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dystopiandilfs · 4 years ago

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Dream's discord podcast. Basically him answering questions for 2.5 hours. This will sort of be in order but I fucked up my notes so it might not be in order completely. (From 13th May 2021)

For reference the photos at the end are: A prototype of fidget spinner merch as loads of people asked, a reference photo of his favourite merch and a photo he sent of his hair to prove he wasn't a brunette.

•He said his teeth are mostly straight but he's thought about getting Invisalign. He's never had braces. He has a tiny gap in the left side of his mouth and his canines are longer and sharper (vampire arc). He's never had teeth surgery so has his wisdom teeth still.

•He thinks pineapple on pizza is good.

•He likes seafood like lobster and crab. He had crab made in an air fryer last night. He like peas. He thinks quesadillas are good and likes most food.

•He hates Coffee and most drinks

•The Dream Shorts team is Ken who is his personal reminder (Ken's main job is to spam him with texts so he doesn't forget things as he's got a habit of reading texts and not replying) and also comes up with a list of sets for Dream shorts. The builder is a friend and munchymc builder "his talent gets wasted on Dream's shorts but we pay him so"

•His editors are currently Dizzy, Firesale and Mjcr. Willz doesn't edit for him anymore

•The mask animation isn't done but Mask should be released May 21st. He wants to release them together as "the whole song is a double meaning and the whole nuance will be lost without the animation" but no matter if the animation is done the song is getting released on the 21st.

•He and Sapnap eat together often.

•He and Sapnap prefer medium rare Steak

•He wants a home gym it's something he's willing to splurge on. They currently have a weight rack but they haven't even set it up.

•"Eat the rich? Shut up shut up" - Dream

•Talked about money basically saying "Most people don't understand how money works I don't have millions in my bank account it's in assets like merch, land and warehousing for that stuff" (He's not in his landlord arc)

•He's been debating Pride Merch because of Rainbow Capitalism. He doesn't want it too be seen as a money maker and if he does most proceeds would go to charity. He's currently super busy merch wise with Sapnap joining and George in the middle of joining. He did say "Only if the LGBTQ+ community in this community wants it" He thinks he's going to at least change the merch website to a pride one. Sapnap wants to make pride merch including a rainbow flame on his.

•He wants to create a charity that's centered around helping LGBTQ+ one day because he thinks that there's a lack of them. He mentioned that creating a charity was expensive and took a lot and was a complicated process including a board of directors but he wants to do it someday.

•He wanted to buy a bunch of houses in Florida which was a service to house mostly LGBTQ+ youth and people stuck in abusive households for free to get them out of bad home environments. But he didn't because he didn't want people thinking he was profiting of of abuse victims and LGBTQ+ community.

•He said he's terrible with time management and replying to people which is why Ken helps him (and also helps George and Sapnap). He mentioned how Sam messaged multiple times and Dream just forgot to answer but felt bad "I feel like people think I hate them..... Cause I'd be mad if people did that to me"

•He tries to reply to a few texts a day (community number). He also can't do birthday messages everyday because you can only reply at certain times so it's not abusing the system so if you get one it's special. He said he does try but it's got a weird time gap.

•Him and the manhunt winner are trying to come up with a good time to film

•He wants to stream this MCC on twitch and says his team is good.

•He talks about why he's not partnered with Twitch. Basically Twitch has a lock rate (in which you make money) and you legally can't stream on YouTube. So legally if Tommy wanted to stream on YouTube he couldn't. Someone then mentioned how Bad is a twitch partner but still streams on YouTube "Bad streams on YouTube but he has for a while and I don't think that he cares" - Dream

•He likes to reply to every donation he gets on stream and feels bad when he doesn't so he'll turn them off when he streams and wants a platform deal where he can be payed to stream (not twitch). If he gets a streaming partnership he will stream a couple of times a week. He looked in to Facebook but they don't have an alias system meaning you can see everyone's actual Facebook account and personal info, he doesn't like seeing real names on Facebook so it would require a lot of altering if he was to stream there so he's thinking it's probably going to be YouTube.

•He was asked about if his demographic was what he expected and he said he went in with no expectations, he didn't even know what stans were, wasn't really on social media so he wasn't aware of the fan culture. "You guys are a handful sometimes but it's worth it"

•He also mentioned how he and the DreamSMP changed the twitch audience demographic. It used to be male dominated in both streamers and audience and now it's almost split which is unheard on.

•He has 5 fidget spinners in his house. Two in his bedroom. Two in his office. One in the living room.

•He likes his Minecraft skin as he thinks the arm is cook and you never see the rest of his skin really. He says it's unique and different and "me". Dream: You can't even tell half the skins apart on MC.

•He's not lost the motivation to stream. Most of the times if he wants to stream he gets George or Sapnap to do it and he just turns up. It's more beneficial to them as they have donos and subs on. (Don't we fucking know it "can you say hi to")

•He has listened to Lovejoy. Says the ep was great and they're very talented and awesome. Doesn't know what his favourite song is but probably would pick One Day because the chorus slaps.

•RIP to acoustic Roadtrip. He said instead of acoustic Roadtrip we get Mask so no losses today for Dream stans.

•"With Roadtrip I went to Parker and I said Hey I have a story I want to tell through music. I have no experience with that can you help me" He said sure. He crafted the music and melodies and how things are formed where it's catchy. I have less comfort singing that. I love the song and it's my song, it's very representative of me and I'm sure I could sing it but it's a song I'd be kinds of scared to sing live, with Mask I basically did everything. I sat there the entire time and maybe an hour out if the 100 I wasn't in the call. Dream came up with the lyrics and main melody for Mask (First one he's ever come up with) "That was just notes in my fucking voice memos"

•The clip we heard of Mask was a prechorus not the actual chorus. He thinks he'd be more comfortable to do a mask acoustic and it's more melodic than Roadtrip. The chorus also has a lot of instruments similar to Roadtrip. Mask starts of slow and guitar with minimal reverb and is more raw.

• He doesn't want music to be his main thing. It's something fun to do and he's passionate about it as it's a way to express emotions. He wants to release mask then go from there. He wants to release at least one more song but has nothing on his mind currently. His two ideas were Roadtrip and Mask.

•He wouldn't quit his job to become a pizza delivery man.

•His favourite features on himself are eyes or freckles and he also confirmed that he does have eyebrows.

•He was told that Parkour warrior would be bought back some time in the near future and he got excited for it. "Even if I don't win, which I will, it'll be fun"

•Went on about his MCC team but I'm not going to put that in as we should be getting them today. He did say he wasn't on Pink but he did sound confused. (For reference he's always in Pink as it's the last team announced and keeps the hype up by announcing the biggest streamer last)

•Said he and his mum had the Mr Beast burger. He recommends because he likes the avacado. He mentioned how Mr Beast uses "Ghost Kitchens" which is basically where he gives restaurants permission to cook his food so it's restaurant quality food.

•His favourite piece of merch is the circle smile. (The pool photo on Instagram). He said the quality was bad (he worked with a different company and didn't have his own company) and it was elasticy feeling and he's planning on re-releasing it again but with good quality.

•He's started to send merch out in custom packaging. So his bags have the smile and will mostly be green. Sapnap's has the flame and is either black or white. He's also trying to make it so every order has the sticker packs for both him and Sapnap.

•He loves the coins as it's cheaper than a hoodie but still celebrates the milestones and will last a long time. He mentioned how the old coins are getting removed off the site and how if you have any of the coins your special because only a few thousand get made. He's kept around 100 of each coin that he wants to give away in person.

•He wanted to have a cool store where you could access computers that give you access to the DreamSMP in spectator mode. But it's too costly and would require too much time and isn't safe fight now. He doesn't think it'd be worth it financially.

•Most of the hoodie are black instead of multiple colours because of limited supply and covid. Getting the colours are harder because if the pandemic which hopefully won't be an issue soon.

•He wants to do a short meetup tour with Sapnap and George with a few locations in the US (and if others nearby want to join like Quackity or Karl they can). He also wants to visit Australia, UK, Canada, Mexico and Philippines and do something like that there but definitely at least visit with George and Sapnap.

•He's never been to the Philippines but his mum has. He wants to set up a place in the Philippines where he can ship merch in bulk and it would help to reduce shipping. However it would probably be big milestone merch.

•He's not got the vaccine yet but will get it when he needs to. He doesn't leave the house so he doesn't see the point.

•He's the ideas man. George's footcam video was Dream's idea. The T-shirt video was Dream's idea. Most if not all of the Dream Team's videos are Dream's ideas.

•Said he's got a similar/the same hair colour as Froy (Dream buddy at this point the only difference between you and Froy is that one of you is dating Richard Madden /lh)

#dreamsmp #dream smp #dreamwastaken #mcyt #georgenotfound #sapnap

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adikospodcast · 3 years ago

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EP. 1: PROCNE AND PHILOMELA [TRANSCRIPT]

hello everyone and welcome to adikos, a true crime podcast! my name is arete, i'm your host, and today i wanted to talk to you about a true crime case that has always really shocked me ever since i first heard of it: you might know it already, since it received a massive amount of coverage when it first happened, especially because of how extremely disturbing and really heartbreaking this whole case is. you may have guessed from the title that i am talking about the case of procne and philomela, which you may also know as the case of tereus or the case of itys, depending on whose account of the story is being referenced, basically.

now this story, as i already mentioned, is particularly disturbing and violent, even for this being a true crime channel, so i just wanted to give a quick trigger warning before we start that this case does center around issues of sexual assault and violence, physical mutilation and cannibalism, so you might want to click off if understandably you don't feel like listening to all that. on the other hand, if you just want to hear all about the story of procne and philomela, let's get started!

like i said, this case was extremely popular and famous when it first broke, and there are some conflicting reports on what exactly happened and when: all my sources will be linked down below, and i will do my best to try to make sense of the events that happened and to mention when certain information just overlaps or contradicts each other.

now, all that being said, who were procne and philomela? they were born in athens to pandion, who was the fifth king of the polis, and his wife zeuxippe: they were respectively the eldest and the second eldest children, procne was a few years older than philomela, and they had two younger brothers who were twins; we have erechtheus, who would become the successor to pandion's throne, and butes. we don't really know much about the sisters' early life, but the one thing that we know for sure is that the two were absolutely inseparable: they really loved each other more than anyone else, and when their family was interviewed after the events that unfolded, their brother butes claimed that they had always been ride or die for each other, and they often even got to the point of getting themselves in trouble if they could avoid the other being punished when they were kids. i think this is a really weird thing in a sibling relationship; it's really common for kids, especially for sisters, to just argue and disagree with each other, and i know i often have fights with my sisters, but apparently procne and philomela's relationship really had none of that: their family really emphasized the degree to which they loved each other and cared for each other, and they even said in a few interviews that they always got along and could understand each other at a glance without saying a word, which in retrospect, to me, is just quite grim, honestly.

so, when the girls were in their teenage years, war broke out between athens, so pandion's city, and thebes, which was then ruled by king labdacus: thebes was an incredibly strong city, militarly speaking, and pandion had to enlist the help of tereus, who was the king of thracia, to defeat it. this move would prove to be extremely worth it: thereus's aid was absolutely invaluable in defeating the theban army, and pandion promised him his firstborn daughter as a wife, as both a thanks and as a way to bond the two cities together, so thracia and athens, with this political marriage. now, by all accounts, this wedding was absolutely grandiose, and the whole of thracia got to celebrate alongside their king and their new queen; however, there is one source, which may just be a rumor, that states that on their wedding night procne was looking out the window of their bedroom, when she saw this really off-putting owl, which at the time was considered a bad omen for the marriage, but she sort of paid no mind to it and she just got a servant to shoo it away, and i think in retrospect this may have been a warning sign of what the whole marriage was really going to come to.

soon after the wedding, procne became pregnant with her first son, itys: she and her husband were obviously really overjoyed at the news, as was the whole kingdom to hear that an heir had been secured to the throne, and when little itys was born, both his parents were instantly in love with him. baby itys was just very clingy with his mother, but he also really loved spending time with his dad, and when he grew a little bit older the two of them really loved to eat together and share meals with each other, which again, in retrospect is definitely chilling, if you can sense my foreboding here.

procne and tereus's marriage was a really happy one for the first five years: they had a son, they had a palace, they had a house in the woods all to themselves, they had everything they could have wanted, but still, procne really missed her sister: after all they had spent their entire lives together, but she'd had to just up and abandon her and leave to go to a whole another kingdom! now, obviously this is a fate that all girls must go through eventually, when we do get married, but it's still a really heartbreaking thing to go through, and as someone whose older sister got married and had to move to akragas, i can definitely sympathize with both procne and philomela.

so, after five years spent without seeing her sister, procne finally caved, and she asked her husband if she could be brought there to thracia to just spend some time together as sisters: thereus agreed, and he was going to have to visit athens nonetheless to talk to pandion, so he just set sail and headed to the city. once he actually got to pandion and had an audience with him, he relayed his daughter's wishes to him, so that procne really deeply wished for philomela to come visit her; he also assured pandion that his daughter's visit would be really brief and there would be no overstaying, obviously philomela was the only daughter left to care for pandion, so he really held on to her and was really hesitant to give her up to thereus. as he was pleading though, philomela came downstairs, she had overheard what was happening, what they were talking about, and obviously she was really overjoyed at the idea of going to thracia and seeing her sister, so she started pleading with her father to let her go with tereus. now, at the time it had been five years since thereus and philomela had seen each other for the last time, and obviously philomela was still unmarried, she was still a virgin, but she had still grown and blossomed into a beautiful young woman, and as soon as tereus put his eyes on her he immediately fell in lust with her, and started trying to concoct and think of ways he could seduce her.

so, pandion was finally convinced to send philomela away to thracia, and his last words were, to her and to tereus, to send his beloved daughter back as soon as possible, and to treat her with a father's love, which wasn't exactly how tereus ended up treating philomela, unfortunately. so, she boarded the ship on the harbor of piraeus, alongside some of the guards sent by her father to look after her, and obviously she was really happy to be seeing her sister again, but she had also never really traveled before outside of athens, so this journey really was exciting for her and something really new all the way around; however, what she didn't know was that that would be the last time seeing athens and her father, and that this journey would really spell doom for her and her entire life.

during the time spent on the ship, the servants did note that tereus was a bit quieter and a bit more reserved than he usually was, but they just chalked it up to the awkward nature of being in the ship with his wife's sister: they didn't really know each other that well, after all they had only seen each other once five years ago, so there was not much intimacy between them at all; in reality, however, we can infer that he was probably thinking about his next move in trying to get his hands on philomela, as creepy as that may sound, unfortunately.

now, at some point during the journey tereus probably had the guards killed and tossed into the sea, so they wouldn't just interfere with his plans: they have been reported missing in that time frame, and no bodies were ever recovered. it's actually unclear whether philomela was aware of this, if she simply thought they had maybe had an accident and drowned, or something of sorts, all the sources i looked at just sort of brushed over what the guards' involvement and role was in this story and what happened to them. what we do know is that tereus and philomela did eventually land, and he escorted her to the house in the woods that tereus and procne had together. now, before this moment philomela didn't really suspect anything, she was still really impatient about seeing her sister, but as soon as she walked into this large, empty house in the middle of the woods and tereus closed the door behind her, she felt this sinking sense of dread in her stomach.

and she tried calling her sister's name a few times, obviously she was expecting to see her there to greet her, but she hadn't shown up, so she called for her; but the house remained absolutely dead silent, aside from the echo of her voice, so she turned around to tereus and she asked him where her sister was, she thought she was going to be there to see her, what had happened? and there are different sources that say different things about what tereus said to philomela: some say he told her that procne was dead, others say he just said she wouldn't be there to greet her, but the one thing that we know for sure is that in that moment tereus shoved philomela to the ground and he forced himself on her, he assaulted her, he raped her right then and there. she begged him to stop, obviously, she pleaded him to think of his wife, think of her father, think of her virginity, but it was all in vain; and she later recounted just looking up in horror and seeing the wicked grin on his face, and just being absolutely paralyzed by fear, not being able to do anything but scream and cry and call for help, help that would unfortunately never come for poor philomela.

so, once he got off of her, she covered herself up, she tried to fix herself up, and she started cursing at him: obviously she was absolutely furious with his actions, she was screaming, she defied him to kill her, and she swore to him that she would go around and tell everyone in detail all that he had done to her, and she didn't care about keeping her modesty, keeping her virginity intact, she just wanted everyone to know what a pig thereus was really was; and obviously she was right to say these things, she was extremely angry and she had a reason to be, but this behavior, the way she was challenging him, the way she was defying him, actually made tereus's blood absolutely boil in a fury and he grabbed this dagger, and philomela thought he was going to slit her throat and just kill her right then and there, but he actually took her tongue from his m- from her mouth, he sliced it clean off from the root, and then he tossed it on the ground, and he forced himself on her again and again, and she was still bleeding from her tongue; and then he just got up, he cleaned himself of her blood, and he left her alone, just agonizing in the house on the floor, and to me this is absolutely horrific, i cannot imagine what poor philomela was thinking in that moment, she must have been really in such mental and physical pain it's unbelievable to me.

now, one source states that once tereus left the house in the woods, he went back to the palace to meet with procne, and he told her that her sister had died, which absolutely destroyed poor procne, of course: she wept, she ripped her hair out, she just mourned so hard and for as much as a whole year for the loss of her sister, but without knowing that her sister was actually alive and being held captive not so far away from her. now if this source is actually accurate, it would mean that philomela was imprisoned, was being held captive and brutalized in the forest by tereus, for an entire year, and possibly also thinking that her sister was dead or had not cared for her, which to me is just really heartbreaking to think about.

fortunately for her, philomela had kept the sharp wits she had always had, and she figured out a plan to tell her sister where she was and what had happened to her: in the forest house there was a loom, obviously this house was a fully furnished house for the king and the queen, so a loom was expected to be there, and she used this loom to weave a cloak and embroider onto it the terrible tortures that tereus had put her through, which was actually the primary source from which all the original case coverings and reportings were able to discover what had happened during the captivity of poor philomela, since she wasn't there to speak for herself.

now, it's actually unclear how the cloak was delivered to procne: some sources say that she [philomela] begged a woman to do it and the woman took pity on her, but some say she bribed a guard to do it, others even say that philomela was held captive with the one of procne's friends there to surveil- to surveil her and the friend actually delivered the cloak to procne; this is a really muddled case for a case that is so famous and so widely covered; but the crux of the matter is, philomela got the embroidered cloak to her sister, and as soon as procne opened the package and saw the contents of the embroidery, the terrible acts that were being described on it, she became absolutely livid, and she began making a plan to get her sister back.

now, we don't know for sure how procne managed to get her sister back, but one source does allege that she may have used the occasion of the bacchic celebrations for dionysus to her advantage, and she may have dressed like a maenad and snuck out of the palace to get to the house in the woods, just undisturbed, unnoticed, surrounded by other women dressed as maenads and going in the woods to celebrate. she may have then dressed her sister also like a maenad, so she could pass her off as one of them, and just brought her back into the palace without them being noticed, and i can't even begin to imagine just how touching this reunion between the sisters must have been: like, already, being away from the sister you love for so long is incredibly painful, but then add to that the tragedy of thinking she had actually died without you being there of all things, and then actually discovering that she had been held captive by your own husband all this time! it really is unbelievable to me what pain they must have endured, and also how ecstatic they must have been to be together again. unfortunately, this joy they both felt would not last for long.

procne had always been a very passionate woman, ever since she was a young girl, and her first thought, aside from being happy that she had her sister back of course, went to revenge: she immediately began plotting a way to get back at tereus, make him suffer just the way that she and her sister had suffered, and while she proposed to stab him in the guts, or set him on fire, or torture him any other way that would make him feel the pain they had felt, she was interrupted by her young son itys, who came running into the room to greet his mother back. now, he was a very lively child by now, he had turned five years old, and as soon as procne saw him running towards her with his arms open to hug her, like any five-year-old would do with his mother, she had this chilling thought of: "wow you look so much like your father". and in this moment she was blinded by her rage and her revenge fantasies, and she was less than lucid, and she saw her child as the perfect weapon to really make her husband pay for what he had done; now, of course this doesn't mean that what she did next was in any way right, i don't mean to justify procne, but i think it does give us a way to contextualize her mindset, and what was going on in her head at the time of what happened next.

when itys came up to his mother and hugged her, calling to her "mom, mom, i missed you so much", she took a dagger and stabbed him in the back. some sources say only procne was involved in the murder and philomela was just a bystander, while others claimed that philomela actually slit the child's throat so he would be in less pain and he would die faster, but the fact of the matter was still that procne had killed her poor child and was left with his corpse. now, how she decided to deal with it is really hard to stomach, so if you don't feel like hearing about the details i do encourage you to skip forward a bit, but with the dagger she had she cut off itys's head and gave that to philomela, and then she cut up his body into smaller pieces and had them sent to the kitchens; in the kitchens she had some of the meat boiled, some other she had it roasted on a grill, and then she set up this special dinner for tereus with her son's corpse, her son's remains, her son's flesh.

now, she called on tereus and she explained it to him that this was an important tradition in athens's culture, which was a meal reserved only for the husband, and only to be eaten alone by the husband and king. so tereus sat down, and he fell for this, he sat down and he ate his son's flesh boiled and roasted, and you know what i said earlier, about him and itys enjoying having meals together, sharing food? well, that macabre dinner was so good and so tasty to tereus that he had to call on his son to share that pleasure of eating that food with him, and it was only then that procne, who had been watching him eat diligently, actually revealed to him that the son he was calling for was in his stomach now; and in that moment philomela, like she was waiting for her cue, rushed into the room, shoved the decapitated head of itys in tereus's face, it was still dripping blood on his chiton; and that really gave tereus, whose mouth was still full with his son's flesh, the chilling and absolutely terrifying realization of what he had done, and what his wife had done to him in turn.

the two sisters just took off running before tereus even had time to begin to react, and they left the palace and they disappeared in the surrounding woods; they were never seen again, and all the sources i looked at allege that the sisters were turned into a swallow and a nightingale, but there does seem to be a bit of confusion as to which sister turned into which bird: now, some say that procne became the swallow and philomela the nightingale, as she was finally able to sing again after she had lost her voice, while others say philomela became the swallow and procne the nightingale, and she is singing a song of mourning for the child that she has killed, but what is the crux of the matter is that all sources basically point to these sisters turning into those two specific birds.

tereus, after he got after the initial shock, ran after them, extremely furious, extremely enraged, and he was also turned into a bird; specifically into a hoopoe, it appears, but again, a different source states he was turned into a vulture? and there seems to be a lot of confusion as to which birds everyone got turned into, which personally leads me to believe that this was just a bit of exaggeration that just got spread around with no real basis for it. now, there are some cases where the meddling of the gods and other supernatural forces is proven, it is real, it is confirmed, and it is also sometimes crucial to the case: think of, i don't know, the case of medea – which i would like to also cover in the future on this channel – but in this case i think it really is just some exaggeration that got spread around by all the sources.

so, this was the case of procne and philomela! i'd love to hear what you guys think of this, i think this is a really tricky case to approach, because it is, to me at least, such a clear example of how righteous anger and righteous wrath as someone who has wronged us can end up, unfortunately, being misplaced on others: in my opinion, at least, procne and philomela were absolutely right to want to punish tereus, but because they had no power to do anything to him, he was the husband, the man, the king, he was so much more powerful than either of them could ever become, they decided to instead redirect their anger at the one thing that would hurt him more than anything, his innocent child with no blood on his hands and no way to save himself, no way to protect himself, and in the process of getting their revenge they stained their own hands of innocent blood. again, i'm not trying to justify anyone involved in this case, obviously procne's actions are absolutely unjustifiable, but i do hope to just bring some light to the possible motives and thought processes behind her actions, just so we can better understand how someone does end up committing such horrible and heinous crimes as what procne did.

i hope you guys enjoyed today's episode! let me know what you thought of this case, and if you have any suggestions, or really any cases you would like to hear me talk about; always remember that every tragedy is born of man's hubris, and i will see you guys next time!

#podcast #tagamemnon #true crime #greek mythology #myth retelling #transcripts #procne and philomela #procne #philomela #itys #tereus

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sinagrace · 6 years ago

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As Pride Month comes to a close, it’s time I spoke candidly about my experience at Marvel Comics.

To date, I’ve always been honest about the joy of writing Iceman’s journey as an out gay superhero, but I’ve skirted around the challenges that came along with it. This is partially because I prefer to give off an upbeat vibe, and there’s also a fear that my truth will affect my career. With more corporations patting themselves on the back for profit-led partnerships wherein celebrities take selfies in rainbow apparel, and with buzz that Marvel Studios is preparing to debut their first gay character in the upcoming Eternals movie, there is an urgency to discuss the realities of creating queer pop culture in a hostile or ambivalent environment. Hopefully, my takeaways will serve as a guide for people in positions of power to consider when advocating for more nuanced and rich representation. In an ideal world, embracing our stories and empowering us to tell them will yield far more profitable (and way less messy) results than what I encountered while writing Iceman.

Stand by your people

It’s no surprise that I got the attention of trolls and irate fans for taking on this job. There was already backlash around the manner in which Bobby Drake aka Iceman came out, and Marvel needed to smooth that landing and put a “so what” to the decision. After a point, I could almost laugh off people making light of my death, saying they have "cancerous AIDS" from my book, or insinuating I’m capable of sexual assault… almost. Between Iceman’s cancellation and its subsequent revival, Marvel reached out and said they noticed threatening behavior on my Twitter account (only after asking me to send proof of all the nasty shit popping up online). An editor called, these conversations always happen over the phone, offering to provide “tips and tricks” to deal with the cyber bullying. I cut him off. All he was going to do was tell me how to fend for myself. I needed Marvel to stand by me with more work opportunities to show the trolls that I was more than a diversity hire. “We’ll keep you in mind.” I got so tired of that sentence.

Even after a year of the new editor-in-chief saying I was talented and needed to be on a book that wasn’t “the gay character,” the only assignment I got outside of Iceman was six pages along, about a version of Wolverine where he had diamond claws. Fabulous, yes. Heterosexual, yes. Still kind of the gay character, though.

We as creators are strongly encouraged to build a platform on social media and use it to promote work-for-hire projects owned by massive corporations�� but when the going gets tough, these dudes get going real quick.

Believe in the work

You may be asking if my Iceman book was any good, or if I’m just being sour grapes over a bad work experience. Believe me, I asked that, too. From the get-go, my first editor asserted that Iceman would be DOA if it were “too gay,” while also telling me to prepare for a cancellation anyway, given that most solo X-Men titles don’t last beyond a year. Never mind that my work on Iceman had gotten positive press in the New York Times (in-print), or that in spite of (since-deleted) critical sandbagging, the series nets glowing reviews on Amazon… Marvel still treated me as someone to be contained, and the book as something to be nervous about. Do you know how hard it is to not argue with a publicist when he’s explaining the value of announcing Iceman’s revival via the Marvel homepage? Sis, that’s a burial. Instead of clapping back, I just went and got myself more press from the New York Times. From there, they tightened my leash. I had to get all opportunities pre-approved, and all interviews pre-reviewed. This would be fine if it was the standard, but I assure you: none of my straight male colleagues seek permission to go on podcasts promoting their books.

What Marvel should have done is assign me a special projects editor. They should have worked with a specialty PR firm, rather than repeat a tiresome cycle of treating the book like a square peg, and getting confused when it’s a hit.

Give us a real seat at the table

There was a moment before Iceman was cancelled where I wrote then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso an email, pleading for a Hail Mary arc. I explained that Iceman was landing with a newer generation of readers who focused more on binge-reading than month-to-month periodicals. The series needed time in the book market before its true strength could be assessed. To Axel’s credit, he was warm to the idea and even gave me an extra month, but when he left Marvel that idea got brushed away. Of course I was right. The first two volumes sold like gangbusters thanks to word-of-mouth, librarian love, and support from retailers big and small.

When the series returned, no one at Marvel asked me: “What do you think landed with readers?” Nor did they ask the question that Axel did: “What matters to your community?” So when I wrote what I thought the fans would be into, a story about a man learning to be a better ally in the war against hate, editorial totally missed its value.

Seat at the table pt II: The Shade of it all

All of the weird drama I put up with crystallized when I created a drag queen mutant, first called Shade, now called Darkveil. I told my editor that Shade would be a big deal for X-Fans, and asked how we should promote her. He said: “leave it up to the reader’s interpretation.” Everyone at Marvel shrugged off two years of goodwill and acted like I’d coordinated behind their backs on an announcement that made headlines. Beyond mentioning on Instagram the queens who inspired the character, I didn’t coordinate shit. Of course, their head publicist can’t admit that my quotes were pre-approved from an unreleased interview. At this point, I stopped believing that there’d be any more work for me. There were so many shady moves on their end that I’m still having trouble putting into language, but it all aligned with an experience I had in retail where a corrupt manager kept lying and moving the goal posts in order to keep me selling in a department I didn’t want to work in. I offered to give Darkveil a proper character bio, and I walked away.

I recognize that some of my complaints can be filed under “this is freelance life.” I am aware that it was not a queer person of color who joked to me that “it’s not a matter of if Marvel fucks you over, it’s a matter of when.” That came from a cis white male. The same-day turn-arounds without warning, the work emails on Christmas week… that’s the freelance bullshit. Truly, I don’t even think of this as discrimination, I call it general ineptness. It is my belief that if we are telling stories about heroes doing the right thing in the face of adversity, wouldn’t the hope be to embody those ideals as individuals? Instead of feeling like I worked with some of the most inspiring and brave people in comics, I was surrounded by cowards.

Truly, I hate writing this. In keeping with Pride Month, I am proud of the work I did on Iceman... I love the book! It sucks that I may be tarnishing its legacy going public about how the cookies were made. That said, the time for self-congratulating is over, and folks should be earnestly listening when they ask: what could we have done better?

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mistergrass · 4 years ago

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a dump of podcast thoughts/recs

I have been listening to a whole lot of podcasts in the last month, and so I thought I’d just lay out what I’ve listened to so far and my general thoughts (but I’m not gonna tag any of them because I might get too honest - which means REALLY no one is gonna care about this lmao)

I would also love some recs for both fiction and non-fiction if anyone’s got any!

Fiction:

The Magnus Archives - This is, unsurprisingly, my top top recommendation for podcasts. The story being told is so intricate and well thought-out. I love pieces of media where I can turn my brain off and trust that the creators know exactly what they’re doing. And I love anything that knows its intent from episode 1. I think I could go on for ages praising this podcast, but tldr;

HIGHLY RECOMMEND

The Penumbra Podcast (Junoverse) - I am not a fan of high fantasy, which is the main reason I haven’t listened to Second Citadel (other than the one-off eps in s1), so I’ll just focus on the Juno Steel stories. But I listened to this after catching up with TMA because so many people seemed to recommend it. Because of that, I think I might have gone into it with slightly higher-than-necessary expectations....

Here are things I like about it: the environment is well sound-scaped (especially in later eps), the universe is really cool and fun to learn about, and the romantic subplot between Juno and Peter really is a great time.

That being said, I can get a little frustrated with the writing at times. Story beats are sometimes paced oddly, and at other times the narration can over-explain what’s going on -- especially wrt character emotions. S2 I think is the biggest culprit of this “tell don’t show” method, and it can expand to hurt the individual mysteries and the set-up of the metaplot, too. Overall, S2 was a real dredge to get through. (But credit where credit is due, Juno Steel and The Monster’s Reflection were incredibly crafted episodes of that season).

But it was worth it to me for S3, which is a fun vibe and shifts from focusing on individual mysteries to character explorations in a found-family dynamic. The real strength of this podcast are the unique and engaging characters and their dynamics (which is why when Juno isolates himself in S2, it gets kind of dull). It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely been a very entertaining season.

Uhhhh, kind of recommend? Maybe only if you’re really into the noir/sci-fi/detective genre.

Death by Dying - The worst thing about this podcast is that there’s only five episodes. Oh my GOD what a gem of a show. The deadpan, absurdist humor in this show is so insanely up my alley and so well-written. But one thing I love about this podcast is that even in five episodes with a format that is mostly obituary-of-the-week, the emotional arcs of the characters are really well-maintained. Charolette, in particular, is a tragic character to follow through the MC’s eyes, but in a way that makes total sense considering the situation. This show is so clever, so fun, and finds ways to be really poignant at times, too.

HIGHLY RECOMMEND

Two Princes - I know I said I don’t like high fantasy, but I’m also gay and sometimes that just beats out. Who doesn’t like a light, fluffy story about two princes falling in love in some perilous magic forest? It’s a gas. Also, it’s just really well-produced and an easy listen. You very much get what’s on the tin, and that tin is some high-quality and very tasty cheese.

RECOMMEND

Limetown - God, I’m so upset about this one.

The first season is a masterpiece. WONDERFULLY produced, beautifully sound-scaped, insanely intriguing and engaging, along with a wonderful MC who is far from perfect in her endeavor for forbidden knowledge. I don’t think I can recommend it enough.

The second season... is fine! You still want to know what’s going on, so it’s easy to keep listening. But, tbh, it takes a bit of an odd turn. I don’t want to spoil it too much, but I would’ve been okay with the shift in direction if it was leading somewhere satisfying. But the S2 finale is... well. Choices were made, I guess. I’ll just say that I was really cheated out of an emotional pay-off.

If there was a promise of a 3rd season that would explain these things in more depth, I might let it off. But it looks like the production team is shifting its focus to the TV series being made out of this. I might watch it -- but I am worried now that they won’t know how to land the plane no matter how smooth the take-off is.

Despite everything, RECOMMEND

Archive 81 - (I have only finished through S2)

My feelings on this show is that I do not have the auditory processing skills required to keep up, lmao. But I don’t think I can really hold that against this podcast. This show doesn’t hold the audience’s hands, which is something I actually really like (even if I do get lost sometimes in what’s happening, lmao). This is obviously another case of the creators knowing EXACTLY where they’re going in the story, too. I also don’t think I’ve heard any other podcast with sound-scaping at this level. The biggest themes of this show are sound and ritual, and itreally follows through on that wrt how the sound is edited. The vibe of it is so mysterious and unique, it does such a good job of making you feel like you’re in a totally different world.

RECOMMEND

Wooden Overcoats - (I have only finished through S1)

This show definitely has a Fawlty Towers feel to it, and the humor is very fast-paced and British in that very specific UK-sitcom way. Because of that the humor is very dry, but definitely fun to listen to. And the characters are a real hysterical bunch.

My biggest critique, however, is that sometimes the episodes end in a way that feels like a big bummer. British sitcoms of this nature usually hinge upon an incompetent/anti-hero MC who tends to deserve the different comical misfortunes that fall upon them. Usually they get up afterwards, having learned nothing, and the cycle continues in a harmless way. But sometimes that vibe doesn’t really hit, and a few episodes will end with these big tonal shifts where the schadenfreude ends up drying out. You sort of just end up feeling bad for everyone involved instead lol. It’s what has me hesitating going into the next season, but I’ll definitely start it up eventually. It’s well produced, and honestly the characters are just too fun to keep away from (Antigone in particular is my favorite).

If you like British sitcoms, I’d recommend. Or if you’re looking for a cynical laugh.

Other podcasts I’ve started are EOS 10, and Dreamboy. I really didn’t like the first episode of Dreamboy, but I’m gonna give it another try since it’s so short. EOS 10 seems well-produced, but not really up my personal alley.

Non-Fiction

I’m not gonna give these ones as long of blurbs, just know I recommend them all highly.

You Must Remember This - Old Hollywood history that is wonderfully researched, and focuses a lot on women of the time. The recounting of these histories feels very honest and she really doesn’t pull any punches when giving detailed and accurate accounts. A truly wonderful show.

Welcome to Your Fantasy - A deep dive on the history of Chippendales that is WILDLY entertaining. I sort of can’t believe I got as sucked in as I did. The host has a wonderful humor about her, but is still great at getting to the heart of some of the heavier issues at hand.

Last Podcast on the Left - My favorite true crime/conspiracy podcast by a long mile. It’s equally hilarious and well-researched. I know a lot of people are kind of anti-true crime lately which is very understandable, but I do appreciate each of the host’s personal philosophies on the matter, which I think comes through in a lot of their episodes.

#I really hope this doesn't end up in any of the tags somehow lmao #I just wanted to vomit my thoughts out a little #and despite anything I say I love all of these creators and am very appreciative for the effort they put into their shows

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batmanisagatewaydrug · 4 years ago

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reading update

it hasn’t quite been a month since the last time I did one of these, but I feel like I’ve read A LOT OF BOOKS since then and also - get this - there’s absolutely nothing stopping me from posting whenever I want.

so, what have I been reading?

Something That May Shock and Discredit You (Daniel M. Lavery) - true facts: I didn’t like this book quite as much as I hoped I would, and that’s okay. Lavery is always clever and funny and delightful and if he sometimes deals in Biblical or literary allusions that fail to land that says more about my points of reference than any of his shortcomings as a writer. there were bits that I vibed with very hard and bits that made me feel as though I were simply along for the ride while an interesting friend spoke with great enthusiasm about things I have very little experience with, and the latter is rarely an unpleasant feeling.

More Than Organs (Kay Ulanday Barrett) - as I mentioned on my last book post, I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting Kay in person and spending a day helping him out at a conference hosted at the university where I work. I tried very hard to infuse the memory of his warm, gentle energy into the book, but I’m coming to the conclusion that poetry might simply work better on me when the author is reading it out loud.

Freshwater (Akwaeke Emezi) - delightful, twisty, beautiful, and sharp. Emezi does some really exhilarating things with storytelling and words, and I’m very much looking forward to reading their other novels.

I’m Afraid of Men (Vivek Shraya) - an absolutely excellent piece of short nonfiction. the best way I can think of to praise this is that if I were designing a syllabus for an introductory gender and women’s studies class and I was trying to make it less boring than my own introductory gender and women’s studies classes, Shraya would perhaps be my very first pick. kindly read before the first day of class, as it’s not even 100 pages long.

Sister Mine (Nalo Hopkinson) - as far as I’m concerned Hopkinson is a genius of short fiction, and her collection Falling In Love With Hominids resides in probably my top two short fiction collections I’ve ever read. Sister Mine, a full-length novel, didn’t pan out for me so well; it felt simultaneously too long and too underdeveloped most of the way through, littered with concepts that would have been more satisfyingly explored with a much tighter word count. c’est la vie.

The Deep (Rivers Solomon) - speaking of concepts that can be explored better with fewer words! an excellent little novella that manages to cover a vast story - collective trauma, an apocalyptic human-mermaid war, a bit of romance, the healing ability of community accountability - in precious little time, all handled with deft sensitivity. a very satisfying novella!

Republic of Lies: American Conspiracy Theorists and their Surprising Rise to Power (Anna Merlan) - if you’re not familiar with Anna Merlan’s journalism I’d recommend looking into it; she covers conspiracy theorists and New Age healing subcultures with a very readable mix of thorough research and wry observation. while her book lacks a cohesive thesis statement beyond “rampant conspiracism bad,” it’s impeccably written and I’ll never cease to be impressed by Merlan’s willingness to walk into the middle of crowds of people jumped up on blatantly anti-Semitic theories and casually announce that she is Jewish.

what am I reading right now?

Junk (Tommy Pico) - although poetry hasn’t really worked out yet, Tommy Pico made an appearance on a podcast I like, the Sporkful, that seriosuly sparked my interest. I’m still not sure I totally get Junk, but it’s very different than either of the other poetry collections I’ve tried so far in a way that I find very enjoyable.

My Lady’s Choosing: An Interactive Romance Novel (Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris) - yeah, this is kind of a wild departure for me. but for awhile now I’ve had a growing sense that 1.) I need to inject a bit of lightness into my literary diet and 2.) I should be exploring the romance genre, which is perpetually overlooked and sneered at despite counting some really lovely-seeming authors among its ranks. I was curious about this one as soon as it hit the shelves at the library last year, because a choose-your-own adventure romance seems like a very fun and novel concept. I’ll be starting it on the ride to work today, and will hopefully report back asap.

#bookblr #reading updates

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ddagent · 5 years ago

Note

Huge request for Papa Bee to be on the podcast!! 😻

Here we are, our footnotes session with Papa Bee! Quite a few people sent in questions, so I’m just going to include those as part of the fic rather than list them all here. But thank you to all those who do send in questions; it’s so much fun!

A huge thank you to @resthefuture who made this AMAZING moodboard for the podcast verse. Seriously, it is gorgeous, and I love it.

B: The following podcast contains strong language, literary violence, and explicit sexual content.

(tourney horn plays)

J: Welcome to The Bear and the Poorly Written Maiden, the footnotes! And for the first time, we have a VERY special guest. It’s Bee’s father, Papa Bee everyone!

S: Hello!

(Jay and Bee clap)

J: Thank you, Papa Bee, for joining us today.

B: You didn’t exactly give him much of a choice.

S: It’s fine, Little Star. I love listening to the two of you doing your podcast; you both sound like you’re having so much fun.

J: We are, thank you, Papa Bee. Now, you’ve brought snacks for us to eat during the podcast today. Quite a few people have asked about your biscuit recipe, can you tell the listeners what you’ve made for us?

S: Of course, lad. I’ve made some lemon curd biscuits for you, lad, and some sausage rolls with apple for my girl.

J: Bee does like a bit of sausage.

B: JAY! I cannot believe you just said that.

J: What, what? You do; you always prefer to have a sausage sandwich when we have breakfast before classes. (chuckles) I don’t know what you’re implying.

B: I hate you. I really hate you.

J: You’ve been saying that since we met, but I don’t think even you believe that anymore. (pause) Anyway, we’ve got introductions out the way, we’ve got our snacks sorted, let’s get down to business.

B: Last week we began reading the first chapter of Off the King’s Road, a hideously explicit tale of Goldenhand and Ser Blue’s journey to King’s Landing.

J: Papa Bee, you were the one who provided us with this dreadful novel. Can you talk about how you found it whilst I have a biscuit?

S: Of course, lad. Since you and my Little Star have started doing this podcast, I’ve been keeping an eye out for any secondhand bookshops, charity shops. Me and Goodwin – you remember Goodwin, don’t you, Bee?

B: Of course, he taught me how to swing a re-enactment sword.

S: Well, we were at a boot sale the other weekend on the other side of the island, and this woman had two plastic tubs filled with all these paperbacks. Now, one caught my eye, because I remember you getting in trouble at school for reading it.

B: Oh, Gods.

J: Off the King’s Road. (Bee groans) She mentioned the Septa caught her?

S: Oh, she did. Only time my Bee ever got sent home was because she had been reading a dirty book.

B: It was a historical romance novel, and what was it doing in the library if not to be read?

J: You’re just full of excuses, aren’t you? (Jay laughs) What chapter were you reading? Was it the one we read last episode?

B: No, no, I believe it was the one in the Harrenhal baths.

S: Memory serves, you went through a period of only having baths after that.

J: (laughs) Really? Oh, well, in that case, I cannot wait to get to that chapter.

B: Our shower was broken!

J: Of course, of course. Now, we’ve had a few comments about the latest episode, which is more than the usual one comment we get from you, Papa Bee. So we’ll take it in turns to read some of them out. This is from weirddaydreamingfangirl, who says “I can't wait for Papa Bee’s appearance!"

S: Very sweet. Hopefully, it won’t be a disappointment.

B: Of course it won’t be, Dad. Okay, here’s another: ulmo80 says, "That book sounds awful." It really does, but get used to it, because we’re committed to reading the whole thing. Dad, do you want to read out the next one?

S: sarahoftarth says (pauses) Do you think she’s Margo’s girl from down the road?

B: I don’t know, Dad. I don’t think so.

S: She could be. She’s called Sarah. Anyway, sarahoftarth says, “Jay's unsuccessful flirting is just too much, I just want to shake them both!” And if it is Sarah from down the road, say hello to your mother.

B: What does she mean by flirting?

J: What does she mean by unsuccessful?

B: Well, clearly that you’re not very good at it. Not that I’ve ever seen you flirt; plenty of people flirt with you, but you never pursue someone yourself.

S: I think there’s a reason for that, Little Star.

B: Oh, I know. ‘None of these women meet his impossibly high standards’.

J: Really? That’s what you think? (pauses) Okay. Let’s, uh, le’s answer a few questions, now. Here’s one for Papa Bee, it’s from a-squire-is-for-life-not-just-for-sevenmas, “Papa Bee, what made you decide to name your daughter after Ser Blue?” That’s a great question.

S: Well, like my daughter, I have a love of history. Our house has always been filled with antiques and suits of armour and Oathkeeper right in the main hall. There’s not been a huge amount of girls born in the last few generations; none, in fact. Both me and Bee’s mum expected her to be a boy, too.

J: What would you have called her, if she was a boy?

S: We liked Robb, and I’d always quite liked Brynden as a name, too. But she was a girl, and I knew she had to be Bri–she had to be named after Ser Blue. Someone strong, and brave. Who would do amazing things. I knew my daughter had to be named after her.

(pause)

B: O–okay. Next question is from everything-is-a-cereal-bowl. (laughs) Clearly someone on your wavelength, Jay.

J: I don’t know what you’re trying to say.

B: There was milk in my saucepan this morning.

J: I was making a creamy pasta sauce.

B: There were choco pops in it.

J: I was making hot chocolate?

B: Anyway, everything-is-a-cereal-bowl asks, “Papa Bee, what do you think of Jay?”

S: I think he’s a lovely lad, very smart, and the smartest thing he’s ever done is become best friends with my little girl.

J: See, Bee, your dad thinks we’re best friends.

B: Fine, fine! We’re best friends!

(all three laugh)

J: I think we’ve got time for another couple of questions. Okay, this is from jaybee28: “Hi Papa Bee—”

S: Hello jaybee28!

J: “Hi Papa Bee so excited to have you on an episode of footnotes. I know they recommended submitting questions related to your ancestors but something has been bugging me since the latest episode and I can think of no one better to pose the question than you!” Okay, does this mean you have to ask it?

B: I think so. Jay, give my Dad the tablet.

S: Alright, let’s read what we’ve got here. Right, so, the question is, “Jay... why do you know how little/much Bee knows about blow jobs?”

B: WHAT THE—

J: Language.

B: I read out the warning at the beginning; it says strong language so I’m going to say, what the fuck, jaybee28?

J: (laughs) It is a valid question.

B: No it isn’t, not in front of my father.

J: I think any father would be happy his daughter doesn’t know a great deal about blow jobs.

S: Little Star, I do listen to all your episodes, you know. I am aware my daughter knows about sex. Especially after you found that book, and all those stories of you and—

B: —no, please, I beg of you, do not finish that thought.

J: I will pay you five hundred gold dragons right now, Papa Bee, to finish that thought.

B: You can barely afford rent; you ate at my house all last week to save money.

J: It’s called being financially conscious. But, honestly, I’d live in a box if your father finished that sentence. (Bee huffs) And, in answer to your question, jaybee28, when we first started researching the idea of a podcast, we were looking through historical erotica and Bee casually wondered why so many stories had cannibalism as they all described swallowing a man whole.

B: Wonderful; this is exactly what I wanted to happen on this podcast.

J: Come on, it’s nothing to be embarrassed about.

B: Next special guest we have is going to be your brother, you do realise that, don’t you?

J: (pause) I do now.

B: Good. Right, one more question before we finish. It’s for my Dad. colour-chart-courtship has asked, “Papa Bee, what would you think if Jay and Bee decided to host their podcast for life? Jay is hers, Bee is his, for as long as the tourney horn plays.” I–I don’t get it.

J: Well, as long as we have people listening, I guess we’ll still do it.

S: colour-chart-courtship, I would be over the moon if these two decided to host this podcast for life. It makes them both happy, and that’s all a father wants for his little girl. And if they decide to make any spin-offs, I’d be glad to help out with those, too.

J: A spin-off, I’d like that. (pause) We could read out bad essay assignments!

B: I do believe that’s a breach of data protection.

J: Pfft.

B: Right, before it’s necessary for me to help Jay navigate a university tribunal, I think we should end it there. Thank you, Dad, for joining us today. I hope it hasn’t been too traumatic.

S: Not at all! I’ll come back next week, if you want.

J: I have a feeling next week’s guest spot is already full. Right, Bee?

B: Right, Jay.

J: (sighs) But, yes, thank you so much, Papa Bee. And thank you, everyone, who has listened to our podcast, commented or sent us in questions. If you have any questions, feel free to send them to [email protected].

B: We have our caw account up and running; you can leave us some comments there.

J: Next episode we’ll be heading back to the Stark camp for chapter two of Off the King’s Road.

B: We’re also going to be on Vinyl Grooves in the next week or so; we’ll let you know when the episode goes out.

J: Wonderful.

B: Dad, do you want to say the closing remarks?

S: Of course! Valar morghulis!

(tourney horn plays)

#sarahoftarth #braime #jaime x brienne #ship: braime #mine: paragraph prompts #fic: podcast verse

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tv-geeks · 5 years ago

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The 25 Biggest TV Shows that Defined the 2010′s

Described as the golden age of television, the 2010’s redefined what we saw on our silver screens. With many of its programmes being compared to the work of the film industry, television changed before our very eyes these past ten years. We said goodbye to our favourite politicians, fell in and out of love with an after school club that sang show tunes, and crowned the king of the seven kingdoms. The 2010’s has an abundance of programming for us to watch, so making this list was quite the difficult task. In order to be considered for this list, the majority of the show’s seasons would have had to be aired from January 1st, 2010 to December 31st, 2019. And, each show has been ranked based on its impact on television/its audiences, as well as the quality being taken into account (but not being considered quite as much as the former). So, before we move into another ten years of the ever-changing landscape of the small screen, let’s take a look at the best shows we watched.

HONORABLE MENTIONS (26 - 40)

26. Top Boy 27. How To Get Away With Murder 28. Keeping Up With The Kardashians 29. One Day At A Time 30. Rick and Morty 31. Jane the Virgin 32. New Girl 33. Broad City 34. Crazy Ex Girlfriend 35. Master of None 36. Bob’s Burgers 37. You 38. Insecure 39. Bojack Horseman 40. The Simpsons

25) This Is Us, NBC (2016 - present)

Renewed until 2022, ‘This Is Us’ was the simultaneously heart wrenching and heartwarming drama that changed the game for television this decade. From its phenomenal cast performances to the well thought-out story arcs for each character, the family drama was one of the most significant programmes of the 2010’s. What made the Emmy award winning programme so special this decade was its ability to give each character a personality that felt real. We didn’t like these characters because they were interesting, we fell in love with them because they represented the realities of life. From Kate’s (Chrissy Metz) depiction of heavy insecurities from being overweight to Rebecca's (Mandy Moore) struggle of being a single mother, ‘This Is Us’ is a show about real people, non-fabricated.

24) On My Block, Netflix (2018 - present)

A surprise hit for the streaming platform, ‘On My Block’ was the most-binged show on Netflix during its premiere year. For both seasons that the show has been released, ‘On My Block’ has been an internet sensation, having its audiences watching the show as quickly as possible to avoid spoilers. The youth drama captivated audiences with its relatability, comedy, and the fact that it doesn’t shy away from reality when it touches on gun violence and life for kids in rough neighborhoods.

The show definitely had its impact for the past two years, and it also deserves more. For a show with minimal advertisement to capture the hearts of so many worldwide - and to even best the streaming network’s veteran programming - is a feat that is worth celebrating. ‘On My Block’ is a show that celebrates the underdog in life. It puts young, poor people of colour at the forefront and allows them to tell their own stories - be it dramatic or comedic.

23) Killing Eve, BBC America (2018 - present)

A show that really made a name for itself was the international hit ‘Killing Eve’. The drama starring Jodie Comer from ‘My Mad Fat Diary (2013 - 2015)’ and ‘Grey’s Anatomy (2005 - present)’ star Sandra Oh took the world by storm with its intense and teasingly romantic performances. Oh and Comer became one of the greatest pairings this decade with their love-hate relationship in ‘Killing Eve’. The leads both equally balance each other out with their ability to be both comedic and dramatic whilst teasing both a romance and a constant desire to detonate the other, which is a quality not many can possess. The BBC programme succeeded in a crowded market of dramatic content by ensuring that it was impossible for one woman to have carried the show, as even though Comer has the task of portraying multiple personalities throughout each episode, Oh is just as striking with her nervous, intelligent and chaotic portrayal of the vulnerable and fervid Eve Polastri.

22) Big Little Lies, HBO (2017 - present)

With an all-star cast like this, it would’ve been a real shame had this show disappointed. Luckily, there’s a reason these A-listers joined the show as ‘Big Little Lies’ had us on the edge of our seats each week. Dealing with the influx of made for bingeing TV programmes being released in one set, the cable show had a lot to fight against, as it required fans to stay on board each week whilst retaining the ins and outs of the crime drama. ‘Big Littles Lies’ succeeded in the attention-span battle as each episode was carefully curated so that we wouldn’t forget the important details. Moments were revisited whilst every scene changed the story somehow without adding too much that we got confused.

From the phenomenal cast to the striking writing and directing, the HBO drama is a defining show of the 2010’s as it was one of the few shows that made it almost impossible to log online without reading spoilers. Although it may not have the same hype as another fellow HBO programme, it still held its own and had us writing theories and listening to podcasts to keep us going until the next episode.

21) Brooklyn Nine Nine, NBC (2013 - present)

After being cancelled by FOX in 2018, the show was resurrected by the Gods at NBC and given two extra seasons to last until 2020 (for now!). The irony in this show is that it didn’t make much noise until its cancellation, where the silent fanbase made their voices heard. Although the reaction of fans isn’t quite the reason it got renewed, this still proved to be a pinnacle moment for television in the 2010s. Many shows lose their network, but not many make as much a spectacle as ‘Brooklyn Nine Nine’ did, leading it to becoming one of the most talked about shows of 2018. And there’s a reason for that. The cop sitcom may have its problems, but what it does successfully is give us a reason to root for every character they have (including Hitchcock and Scully!). A constant trope in comedy television is that there tends to be a few characters that are outright awful - at least to the more than casual viewer. But with the now NBC comedy, each one is lovable and has gone on their individually engaging journey throughout the years. Rootable characters are the root to every TV show that touches its viewers’ hearts, and ‘Brooklyn Nine Nine’ does that with every single on-screen persona.

20) American Crime Story, FX (2016 - present)

When it comes to biopics, television hardly gets noted as having some great renditions, but ‘American Crime Story’ is changing that. The debut season that detailed the OJ Simpson trial is probably one of the best seasons of modern television as it cleverly and accurately dictated the trial from the murder up until the verdict, giving viewers as close a look as possible to the reality of the crime. Sarah Paulson gave us a phenomenal performance as Marcia Clark whilst Cuba Gooding Jr. delivered OJ better than anybody imaginable.

The second season was also on par with its predecessor as ‘Glee (2009 - 2015)’ alum Darren Criss lead the show to another year of critical acclaim as Andrew Cunanan in ‘The Assasination of Gianni Versace’. Much like the first season, this one was an award show favourite, and on top of that, solidified Criss as a seasoned actor in the business.

19) When They See Us, Netflix (2019)

Created by Ava DuVernay, the Netflix mini-series focusing on a significant part of the drastic life of The Exonerated Five’s lives. Each of the six episodes carefully detailed their story, ensuring each movement and word connoted the struggle faced by Kevin Richardson, Antron McCray, Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise and Raymond Santana. What lands this show on the list isn’t the critical praise or accolades, but the detail oriented work on display throughout the series. ‘When They See Us’ did what many shows have deterred from over the years, and that was telling a real story with no boundaries. What makes a biopic successful is when it encourages its audience to research the original story after watching it. And after being viewed by over 23 million people less than a month within its release, we saw conversations take place about the Exonerated Five. We went back to watch the original documentary, found out more about the evils of Linda Fairstein, and conversations about the initial arrests grew and grew. ‘When They See Us’ was a phenomenon that created relevant conversations and truly defined this decade.

18) The Good Place, NBC (2016 - 2020)

In 2016, the creator of ‘Brooklyn Nine Nine (2013 - present)’ and ‘Parks and Recreation (2009 - 2015)’ took on a more challenging project as he created ‘The Good Place’; a comedy that tackles the meaning of life and how important we are to each other and the universe. The US comedy has become a staple in comedy as it challenged its conventions whilst keeping up the light-hearted nature we all anticipate. What made the show so special is that it gave us an abundance of extremely imperfect characters and relished in it. From the narcissism to their careless nature, it’s surprising that the season one finale plot twist even took us by surprise, but somehow it did, and that’s because beyond the fact that these people were mostly terrible, they were, above all else, lovable. Throughout the series we learned to love them for their bad sides, and saw that beyond what made them such horrific people, they were pretty decent. ‘The Good Place’ was a show that aimed to prove that humans are more than the good and bad things that they do, and although it has deteriorated in quality in the latter seasons, it still holds quite a large influence over this decade.

17) Veep, HBO (2012 - 2019)

One of the saddest losses of the 2010’s, ‘Veep’ was the excellent kind of programming that this decade will forever be remembered for. Beginning with a slow start, the Julia-Louis Dreyfus lead show stole our hearts with its wit and relevant comedy. ‘Veep’ took on what the world was focusing on - politics and feminism - and put it at the forefront of a primetime TV show. And to ensure we were watching, we received a stellar cast and perfect writing each episode. The political comedy is something that can be rewatched again and again, and never get old, which is why it’s such a shame we won’t be seeing it anymore. But maybe sometimes it’s better to bow out early.

16) Grey’s Anatomy, ABC (2005 - present)

If we’re going to discuss programmes with longevity, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ has to be on the list. The most successful programme from TV veteran Shonda Rhimes, the medical drama has been a powerful force in the industry. Launching the careers of the likes of Jesse Williams and Golden Globe winner Sandra Oh, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ can be credited for getting a generation of young adults/teens into television drama. Some of the biggest fans of TV today found their love for the medium through Rhimes’ programme and have remained loyal ever since. Although the show isn’t quite at its peak anymore, it’s still holding strong, and it’s hard to find a television fan that hasn’t been captivated by the drama in the Seattle-based programme. The show has placed this high on the list as it’s had an immense influence on today’s TV (fans) and its longevity is unmatched.

15) Love Island, ITV2 (2015 - present)

Like many British reality shows, it took a year or two for ‘Love Island’ to finally make some noise, but when it did, it was most definitely heard. Making headlines in season two and becoming one of the most watched British shows just a year later, the romance-based reality competition forced viewers across the world to spend their summers with young singles searching for love and an Instagram following. On top of consisting of catty arguments, shocking twists and viral memes, ‘Love Island’ captured the hearts of reality TV fans worldwide for its relatable nature. Young people would tune in every summer to see people just like them search for love in a similar dating pool. On the surface we would be seen taking to Twitter to insist that certain women were being “mugged off” whilst her love interest was simply playing a game, but beyond that it became a starting point for conversations around misogyny, racism, sisterhood and mental gymnastics. From the beginning of the season, patterns would be noticed by audiences when the black contestants would typically be the last ones chosen - in the season five premiere, the final four singles left to be coupled up were all people of colour, three of which were black. The mistreatment of women like Samira Mighty and Yewande Biala would create discourse across the internet on misogynoir, and the constant talk of “tall, dark and handsome” would form interesting dialogue on what that really means. It may not seem like the most cleverly put together show, but everyday it made its worldwide viewers tune in as soon as they could to see the action as it poured out, so that we could interact with each other live. It’s rare for a reality show to be this well loved across the globe, as many competition programmes of the latter half of the decade were usually watched by the country it originally aired in, but the ITV2 show’s ability to create discourse and fanfare is what made it the powerful programme that it is (which was so big that even ‘Saturday Night Live (1975 - present)’ made a sketch about it). With the dating programme’s relatability, youth, easy-to-watch nature and its ability to create a conversation, it became a pinnacle of the 2010s that has had other networks attempting (and failing) to emulate it.

14) The Big Bang Theory, CBS (2007 - 2019)

With its wit, humour and unique take on life as a modern nerd, ‘The Big Bang Theory’ became a frontrunner in the comedy genre for the entire 2010s. Bowing out gracefully in the final year of the decade, the nerd-oriented comedy took the decade by storm, being one of CBS’ most viewed shows for the majority of its stay on the network. What captivated audiences was the simplistic comedy that was stylized as though it was intelligent. The show made basic science-related jokes that those fresh out of Biology class would understand, and thus make the joke somewhat relatable. And that’s not to bash the show for not having funny jokes, because it did, it just had a certain audience to appeal to. ‘The Big Bang Theory’ was never going to be funny in the same way that ‘Barry (2018 - present)’ is. The Jim Parsons-lead sitcom earned its play high on this list as the show was a huge international success. Existing for the entirety of the decade and only leaving because the lead lost interest before the fans did, it’s clear that this was a very beloved television programme, and when it comes to comedy in the 2010s, this will always be brought up.

13) Modern Family, ABC (2009 - 2020)

When it came to comedy in the 2010s, no true fan of the genre ended the decade without loving at least one episode of ‘Modern Family’. The family sitcom which has been followed by similar shows on the same network such as ‘Fresh Off The Boat’ and ‘Black-ish’, remained a dominant force in the genre for the former half of the 2010s. Tying the record for Most wins for Outstanding Comedy Series at the Emmys with ‘Frasier’ (5 wins) from 2010 - 2014, it was a clear critical success and a definite frontrunner throughout the years. But beyond what the critics have said, fans have taken a liking to the show as it offered simplicity with humour. ‘Modern Family’ took an average concept of a dysfunctional but loving family, and detailed how their simple yet outrageous scenarios were relatable to both the audience and each other. Every time we tuned into an episode of the American sitcom, we were given a half an hour of fun, light entertainment that kept us entertained for the entire decade. For those that were in their teens, we related to Haley Dunphy (Sarah Hyland), who was always confused about her path in life and wasn’t always doing the right thing. For those that were seen as the sensible member of the family, we related to Alex Dunphy (Ariel Winter) who, although she appeared to have everything together, she never really did, and relied on her relationship with her sibling in order to feel superior but to also be vulnerable. Gloria Delgado-Pritchett (Sofia Vergara) represented the underestimated yet striking individuals, Claire Dunphy (Julie Bowen) portrayed those with the incessant need to impress their parents, Phil Dunphy (Ty Burrell) was made for the hopeful parents always looking to do the right thing, whilst other kids could find themselves trying to findt their way in Luke Dunphy (Nolan Gould) or Manny Delgado (Rico Rodriguez). Everybody had their place in the family represented in ‘Modern Family’, so we found ourselves attached to see that play out every episode, with its charm, chaos and light-hearted nature. Also, Cameron Tucker (Eric Stonestreet) and Mitchell Pritchett (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) created a space for queer representation that both conformed and challenged the existing conventions, which especially for the beginning of the decade, was quite transformative.

12) Atlanta, FX (2016 - present)

A critical darling from its very first episode, ‘Atlanta’ gave us some of the 2010s most iconic episodes. From the jarring 'Teddy Perkins' episode to the innovatively shot 'B.A.N.' from the first season, this show was daring from its origins. The aforementioned season one episode proved to audiences that ‘Atlanta’ wasn’t an ordinary programme; the experimental production plays out as a talk-show, with some fake commercials being played between the story. With episodes like ‘Teddy Perkins’, the Donald Glover created show delivered one of the most unsettling projects this decade. The original airing on FX even aired with no ad breaks in between, forcing viewers to feel as eerie as intended. ‘Atlanta’ earned its place as one of the most defining shows of the decade as it proved to be daring without failure. Each episode told a story, and with its blend between comedy and drama, it really was a pinnacle programme from this era of blurred genres.

11) House of Cards, Netflix (2013 - 2018)

Netflix’s very first original TV show premiered back in 2013, and although a controversial programme today due to its male lead not knowing how consent works, we can’t deny the power that this show had throughout the years. Without the success of ‘House of Cards’ some of today’s biggest Netflix originals like 'Queer Eye', 'The Crown', 'Sex Education' and ‘Russian Doll’ may have ceased to exist. Due to the impact of the political drama, the streaming platform may not have had enough selling points to take on traditional broadcast television. ‘House of Cards’ may not be held to high regard anymore - with good reason - but it played its role in the golden age of television, and was one of the few significant shows that changed the way we watched television forever.

10) Orange Is The New Black, Netflix (2013 - 2019)

‘Orange Is The New Black’ was one of the few shows that changed TV viewership. Being one of Netflix’s first original programmes, it allowed the market to open up to the idea of binge-watching a programme, and giving traditional cable television a run for its money. But beyond changing how we watched television, the Jenji Kohan production changed what was on television. Prior to its controversial and damaging season four finale, the first three seasons of the show gave fans a welcoming set of episodes featuring strong, real and vulnerable female characters in serious situations and relationships. This continued on until the last season, however since the incident in the fourth season occurred, it took the show until its final installment to truly recover from its quality. But that doesn’t deter from the fact that this show had its impact, and found its way into people’s homes in ways that others couldn’t quite capture. ‘Orange Is The New Black’ created heart-wrenching stories tackling immigration, sexuality, rape, racism and more each episode. What made the show oddly superior to most of its peers is that although the lead was probably the most boring character on the show, the ensemble were so full of life and character that it more than made up for it. With characters such as Nicky Nichols (Natasha Lyonne), Poussey Washington (Samira Wiley) and Taystee Jefferson (Danielle Brooks) grabbing fans’ hearts every time they appeared on screen, it made the prison-based dramady something special. We dealt with Piper Chapman (Taylor Schilling) and her annoying antics so that we could see if Nicky was ever going to find the love and peaceful life she deserved. We dealt with the lead of the show in hopes that her connection with Taystee would give her the justice she fought for throughout the entirety of the programme. ‘Orange Is The New Black’ was far from perfect, but it ushered in a generation of new and diverse programming that put women at the forefront. It got a lot wrong, but as its intention was to change the way we watched TV, it ensured we got what was missing.

9) American Horror Story, FX (2011 - present)

Creator Ryan Murphy was known for some less serious projects prior to this, and although they were successful, this is the project that transcended him into one of the biggest stars of the 2010s. ‘American Horror Story’ premiered to rave reviews from fans and critics alike, and throughout the years placed itself in the meme Hall of Fame with moments like Emma Roberts’ “surprise, bitch”. The show was able to make an almost non-existent genre in TV thrive and survive for almost ten seasons. Fans flocked to this show because it didn’t rely on jump scares to consider itself “horror”. ‘American Horror Story’ created characters who, with visuals combined with their literally insane character work, gave the show the fear factor even blockbuster films of the same genre were missing. Murphy and co. created a cast of characters that although were only ever with us for a season or so, gave us a reason to come back each time. The cast itself are also a flawless set of performers, but it’s the writing from each episode that’s allowed the show to become a pinnacle of television in the 2010s. Also, Sarah Paulson.

8) Rupaul’s Drag Race, VH1 (2009 - present)

Nothing redefined a whole genre of television quite like ‘Rupaul’s Drag Race’. Ushering in a unique and fresh feel to the reality TV competition genre, Rupaul and his clan of drag queens delivered 10 seasons of the show this decade, as well as the four ‘All Stars’ seasons, and the international spin-offs. The show made its mark on the world with the help of the internet, as the viral memes such as Jasmine Masters’ “and I oop!” and Coco Montrese screaming “I’m not joking, b*tch!” were shared millions of times across the world wide web. We also got to see the queens have their lip sync battles impress fans around the globe; from Alyssa Edwards and Tatianna’s “Shut Up And Drive” to Brooke Lynn Hytes vs Yvie Oddly’s “Sorry Not Sorry”, the queens had fans gagging each week.

Drag has been seen as a fairly underground art form for many years, and throughout most of this show’s reign, the idea that it would remain this way was pretty consistent with its fanbase. However, within the latter years of the 2010’s, the queens of the werk-room transcended their talent into global fame, and have allowed drag to become the mainstream work of art it always deserved to be. Each season a talented and fiery bunch of drag queens strut into the werk room to be crowned ‘America’s Next Drag Superstar’. And with its wit, unique storytelling and ability to become instantly viral, ‘Rupaul’s Drag Race’ easily became the best reality show of the 2010’s. The show became so popular that the previously underground medium has given queens success at the Primetime Emmys, and even launched one of its biggest stars - Shangela Laquifa Wadley - into the Oscar winning film ‘A Star Is Born’. The rise to the top was a tough one for the drag competition, as the masses were never clued into the idea of drag as a concept, let alone a show full of openly queer artists, yet through the years the show and its cast prevailed. What made the show so special was that queer audiences could not only see themselves and their stories portrayed on television, but they didn’t have to deal with tragic endings and disrespectful storylines in order to do so. Queer fans could enjoy the programme for its fun nature whilst still feeling represented. And although the racial diversity only picked up towards the later seasons, it is still one of the most diverse programmes on television. The programme isn’t perfect when it comes to diversity and inclusion as it still has to tackle its gender bias, treatment of the queens of colour themselves and the fact that the scene behind the camera is still very much mostly white. But, that’s not to say that it hasn’t made some progress.

7) Black Mirror, Netflix (2011 - present)

It was pretty hard to be a TV fan this decade without hearing of this show, let alone surrendering and watching at least one episode. The science fiction anthology series cleverly took on a varied set of themes and challenged its viewers to question their everyday thoughts and actions. From having a Prime Minister have sex with a pig, to Miley Cyrus’s dramatic portrayal of Ashley O and the iconic San Junipero episode, it’s difficult to not navigate this episode without being entertained by this show one way or another. Although the Netflix programme doesn’t have to focus on long-term storytelling, it does have to convince us to care enough for new characters and stories each episode. The anthology series has allowed many kinds of tales to be told, and has managed to build a dedicated audience each time it returns. From its excellent accolades to its incredible critique, ‘Black Mirror’ is a programme unlike any other, and is by far one of the greatest programmes to come out of the 2010s.

6) Glee, FOX (2009 - 2015)

Although criticized for its inconsistent writing and eventual fan service, ‘Glee’ was a show unlike any other, and remains impactful to this day. The FOX musical dramady did something beyond being a decent show, it paved the way for LGBT+ representation for years following it. If there’s one thing the 2010s should be remembered for, it’s the amount of openly queer characters on our screens (be it good or bad). When ‘Glee’ had one of its leads, Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer), come out in 2009 episode ‘Preggers’, an iconic moment of television immediately arose. Hummel may have made some questionable decisions since then, but the rest of the show followed suit with giving queer people somebody to see themselves in. Santana Lopez (Naya Rivera) had one of the greatest coming out scenes in 2011, Coach Beiste (Dot-Marie Jones) dealt with being in an abusive relationship in 2012, Wade “Unique” Adams’ (Alex Newell) gender issues were explored in 2015, and Brittany Pierce (Heather Morris) was given positive bisexual representation throughout the series. Although nobody’s story was ever perfect, the show opened the doors for more LGBT+ representation following it. Since its premiere, we’ve seen more (and somewhat better) queer representation in ‘One Day At A Time’, ‘Sense8’, 'The Bold Type', and creator Ryan Murphy's other programmes 'The New Normal' and 'Pose'. ‘Glee’ came at a time when queer youth needed representation more than ever, and it may not have been the best, but it was there, and it taught a generation of teens a whole lot about themselves, and for that, it ranks pretty high on this decade-end list. They also happen to have the most Hot 100 Entries of all time (soon to be topped by Drake, who is only one song behind), and received 18 Primetime Emmy nominations during the peak of the show in 2011, so some may have said it did quite well.

5) Parks and Recreation, NBC (2009 - 2015)

Beginning right at the end of the last decade and ending in the middle of this one, ‘Parks and Recreation’ definitely had a good shot at making an impact throughout the 2010s. And it managed to do exactly that. On top of being one of the few shows to have a worthy series finale, ‘Parks and Recreation’ was a programme that warmed our hearts every single episode and reminded us of a better life in an unfortunate political climate. Leslie Knope was a beacon of light in a dark world, ensuring that despite living what can be described as a simple life, she created something extraordinary. The Michael Schur original ranks so high as it has been a part of one of the most enjoyable kinds of comedies - the mockumentary - and did it extremely well. We’ve seen many shows make their mark amongst this genre, but ‘Parks and Recreation’ was able to do so without the help of a big Primetime Emmy push, and created a devoted fanbase. With the timeless memes and the rewatchable episodes, the citizens of Pawnee gave us some of the most enjoyable moments of the 2010s that will carry us into the 2020s just as well.

4) Fleabag, BBC One (2016 - 2019)

What appeared to be the quiet assassin of 2019 turned out to be one of the biggest shows of the 2010s. Phoebe Waller-Bridge released her one-woman show in 2013 in England and was soon picked up by BBC Three. Whilst the first season had its fair share of attention, it wasn’t until it returned for a second season in 2019 when Waller-Bridge truly left her mark. Viewers across the globe fell in love with the dark yet witty comedy as the show wasn’t afraid to show what figuring it all out was really about. It was dark, it was morally unhinged, it was funny, it was crass, it was flawed, it was simply real. Waller-Bridge captured complicated women in every episode, whilst remaining real and funny. This show - much like the very underrated ‘Chewing Gum’ - gave an honest, humorous voice to regular women just trying to figure life out as oddly and uncomfortable as possible.

3) Pose, FX (2018 - present)

The most vital LGBT+ inclusive show of the latter years of the decade, FX’s ‘Pose’ gave a platform to trans performers of colour with innovative and provocative storytelling. Although the show only arrived in late 2018, it’s earned a place on the list as it has helped push under-represented communities in the world of TV. With the likes of Billy Porter leading this show, the FX programme already had some celebrity prominence to keep it afloat, but beyond that it created stars out of its ensemble. The show has tackled the aids epidemic, life as a black queer person (most notably trans) and the origins of a lot of today’s queer culture. ‘Pose’ has set the tone for the next decade, and not only has become an important aspect of queer culture, but the television industry. As described by star Dominique Jackson in an interview with E!, "these things happened. You can't just sit in the comfort of your suburb and not realise that homelessness has occurred. Most of us who have lived in that time where the fear of contracting HIV and aids, the fear of wanting to work, the fear of walking the streets and not knowing if you're gonna get to your destination because someone is gonna kill you because of their thoughts about what you do in your bedroom, or how you express yourself. These things need to be seen. This is what 'Pose' does. It shows you everything about the juxtaposition between the rise of the Trump era, the literary scene, and the ballroom culture."

2) Stranger Things, Netflix (2016 - 2020)

One of Netflix’s biggest successes since its streaming origins in 2007, ‘Stranger Things’ was a quick fan favourite as soon as it debuted. Initially pitched as a mini-series, the 80’s-based programme became a word-of-mouth success so big that Netflix had no other option but to renew it again, and again, and again (in which 2020 will see its final chapter). What makes the success of this show so fascinating is that it was able to take a mostly child-oriented cast and create a project that attracted the masses beyond that age group. It would’ve been easy for ‘Stranger Things’ to become a Tumblr sensation for a year or two, being forgotten by most subscribers and its existence being remembered only by the GIF sets on inactive blogs, but it was much more than that. The Duffer Brothers allowed the show to reach into the hearts of multiple age groups by tugging on the heartstrings of loving parents with children, kids and teens longing for an adventurous life, and those with a reminiscent/romanticized vision of childhood in the 80’s. ‘Stranger Things’ became more than what was on the tin, and ensured that every viewer was giving a suspenseful and emotional first eight episodes that were so addictive many of forgave the show for its dismal sophomore year.

1) Game of Thrones, HBO (2011 - 2019)

Not only was this Emmy award winning series here for practically the entire decade, but it maintained its prominence for every single one of the years - even during its hiatus in 2018. Whether you loved the show or not, and no matter what your feelings regarding its final season are, there’s no denying that when it comes to the 2010s, ‘Game of Thrones’ will be the one show we will all reminisce on - for better or for worse. With the influx of streaming and on-demand services taking over, this HBO original will probably go down as the last show that we watch together. The programme was so popular that it practically forced its worldwide viewers to watch it beyond 1am on a Sunday night just to avoid seeing spoilers and to be able to talk about it freely the next morning. Even those that didn’t enjoy the show found it difficult to avoid spoilers, and for that, this show is definitely the show of the 2010s.

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a-kosher-dunk · 5 years ago

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May I ask about something I’ve read regarding Miriam? Is it true that she made a racist remark against Tzipporah, and that’s why she wasn’t allowed into the Promised Land? I could be totally misunderstanding something, but I do remember reading that. Thank you!

I hope you're prepared for a 2000 word answer, because this is a complicated question about a difficult passage. Content warnings for violence, non-explicit discussions of sex, and (maybe) racism.

The incident you're talking about happens in Numbers/Bamidbar 12. Here's what the text says, quoting from the translation by Everett Fox, skipping over some verses that aren’t relevant to the question, and anglicizing Fox’s spellings of names for clarity:

12:1 “Now Miriam spoke, and Aaron, against Moses on account of the Cushite wife that he had taken in marriage, for a Cushite wife he had taken.

12:2 They said: ‘Is it only, solely through Moses that YHWH speaks? Is it not also through us that he speaks?’ And YHWH heard.

12:5 And YHWH descended in a column of cloud and stood at the entrance to the Tent; he called out: ‘Aaron and Miriam!’ and the two of them went out.

12:10 When the cloud turned away from above the Tent, here: Miriam has tzaraat like snow!”

Tzaraat is usually translated as leprosy, but this is a bad translation. What you need to know is that tzaraat is an affliction sometimes caused by angering G-d and, as in this case, it can turn a person’s skin white.

If you're not confused yet, you should be, because this passage gives a lot of confusing information. Why is Moses's wife referred to as a Cushite, when before Tzipporah was called a Midianite? Why is Miriam punished while Aaron isn't? What was their problem with the "Cushite wife" in the first place? Why does the text say that Aaron and Miriam were speaking about Moses's wife, but then the rest of their dialogue is about their roles as prophets?

I'm breaking this down into a series of questions and explanations for better readability.

Question 1: Is the Cushite woman Tzipporah?

You'll notice that the "Cushite wife" isn't named. So the first question we have to answer is, are Miriam and Aaron even talking about Tzipporah? Or has Moses married another woman? (Polygamy would have been fairly normal in this place and time.)

Previously, Tzipporah was described as a Midianite, which would suggest that this is a different woman. However, today we don't know exactly where Midian was. We're not even sure that it was a place; it might have referred to a collection of tribes instead. "Cush" is generally assumed to mean modern Ethiopia, but that's not totally clear either.

It's possible that there was some overlap between Cush and Midian. Maybe the Midianites were a tribe of people living in Cush, or maybe Midian was an area in the larger territory of Cush. This might be the Bronze Age equivalent of saying "Tzipporah was from Texas" and then later saying "Tzipporah was from Houston."

Most Torah commentaries agree that this person is Tzipporah and that’s my interpretation too. For ease of discussion, I will continue referring to her as Tzipporah.

Question 2: Were Aaron and Miriam equally at fault for this situation?

In your question, you mentioned reading that it was Miriam who "made a racist remark," but as you'll notice from the passage, both Miriam and Aaron spoke. What you would miss if you only read this text in English, however, is that in Hebrew, verbs are gendered. In this case, the verb for "spoke" is gendered feminine. Normally, if you were referring to something done by both a woman and a man, you would use the masculine form of the verb.

Why doesn't that happen here? One traditional explanation is that it was Miriam who initiated the discussion. She went to Aaron first and persuaded him to join her in her complaint. Aaron has a history of acceding to what others want (see: the thing with the Golden Calf), which I think is very Hufflepuff of him. Meanwhile, Miriam has a history of taking leadership and persuading others to go along with her plans (see: convincing Pharaoh's daughter to adopt Moses, or leading the Hebrew women in a song of victory after crossing the Red Sea). So this explanation is perfectly in character. Either only Miriam said the part about Tzipporah, or both Aaron and Miriam said it, but Miriam was the instigator. A more fun explanation is that Aaron is trans and prefers feminine pronouns, but I don't know of any other passages that support that reading and in any case, that would be a subject for a different post.

Question 3: Was this about race?

First off, I'll point out that no one in this story would be considered white today. Miriam, Aaron and Moses would be considered Mizrahi Jewish or Middle Eastern by today's standards, while Tzipporah would be considered... well, again, we don't know where Midian was, but Middle Eastern, Ethiopian, or specifically Beta Israel would all be valid modern guesses.

That said, racism can absolutely exist between different people of color. Midianites and Hebrews would have seen each other as different people, if not different races. And there are lots of examples of violence flaring up between those two groups. In Genesis/Bereshit 37:28, Midianites enslave the young Joseph. In Numbers/Bamidbar 31, the Israelites launch a war against the Midianites. In a particularly violent scene from Numbers/Bamidbar 25:8, a Midianite woman and an Israelite man are killed for sleeping together.

So, it's totally plausible that Miriam was being racist. This would explain why Tzipporah’s race is highlighted twice with the repetition of the phrase “Cushite wife.” It would also explain why G-d chooses to punish Miriam specifically with tzaraat. The affliction is described as making her skin look "like snow," i.e. unnaturally white. This might be G-d's way of saying, "You think skin color matters so much? Okay. Let's see how you feel about your skin color now." Rabbi Rick Jacobs interprets the story this way, and has a very good talk about it in this podcast episode.

However, racism isn't the only explanation for what's going on here.

Question 4: Why the abrupt change of subject halfway through the complaint?

As I mentioned above, the text at first says that Miriam was speaking "on account of the Cushite wife." But then the very next line from her and Aaron is, "Is it only, solely through Moses that YHWH speaks? Is it not also through us that he speaks?” Which is a total non-sequitur. Imagine saying to your sibling, "I hate your girlfriend, and also, you’re not that special. Dad gives us special treatment too."

One explanation is that the real issue all along was the issue of leadership. Jenna Reback on an episode of the podcast Bad Jew Weekly says, “The ostensible reason that Miriam and Aaron had for talking badly about Moses wasn’t actually the root of their problem… They’re like, “Ugh, he married this Cushite woman.” And then they really get into what’s actually bothering them, which is that they should be more celebrated by people and by G-d because G-d has spoken to them too. In a way, I think this is one of the reasons that G-d is so mad at them, because they don’t actually just level their complaint… Miriam and Aaron are kind of being surreptitious and saying one thing but meaning another and talking behind closed doors…Miriam and Aaron don’t have the guts to just say it outright.”

In this reading, Miriam at first tries to hide her true intentions, possibly out of shame, or possibly to delegitimize Moses ("How can he lead us when he didn't marry a woman from our people!") before admitting to her real problem. This would explain why her punishment from G-d is harsher. Not only did she criticize her brother; she wasn't even upfront about what her criticism was!

But there's another explanation that ties these two threads together. According to commentary from Chizkuni and Rashi, Miriam spoke "on account of the Cushite wife" not to disparage her, but to help her. They interpret the repetition of “wife” to mean that while Tzipporah was being a good wife, Moses was not being a good husband. He had become too wrapped up in the responsibility of leading his people and stopped paying attention to Tzipporah. From Chizkuni’s commentary: “’Miriam and Aaron spoke out critically against Moses;’ how did either of them know that Moses had separated from his wife? They had both noted that Tzipporah no longer wore the jewelry she had been in the habit of wearing. Miriam asked Tzipporah why she no longer wore that jewelry. Tzipporah replied that it was because Miriam’s brother (Moses) did not pay any attention to her jewelry. This was a hint that he had separated from her. She told Aaron about this and they talked about that situation criticizing him.”

I should point out that the language used here is euphemistic; the implication of “separated” is that Moses and Tzipporah were no longer having sex. Tzipporah was upset about this, and Miriam was angry on her behalf. It’s kind of like that one scene in Brooklyn 99.

Let’s revisit the line, “Is it not also through us that he speaks?” According to Exodus/Shemot 6:23, Aaron was married to Elisheva. No spouse is named for Miriam in the Torah, but one midrashic tradition says that she married Caleb, a man introduced in Numbers/Bamidbar 13:6. I’ll come back to him, but for now let’s think about this setup. All three siblings are prophets. All three are married. But unlike Moses, Miriam and Aaron have remained close with their spouses, despite the challenges of leading their people. That’s why they make this point. This isn’t a challenge to Moses’s leadership; it’s a reminder that fulfilling G-d’s wishes is no excuse for neglecting human relationships.

This explanation seems random, I know. Where are Rashi and Chizkuni getting this backstory from? Turns out, there's a story about Miriam intervening in a similar situation between a wife and a husband. According to Rashi, back in Egypt when Pharaoh gave the "kill all the baby Hebrew boys" order and before baby Moses was born, Yocheved's husband Amram divorced her. Amram's argument was that if all baby boys were going to be murdered, there was no point in having more children, and therefore no point in being married. How Yocheved felt about this isn't elaborated on.

Miriam, however, was ready to fight. Rav Chanina says that Miriam “told her father: ‘Father, your decree is harsher than that of Pharaoh! He only decreed against the males, but you have decreed against both the males and the females. It is doubtful whether the decree of the wicked Pharaoh will come to pass, but you are righteous, and so your decree will be fulfilled.’ Amram immediately took back his wife.”

Keep in mind, most commentary says Miriam was only six at the time. Please picture a tiny, furious six year old girl standing up to her father and refusing to let him break their family apart. This is why I love Miriam.

Anyways, that story sets a precedent that A) Miriam is willing to intervene in extremely personal matters if she thinks it's for a good reason and B) when there’s a dispute between a husband and wife, Miriam intervenes on the wife's side. Feminist solidarity FTW.

Recap: I know that was a lot of information, so in summary, here are three possible explanations for what happens in this section.

1) Miriam spoke against Tzipporah and Moses because she was being racist about Tzipporah.

2) Miriam and Aaron resented not getting a bigger leadership role, but rather than admitting this directly, Miriam initially pretended that their problem with Moses was that he had married Tzipporah.

3) Moses was neglecting Tzipporah and Miriam tried to talk to Moses on her behalf.

Addendum: In your question, you asked if Miriam "wasn't allowed into the Promised Land" because of this incident, and at first, I was going to say no. In Numbers/Bamidbar 14:27-14:35, G-d states that because the Hebrews will not stop bickering amongst themselves and doubting their G-d, they will wander for another forty years. The generation that was enslaved in Egypt will not set foot in the Promised Land, but their children will. I always assumed Miriam was included in the category of the generation from Egypt.

However! There are three exceptions to G-d's pronouncement. One is Joshua, who doesn't matter for this discussion.

The other is Moses because G-d plays favorites. And the third person is Caleb.

Remember the midrash I mentioned earlier about Caleb being Miriam’s husband? Well, if we take that as true, that implies that Miriam would have been allowed to enter the Promised Land with him. Especially since the other exception to G-d’s declaration is Moses, her brother. They’re supposed to settle in the land and raise families who will never have to suffer under slavery. Doesn’t make much sense for G-d to deliberately break up a family.

But let’s go back to Moses. Because guess what? He messes up. In Numbers/Bamidbar 20, G-d instructs Moses to summon water from a boulder by speaking to it. Instead, Moses strikes the boulder with his staff. G-d’s response is, “Because you did not have trust in me … you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I am giving them!” And with that, Moses is barred from entering the Promised Land.

From this we know that G-d can and will revoke Promised Land privileges for certain offenses. The incident with Tzipporah may have been one such offense. Maybe that is why Miriam doesn’t make it to the Promised Land, and why she is the first of her siblings to die.

There’s a lot that I didn’t cover. Sefaria lists 77 commentaries just on the first sentence of Numbers/Bamidbar 12. If you want to read more about this passage, I’ve linked some of my sources in the post and listed two others below.

Miriam in the Desert with Alicia Jo Rabins: a video discussing, among other things, popular interpretations of Numbers/Bamidbar 12

Sefaria: an all-purpose encyclopedia of Jewish texts and commentary

#miriam #tzipporah #d'var torah #divrei torah #my posts #behaalotecha #irreverent torah #asks

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trainsinanime · 4 years ago

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Red Web Mystery Reviews

Red Web is a podcast by Rooster Teeth featuring two guys from that whole Achievement Hunter thing that I can never tell apart (but you don’t need to know anything about this) about unsolved mysteries that often but not always have something to do with the internet. Let’s review the episodes out so far, because… well, no reason, honestly, I just wanted to.

Lake City Quiet Pills

Based on their information presented here, this whole thing and their explanation for it seem plausible enough. You have to assume that this group of apparently assassins is kind of bad at operational security, but there’s actually a lot of cases where big criminals got exposed because they used the same URL or E-mail address or similar.

Satoshi Nakamoto

I already knew about this beforehand, and I would say they did a good job explaining it. Personally, I think they should have gone into a bit more of how much a shit-show the whole Newsweek Dorian Nakamoto thing was; in short, there was no reason to believe this person had anything to do with Bitcoin, he didn’t even speak good english (which is probably what caused some of the misunderstandings), and it was both a huge embarrassment for Newsweek (at least I hope they felt embarrassed) and they needlessly hounded a completely uninvolved person for this.

But then they get into new evidence, and we see a problem that I think is a bit systematic: They don’t really go into how trustworthy the evidence is. Specifically, they say that the one person who can cast light on this might be… John McAfee. Fucking John McAfee. Seriously, that guy?

For context: John McAfee did indeed create the antivirus company that still bears his name. But he sold it in the 1990s, and thanks to money and drugs, he’s just gotten plain crazy ever since. There was the whole thing where he was implicated in a murder in Belize a couple of years ago; he kept blogging from a jail in Guatemala, later returned to the US, and keeps being part of outlandish schemes (including two presidential runs, though he failed to get the nomination for libertarian candidate both 2016 and 2020), controversies, and supposedly super-awesome tech startups that never go anywhere. It makes perfect sense that he’d claim to be involved in the creation of Bitcoin. It makes no sense whatsoever to believe him. If you’re interested and have way too much time, read what El Reg has to say about him.

Mortis

Oh god. This one makes me both want to laugh and cry. Mostly laugh, to be honest, because it is such an obvious nothing burger, but also weep for the internet that was.

The story is that they found a participant in an early internet warez network who wasn’t that great at OpSec. This is only fully revealed at the end, and they don’t even seem to have noticed that this case is clearly and completely solved.

Most of the humour for me comes from the fact that they’re rediscovering the old pre-social web, and are convinced that it’s all weird and nefarious. Why would one person register websites for their interests, and then never do anything with them? Because that’s what the internet was like back then in the late 1990s and early 2000s! Hey, look, here’s my ugly special-interest website from that era that hasn’t been updated in years and isn’t going to be updated any time soon either. That’s just what was normal back then. Same with a website for every person, or trying to do your own garage sales via your website. That was the thing to do back then. And yes, obviously it sucked and didn’t work very well.

They even realise that this is what „might“ have been going on, and theorise about this hypothetical early web. „Maybe if there was some website that linked all these together and allowed you to search“ - yeah, those existed. Digg and Technorati and Del.icio.us, remember those? All bought by Yahoo and promptly forgotten. And to be fair, they never worked as well as real social networks did.

But back then we had this glorious freedom. No sudden porn bans like here on Tumblr; no need to match any predefined template for what posts are, no user tracking by Facebook, nobody telling you that you’re tagging your posts wrong…

It’s understandable why we lost that web. Linking together is much easier if all content is owned and controlled by like four companies. It also makes it much easier to set up a new account; setting up a new website is just a lot of pain and knowledge you have to have that you don’t necessarily want to have.

But now we live in our monocultures and must live with whatever content decisions our corporate overlords make and then sell us as „community standards“, and the wild and weird web that we used to have is only a memory. And sometimes not even that; sometimes these new young kids treat it as a „weird nefarious mystery“. Actually, I just looked it up, and Alfredo and Trevor are both around 30, just a few years younger than I am. They were alive for at least the tail end if this. These guys could have known this shit!

So, yeah, the story here is not the mystery; it’s a lament for the web we lost.

D.B. Cooper

Again one I already knew, and I think they gave a good overview. Personally I’m in the camp of people who assume that he failed to make a safe landing.

Happy Valley Dream Survey

This seems vaguely interesting. One thing that kind of annoys me about this podcast is that they (well mostly Alfredo) generally assume that everything strange is necessarily nefarious, without any evidence. The whole thing here leads nowhere, after all.

Lead Masks Case

Again, I’m not sure how much weight to put on the other evidence they listed, especially that whole supposed UFO sighting. Yes, that one woman may have been very respected in her community and/or had a high social status, whatever that means. But the thing is that rich people who are super-involved in their church community or whatever can still (through no fault of their own) be unreliable witnesses and invent things that weren’t there, or not the way they were described.

Cicada 3301 (parts 1 and 2)

Personally I find this one less interesting because it’s not a mystery, it’s a riddle, and that’s way less fun. Much of the circumstances are weird enough, I guess.

What confuses me the most about this is how it’s supposed to be a recruitment tool, but it doesn’t seem to be very good at that. A lot of the steps don’t really seem to be that difficult and require just some fairly standard hacker skills. This is similar to the Satashi Nakamoto case, where one hint was „knows C++ programming“. Lots of people know that, and it’s something you can totally teach yourself. And if the people who were recruited through this were really supposed to program software, well… why did no part of this test whether they could do so? That’s a whole different skill. My conclusion is that this Cicada group is either a long con or a group that is nowhere near as smart as it thinks it is.

One thing to note here: They just casually assume that the FBI and NSA and so on are monitoring the whole internet, in real time, all the time. Which is true, we know that thanks to Edward Snowden. Isn’t that much more nefarious than any of the other mysteries here put together? How did we get to a place where Americans both think „this is the country that has all the freedom“ and „if you say or search for the wrong things you’ll get put on a government watchlist that’s just normal“ at the same time? Pervasive monitoring of a population is pretty much the exact opposite of freedom, but apparently we all in the western world just take it in stride anyway. That’s nothing to do with this podcast, though.

Conclusion

Generally okay podcast. The hosts are good storytellers, even if the stories are sometimes a bit shaky. It is at least at no point overly gross or insultingly stupid (unlike the official Rooster Teeth Podcast, which is both). So I think I can recommend it if you need something, anything to fill the quiet, and you’re already out of episodes of Black Box Down.

#red web #rooster teeth

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the-jellicle-duelist · 5 years ago

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Ryan’s Top 10* Video Games of 2019

I don’t write blog posts but it’s time for Video Game Top 10 Lists for 2019 and I have no where good to put it! So congrats tumblr you get it. I’ll also tweet about it but in a much smaller scale. Anyways if you don’t care that’s fine! But if you do! It’s under that read more baby!!

*there’s always more than 10

First, some honorable mentions.

Dragon Quest 1

Dragon Quest 1 is the oldest JRPG (I won’t check if this is true) and I finally got around to it this year when it come out on Switch. The nice thing about Dragon Quest 1 is that it is masterful in its simplicity: you are one person. You fight one monster at a time. You go to one town at a time (mostly). You are on one quest (again, mostly). There’s only a few handfuls of anything like weapons, items, spells, monsters. They all work really well in concert with each other, and the package as a whole is this cozy, comfy less than 20 hour JRPG experience that I really enjoyed.

Best MMO I Refused to Get Addicted to in 2019

Final Fantasy XIV

I sure did hear a lot about Final Fantasy XIV this year. From podcasts to people just talking about it on twitter it seemed to be in the cultural zeitgeist this year. I downloaded the client and put about 15 hours into the base game. If I would have had the right combination of time/money/depression at that time I know I would have gotten deep into it. I’m fine that I didn’t, I think. But the potential was there.

Okay list time here we go:

10. Baba is You

Baba is You is this a coding game? You’re manipulating verbs that are represented by blocks, and pushing them next to noun blocks, to make the objects in the world do things, so that you can get Baba to touch the win object, usually a key. It’s great fun! It got really difficult around the third world and I had to put it down but boy did I like messing around. There were several wonderful “YOOOOO” type moments, and the puzzles when you solved them were great for making you feel very cool and smart.

9. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is From Software doing From Software shit in a way I wanted to like way more but ultimately it’s Here on this list. I liked Sekiro fine but it didn’t click with me like Dark Souls 3 or Bloodborne has in the past. The best parts of Sekiro for me were nailing difficult and tight blocking windows, which gave me an absolute rush every single time. I only got to what I assume was about half way through the game, so I don’t know if this changes later, but for a From game where the bosses were for the most part A Person, the boss encounters were interesting and varied. Also the world design was stunning.

8. Dragon Quest Builders 2

Dragon Builders 2 rules, first off. I wanted to put it higher on this list but I think it fell short because it was so heavily iterative and didn’t do a whole lot to progress itself from the first game. But, there were several quality of life improvements, and there was a big cool area to build in that was permanent and part of the story. I think if they added some more cool things, and made the dialogue not be such a slog to get through, this could have been way higher up on this list.

7. Kingdom Hearts 3

God, Kingdom Hearts 3. I was convinced for about 7 years that KH3 would not only never come out, but it would keep getting bad handheld games until I died. But they finally did it, they made the thing. It felt like a PS3 game which is the wildest thing. (It probably was a PS3 game for a while). It was very fun to play mechanically; the part of KH that was always pretty good was the action RPG stuff. The story is bad tho! The reasons you go to the different world’s is the thinnest it’s ever been, and there’s almost no real lore until the last two hours where you get all of it at once. KH3 was clunky, but I still liked swinging the keyblade and shooting fireballs.

6. Judgment

Shout outs to Judgment: I own it. I never played it. It is number 6 on my list. This probably says more about how I felt overall about games this year than it does about Judgment. Judgment comes from the Yakuza studio, and by all accounts it was so close to that vein, that I am confident and comfortable putting it at this number 6 spot without having ever launching the game. I have second hand accounts that it slaps, and will do for me everything Yakuza does for me, which is fine. I just ran out of time.

5. MiSTer FPGA

I love MiSTer. Wow do I love MiSTer. It’s got everything: old games, tinkering, assembling parts. If you are unaware of the MiSTer device, it’s a custom FPGA board with add-on boards, that developers have written Cores for classic consoles that all run in this FPGA environment. As opposed to emulators, an FPGA as I understand it is mimicking real hardware and then running games ontop of it. It’s a great device, and plays the things it plays (NES, SNES, Master System, Genesis, Game Gear, Gameboy, Gameboy Color, Gameboy Advance, NeoGeo, loads of Arcade games,and more) really well. I have really enjoyed playing games on it, and tinkering with it this year. I spent a lot of my time this year with it.

4. Slay the Spire

This is where the list starts to get Real. Wow does Slay the Spire rule! Holy shit. Rogue like, deck building, choice making, hard as fuck, big time strategy, unique characters. It’s really got everything. And it’s dense. This was absolutely my “just one more X” game this year. I put hundreds of hours into it. The way all of the cards interact with each other, the way you can really craft so many kinds of specific decks in each character, in each run, really worked for me. The ever-growing engines you could make, and the way that, even if you have a not great deck, it never feels bad. It’s one of the few rogue likes where you feel like when you’ve lost it’s your fault in a good way. It’s tuned to feel good no matter what. It’s tuned to feel tense. God Slay the Spire rules. And there’s a new character on the way? fuck.

3. Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

I loved coming back to Monster Hunter so bad y’all don’t even know. They added a ton, so many good monsters that I love to fight. Tigrex? yes. Zinogre? Yes. Velkhana? YES. The variant monsters are great, too. I just love Monster Hunter World so much. The clutch claw rips ass. This game is so good, and chunky, and feels good to play. I really mastered the bow this time around, but I started off with Hammer again because I will always have a torrent love affair with Hammer. Clutch Claw Grab with the Hammer is the best feeling you can get from video games.

2. Pokemon Sword/Sheild

Good Pokemon games! They’re good! It was nice to go through all the motions of a new pokemon game this year: rumors, leaks, having a reaction to all the starters and their evolutions, getting my hands on it, catching them all. It’s just a good Pokemon game. It’s not the best one (Black and White still got that crown) but it’s good. And I like a majority of the new designs. I like how they culled the dex to a nice, satisfying but manageable number. Anyone who’s mad please fuck off.

1. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

WE ALL KNEW THIS WAS COMING. Anyone who follows me on twitter, you know. God where do I start. So, I played all the way through Three Houses six times. I did two runs of Golden Deer, two of Black Eagles, one Blue Lions, and one Church of Seiros. I love all of my students. This game hit hard for me for a few reasons: they did Fire Emblem again, but its bigger and there’s more moving parts. More need for spreadsheets, which is stuff that I eat up. Yum yum good. Adding an overworld even in the scope that was as small as, the Monastery School, to this Fire Emblem was a BIG risk because they have been down this road before, and have not really nailed it. But I think with Three Houses they struck a really good balance, and it never overwhelmed me. They took a big page out of Persona’s book here which did wonders for me. You have this big map and it LOOKS scary, but in reality with fast travel and the limited number of actual activities/quests, you can do everything you want very quickly.

The thing that shined that brightest was the characters. I love them all, even the ones that aren’t cool, and even the ones that are Bad. I love all my kids. I have a lot I could say about how having all of these story routes, with their inconsistencies and their only slightly subtle variations bummed me out, but I did think if you take a macro look at the plot, this is one of the only well-written Fire Emblems ever. There was like, magic and dragons and things like this, but the thing that worked for me was their commitment to keeping the story grounded in the people that were in it? It was a story about three lands, vying for power in their own ways, and the actions/consequences that would follow. They really leaned in to the human part of it. It was not as much Kingdoms doing Politics, it was people doing things, and I think that worked for me.

Honestly the weakest parts of FE:3H was the Fire Emblem parts. The classes are just okay, and they took out a lot of the limitations of weapons/magic and so it was really a class change system about skills mastery, which I think they didn’t hit a home run here, but it was fine. And I liked doing it, clearly. The maps were a little samey in, especially in the first Part of the game.

All of this said, FE:3H slaps so much fat juicy ass and it is absolutely my game of the year for 2019.

#video games #top 10 #top 10 video games 2019 #dragon quest #final fantasy xiv #baba is you #sekiro #dragon quest builders 2 #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #judgment #mister fpga #slay the spire #monster hunter world #monster hunter world iceborne #pokemon sword #pokemon shield #fire emblem three houses

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lastsonlost · 5 years ago

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I needed Marvel to stand by me with more work opportunities to show the trolls that I was more than a diversity hire. “

Sina Grace on Writing Iceman at Marvel: “I Was Surrounded by Cowards”

Posted by Jude Terror June 28, 2019 48 Comments

As has been documented in various Bleeding Cool articles throughout the course of the book’s two series, one of my personal favorite X-Men comics of the past few years was Iceman, written by Sina Grace, and drawn it its first volume by Alessandro Vitti and Robert Gill and in its second and concluding one-shot by Nathan Stockman. The book breathed new life into a character who it could be argued hadn’t really received significant character development since his days in X-Factor in the 1980s. It’s true that it was “The Great One” Brian Bendis who wrote Iceman outed by Jean Grey’s invasive telepathy, but it was Grace who wrote adult Iceman coming to grips with this and learning to be himself and love himself, alongside, of course, lots of mutant action and drama. The book ended too soon, when it was really just getting going, IMHO.

With all of that in mind, it’s sad but not surprising to read Sina Grace’s comments, posted to his Tumblr, about his time at Marvel writing the book and what he says was a lack of support from Marvel while he dealt with online bullying as well as a lack of support and promotion for Iceman itself.

Grace writes:

As Pride Month comes to a close, it’s time I spoke candidly about my experience at Marvel Comics.

Stand by your people

It’s no surprise that I got the attention of trolls and irate fans for taking on this job. There was already backlash around the manner in which Bobby Drake aka Iceman came out, and Marvel needed to smooth that landing and put a “so what” to the decision. After a point, I could almost laugh off people making light of my death, saying they have “cancerous AIDS” from my book, or insinuating I’m capable of sexual assault… almost. Between Iceman’s cancellation and its subsequent revival, Marvel reached out and said they noticed threatening behavior on my Twitter account (only after asking me to send proof of all the nasty shit popping up online). An editor called, these conversations always happen over the phone, offering to provide “tips and tricks” to deal with the cyber bullying. I cut him off. All he was going to do was tell me how to fend for myself.

I needed Marvel to stand by me with more work opportunities to show the trolls that I was more than a diversity hire.

“We’ll keep you in mind.”

I got so tired of that sentence.

We as creators are strongly encouraged to build a platform on social media and use it to promote work-for-hire projects owned by massive corporations… but when the going gets tough, these dudes get going real quick.

Believe in the work

Give us a real seat at the table

There was a moment before Iceman was cancelled where I wrote then-editor-in-chief Axel Alonso an email, pleading for a Hail Mary arc. I explained that Icemanwas landing with a newer generation of readers who focused more on binge-reading than month-to-month periodicals. The series needed time in the book market before its true strength could be assessed. To Axel’s credit, he was warm to the idea and even gave me an extra month, but when he left Marvel that idea got brushed away. Of course I was right. The first two volumes sold like gangbusters thanks to word-of-mouth, librarian love, and support from retailers big and small.

Seat at the table pt II: The Shade of it all

Truly, I hate writing this. In keeping with Pride Month, I am proud of the work I did on Iceman… I love the book! It sucks that I may be tarnishing its legacy going public about how the cookies were made. That said, the time for self-congratulating is over, and folks should be earnestly listening when they ask: what could we have done better?

so what’s my take.....

Personally I think the kid got used, plain and simple. Also this should not have come as a shock to anyone.

Look at how badly they treat their customers that pay them money, OF COURSE THEY’RE GOING TO FUCK THEIR EMPLOYEES EVERY CHANCE THEY GET. A box full of scorpions would have had more loyalty.

@thespectacularspider-girl

______________________________

little history lesson for you kids: tokyopop did practically the same thing with the rising stars of manga. They snatched up young Talent, use them, and drop them.

#Marvel Comics #don't believe the hype #social justice is not your friend

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loretranscripts · 6 years ago

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Lore Episode 12: Half-Hanged (Transcript) - 7th August 2015

tw: violence, death by fire, medical details, ableism, child abuse, torture, unsanitary procedures

Disclaimer: This transcript is entirely non-profit and fan-made. All credit for this content goes to Aaron Mahnke, creator of Lore podcast. It is by a fan, for fans, and meant to make the content of the podcast more accessible to all. Also, there may be mistakes, despite rigorous re-reading on my part. Feel free to point them out, but please be nice!

Simeon Smith was one of the early settlers of New Hampshire in 1772. He built a farm there, on the border between Wentworth and Warren, that held the local office. By trade, he was a tailor, but like a lot of men of that decade, he fought with the continental army. It’s easy to look back at Simeon Smith as the typical pioneer from the late 1700s – he was patriotic, and a stereotypical New Englander, sure, but few people in town liked him. Why, you might ask? Because Simeon Smith, according to the local stories, was a sorcerer. It was said that Simeon would saddle and bridle a random neighbour, and then ride them all over the countryside, just to spite them. When women were having trouble churning butter, and it simply wouldn’t work, it was because, they said, Simeon Smith was in the churn. If children in town behaved badly, it was because he had bewitched them. He could become as small as a gnat and move through the keyholes of your locked doors; he could become larger than a giant and would stomp through the forest at night – or so they said. Stories like these were common in early America. They were a mixture of fact and fiction, of historical truths and hysterical superstition. In an effort to explain the unexplainable, sometimes neighbours and prominent figures were thrown under the proverbial bus. The era between the mid-15th and late 16th centuries was precarious for many people. This wasn’t the age of Harry Potter – witchcraft wasn’t something that was spoken of lightly, or with a sense of wonder and excitement. It caused fear. It ruined lives. It made good people do bad things – all in the name of superstition. I’m Aaron Mahnke, and this is Lore.

Superstition was common in the late 1600s. If something odd or unexplainable happened, the automatic response from most people was to blame the supernatural. But most scholars agree that these beliefs were merely excuses to help people deal with neighbours and family members that they didn’t care for. If you didn’t like somebody, it was common to accuse them of witchcraft. In the most famous historical example of this, the witch trials of Salem, Massachusetts, we can see a clear pattern in the events. Many of those accused of being witches were wealthy and held religious beliefs which were different from their accusers. Once a suspect was convicted, their estate would be confiscated by the court, and in a community that was known for property disputes, grazing rights and religious arguments, that became a recipe for disaster. What happened in Salem, happened elsewhere, all around New England, just on a smaller scale. Neighbours accused neighbours constantly, stories were told, lives were ruined. It was the way of things, I suppose – not ideal, but not uncommon either. In one story from Exeter, Rhode Island, a farmer was said to have been carting his lumber to market, when a cat ran across the road. For some unknown reason, the farmer immediately jumped to the conclusion that the cat was actually a neighbour of his, a woman who he insisted was a witch. She had transformed herself into a cat in order to meddle in his business. Now, this farmer was fast on his feet. Not only did he see the cat running, and then make the connection to his witchy neighbour, but he managed to pull out his gun. He was said to have fired a silver bullet at the cat, something well-known at the time to be effective against witches, and struck his target. At that very moment, according to the story, the suspected witch fell in her own home, breaking her hip. In the town of Salem, New Hampshire, a man decided that his cow looked strangely different from how he remembered, and he made the most logical conclusion he was capable of: his neighbour was a sorcerer, and the man had bewitched his cow. Folklore dictated the solution. He cut off the cow’s ears and tail and then burned them. Soon after, the farmer’s neighbour was found dead, victim of a house fire. In West Newbury, Vermont, a farmer had settled in for the evening beside his fireplace. Perhaps he was enjoying something alcoholic and refreshing, or maybe he was trying to read a book. While he was there, he witnessed what he called “spectral shapes” that danced and moved in the flames. This farmer immediately thought of one particular woman in town, a woman known to be a witch, and he took some tallow and beeswax, and sculpted a careful likeness of her. Then, taking a branch from a thorn bush, he pierced this little figurine before tossing it into the fire. At the same time, across town, the suspected witch apparently tripped on her own stairs and broke her neck. Back in the town of Wentworth, our friend Simeon Smith received his own fair share of retribution. It was said that a local boy named Caleb Merrill was struck deaf by the sorcerer. After that, he began acting strange, running up the sides of the house like a squirrel and writhing in agony. After some trial and error, Caleb’s parents put the perfect combination of ingredients into a “witch bottle”, a sort of homemade talisman designed to combat sorcery. They buried the bottle beneath their hearth, and soon after, the town was burying Simeon Smith. These stories of neighbourhood witches and ways in which the good citizens of the towns defeated them were common all across New England. They border on the cruel, and cast these people, often simply the poor or non-religious among them, in a horrible light. For many people, suspicion was a convenient excuse to hate your neighbour and wish them ill. In no other place was that attitude more pronounced, more dominant, and more extreme, than a town of Hadley, Massachusetts. In Salem, the townspeople worked within the legal system. In Hadley, however, the people took matters into their own hands, and the results were horrifying.

When Philip Smith was dying in 1684, the town went looking for answers. It was hard to blame them – Smith was a model citizen and leader in the community. He had been a deacon of the church, a member of the general court, county court justice, and a town selectman. He was respected, trusted, and maybe even well-loved. The sole suspect in the crime was an old woman named Mary Webster. She and her husband were poor, and lived in a tiny house in the middle of some of the pasture land outside of town. Sometimes, when things got tough, they even needed assistance from the town – colonial era welfare, so to speak. It was easy to blame Mary Webster. She and Smith had not been on the best of terms, although few people in town were on good terms with her. She was cranky, you see – accounts of the events report the almost sarcastic comment that her already-poor temper had not been helped by poverty. She was a sour and spiteful woman, and she had a tendency to shoot her mouth off, a lot. Her fierce temper and stinging tongue had earned her a reputation as the town witch. Apparently, she wasn’t much of a church-goer, and that did little to help her case. But the clincher was that she had just gotten back from Boston, one year before. Why? Well, she’d been on trial there for witchcraft. She’d been taken to Boston in chains, some time in late April of 1683. Mary, an old woman with a foul mouth, had been accused of having congress with the devil, of bearing his children and suckling them. These children looked like black cats, they said. She had strange markings on her body, they said. It was conclusive and obvious, they said. There were other stories of Mary Webster. It was said that when teams of cattle were driven towards her property, they would panic and bolt in the opposite direction. They claimed that when this happened, the men would approach the house and threatened to whip her, and only then would she let the animals pass. Once, a load of hay toppled over near her home. The driver of the wagon went to Mary’s house, literally went inside, and was about to give her a piece of his mind when the cart magically righted itself – or, so they say. Another story tells how she entered the home of some local parents, and when she set eyes on the infant in the cradle, the baby levitated out and touched the ceiling, not once, but three times. There is even a story about some people who were inside one evening, boiling water and getting ready for dinner. All of a sudden, a live chicken came down the chimney and landed in the pot, only to escape from the house moments later. The next day, it was discovered that Mary herself had been scalded that night, though she wasn’t telling people how it happened. And so, Mary was transported 100 miles to Boston, along with the sheaf of those eyewitness accounts that had been written by her accusers, and brought before a judge and jury. The jury listened. They read those papers, and they looked everything over, and did their best as impartial, rational individuals. They discussed it amongst themselves, and when they returned to the court, they had a verdict. Mary Webster was not guilty. Maybe this pissed off her neighbours. Maybe they thought they were finally done with her when she had been taken away. I can almost imagine their surprise when she rode back into town, smile on her face and a fire in her belly. She had beaten the odds. But when Philip Smith, her old adversary in Hadley, took sick just a few months after her return, that newly won freedom looked like it might be in jeopardy.

The winter after Mary’s return from Boston, Philip Smith began to look ill. The people of Hadley didn’t know what the cause was at first; what they did know was that Smith was in a bad way. He had frequent seizures and seemed delirious most of the time. The people caring for him - his family, friends and nurses – were all deeply concerned. Whatever it was that he was suffering from, it didn’t appear to be normal. In fact, it appeared to be the work of the devil. What else could possibly cause a man to suffer fits, and scream and babble for hours in an unknown language? When Smith could be understood, he cried out that someone was pricking his arm with nails, hundreds of them, over and over, painfully. His nurses looked for the nails, but they never found anything that could have been causing the pain. He claimed a woman was in the room with him. Some of the young men in town had a theory, though. They had been talking about it for a while, and they decided they needed to give it a test. You see, they thought that Mary Webster was behind the man’s illness. In their minds, there was only one way to find out. One of the men stayed with Smith while the other’s went to Mary’s home. Three or four times, they knocked on her door and bothered her, thinking that if she was indeed casting a spell over Smith, this would break her concentration. When they returned, the man who had been tasked with watching over Smith claimed that the sick man was at ease three or four times while they were gone. There were other things they noticed: the small pots of medicines that had been laid out for Smith were mysteriously empty, as if someone were stealing their contents; they frequently heard scratching beneath the man’s bed; some of the men claimed to have seen fire on the bed, that when they began to talk about it, it would vanish. The details of the events surrounding Philip Smith’s illness are rife with superstition and fear. These young men even claimed that something as large as a cat would stir under the covers near the sick man, but whenever they tried to capture it, it would slip away. Other’s said that the bed would shake enough to make their teeth rattle. All of this was just too much for them. Convinced that they knew who was causing Smith’s illness, the group of young men returned to the home of Mary Webster. This time, though, they had more than just disturbing her peace on their mind. They dragged Mary from her home and out into the snow and cold of the New England winter. They beat her, they spat on her, they cursed her in whispers and in shouts, and then they carried her to a nearby tree. One of the men slung a rope through the branches, while another fashioned a noose, and there, in a snow-covered field outside of her own home, Mary Webster was hanged. When she stopped moving, the men cut her down, they took her body and rolled it in the snow, burying her. And then, they left. They walked back into town, back to the home of Philip Smith, back to the others who knew what they had done, and they waited. They waited for Smith to get better, for the curse to lift and for their lives to return to normal. They waited for safety, for their superstitions and fears to fade away now that Mary was gone. But, oh, how wrong they were.

The world of the 17th century was tensive and harsh, especially for the people trying to carve out an existence in colonial New England. The Protestant Reformation of the century before had left most Europeans with the belief that bad things happen because of the devil. Everything that went wrong, and I mean everything, was caused by something supernatural. This was a time when misfortune, loss, and even a simple illness would be blamed on the work of witches and sorcerers. Because of this, everyone in town was on the look-out. If something went wrong, there was always someone to blame - it seems there was a devil in every community. History is full of people who took things too far. The events that took place in Hadley in the winter of 1685 are just one of the countless examples of what superstitious people are capable of when their fear gets the better of them. Sadly though, it didn’t work. When friends arrived the next day to look in on Philip Smith, he was dead. What they found, though, gave their suspicions new life. It was said that his body was still warm, despite the winter cold, that his face was black and blue, and fresh blood ran down his cheeks. His chest was swollen, and his back was covered in bruises and holes from something like an awl or nails. Now they had more questions than answers. Who beat the man overnight, who kept his body warm against the creeping chill of winter, and who put those holes in the flesh of his back while he lay dying in bed? I imagine the people who visited him that morning were disappointed. He was respected by most of the town - many people there most likely depended on him for something. They’d done so much to take care of him, even gone as far as to murder another person, and yet it hadn’t worked. Philip Smith was dead, and all they had left were questions. Something else would soon disappoint them, though. You see, although Philip Smith had died, Mary Webster hadn’t. Even though she had been beaten and hung from a tree, before being buried in the snow and left overnight, Mary had somehow survived. In fact, she went on to live 11 more years before passing away in her 70s. And it turns out that Mary was also an ancestor of the well-known novelist Margaret Atwood. In 1995, Atwood published a poem entitled “Half-Hanged Mary”. It was written in sections, each one covering an hour of her torture, beginning with the hanging and ending with her return from the dead. The poem, written from Mary’s point of view, ends with a line that makes a person wonder. “Before, I was not a witch, but now I am one”.

This episode of Lore was produced by me, Aaron Mahnke. Learn more about me and this show over at lorepodcast.com, and be sure to follow along on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr, @lorepodcast. This episode of Lore was made possible by you, the most creative listeners I have ever met. [Insert sponsor break]. And finally, a reminder. These sponsors, they pay the bills so I can write and produce Lore fulltime, but the only way they’ll do that in the future is if you wonderful and amazing listeners actually check them out, so please, visit the sponsor websites and take advantage of their generous offers. Let them know you’re listening, and they’ll keep the lights on here in the studio. Links and information on how to do all of that are on each episode page over at lorepodcast.com/episodes. Thanks for listening.

Notes

Many of the stories in this episode came from the book Entertaining Satan by J. P. Demos, which has no public access.

#lore podcast #podcasts #aaron mahnke #mary webster #simeon smith #witchcraft #margaret atwood #massachusetts #witch hunts #folklore #transcripts #12

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dragonprincefan · 6 years ago

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Hey Dragon Fans! Let’s do a round up of all the information we’ve gotten so far about The Dragon Prince! This is quite a lot of info, so I’ll be throwing the bulk of it under a cut. (There will be spoilers for episode 1 of the show below the cut.)

The Dragon Prince, developed by Wonderstorm Inc., animated by Bardel Entertainment, and distributed by Netflix will be releasing all the episodes of the first season on September 14, 2018.

The official summary is, “Two human princes forge an unlikely bond with the elven assassin sent to kill them, embarking on an epic quest to bring peace to their warring lands.”

You can watch the promotional trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7Bf7JLnlOU

Promotional taglines used by the official accounts have been “Destiny is a book you write yourself!” and “dragon big”.

Netflix currently has the show rated as TV-Y7 for Fantasy Violence. The animation is cell-shaded CG, much like what you see in Fire Emblem, Guilty Gear, or Avatar: The Lost Episodes.

The show will have an accompanying video game developed by Wonderstorm* with the story tellers for both show and game working closely together to ensure the stories being told are well integrated and complementary.

Our lead characters for the Netflix series are Callum, the elder human prince, Ezran, the human crown prince, and Rayla, a Moonshadow Elven Assassin.

The universe The Dragon Prince takes place in is divided into two primary areas, Xadia, the magical lands in the East, and the five great human kingdoms in the West. Centuries ago, Thunder the King of Dragons guarded the border between Xadia and the Human Kingdoms.

In the TDP universe, there were originally six types of magic: moon, sun, stars, earth, ocean, and sky. Humans developed a seventh type of magic, Dark Magic. With Dark Magic you find a creature that has that magic as part of their essence, you consume it quickly, and it unleashes a great amount of magic quickly. Dark Magic became a shortcut to great, fast power, but led to corruption and was wielded at the expense of the varied, intelligent, and powerful magical creatures of Xadia. The dragons and the elves allied to try to put a stop to the humans’ use of Dark Magic, but the Dragon King Thunder was killed by humans using dark magic and Thunder’s only egg and heir, The Dragon Prince, was destroyed. Now the world stands on the edge of all out war...

The first episode is titled “Book 1: Moon, Episode 1: Echoes of Thunder” and was premiered at the SDCC 2018 panel. You can read IGN’s review of the episode here.

SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ONE BEGIN HERE

Ezran is scared of thunderstorms and likes to steal treats from the baker with his pet glow toad, Bait. Glow toads are described as “the Grumpy Cat of magical illusionary amphibians.”

Even though Callum is older he is not the crown prince because he is the stepson of the king. This means Callum and Ezran are half brothers. The condition and whereabouts of Callum and Ezran’s mother is reported to be a spoiler. The King is a black man, and it appears that Ezran may be biracial.

One of the royal guards Sorin/Soren/Zoren (spelling unknown) is tasked with training Callum in sword fighting. Callum is disinterested and prefers to draw, unless Soren’s sister, Claudia, is around. Callum appears to have a crush on Claudia, and Soren helps by going easy on him in sparring sessions in front of her. Claudia appears to be very studious and nearly runs into a tree while reading because she is too focused on her book. Claudia and Soren’s father is a highly placed lord and leader of the royal army/guard.

It looks like Callum will be learning to use magic over the course of the show. What type of magic he uses is currently unknown. Based on the trailer I think that may be Claudia also shown using magic. Regardless of her identity, I suspect what the dark haired female magic user in the trailer is using is the Dark Magic we’ve seen discussed.

The elves that Rayla is a member of are called Moonshadow Elves (white haired elves with dark horns) and they literally draw power from the moon. They are at thier strongest during the full moon. The bracelet Rayla wears was acquired during a ceremony swearing loyalty to the Dragon King’s cause/memory(?). Moonshadow Elves demonstrate at minimum some form of cloaking magic, but can still be detected by certain types of animals. Rayla has a Scottish accent.

Rayla is going to be something of a mysterious figure and strongly conflicted about her role in current events, “testing her sense of right and wrong.” She tries to tell herself that “an assassin does not decide right or wrong, only life and death.”*

When the Moonshadow Elves stage an attack on the castle, the King decides to send Callum and Ezran away for thier own safety. Meanwhile, Soren and Claudia are ordered by thier father to stop the assassins. Callum wants to help but is told he cannot because he is only 14 (and 3/4!) years old and he must be 15 to fight.

There was a black-haired guard in the first episode (the one attacked by Rayla) that had not been formally named, but when asked by the panel audience they named him Marcos.

END OF SPOILERS FOR EPISODE ONE

During the Q&A session (I’ve discussed this with several people who were in the room now trying to get clarity) it sounds like the question of if there would be LGBT+ representation in the show was very narrowly sidestepped. They told the panel audience that any sort of answer would be a spoiler. It seems likely that there will be LGBT+ representation, but it has not been explicitly promised, and I urge folk to temper expectations with the knowledge that while it’s wrong to use the TV-Y7 rating as a reason to not show canonically LGBT+ characters, it may end up being outside the Wonderstorm team’s hands to try to get it on screen. I’m cautiously optimistic. We’ll have to wait and see.

The staff did say they are strongly dedicated to creating an inclusive and diverse fantasy universe, with an especial focus on visible ethnic diversity. We can already see the beginning of that with the King and Ezran.

Being on Netflix permits the staff to do a darker take on the story than they might have been permitted on network television, and they’re excited to get to tell a complex and nuanced story that explores moral grays and the idea that there are both good and bad actors in every group and culture. That said, they want this series to be fun, light-hearted, and quirky too.

The SDCC panel gave away two goodies to anyone lucky enough to get into the panel, a large physical poster version of the concept art we first saw with the initial announcement and an enamel pin of Ezran’s pet glow toad, Bait. The backing for the enamel pin announced that Hot Topic will be carrying exclusive merchandise for The Dragon Prince beginning in September 2018.

(A big thank you to elventhespian, owldee, and kohisu for thier live blogs of the SDCC 2018 panel.)

Official TDP social media accounts:

Tumblr - @dragonprinceofficial

Twitter - @thedragonprince

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/dragonprinceofficial/

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dragonprinceofficial

YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPn8cnHhLHMQrGCmS0K5aBQ

TDP CAST AND CREW

The show is being helmed by Aaron Ehasz (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Futurama) and Justin Richmond (Uncharted 2, 3, & 4). Other staff members include:

Executive Producer -- Giancarlo Volpe (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Star vs the Forces of Evil)

Composer -- Frederik Wiedmann (Green Lantern: The Animated Series, The Damned, Dying of the Light, various DC animated films)

Executive at Netflix -- Jenna Boyd (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Animation Directors -- Meruan Salim, Carlyle Wilson

Animation Coordinator -- Tony Power (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

Lead Animator -- Brian Ahlf (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) , Eric Childs (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Brian Kavanagh (DinoTrux), Kevin Kyle (The Adventures of Puss in Boots), Jody Prouse (DinoTrux, The Adventures of Puss in Boots)

Other Wonderstorm Staff -- Robert Cogburn, Devon Giehl, Danika Harrod, Iain Hendry, Dan Liebgold, Lauren Topal, Neil Mukhopadhyay, Justin Santistevan, Lulu Younes

Various Animators, Storyboard & Graphic Artists, Directors, etc -- Sabrina Ali, Laura Ambrosiano, Nicki Bianchini, CT Chrysler, Frankie Franco III, Zakiah Grant, Chelsea Gratzlaff, Tim Kaminski, Erica Kim, Nasus Lee, Jessica Mahon, Katie Olson, Daniel Pira, Candice Prince‏, Devin Rosychuk, Alicia Schaeffer, Siggy Sigmond, Eman Thabet

Voice Actor [Callum] -- Jack DeSena (Sokka on Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Voice Actor [Ezran] -- Sasha Rojen (The Flash, iZombie)

Voice Actor [Rayla] -- Paula M. Burrows [@paulamburrows]

Voice Actor [Claudia] -- Racquel Belmonte [@raqattack5 | x] (Sira on Lego Elves)

Voice Actor [Soren] -- Jesse Inocalla [@jinocalla] (The Little Prince, Dead Rising 4)

Voice Actor [King Harrow] -- Luc Roderique [@lucroderique]

Voice Actor [Runaan] -- Jonathan Holmes

Voice Actor -- Rena Anakwe [@DJLadyLane | x] (Sapphire Shores on My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)

Voice Actor -- Erik Todd Dellums [@ErikToddDellums | x | x] (Koh on Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Voice Actor -- Adrian Petriw [@adrianpetriw | x] (Adam in The Hollow)

Voice Actor -- Jason Simpson [@aboySimpson] (Cyclops on The Hollow)

I’m looking forward to having a fun fan experience with everyone in the months to come!

Fan accounts to watch on twitter: DragonPrinceFan, The Dragon Prince Podcast, and Mundo Avatar (news in Portuguese)

Dedicated fan accounts to watch on tumblr: @dragonprincefan and @tdp-news

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aftermathdb · 6 years ago

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DEATH BATTLE Review: Carnage vs. Lucy

WARNING: The following review contains descriptions and screenshots of extreme blood and gore. Viewer discretion is advised.

So, according to commentary, this matchup was decided by the crew, and not by fan votes. They supposedly had a hard time determining a good Carnage opponent, and this was the best one with the most connections.

This is the Third (technically fourth) Comic Book vs. Manga/Anime fight since Captain Marvel vs. Android 18, and both Goku vs. Superman episodes.

Carnage′s Preview.

Carnage’s Origin Story is gone over, and the hosts comment about it. We know how this works by now. Cletus was a bad kid, and he really needed to be put into a higher-security prison to make his actual imprisonment effective.

(What’s with murderous psychopaths and having teddy bears?- First Bane, now Cletus. It’s getting weird).

So, Cletus’ Symbiote is given their own stat sheet, and is given a quick rundown.

(I’m going to guess that the 360 perception doesn’t really count if the thing he’s trying to attack is invisible to his own eyes).

(Sorry about the poor quality of the screenshot. I was in a bit of a rush to get this done since… Uh, blood. This episode features a lot of blood).

And apparently, Carnage traded his sound weakness to a weakness to that Chthonic Magic, so sound isn’t much of a thing that can hurt him anymore. I guess Songbird and Black Bolt ought to watch out for this guy if Carnage ever shows up at their front door.

Kinda of a meek end line, considering that this is Carnage we’re talking about.

Lucy′s Preview.

Seriously. Turn back now. Lucy’s rundown contains a lot of blood and gore. I did my best to not include any gratuitous blood, but it’s still there. If you’re reading this while watching the episode, turn back now if you don’t want to be grossed out.

Only warning indeed.

So, Lucy’s origin includes the stuff on the Dicloni, and how she was captured and why she needed to be captured, and it’s really dark. As an aside, who here thinks that Lucy would be welcomed by the X-Men, on account that she’s got a superpower, and all that?- Well, her less murder-y side, anyways.

(I doubt that healing factor would make a difference).

So, Kaede seems like a nice girl and all, until she was pushed to a breaking point. Yeesh, what is up with these psychopaths and being pushed to a breaking point?

Lucy’s Vectors, much like the Symbiote Cletus wears, is given its own rundown. And it seems like my initial claim that Lucy wouldn’t have any access to fire is incorrect. I am willing to admit my mistake, and acknowledge that I was underinformed for Lucy’s powerset. So with this, I have a feeling that Lucy has an immediate edge.

And given the multiple personalities that she has, it’s likely that she’s… messed up. Poor girl, she’s been through a lot.

(Note to self: Try to see if I can’t get Nyu’s personality out more).

Boomstick’s voice telling her to kill them before they hurt puppies is both adorable and hilarious. Boomstick’s clearly a dog fan. Makes me dread if they ever bring in Iggy from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, considering the little guy uh… dies.

So Lucy’s Vector movement is faster than Venom’s top recorded speed, and since it’s reasonable to scale Carnage to Venom, it’s likely that Carnage isn’t going to move fast enough to dodge all of those Vectors at once. Speaking of Vectors, why not Medusa from Soul Eater?

And Lucy’s feats… Yeah, they blow Carnage’s out of the Klyntar-infested water.

(Blocking SLAM missiles?- That’s badass).

They thankfully go over some weaknesses, so it’s clear that she’s not invincible. Blows to the head, or cutting off one of her horns will nullify her vectors, and she can apparently melt.

Yeah, warning, I’m about to show you guys the screenshot. Because if I have to suffer in seeing it, then so do you!

(I said blood, not gore).

And they even go over her redemption, and how it wasn’t so hopeless after all……… Before cutting away to her just flat-out murdering a bunch of other people in lieu of an end line. The music just makes it really creepy and hilarious at the same time.

The Battle Itself.

Zack, Kervin, Luis, and Jerky are tackling this animation project. Danielle McRae is voicing Lucy, while Christopher Guerreo is voicing Carnage. Brandon Yates is doing the music on this. Kokkinos has sound.

So the story for this one is basically just Nyu waiting for a train, and Carnage killing everyone aboard because he’s Carnage. I guess Lucy took over to protect Nyu.

The music does a really great job at setting the mood, it’s called Chorus of Carnage, and it’s really good and has such a poetic title. I know what I’m listening to on Halloween.

Props to the animators for making Carnage’s sprite work well with Lucy’s invisible Vectors. It feels reminiscent of Jotaro’s fight with Kenshiro before Kenshiro used Toki to sense SP.

And Lucy’s initial and go-to attack don’t really do much against Carnage’s healing factor. So, the battle rages on with Carnage struggling to land a hit on the Diclonius Queen. It takes a while, and a lot of effort, but he lands some cuts on the girl.

So, after Lucy manages to slam Carnage into the train, he starts a taunt. It’s… Pretty dark.

Finishing Blow in

5…

4…

3…

2…

1…

Lucy’s Vectors are just starting to get to the higher frequencies, and, she delivers a pretty damn good one-liner.

“Does it hurt yet?- Don’t worry. I’ll put you out of your misery.”

And props to Carnage for not going out like a bitch. He just says “I hate you.” and then he blows up.

Even the clouds clear as sunlight comes in to brighten the day. One less serial killer to worry about… Until I revive him for story purposes.

Verdict + Explanation.

So, apparently that explosion was certainly enough to kill Carnage. And Boomstick rejoices at the fact that there’s one less dog-killer out there.

And while Carnage could land some cuts, it was primarily through projectiles, as Lucy’s Vectors would just be too much for a melee attack. So, possession was off the table.

But that’s not to say that Carnage was helpless. His healing abilities gave him the durability, but Lucy fighting as a puddle meant that Carnage’s punishment wouldn’t be enough to incapacitate her unless he landed a blow to her horns. Which, given that Lucy is likely aware of this weakness, she would be careful to not let it happen.

In terms of strength, Carnage overpowered several opponents that had massive advantages in that category, but Lucy’s own demonstrated feats of strength overwhelm Carnage’s scaled and demonstrated strength.

Really though, the battle did come down to who could land a fatal blow first. Similar to another Marvel character who fought a non-DC opponent. The overall question is muddled a bit thanks to Carnage’s healing, but it gets less muddled thanks to Lucy’s explosive Vectors that got compared to Nuclear Fusion. And since there’s no evidence to suggest that Carnage could survive such a massive amount of heat, it’s entirely possible that Lucy could totally incinerate Carnage if given the chance.

And given that Carnage isn’t likely to power through Lucy’s Vectors anytime soon (Thanks to the latter’s speed and strength), Lucy had more opportune moments to kill Carnage. It’s even pointed out in a notecard.

Really though, Boomstick’s end line didn’t really have a good Lied-in.

Overall impression.

Really though, I know that October is slated for Battle 100, but I feel that this would have worked better then. Two Psychopathic murderers going at each other with deadly force, and the chilling music makes it all the more eerie. It feels like a slight missed opportunity, and there’s no notecard explaining why Carnage tagging Nova wasn’t mentioned. Perhaps during the podcast, but it would have been nice to have heard or read why it didn’t count in the actual episode.

Aside from that, the music and animation is really good, but it feels like there could have been a tad more effort put into Lucy’s sprite. It felt odd seeing a minimalist looking sprite interacting with a detailed sprite like the one Carnage got. I get that Elfin Lied is a bit obscure, and that there wouldn’t be many good sprites to use, but Lucy looks her best when we get a close-up of her hand-drawn face.

That being said, the explanation is really good, but once Lucy’s explosive Vectors are mentioned, it becomes a foregone conclusion. Lucy just needs to land that once to finish the fight, and we just saw her move her Vector hands into space. She could fight at a distance, and keep Carnge away from her.

7.0/10 The fight’s good, and the music is really awesome, but it’s not exactly an “up in the air” fight. Overall, the moment the Nuclear Fusion hands get mentioned, you know it’s leaning towards Lucy, and that sort of lack of suspense makes it hard to enjoy. It’s not even something like Flash vs. Quicksilver, in which you know who’s going to win, but the setting and reasoning for the fight is unique and interesting. Maybe if Lucy had gotten on the train, and they had fought there, it would have been more unique, but it doesn’t really have a unique edge. And the lighting is weird, which makes it harder to track Carnage. While this might have been the intent, it’s odd that both Symbiote fights involve a lot of dark lighting.

But the result is well-justified, and the parts that can be seen are really great. So, I’d say that the score is fair.

Next Time…

It’s been a while since we last had a Transformer, and it’s about time that we did get one. Though, I won’t really cry if Prime loses. It’s a running gag that he dies a lot at this point.

Is there a fight that you want me to review? - Send an ask/request, and I’ll look into it!

Do you want to read my fanfic based around DEATH BATTLE itself? click here!

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you next time for…

The second giant robot fight we’ve had.

#Death Battle #Deathbattle #screwattack #review

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