#gale is a complex and interesting character who did some fucked up things

[genghisthebrain]

gale being the prim reaper is the most hilariously incorrect take I’ve ever heard in my life

[box-dwelling]

OK so I am like a day past completing the Ansur dungeon and it's been enough time to let my thoughts on it settle. Spoilers ahead.

For context, first playthrough with a basic tav. I'm a good way through act three and have finished a few of the pc quest lines. Minsc, Jaheria and Astarion are done. I have yet to get the hammer or do the house of grief but I have done sorcerers sundries. Also I haven't refused Ulder yet but it like the next thing I'm doing. Other context is that dnd is a huge special interest of mine. I've been playing for about 7 years straight. Both dming and as pcs and I have played under professional dms before. This does affect how I view the game but it's mostly postively.

Disclaimer, I haven't finished the game so there may be some stuff that ends up being done that I just haven't seen but the quest line says it's over and from what I've read online it doesn't seem like that's the case so.

So let's start off with the pros because I honestly have less to say there

As a dm I can and always do look at the dungeon design. Larian is genuinely really really good at this, and this dungeon is no exception. I loved the puzzles though a few could use some tweaking. They arent all great. But there's ideas there that I will probably introduce in my games some time. A chess puzzle especially is such a great idea. That was so cool and the fact bring gale along means you can get the answer free I'd you don't play chess makes perfect sense. Genuinely great.

I also liked the visual design. I had expected the appearance to be what I was starting to dub in my head as the "character development dungeon aesthetic " given that really in terms of design and function cazadors dungeon, the gauntlet of shar and the sorcerers sundries vaults are very very similar. But this one wasn't and I'm very happy about that. Give me some variety.

The Ansur fight itself, AMAZING. Great boss battle. I loved the hell out of it. I'd have to dig into the code to properly tell but it looked like they used a varient of the colossus fighting rules which while I've actually never run but I have been at tables where it has been run to incredible effect. They're good rules. I'm glad to see them used. It honestly makes me consider running them myself.

Last pro, on the face of it, I like the idea. I like the concept of wylls character development dungeon being about learning about the tenants of being a hero from one he looked up to. That tracks. It's a good place to take his charcater at least in theory.

As for the cons, it's mostly one but it's also a big one that has majorly pissed me off. Because Wyll is in my joint top 3 for favourite characters and they did him so fucking dirty.

I really really hated how they handled the twist with the Emperor. I don't dislike him as a charcater but I think it's at least to me pretty unambiguous that he's a pretty shady and morally grey charcater. Which is fine. In fact, it's actually a pretty interesting way to take Wyll's arc. That he looked up to this hero, internalised his mindset through the chambers and then learns that he was actually a pretty shady morally complex figure that doesn't live up to wylls expectation, that is a GOLD mine of character development. That is absolutely fascinating. Except, it doesn't do that. He barely even comments on it. Just says he's forged into a new hero by the trials while ignoring the person who set them is the very shady figure who has honestly fucked us over a lot.

You know who's another hero wyll probably looked up to? Minsc! And the Emperor is a real fucking bitch about letting him join the party.

This is compounded by the fact his good/bad ending choice rather than being a slow build up like everyone else where they get tempted by power and then have to turn it away, he instead just says "hey I could become grand duke" out of no where and then doesn't even need a persuasion check to get talked out of it like everyone else does.

So, I would be remiss without giving a way I'd fix it. So here is that.

Th ansur dungeon isn't given to us by florrick in the lower city. It's given somewhere else before you get there.

I'd recommend like, it being in a book or something in Wyrms crossing. The location is tied to wyll anyway. Maybe add in his childhood bedroom that he asks to go visit. You can put in some environmental storytelling telling that can expand on his complicated relationship ulder. Maybe the room is bordered up and untouched but when you get inside there evidence of genuine love.

When you get there you get the story of ansurs legend and wyll becomes obsessed with using this as a way to help save the city.

The ansur dungeon then gets basically left untouched. Twist and all.

But at the end of it, rather than just deciding he's going to become grand duke, it becomes a question. He can't become grand duke while Ulder is alive. And Bauldrian the great adventurer became a politician after wards. Give the Emperor a reason to not want ulder alive. Maybe Ulder risks not being able to defeat the elder brain in some way, and tie it into his reaction to Wyll taking a deal with Mizora.

Wyll is now conflicted. If his father dies he can carry on in both his and Bauldrans footsteps. Ulder left his child in command of an army before he was an adult. Can he really be trusted to take care of the city? Of course wyll loves him and of course wyll wants to save him but there's that doubt there. I have been reforged in to bauldarns heir. I could do a better job. I could save more people. He abandoned me. Why should I save him? If he breaks his pact this is also fed into by the fact it puts him at very active threat from mizora. It's not that prevelant. Wyll is wyll he's not that susceptible to corruption but a little bit of doubt, coaxed on by the Emperor is all he needs.

Then the lower city.

Make sure you have to get minsc before continuing his quest line. Have wyll have a reaction to the Emperor 's distrust of minsc. These are two of his childhood hero's fighting. Play that up for some drama.

Then saving ulder becomes the thing that either makes him the blade of avernus or the grand duke. He can either choose to not save his father, take on the title of grand duke and rule the city following in baulderans footsteps or, he can kill mizora and swear his life to killing demons as a the blade of avernus. . Later becoming a ranger just like minsc. Even give minsc a few lines giving him a pep talk about it. Maybe even having him explain that wyll need to be his own kind of hero taking the infulances he has from the past and learning from them to become a better one. If the pact stays he just remains the blade of the frontiers if he saves ulder but can become grand duke if he doesnt.

Then, have ulder apologise and then reconcile. Have wyll learn to actually recognise his father as a flawed man who hurt him but who is also complex. Maybe even have an option for if he chooses to fully reconnect their relationship or not.

The bones of a really really really good story are here. Please, for the love of God, larian actually tell it.

[thekimspoblog]

Me: Rewatching "Ralph the Movie Maker"

@somethin-stupid-67: can't say I've ever seen it! any good?

Me: He's an asshole but he's funny. "Bye Bye Man" and "Nine Lives" are some of my favorites. I love bad movies

67: I'll have to give some of his stuff a watch then :) did you know you reposted a Howard fan edit lol

Me: I don't have a problem with fans who LIKE Howard. I just feel like fans underestimate the scope of his wrongdoing, probably because they've never been fucked by a greedy lawyer themselves.

67: look, I can acknowledge that he was completely awful trying to convince the Sandpiper residents to not settle with the possibility of more money (which would've been more for EVERYONE, not just the residents)... but at the end of the day I can't help but have a soft spot for the guy. total prick, but more than anything I love him because he's such a good foil (maybe not the right term?) to Jimmy. just took me by surprise, is all. never expected positive Howard content on your feed because I know how you feel about the guy lol

Me: I've been thinking a lot recently about the "I save me" scene. How Jimmy wanted to sue HHM for discrimination, which is the right and legal way to handle that conflict, and Kim tells him "No!" because she (correctly) believes that the firm holds so much sway in the local community, that even if she wins HHM will retaliate by blacklisting her.

There are so many moments in this show that depict HHM as a  business with a pristine (but unearned) reputation, to the point that anyone who had a grievance with them would have no legal recourse. And I feel like fans don't appreciate how dangerous that level of corruption is. My point isn't that Howard is a bastard man who should burn in hell. Rather, that Jimmy and Kim vindictively destroying this business was a net good, because regional monopolies like this cannot be allowed to exist.

I love the "I save me" scene, but I feel like most fans completely miss the point of it. Kim is not a girlboss in that scene; she is being silly, refusing help or to handle the situation by the books, and is stubbornly insisting on working harder when she needs to work smarter (or quit!). The scene ends with a wide angle shot showing how small and isolated she is in Doc Review. This is not an empowering moment; it's an expression of the character flaws Kim will have to overcome in the following seasons.

67: sometimes I come back to that as well, how Kim really thought she did something with "I save me" but all she ends up doing is working twice as hard at an establishment that doesn't seem to value her... and Kim? if you want to get technical about it, you don't save you... I'm pretty Mike does that

Me: I think her character is an inventive take on the "strong independent woman" trope because her character arc seemed to be about how she doesn't need a "man" but everyone needs a friend Sure, she recommended Jimmy to Davis&Main and then Jimmy went and did some stupid shit and broke rank. But when she told them "He didn't consult me about the commercial either. I asked him if he had permission to air it and he lied to my face" that should have been the end of the investigation. This is an overreaction to insubordination in the first place, but it was completely inappropriate to punish her for Jimmy's actions.

And Chuck makes explicit the fact that he's been using the firm's resources to discourage the relationship because he has a giant virgin/whore complex about her.

Howard was LESS misogynistic but still had plenty of moments doing micro aggressions at her. To be clear, I think Howard is a great character and Patrick did a great job acting him. He's an interesting flavor of unlikeable, if nothing else. But like Gale Boetecher, just seemed too soft to survive in this cruel world.

67: the stuff with the commercial did make me pretty upset, I won't lie. definitely thought the same thing, Kim was in the same boat with everyone else at that moment, the only difference being she saw the commercial before it aired but she didn't know it aired! and more than anything, I was pissed everyone absolutely lost their minds because... it was actually a pretty damn good commercial Cliff Main's freaking out about how it's his name in the commercial and I get maybe (definitely) Jimmy should've shown literally anybody from either firm aside from Kim... but I fear the commercial "ate", as the kids say

Me: I just think it's very obvious that if Kim had been a man and she was just friends with Jimmy, she wouldn't have gotten all this flack. HHM is an example of why men CANT be allowed to own businesses.

I've been rewatching The Office superfan episodes. So of course the entire time I'm imagining an AU where Jim and Pam finally took it too far and accidentally killed Michael and Dwight. Do you think Pam would also have a nervous break and leave for six years?

67: in the context of their canon relationships... absolutely. if Michael and Dwight are taking their frustrations out on her when it's Jim they're pissed off with and they're trying to sabotage both of their careers... then I'd say it's somewhat justified. absolutely she'd have a nervous break, I mean. unless we're talking full on crossover w/ the plot

Me: I was thinking we mostly stick with the canon. Although in the early seasons Michael did need to die It's crazy how much got cut from the final episodes. Dinner is in the oven. Chicken and potatoes

67: ooh that sounds delicious! had a big sandwich at like 4 so now I'm eating leftover mac and cheese

Me: Cool

67: chicken and potatoes sounds a hell of a lot better

Me: Of course I also have an old screenplay I was working on for a version of the office set in the universe of portal 2 But yeah no I should totally write that other fic too it would be cute

67: I don't think I ever got a chance to play the portal games, but you know I'm a sucker for a good AU so I think both are really solid ideas :)

Me: Portal was my whole thing before BCS. Had such a crush on Stephen Merchant. I guess I just like actors who can give the crazy eyes

67: listen, sometimes all it takes is the crazy eyes for you to be drawn in. I'd say that's a totally valid crush trying to think about what my thing was before BCS... Red Dead 2, I think

Me: Before Portal it was Last Airbender. Before that Phantom of the Opera

67: I think my sister had a Phantom phase, and the Last Airbender is on my list (I've seen a couple of episodes but not nearly as many as I know I should have)

Me: If I had one complaint about ATLA, it's that we didn't get enough of Zuko after he became a good guy

67: I knew he had sort of an anti-hero vibe to him, I think my sister may have also said the same thing. got shamed by her for not seeing all of it, so it's climbing the ranks on my list. haven't been much in the mood for tv, though...

Me: Still say you gotta finish "YOU" and Westworld first

67: those have stayed at the top of the list!

Me: Honestly I'm pretty sure other people have written dark fics where Jim finally bullied Dwight to death. Not saying he would ACTUALLY burn his farm house down with him inside it... but it wouldn't be out of character. Michael getting killed by a mobster was actually an ending the writers considered tho Pam goes to Florida, Jim stays behind as the new regional manager, gets all old and cynical. On a related note, FotD is Jimmy coming home from the doctor and mentioning that he apparently had skin cancer. They caught it early, easy to remove. But still scary. He didn't want to tell Kim... so he had to. Didn't want her to worry.

67: I think you may have mentioned that before, Jimmy and the skin cancer scare. is there any inspiration for this FotD, or is just Jimmy suffering the long-lasting effects of life in the desert?

Me: Yes the second one Just have to keep lopping parts off as time goes on How do you think she'd react? ... On second thought, I imagine it would actually be pretty hard for Pam and Jim to get away with a murder with that camera crew always following them around...

67: I feel like knowing Jimmy, he's gonna make some smartass comment about it or try to play it off as something that really isn't that serious, which is what upsets Kim more than anything. then again, a cancer scare is still a cancer scare, so maybe he won't crack a joke about it after all... almost forgot about the camera crew damn lol

Me: He'd probably joke about it. But they both agree not to tell the kids. I imagine they've been pretty vigilant with all those invasive exams... If you catch my drift

67: drift is caught! but yeah, Jimmy's cracking jokes about it for sure. in my head, I'm picturing something to the effect of "I've been kidnapped (multiple times) and been brought out to the middle of nowhere to find a gun aimed at my head, I hiked several days through the desert with 7 million in cash, I did HARD TIME... I'll be damned if the thing that actually takes me out is some... toxic freckle."

Me: Cute I mean he's tough as nails gotta give him that. It's why she wanted him back.

You know, I appreciate how much fans on Tumblr agree that he lets her peg him. I'm not saying that doesn't happen; I don't even like pegging I just respect the feminism of it. But people often want the opposite in bed of who they have to be in everyday life, so I think she'd kind of want to give up being in charge sometimes. And of course he's so self-pitying all the time it's a no brainer he wants to feel like a big strong man. She says she doesn't want a white knight, but you can tell she loves having him as her little attack dog.

67: how emotionally attached were you to that ponytail, scale of 1 to 10? thinking also on your text from last night and I think what you're saying makes total sense. Jimmy is a pretty pathetic guy (in the most affectionate meaning of the word), but there's one place that when given the opportunity, he won't disappoint... but I also see it as two sides of the same coin because that man DEFINITELY gets pegged

Me: Very attached to the ponytail

67: I mean Vince does love himself a good bald character... joking! but "drastic haircut" does have me a bit riled up lol

Me: I mean obviously if the ponytail appeared in WYCARO I'd just be confused and angry

67: this is true. that hairstyle was very intentional, it would be weird to see it outside of BCS

Me: The ponytail isn't supposed to return until the "Lets all chant" montage in Ep 3 of SK.

67: oh damn, how could I forget about the "Let's All Chant" montage!

Me: I need gifs so I can make that post

67: still mad I couldn't find the Kim celebration gif to tell you I passed my stats midterm lol

Me: I'm recording all the episodes but I'm only at the beginning of Season 2. Once I'm done, I can make as many in-episode gifs as I want.

67: omg I love the beginning of s2 :) 2x1 is easily one of my fave episodes on the series lol

Me: Running out of space on my computer because I also have seasons 1-3 of You and seasons 1-3 of Westworld recorded for memes. I bought some flash drives from staples to hold this information. But it hasn't arrived yet

[seeminglyseph]

Somehow I am getting so many more scenes with Astarion as Py than I did as Lake. I feel like I should just backtrack Lake a bit and have *him* romance Gale and have Py romance Astarion because Py is absolutely connecting with Astarion 100% better than Lake was. Though honestly Lake is connecting with Shadowheart the best and it’s completely by accident because I don’t know a lot of BG or official DnD lore, like I’ve said in the past my DnD knowledge comes from Critical Role so like. Even my knowledge of the pantheon is like. Idk, questionable at best. Making Lake a Drow Selûnite Cleric was a happy accident for twinning Shadowheart. I didn’t *plan* on Lake being like… Shadowheart’s weirdly intense best friend. But the idea that Lake and Shadowheart are best friends in that weirdly intense way that like. Makes everyone kinda uncomfortable and not really sure what’s going on especially since Lake isn’t into women and is dating someone else. Double especially since Lake is trans but like, not really transitioned because a) he’s very femme presenting and b) there isn’t a top surgery option. But also because I project certain traits into him, he has a sort of “I’m comfortable with using aspects of my femininity, and I’m used to finding power in these aspects of myself, I’m learning how to come to terms with what that means when my identity doesn’t align with many of the things I’ve learned to draw power from” and the whole. Moon Goddess Sacred Femininity thing worked for part of that. There are aspects to being a trans masculine person who is in some way used to drawing power from femininity and how that feels like a betrayal to self once you identify that schism in your identity and how you feel that I want to explore and Lake is an interesting character to explore it through. Making him a Cleric to Selûne was part of that. Having him have what would *appear* to be a very homoerotic friendship with Shadowheart despite not having sexual attraction towards women and also having complex feelings towards Selûne that I doubt will be explored in gameplay but that’s what headcanon and fan material is for. I don’t join fandoms to be passive. I join fandoms to create my own experiences for my blorbos.

Py is developing his own existence and I’m very much going to have to double check how long half elves live. And I’m very close to throwing in the towel and romancing Astarion with him and backtracking with Lake because Astarion is going significantly better on this run.

Plus it would probably be better for me to fix some stuff in my Lake run… I think I missed a bunch of stuff it would be better to go get… especially now I’ve figured it out. So. I think that might be the new plan. Because Py has had like. 3 new scenes with Astarion and I haven’t even done the end of the act and triggered a romance yet. I mean we’re still cooking at medium while Gale is at Very High but I feel like Gale is just. Easier to get to like you if you play a Good For The Most Part character. While Astarion is harder to find the Approval triggers for. Or there are fewer of them in the first act. I’m not looking it up right now, I don’t want to look at walkthrough levels of clarity.

Part of me is a little afraid like. “Meet him where he’s at” Bitchy talk like “can I convince you to kill someone less useful” will trigger as evil and send him on the dark path rather than come across as like… “seen some shit morbid humour” to which I am accustomed. Because the conversation feels like a weird Fuck/Marry/Kill flirting session. But I’ve been Glassed before and I just want these video game people to like me. And Astarion is very stubborn.

I’m sitting outside taking a smoke break so this has gotten quite rambling and disjointed, but. I’m also just. Really enjoying something to eat up my time and attention and I’m hoping to get far enough in the game I can enjoy some of the more meaningful and spoilerful stuff. I really am enjoying digging everything I can out of the first act so I don’t miss anything important

[ears-awake-eyes-opened]

This October I’ve (finally) been rereading THG trilogy

...slowly with the intention of taking in as many details as possible. I’m nearly halfway through, and here are some thoughts. Keep in mind, I’ve only read these books once before, over the course of a week in 2010. I was 38 then with an 8 year old kid. I was a totally different person in every fiber and cell.

1) At this point, I’m already tired of Katniss’s written voice, and I find myself consistently wishing SC had written at least some of the chapters from the POV of other characters. I know, I know... If that had been the case, the books would have told a different story. Back in 2010 I had a pretty big *girl crush* on Katniss. Before the first film, I was disappointed with the casting of Jennifer because she didn’t match the Katniss I’d imagined, but she’s a wonderful actress and she did come very close to portraying the Katniss I had in my mind.

2) As dearly as I adore Haymitch, I feel like I haven’t been doing justice to him in my writing. I’ve been trying to write him as multidimensional, intelligent, traumatized, with a big capacity for devotion, but damn he really is all that with extraordinary depth. He is articulate, cautious, and other adjectives which are difficult for me to grasp right now and wrangle into this post. More will come later I think. As I’m getting to know book-Haymitch, I’m truly appreciating Woody’s portrayal of him and also recognizing Haymitch is so much more. I want a book written from his POV.

3) The benefit of there being relatively little mention of Effie compared to other significant characters in these books is I feel free at this point to make her nearly anything I imagine she might be. Elizabeth’s interpretation of her is smashing. That said, in my mind Effie is more complex. I have a monster crush on the Effie I’ve been fleshing out in my mind. I find Liz attractive, but I’m really not into her. It’s the opposite. Every time I see her as her actual self, it crushes some of the illusion of Effie. So halfway in, I’m thanking SC for leaving the depths of Effie so open to individual interpretation.

4) Madge. I’m asking, where the fuck is she in the films? She may be a minor character, but she is full of significance. It’s so clear to me that Madge’s feelings for Katniss are big like Gale and Peeta’s feelings for Katniss. Different of course because each person/character is unique. I know #gadge is a thing, but my take is Madge brings that morphling for Gale because she loves Katniss, and she knows how important Gale is to Katniss. With Madge, Katniss is willing to try to learn to play piano. With Katniss, Madge is willing to try to learn to hunt. They’re from different worlds within the same small world. They’re both loners mostly, but they fit together in a way that is unexpectedly comforting for them. I don’t see Katniss being romantically interested in Madge, but the inverse I see quite possible. It already sucks knowing Madge dies, but eliminating her from the universe entirely is much worse.

5) Mrs. Everdeen has more strength than is portrayed in the films. Katniss understandably resents her mother’s protracted catatonia in the wake of her father’s death, so the reader sees that. But there is more to her in the books than the viewers get to see.

6) I’ll save my impressions of Peeta for another post because halfway into the trilogy, he really is still mostly an afterthought for Katniss, but I remember his character will soon be taking up more space in her mind and full being. Deservedly so because Peeta is basically a giant heart walking around that world.

7) Every time the word “Rue” is on a page, my eyes start leaking. I remember that was true the first time I read the trilogy, and it’s still true.

8) Maude Ivory (or someone Covey) is Katniss’s grandparent/great-grandparent. Common headcanon, I realize. I’m straight up making that canon. Not my prerogative, but I don’t care. It’s true.

9) I salute all you people who started shipping Hayffie when reading the books. I didn’t feel that spark 10 years ago. Not at all. And now in the reread, I see clearly the potential of an interesting and complicated relationship between them, in part because I’m looking for those details.

10) I’m enjoying this long-overdue reading, but my desire to reread @hayffiebird ‘s in progress masterpiece, Taste of Strawberries, which I just read days ago and is so present and full and delicious in my mind, is at least a hundred times greater than my interest here in the middle of Catching Fire. Hayffie is really the heart of the Panem universe at this point in my life for reasons I’m only partially clear about and I’ll save for another post.

11) In my opinion, TBOSAS is better written than the original trilogy. I am aware many people feel the opposite, but I don’t expect people to think like me, and I generally don’t care when they don’t. SC, please don’t retire anytime soon. I want more of Panem.

12) There’s a shitload of snow in District 12 for North Carolina Appalachia in a future dystopian North America in which Florida and the entire East Coast are underwater. It’s little details like this which feel illogical that can drive me crazy.

13) Me (watching in the films “Kill her Cato!! Kill her Cato!!”): Why the hell do people ship #Clato?... Me (rereading the books): Ahh, that’s why. Clove is a freak, and he likes her.

To be continued...

[greenhatsinthesky]

lockdown film no. 43 - Beast (2017) dir. Michael Pearce

02/06/2020

- ahh yes, the classic “choristers breath”

- I remember watching this last year in the first lockdown and I could not for the life of me figure out what her neck hair symbolised. Ill keep you updated

THE SMILE AHHH

- i recognise Clifford from somewhere. I hated how he asked if he was alright to adjust the thing he gave her despite already doing it and how uncomfy moll obviously was with this

- THE SISTERS FROM KILLING EVE WHAT. Also imagine hijacking your sisters birthday to announce you were pregnant. I mean this in many ways but could never be me

- ok yes I appreciate that the first guy was being a prick and that moll had told him multiple times to fuck off so in that sense I’m glad thingy showed up with a gun but just the irony of him almost shooting a man who was doing dodgy stuff to a woman without her consent and then once that man had run for the hills, for him to go over to that woman who is clearly very shaken up and take her arm without asking. just… men. I know he thinks he’s trying to help but anyone with a shred of awareness would surely be able to read that this might not be the best thing to do right now

- nothing scares me like being on top of a tiny rock with an absolute gale blowing off the sea. Would be nice to kiss someone there though

- my god this mother is just awful she’s just reeling off “oh you’re stupid” “no” “so you’re selfish” “no” “so you’re basically just a twat” FUCK OFF MATE

- DONT PRESS ON YOUR WOUND IT MAKES ME FEEL ILL

- oh my god I forgot that she stabbed someone. That makes more sense why she stabbed herself in the flickery light nightmare. 

- sex in the forest is all fun and games until you’ve got a literal worm up your arse and an entire thistle in your ear. un/fortunately I do not speak from personal experience

- whoever tried burying her couldn’t have done a worse job unless they literally didn’t bury her

- HER BROTHER … IS ASKING ABOUT HER “LOVE LIFE” ??? WITH PASCAL ? And she’s just deadass out here like yeah he is outstanding in bed. Or out of bed because so far we’ve only seen them do anything in the open air

- oh wait not its not her brother its cliff. Thank god

- I love how the mother is so proud of moll for implying she’d stop talking to pascal and she thinks its because she thinks he’s a bit dodgy and not because moll’s recently been informed he’s a suspect in the murder of a cHiLD

- where did the police come from ?

- RED FLAG RED FLAG (in reference to pascal thumping the steering wheel and yelling “WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN TALKING ABOUT BEHIND MY BACK” when moll said that cliff had questioned her)

- it was not consensual you were an adult and she was a child

- “you just said you loved me. Why?” “i don’t know”

- The Mother: (to Moll) maybe I’ve been too soft on you. Me: I doubt that. 

- to be honest it feels like quite a significant red flag to go out with someone who hunts for fun. Idk just seems kind of sketchy. Also her pulverising the rabbit with the butt of the gun was wayyyy worse than just shooting it. 

- I’m not sure what it is but mouths are just really creepy 

- the police questioning scene — fuck. me. what a wise woman that detective was. Loved it when she goes “a lot of us are bullied” clearly internally going “we don’t all kill people because of it”. And I don’t think its that she’s protecting pascal because she wants to take revenge on the world (might be partly that) but she’s never met anyone like her before and its fucking wild when that happens ! Just unfortunate for her that she needs to meet a possible murderer to be like “yeah we’re gonna get along”

- wait I feel so stupid who’s the lady who’s kid is dead

- cliff: it doesn’t change the way that I feel about you — fuck off ! How do you feel about her ?! You gave her an army thing and she never showed any interest in you

- THE SMELL OH MY GOD ABSOLUTELY READ

- oh to be a droplet of water falling from jessie Buckleys chin. Oh well

- i… despise how happy cliff is to hear that moll is now worried about pascal maybe having done it. Literally every man in this film is trash

- I retched when she started putting soil into her mouth. That bit was fuckin very intense. 

- my god these are made for each other. The moment when she put her hands out on the table, palms up, not reaching for him but allowing him to make the decision to come to her

- i think the phrase “it’s over” is said at least five times in the film, and every time someone says it, it's never true. It’s either straight up misinformation or the person trying to convince themselves that they’re right, and this is very interesting to me

- “kiss me” WHAT

- there’s so much red in this film at very key moments but I’ve not figured out what it means. Will have to watch again, again

- him lying on the road surrounded by broken glass unable to move, he’s the rabbit from earlier

- they are both literally insane. At least one of them had to die and I’m glad it was him for sure

- i really liked this film. A lot a lot — it was one of the most complex portrayals of a relationship of this kind, one so toxic with absolutely psychopathic people at the centre. Everyone around the two central characters are so awful that we can’t help but empathise and sympathise with moll and pascal, which is impressive because sometimes its difficult to sympathise with murderers

- i’ve seen some people saying that moll is the beast (interesting) and this is symbolised with the theme of the hair on the front of her neck. As I remember, in an earlier scene she sees it in the mirror and pulls it out, but later she sees it again and leaves it? Apologies if that’s wrong. Initially I thought “hmm, interesting, I understand the imagery of that” but then I’m thinking “if the only way you can symbolise that a woman is the beast is to give her body hair, maybe you need to have a little think about casual misogyny, because I read that as you saying “women who have body hair are hideous”. You might not have meant it in that way, but there’s intent and impact

[mysterious-prophetess]

Age of Calamity feelings and thoughts

I did a review but this is going to be even more all over the place and full of speculation and theorizing. 

Tl:Dr about the review-I liked the game despite a few things here and there that frustrated me. Like the divine beast sections. 

So Feelings? The game did make me happy and I’ve had a really terrible setback in what I thought my life would be and that occurred two weeks before Age of Calamity was released. 

I failed my Comps and therefore was dismissed from my doctoral program. I used this game, Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, and Hades to cope somewhat. 

So...if I’ve attached a little more of my emotions to this game, it’s because it’s helped me through this shitty time of my life. 

Anyway. This game really made my inner ZeLink shipper so very happy. Yes, I know they’re never really going to go as far as they did with Skyward Sword, but it was still enough to get my little shipper brain going. 

I also feel they made Revali more belligerent towards Link without him already starting as the Hylian Champion/Knight Who Wields the Sword that Seals the Darkness, and I think this is Revali’s own inferiority/superiority complex coming into play. 

From what I’ve read into this, it seems like Revali thinks Link is just a knight sworn to protect the Princess and therefore doesn’t even compare to Revali-who is the best Rito Archer, invented his own quasi magic technique (Revali’s Gale), and is the Rito Champion chosen to be Divine Beast Vah Medoh’s pilot. Yet, this nobody is in the thick of it and being trusted to do stuff that challenges Revali’s image of himself at the top of the pile.

Never mind the fact that one of his fellow Champions is the Chieftain of her people nor another is a Princess of hers, Revali sees Link the Knight as a threat to his own perceived view of things where he-Revali-is top bird. 

I think it’s because Link can used any weapon he come across, including the bow, with proficiency. Revali can’t stand Link because he thinks Link is a threat to his own perceived idea he is the BEST. In canon BotW, at least he could take solace in the fact that Link was a fellow Champion from the start and therefore, while not as exceptions as himself (from Revali’s perspective), he at least was the Hylian Champion. In Age of Calamity? Revali doesn’t even have that much for half the story.

Daruk doesn’t get much of an expansion beyond what we learned in the Champion’s Ballad. He’s steady and willing to indulge in some sassing at Revali whenever the Riot Archer’s arrogance gets to be a bit much. 

My favorite moment was  in the story Mission “Freeing the Korok Forest” when he made the comment “If only there was someone who could fly ahead and scout it out.” in the midst of Revali’s bitching. 

His interactions with Yunobo were cute too. Honestly both Gorons got the short stick in this as far as their characterizations were concerned. 

Doesn’t help that of all the Future Champions, Yunobo is my least favorite to play, tied with Teba. So, I was less inclined to do much with him. 

On the other end of the scale, we get Mipha and Sidon. Mipha’s interactions with Daruk helped flesh out her crush on Link more as well as her own motivations for helping others AND seeing both baby Sidon and the adult he was in BotW was interesting too. It’s not often we get to see that in a game. Sidon’s desire to save his big sister resonated with me a bit more than the two descendants- Riju and Yunobo- saving ancestors they’d likely never have met regardless of them dying then or dying of natural causes later. Sidon, on the other hand, as a Zora is part of a very long lived race and knew her and this adult Sidon has lived longer mourning his sister’s death than with her alive. Mourning her and wishing he’d been bigger or stronger to save her. Seeing them together made me so happy because I’d always wished he’d gotten closure, even if all he’d seen was her ghost from a distance. 

Teba? Aside from being tied with Yunobo as my least favorite future champion to play as, he only showed that he grew up idolizing Revali and was shocked to see Revali was a bit of a jerk. I remarked to my friend that it was sad to me that the only legacy Revali seemed to have was his flight range, but now with Teba’s hero-worship (and shock that Revali is a jerk), perhaps the legacy was also the legend of a fantastic archer and hero of his people too. 

Teba does seem to understand Revali isn’t what he portrays himself to be, and that is what I think he means by “seeing the face behind the Champion.” He sees through all of that posturing to see Revali as he is: deep down a hero who does care about others and not just himself and his own glory but also has an image he likes to project (which is why I think he has both an inferiority and superiority complex a la Bakugo of BnHA). 

Now to the character I have the most feelings about: 

King Rhoam Bospharmus Hyrule.

Learning he married into the royal family, and therefore, is not of the blood of Hylia does make his lack of knowledge of how to raise an heiress to the golden power make a lot more sense. This was something I gleamed from across the two games and the DLC. If Zelda’s mother had the golden power, she is the blood of Hylia, ergo, Rhoam isn’t and married into the family. 

I’ll go one step further. I think that despite being the “Kingdom” of Hyrule, the bloodline of Hylia is matrilineal and therefore only daughters of the royal family can inherit this power. Though, for some reason it’s still a patriarchal society. 

Zelda’s dead mom died before she could start to teach Zelda, and therefore Rhoam ever saw the external stuff that his wife might have done. He also seemed to have little patience for the metaphysical despite knowing a lot of that was real (at least when he was alive). 

His approach to it was wrong and it damaged Zelda to the point that her powers awakened too late to stop them. 

Also, Rhoam was trying to be too clever by half. In trying to just replicate what their ancestors did, he missed the point that the ancestors had a full understanding of what it was they were up against and what they’d created. Rhoam thought Calamity Ganon was just this beastial force and that underestimation was why he had all his plans blow-up in his face and the collective faces of Hyrule. 

This is where my theories come into play. 

After playing as him in Age of Calamity and finding his move set surprisingly effective, I’ve come up with a theory: The Magical Queens of Hyrule tend to choose men with extremely good Martial Skills as their husbands to create a balanced pair to reflect the first Zelda and Link who were Goddess incarnate and her Knight. 

No, this isn’t just my Zelink shipper talking. Ok it IS partly but it would make sense. From a traditional standpoint (and Hyrule is steeped in tradition), the pairing of Goddess and Warrior being reflected in the Queen and her consort King makes sense. 

It would also explain why Rhoam is so very military minded in attempting to get things done. I think he was nobleman who was either a general or captain or something similar. Which is why he’s so focused on training and getting rid of “distractions” from Zelda’s training (even if she’s a FUCKING CHILD and you shouldn’t do that to a kid who isn’t ready for such a regimented lifestyle). 

Now, I don’t know that they were a love match or not, but either way, I think his prowess as a warrior was part of what drew Zelda’s Mom to him. 

I’m saying it outright: I think Hylia, her incarnations, and her female descendants have a type and it’s men who kick serious ass. 

Now I touched on this in my review of Age of Calamity but the story was very AU because in Creating a Champion it was revealed Link was TWELVE or THIRTEEN years old when he pulled the Master Sword free of its pedestal in the official canon BotW timeline and Link being around eighteen during the events of 100 years before and Age of Calamity, therefore should have had that sword but didn’t. It’s on page 376 btw. 

Ergo, something affected this timeline and Link didn’t go into the Lost Woods and pull the sword. 

In my review I speculated that this might have still been in part of Zelda’s wish that helped the little guardian go back in time. It might have had a ripple effect that allowed Link more time as just a knight and not THE Knight Chosen by the Sword that Seals the Darkness.

It also allowed them to have a much better relationship without Zelda’s resentment of Link achieving his destiny so much faster, and easier, than she was with her training amounting to nothing. 

I also think after she and Link grew closer in BotW and she found out how much bearing the Master Sword for so long affected how Link viewed himself, she might have also wanted to grant him more time as another knight without the pressures that come with his destiny. (not that Age of Calamity really played that up).

Not going to lie, I loved the parallels between their awakenings in Age of Calamity. His with silvery-white light and hers with golden light. Both reaching for the other because they care....ah, that pleased the shipper in me. 

I know Link doesn’t talk because reasons but I almost wish he did because I’d have loved to have seen a scene where the Future Champions all talk to him and he’s like “Uh.....do I know you?” or even some sort of silent version of that scene to preserve the lack of speech on his part.

The time travelers present a lot of funny moments of them speaking about stuff BotW Link did that his HWAoC counterpart didn’t. 

The Future Champions, on the other hand, also present an avenue for angst. They’re from what is essentially the darker timeline. Their predecessors died lonely deaths and were trapped as ghosts for a century while Link awakened alone, without memories or his sword and Zelda lingered in divine form keeping Calamity Ganon at bay. They have to go back to that darker timeline after having gotten a moment to meet those they’d have-likely-never met or really knew well, with the exception of Sidon and Mipha. 

It’ll hurt worse for Sidon knowing a version of him will get to have his big sister and all he has is some closure in knowing that in a version of events she got to live and he saved her. Sidon is a blinding beacon of positivity after all. 

Plus, how would that conversation go down in the future?

“Hey, we’re back. We time traveled and saved our predecessors in a different timeline.” That just seems like a way to rub salt in the wounds of Link and/or Zelda depending from when they were pulled from into the past. Post-Game or just before Link defeats Calamity Ganon. 

Again, there is potential here with this. It’s just not the angst a lot were expecting since we all thought this would be a prequel to BotW, major character deaths and all. 

Instead it was an AU Time Travel Fix-it Fic full of everyone lives, no one dies except the bad guys. 

Considering my personal circumstances, I needed a story like this where the past can be changed for the better even if it is in an alternate timeline.

Also, this being an AU Time Travel Fix-it Fic gave them more wiggle room than just following the events of 100 years pre-BotW. There they’d have to had either made the build up to the Calamity longer (and less fun) or just had a much shorter story. What they did instead was what was needed for a full game. 

Maybe when I get some inspiration, I might play with these ideas in fic form. 

Maybe I won’t. Either way, this game gave me a lot to work with.

[theculturedmarxist]

The New York Times is literally a propaganda outlet and Timothy Egan is a deceitful chode. His every word drips with the anxious desperation of the Democrats who know their goose is cooked.

Watching “Succession,” the HBO show about the most despicable plutocrats to seize the public imagination since the Trumps were forced on us, made me want to tax the ultrarich into a homeless shelter. And it almost made a Bernie Bro of me.

That’s the thing about class loathing: It feels good, a moral high with its own endorphins, but is ultimately self-defeating. A Bernie Sanders rally is a hit from the same pipe: Screw those greedy billionaire bastards!

Sanders has passion going for him. He has authenticity. He certainly has consistency: His bumper-sticker sloganeering hasn’t changed for half a century. He was, “even as a young man, an old man,” as Time magazine said.

But he cannot beat Donald Trump, for the same reason people do not translate their hatred of the odious rich into pitchfork brigades against walled estates.

Because powerful oligarchs that own their government murder them with impunity when they do.

>March 7 was a bitterly cold day in Detroit, and a crowd estimated at between 3,000 and 5,000 gathered near the Dearborn city limits, about a mile from the Ford plant. The Detroit Times called it "one of the coldest days of the winter, with a frigid gale whooping out of the northwest". Marchers carried banners reading "Give Us Work, "We Want Bread Not Crumbs", and "Tax the Rich and Feed the Poor". Albert Goetz gave a speech, asking that the marchers avoid violence. The march proceeded peacefully along the streets of Detroit until it reached the Dearborn city limits.

>There, the Dearborn police attempted to stop the march by firing tear gas into the crowd and began hitting marchers with clubs. One officer fired a gun at the marchers. The unarmed crowd scattered into a field covered with stones, picked them up, and began throwing stones at the police. The angry marchers regrouped and advanced nearly a mile toward the plant. There, two fire engines began spraying cold water onto the marchers from an overpass. The police were joined by Ford security guards and began shooting into the crowd. Marchers Joe York, Coleman Leny and Joe DeBlasio were killed, and at least 22 others were wounded by gunfire.

>The leaders decided to call off the march at that point and began an orderly retreat. Harry Bennett, head of Ford security, drove up in a car, opened a window, and fired a pistol into the crowd. Immediately, the car was pelted with rocks, and Bennett was injured. He got out of the car and continued firing at the retreating marchers. Dearborn police and Ford security men opened fire with machine guns on the retreating marchers. Joe Bussell, 16 years old, was killed, and dozens more men were wounded. Bennett was hospitalized for his injury.

> All of the seriously wounded marchers were arrested, and the police chained many to their hospital beds after they were admitted for treatment. A nationwide search was conducted for William Z. Foster, but he was not arrested. No law enforcement or Ford security officer was arrested, although all reliable reports showed that they had engaged in all the gunfire, resulting in deaths, injuries and property damage. The New York Times reported that "Dearborn streets were stained with blood, streets were littered with broken glass and the wreckage of bullet-riddled automobiles, and nearly every window in the Ford plant's employment building had been broken".

The United States has never been a socialist country, even when it most likely should have been one, during the robber baron tyranny of the Gilded Age or the desperation of the Great Depression, and it never will be. Which isn’t to say that American capitalism is working; it needs Teddy Roosevelt-style trustbusting and restructuring. We’re coming for you, Facebook.

Yeah, just look how well that’s worked out, you fucking idiot.

The next month presents the last chance for serious scrutiny of Sanders, who is leading in both Iowa and New Hampshire. After that, Republicans will rip the bark off him. When they’re done, you will not recognize the aging, mouth-frothing, business-destroying commie from Ben and Jerry’s dystopian dairy. Demagogy is what Republicans do best. And Sanders is ripe for caricature. 

The same Republicans that got their breakfast ate by the dottering windbag cheetoman? The same Republicans that are unpopular with over half the fucking country? The same Republicans which have shown majority support for Sanders’s policies in the past? Those are the Republicans you’re talking about, right, Timothy, you fucking asshole?

I’m not worried about the Russian stuff — Bernie’s self-described “very strange honeymoon” to the totalitarian hell of the Soviet Union in 1988, and his kind words for similar regimes. Compared with a president who is a willing stooge for the Russian strongman Vladimir Putin, a little vodka-induced dancing with the red bear is peanuts.

Nor am I worried about the legitimate questions concerning the candidate’s wife, Jane Sanders, who ran a Vermont college into the ground. Again, Trump’s family of grifters — from Ivanka securing her patents from China while Daddy made other promises to Beijing, to Don Jr.’s using the White House to leverage the family brand — give Democrats more than enough ammunition to return the fire.

This is fun. Due to a complete lack of incriminating conduct, little Timmy has to invent wrongdoing to libel Jane Sanders. I suppose he’s relying on his readers being too stupid to read the article that he himself links, another NYT hitpiece that desperately tries to paint Ms Sanders as a shady character without anything in the way of tangible proof.

>Federal prosecutors have not spoken publicly about their investigation, though late last year, Ms. Sanders’s lead lawyer said he had been told it had been closed. And while doubts remain about the contribution pledges claimed by the college, the lawyer has said that neither Ms. Sanders nor her husband was even questioned by investigators, indicating a lack of significant evidence of a crime.

>After Ms. Sanders’s ouster, the college’s troubles worsened. It abandoned a promising effort she had undertaken to sell some of its new land to improve its finances, interviews show. A few years later, when it did begin selling, it was to a consortium that secretly included at least one member of its board, raising conflict-of-interest questions.

>There is little question that the college’s 2016 demise can be traced to Ms. Sanders’s decision to champion an aggressive — critics say reckless — plan to buy the land. But with potential students put off by the lack of a campus, and with many such colleges struggling at the time, her move was the academic equivalent of a Hail Mary. Her allies said she never had a chance to fulfill her vision.

>“Jane made an audacious gambit to save the college,” said Genevieve Jacobs, a former faculty member. “It seemed to be a moment of ‘change or die.’”

>In interviews and emails, Ms. Sanders expressed frustration at her dismissal and the college’s failure to continue her rescue plan.

>“They went a completely different direction in every way than what we had proposed and decided upon as a board — with the bank, with the diocese, the bonding agency,” she said. “They didn’t carry out any of the plan. It was very confusing and upsetting at the time.”

The TL;DR seems to be: Jane Sanders tried to save a struggling school with an audacious but risky plan that ended up being aborted when she was let go by by a board, some of the members of which may have had a stake in seeing it fail. At the very least, a much more complex situation than the aspersion of “running it into the ground.”

Trump bragged about sexual assault, paid off a porn star and ran a fraudulent university. He sucks up to dictators and tells a half-dozen lies before he puts his socks on in the morning. A weird column about a rape fantasy from 1972 is not going to sink Bernie when Trump has debased all public discourse.

No, what will get the Trump demagogue factory working at full throttle is the central message of the Sanders campaign: that the United States needs a political revolution. It may very well need one. But most people don’t think so, as Barack Obama has argued. And getting two million new progressive votes in the usual area codes is not going to change that.

“Ah jeez, ah fuck, he has no sexual indiscretions that I can dredge up and his Feminist polemic against pornography and the rape culture that it engenders is old news, and if I actually reported on it honestly people might actually read it and support his ideas. Oh, well, you see, despite the incredible groundswell of support for just such a thing, Barack Obama, the man that gave the banks trillions of dollars and then allowed the state apparatus to function as their gestapo-cum-storm troopers, says we don’t need one!”

Timothy Egan wants to dismiss “two million new progressive votes” after doing a little gaslighting. His Democrat masters don’t want people to remember that it was Obama’s promises of Hope and Change after 8 years of Republican tyranny that generated a record breaking voter turnout. They would also like you to forget that 2016 was a 20-year low in voter turnout. Do you think those things are related, Mr Egan? Do you think that there might be some connection between Obama taking advantage of the desperation of millions of people, betraying them, and then those people not fucking showing up next time, causing your party to lose to the dimwit that they themselves boosted to the position?

Give Sanders credit for moving public opinion along on a living wage, higher taxes on the rich and the need for immediate action to stem the immolation of the planet. Most great ideas start on the fringe and move to the middle.

But some of his other ideas are stillborn, or never get beyond the fringe. Socialism, despite its flavor-of-the-month appeal to young people, is not popular with the general public. Just 39 percent of Americans view socialism positively, a bare uptick from 2010, compared with 87 percent who have a positive view of free enterprise, Gallup found last fall.

“Just” 39 percent of Americans, up 4% from 2016. This is ignoring for the moment that due to Americans’ piss-poor education system they have no idea what “Socialism” means aside from “more government.” Looking at the breakdown of results, it seems as though they just asked people off the top of their head what they thought about X, no definition or elaboration given. Unsurprisingly, when you look at the actual numbers on specific issues, you can see exactly why Egan has to play this deceptive bullshit: of respondents 18-34, 52% have a favorable view of “Socialism,” as opposed to 47% supporting “Capitalism.” This is in sharp contrast to the 35-54 and 55+ cohorts. 65% of Democrats have a favorable view of “Socialism.” Those with a “Liberal” ideology are even more in favor at 74%, Timothy Egan, you massive shithead.

What’s more, American confidence in the economy is now at the highest level in nearly two decades. That’s hardly the best condition for overthrowing the system.

"The highest level in nearly two decades.” That’s faint fucking praise right there.

You can see the tremendous fucking crater caused by the crash in 2007/8, a reversal of a whopping -81 points from the previous year. With many economists forecasting recession beginning either this year or the next, we’ll see how long the confidence lasts. 

So-called Medicare for all, once people understand that it involves eliminating all private insurance, polls at barely above 40 percent in some surveys, versus the 70 percent who favor the option of Medicare for all who want it. Other polls show majority support. But cost is a huge concern. And even Sanders cannot give a price tag for nationalizing more than one-sixth of the economy.

A ban on fracking is a poison pill in a must-win state like Pennsylvania, which Democrats lost by just over 44,000 votes in 2016. Eliminating Immigration and Customs Enforcement, another Sanders plan, is hugely unpopular with the general public.

“Medicare for all is really unpopular, except when it isn’t.”

Hmm, you know? Hmmm.

As for fracking, from his own link:

>A November poll conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Cook Political Report found that only 39 percent of Pennsylvania swing voters saw a fracking ban as a good idea, even as nearly 7 in 10 of those same voters said they supported the idea of a “Green New Deal” for the environment.

Democrats are whinging on the jobs “lost” to a fracking ban as though it exists in isolation. 39% might support a fracking ban, but 70% support the GND, which could potentially offset the “job loss” with industry that has the potential not to leave their state as a fucking environmentally ruined horror show. I haven’t run the numbers on this, but not living in a cesspool of polluted air and water tends to be pretty popular, Timbo.

More shellgames from Mr Egan regarding abolishing ICE.

> Only 1 in 4 voters in the poll, 25 percent, believe the federal government should get rid of ICE. The majority, 54 percent, think the government should keep ICE. Twenty-one percent of voters are undecided. 

That sounds bad. Maybe it’s not such a good ide

>But a plurality of Democratic voters do support abolishing ICE, the poll shows. Among Democrats, 43 percent say the government should get rid of ICE, while only 34 percent say it should keep ICE.

Oh.

Sanders is a rigid man, and he projects grumpy-old-man rigidity, with his policy prescriptions frozen in failed Marxist pipe dreams. He’s unlikely to change. I sort of like that about his character, in the same way I like that he didn’t cave to the politically correct bullies who went after him for accepting the support of the influential podcaster Joe Rogan.

Democrats win with broad-vision optimists who still shake up the system — Franklin Roosevelt, of course, but also Obama. The D’s flipped 40 House seats in 2018 without using any of Sanders’s stringent medicine. If they stick to that elixir they’ll oust Trump, the goal of a majority of Americans.

Democrats lose with fire-and-brimstone fundamentalists. Three times, the party nominated William Jennings Bryan, the quirky progressive with great oratorical pipes, and three times they were trounced. Look him up, kids. Your grandchildren will do a similar search for Bernie Sanders when they wonder how Donald Trump won a second term.

“Failed Marxist pipe dreams.” Aaaaay lmao. You should also have an inkling something is wrong when you have to go all the way back to FDR to find someone that supports your point. Talk about “poison pills,” Obama proved himself to be as much of a snake as the rest, and the effects of that resonated in 2016 when the Dems ran on a platform of “that’s a nice country you have there, you wouldn’t want Trump to get elected, would you?” How did that work out? You ran one of the most unpopular politicians in the country—after very blatantly rigging the primaries against Sanders to do so—against one of the most unpopular capitalists in the country, and lost, dipshit!

Ironically, I think Timbob’s closing statement will prove true, though not in the way his clown ass intends. Shills like Egan are doing everything they can to try and poison public perception against Sanders and his policies, who only proves increasingly popular as time goes on, so much so in fact that the DNC is already biting its nails and muttering to itself about ways it can try and cheat his supporters again.

In conversations on the sidelines of a DNC executive committee meeting and in telephone calls and texts in recent days, about a half-dozen members have discussed the possibility of a policy reversal to ensure that so-called superdelegates can vote on the first ballot at the party’s national convention. Such a move would increase the influence of DNC members, members of Congress and other top party officials, who now must wait until the second ballot to have their say if the convention is contested.

They deny it in the article, claim that changing the rules would be “bad sportsmanship,” but one would be a fool to believe them. If anything, their ambivalence towards relying on Superdelegates would make me even more nervous at this stage. Politico wants it to seem like the DNC is bent on playing fair, but more likely than not they have no intention of changing the convention rules because they believe there’s no need. With Warren’s flagging support and the luke-warm response to Biden, I doubt they’re overcome with optimism of beating Sanders in an honest primary. With all the shenanigans from last time’s primaries in mind, it’s likely that the machinery to rig the results their way is already in place—the primary could already be over before it even begins.