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melissagt · 5 years

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OC Interview - Raz

The rules are simple: pick an OC, and then answer these interview questions in-character for them. Then tag five more people to keep it going!

I was tagged by @greencrusader13

Tagging @cavalier-life (ngl, would love to see this for Lyo)

1. What is your name?

"Do you want the long or the short version?” She scrinches up her nose in thought. “I suppose the short version, then. You can call me Raz.”

2. Do you know why are you named that?

"Well now you did it, you’re going to get the long version. My whole name is Razi’ilziveri. It’s Twi’leki, obviously...think of it as like a combination of first and last names. Razi’il is my first name. I honestly don’t know who gave it to me...my mother, my father, my grandmother...I dunno. But...just call me Raz. It’s easier.”

3. Are you single or taken?

Her eyes shift over to the looming mass of a man across the room, a man more stolid than stone. He crosses his arms over his chest, as if in response to her attention, and the corded muscles of his forearms flex like ripples beneath a darkened red sea. A glowing set of crimson eyes glare out beneath pointed brows, each reflecting like that of a cat in the low light. You can’t put a finger on it, but something about his gaze leaves you unsettled and feeling quite exposed...but you also don’t miss the ever so slight softening of that very same gaze as she smiles and responds with “Yes. Happily.”

4. Have any abilities or powers?

"You mean like Oooooh Force Woo-Woo stuff?” she laughs. “Nah. Just your average run-of-the-mill super hero here, folks.”

5. Stop being a Mary Sue.

"A what now?”

6. What’s your eye color?

"You’re looking right at me. They’re purple.”

7. How about your hair color?

Her nose scrunches up again and a completely dumbfounded look rolls across her features. Of course, because she’s bald as an egg.

8. Have any family members?

“The big lug over there,” she laughs, indicating toward the hulking giant with a tilt of her chin. “I have a sister. Well, technically she’s my sister, but we don’t usually see eye to eye. We aren’t the, ah, best of twins. Oh, and I have a brother too...but he’s human. It’s complicated. Families are complicated, aren’t they?”

9. Oh? How about pets?

“I have a Theron. You can tell him I said that.”

10. That’s cool, I guess. Now, tell me something you don’t like?

"Pretty much all Jedi.”

11. Do you have any activities/hobbies that you like to do?

Her gaze drifts off to the side, and she makes a particularly lewd gesture with her hands, almost absentmindedly so. “Oh!” she shouts, attention shooting back to the present with surprise and an overly-feigned level of innocence. “You mean besides the obvious.”

12. Have you ever hurt anyone in any way before?

"Yes...?”

13. Ever… killed anyone before?

"Yes...?”

14. What kind of animal are you?

“Fluffy Bunny Butt.”

15. Name your worst habits?

"I don’t know...is it a bad habit to not admit that you have any bad habits?”

16. Do you look up to anyone at all?

"Besides my husband? I literally have no choice there. You see him. He’s like a fucking tree.” she laughs. “Oh. Wait. You mean like a role model? Ha!”

17. Are you gay, straight or bisexual?

"Hetero.”

18. Do you go to school?

"Not anymore...thank the f’ing stars.”

19. Ever want to marry and have kids one day?

"Well, I’m already married. I said that, right? Were you listening?” A huff of breath escapes through her nose, and she leans back, casually flipping a long tattooed lek over her shoulder. “...and I wouldn’t say ‘no’ to the possibility of kids. Or kid. Singular.” (At that, a rather sharp, or more likely surprised cough-like splutter is heard from across the room.)

20. Do you have any fangirls/fanboys?

"Oh, everybody is my fan.”

21. What are you most afraid of?

"I think the issue here is that I’m not afraid of enough.”

22. What do you usually wear?

“Sometimes a lot. Sometimes a little. Sometimes nothing at all...”

23. What’s one food that tempts you?

"If it’s spicy, I’ll eat it. Human food is entirely too dull.”

24. Am I annoying to you?

"Eh.”

25. Well, it’s still not over!

"Then...keep going?”

26. What class are you (low/middle/high)?

"Why should that even matter?”

27. How many friends do you have?

"A few really close ones.”

28. What are your thoughts on pie?

"Is it spicy?”

29. Favorite drink?

"A friend’s husband got me hooked on this really neat hot chocolate that he makes. And of course...it’s spicy.”

30. What’s your favorite place?

"Huh. I never really thought about it. I guess for me, home is where the heart is. In all seriousness.”

31. Are you interested in anyone?

“He had me at hello,” she answers, tilting her head slightly so that she could indicate towards the bulky man once again with her chin. A dead air hangs between us, her face quite impassive, until a smile cracks and she breaks down in laughter. “I really had you going, didn’t I? But yeah...though it was more like an ‘IT’S YOU’ than a ‘hello’...”

32. That was a stupid question…

"Hey, no question is a stupid question.”

33. Would you rather swim in a lake or the ocean?

"Doesn’t matter.”

34. What’s your type?

"Confidence. Honor. Passion. Strength. Someone who will accept me for everything I am.”

35. Any fetishes?

“Whooboy...I’ll try pretty much anything once, but um...yeah...I might just like it a little bit on the rough side.” She rubs at a faint purple bruise on her wrist, and for a moment appears almost lost...somewhere obviously nice. “But I can give as good as I get,” she laughs, the moment gone in a flash, with a wink to boot. “Oh! And don’t let Theron tell you about the time he made me wear that leash. We were undercover and...well, it’s his turn next time!”

36. Camping or outdoors?

“Yeah, not gonna lie...I kind of prefer my small comforts.”

#oc interview meme #oc razi'ilziveri #lord scourge

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thewhills · 6 years

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STARWARS.COM: “The Gathering,” in which young Jedi have to find their lightsaber crystals, and the depiction of lightsaber construction.

DAVE FILONI: “The Gathering” really, I think, was George’s effort to clarify the way he felt Jedi got their lightsabers, and he felt that it was something that happened when they were very young. He definitely threw us all a curve when told us that the crystals don’t have a color until the Jedi actually have them. And then I thought that that was really interesting. That’s one of those things that only comes from George, when you’re going to the mind of the Star Wars encyclopedia. It makes sense, because if an average person goes in that cave, there’s tons of ice and tons of crystals and you can’t tell the difference between them. It’s almost like a defense mechanism. But when a Jedi is in tune with one, the one that calls to them, they can find it. And then when they have it, it basically will make a blade when it’s bent a certain color. I thought that was one of the nice revelations there.

I also liked that it was a very spiritual thing. The threat in that cave is basically only what you take with you, which is exactly what Yoda tells Luke. It makes sense for these very young children.

It’s come up since then. I’ve been asked, “So what do Jedi do if they lose their lightsaber later?” Well, A) they’re not supposed to lose their lightsaber, but B) there are enough lightsabers that have gone from fallen Jedi over the many, many, many years, that they actually have lightsaber crystals at the Temple. So they don’t have to actually go all the way back out to Illum to get one, and because it’s a fallen Jedi they can actually use that crystal and it will work for them.

The whole attunement and everything is just a special moment for them as a child to get in tune with the Force. It’s not so much being in tune with your lightsaber. That’s a big thing that we all make a mistake on, is that we get very attached to our lightsabers. [Laughs] “Oh my gosh, I have to have one.” But remember, they’re Jedi. A lightsaber is just a thing. It’s not Excalibur, it’s not like an ultimately super-special thing. It is to us, because we make it a symbol when we watch the movie and Luke is given his father’s lightsaber. That lightsaber is a little more meaningful because it was his father’s. But you notice when Luke loses it…

STARWARS.COM: He doesn’t freak out.

DAVE FILONI: He doesn’t go on some journey down in Cloud City to go get his lightsaber, and he doesn’t even super-lament the fact that he lost his lightsaber. I mean, we were probably more upset as kids that he lost his lightsaber. [Laughs] All those things kind of came up in our telling of the tale of lightsabers, and George had a lot of thoughts about that. It all comes back to selfish versus selflessness. That’s always a key thing when dealing with Jedi and Sith, and I think that’s expressed in “The Gathering.” (x)

STARWARS.COM: That whole scene, where Maul is cradling Savage as he dies, and later when he’s begging for his life, he reminded me a lot of the Son from the Mortis arc.

DAVE FILONI: Oh, sure.

STARWARS.COM: Was that intentional? Or is it just that the Son represents the dark side and so there is going to be a correlation there?

DAVE FILONI: I think it’s all of the above. I think part of it is that Sam [Witwer] plays both of them, so there’s a natural resonance between the two characters. But part of the reason why, when it came down to it, that I wanted Sam to play Maul was because he had played the Son. And I wanted this concept, which is a very far-out concept, that there were echoes of everything that happened on Mortis happening throughout the show. And that Maul is an echo of the Son and some of the evil the Son was talking about which echoes in our galaxy. There were certain things that Sam and I did vocally that we wanted to be specifically like the Son. When we first find Maul, you can even hear Maul muttering some of the same dialogue that the Son actually says on Mortis. So there’s definitely a connection between those two characters, because they’re both connected to the dark side of the Force.

[…]

STARWARS.COM: When Maul came back, I thought, “This is foreshadowing for what’s going to happen to Anakin.” Right down to his mechanical legs. He keeps himself alive through hate and becomes this twisted thing. And I thought it was successful just on those grounds.

DAVE FILONI: Thanks. It’s a thing about Sith. They’re afraid to die. Fear attracts the fearful. Because for them it’s the end; if they die, it’s all over. There is nothing for them beyond their existence, because their power is all wrapped up in their life, in their existence. Once that’s gone, they believe they lose all their power and everything goes away. They don’t live on after death like Jedi learn to, eventually. Jedi believe you become part of the cosmic Force and your existence goes into that, but you don’t maintain your consciousness. That’s something that Qui-Gon learns, and that idea is developed and Yoda eventually learns it by communing with Qui-Gon, and then he passes it on. But that’s the big difference. There’s such a big fear of death because they try to hold onto life. And I think that’s why they’re willing to basically mutilate themselves and live these cybernetic half-human lives. Grievous is an echoing of that. They’re taken over by the machine and they’re subtracted from nature. And if having midi-chlorians in your blood is part of what makes you [feel] the Force, these are beings that are suddenly subtracted from that.

STARWARS.COM: I wanted to talk about Ahsoka. My feeling is, if it wasn’t clear before then it definitely is after the four-part finale, that she’s the main character of The Clone Wars. It’s really about her journey and her growth, and her leaving the Jedi Order symbolizes a lot about what the war has done to the Jedi. Was where she ends up at the end of Season Five always the intended path for her?

DAVE FILONI: [...] Her ultimate point is that the Jedi are aware of Anakin’s shortcomings. They’re not naive to it. Yoda, in particular, talks to Obi-Wan and they give him this Padawan, saying, “Knowing Anakin as we do, he will not want this girl to be around. He’ll resist it. But if and when she wins him over, he will bond with her like everything else he does. Like R2-D2, like Obi-Wan, like Padmé. But this girl will be different, because he’ll basically raise her. She’ll be trained by him, and he will see in the long run that she overcomes her fears and she becomes a Jedi, and she does not need him. But she respects him and they become equals, and Anakin needs to learn this so he can let go.” And Yoda knows this is critical for Anakin. If you look at her episodes, as early as when she rescues Plo Koon from the Malevolence, and she’s learning from Anakin how to disobey orders but still be creative within following orders. And then she has a big failing when she goes to Ryloth and all these pilots die, in a way, because of her error, and she has to overcome her fear that she’s going to let them down again. She’s learning. Then we see a big, critical episode arc where Anakin and Luminara kind of compare Padawans, Barriss and Ahsoka. And that arc, I think, really set an interesting tone for ourselves and for the fans. We were trying to illustrate the difference between the way Anakin is raising his Padawan, and how much he cares about her, and the way Luminara raises her Padawan. Not that Luminara is indifferent, but that Luminara is detached. It’s not that she doesn’t care, but she’s not attached to her emotionally.

And at the end of the day, one of the questions that I guess I pose is, is that really a good thing? Is Anakin’s way of being so compassionate wrong? Because on a certain level, you have to accept that the Jedi lose the Clone War. So there is something that they’re doing that’s wrong. There’s something they’re doing that doesn’t work and that the dark side is exploiting. If anything, it’s Luke’s overwhelming compassion and love for his father that in the end overthrows the Emperor because it’s something that he doesn’t understand. So as far back as Anakin, there is a seed of an idea of love and compassion, which admittedly in Attack of the Clones, the Jedi say they’re lacking because they’ve become arrogant and very sure of themselves. As Ahsoka gets older, her first big challenge comes when she’s abducted by Trandoshans and put an island [to be hunted for sport]. Anakin is put in a position where he can’t help her, and he obsesses over trying to find her, and there’s nothing he can do. But she survives anyway, and at the end of that she says, “I was only able to do this because of your teachings. Because the other Padawans I was with, boy, they were completely messed up. They were cracking.” So again we see this comparison of where Ahsoka is at because of Anakin, and where these other Padawans, which represent the other Jedi, are at. When you get to the finale [of that arc], once you see her pretty much taking on the role of a mentor and teaching these younglings to survive, you see Ahsoka doing more things on her own and you notice Anakin’s not around.

Then at the beginning of the last arc [of Season Five], she basically saves Anakin the way Anakin would’ve always saved her in the past. And Anakin’s unconscious, he’s like, “What happened?” She says, “I saved your life, don’t worry about it.” It’s fun and he laughs about it then, and he’s not embarrassed by it. They’re a team. So we get them to that moment and then we put a ton of pressure on it. And through the whole trial, Anakin is the only one that stays 100 percent in her court. I think Plo Koon stays 75-80 percent of the way in her court because he says, “I don’t believe she could’ve fallen so low.” In Obi-Wan we really see the Jedi because he is compromised. Obi-Wan doesn’t believe Ahsoka is guilty of these crimes, but he has a very hard time arguing politically that the Jedi Council shouldn’t do what they do to her. He trusts in the Force, which is what they love to say when they don’t know what they’re doing, and they expel her. He can’t argue the logic. He doesn’t like Tarkin’s logic [but he can’t argue] that they can’t try her within the Jedi because the public, which we show in this episode arc, who are losing faith in the Jedi, would cry foul ball. “How can you put her on trial? Of course you’ll find her innocent. She’s a Jedi and you’re a Jedi.” So they expose themselves, and we see how they’re exposed. All of these things that are wrapped up in Ahsoka’s story, which ultimately make her realize what the audience realizes. “I love the Jedi Order. They’re very important to me, I’ve always respected them. But there’s something wrong here, and I need to walk away from it to assess it.” It all feeds into Revenge of the Sith when the chancellor says, “The Jedi have just made an attempt on my life.” When you see these four episodes, I think you have a better understanding of how he gets away with all of that, because you see how compromised the Jedi Council is. And these episodes aren’t just meant to get Ahsoka on her way, but they’re meant to explain in more detail the scene [in Revenge of the Sith] where Yoda, Mace, and Ki-Adi-Mundi are discussing arresting the chancellor, and what a gamble that’s going to be for them. Because you see that to the average Coruscant citizen who’s not impressed with this war or the Jedi anymore, they’ll see it as treason. It’s probably the arc that connects to the movies the most and has the most impact. I think that’s why it works on so many levels for me and is one of my favorite arcs, because it’s such a companion piece to the films. (x)

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mytherapistthinksimfunny · 5 years

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2019: Who the Hell is Grace Michaud?

By Grace Michaud

Last night at dinner, while my Dad was talking about his frat boy days, I chimed in with: “That’s like in Buffy when they go to the frat house where they’re all sacrificing girls to a Lizard God thing, and then Buffy goes and kills it.” My parents just stared at me, quite used to these completely useless facts about a 20-year-old show these past 2 months. My mother finally sighed, looked at me, and said: “Grace, when I was going through a rough time, all I did was watch 90210. I was so obsessed that I would try and fit it into every conversation I could. That’s what you remind me of right now.” I couldn’t think of a witty response. I’ve always been obsessed with some piece of pop culture. It’s when I feel most like Grace Michaud. Now my mom is throwing some cold water over me.

It was like whenever I’m so engrossed in something, whether it be binge watching a show, reading, or going down a rabbit hole of Star Wars memes, I look to the left of my bed at my mirror. I just stare at myself, realizing, “oh shit, that’s me.” It’s like I’m seeing myself for the first time in a long time, an old friend who I haven’t seen since school days. I just stare. I look so different to whatever I was thinking about. I’m not Buffy, I’m not Sarah Michelle Gellar. That’s when reality sinks in, that this is my face. I can’t change my face, not really. But who is underneath that face? Suddenly I’m Mulan and I’m wondering: “Who is that girl I see?”

Then I make my chin go super deep towards my chest so I look like a monster. Then I get back to googling “James Marsters in 2000.”

I’m not a vampire slayer, or a hacker, a radio psychiatrist, or even a woman who has the ability to seduce a hot priest.

I’m Grace Michaud. 25, single, living in a small room in Brooklyn with no steady job. Most of my friends live in other cities. Those were just facts, but who the hell was I? Why was I only seeing the bad parts of myself, why was I comparing myself to other people, and why was I letting my depression get the better of me?

This month, after the fourth time of sleeping till 3 in the afternoon, I knew I had to admit it to myself what I was avoiding. I was alone, and I was unhappy.

Now before you start grimacing and thinking “oh this is going to get uncomfortable,” remember this is supposed to be a HUMOR BLOG for God’s sake. No, me being alone is not something I’m trying to say to get sympathy out of you. What I’m trying to say is it was just me for most of the year, and I had to deal with that. Every decision had to come through me. All my problems? Only I could fix.

I’ve been on my own before, I’ve always been an independent person. I’ve travelled to foreign countries by myself. I go to concerts alone, bars alone, I really don’t let anything stop me if I don’t have someone to come with me.

But now, me being alone seemed a bit more frustrating. I spent most of my Fridays and Saturdays binge watching Frasier. It seemed like every time I had a date set up, he would flake on me. I just kept finding myself alone a lot, not even meaning to. I had an apartment, with no regular income to keep me at ease.

Alone alone alone, nothing was coming anymore, the future was just there and I was in the open water with nothing to look forward to. When I go to my parents for the weekend they sometimes have to tell me to shut up because I just unload all of my talking onto them. I’m not even saying anything remotely interesting (because like I said, nothing has happened) but the act of talking aloud just feels so good.

Being alone and broke did push me to go out and find an income to survive. I bit the bullet and decided that being a babysitter was my best option, since it was what I was best at and flexible with my freelance schedule. Sure enough the best boy I met all year was a 2-year-old kid who loved the Beatles and the A-train and told me my farts were musical. My best friend became a toddler who was Eloise at the Plaza reincarnated. Sometimes that was the most socializing I got was hanging out with toddlers who couldn’t even hold a conversation.

Every boy I dated this year flaked on me and once it happened three times in a row. In the new Little Women, Jo rants to her mom that even though she left for New York, she is tired of feeling alone. Sure, she had pursued her dreams, but she was lonely. That maybe she should have just married Laurie because she “wants to be loved.” God, how many times this year had I done that? All year I was holding onto men, men who I didn’t have feelings for or who didn’t treat me well, because I was so scared of not being loved. I was scared that if I didn’t accept a boy showing some sort of affection to me, I would never get this affection again. This weakness made me be in relationships that weren’t healthy, and always, always, set me up for disappointment.

I’ve been rejected from my dream satire site twice. I’ve been on a lot of job interviews and the rejection has filled me with tears. Because it was just me, I was dependent on me. No one else was going to make anything happen. There were so many times this year where I didn’t even leave the apartment and the only social interaction I had was me talking to the TV. I obsessively watched TV this year like my life depended on it. I fell in love with some great television shows. I think I watched Fleabag over 15 times. I’ve lost count. I watched Mr. Robot and when I finished I started it again, and even took a trip on a cold March afternoon to walk the pier of Coney Island. Then came Frasier which I watched non-stop, and then of course my latest obsession, Buffy the Vampire Slayer which has given me more excitement and emotions than anything else this year. To end the year we got Rise of Skywalker which propelled me to sitting around in my PJs watching Star Wars and lusting after Adam Driver.

Holy crap, my mother was right.

But I wouldn’t call this pathetic. I just call this life. I didn’t choose to be alone, it just happened. At first I was extremely angry. I felt embarrassed. A loser. I felt like I was 15 again, a freshman in high school. I was in a new place and I felt inferior to all the mature upperclassmen, I was the one who didn’t make the soccer team and watched as my friends went off to be friends with the older soccer players and make out with junior boys. I felt like a loser in a city where you literally have the whole world at your fingertips.

I told my therapist as much that I felt like this was such a waste of a year. She told me that wasn’t true and listed something that made it not. I did get to go to Portland and Boston to see my friends. I did get a few really good gigs that paid well and were cool. I did meet some boys this year. My little brother and I got to see Vampire Weekend. I got to reconnect with some old friends and even got to take care of a dog. I stayed in touch with work friends and bonded over it.

And yes, I was alone. But I needed it. I needed to look at myself in the mirror and figure out who the hell adult me was. I had gone through a crisis of this when I was in my high school depression years, and in a way I repeated that ten years later.

It was needed. I needed to be alone because of the type of person I am. Other people don’t change me directly. It’s me. I was entirely on my own on this one. No one could make me happy except myself. Of course I wanted a job and I wanted a boyfriend. I wanted to be social and go out every Friday night at a cool bar. But I wasn’t ready. And I think the universe was trying to tell me that. Kind of rude for it to tell me that by having me throw up after one tequila shot, making me realize “oh maybe I should stop worrying about being social for social sake...” but still.

I had to realize that it’s my fault. Learning that I’m the only one who can fix things. I was forcing myself to blame myself for everything. I know I shouldn’t be hard on myself but frankly it has to be done. I had to stop comparing myself to others, stop feeling sorry for myself.

Like Rey in The Last Jedi, I had to confront that it was just me.

To continue with the theme of Greta Gerwig’s Little Women, after Jo rants to her mother, her mother then asks about Laurie: “But do you love him?” Her mother went on to explain that Jo has to love back. Sure she wants to be loved, but it’s not the same as being in love. Maybe that’s why every guy kept flaking on me, because the universe was telling me that I wasn’t ready, wasn’t ready for anyone right now. I’m not going to say it, the dreaded “I have to date myself!” But I guess I did really need to learn how to love myself.

I’m not writing this for sympathy. I’m not saying: “Oh boo hoo I’m so lonely! Someone fix it!” That’s not what I’m saying at all. The part about feeling sorry for yourself is over, because again, it’s only yourself who can forgive yourself. The universe wanted this. Wanted me to be alone so I could get back to being Grace Michaud again. It’s just a fact of the matter, not a tragedy. Maybe one day it’ll happen to you. All I’m saying is, sometimes you do need to be alone and when you are, you have to force yourself to talk to yourself.

And figure out who the hell Grace Michaud is.

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dweemeister · 7 years

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Revenge of the Nerds (1984)

Here is a confession: my only prior viewing history about college comedies includes a grand total of three films that I have seen in their entirety. Those films are Legally Blonde (2001), Monsters University (2013), and 22 Jump Street (2014). The “Slobs v. Snobs” comedic subgenre is also a weakness of mine, as their plots test my patience for both slobs and snobs. Combine these two, and you have a movie beyond my experience, but one that I found entertaining and wittier than expected – despite deep concerns by the rampant comedic misogyny that became more explicit in the 1980s that also appears. Jeff Kanew directed Revenge of the Nerds: the third and final episode of this prequel trilogy as it chronicles the final stages of the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker’s transformation into Darth Vader, the devastation of the Jedi Order, and the dissolution of the Galactic Republic for the Galactic Empire.

Apologies. That’s the wrong movie. Gosh, I can’t wait for Star Wars fans to hound me this December.

Armed with thick-rimmed glasses and pocket protectors, best friends and nerds Lewis Skolnick (Robert Carradine) and Gilbert Lowe (Anthony Edwards) are entering Adams College as computer science majors. Soon after they have moved into their dorm room, the boys – along with the other nerds inhabiting that building – are forced out by the college football team and must stay in the gymnasium. Tensions between the nerds and the football team increase to the point where Stan Gable (Ted McGinley) – the school’s starting quarterback and head of the Alpha Beta fraternity (which many of the football players are members of) – denies the nerds’ application to create a fraternity and their requests for remedial justice against Alpha Beta harassment. The nerds will then seek sanction from black fraternity Lambda Lambda Lambda (the frat president is played by Bernie Casey) – imagine if a blaxploitation movie dropped into a raunchy, largely white college comedy for several scenes – and will eventually receive their fraternity commission. The Tri-Lambs and Alpha Beta essentially go to war for the rest of the film. Nerdy sorority Omega Mu allies with the Tri-Lambs; sorority Pi Delta Pi assists the Alpha Betas.

Other Tri-Lamb members include Poindexter (Timothy Busfield), Wormser (Andrew Cassese), Booger (Curtis Armstrong), Lamar (Larry B. Scott), and Takashi (Brian Tochi). Notable Alpha Betas include Burke (Matt Salinger) and Ogre (Donald Gibb); notable Pi Delta Pis include Betty Childs (Julie Montgomery) and Judy (Michelle Meyrink). John Goodman is the football coach and James Cromwell is Lewis’ father, who drives his son and Gilbert to Adams.

If the nerds and jocks in this film weren’t as exaggerated as they are, this might be the subject of a documentary given the United States’ reflexive, masturbatory obsession for American football where the football players can do whatever, whenever they want. There is nothing groundbreaking about the depiction of the nerds and the jocks in Revenge of the Nerds, but what is remarkable about how Steve Zacharias and Jeff Buhai’s screenplay develops the nerds is that it betrays its only message: accepting others for who they are, that difference in interests and appearance is to be celebrated, and that tolerance and compassion for others is to be valued over a person’s external superficialities. The film’s sympathetic approach to the nerds in the film’s opening half is commendable; the abuse they suffer allows us to laugh – in joy, sometimes in confusion – when they are being themselves. But for near-identical reasons I find The Breakfast Club (1985) to be hypocritical, Revenge of the Nerds breaks its central idea and makes a mockery of it several times. Most everything that is shown about the Alpha Beta and Pi Delta Pi members is irredeemable – hazing based on humiliation, superiority complexes, excessive alcohol and drug consumption, and an obsession with physical and sexual prowess as a means to organize the fraternity/sorority hierarchy. The basis of the nerds’ revenge is not staying true to who they are, although they use their brainpower to figure out how their scheme will work. By the film’s conclusion, the nerds’ personalities become identical to the jocks’ – actively seeking out to humiliate their opponents, treating women as sexual playthings, and valuing their hedonism over everything else. I imagine Lewis’ father to be heartbroken if he heard about this; but given the rules set forth in Revenge of the Nerds, maybe not.

This is a comedy – a college comedy, some might emphasize – meant to entertain and skewer the jocks and their girlfriends for their behavior. But comedy is often double-edged, as it is here, and I could not bring myself to laugh as the nerds began to emulate. Maybe I do not know enough about comedies, but I tend to think the best comedies that attempt a message (that excludes pure farce, like 1980′s Airplane!) should hold steady to what they are trying to espouse as there is a moral responsibility that exists in that space. Message comedies often subscribe to a rule usually associated with journalism: to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. As the nerds become relentless in their revenge, the film resorts to racial stereotypes and misogyny as supporting plot devices. For all the hilarious pratfalls of the combat between the Tri-Lambs and Alpha Beta and the end-of-film festival’s events, these depictions overshadow Revenge of the Nerds’ intents.

According to British film critic Robert Ager, a DVD commentary interview including actor Curtis Armstrong had him claim that, in this film, “nerd” can stand in for any group of people being oppressed. What Armstrong and Ager fail to note, however, is that this statement is less applicable for Revenge of the Nerds’ black and Asian characters and rooted in decades of Hollywood history.

Larry B. Scott’s Lamar is obviously gay, presenting himself as an aberration to the rigidly heterosexual jocks. But Lamar is employed as comic relief in times when the Tri-Lambs wherever the film needs him to be. The queer black male is a stock character from blaxploitation – a subgenre of exploitation film which catered to African-American audiences and emerged in the early 1970s; blaxploitation films have been acclaimed by some as portraying more empowered black characters, but have also been criticized for reinforcing damaging stereotypes. Lamar’s queerness, if we are to look at him with a blaxploitation lens, is decontextualized by Revenge of the Nerds, as the stock queer black male – as seen in Shaft (1972) and Blacula (1972) – is usually employed to challenge black masculine norms (it can be comical or otherwise), that there is more than one way to be “authentically” masculine as a black man. Lamar is indeed a nerd, but what he could represent – as a black queer man – is erased, though I will admit that the performance he gives near the film’s end is one of the most positive depictions of a gay rapper I have seen. Additionally, the depiction of the Lambda Lambda Lambda administration – recall that it is a black fraternity – is of stoic men whose appearances are bookended by the expected funk music and cultural insensitivities by the largely white kids trying to form a Tri-Lamb chapter at Adams.

The filmmakers never even try with Japanese student Takashi (Brian Tochi), rendering him overly polite to those insulting and assaulting him, mixing up or simply dropping L’s and R’s in his speech, and being completely dense to everything surrounding him. We have been here too many fucking times before. If the filmmakers’ intentions were to expose the follies of these stereotypes by replicating them and showcasing their absurdities, the final product has too many mixed messages for me to take such a claim seriously. From Revenge of the Nerds’ nerd-jock dichotomy with nothing in between, the nerds’ adoption of the jocks’ behavior, and their portrayal of black and Asian characters, this almost drowns out the numerous clever verbal and sight gags there are.

And this is not even beginning to touch upon how this film treats its women characters. From the panty raid scene to the nerds’ installation of a camera to watch females undress in the supposed privacy of their bathrooms (a young elementary school-age kid is depicted watching these scenes and enjoying them) and bedrooms to a rape-by-deception/false identity (because as long as the fornicating is mind-blowing, the sex is totally okay, and the girl will fall for your dick, right?), there is nothing salvageable about how Revenge of the Nerds treats its women. Rape is a punchline and that – call me a prude all you want – is indefensible (Revenge of the Nerds would not be the first or last film to do this).

Made with money 20th Century Fox earned with Return of the Jedi (1983), Revenge of the Nerds spawned three sequels – the later two being television movies – despite the fact Fox executives were expecting a modest box office intake (and thus left the production alone without much administrative interference). The film was shot on the campus of the University of Arizona, located in Tucson. The young cast – though some were certainly no longer the usual age for an undergraduate student – had a brilliant time shooting the movie, despite their initial reservations about playing such obvious nerds or loathsome jocks and cheerleaders. A Greek life-like atmosphere surrounded the set, and the stars found themselves partying with the university’s students when shooting was completed for the day.

Without the film’s surprisingly thoughtful portrayal of the nerds in the opening third of the film, the score that appears below might otherwise have been much lower. Without some pretty shocking or dirty lines from Lewis, Gilbert, and especially Goober, I might have liked this film a lot less than I do now (yes, this review has been scathing, but there are elements I appreciated). Yet all of that racially insensitive writing and misogyny is something that this film could all too easily could have gone without.

My rating: 5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found here.

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beingmad2017-blog · 7 years

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Spreading the No longer-So-Proper News And Message

New Post has been published on https://beingmad.org/spreading-the-no-longer-so-proper-news-and-message/

Spreading the No longer-So-Proper News And Message

Part 1: Any other Gospel?

The influence of the occult upon our normal lives is awesome. An African missionary from the Mandinka tribe of West Africa, once requested a congregation a question just like that requested by means of the Apostle Paul of the Galatians. His 11-minute email messages , spoken in the mid-nineties, I will still keep in mind, as he shouted the query: “You silly People… Who has bewitched you?!”

The premise of his longer email messages changed into that, proper use of here inside the Corrector’ U.S. Of A., everywhere he regarded, he could come across the occult have an impact on. Whether it was via the media, advertisements, from the “alternative religions,” even from the pulpits of well-which means Christian ministers, what this guy became detecting was something Aside from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Crystals, guided imagery, recuperation meditation, Christian Technology, Kabbalah, Mormonism…Why has “Christian The us” so eagerly standard these ideas that, at their root, are so opposite to that which might be taken into consideration orthodox? Why are such a lot of things Other than biblical principles being sought out to meet the wishes of folks who declare to be Christians?

In 2 Corinthians, 11th bankruptcy, the Apostle warned that some could come preaching “Another Jesus” and “a one-of-a-kind gospel.” He wrote, “…as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” There are three styles of doctrine spoken of in the New Testament: the doctrine of guy, the doctrine of devils and the doctrine of Christ (and of God). Personally, I contend that Bible illiteracy is The idea for this continual weakening of Orthodox Christianity. One instance of this can be observed in the wide variety of Southern Baptists who’re joining the Mormon Church. Consistent with the Arizona Latter-day Sentinel, April 2, 1988, “…an average of 282 individuals in their church joins the LDS church each week. Coincidentally, the (sic) common Southern Baptist congregation has 283 participants, this means that the Baptists lose 52 congregations each yr to the Mormons.

Although a collection might also point out the call ‘Jesus’ and season their verbal exchange with spiritual-sounding, familiar Christianese, Not all that glitters is gold. As an example, those who worship The Sacred Mushroom (No, I’m Not kidding) seek advice from a mushroom as ‘Jesus’ so, based upon Romans 10:9-10 (…If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the lifeless, thou shalt be stored. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.) they bear in mind themselves to be “saved.” a few honestly believe this and have positioned their faith in a fungus.

We must ask ourselves simply WHO this Jesus is every time that call is spoken. Is he Lucifer’s brother? The archangel Michael? An Ascended grasp? A trifling prophet? A fungus? Or is the ‘Jesus’ to whom they refer the Lord of all Creation that He claimed to be? You see Jesus of Nazareth turned into both a liar, a lunatic, or surely Lord of all… The way WE have to see Him as well.

Element 2: The FARCE is with us!

After the primary Superstar Wars movie, Christian bumper stickers got here out mentioning that the “Pressure” was with us. Wondering the Superstar Wars film turned into a Christian allegory, many assumed this “Force” being mentioned in the film become the Holy Spirit. Of path, as we all recognize, the Holy Spirit is not a Force, however, the 0.33 Character of the triune God that we worship.

proper?

No longer In step with a 2001 survey with the aid of the Barna Group which stated that 61% of Americans believed the Holy Spirit to be An insignificant symbol of God’s presence as opposed to a residing entity. Scripture really reveals that the Holy Spirit has a motive – to empower folks who accept as true within Christ for the advancing of His State – in addition to non-public man or woman tendencies. But, I wonder at how many Christians, ministers protected, talk over with Him merely as “it” – If they well knew Him at all. simply as fantastic, 60% of adults consider Satan is merely an image of evil. But, 81% people agree with angels exist and have an impact on human beings’ lives.

What is most startling approximately the Celebrity Wars phenomenon isn’t always the advent of Yet Every other movie, but the actual ways in which people around the arena seem like forming a religion out of the aspect. The Anglican Digest mentioned that the first college to train Jedi – named for the Jedi Knights from the collection – changed into lately opened in Romania. Publications on the Superstar Wars Academy encompass the perfect use of lightsaber swords and training on how to speak Wookiee.

The BBC mentioned (2002) that at the least 70,000 human beings in Australia wrote in “Jedi” as their reaction beneath the class of faith on the last census form. Hard-middle fans of the movies had been seeking to have Jedi declared a professional religion across the English-speak international for years now.

The same situation befell in New Zealand of their census of 2001. Similarly, greater than 390,000 human beings in England declared themselves Jedi in their census of the equal year – a surprisingly wide variety when you recollect that simplest 260,000 people in England declared themselves to be Jewish! There are numerous Internet campaigns happening now that inspire electorate in the U.S. To petition for Jedi as a reputable religion on the following U.S. Census form.

Celebrity Wars creator, George Lucas, once stated: “I put the Pressure into the film with a purpose to attempt to awaken a sure form of spirituality in younger human beings — more a notion of God than a perception in any specific religious system. I wanted to make it so that young people would begin to ask questions about the thriller.”

nicely, it backfired, George. In a Time mag interview, Lucas downplayed any nonsecular implications approximately his series, however then went on to confess to the use of “the Pressure” as an illustration of God and the Darkish Facet warrior, Darth Vader, as a metaphor for the evil that exists inside us all. How unique is that from pronouncing all human beings are born in sin and want the assist of “God” to save them? Sounds quite spiritual, does it Not?

Unfortunately, only a few proponents of this Jedi religion have noticed that their new “religion” is very elitist and best a completely few of the Celebrity Wars characters are authorized to obtain any enjoy the Force, that being best the ones noted in the collection as Jedi Knights. A long way from being literally a ‘life-Pressure’ that may be harnessed by way of the underclasses and oppressed, it may only be utilized by a delegated few High Priests.

The Holy Spirit is so entitled to one very particular, apparent purpose: to distinguish Him from EVIL spirits, deceiving devils which are continuously at work in our midst, killing, stealing and destroying even folks that call themselves ‘Christian.’ The Holy Spirit empowers us. He convicts us of sin AND of our righteousness. He comforts, exhorts, edifies and confirms. He’s a consistent Trainer and reminds us of all that Jesus taught (so examine what Jesus taught). He is the exact equal Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead and He desires to absorb residence in absolutely everyone who believes that Jesus is who He stated He is.

Jesus despatched Him. So, He’s manifestly all properly ever want! He’s no mere Force, but wherein Devil and his minions are concerned, He will make YOU a Pressure to be reckoned with.

Component three: The Kabbalah Kraze

The ultra-modern today’s religion is the Kabbalah. Pop singer Madonna has reportedly donated tens of millions to the purpose. Other well-known followers consist of comedian Roseann Barr, actress Demi Moore and lots of others. In modern day occult revolution wherein every dimension of the occult is being explored, there has been a revived interest in Kabbalah amongst both Jew and Gentile.

Although its Jewish origin makes it precise, Kabbalah is still basically an occultic exercise and is hence incompatible with the Judeo-Christian faiths. Its Pantheistic theology teaches that every one fact springs directly from God’s very own essence. Even supposing one believes that those “emanations” from God’s essence have “long past through a descent of ten spheres on four exclusive tiers” – whatever Which means – the conclusion is inescapable that even he who’s on the bottom degree is still of 1 essence with God; and hence, ultimately, that person IS God. This is a concept that is incompatible with the Biblical concept God, who created the world out of not anything, No longer out of Himself. In Genesis 1:1, the Hebrew phrase for “create” is “bara,” referring to something popping out of not anything. This verse debunks Pantheism, the perception that God is within the Creation and IS the Introduction. God isn’t always the tree, the rock, the building or the air. Yet, Pantheism holds that God permeates the whole lot, and, consequently, IS all.

Pantheism is not particular to the practitioners of Kabbalah. I as soon as debated a believer in Pantheism and requested him if God was in the ones chicken droppings at the rock wall before us. I trust I heard his intellectual wheels come to a screeching halt for a second. “Come now,” I said, urging him Now not to check his brain at the door, “your ideas are either actually real at all times or they aren’t true in any respect.” By the way, he was a member of a neighborhood mainline Christian denomination. Pantheism is being embraced with the aid of many Christians. The concept is, basically, that most effective the nonsecular measurement exists. some Pantheistic religions consist of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Pantheism also forms The premise for Transcendental Meditation and some components of recent Age mysticism.

This should No longer be careworn with the idea of God’s omnipresence. God IS omnipresent. He is everywhere without delay. David stated, “…If I ascend up into heaven, thou (God) artwork there: if I make my mattress in hell, behold, thou art there,” (Psalm 139: eight). however, god isn’t the created world. In truth, He’s completely Outside to the created international. Worship belongs to the writer, Now, not His Creation. Paul tells us in Romans 1:25 that there could be those “Who modified the reality of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the creature extra than the author….”

God is related to the world as a sculptor is related to his sculpture, or I’m related to this email messages on my laptop display screen right now. The sculptor isn’t the sculpture. The writer is not the writing. The sculpture and the writing are productions. They’re produced by the only that creates, and what one creates, can be created once more. Possibly it will be one-of-a-kind or it is able to be higher.

God created everything just by means of talking it into lifestyles. It changed into Now not hard. He is God, you understand. “Let there be mild and there has been mild”. Poof! “Permit the waters to bring about and they brought forth, Allow the earth bring forth and it introduced forth” (Genesis 1:20,24). Poof! God changed into No longer positioned to a check to make the universe. some say, “Mankind become a greater tough product!” God fashioned Adam out of the dirt of the ground; we must No longer were TOO hard. Like a dust pie perhaps. Poof! He took a rib from Adam’s Aspect, spoke a word, and became it into a woman. Poof! That turned into Not Tough for God. This complete Advent changed into Not any such wonderful manufacturing in which God become worried. To us, it’s miles absolutely unfathomable. With only a little phrase, it all got here to be, or at the least, got commenced. It becomes really smooth for the author. Genesis 1:31 declares that in six days – Even though a day is as a thousand years in God’s economy – it all got here to be, certainly via His spoken phrases.

Imagine having that kind of an all-powerful creator God coping with our measly, temporal problems! He Desires to manage our lives in this equal way, but we need to Supply them to Him.

Element four: If it’s damaged, Permit’s repair it

North The united states is the only continent on the earth wherein the Church isn’t always developing, no matter a 2002 Barna survey revealing that 85% of us self-pick out as Christians. The exodus from American church buildings has reached biblical proportions. people are leaving organized church buildings at a charge of fifty-three,000 per week in Europe and North America mixed (the U.S. misplaced 57,500 inside the whole Vietnam Conflict, to position that range in attitude). As a whole, Christians lose 7, six hundred an afternoon to Different religions or irreligion. In line with the North American Mission Board (NAMB), the need for new church buildings is more than it’s ever been as evidenced by the church-to-populace ratios over the last century. As an example, in 1900, there have been 27 church buildings, of multiple denominations, in keeping with 10,000 human beings. These days there are 12 church buildings according to 10,000 humans. Meanwhile, 8 churches near their doors permanently each day; almost 3,000 annually.

The mind boggles concerning the trendy in American Church information. For instance, the quantity of ministers who no longer agree with in the infallibility of Scripture is startling: eighty-five% of the Presbyterian United states of America pastors stated NO; 85% of the Methodist pastors said NO; 85% of the Episcopal pastors stated NO; 55% of the Baptist pastors said NO; forty-five% of the Catholic Monks stated NO.

A whopping forty-two% of USA citizens trust Jesus devoted sins. Whereas Jesus directed us to “cross and make disciples,” only16% of American Christians are concerned in a discipleship procedure of frequent assembly with a group or character for a religious increase. The Internet is the best mass medium whose target market proportion has grown throughout the past decade. The share of the populace the usage of the Internet as a nonsecular useful resource has increased by way of two-thirds in view that 1998. Consistent with the Barna Institution, “Our studies continue to show that human beings are using the Christian media to offer elements of ministry that aren’t effectively furnished to them with the aid of their nearby church.” He defined, “For a few people, these media supplement their church revel in. For others, an aggregate of those media paperwork a sizeable portion of their faith revels in….”

Church leaders have to start strategizing properly about now! Yes, the times They’re a-changing’. The Church have to wisely adapt and reach the masses in which They may be, however we ought to cautiously filter out the whole lot we read and hear through the lessons of Jesus Christ. Recollect the sensible counsel of Paul: “Watch out lest any man spoils you via philosophy and useless deceit, after the culture of men, after the rudiments of the sector, and No longer after Christ,” Colossians 2:8. Lamentably, plenty of this modern-day religious smorgasbord, consisting of the new Millenium’s hybrid faiths – Even though they will well be signs and symptoms of the apostasy of the cease times – are certainly something much less than the unpaid invoices of the Church at huge.

Selah.

Take this opportunity to fee this email messages below and e-mail it to friends and circle of relatives. This may growth the proper use of a possibility of performing on more search engines like google, thereby increasing the percentages of human beings being helped. Thank you!

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giveuselife-blog · 8 years

Text

Spreading the No longer-So-Proper News And Message

New Post has been published on https://giveuselife.org/spreading-the-no-longer-so-proper-news-and-message/

Spreading the No longer-So-Proper News And Message

Part 1: Any other Gospel?

Element 2: The FARCE is with us!

proper?

Jesus despatched Him. So, He’s manifestly all properly ever want! He’s no mere Force, but wherein Devil and his minions are concerned, He will make YOU a Pressure to be reckoned with.

Component three: The Kabbalah Kraze

Imagine having that kind of an all-powerful creator God coping with our measly, temporal problems! He Desires to manage our lives in this equal way, but we need to Supply them to Him.

Element four: If it’s damaged, Permit’s repair it

Selah.

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