#i may need a new cutoff point

[idiopath-fic-smile]

yet another song inspired by fictitious band The Shotguns from @greatunironic's steddie epic the most remarkable thing about you standing in the doorway is that it’s you. by my count, this is the eighteenth(!) song @greenlikethesea or i have written in this universe, which is genuinely blowing my mind. thanks @melrows for the album art and a huge thank you to everyone still listening!

especially in the context of the fic's timeline (as i've noted elsewhere, this album in '96 is the first after uncle wayne dies in '95) this song title struck me as almost impossibly lonely. what would it mean to know beyond a doubt that the paranormal is real, and yet still be unable to contact anyone who has passed on from this world? on the other hand, canonically in the fic, joyce and steve were the ones who arranged the funeral when ed couldn't wrap his mind around it at first, so this moment is both crushingly sad but also kind of lit around the edges by love. the duality of that interested me, and here's what i came up with. lyrics under the cut!

LYRICS Somebody tap on a windowpane somebody hum an old tragic refrain somebody make a cold space I can step inside

Flicker the lights when I get tired, set this whole fucking place on fire I'll take it, any signal, any sign

CHORUS Curse me Hex me Whisper in the dial tone Plague me Vex me Just don't leave me here alone

A Ouija board and an empty flask, Are guiding hands too much to ask? but stillness, all the spirits long consumed

After it all, what's got me scared the chance of nothing lurking there we've got no way to fight an empty room

CHORUS

The first man to say that it's ok for my heart to beat that way —the shock of that kindness, even now

so it's all gone to the unknown his voice from a borrowed phone to tell me, “Ed, you know I'm proud”

CHORUS Alone Alone Alone The voices of the living tell me I've forgiven The voices of the living say “we called, everyone's on their way” The voices of the living Oh, I've gotta take them with me The voices of the living sow The seeds that say we're not alone Alone Alone Alone

[5ummit]

AO3 Ship Stats: Year In Bad Data

You may have seen this AO3 Year In Review.

It hasn’t crossed my tumblr dash but it sure is circulating on twitter with 3.5M views, 10K likes, 17K retweets and counting. Normally this would be great! I love data and charts and comparisons!

Except this data is GARBAGE and belongs in the TRASH.

I first noticed something fishy when I realized that Steve/Bucky – the 5th largest ship on AO3 by total fic count – wasn’t on this Top 100 list anywhere. I know Marvel’s popularity has fallen in recent years, but not that much. Especially considering some of the other ships that made it on the list. You mean to tell me a femslash HP ship (Mary MacDonald/Lily Potter) in which one half of the pairing was so minor I had to look up her name because she was only mentioned once in a single flashback scene beat fandom juggernaut Stucky? I call bullshit.

Now obviously jumping to conclusions based on gut instinct alone is horrible practice... but it is a good place to start. So let’s look at the actual numbers and discover why this entire dataset sits on a throne of lies.

Here are the results of filtering the Steve/Bucky tag for all works created between Jan 1, 2023 and Dec 31, 2023:

Not only would that place Steve/Bucky at #23 on this list, if the other counts are correct (hint: they're not), it’s also well above the 1520-new-work cutoff of the #100 spot. So how the fuck is it not on the list? Let’s check out the author’s FAQ to see if there’s some important factor we’re missing.

The first thing you’ll probably notice in the FAQ is that the data is being scraped from publicly available works. That means anything privated and only accessible to logged-in users isn’t counted. This is Sin #1. Already the data is inaccurate because we’re not actually counting all of the published fics, but the bots needed to do data collection on this scale can't easily scrape privated fics so I kinda get it. We’ll roll with this for now and see if it at least makes the numbers make more sense:

Nope. Logging out only reduced the total by a couple hundred. Even if one were to choose the most restrictive possible definition of "new works" and filter out all crossovers and incomplete fics, Steve/Bucky would still have a yearly total of 2,305. Yet the list claims their total is somewhere below 1,500? What the fuck is going on here?

Let’s look at another ship for comparison. This time one that’s very recent and popular enough to make it on the list so we have an actual reference value for comparison: Nick/Charlie (Heartstopper). According to the list, this ship sits at #34 this year with a total of 2630 new works. But what’s AO3 say?

Off by a hundred or so but the values are much closer at least!

If we dig further into the FAQ though we discover Sin #2 (and the most egregious): the counting method. The yearly fic counts are NOT determined by filtering for a certain time period, they’re determined by simply taking a snapshot of the total number of fics in a ship tag at the end of the year and subtracting the previous end-of-year total. For example, if you check a ship tag on Jan 1, 2023 and it has 10,000 fics and check it again on Jan 1, 2024 and it now has 12,000 fics, the difference (2,000) would be the number of "new works" on this chart.

At first glance this subtraction method might seem like a perfectly valid way to count fics, and it’s certainly the easiest way, but it can and did have major consequences to the point of making the entire dataset functionally meaningless. Why? If any older works are deleted or privated, every single one of those will be subtracted from the current year fic count. And to make the problem even worse, beginning at the end of last year there was a big scare about AI scraping fics from AO3, which caused hundreds, if not thousands, of users to lock down their fics or delete them.

The magnitude of this fuck up may not be immediately obvious so let’s look at an example to see how this works in practice.

Say we have two ships. Ship A is more than a decade old with a large fanbase. Ship B is only a couple years old but gaining traction. On Jan 1, 2023, Ship A had a catalog of 50,000 fics and ship B had 5,000. Both ships have 3,000 new works published in 2023. However, 4% of the older works in each fandom were either privated or deleted during that same time (this percentage is was just chosen to make the math easy but it’s close to reality).

Ship A: 50,000 x 4% = 2,000 removed works Ship B: 5,000 x 4% = 200 removed works

Ship A: 3,000 - 2,000 = 1,000 "new" works Ship B: 3,000 - 200 = 2,800 "new" works

This gives Ship A a net gain of 1,000 and Ship B a net gain of 2,800 despite both fandoms producing the exact same number of new works that year. And neither one of these reported counts are the actual new works count (3,000). THIS explains the drastic difference in ranking between a ship like Steve/Bucky and Nick/Charlie.

How is this a useful measure of anything? You can't draw any conclusions about the current size and popularity of a fandom based on this data.

With this system, not only is the reported "new works" count incorrect, the older, larger fandom will always be punished and it’s count disproportionately reduced simply for the sin of being an older, larger fandom. This example doesn’t even take into account that people are going to be way more likely to delete an old fic they're no longer proud of in a fandom they no longer care about than a fic that was just written, so the deletion percentage for the older fandom should theoretically be even larger in comparison.

And if that wasn't bad enough, the author of this "study" KNEW the data was tainted and chose to present it as meaningful anyway. You will only find this if you click through to the FAQ and read about the author’s methodology, something 99.99% of people will NOT do (and even those who do may not understand the true significance of this problem):

The author may try to argue their post states that the tags "which had the greatest gain in total public fanworks” are shown on the chart, which makes it not a lie, but a error on the viewer’s part in not interpreting their data correctly. This is bullshit. Their chart CLEARLY titles the fic count column “New Works” which it explicitly is NOT, by their own admission! It should be titled “Net Gain in Works” or something similar.

Even if it were correctly titled though, the general public would not understand the difference, would interpret the numbers as new works anyway (because net gain is functionally meaningless as we've just discovered), and would base conclusions on their incorrect assumptions. There’s no getting around that… other than doing the counts correctly in the first place. This would be a much larger task but I strongly believe you shouldn’t take on a project like this if you can’t do it right.

To sum up, just because someone put a lot of work into gathering data and making a nice color-coded chart, doesn’t mean the data is GOOD or VALUABLE.

[tootsmcscoots]

OK, so. I'm not sure if it just isn't in my circles, but I haven't seen enough people talking about Chronos' design in Hades II and I need to point out an interesting design choice or I'm going to implode. Okay? Okay.

So what do y'all know about Kintsugi? For those who don't know, Kintsugi is an art form wherein pottery that has been broken or shattered is repaired with gold.

Here is an example of a piece, notice how the gold is filling in the cracks of the pottery, not just covering them up, rhe gold is taking the place of the broken ceramics. That is the point of Kintsugi, to highlight the fractures with the gold and show that, yes, once this was broken, but the gold made it whole again and better than before.

Now, what's some baseline knowledge about Chronos? King of the Titans, ruler of Time, ate his kids, and was torn asunder by his children with his own sickle. This is where that design choice comes in.

At first, I just assumed it was just a nice little flourish in the design, he has scars from his dismembering and the scar tissue was a gold hue because of his divine blood. But no, Chronos, over however many eons he spent in Tartarus filled in his missing flesh with gold, like a piece of shattered pottery.

It just... it just works on so many levels to me. Given his personality and self-importance, he treats his body like its a piece of fine pottery repairing it as such. It also helps to show off his overwhelming nature, these wounds that took all Six of the original Olympians, hundreds of Giants, and the Hecatoncheires to inflict meant absolutely nothing in the end, only making it so that he may be more glorious still, illuminating his wounds and showing that he is truly invincible and unstoppable.

God Supergiant is so good at character design.

(Source for Pottery below cutoff)

[adalwolfgang]

??? 𝘅 𝗴𝗻!𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄𝗲𝗿

𝗪𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀: 𝗔𝗻𝗴𝘀𝘁𝘆-𝗶𝘀𝗵, 𝗦𝘂𝗴𝗴𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝘀, 𝗦𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗲 𝘂𝗽.

𝗔/𝗡: 𝗗𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗲𝗿 𝗶𝘀 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗗𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗲𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼𝗴𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿, 𝗖𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗗𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗲𝗻 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆.

𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗱𝗶𝘁 𝘁𝗼 @randomwriter28 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮 𝘁𝗼 𝘄𝗿𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀.

Early this morning

When you knocked upon my door

He stopped walking, his hands falling to his sides.

“No?” He repeats the word. A word so simply but holds greater meaning.

Everything felt different. Something changed. You didn’t know what it was but you could feel that something was different, and yet familiar all the same.

Early this morning

When you knocked upon my door

“You heard me. I want answers but not the ones you think, Damien.” You crossed your arms over your chest, staring at him with a frown on your face. His eyes locked onto yours when you said his name. Or at least….his old one. The one he wished to never hear again. He let out a huff in annoyance, fixing his suit jacket before holding up both his hands.

“Fine, educate me then. Ask me whatever comes to your mind.”

Truth be told you didn't know what to ask him. You didn’t need to ask him anything. What was the point? You were stuck in this loophole for good. You swallowed what saliva was building up in the back of your throat to try and calm your nerves. Short glimpses of the manor, the dark events that took place, disappear just as quickly as they had appeared.

And I said hello Satan, ah

I believe it is time to go

“Why?” It was his turn to look confused. He squinted his eyes at you, tilting his head ever so slightly.

“You’ll have to elaborate, darling.”

You rolled your eyes and clenched your hands.

Me and the devil walkin' side by side

Me and the devil walking side by side

“Why did you leave me!? You said you’d come back and get me! You said we could fix this together! I waited for so long….but you never came back…You never did.” Your voice trailed off and quieted while you watched his reaction. He didn’t respond immediately but after a long while of silence, he looked towards the ground that you both stood on.

“I was. The day he took you, I was just coming back to you.” He raised his head and looked at you, the table and glass of wine disappearing as he appeared closer, standing in front of you. You frowned more, looking at him and feeling the familiarity of Damien in him.

And I'm gonna see my man

Until I get satisfied

"I can assure you that I was going to keep my promise but...I was selfish and too caught up in getting revenge that I didnt see to rescuing you sooner," As he spoke, his hand slowly raised, and ghosted over your cheek as if worried a single touch would shatter you like porcelain.

"Just give me a chance to explain everything," he hesitated for a moment, trying to choose his next words wisely.

"and maybe you will understand my side of things and join me."

You may bury my body

Down by the highway side

~Time Skip~

After Dark had explained all that has happened and who was the cause of it, you felt as if all your emotions were about to bust. You wanted to scream into the void of darkness that you were all too familiar with when being trapped in the mirror. Dark placed a hand on the small of your back before a new voice cutoff the almost intimate moment.

“They belong to me now, old friend.”

You both turned and looked as Mark stepped into view and grinned sadistically. You felt trapped between the pair.

“They belong to no one, you piece of shi-” Dark growled before being cutoff by your hand touching his chest. He gave you a look before glaring at the man on the other side of you.

“Oh, they haven't told you yet? Go on, Tell him!” a grim chuckle came from Mark. He was getting a kick out of this interaction. That was until he noticed neither you or Dark were giving him the reaction he was hoping for. Instead you both just stared daggers at him. Now it was his turn to be confused.

See, see, you don't see why

And you would dog me 'round

“Well?! Go on then! Tell him!” The ringing in your ears grew louder as Dark looked at Mark and growled, an animalistic sound you had never heard from him before. It quickly disappeared as Dark dropped the act, a toothy grin appearing, what seemed to be for the first time, on his face. Mark watched as Dark pulled you closer to him, you allowing it, before realization struck his face.

See, don't see why

People dog me around

“Why you little-” You watched as Dark didnt let Mark finish his sentence, quickly grabbing him by the throat and lifting him up slightly from the ground, cutting off his airways. Mark simply laughed while glaring at the both of you before his whole being disappeared.

It must be that old evil spirit

So deep down in your ground

Dark turned back around to face you, his hands laying limp against his sides. You walk up to him and pull on his tie, which takes him by surprise, before pressing a soft kiss to his surprisingly warm lips. He slowly starts to kiss you back, not long after resting his hands on your hips and pulling you closer. The kiss gets more passionate while his tongue teased your lips.

So my old evil spirit

Can Greyhound bus that ride

"Does this mean you'll join me?"

So my old evil spirit

Can Greyhound bus that ride

[fauxfickle]

We now return with your regularly scheduled and all too familiar feeling of malaise and the search for "The Great All American Pizza Show!"

So it's been a little under a month since my last post and I've been skimming through commercial compilations from the LA area. I've found some cool YT channels that archive old ads from that area but I obviously don't have anything to show for it. The ads are either too early or too late to be part of this campaign which is a bit frustrating. Something I neglected to mention last time was that I was also looking through Colossal Pictures demo reels to see if they had a snippet of the animated commercial but of course, there's nothing. There seems to be a cutoff point in the early 80s as most demos only show things from that far back. I was able to find some obscure, silent, avant garde, sci-fi film possibly connected to Colossal but I don't think that'll help me much.

Colossal had some sort of "meet the crew" type video where all the employees said they're names but only their first name so I can't really track them down or anything. I'll keep looking, I didn't look all too hard as I was kinda at my wits end at that time looking through ad comps for hours.

I took a bit of a break for a while before reading through the old Pizza Times newsletters from Dec 79 - May 80. The May 1980 newsletter had some cool info about commercials and news features filmed at the various stores. Some of these aren't technically part of TGAAPS campaign but ehhhhhh I don't really care. They're part of early PTT history and I wanna see them damnit!

Let's go through these starting with Citrus Heights. The Citrus Heights section is loaded with info regarding lost media, 3 in fact! Sacramento's Channel 40 (KTXL), which has since been bought out by FOX in the mid 80s, did a Newsplus at 10 feature on the cyberamic systems at the new store during it's opening week. If we consult the ever so useful Chuck-E-Pedia, we can find that this feature would have been shot and most likely aired on Christmas week of 1979. A perfect pin point set of dates to look through! Next, Chuck was seen in the lead up to the United Cerebral Palsy Telethon which also gives us some idea of where to look. Finally, a TV commercial was filmed, possibly with TGAAPS slogan. Bob Wilkins' ad agency produced it but I couldn't find ANYTHING regarding this company. It's mentioned on his wikipedia but not named, and a even his own website doesn't mention anything about it. It's surprising that someone who seems like a local celeb in there area could have an ad agency that goes almost entirely undocumented.

Next, we move to Sparks, Nevada. Channel 2 (KTVN) filmed a feature on the store for the PM Magazine. The store was visited by reporter Keith Hirshland. Now I'm actually pretty sure I've found this dude! I found a local online article talking about him and the timeline works perfectly. Assuming this was filmed in early 1980, Keith would of been still fresh out of college with a degree in journalism and around 23. He also says he grew up running down the halls of the KTVN office. As a little aside, I'd just like to say don't bother this man or anyone/company mentioned in any of my posts. The last thing we need is to scare off these people.

This last little piece of lost media probably has the best chances of being found out of all the rest. Ben Wattenberg's 1980, from what I can find, is a dry, uninteresting TV news segment hosted by an equally dry and uninteresting host, the neo-conservative Ben Wattenberg. Ben Wattenberg's 1980 itself seems to be almost entirely lost media as only a few stills, episode descriptions, and TV listings exist online. However, this show was on PBS which no doubt has it somewhere in it's archive. What's better is that that there not only an exact date of when the episode will air, but also the name of the episode itself! One user on taptalk was able to find a TV listing which unfortunately doesn't lead anywhere and isn't archive on the WayBack machine. Luckily people actually said the name of the supposed episode which would of been "Silicon Valley: The New Entrepreneurs". We can also find evidence of it in a newspaper from that June 15th.

I sent e-mails to KTXL-40 and PBS on 2/24, so far no responses. I'll wait a little longer and in the mean time look for more leads and contacts. As I said before, don't bother these people/companies. I don't want them to be swamped with calls and e-mails and clam up on us. Bye for now!

[study-with-aura]

Monday, May 27, 2024

I feel like I need to create a new format for my summer studies, even though it will look the same only with different bullet points. Last week was quite fun! There is an in game event going on in the game that I play with my brother, so we have been playing that together. I also spent a lot of time outside this past week doing my yoga practice, some swimming, and taking nature hikes when the weather allowed.

On that note, Friday was my last day of ballet classes for the academic year! Open classes start next week and run for two weeks and then I will start being gone for days at a time because of summer trips and camps.

Also, my piano practical is tomorrow! It's scheduled for 10 tomorrow morning, and although I know I am as ready as I can be, I am still nervous! All of my pieces are memorized, I've been practicing as often as I am able to without overdoing it and tiring myself out, and my teacher said that I am more than ready for the exam. I also started studying for the history 9 exam and reviewing theory for fun. Theory is tough! Which by the way, I did get my score for the harmony exam! I got a 71 which means I passed with an extremely low honors! The cutoff is 70 for honors, so I am happy I got those extra points!

Tasks Completed:

History 9 - Studied terms

Theory - Reviewed triads with chord progressions

KA Geometry - Completed daily mastery challenge

KA Biology - Completed daily mastery challenge + completed Unit 8: Lesson 1

Duolingo - Studied for approximately 45 minutes (Spanish primarily + French + Chinese)

Piano - Practiced for 3 hours in one hour split sessions (or will have by tonight)

Reading - Read pages 33-65 of A Whisper in the Walls by Scott Reintgen

Chores - Cleaned my bathroom + cleaned windows in my bedroom and in the study (Julien is in charge of trash/recycling now that he's home)

Activities of the Day:

Personal Bible Study (John 14)

Morning Yoga

Swimming

1.5 hours gaming with Julien (will do tonight)

Journal/Mindfulness

[mechanistgamma]

One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul is Great

I've been reading each of these One Bad Day instalments as they come out and trying to think about what I do and don't like about them. Riddler's was pretty bleh, Two-Face and Mr. Freeze's was decent, Catwoman had a pretty good one from what I can recall and Bane, Clayface and Penguin's stories were fantastic stand-outs. One Bad Day: Penguin may be one of my favorite Gotham stories period now.

But One Bad Day: Ra's al Ghul is fantastic. Once again, Tom Taylor knows what he's doing and it shows.

Spoilers ahead, by the by! I assume there'll be a cutoff at some point but I'm still new to Tumblr so-

A running theme in all of these One Bad Day stories is that it takes one of Batman's main rogues and explores a new facet of their personal history that hasn't gotten as much focus in order to make a narrative that is uniquely theirs. Ra's has far too much history for even a large book like the OBD series to properly get into, but the angle Taylor took - the extinction of an animal kingdom connected to Ra's personal history - was a strong angle to take.

Speaking of strong, Ra's himself is an absolute powerhouse in this story. His global influence, his machinations that have laid undetected for years, his cold efficiency, his brutality. It's all shown off in an excellent manner. OBD stories likewise attempt to show off the best of what their chosen villain can do, and this absolutely fits for Ra's. And because of how the story is presented, you... get it. You empathize with Ra's, and because he's specifically targeting the corporate parasites that us normal people get so furious about and can do nothing about, we're almost... behind him? So like with the Penguin story, we find ourselves as an audience rooting against Batman for the right reasons.

Speaking of, I love how this story really digs into the status quo of the planet and why DC's corporate horribleness matches the corporate horribleness of our real world. Batman is protecting the worst people on Earth because of his values of protecting all life (which, to be clear, I agree with Batman's philosophy that all life is precious) and as Damian so succinctly points out, the fact they have to do this in the first place makes their place in this whole war of Ra's vs the Planet-Killers... questionable.

Ra's might be a murderer. But he's right. These old men and reckless new blood kids aren't going to change in a heartbeat to protect the world. They do need to be taken out of the way if real change is going to happen. Murder is an extreme method, but it does get results... especially if it's not seen as murder.

That doesn't mean Batman is wrong for wanting to protect people, though.

Especially from Ra's.

Ra's set out to kill thirty men. Thirty men responsible for the death and decay of the world. But because he needed to take out eleven people in one room, he killed three thousand at once in what would surely be one of the greatest 'accidents' of modern history. This is an extremely brief part of the story, but it has so many implications. How many were invited to the summit who would use the position as a voice for clean energy? How many would have helped Ra's indirectly by using their position to change the world for the better? You can claim that Ra's wouldn't have let anyone be in that hall who could really benefit the world, but I have to doubt that because of his actions and his very subjective judgement on the matter. And then this begs more questions - how many others, how many innocents died so that Ra's al Ghul could kill thirty men? How many bodybags provides the cost of secrecy?

And how much does that undermine his mission?

Let's talk about Ra's al Ghul, Batman and Robin.

There's an interesting juxtaposition between how Ra's and Batman are presented in the story. Both are depicted as emerging from the shadows when meeting the other faction on the field, both are depicted as temperamental and angry in spite of their calm facade and calculated nature. Ra's understands Batman, Batman understands Ra's, but their clashing philosophies means they will never truly stand on the same playing field.

And that comes to a boiling point in the best way possible.

This was a move that shocked me when I first read, but it makes perfect sense. It not only shows the brutality of Ra's, but when you realize the ultimate intention was to bring him back with the Lazarus Pit, it also shows the plan and how much Ra's respects Batman. He killed him, but only temporary - the moment he was 'done', Batman was allowed to come back. And when Bruce thought he was going to genuinely die, his last act was to hand his cowl to his son and make Damian promise not to give in and murder Ra's then and there. So Damian doesn't kill his grandfather, even if every boiling vein in his body makes him want to, and then Batman comes back.

During the final battle between the two, it goes beyond a simple moral clash. It goes beyond Ra's and Batman. It becomes about Damian and showing him what the true path in life is, showing him who's justice is what the world truly needs.

I've been thinking about what Robin's role in this story was (he didn't get as much spotlight as I was hoping, massive Damian fan that I am) but I'm content with what I got because of what he represents. He's the balance. He's the median point between both Ra's and Batman, who recognizes what's wrong with the world and seeks to make it better (see: Robin (2021)) but refuses to stoop to the level of a base murderer in order to do so.

I question if this really is all for Damian, as Bruce and Ra's claim in their desperation. It feels more like this conflict is about them, and Damian is the proof in the conflict between the two, the one who can decide who is 'right'. Damian agrees with Ra's - "Are you so sure we should be safeguarding the worst people on Earth?" - but he also agrees with Bruce - "He believes in preserving life, Grandfather. That's hardly a bad thing." - and gave both perspectives within the same minute. He's a counterbalance to both Bruce and Ra's perspectives because he stands between them and is capable of seeing the positives and negatives of both in a way that neither of the grown men can. It's why he sat to the side while Ra's committed his atrocities and waited for his father to return, but so violently opposed Ra's prior to his father's death.

This is, ultimately, a story of righteous anger clashing with unquestioning morality. This is about wrath against the rich and powerful poisoning the planet versus the desire to save others from death and not fall to the level of a base murderer. This is about two clashing ideals of justice.

Ra's 'wins' in achieving his goal and Bruce can never expose the truth or risk undoing all the legitimate good he's done, but Batman will never stop hunting Ra's until he is punished for what he's done. But the true resolution - the true answer on who was 'right' - is never answered, because Damian never truly sides with one or the other. He spends the latter half of the story sitting to the side observing, contemplating, and working through his own complicated emotions on everything that happened. Damian never says who is right and who is wrong, and Ra's never gives him a chance to, as he decides to sate Batman's desire for justice by simultaneously punishing himself and escaping further punishment by flinging himself to the bottom of the canyon.

Ra's gets to be at peace, and whether that's deserved or not is unclear. But he got his big win, as it were, and in the final pages it seems one of his first acts after that was restoring the extinct species of wolves that meant so much to him. It's an ending that leaves the reader content and, while not a complete thematic resolution, is purposeful and feels right for the long and complicated story of Ra's al Ghul.

Also he canonically killed Elon Musk and Alex Jones in this continuity and labeled them among the 'top thirty greatest threats to the planet' so that's neat

[tealcaste]

so new cookie run update is rlly cool.... i noticed the silly little heart thingies that the new update has and decided. to give lico onr of then and. man.

also he has. a diff quote in his aberrant conjurer costume

i kinda find it. interesting in his regular outfit he's way. more declining of the giftcompared to his aberrant conjurer one?? if that makes sense?? idk i just.

!

uhh cutoff is more rambling i think

(has not been proofeead so it may. just be a mess AUGH)

ok this is going to be my. view but feel free tobsyare ur view on this cuz. idk i like listening to other people's interperetation :3

personally him in the 1st image does. sort of make sense for him?? considering how when he was younger he didnt get a lot of recognition and stuff so he was so deprived of recognition to the point he just. startef to like decline any gifts given to him?? orlike he gives it to his licorice servants (UNLESS if its the gifts that he likes then hell accept it ofc dur to the diff dialouge but were going on for this general-gift wise)

so personally i think this also comes to affection as well. sort of. cuz if he never had any recognition then its logical that he never recieved any affection or care whilst groeing up too so. he declines it cuz hes. not used to it and also cuz i feel like. he doesn't want to recieve affection of any sorts?? if i recall correctly from what i remember abt his dialogue he tends to say how he can do everything by himself, and how "he doesn't need friends". and stuff like that. (the i dont need friends part was mentioned in the cookie debate event)

ANWYAYS before i lose focus on what i was going on abt originally due to his mindset usually making him believe he doesnt need anyone else heavilt affects his view of affection?? sort of?? i think he. tends to see it as a useless thing, and that he doesn't need it at all, considering how he practically grew up with.. ANY. so it makes sense for lico to push away any affection or like. gifts and stuff and aaaAAAAAA

i also believe that he also pushes it all away is cuz hes. not used to it?? like at all?? so he doesn't rlly know how to react to receiving it at alland his mindset of him needing no one just. plays a part possibly ok this probably doesnt make sense fUVK

if i repeated stuff like millions of tine we dont talk abt that im half alseep whilst weiting this ok broken heart emoji

i would write more abt this but my motivation has been down the drain for WEEKS so i apologize for not rlly having any lico rambling essays recently AUGH

[msfbgraves]

People need to stop and realize (and accept) that Cobra Kai is not written the way The Bear or Interview With the Vampire are. Those shows are actually written with skill, love, respect and rich understanding of their characters—something which CK dreadfully lacks.

The sad thing is that CK had huge potential in season 1 (minus the way Daniel was written several times because the writers hate him) to be an Emmy award winning and critically acclaimed show. But by the start of season 3, it was over.

I am not, and never have been a Johnny fan by any means, and I’m only here for Daniel, Chozen, and of course Terry (all 3 of whom are fucked up in the writing department already, especially the latter 2). Still, I will be shutting off my brain and watching it. And after it’s over, I will be resuming my Danzen and Silverusso fanfic reading.

But Nonnie, I want to complain about us not getting to have nice things! Now you mention it, was it all Netflix' fault? The dropoff in S3 is abysmal (pun intended). Or did they get, in their own words, 'so far up their ass they could see out of their own mouth'? (Also, why the crass language all the time? I could see Daniel dropping a jersey infused F-bomb once in a while, but his Mama taught him to be respectful and so did Mr. Miyagi...) I still think I am a reluctant fan of CK because there would be a balance between 'this is ludicrous' and 'this is accidently brilliant'. Who knows the last season may show us some of that but I feel like watching Game of Thrones in S5 desperately trying to convince myself it was still good, when we all know the show killed itself with the Red Wedding. The ludicrous reigns, and the brilliant? Um. Case in point: casual Youtubers are going: "Johnny and Daniel at each other's throats again? They should be over this." It's just, why can't we have nice things? If you can't tell good stories without constantly bringing in new villains you're a bad storyteller, and it feels awful when you've felt hoodwinked into something as an audience. I mean, at least Wednesday told me what it was from the first episode - bait with no respect for the characters, so I didn't have to waste my time on it. Now, though, going by the trailer, I'll have to slide off of a cliff with them because of how much I love Daniel LaRusso in spite of what they've done to him. Will I get to see Ralphie in a meaty part ever again? And where is the cutoff line? I pretend that Sherlock ended after series 2. I can't pretend that with CK because where would that leave Terry? And yet S5 is giving it too much credit! It's intermittent reinforcement with ever less reinforcement! Also all the 'teens' are nearing 30. I'm simply disappointed because sometimes you can smell that it could be better than it is if the writers weren't so blinded by their own desire to make the point that bullies deserve more empathy than victims and we should all try to be 50 year old boys with a child's understanding of what deserves status. Because an unkempt drunk who thinks of no one but himself and acts like a fifteen year old boy is superior to a family man who likes girl things, like fancy food and manners and not pissing on people's cars. And oh yeah, all people from Asia are magic. They can't simply be capable, they have to be exotic.

I think we deserve to complain about that.

[saltygilmores]

In Defense of Jess Mariano's Summer Birthday

This is my loose theory on his birthday and there will definitely be big gaping holes in this. Please also bare in mind it's been three years since my last full rewatch (of the first 4 seasons anyway) and I'm currently in the middle of crawling through season 2 again. This post is a disaster so please bear with me lol There seems to be pretty a consistent timeline established within the show (new seasons of the show almost aways begin in September/ late summer within their world, which helps a lot when you're trying to date something that happened). Since it's been 3 years and my brain is swiss cheese, please feel free to chime in with your thoughts and deflate my theory as you may. Jess arrives right as Rory is starting school. September. It is immediately established he's already 17 years old at that point (pokey hole: they retconned a lot of things that were established in his first episode, like how long his parents had been together so who knows, maybe he was actually still 16) His age is rarely mentioned outright, although I do remember one of his season 4 episodes where Luke and Liz are discussing his whereabouts; she says he’s 19 now and wants nothing to do with her.

Season 2=17 Season 3=18 Season 4=19 With that in mind I afforded him the longest possible timeline to have a birthday and decided it would have been right before he arrived in Stars Hollow, in August or September. If he had had a November or December birthday he would have turned 18 quickly early in season 2 and by season 3 he would be 19 already. Rory's birthday is in October. In 6x8 she had just celebrated her 21st. He acknolwedges that it had just passed, so this episode would have taken place in November? My theory was he would have already had to be 21 (the drinking age in the US) to get into the bar where he drank with Logan and Rory so at the very least that would have eliminated most of November or a December birthday. However people like to poke holes in this theory stating that either the bar wasn't carding anyone (since it was a college bar) or he had a fake ID. Jess says to Luke in 3x6 that he's still a minor, but going by my loose observation of either the Gilmore Girls or a real world timeline, over a year had already passed at that point since he arrived in Stars Hollow as a 17 year old. He was already 17 in early September when he arrived in s2 and in this s3 episode (the one where Rory and Lorelai egg his car because they suck and are awful) it appeared to be deeper into fall rather than summer (the episode aired on November 5 2002). It's only 3 episodes ahead of Deep Fried Korean Thanksgiving (Thanksgiving takes place in late November, just for your information if you're not American). So I've decided to poke my own hole in the "I'm underage" comment and chalk it up to Jess being a sassy asshole. A sasshole. Besides this episode being the one where Luke finds out he has a car AND he makes the comment about being a minor, it is also the episode where it's revealed he's been working at Walmart (driving a forklift). I don't know about the laws in 2002, but as of 2023, in the state of Connecticut you have to be 18 to drive a forklift. Maybe this was a shady Walmart that happily violated child labor laws, but seeing as Jess' Walmart manager was one of the only people who ever believed in his potential, I don't think he would exploit him like that. Anyway, those are my thoughts. Feel free to deflate them to death and I will update the post if need be. I do want to add one more thing: Based on her mugshot (lol) we know Rory was born in early October 1984 but graduated high school in 2003. I was born in February 1984 and graduated in 2002. Clearly Rory missed the kindergarten cutoff due to her October birthdate and had to start school a year later than most of her fellow 1984 babies. I support the theory that the same thing could have happened to Jess in order to put him in the same grade as Rory. But school cutoff dates vary so wildly that could really put his birthday anywhere from September-December. Even though this would contradict my own theories, it’s an idea that makes sense for the November/December birthday theory so I can support it.

[runwithwolvcs]

Addicted to You

where do we go now?

Word Count: 3697

"And we're lost." Sulli stated as she stopped walking, waiting for Kaycee to catch up to her. Her best friend had insisted on going hiking, citing the lack of time they had been spending together. Kaycee said she felt guilty for putting her new beau before her best friend. While that may have been true, Sulli really hadn’t noticed. Between school and work, the only time she had to herself, had been spent in Paul's bed.

A secret between the two of them that they had agreed upon. No drama. That's what she told him she wanted, and he agreed to keep the peace in the pack. Neither of them were sure of how Brady would take it. Just because he had hurt her, doesn’t mean she wanted to do the same. Sulli cared about him a lot.

Kaycee screwed the top off of her water bottle and took a sip, before ensuring Sulli, "No, I swear this was the way Collin and I came."

"I don't think this is even the trail, Kay," She said, pulling her phone out of her jacket pocket and unlocking it. She held it above her, hoping to find a bar, but no signal was found,  "Fuck, I don’t have service. Do you?"

Kaycee did the same and shook her head with a grimace, “Maybe one of the boys is around.”

“Nu-uh, that's the last thing that we need.” Sulli said forcefully. She didn't want Brady or Paul to find them, she was still mad at the younger wolf and she had yet to tell Kaycee she had been shagging Paul for the past two weeks, let alone on speaking terms with him. “We are independent women, we don’t need them. We’ll find the trail.”

“Sulli,” Kaycee pointed to something behind her. She turned to look, and eyes widened as she watched the giant wolf take a step towards her slowly. It bowed its head to show that he wasn’t a threat before laying down and resting her head on his paws. 

She had never seen anything like this before. Paul had once shown her that he could transform into a wolf, but it was from a safe distance. Sulli didn't remember him being this big.

A smile grew on her face as she recognized the fur colour, but more so that the wolf's eyes were nearly identical to Paul's dark brown ones. 

“Paul?” She asked to confirm, a whine left his mouth and the younger girl took two steps forward, close enough to touch him much to Kaycees warning from behind her. Reaching forward, Sulli scratched behind his ear, "You're like a big puppy."

“Maybe he can lead us back to the trail,” Kaycee said from behind her, but Sulli was too mesmerized by the giant animal to respond.  The wolf stood up, and Sulli realized just how big he actually was. The two of them now eye level with each other, his eyes never leaving her own.  She reached up to pet his snout, causing him to lean into her touch before letting out a huff and running back into the brush that he had come from. Kaycee gasped and asked,"Did he just leave us here?"

"Are you two out of your fucking minds?!" Paul nearly shouted as he came out from where the wolf had run off to. He was only in a pair of cutoff shorts, not even a pair of shoes on his feet. Sulli let her eyes rake over his body, not caring that he was currently angry with them. If anything, it turned her on. Not that she would admit that to him with Kaycee standing next to her, as far as she knows, Paul was still on her No Kiss list.

Sulli shrugged as her eyes met his now hardened eyes, much different from the wolf's soft ones, "We were just hiking."

Paul scoffed and looked from her to her best friend, pointedly saying,"You know better than to be out here, I know you do" 

"Her and Collin--" Sulli tried to defend her friend. No matter how attractive his current frustration might be, there would be hell to pay if he messed with Kaycee. 

"Yeah, Collin was with her, " He stressed, turning back to the shorter of the two girls who had crossed her arms defensively.

Sulli rolled her eyes, "It's just a hike! It’s done every single day by other people."

"I don't--" Paul started, but was soon cut off.

"Point us back to the trail and we'll leave. " Kaycee said softly, she wasn’t as confrontational as the other two and it was showing.

"No, I'm taking you back to Emilys." Paul said, his eyes flicking to Sulli as if he expected a reaction. She didn't even know who Emily was, or at least she didn't remember her. Racking her brain, the only other person she could remember spending any memorable time with was a beautiful woman she had thought to resemble her own mom. Though she couldn't recall her name. Perhaps it was Emily, but she didn't know why they would go to her house either way. They couldn't be that far from Kaycees car.

"Why?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

"The pack hangs out there. Emily's Sam's wife.." Kaycee answered for Paul. Sulli was starting to realize how involved Kaycee was getting in all this pack nonsense. It made her happy to see her friend finding her way. Kaycees parents were fine, they had let her stay with them quite a bit during senior year, but they had left Port Angeles for a fresh start, both of them.

Deciding against questioning them again, Sulli instead went for a logical response, "Kaycees car isn't there, that's stupid."

"Collin will grab her car." He mentioned as if it was an obvious solution before saying, "Lets fucking go."

Sulli groaned as he walked past them in the opposite direction they were heading. Kaycee followed him with no complaints, but Sulli couldn't help but mutter, "You're so annoying."

 Paul and Kaycee walked ahead of her for the rest of the hike, laughing and talking about things she had no idea about. She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a tiny bit jealous, though she knew how in love Kaycee was with Colin. It ticked her off to see the way Paul was with her best friend, he certainly wasn’t that way with her. 

Even in bed, he was all serious and calculated. Pillow talk was strategic on his end, never bringing up a topic they may have her looking for a quick escape. It worked, but she didn't know this fun, easy going side of him existed.

"Just through there." Paul directed Kaycee before stepping in front of Sulli, blocking her way past him.

She folded her arms over her chest and looked up at him, “I liked you better as a wolf.”

 “Are you done?” He cocked his eyebrow as her childish statement.

“It was just a hike.” She whined. Sulli felt like she was being reprimanded by a parent. That was the last thing she wanted to equate him to, it was bad enough that she was lusting over someone who practically babysat her. She likes older guys, that wasn’t new for her, but one that had watched her entire life implode at eleven years old, that was different. There was a vulnerability there that she wasn't ready to accept.

“You were lost.” Paul pointed out.

“We have bear spray.” Sulli muttered. It wasn't the best excuse, but it was true.

“It's not the bears I’m concerned about.” He told her and she was now the one getting annoyed.

“Well if you don't tell me, how am I supposed to know?!” She asked exasperated. It felt like they were going in circles. He was protecting her from something, there had to be something if he was this strung out, but he refused to let her know and it was making her irate.

Paul shook his head, “You don’t need to know.”

“This whole conversation is fucking pointless then.” She remarked, putting her hands on her hips.

“Is it?” He asked, a grin forming on his face. He looked a lot younger when he wasn't so serious. She liked seeing him relaxed, his jaw unlocked with no frown lines near his eyes. It sparked something inside of her to know that she was the reason he had let his guard down now, even if it was only momentarily.

One of his hands slid around her waist to her ass, roughly squeezing it as she bit her lip to suppress a moan. He pulled her into him causing her hands to land on his chest to stop herself from crashing into him completely as he leaned down and softly said, “You’re cute when you’re annoyed.”

Before she could respond with a snarky remark, his lips were on hers and she was sliding her hands up from his chest to wrap her arms around his neck. She didn't even register that he had walked her backwards until her back hit a tree, Sulli was too enthralled in their kiss.

With his hand still massaging her ass, she couldn't help but rock her hips forward into his with a moan. 

She pulled away before she could lose herself in his touch and mumbled, “We should go before Kaycee’s mind hits the gutter.”

“Let it.” He said huskily before bringing his lips down and sucking on her neck.  She hummed in satisfaction as he almost immediately found her sweet spot, just below her jaw. Her resolve was quickly dissolving as he brought his other hand down to her thigh and hoisted her up against the tree. She wrapped her legs around his waist and moaned involuntarily as she felt his hardness through her leggings.

“How far is your house?” She asked needily. 

Paul pulled his lips away, a smug smirk on his face as he told her, “Too far.”

She let out a small whine, ready to tell him to take her right then and there before a black mass of fur caught her eye. Another wolf was staring right back at as she quietly tried to collect her thoughts. “Um…”

Paul looked over his shoulder at what she was distracted by and the wolf huffed and backed away, disappearing into the greenery. Paul looked back to her and gave her one last peck before telling her, “Let's get you back to Emilys.”

She pouted, running her hand through his hair. “But--”

“We’ll continue this later,” He promised, dropping her back down to her feet. His hands moved from her waist to her ass, giving it a squeeze before removing his hands from her completely. He ushered her in the direction that Kaycee had gone which led into a clearing where a small cottage-like house sat.

Sulli remembered it.

Emily and Sam, they were friends of Sue’s. Emily would babysit her when Sue or Paul were not available. She turned to Paul, no longer wanting to head into that house, “Maybe we--” 

“Paul,” A deep voice cut her off, both of them looking into the direction it came from. She noticed the man named Sam as he motioned Paul over.

“I’ll be right back,” He told her, tapping her ass gently before walking in the older man's direction, leaving her alone and uncomfortable. She frowned at his retreating figure before looking back at the homely cottage just as a woman stepped outside.

“Sulli?” The beautiful woman on the doorstep called out. 

Emily.

She recognized her, still a beaming ray of sunlight, as she had been ten years prior. Sulli recalled telling Paul she reminded her of a Disney princess. Now, the more she knew about the pack, she could almost laugh at how comical it was. She was basically snow white, and the wolves were her dwarves.

Sulli nodded while trying to stifle a laugh, “Yeah.”

“Come, come, there's some fresh muffins inside.” Emily said brightly. Sulli glanced over at Paul one last time, he was intently listening to whatever Sam was telling him and figured it was important wolf business that she wasn’t about to interrupt.

Letting out a small sigh, she made her way up the front steps and followed behind Emily to the kitchen. Everything was exactly how she remembered, save for a few new photos here and there.

“Where's Kaycee?” She asked shyly. As much disdain she had for this place, she wanted to be polite, for Paul’s sake.

“She went with Collin down to the beach.” Emily informed her, “Muffin, sweetie?”

“Sure.” She nodded, sitting at the table. Sulli grabbed a muffin, and if possible, Emily's smile grew wider than it already was. The older woman sat across from her at the round table and Sulli avoided all eye contact as she let her eyes wander the art and photos scattered about.

Paul sauntered in after an excruciatingly long amount of awkward silence and sat next to her, his arm immediately draped on the back of her chair. She watched him closely, he was no longer relaxed. The crows feet by his eyes signalling his frustration and tension.

Sulli nudged her foot against his under the table, getting his attention, before she asked, “Everything alright?”

He nodded, taking a muffin, “All good.”

“Not a need to know, got it.” She chided, leaning back in her chair. Her eyes not leaving his figure.

Paul watched her for a beat before he grinned at her, “Now you’re catching on.”

“Prick.” Sulli mumbled.

He chuckled softly, playing with the ends of her hair from where his arm rested across the back of the chair. It eased her anxiety enough to let out a breath of relief. Sulli crossed her ankle over his, interlocking the legs. The heat from his bare calf on her fabric covered leg reminded her of his promise to head back to his place. Hopefully sooner, rather than later.

“So, Sulli, how have you been? You were just a little girl the last time I saw you.” Emily asked with a bright, warm smile. She couldn't believe how naive the question was. Did they really not know how the system worked? 

Sulli frowned at the question, “Fine, I guess.”

Sam asked as he sat down next to Emily, mirroring Paul's position,“Just fine?”

“Yep,” She answered tightly.

“Were your foster parents as nice as Julie said they were going to be?” Emily prodded. Clearly  she was hiding her disdain for this topic better than she thought she was.

“Emily,” Paul shook his head. At least someone could sense how uncomfortable this topic was for her. Sulli had never even mentioned anything about foster care to her. They talked about her career, and his. Sometimes school, but nothing dating back to her time in the system.

“Sorry, it's  just she had said this family was really looking forward to---”

Sulli abruptly stood up. Not wanting anything to with this conversation anymore and walked out the door. She made her way down the rickety porch and looked for a way leading back to the main road.

“Sulli!” Paul called out. Making his way down the porch and grabbing her arm gently to stop her, “Sulli, wait,”

“Let me go,” She sneered, wrenching her arm out of his hold. Sulli was starting to feel claustrophobic from all the memories she had from the yard they stood in. How happy she had been. Just to have it ripped out from under her.

Paul backed off, raising his hands in surrender, “She was just--”

Sulli interrupted him by waving him off, as she started walking further from the cottage, “I don’t care. Tell Kaycee I’ve left for me, yeah?”

“What are you going to do, walk all the way back to Forks?” He asked in disbelief, he kept up with her with ease, his long strides able to put himself ahead of her and in her way. She looked up at him in annoyance.

“I'm sure there's a bus or something.” Sulli pulled out her phone to try and figure it out.

“I’ll just drive you.” He insisted, almost pleading with her.

“No, I want to be alone.” Sulli shook her head. That was the last thing she wanted. To be stuck in a car with him while feeling the way she did. 

“Sulli, we’re friends now.” He said, a small teasing smile on his face. “You can tell me anything.”

She paused mulling over what she was willing to tell him, or anyone for that matter. There wasn’t much. Sulli had opened up to Brady and look at how that turned out,  “Since Emily wants to know so bad, tell her I was only with that foster family for a week. That's how nice they were.”

Paul's eyes widened at the new information, “What? What do you mean a week?”

“There were six more after that, they were just so amazing,” Sulli continued, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

“Six?” He questioned with a frown.

She nodded,  “So I’m sorry, I have nothing nice to say nor  do I want to talk about it with the same people who put me in that situation.”

“That's not fair.” He frowned.

“Don’t you dare lecture me on what is fair.”   Sulli scowled, finally reaching the tipping point she had been heading towards since Paul had reentered her life. No amount of sex or sneaking around was going to mend the cracks they had all made in her trust, she just didn't think he would ever hurt her anymore than he had already.

Though, he was quickly proving her wrong.

“Sulli,” Brady's voice sounded from the porch, looking concerned. She looked back at Paul, whose face had changed into one of anger.

She scoffed and went for the jugular,  “You know what's not fair? Being ripped from my fucking home, only to be dropped off with the only relative I had left, who I didn't even know existed.. “

He opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off again, “No, no, it gets better. They didn't want me either, so then I was shipped off to a home in Portland to this couple who thought they were getting a foster son. Imagine the shock on their faces when they found out Sullivan was a girl's name too.”

“Sulli,” He tried again softly. Though she can see in his eyes that he wasn’t happy. Dark, brown pools of unmistakable rage.

“I’m  not fucking finished.” She seethed,   “You see, the husband, Larry, hated me, literally hated me, Paul. So  much, that he pushed me down a flight of stairs because I talked back to him. So please, tell me what you think is fair, I would really like to know.”

Tears were streaming down her face and she hadn't even realized it. Paul reached for her, prompting Sulli to take two steps back as he sullenly said, “I would have never let that happen to you--”

“But you did.” Her voice strained as she struggled to pull herself together.

“Come on,” Brady said as he began trying to pull her away as a warning growl left Paul’s throat.

She pushed him away, “No, I’m mad at you. You’re both assholes, did you know that?”

Paul turned and walked away, heading towards the treeline. Her jaw dropped in shock as she yelled towards his shaking retreating figure,  “Yeah, leave again. You’re so fucking good at doing that!”

“Stop provoking him.” Brady spoke seriously, stepping in front of her to block her view of Paul.

“Fuck you.” She pushed at his chest, “You…you made me trust you just to fucking leave me too.”

“You know I didn’t want to.”

“But you did!” She shouted at him tearfully, “You left me!”

“Brady!” Paul shouted from the treeline, watching the two of them interact with the most anger she had witnessed from him. 

The audacity for him to be mad at her for talking to Brady, after he had initially ruined their friendship. She wanted to hurt him just as he had done to her, without thinking of the repercussions, she impulsively grabbed Brady's cheeks and kissed him.

He reciprocated for a moment before pulling back, “Stop, we can’t..”

Sulli looked  back at Paul with a smug look, just as he exploded into a wolf, looking back at the two younger ones before taking off into the woods. The smugness immediately turned into guilt as she felt sick to her stomach from seeing the sad eyes of Paul's wolf.

“Fuck, Sulli!” Brady shouted, looking at her with wild eyes before back in the direction Paul had run off to.

She shrugged, trying to play it off, “He's the one trying to ruin my life, and you’re helping him.”

“He’s not trying to ruin your life.” Brady said while rolling his eyes, “He cares about you, he just wants to get to know you..”

“I had sex with him.” She said honestly, adding a small dig at Paul's expense, “He knows all that he wants to know.”

“That was quick.” He snarked.

She scowled, “wouldn’t have even happened if you didn't stab me in the fucking chest.”

Bradys anger took over anger as he forcefully said, “Yes, it would have. I know you and I know him. You two are made for eachother.”

“No, we’re not.” Sulli denied, “He doesn't really care about me. “

“He does, and you just hurt him by kissing me. Now he's going to be pissed at me too.” Brady stressed. She could see the worry in him, and it just added another knife to the collection he had left in her heart. He was more worried about Paul being mad at him than the fact that she was currently breaking down. This isn't the Brady she was friends with.

She shook her head, “Well who cares how I feel, right?” 

“Sulli,” Brady called as she turned on her heel and walked towards the way she suspected was the road off of this suffocating property.

“Go, run after him.” She looked over her shoulder as she walked away, “I don’t ever want to see you again, Brady.”

[non-binary-laurie-strode]

It is, once again, that time of the year! Friends, film queens, and everyone else who follows this blog for whatever reason—It is time for my Pink Bette film awards!

The Pink Bettes, if you are new or out of the loop, are my personal Oscars. They're named after Bette Davis and, of course, my favourite colour. Bettes can be awarded for anything—there are Bettes for my favourite performances, but also they can be given to cool creature designs, bad performances, bizarre line readings, overall weird movies, anything! For better or for worse, something with a Bette made an impact on me.

So let's start awarding! (Warning: Extremely long post. I had originally written a paragraph for each individual winner and got to ten single spaced pages before looking at the length in mute horror. As I write this, I am consciously cutting my commentary down because it's still getting too long!)

This Pink Bettes ceremony is dedicated to the almost 300 movies I watched or rewatched in 2023. A good portion of that came from my Universal Horror marathon, which ran from July through the end of October (with me adding a few extras in November). This is the second biggest year for movies for me since 2020, when that was The Thing We Did during covid quarantines. (I was only 30 or so movies away from topping 2020!)

Honestly, 2022 was not a good film year for me. I didn't feel much passion for it; I think I was beginning to burn out after the strain of 2020/21. My heart wasn't in it. And 2023 started that way for me too. But the Universal Horror marathon really did jumpstart my movie watching and reignited my passion and energy and love for film as an art. For as much as it may have melted my brain at points, that marathon inspired such joy and interest in me. And so, I've made a few alterations to the Pink Bettes this year to reflect that!

How This Works

In order to qualify for a Pink Bette, a movie be considered a "first watch" for me for the year 2023. This means something like our rewatches of the Child's Play (Chucky the killer doll) series are ineligible, because I watched those for the first time in 2019. I don't split the categories by gender, and I don't only have one winner per category; this is to celebrate all the films of the year, and there's room for everyone. Bettes can be for any category I have a whim to create. Many categories are labelled as "Favourite X" because I don't pretend to have haut taste or that I can pick the quantitative best performance. (Nor do I really believe a quantitative best performance is even possible, really.) At the very end, I also award my Keanu Reeves Awards For Slutty, Slutty Film Men—these are for the performances that left us all hot and bothered and filled with horny thoughts. Because we are sex-positive here and we love men.

This year only, I am creating a special subsection that I am dubbing "The Elsa Lanchester Awards," so named after Elsa Lanchester from The Bride of Frankenstein. This subsection is a sort of containment zone for my Universal Horror marathon movies—all movies in that marathon are assigned to the Elsas. Many of them were rewatches, and so they wouldn't qualify for the Bettes normally; however, this presents a problem—Many of those movies had their first watch pre-2019, when the first Bettes happened, and were thus never at all eligible for a Bette, some of them missing the cutoff by only a month or so. That should be corrected. Plus, this marathon was such a significant thing to me that I feel like it needed some recognition. Finally, reappraisals happen! Our opinions change. And so I decided to give the Universal Horror marathon movies a space to have their moment in the moonlight.

Format

Each category name will be in a larger font size; the Elsa categories will be clearly distinct. There may be a short description of the category, and then a list of the winners. Below that, I will talk a little about the various winners. Finally, there may be an honorary mention line.

And so—let's start!

Category Is: Biggest Surprise

Movies that I went into with low expectations and came away pleasantly surprised. They should have been bad movies, but they weren't!

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

Saw X (2023)

Five Nights At Freddy's (2023)

Paranormal Activity as a franchise is not good; the series is middling found footage movie one after another. (The entire found footage genre is low quality, low budget dreams with rare gems scattered thinly through it, let's be real.) PA3, however, has a very likeable protagonist, good scare effects, and some interesting use of the camera. Saw, as a series, is not one I am very partial to, and some of the later sequels are.... almost incomprehensible. I had absolutely no hope going into Saw X—and then walked out thinking it was one of the best horror movies of the year! How many franchises can say that the tenth installment is the definitive best one? Not many!

On the other hand...

Category Is: Biggest Disappointment

Movies I was excited to get to, often based on reputation, but which left me wanting much more.

The Goonies (1985)

30 Days of Night (2007)

As Above, So Below (2014)

WHY IS EVERYONE SHOUTING IN THE GOONIES THE WHOLE TIME? We were excited for baby Ke Huy Quan, but that movie was just a headache. As Above, So Below had so much potential and has a strong reputation, and it was the first movie that got permission from the French government to shoot in the legendary Parisian catacombs—and it's just a mid National Treasure kind of thing. Bleh.

Category Is: This Is Terrible; I Love It!

Eegah! (1962)

This award goes out to a very special movie that is absolutely unquestionably terrible, but I had great fun watching it. Usually I don't care much for "It's so bad it's good!" (usually it's Just Bad), but this truly takes the cake. This movie is about an ancient caveman that comes to life (the titular Eegah), and the young hip-for-the-50s-early-60s couple that he terrorises. Everything about this is wooden and flimsy. The dad self-financed this movie to push his son as an Elvis wannabe (including such lines as "I swear on my Elvis Presley EP!"), and... well, I don't think it was ever going to work out for them. There are bizarre musical interludes, some good jokes (*points to a cave painting* "This is from Grog's blue period.") But it's a trainwreck. I watched this with Elvira's Movie Macabre, and she had a field day too. It's an amazing time.

Category Is: I'm A Weirdo (Weirdest Movie)

Skinamarink (2023)

If you know, you know. This is by far the oddest little movie of 2023. It's supposed to be liminal horror, very soft and whispered and weird camera angles, and nightmare logic, a confused and buried plot... It's indescribable. Some people hated it; some people felt very seen by it. I feel like it's almost something of an ink blot test in movie form, where your brain either fills in the missing spaces with horror or it doesn't. Mine did not.

Category Is: Musical Pro-Shot/Concert Film

Over the course of the year, but especially in the second half, we got to see quite a few musicals (and a particular concert...) in the movie theatre. We are, of course, former musical theatre queens, and so we went to as many as we could.

Waitress (2023 Pro-Shot)

The Eras Tour (2023 Concert)

I fully cried through the entirety of the second act of Waitress. What fun and heartbreak that show is. And well, Miss Swift certainly does put on a show! The lighting design too was very impressive.

Category Is: Favourite Miyazaki

Starting in March, our theatre had a Ghibli Fest that led up to The Boy and The Heron being released in December. Each month, they'd play one or two Miyazaki movies, and we were very enthusastic about going!

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Spirited Away (2001)

Ponyo (2008)

Okay, the last two are also grandfathered in because I last saw them in like 2017/18. But all of these are delightful and incredible in different ways.

Category Is: Line Readings That Live In My Head Rent-Free

[Spooky Win] Eva Moore, The Old Dark House (1932) — "NO BEDS!! THEY CAN'T HAVE ANY BEDS!! NO BEDS!!"

Alan Rickman, Galaxy Quest (1999) — "By Grabthar's hammer, what a savings." / "By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Worvan, you shall be avenged."

Brittany Murphy, Riding In Cars With Boys (2001) — "My doightas a tramp! MY DOIGHTAS A TRAAAAMP!"

Kathy Bates, sort of, in the most roundabout way in Rat Race (2001) — "You shoulda bought a cocka-doodie squirrel!"

Mia Goth, Infinity Pool (2023) — "JAAAAAAMESYYYY" and "ATTENTION PEOPLE OF THE BUS"

Rosamund Pike, Saltburn (2023) — "Times New Roman."

Margot Robbie, Barbie (2023) — "I'm not a fascist! I don't control the railways or the flow of commerce!"

Brittany Murphy killed us with that line. Drew Barrymore's character wants to practice with Brittany Murphy, practice telling her parents that she's a pregnant teen. She tells Brittany, and... Brittany explodes, in the middle of the street, screaming at her. And she's like, well, you have to be ready for that!

The Kathy Bates one needs to be explained. So.... that is not a line that is spoken in the movie; it isn't even in the movie. It's a mutant phrase that we made up based on a similar line that is written down in Rat Race but filtered through her character in Misery (1991). That's just how we are!

Category Is: Favourite Wardrobe

Barbie (2023)

Truly, all of her outfits are amazing. My personal favourite is that look that she's wearing when she returns to Barbieland and finds that the Kens have taken over.

Category Is: Creature Design

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

There have been a lot of Godzillas over the decades. But this one? This one looked so cool, especially when it charges up to do its beam attack.

Category Is: Visual Aesthetic

Profondo Rosso (Deep Red) (1975)

Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)

Poor Things (2023)

I'm most interested in Poor Things here: I cannot ever get over those skies. Beyond that, the camera work, the design of the world, the clothes, it's all so specific and delightfully weird.

Category Is: Gayyyy

Movies that centre around being gay and gay experiences.

Carol (2015)

Eileen (2023)

Dante & Artistotle Discover The Secrets Of The Universe (2022)

Yay lesbians! We love them!

And now, to take a spooky detour into the Elsas—

Spooky Category Is: Directorial Achievement

James Whale: Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, The Invisible Man, The Bride of Frankenstein

Jack Arnold: It Came From Outer Space, The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Revenge of the Creature, Tarantula, The Incredible Shrinking Man, The Space Children, Monster on the Campus

Both of these directors were artists whose work I admired pretty much across the board. They have style, they have a point of view, and I would some day like to do deep dives on them!

Spooky Category Is: The Joan Crawford Award For Especial Awfulness

The Mummy's Tomb (1942)

Captive Wild Woman (1943)

I have only awarded The Joan Crawford once, to The Purge, because I hated it and its ideology so much. This year, I found two new Especially Awful movies to add to that list. Both of these movies truly made me question if I wanted to keep going with the Universal Horror marathon, they were that bad. The Paula the Ape Woman series (of which Captive Wild Woman is the first) in particular made me stop for a week because I lost faith in the process!

Spooky Category Is: Supporting Performance

Elsa Lanchester, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Una O'Connor, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935) + The Invisible Man (1933)

O. P. Heggie, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Ernest Thesiger, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Boris Karloff, The Raven (1935)

Edward Van Sloan, Dracula (1931) + Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Eva Moore, The Old Dark House (1932)

Joan Weldon, Them! (1954)

Mara Corday, Tarantula (1955)

Joanna Moore, Monster on the Campus (1958)

I promise I did not make this category just for The Bride of Frankenstein!! I just have a lot of Feelings about that movie this year!! (I only named the entire subsection after Elsa Lanchester herself.)

Spooky Category Is: Lead Performance

Bela Lugosi, Dracula (1931) + The Raven (1935)

Claude Rains, The Invisible Man (1933)

Boris Karloff, The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

Gloria Holden, Dracula's Daughter (1936)

Simone Simon, Cat People (1940)

Martin Kosleck, House of Horrors (1946)

Rondo Hatton, House of Horrors (1946)

Charles Laughton, The Strange Door (1951)

Lori Nelson, Revenge of the Creature (1955)

Grant Williams, The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

We were in Spirit Halloween this past October, and I remember looking up at a cardboard sign that had Boris Karloff's face, giant and in his monster look, which was glaring down at us. And it just struck me that some of these performances (Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff in this category in particular) have just been iconic for literally a century. All the bad vampire impressions go back to Bela's Dracula. One of the most enduring monsters is Frankenstein's monster and the way Boris Karloff represented him. And I just think that's wonderful.

Spooky Category Is: Overall Favourites

The Phantom of the Opera (1925)

The Cat and the Canary (1927)

Dracula (1931)

The Old Dark House (1932)

The Invisible Man (1933)

The Bride of Frankenstein (1935)

The Raven (1935)

Cat People (1940)

Tarantula (1955)

The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)

Many of these need no explanation: They are classics for a reason. What I do want to draw attention to is that there are two silent films on this list! I watched The Phantom of the Opera from 1925 with, I believe, the 1927 scoring, and it was simply wonderful, especially the very early-tech technicolour masquerade scene. Same with The Cat and the Canary, a silent spooky comedy that I loved. I've always been... interested? I suppose? In trying to get into silent films more and never really actually doing it. And the book that I was following just went straight into them. Sometimes you just have to do things!

Anyway, that's the end of the Elsas, which means we can get back to the main body of the Bettes and give out their big awards!

Category Is: Supporting Performance

Alan Rickman, Galaxy Quest (1999)

Brittany Murphy, Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)

Logan Lerman, Riding in Cars with Boys (2001)

Samantha Sloyan, Midnight Mass (2021)

Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Dominique Blanc, L'Origine du mal (2023)

Ryan Gosling, Barbie (2023)

Rosamund Pike, Saltburn (2023)

Taraji P. Henson, The Color Purple (2023)

Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple (2023)

I'll admit, I was a little on the fence about Ryan Gosling a week ago—was he actually that good? But then we rewatched it, and yes, it's an excellent comedic side role; he did wonderfully.

Samantha Sloyan for Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass was so good that I had to break my own rule about this being cinéma only and allow in a television series performance. (And let's be real, it's Netflix, the line has already been blurred extremely.)

But I really want to talk about Taraji and Danielle Brooks. Those two are just so so so wonderful. Taraji in that red look, when she's about to perform? That might be one of my favourite images of the whole year. And Danielle Brooks has such charm and such warmth; I'm not surprised they wanted her to come with the role after doing it on Broadway.

Category Is: Lead Performance

Judy Garland, The Clock (1945)

Michelle Yeoh, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Zhang Ziyi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl (2014)

Cate Blanchett, Carol (2015)

Margot Robbie, Barbie (2023)

Marin Ireland, Birth/Rebirth (2023)

Judy Reyes, Birth/Rebirth (2023)

Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Ryunosuke Kamiki, Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Emma Stone, Poor Things (2023)

I'm sorry, I could not get this down to ten. I actually started this list with TWENTY THREE that I wanted here! All of them are so deserving! And I could not cut it beyond these—I mean!! JUDY! Michelle and Zhang Ziyi! "I'm so much happier now that I'm dead, technically missing!" CATE! The Barbie herself! Our mad scientist and the most determined mother on the planet! Lily!! The most sad little meow meow who has ever had to stand up to Godzilla! And one of the best character performances I have ever seen!

And most of them are this year! What an amazing year of amazing performances.

Category Is: Favourite Horror

Scream 6 (2023)

Birth/Rebirth (2023)

Saw X (2023)

Five Nights At Freddy's (2023)

Hell House LLC Origins: The Carmichael Manor (2023)

Do you think I liked the new horror releases of 2023? Half of these I didn't even expect to like! I'm so happy especially that Hell House turned out well; we LOVE the first one and enjoy~tolerate the second and third, so we weren't quite sure how we'd feel about the fourth. But it's soooo good!

Category Is: Favourite Comedy

Galaxy Quest (1999)

You Hurt My Feelings (2023)

Barbie (2023)

Anyone But You (2023)

Poor Things (2023)

Okay, and 4/5 of these are 2023 too. We're both spooky and funny this year, I guess. Three of these actually came in the last month of the year for us—Anyone But You and Poor Things were December releases, and we didn't get to You Hurt My Feelings until December.

Category Is: Favourite Drama

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind (1984)

Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)

Panic Room (2002)

Gone Girl (2014)

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Well I guess this category is more "David Fincher thriller-dramas are my kind of thing" plus "Asian excellence."

Category Is: THE Favourites Of The Year

Birth/Rebirth (2023)

Poor Things (2023)

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

These three are my absolute tops of the year. I get so excited just thinking about them!

Birth/Rebirth is such a smart take on Frankenstein and has two incredible lead performances. It's wet and horrifying, it's funny, it's just perfect. Poor Things: Emma Stone is a revelation. She has such perfect physical comedy. The whole movie looks beautiful. And Godzilla is an incredible, moving epic with perfect emotion and a brilliant creature design to boot.

Anyway. Enough of that respectable stuff.

The Keanu Reeves Awards For Slutty, Slutty Film Men

For appearences that made yours truly filled with horny thoughts.

Keanu Reeves, Point Break (1991)

Early 90s Keanu showing full ass. I watched it on Valentine's Day just for Keanu and got THAT! I was delighted.

2. John Bromfield, Revenge of the Creature (1955)

I watched the Creature movies for the creature, of course.

3. Kyle MacLachlan, Showgirls (1995)

Had to edit the front-facing one because I was scared tumblr was going to flag it. But let's just say you can see some shaft.

4. Paul Mescal, Aftersun (2022)

He's just that that whole ass out, huh?

5. Ryan Gosling, Barbie (2023)

I remember when the first look at Barbie came out and people were being SO annoying about him and how he looks. And I think he looks delicious!

6. Simu Liu, Barbie (2023)

I would love to watch them beach off together, personally.

7. Josh Hutcherson, Five Nights At Freddy's (2023)

Whatever you say beautiful dot gif.

8. Barry Keoghan, Saltburn (2023)

The scene that shook the internet. Of course, there's more to see, if you know what I mean, but I'm not about to get this post flagged.

9. Glen Powell, Anyone But You (2023)

More like Anyone Butt You, am I right? He has a bit the credits where he just fully bent over. But I couldn't find that with a quick search. Alas!

Anyway. For realsies, if you made it this far, thank you for reading my word salad. These things always end up a little longer than I mean for them to. I am naturally verbose in writing and I was very excited about films for this year!

[westeroswisdom]

The WGA writers are entering the third month of their strike. Strike action by SAG-AFTRA has been delayed as the actors have agreed to extend negotiations until July 12th.

Friday, June 30 was meant to be the cutoff date for negotiations between Hollywood studios and SAG-AFTRA. Had a deal not been struck by then, the actors guild was going to join the WGA’s strike efforts in a more official capacity. But much like what recently happened with the DGA, actors have gotten something of a reprieve just hours before the midnight deadline. Now, conversations between the two parties will continue all the way through July 12. SAG-AFTRA alerted its union members on Friday evening, saying leadership agreed to extend talks “in order to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve.” The two sides have been in discussions since early June, with actors guildmembers advocating for extensive protections against AI, more residuals from streaming, and protection for its pension and health plans. Both parties are reportedly planning to talk again at some point during Saturday, July 1, and may possibly pick things back up again after the Fourth of July comes to pass. In the meantime, it’s said that projects that are presently filming are good to continue until 11:59 PM on the new expiration date.

Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower) was one of 300 or so actors who signed a letter to the union leadership urging SAG-AFTRA not to cave on any key demands.

The WGA strike hasn't affected Season 2 production of House of the Dragon. All of the writing and re-writing was completed before the writers went on strike. But SAG-AFTRA is a different matter. It's hard to say how much of the S2 filming has been completed, though it's probably less than half.

Even a short SAG-AFTRA strike would be costly; a longer one would probably delay the season premiere in 2024.

A number of things could happen. If negotiations are productive, the deadline could be extended again. If there's a tentative settlement, there would then be a ratification vote by the membership which may take a week or so to arrange, conduct, and tabulate. If a proposed settlement is voted down, that would open the way to a strike.

Frankly, I think the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are in the right. If you want to get some idea of the effect of gratuitous use of AI on TV and film production, check out the AI generated White Walker. But if there's a SAG-AFTRA strike, I hope it doesn't start until late September. 🙂

Ultimately, the studio owners need to quit being so fucking greedy. When you let creators create and and don't try to do things on the cheap, you actually increase the chances of success. That is a lesson from Game of Thrones that the studios have already forgotten.

[lsdunesarchive]

How (Don’t Call ‘Em a Supergroup) L.S. Dunes Saved Its Own Members’ Lives

Words by Cassie Whitt Photo by Mark Beemer November 4, 2022

For anti-supergroup L.S. Dunes, the magnetism of friendship and love of their craft made coming together a no-brainer, especially during a particularly turbulent moment for the industry and within their personal lives.

In this excerpt from a conversation with drummer Tucker Rule (Thursday) and vocalist Anthony Green (Circa Survive) we learn just how much swapping sound files during a global pandemic helped heal their hearts and minds.

The band's lineup is a scene dream, also comprised of guitarist Frank Iero (My Chemical Romance), guitarist Travis Stever (Coheed & Cambria) and bassist Tim Payne (Thursday), and while fans may be quick to brand them a supergroup, that's not the sentiment these members harbor. It isn't about assembling an all-star band as the scene equivalent of the Justice League superheroes and more about bonding with like-minded musicians and, more importantly, dear friends.

Being cutoff from our regular social circles and points of contact helped frame a new perspective for us all amid the pandemic, and losing out on this essential element of the human experience led Green in particular down dark paths. Prioritizing mental health, and with the support of his L.S. Dunes bandmates, he confronted these issues and is grateful to have bettered his relationships as a result.

Get your copy of L.S. Dunes' 'Past Lives' album (out Nov. 11) here and follow the band on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Spotify.

They're not a supergroup, they're SUPER BUDS!

TUCKER RULE: All of us in our bands are the ones that are heads-down, want to write music and enjoy playing music. That's why we all have multiple bands.

When we get together, we joke about the "L.S." standing for "low stress" because we just want it to be fun. People love to throw around the term "supergroup," and we don't like that. We're a group of super buds, and this is just our circle of friendship. It's not like, "Oh, we've got to get the guy from Coheed and the guy from Circa and the guy from MCR..." These are my dudes and I know we get along musically.

Another thing with "supergroup" is that [people think], "Oh, they're just going do one show here and one show there." Why start a band if you're not going to go bring it out live? That's our goal — to play as much as we can. This is another full time job.

ANTHONY GREEN: I don't really get to have many friends that are outside of this business. It kind of sucks because you end up feeling kind of lonely when you're not working or when you're home.

Once we started connecting more, it was like, “Man, I'm talking to Tucker every other day.” I didn't realize how much I was lacking in my life. It's hard to even find two people that connect on a creative and personal way level so that they can make stuff, so when people have bands that are so good together, it's like, “These guys just bring out the best in each other!”

It’s hard to find people that creatively mesh well, and this is five people who fit together creatively just perfectly.

L.S. Dunes, "Permanent Rebellion" Music Video

It's not business, it's personal

AG: If at any moment Travis called us and was like, "Hey, I'm going through this and I need X, Y, and Z," that's the most important thing from the get-go. No matter what comes our way, we're able to deal with it because we're not looking at this like it's a business, we're looking at it like this big art project.

We all know from our other bands that when you have a business that's run cutthroat where it's about the bottom line or getting as many streams, or making as much money, it can become convoluted. Whereas, if you have a situation where everybody's just looking out for one another because of the fact that this is an emotionally driven band where we're processing a lot of really heavy shit together, you end up feeling so safe and secure and strong because you know that everybody has your back.

The most important thing is that everybody's mental health and personal relationships. Everybody's life is more important than just a song or a stream. That makes a project strong and fun... and no one's judging [personally or creatively].

Creativity is life-sustaining

TR: I would wake up or go to bed hoping somebody would write a riff so I could wake up in the morning and get to work on it [laughs]. And vice versa — I would write a drum beat and send it out and I'd be like, "Please, somebody work on this" and then I'd get something back. It [felt] like it was Christmas and it was during COVID, too, so there was very little to look forward to.

I think it saved all of our lives, to be honest with you.

It was a time where none of us knew what was going to happen with our industry. I know everybody had it rough and all industries suffered, but I can only speak for myself and the music industry was in shambles. We knew that it might not come back for a really long time and we had no idea how we were all going to make money. When you've done this for 20 years, you kind of get really good at it and not good at other things. For me, getting another job was not an option.

All of us are dads and at that time I had an infant. I was trying to figure out how to make money and was writing these songs with these dudes that I love, not thinking that we would make money from it.

So, why did it save our lives? It was like this was out of necessity to feel like we were a part of something, again.

L.S. Dunes, "2022" Music Video

Even so, life was still very challenging through all this

AG: We got laid off [amid the pandemic]. People were talking about when shows come back or when things reopened, but it was so scary [having the mindset of], "Okay, well let's save up until everything comes back," and then I was just like, "Hey, this is never going come back. It's never going to be like it was and we're going have to get used to playing through our computers." It was almost like a comforting thing for me to close the book on that chapter in my life.

I was so depressed. I had been going to AA and NA meetings where you make a pretty hardcore connection with other addicts and people who are struggling and that was gone. My therapist was not seeing people face to face. Yeah. [This band] was almost like an excuse to miss therapy a bunch.

I was also diagnosed as bipolar shortly after my my overdose. I was struggling with it, and I didn't want to admit that I was bipolar. I was really scared of even saying it. It's crazy to think about it now, but I just didn't want anybody to know. I wasn't medicating at all, and I was trying to figure out how to go through life without getting fucked up to deal with my problems, but also not doing any of the recommended things that you do to manage bipolar.

I was in this manic low, hallucinating, and this project coming to me at that moment... I hate saying this because your kids are the reason why you want to live... I thought my kids would be better off without me. I was convinced that I was just going to be a bad dad, and that I was going hurt them at some point.

That's what friends are for

If I didn't change my shit, I would've [wound up hurting them in some way], but the faith that Tucker, Tim, Frank and Travis had in me really did so much for my confidence and did so much for me in that moment and in those few months. It was like a fucking life preserver. I wasn't looking at my family, my life and my career as something worth fighting for. I was just so lost and there was so much joy anchored in the fact that I had this band that wanted to make songs with me, that believed in me, that wanted me to be in their group.

It really helped me see that my kids would be better if I got my shit together and went to therapy and figured out how to maintain. My family and my friendships would all be better—nobody'd be better off if I was dead.

When you don't see that yourself sometimes, it takes somebody else reminding you. And these guys did that and the songs did that. This band and these songs were like a little box of sanity. It became like a drug, almost. When I was feeling crazy, I would think about the fact that we had this thing that we were building and it would bring me back to earth every time.

Thanks to Tucker Rule and Anthony Green for the interview. Get your copy of 'Past Lives' album (out Nov. 11) here.

[gracegrove]

As much as I want both Steve and Billy to be lil' fellas™. I think they grew (physically differently) right up through the time they met each other and even onward for continued things (yes the body hair Steven...).

I like to think that Billy actually hit some growth patterns early on as a kid. That he initially was a bit scrawny, but whether it was his father thinking he needed to eat more and beef up, or it was just genetics, I think he hit an early growth spurt before 10 and looked "big for his age". Which at times could be helpful but also not so much. He'd be just big enough to puff himself up and keep kids in higher grades off his back, but he was so big in some adult's eyes that when he would have difficulties with his emotions or a really rough day happened to result in a fight at school... he'd be treated like he was big enough to "know better". Like his size somehow added years and wisdom onto his soul. If he'd come to school with a bruise he couldn't hide people would figure it was one he deserved, because "someone his own size" finally got after him. Etc etc.

This pattern probably followed him until other kids started to catch up around early middle school years, and then Billy got stuck in a rut, wondering if this was as tall as he'd ever get. Even some of the girls were getting a bit taller than him. He eventually managed to eke out a few more inches. But height became less of a focus point when everything else starts flaring up at the age of 13.

For Steve, I like to think he was a shrimpy lil guy, who was a bit top-heavy as a kid. Had a big ol' thick melon head and was always just a few inches below the 'tall enough to ride this ride' cutoffs for such a long time until he was nearly 11 or so when he just turns into a complete bean sprout. Which causes him new problems, feet that he's tripping over all the time. Lanky long legs that classmates get tripped and tangled up on. He's blocking his mother's view of the TV when he always used to stand right in front of her to ask questions, and now suddenly, "Steve honey, mommy can't see Geraldo Rivera."

Steve just takes full advantage and goes for anything height-related, sports, helping his crush get things off the high shelf, looming and staring down at short people is a favorite at 13. He becomes quite popular. Because classmates suddenly have to look up to him, right? He's milking it.

As they both progress through school more shenanigans go on. Billy tries to grow as much facial hair as he can muster when little tidbits of stubble start populating his upper lip. Steve doesn't really think too much about it until some patches of thick hair start showing up in multiple places during swim season in freshman year, and suddenly shaving becomes a pastime. Them both checking their progress in their pants, especially after seeing or hearing other kids in gym class talk about that one classmate who already has the biggest! or the thickest! down there. And they just have to, for the sake of their own self-esteem. A ruler may have been involved.

[mycomicbox]

I need to get this off my chest.

As you may know, I run the sideblog @project-omori2 , where I talk about my ideas for an indirect sequel to OMORI that stars new characters in an all-new story while sharing elements with the first game, much like other game series such as Final Fantasy and Pokémon. I feel like I've said this a million times by now, but these series do exactly what I'm talking about: shared core elements but with different stories, characters, and settings, often with updated game mechanics, unified under the same name.

(cutoff because long vent post)

I'm having fun with it, but trying to get the OMORI fandom on board has been... an uphill battle.

Whenever I say that this OMORI 2 would share elements with the first game, people dismiss me by saying that "it would just be the same game all over again".

And to that I say: Think bigger! Expand your mind! 

Final Fantasy IX isn’t just “the same game“ as Final Fantasy VII. Pokémon Scarlet and Violet isn’t just “the same game“ as Pokémon Black and White. Yes, these franchises are not as story-focused as OMORI, but their stories are still unique yet also similar. With an indirect sequel, the sky is the limit.

And another issue. Even when I pitch my example, I still get ignored because, as I've said in the past, a lot of OMORI fans are extremely stubborn. They are so glued to the first game's story and characters that suggesting the idea of something other than a direct sequel/prequel/DLC/AU is met with dismissal (using the flawed arguments that I've previously pointed out).

I think this is partially why other fan projects get so much more widespread attention, because they are direct continuations, such as with the Reverie mod or @omori-anamnesis-mod , or otherwise have to deal with the same characters, such as the OMARI AU or HIKITO AU. (no shade towards those other projects despite my envy)

And finally, people often ask “why is it called OMORI 2 if Omori is the name of a character?“, which is admittedly a valid concern, but I have a perfectly logical explanation right here. (TLDR: Since Omori’s design and name comes from Mari’s piano, with “Omori” being the brand, what if there was another Omori-branded object of story significance?)

All of this nonsense is honestly a bit discouraging, not to the point that I want to drop OMORI 2, of course, but still.

If you’re one of the few people who have been following the project and inputting suggestions, I sincerely thank you. And if you’re interested in the project, my ask box is always open.