#and bc yeah there's. big issues with the military. but I do understand why that's the choice he's made for his career to support his family

[swinging-stars-from-satellites]

me and my sister in law's best friend (who is also my friend) are both SOOOOO meh about my brother going into the Navy it's hilarious

[wh4thefnk]

Lily clearly pulled a “nevermind hoe” with that married man tho 💀💀//

yeah i have to think that the novelty of dating him or just being around him might wear off quick depending on the person’s personality 💀 especially for someone already as famous and successful as lily james. he doesn’t really have anything that she can’t already get for herself so she doesn’t have to force herself to tolerate him for some benefits lmao

i’ve never been a marvel fan or in marvel circles so i remember my honest first impression of chris wasn’t stellar and i honestly couldn’t understand all the hype around him. yes he’s attractive but the way people talk you would think he’s literally the only attractive man ever to exist and there’s no man that surpasses or even matches his attractiveness it’s so wild. like it was genuinely very confusing to me???? i was like lowkey this man looks like a pencil what are you seeing please

but i was like this many people can’t be wrong right? and maybe i’m just being overly judgmental so i watched some of his interviews and i thought this man is a little phony like his laughing where he clutches his left pec is a bit over the top and the way he would talk over people was a bit questionable at times but then i watched some of his more reflective stuff and i know he wasn’t saying anything hugely profound but i was like huh maybe there is another side to him and he genuinely has a desire to explore “deeper” topics and he’s not just a basic white bread overgrown disney kid with basic tastes 💀 mind you this was covid so like i had time lmao

so i started warming to him because i admired the thoughtfulness i thought i saw in him and i was like maybe his big ass laughing is genuine and he really is just that joyous and dorky and dumb in a jumbo way and maybe i just can’t relate because we’ve had different life experiences and i started to see him differently especially when i saw his interactions with scott and lisa i was like ohhhh that’s just how your family is valid plus when he was being so vocal about social justice issues i was like okay maybe you alright white man. i liked that he had such a sense of justice and connection to humanity and what was right and wrong that he felt compelled to speak even though he did not need to. ohhh you’re gonna make a whole ass political platform even though you’re not a politician because you’re just that passionate? wow okay respect 🫡

like obviously he still said and did some dumb white man things because he is a dumb white man in a world that allows dumb white men to remain dumb white men. like why are you as a white man speaking on kanye? shhhh 🤫 why are you saying a black family forgiving the murder of their loved one is the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen? like that’s gross fr i’m begging please shut up shut up shut up 🤐 why did you think participating in a white savior movie was a good idea? why was asp going to do a series in the middle east that you didn’t go through with bc twitter rightfully dragged your ass so bad????? why do you seem so pro military and pro police? 😭 why did you autograph a prop bomb that represents the killings of innocent people? but my ass really thought he was genuine and his heart was in the right place and he would grow in his activism as he was exposed to new ideas 🙄 i know I’M the dummy

i don’t even know what i’m saying atp lmao the peer pressure brainwashing worked i guess like i don’t think he’s satan but maybe he is very much just some obnoxious guy who laughs too loud and deep down i still don’t understand why the karolinas and captreginas in his fandom find him so remarkable and magical and even the general public too. people REALLY like him. is he truly truly objectively that goddamn fucking attractive? like is it actually that serious? is it literally just the steve rogersificaion of his public image? i don’t even know where i stand anymore i’m just here observing🧍‍♀️

SORRY for the novel 😭💀

(also curious to know your first impressions of chris? are you an og fan? 👀)

Don’t worry bestie, feel free to vent 😂

I had been into Chris for a while, I witnessed him dating Minka and everything; never got in the depths of the fandom tho, I guess lurking never piqued my interest. And through the years my attention to him has swayed on and off.

My impression of him is that I found him endearing and sounded like a genuinely nice guy (and maybe he is, specially in a social level) and honestly I enjoyed his movies; to this day I think that as an actor he had or has potential to be better. And of course he’s done things that at first glance can easily charmed the public into thinking he’s very unique; for example having a political platform and being outspoken about certain things; he’s the guy with the cute dog that he rescued; it might sound silly but I genuinely liked him dating age appropriate women, I did think that little fact set him apart and (the worst of all, now I understand how this isn’t necessarily a nice/kind pov) dating Jenny did wonders for his image somehow, I vividly remember talking to another fan about this, how non-superficial he was for dating her, that it showed he valued character and personality the most 🤩

Maybe the peer pressure worked on me too 😂 I don’t think he’s the devil or anything; I would say he’s just disappointing; and I see character flaws coming to the surface right now, stuff that do not necessarily align with how he was portrayed, plus learning and rethinking other things. I definitely do not see him the same way anymore. I mean at the end it’s his life and he doesn’t owe strangers anything; but I guess we are also in the court of public opinion.

[piracytheorist]

"Feb. 9th / Evening / Stronghold. I finally have all four flasks! But Heisenberg said I needed to do one more thing to heal her. Take all the flasks to the Altar. Will this really heal her? Can I trust Heisenberg?"

To think Ethan had the intention to listen, bc nobody questions whether they can/can't trust someone if they had already made up their mind and wanted to go murdery... and then Heisenberg went all 'weaponize da babby!' without any sort of explanation.

Yeah... I mean, at the point Ethan was, he was willing to listen to anyone who wasn't directly attacking him. He had no idea why or how everything was happening, like, even with the Duke, Ethan doesn't fully trust him at the time he first finds the feather keys, but he's willing to listen to anything that might clue him in about his daughter.

Like, he wasn't some military mastermind with sources and resources and a clear head at all given times. He was just going with what he had, and the entire survival horror aspect of the game emphasizes that. This is why he shouts "I don't give a damn about your personal issues! I just want to fix my daughter!" because he dragged himself into all of this out of his responsibility for Rose. So Heisenberg telling him how to heal Rose was of interest to him, but Heisenberg's origin story was not, nor should it be; Ethan was responsible for Rose, and no-one else. He had no obligation to be burdened with the Lords' drama.

Still through all of that, and especially considering the first meeting between Ethan and Heisenberg (what's a bit of stabbing and forcing you through my Saw-inspired traps between friends amirite) it's big that Ethan was even willing to listen to Heisenberg. Though he didn't have much choice. And again, Heisenberg's drama was not of concern for Ethan, the moment he said he wanted to use Rose, he completely lost him. Ethan was not there to heal his six-month-old daughter only to weaponize her against the woman who dragged them all into that mess in the first place. But Heisenberg lacked the understanding of why Ethan didn't want him to use her. He says "Poor papa. You're the only one who doesn't see your kid's power" and I'm like bro, it's not that he "doesn't see" it, it's that he doesn't want to allow you to USE a six-month-old baby, no matter how powerful she is. The Connections used Eveline the same way Heisenberg wanted to use Rose, and we saw how that messed Eveline up, irreparably. Sucks that Ethan didn't want to allow history to repeat, I guess.

[nexyra]

Okay so This is just a way to let out some frustration so I can put it out there and stop mulling on it bc I'm bad at this sort of stuff - Feel free to ignore it

I'm putting this under Read More; if your fav past-time is to call anyone who likes Ironwood's character or was disappointed by his V8 turn to villainy a stupid bootlicker who "should have seen the signs he was always a tyrant !!" please don't interact with this post. You're ultimately free to think what you want but honestly I see enough of that in the main tag when left alone, I don't need it on my blog it doesn't make me feel good.

Anyone else... well you can read if you're interested but you don't have to either. Feel free to respectfully disagree though, I'm not that bullheaded that I can't partake in a friendly argument =) I'll just be listing some things about Ironwood's reading by the FNDM who get old or draining as someone who doesn't like the V8-characterization they went with

Can people please stop just... copy/pasting real world issues on a world/characters that have nothing to do with them or a completely different context ?

Like,, I genuinely try to educate myself on real-world issues. I know I'm rather privileged so I try to listen and hear out people who speak out about the issues they live through day by day. I know why the "ACAB" moniker exists. I understand the problem that lies within the american police system (and likely other countries as well). I see why the army, on our blue planet, is criticized & its many failings. Etc, the list can go on...

But I'm sorry to say, Remnant isn't OUR Earth. Their Army's primary job is to fight actual evil soulless monsters, not people. The Ace Opps or Huntsmen are not an organization directly inherited from slave-hunting groups. James Ironwood isn't the US army general bombing Middle East. Clover Ebi isn't the racist cop you want in prison. So WHY are they treated as such by so many people ? Stories are not a 1-1 where you can take everything you know and just apply it to a completely different world.

Has Atlas been presented as a country that suffers from racism & classism ? Certainly. Has it be shown this way ? That's already more debatable since the only racist arguments we got were in Mantle (which is the city we're supposed to be rooting for so that's a weird choice but eh it's whatever). Are the characters, as persons, shown to evoke these issues in a way that deserve our scorn ? Not really.

Is Ironwood depicted as particularly racist for example ? I wouldn't say so seeing as one (or more considering Tortuga) of his Ace-Opps are Faunus & it seems perfectly accepted; and he hates Jacques Schnee's guts. So why does he get to shoulder all of our real-world issues as if he was responsible for them, in a context where (pre V8) his army had most likely never killed anything else than Grimm and was shown to elicit very positive reactions from most of the population (V3) ? (In direct contrast to the polarization that the US army might evoke for example.)

You can totally hate Ironwood because of the feelings he evoke, the trope he stems from or the parallels to be made. That doesn't mean however, that he IS truly guilty of every one of OUR world issues (pre-V8)

Just because classism is prevalent in Atlas society does not make Ironwood the figurehead & leader of this issue.

Is classism an issue in Atlas ? Yes. That's been made clear because of Mantle's state as well as Jacques Schnee entire existence & even Cinder's backstory. Does that mean every single one of Ironwood's decisions reeks of classism ? NO

Trust me, as someone who found Ironwood's V8 characterization not... well-executed & too much; there's nothing more annoying than being assaulted by posts about his fall going "it was so obvious !! look at -" only for them to then list reasons in a really biased way or even headcannons based on (again) irl problems. An exemple...

Reasons his turn was good that I see thrown around : "Ironwood left Mantle behind because he only wanted to save the rich. He's a selfish coward & an asshole !"

What we were actually given : "Ironwood suffers from PTSD, and faced with Salem's imminent arrival, he tried to save what he was CERTAIN to be able to protect aka the flying city and all the people on it including Mantle evacuees. There is absolutely no text backing the idea that he wanted to leave with Atlas because it's rich. We could even suppose that he would have left with the 'poor' Mantle if it was the flying city and rich people were hanging safely on the ground. There is indeed an issue with Atlas & Mantle disparity, but Ironwood isn't directly responsible for it."

Does that make his decision to leave Mantle behind a morally right one ? That's of course NOT what I'm saying. The situation is still very ambiguous. But the classism theme has NO place here.

"Ironwood leads Atlas & Mantle. As such, he inherently holds responsability for the issues plaguing it." THIS is an acceptable reading according to me. I would probably argue that even if Ironwood's the only Atlas leader we're shown; he actually only oversees the military & academy (where we haven't ever seen classism issues), so putting Atlas' classism issues on him still doesn't sound fair to me. However the idea & argument is sound.

Acknowledging only how his actions look/the tyrannical surface reading and not the reasonnable justifications or glimpses we were given (pre-V7) of Ironwood being more than his trope

I'll probably stop after this one, but the last thing that is both tiring & annoying after too much of it; is seeing people boil down all of Ironwood's character to the most basic summary, inherently written to paint him in a bad line. And then saying that everything led up to his downfall by using these watered-down versions of the show's events to justify it. Or worse (imo), saying that people who are not satisfied with his V8 characterization that THEY don't understand how good a character he is and don't really appreciate him.... All the while only ever highlighting his characters flaws. Please stop this.

"Ironwood brought an army to the peace Olympics why are you surprised he turned out this way ?" ==> Ironwood brought an army to a country where the civilians visibly have no issue with said-army, to protect a peaceful event that he KNOWS to be targeted by foes. It's definitely overzealous & his conviction that threats should be dealt with by blunt force IS one of his flaws; but pretending that he did it for fun or because he's a tyran is just as misplaced.

"Ironwood said he'd shoot Qrow if he were one of his men why are you surprised he shot Oscar ?" ==> Do I really need to flip through every joke in this show and consider it as absolute truth & proof that the character would enact these words if given the occasion; even when we're shown with certainty that they actually don't mean it ? (IW hugging Qrow to welcome him, refusing to attack Qrow when he's certain Qrow IS attacking him...)

"Ironwood has his military all over Mantle, there's a curfew, all of this is tyrannical why are you surprised he's also down for genocide" ==> Damn, it sure is criminal to have Mantle defended from the litteral monsters roaming inside & out, and to make sure with a curfew that the people are not at risk during the night. I wonder if any recent events could make us reconsider our stance on how evil a enforced curfew is. Mhmmm maybe a pandemic ? Nah I must be imagining things. For real though, at what point did Tyrian's framing/lies (IW has his soldiers all over Mantle because of politics/he's a tyran who refuses opposition) became the truth of the situation for the FDNM too ? Again Mantle's situations SUCK, and that's a problem in itself. Making up problematic reasoning for the situation is dishonest though.

To end this, I'll just make clear. I do not condone any of Ironwood's actions post-V7. I don't think he had to be the big hero of the Atlas arc. Nor that he was without faults. I merely think that he'd have been a better antagonist than villain. And that it'd have been nice to keep the ambiguity/morally greyness that surrounds him; the knowledge that he's TRYING hard to do what's best for everyone; that he has good intentions. That he cares about individuals too to a lesser degree, and that he had people who cared about him as a person.

For short... Ironwood as an antagonist with understandable issues, flaws & failures; making questionable choices but with good intentions ? Hell yeah. Ironwood as a villain, more irredeemable than Hazel, willing to kill people for NO reason or even wipe out a city ? I'm not convinced.

[miekasa]

0. Ok, I think Trost is the city in Wall Rose where the rookies all went after their graduation to get assigned or whatever, but before that happened the Marley crew broke the wall again - basically it’s the city where Eren had to plug the hole in the wall with that boulder.

1. Idk - maybe we can assume the river is mostly in Shiganshina?? Anyway they’re def not going back there after the wall fell lol. The boats I’m gonna chalk up to people using the rivers for transporting cargo and goods...there seem to be a lot of rural areas anyway, especially the farther you go from wall sina. We’ve seen rivers and lakes in the show so presumably they do have basic fish?? And may or may not learn to swim. It’s probably not considered necessary lol.

2. JDHSHH truth

3. From what I understand, they specifically took Eren to this abandoned castle the survey corps had so he couldn’t hurt anybody while he was learning to control his titan? So it’s isolated on purpose. Ratio of rural vs urban...Don’t quote me on this but I always assume it was like, big cities with big swaths of rural spaces in between, with the rural parts spotted with little villages and the like. I really doubt Wall Maria was like, a planned place - the cities probably sprung up organically and just grew around villages already there. Also, Wall Maria is said to have been a BIG producer of food before it was wiped out, so it makes sense that there’d be a lot of rural spaces left over. We see Mikasa as a kid living in the middle of nowhere lmao. The chalkboard - who knows, maybe a scholar lived there or they just brought one or something lmao. Chalk is probably pretty cheap and it wouldn’t be hard to buy - maybe Team levi gets a budget for this mission? we see it used in other places when they’re teaching the kids how to kill titans in a classroom with diagrams and whatever. I can see Hange using a board for experiments too so maybe she had some lying around. Also Team Levi had to clean out the place bc it was abandoned/unused for a long while so..dusty. That being said, consider: Levi is That extra that the castle needs to be cleaned again to his standards dhdhdh. Presumably other people did that stuff yeah? Or maybe they just did it offscreen idk.

Okay, okay, I’m with you on most of this except the chalk is still bothering me. I know when the rookies are training their instructors write on chalkboards and that’s not an issue--it’s a military training camp, so it makes sense for them to have that classroom and said classroom materials. 

My question is that when Levi is writing with the chalk and on a chalkboard, he and the others also seem to be in a classroom-like space. But at that point, they’re already in the castle?? Why does the castle have a spare classroom bye?? Also this castle must be pretty fucking big even though it look average from the outside, because there’s a whole fuck ton of room and shit--also they seem to be mostly wooden, which, like maybe I get for cost effectiveness, but the castle looks stoney bye 

ALSO MORE THINGS ABOUT THIS CASTLE SPACE: Those random ass lunch tables Levi’s squad is at after Eren couldn’t transform during the experiments... Not only is that a weird place to have set up picnic benches, never-mind why they wanted to have picnic benches outside in the first place; it’s also in a clearing, supposedly somewhere near the castle, but also surrounded by trees?? Because Hange, like, comes from the woods when they hear the noise?? Hello?? Mr. Isayama, could I just have an aerial layout of the scouts’ castle compound please and thank you. 

THE POINT IS.... I have beef with this show BYE LMAOO

[elffees]

i was reading @seafrost-fangirl ’s post and they brought up a really interesting point about u*til dawn’s plot twist(s) versus MoM and LH’s that made me realize more about why the anthology games havent had the same impact on me like UD did.

UD’s plot twist(s) were more remarkable imo bc 1) there were several that all tied together excellently and 2) the supernatural plot twist was one you expected, but then the game made you let your guard down, and then brought it back with a vengeance.

rest of the post is linked under the cut because i talk a lot lol

1) the storylines in UD were all tied together

imo this is what made them all the more satisfying and why people loved them so much. each plot twist was connected. josh only became a “killer clown” and pulled that whole scheme bc of his sisters’ death. hannah only became a w*****o bc beth died and she was trapped and her sister’s body was the only source of food she had. flamethrower guy was only so present and around the group a lot bc he was trying to protect them and keep w*****o!hannah and the others at bay.

the josh storyline would not have existed without hannah and beth’s death/cannibalism. hannah turning into the head w*****o would also not have existed had beth not died. and the flamethrower guy storyline would not have existed without w*****os and the group making themselves vulnerable by returning. which they only did so because josh asked them too bc of his plan. the storylines all relied on each other. that made them more satisfying. the parallel storylines ended up blending into one.

when it comes to the anthology games however, their twists and storylines exist separately and/or just aren’t as connected. the MoM crew didn’t need to be on the boat for the gas/hallucination storyline to exist. it already did. they simply walked into it and even at the end their presence did nothing since they just leave afterwards. they didn’t stop the gas or try to destroy the boat or really anything. they went on the boat, went “wow is this boat fucked up or what lol”, and then they left. the end. they didn’t change anything about the boat storyline itself and their presence had absolutely no impact on it. in UD, the characters blow all the w*****os up in the house. whether you believe that’s good or not, at least it still had an affect on the w*****o storyline.

in LH, it’s harder to explain. yes everything was happening in anthony’s head, so essentially none of it would’ve existed without him. but at the same time, that’s one of the biggest issues i had with it. the storylines don’t actually exist. the puritan subplot is make believe. anything you say or do to those people doesn’t matter at all, except for that one choice at the very end where you tell abraham what to do about mary and the reverend. other than that? you can do or say absolutely anything to the puritans and none of it matters or is important in the slightest. the connection once again feels flimsy at best because you’re essentially talking to a brick wall until the last 2 choices.

this is significant because, in u*til dawn, choices you made and the actions the characters defaultly did affected ALL storylines. mike and chris lock josh in the shed bc, due to his killer clown prank, they believe he’s too dangerous to let stay in the house. locking him outside tho is what causes him to be captured by hannah. they did not MEAN to leave him outside as bait, but that’s just what happened bc the storylines were connecting. when chris & ashley are handcuffed to chairs and you the player have to decide who to shoot, if you choose to “shoot” ashley, later on when chris is being chased by the w*****o, she will refuse to let him in and he will die. the storylines constantly, constantly connect and what you did in regards to one heavily affected the other. LH did not do that until those 2 abraham dialogue choices at the last minute.

2) the supernatural plot twist was one you expected but then didn’t and then when it actually happened you were still very much surprised and thats another reason why it hit as good as it did

the w*****o plot twist was an incredible shock bc when it finally came to light, you the player had already let your guard down when it happened. when josh takes his mask off, it’s either a huge surprise or a “i fucking knew it!!” satisfying validation. there was no danger, josh was just being the biggest asshole in existence. there wasn’t a serial killer murdering off the group. it was just josh. you knew there was gonna be a twist SOMEHOW and the josh reveal had to be it? right? but then you pause and wonder, then what the heck is down there in the mines with emily? well most of the danger is over now anyways since josh came clean...... right?

and then the w*****os come and are a punch in the face. you had an inkling something else was going on, but you did not know how ugly and groteseque they would look and you did not know how dangerous they would be. dont move. the most terrifying mechanic the game told you about and now you have to do it perfectly, several times, or else people WILL die. it makes you, the player, freeze and hold your breath alongside the characters. the gameplay itself causes you to freeze in terror, or else.

and the plot twist still doesn’t end after that. not only did the danger return in full force chasing your characters down at horrifying speed, but the danger is josh’s fucking sister and the girl the group has been in mourning over for an entire year. the big bad is a loved one.

in MoM and in LH, once you understand the plot twist...... that’s it. there IS no other one. once the characters in MoM realize that it’s just a gas...... decisions are easy after that. just don’t attack any of the hallucinations and well.... yeah. that’s it. there is no other relevant plot twist. the only “other one” that you might include would be that the military people the group calls for help actually ends up shooting them if they’re still on the boat when they get there. but at the same time that can be avoided entirely if you just get them out before then.

in LH, the plot twist is just that anthony made it all up. there are no demons or supernatural things going on. vince really is just a regular guy. little hope is just a regular town.... that’s it. the big twist is that there is no twist. it’s normal. it’s mundane. you went in expecting something....... not necessarily big but something significant. and the twist is that it’s not. for the lack of a better word, it’s literally a let down.

so yeah. this was my thoughts after finishing the games and reading seafrost-fangirl’s post linked above where they also compared the twists in UD and the anthology games. for DAYS i’ve been trying to wrap my head around why the anthology games didn’t hit me the way UD did and their post definitely helped me realize, or at least guess closer, as to why.

(also before someone says “but little hope DID have smthg supernatural going on!! there’s still more to the mystery!!!” bc of the demon with megan. i already talked about my theory that yeahhhh no. there wasn’t a demon at all. the demon standing at meg’s side was also just a figment of anthony’s imagination. i explain more in the post.)

[hazard-and-friends]

canine intervention e3, in which i have opinions on a sport and profession i have never been involved in

OH GOOD IT'S BITE SPORTS TIME

okay. soooo. let's clear some shit up right now.

there are personal protection dogs. and there are bite sports. bitesports do NOT prepare your dog to face an attacker.

furthermore, you have two kinds of attacks:  planned attacks, and attacks of opportunity. if it's an attack of opportunity,

any large

dog

will deter the attacker

if it's a planned attack, they know you have a dog and they brought a gun. you cannot train a dog to defeat a gun.

now i love bitesports. i wanna do bitesports. but bitesports are sports, they're not personal protection training, and personal protection dogs should absolutely not be in most homes because they ARE weapons.

just to be clear:

personal protection: this dog is guarding a person. they will bite attackers.

bitesports: we all go out in some fields once a week and get dogs to bite each other

apprehension dog: this dog is a class traitor this dog is in the police or military and their job is to grab someone and bring them down on cue.

bitework: anything, sport or job, where a dog is being encouraged to Put People In Their Mouth

bitework is a handy bucket because the same types of dogs tend do well at all 3 tasks, but there's important differences in the cuing (a personal protection dog takes its cue from the attacker; an apprehension dog takes its cue from the handler) and legal responsibility to the handler

anyway they're recommending "shepherds and bully breeds" for bite work which is funny af bc there are two extremely famous german breeds which are neither

namely, rottweilers and doberman

in allllll these areas, there's alllll kinds of nonsense. i've got huge fucking opinions here for someone who's never done shit, but i will say that there are people who can get very far in bitesports without any use of prong/choke/shock collars

AT THE SAME TIME, this is one of the areas where i DO give allowance for people to use those collars on their dogs because. these dogs are bred and trained and hyped up to bite and hold. if their out (release cue) isn't good enough? if they hold on? that's where i start understanding the use of aversives to train them

a lot (A LOT. SO FUCKING MANY) of personal protection trainers are full of shit. just fucking disaster humans. glad that jas is promoting keeping up with training and reminding his clients/the audience that this dog is a weapon

[more pack bullshit]

lmfao hazard is faster at position changes than this dutch shepherd

anyway big problem with personal protection dogs is that when training them to bite people, the people (called decoys) wear protection suits to keep from like. going to the hospital.

and it dos not take very long at ALL for the dog to learn that they only bite the suit

what's fucking funny is that this dog does not have the skills and reliability--OH HE JUST BIT OFF CUE, PHENOMENAL

anyway what i was LITERALLY TYPING is that this dog is not ready to compete in bite sports because he's not responsive to cues.

good news for the owner, the dog visibly perked up and started losing his shit when jas put the bitesuit on. the dog isn't necessarily going to bite an intruder, but he's also not going to bite the amazon delivery person either.

this is why most bitesports have some version of the "transport", which is when the handler and the decoy walk side-by-side with the dog between them. the dog cannot bite the decoy during this. so it tests the dog’s ability to wait to bite.

(when i have a house, i do want to train a dog to do a search because i have Paranoia, but also this will not be one of the bitesport dogs because jfc holy liability issues batman.)

"This dog is police caliber dog" yeah cause he bites off cue and doesn't have a good out

episode is less "here is how to solve dog problems" and more "here is a $50,000 solution to a $100 problem" except idk how much guns cost

i think it's important to emphasize how much i am NOT a fan of gun ownership, but a personal protection dog is a gun with a brain

a 50 lb dog can kill an adult human. they can do so faster than you think. and they're the ones making the ultimate decision, not you.

[daesungindistress]

im glad im not the only one who found the truck ad thingy strange.. i mean do people seriously think yg has or will ever give a shit? bc I don't. of course, some staff members might care about bb as people but the company won't? and why do I feel like ot5s are always demanding stuff they don't even know the members want/need? its a nice sentiment i guess but i always get the feeling they don't trust the members somehow? oh well. yb said what he said, i'll take his word for it. it'll be alright.

The project wasn’t what I was expecting -- and by that I mean it wasn’t as BAD as I was expecting -- so I’m not too bothered by it. But it was still embarrassing and IMO reflected poorly on IVIPs as a whole. Because in some ways it was a bit tone-deaf. BB aren’t having activities right now primarily because of COVID, sure, but there is of course another reason why they’ve been keeping things on the down low since last year and giving their image time to slowly recover. You know who. He is so hated by Korea at the moment that the Korea Subway Transportation Corporation refused an ad for BIGBANG bearing his name and face not because he isn’t a member of the group anymore but because he’s considered “immoral”. So, what do OT5 IVIPs do? Go and put him in a paid ad for BIGBANG demanding protection against hate. Aimed at YG, no less, who he no longer has a contract with 🤦 “Foreign roaches should read the room,” one knetizen commented. Yeah, some of us can. OT5s can’t. I swear these people wake up every day with the goal of finding new ways to get the guys dragged.

In another recent fan project (Fanplus) a fanmade OT4 poster was selected to celebrate BB’s upcoming 14th anniversary in Korean subway stations. OT5s raged online and bombarded the company with hate to the point where Fanplus issued a statement politely requesting that fans stop sending them profanity. This made the news in Korea, by the way. These fans ran amok on Twitter, plotting to sabotage the project (yes that’s the word they used), promising to vandalize the displays, and threatening to tear them down. Y’all. Who needs antis when you’ve got fans like that? Ironically, these OT5s don’t seem to realize they’ve become the very thing they’re asking YG to protect BB from.

And no, they don’t trust the members in the slightest. If they did they would stop screaming at them about Seungri daily and trying to strong-arm them into giving them what they want. They would stop baiting them into making statements about him... then manipulating, misinterpreting, and mistranslating their words when what they get isn’t quite what they were hoping for. They would see the foolishness of slapping his face on promotional posters and would think twice about demeaning the members by placing him front and center. If they truly trusted BB they would stop shoving him on them, where he no longer belongs, and on us, where he’s no longer wanted. They would quit forcing the issue, give up their demands, and simply let it be. Accept what’s happened and what is -- quietly.

If they trusted the members they would also let go of this pretense of concern they’ve been flaunting lately. “We care more about the members’ mental health than a comeback,” they boast, in a seemingly well-meaning but actually backwards attempt to disguise the fact that they’re reluctant (and for some, downright unwilling) to support new material from a four-member BIGBANG. It’s only a nice sentiment until you understand where it’s coming from, this faux caring. They are hoping the guys will lie low a little longer, quietly and uneventfully, their creative energies suppressed until their disgraced ex-member returns from the military and ~rejoins~ them. They’re pushing a tragic narrative that says the members are too depressed and broken to make music without him. Believing they don’t want to come back as four and patting themselves on the back for telling the guys to take it easy until they can be five again. Yeah, that sounds an awful lot like wishful thinking to me, from a group of fans who still, after a year and a half, haven’t come to terms with our new reality. We all know whose mental health they’re really protecting by balking at the idea of new music -- and it ain’t BIGBANG’s.

What’s especially funny about this is -- well, you know those teasers from TOP over the last few days? The clips from the studio with the caption “working,” him spitting lines with a vengeance, dancing in his PJs and looking for all the world like someone who’s ready to take on the stage, and even dropping a “Big Bang,” getting us all stirred up with excitement? He posted those just as these “we’re not asking for a comeback because we care” arguments were making rounds on Twitter. The timing could not have been better. Thanks, TOP, for serving a reminder to those who’ve forgotten (or have never known) that the most healing thing a creative person can do is keep creating 😘

In short, the truck project was messy, reckless, and unnecessary. And Youngbae’s “Cheer up, guys” that followed, with a fun message about shaking off hate, is all the encouragement I needed, personally, to keep believing good things are on the horizon for BIGBANG. I trust they know what they're doing. All there is for us to do is be there for them when the time comes. Until then, we wait.

[alexmanesairstream]

Okay. Time for my ramblings. You're all free to not read a word of this but I just needed to put my thoughts out there. So. Going into s2, my only reason for watching the show was seeing Alex Manes (bc Tyler is one of my all time favourite actors and also just ALEX MANES). But after seeing the promo and fan chatter before the premier I admit getting my hopes up and becoming a little more open to the entire show as a whole again. I had hoped that s2 would be a huge improvement in terms of writing, consistency, good representation and overall storytelling. Anyways, here’s just some thoughts I’ve had after the first episode if you care to read it. I've left the Malex (and Maria) thoughts to the end bc I wanted to speak about the entire episode first. The Malex part is right at the end if anyone is reading this and only wants to read that part.

Firstly, the episode felt very disconnected. I know there was a time jump but that also left so many questions unanswered.

Kyle and Alex are well aware of the alien secret, so it made no sense that they were in the dark about Rosa being alive and Max being dead. I would've thought that both of them would've been made aware of it immediately.

This may be more of a personal preference but I've always been more interested in sci-fi aspects of the show since I always find supernatural elements on shows to become repetitive and far fetched (yes I know it's supernatural but I've always liked when there was a scientific or logical explanation behind something). Ep1 (and I know Carina said this season would explore supernatural elements and not the sci-fi aspects of it) hinted a very big supernatural storyline which I wasn't too keen on- it just gave off some big vampire diaries 'the other side' vibes. I really wish they would've explores a more unique and original storyline rather than something so repetitive with regards to Max.

Now for the science and little sci-fi parts, I know they're strained for time so there's a lot that they have to leave out but most of the science seemed far fetched or rather lacking any good grounding explanation. I get that it's a show but I would've liked for it to have made some sense rather than the random stuff Michael and Liz would say that seemingly came out of thin air. Especially when they were having their science Bro moments and interacting with substances etc- where are these substances from? What to they do? How did you get it? Idk maybe I'm being overly obsessive over this but it irks me bc I always lose interest when I can't coherently follow a storyline with logic

Rosa being back. I don't have much to say on this. The sister dynamic is kinda cute. I really don't like this weird supernatural connection thing she has with Max. Like I said, very vampire diaries like and it's just not making sense (maybe I didn't pay close enough attention idk). Also, can we get some clarity on her age. She was 19 when she died. So she should be 29 in the present day. But she mentioned something about being the hottest 31 year old when Liz told her to get a license in California. So what's up with that.

Isobel pregnancy : Yeah there's a lot I could say here. I'm assuming they're trying to do a storyline on abortion and a woman's right to her own body which I would be eager to see but at the same time, Isobel being pregnant with her dead abusive rapist's baby seems a lot like it was done for drama (sigh). It also has me wondering how since it was clear in s1 that Isobel didn't want children while Noah did- obviously she may have changed her mind after their reconciliation after she came out of the pod and also bc I accidents happen (do condoms even work with aliens???).

Now for the Malex and Maria part of it:

Since Alex was not aware of Max dying, wouldn't he have then made an effort to speak to Michael again in those two weeks since the finale. I would understand him wanting to give Michael space if he had known about Max dying but since he didn't know, did he just accept that Michael left him waiting at the trailer and leave it at that until after Noah's funeral? That just doesn't make sense to me but moving on

So Michael says that Alex told him he was going to leave the airforce to play music. Lol lots to get into here. Firstly, kinda strange that Alex would have told him that specifically that night in the trailer. Also, I was under the impression that what we were shown on screen was all that there was in that interaction. I don't see at which point Alex could've mentioned him leaving the airforce before Michael had to run out. Secondly, Alex leaving the airforce to play music? That just seems hella out of character and frankly completely unrealistic. Alex has spent the last 10 years gaining different skills, learning new things about himself, evolving and changing as a person. While he may have always had this dream about making music the fact is most people end up studying something or doing something in a different direction than their teenage self wanted. Alex is no different. While he may have wanted to leave the airforce it just doesn't seem plausible that he'd want to explore an entirely new career path as a musician. It would've made more sense for him to go into a career with cyber security and his skills in hacking, coding and programming instead. Also, unless he's got hell money from somewhere it's just completely unrealistic. He's a veteran (there are so many homeless, unemployed, uninsured, struggling veterans) who surely would need a stable income. It just feels like it's some a random storyline to have when there's been no indication of it, and it's completely out of character for Alex to decide to pursue music after 10 years in the airforce when we aren't even sure if he's done anything related to it in the last 10 years. Maybe I'm being harsh because personally I would've liked Alex to pursue something with the skills he gained in the airforce and also bc I rarely believe anyone is the same person with the same dreams and passions they had when they were a teenager. I mean, we all grow, evolve and change and that's okay. I would've really liked for Alex storyline to have been along those lines- taking what he's learned out of something he didn't necessarily want and taking control of who he is with those skills and his future (apparently in order to be a captain and also to be a code breaker Alex would've need to have gone to college while in the airforce). Idk maybe I'm bias bc I absolutely love seeing BAMF Alex Manes and how smart he is when he's working and code breaking.

Hmm Alex has a house. Like an actual house. And not a single person in the fandom knew this. In fact if Carina hadn't clarified on Twitter, we'd all be confused as hell. Literally everyone thought he lived at the cabin and rightfully so. It also makes me question why Alex had been at the cabin the day Kyle was there if he doesn't live at the cabin. But anyways small details. I'm trying not to be petty. I also really would like to know how Michael knows where Alex lives hmmm

I absolutely loved that Alex's first thought was to give Michael a guitar bc he remembers what he lost when Jesse ruined his hand. I am HERE for Alex Manes' kindness and wholesomeness.

Alex has PTSD. He would never be sitting with his back towards an entry point and music blaring loudly while he didn't have his prosthetic on. Carina responded on Twitter saying his PTSD is from childhood and not the war. I can't really understand how the war and losing a limb would not affect him and his existing PTSD at all. But again, I'll overlook this inconsistency

Michael's little confrontation speech to Alex- totally get it. It makes a lot of sense from Michael's perspective. I do however still have an issue with this thing of Alex 'leaving'. The ONLY time Alex actively left was when he enlisted. Any time after that was beyond his control. He was in the military. He had no choice. I really wish we could at some point see how all of this affected Alex instead of constantly seeing it from a one- sided Michael perspective.

And now Maria and Michael. Just a few words. What the fuck. I say all of this as someone who absolutely believes Malex shouldn't be together right now and who is fully on board with them just being friends right now:

- As someone who loved Maria in the first season and as a woman of colour, I fucking hate her storyline and what they're making her character do. It was cringe and desperate and humiliating for her to be running after Michael after one kiss. And also, SO out of character for her. Maria Deluca is her own saviour and would never run after someone who behaved the way Michael had in that ep. She would abso-fucking-lutely not chase after a man and put herself out there in such a desperate way like that.

- Secondly, has she just forgotten Alex exists? This is so not the Maria we know. Chasing after a man for something when he's not giving anything back in return and not even bothering to speak to Alex or attempt any sort of communication with him before she continues pursuing Michael. It makes no sense. I only see the Maria hate escalating at this point and I don't blame anyone for it. At this point she 100% deserves it. It's so so out of character for her not to have spoken to Alex and to continue pursuing Michael before speaking to Alex.

Honestly I've said it since the start- I hate love triangles and this one in particular rubs me the wrong way for so many reasons. I honestly don't see how we can redeem Maria's character after this mess. The whole Michael and Maria thing is just messy (and not in a cool dramatic TV show way), and is for a lot of us straight up character assassination for both Michael and Maria. I'm just so put off by both of their characters. If they were adamant about this storyline, I wish they'd done it and left Alex out from the start (I said Kylex rights!).

In conclusion, it's a shitshow. The show is just all over the place and the writing doesn't seem to have improved from the inconsistencies and plot holes. There's a lot more I could say but this was all I thought about right now for that episode. I also have so many thoughts on what Carina has recently said but I'm not in the right space of mind to address that rn. She's hell problematic lmao. But anyways, going forward, I'm just here for my Tyler Blackburn and watching him kill it as Alex Manes and I'm kinda really excited to see him with his new love interest.

[scarsnake]

Thoughts on Hasbro Universe after Revolution

Im big fan of G.I. Joe/Transformers. But when I heard that there are more than 2 franhises in one universe, it blew my mind. So I decided to check out them. One of them I heard when I was kid.

Revolution was big. For some it was epic, other think it was mess. I understand why ppl love and hate it. Personally I love it. There’s conflict and how heroes unite against evil. It was the beggining of massive universe. So, how it turned out?

To be fair.... not so good.

Its my own opinion. You can disagree with me. If you love aftermath of Revolution, thats fine. I just want to tell about the conclusion of Hasbro Comic Book Universe.

Optimus Prime.

I think the writer put a lot of his view on life: disappointment on every religion. I really didnt like how he made that Optimus Prime is always wrong. Even when he listens and he does what he was asked to do, ppl still angry at him. “You should listened to me!” and “You shouldn’t listen to me!”. I love that they put Joes, but here’s the big issue: OOC of Mainframe and Flint with his daughter look similar the same age.

Remember when Trasnformers had the mystery of their religion and mythology? Mix of Sci-Fi and Cosmic Fantasy. Yeah, forget about that. It was all Shockwave’s evil plan. Another big disappointment for me.

I like how they described the ghost of Bumblebee, but Shockwave being one of 13 Primes looks very... confusion to me. 

Lost Light

Lost Light deserves to be called a weak sequel. Remember when in MTMTE was magic mystery, adventure, gore and development of characters and relationships? Here I found nothing. New characters for me are not interesting. And yes about them being “trans”. Im not transphobic and sorry if my opion might hurt you or offend. I just dont see transgenders in Transformers.  I dont see transformers suffering of gender dysphoria. Hell, I doubt they suffer of homophobia, bc they are totally fine with mlm and wlw. If you dont know, hetero relationships are for the population of Earth. And Transformers managed told that they can love each other, but their love is not like Earth’s bc they dont have to have sex to create life. They have strong emotion connection to each other.

Speaking about love. I love Chromedome/Rewind love story bc it was developed. We saw the birth of connection, loss, pain, reunion, fear and happiness. Same with Cyclonus and Tailgate. To be fair I dont ship the last two as romantic couple, but as platonic couple. For me they dont have that emotional connection like Chrome/Rewind but they care each other. In Lost Light nothing. You just accept that a lot characters are couple to each other. Why and how? Just accept it. This is why I dont feel emotional connection to Lug and Anode. To be fair I thought they are friend and Lug looks a lot like a boy. If they’d develop her more better, I think I’d like her. The whole Lost Light is just comics of couples. I was thinking when they’re gonna do the Orgy like in Ancient Rome.

Also here’s another disappointment in religion. Everything was lie. As I told earlier - I didnt like it. I’d rather to rewatch TFP, Bayverse or G1. BC I felt emptiness. MTMTE is masterpiece.

G.I. Joe

Where do I begin? Was written by socialist who doesnt know anything about military, ruined Quick Kick who was nice and gentle, made Scarlett an idiot, turned charasmatic Shipwreck into fat vegan, new characters have no backstory or reasons why they joined to Joes. Also: huge hypocricy. Scarlett says that G.I. Joe is now international team, but they refuse to work with USA. I get it they tried to turn G.I. Joe into Overwatch, but OW was working with every country. Including USA, where they had one of their headquarters. American G.I. Joe was more progressive bc they were helping every country who had deal with Cobra or any threat. They even teamed up with Russian soldiers.

The huge disappointment was no explanation about Snake Eyes rebirth (and no love story of Snake/Scarlett) and Quick Kick being an ass. Just check G.I. Joe ARAH show. There Quick Kick was nice. I miss that one....

The only good stuff was about Rock n’ Roll nightmares and guilt for shooting Grand Slam, grumpy Grand Slam and Doc being half-alien. Thats alll.

Revolutionaries

It was a bit better bc its literally crossover with conflict and backstories. Here they at least tried to make story interesting. And brought a lot interesting references. Especially to 90s: KLAW, Slaugther and even to original Action Force.

M.A.S.K.: Mobile Armored Strike Kommand

At 1st they tried but then it all felt down. I wouldnt call it horrible. You can check out 1st issues. I can say that only villains were interesting. While main heroes...  here’s the problem.

Original Matt Trekker was an engineer, millionaire, helped ppl and white. Why the last important? BC in reboot he became boring black guy who seeks vengeance for his father death and the main bad guy is white man. Im not racist bc I like how it was done in Spawn, but it wasnt so obvious who is the bad guy who just wants to take over the world. I get it you hate Trump. He is a clown.

Also original Trekker raises his son alone. So he is widowed. It could play in reboot: lost all, but tries to keep his son safe. So much potential for drama of lonely father. But we got what we got. I just go to rewatch Spawn animated series.

If they wanted “diverse” why they didnt put more poc characters from MASK? You know there are actual canon black man and indian man? Even native american man?

ROM

It was boring. 1st issues were interesting and brutal bc of alien invansion. You wouldnt know who is the enemy and who is the friend. But drama...

Whole Rom’s drama was about losing his humanity. At 1st we see him as cold-hearted alien. Then they all forget about it. Original Rom from Marvel was losing his humanity until he met brave girl Brandy who made him to remember his loss of homeplanet and love of his life. He was afraid to be alone and to be complete machine. And yes, in reboot his old girlfriend is alive. But I felt nothing with this. I prefer to read original comics bc I felt sorry for Rom.

Micronauts: Wrath of Karza

It was boring. The only thing I can remember is Larissa being Baron Karza’s daughter. I dont compare reboot with original series bc I havent read yet. I liked the new one bc of Baron Karza and his wife (and their fetish).

First Strike

Hoo- boy. It was bad. Preety bad. Not bc villains tried to destroy Cybertron. Not bc TF thought its gonna be war of humans and TF. No, it all was good. The main villain is Joe Colton who wants to destroy Cybertron to save Earth. And that he was bad from the beginning. His motivation sounds like Miles Mayhem from M.A.S.K.. That shock effect of surprise villain doesnt work here. It looks like disrespect to Joe fans. They managed to ruin Scarlett’s character who was turned into G.I. Joe not bc she was the best. She was in Joes bc she didnt do 50 push-ups. If you dont know, G.I. Joe is elite guard where they take the best men and women bc they do a lot dangerous work. So the whole story arc is full disrespect to Joe fan. I dont know about you, but I was offended by that.

Was there smth good? Team up of villains and the easter egg of Visionaries.

Rom vs. Transformers: Shining Armor

I almost forget about the plot bc it was boring. Rom was rude like every commander (yeah, for someone “losing humanity”). New character was boring. So everythng was boring. Even Autobots didint save the situation.

Rom & the Micronauts

Well, they at least tried with characters development. I really liked how characters interact with each other. But the whole story was “meh”

Scarlett's Strike Force

It was very short and cancelled. BC that writer Sitterson wrote offensive tweet about Nine Eleven. I get it what he was trying to do: to make comics based on cartoon G.I. Joe. This is why Quick Kick and Spirit fight against Storm Shadow. Personally I thought it was racist bc “only asian fight agains asian”. And Storm Shadow has the worst redesign I’ve ever seen. Theres nothing to talk about the comics bc its unfinished and cancelled. So theres nothing.

Transformers vs. Visionaries

This comic had potential. But the ending ruined it. The story is about colonization to save living race. But it will kill another nation. Its interesting theme. And how they managed? Nothing. For some reason everyone in peace and safe. The ending is just weird. I think writer didint know how to end that conflict so she wrote “everyone safe and in peace. Colonization is bad”. Not the ending is the problem. Main characters: Leoric and Virulina redesigned very strong. Leoric looks like total different character (why not to create new character? He looks good). And Virulina looks like student from art-school, not the villain. The redesigned I like are Cryotek and Arzon. And the art was very good.

The last 2 ones I havent finished yet. I can tell this: TAAO isnt look so bad, but I’m ready for disapointing ending, like TF Unicron.

In conclusion:

I dont tell that it was done horrible. Its just explains why IDW decided to reboot TF and G.I. Joe. Low sales. BC I’ve noticed a lot easter eggs in those comics for future story plots. I think they’d made it good if IDW would give them chance.

If you love them, thats fine. I’ll enjoy my own version of Hasbro Universe.

[thawedpatriot]

okay, my e.ndgame thoughts are below the cut. beware, they’re somewhat incoherent at times mainly just because my brain is still trying to wrap my head around some stuff. also it’s really really long. like 3k words long. major spoilers ahead!

-okay so the whole beginning felt. really rushed, if that makes sense? like, i’m glad that tony got back to earth fairly early on but that was very sudden, having carol show up and carry the ship to the compound. however, i can’t complain too much because watching steve book it to tony’s side as he was coming off the ship gave me life. the fact that he just hovered the whole time and was there to support him and show he cares just. pleased me.

- tony had every right to blow up at steve. i mean, god, the man’s been through so much. he’s lost so much and is still recovering from everything that happened. he’s frustrated and angry and hurting and steve pressed for information too callously too soon, and it set an exhausted tony off. totally valid. and tony was right, he saw all this coming and no one listened to him, even though half of that was just bc aou was a fucking mess writing wise. but steve told him ‘together’ and because they weren’t together when shit went down, they all lost. would it have killed either of them to call during the two years they had to do so? no, probably not. that probably would’ve been a step towards working back to that ‘together’ thing. because there’s years of unresolved tension and conflict between them at this point, none of it ever got resolved between them, so it’s finally coming to a head now that they’re properly in the same room again.

- that said, the ‘you weren’t there when i needed you’ bit rubbed me the wrong way. because it was bruce who ended up calling. tony never made a call, never asked for steve’s help. never let him know he needed him, even though he had that ability to. so yes, steve is at fault here too, but it’s not 100% on him that things went down the way they did, if that makes sense.

- tony shoving the arc reactor into steve’s hand???? killed me on the spot, thanks.

- the devastation steve must be feeling when they figure out the stones are gone??? gutting. he was so sure they would be able to bring everyone back wit the stones once they’d taken care of thanos. he was so ready for a fight, so ready to get his revenge and make things right, and there just. was no fight, no way to bring his friends back. he’d lost bucky all over again, and now he’s lost sam, too. sam, who he dragged into all this. that kind of guilt festers in him for those five years, no doubt.

- i wanna know what steve did for those five years. because, yes, we see him talking in that small therapy group, but not only is he giving advice he’s not taking himself, but he’s just not shown doing much of anything else. he’s holding on to all his trauma and grief and not dealing with it, just like he’s been doing since he left the ice. so what is he doing all that time??? but also seeing him in a therapy group setting made my heart swell a little bit because you know he did that for sam. he misses his friend and is doing that for him, i will not believe anything otherwise. sam was and is so important to him.

- this is unrelated to steve but is important to me as a bi: carol’s hair looked so good i made a noise when i saw it and my friend hit me in the arm 

- god i wish we saw more of steve and nat interact. because clearly they’ve been in contact with one another for the past 5 years and that’s probably the longest running friendship he’s had going besides bucky so. it’s nice to know he didn’t lose everyone in one way or another for those 5 years. they just know each other so well and recognize the similarities between one another and i’m just really glad he wasn’t all alone all that time.

- steve is so done with everyone throughout this movie, including himself. it’s beautiful.

- sidenote, i could not take bruce seriously as a character the way he was and i don’t know why. also they did thor dirty. they did thor so dirty. he was a joke until they needed him to fight. the level of guilt and trauma thor is dealing with is immeasurable and they turned it into comic relief by leaning into fat-shaming and joking about alcoholism???? nah man, that’s not okay. not at all. address that he’s dealing with ptsd, show that he’s using unhealthy coping mechanisms, and help him. don’t make fun of him, don’t just let him keep doing that to himself, help him. the only scene in the whole movie i genuinely liked with him in it was his scene with frigga. because she took him seriously, she was willing to listen and offer advice and tell him what he needed to hear. that scene was so important.

- another sidenote, as much as i disliked p.epperony in the past, this movie made me appreciate them more. because i’ve always loved them both as individual characters, pepper potts owns my whole soul, but as a couple they were just written in a way that made me not love it as the movies went on. however, this movie really showed growth in their development as a couple, in pepper accepting tony for who he is and the needs he has to do good. also tony is an amazing father and it’s just so validating to see a character who grew up with an abusive parent break the cycle and become soft and kind in any interactions he has with his daughter. you can tell how much he loves his family, and it’s what he deserved.

- okay so i hope we can all agree the time travel science in this movie was fucked and they did a really bad job at explaining how it works. it was not clear, did not make sense, and following standard time travel laws there were a million paradoxes happening and it makes me angry. nebula killing her past self? bullshit bc she should not exist after that. steve’s whole ending??? also bullshit but i’ll get to that later because that’s an essay in itself.

- tony giving steve the shield back was such a big deal okay. the fact that tony has acknowledged that holding onto the resentment was detrimental to his own health and being was so important. we got a handshake and i really thought they were gonna go for a hug but noooo that’d be too much to ask for i guess. but steve hasn’t seen or held that thing in like 7 years it has to be nice to have it in his hands again, seeing as he always refers to it as an extension of his arm and all. and to be getting it back, nice and polished, from tony probably means a great deal to him as well.

- okay now let’s get to the actual time travel bit. steve and tony being the ones to zap back to 2012???? my god its like everything i ever wanted was handed to me on a platter. that movie was what got me on this marvel train and as even with its issues, it holds such a dear place in my heart. so you know the second that ‘2012′ popped onto the screen i was ready to combust. and then it just got better because it felt like an extension of the movie, like we were seeing deleted scenes, which was just. really nice?? 

- god okay “america’s ass” gave me so much life as dumb as the whole joke was. because tony blatantly checking out steve’s ass?? my dude thats the gayest thing i’ve ever seen with my own two eyes. but then tony commenting on how his ass looks in the suit???? i was living, okay. living. and the fact that he checked out his past self’s ass and was like ‘yeah, damn straight’ amused me greatly.

- ngl the ‘hail hydra’ bit made me uncomfy initially, but honestly i’m just gonna appreciate how clever my boy is and how stupid hydra is. his ‘i’m clever and i know it and i just outsmarted piece of shit nazis’ smile as he walked away from the elevator with the case???? priceless. i was half expecting another elevator fight but i guess that wouldn’t really make sense sfdghj

- steve fighting himself? past steve reacting to the compass appearing and getting super fucking pissed over the concept that someone might’ve taken it or something??? the fact that it was ‘bucky is alive’ that had him going full stop???? oof. also, the ‘i can do this all day’ and ‘yeah, i know’ was funny initially but oh my god is my boy exhausted. he’s so tired. he’s been fighting for decades. someone let him rest. please. 

- also unrelated, i wanna know where the fuck loki fucked off to when he grabbed the tessaract. like is this where the concept for his spinoff show comes from???? what did he do????

- steve and tony being on the same wavelength and trusting each other??? steve trusting tony wholeheartedly even if he didn’t fully know what it was tony was planning?? important. so, so important.

- steve in camp lehigh. oh my god. why did no one recognize captain america???? it’s been twenty years, sure, but y’all slapped ‘birthplace of captain america’ on your sign and there’s probably pictures of his face around in more places than peggy’s desk. you’re telling me no one would recognize him standing in the middle of the military camp??? nah, i don’t buy it. y’all had poor disguises and didn’t even get him sunglasses or anything. c’mon guys, you’re better than this.

- okay look this isn’t a tony blog but what the fuck was that scene with howard,, i understand it in terms of why they included it when looking at the narrative. because of tony’s whole ‘resentment is corrosive, didn’t like it’ thing and the need for closure on that front before his story ends, but he didn’t owe howard jack shit, let alone a ‘thank you’. that man, even if he had the best intentions and wanted tony to succeed in the future because he knew he had potential, was neglectful and abusive. he was not affectionate, he did not make tony feel as though he were loved, and it deeply affected tony as a person. the fact that he doesn’t know how far along his own wife is with their firstborn child??? big red flag right there, friends. sure, it’s good to show kids with bad relationships with their parents that its possible to work through negative emotions and resentment and move on with their lives but this was not the example to give. tony did not owe his father anything at that point. he’d moved on, made himself better, became a better father than howard was to him. i’m just. so angry about it okay.

- steve looking through the glass of peggy’s office at her, believing this was the last time he was going to see her again??? broke my heart but i called it as soon as i knew time travel was involved in this movie. i knew they’d throw a ‘steve sees her while traveling and is really sad about it’ bit in there somewhere. and i would have been content if that was it, if that was all he got. if that was the closure he got, one last glimpse of her. the fact that twenty years later she still has the picture of him, before he was captain america, on her desk??? erases any of the development and growth we know she went through in her series and whatnot, but it’s a good reminder that peggy carter was one of the few people that saw steve for who he was. she saw the skinny kid from brooklyn and knew he had what it took to be a hero, she saw him for the good man he was. she loved him for who he was. that means a great deal to steve, who no doubt struggles with the line between steve and cap a lot. but by this point, peggy would have moved on. in the series, she had moved on. erasing all of that development is detrimental to her character and i refuse it.

- seeing jarvis again was a treat. i squeaked.

- what the fuck was that with natasha??? what kind of man-pain fuel was that??? and why didn’t she get the proper funeral/mourning she deserved??? she’s been around since im2, she was the one who united the avengers, she was the first female avenger (bc they swept janet van dyne under the rug but thats a whole other rant), and that’s the end of her arc??? as soon as i saw where her and hawkeye were headed i just knew. i knew what was gonna happen and i was hissing internally. because i knew there was no way she’d be like ‘yeah you’re my best friend, you have a family, you go ahead and jump’ and on behalf of all the mcu writers i wanna apologize to all c.lint.asha shippers for the mess the mcu gave y’all. i’m so sorry j*ss fucked it up for y’all bc he wanted something for two characters no one else wanted. she deserved to be mourned. she didn’t deserve to be forgotten for like the rest of the film after that initial ‘she’s gone’. she deserved a funeral, too. steve just lost one of his closest friends???? on top of everything else he’s lost, let him express that. please.

- so back on my s.tony shit, the ‘that’s my man’ when tony nudged steve awake to hand him back his shield after the compound blew up??? not heterosexual at all. y’all aren’t even trying to hide it anymore u bastards

- STEVE ROGERS USING THE HAMMER. Y’ALL. Y’ALL. MY BOY IS WORTHY AND I KNEW IT AND THIS MEANS HE SPARED THOR IN AOU BC HE’S A COMPASSIONATE LOSER WHO DIDN’T WANT TO HURT HIS FRIEND’S PRIDE AND FEELINGS. BUT GOD THAT WAS THE COOLEST GODDAMN THING I’VE SEEN ON SCREEN IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. HIM USING BOTH HIS SHIELD AND THE HAMMER AT THE SAME TIME, MAKING COMBO STRIKE OUT OF IT??? USING THE LIGHTING???? MAN I CAN TELL YOU WITHOUT A DOUBT THAT I HAVE NOT SCREAMED SO LOUD IN A MOVIE THEATER IN MY ENTIRE LIFE. GOD I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.

- all the ladies fighting together?? shielding peter???? kicking ass together??? gave me life. that was the most beautiful scene in the entire mcu,,, it made my bi heart burst,, all it was missing was nat, but it was a nice way to be like ‘this is what she started’. and seeing pepper out there as rescue was just the cherry on top okay i love her sm she’s so cool and finally fighting out there alongside tony and rhodey. my wife carol danvers is also the coolest??? not even flinching when thanos does whatever head-butt thing he was going for??? god i love my wives.

- ‘on your left’ god damn yes let sam wilson be the one to announce that they’re all back my boy deserves it. i wanted a proper reunion between steve and sam and/or bucky. we didn’t get that. we didn’t get that!!!!!! we didn’t get anything like that!!!!! steve was primarily on his own for 5 years because he lost his two best friends and we don’t get a reunion scene??? i call bullshit, marvel

- also rocket trying to shield groot with his own little body during the aerial attack??? broke my little heart??? like he just got him back and is terrified that he’ll lose him again,,,

- no one talk to me about tony stark i can’t handle it, he deserved to be happy and live a long life with his family. he deserved that happy ending, but i’m so grateful that pepper just. understood what he needed. she knew what he needed to hear and was there for him and could just ‘we’ll be okay, you can rest’. and give him that peace of mind. he did it, he saved the universe, he brought everyone back, he can rest. but god he really deserved to be able to rest with his family, happy and alive, okay.

- steve’s small exchange with bucky was like a nice reference to the first cap movie, but that was all we got. steve has spent multiple movies trying to get bucky back and help him, and we don’t even get a reunion scene and then just this one little bit of back and forth. a soft ‘i’ll miss you’, even though its technically only supposed to be seconds for them?? like,,, does that means bucky knows??? like, he has a feeling he knows what steve’s gonna do??? idk man, idk. all i do know is that they deserved better in this movie. i’m also summing up bucky’s telling sam to go talk to steve as bucky’s ‘i don’t know if i can handle that’ admission tbh.

- god bless sam wilson. between being the one to be like ‘bring him back. where is he? get him back.’ the second something seemed to go wrong with the time travel was,,, really nice. like, thank you for caring about my boy. thank you for always having his back. i love you so much sam wilson. and anyone who thinks sam shouldn’t be the one to get the shield can meet me in a back alley okay, this man has earned it, he’s the right pick for the cap mantle. the cap theme playing when he was given the shield? Iconic. did i cry whenever the cap theme played during this movie?? Absolutely.

- time travel in this movie is a fucking joke but i wanna know if steve had to see the red skull when he returned the soul stone because can you imagine??? that interaction??? like, did anyone warn him??? did anyone tell him the red skull was there or was it only implied when clint said something about a red man or whatever after coming back and being upset about natasha???? but also where did steve travel back to in order to start his new life??? were there just two caps in the universe??? one in the ice and one living his life w/ peggy???? none of it makes sense. none of it. where does the shield go/come from???? guys??? guys.

-okay now we address the end of steve’s arc. i’m gonna start by saying i see both sides of the discourse it’s stirred up. i understand the intention behind it, not wanting steve’s story to just be one big tragedy. because that’s where it was headed. if they killed him, he would have been fighting for decades on end without rest, without knowing peace, and that would’ve been it. that’s not the end people want to see for their heroes. he deserves to be able to put down the shield and rest. he deserves that ending for himself after fighting his whole life. However, the way they did it not only flattened his entire arc, but it flattened peggy’s entire character as well. she built a life in his absence, she moved on, and he knows this. he knew this, and i refuse to believe that steve would selfishly go back and disrupt that, take that away from her for the sake of his own personal happiness. that’s not steve rogers, a good and compassionate man. because think about the life he’d have to lead, knowing all he does. because if he isn’t supposed to disrupt the timeline, he has to let everything with hydra happen and infiltrate shield, something he knows peggy’s dedicated to, he has to let everything with bucky happen and be okay with not stepping in and rescuing his best friend from that horrific life/killing tony’s parents, he has to watch both tony and sharon grow up knowing everything about their lives??? (not to mention how fucking weird everything with sharon would be  considering the mcu just forgot about her after they made out in the parking lot???? sharon deserved better.) 

- this wasn’t an end of an arc, it was the flattening of an arc. he didn’t actually deal with anything that he’d been through. tws was all about how he needed to move on, peggy herself told him that the world was changing and he had to move with it instead of lingering in the past and what he lost. he was supposed to be building himself a new life, addressing what he lost and the trauma he’s been through and work through it all to push onward. that’s development. he got away with not working on himself or anything he went through, the group therapy was never actually beneficial because he didn’t take any of his advice, he clung to his emotions and grief and wasn’t able to move on and says as much. giving him this easy way out just feels lazy in my opinion. like they didn’t know what to do with him, wanted him to end up happy, and this was the only way they saw that happening because he wasn’t properly developed over the course of the mcu. i’m happy my boy ended up happy, don’t get me wrong, i was very close to sobbing over him finally getting that dance, but it was highly unsatisfactory in terms of a story and character arc.

[asknightqueendany]

I want to tell you this from a Sansa stan perspective. I’ve seen u mention the Vale issue where she hid it from Jon. The way I see it as that Sansa hasn’t seen Jon in years, she had to convince him to fight/come home and she had no idea how good/bad he is at fighting, she also was never close with him before, was suffering from trauma ptsd and was extremely terrified at going back to ramsay (she legit said she’d kill herself if she had to), so she basically did what she had to. Cont’d...

           Part 2- I honestly would’ve done the same thing. She knows there is no way in hell ramsay can find out abt this and she can’t tell jon bc he is too straightforward (shown when he pledged to Dany in front of cersei) and he may not have seemed as desperate to ramsay therefore giving ramsay over confidence. Now I know jon is a fan fav and ur thinking wtf she could’ve killed him. But she barely knows him? I mean she even thought arya would kill her in s7. Besides Sansa has been on her own for long..    

           Part 3- so she doesn’t have any time to leave her fate in anyone else’s hands. I think it was a last minute decision! I don’t think she wanted to go to baelish bc she knew that would be letting him back in her life. She was probably wrestling w/ the idea of doing this and ultimately decided to. I think it was smart what she did. TBH back then jon wasn’t this crazy impt part of her life, she had just reunited with him and the fear of going back to ramsay was GREATER than the fear of losing Jon!    

The Sansa/Knights of the Vale/Battle of the Bastards issue is always a hotly debated one amongst her stans and those of us who are Sansa-ambivalent.

There were a few parts of your asks anon that I didn’t entirely understand [in bold above] but I’ll try to address anyway.

Your reasoning for Sansa not telling Jon about seeking help from Baelish and the Knights of the Vale are:

Sansa doesn’t know Jon that well - “she was never close with him growing up, he isn’t crazy important to her, she doesn’t know how good/bad he is at fighting…”

She’s afraid of going back to Ramsay, said she’d kill herself before she’d let this happen.

And she was wrestling with the decision to even ask for Baelish’s help because she didn’t want to let him back into her life.

With the exception of your point about Sansa not knowing whether Jon is a good fighter or not - that’s not really relevant - anon, I think all of the above is pretty valid and generally agreed upon by most Sansa supporters and why she doesn’t tell Jon about the KOTV.

So obviously, the ordering of the episodes is incredibly important here.

We’ve got the Jon/Sansa reunion at Castle Black in 6x04, an entire episode before the Sansa/Baelish reunion in Mole’s Town in 6x05 - when Baelish tells Sansa about the KOTV being at Moat Cailin.

Jon and Sansa reunite in 6x04, it’s the first time they’ve seen family in years, they hug it out, Sansa gets cleaned up off-screen, they reconvene likely in Jon’s old office and they reminisce for a bit over soup and bad ale…but then almost immediately after reuniting, Sansa asks for Jon’s help to take back Winterfell. This is before they know about Rickon, this is before Ramsay has threatened the Free Folk Jon let south of the Wall, this is before Sansa knows Baelish has brought the Knights of the Vale North. This is before everything. Jon and Sansa haven’t been openly threatened by Ramsay yet and they have nothing but each other - no armies, no allies, nothing.

And Sansa still asks Jon to help her in that scene in 6x04.

For someone who allegedly doesn’t trust Jon, she’s already asking SO much of him. She hears in a scene off-screen that Jon assisted the Free Folk and let them south of the Wall and she immediately asks how many of them there are…hinting to Jon that she wants him to ask them to fight for her.

[Side Note] This is one of the things that pisses me off about Sansa and her stans. Daenerys gets hurled the “she’s entitled” accusation a LOT but Sansa here, in this scene with Jon, is acting SO entitled. Entitled not only to her brother’s allegiance to her and his sword - asking him to fight for her - but also entitled to the people who are possibly loyal to Jon. Sansa has never spared a second thought for the Free Folk, has never done anything to help them in any way, her story has never crossed with them at all…and yet now that she knows her brother helped them, she’s already thinking of them as potential soldiers in an army for her to take back Winterfell.

And again, at this point, they haven’t received Ramsay’s letter. They haven’t been threatened yet. And even when they do receive Ramsay’s letter, there’s still the possibility of Sansa and Jon going into exile in Essos. She’s a talented seamstress. She could be employed by some noble lady in Essos and have a comfortable living. For all she knows - before Ramsay’s letter - Rickon and Bran and Arya are dead. So why take back Winterfell? She tells Jon “We’ll never be safe” but that’s not really true. She’s got a very narrow view of the possibilities here.

Arya actually did go into self-imposed exile in Essos to become a Faceless Man - knowing there was a possibility she could be turned away - which she was at first, but she went anyway. So it was completely a possibility for Sansa as well. She just didn’t want to do that. She wanted to go home. She felt she had a right to do so. And of course, she wanted her revenge against Ramsay. Totally valid, I don’t blame her for that.

But let’s call a spade a spade.

This wasn’t for Sansa’s “safety”. Safe would be avoiding the fight altogether. Safe would be Sansa not gathering up an army of a few rag-tag Northern Houses and the Free Folk thereby painting a proverbial bullseye on her back with a sign that essentially says “Hey Ramsay, I’m right here in this military encampment, come get me.” [End of Side Note, but actually addresses anon’s second point about Sansa being afraid to go back to Ramsay…clearly, this is not the way to stay off his radar]

Getting back to the main point again, Sansa not telling Jon about the KOTV…

The whole excuse of Sansa “not trusting Jon” because she doesn’t know him that well, they were never close, etc. I think is pretty bullshit. D&D have this to say of the Jon/Sansa reunion in 6x04 in the Inside the Episode:

“The idea that after all Jon and Sansa had been through as characters that they’re finally able to put a foot back on solid ground in terms of family and somebody with whom they have a bond that runs deeper than any other bond. It was a big moment for the two of them and for us to see it played out.”

“And to learn where we’re going to go with a relationship that never really meant that much to either one of them before now means so much because at this point, they’re all that they have.”

“It’s really only the additional pull of family and finding out that Rickon Stark is still alive that forces his hand and pulls him back into this fight he was trying to step away from.

Also of note: at this point, Sansa knows Jon died. “I can’t stay here, not after what happened,” Jon tells her, “what happened” being that his men mutinied and killed him. If anyone is in further doubt that Sansa knows about Jon’s death, Tormund openly says “He died for us” when they’re negotiating with the Free Folk and Sansa doesn’t bat an eyelash. So she knows Jon died and was resurrected.

So we’ve got these two people back together, the only living family either of them have that they know of, Sansa knows Jon died, Jon knows Sansa escaped Winterfell to get away from her rapist husband. Those are MAJOR things! We’ve also got to remember, Sansa hasn’t been involved in the fantastical elements of the story thus far. She hasn’t seen magic or dragons or anything really. So to find out her brother was brought back from the dead is CRAZY. ~Honestly, I really hate that the show just glosses over that like it was as simple for Sansa to accept as, “Oh yeah, Jon had open heart surgery but he’s fully recovered now.” Like, no. This is seriously unbelievable stuff~ But regardless, Sansa knows this happened to Jon. She accepts it. We never see her question his resurrection so she must have seen his scars, spoke to Melisandre off-screen or something.

And yet, even though she knows he died, even though he’s her last living family member, even though she’s already asked him to help her take back Winterfell, Sansa doesn’t trust Jon enough to tell him about the KOTV….?

Of Sansa and Baelish’s meeting in Mole’s Town where Baelish tells Sansa about the KOTV and that they’re basically at her disposal should she ask him for his help, D&D have this to say in the 6x05 Inside the Episode:

“Sansa’s gotten pretty good at playing the game. When she sees Littlefinger though, it’s not about politics, it’s not about trying to manipulate him or anything. He betrayed her in the worst possible way and so in her mind everything that happened after that he’s to blame for it. I think it goes through her mind how satisfying it would be to see Brienne just cut him in two right here. But she doesn’t and that she doesn’t is an interesting quality of Sansa’s. That she’s started to look a couple moves ahead and she’s starting to think ‘is it possible this person will be more useful to me alive than dead?’”

“It’s funny because even as she’s trying to make a clean break with Littlefinger, Sansa is showing us the ways in which Littlefinger has shaped her way of looking at the world. With the decision not to tell Jon about the meeting with Littlefinger, with the decision not to tell Jon how she knows about the Blackfish, if she really trusted Jon, and she really was coming at this as a clean, pure Stark, she would tell the truth to her brother and the person to whom she has real allegiance at this point. For whatever reason, she holds back on that and I think that shows that Littlefinger still has some kind of a hold on Sansa.”

Granted, Dan Weiss’ line “For whatever reason” is a bit of a cop-out because it still leaves the audience wondering…okay, what is the reason? He says Baelish has a “hold” on Sansa and certainly, with what David Benioff says before about Sansa “thinking a couple moves ahead” and Baelish possibly being “useful” to her makes sense. But still, even if Baelish would be “useful” to Sansa, it doesn’t explain why she doesn’t tell Jon.

Weiss says, Jon is the only person whom Sansa has real allegiance to at this point. Yet she lies to him and manipulates him.

Going back to anon’s point about “Sansa not sure she wants Baelish back in her life” - or from what I’ve seen of some stans: Sansa doesn’t want to tell Jon about Baelish because Jon wouldn’t allow it after Baelish sold her to the Boltons, Jon wouldn’t approve, I’ve seen some people even go so far as to suggest Sansa’s afraid of Baelish…

But none of what D&D say above suggests any of that. In fact, Benioff’s quote about Sansa looking a few moves ahead indicates Sansa was already considering the offer Baelish brought to her but refused to his face because of his betrayal of her - selling her to Ramsay. She’s hurt, she feels betrayed, she knows Baelish loves her, yet she knows she needs him. Accepting his offer of help right away would make Sansa seem more forgiving than she wants to appear in Baelish’s eyes.

Or, alternatively, as suggested by Sansa’s letter, decoded above, she knew Baelish would require some sort of “reward” for his help and didn’t want to owe him, likely knowing it may even be her own hand in marriage after Ramsay’s death.

But EVEN STILL, even with everything Baelish has done, judging by Jon’s reaction after the battle “You told me Lord Baelish sold you to the Boltons…you trust him?” he wouldn’t have been opposed help from the Vale, had he known it was an offer on the table.

And this was not a last minute decision of Sansa’s. This was something she was stewing about for weeks. She had this information for a while and let’s face it, she sent this letter out to Baelish well before the battle. Again, the KOTV were garrisoned at Moat Cailin. That’s not a short distance to Winterfell. The distance as calculated HERE between Moat Cailin and Winterfell is about 350 miles. Even if it were a hundred miles, it would still take a week, longer maybe, for the KOTV to reach their destination. Not counting the travel time for the raven.

And we can’t say Sansa didn’t “know” whether or not Baelish would come through. Of course he would come through. That’s why she hesitated. Because she knew he would do whatever she asked of him. Again, she knows he’s in love with her. 

So far as Jon was concerned, if Sansa already had told Jon that Baelish was the one who brokered her marriage with Ramsay and she was afraid Jon wouldn’t want further help from Baelish because of that, Sansa could have lied and said it was her cousin Robin who was offering her his help, not Baelish. She could have made something up, anything. Baelish had gone back to King’s Landing, went to go serve the Lannisters again, whatever.

Jon knows they need all the help they can get. He’s not going to ask too many questions and he really can’t argue when there’s the promise of a mounted army of 2000 men at their disposal, especially if Sansa already has a good cover story for it - Robin Arryn, Lord Protector of the Vale, is her cousin.

There’s just really no good reason Sansa could have for not telling Jon about it. No. Reason. She lied to him about the Knights of the Vale - lie by omission - and she manipulated him using Rickon as an excuse for Jon to go to war when Sansa knew there was a very slim chance Rickon wouldn’t live.

Again, Sansa has some wins throughout GOT but she really does not impress me in the later seasons with either her attitude or her actions. She doesn’t start to put

family

first until the very last episode of Season 7 when she off-screen goes to Bran and asks for his advice on the whole Arya situation and Bran tells her Arya isn’t the one she needs to look out for, it’s Baelish. Everything before that, everything before the Baelish execution scene, Sansa is looking out for Number 1 and spends most of her screen time either undermining Jon or being sore about the fact that she’s not Queen. Sorry.

Oh yeah and, in the 6x09 Inside the Episode….

~~~Dan Weiss confirms Ramsay is Jon and Sansa’s “prisoner” after BoB~~~

Just saying…

[serlymurly]

A RANT ABOUT CHARACTERS, CREATION, AND THE PROCESS OF BEING INSANE

It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Let’s have a rant. A good, old fashioned rant about something that’s been nagging at my mind. First, paint the scene;

It’s 6 in the morning. The sun is rising outside. The love of my life is asleep in bed, our cat is in a box lined with a fuzzy blanket that I could have draped around my shoulders because frankly, it’s a bit cold. We have no creamer, and I think coffee wouldn’t help this headache that’s pounding away at my skull - and I have four people talking in my head.

Did I lose you yet? Probably not. It’s pretty straight forward. First - the puppy nailed to the wall. Four people talking in my head, what? Well - technically, I think they’re all me. But on a different level, only two of them are me. Got it?

One of me is going on about how this is all, in fact, a terrible idea and that to post any of this is to admit to a certain kind of insanity that I really shouldn’t be admitting to. This isn’t normal, on any level; I’ve never heard people talk about it, and the only person that I’m aware is actually on point with how I do things in writing is asleep.

The other part of me really wants banana bread, and frankly, I can’t fault that. Can you? Of course you fucking can’t, unless you’re allergic to bananas. Fuck yeah, banana bread.

Then, there’s the other two. One is a face that people who follow me are familiar with; James Oaklen. Don’t know who he is? Probably not! I’ll talk about him later. And he’s having a lovely conversation with this newest creation, this newest part of my intracranial house - Aeslen. But I won’t talk about her. Not yet.

So, yes. Four people. All adamantly talking their points, all actively going on and doing their own thing; existing in some level on a scene that I’ve always had in my head. Let’s explain that bit, shall we? Sorry this is disjointed - again, no coffee.

Flash back I don’t know how many years, and I was a young, young boy. I barely had any understanding of how to type; I’d never played a game outside of Banjo-Kazooie and Super Mario 64, games that required a controller.

I will spare the dirty details, but life at home was not perfect. There was yelling; there was hitting, there was strife, and a family that was slowly tearing itself apart. I could see the writing on the wall when I was 7, that’s how bad it was. So - my mom decides it’s a good idea to introduce me to this game she plays.

A game called Ultima Online.

And holy crap, that was amazing! I spent hours doing nothing of any importance on her computer, on our shitty internet in that crappy home in Ohio, just exploring this world with a character that I had created with my own two hands in a whole other world. This was a concept that I had never experienced; this was a new and exciting frontier for me. I named him Krill because that’s a COOL name and it sounds COOL. I gave him flaming red hair, I made him a paladin, and I spent hours just trying to kill skeletons in a really easy area at the start of the game because I kept forgetting how to fight things.

And then, one day, everything changed. UO, it turns out, maybe just the server I was on - had a very active community of this thing called ‘Role Players’. Weird, right? People who actively played out their characters as real, living things - in this world. Personalities, histories, everything. I stumbled on them by accident when I got lost in the big castle in the main town of the game.

There, at the time, was a bunch of high-end guilds. One was the Orcs (it was just people with orc masks on, but they pretended to be orcs and they rocked at it). There was the Highlanders (they wore kilts and I REALLY WANTED TO BE ONE). There was a merchant guild, and - all these other guilds I feel bad not remembering. And I was just this little seven-year old kid with a character named Krill with flaming red hair that walks into the middle of this big, IC meeting they were having. Imagine them responding to me with actual respect?

Imagine them actually… explaining what they were doing? With respect? I was so awestruck, I asked if I could play. They made me door guard. Boy, LET ME TELL YOU, I took that job so seriously. I stood just outside the meeting and I could see all their little talk, all while making sure nobody entered without permission. I was so hyped.

That, that stuck with me. Okay? Remember that. The idea - the concept that they had presented to me, this way that you could live another life through a digital form. That stuck with me.

But - well, things change. People. Lives. I never really got into the RP scene on that game; I wandered around and pretended to be part of things, but it was mostly them politely recognising me and letting me watch them do stuff. I only had an hour each day online, so it just - wasn’t enough. Eventually, my mom stopped paying for her UO account due to issues. So - back to the nintendo and other things.

Flash forward. Divorce imminent between the two parents. The world is collapsing around us children. My sisters are massive assholes, my brother and I feel like we’re alone together in a sea. So… in a desperate attempt to keep his spirits up, I introduce him to the concept. “Let’s pretend to be Link and go slay invisible monsters!”

Stupid, right? So we pick up sticks and start staying as far away from our house as we could. We’d talk about all the things we were fighting, we’d hit each other with ‘swords’, we’d drag our local friends into it! We just - disassociated. I think for him, it was mostly the swinging the sticks that was interesting; always fighting, always smacking things. But for me? I was using my mind to, you know. Envision such grandiose and wondrous things for us to be fighting! I was imagining landscapes, unspeakable monsters, and the type of person that I would be!

That evolved. Stuff happened again. We moved from where we’d been living to a new environment; Michigan. I like Michigan, don’t get me wrong; fucking love it there. But, well - we were young. I didn’t know anyone, and it was 5th grade. And then - more stuff happened.

I won’t go into nitty details, but one of my sister’s had a major incident occur. This lead to the family being put under more strain, which eventually finally snapped the cord. Grandparents died. One suddenly, one from cancer shortly after. A nasty, nasty divorce that left me feeling horrible. I was convinced that I could have stopped it - all of it. I was convinced that I should have; since I wanted to be that big hero, remember? Since I wanted to shoulder all the burdens.

I took it upon myself to never show any problems outwardly, after that point. I just smiled and acted silly and nobody really paid me much mind. “Oh, he’s always fine!” It’s about this time I got into (GASP) UO again. Freeservers, this time; technically, I think that was illegal, but who cares. I got deep into it; I made my first *real* RP character, who was of course a massive dork. Leone, a grey elf ranger that ate lemons - because I’d convinced *myself* that if you ate enough lemons, you could spit caustic spit? I don’t know, I was weird.

Leone would be my staple character for a long time. So long, in fact, that I began to wonder - as maybe we all do - where he stopped and I began. Sure, he was an elf with magic and grey skin - but personality wise, I felt he was a lot like me!

Then I learned that was a cardinal sin of roleplay. Apparently, you should never - EVER - make a character like yourself. You become too attached - which I did. You become too personally involved - which I did.

Games change, years move on. I went to SWG, I played a new character - Stodosmo Oci (horrible name I know). He was a security officer at a hospital! It was great. I loved it. It was a long, boring time of just sitting and watching doctors RP it out with patients in Mos Entha. And then.. I don’t know. Things. Again.

Went from there to WoW. Technically, I’d been in WoW since Vanilla - but the lore had never struck me as interesting enough to roleplay in seriously until just before BC released. I had a series of characters there, all sharing the same last name; Rodetan. Eventually, as Wrath came to a close, I decided to consolidate them into one large family tree.

WoW’s timeline sucks. That’s all you need to know about that.

Who remembers the early days of WRA? Alliance-side, there was a guild called ‘Stormwind’s Army’. Yes, it was just another military RP guild. Yes, we did a lot of patrolling and policing. It was fun, though; my character rose from an unwashed bum to chief recruitment officer. And then - drama happened. The guild split. I followed the ‘rebels’, and we formed the Vanguard of the Alliance (VotA). That was also fun.

Anyways, I’m sparing you all the nitty-gritty details - but this is where the story, once more, becomes interesting. After so long, VotA eventually fell apart. We all went our separate ways, and eventually three of the officers let me know that they’re still RPing in-game with this new group - Blood of Arathor, I think it was called. I’m asked if I want to join them. I say - sure, but not on the character I’d been using.

At the time, I was - kind of embarrassed of that character. I still am. He’s my best success story, yes, but he felt - I don’t know. Too close to me, in some ways that I won’t get into. So I thought - why not make a NEW character?!

OH BOY.

But there was a problem. And this is what most of this rant was building up to.

I had to build a new character.

From scratch.

Alright, that doesn’t sound so bad, does it? - Except somewhere along the line of creating him - he came alive. In designing him, in creating his personality - I suddenly found that I was physically talking to myself - and in my mind, this quiet man was responding. James Oaklen, Knight of Stromgarde, was telling me about himself.

His goals. His life. His loves. His interests. All about himself; his world. How he felt about certain foods, how he felt about everything.

At the time - I had very, very acute problems in the real world. I was taking drugs, drinking heavily, I was obnoxiously depressed to the point of being borderline suicidal - and… well, this happened. What did it mean?

Don’t answer that. It’s not a real question, because it doesn’t matter.

I accepted that he was who he was - and he’s become one of my favorite recurring personalities in my characters. And he’s not the only one, anymore. At some point, this - new way of creation, this way to create characters that exist in my own mind - just, settled in.

So.. I wanted to document how it works. Sort of. Maybe you at home can replicate it?

I start by closing my eyes. I think about what races there are to choose from, what classes or skillsets; and then I just… start to see a person. Whoa, weird, huh? Just an outline. A faint outline.

So, we reach out with our mind, and we call to them; and they slowly come forward. We get an imprint, a basic idea for what they look like, in our minds. So - we go to the creator and we try to do that. As close as possible.

Then we look at the character. Scars; how did they get them? Each scar is a story in itself, and as you look - they begin to tell you about each one. As if just explaining casually. James has a scar along his neck, which he earned when he almost died defending his Lady - something that he constantly thinks about as a time that he failed.

Or, other big features? James - again, using him as an example - has a large, bushy black moustache. It’s his family’s staple, a sign of their masculinity and proof that an Oaklen has come of age.

And so on. Then, by the time we get to the point where we have to name them, they’ve already told us the most important things. We don’t just have a vague outline in our little mind shack; now, we have a PERSON. And the name? Well… That’s a limitation of the system, baby. Pick something as close to what resembles the name they called themselves, and stick to it.

I could go into more depth. I could go into the process of creating a video where I create a character, but - well, why? It’s just this vague idea that I want to get across right now. I really doubt anyone will read this five-to-seven page long spiel all the way through. But it’s just - interesting, to me. It constantly is there, this - process, these characters, these people. And not just them; worlds come just as easily. Is that the product of an over-active imagination from a man that was desperately seeking to avoid reality and paint a better fiction for himself to sit in? Probably.

But… I don’t know. When it boils down to it, I just let it happen. I get ideas in my head all the time for wondrous worlds, characters and things - but the most agonizing problem is that they can never seem to translate into text or print. I can’t paint worth a damn, I can barely draw - and the one medium I have for escape, Roleplay, is something that I barely do anymore.

So - how do I make it stop? Do I want to make it stop? Should I? How do I harness this? How do I focus it into something specific?

If you made it this far, congratulations. I don’t know how to end it, so I’m just tagging all the mmo’s I’ve ever played or remember playing for giggles. Kudos if you get all of them!

[witchofeindor]

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YAAAAS I agree with everything you said! I love it so much; I can't wait for S2! And I need to rewatch it as well; my Hebrew has gotten so much better since I watched it for the first time, and I'm dying to know how much I'll understand the second time (plus I'll get to watch my faves again)!! And that cliffhanger at the end is just killing meeee! As a סמ"ר and חוג"ד Daniel should be way,more mature than he is, I just want to smack him upside the head with an אלונקה

And omg I would ADORE Rotem/Rona, there's a little somethin'-somethin' going on there! Especially all the times that Rona is in the shower and talking to her and bitching her out. And everything you said about addressing social issues and things that aren't brought up in the media is totally accurate; and I love it! 

I also really loved how Lia/Orian were treated with equal respect in terms of the other ships. They got equal amounts of drama, not more drama than the h/h ships, and they still ended up together, and that's something I really appreciate.

Ha ha yeah, I can’t wait for season 2 either. 

I’m Israeli and I speak Hebrew fluently but I think that the Hebrew in תאג”ד could be like very difficult to understand for someone who does not live here, not only bc of the military terms and slang but like in general, it’s very slanglish and like each character has their own slang and while god, do I love it, but I also feel terribly sorry for anyone who would ever try to translate this show bc like, it’s so damn Israeli? Not just the setting (a closed IDF base) but everything about it?

Every character, including their language, fits perfectly into some Israeli archetype/stereotype (only to break out of it later) like, we all have studied/served/worked with those kinda ppl and it’s idk so inclusive in a way it’s fantastic. Like at the beginning all characters are so stereotypical but then there’s just so much more to them (especially Lia, Ben Lulu and Polchak) and their uniqueness affects their language and I love it.

OMFG YES, smacking Daniel with an אלונקה is such a fucking great idea, why hasn’t anyone done it yet? He needs to grow the hell up. And shut the fuck up, too. 

Ikr? They’re like...so gay. They don’t know it yet but they just ARE. All their shower scenes, petty fights etc. Besides both slept with the same 2 guys so that totally counts that they slept with each other too amiright

Also like, Rotem deserves sooooooo much better than either the asshole that’s named Eitan or the asshole that’s named Daniel like, she deserves so much more ok.

And while Rona has this attitude of ‘an egoistic bitch that always gets her way, and fuck whoever gets hurt’ about her, I don’t think that the real her, ya know? Like, have you seen how much she cares for the מג”ד and how worried she is for him? She fucking forces him to go to the doc even though he’s her direct commander and everyone’s else in the battalion indirect commander. She’s got balls and she cares greatly. Like, all I’m saying is, that she’s probably a huge softie underneath and she could be so good for Rotem, for once someone would take care of Rotem and not the other way around.

I know, I love it too. There are so many bits when so many different social issues are addressed and it’s done so naturally and not forced, זה פשוט מושלם.

Oh god I know, right??? Especially the episode where they had their big fight like??? Their fight/break-up scenes were right after/before the fight/break-up scenes between Rotem and Daniel, to indicate that Lia’s and Orian’s relationship is in one line with theirs, and it is no less meaningful or less ‘real’. Romantic/sexual relationships between two women are too often reduced and shown as something ‘less’, so I am so grateful that for once, our relationships were shown as equal and not less than anything else.

Like, don’t get me wrong, the show is also very flawed and their military and religious inaccuracies drive me up the wall most of the times but it is very enjoyable nonetheless.