#anyways those are my main speak now tv complaints

[crunchycrystals]

why do i even listen to enchanted tv every time i wait for my favorite little moments i have to remember she fucked it up

[evilwickedme]

As someone who’s not in the TS fandom by any means but has been enjoying the TV re-releases and album tracks, which have you enjoyed most of the re-releases and could you say more on the Red TV opinions you have?

I would say 1989 *would* be the rerelease I enjoyed the most if it weren't for everything going around it, both in the world at large and in my personal life. So we have to go with Speak Now instead, which is the album that made me a swiftie (I listened to fearless first, then debut, but SN has always been my favorite. I used to cry listening to Mean). I think the vault tracks are really strong and the discourse wasn't overbearing or really very present. And the cover art is gorgeous, I have it displayed in my living room.

As for my dislike of Red tv...... I just don't think the actual rerecord is any good. The sad songs aren't as sad, the happy songs aren't as happy, and what you get is stronger vocals that lack any emotion.

I also have complaints about specific songs. Sad Beautiful Tragic doesn't feel ethereal enough, it's too solid. She misses the first note in The Lucky One, and the vocals on that track in general are an album low. 22 and WANEGBT just lack any sense of joy whatsoever.

There are songs I like in the rerecord, don't get me wrong. And I think the vault tracks are phenomenal - which makes me a little bit sad, actually, cause imagine how much punch they'd have packed if they'd been made when the emotions were still strong and present? Because it's so clear to me that my main problem with this album is that Taylor has moved on. When she was making Red (stolen version) she was 23, had just come out of an incredibly toxic relationship, and was just trying to find herself afterwards. She couldn't sing as well as she can now, but by God did she put every bit of her soul into those damn songs. And she's just... Clearly moved on now. A song like 22 about the highs and lows of being in your early 20s isn't relevant someone in her 30s. All Too Well doesn't hit as hard when she, frankly, doesn't remember it all that well anymore.

Actually can we talk about All Too Well? Cause my most controversial opinion on this album is that I..... Don't like the Ten Minute Version. I think the production taking more of a folk tone makes the emotional punch less intense, and I think the added lyrics break a lot of the magic of the original track for me, which was the narrative of it all. ATW starts with the scarf and ends with the scarf, because it's this one piece that symbolizes the whole. ATWTMV finishes the scarf metaphor and then keeps going for another four minutes. There's a lot of things about ATWTMV I don't like but I would be willing to forgive, like the fact that "I was never good at telling jokes" onwards just sounds like a different song, or even the fact that the last 30 seconds are artificially put in there to get it up to ten minutes, when I'd have been okay with the 9:30 minute version instead. But when you mess with the story that is what made the song a fan favorite and deep cut in the first place?

Also I don't like that she's decided the lyric is "you almost ran the red cause you were looking over at me". Not only is it clunky and she has to sing strangely fast to fit it in, but "cause you were looking over me" is more effective. It makes Taylor herself seem like an object, and it also makes it seems as though he was lingering on her. "Looking over at me" sounds like it's barely a glance. And she had the nerve to not only change this lyrics on ATWTMV, but also on the rerecord of ATW (the original five minute rock inspired version)!!!!

Anyway whew. That doesn't even cover everything but those are my big complaints.

[doopcafe]

TV Recap! (Part 3) 

No Spoilers! 

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance: E1–5 or so

When creators care enough about their content that they take the time and expense to tell their story with puppets, it adds a certain refreshing quality and elevates their content beyond mere “thwack something together because the studio paid us.” It really makes things enjoyable to watch. That said, the story itself is a bit simplistic, the overall experience a bit hollow, and it’s littered with de-immersive scenes where it's clear these are puppets. Despite that, it’s a shame this was canceled because this level of dedication should be praised and promoted. 

My enjoyment: 4/5 

Star Trek: Prodigy S1

Akina and I finished watching all of it. Overall this was fairly competent and—despite its flaws—was nevertheless an enjoyable watch. It’s obviously not “Star Trek” to me, but as a kid’s action/adventure show, it did what it needed to and I have no significant criticisms in that regard.

My enjoyment: 3/5 

Star Wars: The Dad Batch S2E1 and S2E2:

I properly “reviewed” S2E3, but for completion here’s a note on the first two E’s of the S. These two were essentially a two-parter split by a proper cliffhanger and involve the Dad Batch—together with a more tolerable, mature Omega—on a mission to steal a crate of Count Dooku’s gold. Fun shenanigans and action ensue. I really have no serious complaints so far and there’s plenty more positives than negatives. I plan on posting “reviews” of individual episodes as I watch them. 

My enjoyment: 4/5 

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: S1 

Speaking of “not Star Trek”... It took years, but I can now articulate a main gripe I have with “new trek” content. It comes down to the writing of the characters. The people in “old trek” were always portrayed as mature and intelligent. They behaved with poise and acted like professional adults. Growing up with that, it was a huge influence on me and many of my personal role models came from Star Trek, shaping me as an adult, grounding my morality, and influencing my career choices. So when “new trek” shits all over those characters (my role models), it’s unpleasant in a deeply personal way. But even when it makes its own (new) characters, the new creations act like immature teenagers rather than professional adults. It’s uncomfortable to listen to them sharing personal feelings, making snarky quips, or spouting insubordination to superior officers without repercussion. Anyways, regarding the show itself, it’s not atrociously bad. There’s at least some funny bits and it benefits tremendously from its episodic nature.

My enjoyment: 2/5 

Johnny Quest, S1, E1 and E2

In the first episode, the Quests discover a mad scientist with a laser ray in the Sargasso Sea who intends to use it to destroy the launch of the first space shuttle. In the second episode, the Quests bring along a racist stereotype to the Arctic to recover a lost missile. There’s some seriously creepy vibes here between Race Bannon and Johnny, akin to the cockpit scene in Airplane. (“Joey. You like movies about gladiators?”) Aside from that, Bandit (the dog) is fucking annoying and distracts from everything happening. Go away, you ceaselessly yapping piece of shit. Hadji should smother it with his turban. 

My enjoyment: 1/5 

[magnificent-nerd]

Where are the good guys?

Image description: actors Ennis Esmer and Marwan Kenzari.

When it comes to positive Muslim rep, where are the good guys?

It would be good to focus on some positive Muslim character rep for a change.

The two examples I've picked aren't from superhero media per se, but I'd call them superhero adjacent. Sci-Fi, action genre. Safe to say if you enjoy superhero content, you'll probably enjoy these recs.

Let's dive in.

Example 1. The Old Guard (2020 movie, Netflix)

The Old Guard is a Netflix movie starring Charlize Theron in the lead role, based on the graphic novel written by Greg Rucka.

So it is a comic book movie, and you could call it a superhero movie as the main characters have a superpower and they do superhero-ing. The story is grounded more in reality, mercenaries trying to do good, if you like that kind of theme.

The characters of Joe (Marwan Kenzari, Tunisian-Dutch, Arabic speaking actor, also played Hot Jafar in Disney's live action Aladdin) and Nicky (Luca Marinelli, Italian actor) are from Byzantium times when they were Muslim and Christian soldiers respectively, on opposing sides of war.

They met during that war, and they became an out and openly loving queer couple.

The movie shows Joe and Nicky as an established couple, which makes a nice change in media to see a happy couple work together.

Onscreen we see Joe and Nicky show caring yet casual affection to each other frequently; one of the movie's highlights to me.

Yes, there is an onscreen m/m kiss. RARE in any comic book movie/superhero content, so the movie gets bonus points for that.

I suppose my one complaint is that they're not in the movie that much, they are background characters. The movie focuses more on the two women characters (Andy, and Nile).

Image description: a scene featuring ‘good guys’ in The Old Guard, extremely rare to see a Muslim character like Joe included in a ‘hero’ shot like this.

It's directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, so do check it out.

The Old Guard is a great example of how easy it is to cast a SWANA actor into the part of a SWANA and Muslim character who isn't a baddie, or a terrorist, or another tired trope, but shows Joe as a good guy and a well rounded character with important lines to say.

And he doesn't die, yay! 

Also, bonus points for a queer Muslim character. We need more of those.

~*~

Example 2: Blindspot (series, NBC/WB, The CW)

Blindspot is a TV show (2015-current) from American TV network NBC, affiliated with Warner Bros. and The CW producers

(The CW is the same network who makes a lot of the DC superhero content that fans call The Arrowverse, and so far the only superhero content from The Big Two that portrays any LGBT characters on a regular basis.)

Blindspot is a spooks/gov agents/FBI procedural show, but with a Sci-Fi twist of magical glowing tattoos that hold clues to mysteries the team has to solve to stop Bad Guys.

Like CSI meets Bond, plus it's very easy to dip in and out of and simply enjoy the banter and the action. I'm calling it superhero adjacent because it definitely lives more in the world of Sci-Fi than reality (I mentioned glowing tattoos, right?) Like a James Bond theme but with a woman lead. (Jamie Alexander, also plays Lady Sif in the MCU.)

Anyway, one of the supporting cast is a queer Turkish character, Rich DotCom, who is played by a Turkish-Canadian actor, Ennis Esmer.

He is a bit part/recurring character in seasons 1 to 3, then becoming a regular from season 4 on.

My first quibble is, I'm pretty sure we have another straight actor playing a queer character, BUT at least the show managed to cast a Turkish actor to play a Turkish character. (Heavy side eye at Disney right now: see, it isn't that hard.)

While Rich Dot Com does play into the stereotype of a SWANA character as a hacker, I can say he is well rounded as a character, especially as the seasons go on.

He starts off as a criminal (a very light hearted, quippy criminal who fleeces rich white people online, so I don't really mind that aspect much) and later works for the FBI. Many of the characters including the lead (Jamie Alexander) have a good guy/bad guy grey area that's explored, so at least it's not just the Muslim character.

Showing a Turkish character onscreen as one of the good guys, being funny and likeable (he is SO likeable) with a lot of screen time (one bonus of TV shows to movies is all the screen time afford to supporting characters) is really great.

Not to mention his character is queer, and there is a recurring on/off boyfriend character (Boston) who he has interaction with.

Last time I watched the show, the pair had a tender moment when Boston found out that Rich had bought his art pieces. That was a great episode.

I really appreciate seeing a character like this onscreen on a regular basis. I do like the show, it's fun and cheesy procedural stuff. If you like spies and action, give it a watch. (Also, Bill Nye guest stars!)

I'm aware the final season (final? Really?) has been confirmed and is yet to air, but with talks about Rich and his partner-in-lab-banter, Patterson, having a spin off show, I remain hopeful that Rich won't be killed off. Don't let me down, Blindspot!

(Honestly, if you wanted to just jump into the show on any season, that's easy enough to do. That's what I did whenever it was playing on the TV channel. Procedurals allow for easy viewing, IMO.)

And just a P.S. with Ennis Esmer, he also has a recurring role on team good guy in Canadian show Private Eyes, a similar fun romp if you like mystery shows.

Now, I'm not saying the examples of Rich from Blindspot or Joe from The Old Guard are perfect, there's always room for improvement (like, can we cast queer actors to play queer roles, please?) but they're certainly a lot better than the rest of superhero media has provided.

Blindspot and The Old Guard have achieved better representation for Muslim characters onscreen in the past couple years than the MCU and DC have put together over the past decade.

And it's odd how Warner Bros(DC) has better rep all round in its affiliated TV shows but NOT its movies. Hopefully The Old Guard will prove that diverse characters AND diverse casting in superhero movies IS possible, and more studios will follow that good example.

The sad fact is, it's not that hard to write in more diverse characters and then hire a diverse cast to any media. Doing so does not impact quality either, it only enriches it.

I'd like to see more good rep on my screen. No more cardboard cut-out baddies for Muslim characters (hard side eye at Wonder Woman 1984), let's have some good characters.

~*~

Originally posted on my blog, magnificentlynerdy.blogspot.com

Have you any recs for positive Muslim and SWANA rep in superhero media? Tell me about them! Add them to this post or send me an Ask.

[gelo-p]

It may be a long request, but what memorable moments (scenes) for each characters from OddTaxi caught your eyes the most ? (included images as well) It will be interesting to hear it from you, as someone who reviewed each episode of this series.(and was fun to read) I can wait if this take some time to answer back, no need to rush(> ◡ 0) Honestly ,this show is so unique & such an underrated gem!! It's like you said: "DAMN. ODDTAXI WHY YOU SO GOOD"

LOL thanks, I’m flattered that you found my weekly ramblings fun to read ^^; I didn’t intend to review the series though. I was planning to just make a series of minor complaints about an otherwise good story, but... well. It was clear by episode 5 that the writing was deeper than I thought.

Having said that, here are my favorite moments for each characters anyway!

(●'◡'●)

------

Taeko-san

Episode 8.

Suddenly acting all cutesy and embarrassed ^^;

------

Nagashima

Episode 1.

I was just surprised to find that he’s in the first 5 minutes of episode 1.

------

Kabasawa

Episode 9.

DEYM, SON @_@

Maaaaybe focus on catching Dobu? Also what the hell, 10k yen to assist on catching Dobu???

Slow clap. Brilliant, mate.

Episode 9.

I did feel bad for him though. In his pursuit of fame, he’s bitten more than he could chew. This scene stood out to me for a different reason though:

Who apologizes in less than a minute???

------

Shibagaki

Episode 6.

It didn’t initially carry much weight, but once you realize he did this to try and remain relevant in the entertainment world, it’s kinda sad. Especially with Baba getting all the attention recently.

Episode 6, ending credits.

------

Baba

Episode 6, ending credits.

Contrast to Shibagaki, Baba is experiencing one hell of a high in his career. Can’t entirely blame him for not focusing too much attention on the N-1 contest anymore. This entire exchange with Shibagaki was so memorable because... it just shows how different their careers have become.

Also, just right before this scene, it was shown that

HE’S ACTUALLY DATING NIKAIDO WTF

------

Kuroda

Episode 3.

This scene where Kakihana thought Kuroda was talking to him was just hilarious. Not to mention once you hear him speak, you realize...

He’s voiced by this guy.

-----

Donraku

Episode 1.

This annoyed the hell out of me. I thought this was one of those typical Japanese TV commentary panels. When I wondered if “Don-chan” might be Donraku, I thought of this scene and concluded “Nah, can’t be him. Would you act all calm - let alone appear on TV like that - if your daughter was missing? Nah.”

How wrong I was of course, but this scene has always stuck in my head.

Of course, the president of the agency being in the shot was probably meant as a clue of some sort... But we didn’t know that yet, did we?

Episode 11.

------

Kakihana

Episode 5.

This was just so awkward to watch. 🤦‍♂️

Episode 9.

I still feel bad for him at the end of it all, of course. He just wants to move on and throws the ring away... but he realizes how much it cost. ^^;

(Finally, of course there’s also that scene with Kuroda from earlier)

------

Tanaka

Episode 4.

This scene. I’ve ranted about it before already :v

Episode 9.

Does this count? Of course we now know that this was actually Little Daimon, but at the time, I was so annoyed at how overpowered Tanaka was made to be.

------

Imai

Episode 8.

Episode 11.

Imai’s love for Mystery Kiss (well, Nikaido) is probably greater than all our love for ODDTAXI combined.

A true man of culture.

------

Big Daimon

Episode 1.

DIRTY COP! DIRTY COP RIGHT HERE- *bang* ughh

------

Little Daimon

Episode 7.

This was the moment I started considering that Odokawa really has nothing to hide in his closet. It would have been extremely risky for him, considering how straight of a cop (albeit a little naive) Little Daimon is.

Episode 12.

This was a genuinely sad moment for me. Your brother, who you decided to punish evil with, was part of the evil you’ve been trying to punish all along. That’s gotta hurt, man.

------

Dobu

Episode 9.

Dobu’s actually quite a nice guy, huh? I mean, yeah, not really, but come on. He did let Kabasawa off with a life lesson instead of a more serious beating.

Episode 10.

Really? :))

Episode 12.

Again, DOBU SHOULD HAVE JUST SHUT UP. “IT’S A SILHOUETTE BRO,  THAT’S NOT ME, WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT.”

Also, I kinda refuse to believe Dobu would use his silhouette for the game. We couldn’t even tell who the hell ditch-11 was but suddenly *poof* it’s Dobu’s silhouette!

I would have preferred if Tanaka’s story of sending a message was true. It would be much more believable. Then Tanaka sends another message to ditch-11 then and there...

And then Dobu’s phone rings. Surprised pikachu face.

Also, Dobu quit playing some time ago but was still Rank 1??? What the hell?

------

Yano

Episode 7.

When Yano was introduced, I was amazed that they actually made him rhyme all his lines (or at least introduce some rhythm). Even the translation was keeping up!

Episode 8.

He’s an asshole, but he makes funny faces.

Episode 12.

Funny faces :))

------

Sekiguchi

Episode 10.

Sekiguchi provides a very good example of how bad guys can use your social media data. This is practically a PSA.

DON’T POST TOO MUCH PERSONAL INFORMATION ONLINE!!

Episode 11.

I still need an explanation why Nikaido had to do the lifting WHEN SEKIGUCHI, A LITERAL HUGE THUG, IS RIGHT THERE. It’s not like he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty, he’s already filthy AF at the 2nd pic!!

Episode 12.

About to be “arrested”, still worried about Yano’s rhyming. ^^;

------

Yamamoto

Episode 2.

Right off the bat, we immediately know that he... has his own share of secrets.

Episode 5.

...But that he also genuinely cares for the girls.

...To some extent, as shown in that entire taxi ride :))

------

Ichimura

Episode 3.

“Oh no.”

Obviously, anybody who shows interest in you, Kakihana, after you misrepresent your salary... probably should be red-flagged. Of course, we the viewers immediately know that she’s being tailed by her manager, so we have an idea that she’s being roped into it.

Episode 8.

I can’t even-

------

Nikaido

Episode 2.

This Nikaido - she’s seen some things.

Episode 7.

Damn, probably done some things as well! D:

Also, that entire thing where Sekiguchi refused to carry Mitsuya’s body?

Nikaido is strong!!!

Idols are scary, man.

------

Mitsuya

Episode 11.

It’s saddening because Mitsuya genuinely wanted to support Nikaido. Had she not gone to the office that night, things would have been much different for all of us.

------

Wadagaki

Episode 5.

“Why is she helping Tanaka???” Of course, I thought she was Mitsuya at this point.

Also, she really loves karaage, huh. I wondered if that was a clue, but I guess not. ^^

...It’s not, right..?

Episode 13.

Need I say more about this scene?

------

Goriki

Episode 1.

THIS WAS CONFUSING, MAN.

Episode 1.

Also, that entire exchange about cassette tapes and Bruce Springsteen ^^;

“Damn these guys are old” LOL

-----

Odokawa

Episode 1.

I like how... rude he is :))

Episode 3.

And so done with bullshit :))

Episode 8.

I do remember when he sneezed while taking the photo, in order to hide the shutter sound. Smart :^)

...

Odokawa’s in a weird position because even though he’s the main character, I remember him more for moving the story rather than being a character, if that makes sense. Sorry! >_<

Episode 13.

Of course, there’s the entire sequence of him flying his taxi... But again, that’s more of a nod to the story, not him. If it counts as “memorable scene involving Odokawa”, then there you go! That final sequence was just beautiful to watch. ^^

------

AND FINALLY!

------

Shirakawa

Episode 2.

Shirakawa’s just a straight-up lovable character. I love that Odokawa can’t handle her XD That entire taxi ride scene was just brilliant.

Episode 2.

And then she tops it all off with that power move with the front camera.

Episode 3.

PLUS SHE CAN DO CAPOEIRA!

Episode 10.

ACTUALLY USABLE-IN-COMBAT CAPOEIRA!

Episode 13.

EVEN UNDERWATER!

Where do I sign up for the Church of Shirakawa???

Shirakawa’s just too damn memorable for me. ^^;

------

Goddamn that was the longest ask I’ve ever answered. I hope my answers were at least satisfactory XD

ODDTAXI AOTY!!

(I didn’t realize answering this kind of question would be hard work :’D Compiling screenshots to make a somewhat objective point is surprisingly easier, huh)

[waywardwrestlewritingwaif]

The Wages of Sin

Before I found tumblr, I seriously believed I was the only person on Earth whose pulse went up when Samoa Joe appeared. He just broadcasts pure dominant energy and power. I miss seeing him in the ring but I’m glad he’s still on my tv on a (mostly) weekly basis. 

Pairing: Samoa Joe x reader

Word count: 3,732

Content advisory: BDSM smut

It was all you could do not to roll your eyes at his expression when you came in the door. It was always the same with men: they called to have a computer technician come over and when a woman showed up, they looked at you like there had been some mistake. Some would even be so gauche as to ask if you were qualified to do this sort of work. This guy wasn’t that bad but when he saw you, his eyes swept up and down over your body, lingering on your breasts longer than he should have before he waved you inside with nothing more than a grunt. 

“The computer’s in the office,” he informed you. “First door on the left back there. Off the kitchen. It’s been slowing down for a while and now it won’t even start up.”

“Ok. Other than slowing down, have there been any other problems you’ve noticed, Mr…” 

“Joe,” he grunts. “Joe is fine. And yeah, there have been a bunch of programs crashing.”

“Well, Joe, why don’t we have a look and see what the problem is?”

You head in the direction that he’s indicated and enter a neatly organized office space. There’s a desk in one corner, but the room is dominated by a large section coach flanked  by a couple of odd looking benches. It’s strange, because there’s no television in the room, no books, nothing that would indicate this was a place where one would sit and relax. You shrug it off. Maybe he likes to take a nap after he’s done working. Maybe this is where he takes women to seduce them.

Immediately, you try to push that image from your mind. You hate to admit it, even to yourself, but when he gave you that once-over, you’d felt a shiver run through your whole body. He was massive and while at first glance he’d appeared fat, you quickly saw that he was just powerfully built. As he stood behind you and watched what you working, he unbuttoned the cuffs of his dress shirt, pushing them up and revealing forearms like iron girders, the kind of arms you could imagine holding you down with ease, choking you, forcing you to do whatever he wanted. 

You try to shake those thoughts out of your head and focus on the task at hand. You boot up his computer in safe mode and, once you’re able to get a look around, it’s clear that the problem is a large number of files that have taken up so much space that the computer barely has any available memory to launch or run anything. On top of that, there are multiple malware programs that are deviously working away. You’ll have to work on those right away in order to get the computer stable enough for you to see the files and try to clear out some space. 

He stands behind you as you start to untangle the electronic knots, his breath heavy and incredibly distracting. 

“This is gonna take me a while,” you tell him.

“Well I’ll leave you to it then.” His tone is friendly but there’s a dark undertone to it, like he can see inside your mind and know that he’s having an effect on you. 

Once he’s gone, you settle down and focus on the task at hand. He pokes his head in a couple of times but leaves you alone otherwise. It’s just as well because what he’s got is a real mess and it takes a lot of work to identify and then scrub the malware. Normally, you could run a program to deal with the majority of the work but his computer is so unstable that it can’t run anything, meaning that you have to do everything manually. 

Thirteen programs. It takes two and a half hours but you’re finally able to remove all traces of the thirteen programs that have contaminated his hard drive. The early winter light is already starting to fade and now you have to start isolating files. Protocol is that you identify duplicates and separate them onto a second drive without ever looking but everyone takes a peek to see what secrets a client has. Nine times out of ten it’s porn, usually varying flavors of vanilla. It’s never happened to you personally, but a couple of the people you work with have found photos or videos of kids, something that immediately gets reported to the cops. (Peeking at a client’s files is unethical but not illegal, meaning that what the technician sees is fair game.)

When you see that the files are almost all videos, you figure you pretty much know what you’re in for. The nature of the videos, though, is more than you bargained for. This is hardcore stuff, all women getting flogged and bound and taken roughly in every hole as they scream in pain and ecstasy at the same time. There are dozens if not hundreds like this and mixed in among them are videos of Joe himself, proudly displaying his naked body and a thick cock that you can imagine would be rough to take even under normal circumstances.   

Watching all this, you feel your breathing grow faster and that familiar wetness in your core soaking your panties within minutes. The fact is that you’ve desperately wanted a man who’d take you like this, who’d use you and brutalize you, but you’d never found one. You’d eventually had to dump your last boyfriend because the sex was so boring you found yourself repulsed by it. You’ve watched plenty of videos like these at home, but knowing you were only a couple of rooms away from a man who clearly indulged in these activities a lot makes you squirm in your seat, trying to get some friction against the seam of your jeans to relieve a bit of the pressure. 

Your eyes flicker towards the benches you’d noticed when you came in and now you know what their purpose is. You open another file, Joe again with a woman tied up and bent nearly double, his hand wound around her pony tale as he pounds mercilessly into her. 

Looking once again at the benches, you imagine him strapping you to one and whipping you, making you beg for him. 

The woman in the video is screaming non-stop about how good he feels, how she deserves what she’s getting, welcoming every vile slur he hurls at her. 

You’re so caught up in what you’re seeing and in what you’re imagining that you don’t notice that the sound on this video is a fair bit higher than in the others, and are caught totally off-guard when you hear the voice behind you. 

“See something you like?” he drawls. 

Right away, you feel not just your face but your whole upper body grow hot with humiliation. It’s one thing for you to be fantasizing but this is you getting caught invading a customer’s privacy. Even if it’s understood that everybody does it, you’ll be lucky to keep your job if and when he complains. 

“Not really my scene,” you lie. “But I don’t judge. I just need to sort through stuff to free up some space. I’m going to install an external drive and move your videos there. It’s an extra charge but it’s not too much. You can call the office to find out the exact amount if you want.”

Joe gives a noncommittal sound and walks away without another glance. Your cheeks are still burning an hour later when you’ve dutifully moved the files onto the external drive, careful not to open a single one, even though you’re dying of curiosity. Trembling, you pack up your stuff and prepare to make a shame-faced exit. You’re wondering if you should just apologize to him, maybe say that you opened one of the files by accident and just started poking around, not quite believing what you were seeing. You’re unable to decide if that would be better than saying nothing and trying to pretend that nothing had happened. He’s standing in front of the door with an unfriendly look on his face. 

“Well,” you begin unsteadily, “you haven’t lost any files. There wasn’t any permanent damage, so other than moving some stuff to an external drive, everything will be exactly the way it was, but it’ll run a lot faster.” 

He folds his arms and looks down his nose at you without speaking. It takes you a few seconds to figure out what to say next under the weight of his stare. 

“There were a bunch of malware programs I had to remove. That was what was causing most of the problem. There are certain sites that tend to… have… lots of those things. Anyway, I installed newer antiviral software that should block them.”

You sound completely lost and you are. You feel like, rather than registering a complaint with your employer, Joe is preparing to kill you and eat you for violating his privacy. In the interest of getting out before you’re made into a main course, you opt to stop speaking and to leave the subject of your intrusion out of the conversation. 

As you reach for the doorknob, though, Joe presses his arm against the door and his scowl deepens. 

“You lied to me,” he seethes. 

“Excuse me?”

“Before. You were lying when you said you weren’t interested in those videos. I can always tell.”

“Oh,” you murmur, “about that. Look, I’m really sorry that I was going through your-”

“Yeah, that’s not what we’re talking about little girl.”

“It isn’t?” You feel yourself shrinking back from him and he leans closer as you do, until your back is pressed into the doorframe.

“No,” he purrs. “We’re talking about you and how you were turned on by what you saw. We’re talking about how your panties are probably still soaked because you were so excited.”

Your mouth opens and closes a few times as you fight to think of something to say. His broad chest is just inches from you, heat radiating from him and clouding your thoughts even more. 

“I have to go,” is what you’re eventually able to croak. 

“Is that so?” he hums. “Well I’ll tell you what. I’m gonna go get into something more comfortable. If you want to go, you go. I won’t stop you. But if you want to find out what I can do to you, what I can make you feel, then you get back in the office and wait for me.”

He steps back and heads up the stairs without another syllable, leaving you with a decision to make. There are assuredly better ways for you to find a man to dominate you. But you’ve seen what this man can do and you’ve felt the power and confidence roll off him, leaving you quivering inside and out. You take a deep breath and head back down to his office. 

He makes you wait. It’s a good fifteen or twenty minutes before he reappears wearing nothing but boxers, a towel over his shoulders and an arrogant expression that says he never had any doubt you’d be here. 

“Eyes down.” It’s an order, you know, even though he speaks as quietly as ever, and you immediately comply. 

You’re able to see him toss the towel on the sofa and you hear him opening something- a drawer?- and then close it again a second later. Whatever he was looking for, he knew exactly where it was. 

“Top off and hands behind your back.” His voice is behind you, even as ever. 

You comply right away, stripping yourself of your sweater and t-shirt, hesitating a little at the thought of removing your bra. 

“Everything off,” he whispers, much closer than he was before. 

Keeping your eyes on the floor, you remove it and try to steady your breath. You feel a light line traced across your back by something you can’t identify. It’s thin and pliable, but has some strength to it, like the branch of a sapling. It makes you shiver as he continues to move it softly back and forth across the widest part of your back. 

“So you like snooping around in other people’s things, do you?”

“No,” you stammer, “I don’t usually do that, I don’t know what I was-”

Immediately, there’s a sharp crack as he brings the branch-like thing, a riding crop, you guess, down on your back with force. You give a short scream and your breathing speeds up as you feel the pain leak from the narrow band of impact across your skin. 

“You’re lying to me again,” he taunts. “We both know you do that kind of thing all the time, don’t you?”

“Yes,” you gasp, trying to focus on anything but the pain and at the same time feeling the juices pooling between your thighs.

“What a bad girl you are.” You flex your muscles, anticipating another strike but he does nothing. You let yourself exhale and relax just a little and that’s when the second blow comes, even harder than the first. The scream you give is louder and tears spring to your eyes. Behind you, you hear him hum in satisfaction and it reverberates in your core. 

“You were watching quite a few of those videos. I saw you,” he continues, to your shame. “Tell me, what did you like the most about them?”

“I- I don’t know…”

This time, the strike hits the flesh of your inner arm, exposed because you have your hands clasped behind your back, the way he told you. 

“If you’re not going to be honest with me, this is going to be a very rough night for you.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to-” And there’s a sharp impact on your other arm that draws a sob and a long whine. 

“Get to the point, little girl.”

“I liked seeing you. I got turned on by what you were doing to those women because I’ve wanted someone to do those things to me.”

He presses himself against your back, running his thumb roughly along one of the whip marks he’s made there. “Now was that so hard?”

You shake your head, struggling to keep your eyes fixed on the ground as he circles around you. He presses the handle end of the riding crop- you were right about that- under your chin. 

“Look at me.”

You do as you're told, more tears dripping from your eyes as you lift your head. 

“Already crying? Are you sure you want this?”

“I do,” you assure him, nodding your head vigorously. 

“It only gets rougher from here,” he warns you. “So if you want it to stop…”

“I want to keep going.”

“So you think you deserve to be punished.”

“I do.”

“You know what you did was wrong. And you know that you’re a filthy girl for liking what you saw so much.”

“Yes.”

“That’s ‘yes, sir’” he corrects you sharply. 

“Yes, sir.”

“Do you think about doing things like that when you’re by yourself? About big, mean taking whatever they want from you? About them hurting you and using you?”

“Yes.”

You hear the sound of the riding crop cutting through the air, but not in time to brace yourself for the impact. It hits right across your nipples and if you had thought that the blows to your back and arms hurt, they were nothing compared to this. 

“Yes what?”

“Yes, sir,” you sob. 

He snaps the riding crop across the same point, the center of both nipples, making you shriek. 

“Show me your hands.”

You lift them for his inspection and he whips your palms repeatedly, like you’re a misbehaving child. 

“Now take off the rest of your clothes,” he instructs. “And give me your panties.”

You move to follow the order, flinching in pain at having to use your wounded hands. He paces in front of you, seeming impatient but letting you take the time you need to get fully undressed. When you’re done, you offer him the garment he requested, which he snatches away from you. 

He smirks as he rolls them around in his hand. To your relief, he places the riding crop on the desk behind him before he approaches you. 

“What’s this?” he sneers, wiping the soaked cotton over your face. “Is this because of what you saw?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You liked it even more than I thought. You really are a dirty little slut. Do you think you deserve to be punished more?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Ask me.”

“Please, sir,” you stammer, “I want you to punish me because I’m a dirty slut who got turned on watching your videos.”

He gives you a smirk that carries just a hint of approbation. “Very good, slut. Go kneel on the sofa, ass out, arms on the back.”

You scurry over and do exactly as you’ve been told. Once you’re in position, he follows you, hovering over you. 

“Your eyes stay straight ahead,” he cautions. 

He kneels on the sofa beside you and reaches down, producing a pair of handcuffs already attached to the old-fashioned heater, obviously installed for the purpose of chaining women in place. You let him take your wrists and manacle them, flinching because the metal is actually hot on your skin. Once again, he disappears behind you. 

His hand comes down on your ass with a thunderous noise and you swear you can feel the reverberations in your skeleton. You let out a half-gasp, half-cry but before you’re able to regroup, he smacks your other cheek just as hard, if not harder. He continues this, increasing the pace as he does until you’re screaming and crying. 

“Have you learned your lesson?”

“I… I think so?”

“I don’t know,” he muses, “your pussy is dripping. I think we might need to look at punishing you another way. I think I might have to pound that slit with my cock to show you what happens to dirty sluts who go looking at things they’re not supposed to.”

“Yes, sir, you should.”

“Is that what you really want?”

“Yes, please, sir, I want your cock.”

“What’s that?”

“Please fuck me, sir. Show me how bad I am.”

He bends over you, pushing his boxers off, and whispers harshly in your ear, “Well as long as you’re absolutely sure.”

You nod and he accepts that, grasping your bruised ass tightly and ramming into you like a jackhammer. He pounds relentlessly, leaving you with nothing to do but take what he’s giving, gasping and mewling in ecstasy as each brutal thrust seems to increase the sensitivity of your cunt, the sensation of pleasure flooding through you. 

“Is this what you needed?” he snarls, panting. 

“Yes, oh god, yes!” You’re a little shocked at the volume of your own voice but all you want to do is scream because what he’s giving you is what you’ve fantasized about for so long, what your body has always known it needed but could never get. You can feel every nerve rushing towards climax and just as you feel yourself teetering on the edge, he pulls out, pressing the tip of his dick against your tailbone, just above the crack of your ass, and he comes, the hot liquid trickling down between your ass cheeks and your swollen lips in streams. He traces the flow with his thick fingers, up and down, making you whine in need. Finally, he grabs the towel he brought with him and wipes you off. You’re still whimpering, moving your hips all around, searching for any kind of contract. 

He gives a dark chuckle and you hear him walk away. You want to cry but he’s back in a moment, close by you. Immediately, he starts to wind a rope around your legs, soft like silk and strong. He binds your thighs to your calves, your ankles together and then he flips you over, the chain on the handcuffs pulling your arms taut. 

You could not be more vulnerable, spread open before him. He wipes his dick across your chest to remove the remaining mix of your juices. 

“I’ll bet you think you deserve to come, now, don’t you?” 

“Yes, please sir.”

“Why should I let you.”

“I’ve tried to be good for you, sir. I’ve done everything you asked. I’m sorry I lied to you before but I told you the truth after. And you just turn me on so much, sir.”

He smirks again and plants his tree trunk of a thigh on the sofa between your legs. 

“Like this,” he growls. “You want to get off? You fuck yourself on my leg like an animal who doesn’t know any better.”

Part of you wants to resist, but you’re so desperate for it that you press yourself against him and start grinding into his thigh. You can feel the powerful muscle beneath the flesh as he flexes, giving you a little more friction. It’s still slippery and the way that you’re bound makes it difficult to move the way you need to, but you’re able to make it work. 

“Are you close?” he rasps. 

“So close, sir!”

“And am I good to you, letting you cum on my leg like this?”

“Yes, thank you!”

You thrust yourself even harder against him to add just the little bit more pressure that you need, moving faster as you can feel your orgasm ready to burst through you. 

And with a nasty grin, he steps back. 

Your clit is so engorged that the sensation of air hitting it is actually painful. Although you’d like to remain composed and be angry, you just sob, tears welling up yet again. 

“Why?” you cry at him. 

“You don’t get to cum until I decide you’re ready.”

“Please, sir, I’m begging you, I need to.”

He laughs and shakes his head. “Not yet.”

He pulls his boxers back on and grabs the towel, heading towards the door. 

“Wait!” you yelp after him. “Where are you going?”

He laughs again, deep and almost demonic. “I’m a busy man. I’ve got a lot of things to do.”

“Aren’t you going to untie me?”

He smirks and throws the towel over his shoulders again. “Oh no. You’re gonna stay right there until I’m ready to use you again.”       

[quartings]

What propaganda means to weird kids:

I've been meaning to post this for a while, but after a recent spat I had on my main blog I think now's the right time to make it.

I can't speak for everyone about the effects of propaganda, but here's my perspective on some of the most egregious examples I've heard in recent times.

So firstly- I hear a lot of complaints that MCU stuff is military propaganda. Which is true. Does it work? Certainly not to me. While many people have pointed out that the writers counteract this by having Captain America go against the government in all his films, I also agree with the point that their inability to portray the US Government as a full villain cost them a lot of Winter Soldier's plot. Going from "Cap has an interesting debate about freedom vs security with the government he works for" to "Oh, everyone who disagreed with Cap turned out to be a Neo-Nazi so he's right by default." is why that movie is one of my less favorites of the MCU.

Since I don't really watch American TV these days I never saw any of those cringey "The Air Force are the true heroes, like Captain Marvel!" ads, which yeah, are a bit ouch. Nevertheless, I don't really see the appeal Marvel is meant to create with its military propaganda if all the things that are the "coolest" about the US Army in the MCU don't actually exist? Per se, if I join the army, do I get a Stark tech Falcon suit? Do I get supercharged with Tesseract energy? No? Then what reason do I have to join? Because without that, all there is is sitting in the hot desert with a dusty rifle being bored and murdered, and there's nothing fun about that. And honestly, compare the MCU films to the hyper-macho military tech festival that are Michael Bay movies and you can see the difference between using a military setting as a backdrop vs glorifying every single thing the army does.

I think the only marvel series that's kind of guilty of true negative propaganda have been the Iron Man movies. The first one came out during 2008 and was itching to show the Middle East being blown up, and showing as many minorities as possible being a part of the ten rings. And since Iron Man main villains have always been uncomfy xenophobic caricatures because of the whole "arms race" theme, that's what they sadly followed for all the other Iron Man films. Just a ton of "That guy has tan skin and a funny accent, even if he's white so he has to be bad" exists in those films so it's kind of a shame.

On a more lighthearted note, similar points have been raised about how the Contests and Performances in Pokemon are propaganda for toxic idol culture. And just like before, if you're actually a Pokemon fan, why would you join an industry that doesn't let you hang out with real life Pokemon like the "propaganda" said you would? The Contest and Performance industry in the anime has been shown to be unfair, stressful, and physically intensive anyways. It seems to me that the only people these kinds of propaganda would affect are fake fans who would fall for other stuff anyways.

Personally, I think the worst propaganda isn't something occupational-based or political, because those things don't come up toooo often in kids shows. One of the worse subliminal influences I see consistently in shows for all ages is "Main Character Privilege". Where the protagonist is uncool and gets bullied, so the bullies are the bad guys, BUT- the protagonist also has "even more uncool" friends and side characters and bullying them is totally fine because they deserve it. It happens in stuff like Fairly OddParents, nearly every Disney sitcom, and TONS of anime series (that people ignore because the twink protagonist is hot so it's only unfair that he gets bullied and not everyone else) It creates the mindset in the audience that if they are bullied, they can only be the victim and the "good guy", and that anything bad they do to other people doesn't count.

Do you think I'm right or wrong? Let me know!

someday I wanna use passive-aggressive tumblr talk like "sorry I don't make the rules" or "If you disagree I will happily block you" or something just as a joke to disappoint people because I think I speak pretty normally on here for the most part

[questionable-child]

Honestly I’m very bored right now so I might just do a FNF mod review right here and now. Just saying some of these I haven’t played because I only play the mods through unblocked games websites and some might not be on them. I have seen play throughs though.

FNF Minus Mod: 8/10 Very good! Pretty much it’s a mod where the characters are changed to look like their battle icons in the original game. Everyone looks super cool! My favorite redesigns are definitely Pico and Lemon Demon though. They made Pico a cool reptile person and he’s wearing a cute dinosaur hoodie! Lemon Demon looks actually intimidating, with long limbs that look static like a broken TV, and he wears a bloody straitjacket. My one complaint is that the songs are the same as the normal game, and I think it would be better if there were new songs to fit the new characters’ personalities. For example, Spookeez and South fit the Spooky Kids because they sound playful and, well, spooky. The new designs have Skid as a creepy ink monster and Pump as a puppet who’s being controlled (or being held captive) by Skid. I think that more intimidating songs would fit better, like maybe for the first song it sounds cheery and playful at the beginning, but gets more eerie as it goes on. Also, being able to change your character to Highlighter Dude is pretty cool, but it didn’t work for me.

FNF But Bad 9/10 I don’t really have any complaints with this one. It’s hilarious, and there is a lot of detail in it! The whole game has been redone to be absolutely horrible in every aspect. All the characters look like they were made in MS Paint, besides Senpai, whose whole week looks like the graphics were from an old NES. The voices for all the characters were redone too, so they sound absolutely ridiculous. Let me tell you, the first time I tried playing it I almost died from laughing at it. Maybe my humor is just broken, but from the backgrounds to the changed song and week names, this mod never fails to give me a good time.

FNF Starcatcher Mod 7/10 The best part of this mod by FAR is the character designs. There isn’t a single design in this mod that I don’t absolutely ADORE! Pico is a badass cyborg, the Mom and the Dad are aliens with new gorgeous outfits, Boyfriend has a cute little astronaut helmet, Girlfriend is also an alien but is also adorable, and honestly I have no idea what the Spooky Kids are supposed to be, but they look cute! The backgrounds are also sick. In Week 2, you can even see the Eyes of the Universe from Spooky Month in the background! My main issue though is the songs. They just aren’t my thing I guess. They’re actually remixes, but they’re barely recognizable. I didn’t even know they were remixes until I got to the good part at the end of Spookeez. (Which they made less good somehow??) They also made another song for week 2 called Sugar Rush, which is cool that they did, but I didn’t really like it either. As much as I love the designs, they aren’t everything and in the end, the music is the most important part of a FNF mod in my eyes.

FNF HD 6/10 This is the only mod on this list that I couldn’t play, but that’s fine. The mod is what the title implies, but it also has STORY! If you didn’t know, I have an insatiable desire to know every bit of story about my favorite games, so this mod having dialogue was a real treat…….at the start, at least. The mod itself is pretty much just the normal game, but with more detail in the art. I kind of prefer the normal game’s art though. It does have two new mechanics: 1. In week 3 Pico actually shoots at you in Blammed, and you have to click a note to dodge them or else you lose half your health, and 2. There are street lights that you have to dodge in M.I.L.F. I don’t really remember how you dodge those though. One small problem is that in M.I.L.F there is an annoying whistle sound that lets you know when to dodge the lights. I get that it’s necessary to let the player know, but it doesn’t sound good at all. In Blammed the gunshot sounds go with the song, you know? Now with the dialogue. It has it’s moments, but most of the time, it’s annoying, or over the top dirty for no reason, or even both. Week 4 is a prime example of all of these problems, but is even worse because it had some heartwarming potential. Both Girlfriend and Boyfriend are also kind of jerks, too. Girlfriend sends Pico to what she says is the Shadow Realm, but without suffering, so pretty much hell without the pain. The guy is messed up, sure, but maybe call the police so he can go to jail and be, like, alive? And she also says that Pico belongs to her? Is he her slave? That’s messed up, man! She also calls Skid and Pump “Freaks of nature” when they are literally CHILDREN, WHY DID YOU EVEN SAY THAT??? Speaking of the children, here’s a positive thing, the dialogue did make them even cuter somehow. Like, they already had 20/20 Head Pats on my cutest video game characters rankings but they made me wanna put em higher. And is it just me, or does Boyfriend talk about Girlfriend more like a carnival prize than a person? Here is a direct quote to prove my point. “Not so fast! You guys ain’t earn her like I did, she’s all mine!” I know there are other ones, but I don’t feel like treating my stupid mod reviews like Restate Answer Explanation Conclusion paragraphs, I like having fun, after all. Boyfriend’s dialogue sprite also look sort of weird. I don’t know what it is about them but they just do. Anyway I’m stopping because I am tired.

[vampiremeerkat]

Would you say the Dutch are unusually racist? What even is the deal with Zwarte Piet anyway?

Zwarte Piet is the helper/caretaker of this slow, old man named Sinterklaas; the original and a more religiously dressed up version of what people in America will recognize as Santa Claus. Then again, the original original was a real-life saint who used to live in what is now known as Turkey. Piet and the celebration itself have changed much since their conception. One of the oldest stories -that I can remember without looking it up like a cheater- is that Piet used to be a demon of some sorts. At some point he was rewritten to be a human being and Sinterklaas’ aid. Just a Caucasian guy with nothing going on in his design. In another version I think Piet was an orphan that Sinterklaas saved and adopted or something, since the original would rescue children as well? In another, the aid was an African boy, also saved from hardships I believe, and another time, Piet was a chimney sweeper named Jan. This guy is the number 1 most rebooted character in fiction. Maybe not in all versions, but one of his assignments remained punishing bad children, like the demon did, by beating them up with a bundle of sticks. You can listen to our ancient holiday songs and find a threat of spanking in there, but Piet was already being described as “a friend of children“. His role as punisher only diminished over time. For many generations he’s been characterized as athletic, playful (though I always see them stressed the fuck out in our yearly TV skits) and of course he’s the main source of free candy. Now, during the late 80s and early 2000s, someone decided that one Piet was not enough and now we have a whole Amazon warehouse crew of helpers. It was a male-only role as well, but with all these changes, we very soon got women in the team. I think that happened in the 90s, but I can’t say. They’re still called “Piet”, though. They’ve also applied Smurfs rules to them; and their job or personality is part of their name. “Would you say the Dutch are unusually racist?”, is that question asked because Zwarte Piet still exists? Concerning Piet’s appearance as we’ve adapted it, every Dutch child and senile adult that celebrates or has celebrated Sinterklaas was taught that Piet is a Spaniard who’s skin is covered in soot because he is the one who enters the chimneys to fill our shoes with presents. That’s what the paint symbolizes. Piet is not a black man to us. The character doesn’t speak with an offensive accent or behaves in a way that anyone could call “stereotypical”. Another reason why the black paint is preferred is as to keep children clueless and disguise the fact it’s their uncle or neighbour under there. Home visits are a thing, you see. The lips are made red to help the mouth stand out -no other colour of lipstick makes sense, I suppose- and the rest of his attire is based on that of a 1800s Spanish nobleman, as the most recognizable version of Sinterklaas we celebrate comes from that time period. The curly black hair I always found a pointless addition, though. We weren’t told that Piet was racist, and didn’t perceive him as such. When a child shits his pants for the intimidating big-bearded Sinterklaas, it’ll likely calm down after a few words and treats from Piet. They want to be him, dress up as him, and at one point the concept of a “Piet certificate“ was introduced, which a child can earn after doing a few chores that they supposedly do in daily life, like walking over roof tops and baking. This explains why the majority of Dutch people can’t say goodbye. Zwarte Piet is a fond memory, not one of evil or ridicule. But since a few years ago, it’s become a tainted memory. As children grow older, they’re informed that those shitty American minstrel shows used to exist, and how Piet kinda looks like that. Some of our modern day grown-ups are convinced, but the rest feels nostalgic and can’t accept a sudden overhaul of the character. After the complaints of racism, that instantly grew tenfold after America got a taste of our culture, the Netherlands has experimented with a few different colours of face paint, but little else is strong enough to cover up the real face of the person underneath. This is also important for our national airing of Sinterklaas’ arrival; as Dutch celebrities/actors tend to fulfil the roles of Piets. Besides potential young fans, their own relatives are also watching these shows. The story is also important. By painting a person blue, pink, or green, what reason for it will you give a child that asks why they look like that? Not to mention the musical classics that utter the phrase “black like soot“ concerning Zwarte Piet. They’ll either have to change that with some other dribble, or outright erase it. Last time I checked, the colour experimentation has been given up on, and now we’re working with shades. There are Piets who are completely untouched, Piets with shit smudges on them so they look like literal homeless people, regular unsmudged Surinamese people who we already had in our team when I was little, so I’m not giving inclusion points for that, and the classic Piet. I believe the idea in this system is that the blacker you are, the more experienced, because the leader character in the skit I happened to see one time was the same guy from all previous years, and his appearance was untouched. And he’s the boss. But well, years have passed and the Netherlands is still divided on if there should be change and how much so. Keep in mind, this includes our Surinamese and Antillean residents. Sinterklaas is their holiday, too. I also read that a frightening chunk is afraid to give their opinion at all. I hate that. Anyway, this concludes the history lesson and explanation of the events as I remember them. I’m not too involved with it. I’m an adult and have no children of my own, there’s no reason for me to keep up with the holiday anymore. And politics in general give me aids.

[aforgottenballad]

Feelings on Sally Face Episode 5

Under a read more for obvious reasons, includes heavy spoilers and potentially triggering subjects. 

Disclaimer: I might miss-remember some parts of the story or have missed a piece of lore that would settle minor complaints. I am however disappointed in the ending as a whole and in some of the very harmful tropes included in it. But I’m also just some dude online with an opinion, and you can stop reading at any time. 

Rant under cut. 

Alright ya’ll. I’ve had a couple days to digest the ending to Sally Face.  While playing, I genuinely enjoyed some elements of the game. The chapter started on a dark but nearly hopeful note. Neil and Ash were still working to bring the cult down. It seemed likely Sal would be resurrected. Todd had apparently escaped the hospital, and that had potential to be either a very very good or very very bad thing. Maple was possessed by whatever fucked up the souls of the other apartment tenants, but hey! At least her and Neil weren’t in on the cult like so many fans predicted. Unfortunately, this series has a way of getting darker and darker as it progresses.  First thing that bugged me was the lore drop about how the cult was founded.  A Native American tribe. Right. Because why wouldn’t Indigenous peoples be in a story without being part of some mystical occult backstory, portrayed as mysterious historical props who worshiped something dark and evil instead of being portrayed as human beings. 

But I continued. I really enjoyed playing as Ashley and getting some insight into her character. I enjoyed the task of planting the C4 in the temple... catacomb... thing. We get to see Travis again! I was excited that a lot of us were right about him being indoctrinated but also working to fight the cult from the inside. We knew he had some good in him after all. 

When Ash tries to resurrect Sal, we get even more insight into her character, and unfortunately a lot of it is “Grieving, distraught, and full of self-blame”. I want to hug her.  Sal’s spirit is apparently revived by those pyramids, and he can dimension warp. We meet Jim, or what’s left of him, and he doesn’t give a fuck about anything anymore but agrees to help Sal anyway. This is, narratively speaking, weird as hell. His entire character arc for four episodes was “Loved his family so much he sacrificed himself to save them”, and suddenly he’s just some glowy dude attached to Magic Spirit Tubes who doesn’t give half a shit. I guess it makes sense as a way to wrap up why he’s been able to drift between worlds but... if he doesn’t care about any of that anymore why help Sal? And what about Rosenberg? Is she like Jim, or do we just have to assume she’s magical because her family helped found the cult? (Explained in an easter egg later on, because this game doesn’t just drop its lore. Not even the CRUCIAL lore. You have to achievement hunt for it.) Sal can enter various doors in the House In The Void to step into alternate realities, and this was my favorite aspect of the game. Each door has a different art style, and I really liked seeing these alternate realities. Steve probably worked the hardest and longest on drawing out and coding these scenes. I genuinely applaud the man for the work put into this endeavor I’m assuming all by himself. 

Meanwhile, Ash tries to unbind Larry’s soul from the tree house he died in, which doesn’t work. Did we ever find out why his body was never found? No? Ok that seems important.

After each puzzle, Sal’s body is restored a little bit at a time, but even after turning on all the pyramids and solving the mysteries behind all three doors, he can’t make it back to the “real” world. So Ashley kills herself. Or tries to. Because apparently that’s the only way to complete the ritual, and also because she feels really bad about not unbinding Larry’s soul and about not fixing Sal. Again, I want to hug her, but I have to watch her hurt herself instead, cause Steve doesn’t let us have nice things.

Okay, so this is a gorey game. We know. But one of the BIGGEST no-nos suicide prevention networks will tell you when consulting them about mental illness and suicide in media is NOT to show a graphic suicide in progress. Steve is aware a lot of his fans are A) Young teens to young adults B) Struggling with mental illness. 

His main character suffers from depression and anxiety and this fact has resonated with hundreds of fans. It’s irresponsible to purposefully include a graphic suicide attempt, but he did it last chapter, showing a gunshot suicide’s aftermath, then he did it again with Ashley. Call me a wiener if you like, point out the graphic scenes from earlier in the game and call me a hypocrite for not being upset by that, but you have to admit the Spongebob-close-up-shot look to those scenes have a totally different feel. Speaking as someone who actually has a pretty thick skin, but is concerned about the fans who might be in a worse place or who could be as young as 12, that was fucked up. 

Anyway, Ash’s attempt doesn’t take, because she’s struck by magic lightning, which infuses Sal’s soul into her. Now her arm is one of those stretchy sticky hands, but with bio luminescence and the ability to kick cultist ass. I actually thought this part was really cool, and was super ready to go on a cultist smacking spree. But again, we can’t have nice things and before we get to do anything badass we have to look at gruesome imagery again. 

You get to see Void Larry, who is now old and a wizard or something, but first...

Surprise! Maple and Neil are dead! Not just dead, but hung up from hooks covered in blood! And naked! 

Hey?? Hey Steve????? You know how they’re both POC?? And that lynching imagery is EXTREMELY NOT GOOD?!!????

“Two white people are hung up with them” YEAH? WELL WE’VE NEVER SEEN THOSE CHARACTERS BEFORE. THEY’RE JUST RANDOM PEOPLE.

I’ve seen people arguing “The white characters go through terrible things too” but it’s still really fucked up that by the end of the game, every. Single. Person of color. In the game. Has died. Gruesomely. It’s a gorey, dark, bleak game, and white characters die as well, gruesomely; but not all of them. None of them that are named are shown strung up, naked. That’s fucked up. That isn’t okay. 

There are also a total of three gay characters in this game. One is Todd, who goes through the standard “bad bad stuff” the game is used to, is the white one, and he survives. One is Neil, one of the aforementioned people of color who died horribly and who only really existed to be Todd’s boyfriend and therefore a source of angst for Todd when he dies. The third is Travis, another man of color, and an abuse victim, who dies to fulfill his character arc as an abuse victim, which is also really shitty to see over and over again as an abuse survivor. 

Look, I know Steve pulled a lot of inspiration from old TV shows and horror series that probably weren’t all “politically correct”. I know it’s always been kind of an edgy and dark game. I know Steve probably didn’t think about the repercussions of all his narrative choices. But I also know he actively ignored some people offering to educate him on issues he has no experience with. I know he worked hard on this game, by himself, but we as fans have paid him and waited for years and it isn’t selfish or ungrateful to be hurt and disappointed. He knows his audience is diverse, he knows a lot of us were attracted to the game because of a gender nonconforming main character, a main character who struggles with mental illness, a cast that isn’t 100% white and conventionally attractive. Of course he didn’t need to change the plot for us! It’s his game, his vision, but the least he could have done is research how to not actively hurt and alienate a good portion of us.  I don’t think anyone is bad or racist for still finding solace in the characters and in what the story was before this, I’m not attacking you personally, whoever is reading this. I, personally, still have loads of Sally Face art in my queue, I still have active role plays going on, my Sal wig is sitting like 8 feet away waiting for the next time my friends want to take cosplay pictures. I still enjoyed playing the game for the most part. Without this game I wouldn’t even know most of my current friends. It’s just really shitty how it ended like this, and a lot of people I talk to daily either feel too sick to even talk about the game anymore after seeing people like them treated like trash by the narrative or try to focus on the good things they got out of just being part of the fandom but don’t feel comfortable supporting the developer anymore. 

Even if there wasn’t all these hurtful tropes packed into the game, and yes, even after unlocking the epilogue, the game just feels cold. It feels rushed, probably because of how much time went into the alternate dimension gimmick. I wish Steve had at least consulted people over the script. It felt like not only did he pour all his work into experimenting with the mixed media, he also just took whatever expectations the fans had and went somewhere completely different just to have his story be “unpredictable”. That isn’t always a good thing. Plot twists, downer endings, dark and scary imagery, all of these things can be done beautifully, but in this case it felt like he just wanted the series to end. The game didn’t subvert expectations, it fed into the harmful stereotypes and tropes all the fans were so hopeful it wouldn’t. 

...On top of not making any sense unless you’re able to 100% all the puzzles. And even when you do, it feels like all the bad stuff happened for no reason. The ending doesn’t conclude anything. Even when you unlock the epilogue, all it tells you is that a third of the world has died and that the main cast haven’t accomplished much besides “Trying to help”. Sal and Todd have powers now, but that isn’t elaborated on much. Larry’s spirit is missing, if he even exists in any plane at all anymore. It doesn’t even mention what’s going on with Ash.  It just feels like nothing mattered. 

[atheistforhumanity]

There are accusations coming against the FBI, but they’re much weaker than Republicans realize: (Long but Important News, Please Read)

You may have forgotten that Trump promised to launch his own investigation into the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s campaign members starting back in 2016. This is the old conspiracy theory invented by Trump that he was illegally spied on during the campaign. Well, this conspiracy has gained some traction and is making big headlines. If you read an article like Attkisson’s or even one by major media, you would definitely get the feeling that the FBI are in trouble and may have done something terribly wrong in their investigation. However, as usual, the details tell a different story.

This is a very complex issue, so I’m going to get straight to the point. The DOJ is now accusing the FBI of improperly gaining the FISA warrants that allowed them to survey Carter Page, and three others. For additional information, I wrote about these accusations that came in the form of the Nunes’ Memo almost two years ago. I also wrote a quick fact list that you should know about Carter Page.

The issue at hand is the legitimacy of asking for the warrants on Page and others. So I want to briefly layout why these warrants are obviously legitimate, based on suspicious behavior.

1. George Papadopoulos was a consultant on Trump’s campaign. He bragged to an Australian diplomat that he knew that the U.S. Government had been hacked by Russia, and that Hillary’s emails had been stolen, and that Russia would use this act of war to help candidate Trump. This was well before anyone in the public ever had heard anything about Russian hacking, probably even before the activity had been reported the President Obama. The point is that there is no legitimate reason for this low-level consultant to be bragging about how his boss is going to benefit from crimes against the United States. THAT is what started entire investigation, and that fact is not disputed.

2. Everything about Carter Page is suspicious. The idea that asking for a warrant on him was politically bias is ludicrous. Here’s a few quick facts that demonstrate his shady actions from the Mueller Report. Page lived and worked in Russia from 2004 to 2007. That’s fine. However, when he came back to the US he immediately caught the attention of law enforcement. Both in 2008 and in 2013 Page was under surveillance by the FBI for being in contact with Russian spies. The people he was in contact with were indeed arrested and charged with acting as an unregistered foreign agent, which is a fancy way of calling someone a spy. That’s actually the same crime Gen. Michael Flynn was charged with, who one of the warrants was for. Carter is woven into all those arrest documents, as his interactions served as the evidence for their arrest. Fast forward to 2016, Page still has close Russian ties. He volunteers to work on Trump’s campaign for no pay and was not recruited by anyone. As soon as he joins the campaign, all he can talk about are his contacts with high Russian officials, and suggests a meeting between Trump and Putin. Page becomes the campaign’s Russian consultant. During 2016, Page took a trip to Moscow to speak at an economic university. The University admitted that he was only invited due to his position in the Trump campaign. This trip is important for three reasons: a) Page makes a very public speech spouting anti-US foreign policy rhetoric, and promises that relations would be better under Trump. (This is really key for other reasons, but I’ll write about that separately.) b) Page admittedly was in contact with known Russian spies well in Russia. He even admitted giving US information to Russian energy companies, telling the FBI that “the more information I gave, the better for this country.” What that information is exactly is still a mystery to the public. c) Page was in Russia for a number of days, and he largely refused to discuss is actions there at all. We know he had contacts with Russian Intelligence and Kremlin officials, but on top of that there were people and actions he refused to reveal to the FBI. The FBI had deemed that his presence in Russia was mostly unjustified or explainable. You should also know that after Page made his public speech, the Trump campaign tried to denounce him and claimed he never played an important role in the Campaign. This is just like when Papadopoulos was referred to as a coffee boy, but he somehow knew about the attack on the US Gov. by Russia and Hillary’s emails. So, like I said, everything about Page is suspicious. There is more information about Page that will come up in the next section.

Read This Part ----->

The title of this article is that the accusations against the FBI are weaker than you think, and I will cover that now. If you look at the article I linked and many others on the web, what you’ll see are statements that the FBI left out information, gave incorrect information, and had contradicting information. No one is giving much detail, so I took a look at the DOJ report. As I list their complaints, you’ll see two things: 1. The FBI definitely made mistakes and should have done a better job. 2. None of their mistakes actually weaken the case to request the FISA warrants. The details are actually counter-productive to the Republican’s claim. Before I list some of the specific complaints, here are two fun facts: 1. Durham, who was handpicked by AG Barr to investigate the same issue told Horowitz, the head of this investigation, that he could not find any information to back up the Conservative theory that the FBI acted improperly. 2. Horowitz himself concluded that political bias played no role in the FBI’s investigation.

So what is all the fuss about?

Well, it turns out that the FBI did leave out some important information when requesting their FISA warrant. For instance, one of the main points the DOJ list in their report is that the FBI didn’t tell the FISA court that Page had been, and still was, being investigated by ANOTHER US foreign intelligence agency for his suspicious links to Russia! I’m assuming this is either the CIA or DHS. You think I must be making this up, but I’m not. This is one of their top complaints! Another top complaint was that the FBI did not tell the FISA court that Page was a current informant for this other intelligence agency, and he had willing made recordings for this agency.

Remember when I said the details were counter-productive to the Republican’s point? Let’s break this down quickly. Two intelligence agencies have had a close eye on Page for years because of his suspicious links with Russia. While Page volunteered to be on the Trump campaign and raved about his contacts with Russia, he was an approved informant for this other agency. Think about “regular” crime for a moment. How do you get to be a police informant? By being in the center of criminal activity! If Page was bad then why was he never arrested? Because you don’t arrest low-level criminals when they will agree to be an informant!

What about the contradictory statements? The DOJ’s main point of contradiction is this. The FBI say that Page met with specific Russian spies and Page denies it. They didn’t say that he denied it. To be clear, it does NOT say that he admitted to it. Also, to clarify with my statement above about Page meetings Russian Intelligence agents, he did admit to meeting with certain individuals and denied meeting with others.

One thing the DOJ was correct about was that the FBI wrongly reported that Steele only shared information with them. In their complaint they say that Steele also shared his information with yahoo and the State Department.

They also did not state Papadopolous’ denial of being in contact with outside agencies. As well as Page’s denial of ever meeting Manafort, even though we know he sent emails to top campaign officials to promote his Russian connections. If that did not include Manafort it doesn’t change anything.

I’m not exaggerating when I say these are the main points the DOJ’s whole case is based on. You see why Durham and Horowitz could not show any real wrong doing. At best, the FBI was lazy or incomplete in their information. I do absolutely think they should have done a more thorough job. As we can see though, none of that information actually changes the suspicion level of these men.

The Republican theory was that this investigation was politically motivated to hurt Trump in the election. That theory makes no sense for all the reasons stated above, as well as the fact that no one ever knew about this investigation until after the election. Comey through Clinton under the bus weeks before the election. This investigation never effected the election in anyway, and it continued long after the election through the Mueller Report.

These accusations are completely baseless, but if you read conservative sites like the one I linked above, you would definitely feel justified in your opinion that the FBI did something wrong, because there’s really no context or detail. To be clear, this has been denounced as a conspiracy theory for over two years now, since Trump ranted this on TV. No one, even up until now, has ever shown any evidence that shows the FBI were bias, improper, or unjustified in requesting the warrants.

[trompe-la-mort]

Los miserables, 1971 – “Holy Hugo, they included ‘insert rare scene here’!”

Wrote this a while ago and realised I never posted it. So here goes.

Do you have a favourite obscure scene or detail in Les misérables that hardly ever makes the cut in screen adaptations? If you do, this might just be the adaptation for you. If you want to see an adaptation that tells the story well, however, this is not for you.

It's a nineteen-part (coincidence? I think not...) TV adaptation by the Spanish channel RTVE within its show “Novela”, a show of multiple literature adaptations that ran for fifteen years in total!

And the best part: You can see it all online on RTVE's webpage: http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/videos/los-miserables/

You can skip all episodes with mod 5 = 1 (except the first one), those are the episodes originally shown on Mondays, recapping what happened last week.

Like the Italian TV adaptation, this is unfortunately hindered by its budget. Unlike the Italian TV adaptation, this has the additional problem of its screenwriter's frankly bizarre understanding of concepts such as “pacing” and “importance”.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think it's rather cool to have an adaptation that includes many of the more obscure scenes, but I know the book and I know the context for all of these. I think asking how much sense the plot actually makes to someone who only knows this adaptation is a legitimate question.

Time is “wasted” on montages, dream-sequences and scenes of characters tossing and turning in bed, all of them many times longer than they have any right to be. Partially, it feels like the screenwriter couldn't decide which plot details to include and then just tried to incorporate as many of them as possible – continuity be damned. As an example, he took the time to include Mabeuf's death at the barricade, but it doesn't mean anything, since it happens to a character we have never seen before. Because Mabeuf's entire background is missing. To top it off, the watching students call him “le conventionel”, probably just to tick another box on the check list. To get another time saver, “show, don't tell” is occasionally blatantly violated. We get Valjean's entire history from him telling his life story to the bishop. The backstory of Marius and Gillenormand is conveyed in their fight before Marius leaves, meaning all the info is solely for the benefit of the audience, because all characters involved already know this stuff. Yet, bizarrely, they occasionally have time for a “show” where none would have been necessary. We get a far too long montage of Fantine with Cosette in Paris, that includes Fantine getting fired from her old job. Honestly, you can cover the question of why Fantine leaves Paris with a single line – you know, like it's done in the original?

I wouldn't usually mind, but it not only messes up the pacing, but it also takes up time that could have been used to flesh out some of the details. Or even some of the main plot points. We have Marius letting Thénardier go at the end, but Marius doesn't owe him a debt in this one. It might have made the Gorbeau robbery easier, but at the end, Marius has no real reason to not call the police. That is, if Thénardier is even a prison escapee. It's never shown nor mentioned how he got out of prison after the Gorbeau house robbery. On a smaller scale, it leads to a few bizarre moments, where introductions or transitions are missing, as if someone was trying to cut the corners wherever possible. For example, one episode starts with Marius' and Gillenormand's fight, without any introduction to their conflict or any real introduction of the characters (apart from Marius being the cute boy from the park). Or take the Champmathieu trial. The prosecutor asks for the witnesses to be heard and the very next moment, the judge is already questioning Brevet. No scene of the witnesses entering the room or at least the camera pointing out that they've been there all the time (because I definitely missed that in the overhead shots of the fairly small courtroom set); no scene of the judge calling the first witness, which becomes even worse when he does it to every subsequent witness.

Between this kind of overly short editing and long, drawn-out scenes of Marius healing (which commits the additional cardinal sin of making us think that it's finally over with a short conversation, only to continue for another minute or so) or of Fantine tossing on her bed (which we only later realise is prossibly Cosette's birth!), it feels a bit like there were too many people involved and no two of them could disagree over the tone and style of this adaptation.

I have another, if slightly petty, complaint: Why do the opening credits contain pictures of scenes we never get to see? It makes it pretty hard to identify which actor played which character and it also made it look they would include scenes that end up not being there. From the credits, you could be forgiven for thinking that there are scenes in Toulon, that Valjean's sister shows up or that they include the scene where Éponine stops Patron-Minette from robbing the house in the Rue Plumet. None of these actually happen.

Just to finish my list of complaints about this adaptation, let me talk about Javert. Now, I like the basic idea of what they did with the character, if only because it is the opposite to what most other adaptations do. In many adaptations, Javert is portrayed as a far more villainous character than in the book. These guys went the opposite way. Javert is calm and polite most of the time (making his one outburst when he arrests Valjean even more meaningful) and in one scene seems concerned about Fantine's safety (while she's still employed at Madeleine's factory that is), when he meets her in a disreputable part of town after dark and insists on accompanying her to her destination. Yes, it's later made clear that he still uses this to find out what she was doing there in the first place and this is what kicks off the chain of events leading to Mme Victurnien finding out about Cosette, but the two scenes taken together imply that Javert is both caring about the safety of an innocent civilian and spying on said civilian, just in case they're not as innocent as they seem to be. If they had done it like this throughout the movie I wouldn't be complaining.

Yet, it also means they had Javert come up to Madeleine, stating that he is happy to be the first to congratulate him about his appointment as mayor. It makes Javert's later resentment of Madeleine seem quite petty. Or the end of the “Confrontation”, where Javert, rather than leading Valjean out  of the room, just makes a hand gesture to ask him to step out. Which again could have worked, but then he would have had to stay polite for all of the scene. Which he didn’t. They also decided not to stick to it for the entirety of the series. The portrayal of Javert in the later parts is more “traditional”, so to speak.

The acting is solid, for the most part, but hardly ever outstanding, although I’m likely not the best judge. Valjean's acting is fairly, occasionally too, subtle and he's a bit too calm for my taste in his entire encounter with the bishop. The actor, Pepe Calvo, is better known for his work in spaghetti western movies and I've by now realised that the reason he seemed familiar to me from the beginning is because of the western “Dead Men Ride” which I saw as a child, in which he plays a Myriel-like character of all things. I've described my thoughts on Javert, but I think that is due to decisions by the director and the scriptwriter, not the actor. Fantine has an annoying tendency to overact, especially in the later parts of her appearance. Cosette, fortunately not played by the same actress, is a bit boring. Little Cosette, however, does outstanding work for a child actress. Both Thénardiers are decent; they went the “Mme Thénardier needs to look sufficiently trustworthy for Fantine to leave her child with her”-route and she doesn't quite manage to be as scary as she should be. Everybody else is rather unremarkable.

Oh, and while we're at it: If you cast as Cosette an actress who actually looks like a teenager and as Marius an actor who might be in his early thirties, you need to specify that Marius is only a few years older than Cosette. Please!

But now to what I like about this adaptation: It's occasionally insane attention to details.

I've complained about the over-abundance of dream-sequences, but some of them really work. Showing one of Cosette's daydreams explains her life, character and dreams much better than any number of “real” scenes could have. Even more awesome is the inclusion of Valjean's dream before the Champmathieu trial. I mean, “Tempête sous un crâne” is usually going to be a weird scene anyway, you might just replace it with a weird dream while you're at it. Also, holy shit, they included Valjean's dream! That's a definite first.

Here's a list of further uncommon scenes this movie has: -Valjean steals Petit-Gervais's coin, although he does it before meeting the bishop -The bishop gets some exposition. It's only done in two conversations with his sister and Mme Magloire, but it's there -The scene of Tholomyès and Co. dumping the girls -A meeting of the Amis verbatim from the book -Gillenormand believes Marius to be dead and faints when Marius opens his eyes.

And here's a list of crazily uncommon scenes this movie has: -Fantine's meeting with the Thénardiers includes the girls using a cart chain as a swing -Details about work in the jet factory -Fantine thinks she hears Cosette outside the hospital -Cosette lying about watering the guest's horse -The coffin-escape! In full, glorious length and details. -Javert has a letter from the prefect in his pocket -Marius' note to identify his corpse -Escaping from the barricade in National Guard uniforms (although Valjean doesn't put in the one he is currently wearing) -Valjean writes the letter explaining to Cosette the origins of his fortune

Also, the ending is really well done. I really recommend you watch it for yourself, I don't think describing it can do it justice.

Generally, avoid this for a first look at Les Mis, but for a fan this is an interesting adaptation to watch and I suggest you give at least some parts a look, if only for the novelty.

[trumpetnista]

CMW2/Trumpetnista: Not You, Too

Summary from FFN: CANON COMPLIANT AU WITH HEAVY SPOILERS FOR THE END OF SEASON 4 AND THE FIRST EPS OF 5. POSSIBLY A FUTURE FIC; Gotham breaks all the rules all the time, especially now. Thankfully, the one about cats having 9 lives? That still holds. Bruce thinks Selina is dead. Everyone does until she walks into the GCPD the next morning.;Rated for language and imagery;1st in my 2019 SSS Project

Words from the Hooded GOTHAMITE: As I said last time, what keeps me watching GOTHAM (other than the awesome writing, dope ass cast, and the lovely fandom...) are Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle. They hooked me like a fish and I fell in love with the rest of the show in the process. Season 5 has been excellent as always yet bittersweet. It’s supposed to be the last one (I hope not. I hope the show gets picked up or we get a movie or something! It can’t be over yet! Come on!) and I have a feeling that B and Grumpy Cat aren’t gonna be together in the endgame. Not outright, anyways. I don’t think they’ll be enemies but together? As in Helena Wayne showing up levels of together? Nah. 

That’s what fanfic is for. There is a follow up to Positive planned, BTW.

Anyway, this one is another canon complaint AU set in the current season. All you really need to know is that The Eviler Evil Valeska Twin shot our girl, she was paralyzed and now she’s not thanks to Ivy Pepper Version 3’s reluctant help, and Gotham is now divided up into Zones, most of them insane and wild and chock full of yikes. Oh, and Bruce loves Selina but that’s always been pretty fucking obvious. LOL! Enjoy the latest. 

Disclaimer: “Honestly, it’s not mine!”

"What's up, 5-0? Beautiful day, isn't it? The sky is smoggy blue and the birds are singing..."

He was hallucinating.

He had to be.

There was no way that what he was hearing was possible.

No matter how much he ached to, there was no way that he was hearing Selina Kyle's voice.

She was dead. Truly dead. She had gone on one of what she called her "shopping trips" for The Haven and Jeremiah Valeska had finished what he had started that horrible night in the Study. He and his demented girlfriend had trapped her in a warehouse, knocked her out, and blown her up. Not only had they done it, Jeremiah had turned himself in, battered but proud. He claimed that it had been for the best. Selina was nothing but street trash. She was his downfall and utterly unacceptable as a companion for him. Gotham needed its Dark Knight to be with someone who truly understood what reality was. Someone like...

Bruce Wayne hadn't let him finish. Before anyone could stop him, he had picked up a chair and gone after him, much to the shrieking horror of Ecco. It had taken several officers and someone, likely Alfred Pennyworth, sedating him to make him stop. He had woken up in Jim Gordon's office and had stayed on the couch. He didn't want to see anyone. Nobody knew what to say to him. Everyone knew how much Selina meant to him. That was why she had been targeted twice.

Bruce had managed to help her. He had gone straight into the belly of Ivy Pepper's foliage covered beast to get the root to fix her severed spine. Selina had gotten back on her feet immediately and hit the ground running. Shocking everyone, she had opted to wait to get her revenge against Valeska. She was going to play the long game. Valeska wasn't going anywhere. He was just as trapped as everyone else, thanks to the bridges being gone and the Travel Ban.

When asked why, she had sadly explained that Tabitha Galavan, her Mentor turned Sister, had been impatient for revenge and it had taken her life. She had allowed anger and hurt to cloud her judgement. She had dropped her guard and Oswald Cobblepot had promptly murdered her. Bruce had seen it happen. It had been expected. After all, both Galavan siblings had done great harm to the man but hearing Barbara Kean's devastated rage? Knowing that Selina would have to mourn her? It had hurt deeply. It was all a goddamned waste.

Instead of seeking out Valeska or his followers, Selina had opted to use her skills as a thief to help The Haven and its refugees. She would pick a small gang's turf within a Zone, typically Penguin's, and go in for 12-36 hours. She would bring back people, ammunition, medicine, and meaningful things like blankets or feminine hygiene products. She had quickly gained a reputation for being utterly ruthless to any who tried to stop her, which had concerned him greatly. Ivy had warned him that the root would not only fix her spine but amplify the darker aspects of her personality. Bruce had tried to reel her in, leading to several arguments, and eventually, they had reached a stalemate.

She would do what she liked. He would stay out her way or at least keep his judgement to himself while he helped her. Gotham was a madhouse. It always had been but now? It was a free for all. It was survival of the fittest and she would be damned if she let someone who crossed her walk away. She had made that mistake in the past and it had cost her dearly. She had been screwed over one too many times. It would not be happening again. If there was a Hell, she was already going to it so what did it matter, anyways? Self defense wasn't murder, neither was saving people's asses.

Plus, she didn't know about him but she was in no mood to deal with the same group of psychos 10 years from now. She wanted to deal with new psychos.

But, now she wouldn't because she was dead and gone. She was as dead and gone as his parents.

His Selina was gone and Bruce would never see her again, not in this life.

But, the hallucination...she wasn't...she couldn't be...

Could she? Please?

Her mane of golden chestnut curls wasn't singed and pulled up into a messy bun. She wasn't standing in the 12th precinct's main entryway. She wasn't wheezing softly from a partially blocked nose. Her tactical suit wasn't unzipped to reveal a stained gray sports bra and bruised torso. She wasn't looking at the stunned occupants of the room with her usual dismissive amusement, even with a black eye. She wasn't limping and her whip wasn't wrapped around her bruised shoulder like a coil of wire as she drank straight from a bottle of what appeared to be Everclear.

She couldn't be...could she? Was it possible? She couldn't...why was the room spinning? Why was his chest hurting? Bruce stood in the office, speechless and shaking, watching as the Selina hallucination sat on the receptionist desk. It was so real...

"What's the matter? You guys never seen a 7 lives having bitch before?"

"My God..."

"Jesus Christ, Gordon! Get the hell off of me! You, too, Alfred! Bad touch!"

The hallucination looked like her. It definitely sounded like her but it couldn't...she wasn't...but Jim was smiling at it. Alfred was too. Both were still hugging the hallucination and Harvey Bullock had taken its bottle of liquor away, taking a deep swig. She snatched it back from him and shot him a lethal look, making him grin.

"Buzz off, gumshoe. This is mine. I earned it. Plus, it's the closest thing we've got to morphine, which I kinda need right now. I need some morphine, a shower, a nap, maybe take a crap before all of that..."

"Kid, we all thought you were done for. Valeska and his crazy Terminator bitch said you were."

"I'm not a kid. Yeah, I definitely got shanghaied by those goddamned freaks and it sucked but their bomb didn't kill me like they wanted it to. It just made me fly away, which was totally fun until I landed face, ribs, and tits first into the side of a delivery truck. Don't do that, by the way. It hurts. I managed to get it started and it has some good stuff in there. Ammo, some cases of water, and those military TV dinner things and I think there might be meds. I'm not sure. Speaking of meds, I'm still looking for Lee. She was the best, bravest doctor in the city and if I can find her, you can get The Narrows under control real easy. Everybody loved her because she legit gave a shit so they're looking for her. There's a big T.P. and blankets reward for anyone who finds her. She might be across the river, I dunno. Maybe someone could swim over through the subways to go check and to ask for help in person since using the radio obviously doesn't goddamned work..."

"It's too dangerous. The damage from the bridges blocked or flooded the tunnels."

"Dammit. You can't rig something up, Foxy? You're like the better version of that tech dude from the James Bonds movies. The hell's his name again? X? Y?"

"Q."

"Right...whatever. Where's Bruce?"

"Selina..."

"Where. Is. Bruce? Alfred, where is he? Did he...where the hell is he?! What happened?!"

"Valeska showed up here gloating and he snapped. He took a chair to him and...he was in Cap's office but..."

"Get out of my way. Now."

"Selina, I know you're worried but..."

"Harper, I really like you but if you don't get the fuck out of my way, I swear to God, I'll..."

Bruce stepped out of the office and all eyes went to him. All he could see was Selina. He was still shaking and breathing was getting more difficult by the second but he couldn't look away. He didn't even want to blink because then, she would disappear and...

"Oh, no."

As soon as she touched him, reality hit him all at once.

She was real.

She was alive!

"Bruce. Bruce? Come on, baby, look at me...you need to breathe...look at me!"

His first instinct was to obey her and he did just that. His Selina wanted him to breathe. She wanted him to look at her and he was going to. He was going to do any and everything she asked.

Baby? That was new. Selina usually called him B or by his full name. Either that or she called him a douchebag or something else along those lines but fondly. Never a pet name. She had always cringed at pet names and other conventional romantic relationship things like them. But, she was alive. She was alive. She was battered and bruised and didn't smell very good but she was alive. Selina was alive! She wasn't gone. Jeremiah hadn't taken her away from him. Gotham hadn't stolen her away from him. He hadn't lost her. She was alive. She was right in front of him. He wasn't dreaming. He wasn't hallucinating.

"Selina?"

"Hey, Bruce."

"You're alive."

"Barely."

"...y-you're alive?"

"Yeah, I'm alive. I'm right in of- ow!"

Bruce knew that he would have to do some serious groveling later but he didn't care. He hauled Selina flush against him and squeezed as hard as he could, uncaring of her injuries. The noises escaping him could be called crying or maybe screaming, he wasn't sure. As if let loose from a puppeteer's strings, he slumped against the wall and surprising him, Selina wasn't fighting him.

She was holding onto him just as tightly. She was crying like she had after her failed suicide attempt and he loosened his grip enough for her to look up at him. She had to look up at him, now. She had to stand on her tiptoes to give him a proper kiss when they were standing. He remembered when she was taller than him. He remembered when they first met. Every memory he had with her, good and bad, was running through his mind at warp speed.

Cupping his face, she kissed him deeply and he responded immediately, mindful of her cut lip. His second hug was much gentler and he smiled at a beaming Alfred, a crying and grinning Jim. They loved her just as much as he did. They were her family, along with Barbara Kean, and...

"As soon as the Travel Ban lifts, I'm going on vacation and I'm taking you with me. I don't give a shit about your Mission or whatever the hell you call it. We're going someplace warm where we can get falling down fucked up drunk legally and I can have my tits out."

Bruce tried to laugh but he kept sobbing, drinking her in greedily. She was alive. His best friend, his heart, his Selina was alive! She wanted to go someplace warm? Done. She wanted him with her? Done. Whatever she wanted, whatever she needed, he would do it. Even if (when) it compromised his moral compass, he would do it anyway because Selina Kyle was alive. She was alive and he wasn't going to question how. Okay, he would because that was how he was. He always wanted answers but the universe had granted him a most precious gift and...

"...not you, too?"

His voice was small and the smile, the look she gave him was the softest he had ever seen.

"Not me, too. Not today. Not ever. You're stuck with me, Bruce Wayne. Get used to it."

[mashitandsmashit]

America’s Got Talent: The Champions - Final Results

I’VE BEEN LIED TO!!!

Like I said, I heard the final results from some random Youtuber(s) commenting on various videos, and they said that the winner was Darci Lynne...They also said that Angelica Hale came in Fifth and Susan Boyle came in Fourth, which would have made sense since the former has become stupid popular for some reason and the latter is practically Got Talent royalty...While I would have been fine with those results (even if I disagreed with Angelica’s ranking), the actual Top 5 was more like it!

Preacher has always been more personality than laugh-out-loud jokes, but he’s easily one of the most (if not THE most) memorable comedians we’ve seen on this show, and I’m very happy that he made the Top 5 this time...As for Cristina, well, I think she speaks...or belts out at the top of her lungs...for herself...

Of course, the Top 3 was still Shin, Darci and Kseniya as I was told, and Kseniya still came in Third...But by the time Shin and Darci were the last two standing, I did start to put those other comments saying that Shin actually wins into consideration...And in the end, is it really any surprise that the pretty-boy magician fresh off of his victory from the previous season of the main series was crowned champion? (And I love how they built up whether he or Deadly Games would get the last spot in the Top 5, as if ANYONE thought it could go any differently!) Maybe Darci would have had a better chance if she wasn’t only the third act of the night last week, but still...

As I was gonna point out, when I “knew” Darci was gonna win, first of all it would have made her the first wildcard to win on this show...But I guess second place is still a record! Also, the main reason why she was at the top of my “rooting for” list prior to last week’s show was because “knowing” she was gonna win, I was REALLY hoping she’d do something special to earn that win...And I’d say she didn’t disappoint...

Nonetheless, Shin was my favorite last week for taking the mind-blowingness to a new level, and I’d say he very well earned his victory! Had he done that for his final performance last season, I’d have been less conflicted over him winning over Zurcaroh and Brian King Joseph...Hell, I might have been about ready to name him my favorite of that season, but against those two acts, it’s hard to say...

And Kseniya is the newest entry in a series of Third-Placers who were arguably the most unique and creative of the season...The only difference this time is that the two who beat her were indeed superior in my opinion...Nonetheless, like last season, the Top 3 were also MY Top 3...except this time they actually ranked how I would rank them! Hell, even #4 was pretty much my #4! And I like #5 enough to have no complaints...

Quite ironic that such a poorly-handled “season” had the most satisfying final results to date! Sure, I would have loved a winner who didn’t already win in the past, especially a recent AGT season (as I’ve been detecting bias towards acts from the last three seasons...when Simon was a judge...as well as BGT, where Simon is also a judge...) But again, said winners were the ones who rose above and beyond for the final round!

And despite all the singers in the finals who I would have traded for someone like Tape Face, Prince Poppycock or even Kenichi Ebina despite his recent limitations...Well...None of them made the Top 5! The only singers who made the Top 5 were the young ventriloquist and the rock opera diva, singers who have unique quirks that make them MEMORABLE!

This might be a sign that despite Simon’s constant pushing for homogenization with singers meant to inspire you...to take Prozac, voters are starting to push back and make it about who THEY came to see! Perhaps Cowellization (Copyright, frankensteindr, 2016) is finally starting to lose its power over America! But I guess I’ll just have to wait and see how things go next season before I jump to conclusions...

As for the performances, they were pretty much all great! Some people have picked apart The Clairvoyants’ trick, and when you get down to it, I guess it’s not THAT impressive...But they definitely had me going for a moment...That said, they’re no Shin Lim...

Speaking of whom, of course he performs his trick with a random celebrity, and since they couldn’t afford Andy Samberg, they got the next name down on Terry’s “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” connections...Like last week, it started off simple, but got pretty nuts by the end...Not his best trick, but overall pretty solid! Also, it looks like Shin’s finally gaining some confidence in speaking during performances...He’s no Jon Dorenbos in THAT department yet, but he’s getting somewhere...

Preacher’s video package of him trying to team up with the other acts was just great! Even putting him aside (and believe me, he DESERVES to have a TV show or something), it’s just great watching all the other acts (and Terry) take part in his little comedy video...They should do something like this more often!

Also, Brian Justin Crum needs to team up with Cristina Ramos more often, because that performance was beyond electrifying! Easily Brian’s best singing so far, and his harmonies with Cristina only boosted it! I guess it makes sense seeing that both of them sang Queen in the past...Oh yeah, and they tacked Deadly Games in there...Well, I’ll give them credit for speeding through all those stunts while two people were belting it out behind them; It must have been a LITTLE distracting...But it was all tricks we’ve seen them do before...For once, I was paying more attention to the singers than the danger act...

Speaking of awesome acts boosting less awesome acts...Or perhaps the other way around...I guess while Voices of Hope was not the act from last season I was hoping to see perform with Tokio Myers (I already named who two weeks ago, so I won’t bother), this really is what they were always meant for: Performing back-up! Overall, it was still all about Tokio, but I guess the choir is a nice touch...Much better than just them performing...

Glad to see they’re at least showing SOME appreciation for the impact Jackie Evancho has had on the show by bringing her back as a guest to promote her new album...And once again, a beautiful performance! I’m not gonna lie, when I first heard the line-up, I was actually kinda rooting for her to win Champions (because as a non-winner, she had a better chance than Susan Boyle, let’s be honest here...) At the very least, again, I would have loved to have her in the finals, instead of all these last-three-seasons acts who WISH they could have a FRACTION of the impact that Jackie has made...(The best of the best, my tailbone!)

Cirque du Soleil was awesome...In other news, the sky is blue...A MYSTIC BLUE!

And finally, since they used up both Terry Fator AND Jeff Dunham on the same night for Darci, that just left the Muppets...I guess Kermit, Piggy, Fozzie and the Electric Mayhem weren’t available, but I like Rowlf...Rowlf is cool...And he worked really well with Edna! Not much else to say: Darci Lynne plus even just ONE of the Muppets equals magic! Not Shin Lim magic, just...Never mind...

As for the OTHER half of the acts...(Cue crickets chirping.) I guess there’s only so many guests you can bring in during the winter to perform duets with most of these singers...But they didn’t even let Dorenbos perform with Shin!? The only thing we got with those two together was that segment of the Preacher video...They didn’t even do the obvious thing and match them up when one made the Top 5 and the other didn’t...Whatever, this show’s made far more questionable decisions in the past (many of them in this “season” alone), and if it means not slowing the night down with less interesting singing performances, I’m not complaining...

Anyway, good show, good results...But if they’re ever gonna do Champions again, they should make some adjustments to the format...But knowing AGT, they’ll instead introduce even more head-scratching decisions...Still much better than Season 4, even though at some points I was debating whether or not it’s even worse...But I guess seeing the actual performances made enough sense of everything...

So with this...complicated spin-off season behind us, it’s time to talk briefly about what to expect in Season 14 of the main show...First of all, Terry Crews will be staying as host since Tyra’s out...So far, he seems like a likable presence as host, but we haven’t seen a whole lot of his persona yet, so I’ll wait until the following season to decide what I think...But as both Nick and Tyra have shown, if he’s gonna be the host, he NEEDS to brush up on his wacky neon outfits!

I know next to nothing about the two ladies replacing Mel and Heidi, but I DO know that Julianne Hough is a professional dancer who has some experience in reality TV from “Dancing with the Stars”, and she sings as well, so that might give her some credibility to consider...And I’m sure Gabrielle Union is capable of being funny and likable...HOPEFULLY they do more than just look pretty and make useless comments, because if not, I’m gonna be more suspicious about this show than I already am...

And I can’t help but wonder if this is going to be like “The Voice”, where they keep switching out the black/female judges while the two white guys remain...I hope not, since I think Howie could use a replacement sooner or later, and don’t even get me started on Simon!

Right now, I’m still considering my previous ideas of doing Youtube streams as the omnipresent fifth judge, as well as going back to the beginning of the show and reviewing earlier episodes...But they’re still just ideas, and since I’m still working retail, it’s gonna be hard if not impossible to prepare them...

I’ll see what I can do...For now, I guess all that’s guaranteed is looking forward to Season 14...So with that said, I’ll see you all (or at least FrankDoc) in three months! Until then!

[humourtalia]

[Hi, Admin here! I’ve put this under a cut because it’s long, and it's got some heavy stuff in there--look at the tags to decide if it’s safe for you to read. The following is what anon wrote, and my response will be signposted beneath. Okay, let’s go!]

*The submit box wouldn’t let me submit without a picture, so I thought this rant picture would be kind of appropriate?

Anon Submission:

Hi there! First of all, I wanted to thank everyone on the blog for holding this event, I’ve already submitted a couple of rants and it’s been super helpful to write things out and see what advice others may have. I wanted to use the submit for this one though because it may get a little long and I didn’t want to send several asks. Sorry in advance!

So I recently graduated from college and I’ve moved back in with my parents. I’ve noticed that my moods have really deteriorated since I’ve been home. Like I get into these funks and I tend to isolate myself until I feel better. They do pass, but my bad mental health days are awful. I’m not sure if I have depression or if it’s just a case of the blues coming by often, but sometimes it seems like every other day I have them. My parents don’t think I have depression, but I do wonder sometimes. 

My dad was raised “traditionally” and honestly, he’s pretty conservative (i.e he believes the mom should raise the kids and do house work and the dad should get an income, etc.) and honestly, part of me thinks that he believes his kids should be seen and not heard, or that he thinks he’s above me because I’m his daughter (or maybe because he’s a man, idk.). He sometimes also uses racial slurs and when I tell him not to use those words, he gets angry. A few weeks ago, there was an incident where he got a little physical when he was angry. It never happened before, so I was stunned. Like my mom and dad needed to resolve an issue on the phone and the company we called hung up on us. So, my dad calls them back and mimicked the loud, blaring sound that played when we got disconnected. I told him to stop it because I didn’t want him to deafen the person on the other line, but then he got mad at me. When he handed the phone over to my mom, he shoved me and then got into my face and told me never to “override him”. I thought he was going to hit me, so I was really scared. I talked to him about the incident, and apparently when I told him to stop he thought I was yelling at him? I don’t remember yelling at him as loud as he said, and part of me thinks he’s gaslighting me and trying to excuse his actions. He did end up apologizing for upsetting me, but it felt insincere. Like he said “I’m sorry you took offense”. He also kept making excuses for his behavior, like he was in a hurry and that he couldn’t say excuse me when he was on the other line and that apparently I was yelling at him. He said that he still loved me, but that wasn’t my main concern. I’m afraid that anytime he gets mad now, he’s going to use intimidation tactics on me and the whole thing just leaves an icky feeling inside of me and I’m having a difficult time moving past this bad memory. And honestly, he just seemed to want to move on from it. Almost like he was being kind of dismissive? I’m trying to remember that my dad is human and that he makes mistakes, but I don’t want to excuse his behavior either. I feel bad for dwelling on it because he’s done a lot of good for me like paying for college and financially supporting me and encouraging me but it’s just hard to see some of his less than ideal qualities. I don’t feel like I got all of the closure I needed from talking about the incident, and I kind of want to talk to him about it again, but I don’t want to open a can of worms.

My mom wasn’t happy about the incident either but the thing with her is that she treats me as her personal therapist sometimes. Like anytime she has a problem with my dad, she’ll talk to me about it (this is probably at least partially because my dad loves to avoid conflict and he doesn’t like talking about issues. Also he tends to dismiss things sometimes.). She makes excuses that her mom (my grandma) told her about her own marital problems, but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy. My mom constantly sees my grandma anyway because my mom is basically my grandma’s caregiver. Like my grandma is very dependent and now that my grandpa has passed away, my grandma relies on my mom to help out. It seems like my mom doesn’t live for herself, only doing things for other people. She doesn’t really have any hobbies, she just kind of vegetates when she has free time and watches TV or eats or buys stuff off of ebay (which I introduced her to). So now the house is cluttered and despite saying she’ll purge, my mom never does. And that has also caused friction in the house because my dad complains to my mom about how messy the house is and then she complains to me.

I feel obligated for my mom’s happiness because she claims that I’m the only good thing in her life and honestly, I feel like she would be a lot happier without me. She basically gave up her life to raise my sister and I and I feel like she solely identifies herself as a mother. Nothing else. Like if she doesn’t have someone to take care of, she’s lost. I feel like by being born, I robbed my mom of her life and happiness because she always had to look out for her kids and she didn’t do anything for herself. Without me, I feel like my mom and dad would have gotten out of their failed marriage sooner but I don’t think they’ll ever divorce now. I’ve told both of them that I wish they’d never had me but they both insist that they love me and they’re happy to have me. I still feel like a burden though. When I have my bad mental health days, I just want to sleep forever. I’ve asked my mom not to tell me about her marital problems, but then I feel bad for leaving her to fend for herself because she has no one else to talk to. She also continues to talk to me about her problems, but it’s tiring and it usually sours my mood. So for now I just try to tune her out when she complains.

Moving out isn’t an option right now because of housing costs and the fact that I don’t have a paying job yet. But I’m working on getting one though! In the meantime, I can help my parents with cooking and cleaning, even if they drive me up a wall sometimes. If anyone has any advice on dealing with this, I would really appreciate it, but if not, I think that just writing everything down has done wonders for my mood. Again, thank you so, so much for holding this event. I really appreciate the place to vent and I hope you all have a happy 2019!

Admin’s response:

First things first, I am so sorry about all of this. It’s a really difficult situation, and I’m not sure how much I can help, but I’ll try! At the very least, I’m glad writing it out helped.

Putting my psychology hat on, I can’t say for certain you have depression, but it seems very likely to me. What makes me think that are your feelings of guilt and fatigue (i.e. seeing yourself as a burden, wanting to not exist). Those are very worrying thought patterns, and tend to come with depression. Combined with the low moods, it’s pretty clear you’re suffering a depressive episode.

Fortunately, it sounds like it might be temporary--at least at this severity--rather than lifelong. What I mean by that is that it’s been triggered by a life event, and that means you have a good chance of recovery. The general life event is obvious: moving back home and being caught in the middle of your parent’s problems. More specifically, I think it might be the fact that you’re unable to talk these things out with anyone. Your father dismissed you, and your mother has issues that you don’t want to worsen by piling on your own. However, when you can’t talk about your emotions properly, you can’t process them properly, and your mind struggles to carry around open wounds like that. It doesn’t know what to do with all those unresolved emotions, so it shuts down, and you get a low mood.

The immediate solution, then, is to talk this stuff out. Mum and dad aren’t options, but any good friends would be perfect. If you don’t want to share with them, though, I’m happy to hear your rants. Whatever helps you to get them out, process what you’re feeling, and allows you to move on.

(However, if this explanation doesn’t sound right, and you don’t think it matches up with what you’re going through, that’s okay. This might not be the right explanation, but there is one! This is just one possibility based on what you’ve told me.)

As for what to do about your life situation, that’s incredibly difficult. Your father’s escalation in his behaviour is deeply worrying, and you should not feel bad for dwelling on it at all. Humans make mistakes, yes, but good humans own up to them. By the sounds of it, he didn’t. Just because he’s financially provided for you, it doesn’t mean you owe him the benefit of the doubt. As a parent, providing for his children is his responsibility. It’s a duty he has to you, not a gift he gives to you. You’re allowed to be critical and wary of him, and given what he did, I think it’s incredibly appropriate to be. You seem like a good person, who wants to challenge his immoral behaviour, but don’t do it if it puts you in danger. You need to focus on keeping yourself and your mother safe.

Speaking of your mother, I know it’s really difficult to care for someone else’s mental health when your own is in tatters, but I think it’s important that you do. Even if you nod sympathetically throughout her complaints and do nothing else, that’s helpful. She’s clearly going through so much, and she needs support just as much as you do. Hopefully, if you can take care of yourself, you should have more energy to help her. This is horrible to say, but as an ulterior motive, if things do escalate further with your father, having her on your side could be a lifesaver.

As for the guilt you feel about your mother, you needn’t feel it. A mother feels accomplished if she can give her children a better life than she had. It sounds like she’s proud of you, proud of what you’ve done with your life so far, and that is why you’re the one good thing in her life--because you are the proof that it all wasn’t in vain. I think as well, perhaps, that the potential for your parents to divorce is still there. Sounds weird to say that like it’s a good thing. Once you move out, that may make your mother reconsider staying with your father, since the thing tying them together is now gone. And this is really horrible and morbid to say, but your grandmother will one day pass away, and your mother will regain some of her independence again. Life doesn’t end when you settle down and have kids, there’s still potential for her to do plenty more with hers.

Anyway, overall, I just want to say props to you for dealing with all this--your parents problems, as well as your own. And the fact that you’re still working on getting a job and helping around the house despite all of this is so impressive. You are strong, and resilient, and you will recover. If you can live through this, you can do absolutely anything. I am so proud of you and like I said, I am always willing to hear you out if you need to rant. I hope you have a much better 2019 <3

[miscreantahead]

Black Sails looks interesting 👀... could you point out any pros and cons to it or even explain why it'd be worth watching?

ooooHHHH Uhnn I am so not the guy for this but I’m going to try anyway.Still, I wanna tag @annevbonny who I’m pretty sure has answered this question far more beautifully on multiple occasions and can maybe direct you to one of those replies that will be better than this one.Either way, here’s a wonky list of pros and cons or something:pros:1. 4/6 main characters that are around throughout the whole show are canon gay/bi. 3 are women, all wlw, three are men, and the second man is arguably bi anyway. it’s a pretty gay show is what im trying to say. there’s also another mlm character that has a huge (truly massive, super important and emotional) impact on the overlying story. the main theme of this show is literally gays being in love. there are happy endings involved.2. the main main is a mlem. he’s also objectively one of the most well written and well-acted characters i’ve ever seen in my life. also rEALLY pretty just so u know.

3. i would die for john silver.

4. disability rep in addition to the gay/poc rep, there’s a lot of solidarity between the three but also a lot of different viewpoints and backgrounds and approaches to facing oppression. that’s a big overall theme.5. the writing is good. it’s so fucking good. it’s well planned and there is a lot of care put into it that I almost never see in tv shows. it will ruin other shows for you.

6. most of the characters don’t die. some of them do. but the better part survive and many find peace– though the ending gives you room for personal interpretation it’s left open for some and implied most they find their way and they ain’t dead.7. SPEECHES. God the fucking speeches. There are just… good speeches man. Particularly by Flint, that main character I mentioned. Many of them are about or fueled by gay anger. He’s amazing, a masterpiece by himself. Most characters have some good monologuing too.8. I wanted to add a funny quote here but most of them don’t work without context so like. Lemme just say that this show is funny. It’s not a comedy, but frequently tastefully funny in some of the best ways I’ve ever seen.cons:

1. someone else would better explain why but poc aren’t handled that well despite slavery being a huge theme toward the end and two of the major main characters being woc there’s a lot to be desired. they’re both extremely compelling and beloved characters though.

2. there are some deaths. i can’t go much into detail about this bc of spoiling. but again, most of them live with a chance for happily ever after but I can’t say all.3. the first season is hard to watch. there is a particularly on-screen rape specifically in episode 3. the show was at one point dubbed “game of thrones with pirates” or something like that specifically because season 1 is really nasty in that way. if you can get past that, though, the future seasons are rewarding. I wouldn’t say season 1 is bad overall, it’s just worse in that game of thrones way specifically.4. 90% of the main characters are sympathetic assholes. they’re awful and wonderful and it’s something you gotta work with but they’re also some of the most beloved and well-written and complex characters i’ve ever seen. dynamic is also a word i wanna use. maybe this is a pro.5. This didn’t bother me and it doesn’t bother a lot of people but I know a few people who have trouble stomaching some of the not authentic accents in the show. One in particular, but I can’t really speak for how valid that complaint is, or if they’re just being babies.Overall when someone says “recommend me tv shows” Black Sails is at the top of my list. In fact it leaves anything else I’ve ever watched or might ever tell someone else to watch in the dust. PLEASE watch it. That goes for everyone.Anyway thanks for this ask because now I wanna re-watch it.