#do i think he would have said that to actual mcarthur and not just to henry who he knows would find it funny? probably not | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jockmewalking · 1 year

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Here it finally is! The Camp Tv Reloaded biographies. I might alter Cam’s a lil bit or maybe not...

Brick McArthur

(The Crass Cadet)

What’s your best quality?

MY LEADERSHIP SKILLS!! HERE AT BOOT CAMP, EVERYONE LISTENS TO WHAT I SAY!!! …EVERYONE THAT HAS ANY SENSE OF SELF-PRESERVATION THAT IS!

Faves? (Music, Colour, Movie, Food)

DON’T LISTEN TO JUNK ON THE RADIO! BUT HARD ROCK AND METAL ISN’T SO BAD!

BLOOD RED! WHICH IS THE LAST THING MY ENEMIES WILL SEE BEFORE THEY GET CRUSHED TO DUST!!!

ANY WAR MOVIE COUNTS DOESN’T IT?! IT’S HARD TO CHOOSE MY FAVORITE, BUT I GUESS SINCE MY MOM LIKES IT, THE SURGE OF HASSAN!!!

ANYTHING THAT CAN FUEL ME FOR A DAY IS WORTH IT!!! …BUT I SUPPOSE MY MOTHER’S RENDANG IS GOOD FLAVOR-WISE!

Describe your craziest dream.

I WAS PICKED ON FOR NO REASON BY MY LOYAL SUBORDINATES! THAT’S UNFAIR!!! I SHOULD NEVER FACE DISRESPECT FROM ANYONE EVER AGAIN! WHICH IS FUNNY I SAID THAT!! SINCE NO ONE HAS LIVED TO TELL THE TALE WHEN THEY DO!!!

Best memory from childhood?

…JOINING THE COOKING CLUB IN 4TH GRADE! OBVIOUSLY!!! I HAVE NO CLUE WHY PEOPLE ARE ALWAYS SHOCKED BY THAT!

Most embarrassing moment at school?

UGH!!! THERE’S THIS ANNOYING BOY NAMED ARTHUR NOTHINGCHICK AT BOOTCAMP! HE KEEPS…TAUNTING ME AND PUTTING DOWN MY AMAZING ACCOMPLISHMENTS!!! AND SOME FREAKIN’ KID HAD THE AUDACITY TO SPREAD A RUMOR ABOUT US DATING JUST BECAUSE OF A WEIRD DREAM SHE HAD!!! WHAT NONSENSE!

Describe the first job you ever had.

I WAS…AWAY FROM BOOT CAMP FOR A WHILE AND I HAD TO DO SOME ‘COMMUNITY SERVICE CRAP’ FOR MY ‘BRASH’ AND ‘IMPROPER’ BEHAVIOR!! I HAD TO TAKE CARE OF RANDOM PEOPLE’S DOGS FOR WEEKS INSTEAD OF KICKING BUTT AT THE ACADEMY!!! …THE DOGS WEREN’T SO BAD…

Ten years from now, what are you doing?

BEING A HIGH-RANKING MILITARY ‘SARGE TO HONOR MY MOTHER’S GLORY!!!

My dream date would be with ___________, doing what?

SOMEONE WHO CAN ACTUALLY HANDLE MY INTENSITY, SO SOMEONE JUST AS INTENSE AS ME OR SOMEONE MORE…CALM, I SUPPOSE!! NO MATTER WHAT THEIR PERSONALITY IS, IM GOING TO COOK THEM A DELICIOUS MEAL AND BRAG TO THEM ABOUT ALL MY ACHIEVEMENTS AND AWARDS FROM BOOT CAMP!

It’s the last day on earth. In one sentence, what would you do?

LAST DAY ON EARTH?! HAH! MAYBE FOR EVERYONE ELSE! I’M GONNA LIVE OUT THE REST OF MY DAYS DOING DRILLS AND DANCING ON TOP OF THAT NOTHINGCHICK FELLOW’S GRAVE!

Maribelle ‘Mary’ Flemming

(The Sports Fanatic)

What’s your best quality?

I know a crapton about sports—popular celebrities, common misconceptions, random trivia, strategy-stuff—you name it! Thing is, I’m not exactly an athletic gal, but I guess my bro says that makes my obsession way cooler AND unorthodox!

Faves? (Music, Colour, Movie, Food)

Indie or prog-rock is OBVIOUSLY the best! My favorite song right now is Summer and a Typhoon by Trolly Hell

Any type of purple’s really awesome…

All kinds of action flicks! …It’s nice putting yourself in the shoes of a cool character.

A bag of chips would do me good… Ironic, junk food’s not good for my body, but I guess that saying “You are what you eat” really rings true, huh?

Describe your craziest dream.

Heh, this one’s a real doozy! I was ranked as the no. 1 athlete in my school! 6 years in a row!!! God, I always admired people who have the motivation to work on their physique…

Best memory from childhood?

When I got picked first during team-picking in volleyball! My ‘ol leader’s heard a LOT about my knowledge surrounding a variety of sports, so he’d thought I’d be a great first choice.

Most embarrassing moment at school?

…Turns out the same guy was hoping I’d be some ultra-mega-jock! My bad for wearing sportswear that day—easily fooled him with my fashion style! My team didn’t score a single point in that game and they all blamed me for the loss…

Describe the first job you ever had.

Never had one come to think of it! Most jobs in my town are only open in the daytime, not the best for my…personal schedule you know?

Ten years from now, what are you doing?

…Wasting away in my bedroom… As I always do.

My dream date would be with ___________, doing what?

A total loser who thinks they’re really cool but actually isn’t! I mean—my older bro Jon says I’m the awesomest gal who think’s he’s the lamest, so I guess a person like that would be my match! …Still stuck on what my total opposite and I would do on a first date….

It’s the last day on earth. In one sentence, what would you do?

I’d probably be fiddling around with the tv remote to watch my favorite sport shows one last time, or I’d be asleep. Whichever works best!

Staci

(The Gossipmonger)

What’s your best quality?

A lot of RUDE people consider this a ‘flaw’, but I would say it’s my ability to spin any story around and have people believe anything I say!

Faves? (Music, Colour, Movie, Food)

Pop music from the radio, I really like Glad Donna’s songs!

PINK!!! All shades of pink are the best!

Rude Gals is my jam! I don’t really know why, but Reggie and Janelle’s story really speaks to me…hmm…

An assorted box of chocolates! Especially if it includes fruit-flavored ones AND the box looks super cute!

Describe your craziest dream.

I got into my first…relationship!! Though I sadly didn’t remember what the person looked like… It was totally awesome and fun at first, but then she started arguing with me about something… Before I could respond, the dream abruptly ended.

Best memory from childhood?

Way back in kinder, I told a girl from my class that the boy she was ‘play-dating’ thinks she’s a ‘doo-doo face’ and prefers playing with a girl named Emily! It was hilarious seeing her bawl her eyes out while ‘breaking up’ with this confused boy. …Poor kid, but whatever! It was his problem to deal with months of bullying from the other kids! Haha!

Most embarrassing moment at school?

Someone spread a rumor about me wearing a wig everyday to school! Complete truth—I’ll give them that—but I had students try ripping out my hair and messing up the cute space buns I spent soooo much time perfecting!

Describe the first job you ever had.

Right now, I’m working at a hair salon! Hairstyling is one of my specialties, though certain people say my ‘chatterbox tendencies’ only leads to my clients complaining about me and giving the already unpopular business a bad reputation or whatever bull…

Ten years from now, what are you doing?

Opening up my OWN successful hair salon, while my current one shuts down from bankruptcy!

My dream date would be with ___________, doing what?

Anyone—as long as it isn’t a guy, bleghh!—with an awesome sense of fashion! AND TAKING CARE OF THEIR HAIR IS A BIG THING!!! The more extravagant the hairstyle, the better. I could talk endlessly about all my annoying co-workers and maybe they could talk about TONS of things after or just listen.

It’s the last day on earth. In one sentence, what would you do?

Ugh, normally I don’t like graffiti, but I might as well vandalize my salon with all the embarrassing secrets I’ve gathered about each and every employee! That will show ‘em to NOT insult me whenever I’m around.

Mike

(The Comedian)

What’s your best quality?

Lighting up a room with my sense of humor! The way people show their appreciation is quite peculiar though…! Instead of a bouquet of flowers, I once got a bouquet of tomatoes thrown straight to my face!

Faves? (Music, Colour, Movie, Food)

I like upbeat jazz!

Yellow, the color of radiancy and happiness!

EarthDog Day was a blast to watch! …I’m not sure if I should be rooting for the main guy and the girl to get together or not..!

Smoked ham! It was something my old, cranky caretaker made a lot back in my childhood! Welp, at least a piece of him is still with us ;)!

Describe your craziest dream.

…I was in a dark, dark room. And all I could see was face of someone who-shall-not-be-named. I don’t want to let out TOO much detail, but they were saying a lot of really hurtful stuff. …I wish things were better between us, but it’s better not having them around for my sake and for many others.

Best memory from childhood?

About that! I have severe memory problems… Many things about my past is a blur, though I remember fragments of events I do NOT want to dwell on. One positive—aside my former caretaker—is this funny Russian TV show I watched about an awesome stuntwoman who loved making people laugh, just like me! I guess that lady really help me through a lot now, didn’t she ;)!

Most embarrassing moment at school?

We were supposed to do a puppetshow and I was prepping all week! But, then…! Just before I presented, I suddenly felt all woozy and like the world was spinning round and round uncontrollably…! Next thing I remember, my teacher was scolding me for having such an unorganized show! There was a lots of…ermm….not-safe-for-school humor… and that it kept switching from an Oilers-inspired love story to an Indie Jonas retelling! I think I have a strong idea on who caused that mess!

Describe the first job you ever had.

I was a waitress for a homey, diner restaurant! Sadly, I got kicked out…! See, me and the crew were singing Happy Birthday to a customer, but then the young birthday celebrant started weeping because of my ‘horrible’ singing!

Ten years from now, what are you doing?

Isn’t it obvious?! A world-renowned comedian! …And I would definitely share the spotlight with 4 other people who helped me through a lot!

My dream date would be with ___________, doing what?

Lorrison Elli! She can definitely give me pointers on how to be a successful comedian!

It’s the last day on earth. In one sentence, what would you do?

Sing romantic ballads to drown my sorrows away!

Scott

(The ‘Jaded General’)

What’s your best quality?

How I take no nonsense from other people. I stand my ground strong and do as I please whether people like it or nah.

Faves? (Music, Colour, Movie, Food)

Music?! I got no time for that nonsense!

Dirt brown. I just dig it.

Don’t remember its title, but its about a guy from a military platoon infiltrating an enemy battalion. Sweet-talking his way through ’n hiding under a different identity then pretending like he’s on the enemy’s side before taking all ‘em suckers down one by one!

Whatever’s not being served at boot camp! Though my momma makes a nummy sharped’s pie.

Describe your craziest dream.

In a world as wacko as this one my dreams hardly ever compare!

Best memory from childhood?

That time I beat ‘ol pops in long and difficult wrestling match. Not fair ’n square though! I may or may not have drugged his coffee before we fought…

Most embarrassing moment at school?

More nerve-grating than embarrassing but our general was ordering us to do some drills and I just couldn’t care less! As punishment that shmuck forced me to 130 push-ups in front of all the other cadets!

Describe the first job you ever had.

I once trained a bunch of raccoons to hunt down a two wild hounds that were bothering the neighborhood kids. Didn’t do it to help ‘em just wanted to own an army of feral ‘coons ’n for them to pay me a grand for my work. Funny enough I’m darn sure there’s a book about this with an almost-but-not-quite similar premise…

Ten years from now, what are you doing?

High up in the ranks of whatever business I take up… ordering my goons to do whateva I want ‘em to do whether they want to or nah!

.My dream date would be with ___________, doing what?

No thanks! I’d rather mess up the lives of potential lovebirds than be a lovesick fool myself.

It’s the last day on earth. In one sentence, what would you do?

Terrorize the neighborhood with my ever-growing raccoon army!!

Cameron

(The Explorer)

What’s your best quality?

Well, bad luck seems to follow me wherever I go… But I don’t let that stop me from getting where I want to be!

Faves? (Music, Colour, Movie, Food)

Fantasy video game music, especially The Myth of Link! I love listening to that genre while on my expeditions.

Red! It’s exciting and passionate, just like me.

The newest Metal Might Movie obviously, though I will say I prefer the comic books.

Rocky road ice cream! there’s a shop nearby my home that makes the most DELICIOUS rocky road ice cream imaginable!

Describe your craziest dream.

I’ve was forced to live in a bubble my whole life! That’s terrifying!!! I’ve got almost nothing to do in a small space like that…

Best memory from childhood?

That time I first met my closest buds! They were a bit mean at first… But now we spend every waking hour at school together! I love them all to bits, but they always ask me for my lunch money and seem…distracted… whenever I geek about Metal Might!

Most embarrassing moment at school?

I did terrible in a math test and the teacher exposed my mistakes to the entire class! I’m normally good at logic-based problems, but that was the first and only time I did terrible in a test…

Describe the first job you ever had.

I was part of a Boys Scout group back in the day. We sold granola cookies!

Ten years from now, what are you doing?

I want to travel the world one day and write a book about all the best places I visited! I know there’s tons of books already about this concept, but I have a feeling this one’s REALLY special.

My dream date would be with ___________, doing what?

I may be a lively guy, but I would prefer being with someone more serious or otherwise collected to ground me out. Maybe we can watch the stars or I can show them all the best touristy spots in my city.

It’s the last day on earth. In one sentence, what would you do?

Traverse the city one last time. Then right before the day ends, sit on top of the tallest building while reading my favorite comic series!

#camp tv reloaded #td brick #td mary (camp tv)#td staci #td mike #td scott #td cameron #I'll make a separate post just for some extra trivia bits #I feel tempted to maintag this but I don’t want this blog to gain much exposure so ehhh

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melisa-may-taylor72 · 4 years

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QUEEN BEFORE QUEEN

THE 1960s RECORDINGS

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PART 4:

THE OPPOSITION

JOHN DEACON WAS THE QUIETEST MEMBER OF A MIDLAND-BASED FIVE-PIECE WHOSE GREATEST AMBITION WAS TO PLAY ANOTHER GIG.

Initial research John S. Stuart. Additional research and text: Andy Davis.

John Deacon was the fourth and final member to join Queen. He became part of that regal household 25 years ago this month, enrolling as the band’s permanent bassist in February 1971. His acceptance marked the culmination of a six-year ‘career’ in music, much of which he spent in an amateur, Leicestershire covers band called the Opposition.

From 1965 until 1969, Deacon and his schoolmates ploughed a humble, local furrow in and around their Midlands hometown, reflecting the decade’s mercurial moodswing with a series of names, images and styles of music. The most remarkable fact about the Opposition was just how unremarkable the group actually was.

Collectively, they were an unambitious crew: undertaking precisely no trips down to London to woo A&R men; winning only one notable support slot for the army of chart bands who visited Leicester in the ‘60s (opening for Reperata & the Delrons in Melton Mowbray in 1968); and managing even to miss out on the option of sending a demo tape to any of the nation’s record labels. The band’s saving grace is its solé recorded legacy: a three-track acetate — although even this was done for purely private consumption, and has rarely been aired outside the confines of their inner circle.

It is perhaps indicative of the Opposition’s modest outlook that their most promising bid for stardom, a beat contest, was called off before they had the chance to play in the finals. For John Deacon and friends, it seems, merely being in a band was reward enough.

Considering of all of this, it’s easy to imagine the response to the following story, related in the ‘60s to one of the Opposition’s guitarists, Ronald Chester:...[ ]

...[ ] “There was a teacher who worked at Beauchamp School, which John attended, who told fortunes. They went to see her one Saturday and were told, ‘John Deacon is going to be world famous and very, very rich. Of course, they all fell about laughing. She was determined that this was going to happen. But they all thought it was a joke."

What particularly amused Deacon’s colleagues was the unlikeliness of this scenario, given the plain facts of his demeanour. John was born in Leicester in 1951, the product of affluent, middle-class, middle England. As a youngster, he was known to his friends as ‘Deaks’ and grew up to be quiet and reserved, what Mark Hodkinson referred to in ‘Queen — ‘The Early Years’ as “a ghost of a boy".

“He is basically shy,” confirms Richard Young, the Opposition’s first guitarist/vocalist, and later keyboardist. “I suppose he was quieter than the rest of us — but he was fairly static with Queen if you look at him on stage.”

Ron Chester agrees: “John was quiet by nature. His sister, Julie, was the same. Once he got going, though, he wasn’t any different from anybody else. But on first approach, you really had to coax him out of his shell. We’d have to pick him up. He couldn’t walk down the road to meet us."

CONFIDENT

Despite any lack of personal dynamics, Deacon was a capable teenager: “He was very confident," recalls another of the band’s guitarists, David Williams. “But in a laidback sort of way. He didn’t have a problem with anything. ‘Yeah, I can do that’, he’d say. We used to call him ‘Easy Deacon’, not because of any sexual preferences, but because he’d say something was easy without it sounding big-headed. I remember saying to him once, I’m going to have to knock off the gigs a bit to revise for my ‘A’ levels. What about you?’ ‘No’, he said, ‘I don’t need to. I’ve never failed an exam yet, and I’ve never revised for one’. Ultimately, he was just confident, with a phenomenally logical mind. If he couldn’t remember something, he could work it out. And, of course, he got stunning results.”

John’s earliest interest was electronics, which he studied into adulthood. He also went fishing, trainspotting even, with his father. Then music took over. After dispensing with a ‘Tommy Steele’ toy guitar, John used the proceeds from his paper round to buy his first proper instrument, an acoustic, when he was about twelve. An early musical collaborator was a school mate called Roger Ogden, who like Roger Taylor down in Cornwall, was nicknamed ‘Splodge’. But his best friend was the Opposition’s future drummer, Nigel Bullen.

“I’d first got to know John at Langmore Junior School in Oadby, just outside Leicester, in either 1957 or 1958,’' recalls Nigel. “We were both the quiet ones. We started playing music together at Gartree High School, when we were about thirteen. We were inspired by the Beatles — they made everybody want to be in a group. John was originally going to be the band’s electrician, as he called it. He used to build his own radios, before we had any amps, and he fathomed a way of plugging his guitar into his reel-to-reel tape recorder. He was always the electrical boffin."

The prime mover in the formation of the group was another Oadby boy they met on nearby Uplands Park, Richard Young. “Richard was at boarding school," recalls Nigel Bullen. “He was always the kid with the expensive bike. He played guitar, and what’s more had a proper electric, with an amplifier. He instigated getting the band together. Initially, we rehearsed in my garage, and then anywhere we could. John played rhythm to begin with. He was a chord man, the John Lennon of the group, if you like."

SWITCH

Despite his later switch to the bass, Deacon’s technique on the guitar also developed, as Dave Williams reveals: “Later on, I remember he could play ‘Classical Gas’ on an acoustic, which was a finger-picking execise and no mean feat. It’s a bit like ‘McArthur Park’, a fantastic piece of music, and when I heard it, I thought, ‘Bloody hell. You dark horse!’ Because he never showed off."

The Opposition’s first bassist was another school friend of John’s called Clive Castledine. In fact, the group made its debut at a party at Castledine’s ouse on 25th September, 1965 (their first public performance took place the...[ ]

...[ ] following month at Gartree’s school hall). Clive looked good and appreciated the kudos of being in a group, but he wasn’t up to even the Opposition’s schoolboy standards. “I was the least proficient, to put it mildly,” he admitted to Mark Hodkinson.“His enthusiasm was 100%,” adds Richard Young, “but his actual playing ability was null, so we had a meeting and got rid of him.” Deacon took over, initially playing on his regular guitar, using the bottom strings. “John was good,” Young continues. “It was no problem for him to switch to bass. He hit the right notes at the beginning of the bar, and we were a better band for it. Whereas Clive made us sound woolly, as anyone who just plonked away on any old note would, John was solid.”

DIARY

Young turned out to be the Opposition’s archivist, keeping a diary of each gig played, the equipment used, and the amounts of money earned (as indeed did John Deacon). Richard’s diary documented the day Deacon — now, of course, bassist in one of the world’s most famous groups — first picked up his chosen instrument. “In an entry for 2nd April, 1966,” says Young, “it reads, ‘We threw Clive out on the Saturday afternoon. Had a practice in Deaks’ kitchen, and Deaks went on bass. Played much better.’ John didn’t have a bass, so we went down to Cox’s music shop in King Street in Leicester, and bought him an EKO bass for £60. I paid for it, but I think he paid me back eventually.”

“John’s bass style with the Opposition was the same as with Queen,” reckons Nigel Bullen. “He never used to play with a plectrum, which was unusual, but with his fingers, which meant that his right hand is drooped over the top of the guitar. Also, he plays in an upward fashion, which I’d never seen before, certainly when we were in Leicester. Over the years, I’ve watched many bass players adopt that style. I’d say he has been copied a lot. I’ve mentioned this to him, but he doesn’t agree.”

Clive Castledine wasn’t the last member of the band to be dismissed. “The vocal and lead guitar side of the Opposition was changing all the while,” recalls Nigel. “Myself, John, and Richard Young were always there — as were Dave Williams and Ron Chester later on — but we had a succession of other musicians who I can hardly remember now. There was a guy called Richard Frew in the very early days, and a young lad called Carl, but he didn’t fit in. After we began playing proper gigs, Richard decided he wasn’t happy with his singing and wanted to move onto keyboards, so we brought in Pete Bart (formerly with another local band, the Rapids Rave) as a guitarist and vocalist. He was good, but again, didn’t last long.”

“Bart was a bit of a rocker, while we were all mods,” remarks Dave Williams. “We were impressed by mod bands like the Small Faces and the original Who. Bart seemed to come from a different era altogether.”

“Deaks had the Parka with the fur collar,” remembers Ron Chester. “And short hair, a crew cut. Mirrors on his scooter.” Richard Young agrees: “John was more of a mod than us. But you couldn’t really pigeonhole the band, because our music went right across the board”.

”Buying Deacon his bass was no one-off, and Richard Young is remembered as the group’s benefactor. Being older than the others, he had a steady job working for his father’s electronics company in Leicester, which brought him a regular, and by all accounts, generous wage. He rarely thought twice before splashing out on equipment for the other members.

RECEIPTS

“Richard bought me a P.A.,” recalls David Williams. “But he didn’t ask, he used to think that the group needed it. He’d buy it and then say, ‘You owe me this’. My mum used to get really annoyed. She’d was at that going- through-my-pockets stage, probably looking for contraceptives. She once found a receipt from Moore and Stanworth’s, a local music shop. It was for a Beyer microphone, which cost about £30. I was still at school, getting pocket money, and my mum said, ‘What on earth is this?!’ Receipts on the Sunday dinner table, that sort of thing. It was good, though. The group needed it.”

“I was dead serious about the band,” claims Young, who switched to organ with the arrival of Williams in July 1966. “Perhaps more so than anybody else. I could see it going nowhere if money wasn’t pumped into it.”

“Dick Young was an accomplished organ player,” adds Dave, “and he improved the group quite a lot. He always had plenty of dosh, and a car. But he was totally mad, a crazy bloke. He’d come round with an organ one week, then next week, he’d have a better one. He ended up with a Farfisa, with one keyboard on it, then one with two keyboards — one above the other. Then he had a Hammond, an L 100. which was really heavy. Then he had a ‘B’ series one. The ‘L’ was top-of-the-range and he sawed it in half to make it easier to carry!”

Dave Williams helped to improve the group as well. “He was at school with us,” says Nigel Bullen, “but in another band, who we always looked up to.” That band was the Leeds-based Outer Limits (who went on to issue several singles — without Dave — in the late ‘60s). “I joined the Opposition after they asked me to watch them and tell them what I thought,” recounts Dave. “The Outer Limits were older lads, all mods, but I was after something a bit more easy going, and the Opposition were my own age. They were okay, but I first saw them at John’s house, when they were still practising in bedrooms, and they were absolutely awful. I said, ‘Have you thought of tuning up?’ They said they had. But it sounded like they were playing in different keys — totally horrendous. It was so funny. They were so conscientious, they’d all learned their bits, but hadn't tuned up to each other. That was my first tip.”

“Our first proper gig was supporting a local band, the Rapids Rave, at Enderby Coop Hall,” recalls Nigel Bullen. “They used to play at this village hall every week. and then we ended up doing it every week for quite some time.” Richard’s diary records the Opposition’s debut taking place on 4th December 1965, and that the band’s fee was £2. Thereafter, they began to offer their Services in the local ‘Oadby & Wigston Advertiser’, which led to bookings in youth clubs and village halls in local hot-spots like Kibworth, Houghton-on- the-Hill, Thurlaston and Great Glen.

SCHOOL WORK

By spring 1966, the Opposition were playing every weekend, school work permitting. The peaks and troughs of their career are illustrated by the following memorable gigs: one at St. George’s Ballroom, Hinckley, on 23rd June 1967, when just two people turned up and the band went home after a couple of numbers; and a September appearance in a series of shows at U.S. Airforce Bases in the Midlands, at which they were required to play for four-and-half hours with just two twenty-minute breaks. It was nothing if not diverse.

“It didn’t seem to matter what you played,” says Dave. “People would clap simply because you were making music. They never said, ‘Do you do Motown, or soul stuff?’ ” The band’s repertoire initially consisted of chart sounds and the poppier end of the R&B spectrum. “Although we were inspired by the Beatles, we never did any of their songs,” claims Nigel. “But we covered the Kinks, the Yardbirds, and things like Them’s ‘Gloria’, and the Zombies’ ‘She’s Not There’.

They also altered their name slightly to the New Opposition, which they unveiled at the Enderby Coop Hall. “The name-change was decided overnight, when John moved from rhythm to bass guitar,” recounts Richard, whose diary records the date of the transition as 29th April 1966. Interestingly, though, it makes no mention of another local group also called the Opposition, long thought to have been the reason for Deacon’s crew adopting the ‘New’. The change did act as an impetus for further development, however, instigated by Dave Williams, who soon took over as the group’s lead vocalist.

“When I joined they were doing all Beach Boys stuff,” he recalls, “and I think I may have brought in a little credibility. In the Outer Limits, I’d been playing John Mayall, the Yardbirds, that sort of thing, plus that group was into really good soul like the Impressions, and fantastic vocal bands from the States. So I had a broad musical knowledge by then, whereas the Opposition had been a bit poppy.” Appropriately, the words “Tamla” and “Soul” were now added to the Opposition’s ads and calling cards.

Towards the end of 1966, the New Opposition were enhanced further by the arrival of Ron Chester, who’d previously played with Dave Williams in the Outer Limits, as well as in an earlier band, the Deerstalkers. “Ron Chester was a bit eccentric,” claims Richard Young. “He never used to go anywhere without his deerstalker. He was a really good guitarist (“stunning”, adds Dave Williams). We were probably at our best when Ron was in the band.”

On 23rd October 1966, the New Opposition entered the local Midland Beat Contest. They won their heat, landing themselves a place in the semifinals on 29th January 1967. They won this, too, and steeled themselves for the finals, which were due to be held on 3rd March 1967, when they were to be pitched against...[ ]

...[ ] an act called Keny. The stars of the show would have been the nearest the Opposition came to having a rival: an outfit called Legay. (A year later, incidentally, this band issued a now collectable single, “No One” (Fontana TF 904,£80J.) Unfortunately, for all concerned, however, the contest never took place. “That was a fiasco,'' laughs Ron. “Somehow we won those heats, but in fact, I don’t remember seeing anybody else playing. I don’t know whether we won by default or not. After that, they pulled the plug on the competition — probably because they knew we’d be playing again!”.

CASINO

“The heats took place in a club in Leicester called the Casino, which was the place to play,” adds Nigel. “The guy who ran the competition was an agent for the club. His company was called Penguin (or P.S) Promotions and he walked like a penguin too, with his feet sticking out. The final was going to be held in the De Montford Hall, which is still the main venue in Leicester. We thought, ‘Crumbs, this is it, perhaps we might make the big time.’ But the guy did a runner with all the money — people had to pay to come to the heats. So the final was called off.”

David Williams wasn’t too fussed, as he scored another prize that night: “I remember taking a girl back to Dick’s car on the strength of us winning our heat. I said, ‘Can I borrow your keys, Dick? He said, ‘What for? You can’t drive!’ “

Were the New Opposition — or the Opposition, as they dropped the ‘New’ again in early 1967 — left in limbo by the cancellation of the Beat Contest? Having achieved the most public recognition of their talents so far, were they disappointed with the loss of the chance to prove themselves further?

“No. It was almost insignificant,” reckons Ron. “We didn’t really look upon it as a stairway to stardom.” And what would John Deacon have thought? “Nothing really,” suggests Chester. “ ‘It’s cancelled. What are we doing next, then?’ That would have been about the depth of it. We were a village band, all gathering at the church hall to try and improve our abilities. The financial aspect of it wasn’t in the forefront of our minds. We were more concerned with our music, and if we could get a booking doing it as well, to pay off some of the equipment, then that was a real bonus. Three bookings a week was enough for us while we were working or still at school.” Despite any dodgy dealings, history does have the Penguin promoter to thank for the only professionally-taken photograph of the Opposition. (“We didn’t go much on photos in the band,” remembers Dave Williams.) On Tuesday, 31st January 1967, two days after winning the semi-finals, the ‘Leicester Mercury’ dispatched a staff photographer over to Richard Young’s parents’ house in Oadby. Here, the group lined-up in the front room, looking more like refugees from 1964, rather than 1967. The only indications of the actual date are perhaps Ron Chester’s deerstalker hat and the ridiculous length of David Williams’ shirt collars — seven inches, no less, from neck to nipple.

“Dave was very extrovert,” recalls Nigel. “But we all had those silk shirts with the great long collars made by our mums and grandmas for our stage gear.” Dave admits: “Our clothes were all a bit mixed up. We had silk shirts with tweed jackets — which were fashionable for a while — and bell-bottoms. Musically, we were pretty good, better than...[ ]

...[ ] most of the local bands around that time, but we had this squeaky-clean, schoolboy image which let us down. I used to get frustrated when we were billed with other bands, and they’d all play with so many wrong chords but had a better image and still the punters applauded. Were they stupid? We were still at school — we didn’t leave until we were eighteen — and weren’t allowed to grow our hair long”.

“After the mod thing,” he continues, “long hair became really important. Bands were growing their hair right down their backs. I remember getting to one gig with John and Nigel a year or so later, and the other group were already on. And when they saw us they turned round and said, ‘Look! They’ve got no hair!’. We were quite upset about that”.

“We also went through the flower-power look,” Dave adds. “And then we got into those little jumpers without any sleeves that Paul McCartney used to wear, the ones so small that half your stomach showed. And then it was grandad shirts without the collars and flares.” Ron Chester: “The flowery shirts and flared trousers were everywhere. We looked like a right shower of poofters. But so did everybody else. You stood out if you didn’t wear them.”

1967 also heralded the arrival of an additional attraction to the Opposition’s stage show: two go-go dancers. At least, it did if the existing literature on the subject is to be believed. “I vaguely remember it,” admits Richard, “but speaking to Nig, neither of us can recal who those dancers were”.

Dave Williams throws some light on the subject: “They were the jet-set girls of the sixth form, they came from the big houses. They came to a couple of gigs and just started dancing. Somebody who booked us for the following week actually advertised us ‘with go-go girls’. But they were never really part of the show.”

ART

On 16th March, 1968 for a gig at Gartree School, the Opposition changed their name once again. “We called ourselves Art,” reveals Nigel, “because Dave was arty, that is, he was training as an artist. It was as simple as that.” Dave agrees: “It was my idea, because I’d been doing art at school.” Nigel Bullen was aware of another band using that name around the same time (the pre-Spooky Tooth outfit), but assuming them to be American, reckoned they’d be no confusion. As the Leicester-based Art never made it to London, there wasn’t.

Despite wording like “A time to touch and feel, to taste and experience, to hear and understand” appearing on the group’s tickets, Richard maintains that Art was “just the same band” as before. “Nothing changed."

“It was mutton dressed up as lamb, really,” admits Ron Chester. “We thought if we were called something different, people might come because they were curious. But it didn’t make a lot of difference. The audiences were captive at the places we played anyway. There was nowhere else to go on a Friday or Saturday night. Everyone used to roll up to see whoever was on, whether they’d heard of them or not.”

1968 was the year psychedelia caught up with many provincial British bands. The Art were no different, but their acknowledgement of what had been last year’s scene in London was via sight rather than sound. Their light shows seem to have been particularly memorable, as Dave Williams explains: “They were brilliant. We used the projectors from school, filled medicine bottles with water and oil, and projected through them to get this lovely golden, amber backdrop. As the image came out upside down, when we poured in some Fairy Liquid, it dropped straight through in a blob, but came out on the wall like a giant green mushroom cloud. It was amazing, and we had about four of them at the back, projecting over the band.”

John Deacon was party to another of Dave’s exploits. “One day,” recalls Williams, “John and I bought a 100-watt P.A. — which was pretty big for those days — and took it into the lecture theatre full of kids at Beauchamp School (which Deacon had attended since September 1966) for our version of Arthur Brown’s ‘Fire’. We cranked it up as loud as we could, put the light show on, and let off these smoke bombs, which were DDT pellets we’d got from the chemist. All the kids started choking, and then the headmaster walked in...[ ]

...[ ] with a load of governors. You could see the fury in his face. One of the governors asked what we were doing. ‘It’s a demonstration in sound and light, sir,’ I said. ‘We’re using these ink bottles turned upside down, but we’re a bit worried about these DDT pellets so we might knock the smoke on the head, but we’re still experimenting.’ And he fell for it!”.

INFLUENTIAL

Towards the end of 1968, a crop of new groups began to have a profound effect on the maturing schoolboys: Jethro Tull, the Nice, Taste, and in particular Deep Purple. Ron: “We used to buy Purple records and learn to play them. We’d seen John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and the Downliners’ Sect in Leicester, the Nice, King Crimson. These sort of groups. We learned a lot from just watching them. They were influential. There was always a big discussion in the band as to whether we should do a particular song. Once we’d decided that, there’d be another big discussion as to how we should do it. Everybody had their say.”

Hair, too, had finally began to grow: “John grew his quite long,” recalls Ron. “We all had longish hair, but not shoulder length. We couldn’t look too unkempt for the normal side of life, but we didn’t want to be too prissy for the other end of the spectrum. That was when we started playing universities, and we went a bit heavier. The audiences were far more serious minded about music and more enthusiastic. In some of the youth clubs we’d been playing, the audience would be moving around on roller skates, or peeling bananas all over the place, things like that”.

“We felt we were making an impression towards the last year or two of the band,” he continues. But it went no further: “We were at school, some of us had jobs, and there was an element of common sense overriding what we would have liked to have done. None of us wanted to chuck in our apprenticeships or courses. If we’d had a flair for writing our own material, we might have taken off. But we just played what was popular, nothing different from most other groups. That wasn’t a basis on which to launch ourselves. So it never happened."

“We didn’t think that far ahead,” admits Richard Young. “I just thought of playing and getting repeat bookings. John was probably the least ambitious of all of us, to be honest. I think he felt that there was no mileage in what we were doing, although it was good fun. I think he had the impression that this was a hobby, a phase he was going through.”

Sometime in the Sixties, possibly 1969, but maybe earlier, Art recorded an acetate. Whatever the date, the crucial point is that John Deacon was present at the session. “We weren't asked to do it,” recalls Nigel. “We just wanted to make a disc. I think it cost us about five shillings.”

The venue was Beck’s studio, thirty miles south east of Oadby in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. “I’d never been in a studio before and it seemed awesome, really,” recalls Dave Williams. “It was a fairly decent-sized room for acoustics. It was all nicely low-lit, with lots of screens. The guy knew what he was doing.” Richard Young was less impressed, though: I’ve been in studios all my life,” he says. “That was just another session. Nothing about it stood out.”

The “guy” Dave remembered was engineer Derek Tomkins, who informed the group that they could record three tracks in the time allotted. “We’d only gone in there with two, ‘Sunny’ and ‘Vehicle’,” says Nigel, “and we didn’t want to waste the opportunity, so Richard knocked up a little instrumental called Transit 3’ — named after our new van, the third one — right there in the studio. Although we were purely a covers band, everybody had a bash at writing, but we never did anything of our own on stage. The exception was Transit 3’, which was incorporated into the set after this session.”

“ Transit 3’ was about about the only track we ever wrote," reckons Richard Young (“Heart Full Of Soul”, as reported in ‘As It Began’, is in fact a Graham Gouldman nurnber). “I initially had the idea, but I can’t really remember anything about it. It’s very basic. It wouldn’t take a great deal of effort to write something like that.” To the objective observer, “Transit 3”, taped in mono but well recorded, is a fairly uncomplicated, organ-led scale- hopper, reminiscent of Booker T & the MGs.

“Everybody was listening to ‘Green Onions’,” confirms Nigel, “so Booker T would have been an influence there.” But for all that, it’s well- played, with memorable lead and twangy, wah-wah guitar passages courtesy of Dave Williams. And, crucially, John Deacon’s thumping bass is plainly audible throughout. On this evidence, the Opposition were clearly a tight, confident outfit. “Transit 3” could have been incorporated into any swinging ‘60s film soundtrack, and no one would have jumped up shouting, “Amateurs”!.

UNFAMILIAR

The other two tracks, covers of Bobby Hebb’s ‘Sunny' and the more obscure, soul- tinged ‘Vehicle’ (later a hit for the Ides of March), featured a vocalist, but an unfamiliar one: another of the Opposition’s fleeting frontmen. “We had a singer for a while called Alan Brown,” recalls Nigel. “He came and went fairly quickly. He was good, really good. Too good for us, I think. That wasn’t him saying that. We just knew it.”

On both songs, Brown is in deep, soulful voice, sounding not unlike a cross between Tom Jones and the early Van Morrison — if such an amalgam can be imagined. The Art’s reading of “Vehicle” is edgy and robust, dominated by Richard Young’s distinctive keyboards and Nigel Bullen’s bustling drum work. Dave Williams is again in fine form, delivering more sparkling wah-wah guitar, while on the cassette copy taped from Nigel Bullen’s acetate, at least, John’s bass is very prominent, over-recorded in fact, booming in the mix.

“Sunny” goes one better, breaking into jazzy 3/4 time halfway through, before slotting back into the more traditional 4/4. It’s an imaginative arrangement, with alternate soloing from both Dave and Richard, while the whole track is underpinned by swirls of Hammond organ and John Deacon’s pounding bass.

“We did ‘Sunny’ as part of our stage set,” says Nigel, “but I don’t recall us ever going into the jazzy bit. That’s quite interesting. We might have talked about that before we went into the studio, but I think it was just for this session. Dave had two guitars, a six-string and a twelve-string, or it could even have been twin-necked. I still quite like the wah-wah he played on that track. By this time Richard would have been onto his second or third organ — he was heavily into Hammonds and Leslies."

Operating as they did in a fairly ambition- free zone, and having prepared the listener for a mundane set of recordings with their trademark laid-back approach, Art’s acetate comes as something of a revelation. Let any bunch of today’s schoolboys loose in a studio for an afternoon and defy them to come up with something half as good!

Just two copies of the Art disc are known to have survived. John Deacon’s mother is believed to own one and Nigel Bullen has the other. “I’d forgotten all about this record,” admits Nigel. “We know that one copy was converted to an ashtray!. We stubbed out cigarettes on Richards at rehearsal one night.” Although treated with anything but respect at the time, the importance of the disc is now apparent to Nigel Bullen: “This is probably John Deacon’s first recording, apart from tracks he did in his bedroom on his reel-to-...[ ]

...[ ] reel, which are probably long gone. Although, knowing John, they’re probably not!”

The beginning of the end for Art came in June 1969, when John Deacon left Beauchamp. With a college course lined up in London, his days with the band were obviously numbered. He played his final gig with the group on 29th August at a familiar venue, Great Glen Youth and Sports Centre Club. By October, he’d moved to London to study electronics at Chelsea College of Technology, part of the University of London.

Another blow was dealt in November, when the band's lynchpin, Richard Young, left to join popular local musician Steve Fearn in Fearn’s Brass Foundry.

“They were a Blood, Sweat and Tears-type of group,” recalls Richard, “and paid better money than I’d been used to. I was out five nights a week, on about £3 per night, against an average of about £10 between us.” The previous year, Richard had played session keyboards on the Foundry’s two Decca singles: “Don’t Change It” (F 12721, January 1968, £10) and “Now I Taste The Tears” (F 12835. September 1968, £8).

SAVAGE

Ron Chester departed shortly afterwards, and gave up music: “I left in the early 70s, after John Deacon moved to London. John was replaced by a bass player was called John Savage, who unsettled me. He had different tastes and drove us a bit hard. His approach was totally different from Deaks's, and he was much more interested in the financial side of things. We’d all been mates before, we didn't just knock about for the band. It just wasn’t the same.”

Nigel, Richard and Dave pushed on into 1970 with the new bassist, changing the band’s name again, this time to Silky Way. They returned to Beck’s studio to record a cover of Free’s “Loosen Up” with another vocalist, Bill Gardener, but that was the band’s last effort. Dave left after falling into Nigel’s drumkit, drunk on stage at a private party one Christmas. “I waited for them to pick me up the next day,” he recalls sheepishly, “but they never carne.”

Richard and Nigel moved into a dinner- dance type outfit called the Lady Jane Trio — “Corny, or what!”, laughs Bullen — but Nigel left music altogether soon afterwards to concentrate on his college work. Richard turned professional, moving into cabaret with the Steve Fearn-less Brass Foundry, before forming a trio called Rio, finding regular work on the holiday camp and overseas cruise circuit. In the late ‘70s, he joined a touring version of the Love Affair.

Down in London, John Deacon caught a glimpse of his future world-beating musical partners as early as October 1970, when he saw the newly-formed Queen perform at College of Estate Management in Kensington. “They were all dressed in black, and the lights were very dim too,” he told Jim Jenkins and Jacky Gunn in ‘As It Began’, “All I could really see were four shadowy figures. They didn’t make a lasting impression on me at the time.”

While renting rooms in Queensgate, John formed a loose R&B quartet with a flatmate, guitarist Peter Stoddart, one Don Cater on drums and another guitarist remembered only as Albert. The new band was hardlv a great leap forward from Art: they wrote no originals, and when asked to perform their only gig at Chelsea College on 21st November 1970, supporting Hardin & York and the Idle Race, they hastily billed themselves — in a rare fit of self-publicity for the quiet Oadby boy — as Deacon.

A few months later in early 1971, John was introduced to Brian May and Roger Taylor by a mutual friend, Christine Farnell, at a disco at Maria Assumpta Teacher Training College. They were looking for a bassist. John auditioned at Imperial College shortly afterwards. Roger Taylor recalled Queen’s initial reaction to Deacon in ‘As It Began’: “We thought he was great. We were so used to each other, and so over the top, we thought that because he was quiet he would fit in with us without too much upheaval. He was a great bass player, too — and the fact that he was a wizard with electronics was definitely a deciding factor!”

How did the members of the Art/Opposition back in Leicester, view John’s success with Queen? “It wasn’t sudden”, says Ron Chester. “First we heard he’d got into another group. We couldn’t believe that — were they deaf? There were all these sort of jokes going along. Then we heard he’d got a recording contract and the next thing he had a record out. It was a gradual progression. No one dreamed he would end up the way he did.”

“I don’t think we expected success for any of us" admits Nigel Bullen. “Richard maybe. He was the first one to go professional. But when John left for London to go to college, he left all his kit here. I thought that was the end of it for him. He had absolutely no intention of continuing. His college course was No.1. It was only after he kept seeing adverts for bass players in the ‘Melody Maker’ that he became interested again.”

He also seemed to lose some of that ‘Easy Deacon’ touch which so impressed Dave Williams in the ‘60s. “He’d ring up these bands,” continues Nigel, “but when he found they were a name act, he bottle out. When he went to auditions for anonymous bands, where he would queue up with about thirty other bass players, he had a bit of confidence. He just wanted to play in a decent band. Once I heard what Queen had recorded at De Lane Lea, and John played me the demo of their first album, I thought they were well set.”

CABARET

By early 1973, Dave Williams had forsaken a career in animation to join Highly Likely, a cabaret outfit put together by Mike Hugg and producer Dave Hadfield on the back of their minor hit, “Whatever Happened To You (The Likely Lads Theme)”. While Dave was in the band, they recorded a follow-up single which wasn’t released, before evolving into a glam rock outfit, Razzle, which later become the Ritz, who issued a few singles. “During Queen’s early days, before they’d had any real success, John came to see us once,” recalls Dave, “and said, ‘I wish I was in a band like this which could actually play some gigs’.” Dave concludes: “I remember John coming round once around that time, saying I’ve got a demo’. ‘So have I!’, I said. So we put his on first, and the first track was ‘Keep Yourself Alive’. My mouth dropped wide open and I thought. ‘Bloody hell! What a great track’. I remember saying that the guitarist was as good as Ritchie Blackmore — who was still our hero then — and thinking ‘They’re serious about this. This is the real thing’.”

RECORD COLLECTOR Nº 198 FEBRUARY 1996

⬅PREVIOUS: SMILE

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➡NEXT: IBEX, WRECKAGE & SOUR MILK SEA

@natromanxoff, @mephisto92, @moviestorian, @x5vale, @39-brian, @onegoldenglance, @crosmopolitan, @an-abyss-called-life, @his-majesty-king-mercury, @i-live-for-queen, @brian-39-may, @toomuchlove-willkillyou, @brimaymay, @sail-away-sweet-sister, @drummerqueenrmt, @old-fashioned-roger-boy, @briianmaay, @inui-mycroft, @deacytits, @iminlovewithrogscar, @drowseoftaylor, @brianmayislongaway, @balticlover, @astrophysicist-guitar-god, @miez-lakatz, @brianmayoucease, @jesus-in-a-life-boat, @aslongasthereismusic, @roger-taylors-car, @silapril, @sherrifanciesfriskyfreddie, @tenderbri, @brianmydear, @thosequeenboys, @millionairewaltz-carpediem, @painandpleasure86, @bribrifrenchfry, @xlucylennonx, @a-night-at-the-abbey-road, @inthedayswhenlandswerefew, @madformeddowstaylor, @queenrogertaylorfan, @let-roger-get-a-lunch, @queen-for-life, @rethought, @drivenbybrianmay @mymakeupmaybeflaking, @old-but-still-a-child, @let-roger-get-a-lunch, @warriorteam1924, @funnydressesweirdhairanddance, @painkiller80, @thefanhuman13, @yourtieddownmother, @hgmercury39, @brimi-stardust, @thefairyfellermercury, @retroromantics, @sailawaysweetbrimi, @sophiaintheskywithdiamonds, @holybrianmaywritingbear, @lydiannode, @39-yellow-daffodils , @ure-gonna-loveme-when-u-seeme, @kaykaybeachgirl, @foxmonkey, @deakysgurl, @redspecialandclogsandcurls, @briansrainbowsocks-deactivated2, @delilahmay39, @ohmybribri, @bless-the-queen, @everythingaboutfreddie, @doitforthevine67, @recordsoftheseventies, @rhysjoejoshtomfarisblog, @tenementfunsterwithpurpleshoes, @drummah-in-a-rocknroll-band, @beatlegirl1968, @maylorsqueen, @autumnscenemcyt, @gralto, @alittlepeoplemagic, @rainbowsockbrian, @frejudy, @drivenbybri, @yourlocalmusicalprostitute, @saik-ava, @omb-xx, @sassymaylor, @somekindofroger, @starlightmay, @freddiemercuryismylife, @sunshine112, @chrysochromulina, @glitteryloveravenue, @deakyislife51, @0-primejive-0, @just-a-skinny-lad, @bluewillowmom, @sassiesillie, @stesichoreanpalinode, @farrokhbulsaramercury, @tayloredofqueen, @rushingheadlong, @izzy-is-slightly-mad, @scandalacious, @0-my-fairy-queen-0 @39-volunteers-to-space@zodiacaldust, @deakytaylor, @queenband70s, @deakyeveryday, @drivenbybrimay @70smay

#Queen Before Queen #Pre-Queen Series #John Deacon #The Opposition #🎤🎵🎸👑⭐

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red-becca · 3 years

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The Streamer And The Model

I republished this with my laptop bc why not? Make it look better. Also, just realized I don't really have anything about Red on here that screams "model" other than it being mentioned. So, yeah. Gonna be writing a sequel of sorts or just another oneshot basically that is connected to this one. Hope you guys can wait for it.

---

"Mmm... Okay then." Kevin hummed as he sets up his face cam for his stream for today. "You guys can see me good, right? I see the comments and all the other stuff you guys say, by the way. About how I need to show my face more and well... Here I am. I still struggle with setting it up on this new program you guys suggested me, so yeah... I set it up earlier than when I'm scheduled to start streaming for it to show up properly." He clears his throat as he looks through the chat. "Anyway, I was gonna say we'll have a good ol' fashion QnA while waiting but you guys are just immediately bombarding me with questions..."

The male snickered as he rubbed his painted nails, shaking his head. "Yes, this is live and unedited. I am wearing black nail polish on my nails. I feel like it should no longer be a shock for people to see guys with nail polish but I get it. I don't seem like the type to do it, right?" He chuckled as he takes off his headphones and showing off the piercing in his right ear. "To shock you guys even more, I got myself a piercing too..."

"My girlfriend basically convinced me to do it, so we match kind of. But you know, I actually quite like how it looks on me. And she even did my nails just for fun and I think she did a great job." He said without even thinking, too focused on admiring his nails. Then his eyes widened as he realized what he had done, gulping as he saw the endless spam he was getting in chat. "Fuck, Red warned me that this would be your reaction once you found out..."

He let out nervous laughter and pushes his index fingers together. "Hehe, yeah... There is no way I am gonna be able to edit out what I said earlier. You guys heard me loud and clear there." Kevin let out some more laughter before taking in a deep breath. "So, I guess, I can't hide it anymore. Yes, I do have a girlfriend. We've dating for... like a really long time now, actually. I never really mention her because... Well, she tells me not to. I've actually been wanting to tell you guys about her for a while now because of how much I just adore her but again, she doesn't want me to tell you about her. Why? I don't really remember exactly but it's something like her not wanting to steal attention from me or something like that..."

Kevin rubbed the back of his neck, reading more of his chat. "You said her name was Red... You won't happen to be talking about famous model, Rebecca McArthur, are you?" He gasps in realization. "Hmm, maybe that's what Red means when talking about stealing attention from me..." The male mumbles before clearing his throat. "Umm, yes actually. She refers to be called Red more, so please. Call her that. But yes, I am dating a famous model but you know, I knew her and dated her before she became said famous model. So, I see her more than just a famous model. There is more to her than that..." He smiled, blushing softly as he thought of Red.

The smile he had on his face immediately faded when he saw his chat saying that he was lying and that he's only saying he's dating a famous model for clout. "Hey! I know it sounds really unbelievable for someone like me dating someone like Red but you guys don't have to say such mean things like that! I really am dating Red! If you don't want to believe me, go ahead! You'll eat your words once you-" He gets cut off by Red suddenly coming into his office.

"Hey, Kev! Started your stream yet? Me and Bailey made some cupcakes for you to try before it starts! Well, it's mostly me. Bailey just slept next to me." Red laughs, peeking through the door with a tray in her hands. "And don't worry about this tasting bad! I followed the recipe you put down to a T! And it tastes exactly how you would cook it!"

Kevin chuckles as he turns his chair to face her. "Heh, thanks for the snack, Red... And uh, my stream has already started, actually... And funny thing, I... I, uh.. I may or may not have accidentally let it slip that me and you are dating..." He let out nervous laughter and pushed his index fingers like earlier.

"You did what?!" Red freaked, almost dropping her tray but she quickly put it in a dresser next to the door. "Kev, I told you! We can't tell people that we're dating!"

"I know! I know! You told me countless times that you didn't want me to tell my fans about us..." He sighed as he rolled his gaming chair towards her, grabbing a cupcake from the tray and eating it. "But I couldn't keep it in. It just came naturally to me to boast about you, Red... You're an amazing girl, I am lucky to be dating someone like you. Like this cupcake tastes really good! Way better than how make it even!" He chuckles and smiles at her as he takes another bite of his cupcake. "So, yeah... I'm really sorry that I ended up spilling the beans there..."

The redhead ended up smiling at his words, giving him a small kiss on the cheek. "I forgive you, my space captain. I am so lucky to be dating an amazing guy like you, after all. Someone who loves me for more than just my looks..." She giggles as she gets her own cupcake and tastes it for herself. "Mmm, not bad. So, uh... How did your fans react to you dating a "famous super model"?" She jokingly waves her hand at the last part of her sentence, giggling and letting out a snort afterwards.

"Oh, you know... First, shock for me even dating anyone in the first place..." They both snickered after he spoke. "And then you know, disbelief because it is just so unbelievable for anyone who isn't that famous to be dating a famous person..." He rolled his eyes.

"Why am I not surprised?" Red laughs, playfully rolling her eyes as she walked towards Kevin's monitor. "So, what's happening now? Is your stream still on or what? You know me, I may play video games but that doesn't mean I know anything when it comes to working a computer..." She giggles.

Kevin chuckled as he rolled back to his desk, nodding. "Yeah, I understand completely. And yeah, my stream is still on. You see us in the monitor, right?" He gets a nod in response. "That's what my fans are seeing right now..." The male chuckles when the girl let out an amazed gasp, giving a small wave. "I got so distracted by you showing up that I completely forgot that I left my stream on." He chuckles more before flinching when Red suddenly slammed her hand on his desk.

"Hey, you fuckwads! I don't know what you've been telling my boyfriend when it comes to not believing him about dating me! But I'm here to tell you fuckos that it's true! We are dating and I couldn't be more happier dating a guy like him!" She smirked. "Still not believing my own words? Well, how's this for more proof?" The redhead grabs his right hand and shows off the matching promise rings they had. "Boom! Matching promise rings, baby! Custom made to fit the wearer's personality!"

Kevin got flustered at her actions. "Red, I appreciate your enthusiasm and all but this feels like too much for me-" He gasped when Red suddenly kisses him on the cheek.

"Sorry, my space captain. Now that you told people about us, I want them to really know that we're an item." She winks at him, causing him to blush. "Well, anyways... Now that your fans know about us... Mind if I join in with you in a stream?! Please?! I always wanted to join a stream but you know... Keeping our relationship a secret." She giggles, an excited grin on her face.

The male nodded, chuckling. "Go grab your gaming chair from the closet then..." He points to said closet, letting out a small noise of surprise when the girl hugged him really tightly. "Woah! Red..."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! I literally love you so much right now!" Red gives him a lot of kisses all over his face before giddily rushing to grab the gaming chair. "What are we going to be playing, by the way?!" She opens the walk in closet and goes searching for the gaming chair.

"Hmm..." Kevin turns to his monitor. "Well, I was gonna be playing a random one player game but I guess we can play some Mario Party, maybe..."

Red gasped in amazement, peeking her head out . "And then we can play as Daisy and Luigi like we always do! Ah, I love it! I am actually really happy that you revealed our relationship online now!" She giggles more before going back inside the closet.

"Okay, I'll set up the Switch for us to play that and then..." Kevin starts setting up his Switch then he pauses when he reads his chat again. "Oh... Oh, wow... As you had been worried about, all my chat is all talking about is you now."

"Oh, really?" Red pulls out a gaming chair from the closet, rolling the chair towards where Kevin's was and sat down it. "What have they been saying? Also, just where are people chatting? Like where are you looking at to read what they say?" She squints her eyes as she looks around her monitor for his chat

Kevin chuckles, pointing to the second monitor where he had his chat in. "There. You can read what chat has to see on that monitor."

"Oh! And that's why we bought two monitors! It makes more sense now!" Red giggles, looking at the other monitor and immediately getting angry. "Excuse me?! What are some of these bitches saying?! "Shame he isn't available anymore, I would have loved to date a hottie like him"?! "Why is he even dating the model with the dumb anger issues? He should just break up with her and date someone like me instead, I'd treat him right"?!" She crossed her arms and started to angrily grumble. "Well, I got bad news for you, girls! He's mine and mine alone! You can't have him!"

"Red, Red... Calm down... Breathe..." The male massages her shoulder gently. "Look, just ignore messages like that. I already have the perfect girl in front of me..." He makes her look at him by grabbing a hold of her chin. "Plus, the last thing I'll do is replace you with some fan..."

"But I'm one of your fans..." She pouted up at him. "One of your biggest fans even..."

"I know, I know... I mean them silly..." He gestures to the camera. "Anyway, ready to play some Mario Party?" He grabs one of the Joycons.

"Oh, hell yeah I am!" Red's mood immediately changed, grabbing the joycon. "Get ready to eat Daisy's dirt, Luigi!" She picks Daisy in the character selection.

"Oh, you'll be eating those words, Daisy! Trust me, it'll be Luigi who wins! He is a fan favorite, after all." Kevin smirks before they both laughed and started to play a round of Mario Kart for Kevin's stream.

#sp red tucker #red sp #red x kevin #red mcarthur #sp kevin #kevin stoley #kevin x red #sp red #red tucker #south park red #sp revin #revin #south park #south park ships #sp ships #oneshot

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basketballandtextbooks · 4 years

Note

Bat how do you feel after watching the special

There are multiple levels to my thoughts.

On a satire level, they bungled a lot of the information. They were trying to take an “all sides are stupid stance” on an issue where people are dying daily and there are actual medical reasons for one stance to be factually incorrect so taking an “all sides” stance is... fucking tone deaf. To be fair to them, I enjoyed the amount of meta that informed their episode about knowing that their episode was doing more harm than good and using Randy as a tool for that particular satire was a smart and effective mood. That said, it was a mixed message that promoted a lot of misinformation. While the meta parts were funny, lamp-shading how poor your satire is doesn’t actually make your satire good. It just means you’re lamp-shading the issue. It was disappointing because I had hoped for better as they frequently write good satire. Stan’s character journey was the only cohesive one throughout the episode and while it was a good one, there was so much of the episode that was tone deaf to the severity of this issue. While I think it’s valid to bring levity to the issue and I was hoping they would, they missed the mark by a long-shot. That said, they usually don’t do well with medical issues. The last time they bungled their satire this badly was the vaccination episode. And they infamously bungle literally every trans-related episode. There were aspects of the episode that were poignant, well thought out, and well executed, but the majority was an under-researched in-cohesive mess. Which to some extent I think that’s what they were aiming for because they view the pandemic as an in-cohesive mess. The issue is that one of the reasons that pandemic is such a pervasive issue (especially in the states) is the mass spread of misinformation so when they spread misinformation to criticize the spread of misinformation... it’s just stupid.

However on a character level I very much enjoyed the episode. It was yet another Randy focused episode and as I’ve expressed on a few occasions I just don’t find him funny. Oh no, he jizzed on the weed, that’s sooooo surprising. Honestly Randy is a very one-note character. He does something horrifying, people are horrified, he faces no consequences, rinse, repeat. That all established, I think it’s important character information that he cheated on Sharon twice in China with no guilt whatsoever. He only wanted to hide his crime because “my wife is a bitch”. Also considering he cheated with non-human entities, I think this is strong proof of Rowelie’s viability so take that as you will Rowelie shippers. Also the fact that people grow Randy mustache’s if they ingest his cum and Sharon had a mustache at the end... I sort of hate that Randy took that as proof that she smoked his weed. Now, even if she had smoked it his behavior still is completely and disgustingly inexcusable but also... everyone in South Park is openly smoking so she could have very easily gotten second hand Randy-stache. Or just given her husband a blow job. Also it’s interesting information that within universe Randy’s cum has mutagenic properties. Again for the Rowelie shippers: you could use this as an excuse as to how Towelie turns into a human, Randy’s cum mutated him. Also I think it’s likely that microwaving his balls could be what caused his radioactive jizz. Or one of the times he was experimented on by aliens. Or both. Altogether Randy was a repulsive bastard within the episode who I find boring at best BUT the amount of meta information that he introduced will be very useful to inform my theories. (Also again, the fact that he so easily and guilelessly cheats on Sharon tells me that he that he has done it a multitude of times. My theory is that after he gave Gerald a handy in the hot-tub and was forgiven he just never stopped, basically assuming the permission to do it once was broad permission to do it forever) (oh and second note: this is the second time within canon that Randy has poisoned people’s weed so uh... that’s fucked up)

Freaked out a lot about Jimbo dying, I’m really scared they’ll kill Jimbo but also since they already killed Ned I wonder if the two of them can be happy in the afterlife together because no one can convince me that Jimbo and Ned aren’t canon. Also Randy’s blatant racism and lack of empathy for Jimbo’s illness was really yikes. I dunno guys, I’ve always had a soft spot for Jimbo. He’s a stupid stereotypical red-neck but he had a sort of charm to him and I thought he was funny. I miss when him and Ned were regulars on the show.

CARTMAN DANCING AND SINGING WAS ACTUALLY THE CUTEST THING EVER ON THIS FUCKING EARTH, FIGHT ME I LOVE THIS STUPID SELFISH LITTLE CRETIN also it’s yet another episode to add to the list of “times Cartman shows he can grow into a better person” and list of “times Cartman seems to show a special soft spot for Stan”. Cartman does tend to listen more frequently when Stan asks and less frequently for literally anyone else. So the Stanman was strong in this one. Also really enjoyed the Stutters. While yes, Stan was completely using Butters as a tool to project his own feelings of unease I think it really says something that he chose Butters for that role. I think to some extent he felt that Butters might be feeling the same mortality-panic he was feeling (whether it was true or not) and that kinship he felt with Butters led him to feel that Butters was also feeling the way he did. He was panicked and he thought out of all his friends that Butters was the one who might share his feelings. I enjoy that sort of subtle connection between them and it’s been a consistent thread within the show that Butters and Stan just treat each other a little different than they do literally everyone else. It’s worth thinking about.

I think Stan was also at his limit because he was already suffering from isolation issues due to Tegridy Farms from before the pandemic. He’s always been a social boy and this brought him to the brink of what he could handle.

THEY SHOT TOKEN AND I SWEAR TO GOD YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW LOUD I WAS SCREAMING AT THE TV I THINK I PISSED OFF MY NEIGHBORS i fucking knew it was coming too. The fucking SECOND they shoved those fucking corrupt ass cops in the same room as Token.... I fucking feared for his life. They’ve killed off fairly major background characters before and killing Token would be... topical. I will make it my mission to personally destroy every fucking cop in South Park (Barbrady gets a pass... BARELY). I hate them all. I’ve hated them all for a long time but they murdered several children (including Kenny, the bastards) and they SHOT MY BOY TOKEN I WILL RIP OFF THEIR FUCKING ARMS SEE HOW WELL YOU CAN SHOOT THEN YOU TRASH BASTARDS

Nothing big Kenny happened this episode, insert sad fanboy noises

There were some strong Kyman moments. Cartman went to Kyle’s house for help at the beginning of the episode, obsessed over whether or not he’d be in the same room as Kyle, tried to vomit on Kyle, AND THEN KYLE FUCKING JUMPED HIM AND BEAT HIS ASS DOWN, FUCK ALL OF YOU WHO INCORRECTLY THINK DIFFERENT KYLE IS A FUCKING DOMINANT TOP, HE DOESN’T TAKE IT, HE GIVES IT

Adding that to my long list of “episodes where Kyle shows he isn’t a pushover, is very violent, and can easily kick Cartman’s bitch ass” because every so once in awhile I have to break out that list when someone insists upon how submissive Kyle is. Bitttttttccchhhhhh, you haven’t watched the show if you think that. My favorite kid doesn’t take your shit

Very interested in Red’s new canon last name (McArthur) but I’m also unsure about it because in the scene’s where it’s shown I couldn’t quite tell if it was actually Red or Powder. She kept being shown from odd angles and her hair looked a little shorter than normal. That said, I’m happy if it is her because I’ve been wanting a canon last name for Red for a long-ass time. Even presuming you go by the cousin’s headcanon for Craig and Red, there’s no guarantee they would have the same last name.

Let’s see, I think I had some other thoughts but those were the main points

OH PAUSE THE SCREEN WHEN THE PARENTS ARE ON ZOOM it’s really cute/funny what the usernames are. For example Annie’s mom is totally just using Annie’s account so she’s probably not very tech savvy. There’s actually a lot of minor character detail that you can infer from those screen-names.

Yeah those are my major thoughts: Randy is trash, nothing new, Cartman was ADORABLE and also lots of good meta for him (I have some hcs that one of the reasons he adored the social distancing so much isn’t because he hates human contact because we know from previous seasons that he’s a bit of a lonely boy, but he likes the social distancing explicitly because it gives him an excuse to reject other people before they can reject him), good stutters moments, good kyman moments, good stanman moments, there were some style moments if you squint? Kyle was one of the people Stan consulted about his feelings of unease but since it wasn’t just Kyle that he consulted it didn’t really feel like that was a special personal part of their relationship, moreso that he wanted Kyle to kiss his booboo and make it better. Although further proof that Kyle is the dom in that relationship. Kyle was agitated over the situation but overall rational, Stan was flipping the fuck out. Stan came to him submissive, scared, and asking for Kyle to make him feel better. Kyle remained calm and logical. I swear to god if I read one more cutesy-innocent Kyle post I might flip a table. Literally Kyle’s canonical self is RIGHT THERE

OH YEAH MY BUTTERS THOUGHTS there’s nothing really new here but it continues the trend of Butters being a self centered prick. (I love him but he is) Instead of even trying to understand the number of people dying or the gravity of the situation, he’s just upset and throwing tantrums because he doesn’t get to play at Build a Bear. And it’s made explicit in the writing that unlike Stan he isn’t struggling with the nebulous fear of death (probably brought on by his uncle getting sick). Butters is just bitter that he doesn’t get to have special things. Also Stan was the only one who tried even a little to save Butters from getting taken by the guards. No one else tried to stop or warn Butters. So again, very cute Stutters moment where Stan is overtly worried for Butters’ well-being even when he’s throwing a bratty tantrum. (I don’t know how anyone perceives Butters as an altruistic person, he’s a selfish twat. he’s a lovable selfish twat, like Cartman, but he’s still a selfish twat. and none of his shitty behavior in this episode was even remotely related to Cartman so you can’t connect it to him. Butters, on his own and without anyone else’s influence, does and acts like a shit-head). There is the excuse that he’s only ten but literally everyone in that cafeteria is only ten. But Butters is the only one kicking other people’s food because he didn’t get his special prize.

This all sounds like I hate Butters. I love Butters, warts and all, I just get really annoyed when fandom ignores his warts because his warts are PART OF THE REASON I LOVE BUTTERS. Also it’s like... blatantly and observably canon that he’s selfish.

I’m going to happily ruminate on Stan feeling a strong pang of protectiveness towards Butters though. That was quite illuminating.

#official ooc tag #official ask tag #timmytimmytomcats

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seddm · 5 years

Text

Star Vs The Forces of Evil AMA

A list of the most important or interesting things from the AMA on Reddit from yesterday. The questions were answered by Daron Nefcy (show’s creator), Dominic Bisignano and Aaron Hammersley (writers, supervising producers), and Adam McArthur (Marco’s voice actor).

“I'm not sure what Star and Marco's future looks like but I know they are very much in love now.” the most important of quotes.

When asked if Starco was planned from the beginning Daron simply said “It was planned. We never did anything just because we got pressure from fans” in one answer, and “I did have it planned for some time“ in another one.

Daron wanted for Star and Marco to make mistake and date other people before finally finding each other to grow from those experiences, the “messy” nature of relationships in the show having been on purpose to treat them as real teenagers.

The Severing Stone did break a curse, but the curse was never the reason behind Star and Marco’s feelings. Breaking it simply allowed them to start realizing that their feelings had nothing to do with it (which implies placebo effect as the only actual impact of it in that regard).

Aaron Hammersley thinks that Star liked Marco since the beginning, but feelings started growing after the Blood Moon ball.

Right now there are no plans for more books, comics, or DVD sets, but Daron would like to work again with Star if Disney ever wanted more.

Ever since they got renewed for a 4th season they knew it would have been the last one, and set out to write an ending for it. Daron is very satisfied by the ending they wrote and said this about its open nature: My goal was to create a satisfying ending that still left room for more. I feel like it’s in the DNA of the universe to solve one problem but create another. That’s Star Butterfly! I know it may not have been satisfying for everyone, but I hope it inspires a lot of fan fiction and drawings. I didn’t want to solve everything and leave the fans nothing to play with! Plus, if I ever got to do more with Star I want something to play with.

Toffee was a historian and researched the Butterfly family and their magic like no one before. The skull pauldrons in Moon the Undaunted were from family members of the royal court he killed (so the cheekmarks were just intimidation / “rule of cool”).

Meteora’s rebirth was all Eclipsa’s doing, but she didn’t know if the spell would have worked or not, that’s why she was initially in tears.

Seth has been dead for a long time, and he was put in the book just to have some supplemental elements for the show’s world, without ever having intentions to use him in the series.

Tom still has his fire-travelling powers, since they’re inherent to being a demon.

Ponyheads evolved out of their bodies thousands of years ago. Princess Pony Head’s mother is dead (not as a result of magic being gone, she was already dead).

Ludo stole the tadpoles from an orphanage.

Omnitraxius was just a “middleman to accessing the Multiverse”, so his death doesn’t affect the structure of alternate realities.

According to Daron Starfan13′s real name is Amanda Jacobs, according to Adam it’s Deborah Perla.

The hardest episodes to write are those where they need to get to a specific plot point, and they need a story to introduce it in a natural feeling way.

Earth and Mewni are the only dimensions that got cleaved together.

Doop-Doop is gone, but the laser puppies are regular puppies now.

Daron sees the Blood Moon magic as both a curse and a blessing, but didn’t provide any further explanation for Eclipsa’s father’s portrait talking to Marco beyond “magic”.

Warnicorns are unicorns who feed on the blood of their enemies.

Among the episodes that didn’t end up becoming a thing Daron mentioned one about Skullnick dating a monster, and one about Rafael’s job (he’s an artist).

Daron confirmed that the first Mewman settlers were indeed humans who fell through the Magic Well in Echo Creek.

They tried writing an episode about Monster Arm’s return several times, but they could never make it work. Daron believes that it might still be inside Marco, and might come back one day (doesn’t really make any sense given magic’s destruction but hey who am I to question The Daron). According to Adam it makes his immune system stronger.

Daron wouldn’t want to do a crossover episode.

Toffee genuinely believed he had won until, and I quote, “he got his face blasted”. So he didn’t really know how all turns out. But they still wanted to end the show with magic’s destruction as a way to pay him homage. So he wasn’t right all along, but he also was.

Star and Ludo are totally going to play basketball together, eventually.

Between The Cure and The Smiths Marco would absolutely like the latter more, according to Daron; according to Bisignano he’d like the Bauhaus.

Dominic Bisignano (writer, supervising producer, storyboarder, director) would have liked for the show to have more slow paced episodes, with less jokes and less self contained story lines, to better explore the characters.

Erik did turn back to normal with magic’s destruction, but he has “the painful memory of having been a squirreltoad”.

The Realm of Magic is very sensitive and people aren’t supposed to be there, that’s why Moon washing her “wounds” in it was enough to throw everything off balance.

Star on Wheels was inspired by Daron falling in a lake as a kid as a result of not being able to brake on her bike; Lake House Fever by Hammersley’s experience of being snowed in a cabin with his wife (then girlfriend) and her parents.

Marco’s cheekmarks were just due to his exposure to magic, and weren’t connected to the Blood Moon.

Star would love Pringles, but they do upset her stomach.

Easter egg in Cheer Up Star: in Rafael’s shack a painting by Van Gogh that has been stolen and never found again can be seen on a shelf. So he either drew a replica, or he’s the one who stole it.

ANSWERS BY ADAM

(I’m making a separate section for these because it’s harder to tell whether what he says is canon or not, since Adam wasn’t involved with the show’s writing)

Nachos is still with Marco.

Marco still has his Princess Turdina outfit.

Father Time is still fine, since he wasn’t a magical creature (obviously, or the Universe would be kinda done...).

When asked about what he imagines Marco doing after the finale, he answered “hopefully supporting Star in whatever she's doing, as well as still using those butt-kicking skills he developed in the Neverzone!”.

Ludo got his goons by bullying them into submission.

Just gonna post a screen for this answer about Brunzetta because it seems a bit “wishy washy” and phrasing is important to convey that.

Adam thinks that Marco might have worked with Janna, if he hadn’t gotten together with Star.

Gustav was measuring the Diazes in their sleep (in The Other Exchange Student) to make them custom alpaca wool sweaters.

According to Adam Dave (Tom’s father) was just a regular Mewman who worked as a barista at the coffee shop Lady Lucitor frequented. She tipped well and he fell in love.

Toffee called Marco a disappointment in Storm the Castle because he thought he’d have been more of an adversary.

#star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe #starco

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pedanticat · 5 years

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Marco Diaz Wasted Character Development

Over the course of the series, there have been a couple of characters who have come a long way from their season one version om Star vs the Forces of Evil. Star went from an irresponsible teen who could care less about her royal title to someone who used said title to fix the strained relations between monsters and mewmans, Tom went from jealous ex with anger issues who couldn’t let go of Star to a more laid back guy who accepted that he needs to find someone who actually makes him happy and Buff Frog went from an evil minion of Ludo’s to becoming a proud and loving father. However, there’s one character who hadn’t fully developed despite being at the forefront of the series right with Star and that character is none other than Marco Diaz. Now you may be confused as to why I think Marco hasn’t developed as a character, after all, he has come a long way from the safe kid he was back in season one. Now while it is true that the Marco we have now is much different from the version we had in season one, I wouldn’t call his development necessarily great.

What I really liked about Marco character when the show first started was how he was able to fight side by side with Star. Despite being a regular human who has lived a normal life, he was able to go toe to toe with monsters and magical creatures due to his training in karate. Season one and two really focuses on the fact that Marco is a skilled martial artist and take pride in his combat skill with him also aiming to become a better fighter such as in the episode Red Belt where he seeks to move on from a green belt to a red belt. Marco also became more confident, less insecure and more daring as the show went on, which was expected given how it was an obvious direction for his character to go in given how we’re told he's known as the safe kid at Echo Creek Academy. However, the biggest misstep in Marco development was the episode Running With Scissors.

Running with Scissors was a good episode when it first came out with many people, myself included, enjoying it. Though as you can tell from my previous paragraph, my thoughts have changed since then. The episode mainly focused on Marco getting back Star scissors by blowing out Hekapoo flame. After 16 years of traveling, maturing and hardcore training, he tracks down the real Hekapoo, blows out the flame and even gets his own pair of scissors. Now he ends up going to Earth due to Star convincing him that he should come back with him then reverting back to his 14-year-old self. The episode ends on this somber note with Marco realizing he doesn't even remember the password for his laptop before deciding to take the laser puppies out on a walk. With how the episode ended, it seemed to implied that after traveling 16 years through various dimensions, that he’s no longer the same person anymore and things are going to be different. Yet that wasn’t the case at all and the whole plot point about his 16 years of travel was basically abandoned and never brought up again. In the second Marco Diaz live stream that aired a while after the episode, it’s revealed that’s Marco memory of the sixteen years in Hekapoo's dimension are slowly becoming like a hazy dream or an old childhood memory. Now while this line did make the episode pointless in hindsight, I didn’t really mind since the episode was still a fun one and it showed how determined Marco could be when he put his mind to something. So I continued to enjoy the rest of season 2 without giving the 16-year plot thread any serious thought. However, despite it at the time seems like the episode wouldn’t’ really be important later on in the series, it ended up affecting Marco development in season 3 and 4.

Season 3 shifts the focus from Earth to Mewni, which resulted in Marco moving to Mewni also where he became Star’s squire. Now Marco becoming a squire was an interesting idea and we’re told that he has participated in activities with other squire’s. Now, this is where we enter the first road bump with Marco character development: we don’t his journey from squire into becoming a full-fledged knight. He’s made a squire in Lint Catcher and then he becomes knighted in Knight Shift with no episodes showing his training as a squire. This was a big moment in Marco character development yet it was never shown and focused on. Just like how we saw Star slowly become better at magic due to episodes focusing on that development, we should have had episodes that showed Marco training in becoming a knight.

The second road bump that occurs in Marco development as a character is retconning how much Marco remembers from his 16 years of travel. In the episode Divide, he says to Star “You forget I have 16 years of experience fighting thousands of Hekapoos.”. Now I hate this line for two reasons. First, they have him say that instead of saying that he improved as a fighter due to his as his training as a squire, which honestly would have made more sense considering that what he was apparently doing in season 3. And secondly, it contradicts with what we saw from Marco character after the events of Running with Scissors and what Adam McArthur said in the Marco Diaz live stream about him soon forgetting almost everything about the 16 years. By keeping the fact that Marco remembers what he did in those 16 years, the show ended up giving him 16 years of character development without showing any of it! Sure, the same could be said about the Squire plot thread but its worse since instead of months its 16 years of him becoming a more skilled fighter and growing as a person. Furthermore, if he developed in those 16 years, it makes his behavior strange in places since he should technically be more mature, but as we saw in the aftermath of Running with Scissors, that didn’t seem to be the case at all. Based on that, it makes the staff seem to be very selective about which aspects of Marco character developed from the 16 years of travel and exactly how much he remembers. The problem is particularly noticeable in A Boy and His DC-700XE since he’s apart of a dragon cycle gang that love going on thrilling rides and doing crazy stunts with the reason Marco is cool and great at it being due to his 16 years of training, which again, wasn’t shown.

Tom and Star development worked because we actually saw them developed as characters in the series. If we didn’t see Star practicing her magic or Tom working on his issues, those arcs wouldn’t feel as satisfying as they ended up being. Marco did have solid on-screen development in season 1 and 2 but the staff then started making a lot of his development in season 3 and 4 ties into things that we never got to see him do. It also doesn't help that he was pushed to the sideline for a good chunk of season 3. Running with Scissors did more harm than good for Marco character development and started dozens of arguments about his age that I don’t even want to begin to get into.

#pc discussion #marco diaz #star vs the forces of evil #svtfoe #hekapoo #star butterfly #tom lucitor #Running With Scissors #buff frog

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thatrandomautist · 6 years

Text

Finn McArthur

1. PICK ONE OF YOUR MUSES.

2. FILL IN THE QUESTIONS/STATEMENTS AS IF YOU ARE BEING

INTERVIEWED FOR AN ARTICLE AND YOU WERE YOUR MUSE.

TAGGING: @acewendino @tv-jars @shoreshark @ihavenosnowflakes @ask-the-overworked-firewall @mushy-lin aaaand whoever else wants to do it?

1. WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

Uhh- Finn? ...Why am I here again?

2. WHAT IS YOUR REAL NAME?

My ‘real name’? It’s Finn, I just told you... oh unless you’re asking for my deadname? If that’s the case then no, fuck you.

3. DO YOU KNOW WHY YOU WERE CALLED THAT?

Oh! Diego helped me pick it a bit after I first arrived, said he reminded me of a cartoon character with that name... I don’t see the resemblance but eh

4. ARE YOU SINGLE OR TAKEN?

Heh, I’m single...

5. HAVE ANY ABILITIES OR POWERS?

Well, I’m an omega so yeah? Don’t yo- *you hear hurried mumbling* Oh shit really? Okay then... I’m an omega, and that means I can shapeshift into 3 prey animals, these are called my ‘shift forms’. Mine are a raccoon, a raven, and a bluejay.

6. STOP BEING A MARY SUE/GARY STU. No U :P

7. WHAT’S YOUR EYE COLOUR ?

Really light blue, like my dads- *you see him curl into himself a bit* next question.

  8. HOW ABOUT YOUR HAIR COLOUR?

Bluish-black? Think Jasmine from Aladdin kinda colour, it’s really curly too

9. HAVE YOU ANY FAMILY MEMBERS?

*you hear him laugh, it’s not a happy laugh though* Not anymore.

10. OH? WHAT ABOUT PETS?

We’re not exactly allowed pets at St. Eliza’s..

11. THAT’S COOL I GUESS, NOW TELL ME ABOUT SOMETHING YOU DON’T LIKE.

Uhh.. people grabbing at me? Since shifting can be a fight or flight response I don’t usually have the best reaction to being touched without my knowing...

12. DO YOU HAVE ANY HOBBIES/ACTIVITIES YOU LIKE DOING?

I like flying? I don’t do it that much ‘cuz if you shift too much in one day or while you have little energy, you get leftovers when you shift back.. like last week I shifted back with little back feathers trailing up my arms.

13. EVER HURT ANYONE BEFORE?

*before the question can be read out, you see a tall woman with a scar covering the right side of her face and neck steps in and cuts them off* That will be enough, I have allowed you to interview the children my care, I would appreciate if you didn’t dig into their traumas!

14. EVER….KILLED ANYONE BEFORE?

*you see the woman snap her fingers, a small flame dancing between her fingers*

Utter that sentence and your reputation won’t be the only thing on fire.

15. WHAT KIND OF ANIMAL ARE YOU?

Uhh, didn’t I tell you this already? A raccoon, a raven and a bluejay.

16. NAME YOUR WORST HABITS.

I pick at feathers when they apprear, hurts like a bitch and their actual feathers so they tend to bleed when pulled out...

17. DO YOU LOOK UP TO ANYONE AT ALL?

Pff, who don’t I look up to? I’m pretty much the shortest here. Really though, I look up to Diego, he wasn’t... the most cheerful person when I first met him but he’s really come out of his shell since then and is more open about shit now, and I admire him for that.

18. GAY, STRAIGHT, OR BISEXUAL?

‘M gay as fuck dude

19. DO YOU GO TO SCHOOL?

Yeah, we go to the public school down the road, uhhh... Murphy’s school I think it’s called  

20. DO YOU EVER WANT TO MARRY AND HAVE KIDS ONE DAY?

*the question seems to have caught him off guard, as you see him almost choke on the water he was drinking and his face turn a shade of pink* ahaha, maybe? I mean- never mind, next question.

21. DO YOU HAVE ANY FANBOYS/FANGIRLS?

Bro, I’m a 15 year old trans guy in a children’s home, do you really think I’d have any fans?

22. WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF?  Hah, loosening people, definitely.. I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to Hazel or De..

23. WHAT DO YOU USUALLY WEAR?  I usually wear a light blue hoodie and black sweatpants, I like the textures on them.

24. DO YOU LOVE SOMEONE?

*you see him smile, but it’s more bittersweet than happy* yeah, yeah I do.

26. WHAT CLASS ARE YOU? (HIGH CLASS, MIDDLE CLASS, LOW CLASS)

I.. I don’t really know? Middle class I guess.

25. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU WET YOURSELF?

I have this really specific memory of pissing myself during an end of year party when I was little and having to wear my PE kit for the rest of the day.

27. HOW MANY FRIENDS DO YOU HAVE?

... 3 I think? *you hear him mumbling* yeah 3, and one of them‘s my sister.

28. WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON PIE?

Pastry is sensory hell to eat but the fillings are usually nice.

29. FAVORITE DRINK?

Imma be a stereotypical bitch and say tea, fight me it makes me warm.

31. ARE YOU INTERESTED IN SOMEONE~?

*you see that shade of pink re-emerge as he coughs* WHAT IS IT WITh YOU PEOPLE AND REPEATING QUESTIONS??

32. WHAT’S YOUR BRA CUP SIZE AND/OR HOW BIG IS YOUR WILLY?  *This time you see a boy around a foot taller than Finn intervenes, a deceptively bright smile on his face* Hello there! I’m Deigo, Finn’s best friend and the one who will rip you to shreds if you bring up things he is clearly very uncomfortable talking about.

33. WOULD YOU RATHER SWIM IN THE LAKE OR THE OCEAN?

I’d go with ocean, since lakes aren’t good for snorkelling.

34. WHAT’S YOUR TYPE?

Uh, haha my type? Well... Warm and cheerful, the goofiest genuine smile and- ah fuck, nope move on before I start rambling

(Oof I hit the text limit, ‘twas fun tho!)

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sunshineweb · 4 years

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Why We’re Ignorant of Our Own Ignorance

Here is some stuff I am reading and thinking about this weekend…

Idea I’m Thinking – Dunning Kruger Effect One day in 1995, a large, heavy middle-aged man robbed two banks in the American city of Pittsburgh. He did it in broad daylight, without wearing a mask or any sort of disguise. And he smiled at surveillance cameras before walking out of each bank. Later that night, police arrested a surprised McArthur Wheeler. When they showed him the surveillance tapes, Wheeler stared in disbelief. “But I wore the juice,” he mumbled. Apparently, Wheeler thought that rubbing lemon juice on his skin would render him invisible to videotape cameras. After all, lemon juice is used as invisible ink so, as long as he didn’t come near a heat source, he should have been completely invisible.

Police concluded that Wheeler was not crazy or on drugs — just incredibly mistaken.

The episode caught the eye of the psychologist David Dunning at Cornell University, who along with his graduate student, Justin Kruger, went on to study what was going on. They reasoned that, while almost everyone holds favorable views of their competence in various domains, some people mistakenly assess their competence as being much higher than they actually are. This “illusion of confidence” is now called the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and describes the cognitive bias to inflate self-assessment.

“I don’t know that I don’t know” is such an unsettling, ego-smashing thought. But Dunning Kruger Effect is what we all suffer from. In tasks where we lack expertise, like stock market investing or economic forecasting, we often overestimate our actual knowledge. Worse, we are unable to recognize our own incompetence…simply because of the fact that we are incompetent.

Of course, we are not incompetent in everything we do in life and thus the Dunning Kruger Effect does to torment us all the time. Sometimes we try things that lead to favorable outcomes. But other times — like the lemon juice idea — our approaches are imperfect, irrational, inept or just plain stupid.

Now, even when experts tend to be aware of just how knowledgeable they are, they often make a different mistake: they assume that everyone else is knowledgeable, too. The result is that people, whether they are incompetent or highly skilled, are often caught in a bubble of inaccurate self-perception. When we are unskilled, we can’t see our own faults. When we are exceptionally competent, we don’t perceive how unusual our abilities are.

So if the Dunning Kruger effect is invisible to those experiencing it, what can you do to find out how good you actually are at various things? Mr. Dunning himself answers –

First, ask for feedback from other people, and consider it, even if it’s hard to hear. Second, and more important, keep learning. The more knowledgeable we become, the less likely we are to have invisible holes in our competence. Perhaps it all boils down to that old proverb: When arguing with a fool, first make sure the other person isn’t doing the same thing.

The trick is to not be fooled by illusions of superiority and to learn to accurately reevaluate our competence. After all, as Confucius reportedly said, real knowledge is knowing the extent of one’s ignorance.

Thoughts I’m Meditating On

Take risks in your life. If you win, you can lead. If you lose, you can guide.

~ Swami Vivekananda

One of the important things in stocks is that a stock does not know that you own it. The stock just sits there; it doesn’t care what you paid or the fact that you own it. Any feeling I have about the market is not reciprocated. I mean it is the ultimate cold shoulder we are talking about here.

~ Warren Buffett

Articles I’m Reading

Howard Marks: Uncertainty II (Oaktreee)

Why we’re blind to probability (Collaborative Fund)

Under pressure (Reformed Broker)

Nobody talks about failure in Silicon Valley, yet 90% of startups fail (Gagan Biyani)

Six Stoic rituals that will make you happy (Daily Stoic)

Idea generation (Sam Altman)

Einstein’s two mistakes (The Conversation)

Yoga with Adriene: How the YouTube star won lockdown (Guardian)

A Question for You We all waste time doing tasks that are unnecessary and unimportant.

Ask yourself – What tasks should I stop doing?

* * * That’s about it from me for today.

If you liked this post, please share with others on WhatsApp, Twitter, LinkedIn, or just email them the link to this post.

Have a great weekend. Stay safe.

With respect, — Vishal

Featured Image Source: Verywellmind

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kayrockerqog · 7 years

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You Are Not Unlovable: Jock Oneshot

"Am I worth loving? Am I really?" The question popped into my head, my boredom must have driven it up there. Hey, it's something to do, and I'm running out of space on my doodle page. The professor just keeps going on and on with his pointless lecture about gender studies, and I'm really starting to wonder why I took this class in the first place. Either way, I looked down at the scrap paper. Most of it was incoherent scribbling, and if that nerdling taught me anything as an English tutor, then this is the most symbolic thing I have ever seen. Back to the question, "Am I lovable?" I guarantee a bunch of you would answer "Yes, definitely", or "I don't know, I don't think that's my area to judge", or if you're that one guy "Hell no, you aren't. What made you think you were?" and to that I say, you're wrong, but not exactly right either. It's a biased question. Everyone would have a different opinion to whether I deserve love or not, based on whatever previous experiences I had with them. I don't blame them for that, honestly. My eyes start to wander across the classroom, stopping at every other person, and I can guess almost immediately how they feel about the subject. Take Lightning for example. He hates my guts, like, it's been almost two years and he hasn't let go of the stupid grudge he has with me. We never exactly 'got along', especially since he thought I was a guy for most of our existence together, and his ignorance is too damn irritating at times. He's obnoxious, egocentric and his head is emptier than that Lindsey girl's, which is saying something. People always wondered how I got along with him so well, and really, I don't know either. I can assume he'd be against me receiving any kind of affection, and would probably take lengths to pity the fool who tried. Then, Cameron. Surprisingly enough, he isn't mad at me for anything, even though I was a huge jerk . . . okay, I am a huge jerk. He's actually the closest thing I have to a friend right now, and we seem to be getting along fairly well. He's been really patient with me, and I am almost certain the brainiac's performing some kind of observation with my behavior or whatnot. Regardless, he's cool with me, so I'm pretty sure he'd be indifferent. Scanning the rest of the students, I can't really explain most of them because I don't need to. Red and Pointy would be neutral, Preppy chick Courtney would be against. Dawn would be for it, probably on some aura nonsense, and Farmboy would be against it. Gothy, in the middle, Delinquent, same as Gothy. I can read most of these guys pretty damn well if I do say so myself, and normally I would be satisfied. Most of these guys know I'm not a fan of theirs, and therefore they stay away. But . . . I don't get why he doesn't, even though he's probably my main target. He's sitting right behind me, and it'd probably look suspicious as hell to face him in the middle of Professor Pointless's talk. Even though literally everyone else is talking in groups, I'd end up getting the blame the one time I turn around and ask a question, like every other time. Do the teachers think I'm antisocial or something? Is that why they make a huge deal of me talking to other people? Damn it, Jo, get back on topic. I get back to blankly jotting down notes with way too much self-loathing commentary, and I start listing things. I'm rude to him on a daily basis, we turn almost everything into a competition of some sort, half of the teachers hate us for it. I always catch him smiling at me with this huge grin, and he seems to actually like being around me, even with my overconfident facade. I just don't get it. "McArthur! Stop staring at Jo and pay attention!" What did he just say? Did I hear that right? A bunch of kids start to giggle like a bunch of sugar-rushed toddlers, and I could feel my cheek warm up a bit from embarrassment or anger, I didn't know for sure. In a sudden rush of energy, I called him out, "Hey man, he's sitting right behind me. It probably wasn't his fault, maybe he couldn't see. Don't assume that crap." The accompanying laugh track stopped almost immediately, and now everyone was baring their eyes onto me. Needless to say, I was uncomfortable. With my face thankfully returning to its normal hue, I shoved my desk over a bit, the legs creaking against the tiled floor, then I kept writing. The professor shrugged it off, good move for his part, and continued his lesson. I can hear the army boy fidgeting in his seat, and I realized everyone's looking at him too. What idiots . . . what would bring them to make fun of him? He's done literally nothing wrong. Then, it hit me. The revelation was enough to push me to scribble a note for him on a small scrap of paper. I raised my hand, signaling to the teacher to use the washroom and he nodded, shooing me off with his hand. Probably relieved to have me out of the classroom. I grabbed my phone, covered my notes, and squirmed out of my seat. Being stealthy enough for no one but him to notice, I quietly slapped the slip of paper on his desk and poked his shoulder. We made eye contact, and I swear I saw his face light up. I pointed to the page and left the room. The halls were pretty much deserted, which was . . . weird. You would think that there would be a lot more truants out here. The silence was nice though, I always liked the solitude. Fewer people to get on my nerves with every step they take. My running shoes clunking as I walk outside, the midday sun making its grand entrance right into my eyes. Cringing slightly, I start towards the meeting point, and I wait. After a few minutes, I check my phone. 11:44, he should be here soon. And when I glanced back up from the screen, I proved to be totally right. There he was, running over to my place against the fence, bending over his knees and panting lightly. The sun caught in his raven hair, he stared up at me while I locked my powder blue eyes with his strong dark eyes. "You made it." I said, and he gave me one of his goofy smiles. "Of course. I'm grateful for the excuse to get out of there," he responded, the relief in his voice smoothing it out, and it sent a small shiver through my body. His movements, the shaking, that all made sense now. "I feel you there." I pat him on the head playfully, plopping down next to him onto the grass. "So, why did you want me out here, if I may ask." The question took me by surprise, and my face felt flushed. He saw this, and started freaking out, "Ma'am, calm down. Are you alright?" I started shaking, and he firmly grabbed my shoulders to hold me still. My gaze went distant for a moment, and I took a deep breath. "Brick, do I deserve love?" There was silence. I know that was not what he expected to hear, and I'm pretty sure he's as confused as I am. He's as red as I am now, and it's a bit too awkward for my liking. For my benefit, he manned up and broke the silence, "You definitely weren't paying attention, were you?" I laughed dryly, "That class was pointless, there's no way I would." It was his turn to laugh, and I started feeling fuzzy. He collected himself, looked me straight in the eye, and gave it to me straight. "Well, I can guarantee a bunch of people will tell you different things, since you have so many relationships with others of all kinds, but I can tell you this." His grip on my shoulders tightened, his breaths getting heavier. "I think you do . . . and I want to be the one to give it to you." I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I start giggling profusely, and pretty sure I made him feel bad. Brushing my hand against his chest, I full on smiled at him, "You are so cheesy, Brickhouse." His face still fully steaming, he lifted my chin up and kissed me. To put it lightly, I was stunned. My heart was racing faster than it ever had, and holy shit I felt like I was dying, but if I died right now, I'd be totally alright with it. I could feel my arms relax, and everything felt . . . right. When we separated, I held the back of my hand against his cheek, and watched his face movements as he realized what he just did. "Okay, I'll give you that one." "What, really?" "Yeah, you did good, Cadet." I postured back up, using the ground to stabilize myself, and I held my hand down to help him up. Our rough palms gripped together, and I pulled him into me. After a bit of awkwardness, I pecked his cheek and gave him a light punch on the arm. "Thanks for the answer," I told him, and he nodded curtly. I tucked the hair back behind my ears, and tugged him toward the door, "Come on, we still need to grab our stuff from class." "Do we have to?" I stared at him, shocked, "Since when did you want to break the rules?" He cocked an eyebrow at me, and smirked, which I can say I was not used to. "Since when did you want to follow them to a tee?" I chuckled under my breath, tugging his arm and bringing his face inches away from mine, "You make a good point." Pulling us together again, I figured out the answer I was looking for. That, no, I am not unlovable. **Words: 1702**

#my writing #total drama #jockjockjock #td jo #td brick #mentions of others #my fanfiction #ahhhhhhhhhhhh #holy shit #why tf wasn't this ship canon????

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flauntpage · 6 years

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This Roster is Broken: Thoughts after Flames 6, Flyers 5

Flyers General Manager Chuck Fletcher is only in his second week on the job and one thing has likely become abundantly clear to him – he needs to break up the way his team is constructed.

Quite simply, the Flyers are broken.

Repeated and excessive inconsistency is a fundamental flaw that likely has more to do with the makeup of the roster and how those pieces fit together than the systems they are playing.

That’s not to absolve the coaching staff for the sins of their players, or their former general manager. No, they need to own the fact that they can’t find a way to maximize what potential there is on the roster.

But these players need to take ownership for themselves. They can’t be fragile. They can’t “play scared” as Jake Voracek said after a recent game. They can’t crack under pressure. They can’t lose track of their fundamentals and have it blow up on them game after game after game.

There was no reason the Flyers should have lost to Calgary Wednesday, and yet they did, 6-5 in overtime, allowing two goals in the final 1:08 of regulation and the game-winner in the first minute of the extra session.

The frustration for fans is understandable. The Flyers are a team who is equally adept at overcoming a two-goal deficit as it is blowing a two-goal lead.

There is skill and talent on this team; it just doesn’t mesh. Maybe it’s because despite that skill, this team is not collectively smart.

How so?

I’ll explain after the jump:

The third period

Here’s where the microcosm of the Flyers construct for 2018-19 was on display. The Flyers entered the period up a goal at 4-3. They had played pretty well over the first two periods. The first period they got off to a quick start, but then got a little sluggish in the second half of it. Still, they were able to enter the first intermission trailing only 1-0.

However, in the second period, the Flyers took off. They were able to really open the game up and use their skill to their advantage. They got behind 2-1 after giving up a shorthanded goal, but then scored on the power play for the first time in almost a month and added two more quick scores to go up 4-2.

Calgary got one back, but the Flyers are a good team – usually – when taking a lead into the third period. They were 9-1-1 in such instances heading into last night.

But that’s when the dumbness cloud started hanging over them. The Flyers took four minor penalties in the third period that led to shorthanded situations. When you have the worst penalty kill in the league, that’s not ideal, but when three of those four penalties are flat out stupid and unnecessary, then that has a negative impact on your team.

Wayne Simmonds took a post-whistle punch at a Flame and ended up in the box. Scott Laughtin clearly grabbed James Neal’s jersey to try and do a roller derby-esque whip around. Not good. Shayne Gostisbehere slashed a stick out of an opponent’s hands in frustration.

And there were more that could have been called that weren’t.

The abundance of bad plays where these players are thinking as individuals in the moment and not for the greater good of the team is indicative of a team that is fractured.

To their credit though, the Flyers did a nice job of killing off all four penalties. The much-maligned penalty kill was good. It was aggressive. It actually finished plus-one as Sean Couturier, back in the lineup after missing the last two games, scored his second goal of the night shorthanded:

Welcome back, Coots!

#PHIvsCGY | #LetsGoFlyers pic.twitter.com/alOCcMlzJR

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) December 13, 2018

The PK really didn’t allow Calgary a lot of room to operate, and when the Flames did get chances, goalie Anthony Stolarz was there to make a big stop.

But those little victories were Pyrrhic because it allowed Calgary to get a lot of offensive momentum and it also tired out the Flyers’ best players while rooting many others to the bench for an extended period of time in the third period.

So, in the final minutes of the game, tired players are being used and Hakstol is forced to go to other players probably not expected to play in these situations.

And not to mention, Calgary pulls their goalie, going into a six-on-five situation. But, rather than play like they did when they were killing penalties earlier in the period – aggressive, pressuring the puck, forcing Calgary to make decisions earlier that it would like – the Flyers sat back and let the Flames take the game to them.

No Bueno.

First, there was the fourth goal:

What a massive slap shot by Rasmus Andersson for his first NHL goal!! pic.twitter.com/VjUrFvjATf

— Ryan McArthur (@ryanpmcarthur) December 13, 2018

The Flyers couldn’t get a clear here, but it’s notable that Voracek, who had fresh legs in the third because he doesn’t kill penalties, is on the ice and doesn’t get the clear or the blocked shot. Not that the goal is his fault, but you probably want a more defensive minded forward on the ice at this point.

Couturier is out there, almost because he has to be – he played 26 minutes in the game. And take note that Raffl is out there as well – actually he puts a big hit on Rasmus Andersson seconds before Andersson scores the goal.

Raffl too has to be a bit spent considering all of his ice time in on the PK.

But notice too how there is no challenging the puck. The Flyers are just trying to take away passing and shooting lanes. That’s too conservative in this instance – especially up by two goals. You can afford to force the action more there, and they didn’t.

Then comes the tying goal:

(video courtesy Charlie O’Connor of The Athletic)

In this goal, the playrs on the ice for the Flyers are Claude Giroux, Dale Weise, Couturier, Ivan Provorov and Andrew MacDonald.

Remember, Raffl had just come off and Couturier stays on. Weise may seem like an odd choice here, but considering the options, there aren’t many guys who are left to use on the bench who you would want in this defensive role.

Wayne Simmonds is maybe the only other choice, but you aren’t going to go to Travis Konecny here, nor Nolan Patrick, nor James van Riemsdyk. None are defensive-minded.

The only other options are Phil Varone and Oskar Lindblom, and they had barely played at all. A lot of fans would have screamed for Lindblom, but the reality is Lindblom is barely hanging on to his spot in the lineup. He struggled mightily in a larger role this season. Used in limited action against the opposition’s depth forwards he’s proving serviceable, but dragging him on the ice cold in a key defensive spot is not fair to Lindblom nor is it a good decision coaching-wise.

So the only choice here is between Wiese and Simmonds. Hakstol chose Weise, and likely because his all around game – from a pressure and defensive mindset has been better than Simmonds lately.

Now, everyone on Twitter is all over Weise and MacDonald for this goal. But really, is it their fault?

Go back and watch it again but look for these things:

Weise pressures the puck up ice initially. That’s his job and then he gets back to get into defensive position. He is the high man taking away the shot from the point and does that well.

MacDonald is the right defenseman and he’s in his position until he realizes that Provorov has drifted a little too high in the left circle. Once he does this, MacDonald immediately goes to the net to mark Johnny Gaudreau who has now gotten behind Provorov.

Seeing an opening because of this, Sean Monahan heads to the net, creating a 2-on-1 down low for the Flames.

When it comes to coverage, this is Giroux’s man now, not MacDonald’s because MacDonald went to Gaudreau to cover for Provorov. He makes a flailing attempt to block the pass to Monahan, but he’s gliding a little too much and not quite where he needs to be.

So, the question is, should Provy be playing a zone here, or should he be closer to his net to mark Gaudreau? Should MacDonald stay with Monahan and leave Gaudreau open, or is the right move to rotate to the open man at the side of the net? Should Giroux take away the slot? Or is that perhaps Couturier’s responsibility since he is kind of floating out higher in the slot as well?

In short, there are multiple breakdowns and a lack of communication here. You can’t pin this goal on MacDonald and Weise. Sorry. I know they are Twitter targets, but it’s not their fault this goal went in.

I’m not defending MacDonald. I have in the past, but this season he’s not been good when he’s been in the lineup. He really has regressed, and i’m not sure if this was related to trying to come back too quickly from an injury or what, but he’s been below his level – which is that usually of a 5-6 defenseman.

But in this instance, you can’t blame him. You can’t blame Weise – who has played very well this season and isn’t deserving of criticism. And you can’t blame the coach for having them on the ice. There were other breakdowns on this goal that are far more important than the constant false narrative that Hakstol only trusts bad veteran players.

The Overtime

This was a kick in the teeth, too.

Hakstol is getting criticized for starting OT with Couturier, Konecny and Provorov rather than Giroux, Voracek and Gostisbehere, but can you blame him?

Calgary is a one-line team. And if they’re going to put Gaudreau and Monahan on the ice for the first shift in OT, who do you want out there against them? The answer is Couturier every time. It’s not even a question. And which defenseman do you want out there against them? It’s Provorov. Even with his struggles he’s your best guy.

The strategy is sound. Get through the first shift with your best two-way forward and best two-way defenseman against their most dangerous guys and you’ve now created a serious mismatch for yourself to get your best players on the ice.

This doesn’t happen often on the road, so when Hakstol sees that, he has to like his odds.

The problem is, Provorov doesn’t score on his chance and after a lost board battle on the wall is left chasing the play.

Konecny does cover and gets back as the lone “defender” but after a failed poke check, he takes himself out of the play and starts to think about breaking out the other way. Watch the replay and see what Konecny does:

Tonight's @EASPORTSNHL OT winner from Johnny is straight

#PHIvsCGY | #Flames pic.twitter.com/cCLCEzgfSF

— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) December 13, 2018

TK has to stay with a man. Couturier does his job in taking Monahan out of the play and continues to box him out. I’m not sure what Provorov is thinking either. OT is a man-to-man defense in the NHL and with Provy skating to the same guy Couturier is covering and TK starting to skate away from the play in hopes of getting a breakaway, it basically leaves Gaudreau and Mark Giordano in a 2-on-none. Stolarz stops the first two shots, but if you don’t defend players, eventually they’re going to score.

In Closing

The problem with the Flyers right now, aside from their crappy special teams, is not measurable statistically. The Flyers play good stretches of games. Dominant in fact. They were the better team for half the game against Winnipeg Sunday and still lost 7-1.

The problem is, these players don’t stick with their gameplan. They don’t stick with their system. They try to freelance too much and get too cute. They don’t handle pressure well. They don’t respond to adversity well. They are fragile. They are broken.

Chuck Fletcher will make changes – and soon.

From what I’m hearing, I believe one trade could happen in the next week – and it could be a big one.

The Flyers want to add a goalie. They want to add a defenseman. They want to add a forward. They want to change the culture of this locker room right now.

I think the Blackhawks and Maple Leafs are prime trade partners for the Flyers right now. Don’t be surprised if something happens in a deal with one of those two teams before the Flyers return to the Wells Fargo Center next week.

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quillandsaber · 7 years

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4, 8, 16, 28, 38 for the fic writers ask thing.

> 4) How many fic ideas are you nurturing right now? Care to share one of them?If we're talking fics that are currently still sketchy enough to be "ideas", I have two fic ideas in-development for Newtina, two for Belle/Prince, and a megastory (i.e. a collection of fifteen--yes, fifteen, I have counted--one-shots with two multi-chapter stories) for Haruhi/Mori.One of the Newtina stories, working title "A Giver", is a 5+1 structure where Newt's past relationship with Leta was sexually abusive, and each of the parts is about them approaching different aspects of his baggage that comes from that. *There will be eventual smut* (KatieHavok has been a wonderful cheerleader for me on that front to the point where I actually believe I can do it), but it will be bittersweet to get to that point.> 8) Share a snippet from one of your favorite dialogue scenes you’ve written and explain why you’re proud of it.My favorite dialogue scene that isn't in my behemoth WIP that's pushing 50k words and isn't even half-done is the following scene from my megastory collection. The context for the scene is that Haruhi, who lost contact with most of the Host Club after she broke up with Tamaki in her senior year of high school, has just started law school only to find out that Morinozuka Takashi is attending the same school and, bizarrely, living in a nearby (luxury) apartment complex to avoid insane commutes. They start hanging out "as friends" at his apartment every Thursday, but one week Haruhi has to meet up with Takashi to borrow his key because he's going to be delayed for their normal dinner-and-study routine, and one of Takashi's friends assumes she's Takashi's girlfriend.The following scene is a phone call Haruhi makes to Mitsukuni as soon as she realizes what, exactly, it might mean for Takashi if people think she's his girlfriend:**"Hani-sempai, can I ask you a question? It's about Mori-sempai.""Sure thing, Haru-chan!" the blond said with a giggle. "What's up?""I'm sure you know that we've been spending a lot of time together, and it's all been great, but I want to make sure that I'm not hurting him somehow."Mitsukuni's tone was more guarded this time. "What do you mean, hurting him?""I know he has to get married at some point and that it's probably going to be arranged. Is having a close female friend who visits his apartment without a chaperone going to make it more difficult for him?"The line buzzed while Mitsukuni considered her question. "Haru-chan, I can guarantee that anyone who would be offended by him spending time with you alone is someone Takashi doesn't want in his life at all." The answer was surprisingly oblique for the normally-direct martial artist, but Haruhi didn't pry. Perhaps the search for the next Mrs. Morinozuka was already on and 'Takashi's female commoner friend' had already been a point of contention."Oh, okay. Thanks, Hani-sempai!""Haru-chan, before you hang up--" he said quickly, "have you tried talking to Takashi about this at all?""I haven't. Let's be honest, we both know I'm oblivious about these kinds of things sometimes, and I didn't want to make it awkward for Mori-sempai if I'd done it again.""You should talk to him. Really," Mitsukuni said gently. "Takashi's great, but sometimes he needs a little prodding before he'll talk about sensitive topics.""If you say so," Haruhi glanced up as she heard telltale footsteps approaching the apartment door. "I'll talk to you later, then, I guess?""Later, then!" He hung up just as the subject of the prior conversation stepped over the threshold.**I'm proud of this because Mitsukuni is a *bitch* to write well because that balance of childlikeness/childishness and maturity is really squirrelly.(For the record, Takashi asks Haruhi out later that evening, mostly because Mitsukuni texts him about the conversation because he absolutely does not trust Haruhi to bring up the topic. She says yes.)> 16) If you only could write one pairing for the rest of your life, which pairing would it be?I'm torn between Haruhi/Mori and Viktor/Hermione. No offense to my Newtina fans, but Newtina is a little...personal at times, I guess, because I see my *parents* in Newtina. And that makes it hard to write at times. I wouldn't want to be forced to stick to writing a pairing that I sometimes struggle with.> 28) Share three of your favorite fic writers and why you like them so much.Since almost all of my followers here are Newtina people, I'll stick to Newtina stuff. Also, to pick these three, I put a list of all my favorites and let my computer pick three of them, so this really isn't a top three; it's a sample, size 3, of my tops.* KatieHavok. Not only is her work *amazing*, she's also one of the most down-to-earth, encouraging people I've had the privilege to talk to.* Diggy (deviousdiggy here). Again, amazing work, but in particular I appreciate how she always seems to strive to make each story better than the last in some way; it's a drive I wish I had.* MerryLilHobbit. She manages her story structures beautifully and makes it look effortless, and she's *only nineteen*.> 38) Talk about a review that made your day.All reviews make my day, to be honest, but the ones that come to mind were the ones in support of Arthur McArthur from *A Most Cautious Correspondence*. I cannot tell you how much time went into crafting that guy, and to see that other people loved him made it all worth it.

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ecotone99 · 5 years

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[SF] The Road to Hell is Through Kentucky

“Criminal Record?”, asked a highway billboard of James as he drove by. It was only after he’d passed it and cranked the radio up contemptuously that the sign’s red-lettered answer registered: “No pardon - only job! Call us!” A moment later, he was coating his borrowed ride in limestone dust with a wide 180, moving the transmission to protest as he turned. He steadied, facing the sign’s rear in silhouette, as the early evening sun stung his eyeballs. He grabbed his mom’s sunglasses from the console and got back up to speed.

A text alert sang out from his days-old phone as he pulled up across from the billboard. Seeing its preview from his lock screen, he sighed at the thought of reading it all and turned the engine off. Hey James, your mom gave me your number. I knew you and Tim were close and it was good to see u today-

A message from another world. One where driving high was a fact of life, and if people perished, God must have needed another angel. He wondered why they didn’t speak of God’s need for their man-slaughtered victims too - wouldn’t they need less reforming in heaven anyways? At least Tim had only killed concrete, and himself, and good on him for avoiding the condescending treatment by dying. That, and Kentucky. If only James had had the privilege…

He called the billboard’s number in a hurry.

“New Pathways Employment Services - how may I help you?” the exotic-for-Kentucky woman chirped.

“Uh, hi, yeah, uh, I saw your billboard and called about work. I have a record.”

“Great! So, I just need some information from you. You’re calling from where, sir?”

“Kentucky. Richmond’s where I’m closest to for big cities-”

“Good, good. Just needing to know which office to transfer you to, you’re good to hold?”

James checked his battery. This new thing was a tank.

“Yeah. Can you not play music though?”

“I’m afraid that’s automated, sir. I’ve heard worse holding music myself, though. Good luck with the position!”

“Thanks. You t...fuck.”

James flicked the phone to speaker and let it sing jazz in the passenger seat where his suit jacket lay crumpled. Even the birds were quiet, like an audience of kids for a transistor radio ball game.

At least you got invited.

And at least he got to see Tim’s parents, who actually gave a shit that he was still sober and had bothered to come out.

“Hello?” a man asked from James’s phone.

“Oh, hi,” James answered, seizing the phone and switching it off of speaker. “This is the Richmond office for New Pathways?”

“It certainly is! I am the HR coordinator here. You’re interested in working for us?”

“Yes. I could use that, yessir.”

“Well - you’re in luck. We call ourselves research, but really, that does us a disservice. We got federal funding, we got pay for you, obviously, and we’re even helping out this beautiful country.”

“Amazing! So - what needs to happen on my end?”

“We would just have to meet up in person to go over a few things. Confirm your record - maybe a first for you - and make sure you are up to the task as a participant.”

“I’m up to anything. I need the work, obviously, but I’m also glad if other people can be helped.”

“So are we...so are we. And we will. How is tomorrow, the Monday then, for you, uh…”

“James. James Alexander.”

“Alright, Mr. Alexander. You name a time, and we’re over at 584 McArthur Road here in town.”

“I can do noon.”

“Beautiful. You have yourself a good night then, Mr. Alexander.”

“Night.”

The sunset was warm as James slumped in his seat to smile at it.

New Pathways’ office building loomed like a new law firm; the glasswork must have used up a small beach. James braced himself and walked through into its drafty lobby, where a young man in the middle of the lobby glanced up from his typing to ask James:

“How can I help you today, sir?”

“I’m here for a noon appointment with New Pathways, with your HR person.”

The secretary kept typing at half-speed with one hand and pushed a separate button with the other.

“I’ve let Mr. Wilson know you’re here. Would you care to take a seat, and grab yourself a water or a coffee if you’d care to? He’ll be down right away.”

“Yeah, sure, sounds good.”

The seating area was an island of clutter off to the side of the bare foyer. Its resident coffee pot was burned to a crisp, and the seating was sparse. Still, James helped himself to coffee and picked up an old Psychology Today to read in a patterned armchair.

“Psychopaths Among Us! The New Norm?” read its title on top of a photograph of a pretty woman holding a mask of her face. James cracked a smile. Happily, as the title story soon told him, there was no literal danger of increasing psychopathy among humanity. The more pressing challenge was children raised right acting wrong and not understanding what they’d done wrong quite well enough. The article’s last segment had a picture of a priest, sans mask, talking about the importance of community - though quickly clarifying that this did not need to come from a church. His unpictured fellow, a school principal, expressed the same sentiment.

“Mr. Alexander?”

James dropped the magazine to meet the HR person, who seemed younger than James even, and had an honest-looking face.

“Yes…” James stood for a handshake, “You’re Mr. Wilson, the HR guy?”

Wilson smiled.

“Something like that. It’s good to see someone reading those things. Are you a psychology buff?”

“I took some in college. I like how they can present it so simply, you know? It’s different from reading however many news articles on my phone that have different conclusions…”

“I hear ya...are you good with some stairs?”

“Lead the way.”

The second floor was denser, save for a couple expansive board rooms. Wilson led him to a modest office at the very end of the hall.

“Have a seat wherever you’d like!” Wilson said with a flourish, giving the option of two whole chairs. James sat down in the straight-backed one while his interviewer settled in behind his desk.

“So…” Wilson began with a smile, “I am so excited to have you with us. I’m sure you’ve got plenty of questions, but I felt like a brief introduction to what we do could be helpful to start - I’m guessing you saw the billboard?” James nodded.

“That’s quite an approach to branding. How many other desperate bastards have ended up in here?” That won him a laugh.

“We have had a few. Though - and this may sound like a lot at once - you seem more promising than most. That’s not me being intuitive or flattering you, full disclosure. We work with the criminal justice system and have read the basics of your case, as well as the kind of man you’ve been since.”

James bristled. “Well I’m glad at least you think I’m promising, based on that. No other employer has cared enough to see the change. ‘Recovered felon’ is really only a badge of honour in movies.”

“I know. Whereas for us, it’s a big deal.” Wilson clicked his pen and scribbled a note on a clipboard. “Have you ever heard of H-A-T-T?”

“That’s not a familiar acronym. Is that a therapy? A procedure?”

“Yes and yes. I’d be concerned if you knew it, so you’re likely not a liar. In short - it is about transference of feelings with a clear goal in mind.” It was James’s turn to laugh.

“You can do that? Chemically? That seems neurologically impossible and/or dangerous for both parties…”

“Don’t forget how we actually used to put people on antidepressants, James. The limits of what works and does not work are always changing...”

“Well, fuck me. That does sound useful. Outside of how it could be abused. Seems like a short walk to dystopia from a world in which that’s possible.”

“You’re not wrong.”

James eyed an old-school portrait above and behind his interviewer. There was a likeness there, though the painted figure had a chest full of war medals.

“Is that guy a relative?” James asked. Wilson smiled.

“He was my father.”

“I’m sorry...when did he pass?”

“Two years ago.” Wilson turned, pen in hand, and pointed at his Dad’s likeness.

“He’s maybe even worth discussing here. This is what I mean. People I’ve interviewed thus far wouldn’t even have asked that. How do you suppose someone who wears all those medals ends up dead in his 50’s? It’s not a trick question.” And still, there was no good answer to it.

“Is it stereotyping to assume he killed himself?”

“Yes...but as usual, you’re not wrong. He had a mini-Rwanda type situation back in Yemen, where there was ethnic cleansing happening and the UN were cowards.”

“Shit.” “Indeed. And he didn’t write a memoir or end up telling middle schools about it, he just ate a gun one day. Unnecessary guilt. Doesn’t much matter to the brain if it’s unwarranted, right?”

“Right.” The coffee was scalding. James set it down.

“And that’s kind of where this all started for me. I was so goddamn pissed that someone like him would die when other people can’t feel appropriately guilty for anything. Not that you’re one of those, so far as I can see.” Wilson stood up and went over to the window, overlooking an empty park and streets full of traffic. “And I figured, what if people were to feel what they were supposed to feel? What could that look like?”

“You have my interest peaked, at least.”

“And as it turned out - I’ve worked in ‘agencies’ for years - I wasn’t the only one with that idea. Scientists have been working on feelings transference for a while, and the possibilities are endless. They’ve gotten people who languished in therapy for years to feel less guilty about stuff that paralyzed them for years...” James grabbed a stress ball of the desk, and used it as prescribed for once.

“So this is early stages stuff then? I haven’t read one news article even about any of this.” Wilson turned around and came back to his seat.

“Those are the good results I mentioned. The others...complications are likely, if not inevitable. Just like how a kidney transplant can be worse than none, so, too, can poor matching be awful - for both parties.” The notepad went untouched. Wilson was zoned in like a goalie at match end.

“And, really, that’s where we get to your case. We can keep making efforts at better matches with our procedures, and we will. But there is a population of society with less to lose and more to gain on this stuff.”

“Talk about an ex-prisoner’s dilemma…”

“Only your outcomes here are better than the original prisoner’s dilemma, I swear. What if I told you you could make a guilty piece of shit feel guilty for what he did? Reform him, preclude him from recidivism and thus from modeling criminality to his kids and the whole bit? That’s within reach, James. That is precisely what we are researching.”

“Goddamn…”

“The downside, and there is a real one, is that you would have to feel terrible things. Experience terrible things. And that shame and guilt or whatever is appropriate for the offender would be siphoned out of you into them, if you were a match.” James’s stomach dropped and he scratched at his armrest.

“‘...experience’?”

“Through VR. Very good VR. It makes use of brain matter from the original offender, while the transferee wouldn’t get the VR - they’d receive the physiological results of your experience via intraneural transfusion. And to you, your crimes would be 100% real until the whole process was complete. There would be no sense of self or even free will, per se - just you doing awful things. You’d feel similarly to how you felt when you killed your friend three years ago, to a much greater degree. That’s how we would be using H-A-T-T in this instance.”

“Fucking hell. I haven’t been through enough already to pass it on to someone else?”

Wilson sighed.

“If only. There’s a critical difference between contrition which obviously transformed you to be better and the kind of precursors to contrition that another person would require. And with getting you to experience new things too, there would be no limit on how much we could incentivize someone else.”

“That’s fucked up.” Wilson laughed.

“And isn’t the status quo? Isn’t broken people going back to broken families and expanding them while blaming the system? Isn’t 15-year-olds in the suburbs acting like how only terribly traumatized youth used to?”

James leaned forward unwillingly from the growing sense of weight.

“I don’t know if that’s a burden I’d want to bear…”

“We have no evidence that you would need to bear it past the procedure, though. We have more research into healing than re-incentivizing people, for obvious reasons. And, also, I lied.” James shot up out of his seat -

“Wait, WHAT? What…”

“On that first billboard you must have seen. There is a pardon at stake here. Not a chance, not conditional, but the real deal. You, free, with the potential to be a social worker or psychologist or whatever you want. Just think of that.”

James slumped down and eyed his coffee, awash with ripples from his near-outburst.

“Who’s the worst person I would have to be? Don’t tell me I have to be a serial killer.”

“You do have to be a serial killer, yeah. The alternative would be getting you to commit a bunch of more minor crimes which wouldn’t hurt you in the same way. We couldn’t map those to objectively awful actions the same as we can with famous murder cases - any robber could have secret good motives, after all.”

James tried his coffee again. It seemed stronger and more bitter, somehow. The mug at least made pleasant chiming noises as he drummed on it with his fingers.

“So there’s no way I will remember being Ted Bundy or whoever. I’ll just be Ted Bundy, then end scene, and I am me again, and Joe Pseudo-Psychopath is now Joe Repentant?”

“That’s close to it, yeah.” James looked at Wilson Sr. for a while. He still looked happy in his portrait, noble and American.

“I can do it with conditions. If I’m going to be on anything other than general anesthetic, I need to be confined for a few days afterwards. I break out in track-marks from any drug.”

“Absolutely. We have safe housing and medical as well as security staff.”

“And I want updates on whichever poor bastard ends up feeling what I felt, even if I don’t get his name or anything. I do not just want to be a lab rat.”

“Of course.”

Wilson’s right hand clasped his left. He didn’t blink very often for someone who thought so fast.

“And I guess naturally this is an ‘I talk I die’ kind of thing?”

“Not quite, though you would end up back in prison with no one to believe you. We have you on that one breach that no one else knows about, and would not hesitate to share it with your parole officer.”

“...Where can I sign?”

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biofunmy · 5 years

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As New Space Race Beckons, Astronauts Face Identity Crisis

[Read all Times reporting on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. | Sign up for the weekly Science Times email.]

First there were the test pilots — men in possession of what Tom Wolfe called “the right stuff” — who took flight in experimental aircraft. It was absurdly dangerous work with a mortality rate to match. NASA put them in capsules, presented them as Boy Scouts and called them astronauts.

Then, there were the men of Apollo who planted the American flag on the lunar surface. Astronauts were now explorers in a new way, leaving footprints in untrodden terrain.

The space shuttle program followed, and the face of the American astronaut changed. It was no longer the exclusive domain of military fighter jocks, as scientists and engineers became fused with the public’s idea of who an astronaut was. They now looked more like America — women and men of many races and vocations. They were even construction workers of a sort as they began building the International Space Station, one of the greatest engineering achievements since the Great Pyramids.

So what will it mean to be astronauts tomorrow? They will soon look almost nothing like the men who walked on the moon. NASA’s new lunar program, called Artemis, promises that moonwalkers will not all be men. And American astronauts will not necessarily even wear the “blue meatball” patch with “NASA” embroidered across it.

For would-be American space travelers, NASA is no longer the only game in town. The implications transcend the practical and reach deeply into American culture. And as with any job, the more people who do it, the less special it seems. Commercial airline pilots once held a sort of superstar status in the eyes of Americans. Pilots are no less impressive today, but quantity has diminished their prestige.

Similarly, the bravery of anyone willing to leave Earth on a rocket is unquestionable, but the exclusivity of the job will wane — slowly, certainly, but inexorably. Nongovernment employees will soon leave Earth in nongovernment launch systems from nongovernment spaceports.

“To an extent, we are inventing this as we go along,” said Christopher Ferguson, who twice commanded space shuttles as a NASA astronaut.

He added, “NASA, other space-faring nations and industry are going to have to come to terms with how non-NASA, noninternational astronauts are brought into the fold.”

A new frontier for the private sector

Mr. Ferguson trains from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. A recent day for him was typical: five hours in a launch simulation with the mission operations team. He trained alongside Sunita Williams, herself a two-time space flier and veteran of the space station.

Halfway through the session, the two swapped roles, preparing for situations that might arise on an actual mission. The balance of the day was spent planning timeline management when inserting a crew into a rocket, so that when the hatch closes, all the right things are on the inside, and all the right things are on the outside.

The difference between Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Williams is that Mr. Ferguson does not work for NASA. He works for Boeing and will fly on the first crewed mission of Starliner. Boeing and SpaceX are part of Commercial Crew, a NASA-supported program that has tasked American companies with building spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to the space station. NASA has relied on Russia’s space program for launching astronauts since the last shuttle returned to Earth in 2011.

The first crewed launch of Starliner, which will carry Mr. Ferguson, may fly this year and will represent a new era of human spaceflight. Mr. Ferguson is part of a new type of astronaut corps that will work alongside NASA’s crew. If the Trump administration devotes additional funding for Artemis, its five-year program to return astronauts to the moon, it could accelerate the importance of private astronauts such as those at Boeing.

Beyond privately paid drivers on rides to the space station, other companies plan to send people to orbit and beyond in the next decade. Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin both could soon fly customers on suborbital trips to space.

Then there is Axiom Space, a Houston company that intends to begin building a private space station for wealthy space tourists this year. Axiom hopes to launch its first two modules in 2023. Around the same time SpaceX says it will fly Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese entrepreneur, and artists who are his guests on a private mission around the moon.

Would-be space travelers suddenly have options. And depending on whom you ask, they are every bit an astronaut as those who work for NASA.

What makes an astronaut?

Who gets to be called an astronaut is a topic that has provoked a number of disputes during the short history of human spaceflight.

The Federal Aviation Administration awards astronaut wings to anyone who flies 50 miles above the surface of Earth. NASA, however, has not always been so generous with the title.

“There are astronauts — not all of them, but some — who feel that ‘astronaut’ should be a reserved name for government employees,” Lori B. Garver, a former associate administrator of NASA, said.

She points to Charles Walker, who flew on three space shuttle missions. His official NASA biography, however, does not refer to him as an astronaut. He is listed only as “payload specialist.” A nongovernment worker, he was responsible for running highly technical experiments in space. Press kits at the time from NASA public affairs pointedly avoid the A-word when referring to Mr. Walker, and one document specifically called him a “non-astronaut.”

“To me, that Charlie Walker thing was so offensive,” Ms. Garver said. “Here was a guy who risked his life just like the rest of them. He did great things on those missions — and this was pre-Challenger disaster. The shuttle at the time was a very experimental system.”

For NASA and its affiliates in 2014, internal struggles over who gets to be called astronaut mounted when Michael Alsbury was killed during a test flight of SpaceShipTwo, a Virgin Galactic spacecraft that disintegrated at supersonic speeds.

The Astronauts Memorial Foundation refused to add Mr. Alsbury’s name to the Space Mirror Memorial, for Americans who have died in spaceflight, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Among the criteria for memorialization was a requirement that fallen astronauts had to have been on government-flown or government-sponsored spacecraft. But that requirement was added in 2006 — a response in part to the private sector beginning to tread on NASA’s turf.

The memorial committee of the foundation voted in March to change its rules, opening the door for Mr. Alsbury’s name to be added. It is perhaps a reluctant acceptance of the inevitable: that space no longer belonged only to governments, and that the expansion of humanity’s horizon is perilous to all who undertake those efforts, regardless of employer.

“If a company like Boeing were to hire people to fulfill a role like that — trained to operate a spacecraft, achieve a mission in space as part of a crew, that for me is also a professional astronaut,” said Megan McArthur, a NASA astronaut who flew into space on the shuttle Atlantis and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope.

At the same time, as more civilians travel to orbit and beyond to complete commercial or academic work, or even just fly in space as tourists, Dr. McArthur said she could see why some might not be called astronauts. She compared such voyages to her own treks as a graduate student, when she studied aboard oceanic research vessels.

“There was a crew that operated the ship and a team that conducted the science,” she explained. Though she was familiar with the boat and sailed in the sea, Dr. McArthur said she would not have called herself a professional sailor.

But it is not NASA who bestows the name, said Ms. Garver, who championed commercial space travel while at the agency. To her, calling more people “astronaut” does not diminish the job or make it less special.

“Culture will decide what becomes the definition,” she said. “And I think we have run the experiment. If you go to space, you risked your life: You are an astronaut.”

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