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angelofverdum · 2 months

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Desperate Housewives

I wish I would have written about each season while watching. I have so many feelings.

I have so much to say about this show. I just love it when a show has a perfect mix of drama and comedy. The kind of show that made me cry and laugh so much that I had to pause the episode.

They don't make shows like this one, where they introduce a story in one episode and wrap it up in the next one, and it's not relevant again. That is television. 6 to 8 episodes are the worst thing that ever happened.

I have a tiny complaint and it's that they should have spent more time together as friends. They did poker night but besides that they don't discuss personal stuff. That's why one of my favorite scenes is when Gaby and Bree are having an "affair", because they want to hangout just because.

The wives

Bree Van De Kamp.

In my eyes Bree can’t do wrong, I’m sorry. On paper why would you like someone like Bree? She is a Republican, she has guns, and she was judgmental. I’ll give credit to Marcia Cross for making Bree this beautiful amazing character.

Bree was the best-written character. I think it was the only character who didn’t regress, she actually had a character development through the seasons and learned from her mistake.

She was homophobic when she learned that her son was gay, but she got over it, her relationship with Andrew was one of the most beautiful things on the show.

She was so perfect that every man she met asked her to marry him. If I were Rex and my wife was Bree I wouldn’t have cheated or died.

Imagine coming home, and you have a wife that looks like that, cooks, cleans, and I get that Rex's problem was that Bree was too uptight but when you watch the flashback where she tries to open up about him flirting with Gaby and he dismisses her, you understand why she never opens up to him completely. She couldn’t match his freak.

And It makes me so happy that in the end, she found someone and she can be her authentic self.

And that badass name? I was mad when Rex died and she married Orson and she became Bree Hodge. The writer fumbled that one really bad. I’m glad she realized that when she wrote the book.

Also, she had an incredible queer vibe. She has the best lines and those episodes where she was absent because Marcia Cross was pregnant were like a personal attack. I missed her so much.

Gabrielle Solis.

When I was a kid and I watched random episodes Gaby was my favorite. She was young, pretty, had money without working, and a handsome husband, that was a dream to me.

When I started the show I still liked Gaby, even though she was selfish. They knew what they were doing when they cast Eva Longoria as Gaby because her charm definitely helped Gaby’s selfishness.

My problem with Gaby was that she went back and forth with her selfishness, she did something awful then she realized her mistake and apologized, next episode she did the same thing.

But she was so funny, she said the most out-of-pocket things that I had no other option but to love her.

Lynette Scavo.

My problem with Lynette was her relationship with Tom. It was awful and boring. But I really liked Lynette, she was smart, sarcastic and funny.

Felicity Huffman is a hell of an actress. Think about the most heart-wrenching scene on the show and it’s probably carried by Felicity. The way she moves, her voice, her eyes. She is a brilliant actress.

There is the hurricane episode or the shooting episode in which you can see her talent but also the scene when Tom tells her he is ready to come back to work at the restaurant and she starts to cry in the bathroom, that scene stayed with me. Like, omg give her another Emmy.

Susan Delfino

S01 Susan was a bit annoying but mostly funny but as the series progressed she became almost unbearable to me. Her attitude was awful and she made everything about her. But at least Teri Hatcher was a capable actress and could handle the comedy and drama perfectly. She made me laugh a lot, I'm not gonna lie, but also made me so mad, the Julie pregnancy storyline.

She deserved that Golden Globe, I guess.

Katherine.

It’s crazy how they ruined Katherine’s character when Mike left her. I love her character so much. Also, she has a lot of chemistry with Bree. They should have explored that a bit.

Renee.

She entered the show too late. I wanted more of Renne, she was clearly there to replace Edie but it was Vanesa Williams how can you not love her? I don’t understand how she didn’t become immediately friends with Gaby.

Edie.

I loved Edie the moment she showed up. I love a female character who is full of herself and doesn’t care what other people think about her. However, for me, she was the most inconsistently written character on the show. In season 1 she was a “bitch” but tried to be friends with the girls, they become friends but then they needed a villain so she went maniac, just to come back and tried to be friends again. She was whatever the writers needed at the moment. Her death was totally unfair.

Karen McCluskey. The MVP

The Husbands

They were all awful. All of them were terrible. They had fragile egos, toxic masculinity, totally disregard for their wives’ feelings.

Carlos.

He had a big macho man problem and didn’t know what he wanted to do in life. Tell me what father will leave a job that has so many benefits to work in a place where the pay is almost nothing? But I like him because when it came to Gaby he didn’t play about her. He had a character development, and that season when he became blind? Uff A MAN.

Orson.

I’m going to take Orson as Bree's husband because I think it was her longest relationship, that we saw of course. I think they were onto something when they were introducing him as the villain. Then they made him this silly guy who was perfect for Bree, I loved their marriage. Then they ruined his character, he mistreated her, manipulated her, etc. So he became my personal enemy.

His ego was so fragile that he asked his wife to sell her company because she was more successful than him.

Mike.

Boring, just boring. Terrible actor too, Teri was running circles around him. Mike made his family go bankrupt because he couldn’t take his wife’s money.

Tom.

The worst husband to ever exist on television. The worst character on the show. An ungrateful man-child. His wife got cancer and he made the situation about his pain. The worst part is that the show tried to tell us that he is a great husband when we can see he clearly is not. He took all the money they had to open a pizza place, then asked Lynette to quit his job and work with him, then got mad when Lynette was better than him.

Maybe Marc Cherry was in love with Doug Savant because I don’t get it. Even when they fucking finally separated and Lynette said she was relieved, she was the one who had to win him back. He got a new girlfriend while Lynette was scamming a way back into his life.

Ranking the seasons

Season 1

The best mystery in the whole show. So well written, you get enough clues to get you through the season but until the very end you don’t get the whole picture. It was classy and shocking and twisted

Season 3

Not as good as the first one, but it allows you to piece the story together into a bigger mystery. Orson’s mom was a great villain and anything that involved Bree signed me in. Orson’s ex was annoying tho.

I want to talk about the pedophile’s storyline which I think was one of the darkest plots they did. They resolved this in three episodes, and I think they couldn’t handle it, the final revelation and the character were so eerie and jaw-dropping. I think they never come close to this kind of plot again. It was incredibly upsetting.

Season 5

David was evil and I liked that. I figured it out too fast and I get It wasn’t so mysterious, they revealed too much at the beginning of the season but he was a great villain and a wonderful actor.

Season 6

I liked the Bolen family but the resolution of the mystery was kinda underwhelming. I did like that Lynette was more in the spotlight. I think Angie should have stayed on the show, she was fun.

Season 4

Uninteresting. The mystery didn’t make any sense. How Fake Dylan didn’t remember her time at the orphanage? But it gave me Katherine so I’m not complaining so much. It’s insane to me that Katherine did all of that and kept living like a normal person just to lose her shit when Mike left her in the next season.

Season 8

I have an enormous problem with this season, keep in mind that it’s the highest-rated season of the show on Rotten Tomatoes. The season started so amazing, loved the mystery about the letters and how this time the girls were the ones committing the crime. Which I have expected since the first season.

But then, when all the focus was on Bree it went downhill. And don’t get me wrong I loved that Bree had that much screen time but it didn’t make sense at all.

First Susan’s guilt was crazy to me. She killed a mother and a kid a few seasons ago, and here she just helped to cover the murder of an awful man, but even if we understand her guilt how come when Bree was in trouble, about to get thrown in jail, she never took the initiative to say hey “I did it too”. Same thing with Carlos, he didn’t try very hard Gaby told him "No" and he obeyed.

Besides, the fact that all of them where very shitty friends and I don’t understand why they got so mad at Bree, and not Susan who painted the whole crime scene. The trial in general was so stupid.

Bree wasn’t connected to Alejandro in the first place, she didn’t have a motive. Then their argument was that she slept with him, but Bree started to sleep with those men after Carlos killed him, so she couldn’t pick a random man at a bar because she didn’t even drink and she was with her boyfriend ( don’t remember that asshole's name)

Then, the police knew exactly when he was killed even tho it had been months before they found him, like they knew it was that night specifically AND even if Bree killed him as a random guy in a bar, how come he had her address in a map? it means he knew her. What is the motive for her to kill him? they weren’t even saying she was a serial killer. They were calling her every name but that.

And again if he knew her how come they didn’t call his wife to testify? How they didn’t know his real name. How they didn't connect him to Gaby before?

And Orson had pictures of that night but didn’t send them. Lazy writing.

Season 7.

Paul Young was a great character a ride-or-die husband who lost his mind when he found out why his wife killed herself. But this mystery was so dumb like that was it? mind you, it was such a bad plot that they dropped it and never addressed it again.

Season 2.

Terrible and boring. Borderline racist. Dragged.

When I finished the show I looked up what was the drama behind the scenes, I knew that Teri Hatcher was awful to the rest of the cast. Imagine my surprise when I found out this has been happening since s01 and that infamous photoshoot, if you know you know.

They had such good chemistry, you could feel they were really close. That’s an impressive thing to me, it was like Alissa Milano and Shannen Doherty hating each other, I was gagged because you don’t see that on screen.

I think it was around s07-08, perhaps 6, when it started to feel like they were trying to keep Susan away from the rest of the cast. Some scenes were almost awkward to watch.

I liked the ending because somehow it makes sense that they moved on with their life. I loved the show so much. It’s full of plotholes, and awful husbands, it was racist, and so conservative, and not even once the option of abortion was brought up, Julie's last storyline was awful.

But at the end of the day, it was a show about female friendship, and they were amazing characters. I’d love to experience this live and I wish I could see them again but at the same time, I don’t. Maybe a reunion like Eva said, but not a reboot.

I'm in that state of sadness that only comes when you finish a good show, and you have to let go but you can't.

#desperate housewives #bree van de kamp #gabrielle solis #lynette scavo #Susan Delfino #Tv shows #long post #opinions #reviews

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qingtian-studies · 2 years

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hey i see that you mentioned cdramas in your description :0 do you mind sharing what dramas you've watched/your faves? always on the lookout for more recs

hello!! omg yes I CAN share some dramas, thank u so much for asking! my preferred genres rn include contemporary crime/detective stuff and wuxia but I've watched all sorts. here is a list of my faves!

period/xianxia/wuxia dramas: First an obligatory shoutout to the brainrot dramas dearly loved by our discord server: the untamed (2019) and word of honor (2021), truly gods gift. xianxia and wuxia respectively. dont think you can be on tumblr cdrama space and escape knowing them Nirvana in Fire 琅琊榜 — 2015, wuxia, court politics, 54 eps, Viki+YouTube. One of the best and highest rated c-dramas, amazing plot, great characters. A classic. Amazing. Jingyan I'd die for you Nirvana in Fire 2 风起长林 — 2017, wuxia, 50 eps, I haven't finished this but it is also very very good! don't let the amazingness of NIF1 put you off. The Imperial Coroner 御赐小仵作 — 2021, Period drama, detective work, coroner work, fun, mystery, romance, 36 eps. Wholesome and interesting case-detective drama with likeable characters and good script!

crime/detective/thriller dramas: The Bad Kids 隐秘的角落 — 2020, contemporary, suspense, crime, 12 eps, iQiyi. One of the best for quality, script, acting, emotion, has a cinematic quality. genuinely such an incredible piece of cinema The Long Night 沉默的真相 — 2020, contemporary, suspense, crime, 12 eps, iQiyi. Same series as The Bad Kids, equally incredible, gut-wrenching, amazing script, great acting, will make you cry. Be Reborn 重生之门 — 2022, Contemporary, crime, police, art theft, 26 eps. Extremely clever, fun, has art heists, and crime. loved this one! very quick paced and sooo clever Under the Skin 猎罪图鉴 — 2022, Contemporary, sketch artists, detective case work, mystery, 20 eps. Interesting script, cool art, very moving cases. Surprised by how much I liked this one! the drawing shots were really cool, a very cool profession to make a drama about. I am a certified tan jianci simp

other ones I love: Tientsin Mystic — 2017, Republican era, mystery, supernatural-ish, 24 eps, Netflix. Beautiful production, good and interesting plot, investigations, lots of swimming in rivers! did I mention it's beautiful Reset 开端 — 2022, contemporary, time loop, thriller, 15 eps, Viki+YouTube. Trapped in a time loop on an exploding bus, mystery, fast-paced, good plot and acting. Link Click 时光代理人 — 2021, donghua, contemporary, sci-fi/time travel, 11+1 eps, Bilibili. Beautiful art, touching episodes, great premise and plot, lots of fun. (where my dp comes from lmao, ily xiaoshi). season 2 coming soon!!

I've watched a lot more but for a rec list I think this is enough! for other chinese-learning resources or drama recs u can check out my server's masterlist, it has heaps of cool stuff on there~

#cdrama #cdramas #rec list #word of honor #the untamed #nirvana in fire #i will not shut up about cdramas so ive already culled this list down ahahah #if yall want audiodrama recs....... i cna also do that

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presidential--suite · 2 years

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✨ Top Five Treys ✨

#1: South Park: 25th Anniversary Concert (2022)

(Series with @a-magical-evening 💖)

First, I loved this concert so damn much I had too many GIFS to include in one set so here’s the bonus: 💖💖

The concert is too long to rewatch completely, and I do have a lot of emotion connected to it, so this might get pretty rambling/stream of consciousness. I’ll preface that this is gonna be personal lol like an actual blog post

(Preface #2: I’m mostly going to comment on Trey (as with all the others in this series), since I’m a Trey bitch through and through, but Matt was a fucking superstar, and I was blown away by his performances!! He looked amazing and I was so fucking impressed by him 😊 I’m not purposefully leaving him out in my comments, I love him too 💖)

So, I was watching the last SP episode of the season with my boyfriend and saw that they were doing a South Park concert and remember my stomach like exploding in excitement. I knew I wasn’t going; I’ve never been to a real concert or anything, plus it was states away, but I entered the raffle anyway for fun. The more I waited that week, the more excited I got thinking about it. My rationale was: there was probably never going to be anything again that I could guarantee actually witnessing Trey Parker in real life, so it would be my only chance. Plus, I hadn’t gone on a vacation since I was like 14, so maybe I could go. But the raffle came and went, and I didn’t get in. I didn’t realize how truly hyped I was until I was walking down the street to my boyfriend’s house and holding that rejection email. When I told him he was like “what South Park concert” and I was super pissed lmao. (Side note, he has no fucking clue how gone I am for Trey XD at least not to the extent that I am. I feel like it’s rude to talk about my infatuation with another man to my significant other. So he didn’t understand my disappointment haha)

Then tickets went on sale, at the time only having one night, and I didn’t get in. Then those fucking premium, expensive tickets went on sale, my whole fucking salary for the summer honestly, and I was just staring at them as the clock ticked. I’ll never forget buying those in my bedroom and the reality setting in that I was actually going to go see Trey fucking Parker with my own damn eyes lol. I’ve been a fan of things before, had phases, had celebrity crushes, but never have I acted on one this way. So for months there was just this shining light of “I’m going to see Trey” or “it’s okay that this sucks, I’m going to Colorado in August.” XD

It was surreal being there, driving around actual mountains; it was like that SpongeBob joke “I’m washing dishes at night” but “I’m getting Starbucks in Morrison”. Seeing so many people that were more in my demographic there was so fucking cool. I was scared it was going to be these bro-y middle aged men, a lot of lame republicans lol, but it was a good mix! I met a lot of cool people! Then I was sitting in the second row, and I’d looked at spoilers from the first night, so when I saw my seats were in front of Trey’s piano I was just :O :O Ecstatic.

So it starts, and it’s cool, but then he fucking walks out and I don’t even have words :”). Like he was only a couple yards away. It was so amazing. I was yelling and singing and like holding my hands out to him the whole time. It was hard to even take my eyes away from him. Rewatching the concert on TV I was asking my boyfriend “were these visuals part of the live show? Did they add them in post?”, but it turns out I just never looked at the damn screen lol! Trey performed so wonderfully. Just...It was phenomenal. It was probably my peak XD Afterward I didn’t want to leave but security was like GTFO, and I just walked back down the hill in a daze. (The next day I had some pretty bad PCD (post concert depression haha) and I kept crying at random moments D:)

Anyway, my favorite moments from this had to be when he first came out, hat over his heart. I kept saying before I went that I better see his beautiful bald head, and he delivered immediately lmao XD 💖

💖My favorite performance was Yelper Special because I loved watching him do his little dance. I probably had my hands clasped over my chest embarrassingly, like ‘aww :’)’

I was worried about the voices, but tbh they pulled them off so well in my opinion. I think the mics really worked and they both did an amazing job being the boys. Robot Friend and the Theme Song where he and Matt are side by side doing their boys was so cute

I’m now officially a Primus fan too, they’ve actually become one of my top artists on Spotify, because damn, Les ate that shit up!!! Everyone was perfect!!

All the hat changing, and when Trey would turn to make faces, and when he’d be like “let’s fucking try that again”.

When Matt and Trey had their little asides, and when they would smile at each other, and the surprise, and their I love yous!! When they would reminisce about where they grew up, and when they met, and how far they’ve come?? I love them and their friendship 💖💖💖

((My poor boyfriend, I was really fangirling hard. I won’t repeat the joke he’d made, but it involved ruining some articles of clothing...TMIIII XD XD)) I’ll use this part to make my saucy comments, which is that he looked fucking hot!! Haha I was mesmerized by him. Most of the time I was alternating between gaping at him and taking blurry pics. My lust for this man, for real...He looked so good, I think the outfit was very flattering. Beautiful 💕

Obviously, I loved that appearance. You’ve seen my recreation of his outfit. I have I think 600 pictures from that trip... I made a photo album. I love Trey. I love his singing (that’s actually the first thing I liked about him, before I even watched South Park). He’s so wildly talented and skilled. It was truly a magical evening 😉

This had to be number 1.

#Top 5 Treys #trey parker #is anyone surprised??#I actually had this lower but then I was writing and making these and I knew that nothing else made me feel this way #💖💖💖 omg #trey #this one is big sowwy

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sometimesoliloquy · 2 years

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The Handmaid’s Tale 5x08 “Motherland” (or “This is Not the Beach you’re Looking for”) 👀

Whoo boy, sorry this one’s so late, life and stuff has got my brain feeling broken this past week. Let’s see if I can string some coherent sentences together about this episode, where in addition to heavy parallels on motherhood (and Serena and June again, of course), some big/dramatic events also seem to finally be put into motion, and it only took 4/5 of the season to do (yay I can do fractions, my brain isn’t fully broken!). I have to say, though, taking everything into consideration I am nervous as hell for episode 9... ��

So we open 5x08 with June daydreaming: a flashback of June making pancakes with Hannah, but jarred to reality by blaring car horns, as asshole protestors yell in the background. Apparently now they have to deal not only with the wannabe Gilead cult member nutjobs, but also a suddenly Canadian nationalistic fervor bringing mobs who look and sound like they just came from a Trump rally, but carrying beaver signs and saying “eh” a lot more. June’s phone rings and we learn it’s Serena (again), apparently she’s been telemarketing the shit out of June for a month while in detention. Moira expresses surprise that Serena even thinks they would help her, meanwhile honestly I’m wondering how she even got June’s digits. Luke can tune out the protestors and doesn’t seem to give a shit about newborns dying in the woods (does anything bother this guy? (spoiler: we find out later).

Dramatically ominous music plays over a cut of crashing waves and cawing seagulls and I’m thinking someone on THT is definitely a Hitchcock fan (first the Vertigo inspired Wheeler household and now an ode to The Birds). We narrow in to our favorite pithy commander Lawrence giving several other commanders a tour of the shiny new location for The Real Housewives of Gilead New Bethlehem. The only one I recognize aside from Jlaw and his sidekick puppy Nick is that smug bastard Calhoun (who really reminds me soo much of a youngish Republican senator), so ostensibly they’ve done a good job of whittling down the competition. Calhoun seems fully on board with what Jlaw touts as the more modernized, liberal Gilead, where they can welcome back prodigal sons and daughters to get away from those nasty Canadians and reunite with family (more on that in a second). New Commander McBeardy expresses skepticism and wants to know how they’ll keep this from their “people” in “Gilead Proper” because after all if the people who Gilead proper isn’t super amazing for start trying to defect to diet Gilead, who will they have left to oppress and torture? Jlaw however reminds him that Gilead isn’t exactly free press friendly (RIP Globe reporters). I mean not to mention half their population gets body parts cut off for reading. And here I am skeptical, because while Jlaw certainly has a point about the press, if one of the intents was to reunite the new New Bethlehemites with family in Gilead… wouldn’t… people in Gilead proper come to know about it? Would they just be secretly kidnapping these people from Gilead and forcibly relocating them in NB? McBeardy is likewise still not convinced but Nick reminds him of the bullet he put in Putnam’s head lack of moral fortitude and the Commander changes his tune reeeal quick. He concedes, admitting he was hearing the “deceased Putnam” in his ears (I thought I heard “diseased” at first but my subtitles say deceased and honestly I guess either works), as our Gilead mafia duo walk smugly away.

Speaking of smug, for once Serena is not: sadly pumping in a not so private corner of the detention center visitors area (hm why does this look familiar?).

For, as we soon see, Mrs Alanis Wheeler arrives to (very reluctantly) pick up, because OF COURSE she’s stealing the baby fostering Noah while Serena's detained. Alanis talks about pregnancy hormones like they are something she knows about, while being the utmost amount of condescending and complaining about the baby she’s stolen (hi, Naomi!). She's doing the "crying it out" method on a one month old and I really don't know shit about babies but even I can tell that's not right. Such a warm woman, it's a wonder why little Noah cries so much! Serena is clearly too emotional and sentimental and weak minded to be a mother, though, because if there's anything newborn babies need it's discipline. Serena reminds Alanis (and us) that she's a big baddie who overthrew a country... but unfortunately she gave all that up to chase after June's baby, who she was trying to steal, who she's also completely forgotten about now that Noah has filled the baby sized hole in her womb. Back at the Bankhole/Osborne/Strand household, the three are scrubbing anti immigration graffiti off their sidewalk while the aforementioned mob of protesters obnoxiously parades by. I guess it only took a few years of US refugees streaming into their country, and for some reason being able to afford really nice houses in their crowded city, for Canadians to stop being polite, and start getting real. June very casually relates the task to scrubbing blood off the wall in Gilead (ya know, from the hanging dead bodies. Same same). Luke pretends like she didn't say that, and asks if they should just say fuck it and move to one of the 2 far away remaining US states or Europe as if the entire show hasn’t been about trying to get back their daughter who’s trapped just right over the border in a hellish regime, which June reminds him of (oh, right). But before this can go any further, she gets a surprise call from Mr. Commander Lawrence of all people (I wonder what he wants).

June meets JLaw for a lovely stroll along the waterfront while he rambles esoterically about his esoteric vision for Gilead and how it all went wrong because he underestimated the depravity of religious nutjobs (really, my guy? I thought you were supposed to be a mental giant or something but ok, maybe my bar is just skewed from having grown up Catholic). He gives her the New Bethlehem sales pitch, which she extremely side eyes until he claims she will be able to reunite with Hannah once she's "grown" (so like 14 I guess) and running her own household. At this point I have to be super skeptical, because for Jlaw to "bring Hannah to New Bethlehem" I assume her new husband, whoever he might be, would have to be OK with it (not to mention I can't imagine Cmdr. MacKenzie would just be super cool with it), so I' not sure if he just has that much confidence in his far-reaching power or he's bullshitting her to win her over, but I'm kind of leaning towards the latter. But he does know June's achilles heel. Seeming to miss the fact that Hannah would already be married off in this case, which is her #1 goal in trying to stop, she's just emotionally overwhelmed with the possibility of being able to be near Hannah. Lawrence reassures her of her safety by saying Nick has been helping with this pet project, he's been grooming Nick, not sexually (I mean clearly Nick is so attractive that it bears clarification). Luke is shockingly not so excited by this proposal. New Gilead Bethlehem is one place he does not want to move to (not that I blame him in this case). June argues that she would risk anything to be with Hannah again, "wouldn't you?" and Luke says "of course" but I mean he is also literally saying that he wouldn't, here, so it seems like a bit of a contradiction. He insists they focus on getting Hannah out, because that's worked so well so far, and June reminds him of what a fucking disappointment Tuello is (sorry, Mark!) and the uselessness of the entire remaining US government in general ("they're politicians, they don't give a shit about us"/"what has the American government done for us?"). He proceeds to call Jlaw a nazi and I was half expecting him to bring up June's "nazi" boyfriend as well but of course they dance silently around the topic of Nick as usual. The only thing I agree with Luke on here is that they should NOT take Nichole anywhere near those motherfuckers (or child fuckers, I guess). When Luke tries to egregiously mansplain June’s trauma and womanly emotions to her, it surprisingly doesn’t go over well. I'm also calling BS on his "I did that (turned Serena in) for you!", nah, my dude, you clearly did that for you. What also doesn't go over well is him saying "just let me protect you sometimes", but I very much appreciate that June and I seem to be on the same damn page here, because a second after I yelled "she doesn't fucking NEED your protection!!" at the tv (what, you don't do that??) she says basically the same thing to him. Amen, June. She doesn't need his protection, but Hannah does. Lawrence visits Serena in detention, and tells her he's generously "helped her" by convincing the Wheelers to let her return to her handmaid room in their house to nurse Noah. Lawrence talks about her breasts and then is done talking about her breasts. He reminds her the Wheelers have legal status to care for the baby, which I guess finally answers my question of their citizenship because they must (technically) be Canadian citizens then, not Gileadean, right? She still insists she will not "live in the same house as her child's kidnappers" which makes Lawrence correctly ask if she has an "irony deficiency" (I mean). At this point I think Serena does actually see what a flaming hypocrite she is but doesn’t give a fuck because she still thinks she's better than the hundreds of women she helped enslave as handmaids.

It’s nighttime and June is comforting an adorable little baby Nichole who is disturbed by the asshole protesters again. She sings her to sleep with a song she used to sing Hannah "let me be your mirror" and it's a very sweet moment (I didn't even notice the doll from Nick until others pointed it out but I love that attention to detail here). June softly tells a now peacefully sleeping Nichole that she wants her to know her big sister, that she would love her, and at this point I'm very much thinking about The Testaments, and I'm both sad about it and also kind of excited for it? I’m also kind of hoping they incorporate the song into the Testaments, as maybe a kind of vague hazy memory they both have. June wakes up the next morning still in Nichole's bed, hearing Luke and Tuello talking downstairs. She interrupts and Tuello tries to appeal to June's patriotism and sense of civic duty but she "not without my daughter”'s him. She continues to bully classified military information out of him but she's not happy with it. June has a heart-to-heart on the porch with Rita, who apparently has not actually dissipated into thin air after all. Rita tells her it would be crazy to consider going back but also that if her son was still alive, she would do anything and go to the ends of the earth to see him again. They have a touching moment of bonding and given how little we’ve seen of Rita this season I hope it’s not actually the last time we’ll see her.

June visits Serena (for a person with no friends she sure does seem to get a lot of visitors) to try and get more information on New Bethlehem. Interestingly, Serena knows that Lawrence has been pitching it "since the beginning" and it's been in the works for years, but she doesn't know much more. She says it seems he has more power than ever implying that maybe because of that he can actually make it work now, which is also interesting because he seemed very powerful, or at least revered, when we first met him, but I think back then he was probably trying to fly under the radar to protect Eleanor, now he's much more cavalier with blatant power moves since he has nothing left to lose except for his life (which he already thought was a goner after Angel's Flight) and his legacy (which ostensibly he is trying to save with this plan). Serena has her own agenda, though, she wants June to help her get out of detention and get her baby back. Really I'd think she'd have better luck trying her boyfriend Tuello, because June finally says what I think we were all hoping she would ever since last episode: "Serena, we are not FRIENDS". Serena, ever the narcissist, assumes June forgave her because she helped her and Noah, but June's like "actually I'm just a good person and a better Christian than you, bitch". June tells her to march her Viking ass back to the Wheelers scary mansion and gives her the 101 on how to be a vengeful, scheming handmaid, and it's pretty fucking delicious. She tells her "you can't help your child if you're not with them", clearly mirroring her own thoughts about Hannah and New Bethlehem. I like that there was kind of a mirroring and chain reaction of women and motherhood here: June asking Rita what she would do and then Serena asking what June would do, and it's different situations but basically the same answer. June walks away with new resolve and clarity, and pays a surprise visit to Lawrence, who appears to be at the Gilead embassy propaganda hub" information center" even though I thought it was supposed to be shut down, but maybe in the month that's passed they got the proper permits or whatever? She asks Lawrence to stop Hannah from getting married but hey, "Gilead's gonna Gilead". Not an acceptable answer, June does not want to stand by while her daughter is raped by someone twice her age, although honestly from what we've seen it's more likely to be 3 or 4 times her age (gag). She calls him out for being a sick fuck who created a world where women are abused and tortured, and in a rare moment of seriousness, he shows a glimpse of the full burden of guilt on his shoulders. If he'd known what would have happened he'd have just let the human race die out. He desperately tries to convince her of his plan working, not just to form the "utopia" of New Bethlehem, but for its more modern, liberal values to spread further into Gilead, making it a better, kinder, less murder-y, torture-y Gilead (in like 10-15 years). That's the thing, though. He seems desperate: for this to work, for it to not all have been for nothing, for Eleanor not to have died for nothing. I wonder if that will end up leading to his downfall.

Speaking of Eleanor, the next scene we see June out in her garden at night (her baby seedlings have graduated), and it reminded me of the scene in season 3 where June has to bury the killed Martha at night and sees Eleanor "gardening" in that spot the next day to help cover it up. She's looking up at the moon and thinking about Hannah, but then Luke interrupts her daydream to tell her she got a "package". Inside, they take a disc out of the mysterious envelope and I'm thinking 1) do people really still have disc drives on their laptops anymore?? and 2) I really wish we could tell whose handwriting that is on the envelope... It's a video of a line of girls at the wives school, and we see it zoom in on Hannah as she seems to notice someone filming, and stops for a second until her peers prompt her forward. I have to wonder who or what she’s seeing, as well as who sent the video. I at first assumed Lawrence as most logical(?) but if so he definitely shot his plan in the foot there (unless it’s part of a larger more devious scheme). Nick?? Will we ever know or is it just another mysterious plot device that will never be properly explained? Sigh.

June and Luke fight about New Bethlehem (again) and she lets out some resentment she must have held deep inside for a loong time:"What are you going to do? Same thing you've done for the last 7 years? Fucking NOTHING?" She immediately regrets it but while I think she was definitely sorry it came out in the way it did, I also think she still means it. And not even that she thinks Luke just happily sat on his hands; she knows that he did what he could, within his skills set and imagination. But she also knows from experience how useless, how in vain, that kind of action can be. And it was actually very refreshing to see her pissed at Luke for once, not deferential, or so careful of his feelings. While he is right that they could certainly be walking into danger with Jlaw’s proposal, that the minute they cross Gilead could put her on the wall, she's also right that his "I don't know, we'll figure it out" just isn't good enough any more. Luke's resentment comes out, too: "you stayed, you stayed for so many years!" , echoing him asking Moira in season 4: "did she choose this? She knew she'd probably never see us again". Which I feel like still comes from a place of ignorance and insecurity (and selfishness?) on his part. I mean, June literally passed up ONE opportunity to escape (end of s2 when she handed Nichole to Emily) and Nichole was born by then so "by choice" she "stayed" like 1 year max., but ok. I mean she tried to escape before while pregnant but got caught, and then she sacrificed herself to make Angel's flight even happen, if she didn't stay back as a distraction, none of them would have gotten away. June and Luke embrace at the end, after she breaks down, and they obviously have love for each other and always will for Hannah, but their relationship is clearly broken. Back at the NB gated community, Lawrence is now laying the sales pitch on Nick. Nick plays it close to the vest as always but he seems very skeptical. I don't think he wants June or Nichole anywhere near Gilead considering he's risked his life to get both of them out, and his number one priority is to keep them safe. He does not seem tempted by Jlaw's "sister wife" proposal. He wanted the beach in Maui with June and Nichole, not polygamy on this cold-ass beach in Gilead, damnit.

June and Luke have called Tuello about the Hannah video, and they're talking about metadata, and I'm thinking I really liking Tuello's contrasting clothing patterns here, when did he become such a fashionista, and then I'm thinking that I feel either really old or like an idiot or both because I have no fucking clue what metadata is. Data about itself? What does that even mean? How does one obtain a location from that? Was it included in the video on purpose so they could find the location? Or was it an unintended side effect? I still can't help but like Tuello even if he does have terrible taste in women and is kind of useless. Serena arrives back at her other prison the Wheelers, and is forced to suck up, much like June was in 2x04, except she’s not just been fully broken into a hopeless shell of herself, and she's still getting the extremely cushy version of being a handmaid.She’s putting on a contrite face to her wife and commander, but we can see how pissed she is by how tightly she’s clenching her hands behind her back.

Finally, after a quick and insincere "praise be!" (I think one of my favorite things in this show is actually when people say “praise be” as a “fuck you”), she hears her baby crying and runs up (all those) stairs, somehow not gasping for air, to find him being looked after by a sweet and lovely nanny, (so at least it's not just "cry-it-out" Alanis) who leaves him in her care. Serena has a beautiful, emotional reunion with Noah, who finally stops crying as she holds and breastfeeds him, certainly different from the scene where she tries to do that with Holly/Nichole back in the day (yikes, awkward, right?). Part of me wants to see what schemes Serena gets into as a handmaid-by-any-other-name but the bigger part of me would be extremely fine with her story line being at least much reduced, because as amazing of an actor Yvonne is, I really don’t think we need “The Handmaid Lite's Tale”. We get it, Serena is getting a taste of her own medicine, can she now just fade into obscurity?

June is super on edge waiting for Tuello to get back to them about the metadata (still don’t know what that means), and she excuses herself in the middle of dinner to go get apples for Nichole, because Nichole needs apples and they're out of apples, we don't have any apples, Moira! but she doesn't need help getting the apples. She's spacing out at the market, getting apples, when her phone rings and finally Tuello is on the line, miraculously telling her the news she's been dreaming of: the metadata(??) pulled through and they have the location of Hannah's school, and they're going to do a raid, they're going to get her out (you really can't actually hear that last part but I cheat and use the subtitles, so). June is overwhelmed, she is overjoyed, she is over these apples. She makes a mess and hugs the kindly grocer, before running giddily back down the street, full of hope and joy. And listen, I obviously know it was just a random excuse to get out of the house and keep busy but I also can't help thinking, "WAIT BUT NICHOLE NEEDS THOSE APPLES!" and honestly I have no idea why a toddler would need apples anyway (do they?? Do they even have strong enough teeth to eat apples? Apples are pretty hard. I told you I don't know shit about babies) and I don't know why I'm overthinking the apples this much, but still it kind of bothers me that she just completely abandons the apples the second she gets the news about Hannah and oh my god are the APPLES A METAPHOR??

Anyway, June arrives back at the house, much less breathless than I would be, having sprinted all that way (seriously, what is these women’s workout routine?) and tells Luke and Moira the amazing news. They're of course incredulous and overjoyed as well, jumping up and down in glee, and poor Mark FINALLY gets some love (geez, the poor guy's bound to have self esteem issues by now, right?).

The hopeful music swells as we cut to a beautiful preteen Hannah in another garden. It's not nighttime and the moon isn’t out but she is peacefully planting, looking up at the sky, and that still seems very a much a mirror to June earlier. The sound of jet engines roars in the background as we pan out to the birds eye view of the wives school yard, laid out in interlocking "U"'s. ** OK, I'll say it: god, could Luke have been any more condescending this episode? As much as he pissed me off, though, I was actually glad for their fighting, because at least it means they’re not skirting around the real issues anymore (well, except for Nick, I guess). It's so clear to me that the divide between them has been growing again ever since 5x06, with a distinct turning point coming at the end of 5x07, leading directly to their arguments here. He has tried to get on the same page as June, tried to understand her (and she's maybe tried...like, a little bit(?)... to see his perspective). But the fact is that despite their shared bond of their daughter, and as much as Luke hates what has and what could happen to Hannah, and that she's not there with them... I think at least a part of him has given up that they'll ever get her back. He never thought June would escape, probably never thought he'd have her back and be raising another child together. And even if he'll always mourn the loss of Hannah and feel guilty for not being able to protect her, it could be enough for him: to live a life with June and Nichole, move away, move on. But June will never be able to move on; not with Hannah in Gilead, her fate uncertain, married to god knows who. Nothing will ever be "enough" for her as long as Hannah isn't with her, or at least safe. Their arguments in this episode also speak greatly to their different experiences over these past years, which have informed how they now think and operate. Luke has been safe in Canada, though for the most part he's felt helpless here. Maybe at first hopeful that the Canadian government, or what's left of the US government, can do something, but growing more and more jaded of potential progress as time goes by. He's barely had any news or visibility on Hannah since she was taken at the age of 5, just a few photographs and what June relays to him. So I also think maybe Hannah, and the chance of getting her back, has become less and less concrete over the years, less and less of a possibility to him. June on the other hand, has actually seen Hannah multiple times, talked to her, even if the last time was traumatizing. She's been so close for years, which both makes Hannah, especially the current version, more real to June, and also makes June's guilt, and desperation, to save her even greater. But while Luke's sense of impotency probably grew as the bureaucratic avenue continued to fail, June actually found a greater strength she never knew she had in Gilead. Her will to survive, her burning anger and love for her child and then children formed her into a bolder, more empowered version of herself. She's achieved impossible things, or things that should have been impossible in Gilead: falling in love, having a healthy baby and getting her away to safety, getting 86 other children and 9 Martha's out, killing multiple commanders, getting out herself. So why shouldn't she keep believing, that no matter how crazy and impossible it may seem, that she can get Hannah out as well, and save her from the certain fate that awaits her in Gilead. More than that, she has to believe it, much like Lawrence has to believe he can make New Bethlehem a success and eventually reform all of Gilead. Also similar to Lawrence, she is desperate, and that can be dangerous, can cause a person to take serious chances despite the obvious risks. But I think that as long as she can be confident in Nichole's safety, she will risk her life and anything else for the chance of seeing Hannah safe as well. Like Lawrence, she feels like she will either see her mission to fruition, or die trying. And if this raid does not go as planned (which I don't think it will because you know why), even if June doesn't end up going to NB, I can't imagine that she and Luke can keep on like this. So we come full circle with the episode title, "Motherland". Lawrence of course refers to Gilead and New Bethlehem, specifically, as the "Motherland", which is interesting because considering the misogynist patriarchal bullshit that built it, you'd think he'd say "Fatherland". Whether it' Jlaw's nod to the fact that it's the mothers who are really doing the work in perpetuating the human race, or just PR lip service to June, the title also certainly speaks to the very specific and far-reaching territory of motherhood itself: as we see from June, and Rita, and even eventually Serena: a mother will never give up on her child, will risk her own freedom and safety to be with them (no matter who tells them they're being too emotional), and to protect them. It's perhaps the most powerful bond that can exist.

#the handmaid's tale #the handmaids tale season 5 #june osborne #nick blaine #osblaine #tht #tht s5 #Motherland #review #recap

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eclipshift · 2 years

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Thoughts about Hamilton Hamburg (in no specific order)

Alright bitches, bros, and non-binary hoes

I saw Hamilton in Hamburg and I have SO MANY THOUGHTS

First of all if you aren’t aware, The Hamburg performance is in German, and the show opened this Thursday (the first week of October)

my German level is very low… so if you’ve seen it or have thoughts about the lyrics I want to HEAR

But there were some things that I noticed with this cast that have me vibrating at a frequency that could shatter glass:

First off the cast was incredible and now I need a cast recording or I will explode I need it NOW they are my new favorite cast I’m screaming and crying and throwing up

Hamiltons actor (Benet) is very goofy and young and makes for a GREAT act 1 Hamilton. (Act 2 as well, but his personality, look, and voice were particularly amazing for younger Alex)

He was also very sweet, I told him I was from the US and he got super excited, even asked ME for a picture on HIS phone before proceeding to introduce me to Lafayette/Jefferson’s actor and telling him I’m American

Laf/Jefferson's actor was also very enthusiastic and wanted to give me a hug :3

Lyrical stuff

Put a pencil to his brain, connected it to his heart

fucking lyrical genius

"Talk less, smile more" stayed in english :3

Instead of "you can't be serious" when Burr says "talk less, smile more", Ham say "in german please?" because it was in english

heehee fnunny

"And if you don't know, now you know, Mr. President"

"George Washington's going home" was kept in English. very special.

SOUTHERN MOTHERFUCKING DEMOCRATIC REPUBLICANS was kept in enlgihs

Literally just Hercules Mulligan

HERCULES MULLIGAN’S ACTOR WAS FUCKING BATSHIT AND NOW I CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT HIM 24/7 AHHH

Farmer refuted???? My dog speaks more eloquently than thee??? THE MAN FUCJIGN BARKED

like full on bark bark grrr

Mans was off the shits

Also he had a tendency to stare wide-eyed at others and at the audience and it was very unsettling and very in-character and now that is just how I expect Hercules Mulligan to be

the switch to Madison was silly goofy because He went from crazy tailor to Quiet Sick Man and my brain could not comprehend why he was suddenly Normal™ and not barking at me

Hamilsquad

Just generally the Alex/John/Laf/Herc group had GREAT chemistry and it was very evident in their performance

Laurens did a lil "got your nose" thing with Ham in story of tonight

Story of tonight reprise I DIDNT NOTICE THAT HERC HAD A FLASK INSTEAD OF A CHAMPAGNE FLUTE LIKE THE REST OF THEM

Laf/Jefferson

I can't pick up on accents in german but my expert sources (german friend) told me that Laf indeed spoke with a french accent

"UH, FRANCE"

he was so bouncy and sassy he could have done a bend and snap and I would agree

The girls <3

ANGELICA

FUCKING POWERHOUSE

Opted up at the end of satisfied, I nearly fell out of my seat and died

Eliza has a very gentle voice and it goes very well with the Angelica.

Peggyyyyy was so prettyyyyyyyyy

she had pigtailsssss

very sassy gurl

also her wig for Maria? I need it in the Louvre it was so nice

BURR

Mamma mia

He had a voice

so good so nice

OPTED UP AT THE END OF WAIT FOR IT, I nearly fell out of my seat Pt. 2

Dear theodosia orz

My mother cried

so good, very genuine

Washingturnt

my father had very high expectations because he loves Tamar Greene with a burning passion

his expectations were exceeded

holy butts

One last time?? Again the fact that they kept the "George Washigton's going home" lyric in english??? It made it very emotional as an anglophone

I cried a little

All in all 11/10 I will fight god to see it again

OK THIS GOT VERY LONG I will probably think of more thoughts bout Blease i am Begging if you have thoughts please tell them to me my life will never be the same

#PLEASE #I need thoughts NOW #hamilton musical #alexander hamilton #hamilton #thoughts #hamilton germany #hamilton deutschland #hamilton hamburg #hercules mulligan #aaron burr #lafayette #thomas jefferson #john laurens #Please talk to me

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p-artsypants · 2 years

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I posted 921 times in 2022

168 posts created (18%)

753 posts reblogged (82%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@a-republican-mind

@p-artsypants

@j-liz

@ampervadasz

@carpisuns

I tagged 290 of my posts in 2022

#fanfiction - 42 posts

#miraculous ladybug - 26 posts

#partsing - 20 posts

#boy toy - 18 posts

#httyd - 16 posts

#ml - 15 posts

#how to train your dragon - 15 posts

#kingdom hearts - 12 posts

#adrien agreste - 10 posts

#marinette dupain cheng - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 119 characters

#they’ve gutted two apartments and remodeled them beautifully and only raised the price because they hadn’t in ten years

My Top Posts in 2022:

During a winter hiatus from the Edge, Hiccup goes off exploring the icy wastes. He finds more than he bargained for when a witch attempts to steal his soul. Now an emotionless husk, Hiccup must depend on Astrid and Gothi to delve deep within him and unlock the aspects of his personality he’d rather keep hidden.

Meanwhile, the rest of the riders test Hiccup on how emotionless he really is.

I guess I was really excited about this fic, considering I did a cover for it! It’s good to dip back into the How to Train Your Dragon fandom!

You can read Down to the Soul here!

25 notes - Posted September 14, 2022

You know what? Can we all just agree to stop pointing out spelling and grammar mistakes in fanfics unless the author asks for it? It’s so heartbreaking to see on the top of every fic “not beta read so please excuse the errors!” Like of course sis. Not everyone has time or resources to get a beta. Reading FanFiction is not going to the library, it’s opening the files on someone’s computer.

Keep your comments about the story and not the writing technique.

37 notes - Posted June 11, 2022

Can we talk about Return to Neverland, the Peter Pan sequel made in the early 2000’s?

I love this movie, and I feel like it’s slept on. I don’t remember if it was in theaters, but it should have been. It’s got amazing animation, some good songs, and the story and story boarding are incredible.

It’s the story of Jane, Wendy’s daughter (yeah yeah sequel trope but hang with me it’s a really good reason). Remember what Time Period Wendy was growing up? Turn of the century? When do you think her children would be growing up? If you said World War II, good job!

The movie starts with Jane’s father being drafted into the war. He tells Jane she has to be a big girl and take care of her mother and little brother. It’s also established that Wendy tells her kids all about Peter Pan and they love it.

Two years later, dad’s still gone. Jane has put childhood behind her and is listening to the radio to find any way to help the soldiers. There’s a scene where she goes out to buy her little brother a birthday present, a pair of socks, and London is being bombed while she’s out. She’s wearing a helmet while she crawls through rumble and debris while sirens and bombs shake the landscape.

She gets in an argument with Wendy when she returns to the bomb shelter. Wendy is telling the little brother, Daniel, Peter Pan stories and Jane tells her to stop filling his head with nonsense. Wendy then drops her own bomb and tells Jane that her and her brother are being sent to the countryside in the morning, and she asks Jane to tell Daniel stories, because he needs it. Jane is upset because she promised she would help take care of her family.

That night, she falls asleep on her window seat. The same window to the same nursery as all those years ago.

Suddenly, there’s a ship on the roof, a pirate ship, that a certain fairy made fly in a previous film. Jane is kidnapped by Captain Hook and taken to Neverland as bait for Peter Pan. But this is no fun adventure for Jane. It’s a nuisance, a distraction, and nonsense. She needs to get home, by any way possible.

I’ll stop describing the plot there because I don’t want to spoil it. It’s genuinely a great movie and makes me cry every time I watch it. Disney went hard on it and I don’t think it gets the notoriety it deserves.

See the full post

80 notes - Posted September 10, 2022

I can’t sleep so I’m going to rant.

The ending of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 makes me so mad. Yeah, someone had to take the place of Davy Jones and since Will dies, it makes sense that it’s him. I have no complaints there.

What pisses me off is how Will and Elizabeth follow the rules literally and are separated for ten years. So Will can only come on land one day every ten years…ELIZABETH CAN GO ON THE SHIP WHENEVER! Why stay away for ten years?? Why doesn’t she join the crew!? Will joined earlier in the movie and he was fine! Or, if he wanted her to have a normal life and intermingle with people, he could come to visit on the weekends, and she could row out to be with him on the ship. Or she could just go on short journeys with the Flying Dutchmen. The organ room on the boat looks like they’d have a nice captain’s quarters to sleep in so they don’t have to do it on the beach every time!!

Look for loopholes, people!!

If you can’t tell, I’ve thought about this a lot since that movie came out however long ago.

90 notes - Posted October 28, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Just dying over the httyd comic where Toothless wears giant earmuffs

He deserves it really

960 notes - Posted October 18, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #for the amount of time I spent on Tumblr #I don't have a lot to show for it #Still fun to see though

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smokeybrandcompositions · 6 months

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Time After Time

It’s wild the editorials you come across on the internet. I just read an entire piece, claiming that Trump supporters see him more as a Democrat than a republican, a throwback to those Clinton-era “Liberals”. This article went on to quote a bunch of numbers about how the slide toward liberalism has been a steep one. For instance, back in 1994, nearly two-thirds of Dems agreed with the statement that 'immigrants are a burden on our country because they take jobs, housing, and health care'. By 2019, only eleven percent of Democrats agreed with it. Another gem counted the seismic shift toward pro-choice. Way back in the year 1998, forty-two percent of Democrats counted themselves as Pro-life. Not-so-way back in the year of our lord, 2023, that number had emaciated to a paltry fifteen percent. My sarcastic tone aside, I find these numbers to be amazing. It shows progress. It shows growth. It shows a cultural shift toward compassion and dignity, rather than fear-mongering and bigotry. Not lost on me is the fact that, when these numbers were taken, it was mostly Boomers and older Gen Xers who were the primary recipients. Like, my mom was in her thirties and early forties during the Nineties. By the time that first poll as cited as taken, the immigrants one, she was well into her fifties but there had been a change in the overall makeup of pollsters. You see, in 2018, MY generation had entered the race! We, Millennials, were finally on the board and it changed absolutely f*cking everything!

I was born in 1984. Became a legal adult in 2002. In 2018, I was a healthy thirty-four years old. I was roughly the same age as my mom, back in the Nineties. I am old enough to have teenage kids, if I had any to begin with. I am old enough to be shaping the next generation of voters and idealists, which is an absolute nightmare for everyone who came before, because Millennials are basically the antithesis of “Traditional American Values.” Think about it, us older ones, the group born in the Eighties whom I like to call “The Oregon Trail Generation”, were all latchkey kids from single parent homes. We grew up with the internet, using AOL Messenger and random chatrooms at, like, f*cking six years old, to talk to people on the other side of the world. Our generation is intrinsically tied to the internet boom, rise of Youtube, and the death of almost every “traditional” form a of anything to date. We put LBGT+ rights at the forefront of our generational concerns, sowing the seeds of the Zoomer Trans revolt, and forced a reckoning about mental health, late stage capitalism, and general human rights. Hell, to take it further, religion started it’s great exodus with us, the birth rate fell off a cliff because none of us are having kids, and the advocacy for a four day work week has built into a full-throated demand, all on our watch. Millennials have basically ruined everything Middle America stands for, and I stand for that. Especially seeing where the kids coming after us are taking it.

Like, Millennials sparked the revolution, but these Zoomers and Alphas are going to stoke that sh*t into an inferno. Watching these brave ass f*cking kids, standing up to injustice, is outstanding. They all hate capitalism, absolutely know that the US government is full of sh*t, and they refuse to buy into the propaganda. I mean, obviously, there are concerning aspects of sh*t out there like this ridiculous Tradwife nonsense and the entire Manosphere, but even those are in decline. Each successive generation after mine has just gotten more Socialist and gay, and I am here for all of it. Less than three decades, man, and we went from most of the adults in the room, crying about fetus rights, to the VAST majority of us trying our goddamndest to enshrine a woman’s right to choose in every goddamn State constitution possible. But guess who’s standing in our way? That’s right, those Boomers! Even though they have lost so much of their presence in the adult electorate, they’re literally dying off, these assholes are packed to the gills in very level of government and won’t f*cking leave. Mitch McConnell personally knew Fred Flintstone and just no decided to step down from his GOP leadership role. Biden and Trump are Octogenarians, trying to run a country where they’re values haven’t been in the majority for at least a two decades. We have been trying to wrench the reins of power from these assholes born way back in the Forties, Fifties, and Sixties for the better part of two decades, and they just f*cking refuse!

A perfect example of this gap in perception is Israel. Personally, f*ck Israel and very Zionist who lives there. That’s been my sentiment since I learned about how that country came to be. But guess what? Through the power of the internet, and Tik Tok (why do you think the Feds are so hard-pressed to get rid of it), WAY more people feel the way I do than before. And guess how old those people are? Guess how old the people who blindly support an Israeli state, genocide and crimes against humanity be damned, are? The Democratic party hasn’t “shifted” left, we, as a society has. What the f*ck did you expect? We were rabid, feral, multi-cultural kids, from broken homes, unlocking doors and making grilled cheese for ourselves at six. By ten, we were raising our younger, Nineties Babies, siblings, because our one parent had to work stupid hours to pay for a mortgage trap. We took our objectively woke sensibilities, hone from years of public school integration, to the goddamn internet where we were exposed to the entire world of perspectives differing from ours. We are the last generation to play outside, and the first to Google facts for school reports. There hasn’t been a shift to the left, there has been a shift in understanding, intelligence, and knowledge. The shift is cultural, not political, and it’s just going to keep grow as we get older. No one wants to be Conservative anymore. We have to redefine those lines. The world is so much bigger, now, than it was back in the later 1900s. What a time to be alive!

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smokeybrand · 6 months

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Time After Time

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treadmilltreats · 11 months

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My united nations of friends

With all of this racial unrest going on in this country and the world, I still can't grasp why people are like this.

I can't understand racism because I have a rainbow of color in my life. I can't understand war because no one wins, just so many innocent people are killed.

I looked back at the times of my life, and I saw the United Nations of my friends. I have friends from Cuba, from Puerto Rico, I have friends from Nicaragua, Black friends, Chinese friends, who are all from different backgrounds, different religions, different sexual orientations and yea, even from different political parties yet we are all friends.

This mixed group is here for one another. We all love each other. They are there for one another through thick and thin, and we always help each other out.

These are the friends I choose for my family, and I know that they are with me through thick and thin, through good times and bad times. They are there for me when I need a shoulder to cry on, when I needed groceries for my kids, when times are hard, these are the people that I know will be there for me, and they know I will be there for them.

I have Caribbean friends and friends from Antigua, St. Thomas, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Haiti, and Columbian friends. I have black, brown, yellow and white friends. I have friends who are gay or straight. I have LGBT friends and drag queen friends. I have Christian, Jewish, Catholic, Muslim, and even Atheist friends.

I have friends who are democrats, republican, independent, and people from the we don't give a shit party. It does not matter to me. They are all the people I choose to invite into my life. The ones who love me for me and that I love for their heart and soul.

So what I don't get is why it is so hard for others to get this? There are good and bad in all, in police, in blacks, in whites, in Christians, in Muslims, in all, there are good and bad but to hate one race, one culture, or one religion on what a few bad apples have done, well that is just horrible.

I say in my blogs all the time, to be compassionate towards others, to love one another, to step out of your box and meet new people who aren't like you.

So many people don't even know another person of another race or they may have the one "token" black friend but know nothing about others.

I am here to tell you that you are missing out, as I have learned such culture from these different groups. I learned to enjoy different foods, music, and religions, but most of all, I have learned to be open enough to learn from them and their ideas and their heritage.

Did you get that message? Let me repeat it for those in the back!

I am open enough to learn from people who are different from me.

Because when you are open enough to learn, you will learn that we are all not so different after all. We all love our children and our families. We want a better life for them than we had. We all want to be loved and respected. We all want to have equal rights. We all want to be seen for what we have on the inside.

Common HUMAN rights. Not religious or race or political goals, just common human decency.

So today my friends, I invite you to open up your mind, to step out of your box, to embrace others different from you, because it will be amazing what you will learn if you do.

And to my incredible bunch of United Nations of friends, thank you for being my friend, for allowing me into your world and your hearts, and I am truly humbled to know and love you all.

"Be the change you want to see,"

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sineala · 4 years

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Is 616 Tony a Democrat or Republican or neither? I’ve seen posts comparing him to Trump (barf!)

Wow. Geez. You don't ask easy questions, do you, anon?

First off, I am going to assume that whoever was comparing 616 Tony to Trump was trying to slander Tony. And I will tell you that we do in fact have 616 Tony's canonical opinion of Trump -- yes, Donald Trump exists on Earth-616 and has been referenced in several comics -- and he doesn't seem to like him much. I mean, this is back when Trump was primarily being known for being a New York businessman. They canonically ran in the same circles and Tony canonically knows him. He doesn't like him.

Here's Tony in Iron Man v1 #227 complaining that Trump bought him out of a building:

And here's Tony again in Iron Man v3 #37 being not especially thrilled when he thinks that the person he is about to meet is Trump:

(The person he is actually meeting is Tiberius Stone, which is also a very bad idea.)

I am also going to point out that due to the way Marvel likes to handle politics in its comics, I don't think we can say anything about the canonical political affiliation of most characters, because Marvel deliberately leaves that undefined. So to the best of my knowledge, we don't have a canonical statement about Tony's political affiliation and we probably won't ever get one.

But we can speculate based on canonical evidence, can't we?

My very long answer is under the Read More.

Your question is sort of framed as "tell me if Tony is a good or a bad person," and I would like to suggest that this is not really a useful framing for several reasons: (1) what the political parties currently stand for is pretty recent, actually, and Tony as a character predates a lot of the modern conceptions of the two parties; (2) the history of the Democratic Party specifically in New York, where Tony is from, is, let's just say, not 100% pure and unproblematic; and (3), when we're talking about someone with the amount of money, connections, and influence that Tony has, party affiliation generally doesn't mean the same thing it would mean for us ordinary mortals. What I mean by that last point is that there is a big, big difference between every one of the following list of statements: "I would vote for Republicans," "I am a registered Republican," "I would give very large amounts of money to Republicans," and "I would accept a political appointment in a Republican administration." For most of us, the last two of those points aren't ever going to be something that comes up in our lives, but they are going to be things that matter very much for someone like Tony Stark. And we have a canonical answer for at least one of those things. We can theorize about at least some of the rest of them.

I'm saying all that because I suspect you're really not going to like my answer.

I think that there is a very, very high chance that 616 Tony is a Republican.

I mean, I don't think he'd be a Republican right now at this exact moment in time, are you kidding me, but I feel like he has definitely been a Republican at some point in the past. Say, before Trump. One of those socially-liberal fiscally-conservative types. With a conscience. Sort of like Mitt Romney. Picture the kind of Republican Massachusetts likes to keep electing as their governor.

Yes, is possible that, since Tony is from New York, he's a lifelong Democrat. It is definitely possible. New York is heavily Democratic in our world, and barring contradictory evidence, that is probably also the case on Earth-616. But I think that, specifically because of the rest of Tony's background and the ways that Tony has interacted with the world of politics in 616, he is most likely to be a Republican. It doesn't mean he couldn't be a Democrat! I have no proof either way! In terms of several elements of his characterization -- say, his commitment to social justice and fighting inequity -- I would say he definitely leans Democrat, because these days that sort of thing is mostly the province of the Democrats, although I suspect that back when Tony was created it wouldn't have been out of character for a lot of Republicans. I'm just saying that Republican seems more likely. If you gotta pick one. I think you could definitely argue for either. He doesn't fit completely into either but his canon interactions with politics push me toward thinking he's a Republican, because he does several specific things that I think it would be unlikely that anyone other than a Republican would be given the opportunity to do at the specific time that he does them.

Yeah. I know.

Right. Okay. Tony is extremely, extremely rich, and even though I know that he is basically the fantasy of The One Good Ethical Billionaire (more on this in a sec), it's probably worth thinking about what actual real-life rich people do with their money in ways that intersect with politics. And the answer to that is, well, generally they give money to politicians who are favorable to, say, helping them continue to have money. Now, yes, as far as I know there is no evidence of Tony doing this in canon -- this is where all the conjecture comes in. So we ask ourselves, okay, if Tony were to endorse particular politicians because of this, what party would he give money to? Who would he want to get in good with? In most parts of the country, that would probably be the Republican party. But, specifically in New York, it's the Democrats.

So, yeah, one of the big points in favor of him being a Democrat is that, well, Democrats traditionally run New York. The class of old-money New York elites are pretty stereotypically Democrats. And that would include Tony. Which is not to say that he couldn't be a Republican, but if he wants to get anywhere with New York politicians, and I suspect he probably does because he is trying to run a series of very large businesses and he owns a fair amount of real estate including several buildings whose permitting processes I can only imagine fall into the category of “probably highly irregular" -- I mean, he has multiple jets that he regularly lands on his house and secret underwater tunnels for a submarine -- he has to cozy up to Democrats. If he gives money to anyone involved in politics, that's who he gives money to. Making superhero bases probably took a lot of money. A massive amount of money. The city planners probably cry when they see him coming.

(At one point I believe they did ban him from keeping the Quinjets in his house. That was when the Avengers had the Hydrobase.)

I tend to assume most people know something about the history of the Democrats in New York, or at least the history of US political parties in general, but the tl;dr version is that the parties haven't always stood for the same things that they do now. They also weren't always the same parties. And historically, in New York, the political machine gives you Democrats. That's just the way it is. The Democratic Party of the past was not really, um, devoted to all the same causes as the current Democratic Party. And it was very hard to get anywhere in New York and not be a Democrat. It still is. If you haven't read up on Tammany Hall, maybe you should. There was a lot of corruption. I mean, yeah, it's not currently a thing, but the Democrats remained in power in New York; it dissolved probably around about the time the Republican Party explicitly decided that the way to win the South was to appeal to the racism of white voters ("the Southern strategy"). Because, yes, before that a lot of white, conservative Southerners were traditionally Democrats. And then the Democrats split about civil rights, and, uh, the Republicans took in the racists.

Anyway! US political history is sure a land of contrasts! Rich New Yorkers are traditionally Democrats! That is a point for Tony possibly being a Democrat, yes. Moving on!

But Tony is not just a random old-money New Yorker. He inherited Howard Stark's money and Howard Stark's company. And Howard was, well, a defense contractor. And so was Tony, until he stopped making weapons. And, uh, being a defense contractor is, um, one of those things that is extremely, extremely Republican. No, I don't have stats to back this up. Just trust me. So, yeah, he's a rich New Yorker -- but he's also a defense contractor from a family of defense contractors. I would be amazed if Howard Stark were anything other than a Republican. Which is not to say that Tony could not be a Democrat anyway, but the job does come with a certain predisposition.

(Incidentally, one of the other things Tony inherited from Howard was his membership in the Hellfire Club, which is one of those things I keep forgetting about until canon smacks me in the face with it every few years.)

We all know that the conception of Tony, as a character, is basically the fantasy of the Ethical Billionaire. He is The Best At Capitalism. He has money and he is not corrupted by it. He has money and he uses it to do the maximum amount of good in the world because that is what he really, deeply wants to do. He supports a large number of philanthropic causes! He has a foundation named after his mother! He funds programs for low-income youth! He runs a homeless shelter for women! Throughout his history, he has been consistently portrayed as a deeply, deeply kind human being, who wants to help people. A lot of people! People who aren't like him! People who might not even like him! That is just... who he is, as a person.

And these days we tend to associate that kind of push for systemic change and caring about social issues and remedying inequity with Democrats, but that wasn't always the case. I think it still would have been believable coming from a Republican, oh, around about the time Tony came into existence. He was created back when you could be an elected Republican and, uh, push social policies that I think these days we would consider progressive. I mean, Eisenhower was the one who started integrating schools, right? The Republicans are the party of Lincoln! It's not like Republicans are prevented from doing good things. And I think we need to keep in mind that Tony dates from the early 60s when socially-progressive was still a thing Republicans could conceivably be.

So, yes, Tony is very kind. It's nice. We all like that about him. But also many of the ways in which he is kind to people are very much Republican fantasies. Like, yes, he's a great boss. He's close to his employees. They're like family. If any of his employees have problems, he helps them out on a personal, individual level -- and that, as an ideal, seems very Republican to me. I mean, he's a CEO, right? He's owned a lot of companies. Are any of them unionized? Combing through Wiki, I find one reference to a union in ToS 63, which is really, really early -- you know, back when unions were more popular. I can't find anything after that. And nothing is coming to mind. So, I mean, yes, we have now established his employees were at one point unionized, but he's certainly not known for, say, running a union shop. Part of the fantasy of the Ethical Billionaire is the idea that Tony's employees don't need unions because Tony is so kind and so generous and so personally selflessly good that he takes care of everyone who works for him. And the thing is, Tony actually does do this. He is fictional and therefore capable of achieving perfection.

Okay. He's a fictional character. Let's step back a little and think about fictional characters, and specifically the way Marvel Comics depicts fictional characters interacting with well-known real people. Many real people from our Earth do seem to exist in 616. Earth-616 is not our Earth in a vast number of ways, but one thing it shares with our Earth is presidents. Whoever is the real-life president when a comic comes out is pretty much generally president on Earth-616 at the time. Yes, I'm going somewhere with this.

Now, for whatever reason, Marvel often does not canonically refer to presidents by their names in dialogue, but the artists pretty much draw whoever is president at the time when someone in canon needs to meet the president. (Captain America seems to get to meet the president a lot. I'm sure you're shocked.)

There are a couple exceptions to "everyone who looks like the president is the president,” namely that Marvel says that the villain who was Number One of the Secret Empire in Captain America v1 #175, who attempted to conspire with aliens to take over the Earth, whom Steve watched commit suicide -- anyway, the official Marvel word is, I believe, that this guy is not Richard Nixon, but Steve Englehart, who wrote the comic, says it absolutely was:

And, yes, this is the incident that causes Steve to lose faith in America and become Nomad. You can kind of see why that would be traumatic. Marvel clearly had some feelings about Watergate they needed to process.

Anyway, I just wanted to put in a picture of that time Ronald Reagan was turned into a snake person. It's Captain America v1 #344:

I love comics.

More recent presidents still make appearances in the comics, and they are the president who was the real-life president at the time. For example, the president who pardons Steve for all his SHRA-related crimes in Who Will Wield The Shield is definitely Obama:

And that means that I must also unfortunately inform you that Hydra Steve also received a presidential pardon:

Though the issue in question (Captain America v9 #8) does not specifically name the president, following the "whoever is the actual president is the 616 president" rule, the president who canonically pardoned Hydra Steve is... Donald Trump.

Let's just pause here to contemplate this. Take as long as you need.

(I was today years old when I learned that Hydra Steve has been dead in comics for over a year. Since the issue in which he was pardoned, actually. Which is an issue I am sure I read the day it came out, but somehow I missed the four entire pages where Hydra Steve is set on fire and burns to death while hailing Hydra with his last breath. I guess it wasn't memorable! I mention because I am pretty sure I am not the only one who missed this.)

Anyway. I do have a point to make here, and my point is this: Tony has received political appointments. Two of them, in fact. In the 2003-2004 Iron Man arc "The Best Defense," Tony becomes Secretary of Defense. He does get Senate confirmation; it's not a deputy appointment. He actually gets unanimous confirmation. And I know that Tony had this job is a fact that everyone knows about Tony, but I feel like a lot of people may not be totally conscious of the timeframe involved here, and by that I mean that he is absolutely, positively, the Secretary of Defense for Earth-616's George W. Bush. Yes, I am sure of this.

Here is Tony with the president in Iron Man v3 #78, being told he got the job:

Yeah. That’s George W. Bush.

Can a Cabinet appointment cross party lines? I mean, sure, it's possible. I am not the kind of giant politics nerd who has this memorized, but there is in fact, a Wikipedia page for US political appointments across party lines. And it looks like there have been five cross-party Secretaries of Defense and five Secretaries of War. So, I mean, yes, it's happened, but it's fairly rare. None of the cross-party Secretaries of Defense (deputy secretaries excluded, since they weren't confirmed, obviously) were ever Democrats appointed by Republicans. And since we're looking at Dubya's administration specifically, it looks like only one of his Cabinet appointees (Transportation) was cross-party. So it looks like he in particular would not have been especially likely to appoint a Democrat to his Cabinet, since in real life he only had the one.

So to me it seems that the most likely party affiliation for Tony has to be Republican, because of this. Sure, the appointment could have crossed party lines. But I feel like it's just... not likely. Being a Republican Secretary of Defense in a Republican administration just seems way, way more possible.

(Also I'd like everyone to remember that Tony is replacing the previous Secretary of Defense because the previous Secretary of Defense was secretly the Red Skull and released an engineered flesh-eating virus at Mount Rushmore. Just, y'know, to set the mood.)

What's more, Tony gets a second political appointment from the Bush administration. It's not a Cabinet position, but he does become the Director of SHIELD in 2007. Here Tony is with the president, slightly earlier, in Civil War #1:

This is not really as good a likeness of Bush as the previous and I guess you could argue that the artist was drawing A Generic Politician but I feel like, y'know, it's probably still meant to be Bush. And Tony may not have wanted this particular job -- we know he definitely didn't -- but he absolutely wanted to be Secretary of Defense. So we know that he is definitely fine with serving in a Republican administration.

So, yeah, that's my argument: odds are pretty good that Tony has, at some point in his life, been a Republican. Maybe not right now. But probably in the past.

Having said that, given the way Marvel handles politics, I don't think it's likely to ever be much of an issue in canon; the Avengers mostly just tend to get to get along with whoever the president is at the time and I can't recall really anything about partisan issues. However, you're never going to convince me 616 Steve was anything other than a New Deal Democrat -- even though I know that in Cap #250 he turns down both the Democrats and the Republicans when they ask him to run for president -- because, I mean, come on. I assume that he and Tony probably try not to discuss politics ever anymore, because we all know how the SHRA went. They probably mostly agree, but when they disagree, people have a tendency to end up dead.

That was probably more than you ever wanted to know about my thoughts on this topic.

#Anonymous #replies

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torn--and--frayed · 3 years

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The Recall

josh, donna, an unnamed and totally fictitious governor, and the california recall

Donna is dozing lightly on the chaise in her office when the sound of the office door opening and closing causes her to stir. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” she groans, trying to shake off the last of her sleep induced haze.

“Do I need a reason?” Josh smirks as he gazes down at her.

Donna hums and grabs his wrist to check the time. “Are you guys getting ready to head out?”

“Yeah, any minute now.” Josh sighs, dropping his backpack unceremoniously on the ground, and collapsing rather forcefully onto the couch next to her. “Just waiting for the agents to page me.”

Donna bites back the urge to remind him—again—that he needs to sit more carefully. You’re going to ruin the springs, Josh! This is just how I sit, Donna! “And you thought you would come see me before you left?” She smiles as she props herself onto her elbows.

Josh lets his entire head roll as he turns to look at her. “Well not if you’re going to make a big deal about it. What are you up to?”

“What do you mean?” Donna gestures down at her still prone position on the couch. “I’m working.”

“Clearly.”

“Growing human life is hard work, Josh.”

“Yes,” he nods dumbly, “and you’re doing amazing at it. I shouldn’t have cast doubt.”

“Good boy.” Donna reaches out, her hand grasping out for his. Once he’s pulled her upright and she’s re-situated herself with a pillow, now—mercifully—taking the pressure off her lower back, she continues, “So, California?”

Josh is looking at her as if she were made of thinly blown glass, ready to shatter with the slightest movement. Normally, it would annoy her—I’m pregnant Josh. It’s hardly a terminal condition—but her illicit afternoon nap has her feeling slightly more magnanimous. Besides, he seems to shake himself from his trance after a moment. “That’s the plan,” he sighs, letting all the air out of his chest.

“You should be more excited. It’s seventy-two and sunny where you’re going. The rest of us are stuck in this humid swamp.”

“For your information,” he rolls his eyes, “it’s more like ninety-two, and it would be sunny if the entire place wasn’t suffocating in smoke.”

“Details. Details. It’s still Cal-i-for-nia.” She says, sounding out each syllable as if he were missing something obvious.

“California is fine, I mean I don’t understand what the big deal is really—Sam and C.J. act like its—I don’t know—”

“Disneyland?”

“Funny.” Although he’s looking at her like it’s anything but. Finally, he gives a frustrated yell and lets his head fall into his hands. “I just hate that we’re going out there for him. I almost would rather have Vinick as Governor.”

“Don’t you let Politico hear you say that.” Donna tuts. “He’s one of the few blue governors we’ve got, we should be thankful.”

“Are we going out there to fend off this stupid recall or not?” He bites impatiently. They’re on the precipice of passing landmark—not to mention bipartisan—legislation and all the Washington press wants to talk about is if the President plans on flying in to support the embattled governor. Josh has half the mind to let the man fend for himself. What kind of so-called democrat can’t hold on to California of all places? Although, they’ve had a republican Governor of California before and—Josh shudders at the thought. “I just can’t wait until this entire thing is over and we can go back to criticizing him again.”

“Well, the election is in two days,” Donna says lightly, “and the last polling I saw was very favorable. I’ll bet the talking heads will have seen enough in less ninety minutes and call it. Then you can have a field day.”

“And it’ll take about ninety-one minutes for those idiots on Fox to start crying fraud.” Josh whines.

It’s Donna’s turn to roll her eyes. They’ve been having the same conversation for two weeks and she’s, frankly, tired of his pessimism. “I’m sure, but it’ll be hard to dispute 75-25,” she sighs. Josh looks like he’s ready to argue, but she continues, eager to forestall another one of his rants, “Speaking of Fox, you know who he used to be married to?”

Her rapid change of subject seemingly short-circuits his brain and the argument he was gearing up to dies on his tongue. “No, why would I know that?”

“Kimberly Guil—.” Donna waives her hand absentmindedly rather than completing the thought.

“That bobble-head? The one that’s dating—”

“The very same.”

Josh cringes. “If I didn’t question the guy’s judgement already.”

“Well, and you know how he met his current wife?”

“Have you been reading, like, Page Six all day or something?”

“Everyone knows these things, Josh.” Donna says dismissively, “It was hot gossip.”

They sit in silence for a moment. Donna knowing, no doubt, that curiosity would get the better of him eventually. “Fine, I’ll bite. How did he meet her?”

Donna smiles like a cat that’s caught the canary. “She was married to his best friend. They’re cheaters.”

Josh cringes again, the new information seeming to make him physically ill given the look on his face. “Why are you telling me all this? I’m supposed to meet them with the President tomorrow. How am I going to look the man in the eye?”

“I’m just warning you,” Donna defends, “You know, in case you fall victim to his charms.”

“I think I’m immune.”

“You never know, he’s very handsome.”

Josh scowls at her, “You just finished telling me all his sordid life details, and now you’re going to call him handsome?”

“In a Jack Kennedy, philandering sort of way,” she smiles. When his face doesn’t change, she tries again. “I’m only joking. Hey,” she says, grabbing his head between her hands and kissing him chastely, “I promise you; you are better than the Governor of California.”

“Damn straight.” Josh smiles and takes the opportunity to tilt her chin up and kiss her again. This one less chaste than the one before.

His hands are tangled in her hair, and he’s just about to slip his tongue into her mouth when his beeper blares, interrupting their moment. He curses under his breath but doesn’t move his forehead from where it’s pressed against hers. “That’ll be the agents, I’ve got to go. You’ll call me if you need anything?”

“Josh, we’ll be fine.”

He pulls back. “I’m serious, I’ll charter a plane if I have to.”

“It’s two days,” Donna tries again, but seeing he’s not to be deterred, she relents, “Yes, I’ll call you.”

“Thank you.” Satisfied, Josh stands and collects his bag, swinging it boyishly over his shoulder and pointing at her while he walks backwards out of her office, “I’ll see you two on Monday.”

“You better not come back here with slicked back hair and a new wife!” She calls.

“Hey, it’s the California trip!”

#my new fic #my new fic is dropping #is dropping #tww fic #josh x donna #josh lyman #donna moss #tww #the west wing #fanfic

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impossiblelibrary · 3 years

Text

Today's rant brought to you by: Queer Eye Japan, can we all just try to be as kind as they try to be?

After watching the Queer Eye Japan super short season, I wanted to google to see the overall reaction to the show, make sure that my western eyes were correct in seeing the care that was given to the culture. Were cultural taboos, other than being outwardly gay, crossed? So I find this article in the top results and other than the perspective, why tho? Tokyoesque.com had an article with a higher reading level, with surface level appreciation but at least better written.

I can't get over this hate article though. Unfounded, dumb, wrong and incorrect. Do not go forward unless you like that blistering kind of anger from me.

But the reasons just get weaker as the article extends: "Hurts the country it set out to save?" Looking for white savior much? They did not go to save Japan, they gave some free shit to like 4-5 people, think smaller.

Their culture guide wasn't gay enough.

You want to suggest any lgbt insta models or celebrities, use your platform to raises some up?

"There is a growing sexless culture in Japan for married and unmarried people, and it is perilous watching Queer Eye present this without any context behind what is driving this behavior."

Sexiness is what the fab 5 embrace, unfortunately and it was probably discussed behind the scenes of how much talking about sex was allowed or polite and the conversation of not having sex is closer to the tip of the tongue rather than the feeling of sexiness. The West is not the ones blasting that information. It is across multiple Japanese printed newspapers and online stories by now and the "context" is still being discussed and debated amongst Japanese. So I don't think any outsiders should be weighing in or "explaining" this phenomenon. We can repeat what we have been told but guessing at the reasons is not our place. The reasons illustrated by the author of the article seem lacking, a take but not the only one, but who am I to speak on that being in a sexual relationship with someone who pulls from that culture?

Kiko begins to lecture Yoko-san on how she “threw away her womanhood” (referring to a Japanese idiom, onna wo suteru) by going makeup-free and wearing drab, shapeless clothes.

The mistranslation by the subtitles fixed by this author was necessary information. But Kiko didn't lecture her on it, it was brought up by Yoko before any of them arrived, that was her theme, that was what she had decided to focus on. Meanwhile, if you watched Jonathan, he understood there was no time to spend on makeup and skincare so provided her a one instrument, 3 points of color on the skin to feel prettier. That and the entire episode being the 5 treating her like a woman on a date, not trying to hook her up, which is what they did in American eps.

"In teaching a Japanese woman, who already struggles to find time for herself, how to make an English recipe, Antoni is making great TV and nothing more."

So Antoni shouldn't have taught her apple pie because it's too exotic for a Japanese woman. (Can you smell the sexism?)

He didn't make an apple pie, altho Yoko did mention her mother made that for her when she was a kid. He made an apple tartine after going to a Japanese bakery who makes that all the time. Then highlighted the apples came from Fuji in true Japanese media fashion. Honey, American television doesn't usually highlight where the ingredients come from. A Japanese producer told him to do that. So all worries handled within the same ep. She got Japanese ingredients, had the recipe shown to her and then made it for her friends in her own house. Did the author actually watch this show or nah?

"beaten over the head with his western self-help logic. “You have to live for yourself,” he says."

The style of build up the 5 went for was confrontational but in a "I'm fighting for you" way. It's hard to describe, but the best I can say is, a person has multiple voices in their head, from parents, siblings, society, and maybe themselves. By being loud and obnoxious, American staples right there, they are adding one more voice. You deserve this, you are amazing, you are worth it. I know this is against most Japanese cultural modesty, but maybe it shouldn't be.

Sarcasm lies ahead:

Apparently: mispronunciation is microaggressions, not just someone who had a sucky school system. Yea okay, They're laughing at the language not at how stumbling these monolinguals are with visiting another country. Mmhm. Japanese don't say I love you and don't touch and that should stay that way instead of maybe, once in awhile, feeling like they can hug. Yeah, let's just ignore Yoko's break down that she had never hugged her lifelong friend after hugging strangers multiple times. Maid cafes are never sexualized in Japan ever, just don't go down that one street in Akihabara where the men are led off by the hand sheepishly blushing. Gag me. And Japanese men love to cry in front of their wives and would never break down once the wife leaves. I have never seen a Japanese movie showcase that move. Grr.

"I identify as many cultures."

So you're a Japanese man when it's convenient for you to get an article published? Are you nationally Japanese or just ethnically or culturally?

Homeland is an inherently racist word?

"After the Bush administration created the Department of Homeland Security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a Republican consultant and speechwriter Peggy Noonan urged, “the name Homeland Security grates on a lot of people, understandably. Homeland isn’t really an American word, it’s not something we used to say or say now.”

Yes, let's use a Washington Post article rather than a etymology professor. Yes, the google search results increased after 2001 Homeland Security was used but the word has been around since the 1660s and I've read multiple turn of the century lit on white people returning to their homeland, i.e. the town off the coast they were born in.

"But" is not disagreeing. I think the repeated offender for the author is the not acknowledging the makeover-ees feelings. But, that is how LGBT have decided to deal with the inner voices that invade from society. They are just that, not our own, they are the influence of society, and we can choose, we have to choose, to be influenced by someone, anyone else.

Karamo can't speak about being black when an Asian is speaking about being Asian, even though the Asian gay man was feeling alone. It's called relating bitches, and I'm done with people saying that is redirecting the conversation, it's extending the conversation. That's how we talk, the spotlight is shared, especially when someone's about to cry and doesn't want to be seen as crying, time to turn the spotlight.

The gay monk wasn't good enough, you should have invited the gay politician.

Yeah, causes I'm sure a politician has all the time in the world for a quick stint and cry. They picked a Japanese monk who travels to NY because they had a guest who travels to the West too. Did you want him to stop traveling back and forth? Did you want a pure, ethnic and cultural Japanese gay man who has no ties to the west to talk to this Western educated young man? Seriously?

This is just not how it works in Japan.

Being in a multi-cultural marriage between two rebels, discussions on facets of culture are plenty in my household. Culture should be respected enough to be considered but not held on a pedestal like we should never adjust or throw some things out. LGBT being quiet and private for instance. "Being seen" was Jonathan's advice, and a good one especially for a Japanese gay man that was called feminine since he was a kid. Some gay men can hide, but as Jonathan said, he couldn't hide what he was, he couldn't hide this. So fuck it. Don't hide. It's actually more dangerous for a feminine man to come off as anxious rather than gay and proud. It makes you more of a target if they think you won't fight back. Proud means, Imma throw hands too, bitch.

This is also from the civil rights playbook going back to Black America: never hold a protest or a fight without the cameras, without being seen. LGBT have found the more seen they are, in media, in the streets, the better off we are. When LGBT Americans were being "private" about our lifestyles, we died, a la 1980s. They won't care if you start dying off if they never saw you to begin with.

And hence why I think the author's real anger is from these 5 being seen dancing flamboyantly in Shibuya, in Harajuku, afforded the privilege of doing this safely because of their tourist status, cameras and very low violence rate in Tokyo, loud and obnoxiously. Honestly, they wouldn't have been invited or nominated if they didn't want that brash American-ness coming into their home, just for a taste, at least.

Here's my real anger, my own jealousy: Japan's queer community currently does not have marriage or adoption rights. US does, so we have progressed further. But we are also not that many years from being tied to cow fences with barbed wire, beaten with baseball bats and left for dead overnight. If things are so bad over there, maybe take a few pages from the civil right playbook we took so much time to perfect and produced by the Black Americans who fought first. But so far, I only hear loss of jobs and marriages, which we still have here too. Stop trying to divide us, we are one community, LGBT around the world and we are here to try to help. Take it or leave it, it's not like we're going to go organize your own Pride parade for you.

Rant over? I guess. Is this important enough to be put in the google results along with his. Hell no, anyone with half a mind can see he's reaching more than half the time. And any argument about: this wasn't covered! There are a shit ton of conversations that are not covered in the 45 min they have. They are not a civil rights show, it's a makeover show, doing their best in that direction anyway. Know what it is.

Next blog post, what research I would guess was happening behind the scenes for each of the 5? I'm pretty sure I saw Jonathan doing Japanese style makeup there...

#queer eye #Queer eye Japan #original #rant

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thxngam · 3 years

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omg share your seaborn administration headcanons?

@tunennbee came up with like half of these!

well sam would be like late fifties or something when he runs/get elected

josh as first gentlemen is...interesting

typically the first lady does some ceremonial stuff, and when the president takes private dinners with prime ministers and stuff the spouse is supposed to be charming and nice and helps the president project a family man vibe (which is sexist but whatever)

josh...does Not Do That

everything devolves into a policy debate

his press secretary is like “what can you do that projects a family man vibe?” and josh is like “...i can’t cook and I don’t think the American people want to see me yell at stupid umpires”

he’s got this weird vibe of just being a guy who likes baseball and doesn’t like the instant replay on football and also being a world class politcal genius

he likes the easter egg roll though! and when families come to trick or treat at the WH josh loves the kids

idk if sam and josh have a kid but josh likes little kids - “kids are great yknow? there’s no double meaning. if they want a juice box, they’re gonna ask for a juice box.”

people like sam as president because he’s a good speech giver and a good man but he has the same problem as Bartlet where people think he’s too smart

but then footage of sam falling over or something goes viral and people reassess

“maybe...he’s just a guy. a really smart guy who likes grammar maybe too much, but he’s also just a guy”

Republicans try to use the footage to show incompetence and sam retweets it like “my husband saw this and laughed so hard he cried. it doesn’t take hand-eye coordination to know tax cuts don’t help the poor and that we don’t need to keep endowing the defense budget when we’re not fighting a war”

josh retweets it too and is like “ive got more stories of sam being a klutz if anyone’s interested”

as a couple people like sam and josh

they’re gay icons tho

sam gives a really moving speech at a fundraiser for the trevor project and people cry

at the end of it sam goes up to this woman and there’s shaky cell phone footage of sam apologizing profusely about “oh my god i didn’t mean to make you cry? are you okay? can i get you something?” and this lady is like ‘they’re good tears!!”

josh is fondly exasperated

they light up the white house like a rainbow every june and sam actually includes gay rights on his campaign, not just a side thing bc he’s a democrat

he refuses to shuttle his relationship away - he’s the president and gay. they’re not mutually exclusive

donna is untouchable

there’s a small thing when donna becomes chief of staff

a republican senator tweets “the day we let liberal blondes with no college degree run the highest office in the land is the day our country goes to hell in a handbasket”

donna quote-tweets it with an itemized list of every time that person has dropped the ball or screwed up on something

sam gives an impassioned statement to the press - it’s five minutes of sam talking about how amazing donna is

josh laughs very very loudly when a reporter asks what he thinks and says something like “donna barged her way into my office, convinced me to give her a shot, and worked her way to where she is today. the senator is wrong about a lot of things but he’s never been so wrong as when he said donna was incompetent”

and after all this donna tweets a picture of her, joey, and their cat so people are like ‘QUEEN’

lists of her accomplishments are trending

nobody dares to say anything after that

will’s speaker of the house and josh hates him bc of the one time that sam and him hooked up when sam was running for the 47th the first time

“it happened once let it go josh-” / “never”

“josh shut up, he’s literally the speaker-”

will cannot for the life of him figure out why josh hates him

will asks just the once and sam is like “yeah, no”

this is my favorite thing tho - ainsley as a scotus judge!

sam and ainsley still disagree on everything but they’re still protective of each other

someone calls sam too preachy to be president and ainsley to bitchy to be a SCOTUS justice

sam fiercely defends her “she’s a patriot before she is a conservative. she is intelligent, capable, and strong-willed, and she’d tell you all of that herself but i suppose if she did you’d resort to throwing silly misogynistic slurs so. here i am preaching.”

ainsley marches up to a reporter and is like ‘sam seaborn is definitely not always right, but there are little other people who care so much about the issues facing our country”

she then proceeds to email him like ‘i still disagree with you on everything”

sam emails back like “yeah me too, we can call it even”

This got really long and i have no filter so. hope you like them!

#the west wing #wow this is really long im sorry #ask

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posthungergamessyndrome · 4 years

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so here’s my long overdue review of The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes that no one asked for. I finally read the book, well listened to the audiobook, coz i dunno how to read a book anymore.

This book was everything I expected it to be and also not. Definitely the first two parts was easily predictable, we all kinda assumed that was the general arc that story would take. So while I found the first two parts enjoyable, learning more about the history of the games and learn more of Capitol, i wasn’t really hooked until the third part.

But let me say this first tho, Ms. Suzanne Collins, you never disappoint. Also I have questions and I hate that she wasn’t able to go on a book tour (I haven’t read her Q&A tho).

I still have the same qualms as i did about the prequel as i did before I read it. While I get the early records of the games were shoddy, and the 10th Hunger Games was erased but for one copy hidden in some vault, that doesn’t matter, what matter is Snow knows.

So If Snow had that relationship with the Games and Lucy, the first victor of d12, a lot of the decisions he made in the trilogy made no sense.

I get it, he wanted to forget, it’s decades until Katniss came along. While there might be parallels, Lucy and Katniss are very different characters. But all I can think off is the reason he didn’t kill Katniss sooner, was it really because she would end up a martyr or rallying cry for the district, which happened anyways, or he was practically disassociating the moment Katniss was reaped?

Were Katniss and Peeta unintentionally triggers to so many of his hidden traumas that’s why he made so many misteps? Katniss singing the meadow song to Rue, triggered. Peeta mentioning the Valley song, triggered. Mockingjay, triggered. The Hanging Tree, triggered.

Was he so busy crying in the shower that he wasn’t able to stop Seneca Crane from making bad calls during the 74th Games? Two winners from the same district, would Snow really okay’d that himself?

And also, I’ve always thought that anything he did towards Peeta was coz he wanted to hurt Katniss. But no, he wanted to hurt that boy. Peeta reminds him of his young self, at least the young person everyone saw him as, charming, smart, and loyal. And in a way, had Peeta been born in the Capitol and was among Snow’s contemporaries, Snow would have seen him as his ultimate rival.

Coz Snow was smart and knows how to manipulate people, but Peeta does it a lot better and a lot more successfully. With Snow, it’s right in front of his face and he still misses it. Often he is so close to getting it. How could he not have thought of the star-crossed lovers angle? How?? When one Peeta Mellark thought of it?

Which idk if there’s fanfics of that yet, but I need to read them asap, Katniss and Peeta and teen Snow, make it happen.

(But I was looking at my notes and I wrote probably the reason Snow didn’t think of the star crossed lovers angle because it was about his survival not about Lucy’s. Lucy was at best, seen as his possession. Even at the moments he was honestly in love with her, he still saw her as someone belonging to him only. )

Snow had two relationships going on: with Sejanus and with Lucy. I did find his relationship with Sejanus more interesting, because I think it’s that relationship that shaped him more that his relationship with Lucy.

I did like and even at some points enjoyed their Slytherin-Hufflepuff BFFship going on, coz despite how Snow let us know what he really thinks versus what he actually says, he was drawn to protect Sejanus, even though he’s reluctant about it or insist that he was made to do it or it’s also to benefit himself.

And I’m not saying there’s queerbaiting in this book, but certain pairings in this book makes more sense to ship than Johanna and Katniss.

With Lucy, i know many were wary or didn’t want Snow to have a relationship with her. For me i was open to it, at least intrigued to see where it will go or how will it be handled.

Honestly while it is still better written than most YA romances, I found it very insta-love. Again, my sense of timeline in this novel might be different coz I was listening to the audiobook instead of reading it, but they fell in love pretty quick.

While listening to the audiobook, i thought, if their relationship is at this point it must have been weeks since the reaping and the games haven’t started yet, and then Snow says it’s just been five days. They were making out I think by day 3 or something.

Maybe because I knew they relationship was doomed from the start and we know how Snow ends up, I was amused by certain moments in their relationship, coz all I can think about it is, oh honey no.

but also, I am mad that Ms. Collins is capable of writing amazing fluff moments in the midst of a dystopian world, and she wastes them on Snow and Lucy? Where was all that for Katniss and Peeta? i was given crumbs in the trilogy, Snow and Lucy made out so many times, at one point I even thought they were going to sleep together, like how dare you Ms. Collins.

For the many years we debated the meaning behind The Hanging Tree, Ms Collins, said no hun, this is what the songs means, let me tell you it’s origin story. And omg Suzanne, that was fucked up. Thanks.

One of the things I was worried about for this prequel is that while it is set in the future, the messages in it will seem outdated because a lot has changed since the trilogy came out.

But she wrote this book well before it was announced in 2019, before it was released in 2020, but she still made it very relevant for today and I think the messaging of this prequel would be more resonant in the future, like the trilogy is.

She touched upon how we really value children, and that immediately reminded me of school mass shootings and how we haven’t done anything about it. She lives in Sandy Hook when the shooting happened so this makes sense she makes a statement about it. And now we are sending kids to school in a middle of a pandemic for political reasons not because we are concerned about their education.

And there’s also mentions of a pandemic in a middle of a war, let’s say it was a whole mental experience alternating between listening to the audiobook and watching the news on January 6.

I also loved the lines: “why do people think the only thing they need for a revolution is anger?” and “we pour money into industries not people.”

While it’s almost unbelievable that the modern hunger games was merely a student group project by a bunch of privileged rich kids and one person who thinks slavery is okay ended up writing the whole thing anyways, that’s basically how this country and our system of governance was founded.

Dr. Gaul is also every Security and Development professor I had in grad school who teaches that war never ends and it’s not about winning it’s about control to a class of future leaders at the state department, white house, and pentagon. i mean, it’s the cornerstone of US foreign policy since end of WW2.

While also listening to this book, I am dead sure that Suzanne could write a different version of Catching Fire where Katniss and Peeta were mentors and they uncover the hidden 10 hunger games tape, and it still will be a be hella of a story.

It also makes sense that the two characters that could possibly tell us or Katniss the connection of Snow to Lucy were the ones who can’t talk: Mags and Tigris.

obviously lucy ended up in 13, possibly related to Alma Coin coz where else will she get that personal hatred against Snow?

Snow could have at least picked Clemensia or Lys, but Livia? i guess make sense since her offspring ended up being Plutarch’s assistant.

I feel like if i read the prequel before the trilogy, it would be a different reading experience. But at the same time, Snow, while he had his moments, is an unlikeable character even as an anti-hero, and his moral stand point is something i dont agree with, coz you know, he’s basically a republican. it’s like reading a book about a young Mitch McConnell, doesn’t matter if the system hurt him sometimes, as long as it hurts others more and keeps him in control, and i gag. I don’t think i would finish reading the prequel if i started with it instead of the trilogy.

but it does solidifies my theory that Snow’s evil is not because he is out of touch with the rest of panem, he knows suffering that’s why he knows how to exploit it. He is not oblivious to the problems, but he arrived at different conclusions or convictions, because again he supports the system that controls his enemies, even if the system is cruel to him too. Again, a Republican. Don’t be one, don’t date one.

I do wonder tho if he made good with champagne tuesdays when he became president.

I don’t see how this prequel works as a movie adaptation tho, even if turned into three parts. It makes more sense for it to be a series, so if lionsgate hasn’t declared bankruptcy before they can adapt this into screen, maybe with the state of movies right now due to the pandemic, they will be more convinced to make this into a series for Netflix or to launch their own streaming service.

#the ballad of songbirds and snakes #coriolanus snow #the hunger games

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popculturebuffet · 3 years

Text

Ducktales Treasure of the Golden Suns Reviews: Wronguay in Ronguay (Paid for by Patreons)

Hello all you happy people and welcome back to the genesis of magillicutty Ducktales with the second part of my months long look at Treasure of the Golden Suns, the mini series that kicked off the series. These reviews are a result of me hitting my first patreon stretch goal. I just did a LONGGG post outlining those here on tumblr so hit that up and help join my patreon so I can reach them and make some more moolah to help keep this my primary job.

So speaking of that job we’re back to The Treasure of the Golden Suns and the first chapter, while not bad, was a tad disappointing, especially since I really liked it on first viewing. So will the second chapter fair just as bad or be a massive improvement? The only way to find out is under the cut.

Previously on Ducktales: Donald shoved off with the navy leaving the boys with Scrooge, with both growing to care about one another... both out of nowhere

The boys ended up embroiled int he Beagle Boys theft of a wooden ship for a mysterious gentleman named El Capitan whose preferedd method of dealing with enterlopers.. was to use a chair like a lion tamer. After being falsely blamed for the theft, the boys ended up chasing the beagles to Scrooge’s candy factory, were vindicated and fought them off with Scrooge’s help , ending with the boys getting covered in choclate. while El Capitan escaped vowing to find the gold. Now knowing the wooden ship was a map, the family prepared to set off

And that’s where we pick up. The reporter from last episode comments on the beagle bust and while the Beagles are hauled off, with Burger asking if they have any milk after eating his chocolate prison. Because his only character trait is that...

youtube

The camera does linger on an impression the ship made in the chocolate... hmmmmmm.

Meanwhile we meet FLINTHEART GLOMGOLD. As I said with Catch as Cash Can, he’s not BAD, just not NEARLY as memorable as the triumphantly insane 2017 version. He’s sitll a good villian and we’ll see why soon, he just has the unenviable task of competiting with a far more iconic versoin made decades later whose far more my type of bad guy. El Captian calls him and offers to make him the richest duck in the world, which he naturally is happy to hear him out on. El Captian as a character i’ll get into more.. but for now let’s talk about his weird fucking voice. For some reason, Jim is doing a Dr. Claw impression, to the point I thought this was Frank Welker. I will grant it’s better than a horrible latinx sterotype, and given the grand kishke and a minor character in this very episode, they were NOT above those, but its’ still just.. weird. He just sounds like he’s possesed with about 80 or 90 demons for no explained reason.

Back at the mansion, Scrooge and the Boys are both preparing to go after the treasure on the boat map: Scrooge is practicing vacuming it up using the pool and a sea safe vacum likely invented by Gyro, while the boys find the right coordinates to the treasure. Scrooge naturally.. is a bit of a dick about it, refusing to take them along despite them having found it, and saying they can stay with Duckworth. Duckworth’s response is about what you’d expect:

However before they can argue about this, there’s a bang at the door: It’s Flinty and here’s where the parts of this Glomgold I DO like, that do make him standout, if not as much sa his succesor shine: He plays scrooge, offering him 2 million for the Candy Factory. Naturally not realizing what Flinty’s getting out of the deal, Scrooge jumps at a quick and easy 2 million, since he knows it’ll cost MORE than that just to fix up the place. Flinty then proposes a contest: the two of them try to make as much money as possible from scratch in two days. No rules, no barriers, just whoever dosen’t have more money than the other by the end has to eat Flinty’s hat. Scrooge accepts.. but then realizes he has to eat crow and allow the boys along. With Scrooge sufficently blackmailed, the boys reveal where the treasure is: Ronguay, a made up south american county. Why they did so.. well just wait a second. And no it’s not just for the tile... but your close.

No we find out why as they take the cheapest flight avaliable to Ronguay, only for the boys their going the Wrong way to Ronguay.

Yeah I love a good pun but I draw the line at desinging an ENTIRE COUNTRY for a really obvious one. I have standards on this blog! Standards that include thirsting after Keith David , DBZA refrences up the whazoo and posting this gif of David Byrne at every given opportunity.

Look my standards are weird, but their still standards. I draw the line at making a stupid pun when there’s a rich number of countries in South America. I’m not saying Carl Barks was ever against making up a country, he probably did, could be wrong, but more often than not he did his homework instead, as did his succesor Don Rosa. It feels lazy to just make up a country when you really don’t have to and could’ve just found one with a massive rainy season for your children’s cartoon. It’s not hard. I mean it’s harder than now: now I could just google “what south american countries have torrental rains”.. but it’s not like you guys could’n’t just go to a bookstore and buy a refrence book or a library and rent one. I mean if they ran out of time to do anyresearch fine, but even for the 1980′s it wasn’t that difficult to at least TRY.

Regardless it turns out the pilot is a robot pilot.. who looks amazing but as it’s a flintheart glomgold company joint is purposfuly tring to keep them off path. Look they didn’t have to unplug the poor guy. I know what he wants.

So now on the right way to Ronguay our heroes lan only to find the locals all fleeing in terror of something. Scrooge heads in for suplies anyway and finds... a VERY racist sounding clerk. Seriously just to picture this.. picture say .. Michael Scott trying to do an mexican accent. You good and cringing? If not, adapt that to your doofus sitcom character or republican senator of choice There you go. You see my point. It’s not the WORST i’ve seen.. but only because I sat through the Rediculous 6 with my best friend, one of three, Cory, for a podcast we tried doing a year or two ago. I’ve seen Rob Schinder do this for an entire movie. In 2015 no less. So my threshold for HORRIFCALLY offensive is vast and deep. But this is still garden variety racist and should not have been okay then or now.

And it really SHOULD have the warning label on it. I’m fully in favor of the content warnings Disney started using, and it’s why I got so fucking annoyed during all the talk about it when it happend to the Muppet Show, ESPECIALLY when the republicans got a hold of it and accused them of “Canceling the muppets”. This is NOT fucking cancelation, this is a way to have the past there for posterity, while acknolding it sucked and was NEVER okay. It’s the best way to do this in my opinon, and it bothers me a LOT that a bunch of jagoffs coopted it and threw a hissy fit about Disney trying to do the right goddamn thing. And i’m also okay with leaving some media out. Disney + is a family platform. While keeping classic movies and shows on there with a proper warning is one thing, it’s another to not put song of the south or that episode of the muppets where the host later turned out ot be a pedophile on there. Some things just don’t have nearly enough worth to outpace the harm they can do. And it’s up to companies and consumers to figure out what fits where.

Anyways our heroes find a llama for transport and that the map is seemingly a dead end to the desert. But Scrooge is determined to press on... and while he does El Capitan and Glomgold are following him, though the two clearly don’t agree on whose in charge, or if El Captian sounds like dr claw or not. They followed with their own copy of the map taken from the chocolate.

As things progress the rain starts.. and our heroes find out via the JWG that this is what the citzens were all running from. They loose the llama, though are able to salvage some of their suplies it was carrying, and Scrooge nearly gives up to dispair. It’s a good, if sudden, character moment: Scrooge genuinely laments that he was worried one day he’d loose his step.. and stop being one step ahead of everyone. It shows some much needed vunerablity.. that beneath his boisterious and cantankerious usual personality he’s deathly afraid his age will eventualy mean he’ll have to stop..and having to stop adventuring and stop working and stop doing eveyrthing that makes him Scrooge McDuck is a fate worse than death.

Thankfully he dosen’t as via a figure on the ship, Huey, Dewey or Louie figures out, in a REALLY amazing twist, that the desert itself was the ocean: the ship that has the treasure simply sailed here and hid it. So while our heroes reflect, Glomgold decides to take them out NOW while he has the chance over El Captian’s protests, as the good captain only cares about the gold. But Glomgold is right.. from a villianous point of view at least. leaving them alive is a waste.. granted he does so.. in a way that makes my brain cry out in pain and want to run. He lights a stick of dynamite. In a torrential rainstorm.

I mean i’d expect 2017 Glomgold to try it and have it fail.. not to have the actually clever 87 version not only try something this stupid BUT HAVE IT WORK. THE FUSE LIGHTS. IT’S READY TO GO OFF. HE ONLY STOPS IT BECAUSE HIS MAP GETS EATEN AND THEY NEED SCROOGE’S IN TACT. JUST HOW DO YOU WHY DO YOU AUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

Okay i’m.. i’m good now. So after that bit of nonsense and some taking my medication, our heroes take shelter in a cave. The grusome twosome try to sneak in while their asleep.. only to trigger the alarms the boys set up using their pots and pans, a “junior woodchuck alarm”. Clever little bastards.

The tables quickly turn though as Thing one and Thing Two trap our heroes in the cave.. as i’ts flooding. Scrooge has them press on in hopes of finding a way out, and it rises further and furthe ran excenelty tense scene. But eventually our heroes manage to find somewhere safe in time: the shipwrecked boat with all the gold. Scrooge even puts on a nifty golden conquestador’s helmet.

Naturally since we have minutes left in the episode the bad guys show up and have a gun... they never had before.

Regardless our heroes are lowered into the lifeboat at gunpoint as the ship goes out to sea and i’ts revealed el captain worked on teh ship as he knows the full manifest.

However both villians personal flaws end up doing them in: Glomgold’s need to gloat means he gives Scrooge a golden coin as he mocks him about winning the bet... only for El Captain to fly into an insane rage demanding he swim out and get it despite just how LITTLE he really needs the coin. He and Glomgold struggle over the ships canon, both no longer needing the other and eventually fire off a ball that capsizes the ship. El Captian seemingly drowns while Glomgold is forced onto the life boat with the McDucks.. and finds out he lost as while he and Scrooge both lost the treasure the coin he tossed scrooge means Scrooge still has made more money. So Glomgold prepares to eat his hat and El Captian prepares for vengance and to get his gold back.

Final Thoughts on Wronguay in Ronguay: The iffy bit with the store clerk aside.. this episdoe is easily the best 87 Episode i’ve seen. It captures the spirit of barks perfectly with plenty of intresting twists that kept me engaged the whole time, some great jokes, and two great villians who are done in soley by their own greed and neurosusi> it’s really great stuff and what I expected more and remember more from the 87 Series: top notch adventure in the barks style but wiht it’s own unique touches. While the pilot was a bit rough due to all the ground it tried to cover, this episode, now having the basic formula of the series pretty much set, is allowed to just be a fun, daring adventure story that brilliantly builds off the last episode but can be wholly enjoyed on it’s own. Hopefully this momentum keeps because I don’t remember being the fondest of the next two episodes.. and given that content warning I think we’re in for a rough time next month.

If you liked htis join my patreon, etc etc, I went into that mor eup top. Till All Are One, See you at the next Rainbow.

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