#i started doing it in like 2011-2012 and then i took a long break from like aug/sept 2019 - feb 2022 bc of The Horrors and then i took anoth

[ross1fum1]

#drives me crazy how apparently he's justified only because he' known for committing war crime on track

As a marc supporter, I would like to try to make you understand my point of view.

Personally I don't justify marc because he is used to commit crimes on the track, but because imo there is always a tendency to judge very negatively actions that done by others instead go unnoticed.

The first example that comes to mind is the incident between marini and bastianini in portugal last season. Marini made enea skip the whole season and may have ruined his career but the criticism of him was minimal and today no one remembers that incident anymore. At silverstone 2021 marc had a similar accident with martin (who was not hurt) and in that case instead the criticism was fierce, with marc as usual being accused of being an aggresive driver who ALWAYS causes accidents. In reality, the last accident he caused was in Argentina 2018. This year Bagnaia pulled marc down in portugal and tried to pull him down in jerez, but there was no criticism of him.

Then there is the whole issue of slipstreams that are only noticed when marc has taken them.

Marc is not a saint, but neither is he a criminal who goes down the track to k1ll his opponents. He has taken aggressive actions like all riders, in fact in my opinion even less than others, but because of what happened in 2015 a lot of people fail to judge what he does on track in a rational and lucid way.

P.S. Marc did wrong today and I don't justify him, but the incident is only relevant because he is involved, and the very heavy insults he is receiving in these hours would not be written if someone else had caused the crash

I'll start by saying that I really like Marquez as a rider. Because if you're a MotoGP enthusiast you can't help but like a champion like Marquez. Marc Marquez is a record-breaking rider, records that are both positive and negative. I don't think there is any need to list the positive records because they have become history. He’s a rider who always rides to the limit, beyond which either glory or tragedy exists. His 85 victories prove it, but so does the fact that since the beginning of his career he has collected over a hundred falls. Now, if we want to quickly go over all the times that Marquez has been at the center of controversies due to unfair moves, quite a few situations come to mind. Starting from Moto2 when in 2011 he hit Wilarot at the end of the first free practice session, or in 2012 when in Catalunya he hit Pol or in Valencia when he made Corsi fall. Moving on to MotoGP, the trend has not changed. Already in 2013 in Aragon he hit Pedrosa who fell and caused Marc to receive a penalty. Again in 2013 in Great Britain he ignored the yellow flags caused by Crutchlow's fall, falling in the same trajectory and risking taking out the stewards. In Argentina in 2018 he received three penalties in one race, which had never happened before. In 2021 his duel with Martin ended with a questionable overtaking attempt that made them both fall. In Portimao in 2023 he received two long lap penalties after colliding with and injuring Miguel Oliveira, the home rider. And I purposely left out all the events of 2015 between him and Rossi because we could discuss this for ages and still not get to the bottom of the situation. Let’s just say it was certainly not a moment of great sportsmanship on either side. There’s no doubt that situations like those Marquez has found himself in over the years can happen to anyone. The point is that they don't happen to everyone. You took Marini injuring Bastianini as an example, very true, there are certainly other riders who have done the same, but these events are not remembered because they happened once, twice at most. As long as we're talking about once or twice I think everyone can agree that it's an unpleasant incident, but if you do it multiple times throughout your career it becomes a pattern.So without taking into account racing contacts that, although questionable, are part of the sport, it’s clear that there’s a reason why people are not surprised when Marc commits one of his usual war crimes. Because it’s a part of him. Which in my opinion, however, should not be a justification. It’s true that MotoGP is a dangerous sport, but it should be dangerous because they race at 300km/h not because it becomes a contact sport. When Marc and Nicolò got so close yesterday on the last lap I already knew it would end badly, because that's what you expect, and if you expect it it's obviously because you've been given reason to expect it. I hoped it wouldn't happen because it was a friendly race that didn't count for anything at all, and yet if you're Marc Marquez it apparently does matter, because the moment you find an obstacle between you and the podium either it moves of its own accord or you find a way to make it move. Which is a reasoning that I could perhaps understand if you were fighting to win the world championship in the last race of the year but not if you're doing 10 laps to promote a bike. I won't deny that opening Tumblr and seeing people saying "Oh it’s the Marc Marquez experience🤭” really bothered me. Especially because I follow the WSBK championship seeing one of my favorites down with a potential injury because someone is not able to control himself was not very pleasant. Now what I say is irrelevant because his behavior will never change and that's how he is. This doesn't mean I have to accept it. I’ll be here applauding him when he has battles like the one in Jerez this year. Where there were contacts but it was pure racing and there was no unfairness. Trust me. But at the same time I’ll be here holding him and any other rider accountable when they pull some unfair move.

[drifting-pieces-blog-blog]

Breaking down the comics: BENDIS. PART 1. 

READING THINGS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO! 

ALRIGHT EVERYONE IT'S TIME. 

It's 12 issues long. 

When this came out, I thought "This is the worst thing ever." and was so disappointed and angry. I refused to purchase the trade and frowned at it real hard any time it was mentioned. 

If I could go back in time and tell little me that there were far...FAR...worse things ahead I'm not sure I'd have believed me. 

Lucky for me, something spectacular and wondrous and amazing was also ahead. 

But we'll get to that later. 

Moon Knight: (2011) 

publication date: July 2011-June 2012. 

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis

Artist: Alex Maleev 

Editor: Jeff Youngquist 

TIME LINE TIME! 

Let's start off with a little bit of Comic History! 

Moon Knight started in 1975. Moench and Zelenetz took it to 1990. 

We hit the 90s and it was a rough go for our pal. I'll cover the 90s later. 

Moon Knight then faded into obscurity and only the die hard fans that remembered our friend in white clung to every fleeting background appearance or mention. 

He then returned to us in 2006. 

The series of runs from 2006-2009 revived the series into a new glorious age of Marvel comics. The comics were far from perfect, the characterization was often WAY off, but it was better than nothing and a lot of good did come out of that age. 

2009-2010 brought us Vengeance of Moon Knight, which was also pretty good. 

Moon Knight was trucking along. 

It was roughly in this age that I became aware of Moon Knight and started reading the old stuff. 

Then 2011 they announced a new writer taking over Moon Knight. 

I actually went to a convention and remember this announcement. 

Marvel editor and Chief Joe Quesada was heading the panel and was super excited. He professed to love Moon Knight and was super enthused to see him not only be continued, but to also be in the hands of such an esteemed writer as Bendis AND joining a west coast team. (I'll get to that). 

So from 2011-2012 we got...THIS.... 

Moon Knight was then swiftly canceled. 

It was a disaster and did NOT do well on sales or reviews. (gee. Wonder why). 

And in TRUE Marvel fashion, they quietly swept it under the rug. They claimed that interest in Moon Knight had died and they would not continue to write for a comic no one would read. 

He had a few small background parts now and then, and fans continued to ask if they were going to bring him back. 

It wasn't till 2014 under "Marvel Now" (a new age under Marvel) that he was brought back under Ellis. 

Now, a LOT of people hate on Ellis. But they have to understand what Ellis had to work with. Where Ellis was coming from with Moon Knight, and WHY he had to do it so subtly like he did. 

So let me show you WHY my appreciation for Ellis runs so deep. 

You may have noticed something. I called Bendis an "esteemed writer". 

So who is Brian Michael Bendis? 

This is the man that is KNOWN for his work in the Avengers. 

He was the man that relaunched the Avengers franchise in 2000. Marvel was NOT doing well in the late 90s. DC was on the rise and kicking ass. 

I'm not saying this man saved Marvel comics... But he certainly brought the comic fans back in. 

Secret War, House of M, Secret Invasion, Siege, Age of Ultron, Avengers Disassembled...

These are BIG name runs that he wrote storylines for and was in charge of. These are big name events! 

You all know by now I hate events and tie-in cross-overs (There are two notable exceptions, but those are not Moon Knight related), but I have to appreciate them when they actually do make the comics thrive. 

Also, it takes a LOT to keep these events organized. And it takes a good writer to write for large groups like the Avengers. 

This man also created some very well known comic characters. Riri Williams, Jessica Jones, and...MILES MORALES. 

THAT'S RIGHT. This man gave us MILES! 

He's won five Eisner Awards. 

He is GOOD at what he does. He's god at writing teams. He keeps the dialogue smooth and flowing. He keeps track of all the characters. 

But... You'll notice something.... 

All those incredibly big name events and series? They are teams. They are groups. They are big hitters. They are mostly super powered and work well in teams. 

This brings me to a very big point. 

Just because you are good at one thing, does not make you good at all things. 

And that's where Marvel messed up. 

They happily put Moon Knight into the hands of someone who was used to writing for Captain America and Iron Man. 

You all know by now, or you will soon, Moon Knight is a VERY different sort of hero. 

He has no powers. He has no armor. He’s not super smart and he isn’t a leader. He's just a man. A man with severe trauma. A man with a past. Oh...And he's actually Three men in a white cape pretending to be one fully functioning normal guy and failing at it miserably. In fact, he’s been offered to lead teams MANY times and every time he turned it down. He doesn’t play well with others. Every time he meets up with another character, they start with a fight before they calm down and introduce themselves (one exception was Hilariously the Punisher who happily shook his hand and invited him into his chopper). 

So I can’t be angry at Bendis. Bendis even admitted that he didn’t know who Moon Knight was when he was given the comic. He had to do some quick catching up. 

The pressure was on, he didn’t understand the character, and there was a PUSH to introduce Moon Knight to the wider Marvel universe. 

So I can’t 100% fault Bendis for the trash heap he gave us. He certainly isn’t Bemis, who is just an overall terrible person. 

But I CAN fault him for not doing his research and not treating the major themes that tend to historically follow Moon Knight with respect. The biggest one being: Mental Health. 

So if Aaron was a disaster of religious failure, Bemis was a disaster of hate crimes and racism, then Bendis is a disaster of the mind. 

Without further rambling, let’s get into it!! 

Issue #1 (same image as up top). 

Title page as the standard blurb on who the character is. 

"Left to die outside an Egyptian temple, mentally unstable mercenary Marc Spector believes himself to have been resurrected by the ancient deity Khonshu to be his supernatural avatar on Earth. When night falls, Spector dons the mantle of Khonshu and fights the darkness as Moon KNight." 

Not a great start people. 'dons the mantle of Khonshu'. This is literally all Bendis knew about Moon Knight going in. If this is the only description you have to go on, you are not going to have a good time. 

We open with a very Kirk Russel looking version of Marc Spector out in the desert with a dramatic retelling of his fight with Bushman. 

What's interesting is that Bushman calls him "Lockley". 

They have their shoot out, Marc is shot and Bushman leaves him saying "You were the best there ever was." 

Doing his usual, Marc crawls through the desert to the Moon Temple. 

He goes to the body of the dead Professor (Marlene's father) and wishes to make it up to him despite dying. He then goes to the Khonshu statue and begs before dying. 

Marlene sobs over him, calling him "Jake". 

The scene ends and it's to be continued. 

Fade to black. Executive Producer Marc Spector. 

Yeah... Marc went to Hollywood and made a show about Moon Knight. 

You see, up to this point, no one realy knew what Steven was doing to make them money. In the 80s he gave to charities, set up entertainment things like Ballet and museums and things, and played the stocks a bit. 

Later he became a producer. 

Then, when the writers all decided they didn't want to write Steven anymore because he was 'boring' he turned into Marc and Marc headed the financial aspect of things and became the producer of the shows. 

So here we see Marc making the show about himself and using the name Lockley so no one knows it's about him. 

He...He's trying. 

So the name of the show is "Legend of the Khonshu". 

This is the pilot episode and they are at a launch party. 

We see Marc hanging with a pretty blond that is NOT Marlene. At this point she’s left him. 

"Is it true that you were a really for real mercenary?"

"Well, let's just say... I have learned I'm not the first person in the world to transition their career into Hollywood after a...Less than honorable start." 

He gets a call and the person asks if he can go outside. 

This is odd. And it should have been my first clue something was wrong. 

But we'll get there. 

We've got Captain America, Spider-man, and Wolverine asking for Moon Knight. 

And while Moon Knight has been an Avenger off and on and off and on at this point, he also has never been well trusted or liked by the big guys like Cap and Iron man. 

Cap tells him that "SHIELD's still tryig to gather formal intel, but there's been a rather substantial migration of criminal activity from the East coast to here. Right here in your new backyard. We need you to go to work." 

(this was the reason for the West Coast Avengers, but that's a different run). 

"Substatial Migration of criminal activity?" 

"Maybe if you weren't so busy making crap TV--" Wolverine gets uppity. 

"Have you seen the show, Wolverine? It's actually pretty good." 

"Yeah, that's what I got time for, watching you sell your soul entirely." 

"Good news, though, I'm getting paid a fortune for it." 

Cap breaks up the banter and Marc asks for details. 

Spider-Man explains that too many super heros lived on the east coast and too many villains were trying to be the kingpin of New York. So now they figure they can go to L.A. 

"But now we have you here." "Me?" "You made L.A. your territory." "By living here?" 

This has always been an issue. Ever since it became known that Moon Knight had mental issues, all the Avengers have always treated him like “the crazy one”. Especially since he’s the ONLY superhero that is publicly open about his mental health issues. 

He’s even come out to the Avengers as having D.I.D and introduced Jake and Steven to them (see Spider-man encounters that was mostly used for LOLs). What’s interesting is seeing which heroes react in what ways. 

I could do a whole breakdown on the response of each Avenger to those with mental health issues. From Captain America’s don’t ask don’t tell attitude that stems from being brought up in the 30s-40s to Punisher who takes it in stride and doesn’t care. 

So they came all the way out to LA from NY to put him to work. Brings to mind the old meme: This could have been an email.

Cap reminds him that he's an Avender now and part of a team. "If things get to be too much...You send for us. Give the call. We're here for you. That's what being an Avender means. You're not alone." 

Problems with that: 1. The Avengers are in NY. He's in LA. That's a few hours away even by Helicarrier. 2. To quote Sassy Steven Grant from MCU "Yeah that's sort of like the problem, innit?" 

But ignore that. Look at this ART. 

We head over to a warf where two criminal looking thugs are waiting by a van. 

They're having some friendly banter about their job and their boss. 

"Ask yourself this: This job you have--Who do you think had it before you? Where is that person now? Exactly how dead are they? And which one of the, I don't know, X-Men do you think maybe killed them?" 

"I see your point. I just don't agree with it. I want to do the job we were hired to do and then I want to go home." 

I do love some good hench men banter. 

While they banter, Moon Knight sneaks around up top to watch as a ship comes in. 

A very large man gets off the ship and demands to know which one of them has "Mr. Hyde's Money?" 

They don't have money. They were just ordered to pick up what's on the boat. The man demands money for the thing on the boat. 

He threatens to crush them to death, they threaten to shoot him. 

The giant man lifts them up and smashes their heads together. 

Alright, time for Moon Knight to swing into action. He first gets his attention with a crescent dart that cuts his cheek. 

Just gonna put this right here….

Our buddy Moony has fought many giant strong men before. He's good at holding his own but he's also REAL good at getting utterly annihilated. 

He gets in a few good hits but then gets thrown in the harbor. 

Then a truck is chucked at him. 

His cape gets caught on the front wheels and the truck drags him down into the harbor. (He ends up in the water so much)

One of the thugs from earlier is still alive and he chooses this time to shoot the giant in the arm. 

Unfortunately this upsets the giant who comes over and crushes his skull. 

Disturbing. But the it's done well with the art style. You see him place his boot then a black frame that says "CRUNCH". This is how you censor but imply the violence. Unlike in Bemis' run that just shows you all the gore in the worst way. 

It's amazing how much better I can look at this in comparison. 

But an aside: I enjoyed this run until it got to a VERY specific point. We'll get there together, friends. Until we get to that point, we're going to enjoy the art and have fun with our buddy Moony. 

Big guy gets ack on the boat and starts to drive away. Suddenly he's whacked in the head by a fire extinguisher. 

We see a cloakless/hoodless/maskless Moon Knight wailing on him. 

Marc heads down into the cabin thing while the giant is dstunned. He wants to know what the cargo is. 

Ohhh hey.... Okay. 

So… There are some of you reading this that know exactly what that is. And there are a LOT of you that don’t know other comics or movies and have no idea what that is. 

That’s an Ultron. Tony Stark did Tony Stark things and created a super power AI system called Ultron. And in classic AI comic book fashion, it immediately took over EVERYTHING and set out to destroy the world. They eventually defeated it, but it keeps popping up. You’ll find hidden saved files in old computers, SHIELD helicarriers often find ultron files in their systems. Sometimes you find one of the mass produced robots that still carry the potential to boot up and spread the virus around again. 

Marc picks up the Ultron skull, wondering why they have a dead Ultron. 

It's at this point that he realizes he just knocked out the only one on the boat that was driving. 

He's doing fine. 

He gets knocked off the boat again and clings to a rope hanging off it. At this point the boat is illuminated by something from above. 

Giant man wakes up and yells at the sky about "you better have my money!!" 

"You should have thought about that before you killed my employees." 

The boat blows up and Marc manages to swim away with the Ultron head. 

Back at his place, he calls the Avengers to give them an update. 

Again, I want to remind everyone that the Avengers are based out of New York and Marc is in LA. Are they going to fly out there to look at an Ultron head? It's a 5 and a half hour non stop flight on a regular airline. 

So...This is another clue that something is wrong here. 

They debate on why someone wants an Ultron head. 

It IS made out of adamantium alloy, which is very valuable. 

I also want to say that I love how they draw Marc here. 

So Marc, Captain America, Spider-Man, and Wolverine stand around staring at the Ultron head for a minute. 

"You got a good look at the mystery power?" 

"Nope. Not from lack of trying, though." 

"Hey, Man, you went toe-to-toe with Mr. Hyde." 

"Barely." 

"That's pretty impressive, my friend." 

"I think I broke a rib." 

In trying to figure out who the new power player is, he decides that they at least have one up. 

"Which means he's looking for me like we're looking for him. I'm glad you guys are here. We have our work cut out for us. This is going to take more than just Moon Knight." 

This is heart breaking to hear once you actually know where this run is going. And he isn't alone. Where are Jake and Steven? Why are they banished? 

I know that Jake doesn't travel. Jake never leaves New York. I've never really explored why that is. But in Moench's OG run, Jake NEVER left New York. 

And writers always leave Steven out. No one since Moench has been able to handle him to this point. 

So here we are, Marc Spector making home in a new place and Jake and Steven aren’t there. Then the Avengers show up randomly and tell him to start being Moon Knight again and that he is needed. 

And then we are left with this image, which is our biggest reveal that maybe… Maybe something isn’t right here… 

So what do we know in the first issue? We can’t trust Marc’s perception of things. 

We also have yet to actually address Marc’s D.I.D. They’ve only casually mentioned him being ‘mentally disturbed’. He’s built up what looks like a nice comfortable life for himself in LA and here the Avengers come in (supposedly) and put him back into position to ruin this life. 

We know Marlene left him. And his head-mates are being pretty quiet. We can only speculate that we are meant to believe that the ‘Avengers’ are only in his head. 

There’s more going on here than Ultron. And in issue one, I’m optimistic. I love the art, Moon Knight is being Moon Knight. But you do get the sense that something is brewing and all you can do is hope that it’s not bad. We have no REASON to think it will be bad at this point. We’ve not had an atrociously bad run yet. We’ve only had mismanagement. 

Issue #2. 

DAMN fine art, Maleev. Look at the white! The face is a little creepy, but look at that cape! 

Title page has the usual blurb and a recap. 

"Marc Spector has resurfaced in Los Angeles as the creator and producer of the wildly successful TV show 'Legends of the Khonshu'. As Moon Knight, he intercepts an illegal delivery of an Ultron robot body. The mastermind behind it is unknown, but the battle is fierce and Moon Knight barely escapes. 

Guiding him through this new mystery, Moon Knight is supported by his new multiple Personalities in the guises of Spider-man, Wolverine and Captain America." 

YEP. There it is everyone! 

2011. WAY past the point of DSM defining things and research absolutely could have been done. 

But it wasn't done. They had zero interest in informing or teaching the audience about mental health. All they wanted was a gimik to lure you in and say "Look how crazy he is!" And now he's got "NEW" personalities that are also well known super heros! 

*SIGH* Issue one was so hopeful. They could have gone so many other routes. 

As I mentioned above, Marc has set himself up to be alone. When has Marc Spector ever done well when left alone to his own devises? 

Marc has set himself up for massive failure and is on his way for another break down. 

But they could have left him alone. Shown him being alone. Shown him struggling alone. They could have then re-introduced Steven and Jake and well....LEMIRE. 

Anyways, let's see what happens in issue 2. 

We open with Moon Knight, Spider-man, Wolverine, and Captain America overlooking the city.

I love when they get carried away with his cape. It’s like his cape is an entity of itself. Look at that majesty. 

Marc has intel and they are deciding on who gets to go investigate. 'Wolverine' decides to go in. 

Marc tells him no. "This is my city now. That's the whole point. I'll go." 

"I think you should go in undercover first. Stake it out. Lock your target" -Captain America. 

"You WOULD think that. I say dive in and tear the place up. That's the only language they understand. It's the only language they respect." - Wolverine. 

Cap just wants to shut down the operation. 

"A grenade can shut that place down. We're aiming higher. We're aiming for the person who thinks this city is up for grabs and thinks they need an ultron." 

'Spider-man' volunteers. No one would expect him. 

Moon Knight notes that "It's not like I can stop him." 

We head to a sort of strip club sort of thing. The manager woman is in charge of info. A lot of powerful men come to her club/bar and these men often let slip information to the girls that help them 'relax.' She pays the girls for collected information. 

She finishes her little speech and Spider-man interrupts. 

"Did I miss the audition? I have a dream, you know. A dream to dance!" 

"Get out of here or I'll kill you." 

"I'm sorry, I don't care for the way you're speaking to me--I'd like to speak to the manager." 

So they way they have it, the “Spider-Man personality” is in charge and the others watch and let him act. He has the mouthiness of the REAL spider-man, but he also lacks the strength and acrobatics. This puts him at a disadvantage, as he’s expected to do the same things, but can’t. This honestly is going to go for Wolverine and Captain America too. Three people that distinctly have super powers and skills that Moon Knight and MARC do not have! 

An interesting solution is that Spider-man uses web shooters. 

And THIS 'Spider-man has hidden Moon Knight's truncheons in the shooters so they get hit by the web and also whacked pretty hard too. 

What is so frustrating is that I'd just rather watch Moon Knight fight the bad guys and not 'fake spider-man'. 

And the boss lady gets hit by the web shooters with the hidden truncheons inside. She instantly knows "That's not Spider-man." 

She starts to fight back, asking who he is. 

"Who are you?" 

"Who am I? I? Me? People have heard of me! The big question today is how far down the criminal food chain are you?" 

She starts to kick his ass. 

She puts him in a choke hold demanding to know who he is and who sent him. 

Marc and Wolverine start to argue inside the head space. Wolverine wants to step in but Moon Knight wants to give Spider-man a chance. 

The mask is ripped off and they start to black out. Wolverine steps in. 

The webshoots extend out the retractable claws. 

Just as he gets the upper hand, one of the stripper girls tasers him, knocking him down. 

He fights through it. The taser doesn't really affect him. 

He webs her and the main boss lady picks up the fight. 

Captain America is not impressed with the fight. "You're not learning anything and you've made your point. Wrap it up." 

Just as he starts to get the upper hand, one of the bounces shoots them in the shoulder. 

He doesn't heal like Wolverine would. 

He blacks out. 

See, my issue is that the writing team doesn’t know anything about Moon Knight. In fact, they know so little that they think he’s boring. So they bring in familiar characters in an effort to ‘make him interesting’. But Moon Knight is NOT those characters. So you end up with a cluster of a whole bunch of mischaracterization on BOTH sides. You got Wrong Moon Knight and you got Wrong Spider-man. 

Boss lady tells the other girls to go home and not to talk about anything that just happened. 

She says that their BOSS will want to talk to this guy and find out who he is. 

They go to move Marc and suddenly one of the stripper girls attacks. 

She knocks out the bouncer then knocks out the boss lady. 

Marc wakes up much later, patched up in a bed. 

Mystery lady tells him "You ruined my cover, Moon Knight." 

She tells him that they have mutual friends like Steve Rogers and Matt Murdock. 

Her name? Maya Lopez. Hey! It's Echo! 

"I was an Avenger for all of 44 seconds." 

I...I've never read anything with Echo. I actually have a comic of her team up with Dare Devil waiting in my stack of comics to read. 

She was supposed to get her own MCU show on Disney Plus. 

I also know that when Greer met up with Marc in the MacKay run, Echo was the one that warned her about what it was like to be with Marc Spector. 

I ALSO know that they call her Echo because she's deaf. 

That is the extent of what I know about Echo. 

Let's learn together! 

She tells Marc to look at her when he talks. He figures out it's because she's reading lips.

"You're deaf?" 

"I know what's wrong with me. What exactly is wrong with you?" She asks as she holds up the Spider-man mask. 

Back with boss lady, we see her talking to her own boss. 

She explains that she once fought the Black Widow and Captain America. 

"This guy--This guy tonight knows how to fight. I know when someone has been trained. This guy--" 

They talk about how they looked up Spiderman and found him still in New York. They also figured out that the one they were fighting was "Moon Knight dressed as Spider-man." 

"And acting like a crazy animal." 

"Moon Knight." 

"Or a crazy guy who thinks he's both. In this world...Never underestimate a good crazy." 

The big mystery boss knows Moon Knight. He's faced him rescently apparently. 

"He has something of mine and I need it back."

He approves her to hire a team and hunt Moon Knight down. 

END ISSUE. 

Ya'll...There's so much going on here. My mantra? "At least it isn't BEMIS.'' That's not a good plug. 'Better than Bemis'. That bar is so low that it's buried six feet under. 

Also the introduction of Echo is going to get messy. She’s there to be the ‘voice of reason’ to his ‘insanity’, but she’s also there to potentially be a love interest. 

Lemme do a little google search real quick. 

Okay... She's Native American of the Cheyenne nation. Created in 1999. She first appeared as Ronin in 2005 by Brian Michael Bendis. (That explains why she's in this). 

After Kingpin killed her father, he adopted her. Fisk pitted her against Daredevil. She also had a relationship with Matt Murdock cause of course she did. (Everyone has slept with Murdock. EVERYONE.) 

Her abilities are photographic reflexes, much like that of Taskmaster. Meaning she can learn people's fighting styles. 

Okay. She's interesting. 

Makes me sad that she’s just going to be used in this comic to give the reader a point of stability and also a love interest. 

Issue #3. 

I like the soft colors in the art. And at first glance you get excited because “Bullseye!” And I love a good Bullseye run. But then you notice that jaw line looks very familiar and also he’s holding a familiar looking crescent and you realize what’s about to happen and you’re just disappointed again….. 

ALRIGHT. We open on Marc driving a car and making a call to Maya (Echo). 

"Hi Maya...This is Marc Spector." 

"I'm sorry?" 

"From last night." 

"What do you want?" 

"You believe it's me...Cool." 

He spoke to their 'mutual' friends who vouched for her. (I bet Murdock vouched for her). 

"If you're not still mad at me for blowing your cover and maybe ruining your life, I thought mabe we could get together and discuss, um, strategy." 

Sure. Sure Marc... Strategy. 

He invites her to eat. She turns him down. 

"I think you might be insane, and I have had enough insane men in my life to last me." 

[....]

"I think you're thinking that last night was indicative of my overall behavior and personality." 

"It wasn't?" 

"It probably was, but I don't think that--" 

"I'm hanging up." 

"I need help, Maya. And you do too." 

We have some serious discrimination going on. The constant use of outdated language to lesson Marc's credibility and constant second guessing him. 

Marc gets to the studio to find his assistant there waiting with a list of issues. 

The usual studio stuff. 

Props have issues, there's calls, and "they still haven't cast the French Guy." 

"Not French." 

"I thought--"

"He doesn't HAVE to be French. I said he was based on a French person." 

(Does this mean that I cacn still dream of Pedro Pascal as Frenchie?) 

Anyways... He heads in to a tech person named Buck. 

Marc hands him the Ultron head. He asks him to take a peak at it and let him know if it's legit. 

We head back to three months ago when Marc was setting up the show and casting people. 

Marc had asked for a list of "soldier of fortune consultants". 

Marc starts to look through the files. 

Honestly, considering his past and connections, he probably knows most of the old timers personally. 

He finds one that makes him pause and he tells his assistant that he wants an interview. 

Turns out Buck was that guy. 

Marc asks Buck how long he's been an Agent of SHIELD. 

He recognized the name of a company that Buck listed as work history on his resume. 

A company owned by SHIELD and stationed in Latveria (Home of Dr. Doom). 

Buck denies it. It's all classified, after all. 

Marc tells Buck that "I need a guy who knows weapons and armory. I need a guy who thinks outside the box and knows not to ask questions. I need someone I can trust with my life." 

Of course Buck is cagey. Wants to know how Marc got access to the files and what not. 

"Do you know your super heroes?" 

"Uh...Sure." 

Marc tells him. We don't hear what he says. 

"I...I, uh... Never heard of you." 

"Are you serious?" 

"Just messing with you." 

Yeah, there was a long time when NO ONE knew who Moon Knight was. Somehow all the bad guys and street people knew him, but NONE of the heros knew him. Just called him "that crazy moon guy." 

Marc hires the man as his 'weapons expert' for the show. He also asks the man to work on making special tools and weapons for his 'special needs'. 

Here’s Buck at home relaxing. 

Oh hey! Bullseye! 

So we see "Bullseye" threaten to torture and cut up Buck if he doesn't tell him who Marc Spector is. 

Buck refuses to talk. 

Bullseye threatens him again and Buck figures it out. "Mister Spector? Is that---Are you--?" 

Firstly, where did Marc even get that outfit? And the spike dagger. Bullseye got the spike daggers when he killed Electra (Daredevil comics my old beloved dumpster fire that you were). 

Marc apologizes and Buck punches him. He beats on him a moment, pretty pissed off. 

"You know I could disarm you and end this in a second, right?" 

"You never touch me!" 

"Come on. Compared to what they did when you joined SHIELD this was nothing." 

"I don't care if you think I--"

"You know I had to." 

[....] 

"Man, how crazy are you?" 

There it is again. And having Marc dress up and mimic Bullseye's manners and expressions is an interesting choice when we already know that he's dealing with being Spider-man, Wolverine, and Captain America too. He's plaing with fire and I can see where Bendis is going to take this and I don't like it. 

And this brings us to the present with Buck analyzing the Ultron head. 

Turns out to be a real Ultron head. 

"The head of the most powerful artificial intelligence known to man cut off from its regenerating power source--" 

Buck asks if they should take it to Tony Stark. 

Marc doesn't like Tony Stark. This is fair. Tony has never exactly been fair to Marc. 

Apparently Hank Pym also had a hand in creating Ultron. That hangs together. (I am not a fan of comics hank pym. He's not a good person). 

Marc tells Buck he's going to give it to Steve Rogers when they are done with it. 

Buck keeps telling him to get rid of it. WHoever the LA kingpin is, he's going to come looking for it either for parts, the dangerous tech, or to plug it back in and sick it on the world again. 

Marc keeps brushing him off. 

"Meaning that you should get rid of it immediately...Was my point...That you completely missed. Because you're crazy." 

So we head back to boss lady, AKA "Snapdragon". She's talking to a group of assassins for hire. A group called "Night Shift". 

Her boss wants to have a chat with Moon Knight and she wants to know who he is. 

END ISSUE. 

Yeah, you guys can see the growing motif of this run, can’t you? “Wow look how crazy he is!” And it’s going to get worse. 

If Aaron was a problem because of the lack of religious sensitivity and research, then Bendis is a problem because of how he handles the topic of Mental Health. (Bemis was just a problem. Every problem forever. Too many to name.) 

So let’s head into Issue #4. 

Maleev did all his own covers for the runs. Not a common thing to do. I just love how all the covers have such striking colors and how the cape and cowl are always just so BRIGHT white. It’s pretty, okay? 

Alright, we open up on Avengers Mansion somewhere in New York. Carol Daners answers the phone (Captain Marvel). 

Maya Lopez (Echo) is calling them. 

She's doing a check in to find out what the Avengers think of Moon Knight. 

Which, fine. If you're going to work with a guy or potentially be interested in them, you check in with your friends that know them. 

But ALSO...The Avengers have always been very discriminatory against Moon Knight. 

They don't trust him because they think he's dangerous because they think he's insane. 

They don't ever make ANY effort to understand what his illness/problems are. They never look into his disorder. They never look into Marc's PTSD. They never take the time to talk him through things. 

Much like they never really accept or try to deal with the Punisher's PTSD. He's always just an evil murdering man. 

Maybe this is why Marc and Frank have always gotten along. 

Spiderman sometimes is kind to him and works with him, but there is always the background joke about Moon Knight being "Loony". 

The only one that really gets on with Moon Knight is Ben "The Thing" from FF4. And that's because they're both Jewish and Ben needs more Jewish friends. 

ANYWAYS. She asks about Moon Knight. 

"I'm asking--How crazy is he on a scale of one to...crazy?"

Oh! This brings me to the well known panel that you should all recognize!!!! 

Now you have the context for that panel! 

Speaking of discrimination...

Echo calls people all the time. And each time, the person on the other side will go "Wait, how are you using the phone if you're deaf?" 

She has a speech to text function that puts their words on her computer screen. 

But no one thinks of things that are meant to help those with hearing disabilities. They instantly just think "She's deaf. She can't use the phone! She must not be deaf!" 

Ahhh...Avengers... 

Back in LA, we find MArc waiting at a hot dog stand where he invited Echo, waiting to see if she'll even show up. 

He sits there with 'Captain America', 'Spider-man', and 'Wolverine'. 

Wolverine tells him that Marc doesn't need her. 

Spider-man thinks it's just a team-up. 

"This ain't about a team-up. You know it and he knows it." 

"Why can't it be both?" 

"Because it just complicates it all." 

"Why can't he have a nice girl?" 

"Because the damn moon god Khonshu told him he brought him back from the dead so he'd make the world more livable.

Not make crap TV shows and date third-string Avengers." 

"Why can't he do ALL those things?" 

(I'm a spider-man fan and I love when he is the young innocent one that just wants people to be happy. And considering that THIS is not the real Spider-man, but just Marc's perspective of Spider-man, it makes sense that Spider-man be seen as the one that doesn't understand and just wants to do his best and make people happy. See, THAT is an interesting take and psychological analysis. But Bendis isn't aiming for that or going to explore it... Damn it.) 

Captain America reminds them that Echo knows more about what's going on than they do and they need her info. 

"The woman's been under-cover in the LA underworld. She knows more than us. We need her." 

And Maya shows up. 

"I must be out of my mind." 

"Oh, come on..." 

"Out of my mind." 

So he asks her what she knows and how long she's been undercover. 

She tells him to go first. 

"Listen, if you're here, you checked on me like I checked on you. You know I'm not the idiot you're acting like you want me to think you think I am." 

"What?" 

"Let's just cut the sass down and have a real conversation. Wouldn't that be nice, if two people who do what we do had a real conversation?" 

"It's hard...It's hard to trust...sometimes..." 

"I know. Believe me, I know." 

They talk a bit about Marc's show and her position in the strp club. 

As they talk, a sharp dressed man shows up and comments on what a cute cupple they make. 

"What a cute couple." 

"Excuse me?" 

"I SAID you're a cute couple. What are you, deaf? Oh yeah, you are, aren't you...Eco." 

She asks if Marc knows who this man is. 

"You see him too?" Nice Marc. Subtle. 

The man introduces himself as "Tick Tock." He's a member of the Night Shift. 

One of the guys has a pretty cool design. Reminds me of the Classic old old comic/radio show "The Shadow". 

The lady's design is....Why is there always a naked lady with tape barely covering up all of her bits? How is that efficient?

Tick Tock claims to be able to see the immediate future. 

He sais that in one future they fight and it doesn't end well for anyone. 

Marc and Maya don't have powers, but the Night Shift members do. 

'Wolverine' decides he isn't putting up with this shit. The flake claws come out and they elect to fight. 

The Moon Knight cape comes out and he and Echo start to fight back.

It's a pretty good fight. Echo saves his tail a few times and he takes the hits easily. 

The Wolverine claws come out a few times and make a mess. 

They take out the baddies but the cops are on the way. Cops usually don’t like Vigilantes and this is LA, where they aren’t used to the New York crew. 

And….The only cop that ever liked Moon Knight was Detective Flint. 

END ISSUE. WOO! Blazing through! 

What gets me is that this HAD the potential to be interesting. It could have been an interesting run! Why did he have to make up the Avengers? Why not just embrace Moon Knight and let him be himself? He’s interesting enough without made up Avengers! 

What’s more, you only got three of them in. And the three of them are only bits of themselves based on what Marc knows of them! 

So you have the angry and eager to fight Wolverine, who could have just been Marc. You have the up tight analytical and reasonable Captain America, who could have been Steven! Then you have the heart who is gentle and wants to give people a chance but is still tough Spider-man….JAKE! 

This run could have been FAR better if it wasn’t the Avengers, but Moon Knight wrestling with himself. Having all three of them trying to suddenly make sense of what it means to work together and coming up with their own fighting styles. 

…..HERE’S ISSUE #5. 

I actually don’t like this cover. The colors are nice. The art still is on point. But I just really don’t like this cover.

So the cops show up and instantly go "WE GOT MOON KNIGHT!" 

Yeah... Most of the cops don't know 'what a Moon Knight' is. 

The internal conversation is Spider-man wants them to run. Captain America tells them that they are an Avenger and should explain things to them. 

"Officers, I am here to cooperate. I will be more than happy to tell you exactly what just happened. I am actually, believe it or not, one of the good guys, if you'll just let me--" 

He does try to calmly explain to the officers what's going on, but they start to get rough and push him around.  What gets me is that Moon Knight IS trying to be reasonable. He tries to talk calmly. To explain things. He tries to be peaceful. 

It never goes well for him. No one listens to him. No one lets him explain. They assume the worse of him. 

Now Wolverine is pissed and wants to get involved. 

Cap and Wolverine start yelling at one another and Moon Knight is not having a good trip. 

One of the cops says he's going to sell the pictures of Moon Knight getting arrested for tons. 

Wolverine wins the argument and Moon Knight starts to fight and breaks free. 

The cops attempt to bring Echo in and she puts up a little fight then gets tazed. 

Yeah so we get lots of scenes of them yelling at Marc. 

They yell at him for leaving Echo behind. But Echo fights the police off and steals one of the cop cars. 

Moon Knight follows and joins up. 

I can’t fault the comic for the action sequences. They do have a good balance. (Unlike in Bemis where everyone is either just standing there grinning like idiots or it’s chaos and you can’t tell what’s going on except that there is gore). 

The banter and conversations are also well managed. Coming from the Bemis run, where every other panel was just a WALL of exposition that made no sense, I appreciate the balance of conversation, action, and stillness. So, points to Bendis and Maleev on this one. 

They park the car and have a small argument. 

She blames him for bringing 'madness' into her life. 

He points out that the Night Shift was actually looking for HER and that they were tracking her, so it's her fault for the madness. 

She agrees. "So that makes us even." 

She can't go home. The police and bad guys know who she is now. 

He tells her to come to his home. Smooth. 

They have a moment and he kisses her. 

She punches him in the face. 

A lot. 

I won't make you squint. 

"Hey! Listen I just thought..." 

Gets beat up. 

"Will you marry me? 

Look at me...Brave guy making jokes to a deaf girl behind her back." 

Alright we head back to Buck. He's at a club. He gets a phone call and heads out. 

He's gotta go pick up Marc, who is sadly walking home in his Moon Knight skivvies. 

"Hi, Buck." 

"Mister Spector." 

"Thanks for coming to get me." 

"What are you doing in an alley?" 

"I didn't start in the alley." 

"Who used to do this before me?" 

"A guy." 

"Where is he?" 

"He got sick of me." 

"Is he alive?" 

"I think so. I hope so." 

Frenchie will forever be a sad place in my heart. I miss him and I hope he is alive and well. 

We head to the police station where Tik Tok of the Night Shift is being interrogated. He's being interviewed by a former New York cop. He didn't like the Supervillain and Superhero business so he went to LA to get away from it. 

As you can imagine, all this recent comotion doesn't have him very happy. 

He wants to make sure the whole lot of the Night Shift stays behind bars forever. 

But he gives him one opportunity to give up some info and walk out. 

"Who hired you? Who sent you after Moon Knight? You give me a name... You walk out of here." 

Tik Tok thinks it over. 

"You don't, and I will laugh the day I hear that the punisher finds his way into the prison you're rotting in. Just say the name."

Tik Tok starts to talk when suddenly a lawyer comes in and tells Tik Tok that he's being sprung. 

The lawyer tells him that they can't hold any of the Night Shift because the police let them be beaten by 'drug addict maniacs'. 

Tik Tok walks out and the police guy is pissed. 

"I hope you know what you're doing, Moon Knight. Because it's all on you." 

END ISSUE. 

So… You see my frustration setting in here? This comic run has SO much potential. There is so much more they could be doing and instead they are taking the “HE’S SO CRAZY” route. The art is good. The pacing is good. The Dialogue is pretty evenly placed. Even the overarching plot of the LA kingpin and Ultron head is not bad. It’s just… Why did it have to be Moon Knight? 

When you can replace the main character with any other marvel character and still have it be the same, this isn’t a Moon Knight issue. And when the writer is so used to writing for other characters that they end up making it about those other characters, they shouldn’t be given the Moon Knight comic and should just stick with what they are good at! 

….At least it isn’t Bemis… 

Alright. Part two is coming soon! I’m going to start kicking these out fast. I got a timeline to get through if I’m going to hit all my marks by the new year! Stay with me people! We got this! 

PART TWO HERE.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Cartoon "console wars" and modern Disney villains, possibly part 1?

I don't know... It just seems like on twitter, and other parts of the online animation-fan sphere, no one seems to not enjoy animation and cartoons more than animation fans...

Right now, there's this very, very bizarre and overwhelming hyper-support of PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH. If you can't tell by my current pfp, I liked this movie a lot. Enough to make the titular cat my pfp, in fact I *loved* the movie... But something's eatin' at me, and I want to get some thoughts off my chest...

So, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH... Hardly an indie darling, this is the sixth film in the ever-reliable (in financial terms) SHREK franchise from a studio that is owned by a massive multimedia conglomerate. It's legging it up something fierce at the box office, too, as it has become the first animated movie since ALADDIN... Yes, you read that right, ALADDIN. Disney's 1992 animated movie... To score a 10x multiplier. Already at about $145m domestic off of a paltry $12m opening weekend, and neck-and-neck with what the first PUSS IN BOOTS made. Exemplary performance, as it looks to peak at about $170m here, and the worldwide total should put it at $400m. Not too far behind what the first PUSS IN BOOTS took in, which got there off of a higher opening and a pre-COVID market (with 3D and IMAX 3D on its side) back in 2011-12.

So... Yeah, on twitter and elsewhere, the more recent work of Disney Animation and Pixar has been repeatedly negatively compared to PUSS IN BOOTS 2, to such an insufferable degree I feel. Never mind any other studios. I don't see DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS or whatever being pitted against PUSS IN BOOTS 2, the other DreamWorks movie that came out this year, and even - in some circles - Illumination's recent work including a yet-to-be-released MARIO movie... Kind of weird, don't you think?

Personal opinion is all fine and well, if one feels that PUSS IN BOOTS 2 is superior to the recent films made by both studios operating under The Walt Disney Company, that's totally okay. I myself liked PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH a great deal, and probably a bit more than two of the films Disney put out this past year. But what I don't get is the constant pitting movies/studios against one another thing. Like this is some kind of rivalry out of the old ANTZ vs. A BUG'S LIFE days of yore.

I loved PUSS IN BOOTS 2, but I also quite loved this past year's original Pixar film TURNING RED. I even really liked the more divisive TOY STORY spin-off LIGHTYEAR, and saw a lot of potential in the rushed but still enjoyable STRANGE WORLD. Most of the animated films of 2022 that I have seen have been satisfactory to me, some I loved more than others but isn't that how life goes? Why do some people online treat this like it's a hierarchy? And by extension, treating films that didn't meet their expectations as some form of spite?

There's a lot to break down, and my thoughts are as unorganized as ever, but here's the first thing that comes to mind.

Villains...

People have groused for a long while, maybe since the release of ZOOTOPIA in 2016, that Walt Disney Animation Studios has been lackluster on the villain front. Apparently it's just twist villain after twist villain... Or, the villains just plain suck...

Okay... Should we start at 2012, when WRECK-IT RALPH was released? In that film, we have King Candy... He's already a bad guy from the start of the picture, he's already antagonistic to both Vanellope and Wreck-It Ralph. The "twist" is that he's Turbo, the very video game star that infamously left his own game in Litwak's Arcade and put two games - his own and Atari's 1987 action-driving game ROADBLASTERS - out of commission. It's implied, when Fix-It Felix, Jr. tells Sgt. Calhoun about what "Going Turbo" means, that Turbo got himself killed in the process... But no, the twist is that he was always around, he was King Candy! So, I don't really count King Candy as a "twist" villain. At least, not in the way that people keep parroting... What they're talking about are Hans from FROZEN, Professor Callaghan from BIG HERO 6, and assistant mayor Bellwether from ZOOTOPIA. These three are very much in the same league as Stinky Pete from TOY STORY 2, Mr. Waternoose from MONSTERS, INC., and Lotso from TOY STORY 3... Three Pixar twist villains... You thought they were good and kind-natured characters, until they weren't. Usually these twists came about 2/3 into their respective movies. Those three films were Pixar films, and the studio's 2017 film COCO re-used that same formula with Ernesto de la Cruz. Funnily enough, TOY STORY 2 and MONSTERS, INC. were co-directed by Lee Unkrich, who directed TOY STORY 3 and COCO. Filmmakers re-using their own devices... John Lasseter, of course, was director of TOY STORY 2... And ran both Pixar and Disney Animation from 2006 to 2018, ran the hierarchical "Brain Trust" that Lee was a part of, and he used a lot of those so-called Pixarisms in WDAS' films as well.

Yes, to be fair, that was three in a row from Disney Animation, from 2013 to 2016. Hans, Callaghan, Bellwether. They all play out like Stinky Pete/Waternoose/Lotso-types. I totally get that. I think it's accidental, though, because FROZEN was originally supposed to be about a villainous Elsa, but at the very last minute the story was redone and Hans was bumped to villain status, with Elsa functioning as a complicated, torn, but ultimately sympathetic character. I never really liked Hans as a villain myself, he feels shoehorned into what should've just been - in my not so humble opinion - a movie about two sisters. I feel he's also there because the film fancies itself a "meta" commentary on Disney fairy tales. As for BIG HERO 6 and ZOOTOPIA, I feel their twists suit the stories that the filmmakers were telling.

But after that?

MOANA's "villain" is, to me, Maui. Arrogant demigod Maui stole the heart of Te Fiti, so... Yeah, Te Ka is a rightfully enraged Te Fiti. Tamatoa is but a mid-movie boss level, though his less than 10 minutes onscreen are indeed a lot of deliciously villainous fun. Some people wish he had had a bigger role, but I'm totally fine with him being a temporary obstacle in the main adventure.

Maui is obviously not an evil, malicious character, but when I say villain... It can mean anything. A villain can be a character who is an antihero, or their own worst enemy even. Think Pinocchio in Walt Disney's PINOCCHIO, a sentient puppet boy who sometimes doesn't listen to Jiminy Cricket and gives into temptation quite a bit. Again, his own worst enemy... He creates a lot of his own problems. If he hadn't said yes to Honest John Foulfellow, he wouldn't have been locked in a birdcage by Stromboli. If he hadn't lied to the Blue Fairy, his nose wouldn't have grown. Him being held captive by Stromboli lead to Geppetto and his pets ending up being swallowed by Monstro the whale. Even Jiminy Cricket is no saint, bailing out on Pinocchio at one point. "What does an actor want with a conscience anyway?"

I'm getting off track here, but you catch my drift, right? Okay, so MOANA... Maui causes all the trouble in the movie, the whole adventure revolves around his past crime of stealing something valuable. There's no malicious overlord looking to threaten Moana's home village of Motunui, there's no bad guy out to kill her. MOANA is purely an environmental story if anything, and it's about colonialism too. Stealing from the land for your own gain, draining it of its life, etc.? You know...

After MOANA came RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET, already a divisive movie for many other reasons... RALPH BREAKS is, from my perspective, a movie about a neurodivergent who is so used to his home and familiar surroundings being thrown into a big, wide, and sometimes scary world... And how he reacts to all of that. Ralph's insecurities and fear of losing the one friend of his, his first at that, if you don't count the other video game villains at the Bad-Anon meetings... His fear of losing that friend, that drives much of the movie's conflict. It is he who causes all the commotion in the third act, by unleashing the virus that hungers "flaws" in things. FROZEN II came next, that was essentially another colonialism/sins of the past-type story. RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON had a sort of pseudo-geopolitical conflict going on with multiple tribes of people in a fantasy setting, with a complicated relationship between the heroine and the antagonist. A source of power that corrupts what should be a harmonious community. *Cough cough* money- ENCANTO is generational trauma, obviously, if that hasn't been made clear a million times. STRANGE WORLD is as well to an extent, definitely a daddy issues story, but it's also an environmental story about a fictional world's population inadvertently killing the world it lives on...

This all forms up a nice variety of stories... Because believe it or not, conflict **can** come from things **other** than malicious, scheming, mustache-twirling bad guys. And get this! Some people complain that *all* Disney movies are just about simplistic evil bad guys, which is certainly untrue.

This variety of stories also applies to the Walt-era films... For every Evil Queen or Maleficent, there were antagonists like "Man" in BAMBI and society's casual cruelty in DUMBO. The Evil Queen, the various foes in PINOCCHIO, Lady Tremaine, Maleficent, Cruella, Shere Khan, etc. all fall into a classic "bad guy" category, characters who willfully want to hurt or harm someone, some who seek power in ways that will hurt many people. Your classic bad guy... Some of them might even see themselves as the hero of their own story. Like, Shere Khan for example... His fear of man shooting him is not unfounded, but he certainly enjoys the prospect of eating an innocent little man-cub, though! So he's definitely more on the bad side than one would expect. He's already feared the jungle over, yet in a way, he has some legitimate motivations.

Okay, so where am I going with this? Yeah, so in plenty of the Walt-era Disney animated movies, you have malicious or harmful bad guys out to harm the protagonists, many of them larger-than-life or have a major presence of sorts in the movies... But let's look at some of the other films. In DUMBO, the gossipy elephants are bullies to Dumbo because of his deformity. And, well, that's reality unfortunately. Was back then (1941), is now. Prejudices exist, and people bully others because of those prejudices. I would know, being autistic and queer for starters. Dumbo is not only bullied by the other elephants, but circus patrons laugh at him, too. Some rough boys pick on him, driving his mother to intervene. The circus staff separated him from his mother, put him through dangerous stunts, and generally treated him rather poorly until he triumphs at the end. The Ringmaster isn't really in the same league as The Evil Queen or Maleficent, he merely runs a circus, and circuses have a history of animal cruelty. Just cold indifference towards living creatures for showbiz. The movie doesn't portray the Ringmaster as Snidley Whiplash, he's merely a showman. Nor the clowns as sniveling goons, but merely as working class guys. (There's a particularly amusing little ditty in the film where the clowns sing about "hitting the big boss for a raise", which was partially in reference to the discrepancies that lead to the Disney Strike of 1941.) Gotta also factor in the historical context, DUMBO is a Great Depression/World War II-era picture. Walt and his story people were careful in their depictions of Dumbo's antagonists. This was a modern-day story, unlike SNOW WHITE, PINOCCHIO, and the many fantastical segments of FANTASIA, so they told this story accordingly. No fairy tale menaces, but simply how mean people can be in the real world. Some people are just plain bullies because it is/was accepted to ostracize certain kinds of people (or in Dumbo's case, animals), and some people are just indifferent to injustices.

Ironically, this makes the Walt-era films - seen by a concerning amount of people as "childish" compared to the studio's later endeavors - more mature than many Western family animated films made over the past 30 or so years. Can't you tell I really love the Walt films?

BAMBI is another favorite of mine... "Man"... Do the animals ever refer to human beings as "evil" in BAMBI? That would be no... Just a few simple lines in what is a rather quiet and lyrical film. Certainly quiet by today's standards, for sure. "Man... Was in the forest." "He is here again... There are many this time..." BAMBI is unique in that it shows, starkly, just how much destruction humans bring to the forest. We never see a human being in the film, nor hear one speak... We only hear gunshots, and honestly? That always made them scarier. It gave them a mystique, an ominous aura. This thing called "Man" shows up, and there's a possibility that you will die when he does. Nothing beyond that. In real life, that's probably how animals with their very different brains than ours process human encroachment in their habitat. Many other animated movies have animals that act like humans and know lots of things about the human world, the animals in BAMBI do not. So, yes, in BAMBI, there is no scheming gun-toting hunter. We don't know the motivations of the human who shot Bambi's mother dead. Was he doing it for the sport? For a venison dinner? The whole point of Walt's film, an adaptation of Felix Salten's novel BAMBI: A LIFE IN THE WOODS, is that the motivation doesn't matter. What matters is, Bambi's mother is dead and his whole life is significantly altered by a bullet shot by one person in a mere second... This is what Man can do to a life, a whole home or world even. Tell me that didn't line up with how the world was reeling from the man-made horrors of World War II?

I'll even throw in LADY AND THE TRAMP for good measure. Who is really the "villain" in that film? The obvious answer may seem to be Aunt Sarah, who is kind of a busybody. She isn't very friendly to Lady, or to dogs in general it seems. She has two cats, though. That seems to line up, right? Doesn't like dogs, has cats, cats are usually portrayed as evil or scheming in a lot of older media and stories. Her two cats cause trouble and frame Lady for an attack, which leads to Aunt Sarah muzzling her. We don't see her for the rest of the picture until the climactic battle with the rat. The rat, of course, just a silent wild animal. Is she really "evil", though? She's antagonistic, for sure. She's a total pain in the ass more so than a powerful, towering bad guy a la Ursula or Hades. The whole movie isn't necessarily hinged around her, Lady gets the muzzle off halfway through the movie and doesn't return home until later. That is by choice, she would rather watch the baby than run off with Tramp and life the free life with him. Aunt Sarah's only role in the climax is to be oblivious, and since it's a dark and stormy night, how would she know about the rat? She just assumes Lady is an annoying barking dog. It's all real-world human stuff, not exaggerated cartoon "muwahaha!" menace. Aunt Sarah gets shut right down at the end of the movie when Jim Dear and Darling make it home from their trip. ("Nonsense, she's trying to tell us something!") Aunt Sarah is more a person who really needed to chill, and be a little nicer to dogs. No, for me, much of LADY AND THE TRAMP's conflict stems from its themes. Lady is a purebred, she's pampered and lives in a lovely neighborhood with loving owners, Tramp is from the wrong side of the tracks, a stray mutt who hasn't had it easy and has a rather cynical outlook on life. Classic polar opposites for this romantic drama that happens to be animated and happens to be have talking dogs as its stars... It is very much a story about class differences, subtly so, because Walt's movies - contrary to popular belief - weren't these paper-thin stories that some folks make them out to be. The class themes are quite obvious actually, in several scenes, such as Lady's first encounter with Tramp, the entire dog pound sequence, and particularly in the third act confrontation between Lady and Tramp at her house. It's natural drama and conflict, not somebody looking to threaten the town they live in.

As for Post-Walt films made before the Disney Renaissance, I could also wax about THE FOX AND THE HOUND being more a parable of race relations in the '70s than anything else, but... Moving on-

As you can see, and if you've read from me elsewhere, I really love me my Walt-era Disney animated films, and I see a nice variety of stories and conflicts in them. By contrast, the films of the Disney Renaissance? It was bad guy after bad guy after bad guy. Even before the Renaissance, start at 1985's THE BLACK CAULDRON with The Horned King... And it's a succession: Ratigan, Sykes, Ursula, McLeach, Gaston, Jafar, Scar, Governor Ratcliffe, Judge Claude Frollo, Hades, Shan-Yu, Clayton. This is the era that a lot of detractors of modern Disney animated features yearn for. They don't seem to like that the recent movies haven't retread the same ground as before, and have opted to tell stories with different kinds of conflict. For me, the variety in the antagonists and conflicts put the films closer to Walt's entire body of animated feature work than the Renaissance period.

Now, if they don't like these stories because of their respective executions? That's totally fine and well...

I myself do think that the recent WDAS films need a little more bite. Even without a bad guy, you can still make certain aspects and scenes intense and thrilling, and make other things stand out. Can I go back to films like DUMBO and LADY AND THE TRAMP for a second? Those may not have had traditional bad guys in them, but they did tell their stories in ways that made the conflicts register, the drama hit hard, and the resolutions hit even harder. It was one of Walt's storytelling tricks, and it was regularly executed so well by his crews. Directors like Wolfgang Reitherman, Ben Sharpsteen, David Hand, Clyde Geronimi, etc., to say nothing of his animators, the Nine Old Men especially. Anyways...

I feel like many of WDAS' recent films are all essentially TANGLED 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, etc. That they got too comfortable with that one style of visuals and the directing, I feel, is not as distinguishable. There are some touches here and there you can pick up on, from films directed by the likes of Byron Howard or the Ron Clements-John Musker duo, but little else... PUSS IN BOOTS 2 by DreamWorks does the opposite, it doesn't feel like the few DreamWorks pictures released before it nor any of the previous SHREK movies for that matter... with or without bad guy villains in it.

I never really found FROZEN or BIG HERO 6 to be too intense, they would've easily been rated G in the 1990s, for sure. ZOOTOPIA comes close in parts, MOANA has some cool action but I heard that the filmmakers were mandated to tone down the scenes of Te Ka. I believe it. Meanwhile, yes, PUSS IN BOOTS 2 doubles-down on the more intense stuff, with some serious style at that! Death/Wolf is legit menacing, what with his sick fighting moves and glowing red eyes. Big Jack Horner is completely malicious, not a moral bone in his body, comically so. When Puss runs through the woods after seeing Death for the third time and his subsequent panic attack, I was reminded of Snow White's run through the scary forest. Just soooo well done. PUSS IN BOOTS 2 knows what kind of story it is, and it doesn't hold itself back. As a fairy tale for a family audience, it doesn't timidly hold back on giving the kids in the audience a good thrill. I don't feel like anyone in higher positions gave notes to the filmmakers, telling them to tone down their vision. Contrast that with what the Disney+ documentary on the making of FROZEN II pointed out: Test screenings with kids lead to certain intense scenes being toned down.

Now that kind of criticism, I do totally get!

But, what I don't get is... "Lol, Disney's villains suck these days!" "DreamWorks' villains were always better anyways, Disney was never good!" "Heck, DreamWorks is just better, period!" Heck, I even saw a meme saying that a Disney film *never* had blood in it, while PUSS IN BOOTS 2 was "top-tier" or "goated" or whatever because Puss gets a small cut in the movie... Like, what? Have these people not seen... Let's see... SLEEPING BEAUTY, THE BLACK CAULDRON, ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE, Pixar's FINDING NEMO and UP, etc.? We're now doing this over onscreen blood? I'm paraphrasing a lot of this nonsense, I know, it's not the exact wording, ***but***... But, but, but... People seem to have the attention span of GNATS when talking about these films. Aren't these the same people who felt that DreamWorks had lost their way? Which was in response to DreamWorks releasing a BOSS BABY sequel and a SPIRIT spin-off movie for 6-year-old horse girls in 2021? "DreamWorks is back"? The TROLLS movies seem to get a lot of flack too, and we have a third one coming out later this year. Will these same people relapse when TROLLS BAND TOGETHER comes out and they all collectively say "DreamWorks, why do you suck now?" I mean, what is all this? Are they all kids or something?

Why the constant rivalry? Why the constant "nyeehhhh, this is king, the other thing sucks"? This isn't the console wars. Someone on twitter summed it up as that, and I think that's brilliant. A spot-on description of what this silliness is. The console wars, yes... Nintendo and Sega went at it in the early 1990s in America, it was all marketing... But it was also all stupid, and a lot of gullible kids ate it up, because they were kids, you know? When I was 12-13 in the mid-aughts, I idiotically and unironically bought into wild conspiracy theories about DreamWorks vs. Disney/Pixar, and I'm not proud of that whatsoever. Or, we can compare this silliness to how the media in the 1960s made it seem like The Beatles and The Rolling Stones were these fierce rivals or something...

The reality is, all the studios are full of talented people who work very hard for about four years making these motion pictures a reality. Not a single thing in a single frame of an animated movie comes for free. I mean, I'm a long-time artist, I would also know that. Just one drawing alone of something can be taxing... Now imagine that, but a ton of them, for the numerous amount of frames in a 90-minute movie! Decisions are made and they can't always be corrected. Money, time, etc. What's done is done. It's not like WDAS' filmmakers, or Pixar's, or DreamWorks' filmmakers for that matter are trying to spite you whenever they make a movie. I feel much of the animation fan community treats an animated movie or show they don't personally like as spite.

Most of the time, if not nearly all the time, it is not SPITE. TURNING RED wasn't made to spite you, LIGHTYEAR wasn't made to spite you, STRANGE WORLD, BOSS BABY 2, SPIRIT UNTAMED, you get the idea!

But is this anything new? No.

Remember how, when COCO was coming out, COCO was supposedly this big rip-off of THE BOOK OF LIFE, a similar animated movie about musicians and the Day of the Dead? Remember how COCO was apparently a big ol' insult to BOOK OF LIFE and the country of Mexico as a whole? Remember how COCO was destined to be a failure because BOOK OF LIFE came first and was directed by a Mexican, while COCO was directed by a white American? Remember how COCO was appropriation of Mexican culture while BOOK OF LIFE was ostensibly the more "pure" and "authentic" film? Remember how a major animation news website kept stoking this fire? Then COCO came out... It's one of the highest-grossing films in Mexico, it's beloved, I heard nary a negative thing about it after that.

Or how about... Remember THE EMOJI MOVIE? Remember how Sony Animation was a "bad" studio and that they "redeemed" themselves with SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE the year after? Remember how THE EMOJI MOVIE apparently killed animation or whatever?

Or how about all the raw and perpetual anger over harmless shows like TEEN TITANS GO! and such?

It's just cartoons. It ain't... Ya know, something like running a country.

Chill. Nothing's the greatest thing ever, or the worstest thing ever. There's no need to pit these things against one another, like we're living in HIGHLANDER or something. "There can be only one." If we want animation to look more worthy and sophisticated than it does, then there can't be this playground "nyah nyah, mine's better!" nonsense. At the end of the day, there's stuff you like, and stuff you don't. If I don't like something, I'll just express a little disappointment and go watch/enjoy something I *do* like. Or better yet? Make something of my own that I think is cool.

Last autumn, I caught two horror films in theaters, to use an example... One was Zach Cregger's BARBARIAN, the other Parker Finn's SMILE. I loved BARBARIAN, dug the hell out of it. Whereas I borderline hated SMILE. On Twitter, after seeing SMILE, I made a few tweets about it, posted a Letterboxd review, and that was about it. In another tweet, I briefly brought it up... Unlike toon-twitter or the rest of the whole sphere, I didn't, week after week, pit BARBARIAN and SMILE against each other. I didn't constantly bring up SMILE just to bash it, or use BARBARIAN to one-up it. Because I'm an "adult". SMILE exists, me bashing it doesn't change anything. People saw it, people loved it, it had ludicrous legs at the box office for an *original* *horror* movie. I really disliked SMILE, and I just left it at that. Unless you directly ask me what I thought of SMILE and why I disliked it, I see no need to bring it up. I moved on to other things. In fact, the night I saw SMILE, I went home and streamed DC LEAGUE OF SUPER-PETS - which I hadn't seen yet - to wash it out.

The last mainstream animated movie that I saw that I disliked was THE ADDAMS FAMILY 2. Would you know? Unless you're someone who likes to keep up with my crumby Letterboxd reviews, you probably wouldn't know. I don't think I even mentioned on twitter that I even saw the film, let alone really disliked it... Because I have no need to say that, to keep spreading it like wildfire. You didn't like TURNING RED/LIGHTYEAR/STRANGE WORLD? Fine. PUSS IN BOOTS 2 satisfying your tastes is more than enough, you don't need to keep interjecting why the other three movies were "mid" or whatever. Just a suggestion, ya know?

And if it's about sticking it to big bad corporate Disney? Guess what, DreamWorks is owned by COMCAST. A big multimedia conglomerate that's every bit as evil as Disney is. Oh, and how about two of the other Best Animated Feature of 2022 nominees? PINOCCHIO and THE SEA BEAST? They're from NETFLIX! Even A24, the sole studio in the running that isn't huge, is imperfect and they're quite mainstream I'd argue. On top of that, they sell random trinket merchandise for their films that doesn't justify the price tag. Like c'mon, we're really battling over which corporation or enterprise to worship?

I try to cherish all the animated films we get in a calendar year, especially nowadays... When some of these corporations are just thoughtlessly cancelling projects left and right, even erasing some from existence because "tax write-offs" or some capitalist mumbojumbo nonsense that truly makes no sense. Hundreds of people work on them, and a lot of the time, it's people making decisions that they think are the right decision at the time... But sometimes, it doesn't translate to critical success or commercial success. Like the late William Goldman once said, "No one knows anything. Not one person in the entire motion picture field knows for a certainty what's going to work. Every time out it's a guess and, if you're lucky, an educated one."

I reckon most people mudslinging online and wearing their favorites as some sort of badge of honor wouldn't last a day in a studio, in production of a film... And this isn't unique to the animation fandom, it's elsewhere, too. Any kind of film, really. TV, sports, games, you name it... But I have to see a lot of it on my timelines and on my YouTube recommendeds, and even from people I otherwise really find insightful, and it's just goddamn exhausting. A little nuance would be nice...

[maylorscardigan]

You know what song is probably about Matty? STYLE. She said she wrote that song about that person she had in her life that came in and out of it and that they always found a way back to each other. She also said she felt like that person would one day stop her wedding 😍

Who else could it be? I mean, if they’re twin flames she wouldn’t write that song about anyone else. She also said that person was one of her best friends at that point (late 2014).

I personally believe he was an inspiration for the song and naming it style is a good way of throwing fans off the trail. Which Taylor has done many times. She is a master mind at making songs so convincingly about one thing but it’s really something else.

Or - and I say this as someone who is going to have a Ph.D in Psychology soon… let’s say she originally got inspired by Harry, hence the name, once she got deeper into writing it her subconscious took it another direction. The subconscious is a writers superpower.

I won’t go into elaborate detail about this but we aren’t typically aware of our subconscious is doing. You can have some degree of awareness of it but never fully - and I’ve written a paper on the subconscious and Taylor’s music before.

Let’s go on the assumption that Taylor met Matty back in 2011 / 2012 (I don’t feel like arguing with fans right now over theories of meeting earlier so let’s go with this) while piecing together plans for the Red Tour, which was announced in October 2012. Typically, opening acts are announced with the tours dates. So - let’s say somewhere between 2011 to 2013 something happened between them and it was brief, fast and fleeting. Okay that’s established.

Then she has a relationship with what is basically the “good boy” version of Matty. They’re very similar but Harry is an Angel when compared to how Matty was back then. So she dates Harry and when they break up she gets to writing and starts writing Style. Consciously, the part we are aware of, she is writing about Harry but subconsciously she is writing about another boy… a real James Dean type.

And one of the main reasons I believe that Taylor may have written Style about Matty either directly or subconsciously is because of this part:

I say, "I heard, oh, that you've been out and about with some other girl, some other girl."

He says, "What you've heard is true but I

Can't stop thinking about you," and I

I said, "I've been there, too, a few times."

It suggests that Harry had been with some other girl during a period of separation. And he was. With a few women. (Time they broke up in January 2013 to 1989s release) while Taylor… didn’t really date anyone in between Harry and Calvin… yes Matty is mixed in with that but this was more towards the time she started with Calvin. Therefore, the lyrics don’t really make sense. However - with Matty, from the time you consider when they first met until they ran back into each others lives… they had both been with people.

Again - she may have done this intentionally writing the song consciously about MH or even both boys. Or she did it on a subconscious level.

I know Haylor fans are going to come for me. I’ve gotten numerous long winded histories then had them say (oh I’m not a Haylor…. Riiiight)

But that’s my take.

[danpuff-ao3]

55 + 81 for the long ass ask game 🫶

Haha! It is quite long 🤣 Thanks for wading through them and finding some asks to send! 🫶

55.) do you have any abandoned WIP’s? What made you abandon them?

I sat here way too long looking at my Scrivener files, wondering if I considered anything truly abandoned.

Without taking into consideration the slaughterhouse of WIPs that is my ffnet account 🤣

In ye olden days, I posted first to AFF, then to ffnet, then to various HP specific sites such as HPFandom. My very first fic was abandoned because I was 13 at the time and undiagnosed ADHD 😂 Then I moved onto my "danniperson" username and wrote two massive projects that are, yes, now abandoned. There are many projects there I started and stopped, but the biggest ones were Lost and Damned and Resistance.

I linked them even though I really don't recommend anyone read them. 😂 For one, they're both huge. 368k and 256k respectively. Secondly, they're both abandoned. So...big and abandoned, yep. Third, and most importantly, this was like a decade ago. My writing has improved tremendously since then.

I was also writing the first version of The Best Kept Secrets back then. (Original version vs rewrite/completed version.) A few issues came into play around that time that basically sent my writing drive to a screeching halt.

I was 20 in 2012. I'd just survived a friendship breakup with a longtime friend and the end of an engagement. I'd quit college after three semesters to work full time. I'd moved away from home, then suddenly back home. I didn't know what I was doing with my life. I felt like a failure. My mental health was trash. And, as ever, I was over-critical and over-achieving.

Lost and Damned Chapter 1 was posted August 20, 2011. Chapter 80 was posted March 1, 2012. 80 chapters; 368,418 words; all in 196 days.

Resistance Chapter 1 was posted November 23, 2011. Chapter 36 was posted October 17, 2012. 36 chapters; 256,318 words; all in 329 days.

Between those two projects alone: 624,736 words in 424 days. And I was trying other projects in that time period, too!

In fact, let me tally up my total word count for the years of 2011 and 2012.

Earliest start date: August 20, 2011

Latest end date: October 17, 2012

Total days: 424

Total words: 748,812

That's...a lot.

So TL;DR: I was burned out. (Also a beta reader had me feeling like garbage, but that's a whole other story.)

I was burned out, insecure, and depressed and eventually couldn't keep going on. I took a break.

Funnily enough, I came back to writing in 2015 which was...right around the time my life was getting better! I was committed to my mental health. I got a new, good job. I moved out of my dad's house and on my own. And the groove came back, baby!

But by then, too much time had passed. I was older, distanced from those works, and just plain better with writing. There is no going back, really. (Which is a shame for Lost and Damned because I was so dang close to the finish line.) (Depressingly close, ngl.)

And of the two, I've had thoughts of maybe rewriting/continuing Resistance, though it would be in a very different form. The Snarry plotline might be close-ish to the original, but it would undergo a full makeover. Only the original concept would more or less be untouched. Even then, who knows if it will happen; I'd like to! I felt like I had a solid grasp on soulmates and the Soul Bond in that one that I think I could explore better nowadays, as well as expanding on the magical theory in other areas as well.

Anyway that's enough babbling about that question, NEXT.

81.) if you could go back in time and give your younger self a piece of writing advice specific to you, what would it be?

Chill out. Seriously, chill out. Those expectations about writing you have? Toss 'em out the door. There are no rules. You are the goddess, you make the dang rules. Have fun!

Also: don't let other people's opinions get to you. Other people's opinions are trash anyhow. I mean, idk, what's a politer way of saying that? Basically: everyone has preferences and that's fine, but no one is the master or the rulemaker. There are people out there who do like what you do because they have excellent taste. Your writing is going to impact someone besides just you. And if honoring yourself, honoring your creativity and your whims and your passions is going to reach someone, anyone, that's worth more than bowing beneath other people's expectations and preferences anyway. Can't please everyone, so you might as well please yourself! And your like two fans who also have very specific niche preferences. 😂

ask game for fanfic writers

answered: 73, 85; 1, 2, 6; 55, 81

[wxrldinmyeyes]

NAME: Paige but you're more than welcome to call me Paiginator

PRONOUNS: She/Her

MOST ACTIVE MUSE(S): For now, I've been writing actively as Dominic since January. He was mentioned a lot in storylines over the last 10+ years on MySpace, Roleplayer.me and Tumblr. There was a time when someone was interested in the role but no storyline was ever written or roleplayed out. Plus, I had a hard time finding the perfect faceclaim for him until I picked Tom Sturridge after watching Sandman in August 2023 (and 2 rewatches after that).

Aside from that, I've been writing more as Katherine and Lucy on character.ai. I'm not a fan of AI in general, but that website has been an interesting one for me to experiment over the last few month or so. A friend told me about it and I decided to give it a try and play around with it.

RP PET PEEVES: When I'm about to write something or while I'm writing, I get unexpected interruptions. I understand RL comes first before RP but at the same time, my brain would be full of ideas in terms of dialogue, actions and words I would use and I want to make sure I remember them the moment I sit back down and transfer my writing from my brain to a blog post.

Another thing that can be considered as a pet peeve is where I sometimes repeat a word or a phrase more than once on either every post or every other post. I try to be as descriptive as I can and I have no problem looking up synonyms for words that are more stronger than the usual boring ones. I'm sure you understand where I'm going with this because if not, please feel free to send me a private message and I'll do my best to explain a little more specifically.

EXPERIENCE/HOW MANY YEARS: I started my roleplaying experience on MySpace in 2008 and then moved to SiteModel around 2010 before moving again to Roleplayer.me in 2011. I had 2 separate RP blogs on Tumblr. Lucy was created around October 2012 while Katherine was created around Spring 2014. After deleting those 2 blogs in 2018, I took a break, which was very much needed because of writer's block and not having the motivation to write as much as I have now. I came back in 2021 but I wasn't fully active until I decided to try to write as Dominic . . . even though I should've talked to someone about it first. My bad. :(

FLUFF, ANGST, or SMUT: It depends on the storylines and which muse(s) I would use. I'm open to any of the 3 as long as us writers are comfortable.

LONG OR SHORT REPLIES: I like writing long replies because I like to be as descriptive and detailed as I can so my writing partner(s) would know and understand who my muse(s) are and what they're like personality wise.

TIME TO WRITE: It depends on my creativity, inspiration and motivation level. I would write something between 5 minutes and maybe a half hour or more and then come back to it later if I don't know how to finish.

Tagged by: No one.

Tagging: @karmalives, @savagecuhnt, @lucidxxdreamer, and whoever else wants to do this.

[i-jxta]

April 4, 2024 | 1027PM

Slowly but surely, I am losing my mind.

I cannot cope.

I've been in and out of therapy since I was 16 and I think I've cried about 3 times, including today. I've been seeing my current therapist for about 2-3 years? Two years ago I was diagnosed with BPD and today I was diagnosed with OCD. I usually start my session by doing some mindfulness. I take some deep breaths in and out for like 5 min and then I start to talk. Today, I started crying in the middle of mindfulness. I couldn't take it anymore. I am in so much pain. I can't stop thinking.

In 2011 when I was 10, I was convinced that the world was going to end in 2012. It brought me so much anxiety. I had so much left to do and see. So I wore this random necklace every day with a picture of baby Jesus on it. I decided that as long as I kept this necklace on, the world wouldn't end. If I took off the necklace then bad things would happen. Along with wearing the necklace, I also had to pray every single night and say the same prayer over and over again until I fell asleep. My mom thought it was cute! All the praying I was doing. Not knowing that I was actually filled with dread and carrying the fate of the world on my little 10-year-old shoulders. Aside from the world ending in 2012, I had to say goodnight to my mom every night, in case she died in her sleep. If I didn't say goodnight, then I'd worry that when she died I'd be the reason why. It doesn't make sense, but it makes sense to someone like me. This is a way for me to ease my overwhelming anxiety. The world didn't end and my mom didn't die, so my rituals are working.

In 2019, after something traumatizing happened again. I convinced myself for almost seven months that I was pregnant. I had no symptoms, so naturally, I assumed I was having a cryptic pregnancy. I was breaking down every few days thinking about it. Nobody could convince me I wasn't carrying a child inside of me. I was crying, cutting, praying, and panicking every. single. day. I was googling symptoms all day. One day I was watching a documentary, completely unrelated to pregnancy. and the woman in the documentary said "Oh yea I had a cryptic pregnancy" and I remember so vividly how badly I spiraled after that. Had that been a sign from the universe? Affirming my fears? Telling me "Yes, you are having a cryptic pregnancy". One day, my girlfriend at the time set up an appointment for me at this women's clinic. I went to take a test and they told me "You're not pregnant". And that was the end of that. The kind woman offered me so many resources for my situation. I even set up an appointment to go to some group therapy, but I never showed up. I finally fed my brain the reassurance it needed "You're not pregnant". That's the thing with OCD though. No thought or action is enough to end the cycle. It will continue to seek reassurance and will continue to destroy you until it gets its next dose of reassurance. Once I am done fixating on one thing I move on to the next thing. Something always has to be wrong, my life cannot possibly be perfect for a moment. I started thinking about death a lot more. The possibility of dying and the possibility of the people I love the most dying.

I know this is out of order but before 2019. I smoked a lot of weed carts. I was getting mad fucking high. I have never felt so close to death while I was off those carts. I think I greened out a lot more than I ever had a relaxing high. I kept getting high though because it felt good. I don't know if it's even possible to describe what it is like to be ridiculously high off a cart. This was back when carts were a new-ish thing. I was smoking these without knowing what was in them. I've smoked regular weed and most of the time I have the same reaction to it. The worst part of these highs was how fast my heart would beat. I was always convinced I was having a heart attack. That I was going to drop dead at any moment and I couldn't stop it. It'd be because of my own stupid choice. My mom's voice would ring through my ears, telling me I'm an idiot, and that I can't take care of myself. Maybe she was right? Here I am repeatedly doing the same drug that made me feel like I was just barely hanging on to life.

Ever since then, I've been paranoid about death. It bothers me because it will happen. There is no "avoiding" it. Some day, everyone I know, including me will die. I can't cope with that. It reduces me to tears on the daily. It makes me feel such a primal fear. I constantly worry about the future, never living in the present. I get so anxious I start to feel physical symptoms, like heart palpitations. And guess what! when I feel those I get anxious about having a heart attack and dying. What other ways can I die? My newest fixation is, as I type this, that I am actually developing bone marrow cancer. Any symptoms? Yes, my knee hurts and earlier the joint that connects my femur and pelvis hurt. But that's about it. I've already cried about it 3 times today. I can't stop thinking about it. I've already imagined being on my deathbed and saying goodbye to everyone. Some of my compulsions include googling symptoms and thinking the same thoughts over and over again so that I can anticipate disaster before it happens. I can't fucking relax. If a doctor told me today that I didn't have bone cancer. I'd find something the same day to be fixated on.

I am so burnt out. I struggle so much daily and I am getting really tired of living. BPD, OCD, and Autistic ? are you fucking kidding me. There is way too fucking much going on in my head all the time, at once. Can you imagine fearing death so much that you feel like you need to kill yourself? I want to kill myself. Is that what my brain wants? To self-destruct? I'm so tired of being strong and resilient.

I am in fucking pain. I feel so guilty. The younger version of myself would never want this for herself. She had so many dreams and aspirations in life. She has so much wonder and curiosity. So many things she wants to do and see. And yet she turned out like this. I failed her in so many ways, I've kept her alive. But for what? To punish her? I'm sorry

[babygirlphil]

In the nicest way possible...have you perhaps been living under a rock?

Dan and Phil aren't part of MCR. They're a British youtuber duo with an extremely dedicated cult following of mostly lesbians and transmascs. A lot of their fans are fans of the emo trinity as well, bc Dan and Phil were sort of emo adjacent. They have separate channels called Daniel Howell (used to be danisnotonfire) and amazingphil, as well as a joint "gaming" channel called danandphilgames (I put "gaming" in quotes because they don't do that much gaming anymore). Their joint channel went on a hiatus when Dan decided to take a mental health break and go on a solo comedy tour. Dan and Phil have previously gone on two comedy tours together and are currently on another one called "Terrible Influence". It was at one of these shows that they took the pic with the cardboard cutout of Gerard Way (front man of MCR).

Their ship is far from random. They've lived together for 13 years and own a fancy house in London that they designed. Explaining all their lore would take waaaay too long. Basically, Phil started making videos in 2006. Dan was a fan of Phil's and was constantly commenting on his videos and tweeting at him to get him to notice him. They met on the internet in 2009 when Dan was 18 and Phil was 22, and then in person on Oct 19th of that year. They've made videos together since then. They moved in together in 2011. Their YT channels blew up in 2012/13 and so did their ship. They used to flirt with each other a lot online and say they were bi (they both identify as gay now). People dug up those posts and started harassing them and their families about their sexualities and relationship. The matter was made even worse by a YT glitch unprivating a video love letter that Phil made for Dan in 2010.

They got even MORE popular after they created their joint gaming channel in 2014. Phan was at the top of tumblr's annual ship list every year.

In 2019, they both posted coming out videos. Dan confirmed that their relationship was romantic when they met, but left their current relationship status ambiguous. He described his relationship with Phil as "real best friends, companions through life, like actual soulmates". They've recently decided they don't give a fuck if their fans know they're together anymore, but stop short of actually saying it. It's a weird dynamic, but it works well for them and us.

I'm AWARE that this sounds like typical RPF tinhatting, but I promise you it's all true. Phan shippers basically won the RPF lottery.

None of it was coordinated. It's just a strange conincidence. Dan and Phil didn't even go to the festival. They posted that TikTok from their hotel room in LA. Idt they intentionally planned their tour that way, but they're massive trolls so they very well could have. They're only tangentially related to FoB and MCR. They met FoB a few times during their brief stint as radio hosts and presenters for the BBC. They've never met MCR, but Dan is a fan and has been to their concerts.

Also, if you're wondering why no one cares that Panic at the Disco weren't there, it's because their front man is an awful person and everyone hates him now, including all his former bandmates.

[anosci]

Media Thread

im making a list of media ive watched/played/etc this year with brief thoughts. its going to be far less featured than my music list, but still a bit long. again mirroring twitter except this time because fuck twitter.

list below the cut

～January～

1/ Princes Arete (2001) I was sold on this movie under the premise that it's similar to Kino no Tabi. and… it is. kinda. Kino and Arete would be cool pals. Every character is interesting, which seems rare(?) Only real drawback: the hostage situation kinda really sucked.

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2/ Time of EVE (2008/9) the classic tale: androids indistinguishable from humans as an allegory for racism. but unlike DBH, this is actually really good. its a story that feels like a single thread in a vast tapestry that'd be fascinating to explore, but too bad: you only have 6 eps

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3/ Spice & Wolf (2008) i remember loving this show. i don't remember understanding the economics. I took notes this time. I still struggled. (spoilers for ep3) regardless: wow this is a good show. weirdly, I saw myself in the relationship portrayals. I guess that means its realistic?

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～February～

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4/ Spice & Wolf II (2009) i feel like this kinda fell off? :( like it tried too hard to be action-packed. and that worked sometimes. but that first arc was just… :( it feels like a case of "just needs an editing pass. needs a bit more focus" i'll treasure S1 more, after all

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5/ Double Fine PsychOdyssey (2023) absurdly captivating. i say that it's a miracle that any video game gets made ever. this shows that Psychonauts 2 was several miracles in succession. it's simultaneously illusion-shattering and inspiring.

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6/ The Owl House S1 (2020) finally sat down to watch this. it's GOOD. lots of worldbuilding to chew on, and then it picked up quite nicely. im immediately pouncing on S2 and feeling glad i was late enough to be able to marathon

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～March～

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7/ The Owl House S2 (2022) stumbling down the boulderest mountain and hitting every rock on the way down. the rocks represent engagement. i am engaged. i adore this show. it is a little weird to suddenly freeze mid-tumble.

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8/ Broken Age (2014) (Dr. Mick's LP) delightful start! brilliant, even! then the big bad is revealed and…. meh. I watched Dr. Mick's playthru tho, and holy shit that's some really cool commentary.

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9/ Double Fine Adventure! (2015) its a little unfortunate that the nature of gamedev means that the ending is kinda anticlimatic but good lord what an amazing journey. i'd watch a million of these.

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10/ Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) ok ok fine ill [finally] watch it …oh its good. like really good. its rly funny but in a way that fascinatingly beside the point? yeah I can see why some ppl didnt like this but i think its super fun

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11/ Nichijou (2011) a nice and cute slice of life thing… that occasionally breaks out some quality jokes. though only half of them landed for me. i feel like i would've gotten more out of this if I caught it at the time.

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～April～

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12/ The Owl House S3 (2023) i had a lot of reservations about the collector initially but having seen the entire arc: that came together nicely! still sad that it's The End, but like. good overall!

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13/ Penguindrum (2011) i DONT think i followed 90% of the themes and their connections. that said, i DO love the way metaphors are treated as "literal". confusing maybe, but i adore the idea of "paint what you feel not what you see" applied to storytelling.

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～May～

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14/ From the New World (2012) this has a mess of an opening (several) episode(s), but it eventually found its footing and became quite a cool action adventure… thriller i guess? i do take some issues with bits and pieces but it was a good watch overall.

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15/ GinGitune (2013) fluff. the lightest, fluffiest of fluff. melts in water. there are several elements that couldve been mined for drama and intrigue but they were all treated as background elements. (this isn't a bad thing, but it's not what you might expect.)

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～June～

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16/ Space Dandy (2014) dropped after ep4, but on good terms i guess? fun animation, funky vibes, sometimes even funny! anime johny bravo…or I think i saw a Dirty Pair comparison, which feels right. but im not meshing with the silly wacky high nrg antics rn. maybe another time.

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～July～

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17/ Death Parade (2015) rly misleading intro (i was ready to drop lol) rly rly promising setup by ep4 RLY good development and mildly biffed ending, but hard to fault considering its a 12ep. i love the aesthetics, worldbuilding, characters. overall i really really liked this!!!

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18/ One Punch Man S1 (2015) i forgot how fun this show is! and the great worldbuilding! i dont plan to move to the second season again tho. i thought about grabbing the manga instead but good lord it's way longer than i thought. oh well.

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19/ Flying Witch (2016) slicest of life with a la croix touch of supernatural. the normal slices didn't do much for me 90% of the time. but the supernatural slices? choice. (…mostly.) tbh i just want an entire season of that cafe.

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～August～

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20/ Haven't You Heard? I'm Sakamoto (2016) i was skeptical, but this actually worked rly well. for moment. a short, beautiful moment. most of the potential here was stifled by trying to add high school drama/plot. the comedy tho, at its best, had a vibe i havent felt since hayate

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～September～

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21/ Saiki Kusuo no Psi Nan (2016) it is VERY EASY for a comedy show to slide from "absurdity = funny" to "this is just annoying". somehow, this never crossed that line, which was weirdly refreshing? not always a winner, but overall a good mix of laughs and superpower exploration.

21b/ edit to add: oh this was right after Sakamoto! Man. The two feel kind of kindred but Saiki is leagues better at staying fresh.

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22/ Viewfinder (2023) short but very sweet mind-bender puzzler thing. the story had a cool foundation but fumbled in execution imo. but the gameplay? top notch. felt great through and through. never too difficult. beautiful idea and beautiful execution.

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23/ Flip Flappers (2016) uncertain about the show at first, and then, after watching… im still uncertain. i did enjoy it, but I also felt outside the audience ig? a case where I can imagine a version of this show that knocks my socks off, but as-is it's just a fun ride

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24/ Fionna & Cake (2023) my expectations were very low and they were VASTLY exceeded! think this show is at its strongest when exploring characters w short stories, which was most of this. the ending felt slightly fumbled…i think it couldve rocked me but instead it was just :).

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～October～

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25/ Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (2021) i already played and loved this game, but happened upon About Oliver's playthrough and fell in love again. truly that is The Most outer wilds playthrough. good lord.

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26/ The Amazing Digital Circus (2023) interesting and filled with style… but not for me. i'd list complaints but basically all of them are strengths and favorites for someone else. yknow?

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～November～

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27/ Little Witch Academia TV (2017) as the credits roll, i find myself with two thoughts: croix was done dirty and wow this is SPECTACLE. aptly magical. oh also! it was quite fun to follow along with contemporary discussion

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～December～

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28/ Scott Pilgrim Takes Off (2023) oh it's like. really good. i dont remember the movie so i cant compare but this stands well on its own and i love the character exploration, even if i dont like some of the uhh… what would you call that? scifi jokes? (spoiler territory soz)

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29/ Land of the Lustrous (2017) FLOORED by how much I loved this. qualms about the CG turned into admiration, the shading drawing me into the world. worries about annoying characters melted away to find admirable layers. THE USE OF SYMBOLISM kept me SO well fed. and the pacing!

29b/ cont: my only complaint that isn't a nitpick: i hate how it left so, so, so many threads loose. i faceplanted my dashboard during the decelerating pace between the first 10 eps and the final 2. i get that it's from an ongoing manga but that still felt maximum bummer.

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30/

[tryst-art-archive]

Context: 2012, pt. 8? 9?

Turns out a thing I thought happened Later happened in 2012, so we've gotta hit this point, too.

This particular story is a traumatic one for me, but a large piece of it is other people's trauma, so it's going to be a bit more summary than usual, per my "Do no harm to others" policy for the archive.

I'm also going to consolidate events that took place over many years into one story contained in one post, for coherency. So, a lot of this happened before 2012 and some of it happens after.

There's quite a lot in the way of heavy topics, so if emotional abuse, depression, or suicide are topics you're not up to engaging in, then you should probably skip this one.

Background

I mentioned previously that there were three female friends who emotionally abused me. This is about the third, who we're going to call Cat for convenience.

I don't know exactly when the abuse started. I don't think it was immediate, but I do think it was in swing by high school. Most her tactics revolved around manipulating other people into doing what she wanted and undermining self-esteem. When she was having trouble getting her way, she'd grab the other party's wrist and steadily increase her grip until it hurt, sometimes twisting or using both hands if she needed to. She never left marks.

College increased the distance between us, but not right away. At my suggestion Cat and my bestie, Deer, began dating, and that relationship proved to be a tumultuous one. Cat enacted the same controlling, emotionally abusive behaviors on Deer that she had enacted on me. However, in Deer's case, it was more severe and more direct and typically centered around gender, sexuality, and their disparate interests.

By that I mean that Cat was attempting to mold Deer into the partner that Cat wanted. She was adamant that Deer, who at the time identified as a cis girl, present exclusively masculinely, becoming upset whenever Deer showed signs of femininity. She derided Deer's interests while demanding that Deer participate in her interests and hobbies without complaint. She also tended to foist labor onto Deer by pointing to learned helplessness on her own part; for example, getting Deer to make box mac because Cat claimed to not know how to boil water. (Not a joke.) They additionally had recurring disagreements around sex, in which Cat reasonably would express disinterest in it but much less reasonably would make Deer feel disgusting and morally wrong for having sexual desire at all.

All of this occurred without any of us realizing abuse was occurring, although the people in Deer's and my friend group expressed the opinion that Deer should break up with Cat. We could see dysfunction, even if we didn't grasp the scope.

Their breakup arrived early in 2011, which brought with it an aggressive and rebellious performance of femininity on Deer's part and a nearly immediate improvement in their mood and self-esteem. Moreover, Deer became rapidly much more like themselves than they had been for the past couple of years, and it wasn't long before they and Coyote began dating.

As for me, the distance between me and Cat increased by virtue of her being around the places I hung out less frequently, but we remained friends, and I walked the delicate balance of being retaining a certain degree of neutrality.

However, I'd intended to step away from my high school friends since high school itself, and I often viewed get-togethers as an obligation. This wasn't entirely fair to the whole of the group; much of my irritation about school itself was misdirected toward them, and a lot of the rest of my desire to walk away was, unbeknownst to me, about removing myself from the emotional abuse I didn't realize I was experiencing. I took the opportunity of Cat's reduced presence to increase that distance, but I continued to see both her and our larger friend group on a semi-regular basis.

So 2012...

Around the time that my gentleman caller and I broke up, Cat told me that she was feeling suicidal over text. Naturally I sat and talked with her while she grappled with the feeling; suicidal ideation is practically my area of expertise.

As our conversation progressed, she eventually accused Deer, my best friend of a decade at that point, of sexually assaulting her while they were dating.

Let me be clear: Deer never did that. I know this because the event that Cat described was analogous to an event Deer had described to me at the time when it happened, so I had Deer's side of the story already. What had occurred between them was that Deer had attempted to de-escalate and manage a situation by walking away until they had calmed down, rather than snap at Cat. At best what Cat was wrangling with was an unfortunate miscommunication--and if we accept that caliber of miscommunication as assault, then I have never met a single human being in my life who hasn't been assaulted.

This is an incredibly unpleasant thing to talk about, as such. It's absolutely critical to listen to victims, but likewise abusers frequently use the language of progressives and psychologists in order to frame themselves as victims of their abusers. Maybe Cat believed what she told me, maybe she didn't; I'll never know for sure. What I do know is that she brought this to me as an attempt to split me from my best friend of ten years, whom she had a personal grudge against and who threatened Cat's control over me, and she did this at a time when I was exceedingly vulnerable, being recently heartbroken.

It was a situation in which Cat was using white, gender-conforming womanhood to twist the narrative of her victim reacting reasonably to her abuse. I, personally, feel Cat was acting in bad faith based on everything else that happened in our friendship. However, I'd argue that even if you wanted to take Cat's version of events as the truth and assume good faith on her part, then you must also take Deer's version of events as truth given in good faith--in which case we have two victims with no aggressors. You have to accept that two conflicting realities can simultaneously be true.

And this is what Cat's assertion did to me in the moment. It was 2012. It was still five years before I'd go to therapy meaningfully. It was when I still subscribed to the binary morality that Christianity had bred in me. I was in a rough place, and a long-time friend was telling me that a person who I can credit for my ongoing presence in this world had done one of the few things that I find irredeemable.

My worldview and reality fractured instantly.

From that day onward, I began to perceive of reality not as a singular thing that we're all in on, but as a set of loose commonalities shared across and infinitude of realities. Every individual person is a reality unto themselves, and the common "reality" is just the parts the majority of us can agree on--the parts we can measure and attest to as a shared experience, essentially. In understanding this, I understood how there can be multiple truths at once, how there can be no good guy or bad guy in a situation; how "good guys" can hurt other "good guys" and how "bad guys" can do good things. I understood nuance; I understood that moral absolutism is innately foolhardy and more religious than not. I understood that almost nothing can be sorted as categorically always wrong nor can any one punishment be applied as a blanket to all sins.

Unfortunately, none of that told me what to do in the moment, and after muddling my way through the conversation and assuring Cat was stable enough to be left to her own devices, I spent some time thinking over what I'd learned, processing it, and then I shared it with Deer--which didn't exactly help them, but it was their business. They needed to know, from my perspective.

PTSD

The precise order of operations and years these next events occurred in I'm not so sure of, but they are the key points.

Deer demonstrated clear signs of PTSD--particularly around sex and desirability--following their relationship with Cat. This included such trademark signs as panic attacks when presented with a trigger, and fortunately their new partner, Coyote, was able to respond appropriately to the situations when they arose.

After a time, Deer began seeing a therapist about the recurrent breakdowns, and their therapist diagnosed them with PTSD as a result of emotional abuse perpetrated by Cat. As Deer learned about this and began to work through it, they also told me about the things they learned, and it slowly became apparent that it wasn't just Deer that Cat had emotionally abused; it was also me, and it was still happening.

It took me a very long time to reach a state in which I fully accepted that the emotional abuse had occurred and began pushing back against it, but the realization did sink in, and as I became more certain--more able to see what was happening--I got angry, and I little by little withdrew from Cat, even knowing it would cost me the rest of that friend group to do, with the intent to simply disappear like a ghost, as I'd done successfully in both prior instance of emotional abuse from a friend.

But Cat was not going to let me go without a fight.

How Dare You

One day, Cat called me out of the blue and told me she intended to kill herself.

I was, immediately, furious. I had by this time grown to loathe her, was trying to wriggle away from her, and what i saw when she said this was that she probably wouldn't follow through but if she did and I did nothing, I would be culpable for her death. In other words, she had made me responsible for her life--and the audacity made me see red.

Still, I completed the phone call successfully, obtaining reassurance that she'd do her best to not act on the impulse, and then we hung up. I stood where I was for a moment, thinking, and then made some phone calls; I looped Cat's best friend and parents in.

Here's the thing about that: Cat was in a different state than most of her support network. None of us could get to where she was in less than 2 hours, if memory serves. I therefore knew that involving people besides myself had very high odds of getting her hospitalized; I knew, from my own experience as a suicidal person, that hospitalization would be the last thing she'd want.

This was always the real struggle when talking to a fellow suicidal: do you bring in the big guns in case they make an attempt, saving their life in a literal sense, or do you protect them by managing the situation one-on-one, thereby saving their life in a practical sense? Choosing the former could lead to the person cutting you out of their life in fury, in retaliation for their messing things up for you, but choosing the latter might leave you with a dead friend.

Just this once, the decision wasn't hard: if she disowned me for sending her to the hospital, then that was a bonus.

She did, in fact, get put into inpatient for a time. I'd estimate maybe a month, during which period she called me a couple of times. One of those she did call me out for making the call, but then thanked/forgave me. Her parents sent me a thank you gift that I always felt guilty about.

The abuse resumed as normal on her return, but I had reached a breaking point. The clock was ticking.

The "Cat" Box

One of the curious things about my friendship with Cat was that we had a way of communicating tacitly that didn't align with the near-telepathic communication Deer and I were capable of nor the silent, deductive communication I'd shared with my former gentleman caller.

No, this was entirely different and unique; it was an understanding of certain similarities we shared that we shared with no one else. Qualities that we both kept quietly under wraps but which guided our actions more often than not. I suspect that we'd learned them in the same way: as a defensive mechanism against our own, original abusers.

These were, universally, our worst qualities. They were the things that made us manipulative, the things that made her emotional abusive, the things that made me act like a jealous, crazy partner.

When I became consciously aware of this--which I remember explicitly occurring on an occasion when we met up at a Panera--I mentally took all of those qualities and put them in a little white box which I called The [Cat] Box, and I resolved to never behave in those ways again.

This was shockingly effective. It turns out having direct examples of what to do or not is a really useful learning method for me; any time I saw myself behaving in a slightly dubious way, I would weigh the action I wanted to take or the thought I was having or the thing I wanted to say against The Cat Box and ask myself, "Is this something Cat would do?" If the answer was "Yes," then I didn't do that thing.

It made me, unequivocally, a much better person.

It also moved me closer to getting away from Cat.

The Escape

The end of my friendship with Cat felt somewhat abrupt. We'd been on a couple of outings on which she'd suggested I move in with her and some high school friends rather than staying with Deer and Coyote, and I'd turned her down repeatedly. At the time, I had some frustrations with my living arrangement (which I no longer remember the details of), but they weren't anything major. She seized on those complaint with an eagerness that gave away her ongoing intention to drive a wedge between me and Deer.

There came a day on which a text conversation between us led to her asserting very incorrect and insulting things about Deer and Coyote, particularly asserting that they were bad for me and responsible for my mental ills. I became immediately furious and told her off directly--which I don't think I'd really done directly before--pointing to how Deer's presence in my life was one of the only truly good things I had going for me, and Cat was way, way out of line trying to insinuate otherwise.

The conversation ended there, and that was the end of it. I was finally free.

Aftermath

But... I did have trauma about the whole thing. I never received a formal diagnosis, but I had obvious triggers and could be put into a panicked fight-or-flight response if something reminded me of Cat. I was terrified of her for a very long time, would react with panic if I saw women with hair similar to hers, and was constantly worrying about whether she'd try to retaliate against me and Deer for escaping her.

I functionally cut ties with all of my former high school classmates, to avoid the inevitable drama that would arise from trying to explain why I was no longer willing to spend time with Cat, and accepted that they'd likely always have an incorrect impression of me. It wasn't what I wanted, really, but it was a necessary sacrifice to be safe from Cat.

Over time, the sore spots healed, and on one occasion years later I accepted an invite to spend some time with a subset of the high school friend group that didn't include her. At that meeting, I observed that most of the girls attending, some of whom were roommates of Cat's last I'd heard, were behaving largely condescendingly toward me. This wasn't for class or stature reasons, but rather it was apparent that they didn't want me there. I concluded that, at some point, Cat had spoken poorly of me, and so they saw my being present as crossing a line.

I ignored it. By that time (much closer to now than not), I'd grown into my own and developed a strength of character that wasn't easily bruised the way it once was. They were exhibiting a childish, "mean girls" behavior, which only showed me that they weren't people I wanted to connect with. Likewise, even among the people who were friendly, there was only one I had any interest in reconnecting with. These, I saw, were not my people; my teenage self had been right about that. The things that mattered to me, that I found value in, they looked down on, and the method of socializing for many of them was predicated on belittling others to bolster one's own ego. I didn't need that kind of energy around.

Following the event, I got a text from Cat--the first since the disagreement years ago--looking to reconnect. I told her in polite but certain terms that I wasn't interested. I heard nothing back, but I felt proud to have come far enough to set a boundary like that. It wasn't something the old me had been able to do.

[pepprs]

semi-recent sketchbook spreads bc i am having so much fun 🥳 (top left is from 2019 (it’s my favorite spread in the entire book) and the other 3 are from the last couple months but they’re still in progress!)

[freifraufischer]

The above timeline was posted today by someone on reddit for a Simone Biles potential return for Paris.  I want to talk a bit about these kinds of “Simone waltz back into the sport” narratives for a bit.

Let’s start with a few basic facts.  Elite gymnastics is really really hard and requires intense training.  Simone Biles is incredibly talented but she didn’t do the amazing things she did with raw talent she did it with an incredible amount of work.  “She’s still doing cardio” is not gymnastics conditioning.  She took a break of just over a year after Rio and the first thing she talked about when she came back was how out of shape she was (out of shape for you and me and normal people).  And now she has another quad and another five years on her body (as well as living in pain every day according to her own interviews in 2021).  

When Aly Raisman came back after London she had to do a year of conditioning before she started doing serious gymnastics again.

[I’m not going to blame the OP for the summer wedding idea, apparently Simone has talked about a summer wedding and honeymoon which seems wild to me given that she’s marrying an NFL player and training camps for the NFL start in July.]

Let’s start picking apart this little fan fiction more seriously with the “skip 2023 Nationals, go to Worlds” bit.  

You can’t do that.  If you are injured or have some emergency (looking at you British gymnastics and the Downie’s having a death in the family) you can petition.  It does, by the way, require a doctors note explaining the injury.  You can’t do it because you just don’t feel like going through the qualification stages.  People want USAG to be more fair and transparent.  But not if it’s the person they’re wanting to usher through the process ahead of everyone else.

Now over in reality land where there are selection procedures and qualification since she doesn’t go to to 2023 Worlds without doing 2023 Nationals she also now has to qualify for 2024 Nationals which means she has to have scores at a NT camp sometime in the winter or spring.  Which yeah she can probably get.  But that means she has to have those routines ready a lot sooner than “yeah she’ll be adding bars at Olympic Trials”.  Even Nastia Liukin’s incredibly ill considered attempt at a come back involved showing the events she intended to do at Nationals.

But maybe unlike our valiant OP you ask what if she does go to 2023 US Nationals.  I just want to point out that would be within a week or two of getting back from her honeymoon.  This sounds like we’re landing in “Nastia Liukin tries to do bars at Nationals in 2012 having trained for a week and a half” territory.  

Speaking of Nastia.  Let’s talk about comebacks.  They’re hard.  And no American has ever done it by coming back in the Olympic Year.  In fact none have done it with less than two years of full time competition.  You may think many things about Tim Daggett the commentator but he competed the entire 1988 quad (including a horrific injury) and couldn’t make it to the last step because he had too much pain.  

Shannon Miller tried to come back in 2000, and they could perhaps have used her given the state of things in 2000.  She was pushed through to trials but just didn’t have the time to come back properly. 

Dominique Moceanu competed most of the Sydney quad and through she was injured in the end she wasn’t trying to come back from a long break. 

Shawn Johnson did come back to elte competition in 2011 after a knee injury but ended up retiring in 2012 she says after the realization that Marta was going to break her if she stayed.  

Nastia Liukin took three years off and then attempted to return to elite in the 2012 where she was passed along through the qualification process with substandard mistake riddled routines.  

Mykayla Skinner tried to come back to elite after the 2019 NCAA season with the intent of taking a year to train for the Olympics.  She ended up the alternate on the 2019 Worlds Team and it turned out she needed the extra year that the pandemic gave her.

Being an Olympian is hard.  Doing what Simone Biles did is hard.  It’s hard even for her no matter how many times the commentators said “its’ so easy for her.”  I actually find it incredibly disrespectful of fans to act like she didn’t need to work to win.  And that’s what is being said when people say she could come back in 2024 (as the OP of that time line suggested at another point).  

And that’s not even touching public pressure, the media, the twisties (which at least as of the end of the tour last year she was still experiencing), and how much elite gymnastics has taken from her.

I often hear people talk about how she and her coaches haven’t closed the door.  The standard reply to that is Olympic athletes commercial value sinks as soon as they officially retire so they often wait as long as possible before announcing retirement.  Shawn Johnson actually had to repay sponsors when she retired before the Olympic trials in 2012.  And it’s not like Simone is an uncontroversial figure.  I don’t like the people who insult her.  I think they’re idiots.  Proctor and Gamble may even think their idiots.  But they’d still like to sell those idiots dishwasher soap.  Simone has done amazing things to raise awareness for mental health, but those kinds of efforts don’t pay as much as doing a Tide commercial.  

All of that said... even though I think she’s done (and that’s fine), I think there is a small chance that she tries to make a come back.  That’s what lead Nastia Liukin to her incredibly last minute attempt to prove she could still make it.  But I want to make it exceedingly clear.  If she started today it would be a tight timeline to make it to Paris.

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Ever-Changing Disney & Pixar Slates From 2008 to about 2016...

I'll have this here for reference as well...

Preface: DreamWorks' next film is something we know next to nothing about, and the only films on their slate are a TROLLS threequel and KUNG FU PANDA 4. A movie called MEET THE GILLMANS, per a few reports and other clues, is supposed to open before TROLLS BAND TOGETHER does... The rest of DreamWorks' slate is sparse, despite the studio reportedly having a big plan in place... So why the skittishness to say what's coming out?

I think I know why...

Anything can happen with an animated movie... Even if it's *this* close to completion. The animated adaptation of Nate Stevenson's NIMONA got shut down - alongside the studio it was being made at, Blue Sky - in February 2021 despite being 75% complete, but luckily it was revived at another studio (Annapurna) and will be completed and released this year. Henry Selick's THE SHADOW KING was maybe halfway done when Disney pulled the plug on it in mid-2012. DreamWorks halted in-production movies like ME AND MY SHADOW (shadows have bad luck in animation picture business, don't they?) and LARRIKINS. Disney threw out a 2D/CG picture with a lot of working titles, one of which was A FEW GOOD GHOSTS, despite the amount of work done on it.

The list is even longer, so I wanted to re-chronicle a weird history of Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar on here... In an age where long-term slates being laid down is commonplace.

We'll start at April of 2008...

I remember seeing this slate back in the day and thinking, "Wow, this is massive." This predated Marvel releasing gargantuan half-decade plans for interconnected movies... This was a long-term plan spanning four years from both Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar. This was a little after The Walt Disney Company's historic acquisition of Pixar in early 2006, and the subsequent installation of Pixar stalwarts John Lasseter and Ed Catmull as heads of a revitalized WDAS. Perhaps after the release of MEET THE ROBINSONS and RATATOUILLE in 2007, there was a newfound confidence in both studios.

WDAS had gone through a rough period in the early 2000s, where films either lost money due to various circumstances (THE EMPEROR'S NEW GROOVE) or didn't get great critical reception (BROTHER BEAR)... Sometimes both. (ATLANTIS: THE LOST EMPIRE, HOME ON THE RANGE) MEET THE ROBINSONS got mixed-to-positive reception at best, and did flop at the box office. The film had cost around $100m to make, and failed to double that worldwide. It was indeed dumped by the marketing department and heads, for it was perceived as more of a band-aid ripping than the first in a line of new-fangled WDAS movies sure to win back the critical acclaim and box office glory they once possessed in the early '90s. No, that distinction would go to BOLT, as it's often pointed to as the first of the "Revival" features, or at least the first of the Lasseter/Catmull pictures.

Anyways, that same year, RATATOUILLE became another Pixar blockbuster and seemed to prove that that Emeryville studio really could do no wrong. People doubted many of their films, each new Pixar movie seemed like their first flop. Michael Eisner infamously predicted FINDING NEMO would be a flop when he had seen a rough cut of the film around a year before its eventual release and subsequent record-breaking run at the box office. By the time you got to RATATOUILLE, people jeered that this movie starring a rat (gross! disgusting!) that wants to cook would be their first dud... But it wasn't, it defied the odds and it took home the Oscar on top of that.

So you could imagine that Disney was quite confident in their animation slate going forward, from both Pixar and WDAS... And so, they laid out a slate, in addition to the films already on the release boards... (Pixar highlighted in blue, WDAS in green)

WALL-E - 6/27/2008

BOLT - 11/26/2008

UP - 5/29/2009

THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG - Christmas 2009

TOY STORY 3 - 6/18/2010

RAPUNZEL - Christmas 2010

NEWT - Summer 2011

THE BEAR AND THE BOW - Christmas 2011

CARS 2 - Summer 2012

KING OF THE ELVES - Christmas 2012

Wow... Back in 2008, that seemed like *a lot* of movies... And Pixar releasing *two films* in a calendar year? What is this sorcery??

For anyone not entirely in the loop here, THE BEAR AND THE BOW is the movie that eventually got re-named to BRAVE. KING OF THE ELVES was to be an adaptation of the Phillip K. Dick story, from BROTHER BEAR directors Aaron Blaise and the late Robert Walker.

Now, a slight adjustment was made to this slate by fall of 2008... CARS 2 had curiously traded places with NEWT, and was now opening a year earlier than expected.

Some time passes by, by mid-2009, THE BEAR AND THE BOW is now BRAVE...

A new project based on Winnie the Pooh fires up. The company has a very short-lived desire to do a full-on reboot of the franchise and get it up to speed, as it had been kinda lost in Pooh Corner for quite some time. Pigeonholed as a preschooler property more so than something to be enjoyed by the whole family... This very brief push for a brand new Winnie the Pooh results in a hand-drawn animated feature, landed in the lap of Disney Animation. It is hastily greenlit and fast-tracked for a 2011 release. WDAS now has a movie to release that year.

Then we get to the end of 2009... THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG is not the blockbuster it should've been. The first hand-drawn feature from the studio since 2004, this performance causes a very weird blowback to fairy tales within the company, in an era where they were very concerned about one single demographic... The 6-to-12 year-old boy. Keep in mind, this is the year Disney launched the channel Disney XD (replacing Toon Disney), a channel tailored to that group. Marvel was also purchased that year, too, meaning Disney-released Marvel Cinematic Universe movies that would appeal to those. Their verdict was that the movie having "Princess" in the title was what killed it, as it scared away that boy audience... Though if you ask me, PRINCESS AND THE FROG had far more outside problems going on that affected the movie than some random little Timmy not wanting to see a "girly movie".

So now, by early 2010, the mandate was... No more fairy tales, those are passe. And 2D was pretty much not coming back, either. WINNIE THE POOH was in production, yes, but it was dead on arrival. An adaptation of THE SNOW QUEEN was... Forgive the pun, *on ice*...

However, there was one movie that stood in the way... It was the next movie, too... RAPUNZEL... The movie was hastily re-titled to TANGLED, in an attempt to make it seem less "girly". I love that movie, but I always hated that title... But it's the one they went with for the domestic and UK releases. Many countries retained the RAPUNZEL title, albeit in other languages. (For example, in French, it's RAIPONCE.) TANGLED couldn't be cancelled, it was far too deep into production to have that happen to it... It was still on track for Thanksgiving of 2010. Elsewhere in the "Hat Building", KING OF THE ELVES is but dead, with Blaise and Walker having moved on to other things. WINNIE THE POOH was moved to the day the final HARRY POTTER movie was supposed to open, instead of a much more ideal early spring slot. (It was an April release in the UK and much of Europe.) Conspicuously, Pixar does not pull the plug on BRAVE, which itself is a fairy tale-inspired fantasy story with a princess in it...

Now around this time, a project called REBOOT RALPH was starting to make the rounds, and eventually it secured a release date of March 22, 2013. Why not fall 2012, where KING OF THE ELVES used to be? Well, that's because Pixar - out of nowhere - had announced that a MONSTERS, INC. 2 was in the works for a fall 2012 release... And that NEWT was outright cancelled, leaving the summer of 2012 to BRAVE. By the time TOY STORY 3 came to theaters, the slate now looked like this...

TANGLED - 11/24/2010

CARS 2 - 6/24/2011

WINNIE THE POOH - 7/15/2011

BRAVE - 6/22/2012

MONSTERS, INC. 2 - 11/2/2012 (or possibly the 16th)

REBOOT RALPH - 3/22/2013

We can see the "two Pixars a year, WDAS settles for the year after" pattern starting to take shape here...

Now we get to early 2011... MONSTERS, INC. 2 turns out to be a prequel titled MONSTERS UNIVERSITY, and REBOOT RALPH is retitled to WRECK-IT RALPH... RALPH is now a fall 2012 release, and MONSTERS U moves to summer 2013. No "two Pixars" in 2012...

TANGLED does well at the box office, proving that fairy tales aren't passe at all. At Disney Animation, THE SNOW QUEEN is put back in development, and according to the defunct insider blog Blue Sky Disney, it was put in a "production race" of sorts with KING OF THE ELVES, now under BOLT director Chris Williams. Both are competing to be the next WDAS film after the release of WRECK-IT RALPH because right around that time? There wasn't anything really else on the horizon that was in shape to go forward... Early work was being done on what would eventually become BIG HERO 6, pitches for movies that later became ZOOTOPIA and MOANA were just taking shape around this time. So it was either SNOW QUEEN or ELVES...

In August, at the inaugural D23 fan expo, Pixar announces two original movies with no titles... They are announced as THE UNTITLED PIXAR MOVIE ABOUT DINOSAURS and THE UNTITLED PIXAR MOVIE THAT TAKES YOU INSIDE THE MIND...

They are later slated for 11/27/2013 and 5/30/2014 respectively...

That is, until THE SNOW QUEEN - now baring the TANGLED-esque adjective title FROZEN - took the dinosaur movie's slot... So by the end of 2011, things looked a bit like this...

BRAVE - 6/22/2012

WRECK-IT RALPH - 11/2/2012

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY - 6/21/2013

FROZEN - 11/27/2013

UNTITLED PIXAR MOVIE ABOUT DINOSAURS - TBD

UNTITLED PIXAR / INSIDE THE MIND - TBD

Come CinemaCon, April 2012, things are cleared up about the dinosaur and mind movies... They have titles, aaaaand release dates...

BRAVE - 6/22/2012

WRECK-IT RALPH - 11/2/2012

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY - 6/21/2013

FROZEN - 11/27/2013

THE GOOD DINOSAUR - 5/30/2014

INSIDE OUT - 6/19/2015

Later in the year, two adjustments are made to this slate...

BRAVE - 6/22/2012

WRECK-IT RALPH - 11/2/2012

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY - 6/21/2013

FROZEN - 11/27/2013

THE GOOD DINOSAUR - 5/30/2014

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/7/2014

INSIDE OUT - 6/19/2015

UNTITLED PIXAR - 11/25/2015

Once again, Pixar trying to have two a year...

In April 2013, a FINDING NEMO sequel called FINDING DORY is officially confirmed to exist, and it takes the Thanksgiving 2015 slot... Also right around this time, Disney Animation confirms that their Marvel comic adaptation BIG HERO 6 is on the boards for fall 2014...

May 2013 is where things get big... This, I believe, is in response to how well WRECK-IT RALPH does for Disney Animation. The film manages to be the studio's second big hit after TANGLED, and that they were in good standing. With that, many more dates were locked for WDAS films in addition to Pixar films...

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY - 6/21/2013

FROZEN - 11/27/2013

THE GOOD DINOSAUR - 5/30/2014

BIG HERO 6 - 11/7/2014

INSIDE OUT - 6/19/2015

FINDING DORY - 11/25/2015

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 3/4/2016

UNTITLED PIXAR - 6/17/2016

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/23/2016

UNTITLED PIXAR - 6/16/2017

UNTITLED PIXAR - 11/22/2017

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 3/9/2018

UNTITLED PIXAR - 6/15/2018

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/21/2018

Talk about "eatin' good"... That was *five* whole years of new animated features to look forward to, and only folks who were in the trenches knew what was possibly coming out on those dates...

The next D23 Expo takes place, where ZOOTOPIA is revealed to the public for the first time. Later, Disney confirms that it'll be WDAS' March 2016 release. However, a little after an odd presentation... It is revealed that Pixar's THE GOOD DINOSAUR has hit a snag... The director was removed, and a month later, Pixar up and delayed the movie. THE GOOD DINOSAUR migrated to Thanksgiving 2015, kicking FINDING DORY to summer 2016... 2014 is the first year to be without a Pixar feature since 2005...

FROZEN - 11/27/2013

BIG HERO 6 - 11/7/2014

INSIDE OUT - 6/19/2015

THE GOOD DINOSAUR - 11/25/2015

ZOOTOPIA - 3/4/2016

FINDING DORY - 6/17/2016

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/23/2016

UNTITLED PIXAR - 6/16/2017

UNTITLED PIXAR - 11/22/2017

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 3/9/2018

UNTITLED PIXAR - 6/15/2018

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/21/2018

All is quiet for a little while... FROZEN erupts into a blockbuster phenomenon, but Disney remains mum on what's on the horizon beyond the spring 2016 release of ZOOTOPIA. Wisely so.

During an investor's call in March, CARS 3 and INCREDIBLES 2 are confirmed to exist, but are not given release dates.

In October, during another investor's call, TOY STORY 4 is revealed and has a release date: June 16, 2017.

On the Disney Animation front that same month, MOANA is confirmed to be the studio's fall 2016 release.

BIG HERO 6 - 11/7/2014

INSIDE OUT - 6/19/2015

THE GOOD DINOSAUR - 11/25/2015

ZOOTOPIA - 3/4/2016

FINDING DORY - 6/17/2016

MOANA - 11/23/2016

TOY STORY 4 - 6/16/2017

UNTITLED PIXAR - 11/22/2017

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 3/9/2018

UNTITLED PIXAR - 6/15/2018

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/21/2018

2015 means a new D23 Expo, and possibly a lot more information on what's coming from both studios...

But first, in March of 2015, Disney announces FROZEN II is happening. No date is set or implied.

At D23, COCO is revealed to be the Pixar's fall 2017 release. GIGANTIC, from Disney Animation, is announced but no release date is given. It is implied to be a spring 2018 release.

Then shortly thereafter, The Walt Disney Company announces a massive film slate encompassing all pictures - animated and live-action, Marvel and Lucasfilm...

CARS 3 is dated, taking TOY STORY 4's 6/16/2017 slot, TOY STORY 4 takes 6/15/2018. INCREDIBLES 2 is dated 6/21/2019, a WDAS film is slated for 11/27/2019... GIGANTIC is confirmed for spring 2018. Three 2020 animation releases are added, too. Wow! Two Pixars, one for 3/13/2020 and the other for 6/19/2020, and one WDAS, 11/25/2020...

THE GOOD DINOSAUR - 11/25/2015

ZOOTOPIA - 3/4/2016

FINDING DORY - 6/17/2016

MOANA - 11/23/2016

CARS 3 - 6/16/2017

COCO - 11/22/2017

GIGANTIC - 3/9/2018

TOY STORY 4 - 6/15/2018

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/21/2018

INCREDIBLES 2 - 6/21/2019

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/27/2019

UNTITLED PIXAR - 3/13/2020

UNTITLED PIXAR - 6/19/2020

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/25/2020

2016 comes about with a few updates...

A WRECK-IT RALPH sequel is confirmed to exist, and is slated for 3/9/2018. It pushes GIGANTIC to fall 2018.

TOY STORY 4 and INCREDIBLES 2 trade places...

By fall 2016, things are looking like this...

MOANA - 11/23/2016

CARS 3 - 6/16/2017

COCO - 11/22/2017

WRECK-IT RALPH 2 - 3/9/2018

INCREDIBLES 2 - 6/15/2018

GIGANTIC - 11/21/2018

TOY STORY 4 - 6/21/2019

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/27/2019

UNTITLED PIXAR - 3/13/2020

UNTITLED PIXAR - 6/19/2020

UNTITLED DISNEY ANIMATION - 11/25/2020

One last development I'll bring up is the cancellation of GIGANTIC in fall 2017, leaving March 2018 vacant. WRECK-IT RALPH sequel, titled RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET: WRECK-IT RALPH 2 (the subtitle was removed right before its release), takes the fall 2018 slot.

Other than that, very little changed... The slate played out the way it was supposed to. INCREDIBLES 2 came out summer 2018, with RALPH 2 following in the fall. TOY STORY 4 was summer 2019, FROZEN II was fall 2019. ONWARD was spring 2020, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, some adjustments were made to the slate... But it otherwise resembles what it looked like circa late 2017. SOUL went from summer 2020 Pixar release to Christmas Day streaming release. Fall 2020 WDAS title RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON had to move to March 2021 because of that, but then the slate remained the same... Pixar's LUCA was a summer 2021 release, with WDAS' ENCANTO following in the fall. 2022, this past year, two Pixars as planned: TURNING RED in the spring, LIGHTYEAR in the summer, and one WDAS in the fall, that was STRANGE WORLD.

Their slate now?

ELEMENTAL - 6/16/2023

WISH - 11/22/2023

ELIO - 3/1/2024

INSIDE OUT 2 - 6/14/2024

Only covers this year and next year... One WDAS movie, three Pixars... And a ton of Marvel movies laid out til 2026 and AVATAR sequels into 2028... Disney's taking it easy with announcing what's on the horizon with animation... DreamWorks is doing the same... Heck, Universal's animation slate alone goes up to about mid-2024 with Illumination's DESPICABLE ME 4. A Swiss Universal slate document has various animated films slated for fall 2025 and fall 2026, but no word on those dates here in the states...

Maybe there is a reason they, and specifically Disney, don't announce long-term slates anymore... NEWT and GIGANTIC alone tell one why...

Maybe next time, I'll do DreamWorks, though that's a major-league cluster-cuss of its own. Till next time, fellas!

[brockachu]

i am absolutely suffering post wisdom tooth removal and i think i would be magically healed if you were to break down every nhl captain’s narrative for me

** if every captain is an unreasonable ask, i would in fact settle for our boy bowie 😌 or the most compelling narrative in your opinion

oh ooh i'm so glad you took me up on this. ok imma do a quick run-down of every narrative i know. and if anyone wants more detail, i can do follow-up ask posts. also, i hope your gums heal quickly & without complication 💖 i was a minor menace when i got my wisdom teeth removed so i respect that all you ask is some silly hockey stories 😂

running through the list alphabetically by team:

anaheim - technically, this is now vacant b/c their season is over & getzlaf is retired. he was co-rookies w/ corey perry, they inherited the team from teemu selanne, & they were on a kid line that helped get the ducks their single cup. he was promoted to captaincy for his early career glory and got the team close twice more (conference finals) but never quite. he got overshadowed by the other california team captains i think, even if i never cared much for him either. i don't know enough about the current ducks to even slightly guess at their next captain.

arizona - vacant. their last captain was OEL whose narrative was the guy whose time was always just a little too late -- he peaked just after the yotes core that was actually pretty good from 2009-2012; he was named captain after his career peaked, even tho he remained fan-beloved; he was traded away after his trade value had crashed. i think their next captain will be chychrun if he isn't traded, crouse if chychrun is traded, and no idea if both of them are traded. it's misery hours in the sonoran desert, babes.

boston - i'm sorry i spent so long refusing to learn about any bruin who isn't tuukka that the only things i know about bergeron is that his bestie is marchand and he wins the selke every year, even when he doesn't win it he does (i'm a canucks fan this is the first year i've mildly tolerated the bruins, given the 2011 cup finals)

buffalo - vacant. lmao y'all can dig my eichel tag if you wanna know that narrative i've only written several novellas about him this season. idk enough to guess the next captain. o @drartemysia wants it to be tage and i agree bc i think she deserves what she likes :)

calgary - vacant. giordano was the successor to iginla, which were impossible shoes to fill, but his whole thing was basically team's steadfast dad. if the next one isn't ratthew i'll be joining the trade ratthew campaign that i think many flames fans would start -- he's beloved, he's a character, he's grown so much from skillful pest with a dangerous edge to just flat out skillful pest (ignore this current playoff series, the stars are digging up old ratt). he'll have a lovely narrative about growing into the steady reliable legacy before him and giving it a new funky shine.

carolina - JORDAN. a Staal. the last time a staal led this team, they won their only cup, y'know. are they chasing their past b/c they keep coming up short these past few years? are they harnessing a legacy, uniting the past & present to make that leap? and jordy himself has changed a lot from the kid who won the cup w/ sid & the pens back in 2009. is he chasing youthful success or is he bringing experience to an otherwise young core? it's a juicy narrative w/ fun lil callbacks. also he's their dad :)

chicago - it's unfortunate that this entire org is irredeemable b/c the captaincy narrative around toews actually was an interesting story, but it's inseparable from pkane and the org, and it should be reframed knowing he as captain was aware of the beach allegations & treatment by the team (org & players). also i only know this narrative bc one of my undergrad bffs is a born & raised chicagoan. so i'm not going to give toews or chicago a blurb when they deserve to be dismantled.

colorado - i don't like landeskog. you can check here for why. not gonna write this one either. if i speak more i will be in big trouble.

columbus - boone!! the cbj captaincy has long been been mildly cursed -- nothing truly bad happens to them, but they're always just kind of forgotten about. boone was considered kind of an unexpected pick, b/c he's not a big star, he's not one of the local boys, and he's just super mild. but in that way, maybe he's another in a line of tradition -- unassuming, a calm head, a steady hand. the cbj captaincy story is the quiet story of persistence

dallas - haha no i'm not gonna make a fun story for benn when half the stars fans i know don't even like him either. call me when robo inherits the captaincy.

detroit - larkin is one of the captains i am least normal about in the entire league. he was drafted to be the captain. i'm not kidding. stevie y clapped his eyes on this kid from michigan who grew up a drw fan, this kid who has always been spoken of as responsible and a leader, this determined happy excited-just-to-be-here kid; and stevie said 'yeah that's our guy'. he was drafted and primed to be the captain and everyone knew it from the second he was picked, tho we were always a little worried 'what if they don't tho'. it was a relief when they finally stitched the c to his chest. the throne was always his, the captains before him agreed so. there's a quote from zetterberg about giving larks something that had been passed down from past captains, before the captaincy was made official. larks tried to tell zetta it wasn't his officially, zetta told him 'take it it's yours we all agree'. we as in the previous captains who are all still involved in the org. yeah i've cried about it.

edmonton - oh my god this captaincy is haunted and i'm not qualified to discuss it i hope mcdavid learns exorcism but also i think this org needs a whole overhaul. mcdavid is a child king appointed too soon based on prophecy and maybe fate is inescapable but it is never straight forward. what parts of your soul are you willing to rend to fight fate, what parts of your soul are you willing to rend to let fate take its course? how do you know destiny is for you? wasn't it supposed to be hall, supposed to be nugent hopkins, supposed to be yakupov?

florida - like i said i know nothing about barkov besides his lifelong bestie is pate laine, my beloved son :) he seems like a nice dude, maybe i'll learn the story there one day

los angeles - ooh kopitar is fun. to many, he's the captain who should've been. the thing is, dustin brown was captain during the kings' peaks in the mid 2010s & they won their 2 cups. brown had been drafted & raised by the kings, he's now retiring as a lifelong king. kopi was there almost the whole time. brown was always attributed with leadership qualities in juniors & w/ team usa, but kopi is The Slovenian Player -- he's captained their teams since he was a teen. he's also been a long time best kings player, while brown has mainly been middle six character piece. but the kings raised brown to be the captain, so he remained the captain & the players did respect & love him as captain. still, there was always a thread of 'what about kopitar tho', and when brown's core floundered and were slowly traded away, his captaincy was stripped. as the team unoffically leaned into a rebuild, kopi was named new captain. he's steadier, he's good with the kids, he's finally getting his flowers. there's still a lot of respect left for brown (see: he was captain for a day to commemorate his impending retirement), but he luckily bowed out. kopi's captaincy is a narrative of patience & knowing when change is necessary. i'm so fond of it

minnesota - spurgeon is one of those guys that ppl outside of the minny-sphere don't discuss much. he's quietly a Good Hockey Player (stats ppl are like him a lot). it's hard to follow the captaincy of Mikko Koivu, one of the most respected players in league history, a perennial member of the 'guys who'd have a cup on any other team' club, who could only stomach playing 7 games for another team before retiring as essentially a lifelong wild. spurge is the story of loyalty, of duty.

montreal - uuh technically it's still webs but i soft boycotted the habs when he was traded there (not his fault, i was mad about pk & galchenyuk & bergevin's administration) & only mildly got nicer to them this season after they finally got rid of bergevin. so the last habs captain narrative i knew well was patch, which i am very bitter about still. and giving respect to my habs friends, i will not go down that path here. i hope suzuki gets the captaincy soon. that will be a nice tale and i think my buddy amanda @st-louis will be the best person to tell it.

nashville - josi is interesting. he's maybe a captain who was never meant to be a captain. weber was expected to retire in nashville, but things went sour in the mid-2010s after suter signed to minny in free agency and weber seemed to need a new environment and the org had seemingly lost their patience with him. so he got traded for subban & fisher was given captaincy to warm the seat. josi was still relatively young through these struggles. he's a prince that no one expected to inherit bc the king was healthy and strong and so beloved so blessed so steadfast. and for years now, with josi as captain, the preds continue to surpass expectations (admittedly mostly by the grace of their goalies). hehe he's the little captain that could :)

new jersey - friends, we have another boy king in our midst (the league loves these). hischier was a 1oa in what was at the time considered an underwhelming draft. the devs had been considered identity-less ever since brodeur's trade in 2014 and later retirement in 2015. there's still lingering speculation that hischier was appointed too soon to inject any sense of identity into this team. we are still seeing this core be built. the narrative is a kid was given an impossible task and he's quietly solving this puzzle with the help of the friends he made along the way. i'm genuinely hopeful for the devs' future

isles - anders lee was never meant to be captain!! i love his bland boy next door quadzilla himbo ass so much but he is a second son. johnny said 'fuck you dad i never wanted to be an isle take the family business and shove it' (this is a joke, i'm neutral to fond about tavares, but i think the isles memes about him are kinda funny), so lou lamariello rubbed a weary hand down his face, peaked between his fingers at anders just twiddling his thumbs at the back of the board room and went, 'ok bud do you want a whack at it'.

rangers - vacant. this should be kreider and i can write that narrative when it happens, tho others will be much more qualified, but all i have to say is this should be kreider

ottawa - i'm sorry i've spent so long lowkey laughing at the sens that i have no idea what background narrative led to brady tkachuk getting this captaincy. i do know there is currently a kerfuffle about chabot being named team canada captain for worlds, which i guess is raising the known-to-sens-fans controversy that maybe he should've gotten the captaincy over tkachuk? maybe this is a coup narrative. maybe the crown was usurped! i am not aware of the palace intrigue but if anyone wants to tell me the tale i will gladly listen and share your verses in the future. i'm a silly lil jester, a traveling bard :)

philly - haha vacant haha no i'm not writing this up, all you need to know about the flyers captaincy is this video i made before claude's inevitable trade

pitt - psssshhh i'm a flyers fan y'all don't want me to write the pens captain narrative lmao but basically sid is the chosen one, he's what mcdavid was supposed to be to edmonton, he's won 3 cups for them, raised the team out of bankruptcy on his star power. he's a superhero story, ups and downs and inhuman ability

san jose - couture wasn't supposed to be captain but both joes fled the shark tank and he's what's left and half of sharks fans don't even like him anyway. i can't write this one, buds

seattle - lmao vacant b/c giordano went to toronto this org is still fledgling and messy, but boy they're trying it's like watching my parents' young chickens run around, fond and illogical, no sense of a plan about them. i want their next captain to be mccann. if the rivalry with the canucks ever finds its feet, it'll be fun for them to have a captain who was our scorned former draftee

st louis - ngl i forgot o'reilly was their captain until this moment. i knew petro was gone bc uuhh i love that dude. i don't know this narrative, sorry

tampa - steven stamkos was almost given up on and i'll remember that forever. he inherited from lecavalier & st louis, a heavy cloak of a legacy to wear. drafted by hockey savant steve yzerman, raised for the captaincy, given so much patience and surrounded by consistently one of the best built teams year in and year out. cup finals and conference finals and record breaking point seasons. when the bolts were swept by cbj in 2019, a massive crack seemed to appear in the durably beautifully carefully crafted vase. there were rumors that the core would be torn apart and sold, that stammer would sign back home in toronto, that the bolts were a failed experiment. but they stayed the course and what would you know fate smiled upon them with back to back cups. this is a feel good fairytale of patience and loyalty and persistence and all the 'cap circumvention' boo babies can cry outside the city walls

toronto - you can't tell this story without telling the recent isles' story, but actually you can't tell this story without 60 years of maple leaf history & maybe a degree in canadian history. if the edmonton captaincy is haunted, the leafs are something quieter, not actively marauding them quite as much, but ages longer and with a million more eyes on them for it. tavares' leaf captaincy is a very old ghost story or maybe a multiverse story. i don't know it well enough to tell it tho

vancouver - beloveds oh beloveds. captain bowie horvat, our collective son. we knew when he was drafted he would be the next captain. we weren't sure, but we knew. the sedins stayed lifelong canucks, they raised bo to the captaincy, they protected him as long as they could, and they retired. we were so certain he'd be given captaincy immediately, but the org kept it as an extra out for appeasement as the team sunk and sunk and sunk. but we're getting somewhere now and our new management has expressed confidence in bo. bo was the last canuck to be given an animal nickname, which was a staple of the sedin era (his name was bison). did you know the entire team called him cap even before he was named captain? it was an open secret with the media for like a year. there's official canucks videos with guys calling him cap the season before he was named captain. he's who the people always wanted and he's who the people were happy to receive. i don't acknowledge anyone who doesn't want him to stay as captain. his captaincy is a love story -- he was raised in the gentleness of the sedins, he was always meant to be here, he'll gently lovingly steer us forward. his captaincy is romantic.

vegas - oh this is not my story to tell. oli @himbeaux-on-ice is our resident mark stone enthusiast and i'm almost certain they've written up several detailed posts about stoney's path to the captaincy. please explore their blog with wild abandon bc they are one of the reasons i've grown the confidence to make more of these wildly long and winding narrative posts (same of other's i've tagged in this post)

washington - like crosby and mcdavid, who does not already know this narrative? but tldr, ovechkin was drafted & appointed in defiance of hockey culture's respectability politics. is he of course very very very good at hockey? yes, but the hockey media machine wasn't sure it was 'enough' for years. the narrative is spite, the narrative is defiance, the narrative is being who you are no matter who likes it, the narrative is insisting on yourself. one of my fav caps narrative ppl (actually she's generally post-soviet hockey narratives, but she's a caps fan also) is g @csykora. idr if she's written much on ovechkin specifically, b/c my memory is more conceptual than data, but please read her writing as it also inspires me to indulge my narrative whims.

winnipeg - oh what a one to end on. this captaincy may be ending soon. we don't know what winny is doing, do we? mr wheeler's captaincy is the story of a faithful soldier. he has done everything the org asked of him, done his best, bit his tongue, faced the twists and turns of the path with a strong brow and steady step. winny is staring down the barrel of potentially blowing up its core, and no one expected it to go this way. maybe they're the trojans, a stronghold we never thought could fall so dramatically. (maybe i've been reading too much of o's greek myths lmao)

in conclusion: lmao why is this all in my head. if you read all of this, i respect and appreciate you so much. and apologies to my tagged beloveds, you're not entitled to read this i just want to send love your way <3

[female-buckets]

okay... now I'm curious. I knew about that mafia owner that got murdered. But what's the other traumatic team that DT has been through? If you don't mind answering this? I know it's probably long... But if you do... thank you! Her life stories are insane.

DUI and LJ break-up season Summer 2009. Right before the Shabtai murder season. This was self-inflicted but still wild.

Then Shabtai in 2009-2010.

Then Diana created a national Turkish incident by leaving Fenerbahce to play for Galatasaray in the 2011-2012 season. Fenerbahce fans believed the 2010-2011 false doping scandal was a Galatasaray conspiracy to nuke DT. But DT didn't trust the Fenerbahce club after they sent her samples to a sketchy lab. She wasn't ready to return to Russia even though UMMC offered 1M. She wanted to stay in Turkey with Penny. Fenerbahce also put big money on the table to get her back. Instead, DT turned down Penny's team to take like a 500k salary from Gala lmao. For the principle of it all. The Fener fan outrage was so crazy, DT had to have a bodyguard. Then there was the infamous Gala/Fener final four match with the riot police. Fans were throwing fire crackers on the court. One fan had a heart attack. DT lost the game and Penny tore her ACL. Ls all around. DT also had to pay a 50k uniform violation fee that year for her long shorts. Another L to add to the pile.

Penny's mom died like a week before the 2013 WNBA season started.

Penny's dad died right after the 2014 championship. So, both DT and Penny took the 2015 WNBA season off to spend time with their remaining family. DT wanted to spend time with her parents after playing year-round for 10 years. Then, right before the 2016 WNBA season, DT's mom got diagnosed with the same cancer that killed Penny's mom. Hindsight is 20/20, but DT could've played the 2015 WNBA season and taken off the 2016 WNBA season instead. She said in a recent interview that was the biggest regret of her career. Playing while her mom was sick and knowing she took the wrong year off sucked.

Luckily DT's mom made a full recovery. And everything's been great for the Taurasi-Taylors since then. Until this year when BG became a political prisoner.

[katiemcgrath]

Let’s go through these names:

Sarah Reed (Black), 32, had severe mental health issues which was known to prison officers and doctors. She had been complaining about being unwell and untreated to her mum for a long time. She was found dead in her cell at Holloway Prison in 2012, they lied and said she was found hanging in her cell, she wasn’t - she was found in her bed. There’s video footage of a police officer punching her and grabbing her hair after she was arrested for shoplifting - the officer was suspended and faced no criminal charges. 

Mark Duggan (Black), 29, in 2011 Mark Duggan was shot by police in Tottenham, London, the police chased him in a minicab claiming he had a gun - a gun was later found 7 metres away from the minicab. Protests and riots in London and other areas of England ensued. The police were cleared of any wrongdoing. 

Sheku Bayoh (Black), 31, was murdered by police in 2015 in Fife, Scotland. Very similar to George Floyd, Bayoh was knelt on by police for 9 minutes. Much like George Floyd, Sheku Bayoh’s last words were also ‘I can’t breath’. The police were not charged. 

Christopher Alder (Black), 37, was a computer programmer for the British army. He was arrested in 1998 after he was punched at a nightclub and was supposedly ‘aggressive’ at a hospital. He was found  ‘face down on a custody suite floor, with his trousers round his ankles and his hands cuffed behind his back, while police officers made monkey imitations and references to banana boots and a hood with slits.’ The officers were cleared of any wrong doing. 

Smiley Culture (Black), 48, Culture stabbed himself in the heart (hmm) when police raided his home in London. His death was a contributing factor in the 2011 riots.  

Jimmy Mubenga (Black), 46, Mubenga was being deported - three private security guards held him down on the plane and restricted his breathing, despite already being handcuffed to the seat. His last words were also ‘I can’t breath’. Th officers were cleared of manslaughter. 

Michael Powell (Black), 38, Powell had many mental health difficulties and dealt with it by taking drugs. In 2013, his mother called the police on him after he started smashing car windows this a hammer, she was afraid and just wanted him restrained. Several police officers came and subdued him using pepper spray. He died in the back of the police van. All officers were cleared but it’s okay because over 10 years later, police have apologised for the pain and suffering he was in. 

Leon Briggs (Black), 39, Briggs died in custody in 2013 after being held under Mental Health Act but no medical intervention was sought, he became unconscious and died. Police officers were cleared of any wrong doing. They were suspended with full pay.

Ricky Bishop (Black), 25, police in Brixton, London, in 2001 claimed Bishop was attempting to escape so held him down, he had a heart attack. He was still in cuffs when he arrived at the hospital. All officers were cleared. 

Brian Douglas (Black), in 2005 PC Tuffey hit Douglas over the head with a police baton. Douglas was arrested and despite vomiting in his cell, he wasn’t taken to the hospital until 14 hours later,  he suffered a fractured skull and damage to his brain stem. No disciplinary action was taken against the police. 

Joy Gardner, (Jamaican), 40, “They say she was ‘illegal’, but she wasn’t illegal. She came here legally, she paid her fare, but she overstayed her time.“Then they broke into her flat, put 13 feet of tape around her head and a belt on her legs, and they suffocated her.” The police were cleared.

Roger Sylvester (Black), 30, Sylvester suffered from mental health illnesses. He was arrested in  1999 and held down by six officers. He fell in to a coma and never regained consciousness. The police were cleared of any wronging.

Azelle Rodney (Black),16, was shot by police 6 times in 2013. The officer said he suspected Rodney was hiding a machine gun. No machine guns were found on his person. The officer in question was arrested and sent to trial but the jury found him not guilty. 

Habib Ullah (South Asian), 39, ‘During one hearing Emma Forbes, who was present at the time, said officers had held Mr Ullah face down on the ground at one point, and said they had “their hands around his throat, pressing down and putting their hands in his mouth at the same time”.’

Faruk Ali (South Asian), in Luton 2014, two police officers laughed as they chased after Ali, (who is autistic and has the mental age of 5) in their car and the proceeded to beat him. Thankfully, Mr Ali is alive and well. This incident lead to protests and a demand for justice for people with mental health issues. The police officers were sacked but no charges were made against them. 

Adrian Thompson (Black), 34, Thomson was tasered by police after he was accused of breaking into flats when in fact he went to a friend’s birthday party. He died in the back of the police van. 

Jean Charles de Menezes (Brazillian), 27, was shot by police after they suspected him of being a terrorist a day after the London 7/7 bombings in 2005 (he was not, it was mistaken identity but police shot first). No officers were charged, his parents took the case of the ECJ but they lost the fight. 

Demetre Fraser (Black), 21, Fraser died after falling 11ft from a tower block in Birgmingham in 2014 after being chased by police. Police were not at fault according to met. 

Aston McLean (Black), 27, McLean was being chased by police in 2014 when he was hit by an armed response vehicle. McLean was pepper sprayed before he was hit. officers cleared. 

Olaseni Lewis (Black), 23, Lewis died after being restrained by 11 police officers. Officers were not charged but a law called ‘Seni’s law’ came into effect in 2018 ‘ Under the new legislation, hospitals will be required to publish data on how and when physical force is used.’

Anthony Grainger (Black), 36, was shot through the chest as he sat in a car in the village of Culcheth, Cheshire, by an armed police officer known as “Q9” in March 2012. Police were cleared.

David “Rocky” Benett (Black), Benett suffered with mental health illnesses. He was restrained for 25 minutes by up to five NHS staff members.  He had punched a female member of staff after being moved to a different ward to separate him from another patient he had hit, but who later attacked Mr Bennett and racially abused him.“Rocky died a brutal death,” Dr Bennett said. “He was pinned face down on the ground by the very people who we trusted to care for him.  “It breaks my heart every time I think about that night and it will live with me and my family forever.”

Alton Manning (Black), 33, “Manning, a prisoner on remand, and was killed on 8th December 1995 after being assaulted by prison officers at the private prison HMP Blakenhurst. An Inquest, which originally opened on Monday 12th January 1998 and concluded on 25th March 1998, unanimously decided that Alton Manning was unlawfully killed.” The officers were cleared. 

Mark Nune (Black), 35, police acted as judge, jury and executioner after shooting Nune during a robbery.   

- it’s not mentioned here so I’m not going to go into it right now by please search up Stephen Lawrence, it is an extremely important case and if there’s one thing you can do for his memory is learn about him and remember his name.