#i didnt fix him but he looks better with a pacifer

[greenboi]

[zenosanalytic]

THE SACRED TEXTS!! EPISODE 2

So I finished Season 2 of Clone Wars(2008) ~the end of last week and, while it def improves on some of the problems of s1, it then has all sorts of OTHER problems of its own, so I kinda consider it A Wash, in general :T

the highlights:

Season to Season, there’s a lot more F U N in s2. I just LOVE how Crunchy and Genre it is. The stand outs, to me, were the zombies/bodysnatchers in the Brain Invader arc, the King Kong Kaiju story in the Zillo Beast arc(complete with an origin in environmental devastation), and, of course, the loving homage to/mashup of Die Hard&Lassie that is R2 Come Home, which basically had me laughing from start to finish. The other attempts at genre eps generally fell flat(though Holocron Heist has one very good moment with the unsuspecting droid-bomb, and the specific submarine bits of the submarine ep, Cat and Mouse, were well done).

They really nailed the “Ahsoka’s problems are because of Anakin’s influence” bit in this season. There aren’t a LOT of eps that touch on this(I can only really think of one, really, Cargo of Doom) but they absolutely bullseye it in that one. They also do a better job of fleshing out Anakin and Ahsoka’s dynamic&how that can act as both a strength and a weakness, though I do feel they could have done a better job with it(for instance, the last 3rd or 4th of Weapons Factory, where Ahsoka and Bariss are trapped within the ruins of the factory, should have been a whole episode on its own; this would have been a great opportunity to focus on this&do some character work)

This season repeatedly contrasts Anakin and Mace, which was Gr8 and Interesting. I wish they’d done more of that.

It continues season one’s excellent handling of the Clones. While there aren’t as many clone-centric episodes, you still get both a good sense of their individuality and humanity(espcl with The Deserter), and also their Awful and Grotesque disposability to everyone with responsibility over them, even the ones who “care” about them like Anakin, who’s constantly throwing their lives away on ill-conceived assaults. Like: this season REALLY forefronts Clone deaths in a way that is inescapable without being over-wrought, belabored, or distractingly self-aware. It really highlights the Jedis’ hypocrisy, both re: their ideology reifying “life”/“soul”/”naturalness” and in how it leads to their general disdain/disinterest for droids.

I liked the relationship they built btw Boba and Aurra Sing, though I think they could have done more with it than they did.

the Spider-Assassin droids in Voyage of Temptation are Hot-As-Shit, but the whole premise which allows their utility, of a luxury-liner with crappy lighting in the cargo-hold&soldiers without flipping flashlights, was kinda dumb.

as for the stuff I didnt like:

WOW the racism sure is awful in this season! Just... non-humanoid aliens being called monsters, portrayed as untrustworthy, stupid, and needlessly violent, and killed off in a series that goes extravagantly out of its way NOT to kill non-clone humanoids left-and-right. And the Mandalorians all looking... EXACTLY THE SAME and... BEING TALL BLONDE AND SUPER PALE... when the only mandalorian we’ve encountered before this was MAURI and when the CANON on Mandalorians is that being “A follower of Mandalore” is very much a culture and ethos rather than an ethnic group...

I feel like the Mandalorian part of this, specifically, could have been done in a way that was actl interesting and explicit about Star Wars’s antifascist politics given the obvs parallels btw fascism and a bunch of supremacist, war-mongering nordics like Death Watch, but obvsl it wasnt.

Most of the eps just really didnt land with me? Like all the spy, macguffin, kidnapping, and police stuff was just boring&poorly executed(also, what kid is going to get the old noir character-type and actor that the Coruscant inspector is referencing? A completely perplexing choice when making him, instead, a sendup of the Law&Order/CSI type US media was saturated with at the time is RIGHT THERE).

While I liked one aspect of the Heist episode, the rest of it was bad & bad heist episodes are Just Unforgivable unu

SO MUCH BAD, STILTED, NONSENSICAL, AND REPETITIVE DIALOGUE

The primary plot-device of this season is The Idiot Ball, and I Hate The Idiot Ball. Cad Bane is legit written as smart, and Aurra Sing is legit written as dangerous and indefatigable, but they mostly succeed because of how fucking dumb the Jedi, clones, and senate security are being at any one moment.

The IDEA and BACKGROUND for Duchess Satine is good, but the execution of her as a dedicated pacifist and engaged, activist ruler is Bad and Inconsistent(and, on the ruler part, mostly not even there). Also, while the idea of unrealized romantic angst btw Satine and Obi Wan isnt NECESSARILY a bad idea given their history, I think making it mutual rather than one-side on Satine’s part was a bad idea(could have done LOTS of interesting stuff btw Anakin and Obi Wan on this), and I think making Satine’s initial frostiness towards Obi Wan Really be a RESULT of THAT rejection(it’s resolved completely by him telling her he shared those feelings at the time), rather than her seeing him(and the Jedi by extension) as having abandoned their peaceful ideals, was Really Bad. And, frankly, she watched her whole family be murdered in political in-fighting and then spent years on the run, being hunted herself, under the protection of the Jedi Order, before negotiating a peaceful settlement with the ppl who murdered her family; I’d have liked SOME evidence of the trauma she’s canonically suffered in her reactions to violence, and also of the absolute steel-spine, endurance, and dedication it took to make peace in those circumstances. Her pacifism isnt just an ideal to her; it ought to be deeply, deeply personal, and viciously hard-won.

The ep, Bounty Hunters completely misunderstands the point of The Seven Samurai and The Magnificent Seven. The whole POINT is that these two bands of highly-trained, deeply mercenary killers decide to protect absolutely destitute villagers who have nothing but the food they themselves need to survive, some out of a sense of their own wickedness, and others out of a sense of loyalty to the former. To apply that premise to a cash-crop plantation(despite the com’s leader’s protestations of poverty later in the ep, Obi Wan straight-up says “this is the most important, and profitable, medical herb in the galaxy” when they first arrive, and obvsl they’re able to hire off-world bounty hunters to protect them) completely perverts it. The Bounty Hunters and Jedi are defending the equivalent of a cotton plantation; they’re defending capitalists. If you remade The Magnificent Seven to have them defend a plantation-owner against, say, a Northern requisition team during the Civil War, the mercs would be the BAD GUYS. Just... shaking my head this whole episode, honestly. At LEAST it was a communal plantation, presumably with profit-sharing.

So yeah, a definite mixed-bag. So far I’d say there’ve been probably 3-5 episodes in this series I’ve really enjoyed but, while there’s a lot that I grumble at, it isnt so bad that I dread watching it(like, for instance, The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina X| X| X|). I repeat my observation from the last one of these that it really does a good job of being just interesting enough that you spend A LOT of time thinking abt how to fix the parts you dont like :p tbh I’ve already started watching s3, but I’ll share my views on that one once I’ve finished it. If you did, thanks for reading ^u^

[tumblunni]

Ehh i think i finally summed up why all of this steven universe diamonds stuff has been so underwhelming.

YES you can redeem a villain

but you have to

actually

TRY

Yes you can write a story about the world’s most fuckin horrible person being really actually sad at heart

Yes you can write a story about an abusive parent actually being able to change

Yes you can write a story about some wild genocidal alien civilization of asshole space rocks actually only doing it because something something societal pressure DESPITE BEING THE ONES IN CHARGE WHO SET THE DAMN RULES I GUESS

But fucking hell its not gonna be EASY and you shouldn’t treat it that way.

All of this shit was SO fucking quick?? And everything else WASNT!

You spent SO long hyping up these guys you spent SO long convincing us that they WERE evil and that they had entirey different motives for what they were doing and EVEN WITHIN THIS FUCKING EPISODE you spent more time showing us White Diamond being absolutely ridiculously existentially horrifyingly awful and refusing every offer everyone gave her to help and refusing every chance and fucking fucking goddamn violating people’s entire minds and just.. fuck.

After all that you cant just fuckin have steven walk up to blue and yellow and say “hey everything you did was bad” and them go “GEE WE NEVER KNEW!” for some reason this time they’re convinced in a single sentence despite it being the same sentence steven said before in every damn episode and pink said to them years before and every person they abused and enslaved and mutilated and KILLED said while they were DYING

And you can’t fucking have white diamond never redeem herself and never change and never admit she’s wrong and steven SOLVE IT WITH FUCKING FIGHTING WHILE SAYING HE DOESNT WANT TO, WHILE THE ENTIRE SHOW TRIES TO CLAIM THE REASON THEY ARE DOING IT THIS WAY IS BECAUSE OF PACIFISM

because seriously he?? just defeated her?? and this made her?? change???

redeeming a villain shouldn’t be easy. redeeming a villain has to have the villain TRY. white diamond has done nothing to prove she really has a heart, prove that she really did all this for sympathetic reasons, prove that she’s able to change, AND ESPECIALLY NOTHING TO MAKE IT UP TO ANY OF THE PEOPLE SHE’S HURT

she just got defeated and basically admitted she’s wrong cos she has no other choice. and i guess her blushing because steven issued a SICK BURN to her is meant to be enough proof that her entire motivation so far has been because of self confidence issues forcing her to put up a false front aka her entire personality we saw so far. If you wanna tell me she’s entirely different to what we saw so far then please could you please give it more screentime than twelve goddamn seconds.

This is like how yellow and blue just suddenly were accepted as part of the family and steven agreed to go with them to homeworld literally just because they realized he “is really pink diamond”. Like they never fucking repented or actually learned to empathise with humans or ever explained why they dont empathise with humans no nope the only answer we got is that they were sad about their sister/daughter/friend dying even though they were already doing all the same evil stuff before that and its what caused her to leave in the first place. no we’re gonna just completely trust them instantly and not even continue making an effort to convince them? we’re gonna trust them so much we’re gonna trust that white diamond will also change just cos we beat her up? COS SERIOUSLY STEVEN FUCKIN DEFEATED BLUE AND YELLOW IN A FIGHT AND THATS THE END OF THEIR ARC, HOW IS THIS PROVING THE POWER OF PACIFISM!! beating everyone up and then saying the same singular sentence again and somehow now it works!! or saying “my mum was pink diamond” and it doesnt convince them but hey if we say it again with magical proof its true then i guess it works now. wow that sure does argue the power of words i guess

everything EVERYTHING they did was just a fuckin misunderstanding cos they dont UNDERSTAND they were doing bad and thus they dont have to face any form of consequences beyond being mildly embarassed i suppose.

if you wanna make that the ending then you need to work to disprove all the hours you spent implying that.. yknow.. they were doing things because they were evil

and even if theyre sympathetic they still did evil things and they still need to work to prove that theyve changed

and ESPECIALLY if you’re making a show very heavy on subjects like LGBT discrimination it shouldnt be FUCKIN WOW UNEXPECTED that the audience would see this plot as a metaphor for stuff like homophobia and abusive parents and.. yknow.. societal oppression in a law system that forces you to live in the closet in constant fear of being discovered and killed. and all the other apparantly accidental undertones of racism and extermination of indigenous people in stolen land which YOU REALLY SHOULD HAVE EXPECTED PEOPLE TO SEE WHEN THE PLOT IS LITERALLY EXTERMINATING PEOPLE TO STEAL THEIR LAND

all of that means you need to do MORE work to prove that that isnt actually what the plot is supposed to be, and more work to redeem villains who are very heavily goddamn triggering to a large part of the vunerable audience YOU SPECIFICALLY MARKETED YOURSELF TOWARDS

this was just so fucking overwhelming and somehow rushed despite being an hour long episode, and i hate it because the show spent so much effort on so much other stuff yet decided to half ass it at the really important part that NEEDED to have thought and time put into it if it was gonna nail the landing

especially after ALL THAT FUCKIN TIME AND EFFORT INTO THINGS THAT ONLY AMPED UP THE VILLAINY AND TENSION OF THESE GUYS AND MADE IT SO MUCH WORSE

like fucking hell how can you be so tone deaf??? this has been in the planning for so damn long and theyve been working on it forever and THIS is what they chose to rush over? this is the priorities they thought were important? even just within this episode if youre struggling to fit it all in then like seriously cut out some of the stuff like the montage of unseen fusion forms that did basiclaly nothing but a few jokes, and the equally as rushed bad lars and sadie romance resolution. Which is another thing that needed a lot of work to fix when the introduction we got to these two was a really unhealthy relationship and a dude who refuses to change despite being given twelve chances but suddenly changes COMPLETELY on the thirteenth one and i guess cos he died that proves he’s all good now. Except he acts all weird and creepy in the very next episode and endangers his new friends by acting all possessive over sadie again and getting angry that she has other friends????

i hate it because ive had to deal with the fandom telling all the people who were rightfully uncomfortable with how these subjects were handled that oh we’re just overreacting and oh wait and see cos they totally have a big plan for the ending or something that’ll make it all make sense. And comparing people being triggered by child abuse and racism to “huhu those dumb su criticals who hate the art style” or whatever...

god, man, its just a deflection of what the issue really is

“oh youre saying NO VILLAINS can EVER be redeemed and NOBODY can EVER talk about dark stuff in shows without being SECRETLY BAD AND SUPPORTING IT IN REAL LIFE?”

no im not saying that im just saying the subjects are fucking depressing to people who’ve suffered from the real life stuff and the villain redemption should be GOOD and should THINK ABOUT THOSE PEOPLE IN THE AUDIENCE if it wants to make up for it

like fucking hell look at how much zuko from avatar went through before his redemption. look at how long he struggled with his morality and how long it took him to realise he was wrong. look at how much detail they showed us on all the people who negatively influenced him into making the bad choices he did. look at how much he went through to make up for what he did and apologise to everyone he hurt. look at how everyone he hurt didnt believe him at first and it took a while for everything to work out. look at how sometimes he messed up and took steps backward before getting to where he needed to be. and look at how he actually changed as a person and continued learning and growing and trying to be a good person even far into the future after the story ended.

hell, fuckin look at PERIDOT! peridot had a full goddamn zuko arc! peridot had more screentime than all of the diamonds combined, and it was way better utilized! she had a full process from being introduced as a scary villain BECAUSE OF MISUNDERSTANDING WHO SHE REALLY WAS, then being revealed as having a fully rounded personality, flaws and redeemable traits while still being a villain. and moments of her proving that she did indeed only become a villain because she didnt understand what she was doing was wrong, and a personality that matched with that reveal rather than having NO INDICATION she was like that until it suddenly happened only after she was defeated. and her redemption came slowly through friendship with steven and it had moments of the other characters not instantly trusting her and also of her making mistakes and struggling with believing steven’s philosophy when it went against everything she knew about life. and speaking of which it was established that she had a very different life which had negative influences pushing these ideas upon her, and tough stuff that made her scared and pressured. Not just being in a high position of ruling over a planet in the lap of luxury and ONLY AFTER BEING DEFEATED do we learn that they feel pressured by the societal expectation to be perfect and they actually would have agreed all along with dismantling the system but they were just too afraid to be honest. Or whatever the fuck that rushed ending was trying to go for! And man even after peridot joins the team she’s NOT redeemed yet, she’s initially only halfway doubting herself and only teaming up with steven because they’re both afraid of the cluster. And she messes up and says horrible shit to her new friends and feels the consequences of her actions and chooses to change. And her ultimate choice to switch sides is REALLY hard, she gets so close to going back to the diamonds and its a great personal sacrifice on her part when she chooses to give it all up and make an enemy of the person she was so scared of!

and GAHHH that good redemption is one in a million episodes that really set up the diamonds Being Bad and should have been a goddamn tally in the “effort required in the fuckin ending” chart!

could we not have even just had one ten minute episode of blue and yellow going around earth and experiencing human life and realizing there’s things worth protecting? or a few damn scenes foreshadowing white being actually insecure and lying to protect herself, rather than GENUINELY ABUSIVE BECAUSE SHE’S BAD?

and seriously even if you hurt people because you hate yourself YOU STILL HURT THEM

a sympathetic backstory should be a reason why they COULD be redeemed, not proof that they already are redeemed just because the backstory was stated in words and nothing else has fuckin changed.

imagine if zuko just lost one fight to aang and said “yes but my dad abused me” and aang was like “oh no now lets team up with zuko to beat up his dad” and none of the bad things zuko did were ever mentioned again and also he keeps his season 1 personality throughout the entire series

imagine if peridot fuckin.. just changed sides cos she’s funny and we like her. people wantedher to change sides as soon as she acted funny and likeable but they still made the effort to actually prove she had changed! the diamonds didnt act remotely harmless or remotely good until they just suddenly are in the very last episode.

hoo

fucking

ray

also why are we constantly just ignoring all these dark things about homeworld? like the episode with holly blue agate and the famethyst slave caste and all the creepy ways the entire place operated. i totally thought thatd.. yknow.. EVER BE REFERENCED AGAIN?? its never even mentioned that anyone even WANTS to go back and save them?? and the human zoo were outright stated to be like.. unsaveable. “oh theyve never known real human life and theyre happy in their slavery so itd be cruel to take them away from it” One off episode, forgotten about. And the creepy as fuck scenes of gems being BUILT INTO THE WALLS AND DOORS AS SECURITY SYSTEMS and the confirmation that more lapis situations are constantly going on yet somehow that singing hairbrush person doesnt get all the sympathy that she did. And steven going daww at the pebbles instead of being horrified that theyre born to work as servants and forced to live in the walls because the noblewomen dont want to look at them? and he asks them to make him a new outfit?? and theres no plot anything involving them except them puttering around in the background outfitting?? like was none of this meant to be seen as PROOF THAT THE DIAMONDS WERE EVIL and PEOPLE WHO NEEDED TO BE SAVED????

goddddd

please say they were rushed or something please say this is all the faultof being given less time than they expected please say there were other plans for other episodes we didnt see that would have given at least slightly more substance to any of this

also why wasnt this even advertised as the last episode if its the last fuckin episode

hhhh well at least obsidian was a great character design and so were the other fusions and new outfits even if they only appeared for twelve seconds. and white’s whole scary evil mind invasion stuff was really good even if it actually hurt the episode by being good, kinda

man im not even mad or anything i just feel mehh and bored and like im actually glad its over. i never wanted to feel that way about a show that used to be so good. i kinda wish the earliest episodes werent so good if the answers to all those well set up mysteries were gonna have so much less effort than the setup itself

...man i should make a whole post about all the mistaken ways i THOUGHT the show was gonna go that actually would have been way more interesting than the real answer.

i’m just super glad that my last theory was wrong cos wow that would have been the only thing worse than this ending! when white pearl first appeared before we’d actually seen white diamond, and it had all this thing that white diamond hadnt been seen in ages.. well i was worried it was setting up some sort of reverse twist where actually white pearl is bodysnatching white diamond instead of vice versa. So the whole evil empire would actually be run by a member of the slave class that its oppressing, and the diamonds/representative of the upper class would actually be poor victims all along. dear god i am so glad i got that wrong! tho im weirded out by how evil white/pink pearl looked in that first hint that she was originally pink pearl??

anyway basicallly im just so fuckin tired

[voidselfshipp]

DEPTH STRIDER

Chapter 2

pt3 time off

/~~~~~~~~~~\

Jer stands up wiping her tears.

--Well I do have a way of going out of here, but you guys May not like it

--honstly I just want to go back to Australia--miss Pauling says.

Jeri snorts and giggles a little.

Spy,sniper and medics heart warm at the sound of the giggles.

--Okay,okay here I go-- she walks up to the shore, not exactly knowing how to call for help to her family.

So she just freezes.

Oh boy.

She bets her aunt and sister are laughing like a witches coven.

--Uh jerico?--before scout can say anything a huge orca jumps out of the sea.

It waits a couple meters from the shore.

Thank the gods.

--I didnt think it was THAT type of 'you May not like It'--Pauling says amazed.

Jerico raises her shoulders as she walks over to the orca, sitting on its back helping the rest up.

--i dont know about this-- sniper says holding onto one of the fins.

Jeri smiles at him --Trust me on this one

She softly kicks the orcas side, who deep dives into the Ocean.

The mercs wait up to drown,but when they inhale...its Like normal Air.

Jer looks at them as the animal swims.

--See? Its okay!

They defenetly need some time off.

At everyones surprise, once back at the shore they all end up staying in snipers farm, seeing as his house was the only safe place for all of them.

--How come you have a motorcycle?

Scout Asks.

--DO NOT TOUCH HER --jer slaps his hand away.

The three of her cats hand her her fluffy jacket, she puts it on, and grabs her pets, entering the house.

She stays on the sofá,knees to her chest,the cats all asleep besides her.

Sniper finds her asleep shortly after, she picks her up bridal style, with a soft smile on his face.

She looked so pacific like that.

He walks to his room,the cats following him,leaving her in his bed, covering her up.

Jer snuggles into the covers.

They smelled like him.

The mercs Keep it down for the rest of the evening.

Jerico feels a soft knock on the door.

--Jerico?--Thats spys voice-- are you awake...?

--Kind of--She says--Why?

--dinner is almost ready, we are waiting for you

--Ill be there in a bit...

She sits up, her cats mewl and rest on her lap, the black cat,void, stretches and jumps on her shoulder, snuggling their head against her neck.

--Yeah I should get changed huh?

And so she does.

A nice, long black skirt,a shirt and a dark green turtleneck that had the shoulders exposed.

She lets her hair down and smiles looking at herself in the makeshift mirror in snipers room.

She grabs her jacket and walks downstairs.

--Alright whats all the fuss about!--jer exclaims leaving her jacket in a Seat.

The men around her turn to see her.

None of them uttert a single word.

She looked gorgeous.

--okay now that im awake, shoosh, ill make dinner

None of them talked back and just decided to hang out in the living room.

--Uh excuse me?--medic enters the kitchen--Can I help

They still had some issues to resolve

Yet, jerico nodds --Sure, we need to add some spices to this!

They both start talking about random things, trying to lighten up the mood.

--You look, very pretty-- the german Man fixes his glasses--

--Thanks med,you look way better without that coat

Both chuckle and he looks away.

He then grabs her hand.

--I just vanted to say sorry--he finally admits--i dont usually regret my actions, but, zhis time is different..., do jou zhink you can forgive me?

--i really dont know medic,but I guess I can try

Both smile and look at eachother,she squeezes his hand and lean in.

--OI! WE HUNGRY HERE!-- scout screams from the living room.

After dinner jerico goes outside, and sits on the Grass.

She sees the moon shining, it looked beautiful, she looks down and closes her eyes.

She was thinking of her family, and what a thing the world is.

She feels a peck of a beak on her hand.

She opens them up and looks at the eagle.

--Hey dad... nice to see you

The eagle caws, as a Ferret climbs to rest on her lap--oh...aunt life,hey

She also sees an owl that rests on a nearby branch

--And aunt chronos

And more and more animals came by, a spider and a bat to name a few.

--The whole family came by, Nice to see

A huge black snake wraps around jericos arm--hey lilith , so whats up?

*we know youve been giving those guys bedroom eyes* now the eagle didnt talk, but jeri understood perfectly.

*yeah* a raven said *life and I voted on the frenchman*

*nonsense!* the snake hissed *Ray and I know the german dude Will win!*

The bat and the spider roll their eye(s) *come on* they say *the aussie is in it to win it*

If anyone were here to see this they would be a little freaked out.

*whatever Twats say* the black cat announces *I say the texan Man wins!*

--Can we not talk about this?!--jericos face is red as a tomato.

Yet her family doesnt understand, so she stands up, leaving the snake and the Ferret on the Grass and walks inside.

She doesnt have any time to deal with that.

[fitnessexpert00-blog]

Fitness Isnt a Lifestyle Anymore. Sometimes Its a Cult

New Post has been published on https://fitnessqia.com/must-see/fitness-isnt-a-lifestyle-anymore-sometimes-its-a-cult/

Fitness Isnt a Lifestyle Anymore. Sometimes Its a Cult

San Franciscos Fort Mason park is empty in the early morning darkness, every surface the color of a used cast-iron pan. Its pouring rain, and Ive been wandering around since just after 6, trying to find well, Im not exactly sure. All I know is that, according to a Facebook post, members of one of the strangest fitness groups in the country are supposed to be meeting here right about now. But the Google Maps screenshot I pulled from the website seems to have directed me to a parking lot. Or the front door of the high-end vegetarian restaurant Greens. Its hard to tell.

I check Facebook again.

What are you planning to do for the first Monday of 2016? Sleep in? Lazily slog on into work? No need for that. Come join us for #DonutMondays at NPSF (Gil, dont forget the donuts!). Fort Mason. 6:25AM

Just as I start thinking Ill have to find my own doughnut, a woman in her mid-twenties jogs up to me looking equally lost. Shes dressed in a gray Adidas jacket, black leggings, and a tank top that resembles caution tape. Her wet hair is stuck to her forehead as though shes just been dunked in the Pacific.

Do you know where November Project meets? she asks with a slight accent. Relieved, I tell her Im trying to find them as well. Im Stine! she says.

And then she hugs me.

What distinguishes November Project is not just the fact that its freejust as instructors arent paid, members dont paybut the degree to which it actually is a social identity. The movement extends beyond exercising to encompass rituals and customs, social expecta­tions, and repercussions for failing to participate. Thats right: If you skip a November Project workout, youre not out any cash, but the fallout is arguably more severe. Youre, well, shamed. Online. Its weird.

Spoiler: Not a lot of people miss workouts. Teixeira calls it an absolute feast for someone studying motivation for exercise.

One member compared November Project to a church. More commonly, people refer to it as a cult. Never in the pejora­tive Im-trapped-and-I-cant-escape sense, though. More like, This is the greatest-tasting Kool-Aid in the world!

Laura McCloskey leads the San Francisco tribe in a high-intensity workout. Hugs and hand-holding are not optional.Jake Stangel

While we walk, Stine, whos originally from Denmark, tells me about her obsession with November Project. Shes been a member of the Boston tribebears repeating: tribefor about four months and is visiting San Francisco for the week. Its been such a great way to meet people. Cities can be lonely, but you have this instant community, she says, using a nice-enough line that begins to sound like propaganda as I hear other members repeat it.

Two people who say it a lot are Brogan Graham and Bojan Mandaric. They are November Projects cofoundersand they totally fit their gladiatorial-sounding names: 6-foot-tall, bald, tattooed former collegiate rowers. Back in 2011, when the friends were trying to stay motivated during a Boston winter, they agreed to work out every weekday morning at 6:30, keeping track of their progress on a spreadsheet named for that first month, November.

Then, for reasons neither can quite remember, they sent out a tweet to see if anyone would join in. Two people became three, and a movement was born. When the Boston tribe reached 300 people, Graham and Mandaric got matching tattoos.

In the past few years, fitness has developed into some­thing of a social identity — at least among plugged-in, upper-middle-class, roughly millennial-age urbanites.

It was a powerful turning point for Graham. During his sophomore year at Northeastern University, he was charged with assaulting a rival college rower. Though the charge was dropped in exchange for community service, he lost his scholarship and was kicked out of school. The experience shaped Grahams views on community and inclusion. Got a bad rap? I dont care, he wrote in the movements official history. Are you at November Project to be kind, work your ass off, and start your day right? Then thats all that matters.

As Stine is telling me how much she loves November Projects instant community, we find who were looking for. Unmistakably silhouetted against the foggy morning sky, about 40 people stand in a lopsided semicircle, arms crossed, heads bowed against the wind. They could be praying.

A woman in striped leggings and a North Face trucker hat climbs onto a park bench. Good morning! says Laura McCloskey, the San Francisco tribe leader, in a stage whisper. Were going to do a workout that I just came up with! I want everyone to break into groups of four! Find your four! Try to group up with someone you dont normally pair with!

Jake Stangel

Before we start, she asks if today is anyones first time. A few people raise their hands. I, not quite ready to give up my anonymity, do not. The newbies are directed to state where they come from, how they got here, and whether theyre single. A version of this happens at every November Project meetup, one of the traditions borrowed from Graham and Mandarics original Boston tribealong with chants, stair laps, a rallying move called the bounce, and, of course, physical affection. People come looking for a sense of belonging, Mandaric says. We foster that.

The same thing goes for November Projects other tactics for promoting inclusiveness. Hashtags are essential follow November Project on Twitter and youll see a lot of #hills­forbreakfast, #sleepwhenyouredead, and #justshow­up. Members usually don highlighter-colored sportswear, stenciled and spray-painted with the logo #grassrootsgear. The result is a group of people who look alike, sound alike, and hug alike.

Toward the end of our workout, a man in my squat group finally discovers that I didnt announce myself as a new member. Were going to fix this, he says with a grin. He outs me to McCloskey, who has me wave to everyone during the group photo (another ritual) and apologize for not making my presence known. Eventually, everyone becomes part of the tribe.

Jake Stangel

In Graham and Mandarics crew days, their coach had a policy: If anyone missed practice, the whole team had to do dry-land workouts. It worked because nobody wanted to let the group down. When they started November Project, they knew theyd need a similar system for keeping people accountable to the tribe.

I feel a tiny bit of thisan expectation that no one is above the groupwhen Im teased for not introducing myself. But thats nothing compared to what happens to someone who doesnt show up for a workout. For that, November Project has perfected a bizarre, more 21st-century form of establishing accountability: online shaming. This is known as We Missed You.

From November Projects website: If you decided that staying in bed was a better option than working out with your friends (who you promised that youll be there) then your face will be featured here.

Members usually don highlighter-colored sports­wear, stenciled and spray-painted with the logo #grassrootsgear.

By face, they mean embarrassing photos lifted from the shamed members Facebook profile or supplied by friends. Posts go on to explain that this person committed to attending a workoutmade a #verbal, in tribe-speakbut reneged. Screenshots of text messages and emails confirming said #verbal are posted, along with guesses as to why the absentee might have failed to show upanything from you must have gotten too drunk the night before to perhaps you were lost on a Segway tour. Its an elaborate expression of profound disappointment in the offending person, and there are hundreds of examples on the website.

Paddy OLeary, a member of the San Francisco tribe, remembers when he skipped a workout in 2013. A fellow member made him a We Missed You video; he hasnt missed a workout since. Other victims confirm the tactics effectiveness. You look like an idiot for sleeping in when everyone else is having an amazing time, says Holly Richardson, also in San Francisco. Its not worth it.

McCloskey makes no apologies for the policy. November Project is successful because it relies on word of mouth and accountability, she says. If I tell you that I will meet you at the corner of Market and Sanchez to run to November Project, come rain, snow, or dinosaurs, I will be there. In the event that someone sends one of those pathetic just cant do it texts at 5:55 am, we have the right to roast them. And roast we do.

Jake Stangel

Heres the fundamental thing about shaming: According to behavioral psychologists, its not supposed to work. Sure, it might force someone to make a change in the momentcontestants on The Biggest Loser shedding pounds before a national audience, for instancebut the effects dont always last. When your goals, attitudes, or values are shaped by external motivators, its unlikely youll stay satisfied or committed for long.

This is certainly true when it comes to working out. For decades, experts in behavior modification have tried to get people to commit to exercise. So far, nothing has worked, says Jack Raglin, a professor of kinesiology at Indiana University. It doesnt matter if youre paid to exercise, if youve paid to exercise, if you might die from lack of exercisemost people just dont stick it out.

Yet theres an undeniable element of shaming to this latest generation of exercise fads. It may have started with fitness trackers, which made people more aware of their activity levels in relation to othersreach 10,000 steps or your coworkers will know youre a slob. From there, programs began capitalizing on group pressure. In Orangetheory workouts, your calorie burn and heart rate are displayed on a screen. CrossFit posts scores as well, believing it encourages people to push harderand now its in 13,000 affiliated gyms worldwide.

But this motivation strategy, researchers like Raglin and Teixeira suggest, could be as doomed as any other. You may initially want to impress your peers or get your moneys worth, but those considerations rarely lead to true behavior change. If the standard adherence rate for exercise holds, Raglin says, half the people will stop showing up to these classes within a year.

Youd think this would apply to November Project too. After all, the threat of We Missed You is external. But there are some differences. November Project members are not paying anything to be there, the goals arent about burning the most caloriesyet people show up anyway. And many of them have been at this for years, without ever missing a single workout. Its clearly working for some people.

Jake Stangel

True motivation, Teixeira says, takes something extra, something intrinsic. If members of a group think they are gaining useful skills, feel personally valued, and perceive that they have control over their actions, they are more likely to fully commit. Teixeira believes November Project gives you a bit of all these things. And indeed, everyone I talk to seems like a lifer. But then again, I only talk to people who are there. The one real data point we have is that November Project continues to expand. A recent partnership with the North Face aims to help grow the movement.

Jennifer Hurst, an associate professor of health and exercise science at Truman State University, suggests November Project may be succeeding at pulling off a rare thing: positive shaming. It only works when the person truly cares what the shamers think, she says. The desire for social connectedness and the positive feeling some get from the environment must be worth the time, energy, and sacrifice. That explains why the rituals, cultlike as they seem, are so crucial. You dont want to disappoint people you hug, not to mention chant and bounce and dance with.

A number of years ago, Raglin and his colleagues found that married adults who enrolled in a recreational fitness program together had an average adherence rate of over 90 percent, compared to just 50 percent for those who enrolled on their own. The married pair didnt necessarily exercise together or even in the same room, Raglin says. They simply came and left together. Yet the social benefit was quite profound.

That may also help explain November Projects success. Members might not be married to each other, but theyre married to the group. And the group is what holds November Project together.

Jake Stangel

It turns out some November Project members actually are married to each other. At one of my workouts, a young couple tells me they met in the Boston tribe. The movement encourages this sort of thingleaders are expected to host mixers and speed-dating events. The phrase There will be babies appears on the blog and in promo material.

Yes, its all a bit creepy, and I dont blame passersby who look at us funny (there are many of them). And no matter how many times Im told that We Missed You is not about shaming, its about love, I wont be entirely convinced. But you cant deny the smile on these peoples faces. Nobody looks like that when theyre huffing it alone on a treadmill in their garage. I wont be heading up a November Project tribe back home in Santa Fe, but if one comes to my town, I wouldnt say no to a few hugs.

With dawn creeping over the edges of the city, we put our arms around each other and start to bounce. Yall good? someone says, in signature November Project whisper-shout. Fuck yeah! the group whispers back.

Surprising myself just a little, I say it too.

Meaghen Brown (@meaghenbrown) is a freelance journalist based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the former online fitness editor for Outside.

This article appears in the July 2016 issue.

Read more: http://www.wired.com/