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tslasvegas · 4 years

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Episode 8: “On the upside we got the numbers.” - Andrew (who is then voted out by those numbers)

It’s always a sad and unfortunate thing when a player needs to leave a game for personal reasons. I’m wishing Kevin all the best!

Welp. I don't wanna say that this sucks, but this sucks. My closest ally walked from the game, and I hope he's ok. I really hope everything is ok with him. But now, I'm a green in a world of pinks. What my pink friends don't realize though, is I have a Safety Without Power advantage. Nobody knows about it. So if we lose, they cannibalize themselves, and that will be a sight to see. But I'd like to keep my advantage for as long as possible. But if we lose, that'll be a fun tribal council. I can only hope it's a double tribal. Now this - this is a redemption arc.

If a merge at 13 is next, then we are done! ugh.

MERGE HAPPENS

We merged!! And I only had to attend a single tribal council in the premerge with 8 eliminations. That’s wild! We’re sitting here in merge with 7 OG Palazzo, 3 OG Bellagio and 3 OG Luxor. If Palazzo sticks together, we’d have the majority whichever way you look at it. However, I don’t imagine that group is going to stick together very long. Joey wants to get myself and Jaiden into single digits. I’d love to help get Jake into single digits as well. And I’d also like to get Livingston to at least 6th place. Honestly a group of that 5 sounds like a pretty good idea, and I might pitch it to Joey later today. And now we’re doing mastermind! A game I love but rarely ever win. I usually come close and I’m hoping this time around I can snag a win and be safe this first tribal. Nothing is scarier than the merge round of the game. Anything at all can happen. There’s still some idols and extra votes floating around, maybe some steal a votes too. There’s also that safety without power and the legacy advantage, which may be able to be played this round? Exciting things are brewing im sure.

We made the merge!!

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So OG Palazzo must be tight. Good thing Steph and Joey are still reaching out. But I don't know if we can build up a resistance with the non-OGPalazzo. I mean, in theory, it can happen. 6 of us, with a steal a vote. But so much has happened voting on opposite sides, I don't know if it is doable. We can try. Better to go out blazing at 13th, than just waiting for your turn to be voted out before F7.

I MADE IT TO MERGE AGAIN... okay I feel good about my surroundings, as well as the people I’m next to. OG Palazzo wants to go all the way to Final 7, but I know that ain’t gonna happen, cause I’m turning on them as fast as humanly possible. I need others to see that I’m a strengthener to their games, and now that its every player for themselves, I think I can grab some allies and make shit happen. I have a Legacy Advantage, and I’m just trying to get to 6.

I’m sad I lost all my chips. On the upside we got the numbers

MERGE BITCH

Ok but for serious I don't have much to say so I'm just going to do an assessment of everyone on the tribe. Andrew - I thought I was gonna like Andrew bc I thought he was c*te then I find out he likes The Sims so there was something easy for us to talk about!! But then... come to find out. He's not really interested in talking I guess. So I'm just going to leave him alone and not carry on a conversation. Ben - WHY is Ben still here. I'm so annoyed. Ben tries so hard to be my ally but I don't trust him that much. Before the merge, he pitched a plan to pool our coins (meaning: I had to send him all of mine) so that I could spin the wheel and avoid going bankrupt. Then he said we're a final two. I was like,,, no thanks. I feel like he's going to blow up his game at some point, but I just gotta pretend better to be on his side. Idk how to do that exactly... Jake - Jake has been THE biggest surprise of the merge to be honest. I actually really like Jake. He's a little "irritating" I guess, but more in the sense that he is just pretty bro-y and that's not my energy. I respect Jake's desire to be great in Tumblr Survivor, we have that in common here. I think right now, Jake and I are as close as you can get to working together without actually being a legitimate alliance. I want to see where this takes us because he's a cool guy and I really feel bad for talking shit about him before the merge. Jeff - Part of me likes Jeff, but part of me views him as the enemy simply because he's part of the "Palazzo 7". I want to try and work on Jeff because maybe he and I see things the same way? I don't think this game is strictly "seven strong" like Joey perpetuates, I'll get to that in a minute though. Anyways, I want to see how things go with Jeff cuz he seems like a cool dude and I'm definitely a meninist and want to be his bitch! Joey - I hate that I'm in a position where I both know Joey is vital for my game right now, but also that I can't stand his strategy. I like him as a person, let's make that very clear for the post-season - I just don't subscribe to his idea that there's a seven person alliance (which btw includes him according to numbers???) running the show. I will definitely feel Joey out some more before I make any decision to attach myself to him fully or throw him to the wolves. John - THREAT. I'm on high alert for John and kinda trying to maintain a safe, social-distancing-approved level of space between us. I think that John is definitely running things at least in one or two circles and I don't want him to turn that target around on me. I also can't let him know that I'm onto him. John is probably playing it where everybody just likes him and includes him in plans, but in the event that he is pulling strings, that's where the issues start. Kailyn - I don't really care for Kailyn anymore tbh. I kinda think Kailyn is playing a good under the radar game and I think it's in a lot of people's benefit to send her off to the jury sooner rather than later. I have no read on who she's close with though so that's the danger. Probably John? But who knows. Keegan - I also am surprised that I like Keegan as much as I do. He seemed a little bit too smart for his own good? But he's actually rather nice. He flops like I do but I think he's a danger if I'm not careful. I'll keep on this guy and hopefully he doesn't target me <3 I'd rather work with Keegan than against him especially now.

Livingston - WOW I thought I'd like Livingston but goddamn this guy is BORING. Not only does he not message back, but he has nothing interesting to provide to a conversation. If he was the first person to go this round I wouldn't really be upset oop Pat - We talked a lot about drag race. We played an org together and I remember now that Pat was fucking IRRELEVANT so I'm surprised to see this new energy. Who are you and what did you do with the real Pat? Stephanie - I don't really like Stephanie's strategy either, she's just too damn likable and kind of floats on by, I wish she had left last time instead of Rachael because then it's likely Rachael gets the boot soon. But we'll see what happens. I just hope that me voting for her isn't going to kill our relationship and we can work together at some point, at least until she gets voted out. Xavier - I have a hard time reading Xavier. I think I'm calmed down from feeling threatened by him. I trust Xavier enough to not go and screw up a vote again, but does he trust me? Don't really know. I want to work with Xavier at least for a couple votes but I know that he and Ben aren't on good terms and Ben is a vote that I need right now :/ The issue I have with Xavier is that he is positioning himself to kinda be a doormat just doing whatever people want and not necessarily.. taking control of how people look at him I guess. He sticks out for being the "dad" on the tribe and doesn't bring a lot of his own personality to conversation - it's just really basic strategy. I don't know anything about him that I didn't have to go fucking find out about him on his public YouTube. Insert clown emoji here. Anyways, overall I feel okay about my chances on this tribe... So far. I honestly don't see myself playing a winning game right now - BUT it's final thirteen and there is a lot of time to turn that around for myself. I feel good in comparison to my previous Tumblr Survivor seasons because there hasn't been a vote where I've completely made myself stand out like a sore thumb. My head is in a good place to finish out this game strong, just gotta put the pedal to the metal and work shit out. Maybe win a couple challenges! Whatever twists are ahead... I'm not prepared. But I am going to walk away from this season for the better, one way or another. Eight people down, twelve left to go.

Well, I came close to winning but unfortunately didn't. Kailyn won immunity and we had a twist where we all had to choose between two buttons. Aaaaand Kailyn now has immunity this tribal and next tribal. Lovely. After the challenge, Andrew immediately threw out Jake's name, which was worrying but I think Jeff and I have managed to sway things towards Ben. Which is a little scary, since it's highly possible he has an idol or advantage (though he did play an idol on himself at the Rachael boot. So maybe not?) Now, the question is going to become: how do Livingston and myself navigate these next few tribals with Jake? We need to keep him safe and the target off his back. There's also Joey and Jaiden who I definitely want to keep working with moving forward. I think I'm in a decent spot. I really don't see Jaiden or Jake keeping their mouth shut if my name comes up. I think I've managed to build enough of a bond with them that they won't target me. My concern is definitely Ben being a little sneak, as well as Kailyn and Xavier, who really don't talk at all. John... can also be kinda sneaky and he also has been super quiet. However, when all is said and done, I just want a single digit placement. I don't care what happens before/after that, just please let me get there.

My first merge in 3 seasons of Tumblr Survivor, finally! It would be awesome if the tyrannical force of pink wasn’t here. Right now I’m practically a sitting duck. I’ve made connections with Jaiden and Joey who I just met, I’m hoping they’d watch my back. Ben and I are great friends from outside the game, we’re called the Jew-O Duo, for obvious reasons. I’m in a duo with Jeff called Jeff Squared, a duo with Pat called The Best Men, a trio with Liv and Keegan (that’s super dangerous cause I know they’re friends), and me John and Xavier are the Luxor Losers. I should feel protected - but I don’t. I need to keep working socially and hope that I can scoot by a couple more rounds. I wanna buddy up with Steph and Kailyn, I have no interest in working with Andrew after he flat out told me he wasn’t turning on Pink. It could be me tonight. We’ll just have to see.

....five seconds later

No. No no no no no no no. I'm sick of Andrew trying to get me out, and then going after my allies instead. I can't just sit here and let him walk all over me the entire game. He has been wishy washy and fake with me since I met him. I'm not gonna play a game of what ifs, I'm taking a gamble and gonna get his own tribe to flip on him. I've got enough information from Jeff, Pat, and Liv to spin into a lie. I know Andrew said my name - but Jeff and Keegan changed it to Ben, so if I tell Keegan that Andrew blamed him on my name coming up I think I can flip him. I can try to get John, Ben, and Xavier, Keegan can get Liv and Joey, that's 7. If it blows up in my face - Oh well. This is season 99! We're high rolling now.

Had a nice long conversation with Jake this morning. Andrew has been throwing my name under the bus for some reason? Well Andrew, better watch out because I’m driving that bus and swerving it at you. OG Palazzo is... not my favourite. Honestly I’m okay if it dies tonight. Jake, Livingston, Ben, Joey, Jaiden and myself can definitely switch things up. I imagine we can get John and Xavier on board as well, maybe even Kailyn. I was perfectly okay riding the pink wave for a few rounds, but Andrew you just had to go and mess that up. Why? For what reason? Hoping it’s you tonight. xoxo Gossip Girl

I feel good about tribal, rip Andrew I guess, but I'm nervous as hell for some reason that it could be me. It would be perfect because I don't even see it coming... :/

I don't know what happened, but there seems to be a "merging" of tribal lines. Which is good for me. The vote is going Andrew with 9. And the 4 are voting Ben. Or everyone is playing everyone. I am just happy I am not one of the options BUT I was told that Steph and I are being mentioned by people as a tight 2. Well, they're right, but I didn't want that to come out.

Andrew is being his paranoid self. And rightfully so. Unless I’m getting completely bamboozled, the vote should between 7 and 9 votes for Andrew, and between 6 and 4 votes for Ben. Fingers crossed this goes off without a hitch

Okay so premerge wasn’t too hard tbh. Just making friendships with my og palazzo. I just hope that every week people see someone else as less important to their game. I have a long mental game for this and I am prepared to take this game week by week and adjust to everything that comes. I just pray that I make it through this week and even if I lose Andrew I don’t mind tbh because then I have an idol to myself. I’m obsessed with Livingston tbh he’s so funny and I like a good amount of the people I didn’t get a chance to meet premerge so I think there’s good room to move about

After last tribal I honestly want Ben gone. He’s kind of rude and frustrating. OG Pallazzo has the numbers so in theory we should be set but who knows? 🤷🏼‍♀️

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sometimesrosy · 6 years

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Hi Rosy, hope all is well. It has been very interesting reading your Season 6 theories and am just wondering what you might think Madi's role will be next season? (v sorry if you have mentioned this but I don't recall coming across it) Hope you have a great weekend! xo

This is such a hard question. Even harder than the one about Bellamy, and I was working on it all day yesterday and getting distracted. Madi is hard to speculate for, because she doesn’t really have any unfinished stories, except the flame one, and we don’t know what that means yet. Or I don’t. I think that her storyline will be intimately connected with the most science fiction parts of the story. I also see Madi’s story as being connected to the final conclusion of the story, also about creating a new society.

I suspect that the AI in her head will have a lot to do with the new planet. I have two possibilities.

An AI that Becca sent with the Eligius which never suffered perverse instantiation is working just fine and will be able to connect with Madi and the flame.

An ALIEN from the planet that exists on another plane from human can pick up the signals from the Flame, and it will become relevant again that way.

I say this because the ELigius instagram posted that story where SOMEONE knew that THEY were coming. I’m assuming Eligius 3. A ship of sleeping people. And then SOMEONE saw HER. Her who? And then SOMEONE said “SHE IS.”

So basically, what I see, as the hint, is that someone on the planet, either AI or Alien being, or BOTH, knows of Madi. Her dreaming human body kept the AI active in her head, sending out messages, probably as dreams, which is the way the flame communicates with their host. As was stated by Lxa.

So. Here’s some out there speculation I have, based on my belief that there will be an ALIE on the planet, and/or nonhumanoid aliens who have an altered reality. (this spec comes from both the past mythology of Becca, Eligius, Cadogan, The Flame, AND the books/movies/shows that JR has as recommended viewing/reading, along with the Eligius tease and the BTS photos of that castle.)

I’m putting this behind the jump. Because it’s long. It’s elaborate. There is LITTLE textual proof for it, it’s based on the hints and teases and on archetypes, mythology, science fiction tropes and the basic POINT of post apocalyptic fiction, which is REBUILDING A BETTER WORLD. (or deciding that humans are to blame and it’s the end, but I think JR is going for the positive one. since the POV that presented that is dead now, because that’s where that perspective goes.)

Buckle up. And don’t hate me.

There is a FlameCLarke in Madi’s head that she is not telling Clarke about because Clarke would freak out. In fact, the more she learns to control the flame, the more it will be CLARKE who comes to her. Clarke was a commander. The flame was inside of her. The flame retains the consciousness of all the commanders, ergo, The Flame has a flameClarke along with the other commanders.

The “She” that the eligius instagram refers to is going to look like Clarke. Because if Madi is dreaming and sending out flame messages, it’s going to look like the commander she has the biggest connection to. OF COURSE IT’S CLARKE. We already know the AI will create the world and give the symbols that will best connect with the mind. This was said in the COL.

If there is an AI on the planet, it won’t have an avatar, because Becca’s boyfriend invented the avatar, and the first time Becca saw it, ALIE told her there were too many people. But the Eligius mission had already been gone, before the avatar showed up. So it does not have an avatar. BUT if it is getting signals from a Flame Avatar that looks like Clarke, it’s going to want an avatar, too. And who will it dress up like? The flame Avatar. CLARKE. So we’re going to have an ALIEClarke. Hence the acting Challenge that Eliza will have. She’ll be playing three characters. Clarke. FlameClarke and ALIEClarke.

The “Peaceful Society” won’t be peaceful. Or it will be peaceful for the chosen, because it is subjugating those who aren’t chosen. AKA repeating the sins of humanity. And because Clarke and Bellamy need to get back to the story that broke them, the genocide of MW. So I speculate that the new society will be a reflection of MW. It will again be a seemingly peaceful society that is rotten and evil to the bone. They will be subjugating the new planet and either the lower class OR the aliens of this world, because they are not human. I lean towards aliens now.

Clarke is going to choose to fight for the aliens not the humans because it is the right thing to do, even if it’s not best for their people. And she’s going to come to realize that the genocide of MW was actually what was RIGHT. That WAS the good guys, because MW would have subjugated EVERYONE on the ground and treated the ground as THEIR birthright. This was clear in canon. But she couldn’t bear what she’d done, so she made herself the bad guy and it broke her.

Clarke and Bellamy will be separated. Clarke will end up with the aliens, and so will Echo. I don’t know who else. But those BTS pictures had like 8 lounge chairs, which I suspect are where they recline when they have their flashbacks. Which won’t be hallucinations, but a kind of alien instigated spiritual journey. Thus we see Echo having memories of reapers, and Clarke having memories of Jake. We saw the actor dressed in reaper clothes, se we know that’s a flashback, and there are rumors (rumors still) of Jake being on set.

I suspect Bellamy will have to go rescue Clarke. And Echo. And whoever is with them. But, I’m going to guess that Madi will be with Bellamy. Because if Clarke is going into the wilderness she’d leave Madi to Bellamy. SO THEY are going to rescue Clarke. And everyone they love.

They will be drawn into the plight of the aliens/humans opposed to the “Peaceful Society” I suspect that the aliens will also BOND with the humans and change them, so they’re not quite human anymore.

When Madi and Bellamy get to Clarke and the rest, to save them from the savage aliens. Or maybe they’re on the aliens side idk. They will discover the real truth of Russell’s peaceful society and that it is based on bleeding the planet and aliens dry. Like MW.

All those pretty people they’ve cast that we’re only finding out about now? They’re for midseason. Those are the humans who have rebelled against the “peaceful” society and come to live with the aliens, and perhaps now have altered consciousness or bodies or both. Thus the dancers. To denote that the aliens don’t move like humans. They are otherworldly. (I don’t know if the dancers are aliens or alien/human hybrids.) That castle is the heart of the alien/human hybrid rebellion. They will have our heroes enter an altered state of consciousness. That rose window on the castle? That’s either the actual alien or a representation of it. expect CGI.

Madi will have an innate connection to the alien and/or alien/human hybrids. Because she is an alien/human hybrid. since an AI is not human. Ok, that’s a stretch. Anyway. She’s not quite human. Madi will want to fight for the aliens. But the peaceful humans want to eradicate them. They want to dominate this new world like they did the last.

Which will lead to its ultimate destruction and a repetition of the cycle of abuse and violence which Clarke and Bellamy are trying to stop. Therefore. They must do what they did with MW, and commit genocide again, this time with full knowledge that it is to save the rest of humanity and alienkind. A new planet. The universe. (OH MY GOD THEY HAVE TO SAVE THE UNIVERSE!!! Not the delinquents. Not the sky people. Not all the survivors. Not the humanity. THE UNIVERSE. ESCALATION.) Knowing all they know this time, they will be ready to do this.

I see them actually destroying the “peaceful” society so that the aliens/hybrids can thrive.

Raven will take off from the new planet, after destroying Russells fake peaceful people, with Clarke and Bellamy and their people, leaving they human/alien society behind to start a new world. This will be the third time she takes off from a planet, and this time it WON’T be on fire. Because she said “just once I’d like to take off from a planet that’s not on fire.”

HOWEVER.

Don’t hate me.

Madi is going to choose to stay behind with the alien/human hybrids. Because she has the flame. They need a leader. They need the flame to help them BUILD a new society. And she feels like they are her people. THIS is what the flame was created for. To end the violence of the human past, stop ALIE’s supremacy, and create a new world.

Clarke losing Madi to a new world is heartbreaking but also mythic in nature. The child of her spirit is a sacrifice to healing and redeeming humanity. The son that died for our sins? She won’t die, but she might as well have,

Because Clarke and Bellamy will be going back to earth, 200 years after they left it, to FIX WHAT THEY BROKE. To be responsible for humanity’s destruction of the earth. Lincoln said that we’re all responsible for our monster when we let it out, and leaving the earth behind is NOT being responsible. Moving on to a new planet is COLONIALIZATION. They have to go home.

So Clarke and Bellamy will take humanity home to start over on a now green planet, cleansed of humanity (there might be some survivors and might be giant sandworms frankly but that’s another story.)

And Madi will stay on the planet two suns to raise a new sentient species in peace and wisdom.

Octavia will go with Clarke and Bellamy, because she also represents the child, HUMANITY, the one that almost destroyed itself with darkness, but will be redeemed and healed. Symbolically she represents humanity on earth while Madi represents the NEW society. Both are important. But CLarke and Bellamy need to guide humanity and let go of the human/alien hybrids to make their own way, rather than be colonialists and rule over them.

And ECHO will stay with Madi, to be her protector, but also because she feels a kinship and a sense of belonging with the alien/hybrids because she TOO was a slave to the azgeda and gave up everything she ever wanted for them. This leads us back to Echo’s backstory, and her story which has been stated to be about loyalty, family, and belonging. She will choose Madi and the alien/human hybrids as where she belongs. She will get the free choice, not circumstances of survival and not being taken as a child and raised into it.

I do not know if all this will happen in season 6. This might be a season 6-7 story. Or it could just be season 6 and s7 is them going home to the earth, and building a new society. idk.

OKAY. So that’s my spec for Madi. I cannot separate it from the main story or from Clarke and Bellamy’s hero’s journeys or the rebuilding of humanity. Or the mythology of The 100 or the cyclical story structures, which actually means it’s probably more likely to go something like this. Because different story elements are feeding into it and it’s not isolated from the other stories.

As you can see, I’ve made a lot of off the wall claims and predictions. And I could be wrong about any one of them or all of them. You take hints and interpret them, but you can interpret them the wrong way. So here I am. Out on a limb with more of rosy’s patented “crazy” spec. Just be aware that I also predicted the cryosleep solution before season 4 even aired. And Exodus theory/leaving Eden, before season 5 aired.

So I might not be wrong with my crazy crack theories. They aren’t crack. They’re scifi. I’ve spent nearly 50 years consuming scifi. It’s in my bones. Geek child of geek parents. My first cats were named Kirk and Spock. I am geek. hear me meow. lol.

#the 100 #speculation #madi #clarke x madi x bellamy #mythos #alien slavery theory #flameclarke theory #return to earth theory

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so-shiny-so-chrome · 6 years

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Witness: KirkyPet

Creator name (AO3): KirkyPet

Creator name (Tumblr): kirkypet

Link to creator works: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KirkyPet/works

Q: Why the Mad Max Fandom?

A: I was actually quite fixated on Fury Road after watching it on DVD. I didn’t expect to particularly like it - I’d never seen the previous Mad Max movies (I finally have!) - but I was transfixed. And I didn’t particularly ship Furiosa and Max until the haemothorax/transfusion scene (although then I very much did). There were just so many layers of detail and backstory there waiting to be explored, because so little was actually said or explained. It’s like a neutron star of fic-fodder. And I didn’t discover ao3 til summer 2016 so I spent a full year wandering around like a lost soul. So, yeah. Quite a huge deal for me really.

Q: What do you think are some defining aspects of your work? Do you have a style? Recurrent themes?

A: Music. Minor characters looking on and commenting on the protagonists (big fan of Thomas Hardy’s more comedic efforts, where this happens a lot). Reasonably happy endings.

Q: Which of your works was the most fun to create? The most difficult? Which is your most popular? Most successful? Your favourite overall?

A: Maybe the small town modern AU (Ordinary People), because it was a nice change from the Wasteland setting. I’m not very Wasteland-minded at all. But the Bladerunner AU (Do Androids Dream etc) and the new Firefly AU are lots of fun because the two sets of movie worlds mesh together way better than I’d expected.

The most difficult? - My Wasteland headcanon stuff. It’s too fluffy and not remotely violent which doesn’t really ring true. I’m very aware that my Furiosa is hardly ever violent, or my Max particularly mad. But that’s the great thing about fanfiction - the infinite versions of characters and scenarios. Surprisingly the Blues Brothers AU is quite tricky. I can’t quite make Jake Blues and Furiosa the same person. But it’s an excuse to listen to great tunes. And Jessie will make a comeback in that one though (she’s not dead, I should make that clear).

On the old kudos-to-hits ratio, the Firefly AU is taking off surprisingly well, but it’s quite smut-focused so that might well account for it ;) early days yet. Bladerunner AU is doing well for a multi-chapter. Up Around The Bend (an oldie, the escape from the Citadel) is hanging in there.

Most successful? I’m happy enough with all of them, except maybe I Kissed A Girl. Please don’t read that. Favourite overall - It’s a toss-up between Ordinary People (a chance to explore my headcanon in a modern small town setting) and the Bladerunner AU (it makes me weep).

Q: How do you like your wasteland? Gritty? Hopeful? Campy? Soft? Why?

A: Hopeful and silly and everyone has access to a record player somehow. This is why I stick to writing AUs these days. But I’ll happily read all of the above!!! And entirely intend to!

Q: Walk us through your creative process from idea to finished product. What's your prefered environment for creating? How do you get through rough patches?

A: Watch a film, browse tumblr, listen to music, get an idea. Have a good think about it, think about it some more, find a starting point, write it down, go from there. Maybe stick a draft on tumblr if I’m not sure if it’s going to fly. Write it anyway.

For OCs, figure out what someone looks like. That’s weirdly essential for me. Zal (Furiosa’s Dad) is Ed Harris, Young Val (Furiosa and Max’s grownup daughter) is Alicia Vikander and Toots (rescued-kid-turned-Wasteland-son-in-law) is Didier Drogba (bit of a blast from the past but hey). I was getting nowhere with Blues Mothers Jessie until I recast her as Sofia Boutella (because if Max is getting a generational update, she needs one too). And Firefly AU’s Mister Jobassa is Jakob Oftebro. All very pretty people, but what are you gonna do? But they’re only these people in MY head - they can be whoever the reader wants them to be. Oh, and Pin from Ordinary People was 100% an actual real tour guide I met on holiday once.

Preferred environment? Usually while half asleep in bed, or walking, or In the gym, or watching tv - world building seems to be something that happens away from the keyboard. Writing itself is exclusively on my phone so can and does happen anywhere at all. Rough patches are usually caused by guilt that I’m not spending enough time on the day job :P

Q: What (if any) music do you listen to for help getting those creative juices flowing?

A: I listen to music all the time anyway, mainly upbeat pre-90s tunes. Disco, funk, ska, motown, anything like that. And it always find its way into the writing. Sometimes artificially (where I’m on a song-lyrics-as-title theme - it took ages for some of the Wasteland fics) but most times it can help shape the story in a BIG way. I can’t listen to certain songs now without reliving a chapter or a whole fic - Dionne Warwick’s Do You Know The Way To San José is Bladerunner!Furiosa’s Green Place song, and Ash’s Angel Interceptor is StarTrek!Max’s flying music - it’s noisy enough but also speaks to me about a longing to not be alone in the universe. Concrete and Clay is smalltown!Max’s bittersweet lament for Jessie and Twistin’ The Night Away is the final party scene in Cheedo’s update of The Rivals. Some fics wouldn’t have been written at all if it wasn’t for a particular song. The Black Keys’ Heavy Soul was my original Wasteland Furiosa/Max ship theme back in 2015, before I’d even heard of ao3 - that’s the closest I’ve come to a song fic. Caleb was only Caleb because of a line in Symarip’s Skinhead Moonstomp, and I was so desperate to write a fic with Leo Sayer’s You Make Me Feel Like Dancing In it that it was the final excuse for a whole modern mirrorverse to my Wasteland headcanon series. Bet you’re sorry you asked now. But I’ll have to go and put together a Kirkyverse OST list.

Q: What is your biggest challenge as a creator?

A: To put the damn thing down and walk away. To not assume it’s awful if I don’t get a kudos in the first thirty hits. Thumb cramp from phone-typing.

Q: How have you grown as a creator through your participation in the Mad Max Fandom? How has your work changed? Have you learned anything about yourself?

A: I didn’t write at all before the Mad Max fandom. Apart from a ghost story when I was about seven (it did win a prize tbh) and a truly god awful Stephen King rip-off when I was fourteen (which makes me nauseous from embarrassment when I think of it). So a fair bit, it’d probably be fair to say. It would be impossible not to, you know, from zero :) My work has changed from spinoffs of inspirational fics (thanks Squid!) to ‘well, I suppose I’ve got a head canon, let’s see if I can make this work’ to ‘goddammit I’ll finish this if it kills me’. Then I missed my exit on the Roundabout of Fic Endings and had to go round again in a modern AU mirror verse. Now it’s all movie mashups, which is lots of fun and probably never-ending. During which time I have learned that crossovers are my favourite to write. And that writing fanfic is probably not a temporary fad :)

Q: Which character do you relate to the most, and how does that affect your approach to that character? Is someone else your favourite to portray? How has your understanding of these characters grown through portraying them?

A: I don’t really have a favourite tbh. They’re all their own people and do their own thing. Writing them is very dependent on their environment, and it’s often surprising how they behave and where they end up. It feels a bit like they’re on Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Q: Do you ever self-insert, even accidentally?

A: Hah yes. The first one was Zephyr the annoying visitor in Witches and Ogres. Young Val’s social awkwardness in As was very much on loan from me.

Q: Do you have any favourite relationships to portray? What interests you about them?Furiosa and Max are pretty much always there - sometimes it’s probably platonic, and sometimes there’s a third person involved (nothing posted yet but but but). It depends on the fic.

Q: Do you prefer to create in one defined chronology or do your works stand alone? Why or why not?

A: One big long chronology for the headcanon series (childhood to old age), then a whole bunch of little universes for everything else.

Q: To break or not to break canon? Why?

A: Not to break, as much as I can. But it depends.

Q: Share some headcanons.

A: Furiosa was never actually a wife - she was captured but dodged the whole Vault experience. Max is the original Max, of Jessie and Sprog fame. Toecutter was Joe’s younger self - he scooted around on motorbikes and raised hell before deciding to settle down and take the Citadel. AU Toast and Dag are twins (from a shady mob family). Furiosa’s Dad is a friendly Wasteland bandit.

Q: If you work with OCs walk us through your process for creating them. Who are some of your favourites?

A: They’re supplementary characters who make the plots fit together, and sources of conflict or humour (usually both). I think I like Ordinary People’s Alexa and Mallory best. Although the Irish War Boy crew in Beyond the Pale were fun to write. Ace’s trio of love interests (Brick, Big Dave and Caleb/Pin) are a consistent theme. Sometimes I steal characters from other sources (stand up Christopher Brookmyre) when it’s convenient.

Q: What sparks your many wonderful AUs?

A: Movies, tv, gifs, tumblr prompts and general chitchat (thankyou btw!!!)

Q: A lot of your fics are light-hearted and hopeful, which is great to see for the apocalyptic Mad Max world. Your thoughts on that? What is it about the characters that inspires you to reframe them?

A: I just really like comedy and am committed to winkling it into every fictional scenario whether it’s appropriate or not. Glad people don’t hate it!

Q: Who are some works by other creators inside and outside of the fandom that have influenced your work?

A: Well, it was Squid’s ( @sacrificethemtothesquid )Length and Breadth of Fury Road that got me out of the starting blocks! Christopher Brookmyre’s The Sacred Art of Stealing was a big influence on my headcanon series, as was a particular Coronation Street storyline from some years back :)

Q: Tell us about a current WIP or planned project.

A: Blues Brothers AU series (Sweet Home Chicago) -Wasteland Star Trek First Contact AU (Angel Interceptor) -Firefly AU (Our Mister Jobassa) -His Dark Materials AU (unnamed as yet, just brewing in my head, hope it just stays there for the meantime) -Will combine all the headcanon works into one long fic sometime. That’s everything from Witches and Ogres through to Ordinary People. Probably be called ‘All the Things that I’ve Done’ (basically the two lives of Furiosa: Wasteland and mirrorverse).

Thank you @kirkypet

#Mad Max Fandom Creator Spotlight #Mad Max Fandom Spotlight #mad max fanfic #mad max fanfic author spotlight #fury road fandom #fury road fanfic #kirkypet

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takerfoxx · 6 years

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And the fav of the day is...

DAVID!

=crickets=

You know, from Animorphs! Sorry, no actual picture exists of him, believe it or not. But you know who I’m talking about, right?

=more crickets=

Seriously?

Okay.

All right, all right, I know most of you probably haven’t read Animorphs and don’t know what I’m talking about. And those of you who have are giving me some mighty funny looks. Like, David? Really? Him?

Let me explain.

Animorphs was a 90′s YA book series about a group of teenagers who are granted the power to turn into any animal whose DNA they acquire through physical combat so that they might fight the invasion of the Yeerks, a race of parasitic slug aliens that are working on infesting all of humanity, slithering into our ears and taking over our bodies. Anyway, despite the rather fantastical premise, Animorphs is still remembered to this day in part for being very well written and having a lot of great characterization, but also being dark as fuck. The whole War is Hell thing is the primary theme, and the kids often experience violence, terror, paranoia, mutilation, and even death on a pretty regular basis, and we’re shown in full detail how the PTSD of what they experience and what they have to do to stay alive affects them.

In no part is this better demonstrated in the David trilogy, a three-book storyline that pops up about a third of the way through the series. In it, a new transfer student named David accidentally stumbles across the alien morphing cube that had originally given the Animorphs their power, which they had presumed to have been destroyed. Naturally, they try to steal it back, but this fails, but it does convince David that it’s worth something and he tries to sell it on the internet. This proves to be a very bad idea, as the Yeerks notice it immediately and come to collect. In force.

The Animorphs show up to save him and the cube, a fight happens, David’s home is destroyed, his family is captured, and the Animorphs barely get away with him and the cube. From their, after an intense debate, they decide not to abandon him, but rather give him the morphing power as well, in hopes that it will start a recruitment trend to swell their ranks.

This ends up being a very, very bad idea, because as it turns out, David isn’t so thrilled about being ripped away from his life and getting conscripted into a horrifying sci-fi guerrilla war. He’s rude, he’s belligerent, he’s a coward who frequently endangers missions with his freak-outs, he challenges Jake’s (the leader) authority more than once, and surprising no one, ends up betraying the group, going rogue.

It is then that the gang see just how far David is willing to go. He uses his power to hunt down and isolate the Animorphs one by one, nearly killing several in the process. He does disappear Jake and Rachel’s cousin Sattler, who was said to be dying in the hospital, and morphs him to replace him, in part to get some semblance of a normal life back, but also to fuck with them. He stalks them and threatens them, in hopes of getting the morphing cube back and either use it as a bargaining tool to get his parents back from the Yeerks or to create his own gang of Animorphs.

Things escalate until it’s clear that the Animorphs cannot let him go free any longer. But they’re still unwilling to murder another human being, so instead, they settle for a terrible compromise. Acting like they’re giving into his demands, the Animorphs trick David into morphing a rat, trap him, and keep him trapped until he’s stuck in that morph permanently. Then they take him to a lone rock off the coast where other rats live and leave him there.

And this is all shown in full, horrific detail.

When I was a kid, I was horrified by this. I mean, sure, David was a jerk, but he didn’t deserve that. Of course he wouldn’t like them, they yanked him away from his home and forced him into a war he didn’t want to be a part of. And even then, they still treated him pretty badly, often demeaning him and making him sleep in a barn with just a few Saltines for dinner and stuff like that. Why wouldn’t he have freaked out? I’ll even admit, I wrote a few early fics from David’s point of view, or at least tried to. It bothered me that much.

Revisiting the series as an adult has given me a new perspective, and I now see that, yes, what happened to him was horrible and the Animorphs did themselves no favors with how they treated him, but David was a pretty terrible person from the start. He was a narcissist, a misogynist, and a coward, who cruelly killed animals for sport even before his betrayal, had no reservations about murdering the other Animorphs afterward so long as they were in morph, and what he did to Sattler and his family was unforgivable. Like Marietta Edgecombe, he was fully condemned by the author during a Q&A as a waste of space, and unlike Marietta, I found it hard to disagree.

Still, he is given a lot of sympathetic moments too, and his fate really hammers home what a terrible thing the Animorphs are forced to do and how it damages them mentally and emotionally. And overall, his trilogy was one of the biggest highlights from an already great series.

So yeah, while I no longer like David as a person and don’t feel all that sorry for him anymore, I still acknowledge what he brought to the series, and how much his trilogy tore out my heart when I was a kid. I guess that’s worth something.

David: Maybe you forget this sometimes, but you are just a girl, Rachel. Rachel: And you're just a worm. Wanna see who wins that fight?

#animorphs #david #fav of the day

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wineanddinosaur · 4 years

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Next Round: NBA Champion Channing Frye on Falling in Love With Wine and Launching Chosen Family Wines

Airing between regular episodes of the VinePair Podcast, “Next Round” explores the ideas and innovations that are helping drinks businesses adapt in a time of unprecedented change. As the coronavirus crisis continues and new challenges arise, VP Pro is in your corner, supporting the drinks community for all the rounds to come. If you have a story or perspective to share, email us at [email protected].

In this “Next Round,” VinePair CEO and co-founder Adam Teeter talks to NBA champion Channing Frye about the launch of Frye’s new wine label Chosen Family Wines, how his love of wine formed, and the up-and-coming wine regions that he is excited about.

In 2007, while he was still playing in the NBA, Frye was traded from the Knicks to the Trail Blazers, bringing him to Portland, Ore. It was in Portland that Frye was introduced to the world of wine (mainly by his mother-in-law), inspiring him to explore the expansive wine industry throughout the state of Oregon and sparking his interest in wine. Frye began bringing bottles on flights with him while traveling with the various NBA teams he played with throughout his career, and soon, he began talking wine with his teammates. While playing with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Frye and teammates such as LeBron James would even bring wines from different regions to taste and share with one another on plane rides.

After retiring from the league in 2019, Frye founded Chosen Family Wines in hopes of connecting people in different areas with the wines produced in Oregon and Washington. Chosen Family has partnered with local Oregon-based wineries L’Angolo and Hazelfern to make a Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Syrah, which is not yet available.

Listen Online

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Or check out the conversation here

Adam: From Brooklyn, New York, I’m Adam Teeter. And this is a VinePair Podcast “Next Round” conversation. We’re bringing you these conversations between the regularly scheduled podcast episodes in order to talk to movers and shakers in the industry, and give everyone a clear picture of what’s been happening ever since the Covid-19 crisis began today. I’m really lucky to be talking with Channing Frye, NBA champion and owner and operator of Chosen Family Wines, which just launched Monday. Channing, thank you so much for joining me.

Channing: Thank you so much for having me. This is a great opportunity to just talk some wine early in the morning.

A: Oh yeah. Where are you right now?

C: I’m in Portland, Ore. right now. I’ve been here 14 years. So when I got traded here from the Knicks. Shout-out to all the Knicks fans, there’s probably two or three left.

A: We’re embattled.

C: Yes. It’s hard at this point. You’re in the trenches now.

A: I think I’m going to become a Nets fan.

C: No, don’t do that. Stay a Knicks fan. You’ve got another 10 years till you’re good. I’m in Portland. I’ve stayed here. I met my wife here. I have four kids. And so we are entrenched in this community and this state and everything Oregon right now.

A: Amazing. I want to get into Chosen Family Wines. I think there’s so many people that are doing interesting stuff in wine right now. I’d love to hear about your journey to wine. We all get into this business in very different ways, and usually it’s not a traditional way. Was it moving to Portland in the beginning? I mean, that’s such a wine city. Or was it prior to that?

C: Before this, I grew up in Arizona, so I’m a big Corona beer and tequila guy — I still love me some good tequila. But my mother-in-law, she’s really into wine. She loves Nebbiolo. She likes Barolos. Big, big, big wines. Napa Cabs. We would go over to dinner, and we would be eating with her, and she’d bust out a bottle of wine. So I started becoming a little more curious and then when the weather’s nice in Oregon, everyone’s like, “Well, let’s go wine tasting.” So we go wine tasting and I’m like, “Holy crap, this is amazing. This is beautiful.” I’m a sucker for a great story. And most of these people who do stuff out here have amazing stories of how they got into the business, how they’ve been successful, how they make their wine, their process, how they’re different. Wine from one plot of land to another can be completely different. But when you start adding the human aspect of that, that’s really where it started getting me. Ever since then, I’ve been drinking wine, learning a little bit, drinking more wine, learning a little more. And then when I ended up playing for the Orlando Magic — that was in 2015 — my buddy, who’s my business partner now, started working at a place called L’Angolo Estate. It’s 20 acres out in the Dundee Hills of Oregon. He was like, “Channing, I know you’re not really into Pinot right now, but let me tell you, this is amazing.” And I’m like, “Send me a bottle. I trust you.” So he sent me four, and I opened it up, and I called him immediately. I didn’t know Pinot Noir could taste like this. And he goes, “Listen, dude, you caught the bug. Here’s what I want you to do.” So we started going back and forth. Wine started being my thing. Even when I went on a plane, on my NBA team, I’d bring two bottles of wine in my backpack and drink them on the plane and have conversations with the people next to me. And everyone was like, “Oh, you’re drinking? It’s two o’clock in the afternoon.” I go “Yeah, but we’re done with practice. I’m getting ready to go to dinner where I’m going to drink wine anyways. I have nothing else to do.” I’m bringing on different rosés from different areas, trying to discover what my palate was. And then I started reading magazines and just really caught the bug. Speed that up to when I got traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers with Kevin and LeBron and Tristan and JR, and all these other amazing players. I was bringing wine on the plane. I’m bringing my two little dinky bottles, and all of a sudden these guys are like, “Hey, you’re not going to bring more in for the rest of us?” And I said, “Look, there’s 14 of you. The way my budget is set up, I can’t do that.” And LeBron drinks ‘93 Sassicaia.

A: I know. I follow him on Instagram.

C: What we agreed, without saying it, is each person would bring wine from a region that they liked. So me being from Oregon and that’s what I knew, I was bringing rosés. I was bringing bubbles on a plane. I was bringing whites, different Chardonnays. And guys would be like, “I don’t like white wine.” I’d be like, “Dude, listen, you don’t know what you like, let me tell you what you like.” Now this was 2016, I was like, “Oregon Chardonnay is going to blow up. They’re making amazing, amazing wine.” And then I was giving guys Pinot and they were like, “What kind of wine is this?” I was like, “This is Pinot Noir from Oregon.” And so we’re just going back and forth. So we have Napa Cabs, and we had guys from Washington bringing in Syrahs, we have guys bringing in Italians, Burgundies, Bordeaux. It became a real camaraderie thing. And that is when the fire turned into a volcano of wine. So then when I retired, my best friend Jake came up to me and actually asked my wife first, “Hey, would Channing be interested in maybe doing wine a different way?” And she was like, “Yes, absolutely.” Well, he actually asked, “Would you mind if I borrowed him?” Because once I get something I’m like a torpedo. It just motivates me. I’m seeing something that I’m passionate about being successful. It’s the greatest feeling of all time. Then, it became what we want this one rant to be about: Who we want to work with; what do we want it to taste like; and who do we want to get into the wine gang? Not only do we want to impress people and have people say this is a good wine, but we also want to get a new demographic into the wine game. We feel like there are so many people that have been told what they like instead of just getting options from somebody that they trust. That’s where Chosen Family’s business model came after. It just comes from trust and understanding that a wine bottle is like a connector throughout my career. I’ve had so many ups and downs in basketball, and then in life everyone has ups and downs, and so what I’ve learned and what we all agree on is when I sit down with my family and friends that wine bottle, with all of us, with all my family — people bring wine bottles, whether they’re $20 or $2,000 — they just don’t bring it to impress, they bring it as a sign of gratitude. I want to share this with you. I want to share memories with you about something that is important to me or that excites me. How often do we give something to somebody to say, “I appreciate you. I appreciate this time.”? That’s what we want our wine to be about. You have this Chosen bottle, here’s the story of Channing and Jake and Chase, and they’re not saying that they’re better than anybody else, but they’re saying that these people who we work with and who make our wine inspired us to put good juice in that bottle for you.

A: That’s an awesome story. I have some questions for you based on what you’re saying. One of the ways that wine gets a bad rap is that it can be extremely elitist, that it can be a very hard thing to get into. When we were thinking about starting VinePair seven years ago that was one of the biggest reasons. It was to try to break down those barriers and create something that everyone could find interesting and find access points to. How do you do that as a wine brand? What are you trying to do? Are there things you think you’re doing differently that more traditional wine companies haven’t done and what could they learn from what you’re doing?

C: We are learning from nobody. We decided to start a wine brand — 18 months in the making — but we are a mobile-first company. We are social media-driven, e-commerce. We don’t have a tasting room. We also don’t have a single vineyard that we work with. I hate using this word, but we’re not confined to just one vineyard. The way we’re set up is we find vineyards and winemakers in places that make good wine and we say, “Hey, we’ll give you a clean slate. We already love your wine and what you do. Let’s see where we could take it. We want a cousin of this, we want you to express your creativity, your imagination.” Right now, our winemaker for Pinot and Chardonnay is Chase from L’Angolo, because we love him. We love what he does. And then we have Syrah coming from Hazelfern, which is down the road, and he makes amazing Pinot and Chard, but we really felt like we wanted to see where he could take Syrah. So we got a great one from Walla Walla, and he’s in the process of making them now. And I went over there, it is such an amazing thing to be able to dive into like different varietals with a guy that you think is an expert on it but that also has a great story and is a great dude. And then, right before the fires out here, we picked our blanc de blancs grapes for bubbles in three years. I am so excited. I brought my youngest daughters out there and they had handfuls of grapes just crushing them. That is why we’re different. Everything we do has to be social media-driven. We don’t have a tasting room. Obviously, we would like one in the future, depending on how much we make. But right now, we don’t make enough for that to justify. And so we’re constantly evolving with this. We’re constantly trying to reach people. And give props to other winemakers and other vineyards that have inspired us to be amazing. We’re not saying ours is better. We’re saying we’re just like the cousin of somebody you already liked. I use it as collaborations. If you like a Jordan, the regular Air One Michael Jordan shoe, but all of a sudden you’d like it in a different colorway, that’s exciting. You may have two new pairs of shoes in your closet.

A: Was it always your desire to do Oregon first? When did you decide, “OK, I want to start a winery and a wine label?”

C: It happened after I retired, I sat down with Jake and Chase. And I think for me, Chase, as a winemaker, I wanted to get his perspective. “Hey, is this exciting to you? Is this something that you think other winemakers would want to do? If I asked you over a great meal, what kind of grapes do you want to work with?” His brand tastes one way. That’s his interpretation. But when you get two or three different people tasting and mixing and matching, the palate completely changes. And that’s what was exciting to him. Seeing where he could take his grapes to show the versatility of his winemaking, of his grapes, of the terroir. I don’t want to say I hate using that word because it sounds so smart, but for me, he’s done amazing things for Chosen. If you taste Chosen and then L’Angolo you’d be like, “This is from the same plot of land? This is from the same vineyard?” But both of them are equally good. It just depends on what you like. But, again, that’s the conversation. The whole point is to create that conversation with somebody that you love. “Wow. This is a little more oaky. I wonder, is this new French barrel? Is that old French barrel? Did he boil the barrel? Did he put this in a clay pot?” All of these conversations are things that are connectors that we love being able to bring to the table. But literally after I had a conversation with him he was excited. We hugged it out and then we started this process of figuring out what our palate was going to be, how it’s going to evolve, do we want this drinkable now, do we want to lay down, or do we want a mix of both? And that’s really kind of the fun part of going through all the barrels and being a little bit of this, a little bit of that, and then you let the winemaker go do his mad scientist stuff. I don’t know how he does what he does. I could tell him, I just want a little pepper. He goes, give me a second. Boom. Puts a little bit of this. Oh, this is peppery now.

A: What did you decide? When you were going through it, did you decide you want it drinkable now? Did you decide half and half? And what was the rationale for whatever decision you came up with?

C: We decided we want to do half and half. Because of our demographic and the people, we want to be able to drink our wine now. We want them to go on this journey with us. So our biggest thing is, buy two bottles. If you can, buy one now, drink it when you have a special occasion, drink it on a Tuesday, drink it and remember it. And then let us sit for two or three years, because it is going to age really well. It’s only a 2018, so this Pinot is going to age really well. It shocked me, too. I opened up a 1999 Beaux Freres and I was shocked that a 21-year-old Pinot from the Willamette Valley was tasting that delicious. So it gives us hope that if you do want to lay it down, it is going to mature. It is going to be able to do that, but if you want to drink it now, which a lot of millennials — and I’m a millennial, I’m only 37 — want that drink now. But I think the more that people roll with us and listen to us about what to do with our wine, it’s going to be exciting that you can drink it every year with your friends but then see the evolution of our palate and see the evolution of our brand. Coming on this journey with us is really what we’re trying to talk about. So every year, we’ll open up that same bottle of white and see how it’s evolved.

A: Do you plan on continuing to make, for years to come, this Pinot, this Chardonnay, potentially this Syrah, and also expand? Or do you think that, because you have this ability to go to different vineyards and winemakers, that may be what Chosen Family is? For a few years you’re making this Pinot and this Chardonnay, and then five years later, you’re making Russian River or something? Have you thought about what that looks like?

C: Super thought about it. I think about it all the time, and I think business is going to dictate how far we can go. What’s amazing is right now, we have people in Italy looking for Nebbiolo, Barolo, Barbaresco. I get goosebumps thinking about it. I have friends in Australia looking at Shiraz, looking at things that they’re doing down there. We are planning trips to go to Walla Walla, Wash., which I think is the most underrated wine area in America. I think for me, if you go to Walla Walla, Wash., you have Cabernet, which is underrated, Syrah is absolutely amazing. I think one thing that people don’t drink as much now is Merlot, but I think amazing Merlot is absolutely delicious.

A: That’s one movie’s fault.

C: Basically. And so for us, right now, Chase is obviously our winemaker and unless something happens to his vineyard, he’s in for full-time. And that Hazelfern, as long as he’s able to do it with his time and his business, he’s in full-time. So every year, we’re going to be evolving with different winemakers but that doesn’t mean that we can’t go to California, we can’t go to Paso Robles and make another Pinot and Chardonnay from Paso Robles with a different winemaker. And that is why, again, it encompasses the name Chosen Family. We’re not going to just the big brand name places. We are going to the mom-and-pop places, the people who are making delicious wine that is going to be a small batch, and it is going to be maybe 50 cases, maybe a 100 cases, maybe 200 max, but we’re not putting out 10,000 cases like that. We just don’t feel like you’re going to get that quality. So come with us on the journey, because maybe one year, we may do a rosé and then the next year we say, we don’t want to do a rosé, or we’ll do a rosé with bubbles. We have that ability based on who we are. Maybe we do two Chardonnays. Maybe we get grapes from a different area in Oregon where now people can taste a difference between the Dundee Hills and Eola-Amity. That’s very cool. That’s what’s exciting to me. Where do we want to go? But the winemakers dictate that to us. They go, “Man, I would love to have some of the rocks raw.” OK. “How can we get grapes? Let’s go up there and meet some of the people who own the vineyards, who harvest the grapes and let’s go create a relationship so that we can get the best grapes and make an amazing product.”

A: That’s awesome. I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you, because of everything we’re dealing with in the country right now with Covid. When new brands launch, especially wine, one of the biggest initial marketing strategies is, you’re definitely focusing a lot on social, which I think is insanely smart, but a lot of people think restaurants are one of the best ways to get introductions. Obviously, restaurants in America are struggling right now. Was that part of your initial plan, and did you have to change? Or was that never part of your plan? How are you adapting to the fact that probably introducing people to Chosen Family through restaurants, at least for the foreseeable future, isn’t going to be something that happens that often?

C: I think for us, we have great relationships. First of all: Everyone support your local businesses. I think people don’t understand how important the restaurant industry is to an ecosystem of people. And so for me, especially in Portland, you live in Brooklyn, the food scene is everything here. We are constantly seeing new food scenes and so many have been affected by Covid. And so, for us, obviously we would love to have it in a restaurant, but because this first year we’re only making 125 cases, we weren’t being able to hand it out and be able to continually buy grapes for the next year or two. Once we produce, I would say, 200 Chardonnay, 200, 300 Pinot, maybe 100 bubbles, now we can start to put our wine in certain places. And so that is kind of the thing for us. We don’t want them in every restaurant, but restaurants that we’ve actually gone to, where we know the owner, we know the head chef, we spent time there, we feel the vibe, we know them personally, that’s where we want our wine.

A: Makes sense. Right now, if someone wanted to find the wine, would they just find it on the website?

C: At chosenfamilywines.com and then stay attached to us on Instagram, if you can. We’re going to update and go to Facebook also. It’s been interesting because I have about 20 papers of just notes. Social media is such a powerful tool, especially for a growing business. You follow LeBron, and he actually posted my wine yesterday and he called me. I didn’t ask him to do that. I don’t ask anybody to ever post my wine. I do it because, and they know it, because of how much I love it and because they are my friends that have inspired me to be better and to put out a product that people can trust. And so I called him and I was like, “I appreciate you.” And I called Allie Clifton, who was on my podcast. She opened it with her mother from Ohio. And they were like, “Well, we usually don’t like Pinots so don’t be upset.” And all of a sudden, they’re like, “We’re buying two bottles right now. We didn’t even know Pinot could taste like that.” And I wanted to cry, because, for me being in this industry after playing basketball my whole life, and I’ve had some great help from my partners, but this is the first time I get to be artistic. It’s the first time my taste and our taste is put on the forefront. This is an opinion-based business. If you don’t like it, it’s your opinion, but we’re not going to argue about it. But I promise you that people are going to like it if they give it a chance.

A: I mean, I’m excited just hearing you talk about it.

C: I wouldn’t be this way if I hadn’t been inspired by others. I talk about that 99 Beaux Freres, I had a Melka Metisse, it was ridiculous. I had a Rex Hill 90. And obviously I stick a lot to Oregon but I have to see what people are doing so that I can push myself, so that we can push ourselves as a business. But then I’m excited to take this trip, once basketball season is over, to Washington, and just dive into that culture and dive into what these people have been doing to be so successful in making delicious wine. And it’s super, the bug. If you had a picture, you would see I have my championship ring. I have my beer, which is like an IPA that comes out once a year for charity. And then my two wine bottles. It’s some of the proudest things I’ve ever done. It’s serious, on my mantle. It’s been a journey. It’s hard work, but it’s the biggest labor of love that I’ve had, and this is just great. I could talk wine all day.

A: I don’t want to keep you too much, but I have to ask you two more questions. Obviously. you’re drinking lots of Chosen Family, which you should be, but what else are you drinking right now? Is there anything else that you discovered? I think you’re going to make someone on my staff extremely happy with your comment about Walla Walla, who’s been shouting about it to us forever. That it’s something that no one else is talking about. So I think that that’s a good pro tip, but what else have you been drinking recently that’s really exciting that people need to know?

C: Champagne. Listen, people’s perception of Champagne is so underrated. All they think about when they think of Champagne is Moet and Veuve. Congratulations to those two businesses. But let me tell you people, go to your store, your wine store, and go try other types of Champagne. People are doing amazing, amazing things. I taste wine a lot. I keep the bottles that I love up above my refrigerator, and I’m running out of room because most of them are Champagne bottles because I’m like, “How does this taste like this?” What is this? People getting to know me as, if I don’t know something, I don’t have a sense of pride where I won’t say, “How do they do this?” or, “How can we emulate this?” or, “Where is this?” And I’m trying to learn all the time so I can put the best product out there. And so I’m drinking a lot of Syrah right now. I tried two or three bottles last night from the Rhône region because I need to see the flavor profile. I’ve had a lot of Walla Walla, Wash. I’ve gone from Syrah that tastes like a Pinot, to a Syrah that tastes like straight bell pepper. I would love to see where we can challenge the traditional, but also give it the respect that it’s due, when it comes to Syrah. And I try to do that with every type of wine that we work with. Chase, our winemaker, is really good. He makes a great Barolo. And so I’m starting to get into Italians now. So I have to pick my days of what I’m drinking, or else I just want to drink it all. But those are the things that I’m really kind of just crushing at my house right now.

A: That’s awesome. It’s funny, Champagne is this thing where some people in the wine industry, especially somms, are really obsessed with it. And then you have the huge brands that have created a different thing than it is. But I recently also went to Champagne, also just because it’s so expensive. It is crazy, you’re like, “Wow, how does this taste different than any other sparkling I’ve ever had?”

C: Let’s say you like Champagne, but your budget doesn’t dictate that you could spend $140 on four glasses. Two people are doing amazing sparkling wine out in Oregon for good prices. I have a bottle up there doing amazing things. I think our bottle was $55, $60. And I’m like, this is great. This is great for not entry-level but this is a very solid bottle of Champagne, or sparkling wine, for that price that’s justifiable to me.

A: That’s awesome. Last question, you are obviously a professional athlete. I’m a very competitive person, although I was never good enough to be a professional athlete, but I’m very competitive. I would assume you are very competitive in a lot of things in your life, being a professional athlete. There is another professional athlete that lives in your city that has also released a wine label. You and CJ [McCollum] have any rivalry there?

C: No, no, no, no, no. CJ and I have had plenty of conversations, and the thing is that if you look at the big picture, there’s no competition between us, because we are two young African American men in 2020 with our own wine labels. We are slowly putting a new perspective into this business, which I think is better for all of us. What he does motivates me to do better in my wine. And I’ve tasted his wine, I think his wine is really good. I think Adelsheim makes good wine. They’ve been doing it for 30, 40 years, so he’s with the OGs for me. I had to stay true to my truth with my friends and my crew. And the way we’re doing business, I don’t know if it’s ever been done before. I’m not in competition. because all I’m doing is trying to showcase people who I already support. My competition is me. and how can I get people’s wine that I love because most people, if you’re out of Oregon, you wouldn’t have heard of Hazelfern. With me, I’m able to be a megaphone for people doing amazing things all around the world, the country, our region. And I’m excited for that. I’m excited to have people in Brooklyn try something from Oregon that they wouldn’t know unless they came wine tasting out here.

A: Totally. Channing, this has been an awesome conversation. I’m excited. I’m hoping people listening are excited to try Chosen Family as well. What you’re doing is really cool, next time you’re in New York, let me know. In Brooklyn, we’ll go drink some wine together.

C: If people want to get on the newsletter, we release our wine early to people on the newsletter. So [email protected]. If you sign up for that newsletter, it’ll keep you up to date. It’ll tell you what we’re doing. We are social media-driven, so you’re going to see our journey. You’re going to see what we do all the time so that we can gain your trust. You’re going to see that I’m squishing the grapes — I don’t know the technical term for it. You’re going to see that I’m tasting the juice as it’s pressed. You’re going to see that journey with our crew and our relationships that we build and in the different places.

A: That’s awesome. It’s chosenfamilywines.com If they just want to go in and they’re convinced to buy a bottle and then [email protected] email to sign up for the newsletter. Thank you for taking time on a Friday morning to chat with me about wine.

A: Thanks so much for listening to the VinePair Podcast. If you enjoy listening to us every week, please leave us a review or rating on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or wherever it is that you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show. Now, for the credits. VinePair is produced and hosted by Zach Geballe, Erica Duecy and me: Adam Teeter. Our engineer is Nick Patri and Keith Beavers. I’d also like to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder Josh Malin and the rest of the VinePair team for their support. Thanks so much for listening and we’ll see you again right here next week.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article Next Round: NBA Champion Channing Frye on Falling in Love With Wine and Launching Chosen Family Wines appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/chosen-family-wines-channing-frye/

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johnboothus · 4 years

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Next Round: NBA Champion Channing Frye on Falling in Love With Wine and Launching Chosen Family Wines

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Or check out the conversation here

Channing: Thank you so much for having me. This is a great opportunity to just talk some wine early in the morning.

A: Oh yeah. Where are you right now?

C: I’m in Portland, Ore. right now. I’ve been here 14 years. So when I got traded here from the Knicks. Shout-out to all the Knicks fans, there’s probably two or three left.

A: We’re embattled.

C: Yes. It’s hard at this point. You’re in the trenches now.

A: I think I’m going to become a Nets fan.

A: I know. I follow him on Instagram.

A: Was it always your desire to do Oregon first? When did you decide, “OK, I want to start a winery and a wine label?”

A: What did you decide? When you were going through it, did you decide you want it drinkable now? Did you decide half and half? And what was the rationale for whatever decision you came up with?

A: That’s one movie’s fault.

A: Makes sense. Right now, if someone wanted to find the wine, would they just find it on the website?

A: I mean, I’m excited just hearing you talk about it.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article Next Round: NBA Champion Channing Frye on Falling in Love With Wine and Launching Chosen Family Wines appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/chosen-family-wines-channing-frye/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/next-round-nba-champion-channing-frye-on-falling-in-love-with-wine-and-launching-chosen-family-wines

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ts-hvv4 · 4 years

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EPISODE ELEVEN: “MAYBE IM PARANOID OR MAYBE IM ABOUT TO GET CLAPPED” - LUKAS

This game is genuinely getting to me. With all the world going mad and panic’d, my schedule and thoughts has been all over the place. I’ve come to realize that a lot of the people in the game require actual effort to talk to because in games, you kind of have to be ON all the time in order to get your point across, be nice, or to avoid slipping up. But it’s getting overrated for me. I’m an introvert and at the moment, talking to these people requires too much of my energy when all I really want to do is cuddle with my boyfriend or hang out with friends I may never see again because they might leave my college campus at any moment. Since my college is completely virtual for the rest of the semester, I may graduate before saying goodbye to some people I truly care about. It’s all very surreal and depressing. I no longer really care to hear about what Sharifa’s doing when I know she’s just plotting stuff with other people while I’m talking to her. Why waste my breath? I could just sit and do nothing and not worry about this considering I’m not getting anything real out of it. I’ve had fun for a bit but now it’s overwhelming. One of my biggest outlets just left the game because there’s some people who are too content with just allowing a CLEAR trio of people with 2 idols stay in the game unchallenged. Yet, I can’t even do anything about it myself. I don’t have the numbers and I already fucked up by trying to make amends with Jake in the first place. Which is what gave that trio another idol. Oops. The worst part about it is that I’ve genuinely tried to be a good ally to those who I’ve felt have been good allies to me. I was fully on board to take out Sharifa and fucked my own game to tell Lukas the truth. Now, any time I talk to him, I feel like I’m talking to someone completely different. Like talking to a person who could go crazy at any point. The week after, I tried SHEEPING an alliance that I knew had too much power but wasn’t going to do anything about because I figured I needed their safety. But while I was doing that, they decided to fuck me over last second and try to completely vote me out. Why? Cause they were paranoid because I was being loyal. This week, I considered taking out Kurt but realized it wouldn’t happen. Yet, since the damage has been done by everyone already, why wouldn’t they take out my closest ally? Why give a fuck about me when they can just do whatever they want anyways? No reason to. They can just do and say whatever and have fun doing it. Now, I get to decide if this challenge is worth me trying to win or not. If I win, they can target someone else. Someone they all just talked about votes with. If I lose, they can vote me and I don’t have to deal with their bs anymore. It’s kind of a win-win not gonna lie. But if I win the challenge and STILL nothing happens, I’m just gonna be straight up annoyed. I’ll be frustrated and care even less about what happens which is wild considering all that I just wrote. But realistically, the vote would probably just go to Sarah or Ned anyways. Take out an inac or someone who might have an idol/power. Compared to the wild card Lukas who is following them or the overly nice person they shit on all the time (in Malik). So meh. We’ll see how much time I want to waste tomorrow but rn I’m not feeling it that much.

youtube

I won immunity holy FUCK. 940583 people tied, again, but I won the tie breaker, again. Lukas is going around calling me a comp threat sldkfjs SIS I WON A STAY UP ALL NIGHT CHALLENGE, A “HEY WHAT’S YOUR COLOR” CHALLENGE, A GUESS A NUMBER BETWEEN 1 AND 4 CHALLENGE, AND A FILM A VIDEO OF YOU EATING WHILE YOU TALK CHALLENGE LKAJDSFLKSJDLFKJ ITS NOT THAT DEEP!!! Stephanie voice: You want to call me a threat? I’ll show you how threatening I am. I’ve been cooking up a lil plan for tribal and the best part about it, no one knows I’m at the center of it. Operation backstab Jake is commencing in 5, 4, 3, 2…. Everyone is scared about Jake, Kurt and I being a trio and they want to split us up. Why is everyone scared you ask? Because Jake fucked us over by spilling our tea to Nicklas and not disclosing that relationship to us. It’s just funny because I remember how mad Jake got at me, when I let him know I was pissed. Jake spilling the alliance to Nicklas and telling him I was going after Sarah, is the whole ENTIRE reason why I almost went home at top 11. It’s the whole ass reason why Nicklas had enough information to expose me. It has been a wrench in my plans since the merge. What Nicklas wasn’t prepared for is the fact that I can adapt to whatever situation that is thrown at me, and I’ve been able to shift gears, adjust, and keep on driving down the highway. Part of that adjusting though is getting rid of the target on my back from this trio. Winning this immunity was high key crucial. By me being immune, and Kurt having the social game he has, the only member of the Gross Sisters that people can get the votes on is Jake. The smartest thing for the The Butterflies to do was to plant the seeds and reap the harvest. Just nudge nudge Malik/Lukas/Sarah to something they already want to do, just don’t realize they would have the votes for. Oh just in case if I haven’t updated, The Butterflies consists of Ned, Kurt and myself, named because when I told Ned to be smooth with his game play, he responded “I’ll be as smooth as a butterfly” FLSKDJ got to love the straights <3. Ned and Kurt have a tendency to overthink, they’re really nervous about the execution of the move, and I am to. Because Jake has an idol, and he has enough info to blow up all our games. Voting him out is like trying to deactivate a bomb. One cut of the wrong wire and BOOOOOOOM, we’re dead. Because of that we have to make sure that this doesn't get back to Nicklas. To help stall, I’m telling literally everyone I can get my hands on that I want to vote Nicklas out. That bridge is already burned so might as well keep lighting it on fire hehe. If the destraction vote is Nicklas, than that can hopefully justify my shady behavior to Nicklas and Jake. Hell, maybe Jake would play the idol on Nicklas, which would be beautiful. The thing I’m most worried about is Malik or Lukas approaching Nicklas with the plan to vote out Jake. If they do it’s imperative I organize a split vote. 4 votes on Jake, 2 votes on Nicklas, and 2 votes on Sarah. It will suck because Jake will be left in the game with ample time to expose Ned, Kurt and I, but at least Nicklas will be gone and Jake will have lost some power. Malik and Lukas are already plotting, thinking this is their idea, and Sarah approached me acting like she talked about it with Malik and not Lukas. IM TELLING YALL SARAH AND LUKAS ARE TIGHT AKLSDJF THEY CAN TRY TO HIDE IT FROM ME BUT IM THE QUEEN OF SECRET ALLIANCES. So Sarah brought up voting out Jake and I acted all morally conflicted, said I needed the night to think about it. Sarah can be really flighty so I need her to think she’s in the driver seat. I feel awful. I'm promising an end game and everything, I even made a final 3 with her and Ned, but I need to do what I need to do, to get The Butterflies to the end. Plus I think she’s high key playing me because her and Lukas are def something. I made a deal if we did Jake this time, she HAS to use her vote steal to get out Nicklas right after. I’m pretty sure this is going to be a double tribal, and that’s when I’ve been planning to take Jake and Nicklas out in one fell swoop. This plan is so fragile, and can literally blow up at any second, but if I don’t make this move, I know Jake will not let me touch final 3. My game has always been taking people out, before they could take me out, and that’s just what I have to try to do. If this move does work, final 7 is going to be tricky tricky, if Ned, Kurt and I can make it past it, we’re almost home free, but everyone is going to want to take a shot at me if I lose immunity. Kurt and I have talked about him being the one to pull the trigger. He’s going to go around saying it’s time to take a shot at me, and we’ll see who goes with it, and who won’t. The idea is forcing Sarah into using her steal a vote to help me get out Nicklas. If it is a double tribal, everything is going to happen fast, I just need to make sure I keep myself grounded and calm. I know this jury is bitter as fuck at me right now. And as my body count gets higher and higher, so does the salt level. But even though it seems impossible, I am WINNING this game I swear to God. I have fought tooth and nail, I’ve run this season, and I will take my rightful place on the throne, with my third crown.

So this vote will go one of two ways: 1) Jake or Sarah go home, which are both fine by me. I would die for Jake to be taken out since he’s so distant towards me, but if Sarah goes due to some shifty shit I’m fine with it. Kurt and I have been working soooo hard on getting the votes on Jake, and we think we have Malik and Ned and maybe even Sarah. But Sharifa is still on her warpath towards Nicklas and Jake wants Sarah, so who knows. 2) Either Kurt or I go home. People have been eerily quiet around me and I know that in this season, that’s a bad omen (as Matt and Dennis have proven). So maybe I’m paranoid, or maybe I’m about to get clapped. All I know is that if I survive this round and a potential live round tonight, this game will be more in my hands than it ever has been.

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utopianparadoxist · 7 years

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Lilith in Starlight: Light as a romantic motif in Homestuck

Yeah yeah I was gonna write about Jade--still gonna but I got to thinking about this instead and I can write this up quicker. In this beautiful day of 4/13, I want to let you all in on a secret:

Homestuck is good, y’all. Specifically, Homestuck’s romantic relationships are good, and there’s a specific motif running through all of the main relationships in the canon that makes them all better and more meaningful:

The Light Aspect.

The Light Aspect has specific connotations in Homestuck--it’s linked not just to literal Light, but to Information, Ideas, Understanding, Good-Fortune, and most relevantly to us, the concept of Enlightenment.

All of these connections are ones I’m planning to outline in soon upcoming videos in Homestuck, Explained, but the basic breakdown is that all of these concepts are linked under the Light banner through the main Gnostic Creation Myth. Gnosticism, for those unaware, is the source of Abraxas, Yaldabaoth, and the Seven Gates above each player’s houses in Sburb. It’s a prominent undercurrent to Homestuck’s themes, which I’ll be breaking down in detail.

The Gnostic creation myth goes like this: In the realm of nothingness, where all that exists is ideas, there existed pairs of concepts called Aeons meant to create reality by working together. Sophia, the Aeon of Wisdom, wished to “know that which could not be known” by the formless ideas, and so interacted with the Material World without her partner Aeon.

In doing so, she creates the Demiurge--also known as Yaldabaoth, this is described as a sightless God because he cannot perceive the realm of ideas that created him in the first place.

Seeing nothing around but himself in the Material world, Yaldabaoth declares himself God and sets about creating humanity and the contents of reality--explaining why pain and suffering exist: The physical world is a product of a being of evil.

Feeling sympathy for the plight of us mortals subjected to suffering, Sophia Descends from the plane of ideas into the physical realm, imbuing in us the power of her Light, also described as Pleroma, granting us the power to perceive the world of Ideas...and thus, climb endlessly upwards to achieve Enlightenment.

Homestuck’s design adds an extra stipulation to this quest for Enlightenment: That the path to Englightenment comes is paved by working and connecting to other people. The willingness to form bonds and change as a result of relationships is what makes Heroes Heroes in Homestuck, and renders Villains as Villains as well.

The only other thing you need to understand before we get into the details is this: The Aspect of Light is an idea that creates all sorts of things in Homestuck’s universe, not a static set of superpowers. The Aspects make up all of Homestuck’s reality, as we’re told by Alt!Calliope, and so any manifestation that can be understood under a given Aspect’s banner can in fact be considered a symbol for that Aspect.

This breakdown over with, let’s go over the biggest Homestuck relationships real quick: Those between Rose and Kanaya, Roxy and Calliope, Dirk and Jake, and Terezi and Vriska.

Jade and Davepeta will come later, since I need to write a whole bunch about Jade alone to make my point there. Dave and Karkat are largely about cultural forces, not metaphysical ones, so Light isn’t a strong motif for them...but their getting together is taken as a sign of good fortune, linking their health and the health of their timeline to Light.

Without further ado, then:

Rose and Kanaya

Rose is the easiest to start with because she is, for all intents and purposes, Sophia made flesh--and under a Gnostic reading, she also fills the role of a Jesus analog quite easily.

Rose is the Seer of Light: one who knows Light, or knows through Light. If you’ve ever wondered why Rose--even among the girls, who typically get less focus on their sexualities in Homestuck--uniquely never seems to even question or struggle with her attraction to women, well, Here’s why:

Rose has an innate sense that human culture’s scruples about sexuality are inherently unimportant, and she never feels the need to take it seriously for a second. She sees no Light in them, and so nothing worth considering. (Author’s Note: To be clear, this is just how I read this particular point. If this is really what the comic was going for, it still would’ve been nice for Rose to...you know...Talk about it >_>, and I think the criticisms wlw have had for the comic are on point about this. Also, I’m a dude, I’d defer to them regardless, and you should be listening to them about this primarily anyway.)

What Rose DOES find herself wrestling with is Skaia’s predestined self-actualization, and especially during the Beta session, with the inherent doom and damnation the Session gives her as fact.

These are intellectual challenges Rose cannot see through, and when she’s forced to accept them as fact she reacts with anger, regarding the world as having inherently failed her and her friends.

In a sense, this echoes her relationship with Mom--again, she cannot view the bigger picture of Mom as a child, and regards Mom’s arbitrary and erratic nature contentiously. Rose seeks the ability to understand things on an intellectual level, and lashes out when she’s unable to.

The point is that early Rose has a fundamentally uncomfortable relationship with material reality--and escapes and challenges that reality by relying on the power of her Ideas.

Once she creates the Green Sun and survives, some of that conflict is assuaged for her, and some of that might have to do with having survived all of Sburb’s ordeals after all giving her a more optimistic outlook, but it mostly has to do with...

Her relationship with Kanaya, who manifests the Light Rose finds herself seeking as a product of her physical nature. This gets into the root of their romance--Rose falls for Kanaya because her clever but literal and earthly nature keeps Rose grounded in reality, even as she seeks more and more intense ideas pertaining to her existential reality.

Once she starts dating Kanaya, Rose begins experimenting with physical reality, regarding it less like an enemy and more like a tool--her experiments with drinking don’t end well, but Kanaya helps re-ground her and she gets a better idea of what her Mom was really like. She also seems to take to deconstructing the practice of Alchemy as a hobby, both in terms of engineering and philosophically.

And when Rose is at a loss for what to do about a problem in her head, Kanaya is the one who offers a practical and actionable solution--even if Rose doesn’t end up executing it well.

Then there’s the fact that what Kanaya likes about Rose is specifically her clarity of vision, insight and ideas. When Kanaya is at her darkest and has lost all desire for relevance or existing in material reality, it’s Rose who lights a path for her and promises to guide the way--just as she did originally when Kanaya admired Rose from afar through her gamefaqs guide.

Rose achieves this immediately by charting a path of Light through which to guide her friends through endless Void, to the higher plane of ideas contained within the Alpha session and the peace that grappling with those ideas will provide. In essence, Rose acts as a Gnostic version of Jesus leading the dead out of Hell--a point I’ll DEFINITELY need to flesh out in dedicated form later.

In essence, Kanaya heals Rose’s relationship with Space--physical reality--while Rose helps Kanaya see past the mundane and into the world of Light--ideas. Together, their romantic narrative suggests that Enlightenment isn’t just about having really good ideas and becoming disattached from the physical, but about striking a balance between clarity of mental vision and a willingness to engage with that’s physically real.

Roxy and Calliope

Neither Roxy nor Calliope are Light players, but the concept still features heavily in their relationship.

Roxy’s angst surrounding her friends centers largely on feeling marginal and unconsidered in their romantic drama, even as she goes about trying to help them all.

She doesn’t have this struggle with Calliope, though--Calliope notably always greatly values and adores Roxy for what she does from the very beginning of their time together, even putting her in the spotlight in a sense by presenting her artistically, which Roxy reacts to much more strongly than Dirk.

She also overfocuses onto the idea of a relationship with Dirk, buying into the ideas of heteronormativity that Rose effortlessly discarded early on--these ideas are explicitly false information in Homestuck, giving them Voidy qualities. (This, by the way, complements Calliope buying into her species’ inability to experience red romance. Biological determinism is bullshit in Homestuck, hope you’re taking notes.)

Calliope also confides in Roxy her Ultimate Secret (withheld information--Void). This ultimately puts Roxy on the search that makes up the majority of her quest--leading her to finding Calliope for the first time in a spiral made of Light.

Where Calliope goes on to provide Roxy with an absolutely massive amount of True Information--Enlightening her as to her own fate, the kids’ goals, the ways Lord English has attacked them, and the need to find Alt!Calliope...not to mention setting Roxy on the path to eventually claiming the Ring of Life through John.

Calliope is an analog for the reader of fiction, who casts light onto the story they experience by having ideas about the reality within the fiction. The reader themselves is not included in this ideascape, however--and so remain in shadow, outside the reality of the story.

Roxy steals the Void out of Calliope’s role in the story, taking her out of the Void and into the Light-filled realm of the waking world. Thus allowing Calliope to reach the same conclusion Rose does--she does not have to be outside reality to enjoy the ideas inherent to it. Like Rose embraces the physical, Calliope is able to embrace herself as a valid part of her reality, consume the fruits of her own existence...and live.

Dirk and Jake

God knows I’ve written about Dirk and Jake enough lately, so I’m not going to linger here. The bottom line is Dirkjake is one of the most romantic and fulfilling relationships in this goddamn comic, and I’ll make you all see it if my fingers have to go numb from typing. In the interest of accomplishing this, a couple notes:

All I want to point out here is that just as Rose ties into Sophia, Dirk ties into Yaldabaoth and Jake into Abraxas--the three main deities of the Gnostic myth.

There’s the Denizens, obviously, but Dirk’s chumhandle--timaeusTestified--refers to Timaeus’ Testimony, a Greek text where the Demiurge(the same deity as Yaldabaoth by a different name) is described in detail.

Abraxas, meanwhile, is described as the Great Unseen, the hidden invisible God beyond Good and Evil who combines all opposites into one being. It’s also described as the lord of frogs and toads, casting a new light on Jake and Dirk’s consort kingdom.

The motifs tie into Dirk and Jake’s relationships to themselves and each other. Dirk stresses about his potential as an inherently evil being--primarily for an act of creation, as if he were a potential Yaldabaoth. A version of Dirk even literally becomes a Yaldabaoth by fusing with Lord English.

Dirk is profoundly occupied with his own inherent evil, as opposed to Rose who is occupied with the evil of the world. But like Rose, he finds an answer through romance--specifically, in Jake, a boy who believes in all possibilities and touches Dirk’s heart by believing in his potential to be helpful and good.

And just as Abraxas generates the Aeons to create reality on it’s behalf, so too Jake largely relies on Dirk to help him navigate any part of reality he doesn’t want to deal with. Jake wants life to be a fun, exciting adventure--and he doesn’t sweat the small stuff so long as Dirk is around to keep him safe.

This dynamic is, again, stressed through Light. When Jake kisses Dirk’s head, Dirk comes alive in a way no other corpsesmooch causes--his Heart filling up with overbearing Light-- as well as the lamp that represents Dirk’s life, the lamp in particular growing so bright it in fact cannot contain the force of Dirk’s emotion and simply shatters. (This moment is pretty much the only reason these lanterns exist, by the way--they only light up like thiss again when the kids God Tier--that is to say, Ascend.)

When Aranea lights Jake up, his only response is to summon his perfect, idealized Dirk, quoting his favorite movie (one that perfectly encapsulates the nature of their relationship as well as Jake’s arc), calling himself his boyfriend (post break-up), and coming to save him from the entities making him feel unsafe.

For both boys, Light results in coming closer together--Dirk rushes to Jake’s side, and Jake calls Dirk right to him. It’s a symbiotic arrangement that results in both achieving peace with their lives--Jake reassuring Dirk’s existential angst, Dirk making Jake’s adventures and life stress-free and enjoyable.

Terezi and Vriska

This one is a little complicated, since they haven’t technically ended up together in the Alpha (but like, you know, I believe in them?) but all of the Light symbolism is there, and the imagery is some of the most interesting and compelling.

Plenty of people have pointed out how as a Light player, Vriska steals the spotlight. But the Mind aspect is represented through neurons carrying streaks of thought represented as Light, and this evokes her relationship with Terezi as well--Vriska steals the spotlight in Terezi’s thoughts, too, Terezi considering her both the most important person in her life and the riddle she most needs to solve to reach Understanding.

To Terezi, understanding Vriska is necessary to understanding herself is necessary to understanding reality, so it’s no surprise she ends up caught off balance and unable to reach real conclusions or catharsis whether Vriska is alive or dead--in either case, Terezi simply does not consider making the one choice that might give her true insight: Being honest with herself and Vriska about how she feels about her. Being true to her Heart.

Until, of course, she does. The moment Terezi is finally honest about what she desires--that she wants Vriska, that she wants to remember her alternate self, that she wants the truth about what Vriska really thinks of her...she gets it. Her Seer of Mind powers manifest in full, giving her access to her Game Over self’s memories after her death, bringing her face to face with...

Vriska. The Mind symbol in [S] Remem8er literally fades into Vriska.

And not JUST a Vriska, but a Vriska uniquely positioned to give her the truth--a Vriska who’s had time and space to put down her swords and masks, a Vriska who’s learned how to love and then been abandoned, a Vriska who’s been forced to reconsider what’s important, and a Vriska who’s thoughts ultimately lead her to...

Terezi again, and to both of them meeting honestly on a bright red quadrant, no less (in case you were wondering whether this is all romantic: the answer’s yes). This is a Vriska who is uniquely positioned to make a different choice with Terezi, and simply be honest about her feelings.

And what do they do together once they exchange those feelings?

Gaze into the light together. Finally able to understand each other and themselves, Terezi and Vriska are finally able to understand reality, as well. Again, reaching Enlightenment and inner peace is linked to connecting to those you care about.

And Alpha Terezi is privy to all this. She gets to see the truth she wanted so badly. So it’s no surprise she decides Vriska is worth going back into the Void for--she already knows how she feels.

The only question, then, is if and how Vriska herself will realize it. I suppose it’s also possible (Vriska) and (Terezi) are still alive, and some kind of merger will take place--many people think they died in that bubble, but I think it’s ambiguous for a reason. In any case I do think SOME version of Vriska and SOME version of Terezi will end up together and live. Or at least...I hope so.

I’m really excited for the fucking epilogue.

Anyway everyone in homestuck is lgbt, dirkjake and vrisrezi are canon, all these ships are great and canon treats them great and I dearly hope to god we can someday just celebrate them all. Hopefully this post will give you new stuff to love about each one.

Happy 4/13, guys. I love you. Even those of you wrong about dirkjake.

This series of meta posts is a passion project, but also a side project to my youtube series aimed at welcoming and explaining Homestuck to new, incoming Hiveswap fans. If you find yourself trying to make it easier for a Hiveswap fan to understand what Homestuck is about and how it connects to the game, I hope you think of me.

If you like my writing and have a buck to spare, you could also really help me out by enabling me to focus on putting more of this content out there through pledging on Patreon. Doing so will also give you access to my private community of enthusiasts trying to advance new and interesting readings of this wonderful property.

See you again soon, everyone. Until then,

Keep rising.

#Homestuck #My MSPA Analysis #Vrisrezi #Dirkjake #Rosemary #Roxycallie #Classpects #Light Aspect

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ts-crossroads · 7 years

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Episode Ten - “I’m Allowed To Talk To People Without It Being Shady” - Ryan

Ok that was the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of what was supposed to happen and by fucking up drafts I was referring to John Coffey leaving. I don’t even know why I’m still here; everyone sucks but people are counting on me and I just- men are awful. Just when women almost had majority the first time all game. JUST WHEN REBECKA AND I WERE FINALLY WORKING TOGETHER!!!! Himalayas mom and dads I wasn’t apart of that you have to believe me!!!

Dammit dammit dammit https://media.giphy.com/media/aJWbodHJSZ1g4/giphy.gif I'm always blindsided, never the blindsider. Idc who Rebecka's voted in the past that's my sister and I love her AND WE WERE FINALLY ON THE SAME SIDE!!!!! She even apologized about the Ned vote. My Athena parents raised me better than to turn on my sister but clearly John's did not. Fucking John Coffey- he's such a liar and Ryan is a sneak and Haley is both but Chris is probably stopping her from taking me out (thanks fam) but does it even matter?? Because clearly I'm playing for 6th place and headed out the door anyway so what does it even matter. And Jake. FUCKING JAKE. I can't- I thought I could trust him and I forgave him for the Chris thing. But then he goes and does this???? Hey Jake, piece of advice? Anytime Fatum calls you to talk game DONT PICK UP THE PHONE YOU KNOW THEY'RE ONLY CALLING CAUSE THEY'RE SHADY AND ALONE. You didn't need to make that move right now/ it was a ceasefire!!!! So now aaaaaaalll the hard work me and Sam put in to not be on the bottom AND to give Imperium a majority in this game just went up in flames but Jake sweeeaars he's still with us and he didn't mean to betray us https://78.media.tumblr.com/9a76394ed7ae897087ddb6c1cc1f214a/tumblr_n9hk2t8jdn1sfct0qo4_400.gif I got news for you kid: once an ugly always an ugly

Hiiii you can catch me sweating out all my organs if I don't win this immunity cause I always go home in a 5-2 blindside :)

Hmmm okay. Dane won immunity this round which didn't really phase me because I wanted to wait until the f6 to strike at him anyways, but this takes away a target from the Fatum 3. It was way too quiet after immunity results and I felt like something was off, so I talked to Dane and he told me that the Fatum 3 told him that I was pushing for him before he won immunity. So mama snapped and told him that they were the ones who were pushing him to go, and he told me that he believed me. Even though I like John, I have to lie to him this round. I'm scared of going into the final 6 with the Fatum 3 in tact, because I think that they will all choose each other over me, and all their work to get on my good side seems to be just for a temporary alliance. It sucks being the lone Optio in between 3 fatum and 3 imperium. I hope that Sam and Autumn are more loyal to me than they are to Dane since he flipped on Ned round one, but who knows. Our hope is that Haley is the least likely to get idoled if they have one. I don't know what I'm going to do after this. I want Dane out next but Ryan says he has an idol and who knows if Sam or Autumn would want to vote him out.

Ok I just wrote the longest confessional and it all disappeared so I'm angry and now my replacement confessional will be much shorter, sorry about it. So Jake flipped on me and Autumn last round. He voted out Rebecka, after we worked so hard to bring her to our side. Me and Autumn were pissed but we realized we have to do 2 things. 1 we have to make jake think we aren't mad and he is our f3 still. Because if we show any signs of distrust, he won't help us anymore. And 2. We need to solidify something with Dane. We made an alliance chat and it's been going really well so far. Jake and Dane came up with a plan to stage a fight in the tribe chat, so that it looks like my side is distancing ourselves from Jake. This will hopefully cause Ryan to confide more in Jake, who will hopefully turn around and tell us what the other side is planning. I'm pretty sure they're writing down my name tonight, and I don't have an idol. I'm relying on him to be loyal to me on this one. I want to vote Ryan, because the more I think about it, the bigger a threat he is. He got both Dane and Jake to flip on me to vote with him. That would be a huge statement if he was against me in FTC. As much as I want Ryan out though, I think he still has an idol. We tried to get him to flush it last round by voting out John instead, but since Jake flipped, he didn't play it. Therefore he probably still has it. So this round we are stuck voting out Haley, hoping Ryan plays his idol on himself. AND hoping Jake votes with us this time. We told Jake that we are telling the other side his name, in case they try to come to him about us. I think with Jake flipping and the fight between the two, it would be somewhat believable. Also, as I am typing this confessional, I am talking to Haley. The convo was very annoying. First she asked about the vote, I told her Jake. She then goes on to complain about feeling on the bottom. BITCH. I have been on the wrong side of most of the merge votes. The only one where I got my way was when I played an idol on myself. So for Haley to be trying to make ME feel sorry for HER! I am heated. Also, Jake just let me know that she used quoted messages from me saying his name. She literally has the worst social game, and I hope she feels on the bottom :) We are all voting her out tonight and I hope it works out. I'm going to be upset if I end up in jury tonight, but at least I'll be reunited with Ned and Bryan. I miss those two soooo much. Also I have these two coins that I have been impatiently waiting to trade in for anything and Owen keeps postponing it! I won't be in this game forever Owen, help me out pls!

This round has been crazy. The twist is definitely big and having a light tribal we can finally see who is truly loyal. Dane is one of the biggest threats and he needs to go. Autumn is just here. Sam is the main target and if everything goes as planned tonight then it will be a 3-3-1 vote and if idols get played then autumn will be the one to go when everyone really wanted sam. Dane is one of the shadiest players.

People make it clear they talk to me when they've already talked something through with someone else. Haley idoling Jake with John? Already talked about it, when even bother asking me when you know what you want done. Dane, Autumn, Sam haven't talked to me and although I love 2/3 of them I just don't want to be lied to or fake talk today. I think I'm just going to play my idol on myself. I've lied a lot this round to Jake and Dane about them shit talking each other. If Dane sent receipts of me to Jake I could be screwed. I tried to blame it on Dane but... I don't think I was that convincing tbh. And last round Dane hated me because I told Rebecka that Dane wanted Julia out. Go fuck yourself Dane??? like.... you said all day you were going to talk to Rebecka about it, I'm allowed to fucking talk to people about this game without it being shady. I've even told him when he was targeted, I've told him EVERYTHING and all he does is call me shady. My dream F3 is John and Haley. I suspect a F2 with a jury of 9.

Okay so I'm over working with Ryan at this point. After the Rebecka vote off I confronted him about how I haven't been able to trust him and the bitch just tries to flip it onto me saying how I'm the untrustworthy one when I literally called him out on lying straight to my face. ALSO Ryan the Rat decided to trust Haley over my word? I've known him for years and Haley can barely keep her eyes open during tribal council, why would he trust anything that Haley says over me? After this conversation he realized that all I've done is try and benefit OUR games while he's been playing selfishly and trying to gather his numbers so he would have people on HIS side instead of our side.... what a bitch. Anyways I won my first every individual immunity challenge in my tumblr survivor career and it secured my best placement in tumblr survivor so I'm REALLY HAPPY! And I was apparently going to be targeted this round, which isn't surprising considering the amount of titles I got in touchy subjects lkasgmklasdglmsd. So now for tribal council, as much as I would like to get rid of Ryan, the people that I'm working with right now (Jake, Autumn, and Sam) are a fucking mess and can't consistently stick to a plan. They told Haley, Ryan, and John that they're voting out Ryan, John, and even Jake.... like sis.... So I told our side that they're going to be so suspicious of all the names that they threw out so Ryan's going to be playing his idol, most likely on himself or John, so Jake and I came up with the plan to target Haley since she already has a half idol as well and she's the least likely to get targeted in this vote. So I'm Praying by Kesha that the plan to get out Haley goes through xoxoxoxoxoxooxxoxo gossip girl.

Battle of the side bitches

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

#tscrossroads #episode ten #confessionals

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flauntpage · 7 years

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Claude Giroux No Longer the Flyers’ Number One Center… for a Day, Anyway

VOORHEES, N.J. – Sean Couturier has been teammates with Claude Giroux for six years. And other than the odd shift here and there, the two have never played together on the same line with any regularity.

Until now. Maybe.

For one day at least, Giroux was shifted from the center spot he has played exclusively for almost his entire professional career, to the left wing, with Couturier in the middle and Jake Voracek on the right wing.

It was one practice. In training camp. And as Giroux said afterward, “I don’t want to talk too much about it because I may not see one shift on left wing.”

Got it. Don’t read too much into it. Except, it’s an interesting notion.

First of all, for all you analytics geeks, that combination would be a puck possession monster. Couturier was superb last season. Voracek’s possession numbers were down a little bit last year, but were still decent – and normally he’s excellent. And Giroux is always above average.

So yeah, that’s good stuff.

Secondly, the real intriguing concept of this combination is putting both Giroux and Voracek on their off-hand wing.

“So, you always like to play on your off wing because you can see so much more of the ice,” Voracek told me. “When you have two guys who are doing that, and one of them is a guy like G who has elite vision, it can be really tough to defend.”

Defensemen would be on a swivel as there would be additional passing lanes created by two off-handed wingers.

Thirdly, last season, one of the disappointing aspects of the top line was that it wasn’t very good defensively. And no matter how good your possession numbers are (and they were down across the board last season) you still have to play defense 45-50 percent of the time. Putting Couturier on that top line would immediately change that for the better.

So there are a lot of positives here.

But, it is definitely something that could have a ripple effect down the line. Would moving Couturier change the defensive strength down the lineup? Is he a productive enough player offensively to merit top-line minutes? Does moving Giroux to the wing impact his production?

��We’re in camp and we want to look at all the good options we might have, and this is one we wanted to look at,” coach Dave Hakstol said. “This was a good day to take a look at it in practice and overall it was a pretty effective day for that group.

“G is still our number one center, but he’s such a skilled player that he can play anywhere on the ice. The level of camp G has had is outstanding. We talked about this a lot and thought this was a good time to look at it. We still have to evaluate it and take a look at it further and see where we go from there. We’re not going to draw any conclusions, but we’ll look at it and see if there’s a next step.”

Nevertheless, it was a novel idea that Giroux welcomed.

“[Hakstol] came to me yesterday and asked me what I thought about it,” Giroux said. “It’s hard to complain when you are playing with Jake and Coots.”

Giroux was drafted as a right wing in 2006. He played right wing for the Flyers through the 2010 playoffs. But he’s played center only during 5-on-5 play since 2010-11.

But left wing is new.

“We did a lot of drills with me coming down the left wing there,” he said. “I can see the ice pretty good from there with the puck on my good side. It was actually a lot of fun. If it makes the team better, I’m up for it. I liked it today and I think it can work.”

As for Couturier, he is widely misidentified as a mediocre-at-best offensive player. Honestly, he is one of the Flyers’ best 5-on-5 scorers – he was second only to Voracek in even strength goals. The reason his offensive numbers seem down is because he doesn’t get a lot of prime power play time.

“Me and Coots have been talking about it for a few years now,” Giroux said. “We’ve always wanted to play together. I like the way he views the game. He’s a better offensive player than people think. I can bring a little more offensive to his game and he can bring a little more defense to mine – I think it’s a good trade off.”

Couturier knows he’s been labeled as a defense-first player, and while that’s not necessarily a bad thing, he thinks there’s a lot more to his own game than that.

“I guess I got that reputation my rookie year when I played against [Evgeni] Malkin in the playoffs,” Couturier told me. “But I try not to put myself into that ‘shut down guy’ category. I want to be known more as a 200-foot guy. A guy who can play at both ends. I want to be a go-to guy. I want to be like [Boston Bruins center Patrice] Bergeron or [Los Angeles Kings center Anze] Kopitar. They’re not slashy skill guys, but they get the job done on both ends off the ice, and that’s how I model my game.”

My Take

This is definitely something worth looking at in the preseason. There’s no harm in it. However, I don’t think it’s a long-term concept as a regular line for the Flyers.

That said, I definitely think it’s something for Hakstol to have in his back pocket for certain matchups – much like Pittsburgh does when they combine Sidney Crosby and Malkin or when San Jose puts Joe Thornton and Joe Pavelski together.

In fact, Giroux mentioned the two Joes today. He talked about it from a faceoff perspective saying how hard it is to always take a draw against a guy on his strong side – meaning Pavelski on one side of the ice and Thornton on the other – faceoff wins lead to puck possession, and well, controlling the puck is the name of the game.

Positional versatility is an important thing to have on a roster, and it’s especially important for the Flyers, who are overloaded with centers.

Jori Lehtera, for example, played left wing for the first five days of camp and in the preseason game Sunday in New York, but he was back at center today.

Having that flexibility is important, and finding guys who can easily transition between positions is paramount. Giroux is certainly a guy who is capable.

Frankly, this center log jam is the result of some good luck for the Flyers. When the Flyers acquired Valtteri Filppula at the trade deadline last year in the Mark Streit deal, they made the trade figuring they’d have a veteran center with one year left on his contract who could be a placeholder until a younger prospect – like maybe German Rubtsov – was ready. General Manager Ron Hextall never expected to “win” the lottery and be able to draft Nolan Patrick – who will make this team, trust me. If Hextall knew at last season’s deadline that he would get a talent like Patrick in the draft, I’m betting he never would have traded for Filppula.

Nevertheless, there’s a log jam down the middle. Having the flexibility to move guys like Giroux and Lehtera to the wing allows the team to conceptually go into the season with six centers on the roster, which is also good from a depth perspective.

In the end, you may see Giroux and Couturier playing together more regularly, but I wouldn’t go out and start coming up with a nickname for this line combination just yet.

Other Stuff

– Wayne Simmonds missed practice for a second straight day. I asked for an official reason from Hextall and I was given the old “maintenance day” answer. Let me be clear. Maintenance days are rare in the preseason. Even still, I can accept one. But two days in a row? Camp opened Friday. It’s Tuesday. I know practices have been hard, but come on now. There’s something more there, but I don’t know what… yet.

– Talked to Scott Laughton for a bit. He said his biggest challenge was accepting his role as a two-way depth player. “You always want to be ‘the guy,’ you know?’ He told me. “When you’ve been that all your life, it’s hard to just become something else. It took me awhile, but I’ve come to grips with that now. I get it.” Laughton started to accept it last year and looked good at times for the Flyers. He looks to have taken another step forward in camp so far. I think he will be the fourth line center on this team – which would be a credit to him for his work ethic and maturity. A lot of young guys never figure it out. I think Laughton has.

– So much for Travis Sanheim still having a shot to make the team out of camp. He was sent to “Group 2” for practice, which is mostly all the Phantoms players, etc. He was replaced in Group 1 by T.J. Brennan. Brennan, a local product from Moorestown, N.J. is a 28-year-old veteran who can be a good depth guy for the Flyers. Hakstol said he’s looked good in camp and deserves an opportunity with the main group. I don’t think he makes the team, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets a call-up at some point – especially if there is an injury early in the season.

– Speaking of defensive depth, some whispers here is that 2014 third round draft pick Mark Friedman may be climbing the prospect depth chart. I think he’ll play a bunch in the preseason, and if he looks as good as he did in the rookie game last week, could be knocking on the same door as Sanheim and Phillippe Myers this season.

Claude Giroux No Longer the Flyers’ Number One Center… for a Day, Anyway published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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survivor-all-stars-blog · 8 years

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EP 8: “I’m Tired and feeling reckless” - Jenn [ PART I ]

So for some reason I thought that this game to return would have incredibly high scores until I found out that in the 600s seems to be the norm which is a little annoying considering I was just hitting 600 with half my time left before I fucked up. I hope Ruthie wins her way back into the game because she's the biggest angel this game has. I think Jessy fucked up too and I'm devastated b/c she's become one of my best friends in the game. It was strange finding out we've actually played games together before but didn't realize it until 2 weeks into the game and we just got on like a house on fire so I'll be really and truly sad to see her go because she's a bundle of joy. The voting at this mass tribal was honestly awful. Everyone in my expendables alliance lost a life, Ruthie lost both hers and Ricardo lost his last one. Literally anyone I was/would have allied with in the future. It's sad because I see exactly the direction where the game is going, those who had strong pre-existing bonds with lucky tribe swaps have managed to keep squeaking by because the people they've pulled in are too afraid to do anything against it.

Owen clearly has caccooned himself into a currently unbreakable alliance with layers of protection. Pat seemed to recognize this which was good. I'm just really pissed at the current hierarchies of dictatorship that are running the game. It's boring, switch it up huns.

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

I AM BACK BITCHES! AND I'M BACK WITH FURY AND I CAN'T WAIT TO GET KAIT, MJ AND CARSON OUT. THEN WES BECAUSE HE WAS OBVIOUSLY IN ON IT FOR THAT COMMENT HE MADE BEFORE MY TRIBAL.

I'M GOING TO BE SWEET AND TRUSTING TO EVERYONES FACE, THEN I AM GOING TO FUCK THEM ALL UP, I CANNOT WAIT TO CAUSE SOME CHAOS. <3

RUTHIE DID THAT

youtube

@hosts do yall want me out THIS BAD??!! I can't deal with this swap im crying and hysterically laughing at the same time! Literally as fucked as fuck can be! At least queen Ruthie won her way back into the game. Honestly all my friends died that last round so I can't wait to go on premerge holiday with them cuz it'll be LIT!

I love Jenna

Kait and I just got in a fight and I've never wanted to quit this game more in my life.

Okay, who's ready to read a novel?

The last immunity challenge was some more than complicated balls and holes interaction. Going into in, I was of the mindset that anyone other than Jessy had to win, because I didn't know what I would do if she did. I heard rumors about Wes stepping down in this game because he didn't want to vote for anyone on Thotse, and I've never felt so connected to an otherwise literal stranger before. I was also told that Abbey was sitting out because of...dog situations, which is different. It's honestly #puppygate2k17 at this point. Anyways, god bless Kait for winning because it could've been worse than it already was. When results came out, seeing Owen win on Kabru kind of sucked because I had been leaning to striking against him since he threw me under the bus to Ricardo. Which left me at a stalemate on both of my tribes because no matter what happened, I was voting out an ally.

On Kabru, Owen and Logan seemed open to anything. I told Gage that I was on strict orders from Kait to work with him and make sure he was safe. He seemed to take this as good news, and I think our relationship has grown from that point but I can't tell if he's just being fake to my face. I love karma. In Game A, I had to deal with Jake trying to save Jessy. Right after results are posted, he calls me. It's all fine and dandy but c'mon, let's just address the elephant in the room - he's calling to try and convince me to keep Jessy around. In short, because Kait is immune, I'm supposed to vote Jimmy and we're all supposed to be one big happy family. I told him I'd think about it, and I truly did. I am incapable of voting against close friends in games, and right now, this means Jimmy and Kait. I was thinking that maybe I should step down, save my conscience from the pain, but the more I thought about, the more it made sense from a strategy perspective. If I let Jessy stay over me in Game A, I keep more allies for myself since I would be safe in Game B. That way, if I make a merge, I have the optimal amount of people on my side.

Friday comes, and I'm away all day. Out of nowhere, I get a message from Kait saying that Carson told MJ that Jessy had an idol. Kait is at work, so MJ calls me and relays all this info. I'm thinking I should go straight to the source about this, and call Jake and Jessy to confront them. Kait is worried about Carson feeling like we threw him under the bus, so I let it be. I talked to Jake and Jessy, and told them if she wanted to stay, she needed to vote for me. Jake says I can't do that, and he can't call but he'll explain to me shortly. When I told him to get Jessy to vote for me though, it sends him into a tailspin and he suddenly forgets everything he was supposed to tell me. I called him out on it, and he said that he "misinterpreted a conversation" with Owen earlier in the day, but he was wrong. This came after he said it was crucial and top secret info, so it was already shady. He explained that I couldn't leave in Game A, because Steven, Gage and Owen were going to blindside me in Game B. Oh honey, not on my watch. At this point, everything is a shit show, I'm baiting Jessy into voting for me, she's telling Kait and I conflicting things, Jimmy is trying to calm me down and I'm getting paranoid about Game B. So I get pissed at Owen, and contemplate flipping to save Steven with Logan and take out Gage. I don't want to leave though, so I confront both Steven and Gage about the plan to take me out. Gage says it's news to him and Steven sends me receipts that he hasn't talked to Owen since the immunity results are posted. Okay, so I'm safe for B. I go back to Jake and ask him one more time to be honest about if Jessy can save herself. He says yes. I freak out at Jimmy and Kait because I think they need to vote for me. Tribal comes, and Jessy posts a picture in the tribe chat about having an idol. I'm about to need new pants before Ryan says that the idol is fake. Now I'm just hurt (cue crying time #2 in this game) because if Jake really wanted to be my ally, you'd think honesty would be the policy.

After tribal council, it's announced that someone in each game will get to return. Now I love to gamble, but I suck at it. I'm thinking that easily, Jessy and Jack will return in A and B respectively. Seeing Ruthie absolutely demolish everyone today, I mean it wasn't the worst thing to happen for me, but not the best either. She and I don't talk, but I didn't have a hand in her leaving. It also means Jessy is gone for good, and although we cleared the air today, I'm still pissed that they used me when they knew how guilty I'd feel. Anyone who uses emotional manipulation freely like that...that's a little fucked up. When those people were added back to the chat last night, and Jessy said "Malaysia better watch out", I don't know if she was kidding or not, but where does she get off saying that when I literally would've left for her?

Kait said she talked to Jack, and although we don't all talk, he insists that the Malaysia crew is a family. Kait is trying to develop a showmance with Pat, so he can be the new Ben. I don't know what to think about that, and I feel like I should warn him but then, I don't know how their relationship actually is and I'm not about to get in the middle. We swap again tonight, and I'm happy because I'm with Jimmy on both tribes, but worried that Malaysia could be a target in Game B. Not too mention, I'm stuck with Owen on both tribes again too which makes me suspect. I'm increasingly aware of how little he tells me. I called with Jake to make sure we were on the same page after last night, and he pins the entire plan on Jessy and tells me that Malaysia is a sinking ship with Kait at the center of it so he can't be allies with her for much longer. I relayed this information back to her, but it started something bigger that I wasn't ready for. Apparently I'm the better player, have more connections, are more social, blah blah blah and yet she's bearing all the blame for the Malaysia alliance. I felt like it got low-key passive aggressive and cue crying time #3 in this game. After almost a week of planning to make a move against Owen at some point, she wants to go and tell him that they are the two kingpins in the game and need to work together.

I feel like I'm in the middle of everything and I can't make any decision without being criticized. Like Jake, telling me I was giving away my game to Jimmy, and that I should just vote him out because it's "not that deep". You're right, it's not that deep, it's fucking bottomless. Let me educate you all really quickly here: Jimmy is the best one of all of us here and the list about why I'm not about to vote him out would keep you reading this confessional for days. Kait telling me that she thinks Logan might have the idol, and now I have to decide whether to walk by her side or take a shot with Logan and give them a heads up. I'm tired and feeling reckless, so who knows what'll happen?

Righto, when life gets busy confessionals get chucked to the wayside but now I have 0 things on my plate and can go ham!

Let's go way back to my first tribal. Malaysia coming to have a party all being on a tribe together and a party we had. JC was an easy choice for me at least, was around very little and talked absolute nothingness with me. They came to me 8 minutes before the vote was revealed -_-

Next was the rice challenge.... Of the 24 hours we had to do that challenge, I had to work 10, and sleep a decent amount so that left me with the 3rd lowest score. I spent every free minute I had doing it but still was shit house compared to others. Lucky for my tribe's woeful performance Jakey used the old switcheroo and we got to avoid a tribal. Good news for me, but still feel pretty shit for the people that monstered that challenge for nought.

And then when those tribals were all said and done, these shudder-trucking hosts throw us a octuple tribal. Yeah cheers for that you bloody clowns! (Lydia asked for a shout-out conveniently at this time, guess she's a clown). Well I though Game A aka Maslaysia was going to be the simple one, and Game B be a little all over the shop, but little did I know. Game B was sorted in two minutes with a quick convo with Matty and Abbey and Ricardo was Ricardone. Game A on the other hand was wild. Mega-props to Jessy for being savage and causing absolute mayhem among the ranks. We had all 3 of us trying to save one other, Jenn self-voting, Kait voting me and me just chucking a John Kranski at the cameras as the forest burnt down around me. Jessy was hammering these guys with "I have an idol" business and some (won't mention names [JENN]) bought it hook, line and sinker! and entered super crazy cat lady panic mode. Thankfully with 20 minutes to go, common sense prevailed and we decided that if Jessy does all of a sudden miraculously have an idol, there would be no point us chucking votes willy-nilly at each other in order to protect one another in case she doesn't and it forces a tie. From that little anarchy I've got indents in my head from my fingers as I did the "what the muzzlewomp is happening?!" half facepalm/half thinking pose.

This game is still a hoot of a time. Other tribals showed some rowdiness - i.e. the tie between Jack and Wes :O, Ruthie getting doubly wrecked :(, and poor old Steven getting done :/.

honestly i'm crying

the ONE TRIBE i did NOT want to go to TRIBAL COUNCIL goes. Like we needed to win because now what???

Jenn/Jimmy/Kait aren't going to vote against each other. Lydia and I really N E E D Abbey. And Gage is probably up Kait's A$$ so like fdsjkhsdf what the fuck is gonna happen like???

I don't want Lydia to have to use her idol and idek what good it would do anyways unless somehow like the same person left at both tribals or something but idk I'm just freaking screaming.

Lydia talked to Kait and Kait keeps telling Lydia she wants to work with her but then Kait also says that to me and??? I don't know. I don't know how to feel about Kait because she makes it seem like we're super close and maybe that wouldn't be that bad of a thing to be super close with Kait but it's so so so obvious she has other people in this game and she hasn't done a single thing to try to get me in with those people. I guess she has some group with MJ/Pat and herself, I'm positive she has one with Jenn and MJ probably, like.... She's gotta have all these groups and I'm not in a single one. So everything in me is like..... Telling me not to trust her because I know she won't give me the same trust? And she didn't tell me about ANY of the shit Jake was doing last round, Logan did.

Which leads me to like.... God.

In an attempt to save Jessy I guess, Jake told Jenn/Kait that I was teaming with Steven and Gage to try to get Jenn out??? And AFTER the vote, Logan came and told me this. So Jenn and Jake didn't talk to me about it... Logan did.

So I went to Jake and pretended like I didn't know he was the one who made up the rumor I was like "omg someone was saying shit about me!!!!!!" and he ended up confessing to it he was like 'They thought you and I were a super secret alliance so I made that up' like... Okay, Jake, way to not tell me :) It's clear he wasn't doing it for anything but his and Jessy's own interest.

So I go to Jenn and I bring it up and say that it was all a lie and that Jake had told me he made it up and.... She says it's okay and that she wants to keep working together in our group with Logan. BUT THEN SHE WENT AND TOLD JAKE WHAT I SAID ABOUT HIM!!!!?????

How fucking messy can these people be??? Like, Logan said I was messy look at these people??

It's just a whole freaking cluster of lies and truths and NONSENSE and I don't like it. I obviously can't trust Jenn. I seriously doubt I can trust Jake. I don't think I can trust Kait, and I really don't know how to feel about Gage. Lydia is the only one who is honest with me, I guess, and if I found out after this season that she's been lying to me too i'm gonna SC R E AMMMMMMMMMM :)

I don't know what to do for tribal. Maybe I'll get something in the adventure.

WELP! only going to tribal in 1 game

mjs talked to me about some pretty interesting points, and honestly, i need to kick my social game up because otherwise i have no chance of making the merge.

ruthie joined both of the tribes i'm on which is interesting, but who knows why she did that.

ruthies smarter than she lets on, i know that, and she's such a big threat that it'd be dumb to let her make it too far in this game.

i feel like im DECENT with the amount of allies i have, but who knows. all i want is merge, and hopefully its sometime soon.

Carson, I see you all up in my PM's now sweetheart. Like I literally told you ALL my game. I told you about my alliance with Kait and MJ right before tribal and just UGH. I'm so glad I'm immune!

Best case scenario for my personal game would be Kait leaving and I'm going to try my HARDEST to get that to happen! She has way too many friends up in this game and she is connected to everyone. I'm being careful from here on out what I tell to any of them and as much as I love Steffen I'm putting my own game first from now on, I'm still in this thing and I don't plan on being voted out again for a long, long time.

I got swap fucked lmao. I finally get onto a tribe with Lydia, but most of the tribe are already friends. Amazing content

So... I may possibly soon be in an alliance with Jakey and Jack? YES PLEASE. I'm just glad I might have the numbers for something soon.

WHAT THE HELL IS MJ DOING UP IN MY PM'S THIS TIME. Let's see, probably trying to make sure I don't vote out his dynamic duo Kait.

Okay he apologized for voting me and told me he felt closer to Carson and I really do appreciate his honesty. I wish I hated MJ but I just can't UGH. MJ WHY ARE YOU SO LIKEABLE?

I'm so chuffed that we won immunity and that I won my battle and finally got to go on "reward". So I found myself a nice disadvantage to take back to my tribe which will only build my shitty target I have on myself. I'm still hoping that people will start to make big moves before the merge to take out a potential threat to their individual game. It would make sense to do that but they haven't so far and the run of the mill stuff is a little boring. I keep trying to throw out messages for conversations but no one really seems up for talking so maybe I'm a bit abrasive? Who knows. I guess since I'm becoming more confident as an individual player from my last game that that could be the case. Even Lydia thought I was having a go at her when I just wished her good luck at tribal? Or that's the way it came across. Annoying since I thought I was given Steffen pointers to pull her into the old Hudson 3 in that tribe to make a block of 4 which would guarantee them a tie. I'm hoping Steffen survives b/c he's honestly the only true ally I have left, who talks with ease. Of course I've other connections with Matt, but we're all surviving on one life so I'd be surprised if any of us made the merge.

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[4:23:03 AM] kait ~~/: if abbey leaves this vote [4:23:05 AM] kait ~~/: i'm [4:23:12 AM] kait ~~/: gonna have to vote jimmy after [4:23:16 AM] kait ~~/: dont leak

WHAT THE SWEET HELL IS THIS? If Abbey leaves, okay fine even though I wanted Owen to leave, but if this is some sort of deal with Lydia... DARKSIDED!

Another day, another tiebreaker loss. But at least it's not both. I've been spending a lot of time on calls lately. Probably more than I've ever done in a TS game. I guess that's the way people do things now to avoid receipts? I haven't REALLY played since HvV2, and nearly everything was done in writing. So it's weird. Most of my call time has been with Kait. She's a badass. Despite her assertions to the contrary, she's a killer gameplayer. Maybe a bit on the abrasive side, but that's not a bad thing when shit needs to get done. And once the game talk is out of the way it leaves us free to just talk. The best alliances are formed with people you're super comfortable talking with, and she definitely fits that bill. We firmed up a F2 last night and I feel so good about it. The next-most call time has been with Lydia, and I feel the same about her. Both her and Kait have a tendency to get a lot of hate for their voting habits and styles, but a big part of me does wonder how much of it is truly deserved. I know Kait's a bit on the aggressive side, but I've never played long enough with Lydia to see why her votes always leave a trail of hurt feelings. She suggested yesterday it might be because people think they can control her, she does her own thing and they get upset over it. I could see that, honestly. Right now, Lydia and Kait are working together out of necessity. Both are trying to rebuild the friendship that took a serious hit in Animal Crossing (if I believe them. I'm not naive enough to think I'm the only one obscuring relationships.) I'm happy to ride along with that. Jack's probably next on my list. We haven't been talking quite as much since the swap, but I still feel good with him. We called with Lydia yesterday and talked out the vote... frankly, if he were to turn, now would be a great time to do it. I couldn't even be too mad. But I don't think he will. I just don't get that vibe from him right now. Next up is gonna be MJ and Logan. These two are in a dead heat and that's because I enjoy them both so much. Logan has been super communicative all game, and I really appreciate that of them and their game. I know we've had some... rocky moments in the past, but I've always liked the times where Logan and I can work as a unit. They have a great mind for the game and don't mind putting their thoughts out there. My reservation with going all-in with Logan: I know their style. They're so predisposed to slide along undetected until the end behind bigger targets and nobody targets them because, well shucks, they're just so likeable. And that's when they strike. MJ has also been really communicative. I mentioned at the outset of the season that I was unsure about working with him, but he's done a lot to soothe that thinking. I get great vibes from him, he talks to me, he seems to be including me in his plans, and we called yesterday just so he could share intel, even though we aren't hitting tribal together. All great things. My reservation with going all-in with MJ: I've seen firsthand how effortlessly he can deceive. And while that's no different that Kait or Lydia or Jack or.... most of this cast, really, there's just that ingrained 'ugh' factor from Olympics. I'm trying really hard not to let it impact this game, but... I know it's affecting my outlook on him. I don't like that. Wes is a tough one to place. Instinctively, I'd want to put him ahead of Logan/MJ. But our communication has really crawled to a standstill since his Hudson death. I still do trust him, and I know what an insanely valuable and loyal ally he can be. But I also know there's a very clear understanding by most people that Wes and I are together. And that's fine... better to have a strong known ally than a weak unknown one. I'm just wary about potentially being targeted for it... but I'm also aware that there are bigger, more visible duos and alliances out there. Jenn, I've got very mixed feelings on. I love her to death. She's absolutely fantastic, and really engaging to talk with. But it lowkey kinda bothered me how she seemed to be okay with laying her game down last round? I know, Jimmy's a good friend. I can't blame her for wanting to protect him. But I really don't know if she'd do the same for me. I suspect not. And that would be one of those stronger duos I was talking about. I really wouldn't want to be the one to cut Jimmy, though. If Jenn gets free of that relationship in here, it'll be akin to trying to steal a bear cub from its mother. Which is not to say that Jimmy's a cub – he's a very bright and entertaining dude himself – but, at the risk of being set in my ways, I still think Jenn is the more dangerous player. Steffen.... agh. I'm still super sketched out. I'm trying, my dudes. But he's been giving me the same runaround on this vote that he did with the Wes boot. Which... would be fine, I guess, if I was hearing he was doing the same elsewhere. But Lydia said he's looking to take out Carson, and it kind of bothers me that Steffen wouldn't trust me enough to throw the name out? For all the talk about trust and having each others' backs, actions speak louder. And his actions and words just aren't jiving right now. Christ. Jiving. Have I ever sounded like more of an old man? There's a big drop-off on the trust radar after Jenn, anyway. Beyond Steffen, I also get conflicting feelings about Matt (who's been MIA for much of the pre-merge and has only really re-opened communication lines recently, plus he shot himself in the foot with his Eastin-like rant in the OW chat,) Ruthie (who I absolutely adore but who I know I won't be able to keep around next time Andaman hits tribal at this rate,) Owen (who can leave now thanks. Not about to see him sneak his way to the finals like he usually does in side games or the BB community,) Jake (DUDE, if you really are a free agent, TALK WITH ME. WE CAN DO STUFF. It's hard when our conversations feel like I'm just playing tennis against a brick wall.) I'm breaking this off into a separate paragraph because that last one is getting hard to read. Anyway I think Carson is working with me more out of necessity than a strong desire to do so, and if I'm right then the feeling is definitely reciprocal. Abbey... well, our paths haven't crossed since OG Andaman. Hard to tell where she's been or is going, but I'd be surprised if I were in her plans come merge. Steven is too close with Steffen and Ruthie for me to be able to put 100% faith in him, even though we had some pretty rad chats on Hudson and before. And Gage and I have never been together in here. I do worry about him being in the same vein as Logan and Owen, though – being able to slide to the end under the radar. Oh wait up. I just wrote all this out then remembered there's a chance someone does an Edgic for this season. Dammit. I need to start shading more people. Um MJ EATS BABIES. JIMMY IS THE KIND OF PERSON WHO SLOWLY DRAGS A CHAIR ALONG THE GROUND BEFORE SITTING IN IT, MAKING THAT AWFUL FUCKING GRINDING NOISE EVERYONE HATES. OWEN IS HUMAN FRO-YO. IF PAT WERE AN ICE CREAM FLAVOUR HE'D BE PRALINES AND DICK. I think I went too far with that last one.

i just went on call with kait but im PRETTY sure she was lying to me? like it didnt sound rlly truthful? but idk i might as well trust in her bc mj trusts her but that malaysia shit IS strong, and i wanna keep jake with me, so i dont wanna vote him. i might need to try and steer the vote somewhere else? so that both the people i trust are safe (also if kait acc did throw me under the bus ill be pissed)

Im going home today!!!!!! Lydia tried her damndest which is really cute i love her so much. But yeah theres nothing I could do. The other people on denali just know each other too well and I'm just the odd man out which is fine! Im not mad at anyone at all I still think taking games personally is dumb. Im gonna be petty tho bc theres no hope for me ad I've never gotten the chance to be petty in a game before!!!!! Anyway I enjoyed my time in the game, I wish I could have played more with Lydia but oh well, shit happens. I hope she wins how cute would that be. We would be a true power couple then

not important

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i have this sinking feeling that im gonna be blindsided? idk ahhh im paranoid

55 mins to go!

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If Kait doesn't go home tonight I am SO screwed. I think that just MAYBE we might be able to pull this off if I can get Carson on my side again! Also, I'm in an alliance with Jakey and Jack and I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT! I couldn't ask for a more perfect alliance and it's time to take on EVERYONE together... but first Jakey cannot go.

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#confessionals #ivebeenbamboozled

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writingsubmissions · 8 years

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UFC Fight Night 104 Preview

WHAT'S HAPPENING: *The Fox show from Denver pretty much delivered everything that could've been expected of it, particularly on the main card, which saw four fighters each make a name for themselves with fairly quick finishes. Leading the way was Valentina Shevchenko, who affirmed herself as bantamweight champ Amanda Nunes's top contender with a somewhat surprising second-round armbar win over Julianna Pena. It's not that Shevchenko won that was the surprise, since she was the betting favorite, but that she was able to tap out a tenacious grappler like Pena, who had actually been having a solid amount of success up to that point in the clinch and wrestling games. Shevchenko can seemingly do it all - she came into UFC with a strong muay thai background and her wrestling looked to be on point, but we hadn't seen much in terms of finishing ability, so this was a huge step. And UFC did well to have Nunes come into the cage after the fight for a pretty endearing showdown, as the two traded barbs back and forth in stilted English that was absolutely charming. That should be a hell of a fight, given how their first meeting went - Nunes had a bunch of success early, but Shevchenko took over for a one-sided third round, leading most to believe that Shevchenko would've won the fight if it went five rounds. So we'll see how it goes this time around. *Well, good on Jorge Masvidal, as his plan worked perfectly. After beating Jake Ellenberger in early December, Masvidal called out Cerrone even though he was already booked, knowing that Cerrone would want to fight as soon as possible anyway, and he did indeed get that fight. And then Masvidal did the hard part, knocking out Cerrone basically twice in a little over a round to get the biggest win of his career and suddenly make himself a welterweight contender. It was mostly an even fight until late in the first round, when Masvidal was able to drop Cerrone right before the horn - Herb Dean pretty clearly stepped in before the round was over, but then insisted the fight was still headed to the second round...at which point Masvidal finished a clearly shaken Cerrone again. I do feel bad for Cerrone, particularly since Denver is his hometown, but this is the downside of taking as many fights as he does - though, on the flip side, he'll probably fight four more times this year and could easily find himself back as a contender by the time 2018 rolls around. As for Masvidal, he does seem to finally be more aggressive, which should serve him well, and he's suddenly got a ton of interesting matchups in the top tier of welterweights to make a run at the belt. *The third big performance on the night belonged to Francis Ngannou, who more or less ran through Andrei Arlovski to establish himself as the next great hope at heavyweight. It'll be fascinating to see what the ceiling is for Ngannou - he's an athletic monster who's only been fighting for a little over three years, but he's improved rapidly from fight to fight, and while Arlovski is somewhat fragile at this point, he was a huge step up for Ngannou in terms of speed and craft, and the Cameroonian really had no problem with the challenge. I have no idea if Ngannou is ready to become a title contender, but I do know there's really nothing left for him to prove fighting guys outside of the top handful of the division, so it might as well be time to try. And the scary thing is, with him being just thirty years old (which is very young for heavyweight at the moment), he's got a few more years to keep improving and figuring things out. *And the Fox card opened with a fourth excellent performance, this one by Alan Belcher protege Jason Knight, who beat Alex Caceres in fairly one-sided fashion leading up to a second-round submission. Like Shevchenko in the main event, the result wasn't as surprising as the finish, as Knight got the better of things on the feet and was able to jump into the grappling realm without much trouble, tapping out a talented, if mercurial vet. And then Knight more or less nailed the post-fight interview, praying to his late father before calling out Doo Ho Choi for what would be a hell of a brawl. Sounds good to me. *The undercard wasn't quite as scintillating, but there was some interesting stuff on it. The biggest result was probably Raphael Assuncao winning a split decision over Aljamain Sterling to stay alive as a bantamweight contender, although it was a fairly boring fight that probably didn't get Assuncao any closer to a title shot. Sterling's extremely frustrating - a blue-chip wrestling-based prospect coming onto the scene, Sterling spent the first two rounds using a weird, low-volume range kicking game that just isn't effective, and probably lost him his previous fight against Bryan Caraway. I'd chalk it up to him not realizing what needs to be fixed, but then he went out and started mixing in some boxing in the third round, winning that frame rather easily and making one wonder exactly why he didn't do that the whole time. So that's two losses for Sterling that easily could've been wins, and I don't really see UFC matchmaking doing him much favors, since he might not be on the best terms with management after some contentious contract negotiations last year. Sigh. As far as individual performances, the best probably belonged to debuting light heavyweight Jordan Johnson, a wrestler who pretty much dominated Henrique da Silva en route to a decision win. Johnson stuck to what he was good at and looked like a top prospect in the process, though he's still fairly raw, so I'd just keep him treading water for a bit until he's ready to move up towards a title shot. In other results on the undercard, Jingliang Li knocked out newcomer Bobby Nash in a fun brawl that was the best fight on the card, Sam Alvey won the featured prelim over Nate Marquardt in yet another weird Alvey fight, and Eric Spicely tapped out Italian prospect Alessio Di Chirico in fairly short order. Spicely then called out Australian fan favorite Dan Kelly after the fight, making him a smart man - try and get that trip to Australia. And even the deeper prelims had some fun stuff, like Marcos Rogerio de Lima knocking out Jeremy Kimball in short order, and Alexandre Pantoja besting Eric Shelton in a battle of TUF 24 alums. *Conor McGregor and UFC are still going back and forth. McGregor had his pay-per-view that was just him being interviewed by Ariel Helwani, and he said some stuff. And Dana was pretty much the promotional equivalent of "come at me, bro." There's still some interesting stuff that can happen, particularly if McGregor uses his boxing license and the Ali Act to get out of his UFC contract, but we're not there yet. *So, Donald Trump's whole travel ban on Muslims. That's a thing. A pretty bad thing. MMA's always had some weirdness going on geopolitically (sup Dagestan), and this is the latest one, as nobody's sure how this is going to affect the foreign-born fighters on the UFC roster. At the only moment, the only pressing case is Gegard Mousasi, who's slated to fight Chris Weidman in Buffalo this April, but was born in Iran and may not be allowed to enter the country despite living in the Netherlands since the age of four. Wheee fun. *World Series of Fighting continues to just be a weird thing, as it's just sort of lurched on as a money pit for whatever shadowy investors are involved at the moment, putting on shows that don't really draw anyone, but still managing to pay some of their top fighters (typically the ones also managed by former matchmaker/WSOF executive/possible terrorist Ali Abdelaziz) way above market value. Anyway, WSOF got bailed out yet again by a new investor group, as they've somehow managed to raise $25 million to sell sixty percent of the company, despite most of their champions now being free agents and the fact that they don't even own their tape library, which may have some value. MMA is a weird sport. *Comings and goings! Per a tweet by UFC matchmaker Sean Shelby, it looks like Al Iaquinta is headed back to the Octagon after basically retiring due to a falling out with management. Iaquinta was a top lightweight contender and his contract was up after a controversial April 2015 win over Jorge Masvidal, where the crowd booed the decision and Iaquinta decided to respond by cursing them out. He then suffered a major knee injury in training, and by mid-2016, all rumors had Iaquinta, a Long Island native, returning against Thiago Alves on the Madison Square Garden show. But Iaquinta never signed a new contract - essentially, Iaquinta argued to UFC that his injury had cascaded from a smaller knee injury suffered in this days on The Ultimate Fighter, while UFC disagreed and basically refused to cover it. Iaquinta eventually got his way, but then felt slighted when UFC fined him for missing a mandatory fighter summit, even though Iaquinta had made it clear he couldn't attend due to some BJJ teaching obligations. After all this, Iaquinta got a new offer, basically decided the money wasn't worth the trouble, and then decided to just call it quits and work as a real estate agent. But now, about six months later, it looks like things have been patched up, and we'll finally see Iaquinta back. On the flip side, UFC may be losing three pretty solid fighters, as welterweights Lorenz Larkin and Rick Story, as well as light heavyweight Misha Cirkunov, were removed from UFC's official rankings since they're no longer considered "under contract," having turned down the chance to re-sign with the company. Basically, this doesn't mean they're free and clear and done with UFC, but rather means they're in a form of restricted free agency, where they can only negotiate with UFC for a bit, and then UFC is free to match any offer one of the three gets after that. Larkin isn't a surprise, since that was well-publicized, and even though he's finally looking like the top contender most expected him to be, it wouldn't be a shock if he left, since he reportedly has a good relationship with his former boss at Strikeforce, current Bellator president Scott Coker. Story, frankly, I could see UFC taking or leaving - he's a solid top ten-to-fifteen fighter and can ably fill a high-card slot, but he's not particularly flashy or exciting. Cirkunov is the really fascinating one, since after his win over Nikita Krylov, he might be the best rising prospect at 205 at the moment. Add in the fact that he's well-known in the Canadian scene after emigrating to Toronto from Latvia, and he's really someone UFC should want to hang on to, and it'll be interesting to see if Bellator decides to make a run at him. Oddly, Ryan Bader is still present in the rankings, although he's openly talked about how this week is when Bellator can finally give him an official offer - I wonder if this is a sign that he's already quietly re-signed with the promotion. *And as almost always nowadays, we end with a whole bunch of drug stuff. We have a race to see who becomes the first three-time drug test failure in the USADA era, as George Sullivan and Ricardo Abreu were both popped for the second time this past week. Sullivan was set to return from suspension and face Randy Brown at UFC 208, but apparently failed a test for clomiphene, a fertility drug that's often used to boost testosterone levels after someone cycles off of steroids - it's the same thing Brock Lesnar failed for, and actually, the same thing that Jon Jones's infamous "dick pills" were tainted with. Anyway, Sullivan has claimed he's trying to have kids and is applying for a retroactive exemption, but given that clomiphene isn't apparently even FDA-approved, good luck with that. As for Abreu, I'm just impressed, since the Brazilian middleweight was already under suspension until the summer of 2018 and I guess just didn't realize he could still be tested. And we got one more failure this past week, as Texan heavyweight Justin Ledet was quietly pulled from this Houston card after popping for something yet to be disclosed. And lastly, Brazilian lightweight Felipe Olivieri has been sentenced to a two-year suspension for a failed January 2016 drug test. ------ BOOKINGS: *Some really interesting fights got booked, but no really big fights, save the rumors being confirmed that the Daniel Cormier/Anthony Johnson rematch for the light heavyweight title will in fact take place at UFC 210 in Buffalo this April. In a way, it's kind of amazing how this all worked out with Jon Jones on the shelf, since, well, Cormier stayed injured long enough that we never really had to dip into the well of whatever contenders UFC would have to create in such a thin division past Johnson. They also added three solid undercard bouts, though none figure to be on the main card - light heavyweights Patrick Cummins and Jan Blachowicz squaring off (and both are ranked, if you need more proof of 205 being a thin division), local featherweight Shane Burgos taking on Boston's Charles Rosa, and an interesting fight between bantamweight prospects Katlyn Chookagian and Irene Aldana. *UFC keeps adding fights to the March card in Fortaleza, Brazil, and it's looking like by far the best TV card of the first half of 2016. There was already some interesting stuff on it, but we get two more good fights, with lightweights Francisco Trinaldo and Kevin Lee squaring off, as well as a UFC 207 rematch between Tim Means and Alex "Cowboy" Oliveira. I feel a bit bad for Trinaldo, since at 38, time is running out, and despite a seven-fight win streak, UFC hasn't really moved up the ladder, but a bout against Lee, one of the division's top young prospects, should be an excellent affair. And the Means/Oliveira fight in December was really fun while it lasted, until Means hit a controversial illegal knee that got the fight turned into a no contest. Add in two more decent undercard fights, with welterweights Sergio Moraes and Max Griffin, as well as featherweights Godofredo Pepey and Kyle Bochniak, and the card's looking like a good one. *So, UFC kind of pissed off their British fanbase, as tickets went on sale for the upcoming London card without an announced main event, and then UFC just decided to promote the already-announced light heavyweight bout between Jimi Manuwa and Corey Anderson to that spot after the fact. Reportedly, the initial plan was Alexander Gustafsson against Ryan Bader, but Gustafsson is hurt and Bader is not yet back under contract, so UFC just went with this due to a lack of other options. I also heard some stuff that Anthony Pettis against Mairbek Taisumov, a fight that Joe Rogan dropped sometime around UFC 207, was slated for this card, but it's unclear what's going on there, since Taisumov has been agitating on social media for Pettis to go ahead and sign a contract. Maybe that'll be your co-main event, as there's not really a viable one at the moment and the card still has one or two open spots for fights. *Speaking of disappointing cards, UFC 208, which was initially an exciting card on paper despite a pretty bad main event marquee-wise, is slowly continuing to get gutted. Three more fighters are off the card - flyweight Neil Seery was forced off due to the death of his mother-in-law, and heavyweight Luis Henrique wasn't cleared to fight following eye surgery for his nearsightedness, so into the fray step two UFC newcomers - Jarred Brooks steps in to fight Ian McCall, and Justin Willis steps in to fight Marcin Tybura. Alright then. And as mentioned above, welterweight George Sullivan is also off this card due to a drug test failure, but it's unclear if UFC is still seeking a replacement to face Randy Brown, who really should stay on this card as an exciting local product. *And a few odds and ends - Rashad Evans will maybe, finally, make his debut at middleweight, and it looks to be a weird one, as he'll face Australian Dan Kelly at UFC 209 this March. Kelly's near forty with bad knees, but the decorated judoka still gets it done through sheer force of will and good old-fashioned dad strength, so it's actually a pretty solid test to see exactly what Evans has left, even if it's a bit concerning that it's come to this. And while UFC has yet to officially announce their second quarter schedule, two more events have already leaked out, as they're heading to Kansas City on April 15th, and making their promotional debut in Denmark, as UFC: Copenhagen is happening on May 27th. The broadcasts for each card haven't been announced, but the Kansas City date lines up to be a Fox card, and it already has its first fight, as Kansas City native Tim Elliott is apparently not heading to bantamweight after losing to Demetrious Johnson after all, and instead will face Louis Smolka at 125. And the Denmark card means that for the first time in a while, UFC will not be running a pay-per-view or a show in Vegas over Memorial Day weekend - and that card has a fight as well, as Danish heavyweight Christian Colombo will take on Polish vet Damian Grabowski in a fight between two guys in search of their first UFC win. ----- ROSTER CUTS: 1) Ali Bagautinov (15-6 overall, 4-3 UFC, last fought 11/19/16, L vs. Kyoji Horiguchi): UFC let two ranked flyweights walk this past week, and Bagautinov's the more surprising of the two, even if you could tell by his match placement that he was a bit out of favor. Bagautinov, a popular vet in his native Dagestan, made an impact pretty much immediately upon his UFC debut, going on a three-fight win streak that included one-sided wins over Tim Elliott and John Lineker and earning himself a title shot at Demetrious Johnson. Like everyone else, Bagautinov pretty much couldn't do anything with Johnson, and even worse, he failed a drug test afterwards, and that pretty much derailed the rest of his UFC career. Outside of a weird fight against prospect Geane Herrera that Bagautinov won, UFC pretty much used the Russian as a keep-busy fight against top contenders like Joseph Benavidez and Kyoji Horiguchi, and after going 1-2 post-drug suspension, I guess UFC figured he had outlived his usefulness. A shame, though, since losing a guy like Bagautinov (and Makovsky below) really does hurt the depth of UFC's flyweight division. 2) Zach Makovsky (19-8 overall, 3-4 UFC, last fought 12/10/16, L vs. Dustin Ortiz): Makovsky being let go is a damaging cut for the flyweight division, but it wasn't a surprising once, since most figured the fight between him and Ortiz was loser leaves town. Bellator surprisingly cut Makovsky in 2013 - he was the promotion's first bantamweight champion, and they let him go after only one loss following him dropping his belt - but he cut down to flyweight and caught on with UFC pretty quickly, earning wins over Scott Jorgensen and Josh Sampo. Makovsky was a decent all-around fighter, particularly in terms of wrestling, but the middle is a hard place to be in UFC's flyweight division. Essentially, you have a few scrubs, but outside of that, there's really no easy fights once you're a relevant fighter, and like Bagautinov, just kept racking up the losses even though they were against really good competition. 3) Aisling Daly (16-6 overall, 2-1 UFC, last fought 10/24/15, W vs. Ericka Almeida): Daly suddenly announced her retirement while in the midst of recovering from injury, as a scan of her brain apparently uncovered a hemorrhage she had suffered at some point while training, forcing a premature end to her career. Daly's probably a bit underrated as a pioneer, since the Irishwoman was one of the first female fighters to really make her name in Europe, and really the first Irish fighter to make a global name for themselves period, racking up a 9-0 record wherever she could find fights before a brief stint in Bellator. It may just be my heritage showing, but I've always liked Daly because she was just so, well, Irish - she suffered a three-fight losing streak in 2012 and then proceeded to take a year off to battle her issues with depression, and, well, it really doesn't get more Irish than that. Daly had a solid showing on season 20 of TUF and a solid showing in UFC thereafter thanks to her solid grappling game, and honestly, she probably got the best sendoff you could probably ask for, as she was the big Irish favorite on UFC's October 2015 card in Dublin, and the ovation both for her entrance and her subsequent win over Ericka Almeida was one of the highlights of the show. And even her postfight interview was just so...wonderfully touched with Irish bleakness, as the big McGregor/Brandao card with all her SBG teammates took place during her time in the house, and she likened watching it to seeing a child grow up and no longer being able to talk to them. Anyway, Daly seems at peace with the decision, and she'll go on as a grappling coach for SBG, so I wish her well. ----- UPCOMING UFC SHOWS: 2/11 - UFC 208 - Brooklyn, NY - Germaine de Randamie vs. Holly Holm, Derek Brunson vs. Anderson Silva 2/19 - UFC Fight Night 105 - Halifax, NS - Travis Browne vs. Derrick Lewis, Johny Hendricks vs. Hector Lombard 3/4 - UFC 209 - Las Vegas, NV - Tyron Woodley (c) vs. Stephen Thompson, Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib Nurmagomedov, Mark Hunt vs. Alistair Overeem 3/11 - UFC Fight Night 106 - Fortaleza, Brazil - Vitor Belfort vs. Kelvin Gastelum, Edson Barboza vs. Beneil Dariush, Mauricio Rua vs. Gian Villante 3/18 - UFC Fight Night 107 - London, England - Corey Anderson vs. Jimi Manuwa 4/8 - UFC 210 - Buffalo, NY - Daniel Cormier (c) vs. Anthony Johnson, Gegard Mousasi vs. Chris Weidman 4/15 - UFC TBA - Kansas City, MO - Tim Elliott vs. Louis Smolka 5/13 - UFC 211 - Dallas, TX - Stipe Miocic (c) vs. Junior dos Santos 5/27 - UFC TBA - Copenhagen, Denmark - Christian Colombo vs. Damian Grabowski ----- UFC Fight Night 104 - February 4, 2017 - Toyota Center - Houston, Texas 2017 has already seen UFC break with a few traditions - MLK weekend was in Phoenix instead of Boston, and here UFC breaks a streak of a few years, as the company is eschewing a pay-per-view over Super Bowl weekend in favor of a FS1 show in Houston, where the big game is taking place. And while this continues this year's trend of being somewhat low-wattage in terms of star power, it should be a hell of a show, as this is one of those cards where UFC has matched up a bunch of action fighters. Even past the headliner, which is the return of one of the better action fighters in recent history, "The Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung, there's a solid mix of prospects and just outright showcase performances that should make for a fun night of violence. Good stuff. MAIN CARD (Fox Sports 1 - 10:00 PM ET): Featherweight: (#9) Dennis Bermudez vs. Chan Sung Jung Women's Strawweight: (#12) Alexa Grasso vs. Felice Herrig Lightweight: Abel Trujillo vs. James Vick Light Heavyweight: (#6) Ovince St. Preux vs. Volkan Oezdemir Heavyweight: Marcel Fortuna vs. Anthony Hamilton Women's Strawweight: (#5) Jessica Andrade vs. Angela Hill PRELIMINARY CARD (Fox Sports 1 - 8:00 PM ET): Heavyweight: Curtis Blaydes vs. Adam Milstead Featherweight: Chris Gruetzemacher vs. Chas Skelly Bantamweight: Ricardo Ramos vs. Michinori Tanaka Women's Strawweight: (#6) Tecia Torres vs. Bec Rawlings PRELIMINARY CARD (UFC Fight Pass - 7:00 PM ET): Welterweight: Alex Morono vs. Niko Price Light Heavyweight: Daniel Jolly vs. Khalil Rountree THE RUNDOWN: Dennis Bermudez (16-5 overall, 9-3 UFC) vs. Chan Sung Jung (13-4 overall, 3-1 UFC, 0-2 WEC): It's been about three and a half years, but finally the day has come. "The Korean Zombie" is back. Chan Sung Jung became a bit of a phenomenon within the MMA bubble back in 2010 - he made his stateside debut in the featured prelim of WEC's lone pay-per-view and wound up having one of the best MMA fights of all time against Leonard Garcia, an absolute war that Jung lost in what was considered a bit of a robbery. But between the all-out action style of Jung and the fact that he has one of the best MMA nicknames of all time, the legend of "The Korean Zombie" was born, and Zuffa had a bit of a minor star on their hands. After surprisingly losing via knockout to George Roop in his only other WEC fight, Jung picked up where he left off with UFC - almost literally in fact, since UFC decided to rematch him with Garcia in a fight that wasn't quite as great as the first, but did give us the first and only twister submission in UFC history, as Jung basically tied Garcia into a pretzel. And then Jung made history a few more times, first knocking out Mark Hominick in just seven seconds to tie the fastest knockout in UFC history, and then putting on the consensus 2012 fight of the year in a war over Dustin Poirier. Despite a year-long injury layoff after that fight, Jung's notoriety still earned him a title shot at Jose Aldo, although he wasn't really able to do much with the champ, eventually losing in the fourth round after badly dislocating his shoulder. And just as Jung was ready to return, he was forced to serve his mandatory two years in the Korean military, resulting in this 42-month layoff. And UFC isn't really doing Jung any favors in his comeback, as while this should be a fun fight (hell, of course it should be, it's a Chan Sung Jung fight), Dennis Bermudez is a dangerous fringe contender. Bermudez looked to be close to a title shot by mid-2014, as he capped off a seven-fight win streak with a submission over Clay Guida, but once he got moved into the ranks of true contenders, some defensive holes became apparent. Ricardo Lamas handled Bermudez rather easily, stunning him with a jab before jumping onto a submission, and Bermudez was winning a fight with Jeremy Stephens rather handily before Stephens uncorked a beautiful flying knee from out of nowhere that gave him a sudden comeback win. It doesn't seem to be a case of Bermudez having a glass jaw so much as just defensive unawareness, but at any rate, Bermudez has since chosen to play it a bit safer, relying on his wrestling to beat Tatsuya Kawajiri and Rony Jason, though the latter did have some success with his submission game. As far as the fight goes, it's absolutely fascinating, particularly since Jung is such a question mark. Going back over his last few fights, I got reminded of exactly how dangerous Jung is a grappler - at least in my mind, the first thing that pops into my head for "The Korean Zombie" is back and forth striking wars, but particularly the Poirier fight showed that Jung is a dangerous, creative guy on the ground, and that the risky offense doesn't stop once the Zombie is on his back. So that makes it a really tricky fight for Bermudez - the two striking back and forth would probably spark into a crazy war that could go either way, but Bermudez relying on his theoretically safer wrestling game might not be all that safe, particularly since Bermudez has shown that he can be caught defensively unaware on the ground as well. Still, I kind of have to favor Bermudez to take this by decision, just because of the uncertainty around Jung - and while it does look like a lot of his game will still translate into the current landscape, there's just the fact that we haven't seen Jung fight since mid-2013, and things have changed a hell of a lot since then. But it should be a fun one - again, it's a Chan Sung Jung fight, and Bermudez has enough defensive flaws that Jung suddenly changing the momentum and getting a win wouldn't be a surprise. Alexa Grasso (9-0 overall, 1-0 UFC, 4-0 Invicta) vs. Felice Herrig (11-6 overall, 2-1 UFC, 0-1 Invicta, 3-0 Bellator): Even though it's honestly probably the third-most relevant of three strawweight fights on this card in terms of pure sport, the positioning shows that UFC is fully behind Alexa Grasso, and it's hard to blame them. Grasso has the looks, personality and skill to be one of UFC's big Mexican stars, and they're pretty much dusting off the Paige VanZant playbook in order to promote her, right down to making her second UFC fight against Felice Herrig. Grasso immediately became a prospect to watch upon her Invicta debut in 2014, and she's done nothing to dissuade that, putting on a fight of the year contender in 2015 against Mizuki Inoue and pretty much dominating all her competition. Grasso comes from a boxing family, and that's where she excels, possessing an excellent sense of distance and combinations, and after an injury layoff, she returned in 2016 and even showed off a bit of wrestling skill, shutting down Jodie Isquibel's wrestling game and imposing her own a bit. After a bit of a showcase bout in her UFC debut over Heather Jo Clark, Grasso now faces Herrig, who's strictly in the gatekeeper role, but might be Grasso's toughest test yet. Herrig's more known for her personality than anything - in the days when strawweight was still getting off the ground, Herrig made a bit of a name for herself by wearing provocative clothing and all sorts of weird outfits, and her stint on TUF 20 established her as a bit of a motor-mouth (which, having met her, I can also confirm was not editing) - but as far as in the cage, she's a solid, game wrestler-slash-grappler. That combination of skills made her a perfect stepping stone for VanZant, and essentially the same for Grasso here, but against lower-level foes like Lisa Ellis and Kailin Curran, Herrig has been able to latch on a submission without much trouble. This figures to be another Grasso showcase, so I'll pick her to win by decision, though there's the chance she gets so much momentum going on the feet that the referee steps in and stops it late, but there is the caveat that Herrig is probably the best grappler Grasso has faced, so there's a chance that if Grasso turns out to be awful on the ground, that gets exposed here. But still, I'm fairly comfortable picking the potential Mexican star. Abel Trujillo (15-6 [1] overall, 6-2 [1] UFC) vs. James Vick (9-1 overall, 5-1 UFC): This fight was thrown together after both men's original opponents got hurt, and it kind of shows, since this is a weird one. Abel Trujillo's carved out a bit of a niche as a berserker of an action fighter, but it's still hard to root for him, given that he has a fairly distressing history of domestic violence. As far as in the cage goes, Trujillo's seemingly learned to pace himself, as he initially had the rep of being strong for one round before gassing out, but he's still one of the purest examples of the "bully" mentality in MMA. Essentially, when Trujillo has the advantage, he's absolutely frightening, an explosive power puncher and takedown artist that's capable of scoring the finish at any moment. But when things don't go Trujillo's way, he has a bad tendency to cave in, and when guys like Tony Ferguson and Gleison Tibau have gotten the advantage, Trujillo has just sort of panicked and looked for a way out. So Trujillo's a fairly boom-and-bust fighter, and adding to the potential variance of this fight is that, even after almost five years in the UFC, it's still unclear how good James Vick is. The Texan came out of nowhere to make the semifinals of TUF 15 before falling to Michael Chiesa, and looked like an interesting prospect, thanks to his ridiculously long and tall frame for lightweight - Vick is 6'3", and as an example, he'll have a seven-inch height and six-inch reach advantage over Trujillo. But Vick's career settled into a weird pattern - for one thing, he'd often get hurt and have to spend a year between fights, and even though he racked up wins, UFC just never really did anything with him, just matching him against rising, unproven prospects. I forget exactly where I heard the analogy (I believe it was from Connor Reubusch, who does some good work breaking down the technical aspects of MMA), but it was like Vick wasn't moving up the ladder, but instead just sort of hiding behind the ladder and shoving other people off as they tried to move up themselves. But after derailing another prospect, in this case Glaico Franca, Vick finally got a legit fight in a late-notice bout against Beneil Dariush, and, well, he pretty much got smoked, as Dariush outboxed him and eventually knocked him out in brutal fashion. But, then again, Dariush is looking like a fringe title contender at the moment, so there's still a wide range as far as where Vick stands in the lightweight division. So, yeah, anything could happen here, but I'm picking Trujillo by decision, since I'm not exactly Vick will be able to deal with Trujillo's aggression and physicality enough to turn the tide. That said, Vick could just keep Trujillo at a distance and pick him apart, or, and this may be even more likely, I could see Vick continuing his trend of accidentally poking his opponents in the eyes, and that being enough to demoralize Trujillo and give Vick the advantage. But I'll stick with Trujillo by decision as my pick, though this is one of those bouts that is more or less a coin flip. Ovince St. Preux (19-9 overall, 7-4 UFC, 6-1 Strikeforce) vs. Volkan Oezdemir (12-1 overall, 1-1 Bellator): Well, light heavyweight needs bodies, and I guess we're going to continue to try with Ovince St. Preux, as this figured to be a bounce-back win against a late injury replacement. St. Preux was an interesting prospect for a while - a former linebacker for the University of Tennessee, St. Preux is a top-flight athlete, and Strikeforce and UFC both just let him move slowly up the ladder and rack up showcase wins. St. Preux chose to remain involved with the University of Tennessee community, continuing to train in Knoxville rather than seek out a bigger camp, and the result has been St. Preux developing a weird game, built around unorthodox striking and strange submissions where it all kind of works thanks to St. Preux's athleticism, but doesn't really fit together in any sort of cogent way. And that's gotten exploited badly as St. Preux has faced upper-level competition - outside of a quick knockout of Shogun Rua, most of St. Preux's big fights have been one-sided losses - Ryan Bader and Glover Teixeira just schooled him with grappling, Jon Jones treated him as a glorified sparring partner, and Jimi Manuwa put his lights out in October. It's probably time to move on from any thoughts of St. Preux becoming a top-flight fighter anymore, particularly since he's about to turn 34, and his athleticism-dependent style may go downhill quickly as he ages, but light heavyweight is also a thin enough division that OSP is probably going to remain a concern one way or another. Anyway, he faces Volkan Oezdemir, who becomes UFC's first Swiss fighter - Oezdemir apparently has a background in muay thai, but the fights that I've watched have seen him focus on taking his opponents down, where he's aggressive, but has trouble keeping his foes on the mat once he has them there. There's a chance Oezdemir can still do something with that - St. Preux, again, just sort of relies on his athleticism to get up after he's taken down and leaves some holes in doing so - but I just really don't see anything from Oezdemir that suggests he can compete with St. Preux's athleticism and power, unless St. Preux is hitting the decline phase even moreso than it looks like. I'll call for St. Preux to get a first-round knockout, but if he doesn't, this could be a bit of a slog. Marcel Fortuna (8-1 overall) vs. Anthony Hamilton (15-6 overall, 3-4 UFC): This is certainly happening. In a heavyweight division where everyone is pretty much either a contender by default or just hot garbage, Anthony Hamilton seems to be one of the few who's just sort of a guy. He's just a really physically big dude who can do a little bit of everything, and his UFC record places him squarely as a middle-of-the-road gatekeeper - he's had no problem with lower-level guys like Ruan Potts and Damian Grabowski who just aren't at a UFC level, but anyone decent has beaten him, including Francis Ngannou, who tapped him out in his last fight. This was a really late addition to the card, so Hamilton is facing UFC newcomer and inflated light heavyweight Marcel Fortuna, a Brazilian who trains out of California. Fortuna hasn't fought in about a year and a half, as his only MMA action of 2016 was trying out for the Jedrzejczyk/Gadelha season of The Ultimate Fighter, where he lost a close decision to Cory Hendricks before even getting into the house. I'm a little surprised UFC didn't at least wait for Fortuna to win a fight or two somewhere else before taking him on, but I can see what they liked looking at film, since Fortuna has a BJJ background and looks pretty solid as a wrestler/grappler against a middling slate of competition. But I don't really think he can do much here - Fortuna's game is extremely one-dimensional, and he had trouble even taking down Hendricks with Hendricks's size and athleticism. And while Hamilton may not be quite as athletic, he's a much, much bigger dude than the 205ers (and some converted middleweights) that Fortuna was having success against on the regional scene. I have no idea how good Fortuna's chin is, but I figure he'll be overwhelmed here, and I'll just call for Hamilton to get the first-round knockout. Jessica Andrade (15-5 overall, 6-3 UFC) vs. Angela Hill (6-2 overall, 1-2 UFC, 4-0 Invicta): From a sporting standpoint, this is probably the most important fight on the show, since Jessica Andrade is the assumed next contender for Joanna Jedrzejczyk's strawweight belt, and Angela Hill will be right there if she scores the upset in her UFC return. Andrade was somewhat mercurial during her time at bantamweight - she'd look dominant against overmatched competition and could seemingly do a bit of everything, but she'd suffer some bad losses, getting tapped out rather easily by Marion Reneau and Raquel Pennington. Strawweight didn't really seem like an option - even though Andrade was short for the division, she seemed to be too thickly muscled to cut much weight, but she took about nine months off to cut down to 115, and the results have been outstanding. Andrade has been an absolute powerhouse, overpowering Jessica Penne on the feet and just bulling Joanne Calderwood in the grappling game, looking like one of the most dangerous physical threats in the division. Meanwhile, Hill's had a weird path here, as I'm not exactly sure what the hell UFC was trying to do with her in her first stint with the promotion. Hill was part of the cast for TUF 20, which was a tournament to crown UFC's inaugural champion, even if she didn't really belong there - she was a 1-0 striker at the time, and while she showed some potential and some personality, it's hard not to see her inclusion as tokenism at worst or just TV execs wanting a marketable face on the show at best. And then, after a solid win over Emily Kagan, UFC pretty much threw her to the wolves, putting a 2-0 fighter against two of the top fighters in the division, as Tecia Torres out-wrestled her and Rose Namajunas choked her out. And then UFC cut her, which really was a bad look, since it looked like they had pretty much failed in developing what could've been a marketable, exciting prospect. But Hill landed in Invicta quickly thereafter and had a breakout 2016, going 4-0, showing greatly improved grappling defense, and taking Invicta's strawweight belt from Livia Renata Souza, who was looking like the next big thing at 115. After one title defense, Hill re-signed with UFC, and after some issues with her getting cleared to return by USADA, her fight with Andrade gets moved from UFC 207 to here. It should be an interesting one, though I favor Andrade pretty handily - the big story is going to be more how much Hill's improvements shine through rather than expecting her to win. I always think of Hill as taller and rangier than she actually is (maybe it's the hair, although she's gone with a close fade for this fight), but she'll still have that advantage on the stout Andrade, so I could see Hill having some success picking her apart at range. But I'm not really sure how Hill will handle Andrade's power if she's able to get through, and the grappling game favors Andrade hugely - while Hill's takedown and submission defense is much improved, she still had to do a lot of work against Souza, and Andrade is a complete powerhouse compared to Souza. So it may come with some difficulty, but I see Andrade eventually taking things to the ground and dominating from there, enough so that I'll call for a second-round submission. Curtis Blaydes (6-1 overall, 1-1 UFC) vs. Adam Milstead (8-1 overall, 1-0 UFC): Yes, somehow, two heavyweight prospects that are each under thirty years old are squaring off. Adam Milstead's only a few months shy, but that still counts, and the Pittsburgh native is coming off a solid UFC debut in May, outboxing Chris De La Rocha en route to a referee stoppage. He'll face Illinois's Curtis Blaydes, who came into UFC with a decent amount of hype thanks to his size and strong wrestling background, but ran into Francis Ngannou in his UFC debut before rebounding in October with a win over Cody East. Both guys are promising - Blaydes in particular is just a beast of a man, one of those guys who actually needs to cut to make heavyweight, and even his fairly one-sided loss to Ngannou looks impressive, since he had some success getting Ngannou to the ground, if not keeping him there. Honestly, this may be a weird comparison, but I see this similarly to the Andrade/Hill fight on the complete opposite side of the size spectrum - while Milstead has a wrestling background, he's primarily been a boxer in his recent MMA fights, and should be able to have some success trading with Blaydes in the pocket. But I just don't see Milstead being able to handle Blaydes's physicality, and I figure Blaydes will be able to take things to the ground a solid percentage of the time and just maul Milstead from there. Both guys are still raw and improving, so the possibilities are a bit wide here, but I'll call for Blaydes to eventually ground-and-pound out Milstead sometime in the third round. Chris Gruetzemacher (13-1 overall, 1-0 UFC, 1-0 Strikeforce) vs. Chas Skelly (16-2 overall, 5-2 UFC, 3-0 Bellator): Sure. Chas Skelly has had a somewhat underrated UFC career thus far - he's a bit older than you'd think, since he'll probably be 32 by his next fight, but he's one of the better grinders out there, and opens things up enough that he scores the occasional submission. Despite being the betting favorite for some reason, he lost pretty handily to Darren Elkins this past March, establishing that Skelly isn't king of the featherweight grinders just yet, but he rebounded in extremely unexpected fashion in a crazy fight against Maximo Blanco, as both men decided to start the fight with running, flying kicks, Skelly's hit cleaner, and Skelly subsequently locked on a choke to win in just nineteen seconds. Crazy stuff. Skelly returns to his home state of Texas to face Arizona's Chris Gruetzemacher, who's a solid wrestle-boxer. Gruetzemacher had a decent run on the McGregor/Faber season of TUF in late 2015, won a fight over castmate Abner Lloveras to stay on the roster, and returns here after missing all of 2016. Gruetzemacher is fine at everything, but it's hard to see where he stands out - he could stick around if he just gets matched with the right lower-level guys coming off losses, but he really does seem like one of those fighters who can have a ton of success on the smaller circuits, but will struggle against UFC-level fighters. At any rate, unless Gruetzemacher has improved greatly in his year off, this seems like a pretty one-sided win for Skelly, so I'll call for him to just out-wrestle "Gritz" and earn a one-sided decision, with a chance of him getting a submission at some point. Ricardo Ramos (9-1 overall) vs. Michinori Tanaka (11-2 overall, 2-2 UFC): This is an interesting first UFC fight for Ricardo Ramos, who comes into UFC with a bunch of hype, and deservedly so. Ramos is just twenty-one years old, but he's put together an excellent resume thus far, racking up win after win thanks to an exciting submission game, reminiscent of Charles Oliveira, where he just chains together techniques until he finds one his opponent isn't able to stop. That said, Ramos has already flown a little too close to the sun, as Manny Vazquez was able to reverse things on him and tap him out for his lone career loss, but between his submission skills, his long frame, and some pretty decent striking already, the sky is pretty much the limit for Ramos. He debuts against Michinori Tanaka, who's one of the better Japanese prospects of the recent wave that came into UFC. Tanaka's a strong athlete, a solid submission artist, and has some solid, movement-based striking - the type of overall package that doesn't really stick out, but should be enough to keep Tanaka around in UFC for a bit while trading wins and losses. This could really go either way - Ramos obviously has a high ceiling, and it's just a matter of if it's too much, too soon at the moment. I'll roll with the top prospect and say Ramos racks up another first round submission, but if he's not able to do much against Tanaka, that's perfectly fine, since the long-term outlook is still so good. Tecia Torres (7-1 overall, 3-1 UFC, 4-0 Invicta) vs. Bec Rawlings (7-5 overall, 2-2 UFC, 1-2 Invicta): Part of me still thinks the UFC dropped the ball a bit when it comes to Tecia Torres, even if I understand why they don't really seem to be enthralled with pushing her as a top contender. When Torres came onto the scene in Invicta back in 2012, she looked like a future star - "The Tiny Tornado" was a particularly apt nickname, as Torres would just mix in her wrestling with a vast array of spinning strikes; add in the fact that she was a cute Latina, and she really did look like someone UFC could build around whenever they introduced strawweights. But things never really clicked - Torres has always been held in high regard, but as she's gotten better as a fighter, she's also gotten much more conservative, relying on her wrestling and grinding clinchwork in a lot of fights, and replacing that exciting, but reckless, striking game with more steady kickboxing. Wins over Angela Hill and Jocelyn Jones-Lybarger were pretty unmemorable and didn't do her many favors, and a narrow loss to Rose Namajunas last April left Torres out of the title picture, and she's apparently had trouble getting a fight booked since. But she returns here after about ten months to fight Bec Rawlings, in a rematch of a Torres win on season 20 of TUF. Rawlings came into Invicta with a splash based off a solid record in her native Australia and a strong social media presence, but it soon became apparent that she wasn't really up to snuff as a title contender for the promotion. But she's eventually settled into a solid mid-card niche, as she's a decent, fun striker with just enough grappling to get by. Still, this is pretty much a keep-busy rebound win for Torres, as she's probably the better striker and should always have her wrestling to fall back on. Rawlings being big for the division while Torres is so small could be a concern, but Torres is always so undersized, and it hasn't really hampered her yet, so the call is Torres by fairly one-sided decision. Alex Morono (13-3 overall, 2-0 UFC) vs. Niko Price (9-0 overall, 1-0 UFC): This should be a pretty fun welterweight fight, as both guys have put on solid performances in their UFC careers thus far, and we're still figuring out exactly what both have to offer. Alex Morono probably didn't deserve the upset division win over Kyle Noke in his UFC debut, but he at least made good the second time around with a one-sided win over James Moontasri. Morono seems to be a solid striker and that's about it, though when he starts smelling blood, like he did in the Moontasri fight, his gameplan does tend to shift towards "start winging punches." Morono, a Houston native, is fighting on a pretty quick seven-week turnaround, though his opponent, Florida's Niko Price, is fighting on just five weeks notice himself. Price made his UFC debut on the Nunes/Rousey card, tapping out Brandon Thatch, and looked like a pretty solid, aggressive athlete - with the caveat that at this point, exploiting Thatch's ground game doesn't really seem to be clearing a high bar. Anyway, this is basically a coin flip fight, and I'll favor Price by decision, if only because Morono's wrestling game seems pretty untested itself, and Price has at least shown that much. But this could be a fun one, since both guys seem to fight quite aggressively. Daniel Jolly (5-1 overall, 0-1 UFC) vs. Khalil Rountree (4-2 overall, 0-2 UFC): Okay, so I assume this has to be the last chance for Khalil Rountree, at least in the UFC. When the cast for TUF 23 was announced, the two big favorites were Rountree and Phil Hawes, two middleweights (although the season was at 205) who were considered among the best prospects in MMA at any weight class. And while Rountree has done better than Hawes (who didn't even make it into the house, and was last seen getting tapped out in WSOF), the Las Vegas native has still been a huge disappointment. Rountree did make it to the final of the season, but Andrew Sanchez wound up making him look awful once he got there, taking Rountree down at will; things went badly enough that you could hear Rountree's mother in the crowd, telling her son to get up. After that, Rountree was matched against debuting Australian Tyson Pedro, and it was more or less the same story - Rountree rocked Pedro with his trademark striking power, but Pedro just shot for a takedown and it was pretty much all over from there, as Pedro eventually worked his way to a first-round submission. Rountree's a powerhouse of a fighter, and as TUF showed, when he's on, it's awesome, since he hits like a truck, but the lack of takedown defense and complete lack of improvement is making him look like a bust thus far in his UFC career. So, hopefully third time's the charm against "The Werewolf of Texas" Daniel Jolly, who's primarily a wrestler and a ground-and-pound artist. That made for a horrible matchup in his UFC debut against Misha Cirkunov back in August of 2015, as Cirkunov's own strength is his high level judo game, so Jolly just had no answers for the Latvian prospect. And, well, frankly, given how disadvantageous that style matchup was, he couldn't ask for a more advantageous rebound here. I'm going to go with my heart a bit and pick Rountree to finally get on track and score a first-round knockout, but I'm probably wrong in doing so, since Jolly can wrestle, and once he gets that first takedown, this might be a wrap.

#ufc houston #ufchouston #ufcfightnight104 #ufc fight night 104 #ufn104 #ufn 104 #ufc #mma

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ts-hvv4 · 4 years

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EPISODE ONE: “GAMERS NEVER STOP GAMING” - SHARIFA

As castaways got to know each other, or catch up with old cast mates, the inactivity of others set the wheels in motion for a vote off.

WOW! Season 93 holy cow. This season has started out to be anything but normal. Within my tribe, I’ve played with 5/9 members previously - which is not what I expected. I’m extremely nervous about Ricky and Emma because based off our calls and chats, they’re worried about past drama from Easter island and other ORGs being a factor in our relationships. I’m trying to let go of everything but they seem to disagree. I’ll make a more in depth review of my tribe at a later time!

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Ok, so so far I've spoken with a few people. Birch, Keegan, Cheatham, Olivia, Ned, Kurt and Trent. I'm feeling Kurt and Trent so far, Kurt I found out through him we've know each other from possibly an old mini or something, and Trent we have the same interests. So far so good. I know Chris, we had a great bond back in the day but it doesn't mean we will here. Me and Emma used to talk but I saw she recently unfriended me so...and Sarah I love her, Andreas I hope is the same Andreas because I miss him. Matt I lowkey want to meet because distance wise he's the closest to me, so we could maybe bond about similar areas and such, and he seems cool. I may have more to same later but this is how I feel right now!

I cannot believe I was uber nervous last night! I have no clue why either, guess it was because it was a lot at one time and like seeing others say it was a super strong cast was a lot. Given I just got into this community like a month ago I think I was able to see my biggest obstacle will be getting to somehow squeeze in and be comfortable since I am like extremely shy ahhhhhh

* a little while lateR*

A lot of my tribe seemed really cool! Dennis I feel the closest to already and then Andreas was so nice to keep me informed on things. Matt is also like the bombdiggity, Sarah is a sassy omelette, Kage is like the second coming of Shaggy Rogers, Ricky/Niklas I look forward to talking to more and the others I hope to talk to some more but because I woke up 10 minutes ago my memory sucks

WHY TF IS MATT SUMMERS HERE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Anyways I like everyone on my tribe. Birch is once again making friendship bracelets (they never sent out the ones they made in tashirojima lmao) and everyone is so enamored and I’m just like yep mhm. I’m getting along well with Ned, Keegan, and Kurt. Sharifa and I finally have a good dialogue going this morning and I really like her but she’s won like twice and I know trent has her high on his kill list for that. Malik and I finally talked today more which was nice. Cheatham seems cheeky and we talked a little bit not much and I’m really dropping the ball with Jake I feel bad like I def need to talk to him but agh it’s so hard trying to keep up with nine people lmao. It’s like birch and I are just going through the motions like we don’t even know what to say really other than hi how’re you I’m good thanks bc of all we went through in the game we just played. I wish I could vote them out so I wouldn’t have to deal with all those emotions. Also I’m very distressed about matt summers being here he probably doesn’t even remember me but oh sweet jesus GC was so horrible for me and I don’t hate him or anything but he double idoled me out like why tf did he have to be here 😭😭

Malik is not a lotr fan rip him

Alright, I've had some time to sleep on this game and I have some early thoughts. I think yesterday I put my guard up to soon. This season I am going to be more cool, calm, and collected then I have in previous seasons. I know I have a past with some people, who I really don't trust. I think it would be stupid for my narrative to be based around drama that occurred 5 years ago when I was 17, so I am going to be the bigger person here and hope other people aren't.

Last night a couple people jumped on call. This included Kage, Matt, Sarah, Emma, Chris, Ricky, and I. The call brought me right back to 2015 - it was wild. We kind of had a little chat about our past games. Anyways, then Ricky out of the blue brings up my FTC in Easter Island - a season which had so much tension. There were two sides - My Alliance and Ricky's alliance. Ricky's alliance pretty much maintained control of the game the entire game, and seventeen year-old Andreas was salty about it. I thought it was interesting he did that..... it concerns me he may still be mad at me for things that happened five years ago.

*Andreas walks away from the camera, does a big sigh and plops himself back down on the rock*

Time for a review of my tribe:

Sarah - LOVE OF MY LIFE!!! Sarah and I go back way far in Bangladesh. We spent my entire game together where she blindsided me. Since then, we've become great friends and I even flew to Vancouver to meet her IRL. She's my #1 in this game for sure.

Kage - Eastern Canadian King! I met Kage in Great Lakes where we didn't see eye-to-eye in a game sense but got along on a personal level. The GL cast remains one of my fav casts I've ever played with and I'm excited to meet this new Kage.

Emma - Emma is a dangerous player. Every game I've ever played with her, aside from Jordan Pines, she has done me so dirty. After the last game we played, my guard is really up with her, so I am going to try to not get too wrapped in her web.

Ricky - Not sure how he feels about me, I would like to work with him because he is smarter then people give him credit for. Hopefully it all works out between us.

Chris - I like Chris. I think Chris is buttering me up though, not sure if he really wants to work with me or this is all an act. Either way, he has made it clear he has no connections and is a hero so he for sure someone I'd like to go far with :)

Matt - Matt fucking Summers (in the words of Laure LMAO). Matt is a really nice guy, but has the reputation of being very dangerous. In a weird way, I think I can kind of be the watered down Matt Summers depending on the day. I would love to work with him, because I think he's a big personality that could place me in the background of the game.

Dennis - I find speaking with Dennis so easy! Not only is he nice and personable, but easy to have a good chat with. I would like to work with Dennis if I can.

Lukas - I find chatting with Lukas a bit harder then I should, but I expect it just based off our personalities. I am really trying hard to socialize with him, so hopefully it shouldn't be terrible.

Nick - Nick is in a similar spot to Lukas for me - but I don't find it as hard to chat with him. I'm drawing from my improv expertise this season and doing a lot of 'yes and' ing to stuff. With him, that's what I've been doing in the hopes I can build a stronger relationship. So far it's working.

That's all for now! Let's see what happens with Kage at the island thing haha

SOOO Emma is amazing. I really hope she's not good friends with anyone else in the cast cause I love her and I want her to be my #1 Jake is chill. I'm gonna keep him around for a bit, but he ALWAYS backstabs his friends so I don't trust him Chris seems cool. He's gonna be a schemer/utr I feel it. But I enjoy talking to him Matt, I'm still trying to get a feel for. He's from WV so I started talking to him about Noah Salvatore and somehow they went to the same school together so he clearly has bad luck. Dennis and I have been getting along. I talked to him a lot about my game last time tho. That made me realize I need to keep my friendships with Jake and Emma on the LOW. Kage is messy. Even this morning he's still talking to me like this: it’s terrivle nothing bere i haven't really talked to anyone else yet. Ricky and Kage both just seem so hard to talk to one on one.

Hi!! so I am the first one on my tribe to go to Ancient Thera. Kage came from the other tribe and HE IS NOVA SCOTIAN!!!!!!!! F2 right there!!! I am so hyped that I met him!!! he lives an hour from me!!!! AHHHHHHH!! I also betrayed him already and went for tribal advantage instead of personal as we agreed. also, the chances of me and him are so high I'm actually so excited!!. I can Picture me and hm becoming good friends, he and I have a lot in common. this tribe is also amazing!!

Oh god I’ve never played this challenge and I’ve always felt bad for those who did fuck

First Confessional! It's been about a day since the season began and this tribe is rockin'! I've had some pretty great conversations with most of the tribe. However there have been a couple people lacking in the social department. Most notably is NED, who I've apparently played with before but I can barely remember him. I guess he's just been busy all day, and it's only been a day so I'm not holding it against him much. SHARIFA has not been the most social with me but we have discussed some New Years resolutions and how poorly we do with those. Aside from that, I really like BIRCH, MALIK and KURT. I think they're top notch people so far and I'm hoping I can plod on forward and actually form an alliance of sorts with them. My biggest struggle right now is trying to decide whether I want to initiate any game talk this early, or if I should just hold out for a little longer so I don't come across like I'm playing too hard right out of the gates.

How does one turn a convo from fun and friendly to strategic without just straight up being like “how do you feel about everybody” bc that’s such a loaded question but the easiest route to what you wanna talk about lmao. TLDR I’m trying to talk to Kurt strategically and I’ve typed and deleted a message about a million times. Ned and I bonded super well we called for a minute and I feel so bad bc he’s like “I get close to one person and we’re together to the end I’m super loyal” and I’m like ME TOO NORMALLY BUT I ALREADY HAVE LUKAS AND TRENT and like I already love Ned I wanna be his friend and I know he trusts me super well already so that’s good I’m just worried for if/when he finds out I already have a tight twosome ahdjsks. But that’s way ahead I needn’t worry rn. I want a four person alliance with Kurt, Ned, Trent and myself. Ned said he liked Kurt and Trent so that’s great and Trent is obviously down so I just gotta grow a pair and talk to Kurt. I also really like Kellogg (can’t remember his real name ever but it’s similar to Kellogg; I’m such an ass) and Sharifa too she’s super cool. She’s won twice so I’m a littler nervy but I like her a lot. I talked with Jake a little bit more but still not much and cheatham I think I ignored all day yikes. Birch is beloved in the eyes of the tribe rn but hehe I’m still not buying into it sorry!! I like them a lot outside of the game but I’ll never ever trust them in a game. I was talking with Ned and he said he hasn’t connected well with them and wouldn’t mind voting them out so woo. It’s gonna be tricky to try and get that to have any traction since she just did something generous for the tribe sigh. Gonna have to be patient like I was patient with someone else in Mykonos. I can be patient, certainly.

I FORGOT MALIK he’s so kind I like him a lot but he’s not as giving in a convo as others so I feel like I don’t know him as well but we’re developing that relationship

I just really like our tribe

*a little while later*

Malik is so sweet, I think he needs an emoji tutorial tho 😂 sometimes he’ll send an emoji and I’m a little perplexed why he chose that one but it’s all very endearing

So Kage and his Thera shit... SHADYYY. He said if they won the challenge they get themselves an advantage in the game but if they lose, the TRIBE gets a disadvantage in the immunity. He specified the tribe and the immunity thing. But didn't specify that winning the comp would give the TRIBE an advantage. But here we are. Birch's tribe got an advantage and we got a disadvantage. I. Call. Bullshit. I think Kage got an advantage in the game in exchange for a disadvantage and it just trying to keep it secret. I'm honestly gonna keep pushing this theory so other people wanna vote Kage later. I asked Kage questions about the challenge and... Me, A psychology major: "He's giving a LOT of details here. Liars tend to do that" Also me, a psychology major: "Okay but these details sound right. That's a lot to make up" There's been a few people that I feel like I haven't been able to strike good convos with yet I'd put my ranking like this Emma > Chris > Dennis > Andreas >>>>> Kage/Lukas/Matt > Sarah > Ricky. But that big gap feels like a disconnect. AND I haven't fully talked to Emma because she keeps getting distracted when I try to chat with her. I'm just banking on our connection before the game I do feel really good about Chris and Dennis and I think Andreas was trying to talk game with me today. So we'll see. It could be a decent group that gets formed. But I'm sure those 3 are being super social with everyone else so idk where that puts me Post Tribal Reaction: "Advantages were for the taking. Kage gave me way too much power over his tribe and the advantages so I snaked him" - Birch I'm trying to sus out what that's insinuating cause it SOUNDS like you could just take advantages. Smh at Kage

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I already knew trent was like my dude but HE LOVES LES MIS TOO

Yesterday’s word of the day: hedgehog Today’s word of the day: morning morning morning

So this game started at a very inopportune time. I have an exam in 2 hours and another one tomorrow, so I haven't been super active in the tribe chat-- but after realizing that, I've decided to use it as a strategy. I'm not going to talk much in the tribe chat, but I'll have individual conversations with people. That way, it seems like I'm very invested in each individual relationship but am not super connected with the rest of the tribe, so people will hopefully see me as a trustworthy ally! I've connected really well with Olivia and we seem to be on the same page-- we're loyal to our ride-or-dies and hate drama. We called and I think this is an alliance to watch. I was also aligned with Jake in Crossroads, my most recent TS season, so I think he's going to be a built-in ally. Apart from them, Trent and Kurt seem cool and I won't be sad if anyone else gets voted out. Most of my conversations with other people have been very surface level, but I think that's fine since it's only day 2. On the other tribe, there's Sarah and Andreas-- in every game I've played with Sarah, we have never lied to each other once. She's been my closest ally out of every ORG I've played, so I know 100% that if we're able to link up we'll run the show. After Bangladesh, I got close with both Sarah and Andreas, so I'm feeling pretty confident about a swap.

Okay hi, first time playing a TS in a year weeeeeee!! The only person I know on this tribe is Ned S. and we haven't talked in 2 and a half years so GREAT good tribe lineup for me. However he really wants to work with me and I do too so hopefully there's some leverage there. Tbh I haven't connected with anyone on this tribe yet, every convo is like pretty surface level so im like dsjnsfnfjsd i need people that I can turn up with. I wanna turn up w Nicklas and Sara but theyre on the other tribe so this is rigged and of course we lost first... i always lose first.... idek who to vote out cus no one is inactive this is so fun for me goodbye

We lost the challenge, and I’m sad about that. Then I’m told by Keegan that there’s talk of a group with me, Sharifa, Olivia, Keegan, and Trent. How do I feel about that? Good except for the fact I feel it confirms the suspicions of Trent and Olivia talking either, and the fact that Kurt and Jake aren’t involved. So me and Kurt said we’d tell each other everything that’s going on, so I feel I do need to tell him about this alliance, but I can’t have him asking people about it or people might know I told Kurt through Sharifa if she thinks I actually did that. So now I need to let him know, and I need to keep him safe. I’m glad to be in a group I just need to protect Kurt at all costs.

Well we lost the first challenge and boy does that suck. I was really hoping we could pull out a few wins at the start of the game and have no issues moving forward. But that didn't happen and now we have to go to tribal council. Yuck! Right off the bat after losing the challenge I went in and did something I've never done before and never been comfortable doing before. And that's building an alliance. I sat for a few moments (and that's really all it was) before I jumped right into some conversations. Those first few minutes consisted of OLIVIA, TRENT, SHARIFA and MALIK. And now we have the MCDONALDS GANG. It's currently only a group of five but that's most likely all we'll need. It should be easy enough for us to wrangle in one or two people to vote out whoever we want to get out. I'm so proud of myself for really jumping right in there and getting things done. OLIVIA was the biggest factor in that. We immediately decided on who we liked (SHARIFA and TRENT) and pulled in MALIK for being a great dude. I'm really trying my hardest to step outside my comfort zone and get shit done this time around. As of right now (only a few hours after the challenge) my first choice for a target would be NED, solely because he's been the least talkative to me out of everyone. But that doesn't mean he's an easy choice. Everyone on Ammonia tribe is so great. We've still got a full day to decide who we want to target and get out. If it's not NED, perhaps JAKE might be the next best option. However, now that I've got this group together, I'm not going to be too pushy. We'll decide things as a group moving forward until later on in the game. I don't want to overplay too hard and I don't really want to be seen as the ring leader of the group.

I’d like to pat myself on the back because I was about to make a joke about how Sophie had to pretend to be religious in her game and how hard that must’ve been but then I remembered Ned is religious and I managed to hold back!!! Not making bad jokes upgrade woo

Well, this game is already not what i expected. I wasn't expecting mixed tribes, i wasn't expecting so many old schoolers, and i wasn't expecting everybody to be so nice. So far i'm just trying to be super social with everyone. My biggest fault in Indonesia is that none of the jury felt like they truly knew me. So i'm trying to be more open and more personal. and so far i think it's working. At first i really didn't want to work with Sharifa. Just looking at her stats I can see how dangerous she is. But we've really bonded over the past few days and shes one of my closest friends in this game right now. Her and Olivia are the ones I trust the most. I could be a fool and falling right into her trap, but we will see. I know Sharifa will be a huge target if we all make it to merge together so she's good to keep around as a shield for right now, but eventually I'm not going to be able to work with her any longer, but I dont know when that day will be. I am now in an alliance with Sharifa, Olivia, Keega, and Malik. We all seem to be on the same page for the first vote. Ned and Cheatham have been a lot less active than the first so one of them will be the first boot. I hate that it's probably Cheatham because I really did want to work and play this game with him. But if he's not going to put forth an effort then theres no way I'm going to risk my neck saving him. I just have to find the right way to tell him it's him. because if he hears it from someone other than me he might have a messy exit. Just need to get through this first vote and then the 5 of us will have a majority and should be ok until a swap. I've also been added to a smaller alliance of Olivia and Ned. I haven't really had a chance to talk with Ned but Olivia says he's great and that we will get along great. And i trust Olivia's judgement. But at this point Ned is just an extra vote to use because I'm not going to risk my game to try to save a player I barely know.

I think this game is off to a great start! Our tribe won immunity which was great, it allows me more time to build stronger relationships within the tribe. Some key things I wanna note: Matt expresses about how he wants to work together and I was like ‘yeah sure’ but he also messaged Sarah a much more genuine message about how he trusts her and I think that’s SUS ... I trust him for now but who knows . Ricky wants to work with me this game ?? Idk if he’s lying but I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt and I will believe him because we do a good rapore so it makes sense to work with him. He continues to say I’m the the only one he 100% trusts at this moment and i want to believe he’s not buttering me up and he’s loyal. I’ve been having meaningful discussions with everyone else. Emma is on my radar because she doesn’t want to talk to me unless it game talk and normally that’s what she does when she doesn’t really want to work with me... honestly would prefer her to go first but she seems well connected based off prior connections so that’s that. I’m not telling anyone but Sarah about how I feel about Emma truly because I can’t have her sniffing me out ... and plus loose lips sink ships. I’ve also been lying to a lot of people in this game for the purpose of appearing more personable to them... LOL.... like Lukas asked me about my thoughts on normani’s new music video and switch games and I lied through my teeth and looked stuff up to have shit to talk about. I wanna form strong connections now so people feel allegiance to me later. Hopefully we can go to tribal soon so I can test these loyalties ... anyways that’s all for now xoxo

Tribal day and I’ve found myself stumbling into yet another alliance, this time with BIRCH and MALIK. We’re just waiting for MALIK to get online but it’s a pretty sure thing that this alliance is happening. That means MALIK and I are both in the two same alliances which covers 6 of the people in the game. Unfortunately that means JAKE, NED and KURT are (at least to my knowledge) not in any major alliances. It’s certainly possible they have something going on with other people so I’m not going to rule it out entirely. I know it’s super early in the game but I’m feeling like I’ve found a good solid footing.

Hi im on the villains tribe...shocker Andreas is my #1 and when ned and I get on a tribe i will get him to be my number #1 and i know jake will want to work with me and matt summers wants to be close too so im thinking im good I dont trust emma or anyone else

Dusty

okay, we have tribal tonight, YAY. I am feeling okay. right now it is between Cheatham and Ned. I might push for Ned to go because I really like Cheatham. How I am feeling towards the other people is as follows Olivia- just played with you, did you real dirty in that game, sorry. I want to ally with you in this game more. Keegan- I really like you! you're awesome, i feel very comfortable with you and are allied with. stan. Tea Sluts 4 Lyfe. Sharifa- Not going to lie, you scare the hell out of me. we are allied, ily. everyone else: you are really nice, not strong feelings towards anyone.

I really like Kurt I wish we had included him in the alliance :( I feel like he’d be so fun to call

It is WILLLLLLD to be back, had no idea what I was getting myself into. Coming into Heroes vs Villains 4 I had the entirely wrong perception that I would be on a tribe with all Villains. Twistos Twist, it’s mixed….but you could have told me I was on the heroes tribe because everyone is so fucking nice….DO I LOOK LIKE A HERO WHO CARES ABOUT YOUR LIFE ALKJSDF. I feel like Colton in Blood vs Water on the kumbya tribe. So here are my thoughts on the flower children of the Ammonia tribe. My one solace is Kurt. We played together before on Generations, and he was actually my number 1 before Jakey was. What happened you ask? Liana and Andrew decided Kurt’s head would look great around their necks, and I could either vote with them, or go to rocks. So to avoid a tie, I ended up voting him out...and honestly it's one of my FEW regrets I have from the game. And it’s weird because I won Generations, but I still wish I had gone to rocks for him. I’VE CERTAINLY GONE TO ROCKS FOR LESS IN CHALLENGERS VS CHAMPIONS FKLAJSDF. Needless to say, he’s my ride or die, and I hope he can put the past behind him because I’m loyal as fuck to my ride or dies, just ask L’Shei and Jakey <3. Trent is probably the second person I’m trying to talk game with. He’s a biggggg strategist, even if he wants to pretend that he’s not...your that girl I knew you were. It’s been a big strategy of mine to play a wolf in sheeps clothing. This time around I can’t, my record is intimidating and there’s no way around it. So the only way I feel I can be successful is by amassing an alliance of heavy hitters. The only problem with that, is gamers never stop gaming, and they are going to want me out at some point. So I’m working hard to invest with Trent, and to play with him, but I’m FULLY aware he wants me out. It’s WHEN he wants me out, that’s the real question. And can he benefit my game, before then??? Malik is so fucking nice, super geunine, I like him, BUT he’s playing with his dick. He has this whole showmance with Kurt and it’s like habibi...what is you doin. It’s good for my game because he’s loyal to my closest ally, but it’s also like...we’re playing a game, play it. I do think Malik is someone Kurt and I can rely on, and I really adore him. It would be nice to play with another queer poc. I just don’t know if he’s a big gamer if we’re going to be real. Birch is….SO HARD TO TALK TO. Literally today I told them I was nervous after the challenge, because my strategy didn’t work, their response? “I BET!” FLAKSDFKJASKJFASD BRUH. Despite the teeth I want to pull, trying to have a conversation with them, they are genuinely nice and I feel it’s worth investing in talking with them. The only thing I’m nervous about is their relationship to Trent. Trent talks about them as a number, so I wonder if Birch is in his back pocket, especially considering the lack of game they talk. Olivia is a RE-HEALLLLLY interesting one. She doesn’t talk much, has her own language, that I do not speak, yet the SECOND we lost the challenge, her and Keegan orchestrated this whole majority alliance. And despite her being voted out by Trent, at the final 4, they seem to be working together. I think she’s 1) a villain not a hero, and 2) playing a lot more than I initially suspected. I think she likes me, we have a “we’re the only two girls on the tribe” thing going. LISTEN I WILL USE ANYTHING I’M A VILLAIN FOR A REASON. And she was the one who I think brought me into this magical majority alliance, so I guess we have a good relationship??? Definitely keeping two eyes, and two ears on her, she’s a player. Keegan….all I know about him is I think he’s close with Olivia, and that he’s spearheaded the alliance. I barely spoke with him, but we sent music to each other so clearly I’m gaming harder than I thought FKLAJSDF. He’s a tough one to figure out, I don’t trust him, and I think he has more relationships than I initially surmised, but right now he feels good with me so let’s celebrate that.gif Ned is INCH-RESTING. Barely spoke until after the immunity, now we’re talking fairly consistently. The two names being brought up for the vote are Ned and Cheatham, but Ned is putting in work to save himself. Ned is transparent and straight the fuck up, which is so necessary to build trust. Meanwhile Trent’s over here holding his cards to his chest closer than a new born baby. I’m very interested in working with Ned down the road, he just needs to make it past this rough patch, which I’m doing everything I can to make sure he does. At first I was really turned off by Jake….HIS BIO VIDEO WAS SO FUNNY. “My last expierene was horrible, fuck tumblr survivor, BUT IM SO HAPPY TO BE BACK KISSES”. But I realized once you speak his language of “white gay” he opens up ALOT. He also has an amazing record, and that is a plus for me not a minus, it has to be considering how scary people think my record is. I’m interested to see how he’s a good player, because right now he’s been so quiet and on the chopping block. I’m keeping my options open with him, not saying I’m going to work with him, but not not saying I’m going to work with him. Finally Cheatham. He’s honestly the only person on the tribe that I don’t have a relationship with, and because of that, he’s my target. This time around I HAVE to play calmer, and as much as I want to flip things on this majority alliance consisting of Trent, Malik, Olivia, Keegan and myself, I need to use it to get past these first couple votes. What has me so paranoid, is it makes the MOST sense to take me out right now. I haven’t solidified connections, I have an intimidating record, the strategy didn’t win the challenge, and everyone finds me likable which should be a GIANT red flag. I would be who I would go after, so why aren’t they??? And then that makes me paranoid, but it would be a lot of effort to make this alliance just to make someone feel comfortable. So if the path of least resistance is sending Cheatham home, I have to fight every desire I have to cause chaos, and make sure that’s what happens, because strategically it’s the smartest thing to do. Anticipating this season having a lot of swaps, if Cheatham leaves then I have a solid relationship with everyone else going into a swap, and swaps are when I’m going to be the MOST vulnerable. That and the merge but let’s survive this vote before we even start THINKING of that.

There’s always that major fear that like everyone is lying their ass off to you and it’s actually you but I pray that ain’t true

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