#i'm somewhere about 50 eps through

[trisockatops]

For me, it's about humanity. It's about figuring out who you are and making community regardless of what you look like. It's about processing trauma and not letting it define you. It's a story about building your own path and embracing the oddities and eccentricities of life.

But, uh, if you want something more solid... It's about the intersection of monsters and humans and how those labels cannot easily be defined by a simple set of physical characteristics. It's a horror that explores themes of abuse, queerphobia, love, and family.

I like that it's unexpected and understated and nothing is what it seems. You're introduced to characters that seem awful at first but that you get to know and realize you see yourself in them and want to root for them. You're introduced to characters that feel like the people who have hurt you and want to live out some cathartic fictional justice against. You're hearing about scenarios which are simultaneously so fucking familiar and yet so fantastical that it's hard not to get drawn up in them. The show is dark and violent but it's not loud. The violence isn't the point: the people are.

I like that the characters are nitty-gritty messy. They're not your typical Heroes or Villains. They're complex. They exist in a lot of shades of gray. It is beyond Flawed Heroes where the flaw obviously just exists to make them more relatable. They are human. They are relatable. They are explained through their pasts and where they came from, and that doesn't define who they are even it colors who they are. And it definitely likes flipping upside the trope that horribly ugly/scared/fucked up looking characters are villains because physical deformity must be bad. Like, no, the hurt characters look fucking hurt because they've been hurt. That doesn't make them bad or evil.

I like that the lore is meandering and unfolding. We're hearing multiple stories that are all coming together to build one greater story, yet each of the more individual components are all respected and treated as their own.

I hope that helps?

Hello! Uh, does anyone know what Hello from the Hallowoods is actually about?

I want to start listening to it, but I'd like to know some information. Like, what do you like about it? What about the characters? The lore?

[hooked-on-elvis]

Elvis' perfectionism 📀

Author's note: Okay, I'm beyond excited with this post, so please take your time reading it. You won't regret a bit.

So, things just got more interesting for me.

If you read my content for a while now, you must be familiar with the fact that I'm a huge fan of "Elvis On Tour" documentary. There's this scene in the middle of the movie where they play instrumental of "Don't Be Cruel" while some 50s pictures of Elvis are "randomly" shown onscreen... well, not as random as one may think.

"Elvis On Tour" is mainly a live concert documentary but it tells Elvis' history as well. His history as a musician is delivered through his own accounts (Elvis talking about his music preferences, his love for gospel music, etc) and by family members' accounts too, such as an interview with Vernon Presley, his father, that is also featured on the film, when Mr. Presley talks about how Elvis' tours in the 50s were wild with all the fans going extremely hysterical over his son.

One of the pictures in particular, displayed during the "throwback scene" in the movie, is immensely significant to the story that documentary meant to tell the viewers. This one right here:

July 3, 1956: On The Train back to Memphis, Tennessee. Photograph by Alfred Wertheimer. Below, other pictures from the same moment. Note the little record player on Elvis' lap, it is important.

The day before those pictures on the train were taken, Elvis had cut some new songs, soon to be released, "Hound Dog" and "Don't Be Cruel" are among them, but also "Any Way You Want Me".

Elvis during Studio Sessions for RCA July 2, 1956, at RCA Studios in New York. Photograph by Alfred Wertheimer.

About that recording session, on the precise moment EP was recording "Hound Dog", below is an excerpt from "Elvis Presley: A Life in Music" by Ernst Jorgensen and Peter Guralnick:

This was the session where Elvis’s perfectionist streak first became apparent. From [Steve] Sholes’s point of view several of the earlier takes would have been just fine, and he tried to get the singer to listen to the playbacks, but it was obvious that the singer was marching to his own beat; he wouldn’t rest until he had recorded the song to his own — not anyone else’s — satisfaction. Finally, with thirty-one, Elvis declared himself satisfied, and the room breathed a sigh of relief.

Side note: Before recording the song on studio, Elvis performed "Hound Dog" on the Steve Allen Show, on July 1, 1956. They were all worried about how to turn the live performance into a record, and Elvis was the one who was intensely dedicated to make it work. That's why he took 31 takes to finish working on particular track. It really paid off in the end.

Back to the train pictures on July 3, 1956, the photographer, Alfred Wertheimer, shared his accounts on the moment. He said:

"Elvis in on the train. He had just recorded these three songs but two of them became his third and fourth gold records: "(You Ain't Nothing But A) Hound Dog" was the third and "Don't Be Cruel" was the forth. Here he's listening to it over and over again on the way down to his home [Memphis, Tennessee], and he's listening it on this inexpensive little record player and here, I mean, while the other musicians are horsing around, while Colonel Parker is somewhere else, Elvis keeps listening and listening and listening. He's a serious guy! I asked him 'Why are you listening to it on this tiny little machine with a terrible speaker and you just heard it yesterday on a fourteen inch speaker in a studio, beautiful reproduction?' He says: 'Al...'

"'...This is the way my fans listen to my music. That's the way I wanna hear it.'"

— Elvis Presley, July 1956

On more train picture (Elvis going to Memphis, Tennessee on July 3, 1956):

On that photograph, Alfred Wertheimer said on 'Elvis '56' book:

"Listening to the previous day's work one more time before going to sleep, his teddy bear keeping him company. The record player is sitting on a ledge to the right of his berth."

ABOVE: "Elvis On Tour" (1972) snippet with "Throwback scene". Instrumental of "Don't Be Cruel" is playing on the background while pictures from Elvis' early tours are displayed onscreen. The first picture, that one from July 3, 1956, that Mr. Wertheimer shared his memories about.

The footage on that scene from the documentary is from September 9, 1956 on The Ed Sullivan Show. If you'd like to watch the full performance, here it is:

Well, I don't know about you but I will never see the throwback scene the same way.

I mean, if I'm being honest here, I used to often skip that scene just because I've seen the pictures over and over again and the footage from Ed Sullivan Show as well, so when I watch the film I used to be much more interested on the 1972 live performances, the backstage scenes and so on, but now I know the story of that picture, the scene is a lot more meaningful. That 1972 documentary, friends, is not only about Elvis' performances or the lasting love and adoration from his fans. It has a lot more to do with who Elvis Presley was, specially how he felt about music and how he gave all of him to please us. The film shows Elvis talking about how, in the 70s, after many, many years of experience onstage he still felt anxious before performing... and that picture from the 50s that is shown on the film tell us his dedication to his music was to the extent of listening his records on home record players just to make sure it would sound as flawless as it could be... all for us. After hearing the picture story from Mr. Wertheimer, I just fell in love with that 1972 documentary, and with El, even more. ♥

[swallowtailed]

palisade 50 / finalisade pt. 5

structure thoughts

okay, i have a lot of thoughts re structure this week. i had these last ep too, but i wanted to give it another episode to see how a few things shook out, because fatt tends to move quite slowly in that way. (also i had just gotten cursed with dawn work and had no brainroom for real thoughts.) i do still think there's room for some of these things to develop, and fatt tends to hang together much better in retrospect. but this is my read right now.

the reintroduction of cas'alear & co: i am content to wait a bit for some interaction with them or some explanation of why they're here, because palisade is currently being forced through seven separate funnels and a brand new problem won't fit somewhere instantly. that said. bro we better find out what's up. they're physically on the blue channel, that can't just get handwaved

and re material circumstances of blue channel & crew--to my eye the dice valuation of relationships is causing some real siloing off of characters and storylines. which is really unfortunate because the bonds between the crew were a huge strength of palisade and it just feels like an oversight to miss that in the finalisade. (this is also a factor of not doing a ton of rp in this game. one thing i'm really missing is bringing the misfortune options into the result of a scene.)

and on a similar note, i really liked august's scene with righteousness, but it could've been even better if palisade had engaged more with delegate characters and what it means to be a delegate throughout the season. instead this & a bunch of other thematic threads are being advanced way more actively than before now that it's the finalisade, which feels kind of hollow.

i also really wish eclectic was still around. having had a leap scene, i've solidly come down that it was a bad narrative decision to kill eclectic. introducing a new (to the season) character in the middle of the finalisade, on top of a bunch of other new/er pcs, was always gonna be awkward, and leap doesn't work here. his goal, to take kesh for every last cent, has a very similar problem to clem's--kesh isn't there. which is less of a direct issue when the end goal is just "steal", but it's still a goal from a partizan paradigm, not a palisade one. you know? like, leap's fixated on kesh and kesh is a shrinking speck on a planet with new and different problems.

also ideally leap's reintroduction would create contrast for the ways brnine and thisbe have changed since partizan. maybe we will get to that later.

hey i actually think talking about a justice system would be extremely relevant given how many characters have goals in that direction?

i think overall my sense is that finalisade feels disconnected from the rest of the season due to all the character changes and some rushed thematic work.

anyway obv this is fatt so there's every chance all of the above will be resolved by the end of finalisade but from here i'm feeling a little doubtful

various other notes

jesset's gun arm! i stopped to wonder which it was back when that happened, but since it wasn't addressed i figured it was intended to be his prosthetic arm. wild.

the autonomy reveal... love when a reveal is so well seeded and rings so true that you have to be like "hang on was that not already canon". very cool. very perennial. miserable, also.

taking a minute though to sit and think about perennial and loneliness. also taking a minute to think the phrase "did perennial effectively utilize girl power in creating autonomy itself".

re cori's scene: the suggestion that perennial's consecration might change the flora and fauna really caught my ear. not beating the "millennium break is also colonizing palisade" allegations. it seems like they went another direction (just the sky changing?) but that rang really weird to me, especially when the colonial angle of gardens wrt the bilats had just been raised a few episodes ago.

very much appreciated janine taking the time to explicitly bring up the framing of unction's fate as something that would, in-universe, be a question and a conversation

[udovaintomyheart]

Ways you can help get Shadow and Bone S3 + Six Of Crows Spinoff

Stream Shadow and Bone S2 on Netflix:

this is the most obvious and yet time consuming way that you can help. it is rumored that Netflix values completion rate, hours watched, rewatch rate, and number of new viewers. This means it would be best if you could get friends and family who might not have seen the show before to watch it all the way through.

If that isn't possible, the next best thing we can do is stream! This means to watch the second season all the way through, start to finish. You don't have to physically be watching of course, you can have it playing on a device in the background as you work, clean, cook, ect.

Ideally, the volume on your device should be more than half. You can use headphones if you don't want to hear the sound, or place it in a different room. Just remember to check up on the device every 2-3 hours to make sure it is still playing the show.

From my experience, Netflix will stop the season at the beginning of episode 4 if you haven't been jiggling the mouse or adjusting the volume, brightness, ect. So, I just change the subtitles or brightness every now and then to make sure Netflix believe I am actively watching the show.

How to stream on PC/computer:

Go to Netflix.com (you can use the Netflix app but you won't be able to mute the tab if you do it that way)

Choose Shadow and Bone S2 Ep 1 and let your device play through it. You want the sound on the Netflix tab itself to be higher than 50%.

Now that you have it playing, you can mute the tab on your device (I use Google Chrome but, I'm sure other browsers allow you to mute as well!)

To mute the tab:

right-click the tab, and then you will see "mute site". go ahead and click on that.

Tablet/Phone:

Go to the Netflix App

Click on Shadow and Bone season 2 and start from episode 1 at the beginning.

Because there is no way to mute the tab, just use headphones or put the device somewhere if the sound bothers you.

You might also want to keep your device connected to a charger as it can drain the battery a little.

please continue to stream shadow and bone! and start if you haven't already.

TV:

Go to Netflix on your remote/application

Play Shadow and Bone s2 all the way through

This is best if you are cooking or something where you can hear the show from the other room and can click "continue watching" when need be.

Other ways to help:

Say you are unable to stream, that's ok! There are other ways you can help Netflix know that we want Shadow and Bone renewed for a third season and a Six Of Crows Spin Off.

Use hashtags! Rumor has it that Netflix cares most about Twitter, so please use that platform the most if you can. (I know that is a tall ask haha) Here are some super important ones:

#Shadow and Bone

#Six Of Crows Spin Off

#SOC Spin Off

Talk about it on Social Media:

Whatever platform you use, please share Shadow and Bone content, like, comment, put the posts on your stories, make edits, talk about the plot, what you liked, what you didn't, just talk about the show!

Join the watchparty:

This is more like a blend of the two ways to help. Kanej Breakdown on Twitter hosted a watch party on April 1st and 2nd and it went super well! The idea was we all watch using a Google Chrome Extension called Teleparty (you can also just watch the episodes listed for that day at that time if you don't have PC/ Google Chrome) and tweet using the hashtags listed above. This allows so many tweets to be sent under those hashtags, and gets it trending. They are hosting another watchparty today as well as this weekend.

We want to stay as high as possible to finish out these 28 days (important for Netflix's renewal system) so, please, please if you are able STREAM!!

[chetsetradio]

My Impossible List

My name is Chester, and I'm sure you've seen this list of things before. Something about it being different from a bucket list (and it is different than a bucket list) -- look, I got my inspiration from Thomas Frank, who got the inspiration from Joel Runyon.

In my own words, the impossible list is a continuous list that inspires growth and documents strides in personal development. A helpful tool that can aide in motivation. Not a set and forget, but a thoughtful pondering, organized list, and an updating system, where you log when you've achieved something and what you're going to do next. Like most people, I've set my list up with different categories.

Current Focuses:

Honestly, getting my life together. I've been slacking in health overall, and I need to start taking care of myself both physical and mental health-wise. Trying to hyper focus on learning new skills, mindfulness, and fitness/health.

Last 5 Completed Goals:

*crickets* Well of course there's going to be crickets right now, this list has just come to fruition. I will update with my most recent goals as I complete them!

LIFE GOALS

-> Own a home in my hometown -> Own a place somewhere else, too -> Borderline Personality Disorder symptoms in remission -> Create and maintain a healthy relationship with a significant other -> Make enough money through passionate endeavors (video games, YouTube, writing) that I only have to "work" work part-time -> Become a published author -> Pay off my debt -> 30k Student Loans -> 15k Car -> 9k Credit Cards -> Learn about stocks and investments -> invest money

PROFESSIONAL GOALS

WORK

-> Stay at the library for as long as possible (5yrs pension starts, 10yrs student loans are forgiven, 15yrs max vacation time) -> Earn blue in 2 categories in yearly review -> Earn blue in majority of categories in yearly review -> Earn blue overall in yearly review

YOUTUBE CHETSETRADIO

-> Set up channel -> Upload 5 10 25 50 videos -> Gain 10 25 75 100 250 subscribers

CHETTERBOX TALKS

-> Set up channel -> Upload 5 10 25 50 videos -> Gain 10 25 75 100 250 subscribers

OTHER

-> create and publish a video game

FITNESS & HEALTH GOALS

-> Lose 100lbs -> Walk to work 3 days a week for 1 month 6 months 1 year -> Work out everyday for 1 month 6 months 1 year -> No take out for a month straight -> Learn how to cook -> Add more fruits and vegetables to my everyday diet -> Walk 5 miles -> Run a mile -> Run a mile in less than 9 minutes -> Participate in some sort of race (run?) -> Swim 500 free with no problem -> No soda for 1 month

CREATIVE GOALS

-> Fill up a sketchbook with art that I'm proud of -> Release an EP -> Participate in NaNoWriMo 2024 -> Self publish a novel -> Traditionally publish a novel -> Re-learn how to play the Alto Saxophone -> Learn how to play the Trumpet -> Learn how to play the Cello -> Learn how to play the Flute -> Learn how to play the French Horn -> Learn how to crochet -> Follow a short story writing prompt daily for 1 month

SKILLS & EDUCATIONAL GOALS

-> Learn how to code -> Make my own website -> Program my own video game -> Learn Music Theory -> Beginner Intermediate Advanced -> Learn Logic Pro -> Beginner Intermediate Advanced -> Learn Japanese -> Beginner Intermediate Advanced -> Learn German -> Beginner Intermediate Advanced -> Learn Korean -> Beginner Intermediate Advanced -> Learn ASL -> Beginner Intermediate Advanced -> Go back to school for my Master's -> Learn fractions, pre-algebra, and algebra

HABIT GOALS

-> Do my morning routine for 1 month 6 months 1 year -> Do my nighttime routine for 1 month 6 months 1 year -> Walk Pancake once a day for 1 month 6 months 1 year -> Meditate once a day for 1 month 6 months 1 year -> Journal daily for 1 month 6 months 1 year

TRAVEL GOALS

-> Visit every state in the US ( 3/50 ) -> Visit every state park in the US -> Camp in a different state -> Visit Greece -> Visit Japan -> Visit Korea -> Visit the UK -> Visit Ireland -> Visit Finland -> Ride a bullet train -> See the Hollywood sign up close in person -> Visit Stephen King's hometown ( Portland, Maine )

VIDEO GAME GOALS

STEAM

-> Perfect achievo 5 10 15 25 40 games -> All achievements in Hades -> All achievements in Slime Rancher

PLAYSTATION

-> Platinum 5 10 25 50 games

XBOX

-> Perfect achievo 5 10 25 50 games

NINTENDO

-> Finish Pokémon Sword -> Finish Pokémon Arceus -> All moons Super Mario Odyssey

GOAL INSANITY

-> Sky dive -> Bungee jump -> Meet a celebrity I like IRL -> Go to five different amusement parks -> Get a PHD -> Teach a class at a University -> Forever a student (so many degrees) -> Earn enough money to retire early

[freakingoutthesquares]

Photo from Henry Normal's FB - possibly the date Zig interviewed band... but around that time for sure.

29 January 1986

At Chesterfield Arts Centre we were interviewed by a local youth called Zig [Mark Webber] who wrote a fanzine called Cosmic Pig. Pulp were genuinely weird no two ways about it, but I'm not sure we've ever been weirder than that night. Magnus was off his head on something, possibly fly agaric mushrooms; I was barking at Manners’ dodgy mates, who were trying to nick things with the thousand-yard stare of a Miners’ Strike veteran; and the seemingly sound-limbed singer kept sitting down in a wheelchair. It freaked poor old Zig out, but in a good way, because he came to all the concerts after that. [Russell Senior, Freak Out the Squares, 2015]

Cosmic Pig fanzine, written by Mark Webber (Zig), 1986:

PULP the next "big thing"?

If there is some truth behind all this talk that there will be another big change in the perception of popular music in 1986. Then the only band who I think will do it is PULP - the most useful thing to come out of Sheffield since Stainless Steel.

RUSSELL - Russell Senior, MAGNUS - Magnus Doyle, PETER - Peter Mansell, CANDIDA - Candida Doyle

How did Pulp start?

RUSSELL Jarvis, the lead singer (and the only member of the band who has been there since the start), started it at school, about five years ago. The current line-up dates from when we were doing a surreal play in and around Sheffield about two years ago.

Who thought of the name?

RUSSELL - Jarvis, I think. If you look in the dictionary, it means a kind of fiction in the 30's, very trashy and with gaudy colours, but at the same time, it was quite deep. I think that's a lot like us, we're trashy and gaudy and unsofisticated.

What do you think of Chesterfield?

RUSSELL - We played our worst two gigs here. The last one was at Gotham, that was pretty terrible, and before that, Adam & Eves. People were trying to bodypop to us - it didn't work.

Is Jarvis really the leader, on and off stage?

MAGNUS - Well he's been in Pulp from the start so I suppose it does rotate around him, but I don't call him a leader.

PETER - I don't look at it like that.

Who are you influenced by?

MAGNUS - We are original.

RUSSELL - I think I can honestly say that Pulp as a band isn't influenced by anyone. The only band I think we all like is Sham 69.

CANDIDA - Oh no.

RUSSELL - Anyone who's heard us knows that we're nothing like them. I prefer classical music. Some of the others like punk, the Fall, Jarvis likes ballads and film themes.

At what point did you stop being a Sheffield band, in order to go national?

RUSSELL - Really, this past year has been full of touring and trying to lose that label.

What kind of person comes to see your concerts?

MAGNUS - I don't know, I rarely meet them.

RUSSELL - The people who don't come to see us are like the hip scene. We're not a hip band in Sheff. I guess we attract your average interesting youth on the street, not trendies.

What do you think of Sheffield, opportunity wise?

MAGNUS - It's alright.

PETER - There's plenty of places to play.

Would you rather be somewhere like London?

PETER - No, it's too big.

Are you content in being at your present status?

RUSSELL - Yes, but if 50 people come to see us, I'd rather there be 500 and if we sell 5 records, I'd rather sell 50 and I'd shun anyone who doesn't think that.

Did your last EP sell well?

RUSSELL - It did O.K. , considering that it didn't receive airplay. It got more-or-less banned everywhere because of its lyrics. The A-side got taken off Radio Hallam halfway through. If the next one isn't banned, we reckon it'll do well.

What will the next A-side be?

RUSSELL - Probably 'Mark Of The Devil' (or maybe the excellent 'Dogs Are Everywhere'.) It will be out in March / April.

Do you think that it will sell better?

RUSSELL - It can't help but do so, 'Little Girl' wasn't danceable, they played it in the disco's and people kept tripping up. It was too risque to play on the radio, but not shocking enough to get mothers writing in saying we're corrupting the youth of Britain. It was banned but not hyped.

Can you see yourselves getting to number one?

RUSSELL - Realistically, I don't think it's gonna happen.

If you were asked, would you appear on T.O.T.P.?

CANDIDA - I wouldn't, I don't like it.

Rest - Yeah, why not?

CANDIDA - I'd have to then!

Source: PulpWiki

[parisstreet]

How To Write A Song Called 'Square One'

The newest Paris Street EP, Brief Feelings, is out now. As I've occasionally done with Paris Street releases, I'm going to spend this week rambling a bit about each song on the EP. Enjoy!

The song: Square One

Original song title: ‘Poems 2’. Somewhere in a notebook that is at least 10 years old, I wrote one line at the top of a page: “I’m making poems out of lovers.” The line always stuck with me as something to build a song around. When I finally sat down to work on the idea, I almost-immediately failed miserably, so I scoured a different notebook for something else to write about.

I have no song called ‘Poems’ or ‘Poems 1’, so have no clue how this ended up as ‘Poems 2’.

When was it written? Around October of 2021. I don’t think I actually finished the lyrics until December of that year.

Where was it recorded? It was mostly recorded in a hotel room in Corona, California during a week in December 2021 in which this stupid(ly awesome) song became all I could think about. I assembled a mostly-complete demo, then scrapped it entirely because – in my head – the song started switching to a different key, which led to new melodies that didn’t work in the original key. The scrapped version still exists in my hard drive – it’s different enough from the final version that, with a few tweaks, I can probably use it as the basis for a new song. Never delete anything, folks.

The instruments: Electric guitar, LMMS, various Spitfire Audio plugins via Reaper. Those Spitfire Audio plugins are fantastic and I really should use them more.

What’s it about? There’s a fellow at the bar by my apartment who had a crush on another bar patron. At the time, he had just turned 50. She was 27. I was friends with both. To the best of my knowledge, she had zero interest in him beyond saying a polite ‘hello’ whenever their paths crossed.

One Friday night, all three of us were at the bar. He was sitting towards the front. She was at the back. I exchanged pleasantries with both of them, then took my seat and did my weirdo-sitting-alone-and-zoning-out-while-watching-Sportscenter thing.

A short while into that, I watched her begin a conversation with another guy. A little while later, she and this other guy left the bar together, heading out through the back door. I saw them leave, then went back to zoning out on my barstool.

Hours later, with last call looming, I looked over and saw our 50-year old protagonist talking to a friend, looking really down. In one of the more pathetic little whimpers I’ve ever heard a 50-year old man say in regards to a girl almost half his age who never expressed any interest in him, he told his friend, “She left with another guy.”

That formed the basis for this song. Someone heading to a bar, with irrational hopes of ending up with the person they’re crushing on, then immediately having those hopes dashed, then trying to figure out what to do next.

The moral of this story is to crush on someone your own damn age, dude.

Anything else to say about this song? Nope!

Brief Feelings can be found on Bandcamp, Spotify, Amazon Music, and all other streamers of note.

[espooky]

Top5 characters from Okupas?

This is literally the best anon I've had in my life thank you ok let's get cancelled:

1. El Pollo. Sergio, Posho, What can I say, hes my boyfriend, my king, my poor little meow meow with a berserk button and a questionable taste in friendships. Honestly hes the absolute heart of the show gluing everyone together. King of tragic romances- also very much the mean streets trope of 'sleeping with your best friends cousin because you're secretly in love with your screw up best boy friend'. Just such a tragic character because you want him to get out so badly and the ONE friend he has who isnt a criminal insists on dragging him back in. The way Ricardo treated him like shit and he STILL didnt mind being stabbed for him. So intelligent throughout the whole show and makes you so frustrated because he could have gotten somewhere. Truly the most tragic character as he sees where everything is going and is powerless to stop it. The faith he has in his friends is heartbreaking.Also 2000's Diego Alonso is probably the most beautiful man in the world so I'm biased but Clara was absolutely insane to chose that other guy with actual life prospects and stuff I would have proposed to Pollo the second he offered me the cigarette.

2. Ricardo. On god I hate this little cunt SO much and still at the end of the day hes the sacrificial lamb. Normalize 3 years of studying medicine and still being a fucking idiot who thinks you can get AIDS from cocaine. Too short to hold all the anger and fear in his body but truly truly just a little shit. The bratty girlfriend who makes you bring her to the party and then immediately starts bitching that she wants to go home.Truly a summation of what it feels like to be in your early 20s with absolutely no fucking clue with what you want to do. Babygirl. A boy of contradictions. The worst friend in the world with the fattest ass in buenos aires. The origin of "why are you as a man obsessed with other men ". SO good with kids I almost cried all the way through ep 4. Smacking a guy on the back of a head and stealing a chicken funniest shit in the world that scene made me cry with laughter the first time I saw it. Okupas drinking game- take a shot everytime this kid makes the worst decision possible in the situation. Fellow pokemon and mahler enjoyer. Also I have a whole essay on how like 70% of his actions post episode 4 can absolutely be put down to trauma but that's for another time. I want to hate him so much but I can't. Would love to have seen more about his and pollos history. Love how they styled him to always look like a little kid trying to look tough and it WORKS. He is cringe he is fail and yet he is my son that I feel a need to protect.

Ok I'll be quick with the rest

3. Chiqi. BEST BOY BEST BOY. Yes he wants to buy drugs yes he wants to know what's in the kinder egg hes a man of many interests. "Lobotimia....... electroshock..." Sound of the summer. I wish I was chiqi like hes literally the best friend. Like yeah he had some level of responsibility for some of the shit that went down but still. Friend shaped, in ep 4 when he gives ricardo that big hug I've never wanted to do that tik tok project into a universe thing more. Also that time he almost beat the shit out of Walter was really funny.

4. Negro Pablo. I KNOW hes horrific but god what a fucking character. No idea what's going on in his head he literally looks like a 12 year old in his little kit but still actually manages to be terrifying. Another character, probably maybe the 4th so far in the show, where you're like "oh that's a guy repressing gay feelings". Idk hes just fucking such good fun to watch. Dante mastropierro should have worked way more after this its I'm so upset he didnt becausevhes fantastic.

5. Claudio Rissi Van Driver. Idk I always keep coming back to episode 5 and hes at least 50% of the reason. Just such a real character but also so necessary after ep 4. "In the dock you dont leave people like this" Yes hes fundamental in Ricardos downfall by giving him the advice and helping him get back at pablo but also the way he helped the boys was just idk man. He kinda sums up what's great about the show for me. Theres something about this older presence with an unconditional care for the boys that you dont get with any other character. Also he was sexy.

Honorable mentions also go to Sofía, Peralta and Clara who are great characters. Walter is not on here because although hes funny this is a Walter slander blog.

[yahargul]

hello i hope this isn't annoying (feel free to ignore) but i'm torn 👀 i know you don't post it a ton but i'm watching w/oh and am wondering would you say it gets better in the second half? i've enjoyed parts of it but tbqh i'm mostly find it pretty boring :// but i've put this much time in so i hate being a quitter at this point fjsldkfjlds. i feel like you have good taste so in your opinion is it worth seeing it through for the ending? hope you're having a good day<33

first of all never feel bad about dropping a drama if you're bored!! a lot of series are 30-50 ep long with 45min-1hr per episode...it's a lot of time to invest for anyone.

i was watching while it was still airing til around ep 25? ish? and then when i was waiting for youtube to upload the next batch of episodes i read the novel cause it was pretty short and i was too impatient and i just wanted to know what happened lmao...i went back and then stopped again somewhere around ep 34. i know theres only like 2 episodes left but i'm not in any rush to watch them.

my controversial woh opinion is that it's just okay. i like the main cast of characters and don't really care a ton about the side ones other than the fact that they have very cool designs/costuming. while some more action does happen in the second half it the pace kinda stays the same and it's likely you'll feel bored til ep 34/35 which is...right before the end LMAO. my personal advice if you really just wanna know the ending is just start skipping scenes you don't care about. quite frankly once you hit the midway point/wkx backstory episode it really doesn't affect your understanding of what's happening all that much.

[kane-and-griffin]

ahhhhh kabby mom I'm so scared about Abby in these new episodes! I'm rlly happy she's back in the next ep but I'm already seing people hating on her in the tag even before they know what's gonna happen and comparing her to Lorelai Tsing(!?!) as if sacrificing 1 willing person to save the entire world is somehow the same as brutally painfully murdering 50 children just so you can go outside?? if its this bad NOW, is this season is gonna make the fandom hate Abby because this ALWAYS happens!! :(:(

I mean, if there are people who can’t tell the difference between Abby being emotionally devastated at merely ENTERTAINING THE VERY THOUGHT of taking one life deliberately even to save the entire human race, and Dr. Tsing coolly and calmly committing attempted genocide on innocent grounders and 50 children, then that’s not a person whose opinion on this show I feel like I really need to take all that seriously.  I’m sure there are people whose hate for Abby is such that they will find a way to make her a villain over this, and that’s exhausting as hell, and I feel like it’s sort of an individual judgment call for each of us whether we dig in and try to explain or just mute and block them all so we don’t have to see that shit.  But if you’re worried about this storyline because it’s going to make the fandom hate Abby, first of all, what I’d urge you to remember is that a great deal of that will go away if - as it definitely seems like the show is setting it up - Abby’s solution ends up being the solution that works.  If Abby actually does end up being the person who cracks Nightblood and saves the entire human race, if Abby’s the reason your fave is still alive for Season 5, then “but she still shouldn’t have done it” becomes a totally specious argument we can all happily ignore.  And it 100% appears at this point that that’s the direction we’re headed; Nightblood will work, but there will be complications (my guess is they’re going to need a ton more blood and that’s when Gaia becoming a Nightblood scout becomes plot-relevant), and then of course they’ll still need somewhere to ride out the storm, which means either Becca’s bunker, the lab if it’s radiation-proof, or wherever this Bill Cadogan story ends up going.  But the Nightblood is what’s going to make a Season 5 possible so they can actually, you know, go outside and walk around and repopulate the earth.  And they can’t get there without Abby. 

So if you’re concerned about people unreasonably demonizing her and the fandom being a shitshow, like I FEEL YOU MY DUDE but also all we can do is block and move on.

If what you’re worried about is whether the show ITSELF is in some way villainizing her, I really and truly don’t think that’s something we need to panic about either.  First of all, it’s hugely significant that what we see in the trailer is Abby agonizing over the decision, but we don’t see how that person in the tank comes to be there.  We haven’t seen Abby “there has to be another way” Griffin try to find another way.  (For example, does somebody volunteer?)  We haven’t seen the whole context of what leads up to that conversation over the radio, we haven’t heard all of what she says, we haven’t seen how the other characters - Kane, Clarke, Raven, Luna, Murphy, Roan, Jackson - respond or what their position is on this same issue.  But I don’t think they’re making her the bad guy, I think they’re setting her up as a conflicted and flawed hero, just like her daughter is, making the hard ugly choices that have to be made for everyone to survive, but busting her ass to try absolutely everything else first.

This is different from the ridiculous, out-of-character Raven slap, or all the characters at the beginning of S3 loudly announcing what a bad chancellor she was in order to move the chess pieces around to get the chancellor pin to Kane for plot reasons.  Those were bonehead writing choices that demonized Abby unnecessarily and they continue to annoy me (physical violence is anathema to Abby, this is a running thread, and obviously she was a pretty damn good chancellor since she’s the one who built Arkadia into a home and gave them three months of peace; so like, THOSE THINGS DIDN’T MAKE SENSE).  But this is a classic Abby conundrum.  I’d encourage you not to get pulled into listening to people compare her to Dr. Tsing, and to think about this in the context of the The Culling.  It was inarguably necessary that they needed to float a certain number of people in order to preserve oxygen.  But Abby tried everything else first.  She tried to convince the Council to wait for the kids to reestablish contact, for a decisive sign from the wristbands.  When that failed, she commandeered a Russian dropship and a Raven Reyes and sent her to Earth to report back.  When that failed, she released Jake’s tape to the whole Ark so everyone knew what was happening, to keep Kane and Jaha from killing all of Section 17 with no warning.  It worked by getting people to volunteer - that is, it became self-sacrifice and not murder - but all those people still died, because based on all the information they had, they TRULY believed that that was necessary for them to survive.  So we know who Abby Griffin is in these circumstances.  We know she doesn’t have the capacity to just stand back and watch, or hide behind the rules, and we know she feels every single one of those deaths acutely, and we know how hard she fights to preserve every life that she can.  So knowing what we now know - that Nightblood may be, like the Culling, the thing that needs to be done for humanity to survive - the question is how Abby will handle it. 

Yes, the Mt. Weather parallels are there - this season has been all about parallels with major events from past seasons.  But the important thing to note is that those parallels have all been flipped in some way.  For example, the Clarke/Jasper/Monty parallel to the Jaha/Clarke/Jake situation.  Clarke (in the Jaha slot) shocklashes and arrests Jasper (Jake) to keep him from telling everyone the truth, then Monty (Abby) runs over and shouts it out through the intercom anyway. So far, so good.  Nice clear parallel, right?  Except then what happens?  Clarke realizes she crossed a line and lets Jasper go.  She works hard to make it right with Jasper and Monty.  She doesn’t want to be the kind of leader, like Jaha, who could float his friends.  And then Arkadia burns a few episodes later, making the list moot.  So the parallel is set up the same way, and then switches direction.  We’ve seen a lot of these throughout the show so far, and they’ve all been switched up or turned on their head in some way.  So if they’re setting up a line between Abby and Dr. Tsing, the way they did between, say, Jasper and Jake, then the thing to watch for is how they pull the rug out from under us and flip that parallel in an unexpected way.  And my guess with Abby is that it’s going to be something to do with the idea of sacrifice or consent; can she convince someone to volunteer their life to help her make Nightblood?  Can she find another way?

Anyway, I’m not freaking out about this and I hope you don’t either.  I’m really excited when Abby is relevant to the plot - she got so shafted last year - and when we get to remember she’s not just Clarke’s mom and Kane’s girlfriend, she’s a brilliant scientific and medical genius who has a supercharged ALIE brain.  They’re setting her up to be the person who saves the day - as she so often is - and I’m here for it.  If people want to deliberately misinterpret her motives, I can’t stop them, but I’m ready for emotionally conflicted doctor hero Abby to save humanity.