone else. But perhaps it’s people like us who can help spark some ideas. Because we’re not getting on that ship, we’re motivated to do so.

I’d also make the argument that it’s also the more “important” one. We should not disregard the knowledge of those who created these A.I. (and other) tools as they ring alarm bells now. However, if they’d had true wisdom, would they have created and deployed these technologies in the first place? Would they not have, possibly, found a different, as yet unforeseen path? One that does not fall back on the excuse of, “but the other guys” as if that’s the flat bottom of human thinking and capability. They’re far too smart to truly believe that, and too brilliant not to have been able to predict the perilous outcomes.

They simply chose to move ahead anyway. Yes, they must be part of the solution, but not all on their own, and without input from the very lives they are already negatively impacting. They’ll have to take their medicine just like Barbie did straight from a ruthless adolescent mouth.

A movie, like Oppenheimer, dedicated to one such person’s angst about his own ruinous work isn’t what we need. Worse still, a movie that is largely about his unrelated angst. His egoic emotions aren’t useful to explore. We’re all too familiar. What’s at issue is an entire culture reformed in the face of the atomic bomb.

Barbie calls the status quo on its crap and offers a new vision. Oppenheimer is not only upholding — but clinging to, and celebrating — a status quo that has brought us to a crushing confluence of crises. Simply in the design of the film, in who it centers, in the way it’s constructed, it is doing that. The single man, with such weight on his shoulders… (Who in reality needed scores of people and support to “achieve” what he did.) This film is the essence of the systems that got us here.

Barbie, however, is a film that is at once scathingly funny, deeply loving, an expression of awe in the face of the mundane, about the individual in collaboration with community as the solution to ills, and the embodiment of a number of rooted cultural myths.

When all is said and done, Barbie really is just the better movie. There is also an argument to be made that it’s the more “important” one.'

[gawin]

Hi, MJ, just saw your notes about being neurodivergent and mental health and trying, and i just wanted to add to that. I’m not autistic but I’ve been dealing with depression and anxiety since i was a teen and only just recently found out, in my early 40s, that what i thought my whole adult life was just me being LAZY and UNMOTIVATED and GENERALLY BAD AT ADULTING is probably me having executive dysfunction. I mean, i’m still a procrastinator at heart, but when i can’t bring myself to do THE THING even though i know i HAVE TO DO THE THING and every moment i spend NOT DOING THE THING fills me with anxiety? That’s my brain fucking me over.

I’m a public servant and my department has been very big on mental health since COVID and mandatory telework. But the message is always the same : you gotta eat well, sleep well and exercise. Like it’s that easy, like self-care doesn’t take a huge amount of effort when your brain doesn’t want to cooperate. Doing anything is hard for me because i have zero motivation and i can’t relate at all to things like Being Disciplined and Feeling Accomplished. Even things i enjoy! I’m behind on series i want to watch because i just can’t bring myself to press play and sit there and watch. So i rewatch the same series over and over again.

So my self-care is doing my best and trying not to compare myself to others. I get my work done on time (even if sometimes i have to get up earlier because i wasn’t productive the day before), i shower at least twice a week, i eat a vegetable a day. I pay my bills and my taxes. I vote. I’m not a danger to myself and/or to others. I’m alive. I’m alive. So if it takes me a week to unload the dishwasher and to load it up again with the week’s worth of dirty dishes, if i never fold my laundry, if i buy soup instead of cooking for myself, who the fuck cares?

Neurotypicals don’t get it, they don’t understand why we can’t just DO THE THING (like my dad, who loves me very much, but does not understand why i can’t just ‘cheer myself up’ when i ‘feel sad’). They don’t understand that in order to implement the tools (clean eating! sleep! exercise!) that might help us cope we need to have the motivation and the energy and the resources (therapy is fucking expensive!) to even try to make the effort. ‘It’s not that hard’ YES IT FUCKING IS.

So i just wanted to say, i see you, i understand your struggles, they are valid and so are you. I hope the people around you appreciate you and your efforts. I hope YOU appreciate you. Because you rock. Sending you lots of love. 💖

hello friend!!! i feel you. i suffer of severe executive dysfunction and honestly it just keeps getting worse which consequently makes me even more anxious 😩😩

exactly!!! eating well, sleeping well and exercising can definitely help you improve but when your brain simply refuses to do those tasks, it’s hell. and honestly, people who don’t live in a constant fight against their own brains have NO idea how it is. only the ones who know the struggle know what it takes to do the most basic things.

beloved :( i understand your struggles. i know i’m just a stranger running a silly little blog on tumblr dot com but i really do understand. i can motivate myself with fiction sometimes but real life? it’s just not for me and some days i feel so lost and yet so overwhelmed by how lost i feel, that it sends me into deep depressive episodes. i mean, i’m not clinically diagnosed with depression and anxiety but fuck if i haven’t struggled with those bitches my entire life.

(i have been thinking of getting a diagnosis and i thought about asking my dad for some financial help and you know what my mom said to me, “don’t even bother, he thinks you’re faking it”. i mean, not surprised at all but still a little disappointed.)

and you’re doing great!!! read this very carefully: YOU ARE DOING FUCKING AWESOME!!! you’re taking care of yourself and doing things at your own pace and you’re alive and not harming others. that’s just so so so much!!! and i’m proud of you for moving forward despite all the hardships!!!!

oh parents. they might love us but they rarely understand us. and that’s okay i guess. but don’t let that get to you. only YOU know what your brain can and can’t do. it is also NOT your fault that you have limitations, okay?? everyone does!!! we just happen to have more. but you’re not unlovable or a terrible person!!

you’re soooo right!! therapy and diagnoses are ridiculously expensive. at the end of the day, we’re usually alone carrying this massive invisible weight. and nobody can see how hard we try and how much it takes from us!!! sometimes being alive hurts and staying alive is the best we can do but we are still here!! despite everything that nobody gives us credit for. we are still here!!! i still need to work on my self love and acceptance but i don’t take it lightly how much i try to do things and i do appreciate the fact that i’m alive.

thank you SO much for reading my tags, for reaching out and sharing your experiences with me. you are incredible and i wholeheartedly mean this!

i tend to feel very lonely because most people around me don’t really understand me. it’s such an alienating feeling, sometimes it’s like i’m drowning in it. but i also know i’m not the only one who feels like this and your message does comfort me in that way.

so thank you SOOOOO much!!!! sending you lots and lots and lots of love right back!!!! and that you’re able to feel it across the distance between us and have a great week!!!!! ❤️💙

[writer-dipsundarkanjilal]

Why Improving Thoughts?

There are thousands of motivational books around, talk about how to improve your thoughts. Now a days many YouTubers have started sharing lectures about thought leadership. Even I heard that in India, many motivational speakers are conducting seminars just to talk about Time management, Startups etc. and citizens are investing good money to attend them. But, why?

Why Improving Thoughts is so important? What's wrong with your existing thoughts and believes? Are they not true?

Then how our parents and ancestors were surviving without hearing these lectures??

Don’t misunderstand my arguments, they are not mine. I know improvement is inevitable. These are the questions from my audiences.

First of all, your mind is the kitchen of all your Thoughts. You derive thoughts when you observe something from your surroundings. Later your constant observations on something in a particular way, creates you believe that approach. After this we all know. Your belief system controls your mind for subsequent action and your action returns your result. This is a known psychology.

What is not so common here is why do you think in a certain way without evaluating that positive and negative aspect of it? Or, even if you see all positive aspects in a negative thought, why do you see all positive only?

Your observation is sometimes diluted by distractors. We are distracted by our own lifestyles. Unknowingly, we convert our Wants into Needs and pay hefty Credit card bill every month. We are distracted by so many advertisements, channels, media, newspapers, social media, our business, our office, our families and so on. They are not bad but they provide so much of information that instead of focusing on our intelligence and discover new ideas or opportunities, you burn all your energies daily in processing the available information. You forget to pull the husk to draw the seeds. You forget to go depth in one topic and become master of that instead.

In order to grow in today’s world having “T” shaped mentality is important. Breadth and Depth. Only widening your knowledge about many things can confuse your decision-making power.

As a result, you will become short lived, low patience, lack of control on your thoughts because you don’t have time in the race of processing all information.

The real problem is – Lack of mindfulness. We are suffering from this disease and we realize it more often when we face some challenges and don’t get any answer from our mind to solve them.

Mind fogging is a problem and hence mind works abnormally. It wants everything at one go. In order to avoid mind fogging, motivational speakers spread this slogan – improve your thoughts! Like in some families in India, they believe that if someone calls you from behind while you are starting your journey for a good work– that day can turn into evil for you and you might fail to achieve your desired result from your work. This believe has become so widespread that no one questions the rationale behind it.

A negative thought can generate wrong believe and the result would be further negative. Some people make this further down. When they fail, they make this supersition as a rule in their families. They create more negative thoughts and frustrations. Finally, this process of thinking becomes a Fictitious Cycle.

In older days, our ancestors never used to get so much of information so easily due lack of globalization. They used to follow motivational guidance from the Holy books. Therefore, the urgency of improving mindfulness was met at that time through their spiritual masters.

At present, some people take Holy books as religious fanatism.  Therefore, you need to work on your consciousness as a daily ritual. Consider this as mind exercise by following the motivational speakers and this is an investment in your career.

Using intelligence in the place of mind is a better option. If someone believes in spirituality, he will say – "Do not listen to your mind at all. Focus on your soul – which is your true sense of AWARENESS". That is pure and eternal. Your Inner-You is transcendental. If you start following your intelligence more, you can restore your positive energy, improve your thoughts as a result and you will get positive answers from within during all your obstacles in life.

Believe that mind has answers to all questions but those reside within your subconsciousness. If you learn to extract the right information at the right time, you can create better impact in your life.

Now, another important question is – Improving Thoughts towards where?? Upwards, downwards?

How do I know which direction is right for me?

You need to ask these questions to your awareness. Only your Inner-You is completely aware of what is right and wrong for you. Having less dependency on your mind and more on your consciousness and finding the true purpose of your life can help you to answer where your thoughts should be directed to.

Happy Reading…

[kryptonitecore]

Re-Read: The Transformers: Monstrosity

So, if I thought digesting my thoughts about Autocracy was going to be tricky, then what about Monstrosity? It’s mostly the same creative team, but with an even larger scale story. I actually liked the multi-stranded narrative, even if the time-frame started to swim after a while, as the comic jumped from character to character and event to event. Megatron’s evil training montage on Junkion was my least favourite, but there we go.

Regardless, I was really happy to come across something addressing the exodus from Cybertron, as it’s the sort of thing that gets referenced a lot more than it’s portrayed. Merging storylines by having the Dynobots be among those who wanted to leave but didn’t have the resources was an interesting move, but I had some doubts about the execution. They supposedly have to leave Cybertron because their monstrous new alt-modes/rages could prove a deadly combination in a crowded place, but the reactions others have to their alt-modes came across as over the top: an Autobot character will be chatting to Sky Lynx one minute, then act as if Grimlock’s alt-mode is the worst thing they’ve ever seen. Granted, they look intimidating and a bit uncanny, but Ramondelli’s art style makes everything look at least vaguely sinister. The art also struggles a bit with facial expressions and it really shows up during argument scenes. The Dynobots bear the brunt of some of the clunkiest bits of writing, but no one is entirely safe from the art, though, not even Alpha Trion: 

Also, everyone is cast in perpetual dramatic shadows, so it seems that even the Convocation aren’t paying their lighting bills anymore.

Another thing that stood out to me was the prevalence of Quintessons. There’s been references already, like in Spotlight: Wheelie, and now Pentius is (briefly) occupying a mentor role for Megatron - seems a shame something more didn’t come of this, or at least I don’t remember the Quintessons going on to be a big deal in IDW1?

With Zeta gone, someone had to take over the role of irascible villain, and that honour has fallen to Scorponok. I’m not entirely sure what he was trying to achieve by blowing up the energon plant with himself and a large chunk of his own faction inside of it - it was certainly jarring, not helped by the assertion that the blast was powerful enough to kill thousands of people further away, yet every named Decepticon and Autobot survived. I found the contrast between Megatron’s order-and-dominance approach and Scorponok’s chaotic, pseudo-‘survival of the fittest’ approach interesting, but it seemed at points as if the author was trying a little too hard to make Scorponok seem a worse option than Megatron.

The real star of this book, however, is Optimus, now unceremoniously dumped from the role of enforcer into that of Prime and gifted the job of holding together the ‘Grand Convocation’, the replacement for Zeta’s ‘New’ Senate. Particularly, this book revolves around the conflict between Dai Atlas and Optimus. I was concerned at first that Atlas was just going to end up being a straw man for Optimus to knock down, but I think the author actually succeeded in challenging Optimus without undermining either his or Atlas’ characters too much. Both of their plans came across as having blindspots and limitations, whether Optimus’ inflexibility (‘I’m all out of concessions’) or Dai Atlas’ willingness to leave Cybertron behind and, with it, anyone not willing or able to leave the planet on short notice (Bulkhead raising the class implications of this was interesting…). Not only do I think this benefits Optimus’ character, I enjoyed the ideas this brought up about NAILS at later points in the continuity: are NAILS more likely to be religious or spiritual? Are they more likely to be from wealthier backgrounds? From Iacon, or at least close to it, is there a regional divide or a metropolitan/provincial divide? Starscream’s sympathy for their motivations also becomes interesting in light of him benefitting from the NAIL/neutral vote in the post-war elections. 

The art is divisive and there are some pretty obvious issues with the plot and continuity, but I am still enjoying these books and the way they fill in gaps from my reading of later works in this continuity! Time to finish the trilogy with Primacy. 

[blahandwhatever]

So I tried to have myself a nice week without too much thought about the Burdens, with mixed results. Of course I thought about things to some extent. Had a few dreams about my parents. One where my mom started showing signs of Alzheimer’s (still stuck married to my father) - woke up feeling so much love and sadness for her. One where my father showed up at my place uninvited and meddled. One long and involved one about me and my parents moving out of their house into an apartment because they could no longer afford the house. I was devastated about both living with my parents (good old dream logic had me simultaneously moving out of their house together with them and moving out of my own apartment to join them in their new one) and leaving behind the house, which in the canon of my dreams is far larger and more beautiful than in reality.

Meanwhile, the weather warmed back up; some days I enjoyed it, some days I just felt like staying home. I took it easy on my period, then I worked on the job hunt, worked on chores, worked on careful strategic shopping and scrounging for money. Got an unexpected burst of motivation to work on my picture blog again. Got excited by a sparrow couple building a nest in one of my flower baskets - a first since the pigeons of Oak Lawn, and man, despite their smaller size, these little guys go a lot harder on their nests. Whole damn basket’s full of nest - I don’t know if it won’t damage the flowers, but I guess it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make. They’re also more easily startled - hope they’ll get used to me.

Friday I slaved over assessments for two potential jobs, slaved over two projects for an existing job that not only had been slow but I’d lost entirely for a month as punishment for sloppy work caused by rushing caused by the combination of poor time management and fear of their draconian punishments for missing their senselessly rigid deadlines, returned two flower planters that I wasn’t convinced about to Home Depot to get back cash I could use to buy my father sushi. I got another rejection from a job I was seemingly completely qualified for. I felt the looming end of the month, with its bills and deadlines, weighing down on me - it was the most stressed I had felt in a while. For the most part, I’ve tried to live one day at a time, vacillating between panic and frustration about my situation and just being zen.

Yesterday we had our first thunderstorms in a while. Still felt a little nervous around the electrical panel, though not terrified like before. Haven’t seen any more sparks flying, but the fact that it ever happened is, I think, going to keep me a little wary as long as I’m here. Nothing else scary has really happened in the past few months either, and I’ve long abandoned my heightened vigilance. That really was an oddly concentrated and potent string of Strike Fear Into My Heart days.

Today I went to my parents’ house. I was a little uneasy about it but also happy to see Naperville after such a long time. I stopped for sushi downtown, where parking was a nightmare like always, equipped with the exact amount of cash I needed and ten cents to spare. My father wasn’t home when I got there. My mother was unhappy. She got me and my brother together, told us about her pain and toxic marriage and love for us and plans to divorce my father for real this time; that she had gotten a counselor and would get a lawyer. Served us burgers. I tried to be supportive but also tried to lighten the mood for my brother. Gave him his belated birthday card and money. He was mostly quiet as usual, but not in the worst mood as far as he goes, and we played our little go-to balloon game a bit.

My father came home with a bit of a manic energy, a familiar compensatory mechanism. He hasn’t been in a good state for a while. I’m learning to treat the less offensive of his bullshit with the knowing patience of a therapist. I was prepared to potentially tell him a lot of things if he behaved poorly or something simmered between him and my mother, but he was very nice to me, and the two did not interact or, for the most part, occupy the same space. On account of the Father’s Day thing, I tried to keep things relatively pleasant without being overly friendly or open to any distortion of things regarding my mother. I think I navigated things fine all things considered. He might be going to Las Vegas to play poker for a week with some money he set aside for that purpose. I warned him to be prepared to lose - he’s had some delusions about being a poker genius in the past, and had a whole shitty online gambling saga, although I don’t think he’s at the same level of insanity today as he was then. Later I sat and talked with my mother, about him and other things. The weather wasn’t good enough for a bike ride, and the dog had already been on a walk, but I tried to enjoy the yard a bit and fill the time until it felt like a good time to leave.

On the way home, there were on-and-off downpours and picturesque clouds and a rainbow.

And now here comes the last week of June, when something’s really gotta give.

[alyjojo]

Career & Money 🧾 For 2023 - Aquarius

Overall energy: Temperance

Current Job: 6 Pentacles & The Sun

Challenges: The Fool

Potential: 8 Cups

Outcome: King of Cups & 10 Cups

Advice: Ace of Pentacles

Oracles:

54 - Visualize

When we develop our abilities to visualize, we can manifest maximum influence on our experience of reality.

60 - Patience

Creativity takes time, and sometimes a project can seem to be taking too long or seen to be failing.

79 - Success

Enjoying your life and the unfolding of your creative abilities as much as possible is real success.

You are extremely goal oriented, driven, and motivated towards career pursuits this year, but this entire year is about Temperance for you. Balance, patience, taking the middle path and not just diving in head first. Temper your impulses, they’re not always working for you, a level head & visualization, manifestation, IS. The main energy is the same as your challenge, you want to rush into something headfirst, maybe as a way to prove you’re right in some way, or just to prove you can. But that’s what you’re needing to leave behind, it’s an aspect of shadow in you. You have nothing to prove 💯

The potential is realizing & working on this, leaving behind any dreamy romanticism, and any feelings of you being stuck with one thing and unable to move in any other direction. Your perception of things is changing. Ace of Wands shows you getting inspiration, excitement, that fire 🔥 back inside of you that says you can do anything. The Star shows healing, probably relating to things needing to be released from your consciousness, old thoughts and behaviors keeping you stuck, or they have. These may also be new dreams that come with this new perspective. But it takes time, and you don’t want to wait! Your challenge is to chill. There’s no rush, 10 Swords rev shows you’ve been through something very painful, conflicts of some kind, and you have something to PROVE. Why though? To be right? That message keeps repeating, and it’s an Aquarius crutch to need to feel “right”. The reading is saying, yes, you can do anything, but don’t rush into Fool energy as a “response” to outside drama, don’t rush into anything you haven’t consciously worked out in your own mind. Make things exactly as YOU want them to be, again, you have nothing to prove 🙏 Because this message keeps repeating, you must be feeling pressured by some likely outside source that actually gets zero say in what you’re doing, but that’s part of your perspective shift. Some of you are just doing this to yourselves…but why though?

Currently, wherever you’re working is very positive for you, there are advancement opportunities and the people you work around are balanced & helpful. You all appreciate each other’s efforts and input. That’s what everyone wants. That + pays the bills. You’re planning on moving forward, some of you may be training for something or still in school. There’s a feeling of you being on the edge of a major change that will be successful, so long as you are being realistic and planning accordingly, not acting on impulse, which is something that may have worked for you before, but won’t work now.

The outcome has a King & Queen of Cups at odds, and you’re to bide your time with this, keep your distance or not get emotionally involved, picking sides. I don’t see you as actually involved as anything more than support. Someone could be dealing with an illness. Whatever this is will put your career plans on hold. 10 Cups is most likely family, or a family you know, these are people you love. If not people, for some of you singles, love may be on pause this year entirely, it’s not even something you think of or desire. As actual meanings, if these are not people, the Cups pair have a lot of love inside of them, but the King doesn’t express it openly, and may be healing from someone they thought was a soulmate, that didn’t work out. And Queen of Cups can be a message of self care next to 4 Swords. Filling your own cup, making yourself happy, loving yourself, because you need a break from love. It’s not that you don’t want 10 Cups, you just don’t right now, you’re biding your time with that. Or some of you could feel you found your “one”, it didn’t work out, and now you’re done. Healing ❤️‍🩹 For some, your definition of what will make you happy is what’s changing, your dreams are changing, and you may be holding back from any ideas of a soulmate or partner until you figure yourself out. Some are simply helping to nurse or care for a loved one that needs their help, it’s taking top priority.

Your advice is to put the intellectual effort into your dreams, the seed of opportunity you hold in your hands, the thing you want to DIVE into right away, but isn’t well-thought out or realistic just yet. That will be your definition of 10 Cups, it’s your dream. Gaining independence, making more than enough to live on, being your own boss. Or at least one of them. However that plays out for you, with visualization, study & information, and a lot of patience (all year), your last card is success 🎉 And no cards here would lead me to believe you can’t do whatever it is you want. Maybe just a penchant for impulse actions, and whatever is going on outside of you, Temperance is going with the flow, keeping yourself centered in your circumstances, dividing up your time in a balanced way and not overdoing it, and you’ll figure it all out when the time is right.

[bluemillie]

I’m dying to know what these tags mean (from the “if TLT was a YA series” post):

 #Back to YA tropes: ya gray villains are all ‘my morals and actions are objectively correct in this world but i kill people and wear black’#that’s the epitome of bad boy evil

Like, are you agreeing that the YA villains actions *are* correct for their worlds, or are you saying that *they* (the villains) claim that (or that readers do) and you’re making fun it? Could you elaborate on what it means for something to be “the epitome of bad boy evil”? (Also, I kinda want to know which YA villains fit the bill here.)

Also, since I'm not sure how my tone is coming across here: I really am just curious.

I cannot for the life of me find my reblog on that post and hardly remember doing it, but I will do my best to answer from the vague memory of what i was thinking at the time and my present thoughts! I have never been very articulate and have always been quite wordy, though, so I apologize in advance.

First, ‘gray villains’ was a poor choice of words. What i meant was more along the lines of what are supposed to be antiheroes in modern YA. And for if they’re “correct” or not, it depends completely on the media. Sometimes they’re like “i am going to reform these systems that have measurably oppressed the majority for their entire lives, but to do so I must get rid of it’s most adamant supporters who are clearly written pure evil villains who eat babies and kick puppies” and the other characters are like “you’re right, however we can’t kill people to do that :((( you’re just as bad as the villains“ and other times they’re like “my parents were mean to me as a child so now i’m going to start a war” and the readers are like “they’re so right, y’all just only like vanilla characters 🙄”.

The “epitome of bad boy evil” was about REALLY YA characters, who usually don’t have a strong motivation or reasoning behind what they do other than being a kaz brekker wannabe to bait the ppl who like ‘dark’ romance without real substance. Like, from their first introduction you know they’re some edgy or cocky mf who probably wears a too-long coat.

You could compare this to harrow who wears black and kills people, but it also in a space death cult/the reverend daughter of goth and the greatest necromancer of her generation (some would argue). The key here, other than her being a fairly unique character, is that she’s not bait for any particular reader. She’s a failwoman, not someone who comes to mind when you think of dark or edgy romance. Dating harrow would not be living dangerously- it’d be competing with a corpse.

Another good example is Kaz. He is THE bad boy, and I would argue an attractor of those who like dark romance due to his gang status, but he’s got substance. Most people are equally invested in discovering his backstory and following his revenge plot as they are with Inej (tho that’s my aroace ass talking so maybe not lol). And even then, his romance is rocky. It’s a struggle to even touch her and he can’t communicate due to his past rather than just being a tsundere type. And when we see his “softer” side, it’s all about caring for his friends and how the rest of everything soft about him was drowned in the Ketterdamn harbor years ago. It goes beyond sneaking a look at the bad boy with a cat or the bad boy being protective of the female love interest.

I’m not sure I can describe a character that fits either the gray villain/antihero stereotype nor the bad boy one; my ideas of both are kind of an amalgamation of all thing things that tend to turn me away from media. Plus I don’t read a lot of romance, so a fair bit is also drawn from the way people describe the characters online that makes me glad I didn’t read whatever they did. The rest of it is trauma from my middle school wattpad days and the shows my mom watches.

One I do particularly dislike is Eren Yeager. I think he’s a well-written character (ish), but the sheer number of people who are jokingly-and-not justifying him committing worldwide genocide is kind of annoying sometimes.

In the end, this is is all just nitpicking and no big deal. It’s all fictional and about media i don’t ever have to engage with. I was just excited to throw in my least favorite YA tropes and imagine how much more horrible they could be in a tlt YA version. I encourage people to find enjoyment wherever they can, whether it’s something I enjoy or not.

I hope this satisfied your curiosity!