#fair samantha

[thinkingoutloud2-8]

I stopped watching General Hospital regularly some time ago because the show became stale and disappointing. The constant overuse of baby storylines and cringe-worthy plots made it unbearable. Learning that they are officially killing off Sam was something I had anticipated, but it still infuriates me. It feels like the show is being driven into the ground, with the actors struggling to keep it afloat. I can’t help but think ABC might be deliberately pushing viewers away.

The fans and actors deserve so much better. As a soap, I expect a certain level of melodrama, but not to the point where it becomes unwatchable. I expect effort from the writers, a commitment to quality, and an understanding of what keeps viewers engaged. It's frustrating to see so much potential squandered with poorly executed storylines.

I hope the show improves, but I won't be investing any more time in it. I wish Kelly Monaco the best and hope she finds a role that reignites her passion for acting. She once brought so much energy to her role. I also wish all the actors on General Hospital the very best and hope that, for their sake, the writing improves.

[fighting-naturalist]

jack o'neill would absolutely tweet everything in this incredible post

[mercuryferns]

So, my Czech friend was telling me something really interesting about Kaz’s name. Apparently in Czech, “kaz” means a flaw, a defect, if you make an adjective of it, it means "rotten". As he said, it suits the “dirtyhands” persona perfectly.

However, this also made me reflect on the more “Dutch inspired” names of the book, and specifically Wylan van Eck. I speak Afrikaans (a Dutch creole). Dutch people can sound off in the comments if it’s different for them, but these languages are obviously mutually intelligible so I’m going to assume what applies to us applies to Dutch too.

Wylan’s name was an issue for me for a huge reason: It’s spelling is aggressively American English, while the character himself is tentatively “Dutch-coded”:

1.) “W” doesn’t exist as a sound in Afrikaans. The letter represents a “v” sound.

2.) “Y” also doesn’t really exist in the same way as it does in English. In English it seemingly means whatever you want it to be in the given moment. But in Afrikaans, it’s “ay”. As in the word “ray”.

3.) “a” never means “ih”. Depending on accent it’s usually either “ah” or “uh”.

This may seem inconsequential, but let me tell you my surprise when my partner told me that his name is actually “WHY-lin”. WHATTTT??? I’ve been saying “VAY-lahn” this whole time????

(Not to mention his surname also means “of me”, which is clever, but to be honest it reads a bit stupidly to someone who speaks the language being imitated. She succeeded in other ways though!)

[brigitoshaughnessy]

Here’s to the characters who evolve so quietly that you almost forget they’ve changed. From the ultimate form of running away to sitting in the discomfort with someone who needs you.

[superconductivebean]

#1216: addition to the #1215

so, about the exchange between aesop and julia:

@mrs-sharp

julia says to aesop, after rescuing highwing and feeling unwell after being up for 24+ hours, that she's someone he could've been

aesop gets petty and grunts, she was someone he used to be

julia was offended, aesop was offended by the exchange followed, eleazar was unhappy to see his grandkids fight, julia got in detention until the end of november (aesop realised he did stupid and turned that detention into teaching her some additional potions and dada ; by an extension, everyone became Very Confused at what has she done to get on his nerves to deserve that much of detention time)

[ivy-pendragon]

So he is basically saying his chances on winning the tournament are none, cause this man never tells the truth and he would never spoil the final like that. Thank u FOR NOTHING.

[ghostlyarchaeologist]

"You know how many people I've seen die fighting this idiotic drug war?"

Almost Paradise S01E01 Finding Mabuhay.

Requested by @laser-tripwires

[shrinkthisviolet]

I would love to hear your opinion on what you think/hope will happen in the tournament!

The karate kid universe is built on a kid who trained for like 3 months beating someone who trained for years, so I don't think that can be used as a determining factor when making predictions. Otherwise, literally every American character would get beaten by new characters we've never met before, lol.

I think the show did a good job setting Sam up so that no matter the outcome, she'll be okay. She's the character who has been solidly Miyagi-Do from the beginning, so it's possible that if she doesn't win, she will embody that philosophy in some other way. Mr. Miyagi didn't like tournaments, so her finding a way to embody his teachings outside of fighting may be satisfying. But her winning could also be a way to leave a legacy of Miyagi's teachings for future students.

Tory obviously has a very compelling reason to want to win, but I think if she does, her philosophy will have to change. Someone on here pointed out that in her fight with Sam to decide the captain, she went into the bouncy cobra kai stance rather than the solid Miyagi-Do stance. Cobra kai for her has always been about externalizing her anger or sadness, stating that she uses her anger as power while fighting. If that philosophy is rewarded, then she will continue doing that for the rest of her life and have no need to change. If she wins, I think it'll be because she embraces some Miyagi-Do teachings and becomes balanced.

Miguel obviously wants to win to get into Stanford, and he could use the prize money for his family. Some people have theorized that Robby will get injured and Miguel will take over for him, which I think doesn't really serve any purpose for Miguel or Robby's character journeys. Miguel wildly succeeded in the past, it might be interesting for his character to experience a "golden child syndrome" arc, where he feels pressured by his past successes, but the resolution to that would need to be him losing and accepting it.

Robby obviously touched on the fact that he is always second place and that motivation is compelling. I also think that if Robby wins, he has to find balance within himself rather than relying on Tory or Kenny or Johnny or someone else. If he's always relying on an external source there's never going to be a conclusion for his story because there's no guarantee that whatever source he's relying on at the end of season 6 will stay around forever. If he wins, it has to be because he found strength in himself.

Some bonus thoughts: Robby and Tory's promise to stand on the podium together could be fulfilled in a twisted way, with Robby winning for Miyagi-Do and Tory winning for Cobra Kai. Whichever teens don't win the individual tournaments will probably have a big win in part 3. If there's a tie between the two dojos, whichever teens don't win the first time, could win if there's a rematch fight. If there's no rematch or second tournament in part 3, Robby and Miguel's Sekai Taikai performance might mirror Daniel fighting Silver while Johnny fights 5 people at once to do justice to both characters abilities.

I would love to hear your thoughts and if you have different opinions on what might happen or what you think should happen!

So I’m gonna evaluate the core four teens first from my POV in terms of feats, and then answer (taking narrative into consideration too, because both matter in a show like this). Under a cut for spoilers (and because it’s a bit on the long side):

Feats

Starting with Miguel: won his first All-Valley, was beating Robby in the 2x10 fight until Robby kicked him over the railing, multiple characters have commented on his fighting prowess (even more than any other character). He did lose the captaincy, but he was also emotionally fraught at the time…but also Robby has been improving, so maybe they really are on an even field now. Hard to say when they haven’t had a fight without emotions running high. Compared to Sam and Tory…he’s only really fought Tory, managing to pick her up and restrain her, and she tries unsuccessfully to escape. But once they’re on the ground, she probably could’ve gotten out of it. Hard to say

On to Robby: he has been runner-up in both tournaments. This is notable, because none of the teens have scored highly in a tournament more than once—Miguel won his first AVT but didn’t place highly in his second, Sam and Tory have both only fought in one tournament (more on them later), Eli/Hawk only won his second tournament and didn’t place highly in his first. So I feel like that should be commended. He’s accomplished something no other character has. He also beat Miguel to the captaincy fair and square…though as mentioned, this could be due to emotions running high for Miguel in particular. Hard to say…but in every fight, Robby has become more skilled, so it could be that he is truly the better fighter between them now. Hard to say for sure, but regardless, I feel people are counting him out unfairly. Although, also notable to say that between the girls, he’s only fought Sam, and that was for like…2 seconds. She restrained him, but he could’ve escaped that easily if he wanted to.

Sam: she was runner-up in her only AVT. However, those results were skewed, and it’s shown that if not for the cheating ref, she would’ve won the whole thing—she does earn three points in her fight against Tory, they’re just not counted fairly. So there’s that. There’s also the fact that she also beats Tory in 2x10* and 3x10…and the latter is while she’s still dealing with residual PTSD

*Tory cuts her arm with the bracelet, but Sam then kicks her away, therefore winning the fight

If she’s put up against Tory, I’d say she should win. Compared to Miguel and Robby though…well, she does fight Robby during the prom fight briefly and manages to subdue him, but Robby could get out of that if he tried. She’s a quicker fighter than him, but a better fighter overall…hard to say. And we also never see a proper fight between her and Miguel.

Tory: she is a fierce fighter, there’s no denying this. Won her first AVT, but that was due to Silver’s cheating, and as mentioned in Sam’s section, it’s likely Tory would’ve lost that fight if it had been fair. Tory herself even admits this:”you didn’t lose the All-Valley.” Sam also wins every fight they have (and no, 3x5 doesn’t count because Sam ran from that fight due to a trauma response)

Despite this, there’s no denying that Tory is an incredibly effective fighter—getting to even runner-up position is no easy feat, and she fights no-holds-barred and is recognized for it (you can tell by how people react when she goes in to fight them). She’s never seriously fought either of the boys—Miguel did manage to restrain her during the prom fight, and she couldn’t escape at first, but she might’ve been able to on the ground. It’s hard to say.

Narrative/Story

Taking narrative into consideration, I can see them leaning more towards a Robby and Tory win, for the reasons you mentioned—“both of us up on that podium”, Miguel already ceded the crown to Robby anyway so let’s keep that up**, and Tory should really get a win after all the bs she’s been through***

**however, I do think if they do this, they give Miguel another path to go to Stanford. Maybe the LaRussos pay for it or something, some kind of narrative “good karma” as this story often has—the whole moral of “do good and good will return to you”

***that said, I think her winning the tournament with Cobra Kai isn’t the best idea. That’s letting Kreese win, in a sense. If she does win, I want her to do it in a Miyagi-Do gi, smiling and proud with her supportive friends beside her, knowing she won the right way with people who truly care about her (ofc that means they’d have to apologize for letting her just walk away in the midst of her grief, but that’s an easy fix)

And also as mentioned, Sam doesn’t need a win narratively right now. No matter what happens, she’s set. She’s beaten Tory in a fight every time though, so flipping that now would be strange.

All that considered:

I think Robby is definitely a strong contender to win Sekai Taikai, and he’s my pick (I did think Miguel is the stronger fighter, but having evaluated all of this, I think they’re at least on an even playing field, if not skewed towards Robby).

If there are gender divisions, my girl champion pick would be Sam, but Tory is a strong narrative option (however, I’d like her to win for Miyagi-Do, not Cobra Kai, because that would complete her arc more satisfyingly imo)

[kitsunetsuki]

Alexis Waldeck - Samantha Jones Wearing Lingerie by Vanity Fair (Vogue 1969)

[agent-troi]

yayy carter is getting a promotion!!🥳👏🏻👏🏻

[cfcreative]

Absolutly losing my mind because this finally arrived today! It’s quite possibly my favorite art of Karlach (by @ribbonentrails!!) signed by Sam Béart.

It’s gonna go in a place of HONOR on my art wall; I just have to re-negotiate where my signed Dimension 20: Fantasy High Live art is placed.

[countdown-til-sanders-take-over]

Yorick is so interesting to me. Just like first of all its thing seems to be it can see through people's eyes? And John is Arthur's eyes.

Yorick's vast knowledge combined with its mechanics gives a bit of a sassy vibe. It definitely gives me a "greater picture character" with it telling them about the talisman and saying (or implying) that it will indirectly help with finding the black thingy and then literally leading, to what Yorick atleast seems to believe to be an unavoidable, doom fate for arthur (he'll get better 🙄) We definitely already saw some od the dangers of trying to use it this episode but it's helpful.

Its definitely a pushingly devoted servand type character, referring to Arthur as "my master' and John as "my king" and insisting on a name for an identity perfectly fitted to be what they want. It has Arthur and John on pretty equal footing in terms of loyalty instead of only serving one of them, saying it serves "the dies irae" their "combined force"

"Gently please" when arthur had to put it down was pretty cute.

I think Yorick is vying for a top three spot in my favorite malevolent characters with Kellin rn. His skeleton charm and um actually personality have captivated me

[icestory-is]

[rinsilverstar223]

Just finished a big art piece for Those Eyes Book 3. I won't go into detail too much, though.

[demetriandelibinaryboyfriends]

The Tory Prom Parable: A Fix-It Fic in Polls: Part 3

Part 1: link

Part 2: link

And the winner is:

You walk out of the prom dress rental depot wearing this bombshell. Complete with a big scandalous slit in the side, just because you can! You have never felt more absolutely kickass in your entire life, not even when you nearly stabbed Samantha LaRusso to death with a spike bracelet that one time. Or tried to beat the crap out of her with nunchucks. Those are hard to top, but...well, this is a different kind of kickass. You sort of want to murder someone with poison lipstick tonight. How do the femme fatales in movies do it?

Robby is waiting for you in Sensei Silver's nice-ass rental car. God, this man has resources. Whatever the hell he was up to after the war, he made bank. But hey--who are you to complain? It's nice to get a taste of the good life now and again, even if you'd rather not know where all that cold hard cash is coming from.

Sensei Silver wouldn't like. Blackmail you something to do with your mom's dialysis, right? No, of course not. Sensei Kreese is a good guy. Really got you out of a fix. Any friend of his is also a good guy deep down, right?

As you strut over, Robby wolf whistles at you. He's just messing around, but you decide to play along a bit. This whole night is about pretending to be a dumb bougie rich kid who actually cares about shit like prom, so you might as well commit to the bit.

You do a dramatic spin, and show off some different angles:

WORK IT GIRL

Robby jokingly says you're a knockout. You jokingly ask if he brought any condoms. He jokingly says he did. You jokingly wonder how much you're actually joking.

***

Congrats--you have successfully made it to the prom! You park in an illegal spot because fuck the police. You link arms with Robby Keene and walk into the vapid, B.O.-scented high school dance in the power stance of the century. Maybe it's your egotism speaking, but you're pretty sure everyone turns to look at the both of you.

And there are fucking Miguel Diaz and Sam LaRusso, dancing all around the dance floor like they own the place. Having far too good a time. Fucken show offs. Ugh. Almost like they came here to participate in the popular teenage ritual of dressing up, drinking punch, and grooving to pop music! What losers.

But when you walk in and demand everyone else's attention...what choice do they have but to join in?

Oh nice!!! You already pissed them off!!! Well, that was easy. Should be all smooth sailing from here.

You decide to take a gander at the dance floor and get the lay of the land. Kyler, Piper, and some other Cobras came in a group. That's good--you can hit them up if Prince Traitor Boy and Princess LaRusso decide to start anything. Hawk is sulking in the corner with that lame-ass nerd kid he ditched y'all for. Hell yeah! He looks like he's already having a bad time, along with that Demetri loser. Karma for inconveniencing you, one of (if not the) most important people in the Valley. (Or at least you will be after you win the AVT.) Hawk's ex is also here, partying with a gaggle of girls. Good for her, honestly--she could do better than Hawk's backstabbing ass. Bitches with no dojo loyalty get no bitches.

Some generic Top 40s dance hit comes on. Robby offers you his hand, and you take the floor. Time to be the most obnoxious pair at the West Valley High Junior Prom!

And...damn. This kid can groove. He spins you like it's second nature. He waltzes to and fro with almost perfect rhythm. When you follow his lead, you manage to move in perfect sync, despite having practiced dancing maybe twice in your life and also wearing high heels longer than Hawk's d*ck.

You put your leg around him and yank him toward you, showing off your fine specimen of a leg to the dance floor. Damn right, everyone wishes they had legs like yours!

And--oh, shit! Now he's lifting you clean off the floor! This kid is stronger than he looks, damn. And now he's dipping you like he's been practicing dipping women every night for his entire life???

Okay, that was kinda hot.

No, no, bad Tory. This is a fake date meant to prove a point and aggravate Sam LaRusso and Miguel Diaz. You're doing evil petty revenge--the last thing you need to do is catch feelings for your partner in crime.

Remember what happened last time you caught feelings for a boy??? That's right--he got kicked off a balcony!

By...the same dude who is now your prom date, actually.

Huh. Now that is the height of irony.

Speaking of Miguel, though! It's around this time you decide to check up on what him and his snooty girlfriend are doing. Surely still watching your dance routine in aghast horror, disgusted but unable to look away, right?

Wait, where'd they go?

You notice Robby also scanning the room with a furrowed brow, apparently experiencing the same confusion. He looks at you for answers, but all you can do is give him an agitated shrug.

"Let's check the punch table," he says. Right, yeah. They're probably stuffing their faces with free snacks. How lame. People as rich as Moneybags LaRusso should never be allowed free snacks!

Off to the punch table you go! But alas, no sign of your least favorite couple of all time. You and Robby begin a thorough search and inspection of the prom venue, leaving no hallway unchecked, no storage closet unopened, and no tablecloth unlifted.

People really gotta learn it's useless to hide from you. LaRusso sure tried at the arcade, and how did that turn out for her?

Maybe if you can get that Demetri kid alone, you could totally team up with Robby and break his arm again. He'd just be the Broken Arm Kid forever and no one would ever hire him! Bonus points if you do it in front of Hawk like "hey, remember when you did this that one time? Good times, right?"

How those two boys swept all that shit under the rug is beyond you. If someone broke your arm, you'd probably just kill them as soon as you got better. Eh, you avoided juvie once--you can do it again.

"What are you smiling about?" Robby asks. A little teasing, but genuinely curious.

It suddenly occurs to you that fantasizing about re-breaking a kid's arm is probably...not a great look. Whoops.

Like Robby is down for evil prom revenge and all, but he might draw the line somewhere. Who knows.

"Oh, I'm just reveling in the fact we scared them into a corner somewhere," you tell Robby.

But you double-check and triple-check and quadruple-check every last corner, and...no sign of Cheater Diaz and Princess LaRusso.

It appears they bounced!!! Unfortunately, since this is a fix-it fic, other characters besides you will also be acting in-character and not like they were replaced by cheap imitation doppelgangers who behave completely fucking differently. Which means, of course, that when Sam and Miguel see the people who attempted murder on them twice and paralyzed and nearly killed them, respectively, they're going to want to haul ass out of there as quickly as possible. Since, you know, a panic response would realistically take over and overpower any desire Sam and Miguel have to "show you up."

Uh oh. You definitely forgot to account for the fact that your targets could just fucking leave. And now you're at a dumb high school dance with no one to harass. This is awkward.

But what can I say? Did you really think they were going to just stand around and glare at you all night, without even moving to the other side of the dance floor to try and avoid you? That wouldn't make any sense.

Well...if you want to know where they went, exactly, Hawk and Demetri might know. Except the one problem with asking them is that they both fucking hate you. And Robby. So that's not going to work.

You could try asking Hawk's ex, it's just be uh. Really fucking awkward, because Moon is friends with Sam and probably remembers the whole spike-bracelet-and-nunchucks ordeal. So it's doubtful she'll want to help you out either. But you've got a better chance with her than with Hawk and Demetri, that's for sure.

[death-rebirth-senshi]

*Giggling and kicking my feet* yeah it is such a bad idea to hook up with your shuttle pilot...