#but aside from that claptrap

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

The other thing I think the early Midsomer Murder seasons did well (for its many, many faults), are ugly fearsome women and, also, women’s relationships with each other

I think they hit high notes on both fronts and I appreciate it for that

[bloodandfleshautism]

just watched the borderlands movie and the only good part was that krieg’s little harness thingo lowkey looked like a very skimpy little bra thing sometimes

he needs some back support with those jugs ofc

[krotiation]

sorry im about to vent off topic :i s2g if they hint on handsome jack in the movie and it is NOT dameon clarke im gonna lose my marbles. I feel like when they look at the success of the characters as well the VAs do so much heavy lifting to giving life to these characters. why they didnt just use the VA for Claptrap from B3 is beyond me why did it need to be someone else so it doesnt even sound right - they def went for name recongition over matching the characters - kevin hart is so tiny hes such a small dude and roland is large and also if roland is alive wouldnt thta imply that jack's also alive. like handsome jack is so successful because of dameon. he gave so many off the cuff lines. and if they wnated to make a movie why would they not choose the tales gang if thats the one that gave them so much credit? sorry i have so many feelings and i, also so SICK of seeing tiny tina bein g used for literally every borderlands merch thing recently

I'm fine with actors putting their own spin on characters they play and seeing how their writing can be interpreted differently but with handsome jack it becomes really tricky cause like... dameon clarke MADE jack who he is. Like a lot of people credit him for how good of a character he is so whoever WOULD play jack would have a whole lot of expectations to match. We already hate the casting (which is 100% just to get attention instead of accurately portraying the characters) so imagine how much more we would hate it if they messed jack up

Overall the whole movie just adds to what I said about gbox being out of touch with the fandom. We got randy already claiming he wants to make a sequel when the whole fanbase has voiced concern and disinterest about the movie just based on the trailers and they're just really trying to force lilith and tina to be fan favorites when they're... not? Like I love them, especially lilith like that's my homegirl right there, but the fandom as a whole would disagree that they're even well-liked characters

[apocalyptic-dancehall]

say what you want about borderlands 3 but at least the skins aren't model recolors

[enigmatist17]

So I did go see the Borderlands movie this morning, and holy cannoli, it was a flaming dumpster fire of a movie. Spoilers about below just FYI

However!

Kevin Hart ended up being one of the saving graces when I thought he would be the worst of the lot! Sure, he doesn't physically embody Roland from the games, but performance and combat-wise, he was very solid! Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis was alright as well. She nailed a lot of Tannis' mannerisms to a T, and overall, unlike Lilith and Moxxi, I didn't mind her being aged up. Kreig was great despite being pretty much silent most of the game, and looked like he'd been quite literally pulled right out of the game and dropped into the movie.

Tina was very meh, it's like they wanted her to me more unhinged but restrained themselves at the last moment, and it doesn't work in the Borderlands world. They also had this thing where she's really a clone of a supposed "Daughter of Eridium", whatever the hell that means??? I think if it had been rated R or unrated like it should have been, Tina would have made more of an impact, but she just ended up being very meh.

Lilith was...well, I'm not sure. Most of the movie kinda centers around her backstory/her mom, which tbh is not what I wanted to see from a Borderlands movie? Like seeing some twists about Pandora/her being older was fine, but to have almost everyone fawning over her/her mother got old super quick, and they waited until the end for her to be the badass siren we all know and love??? I'm not the biggest Lilith fan, but Cate did her best with a script that couldn't decide if they wanted Lilith to be an asshole or sympathetic, which for an actor who's played/loves the games, has to suck :/

Jack Black was not great, and to find out he VA'd the Claptrap lines before they started filming makes his odd detachment make so much freaking sense. It always felt like Claptrap was just slightly removed from everything, and I couldn't nail down why until I googled that midway through the movie (which btw my sister, a friend, and I were the only ones in it lol). They should have just gotten the VA for him, Jack was not it :/

The CGI was either really good or really bad, and Lilith's wig did not blend in with any of it at all lmao. The sets/Pandora/costumes, aside from Tina's, were pretty damn good, but where it really shined was the guns. I could literally point out specific guns and their manufacturers despite all the motion of combat, and to be able to do that for even a casual gamer? Loved it.

Sadly though, despite them having been credited for months leading up tot he film, Hammerlock, Wainwright, Ellie and Scooter all got cut from the movie and it's a fucking travesty. I was kind of hoping Hammerlock would kick ass, but to get to the end and find out the asshat who ruined this movie said "oh they were gone for pacing" made me SO mad.

THEY FILMED A WEDDING SCENE YOU ASSHAT, I WANT THAT FOOTAGE AND I WANT IT NOW

Overall, my score is a 1.5/10

[thirtysixsavefiles]

@callmearcturus replied to your post “well I have. watched the Borderlands movie.”:

oh g-d. wh.... how. um. anything?

​It was bad. Like adaptation issues aside (which were also bad), this was just a badly made movie. The characterization fell flat. The pacing was all off. Nothing had weight. The final boss fight confrontation felt like it went on for 8234343 years.

And as for an adaption — well it was a movie made under the shadow of Handsome Jack, you know?

Spoilers for anyone who minds underneath the cut. TL;DR this movie isn't worth it.

So the plot of this movie mashes together BL1 and BL2 in ways that don't, imo, serve the narrative at all. Tiny Tina gets the Angel treatment, with her father, Dekayrios (sp? the internet doesn't even care about his first name) Atlas having cloned her with Eridian blood. Atlas is a bargain-basement Handsome Jack who attempts none of the humor and at best a quarter of the menace. He slow claps twice.

Lilith is the pov character and nothing about Sirens is mentioned until about 95% of the way through the movie. Cate Blanchett is all right at being Lilith but her wig is bad. Kevin Hart is simply unconvincing at being Roland. Moxxie was physically hard to watch. Claptrap fell flat. Krieg was probably the best realization and he was wearing a mask the whole time. The actors are clearly phoning it in and honestly who can blame them.

There were some fun little details in the background — mostly the names of corporations and gun manufacturers. The Atlas tech was good. And at least there were tentacles in the vault, eventually. Someone got that detail right.

But when I say this was made underneath the shadow of Handsome Jack — like it's hard to revisit this series and not think of him, you know? So it's like they took pieces from each story line and said "close enough" and it really, really, wasn't.

[laurarolla]

About halfway through the Borderlands The Pre-Sequel campaign. Keep in mind I have not played any other game in the series except a little bit of the first game back when it came out. I do, however, know who some of these characters are and what happens to some extent in BL2. I'm not talking about gameplay in this post, just story, which is good because the story and atmosphere are the best parts of the game.

So, am I ever supposed to feel a little bad for Jack? Because if I am, mission failed because Jack is just a top tier piece of crap right from the start. He comes across as a spoiled brat and, at best, woefully naive about everything. He has a singleminded focus on whatever goal he's pursuing, he has absolutely no respect for anyone and comes across as a somewhat self-aware asshole with most of his dialogue. The only time he seems to have really shown any compassion was to Felicity, but what he ordered done to her...

On the other hand, Moxxi is a fun enough character, Roland and Lilith come across as pretty average mercenary minded folks, Janey is great, every Claptrap so far has been a delight, and Zarpedon is around just enough to be a likeable antagonist (at the moment). As an aside, I do think that Jack is well written to become exactly the character he will be in Borderlands 2, and Felicity is a solidly tragic character despite not having much screen time. I'm enjoying the stories, the characters, and the vibe of the game. I'll have my thoughts on the gameplay organized when I finish the story (and maybe the DLC)

[meowmeowuchiha]

Ranting about the new Borderlands movie under the cut

Okay I'm just gonna say it

The Borderlands movie trailer? Doesn't look AS BAD as I thought it would, but still awful.

Most of the characters are extremely miscast

But honestly? I don't think Kevin Hart is that terrible of a miscast.

If it was Borderlands 2 and pre sequel Roland then yeah he'd be awful and I feel like that's what most people are thinking of.

But if you're going based off of first game Roland? He's not that bad. Just listen to the voice lines from Roland from the first game. Can find it on YouTube easy enough.

On to everyone else!!

Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina: Honestly, I'm gonna just say that it's both miscast and miswritten, but I acknowledge that it's probably gonna be pretty damn hard to find someone who could pass as a younger teenager (since Tina in the 2nd game is 13) who could also feasibly act as Tina. She's a very very unique character and I feel like acting as her, even if she WAS written properly, would be incredibly difficult. Getting that combination of batshit insane, childish naivety, and actually knowing what she's doing would be TOUGH. Ariana Greenblatt, from what I've seen, does well enough as bratty snarky teens. Tina was written as that for some god forsaken reason.

JLC as Tannis (aside from the fact that JLC is a fucking zionist. I'm only critiquing casting based on how they are as actors, not whether or not they're decent people.) isn't...terrible? It's odd, and I can't give a definitive opinion on it because hardly anything is heard from her in the trailer.

Jack Black as Claptrap: Honestly, personality wise, not a bad fit for Claptrap. However, voice wise, absolutely a terrible fit. Claptrap's voice I'd supposed to be shrill, nasally, and just overall ear grating. That's part of his CHARM. The rest of the fault in how awful they did with Claptrap lies in the writing. I will admit, I'm not certain who I would've cast as Claptrap instead, but I at the very least would have tried to see if Jack Black could try and at least imitate Claptrap's voice??? Or just...like I said, found someone better.

Cate Blanchett as Lilith: Yeeeaaaah, very miscast. I'm not even all that upset by the age thing. That's like....a tiny tiny gripe that tbh I think people are focusing way too much on. When the real problem is the fact that Lilith was HORRIBLY written for the movie. Lilith, in the games, is this hotheaded, snarky, cocky woman. She's the woman who's told "hey, for strategy reasons, we need you to stay behind for this fight" and responds with "no I'm going >:(" and shows up anyways. She's the one who goes "I...liquefied a guy. It was AWESOME!! This eridium stuff is the TITS!!!". She is not the stone cold badass bitch that she seems to be in the movie. I will admit, I haven't seen anywhere NEAR Cate Blanchett's full filmography. I've only seen a tiny handful of movies. But from the ones I've seen, she doesn't tend to play characters like Lilith. Her characters tend to be more serious. Less snarky and sarcastic. She just....doesn't seem to fit in the Borderlands universe at all really to me??? She'd be miscast in pretty much any role. The only one I could MAYBE see her managing would be like....Athena. Again, not her fault, just...the vibes. Lilith was terribly written for the movie, and was also terribly miscast.

I can't really say anything regarding anyone else, as I didn't really see enough of them to form even the barest hint of an opinion. Either way, the movie is going to be awful, even if it might not be as terrible as I'd thought it would be before the trailer.

If you're gonna watch it, pirate it if you care about Palestine. The director and at least a couple of the actors (JLC, Edgar Ramirez) are zionists, and yet more of them (Jack Black, Gina Gershon) are of the mind that it's a two sided conflict and they want both sides to make peace and their hearts go out to both sides.

[anthonybialy]

Mortgaged Economy

You have to respect Democratic dedication.  Wait: no you don’t.  Permanent remedial students adhere to the worst ideas possible in an illustration of commitment’s downside.  The slowest learners don’t even mean to help with a bad example to avoid.

Doing more of what’s wrong will surely help if we believe strongly enough.  Some diabolical capitalists must not be mustering sufficient faith, which is why printing more money isn’t making everyone wealthier.

Giving you money to buy a house sounds great.  They’re expensive, after all, what with the walls and plumbing.  Prices are especially high recently for mysterious cursed reasons.  It’s much better to not pay, which is where Kamala Harris swoops in to save the economy and sanity with a coupon for $25,000 off a house.  The money is free because it’s from the government.  Why do houses suddenly cost $25,000 more?

Deciding how much something should cost is only okay when the government imposes.  Punishing businesses for the crime of being too good at it is the very fair approach Democrats use to encourage progress.  The Berlin Wall just wasn’t high enough.

Ranting against decadent success is the America-haters’ version of the American way.  Taking the free in markets the wrong way may not be sufficient deterrent against selling something customers want so badly that they’ll trade money.  That gets expensive.  But it’s nothing compared to government declaring you can take what you wish.  Trade is voluntary, which enrages coercion fans as much as gun ownership.  Buy a firearm to really enrage the White House.

An item on a shelf may cost a different amount tomorrow.  This whole supply and demand scheme leads to uncertainty.  Aspiring president Harris needs you to put her in charge so she can enact price controls, which work great except for how they don’t control prices.  But at least she’d get to tell you what to do, and you’ve certainly noticed how much smarter she is than you.

Timing is everything.  It’s astounding how corporations discovered greed as soon as liberals got their way.  Demonizing their victims in that charming Democratic style is their way of avoiding blame, which also explains why they’re sympathetic to muggers and not those relieved of property. 

This is not the federal landlord’s first attempt to create homeless paired with vacancy.  That may not be their stated goal, but it is the result.  Things didn’t turn out too bad aside from melting down the global economy.  Oh, and fewer people had homes, but anything can look bad if you check it.

Defying reality is for the imaginative.  But the world’s not reacting positively to fantastical Democratic claptrap.  Subprime mortgages were the inspirational attempt to let people who couldn’t afford houses try to buy them.  We shouldn’t have even rented the notion.  Trying more of what caused awfulness will surely expand the square footage.

These should be pleasing times, what with the kindly government buying us whatever we’d like.  Yet acting like our grandparents hasn’t helped the case for replacing families.  

Evading cruel prices was supposed to enrich life without money. The ability to live without spending somehow didn’t allow us to finally focus on our boutique pottery business instead of some boring job with a desk that leads to sales.  Attempting to evade life’s expenses is sadly predictable.  The White House has pulled off the reverse miracle of turning money into something that buys nothing.

It takes a visionary to come up with something so simple.  Joe Biden wonders why nobody ever thought of free money when he’s not working on shoelace and bathrobe knots.  Yet his genius wealth plan buys less and less.  We’re not enduring a genie’s curse, as Democratic presidents are unable to grant wishes despite their claims.  I’m starting to suspect they don’t dwell in lamps, either.

It’s tough for Trump devotees to indulge in their propensity for announcing everyone other than them sucks when they believe in slightly different sucky things.  Republicans head forward and back to the ‘30s with their embrace of tariffs.  The same conglomerates Democrats hate for dealing with their policies will merely pass along Trump’s charge to the consumer.  They’re tricky with the loophole.

Ban raising prices next to be bipartisan in defiance of gouging.  Either way, take comfort in knowing we’re going to end up with a president who will do everything possible to raise prices.

The willful ignorance required to pretend government gets us good deals on anything seems like personal contests to test the limits of daftness.  Wondering how long before we hit rock bottom offers the only surprise.  Even Argentina decided they wanted to stop being silly, and the fact we aspire to one day have as strong an economy as one of South America’s most historically silly enclaves apparently hasn’t created enough shame.

A lack of empathy defines those who boast of caring.  It’s possible to understand how free markets work without running a business just like Brian Wilson could capture surfing’s spirit despite trying the tricky sport one time.  By contrast, Democrats got into politics precisely because they’re unable to profit by creating value.

Kamala is running against the current president.  Her campaign against whichever big meanie made cookies an unobtainable luxury makes zero sense considering her present job, but neither does anything else she claims.  Running to reverse the deleterious policies of this criminally stupid White House doesn’t work unless she was a saboteur the whole time, and her destructiveness is inadvertent.

Never learning is crucial to those who know everything.  Just ask them.  Their habit of ruining everything in the same way every time just means we’re due for a different outcome.  Boring life leads to the same thing every time.  Failing to learn patterns would mean they didn’t know best how to run your life, and that can’t be right.

[atotc-weekly]

Book the Second—The Golden Thread

[X] Chapter XX. A Plea

When the newly-married pair came home, the first person who appeared, to offer his congratulations, was Sydney Carton. They had not been at home many hours, when he presented himself. He was not improved in habits, or in looks, or in manner; but there was a certain rugged air of fidelity about him, which was new to the observation of Charles Darnay.

He watched his opportunity of taking Darnay aside into a window, and of speaking to him when no one overheard.

“Mr. Darnay,” said Carton, “I wish we might be friends.”

“We are already friends, I hope.”

“You are good enough to say so, as a fashion of speech; but, I don’t mean any fashion of speech. Indeed, when I say I wish we might be friends, I scarcely mean quite that, either.”

Charles Darnay—as was natural—asked him, in all good-humour and good-fellowship, what he did mean?

“Upon my life,” said Carton, smiling, “I find that easier to comprehend in my own mind, than to convey to yours. However, let me try. You remember a certain famous occasion when I was more drunk than—than usual?”

“I remember a certain famous occasion when you forced me to confess that you had been drinking.”

“I remember it too. The curse of those occasions is heavy upon me, for I always remember them. I hope it may be taken into account one day, when all days are at an end for me! Don’t be alarmed; I am not going to preach.”

“I am not at all alarmed. Earnestness in you, is anything but alarming to me.”

“Ah!” said Carton, with a careless wave of his hand, as if he waved that away. “On the drunken occasion in question (one of a large number, as you know), I was insufferable about liking you, and not liking you. I wish you would forget it.”

“I forgot it long ago.”

“Fashion of speech again! But, Mr. Darnay, oblivion is not so easy to me, as you represent it to be to you. I have by no means forgotten it, and a light answer does not help me to forget it.”

“If it was a light answer,” returned Darnay, “I beg your forgiveness for it. I had no other object than to turn a slight thing, which, to my surprise, seems to trouble you too much, aside. I declare to you, on the faith of a gentleman, that I have long dismissed it from my mind. Good Heaven, what was there to dismiss! Have I had nothing more important to remember, in the great service you rendered me that day?”

“As to the great service,” said Carton, “I am bound to avow to you, when you speak of it in that way, that it was mere professional claptrap, I don’t know that I cared what became of you, when I rendered it.—Mind! I say when I rendered it; I am speaking of the past.”

“You make light of the obligation,” returned Darnay, “but I will not quarrel with your light answer.”

“Genuine truth, Mr. Darnay, trust me! I have gone aside from my purpose; I was speaking about our being friends. Now, you know me; you know I am incapable of all the higher and better flights of men. If you doubt it, ask Stryver, and he’ll tell you so.”

“I prefer to form my own opinion, without the aid of his.”

“Well! At any rate you know me as a dissolute dog, who has never done any good, and never will.”

“I don’t know that you ‘never will.’”

“But I do, and you must take my word for it. Well! If you could endure to have such a worthless fellow, and a fellow of such indifferent reputation, coming and going at odd times, I should ask that I might be permitted to come and go as a privileged person here; that I might be regarded as an useless (and I would add, if it were not for the resemblance I detected between you and me, an unornamental) piece of furniture, tolerated for its old service, and taken no notice of. I doubt if I should abuse the permission. It is a hundred to one if I should avail myself of it four times in a year. It would satisfy me, I dare say, to know that I had it.”

“Will you try?”

“That is another way of saying that I am placed on the footing I have indicated. I thank you, Darnay. I may use that freedom with your name?”

“I think so, Carton, by this time.”

They shook hands upon it, and Sydney turned away. Within a minute afterwards, he was, to all outward appearance, as unsubstantial as ever.

When he was gone, and in the course of an evening passed with Miss Pross, the Doctor, and Mr. Lorry, Charles Darnay made some mention of this conversation in general terms, and spoke of Sydney Carton as a problem of carelessness and recklessness. He spoke of him, in short, not bitterly or meaning to bear hard upon him, but as anybody might who saw him as he showed himself.

He had no idea that this could dwell in the thoughts of his fair young wife; but, when he afterwards joined her in their own rooms, he found her waiting for him with the old pretty lifting of the forehead strongly marked.

“We are thoughtful to-night!” said Darnay, drawing his arm about her.

“Yes, dearest Charles,” with her hands on his breast, and the inquiring and attentive expression fixed upon him; “we are rather thoughtful to-night, for we have something on our mind to-night.”

“What is it, my Lucie?”

“Will you promise not to press one question on me, if I beg you not to ask it?”

“Will I promise? What will I not promise to my Love?”

What, indeed, with his hand putting aside the golden hair from the cheek, and his other hand against the heart that beat for him!

“I think, Charles, poor Mr. Carton deserves more consideration and respect than you expressed for him to-night.”

“Indeed, my own? Why so?”

“That is what you are not to ask me. But I think—I know—he does.”

“If you know it, it is enough. What would you have me do, my Life?”

“I would ask you, dearest, to be very generous with him always, and very lenient on his faults when he is not by. I would ask you to believe that he has a heart he very, very seldom reveals, and that there are deep wounds in it. My dear, I have seen it bleeding.”

“It is a painful reflection to me,” said Charles Darnay, quite astounded, “that I should have done him any wrong. I never thought this of him.”

“My husband, it is so. I fear he is not to be reclaimed; there is scarcely a hope that anything in his character or fortunes is reparable now. But, I am sure that he is capable of good things, gentle things, even magnanimous things.”

She looked so beautiful in the purity of her faith in this lost man, that her husband could have looked at her as she was for hours.

“And, O my dearest Love!” she urged, clinging nearer to him, laying her head upon his breast, and raising her eyes to his, “remember how strong we are in our happiness, and how weak he is in his misery!”

The supplication touched him home. “I will always remember it, dear Heart! I will remember it as long as I live.”

He bent over the golden head, and put the rosy lips to his, and folded her in his arms. If one forlorn wanderer then pacing the dark streets, could have heard her innocent disclosure, and could have seen the drops of pity kissed away by her husband from the soft blue eyes so loving of that husband, he might have cried to the night—and the words would not have parted from his lips for the first time—

“God bless her for her sweet compassion!”

[fairysylveon]

Bl ask: who did you play the most in bl1?

What's your fav dlc and why?

What mob do you despise the most?

OOH fun questions!

who did you play the most in bl1? mordecai! I tend to play whichever class has a little helper that comes and fights with you. bloodwing's ai is a little funny/frustrating but once you get her to attack multiple people + a 1 sec cooldown, she's pretty good. (didn't know what pronouns to use for a bird that changes sexes so I just went with the most recent ones lskdfslj)

what's your fav dlc and why? I LOVED claptastic, it's just so fun as a concept and imo really humanizes claptrap a lot in a way I didn't expect, which I love. also mainframe is so catchy and fun to sing idc what anyone says LOL but I also can't answer this question without mentioning jackpot, the aesthetic and the characters (I love freddie and ember so much) and showing me My Boy again definitely deserves a mention. for bl2 it's probably captain scarlett

what mob do you despise the most? CURSED PIRATES. bastards. aside from them, spiderants, nomads, basically anything that's harder to shoot/you HAVE to hit its crit spot OR anything that pulls you in towards it.

[talkingpointsusa]

Dave Rubin has absolutely no idea what he's talking about exhibit #1246

For the sake of my own sanity I haven't watched a "Rubin Report" for a while. Unfortunately for that aforementioned sanity, Dave Rubin's response to the Trump Trial was so absolutely asinine that I felt like I had no choice but to immortalize it here on the blog. Lets get into it.

02:07, Dave Rubin: "As always I'm going to try to do this in the most honest way possible but my sort of bumper sticker on all of this would be that it does not matter whether you like Donald Trump, whether you hate Donald Trump, whether you begrudgingly were gonna vote for Donald Trump or you just were sort of on the fence or whatever -- wherever you fall on that chart it just simply does not matter at that moment."

Dave Rubin and "doing this in the most honest way possible" do not belong in the same sentence. Leaving that aside, I'm sad to report that America is over. If you live in America, it's time to pack it up and leave.

03:03, Dave Rubin: "I think for those of you that watch this show often you know that I don't do like, the constant alarmist stuff, I actually try to do the reverse of that. But we could be heading there and for all of the other things that are wrong in the country right now whether it's immigration or the economy or all of the woke crap and everything else like, if we allow what seems to be happening right now to happen and Donald Trump ends up in jail or is not the nominee it's kind of over."

Dave Rubin, one of the all time greats in the field of spewing alarmist claptrap, claims that he's above alarmism and then promptly declares that America as we know it has ended because a politician that he likes was convicted of a crime by a jury of his peers. Dave reads a bit from a Daily Wire article about the conviction and then rants a bit more.

06:06, Dave Rubin: "So we're gonna get to some video in just a second of Donald Trump's press conference from this morning. We'll show you that, two and a half minutes unedited."

I've said it once and I'll say it again, Dave Rubin's show is basically a clip show where Dave occasionally mumbles something resembling a position between clips. A reactionary reaction channel if you will. That would be fine if Dave Rubin actually did research every once and a while but, as you'll see later on, Dave Rubin and research go together like oil and water.

07:58, Dave Rubin: "If we do this here in New York, OK so in New York they will take out the Republicans cause New York is largely a Democrat state, well in Florida they'll start taking out the Democrats."

So, you admit that your side is going to clog up the justice system with pointless cases because your side wants revenge. The primary driving force behind the thing that Dave is talking about is the Republican Party trying to get "revenge" on the Democrats even though the Biden administration had nothing to do with the prosecution. If you don't believe me, just ask Matt Walsh who was advocating for that very thing on his Friday show.

Dave lives up to his promise and plays some of Donald Trump's press conference. The press conference was filled to the brim with false claims and if you want to read more about them take a look at this article here. In the meantime, we're here to fact-check Dave Rubin who's just so....utterly daft.

12:25, Dave Rubin: "He could be playing with his grandkids and spending the rest of his days on a golf course but he's doing what I think is right and for whatever his flaws are and all of that stuff it's actually all irrelevant at this point."

Trump's "flaws" should be really really relevant to Dave Rubin since they concern his marriage and his children. Dave Rubin is a gay man who has children through surrogacy, which is great and I'm happy for him and his family. What's not so great is that Dave is advocating for a party that wants to take his right to have kids and be married away from him and every other gay man in America.

Project 2025 has outlined that the government should only recognize marriages between a male and a female and has called for the end of surrogacy. Key figures who were involved in the writing of Project 2025 have close ties to Donald Trump and the RNC. If Dave wasn't so intent on selling out his fellow LGBTQ people for cash and clicks to the point where he's willfully blinded himself to reality, he should probably be extremely concerned about Trump's rhetoric around his own rights.

13:15, Dave Rubin: "So Donald Trump is going to be in jail. I don't know how quickly you end up in jail, is it the next day? I'm not sure the mechanisms on that but again the RNC, the convention, is like a week and a half later."

The offence that Trump was found guilty of doesn't require Trump to go to jail immediately after he's found guilty. Call me back when sentencing is done.

14:24, Dave Rubin: "Like, most people realize that the country is in trouble right now. The seven to ten million illegals, the sanctuary cities, the crime, the drugs, all of that. Does putting Donald Trump in jail or going through this clown circus that we are going through -- does this solve anything, does this make anyone's life better?"

It makes Dave Rubin's life better because he can use it to try and sucker conservatives on YouTube into watching his show using clickbait. In all seriousness, I don't know what Dave Rubin's point is. Is the court systems purpose to solve the often nonexistent or exaggerated problems posed by conservative media? Believe it or not New York does not have jurisdiction over the border nor can it single handedly fix America's drug problems.

Here comes one of the dumbest things you will hear this month, brace yourself.

17:34, Dave Rubin: "By the way, the Supreme Court of New York that they're gonna appeal - they're gonna file the appeal to go to the supreme court of New York because it's a New York trial. We showed you video about a month ago, its five black women because of diversity. Now, oddly the diversity that they care about is always about skin color, somehow the lefts diversity ends up with five black women being in charge of the Supreme Court of New York."

This is one of those statements that's so obscenely stupid that anyone who wants to talk about the news and repeats it to others should be absolutely ashamed.

First of all, they're not going to appeal this in the Supreme Court. In New York, the Supreme Court is the trial court whereas the Appeals Court is the highest court in the state. This is an extremely basic fact about the New York judicial system and it's completely unacceptable for somebody posing as a reputable source of news to get that fact wrong.

Honestly, Dave does not have his facts straight about any of the things that he is saying in this video and what he's doing is totally unacceptable conduct for a journalist or even a political commentator if Dave wants to call himself that. The New York Appellate Court is comprised of 21 individuals, many of whom aren't black females, the ones who are earned that position due to their legal experience. What Dave is basing his lie on is the fact that February 14th 2024 was the first time that 5 black female judges comprised a five person panel. This was something that only happened during one case for one day - not a permanent thing.

Dave Rubin seems to think that "the left" just appoints justices and focuses on appointing minorities because of DEI/ whatever thing that Dave's using to piss his audience off this week. What Dave seems to be missing here is that in the state of New York Supreme Court Justices are actually elected by the voters of the judicial district that they serve.

In short, Dave Rubin is a complete moron who is just pulling stuff out of his ass and that's readily apparent just by how absolutely wrong that entire statement was.

17:58, Dave Rubin: "I don't know all of their judicial beliefs, these five women, but do you think that they probably think similar things and they probably don't like Donald Trump and that's probably how they got the job in the first place. Like, do you think? Is that a crazy conspiracy theory?"

Not a crazy one, just an extremely stupid one being spun by an extremely lazy man who doesn't know the basic facts about what he's talking about and seems to hold the prejudiced belief that all females of color are a net entity that think in the exact same manner.

In the world according to Dave Rubin, Supreme Court justices in New York go through a job interview where the only question is "Do you hate Trump?" and are selected on a purely racial basis.

18:29, Dave Rubin: "The entire system, COVID, kept crashing down on him and he fought to the best of his ability, his imperfect ability and now things are worse."

When I was younger we called what Dave is talking about "being a terrible president". Anyway, Dave has a challenge for his audience.

19:31, Dave Rubin: "Find me a decent Democrat with a following who is a Joe Biden supporter who believes this is good, I will do a live debate with any of them, any of them. And that is a promise."

Dave Rubin, who has notoriously avoided debates with serious people, has issued the challenge. I'm going to keep this promise in mind the next time he turns a notable leftist down for a debate.

Dave proceeds to read an entire tweet from his hero Ron Desantis. Honestly, this is a pretty good encapsulation of what watching Dave Rubin is like. He reads paragraph long tweets for two minutes, follows it up by simply saying "oh that's exactly right" and then moving on. Like I've said before, Dave Rubin is the laziest man in conservative media. Yes, all of them are pretty damn lazy but Dave Rubin regularly takes that laziness to comedic extremes. It would be funny if people didn't take him seriously.

21:57, Dave Rubin: "What else has Alvin Bragg done in New York? Well you guys know what he's done in New York, he's allowed criminals to run the city."

Crime in New York City has been trending downward this year so this statement is just another statement based entirely on Dave's feelings an narratives and not based on the actual facts and data. Seriously, Dave Rubin's been operating out of another universe these days. Dave proceeds to read another paragraph long tweet from RFK Jr because we've got to pad this video out somehow.

24:42, Dave Rubin: "You may not agree with RFK on all of that and that's just fine but he represents what the Democrats used to be and what they are no longer."

RFK is pretty right-leaning and that's pretty obvious to anybody who looks at his statements and policy objectively. Also, "used to be and are no longer" is an extremely redundant sentence.

25:07, Dave Rubin: "Look at what this evil progressive authoritarian machine has done, it has destroyed so much of our institutional value in this country by destroying our universities and brainwashing a bunch of kids to think that America is fundamentally evil and that their genitals don't match their gender and all of that and now it's on the verge of impeaching Donald Trump who is the leading candidate in virtually every poll."

I've said this a million times but these guys have absolutely zero idea of what people actually do when they go to university. Engineering students aren't reading the communist manifesto and not a single professor in the country is trying to convince their poor sweet innocent cisgender students that they're actually transgender. While right-wing transphobia is always extremely infuriating, I find it twice as infuriating coming from the mouth of someone who is a member of the LGBTQ community whether he likes it or not. The thing that Dave seems to forget is that in the days before the far-rights narrative was "they're turning the kids trans" it was "they're turning the kids gay".

So, a majority of this episode of "The Rubin Report" is devoted to an AMA and we will be looking at none of it. I really could care less about Dave responding to questions.

Conclusion:

Well, that was a look into how Dave Rubin is taking the Trump trial. Mostly just him getting racist about the New York Supreme Court, an institution which he has absolutely zero understanding of, and making ridiculous and quite frankly bizarre statements with no basis in fact whatsoever.

Cheers and I'll see you in the next one.

Original Video:

The Rubin Report. “Trump Found Guilty, This Is What Happens Next.” YouTube, 31 May 2024.

Sources:

Dale, Daniel. “Fact Check: Trump’s Post-Conviction Monologue Was Filled with False Claims | CNN Politics.” CNN, 31 May 2024.

“How a Second Trump Presidency Could Impact the LGBTQ+ Community.” PBS NewsHour, 27 Mar. 2024, www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-a-second-trump-presidency-could-impact-the-lgbtq-community.

“The Appeals Process: New York State Courts.” Kravet & Vogel, LLP, 11 Jan. 2022, kvnylaw.com/the-appeals-process-new-york-state-courts/.

McKay, Morgan. “NYC Officials Announce City Crime “Continues to Trend Downward.”” FOX 5 NY, 3 Apr. 2024, www.fox5ny.com/news/nyc-march-2024-crime-statistics.

[apocalyptic-dancehall]

additional ranty post but UGH c'mon gbx it wasn't that hard to acknowledge the pre-sequel in 3 without

- killing off aurelia SHE HAD A REDEMPTION ARC IN THE MAKING

- turning claptrap into nothing more than a callous meme machine with barely any hints of his old self (i'm restraining myself from screaming about literally everything)

- straight-up sidelining athena, where she came back for a cameo in ntftbl (also she's the new hyperion ceo??? what????)

the only one they did right was timothy which btw thank fucking god.

there could've also been a kinda reunion scene which would've been nice? like... they don't have to do it now but i'd appreciate it

[divinityunleashed]

@ad-simul replied to your post “THIS IS NOT A DRILL CLAPTRAP HAS ARTWORK ON...”:

don't go there... that site is cursed and can be very horny...

​Aside from like, one picture with him and Moxxi, there is actually no 18 rating images of our boy on there.

They're all pretty wholesome pictures.

[mahar123]

Borderlands’ movie adaptation stars Cate Blanchett, Jamie Lee Curtis in sci-fi journey

Borderlands, the video game franchise that defined the looter-shooter genre, is poised to get its own cinematic universe — and it’s about time. All six base games in the series are well-loved by fans for their fantastical lore and quirky characters, who you better believe will be making their on-screen debut with director Eli Roth’s upcoming film adaptation of the franchise.

There’s still a way to go before the film hits theaters this summer. In the meantime, IGN sat down with Roth and Randy Pitchford, founder of Gearbox Entertainment and an executive producer on the movie, to talk all things Borderlands ahead of tomorrow’s first official trailer release.

And if that weren’t enough, IGN can also exclusively reveal the new poster for the Borderlands movie, as shown below.

From the way Pitchford and Roth interact, even on a video call, you’d think they were brothers. They both exude the same fun-loving goofiness that makes Borderlands, well, Borderlands. To me, this was best exemplified by the way the two creative continued to interrupt one another with comedic anecdotes about their time on set.

But jokes aside, the two mesh well on a professional level which bodes well for this video game adaptation. Roth was given extensive creative liberty on the project while Pitchford was on stand-by as a resource to provide deeper insight on the original series.

Obviously, it’s Randy’s baby, it’s his brainchild, and it’s everybody’s brainchild,” Roth said. “You’re stepping into a world that is so beloved and the fans are so hardcore that you think, ‘Okay, well, I really don’t want to screw this up.’”

Thankfully, Pitchford was open to pretty much everything. Roth recalled how Pitchford was even receptive to the idea of keeping Claptrap alive and entertained the Cabin Fever director’s various suggestions for how the robot might be able to expel bullets: “Is it like a tail goes up and… are they little rabbit pellets?”

In truth, it’s a blessing this adaptation was made, and it speaks highly to Pitchford’s faith in Roth as a director. Since the start of his career in the games industry, Pitchford said he’d been turning down requests to adapt his studio’s work into film. Ari Arad, who is now the producer of the upcoming Borderlands movie, came to Pitchford with several iterations of the script before the deal was sealed.

“Finally, we were playing League of Legends together one day, Ari and I. He was the support and I was the ADC,” Pitchford explained. “We were talking on chat, like on Discord, about the possibility of a movie while we were playing.”

(In an ironic twist, the Gearbox Entertainment founder clarified that he was playing as Caitlyn, who he says “was completely ripped off from Mad Maxi from Borderlands, by full comfortable admission of the Riot team.”)

From there, the two began to play video games together frequently, which gave Pitchford the confidence to finally sign off on developing a film adaptation of the Borderlands series. (So I guess business deals don’t happen on the golf course anymore.

As in the game, the upcoming film will take place on the fictional planet of Pandora for an action-packed adventure featuring some of the franchise’s most beloved characters. In this all-new interpretation of the video game series, viewers will see the red-headed outlaw Lilith unite with a team of unlikely heroes to locate a missing girl who could change the fate of the universe.

“At a certain point you just have to pick, these are our characters, this is the story we’re going with, and let’s just make the best one possible,” Roth told me, reflecting on the decision-making process of what characters would appear in the upcoming film.

Because the movie is not canon to the video game series, the creative team behind the Borderlands movie had free reign to select from the unique cast of characters across the franchise — some of whom don’t appear until later games in the original storyline.

The film features a star-studded line-up of performers led by Academy Award winner Cate Blanchett as Lilith alongside Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina, Jack Black as the voice of Claptrap, Jamie Lee Curtis as Tannis, Kevin Hart as Roland, Florian Munteanu as Krieg, and Gina Gershon as Moxxi.

Other additions to the full cast list include Edgar Ramírez, Bobby Lee, Janina Gavankar, Olivier Richters, Cheyenne Jackson, Benjamin Byron Davis, Charles Babalola, Steven Boyer, Ryann Redmond, Paula Andrea Placido, and more.

“I was like, ‘Find me the weirdest, gnarliest people. We’ll put them in the movie.’ And everybody, they loved it,” Roth said.

Roth and Pitchford shed light on what it was like convincing some of these actors to say “yes.” We obviously had to find out what made someone like Blanchett pull the trigger on a project like this, and the answer is, honestly, heartwarming.

In our conversation, Roth likened the Tár actor to one of the three greatest female performers in history. Their working relationship dates back to the director’s 2018 fantasy film, The House with a Clock in Its Walls, in which Blanchett starred alongside Black. So, when it came time to figure out who would be a fitting lead for the Borderlands cast, there was no doubt in Roth’s mind that the Oscar winner was the best pick.

“I think with me, she has permission to go a little bit weird and a little bit insane because it’s like, ‘Well, it’s Eli,’” Roth said. “It’s just like, ‘Let’s go have fun.’ But she’s obviously very serious about her character.”

For Curtis, the decision to join the cast was largely spurred by her gamer daughter, who is a fan of the Borderlands franchise, saying “‘Mom, you have to do this movie,’” as Pitchford recalled.

In Black’s case, the roots run even deeper. Back in 2012, he brought his son to E3 when Borderlands 2 was first being teased. Black asked Pitchford for a demo of the game, and the Gearbox founder told him that he would have to play Claptrap if a film adaptation of the franchise were ever to be made. The Nacho Libre star, of course, readily agreed.

“Whether you’ve played a Borderlands game or not, it’s a fun movie. It’s a really, really fun movie,” Pitchford said.

Borderlands will be released in U.S. theaters by Lionsgate on Aug. 9, 2024.

[renaissanceclassics]

A Tale of Two Cities - Book 2: Part 26

In 45 parts.

A Plea

CHAPTER XX. A Plea

When the newly-married pair came home, the first person who appeared, to offer his congratulations, was Sydney Carton. They had not been at home many hours, when he presented himself. He was not improved in habits, or in looks, or in manner; but there was a certain rugged air of fidelity about him, which was new to the observation of Charles Darnay.

He watched his opportunity of taking Darnay aside into a window, and of speaking to him when no one overheard.

“Mr. Darnay,” said Carton, “I wish we might be friends.”

“We are already friends, I hope.”

“You are good enough to say so, as a fashion of speech; but, I don’t mean any fashion of speech. Indeed, when I say I wish we might be friends, I scarcely mean quite that, either.”

Charles Darnay—as was natural—asked him, in all good-humour and good-fellowship, what he did mean?

“Upon my life,” said Carton, smiling, “I find that easier to comprehend in my own mind, than to convey to yours. However, let me try. You remember a certain famous occasion when I was more drunk than—than usual?”

“I remember a certain famous occasion when you forced me to confess that you had been drinking.”

“I remember it too. The curse of those occasions is heavy upon me, for I always remember them. I hope it may be taken into account one day, when all days are at an end for me! Don’t be alarmed; I am not going to preach.”

“I am not at all alarmed. Earnestness in you, is anything but alarming to me.”

“Ah!” said Carton, with a careless wave of his hand, as if he waved that away. “On the drunken occasion in question (one of a large number, as you know), I was insufferable about liking you, and not liking you. I wish you would forget it.”

“I forgot it long ago.”

“Fashion of speech again! But, Mr. Darnay, oblivion is not so easy to me, as you represent it to be to you. I have by no means forgotten it, and a light answer does not help me to forget it.”

“If it was a light answer,” returned Darnay, “I beg your forgiveness for it. I had no other object than to turn a slight thing, which, to my surprise, seems to trouble you too much, aside. I declare to you, on the faith of a gentleman, that I have long dismissed it from my mind. Good Heaven, what was there to dismiss! Have I had nothing more important to remember, in the great service you rendered me that day?”

“As to the great service,” said Carton, “I am bound to avow to you, when you speak of it in that way, that it was mere professional claptrap, I don’t know that I cared what became of you, when I rendered it.—Mind! I say when I rendered it; I am speaking of the past.”

“You make light of the obligation,” returned Darnay, “but I will not quarrel with your light answer.”

“Genuine truth, Mr. Darnay, trust me! I have gone aside from my purpose; I was speaking about our being friends. Now, you know me; you know I am incapable of all the higher and better flights of men. If you doubt it, ask Stryver, and he’ll tell you so.”

“I prefer to form my own opinion, without the aid of his.”

“Well! At any rate you know me as a dissolute dog, who has never done any good, and never will.”

“I don’t know that you ‘never will.’”

“But I do, and you must take my word for it. Well! If you could endure to have such a worthless fellow, and a fellow of such indifferent reputation, coming and going at odd times, I should ask that I might be permitted to come and go as a privileged person here; that I might be regarded as an useless (and I would add, if it were not for the resemblance I detected between you and me, an unornamental) piece of furniture, tolerated for its old service, and taken no notice of. I doubt if I should abuse the permission. It is a hundred to one if I should avail myself of it four times in a year. It would satisfy me, I dare say, to know that I had it.”

“Will you try?”

“That is another way of saying that I am placed on the footing I have indicated. I thank you, Darnay. I may use that freedom with your name?”

“I think so, Carton, by this time.”

They shook hands upon it, and Sydney turned away. Within a minute afterwards, he was, to all outward appearance, as unsubstantial as ever.

When he was gone, and in the course of an evening passed with Miss Pross, the Doctor, and Mr. Lorry, Charles Darnay made some mention of this conversation in general terms, and spoke of Sydney Carton as a problem of carelessness and recklessness. He spoke of him, in short, not bitterly or meaning to bear hard upon him, but as anybody might who saw him as he showed himself.

He had no idea that this could dwell in the thoughts of his fair young wife; but, when he afterwards joined her in their own rooms, he found her waiting for him with the old pretty lifting of the forehead strongly marked.

“We are thoughtful to-night!” said Darnay, drawing his arm about her.

“Yes, dearest Charles,” with her hands on his breast, and the inquiring and attentive expression fixed upon him; “we are rather thoughtful to-night, for we have something on our mind to-night.”

“What is it, my Lucie?”

“Will you promise not to press one question on me, if I beg you not to ask it?”

“Will I promise? What will I not promise to my Love?”

What, indeed, with his hand putting aside the golden hair from the cheek, and his other hand against the heart that beat for him!

“I think, Charles, poor Mr. Carton deserves more consideration and respect than you expressed for him to-night.”

“Indeed, my own? Why so?”

“That is what you are not to ask me. But I think—I know—he does.”

“If you know it, it is enough. What would you have me do, my Life?”

“I would ask you, dearest, to be very generous with him always, and very lenient on his faults when he is not by. I would ask you to believe that he has a heart he very, very seldom reveals, and that there are deep wounds in it. My dear, I have seen it bleeding.”

“It is a painful reflection to me,” said Charles Darnay, quite astounded, “that I should have done him any wrong. I never thought this of him.”

“My husband, it is so. I fear he is not to be reclaimed; there is scarcely a hope that anything in his character or fortunes is reparable now. But, I am sure that he is capable of good things, gentle things, even magnanimous things.”

She looked so beautiful in the purity of her faith in this lost man, that her husband could have looked at her as she was for hours.

“And, O my dearest Love!” she urged, clinging nearer to him, laying her head upon his breast, and raising her eyes to his, “remember how strong we are in our happiness, and how weak he is in his misery!”

The supplication touched him home. “I will always remember it, dear Heart! I will remember it as long as I live.”

He bent over the golden head, and put the rosy lips to his, and folded her in his arms. If one forlorn wanderer then pacing the dark streets, could have heard her innocent disclosure, and could have seen the drops of pity kissed away by her husband from the soft blue eyes so loving of that husband, he might have cried to the night—and the words would not have parted from his lips for the first time—

“God bless her for her sweet compassion!”