#it's also just very lucy and charlie brown with the football

[fideidefenswhore]

this is a book (the top review files it as a #wall-banger, appropriate, although i could not do this because i read it on my kindle through a loophole that didn’t return the library rental when it was due and had been meaning to finish it forever, and damned if i wasn’t going to finish my summit fever of this book of enthrallingly trashy mediocrity) about the poles, the ‘white rose’, so it’s weird that the exeter conspiracy and her own imprisonment is the most phoned-in part, the most static. even though it was fiction i thought it might give me some insights into that but it really...didn’t. so, i’ve been reading this other pop history book about the same (at least it’s not w/e/i/r but also i wish there was an academic one?) because it seems like the only one out there, apparently there’s an upcoming one but the release date is 2024.

what else, hm, it’s very...elastic, this ‘curse’. all the male heirs of the tudor line die, etc, well 1st...everyone dies, so. it makes this curse very hard to deny. henry viii has somehow escaped it because he’s not the heir, arthur was, so it hits him. does james v, who died around the age of thirty, count? does james vi/i? moreover, does henry brandon (he’s not mentioned in this book, one assumes because she likes his mother, and divides this world into good-- katharine of aragon’s friends and admirers-- and evil-- those that don’t deep-throat her toes)? the curse does not specify that the male heirs die before maturity or in their youth; there’s a brief pause where the fourth wall breaks down a little between the poles and they’re like oh, henry fitzroy has not died because he’s not an heir, he’s born outside of marriage, but then ofc he dies at seventeen and margaret is like ah yes....The Curse. there are no exceptions. so...idek. she should have just written an alternate history with magic, if she wants the magic to have been believably real, is what i’m getting at. plenty of bloodline curses in historical fantasy (there’s also some fourth wall breaking where the narrator considers that curses can be self-fulfilling, the duke of buckingham dies for hearing and believing in one, and the very weird, offhand remark that henry has ‘enacted’ his own curse because his daughter’s subsequent depression to his abandonment has made her ‘sterile’).

also going by the logic of well second sons can skip this curse but first sons are doomed, you would think edward vi might have lived into adulthood like henry viii....should they have specified something about being of different mothers, idk...

the depiction of princess mary was actually one of the better ones i’ve read. not very balanced, but actually very believably sympathetic, it’s refreshing to read her from the perspective of someone that adores and loves her. i actually found myself wishing that the novel had followed her instead (i found this with both TOBG and the kingmaker’s daughter, wishing it was from the POV of the ‘mean’ sister instead-- anne or isabel-- but be careful what you wish for; ik the queen’s fool was a mess, sooo...).

the depiction of the boleyns is about what one expected, myopic and yet ornately dressed inventiveness for fulsome moral comeuppance and scolding. thomas boleyn was apparently margaret pole’s ‘steward’ (there is a record of thomas boleyn being granted the reversion of bushey manor, but this instead being given to margaret pole in the year an act of parliament restored her, but none of him being awarded the stewardship, although he was awared others... ‘my former steward’ has more of a bite than ‘a steward’, one supposes, particularly since her own son was also...a steward...) so that her nose-holding at his rise is given some personal touch, george boleyn was ‘useless’, while at least mary boleyn was ‘fertile’ and the ‘sweeter of the two sisters’, anne boleyn’s banner and chariot and insignia are of her falcon ‘attacking the pomegranate’ (alright, i know where the origin of this ‘factoid’ on tudorstagram came from now, at least) rather than the only place that was ever found, the margin of one of her musicbooks, rather than her actual symbol, & every subject duly spits on the ground whenever this chariot passes, anne boleyn has no friends except for ‘other boleyns and howards’ (margaret lee, bridget wingfield,  and others do not exist), there are ‘no women of any rank’ and ‘none of the king’s family’ willing to attend her at calais (they included a duke’s daughter and two viscountesses, including his aunt-in-law) or ever acknowledge her (margaret tudor’s recognition of anne as queen is excised from the canon of this entire series), anne boleyn is a ‘commoner’ (the sting of this is somewhat weakened by how margaret pole also refers to margaret douglas, the daughter of a queen and earl, as a ‘commoner’), etc.

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

"if Buck or Eddie is going to be revealed as queer, it means Buddie will be happening." I actually completely agree with this but can I ask you why you think this? I also want to say that I don't think Eddie needs this kind of experiment arc or self discovery arc Buck is going to get. Eddie is just going to simply be in love with his best friend, and that will be it. Buck will be the experienced one.

I think that if they're giving Buck a self-discovery/experimentation arc they won't give one to Eddie because that would be redundant.

I wondered in season five if Eddie would come out - it was very heavily coded that way in my opinion - which would've meant that Buck then wouldn't get a self-discovery/experimentation arc. Again in my opinion. It would just be redundant to have both of them do that.

So yes, I agree with you, I think Eddie is just simply going to be in love with his best friend. Which I think suits him best. I personally don't think Eddie would bother to label himself or care about that kind of thing and would say "well I'm not straight" if asked and leave it at that.

The reason I think that if one or both of them is coming out as queer it means Buddie will be happening is that if the writers are cognizant enough to realize the audience sees queerness in one or both of them, they are also cognizant enough of the fact that making one or both of them queer and not getting them together is a) ridiculous and b) unkindly teasing the audience.

Looking at the situation as a writer, the simplest, easiest, obvious solution is to have Buck and Eddie date each other. If I'm going to make them queer, why would I reinvent the wheel by introducing a love interest the audience may not like, that I'll have to do extra work to get the audience to like, when I can just get them with each other?

Additionally, if I have noticed "hey we kinda made 'em queer and people have noticed," then I have also noticed the audience wants them together. To make Buck queer and give him a coming out episode/arc but then not get him with Eddie is rather like Lucy yanking the football away from Charlie Brown. While it's fun to bait and switch your audience in some ways (like who will have their life in danger in an episode, etc), you don't want to alienate your audience or make them feel played or cheated.

To make Buck queer and then not get him with Eddie would be like a middle-finger consolation prize. "Here FINE Buck's into men are you HAPPY?" And while there are definitely showrunners and writers out there who are that level of petty, most are not. Most care about their characters, story, and audience, and frankly most don't want to risk alienating their audience that much.

I think by now, showrunners and other head creatives are aware that "well we won't get the two together but we'll make one of them bi" isn't going to be treated as the well-intentioned consolation prize they think it is.

Additionally while I have a lot I'd like to yell at Tim about, he did say forever ago (back in season three I believe) that he never wants to make writing decisions based on pettiness or spite, and I choose to believe he stands by that.

Of course nothing is set in stone and if they do make Buck queer they might not make Buddie canon. But to me it simply makes the most sense. It's the easiest route and the most likely explanation for why Buck is coming out, and to not do it would be yanking the rug out from under your audience a bit, and I don't think any sensible writing team or showrunner would do that.

[hussyknee]

On Death in the Nile now, reading the set up at the hotel before the murder. I have to say, I don't give a shit about any of these three selfish young idiots. Idk who I have less respect for: the spoiled autocratic brat who turned people out of their homes for her swimming pool and stole her best friend's fiancée; this obsessed nuisance with no self-respect who stayed besties with this woman until this point and is now wasting all her money feuding with her over this sexist milk sop loser; or said milk sop loser who stayed engaged to a stage three clinger until said brat crooked her finger at him with no compunction about fucking over her best friend. Jesus wept. If my best friend "stole" my fiancé I'd just decide I dodged two bullets not having to waste any more of my life on these horrible people.

I'm more interested in whatever Oedipal shit is going on with the Allertons. Tim's a shady suck up. Also, as someone whose own life force is being sucked dry by a child vampire of a mother I can't escape, I feel for Rosalie in my marrow. At least mine doesn't write trashy soft porn and peddle it to strangers. I hope she chucks her mother into the Nile on her way out.

Edit – Copypasted reblog after finishing the book:

Umm.

Uhhh.

Well.

You know what I really hate/love about Agatha Christie novels? It's that when I'm reading them I nearly always think "you know, in any other case the main suspect would clearly be X because the obvious motive would be Y and it would be obvious they did Z and A to pull it off BUT the narrative is CLEARLY not supporting that...unless they're really going to rip the rug under our feet THAT far which is a RIDICULOUS idea..."

And it's not a ridiculous idea. It's never a ridiculous idea. Christie keeps fucking doing that over and over again and I'm still like some Charlie Brown lining up to kick Lucy's football. Idk whether this is entirely down to Christie's genius or the fact that I'm trusting as a newborn puppy and my autistic inability to fathom that people can tell me lies extends to fiction.

Anyway everyone was exponentially more interesting than I gave them credit for, I really just wanted give the murderer an award for brilliance and resourcefulness, and, very ironically, I now feel a lot more sympathetic to all three of the love triangle idiots (even the loser dude for some reason). The ending was heartbreaking.

And I want to apologise to Mrs. A for having called her creepy the first two chapters. She's a darling. Reminds me of my own late MIL. Tim doesn't deserve her.

[fancoloredglasses]

Race For Your Life, Charlie Brown (who is running this camp?!), part 1

[All images are owned by Paramount and Peanuts Worldwide. Please don’t sue me or send me to this camp]

[All video clips are courtesy of Rotten Tomatoes]

With summer starting, parents need to figure out what to do with their kids since school is no longer an option. Popular options are…

Take time off of work to take family vacations (see the Nation Lampoon’s Vacation franchise for examples of how this could go horribly wrong)

If the kids are old enough, make them get summer jobs

If they’re too young to be employed, but old enough to be trusted alone, let them stay home

If parents want to see their kids, but don’t trust them to stay home, they could send them to a day camp and pick them up after work

Then there’s the subject of this review from the mid-70s: If the parents want the summer off from their kids, they could ship them off to summer camp.

We will assume that most of you are familiar with Peanuts (or at least the Charlie Brown holiday specials) At the very least I reviewed one based on a movie about burlesque dancing), but just in case…

Peanuts was a daily comic strip created by Charles Shultz in 1950 and ran until shortly before his death in 2000. Schultz always hated the title (he originally named it Li’l Folks, but that name was already copyrighted so the publisher came up with the name that endured), which is why none of the animated shows, specials, and movies didn’t use the title until after Schultz’s death (every single one before had the main character’s name in the title) While the core cast hasn’t changed much over the years, minor characters have come and gone. The characters important to this review are…

Charlie Brown is the epitome of the downtrodden. He is laughed at by those he thinks of as friends, gets no respect from most (including his dog), and almost never comes out on top. For whatever reason, he is always (with one notable exception) referred to by his full name, rather than just his first.

Charlie Brown’s little sister Sally has all the red flags of a Karen-in-Training. She constantly complains about how Life Isn’t Fair to get her way (she once whined her way into getting a grade raised)

Lucy van Pelt is best described as the sociopath of the group. She absolutely has to be the center of attention and delights in tormenting Charlie Brown (especially with Charlie Brown kicking a football, constantly pulling it away at the last second so Charlie Brown lands flat on his back (she once did so during a football game in which Charlie Brown’s kick meant the difference between winning and losing. Three guesses who got blamed for the loss))

Lucy’s little brother Linus is likely the wisest of the gang. He has a dependency on his baby blanket, carrying it everywhere. He is also the target of Sally’s crush, much to his chagrin (she often refers to Linus as her “Sweet Baboo”)

Schroeder is a musical prodigy who worships the works of Beethoven. He carries around a pint-sized grand piano that he can play virtually anything on from memory. Lucy had decided that he is the man she’ll marry, no matter what he says (I say she’ll wind up settling for Charlie Brown)

Snoopy is Charlie Brown’s pet beagle. He walks like a human, acts like a human, and does everything humans do except talk (because THAT was where Schultz drew the line)

Snoopy’s best friend is Woodstock (yes, he was named after what you think he was named after) Woodstock can barely fly straight, but is eternally cheerful.

Franklin is…look, there’s no easy way to put this. He’s the token black kid. He was added to the comic strip in response to Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Unfortunately, he’s generally not treated well in animation. If he’s not being outright ignored, he’s being stereotypically black (such as break dancing) or segregated (in A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving, for example, he was the only kid on his side of the table while all of the white kids were on the other side)

Peppermint Patty is a tomboy and…well, she’s pretty much a Force of Nature. She pretty much gets everyone to do what she wants by not letting anyone get a word in edgewise. Fortunately, she’s (mostly) well-meaning, if a bit dense at times (she’s the only member of the gang who doesn’t realize Snoopy’s a dog) I’m not sure if she has a crush on Charlie Brown (or as she calls him, “Chuck”) or if she enjoys watching his squirm (interestingly, he doesn’t object despite clearly being uncomfortable about it)

Marcy is Peppermint Patty’s best friend and chief foil. Marcy is very soft-spoken, but is the first one to call Peppermint Patty on her strong-arm BS. For whatever reason, she refers to Peppermint Patty as “sir” (a large portion of the fans have a head canon that they’re in a relationship)

Now that we have the cast, on with the show! If you would like to watch the movie, it’s available behind your favorite paywall.

We open (in the credits) with the gang on a bus on their way to camp, with Snoopy not far behind on his “hawg” (that he’s never had before or since) I’m VERY curious what’s up with the landscape around the suburb they live in, they go through forest as the credits roll, then it immediately turns into desert.

As the credits end, the bus passes by a gas station with a pair of kids hanging out by the pump for some reason. Sally waves at them, but the girl blows a razzberry at her.

Sally gets her wish as the bus gets a blowout immediately after. The driver (that we don’t see; one thing about Peanuts is you never actually SEE the adults...and if you hear them, they say “MWAH WAH WAH WAH”) fixes the flat while Sally marches right up to the girl and…

…immediately backs down and slinks back onto the bus.

Later, the bus stops at another gas station to refuel (they couldn’t do so while fixing the flat?), so the gang takes the opportunity to stretch their legs. Charlie Brown gets distracted talking to Snoopy and…

What kind of bus driver doesn’t take a head count before leaving?!

Fortunately, Snoopy has room on his hawg and gives Charlie Brown a ride. Unfortunately, Snoopy decides to take a “short cut” through some of the roughest patches in the desert, making Charlie Brown close to getting sick by the time they arrive (behind the bus, so what was the point of all of that?)

…and suddenly we’re in the middle of the woods again.

While staggering around and desperately trying not to vomit, Charlie Brown accidentally bumps into three older kids (bullies) who immediately take a disliking to him.

Fortunately, the PA (with a kid at the mic. Are there no adults that are more qualified?) announces registration has begun so Charlie Brown can excuse himself before the bullies can feed him to their cat. Unfortunately, they run into him again when they cut the line and Sally tries to sic Charlie Brown on them.

(Yeah, like that would work)

Fortunately, Linus is there to Save The Day.

Later, as everyone fills out their registration forms (shouldn’t they have done that BEFORE they crossed a desert to come here?) Sally bitches about it, so Peppermint Patty waxes philosophical about the need to leave your comfort zone.

(…and people wonder why the fandom thinks Peppermint Patty and Marcie are a couple)

After filling out their forms, the gang heads for their tents (the boys in one, the girls in the other…

…and Snoopy in his own)

In the girls’ tent, Peppermint Patty suggests that they run things in a democratic fashion, including voting for a leader. Of course, Peppermint Patty has the election won, since we all know Marcie will vote for her.

So with everyone voting for themselves, Peppermint Patty decides she should cast the deciding vote…for herself (wait, there are more than four beds. Don’t the other girls in the tent get a say?)

That evening…

Nothing like roughing it, eh Snoopy?

The next morning…

PA kid has the campers out for morning calisthenics, followed by breakfast and morning activities (no, I’m not doing a montage. It’s as boring as it sounds) Then lunch happens.

Maybe Sally should complain to the manager.

After lunch…

The bullies are at it again.

…but they forgot about Linus.

PA Kid then announces that the Camp Games (pitting all of the tents against one another) will begin. Naturally…

…the bullies cheat. Where are the adults who are supposed to be keeping things fair?

WHO IS RUNNING THIS CAMP?!

As the gang sulks about losing to a bunch of cheaters, PA Kid announces the Main Event of the summer.

The other tents know they don’t stand a chance, meaning there are only four competitors: the boys (sporting a raft held afloat by four inner tubes), the girls (in an inflatable life raft), Snoopy and Woodstock (in a single inner tube) and the bullies, who are competing in this monstrosity…

…complete with radar, sonar, and an outboard motor. You know, if they can afford this contraption, why are they slumming it at Camp Remote?

The teams spend all afternoon inflating their rafts…

…only for the bullies to use that air to inflate theirs overnight. (I guess the electric air pump was a bit more than they could afford)

The next morning, the teams must once again inflate their rafts before the race begins and they all set out (if a bit winded)

[At this point, I would like to point out that the bullies act like every cartoon villain in every race ever: They have the means to get far ahead of the competition, and would likely win the race by several miles, but they need to take the time to cheat and “prove” their superiority]

That evening, the bullies manage to pry their raft out from under the dock and sneak past the other teams as they sleep until they come to…

They then flip the sign so it points in the opposite direction.

Wait, they scheduled an unsupervised race involving kids at a time when there’s blasting happening?!

WHO THE HELL IS RUNNING THIS CAMP?!

Later in the evening, it starts snowing (Hang on. It’s SNOWING in the middle of summer in a forest next to a fucking desert?!) The next morning Woodstock has some fun at Snoopy’s expense.

With that bit of levity out of the way the race continues, and they come to the bullies’ trap.

Despite being nearly pulverized by falling rocks, the channel proved to be a short cut as the gang emerges ahead of the bullies (no doubt sleeping in, knowing they no longer have any competition)

As the bullies rush to catch up…

…a massive storm hits, threatening to sink all of the rafts! (Wait, no one bothered to check the weather report before the race?)

In fact, Snoopy’s tube capsizes, sending both he an Woodstock into the river! Snoopy manages to swim back to his tube, but Woodstock is lost in the water!

WILL Woodstock survive? (I’m sure he’ll be fine. I mean, he was in specials and the comic strip that were published after this)

WHO will win the race?

WHO THE FUCK IS RUNNING THIS CAMP?!?!?!

These questions and more will be answered in the exciting conclusion!

[telomeke-bbs]

BAD BUDDY EPISODE 7 – BAIT-AND-SWITCH WITH CHARLIE BROWN ON THE ROOFTOP

When Pat wore his Baseball Mom tee on the rooftop in Ep.5, one possible reading is that his wacky outfit was actually a call-out to Pran playing a massive bait-and-switch prank on him, after all the times he'd done it to Pran before.

And through this lens, you can also read Pat and Pran as incarnating Lucy and Charlie Brown respectively from the comic strip Peanuts, while the various bait-and-switch games can be seen as renditions of the iconic football gag that Lucy always played on Charlie Brown. (Yes I know this sounds really crazy, but you can read more explanation and justification at this write-up linked here.)

Prior to Ep.5, Pat had always been pulling the bait-and-switch on Pran, just as Lucy did with Charlie Brown. Some examples:

Pat returned Pran's watch at Ep.1 [4/4] 9.46 in a gesture of friendship, only to impose the condition "But…don’t talk to me in front of people. They might think we're buddies."

The tragic bunk-over beginning at Ep.4 [4/4] 10.43, when Pat subjected poor Pran to all sorts of affectionate moments, before exploding any hope of a romance with him by announcing his romantic feelings for Ink instead.

Gently comforting an injured Pran with soothing medication at Ep.4 [3I4] 7.07, and then suggesting it was only to get him back to fighting fit as Pat's competitor in sports;

Returning Pran’s guitar, then whacking down his romantic hopes with a callous "I just like to see your face… when you lose" (Ep.3 [4/4] 10.30).

Just as Pran was always the one subjected to Pat's bait-and-switch, in Peanuts canon Charlie Brown was always the victim of Lucy's prank with the football (she'd whisk it away just before Charlie Brown could kick it, and the momentum of the run-up would send him flying).

But on the rooftop at the end of Ep.5 BBS continued its subversive agenda and had Pran (a version of Charlie Brown the bait-and-switch victim) pulling the switcheroo on Pat instead (who before that was always a version of Lucy, the historical perpetrator of the prank).

Pran suddenly reversed the roles and gave prankster Pat a taste of his own medicine, by walking away after confirming Pat's romantic hopes with The Kiss. And Pat found himself the victim of the very same kind of short-con that he'd been subjecting Pran too up until then.

Since Pat and Pran had switched roles on the rooftop at the end of Ep.5, their very next rooftop encounter at Ep.7 [4/4] 1.44 has Pran now incarnating the persona of crabby fussbudget Lucy, while Pat is Charlie Brown – and Mr. Jindapat is certainly dressed for the part with his t-shirt there calling loudly out to Charlie Brown's iconic zigzagged yellow top:

(above left) Bad Buddy Ep.7 [4/4] 1.48; (above right) Charlie Brown in his own iconic t-shirt

And this scene then becomes loaded with meaning when we look at it in the light of all the other bait-and-switch encounters in BBS, especially on the rooftop in Ep.5.

Pat calls attention to Pran's previous prankstering (at his expense) in Ep.5 on the rooftop by saying (in the subtitles) "You tricked me here for what now?" at Ep.7 [4/4] 1.44. (I think what he says is "หลอกกูมาทำอะไรอีกเนี่ย?", which – if so – probably translates to something more like "So what else are you duping me with, huh?" i.e., he's asking what more trickery is afoot from Pran).

Pran offhandedly denies any duplicity ("Come on. I’m not always playing games with you") but that's a lie of course – it's Ep.7 and they're still deep in the throes of their Beachside Bet™.😂 And Pat dismisses Pran's trickstering immediately because he knows Pran's ulterior motives in calling him there ("Yeah? If that guy didn’t quit the play, would you still want to see me?").

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.7 [4/4] 3.33

Pat then tops it off with his comment at timestamp 3.33 ("I love to see your face when you lose"), a reboot of what he first said in the Tinidee corridor at Ep.3 [4/4] 10.30 that also calls out to his bait-and-switch with the guitar there. And this firmly grounds the scene as another comment on his signature pranking.

So Pat as Charlie Brown refuses to take the bait offered by Pran. And then we see Pat/Charlie Brown, the erstwhile prank victim, flipping the script to perform a bait-and-switch back at Pran (in a parallel with what Pran/Charlie Brown did to Pat/Lucy on the rooftop at the end of Ep.5).

But this bait-and-switch on the Ep.7 rooftop is the antithesis of all the previous ones. Maybe Pat has learnt something?

Before this, whenever Pat played the bait-and-switch game with Pran, he would be dangling something of value as bait only to dash Pran's hopes with a last-minute substitution. The promise of a precious moment, replaced with something quite the opposite instead.

Here on the rooftop in Ep.7, Pat changes his modus operandi. He's stringing Pran along by imposing terms that are impossible for him to meet, in return for taking on the role of Riam. What he wants is a public confession of love, a demand that privacy-obsessed Pran (at this stage of his emotional/psychological journey) is intrinsically unable to fulfil. (Of course, Pran's journey will eventually get him to a point when he can and does make that very public confession in Ep.10, and he will pay Pat back for this Ep.7 moment by using another bait-and-switch to get Pat to their khan maak on the Archi steps. 😁)

But Pat is playing hardball here on purpose. He's dashing Pran's hopes upfront in a reversal of all their previous bait-and-switch games, by offering up only defeat and disappointment (without him as Riam, Pran will have to deal with a furious Toto and the musical in a shambles). Except that this also allows Pat to switch things up in a final flourish when he appears on stage as Riam at Ep.7 [4/4] 4.26, saving the day for his beloved.

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.7 [4/4] 6.40

It’s both a parallel with and also the absolute opposite of their previous bait-and-switch encounters (especially the one on the rooftop in Ep.5), because the initial proposition here is all doom and gloom, while the switched-in coup de gr��ce turns out to be a win instead for the recipient. It's hugely clever of BBS, and I'm kicking myself for not having seen this buried in there before.

No wonder this was the final play that won the match, worthy enough to have ended their Beachside Bet. And in this moment I think Pat made up for all the times he unwittingly broke poor Pran's heart with all his silly bait-and-switch games – by playing it one more time.

But this time around, instead of whisking his affection away, Pat deployed the ultimate switch-out and gave to Pran the prize he'd always wanted instead – Pat himself, no longer an elusive prankster who would offer and then pull away the possibility of romance, but someone Pran could rely on instead, to be there for him in support and love forever.💖

(above) Bad Buddy Ep.7 [4/4] 6.52 – Pat and Pran bask in the afterglow of Pat's redemptive bait-and-switch, with Pat doing it right by Pran for the first time

‌

[linesonscreens]

Let's Read Peanuts (Yes, all of it) - November 1951

There are lots of great strips I just don't have room to comment on. I strongly encourage everybody to read the full month at the official GoComics page. Today's month starts HERE.

Nov 1, 1951

Apparently that's just how kids used to say “Trick or Treat”. Weird.

Nov 6, 1951

If there's a classic kid's game that's aged worse than "Cowboys and Indians" I can't think of it.

Nov 8, 1951

Wait, why is he hiding it? Literally everybody already knows he's some kind of mutant musical wunderkind.

Nov 10, 1951

Modern Charlie Brown not only would have left the party but would have been found sobbing in a ditch somewhere. Just saying.

Nov 13, 1951

He's such a little shithead and I love it.

Nov 14, 1951

First kicking the football joke! Yeah, I thought it would have involved Lucy as well.

Also, Violet did nothing wrong.

Nov 17, 1951

A recurring thing is Charlie Brown being low-key kind of racist against dogs. Very problematic.

Nov 19, 1951

These kids today and their newfangled whuzzits!

Nov 29, 1951

I feel seen.

Nov 30, 1951

Snorted out loud at this one.

Thoughts:

Mostly another solid but unremarkable month but I do think the 11/19 strip deserves a bit of extra attention for being particularly interesting. One of my favorite parts of reading older media like this is seeing historical events discussed in real time from the perspective of the people living through them. It's one thing to read in a book that TV went from obscure, to popular, to ubiquitous in the 1950s. However it's another thing entirely to see that same event from the perspective of Charlie Brown noticing that the world is starting to look a bit different as he stares at his dog's Hi-Lo dual band dipole antenna. That's just neat as hell.

Also, I did the math and that thing would have cost like $300 in today's money. Kind of makes you wonder where Snoopy got that kind of scratch, doesn't it?

[tavina-writes]

well now I'm curious about your beefs with till the end of the moon lol

Nonny, where do I even begin. Okay I'll begin with saying that @autumnslantern has probably written about this with more eloquence than I ever have and ever will, here, because Lantern is good at essay analyzing and I just shriek my frustrations like "cactus plant shrieks at clouds" into the void of my tumblr blog.

But I think the primary issue for me about TTEOTM isn't even the plot inconsistencies or the "fans of a thing that is not very good do not acknowledge that it's not very good" because neither of those two things bother me. Neither plot nor "it's not very good objectively" have ever deterred me from my love of a thing. I have watched some supremely badly created cdramas and come away feeling completely fulfilled in an iddy way and I grew up watching 80s cdramas so it doesn't matter to me if a show is camp or pretty or however.

BUT I think the reason I get bothered by TTEOTM is because I, okay, one I think I hyped it up for myself too much by going on spring planting back home when it was coming out so I was like "I WILL SAVE THIS, TO SAVOR IT ALL IN ONE GO! when I get back!!! :DDD" and also I consistently feel like I'm Charlie Brown and the Lucy-esque show writers will never let me kick the football.

My id can neither be fulfilled by the sad woobie meow meow who snaps and does murder, nor can it be fulfilled by the tragically burdened correct but suffering about it hero because this drama flip flops back and forth between these two things in a way that is just. really difficult for me to enjoy personally. Adding this to the plot and pacing difficulties as well as some of the ????? decisions in the editing room makes this very difficult for me to like.

Either TTJ is "suffers more than Jesus and is correct and good about it" or he's "tragically deranged and learns to love the world through the power of a principled bae" both of which are things I I adore and would eat with a spoon but this particular combination of "he suffers more than Jesus and is correct and good about it BUT he's also a deranged murder man who does very few actual murders and has to learn what love and goodness is through the....bae who never really expresses a lot of feelings about the world tbqh" kind of leaves me a bit twisting in the wind of "but. why though." and if I stop to ask "but why though" in a xianxia drama that's just not a good sign! I personally just didn't vibe with it.

I mean I vibed with some parts of it. I really wish there were more parts of it I vibed with. I really WANTED to vibe with more of it. But some part of me still feels like Charlie Brown being denied the ability to kick the football you know.

[cometcrystal]

oh dang man i’m sorry 😅, idk peanuts characters in highschool

peppermint patty, marcie, and franklin go to a different school in the strip, but i'm hcing they all go to the same high school once theyre older so i can have them all in one place. more convenient.

charlie brown is a very average student. straight Bs and Cs. he is on the football team but does a lot of benchwarming. starts struggling even more with his depression but it leads to him starting meds in college so it turns out ok this is just a rough patch for him

linus still carries his blanket but in some modified form where it's smaller and fits in his hand easier while he's in class. maintains a lot of his old habits actually. he changes the least i think. the ONE thing i will take from dog sees god is that linus is a stoner bc it just fits him but not the way they did it.

lucy is very involved in multiple clubs and such. taking as many AP classes as possible (or whatever the 1960s equivalent of that is). people outside her friend group tend not to like her very much. gets into the occasional fistfight which always draws a crowd. at least two of them are with frieda. she ends up the valedictorian of her class

schroeder is still quiet and doesn't really talk to anyone outside his immediate circle, nor does he feel the need to. gets good grades but also doesn't really aim high since his main focus is getting into a music college. people are always surprised when they realize he's not in the marching band

sally is 2 grades behind the rest of the gang but insists on hanging out with them anyway. she’s 10000% the type to pass notes in class and does so frequently with eudora. she still calls linus her sweet babboo despite not being interested in him anymore. her grades would be terrible if charlie brown didn’t help her with her homework.

peppermint patty is on every sports team the school will allow her to be on. she's always failing at least two classes but some of her teachers will try to work with her cause they see what a talented athlete she is and don't want her transcript to suffer. she's pretty popular by virtue of being a fun person, definitely the most universally-liked out of the gang, but she's still stubborn

marice is in the same camp as schroeder: gets good grades but doesn't aim very high. she's in more honors stuff/clubs than he is though just for the resume bonuses. she's still very deadpan and has not learned an ounce of social grace but gets a boost from being associated with her all-star girlfriend

violet and patty behave like they roll with the "popular" crowd but they are still very much a part of this loser clique (and the peanuts gang IS the weird kid group). they're still inseparable and are generally thought of as a single unit when making plans for get-togethers. until 12th grade they are both ignorant to the fact that they are gay, specifically for each other, and a lot of unnecessary, unconscious pining happens

that's all the main kids i think. charlie brown starts spending more time with both franklin and heather and bonds with both of them a lot. pig pen still goes by pig pen and corrects the teachers when they call his real name on the roll. honestly not a lot changes except for the fact that some of them can drive now and they're generally more self-aware of themselves as human beings (not completely, but theyr'e getting there).

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 4.1.6 ‘Enjolras and his lieutenants’

This chapter is so charming.

I’m not sure how I can possibly add to the discussions already out there. It’s our largest glimpse inside Enjolras’s head, and he’s so full of warmth for his friends and hope for the future, as well as the logistics of the massive plan of revolutionary action he seems to carry around with him at all times. I love this.

And Grantaire! Hugo manages something remarkable in so little here--we get the full portrait of where Grantaire is in his arc in so few words. I know how many people in this fandom have written Grantaire, and how so very, very few capture this dynamic in a way that feels right to me--he’s at once hangdog and annoying and full of warmth, even as he proves himself totally incapable of being good for anything for the five zillionth time.

I’ve said before that the relationship between Enjolras and Grantaire feels to me like Charlie Brown and Lucy and the football (Enjolras is Charlie Brown, Grantaire is Lucy, the football is whether Grantaire is ever going do anything useful) and that’s what I’m getting from it this time, too.

And that’s really interesting, because that’s so absolutely not the power relationship Grantaire thinks is there.

Grantaire calls Enjolras an “ingrate,” hearkening back to Fauchelevent accusing Jean Valjean of ingratitude for forgetting a man who’s life he saved. It’s Grantaire’s way of gesturing at--without quite understanding it himself--that Enjolras is saving him, and that there’s something really complicated and uncomfortable about how one-sided it is that Grantaire’s whole life is bound up in this and Enjolras is only tolerating him and not thinking about him too hard.

People who save another person have, this book says, some duty to reckon with what they’ve done and with the saved person as a person.

Grantaire acts out in this odd, immature way that’s predicated on his belief that all the power is in Enjolras’s hands, and his own words and actions are immaterial. Enjolras asks for sincerity, and Grantaire, like a bratty teenager, ducks around the point with constant wordplay that begs for affection and respect while perpetually undermines both. He’s acting like a middle-schooler with a crush, really--which he declares in ways that he has actively guaranteed are impossible to take seriously or acknowledge. He won’t say “I believe in you” sincerely until the day of the barricade.

It’s a symptom of depression, I suppose, or of whatever brainweirdness Grantaire has, that he can’t see his actions matter the way other people’s actions matter, or that he could take action in the world the way other people take action, or that his belief that Enjolras is up on a pedestal and he himself is the lowly worm offering to polish his boots (also word play, of course; I believe it was slang for kissing up) only exists in Grantaire’s head, not in real life.

Grantaire seems to keep offering and withdrawing Lucy’s football in the belief that he’s the only one who gets hurt when he pulls it back. He doesn’t see Enjolras gather up his faith and go to kick the football and fall on his ass again--he just sees the consequences to himself afterwards, in Enjolras’s presumed disappointment with him. He’s sabotaging himself, and he thinks he’s only sabotaging himself.

But, of course, Grantaire is the incarnation of the bourgeoisie Hugo has spent the last five chapters begging and cajoling for the love of God to stop just sitting there. He’s more charming than most of them in that his inaction is arising more from obvious brainweasels than from true indifference. And he’s trying harder than most of them, because he’s here, trying to let Enjolras save him even as he sabotages that impulse and that relationship in every way he can.

But the fact remains, it’s high time for the bourgeoisie to get up and help. And Grantaire got as far as getting up--as he said, he was very capable of the literal walk to Richefeu’s--but not as far as helping.

[writeranon69]

What careers do you see the Peanuts friends have when they’re adults?

HMMMMMMMMM THIS IS A GREAT QUESTION HONESTLY

I can see the whole gang being professional baseball players in the future

individually tho?

Charlie is a baseball player either way. Football is also a good career choice for him methinks

Lucy, getting her act together (although I doubt that's happening) is probably following Charlie Brown through his career as either a baseball player alongside him, or a licensed therapist.

Linus is...someone who I can see being a political figure, weirdly enough. He'd be a God-Tier President, methinks

Sally...she's a tough one. Probably a marriage counselor considering how much she loves love.

Schroeder is a pianist while playing Baseball with Charlie on the side.

Peppermint Patty, of course, is also playing Baseball for the...VERY obvious reason of following Charlie.

Marcie is a writer/librarian, but she goes to a lot of the gang's games to cheer them on.

Franklin, I'm not too sure honestly...

Same goes for Pig-Pen.

And Patty.

violet can go perish all things considered

Snoopy is just being a good ol' dog still. Woodstock is just Charlie's pet as well now.

Rerun...probably follows in Linus' footsteps.

Heather/The Little Red-Haired Girl has shown signs of caring a great deal about Charlie Brown, so...baseballeth

or a cheerleader! Whatever works.

That should do it.

[ilikekidsshows]

These cyberbullies who worship Chloe are not the first "mob of fans to be outraged by what happens in a story". Anon has seen this kind of collective outrage before--except in previous generations, it used to be in defense of the victims, rather than their tormentors. For example, when It's Your First Kiss, Charlie Brown aired in 1977, Charlie Brown got punished for losing a football game when it was Lucy's fault. Fans sent lots of angry letters to the TV stations about it in Charlie's defense.

(addendum) Besides, Chloe stans aren't abuse apologists, or even bully apologists--that would actually be an improvement. If someone has toxic principles that "some people deserve to be mistreated", at least the person HAS principles. What this anon actually thinks is happening is that they're "person I like apologists". For instance, I've seen one Chloe stan demand that Bakugo be punished, so the person does want bullying punished UNLESS they like the bully. Stans "make up morality as they go."

Writing a strongly-worded letter/email to the company actually responsible for a piece of media about your concerns with what messages said piece of media is sending people is very different from bullying and harassing a single person every single day. The person receiving that correspondence won't be receiving it as a personal attack for one thing, and writing such a thing will make sure you think about what you're saying and what you actually want before sending it instead of typing something in a couple of minutes and hitting "send". I see the "how" in your example as more respectable than the "why".

In my personal moral code bullying is never justified, because I believe that we should strive to do as little harm to others as possible and prioritize lessening the harm someone can do over punishing them for personal gratification. Bullying someone, even for "valid reasons", is not justified in my moral system. The reality is that bullying someone with a toxic belief system will not change their mind and will, in fact, only radicalize them and make them double down on those toxic beliefs. That's why the two ends of the political spectrum have been growing more and more extreme in the online space, because both sides are harassed by the other side so they double down and become more radicalized. Bullying doesn't put a stop to the harm caused by someone's toxic beliefs, there's a high chance it'll worsen it. So I can't even condone the bullying of "bad people", because it's been proven to be counterproductive to the betterment of society.

Also, since it's so hard to determine whether or not a claimed "wrong" has been committed by the target of a harassment campaign to begin with, it's best to just reject those campaigns on principle, so that there will be less later proven innocent victims. The outrage narratives are meant to make you not question and, a lot of the time, as soon as someone has questioned what was going on, it's come to light that the harassment was just bullying and the "crimes" we fabricated by a small group of people who like to launch these campaigns for the sake of clout or just for the high of "taking someone down".

So, you're right, anon, cyberbullies are not actually about protecting people or even some belief system, they just use the idea of defending something as a justification and smokescreen for their actual intentions, which are just to bully someone, and also to "recruit" people into their cause. Cyberbullying works the best when you can get an actual mob going. But, I don't think Chloé Stans are in it for the clout. I do think you're right that it's about their highly conditional moral code, and the condition is how they feel about a particular thing. This is why even people with a "valid reason to raise concerns" are suspect to me, because you can twist anything into being about the children when, in reality, it's about that person's own personal feelings about a character. And that’s in addition to the possibility of their arguments being fabricated.

People who are out to change media to suit their personal tastes think that they experience emotions differently from others, that theirs are more real and painful and important. "Chloé has to be redeemed because her being the antagonist she's always been hurts my feelings!" The implication that Thomas Astruc deserves to get harassed because he said something generalizing that hurt Chloé Stans’ feelings is all about this narrative based on hyper-individualism.

Modern western society is very individualistic. The good thing about this is that we're more likely to defend our rights. We think: "We exist, so we matter." The bad thing is that some people take that thinking to the extreme with: "I am the only person who truly exists, I am the only person who truly matters, and so everything should cater to my personal preferences or it's Objectively Bad and Morally Evil." Hyper-individualism, or toxic individualism, basically means that you experience the world around you so stuck inside your own head and your own emotions, that empathy and sympathy become impossible and you might even consider yourself above normal society. This mostly only happens online, though, where the idea of “society” and “other people” feels less real anyway, so we get entitled fans harassing content creators on twitter to make their ship canon etc.

[st-louis]

plz talk flyers 2 me!!! what if anything are u looking forward to from them this season? what are u gonna be keeping an eye on once games get going?

okay literally my husband said to me today "you never talk about the flyers anymore" and i was like that's because their offseason was normal to very good while the habs are like troy entering room on fire with pizzas dot gif

i had typed up SO much stuff then lost it trying to add that gif rip

anyway:

first and foremost the redemption of carter hart i know it is stupid but i am SO invested in this dumb manchild with his smelly gloves and awkward smile and embarrassing car and his questionable mindfulness techniques... i truly want him to succeed both for himself and because as a lifelong philadelphia fan goaltending is truly the charlie brown and lucy football meme of my life we are SO close with him SO CLOSE and it's just dangling out of reach... martin jones who

ryan ellis and provy together and provy not having to try to do everything himself to the detriment of the whole rest of his game!

kevin hayes + friends, this was a silly option pre jimmy hayes' death but i'm truly hoping that having atkinson yandle etc around him will make it easier for him to cope

cam atkinson in general! excited to see what he can bring to the power play! would love to have a power play with finishing potential!

beezer a step forward?? could he be a 20-30 goal guy again??

the 3C position!!!! could we HAVE a 3C this year? whether it is morgan frost or brass or whoever. COULD WE HAVE CENTER DEPTH???????

the duel to the death between keith yandle's ironman streak and av benching people

the duel to the death between keith yandle's ironman streak and cam york's ambition

comedy option seeing whether rasmus ristolainen was playing in buffalo or is just bad (spoiler alert he is just bad)

basically what i'm gonna be keeping an eye on are whether we can actually make clean zone transitions, whether the flyers forwards can actually keep up with av's forechecking system with proper conditioning and the chance to practice properly in the offseason, whether the defense just collapses again...... with goaltending i want to see whether jones was just bad because it was san jose or whether he's just bad now (i suspect the latter) but also the split between hart/jones and how many games they play. i wanna see if carter manages to fix some of his technical issues he was having specifically where teams knew where to pick their shots because he could NOT get them glove side high etc. i WILL be keeping an eye on risto’s stats because lmao

i am actually feeling pretty hopeful about the season in general, maybe foolishly but i really like most of the additions in the offseason and i think that with better conditions the team won't be as like. depressed.

i AM nervous about g's contract but i think he will stay if the team doesn't shit the bed and i think he might even take a discount if the team is good

[oneweekoneband]

her Nebraska (1982)

In July I flew to Massachusetts with a plague on, and I felt that it was wrong, but my mother had begged and I’d been out of work for months. Mornings there I ran in long, uneven ovals on the same roads I’d memorized in high school. There’s no sidewalks, but the few feet of dirt between the craggy pavement and the open mouths of the fields serve all right for a single body in motion. When a truck comes up close from behind, the ground shakes, and I step away bouncingly from the street toward thigh-high yellow weeds and grass, and keep going. I was slowly picking my way back in that dirt, sweat-slick from only a plodding couple of miles in peak summer heat, and sucking the wet cotton of my mask in between my teeth on every inhale, when Taylor Swift announced she was releasing a surprise album produced by the guy from The National. Not the guy from The National, like, the voice, but the guy from The National whose photo was circulated on Twitter earlier this year as some kind of antifa super soldier, which isn’t the case, but would’ve been rad. First, I stopped dead to send some outraged, misspelled text messages, and then I ran home faster than I’d moved in years.

Tall, blonde, patrician pop star Taylor Swift is to me something like a cross-between a wife and a boogeyman. Bound we’ve been since we were really children. Time and its changes haven’t rid me of her, and what’s worse is I have never quite been able to wish they would, though I claim as much all the time. Countless hours of my one wild and precious life have been spent on endlessly analyzing the minutiae of Taylor Swift’s music, the mind that made it, the real world events which influenced it. And though all the while I have known she is only a person, and that people, while each strange and lovely in their own ways, are, in the end, mostly dull, needful in just the regular manner, the fantasy is better, the sick dream of a megalomaniac songstress, curious, thrilling, probably evil, and I choose that. I don’t know Taylor Alison Swift, born to this world in, I presume, the usual way. But my Taylor Swift? I’m a renowned expert. I’ve always eaten up stories—movies, music, celebrity news, the one my grandfather tells about falling off his bike once in Ireland as a boy and his face “cracking open like an egg”—like a starved dog. I’m obsessive about my interests, but not inclined to intense fandom, and certainly not fandom in the mode of the stan. For one, I’m too self-absorbed. But caring intensely for a famous person is falling in love with a ghost, and that’s all right—I mean, what the hell? We’re here together just dying... Let’s enjoy—but is an affair best undertaken with the knowledge that everyone alive has their own complex interiority, as unruly as your own, and that you, a stranger, are not in any real way connected to the lawless, blurry middle of that celebrity, and will never be. It’s freeing and fun to know this. I mean, these people are basically in your employ. Glamorous dollhouse dwellers. Acknowledging that uncrossable distance allows for a different, healthier closeness of pure imagination. My feelings, then, can comfortably be at once both fiercely intense and entirely silly. I am a foremost scholar in the art of the Taylor Swift who exists in my head. The real person raised in Pennsylvania I don’t know at all. I have some conjectures on the matter, and, as with all my conjectures, every hackneyed theory, each picky little opinion, I’m sure they’re perfect, brilliant, just absolutely right, but that’s still all they are. Taylor Swift, figure of the cultural imagination, is the Jodie Comer to my Sandra Oh in Killing Eve, annoying and pretty in frills, taunting me endlessly and holding us trapped together in a dance of most enchanting death. But the real Taylor Swift has favorite bed sheets and a social security number and a British boyfriend, none of which I have any desire to know about, and if I saw her at a restaurant I’d politely avert my eyes before, yes, dive-bombing the group text. There’s nobody on Earth I’d stand in line to speak to, but then I’ve been speaking to a certain figment of Taylor Swift for nearly half my life.

I went to a Taylor Swift concert the night before I moved into college in 2009. My father’s work friend, firefighter by day, near professional gambler by night, got comped tickets to the Fearless Tour stop taking place at the nearby casino, and he let me have them as a reward, mainly, for happening to be seventeen. Live in-person and performed acoustically, “Fifteen” made me cry. A few years after that, in the thick, sticky part of my first post-college summer, I wrote approximately twenty-three million words about her in these very pages.  (”Pages”) At that point, Taylor’s most recent release was 2012’s Red, and the work I produced that long ago July about Taylor and her career, writing I was fairly pleased with at the time, feels now, besides just being extremely clearly written by a twenty-one year old, strange to me for the way it favors the sweet over the sour almost uniformly. There is a wholesome kind of ardor in that writing which maybe I’ve outgrown the ability to hold. Or maybe Taylor just proceeded to spend the next half a decade plus releasing one bad single after another, and it was taste—and trespasses against taste—and not some shift in my nature which altered the tenor of our bond. I have real love for my particular image, gleaned from public statements and published art, of smart, bizarre famous woman Taylor Swift, and I admire the bulk of her output very much. I’m just no longer so inclined to fawn. This is not to say I am here to offer a Taylor Swift hate screed. I couldn’t swing it, and, anyway, I’m not a pop feminist-for-hire circa 2010. But we’re older now. Things are different. At twenty-eight, twenty-nine this month—Taylor will, also this December, turn thirty-one—I regard Taylor Swift warily, like an ex with whom you have a tentative friendship, perpetually on the brink of falling one way or the other into hatred or delight, only to wobble back the opposite direction again at the slightest provocation, but still, despite best efforts, even, I regard her all the time. 

folklore was released at midnight on July 24th 2020, but I was at a cabin in rural Vermont without Internet or cell service. I drank Bud Light seltzers with my mother while watching the eerie pandemic return of Major League Baseball, and when I got into a strange bed there I stewed, knowing there were people out in the world all over who were hearing Taylor Swift songs I never had, and that this was a fundamental wrong, a disruption in the balance of the universe. I listened to it the next morning in a Dunkin’ Donuts parking lot. 

And folklore is great. That’s the terrible thing. Slightly less great, maybe, than some people have insisted, tricked, I think, by just the pronounced shift in sound. But it’s great. A little gift I asked for a thousand times and was still surprised to get, like a wife who didn’t expect her henpecked husband to ever follow through and buy the paraffin wax hand bath as-see-on-TV. For years, I’ve been halfheartedly insisting that Taylor had a great album in her. I’d say it even, perhaps especially, while she stubbornly fed me gruel. Or worse, gruel with the occasional whiff of something better. With a ripe, little raspberry dropped into the slop. The bright, villainous thrill of “Getaway Car” made me believe Taylor, my Taylor, was in there somewhere under the lacquer of sequins and synth, which, while not objectionable by default, seemed a costume, and an ill-fitting one. The lived-in world of “Cornelia Street” made those old scars sting. That gay “Delicate” video. When she did “Call It What You Want” on SNL and played guitar while wearing an ugly sweater. If the abominable “ME!”, lead single off Lover, was the stick, 1989’s “Clean” was the carrot. I was Charlie Brown, and Taylor my Lucy, yanking the football back again and again. Over drinks I still yelled that Taylor Swift’s next album would be, “her Nebraska”, referring to my favorite Bruce Springsteen record, and learned to live with that egg on my face for good. I suppose I even came to like it. There was something inherently funny in taking up, like, “blind faith in the as of yet untapped greater artistic potential of massively wealthy and popular singer Taylor Swift” as my totally inane personal cause du jour, and eventually it was a bit, a gag I performed to be obstinate and didactic, but way down somewhere awful near my kidneys I meant it the whole while. And then she did it. A pandemic befell the world and amid a sea of human suffering Taylor Swift remembered she can write. She wrote, and with a massive, crucial assist from Aaron Dessner, whose music on this record is sometimes so beautiful it actually angers me, as the last thing I needed in already perilous times was to be made to try and marry my uniquely perverse emotional responses to beloved divorced dad band The National and fucking Taylor Swift,  she made an album which, if not her Nebraska, per se (I’ve come to realize that a major part of believing Taylor Swift will one day make an album I find as quietly devastating and gorgeous as Nebraska is knowing that no album will ever actually be Her Nebraska... That each will, rather, to me, be more and more evidence that it’s coming still, more proof that the limit is untouched, on and on ad infinitum, or at least until the seas take us into a place of salty peace.) is a shocking credit to all my hard-fought and deluded confidence. folklore is great. This fact has made me feel almost equally as disoriented from my understanding of the world as the time-melting COVID-19 lockdowns have, and it turned my Spotify year in review annual collective AI humiliation kink thing into a glaring indictment of my mental state, but still, I mean... It’s great.

In talking about folklore a bit this week, there are a number of specific topics I intend to cover—what a thrill it is to hear Taylor say “fuck”; Taylor’s terrifying birth chart; the astoundingly perfect bridge of “the last great american dynasty”; “because my ass is located at the back of my body”; the bit in last year’s “Lover” where deranged WASP Taylor Swift implies that to “leave the Christmas lights up til January” is some signifier of being a love-struck bohemian, when actually everyone who doesn’t employ domestic staff to take their lights down does this; how reputation is the best of the Taylor Swift records released in the latter half of the 2010s, actually, and the people who can’t see that are cowards—but intend mostly to let the muse move me where she will. Against the advice of my better angels, she—that tie-in marketing eldritch terror—always does.

[aros001]

Amazing Spider-Man #74. Thoughts.

Well, that's...frustrating.

Spoilers ahead.

Starting off with the good news, Peter and MJ are thankfully still together and there's not indication that these events are going to drive them apart, which is good. Regardless of One More Day or not, there is really no reason to not have main continuity Peter and MJ not as a couple, be it in-universe logic or on a meta level.

But speaking of OMD...yeah, it hasn't been undone. Now, I have seen some people interpret the interactions between Mephisto and Doctor Strange as Mephisto agreeing not to interfere in the two's lives anymore and thus they are now free to be together and get married without him getting in the way. If that interpretation is correct then that certain is a positive change...but it's also not what fans were hoping for. And certainly not what they were being led to believe would happen by the series itself.

Now, you could make the very true argument that the series and writer and editors and Marvel itself never said that OMD was going to be undone and all the expectation was just because of fan speculation. And technically that would be true. But the people who made these comics don't live in a bubble, blissfully unaware of what people think about OMD or what fans were saying about the current run. They didn't accidentally lift lines and references straight from OMD and OMIT and put it in the books. They didn't just happen to have Mephisto show up repeatedly, a villain who has only ever had two significant interactions with Spider-Man and OMD most certainly being the far more significant of the two. It wasn't a coincidence that Kindred was all about Hell, sins, and secrets Peter was guilty of but didn't remember (what the hell was it he even wanted Peter to confess?). They KNEW what they were doing.

I don't know if it's Nick Spencer or Marvel editorial who is to blame for how this run ended. Could be both. Could be neither and its a third party. But given my own biases, if I had to guess, I'd say it's likely editorial, mostly because...well...this is what they do all the damn time. What they've been doing ever since OMD. They tease that it's going to be undone, suddenly throwing in tons of references or hints to OMD at once, and then never letting the writers actually do it. I've heard it described as Charlie Brown and Lucy with the football and that definitely feels accurate. Constantly teasing and then always finding a way out of it at the last minute. Again, own biases talking, but how messy things got as Sinister War went near the ending, this definitely feels like a case of editorial getting cold feet and forcing the writer to change what he had originally planned. The involvement of Gabe and Sarah and the retcon of Sins Past works well enough in a vacuum but there's so little build-up to them or hints to them being Kindred instead of Harry in the series itself that it does really feel like it was a last minute addition. But again, it's speculation on my part and whether it's Marvel or Spencer who is at fault, it really doesn't change the overall problem with this storyline and OMD as a whole. And that problem is...a lot of us are just so damn tired of this.

While not perfect, the J Michael Straczynski run on Amazing Spider-Man remains probably my favorite of Spider-Man to date. I remember being a kid going to my local public library and the Spidey books I'd always be getting were those fat Essential collections, the Ultimate Spider-Man trades, and JMS's run. There were others, of course, but those are the ones I remember most vividly and fondly, the ones that kind of informed my view on Spider-Man and who is was, and thus what I'm always comparing any modern Spidey story and interpretation to.

And I think that's why OMD hits especially hard as a bad story for me. Not just because it's how my favorite run ending, nor because of how much it's known now that Marvel editorial pushed JMS to write the story that he heavily disagreed with and went against so much of the themes of his run. Rather, I really feel like OMD, more than any other bad Marvel or DC comic, was the one that really slapped me in the face and told me "You wasted your time getting invested".

If 20 years worth of stories can just be retconned away, including my favorite run, and a relationship we were told over and over and over again how important it is to the characters involved just broken apart just because an editor (someone not even BUYING Spider-Man comics) didn't like it...why the hell should I be invested in any new Spider-Man stories? Why should I give a series my time and money if it's more than likely not going to matter?

And don't get me wrong, pretty much all of Marvel and DC's stories are ultimately unchanging. There's a reason fans joke about how no one ever stays dead and that "the status quo is god". But there's a difference between things not changing and things not mattering. Even when Dick Grayson went back to being Nightwing after his short bit as Batman, that time still mattered to him and Damian. Even when the Dark Reign that followed the Civil War storyline was eventually taken down and everything went back to normal, everyone still remembered that time in their lives and will make reference to it.

But OMD?

Aunt May knowing Peter's secret? Gone. Never referenced.

Peter being a teacher? Gone. Back to being a photographer.

Peter's experience with The Other? Taken away, given to someone else.

Peter and MJ rebuilding their marriage to be stronger than ever? Next issue he's making out with some random woman.

Harry's back for some f**king reason and it won't be until 14 years later that another author retcons in an explanation for why.

And so on.

Sometimes there might be an occasional reference or hint to what OMD toke away but for the most part, it just made so much of what happened just. Not. Matter.

And now, we get to issue 74 of the latest ASM run, and all the hints and teasing about OMD throughout...did. Not. Matter.

Peter and MJ never even interacted with Mephisto. They still have no idea about the deal they made. We were given a little more insight as to why Mephisto singled out Peter to begin with, and in some fairness I actually do really like it.

It's not even just because Spider-Man is my favorite superhero, though I most certainly have that bias fueling my fanboyish glee. It's something I've always kind of thought about Spider-Man in comparison to the other Marvel superheroes. They most certainly are heroes and have saved the day god knows how many times, to say nothing for how many lives. But when you think about it, a lot of them, especially the A-listers, they're soldiers, gods, monsters, inventor, explorers, and even just people trying to survive in a world that would gladly see them dead. A lot of them are people who were, more or less, pulled into being a superhero.

Obviously that doesn't take away from how genuinely heroic they are but Spider-Man, by contrast, is probably Marvel's posterboy for being their most traditional kind of superhero, doing the right thing simply because it's the right thing to do. Having power and thus feeling the responsibility to use it to help everyone. And so there is this kind of thematic satisfaction for someone like that, just this down-to-earth everyman superhero, be it Spider-Man or Spider-Girl, being the ultimate counter in the end to something as just outright evil as Mephisto; taking him down even when the gods, soldiers, and monsters could not.

But........if we never see this grand battle against Mephisto...never see Peter or May as the last one to stand against him...then it's just more teasing.

I'm sorry, I know I'm just kind of going on and on at this point but I guess what I'm trying to say is...it's just hard to actually WANT to keep reading at this point. Not just Spider-Man but a lot of Marvel and DC's stuff. It's hard to just have this continuous love/hate relationship with the big two. While not as bad as OMD, I had similar issues with the New 52 for a long time and the fall through of the Batman/Catwoman wedding definitely reminded me of it all again.

While I love Marvel and DC, it's really not hard to understand why manga and indie comics are become so much more popular these days. It's not hard for me to figure out why Spectacular Spider-Man, Avengers: EMH, Harley Quinn, Teen Titans, pretty much all of the DCAU, and so can still keep me excited despite being out of continuity and why I'm always looking forward to the next DC animated movie announcement, despite them having their own share of bad movies. Good or bad, these stories are at least self-contained. They'll have endings and not be forced to go on forever and ever. Good or bad, what happens will at least matter. The audience won't be punished for their investment.

Hell, I don't even like the MCU Spider-Man movies. It's simply not an interpretation of that character and his world I can get into (I greatly prefer Into the Spiderverse and the PS4 games). But at least Tony Stark's death is always going to matter to Peter. At least their version of OMIT is unlikely to shove Peter and Michelle apart because of fear it "ages the character". At least my biggest complaint about Aunt May learning his secret is that they didn't do anything with it, rather than them undoing everything interesting that they DID do. At least the Holland movies don't undo the events of the Maguire and Garfield movies (for now?) since they're all in different continuities. I'm not a fan of those movies but at least those who are fans aren't going to have what they liked completely erased.

Anyway...sorry about the rant. I just wanted to get some of this off my chest because, the sad thing is, I overall have been enjoying Nick Spencer's run since the beginning. It had its faults, certainly, but the only one that ever really hurt the experience for me before the ending was just how often the book spun-off into an event mini-series like sinister War or King's Ransom (is it too much to ask that when I'm reading Amazing Spider-Man that I only need to be reading Amazing Spider-Man in order to follow the story?). But Spencer's Peter was a character I liked following, more than I did in the Dan Slott era. I liked the stories he went through. I liked Spencer's use of lesser villains. I liked showing off the bond between Peter and Black Cat, the one that extends beyond romance. I really liked how much his Peter and MJ clearly loved each other and I like how it showed how MJ dealt with their life, even bringing it back for her to help Peter. That's what makes this ending for the Kindred storyline so frustrating. The run itself had a lot of good stories and characters throughout but Kindred is interwoven through nearly all of it. That story not meeting expectations drags the rest down with it, even if only a little.

Even if the ending had undone OMD I don't think the run would have been remembered as one of the all-time greats for Spider-Man but it would still be remembered fondly, and to an extent I think it still overall will be for everything it did right. But sadly I do think it's also going to be weighed down by fans seeing Kindred as just another example of Marvel suckering people in and then pulling the football away. Probably the biggest example of it yet, meaning the next time they do it there'll be even less reason to believe it's actually true. Because how can you hint even harder at it than Kindred without actually doing it? Without outright lying to your audience?

From what I've heard, up next for Spider-Man is the Beyond storyline by a fill-in writer, which will focus on Ben Reilly, and then we'll be seeing who the new long-term writer for ASM is after. Whoever it is, whatever they do, and whatever happens in Beyond, I think I'm just going to be done with Spider-Man comics for a bit after this issue. I love Spider-Man, especially adult Peter Parker, but I'm really just tired of feeling like an idiot just because I expected a story to satisfyingly pay-off what it itself set-up.

[logicalstansadvice]

"As another mod pointed out, maybe Marvel couldn’t show us what’s in store for Bucky as it may be too much of a spoiler." Using an old Peanuts comic analogy, I am Charlie Brown, and I've been running to try to kick the Bucky football Lucy (Marvel) has held out year after year. They've pulled it away every time lol. Civil War is a substantive role for Bucky--yes, for a combination mime/plot device for TS's pain, very substantive. I'm not playing this game again. I just can't.

Anon 2: for those who complained that kari doesn't see bucky as Sam's partner, she may think he deserves more than being a sidekick? Some interviews are vague, but she may think he deserves more than be a partner. I like SamBucky, but if I were to choose, I would rather have a dark bucky series than be in Cap 4. BTW They lied about bodycop comedy series, I hope Mackie and Seb are going to do a real bodycop movie someday

Anon 3: Kevin shit said these shows were stories they couldn't tell in the movies, and it will lead to the movies. If you think about it, it makes sense to introduce so many characters like John Walker and Zemo that should form the Thunderbolts, and be in the secret invasion and everything. MCU doesn't care if people think it's trash, they want money, the series was successful, in the end that's what matters to Kevin Shit and Mickey.

Anon 4: she likes the MCU going forward>> We are opposites, since Endgame I expect an MCU flop, I need that, I also want Russos Brothers and those writers to flop too. I hate MCU.

Anon 5: Do people really expect a big show for a guy who wrote Empire and a woman who directed a half-assed show? It's MCU, TWS and BP are the only good Marvel movies, take that away, most are irregular overrated rubbish that they pay the critical geeks to give good reviews otherwise they won't have access to the sets and interviews.

Anon 6: Lady Danger - The higher you set your expectations, the further you have to fall. /// But did we really do that? Did we set the expectations too high? Or did marvel do it for us with the way they presented the show? They showed them both as leads. Then they gave Sam a future (which is great!) but left Bucky just hanging. At this point, I think hero's death would have been more respectable than just continuing to keep him around and just show him for a couple of minutes when it suits them, in future movies.

Anon 7: That said, by pulling that sleight of hand with Bucky and Seb, Marvel certainly gave the appearance that THEY didn't think Mackie could pull in enough audience before he took official ownership of the shield. It's not a surprise that people jump to that idea given what Marvel did. / Yup, totally agree with this!

💄

[nevrgoinoutastyle2876]

Hey so I don’t normally posy other fandom stuff on here but this is my most followed account and I need some advice on a fic. It’s destiel, please tell me if it’s any good and if you like it I’ll post the link to the rest of the story

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"Very well. Have it your way," Crowley turned to Azazel and Alistair, "boys, shall we?" I saw a smirk cross all their features, and before I knew it, Crowley and the others were shoving me and my friends into the water.

My name is Castiel Novak, and I'm a mess.

One big giant mess. Let me tell you about my day, how it went from good to bad, and how I ended up getting pushed into a lake.

Today, it was summer. Well... months into summer. School would be starting in just about six days. I woke up to quickly find out that it was one of the hottest days of the year. The sun was beating down like thick blanket and never left the clear sky. If I had to guess I'd say the kids in my neighborhood were all playing in sprinklers and having fun, trying to make the most out of what little they had left of summer. Since school was starting very soon, I thought that I should possibly do the same thing, and make the most of what I had left of the season.

I woke up early in the morning. I traveled down the stairs to see an all to familiar view. My Dad was no where in sight, probably in his room writing. My mom was sitting at the kitchen counter reading a magazine, completely ignoring the chaos in the living room.

To tell the truth, what was happening in the living room wasn't all that bad, but, still disturbing. Even though I've seen a lot worse go down in that room. The tv was on and Gabriel, my little brother was sitting on the floor in front of it, constantly changing channels. Anna, my sister, sat on the couch. She was pressed all the way to the end of the couch, trying to still sit there while being as far away from the other end of the couch as she could.

Why was she trying to stay away from the other end of the couch you might ask? Well... Luci, my oldest brother, was there, and so was his boyfriend, Michael. Michael and Luci have been dating for about a year or so. I was shocked they'd made it this long, seeing at they were polor opposites. Michael graduated highschool with a perfect GPA and taking a all advanced courses, while being a star football player as well. Now, he's going to college and spends his free time either with Luci or shadowing the doctors at the hospital so that it'll be easier for him to get a job there. Probably as a heart surgeon or something. Also he had a spotless criminal record.

Meanwhile, Luci had probably all E's in his classes before he dropped out. Never once touched a football and spent most of his time smoking weed with the other bleacher-creatures during the games. He was not attending any colleges and was job-less. His free time was spent either with Michael or at the police station, and it sure as hell wasn't for volunteering. I remember a couple times mom and dad refused to bail him out, so Michael had to go do it.

So yeah, I'm shocked they made it a year. But anyways, right now Michael was over and sitting on the couch with Luci. Well, it was more like Michael was sitting on the couch and Luci was sitting on top of him. They were making out. It was disgusting.

They were making weird moaning noises as Michael's hands practically groped Lucifers torso and chest. I wanted to gag.

I soon decided very quickly that I didn't want to be here, so slipped out the front door before anyone would stop me. Mom and Dad never cared if we went anywhere so I figured they'd be fine if I just left for a little while.

I opened the door and quickly went outside. I closed the door behind me and took a step out into the morning air. If I had to guess I'd say it was about 9:00am, the sun was blazing across the sky as I sat down. I let the warm air and occasional cool breeze wash over me. It was one of those, buy ice cream, go to the beach, summer days. I wasn't much of an outside person, but I enjoyed them none-the-less.

I stood up in my short sleeve, buttoned, baby blue shirt, and jeans before I began to walk down the street. My friend Charlie lived a few blocks down from me, and a few blocks down from there lived Dorothy. See, I had friends, but, there was only two of them. I have known Charlie forever, so we were always close. We met when we were probably five. I remember being at the park with Luci when I saw a small red-headed girl fall from the jungle gym. She looked hurt so I ran from Luci to see if she was alright. She was bleeding, but shockingly, not crying. I went to the bench where Mom was. I rummaged in her purse for the Band-Aids I always made her keep in there for reasons such as this.

I helped the girl bandage her arm to stop the small amount of blood. When I finished she turned to me with an incredibly bright grin and said, "are we best friends now?" And ever since then, we've never left each other's side.

Then Charlie met this girl named Dorothy when we first started middle School in sixth grade. She was pretty badass for a twelve year old and she shockingly decided to sit with us. So she became part of our group too. Now sixteen and we were all inseparable.

Charlie was the fun nerd in our group, she always had the best and craziest ideas out of all of us. Her bright and spunky personality made her instantly loveable. Dorothy was a bit more grounded but was always up for adventure, so when Charlie got an idea, Dorothy was the one to make it happen.

I was the downer of the group I assumed, mainly because I always tried to talk them out of their crazy ideas. But they were both stubborn and I bet if they had the chance to go to Oz they would take it in a heartbeat. They never listened to me, and of course, dragged me along with them every time they were up to some shenanigan. Like the day Charlie said we should go downtown and take edgy pictures of the train tracks, so we could be douchy hipster wannabes. The next day Dorothy grabbed her camera and yanked us downtown to the train tracks. That day we almost got hit by said train on the tracks.

See what I mean? Bad Ideas. But I will admit, there has been some good ones. Like two summers ago we were all sitting at Dorothy's house, bored with nothing to do, so Charlie randomly said we should go into town and take some weird class. We spent the whole afternoon learning pottery and making clay. That was fun.

So, in conclusion, I love my friends and their idiotic selves. That's why I was on my way down there now, to go do something interesting. I approached Charlie's house very quickly. Her house was small, probably the smallest out of all our houses. She was an only child and therefore really didn't need that much space. Her house was painted a red-ish orange color, it was like a burnt faded orange kind of. I don't know how to describe it, but it was pretty. Her grass was bright green lined with pink flowers around the house. Cute little white shutters to match with the windows.

The door was a plain brown and I smiled at it before I knocked. I always liked her house. I waited only mer seconds before the door burst open. Charlie looked like she had just been running. She grinned at me when she saw me standing in the doorway.

"I saw you coming from my room and came running." So I was right. She waited a bit before turning to stick her head into the house, "MOM IM GOING OUT WITH CAS!" She called, slamming the door shut immediately after.

I smiled at her again as she linked her arm with mine and started off down the porch steps. Today Charlie was wearing baggy jean shorts that went down to her knees, as well as a Star Wars t-shirt. Her head phones were wrapped around her neck and the cord trailed down her back into her pocket, where her phone probably was.

"Anyways, hi best friend!" She finally greeted once we made it to the sidewalk. I couldn't help but smile, even if it was faint.

"Hello Charlie." I greeted back, watching her long red hair bounce with each step.

"I was hoping you would come by today." She told me, seeming determined. I tilted my head a bit.

"Oh? Why's that?" I asked curiously, taking notice we were on our way to Dorothy's.

"Cant I just wannna see my friend!?... Alsooo when you were sick last week, me and Dorothy went out and discovered something really cool. We gotta show it to you." She sounded excited and picked up her walking pace subconsciously.

We made it to Dorothy's shortly after leaving Charlie's. Dorothy come out almost as fast as Charlie had, giving us her signature smirk before heading out. She was wearing skinny jeans and a brown shirt with her brown hair in a side bun. She was gorgeous I always thought, but not that I was into that kinda stuff.

We started walking down the road together, I started to sweat.

"Man it's hot out." Dorothy complained, sighing and wiping her forehead. Charlie smirked,

"Well duh, that's cuz I'm out here bitches," she grinned as Dorothy gave her a playful shove. I smiled shyly.

"Shut up," she told Charlie, still grinning, then laughing.

"So can anyone tell me where we are going." I asked curiously, changing the topic. I noticed Dorothy smirking.

"You'll have to wait." She told me, causing Charlie to suppress a smirk. I frowned.

"Guys, we are getting far away from town and-" I was quickly cut off by Charlie.

"Oh my gosh Cas, don't be such a stick in the mud. We'll be fineee." She urged, but I wasn't convinced.

"It's just that, you guys don't always have the best ideas..." I mumbled. Charlie looked fakely offended.

"How?!" She questioned while I just looked down sheepishly.

"Well, like... The train incident... that time you almost got us stuck on a flight to India, or when you and Dorothy got me to join your prank fight and we got covered in quick drying paint. Or when we went to the movies and that guy-"

"Okay, okay! You've made your point!" She informed quickly, a flustered blush forming on her face. I couldn't help my grin just a little bit.

After walking for what felt like forever, we were at what I thought was the edge if town. We lived in Michigan, smack dab in the center of the glove, in a town that, if you walked far enough, it turned into all wilderness. I think that's where we were now because on our very long walk we passed a bunch of trees and ponds. Now we were at the end of the dirt road, the very end before it faded into trees.

I would say I was scared, I would say being in the woods made me uncomfortable, I would say we should head back, but, I love nature. Nature is calming and beautiful, how could I say to turn back when we are in the best part of our town?

Charlie turned to me and grinned, Dorothy walked ahead of her. While Dorothy cleared the path, Charlie grabbed my hand and pulled me over to the opening Dorothy made by moving tree branches.

"Close your eyes." Charlie told me, and started guiding me through the forest.

"Please don't run me into anything." I pleaded, not fully trusting my red-headed friend. I could practically feel her eye roll.

"I won't," she grumbled, even thought she probably had been planning too before I stopped her.

"We're here!" Dorothy said, excitement filling her voice. Charlie smiled brightly and let go of my hand.

"Open!" She commanded cheerfully. I let my eyes flutter open and widen at the sight in front of me.

It was an absolutely beautiful lake.  It seemed almost deserted. No one was here and it appeared to be a place where no one ever went. The sun was shining bright and created a sparkling reflection in the crystal water. Trees surrounded the entire lake, lillypads and cat tails laid where the water meets the grass. Flowers, exotic ones that were bright orange and neon pink were also by the trees. I was shocked.

I took a step forward and grinned wide. I turned my head back to my two friends who stood behind me.

"How did you-" I started to ask how they found it, but Dorothy was already answering.

"Find it? Easy. We were going for a walk in the woods when, poof! Here it was! No one was here, and we knew we had to show you." She told me, smirking proudly as her and Charlie came closer to stand next to me.

"Well... I love it..." I stutter, speechless. I heard Charlie laugh next to me but I couldn't drag my eyes away from the beautiful sight to look at her.

I wasn't sure how long we had been there. It was a while that's for sure. We sat on the edge of the grass, our feet hanging in the water. We were just chatting about school and such when we heard something. It was yelling and laughing in the distance. The noises we're coming closer and I tensed. I recognized the noises all to well.

It sounded like Crowley and his friends. Fergus Crowley MacLeoud was his full name, but he had everyone call him Crowley. He was basically the head jock at school, despite him not being particularly that athletic. He somehow still made the football team and managed to be the most popular boy in school. He hung out with Azazel, Alistair, Lilith, Abbadon, and a few other of the popular kids. He didn't even like Abbadon, hated her to be exact, but still hung out with her because she was popular and head cheerleader. Lilith was another cheerleader, and incredibly beautiful at that, but very rude, she also had a little sister four years younger in Gabriel's grade. Her name was Ruby. Azazel and Alistair were just super creepy and rude. I hated them both, they always wanted to pick on someone. That someone usually being me.

They all seemed to follow Crowley blindly, except Abbadon, but she cooperated. I could hear their annoying screams and laughs getting closer, so I decided to stand. Charlie saw and stood too. Dorothy looked up at us both.

"Guys, it's okay, nothing's is gonna-" I knew Dorothy was gonna say nothing was gonna happen, and that we'd be fine, but she couldn't. That was because guess who came through the trees.

Crowley and his friends. I'm not typically one for swearing, but I really wanted then to f-off. Dorothy saw them and finally stood as well, glaring a bit as she watched the tree branches move, revealing them all.

"Well, well, well..." Crowley announced in a British accent. Today he was wearing black jeans and a black v-neck t-shirt. Lilith wore a white sun dress and Abbadon wore a t-shirt saying, "the devil made me do it," and jeans. Everyone else wore very similar clothes to Crowley.

"Why are you here?" Dorothy asked bravely. Crowley grimaced.

"This is our spot so I'll have to ask you the same question." He growled, clearly very annoyed. Charlie jumped next to me.

"Anyone can come here, it's not just your spot." Dorothy spat, taking a step closer. No no Dorothy stop. Why do you have to be so brave?

"I suggest you leave before someone gets hurt." Abbadon threatened, pointing a pale, flawless, slender finger at Dorothy. Her nail was long and painted a bright shade of red that matched her lips perfectly.

But obviously, Dorothy wasn't going to back down. "Excuse you, but who the hell do you think you are. You don't own us." She snarled in return. Abbadon looked offended at her words, almost recoiling. A scowl formed on her sharp features. Then before I knew it, Crowley, Azazel, and Alistair were walking over.

I gulped, wishing that Dorothy just kept her mouth shut. Crowley stood right by us with his minions behind him.

"Leave." His one word filled the whole forest with venom and left a sting right in my throat because suddenly I couldn't speak. And even though Crowley was shorter then me, chubbier then me, and probably less strong, the way he carried himself made him so much more intimidating then I ever could be.

"We aren't leaving." Dorothy stated harshly. Crowleys stern facial features quickly changed and he back away from me and grinned.

"Very well. Have it your way," Crowley turned to Azazel and Alistair, "boys, shall we?" I saw a smirk cross all their faces, and before I knew it, Crowley and the others were shoving me and my friends into the water.

If someone reads this and likes it, please let me know and I'll post more chapters