#anyway. this one's for the Despairing Women fans in my audience

[supercantaloupe]

misera elvira

[ID: a pencil and marker drawing of donna elvira and don giovanni from the opera don giovanni. don giovanni is a man with pale skin, medium toned hair and beard, wearing dark pants and a long sleeve shirt open to expose his chest. he is lying unconscious on the floor. elvira is crouched behind him, leaning over and holding him close with one arm. she wears a pale tank top and grey skirt and her dark hair obscures her head and face. a small bouquet of flowers lies on the floor in front of them. the colors are muted greys and blues, with pale pink highlights.]

sketch, detail, and ref under the cut ⬇

source: 2017 festival international d’art lyric d’aix-en-provence, dir. Jean-François Sivadier

[raininyourblackeyes]

What happened at world's??? I'm not up to date 😭

LMAOOO WHAT DIDN'T????

Ok brief summary of every disciplinne which will end up long so

MEN:

Boyang messed up so much in the SP he didn't even get to the free. To quote his coach Brian "I don't even know what that was." My boy obviously thinks that the men need to flop in every city starting with M... Milano 2018, Montreal 2024.... let's hope he keeps that mindset for worlds and olympics because they are also in Milano

Junhwan also flopped in the SP, but not as much thank skating gods! He did better in the fs but I really didn't get anything from his programs this season anyways so I wasn't as devastated as I would be let's say with any prev season's fuck up

Kao also flopped SP missing the combo because of the 4T attempt. Absolutely magnificent opening 4S, best of the SP event! He attacked some titans in the FS but got eaten immediately by 4Lo and 4S

Shoma finally listened to me telepathically and flopped the free

Jason was overscored as fuck, he should not have been above Deniss in any segment but he has the american money. However, he did serve.

Have to mention Nikolaj Memola having a very solid senior worlds debut!!!

Ilia uuuh got the world record in the FS, 227 something and now he's going viral and how I feel about it is 😐 The 4A was magnificent, and yeah yeah he can jump and yeah it's a Succession program but PLEASE WATCH SOMEONE WHO'S ACTUALLY DOING FIGURE SKATING! One can only wonder what's next? A quint? A quad-quad combo? Because he did everything else and I doubt he'll decide to get some skating skills

Donovan was absolutely stellar! And the audience loved him!

The epic highs (Romsky SP) and epic lows (Romsky FS) - as usual

Deniss went clean (if we don't count popping the opening quad in the FS) in both SP and FS. His SP is a religious experience, and he's skating to Hallelujah exactly how Leonard Cohen would have wanted. 100% worth watching (costume deduction for showing tits is soooo funny). He also did a mad thing and debuted a new free st worlds. I was sad to see Blues Deluxe go and very sceptic about Lion King, that's junior music to me but IT WAS STUNNING and I hope he keeps it for the next season so I can see it live in Zagreb

Yuma... GOD!!!!!! He is right now THE best skater we have in this disciplinne. Carolina Costner is doing wonders for his skating skills. And somehow this was meant to be a recovery season. Meanwhile he blew everyone else out of the water. Yuma is definitely worth getting into figure skating. Two stunning programs, some textbook jumps, mind-blowing performance ability and just lovely skating skills

Adam was probably the definition of men singles skating event. 19th in the sp, everyone despaired about him... because you know, there's no hope for Boyang but there is some for Adam? And boy was there hope!!! He goes clean in the FS, does a fucking banned backflip which I am not a fan of, probably thinking "fuck it I did an amazing program but from 19th I have no chance to medal anyways so I'll just do this instead" so he takes 2 deductions. And medals. Biggest jump placement wise in history of the sport. Sooo then fucking Benoit who is already delusional about his choreo skills goes and says how he wants to create choreo so revolutionary that could potentially get him banned. My dude, you should have been banned a long time ago for Kaori's I love being a woman free at least...

WOMEN:

Tbh they were in the middle of the night for me and since men singles is my fave disciplinne it's also the only one I'd stay awake for so... not much to say here. Sorry. But there wasn't any insane drama I think, the results did take me out in the SP, but it ended up pretty nice in the end

I did see Kaori and while her programs are far from my favourites this season I am 100% convinced that girl could sell me anything. The highlight of both her performances, apart from how insanely well she did to come back from 4th to win overall in the FS, was her reaction to a botched Lutz landing in the SP. Her SP is also dedicated to her niece and nephew and it's so soft. Also imagine in a few years a teacher asks kids to say a fun fact about themselves in the first class and this kid gets up and says uuuh my aunt won her 3rd consecutive world title with one of the programs being about me being born. THE FLEX!

I only got to see Hana's FS in real time and I have made an entire post about Shakuhachi so please go watch that if you haven't, it's a masterpiece. Koo Koo Fun is also a masterpiece in some other aspects! Also go watch that! I think she did an amazing job for a kid at her first worlds in her first senior season.

Mone WHAT A COME BACK IN THE FREE!!! Which rip... I like her SP more, but definitely also chek out the Sendai baby Mone if you haven't

I've seen Amber's FS, the only clean 3A of the evening. I really hope she can one day pull off a completely clean free one day

Young had an epic performance in the SP, that StSq is just cheff's kiss. I didn't catch her FS but uhhh I also don't really want to hurt myself so I won't even try to look for it

Chaeyeon sadly has a Benoit abomination for her FS, her SP is also by Benoit but she sells it so well. I say this about her FS because quite frankly it's the FS that got her the medal.

PAIRS:

Deanna and Maxime. That's it that's what you need to know about pairs. She is a superstar, they did an Interview With the Vampire free with stunning costumes. Their SP was a firecracker! Deanna is the oldest woman ever to win the gold in figure skating, and she should be THE inspiration to all little girls trying out the sport thinking that it's just a few years of fame. You can be 40 and winning gold in your home city!

Riku and Ryuichi did so well considering they are coming back from an injury and they brought back Woman (2020-21 and 2021-22 FS). Silver was very much very well deserved

I think the only other team I remember leaving an insane impression on me were Hocke/Kunkel in the SP, absolutely fucking robbed.

Pairs was overall the best disciplinne and you should watch it, I didn't have time to see any free skates except for SD/D and M/K so that's about what I can say about the event

ICE DANCE:

Head in hands, this used to be a disciplinne where you go to therapy (skating skills) after the horrors (jump fests)

Chock/Bates won which is a fucking joke because the only thing they have going for them is the fact that Madison is hot and that can be a distraction once or twice, but not at every fucking competition and not at worlds. When will they retire?

Piper and Paul were stunning, their programs are always either a hit or a miss no inbetween and this season they are a HIT! Especially the Wuthering Heights FD you should see it! They won the free, but Skate Canada forgot to homecook in the RD so they got silver overall

Charlene and Marco have the campiest RD this season but it works!!! The only superheros I am willing to watch on my screen, marvel wishes it's characters had what these two do. Their FD is also really nice. LOVED Barb's interview where she said Madison and Evan are slow af lol, but rip she was so confident about G/F placing above G/P and then bam bronze

LALA THE TRUE WORLD CHAMPIONS! Absolutely stunning and fun RD to Thriller with Zachary actually being the main character. It's also my mom's favourite ice dance program of the season overall! And then you have a complete change of emotion and tone in their Roses FD which is just soft and elegant and she is literally dressed in flower petals. They showed so much variety and growth this season. It's a program made to be adored, and their skating offers so much quality. RD is passionate and mindblowing, FD is enchanting seamless. If ice dance was a real sport they would be the world champions!

Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko in strong contention for my fave RD this season. I am probably a bit biased becasue it's Stevie Nicks. They had an amazing glo up this season imo. Their FD offers a lot of intense character projections: obsession, possessiveness. Choreo is intricate, it's a very tasteful program. Someone on here said we should have more programs about murder after their performance and I couldn't agree more. ALSO Scott and Madison in the K&C!!!!!!

You can barely guess that Lim/Quan are a first season senior couple. They managed to make me watch Let's Go Crazy without sighing about how much I miss Yuzuru. Insanely hot in that program. Their Umbrellas are also in my top 3 free dances this season. Amazing performances at their first senior worlds

Ok I'm only gonna mention absolute delight and theatrics that Pirihara bring on the ice. Such a unique Chicago presentation! I can't wait to see what they plan to do next season.

[whitherliliesbloom]

lights, camera, duty commenced!

[ ffxivwrite2021 ] ★ [ masterlist ] ★ [ prompt #14 - commend ]

[ illya, g’raha & emet ] ★ [ 2,263 words ]  ★ [ actors au ]  passing mention of some friend’s ocs and illyanaud

commend: praise formally or officially

behind the scenes of the critically acclaimed long running tv show, final fantasy fourteen, g’raha tia is (almost) inconsolable after he reads the final act’s script

The not-so everlasting light shining down feels radiant and warm, but not scorching. In the distance, one can hear the push and pull of the tides from the nearby lake, as well as the rustling of the purple hued leaves that hung and swayed ever so gently upon the trees. A light baby blue canvas with dusty cotton candy clouds crowns lakeland, painting the perfect, serene vista for an uneventful day of shooting.

Though, Illya has to remind herself, as she looks up at the peaceful sky, and sighs in contentment that she was in the completely wrong headspace. Even though the sky above was bright and undoubtedly beautiful on this fine afternoon, she knows that all it takes is for a little bit of compuer-generated television effects magic to turn the tranquil landscape into a scene of naught but utter devastation and war.

Think termination. Think termination. You’re in the middle of a large-scale battle between Elidibus and the people of Norvrandt. The tone’s supposed to be somber and tense. You’re the warrior of darkness. You got this!

“Oh.... How could this be...?”

Her train of thought is rudely interrupted by the sorrowful moping of her co-actor, and she has to resist the urge to chide him for dragging his early morning sulking all the way into the afternoon. 

“G’raha, please...” the lalafellin sighs, though cannot help but to let a sliver of sympathy slip into her tone. “The next scene’s starting soon.”

“I know, I know... But...” the man heaves a heavy sigh, hanging his head low and letting his arms drop onto his lap so dramatically she’d almost thought that his flesh really was made of crystal and wasn’t just a product of the hard work of extremely talented make-up artists. “I can’t help it. I can’t believe that my poor crystal exarch is-”

Illya can say she at least empathizes - though perhaps not to the same extent. She’s been casted into roles of characters who would meet an unfortunate demise later, but to be fair, they weren’t often major characters within the narrative of the show or film she was playing a role in. 

The crystal exarch on the other hand, has played a key role as one of the many recurring supporting casts in the show. He’d lingered in the background as early as the first season, and was, to G’raha’s jubilation, finally given a main role in the fourth season they were filming. 

Only to be killed off in the final act - succumbing to the crystallization of his entire body, from head to toe, in the throne room of the crystal tower after the warrior of darkness’ battle with the ascian Elidibus. His death scene was to be an emotionally poignant one... and Illya herself has spent the last few days getting into the headspace of the protagonist - who would understandably be utterly devastated by the loss of a dear friend. 

It didn’t help that the crystal exarch was a considerably popular character within the international community of fans - and his significant increase in screen time was due in part to fan demands... though that perhaps made his long foreshadowed death even more of a cruel irony. 

And there was nobody in the world who was a bigger fan of the crystal exarch than the actor who played him himself. It wasn’t narcissistic either, in their line of work, it’s easy to get attached to the roles they play... even more so when they’ve hovered within the headspace of their character for as long as 6 years - she would know, Liliya Liya is as big a part of her as the crystal exarch is for G’raha now.

Thus, though she felt the urgent need to get G’raha back up on his feet in preparation for the remaining scenes on their schedule to film... she could not bring herself to so callously talk down his very real and personal attachment of a character he was meant to portray well anyways. 

“Oh come now... you should’ve seen this coming.” with a swagger in his step and lazy grin plastered over his expression, Emet Selch strolls over to the pair.... far too comfortable within his own role that he was speaking with Hades’ signature slur in his speech even while out of character. The man has always noted just how similar he was to the god of the underworld, and Illya wouldn’t be surprised if he’d claimed to not even be acting in his scenes at all.

“I...” G’raha pouts, looking up at Emet as his ears flatten atop his head. “I guess I was in denial of it. I thought they would maybe subvert expectations... but-”

“But that wouldn’t be a very compelling story to tell, now would it?” The older man shrugs, and Illya regrets to think that she’s inclined to agree. 

“I guess not..” 

The robed miqo’te man sighs, and she notes with an amused raise of an eyebrow as his tail that had once been tucked tightly to his side was now swiveling from side to side and puffed up in annoyance.

“Still! They could at least let him go out with more of a bang! Maybe... after he has a solo action scene... or give him a kiss scene to make things more dramatic!”

“Is defeating the big bad and saving the heroine not dramatic enough for you, already?” Emet’s voice is in part mocking as it is exasperated, his arms thrown up to his shoulders in a shrug. “Also I hope you didn’t mean a kiss scene with Liliya.”

“W-what-?? I-” Illya’s mouth hangs agape. 

“No! I wasn’t thinking anyone in particular, honest. Besides, she’s already caught in that love triangle subplot with the twins, isn’t she?” 

At the mention of the topic, the lalafellin woman’s smile fades.

“D-don’t remind me of that. I’m really not looking forward to acting those scenes out.” 

She’s already read the script for the fourth season in it’s entirety... and though she has incredible respect for the masterful writing and the wonderful character dynamics that has only gotten better with each passing season... she has never been... entirely comfortable with the romantic aspects of the scenes involving the elven twins. Scenes of the pair vying for her attention, scenes where she held hands and even got unsettingly close to kissing them... 

Though, she will admit... her own uncertainty over her competence in filming those scenes are a result of her own, very personal emotions... something of which Emet Selch seemed to be more than aware of.

“Is it not because you harbor actual feelings for one of them? Would having scenes of you being close to him not be a blessing for you, then?”

The miffed glare Illya’s shoots up at Emet rivals moments of shadow possession Liliya experiences throughout the show, and he can only shrug with a cocky grin as her star-spangled swirl with indignation. Anger aside, heat is spreading across her cheeks in the form of a burning red hue that reaches the tips of her short, pointed ears.

Please stop. 

Her expression spells out. She’s as annoyed as she her frightened about something.

Oh dear. 

“Relax. Workplace romance here is nothing new.” His words only serve to worsen the already infuriated gleam in her blazing, shimmering eyes. “Mint certainly isn’t shy when it comes to showing she’s in a relationship with Estinien. Nor your friend Laurelis for that matter. She’s still keeping in touch with Haurchefant, no?”

Illya doesn’t say anything, but her silence and the paling of her complexion speaks louder than any words she can spill from her lips. 

It’s precisely because he doesn’t know. So please, please shut your mouth.

He still cannot understand why on earth she would stay so adamant about keeping her feelings a secret anyway. For all he knows, the entire cast of actors... and the whole final fantasy crew for that matter, was fully aware of their pining - and Illya’s feelings towards her close co-worker and friend wasn’t unrequited either. 

Just like in the show, the pair are completely oblivious to their attraction to one another... something he’ll just have to fix with his bare hands then... 

But the matter is neither here nor there, and there was something of greater urgency to rectify now. 

Emet Selch turns his gaze back down to G’raha, who has gone uncharacteristically quiet... and sensing his seriousness, Illya too diverts her attention back to the sulking redhead. 

“You know... you’re a very talented actor. It’s so very rare to find someone who can capture the emotions and nuances of a character as well as you do.” Emet is the faster of them to speak, and Illya can barely believe the words she’s hearing leave his lips. 

Compliments and praise, genuine ones at that, coming from one of the cast’s eldest, most experienced actor who is not only known to be critical when it comes to the art of acting - but is a certified acting coach himself? The monumental honor is not lost to G’raha, as his ears perk up and he whips his head up with widened ruby eyes to look at Emet.

“Death is difficult to portray - dare I say, almost impossible. After all, how can we, who have never experienced death... truly capture the sorrow and despair in it?”

Emet Selch pauses, drawing in a breath before he lifts his hand up to gesture at the pair before him.

“Which is why this is your biggest opportunity to showcase your talents, to move the audience with not just the story, but your very acting! The only thing we can do, as men and women of this field, is to act as vehicles and carry the emotions of the story into the hearts of the fans.”

The man finally sighs, shoulders falling and arms flopping lazily to his side, the sentimentality of the words he just spoke tasting bitter on his tongue.

“Besides, even in death there is a beauty. The crystal exarch lived his life fulfilled and having realized his wish at the end. I expect you to remember that when you eventually see him off.”

There’s a silence that hangs and festers in the air for a moment, before the fur on G’raha’s tail stands and his chest puffs up in a show of renewed determination.

“Y-you’re right, Emet! The crystal exarch dedicated his life to finding a way to save others... There is no better way to end his legacy than to see the world he’s protected for so long finally saved!” 

Standing onto his feet, the miqo’te clenches his hands into fists and nods before casting a glance down at Illya.

“Illya! I will act my heart out to the best I can! I’ll act so hard that I’ll make you cry on set for sure!”

The corners of her lip tugs upwards into a wide smile, glowing as the afternoon sun basks down and reflects upon her snowy white hair and the blossoms of her amethyst eyes. Even with the black of the garments she wore and the eastern patterned ribbon that held the braid around her head in place, she was luminous and blinding in her radiant presence... not unlike the heroine of their story.

“Of course! And I’m sure the rest of the crystal exarch fan club will too when they watch that episode.” 

“Illya, G’raha!” A pink haired lalafellin calls out to them from a distance away, her olive green eyes wide and excited as she waves her hands high above her head. A raven haired man stands just behind her, his dark blue eyes narrowed as he reviews the script in his hands intently. “We’re starting soon! Get over here!”

“Coming! Just give us a second!” G’raha waves back with a grin before turning back to look at Emet Selch with an apologetic, yet grateful bow, his relaxed tail swaying gently from side to side behind his back. 

“Thank you, Emet. I won’t soon forget your encouragements. I’ll do my best and make sure to not let everyone down.”

“Yes, yes. Spare me the nauseating mush. I was just making sure you didn’t drag your co-actor down with your sulking.” 

The elder man now glances at the starry eyed girl with amusement flashing through his expression, and Illya can already feel her earlier lighthearted elation fade as quickly as it came. 

“By the way... I’m sure if you asked Yoshida properly.. he’d be willing to consider writing in a kiss scene with Liliya and-”

“If I were the warrior of darkness, I’d take my crescent moon cane and stab you with the end of it......”

------

Meanwhile, a little distance away from the trio, Kaye lets out a low hum as he reads and re-reads the words upon the small stacks of paper he held, expression doubtful and confused.

“You sure this is the script to Endwalker?”

“Yeah, I am! Alphinaud gave this copy and said that he got from miss Ishikawa directly! Apparently he’s playing another major role in the next season, which is why he got the script early as a heads up.”

“But... it says here that the crystal exarch gets reincarnated? Assuming that’s not gonna be changed... that means G’raha’s gonna be...”

Kaye’s head lifts and turns, eyes wide and brows furrowing in bemusement only to see an impish smile glimmer upon Lily’s face.

“Should we tell him?”

“Hm...? Nah... He’s gonna film the exarch’s death scene soon, right? I’m sure he’ll appreciate the little surprise later, anyways.”

[flyinglotus777]

Fleeting Lotus

An usually sunny day on September 22nd. Reminiscing on the great remembrance of the 21st night of September. Although the sky was clear, my thoughts were cloudy. 3 years had passed since the death of my mother and I celebrated how I celebrated any other anniversary in my life, with a pack of menthol cigarettes and a book to get lost in. The pick for the day was Harry Potter: Order of the Phoenix. My mother and I shared a love for Harry Potter, she introduced me to the series. I had a strange feeling that judgement was coming to me swiftly much as it met our three estranged heroes.

A knock at the door.

“Los Angeles police, open up.” an assertive, but comforting voice commanded.

I open the door to be greeted by a beautiful detective James. First name unknown. She had a slicked back, long curly ponytail and eyes of warm chocolate. Her skin was sun kissed and I found her presence to be encapturing. I wonder what she wants with me.

“Good morning sir. I am detective James. I am aware that your girlfriend, Lauren, has been missing for a couple of days and I would like to ask you some questions.” Her eyes pierced at me with persistence. Her tone sounded as if she was asking a question, but I knew she would come again if I denied. Maybe with more reinforcement.

“Uh, sure. Come on in.” I shut the green door behind her and light a cigarette. If I am to be interrogated, I shall answer in smoke.

“Sir, can you put that out?” 

“No, but I’ll open a window for you. You can sit by it.” I turn on a fan and open a window. I open the blinds slightly to see the families laugh and play in the shallow, motel infested pool. What a bunch of turds, I laugh to myself. 

I grab a seat for the lady and one for myself next to the ashtray. I see her eyes wander in silent judgement and amazement of the room. 

“There you go, Ms. James. Now what can I help you with?”

“Your girlfriend, Lauren Alexander-”

“Ex. I don’t make love to the dead,” I chuckle.

“She has been missing for over five days. We are doing an investigation and asking all close friends and family members about her whereabouts and when they saw her last. Why do you say she is dead?” she asks unsteadily, gripping the upholstered arm chair.

“Well, five days missing in this city means you’ve been kidnapped or killed. Especially for women, I’m sure you know that all too well yourself ma’am. Besides, I am the one who called to inform the police of her absence.” I take a drag and relinquish the air and stress I had built up inside of me for the past few days. She eyed me up and down as I spoke, taking notice of my fully unbuttoned beige, roaring tiger print shirt to reveal my white Hanes undershirt matched with my khaki capris. I placed my leg over my ankle so maybe she would catch a glance of my Nike socks and birkenstock combination. I did dress myself today after all. Her eyes read suspicion, but somehow I could tell she was doubtful of me. 

“Well, I would just like to ask some questions and I will be on my way.”

“Ask away. How rude of me. I forgot to mention, my name is Jacob Whitmore. My friends call me Jakey, but they haven’t been calling me as much lately.” I took another drag. Nothing screams rise and shine like a nicotine coated menthol and sitting across from an upgraded police officer.

She shakes her head in disgust and despair. “Mr. Whitmore-”

‘Please, call me Jacob.”

A heavy breath followed by a restrained urge to eye roll left the detective. 

“No more interruptions please. Where were you on Thursday, September 18th?”

“Well let’s see.” I begin to close my eyes and play in my hair in an attempt to rush my memory to the present. I need more nicotine for this. “I remember waking up that morning in my downtown Los Angeles apartment, noisier than ever that morning. Lauren had made me her classic breakfast special: bland eggs with turkey bacon and 3 chocolate chip Eggos before rushing off to work. She worked multiple jobs. She walked dogs in the morning before heading off to her fabulous mansion tour of house cleaning. Demeaning, but rewarding as me and the bills always thanked her.  I had suspicions that she had been cheating on me. I found love letters in her pockets while doing the laundry. I was a stay at home while she took care of me in between jobs. I know, you don’t find too many of us house husbands,” I said, smirking at the unimpressed detective. 

“Anyways, I decided that day I was going to follow her. Do some investigating of my own. I could’ve asked her, but I wanted to see for my own eyes the poor bastard that she was playing. You see, she loved me. We were in love and inseparable. She would be playing this rascal, but still wishing the man sweetening her gears was me.” I lit another cigarette, thankful for the lotus shaped ashtray that contained a mountain of my remnants over these past few days.

“Self absorbed, maybe but that was the kind of love her and I shared.” A smile shot across my face uncontrollably. “To my great fortune, she was loyal. I watched her rip the gardening boy a new one as she proclaimed her love for me. Lauren had the mouth of a New Yorker with the face of an angel.” A chuckle escaped through my lips along with the smoke. “I was so happy I bought her roses, her favorites. Yellow bodies with pinked tipped petals. I bought her three bouquets and decided I was going to make her favorite, fettuccine alfredo. Then I was going to lay her down like I was a handyman and the Lord hand delivered me a golden pipe to fix all broken faucets in the city.” I ashed my cigarette and began to spiral as the next menthol met my lips. I could see the concern on the detective’s face as my demeanor began to colden. 

“I made her dinner. I cleaned the apartment. I lit candles on the table and on the counter. I wasn’t too big of a romantic, but I knew how to set the mood.” I chuckled as I hunched over in my chair, staring at the ground. My hands began to tremble. I abandoned my dear ashtray for the floor. “I called her five times in the first round, no response. The clock struck 5:30, and I knew that was the time she was usually getting onto the bus. Sometimes she had went to the gay bar on Melrose, the one with the illuminated turtle splashing into an ale of beer. That quacky place,” I begin to rub my head in distress. “But she texted me that she had a long day and would be coming home as soon as possible to run a bubble bath. I was going to fuck her in the tub too.” I place my hands in my head as I wipe the tears from the corners of my eyes, sucking them back into their place. The detective has been silent, but watching me in suspense like an audience member of a Shakespearan tragedy. 

“By 8 o’clock, I still had no response or sight of her. The candles were melting down to the stem and the alfredo might as well have been frozen. That’s when I made a call to the station.” I stepped on the menthol delight to extinguish it before lighting another. Only four left in the pack. Fuck. I hope this wasn’t going to take much longer.

The detective nodded and I noticed she was taking notes. She seemed very good at her job. “I have some more questions for you...Jacob” she ended her sentence hesitantly, but her soft tone comforted my damaged soul. She shifted in her seat to her legs being crossed as if she was finally finding comfort in her 1940s styled chair. “Now we visited some of her colleagues and friends who reported a similar story to you, minus some details. We have no leads, as we have already contacted the gardener who had matching alibis. The bar said she had not come in that day. We’re still recovering city footage of her traveling throughout the county.” I picked my head up to meet her eyes. My emerald eyes glisten as she asks, “why did you decide to rent out this motel room the night of September 18th?”

“Well, I couldn’t stay in the apartment knowing that something had happened. You see, today marks the anniversary of my mother’s death. She would come here often.” Detective James nodded as if she understood. 

“I’m so sorry to hear about your loss. Would you all come to vacation here?”

“My mother was a hooker. She would bring male and occasionally female clients to this location.” I said nonchalantly as if I were telling a relic of an old friend. “My father abandoned us when I was freshly born and she needed some way to support me and my brother. When she couldn’t find someone to watch us she would have us sit in the parking lot. In the parked car of course. One night I came stumbling in to beg my mother  to take us home as the clock was striking midnight and the car felt like an overworked camel hump to sleep on. I didn’t know what she was doing at first, she would always say business. I thought she was like a wall street business shark working men for their hard earned cash. I was partially right. I remember hearing these weird, promiscuous noises screaming through the lotus flower tapered walls. That’s my favorite part about this place.” I said drawing our attention to the decorum. “The pink flowers draped on the walls. Lotus flowers are supposed to be a symbol of purity. My innocence was extracted from me that night.” I take a hard drag on my cigarette in pain of irony. The detective stared at me in awe and pity. Before she could speak, I continued on with my story.

“Something inside of me told me to stay out, but my 7 year old brain was too curious not to open the door to see my mother getting pounded like the whore she was. The man just smiled at me and asked if I wanted a turn. I turned around and ran away. I vowed to never bring it up or let my brother know.” I shake my head reliving the trauma and seeing my last cigarette. “She was a good woman. She took care of me and my brother and made sure we had more than what we needed. Lauren kinda reminded me of her. Now they’re both angels watching over me.”

Detective James watched the flame from the lighter and then proceeded to scribble down an additional note. She had a confusing look on her face as if she was missing a piece of the puzzle.

“You know,” she says softly. “It hasn’t been confirmed that Lauren is dead. She may still be alive.” 

I shrug, “I abandoned false hope long ago. Is there anything else I can help you with, Ms. James?”

She starts to gather her belongings, but pauses for a second as she spots my unzipped suitcase. I could tell the puzzle pieces in her brain were looking for the missing link. Before she can answer, I say “I’ll walk you out,” managing to produce a smile. I’m just happy to reup on Ms. Mary Menthol.

She nods with a smile to mirror mine. “That is all for today. Thank you for your time and I am sorry life has been unkind to you.” Her tone rang defeated. I’m unsure if she was more saddened by my life or the unsolved case. We shake hands and I turn to reach for the door. As my back is turned, the sly bitch kicks open my suitcase to reveal a half kilo of my delicious cocaine, a machete with dried blood painted on it, and hand written notes I had written for my sweet Lauren. The next thing I know, I turn around to a gun pointed in my direction and me being handcuffed. Just as I thought I was in the clear. The scene played like a slow motion, silent film.

You see the cops had been trailing my alias for years as I had developed an itch that only holding a dead female corpse could scratch. Fell for my act didn’t you? I was sure hoping detective James would. I played the role so well I deserve to host the next fucking emmys. You see I’m not a bad guy, just a tortured soul. I was going to marry Lauren, I really was. She discovered I had killed my mother and was horrified by my actions. She was never supposed to find out. That sweet little Sherlock went rummaging through my stuff one day innocently only to be greeted with the same murder weapon that matched the description of my mother’s murder weapon and soon to be hers. I was tormented by my own thoughts and other kids for my mother’s actions. Although her intentions were in good faith, they created a world wind of hell for me. I plotted the move since I was 16. I figured sure people could clown me for having a whore as a mother, but would they say the same if she was dead. Then that makes you a shitty person. Call my mental twisted, but you try walking in my shoes and telling me how the fuck you like those roses. I’m ritualistic in my attacks as to why I was planning on burning the evidence that night on the day of my mother’s death. I figured her soul would take care of it, but it seems as if it had a vendetta to avenge me. As for the cocaine, my only mistake was not head diving straight into the baby powder while sweet cheeks handcuffed me. I hope they sell menthols in prison... 

[kimmimaru]

Yet more remake randoms.

One thing I really did enjoy about the remake was that at least two (or maybe it was the same guy, can’t be sure) infantry/security soldiers recognised Cloud. That’s one thing in the OG I got confused over, HOW did no one recognise Cloud when he would’ve been known to at least a few people. He obviously went through training, he would’ve worked with some of them, surely? I’m glad we got those moments. Also Kunsel got mentioned! I assumed they were trashing most of Crisis Core, obviously not. Judging by the posters for Banora we can assume that it exists/existed. Hojo’s mention of project G suggests the existence of Genesis at least...I’m not sure how I feel about that since I was never a massive fan of Genesis. His part in Sephiroth’s descent into madness annoyed me, he’s a big boy and can go mad perfectly well on his own lol. Hints of a possible deepground is also interesting, I mean if they have a secret base under sector 7 then maybe deepground does exist too? There’s no solid evidence of it but logically it makes sense. Although DoC has it’s issues, obviously I didn’t mind the reveal of secret bases, ShinRa is a dodgy company I don’t see why they wouldn’t have underground places full of nasty monsters. Also, the main reason I cling to DoC is because of the Vincent content tbh, Vincent is one of the main three characters I used in the OG (Cid being the other) and he’s amazing.  I get people’s issues with the remake, I really do. It DOES lack the grittyness the OG had. It feels...more fantastical which is kind of annoying. If the characters didn’t swear so much I’d have thought it was a game aimed at younger audiences. As an adult playing it that grates on me. I love the characters, Cloud especially is better than I had hoped, I was worried they’d make him all soft and woobyish, I’m glad they kept his hard edges. And the fact that Cloud knows how security stuff works, like the emergency locks and how to access the computers etc is yet more hints that he’s not all he thinks he is. Pretty sure SOLDIER’s wouldn’t know half the stuff he does, they wouldn’t have any reason to. I was...disappointed to see that Sephiroth didn’t cause anywhere near as much chaos as he did in the OG. I don’t understand why they didn’t do that. That moment in the OG when you realise the doors to your cell have been opened and then you have to follow a trail of blood and you see scars on the wall from Masamune. It was...so powerful. And eerie. The dead bodies along the way and then the president lying across his desk was like; :O It was scary and intense. That scene in the remake was lame. No blood. No corpses. Just a trail of purple bubbly stuff. Yeah no I didn’t like that. Sephiroth shouldn’t give a fuck WHO he kills in his quest for power. He should have stormed through ShinRa with his sword swinging but all he did was stab the president only after Cloud got there. That scene should have been handled much better. I love the fight with Rufus though. That was actually fun, although i’m not one for dodging or blocking so I took a beating lol. And that trick with the coins just...suits him? Wasting money like it’s nothing to him. His possessiveness and all the quips he makes while fighting. Just perfect Rufus. Honestly, out of everyone (for me), they got Rufus, Reno and Cloud perfect. I do like Tseng too and Rude...i thought Rude would be somewhat more callous but it’s cute that he feeds birds from his hand. I love Reno’s anger. Don’t know why he’s so angry but it’s fun and his foul language. The fact that Rude actively saves Tifa was a bit of a surprise for me, I know in the OG Rude likes Tifa (she could break his neck if she wanted, as I’ve always thought Rude is into that, the kinky bastard) but was very shocked to see him actively interfere and save her. I need to replay it but I always thought in the OG when you fight Rude and have Tifa on your team he never actually attacks her...or maybe that was just my game? I don’t know if that was deliberate. So it is faithful to the OG if I didn’t just imagine that. Also, on the subject of Rude, did I imagine it or did he hit the button to drop the plate because Reno couldn’t do it? I know Cloud attacks Reno before he can do it but his hand hesitates. Again, may have imagined it but it looked like he hesitated so Rude did it for him. (that rockstar slide under Cloud’s sword WAS cool. Not something I would have expected of Rude but I LOVED that). Also not sure why they didn’t have Tseng slap Aerith. He does it in the OG. Maybe they were worried about the reception of a move like that? Violence against women etc. I personally didn’t mind it, it was a shocking moment and the Turks ARE supposed to be bad guys. I did notice he does raise his hand to her, looking like he’s about to back hand her but the security guard seems to pull her away before he can. In the OG I believe that Tseng’s supposed to be putting on a front? Like, it’s hinted that he didn’t do it for any other reason than the fact that he thinks Aerith SHOULD be afraid of the Turks and maybe to stop himself from getting too close to her? Either way, they could’ve and probably should’ve left that bit in. It also doesn’t give me hope for later  on when they do the temple of the ancients bit and Cloud loses his mind and beats the crap out of Aerith. Somehow I don’t think they’ll put that in anymore, which is a damn shame.  Honestly, I like all the tiny gestures and body language they put in. It really goes a long way to make the characters much more human. All the little smiles, the hand gestures and everything. Like having Reno restless, unable to keep still. Short, sharp, angry gestures. Constant cursing. Rude’s calmer motions, the little moments of fear they both have when one of them is injured or possibly dead (when Rude’s helicopter crashes and Reno picks up his glasses). It shows how close they are and yeah they are bad guys but I have always been against making a bad guy ‘pure evil’ and inhuman (only exception is Sephiroth in this case because he IS part alien monster). Even the Turks are human, they should feel fear, they should care about something and have motivations beyond the simple; we are bad so we will try to defeat the good guys. I don’t want pure good guys either, I want them to have flaws and failings which is why I loved the OG so much. They were all just...human. And obviously we didn’t get QUITE as much Turk actions as I would have preferred but now that we are getting it I’m pretty happy with what we have. Edit to add; my issue with the remake’s version of the plate drop is it lacked that sense of helplessness. And a lot more people seemed to have survived. Maybe if they’d added a mission to go through and help look for more survivors, have people trapped, people you can’t save etc. I wanted to feel that despair when I played it, the same feeling I got when I played Zack’s final battle in CC. You know he doesn’t survive, you fight over and over again and that feeling of knowing that no matter what you do he’s going to die anyway. I loved that. It’s so real. It shows that even a hero can’t save everyone and it’s a hard fact of life. It definitely lacked the sheer horror and evil of the act. I mean I did cry when I played it...but the end ruined it for me. Having it turn out that people are alive who should have died, kind of destroys the whole emotional aspect. There’s no real consequences to anything in the remake. And, judging by all the hints at changing fate and stuff, there won’t be in the coming parts either. Makes me really quite angry. Everyone lives and nobody dies, totally unrealistic and pointless for a game like final fantasy 7. I am silently begging square to reconsider their direction if what they’re hinting at is true and they’re going to keep Aerith alive. Please, please don’t do that. It will totally ruin the game and it’ll lose all meaning. I love Aerith but her death is a poignant, emotional tragedy and Cloud’s (or the players) helplessness is a key factor in that. If this ends with ‘and everything was fine and everyone was happy’ I’m going to puke.  Anyways, will stop here. This got LONG.

[arbeaone]

For “Great British Baking Show” Contestants, The Real Loss is the Endless Trolling

by Rae Robey Published on December 2, 2019 at 11:51am

Against the vast backdrop of high-octane and anxiety-inducing cooking competition television programs, The Great British Baking Show is an aberration. Internationally beloved for its affable contestants and endless supply of baking-themed anglicisms—“soggy bottoms” and “saucy puds” abound—the show follows a dozen or so home bakers as they compete to be named Britain’s best amateur baker. When the 2019 season premiered with a record-breaking 9.6 million viewers, each contestant was thrust into the public eye; most have racked up tens of thousands of Instagram followers since the season began in August. For American audiences in particular, The Great British Baking Show’s intrinsic wholesomeness makes it a cultural phenomenon: We could never be so well-mannered in a televised competition, but we do enjoy pretending.

The Great British Baking Show is, at most, an estranged cousin to American cutthroat cooking competitions like Chopped, Iron Chef, or even Cupcake Wars. In the Baking Show tent, contestants help each other finish their bakes, are graceful (even grateful!) in defeat, and despair when their purported rivals are dismissed from the competition. Each episode is predicated on kindness, love, support, and the freely-given home-baked comforts of the feminine domestic realm. Even the grand prize—a cake stand and some flowers, no cash—highlights the show’s near-pathological humility. Produced by a team called Love Productions, decency is, we can only assume, woven into the show’s DNA. But when Baking Show airs on TV, long after the last bun is iced and the final bap prodded, the trolling begins.

Each season, the bakers spend months immersed in icing sugar, bavarois, and ganache, frantically preparing for the 30 challenges of the competition. In addition to the generalized stress of executing difficult pastry skills while trying to impress professional judges on an international stage, the bakers are told by producers that they’ll likely deal with some backlash from a handful of disproportionately peeved viewers. After all, it’s a competition. But the backlash goes beyond competition, and, despite the warning, most bakers are blindsided by the frequency and ferocity of their trolling. And though adoring fans are certainly in the majority, online trolls yell the loudest. Stacey Hart, a Season 8 semifinalist, dealt with severe online harassment as soon as the season began airing. “I’m smug, I’m a bitch, I’m a worthless piece of shit, I’m a useless baker,” Hart told Bitch, describing the comments that strangers sent her. “[The show] was the best experience and the best thing—at the time—that I ever did. It became the worst thing I ever did.” Trolls loathed her pink, glittery bakes and how often she brought up motherhood; their caustic DMs and comments drove her into a months-long depression. “I’m quite a self-conscious person anyway, and it made me question myself,” says Hart. “Am I good enough?”

Before Hart, there was Ruby Tandoh, a Season 4 runner-up who was deemed a “filthy slag” who traded sexual favors and weaponized “female tears” for preferential judging. Tandoh wrote a piece for The Guardian in October 2013 describing the waves of “lazy misogyny” that followed each episode’s release, but shining light on the problem change much for future contestants. Claire Goodwin, the first to leave the tent in Season 5, was inundated with fat-shaming comments. Season 6 winner Nadiya Hussain, a first-generation British Bangladeshi, was told to “go home” on Twitter. Candice Browne, winner of Season 7, regularly endured comments from strangers who “fucking hate Candice, reckon she’s a right bitch.”

In a 2018 joint study with Element AI, Amnesty International named online trolling of women a human rights violation—one that social media platforms like Twitter continuously refuse to be held accountable for. The trolling of Baking Show contestants generally reflects the Amnesty International findings: White women are trolled hard, but women of color are trolled harder. Commenting on the viciousness of a particularly nasty troll, Hussain offered a succinct explanation: “I’m Muslim, brown, working-class and a woman! I may as well have ‘punching bag’ written on my torso.” In general, men are less likely to be trolled and, instead, are more likely to be trolls themselves, due to years of learned misogyny and—according a Brunel University and Goldsmiths, University of London report—a higher rate of narcissism. But on Baking Show, trolling often extends to the men with nearly as much vitriol and regularity as it does to the women.

Dan Beasley-Harling, a 2018 contestant and self-identified “gay-at-home dad” received the overwhelming bulk of Season 8’s cumulative harassment. “It was about five weeks of people just saying horrible things about me constantly. I had some really overtly homophobic comments,” says Beasley-Harling, referring to unoriginal jabs about queer sex and the suitability of a queer parent. Trolls can generally find a problem with any woman, but two types of bakers stand out as exceptionally deserving of harassment: women who don’t land neatly in the realm of palatable, perfect femininity, and men who aren’t stereotypically masculine. Beasley-Harling’s experience suggests that Baking Show trolls might take a more nuanced approach to their vocation.

Perhaps it’s not just about harassing women online—it’s about re-establishing gendered power dynamics and punishing those who flirt with the domestic on public-facing platforms. Domestic work has historically been an unpaid at-home venture delegated to women, so Baking Show contestants are either women overstepping their household boundaries or men crossing gendered labor lines. For a troll, either is a damnable offense. But with each record-smashing episode, Baking Show subverts the assumptions of where femininity belongs, who it belongs to, and how much it’s worth—roughly £24.2 million in predicted revenue. Still, exploitation is often and easily disguised as empowerment. Lest we forget, Baking Show contestants aren’t paid, and the grand “prize” has little to no real-world value.

To an extent, we all participate in the uninformed and unkind public judging that trolls have championed. We experience celebrities and public figures—especially women—as dehumanized subjects ripe for public dissection, each one existing in a vacuum sealed behind a screen. After all, the Baking Show contestants are filmed, edited, and packaged by professionals into easily digestible archetypes for the sake of a comprehensible and compelling storyline. For example, the latest season featured Michael Chakraverty as the optimistic goofball, Steph Blackwell as the irrationally insecure savant, and Helena Garcia as the spooky, whimsical free spirit. While these personas are fully inspired by who the bakers actually are, they’re ultimately deployed to create drama and tension where it doesn’t exist—that’s just the mandate of reality-TV editing.

But trolls live in the extreme, and for them the editing spurs online abuse. Beasley-Harling, for example, saw the trolling as a direct extension of Love Production’s editing. “I felt like the editing choices were very much treating me like collateral damage,” Beasley-Harling says. “I phoned Love Productions and said, ‘I don’t think you’re representing me fairly, I understand why people don’t like me.’ And they said, ‘No, you’re crazy, everyone’s getting a fair, balanced view on the show. It’s all in your head.’” Gaslighting, the Old Faithful of emotional abuse is regularly deployed against women, people of color, the LGBTQ community and other marginalized groups, is remarkably efficient at restabilizing power dynamics—exactly what trolls seek to do. A representative for Love Productions stated via email that: “Love Productions has always taken contributor care seriously and has robust protocols in place to protect and support those taking part in our shows throughout production and after transmission. These protocols evolve to acknowledge and address the changing media landscape and scrutiny.”

Depending on who you ask, however, the robustness of their protocols fluctuates. According to Beasley-Harling, past contestants have speculated that the Love Productions team tailors their level of attention and support based on the profitability of the contestant in question. After leaving the tent halfway through the competition, Beasley-Harling felt like Love Productions was less interested in protecting its contestants from trolling when money was to be made elsewhere, a behavior not dissimilar to reality television at large. “I barely left my house for three months. I was a shitty parent for three months,” Beasley-Harling says, describing the impact of his trolling. “To me, that felt like, ‘We’ve used you for the entertainment value and now we’re disposing of you.’” But Hart, the semifinalist who received the brunt of Season 8’s trolling and suffered a depressive period similar to Beasley-Harling’s, found Love Productions reassuring throughout airing.

“Every time I called them, they were wonderful. Didn’t matter what time of day,” says Hart. But she does concede that the emotional scarring from her online abuse outlasted Love’s self-proclaimed robust protocols. “They’ve got no idea how it’s affected me to this day,” says Hart. “I don’t think that’s their problem anymore, is it?” It remains to be seen how this year’s cohort of bakers will fare. Airing in the United Kingdom continued through October, and this year’s crop of bakers appear as chipper as ever, even online. So far, trolling appears to be minimal—maybe the bakers can avoid it if they subscribe more closely to normative gender expectations. “When I went on the Bake Off I wasn’t worried about my hair or my makeup or what I was wearing,” says Hart. “Maybe if I had made more of an effort, people would have been nicer to me.”

[bollywoodconfessions]

sanjay dutt?

Why I like them: This is a bit tough, not because there are no reasons to like him lol, but because there are multiple reasons to like him. Actually, what I feel for this guy is immense love, the kind of love that I cannot explain, just something that I feel very strongly, but anyway let me put this into words.

Sanjay Dutt is someone who has a very endearing inner core. He basically seems like a child underneath a big 6 feet body, and this much I can decipher just by watching him perform or watching him offscreen. His eyes are the windows to his soul, and they reflect nothing but beauty, his smile is one of the most cute, genuine and childlike smile I have ever seen.

God bless this laughter!

Another trait that I admire about him is his honesty, he is not afraid of judgement, he says it like it is, and says it like a boss. Openly confessing to doing all the drugs in the book or confessing to sleeping with 308 women are not at all easy things to confess.

And might I add that most people I know are forgiving towards all these confessions, because at the end of the day he is Sanjay Dutt, and he will be loved, regardless of what he says, he has a hypnotising charm, once you love him you cannot stop.  

Sanjay Dutt is not politically correct, he never has been, and he never can be, that is why his interviews are intriguing and fun. We are all like Anushka’s character in Sanju, intrigued with the honesty and impressed with the personality.

Sanjay Dutt is someone who has amazing amount of mental strength. If anyone else was in his position he would probably be in deep post-traumatic stress. However this guy is made out of steel, in spite of it all he managed to have a good career and a good life. Kudos to the resilience. Kudos to the person.

Instead of crying about all the trauma, he bounced back, he forgave people, and continued to be the loving and jovial person he is. There is nothing that can ever stop his zest for life.

He is a brilliant actor! And I love the kind of cinema he stands for! I cannot stress this point enough! I don’t know if my words will be able to do justice to his talent! But hey let me give it a shot!

Sanjay Dutt is truly a natural actor, he feels his character, nothing about his acting is ever “put on” that is exactly why all his characters, whether good or bad, are so impactful to the audience, like Hrithik once rightfully said:

“There are a very few actors who seem like they are feeling their character, and Sanjay Dutt is one of them. He scared me while we were shooting for Agneepath. I was like do you actually really hate me?”

I think Sanjay Dutt is the kind of actor who puts his soul in the character he plays, that is exactly why people like me are able to form a great connect with all his characters, you are able to feel for them deeply, because it is portrayed with a lot of soul. Like the great Nasseerudin Shah once said:

“Sanjay’s eyes can reflect real pain, unlike any other young actor. This is because Sanjay has already gone through so many experiences in life, experiences which have contributed to him being a good actor already. A good actor is one who can add to his range as he goes through various personal experiences in life. This look of pain endows Sanjay with both vulnerability and raw power on the screen.’‘

Some of his fans also do a rather amazing job at describing the vulnerability that Sanjay brings to all his roles. Exhibit this:

“The more I watch Saajan the more I am struck by how deep an insight into his soul Sanju gives us in his (at times heartbreaking) portrait of a sensitive poet. How much suffering, despair and loneliness can be seen in his eyes when he is overcome by mental anguish! In my opinion, for the understanding of Sanjay Dutt as a human being, Saajan is as important as Naam.”

I don’t think any amount of quotes can do full justice to the talent this man has, but let me just put it this way, I honestly feel every emotion he goes through in almost every performance of his, he is able to communicate so much even without saying a word, he is one of those very rare actors who does not have to overdo their performance to be effective. I think he is damn underrated, and so are some of his movies, some of them are legit masterpieces. Although, a lot of his characters do have a cult following, especially the characters Raghu (Vaastav) and Munna Bhai.

However my favourite performance of his is quite underrated, and that would be of Inayat Khan from Mission Kashmir.

This movie is amazing and deserves a lot more credit then it gets. Sanjay Dutt’s acting in it is terrific, his performance in this movie always moves me to tears. Not once does Sanjay Dutt’s acting  gets “dramatic” but it is still so impactful. He doesn’t say much yet his eyes have so much to say. His random outbursts of sadness, anger and anguish is something that is to watch out for. And like his every performance he puts a lot of himself in the character. Inayat Khan is not perfect, but he has a good soul, a heart that is in the right place. Inayat Khan is most of the time full of strength and is the protector, however that does not mean he is not capable of crying like a baby when it hurts way too much. Honestly I see a lot of Sanjay Dutt in this character, it is a character that was meant to be played by him. Sanjay Dutt is a potent mixture of vulnerability and strength and so is Inayat Khan, and that is exactly why the character comes alive, the character feels very real and it moves you at every moment. The character is portrayed brilliantly, and even though Sanjay Dutt did win some awards for it, I do not think this movie and his acting in it got it’s credit. This movie is ahead of it’s time and is an underrated gem. It makes for a splendid watch. Too bad it came at a time when romances and comedies were the “in thing.”

He is extremely Humble and Passionate:

Sanjay Dutt was no.1 in Bollywood when he got arrested in a very controversial case, just when everything was finally looking up for him it all went completely downhill. After showing support, many producers and directors decided against casting Sanjay Dutt in their movies. From being no.1 and to having all the success that he deserved, his career went to a minus due to a huge controversy.

Not only this, but for 1.5 years he stayed locked up in terrible conditions. If this happened to any other actor they would have collapsed, nothing is more important to a Bollywood actor than success and their ego, this sudden rejection after massive success is not an easy pill to swallow, especially not for a narcissist. Thankfully Sanjay Dutt is not one. He came out, did whatever work he got and made his way up again.

And he did not work hard or work in a zillion movies afterwards to prove a point, but just because he believed in doing his work with love and dedication, nothing less and nothing more. He did his karma and didn’t care for the results, and that is the kind of passion for work  and humbleness that everyone should aspire to have.

as Mahesh Bhatt once said:“One of the things I loved about working with him was the relief of finding an actor who is not narcissistic. I remember thinking during Naam: This guy doesn’t give a damn about how he looks on screen, he leaves it to the cameraman and just goes and does what he’s supposed to. And this in an industry where men (and macho men, not just the pretty boys) go to huge lengths to control how they look on screen — lighting, best profile, best angle — spend hours, like women, in front of their mirrors before they give a shot. Not Sanju. It was a relief to find a male who was not in awe of his own physical form. I don’t think I’ve found an actor who fits that bill in all my life.”

Why I don’t:  He doesn’t know how to sell himself.

Favorite film/scene:

If I have to choose one scene, it would be the scene in Mission Kashmir in which Inayat khan gets furious with his wife. Inayat Khan is a person who has always been extremely supportive towards his wife and clearly loves her a lot. Hence the anger that he has towards his wife in that scene is more about the hurt he feels, as he feels betrayed by someone who is very close to him. I think after suffering so much in life, this angry outburst sums up the hurt and despair he has been going through for so many years. Even though he may be in the wrong here, the outburst seems so straight from the heart, and is so raw that you cannot help but feel bad for him. I think that is a mark of a great performance. Sanjay Dutt’s characters are never politically correct, but because his emotions are so raw and are so honest, you cannot help but just root for him, and see things from his perspective. I mean he even made one feel bad for his character in Khalnayak, even though he was completely in the wrong throughout, again I empathised the most with his character in that film when he has an angry outburst regarding his Mother. Sanjay Dutt’s angry outburst in most movies are about him portraying an explicable amount of sadness and frustration, and I look forward to such scenes of his. His anger displays his vulnerability, and that makes for a great watch.

Favourite line: “Mujhe jo iys desh se mohabbat hai, woh kisi IS officer ki mothaj nahin” (Mission Kashmir). I also love the song he has sung for his movie ZINDA. The song is called “Kabhi Muskurake” and that song kind of sums up his life.

Favourite outfit: He looks hot in everything he wears, I am quite a fan of his late 80s and 90s fashion though, the beautiful long hair, a nice white shirt, and a nice pair of jeans on his tall legs is always a winner!

OTP:Non-romantic definitely him and Govinda. They are a laugh riot, they have created some of the most epic comedies together!

OTP: Sanju has shared great chemistry with everyone, but I think I will only ship him with me! LOL

Unpopular opinion: Sanju is mainly known for his intense action dramas or comedies, however I feel he is extremely underrated as a romantic hero. I think Sanjay Dutt always shares amazing chemistry with his female costars. I think his height and big broad shoulders make him look very attractive, and to add to that he has this cute child like innocent face to go with it. He is like every woman’s dream man. I think he is very underused as a romantic hero. Great love stories could be made with the intensity he has. I love when he hugs his heroines, he always closes his eyes while doing so, it is very cute.

A wish for them: Do more great movies

An oh-god-please-don’t-ever-happen for them: Don’t get caught in any controversy again. Please stay safe and happy. I cannot see you suffer anymore.

5 words to best describe them: Honest, Passionate, Innocent, Sexy and Beautiful.

My nickname for them: Sanju

[mild-lunacy]

Despairing about Despair

If you look up fanart for Neil Gaiman's Sandman comic, you're going to see something weird, but consistent. In fact, it's weird *because* it's so consistent. Even when the art is done by clearly pro-level artists, the depiction of Despair-- a fat woman-- is almost always amazingly bad. Like, we're talking she barely looks female, and often enough barely looks like a human (even though, of course, technically she's not). Or, alternatively, she barely looks comfortably plump. We're talking either man-shoulders and a rugged jaw (to go with the man-belly, I guess?), or looking like an average middle-aged soccer mom. That's if she looks human, particularly in extra cartoony styles where every other character is super idealized. Despair is just like a weird vaguely person-shaped blob in those styles. I almost feel bad for them, 'cause I suppose it's hard to imagine ugly fat women could be cute. And yet, you know, fat babies are cute, so.... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, why am I posting about this, you might ask. Well, I remember being at a con one time, where another Harry Potter fan suggested I draw her some overweight women. I realized my plentiful female doodles were all too similar and their bodies were definitely idealized, but I wasn't super motivated to draw people who looked more like me. I say that, even though it actually meant a lot to me to read about a character like Despair when I was a teenager. I may have liked literally every other member of the Endless more and found them cooler and more interesting, but I identified with Despair. I liked seeing her unapologetically fat body, defying the audience-- and the world-- to look at it. She wasn't pretty but she felt real to me. She was too depressed to be too self-conscious about being naked in public, and dammit, I liked that. I loved how real Despair was.

So the main thing that offends and bothers me is that to all these people-- let's say 8 out of ten artists-- Despair isn't real at all. We're mainly talking about pro artists who can clearly render human bodies well, but I've also noticed that beginner fanartists whose poses and perspective all need work also have the most trouble portraying a grossly fat, naked woman believably. No matter what, Despair always looks the worst. It's really like they're not trying, and sometimes she's in fact left out of Endless fanart entirely.

It's not like it's a shocker that people have issues with fat or that it's often ignored of idealized away even in photos these days. I know how it is. It's just surprising to see this obvious of a skill gap. As an artist, I like to think I want to portray everything I attempt with skill. I certainly wouldn't want to just leave an obvious blooper on a finished, otherwise well-rendered work. Not purposely, at least. Not after attaining a level of some excellence in overall performance. And yet, these bloopers are common. People just really don't want to try to 'draw what you see' if what you see is a naked, grossly fat woman.

Obviously, I mean, truly pro comics artists, such as the one(s) who actually worked on The Sandman, can and do draw Despair realistically. So this is specific to stuff they may *choose* or want to do, as opposed to stuff they're paid for. And the fact is, they simply don't want to spend any real effort on fat women. I fact, many artists (and possibly people in general) seem to have some sort of mental blind spot when it comes to fat women. To draw Despair so masculine in more than one case, it's hard not to conclude these artists are men who implicitly categorize fat women as 'not really female'. This is not even subtle sometimes. In at least one case, everyone else looked great but Despair looked a lot like a smaller version of Thing, from the Fantastic Four. You know, the mutant stone guy with the huge shoulders. Then there's the drawing where Despair's skin is literally gray, and instead of curves and roundness, it looks simply like it's a creature with no obvious anatomy whatsoever, aside from being vaguely humanoid (again, this weird look only applied to Despair, not the others). I'm trying not to project, but this seems really obvious to me from what I've seen. A part of me thinks it's better when Despair looks well rendered, just not really fat. But that's just a different kind of issue.

I'm sort of insulted, but mostly just bewildered, even though I'm not surprised. It's not like I myself generally choose to draw fat women. It's just I'd make an effort if that was what I was going for. I certainly wouldn't pretend Despair didn't really matter if everyone else looked great. Although I will say all this has certainly made me think I should probably practice drawing fat ladies after all. I guess my HP fandom friend was onto something.

[coppicefics]

Masked Omens: Week Eight, Part One

[Image Description: Image 1 - A simple rendition of the Masked Singer UK logo, a golden mask with colourful fragments flying off of it. The mask has a golden halo and a golden devil tail protruding from either side. Below, gold text reads ‘Masked Omens’.

Image 2 - A page from the Celebrity section of the Capital Herald, dated 13th February 2021. Full image description and transcript below the cut. End ID.]

Read the fic here!

The Capital Herald - Saturday, 13th February 2021 Celebrity section, page 18

Top: “Informants come to me”: Carmine Zugiber on front-line successes Tips, troubles and truths about writing headlines abroad - and now making headlines at home When working in a war zone, most people wear camouflage and try to keep their heads down – but not Carmine Zugiber. The successful war correspondent is one of the most recognisable journalists in the world, and that's even more true after her recent unmasking on The Masked Singer UK. I sat down with her to discuss her work, her brand partnerships, her passions and her fears – if, indeed, she knows the meaning of the word 'fear'. “I don't, really,” she laughs, “people have said that about me ever since I was a little girl. My mother absolutely despaired – she always wanted me to be safe at home playing with my dollies, and there I was climbing trees and falling out of them. I was always in the middle of fights, even then. So I suppose it was only natural that I'd drift towards war reporting.” But not everybody encouraged Zugiber to follow her dreams. “When I told my tutor at uni that I wanted to work on that side of things, he tried pretty hard to steer me back towards something a little safer. The politics beat, or entertainment, or fashion. I've actually been covering politics for the last month or so, as a colleague is on leave, and I have to say, that can feel pretty cut-throat! But I knew I wanted to see the world and get right to the heart of the action, and I'd like to think I've achieved that.” Zugiber has certainly made her mark on the headlines, covering conflicts in countries including Eden and, more recently, Celestan. “I just think it's important to take as unbiased an approach as possible and really tell the stories that are coming out of – well, especially a situation like Celestan. It's a complicated sort of conflict, and you never know how things are going to pan out. And sometimes being a journalist can feel like having a target painted on your back.” And Zugiber's signature red hair must stand out somewhat – does that make her more of a target? “I make it work for me, honestly. Informants come to me of their own accord, which is handy when everybody else is frantically chasing leads! Having done my share of broadcast journalism, people all over the place recognise me and there's a sort of built-in trust. It's flattering, really, and it's just a matter of making sure that trust is justified.” Zugiber has long been an ambassador for the Vibrant brand of hair dye – leading some to question her objectivity as a reporter. “Yes, I've heard that, but unless Vibrant starts a war, I don't think it's an issue. Clearly my editors and the press watchdog agree, because I've had no complaints from on high. And it's a product I genuinely believe in and use all the time, so why not?” Zugiber's most recent departure from the newsroom was even less likely to conflict with her usual work. What drew her to The Masked Singer UK? “I was asked if I wanted to take part in the show at about the same time that a colleague announced that she'd be taking some leave around now, and my editor suggested that I might like to take over her post for a while to get a broader range of experience. It seemed like perfect serendipity. I didn't want to be bored, hanging around in London for months – I'm used to travelling a lot – and the show sounded like a lot of fun. I jumped at the chance to make people smile for a change. Unfortunately, as a war correspondent, that's not something I often get to do.” Zugiber admits that she had mixed feelings as she got on the plane back to the UK. “Oh, yeah, definitely, it was a hard decision. With the situation unfolding in Celestan, which is becoming more complex by the minute, a big part of me felt like I should stay and keep working on the story there. But funnily enough, that story has followed me right into the Politics section, and it's looking increasingly likely that some sort of diplomatic solution might be reached. And the break has been really good for me – I needed to remember how to lighten up and be silly, and The Masked Singer is definitely silly! So ultimately it was the right decision for me.” And now, with The Masked Singer UK behind her, what's next for Carmine Zugiber? “The Masked Singer was a lot of fun, I really enjoyed it. And the response from the audience has been overwhelmingly positive. I loved the secrecy, but it's a relief that the truth is out now! I'll be staying in the UK, covering for Uriel [Scrolle, News World Weekly's Political Correspondent], for a little bit longer, and then in a couple of months I should be back out on assignment. No rest for the wicked!” BOGDAN PIGTON [Image Description: A picture of Carmine Zugiber’s face, in her motorbike helmet, with part of the village of Tadfield visible in the background. End ID.] [Caption] ROCK AND ROLL: Carmine Zugiber, pictured here outside a Labour party campaign meeting in Lower Tadfield, Oxfordshire, often uses her motorbike to keep up with subjects on the move. Her iconic scarlet look has led to her gathering something of a cult appeal among her viewers and readers. Photo: QuiteUnlikely.net

Centre left: ConStellation boots web star Wytchfynder host removed from astrology event Popular YouTuber Sergeant Shadwell was thrown out of the Greater Dyvyn Conference Centre last Sunday after trying to attend ConStellation. ConStellation has been the UK's largest convention for astrologers ever since its foundation in 1994. In 1999, the convention expanded to include practitioners of other divination techniques such as cartomancy (tarot card reading) and tasseomancy (tea leaf reading). The convention has been dogged by controversy throughout its history, with critics claiming that the 'con' of the name stands for more than 'convention'. Sergeant Shadwell, through his Wytchfynder channel, has long been committed to investigating the claims of fortune-tellers and paranormal practitioners such as those who attend ConStellation each year, and in several cases he has denounced claims of psychic ability as completely and demonstrably fraudulent. It is, then, perhaps not surprising that he is completely banned from ConStellation, which according to its website is 'intended as a safe and welcoming place for practitioners and interested parties to share their appreciation for, and knowledge of, the unknowable'. Sergeant Shadwell himself, however, does not seem to have been aware of the blanket ban. Witnesses to the scene on Sunday reported that the YouTuber could be heard arguing with security all the way to the doors of the building. When reached for comment, the organisers of ConStellation issued the following statement: 'A man was removed from the ConStellation event on Sunday morning after attendees expressed concern that he might be attempting to create an 'exposé’ on their work by manipulating footage of the convention. The man in question is known to the convention organisers, and a decision was made to ask him to leave. Calls for the man to be searched for recording devices were not enforced, and the man eventually departed with minimal fuss. The convention otherwise proceeded without incident.' Sergeant Shadwell was not available for comment, but a video on the Wytchfynder channel on Tuesday mentioned the incident in passing. 'All right, I just want to say thanks for all your comments, you don't need to be worrying about me. I did go to a convention this weekend, but not for anything to do with the channel, I was just planning to meet up with a friend. Well. We've been exchanging texts, I thought it might be nice to meet in person. And we did, after the convention, so. Not a total waste. Anyway, about this haunted castle-' Speculation is rife about the identity of Sergeant Shadwell's alleged friend, with some The Masked Singer UK fans pointing out that fellow The Masked Singer contestant Marjorie Potts - better known as TV's Madame Tracy - was one of the key speakers at Sunday's event. Shadwell is far from the first person to be escorted out of the Greater Dyvyn Conference Centre by security; earlier this year, three women were removed from a panel at DivaCon after starting a food fight. Several other attendees had their weekend passes revoked and were allowed to leave under their own power. But whether Sergeant Shadwell was there this weekend to meet a friend or conduct an investigation, it's probably best that he choose another venue; he's unlikely to be welcome at ConStellation any time soon. SCUZZ FISHER

Centre- and lower- right, advertisement: [Image description: A microphone on a stand, against an orange background. A pair of Union Jack printed Converse hi-top shoes cover the lower half of the image. The microphone/background image is credited to Jon Tyson on Unsplash, while the shoe image is credited to Nick Fewings on Unsplash. End ID.] The British Inquisition Book now www.brianthames.co.uk/british-inquisition Brian Thames “Nobody expected this!” [4 stars] The Capital Herald.

Bottom left: Masked Cat out of the bag? Did a Pam & Sam guest let the big secret slip? Did Rose Montgomery really just admit to being the contestant known as Black Cat in the current series of The Masked Singer UK? It seems almost impossible; surely a contestant would be more careful when taking part in a show like Pam & Sam AM. But people do make mistakes, and Pam & Sam does air live. Let's look at the evidence. Appearing on the show to advertise her upcoming show, Notes and Measures – which promises to be part cooking show, part mixology class, and part vineyard tour - the celebrity chef was asked if the rumours surrounding her participation in the competition had any truth to them. “Well, naturally, I can't tell you that,” Montgomery told her hosts with a knowing smile, “there are all sorts of NDAs involved.” I don't want to jump to conclusions, but several of the previous weeks' clues seem to have hinted at Montgomery's involvement. For example, in week five of the competition, Black Cat's clue package included “if they take note of my performance, they'll finally get the true measure of me” (emphasis mine) – while Montgomery's show Notes and Measures was still just a distant speck on the TV scheduling horizon. And in week six, Black Cat was shown on CCTV with a daisy – and Daisy, like Rose, is a popular flower name. Is Rose Montgomery Black Cat? We'll find out tonight. GRESHAM PENDER

[End of transcript]

[wearemozzerians]

Here’s today's full interview with Morrissey Official by 

Chrissy Iley for The Sunday Times:

I'm inside Morrissey’s hotel room at the Sunset Marquis, West Hollywood. It smells incensy, instantly exotic with a dangerous edge rather like the man himself. He’s in LA because he’s performing at the Hollywood Bowl and because Friday, November 10 has been declared Morrissey Day by the mayor of Los Angeles. He lived near here until a few years ago, but now he’s just visiting. Where does he live now? A sigh. “I’m in a different place all the time. I’m not sure why everyone wants to know where I live, what that says about me. It means my credit card is permanently blocked for security reasons. They think I’m an anonymous person if I’m never in the same place. I never ask people where they live, but they always ask me as if it would reveal anything about me. I’m here now, as you can see.” Because he’s performing. “Well … I don’t perform. I’m occasionally on a stage, but I don’t ever perform.” How very Morrissey. It’s as if he never wants to be really seen — except by tens of thousands every time he is on a stage, or when he makes one of his trademark outrageous comments, whether that’s about politics, or last week, defending Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey (more of that later). He no longer lives in the house next to Johnny Depp? “No, he bought it to put his argumentative relatives in when they came to stay and since then I have been homeless. I just move around the world, which is a fascinating way to live. People say, ‘But surely you need your own kitchen.’ But I’ve managed for many years doing without.” Does he cook? “Yes I do, and it’s a very nice idea to have a kitchen ...” But room service will provide? “It tries, but it’s difficult sometimes. We don’t like to wait do we, really, for anything?” Does he travel light? “I have a sickening volume of possessions. They’re all stored away in different parts of the world waiting for that moment when I stop and buy a house and relax.” Does he ever relax? “No.” This is a moment where I want to tell him about the first time I heard his voice. So soul-curdling and deep-reaching when he sang How Soon Is Now? The Smiths are remembered by their fans with a huge amount of romanticism. It seems that they were around for ever, but in fact it was only five years — 1982 to 1987 — and four studio albums. But so many songs, such poetry that spoke for a generation about love and loss and waiting. Post Smiths, there was a series of solo albums, starting with Viva Hate, some of which were less loved. There was a dark autobiography in 2013 and a strange foray into novel writing — List of the Lost was reviewed as “turgid” and received the Bad Sex Award in 2015 for a scene describing a “giggling snowball of full-figured copulation”. But now Morrissey is back, as unconventional as ever. And with the release of the new album, Low in High School, he is on the radio, the television, that voice strangely more fluid and insistent than ever. Some of his views must jangle with his new generation of younger fans. He has said that he thought Brexit was magnificent, and the new single Jacky’s Only Happy When She’s Up on the Stage ends with a haunting chorus of “exit exit”, which some people have translated as “Brexit Brexit”. He denies it. “No, it’s not a Brexit song. There’s no Brexit in it,” he insists. “The line is, ‘All the audience head for the exit when she’s on stage’, so it’s nothing to do with Brexit. People just rush to stupid conclusions and create facts and create their own truths and slaughter the issue.” But he did say Brexit was magnificent, right? “I thought it was a fascinating strike for democracy, because the people said the opposite to Westminster, and that was extraordinary. David Cameron didn’t imagine the result could be as it was, but at least he did the honourable thing and slid away. The unfortunate thing is that politicians only speak to other politicians. They don’t speak to the people, so on that day their bubble burst. And now I don’t think Brexit has taken place, or even will, because Westminster don’t want it. It’s not that difficult. They’re just finding a way to not make it Brexit.” Is it true that he banned David Cameron from ever listening to a Morrissey-penned song? “No, that was never true, but these are the things I have to live with.” Big sigh. “I didn’t say it and it’s nice if everybody listens. It really is.” There’s nobody he wants to ban? “Well, only the obvious — the obvious international pest.” The orange one? “Yes.” “He’s beyond salvation. Beyond any help. The biggest security threat to America and the world. He’s like a two-year-old constantly reaching for something, damaging it and then moving on to something else and destroying it.” Indeed, the next day when I go to his show at the Hollywood Bowl, one of the backdrops is Morrissey holding a toddler with Trump’s head superimposed. A tiny tyrant. It goes down well. Morrissey is still mesmerising on stage as he lashes and whips his microphone cable. He gives us the songs that still speak to us even though they’re decades old. This audience — a diverse collection: black, white, brown; young, old and very young; men, women, gay, straight — seems to be with him all the way. No one minds that on Morrissey’s orders the only food sold is vegetarian. I’ve been to that same stadium many times and seen artists of similar years with pretentious trousers and hair plugs. I’ve seen them sing their old songs to a crowd of middle-aged spread. This concert was not like that. Though I could have done without the bit where the 58-year-old threw his jacket into the crowd and flaunted his unworked-out torso. But it was unselfconsciously done. On the sofa in his hotel room we sip bottled water and he asks me if I would like anything more dangerous. I suggest a coffee. He shrugs in despair. “That’s not what I meant.” The new album has created a buzz. “It feels good. People always want their latest offspring to be the cutest, I believe,” he says. He doesn’t have children. He has songs. Does he have a particular track that’s more important than the others? “No. I mean if you gave birth to quads you wouldn’t say which quad is the best one, would you? You would love all your quads equally for different reasons.” I tell him I’ve got four cats. “There. I rest my case. I bet you don’t pick one out and say you’re the one I love and boot the others in the linen cupboard.” We chat about how Russell Brand’s cat is called Morrissey. “Yes, and he’s still alive. I don’t mean Russell — I mean the cat. He is getting on now: I do mean Russell. I don’t mean the cat.” I read that Brand named the cat Morrissey because he’s an awkward bugger. He grins. “There you go. You should have guessed that one straight away.” But however difficult he can be — for instance, during the preparation of this article he spends four days saying he will do a photo shoot and then doesn’t — he is having a moment in the spotlight. “It’s certainly a moment that might annoy many people, but here I am and I offer no apologies and no excuses.” Hmm. The first single on the album, Spent the Day in Bed, has had more airplay in America than any Morrissey track ever. “I don’t spend the day in bed often but people love their beds,” he says. He advises several times that people shouldn’t stay in bed and watch the news because it is so depressing. He should know: Morrissey has spent much of his life depressed. Surely that’s where quite a few of the hits came from. “Years ago I sang a song called Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now, and it’s like an old school uniform. People insist I wear it, but I’m really not that miserable. I’m not an unhappy person. Not in the least. I’m certainly very surprised and very pleased to still be here.” I’m wondering if his new resolution to appreciate life had anything to do with it nearly being taken away. He is in remission from oesophagus cancer. “I’d had quite a few scares and was on a lot of extreme medication. I lost a lot of hair. You can be as healthy as possible, but something will always get you in the end. I thought, here we go. Just accept it, but I’ve done very well. I’m not on any medication now.” And his hair is back — greying — and the Morrissey superquiff is perhaps not as super as it once was. “It’s real. A lot of people my age don’t have hair. They don’t have teeth, so I feel quite blessed.” Following his diagnosis in 2014, he “had a lot of scrapings, but they weren’t all painful”. Wasn’t he worried a procedure involving the scraping of his oesophagus would affect his voice? “No, incredibly,” he laughs. “In fact my voice is better, absolutely better than it was. I had to give up 150 things, from red wine and beyond, but that was OK because I don’t really like red wine. When you sit before a doctor and they use the c-word you hear it but you don’t hear it. You just say, ‘Ah, yes,’ as if it’s something you hear every day. Your mind goes into this funny little somewhere and you say, ‘Ah, yes,’ as if you knew it all along.” I’m not sure that’s how most of us would react, but then he’s always been one of these people who seem to be able to dislocate himself from his own being. “Giving up red wine was meaningless to me anyway.” Doesn’t he drink alcohol? “Just not red wine.” He also has a dislike of mushrooms. “Oh they are horrific, fungus — truffles make me cry. I say to people, ‘What are you doing eating fungus?’ Truffles shock me and the smell. Ewwww. Garlic is also horrific.” Morrissey’s superfood of choice is potatoes. “I’ve never had a curry and I’ve never had a coffee. I’ve never wanted one and I’ve never been handed one. I have Ceylon tea, very, very weak with an alternative milk. Cashew milk is beautiful. Dairy farms all over England are collapsing. Non-dairy milk is now 51% of the market, which is fantastic.” Thirty-two years ago, when he first sang Meat Is Murder, veganism was rare. A vegan diet was difficult to maintain. Now, vegan food is in supermarkets. “What about champagne?” he says. I’m not sure if he’s offering to crack open a bottle, but I hate champagne. “I’ve never met anybody that hated champagne,” he says. I’ve never met anybody that hasn’t drunk coffee or eaten curry, I ripost. “I don’t like any food where the following day you can still taste it or you smell of it or your clothes smell of it. I’m very, very bland as far as food is concerned,” he says. It is as if the psyche of Morrissey is so piquant, he needs to balance it with food that tastes of nothing. Not only has he never had an onion bhaji — “I’ve never had an onion. That would make me cry. It’s just too eye-crossing. I’m strictly bread and potatoes.” Not for the first time, the conversation drifts back to politics. Does he think Trump will be impeached? “It’s a long time coming and there have been multiple reasons and it hasn’t happened. It’s a shocking reflection on American politics. I understand people wanting somebody who is nonpolitical, who is not part of a system. But not him. They thought that he was something he absolutely is not. Surely people realise it now. Everything he says is divisive. It’s meant to be. It’s meant to distract you.” He is similarly disparaging about Theresa May. “She won’t answer questions put to her. She’s not leadership [material]. She can barely get to the end of her own sentence. Her face quakes. She’s hanging on by the skin of her teeth. She has negotiations about negotiations about negotiations about the EU. I’m not a Conservative, but I can see she’s actually blocking the Conservative Party from moving on and becoming strong. But as we know, politicians do not care about public opinion. And she wants to bring back fox hunting.” This is not only “cruel and disgraceful”, but signifies that May is “out of step and not of the modern world”. Morrissey loves talking about politics, there’s always an opinion. But then he says: “I’m nonpolitical. I always have been. I’ve never voted in my life.” At the last election there was a story going round that Morrissey voted Ukip. In fact, at a concert earlier this year, he appeared to support Anne-Marie Waters, an outspoken Ukip politician with anti-Muslim views, claiming the party’s leadership contest had been rigged against her. He is the most political nonpolitical person on the planet. He’s shy, except in front of thousands. He writes about love, but only admits to one proper relationship — with Jake Walters, a boxer from east London. They lived together from 1994 to 1996. When he was in the Smiths he declared himself celibate and said he hated sex. After Walters, he discussed having a baby with Tina Dehghani, a friend whom he met while living in Los Angeles, and in his autobiography he refers to a relationship with an Italian whom he calls Gelato. He’s said in the past he’s only attracted to people who aren’t interested in him. He’s never been on a date. He only writes about wanting to be loved. Many contradictions. “Well, I’m human. I’m not interested in being part of anything. I don’t see a party that speaks to me and I haven’t ever. My vote is very precious. I won’t use it just to get rid of somebody I don’t like because they’re all absolutely the same.” Does he think Jeremy Corbyn is the same? “He has had many opportunities to take a strike against Theresa May and he has resisted. It’s hard to believe that this is the best England can produce at this stage of the game. We survived Thatcher by the skin of our teeth, and somehow we’re all still alive and we are presented with Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn.” I laugh, and he corrects me: “It’s a tragedy. The UK is in a state of cultural tragedy, dominated by political correctness. Nobody tells the truth about anything. If you tell the truth in England, you’ll lose your job.” This is not a rule, however, Morrissey feels applies to him. I ask him about the behaviour of Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey who are both accused of multiple cases of sexual misdemeanours. He is in no mood to condemn them. “You must be careful as far as ‘sexual harassment’ is concerned, because often it can be just a pathetic attempt at courtship.” Most people wouldn’t see the kind of behaviours these sexual predators are accused of as in any way “courtship”. But Morrissey is undeterred. As this interview went to press it emerged that he’d told the German magazine Der Spiegel that the claims against Kevin Spacey — one of which alleges a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old boy — were “ridiculous” and argued, as he did with me, that definitions of harassment and assault have become too broad. “Kevin Spacey was 26, boy 14. One wonders where the boy’s parents were,” Morrissey said. “One wonders if the boy did not know what would happen.” On Weinstein, he said to Der Spiegel that some of the movie mogul’s alleged victims: “play along”. “Afterwards, they feel embarrassed or disliked. And then they turn it around and say, ‘I was attacked, I was surprised.’ But if everything went well, and if it had given them a great career, they would not talk about it.” He added: “I hate rape. I hate attacks. I hate sexual situations that are forced on someone. But in many cases one looks at the circumstances and thinks that the person who is considered a victim is merely disappointed.” Our conversation covers similar ground. When I ask him about these sexual attacks he says: “I’m sure it’s horrific, but we have to keep everything in proportion. Do you not agree? I have never been sexually harassed, I might add.” Perhaps that is why he seems so unsympathetic. Morrissey’s sexuality has always been a point of some discussion. Is it still true, I ask, that he doesn’t identify as heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual but, as he puts it, “humoursexual”? “No, humasexual as in we’re all humans.” Oh, I thought it was only about sleeping with people that you had a laugh with. “That would dramatically limit things, but certainly I think we are obsessed with labels, obsessed with knowing where we stand with other people, what we can expect them to do, and it doesn’t make any difference really.” Just like veganism, he insists, being sexually fluid and gender fluid is now much more accepted. “It’s extraordinary. People seem to be very relaxed by it.” But when Morrissey announced his humasexuality in 2013, he was a lonely voice. “Yes, I was. I spearheaded the movement. I know no other way, so nothing has changed for me, but the rest of the world leaps on. I am pleased because I want people to be happy. There is an expiration date on our lives on this planet. You have to be yourself and hopefully get some happiness from it. It seems everybody, in every respect of their lives, is coming out of their cupboard saying this is the person I’d like to be. I want to wear these clothes, not those that have been imposed on me. As long as nobody’s harmed, I think it’s good.” Is it true that he’s never been on a date? “Yes, I’ve never been on a traditional date. I’m not that kind of person.” No one’s ever said I’d like to take you to dinner? “No, never. But I’m happy with my vocation.” What does he mean by vocation? “I’m very interested in the singing voice. I’m very interested in making a difference in music, not simply being successful.” Isn’t it possible to do that and have a date? “No. I’ve never found it to be so.” It’s one or the other? “Well, life leads me. Does it lead you? Are you successful at the cost of something else?” I’m quite shocked by his question. I suggest that it’s not valid because I’m not really successful. He says, “Well you’re not working at KFC, are you?”and laughs a conspiratorial laugh. He’s interested in the way journalism has changed. “The Guardian, you can’t even meet them halfway. They are like The Sun in 1972. So obstinate. They don’t want to talk to you. They want to correct you. You can’t simply say, ‘This is how I feel,’ because they’ll say, ‘How you feel is wrong.’ And they’ll say, ‘He’s racist. He should be shot, he should be drowned.’ It’s very difficult to sit down with somebody and simply convey your feelings. In a democracy you should be able to give your opinion about anything. We must have debate, but that doesn’t happen any more. Free speech has died. Isn’t modern journalism about exposing people? When I was young I saw a documentary accidentally about the abattoir and I fell into an almost lifelong depression. I couldn’t believe I lived in a society that allowed this. The abattoir is no different to Auschwitz.” The tack back to animals reminds me he was once voted Britain’s second most important cultural icon by the audience of BBC 2’s The Culture Show, after David Attenborough. “It was beautiful but I don’t know about Attenborough’s regard for animals,” he says. “He often uses terms like ‘seafood’ and there’s no such thing as seafood. It’s sea life, and he talks about ‘wildlife’ and it’s free life. Animals are not wild simply because we pathetic humans haven’t shoved them in a cage, so his terminology is often up the pole.” I tell him one of my favourite songs on the album is Israel. It’s a romantic hymn to the country. How did that come about? “I have made many trips there and I was given the keys to Tel Aviv by the mayor. Everybody was so very nice to me and I’m aware that there’s a constant backlash against the country that I could never quite understand. I feel people are judging the country by its government, which you shouldn’t do. You can’t blame the people for the rulership. Israel is beautiful.” Steven Patrick Morrissey was born and raised in Manchester. A lapsed Catholic, he went to a religious school. Manchester in the 1960s and 1970s was damp, somewhere he wanted to escape from. Part of that escape was through television — and soap operas. He was once offered a part in EastEnders, but turned it down. “I was invited to be Dot Cotton’s other son, a mysterious son no one had ever spoken about, who returns to the Square, doesn’t get involved with anybody and doesn’t immediately have sex with anybody as most characters who come into the Square do.” So basically he’d have played himself. “Yes. I didn’t do it.” Is it too late? “For many things, yes … I was also offered a part in Emmerdale. I was to play an intruder in jodhpurs — which I’d longed to be, of course, I had waited years to be an intruder in jodhpurs — an intruder at Home Farm, but I refused to wear the jodhpurs. As they say, it’s nice to be asked.” He has no ambitions to act, his time occupied with the new album and a tour that will include China, Australia and Europe. China has one of the worst records for human and animal rights in the world, I point out. “You can’t simply fold your arms and say I’m not going to China because of the cat and dog trade, which is absolutely tearful, but hopefully your presence can make a difference,” he says. His only problem with not living anywhere is he has no animal companion. “My best friends have been cats. I had one cat for 23 years and one for 22. They just walked into the house, one when I was a small child and one when I was slightly older. I won’t say they were like children, because I don’t know any children that are actually nice. They were black-and-white and called Buster and Tibby. Tibby had been kicked in the face so he had to be fed by hand. He couldn’t eat from a plate. He required a lot of patience but he cured himself and became a healthy, incredibly happy cat. They certainly enriched my life.” It’s been hours now. Morrissey is too polite to end our meeting and I feel if I don’t end it I may never leave. For me, meeting Morrissey is like meeting a battered, black-and-white alley cat. Sure, he’s not to everyone’s taste. But that is the highest compliment I could ever give — although Morrissey is the only one who could recognise it as such.

The Sunday Times Magazine - Interview by Chrissy Iley:https://t.co/0rq4KHtItW 

We Are Mozzerians.

[tuchimuchibrainvomit]

My Thoughts On Neo Yokio — I Might Just Surprise You!

Since I have a little time before I power through a 4-5 hour drive to Maryland. I wanted to try reviewing something that has taken over my eyes and mind for the past few days (and no, it is not Madoka). A tangent before we start, I tend to be one of those “Main-Subculture Hating Hipsters”, that will wait until every high up, every gossip, every hipster and every anime fan has shut up about something they deem as good before I check it out. Hence why I hit Madoka much later — when no one was talking about it. I wanna go in as blind or unbiased as I can. Call it being an “Asocial Hipster”, but when the internet finally shuts up about something, I’ll experience it and then come back to see what happened on the net and explore my own experiences solitarily. But the thing I’m reviewing today is quite different from that usual attitude of mine. Today, we are reviewing Neo Yokio!

Netflix’s, Ezra of Vampire Weekend’s and Jaden Smith’s anime... And... *sweats* Why I think it is a good show. In fact, I liked it a lot! Let me add a point of bias: in most shows, I don’t watch it sober on my first viewing. When I tried Neo Yokio sober, I was disgusted by the art style — but when inebriated, I could take in little moments and the bigger picture. Before watching it again whilst sober, taking in more detail and falling in love with it. It may have a role in why Madoka Rebellion was PERFECT THE WAY IT WAS AND DON’T CHANGE IT, HOMURA WAS IN FUCKING CHARACTER, FIGHT ME!! ... Ahem... Anyway, Go ahead boo now. I’ll wait... ... Now, LET’S BREAK IT DOWN!! Firstly, Neo Yokio tells the story of Neo Riche “Magistocrat” Kaz Khan, played by Jaden Smith. And honestly, the series is just a short slice of life. Simple and very clear that it’s just not anything special. But that’s the brilliance — in my opinion — of the series. With a kind of similar attitude as The Boondocks but less focused on Black Culture (Excluding Kaz and his posse Lexy and GollieB), and more on parodying both anime of the 90’s and early 00’s and the 1%. I want to focus on this 1% idea, and why it was very interesting and successful angle to attack with comedic parody.

We are in 2017. The political climate worldwide is ABSOLUTELY unbearable — hence why I live my life as a 23 year old loser artist as apolitically as I can. Even if it’s practically impossible... — And this is why Neo Yokio genuinely made me chortle the entire way through. So, let’s start with the main character: Kaz. Kaz is dubbed by the masses as “Neo Riche”, the highest class of Neo Yokio, and while he does his damnedest to deny it, he proves quickly that he IS Neo Riche in the first 3 minutes of the series — and it works. This aspect added a lot on my second sober viewing — where the jokes and satire made a bit more sense after I had my time with the laughs and visual insanity that Neo Yokio is. That’s when I found something charming and actually worth my time. Kaz — is the perfect MC for this ridiculous world. I like fashion. My boyfriend really likes fashion. And the idea of being the 1% is insanely charming and a way we love to playfully act together. And Neo Yokio plays into that — Kaz being just as flamboyant and unconnected in one way as his rival Arcangelo is flamboyant and unconnected in another, both stereotypical yet enjoyable plays of the 1% that many people despise so much in the political spectrum. Kaz doesn’t care about politics, and this is a perspective I rarely see about the 1% until Kaz and his friends start observing it, serving to — while confused in tone ending — comment on what often goes unseen by the 1% that is not focused in politics but in their day to day life. And it’s petty, stupid and hilariously over-the-top, as many people see the idealized lives of the 1%. Let’s talk about Kaz. I feel like Jaden Smith’s monotone mannerism and voice fit ABSOLUTELY perfectly for the kind of character Kaz is. He’s overly dramatic in a drab, pretentious way. He’s from an almost alien lifestyle and he is presented as such. Jaden fits personally with this and adds charm to it. Look at one of the BEST bits from Episode 1, where Kaz — depressed over being dumped AND failing an exorcism goes to a graveyard with his OWN grave just to lay there and wallow in his despair. This moment shows how we should see throughout the show Kaz — as weird, inconsequently rich, ignorant and yet funny and lovable. This makes him a great character to experience the world inside of Neo Yokio’s other classes. He is ignorant and therefore he is called out for it in many funny ways that can add some depth to him. Charles works in that manner, being a robot butler, who snidely chastises his master’s lack of consequence. But has a similar charm and enjoyment at Kaz, almost playing the role of audience proxy. And the more characters that come, play off of Kaz very well comedically. And from Kaz as well the references to Toblerones, high fashion like Louis Vuitton and Chanel, and the absolute joke they make out of Kaz’ bachelor status make him very personable. Next, I want to talk about the animation. When I first saw it, my gut reaction was “TRASH, BURN IT!!”

But after really seeing what the show tries, I started to understand it was —consciously and unconsciously — parodying: Shitty anime from the 2000’s, lazy techniques in anime as a whole and it made for a charming exterior. Seriously guys, Sailor Pellegrino’s name written in Sailor Moon’s title font, that’s hilarous! And whether or not, Ezra or the community says “it’s a serious story”, I’m basing this review after my experience and things I saw. In that, I want to talk about some of the social commentary. It all doesn’t work. They have an interesting episode showing Kaz’ ignorance in his inherent misogyny — but also, I feel like it doesn’t know whether it wants to comment on it or make fun of it. I saw it as really a mix of both. Some successful, some not successful, nobody’s perfect and yet I enjoyed it. There are some bits that I liked — being gay and all, Arcangelo’s VERY FLAMBOYANT portrayal was absolutely hilarious, I loved it! I love when they play up flamboyancy comedically, it often makes me fall love with a character. I loved Lexy chasing after the hottest lesbian in the town, knowing he wouldn’t make much out of it — even if he got Ranma’d to being Kaz’ date. I liked him calling out Kaz’ bull misogyny as both a good moment for Kaz and an interesting commentary, and using Ranma 1/2 as inspiration. I think that’s why I like gender benders as a whole. They tend to be wacky, campy and bring up new perspectives. But that’s just me, whether you take offense or not, is up to you. I can’t dictate that and I don’t judge people for their reactions to things. I just personally find most campy portrayals too ridiculous to be taken seriously, even if it is meant to be derogatory. Sure, they’re not great for LGBT or Women’s civil rights, but for the sake of a show that makes me laugh, I don’t take it seriously. If I wanted a serious commentary about more real life issues, I’ll go outside of anime and comedy films. As for other comments and the one’s it tends to get right: The ignorance of the Neo Riche. Kaz doesn’t even think of himself as Neo Riche, yet he is. And the character, Helena plays with that — while also making an army of fangirls, who follow everything she does in a completely hysterical manner. They are a nice poke at the masses that follow someone famous to the ends of the earth. Charles also plays with that around the penultimate episode — not spoiling. ;3 On to sound, while I didn’t pay much attention, classical style music is everywhere. No tracks stood out to me because classical is not my forte, but I think it fit with the Neo Riche-style. The acting is hokey, plays the gamut from Jaden Smith monotone to Lexy’s VERY black mannerisms — it made me feel remarkably at home. My family is absolutely like that in voice styles and ranges. It made me laugh even more. I personally liked the acting, seeing it as intentionally “bad” for the sake of comedy. The story itself plays between slice of life and a serialized story, which kinda mucks up the sudden tone shift in the end. Unlike Cowboy Bebop, we don’t have as much time with the cast as a whole to feel much for them in the end. But I’d hope for a Season 2 to really explore more of the side characters. I want to know more about Lexy and GollieB’s hole-in-the-wall bar, I want to see more of Helena’s followers — especially after the ridiculous things they do to be just like Helena, and the ending kinda shook me in a way I didn’t expect that was very cute going forward. I could go on, but I think it is time for me to sum up my thoughts on Neo Yokio: “It’s very good at what it does, but it’s not for everyone. It’s audience is like the Neo Riche, small and niche.” That is the best way to put my thoughts on it.

Some people will get it and enjoy it. Most others, will write it off as trite. And I understand that point while also saying: “Try watching it inebriated. Take in the campy ridiculousness of it all.” No matter what the creators and critics say, everyone’s personal experience will be different based on where they come from. I read it as a parodic farce and enjoyed it very much as such. As a serious story or social commentary — it fell a lot more than it rose. And that’s OK. The best parts of the show are when Kaz is with Helena, the Helenists, and his boys, Lexy and GollieB. Laughing when he’s dealing with his aunt (voiced by Susan Sarandon, so yes!) or wallowing in the “misery” of being privileged bachelor. I recommend it for those who want something that you can make fun of — as I found it making fun of itself. To people who love the fabulous rich lifestyle of fashion, fame and camp! And I recommend trying it alone or with friends, but most importantly — drunk and/or baked as hell! Always bloom proudly guys, —Tuchi OUT!

[lesmotsincompris]

Thoughts on GoT S07E06

Since everybody was discussing the leaks, I decided to watch the leaked episode and almost forgot to post my thoughts here as usual.

Anyway: that was terrible, y’all. That was a whole new level of terrible.

The show was awful long before this, of course, but I think this episode perfectly encapsulates how poorly written it can be. Every scene has a lot to tear apart, but let’s try to keep it short:

Winterfell

Oh boy, did that hurt. What D&D have done to Arya isn’t simply character assassination; they murdered her character, shat on the corpse, set the poop on fire, and put the fire out with vomit.

Arya’s lines during this episode seem to come from an anti-Sansa thread on Reddit. It’s so viciously misogynystic and victim-blaming that I’m losing all respect for fans that buy this kind of bullshit reasoning (and I’ve seen them with my own eyes).

Again knitting is brought in a negative context. Again Sansa is called stupid. Again Sansa is portrayed as an ambitious bitch because she didn’t act as the ideal victim is supposed to act. Again Sansa’s forced marriages are used against her. Again we have another reminder that Sansa was raped, because gods forbid we forget it. This isn’t dealing with trauma, this is rubbing in the audience’s faces one of the most hated scenes of this show.

It’s ridiculously out of continuity too. Everything Arya herself did to survive is ignored (hanging out with Tywin on season 2, anyone?). Also she couldn’t possibly think her sister helped the Lannisters get rid of Ned, she was fucking there. If she saw Sansa’s pretty hair and dress, she must have seen her crying and screaming in despair. Watch your own damn show, D&D!

Once more I must ask: what is Littlefinger still doing in this story? He’s trying to put Arya against Sansa, but why? What does he gain with that? Why is Sansa still listening to him? You can’t give me Sansa being snarky at him in one episode and fully trusting him in another, it just doesn’t make sense.

Sansa was rude to Brienne for no reason, and sent her away purely because D&D needed Sansa alone and unprotected in Winterfell again. It’s so forced it hurts.

Apparently Jon didn’t give any news in weeks. Great job, Jon. But hey, couldn’t they use their fucking omniscient robot brother to see what stupidity Jon was up to this time?

I was giggling during the entire briefcase scene, not even The Room can aspire to be this bad.

Dragonstone

“Heroes do stupid things and they die” is the supreme maxim of Grimdark™. It’s also clearly not what GRRM is going for in the books.

We had a scene with the sole purpose of delivering exposition that Jon is in love with Dany. Is he? Why would he be? What evidence have we seen of this? Oh no, but it’s a lot easier to have a character established as "clever" saying "he loves you" than actually showing the process of two people falling in love.

For all their speech abut sparing the innocent, Tyrion says they’ll burn King’s Landing if anyone touches Dany. See, the smallfolk are only important if they bend the knee, otherwise they can die. So much for wheel-breaking.

(we still don’t know what that means, btw)

Again Tyrion tells Dany what to do and how to act; I’m gonna stab with a knitting needle anyone that calls this show feminist. I don’t think Tyrion is wrong in everything he says, but having him mansplaining Dany constantly is annoying. If he “believes” her, why doesn’t he let her to think on her own? If he doesn’t trust her to do it, then why does he follow her?

I can’t blame Dany for being hostile to the whole succession talk. Yes, it’s an important matter, and one book!Dany still has to address, but it came very suddenly and when they had other more important matters to deal with.

Tyrion doesn’t want Dany to go and she goes, and again the narrative will prove Dany wrong for not listening to a man. Fuck this show.

Beyond the Wall

Aaah, le crap de le crap. Don’t get me wrong, Winterfell stuff made me roll my eyes so hard I could watch my own brain cells dying. But Winterfell was filler, while this is supposed to be the big moment, the “go go go, shock shock shock” we’ve been told about, the core of the wham episode of this season.

And it sucks.

Tormund says that smart people don’t go looking for the dead, and I have to agree with him. The whole plan of capturing a wight and touring it around Westeros was incredibly stupid to begin with, so it’s hard to feel bad for the characters when things go inevitably wrong.

Less than five minutes into this episode they were already joking about Gendry being assaulted by Melisandre. Fuck this show.

Gendry being sold to Melisandre, much like Tyrion killing Davos’ son with wildfire, becomes a “look, those characters know each other” gag. This is a very poor choice and ignores the fact that those characters met under traumatic circumstances that deserve a stronger reaction than that.

Of course you don’t hear Beric “bitching” about being killed six times, that would mean death and trauma carry any weight and in this show they don’t. Not anymore.

I’ve been complaining for a while that the show seems to have forgotten why Jorah was exiled, so they answered me with him admitting Ned was right. That’s great, it would have been a significant character development… if we had actually seen it. Character development is a character going from point A to point B, not suddenly being on point B with no indication of how they got there.

Then Jon says he’s glad Ned didn’t catch Jorah. Why? Does Jon knows that Jorah was exiled for selling people? Is Jon okay with that? Since when? He barely knows Jorah and no relationship was portrayed on screen before this moment, why this sudden concern with him?

Sandor says he hates gingers, which is another nail in the SanSan coffin for the show. We already that’s D&D’s NOTP, but the petty ways they find to demonstrate it always amuse me.

I joked about this being the Ultimate Bro Trip - All the Extras Edition, but boy I was right. There’s everything one could expect from this sort of event: sexual assault played for laughs, dick jokes, the most disgusting reference to Tormund x Brienne, heavy-handed hints of R+L=J, lots of walking for nothing, lots of shitting all over GRRM’s careful worldbuilding, lots of dudes bonding over stuff that makes me hate them as characters, poorly executed action with no real stakes. A true winner!

There are small things that worked for me. I kinda like Beric’s speech to Jon, or Sandor turning around when they burn Thoros’ wound. It’s a simple but effective way to remind the viewer of Sandor’s trauma. It doesn’t cost much in terms of dialogue or screentime, and keeps the character consistent and fleshed-out. But those were isolated moments, and isolated moments are not enough to save us from this torture of a scene.

I like the surprise element of the bear attack, but it was too shaky and confusing for my taste. Gendry says the bear has blue eyes, but I could hardly see the bear itself? And how can I care about characters dying if I can’t even see who’s dying? After some point it was The Revenant - Westeros edition, and still not the silliest scene in the episode.

The white walkers now die like vampires from Buffy and one stab is enough to finish them. Worse, they’re following the route of 'kill the boss, every minion dies’. I hate this trope, I’m sure there’s a name for it. It’s particularly bad in this case because now the white walkers’ impressive numbers don’t mean anything; just kill the extra blue dude with a vaguely Japanese armor and presto! Also, you know, it contradicts what we’ve seen so far including in this very episode.

Despite them walking for ages, Gendry goes back to Eastwatch pretty fast. The white walkers are kind enough to wait for no fucking reason while Gendry sends a raven, the raven reaches Dragonstone, Dany gets ready, and Dany flies to the Wall and beyond. This should have taken weeks, but apparently it happens over a day or so.

Look, when people talk about ‘teleportation’ in this show, we don’t mean that the writers must depict every beat of the trip. We mean that the trip needs to make sense considering everything we know about the setting and the resources available in that world. It doesn’t have to be super accurate either, just not physically impossible like this was.

The white walkers not attacking the group makes the previous Plot Armor evolve to a Plot AT Field from Evangelion. If there was going to be battle anyway, why the waiting? You’re already bending space and time for Daenerys to arrive, so I’m sure there would be better ways to have the ice dragon scene without all this contrivance.

The dragon saving scene would have been awesome if not for all the implausibility that led to it. It’s hard to be invested when you’re already angry and disappointed. The contrivances don’t stop there, and Jon takes two levels in stupidity and keeps fighting all macho when everybody else is safe on dragon back. Also Daenerys loves him for some reason.

That spear throwing was the funniest thing. Congrats to whoever did the dragon animations and noises, though, that was a great job. Emilia Clarke’s nearly-crying face would have been a great start for one of Daenerys’ more emotional moments in the show, watching the death of one of her children. Too bad this is basically all the reaction she’s allowed to have.

Jon got Viserion killed out of sheer stupidity and stubbornness, but somehow Dany loves him even more for that! She wants to wait for him, even if that endangers her other dragons. Back at the Wall, she waits for his return, not perhaps a sign of Viserion. When he apologizes for being the worst, she’s not remotely angry at him. It was “good” that her dragon died, because now she understands. Now she knows that in this show men are always right and women pay a dear price for not listening to them.

Can’t see the narrative goal of leaving Jon behind or him falling in the water. Nobody actually expected him to die, even if he should have. Then you have Uncle Benjen Ex Machina holding thousands of White Walkers on his own, as if that somehow prevents a few of them from going after Jon. This whole scene accomplished nothing but stretching our suspension of disbelief further, as if there was any left at this point.

The walkers somehow put chains on the dragon to pull it. Why not just make the dragon fall on land? Viserion returning could have been cool if: a) it wasn’t a product of a conga line of plot contrivances; b) they didn’t take four years to show us his eyes opening, as if this wasn’t ridiculously obvious.

Daenerys can’t mourn her fucking dragon, she’s too busy finding the Ultimate Man to Listen To. What prompts Jon to decide that Dany is now his queen? Why does he call her Dany? How does Dany know the Night’s King name?

More importantly, why do I still care to ask about all this questions when the answer is “D&D are fucking dumb and they’re hoping we are too”?

Extra notes

Should we start printing Euron’s picture in milk boxes? And what happened to Theon?

Fuck this show, fuckindammit, that was a lot of time and energy wasted just to get angry.

[princess-zzuko]

The Fall

I could not think of a clever word play that would combine the idea of film adaptation with the actual film itself, but that’s okay because I love this movie so much I don’t care.

The Fall

Director: Tarsem Singh

After a young immigrant worker (Alexandria) and stunt double (Roy) take a fall that land them hospitalized, they form a bond through Roy’s storytelling skills.

Before I get into why I love this film and why no one else’s opinions matter (lol just kidding), we talked about some things in class.

This film has allegory and connections to history. The epic portion of it mirrors the Wizard of Oz as it features a group of misfit bandits on their journey to find someone. In the film’s case it’s “the evil governor Odious”. It’s an extravagant and visually stunning film. Even more (and my favorite element of the film) is that Alexandria becomes a part of Roy’s story. She adds the childlike, whimsical, and comedic elements of this epic story.

When it comes to films this large, and with so many stories to tell we wondered who is the author? Or who gets authorship. As far as the film goes, there is a diverse cast. But the white hero is the one who not only tells the story, but the only one of the bandits to survive by the end of it. So is it just diversity for diversity sake? Or does the diversity of the movie lead to a greater connection of the film and audience?

We also discussed an essay by Shelly Cobb, “Adaptation, Fidelity, and Gendered Discourses,” Adaptation. Cobb claimed that the language used to discuss film adaptation is culturally constructed and biased. And it is biased particularly against femininity. For instance, films that are considered cliché, or overdramatic are associated with women. Such as movies from the Lifetime channel, or drama movies in general. When we think of cliché films, we think of middle aged stay at home moms, because that’s the audience they gear towards. These films are considered low class and of no value. Oh and they are super formulaic (which adds to the no value meter). But films with a heavy male authorship rarely get coded as such, even if they are just as formulaic as Lifetime films.

For instance, Marvel movies. A fellow student even said that Marvel films are just as formulaic as Lifetime films but Lifetime films actually give their female characters agency.

And films geared towards women are less likely to get awards, whether or not they stood up against the competition in the box office.

Even the language we use to describe people who obsess over a film or figure gendered.

Fan girl

Over emotional

Low class

And that’s not to say that films by men can’t be considered low class either, we’ve just noticed a correlation between how films with female authorship are treated versus films with male authorship as a whole.

Cobb also analyzed the morality of adaptation critiques. A good, pure film is one that stays loyal to the original text. A cheap, low quality film adaptation is unfaithful. And this is what we believe today. Take Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief, and Avatar the Last Airbender for example. Those two film adaptations are considered lowly, cheap, terrible. Fans of the original text spit on these movies. Even the author of Percy Jackson, Rick Riordan, hates the film adaptations of his book series.

Which makes me wonder if it’s possible for an adaptation to be good, even if it’s disloyal to the original?

We also discussed authorship and how males tend have authorship over films and females have authorship over books.

Men worked back in the day and women weren’t really allowed to do much but they could read and write and that is what they did and that is how they made it through the day. At least that’s how I imagined it to be like back then. And by back then I mean Charlotte Brontë back then.

Then film came about and that had technological aspects to it so that quickly became a men’s world, and still is today.

And what about the idea of the auteur? How these male filmmakers will adapt films from novels by female authors, yet the male will get the credit for being an auteur because he revitalized it into a work of moving genius?

Then there’s the idea that you can’t love something and be a critic. Your love for that film will filter what you say about it, and your critique is not valid. I don’t agree. I think it’s important to see a film through an objective and subjective lens. It is difficult, but very possible.

Now back to the greatest film I’ve watched all year, The Fall.

This film has two voices, Alexandria and Roy. Our professor asked us if we thought it did a good job at telling multiple stories. I think it does a wonderful job of telling both of the main character’s stories, and it does it so masterfully too.

The movie begins with a slow motion, black and white sequence detailing the event that leads Roy into the hospital. I liked it because it showed but didn’t tell. Even the movie doesn’t explicitly state his injuries in the beginning but leads you to certain clues through clever dialogue that flows with the story.

The same is for Alexandria’s story. One of my favorite scenes in the film is when she (a five-year-old girl) translates for her mother, who only speaks Spanish. Here we not only get a glimpse of how grown up she has to be even for her tender age, but the difference between how others treat her versus how Roy treats her (and btw he treats her like she’s her age).

And here is my other favorite scene.

Then there’s the spectacular of Roy’s story. We deep dive into an adventure tale mirroring that of a historic epic. This features an ex-slave, an Italian explosive expert, a dude named Darwin with a monkey, Roy as a mask wearing bandit, and a mystic. Oh and a female love interest.

This is where the storytelling gets spotty for me. Although diversity of the bandits is very cool and I love diversity and want more of it in media, I’m not sure what it’s connection is to the story. I’m not sure if it’s trying to make a statement or if it’s just being a great movie with great actors and a great plot. Although we learn about the bandits’ origins we don’t hear much from them afterwards. Then it appears that their stories are being filtered through the white male point of view. And that their stories have little to no use to the overall plot except for the fact that they were all wronged by governor Odious.

And then there’s the female love interest. 

She’s literally so useless I forgot she was in the movie at all. And this says a lot about the male perspective as well. I couldn’t tell if her character was supposed to be a satire on how women are treated as props in the film industry. Because she is literally used as a prop the entire time, and dressed like one too.

Okay but also props to the costume designer for this movie, Eiko Ishioka. What an excellent job seriously. I love the costumes of this film. 

 But back to the princess. She’s surrounded by all these female conventions:

Soft spoken

Good with nature

Pretty

Doesn’t talk much

Is kidnapped

But falls in love with the kidnapper

Passes out

They use her to get to governor Odious

Turns out she ain’t loyal

It’s fine we didn’t need her anyway

She does nothing omg

It’s actually hilarious how useless she is.

That was my biggest problem with the movie. The use or lack thereof of its ONE older female character.

Lol, but I still love it.

In fact, I was more so connected to the main plot than the epic story. Roy and Alexandria formed a beautiful connection in the film mirroring that of a father and daughter.

 I’d be lying if I said I didn’t cry when Alexandria fell while attempting to retrieve morphine for Roy (not knowing he was trying to kill himself), hit her head and was rushed into surgery. Upon waking up she sees a tear-ridden Roy, and she apologizes for failing her mission. Then he tells her the truth and tries to end the story with the death of his comrades and himself until Alexandria says it’s her story too and that Roy’s character will live. The despair and triumph of that scene messed me up man.

Lol, but my classmates didn’t like the movie.

Thank you for reading.

 Pictures used: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0460791/

http://www.itsmugambi.com/blog/44filmsday14

https://www.tor.com/2018/06/01/ten-years-later-theres-still-nothing-like-tarsem-singhs-the-fall/

http://sanchezmaddie.weebly.com/blog/the-fall-roy

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/327777679105397729/?lp=true

[qez]

Hey, @dynamicsymmetry I was the anon who told you I was “TA” but have been thinking over a lot now that I’m doing a re-watch. This is long, I’m sorry, so I’ll post more under the cut.

I’ve on-and-off following your blog since 2014?? I mostly wanted to vent to you because I’ve always enjoyed your commentary and analyses plus I find you understand Daryl really well. So, I would love to hear more from you even if you said some things a million times before. It’s always a fun read.

Anyway in my re-watch I find that I’ve gotten a better grasp of Daryl’s character and have been able to appreciate him more than in the past (most of my attention back then was focused on other faves like Glenn and Michonne for example).

Briefly and broadly, here’s some important points in Daryl’s development over the seasons:

Season 1

Gruff redneck and his brother intend to rob a camp despite the kind people and the children in it.

He is separated from his brother.

Shows outrage and distrust to Rick and the others who handcuffed Merle on the roof.

Despite his brother being gone because of these people, he sticks around.

We see glimpses of his kindness as he helps the people in this camp and stays by their side.

etc;

Season 2

Despite being the “outsider” he becomes more entwined with these people even if he doesn’t fully realize it yet.

We get more glimpses of his kindness. Ex 1: He saves T-Dog despite being the reason for Merle's disappearance. Ex 2: He doesn’t really know Carol but that doesn't stop him from doing his best to find Sofia.

We know once in his life he got lost child and no one came looking for him. He makes sure that same thing doesn’t happen to Sofia.

Chupacabra episode is just loaded with goodies. We learn of his insecurities and self-loathing and more about his relationship with his brother.

Continuously tries to lift Carol’s spirits when she's grieving. He forms a special bond with her, who is seemingly different than himself, but no so different at all.

He becomes a reliable figure that everyone depends on. (Ex: Lori goes to him when Rick/Hershel/Glenn are missing and Beth is suicidal).

Falls into the role of right-hand man when Shane goes off the deep end.

Sticks by the group and helps them throughout the winter.

etc;

Season 3

We open up and learn that the group is his family now. They rely on him, they love him, they trust him.

He’s part of Rick’s council and is relied on for his opinions.

He's still closed off and there's still a lot the audience doesn't know about him.

We see his leadership capabilities. Ex: He steps up for Rick and helps care for Judith.

We see his weaknesses Ex 1: When he thinks he loses Carol and then when he finds out she's alive. Ex 2: When Merle dies.

We learn how important his brother is to him. How important family is to him whether or not they are blood.

We see him try to console Carl when he tells him how he lost his mother.

We learn he’s a child abuse survivor.

We learn he feels that he belongs to the group and they’re his people.

etc;

After all these seasons, he still bottles everything inside. Unless he tells some things to certain people. Ex: His disbelief of Merle’s sacrifice when he’s talking to Carol.

I haven’t re-watched yet but:

Season 4 we see how he is forced to deal with everything he keeps away (I can't wait to re-watch). He learns to survive with a woman so different than he, and he even opens up his heart to her. Despite losing his family, he thinks he can make things work because of her.

Season 5 we see him try to move forward. He is more hopeful for the future and believes he can become a better person. He tells Carol they can move forward and he even gets that self-help book. He tries his hardest and doesn't give up when trying to find Beth because he has hope and she taught him that the good still exists. He tries his damnedest to find her, even when everyone else lost hope.

Then things come crashing down mid-season 5 and for the most part has stayed there.

We saw this tremendous development for him in seasons 1-5A, only for him to be pretty much at a stand still from 5B-7. Why? I’m not at all saying he hasn’t undergone any development, he has. However, we’ve been watching Daryl misery porn for years now. I can’t understand why. What is the point of taking one of the most beloved characters and not utilizing them or developing them if he is intended to remain central to the cast.

Why have other characters  (Carol, Maggie). who also have had crises been able to pull themselves up from it but not him? Will he ever be able to? How?

I know for many, the “end all” for his pain is a relationship with another character(s). I can’t rule that out (I’ve seen it happen before in other media) I just can’t see it happening to this character without it being too sudden, out of character, or ignoring the months/years of suffering he’s undergone. Maybe I’m wrong and it could be done well. I just can’t really see it as of my S3 re-watch and from what I remember from other seasons.

It just makes me wonder, why, after several seasons of steadily developing him, do they kick him down and keep him there? The audience and critics have all noticed also. So what gives?

This is basically why I’ve been re-considering a lot lately. It may be useless and wishful thinking, but I just don’t see any other point to it all. It would have been so easy to give him a reason to be hopeful again after he learned of Carol’s survival and recovery. That didn’t happen. So what else is there? I don’t think winning a war with a villain will quite do that either. It has to be something central and important to his character to change him in that way.

Beth was part of his growth. She helped him see good in the world and in people and made him believe he can be like that too. Then she was taken from him. Her teachings eventually too as Dwight ruins that all.

I’m just trying to figure out why others can move toward a positive direction when Daryl can’t? What else would help move forward unless against all odds, she survived? It’s not about romance or shipping at all. For me and for many, it’s about this story and its ability to remind us that even at the worst of times, hope still exists. It just doesn’t make sense to keep him down and keep kicking him with no solution. Unless it’s just poorly executed and a time skip or something magically erases it all. Or a romance helps him out of his despair but I don’t see that happening. Romance should never be about saving anyone. For me, Beth’s survival wouldn’t be romantic. Any romantic aspect of their relationship would be on hold for a long time if she did survive.

The reason why the audience loved Daryl so much to begin with is because we saw him develop as seasons progressed. We got to see him open up and grow. A lot of fans have begun to dislike him for various reasons, but one reason in particular that I noticed was resentment that his character who has been in a pit of despair and is “stagnant in development” got to remain when other characters haven’t. This is definitely more of an issue with the writers keeping him in this place. (I can’t ignore the frustration also lies within racism, homophobia, misogyny, etc when it comes to the writing. As many black characters, a lesbian, and women have unfairly been killed off without further development). These hopeful characters are killed off and we’re left with a character who is nothing but suffering. People don’t like this. People love to see hope and goodness and it’s not fun watching characters you love just bring misery to your screen.

I just hate to say, perhaps you disagree, but I can’t see his character going anywhere else from here unless something big happens to/with his character. Something that forces us to want him to get back to the days of getting that self-help book and not just expect that his character is stuck in this loop of misery.

So here I am, all these years later, kicking myself that I’m even contemplating Beth’s survival. I just can’t make any other sense of Daryl’s character and his progression or lack-there-of as of now. I haven’t even gotten into all the weird things surrounding Beth. This is just as of now, my thoughts on Daryl since I paid a lot more attention to him during this S1-3 re-watch. It has gotten me thinking about him and how strikingly different his development and focus has been in earlier seasons versus later ones. This misery porn can’t be all for nothing, right? At least I hope it can’t. Everyone wants this to end. There’s got to be something. Some little light at the end of the tunnel.

Also, off topic. I still enjoy this show despite all the fuckery that has gone on regarding many unfair deaths. I’m not putting all my money on a survival either, I just can’t make any sense of a lot of things. That’s a huge reason I’m even re-thinking everything in the first place.

[evolutionxrev-blog]

Samurai Jack Series Finale Review [SPOILER WARNING]

With the story of Samurai Jack concluded on the twentieth of May broadcast as part of Adult Swim's late night action lineup, Toonami, longtime fans, as well as the younger generation of the series, have been left with in either awe or slight disappointment. Either way, the series has finally ended as wished. And it's a good thing, too, because then we would have to make our own unofficial ending. Haha. Anyway, with that said, I am here to express thoughts on the show's ending as well as explain the series' history and reception from viewers and yours truly. Of course, beware of spoilers.

History of the Samurai Jack Production Samurai Jack was created by a Russian American animator, director, storyboard artist, producer, and screenwriter named Genndy Borisovich Tartakovsky. The man is also known for works such as Dexter's Laboratory and Star Wars: Clone Wars as well as being involved in the development of Powerpuff Girls, Sym-Bionic Titan, Batman: The Animated Series, and non-Cartoon Network work, Hotel Transylvania. Tartakovsky's goal was to create a cartoon that captures the cinematic feel while incorporating action-packed, humorous, artistic and cultured elements. To add to it, Tartakovsky was actually quite a fan of the samurai culture and the bushido code himself when he was a child and even had a dream of wandering in a post-apocalyptic Earth fighting mutants with his crush. August 10th, 2001, Samurai Jack debuted on Cartoon Network with the three-part special titled "The Beginning". The premiere would receive high praise and positive ratings from critics and won four Primetime Emmy Awards. Eventually, a standalone DVD and VHS format was released on March 19th, 2002. The network ordered 52 episodes (four seasons; 13 episodes each) airing as part of the Cartoon Cartoon Fridays and Toonami programming blocks. The final episode of season 4 would be aired on September 25th, 2004 (a day before my birthday, ouch).

Though, ended without an answer on whether Jack will ever get back to the past or not, fans were left sour with the sudden realization that his adventure was cut short. The last episode ended with Jack finding a baby and returning it to its mother after fighting through bounty hunters and ogres. The halt somewhat had to do with the production of Star Wars: Clone Wars and Tartakovsky not wanting to rush straight to the ending. They likely did not have the time to fully think of the right conclusion for the show. The show would eventually be aired with reruns on both Cartoon Network and sister channel, Boomerang, before being brought back (again) to Adult Swim's Toonami on February 1st, 2014. ...Then it would get removed again on January 25th, 2015.

Thirteen years later after the cancellation, Samurai Jack returned to television after the conclusion of season 4. The show aired on March 11, 2017 on Adult Swim as part of the Toonami action block with most of the original cast including Tartakovsky himself returning during the production with the exception of the late Mako (previous voice actor of main antagonist Aku) now replaced by his understudy, Greg Baldwin (who also took over as Avatar: The Last Airbender's Iroh during his passing). The season would contain more mature and darker elements to fit with the target audience, but still maintain its family feel the last seasons carried. Ten episodes later, the show finally concludes on the twentieth of May 2007.

The Final Conclusion of the Samurai Jack Fifty years have passed during Jack's struggle to return home; however, though time has aged, he did not. Jack was driven to despair by his endless quest to find a way back to the past and defeat Aku. The show started well with viewers discovering Jack is without his sword, the only thing that could defeat Aku, his armored gear, and a manly beard. Along the way, we would also see he struggles with a case of PTSD; experiencing hallucinations of his loved ones as well as children and civilians crying and moaning for him and seeing a mysterious armored figure on horseback. Jack would eventually come across everyone's favorite assassin, Scaramouche the Merciless (voiced by Tom Kenny), a jazzy flute playing android. Before battling, Scaramouhe noticed Jack's sword was missing. Laughing, he proceeded to make a call to Aku before he would get mauled by Jack. Scaramouche would use his signature flute which had the ability to make golems out of stone. After he eventually got his flute destroyed, he revealed that his voice was the true source of his ability, singing a tune to control the direction his blade would go. He also possessed a special "tuning sword", a weapon that would make anything explode within seconds after making contact. Eventually, Scaramouche was defeated due to his cockiness outplayed by Jack being one step ahead. 

Jack eventually encounters seven human women named the Daughters of Aku. Born, raised, and trained by their mother, the High Priestess, they exist for the sole purpose of killing Samurai Jack. Jack was clearly outmatched by their speed, agility, and numbers. And even with heavy weaponry, he struggled. During the battle, Jack's hallucinations would continue to spawn. This time, it was his conscious acting out, or rather the anxiety he has been bottling for years. Jack continues to outrun the Daughters of Aku before having to avoid fighting them again in the ruined temple. Though, one of the women have caught up to him and tried to kill Jack. However, Jack got the upper hand and ended up slicing her throat with her blade before the horrified Jack escapes. Remaining hidden for dawn, Jack's conscious continues to haunt him over the fact he has never killed real flesh. Then, he recalls what his father told him after a bloodied encounter; the decisions he makes and the actions that follow are a reflection of who he is. Jack returned from hiding and battles the Daughters of Aku again after warning them. This time, with no hesitation, he succeeds in killing nearly all except for the leader, Ashi, before he would fall off the trunk of a tree. There, he would confront the persistent Ashi who continues to try to kill Jack even after being eaten an enormous creature. Jack's hallucinations would continue to spawn arguing over saving or leaving Ashi to die while Jack continues to protect her. What he had in mind was to convince her that Aku was truly evil and attempt to form a bond through humorous moments. After eventually escaping, Ashi tries to strike Jack again before she would see the light as he gently release a ladybug as opposed to remembering her mother killing it for not being a part of Aku's order.

The Scotsman is one of the fans' most favorite supporting characters in the Samurai Jack lore, maybe even the most favorite. So the reaction of him seeing him return for the season got everyone hyped for the episode. The Scotsman, elderly and wheelchair-bound, leaded an attack on Aku's tower, but to no avail. Aku destroyed two of the assembled armies. The Scotsman attempted to stall Aku in order to have his daughters escape. The Scotsman would then be killed by him, but returned to life as a specter and instructs her daughters to regroup and find Jack.

Jack's chemistry with Ashi started to pan out episode to episode with Ashi noticing Aku's destruction after Jack proved of Aku's evil nature. Ashi wanted to stop Aku then, but the deluded Jack claimed there was no way to defeat him. They would eventually enter a village where they encountered mind controlled children attacking them. Near the end of the episode, Ashi destroyed the device and saved them. However, Jack was horrified seeing them collapsed and believed they were dead. There, the mysterious armored figured appeared and guided Jack to the fog. Ashi arrived seeing the children alive and well, but saw Jack was nowhere near. Ashi started his search for Jack and, on the way, had one of the most beautiful transformations and developments in cartoon history, washing off her tarred body and creating her own clothing from nature. She would also encounter familiar grateful people who have helped Jack in the past including the Woolies, the three blind archers, the older Olivia who was now the DJ of the Ravers, and Da Sam-moo-rhai who was the bartender of the same bar he encountered Jack in. Meanwhile, Scaramouche, shown to be alive but without his body, was out to inform Aku Jack was missing his sword. Ashi eventually found Jack in a graveyard thanks to a mysterious small silhouette and stopped him from committing seppuku. They then set out to find Jack's sword. Jack remembered how he lost his sword which involved encountering Aku and being forced to killed three innocent goats transformed to monsters by him. Traumatized killing living creatures, Jack dropped his mystic sword to a deep pit. Returning to the current timeline, Jack and Ashi were not able to find the sword in the location. It was then he realized the sword abandoned him for his rage rather than accidentally losing it. Jack would meditate to find its whereabouts while Ashi keeps watch. While the meditation took Jack to an astral setting with an old monk, Ashi was battling an army of soldiers trying to kill Jack and the High Priestess, her mother. After the tea ceremony, the monk told Jack he lost his spiritual sense of balance and can't retain his sword without it. This would release the angered conscious that has been haunting Jack. Finally relinquishing  the anxiety and frustration of his, he regains the balance and his sword along with his original attire was given back to him by the gods Ra, Rama, and Odin. After returning, he and Ashi set out to find Aku.

Jack and Ashi continue their travels on a giant beast carrying passengers through the desert; however, they realized the passengers are also after Jack, so the two fought them off and escaped. Trapped in the sandstorm, they found shelter in a crashed spaceship, but they were not alone. Leech-like creatures scatter in the ship hunting Jack and Ashi. When the creatures formed together, they turned into a beast named Lazarus. Jack and Ashi escaped and came across a device that stops the said creature. Though, they were not able to activate the device straight away during their battle with Lazarus. Before they were completely engulfed by the creatures, Jack managed to set the device on and electrocuted the creatures. After they were saved, a smash cut of the two sharing passionate kiss to Dean Martin's "Everybody Loves Somebody" as the episode ends. Jack continues to bond with Ashi telling her of his life before Aku invaded his village. After so, he ventured off alone while Ashi was asleep. Jack entered a familiar field and found a portal was destroyed along with the Guardian's broken red glasses. Ashi eventually caught up to him seeing he left her in fear of losing her to Aku. However, the confident Ashi reassured they will defeat Aku together. At the moment, Scaramouche appeared with Aku, who he informed him Jack lost his sword, saw that Jack indeed did have his sword. Aku destroyed Scaramouche and left before sensing his own power in Ashi. The plot twist would show Aku did appear and left part of him in a goblet. It was assumed the High Priestess drank it and gave birth to seven of her children, which would confirm Ashi is his biological daughter. Aku would then possess and transform Ashi to a form resembling him. Jack tried to get Ashi to resist and remember her identity, but was unsuccessful. After wounding her, Ashi tells Jack he has to kill him, but Jack refused. Hopeless to save her, Jack dropped to his knees and laid his sword for Aku to hold up triumphantly.

At the final episode, Jack was seen imprisoned in Aku's fortress broadcasted for the entire world to see. The broadcast would use the intro that was used for the last four seasons as part of Aku's brief storytelling of his rivalry with Jack. After finishing, Aku mocked Jack's failure and threatened anyone who would defy him. Aku pondered on how he should kill Jack before eventually letting the possessed Ashi kill him. Before then, however, many of Jack's closest allies came to his rescue and try to fight off Aku. In the progress, Jack managed to free Ashi of her possession from Aku by telling her he loved her. Ashi discovered she is half demon with the same power Aku carries and opens a time portal back to Jack's time where Aku sent Jack to the future. When Jack returned, he was able to destroy Aku for good and save his family and village. In doing so, he rewrote the timeline for the future to come. Jack and Ashi's wedding ceremony was in preparation with them wearing their traditional wedding hakama and kimono as they were ready to live together. However, before Ashi would approach Jack, she collapsed and vanished from Aku's defeat in the past preventing her from existing. The episode ended with Jack wandering to the mystic woods, but gained hope for the future after seeing a ladybug lay on his hand reminding him of his time with Ashi. He would then let the ladybug go and stand under a blooming cherry blossom tree peacefully.

Overall Rating Samurai Jack is the kind of show that brings the adventure to viewers on a television screen. Since its debut, everyone watching was cheering for Jack to get back to the past, defeat Aku, and save everyone. Each time he was close, Aku ruined those chances, and brought him frustration along with people like me cursing Aku. However, that was not the only thing brought about. There were moments that defined Jack's character and the show's tone; from fighting battles for and with new made allies, fun and humorous skits, and lighthearted and emotional moments that had us shedding tears, Samurai Jack performed its best to deliver the best story, characterization, and animation direction any action cartoon fans would want. Season five did not fail to continue despite its transitions to the current generations. I believe it did well to not only pleasing the longtime fans of the series, but also gain new fans of the action genre as well. The only problem I had with the show is the fact it's only ten episodes. But other than that, I enjoyed the bond between Jack and Ashi and the thrill ride and am glad the show finally ended on a good note. And I also hope this opens the gate for Genndy Tartakovsky and other animators to get more creative with what they could attract with the younger and older audience for the action genre. Samurai Jack season 5 gets a rating of 4.5 out of 5.  

----- Thank you for reading my first in depth review for a TV show. I have been a longtime fan of Samurai Jack since I was a child so I thought of expressing to friends and peers. I plan on doing more reviews like this for other works I've experienced as well. I will write a top ten favorite episodes of season 5 eventually, but until then, thank you again. And I'll see you next time. ^^

[bollywoodconfessions]

Sanjay Dutt?

Why I like them: This is a bit tough, not because there are no reasons to like him lol, but because there are multiple reasons to like him. Actually, what I feel for this guy is immense love, the kind of love that I cannot explain, just something that I feel very strongly, but anyway let me put this into words.

Sanjay Dutt is someone who has a very endearing inner core. He basically seems like a child underneath a big 6 feet body, and this much I can decipher just by watching him perform or watching him offscreen. His eyes are the windows to his soul, and they reflect nothing but beauty, his smile is one of the most cute, genuine and childlike smile I have ever seen. 

God bless this laughter!

Another trait that I admire about him is his honesty, he is not afraid of judgement, he says it like it is, and says it like a boss. Openly confessing to doing all the drugs in the book or confessing to sleeping with 308 women are not at all easy things to confess. 

And might I add that most people I know are forgiving towards all these confessions, because at the end of the day he is Sanjay Dutt, and he will be loved, regardless of what he says, he has a hypnotising charm, once you love him you cannot stop.  

Sanjay Dutt is not politically correct, he never has been, and he never can be, that is why his interviews are intriguing and fun. We are all like Anushka’s character in Sanju, intrigued with the honesty and impressed with the personality.

Sanjay Dutt is someone who has amazing amount of mental strength. If anyone else was in his position he would probably be in deep post-traumatic stress. However this guy is made out of steel, in spite of it all he managed to have a good career and a good life. Kudos to the resilience. Kudos to the person. 

Instead of crying about all the trauma, he bounced back, he forgave people, and continued to be the loving and jovial person he is. There is nothing that can ever stop his zest for life. 

He is a brilliant actor! And I love the kind of cinema he stands for! I cannot stress this point enough! I don’t know if my words will be able to do justice to his talent! But hey let me give it a shot! 

Sanjay Dutt is truly a natural actor, he feels his character, nothing about his acting is ever “put on” that is exactly why all his characters, whether good or bad, are so impactful to the audience, like Hrithik once rightfully said:

“There are a very few actors who seem like they are feeling their character, and Sanjay Dutt is one of them. He scared me while we were shooting for Agneepath. I was like do you actually really hate me?” 

I think Sanjay Dutt is the kind of actor who puts his soul in the character he plays, that is exactly why people like me are able to form a great connect with all his characters, you are able to feel for them deeply, because it is portrayed with a lot of soul. Like the great Nasseerudin Shah once said:

“Sanjay’s eyes can reflect real pain, unlike any other young actor. This is because Sanjay has already gone through so many experiences in life, experiences which have contributed to him being a good actor already. A good actor is one who can add to his range as he goes through various personal experiences in life. This look of pain endows Sanjay with both vulnerability and raw power on the screen.’‘

Some of his fans also do a rather amazing job at describing the vulnerability that Sanjay brings to all his roles. Exhibit this:

“The more I watch Saajan the more I am struck by how deep an insight into his soul Sanju gives us in his (at times heartbreaking) portrait of a sensitive poet. How much suffering, despair and loneliness can be seen in his eyes when he is overcome by mental anguish! In my opinion, for the understanding of Sanjay Dutt as a human being, Saajan is as important as Naam.”

I don’t think any amount of quotes can do full justice to the talent this man has, but let me just put it this way, I honestly feel every emotion he goes through in almost every performance of his, he is able to communicate so much even without saying a word, he is one of those very rare actors who does not have to overdo their performance to be effective. I think he is damn underrated, and so are some of his movies, some of them are legit masterpieces. Although, a lot of his characters do have a cult following, especially the characters Raghu (Vaastav) and Munna Bhai. 

However my favourite performance of his is quite underrated, and that would be of Inayat Khan from Mission Kashmir. 

This movie is amazing and deserves a lot more credit then it gets. Sanjay Dutt’s acting in it is terrific, his performance in this movie always moves me to tears. Not once does Sanjay Dutt’s acting  gets “dramatic” but it is still so impactful. He doesn’t say much yet his eyes have so much to say. His random outbursts of sadness, anger and anguish is something that is to watch out for. And like his every performance he puts a lot of himself in the character. Inayat Khan is not perfect, but he has a good soul, a heart that is in the right place. Inayat Khan is most of the time full of strength and is the protector, however that does not mean he is not capable of crying like a baby when it hurts way too much. Honestly I see a lot of Sanjay Dutt in this character, it is a character that was meant to be played by him. Sanjay Dutt is a potent mixture of vulnerability and strength and so is Inayat Khan, and that is exactly why the character comes alive, the character feels very real and it moves you at every moment. The character is portrayed brilliantly, and even though Sanjay Dutt did win some awards for it, I do not think this movie and his acting in it got it’s credit. This movie is ahead of it’s time and is an underrated gem. It makes for a splendid watch. Too bad it came at a time when romances and comedies were the “in thing.”

He is extremely Humble and Passionate:

Sanjay Dutt was no.1 in Bollywood when he got arrested in a very controversial case, just when everything was finally looking up for him it all went completely downhill. After showing support, many producers and directors decided against casting Sanjay Dutt in their movies. From being no.1 and to having all the success that he deserved, his career went to a minus due to a huge controversy. 

Not only this, but for 1.5 years he stayed locked up in terrible conditions. If this happened to any other actor they would have collapsed, nothing is more important to a Bollywood actor than success and their ego, this sudden rejection after massive success is not an easy pill to swallow, especially not for a narcissist. Thankfully Sanjay Dutt is not one. He came out, did whatever work he got and made his way up again. 

And he did not work hard or work in a zillion movies afterwards to prove a point, but just because he believed in doing his work with love and dedication, nothing less and nothing more. He did his karma and didn’t care for the results, and that is the kind of passion for work  and humbleness that everyone should aspire to have. 

as Mahesh Bhatt once said:“One of the things I loved about working with him was the relief of finding an actor who is not narcissistic. I remember thinking during Naam: This guy doesn’t give a damn about how he looks on screen, he leaves it to the cameraman and just goes and does what he’s supposed to. And this in an industry where men (and macho men, not just the pretty boys) go to huge lengths to control how they look on screen — lighting, best profile, best angle — spend hours, like women, in front of their mirrors before they give a shot. Not Sanju. It was a relief to find a male who was not in awe of his own physical form. I don’t think I’ve found an actor who fits that bill in all my life.”

Why I don’t:  He doesn’t know how to sell himself. 

Favorite film/scene:

If I have to choose one scene, it would be the scene in Mission Kashmir in which Inayat khan gets furious with his wife. Inayat Khan is a person who has always been extremely supportive towards his wife and clearly loves her a lot. Hence the anger that he has towards his wife in that scene is more about the hurt he feels, as he feels betrayed by someone who is very close to him. I think after suffering so much in life, this angry outburst sums up the hurt and despair he has been going through for so many years. Even though he may be in the wrong here, the outburst seems so straight from the heart, and is so raw that you cannot help but feel bad for him. I think that is a mark of a great performance. Sanjay Dutt’s characters are never politically correct, but because his emotions are so raw and are so honest, you cannot help but just root for him, and see things from his perspective. I mean he even made one feel bad for his character in Khalnayak, even though he was completely in the wrong throughout, again I empathised the most with his character in that film when he has an angry outburst regarding his Mother. Sanjay Dutt’s angry outburst in most movies are about him portraying an explicable amount of sadness and frustration, and I look forward to such scenes of his. His anger displays his vulnerability, and that makes for a great watch.

Favourite line: “Mujhe jo iys desh se mohabbat hai, woh kisi IS officer ki mothaj nahin” (Mission Kashmir). I also love the song he has sung for his movie ZINDA. The song is called “Kabhi Muskurake” and that song kind of sums up his life. 

Favourite outfit: He looks hot in everything he wears, I am quite a fan of his late 80s and 90s fashion though, the beautiful long hair, a nice white shirt, and a nice pair of jeans on his tall legs is always a winner!

OTP:Non-romantic definitely him and Govinda. They are a laugh riot, they have created some of the most epic comedies together!

OTP: Sanju has shared great chemistry with everyone, but I think I will only ship him with me! LOL

Unpopular opinion: Sanju is mainly known for his intense action dramas or comedies, however I feel he is extremely underrated as a romantic hero. I think Sanjay Dutt always shares amazing chemistry with his female costars. I think his height and big broad shoulders make him look very attractive, and to add to that he has this cute child like innocent face to go with it. He is like every woman’s dream man. I think he is very underused as a romantic hero. Great love stories could be made with the intensity he has. I love when he hugs his heroines, he always closes his eyes while doing so, it is very cute. 

A wish for them: Do more great movies

An oh-god-please-don’t-ever-happen for them: Don’t get caught in any controversy again. Please stay safe and happy. I cannot see you suffer anymore.

5 words to best describe them: Honest, Passionate, Innocent, Sexy and Beautiful.

My nickname for them: Sanju