#and fans call them 'basically anglo'

[bitterfucked]

my takeaway from Abigail (2024) is that every team should have a Quebecker. new standard team archetype, up there with archetypes like The Muscle or The Hacker.

you're getting introduced to the group and there's just this fucker off to the side drinking ten ones and saying shit like "if you talk shit about Céline Dion i will give you the hurt with a cheese grater"

[youneedasoultraveller]

Is the popular headcanon that Nicky was illiterate, stupid and barbaric fitting in the stereotypes about Southern Europeans / Mediterraneans ? I’m guessing it’s from the American part of the fandom that’s choosing to not respectfully write Nicky since he is white while being virulent towards anybody that doesn’t perfected and accurately write Joe because he is MENA.

Hello!

Mind you, I am neither a psychologist, a sociologist nor a historian, so of course be aware these are my own views on the whole drama.

But to answer your question, yes, I personally think so. It definitely comes from the American side, but I have seen Northern Europeans do that too, often just parroting the same type of discourse that Anglos whip out every other day.

There is an abysmal ignorance of Medieval history – even more so when it concerns countries that are not England: there is this common misconception that Europe in the Middle Ages was this cultural backwater full of semi-barbaric people that stems unfortunately not only from trying to (correctly) reframe colonialist approaches to the historiographies of non-European populations (that is, showing the Golden Age of Islamic culture, for instance, as opposed to what were indeed less culturally advanced neighbours), but also from distortions operated by European themselves from the Renaissance onwards, culminating in the 18th century Enlightenment philosophes categorising the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages.

Now this approach has been time and time again proven to be a made-up myth. I will not go into detail to disprove each and every single one misconception about the Medieval era because entire books have been written, but just to give you an example: there was no such a thing as a ius primae noctis/droit du seigneur; people were aware that the Earth was not flat (emperors, kings, saints, etc, they were depicted holding a globe in their hands); people were taking care of their hygiene, either through the Roman baths, or natural springs, or private tubs that the wealthier strata of the population (and especially the aristocracy) owned. The Church was not super happy about them not because it wanted people to remain dirty, but because often these baths were for both men and women, and it was not that in favour of them showing off their bodies to one another. Which, you know, we also don’t do now unless you go to nudist spas. It was only during the Black Death in the 14th century that baths were slowly abandoned because they became a place of contagion, and they went into disuse (or better, they changed purpose and became something like bordellos). And, lastly, there was certainly a big chunk of the population that was illiterate, but certainly it was not the clergy, which was THE erudite class of the time. It was in monasteries and abbeys that knowledge was passed and preserved (as well as lost unfortunately often, such as the case for the largest part of classical literature).

So what does this mean? According to canon, Nicolò was an ex priest who fought in the First Crusade. This arguably means that at the very least he was a cadet son of a minor noble family (or a wealthy merchant one) who was part of the clergy. As such, historically he could have been neither illiterate nor a dirty garbage cat in his daily life.

Let’s then talk geography. Southern Europe (and France) was far, far more advanced than the North at the time and Italy remained the cultural powerhouse of the continent until the mid-17th century. Al Andalus in the Iberian Peninsula, the Italian States,  the Byzantine Empire (which called itself simply Roman Empire, whose population defined itself as Roman and cultural heirs of the Latin and Greek civilisations): these places have nothing to do with popular depictions of Medieval Europe that you mainly see from the Anglos. Like @lucyclairedelune rightfully pointed out: not everyone was England during the plague.

Also the Middle Ages lasted one thousand years. As a historical age, it’s way longer than anything we had after that. So of course habits varied, there was a clear collapse right after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, but then things develop, you know?

Anyway, back to the point in question. Everything I whipped up is not arcane knowledge: it’s simply having studied history at school and spending a few hours reading scientific articles on the internet which are not “random post written by random Anglo on Tumblr who can hardly find Genoa on a map”.

Nicolò stems from that culture. The most advanced area in Europe, possibly a high social class, certainly educated, from Genoa, THE maritime superpower of the age (with…Venice). It makes absolutely no sense that he would not be able to speak anything past Ligurian: certainly Latin (the ecclesiastical one), maybe the koine Greek spoken in Constantinople, or Sabir, or even the several Arabic languages from the Med basin stretching from al Andalus to the Levant. Because Genoa was a port, and people travel, bring languages with them, use languages to barter.

And now I am back to your question. Does this obstinacy in writing him as an illiterate beast (basically) feed into stereotypes of Mediterranean people (either from the northern or the southern shore)? It does.

It is a typically Anglo-Germanic perspective that of describing Southern (Catholic) Europeans are hot-headed, illiterate bumpinks mindlessly driven by blind anger, lusts and passions, as opposed to the rational, law-abiding smart Northern Protestants. You see it on media. I see it in my own personal life, as a Southern Italian living in Northern Europe for 10 years.

Does it sound familiar? Yes, it’s the same harmful stereotype of Yusuf as the Angry Brown Man. But done to Nicolò as the Angry Italian Man (not to mention the fact that, depending on the time of day and the daily agenda of the Anglo SJW Tumblrite, Italians can be considered either white or non-white).

Now, the times where Nicolò is shown as feral are basically when he is fighting (either in a bloody war or against Merrick’s men) or when Yusuf is in danger. Because, guess what, the man he loves is being hurt. What a fucking surprise.

Nicolò is simply being reduced to a one dimensional stereotype of the dirty dumb angry Italian, and people are simply doing this because they do not seem to accept the fact that both he and Yusuf are two wonderfully complex, flawed, fully-fledged multidimensional characters.

So I am mainly concentrating on Nicolò here because as an Italian I feel more entitled to speak about the way I see the Anglo fandom treating him and using stereotypes on him that have been consistently applied to us by the Protestant Northerners. I keep adding the religious aspect because, although I am an atheist who got debaptised from the Catholic Church, a big part of the historical treatment towards Southern has to do with religion and the contempt towards Catholic rituals and traditions (considered, once again, a sign of cultural backwardness by the enlightened North).

I do not want to impose my view of Yusuf because there are wonderful Tumblr users from MENA countries who have already written wonderful metas of the way Yusuf is being depicted by non-MENA people (in particular Americans), especially (again) @lucyclairedelune and @nizarnizarblr.

However, I just want to underline that, by only ever writing Yusuf as essentially a monodimensional character without a single flaw, this takes away Yusuf’s canon multidimensionality, the right he has to feel both positive but also negative feelings (he was hurt and angry at Booker’s betrayal, allegedly his best friend, AND HE HAD EVERY RIGHT TO BE – and I say this as a Booker fan as well).

I have not been the first to say these things, it is nothing revolutionary, and it exactly complements what the MENA tumblr users in the TOG fandom have also been trying to say. Both of us as own voices people who finally have the chance to have two characters that are fully formed and honest representations of our own cultures, without stereotypes or Anglogermanic distortions.

And the frustration mounting among all of us comes from the fact that the Anglos are, once again, not listening to us, even telling us we are wrong about our own cultures (see what has happened to Lucy and Nazir).

What is even more frustrating is that everything in this cursed fandom – unless it was in the film or comics – is just a bloody headcanon. But these people are imposing their HCs as if it were the Word of God, and attacking others – including own voices MENA and Italians – for daring to think otherwise.

I honestly don’t expect this post will make any difference because this is just a small reflection of what Americans do in real life on grander scale, which is thinking they are the centre of the world and ignoring that the rest of the world even exists regardless of their own opinions on it.

But still, sorry for the length, hope I answered your question.

[buzzdixonwriter]

Spock Grok Shock Squawk

Lemme get my main thesis out in the open first thing:

The search for intelligent life in space is a quasi-religious endeavor.

The unstated hidden hope is that we will find up in the sky people who are better and wiser than us, and who will prove they’re better by sharing that wisdom, ushering in, if not exactly a golden age, then one of shiny brass.

The unstated assumption is that they will be like the Vulcans in Star Trek, more advanced than we are, but impressed by our courage and our curiosity and our just plain ol’ fashioned humanness so that even though they are technologically and culturally far superior to us, they’ll toss the keys of the galactic federation in our lap, letting us run things for everybody’s betterment.

Snowflake, please…

(I mean let’s acknowledge this is a white and / or Anglo / European colonial fantasy from the gitgo, okay?  No sane species will let us anywhere near the torpedo room, capice?)

The Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is a harmless enough exercise, and I’ll be honest, it would be cool if they actually found something, but at its core it’s no different from going into a place of worship and attempting to contact the divine.

(Mind you, I have absolutely no objection to that in principle, either, but I know how a lot of supposed spiritual searchers are actually searching for cudgels to batter their fellow humans into submission; and besides, as will be pointed out below, the search for the divine shares some similar issues with SETI, so read on, MacDuff…)

My next major thesis is this:

Nobody knows what they’re looking for, SETI or conventional religion.

They dress it up in fancy costumes but when you strip both groups’ sky beings naked, you find they’re looking for people just like us in every important way (i.e., we understand them, they understand us, and they don’t hold us accountable for our bullshit).

Here’s a few issues I have with the current state of SETI affairs:

We don’t know what alien life would look like.

We don’t know how alien life would think.

We don’t know what alien life can sense that we can’t sense.

We don’t know how alien life would process information.

We don’t know how alien life would adapt to its environment.

(There’s more -- much, much more -- but these will do for the moment.

Point 1: I’m not talking about green skinned Martians with six limbs, I mean we don’t even know if alien life would have a cell structure or pass along generational information via DNA.

Personally, I think there’s a remote possibility life on Earth did not evolve but is a product of panspermia, in which case any life we encounter on other planets in this solar system may indeed use cell structure, DNA, etc.

But that’s just “a chance greater than zero” not hard evidence.

We literally have no idea what other life would look like so we have no way of knowing where or what to look for.

Someone familiar only with North American forest insects might have a hard time identifying life found at the bottom of the Marianas Trench -- and that’s part of the planet we all share.

There’s a fringe science called shadow biology that wonders if there may be life on this planet that we can’t identify because it looks and behaves so differently from us.

That’s another one of those “greater than zero” speculations -- but the fact we can define right now what would constitute alien life means all we’re doing is looking for Vulcans.

Point 2: We don’t even know how we think; howda %#@& can we anticipate how alien intelligence would think.

I got into this discussion decades ago at a sci-fi con and the fan I was talking with blithely assumed we would recognize one another as intelligent based on whether we used mathematics and my question then and now is:  ”How would you know?!?!?”

Math is a symbolic language that (apparently) interprets basic underlying principles in a way that humans can grasp and apply.

The principles exist whether or not they are expressed, or how they are expressed.

We humans “see” 2 + 2 = 4 as “logical” because out symbolic language links the concept of two distinct objects added to another two distinct objects as being the equivalent of four distinct objects, but we have no way of knowing if an alien intelligence grasps the concept of distinct objects.

For them it may all be just part of a continuum.

There could be aliens desperately trying to contact us right now, using methods we can observe, and we just can’t grasp that there’s even a message to be grasped! 

Point 3: Holy cow (no, not a religious exclamation), this point is huge and we just keep glossing over it.

Humans possess better color vision than canines.

We see three primary colors, they see only two (blue and yellow).

There are other terrestrial species -- butterflies and mantis shrimp, to name two – who see colors far beyond human range, well into what Dr. Seuss would call the “on beyond zebra” range.

Even if we could talk to dogs, we couldn’t tell them what green looks like:  There is literally no place in their brain to process that color.

Or consider binocular vision, i.e., depth perception.

Most humans have depth perception but many -- for any number of reasons -- do not.

A lot of animals lack binocular vision (indeed, on Earth encountering a creature with binocular vision is fraught with danger because they’re almost always predators of some sort, using depth perception to attack prey).

Try explaining depth perception to someone who’s only had vision in one eye since birth.

“Well, it doesn’t have a color or a texture or anything like that, you really can’t ‘see’ it except…well…you actually can see it insofar as you can ‘see’ the actual space that exists between two objects instead of just guessing based on visual clues…”

Again, we may be bombarded with messages from space all the time that we simply lack the ability to sense.

Point 4: This is a lot like Point 2 but different enough to enjoy its own category. 

I mean a couple of things when I refer to processing information.

First off, there’s the actual processing time.

Remember the sloth DMV scene in Zootopia?

Imagine we contact a life form that takes a standard terrestrial year just to express “2 + 2 = 4”.

The entirety of human history would pass before it could get to basic trigonometry.

How do you communicate with that?

(And what would you talk about?) 

Conversely, we would be like ferrets on espresso, the worst form of cultural ADHD imaginable to them

And the script could be flipped!

We could be the ones taking forever to respond, their elaborate and erudite answers might flash by in less than a nanosecond.

We also don’t know what an alien species would value.  We have Maslow's familiar hierarchy of needs but there’s no guarantee these would motivate any other species.

Thigs that would be extremely vital to us might be wholly unimportant to aliens and vice versa.

The fact our sky is blue is just an interesting fact to us, to aliens it might be the single most important thing they’ve ever encountered.

We simply have no way of knowing!

Point 5: Europeans encountering North American native peoples dismissed them as “primitive savages” because they didn’t smelt ore, they didn’t use wheels, and most of their cultures lacked a written language.

Ignore the fact they had well traveled trade routes stretching from the Bering Sea to the Gulf of Mexico, ignore the fact many of them governed and protected well organized territories the size of France or Germany, ignore the fact they lived in an environment not only abundant with easily available natural resources but also possessed the time to work those resources at a leisurely pace.

The European interlopers sure ignored those facts.

SETI looks for machine based physical communication from alien life (physical here including any form of energy used to convey information such as a telegraph or a laser beam).

Presuming alien life exists it may never have occurred to them to attempt to communicate in the manner humans do!

It would be like putting a mime on the radio.

The great unuttered chauvinism of the Drake equation and Fermi paradox is this: That there exists a basic template to intelligent life that’s so common the law of averages says we must find examples of it just like us wherever we look.

That’s an awfully big assumption, folks.

And we’re nowhere close to proving any of it.

  © Buzz Dixon 

[morwensteelsheen]

Chapter 9 AFTA Footnotes

All that guff about Westron being related to the language of the Mark is completely true, but Faramir’s concerns about learning it without having someone to speak to are based in the relationship of modern vernacular English to Anglo Saxon/Old English. Terribly difficult to parse in writing, infinitely easier (though not easy!) to do in speech.

“His leg healed with impressive speech,” not because there’s a medical reason for this, but because I am, let’s say, a fucking goblin with no serious commitment to realistic portrayals of injury. Amen.

The Galadriel comparison is my hobby horse. I hate the fanon interpretation that the White Lady comment is because she wears white. It’s not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Only two people are called the “White Lady” in LOTR: Galadriel and Éowyn, and only one person refers to both of them as that, and it’s F A R A M I R. Motherfucker knows what he’s doing! 

Okay so, heavy sigh, this Númenórean clear sight stuff was/is really difficult for me to manage, so my guiding logic for it is something along the lines of a radio. All the channels are there, just out in the ether (hello Tesla!) but you can’t hear all of them at once. You can tune into them, and some might be fuzzier than others based on your proximity to the source, outside interference, etc, or you can accidentally hit the ‘scan’ button on your radio and be subjected to a whole bunch in rapid succession. But also, given that I’ve had to use modern technology for comparison, I envision this being a particularly frustrating thing for Faramir and Denethor to explain, especially given that they have basically never interacted with the Elves who have a similar shtick going on.

The dance is a Pavane, a traditional processional Renaissance dance. Incredibly funny to imagine how furious Éowyn must’ve been trying to dance that sucker. So stilted!

I think Faramir’s line about “I would not have you think me foolish,” might be a bit problematic for some fanon characterisations, but I think I legitimise that entirely from his “Do you not love me, or will you not?” line, which actually seems to me to be a pretty overt desire for approval. I think it’s important that the only other person we see him asking for approval from is Denethor, while with everyone else he just obviously doesn’t give a fuck, because I think him going out of his way to seek verbal affirmation is very, very much a sign of his personal respect for someone. And I think it’s really important to notice how few and far between those instances are — he is not, as I think is quite popular to imagine especially amongst movie fans, desperate for everybody’s approval. He knows whose opinion he cares about and is intent on getting it, but he’s selective. And I also think there’s kind of a cynical element to it, by asking these people to vocalise their approval of him, he’s getting them to emotionally commit to it. Once it’s out there, it’s out there, and it’s much more difficult to take it back. Which is why I think it’s significant that Denethor basically sees right through it and tells him to fuck off, he knows exactly what sort of game Faramir’s playing. I want to make it clear here that I don’t think this is Faramir, like, consciously manipulating Éowyn or anything, I just think this is how he’s been socialised and so it comes naturally to him.

I have almost certainly gotten something wrong about the Rohirrim not patrolling the Anduin, and I’m sure Tolkien’s got an appendix to the Unfinished Tales or whatever explaining that actually they had the most successful river navy in M-E or whatever, but it’s not narratively helpful to me so we’re just gonna accept that they broadly leave the Anduin untouched.

Éowyn’s attitude to sex is, to be clear, not unprecedented in (our) medieval era. See: the Decameron, the Heptameron (sort of — she’s careful to nuance sex generally), Chaucer’s Wife of Bath and Troilus and Criseyde, the letters of Abelard and Heloise, the implications of quite a lot of the Lancelot stories, the erotic language of eg. Dante’s Purgatorio and Paradiso, etc. Sex is there, sex is happening, it’s not such a stretch to imagine that someone who sees herself as largely socially secure would find virginity and sexuality more of a burden than a tool. 

Jasmine growing in the garden, not necessarily accurate for a lot of the visions of Gondor as England or France, but if you, like me, are enamoured with Gondor as Byzantium, then yes, jasmine grows. Hell yeah baby. 

The would not/could not distinction is basically the summation of Faramir’s character to me so I busted ass to get that in there lol. I think too often fans think that he could not be a brutal, cynical warrior. He could, he so obviously could, but he consistently makes the choice not to be.

[gravitascivics]

THE ANGLO-SAXON INFLUENCE

[Note:  From time to time, this blog issues a set of postings that summarize what the blog has been emphasizing in its previous postings.  Of late, the blog has been looking at various obstacles civics educators face in teaching their subject.  It’s time to post a series of such summary accounts.  The advantage of such summaries is to introduce new readers to the blog and to provide a different context by which to review the blog’s various claims and arguments.  This and upcoming summary postings will be preceded by this message.]

This blog currently is looking at the effect identity, that factor that defines a person (for example, as an Irish American), has had on polarizing the American public.  While this has become particularly virulent, identity always exerts itself in politics.  It is ubiquitous.  And it is not only in politics but in other realms of life.  Take sports.  There, teams count on identities based on localities or educational linkages to sell tickets or paraphernalia to a fan base which results in gobs of money for those teams.

         Usually, such expression does not cause any or much antagonism – yes, there are the occasional fights and strains, but they are usually considered a source of good-natured ribbing or put downs.  One usually speaks of “bragging rights” if one’s team wins.  But of late, the identity factor is being expressed in the political arena seriously and persistently. And when ethnicity, race, and/or nationality serve as its source, identity, as the historian Schlesinger warns, threatens to debase the nation’s unity.[1]

         Of course, this usually is related to immigration, but it also has to do with race relations, an ongoing source of animosity and violence in the nation’s history.  And it does represent, among unjustly treated people (due to their identity), legitimate protests – e.g., the Black Lives Matter movement.  

But a troubling question is:  to what extent should immigrant, racial, or indigenous groups divorce themselves from the nation’s overarching cultural base?  That is an argument that multi-culturalist pose and its aimed at the adoption of the Anglo-Saxon cultural base – the base upon which the nation’s culture has developed.

That base, it should be remembered, has provided the basic constitutional structures, processes, and legalities upon which the nation rests.  Of course, this reliance has not of necessity staved off influences from other cultures. And the nation has during the years of its existence entertained and adopted elements of those other traditions.

Most of them are aesthetics in nature. Influences in food, music, art, and so on have been a continuous part of the American story.  But in addition, there are other areas – beyond aesthetics – in which varying cultural influences have made their marks.  For example, the whole notion of professional policing originates with the Romans, not with the Anglo-Saxons.

         But today’s expression of heightened allegiance to some political/national/ethnic based identity – an allegiance approaching or expressing a tribalism – does not originate from a communal sense.  It instead stems from an extreme individualism and, as such, reflects a nuanced concern.  David Brooks makes this connection.[2]  He explains how individualism allows for uninhibited natural motivations to go unchecked and part of that package of dispositions is to favor one’s tribe and to degrade other “tribes” – other nationalities, ethnicities, and/or races.  

The classic Us vs. Them mentality is spurred by such thinking.  And consequently, it becomes the fuel that feeds the polarization the nation faces.  One should point out, counterintuitively, and ironically, it serves to undermine the basic individualism that brings it to the fore.  

That is, the individual is subsumed under resulting movements by which this identity is expressed.  Again, the historian Schlesinger warns that the individual is absorbed into a united expression of national, racial, and/or ethnic messaging and his/her personage is subsumed with that process.  The analogy, a silly one, that illustrates the point, might be how people lose their identity when they apply makeup that exhibits team colors to the point one cannot identify who they are.

         But one should not misidentify this allegiance.  It is not an example of commitment.  It instead reflects a type of transaction.  The exchange is this mindless devotion to the source of the identity for an enhanced ego.  “I belong to this group, and it makes me special” is the basic message one projects.  Shouting “USA, USA” when so motivated is basically one that proclaims the shouter’s importance; he/she is an American and, therefore, superior.

And when this is expressed in terms of a nation, one can discover the main difference between patriotism and nationalism. Patriotism promotes a sense of commitment that one is willing to sacrifice for the common good within the context of one’s nation.  Nationalism, instead, calls for sacrifice so as to be able to promote an expression of oneself.  

The main difference lies in this ultimate targeting, but one can describe it practically:  with patriotism one can protest what one’s nation does if what it does hurts the common good, where nationalism does not allow such a divergence from national policy or for some leader.

As for the Anglo-Saxon influence, why should one be an adherent to its provisions or basic ideals?  First, it should not be seen as a static entity.  It has a long history of evolving even before arriving on these shores.  It either adopted or developed those ideas and ideals that became this nation’s basic constitutional framework and not all of that originated in Britain.  And, in part, that framework calls for a commitment to a union of volunteers that comprises the American republic and its basic values and norms.

Within its tenets, it establishes a partnered arrangement among those volunteers to work toward the common good – a more perfect union. And the path toward establishing this partnering was not arrived at smoothly.  Religious tribalism predated the other forms mentioned above.  Intolerance among the different Christian sects was common, not to mention the antagonism toward Jews.[3]  But through them, usually for practical reasons, the evolving cultural base found itself accepting more variance within the population.  And with that, a level of secularization gained ground.

By doing so, that commitment to a partnered populous eventually became institutionalized.  Its adoption to a meaningful degree did not take hold until well into the nation’s history. This commitment assumes and holds that any polarization in which the populous is divided into two uncompromising alliances – which religious divisions resembled – serves as an antagonistic expression to those federated ideals.  

It is instead a form of tribalism while the Anglo-Saxon based tradition – the one this nation inherited in a more crude form from the British in the eighteenth century and grew through complex developments – calls for a committed congregational arrangement.[4]  The two, the partnered view vs. the nationalist view,  are basically different.

[1] Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Disuniting of America:  Reflections on a Multicultural Society (New York, NY:  W. W. Norton and Company, 1992).

[2] David Brooks, The Second Mountain:  The Quest for a Moral Life (New York, NY:  Random House, 2019).

[3] Kenneth C. Davis, “America’s True History of Religious Tolerance,” Smithsonian Magazine, October 2010, accessed November 1, 2020, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/americas-true-history-of-religious-tolerance-61312684/#:~:text=In%20the%20storybook%20version%20most,followed%2C%20for%20the%20same%20reason.

[4] More specifically, this congregational tradition stems from the Puritanical influence that in effect were being encouraged to leave Great Britain in the 1600s.  But one can argue, the established view of formal religion reflected the Roman Catholic Church’s vertical structure while the Puritanical congregation more closely reflected a traditional Anglo-Saxon tradition. It is their congregational bias that seems to have encouraged the federal structure of the US, with its supporting processes, that this nation implemented.

[patricia-von-arundel]

I remember you saying you are a history fan and I was wondering how long you envision El and Byleth ruling for before they can abdicate the throne or get rid of the position? I feel like all of the lords would likely have to rule most or all of their life in order to accomplish their goals. Even creating a system with no rulers seems like it would take up most of their lifetime or past it. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this as someone who knows history if you have the time! Thanks!

I have a history degree! I focused primarily on the High Middle Ages (roughly 1000-1300), and wrote my dissertation on the relationship between patronage and power in early twelfth-century France. 😁 So I'm going to tackle this from that perspective - though honestly, I think the use of the 1100s in 3H is no coincidence. Let me ramble on a little about that first - indulge me. It will influence the rest of what I want to say.

Western Europe in the High Middle Ages was in the midst of what is now called the Investiture Controversy. Basically, you had a series of nascent powers - kingdoms and empires and duchies that were forming into what we think of them today; things were a lot messier in the Early Middle Ages - and then you had the Church. Theoretically, they'd all keep each other in balance - the pope needed the support of the kings/emperors to retain his position; kings and emperors needed the support of their aristocrats; and both needed the Church because excommunication was a big deal and could lose you power in an instant.

But, like I said - theoretically.

In practice, it was... more complicated.

Like, the pope excommunicates you for simony, but you're the Holy Roman Emperor? Fuck you - I say this guy is pope now. Get out of Rome. But you won't, so now the real pope, the one who isn't the squatter in the basilica, can go live in Avignon. But oh, crap, my next-door nobles and the King of England like the old pope, and they have an army, and maybe I'll backtrack? Ever so sorry, your popeliness.

Sound familiar?

Yeah.

It was a mess. Culminating ultimately in the Reformation, but we're not going that far.

So - abdicating.

Abdication generally led to violence. And generally was the result of violence. Now, in many cases, that was due to the one forced off the throne trying to get it back - through any means necessary - and all the mess that followed. So fair enough, they could have just fucked off somewhere else. But most didn't. Guess being a king has its perks.

There are a few examples earlier in European history of kings leaving their throne - Æthelred Unræd comes to mind; and the Witenagemot/Things in earlier Germanic/Viking/Anglo-Saxon could remove a ruler (and the Thing included commoners/women in decision-making). But by the twelfth century, it wasn't happening except through violence. This applied to the nobility, as well - the nobility, often controlling much of the means of food production, had enormous influence. (Consider how late Germany and Italy actually became unified lands; the king of France was essentially a figurehood due to the power of the French - and sometimes English - nobility.) People who had power clung to it. And most of them wanted more of it.

But let's go back to one of the words above: figurehead.

That is what the current powers in Fódlan might become in the slow transition to a more democratic power structure. Society does not transform overnight. It is a slow, often trial-and-error process. What Edelgard and the surviving nobility will have to do is come to terms with that - and be ready to stand in as proverbial whipping boys when things go wrong.

Establish a system whereby people can let their voices be heard - but understand that it may be awhile before those people trust that they will be heard. Reformations in power structure and governance; those schools Ferdinand spoke of - but also figuring out how to fund them. The balance of needing government coffers, and rightful suspicion of those in the Kingdom and the Alliance of whom those coffers will benefit. There will be small-scale rebellions. Pretenders. Distant family members of those who've died suddenly demanding a piece of the pie. Uprisings. (When William the Conqueror got pushback from the North of England, he simply burned it all down and left people to starve. Not the best solution, really.) Not to mention the total mess that is going to be the situation with the church, and the fact that many will be devastated and angry at what has happened there. "Opiate of the masses" and all...

During all of this, there needs to be the appearance of strong, central leadership. I know some people say that means Edelgard went back on her word - but not necessarily. She's potentially offering herself in sacrifice (even if only proverbially). She is the face of leadership in Fódlan, while (potentially) holding little or none of the true power. And I think she would be willing to do that.

There's also the matter of inheritance - leaving aside magical crest babies or other fan contrivances, if we put Edelgard and f!Byleth together, there's no evidence they could have biological children. They could adopt, but that wasn't common practice for inheritance. And Edelgard says, of course, that she wouldn't necessarily choose her own child to inherit. (If she ends up with one of the men and has biological children, things potentially grow more complicated, but let's leave that aside for now.)

Again, let us look back at the Witenagemot: they chose leaders, as well as making/interpreting laws. If Edelgard and the other nobles implement a parliamentary body, they can give it the authority to determine leadership in Fódlan. That might mean those already in power keep leadership; it might not. The best solution would be, in my mind, slowly feeding power from the nobility/royalty to a parliament. This might, in practice, take several generations - meaning even if Edelgard remained emperor her entire life, she still has not gone back on her word. And again, as discussed above, this may be publically the appearance of power, while behind the scenes, she works with or even defers to a larger group composed of representatives of different parts of society.

So all that rambling aside... I don't think she can abdicate safely and cleanly. And she probably quickly realizes that. I don't see that as breaking her word - I see that as growth as a person, learning that everything is not as black-and-white as her 17-year-old self believed it to be. It isn't as simple as handing over reigns of power. Not in a society such as Fódlan. Reform takes time. A long, long time.

[thenewlittleprincess]

Hey, Sunflower!

"Chico Jimenez here, on KELP, on a sunny morning, Monday, November 17, 2025 at 7.24 am, with the best of Latin music por los chicos y las chicas de El Paso, Texas."

"La vida está una bella cancion! Woof!"

"Some words of wisdom from our mascot, Charlie Chihuahua. And that last song by Tomas Andrzewski, Tierra del Amor, bouncin' up the Latin charts, was surely a beautiful song.

"And now we have a special guest on KELP Morning. Let me welcome La Princesita!"

"Hola! Muchas gracias! El Paso,  vos quiero muchá!"  says the Princess.

"De nada, princesita. Now I've noticed you always say that, everywhere you go. What is it? Vos . . ." asks Chico.

"Vos quiero muchá!"  says the Princess.

"Now, in Tex-Mex, that doesn't mean a hell of a lot. What exactly are you tryin' to say, say in English?" asks Chico.

"Oh! It means 'I love you all!'" says the Princess.

"Oh. Around these parts, we'd probably say something like 'Los quiero a todos'," says Chico.

"Yeah, I can understand that but it sounds really formal, like I'm not that close to them. I want to be a close bessie of me fans in Texas!" says the Princess.

"OK, and I think you are. You're really popular around here, with Latinos and Anglos alike," says Chico.

"I'm so happy! Love to be loved! That's why I said I love them too!" says the Princess.

"I hear you've got a new song, just to introduce to El Paso," says Chico.

"Right 'tis! Every Monday I do a new song for the week. Last week, it was 'Princesistos, Princesistas'," says the Princess. "I sang that in . . . let me see if I can remember all the names . . . Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Salt Lake and Trinidad," says the Princess.

"And I have to say somethin': I heard some terrible news that ladrones were copyin' these radio broadcasts off the radio and sellin' them like podcasts at like 50 Units a pop. I want to kill them, truth be told, grubby li'l snide creatures they are! Dunno' give yar brass to los ladrones! No le des vos pisto a los ladrones!" says the Princess.

"Dad says there's somethin' about I'm not allowed to release videos on the ICT except Latin ones through Pina Colada. I want to do these ones about Guatemala in English, so everyone can understand them, not just Latino people, because Guatemalans need all the help they can get now," says the Princess.

"But, at Christmas, at the same time we release our Spanish-language videopack, "Princesita", Pina Colada will release these songs about Guatemala in English and Spanish, in another videopack, called "Princess At War." So you can buy them off the ICT at their normal prices. Just don't try to jump the queue or it'll cost you a fortune!'" the Princess says.

"OK, thank you for warnin' our listeners, princesita. Now, what is your new song?" Chico asks.

"It's called 'Hey, Sunflower!' It's about the flowers and we are livin' in the same world but they're the lucky ones! Like the junta in Guatemala doesn't affect them at all. They stay beautiful while the people get hurt," says the Princess.

"Well, that surely sounds interesting! OK, your band is here now so you can go over and do the song for us," says Chico.

"Cheers, Chico!" the Princess says.

Coco Loco leads on acoustic guitar. It is a classic flamenco rumba but played fast: Am G F but instead of going down to Em, it is what the Princess calls “rolled down and quickly wound back up” : Am G F G Am. It sounds something like the video at the bottom of the page.

The Princess joins in, improvising melodies off that chord pattern on her electric piano.

Then Pom-Pom starts the drum machine.

The Three Angels are shaking three tambourines and banging out the machine's beat on them too.

All-About-The starts the bass line.

Then everyone is doing Am in unison and the Princess starts singing  . . . or is it shouting?

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!

Then everyone plays that Am G F G Am pattern and the Princess really does sing.

The sun is shining, just like every day

We can go out and play the same games we always play

But something's changed today, we cannot see

We're no longer equal, no longer free

We must be careful

They're [the Three Angels back up the Princess with harmonies here] watchin' you and me

[Then the Princess alone] Watchin' you and me

[A little melody with Coco's guitar and the Princess' piano in unison]

[The whole band backs up the Princess]

Hey, sunflower

As beautiful as you were yesterday

Hey, hey, hey, sunflower!

Golden [clap, clap] shining [clap, clap]

You don't care

Our country's dying

'Cos you can always be free

You can laugh at the people you see

[Stop]

[Musical Interlude - The Princess starts a melody on the electric piano and the whole band copies it - Then everyone plays chords except the Princess, who does the "supersonic" improvised melodies, with flourishes and glissandoes, for which she is famous]

[As the band plays chords, the Princess sings, playing the same chords on her piano]

Diego, he walked out of his factory

Because what they pay him's not enough to eat

He and all the workers took their cries to the street

Now they're all gone

The Army's victory

But their children are cryin'

[The band provides singing back-up for the Princess on the next two lines]

"Mummy, feed me!"

"Mummy, feed me!"

[The whole band backs up the Princess]

Hey, sunflower

As beautiful as you were yesterday

Hey, hey, hey, sunflower!

Golden [clap, clap] shining [clap, clap]

You don't care

Our country's dying

'Cos you can always be free

You can laugh at the people you see

[Musical Interlude -  The Princess and Coco "duel" on the piano and guitar with melodies]

[Then the whole band plays Am louder and louder and the Princess shouts:]

Wo-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-h! Ya! Ya! Ya! Ya!

[Then the Princess reverts to singing and playing chords as the band backs her up musically]

The Army chased the people out of their houses

Droppin' fire from the sky shootin' all around

The fathers can only come back to work

By sunset they're in town with their wives and boys and girls

They have nothin' but food and bunk beds

[the Three Angels back up the Princess with harmonies here]

No more land

[Then the Princess alone]

No more land

[The whole band backs up the Princess]

Hey, sunflower

As beautiful as you were yesterday

Hey, hey, hey, sunflower!

Golden [clap, clap] shining [clap, clap]

You don't care

Our country's dying

'Cos you can always be free

You can laugh at the people you see

[The Princess and the band, slowly] Hey ... sunflow . . .er

[The Princess shouts, alone] As beautiful as you were when we were free

[The Princess and whole band sing together]

Hey, hey, hey sunflower

Nothing has changed for you

Take me to yesterday with you.

[Musical conclusion - The Princess leads the band on melodies]

"OK , thank you, that was great!" says Chico.

"De nada, Chico! Cheers for lettin' me sing it here!" says the Princess.

"Come sit down and have some water, muchacha. You sound winded!" says Chico.

"Cheers!" says the Princess.

[The sound of the Princess drinking]

"See, your band is breakin' out Cokes and . . . all kind o' stuff to chill out [Laughter from Chico and the band]. Just make yourselves at home, ladies and gentlemen. Nuestro estudio es su estudio!  Princesita, it's a cute little song about flowers but you sure did get the politics into it," Chico says.

"It's not politics like Democratico Revolutionario and Cristiano Nacional anymore. They used to argue. But this is different. This is life and death. And I cannot sing songs about flowers and let people forget what's happenin' to el pueblo de Guatemala, like everythin’s fine," says the Princess.

"And President Hemingway reported to Congress about Guatemala this week,” Chico says.  “And she said basically what you've been saying. I guess you're happy about that?" Chico asks.

"Of course, everyone who's tellin' the truth is gonna wind up sayin' the same thing, aren't they?" says the Princess. "And your President is tellin' the truth. Full marks. She's honest. But where are the troops? Why are the junta still there? Tellin' the truth is good. It's godly. But ya have to DO somethin' too or it's music to watch people get killed to. So we've got to keep on beggin' and pleadin' until she gets it straight and DOES somethin'!"

"I'm sure that'll come," says Chico.  "I'm sure that'll come, muchacha. Our system is kind o' slow here but eventually things do get done.”

“Like I always say, ‘Pronto llegara, nuestro tiempo,’” says the Princess. “Can your listeners understand that?”

“Yes, they sure can,” says Chico.

[winnerloser]

according to @drmagnolia​ ; 

“  How does it affect Victor’s life to be an Asian person in Galar? Does he get linked with Kabu when people talk about it? “

[Lonnggg infodump about Vic’s ethnicity & race & appearance and oouuhhooooo]

tldr; vic is white-passing so no, he doesn’t get inappropriately lumped in with kabu or other “asian” figures for superficial reasons or otherwise. quite the opposite, his roots are generally glossed over or downright ignored. people don’t really talk about it, or they don’t really consider the implications of “the champ being from hoenn.” (that he, himself, is half) he gets the privilege of not facing microaggressions or anything of the like because, again, he looks like a fully white galarian boy. (not to mention i feel like galar seems like itd be somewhat diverse? or at least beyond overt racism for the most part lol?) he does however feel detached to his home region and its culture despite it being very integral to who he is as a person. in this essay i will- (*links the actual essay*)

First and foremost, Victor takes after his father quite heavily- if not an “equal” amount as he takes after his mother; but the traits he inherited from both of them tend to lean towards what is stereotypically deemed Anglo-Saxton (even though Eastern Asians very easily could be born with them as well.) Lighter brown eyes and medium-brown hair, double eyelids, etc. aren’t race-exclusive, but most usually associate those traits with the former since common belief is that they’re rare to appear in the latter or more likely to appear in the former (which isn’t necessarily 100% true either way, but.) He gets his double eyelids and facial structure from his dad; eyebrows, eye and hair color from mum. His height isn’t very “typical” for an asian young man either, so it could be likely to have come from his mum’s side if anywhere.

His dad is 100% of Hoenn descent, say, 5+ generations- Mum’s background is probably a mix of Unovan and Galarian here-and-there but... say 100% Galarian for simplicity’s sake. She’s fully Galarian with parents whose grandparents may have immigrated from elsewhere.

If he told someone he was mixed and had a father of Hoenn descent people would read that as totally reasonable and identifiable (”ohhh I can see it”), but if he didn’t say so himself folks would probably just assume him to be full-Galarian. So in a sense, he’s white-passing. 

With that in mind, his appearance really isnt any target identity to any form of microaggression or ignorance that could come with being a foreigner or minority in Galar. People can maybe recognize that he doesn’t quite look from around here, but... he has a good amount of “white” physical traits, so they could just write him off. It may raise questions from some curious people but not everyone  feels the need to care. Any ignorance directed towards him would be insensitivity over the fact that he’s mixed and is asian or just.. diminishing it I guess. Him feeling (not pressured, but) inclined by society to not express that side of him out of self-consciousness of it being pointed out as an oddity, or like he’s not doing it right, or that he’s not “authentic” because he’s mixed. 

Victor feels a bit of awe and/or excitement when met with opportunities to “prove” himself or get to first-hand experience aspects of Hoenn culture that he misses from his childhood or never really got to experience at all in the first place due to moving away so early and being deprived of any role models that could guide him through it. Like, when he met Kabu he probably wasn’t star-struck considering he wasn’t a big League fan that early into the game (more on that in another post(tm)), but he did feel a sense of homeliness from Kabu.

He didn’t feel like it was his place to... connect with him in any way though? He could’ve very well reached out to him and introduced himself in his first language and spoke about Hoenn, see if the man had any adages or things he could share with him in the form of smalltalk- but even that inoffensive of a gesture seems like it wouldn’t be permissible for Victor to do. What if he embarasses himself? What if Kabu thinks he’s weird or reaching- what if Kabu thinks he’s inauthentic? It’s not like Kabu would think anything bad about it- it’s just that... implicitly asking to connect with someone based on their common background can be. odd feeling. especially when you don’t quite look the part.

So when it came to interactions with Leaf and Red thus far, he allows himself to express under the guise of utility- it’d be more convenient for the other person (or maybe necessary) to communicate if he spoke his first language and so forth, so it has a justifiable excuse (not like he should even need one). Also for crack/him talking to himself and/or in private, that’s sorta different case dfjgdn (permit: i do what i want)

...

That being said—— there’s two sides to the same coin. If Victor went back home as he was, people may be in awe at how fluent the Galarian boy is at Ranseigo, even though he was born there. They may comment on his features inoffensively, but it does leave an imprint on you even if it’s not grating or even hurtful at all. Like, it can go for anything. If someone comments on the funky look of your smile, it makes you want to do it less, subconsciously or otherwise. 

Overall it’s a complicated thing to really get the whole concept of and explain but I tried to articulate it to the best of my current ability.

Basically- Galar doesn’t acknowledge him as asian; Hoenn would likely not acknowledge him as asian either. Regardless of how well-educated he is on his family’s culture, he may not ever be regarded as, well, asian, because of his outward appearance. Doesn’t help that his dad isn’t around anymore and he lives with his mum in her homeland. His outward influences are all Galarian and he’s a bit conscious about being pointed out by other Galarians for... being a try-hard? I guess? Performing for other white people who won’t appreciate or understand in the first place? Meanwhile go the other direction and it sure as hell feels a bit weird being called “cute” and being talked down to and babied for being a “white boy” speaking a language that you have every right to call your first.

^ gets clowned no matter what

[elenajohansenreads]

Books I Read in 2020

#37 - Dreams Underfoot, by Charles de Lint

Mount TBR: 37/150

Around the Year in 52 Books: A book that is between 400-600 pages

The Reading Frenzy: Close your eyes and pick a book from your shelf

Rating: 2/5 stars

A long time ago, at least fifteen years but possibly longer, I'm pretty sure I got a few de Lint novels out from the library and read them. I don't remember which ones precisely, aside from The Onion Girl because I do recall that cover, and I thought, I remember thinking these were interesting, so why not give him a try again but start at the beginning?

So I didn't know, when I picked this up from ThriftBooks, that it was a short story collection, and that's my fault, because I was expecting a novel. But even taking my incorrect expectations into account, I was unimpressed by this.

Together the stories do paint a vivid picture of a place, a city, that could exist nearly anywhere in North America, at least anywhere many cultures have come together with their many traditions of folklore, mythical creatures, and magic. The world-building is the strongest thing about this; if I felt like combing through the book again for each specific detail, I could probably draw you a half-decent map of Newford. (But this is the age of the Internet, and I bet someone else, a more invested fan than me, already has.)

But though this city could exist anywhere it could definitely not exist anywhen. The combined vagueness and immediacy of place is not matched by an equal timelessness, because these stories are so incredibly, painfully dated in their language and details. How many times was a large cassette player called a "ghetto blaster?" How many musical references are there to existing artists like 10,000 Maniacs and The Pogues? How many characters have Mohawks? (Not that that isn't still a thing, it is, but the hairstyle has an incredibly strong link with the punk culture of the '80s.) All of the individual stories appeared in magazines throughout the late '80s and early '90s, and it shows in the level of technology in the setting, but also in the language. Compact discs aren't even abbreviated as "CDs" yet! So there's where the specificity of an urban fantasy setting rubs the wrong way against the threads of magical realism--I wanted these stories to be more timeless than they could possibly be.

My second major complaint is the weakness of characterization. Everyone gets a physical introduction of a paragraph or two that covers most of the same details--it's very, very important that we know everyone's height and hairstyle--but the stories do little to flesh out personalities, being so focused on the magical aspects of the story. Even the characters that come up the most often are still fairly thin, built from tropes that don't gain complexity through their actions--Jilly is a starving-artist type, Geordie a starving-musician type, and so on. I especially don't like how all of the women are basically the same woman with slightly different looks and slightly different backstories. Jilly didn't bother me in that regard so much because she's the first one we meet, but the Hispanic waitress and the Romani musican lady honestly didn't feel all that different from her, except the waitress used the most awkward forced Spanish in her narrative even while she whined that she had hung out with "Anglos" so long that she was losing her Spanish and could barely speak to her abuela anymore. Listen, I'm not bilingual, but I've read a lot of advice on how to write bilingual characters, based on how actual bilingual people switch between their languages, and this ain't it. This is definitely a White Male Author writing both poor examples of women and worse examples of women of color.

And yeah, I know, this was more than thirty years ago in some cases and attitudes have progressed. Maybe his more recent works are better in this regard, but my interest was in starting the series from the beginning to get the full picture of his world. The world still seems interesting, but it's populated by characters I can't connect with. I won't be coming back again.

[mentalcurls]

3.  Una festa in cui nessuno ti vuole

Here we go, my thoughts on episode 3 of season 1! Finally the whole girl squad is together and out there having fun. The topics I’ve managed to ramble about about this time are double standards, fandom, Mom friend™ Giovanni Garau and the mysterious Francesca Mirabella, as well as the results of the Bechdel test for this episode  ✌🏻

“Eva, mi guardi?” was the precursor to “Martino, guardami Martino!”

Gio really doesn’t get it. He keeps saying he’s doing things for Eva, when actually he does them to appease her so she won’t bust his balls, so he’s doing them for himself

Cerami and Bea sound exactly like all couples of middle schoolers I knew when I was in middle school myself. The shoes thing especially. It’s hilarious.

I understand Gio’s frustration with Eva, I do, cause it’s hard being the only point of reference for a person when you have a much more diverse social life. I’ve been on both sides of their situations actually. When Gio says “Couldn’t you try to make some friends?” I know his intentions are good, he’s coming from a place of wanting happiness for this girl he’s in love with, despite being frustrated with her just then; but I also understand Eva a lot, the feeling of isolation, of not knowing what to do or who to turn to because everyone just seems too distant or too busy with their lives (and of course there’s some condescension there too, cause she’s a teenager, she’s got standards, especially since she was popular before fighting with Laura), and the frustration she must feel, because it’s not just Laura ostracizing her, she made scorched earth around Eva for several degrees of acquaintances; and I’m 100% sure that deep, deep down Eva is a bit angry that she had to bear most of the brunt while Gio came out of the situation unscathed

Eva’s disdain for her classmates who like manga and k-pop wounds me deep into my fangirl heart, not because I’m specifically a fan of those things myself, but because she’s using those example to say they’re loser nerds because they have that strong passion for those things, the same passion I am, as a matter of fact, pouring over Skam Italia and Eva’s own story right now. Plus she’s basically shitting on fandoms included among those mostly made up of teen girls and LGBTQ+ people, so there’s that. Are you a fangirl of anything, Eva? Do you know what it means to fell such a pull towards something, a book, a movie, a song? Have you ever felt it? Do you know how nice, how rewarding being a part of fandom is? How fun? My wish for Eva at the end of the season, for when she decides to focus more on herself, on understanding who she is, is actually to get in one of those fandoms she seems to dislike, cause it’s a wild ride, yes, but it’s also an opportunity to learn so much about other people, places, worlds, and ultimately about yourself.

“Eva, it’s nice to be around you. Maybe you forgot, but when someone is around you, it feels nice. Trust me.” And this I think is the first real taste of that Mom friend™ Gio we’ve come to know and love in season 2, that protective, supportive, loyal person who gives good advice and just knows how to lift your spirits. This could have 100% been a conversation he had with Marti in S2, if Marti had been feeling insecure after he pushed everyone away. More importantly, this could 100% be something Gio tells Nico at any point ever in which he’s feeling low. Can you imagine that? Oh my God. Especially with the joke about smelling afterwards. (Aaand I made it about S2 rather than about Eva. Ops.)

poor Eva, she tries so hard. Too hard, in fact. If instead of that whole three-messages-and-a-sticker explanation she’d just gone “*Hey” it would have made her cringe less at herself and it would probably have prompted more of a response from Ele. I understand the panic though.

those theatre kids look just like the twins from “The Shining”! The girls is even wearing light blue like them! And they walk in sync and call Eva’s name repeatedly and ask her to come act in a play with them! OMG, LudoBesse’s mind, honestly.

Ele is so bad at fake crying, really. And the fact that theatre guy, a person who’s supposed to know something about acting/pretending, falls for it kills me.

Evanora for the win, honestly, look how cute they are together. I mean, Ele definitely looks pretty smitten here, immediately noticing Eva from afar, making her smile and reassuring her in a roundabout way about her fumble on Facebook a few days before

poor Gio, the Anglo-Spanish War is kind of a bitch, though to be fair the only things about it history professors usually care about are who was ruling those countries and the Invincible Armada; the Thirty Years’ War is much more interesting (defenestration of Prague, anyone?)

how cute is Silvia??? BRB going to throw myself into a volcano

Gio and Marti doing the parent thing over Eva like Gio and Elia will do in S2 over Marti himself

then Martino catches Federica’s eye and we have the infamous spoon scene; Fede sort-of-pretends-to-fellate the spoon and Marti looks away, embarrassed and uneasy. I love how Skam (both the og and Italia) have taken the trope of the guy ogling the girl from afar (or not so afar) and her feeling uncomfortable under the attention, and have reversed the gender of who’s looking and who’s looked at.

What I don’t like is how it’s framed, in the shots and in the discussion between the characters, like it’s creepier than most of the stuff boys do to girls during the series (I’m thinking especially of guys at parties in general and of the Villa boys). The vehemence Martino uses to express his discomfort over Federica sexualizing him and making her interest evident is basically the same with which the girls react to finding the tally on the wall behind the boys’ bathrooms. This would kind of be fine, despite the fact that the two things are imo on different levels of disgusting, if it was discussed somehow that boys doing disturbing stuff are considered normal, just hormonal teensagers, but when girls do a fraction of the same thing they’re demonized, considered really weird and too horny. There’s no discussion of the double standard and that’s what bothers me.

Something else that would have been interesting to explore, maybe not with Marti, but later with possibly Chicco Rodi, since we see Fede talk to him at a party and even kiss him (if I remember correctly) is the follow-up from that trope: the guy usually goes up to the girl and makes a comment and she turns him away, but oftentimes after he insists a while she concedes and she ends up dancing/going out/going home with him. Which is a shitty thing that happens in a lot of media. It’s actually kind of what happens with Edoardo and Eleonora later. And it would have been super interesting to see Fede doing the ogling thing (which would have never been as rude, graphic and uncomfortable as guys can get, anyways), being turned down, then actually getting her way, and what kind of reactions she’d have from the guy and from the girl squad.

Martino is such an asshole! Silvia obviously extends her invitation to him and Gio out of politeness because they’re friends with the girl who helped her in a bad situation, she doesn’t know them and she was not obligated to invite them along. And while Gio manages to keep an appearance of politeness, Martino straight up mocks Silvia who’s been nothing but nice and enthusiastic towards Eva. That, in my book, is even worse than the two boys being their unsupportive selves yet again and telling Eva to get new friends, then not helping her make some. And that’s such a boys thing, honestly, to spot a problem and tell others to solve it but not help along!

and Silvia is so nice, she’s so good at driving the conversation along, keeping track of the social cues: she feels Eva doesn’t agree with the guys, so she extends her invitation again, then elbows Fede for some support, but she just makes things awkward so Silvia has to smooth things out, then she invites Eva again and is finally able to make plans, but she still has to diffuse the situation when she sees the boys are uncomfortable with Fede’s suggestive actions. So much emotional labour for just one conversation. Thankfully Eva helps her along a bit, cause no-one else does.

by the way, I totally understand and share Federica’s kind of humor and I love her

Marti’s face at Fede’s joke about psychotropic drugs though. Completely blank, just for a second.

I think it’s telling, though, that Federica is one with the weird actions and the weird humor nobody gets, because she’s the fat girl, so she gets pigeonholed as the comic-relief character: she does whatever comes to her mind, she doesn’t seem to pick up on social cues and she’s there mostly to make the other characters laugh or to make them look more refined, more clever or to say how cool they are; sure, she’s a good friend who stands up for Sana and Eva when it’s called for but her character could be way rounder

oh, guys. Marti and Gio’s reaction as soon as Silvia and Fede are out of earshot, it makes my heart bleed. The mocking, the casual fat shaming, the way Martino looks absolutely disgusted about that girl showing an interest in him

Ele acting aloof and dismissive of Silvia is not my favorite thing, I mean, I get not liking a person from the get go, but for God’s sake, come up with an excuse or something, there’s no need to be so blunt when she’s just inviting you to a party

you can actually subtly see Ele kind of relax when Fede arrives, she’s obviously much more her speed

and of course we have Sana, scathing Sana, picking up on Silvia’s racism straight away and calling her the fuck out but diffusing the situation with humor anyways

Silvia is looking for cool girls to make her own group since she’s been more or less kicked out of Laura’s; Silvia probably used to be the popular girls in her class, but Laura has taken that role from her, first integrating with Sara in Silvia’s friend group, then “overthrowing” her, despite only being in her class a few months, given that the transfer from Succursale, when Laura, Eva and Gio’s class was separated into groups that were merged with pre-existing classes, happened the previous September

(btw, Eva, Gio, Marti and Elia are in 4B, Ele in in 4A, so Silvia, Fede, Laura and Sara are in another class; Sana is probably in yet another class; and Luca could be either in the same class as Ele, as Silvia and Fede, as Sana or in another completely different class)

Eva hasn’t picked up on Silvia’s desperate desire to be one of the cool people yet, and Eleonora hasn’t explained it to her either? Pffft

OMG Silvia has an older sister???? I completely missed that the first time around! Hi Francesca Mirabella! You seem to be older and popular since you get into Villa guys’ parties, so you explain so much about Silvia

Ele has been at Kennedy high only for a month, so she might not know yet who the most popular people are yet, I can get behind that; but Eva? After 7 months? Not having the perception of the internal hierarchy of her school? Girl, please.

Eleonora dubs Edoardo “faccia da cazzo” and “capelli di merda” right away 👏👏👏

on the other hand, Sana seems to know the social hierarchy of both the school and her year very well, probably because she absolutely needs to in order to avoid at least some of the discrimination

Sana clearly has plenty of ideas about how to be popular, but she’s much better at preaching than at doing; Silvia wants to be liked by everyone, probably because of some complex she has about being in her sister’s shadow, but her solution is to be at the same time judgemental and a pushover; Sana’s brutal honesty and “advice” is meant more to hurt than to help Silvia become a better, more genuinely likable person; Sana’s probably lashing out because she was hurt by Silvia’s behaviour towards her

Federica is so clearly the comic relief in this scene, not one of her lines pushes the conversation along plus she acts like she’s completely oblivious to the tension between Silvia and Sana

yas for Eleonora who has the common sense to actually look for an alternative solution since they’re obviously not going to Martucci’s party, I like a practical girl

even at the club, Sana shows diffidence until the girls (probably Ele with some help from Fede) pull her in, drag her away from the bar so she can take selfies and dance with them; is she uncomfortable? Is she just trying to act cool? Is it a defense mechanism? Is she trying to keep away so people won’t look weirdly at the girls because they associate with the “terrorist”, is she afraid someone will say or do something?

seeing the girls dancing and having fun like gives me such a nostalgic feeling for those few (because I’m a really self-conscious motherfucker) parties in high school in which I was really able to have fun with my friends

Bechdel test: the episodes passes the test, with flying colors I might add, since there’s the conversation between Eva and Eleonora in the corridor after the theatre guys leave; Silvia thanking Eva and inviting her to the party; the whole scene with the girl squad in the courtyard, both when it’s just Ele and Eva, when Silvia arrives, when all five girls are present and when Sana leaves; finally, the first part of the conversation at the Baretto, when they’re talking about the party, then Edoardo is mentioned and it stops passing the test.

This post is part of my complete series of meta about Skam Italia season 1.  If you’d like to read more of my thoughts about the other episodes, you can find the mastepost linked in the top bar on my blog under SKAMIT: EVA. Cheers!

[metawitches]

Roswell, New Mexico is The CW’s latest entry into the reboot and revival craze that’s brought back so many old TV shows, whether they should have been resurrected or not. As a fan of the original Roswell series, I had mixed feelings going into this version. After watching the pilot, I think that if viewers can focus on this version and leave behind expectations based on the original series, it’s an enjoyable show. Roswell, New Mexico has the potential to live up to some of the early promise that the original showed, before it turned into a charming mess.

We (Metamaiden and Metacrone) loved the original Roswell fiercely. We own the DVDs and have watched the entire 60 plus episode series ‘I don’t know how many’ times. Actually, we should probably write a Quick Review of the series and recommend essential episodes. Keep an eye out for that review.

We also own the original Roswell High Series of 10 books by Melinda Metz. The original TV series was commissioned based on the first book, so the two series don’t have much in common beyond the basic premise.

What we’re trying to say here is twofold: This is a major fandom for us, and Roswell has always been a story with multiple versions. The novels and the original series were written at the same time. So which is the real cannon? Neither. The story works best if you’re open-minded about many things, from “mixed relationships” to different versions of stories about aliens to reinterpretations of beloved characters.

Stories stay alive and vital because they are periodically reinterpreted. The Roswell story has been around since 1947, but stories about alien invaders have been around for even longer. Jason Katims and Melinda Metz didn’t invent the basics of this story. They wanted to make a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, based on Shakespeare (who is no stranger to reinterpretation) and settled on an alien story, as a distinction that would still pose issues between two people who are in love.

Let’s give executive producer Julie Plec, the creative force behind the wildly successful Vampire Diaries franchise, and Carina Adly MacKenzie, Plec’s young protegé and the showrunner for Roswell, New Mexico, a chance to take their shot at this timeless story of strangers in a strange land and true love that must beat impossible odds. And let’s applaud The CW for continuing to support female showrunners, and giving young women a chance to prove themselves.

Recap

The Pilot’s opening is narrated by Liz Ortecho, who introduces us to her hometown of Roswell, NM, site of the infamous alien spaceship crash which took place on June 14, 1947. The ship’s crash landing, which happened on Foster Ranch, in the desert outside of town, is summarized in images, while Liz discusses its impact on the town. We’re shown a meteor-like green glow which has a high-speed collision with the ground. The glow turns out to be an alien spaceship. It breaks into glowing pieces which are investigated by local and military authorities.

Liz tells us that the crash has drawn in tourists and seekers ever since, searching for answers to their existential loneliness. While growing up, Liz was searching for something in Roswell, too, until she realized that it’s really just a mundane small town, full of small-minded people, living small, petty lives. She couldn’t wait to leave, and never looked back.

Switch to the present day, and the action happening in real-time.

Liz is alone in her car, driving back to Roswell, late at night, when she is stopped at a police checkpoint. She assumes she’s being stopped because she’s a Latina. Max will deny this, but I’ve seen it happening at checkpoints in southern New Mexico, and that was before the immigration issue got crazy.

If you want to move illegals around without getting stopped, ask a middle-aged Anglo friend for help. Youngsters are always suspicious in a state with drug issues.

The cars are supposed to drive slowly through the checkpoint, so the police can look at their license plates, registration stickers, the people inside, and anything else that catches their eye. But this is a made for TV moment. Only the Feds check immigration status in New Mexico. Other branches of the justice system leave the Feds to their business.

Liz rolls down her window, already making a speech about her rights as a citizen and the call she’ll be making to the ACLU, as she pulls out her passport. She stops cold when she sees that it’s Max, and flashes to a high school memory. They realize that it’s been 10 years since they’ve seen each other. Max has stayed in town. Liz seems surprised. Max seems happy that she’s back.

Sheriff Valenti, who is the mom of Liz’s ex-boyfriend, Kyle, interrupts them. She assumes Liz is in town for the ten year high school reunion, and is the same good girl that she always was. She lets Liz go without further ado.

Liz goes straight to her family’s restaurant, none other than the Crashdown Cafe, where the food has an alien aroma to it and the waitresses have little green antennae. An alien conspiracy theorist is podcasting from a booth in the diner as we speak. Sometimes it’s hard to tell which kind of illegal aliens he’s referring to.

“I know you think you’re safe, but you’re not. Aliens have already ruined your life. Aliens are the illuminati. They’re conditioning us. You ever tangle with a Beyoncé fan on Twitter? Relentless. They’re brainwashed by subliminal messaging in the music. And soon, the war for the soul of America will be on. This is the Gravity of It All Podcast. Now a word from our sponsor, Alpha Testosterator gelcaps.”

Liz enters the diner just as the podcaster finishes. They strike up a conversation. When he asks if she’s a believer, she tells him that her great-grandfather was abducted and impregnated by an alien in 1947. Ever since, only the men in the family have been able to carry children.

Liz’s father, Arturo, catches her teasing the customers again and can’t believe his daughter is such a miscreant, after he carried her for 14 months before giving birth. 😉

They have a warm reunion, then Arturo goes back to work. Liz tells him she went through an ICE checkpoint (ICE= Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and suggests, again, that they move to a sanctuary city where his immigration status wouldn’t be such an issue. Arturo doesn’t want to leave his home and his super cool business, which he obviously couldn’t transfer anywhere else. Liz just wants to sleep at night knowing he won’t get deported.

Not going to happen for the next few years.

Arturo asks how the drive was, and Liz sarcastically says it was awesome, since there’s so little to look at between Denver and Roswell.

The New Mexico and Colorado natives always think this. There are actually spectacular mountain and desert views, plus you go by Colorado Springs, Santa Fe, other small cities and a couple of casinos.

Liz gravitates to a bulletin board on the kitchen wall, where a funeral notice for her sister is still hanging. It says, “In loving memory of Rosa Ortecho, January 17, 1989- June 1, 2008.”

Liz sends her father to bed, promising to finish the shift for him and close up. After a bit of negotiating, she wears the antennae that go with the waitress uniform. Once everyone is gone, she puts her favorite song, Mrs Potter’s Lullaby by Counting Crows, on the jukebox and dances to unwind.

Max slowly makes his way in, watching her dance and clean up the dining room, but not wanting to be too creepy. After a minute, he coughs a little to let her know he’s there. The music fades, because they only have eyes for each other. It may not be a teen romance, but they’re still soulmates who’ve been separated for ten years.

I’m holding back on those crying emojis, ok? Imagine original Max and Liz being separated at the height of season 1, supposedly for their own safety, and her mind being wiped by Isobel or Tess. Then they meet up again 10 years later. That’s roughly the situation we have here.

This reboot moves beyond Romeo and Juliet, to give us Persuasion, my favorite Jane Austin novel. It’s so much more meaningful when grown ups who’ve suffered find love than when it’s teenagers who don’t know what they’re doing. I have nothing against teen romance, but grown up love is so much more complex, and a love that’s been lost and rediscovered has so many obstacles to overcome, but also has so much depth.

Nathan Parsons is really nailing that whole soulful staring at Liz thing that made Jason Behr a heartthrob. I could cry just watching that.

Remember when I said this was a major fandom for me? I may be happier to see it return than even I realized. But I will attempt to be a professional, if unpaid, recapper from here on out.

Max explains that he came by to tell her that one of her running lights on her car is out. That’s why he stopped her at the checkpoint, but she didn’t give him a chance to mention it. He wants her to know that he’s not one of the bad guys. He makes to leave, but she’s been doing her own soulful staring, and doesn’t want to let him go. Just as he’s on his way out the door, she asks him if he wants a milkshake.

Liz makes him something green and offers to put a couple of shots of bourbon in, to make up for the way she treated him earlier. He tells her not to worry about it. Immigration has been pestering them, but he didn’t join the force to tear families apart. Liz asks why he did join. He wanted to protect people. It helps him sleep at night. Liz remembers that he wanted to be a writer.

Max notices the song playing on the jukebox. Liz explains that it’s her favorite song, the song that picks her up when nothing else can. It was her sister Rosa’s song, too, and Liz always copied her big sister.

Max asks where she’s been lately. She tells him she’s been in Denver, working on an experimental regenerative medicine study. They were onto something special, but their funding was redirected to building an unnecessary border wall, and she lost her job. So she came home, and now she’s sharing a milkshake with her high school lab partner.

Just as Max starts to get serious, several shots are fired through the front window of the diner. Max pushes Liz down to the floor to protect her, but he’s a few seconds too late. She’s already been hit in the chest, on the left side, and is bleeding out quickly. He puts his hand on the wound and heals her, but she’s mortally wounded, so it requires an immense amount of power. Max draws power from the environment around him to supplement his own. Apparently that includes the power grid, since lights explode and the power goes out, but there also looks to be a small earthquake.

As Liz starts to regain consciousness, Max breaks open a bottle of ketchup and pours it over the wounded area to disguise the blood. He makes sure she’s alright, then races out of the cafe to pursue the shooter. Liz tries to understand what happened to her, and discovers the bullet hole in her dress.

The Roswell, New Mexico title card comes up.

There were definitely sparks when they began their relationship. And blood. And ketchup. There must be some significance to that combination.

At least he’s not a vampire.

There’s a lone gunman, on foot, but Max is too depleted from healing Liz to keep up with him. Max follows the perp into an alley, then collapses to the pavement. He uses his special alien psychic communication powers to let his sister, Isobel, know he’s in trouble.

Isobel is having a date night in with her husband, Noah, and trying something new. Noah is tied to the bed and wearing a red eye mask, while Isobel has on a black Teddy and stockings. Noah has agreed to obey her all night long. When she tells him she has to leave for a while, she also says that it’s part of the thing, possibly called “hoverboarding” (she’ll have to check the book), and he’s not allowed to question her. She puts on her coat and rushes out to find Max.

After the noise and excitement, Arturo has woken up, and is cleaning up the dining room. Liz asks why he stays in a town where people hate them for no good reason. He disagrees, pointing out that they have a reason. Rosa did drugs and drove, got in an accident, and killed two innocent girls, along with herself. The ten year anniversary is coming up, which is bringing up memories for everyone, and putting people on edge.

Sheriff Valenti arrives at the diner to make sure everyone is okay. Liz goes on the attack, wondering why no one is protecting her father and his business.

Isobel finds Max in the alley, still on the ground, and hurries to bring him a bottle of nail polish remover. He drinks it as fast as he can. As he does, the power comes back on, so he must have still been pulling whatever energy was available from the grid.

But what’s the deal with the nail polish remover? And how did they, as tiny kid aliens, figure out they needed to drink an otherwise poisonous substance, then convince their parents to buy it for them? Did it smell good to them? I hope it tastes good. Shouldn’t Max keep a flask of it on him for emergencies, like you’d keep an epipen for a serious allergy? So many questions about this development.

As Liz gets ready for bed, she notices a red mark on her shoulder where the bullet entered. She goes to see her ex-boyfriend, Kyle Valenti, who is now a surgeon, at the local hospital to ask him to examine her and do some scans. She remembers getting shot, but obviously she didn’t, so maybe she has a concussion or she’s going crazy. Kyle suggests she’s suffering from trauma because of the gunfire and orders the scans.

At dawn, when Max is done with the night shift, he checks in with Sheriff Valenti, who tells him Liz seemed okay after the shooting, though just as mouthy as ever. She orders him to write up his report, then go to bed. And shave. He replies that he knows how she feels about patriarchal dress and grooming standards, and he’s just supporting her feminist agenda. She’s amused, but not fooled. And, by the way, there’s a surprise for him in the drunk tank.

It’s not that much of a surprise, since Max’s alien brother, Michael Guerin, is a regular and a ne’er do well. He’s also in the process of using telekinesis to steal the keys to his cage so he can escape. Max grabs the keys and reminds Michael of the cameras. Michael has insider knowledge that the cameras are all malfunctioning, darn the luck. Max still mildly suggests that Michael follow procedure for getting out of his cell.

Michael wonders what’s up with Max, since he would usually get a lecture along the lines of: “Why you got to cause a scene, Michael? Why don’t you drive the speed limit, Michael? Why don’t you spend your nights like I do, crying and masturbating to Russian moralistic literature, Michael?” It almost sounds like a song, doesn’t it?

Isobel joins the party, looking for an explanation about the night before. She tells Max he has 30 seconds to start talking, or she’ll melt his brain. Michael, who is a total gossip, is all in on the conversation, and dying to hear what Max did. When Max is done explaining about healing Liz, both Isobel and Michael have fits at him. Isobel can’t believe he risked their secret after 20 years, especially for Rosa Ortecho’s sister. Michael blasts his way out of the cell and blames Max for putting heroics over protecting his family. He blasts Max across the room and walks out.

Isobel remembers the cameras in the room, but Max tells her not to worry about them. She goes into a vicious rant: “Don’t worry? I have been worried my entire life that someone would find out about us. That we would end up dissected, imprisoned. I am married to someone who can’t ever know who I am, and that kills me. But I keep this secret, because you, me and Michael swore that we would. And now in one moment, you’ve thrown that all away, on some girl you had a thing for in high school. I hope she was worth it, Max.”

So, call me crazy, but don’t all of those burdens she just listed apply to Max and Michael as well? Isn’t Isobel, in fact, the only one who isn’t alone? And that last part was just mean and cold. The narcissist red flag is rising on this one.

Michael goes home, which is an airstream trailer on Foster Ranch, the same ranch where the alien ship crashed. His landlord and some military men are waiting for him outside the trailer. The landlord tells him that the Air Force has acquired the land, so Michael needs to move and take his trailer with him.

Michael sees another man peeking in his windows and goes to pull him away. When he does, he discovers that it’s Alex Manes, just back from a tour of duty in Baghdad. He came back minus a leg and is working with his father, Master Sargeant Jesse Manes, who is nearby collecting samples.

Michael’s too caught up in seeing Alex again to think about the implications of the Air Force acquiring the crash site and collecting samples. I’m thinking it’s not a coincidence.

Alex asks what Michael is doing in the trailer. Michael baits Alex by telling him he’s doing weed and casual sex. Plus, “Covert plans to violently overthrow the government. Quick, Alex, run and tell your daddy.” It sounds like there’s some history there. Michael goes inside. He has spaceship plans all over the walls, and some sort of sparkling, rainbow colored solution in a plastic bag.

Liz drives out to the site of Rosa’s car crash, where there’s a small memorial set up. Before she gets out of the car, she remembers telling Rosa about Max, just before she graduated from high school. Liz realized she cared deeply for Max and didn’t want to leave him behind when she left town. Rosa tried to convince Liz that she was already gone and shouldn’t weigh herself down with any baggage from Roswell.

There are three small wooden crosses at the site, with the names of the three victims on them. They all have flowers and rosary beads, but Rosa’s has been pulled up out of the ground and tossed aside. Liz puts the cross upright in the ground again, noticing that there are friendship bracelets on the arm of the cross.

Liz goes back into town and brings Max a milkshake. She waits for him outside of the police station, while Michael watches her from his truck. When Max comes outside, Liz tells him the shake is to make up for the one that got interrupted the night before and to thank him. He insists he didn’t do anything special.

Liz tells Max that her mother and her sister both had mental health issues, and she’s worried that she’s developing them, too. She was hallucinating, and thought she was shot. She even went to see Kyle at the hospital, and had him check to make sure there wasn’t a bullet still in her body. But there wasn’t, so she must be going insane.

Liz turns and starts to walk away. Max calls her back, but before he can say anything, Michael blows out all of the windows in a nearby car. There’s a woman in the car, so Max has to make sure she’s okay. Max knows this was Michael’s doing. Liz puts a plastic bag over the milkshake straw to protect the DNA in Max’s saliva, and hurries away.

Liz visits her high school best friend, Maria, who now works as a bartender at the local townie bar, The Wild Pony. Maria does fortune-telling, and is just finishing a palm reading for Hank, who makes a nasty, racist comment about Liz when she walks in the door. Maria calls him on it and sends him on his way. Then she tries to send Liz to the town’s tourist bar. Liz thanks Maria for leaving something at Rosa’s memorial. They drink a toast to Rosa.

When Max gets home, he finds Isobel waiting for him. She needs a photo of the three of them from high school for the reunion. She coos at the photo Max gives her, then goes straight to a cutting remark about Max and Liz. Max tells her that he’s going to tell Liz the truth. At this point, it will be less dangerous than leaving Liz in the dark. Isobel loudly insists that he can’t bring a stranger in on their secret. Max yells back that he’s not asking permission.

He immediately apologizes, having surprised them both. Isobel asks, half jokingly, if he’s in love with her. Max says that he hasn’t seen her in ten years. Isobel reminds him that there are too many secrets that Liz, in particular, can’t know. Being with her would just be too complicated. He needs to find someone, anyone else. Max sadly tells her that it’s been ten years. If he were going to move on, he would have done it by now. Several emotions cross Isobel’s face. Remorse, and the awful realization that she might have ruined his life for good, are in there somewhere.

Maria thinks it’s romantic that Max and Liz went through a shooting together. Liz notes that Max doesn’t seem to have any romantic interest in her. Maria tells her that the cure for rejection is sex with a rando. Liz has had a few shots by now, and decides that’s her cue to leave, before one of the townies in the bar starts looking good.

She goes outside to call an Uber and runs into Kyle. He asks if she wants to spend the evening together and forget about whatever’s bothering her. She takes him up on the offer, which turns into car sex, though he was up for whatever she wanted to do. I guess she’s a cheap date.

He tries to stop things at one point, thinking that using each other for random sex is a bad idea, but Liz wants to keep going. A minute later, he sees the telltale glowing, rainbow alien handprint where Max healed Liz. When he asks what it is, Liz cuts the date short.

Great job playing it cool, Liz.

The podcaster is back at the Crashdown Cafe, sure that the blackout was caused by aliens who are out to takeover the town by raping, murdering, and stealing their jobs.

Liz looks at Max’s cells under a microscope and discovers that they aren’t human. She goes looking for him, but finds him looking for her. She shows him the handprint. He asks her to take a drive with him.

Kyle calls Jesse Manes, because, before he died, his dad drilled into him the mantra, “If you see the handprint, go to Manes.”

Max and Liz go out into the desert, where he takes her into a boarded up cave. She fusses the whole way there, sure that he’s actually a stranger who’s going to serial kill her and lumping him in with the way she feels about the rest of the town. Max reminds her that he’s not a stranger, he’s a decent guy who stays in Roswell because he likes it there and the people have been decent to him, even though he knows people treated her badly after Rosa died.

Inside the cave, Max shows her three glowing pods that are  floating, save for a spot where they’re tethered to the ground. They think the pods are the reason they survived the 1947 crash. They woke up 50 years later, in 1997, looking like 7 year old children, and wandered out into the desert. They were found by a trucker, then Max and Isobel were adopted and Michael went into foster care.

Liz is actually relieved to find out the truth, because it’s better thinking she’s going crazy. She’s already proven to herself that his DNA isn’t human, now he’s just confirming it. Max explains that keeping their secret has always been the most important thing to him, until he realized she was dying. Liz promises to keep the secret, too.

Jesse Manes also takes Kyle for a drive so that he can explain some things. He tells Kyle that after the 1947 crash, the Valentis and the Manes started an organization together that’s dedicated to keeping the town, the country, and the planet safe. He uses a digital palmprint reader to open what looks like old, metal storm doors on a derelict old building. Inside, it’s a huge underground facility, which Manes calls Project Shepherd.

At the high school reunion, Isobel and Michael are plotting the best way to ruin Max’s life, for the second time. Michael wants to make sure that Isobel is prepared to use her mind-wipe powers on Liz to take away her memories of Max, should Liz betray them. Just like Isobel did ten years ago, when they made her leave town without Max.

Liz has lots of questions about aliens for Max, but he doesn’t have answers. He’s just a guy from Roswell who happens to have powers. He did consider leaving town once, ten years ago. If it wasn’t for Michael and Isobel, he would have followed her- followed in her footsteps that is.

He has to leave to go to the reunion, because it’s important to Isobel. Liz decides to go with.  She asks about the other times he’s saved people, but he never uses his powers to save anyone. Liz realizes that he did it because it was her. She asks why.

He responds by asking if she remembers the first time they met. She doesn’t but he does. He offers to show her by connecting through the mark, but he has to touch it. She tells him to do whatever he wants. He’s a gentleman, so he just steps forward and touches the handprint.

Through a montage, he shows her images from their childhood and teen years. They were close friends who spent a lot of time together. She often shared her music with him by giving him one earbud while she kept the other.

When it’s done, she looks at him and says, “After high school, you would have followed me.” He replies, “Yeah. Anywhere.”

She tries to kiss him, and he wants to, but he stops her. He explains that the handprint is part of a psychic bond that the healing creates between them. It allowed him to show her his memories. What she’s feeling right now are his own feelings, coming through the bond. Until the handprint and the bond fade, he won’t get involved with her. It would be taking advantage.

It will take a few days to a week for the handprint and the bond to fade. Liz decides that she’ll wait and kiss him then, when she can prove her feelings are real.

Back in the bunker, Jesse is about to initiate Kyle into the family conspiracy business. He and Kyle’s dad were close friends, and everything he shares with Kyle in this room is fact.

The Facts, as Jesse knows them: The 1947 crash was real, and what crashed was a ship full of monsters. Most of the monsters died the night of the crash (he doesn’t specify if they died in the crash or if humans killed them afterward). But at least one survived. If Kyle saw a handprint, the violence isn’t over.

What I love about the way Jesse talks about the aliens is that it’s clear that the humans were and are the perpetrators of the bulk of the violence.

At the high school reunion, Alex confronts Michael about his trailer. The Air Force chemical engineers found high levels of phenyl-2-propanone around the trailer, which would be present if Michael were cooking meth. Michael stands up, and says that it’s not P2P, but it’s something similar. Alex gets right up in his space. As Michael tries to brush past him to walk away, Alex grabs his hand. Michael asks if Alex is trying to hold his hand. Alex asks if he ever gets tired of doing his macho cowboy thing. Michael asks the question right back and walks away. Alex watches him until he leaves the room.

Their lips were about two inches apart during that exchange, in case the actual conversation wasn’t enough to convince you they were hate-flirting. Michael is a cat, or a Klingon, and all romantic endeavors must begin with a heated, possibly violent, argument.

When Liz and Max get to the reunion, people stare at her and make rude comments. She and Max are ready to leave, but then Maria proves she’s a truly great friend by getting the band to play Liz’s favorite song and dancing in the middle of the floor. Liz knows she has to join in.

Max remembers watching Liz dance to the song in high school with her sister and friends. She was inside the diner, while he stood outside. As has happened several times throughout the episode, words and lines from windows and reflections cover his face and mouth, a reminder that he’s trapped by circumstances he can’t control, and things he can’t say.

Alex adjusts his prosthetic in a room off to the side of the reunion. Michael finds him there. Alex says that he thought sure Michael would have left town by the time he got back. Michael asks if Alex wants him to leave. Alex thinks that what he wants doesn’t matter, since he’s not a kid anymore.

As they’ve been talking, Michael has been slowly walking toward Alex. Alex sort of gravitates closer to Michael, and they finally smash themselves together, kissing like they’ve been starving without each other.

Isobel finds Max, who’s watching Liz dance with Maria. She guesses that he told Liz. He admits that he did, and explains how well it went. He’s sure they can trust Liz. Isobel scoffs at him.

When the trust breaks down, as it inevitably will, it’ll be Isobel’s fault.

Jesse, still talking to a rapt Kyle: “They are a violent race. They despise compassion. They despise freedom, love and they thrive on our tragedy. They are at their very core, killers.”

Michael and Alex are just existing in each other’s space and letting it bring them back to life for a few minutes.

Isobel asks if Max told Liz about the other thing, and he cuts her off before she can finish. Liz can never know the truth about what happened to Rosa.

Liz touches the handprint, which is close to her heart. Then she pulls Max out onto the dance floor with her.

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Commentary

The Alien Diaries* Roswell, New Mexico has a 13 episode season, of which 5 are directed by women. The pilot and one other episode are directed by Julie Plec. Shiri Appelby, who played Liz Parker in the original series, directs episode 9. Paul Wesley, from The Vampire Diaries, also directs an episode. There are female writers credited on 8 of the episodes.

The regular cast includes Jeanine Mason as Liz Ortecho, Nathan Dean Parsons as Max Evans, Lily Cowles as Isobel Evans-Bracken, Michael Vlamis as Michael Guerin, Michael Trevino as Kyle Valenti, Tyler Blackburn as Alex Manes, Heather Hemmens as Maria DeLuca, Trevor St. John as Jesse Manes and Karan Oberoi as Noah Bracken.

Recurring characters include Rosa Arredondo as Sheriff Valenti, Carlos Compean as Arturo Ortecho, Riley Voelkel as Jenna Cameron, Amber Midthunder as Rosa Ortecho,  Sherri Saum as Mimi DeLuca, Claudia Black as Ann Evans,  and Dylan McTee as Wyatt Long.

I’m looking forward to seeing Claudia Black as Max and Isobel’s mother. Amber Midthunder plays Kerry Loudermilk on Legion. Though she’ll only be seen in flashback, since her character passed away 10 years ago, it’ll be fun to see her in a new role. Michael Trevino appears to be playing another character that I just can’t bring myself to like. I’m sure he’s a lovely person in real life, but the werewolf and now the jealous snitch both get on my nerves.

They left out Liz’s childhood cupcake dress, which is in both the books and the original series. That was a chance to show a little levity and put their own twist on a beloved image, while providing continuity with the other versions.

Themes in this episode: Dangerous secrets; What helps you sleep at night; Protecting people; The varying ways hands touch people- with good or bad intentions; The positives and negatives of loyalty; The meaning of home and how much it’s worth sacrificing to stay in one’s home.

Personally, I might draw the line at dating someone who smelled like nail polish remover. Too many chemical fumes. I’ll still fight for their equal human rights, obviously. But my chemical sensitivities probably preclude a relationship. However, I do miss the addiction to hot pepper sauce that the original trio had. It made sense for New Mexico, the chili pepper capital.

Mysteries and Potential Storylines

What really happened to Rosa? We saw her trying to convince Liz that Max wasn’t worth getting fussed over. Did Isobel control Rosa’s mind and force her to say that? Is that why Rosa thought she was crazy? Did Isobel and Michael drive Rosa to her death, then Max helped cover it up, and let Liz go to keep peace in the family? What about Rosa and Liz’s mother? Did an alien also cause her to think she was insane? Do interactions with aliens run in the Ortecho family, instead of mental illness?

It looks like it’s the Manes and Valenti families who have issues with hereditary mental illnesses, especially illnesses involving obsession, delusions, extreme paranoia and anxiety. Those guys have been feeding their hate and fear off of ancient history for decades. Neither Jesse nor Kyle’s father would have ever even seen an alien.

Now Jesse’s initiating Kyle into their cult, and it looks ike Kyle is buying into the lies. Of course he is. He told us earlier in the episode that he doesn’t feel like he’s good enough, despite his good looks and accomplishments.  Joining a secret warrior cult puts him a step higher than everyone else, making him feel important and special. Giving him a specific target for his free-floating hatred and anxieties let’s him release those feelings against a real world target, which is very satisfying in the short-term. In the long-term, a cult that’s devoted to hatred can eat away at your core until nothing good is left, just an angry shell that follows cult leaders’ orders.

Whatever Isobel and Michael did to Liz and Rosa, they didn’t understand how serious Max and Liz were about each other. Whatever the other reasons for wiping Liz and killing Rosa, part of it was to keep Max for themselves and put something between him and Liz that could never be overcome. Now, ten years later, Isobel, at least, realizes the seriousness of their actions, and how badly they screwed up. But Isobel is a defensive person who doesn’t admit when she’s wrong and doesn’t like to share Max with anyone but Michael. Realizing her mistake may cause her to treat Max and Liz worse instead of better.

It’s ironic that Max and Isobel are so worried about Liz, and apparently always have been worried about the Ortecho sisters and Max’s connections to people in general, but don’t give a moment’s thought to Michael’s connection to Alex. Michael saw Alex looking into his windows and Alex told him there are military chemical engineers investigating him. But Michael thinks he’s too smart for anyone to figure out what he’s up to.

Meanwhile, his ex-boyfriend distracts him from the nefarious alien hunting and investigation activities of the Air Force and Project Shepherd. It doesn’t seem like Alex knows about Project Shepherd, but he could be using Michael. Or, Jesse could be pushing an innocent Alex toward Michael for the purposes of distraction and incidental information gathering. Jesse doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who’d be okay with a gay son or a handicapped one, neither being manly enough for him, so using his son wouldn’t be a problem for him. He wants Kyle, the straight, able-bodied hero-doctor, as his replacement son.

Roswell, NM kept each character’s specialized powers from the original show, which wasn’t in the books. In the books they all have the same powers. In the old show, their powers are related to their previous positions as royalty on their planet. The way that they are doing each character’s personality feels like they might be planning to do something with that aspect of the storyline, even though it was part of the messed up plotlines that didn’t really go anywhere. There are many directions you could take a story about exiled alien royalty. I wouldn’t mind seeing where it could go, if done well. The Roswell novels that followed the series did follow up on that storyline in a more gratifying way.

I would bet good money that the experimental regenerative medicine study that Liz was working on was based on alien DNA from the aliens captured in the ’47 crash. That thread will be picked up again, sooner or later. And the scientists will want fresh DNA to work with. Could they have hired Liz because she’s from Roswell, then have laid her off hoping she’d go home and lead them to an alien?

Roswell vs Roswell, NM

The original Roswell pilot was one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen. I still go back and watch it sometimes. Its climax is at the Crash Festival, where all of the story elements come together. The visuals are amazing, speaking to questions of identity and the nature of what makes us human. The Dave Matthews song “Crash into Me” is used as a centerpiece, highlighting the tragedy that befell the aliens’ parents, which is now celebrated as a tourist attraction, but has left them alone and hunted.

So far, Roswell, NM doesn’t have the visual pizazz that the original had. In the new pilot, the high school reunion replaced the festival, and it’s visual and musical styles were workman-like, using a cover of a song when we’d already heard the original and a space that was indistinct and industrial, like every other poorly lit space on TV this year.

Roswell, New Mexico is obviously trying to forge its own way and not copy the original’s big moments, which is both a good idea, and frustrating. There are some iconic elements that they didn’t change, like Liz getting shot in the diner and Max healing her, but they changed much of what surrounded the moment. My guess is that scene plays fine, if you aren’t comparing it to the original, which had a song playing over Max healing Liz that became iconic, and witnesses who became a big part of the story. But “fine” isn’t the same as creating new iconic moments of their own.

They seem to be focusing on making Roswell into a drab little town, so the cinematography also comes off as drab. Maybe that will change as Max and Liz get closer and the aliens explore their powers. A world that feels more magical should look more magical, and there were touches of that in this episode, in the pods, the handprint, the sparks outside the Crashdown Cafe, and Max and Liz alone in the diner.

They did use several big songs at key moments, and the showrunner has said that her dedication to the soundtrack is her homage to the original, which also had a great soundtrack. But if the show is going to work, they also have to be able to do what I asked viewers to do in the beginning of the recap: Put aside the original, and let this show be something all its own. If it makes sense to highlight a moment, do it, even if it was also an iconic moment in the original. If the show is worth watching, it will develop its own audience, who won’t care about the moments from a 20 year old show.

In the original pilot, the scene where Max reveals to Liz that he’s an alien is unforgettable. Even Mr Metawitches was looking for those iconic lines. I didn’t mind that they were changed, but I did mind that the scene was played down to the point where Liz decided that it was no big deal that Max is an alien. She’s a scientist. She should feel some excitement and wonder looking at those pods and hearing what Max has to say. Her reaction shouldn’t be emotionless interrogation of a man she cares about and has known all of her life.

Max and Liz have a sweet, passionate chemistry. Michael and Adam have intense chemistry. The actors who play Liz, Michael, Alex and Max all work as the characters they’re playing. Michael Trevino seems like he’ll work out as Kyle, especially if he remains conflicted or turns against the aliens. We didn’t see enough of Maria for me to form an opinion of Heather Hemmens. Rosa is an intriguing character and I love Amber Midthunder, so if there’s any way to bring her back to life, I vote we go for it.

Isobel is a bit of a problem, since the actress and character come off as petty and selfish. She’s married, but Max can’t be with Liz, who she’s already driven out of town once? She seems like the type who pulls out her claws every time a woman comes near her brother, with the excuse that they have to keep their secret, and he can’t be trusted. That’s a soap opera-level downgrade of the high-strung but generous and intelligent character Katherine Heigl originated. I hope this Isobel will grow into a better person, fast.

The adults who we met in the pilot seemed well-cast. I like the switch up of making Sheriff Valenti a reasonable Latina woman, and bringing in military man Jesse Manes to play the evil alien hunter that Valenti was in the books.

Project Shepherd and the underground facility are straight out of books (though Project Shepherd has a different name), so that may be the biggest way that Roswell, NM intends to differentiate itself from the original series. There’s a wealth of material in the books, that the original series didn’t touch on, for the new series to mine for inspiration. I’m excited at the prospect of Roswell, NM going in that direction.

Original Roswell’s giant failings were its plot and consistency. Showrunner Carina Adly MacKenzie says that she has a detailed 5 year plan already laid out for Roswell, NM. A showrunner with experience in making a supernatural/scifi show, with a plan and a show bible, and a network that’s on board with that plan, is much more than the original show had at any point in its run.

This show knows what it is and where it’s going, which should help it avoid accidentally reinventing itself every season and contradicting what’s come before. And help keep Roswell, NM from succumbing to plain old silliness, though sometimes that’s too much to ask for on any show based on speculative fiction.

Still, if Roswell, New Mexico is going to compete with original Roswell, it needs to go big or go home. It’s off to a good, but not great, start. Hopefully, with a little time to find its own rhythm, it will grow into something amazing.

Carina Adly MacKenzie did an amazing interview with Collider.com in conjunction with the series premiere in which she addresses all of the typical viewer concerns. As far as I can tell, we couldn’t be in safer hands.

Related items from Amazon.com:

*Couldn’t resist!

Images courtesy of The CW.

Roswell, New Mexico Season 1 Episode 1: Pilot Recap Roswell, New Mexico is The CW's latest entry into the reboot and revival craze that's brought back so many old TV shows, whether they should have been resurrected or not.

[tianshiisdead]

1!

I'm assuming this is for the salty ask meme! Thank u so much for asking anon I love being evil and bitter <33

uhhh warning for my hot takes lmaooo no offense is meant to anyone who disagrees/likes what I don't like, it's all valid!! I'm just giving my tastes and opinion : ) I'm pretty good with scrolling and curating my spaces so I don't mind following ppl who do ship things i dislike or see things differently!

Question: What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?*

Short answer (these are all dynamic specific btw first character tops second character bottoms): I'm not the biggest U/SUK shipper and I dislike As/akikuas/a (it is. my one major Notp in all of hetalia)

I should clarify I like U/KUS jldkshgjldf it's dynamics specific

putting long answer with my reasoning under 'keep reading' so I can be as bitter and truthful as I want, please don't read if u like those ships like, nothing against people who like them, they're just not my cup of tea and all that

So i won't pretend I have a great reason, it's mainly because I ship both UK and JP with yaoyao so I prefer them both topping and preferably topping yaoyao.

USUK: I think it's because I see arthur as a top... like to be honest I'm fine with this ship in concept but I think a lot of people portray arthur as the sort of tsundere I don't see him as? Like for lack of better words, the way many people portray him feels like the way I see Yaoyao in canon, weepy tsundere, pouts when bullied by his younger brother, etc. He's still a tsundere to me, it just doesn't feel like the way he is in canon... of course I enjoy certain other types of OOC so I can't pretend this is all about canon compliance lolll it's just because I don't see him that way and I don't think it personally makes sense with my thoughts about him so. I don't care as much about USUK when the characterization feels legitimate or doesn't get on my nerves. I'm also not a fan of AllUK because 1) I like allyao 2) it's popular enough I get salty because allyao is less popular in the english fandom and 3) again with the characterization doesnt work for me. I love UKAll though so... call me a hypocrite LOL

Asakikuasa: ahhh my most hated ship... I can't explain why I don't 'get it' because I fear I'll say something unpleasant. Long story short: I despise the way they are characterized (esp in Asakiku I don't mind kikuasa NEARLY as much) and the way they are paired together because asayao and kikuyao are my OTPs, I get upset at just seeing them or remembering it's popular, the main historical anglo-japanese alliance trope used is a trope I like to use for asayaokiku because of the way China (and korea but fdjlg) was involved in the agreement so i get bitter about that, I read a doujin that had Leon as their child (???) which upset me because I was like omg encroaching on asayao territory... I hate when people like uwu baby kiku because he's a stone faced chad to me and it's OOC (like... again i like OOC too so it's about preference I admit lol) also because he's 'similar' in a sense to yaoyao (easian country small cutesy uwu ppl see them as generic yaoi bottoms etc) and he's more popular in both the english and japanese fandoms, so I get. jealous basically. I can't explain why its so irritating for me to see but yeah I don't mind when people I follow ship it, but I have all the tags blocked and I do block artists over it (especially on twitter) because when I see it I get upset and can't think clearly HAHA

[tkmedia]

Let’s embrace The Gareth Way before Southgate-mania wanes

Johnny Nic ponders what’s so great about Gareth while recognising that one day, the tide will turn against Southgate. It always does… Who’s this then? Gareth Southgate (always Gareth, never Gary) is a six-foot-tall former centre-half for Crystal Palace, Aston Villa and Middlesbrough. He played 638 club games and scored 35 goals, as well as gaining 57 caps for England. His playing career lasted from 1990 to 2006. At Palace he was a right-back and a midfielder before settling into the centre-half role and became club captain in 1993, leading the side to win the second tier, stupidly called the First Division at the time. When they got relegated in 1995, after 191 games and five years, he moved to Aston Villa for £2.5 million, for a further six years, winning the League Cup in his first season there. His move to Middlesbrough in 2001 cost the club £6.5 million for the 31-year-old. He replaced Paul Ince as Boro captain and led the club to its first major silverware (if we are not to count the Anglo-Scottish Cup and the Kirin Cup as such) by winning the League Cup in 2004 and, after a remarkable campaign, being runners-up in the 2005-06 UEFA Cup, a position they achieved by losing one leg of each two-leg knockout game. In the semi-final beating of Steaua Bucharest, coming back from four goals down on aggregate, he was taken off injured after less than 20 minutes however, he is widely credited for giving the half-time speech to the side that inspired a massive comeback and amazing 4-3 aggregate victory, as boss Steve McClaren stood by and looked on in that way he has. When he took over from McClaren as manager of Middlesbrough, at a time of major financial restriction, he led them to 12th and 13th-place finishes before being relegated in his third season. When the club was one point off the top of the Championship, and lying fourth in the table, he was sacked in October 2009. And that was the last we thought we’d probably hear from him. That he’d end up as a successful England manager was not on anyone’s radar at all. He ducked out of football for fully four years, before returning as boss of England Under-21s replacing Stuart Pearce. He won the Toulon Tournament in 2016 with them and his record shows in 37 games, he only lost five. When Sam Allaradyce got involved in what we must call Wine-gate, he stepped in on a temporary basis to run the England side, passed the audition and has been there ever since 2016, leading the team to a World Cup semi-final and a European Championships final. Everything eventually came up Gareth. His win ratio is currently 63 per cent only behind Fabio Capello who tops that list with 66 per cent, so make of it what you will, and Allardyce who, the records show, has 100 per cent win ratio after winning his only game in charge. A stat I’m sure he’s keen to let everyone know about. He made his England debut under Terry Venables (47 per cent win ratio), missed THAT penalty, took part in a famous pizza advert and was recognised as an all-round, self-deprecating good guy. Even so, that he bestrides the national game as a veritable, if modest, colossus is somewhat surprising and one of recent years’ most cheering developments. Johnny Nic: Gareth Southgate is evaporating England cynicism every day Why the love? First, he was a very good defender and had a decent turn of pace but above all, excellent reading of the game, fearless in the tackle and a good organiser. The fact he was the club captain for the majority of his career suggests that he has always had leadership qualities. However, being a leader in the early 90s is a different task to being one in 2021. So he must’ve grown and evolved his skills over the years to fit in with the changing culture of the game, the expansion of his learning and understanding is one of the best things about his tenure to date. He’s not trying to pretend he’s a football sage, just someone who’s done some research, thought deeply about the game and understands the importance of psychology in making good players play well. Many love this about him. That he treats the job like an intelligent person and not some shouty blowhard, feels like a win for common sense and brains. Obviously, this is also what some really dislike and those people refuse to get with the Gareth programme of being inclusive and pleasant. He’s not what a certain type thinks should be an England manager, which is basically a flatulent bulldog in a Flag of St George waistcoat. But at this moment, Gareth is riding high amongst the majority of England fans for reviving the national team’s fortunes. Acres and acres has been written about how he’s done this, so I won’t go over it all again here but instead will point out that there is a good argument to say an element of over-the-top love of Gareth, right now, that is teetering on fetishisation of him. This happens a lot in modern media and I think I’m as guilty of it as anyone of indulging in it A person becomes the repository of everyone’s faith and hope, the future: our saviour. We all sing songs about him, laud his every move, his dress sense, even. The Gareth Way becomes A Thing and The Only Way. This in turn ensures he will eventually let everyone down because he is, after all, just a normal fella, and as such, liable to get stuff wrong. It’s not hard to see those murals defaced after a 2-0 home defeat to Hungary in October. When you’re put on a pedestal, there’s only one way to go. Now there are murals of him on walls, this seems almost inevitable and we need to remind ourselves that quiet revolutionary he may be, but he’s as liable to screw up as anyone is. The man himself will already know this well enough, of course. Politicians are now falling over themselves to get on board the Gareth train, even though, a few months ago many couldn’t have picked him out of a line-up and just a few weeks ago, disparaging his lead in taking the knee, as gesture politics. This was, as David Conn put it so well ‘playing on perceived prejudices to foment division’. Which is shocking enough, but he goes on, ‘One senior football figure told me there was “deep outrage” in the game about Johnson and Patel backing the fans who booed England players taking a knee, describing it as “the deepest insult”, evoking the most shameful period of racism in football. For the first time, a government saw an advantage for itself from siding with racists rather than supporting those who have worked for decades to kick racism out.’ Of course, Gareth has seen all of this bilious sh*t since the start of his career at Crystal Palace, seeing the attitudes towards Mark Bright and Ian Wright. Like any decent man, this surely must have informed his recent positions. At Palace team-mates actually thought he was posh. Is anyone from Watford posh? And they also thought he spoke like Denis Norden hence the ‘Nord’ nickname, which is even more bizarre because he doesn’t sound like Denis Norden and I’m fairly sure didn’t walk around Palace with a clipboard making acerbic comments. It was always a case of still waters running deep with Gareth, I think, and football then and largely now, was hardly the place to be expressing any degree of sensitivity. That was weak. Now, it is rightly seen as a strength. His ascent to the current pinnacle started at Middlesbrough. His time there is often painted by critics as disastrous but it wasn’t. As stated, he led them to two mid-table finishes and then got relegated. This is seen by his critics as proof of his limitations but wiser heads have pointed to the fact that you only learn from your mistakes and from adversity and thus he returned a wiser man and at just the right time. St George’s Park was coming on stream, and lots of good young players began to emerge. But this was a different generation of players. Shouting at them was not working, giving them confidence to express their own talent very much was. He worked for ITV as a co-commentator in the 2006 World Cup and, post-Boro again in 2010. Clive Tyldesley, who he worked with, has reported him as being a tremendous chap who was great to work. The two struck up a friendship that lasts to this day. When took over England in 2016, the old-fashioned view about him still predominated. He was too soft. He didn’t have the gravitas, the heft, to be an England manager. Couldn’t open a jar of pickled onions. He was out of his depth. None of this proved to be true, even though at first he seemed to doubt his own suitability to the role. He has grown and learned on the job, and taken his players with him on the journey. He understood from the start that you needed a strong team of support staff around him. His revolution has been quiet and undemonstrative. The very opposite of grandstanding; all content with little show. And this has worked perfectly in the modern environment. I’m sure he’d be the first to say that he still has much to learn. At 50 he’s got a long managerial career ahead of him if he wants. With a semi-final and a final in the bag already, he’s got a high standard to maintain and while the team looks to have quality in depth, football is an ornery sport that can sit up and bite you at any moment. Just when you think you’ve got it all sorted is the moment it all falls apart. So his position, though secure at the moment, would, as I say, not take long to be cut down. Everybody loves… Emma Hayes | Jimmy Greaves | David Seaman | Alan Shearer What the people say Not a massive postbag this week. Maybe everyone is looking away, taking a post-tournament breather, or maybe people are all-Garethed-out. My missus, a Geordie and not prone to dress up anything in flowery language, says of our man, “He’s the sort of lad you’d fancy because he’s just so nice. Just being nice is massively underrated when it comes to making someone f*ckable”. So with that in mind… – He’s so thoroughly likeable and decent that he makes me want England to win…and I’m Irish. – Nothing about him worries me. We should have realised he was special when Harry Hill immortalised him with the Gareth Southgate Badger character on his Channel 4 show in the late 90’s. pic.twitter.com/hfp6EC3wsx — David W Poole (@DavidWPoole73) July 16, 2021 – Like the way that despite having had an impressive career as a player he has stayed well away from the ‘Proper Football Man’ nonsense that so often imbues English ex players. – He’s a lucky manager. Which is half the battle. – Where to begin… Calm, measured, articulate, instantly likeable. He’s tactically more savvy than he’s often given credit for, as well, although maybe a touch conservative. He’s built something special with his England players, and they clearly trust and respect him enormously. I really like him. More than any England manager in my life, I’d say. He’s just so dignified, and that’s dead important isn’t it? I worry the media will eventually bury him. Maybe there’s a shout for him to go before they do, but that would be a huge loss for us. – One of few football managers you could imagine being successful as an office manager, sympathetically coaxing a team member through a performance review and agreeing some targets for the next quarter. Treats the England players like emotionally intelligent adults, supports them on and off the field. It’s telling there were no grumbles from star players left out of the team during the tournament – I like Ray Parlour’s story about him when he became Boro manager. Southgate instructed the players that as he was now manager they were to call him ‘gaffer’ and not Gareth, Gaz etc as they had done when he was simply a team mate. ‘What about big nose?’ asked Parlour. Not sure if Parlour made many appearances in his final season at Boro after that. Great bloke and a thoroughly decent human being Southgate – I think he was dealt a bum deal by Boro in the end and we ended up with Strachan, possibly the worst manager in living memory as a result. – His management style is changing football culture. For a number of reasons it seems entirely inconceivable a manager like Sam Allardyce would go on a network like GB News and support players’ anti-racism campaigning in previous eras. Most of the clip is the aftermath, but gotta respect his “tackle” on Roy Keane!https://t.co/PUBkohLx3n — Mark Lewis (@SankeySinner) July 16, 2021 – At his very core he’s a thoroughly decent man; something that has been missing from leaders in Britain for quite some time. Three great moments Our man was the manager the day Boro beat Manchester City 8-1 – and City were lucky to get one. Even Afonso Alves scored. The famous pizza advert. He regretted it but it’s still funny. Mind, that’s not a proper pizza, that’s a weird, greasy, vegetable and cheese flan, isn’t it? If I was Italy, I’d sue… And he could score a toe poke with the best of them… Future days How long will he manage England for? It’s hard to predict but it seems certain he’ll take them to Qatar as it’s only 18 months away. After that it’s only 18 more months until the next Euros. After two World Cups and two Euros, maybe he’ll feel it’s time to move on from a very intense job There is no pressure on him from the media right now, something that annoys those who take against him. That derives from firstly, there being no obvious replacement candidate for the press to pally up to and push, but also because he’s played the press very well. He’s made players be more available and in less formal situations. He’s anticipated what they will be asked and what “the boys” might want well in advance of the fact and thus planned how to deal with them. I often see press guys saying what great access they get to England players and how Gareth is so good with them. Of course he’s played them and engineered the situation to be like that so as to avoid being subjected to the vagaries of fashion and commercial interests that dictate newspapers agendas, as much as possible. But we all know that knives can be sharpened very quickly. None more so than Southgate himself. It is hard to see him managing a club again, for some reason. While offers will surely arrive, I feel there remains a scepticism about him at the highest level. This would evaporate if he won a trophy for England I’m sure, but even so, you don’t want to be stepping down from England to have to go and manage West Ham or Palace. This may just be a failure of my imagination but I think post-England he’ll take an extended break and then go back into the game in a more advisory role. He doesn’t seem the sort to wear the mohair coat on a cold, sleety January night, away to Port Vale in the cup, it would, inevitably, feel like a come down from taking the national side to major tournaments. He’s already made his mark on English football history. He has nothing to prove to anyone and anyone who thinks he has, he’ll never be able to convince. We all have much to thank him for, not least lifting the mood around the England side which had been entrenched in depression and division for so damn long. Is it a permanent change or will it last only as long as the manager does? Time will tell but the typical. FA policy of appointing the opposite of the recently departed incumbent suggests this is but a blip. In which case, suck it all in, breathe in the Garethness of the current situation for it may be over sooner than we’d like and then, well, who knows? Read the full article

[notesfromthefielddesk]

Episode 2 - E.E. Evans Pritchard

Episode link - https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LqJQ1q2kv5utkoct7V8Cg?si=485ef5c24837440e

John

I’m looking out over the plains of what was once Nuerland. The heavy clay earth is broken apart by the relentless sun. Deep cracks and the threaded depressions of rivers which rarely fill, even in the rainy season, are the only features on the dead flat, almost alien landscape. Around me cattle rest on the slightly (We hear gentle mooing) elevated sandy spot I found for my desk. From here I can see clear to the horizon where I spot sporadic patches of trees but all other greenery has browned and died back months ago. What these cows are living off is beyond me.

In years past the sodden clay retained water allowing certain plants to survive through the dry months. When the rain came this whole plain would be covered in grass reaching over my head as I sit behind my desk. Near the rivers edge they’d reach up to my shoulders even when standing. The rivers would fill then overflow making the whole plain a marshy swamp. At times like those this sandy mound would be prime real-estate and i’d be sharing space with far more cows.

Nowadays, this is South Sudan. The rainy season has become more sporadic and unpredictable. Often the relief of rains arrival is followed - shortly - by overwhelming flooding. Right now people are still waiting on that rain.

(we hear the wind starting to pick up)

The wind is picking up. A cloud of dust is rising on the plain. The horizon, with it’s sporadic trees and the cracked earth disappear from view behind a wall of air thick with clay. I can see about two cows away. Out of the dust emerges a figure. They’re walking towards me.

This is notes from the field desk.

Theme

oh! you. Look after what you told me in Papua new guinea I don’t think we should be talking. What are you doing here anyway? -

what do you mean am I following you? I am here by chance. My flight back to London from Brisbane got diverted because of technical fault with the plane and we landed in Juba. So there is no way I could have followed you here. If anything you’re probably followed me!

(sigh) Fine, I suppose there is no harm in you sitting here. There’s a tree stump just there you can listen to me record if you want. That is if you’re not busy organising a coup or whatever.

Anyway, when we got grounded in Juba I had a look through my collection. Oh, I should explain, I travel with a trunk of the one hundred most influential ethnographies, that’s what we call the books anthropologists write.

Side note, I never thought the trunk would be a problem, in all these Ethnographies they talk about getting porters to carry all their stuff, but when I asked at the airport for a porter, they just laughed at me?

Anyway, we were grounded a while before they cancelled the flight. So I had a look and it turns out another anthropological founding father did research in South Sudan. E.E.Evans-Pritchard. Or as I call him EEEE Pritchard. Okay well look, I don’t even want you to find my jokes funny so you just sit there rolling your eyes all you want.

Evans-Pritchard was a student of Malinowski at LSE and in the late 1920’s he set out for what was then Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. He wrote a couple of Ethnographies about the Azande which mostly focused on magic, kind of an obsession with early anthropologists. Then he headed south in 1930 to do research on the Nuer, which focused mostly on politics. A good hard subject we can get our teeth into! Anglo-Egyptian Sudan came Sudan in 1956, then split into the mostly Muslim North and mostly Christian South in 2011. Then in 2021 I arrived to do some peer-reviewing. I’m hoping Evan’s Pritchard is a bit less of a controversial figure so my students will get off my back.

(phone rings) ignore that, i’m ignoring, that’s nothing.

(Clearly still flustered) Okay, last time, we talked about the two sides of anthropology, the field and the desk. If Malinowski represents the innovation of field, you know participating in society, going native, spending years in the field. Then Evans-Pritchard is the OG anthropologist who developed the desk. Anthropology trades on being able to create a sense of being there through vivd description, where Malinowski could be a bit stiff and scientific Evans-Pritchard had a bit of flare with his flowing prose.

Is that cow looking at me? That one there with huge horns. I swear to god it’s looking at me.

Anyway, EP, I like calling him EP when I do he feels like a friend. (clear throat) He made drawings, he took tonnes of pictures, he described the plains, some of his diary crept into the ethnography. No racism as far as I could tell but He talks about being frustrated, he shows his work. A move towards modern anthropology. So reading his The Nuer, which is the ethnography he wrote about this region, is really like the experience of being here. Way less of a slog than boring old Malinowski.

(Email Chime)

Ohh an email, do you mind if I just check this? I just got assigned a student whose thesis i’m supervising. Very exciting. Shaping the next generation of anthropologists and all that.

okay, here we go.

“Dear Professor Johnson”

Not a professor but i’m quite pleased with that.

“I discussed briefly with Susan, uh-huh, during the introduction lecture that I’d be interested in researching the club scene, queer identity and youth in London. I’ve been reading tony Adams and Stacy Holman Jones on Auto-ethnography and that’s inspired me to try it myself. If you could point me in the direction of some readings to get myself started with.

All the best,”

I’ll leave their name out of it, bit of privacy. Hmm well i’m not sure about that. I mean really ethnography should be done in a rural place, not the city, should they even be doing research in the UK? This is anthropology not sociology. Plus auto-ethnography? I’ve never heard of it but we’re supposed to be studying the other not ourselves, this isn’t psychology. Hmm well I need to think about a reply, don’t want to stamp on the young fellows aspirations but he needs setting straight.

What is that cow doing. Is it - it’s coming over here isn’t it. Shoo, shoo! it’s licking me. Do something don’t just laugh. No do not nibble my suit! Argh. This suit cost a lot of money cow! Get off me. Shoo. Fine, i’m getting up. it’s your desk now!

Go on get out of here!

You know what happens now because you wouldn’t help me? We’re going to talk about theory. Yes groan away, there isn’t even a sea for you to paddle in this time so I guess you’ll just have to sit down there with the cows and listen.

This book actually is mostly about cows. All three hundred pages of it, I don’t think there is a single sentence that doesn’t mention cows or cattle or I don’t know bovine. I mean I like cows as much as the next englishman but it’s not exactly thrilling. But in fairness to Evans-Pritchard the Nuer didn’t exactly give him a choice. He said that

“whatever subject I would start on, and approaching it from whatever angle, we would soon be speaking of cows and oxen, heifers and steers, rams and sheep, hegoats and she-goats, calves and lambs and kids.”

Basically the Nuer loved cows. He said this fact was the underlying structure of Nuer society. So everything in Nuer society comes back to cows. Love, war, religion, politics, it was all about cows.

Our boy EP is a structural functionalist, - look the terms are important so just get used to it - meaning he thought there are underlying structures to all societies, that cause us to behave in a certain ways. Where Malinowski and functionalism thought post hoc ergo propter hoc - I can see you rolling your eyes, sometimes latin is useful! (deep sigh) Fine, i’ll explain it another way.

Malinowski would say the Nuer like cows because they give them milk - our boy EP would say okay but why love cows instead of say… soy beans which can also give you milk. It’s because the conditions the land in which the Nuer live aren’t good for growing soy beans, but they are good for raising cattle.

What would be a good comparison. Okay, Malinowski would say you like your iPhone because it gives you messages from friends. Those messages make you feel nice, so it fills a need. And EP might say, yes that’s true but it’s also possible that you like the phone because the underlying structure of Western society values objects especially expensive ones. Or else you’d have a nokia 3310. It still fills the same function but EP aims to explain why people choose one thing over another. If you’re a quote fan here is how Evans-Pritchard put it.

“Although the Nuer have a mixed pastoral-horticultural economy their country is more suitable for cattle husbandry than for horticulture, so that the environmental bias coincides with the bias of their interest and does not encourage a change in the balance in favour of horticulture.”

Oh there is a guy over there! (Shouting) Hey! Hey sir! Sir! Who do these cows belong to? Sir? (Biggish pause) (Snort in distance) He’s gone. Well I didn’t have time to chat anyway, i’ve got a tutorial. Just keep that cow away from me while I’m teaching. I doubt you care but here’s a Nuer song that Evans Pritchard translated.

Extract

The wind blows wira wira;

Where does it blow to?

It blows to the river. The shorthorn carries its full udder to the pastures;'

Let her be milked by Nyagaak;

My belly will be filled with milk. Thou pride of Nyawal,

Ever-quarrelling Rolnyang.

This country is overrun by strangers;

They throw our ornaments into the river;

They draw their water from the bank.

Blackhair my sister,

I am bewildered.

Blackhair my sister,

I am bewildered.

We are perplexed;

We gaze at the stars of God.

White ox good is my mother

And we the people of my sister. The people of Nyariau Bui.

As my black-rumped white ox. When I went to court the winsome lassie,

I am not a man whom girls refuse. We court girls by stealth in the night,

I and Kwejok Nyadeang.

We brought the ox across the river,

I and Kirj oak

And the son of my mother's sister Buth Gutjaak.

Friend, great ox of the spreading horns,

Which ever bellows amid the herd. Ox of the son.

Return from tutorial

You let the cows eat my notes!? I thought I said watch the cows! What happened? Was it that same cow again? What do you mean they all look the same, the one with the evil eyes!

Okay, so it seems like I missed some things again. The students pointed out that on page one of the preface, I might have skipped the preface, says “My study of the Nuer was undertaken at the request of, and was mainly financed by, the Government of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.” Which means the colonial government most likely paid for him to do the research because they wanted to control the Nuer. He describes them as violent willing to go to war over cattle at the drop of a hat. In text he says;

“At the present time cattle are the main cause of hostility

towards, and suspicion of, the Government, not so much on

account of present taxation as of earlier tax-gathering patrols

which were little more than cattle raids and of the avowedly

plundering expeditions of the Egyptian Government era that

preceded them.”

The students pointed out that given theat the government violently took their property, it was kind of understandable that the Nuer were angry. Again, if he was there trying to collect information so the colonial officers could control them, can we trust his findings?

During the second world war he used his ethnographic relationships to recruit Sudanese troops who he then led in Guerrilla warfare against the Italians. I said that sounds pretty cool right? Which made them angry, academic knowledge shouldn’t be used as a weapon to manipulate people into fighting in a war, which, regardless of the outcome would leave them colonised. They asked why we were spending so much time focussing on old men.

(Phone rings) Ignore that!

Pause takes a breath

I said fine, but we have to cover foundational figures who would they rather cover? What about Boas? He thought races were biological different and with some inferior to others. Ruth Benedict? They say she wrote a book for the US army in the Second World War about how to defeat the Japanese based on their culture without ever setting foot in Japan. Fine, Margret Mead? Exoticised the sex lives of Samoans and thought they were primitive.

I’m taking off this jacket it’s so hot and it’s got cow slobber all over the shoulder.

Well if all of them were racist then let’s just pack the whole thing in! They said I wasn’t understanding. I was thinking about racism as an individual failing caused by ignorance. But they weren’t ignorant, their racism was a product of society. In that way Evans-Pritchard was right. They lived during colonialism and the rise of the nation state. Which meant Nations had to justify their difference from others and their superiority over others.

People had to have a reason to believe in “Being British” rather than French or Sudanese. Or why would you think it was okay to rule them? Or to enforce boarders?  These ideas of superiority and difference permeated the early anthropologists the same way the utility of cow herding led to the Nuer loving cattle. So everyone from that era was bound to be Colonialist.

They also said It doesn’t help that doing fieldwork confirms the differences between people. My head felt like it was going to explode. Still trying to figure it all out and it doesn’t help that that cow is still looking at me. I asked where they were getting all this from? Lentin and Visweswaren they said, apparently it’s on the reading list… I haven’t read the reading list.

(Phone rings once but he immediately hangs it up)

So, they said maybe next we could talk about Talal Asad. Apparently he is an anti-colonial ethnographer or something. I said fine whatever. They seem to know more than me anyway. Maybe we shouldn’t do fieldwork, maybe we should all do auto-ethnography. My students said maybe, but we still need to pay attention because racism hasn’t gone away, it’s still in our society. Which means we still might make arguments for it in our work unless we’re careful.

I guess before I do field work I should look at what the underlying structures of Britain are effecting my thinking. Not just my assumptions like I thought with Malinowski but what it means for a British person to turn up at a former colony. What does that act mean even before I start interacting with people.

I know that sounds like the same conclusion as episode one but my students assure me it’s subtly different. My head hurts, let’s go.

Nah leave the desk I’ll just get another.

Theme

This was notes from the field desk written by me James McGrail.  

This episode references

Evans-Pritchard, E.E., The Nuer, 1940, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Lentin, A. (2004). Racial states, anti-racist responses. Picking holes in 'Culture' and 'Human Rights'. European Journal of Social Theory 7(4): 427-443.

Pocock, D. (1975). Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard 1902–1973: An appreciation. Africa, 45(3)

Visweswaran, Kamala (1998) Race and the Culture of Anthropology, American Anthropologist 100/1: 70-83.

Theme ends

Susan

Do you think I’m stupid? You think I believe your flight got diverted to South Sudan? South Sudan? Oh and it just so happens that it’s thematically appropriate for your little podcast? Get back to London. Now. We need to have a serious conversation.

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샌즈카지노 pattern that give you money Part3 #2195

Drag Bingo events were first launched in Seattle in the early 1990s as a fundraiser for local HIV/AIDS charities. Craps is the principal dice game at most American casinos. The basic rules are the same in the UK as the US, although the payouts differ – the maximum bet is generally £100 on the ante and £200 on the raise, and all payouts are paid on the raise, meaning the maximum payout can potentially be £10,000 (a Royal Flush pays at the same odds, 50:1, as a Straight Flush). The amount of the original bet then goes on one of the cards, and an equal amount must be placed as a bet on the other card.

No casino currently runs a craps table with a bet that yields a player edge full-time. The Fat Pack adds red Roses, black Axes, black Tridents and red Doves to the standard deck. The English pattern, based on the extinct Rouennais pattern, is the most living known pattern in the world. it is for also drawn the International or Anglo-American pattern. The only way the edge will be more than the standard 1% is when you have many hands.

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The most common situation is someone calling bingo using the next number in the screen before it has been called. Playing cards were invented in Ancient China. They were found in China as early as the 9th Century during the Tang Dynasty (618–907). The first reference to the card game in world history dates no later than the 9th Century, when the Collection of Miscellanea at Duyang, written by Tang Dynasty writer Su E, described Princess Tongchang (daughter of Emperor Yizong of Tang) playing the “leaf game” in 868 with members of the Wei clan (the family of the princess’ husband). The Song Dynasty (960–1279) scholar Ouyang Xiu (1007–1072) asserted that playing cards and card games existed at least since the mid-Tang Dynasty and associated their invention with the simultaneous development of using sheets or pages instead of paper rolls as a writing medium. The first known book on cards called Yezi Gexi was allegedly written by a Tang-era woman, and was commented on by Chinese writers of subsequent dynasties.Pattern differences are most easily found in the face cards but the number of cards per deck, the use of numeric indices, or even minor shape and arrangement differences of the pips can be used to distinguish them. Only the stickman or a dealer can place a service bet.

The standard 52-card pack is used, but in most casinos several decks of cards are shuffled together. Do residents with various social backgrounds have different opinions toward the impacts of casino gambling establishments?Additionally, the Internet has made many forms of gambling accessible on an unheard-of scale. A complete bet places all of the inside bets on a certain number. Full complete bets are most often bet by high rollers as maximum bets.

In fact, certain researchers have defined the socio-economic networks that are formed by the gaming, resorts, shopping, and entertainment industries in Las Vegas and Macau as “casinopolitanism”. Comparing it with other gambling activities like poker, which has been around for the past 50 years, or slot machines that have existed for a century, blackjack is an old game.There has been no independent evidence that such methods can be successfully applied in a real casino. If no one does, the caller then draws one ball at a time until someone shouts bingo.

Most roulette wheels have two colors: red and black. During the Second World War there was much damage to the city including the destruction of the church in October 1944. Liberated by the French 2nd Armoured Division on 31 October 1944, the city resumed its industrial expansion in 1945. The reconstruction of the church was done in 1953. 그레잇게임 A player may also call, "No Action" when a point is established, and the bet will not be moved to its point. This play is not to the player's advantage. Jacob Riis, in his famous book about the underbelly of New York, How the Other Half Lives (1890), wrote of entering a Chinatown fan-tan parlor: "At the first foot-fall of leather soles on the steps the hum of talk ceases, and the group of celestials, crouching over their game of fan tan, stop playing and watch the comer with ugly looks.

A rough estimate of the amount of money legally wagered annually in the world is about $10 trillion (illegal gambling may exceed even this figure). The first known European gambling house, not called a casino although meeting the modern definition, was the Ridotto, established in Venice, Italy, in 1638 by the Great Council of Venice to provide controlled gambling during the carnival season. It was closed in 1774 as the city government felt it was impoverishing the local gentry.“Hitting” means you’d like another card – go over 21, and you’re bust. It’s usually considered risky to “hit” when you’ve already got a high-ranking number or card. Players may also place a stack of chips for a bet as usual, but leave the top chip off-center and announce "on top for the dealers".