#as an article on the show once said [paraphrased]: it was a great show that was really good at pretending to be bad.

[james-stark-the-writer]

feel like pure shit, just want her back

[schoolnerdateen]

Teen Wolf Movie: Review

*Spoilers please be aware!*

• First of… no Stiles in this movie. We knew that, but I was hoping for a surprise cameo to happen. Unfortunately it didn’t. They mentioned him a few times though.

• We got Malia and Parrish as a couple, which I did not expect. I don’t like it, I have mixed feelings.

• I wished they had some type of location subtitle in the beginning. You know how some scenes will say “New York” and the next scene it will say “Peru?” That is what I wanted.

• It didnt take place in New York of Peru….or at least not peru that I know of

• The evil fact that we get to keep Allison (I do love her no offense) and not Derek is totally unfair!

• I literally cried at that scene. I will get to said scene soon

• coach saying Scott was Greenberg to win the lacrosse game was a good one. Coach is always funny. We stan coach on this account.

• Allison slowly and then all at once remembering everything from Lydia’s wail.

• The Jeep is still iconic. I love Eli hotwiring the Jeep.

• side note: I always joke about hot writing a car but never done it. I also don’t have the mechanical skills for that. Also cuz the scene in stitch the movie where they hot wire a car or plane thing.

• Sad that Jackson didn’t use his abilities. Would’ve been fun to see them again.

• Mr Harris (the old chemistry teacher that was used as a sacrifice in season 3) as the villian-besides Nogustine of course-was not who I expected.

• I thought it be Kate or Gerard. Or someone at least in the argent line.

• The funeral scene had me in tears. As someone who also lost my dad, I felt that pain. We also got coach at there too.

• Oh! I did not like Scott’s buzzcut/shaved hair. Unpopular opinion, but I hate Stiles’ shaved head in the beginning. Honestly, it’s a terrible look in general.

• We didn’t have Kira, but we had a new girl kitsune, which didn’t do a lot in the movie. Not like lazy, but more “not enough scenes” of her. Not a lot of character or story to her.

• My favorite part of shows moving to streaming is that they can curse. Unlike Criminal minds, they didn’t do it a lot. Oh, someone on here mentioned it felt unnatural and weird for the characters, which I agree. Some moments probably deserved it, but others didn’t feel right.

• Probably not new, but if Argent is scared then you know somethings up.

• Liam is still my favorite beta.

• I’m trying to remember everything in the last 2 hours…

• Edit: I totally forgot about Nogustine being like a werewolf hybrid! Which totally didn’t make sense. Apparently Scott bit him but I personally don’t remember anything of that happening in the movie or show.

• In a way, the ending gives off an actual spin off. I know there’s wolf pack, but that’s not a spin off. It’s just directed by Jeff too. It’s an adaptation of a book series apparently. I hate it when the articles say it’s a spin off where in reality it’s just directed by the same person.

• Edit: speaking of the ending, I didn’t like much of it. There wasn’t a lot of aftermath scenes. I’m not one of time jumps, but I did wish there was a small jumó to see how everyone is doing afterwards. Like 3 months after or something small of that sort.

• I can’t think of anything else right now

• Overall, I did like it, but at the same time, I didn’t. Someone mentioned the plot line was good, but execution wasn’t….at least paraphrasing it. And that’s what it was. Plot line: really great, Execution: not so great. So i can’t say I loved unfortunately, but it was good. But bad at the same time.

• it’s like the percy movies. Adaptation wise: terrible, outside of adaptation: really great. I love the movies. On their own it was so good, but as adaptations, not good. That’s how I feel about the movie.

[awildgingeishere]

https://equalizersoccer.com/2021/03/05/christen-press-forward-position-training-profile-uswnt/

Christen Press is known for scoring world-class goals. The onlooking public swoons over the final product which is so often a picturesque finish bent into the side netting or hammered into the upper corner. Press often does this with such confidence that she makes the extraordinary look easy, even though it is anything but.

That final product, though, is in some ways the simpler part of the process. Press’ training habits and approach to the game embody the notion that most of an athlete’s work is done away from the public eye, on training fields and when nobody else is watching. Her unique approach to the game starts with individual training, where her focus on off-ball movement and manipulating tight spaces — rather than shooting for the sake of it, or individual dribbling drills — develops her ability to distinguish herself from any other forward. More than most, she can seamlessly transition between wide and center-forward roles.

“I think especially in the U.S., we don’t have as many players that manipulate space with off-ball movement,” Press said in an interview last year. “[It’s] something I learned in Europe and I think all European forwards do this, but we don’t often have players who do that. We typically have had players who are using strength to create space. So, I think when I play in the nine specifically, but even wide, my strength is off-ball movement, being very unpredictable, hard to mark, being dynamic and being kind of like blindside, off-ball so that I’m always stretching the line. And I think that’s a huge strength because it gives the midfield more room to play.”

All goal-scorers require a certain level of selfishness to be successful, which Press recognizes. What sets her apart is the execution in those moments. To paraphrase her teammate, Megan Rapinoe, you can always make a selfish decision to shoot and not pass… as long as you score.

“In the final third, I think I’ve always had a goal-scorer’s mentality,” Press said. “Once I’m in range of shooting, I don’t think about anything else. If I happen to pass, it’s because I couldn’t have shot. And I think that there’s a breed of players that are just wired that way. And then there’s a breed of players that play the same position that aren’t. I am wired like that, and there’s also pros and cons to it, but my first thought is always setting my feet to score, setting my feet to take a touch and then score. And then anything else that happens in that space is just a second option, honestly.”

***

Press blazed her own path to being a United States women’s national team regular. She left the U.S. club scene in 2012 to play in Sweden, feeling as though she needed to make a change after largely being left out of the U.S. picture by then head coach Pia Sundhage. Her back story has been recounted ad nauseam over the past decade, but it is still essential to understanding the person and the player – a do-everything forward who has been shaped by these experiences. Her path is unique among her peers of the same generation, and it shows in her different approach to playing forward.

Press famously thrived in Gothenburg, becoming the first American to win the Damallsvenskan’s golden boot. That move abroad — at a time when U.S. internationals not only were not playing abroad, but were actively discouraged from doing so — ironically solidified her place in the United States team ever since. Her goal in last month’s SheBelieves Cup against Argentina was her 60th, tying her with Shannon MacMillan for ninth in U.S. history.

Press grew up as a pure No. 9, a goal-scorer. She carried on with that through college, lighting up the scoring record books at Stanford, and used that to her advantage during that glorious first stretch of her career in Sweden. Cracking the national team was a different story. Abby Wambach was the incumbent No. 9 at the time, often alongside Amy Rodriguez, and Alex Morgan — who graduated college the same year as Press — burst onto the scene as the U.S.’ up-and-coming No. 9, meaning Press was often relegated to wide positions.

For a long time, Press’ place there felt shoehorned, no doubt a contributing factor to a relatively quiet World Cup in 2015, when she was pegged by so many to be the breakout star. Slowly, however, she adapted, choosing to accept whichever role she was given if it meant playing for the best team in the world. Now, she thrives in both wide and central roles. The difference was tangible at the 2019 World Cup, where the wide role which once looked so uncomfortable for Press was the one which she stepped into for the semifinal against England, due to Megan Rapinoe’s injury. Press scored 10 minutes into that impromptu start, helping the U.S. reach (and win) a second straight final.

“I think that I have more of a responsibility than any other forward to play in all the roles as needed and I think that’s historically been because I’ve been a substitute coming on,” she said. “So, you kind of have to be ready for whoever’s coming out; you’re the first sub on. And now, I think it’s just flexibility because I’ve done it and I’ve done it okay in several positions that everyone’s like, ‘oh, well she can.’ So, I think that’s a blessing and a curse. It gets you on a roster to be versatile, but I feel like having a stake on the field is like you’re in one position and you’re always going to show up in that position. I think that that has its pros as well.”

Today, it is accepted as fact that Press can play across all three positions on the front line: center forward, wide left and wide right. For years, that versatility was a burden she carried, a struggle through the purgatory of being an elite player without a defined position. Now, however, she has leveraged this to her advantage. Press has for so long juggled different forward positions that she has mastered each of them. Her lack of a defined position contributes to the outside world’s inability to explicitly qualify her greatness, but it is also the very thing which makes Press such a singular talent.

Her shift throughout the front line illustrates how the forward position varies between certain roles, even if in nuanced ways. Press said the definitions are a little more blurred in this system, and that each forward shares the responsibility to get in behind and score, but the physical difference in where each position lines up on the field affects how she plays each position.

“I think technically it is very different playing in the different positions, because your orientation is just completely changed,” she said. “And I think my whole career, I played with the offside line behind me. That’s a nine. So, playing wide for the first time was really hard because you see the whole game through one eye. And your dominant foot and your mobility of your hips — I know it sounds crazy — really affects what you can and can’t do on each side. But now I’ve been passed around so many times, I feel like I’m like, okay, my second eye is — I can still see out of this one.”

***

Press views each offseason as a little book of its own. In past years, she would write a draft of what those figurative chapters would be, listing the things she wanted to improve in her game and designing drills to achieve those goals. Press said that she has had trainers in the past, but nobody knows what she needs better than her.

She tries to balance the design of her training sessions to work on skills she thinks she is exceptional at and areas where she thinks she is not very good. Anything in between gets lost. This is where those subtle foundations are formed daily.

“I have a very regimented way that I train, a flow of when I control practice, this is how it flows,” Press said. “Within each segment of my training, I’ll have specific things that I’m working on, and always starting in the beginning of training with the most simple drills that you would never actually see a professional do —really, really childish and then just working on the mechanics and growing from there.”

Press points to quick-release shooting as one of these simple things she trains: she starts as basic as lining up a bag of balls on the six-yard line and quickly shooting with only one step, to work on generating power. Press executes this better than any other teammate and that is because she has, through the years, taken what is seemingly a disadvantage and figured out a way to create an advantage out of it.

Instead of viewing the ball as stuck under her feet, Press sees an opportunity to catch a defender between steps or a goalkeeper flat-footed. Whereas many forwards are especially dangerous when barreling down the field at speed, Press might be the best goal-scorer in the world from a standing-still position in open play. She trains that — again, by beginning simply. Press will line up a bag of balls on the six-yard line and shoot in quick succession, taking only one step back to reset. This is the foundation of generating power.

“I think that if I look through the years [at] the space I train in, it’s in that exact ‘D,’” she said, referencing the arch at the top of the 18-yard box. “And I think the way that you most often score there is using your defenders as a shield and a little bit into negative space, and then bending the ball. I think that’s absolutely my best way of scoring.

“And I think that’s because of my strengths. I can get into the pocket with speed often. I don’t actually like dribbling around defenders very much. I don’t practice dribbling so I’ve got one way to get by them, but I often work on manipulating my defenders so they can’t block my shot, rather than working on manipulating them so I can get by them. And I think that’s why then I developed a shot that I can take basically with the ball under my feet and generate a lot of power, because it’s unexpected for the goalkeeper and it’s out of reach for the defender.”

Training this type of skill is very intentional. Even on a field by herself, with no active defenders, Press knows that if she takes four steps before a shot, she has failed. In a game, with real defenders, she will have been tackled or her shooting window will have closed.

Soccer is about a feeling, Press says. U.S. Soccer sends film to players after each training session so they can self-evaluate. Press says she does not look at how she performed technically, but rather what her body language said about her approach to a given training session.

She has not gone without dry spells or rough patches, from the more subtle grind of transitioning to wide roles and changing teams, to the more obvious and overt moments, such as the penalty-kick shootout miss in the 2016 Olympic quarterfinal against Sweden.

There is a notion that forwards need short memories, to not dwell on such misses. Press said she views things slightly differently, borrowing some inspiration from fellow teammates.

“I think instead of even a short memory, I always told myself since I was a young person: the more I miss, the closer I am to my next goal,” she said. “Because it’s almost like once you play long enough, you’ve missed so many times that it’s no longer emotional. I guess a certain miss in a certain moment might be, but even those, I’ve done it; I’ve missed as bad as you can miss and I’ve let the team [down]. So, life goes on and I feel like if I’m in a game and I’ve missed an easy goal, that means the next one, I’m gonna score. Because I’ve missed a million easy goals before, and I’ve always scored again. So, that’s kind of how I approach it and I actually think I see this a bit in Carli [Lloyd]. If she ever misses an easy chance, she kind of becomes ravenous. She hunts and hunts because she wants to replace that memory with something else, and I try to even embody that a bit, where I’m even more hungry in the final part of that field.”

Lloyd and Press combined for a goal against England at the 2020 SheBelieves Cup. The play was a microcosm of all these things: Press intentionally drifting into open space on the opponent’s back line before receiving the ball, opening her hips to face up to goal in one fluid motion, and firing a quick shot which caught England’s defenders and goalkeeper by surprise. The camera angle from behind Press showed just how much the ball bent to tuck into the side netting. ESPN announcer Sebastian Salazar screamed a phrase which quickly made its way to a t-shirt: “Christen Press, what have you done?!”

It was another spectacular goal from Press, one worthy of all the plaudits it received. What had she done? Well, it was the same she has been doing for a long time, drifting between forward positions and scoring a noteworthy goal from skills she has developed away from the public eye."

[homemade-ghosts]

thoughts on this? i see people freaking out over it but to me i think it’s fine because even if it’s true this just makes them even less endgame in my eyes and will make anymore that ships them (if they’re still together by the end of s3 and he takes that offer) weirdos. if they’re not broken up by the end of s3 bc they think him being a student teacher who can stay around will fix their relationship then they’re imo definitely done by 4a bc there is absolutely no way.

I agree 100% with everything they said in their response. I'm not sure where that anon got the idea that Miss Jenn was going to offer EJ an Assistant Theatre Director-type job in ep 6 since, as we can see now that the episode is out, she doesn't. Maybe they meant that, even though she doesn't literally offer him the job this ep, the fact that she gives EJ directorial advice could allude to them possibly working together next season? Or they were just lying lol

Regardless, I'm not the least bit concerned. Before season 3 started, I was pretty convinced that EJ was going to get off of the waitlist at some college outside of Utah (funny, because I pictured it going down almost exactly like the whole "Caswell Success School letter from EJ's dad" situation happened, expect I thought he would be telling Val about his college acceptance letter) and, after a lot of agonizing, EJ would ultimately decide to go & the group would turn the cast party after opening night into a going away party for him. He'd leave for college at the end of summer and be effectively written off of the show, in a way that still left it open for Matt to come back in a guest-starring capacity, for holidays/school breaks/to come see the opening nights of future musicals...but, when we were a few episodes into this (short) season and still hadn't gotten a single mention of EJ's post-grad plans, I figured from then on that he was staying in SLC and would be in season 4.

Right now, EJ's character exists to be a road block and plot device for Rina and, once pw break up next episode, he'll have served his purpose and will no longer be relevant to the story. I think Tim knows that. I've heard him talk about how integral certain characters are to the series, but when he gets to EJ, it's never about that. It's always, "Matt's such a good guy." "He's great to work with!" "I couldn't imagine doing the show without him because he's just so nice." (not direct quotes because I'm too lazy to go looking for the articles right now lol, so I paraphrased). Tim's reason for keeping EJ around, IMO, has nothing to do with the character and everything to do with him liking Matt as a person. So, truthfully, I could see Miss Jenn offering EJ a job in the finale, simply because Tim wants to keep Matt on the show as regular (or semi-regular) cast member and that's really the only way to do it. It's dumb and kind of weird (you should not be hanging around your old high school after you graduate) but not surprising.

As for what this means for EJ & Gina? Honestly, I don't think it makes a difference as far as their likelihood of getting back together after they breakup (either before or during Camp Prom). It'd be zero if EJ was written off the show and it's still zero if he stays. They are fundamentally incompatible and at two completely different, conflicting places in their lives. The show has gone out of its way to tell us that and that's not something that's going to change, no matter where EJ is physically.

As much as I just don't think the show needs EJ after this season (sorry to Matt) at least if he stays, he'd be put in a position of authority (it's both laughable and really concerning that pws think this would help their relationship, as if a Disney+ show would ever encourage any kind of romantic relationship between a student and someone who is, like, a half step down from a teacher and a legal adult. Yikes on yikes on yikes). + it would mean that they won't be able to use the same stupid/nonsensical argument for why pw isn't together that they're using for why Rini isn't together. I constantly hear people say things like, "if Olivia was on the show, they'd get back together..." or "The only reason Ricky & Gina are getting together is because Olivia left and they had to rewrite the whole show" and it annoys me to no end because it's just fundamentally untrue. So, if/when Matt comes back for season 4, at least they can't say EJ & Gina aren't together because he left.

[dmsden]

Wrap It Up - Ending a campaign

This week’s Question from a Denizen is definitely one that hits close to home. An Anonymous reader asks, “What is the best way to finish a campaign with a bunch of loose ends? I'm DMing Princes of the Apocalypse and I want to have two of the rival cults have an ultimate showdown, but is that too sloppy? I would usually go through the intricacies of the cults and such but it's starting to just feel like dungeon crawl after dungeon crawl.”

I’m a sucker for endings. One of my favorite things about recent T.V. shows that I’ve been invested in (Adventure Time, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls, Kipo and the Age of Wonder Beasts, etc.) is that they’ve been allowed to end, rather than go on indefinitely beyond the point of interest. Too many stories I’ve loved have simply dragged on too long until they’re no longer funny or fun, or simply go nowhere and have their series canceled without an ending. The original Dungeons & Dragons cartoon was supposed to have an ending, but it was canceled before it was filmed. We never knew if the kids had found a ways home, or if they were trapped in the Realm forever. Happily, this was rectified years later when the script for Requiem was finally released.

Likewise, too many role-playing game campaign I’ve been involved with have simply stopped rather than ended, and that’s been true of my own games as well as games I’ve been a player in. I remember a Deadlands game I put together. I collected all the books, long after they were out of print. I put together props, music, even food. I had story arcs, a group of players, we played a handful of sessions...and then external forces as well as internal issues with the group simply made the game not fun for me. First a game session or two got canceled, then we went on hiatus...and I can’t even remember if I ever officially said I wasn’t going back to running it. I think that’s all too common in RPGs, and I know firsthand it doesn’t give good feelings to DMs or players.

So, Anonymous, should you end the campaign? Well, that depends. Are you and your players having fun? Do you think playing the rest of the campaign as written will be fun? Do you think that you could change things about the campaign to circumvent the parts that seem to be dragging it down? If so, I’d recommend bypassing that part to get to the parts that you feel enthusiastic about running. If you’re looking forward, and nothing about the rest of the campaign is exciting you, then maybe it’s time to bring things to a big conclusion. If a showdown with the cults, or between the cults, will bring a satisfying conclusion, then go for it. But in RPGs, I think it’s prudent to fall back on the words of Neil Young...or the Kurgen...or however you want to think of it... “It’s better to burn out than to fade away.” It’s better to have a memorable, apocalyptic ending to a game than to just let it putter out.

The important thing to remember is that, to paraphrase Jeremy Crawford, there’s no D&D police that will come to your house to tell you you’re playing something wrong. Once you begin running a pre-printed module, it becomes your story. I rewrote whole chunks of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist when I ran it, mixing and matching encounters I liked from the four different paths, adding a kidnapping plot, and adding personal plots for some of the players as well. You could suddenly change course by revealing that the force behind the Elemental Cults is actually a dragon or dragons...or an alliance of Giants...or a wizard. The point is, you can change whatever you want to tell a great story.

There’s a lot to be said for ending a campaign with a huge fight, because that gives the PCs a chance to show off their endgame abilities. But you want to give your PCs a chance to have their role-playing endings as well. I’m going to be wrapping up my own campaign soon, which has been running for 10 years, and yes, there’s going to be a couple of big battles. The Tarrasque needs to be put down, and there’s also the cult that raised it in the first place. I’ve already told the players, however, that I want to work with them on epilogues that will play out after all those battles are done.

So, the TL:DR of this article is...yes...end your campaign. Give it a big send off. Give it the close it deserves. Then say goodbye to it and start thinking about what’s next. I can say from experience that the stories with endings are the ones we look back on most fondly, telling stories about what happened and reminiscing about our beloved characters and their adventures.

[ohnothewheatisonfire]

ok J&H Fandom, let’s talk:

“Popular” blog @thatsmyhyde​ is a prominent creator in the J&H Fandom. But here’s where the problem shows up: 

the content they make is concerning at least, and full of red flags at worst. 

DISCLAIMER: This is all information I have gathered through their tumblr blog - I am not aware of what other things they may be posting on other social medias or their written work.  ANOTHER DISCLAIMER: Please be polite, I am a minor, and am just creating this post to ward off / warn other minors from following this person. If you are an adult interacting with this post and blog, be mindful of your actions and be responsible

Trigger warnings for: discussions of homophobia, discussions of p//phillia, fat-shaming, fat-phobia (?), etc. Just be on general edge for this post, we’re talking about a lot of weird stuff

I will be linking their posts as I am not going to take screenshots of their art.

This is not a comprehensive list of all the things they’ve done - these are the ones I could think of and was able to adress. If you have anything additional you want to add to this post (such as concerning things they may do on other social media), feel free to reblog and add on the things you need to say, just please don’t be dumb. 

Let’s start with the premise: Henry Jekyll creates an alter ego, Edward Hyde. They begin a relationship - an emotional and physical one. Their AU features Jekyde (A popular ship in the fandom, the name stands for Jekyll x Hyde), people have various views on this ship. 

So far so fine, right? Here are the problems:

1. Their Henry Jekyll is an awful person. Now, let’s start by saying that of course you can have bad people in your works, those are, after-all: villains. The problem is,Henry Jekyll is a harmful walking gay sterotype, and an outlet for Biscuit’s obvious fat fetish. But their relationship isn’t just toxic it’s romanticised in how toxic it is.

a. The harmful stereotype - Their Henry Jekyll has a “thing” for younger men, even though he is in his middle-ages, and Hyde looks like a young child. (Age gap relationships are their own thing - they come with their own burdens, and this is not the post to discuss them. This topic will lead into the Edward  Hyde section of this post.) But, it was a known homophobic scare-mongering tactic of straight parents to accuse everyone who is gay that they are ‘out to prey on your youths’. This is a stereotype that stigmatized the LGBT community, and still harmfully affects them to this day. 

b. The fat fetish: Jekyll is frequently seen with cake (as seen here, here, and here)  or being self-loathing, to the point of suicide. (click the link here to acess a list of suicide and other crisis hotlines! you matter to me!). Now, the self-loathing could be a symptom of depression or other mental illness, so I am not going to talk about it, as a person with mental illnesses.  But the self-loathing in addition to him being fat is not good. Media is drowning in the “self-loathing fat person” and as someone who isn’t thin i’m tired of seeing this. 

- The fetish aspect comes in him constantly being referred to “Chonky”, a term usually used for overweight/obese cats and being drawn obsessed with cake. It fetishises his weight and dehumanises him into something people call their animals. Also, here’s more of Jekyll eating food and being embarassed by it, though this time because it’s seen as “servant’s food”. 

- Biscuit admits to liking them “Big and chunky” in posts like this. 

[Photo id: A string of texts that says: tantok, frankenstein, twink lore, dorian slipped through the cracks and got himself sketched by yours truly the other day because he brought lord henry along, he and the slime didn’t have to fight to the death because they’ve both got their own chonky old toxic henries to focus on, but this blog still ain’t big enough for the two of ‘em. end id]

- They also talk about how they ‘prefer’ to draw fat (chonky) people. Image attatched above. the thing that should be noticed is that they say ‘chonky old toxic henries’ . they, once again, are making fat people a fetish. 

[Photo id: Anonymous asks: are you gonna make a victor design tho biscuit responds: Oh, man, anon, I hate to disappoint but.....probably not. Aside from my non-humanoids and hellspwans (slime gremlins, corpse creatures, and etcetera), I’m extremely uninterested in drawing young thin men. I really need middle-aged chonk to hold my attention. If poor Victor Frankenstein had only been 40-something and round when he made his great creation, then he’d definitely get a design from yours truly. As it is though, he’s not holding my attention enough to want to. end id] 

Biscuit once again talks about how he doesn’t want to draw ‘thin men’, because he is only interested in older ‘round’ people. He, is, once again, bringing to light his fetish for fat people. 

2. Edward Hyde is basically a child - Edward Hyde is drawn in boy’s school clothes, is taken in and raised like a child after Jekyll’s death, and is constantly cooed over by the creator, even earning a nickname of ‘slime’ from them. In addition, he also has ‘family photos’ taken with Utterson, has his toenails kept, is the height of a child, and teeths. This, paired with the fact that he is in a toxic, abusive, relationship with a man in his middle ages is concerning and should not be romanticised. 

[Photo id: the text reads: In his first year of existence, Hyde lost teeth and regrew them in a mildly similar fashion to a kid losing baby teeth - except it wasn’t all of his teeth (Just the canines and some random molars) and they weren’t replaced with a larger set, just with teeth exactly the same as the ones that had been lost. No one knows what was up with this. the teeth are still in Jekyll’s study in a little jar. end id]

a. Hyde is treated like a child after Jekyll’s death. Hyde teething is concerning because that’s something infants do. He also clings to utterson like a child. The idea that he gets taken in by Utterson, whisked away to an estate out in the country, despite both of them having romantic feelings for Jekyll is. how do I put this: WEIRD. (seriously, imagine your father/father-figure dating ur significant other / having a crush on them before you two got together and after). 

b. Hyde dresses like a child, whilst being sexually active and wearing lingerie. Now, on their own, these traits aren’t a problem - but together? They are very much a problem.  

- Hyde dressing as a child is concerning because he is also treated like a child at certain points in their “lore”. After Jekyll’s death, Hyde becomes a singular entity, and is taken away by Utterson. To care for, like a child. This post sums it up well: he wears both children’s clothes and lingerie. 

- Hyde has a very strange appearance - if you compare it to his early design (which was less cartoony and looked more like a man in his twenties), Hyde’s current design is concerning. Why does he have the height of a child? Why does he have eyes that take up a grand part of his face? Now, one could argue that ‘he is not human’ - but if he is treated like a human, whilst wearing children’s/youthful clothes, teeths, and his general enchanment with the world - he appears as human (and looks eerily similar to a child), which is why him being sexually active, wearing lingerie, and being friendly with prostitutes (one that gave him underwear and other articles of clothing)  is concerning. 

- That said, Utterson is directly talked about being ‘adopted into gremlin fatherhood’ (paraphrasing). 

[Photo id: the text reads: 59. Jekyll is irresitibly attracted to everything about Hyde, but if he could somehow be forced to list hte most attractive physical attributes of Edward Hyde in his opinion, aside from Hyde’s youthful appearance in general it would be his eyes, his overbite (Jekyll perceived the way Hyde’s-) the screenshot cuts of the rest of the paragraph. end id] 

- Jekyll has a ‘thing’ for younger men. This is to the point that the most attractive part about Hyde is that he is young. (or looks like it), Hyde looking very young is concerning because that would make their verison of Doctor Jekyll a p*dophille . This is something the artist has either not recognized, realised, or simply does not acknowledge. 

3. The toxic relationship (and how it’s romanticised) - The relationship in this ‘AU’ is: love comes first, toxic nature comes second. If you scroll through the blog you may see some reference of ‘Henry Jekyll is such a toxic person teehee’ and a lot of them kissing, being together, smiling, or enjoying life. Now, obviously, an artist - if they do not want to - should not draw characters being toxic to each other. But it is concerning when the above points come into a factor, that the toxic nature of their relationship comes second to the highs of their relationship, at least on their blog. 

Here is one of the only examples I’ve seen of Biscuit talk about the relationship in a detailed negative light. 

4. The fandom - Whilst Biscuit says it’s ok for minors to interact with his blog (in that blog he says that he tags nsfw - which is true.) he does not regularly mention that his jekyde is toxic - not in a concerete way. He romanticises it (despite acknowledging it’s flaws), and the only way it may or may not be (i would not know) acknowledged is his fic: which is mature and not meant for minors. He does not tag his posts with regular triggers for things like: alcohol, drugs, mental illnesses, or abuse (any variants). They’re not even in his blog’s description! If Biscuit had acknowledged it in his blog, something along the lines of: “Hey! This blog has <content warnings> be warned when interacting! But no, he does not. 

- A lot of the people who draw things, or generally interact with Biscuit are minors. Being exposed to such a thing may be harmful to my peers, and I am worried. To minors who are fans of Biscuit: if you’ve made it this far, thank you, I know you’re mature and responsible, but being exposed to content creators like Biscuit could lead you down a dangerous path of having this kind of thing normalised to you. Be careful with the content you consume, please! And thank you for making it this far, I’m sure you’re a lovely person :)!

Thank you for taking the time to read this! Stay safe, tell the people you love that you love them. 

[ohnobjyx]

so, i am from the west and before cql it never crossed my mind to check out c-ent (i guess that's almost universal for white people over here) but i started watching cql because there's a lack of lgbt media in the world and now i got interested as a consequence in the rest of c-ent and learning chinese, so i wonder if it could happen in ten years or so that the government realizes they can export lgbt content, suck people into c-ent, get money & so they might relax on censorship, could that be?

Hi, anon! Just for your info, your ask made me think a lot in the past few days. I’m happy to see that there are more people hooked on c-ent! If I’ve to be honest, I consume much more c-ent than western. There’s a certain beauty and poetry that it’s really different from western dramas.

Okay, there are several parts in my answer, so I’d like to tackle them one by one:

Background and language

LGBT content and public stance

Money (I strongly recommend you to read this one and the next, this is your answer, anon)

Success

If any of you are interested, click to see below the cut!

Disclaimer: except actual numbers (some are from official reports, others from articles), the post does have a heavy coating of “my opinion”. Beware.

1. Background and language

If I’m not mistaken, anon (if I am, I’d like to be corrected), you may have watched only CQL and maybe The Guardian, which is another fairly popular among int-fans (I haven’t watched it yet, no spoilers, please!).

These two had a combination of factors that made it easier for int-fans to accept them: fantasy world + well-received lgbt subtext (wangxian!) + less amount of poetic and lyrical language + the plot is surprisingly good (at least CQL from my knowledge). But it’s not the case of the rest of the dramas, and it may not be of the future BL dramas.

When I say “fantasy world” (c-fans often debate in which historical period CQL is based upon, but mxtx never bothered too much with that kind of details), I mean specifically that there isn’t a preexisting set of rules that the viewer may not know about. It’s often commented how CQL never explained how their world works (so a lot of it is fanon) and that viewers had to learn the niceties and the conventions of the world by watching the show.

It’d be a slight problem if the show was set on a historical period and even in a modern setting. C-dramas in general, since their target audience is Chinese, never bother introducing any kind of background or cultural convention. This would be just a little problem, after all, if watching tv shows contribute to our knowledge, we get an unexpected gain. But for many people, if the background or the references are difficult to understand, they may feel discouraged to keep watching it.

(And the rythm of the c-dramas is often extremely slow for western standards, since you have 40-50 episodes to develop a single story, instead of one season of 12 episodes). 

The main problem I see is the language barrier. Something I (and mostly c-fans that speak English or int-fans that speak fluent Chinese) marvel everytime I think about it is how people could stand the subtitles. I’ve yet to find good subtitles (though the ones from the official Youtube channel do a passable job and I’ve heard that on viki the subtitles are good too).

The meaning is often twisted (if not outright reversed sometimes), the poetry is lost, the difference between levels of formality is also blurred, the way Chinese people address each other is also not respected (I’m looking at you, Netflix subtitles). So you can’t ignore the damage the language barrier does to the reception of a tv series.

You’ve said it yourself, anon, that CQL made you interested in Chinese as a language. Chinese, from my point of view, is a fascinating language, but it’s so difficult to translate.

Among other things, the main language barrier is the use of 成语 (cheng yu). They are traditional idiomatic expressions, usually consisting in 4 characters, and originated from ancient literature. Commonly they are created by succintly paraphrasing or summarizing the original text, so they convey information a lot more compactly than normal speech or writing.

From what I know, there’s a logistical problem: a cheng yu of 4 characters is often read in around 1 second, but if the translator wants to include the most complete translation, that get all the nuances of the phrase, it can often end up in a long phrase that take quite longer to read (I saw once a cheng yu literally translated and well... 无语).

This use of chengyu spreads from historical to modern to fantasy tv dramas. CQL’s dialogues use less of them (the novel was plagued with them), making it easier to sub. They also make less use of poetry and literature references that so often appear in historical dramas (just the reference, no context whatsoever, I despair sometimes too), thus making it easier to convey to int-fans.

2. LGBT content and public stance

You wrote at the end: “the government realizes they can export lgbt content, suck people into c-ent...”

This would be assuming that the government acknowledges it is lgbt content. Which they don’t. 

When they were making the adaptation from the novel to the tv script, they were very carefully thinking of how they would introduce the series to the regulation department that controls everything that gets aired in China. In fact, the target audience they specified was “teenagers and youngsters” because of its xianxia themes, its fantasy world and the whole adventure after WWX’s resurrection (but we know that the real target audience was female and mainly in their 20s).

So officially, even though it’s based on a BL novel (and the general public knows it), the government only acknowledged it as an xianxia drama. Even if someone points the BL elements out, they are ambiguous enough that they can avoid the questioning. And since it brings money, as you say, they may turn a blind eye to the people who points it to them now.

There’s another point of your ask I want to highlight: “if it could happen in ten years or so...”. Ten years is a lot of time. I trust their society to take steps in a much more lgbt-friendly direction in our globalized world, and maybe things will be different in a decade’s time, when the younger, more open-minded generation starts to take over the control. Censorship will one day be relaxed or even disappear (from my pov, this is possible with more time and a great change).

(We can’t forget about the propaganda here... so I’m unsure of how this issue will develop in the future).

However, I don’t think the change will come from the government realizing that it is very profitable, and this is the last point I wanted to talk about.

3. Money

Disclaimer: it’s difficult to find out how much a tv series makes as a profit, since they keep making money to this day, this minute, this second. It’s also difficult to find the information, since I don’t work in the industry so I’d to make due with what I have.

I won’t lie, anon, when I saw your ask the first time, I thought: they have no need. You talk about the government realizing that they can earn money with lgbt series, but the reality is, CQL, while one of the highest earning dramas from 2019, it’s not the only one capable of that.

Recently it was issued the list of the Top 10 Most Influential TV Dramas of 2019, in which CQL was top 7. “Not bad!”, one would say.

I’ve taken the data from a few others so you can make a comparison in their profit.

A c-drama usually earns money by selling the license rights to different platforms, commercials and merchandising. In the case of CQL, you can add the concerts, fan meetings and the different events and articles.

Top 1 in the chart was 都挺好 (All is well, I really recommend this one, it’s one of the best dramas I’ve watched). This drama was aired from March 1 to March 25 in 2019. The data from April 3, 2019 is a copyright profit of 667,000,000 ¥ (a total of 14,500,000¥ per episode, the total of what 2 tv stations, Tencent, Youku and Aiqiyi paid for license rights).

Around the time CQL was finishing airing (on Tencent), the copyright profit was around 156,000,000¥. For transparency: this data is from August 20, and CQL finished airing on August 25, while All is well data is from a week after the finale. However, I doubt that in a week CQL could reach a profit of 500,000,000 ¥ to match the profit of All is well (I don’t know how much Netflix paid them for licensing rights, but it may be a similar sum).

Top 5 in the chart is 庆余年 (Joy of Life, in this one XZ had a secondary role). This was has a fanbase too in int-fans, though smaller than CQL’s. The company that’s the main stockholder for this series made a profit of 4,420,000,000¥  in 2019, approximately 48% is copyright profit. The series that brought more profit was Joy of Life, though, of course, they produce more series.

By the time they finished airing, CQL had made a profit of around 400,000,000¥ (estimated), with predictions of it getting to 800,000,000¥ (taking into account license, commercial profit, merchandising and the concerts). I haven’t been able to find how much they made in the end, but it must be around 900 millions to a billion yuans.

I know 800 millions it’s a lot of money (more than what I’ll ever see), but if you take it and compare it with the 667 millions All is well made with just licensing the series, one can understand that a series like All is well is much more profitable than CQL.

However, there’s no need to rank in the top 1 to get this kind of profit. 如懿传 (The legend of Ruyi), a series from 2018 that was the continuation of a drama that had been wildly succesful in 2011. It ranked 5th on douban, but didn’t make it to the top 10 chart of the most influential TV dramas (in spite of a superb leading actress and supporting actors, the plot and the poor production didn’t get it as high as it could have been).

BUT. Just license rights to 3 platforms made them earn 15,000,000¥ per episode. For a show that wasn’t as successful as people had predicted it to be, their profit is quite decent (the production cost was also quite higher than CQL’s, so maybe the net profit wasn’t so high for a 90-episode drama, but they didn’t fail in this investment).

Nonetheless, not everything revolves around money. In my opinion, more than direct economic profit, for CQL their main gain was the fanbase they amassed, that has skyrocketed the actors’ careers, let them make a lot of profit with merchadising and the concerts, and the series still profitable to this day. They have also contributed greatly to the increased presence and popularity of Asian content in the West, which isn’t a small acomplishment.

(As I’m writing this, I’m also watching last week’s episode of TTXS. Guys, the garlic commerce in just 1 county made a profit of more than 9 billion yuans in 3 months. Just so you all have a reference.)

4. Success

Nothing guarantees that a BL drama will be successful. Though there isn’t a lot of BL dramas, The Guardian and CQL aren’t the only (nor the first) BL novels to be adapted into tv series.

In fact, just in 2019, there were 59 BL media (novels, games, manhuas) to be adapted into TV series. Of them, 3 have finished filming and have been aired. Of the 59, I had only heard of Winter Begonia, which has a historical setting and the two male leads are famed actors (one of them is YZ, dd’s motorcycle friend). So just the BL theme doesn’t ensure the success of the drama.

And yet, we haven’t caught news of it here. I didn’t know there were so many (for a country that has a strict censorship, 3 BL dramas in a year is a lot) until I was getting information for this post.

That’s why, in my opinion, if someone said “hey, let’s relax a bit the regulation, since CQL was so liked by the fans”, others may say “but out of 6 BL dramas, only CQL was successful... so it must not be the BL theme after all”.

CQL has many many factors that makes it as good as it is, wangxian being one of the main reasons I fell in love with CQL, but it’s true that it isn’t the only key to its success.

In summary

(I appreciate it if you have been able to read until here).

CQL (and The Guardian, in a lesser degree) had a very distinct set of factors and conditions that made it possible for it to have great success with int-fans. However, there is a trend: only dramas that have been highly rated in China to start with were able to stand out in western countries as well. In my opinion, that’s because people aren’t so different: what the general public likes is very similar, no matter if it’s eastern or western countries.

In fact, CQL has been more successful among the same kind of public everywhere: mainly female, from around 15 to 30 years old.

Moreover, this target audience is very restricted. It’s just a matter of numbers that a drama like All is well, which target audience goes from mainly females from 20 to x years old, is more likely to be successful (yes, at my home, all of my aunts, my parents and I have seen the drama, while only I have watched CQL).

I think I sometimes ramble a lot, so I’ll write down my point here: the entertainment industry is profitable just with the Chinese audience. If a good drama ends up getting famous Western countries, is just 锦上添花 (“adding flowers to the brocade”) or “the icing on the cake”.

CQL is the exception, not the rule. As a drama last year, it broke a record, going on hot search for 49 days on a row in China. It’s a incredibly rewarding show, and, because of that, incredibly lucrative as well. However, since all its accomplishments are very rare, I don’t think this boom will be easily reproduced with just any other drama.

So, to answer your question about whether the profit they can gain with BL dramas would make them reconsider the censorship issue... why would they?

(I’d put everyone to farm garlic).

[talatomaz]

a shattered mind | lena luthor x arias!sister

a/n: i’ve been down a lot recently and i know it’s because of my anxiety but it’s still a struggle sometimes (based on my personal experiences, except I just deal with it by myself)

warnings: anxiety

word count: 1.7k

masterlist | request list | request rules

i do not give you permission to repost or translate my fics on any platform - likes/reblogs are okay and are much appreciated

Nobody realised how broken you were. They just didn’t. Every morning, from the moment you opened your eyes, all you would do is wait for the next time you could close them. You felt empty. It was as if everything you were, everything you had inside of you was just gone.

Nothing survived the war inside your head.

It had been like this consistently for the past month. It used to happen when you were younger too. For a few weeks, you would be happy. Carefree. But one day could ruin it all.

You were fine one minute then crying the next. But you dealt with it because you had to. You didn’t want to burden your family or friends. It would get better soon. You knew that. Hell, even maybe by tomorrow, you’d be okay.

It wasn’t depression, that you knew. Your doctor had told you that it was your anxiety playing up and had given you medication to manage it when it arose in times of stress.

You couldn’t contain your laugh. Your whole life was one big stress. You weren’t even being dramatic either.

Over this past month, you had to deal with the many attempts on your girlfriend’s life and on yours by association. You had to deal with the fact that your sister was, in fact, an evil alien who wanted to kill...everyone, basically. You also had to hide out with your niece in your girlfriend’s brother’s mansion where yet another attempt on your life was made.

The only thing that helped manage your feelings now was that it was all over. Reign had been destroyed, giving you your sister back and your niece, her mother back. Your girlfriend was thriving, managing both CatCo and L-Corp. The Danvers sisters were good. Alex and Maggie were happy. As was Kara. Everyone was good. Except you.

You knew everything was better now but that didn’t stop you waiting for the other shoe to drop.

***

You were able to manage it alone.

If, after making plans, you felt like you weren’t up to it, you’d make up an excuse about having to work overtime. No one really questioned it. They knew being a lawyer came with odd and lengthy hours.

But you couldn’t hide it this time. You had to face everyone. You couldn’t cancel as much as you wanted to.

It was your birthday party after all.

Everyone had gathered at Sam’s house, including you who had arrived with your girlfriend. Truth be told, you were okay. For the first few hours anyway. You laughed with the Danvers sisters. You joked with Maggie, Sam and Ruby. You flirted with Lena. You were good.

But it was like something just switched.

Almost as if your own “Reign” had taken over.

You had momentarily detached yourself from the disagreement that had ensued in the group about the best female comedy and suddenly felt overwhelmed with a rush of sadness.

Quickly regaining your composure, you continued arguing with the group but your heart wasn’t in it anymore.

You thought no one had noticed.

But Lena had.

She always noticed.

***

You all were halfway through watching Ocean’s 8, now at the part where Nine Ball had hacked into the security department’s system.

You were cuddled up against your girlfriend, her arm wrapped protectively around your waist, giving no indication that she knew about your inner turmoil.

You began to feel the air around you constricting so you politely excused yourself from the group and made your way to your sister’s guest room, reserved for whenever you stayed over.

Unbeknownst to you, Lena followed.

Walking into the room, you sat down on the edge of the bed and whispered to yourself.

“Come on. Breathe, y/n. Breathe. You’re okay.” You tried to regulate your breathing, focusing on your different senses. When you got to ‘sound’, you heard a gentle knock on the door.

Panicking, you stood up, smoothing your hair and began rummaging around in the drawers, already formulating an excuse.

“Come in.” You answered.

Turning to face the door, you saw your girlfriend enter and gently close the door behind you.

“Hi, Lena. What’s up?”

“Nothing. Just wanted to see where you had gone.”

“I was looking for my bracelet. I think I left it here the last time I stayed over.”

“You mean the one you’re wearing?” Lena asked, her brow arched at you in question.

Looking down at your wrist, you sighed. It was a good excuse as well. Sitting back down on the bed, you stared back up at your girlfriend.

“Why are you really here?”

“I told you. I wanted to see where you had gone.” She hesitated for a brief second, “I wanted to see if you were okay.”

Your heart dropped to your stomach. How did she know? You never showed it. You opened your mouth but no words came out but that was okay because Lena spoke for you.

“What’s wrong, y/n?” Lena asked, still leaning against the door.

“Nothing, I’m fine.”

“Y/N, seriously. What’s wrong?” She repeated.

“Nothing, Lena. I’m fine.” Now getting frustrated at her persistence.

“Y/N, what’s wrong?” She said, still calm.

“Nothing.”

“Y/N.”

“Lena.”

“Y/N.”

It went on like this before you just...snapped.

Tears running down your face, you began to raise your voice.

“You want to know what’s wrong? Really? Well, I just want a moment to breathe. I just want to be happy. To stay happy. No more tears. No more waiting for the other shoe to drop. I just want the pain to disappear. I can’t take this. I want to be stronger than I am. I want to be who you all see me as. Happy. Carefree. I just need to be okay again.”

You ranted, tears now carelessly streaming down your face and you made no attempt to wipe them.

Lena’s own eyes filled with tears at your outburst. She made her way to sit on the bed beside you and took your hands in hers.

“There is no finish line, y/n. It’s not possible to get to a certain point in life where your problems have disappeared. It’s just not reality. And it’s unhealthy for you to think like that. No, let me finish.” She added when you opened your mouth to interrupt her.

“There is no finish line,” she repeated. “But you do have the capacity for recovery. You can set manageable expectations and goals. You can focus on your capacity for recovery and be proud of each step you take.”

You were speechless. You had never thought about it like that. You knew she had most likely paraphrased an article she had read, but you were grateful nonetheless.

When you felt that you could speak without your voice wavering, you did. “It’s like I’m...Like I’m numb. But at the same time, I feel everything. It’s hard to explain.”

Lena moved to brush your hair away from your face, tucking it behind your ear. Sucking in a harsh breath, you met your girlfriend’s clear green eyes. And saw perfect understanding there.

“God, I’m so sorry. I know you’re going through so much right now and that I shouldn’t be feeling like this. I’ve got Sammy back and we’re great too. I don’t know why I’m like this.”

“Hey. Hey.” Lena lifted your chin with her finger.

“It’s not a competition and don’t ever apologise for your feelings.”

You nodded, not trusting your voice, more tears sliding down your cheek. “I can’t breathe.”

Lena rose to her feet, beginning to panic believing you were having an anxiety attack.

“No, I’m okay. I just meant that I feel like I can’t breathe. Sometimes I just feel like I’m being suffocated.”

Without saying another word, Lena brought you to your feet and wrapped her arms around you in a tight embrace.

Before long, you were sobbing in her arms, finally allowing yourself succumb to your feelings and the overwhelming need to cry.

Lena still didn’t say a word. She just soothed you by stroking her hand through your hair and down your back.

Once your tears stopped, you attempted to remove yourself from Lena’s arms but she just held her arms tighter around you, resting your head back on her chest. Relenting, you relaxed against her, placing a soft kiss against her collar bone.

“Thank you for listening.”

She moved you both so you could lay together on the bed.

“Thank you for telling me.” Her arms were still wrapped protectively around you.

You lifted your head and placed a soft kiss on your girlfriend’s lips.

“I’m so glad you’re in my life. I love you, Lena Luthor.”

“I promise I’m always going to be here for you. And I love you too, Y/N L/N. Now go to sleep, for my sake.”

Opening the door quietly, Sam and the rest of the super-friends peered in the room, their faces softening at the sight of you in Lena’s arms, your face serene.

Lena opened her eyes and raised her brow, as if daring one of them to make a sound.

Sam put her hands up in defense before whispering a soft ‘thank you’ to her best friend and then closed the door gently behind her.

Turning around to face the rest of her family, she spoke, “I’m grateful Lena’s in y/n’s life. She’s been so down lately and she’s always struggled with it by herself just like when she was younger.”

Ruby walked up to her Mum and clung to her waist, leaning up to kiss her cheek. Then everyone else joined in until they were in one large group hug.

They all knew you were struggling.

And they all knew you tried your hardest to hide it from them.

But they knew.

Because they were your family.

And you wouldn’t have it any other way.

[creatively--challenged]

Thanks, Zoom | Harrison Osterfield x Fem!Reader

Summary: You and Harrison have been dating a while, though have yet to meet each other’s parents. You’re trying to plan the perfect way to introduce him to yours until Zoom does it for you. 

Words: 2K

Warnings: None, just pure fluff.

A/N: I apologise but I have been on a massive Harrison buzz lately. I just need him to be my boyfriend. Let me know what you think! Enjoy x

            You squeezed the tea bag against the side of your cup before removing it and adding a drop of milk, stirring it into your tea as you waited for your laptop to connect. You had it set up on the island in the kitchen, sunlight streamed through the overhead skylights and birdsongs drifted through the open back door while you waited for the newly installed Zoom app to connect to a meeting with your parents back home. You’d been forced to download the app to see your family since the government had announced a lockdown and you couldn’t travel home for the Easter break as you had planned to see your loved ones. Instead, you were stuck indoors with four boys who you loved dearly, but it still didn’t take away the ache you felt from missing your family.

              You’d moved to London about a year ago to start your career as a writer and it was going incredibly! You had your own flat, your dream job, and you’d even started dating the most amazing man a couple of months ago. You had met Harrison through work, technically. You were sent to interview a couple of the models at a Joshua Kane runway event to get a take on how to models themselves felt about the line and how to clothing made them feel. You were more interested in writing about film and pop culture but when your co-worker went on maternity leave early, you had to share her projects with two of your other co-workers; something you’d have to thank her for profusely when she got back because otherwise you wouldn’t have fallen head over heels for Harrison. You had never been one to believe in that ‘love at first sight’ crap but you didn’t really know how to describe it otherwise. He was so captivating. He answered all of your questions honestly and really went into detail, giving you lots of material to write with. You were hanging onto his every last word, marvelling at the innate beauty he held, the slight goofy way in which he presented himself (extremely different to how he displayed himself on the runway), and the adorable crumple of his nose and hand gestures he made while cracking little jokes mid-conversation.

             Too nervous, and professional, to ask for his number or anything like that, you’d thanked him and left kicking yourself that you didn’t know more about him. Sure, you looked him up you realised who he was and what acting projects he was involved in (for future reference so you could request to cover those interviews) but he was practically a stranger. Until, a week after your article was published one of the interns at your firm popped his head over your computer monitor to let you know a Mr. Osterfield was in reception waiting to see you. You freaked. Had you misrepresented him? Paraphrased too much? Was he pissed that your article focused on what he had to say too much? Or not enough? Your legs shook as they carried you towards reception. You curled the ends of your hair around your fingers, cursing yourself for not foreseeing this and wearing a nicer outfit, or putting more makeup on this morning. Here you were, meeting an actual male model and you looked like a complete Plain Jane in a bottle green jumper and dark grey slacks.

             Except, when you saw him in the waiting area, he was a completely different Harrison to the one you’d met previously. Fluffy hair pushed back loosely, an oversized cream jumper hiding his perfect frame, and a pair of baby blue jeans on him. He also had a pair of glasses balanced on his nose and wore a nervous expression, much like the one adorning your face. Oh no. You liked this Harrison so much more. He was adorable, stumbling over his words as he explained he had searched for your article on the web so that he could contact you, disappointed in himself for not getting your number that night. His eyes darted around the room and he scratched at the back of his neck idly as he nervously asked if you would be interested in meeting him for lunch the next day. You had giggled like a schoolgirl and told him ‘of course’, before exchanging numbers with him and waving goodbye from the foot of the stairs up to your office; vaguely catching him high-fiving a very familiar brown eyed and brown haired man once he thought he was out of sight.

            You two quickly became inseparable. He’d introduced you to the boys and you’d gotten along with them amazingly, especially Tom who confirmed he had bullied and encouraged Harrison to contact you once he found the article. Harrison had brought you with him to walk Monty and was a little put out when Monty seemed to favour walking beside you rather than him. You made it official between the two of you after a couple of months of seeing each other, but you still had one major obstacle to get over before you could be 100% solidified as a couple; meeting each other’s family. You’d both spoken about it, wanting to find the perfect time to arrange dinners and get togethers which was especially hard with both your work schedules. But any half-plan the two of you had made was now moot since quarantine began. You were thankful when Harrison cleared it with the boys and invited you to stay with them for the duration of lockdown since the thought of spending all that time alone in your flat was lowkey killing you. The topic of meeting each other’s family was on hold for now, though you both knew it was the first port of call as soon as this was all over.

            You had told your parents briefly about Harrison, said you were dating someone from London, but never actually mentioned how serious the relationship was and your parents never pried. You had been reluctant to video call them from Harrison’s shared house for some reason but when Tom and Harry went out to bring Tessa for a walk, Tuwaine was locked up in his room, and Harrison said he was going to workout for an hour or so, you thought it was the perfect time for a quick video call before the lads wreaked havoc on the house again. So here you were, sipping on your tea and appreciating the springtime sounds drifting through the windows while waiting on your laptop to connect. Eventually the screen changed from a loading one to one of your parents sitting in front of their computer screen. A bit pixely, but they were there. You smiled and waved enthusiastically at them and laughed when they waved back before lowering the camera to show you the family dog back home, wagging his tail at the excitement.

           “Hey, honey! How are you? How have you been coping?” Your mum asks as you tell them all about your boredom in lockdown. They fill you in on all the family drama you’d missed over the last few months and ask if you’re coming to see them when lockdown ends. Before you’d realised it you had already been on video chat with them for almost 40 minutes, laughing and swapping inside jokes.

           “Where are you, darling? The background doesn’t look like your flat. Have you gotten some work done?” Your dad asks inquisitively. Just as you’re about to tell them you’re staying at a “friend’s house” you hear movement coming from the kitchen door.

           “Y/N? Sweetheart, have you seen my headphones? I’ve decided to go for a run instead but I can’t find – oh. Sorry are you in the middle of something?” Harrison catches your wide eyes and frantic expression. You’re desperately trying to think of a way to avoid your parents asking about who’s calling you ‘sweetheart’ but it doesn’t work.

          “Ahhh, you’re staying with the boyfriend? I didn’t think it had gotten that serious.” Your mum quips, eyeing the camera knowingly. It’s now Harrison’s turn to look frantic, his eyes going as wide as saucers. He mouths the word ‘sorry’ at least 7 times before you let out a nervous laugh.

          “Ehh, yeah, Mum. I’m staying with my boyfriend for lockdown. Couldn’t stand being in my flat alone for God knows how long.” You say, desperately hoping she won’t ask what you know she will. Harrison is frozen to the spot, not really knowing what to do. Should he go? Should he just appear on screen? You’re not sure either.

         “Well…? Is he invisible? Can we meet him?” Your dad asks gruffly, a hint of humour to his voice. You let out a relenting sigh. Scooting your chair to the side while meeting Harrison’s eyes in question over the screen. He nods frantically in response, running his fingers through his hair in an attempt to tidy it up.

        “For the record, I wanted to introduce you in person over Easter but with all that’s going on we never got the chance to visit. I suppose this is the next best thing. Mum, dad, this is Harrison, my boyfriend.” You present as Harrison appears on screen beside you, a relaxed smile appearing on his face. He really is a great actor.

       “Uh hi it’s really great to meet you guys! Well, see you guys, technically. I know Y/N was really excited about introducing us properly and I was really looking forward to meeting you.” You hold your breath as you wait for this encounter to be less awkward than it was turning out to be and soon enough with Harrison’s charm and your parents’ easy-going demeanours, the four of you were chatting comfortably and making plans to meet up as soon as lockdown was over.

       “Oh Y/N, I can see why you were keeping this one to yourself. He’s quite the Prince Charming.” Your mum exclaims, causing you to groan and drop your head into your hands while Harrison held in a delighted chuckle.

       “Okay, Mum. Yep, thanks. Listen, I’ll call you tomorrow okay? It was lovely seeing you, stay safe!” You call, waving though the screen.

       “Nice to meet you, guys! Look forward to actually meeting you!” Harrison shouts, waving like a madman. You close the lid on your laptop and groan as you lower your head into your arms. You can hear Harrison chuckling behind you, arms coming around your frame comfortably.

        “I’m so sorry. I should have warned you I was going on video call.” You mumble and Harrison’s body vibrates against yours with laughter.

        “Why are you apologising? That was really nice, actually! Trial by fire, as it were.” He laughs out and you turn to face him. He’s smiling so widely at you and your heart melts a little. “I mean, as much as I would have loved to drive out to your parent’s house for dinner with a lovely bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers for them, the impromptu meeting was perfect and makes me all the more excited to actually meet them. At least I’ve already laid down some groundwork with your dad, he definitely won’t hate me now, I’m sure of it.” He tells you and you slap his chest lightly, laughing with him.

       “Oh shut it, you know no one could ever hate you. You’re way too charming. Plus, you play golf so that’s an immediate common ground with my dad.” Harrison leans down and presses his lips to yours sweetly. Holding you in a delicate embrace.

        “You know, this means that now you definitely have to meet my family. Maybe I can feature you in my next Zoom call? My sister has been asking me endless questions about the ‘mystery woman in my life’.” He jokes and you both laugh again.

         “Mystery woman! That sounds like an article half the people in my office would write. You know I don’t do tabloids.” Your eyes narrow at him and he holds his hands up in defense. “But I would love to feature in your next Zoom call, on one condition; Monty is in it too.”

        “Deal.” Harrison then swoops you up into his arms making you cry out in surprise. “I’ve decided not to go for a run. There are other ways to get my cardio in for today.” You giggle as Harrison lightly peppers your face in kisses as he carries you up the stairs towards his bedroom.

Maybe this Quarantine wasn’t half as bad as you thought.

[fredfilmsblog]

Best of Original Cartoons: Oh Yeah! Cartoons [1998-2002]

"Original Cartoons since 1998" seemed to me like a cheeky, tiny joke to throw onto the first season crew party poster for my first series as an indie producer*. And before you know it, here we are in 2020.

Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, the studio I ran, was sold by its owner, Turner Broadcasting, to (now) WarnerMedia, and while I loved working for Scott Sassa and Ted Turner, I didn’t see a great future for myself inside the new behemoth. After a little wrangling, I quit H&B and started Frederator with an exclusive deal at MTV Networks to consult with the programming management and to produce cartoons for Nickelodeon.

My first project was a second big idea cartoon incubator in the mold of What A Cartoon! Nickelodeon had an early lead in changing the way cartoons for kids were made with Nicktoons (where my earlier consulting life had a small role in fomenting), but CEO Herb Scannell and production president Albie Hecht realized the network still had a ways to go with impacting the creative community and welcomed my approach which would expand their reach tremendously. It’s because of Herb and Albie (and CEOs Tom Freston and Judy McGrath) and their faith in what I could do for the company that my career as a producer really took off. Thanks folks!

Oh Yeah! Cartoons would eventually encompass 33 unique and talented creators and 57 original shorts over three seasons. The series would be structured around the original shorts and eventually 36 sequel shorts around selected creators and characters. Many of the creators (Butch Hartman, Bill Burnett, Larry Huber, Rob Renzetti, Pat Ventura, Zac Moncrief, Miles Thompson, John Eng) had worked with me over at Hanna-Barbera, and others came in on their own energy or were recommended by friends.

Most of the creators were making their first solo commercial cartoons ever, and Butch, Larry, Bill and Rob made their first series with the spin offs of their OY! shorts. Big score for them, their careers, and the crews of their shows. Virtually all of the OY! creators went on to senior creative roles at Nickelodeon and the other studios in Hollywood. That might be my most lasting creative legacy, completely aside from the cartoons themselves.

A few specific notes.

Larry Huber had been the supervising producer for What A Cartoon! and was my co-executive producer on Oh Yeah! He’s continued to be an indispensable   trusted co-worker on all of of my shorts projects and not a few of our series. 

Larry and Bill Burnett –a New York co-worker of mine in advertising before coming to Hanna-Barbera as a writer– went on to create the shorts and series for ChalkZone.

Butch Hartman created quite a few What A Cartoon! shorts but hit the jackpot with The Fairly OddParents from Oh Yeah! Completely aside from the other originals and directing he did on other OY! cartoons.

Rob Renzetti made six stellar originals for Oh Yeah! and his My Life as a Teenage Robot series still gets fan art and letters today.

One of the Oh Yeah! shorts that never got much attention was the adaptation of legendary Harvey Kurtzman’s comic strip Hey Look!, a series of one-page comic book fillers produced between 1946 and 1949 for Timely Comics. Harvey was the first editor of MAD, and created Little Annie Fanny for Playboy. For a quick minute I was the last owner of Kitchen Sink Press, a legendary comix imprint that was renowned for, among other things, reprinting classics. And Harvey was one of publisher Denis Kitchen’s favorites. I asked Vincent Waller, late of Ren and Stimpy, later a key player on SpongeBob SquarePants, to take a stab. He did an amazing job.

Seth MacFarlane got signed to do Family Guy pretty much the same week he handed in his Zoomates pitch. His roommate and creative partner Butch Hartman designed and produced the short while Seth went on to become Seth MacFarlane.

Still (almost completely missing)? Women and Black American creators. Wife and husband, Michelle and Eric Bryan, created the wonderful Skippy Spankerton, but that was still meager out of the 100 shorts I’d produced by 2002 (things would ramp up a lot five years later). Byron Vaughs represented African-American creators, but that would not increase almost at all over the years. A big big miss on my part.

Oh Yeah! Cartoons, my 2nd short cartoon incubator, started me off as an independent producer of cartoons 22 years ago. It’s been an amazing ride, with the honor of working with some of the greatest talents in modern animation.

BTW, here’s an article written at the time of the 1998 series debut on Nickelodeon, written by entertainment reporter Jefferson Graham, originally posted at USA Today.

.....

* Über producer/entrepreneur Norman Lear once said (in paraphrase) “There’s no such thing as an ‘independent’ producer, we’re all dependent producers.” Meaning that if we’re making a show/movie for a major platform, we producers need their money, which means we have to listen to their needs too, not just our own or our creator’s. Norman is right.

[southeastasianists]

The Javanese state that flourished throughout the 14th and 15th centuries is often called the ‘Majapahit Empire’. But was it really an empire, and what does the word ‘empire’ mean in premodern Southeast Asia? This article surveys the evidence that can help us answer these questions. This evidence includes a handful of government inscriptions from east Java, Bali and Sumatra, two Javanese chronicles called the Deśavarṇana and the Pararaton, the official records of the Ming court, and the account of a Portuguese apothecary who visited Java in the early 16th century.

The Shadow of Singhasari (1255–92)

Before Majapahit was established as its new capital in 1293, the kingdom of Java had already begun to exercise its authority on other islands. Majapahit’s predecessor court, Singhasari, had begun to extend its influence beyond Java during the reign of Rājasa (1222–47). According to the Mūla Malurung inscription issued in 1255: ‘His Majesty [Rājasa] served as a single parasol for the world, the whole island of Java as well as the other islands’, the parasol being a common symbol of sovereignty in Southeast Asia and the Indian ocean world.

This rather nebulous assertion of authority was made concrete by a mighty Singhasari king called Kṛtanagara (1268–92). Two chronicle sources pay close attention to Kṛtanagara’s career: the 14th-century Deśavarṇana and the 16th-century Pararaton. Both of them depict Kṛtanagara as a militant ruler whose successful wars against Sumatra (1275) and Bali (1284) brought these regions under his personal dominion. Kṛtanagara was said to be an adept of Tantric practices, many of them aimed at boosting his supernatural powers. The Deśavarṇana describes his military victory over the Sumatran kingdom of Malayu as being ‘a result of his divine manifestation’ (41.5d).

Kṛtanagara’s success in subjugating various kings outside Java is illustrated by the Padang Roco inscription in central Sumatra (issued in 1286), which refers to him as the ‘great king of kings’ (mahārājādhirāja). He was apparently the overlord of the Sumatran king Maulivarmadeva, who in this inscription is merely a ‘great king’ (mahārāja). Historians today suspect that Kṛtanagara’s disruption of the power balances in the archipelago earned him the enmity of Kublai Khan, the Yuan Emperor in China.

These sources show that the Javanese king Kṛtanagara had been recognised as the overlord of certain kings on other islands in the late 13th century. The legacy of Kṛtanagara’s expansionist policies would be taken up by his Majapahit successors in the 14th century.

Majapahit’s Modest Beginnings (1293–1309)

Majapahit became the capital of Java in 1293, after a convoluted power struggle between several Javanese factions, an army from the neighbouring island of Madura, and even an expedition sent from China by the Khan. The eventual victor was a new king called Vijaya, who cut a rather less impressive figure than his predecessor Kṛtanagara.

The Kudadu inscription (issued in 1294) claims that Vijaya is simply ‘the lord of the whole island of Java’ (1b). The Sukhāmṛta inscription, issued two years later, again describes Vijaya as ‘the lord of all Java’, but more importantly, it describes Kṛtanagara as having once been ‘the king of the kings of Java, extending as far as the kings of the other islands’ (6b.2). The difference is clear. Kṛtanagara was the conqueror who defeated and ruled over foreign kings, while Vijaya controlled only Java.

The Balawi inscription (issued in 1305) describes Vijaya as ‘the sole ruler of the whole of the circle of Java’ and ‘the one whose throne is ornamented by the hair of the kings of the outer islands’ (1b.5). In this inscription, Vijaya compares his four wives (Kṛtanagara’s daughters) to four islands: ‘in their character they are just like Bali, Malayu, Madura, and Tanjung Pura’ (2a.2). We know from the usage in the later Deśavarṇana that Malayu is being used here as shorthand for the island of Sumatra, and Tanjung Pura for Borneo. The Balawi inscription also reiterates the fact that it was Kṛtanagara, not Vijaya, who ‘had his lotus feet kissed’ by kings of the other islands, ‘especially by the king of Bali’ (2a.4).

The shadow of Singhasari loomed large over the first Majapahit king. We see from these inscriptions that Vijaya’s own claim to sovereignty over the other islands was vague, and that he preferred to look back to the imposing precedent set by Kṛtanagara’s overseas campaigns.

We also know that Vijaya’s claim to rule ‘all of Java’ was an exaggeration. The later historical sources (Pararaton, Rangga Lawe and Sorāndaka) narrate how Vijaya spent most of his reign trying to deal with uprisings by his former comrades who had become dissatisfied with his leadership. Shortly after 1300, the king was forced to give up half of his Javanese territory to a Madura-based ruler called Vīrarāja, an erstwhile ally who had helped to put him on the throne in the first place. Vijaya died in 1309, with much of his own kingdom in open rebellion against him, having no real capacity to continue Kṛtanagara’s imperialist agenda in the archipelago.

Consolidating the Heartland (1309–28)

Vijaya’s successor Jayanagara spent the years between 1309 and 1323 dealing with the challenges to Majapahit authority in Java itself. Little is known about Java’s relationship with other islands during this time. The next important piece of evidence for our inquiry is the Tuhañaru inscription (issued in 1323), which describes ‘the whole span of the island of Java, with its dependencies the islands of Madura, Tanjung Pura etcetera, which produces the effort and sacrifice of all people, who constantly pay homage to and worship the King’ (4a.3). This inscription articulates the relationship between Java and other islands as one of ‘dependency’ involving obedience and homage to the Majapahit king. But it is still worryingly vague on which islands were included among these dependencies. Who exactly fell into the category of ‘et cetera’?

The chronicles show that Jayanagara’s reign was mostly preoccupied with domesticating eastern Java under Majapahit rule, a task he had largely completed by his early death in 1328. As the young king slowly consolidated Majapahit’s grip on the Javanese heartland, he became confident enough to start calling himself a ‘king of kings’ of Sumatra, Borneo, Madura and Bali, just as Kṛtanagara had done and Vijaya had not. What did Jayanagara’s claims of overlordship mean in practice? As yet, we have no evidence of specific military or diplomatic actions taken by the Majapahit court to enforce its theoretical sovereignty over the other islands.

One Oath To Rule Them All (1331–57)

Things changed drastically when a queen called Gitārja and her prime minister Gajah Mada took control of Majapahit in 1329. According to the Pararaton (p. 28), Gajah Mada swore an oath in 1331 to ‘defeat the outer islands: Gurun, Seran, Tañjung Pura, Haru, Pahang, Ḍompo, Bali, Suṇḍa, Palembang, Tumasik’. This is the famous Palapa Oath that Indonesian schoolchildren learn about. It is often paraphrased in Indonesian as a promise to ‘unite the archipelago’ (menyatukan tanah air), but that is not an accurate translation, because the Old Javanese text simply means ‘the other islands are defeated’ (kālah nūṣāntara). The places mentioned in the oath are very far-flung: Pahang is on the Malaysian peninsula, while Ḍompo is on the island of Sumbawa.

The Pararaton was compiled sometime in early 16th century, so it is not a contemporary source for Gajah Mada’s oath. We can’t know whether he really said such a thing. But the list of military targets in the oath matches closely the list of tributaries claimed by Majapahit in the Deśavarṇana. An interesting detail given in the Pararaton is that when Gajah Mada made this oath, the other ministers laughed in his face. Even if this is just a creative embellishment, it illustrates how extravagant the project must have sounded to his contemporaries.

We know that Gajah Mada’s words were followed up with action. The Deśavarṇana (49.4a) states that Java attacked Bali in 1343 and deposed its monarch. North Sumatran inscriptions and chronicles suggest that the same thing happened at Pasai shortly before 1345. Javanese foreign policy during the 1330s and 1340s seems to have consisted of something like this:

1) demand obedience and tribute from kings on other islands,

2) launch a military strike on those who refused the demand,

3) replace them with rulers who would be more loyal,

4) withdraw the military force until the next time it was needed.

From what we can tell from the chronicles, Gajah Mada’s military campaigns were more successful and wide-ranging than those of Kṛtanagara. Majapahit’s overseas power had finally eclipsed that of Singhasari.

In Praise of the Majapahit Emperor (1365)

The definitive claim of Majapahit dominance over the archipelago is found in the Deśavarṇana. This text is a blend of chronicle, royalist propaganda, and personal memoir, written by a Buddhist cleric in 1365. The poem dedicates Cantos 12–16 to listing the overseas dependencies claimed by Java at the time. The Majapahit court is compared to the sun and moon, while the subordinate courts in Java and ‘all the peripheral countries on the other islands’ are like planets; they ‘seek shelter in and humbly approach’ the king (12.6).

Cantos 13–14 name these peripheral countries and group them into four: the Sumatran countries that ‘are dependent on’ Malayu, the Borneo countries dependent on Tanjung Pura, the Malay peninsula countries dependent on Pahang, and the miscellaneous countries to the east. The places mentioned go as far north as Langkasuka (modern-day Pattani), as far west as Lamuri (Aceh), and as far east as Wwanin (generally thought to be somewhere on the coast of West Papua). An extremely extensive area.

All these regions described as ‘being protected’ (15.1a), ‘paying homage’ (15.3a), ‘bringing gifts that appear every month’ (15.3b), ‘being guarded’ (16.5a), and ‘obedient to all the commands’ (16.5b) of the Javanese king. Majapahit’s method of enforcing this obedience is explained: ‘any that transgressed his commands was attacked and wiped out completely by groups of naval officers, who are variously decorated’ (16.5c–d).

When the other countries did comply with Majapahit’s demand for tribute, Javanese scholars and officers were sent specially to collect the tribute from these places (15.3). There is a statement that religious scholars were sent in order to ‘establish the doctrine’ of Śiva and Buddha in the outer islands, ‘so that there would not be deviation’ (16.1). Does this suggest a sort of religious domination too?

The Deśavarṇana is a dependable eyewitness account of the times, but its main purpose is to flatter the Majapahit king. How seriously can we take its enormous list of countries that were supposedly ‘obedient to all the commands’ of Java?

Ādityavarman’s Autonomy (1347–75)

There are some holes in the Deśavarṇana’s story of Majapahit supremacy. Enter Ādityavarman, a Javanese prince with possible Malay lineage who served as senior minister at Majapahit in the 1330s and early 1340s, apparently outranking Gajah Mada himself during this period. According to an inscription written on a statue of Manjuśrī dated 1343, Ādityavarman was a Buddhist and was a descendant of Kṛtanagara.

After years of service to Majapahit, Ādityavarman did something odd in 1347. He suddenly appeared in central Sumatra declaring himself the ‘great king of kings’, precisely the title Kṛtanagara had used as overlord of that region in 1286. Ādityavarman continued to issue inscriptions in Sumatra on his own authority up until 1375, apparently not acknowledging any loyalty to Java. During this time, he claimed descent from the old Sumatran Mauli dynasty, whom Kṛtanagara had subjugated back in 1275. One of Ādityavarman’s major inscriptions, the Amoghapaśa inscription (1347), is written on the back of a statue dedicated by Kṛtanagara in 1286. And just like Kṛtanagara, Ādityavarman was also interested in Tantric rituals to concentrate his mystical power.

The Deśavarṇana completely ignores Ādityavarman’s claims of autonomy. Instead it reports that his kingdom paid tribute to Majapahit, just like all the other countries in Sumatra. This discrepancy shows that the Deśavarṇana is prone to exaggerating the extent of Java’s hegemony, just as we saw in the inscriptions of Vijaya and Jayanagara in the early 14th century. It means that we can’t take its list of tributaries at face value, but neither can we reject the text’s claims completely.

The Massacre of the Sundanese (1357)

The massacre of the Sundanese, often referred to as the Bubat War, shows another side to Java’s strategy of domination. It is important to note before we start this section that the Majapahit sources almost always list Sunda as one of the ‘other islands’ and not a part of the island of Java. This confirms our impression that when Majapahit documents say ‘Java’, they mean only ‘where the Javanese speakers live’, i.e. central and east Java, whereas ‘Sunda’ means ‘where the Sundanese speakers live’, i.e. west Java.

According to the Pararaton (pp. 28–9), the Sundanese royal family was invited to Majapahit in 1357. They had come to attend a wedding between a Sundanese princess and the Javanese king Hayam Wuruk. Instead they were ambushed and killed by their Javanese hosts. The pretext for this massacre was a miscommunication: the Sundanese had come on the impression that Hayam Wuruk would take the Sundanese princess as his primary wife and acknowledge the equal status of the Sundanese dynasty to that of Majapahit, while the Javanese assumed the princess was being offered as tribute and would have concubine status.

The decision to kill the Sundanese was taken by Gajah Mada and the king’s uncle Kudāmṛta. Gajah Mada evidently viewed the destruction of the Sundanese royal family as fulfilling his promise to ‘defeat Sunda’. After the massacre, he declared that the Palapa Oath was a mission accomplished.

This story is found in the later Javanese sources Pararaton, Kidung Sunda, and Tatwa Sunda, and is also mentioned briefly in the Sundanese history Carita Parahyangan. Strangely, it is absent from all the 14th-century primary sources, such the Deśavarṇana and the inscriptions. Nevertheless, it is an integral part of the story of Gajah Mada’s oath to defeat the kingdoms of the archipelago. The incident shows that Majapahit supremacy was not easily accepted by other kingdoms, but remained an ongoing source of conflict throughout the 14th century.

The Character of Javanese Hegemony

How did Majapahit actually assert its dominance in the mid 14th century? It is plausible that Java could make long-distance naval strikes against other islands in the archipelago, as described in the Deśavarṇana. It is also likely that those countries sent tribute to Majapahit as a formal acknowledgement of superiority. But Java did not annex those countries, which are always called ‘other islands’ separate to Java. Madura was the only significant island ‘not included among the overseas palaces’, but rather, it was administratively ‘united with the land of Java’ (Deśavarṇana 15.2).

Bali was another somewhat special case. According to later Balinese tradition, Javanese nobles were sent to administer the island after the Majapahit invasion of 1343. The Batur inscription, issued in north Bali in 1384, records that a dispute between one of these nobles and a local community of blacksmiths was referred to the Majapahit court for adjudication.

The Javanese also had the final say in matters pertaining to southern Sumatra. In 1397 the Ming court in China was having difficulties with the Sumatran country they called San-fo-qi, and asked the Javanese to settle the matter because ‘San-fo-qi is subject to Java’ (Ming Shi-lu, 18 September 1397). This is further evidence for the Majapahit court being acknowledged as the highest political authority in this central part of the Indonesian archipelago.

The Majapahit rulers preferred to install obedient local rulers in distant islands, rather than administering them directly. They were sometimes asked to intervene in some domestic problem, suggesting the Majapahit court was seen as having overall responsibility for settling disputes in the region. When these local rulers asserted their autonomy, such as at Pasai and in Bali in the 1340s, or at Palembang in the 1390s, the Javanese deposed them and put in someone they liked better. But this was not always possible. Ādityavarman in central Sumatra seems to have been able to avoid any punishment for defying Majapahit, and it was only after his death in 1375 that the Javanese attempted to reimpose their authority in his kingdom.

Memories of Majapahit

The Malay regions preserved traditions about Majapahit domination for a long time. Between 1513 and 1515, the Portuguese apothecary Tomé Pires recorded oral histories about the foundation of Melaka, the leading Malay kingdom at the turn of the 16th century. Pires’ notes were compiled in a document called the Suma Oriental, which has proved an invaluable source for the history of Southeast Asia in this period.

Pires’ sources claimed that around 1400, a Majapahit king called ‘Batara Tamarill’ had as his vassals the kings of Palembang and of Singapore. The son of the Palembang king married into the Majapahit royal family, but ‘when he realised how nobly he was married and how great was his power in the neighbouring islands which were under his brother-in-law’s jurisdiction, he rose against the vassalage and obedience’ (Pires, p. 231). The king of Majapahit sent a punishing expedition that took control of the island of Bangka and then drove his disobedient vassal out of Palembang and forced him to flee to Singapore, after which he ended up founding the Melaka kingdom. This event shows that as late as 1397, Majapahit was still effectively able to enforce its claims over its overseas dependencies.

But the evidence for Javanese hegemony peters out in the 15th century. The Javanese kings continued to refer to themselves as ‘king of kings’ in inscriptions dated 1447, 1473 and 1486, but they no longer talked about the other islands specifically. No further military adventures are mentioned in the chronicles. In the latter half of the 15th century, Javanese shipping slowly passed out of Majapahit’s control and into the hands of the autonomous Muslim-ruled towns on the north coast of Java.

Pires was told that Java ‘used to rule as far as the Moluccas and over a great part of the west, and … almost all of Sumatra, until about a hundred years ago [i.e. until the 1410s], when its power began to diminish’ (p. 174). This account is broadly consistent with what we know from the other sources about Majapahit’s claims of hegemony in the period 1330–1400 and its apparent weakening in the 15th century.

What’s in an Empire?

After all this, can we say that Majapahit was really an empire? The answer depends on what we mean by the word. If being an empire means the direct administration of provinces, permanent military occupation, and the imposition of political and cultural norms over a wide area, then Majapahit was probably not an empire. Javanese rule over the other islands was too intermittent and too indirect to qualify by those criteria.

But if being an empire means the projection of military power at will, formal acknowledgement of overlordship by vassals and third parties, and the regular delivery of tribute to the centre, then Java’s relationship to the archipelago can well be considered an imperial one, especially during the late Singhasari (1268–92) and middle Majapahit (1330–1400) periods. At other times, such as early Majapahit period (1293–1330) and the late Majapahit period (after 1400), the Javanese dream of an overseas empire is much less credible.

[preserving-ferretbrain]

The I in Vampire: Joss Whedon and the Philosophy of Identity

by Dan H

Monday, 21 September 2009

Dan almost manages to say something nice about Joss Whedon~

Recently I did two things. I read The Pig That Wants to be Eaten - a nicely accessible book of philosophical thought experiments – and I watched Series five of Angel (review forthcoming from Kyra or myself, special exclusive spoiler preview, it’s shit).

One of the infuriating things about S5 of Angel is its blatant disregard for any of the show’s prior mythology (to be fair, this was partly due to network pressure). The girls at Boils and Blinding Torment get particularly furious about this, complaining about the way it craps all over the notion that vampires are in any way different to regular people. To quote them quoting Buffy

To paraphrase almost every character in Buffy ever: A vampire is not the person they appear to be. They walk like them, they talk like them, they have access to their memories, they might even do their hair like them, but it’s not them.

Which is pretty darn clear, and is, as the girls observed, spelled out in the first episode, and about every five episodes thereafter.

The thing is, while it’s spelled out like that, it’s pretty clear that it’s not like that. Jessee pops up in the second damned episode and seems quite convinced that apart from being “connected to everything” he’s still the same guy he always was. Angelus, while evil, still has a lot of Angel’s basic personality traits (“it’s just … you’re still the only thing he thinks about” is I believe how Willow describes it). Not only is there textual evidence against the whole “demon in a Xander suit” theory (and very little to support it except maybe that scene in series two where Angel’s “inner demon” beats up that other demon inside Angel’s body), there’s also some fairly fundamental problems with the whole idea of something that has your appearance, memories and personality being, in any meaningful sense “not you”.

Memory, Continuity, and Tom Riker

The question of who “you” actually are is a horrendously difficult one in philosophical terms. In practical terms, you know that you’re you, other people aren’t you and that’s an end to it. In the world of the philosophy of identity it’s far trickier.

One of the thought experiments presented in TPtWtbE is the teleporter problem. Suppose you go through a Star Trek matter transporter. It scans your body, and reduces it to data. Then it blasts you into atoms, and reconstructs you miles away from (presumably) completely different parts. None of the characters in Star Trek seem remotely bothered by this but it raises a lot of difficult questions. If the person who is reconstituted at the other end of the teleporter is made from completely different atoms from the person who went in, in what sense are they the same person?

The problem is compounded by the fact that the person who goes into the teleporter and the person who comes out are in fact capable of living independent lives. In a relatively famous episode, it is discovered that exactly that had happened to Riker. A transporter accident had split him into two people, both with exactly the same memories and experiences, and both believing themselves to be the “original” Will Riker. The Trek episode neatly dodged a lot of the nastier problems involved with this kind of conundrum by having the “other will” be one who had been stuck on a remote planet for several years, making it fairly clear to one and all that the Will Riker who has been, y'know, on TV all this time is the real one.

A similar idea crops up in The Prestige - Tesla's teleporting machine doesn't destroy the original, so you always get two copies, an Hugh Jackman solves the problem by drowning himself. This creates a terribly haunting image in the original film, but it's interesting that in many ways the machine functions identically to the “real” teleporter in Star Trek. It's just that the way it disposes of the “original” is less neat.

I understand that the way a lot of philosophers resolve such issues is with a concept called “Continuity of Consciousness” - broadly speaking if the individual coming out of the transporter remembers being the person who went into it, they can be said to be the same person.

Of course there are arguments against this definition (the two Rikers and the Tesla machine highlight one of them) but it's still extremely useful, and it's very interesting when applied to Buffy vampires.

The Buffy vamp remembers its human life. This is described in early episodes as “having access” to the human's memories, with the implication that the vampire knows itself to be a demon, and simply uses the human's memories to trick people into thinking it's something else, but this is clearly untrue. We witness the transformations of several vampires, and all of them clearly genuinely consider themselves to be the person who got bit, not some alien parasite. They have, in a word, continuity of consciousness. Not only that, but no vampire ever displays knowledge or memory of having existed independently as a demon.

Of course once a person becomes a vampire they are changed - they lose their soul (which seems to have a rather nebulous effect, certainly it doesn't seem to alter their sense of identity very much) and become Evil, but you can't really say that they're different people except in the metaphorical sense that we are all “different people” when we are – say – drunk.

This has particular consequences when it comes to little things like moral culpability.

Blame, Responsibility, and Evil

Even if you accept that vampires, whatever the show might say, are the same people they were when they were alive, it's still perfectly reasonable to say that they are the same people but evil(it's also perfectly reasonable to argue that the “but evil” segment of that sentence renders them not the same person at all, what isn't reasonable is arguing that they're suddenly a demon occupying somebody else's body – whatever the text says, Buffy vamps clearly don't work like that).

But even here we run into a bit of a stumbling block. Okay, vampires are evil. They kill people, because that's what they do, hence the slayage. Except that repeatedly, starting lest we forget in series two when Spike turns against Angelus, vampires have shown that they are capable of choosing to do good – or at the very least not to do evil. Now frequently they choose it for selfish reasons: Spike helps save the world because he likes being evil in it, and later fights demons because he enjoys hurting demons. The vampires at the dodgy place Riley goes to avoid killing people because it helps them stay under the radar. Harmony goes on the cowblood because it's a condition of her employment at Wolfram and Hart.

Now on the one hand, this makes the vampires that actually do kill people way more reprehensible. On the other hand, it makes killing vampires on spec a little bit dodgy. Yes, some vampires kill people, but a great many of them don’t, either because of artificial constraints (a chip in the head) emotional constraints (I haz soul! It make me sad if I do the killing!) or rational self-interest (killing people will get me fired, killing people will make them less likely to let me feed on them repeatedly). These, not to put too fine a point on it, are pretty much the three reasons that regular people don’t go around committing murder.

Now true, vampires are still much more likely to kill people than humans, but to get all formal logic about it, you can’t say that all vampires are killers – they are clearly capable of choosing not to kill – which leaves you only with “some vampires are killers” which is kinda useless. This means that staking vampires the moment they rise is basically a form of racial profiling. It’s effective racial profiling, to be sure, since they’re mostly going to go on to be mass murderers, but it’s much less cut and dried than the original remit of “a demon in the body of your friend”.

Dolls, Identity, and Consent

The whole philosophy of identity issue gets even more interesting (and even more problematic) in Dollhouse. Is that me saying something positive about the show? Well yeah, sort of. The actual philosophy of identity bit is kind of interesting – and on some levels it seems to be what Joss is interested in (q.v. the “it makes humanity irrelevant” speech in Man on the Street) – unfortunately because Joss is pathologically incapable of writing a show that doesn’t have EYE YAM TEH FEMINISTS scrawled all over the front in crayon, he muddies the water by making it something that is also about the abuse of women by men who aren’t him.

The problem with Dollhouse (why yes, I am recycling content from an old article) is that it brings up a whole lot of important rape myths and then not only fails to challenge them, but dips the whole thing in a the kind of abstract philosophy that dickheads use so that they can accuse feminists of being “too emotional”.

To quote one blogger whose name, weblog, and other identifying features I have totally forgotten: “the thing I love about this fandom is that you can always find somebody willing to argue that it isn’t rape if she was brainwashed”.

The problem is that “it isn’t rape if she was brainwashed” is actually part of several interesting philosophical questions about identity, free will, and perception. The problem is that rape is not in any way the right subject to be using as a vehicle for these questions. The concept of consent and complicity is complex enough in real world rape cases that it doesn’t need imaginary supertechnology muddying the waters. The abstract philosophy of the Dollhouse contributes to, rather than challenging, the prevailing notion that consent is so vague and ill-defined that anything short of a clear “no” counts.

One of the things I really liked about The Pig that Wants to be Eaten was the way in which it tempered its abstract content with pragmatism. In its discussion of the

Ship of Theseus

, for example, the author points out that the identity of the “real” ship depends on what you want to do with it. If, for example, you were looking for forensic evidence in a murder investigation, you would want the physical components that had been present at the time of the crime. If on the other hand you were looking for Theseus himself, you'd want the ship that was actually in his possession.

The abstract, philosophy-of-identity stuff in Dollhouse is at odds with the simple, practical fact that the Dollhouse is all kinds of fucked up. If the Dollhouse was more benign and less rapetastic, it could explore some of the interesting ideas about identity which are – in theory at least – part and parcel of the show. Unfortunately the nature of the Dollhouse makes abstract theorizing about identity an offensive disservice to its victims. Yes, you can wonder to what extent Echo's imprints are real people with volition, and to what extent therefore they are moral agents in their own right capable of, amongst other things, consenting to sex. The problem is that the house's “brainwash and bone” routine is so close to real-world date-rape that it becomes genuinely uncomfortable.

Which is a shame, because the actual ideas are rather interesting.

Themes:

TV & Movies

,

Sci-fi / Fantasy

,

Whedonverse

~

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Arthur B

at 14:18 on 2009-09-21

A similar idea crops up in The Prestige - Tesla's teleporting machine doesn't destroy the original, so you always get two copies, an Hugh Jackman solves the problem by drowning himself. This creates a terribly haunting image in the original film,

Uh, actually

the novel came first

. Though you are right that there's a particularly striking image that results from this, if it's the same one from the novel I'm thinking of.

That's a nitpick though, and I completely agree with the rest of your points here. I think the conclusive thing is that, whilst not a compulsive

Buffy

-watcher, I've seen at least a season or two's worth of episodes, and I've

never

even caught an inkling of the idea that vampires are not basically the same people they were before the Embrace (TM White Wolf) but with kewl powerz, simply because I never saw an episode where it was explicitly stated. Which I suppose is another good philosophical question: if you cut out the episodes which make the "they're different people" thing explicit, and a viewer can't work out that vampires are different people from the humans they used to be through observation, can it really be said to be true?

(The best example of using this plot point right, in my book, is

Dracula

; part of the reason the vampirisation of Lucy is so horrifying is that vampire-Lucy is so utterly different from normal-Lucy.)

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Dan H

at 15:36 on 2009-09-21Sorry, you're right, the use of the word "original" in that sentence is entirely specious. I think in my head i was using "original" to mean "before it was co-opted to be an example in a short article about the philosophy of identity".

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Niall

at 22:37 on 2009-09-21Must ... resist ... urge ... to debate ... Buffyverse ... mythology and metaphysics ... must ... resist ...

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Jamie Johnston

at 23:36 on 2009-09-21Ooh, interesting. Hmm. Yes.

Two very

obiter dicta

:

On the rape / brainwashing point, I sometimes wonder whether it wouldn't help to make the same sort of distinction as is made in law between theft (taking another person's property without permission) and fraud (using deceit to trick another person into giving you his property). The word 'rape' was until only a few decades ago almost entirely confined to violent and plainly non-consensual violation. That, of course, is only because society hadn't got far enough in reducing toleration of that extreme form of sexual abuse for it to even begin seriously looking at less obvious forms. But it does also, rightly or wrongly, cause a certain trickiness when we use the same word to denote sex where there is ostensibly consent but the consent is vitiated by, for example, incapacity. On the one hand using 'rape' in this broader sense is strategically shrewd because, now that everyone pretty much agrees that 'classic' violent rape is wrong and is a real problem, saying that something else is also rape immediately challenges people to think again about that other thing and may well shock them into new understanding. But on the other hand, as with assertions like 'meat is murder' or 'property is theft', there is a risk that people simply say, consciously or unconsciously, 'No, that's plainly not literally true and therefore I can ignore whatever point underlies it'. Whereas more progress might be made by treating the two things as separate and concentrating on getting people to acknowledge that the second is also bad. One might say that to some extent this panders to the tendency to regard 'fraud-type-rape' (if I can for the moment call it that without seeming to imply an actual analogy or to trivialize the whole business with my sloppy terminology) as less bad than 'theft-type-rape', it might at least make more progress in solidifying a consensus that 'fraud-type-rape' is actually wrong to some degree. I don't know, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was a time when theft was recognized as bad but fraud wasn't; nowadays, though, fraud is often regarded as actually worse than theft because it involves an abuse not only of the institution of property but also of human trust. Anyway, perhaps this isn't the right article for this line of thought...

The second thing is that the two links in the article don't work because in each case the URL they're trying to point to has somehow got the URL for the Ferretbrain articles index tacked onto the front, in addition to the usual quotation-marks-coming-out-as-'&8221' problem.

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http://belmanoir.livejournal.com/

at 00:47 on 2009-09-22Actually, the Tesla machine functions entirely differently in the book--the duplicate that is created in the book is not really capable of functioning independently, so the philosophical/ethical issues are still present but very different. The movie DID come up with the image Dan is discussing.

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Arthur B

at 01:25 on 2009-09-22Ah, I was thinking of the image right at the end of the book, but now it occurs to me that that only happens in the framing story, which wasn't included in the film.

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Robinson L

at 22:00 on 2009-09-24It's perfectly simple, Dan. Removing the soul counts as an involuntary alignment shift to either Neutral Evil or Chaotic Evil (I don't think there are many vampires I'd characterize as Lawful Evil). Side effects may include some changes in personality which go beyond those associated Character Alignment, although this has only been documented in one case (Angel), and as you point out, it's not like he's a different person—more like the same person under radically different circumstances.

Now, vampires can act outside their Alignment (Harmony trying to stay friends with Cordelia in Season 2 or 3 would be an even better example), although Spike takes it to ridiculous levels in

Buffy

Season 5. Evil is just the default.

Contrast with Russel T Davies' depiction of the Daleks and Cybermen in the new

Doctor Who

. You kind of have to admire the guy for sticking to the concept that they're without personality and totally evil—no matter how blisteringly dull this makes them as villains, or the stories they appear in. Whedon, on the other hand, through out the whole “vampires without personalities” angle (probably without even realizing what he was doing) pretty much as soon as it threatened his ability to tell an entertaining story. There's probably a lesson to be learned in all that.

Interesting question about whether vampires can be considered monsters in the moral sense, even without souls. Of course, ever since Season 2 (still referring to

Buffy

), I was wondering why the couldn't just restore the souls of all the vampires they encountered. Or at least a couple, like the Alternate Willow from Season 3.

If the Dollhouse was more benign and less rapetastic, it could explore some of the interesting ideas about identity which are – in theory at least – part and parcel of the show.

Yes, but they would also have to make the plots and characters and dialogue and trivialities like that more

interesting

, too. Even without the unfortunate implications of the Dollhouse-as-human-trafficking angle, there's still the

Dollhouse

-as-fecking-boring-tv-show issue to contend with. Without an engaging

story

with which to prevent it, all the deep philosophizing in the world is so much wasted screen time.

@Jamie: Really? The links work just fine for me.

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Jamie Johnston

at 22:54 on 2009-09-24

Really? The links work just fine for me.

This is because someone has fixed them. Presumably for the sole purpose of making me look silly. :)

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Rami

at 06:37 on 2009-09-25

This is because someone has fixed them. Presumably for the sole purpose of making me look silly. :)

Not at all. I've added some smarts to the Ferret so it shouldn't happen again.

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Arthur B

at 15:04 on 2009-09-25I confess: I used

seeecret poweeers

to dive in and fix the links for everyone's short-term convenience.

Which isn't to downplay the importance of Rami's unique ability to alter the ferret at will, or Jamie's keen bug-spotting powers.

TEAMWORK!

(picture of Captain Planet and cast goes here)

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Jamie Johnston

at 16:04 on 2009-09-27Go Planet!

Incidentally, I do wonder sometimes whether it would be kind to newcomers if it said somewhere on the site who has the secret powers. Or indeed who the editor is. But most of the time I enjoy the fact that it doesn't.

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http://pozorvlak.livejournal.com/

at 22:19 on 2009-09-29You might be interested in the Less Wrong post

Timeless Identity

. Spoiler warning: it turns out to be a sales pitch for cryonic preservation. But it's good up until that point.

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Dan H

at 11:18 on 2011-01-10Sorry, I know this is an old post but I was just playing with the Random Article function and I've just found the article linked from the bottom of this comments section.

ARGH ARGH QUANTUM BULLSHIT RAGE!!!

Firstly: you know somebody is a nutbag when they say "as we have seen in..." followed by a link to a post on their own blog.

Secondly: you can't solve the transporter problem by reference to quantum mechanics. Not only does quantum mechanics not really apply to macroscopic bodies, but it ignores the fundamental question of what identity is by clinging to the (completely false) notion that it is somehow impossible to distinguish between particles.

Thirdly: I love how this long winded nonsense about "rationality" ends in something little better than Pascal's Wager - sign up for cryonics because if you're right you get to be immortal and if you aren't you don't lose anything.

Fourthly: GAAAAH QUANTUM BULLSHIT RAGE!!!

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http://orionsnebula.blogspot.com/

at 17:41 on 2011-01-10The "less wrong" guy, Eliezer Yudkowsky, is fascinating. A lot of his stuff seems to be totally nutty, or at the very least exceedingly pretentious, like "the ten virtues of a rationalist." That said, some of his writing is really good.

http://yudkowsky.net/rational/the-simple-truth

is a hilarious essay on epistemology that I found pretty convincing.

He also wrote a Harry Potter fanfic:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5782108/1/Harry_Potter_and_the_Methods_of_Rationality

which I thought was quite funny as well, even if he occasionally stops the story to complain about JK Rowling's plotting.

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Dan H

at 18:43 on 2011-01-10

The "less wrong" guy, Eliezer Yudkowsky, is fascinating

Fascinating he might be, but I find people who cite "quantum mechanics" in support of their personal ideologies extremely irritating. Quantum mechanics says nothing about the nature of identity except as it relates to sub-atomic particles. You certainly can't use quantum mechanics to prove that psychological continuity is the essence of human identity and you certainly-certainly can't use quantum mechanics to prove that psychological continuity is the essence of human identity by using it to argue, falsely, that physical continuity exists where it doesn't on the basis of the erroneous belief that all electrons are really the same electron.

Quantum mechanics *does* say that "identity" is not a measurable property of particles - when I say "this electron" what I really mean is "the electron that currently has these properties" and if I look at the electron again and its properties have changed I cannot meaningfully describe it as being either the same electron or a different electron.

The same ideas can be applied to human identity as well, and funnily enough they have been for years going back to the original Ship of Theseus. Quantum Mechanics doesn't offer us any new insight into the issue. Just because it is true that the identity of a sub-atomic particle depends only on its quantum numbers, that does not mean that the identity of a person depends only on the quantum numbers of the particles in their body (certainly it cannot be a *necessary* component of identity because I am pretty sure the quantum numbers of the particles in my body are changing all the damned time).

Sorry, personal bugbear.

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http://orionsnebula.blogspot.com/

at 19:03 on 2011-01-10I don't disagree with any of that--I just really wanted to take the opportunity to pimp his epistemology essay, which is not about quantum.

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Dan H

at 19:21 on 2011-01-10Yeah, the epistemology essay is pretty cool, although it gets a bit straw mannish towards the end. Then again, if it's good enough for Galileo...

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http://orionsnebula.blogspot.com/

at 05:16 on 2011-01-11I see I should have specified why I find him "fascinating" in my first comment. I was going to, but didn't because I was too hungry.

On the man's main website he says that he "wears two hats." One writes about the "fine art of human rationality." Now, this is an insufferably pretentious way of putting things, and some of his articles follow suit, but most of his writings are actually quite good. What particularly strikes me is his phrase, "intelligence and learning are worth nothing if used to defeat themselves." He talks about the danger of trying to confirm ideas, various cognitive biases, and then, (this is the one that really got me thinking) the fact that even studying psychology is dangerous if you're not scrupulously honest, because the more you know about how people rationalize, the more easily you can find reason to discredit anything you don't want to believe.

The other hat is "concerned with artificial intelligence." And everything he says about this appears to be goats on fire. He supposedly works for the "Singularity Institute," a "public charity funded by individual donations." Sounds like a con man, except he's too obsessive.

It's just a jarring juxtaposition. I can't wrap my head around the existence of a person who can write at length about how to do good science, the cognitive flaws that generate wishful thinking, and the difference between a real explanatory theory and vague pseudoscience--then turn around and hit you with cloning, quantum baffle and singularities.

[ifhestayshealthy]

The Nets Have Become the Hipster Team Brooklyn Deserves

I’ve been catching Brooklyn games starting in 2014 in order to see NBA basketball at a price that was hilariously low for New York, even to watch the laughing stock rosters that wore the black and white. Then this year a surprising thing happened, I went to the Barclays Center to actually support the Nets. I can’t stress enough how much I love this team; they have dynamic players and a charisma-filled bench that is just fun to root for. 

While the team has been rightfully marketed in the legacy of Biggie and the articles of Brooklyn fandom has centered around the fans that occupy the most annoying fan section in all of sports, it hasn’t been stressed how this team is the embodiment of what people say Williamsburg was like 10 years before everyone who made that community’s culture were priced out to Bushwick, upstate, or even ::gulp:: Jersey City.

Their artisan styles only have comparisons to the hip secrets that the New York region has. Like many (and I can’t stress many enough), the results of small-batch success has been inconsistent, but it is still great to have been a fan before this playoff series; you know, before they were cool.

Below is a brief write-up on the players have made Brooklyn the hipster team of the NBA.

Jarrett Allen

Don’t let the Sixers abundance of buttery fades sway you, Jarrett Allen has the best hair in the NBA. His fro, his decision to go with the head tie, his desire to jam every lob and attempt to block every dunk attempt is just fantastic. He just turned 20 last week and is an Alternative Apparel zip-up and a pair of All Birds away from being the on-court CEO of this start-up team. I look forward to his TEDx talk about how he left his Austin-based college early to pursue his dream of blocking everyone. 

D’Angelo Russell

D’Angelo came to Brooklyn after being discarded by Magic Johnson and the Lakers organization (for a pick that would become Kyle Kuzma). Still, his style inspires a mix of ‘oohs’ and ‘oh nos!’ from fans. This season was a break out year for D’Angelo has he stayed healthy and made his first all-star team. To resign him next year, the Nets will likely have Russell on an inflated contract, which is next year’s concern. For now, he is a good player under a great contract and his teardrop floaters are as awe inspiring as the view from Greenwood Cemetery.

Spencer Dinwiddie

What is not to love about a sixth man that rocks timely themed custom air-brushed shoes on game day and has a love for crypto-currency? The fact that he has an amazing handle and is locked up to a team-friendly three-year deal is just the vegan icing on the single batch gluten-free cupcake.

Caris LeVert

Months after recovering from an injury that got the above reaction from his teammates, Caris is now back and playing a pivotal role back in the starting lineup. It is amazing to see him play at such an elite level from what was a gnarly looking injury. 

Jared Dudley and Joe Harris

I am not sure that Jared Dudley and Joe Harris weren’t at the Jeff Tweedy show at the Town Hall two weeks ago. Joe Harris’ beard screams homebrewer, while Jared Dudley’s dad bod seems destined to tell people about his love for Nels Kline, especially his jazz album. 

Rodions Kurucs

Last year’s second-round pick hailing from Latvia is a mean dude. He never checked his attitude when boarding the plane to Brooklyn. In his first press conference with the Nets, he said that he looked forward to beating fellow Latvian and former Knick, Kristaps Porzingus’ ass. I once saw a former athlete with two black eyes and asked him what had happened. It turned out that he was being a clown at a local dive bar and some skinny hipster didn’t take it and beat the shit out of him. I should have asked if he had an Eastern-European accent, but it is pretty clear this person was probably Kurucs.  His toughness continues as he picked-up a flagrant foul after pushing Ben Simmons. To paraphrase Kurucs, while skinny, he likes contact and even more so he likes to hit back.

The Nets Bench

Lastly, the Nets bench knows how to support their squad. Their elation when a teammate dunks or rains a three is a euphoria that can only compare to a 4am pop-up rave in a warehouse in Sunset Park. Way to go, Nets; regardless of the outcome of tonight’s elimination game, you’ve won.

[bestenglishtuition]

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10 Useful Discord Bots for Online Communities

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10 Useful Discord Bots for Online Communities

If you’re using Discord, chances are you’ve heard of Discord bots. These AI-powered bots allow you to perform a wide range of actions, from welcoming new members to paraphrasing influencer content.

Discord has grown dramatically since it hit the stage in 2015, and while it was primarily dedicated to gamers, digital marketers are finding ways to make it work for them.

If you’re looking for a unique and entertaining way to engage with your community, Discord bots might be the way to go.

What Are Discord Bots?

Discord bots are one of the most useful features of the communication platform. They are AIs that marketers and business owners can use to perform a wide range of automated tasks on the server.

Building a community is never easy, but doing it on Discord is a great way to provide people with a feeling of exclusivity. If you already have an audience, this strategy will benefit you.

You’ll be able to offer tips, record videos, host lives, and teach people everything you know in a safe and closed community environment. When people feel like they’re receiving something they can’t get anywhere else, it makes them more inclined to share it with others and, in-turn, pay more for the information.

Discord bots make it easier to create an engaged community. You can use them to welcome new members to the server, moderate communications between members, and ban people who refuse to obey the rules.

You can use them to add memes, games, music, and other pieces of entertaining content to the server to make it more enjoyable for your members.

Knowing what Discord bots to add is the key. Some bots can enhance your server and provide a better community, making users want to stick around and engage with you. The wrong ones could turn people away or create a poor environment.

10 Useful Discord Bots to Try

The key to success with marketing on Discord is using the best bots to create a highly engaged and entertained community. In this section, we’re taking a look at the ten most useful Discord bots.

1. MEE6

MEE6

is the most comprehensive Discord bot out there. You can create custom commands to automatically provide users with roles and send messages in the main channel or through DMs based on specific actions.

Setting up welcome messages and automating roles is easy as well. With a few simple commands, you can welcome new members onto the server, assign them a role, and explain the rules of the server without having to do anything manually.

The best feature of this bot is the amount of customization you can apply to your Discord bot commands. You can automatically kick someone if they promote ads, unwanted links, or spam. This can help create a tight-knit community where everyone can enjoy themselves.

2. ProBot

ProBot

is a Discord bot that allows you to automatically set welcome messages, so every time someone joins the server, they’re greeted with a customized message to showcase your personality.

With the automod system, you can instantly detect bad behavior and warn the person not to do it again or kick them out automatically if necessary. For example, if someone posts something obscene, you wouldn’t likely want to give the person a second chance. ProBot can kick them out and keep your group on topic.

The bot allows you to set unique commands with different tiers to determine which actions merit an immediate kick and result in a stern message.

One important factor to consider in the best bots is their uptime. ProBot has 99.99% uptime, so you (almost) never have to worry about the bot going down and your server running amuck.

3. Dank Memer

If your first thought is, “

Why would memes be important for marketing

?”, then you may be surprised to find out they’re a very powerful marketing tool and something you can use to create a better community.

Memes are a great way to increase engagement because people love humor and the point of Discord is to create a light-hearted community that’s rich with entertainment and fun. Memes are a simple but effective way to do just that.

Dank Memer is a great Discord bot because of the sheer

number of commands

you can use. They have commands from simple pictures of animals to actual games to play blackjack against the AI using coins bought with real currency.

If your goal is to create a community where people like to come to relax, unwind, and enjoy themselves, Dank Memer is a fantastic Discord bot choice.

4. Voicy

Communication is important to a community and finding new and funny ways to communicate with your members will set your server apart from the competition. Keep in mind that there are a ton of other people competing to get the same users into their channel as you. You must find unique ways to draw attention to yourself.

Voicy

allows you to search through a library of more than 50,000 funny sound clips from their network. They’re constantly updating the platform with new sound effects and you and your members can use the commands to create a more enjoyable experience and entertaining environment where people want to stick around.

5. Community Hubs Beta

The

Community Hubs

Discord bot’s goal is to enhance the way we communicate with each other across the many servers and different platforms. It connects a Discord channel with a Hub room where there are other channels so you can share information between two spaces.

This could be a powerful way to bring two communities together if you have different audiences across multiple genres. For example, let’s say you have a server that focuses primarily on

SEO

and another for

Influencer Marketing

.

If you want to do a live stream to both audiences because the subject matter is relevant to both, you can bring the two together using Hubs to watch the live stream together and benefit from the information. The Hubs bot also allows the two channels to communicate with each other.

Not only does this have immediate, upfront benefits, but there are benefits on the back-end as well. For example, someone may decide to join both communities.

6. Musibeth

Musibeth

allows you to play YouTube content directly on Discord. This has a few advantages. First, you could share videos with members to provide context or additional information on something you want them to know.

You could also set up automatic commands that provide videos for frequently asked questions so you can spend more time building the community and less time answering the same question repeatedly.

If you have your own

YouTube channel

, you could use the Musibeth Discord bot to spread your channel around and get more views while also informing members on whatever they want to know. However, be careful not to spam your channel with YouTube videos users aren’t interested in.

The most obvious use for the bot is to play music, so you can do that as well. Playing music on the server is a great way to relate to people and create a comfortable environment.

7. Quillbot

Quillbot

is a unique Discord bot that allows you to paraphrase something someone said. Using the commands will automatically take written text and rewrite it for you. I see a few useful purposes for this, but the biggest one involves content marketing and writing.

Let’s say you’re interviewing someone with expertise on a certain subject matter. They provide you with an answer using text from an article they wrote or a feature they had somewhere. You can’t take those words and use them directly. Quillbot will paraphrase what they said so you can use it in your article.

There are also more relaxed purposes for the bot that you can play around with if you’re just using it for fun. For example, you could use the word flip modifier, and it will change the sentence using as many synonyms as possible.

8. Spixx

Spixx is a bot that allows you to use commands for memes, music, and games. It’s all in the name of creating an enjoyable environment and

a niche community

where people feel like they are welcome.

By using Discord bot games, you’re indirectly marketing to your audience without realizing it. The second you create a community and engage with them, that’s marketing. It’s the simplest form of marketing, and it’s effortless when everyone is having a good time.

Spixx helps you do that. It’s important to make sure that you monitor how people are using it though, because some of the memes and commands are a little obscure.

9. GiveawayBot

What better way to show your community that you love them than with

giveaways

? GiveawayBot helps host a giveaway using simple commands that allow you to start, pick a winner, and end a giveaway without requiring any manual work.

Why is this important for digital marketing? Again, we’re always trying to find new and exciting ways to engage with our followers, and giving away stuff is a great way to get attention.

If you’re

hosting fun, entertaining contests

, you’re going to organically grow your following because people are going to share the Discord server.

10. Other Various Discord Bots

While this isn’t one specific bot, you can search for additional bots that can fit your marketing needs at

top.gg

. But use caution while searching.

This is a list of bots made by almost anyone, so make sure to review it carefully before using it for your marketing.

How to Add a Bot

Once you’ve figured out what Discord bots you want to add to your channel, you’ll want to find them using an online bot list (like the one mentioned in #10) or with a simple Google search.

From there, you’ll look for the invite or add button and choose which server you want to add the bot to. Remember that you can only do this for the servers where you have admin or moderator access.

Once the bot is done uploading on the server, you should be able to use it immediately with a series of commands. When you want to remove a bot, you can right-click on it on the server member list and click kick or ban.

Conclusion

Using Discord bots is a unique but powerful digital marketing strategy that we could all benefit from. As marketers, we must stay on the cutting edge of

new trends

and focus on up-and-coming platforms.

Discord is growing rapidly in the gaming and technology community, so if you’re in those niches, you’ll likely reap many rewards from using Discord bots. If you need help locating, installing, or implementing these strategies, we have plenty of

resources

to lend a hand.

Do you use Discord for digital marketing? If so, do you feel like it has a positive impact on your business?

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Go to Source Author: Neil Patel

[theantisocialcritic]

Archive Project - January 7, 2014 - Most Anticipated 2014

Onto Day 3 of the First Annual Hummy Awards! To paraphrase Moviebob, 2014 looks like it's going to be the year filmmaking forgets. 2015 is shaping up to be the biggest year in film… well maybe ever. Major Blockbuster movies like: Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars: Episode VII, Man of Steel 2, Ant-Man, Jurassic World, Fantastic Four and Fast & Furious 7 will be hitting the big screens. This year is the red carpet to next year's big Blockbuster Blowout but from the looks of it, it will be a fun walk into 2015!

Here I have assembled a list of some of this years biggest movies! Lets see what 2014 has to offer!

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Upcoming Films in the Immediate Future! ————————————————————————————————————————— Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit  1/17 Hunt for Red October is one of my favorite books and movies! An awesome cold war espionage tale with a message on Soviet Communism. In the next two weeks we will be given a reboot of Red October's main character, Jack Ryan with Chris Pine dealing with his first mission. Given the circumstances of this movie I don't expect something great but i'm assuming if it is successful it will be the means of jumpstarting a franchise. Lets see where this goes…

I, Frankenstein  1/24

Justice League: War  2/4 Warner Bros Animation has been on a roll lately with it's animated movies: The Dark Knight Returns, Superman Unbound and The Flashpoint Paradox. I have a lot of confidence with them as they do the origin of the Justice League on this straight to video adaption!

The Monuments Men  2/7 Really cool concept and a lot of talent being put into this movie. Definitely worth a look!

The Lego Movie  2/7 This seems dumb, but also very awesome! CGI animation being made to look like LEGOs, from the animation team that made Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and that appears to be genuinely funny. Sign me up!

Robocop  2/12 Robocop is a classic. Rebooting it is probably a bad idea. This could go either way but i'm still excited to see this!

Son of God  2/28 The Bible really is a good source for potential storytelling for film. Unfortunately not a lot of movies about them get made. This one slipped through the cracks and it appears to be pretty interesting!

Mr. Peabody and Sherman  3/7 This movie offends my childhood on a deep personal level. I grew up watching Rock and Bullwinkle cartoons. THAT BEING SAID. It can't be worse than the Rock and Bullwinkle movie and if it's at least funny I MIGHT give it a pass.

Grand Budapest Hotel  3/7

Need for Speed  3/14 A movie adaption of a video game that isn't really story driven that looks surprisingly similar to Fast and Furious. Lets see...

Muppets Most Wanted  3/21 Your thoughts on this movie begin and end with the title...

Noah  3/28 Speaking of Bible movies.. Who's up for a little blasphemy? Russell Crowe apparently..

Captain America: Winter Soldier 4/4 YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES.

Heaven is for Real  4/16 Based on the, i'm assuming, successful book, this Christian film looks to be a pretty cool drama with a lot of heart!

Transcendence  4/25 Johnny Dep is in this movie and it's not Jack Sparrow. Thats about all you need to know.

Earth to Echo  4/-- We don't know much about this film yet other than the title and general release date but it sounds pretty awesome!

—————————————————————————————————————————

Blockbuster Season 2014 ————————————————————————————————————————— Amazing Spiderman 2  5/2 I'm a vocal detractor of the first film as a movie that exists only to keep the rights to Spiderman movies from going back to Marvel and that it heavily ripped off a lot from Batman Begins and Twilight (to paraphrase Moviebob, once again..). This movie doesn't look all that great but its a Spiderman movie and i'd at least say its worth seeing once.

Godzilla  5/16 HOLY CRAP THE TRAILER IS AWESOME!!

X-Men: Days of Future Past  5/23 The X-Men movie's current mission statement is the wipe away X-Men Last Stand and X-Men Origins out of the movie's canon and it appears that this movie is one of the last steps to fulfilling the mission they set in X-Men First Class. I'm very excited for this!

A Million Ways to Die in the West  5/30 If your a fan of Family Guy and Ted than this is a movie that should interest you! Seth MacFarlane directs and stars in this comedy-western, along side Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson and Neil Patrick Harris.

Malieficent  5/30 Live action prequel into Disney's classic Sleeping Beauty? Hmm. Interesting.

Edge of Tomorrow  6/6 Tom Cruise stars in an action movie….. YAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYY!!!!

How to Train Your Dragon 2  6/13 This is one of the coolest concepts to a sequel i've heard in a long time! The first movie is a great animated film and i'm very excited for this!

Transformers Age of Extinction  6/27 LeBuff is gone! The transformers are redesigned! The Dinobots are showing up! If we are lucky this should at least match the quality of the first Transformers movie!

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes  7/11 Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a surprisingly great movie that in hindsight shouldn't have worked as well as it did. It ended up being one of the most notable Science Fiction films of this decade and a well done character drama. And now we get a direct sequel that ties that movie in with the classic Planet of the Apes movies! Thats something to get excited about!

Guardians of the Galaxy  8/1

SPACE AVENGERS! If the end credits scene in Thor: Dark World was any indication, this movie will be one of the most insane things ever put to film. Its the biggest risk Marvel has taken since The Avengers and some of the characters, despite their comic book origins, seem too weird for any film out of context: namely Vin Diesel as Groot the Tree and a Raccoon that runs around with Rocket Launchers!

TMNT  8/8 If I cared about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles i'd probably be offended by this. Whatever, this film is set to be a very notable film in any case.

—————————————————————————————————————————

Fall 2014 ————————————————————————————————————————— Intersteller  11/7 Christopher Nolan is a great director and this film looks to be his most original film since Inception and as his first venture after the conclusion of the Dark Knight Trilogy, its definitely notable!

Big Hero 6  11/7 Disney's first take at an animated Marvel movie! In the wake of Frozen and Wreck it Ralph, I could not be more excited!!

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1  11/21 I really liked Catching Fire and i'm excited to see how the series plans to start finishing it's story.

The Hobbit: There and Back Again  12/17 Finally ending 2014 with a bang is the long awaited third part to Peter Jackson's trilogy based off of The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein. If you DON'T know why this is a big deal than I DEMAND you go check out the first two Hobbit movies RIGHT NOW. Watch Lord of the Rings while your at it!!

—————————————————————————————————————————

And my personal pick for most anticipated movie of 2014 is…

of course..

Captain America: The Winter Soldier!!

Based on the famed Winter Soldier arc from the more recent Captain America Comic books, the choice of bringing the Winter Soldier into the Marvel universe brings forth a lot of interesting possibilities for upcoming stories concerning Captain America and their universe. This movie has me more excited than any other this year!

Runner-Up: Guardians of the Galaxy

—————————————————————————————————————————

—————————————————————————————————————————

For more on upcoming movies in 2014, Check out Moviebob at the Escaptist http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/moviebob/10862-Here-Comes-2014#HHbbGGGE1AQoZTP8.99

Thank you very much for reading!

Live long and prosper!