#and yes that’s far more of a personal issue/bias but still proves my point

[iniquity-fr]

there are many many reasons to feel like ancient breeds are being released too fast that have nothing to do with actually wanting those ancients in your own lair ffs it’s so annoying reading smug assholes post about how they have no issue with the pacing because “well the breeds aren’t going anywhere you can get them eventually stop worrying about having all the new things right away!!!” i fuckin hate these undressable bitches and i still very much feel like we’re getting them way too fast. why are people too stupid to consider literally any other reasons for people to not like the pace of ancient releases. if you clearly don’t know what you’re talking about then shut the fuck up perhaps

[heart-of-copper-dog-training]

Does size matter?

So we see a lot of breed bias in the dog training and guardian world. And that is definitely something for a different post. But today, I want to talk about dog size.

Often times, when I see a discussion about hypothetical dog scenarios, there is often two given examples of dogs: the well behaved dog and the unruly dog. This could be in reference to just discussing encounters out and about, at a dog training class, or (most commonly) a fake service dog call out post.

Quick interjection here: not all disabilities are visible and no, you cannot ask a person with a service dog to "prove it" with a "certification" there isn't such a thing and anyone who readily pulls out a "service dog id card" should be met with suspicion at the least, though I do know some programs gift these after their participants graduate.

On to my point, in these call outs, when it is not a breed bias (often painting one heavily stigmatized breed vs another less stigmatized breed, either in favor or against the breed in question), it is a size bias. I see far too many posts where these hypothetical situations paint all small dogs are nasty little "brats". And in comparison, some large or giant breed is almost always the one who can do no wrong or is the "real" service dog.

Now I work with a service dog program (shout out to TADSAW) and I have even seen this bias with our clients who think small dogs can either NEVER be service dogs or are just untrainable little monsters.

I also know small dogs who are amazing little dogs, whether they work as a service animal (and yes, they can, depending on the tasks required, their size is not an issue), a fun trick pup, a sports puppy, or just a well trained companion who is happy to loose leash walk, not pee in the house and stick around for the cuddles.

What I want to talk about is why this happens. Why do people assume little dogs are monsters? Or can't do work? Well, for the latter, it's usually because they don't understand all the tasks a service dog can do and assume the dog must be of a certain size without taking into account that medical alert dogs are a thing, and picking up dropped items is actually completely doable for a small dog.

For the former? As a current little dog owner, I can say it's because they aren't taken seriously. Because here's the thing: a large dog that jumps on you, bites, barks, pulls, lunges, etc is going to literally do more harm than a little dog, so more often than not, guardians of these dogs do more to ensure good manners are in place and take into account their size for exercise and enrichment requirements.

It's VERY easy to just scoop a small dog up and remove them from any situation where they are having undesirable behaviors. And it's very easy to dismiss the damage a small dog can cause to a child because "oh look how cute and small they are, they're harmless".

And it's VERY easy to assume that because the dog is small, they don't need much in the way of exercise, training, or enrichment. Look at their tiny feet, they clearly can't walk far, right?

So, dogs aren't sizes. Dogs are dogs. Breeds are breeds. And individuals are individuals. Where one small dog might be content to be a lap dog all day, another (looking at you, Donut) will happily walk two miles and still want to trick train for the next thirty minutes because he just LOVES doing it. Some large dogs are lazy couch potatoes (I know, I've owned a greyhound, he was great) and some are intense athletes. And all sizes can be anywhere and everywhere in between.

But it's the small dogs who get left out of the conversation. When people bring a small dog into their family, it is too often done because small dogs are "easy". They don't "need" exercise, or much more than a run around the house. They don't "need" training and enrichment, because they're small, they'll just cuddle all day. They can be carried around and brought many places a larger dog would be denied because they're "portable". Their discomfort and lack of consent is often dismissed as "aww look they think they're a big dog" when they show teeth. They are never taught what to do because it's so easy to just pick them up and remove them from a situation. And often they learn that they need to jump to biting FIRST, as every other signal they tried to give was ignored, because, again, "look how cute".

Even a guardian who is doing everything right, trying their best to give their small dog good manners and foundational skills, will be met with constant battles.

You're working on socializing so you bring your dog out just to "watch the world go by?" You're going to be stopped by people asking to hold them(even when they're fully grown and don't want to be held by strangers) because unfortunately, they're still small and often treated like puppies by these dog lovers.

You're working on reactivity (perhaps caused by strangers constantly grabbing at your poor dog)? People will STILL ask to pet/hold them. EVEN after you say "no, they're not friendly" "no, they're in training" "no, they don't like people/dogs". Because they're SMALL. So to others, the damage output is minimal. The same people that would back off if you said your dog is not friendly when it's a large dog will move in to pet a small dog because "oh dogs love me".

For the first year of Donut's life (when he was extra floofy and adorable), I had also had my Pyrenees mix Naga (she was 12 years old and passed shortly after his birthday). Naga was a shelter dog that came from a hard situation where her health had been compromised and she'd been undersocialized. She came to me with fears of men, stairs, people in hats, people in uniforms, honestly it was a large list and a long journey with her. But we worked together to help her build her confidence.

BUT that didn't mean that she was going to be confident in every situation. She was most confident with me and her other dog present (previously the aforementioned greyhound Thane, now Donut the Bichon). And I would always advocate for her if I saw she was uncomfortable, even if I knew the person meant no harm.

I never once had someone continue to approach me when I said "she's in training and a little cautious of strangers" and it was my 85 lb pyr with me. They always backed up and said "oh I'm sorry to hear that" or "oh I didn't realize".

But when Donut hit his first fear period, I learned why small dogs bite. Because the same words I've used for decades for my dogs "they're in training, they're working, they can't be pet right now" don't work for small dogs. So I was left with a few choices: pick him up every time someone approaches too quickly (taking away his agency and ability to learn to cope with a new environment), or stop taking him out completely until the fear period passed (even though we were only doing small stints to make sure he didn't get overwhelmed).

Or, secret option three: "bite" the people. When my nice words did not produce the results Donut needed (space, time to process), I would follow up with something harsher. I would body block him myself, give them the hard look and say "no, you need to back off. He is not a toy and I did not say you could pet him."

It was rude. It was not what I wanted to do as a guardian or a trainer. But it got results. Oh, yes, I got the stink eye on more than one occasion, and sometimes I got parents upset I didn't let their kid pet the dog (and often the children were MUCH more polite!). But, I also got Donut the space he needed to choose to engage or not.

Donut is now a happy go lucky little guy who has never met a stranger, but I still have to advocate for him to this day. Even though most days he won't try to put feet on someone, the day he does it and I give him a little "off" and treat, I get told "it's okay he's small". NO, it's not okay. It's bad manners and that's why I'm redirecting and you wouldn't be saying that if he was a big dog. He loves almost every person he meets, but sometimes an individual can come on a little strong for him (going right for the pick up and hug) and he will show discomfort and retreat to me, because he knows I'm going to prevent it. No, he's not a toy and you wouldn't be trying to pick him up if he was big.

Owning a small dog is HARD. I have owned street dogs, large dogs, reactive dogs, I have worked with giant breeds, aggressive dogs, major anxiety in dogs. I have nursed dogs and puppies back to health from the brink of death (with the guidance of my veterinarian of course).

And none of that was as hard as making sure my small dog was socialized properly and had his needs met. I think we make owning a small dog so hard for those who are trying. And even for those who aren't doing "the right thing", it is often out of ignorance. I cannot tell you how many clients have come to me with small dogs who are exhibiting major boredom undesirable behaviors and when I ask about their routine I'm met with a "well we don't really do much, they're small so they just stay in the house and go outside to potty". Well, there's the problem right there.

We need to educate more guardians on the fact that dogs are dogs, regardless of size. Their needs will vary based on breed, temperament and many other factors, but their size doesn't change the fact that they are dogs. They can do jobs, like service work. They can be amazing little companions. They can be complete clowns like Donut who want to do nothing more than learn ALL THE TRICKS because they love it. Donut has higher energy, drive, intelligence and exercise needs than my other dog, Pancake, who is 45 lbs. Which isn't a lot, but is sure is a lot bigger than his 11 lbs soaking wet self.

And when I tell people that, they look at me like I've grown two heads. Pancake definitely likes to run and has a higher speed and endurance than him, but one good long walk of sniffs and a five minute training session will knock her out the rest of the day. Meanwhile, Donut rarely runs out of second winds until the end of the night, and that's only because I've built in a very specific night time ritual to ensure he calms down for bed. He'll have a twenty minute nap and then ask for more training or play. He's such a fun dog to have around but he's also my biggest chore (don't tell him!).

Please stop demonizing small dogs. Some of those guardians don't know any better due to the false belief that small dogs are "easy" and need to be educated. Some of them are trying their best and fighting a world of people who will not give them the respect they would give a guardian of a large dog.

Dogs are dogs. And unless you NEED their size for a specific task, then I'm sorry but size doesn't matter.

As always, be kind to yourself, to your dogs, and to others around you. We don't know their battles, and it's free to be kind.

[meyhew]

I stumbled on an old post about Zayn and anti Asian racism and it made me think. I know Islamaphobia is something we talk about a lot regarding Zayn and we usually mention racism but I feel like the nuance isn't always talked about enough. Like, even if you take religious background out of it, anti Soutj Asian sentiment in the UK is so common and Zayn grew up in one of the most racially segregated areas in England. Plus, the South Asian experience in the US isn't too good either. I feel like that aspect is so overlooked esp when ppl make the excuse that he's white passing (which we all know he is not) but it really kills me to think about how ppl refuse to acknowledge the racial aspect and insist on whitewashing him. The way they reacted with his Grammy tweets proved that they have whitewashed him in their minds to such as an extent that the significance of his statements went completely over their heads. I see the anti South Asian sentiment in the way his music is criticized, it's their when ppl use racial slurs specific to South Asians against him. The thing that gets me is that British ppl are actually more willing to acknowledge the South Asian aspect more than Americans are. And the post also mentioned the "model minority" myth and how South Asians in the US are held to it. But the model minority myth is in itself inherently racist and we feel the pain of it. I've experienced so much vitriol not just for my religion but also my race and its frustrating how easily ppl here in the US dismiss it because of the model minority bs. Anyway, I'm sorry for the rant lol. I just needed to get this of my chest

no you're right. i've seen a lot of americans (white and otherwise) who look past zayn's desi heritage and focus on his whiteness—as if anyone with a working brain looks at him and sees a white man. his name, his features, his attitude all indicate that he's a person of color. during the 1d days, the efforts to whitewash him went as far as trying to keep him from growing a proper beard—something that's very near and dear to a LOT of brown (especially muslim) men, and something that liam and louis had all the freedom to do. him being of south asian (esp pakistani) descent is enough for people to be vile but it's almost impossible to separate the religious bias since it's so intertwined with his racial identity. whether or not he actively practices islam isn't even the question; it's the fact that he comes from a muslim family that seems to observe muslim traditions and then he went and had a kid with someone who also comes from a muslim father. but anyway to your point—yes people continuously try to erase his brown identity and treat him as they would any white man when its like. just because he doesn't have dark brown skin does not mean that man is white passing. this part in yellow metal sums it up in zayn's own words better i ever could:

i've been facing the racists from back when I were a kiddie born up in 93', living it rough in city they kicked me out of the schools said i had a problem with hittin' the kids that would call me paki still sittin' in classroom chillin', i'm angry now that i'm older i see they treat us different got me thinking I'm the problem 'cause they never dealt with these issues 20 years later, i'm still in the same boat tryna treat me like my grandpa say i came up off the boat came to tell you what i stand for, man i think this shit's a joke how can i be civil when they've got me by the throat pushing my feelings down, you ain't got it like them "boy your skin is so light" okay motherfucker, take my name up on a flight and try to convince immigration that your bloodline's half white

i wish everyone who treats zayn this way and tries to trample over his desi identity a very rough day <3

[lil-lycanthropy]

How to write an essay (especially when you struggle with writing essays)

[Image Description: A graphic titled “BASIC ESSAY STRUCTURE”. There are 3 sections. The first section is regarding the introduction, labelled “Agonize for an hour”. The second section is regarding the body, labelled “oh hell yes i can do this no problem i got stuff to say i’m on a roll”. The third section is regarding the conclusion, labelled “I am going to walk into the sea”. /End Image Description]

I saw this post about essay writing with this as the structure and I just. Screamed a bit. The outline above (imo) makes a very boring essay that is UNNECESSARILY DIFFICULT to write. I was gonna just add onto the post, but I thought I’d make my own because I have a LOT to say.

So, to start off, I have spent far too long making this handy-dandy graphic with an essay structure that I find to be a lot more helpful.

[Image Description: A graphic titled “ESSAY OUTLINE”. There are 7 sections. They include the outline for the Introduction, Body, and Conclusion, along with tips for all three, and then a section for General Tips. /End Image Description]

There’s some pretty lengthy explanations under the cut, and I spent way too long on this. However, I’m passionate about writing and hate seeing how much people struggle to write simply because they haven’t been given the right tools.

Without further ado, here we go!

Introduction (1 paragraph)

Opening Statement: This is your intro/hook. With an effective opening sentence, you want to introduce the main topic of the paper, and make it interesting for the reader to draw them in. The introductory sentence should be somewhat objective; your thesis will be your arguing point, but we need to know the general topic without the bias. As for the hook part—your prof/TA/teacher/whoever is grading your paper has read the same paper 600 times. Your paper probably won’t be entirely unique, BUT you can still make it stand out. This is where the “hook” comes in. An easy way to do this is to simply start with a verb. Reading papers that all start with “the” or “a” can get really repetitive and boring, so an action word can be a good way to grab the reader’s attention. You don’t want your opening statement to be too long; a sentence or two should be your goal.

Allude to Thesis: Right after the opening statement, use a sentence to briefly allude to your thesis (the stance you’ll be taking on the topic). This way, you can state your argument points without having to worry about wording your thesis correctly right away, or risk your thesis getting lost within the introduction. This is kinda a segue to your points rather than its own official “section”, so keep it brief. 

Outline Supporting Points: These are the points that help support your argument. Avoid using a list form for this by using things like semi-colons or commas; each supporting point should have its own sentence. Saying that, definitely use transition words to help the sentences flow together so it doesn’t just seem like a laundry list. Don’t limit yourself to three points unless that’s explicitly part of the assignment. At least two is good if you can expand on them enough to do the paper, but don’t be afraid to use four or five if you’re still able to stay within the limits and expand on them enough to be individual points. However, sometimes too many points can make it hard to expand, so see if you can group some together if you have too many. 

Thesis: Your thesis should be a statement, subjective, demonstrable, and specific. It therefore should not be a question, objective, hypothetical, or vague. This is because your thesis is a definitive stance on a specific issue or topic that you can prove with evidence. As for placement, I always put my thesis at the very end of the introduction. I would say it’s up to personal preference whether to put it at the beginning or the end, but please never put it in the middle. When it’s in the middle, it’s very likely that it won’t stand out as a thesis, and then you’d have to come up with both an opening and closing statement, which is hard. I like putting it at the end because I find that if I do it at the beginning, it can be REALLY hard to balance having a clear thesis while also introducing your paper and making it interesting. Plus, if it’s at the end of your first paragraph, it still stands out, you don’t have to do a concluding statement, you don’t have to balance any other aspect of writing (like an intro or hook) with it, AND it creates the perfect transition to your supporting points. Limit your thesis statement to one or two sentences—you want it to stand out to the reader as the thesis, and you don’t want to muddle the message by being too detailed. You’ll have the rest of the paper to expand.

Body (2-10+ paragraphs)

Introduce Evidence: For each piece of supporting evidence (your main points), make sure you introduce them clearly before actually explaining everything about them. Don’t be afraid to word it in an interesting way (although remember, you still want your message to be clear!). I also want to give you an incredibly important tip: the amount of supporting points you have DOES NOT have to correspond with the amount of body paragraphs you have. They drill the five-paragraph essay outline into you for years, and it’s BORING—for you and whoever’s grading your paper. It’s also bad writing, because then you get unnaturally long paragraphs that take up a page and a half. So, unless your assignment rubric says otherwise, don’t be afraid to get creative with the paragraph amount. Always start a new paragraph when introducing a new main point, but definitely consider splitting the main point into two or three paragraphs if needed. Disclaimer: sometimes if you have to split a point into multiple paragraphs, that means you might want to consider splitting the main point into multiple main points. On the other hand, sometimes combining two main points into one can help make a paragraph more substantial.

Expand: For each point, expand. Explain any extra details. Relate the explanations back to your main point so you can stay on target and not go on tangents that take up half the page. 

Connect to Thesis: After you expand each point, as a concluding statement, relate the main point back to the thesis (the whole point of the paper!). Anyone can list evidence—show that you understand why this evidence is connected and how it proves your stance. If you can’t connect the point to your thesis, it’s probably not relevant or you need to do more research. By making the connection between the evidence and your thesis, 1. This is how you get bonus marks, and 2. It makes for an excellent concluding statement/transition to the next main point.

Repeat: For each main point, follow the structure of introduce-expand-connect.

Conclusion (1 paragraph)

Restate Thesis/Main Points: Rather than coming up with another introductory statement, restate your thesis and the main points that helped to prove your thesis. Please try to reword it so it’s not repetitive, and it’s best to keep the restating brief. You’ve already established all of this in your paper, so you don’t need too much detail. A sentence or two is fine. Another tip is to avoid basic concluding words. Sometimes it’s unavoidable, but definitely avoid the ones that involve the word “conclude” or its derivatives (e.g. “in conclusion”; to conclude”, etc.). Keep this part to one or two sentences to avoid the dreaded repetition.

Explain Relevance/Make Connections: Here is something I NEVER see in the common essay templates, and honestly, I feel like it’s one of the most important things with essay writing. It’s the difference between just another essay in a pile of 200, and one that stands out as exemplary. SO. We know your thesis. We know your evidence. You’ve even briefly restated it in case we forgot. Now, WHY is your thesis (and by extension, the paper you just spent a few hours on) actually important? Why is it relevant? Who cares? You don’t want to give too much “new” information, but you really should be able to find some connection as to why your paper matters. Because if you don’t see the point in it, how are you gonna convince the reader that your paper is worth reading? Essays are about arguments, yes, and convincing people that You’re Correct and You Know Things, but you need to be able to connect with other things to see the true relevance. Make connections, folks!

Concluding Statement: Truly the bane of anyone’s existence. A good tip is to look at it as your Mic Drop moment—your time to wrap it up, drop the mic, and walk offstage. Tie your thesis, evidence, and connections together into a sentence or two with a little pizzazz and sense of finality, leaving no room to argue. 

General Tips

Know your audience: This can sometimes help with finding the balance between over- and under-explaining things. With essays, the person grading (the audience) is probably a bit above your current level, unless it’s being marked by another student or something. So write at your level—or the average level of your class/group. For example, if you’re in a second-year university biology class, you probably don’t need to explain what photosynthesis means. But if your essay is on a little known technique to measure chlorophyll levels in plants, you might need to explain some things that you already know, but others might not. Remember, your goal is neither to dumb yourself down nor put yourself on an academic pedestal—your goal is to communicate a message in an effective way that can be understood by the appropriate audience.

Pick a relevant topic: Sometimes this doesn’t apply, as you have limited choices. But, whenever possible, choose a topic that you actually know something about and/or are willing to write about. Sometimes even asking your teacher/prof if you can choose your own topic is worth it. The main point: picking something you find interesting makes you more willing to put in the work to write a good essay. Pick you favourite topic out of the options (or, at a minimum, the one yo hate the least).

Experiment with the writing process: Some people swear it’s easier to write the conclusion first, while others absolutely have to write the essay in chronological order. Some people need to finish what they start, some people need to flit around and add things as they think of them. Ultimately, the order you write things is very much a personal preference, and something worth experimenting with if you’re struggling!

Cater to your writing needs: Writers will tell you that they need to set up a space to write. Some people like writing on their bed or in a cafe. Some people need absolute quiet while others can’t focus without background noise. Some people need frequent breaks for the best results, others need to sit through until they’re done. The time of day can affect your writing—writing in the morning might be really difficult if you’re most alert at midnight. Lastly, experiment with different media. Maybe writing on a laptop just doesn’t work for you, and pen and paper is the way to go. Typewriters are fun. Microsoft Word might work better for you than Google Docs. Find out what works for you and gets you into a writing headspace.

Repetition and word choice: To avoid sounding like a broken record, make sure you use a different first (and even last) word for each paragraph. I always notice when an essay writer only starts paragraphs with the word “the”. Another helpful way to vary your word choice at the beginning of paragraphs is to use different types of word, preferably words that aren’t articles (a, an, or the). Using a noun, verb, or transition word can keep things interesting and help your writing flow.

Write with an active voice: Writing with an active, positive, and resolute voice fortifies your writing. An active voice is when the subject is the focus rather than the object, whereas a passive voice is the opposite. Example: “Sally ate a grape” is active because Sally (subject) ate a grape (object). “A grape was eaten by Sally” is passive because the grape (object) was eaten by Sally (subject). Essentially, if the sentence includes (or could include) “by [Subject]”, it’s passive. Even if you wrote “A grape was eaten,” that’s still passive. An active voice includes the subject doing the action, whereas a passive voice includes the object having something done to it. It’s a wishy-washy way of writing, though it’s sometimes inevitable in formal writing because you can’t use subjective pronouns. As for a positive voice, it doesn’t mean your essay has to be happy or perky—it means your writing, when possible, should focus on the positive part (what did happen or was added) rather than the negative part (what didn’t happen or was taken away). Example: “Sally didn’t eat an apple” is negative, because it just says what Sally didn’t do. “Sally ate a grape” is positive because it said what she did do. Lastly, use a resolute voice. Be concise and to the point without muddling the message with unnecessary words. Example: “Sally just a grape” is tentative. “Sally ate a grape” is resolute. Word like “just”, “maybe”, “really”, “perhaps”, “necessarily” are not resolute and can weaken your argument. Definitely take this advice for your thesis. 

Communicate clearly: Using long or complicated words can improve your writing—but if they’re overused or used unnecessarily, it can actually weaken your argument because no one understands what you’re trying to say under all that academic jargon. If you can’t explain your argument in an understandable way, you probably don’t have a good grasp of your argument. This isn’t to discredit people who have a hard time articulating while writing or people who need to use complicated words—but the whole point of a paper is to communicate a message in an effective way. If you’re too caught up in using big words, it’s very easy to lose the actual focus of the paper.

Fortify your opening/closing statements: If the person grading your paper has a lot of other papers to go through, they’re not gonna read every word you write. Focus on strengthening your first and last sentences of each paragraph to perhaps improve your mark with the graders who skim.

Proofread: PLEASE read through and edit your work. You don’t have to completely rewrite your paper (who has the time???), but definitely proofread it when you’re done. If possible (I know it isn’t always, but it really helps), give yourself as much time as possible, then do another read through. Even waiting an hour or two and then going through it again can help you catch some last-minute mistakes. When you’ve been staring at the same paper for three hours, you kinda just ignore the mistakes because they’re burned into your brain. Going back can help you catch them and fix them before handing it in. Double check the assignment requirements, including formatting, sources, grammar, etc.

Kudos to you if you made it to the end! This took me 4 hours? 5? I hope it helps some of you in school. Essays can be a really fun thing to write if you’re passionate about the topic, and they shouldn’t be nearly as hard as school makes them. Even if you didn’t read this whole thing, I hope my graphic can be helpful! The original essay structure from the other post made me mad because no wonder some of you guys struggle! When you don’t have the tools, it makes life difficult.

Here’s a pic of my cat and dog for making it this far!

End note: I’ve never done an image description so I apologize if it’s not perfect!

[adeerwithnotlogic]

An announcment

Hello! I just wanted to clear some thing’s up and explain some stuff (mainly about my current identity and such)

‘‘Are you trans?’‘

Yup! I’m a FTM/Trans-Male! ^^

‘‘What are your pronouns?’‘

My pronouns are He/Him, please try to refer to me as such! ^^

‘‘Do you hate gay people?’‘

Well, no. Why? Because i AM gay (What can i say, i like men :/)

‘‘Are you a therian/Otherkin?’‘

Well, i USED to think i was therian/otherkin, but with time i’ve figured out that i was justr confused with my gender. I’m sorry for confusing some people and such

‘‘Do you still support therian’s/otherkin?’‘

Ofc! They aren’t hurting anyone, and just like being trans, you can’t choose if your therian/otherkin or not, and i don’t think it’s bad tbh. If your therian/otherkin, that’s great! ^^

‘‘What are your opinions on the cisgender’s?’‘

I think there fine! Most my friend’s are cis and they aren’t transphobic/Nbphobic at all! I have an ISSUE with transphobes, or anti-lgbtq people in general, but that really has nothing to do with being cis.

‘’Are you still wiccan?’‘

No, not really. I’m currently an atheist Satanist, but i’m supportive of religion as long as it isn’t taken too far/used to justify causing other people harm.

‘‘Are Satanist’s evil/bad?’‘

Not exactly. Obviously it depend’s from person to person, since some people take it WAY too far, but MOST of us aren’t like that at all, and we usually try to bring peace and love to other’s! May i also add, that most people who are giving us a bad reptuation, are bible thumping christian’s who hate us for not ‘’lOvInG jEsUs’’ (Not all christian’s are bad, but it’s sad that there’s alot of bad christians.), and a bit of reaserch (on non-christian bias site’s) will prove that satanism isn’t just ‘’EVIL MEAN PEOPLE GHRRRR!!!’’

‘‘Are you emo?’‘

Yes, i admit that i am a scenekid/emo kid/goth kid. BUT, i take it as more of a style than a ‘’life choice’’ since it’s more of a style and such lolol

‘‘Are you autistic?’‘

Yup! I do have autism, and my mom (as well as a few friend’s of mine) think i might have ADHD lol, and because of that, i can often act irrationally in stressful situations, and i also tend to act weird sometimes too haha (Like i have weird stim’s, i often mess-up/come off as a certain emotion while speaking/typing, and i tend to have meltdown’s really easily tbh. I’m sorry if that’s a bad explanation lol)

I hope you guy’s understand a bit more about me i guess lolol, i hope i was able to clarify my point’s well haha! ^^

[anotherkindofmindpod]

I’d love for you guys to have Mark Lewisohn on your show just to grill him. As someone who’s experienced workplace bullying and sexual assault, that he would go so far as to paint Klein as “heroic” when he said things like “reluctant virgin” is just so devastating to me. It makes me feel ill. I do NOT want this man to have a say in Beatles history. I love the Beatles. I don’t want that tainted by people who will paint over abuse just to feed their own self importance.

We vehemently agree, Listener!  Thank you for writing in.

Our list of grievances with Mark Lewisohn is long, but in a nutshell we believe his intent is to publicly “redeem” John Lennon and we have seen copious evidence that he will go to whatever lengths he has to in order to do this. 

That includes, but is not limited to: 

Claiming that readers of his Tune In Series may consider Klein the “hero” of the Beatles break-up

Deliberately spreading the demonstrably false lie that John (and Yoko) did not have a significant heroin problem in the late 60s and early 70s (Lewisohn suggests Cold Turkey is just John playing make believe)

Displaying unapologetic favoritism by using glowing terms to portray John and Yoko as the world’s most perfect romance, as opposed to Paul and Linda, whose 29-year marriage he dismisses as “conventional” and motivated by appearances (namely Linda’s pregnancy, even though it was planned) and Green Card needs

Stating that he could tell from watching the infamous “it’s a drag” clip that Paul was kind of sad, but primarily annoyed at how much positive attention John was getting on the day of his murder

Apparently suggesting to an audience of his Power Point Show that Paul maybe stole a leg off Yoko’s bed (the bed she had delivered and built in the Beatles’ recording studio, mind you), a personal “theory” which is based on the fact that Paul later wrote a song called “Three Legs” (you know that song: “My dog, he got three legs, like the bed you inappropriately brought into Abbey Road 2 years ago which I secretly vandalized behind your back because I have nothing better to do, am certainly not busy writing the Beatles Swan Song and don’t have a fucking 7 year old at home or anything”)

This isn’t even to mention Tune In, which could be a whole separate post and episode. Suffice it to say, this book often reads less like a Beatles biography and more like John Lennon Fanfiction to us.

Lewisohn managed to distinguish himself by doing (some) research and unearthing some original documents. That he had some skill in research is not surprising given that he started his career in Beatledom as a researcher for Norman, on his book Shout — which Lewisohn still contends is a good book. Norman, on the other hand has evolved his opinion of his own work and thinks Shout was flawed, so has written a whole biography on Paul to make up for what he sees as the failure of Shout, which is his underestimation of Paul. Unfortunately, Lewisohn does not seem to have made this same journey. He pays lip service to John and Paul being equal, and then spends all of his time and energy trying to prove otherwise. Norman says that he has created a monster in Lewisohn. We take his point.

One of our biggest issues with Lewisohn is that he vigorously promotes himself as an unbiased truth teller, and his calm manner seems to telegraph this. But it is not true. The research that Lewisohn does and the spin that he applies to his findings are all heavily biased. As we mentioned in one of our episodes, he travelled to Gibraltar simply to experience where John and Yoko got married. Yet when Paul calls the May 9th meeting over management the metaphorical cracking of the Liberty Bell, Lewisohn doesn’t even bother to Google it so he can understand the metaphor.

What he chooses to research is also a form of bias. For example, we at AKOM are very interested in Paul’s relationship with Robert Fraser during the Beatle years — since Paul has commented that Fraser was one of the most important, influential people in his life. Paul McCartney was the concept artist behind Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Magical Mystery Tour film, the iconic Apple logo, and he co-designed the covers of the White Album and Abbey Road.  All of these are pretty defining moments in the Beatles’ career.  As Beatles fans, we’d like to know more about Paul’s art education and influences. But we would be shocked if Lewisohn dug into Fraser at all beyond his relationship as John and Yoko’s gallerist/curator (and heroin dealer, but since that isn’t a thing in Lewisohn’s world then maybe he will be ignored).

We think Lewisohn benefits massively from the fact that Beatles authorship was like the Wild West since its inception, when everyone with a connection to the Beatles (plus or minus a personal axe to grind) wrote a book about their experience. It was absolute chaos, with no rules, no checks and balances, uncredited sources, etc. Just an absolute shit show.  What Lewisohn did was bring some order to the chaos with some proper documentation. But again, what he chooses to dig into often reflects bias. And this certainly does not mean that he is intellectually or emotionally equipped to interpret his findings. Doing this takes social intelligence and insight, which is a very different skill. As a creator of myths, he is no better (and no more insightful or original) than many of the others who came before him; he worships John Lennon and freely admits it. He is not even close to being unbiased.  But in this dumpster fire of a fandom he has at least checked some boxes and done some digging.  The fact is, the bar has been so low for so long that Beatles fans don’t even know how to expect or want better.  But WE certainly expect better.  We expect some breakthrough, fresh thinking.  Not just Shout with Receipts.

We think it’s significant that Lewisohn was deeply disliked by George Harrison, who lobbied to get him kicked him off the Anthology project. He was fired from Paul’s fan club magazine, and yet no one seems to think he might hold a grudge about that, too?  Lewisohn so distorted John and Paul’s relationship in Tune In that he believes he is the target of the lyrics in Paul’s song “Early Days.“  And he either thinks that’s flattering or funny, because Lewisohn seems to truly believe he knows John Lennon better than Paul McCartney does.  We find it almost tragic that Paul is so bothered by the way his experience and relationship is being portrayed by authors (perhaps Lewisohn) that he wrote a song about it. In it, he conveys his frustration and heartache about how everything is misconstrued and we find it absolutely outrageous that Lewisohn would not take this to heart.  Perhaps Lewisohn thinks Paul should listen to him for a change? And if he doesn’t like it, then tough, because Lewisohn knows better? We think Lewisohn should do some serious soul-searching about “Early Days” because if one of his main subjects is saying, “you are getting it wrong and it is breaking my heart”….maybe, just maybe, he should listen and rethink things.  Maybe apply a little creativity, out-of-the-box thinking and empathy. This is what his heroes did.

Meanwhile, Jean Jackets are SO BUSY complaining that Paul McCartney doesn’t like Lewisohn because he “tells the truth!” that they fail to notice that Lewisohn has become a mouthpiece for Yoko Ono.  He has already started white-washing John Lennon’s history, promoting John and Yoko as the true and only geniuses versus Paul as the craven, small-minded Lennon disciple who (through no virtue of his own) was born with the ability to write some nice tunes.  Lewisohn’s version of John, on the other hand, is ALWAYS a sexy, visionary genius on the right side of every issue.  He even went out of his way to recently trash Paul’s early 70’s albums, which -in addition to being obnoxious and we believe wrong (since we love them)- is totally outside his purview.

Lastly, to address your original point, Lewisohn’s claim that Klein may be viewed as the “hero” of his Beatles History reveals that he hasn’t shown sufficient empathy or interest in Paul’s experience.  This claim at best ignores and at worst condones the fact that Klein was an abusive monster to one of the two founding members of the Beatles.  As we discussed in Episode 4, Klein was a criminal who bullied Paul in his creative workspace, disrespected Paul in his own office in front of his own employees and actively pitted Lennon against McCartney for years.  It’s hard to imagine ANYONE who inflicted more damage on the Beatles and Lennon/McCartney than Allen Klein.  In addition to the wildly inappropriate “reluctant virgin” nickname, he verbally threatened to “own Paul’s ass” (to which Paul responded “he never got anywhere near my ass”). Klein was so disrespectful to Paul and Linda’s marriage he pitched the idea of procuring “a blonde with big tits” to parade in front of Paul to lure him away from Linda and destroy their relationship.  Let’s also never forget that Klein contributed lyrics to the song “How Do You Sleep.”  Allen Klein literally gave Paul nightmares.  Anyone who so much as pretends to care about Paul’s break-up era depression (including his alcohol abuse, his inability to get out of bed and his terrifying sleep paralysis) would not champion Allen Klein.

Yes, Klein is a human being and therefore has his own POV, same as anyone else.  But a Beatles biographer is beholden to four points of view only: John, Paul, George and Ringo.  And when an outsider is openly hostile to one of the Beatles and damaging long-term to all of the Beatles, it is beyond inappropriate to portray him as a hero.  This type of comment, made publicly to an audience of Beatles fans, invalidates and seeks to erase the real trauma inflicted on Paul McCartney by Allen Klein, and we think Lewisohn should apologize for his comments.

Instead, Lewisohn’s current buddy is Peter Brown, whose book, The Love You Make so offended and angered Paul and Linda that they literally burned their copy (and photographed it burning for good measure).  This information doesn’t appear to bother Lewisohn in the least. Why not?

George referred to Norman’s Shout as “Shit.” But Lewisohn thinks it’s a great book.  Why?

How any Beatles or Paul or even George fans tolerate Lewisohn is baffling to us; we don’t recognize a real human being in his version of Paul, and his version of John is a superhero rather than a man.  We suspect that fans have come to accept the traditional story and at least appreciate some properly-documented facts. 

But as we are constantly trying to demonstrate on our show, just because the story has always been told one way, doesn’t mean it’s right.  Because in the end, Mark Lewisohn has no special insight. He wasn’t there. He is a guy who bought into a narrative during the Shout era, and is cherry picking his findings to support it.You can find a discussion of Lewisohn here

[iwrite4obx]

It's a Date Pt. 2 | JJ x fem!Reader | Topper x fem!Reader

Read Part 1 | Read Part 3 | Part 4

A/N: So sorry for the delay. I took a short break due to life but I am back and ready to write! This is part 2 to my 4 part story requested by @sweetestdolan Please keep an eye out for part 3, which will be the date with her Topper! Requests are still temporarily closed. I will reopen them when this story is complete. Edit: nope I changed my mind, they're open!

T/W: Swearing and fluff. I think that's it.

Summary: Can I request a topper xx reader or Jj x reader where reader is Sarah and rafe’s cousin that’s staying with them for the summer and Sarah and John B wanna set her up with Jj while rafe (not a dick for once) sees her being with Topper and well she kinda has this thing where she says “make a date where it shows off your personality” and she goes on both and yea sorry if it’s confusing. This part is the date with JJ

Word count: 2k

You stood in front of Sarah's full length mirror, admiring the yellow gingham sundress you were trying on. It looked beautifuk on you. You loved the way it accentuated your curves.

“Nope, too formal,” Sarah decided, motioning for you to take it off and throw it on the pile with the dozen other outfits she'd already deemed too fancy or pretentious. You sighed, but obeyed, slipping the straps off your shoulders and letting the dress fall to the ground.

"How do you know it's too formal?" You questioned. "You don't even know what the date is."

"Because trust me, I know JJ. I've got a pretty good idea," she contended with a knowing smile.

You still didn't know quite how you'd gotten yourself into this mess. While your cousin Sarah and her boyfriend had been attempting to set you up with their friend JJ, your other cousin, Rafe, had interjected and tried to get you to go out with his friend Tooper. To stop your cousins from going at each other, you have promised to go on dates with both of them. It had seemed like an exciting idea at the time. You thought it would be a bit like the Bachelorette. Now however, you were starting to regret offering.

"Oh wait, I've got it!" Sarah announced after a moment. She pulled a rose-colored high waisted skater skirt from her drawer and went digging through the clothes pile for a white cropped tank top they had already discarded. "Try this on."

You put on the outfit and turned to look at yourself in the mirror. You liked it. It was cute, casual, and so you. But you were sure Sarah would find some issue with it.

"It's perfect!" Sarah squealed. "Just wear your swimsuit under it. I'd go with the coral one."

"We spent all this time finding an outfit, and I'm just gonna be swimming?"

Sarah just shrugged, making a motion that said her lips were sealed.

------------------------------------------------------

John B came to pick you up in his van. During the entire ride, you pestered both he and Sarah about where you were going and why JJ couldn’t come pick you up himself, but they shared very little information with you.

You had managed to find JJ on Instagram, so at least you knew what he looked like. And when you saw his pictures, you were almost surprised. He was incredibly good-looking, there was no denying it. His untamed blond hair and crystal blue eyes, combined with his tendency to wear cut-off shirts or simply no shirt at all, made it hard to look away from him. Still, you were unsure about how this date would go. From what little you'd managed to gather about his personality, he was a comedic reckless bad-boy, and it wasn't a type you usually went for.

"We're here," John B announced, switching his car into park and hoping out.

You looked around at your surroundings, confused. "This is your house, isn't it?" you asked John B.

Before he could respond, you heard a voice behind you. “Hey, there's the infamous y/n." You turned around to see JJ emerging from John B's house with a wide grin on his face.

You were surprised to find that he was even more attractive in person.

"And you must be JJ." You reached out your hand to shake his, but he pulled you into a hug instead. You could feel the muscles in his arms and chest and you'd be lying if you said you didn't enjoy it.

"Hey sorry about sending JB to pick you up. I had to do we last minute maintenance on the Pogue. I'm sure you're docking me points as we speak," he said with a cheeky grin.

You nodded even though you had absolutely zero clue what he was talking about. “Just a few,” you jokingly replied.

“Then we should get going before I can lose anymore. Hey Sarah, take care of John B for me, okay? I know he gets lonely when we’re apart.” John B flipped him off. You all said your goodbyes and Sarah and her boyfriend climbed back in his van and left, leaving you and JJ alone.

He turned to you with a smile. “Welcome to the Outer Banks, sweetheart. You’re gonna love it here.

------------------------------------------------------

Only when you got down to the docks did what JJ had said make any sense. There was a small fishing boat docked there with the letters HMS POGUE painted on the side. You knew about the island rivalry between the rich Kooks and the poor Pogues, but none of it meant anything to you. You knew that even though the Cameron's were significantly wealthier than your side of the family, you would be considered a Kook. But in your opinion, the class-based bias was stupid and pointless.

When you saw the boat, you were instantly excited. You loved the sea and there were few things you enjoyed more than being on the My Druthers with you Uncle and cousins. Somehow, you knew the adventure in this small fishing boat with JJ would be even more exciting.

"Are we going out on the water? I love boating!" You exclaimed.

"Oh yeah? It's not beneath a Kook princess like you?"

It honestly made you angry to be stereotyped like that, but rather than calling him out on it, you calmly responded, "Not at all." You suddenly understood exactly what kind of girl he expected you to be, and you were determined to prove him wrong.

He helped you into the boat and thanked him. He untied the boat and pushed off from the dock before starting the engine. ”So tell me a little bit about yourself. Like, where're you from? How are you related to the Camerons?”

“Uncle Ward is my mom’s brother. We live about six hours away in Virginia, west of Roanoke. I love coming here any chance I get. This is the first time I've come by myself and I'm spending the entire summer."

"I can't imagine not living by a beach," he commented. He was lounging in the seat by the wheel, attempting and failing to steer the boat with his feet. You stifled a laugh. "Well really, I can't imagine living anywhere but here."

“My mom grew up here, with her brother. She left to go to school and never came back.”

“Wait, Sarah said her dad grew up on the cut. So your mom did too?”

“Yeah. When he earned all his money, he gave some to my mom." You didn't like talking about the origin of your wealth, but you felt comfortable with JJ. "They’re really close.”

You and JJ continued talking. You learned that he was an only child, but he didn't say much else about his family. Mostly he told you about his friends and what he liked to do. He told you that he was a good surfer, and you made him promise, even if you two were a terrible match, that he would give you lessons. He agreed with a laugh. Eventually, when you were far enough out, he cut the engine.

"Wanna go for a dip?" he offered.

You raised an eyebrow at him. "Is this your secret plan to get me to take my clothes off on the first date? Because if so, it's working."

He laughed. "I did not expect you to be funny."

You tilted your head and smiled at him. "Well now that you've met me, I hope you've learned not to underestimate me."

"Yes ma'am," he agreed.

You both stripped down to your swimsuits. JJ, quickly dove in, but you were a bit hesitant.

"Come on. I'll catch you. Promise," JJ persuaded as soon as he broke the surface. He held out his arms to prove it to you.

You closed your eyes and jumped. True to his word, JJ caught you. The force from your jump caused both of you to go under, but he held you the entire time.

“You okay?” He asked when you both resurfaced. He didn’t truly sound concerned though, he was too busy laughing.

“I’m fine, but you won’t be when I get my revenge.”

“Revenge? Why, I caught you?” He protested.

“Revenge for laughing at me, obviously.”

He laughed again, seemingly not affected by your threat. You seemed to both simultaneously realize he was still holding on to you, and he gently released you, glancing away as if he was embarrassed.

JJ cleared his throat and broke the silence. “Okay, so I get Sarah, she’s a pretty cool chick, but how is a great girl like you related to a dickhead like Rafe Cameron?”

"Hey! That's my cousin you're talking about."

"Okay fine, sore subject."

You sighed. "Honestly, he's different around me. Different even than he is around Sarah and Wheezie. We’re pretty close. Not as close as me and Sarah, but still.”

“So that’s why you agreed to go on a date with Topper?”

“I guess.” You shrugged. Honestly, you hadn’t expected to connect this well with JJ. You already found yourself staring at him shamelessly, his lips specifically. The date with Topper was beginning to seem stupid. You could already imagine yourself spending your summer with JJ. Surfing, hanging out with his friends on the HMS Pogue, cuddling on the beach under the night sky. You shook your head to bring yourself back to reality. You'd only just met JJ, and you had no way of knowing if he even liked you.

“What should I know about Topper?” You asked JJ, curious.

JJ snorted. “I have nothing good to say about him. He’s a first-rate stuck-up kook.”

“Okay, sorry. Bad date topic anyway.”

“You know what’s a good date topic?” JJ began with a mischievous smile on his face. He swam up to you so that your faces were inches apart. You could sense his lips getting closer to yours. Your eyes fluttered shut. All of the sudden, he grabbed you by the waist and tossed you into the water, dunking you.

You gasped when your head emerged. “You are so dead,” you shouted.

You jumped onto his back, trying to force his head under, but he was stronger than you and easily threw you off. You chased after him, trying fruitlessly to get your payback. Only after ten minutes of chasing him were you finally able to dunk him, and even then, you had a feeling that he let you.

You were still both laughing when you climbed back on the deck on the Pogue. It was nearing nightfall, and you decided to head back. JJ had offered to let you steer, but he kept leaning over your shoulder and correcting your movements, so somehow you end up on his lap as you head back towards land. You were both silent, but it was a comfortable silence and you didn’t mind it in the slightest. When you pulled up to the dock, he turned off the engine and you both climbed off.

JJ led you to John B's yard where you reclined together on a hammock and looked up at the sky. It was slightly chilly outside, but JJ had his arm wrapped around your shoulder, and wherever his bare skin touched yours, you felt warm.

"This is one of my favorite places in the world," he explained."I love to sit here with my friends, roll a joint, just look up at the sky. I don't care if it's in total silence. It's the only time I shut up," he joked. You can't help but laugh

"It feels just as natural with you here beside me. I guess what I'm trying to say is I can see you as one of us. You should hang out with us. With me."

He rolled on to his side to face you and you did the same. He reached up a hand to cup your cheek and pulls you closer until your lips are touching. It's the perfect kiss. Slow and gentle, but electrifying.

"Think about it," he whispered. You nodded, a silent promise.

You didn't know how it was possible, but as you laid there next to JJ, you could already feel yourself falling for him.

[kob131]

Geez, this person really went all out with this BS rant against the show/staff. www(.)reddit( lcom/r/RWBY/comments/kiqatg/why_rwby_will_always_be_an_okay_show/

... You know I have been trying to step away from directly addressing RWBY bullshit. But...fuck it here.

If you ever talked to me about how I felt about RWBY, I would say that RWBY pre-Volume 8 has been a touchy subject for me. I felt very validated by two videos, "Why RWBY is Disappointing" and "The White Fang Problem".

Yes yes, and people with parental issues feel validated by their abusive spouse. That means nothing, especially given that one of those videos you mentioned is riddled with bullshit.

"Why RWBY is Disappointing" validated my criticism of RWBYs writing. The fact that Miles and Kerry can't and refuse to take any kind of criticism that doesn't hurt their feelings is complete [insert bad word here]. All criticism is going to hurt your feelings. Yes, you should probably ignore the long winded rants that make themselves out to be self important- why is there a mirror here? But there is truth to all criticism.

And there’s a kernel of truth in the best lies- they’re still LIES.

Not to mention the video you mentioned here (which I am assuming is Hbomberguy’s) pulls the SAME SHIT it calls out. Like say...decrying critics pesonally attacking the writers...while proclaiming Jaune and Neptune as self inserts even though Miles AND Kerry is on the record saying that at least Jaune isn’t written by his voice actor.

I'm currently learning about Branding and how important it is to know your audience. Take self.care breaks, talk with someone you trust. Someone who isn't Miles or Kerry! If your reading this. An outside perspective can help. The reason I say that is because if you two constantly talk to each other you're going to end up in an echo chamber. TALK TO FIONA! She's literally your target audience!

Because hey, a man who contradicts himself numerous times and made personal attacks on the creators that only the most malicious and self righteous do is SOOOO trustworthy right? 

Remember that tweet Hbomb brought up in his video as an example of criticism the creators should listen to? The one that demanded Miles get back to work and tried to use the catchphrase of his dead friend to manipulate him?

What a fucking target audience.

I know they mentioned ‘Fiona’ (likely the character’s voice actress) but there’s a supposed fan, one that pretty much sums up the critics, and a perfect example why it gets tossed out.

Moving on, the other video validated something I wish it didn't. "The White Fang Problem" brought to light something I knew was there but either ignored or I wasn't thinking. The White Fang has always made me a little uncomfortable. As a minority, it didn't translate well in my head. The minority are the bad guys. The Civil rights group were the bad guys. I brushed it off for a long time but after that video I couldn't.

Ah huh. So uh, the existence of Blake, Ghira, Kali, Sun, Illa, Velvet, Neon ect. is just incovienable to you huh? And don’t give me that ‘But civil rights group!’- The first episode had them break up a peaceful protest and it’s repeatedly hammered home that the current White Fang doesn’t give a SHIT about equal rights. And no, that concept is not racist- Judging from a story I read, that happened to the New Black Panthers in REAL LIFE.

It became a moral issue. Watching RWBY became a moral issue. RWBY is still pushing right wing talking points.-

Being right of you is not right wing, Especially given how you just acted.

I dont believe Miles and Kerry are racist. I do believe that Miles and Kerry both hold skewed beliefs in what right and wrong is.

Projection.

The way Miles and Kerry treat self defense and protest shows that they know nothing about being Black. They didn't do their research. They didn't talk to minorities about how they were being portrayed. They simply believed that they were right and we were wrong.

Ah huh, ah huh, ah huh-

Monty wrote the White Fang this way. You know, the ASIAN man of FOUR NATIONALITIES. So uh, congrats on saying at the absolute most- Nothing.

Now these two videos are old news. They've been posted on this very same subreddit. But you can't go around and say how much of a progressive and open minded individual you are when the fact that RWBY is a racist show and treats minorities very badly. So no one talks about them.

Or that, as I showed: these videos are bullshit.

Also its kinda homophobic too, not because of Bumblby but because despite Tera and Saphorn being a happy married couple they never kiss on screen. Have you seen happy married couples? Have you seen gay happy married couples? They literally do nothing but kiss. Its cute and adorable and deserves to be spread as far and wide. Despite the show having two straight couple kisses, granted one was in Volume but still, they couldn't get the married couple to kiss? Just saying.

... And not all gay couples are the same, even if I’m sure you’re thinking of TEENAGERS.

You know, judging people based on a preconcieved notion (AKA stereotyping) is pretty fucking bigoted itself...

Watch people be in the comments typing away that this isn't a romance show and how I shouldn't expect romance in an action adventure show despite the long list of evidence to the contrary.

Ah yes, that long list of ONE kiss by a TORPEDOED SHIP.

Such convincing rhetoric.

So you can see I was not coming into Volume 8 with my rose colored glasses. I'm sure many of you hate me because of all my comments, but I don't care. I was ready to leave RWBY. I didn't care. RWBY had taken up so much of my life but I don't care. I was not going to support a show that didn't improve.

Ah huh-

You just came in with jade-colored glass and accepted anything that validated you instead of questioning yourself. You talk about branding but that’s ALL you’ve branded yourself as.

So I watched. And something happened. Something strange. RWBY was moving in a direction I didn't expect it to. Oscar got what he deserved. The Heros were oblivious to the danger that is Salem. Things were headed in the direction that would change the characters forever. It'll be just like Beacon but better. And then they had to ruin it.

Oh we are about to get some real bullshit.

Oscar somehow convinces Hazel to betray Salem. What could have been an avenue to a multi season story arc for Oscar that included the stories villains became a shitty uninspired redemption arc. Kill me.

No he didn’t and this has been something hinted at since Volume 4.

There's still hope for the season but at this point I lost all hope. 

This is the scene that killed Volume 8 for me. Oscar should not be the one who defeats Salem. In fact he should be an avenue to learn more about the villains. He served his purpose with the heroes, now he has a new arc with the villains. Oscar doesn't turn evil, but he's like a conscious. Salem doesn't want to kill him because he can be useful in finding the last remaining relics and maidens.

Assumptions.

Oscar has a heart to heart with all the villains including Salem. Oscar learns to be his own man and accepts he's now one with Ozma but he doesn't have to be another Ozma. He doesn't have to make the same decisions.

Its a great Arc for Oscar. It also makes sense for his character. Ozma feels Salem is pure evil but Oscar can learn for himself.

Headcanon.

But they won't do that. Instead they're going to take the easy way out. Like always.

Bias getting in the way.

Miles and Kerry love wrapping up each season in a little bow. This is why RWBY is so okay.

They say as every RWBY Volumes ends in a cliffhanger.

This is Beacon but if Miles and Kerry thought that RWBY should still be in Beacon. This is Beacon but without major character death. This is Beacon but the main villain loses because the heroes can't lose. Cinder isn't threatening. None of the villains are. Salem is in a Grimm! She should know everything! Why is there no creativity? Why is she not an over powered mess in A GRIMM!? Her own domain?! Why are the writers writing her not as a powerful goddess reaffirming her as a threat but as a human being. Yes I know what that sounds like but hear me out.

‘None of the villains are threatening!’

‘WHY IS THE MAIN VILLAIN NOT BEING TREATED AS THREATENING LIKE I THINK SHE IS!’

‘Why is there no creativity?’

‘DO THE MOST UNCREATIVE THING POSSIBLE!’

How about I keep mocking you?

If Salem can be out smarted by a 10 year old boy, why did it take Ozma so long to defeat her? Oscar should fail. RWBY should fail. They should go through character arcs that help them better understand Salem. Because that's how you defeat Salem.

Pushing your own thoughts onto the show. Also assumptions AGAIN.

I always believed that Ozma and Salem are very similar to Ruby and Weiss. Yes I know how it sounds but it makes sense.-

Too bad your AU fanfic doesn’t matter.

But they won't. Miles and Kerry will use Oscar to defeat Salem. Why? Who knows at this point. I dont know why Miles and Kerry keep pushing Oscar into the spotlight. Its exactly how they treated Jaune Pre-Volume 7. Jaune had to be the focus so often we hated him. And they're doing it again with Oscar

Ah huh. You know, the whole NOTHING Jaune did in Volume 6 was SOOO spotlight stealing, along with his REMOVAL FROM THE CAST FOR SEVERAL EPISODES.

Wanna bet this is another case of ‘penis on screen, me hate’?

They refuse learn and they refuse to improve. If Volume 8 doesn't improve im leaving RWBY. It doesn't matter to any of you. I'm saying it more for myself. So I don't continue with a show that constantly disappoints me. But more so, I don't support a show that views people like me as lesser. If the writing improves it proves that they can grow and get better but if it doesn't it means they will continue to treat Faunus as misguided and horrible characters. And I refuse to support a show that uses my likeness to get brownie points from people who are unaffected by such messages.

A. No, that’s who refused to do self reflection and improve.

B. Should have done that in the first place.

C. No, once again- You blind yourself from the shit that disproves you.

D. You heard him- Treat the Fanaus like shit and make the humans in the right. You know, the opposite what the show is doing now since it’s SOOO horrible.

E. You are not the center of the universe.

[theleagueof13]

Rewriting the Entirety of SGE: The School Years

All of this is solely up to my own preference. Yes, some parts may be messy because I am inexperienced. I don’t even know what a plot is. Here we go.

I didn’t have any major problem with Book 1 until Agatha’s Glow Up, so we’re starting there.

Canon: Agatha realizes she was beautiful all along and literally two minutes later Tedros falls in love with her.

However, I think it would’ve been so much more impactful if she simply changed her perspective on her “ugliness” from a negative light to an objective standpoint.

We already know that Agatha is badass, so I think she should view herself that way. Insecurity is nothing if she amounts her features to the raw human ability that they possess. Her frame is tall and skinny because she’s athletic, her big eyes serve her the purpose of seeing. Agatha may not be pretty, but every bone in her body was made so that she could eat, breathe, laugh, fight, do parkour around School for Evil.

It’s obvious that Ever Girls only care about their appearance because they want to impress boys (in School for Girls, they are shown as letting themselves go). Agatha is characterized as having no interest in boys, and therefore she doesn’t need to be pretty in the first place. Now, I know that princesses need a prince in order to have their fairytale, but Agatha already thinks that’s bullshit -- why not go against it?

Also, this is extremely minor, but I'd rather have Agatha have some kind of deformity, like a cleft lip or crooked spine. It would really sell the idea that she was different. As a kid, even if Soman screamed in my face that Agatha was canonically ugly, I couldn’t imagine how she could be if the features she was described with were SO normal. Of course, her deformity remains throughout the book, because that is Not Cool if it’s magically removed.  

I’ve said this before in my I Don’t Really Like Agatha post, and I’ll say it again. She is ungrateful for the opportunity she could have at School for Good. I’d literally kill to be there, I’d sit through every mind-numbing, subtly sexist class about smiling and posture just so I could practice magic, and I’m sure a lot of people think the same.

[edited: didn’t mean to sound so callous, it’s only an opinion]

Agatha isn’t even using this to expand her power. She uses her wish a total of 2 times in this book, and it’s not like she didn’t have time to use it. It’s disappointing.

So, imagine that Agatha just GRINDS in her school-work. Sure, she fails the challenges related to Strategic Blushing and Matching Outfits, but everything else she excels. At first she just didn’t want to be turned into a plant, she was only studying to survive. Now, it’s more than that.

Agatha is introduced as having a fondness for villains, and it’s apparent that beauty is irrelevant in their success stories. Although she is hurt when Sophie alludes to how she’d “fit in” with the immature, trigger-happy Nevers, she can apply those values of dismissing outer appearances while still being Good. It’s not as if Agatha is greedy or deceitful. She saves the Wish Fish, forgives Sophie countless times, and doesn’t do anything outright vicious. There’s no reason to question that she’s NOT a Never. She can be ugly and an Ever at the same time, wasn’t that the original message?

Hypothetically, she gains more knowledge and strength in spells and potions and such, and just like Sophie, even if everyone doubted her, she could rise through the ranks. There’s no point in worrying about your looks when you’re the most powerful girl in school. (Did I make Agatha too close to Evil? Maybe. But she doesn’t need to push people down to bring herself up, she’s just a natural like that.)

Also, if she needs a boy to ask her out to the Snow Ball, she 100% hates that. She could just talk to Dovey, are they really gonna fail the baddest bitch there?

No. They’re not.

Okay, here’s the biggest part that everyone will hate me for. No Tagatha. At least, not until TLEA.

When Agatha comes out of the Groom Room having just kickstarted her self-esteem and everyone’s drooling, Tedros is attracted to her instantly. I guess that’s fine. Reasonable. But consider this:

Agatha doesn’t love Tedros back.

When Tedros asks her out at the Circus of Talents, she declines. Because if she really knew her own worth, she wouldn’t say yes before making friends with him first. That’s only fair. Actually, I’d say a part of insecurity is settling for any guy who gives you attention (aka Tedros). Y'all are gonna hit me with the damning “We accept the love we think we deserve”.

EVEN IF SHE BELIEVES SHE DESERVES HIM NOW, IT DOESN’T MEAN SHE’LL JUMP AT THE CHANCE TO DATE HIM. THAT’S MESSED UP.

Okay, I know Sophie threw her bitch fit because Agatha was being a hypocrite and dating Tedros. So, tweak that and have Sophie throw a bitch fit simply because Tedros asked Agatha out in the first place. That still makes sense with her entitled selfish personality.

In the stupid war of Evers and Nevers, (which was like, strange considering they’re kids but they’ll have a similar conflict for the next two years), Tedros and Agatha are not together. You could throw in a bit of “Tedros wants to prove to Agatha he’s a hero” but for god’s sakes we are NOT putting in that little chauvinistic “how dare a princess question me”. That one line gave me a bad feeling about Tedros — foreshadowing for AWWP? And it’s crazy that Soman wrote that, along with his lack of brain cells. Are you trying to make readers bully him in memes and instagram group chats? Not from personal experience.

Oh, and this is more of a complaint. But, why did Soman make Sophie bald, pockmarked, and toothless in her transformation of embracing Evil? I thought this was about breaking stereotypes.

The Evil stigma that’s drilled in their heads about being pretty and in general taking care of yourself, is completely inane to me. I can’t believe that Sophie’s “trickery” of Tedros was so revolutionary. None of the Nevers, in 200 years, thought of that?

Instead of her beauty regressing, I’d actually want it to be heightened. It’s what set her apart from the Nevers the moment she walked in. It should be the icing on top of the cake. When Sophie is at her peak of power, she’s a princess. Who could kill you.

If you’re worried about reducing women to be pretty objects or seductresses, stop. It’s okay. Sophie has other powers like summoning ravens, wasps, locusts, bats, using her singing voice for torture, and she is skilled in curses and death traps. In short, the Hot Evil Lady trope works for her. (I think. Someone correct me.)

At the end of SGE, Agatha chooses Sophie over Tedros. Needless to say, Tedros feels betrayed. If you wanted to make him an idiot, with anger issues, daddy issues, and an inferiority complex, this is the easiest way out. He’s under the misguided impression that Agatha belongs with him simply because 1. He loves her. 2. He’s the prince of Camelot, damnit. Doesn’t that mean anything to you?

Not to mention that his father pressured him not to make the same mistake. And Tedros thinks that School for Good is his pool of suitors since Arthur married his classmate Guinevere? There is no line of logic in this man at all, did you miss the part where Guinevere cheats and runs away? Maybe Ever Girls isn’t the only place you should look! There are thousands of other girls in the Woods and you intend to find your soulmate at 14?? Goddamn. 

In conclusion, Tedros’ hurt feelings continue to AWWP. Easy.

And if y’all gonna come for me about how Tedros is easily swayed by looks (he’s convinced that Sophie and Agatha are in the wrong schools for half the book) I’d want to make him a bit smarter. I know that’s impossible.

In canon, Tedros turns on Sophie because her true colors showed, and her witchy phase gives him that confirmation bias. He goes feral with testosterone and heroism, as we know.

I’d like him to understand that just because his solely physical attraction to Sophie grew when she’s evil and pretty, it doesn’t mean that she’s not any less dangerous. If Tedros, of all people, learns the difference between appearances vs reality, it would really drive the point home.

All right. You’re still here?

Here’s some extra headcanons you could add in here and here.

In the meantime I’ll think of more.

If there were any hard-hitting themes I was supposed to include, please tell me, I usually gloss over them while reading. 

But anyway, thanks for reading this far.

[joshscorcher]

Friendly Fire Philosophy

Unconscious Thoughts, Fiction, and Confession of Character

As an Internet Personality, I’m required to spend much time on the internet so I can stay up to date on recent trends and remain relevant. I spend a lot of time lurking on YouTube as a result. Recently, I stumbled across a video about unconscious/implicit bias and watched it (I will not link it for obvious reasons). The speaker told me that everyone, including the viewers watching, has biases and preconceptions of which they aren't even aware.

I don’t wholly disagree with this idea. Many times people have tastes that they can’t explain. Some think that blondes are the most good-looking kind of person. Some think Asians are the most good-looking. Some love green eyes. Some like freckles, scars, or traits not considered “Hollywood Hot.” A simple scouring of DeviantArt is very good evidence that no one agrees on universal bodily beauty (I really wouldn’t recommend doing that, by the way. It gets very weird very quickly). Point is, we all have different tastes that we cannot logically explain other than, “I just do” or “That’s how I was born, I guess.” It gets to the point that shaming someone for something they can’t really control seems not only like an exercise in futility but also cruelty and injustice.

I was silently nodding along to the video, thinking that’s where the speaker was going with this. Then the person made the statement that prompted this essay: They claimed that we all have unconscious prejudices and bigotry.

I thought the idea was shocking. We have bigotry that we don't even know about? How do we actually deal with that? How would we even know about something like that? I searched, but I could find no credible studies proving the existence of this. Not only did I believe this idea was logically flawed, I was personally upset by this concept.

This person is telling me that I'm a bigot and I didn't even know it? What an arrogant statement! They don’t know me nor can they read my thoughts. They’re implying they know so much about how the brains of millions of different people work, that they can accuse them of unsaid thoughts, or even unTHOUGHT thoughts? It sounded sillier the more I continued to think about it.

Of course, I rejected this idea. People aren't a monolith and no one acts the same way. Yes, the fact that we have professions of neuroscience, psychology, and psychiatry certainly lend credence to the idea that there are patterns of behavior between humans, and I also agree with the idea that our unconscious mind can influence our actions. However, this assumption that everyone is bigoted in some way? It was very hard for me to swallow.

The person continued. It was a very twee, platitudinous, and condescending speech about sensitivity, empathy, and being all kum-ba-yah. Suddenly, the person talked about how they confronted their own unconscious biases and hates and wished to spread their newfound enlightenment to others. In that moment, everything became clear:

I was being accused of something of which my accuser was guilty.

I stopped being angry at that point, because I understood. This person felt bad about their racism, and I shouldn’t be harsh on them for that. On the contrary, I believe it's very admirable that they did some thorough self-examination and attempted to safeguard their behaviors and ESPECIALLY their thoughts. Not many people are self-aware enough to police the way they think about people and many people underestimate the value of keeping your mind clean and disciplined. They also wanted to stop racist behaviors from manifesting in other places, again, not a terrible motivation. That being said, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. I still have an issue with them accusing me of being the same as them. Again, they didn't know me, so how could they make a sound judgment on me, especially something as serious as bigotry? Why is this person assuming everyone is like them?

I'm reminded of something Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of their character.“ I can't say I disagree. Many times, the way we see the world, reveals a lot about our personalities. How often do nice people think the world is great? How often do unpleasant people think the world is terrible? How often do artistic types see beauty everywhere they go? Iroh from Avatar: The Last Airbender corroborates this idea: “If you look for the light, you can often find it. But if you look for the dark that is all you will ever see.” Heck, this concept can be said about the art we create as well.

Art is also commonly referred to as a self-portrait. Kehinde Wily for instance says that "All art is self-portraiture." Frequently, artists are very much encouraged to "write what they know." It can be argued that even the art we create is a confession of character. We often put a lot of ourselves into the art we create and I can't say I disagree with this idea.

Permit me to deviate from my point for a bit. Trust me, I have an endgame here.

My Dungeons and Dragons campaign “Welcome to the Show” has the underlying theme of redemption being open to those who seek it. In the story, the party is trying to get the deposed Queen Jeminya back on the throne of her kingdom, but they quickly hit a snag. As a devil-spawn, Jeminya's soul is damned to the Nine Hells no matter how "good" of a person she is, and she is made painfully aware of this reality. However, she continues to do good anyways, because she believes good is worth doing and it's worth believing in. Her god sees her pure intentions and offers her an escape from her fate; it will be a hard and bumpy road, but she will be able to achieve redemption should she seek it.

Sound familiar? It should. There are sprinklings of my faith littered all throughout the story, and many times I didn't even know I was doing it. I even unintentionally based Asmodeus, the head devil, off of Screwtape from C.S. Lewis' "The Screwtape Letters" because my trashy fanboyism has apparently seeped into my unconscious.

Some might have noticed that it is very difficult for me to create/act a character who is evil for the sake of being evil, often giving them sympathetic backstories or more often redemption arcs. This is mostly because I find it hard to imagine myself in the position of being pure evil; not having any other underlying motive. In fact, I doubt Pure Evil people even exist. Even Kefka Palazzo from Final Fantasy VI, whom I really enjoy playing and analyzing, I realize I don’t believe to be Pure Evil. Insane and dangerous? Definitely, but looking closer at him, there are some tragic elements to him; he was experimented on which made him insane. Throughout the game, he descends into a person who cannot comprehend love, happiness, or joy, and cannot find any meaning in life other than destruction. He’s not pure evil; like many of us he’s looking for personal fulfillment.

Many have noticed I take a very Don Bluth approach to my storytelling; "[If] you don’t show the darkness, you don’t appreciate the light. If it weren’t for December no one would appreciate May. It’s just important that you see both sides of that. As far as a happy ending…when you walk out of the theatre there’s [got to be] something that you have that you get to take home. What did it teach me? Am I a better person for having watched it?" This is also a very Christian concept, as we believe that as dark and hellish as it gets on earth, there's a paradise at the end of the journey.

Now back to my point.

I'm not denying the existence of unconscious thoughts influencing our conscious thoughts and behaviors, because I just gave some very good anecdotes of this very phenomenon. What I am denying is the accusation that everyone specifically has unconscious bigotry because one person found unconscious bigotry within themselves.

Have you ever noticed that we very often try to give people the advice that we need to hear ourselves? I'm no exception; very often I've told people that they need to not let their anger control them and to grow thicker skins. Anyone who's met me for two minutes is probably laughing right now, and I wouldn't blame them. They all can tell you that I get defensive and emotional very easily and taking criticism is difficult for me. I do NOT have a very thick skin.

And I HATE it.

I hate the fact that I'm that overly sensitive. I hate that I lash out at people who just want to help me improve myself. I hate that I empower people to control me by letting my emotions get out of hand, as it's caused me to make very stupid decisions that still affect me to this day. I hate the fact that I DESPERATELY want everyone to like me. I hate the fact that I'm the only one of my siblings that has this problem.

I've taken steps to improve myself, but it's still hard and every day is a challenge, especially as an Internet Personality. I took a test and found out my love language is Words of Affirmation. I'll never forget the sarcastic remark my mom made when she found out: "Your love language is Words of Affirmation, and yet you're an internet personality... good luck."

At some point, you realize that everyone is a hypocrite about something. My older brother loves to say, "We often fail to meet our own standards." We hate liars, but who here has never lied, even like a little white lie? We hate thieves, but who here has never stolen, even something small like downloading a $2.00 song? How many times have you taken a french fry from someone else's plate? Maybe you're the rare exception and haven't done any of these things, but this is my point: We often hold others to standards that we don't follow ourselves, and to claim otherwise is to claim one is perfect, which is impossible.

That's why I've stopped getting angry at accusations of closet racism or unconscious hate. These accusers rarely know anything about the people they accuse because they don't know others’ thoughts. In fact, due to what I’ve written above, I often believe in my heart of hearts that these people are projecting their own insecurities and biases onto others, but amusingly, that makes ME the hypocrite because I don’t know their thoughts to be able to make that judgement. All I and anyone else for that matter have to go on is merely our own thoughts.

To be fair, they are correct in their implied point that actions speak louder than words and even thoughts. The Bible says in Matthew 7:16, “Therefore by their fruits you will know them.” So, the actions you take and the fruit you produce are also a strong indication of character, but context exists to complicate the issue. There’s a reason we categorize a human causing the death of another using terms like 1st degree murder, manslaughter, or self-defense. There's a difference between beating up an intruder threatening you and your family, and beating up someone because they called you a nasty name. 

If you do have inner thoughts that you might not be proud of, take comfort that someone might be feeling the same way. Certainly not everyone, but there’s a high chance another person is out there who’s going through what you are going through right now. Safeguarding your thoughts is important, and I would talk to someone reputable for their wisdom or an authority figure you trust on how best to do so.

But no matter what, remember: we are all flawed humans, so you’re not alone.

[bat-lings]

Is Bruce a good father to Damian, specifically? I mean, he seems to have learnt from past mistakes... but in preboot, does he even care about Damian at all? Didn't seem like it most of the time (especially in Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul, where he didn't even seem to care that Damian's life is in danger). Do you think he cared about Damian preboot?

Well, you are both right in that reboot!Bruce puts his preboot counterpart to shame where Damian’s concerned. The thing is, the reboot gave a much bigger place to Bruce and Damian’s dynamic than preboot ever did. Those two actually don’t have that many scenes together in preboot, and said scenes were usually part of a bigger plot/narrative that left little room to focus on their relationship.

I’ll answer this in three stages in order to address everything our Anons mentioned:

Bruce & Damian’s dynamic as portrayed by Morrison

The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul

Conclusion: does preboot!Bruce care about Damian? And was he a good father to him? (spoilers: yes and no, respectively.)

The conclusion summarizes everything so jump there if the argumentation part is too long.

A) Morrison’s Damian & Bruce

Disclaimer: I really, really hate Morrison’s writing. I’ll try to be reasonable when criticizing it but be extra aware of that bias. It makes me put most of Bruce’s action on the writer rather than the character and while I have my reasons & probably won’t change my opinion, it’s still a pretty categorical take.

Honestly I think Morrison’s Bruce does feel responsible for Damian. I’m even sure he cares about him too:

[Batman (1940) #657]

Actually, the whole issue is pretty good where Bruce & Damian are concerned. Must be my favorite thing Morrison has ever written. He installs interesting things character-wise, like Bruce making an extra effort to make Damian comfortable in the Manor & be patient with him, or Damian being an insufferable brat up until Bruce snaps at him, at which point he immediately switches off to “yes sir” in front of that new figure of authority.

Those are interesting bases to construct a dynamic upon. Problem is, they’re not gonna be exploited.

Here Bruce shows clear intent to provide guidance to Damian. But rather than give Bruce the occasion to follow up on that intent, and to develop a real relationship with Damian, Morrison gives us the incident Anon mentioned in the next frickin’ issue : an explosion set by Morrison’s godawful “““Talia””” that should’ve killed both her and Damian, and Bruce staring dramatically into the distance.

Does Bruce investigate their disappearance while Damian is being hardcore abused by his mother? Nah, he’s too busy skiing with one Jezebel Jet– a relationship Morrison needs to install since Jezebel has a notable role in Batman RIP.

My point is: as of #658 Morrison considers this arc finished & that there’s nothing to add. By that logic it’s valid to forget Damian until he’s relevant again plot-wise. It’s not (i think?) a way to tell us Bruce doesn’t care about Damian.

Let’s fast-forward to the disputable editorial & writer choice to launch Batman Inc/Leviathan  just after Bruce’s return from the “dead” without A) leaving room for a  confrontation/closure scene between him and Damian beforehand; or B) letting them actually interact more than the strictest minimum in said arc. From a strictly in-universe POV though, it’s not ooc for Bruce to decide unilaterally that Damian doesn’t need him or to focus on the crisis to come without talking to his son first.

I guess I should be talking about Batman Incorporated Vol. 2 too, ‘cause while it’s technically N52 it’s very much in the continuity of the storyline Morrison started in preboot. It also has a few Bruce & Damian moments where despite terrible miscommunication Bruce seems to worry for Damian… But then the plot requires Bruce sending Damian back to the mother who, in this dumbass version, abused him all his life.

[Batman Incorporated (2012) #4]

If I got that right this is a “Hero must make Big Sacrifice for the Greater Good” moment. The fact that Bruce loves Damian isn’t put into question: it makes the sacrifice more significant.

And that’s kinda my problem. First we’re told that Bruce wants to provide for Damian, but then whatever affection he feels for the boy is sidelined or even sacrificed to other narrative considerations.

So basically Bruce’s love for Damian has no significance in itself. It’s a given that doesn’t particularly need to be illustrated or expanded on; it’s stocked until we need it to breed impact in some scenes. Like the one above or, you’ve guessed it, Damian’s death. So yeah Bruce loves Damian. He loves him so much he’s sad when he dies. Ahem.

All in all it’s not a father-son story: else there would be more banter, slice of life sequences, time for the dynamic to develop, etc. It’s a hero-who-loses-stuff-in-war story. One story isn’t better than the other, they just appeal to different types of audiences.

“Does my father love me” is a personal thus small stake. Batman Inc/Leviathan or “Can I keep this future from happening” are world-wide to city-wide thus big stakes. I think a marked interest in the Big Ideas is what characterizes Morrison’s writing. Thus the portrayal of character relationships has a very specific place in his stories.

Anyway: I don’t think Morrison ever wanted to imply Bruce doesn’t care about Damian. It’s just that he’s a plot-driven writer and that both characters’ interactions & smaller stakes, although somewhat present in his narratives, will always come second in the big schemes of things.

If you consider that Bruce behaving like he does under Morrison’s pen proves he doesn’t give a damn about Damian though, I sure as hell won’t fault you for it.

B) Bruce & Damian in The Resurrection of Ra’s al Ghul

(God re-reading an in-character Talia these days is an oasis in the desert. Gotta love that arc all the more for that.)  

Not gonna lie fam. Our two Anons are right when they say Bruce is pretty cold in that one.

But A) Bruce is also dealing with a crisis, which means he’s emotionally removing himself from the situation; B) he’s not treating Damian differently than he is Dick or Tim… which we’ll see is the problem tho.

It doesn’t excuse Bruce’s behavior (I think he’s out of line myself), but I just don’t think it implies he doesn’t care about Damian.

You’ll notice that his apparent aloofness applies to Tim too (and Dick although he’s not mentioned), and that it equally unsettles Talia.

[Nightwing (1996) #138]

I want to stress the apparent in aloofness. On several occasions during RoRAG Talia reproaches Bruce that he’s not confronting his feelings what else is new. I believe he’s worried about the boys, all of them, but he also trusts them to handle themselves. He also thinks that if he so much as voices his worry, he won’t be able to focus and do what he has to. So he represses them and goes fully in Batman-mode.

Fast-forward. When Bruce is barking at Damian to pick up a sword and fight, it’s his way of protecting him– he needs Damian to defend himself.

[Detective Comics (1937) #839]

Because it’s not fair to show this without context: 5 seconds before Bruce legit bites Damian’s head off, chill out dude, he goes all protective batdad upon seeing Ra’s trying to steal Damian’s body.

So yeah. I have reasons to believe Bruce is scared out of his mind here. Hence the very aggressive way he tries to shake Damian into action.

So far Bruce gets a pass. It’s afterwards that he deserved to be punched in the face imo, and that’s probably the scene our Anons had in mind:

In fact, Bruce is expecting the same from Damian than he’s expecting from his two other sons. To be precise, he’s not treating either of them as sons— they’re on the field, they’re Robin & Nightwing right now. Aka soldiers/partners/teammates rather than family. And Bruce is putting Damian on that exact level when he shouldn’t be.

It’s harsh, and that’s emphasized next to Talia (who is actually written like a Talia). She’s all aggressively worried mother and Bruce’s all cold commander, the contrast is off-putting.

Talia reacts like a mother first by fleeing to save herself and her son. But Bruce can’t let Ra’s to his own devices, and he expect his sons to fight beside him.

It’s unfair to Damian ‘cause he’s not Robin yet, he’s not part of Bruce’s war the way Dick and Tim chose to be, he didn’t choose to be dragged into Ra’s schemes: he’s snapping to attention at Bruce’s order out of a childish need for validation, not out of a conscious & thought-out choice to make this his life. Also he’s ten. Yet those considerations fly over Bruce’s head: right now and unlike Talia, he’s not thinking like a father.

Do I think Dini balances the Greater Good vs Familial Attachment dilemma better than Morrison does? Hell yeah. He took the time to show Bruce ripping Ra’s apart at the beginning of the issue to prove us Bruce cares. And for all that Bruce’s wrong here, Dini has him fighting beside Damian, not sending him off on his own. Talia’s fleeing with her son gives the reader a reality check & puts the validity of Bruce’s choice into question as it should be. The stakes are also so much more concrete that “distant dark future to avoid”.

Next is probably my fave line ever written about Bruce & Damian ‘cause it gives so much sense (or depth) to Bruce’s hands-off approach.

And like. Everything that Bruce says here is true. That’s exactly what Damian’s character arc should be about. But dude maybe try to have a relationship with your son outside of the Batman legacy? The thing is Bruce built his relationships with all his kids through vigilantism and I think he just. Doesn’t know how to do it differently. The idea doesn’t even cross his mind for god’s sake.

By my understanding it’s not that Bruce doesn’t love Damian. It’s that he genuinely believes Damian’s better off without him.

It’s low key confirmed in Bruce Wayne: The Road Home.

[The Road Home: Batman & Robin]

((Don’t trust anything Bruce says about Dick’s “casualness” or whatever in this issue tho. Nicieza just… doesn’t know Dick’s character all that much.))

So Bruce is basically taking the easy way out, yeah. Both in ‘Tec and in choosing it’s not worth trying to work with Damian as his partner. He decides Talia is a better parent & Dick is a better mentor than he could be, and he’s off fighting the good fight against Leviathan.

We can stretch it and say Bruce probs decided he’ll take care of his relationship with Damian after the Leviathan thing is dealt with but tbh I don’t know if DC or Morrison thought that far ahead.

Conclusion

Morrison’s narrative installs that Bruce does feel morally obligated to care for Damian. And although I get why it can feel uncertain, I’m not sure we’re supposed to doubt Bruce loves Damian.

Bruce not looking for Damian after the explosion is is more due to the writer’s choice to consider the “Damian issue” closed for now so that he can focus on his next plot/installment. I guess.

When Bruce has the idea to send Damian back to fake-Talia, I guess his love for his son is a tool used to show how much Bruce is a selfless hero*. and a terrible dad but he’s a Hero™ so it’s okay.

Bruce in RoRAG doesn’t come as indifferent to Damian’s safety to me, he’s being his dumbass self in a crisis situation. He’s got no excuse for sending Damian alongside Dick & Tim when he did though.

On two occasions Bruce unilaterally elects that Damian is better-off without him. First with the in-character Talia who actually loves her son, second as Dick’s partner.

* Actually it’d be very interesting if someone who liked that comic-book could explain me wtf I didn’t get about its narrative significance. Sometimes our personal tastes just render us blind to some things guys.

TL;DR: Does preboot!Bruce love Damian? Yes. Was he a good father to him? No.

And I’m feeling way more comfortable giving a categorical answer here than when I was asked if Bruce is, in general, a good father.

To be fair Bruce does try to step into a fatherly role in Morrison’s Batman #657, aka just after he meets Damian. Afterwards we get sidetracked; and later storylines just. Don’t really give Bruce & Damian the opportunity so share father-son moments.

His behavior in RoRAG is just plain bad. The fact that it’s not due to indifference doesn’t change that. The ten-year-old who didn’t ask for shit should be treated differently that the seasoned vigilantes Dick and Tim are, period.

Obviously leaving Damian in fake-Talia’s clutches or wanting to send him back to his abuser goes under “bad father points” too. If you consider the whole of Morrison’s run should be integrated into your personal understanding of the character, that is. woops look at that terrible bias showing its ugly face again

In later episodes, it’s tempting to give Bruce a pass by saying that he just didn’t get the chance/time to be a good father to Damian, and part of it is true. But again, failing to invest in that relationship is completely in-character, and tbh it’s the part I find the most interesting character- and narrative-wise:

It’s A) self-depreciating (”Talia or Dick can provide my son what I can’t”); B) self-centered, in that Bruce doesn’t stop to consider what Damian thinks or wants; and C) cowardly, in that the second there’s someone else available to take care of Damian, Bruce stops trying to be a father and to invest himself emotionally because gasp, feelings!

As a comparison, think of how long it took for Bruce to go from mentor-protégé-e to father-child in his relationship with Tim and Cassandra; and to admit that’s how he felt about those kids. He didn’t adopt Dick until he was an adult either. Batdad needs time to un-constipate. It’s a Bruce thing, not a Bruce & Damian one.

(Jason is the only kid with whom Bruce immediately builds a wholesome relationship and that’s where you cry because if Jason didn’t die Bruce wouldn’t have half as much trouble getting close to his kids.)

Hope this word-vomit answers that. Thanks for the asks!

[skriak]

TOP 10 NINTENDO SWITCH GAMES 2019 - my arbitrary list!

Sometimes it's good to be proven wrong. I was pretty sceptical when the Switch was first announced, as it didn't seem too different from the Wii U's gamepad. Then I spent two years watching Nintendo enjoy a complete reversal of fortune, to the point of potentially amassing a more compelling library than Sony's or Microsoft's consoles. So that's how I quite suddenly found myself buying a Switch in October 2019, after having resisted the PS4 and Xbone for five whole years, and my free time has since been dominated by this little machine that defied the odds.

Some of Nintendo's business decisions can still seem inexplicable, but releasing a powerful handheld console that can also be docked with a TV at a moment's notice has proved to be an inspired idea, rather than the gimmick the Wii U's gamepad mostly turned out to be. And along with Nintendo's dependable series of top-notch exclusives, the Switch has enjoyed much better third-party support, which is how I ended up buying Dark Souls for the fourth bloody time just because the option to play it portably was too tempting to resist.

The Switch is the first console I've bought since the PS3 and for all Nintendo's quirks, there's a reason the Switch has dominated Christmas wishlists for three years running. Games like Super Mario Odyssey feel like full-size adventures that just happen to have a portable option, as opposed to handheld games you can also play on the big screen. This is the first year in a long while that I've actually played enough topical titles to justify a "games of the year" list, even if my recent Nintendo bias is pretty blatant.

So with that caveat in mind, and in no particular order, here's my entirely subjective list of the best Nintendo Switch games of 2019.

Luigi's Mansion 3

This is a franchise I'd always been curious about and can finally have an opinion on. The process of going from floor to floor of the hotel hoovering up ghosts and solving puzzles is pretty straightforward, but Luigi's Mansion 3 has so much polish and personality crammed into the cartridge. Luigi is immediately lovable as a determined coward, and each level has a wildly different theme that's realised with extravagant audio and visual flair, so progress always feels rewarding. Though this isn't true horror by any means, there can be an unsettling atmosphere and some of the bosses are pretty freaky. I officially love this oddball franchise and am desperate for a chance to play the story again in co-op. Unquestionably a first-class exclusive.

Doom (Switch port)

Not to be confused with the impressive Switch version of Doom 2016, this is the iconic Doom made cheap and accessible. While purists may take issue with some minor technical deviations, this is the first time I've got most of the way through Doom because the portability and *glorious* true dual-stick control makes this easily my favourite version. There's even a cheat menu for when I just want to mindlessly punch hell beasts. The main thing that ages Doom is its maze-like structure, but playing it casually experience alleviates that frustration somewhat. At a grand total of four pounds, this is a BFB (big fucking bargain).

Untitled Goose Game

You know a game is good when the only asterisk I put on my recommendation is that it *may* be overpriced. Untitled Goose Game took the internet by storm this year because it's the quintessential indie game: cute, simple and with anti-authoritarian undertones. As a horrible goose, it's your mission to cause havoc in an unsuspecting English village, interacting with people and objects to cause chain reactions of chaos. Some of the puzzle solutions are maybe a bit obscure, but 90% of the time just messing around with everything in the area will lead to a solution. Untitled Goose Game makes up for its brevity with sheer comedic charm, feeling much better-designed than a "lul so random" affair like Goat Simulator. A honking good time.

Terraria (Switch port)

I have spent literally hundreds of hours on the PC version of Terraria, so when I was broke after buying my Switch the new Terraria port was an obvious cost-effective choice. While the controls aren't as precise, the amount of time spent mining and sorting through loot makes this a great handheld experience. I can't comment on the multiplayer options but few games represent such a sheer value for money, as there's always a new cave to explore or a new boss to overcome. Time has been kind to this 2011 classic, grind notwithstanding.

Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair

While I personally enjoyed the original Yooka-Laylee, it was definitely flawed and I never seriously expected to see a sequel. But Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair launched quite abruptly and did a pretty spectacular job of upstaging its predecessor. All the previous game's half-baked feel has been replaced with clever design touches, like the equippable tonics which grant helpful abilities at the cost of a currency penalty. The titular Lair is actually the final level and available to throw yourself at right from the beginning, but beating it without first obtaining more hitpoints by completing other stages is incredibly hard, which is a great way to incentivize progress without denying more confident players the option of beating the game earlier if they can meet the challenge. Impossible Lair might be this year's biggest surprise, and despite a modest budget I think it's worthy of comparison to excellent 2D platformers like Rayman Legends. Just don't expect to defeat Capital B on your first attempt.

A Hat In Time (Switch port)

I recently reviewed A Hat In Time but at the risk of repeating myself, it's one of the most charming games of the last few years and an incredibly impressive crowdfunded achievement. Mario's offerings may be a grander technical feat, but A Hat In Time is a fast and fabulous journey through a series of weird and wonderful worlds that all feel distinct in content and tone. It's very openly inspired by GameCube-era platformers like Mario Sunshine and Psychonauts and it easily scratches that itch. Simply one of the best original platformers of this generation, and I defy you not to love Hat Kid's cheeky antics.

Spyro Reignited Trilogy (Switch port)

As someone who thinks the original Spyro trilogy holds up better than most early 3D games, I'd have actually preferred a simple port rather than a full remake, but The Reignited Trilogy is honestly impeccable. The updated visuals are gorgeous while maintaining the general style of those old, jaggy models, and very little of the gameplay or content has changed except for sensible updates like the ability to immediately warp between every level you've visited. Having full dual-analogue control is also an absolute godsend even for a PS1 veteran like me. Though Spyro may seem a bit basic these days when faced with modern platformer marvels, the Reignited Trilogy makes these old favourites accessible again at a generous price point.

Ring Fit Adventure

Yes, I have a Wii kicking around in a box somewhere. No, Wii Fit never held my attention as anything more than a curiosity. Ring Fit Adventure, meanwhile, is limited only by my cholesterol-encrusted heart and dislike of excessive showering. This is an honest-to-goodness attempt at making an RPG out of a workout toy, and the amount of polish put into the game's presentation and hardware implementation is pretty remarkable. Levels involve jogging on the spot and squeezing the ring accessory to collect goodies and overcome obstacles, and periodically you'll engage in turn-based combat where you use a custom selection of exercise moves to deal damage. It's a fantastic idea pulled off much more elegantly than it sounds. The ring accessory unfortunately makes this quite an expensive game, so it'll take a lot of regular use to get your money's worth, but I can honestly (and surprisingly) say that exercise suddenly becomes more compelling when it's presented as a light RPG adventure with anthropomorphic gym equipment encouraging you to take breaks and drink plenty of water.

Pokémon Sword/Shield

Disclaimer: I can only give my impressions from 25 hours of playing Pokémon Shield, so this is DEFINITELY not a full review. That being said, this is still an easy recommendation to existing Pokemaniacs and a good starting point for any new acolytes. While the core formula hasn't evolved (har har) much since the very first Pokemon, Sword and Shield still has a number of modern quality of life improvements that make previous generations show their age. I've had so much fun building a core crew of cute and/or badass 'mons in a weird Nintendo version of Britain, and the online features combine with a VASTLY improved random encounter system to make grinding far less of a concern. The wild area takes some getting used to, but it's satisfying to come back and capture the huge Onyx you had to run away from a few hours before. Even if Pokémon Sword/Shield has some technical blemishes and could have pushed the series further in some regards, it's still easy to see why this franchise has maintained such a beloved status for so long.

Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-mars-tered (Switch port)

Along with Dark Souls, Red Faction was a game I never even knew I needed on the go, but now I've got it I can't imagine ever going back. A cult classic due to its amazing destruction physics, Red Faction sees you leading a proletariat revolution on Mars, literally tearing down corporate monuments to free the working class from systematic oppression. The open world is a bit claustrophobic and the shooting isn't exactly mind-blowing, but there's a reason I've beaten Red Faction every couple of years ever since its original 2009 release. The Switch port does the game justice and if you set the difficulty to easy then this is one of the best rage-venting experiences money can buy. So yes, I recommend getting your ass to Mars.

[diminuel]

(Rant Anon trying to human)

Yes, yes, this is good!! This makes me very happy. (Your answers don’t feel like babbling at all, which is why I felt a little embarrassed. I kind of go off, rambling in a bunch of directions until whatever thought I have burns out, but you have a very clear, organized approach and it’s a pleasure to read. I’m always like ‘how is English not your first language??’ when I read your stuff) I (mostly Sister) did a thing! (and I didn’t explode, yay! why am i this person) Maybe that makes answering easier? I still don’t understand all the things, I’m sorry. Anyway, it probably goes without saying, but if at any time you don’t feel like reading/discussing, please don’t feel obligated. Your time is valuable and it’s yours, so if you’re busy with other things, I totally understand and will not be offended in the least. Regarding performance between the brothers; I totally agree about Dean’s performance (and I do love the difference in the way he gets when he has Cas to himself. Well, except when he’s being a jerk to Cas *cough*). The performing is a double-edged sword; it’s not something that’s explicitly negotiated, so while it allows them to be comfortable with each other and respect each other’s comfort zones, it’s not a perfect system. Dean is afraid of being open with Sam, for the reasons you talked about (living up to a certain ideal - though I think he underestimates how well Sam knows him. Sam’s not stupid); I also think Sam’s well-aware of his brother’s communication/expression issues, and while most of the time, Sam treads carefully, sometimes I think he deliberately takes Dean at face value when he knows better because hey, he gets frustrated, too. I do wish we could see more of Sam’s ridiculous side. I think Dean tries hard to be a stable adult for Sam, and only in later seasons do I feel like he’s internalizing the idea that Sam himself is not a kid anymore, but there also seems to be a thing that happens where Dean exaggerates his own absurdity or plays dumb so Sam has an opportunity to assert his grown-upness - just like a big thing for Sam, for a while, was trying to prove himself and his competence and adultness, since he wants to be part of a team with Dean instead of someone else for whom Dean is taking responsibility. Unfortunately, I think that means Sam doesn’t feel comfortable goofing off as much, since they can’t both be ridiculous (or they can, but circumstances have to be right). Not that I begrudge Dean his antics; deliberately saying things you know are silly/stupid, particularly in front of other people, just so you can see a sibling give you the “are you fucking kidding me right now” face and try to compensate for you by being Extremely Professional is one of life’s great pleasures. Sorry, tangent. I started in S10 so cannot hope to match your internal screaming prowess, but it’s true that these are consistent problems with SPN. I kind of think it has something to do with the way they divide the episodes/the minimal collaboration between writers (as far as I understand the situation)? I agree with you, though, that there seems to be an increase in it. I just lately feel like I can’t even find the guiding thread throughout that ultimately makes me feel like “This is a flawed story, but it’s overall a decent one with a vague sense of continuity.” I have never been exactly happy with how they handle the show’s potential, but it’s entirely possible I’m getting tired and nitpicking, at this point. And yes, not just with Sam and Cas, I think the show wants us to assume a lot of things that I really feel like they need to explicitly put in. ‘Show, don’t tell,’ as they say. And your points about Jack! Ahhhh, my Jack bitterness. I was dreading the nephillim plot, to be honest, because I didn’t trust the show not to do it stupidly, and then there the adorable little bun was and I was pleasantly surprised (I mean, I was still frustrated with some things, but overall, I was optimistic about Jack’s introduction). And then. Obviously, this is just personal opinion, but the direction they took in S14 just … all the affection I’d developed for the character sort of started a backslide, I guess. I didn’t appreciate it or how it fit into the plot or how it fit with other character dynamics and I became very frustrated. I also kind of feel like - some of the Cas & Jack dynamic felt forced, because of how they handled S13, and then the thing you asked “does Sam no longer feel that way?” was one of my points of irritation. They were kind of developing a thing with Sam and I felt like it just got dropped completely (as Sam plots tend to do. I recognize my bias where Sam is concerned, but I don’t think it’s biased to say that in the last several seasons - since the Hell trials, even - he feels more like a supporting character even though he’s there all the time. I’ve even felt like we’ve been promised things, but Sam development/plot feels like one of the first things to go if there’s no space. That may be better than the way they tend to just use Cas for plot without even having the decency to put him in all the episodes, but lately it feels like all of TFW is getting shafted and at the same time, the plot doesn’t feel particularly well-developed or executed, which leads me to wondering, “What’s happening?? Where is all the time and energy going, then?”) My expectation with Jack would have been what they started in S13 - he’s a powerful entity in a grown up body trying to understand his nature, which can serve as a good exploration of good vs. evil and how choice factors into that, so very on topic for SPN, if something they’ve toyed around with before. And I would have assumed Jack was a lead up to closing out Lucifer’s storyline once and for all. But then they went places that didn’t really make sense to me and - well, basically, I’m a very frustrated fan, at the moment. “I would also love more TFW and the profound bond definitely has overshadowed anything else. Before. But now with Jack thrown into the mix there’s even less time for the original TFW. (And I don’t like that. Sometimes I like the addition of Jack and at other times I’m jealous of all the attention he diverts away from the things I’m most interested in.)” Yes, this. There’s so little time left and it’s precious and even if you like Jack, it’s sort of like - in your dying moments, you want to be surrounded by dear friends and family, not a next door neighbor you just get on quite well with. You care about them, sure, but you’re gasping your last, here. As for where Cas and Dean are at … gosh, but it’s frustrating. You’re asking great questions and I want to be able to speculate on the what-ifs, but I actually don’t feel like I can. My understanding of what place Dean and Cas are in kind of fell apart in 12x19 when Cas stole the Colt. I just - I struggled with that, a lot, because it was literally right after Dean gave him an incredibly specific, profound speech (especially expressive for Dean) about being better together, about being a team. I often feel frustrated with Dean because he’s so bad at using his words, and I feel like someone like Cas really needs words, since he just doesn’t pick up on all of Dean’s pining cues. (Which, I know Dean tries, but even if he says things like ‘you’re family, you’re our brother,’ Cas’s experience is that he’s not valued the same way Sam is so I’m not sure why he’d believe that or know what exactly it was even supposed to mean). But that was like, the one instance where I felt like Dean was actually pretty clear and open with Cas, and Cas turned around and stole the Colt and ran off to handle things his own way. Which - in some ways, that’s in character, historically Cas has sort of arrived at what he thinks is a good solution and tried to tackle it on his own without communicating a lot about it (miscommunication is the real villain of SPN), but at that point in time, I felt like they should have been past those types of shenanigans. If I were Dean, that would have been really hard to accept (though I know Dean’s attitude is why Cas thinks he has to try and do things on his own). But they never really addressed it, because Cas died and Dean was a wreck, and then Cas came back and it felt like there was no payout to any of Dean’s grieving. They made such a blatant, undeniable point of it, and then I didn’t feel like anything came of it, and if anything, there’s more distance than ever. So I don’t feel like I can predict how they’re going to respond to each other, because I don’t feel like it’s necessarily been consistent/in-character, lately. (That’s not meant to be critical of Cas, though. I think Dean and Cas are in a frustrating, endless cycle of unintentionally hurting one another, but overall I feel like Cas gets taken for granted a lot.) I’m left feeling like ‘I miss my OTP.’ Just my two cents, though! In any case - I’ll send that rant separate, since they’re different topics, but I just want to say thank you so much for all the discussion! Effi insights are the best and this very much helped me think about and try and articulate some thoughts about things/my dissatisfaction here. I know you’ve been busy with work and art (is this still the thing you teased? it sounds like a new thing? i want to know moree) and I’m so sorry if you’re feeling obligated to use time you don’t have for this, but it’s really interesting and I’m very grateful to you for indulging me, either way! I do ramble a lot so I hope it’s still fun for you >>

—

Yay at trying to human! :DD

And sorry for the late reply, I got into art mode and then into fic writer mode. I simply couldn’t make clever words happen at all.

(I’m glad you think my writing is organized, because it feels like rambling to me. Especially when I’m nervous it’s very hard to structure my thoughts and monitor my word choice. I feel I’m getting more and more out of practice when it gets to English even though I use it regularly online. And I’m insecure about it to a new degree since there are people in fandom who ridicule/ attack others for not having a perfect grasp of English. It’s sad. Also… people making fun of fic writers for very nitpicky things. I don’t know what has become of the fandom if this is the constant atmosphere. Or maybe it’s just me because I’ve been targeted. And look at that, I went off an incredible tangent again. Way to go! *lol*)

I think the time you put into writing me, something which brings me joy, is also valuable and I try my best to answer! :D

I’m going to put a read more link now, because this post is already getting very long!

I do wish we saw more of Sam’s ridiculous side too. Just him goofing around with the fidget spinner was so unexpected. Sam’s not all serious research mode, though it’s clearly the show’s focus to let us see Dean being geeky. Dean generally feels more fleshed out as a character, with many details about him that we don’t get from Sam. Maybe that is because we’ve been peeling away at Dean-the-hunter/brother and getting to see more of Dean as a person. And maybe Sam’s always been more straight forwards in recent time. So there’s not a lot of new things we learn about him anymore. Which is a shame. I would love to get something as small and exciting as Dean wearing novelty socks is (or Dean being ridiculously jumpy about small things when Sam or Cas aren’t watching).

That Sam tries to assert his independence by being reliable and serious and competent makes sense to me. Dean does try to accommodate that from time to time, though I think it’s interesting that Dean tends to give and revoke Sam’s right to make decisions and/ or call the shots. The show has made Sam’s “emancipation” a topic more than once. We saw it in S12 with the British Men of Letters, where Sam acted on his own (I wasn’t actually a fan of it because I was, for a big part, on Dean’s side when it got to working with the BMOL but that’s beside the point *lol*) and then again at the start of S14. But the issue is that the plot point of Sam growing into his own as a leader in his own right is usually stopped, dropped or torn down as a story line demands Dean to revoke Sam’s right to be an equal. We have moments where Dean’s all “this is a dictatorship” (S10) or just generally pushes Sam into things/ expects him to follow along with his plans. Like he gave Cas the option to fall in line or get out in S14, he does the same with Sam, just implicitly. I understand that those are always crisis moments, but it’s interesting that they fall back into a familiar pattern in those cases. With Dean calling the shots and Sam following along. Though at the end of S14 I’m pretty sure that Sam was just overwhelmed with the situation and glad that his brother took matters into his own hands until he could at least process what has happened to some degree… Maybe. (I actually haven’t rewatched S14. I should get to that but worrrrrrrrrrrrk.)

I got into SPN when S6 was airing, but I only caught up with it maybe around the middle of S7? So I was spared some amount of despaired Cas girl screaming *lol* As to the writing in general… I feel lately they have had strong (and in some cases very strong) first half of seasons but then I struggled to see coherence in the second half of the season. Things that were important got dropped and sometimes even become completely meaningless due to what happened later. I scream at my laptop at things which I feel didn’t happen all that much in let’s say S6 (and as I get from the gossip – I have no sources so I call it gossip – the late decision to make Cas the villain made it a fact that Cas had been lying all the time which had absolutely no foreshadowing in the first half of the season, so it was hard to swallow. But S6 is painful anyway, I just have to deal with the angst and trauma!)

I’m glad to know that others feel Jack bitterness as well. I hated the Nephilim plot in S12. I found the Lucifer storyline ridiculous and not palatable. And – for me – it destroyed what S11 did. What a waste of air time if they were going to do that with Lucifer. (Aw, I’m bitter, I’m sorry). But it’s how you say, in the end Jack was an adorable little bun and I was lulled into liking him despite my reservations. And then he messed up, but he was cute!! And then he messed up again… But wait, he’s still cute!!! And that repeated until it went downhill in S14… It’s a relief that you have the same experience with it, makes me feel less ridiculous about it *lol*

I totally agree that Sam hasn’t been the focus of the story for a while. He’s a spectator usually. He reacts to what Dean dishes out. Why devote so much time to the Nick plot (I mean, seriously, why. Who liked that?) when that could have been used to do something more profound with Sam and Jack’s relationship. Maybe it’s deliberate that Sam seemed to have stepped back, I don’t know. Because the moment Dean warmed up to Jack, it seemed to be mostly about Dean’s emotions. Dean got the meaningful, heart-warming (or breaking!) scenes with Jack. Not even Cas. Dean. Why? I mean I love it, I love Dean getting these scenes with Jack, but Dean became Jack’s father. Sam’s just… there. (I might be remembering it wrong, I really do need that rewatch). And don’t get me started on the Jack-Cas relationship. I can’t make sense of it.

I have actually never thought about the stealing of the Colt that way. I was mostly a “gosh darn it, Cas, again?!” moment for me, but now that you state it like that, it was pretty… not good. Dean did try very hard to talk to Cas and he tries and tries but doesn’t seem to find just the words that Cas needs to be convinced. Miscommunication really is the real villain of SPN. *lol*

It is hard to make predictions, especially because the things that have been developed and have been – in my reading – pretty on the nose, have had no pay off. It makes me doubt my own eyes. Did I really see Dean grieving like that? Did I just make that all up? Because nothing really happened as a pay off. I must have imagined it. Sam is probably lying awake at night, wondering if he had just dreamt it all. And then S14 presented a Dean Cas dynamic that had a conspicuous distance between them. But I’m not sure how to read that distance because I’m not sure if it was deliberately written or just a consequence of focusing on external things like the Nick plot. Or the inconsistency you mention. It’s just hard to work with it. I mean I can grasp where Cas is better than where Dean is or whey they are as an unit, because Cas has opened up his mouth and told us - or rather Dean, when he explained why he didn’t mention Jack killing the snake. He was finally feeling like they were a family and he didn’t want to lose it. I think he felt closer to Dean than ever before because they have Jack. But where he will be now, after Dean said what he said and did what he did and they lost Jack a second time… Well… I don’t know. But I also miss my OTP. Stop being at odds with each other and kiss already. :CCCCCC

Thank you for the discussion! I so rarely get to discuss SPN in detail anymore ;w;

(And the art I teased is a new thing, it’s for a Destiel fan zine. So it’ll be some time until I can reveal it. But I spent a lot of time on it and I hope people will like it!)

This has become a veeeery long answer, haha. I might not get to the other message today because it’s already 11 PM and I have to work tomorrow. ;w;

[mashitandsmashit]

America’s Got Talent: Season 14 - Judge Cuts 4

Alright, let’s get this over with...

Easily the most underwhelming show of the round...Even Jay Leno didn’t look very excited to be there...He didn’t seem very invested in what he was talking about and just mumbled it in his signature Porky Pig voice...Pretty disappointing for such a big personality! When Brad Paisley is the best guest judge of the round this season, you know you need to step it up next year!

But most importantly, none of the acts really excited me either...Granted, I have no arguments with who made it (which is saying something since four of them are singing acts), but there was nobody who stepped it up to the point that I’m going to remember them into the next round...But I guess that’s what happens when Berywam, ADEM, Marcin and LBK are all used up by the last week...

I guess the most unfortunate casualties for this week were SOS, Trigger, Callie Day, Dominguez Poodles, and I was curious to see more of Victor Moiseev’s performance, since it went by so fast that it took me a moment to realize it wasn’t a flashback to his audition that we didn’t see...That said, I won’t exactly be mourning any of them either...

And I DEFINITELY won’t be mourning Jonathan Burns or Kara with a K after showing how useless and annoying they truly can be! I mean, Burns probably just got pressured by the producers to do something pointless, but Kara, MY GOD! I can see now that she’s the type who just won’t shut up and insists on being the center of attention! Even in the Youtube promo showing all the acts just standing there doing a pose in slow-motion, she was the only one moving around, shaking her hair like a diva just to be silly...I am glad that they silenced her, and they better not bring her back as a Wildcard!

So let’s move on to the ones that matter...

7: Benicio Bryant. Well, as usual, I must give props for writing his own song...That said, it didn’t give as much opportunity to show off his range as what he covered in the auditions, and the result was an adequate voice singing a rather humdrum song...He might have backed himself into a corner by reaching the original song phase so early...

6: Jackie Fabulous. As I believe I’ve heard Howie say to Vicki Barbolak last year, being a good comedian is not just saying funny things, but saying things funny...Allow me to use that as criteria for Jackie: Her jokes here were actually pretty funny! But my issue with her is that she kinda stays on the same tone of voice, and in effect, it made them a little LESS funny...A good comedian commands your attention with all of their vocal progressions; That’s something I think Ryan Niemiller pulls off very well! My ADD kinda kept tuning out a bit from her, and that’s not the best sign...I see promise in her, but if only one comedian’s going to make the final round this year, I see Ryan as the more likely and deserving candidate...

5: Voices of Service. Not much to say; Still some solid harmonies, and we even got to hear more from the big guy! Nonetheless, the lady’s still the leader here...

4: Marina Mazepa. I will admit, I kinda forgot about her audition for the most part, and it took me until her appearance this time to remember that her gimmick is being weird and creepy...At the very least, this is a pretty effective way to make a contortion act interesting, and I shudder to think of what she’s gonna do in the next round...But in a good way!

3: Emanne Beasha. I guess I can appreciate this act a little more when the song choice is one that I’m NOT sick to death of...yet...So I’ll take a slightly more fair look at this girl, as she probably is the best of her kind since Jackie Evancho (and the cutest since Jackie as well). So...uhhh...she’s really good for her age, and...Well, to be honest, Simon kinda summed up my frustration with these kinds of kids when he talked about how she just had a natural gift...And yes, she does...ALL of these opera girls do! And because of that, they don’t really need to do much other than pick from a VERY narrow selection of arias and perform it, and the judges and audience will all love them for it! This is kinda why in the Final Four of Season 5, Jackie was actually my LEAST favorite to win, because she was surrounded by who appeared to be seasoned professionals, whereas all she needed to do was stand there and sing in her angelic voice, and she would be put on some kind of pedestal over these other acts who worked hard to get that far! (Keep in mind, Jackie wasn’t even a contestant until the notorious Youtube show!) But back to Emanne: She’s really good! I have no real arguments with her getting the Golden Buzzer! It just frustrates me that girls like her don’t really have to do much to be put on a pedestal and pushed all the way to the end of the game...That said, if she did all of her performances while holding her stuffed unicorn, and maybe an ice cream cone from her parents’ shop (though not lick it until the very end of the set as the dairy would mess with her voice), then sign me up!

2: Charlotte Summers. Comparing her and Emanne is like comparing apples and oranges; They’re both great singers in unique ways...But like I just said, Emanne makes it look effortless, whereas Charlotte clearly puts work into sounding and commanding the stage like she does! Also, Charlotte is her own thing, whereas Emanne is, like, the dozenth of her kind we’ve seen on this show...All I’m saying is, Charlotte TOTALLY should have gotten the GB!

1: Eric Chien. I guess it’s bias why I’m putting Eric at the top of this list, but in terms of who in this episode I would see in Vegas, he’s my pick! As Howie pointed out, Shin Lim set a VERY high bar over the last year, and this guy still hasn’t even APPROACHED the level he was at! Granted, Shin didn’t excite me at first either, but looking back, he did start at a higher level than this guy is at now...But enough about last year’s winner, as I don’t want Eric to go on as “the guy following Shin Lim’s footsteps”. This was still a pretty good trick, but there were no big surprises this time (perhaps aside from making an ink stain magically appear on Leno’s hand...and Leno not going Corleone in response!) I’d actually say his audition was better...But I guess he has several more rounds to prove himself...Some people have linked videos of other tricks he did and use them for arguments on why he’s even BETTER than Shin Lim, so I’m curious to see those tricks in later rounds...

Aaaannnnd, the Judge Cuts have ended with a whimper! Oh, wait, that’s Jay Leno trying to speak...

I’ll be back later to predict how next week’s show’s gonna go down, though we already know one act who’s DEFINITELY going to make it...Look at the line-up and you’ll know who I’m talking about...

For now, let’s predict who the Wildcards will be: At the top of my list is Matthew Richardson, who both the judges and audiences alike felt great sadness to see leave so soon...He didn’t impress me that much, but I still see some potential and wouldn’t mind him coming back...

Other candidates include (but I guess aren’t limited to) The Sentimentalists, Lamont Landers (please, no), Gingzilla, ADEM Show, Verba Shadow, Revolution, Ansley Burns (again, rather not), Edson & Leon, Melissa Arleth, Dominguez Poodles, Ben Trigger, and...Jordan Ravi? Nah, if he mattered that much, we would have seen him in the auditions...Right?

And then we have acts that were dropped somewhere between the judges saying yes in the audition, and the actual next round...IDEGO fits the mold after the other acts of this nature from the last two seasons involved advanced technology and special effects as well, but I don’t think they intended anything other than testing their technology on Howie Mandel, and the AGT auditions seemed about as good a place to get the opportunity as any...So I for one don’t think they should come back...Human Fuse on the other hand seems worth giving one more performance to, even though I know he’s not advancing any farther than that...

Those are my guesses...And now, I shall follow the tradition I set last year, and pick my own personal Golden Bu-It’s Marcin! Surprise, surprise!

However, there is one NEW tradition I would like to introduce this year, and that is giving my co-commentator, frankensteindr, the opportunity to select HIS own Golden Buzzer act! Just remember the rules: It has to be someone who has already advanced to the live shows by traditional means! It can’t be an act that was eliminated, it can’t be a wildcard, and it can’t be anyone who already HAS a Golden Buzzer (which includes Marcin since I got first dibs on him...because it’s my blog, nyah-nyah).

I guess you could say you’re getting the table scraps of MY table scraps, but let’s be real here, there are always a couple acts in the live shows that deserved a GB more than most of the ones that DID get it, so you still got some good choices (and I already have two or three guesses on who it could be). Choose well!

And with that, I’ll see you all (or one) later with my predictions for next week!

[tuiyla]

Marvel’s Runaways casual review/ rant

Okay, so I watched both seasons of Marvel’s Runaways in like four days. Originally I was only going to write one post on it and that was mostly going to be about Deanoru but then I got carried away talking about the show overall so here we go. I’m still going to dedicate a separate post to Nico and Karolina because Gay™, that’s why.

I liked it is the short opinion. The longer version is that it’s very frustrating at times because it could be so much better. The pacing, while all over the place and very slow for some is an issue, but personally I don’t mind it all that much. Yes, it was weird that they only became actual runaways at the very end of season 1 and then season 2 was basically two seasons in one, but that’s not the main problem. It’s very frustrating how the tone can jump around and how there’s scenes missing from almost every single episode. What I mean by that is that there are crucial scenes that we should get in-between the life-altering moments that the characters go through, mostly a few lines of dialogue here and there, but we rarely ever get those. Some of it is related to Deanoru so I’ll elaborate more on that later but in general, it makes some otherwise heavy elements of the show hard to take seriously.

Darius’s murder is both treated as an atrocity and yet we never truly see Tamar grieve. Jonah almost making Janet sacrifice herself for Victor is brushed aside like it wasn’t a fucked up moment. Tina and Robert get back together and the fact that he cheated on her and supposedly didn’t love her anymore rarely ever comes up again. Karolina’s attempted rape is a similar situation. (I thought more about this and okay, I suppose this was given enough gravitas.) So many awful things happen that I get it, it’s hard to keep track and portray the emotional significance of all of them. But if you can’t, maybe you should reconsider writing all of these in and thinking about what kind of tone you’re going for. It’s especially annoying when it comes to character dynamics, like Molly never actually saying it out loud that she forgave Nico for the Topher thing. Just gonna forget that, huh? It’s not entirely unrealistic because Molly is barely 15 and Nico is one of the few people she can call family so they were bound to get over it relatively quickly, I just missed the acknowledgment. Two lines, that’s it.

Runaways is often a few lines away from being a much better show. Just give me the characters acknowledging trauma, or how they were fighting a minute ago, or anything that would keep it more consistent. It’s not Riverdale level bad but it does take away from my enjoyment a little bit. Like, remember when Darius kidnapped Alex? And not only did Geoffrey had a really weird scene there where he prioritised the shot Andre (so he can be killed for Jonah) over Alex's safety, but then Alex became BFFs with Darius. At least Chase pointed out said kidnapping but then nothing else was said about it. Okay, so you’re just gonna move past that, sure.

Some of the ridiculousness is acceptable because it is fundamentally a teen drama and a superhero show, so suspension of disbelief is necessary. But that only takes you so far and is mostly afforded to the supernatural stuff. I can roll with Karolina being an alien who glows and flies but she never really told Chase that she wasn’t interested and that annoyed me. Not that I wanted them to be a thing but they spent a substantial amount of time together in the first two-thirds of season 1 and then... nothing. Even if it was clear for us as an audience that she’s gay and Chase is falling for Gert, the two never had that “oh okay, I see now, you’re not into me, that’s cool” “thanks for understanding” moment. Two lines.

Much of this comes down to how little time the show has because of its enormous main cast. I get that, truly, and I’m not saying all character interactions leave something to be desired. I think the Gert-Molly relationship is near perfect, they almost always talk through their issues and their love for each other is clear even when there’s a conflict going on. There are other examples as well and overall, this is a fine show. Don’t get me wrong here, I didn’t binge it in a few days so I can show up late to the party and tell everyone in the fandom that the show they love is trash. It’s not. The concept is really good and from what I can tell they’ve made some necessary changes to the comics. The cast is also good for the most part, with some cringy moments but some very strong ones as well.

The teen drama part of it is interesting and handled well when they focus on it properly. I like that both Gertchase and Deanoru get more or less equal screentime and focus and the dynamic of the Runaways is something I love to watch. Reminds me of how Brooklyn Nine-Nine is so good because each episode they do different combinations of characters and all the relationships get a chance to develop. Runaways has a very different structure so doing the same would be impossible but I still appreciate the quiet moments between more unlikely pairs or trios. More of that if there’s a season 3, which there’d better be because I’m invested now.

So yeah, I know went off a bit with how frustrating it is when the show is inconsistent with its tone and characters and how just a few more lines or scenes could solve that, but I did enjoy Runaways. Okay, so I mostly enjoyed Deanoru, but other aspects as well. I think Chase being stuck in this cycle of abuse is heartbreaking but makes for a powerful storyline and I hope he’ll get a break eventually. Gert, while too much of a parody of an SJW initially has really grown on me and her need for meds was handled well, I would say. Her jealousy of Karolina when it came to Chase was understandable but not very cool and I would have liked more bonding moments between the two. Molly has some super weird moments but the way she keeps the group together and is allowed to be a kid and enjoy herself every once in a while is heartwarming to watch.

Alex, well, I’m gonna be honest here, is my least favourite. I don’t hate characters and I don’t hate him, but I’m sure finding it difficult to like him in any capacity. His vendetta, while justified in some ways, made him selfish and inconsiderate towards the rest of the group. Even in season 1, he had moments when I went “seriously? who the hell does he think he is”. His DW and nerd references ain’t winning me over. Plus he seems to just not care about most people, especially Karolina? Damn son, I kind of hope that remaining Gibborim is inside you so you can justify some of your actions. But I don’t hate him, I promise, I just hope I can grow to like him later on.

The parents are weird because they’re set out to be the villains and there’s this moral ambiguity around them at any given point, which is fascinating at times. I think Leslie is probably the best portrayal in that there’s a nuance to what she’s done and why. In some ways, she’s the worst of them all and in others, she can be “excused” - but then again, can she? I think it’s an interesting question for the show to answer if it proves itself capable enough to do so. I also like Tina in that I’m curious where her relationship with Nico will go. Okay, so now I just mentioned the mothers of the two characters I like the most, great for my bias. True though.

Part of me is also glad that Jonah survived because he needs more scenes with Karolina. I need it to be established deeper that in a sick way he does love her but also she needs to realize how cruel he is. Then he can die (again) and she can grow from it. The Yorkeses are by far the most puzzling ones because they’re quirky and kind of nice so their appalling actions are brushed aside more so than with the other parents. In general, this is what I find interesting and what I want the show to acknowledge and explore: all the parents have done awful things but not all of them are equally “evil”. Dale shouldn’t be on the same level as Leslie or even Catherine. Can we also get that in season 3?

Alright, that’s it for now. I really should do this after every show I watch. I had quite a lot of thoughts while and after watching this series and though I mostly just wanted to write about Deanoru, I’m glad I got it all out. And I genuinely do need that season 3 so you’d better prove your worth, Hulu.

[weregonnaneedmorewhiskey]

Social Media:Guilty in the court of public opinion. The problem with cancel culture and its toxic nature and why I have a major problem with it

DISCLAIMER: If you read parts of this and not the whole thing and type a “rebuttal”. Just save your time and don’t do it because you don’t the smoke

Ok before I start, I would like to say this. 1. If you are an ignorant person who cannot accept the opinions and thought of others then don’t read this. 2. If you don’t take the time to look at facts, then don’t read this. I don't have time for you and 3. If you are to crucify people then you can just go. I just gave you some warnings already so why is your ass still here?! Ok I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I think social media can be great in terms of communicating with others and making friends online and of course sharing memes and funny videos because those are fantastic. Social media can be great for displaying people’s interests and talents. I myself have a photography blog alongside this one and some people have made a career from social media. However like all good things, it has its ugly side. In the last year or so, a trend has appeared on social media and that's cancel culture. I myself have never taken part in cancel culture myself as I thought it was toxic, immature and petty in most circumstances. I'm definite that cancel culture will come to an end (hopefully this year) but for now, we have to deal with it on our timelines. Anything that is either taken out of context, blow out of proportion or is a simple mistake will face the court of public opinion. The social justice warriors of the internet, the holier than thou folks will decide your fate.

First and for most, we all need to remember that we are all human. We make mistakes and we learn from it. I am not better than the next person as I have made my fuck ups at the end of the day but we all grow and evolve. I have several problems with cancel culture. If a person makes a mistake or has made a mistake in the past, that does not give you the right to ruin them. By doing so you are no better than the person who’s made a mistake and you are ruining a person’s life. Prime example, Kevin Hart and the Oscars. Kevin Hart was forced to step down as the host for this year's Oscars ceremony due to some homophobic tweets from 2009. Whilst I believe that homophobia is wrong, Kevin has moved on from a tweet that he made almost a decade ago in which that comments probably wouldn’t have taken as seriously. Kevin has grown and evolved but the court of public opinion has forced him to step down from the role due to the mass controversy. If you are searching through old tweets from 2009, you clearly have an agenda to ruin a person’s life because you are blinded by your hatred and do not want to see someone have success. This role was an amazing opportunity for Kevin but because of this toxic era of being overly PC, it was taken away because people wanted to hold his past against him and not acknowledge his evolution. 

Now let’s get to how cancel culture is effecting the legal system. We’ve all heard the term “innocent until proven guilty”. In terms of the legal system, this is still true but for social media, this isn't the cause. Cancel culture has pronounced people to be guilty into proven innocent. People are no longer reading the facts, they are immediate to jump to conclusion, therefor inspiring this title “guilty in the court of public opinion” This is extremely dangerous. Social media should have no influence in the judicial system WHATSOEVER unless the person has committed the crime on Instagram Live (a man who raped someone on Instagram Live was recently found not guilty, just letting you know. What a fucked up world we’re living in huh?). When it comes to a case, people need to look at the evidence that has been presented and not from outside influences especially if it turns out shock horror that the person is actually innocent and then they’ve been sentenced to 25 to life. 

This leads perfectly leads into my next point. So if you've been on Twitter in the last 24 hours then you would have seen that Chris Brown was detained in Paris for several hours on a rape complaint. Now before I go into this and break this down, if you are expecting me to drag Chris and call him a piece of shit and xyz, you can stop reading this now because I’m happy to let you know that I am a fan of Chris and have been since his debut. Now when this report broke out, I immediately went and read the whole report because we look at facts in this household. As soon as I saw that the “accuser” had done an interview with Closer Magazine France and went to The Shade Room, I immediately raised an eyebrow because why would you go to a tabloid before going to the police? This rang some serious bells and red flags and reminded of another incident involving Chris.

 Back in 2016, a woman went to TMZ to say that Chris had held her at gunpoint. Again if you were held at gunpoint, then why are you going to a tabloid? Eventually LAPD found out that this was a false allegation and Chris was released from jail and the charges were dropped. Another thought that popped across my mind is that “I don’t think Chris is that stupid to do something like with the amount of negative press he's had in career over the last decade and I can’t see him doing something like especially since he has a daughter who is his life and who has helped him grow up significantly” . Bear in mind Chris has not made a public appearance since October when he attended Diddy’s Halloween party and his public appearance are few and far between now within the last few years with Royalty in his life. He mainly stay at home or is on the road. Paris fashion week is the first public appearance from him in months. 

The accuser then went on to Instagram to say that she was not raped by Chris and he was not even present at the club that it was claimed that they met. Several eyewitnesses also went to social media to confirm that the allegations were false and that Chris never had an encounter with this woman and that he has never been alone at one point during this Paris trip. (PSA can we you know go to the fucking police to give statements to prove someone is innocent or guilty instead of going to social media because you are screwing with someone’s livelihood here!). Of course the court of public opinion came and gave their two cents on the situation and they pretty much proclaimed that Chris was guilty without looking at the facts. 

Now if you are about to say “well look at 2009?” Yes Chris made a mistake which I don't agree with but we also need to remind/enlighten ourselves that the Rihanna incident was A FIGHT and both parties were wrong. She should have not hit him and he shouldn’t have retaliated. (side note: can we hold women accountable of when they are abusive towards men because there is a serious gender bias when it comes to abuse in relationships and we need to remind ourselves both genders can be abusive). He has also evolved from that and showed genuine remorse for the situation. The majority of social media were on Chris’ side in regards to this situation and he was eventually released from police custody when the French police found out the accusations was false and issued an apology to Chris and told him that he was free to leave the country. Chris’ lawyer has said that he intends to sue for defamation of character rightly so and Chris has also gone to social media to deny the allegation. Chris’ situation sparks several different issues. The first being in regards to social media. It is extremely dangerous and toxic to contribute to a false narrative without looking at the fact especially with a charge as serious as rape and even more the silence upon it being revealed that accusations were false just shows how DISGUSTING people can be since many people wanted this accusations to be true. 

This shows the type of world we live in that people WANT a woman to be raped all the expense of not liking someone. I cannot associate myself with people who think like this when they are actual rapists such as R Kelly who is yet to be charged for his NUMEROUS crimes against underage black girls despite concrete evidence and a tape but yet we can arrest Chris on a false accusation and several eyewitness and hotel footage to show that he didn't commit this crime? Kevin Spacey and Matt Lauer are also rapists who careers have ended but have yet to be charged for the crime despite once again having concrete evidence and eyewitnesses. The president of the United States is also guilty of sexual assault and is on a recording bragging about his crimes like its a badge of honour. Brett Kavanaugh is walking a free man despite also having concrete evidence and eyewitness confirming his crime. Asia Argento, a victim of Harvey Weinstein was discovered to be guilty of sexual abuse after a young man came forward about how he was abused by Asia as a teenager. Harvey Weinstein is awaiting trial for his numerous crimes. Why can't the court of public opinion keep the same energy they had for a man who was innocent for those who are guilty. Secondly in light of the Me too movement, to accuse someone of a crime as serious as rape is extremely dangerous to their career and their character, a person’s life can be destroy at the expense of an opportunist. Additionally to lie about rape is DISGUSTING! This is what stops ACTUAL rape victims from coming forward because we have people who lie about it and the true victims aren't taken as seriously as a result. I would also think in light of the Me Too movement and Surviving R Kelly, people would pay more attention to the facts now before we “cancel” people.  Personally I think that if you lie about a offence as serious as rape, you should go to jail and get sued because you are evil and karma will come to you. What if this your brother or your son or uncle or dad etc who was being accused of this crime? How would you feel if everyone thought they were guilty because of a mistake they made a teenager that has nothing to do with what they were currently accused of? Just think about that for a moment. 

To end this I think Chris deserves an apology, one of them being from Eve after her comments on The Talk and that he should not only sue the women who lied but should sue media outlets such as TMZ and The Shade Room for defamation of character and let's remember this: innocent until proven guilty and look at the facts (in this day and age we really need to do this)

Update: Malibu Dollface made a video pretty much explaining everything I feel about cancel culture. Please watch and support him because he’s amazing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ah4ZfxTqT5s