#but opinions and speculation are not hard facts and that is the distinction that too many people don't recognize

[askshivanulegacy]

There are trans people in the comments of this post who definitely have the opposite opinion, and that's still after understanding both sides.

I think more people need to realize that having a beef with a movie (or anything, really) doesn't automatically mean it's phobic in some way, and it doesn't mean that the people who made the movie were out to attack anyone.

There is a running joke about the Barbie toy genitals because of the very real humor in the way the toys were made with no genitals, which becomes an obvious and noticeable fact about playing with the toys as kids. If referencing this universal experience is seen as transphobic rather than a nod to the "Barbie life", then that sounds like a misunderstanding.

Humor hits different people differently, but the Barbie ending definitely wasn't created out of thin air to declare something about the existence of women.

You can look for the worst in a film, or you can give it the benefit of the doubt. Not every film is for every person because of their own personal associations and that's fine. But personal associations don't mean the film is attacking you (or that anyone else is when they don't see it that way).

The fact that people just get aggressive & defensive when you mention that the new Barbie film’s ending is deeply transphobic only goes to illustrate the point further: if you just disagreed, wouldn’t you at least want to hear trans girls out? Why are people so willing to point at us and say we’re just whining about nothing; why is it a stretch to believe that one of the most notoriously lukewarm milquetoast white cis liberal feminist female directors has some garbage opinions about trans people? Why are you so ready to overlook literally anything w have a problem with just because it’s fun?

It’s because you don’t actually care.

[djbeatz]

Tachihara and the Book

Spoilers under the cut for S4

Tbh, I’m sure someone must’ve said this already and I just haven’t seen it yet, but I love the scene where Tachihara realizes that the government was being played and that the ADA is innocent because for me it says a lot about his character and who he considers himself to be, which might be a stretch but that’s what it felt like to me.

By now, we all know that Tachihara is a hunting dog, that is fact, and yet, he managed to break out of the effect of the book as Fyodor had written that all law enforcement would not believe any of the Agency’s attempts at proving their innocence. Although, I wouldn’t actually say he broke out of it, and instead I would say he either dodged, or curbed the effects.

By fact and position, Tachihara is law enforcement, very high ranking too and it was written that specifically law enforcement would not believe proof of innocence, so what does that say about Tachihara? Under normal circumstances, it should have worked because for all intents and purposes, Tachihara is part of the government.

I think that it did not work on him because he did not consider himself law enforcement anymore, and a lot of other people do not think of him as such as well.

I’m not sure if I’m stretching it there, but I have my reasons.

For the book to have been able to affect him in that way, it makes sense that other people and himself must believe that he was law enforcement; but we can see that his opinions on his stance wavers when Hirotsu describes him as “Mafia among Mafia”. They truly believed that he was right where he belonged and, in a way, so did Tachihara, before that of course but when Hirotsu said that it seemed as if Tachihara was finally realizing himself, who he is and where he belonged.

Before all of that, when we first see him revealed as the fifth Hunting Dog, I had this strange feeling that he was beginning to struggle with who he was. He wasn’t as ruthless when dealing with criminals as the rest of them were, it’s obvious by the fact that he spared Yosano despite their history and his feelings. He spared her when the others would most certainly not.

He had gotten used to being in the mafia, he had felt natural. The way he held himself was far looser, more relaxed, brash and natural than how he did as a hunting dog, as you can see that he took on a bit of stiffer disposition. Hell, in certain scenes with Teruko, he distinctly reminded me of Atsushi and Tanizaki, but that was mostly in the way he reacted to Teruko’s enthusiasm and bloodlust.

Tachihara began to realize what he truly wanted and it wasn’t to be better than his older brother or be his opposite. It felt more like he was looking for his sense of self, who he was without his brother or the reputation, or his feelings of revenge, as if he were on a hunt for himself, the him that he didn’t actually know.

People believed him to be a role model to many mafia members, a true mafioso down to his muscles and bones, and he didn’t feel that it was wrong, he wasn’t repulsed by the idea, he was accepting, he was okay with the idea, it was what he accepted himself to be and that’s why the book’s affects were dodged.

The mafia was not law enforcement and that was exactly what he thought of himself as, he was mafia no matter what.

Also, a funny little thing I noticed that he thought “The government has it wrong” and not “We have it wrong” which feels like a distinct isolation of himself from the government. But I’m not sure if it means much.

I’m not sure if any of this makes sense because I wrote all this on a whim (like how I write everything but this one feels especially strange to me, I know what I’m thinking but putting my thoughts into words is hard) but I hope this makes some kind of sense? And really, don’t believe what I say, these are just speculations and I’m probably wrong anyway-

[mclennonlgbt]

Paul's alleged neurodiversity, and how did it affect his relationship with John?

EDIT: After receiving some comments, I understood I oversimplified that issue. Probably John was also a ND person because this is a really broad term. But my point still stands: I think the main reason of John's rejection was that Paul wasn't able to distinguish between different types of attraction and couldn't communicate it in the way that was clear to John.

Disclaimer: Everything I say in this post is my opinion only. I don't insist that it has to be absolutely true. Also, I'm not going to diagnose someone remotely! What I'm going to do here is a fan analysis of my favorite musicians rather than a PhD thesis.

So, I was listening to Another Kind of Mind podcast, more specifically - Episode 5 of their Pizza and Fairytales series. The hosts express a hypothesis that I immediately found credible: maybe Paul is neurodivergent? Here is the speculation material: Paul is one of the most prolific and productive songwriters of the second half of the 20th century (a reference to music being his special interest); very often he gives the impression that he is masking his various reactions, feelings, as if he is wearing armor - masking is a very common practice among neurodivergent people, especially if the family expected them to "behave normally" (which was the case with Paul); the hosts also pointed his nervous tics, his synesthesia and the fact that some of his patterns of behavior are as rigid as telling the same stories over and over again.

Again - it's not diagnosis, it's just guessing, speculating. From my perspective, as a non-neurotypical person, I can say that this theory makes a lot of sense.

But how does all of this relate to McLennon? Well, here's my interpretation: Lennon was neurotypical (EDIT: he probably wasn't but IMO he had more "neurotypical" concept of love and affection than Paul), so he could make a clear distinction between platonic and romantic attraction. Consequently, he was aware that he was in love with McCartney and expected a reaction from him.

And Paul is perhaps non-neurotypical. I know from experience (mine and some other people - this is anecdotal evidence, not reliable research) that often neudivergent persons either do not distinguish between platonic and romantic love, or they do not care too much about the difference, or they merge into one. Or they have some other types of attractions (understanding them and translating them into the language of the neurotypical world can be a daunting or even impossible task). So McCartney might not really know what Lennon expected from him + might not know / still don't know what he exactly felt about Lennon? I mean, I'm sure he felt and feel love, but can he distinguish the type? He wanted to be John's best friend and songwriting partner - and nothing else/more, or did he need to be in a romantic relationship with him? Or maybe he needed something else? The first difficulty is understanding what you are feeling. The second is to communicate it to the other person. In my view John wasn't overly understanding, especially on a delicate and vulnerable matter such as feelings, because he was terrified of rejection.

Here's how I imagine their interaction in India:

JOHN: I'm in love with you, do you want to be with me?

PAUL:

*inside: Hmmm, what exactly is the difference between brotherly and romantic love? How is friendship different from a romantic relationship, especially in our case? Let me analyze all my 25 types of attraction...

*outside: lack of unambiguous reaction

JOHN: Oh, so you're rejecting me, right? Okay! Then fuck off! I'm going to get Yoko and we will parade with our love and relationship so hard that maybe it will finally provoke you to some kind of reaction, fucking prick!

This is the interpretation in which I believe the most today. But I'd love to hear your thoughts! No ableism allowed.

[purefandomonium]

Oh boy, this has just triggered my rant mode. This is gonna be long, so I'll put it under a read more. Just know that I really love this show, I hate the way it was treated, and I've been rewatching it lately so everything is pretty fresh in my mind. This also goes way in depth on the show and there are gonna be spoilers. You've been warned.

That was some of the best character growth I've seen, and THE best in the whole show (in my opinion). Newton and Kimmy's relationship is pretty fleshed out, and special props for the writers not going the robot-becomes-human-because-it-can-love route. Newton, aka Octus, is still very much an alien robot. But he's also not just a machine. He has emotions and other human traits--concern, empathy, curiosity, humor, a sense of justice, a love for popsicles... The list goes on.

It was never really mentioned in the show, so this is purely speculation, but it seems like he was designed by the king to be Lance's and Ilana's guardian and nothing more. He was a way to form Titan and something that could process danger better than the two of them. I don't think anyone planned on him going through such a fundamental shift. Look at how matter-of-fact he is in the first couple of episodes, and then compare that to later episodes like Ballad of Scary Mary, I Am Octus, and, of course, Lessons in Love. Heck, by Elephant Logic he's starting to go into a quasi dad mode because Lance and Ilana are bickering like children and he feels the need to be a better "parent." There's a whole ton of other episodes highlighting Newton's change into something more, but that's too much to get into. When he starts gaining human traits and branching out from the robot trope, it seems to take everyone by surprise, even himself.

My point is: by the episode in question, Newton is coming to terms with newfound feelings that he can't name, that baffle him because he shouldn't even be capable of doing this. He's supposed to be Lance and Ilana's guide, their protector, and a fundamental part of Titan. So why is he trying to help the popular girl with her geometry homework and insisting to Lance and Ilana that he absolutely, totally, does not under any circumstances, have a crush on Kimmy? Why did he even let her come over instead of just putting his foot down and snapping at her, similar to what he did with Meat when the school was under attack? It leaves him utterly baffled why he's trying so hard to actually help her--both with the homework but also with her self-esteem. If what he insisted to the others was really true, he could've just done it for her like she wanted and sent her on her way. But he didn't do that. He chose not to.

It's clear that Newton has some kind of soft spot for Kimmy. He genuinely tries to help her and gets almost comically irritated at her stubborn refusal to try. He ignores her whining, begging, and "convincing." He does what any good friend would do and encourages her, builds her up, and gives her a confidence in herself she never expected to have. If it were any other student, he'd likely have made up some excuse as to why he couldn't help unless it directly impacted the trio's secrecy. (Imagine if Baby Face pulled this stunt. Now that could've been a great episode.) He's earnest in his words and seems genuinely proud when she finally gets it and hugs him. And then he gets absolutely flustered when she wants to kiss him. The literal sparks that fly when she does land a kiss just cements the fact that, against all odds, he's somehow developed some kind of strong emotion towards her.

Again, I like how the writers don't automatically rope it into heavy romance because the "robot learned to love and now it's human." Aside from hand-holding, a few kisses, and likely dates, their relationship seems to function on a bond built off trust and enjoyment of each other's company. There's no distinct "love" to it and at no point does Newton ever view Kimmy in a sexual manner. (Heck, I don't even think she views him that way either!) When Lance and Ilana question him on it--and again, this is just my perception of the scene, YMMV--they seemed more concerned about the ramifications of the relationship in regards to Newton not being, well, able in certain ways, we'll say. It didn't read like it was only concern for the potential to jeopardize their mission. They just... don't want anyone getting hurt and at least partially doubt his ability to feel this way in the first place.

Newton responding with the statement that he can't say he loves Kimmy is especially good. It shows that he's definitely caught some kinda feelings but is also able to remain logical despite them. He doesn't know if he's just happy, in love, or some other emotion. All he knows is that he likes being around her and doesn't hate the feeling he gets. He's able to see both sides of the coin: the human side, and the robot side. This doesn't really have anything to do with my rant, I just think it's neat.

As for Kimmy, as soon as Newton makes it clear he doesn't see Kimmy as useless, a ditz, a sex toy, or some combination of the three, she starts appreciating him. I can't really decide if she already had a bit of a liking to him or if it was the fact he was so honest and kind, but she ends up liking him for who he is. She feels happy--seemingly for the first time--that someone recognizes her as an individual and that she can be more than just the hot cheerleader trope. And that alone helps her break free from the mold and be herself. No one ever told her she didn't have to stay the air-headed mean girl. To have someone respect her as a person, and want her to be herself... It must've been like a whole new world for her.

Seeing the two of them evolve in this manner--Newton more than Kimmy but that's to be expected, being a more important character and all--was a really interesting arc. Especially for a show that didn't last long enough to bring out the real big stuff. I always like it when shows highlight more than just the main characters. And Lance and Ilana are the main focus of the show. Let's be real here. If it was made by anyone else, then Octus' writing would have suffered big time. Despite being one of the core trio, he probably would've remained the Robot Companion™️ at best, or been turned into a villain at worst. The fact that the series occasionally brought Octus/Newton to the forefront and let Lance and Ilana take the backseat at times was a breath of fresh air. To me it made the show much more enjoyable and made his character really stand out. You know, so it could gut punch you in the feels with maximum force when he temporarily died.

Whenever people talk about Sym-bionic Titan (rip you deserved so much better) someone inevitably brings up that scene where Kimmy is dancing on the table and shaking her ass at Newton and shit and I get it, I really do, that scene is WILD.

But it always ENDS there. No one ever talks about what happens after that.

Kimmy opens up and tells Newton that it's all just an act she puts on. She explains that, due to the fact that she's pretty, she feels like there's this ROLE she has to fill.

Pretty girls are supposed to be ditzy, they're supposed to be selfish, they're supposed to be mean and manipulative and full of themselves.

But in reality she's a very intelligent, very sweet, and very nervous kid that just wants to fit in somewhere.

[derekgoffard]

Ayo girthette, I’m curious about your opinion on Machete. For me he is serving mysterious wee wee energy and I’m here for it 😳💅🥵��🥰👀🥴 Spill the tea sis

AGAGAGA OHHOHOHHHHHOO..IVE BEEN SO HYPE TO TALK ABT MACHETE OMG GAHAHAAA THANK YOU SM FOR THIS ASK AGAHAAAAAA ( also GIRTHETTE YESSSS AAHHAAAA THATS SO FUN LOLLLLL GRAGAH!!!!! I've said this before but I LOVE UR ENERGY ANON GAHA )

Also I'm gonna put this under the cut just cus it gets kinda longish and also I KINDA SPECULATE ON HIS CHARACTER SO IF U WANNA GO INTO TPOF WITHOUT ANY SPECULATION IN MIND DO NOT LOOK!!!

(This whole thing is so disorganized also LOL I REALLY JUST TYPE WITH NO PLAN LOLHWH)

UBAUVAVHAVHAHVAVHAVHAVHUBABUAVUWHAHA LOL OKOK MACHETE MY BELOVED. MY BOY. MY CRAZE. MY HERO. BIG MAN. HUQHQBUAUBABUWUHQUHUHAUHA I have never mentioned this but it's perhaps a bit obvious by my icon but I DEEPLY LOVE MACHETE LOL!!!!!! He's probably my 4th favorite tpof character atcually SO FAR LOL !!

That being said, We know very very little abt Machete! ( Which also makes it kinda strange why as to like him so much LOL ).

Gato does a really great job of keeping his character under tight wraps however;; what we DO know about him makes him super super interesting and intriguing! ( To me at least lol )

I'd say the most interesting and notable thing we have about him comes in the form of this pic! ( Credit to Gatobob ofc! )

The words in the background of each character seemingly represents a key factor of their character ( Derek is well...wealthy, Jack's a cop, and Komodo and Dragon are into cult shit ) and then there's Machete who's words are "Mercy"....LIKE... THAT'S SO INTERESTING RIGHT???? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN???? GAHHAHAHA IT MAKES ME EXCITED TO CONSIDER WHAT COOL STORY SHIT CAN COME OF IT LOL!!!!!

His mask is also obviously clearly different from the rest of them and Gato has mentioned that she is proud of the masks because they all have meanings! So that's note worthy too I think!!

There's also his necklace which looks like it has significance in some way? (But mabye that's a bit too speculative) I wouldn't be surprised if his necklace did have meaning though!!

In a post where Gato gave a brief description of the hunters this was the description of Machete "Machete: A man of very few words. His preference for action sometimes upsets the others." ( https://gatoanswers.tumblr.com/post/638395642420543488/hi-gato-i-had-two-questions-hopefully-they ) . It's kinda hard to infer anything from this but it's an interesting way to describe his character from Gato's part!

There's also this picture ( which is clearly from a early-ish point in the games development so this could be changed but! )

All in all its really hard to say anything about his character so far! He's super super interesting though and I.... love thinking about him LOL

WORDS!!!! haha Machete seems to not be super diplomatic and pretty straight to the point lol...

(ALSO There are a few other Machete facts floating around but I think these are the most notable)

Once again I am very much shooting at nothing here LOL this is pure speculation! And since we do know so little this could all be COMPLETELY WRONG LOL!!!

If I were to get super super speculative on what I think he could be like in the game I'd probably guess that there is a distinct motive for him killing ( Mabye he has a really emotional based motive or smth. Basically I think he does have some moral code ) but I do think he's not just doing it for the sake of doing it like Derek or Jack. I think that he's particularly un-diplomatic but I think that he can be convinced to not hurt the captives/players?? ( Mabye there'll be a specific scenario in the game that can lead to him being convinced or smth? ) And lastly ( I feel most confident abt this speculation lol ) I think he'll end up turning ( or can be turned against ) his fellow hunters! Like I can totally imagine him killing Jack or Derek or smth!!

Hehe I do think about tpof stuff alot and so it's NICE TO BE ABLE TO LIKE. TALK ABOUT IT SOMEWHERE LOL!!! I really am super super interested in Machete and so I'm glad U GAVE ME AN OPPORTUNITY TO TALK ABT HIM LOL!!! THANK U AGAIN HAHA!

[cutegirlmayra]

I thought after 30 years maybe sonic and his friends would go for new looks especially Amy

I'm a stickler for canon, but if they get an age bump, I wouldn't mind a redesign, but I just can't get over how they first tried to make her more 'americanized' XD

Not much is said on her first design, it's hard to dig into since it's all in Japanese, but I suspect it was around the time of the Chipmunks, and that hairdo was very popular for cartoon girls at the time.

Again, only speculation on my end as the only details about this iteration are Japanese, but her manga self evolved a bit to be somewhat 'hedgehog form' but now with a small distinction to show femininity.

They didn't want her to be a 'Minnie Mouse' so they made her 'cute'. (Only stating fact there, but I personally see innocence, tomboy, and quirky! It also takes after her Manga form, showing that it had become popularized in Japan.)

Created as a love interest that playfully teases the male cast, she's kind-hearted and cheery, positive but always looking for a way to make Sonic respect her as a young woman in love! (Paraphrasing many bios of her, her design was to reflect the backless dress of the popularized attire of the time period. White shows innocence and red, passion. Her quills moved down to give her a unique profile I believe and her desire to be seen and respected as an older woman... though she's only 12 years old. *cough cough*)

Haven't looked into much of this besides the "Adventure makeover" but I personally believe this falls under what happened with the Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, etc. You over-compensate for your female characters in worries of the common 'make them stronger, bolder, better' feminist movement. This means Amy was given that 'make it look like a girl, but tough' persona, which I feel is really hurting the characterization and marketing of Female Characters in many franchises. (Apparently, dudes haven't figured out that women can be written 'strong' without the need to polarize them to 'looking and sounding like women'. *sigh*) I personally believe this look is playing too much into the fact of, "She's our only girl! We gotta make her girlie but powerful!" and Hollywood hasn't figured that out either yet... But she is cute, I like how they didn't change her 'character silhouette’ at all, though. She needed to lose the hoop skirt in my opinion XD Modesty, Amy! Sheesh, lol!

Sorry, I try and not put many opinions into these things, but I know the common trends given to characters who are 'Americanized' and it just... it makes me wish I could be in that meeting to give my two cents XD

This is probably one of the newest pics we have of Amy (Ish) and honestly, the creators always keep in mind, "We want our characters to be drawable." and Amy is SOOOO fun for me to draw! Hoop skirt and all!

So I think the main reason is because it's unique, identifiable among the other casts, cute, and has a reason why Amy wears it. She is cute, tough, and girlie, but she wants Sonic-Sempai to notice her as a matured woman--which is understandable why he doesn't *cough cough*--and so she chooses that theme of clothing. It's not always practical for battle, but it's fun to draw and she's still as spunky as ever! No shame with this girl XD

I'm no artist, but I like Amy's design. I just like canon things, so don't mind my preference lol XD

[data-is-my-favorite-android]

What do you think Moon Knight can appear next?

That’s a good question! There’s already been some speculation that they’ll show up a few years down the road in a proposed “Midnight Sons” ensemble season featuring Blade, Ghost Rider, and Black Knight (or something like that), which is a comic books team that Moon Knight is traditionally a part of that fights supernatural threats. Outside of that, I’m not sure… Moon Knight occupies such a specific niche and is so removed from the other Marvel properties. That’s one of the things I like best about the show! In my opinion, the smartest thing to do next would either be give Moon Knight a second season or create a highly related series where Moon Knight is already an established character (something like “Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab,” or “Shadowknight”). Moon Knight is such a complex character in themselves that to push them immediately into an unrelated property like a bigger pre-established superhero’s movie or an ensemble with other all-new characters would be a waste of both Oscar Isaac’s acting talents and the character’s rich potential for development. Character development tends to fall completely by the wayside in team-up films/limited series. It would be so hard to explore the dynamic between Marc, Steven, and Jake under those conditions, to say nothing of any of their relationships with other people like Layla or Duchamps, if they introduce him. And to not explore those things just…doesn’t make sense? In fact, I would argue those things are really necessary to nail down before you can release MK into the wider MCU. Otherwise, there’ll just be too much happening with their character to fully participate in any ensemble group. It’d be distracting, and Moon Knight would feel weird and underdeveloped if you just hand waved all that away. Such a move risks flattening them (which in turn opens up the possibility of leaning too much on tropes in their actions or interactions with other characters, and boy howdy, that could go really wrong really fast with MK’s alters). Not to say Marvel going forward anyway couldn’t happen, because Marvel has absolutely done that before and completely ignored or derailed a character’s previous arc, but Oscar Isaac at least seems committed to telling a story that feels true to the character.

This might be a bit out of left field and I don’t know if there are any plans by Marvel to revive this corner of the MCU, but I could see Moon Knight eventually entering the arena of the Netflix run of NYC superheroes with Matt Murdock, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Frank Castle, and Danny Rand. They also occupy a niche space in the MCU. Their stories are smaller scale, more focused on exploring nuanced psychological and sociological topics, and tend to do a good job putting character and character dynamics before plot (or at least making sure they interweave well). Tonally, they’re darker too, though they aren’t without hope. And while those characters do react to things that happen in the larger MCU, they still feel distinct from the global-scale action. You don’t have to have watched a billion movies and shows to know what’s happening; they reference the larger things, but that’s all secondary. All you need to do is intuit the context of the local environment and the characters’ drives to understand the plot. Idk, it’s not a perfect 1:1 fit for Moon Knight, but it’s a thought. But Marvel may not do that because NYC has had too much going on anyway—that’s why they based Steven and Marc out of London instead to begin with.

(It’s also possible that Moon Knight, as I’ve wondered before, exists in a universe where some of the bigger MCU things didn’t happen, like the Snap. Nobody in MK seems to react to things like people who have experienced the crazy shit that’s been happening in the wider MCU world would. In which case it’d be hard to integrate MK into any of the pre-existing Marvel superheroes’ stories/properties. Then again, the Netflix runs all ended before the Snap, I believe, so they could just pretend that they also exist in an alternate universe/timeline where some of those things didn’t happen to better integrate MK…lol, idk, that’s probably overly complicated. I’m thinking too hard about this)

Tbh I’m not super up-to-date on all the Marvel properties coming down the pipeline, so there may be possibilities here for MK to jump to that I’m not seeing, but goodness, fingers crossed that Oscar Isaac twists their arm into they opt for doing another season/limited series that focuses on Moon Knight first before thrusting him into the greater MCU (if that’s even necessary at all…) 🤞🤞🤞

(YMMV, of course 😅 Again, I don’t know much about Marvel’s future properties and their writers constantly surprise me both with how clever and how totally senseless they can be at turns, so who knows what will happen! I’m also a super character-focused person, so I could take or leave the big action pieces and grandiose scale of world save-age, but I know that’s exactly what other people love. I’m just in favor of keeping MK working on a smaller scale and with smaller teams, personally)

Hopefully that answers your question and I didn’t misunderstand it and go on a whole unrelated rant 😅😅😅

[muthaz-rapapa]

They announced Precure 2021!!

Tropical Rouge! Precure. It will be a tropical/ocean theme and I believe it will have either a 4 team cures (pink, blue, yellow/orange and teal) or a duo with a red cure as a sixth ranger. What are your opinions/theories?

Oh shit, it is that time again, isn’t it? I totally forgot with how screwy year this year has been. ANN didn’t even mention anything. (@_@ ;;)

Well, anyways, since the trademark is out, speculation is all fair game until December or whenever we get the next messy quality leaks at the soonest.

Before that though, I just want to comment about the HealPre movie poster:

I really like the kimono design integrated into the magical girl outfit. Seriously, I wished they could’ve saved this idea for a full-cour season instead of using it as a movie-exclusive form. That would’ve been awesome~ && imagine the crazy hair but decorated with kanzashi. *sigh* <33 ...only in my dreams, I guess. T_T

Other than that, I am also psyched for the (random) return of the Yes 5 girls. I have no idea what they’re doing here but hey, the Maho girls saved the KiraPre movie for me with their cameos so I’m totally cool with Yes 5 dropping in all badass if HealPre’s movie ends up being just so-so.

Alright, now that that’s out of the way...

Precure 2021, otherwise known as

TROPICAL ROUGE! PRECURE

...admittedly, it’s not the weirdest title we’ve ever gotten but still, Toei at it again with its obsession over weird 3-4ish syllable salads. Ah, how I miss the times when we can just attach one simple word before “Pretty Cure” and that would’ve been enough. :P

Also, how the hell are we going to shorten this? TroPre? TropicPre? ToRuPre? PikaRuPre? Too long! Why must you make the little things so difficult, you bastards?!?! (ꐦ ಠ皿ಠ )

*cough*

Judging by the title, we’re probably all correct in guessing one of its motifs will concern the ocean and when most of us think “tropical” mixed in with Precure, the first image that pops up would be Aloha Precure:

[ Hey girls, how you doin’? ^^ ]

But for me? My first thought was this:

SHUT UP.

LET ME HAVE MY BEVERAGE-BASED MAGICAL ISLAND IDOL TRIO REALITY AND LET ME DIE HAPPY THERE!

I LOVE YOU TEA DRINKYUN, SODA DRINKYUN, JUICE DRINKYUN!!!!!

xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

But in all seriousness, we’re likely not going to have these two as the protagonists because

1) They’re not Japanese or Japan-based.

2) They’re from a different Precure season altogether.

3) This is Toei we’re talking about. Looking at how one-shot Sunset and Wave were, do you really think they would go ahead on a tropics theme with any interest in anything outside just the aesthetics/marketing appeal of it? Uh, sadly, NO.

So sorry to dash your hopes if you had any but even if we are lucky enough to get a main Cure who is of Polynesian descent, we probably won’t be spending parts of the season actually exploring their ethnic background.

Though I’d still hold on to the possibility of Aloha Precure maybe getting a cameo. And more importantly, getting another dark-skinned Cure who isn’t just tan from staying out in the sun too long because I really, really, really want that, too! (>.<)

Ok, ok, back to motifs and themes.

So ocean. And there’s a seashell symbol in the logo so when we think of those things, we think of mermaids (and therefore, Cure Mermaid).

[...y’know, I’m starting to believe they’re just basing all the new seasons on the Go!Pri cast like StarPre for Twinkle. Heartcatch, however, pre-existed Flora so I don’t know where that stands but all that’s left would be Scarlet so I guess Precure 2022′s either going to take place in Hell or somewhere freezing like a mountain YES, WE’RE GONNA FIGHT ELSA! >:D or the north/south poles]

Chances of one of the Cures being a mermaid then? Maybe even the midseason one? Pretty damn high.

Chances of the magical items having something to do with pearls? Feels a little like Mermaid Melody but as long as they don’t throw any blatant idol tendencies in my face, I’m good.

Chances of TroPre (name pending) actually focusing on the nature of the ocean and taking time to explain in depth its sealife, ecosystems and the man-imposed problems that exist within it? *BIG SIGH*

Honestly, as much as I would love for Precure 2021 to branch out from what HealPre started with its health/environment approach (which was quite the disappointing cop-out but that’s a discussion for another place and time), I doubt we’re going to get that no thanks to the commercialization aspect of it.

And I don’t blame the writers (entirely), I blame their higher-ups who probably meddle with the story and demand for more cutesy, pointless fillers instead because y’know, toy sales first, unfortunately. :P

But ok, even if I don’t get the science side of it, that doesn’t mean it won’t be enjoyable. But with only just a logo to go off on atm, it’s hard to predict what we’re really in for next year.

Except for the fact that we can already tell how many starter Cures we’ll be getting.

[Sorry it took so long to get to this part, anon]

Pink is a no brainer, there can’t be a Precure season without a Pink lead (bah).

And look at how solid the azure/blue and teal/green is. Those are locked in for sure (HURRAH! ANOTHER GREEN CURE~! xD).

Now yellow...or is that orange? Personally, I think it’d be great if they dropped the Yellow Cure this year and gave it to the Pink Cure as a sub-color instead because unlike the blue and teal katakana, the pink/yellow/orange ombre of the bottom line is not as distinct from one another as the former are. But I doubt it because when you say “tropic” you think of “sun” too so can’t be without the yellow Cure, after all. Ugh.

Finally, there’s that striking red at the end of “Rouge” that looks like what would happen if an exclamation mark and a sea slug had a baby together and put an obnoxious bow on it. :S

With “rouge” in the title [sorry, not you Rin-chan but hey, Rin-chan~! :D], it seems we’re pretty much guaranteed a red Cure as well. I just hope she gets a more creative name than just a synonym of the color red because while “Cure Crimson” cue JoJo jokes I don’t understand sounds cool, it’s lazy.  (-_- ;;)

So in total, a maximum of 5 Cures. No, I will not be leaving room open for a possible 6th one cuz that is just one too many Cures and we don’t need that. WE. DON’T.

As for anon’s theory on a duo team with the Red Cure as the sixth (you actually meant third, right?) ranger...really, I’d much prefer a smaller team. I love the idea of starting the season with just a pair of Cures like the good old days. I love the idea of both of them having two theme colors (pink/yellow and blue/green) each instead of one. I’d look forward to a midseason Cure this time because the chemistry would actually be more manageable to work with and develop when it’s not such a huge crowd. So that the new girl doesn’t have to go through all her members like required shifts instead of having more organic interactions with them.

...but that’s just my hope. I know as much as the next person on what Precure 2021′s gonna be like which is pretty much “nothing at all”. *shrug*

We’ll see.

[wavesmp3]

⭐️ and uhhhhhhhhhhhh before sunrise? i can’t pick a scene so just tell me anything i love that piece

anonymous said: director's commentary on before sunrise pls!!

the people have spoken !!

[before sunrise]

so where to begin... I have a very distinct memory of watching the movie and thinking that it would be the perfect piece to recreate as a fic. probably because the movie is so..... plotless (?). and the film is really just these two people talking for an entire night and getting to know each other. idk I just thought (and still think) it was such a cool story with such an interesting delivery method. obviously the two characters are strangers but the things they talked about were so deep and so personal, the entire thing kind of felt like a dream. which is something I wanted to do myself.

and something I realized after having written this piece, is that this movie and one day (which I’ve also written a fic based off of) are quite similar. okay not they’re not all that similar, but in my head they’re the same! mainly in the sense that the most important part of both films is the dialogue between the two characters. they’re both such character based stories which is telling about the sorts of stories that I enjoy writing.

—

anyways as I watched the movie, I started thinking about who would work well as the kb (kpop boy) (one of the options was Joshua from svt, fun fact) and I ultimately ended up choosing kevin from tbz but in all honesty I don’t remember why LOL. either way, he works so well for this story. I also feel like if anyone were to do something as crazy and as insane as asking a stranger to wander around some european city with them for an entire night, it’d be him. he’s described himself as an awkward social butterfly so it just works perfectly.

usually when I write fics I don’t worry too much about how close the kb character is like the actual person (cause obviously i don’t know them but it’s also a personal/stylistic choice for me) BUT that was not the case with before sunrise.

for this piece I really wanted kevin to be the character and adopt some of his mannerisms that you see on screen. for example, the bit right after they get off the train, where it’s just awkward between them, I wrote that with Kevin in mind. and obviously the Beyoncé bit. and also just how random the conversation is. (obviously this is speculation) but I do feel like he’d be the type of person to have randomly deep thoughts and just speak them out loud. and.... idk where I was going with this but yEAH.

I mention all this because I’ve considered many times rewriting this piece for another group, but the idea always falls flat because who else but kevin from the boyz would work in this story you know?

—

okay so now about the actual piece:

the first conversation mc and kevin share on the train but before they move to the different car, is really odd to me, but i did that purposefully. the way the two characters started talking in the movie was very abrupt and felt super awkward to me. as the movie continued, i realized that the charm of the two characters was how awkward and like helpless they sort of appear. which is also just nice to see on screen, life is way more awkward and choppy than books and movies tend to portray. so that’s the reasoning behind the very first conversation kevin and mc share.

and this same line of reasoning is also what lead to the very awkward moments between kevin and reader immediately after getting off the train. in my head, both characters are just thinking: ‘what now?’

—

so the part in the art museum is one i like a lot and was inspired by one too many web weaving posts about ghosts and also by these paintings. the first one is by anne magill whose art i absolutely adore and the other one is from this 

—

i really love the scene in the record shop, its one of my absolute favorites, and moon river and il mondo were very carefully selected to be two of the songs they listened to. there’s a gifset i saw with commentary from the actors on filming that scene, and it just seemed like such a special and intimate moment between the two and so i really wanted to incorporate that somehow into the fic. 

—

another thing! in the movie the female character is a bit more of a hopeless romantic and the dude is more skeptical about love, but for the fic i decided to switch those two roles. so kevin is very optimistic about love while mc is more cynical. 

—

(im looking through the piece to see which parts i have comments on) but i just really am in love with the conversation the two of them share. it’s so existential and oddly deep for a pair of strangers, but again, that’s the charm of this story.

these two have nothing to lose by telling the other about their deepest thoughts and worries, and so they do. like both characters are so burdened by life when they meet on the train, and throughout the night they both get the opportunity to let go of those burdens piece by piece and dump out their worries one by one. 

and ahhhh, i just adore the moments that are shared by them. 

at the time that i was writing this, i was feeling very existential about life and youth and love (could you tell lol) and i wasn’t really talking to anyone about it. so this piece turned into an outlet for me to dump out my thoughts and opinions about life onto. like the parts about happiness, soulmates, youth, marriage, and falling in and out of love are all MY thoughts and are all realization that were made by ME. so this piece is way more personal than it appears. just because the state of minds’ of kevin and mc and so similar to mine, especially at that time. i was basically turning conversations i had with myself into a story. 

and i think my favorite part about all of this in relation to how it plays out in the story. its sort of a fantasy of mine actually. not the whole hanging out with the stranger part but rather the conversation that they’re able to share with each other and how transparently they’re able to speak. since writing this piece, i have spoken to close friends and family about the thoughts that were really weighing on me back then, but sometimes when i talk to them it feels as if i’m talking to a wall. which sounds way more dramatic than i mean for it to be lol. i’m just very bad at expressing myself in conversation and words never feel like enough to convey how i’m feeling and where my head is at. and also, when you’re having a real conversation with someone, it’s human nature to interject with your own thoughts and worries. so that on top of everything else i mentioned, just makes me really long for the conversation that kevin and mc share through out the night. they both are just very good listening and they don’t dismiss one another (at least i don’t think they do) and they’re both just very open minded to the other. i wrote them this way unknowingly, but looking back, i really really appreciate this and this aspect to their dynamic cause it’s definitely not that easy in real life. 

—

ahh phone booth scene my beloved!! 

i don’t have much to actually say other than this part:

“Yeah, no. I was gonna say the same thing.” He nods solemnly, visibly gulping as if the words are hard to swallow

he was definitely NOT going to say the same thing

—

okay also the entire part in the park.... everything i said before is a lie THAT’s my favorite part of this piece

i have nothing more to say but i’m sorry this got so long omg 

send me a directors commentary ask 

[amxwolf]

Here is why conventional healthful-thinking is not working on Millennials.

Have you ever had that terrifying dream where you are stuck in a dark forest or sketchy alley, frantically running for your life from some kind of feral monster or mad man? Most of us can personally recall at least once being roused from sleep in a cold sweat because their brain had spent the last few hours perfecting the latent image of a made-to-order nightmare. While that experience is certainly not exclusive to Millennials (rather quite the opposite), the waking reaction or at least how it is processed later by this roughly categorized group of mislabeled people is unique to say the least.

For years now, people in marketing have been fervently dissecting and attempting to recreate what has been loosely categorized as "Millennial Humor". And in all of their efforts to connect with this flock of black sheep, the grand majority of them seem to be missing a key factor in the psychology at work here. For all the unwarrantable bilge that modern advertising haphazardly cobbles together, only a small percentage of the nonsense is seasoned perfectly with the secret ingredient. What is this singular spice? Well, while indulgent to profess and speculative, from someone "sitting in millennial class”, it's obvious: A touch of salt.

Never will I sit here and cry to the general public about how unhappy I am that the modern advertising industry is just not scratching my itch for the wares it’s peddling, but I think it's important for us now to look at how this systemic lack of understanding is reaching beyond the world of subliminal profiteering. Society has other significant quality-of-life effecting systems that are also missing the mark when trying to aim and reach out to help this specific group of people. Puns aside, "a touch of salt" as I quipped, is flavoring the lives of a lot of people in their mid to late 20's and early 40's. And the most frustrating and difficult to reconcile attempts that I personally have made to better myself, have been those that were guided by people who just cannot seem to put their brain into that salty head space.

For example, trying to focus on and internalize a well-organized medical presentation about the encompassing negative effects of stress or insomnia and its seemly simple solution of just "changing your thinking", is about as easily digestible as a two-decade-year-old fruitcake for someone who is imprisoned daily by the symptoms of chronic stress. While I may sit there and give listening (ironically) "the old college try", the sound quickly turns to fuzzy white noise the deeper the lecture dives into positive thinking.

You see, Millennials are not generally fluent in positive thinking. More and more of them seem to be speaking a very distinctive dialect of realism, which incorporates a robustly cultivated sense of sarcasm and a somewhat grim shade of hopelessness. A lot of millennials grew up with a laughably poetic twist on "Growing Up" and "Being Successful", which in turn has colored their day-to-day interactions and created this defeatism-culture. Millennials will openly joke about their death as a needed release, their eulogy as a retirement card, or emotionally decompile themselves over something simple like saying "you too" in a situation that doesn't warrant it.

A good percentage of Millennials were old enough to understand the destructive consequences of the most recent housing market disaster on a very personal level; At an impressionable age, watching their own parents, who may have worked excruciatingly hard at the expense of any number of personal or family goals, lose just about everything resonated in a way that cannot be unheard. Then add the borderline criminal and unscrupulous "sheep-shearing" that became common place when the generation was herded off to college, trade school, or other form of career-building education. Not to mention the fact that upon completing said programs, a proverbial "step-in-the-right direction", a substantial number of these "hopeless wanderers" were faced with yet another barbed-wire hurdle when the job market in countless fields were oversaturated with potential employees. Many positions had not been vacated as they normally would have been with the age of retirement being stretched further and further down the road due to increased cost of living and financial demands; the finish line or lap marker was just not getting any closer. To add insult to injury, Millennials, sometimes unbelievably hardworking, are frequently being listed as perpetuators of the clashing reality we have today. This being what the modern media is calling "The Great Resignation"; a dubious combination of a labor shortage amidst an unemployment spike fueled by uncompetitive wages left unchecked, the government's inability to reel in the situation, and a general devaluing of laborers overall.

Oh. And also, we were killing the diamond industry at the same time. Or was it simultaneously the marriage and divorce industry? Wait! I think it was cinema? Or no....maybe it was fabric softener. For a complete dissertation of all the things Millennials brutally murdered over the last two decades, perhaps I'll include a link below if for no other reason to drive my point home.

You have this group of people who are conditioned to endlessly swimming upstream, against the current, with nothing but chastising and bitterness to listen to. So, when it comes to something universal like learning to "sleep better" or "problem solving", the indifferent but somehow time-honored approach of saying "it's as easy as just taking control" is over time if not immediately rejected as dissonant information.

These people don't feel like they have control; some of them feel like they never had any to begin with.

Why is this a problem?

Our society is not developing a taste for "salt" at a pace in which it can prepare social-sustenance for its population. We're not getting any younger, and neither are the generations in front of us.

Millennials are already, by some definitions the mass-population of workers, voters, and other titles that we've yet to embrace. And our lack of interest is not because we do not have a passion for positive change (even on a global scale). Millennials have voiced over time that they feel they are the silent majority amidst a group of people who will not give them breathing room and don't respect the validity of their opinions and ambitions. And it is by no means restricted to one region or country on this planet. This is a global phenomenon.

I could spin a vast yarn about the political ramifications of continuing to exclude the Millennials from the metaphoric Counsel of Elders, but I'm more concerned about the neglect that is spreading elsewhere. We need our leaders in the medical and social fields to really respect and dig deep into how to incorporate "Millennial Thinking" into their treatment and development plans. A large amount of the global population is going to need carefully tailored treatment for things as old as depression, bi-polar tendencies, or schizophrenia as well as newly discovered mental encumbrances like imposter-syndrome.

While “positive-thinking” may have been easily cultivated in the past, we may need to start from a more negative approach and build from there to educate and treat a group of down-on-their-luck millions. Pumping drugs into a populace is not going to permanently patch the leak either, so there truly is precedence for a rehashing of how we should prioritize mental health in modern society.

Stop spending so much time and energy assigning blame to modern technologies and social norms. Are these going away? No? In that case, those things are much like our other daily stresses that are unavoidable. Yes, you can change your nightly routine to de-stress the same way that you can change a job or a daily commute, but there needs to be a fundamental shift in accountability divvied to circumstances out of a person's control rather than scolding them for not being able to manage it.

Do I have all the answers? No.

But this was less about offering a solid a solution and more about opening a dialogue. A starting point.

So yeah. I've had that dream of being chased through the woods by a life-leeching alien. It felt very similar to being sucked dry of my pitiful wages for an education that was at the time, barely panning out. Even now, as a 32-year-old, slightly more successful version of the starving student I've become, I still feel as though my rat race will end when my heart gives out; and all I can hope for is enough money when I drop to cover the ambulance ride to the over-crowded emergency room and a large pit to rot in. But I just hope that the generation behind me has the benefit of a system that understands how to create and sustain “Millennial Inspired” social structures that will allow them to flourish in what little we can leave behind for them.

Also, could you pass the salt?

[everlarkficexchange]

Operation: BREAD (Bring Revenge on Everdeen to Avenge Dad)

Written by: @alliswell21

Prompt 23: Rumor: MrEverdeen crossed fence dividing Town and Seam, kidnapped Mrs Everdeen making her his common law wife. Years later, Mellark sons plan to avenge their father by raiding Seam and kidnapping one of Everdeen’s daughters for one of them to take as a wife! Does Katniss “volunteer,” does she escape, how do the 3 brothers decide what to do with her since they didn’t plan it all out well? [submitted by @567inpanem]

Rated: T for now, for language.

Author’s Note: So, I resigned myself that this prompt won’t be completed by the new dateline of May 10th, because believe it not, quarantining with the husband and children at home makes for a very busy day… everyday. I haven’t been able to write anything for days at a time, and everytime I come back, I reread what I’ve written so far, and find faults that need fixing and what I hoped to be a short story is turning into a long one shot because I’m incapable of keep things simple… and now I’m ranting about everything instead of thanking everyone— from the EFE administrators, to @567inpanem for the prompt, and y’all dear readers— and wishing all moms a happy Mother’s Day, even if you celebrate it on a different date in your country… and I a belated happy birthday to Katniss Everdeen and Also a happy Mother’s Day to her, because she deserves it… anywho…

Here’s is the very first part of this story, that can’t make up its mind on what it wants to be (it’s leaning into romcom territory right now), I’ll post all my submissions soonish (hopefully finished), and I apologize for any formatting defects since I’m posting from my cell phone, otherwise I’ll forget to post it at all.

Sorry this is messy! I love y’all! Stay healthy.

————

“Quiet, you morons!” Bannock… whispers?

Is that the right descriptor for the harsh, low sounds that comes from his mouth? I’m not quite sure, but I look at him sheepishly, since I was the one to trip on air this time around and nearly knock down a clothesline, poles and all.

“S-sorry…” I stutter drunkenly.

Rye shrugs, uncaring. Asshole!

Bannock glares at us with his bloodshot, angry blue eyes before turning around and creeping forward.

It’s a chilly night out, with no stars and just a sliver of moon casting minimal light over us, ideal to maraud and raid… if we lived any place else, that is.

If we were to find ourselves face to face with the flashlight of a Peacekeeper patrolling the streets, things could go anywhere from awkward to deadly, and I really hope we don’t have to find out how it’ll truly go. We’re wasted, outside our house after curfew, and facing our mother’s wrath would probably be as terrible as any punishment the peacekeepers would inflict on us.

The later option has me swallowing thickly.

I’m no coward by any stretch of the word… but I do enjoy being alive, so… yeah.

“Don’t mess around, no more!” Bannock chides.

As soon as Bann turns around, Rye mouths his words back, mockingly, and I wonder— not for the first time— how can my brothers be so immature? Bannock just turned 25, while Rye has the mind of a 13 year old trapped in the muscular body of a 24 year old man; leaving sweet, little me, the 21 year old baby sibling, to bring the rear.

Rye burps, mostly quietly, earning another warning glare from Bann. All things considered, I’m a little impressed at how stealthily we’ve been moving so far, being as enebriated as we are and all. But who knows? Maybe we really aren’t as slick as my alcohol soaked brain thinks we are, and I’m just too skunked to know any better.

“D’you think we’ll be back before father wakes to take care of the ovens?” Rye slurs a little, squinting his eyes at a cat trotting across the alley in front of him. A second later he’s frowning down at the cat, shushing it obnoxiously, as if it’s soft paws are the ones making the stopping sounds coming from his own boots.

Bannock shrugs, “Who cares!”

I’m about to raise my hand and respond that I do, I care, but Rye starts laughing like an idiot, already distracted by something else. We turn to catch him picking up a stick and throwing it at the poor, unsuspecting cat. As soon as the stick hits it’s side, the animal loses its balance, making it fall into a trash can, with a terrified cry.

It’s awful. And loud.

“Knock it off!” Bannock growls as quietly as he can. “You’re gonna wake up the whole town, asshole!”

The cat meows indignantly, climbing out of the trash. He jumps to the other side and it’s gone in the next moment.

I sigh, rubbing one hand over my face. “Guys, I think we should go back. I don’t think Father will approve of this.”

“Shut up, Peeta!”

“Yeah! Shut it, runt!”

I grunt in aggravation under my breath. “I’m serious. We shouldn’t be out here… at all!” I insist.

“Why did you come then?” Bann hisses.

“You dragged me out with you, jackass!” I counter, pointedly. Plus, I’m the least drunk out of the three of us, and I figured I should keep an eye on them two, make sure they don’t get hurt in this idiotic quest… but I don’t say that out aloud. “I still don’t understand why, are we stumbling across town in the middle of the night, risking getting caught outside after curfew.”

“You know why, Peeta! We’ve gone over it to death,” snaps Bann, twisting his whole body to face me and almost walking into a potted plant sitting by somebody’s back door. “Father doesn’t know how to take care of himself, let alone how to defend his honor!”

“Our hands have been forced, runt. We need to pick up the slack, that’s why!”

I roll my eyes at my brothers.

It’s true though. For the last 26 years, our father has been both the butt of every joke said in the streets of district 12, and the victim of a tragic cautionary tale, people somehow feel the sadistic inclination to bring up to us, Mellark boys, as if we needed the reminder.

“Geez… save it for Everdeen, Bann. Let the runt keep his head instead of chewing it off him!”

Bannock frowns. It’s not everyday Rye comes to my defense, which means he really must be hammered.

Cool! I love brotherly affection… even if given under the influence.

“Whatever.” Bannock mutters under his breath. “We’re here anyway.” He signals to the fence dividing our district into two unequal sections: the merchant quarter, where we live, and the Seam (our destination), the largest— yet poorest— side of 12.

It’s unclear why the government erected the fence running right through the district in the first place, but the effect of having a literal barrier separating everyone in our small district, couldn’t be any clearer: we have a huge social divide amongst our people, very distinct and hard to overcome. Both sides distrusting the other, despite there never being a tangible reason why.

Personally, I think the most logical explanation for the creation of the internal fence, was just sheer desire to create hostility and antagonism between the citizens of 12… maybe it’s easier for the Capitol’s long arm to control a podunk place like here, when there’s an unbridgeable social chasm between our own denizens; how can we band together to demand better treatment and fair representation from the mighty Capitol, when we’re fighting with each other?

Of course, I keep my opinion to myself, because speaking of such things is just a sure way to find oneself in prison, facing charges of public agitation and whatnot.

Bann cuts through my musings, “Alright… let’s find a spot to cross over.” He says determined and still very intoxicated.

The worst kept secret in District 12, is how some sections of the fence are too close to the houses in the merchant side. If one really wants to cross into the other side over the fence, one only needs to look for a low wall adjacent to the top links of the fence to climb on, and after that, it’s all a matter of gravity pulling you down. Its been done before too…

Everyone speculates that’s what happened the day our father fell into disgrace: A man from the Seam found a weak spot to exploit… and the rest is history. Never mind the fact that jumping the fence is a common enough hooligan deed; how else can teenage couples reach the Slag Heap at the edge of the old coal mines to engage in their secret affairs?

It only takes us a few minutes to find a brick wall circling the backyard of a random house, just two feet shy of the fence.

We climb it with all the grace of a pig crawling up a greased pole, but after much huffing and puffing, we manage— with great effort— to drag ourselves over the barrier. We’re sweating and swearing, but who could blame us for that? We Mellark boys are just too broad and heavy with muscle, add to the mix the fact that we’ve drank our body weight in white liquor right before Bann had the brilliant idea of dragging us out here, and you have an uncoordinated— mostly clumsy— sad excuse, trio of vandals.

Rye goes first, then I go; finally, Bannock splatters down like a bullfrog, falling on his ass. He’s disgruntled and I suspect in dire need of a nap.

“Come on!” He commands, dusting his behind sloppily.

We’ve been walking aimlessly through unfamiliar dirt roads and dark unpaved alleys. The place is littered with produce crates set upside down in neat circles every other road… I vaguely wonder if that’s what passes as a socializing hot spot here in the Seam, like the square with its concrete benches is for us in town?

Sometimes I forget how things can be so shitty on this side of the District. It makes my stomach twist unpleasantly with guilt, realizing I take certain privileges for granted.

About five minutes into our stupid intrusion into Seam territory, Rye speaks up.

“Dude… do you know where they live?”

Bannock’s head snaps up, clearly annoyed. “How hard can it be to find the Seam’s apothecary?”

Very, actually.

First of all, The Seam consists of row after row of seemingly identical shacks, in varying states of shabbiness, arranged in a huge matrix of sorts. Each row is made of three to five houses with a slim road in between the next set of homes.

For what I gather in my limited liquor-addled brain, each horizontal row has a designated letter, and the vertical street goes by number. Other than that, there are no other distinguishing signs, telling us where we are or how to find the ‘Seam apothecary’ as Bann inarticulately dubbed it.

Rye groans in annoyance, seeming ready to overrule Bannock and call the whole thing off, himself; but my drunk ass is too stupid to keep my big mouth shut.

“They live close to the electric fence. Right before the meadow. They probably have a fence-in yard, too.”

I wince, regretting my words right away. I shouldn’t have said anything, but like an idiot, I couldn’t help spilling out the small bursts of information I’ve gathered over the years on the Everdeens.

I’m ashamed to admit it, but the Everdeens are a bit of an obsession to me… for all of us Mellarks, really. Given our entangled past with them, it shouldn’t be so much of a revelation, but this thing between our families has been a nuisance ever since I can remember and while my brothers and mother use it as a focal point of hatred and animosity. For me, is a curiosity driven thirst for knowledge on everything Everdeen. Anything that could shed light on our sordid past, I would gobble up, trying to answer why something that has virtually nothing to do with me and my brothers, still haunt us everywhere we go.

Rye frowns. “Fence-in yard?” He looks around the houses we are passing, realizing none of those have fences.

“Goat.” Bannock grunts, nodding thoughtfully. “Good catch, runt.”

“Huh?” Rye is scratching his head, confused.

“The blonde girl,” Bann says with mild irritation.

People from the Seam have a very specific look to them: dark— usually straight— hair, gray eyes, olive skin… ‘blonde’, blue eyed and pale, is more of a descriptor for people from the merchant class, like us… like Mrs. Everdeen.

The poor woman must stick out like a sore thumb in here; probably the same goes to her merchant-looking daughter, Primrose.

“What about the blonde?”

“She makes goat cheese.” Bann huffs as explanation, but since Rye still looks like the concept is too hard to fathom, Bannock grunts, expanding. “She trades the cheese in town. Mainly with Father. Which means, Everdeen has to keep at least one goat for the girl to have access to milk.”

“M’kay… goat, fences, meadow.” Rye lists clumsily on his fingers, following after Bann. “Got it!”

We quickened our steps in the direction of the electric fence. I’m still kicking myself for saying anything when we reach the last row of houses before the meadow.

I really hope I’m wrong about them having a goat, although I find it hard to believe Primrose steals milk from other people for her cheeses. She looks so sweet and innocent.

Alas, I’m too clever for my own good sometimes.

The very first house in the row at the edge of the meadow, has a pen connected to the house on the strip of backyard allotted to them. A tiny but sturdy shed stands against the back wall of the house, and if my eyes don’t deceive me, I can barely make out the snout of a goat, peeking out of the narrow opening of the shed.

“This is it!” Rye crows excitedly, rubbing his hands together and licking his chops like a hungry, humanoid wolf.

“Yeah. Finally!” Grunts Bann, “keep your voice down, doofus.” his reaction, both frenzied and anxious.

“Let’s do this!” Rye’s smile is deranged.

“Great!” I hiccup with fake enthusiasm. “What are we doing?” I deadpan, staring at my siblings with all the aggravation I can muster.

My brothers speak excitedly at the same time:

“Taking one of the girls back home with us!”/“Beating the shit out of Everdeen!”

My brothers look at each other, perplexed, and go, “”What?!” At the same time.

“Fuck!” I groan to the skies, noting its near dawn. “You better be joking! We came all the way out here, and you idiots didn’t plan what you were going to do once we arrived?”

“No… I mean, yes! No. it’s simple,” Slurs Rye trying to stare me in the eye and failing miserably, “We’re dragging Everdeen out here. Then, we’ll beat the snot out of the bastard, and have you doodle the whole thing out for Father… you’ll finally use that art talent of yours for something we’ll all enjoy… not just you,”

“No, no, no, no!” Snaps Bannock. “We’re taking one of Everdeen’s daughters, bring her back home with us, and avenge father.”

“What? Why?” Rye whines much too loud and even I shush him. “I thought we were just gonna jump the bastard and rearrange his face a little,” Rye sounds disappointed.

Bannock answers right away, sounding like our mother when she’s chiding us for some thing or another. “Dude… the guy stole Dad’s girl! You know what they say about repaying a slight with the same coin and all that shit. It stands to reason, the course of action here is to take one of the girls home with us, sleep with her, and get her pregnant or something, then she can’t come back to her daddy.”

I throw my hands up in the air, “That’s it! I’m out!” My brain practically short circuits with the outrageous shit my brothers are spewing out of their mouths.

Sure, beating the lights out of an unsuspecting man in front of his house in the middle of the night is already crazy, but Bann’s idea to take a girl away from her home, it’s beyond preposterous!

Instead of lashing out, I turn around and stalk away as fast as my legs can carry me. I’m still tipsy, so I stumble a little, but I’m determined to leave.

“Hey! Where are ya going?!”

I get grabbed by the bíceps and pulled back to ‘hide’ behind a scraggly bush overlooking the house we assume is Everdeen’s. My brothers push me down by the shoulders roughly, until I’m sitting on my ass.

“The hell is wrong with you two?” I snarl, trying to punch and kick either one of them.

“Shut up, runt! They’re gonna hear you!”

“Good! Then someone will call the Peacekeepers over.”

“Wha— No! Why would you want that?” Rye whines.

“I didn’t sign up for any of this crazy shit!” I spit enraged.

“Dude, you can’t bail on operation BREAD,” Rye scrunches up his face.

“Operation Bread? What in the hell, is operation Bread?” I wrench my arms free from them at last, glowering up at both.

“Bring Revenge on Everdeen to Avenge Dad!” Rye says proudly, a lopsided smile brightens his face, and all I want to do is punch his nose.

“You’re insane!” I sputter.

“No… I’m cle-ver!” Rye grins, tapping a finger to his temple.

“Come on, Peeta. You know this needs to be done!” Bann cuts in.

“No! It doesn’t!” I argue. I still feel woozy from alcohol though, so it’s costing me too much effort trying to get up. “This is just insane, Bannock! What you’re proposing is just… heinous!” I hiss.

Bannock’s face hardens, “Nobody will see it like that.” He assures, “An eye for an eye, baby brother.”

“So what? We’re gonna kidnap and rape an innocent girl in revenge, and you think that’ll fix anything? Will it bring peace? It’ll help you get Madelynn’s parents to back off and let her marry you?” I’m so pissed off, I’m pretty sure spittle is flying out of my mouth. “It won’t do anyone any good! Not us, nor father, and especially not Katniss or Primrose!”

“Shut the fuck up!” Bannock flies at me, and all I have to do is lift my arms to shield my head.

Rye is an equal opportunity asshole most of the time, but in this moment, he’s the one stopping Bannock from breaking my face in two, and I’m very grateful for my middle brother manhandling our eldest for me.

“Rape is a strong word, runt.” Rye gasps with the effort of keeping Bannock from kicking my ass. But if the wrinkling of his nose is any indication, I think maybe my words are chipping away some of his complicitness in this mess. “Maybe, what Bann meant, was, one of us will… you know… spend time with the girl, and then… make her his common law wife or something?” Rye looks at Bann expectantly.

Bannock nods. Rye lets go of him.

We all stay silent, breathing heavily for a moment.

“Same coin. Simple as that.”

If the stories are to be believed, Sorrel Everdeen crossed the fence dividing the merchant quarter and the seam, kidnapped my father’s betrothed— Lily— and made her his common law wife, despite being common knowledge, that the woman in question was engaged to our father since they were very young.

It’s an old rumor, really, with no real way to fact-check the events that led to this moment in time, but there’s always been some nasty whispering churning around town; tales varying in height and perjury, sometimes scandalous, others depraved, always with add-ons and full of conjectures flavored by the speaker in turn, but never the whole truth.

The worst thing is that the stories die down for a while when something juicer comes up, but then resurface, like a persistent oily stain on cement… It’s been 26 years since the real events leading to the Everdeens controversial marriage took place, yet the old gossip mill in District 12 has waxed over and rewritten the sordid story through the lense of judgemental people over and over again, until even our mother has started to repeat the outlandish tales, as if she wasn’t an active participant of the story herself.

Still… “I just can’t!” I say both exasperated and grossed out. “We should just go home—“

I get cut off when the door of the Everdeen house opens spilling faint candlelight into the almost blackened-out street.

My brothers rush to huddle around me, crowding on top of me like a pair of boulders… or worse: a pair of sweaty, heavy, alcohol doused men. Disgusting!

The door of the shack closes softly and to our shock, a very angry looking Katniss Everdeen stomps in the direction of the sad excuse for a bush we’re hiding in.

“Hmm… guys… I think she sees us.” I mumble calmly, yet terrified. Katniss Everdeen, eldest daughter of Sorrel and Lily, is coming our way with fire in her eyes.

TBC on AO3…

[beautheexpositor]

Jester's Emotions

Okay y'all, a Beaujester conversation happened and so naturally here comes the meta train.

This one went quite a bit differently from how I expected it to at the beginning of the conversation, but right from the beginning there were some very clear and distinct things notable about Jester and what she's been feeling.

There's a lot to talk about here, so I'm going to break it down as best as possible.

Now, it's easy to see Beau's panic. The person she's crushing on has asked if she's avoiding her completely out of the blue, and pulls her into a conversation saying she "Knows why" Beau has been avoiding her. Insert obvious gay panic here.

But Jester is the one who initiates this, because Jester is scared. Setting all possible romantic feelings aside for a second, Jester has at least noticed that her best friend has been a little odd- and Jester is the type to always want to please others and make them happy, so of COURSE she'll freak out the moment someone acts a little differently around her. Of course, if someone is avoiding her, surely she did something wrong that she needs to apologize for. Now, whether or not Beau has actively been avoiding Jester is up for speculation and would take a bunch more meta, but if she is, Jester is quite wrong about the reason (this becomes apparent when she says why and Beau looks shocked, laughing and responding "No, that's not- no, not at all") Jester is scared that she was a bad friend. She feels personally responsible for Beau. I mean, it's very obvious right from the first "It's because I didn't save you." Even though there are two clerics and multiple people with healing abilities in the party, Jester was sorry that it wasn't HER. She's been torn up about her decision of not saving Beau to the point where she feels like Beau has been avoiding her because of it. Jester is testing and looking for Beau's reaction, because Jester feels as if something is off and feels as if she needs to find an amends to make to set things back and have Beau back. Of course, this isn't the reason, so Beau starts comforting her (in her own, Beau-ish, gay panic sort of way).

This all leads to Jester apologizing anyways, and then opening up a lot and showing her fears and vulnerability by saying "I don't want you to die." This moment is incredibly important. Jester doesn't often show how afraid she is, Jester doesn't like to bring up things like the fact that what they're doing is dangerous, and they all could die. It's apparent that she wants to say something, she wants a reason for why she feels so extra obligated to protect Beau specifically- and there are many times when she almost will say something, only for Beau to keep talking and her to stop mid track. Yet she says that. She admits a fear. After all the things she almost said, all the excuses she could've made, she knows the truth. More than anyone, she doesn't want to lose Beau.

Then, less than moments after she shows this vulnerability, she changes the subject to some silly ridiculous thing she did FOR Beau, so as to keep the conversation going without getting serious. I think this part is incredibly important to show Jester's mindset in this conversation and overall. She missed Beau, and wants to talk to her, but she doesn't want to explore territory that gets too deep because she isn't sure entirely what she's feeling. This conversation does not go the way she was imagining it to, though, and there is a clear return to square one for Jester. Once again, she finds a potential reason for Beau to be upset with her (because there has to be a reason, this is BEAU, and f she's avoiding her, clearly it is Jester's fault). Her statement, "This is what I should be apologizing for," Shows that fear coming back again, but Beau- even in her confusion and probably in her overwhelmed state- wants to comfort Jester, and can't help but "Love her ridiculous plan." She goes as far as to even openly call Jester endearing for doing it, which seems to calm Jester's nerves a bit, because she smiles, then goes into planning mode instead of apology mode.

By the end of it, even though they bicker a bit, Beau has opened up to Jester, and Jester very clearly wants to help Beau. She wants to be there for her. She cares for Beau, in a way that's different- even from the way she cares about the other M9. Jester's love for Beau is deep, and this is apparent in these moments. These moments where, even when they have something they disagree on, Jester doesn't want to argue with Beau or force her opinion down her throat (Which, normally Jester isn't afraid to do). Instead she says "agree to disagree." To which Beau responds by saying maybe one day she'll believe. When she does, she suggests JESTER be the one to potentially get her to, easing the possible tension by literally giving Jester Molly's tarot deck. Jester shows excitement and obviously freaks out about reading tarot cards, but you can also tell that something shifts in her in this moment. She's not nervous or finding something to apologize for anymore. She's excited again. Beau gave her a meaningful gift. Beau showed that she cares. That, even if their opinions differ or Jester does whacky things, Beau is there- and believes in JESTER. Jester doesn't need to apologize.

Jester gained something out of that conversation, she gained affirmation that Beau cares. She gained affirmation that the reasons she was scared of are not the reasons Beau has been acting strange. She ends it being silly, and is silly many times throughout the conversation; but, that's because that's who Jester IS, Beau too. It's hard for them to sit down and have a conversation without being incredibly THEM. Still, Jester was vulnerable. She was afraid. She was afraid to be drifting from her best friend, and (tin foil hat) potentially afraid of losing someone she's interested in, whether she was consciously aware of that or not. More than anything, she just wanted to talk to Beau. She missed her, and was looking for any and all excuses to find conversation with her. Once she got that conversation, and saw that she had Beau, her very intense emotions throughout the dialogue seemed to calm down. She thanked Beau, and ran off to play with her new very special gift.

TLDR: Jester is deep in her emotions and fears in this conversation, and wants to talk to Beau, because she misses her. She feels that something is off between their dynamic, and is pushing for any and all reasons that Beau might possibly be avoiding her- because in Jesters mind, if someone is avoiding her or acting differently towards her, something must be wrong. She gets deep, and maybe deeper than she knows how to get, and derails then conversation only to find it getting deep again. By the end, even after an argument, Jester seems lighter- and more okay. Beau isn't mad at her, they talked, and Beau gave her a gift. After a lot of emotions, she was thrilled to just have been able to talk to Beau again.

[awed-frog]

I like reading from your blog cause I see all the blqck/white discourse from an European pov and it sounds so crazy but then I read what you can add to those post and I'm like, yes thank you for being the voice of reason here... Like jesus I can't believe people are so hellbent on some things they forget the world is not like the usa and its specificities

Thank you for this message! I’m not sure which posts you’re referring to, but I do try very hard to learn about stuff so I can have an informed opinion - it means a lot that you think I sometimes succeed. 

I think that maybe we were too optimistic about this ‘global village’ thing, and specifically in thinking that widespread knowledge of English would help people understand one another. Because you’re right: in my experience, Americans tend to dominate conversations because a) they speak their native language all the time, b) they’re often a majority in online spaces, c) they’re not used to living with other cultures and also d) they grow up with the idea that being loud and confident is a good thing.

(As a kind of apology: I know the US is a big country, and I’m sure there are endless differences in social rules and stuff like that. I can only comment on what I’ve seen in fiction and IRL, which, to be fair, seems to be pretty consistent.)

As for the race part, yeah, that’s complicated. Every time I think I understand it a bit more, I find out about yet another horrifying detail and I have to start from scratch again. What is universal is that ‘we forgot those nobodies we needed as workers were actual people’ thing - you find it over and over again and it always causes problems. And obviously in the US it took the form of actual slavery, but the schematics are pretty much the same everywhere? You see it in Germany with the Gastarbeiter, in France with people from Maghreb - both groups were invited in because of a lack of workers, with the explicit or implicit expectation that they would keep to themselves, do nothing outside of work and fuck off asap when they were no longer needed. But, of course, people are people. We want to make friends, get married, have kids, be reunited with relatives, and eventually we get used to or come to like the place we’re living in, despite the fact it’s so very different from our childhood home. In the US, of course, the matter is complicated by the fact these workers were slaves and were bought and kept as slaves long after we knew slavery wasn’t acceptable. 

(Because that’s the horror on top of the horror: in the ancient world, you only get the odd philosopher speculating about human rights; but by the late 17th century, those ideas were - if not 100% established - something many countries were using as foundation for their laws and codes of conduct. 

We knew. We all knew.

And yet.)

And as outsiders, I know what puzzles many people here is the degree to which this segregation still exists. Many of us know our ancestors who emigrated to the US faced poverty, abuse and severe discrimination, but those things eased - as they generally do - generation after generation. Unfortunately, it’s easy to hate and distrust a recent immigrant; but once they have children, once those children have children, there is no longer any objective difference between those children and native children. They go to the same schools, support the same teams, watch the same programs. Of course, one house may have a black-dressed grandma lurking in a corner, or different cooking smells, but that is about it. In the US, despite the constant talk of patriotism and the flags and the relentless cultural indoctrination, this process happens very unevely across different communities. 

For instance, one thing I don’t really understand is how African-Americans managed to keep their own specific form of English (truth be told, I don’t actually know whether AAE is the same in every state/family, and how that works exactly?). Because every black person I met in the UK had either a national accent (first generation immigrants and exchange students) or a 100% British accent. The fact an entire community is so linguistically distinct - that must be evidence of a deep segregation that’s still pervasive - in the school system, in the job market, in social circles. I know this must be obvious to any American, but I don’t know how obvious it is to them that in Europe, accent is generally lost in the span of 20 years - even if a community is deliberately marginalized (just watch any interview with an Italian Romani).

(One thing that struck me was an op-ed written by an African-American man who’d grown up on a US military base in Germany. He said that when his family came back to the US, he was actively bullied by the other black kids because he didn’t speak the ‘right’ kind of English and was completely unaware of the rules framing US race relations. Twenty years later, he still didn’t feel part of either community.)

Anyway - I don’t know where I was going with this. I talked about racism before, when someone asked why Europeans don’t use the word ‘race’, and while our system is very far from perfect, I think what’s going on in the US is far more fucked up. People need to live together so it becomes clear that the only real distinction is between those who worry about the next meal and those who do not. Until we sit here and retreat into our own actual or perceived identity, to the point where we refuse to engage with someone who’s not ‘like us’, nothing’s ever going to get fixed; and that’s the same everywhere, isn’t it?

[feuillesmortes]

Is it just me or does it seem PG tries a little to hard to connect H8's looks and personality to his Tudor/Lancaster side rather than York? Even though it clear as day from every historian that H8 took after his York side of the family more than anything. He was said to be more happy outgoing and carefree than his father and more like his grandfather Edward IV. His looks resembled E4 and EoY as well. While his father H7 was more serious bookish and introverted.

Hello, anon! I honestly don’t remember how Gregory describes Henry VIII because I read her books some ten years ago. Having said that, I’m under the distinct impression that she did, in fact, dislike Henry VIII (though not so much as Henry VII) and instead favoured his brother Arthur. It doesn’t surprise me if she associates the ‘bad’/Lancastrian/Tudor looks (and just to be clear, the Lancastrian and Tudor looks are completely different) with those she dislikes, while the ‘good’ Yorkist looks couldn’t obviously go to such people.

Now first we must ask ourselves, what even IS the Yorkist look? Edward IV was dark-haired, probably dark-eyed as well. Richard III was also dark-haired. The ‘golden’ look was, in fact, the Woodville look. I’ve never been a fan of the whole “Henry VIII was a Yorkist-looking bloke” take and that’s because it usually revolves around two things: his height and his red-gold/fair hair. Let’s look into those, shall we?

Well, Henry VII was also described as fair-haired. His uncle Jasper was probably ginger. We don’t know Edmund Tudor’s hair colour but he probably had fair hair, considering Catherine of Valois was blonde and that despite Margaret Beaufort being dark-haired, Henry VII still had fair hair. Also, both parents need to have the mutation for a child to be born with red hair. So the claim that Henry VIII’s fair hair comes from his mother doesn’t hold. Now, what about his height? 

People love — I mean, love, all the popular historians do it — to talk about Edward IV’s height as a proof that Henry VIII was his descendant (I mean, the man was impressive, 6′4′’ back then? that’s something). But you know who also were remarkably tall people? THE TUDORS. Owen Tudor was so famously tall, when they excavated some bones where once a church stood, next to the place Owen was executed (Hereford’s marketplace) and found a 6′2′’ skeleton they all thought it could only be Owen’s, the famously tall man. You know who also was famously tall? JASPER. He was so tall he was nicknamed LONG by the Welsh poets (Siasbar Hir). Lastly, Henry VII was also described as tall according to some (though his most famous description says ‘above the average’) and stood at least 6 feet tall as per his tomb in Westminster Abbey. 

Remarkably, there is speculation about a possible bastard son of Henry VII’s, Roland de Velville. I never believed much in that speculation, because notably, Professor Chrimes disagreed with that opinion. Recently, though, I’ve found some arguments to the contrary that make sense. One of the allegations (not the most compelling, though) is that Roland was described as: ‘tale [tall] very stronge & fair much like to Kinge H8′. It seems that until 1967 all historians considered him a natural son of Henry VII (for many other reasons) and it was not until Chrimes came along that the opinion was changed. I’m still to be convinced about Roland, though.

So do you see what is actually the Tudor look? Tall and fair-haired. Notably, with the exception of Edward IV, Richard Duke of York and Richard III were not tall at all, so much so that some believed Edward IV wasn’t York’s son and started some rumours about his legitimacy. So, ironically, fair-haired and tall are not Yorkist looks in the end. But I doubt Gregory ever did this much research (or simply... the task of connecting the dots) before she wrote her books. She needed to carry on with her “white-knight perfect hero Richard III” fantasy and one way of doing that is by glorifying the Yorkists and demeaning everyone else. Those she dislikes are put into the second category.

Now, in terms of personality, GENETICS (and that I can say for sure!) play no hand. There’s no way that because Edward IV was carefree and easygoing, Henry VIII would access his DNA and be carefree and easygoing as well, especially because the two of them never met (otherwise you could say there was some influence — influence based on co-living, parenting and education; you see, all social aspects — but it was not the case).

I know this answer wasn’t exactly what you were expecting, but I hope I made some things clear! :) Gregory tries too hard and fails in the end, as usual, when we apply sense. Stay safe! x

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

This holiday season, the Democratic National Committee gave the gift of one last primary debate in 2019. The stage featured just seven candidates, and despite a sleepy first hour, there was a lot of tension in the two-and-a-half-hour affair. Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Pete Buttigieg came under fire from the rest of the field, fielding attacks from Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in particular. According to the FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll, which used Ipsos’s KnowledgePanel to interview the same respondents before and after the debate, Klobuchar had a good night, attracting the most new potential support. Former Vice President Joe Biden also did well, earning the highest debate performance score from the viewers in our survey.

Maybe you were out holiday shopping — or watching the new Star Wars movie! — and missed it (hey, we don’t blame you), or you just want to know more about how the December debate may affect the race as we move into 2020. Either way, here’s the Democratic debate, summed up in 6 charts:

Which candidates performed best?

To kick us off, which candidates did viewers think had a strong performance? A weak one? To answer this, we compared each candidate’s pre-debate favorability rating1 to viewers’ ratings of his or her debate performance to see how candidates performed. This time, Biden walked away with the highest marks from respondents in our poll. But if it’s hard to see a decisive winner from last night, that’s because Biden, Warren and Sanders all performed roughly as well as we would expect given their pre-debate favorability. Buttigieg and Steyer received the worst marks for their performances, relative to their pre-debate favorability ratings.

How did voters’ priorities affect their views of the candidates?

According to our Ipsos survey, nearly two-thirds of likely Democratic primary voters prefer a candidate who has a good chance of beating President Trump over someone who shares similar stances with them on the issues. How these types of voters evaluate the candidates and their performances can vary, though, even if the differences are relatively small.

Voters who prioritize beating Trump thought Biden had the best debate performance, with Warren, Sanders, Klobuchar and Buttigieg tied with the second-highest marks. Among voters who prioritized issue stances, Sanders and Yang fared best.

Among voters who prioritize beating Trump, Biden did best

How well debate-watchers thought candidates performed in the sixth Democratic debate, by which type of candidate they prefer

Type of candidate preferred candidate Similar issue positions Able to beat trump Biden 2.8 3.3 Warren 2.9 3.1 Sanders 3.1 3.1 Klobuchar 2.7 3.1 Buttigieg 2.5 3.1 Yang 3.0 3.0 Steyer 2.5 2.8

From a survey of 3,543 likely Democratic primary voters who were surveyed between Dec. 13 and Dec. 18. The same people were surveyed again from Dec. 19 to Dec. 20; 720 responded to the second wave and said they watched the debate. The average ratings are out of 4 points, where 4 is best and 1 is worst.

Source: Ipsos/FiveThirtyEight

Who left a good impression?

We also wanted to see if any of the candidates managed to leave a good impression, as captured by their net favorability rating (favorable rating minus unfavorable rating) before and after the debate. By this metric, Yang and Klobuchar saw the largest gains, roughly six points each. But even with these increases, their net favorability scores are still lower than much of the rest of the field — better-known candidates like Biden, Sanders and Warren are viewed more favorably.

Yang and Klobuchar made positive impressions

Change in net favorability for candidates in a FiveThirtyEight/Ipsos poll taken before and after the December Democratic primary debate

Net favorability candidate before debate after debate change Yang +16.1 +22.4 +6.3 Klobuchar +11.0 +17.1 +6.1 Steyer +4.3 +7.3 +3.1 Warren +40.0 +43.0 +2.9 Sanders +40.5 +42.6 +2.1 Biden +43.2 +45.1 +1.9 Buttigieg +29.4 +27.5 -1.9

From a survey of 3,543 likely Democratic primary voters who were surveyed between Dec. 13 and Dec. 18. The same people were surveyed again from Dec. 19 to Dec. 20; 1,908 responded to the second wave.

Who spoke the most?

Klobuchar stole the mic Thursday, speaking the most words of any candidate. This was the first time the Minnesota senator earned this distinction, significantly improving upon her position in the last debate, where she came in fifth for words spoken. Buttigieg wasn’t too far off from Klobuchar, though, speaking just 200 fewer words.

Who held the floor?

Number of words candidates spoke in the sixth Democratic debate

Candidate Words Spoken Amy Klobuchar 3,557

–

Pete Buttigieg 3,327

–

Elizabeth Warren 3,087

–

Bernie Sanders 2,891

–

Joe Biden 2,869

–

Tom Steyer 1,937

–

Andrew Yang 1,729

–

Source: Debate Transcript via ABC News

The fact that Klobuchar and Buttigieg spoke the most last night may be surprising given that they are significantly behind Biden, Sanders and Warren in the national polls. Normally, higher-polling candidates tend to get more air time, but in Thursday’s debate, the relationship between a candidate’s polling average2 and the amount of words he or she spoke was not particularly strong.3 For instance, while Sanders spoke about as much as his polling average would suggest, Biden spoke far less than expected.

Who mentioned Trump the most?

The candidates may not have spoken for equal amounts of time, but one thing they did have in common was name-dropping Trump. Klobuchar, for example, talked about Trump way more than Warren, who only mentioned him once. (This doesn’t seem to be a new strategy for Warren: She came in second to last in Trump mentions at the November debate, too, saying his name just twice.)

Who talked about Trump?

How often Trump’s name was mentioned by candidates in the sixth Democratic debate

Candidate Trump Mentions Amy Klobuchar 11

–

Bernie Sanders 8

–

Joe Biden 6

–

Pete Buttigieg 6

–

Tom Steyer 4

–

Andrew Yang 4

–

Elizabeth Warren 1

–

Source: Debate Transcript via ABC News

On average, each candidate said Trump’s name about six times. But of course, this doesn’t cover every reference to Trump, as some didn’t call out the president by name — like when Sanders said “we have a president who is a pathological liar.”

Do you want even more debate coverage?

Cool graphics from other sites:

Going into the debate, The New York Times had a cool primer, which included tidbits like which candidates they expected to attack each other. It’s fun to look back now and see whether they were correct; notably, their speculation that Buttigieg might come under fire proved prescient, particularly in the back and forths with Warren and Klobuchar.

And if you want to see exactly how many times the candidates attacked one another, NBC News tracked it! Buttigieg came under fire the most, while Sanders dished it out more than any other candidate.

The New York Times also tracked how long each candidate spoke on each issue. Sanders spoke the most about health care, while Klobuchar dominated the conversation on electability. And foreign policy was the longest-discussed topic of the evening, racking up 15 minutes total.

And here’s more great post-debate analysis:

Our colleague Rick Klein at ABC News on the debate’s focus on electability and attacks on Buttigieg.

Annie Linskey at The Washington Post looked into the role gender played in the final question at the debate, finding that when asked to decide between giving a gift to one of their fellow debaters or asking for forgiveness from one of them, the female candidates overwhelmingly asked for forgiveness, while most of the male candidates opted to give a gift (namely, one of their books).

PolitiFact’s live fact-check.

And of course, many, many winners and losers!

Vox

CNN

The Washington Post

Fox News

The New York Times

NBC News

USA Today

OK, we’ll stop.

But really, all you need is … our debate coverage:

Our live blog.

Our post-debate politics chat.

Our before-and-after polling with Ipsos.

[hellzyeahthewebwieldingavenger]

Punisher 2099 #1 Thoughts

This issue far and away blows every other one in this event thus far out of the water!Remember when I criticized the rebooting of the 2099 line on principle.

Remember how I said it was asinine to redo the 2099 line with a 2019 lens of the future?

Well I’ll have to admit to being somewhat wrong about that.

Its still insulting and dumb to reboot the line. And there is still precious little about 2019’s vision of the future that’d be all that different to 1992’s. Or at least if you were trying to still be similar to the latter’s vision.

Buuuuuuuut…whilst those things are still broadly dumb this issue makes excellent use of them. And does so in a way that almost  justifies this direct.

  Lonnie Nadler & Zac Thompson (who I’ve never heard of before this issue) have truly EMBRACED the sci-fi nature of this event and the mission statement of it to reboot and update this vision of the future.

  In this issue they present not just a new spin on Punisher 2099, but a wholesale new spin on the Punisher, at least from my own limited experience with the character.

  The original Punisher 2099 (Jake Gallows) is an important part of this story, but he is not the main character, rather that’s new character Hector Tago.

  At first glance you might think that we’re in a similar situation to F4 2099 wherein the title character is in fact not the main character, but thats not the case here.

  Hector IS the Punisher of this title.

  This is something of a mixed bag, especially if you liked the original Punisher 2099.

  On principle you aren’t going to like such a change, let alone rebooting Jake’s characterization. In all honesty at face value the story could’ve worked just as effectively had Jake been the lead character and someone else (Hector or another original character) filled his role  in the narrative. That also would’ve cut closer to the original character.

  On the other hand though...how many people honestly even liked the original Punisher 2099?

  Seriously, I’ve read it and seen multiple reviews of it and it comes up as unimpressive. It was really just ANOTHER Punisher book amidst the sea of them in the 1990s. What made things worse is that Jake Gallows wasn’t all that distinctive from Frank Castle. Whilst Miguel O’Hara zigged where Peter Parker zagged, Jake Gallows functionally simply wore a different outfit with more high tech equipment and had baseball bat.

  When you look at a lot of the best 2099 reinventions of classic characters they always take something intrinsic to the character’s power set, costume and name and take it in a different direction. Case in point, Cap 2099 does from a free single white male into a sort of enslaved married Hispanic female (who’s RIPPED). Black Widow 2099 is literally a black woman who eats her lovers post-coital. In fact a fair few of the 2099 reinventions of characters operated by taking characters’ names and powers more literally.

  Punisher 2099 wasn’t initially approached that way. But Hector Tago, the NEW Punisher 2099 absolutely was.

  A major theme of this story, perhaps THE major theme, is punishment.

Jake Gallows in his mind is punishing the Thorites for his family’s deaths.

Davis Dunn is punished for crimes he didn’t commit.

Everyone punishes each other via a form of social media (we’ll get back to that), Kenji Wallace being the most obvious example.

And Hector punishes Gallows, but more importantly he punishes HIMSELF!

He views being the punisher as a form of atonement for the sins he committed as part of the authorities, and he is seemingly committed now to fighting the system.

This is almost the polar opposite of Frank Castle isn’t it?

Frank was a man who believed in the system, but felt it wasn’t harsh enough. His objections to it were not so much that it hurt citizens but rather that it didn’t go far enough in protecting them by curtailing criminal elements. Thus when those criminal elements took his family away from him, he resolved to punish them and by extension ALL criminals.

The fact that Hector is in most respects on the opposite end of the spectrum from Frank makes the Gallows in truth all to perfect an antagonist. Due to being so similar to the original Punisher, Gallows on a meta level represents the typical depiction of the Punisher and thus through on the page contrast with Hector more clearly emphasises where Hector zigs where Frank/Jake zagged.

The one thing Hector and Frank do share though is their absolute commitment to their respective missions. For both men, becoming the Punisher was a rebirth and they lived for their missions. One of the best scenes of the comic is when Hector metaphorically burns his old life down. He’s not Hector anymore. He is simply the Punisher!

I pray for the original 2099 line to be restored but if there was some way to fold Hector back into it, that’d be just perfect!

The ONLY thing that doesn’t really work with his character is the fact that there was zero justification for him to adorn himself in the skull outfit. It kind of came out of nowhere and he does it simply because it’s a Punisher book and that’s just expected.

There are other great aspects to the book too.

As I said up top, the title embraces the sci-fi nature of the event and the mission statement of re-evaluating the 2099 from a 2019 perspective vs. a 1992 perspective.

Whilst that’s mostly pointless this book makes it work by zeroing in on several elements that were either not around in 1992 or at least not as talked about:

·       The prevalence of surveillance technology, including facial recognition technology (speculative science fiction in 1992, actual science reality in 2019). This was achieved through the IRIS drones among other security cameras

·       Deep fake technology (see above). This was conveyed through the alterations of the IRIS’s allegedly objective recordings. Its particularly dangerous as its used as propaganda by the authorities.

·       Police corruption and brutality, especially towards marginalized groups (definitely a thing in 1992, but the current zeitgeist in the 2010s is distinctly anti-cop). Literally everything the Public Eye do (especially regarding the Thorites), they reminded me of the Street Judges from Judge Dredd. I might be somewhat misreading the metaphor though because the Thorites aren’t exactly innocent, but one shouldn’t judge them as a monolith I suppose.

·       Greater exposure of homosexual people, trans people and social activists (again a thing in 1992, but very much not as talked about as it is now). Wallace’s character. The comic book presents him as a man in a same sex relationship and it’s no big deal. He then transformed for lack of a better word into a robot, a robot who literally preaches to the crowds about the ills of society. He’s wiped out by the police. What’s most interesting is that not only is being in a gay relationship no big deal but Wallace’s transformation was motivated BY wanting to reconcile with his lover.  

·       Social media and how it’s empowered the court of public opinion. Everyone gets rated by everyone else on social media and you can find yourself essentially exiled as a result.

·       Arguably dangerous prescription drugs, though I don’t know enough about that to really touch the topic.

·       Artificial intelligence, though this is very lightly part of the story, more a background fact rather than something really explored

·       The erosion of objectivity in favour of efficiency

For starters, whilst the text boxes doling out exposition about how technology and prison system work were interesting...maybe show instead of tell? This is a visual medium, showing is actually a lot easier than telling us.·       The Conan 2099 comic had a warning about mature content even though that amounted to Conan cutting some people up. Maybe that does warrant a mature content warning, but you know if so then maybe this comic with it’s literal tree made from corpses should get one too? Just be consistent is all.

One more sort of positive I’ve going to give out, this was the first issue that made the Alpha story seem relevant.

In the Alpha story you SEE stuff that either sets up directly events for this comic or thematically sets it up by establishing the Public Eye’s conflicts with the Thorites. The only downside is that the tease for Jake Gallows, in particular him being Punisher 2099, was false advertising.

Also, if this story was deliberately written with the intention of subverting your expectations by making Hector the Punisher instead then it failed. Because it was obvious from the moment Hector became the character we were following.

Over all I’d HIGHLY recommend checking this book out. Small problems aside it slapped hard!