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eighthxjune · 4 years

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aixa writes black people + love #2 community: A “World” Still Necessary

It was 1987 when A Different World premiered. I was young, like not yet double digits, young. Every Thursday night, at 8:30, my mom, dad, sister, brother and I gathered around the TV, belting out the show’s theme song by Phoebe Snow in season one, Aretha Franklin in seasons two through five, and Boyz II Men in its final episodes. Those lyrics were soon my alma mater:

I know my parents loved me Stand behind me come what may I know now that I’m ready For I finally heard them say

It’s a different woorrrrrld than where ya come from

Hillman College was a pinnacle place for me. It personified cultural identity, and as someone who grew up in a predominantly white suburban town, the only Black pupil until high school, it was majestic and I wanted to be there. Hillman displayed the cool factor our culture exudes so effortlessly; highlighting our style, dialect, posture, passion, and purpose from every region of the country, the continent of Africa and the Caribbean. This “world”, was different than where I came from, and it was beautiful. It gave me hope that a place - outside of my own home - supportive, caring and nurturing existed.

I saw Black teachers champion students who didn’t see their own unique potential, and dorm directors give sage advice. Witnessed roommates with nothing in common become best friends, and confidants. I got hyped, and danced when adamant voices rallied together until a donor ceased support of South Africa’s apartheid. And understood what loyalty looked like when a friend rescued his homegirl from what nearly turned into a date rape. I cheered on two Black men fighting the weapon of racial injustice brought upon by a rival school, and marveled in a student reclaiming the image of Aunt Jemima, realizing her imperial complexion was to be treasured. I observed discoveries, rejections, failed attempts, triumphs and losses, and empathized as if they were my own, because honestly they were. Hillman was a community, a Black community, our community, an extension of who I was, who I am. At such a young age, it was introducing me to myself. This “different world” was a reflection of my desires and dreams. It was an aspirational exhibit of Black successes - a rarity shown in media. Hillman was a place that encouraged you to stretch your capacity of thought and understanding. It valued unlearning stifled ways of thinking, to learning expansively and with zeal.

Debbie Allen, an HBCU alum of Howard University, and the show's brilliant producer, as of season two, understood the importance of telling Black stories with all of their complexities. She used television as a tool to address what was most difficult and challenging about us. “If we’re not doing that, we’re not doing a good job.” She expressed to Netflix’s Strong Black Legends. When brought on board she excitedly wrote a storyline for character Denise Huxtable (Lisa Bonet), who, at the time, was pregnant in real life. She thought it would be great to present the experience of a young Black student from an upper middle class family, not married, about to embark on motherhood. Though the idea got nixed by the show’s creator, Bill Cosby - who didn’t approve of Denise being pregnant in college - I wonder what her story would have developed into as a student mother, a credible notion, and one I’m certain would have advanced her role.

See, at Hillman, students strived to be the best versions of themselves, and looked forward to reciprocating care to those who raised them. But, even more vital, they knew their obligation to boost those who were succeeding them. They cherished their Blackness and its power.

The hub of the campus was The Pit - the school’s eatery that made an appearance in practically every episode. It was where students solely exhaled after a day of grueling classes and friends merged to catch up on the latest of tales. Conversations flowed candidly at this hangout and with comedic flair. Everyone passed through the beloved grumpy owner, Mr Gaines’ (Lou Myers) spot. Even my forever heartthrob, Tupac, made a stunning guest appearance as Piccolo, an old flame from Baltimore coming to put claims on his childhood love, Lena James (Jada Pinkett Smith).

Relationships played a significant part in character maturation at Hillman, and the love story that tugged at my heartstrings was Whitley and Dewayne, performed by Jasmine Guy and Kadeem Hardison. Cleverly laced throughout the show’s entire series, we journeyed with a high maintenance southern debutante from Richmond, VA and a Brooklyn native in J’s and flip-up glasses, who got a perfect score on his math SATs. Allen took us on an exciting ride while these two people - growing individually - were also hesitantly falling in love with each other. It was the ingenious love story I needed, and subconsciously yearned for, even if I were only in the fifth grade. How could I not gush over this attainable fairytale that spoke my love language. I kept twinkling at the idea that, ‘In just a few years, this college life will be a reality for me.’

Although Hillman College was a fictional place, its impact tripled enrollment of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. As you may have gathered by now, A Different World ignited my love for HBCUs, and then began my search in finding one most suitable for me; a place that served as a home and fostered my voice, since it was currently muffled, allowing others - who didn’t look like me - to feel comfortable in the presence of my Black skin. By the time I got to high school I attended the Black College Tour, twice. Not because I was having trouble finding a good school, but really I was in awe of the noteworthy offerings provided at these historically Black schools. The curriculums were impressive, the faculty resembled me, and the alumni were groundbreakers. I was visiting institutions that are irreplaceable. There was so much to learn about myself, and it was to happen in this next phase. During my visits, I watched students purposefully carry themselves across campus, greet friends with hugs and daps, expressively admire each other’s gear and hairstyles, pause on building steps to continue debatable class discussions, only to be interrupted by an eye-catching smile. The exploration alone made my heart flutter, and shortly after I was back at home flexing in my new Black college apparel - showing off the schools I toured. By senior year of high school I decided to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C. and it was more than I imagined it to be; finding me in a way I didn’t think it could. It met me where I was and readied me to rule the world.

There have always been skeptics who find HBCUs to be limiting. But, honestly there isn’t a place that will “teach you how to love and know yourself” like one - a necessary move after centuries of oppression; especially as a Black woman who receives bare minimum support when it comes to this country’s level of respect. These institutions encourage you to go inward and prepare yourself for life ahead, beyond Black communities. On the backs of scarred ancestors, almost 200 years ago, HBCUs were created, reshaping American history. Literally built by their hands, these Black forebears constructed a place to acquire a well desired education, and for once, as a majority, marked a setting where Black issues could be discussed. Despite what history instilled upon us, Black people were thriving and these HBCUs had a strong hand in making sure of that.

Howard University is a big part of my DNA, a connection made due to A Different World. It’s not easy expressing to those who have never attended an HBCU how magical those four years were, and how much rich history is seeped in the campus soil. However, the show is the best demonstration; restoring a feeling that will always remain in my heart, reminding me of friendships built that reside at my core. I graduated from Howard years ago, started a career in New York and since moved to Los Angeles to begin a new chapter. But every autumn, when I can, I race back to celebrate Howard’s homecoming, in high hopes of reliving just a taste of some of the greatest years of my life. It's never quite the same, but I don’t expect it ever will be.

A Different World came to an “end of the road” in 1993, and now I stream its episodes to emotionally reconnect with a missed experience; watching amusingly as if I hadn’t seen each one several times already. Because I still yearn to explore a “world” that inspires me to reach for more of myself, and a Black love story that provides hope. And though this “world” may be different, I know, I’m not alone.

Take care of yourself.

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lunatic-fandom-space · 3 years

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Comparing RWBY and YGO DM: The Handling and Evolution of Themes

Hey! Its been a hot minute since I last posted anything RWBY-related but Im laying in my bed right now and Im sick and bored so I guess we're doing this. Today I will do my best to analyze what I percieve to be the main themes and messages of both of these shows, or more specifically, how theyre handled narratively. Im mostly focusing on that part because, while these series do have similar themes and messaging, they are still a few things in which they are wildly different. And with that, lets start with this essay-post-thing!

1. Theres something we need to adress first

Okay so, before we can really talk about this, theres something I feel the need to clarify here: Neither of these stories was "planned from the beginning".

Now, I dont think a story being planned from the beginning or not nesscessarily makes the story any better or worse by default, however, it is still important to acknowledge because the way the story is planned is going to affect every facet of it. Things are not going to be foreshadowed properly, things are gonna be set up only for nothing to come of it, the story might drastically change directions, characters might act differently, etc, etc.

And, this is bit off-topic but, it's much better to just admit that the story was not planned than trying to pretend that it was. Like, there are a lot of reasons why I tend to be so forgiving towards YGO even though its not very good, but one of them is definitely the fact that, as far as Im aware atleast, the guy who wrote it isnt pretending to have had this big master plan all along and neither is the fandom. With RWBY on the other hand... yeaaaah, its kinda the opposite. From what Ive seen of RWBYs fandom, there seems to be this pretty popular narrative that everything was planned even though it clearly wasnt. Thats pretty bad and honestly lowers my opinion of the writers so much more than if they would just admit to not having a proper plan.

Like, I initially consumed YGO like this: Yu-Gi-Oh Duel Monsters, Yu-Gi-Oh (aka Season 0), like, a quarter of the Yu-Gi-Oh manga (I still havent finished it)

In all three of these we have the character of Yami Yuugi, or just Yami. Broadly speaking, he is an ancient egyptian gamer spirit who lives in a magical puzzle that has not been solved for 3000 years until this highschooler named Yuugi Mutou comes along and solves it, thus setting him free and allowing him to possess Yuugi and have access to the vague magical powers of the puzzle.

In Duel Monsters he's perfectly fine most of time, morally speaking. There is an instance of him almost murdering a guy and its a bit unclear what exactly happens to those he mindcrushes but overall he's very much a pretty good guy. In Season 0 most of what he does is set up these games for bad people, where they will go insane no matter what they do. From how I understand this whole Shadow Game, Penalty Game stuff, if you lose a Shadow Game, you get violent and intense hallucinations and you will always cuz yknow, gamer spirit. But if you try to cheat, which most of the bad people do in this show, you get violent and intense hallucinations as a punishment.

Since the two anime are generally considered two different continuities, its perfectly fine that Yamis characterization is wildly different in both of them. But in the manga both of these characterizations appear, basically one after the other with no real arc or consequences, for that matter. Why is that? Simply put, someone thought it was a good idea to try to turn an episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror manga into a more traditional, more plot-driven battle shounen. From what Ive heard, it was apparently largely because of network interference or something, but the point is, it changed directions incredibly drastically with little planning and everyone knows this and I can understand that for the most part.

In RWBY we have the character of Blake Belladonna, who, in the first 3 volumes/seasons atleast, was this aloof, more toned down loner-type character with a pretty strong sense of justice. She's an in-universe marginilized racial minority and she clearly cares about racial injustice. The way its initially framed makes it seem like she had a very hard life and no stable support system, which is what eventually pushed her to join a Civil Rights group/Terrorist organization (good god, the Faunus subplot is so awful, I could write a whole essay about it but Im already de-railing rn so I'll just save that for later).

Then, in volumes 4-5 it turns out her father is actually like, the mayor or chief of this island-place called Menagerie and she grew up in this big mansion with multiple guards/servants. Oh and also, apparently "space is a commodity" on there, so theres that. She still retains large parts of her personality but she's kinda like, worse somehow I think. I cant really describe it in a meaningful way but I hope you get what Im saying anyway. Then in Volume 6 she confronted her emotional abuser Adam (sorry for not mentioning him sooner but yeah, he was like, her abusive boyfriend, which is something that a lot of people disagree with but I wont really say anything about it either way because I dont really feel any specific way) with her friend, Yang, and ended up killing him.

After all that, she pretty much lost the rest of her personality, as well as her arc about all the Faunus stuff. She just kinda became the meek, generically nice, recovering abuse victim. Why? Well, the actual reason is that they didnt plan out shit and are just kinda flying by the seat of their oversized clown-pants and if they and the fandom just admitted it, I would have less of an issue. I still wouldnt be as forgiving towards RWBY as I am towards YGO because the crux of the issue, for me, is just that I dont particulary like RWBY but also like. Do you really expect me to take MKEK seriously as writers after admitting to not have a timeline because iT wOuLd CaUsE pLoThOlEs?

However, since they want us to believe that everything was planned out from the beginning, the explaination would be.... Idk, they deliberately butchered one of their main characters?? Because.. they hate her?? Maybe????

So yeah, that was quite a detour however, I would like you to keep this mind going forward.

2. Themes of the Early Series'

First, what do mean by 'Early Series' for both of these shows respectively? Well, for YGO that would have to be Season 0 or if youre reading the manga, everything pre-Duelist Kingdom. Basically, the part of the series thats a episodic, very slice of life-y light-horror series.

For RWBY that would be the first three Volumes, also known as the Poser-Era. Back then it was just kinda an action series that took place at Anime Warrior Academy (also known as Beacon) with some pretty bare minimum worldbuilding, character-driven plots and developments but now its more of an epic high-fantasy story with more of an emphasis on plot as opposed to just action.

The themes and messages in Early YGO are kinda vague, very confusing to me and if you were to follow any of it literally that would be pretty bad. For now Im just gonna say the main themes are Friendship and Identity and mostly focus on the Identity aspect.

Now, it took me a little while to figure out RWBYs deal but I think the main themes for Volumes 1-3 are also Friendship and Heroism. Once again, I'll mostly focus on Heroism and touch on Friendship more briefly later.

I dont have much more to add to YGOs themes right now, so I'll briefly go over Heroism in RWBY.

In RWBYs setting there are these man-eating monsters called Grimm that have basically infected the planet. In order to deal with that, they have people called huntsmen and huntresses that kill them and protect people. Theyre trained at special academies like Beacon and go on missions there and stuff like that. Our four main characters, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, are training to become huntresses and one day they go on this mission to clean up a grimm infested city block with one of their teachers. Obviously, that takes a long time so they have to camp out in one of the empty houses. Weiss, Blake and Yang cant sleep because theyve been thinking about this question that their teacher asked them when they were fighting grimm: "Why do you want to become a huntress?"

They have a heart to heart and we find out about their motivations; Weiss wants to bring honour back to her family, Blake want to distance herself from the White Fang (that terrorist organization I mentioned earlier) and as an extension from Adam, Yang wants to have a life of adventure. They also talk about why Ruby wants to be a huntress and it turns out that she judt wants to help people. Unlike the others, she has no motivation besides that. We're meant to listen to that and look at her as a sort-of personification of Heroism: kind, but not naive, strong and most of all, selfless. The others on her team are not portayed as bad for not being like Ruby by any means but we are clearly meant to admire her the most out of all of them.

Okay, now comes the part Ive been looking forward to the most:

3. How did these themes evolve in the Modern Series'?

Alright, before we can really delve into the way they evolved in YGO I'll have to give you a brief summary of the character progression. At the start of DM, during the Duelist Kingdom arc, Yami Yuugi is just that; A darker Yuugi. Hes more confident, bolder, his voice is deeper, hes somehow taller, more ruthless, all that good stuff. Notably, he doesnt actually seem more skilled than Yuugi even at the start of this story, but he's still dependent on Yami. Yami on the other hand, has no identity of his own or even hints at one at this point. He's just The Other Yuugi.

Then during the Battle City arc, they find out that Yami was actually a pharao prior to being sealed in the puzzle, he just didnt know because of amnesia, I guess. So now they need to find out his real name and then send him to the afterlife because hes meant to be dead, but not before saving the world from being swallowed by darkness, which is also a thing they have to do now.

Then we finally get to the Memory World arc, where Yami, Yuugi and the rest of the gang astralproject to ancient egypt via puzzle magic. Yami is trying to figure out what the hell is going on and who all these familiar people are, while Yuugi & Co are trying their best to help him. Then some weird shit happens and it turns out that all of that is not just Yamis sealed away memories, but also a giant D&D Shadow Game that will destroy the world if Yami loses. So now theres Pharao!Yami who is still clueless on the metaphorical and literal playing field and Player!Yami, who is kinda controlling himself now? I guess?? Yamis opponent, The Spirit of The Ring, has something similar to that going on where hes both controlling and properly participating in the game. So Player!Yami is now fighting against Player!TSoTR, Pharao!Yami is now fighting against Thief King Bakura (who is like, the human, ancient egyptian version of the Ring Spirit) and Yuugi is now fighting against Yami Bakura (who is like, the human, modern japanese version of the Ring Spirit). Yuugi gets Yamis real name, he and the gang go over to Pharao!Yami and tell him his name, meanwhile Player!Yami is also somehow helping as well and they defeat the Ring Spirit, thus saving the world. Then they travel to modern Egypt, the Ceremonial Duel happens and Yuugi wins, sending Yami to the Afterlife where he can finally rest and that was the series!

I originally wanted to recount the stuff that was going on with the Ring Spirit and his host as well because they parallel eachother, but this summary is already far too long and I think youll get the point without me needing to explain any more.

My point here is, that the story went from being vaguely about Identity, maybe? to being very clearly about Self-Discovery and Learning to Be Independent. I think this is a very good way to evolve the messaging of your story. How does RWBY track on that?

Well, uh... its not great. I will acknowledge that they have tried to introduce new themes and ideas since, even though I wont really be talking about them in this post. But yeah, the whole Heroism thing really regressed.

Like, I didnt explicitly say it when I was explaining grimm earlier, but theyre not going away. The grimm have always been there and people who sign up to become huntsmen and huntresses are effectively signing up for a job that will never truly be done, no matter what they do. Characters like Ruby and even more minor ones like Phyrrah have shown us that that doesnt matter when youre a hero. No life isnt worth saving, no grimm isnt worth killing, no criminal isnt worth arresting. Then, in volume 6 they find out about Salem. Salem is the Big Bad of the show, shes immortal, controls the grimm and is supposed to be very powerful.

What do our heroes do? They give up. Sike! They were just mindcontrolled by monsters or some shit, of course they didnt give up their mission (which is to bring an Important Macguffin to a city called Atlas, sorry I didnt mention it)!

But then they arrive in Atlas (which is llike, a city thats floating over another city called Mantle) and yknow, they do some plot stuff thats not really important right now until the city gets invaded by Salem and this big grimm army she has.

What do our heroes do? Well, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and some side characters are chilling, drinking tea in a mansion and Yang and the B Team were actually trying to do something, but even those efforts seem incredibly minimal.

Oh wait, I also forgot to mention that Ironwood (a fairly minor, vaguely antagonistic character up until now) wanted to lift Atlas even higher to save Atleasian civilians from danger while leaving Mantle vulnerable to Salems invasion.

What would be the most heroic thing to do?

A) Let Ironwood lift Atlas, get as much support as they can down to Mantle and save as many Mantle civilians as they can from the invasion

B) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas but then split up in order to protect both Atlas and Mantle civilians

C) Prevent Ironwood from lifting Atlas and then dont do anything else

Congrats! If you choose C, you think exactly like the writers!

And I just

This is so mindboggling to me, I feel like I shouldnt even have explain how this is bad. And like, it wouldve been so easy to actually make them seem herokc through their actions, to make it seem like they did try but no.

I have never seen a central theme be this botched, how in the world did they do that? Why did they think it was a good idea for Ruby "The Embodiment of Heroism" Rose to sit in a mansion doing nothing, no planning, no organizing just ..... God, how are they this bad? Like, this doesnt even have anything to do with it being planned in any way, this is just straight up incompetence

4. Very briefly touching on friendship

The friendship is awful and its not solely because they all have the same opinions. They barely interact with eachother outside their designated pairs which leads to it all feeling incredibly hollow. Theyre also practically indistingushable from one another now, which is a shame because it wasnt always like that. Like, I dont think the characters were that well-developed in earlier volumes but they were very well-characterized. But now we've gotten to a point where you can literally copy and paste one characters dialogue onto another and literally nothing changes, it really sucks.

5. Some closing words

Damn, this took way longer than I thought it would and now Im pretty exhausted. I have no idea how yall always write these but props to you! I feel like this ended up a bit rambly but overall, Im pretty proud.

Please let me know what you think of the points I brought up! Id also really appreciate some tips on how to get better at these longer posts because I am planning on writing more in the future (not the near future, probably but yknow).

Thats all I have to say for now, thanks for reading!

#rwde #rwby critism #anti mkek #yu gi oh #ygo duel monsters #yu gi oh analasis

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alolanrain · 5 years

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Let me introduce the Not Really, Parent Trap!AU, or better known as Reversed Parent Trap!AU. I’ve yelled at a few friends over this, and it’s no where NEAR done for an actual fic to be posted about it since a lot of the characters aren’t completely fleshed out yet. be aware it’s long so it’s under the cut!

So ORIGINALLY this was supposed to be just a Summer Camp!AU

That quickly derailed into a kinda Reversed Parent Trap!AU

So this starts after the Sinnoh Arc, it’s just the start of summer

Ash comes back to Pallet Town and buys the Ranch, it’s literally double the size of Pallet Town+the surrounding farms and product fields that make up MOST of Pallet Town, and the Castle literally takes up around ⅓ of the plot of land.

Ash successfully revamps the entire place and land, making it habitable for everyone on his team and himself. This also equals refurbishing everything with the best quality shit he can get

So Ash spends a VERY pretty penny for everything, though admittedly it doesn't make a HUGE dent in his bank account from how often he gets paid a shit ton during his travels and the added bonus of being the Orange Archipelagos Champion AND the Chosen One

Who knew dying for a Regions sin pays well?

He gets contacted by Gary a month later, it's near the middle of summer and Gary wants to re-open the Oak’s Summer Camp from their childhood. But he doesn't have a place to do it

Ash immediately offers his place, plus he has a plethora of Pokemon in and out of this Region they can use as example

They reopen the camp with just thirty spots available, no more than that since it’s just him and Ash for three weeks, teachers usually have up to a class of fourty at most so it will be fine

The kids come and they actually fall into two groups immediately, which ends up pretty easy for Gary and Ash to pick what group goes with who for most of the week

It ends up pretty odd group numbers though, Ash ends up with 18 while Gary gets 12 kids

Most of Ash’s kids already KNOW Ash, either from meeting him through his journey’s or knowing him from birth and up. Pallet Town IS small after all

They all range from ages (at the beginning of the summer camp ordeal) 5 to 11 ½ years old

After the first summer, the same group of kids always come back to Gary’s camp because it’s dope.

But having a Champion there as their “counselor” is doper

Which makes Gary beg Ash to come back and help out at the summer camp every summer for three weeks

Ash ofc says yes, it gets him away from Drake and Lance’s nagging and gives him a good break and spend time with Gary and his Pokemon

It does get out of hand at least once a day, but their KIDS there's nothing really Gary and Ash can do to completely stop it

So like, Ash and Gary are around 15-16 ½ at the beginning. It originally started because Gary was feeling super nostalgic at the time and thought it would be fun to do it every other summer or something

THAT plan quickly went out the window and both found themselves coming back to Ash’s ranch every summer to set up and do it

It quickly grows and becomes to be really famous from all the good reviews and how because a lot of top elite society people surprisingly came from Pallet Town in general *side eyes Lance, Drake, and Agatha*

But its mostly because a Champion is there and they get to talk to another Oak and stuff that’s more close to their age

I’m also adding in Ash/Raihan in here and forcible folding in the secret marriage!AU into here as well

Raihan and Lance knew each other through Lance training at Hammerlocke gym when the Champion was younger and Raihan soon came over to train with Lance during the off season for Galar, the summer and half of fall. Lance noticed that Raihan would stammer and get weird every time Ash was visiting the castle. So being the giant meddler of a Godfather that he is, Lance pushed and pushed until Raihan agreed to help Gary and Ash out during Camp time

Lance also makes it up and offers a visit, which both Ash and Gary happily agrees because they actually have a few kids thinking about going into the dragon tamer route later in life and it would be a great learning opportunity for them

Soon Raihan isn’t spending time at the castle anymore, he heads straight to Ash’s ranch the same night the Galar League ends for the year. After party be damn! He has a summer camp to help set up for

Raihans followers actually like the little cameo’s the kids have during a small vlog or a photo bomb with them doing something stupid before Ash or Raihan notices

Even if Ash is in the middle of a league, he will ALWAYS come back to help out with the summer camp

He even brings his friends with him and they help out as well

Ash’s Pokemon A D O R E the kids, even his more reserved Pokemon like Flicker and Sceptile like hanging out with the camp kids during the night and early morning when they calm down and get tired

The remaining 12 out of 30 kids always get put with Gary after both found out just how bad a lot of kids from the group of 18 home life is, Ash is more emotionally equipped to handle them and Gary wanted the more knowledge driven kids anyways

Raihan is permanently in Ash’s team as his second in command, but that doesn't mean Raihan can’t help Gary every now and then when Ash has everything handled

The Group starts referring to Ash and Raihan as Mom and Dad respectively… but like on accident and then in private when it’s only to another Group member or to themselves

NEVER to Ash or Raihans face on purpose

Fast forward four years from then. All the kids have experienced their first journey, and some even their third journey

Ash and Raihan are now secretly married. The ones that know are;

1) Mr. Goodshow because he officiated and ordained them on Ash’s-no, THEIR, Ranch.

2) Ash’s mom because she had become a mom to Raihan as well and its ASH”S MOM. she would maim him if he got married without her being there. Even though originally Ash and Raihan just wanted to sign the marriage license at Mr.Goodshow’s office in Sinnoh and leave it at that. No wedding, no nothing

3) Gary and Daisy because their practically Ash’s siblings and Daisy had physically and verbally threatened Raihan more so for Delia’s sake. She was the main driving force for a wedding, even though it felt like pulling stubborn, rotting, fractured teeth from both Ash and Raihan about the specific for their wedding

Ash “ q u i t s “ the summer camp after the Kalos Arc

More like Gary shoved him out and employed actual trained employees and counselors, also moving the camp to the old camping grounds Gramps used back then. Ash still lends a few of his more friendlier Pokemon at least once a full week out of the three for Gary to use

also , mostly, because Chosen One and Champion duties are more important now since Ash is Champion of TWO whole set of islands

The camp group as a whole dwindled down to a measly 10-14 every year after the original OG 18 group had left for their journey

But Ash still always plans around the summer because all the kids still come to the Ranch for the FULL Summer now

Raihan makes it his fucking MISSION to always be in Kanto during the off season. Friends and expectation of the Galar League be fucking D A M N E D once those last round of fireworks are shot into the air. Raihan is out of the building and passed the reporters and interviewers in SECONDS and it always leaves everyone guessing what has him so worked up about

Its because Raihan misses his husband and kids, dammit! Especially because they don’t call him as much as they do Ash

Yada, Yada, Yada - something happens and somehow everyone that’s been a part of each evil team past comes to stay at Ash’s ranch for some kind of “Group Therapy” which Ash was essential BULLIED into letting people stay at his ranch

And it’s during the fucking S U M M E R

When his fucking K I D S and H U S B A N D comes home

To say he’s peeved is the biggest understatement of the year

But Ash isn’t going to say NO to his kids! Their his kids!!! And he’s their safe haven besides traveling the world and most of them a still pretty fucking young

So the kids come, armed with the knowledge of everything that's going on and they don’t have to some at all because of the danger imposed by the evil team leaders being there

Surprise to EVERYONE else there, they come to the ranch fucking angry and pissed for Ash’s and Raihan’s sake

Also their encroaching onto THEIR turf

Which is like… the BIGGEST fucking no in their book

But anyways, they continue and help Ash around the ranch like they always do. They just snark back at all the adults because their not Ash OR Raihan so they won’t listen to any of them

Gym Leader be damn

Elite Four be damn

Champion be damn

Their not mom and dad so the group turns a deaf ear to them

But before they came to the ranch that summer, one of the kids spot something flashing around Raihans neck during one of his gym battles they decided to watch out of pure boredom

And so, as the little shit that they are, goes and screen shots and zooms in

ONLY TO SEE A FUCKING R I N G ON A CHAIN

So they send it to the chat and one of them is like

“Holy-fucking-Arceus, that’s a fuckING WEDDING RING”

Cue utter

C H A O S

And so it isn’t until that summer that they see Raihan and storm up to him

Did i mention Rose is Raihans dad in this? Because that’s also an important part of why Raihan only wanted the bare minimum of possible people to know

And they started begging and demanding if Raihan is married

Raihan is internally panicking up a storm on the inside while trying to doge the questions

Also while trying to make everyone in the room as disinterested as possible

But the kid is persistent

And everyone’s watching because it’s lunch time and 90% of the people there have never been to Pallet Town before so they don’t know what restaurants are good

So Raihan goes:

“What ring? I don’t have a ring! You’re probably hallucinating from the het, why don’t you just go lay down or something?”

The kid reaches up on their tippy toes and flattens Raihans baggy shirt to show an outline of a small circle on his chest

“That ring.”

Que Raihan starting to show his panic because now the have EVERYONE’S attention and he and Ash don’t want to come out just yet

ESPECIALLY LIKE THIS

Ash is outside with most of the kids since their helping him clean his Pokemon

But Raihan is saved by the kid declaring they WILL find out who he’s married to

Thankfully not outright guessing Ash in anyway, which is weird how he and Ash ACTUALLY legitimately adopted three kids out of the group already

So now everyone is watching Raihan and he damn well knows his reaction gave his lanky ass away

They, especially the Galar League members, start to grill Raihan but he keeps shut and runs away as fast as he can with his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs

And after a week or two they spot Ash walking into the dining hall shirtless because one of his Pokemon accidentally ripped the shirt to shreds

Ash being him, forgets he has the ring on his neck while walking into the dining hall during lunch since he’s so used to the weight

Now the kid who spotted the ring first just dropped their plate on the table and before either Raihan or Ash could gently scold them, they start stammering while jerkily pointed to Ash’s chest

Soon they spit out;

“Ring! Ring!! Same ring!!!”

The rest of the kids, who were dragged into guessing who married Raihan and also who now know what Raihan ring looks like, lose their entire SHIT

They soon surround Ash and start congratulating him and Raihan, who’s upstairs on the third floor and putting some newly hatched baby dragon Pokemon to sleep, and Ash openly panics MORE than Raihan did

One pipes up is Raihans last name is now Ketchum instead of Rose

Ash goes from blushing to complete tomato red in the face the fastest anyone has seen it go before

He soon ducks his head a mutters its Ketchum now and the kids happily start freaking out even more

Everyone ELSE on the other hand is in absolute shock

Rose is filled with rage because Raihan was supposed to go to one of his biggest investors youngest daughter when they both reached the age of 25

Ash and Raihan are respectively 20 and 22 now

Rose also doesn’t “condone” LGBT+ people in the slightest

So to have his own son, who Rose hasn’t seen in fucking years on the man’s own free time might I add, to go behind his back and betray his father like this?

Utterly shameful of his son to do so

Though there IS nothing Rose can do because he no longer has the connections he had before and is still handcuffed on the daily

A bunch of other people are in the range of angry to sad because they had crush’s/were in love with Ash and to know Ash has been off the market completely for a VERY long time is actually… quite off putting because Ash never spoke up about it

And when one of them speaks up and questioned Ash on why he never told them, or even INVITED anyone else to his fucking WEDDING ash juts kind of… laughed nervously and shrugged

Saying something on the line that half of his friends wouldn’t believe him, or would bombard him with questions as they are now

He then breaks down everything, explaining that his marriage is a VERY personal thing to both him and Raihan. Both loved revealing in the fact that this is something that is just between THEM, including a few necessary people, and that they don’t HAVE to share it with the world

Ash also explains how the Galar Region isn’t really accepting of LGBT+ people, and how would they take it knowing that their strongest Gym Leader is gay and married to another man?

Also that if word had spread around enough, bad guys and evil teams would start to target Raihan since he’s Ash’s husband and that Raihan also works in a different league

The kids soon feel guilty, the one that pointed out the rings feels even more so, but it’s quickly soothed a little by Ash who told them that he and Raihan were going to tell them anyways

“So can we actually call you Mom and Dad now?”

One of them pipes up

Ash laughs and agrees

Raihan soon comes down and is greeted with a bunch of kids/teen waggling their eyebrows at him with smirks, a sheepish looking Ash, and a good majority of the rest of the people having existential crises

So he walks forward and sweeps Ash into a sweet kiss, soon pulling back and muttering how he’s been wanting to do that since the start of the summer.

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gwiiyeoweo · 5 years

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Aulea sees the legendary terror for herself, but finds he's not so terrible after all.

Pairing: Ardyn & Regis, Ardyn & Noctis, Regis/Aulea, Aulea & Ardyn Rating: G

Aulea waked first.

It helped that she actually got a decent night of sleep, compared to Regis who rushed in before even the early rays of dawn could peak out. She quietly wrapped her robe around her, tying it in a lazy ribbon as she did her best to keep silent and sneak about the room afforded to her.

She had only started living in the Citadel last year, despite having been betrothed to Regis for the past two, and her room was bare for the most part. Besides the essentials, she kept a few succulents across her desk and a fern in the corner. Her attendants had fussed about livening up her room, even if it was only a temporary thing until she would be officially married to Regis, and the plants were proof of a hard-fought compromise she had drawn with them.

Regis shifted his arm across the empty expanse of the bed, fingers twitching for her missing warmth. But when he turned his head to farther bury his face into the pillow, Aulea decided he could use the extra hour of sleep and went off to toe on her slippers.

The maids would certainly be miffed if they caught her walking down the halls, dressed in nothing but her modest nightgown and her robe, with her hair strewn about everywhere. Aulea understood the need for appearances given certain circumstances, even if it meant with agreeing with the old stuffy council members, but a woman was allowed to walk in her own home in her pyjamas if she damn well wanted to. She might not yet be the official Consort, but everyone already revered her as such. All they needed was a paper with some fancy gold seal and it would be wham, bam, thank you before she could walk through all sixty-something floors in her underwear. Not that she would; she wasn’t as prim and proper as some of Regis’ matchmakers would like her to be, but she nonetheless kept a certain modesty and a standard of propriety she held herself up to.

At least no one caught sight of her, and she slipped between the lights and shadows easily enough as she made her way to Regis’ room.

Aulea entered without so much a knock, cracking the door open and poking her head in. She immediately zero’d in on Clarus, the man vigilantly sitting by the bedside and tapping away on his phone. “You look like hell.”

Clarus, with his grim dark circles, stilled his hand and lifted his head to glance at Aulea. “Been through worse,” he yawned, turning his face into the crook of his elbow.

Aulea rubbed her hands together, summoning some easy magic and igniting a soothing heat across her palms. Flexing her fingers, she ambled her way around the room and stood behind Clarus, lightly poking her fingertips around his neck and spine. “So,” she said, putting both hands on his shoulders and digging her fingers into his worn muscles. “This is Adagium.” Then a wrinkle of her nose. “Unfortunate name, by the way.”

Clarus sighed into her touch, leaning his back against the chair as he felt the heat radiate from her skilled hands. He twitched when she honed in on a knot hidden away between muscle and bone but kept his squirming to a minimum as she worked her literal magic. “That's what the books call him,” he answered, biting back a groan.

Aulea hummed in acknowledgment, but kept silent for the most part as she continued to work her way around the kinks and scars. She rubbed circles with her thumbs, using some elbow grease and pressing them deep into his flesh, just as her mother once taught her. “Go rest. I can watch,” she eventually said.

“Don't think Regis will appreciate me putting you on duty.”

“If he finds an issue, he can take it up with me.” She gave him a light shove on his arm. “Now go on, up and at ‘em.”

Whatever Clarus grumbled she didn't quite catch but it certainly had something to do with protocol and handbooks. He was more concerned with playing by the rules than leaving Aulea with a potential not-quite-a-daemon hazard sleeping in the bed, but they both knew she was a force in her own right. Worst case scenario, the room and the entire wing would be left in rubbles. It may have been a couple years, but Aulea had a few notches in her belt of besting Clarus and putting his rump to the dump — Cor moreso, back in his reckless days of fiery youth. (With Regis, though, there was no concrete record, considering their spars ended up in accidental makeout sessions or cuddle times, when either of them collided into each other with uncanny timing. “Get a room!” and exasperated groans notwithstanding.)

Clarus had no doubt Aulea could fend for herself should something go awry, but he was personally tasked by King Regis to keep an eye over Adagium. As Shield, he desired to carry on his duty; as friend, he only wished to help. Yet it didn’t help that Aulea was prodding incessantly at him, and knowing her stubbornness could only be matched by Regis’, well… He was but a man.

He knew this. Aulea knew this.

She wasn’t a tactician. She would never compare to the bright strategists circling their war talks, but Aulea could be as shrewd as the conmen who made their home in the dark shadows and Insomnian nights. She knew when sweet rewards held more power than bitter words and sharp whips. And she knew how tired Clarus must have been, considering how Regis had tumbled into her bed like a dead rock without so much a goodnight kiss.

Clarus had been given a losing battle from the get go, so the least he could do was bow out gracefully. So when he had finally relented, Aulea showed mercy and didn't even comment on the stumble in his step as he made for the door, to leave her alone by the stranger’s bedside.

Aulea walked along the walls and made sure each heavy curtain was drawn closed, to keep out the morning’s early rays. Whenever the man decided to wake, she was sure he’d appreciate not having the bright sunshine burning through his eyelids. It didn’t help that Regis’ windows happened to face east and took the full brunt of the sunrise, a lesson she learned herself on a morning she had decided to sneak in the night before.

She swiped a charging cable and one of the tablets hidden away in Regis’ drawers, taking them with her as she made her way back to the bedside. She plugged the charger in, settled herself into Clarus’ seat, and powered the tablet on. Tapping and swiping away at the screen, she typed in the four-numbered passcode and pulled up ChocoTube, a daughter platform for all things furry, fluffy, or cute.

Today’s featured playlist was cats.

“Good morning.”

Aulea didn’t even look up from the screen when she greeted the waking man.

She had her eyes glued on a litter of coeurl kittens, a mewling batch of little white furballs recently born in a conservation. According to the description, these particular species were close to extinction, having only a couple hundred left roaming in the wilds. Only when the video ended, with the camera fading to black and some white text with a link to the conservation’s website, did Aulea look up. She turned the tablet over, screen facing the man.

“Want to watch some cat videos?”

Adagium only stared, brows slightly knit together and lips trying to figure out how to make words.

In turn, Aulea silently studied him, watching for any sign or expression in that split moment it took for him to register her words. At a glance, he looked blank and clueless, like the trending video of that newborn chocobo staring at a single corn kernel and having no idea what it was. His dumbfounded look, she thought, would almost be as cute if it didn’t belong to a scraggly-bearded adult man. But she kept her focus on his eyes, the ways they flashed with emotion, and his mouth and jaw, where his lips parted or his teeth clenched. His eyes cycled through confusion and fear, caution and suspicion — and for a fraction of time, anger and contempt. She kept her magic at the edge, just in case .

But he made no motion, no twitch of his fingers, and the fleeting spite that glanced his face fell into confusion once more. Now, he only looked tired. Haggard. Like all he wanted was to go back to sleep and hibernate for the season, despite having two thousands years to do just that. If anything, it probably made his dark circles worse, now that Aulea actually made the effort to really look at him. His eyes were horribly sunken and dark, skin dry and lips chapped; none of them got him cleaned up after dragging him out of Angelgard, so he still had a fine layer of dirt and dust on him. If he felt as much as he looked, he was probably in want of a nice warm bubble bath.

Did Regis still have that jar of lavender bath salts under his sink?

“I… What?” Adagium rasped. Something didn’t agree with him, and he turned his face down to cough into his fist.

Aulea used her best disarming smile she saved especially for the old farts of the council, for the times when was simply not in the mood to argue semantics with them, to appear as an innocent docile woman who knew nothing of ancient rules and Lucian laws.

“Cat videos,” she said, keeping her voice light and sweet. Rising from her seat, she slowly moved to sit on the bed, being particularly careful with her movements as she kept the screen facing Adagium. She tapped on the next video in the playlist, starting up a two-minute clip of a chocobo chick trying to nudge itself under the belly of a large and ridiculously fat cat. “See?”

“…Oh.”

It had been the fourth video when Adagium spoke up, talking to himself more than to her. “This is not what I envisioned the Afterlife to be.”

Aulea, with a soft mirth to her quiet laugh, had pointed out this was far from the Afterlife, that they were both still within the living world. From there, the conversation had flowed easily enough, with brief pauses as Adagium occasionally coughed for that extra breath.

If she had not heard the prologue from Regis himself, she would have thrown Adagium’s story right out the window and deem him as some lunatic wanting to take advantage of her good will.

Because first of all, Adagium was not his name — it was Ardyn Lucis Caelum, older brother to Somnus Lucis Caelum. That wasn’t even the worst of it.

Aulea had left the tablet in Ardyn’s hands, letting him learn to fumble with the thing by himself, while she went to the small adjoining kitchenette to pour herself a glass of cold, very cold water.

She hovered over the sink, one hand clenching at the granite edge and the other dragging itself down her face. She wondered what exactly they got themselves into, why it had to happen during Regis’ reign of all times, and if maybe this was all some intricate lie crafted by a very cunning daemon. (That could shapeshift into human form? Ha! As if.) But as she pulled her hands away to fill a second glass, she thought, for the good of everyone and everything else but her and Regis’ sanity, that things would probably go worse if they had not been the ones to find Ardyn.

As much as they liked to joke about Regis’ soft heart, his gentleness had been one of his darling qualities she fell in love with, while also being responsible for the loyalty of Clarus and Cor. Mors, his father and late King, may have been more strict and utilitarian during his reign, but already Lucis was ready to turn themselves into the tender hands of Regis. The council had thought it a weakness to exploit, only to learn what a fierce lion paced just beneath, its fangs sharp and claws just as deadly.

So perhaps, she and Regis were just the people needed to tend to Ardyn’s scars and trauma, to help heal what should have been cared for so long ago, to keep his open wounds from festering and falling to infection. To keep the Scourge that literally embodied itself into his skin and bones and his very cells.

Aulea could feel the oncoming migraine from just thinking about that. Slaying daemons, products of the Starscourge that addled their lands, and sealing them were one thing; but purging it from a seemingly immortal man who, from what both she and Ardyn understood — even the man himself wasn’t sure of the specific details and implications of it all — was something beyond the Caelum magic. This was Oracle territory. And not even Sylva Nox Fleuret had experience in something so severe.

“Oh dear.”

Aulea turned around to see Ardyn holding the tablet, broken cleanly in half and sparking at its exposed wires, screen shards glittering on the silk bedding. He looked tragically concerned, torn between dropping the entire thing or trying to piece the broken parts together.

“I… Killed it?”

Not to mention Ardyn needed to play a game of major league catch-up. He had at least a couple thousand years’ worth to learn, and a whole curriculum on how phones and tablets work apparently.

Aulea allowed herself one large breath, puffing her chest out as she filled her lungs to the brim, and slowly exhaled through her lips. She lightly smacked her hands on her cheeks, prepping herself up for whatever ordeal that was to come. Alright, put it this way: maybe the gods decided to give her a pre-test. Because if she could help an ancient-Caelum-turned-Scourge-grandpa learn how the modern age worked — and work through all the emotional and mental damage of a two thousand year (wrongful) imprisonment — then helping Regis run the kingdom should be a breeze. Or something.

“Don’t worry about it.” Aulea picked up the two glasses, made her way over to Ardyn’s side, and offered one of the drinks. “I’m sure you’re parched.”

Ardyn didn’t have to say a word. He downed the entire glass in the same time span it took for Aulea to take one sip. Which made her feel rather foolish. For here she was, showing him cat videos when she should’ve addressed the basic needs first: food, warmth, rest, hygiene.

Rest was out of the way, sort of. Water? Check. She could whip up something easy while he showered, so that would check off food and hygiene. After refilling his glass, she went into the bathroom and made a beeline for the cabinets, rummaging through the extra shampoos and soaps as she searched for a certain bottle.

‘Oh.’ She grabbed the little chocobo toy hidden beneath a spare hand towel, giving the rubber toy a squeeze. It squeaked, high pitched and sharp, and she gave it another quick squish. Huh, she didn't know this was still here. Did Regis?

“What was that?” she heard Ardyn say, curiosity quite piqued. Aulea smiled to herself, pocketing the toy in her robes as she pulled out a bottle of “Sal's Hubba Bubba Bubbles.” She placed it at the edge of the porcelain tub as she made her way back to the door. Aulea leaned her head outside the doorway, meeting Ardyn’s inquiring gaze with her own bright one, and pulled out the rubber chocobo. She gave it a squeeze, and Ardyn realized what the noise had come from, judging from the small ‘o’ of his lips.

“Ardyn,” she said, wiggling the toy around in her hand, “would you like to try a bubble bath?”

Regis walked into his bedroom, somewhat dark with all the curtains still drawn — odd, he thought — and if he did not believe in the love they shared and knew of Aulea’s eccentric quips, he would have doubted all their years together upon seeing her towel dry a half-naked man’s hair, the same man curled up in Regis’ favorite armchair and devouring a plate of scrambled eggs.

There was a rubber chocobo toy resting on one of the arms.

His lips curled into a wry smile, audibly clearing his throat and earning both their gazes. Aulea looked only pleased as punch, though there was something tired around her eyes. Adagium, appearing far better and refreshed than when Regis had first laid eyes on him, still looked worn as the very walls that contained him, old and cracked in the most horrible of places, cold and hard deep within a shell. The bits of yellow egg around his mouth, though, somehow softened the image of a deadly beast that had once been chained within a stone tomb.

“Good morning, Reggie.” Aulea fitted the damp towel around Adagium’s shoulders and walked up to Regis, wrapping her arms around his neck and greeting him with a quick peck along his jaw. “Say hello to Ardyn.”

Regis followed his gaze from Aulea's outstretched hand, a gesture pointed at Adagium, whose fork hovered midair on the way to his mouth. “Hello,” he said, before turning back to whisper close to Aulea. “Ardyn?” He raised his eyebrows, searching for the answer in her face. “His name is —”

“Ardyn. Not Adagium.” Aulea tugged on his arm and led him to a chair across the small table, a short thing made of glass and elder wood that had certainly seen better days. “And you'll want to sit down for what you're about to hear.”

Regis was keenly aware of what should have been a working tablet instead of the broken pile of metal and scraps on his desk, but decided it was best to save that topic for later. Not to mention, Aulea held a glass of water obscuring his line of sight and intentionally blocking his view. He took the drink and sipped at it.

“Ardyn, this is Regis,” Aulea introduced, handing a simple plate of scrambled eggs to him.

Regis pushed the eggs around, not because he feared her cooking, but because he wasn't sure if eating was the best course of action, given her warning from earlier. And if Aulea didn't press him to eat, then, perhaps it was best to wait.

“My hero,” Ardyn drawled, after swallowing his food. “And very distant… Cousin?”

“Nephew,” Aulea chimed in, all right as rain and nodding sagely.

“Nephew then.”

“Pardon?” Regis looked from Ardyn to Aulea, then once more to Ardyn.

“Something like that.” Aulea crossed her arms. Ardyn was too busy eating to give any commentary, but he at least nodded along to her words.

And while the two seemed to be on understanding and oddly friendly terms already, Regis was out of the loop completely.

“Pardon?” he tried once again.

“Well —”

“You see —”

Both Ardyn and Aulea started to speak, but they paused to look at each other, each of their mouths opening and closing with no words shared as they tried to figure who should go first. Eventually, Aulea gestured for Ardyn to say his part, and she filled in the gaps between.

Still, Regis wasn’t sure if hearing it from Aulea lessened the wave of nausea that crept up the back of his throat and behind his eyes, and he wondered if he wasn’t back on the royal vessel, the waves softly rocking the ship; for even as he sat, his entire world was sent swaying, and the soft carpet beneath his feet felt unsteady as sand.

“Oh, he’s taking it better than I thought he would.” Aulea patted him on the shoulder, and Regis considered it as more out of sympathy than anything.

“Aulea,” Regis said, summoning forth all the seriousness he could muster, “it is still morning, and we both know I’m not a man of the drink, but if you would please.”

“Already have.” From seemingly out of nowhere, Aulea pressed a thick short glass into his hand, filled up to three fingers full of liquid dark amber.

“I love you.”

“You better.”

#ff15 #final fantasy xv #ardyn izunia #regis lucis caelum #aulea lucis caelum #i can type #...now to update my other fic lmao

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xadial · 6 years

Text

black paladin lance?

probably just incoherent rambling. but here are the reasons i think lance will have some relation to the black lion, even if it is co-leadership with keith.

honestly, i... have absolutely no reason to doubt it’s going to be a thing in some shape or form based solely on this fucking shot

why? well, this is from where allura is delegating the lions, and this shot in particular is for black. first and foremost in the shot is shiro, who was the first pilot, and then second there’s keith, who was the second pilot, and third there’s lance, who--

yeah.

but alex, you say, this doesn’t prove anything

these two were the only ones shown on screen during the entire time the blue lion was mentioned, and the only time where allura acted differently - an anomaly to set her role in giving blue away apart from the rest of the lions if you will. they were also in order in a way - allura saying the stuff about the blue lion in the shot before these two can be discounted as a formality or whatever you want to call it. it appeared in all the other lions’ giveaways (shut up it’s late) so it isn’t anything significant. so first shown was lance, and second was allura, which is also the order that they piloted blue.

you need more evidence?

these three were shown in the red lion part, and the reason that allura holds on to red for a long time is because of the connection with her father (it could be a hint at when she breaks down in red when she can’t fly her because she feels she’s failed her duty and heritage) - but the only two actually looking at red are keith and lance. and they’re in order of who flies red (foreground -> background) at that.

so this scene by itself is one fucking colossal five minutes of foreshadowing. sometimes the writers fuck up and sometimes they do this. oh and just to wrap this scene up

these two are the only ones in the shots relevant to their lions and guess what - they haven’t changed roles at all and are exceptionally unlikely to do so.

so... absolutely everything in this scene is foreshadowing that’s actually canonically happened at some point, apart from lance and black? and lance is next to keith in the shot of black? and keith is flying black at the moment? have patience we have four seasons left that’s all i’m saying

regarding the lions and their paladins

allura is permanently in blue

i don’t have the will to screenshot it but in season three there’s a massive scene about allura joining the team and lance handing blue over to her. you know, the one in the hangar? we even see the bayards change hands which is the boldest symbolism of permanence and closure you could ask for. then, allura bonds with blue and unlocks that sonar thing waaaay faster than lance did and lance even goes and acknowledges this to keith. so, allura is staying and lance is done with blue.

however. there was absolutely nothing like this for keith and lance, with red. it might have been because of time constraints in the show or a fear of being repetitive but if they wanted to show any sense of permanence they would have done the very bare minimum of showing some exchange. it just feels like lance isn’t quite settled yet.

all the lions just really seem to fucking adore keith

count how many times red has rescued keith compared to all the other paladins and their lions. i can think of at least three separate occasions and it’s kind of disproportionate. their relationship (?) was dynamic, to begin with it was more difficult than the rest but these are some of the things that make it kinda standout. again, the lack of permanence about the bayard exchange for red runs both ways - it also feels like keith isn’t entirely done with red yet.

keith bonded exceptionally fast with black, but i’m not absolutely 100% on the validity of this. shiro’s essence was in the lion the whole time to help him and we haven’t actually seen him try to pilot black again without his brother’s help. to me it would make a heckload of sense if he struggled a little more with black now shiro can’t influence anything. also, i think shiro’s essence being in black absolutely affected her choices. it’s why she chose keith over anyone else to pilot her after shiro, yes lance wanted to pilot her for himself (to prove his own self-worth to himself) instead of the team but shiro was also in there and shiro wanted keith to lead. i also believe that shiro played a part in black rescuing keith after his fight with kuron - would black have come otherwise? it’s likely but it’s just an interesting thing to think about. it just shows you the influence shiro had or may have had over things that black did - and black really, really loves shiro too.

shiro is probably retiring

he has grey hair. need i say any more?

everyone except him has a lion, if he had to displace anyone it couldn’t be allura, pidge or hunk - i explained allura’s and he doesn’t appear in pidge or hunk’s shots when they get their lions, you know in the first bit of this post. he’s not going to pilot them. i feel patronising explaining that part because everyone know that lol. so it would have to be lance or keith he replaces, when keith had this massive arc about being leader and lance flies red which i cannot at all picture shiro taking.

anyway, the ‘rest now’ thing is probably not only for only shiro in that scene but also applies to him in the rest of the show. dude spent two years forcibly dissociating and then comes back with an arm missing, i doubt he feels like fighting much more.

hella foreshadowing

what, even more foreshadowing alex? i’m going to end up doing that thing where you say spoon too many times and it ends up burning a hole through your cerebral cortex

shhhh

anyway look at this and tell me it doesn’t remind you of something

and this was a scene where he showed legitimate leadership skills. also. heh. literal. uh. FOREshadowing. heh. gotta be competing with tungsten for the highest density award to see absolutely nothing in this. (also, putting my chemistry brain nerd back in his cupboard and dumping custard over his head just give me a second there we go okay let’s continue)

this shadow (you know. like shiro’s scar. shiro the black paladin leader shiro.) is only there for a few seconds and has no relation to lighting or anything, it isn’t caused by the helmet. make of it what you will.

other than this

-when keith flies black he complains it’s too slow and when lance flies red he complains it’s too fast. seems like a problem that could be solved by...... switching.......

lance doesn’t have a fixed place or role on the team, not really, and i realise you’ve likely heard the ‘water sign, adaptable, yada yada’ before but it’s true. each paladin has only unlocked one class of weapon and variations of that class, apart from him. he’s unlocked two classes and it’s almost as if he could fly... two things..... as well

idk though i guess the altean broadsword was alfor’s weapon so it may signify his adapting to flying red, alfor’s old lion. BUT this still shows adaption so all hope is not lost

anyway keith and lance are the only two who still feel slightly incongruous in their lions? as i mentioned at the start i have a very very strong hunch about some form of co-leadership. keith admittedly was given that writing cop-out and now is magically a good leader, but as i said half of that was with shiro’s help? if everything with keith and black remains as progressed as it got with shiro’s essence in black i’d be surprised i guess.

i don’t know how exactly it’s going to happen but

this means something and it makes no sense for lance to appear here otherwise.

we have four seasons left. lance has been called stability, wingman, impulse control. his role, whatever it is, will still be critical in keith’s leadership. don’t quote me on this (i might edit once i finish my re-watch) but in s6 when keith came back and led voltron him and lance had a lot of communication when fighting as voltron? more so than with any other specific paladin at least. they have a bond, next to shiro lance is the paladin keith is closest to, and from a shipping standpoint or not this means something and it will have an effect on the team and the way that they are lead by keith.

anyway. i cannot emphasise enough. even if my brain is too fried to figure out what and how exactly is going to happen in relation to lance and the black lion, this means something.

tl;dr

lance is hella adaptable and shows this in contrast to the rest of the team which could equate to being adaptable with which lion he flies (..... both red and black for our awesome bi boi cough cough)

no closure with keith and red which means keith could still fly red at some point, even temporarily -- if you look at the shot of red with keith and lance at the top of this post they’re waaaaay more balanced to look at than the dramatic shot and imbalances with character heights in black’s part, which suggests kinda equal power with her? am i wording this right?

he first and foremost communicates best with keith when fighting

so much foreshadowing you could drown in it

im. very tired.

lance would want you to have hope

#black paladin lance #come on guys i worked hard on this monster #lance vld #voltron meta #voltron #bp lance

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annarosewriting · 6 years

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I Have Four Less Teeth and All People Wanted to Comment on Was My Weight.

I got my wisdom teeth out a few weeks ago.

I KNOW, I KNOW. I’M 23 AND I JUST NOW GOT THEM OUT. “WELL WHY DIDN’T YOU GET THEM TAKEN OUT EARLIER???” YOU MAY BE ASKING, WELL THE ANSWER IS I’M SCARED OF SURGERIES IS THAT WHAT YOU WANTED ME TO SAY?? HUH?? WELL CONGRATULATIONS YOU GOT ME.

Overall, it was anticlimactic.They gave me some drugs, I texted my friend that I felt like Steve Rogers before he gets injected with the Super Soldier Serum (which, side note, this friend is now my boyfriend and I like to think it’s because of my Percocet induced ramblings about Marvel characters), and then the drugs REALLY kicked in and the next thing I knew, I’m coming to with an ice pack wrapped around my melon with The Good Place playing on my laptop.

Which, The Good Place was probably a little too heavy for someone who was heavily medicated and already has a lot of anxiety about what happens when we die but it’s fine, we’re all fine.

It was mundane but the worst part was I had the diet of a teething baby.

I ate more Easy Mac than I had in college. I only ate applesauce and ice cream for breakfast because they were the only foods that didn’t cause me crippling pain. I subsisted on water and the idea of food for the next two weeks.

I was suffering. I couldn’t eat a full meal so I was severally lacking in nutrition. I was in constant pain because of the gaping holes in my head where teeth used to be. And then, once the pain started to go away and I could move up in the culinary world to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I had to rinse my teeth out EVERY. TIME. I ate.

It was a pain in the ass, so my solution was to avoid having to rinse my teeth. Which meant, not eating. Or eating the absolute bare minimum to keep me functioning. Sometimes that meant I didn’t eat for five hours or more.

This translated to me always feeling lightheaded. I was tired. I couldn’t focus at work. I would try to write or read to take my mind off how much pain I was in but even then I couldn’t concentrate. I was wasting more energy calculating when I could eat than I was on actual work. I was on edge. I snapped at everyone I loved. It was an absolute nightmare.

I was miserable and it was the worst I had felt in a really long time.

But, hey, forget how miserable I was feeling. There were more important things to focus on. Things like how “[I’ll] probably lose so much weight!!!! So jealous!!!”

Cue the manic, white wine, suburban mom fake laugh.

I had more comments given to me about how I had lost weight or I “looked great” than I had in a while. The last time people felt comfortable enough to comment on my body was when I was crying about missing workouts and obsessively counting calories which, Y I K E S.

I wasn’t in a good place mentally but that didn’t matter!!! What mattered was I was finally on my way to being thin!!! Fuck my mental and emotional health!!!! That’s nonsense!!!! Who cares if my relationships are strained and I can’t do any work right?? FINALLY I wasn’t going to be fat!!!!! So that’s all that matters, right!!!!!!!

*cue the hour long fart noise*

It’s not like I lost weight because I actively worked for it. (And besides, losing weight to be skinny is OUT and wanting to be as buff as the Amazon Warriors on Themyscira is IN)

No, I lost weight because SOMEONE RIPPED FOUR TEETH OUT OF MY SKULL AND THEN I WAS MALNOURISHED FOR TWO WEEKS.

There is no part of that sentence that is healthy.

It was fucking absurd. I had literally been put under so someone could yank teeth out of goddamn head AND I was moving in a fog, but hey, soooooo worth it just to lose a few pounds quickly right?

Fuck that.

Here’s the thing, I’m unlearning a lot of toxic shit from Diet Culture and one of them is the idea that the number one topic of conversation for everyone, but women especially, is our weight. But I cannot stand that kind of talk.

I couldn’t stand it from the moment I realized that diet culture is all bullshit created by both the patriarchy and capitalism to keep women down because we all know that if women's collective energy wasn’t wasted on trying to reach beauty ideals that will always, always, ALWAYS be out of reach, women would have already dismantled the patriarchy, given free health care to everyone, made tampons and birth control free and all dresses would have pockets.

I couldn’t stand it when I thought about how my younger self would try to develop an eating disorder because then maybe she would feel like she was worthy of love.

I REALLY can’t stand it when I think about why I got my tattoo on my upper thigh. To hide the faded scar that reads “fat” that my younger self carved into her own thigh with a pocket knife. Watching crimson droplets appear as she prayed that this warning carved in flesh would be enough of a reminder to her as to what she could become if she ate when her body told her she was hungry.

I hated it the most though when people would say I looked great after getting my wisdom teeth out, and I would have a fleeting thought of, “Well shit, what other surgeries can I have so I’ll look like the small child on the cover of the Les Mis playbill?” Or “I should just keep this diet of soft foods eaten two or three times a day going if I’m losing this much weight!”

I fucking hate diets, the diet industry and diet culture.

So much.

Surprise.

It breaks my heart and it enrages me all at once. Like learning that Zayn had left One Direction or when One Direction announced their hiatus.

The number of women I’ve met in my life who have wasted so much time and energy chasing an ideal that will always be just out of reach is astronomical.

(Myself included!!!! I am absolutely one of those people and there are times when I still buy into it! It’s extremely hard for me to untangle myself from it when it was the basis of my personality for 23 years.)

It breaks my heart that society has engrained in me that since I’m fat, my biggest goal in life is to lose weight. Because of that, I considered eating food, that could only be gummed, two or three times a day JUST so I could m a y b e get within shooting distance of what society deems an “acceptable” body.

It’s all nonsense! I get so heated when I think about how we have just accepted that one type of body is the ONLY type of body to have and individuals should focus their whole lives on trying to achieve that impossible standard instead of living a good life, or being a good person or starting a revolution to dismantle this broken political system.

You know, just girly things.

It makes me physically ill if I think about it too long. I mean, what could I have accomplished if I had stopped worrying so much about losing weight?

The answer is SO MUCH.

Once I stopped worrying about losing weight, my relationships with friends and family started flourishing. I got into healthy romantic relationships. I started this blog. I read SO MANY books and I stopped beating myself up for eating food I liked. My body started to feel better since I wasn’t working it to the breaking point everyday trying to reach an ideal that is specifically designed to not be attainable just so the Diet Industry could bleed more money from us.

So please, I’m begging society, if someone feels the need to talk about their diet with me, or wants to comment on my weight when I’ve had bones ripped from my cranium, talk to me about LITERALLY ANYTHING ELSE.

Talk to me about what I’m reading, what I’m writing, ask me how Bucky is, how much emotional damage Infinity War did to my psyche, ask me if I’m registered to vote (I am and you should be too!) talk to me about existential dread, allow me to explain to you that it is a crime ABC did us all so dirty by cancelling Agent Carter after two seasons, talk to me about aliens, ask me how the numbers are at work for gods sake.

There are so many other topics of conversation and we are so much more interesting than what foods we’re depriving ourselves of.

Next time someone DOES try to tell me that getting my wisdom teeth out was a “great way to lose weight!” I’m going to throw my wisdom teeth at them.

#anna writes #anna rose writing #body posititivity #body image

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smokeybrand · 4 years

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NBA Rant: Opening Salvo

Today is the first day of NBA Free Agency. That sh*t is dumb. The season starts on December 22. Preseason starts December ll and ends on the 19. It’s f*cking absurd. My LAkers will have had just 88 days off while the teams that didn’t make the bubble, will have upwards of 300. What the f*ck, dude?? Look, i get that this sh*t is a business but or real? I mean, I'm gonna watch because ball is life, but f*ck, dude. I’m really hoping we don’t see an explosion of injuries like n the NFL. Anyway, since today is the opening day of the offseason, we’ve seen some moves, moves i want to get into a little bit.

Chris Paul to the Suns is a win-win for both franchises. OKC got the farm in return. Sure, they got a ton of pieces going forward but, more than anything, they accumulated seventeen first round picks, overall. That sh*t is ridiculous! This is exactly how the Cs were able to stay relevant and eventually contend, just a few years after the breakup of there Big Three. Paul’s first choice was a return to the Clips, of course, but they didn’t have the picks OKC wanted. Before everyone stars baring about having seventeen rookies or whatever, that’s not the point. First Rounders are pure assets. You can used them to make moves, to pry actual stars from teams hurting for cap relief or have grueling chemistry issues. On the other end of that, the Suns get a proven maestro on the floor next to Booker. The fact that Paul had his best years under Monty Williams is a plus, too. Do i think this move make the Suns a force in the West? F*ck no. They’re probably the best of the rest though. Like, they can play-in for the 8th seed and will have very real trouble getting out of the first round but this is a promising start. And, while I'm on OKC...

My LAkers made a move to acquire Dennis Schroder from these cats for a First Rounder and Danny Green. I like this move. I actually addressed this in the last Rant i posted but Green was more than expendable after seeing that playoff performance last season. Look, i like dude. He is a real defensive force. But, we need that shot and his was terrible. The Warriors are coming back next season, reloaded and disgusting. We need a sure shot to even begin to contend against that. Schroder isn’t THAT answer but he does fill another hole. It’s accepted that Rondo and KCP are both opting out. That’s fine. Schroder fills that playmaking hole we are definitely going to miss, and then some. Kid was sixth man of the year, or played like it, last year for OKC. I imagine him running the floor with AD and Bron would up those numbers considerably. I still think we should go after Pooh if he’s available, as the leader of the second unit but, more pressing in my mind, is trying to fill that whole in the wing. Palinka got a plan for that, too.

Way back in 2016,when i still played 2K because it was still fun and not a thinly veiled casino, i built this exact squad. My Player ran point, Bron was at the three, AD was the four, and Howard was my center. At the to, i ran Wesley Matthews. That squad was the best i ever constructed and i beat teams by a margin of twenty, every game. It was absurd how good those cat were together. Wesley Matthews is opting out and is the number one target for the LAkers this offseason. This cat fills that gap at the wing. He had a helluva season last year and, for his game, in Vogel’s creative ass offensive schemes, Matty Ice will get ALL of the looks. Matthews to the LAkers makes all of the sense, for both sides. This dude will slot in perfectly with that squad an, with him and Schroder in the fold, we can make a proper run at another title. Plus, he’s cheap as f*ck! We only have to come off the Vet minimum to acquire dude. Sh*t is dope! It’s not so dope for...

The Bucks. Holy sh*t, Milwaukee! Your assholes must be the puckiest of puckered. You just lost out on Paul and Matthews is opting out. Sh*t is looking real bleak for you right now in terms of Giannis retention, especially considering he’s spent the entire “offseason” in the Bay. This sh*t reeks of that KD fix from a few years back. I have no idea how Golden State makes those numbers work, but they did once and, if it means securing KD lite, I'm sure they’ll make them work again. I mean, you have to. If there’s an opportunity to sign arguably the best talent in the league, you make that happen. What I'm more interested in what the Bucks can make happen because, if we get to the trade deadline and these cats are spinning their wheels, you might see Giannis driving off toward San Fran next season. I mean, the clock is ticking on that super-max they offered and there is no sing of a signing in the near future, so...

Yo, what the f*ck is going on in Houston right now? D’Antoni is gone, Westbrook wants out, Morrey got fired, and now Harden asked for a trade? Are you serious?? Word is that a deal with Brooklyn is all but done? ARE YOU SERIOUS??? That’s some stunt trading right there because, and i say this knowing all of the hate I'd get from the general Hoop community, The Beard to Brooklyn is a terrible f*cking look. Never mind the “only one ball” argument, how does Kyrie, Harden, and Durant coexist on the court together? KD and Irving have already said they don’t have a coach, which is a problem in of itself, adding Harden, and his ego, to that mix seems pretty explosive. They’ll run the East no doubt, and would probably be superior to a lot of the teams out West but i have no idea if those egos will mesh. Kyrie is a basket case, KD is kind of a baby, and Harden is a dick. All of them have experienced being “They Guy” for several teams. All of them have experienced winning at the highest levels. How does this work? Who defers to who? This h*t only works if these cats are willing to work as a unit and that remains to be seen. KD did fine in GS but both Harden and Irving have proved they don’t like to share. And it's literally only the first day of offseason.

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spidypool · 7 years

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Sexism at Bed Bath & Beyond

I want to take a moment to talk with you guys about sexism. I know a lot of people view it as a dying problem or not as bad as it once was. And come on sexism at a retail store? Really? No exactly an important area. Well strap in I’m about to tell you a long slightly rambling story about the most badass woman of color I know.

So if you don’t mind taking a moment out of your busy days to read this post. Because I’m writing this about one fucking amazing woman and the shit she has to deal with. I know this won’t get reblogs or comments or whatever but I’d like some people out there to know about what’s happening because she deserves some sort of recognition.

Now first let me tell you a little background so you understand the settings and such. My store is called store 42. It is the largest Bed Bath and Beyond in the world and it is located in the busiest area Chelsea in New York City. On sixth avenue if you wanna get specific. It is also known as the flagship store. On a daily bases we get more foot traffic than quite a few stores have in a week. And I’m talking about our slow days here. We also get a lot of celebrities in here because of the location. So check out is a very busy area.

I work in what we call the Frontend. The Frontend is where you pay. It is also the broader term that refers to three departments; customer service, home delivery, and checkout. Though when we say Frontend we usually means checkout. I’m officially called a cashier though I haven’t been just a cashier in years. I am also trained in customer service, home delivery, and the office. Yes our store is so big we have a floor for all the offices and receptionists answer phones.

Now every store has a hierarchy and recently the titles of this hierarchy changed. But most of the time it is generally the same in. BBB it goes like this:

Store Manager – the boss

Seniors – these are like the top dogs of the store. They each supervise a section of the store such as Frontend, Hardside, Home Accents, Bedding, and Bath

LOD aka Leader on Deck – they are the person in charge of the whole store only during set periods of time really this person is who we call when a final decision needs to be made. These people are typically higher ranking Department Supervisors.

Department Supervisor (Previously called manager)

LEAD (Previously called supervisor why the name change? No clue! Also they are pretty much a department supervisor just without the pay)

Associate or Cashier

Now in the Frontend/Customer Service there must always be a LEAD or Department Supervisor (DS). During the day there are four people schedules to cover these departments. Two for each department, one in the morning and one in the evening. There is a little crossover to cover breaks and such. That is the minimum required to run the Frontend properly. The Frontend LEADs/DS are extremely busy. And there are a lot of jobs that need to be done. But the thing is none of the LEADs/DS do shit. Like seriously it’s ridiculous. They do the basics that’s it. Only Shelina does anything. She in fact does everything. And frankly that’s not fair to her.

She does:

The cashiers schedules

Writes the breakdowns (breakdowns tell the cashiers which register they are on and when their break is)

Orders products

Orders candy

Orders drinks

Orders change

Changes products (the Frontend unlike other departments changes what products are featured there based off the season for example we just had the summer season and then we changed it to back to college and now we’re changing it to the holidays/cooking)

Deals with incoming shipments

Product refills

There isn’t anything she doesn’t do. And no one helps her. She does it by herself. She works so hard she rarely takes breaks. She doesn’t have the time. She never complains when all the cashiers call out in the morning and not only does she have to do everything listed above but also be the cashier. She never complains when she is the only one closing or only has one person to help. She still gets everything done. Unlike very other LEADs/DS who bitch about it constantly.

This woman is a fucking superhero. She is the only Supervisor who is respectful and has your back. She won’t yell at you and in fact has never raised her voice. Mind you when she’s pissed you know it but she uses her words and makes it clear how she feels.

This woman spent the last two years teaching me everything she knows in order to have someone around to help her because she’s getting older. She a mother of 3 and a grandmother of 3 who helps out her daughter with her grandson by watching him every weekend. This woman is amazing.

Not a single Department Supervisor or LEAD helps her. When she orders drinks or candy and they come in instead of putting them where they belong everyone else puts signs on them saying for Shelina. Like seriously it is not hard to sort the candy by what department it is stored in. This job is not rocket science.

Every single cashier loves her because she is the only person we can rely on. In fact when she goes on vacation we all have to bare ourselves for the chaos that comes. Even callouts are higher because no one wants to deal. The other LEADs/DS can’t even write the breakdown themselves. They literally cannot survive without her. She inspires such loyalty in us when BBB fired 90% of the Managers all of us swore if she was one of them we’d walk out because no way where we going to deal with the shit storm of this job without her.

And BTW BBB fired most of their managers and when I mean most I mean about 90%. They fired so many that there was literally no one in charge and there still really isn’t in a lot of the departments. Plus they had no plan for what to do after they were gone. These people where with the company for at least 10 years a piece. It is disgusting they fired these long time employees with no warning just to save a few dollars. They made up the best of the company.

Now recently our Store Manager Christin left and we got a new store manager Anthony. Now like I said everyone knows Shelina is the one to run the Frontend which means she takes care of the most important department with little to no help. Frankly I don’t count. Only Anthony refuses to go talk to her rather going to Demascus I guess the next higher up after Shelina. Now Demascus does shit. He talks down to people and treats women like objects. If he can’t flirt/hit on/charm you well he doesn’t like you. He needs to have his little fan club. He’s been there the longest after Shelina and you’d think he’d know how to do the basics like order products, figure out what product should go up on the pillar, how to put the product on the pillar so it looks “filled and full” (Shelina taught me that the product wall must always look “filled and full” and there should never be an empty peg or be able to see the white of the wall). I recently watched him try to redo a pillar with the new season’s products and the results looked like a giant mess.

I gave Anthony the benefit of the doubt that he was new and didn’t know how this store worked. Though I felt like Christin wouldn’t have left without teaching him the ropes. But time goes by and Demascus still fails and Anthony still won’t talk to Shelina. He also gets confused when he sees me doing the physical aspect of my job. Now people like to joke that I’m Shelina’s assistant and in a way that’s true. She can’t do a lot of the physical aspects of the job anymore so I climb ladders, take down products, run back and forth getting stuff, ect. Did I mention I’m a girl? No yeah well I am. And I do more of the physical aspects of the job then most of the guys. I’m willing to do this for her. In exchange she teaches me.

Then Shelina said something to me. She said oh it’s because he’s sexist and thinks that Demascus (the man) should be in charge of all that. Great the guy who likes to do nothing is now in charge of everything. That’s going to work out great. So Shelina being Shelina saves him, again and again, because as I said before he knows shit. She does everything Anthony tells Demascus to do. Now she does this because she takes pride in her work and pride in how her department looks. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit to her.

But see she’s getting tired because no one is helping her. There is only so long someone can go without any help. Everyone they promote or higher none of them want to do shit or learn. She spent two years training me in the hopes that I would become a LEAD and she would finally get help. But I recently learned I will never be promoted. Not because I’m not good at my job but because I’m not liked this having to do with an incident where they scheduled no managers to work so the LODs had to cover the department. Now the LOD in question was Fei. Now everyone knows that Shelina trained me and I can literally run the department by myself at this point so guess what he did? He left me alone in the Frontend and never came back. So I did what I had to do and I ran the department. I made sure things didn’t fall apart. Because of the Fei helped to spread rumors about me and how I talked about the other LEADs/DS behind their backs in order to cover up the fact he left me alone. This cost me any chance at a future with the company. Shelina is still bitter about this fact while I have sadly accepted my fate. The only regret I have is I will never be able to help take off some of the pressure she has to deal with.

Back to the main point. There was an incident today. We keep the Dyson (expensive vacuum cleaners) up on high shelving in the Frontend. Not that this is in anyway remotely safe. These vacuums are heavy and located extremely high up and they over fill the shelves to the point the weight is literally bending the metal. Now usually if there isn’t any of a model on the shelf usually we don’t have it. Last week we learned that while we didn’t have any of a particular model on the shelf there was some located on what we call the Mez (a storage area located above the loading dock). But did anyone get them and bring them to the Frontend? Nope. And Shelina and I had no idea about them cause guess what? No one tells anyone anything. There is zero communication in this store.

We have a “Dyson lady” who is there for a few hours a day from the Dyson Company to talk about their product. We used to have a lovely woman there only recently this new lady (a fucking disrespectful and rude bitch) came to the store.

Now we have cards that the models on them and the customer brings them to the checkout gives them to us and we get the Dyson down. Only the customers kept bringing cards to vacuums we didn’t have. So she told me to go get the cards to the ones we didn’t have to prevent the mix up. And when I tried to do this the Dyson Lady yelled at me how we have the vacuums in the store like seriously how the fuck was I supposed to know. It was on the Mez no one fucking goes up there. I then tell her that unfortunately no one brought them down and I wasn’t able to get to them. Why you might ask? Because they are fucking large ass vacuum cleaners and the only way to bring them down was to lug them down the fucking stairs all the way from the back of the largest BBB in the world to the front of the store. I am not that strong.

So I go back to the front and go to tell Shelina but I don’t get the chance cause here comes Dyson Lady with Anthony. I don’t know what is said between them but it probably wasn’t good. What I do catch is what Anthony asks about “well which Dyson’s so we have up here?” and I answer because I’ve been the one going up and down the ladder all morning getting them for customers.

Shelina has me take him over to the Dyson’s only he then curses Shelina out like WTF you don’t say shit about your employees especially to those directly under them. He’s literally saying the nastiest shit about my superior to me and I’m at the bottom of the food chain. He is the goddamn store manager you’d think he’d have some respect. He then tells me “I don’t a fucking damn what Shelina tells you I’m your boss not her” and excuse fucking you. She’s never told me any sort of shit like that. She’s never told me to obey her over others. You know why I listen/chose her over the others? Because she treats me with respect and kindness something 98% of BBB Supervisors don’t do. In fact she’s never said a bad word about any of them other than that she’s disappointed in how they do their jobs because she knows they could do better. They just choose not to. Not only that Shelina is in fact my boss and you are her boss. He is so disgusting in what he says I am in literally shock and can’t manage to say a word in retort which I truly regret now though maybe it’s better I didn’t say what I wanted to because frankly he is fucking misogynistic sexist asshole and I would have said it right to his face. I have loyalty to those around me whether I like them or not we’re all here to do a job. Unlike him who apparently will say the nastiest fucking shit about his employees.

Now then he tells me he wants me to do the count (the count is when we count up the valuable products in the store to know how many we have this is done every morning) from now on and be in charge of the Dyson’s. I point out that I’m not a LEADs/DS and I don’t do the count. He then asks “why the fuck is he talking to me?” which frankly why is he? I tell him it’s because he wanted to know what Dyson we have. He then tells me to go get the missing Dyson’s from the Mez with “my buddy” Anthony (AJ is what he goes by thanks for remembering what name he uses). He tells me this with a wink and a nudge like we’re fucking high school girls talking about the guy I’m secretly dating. Now AJ is my best friend. My friend. We aren’t dating and I have no intention of ever dating him. It also isn’t a secret we’re close but everyone knows this and knows we aren’t together. People have assumed we’re dating before cause apparently a guy and girl can’t just be friends but what throws me is the fact my fucking boss my fucking elder boss like in his sixties made a insinuated sexual reference between me and a friend/coworker. That tell you what he thinks about men and women.

I shouldn’t be blown away by the sexism shown by my store manager. I’ve heard a lot of things. Two of my male LEADs/DS spoke horribly about a female LEADs/DS right in front of me. It was so disgusting in fact I avoided them for the rest of the day. People have the tendency to forget I’m there because I’m quiet and all over the place. They just say whatever in front of me. But still my store manager being a sexist pig to my DS caught me off guard. He’s only been with the company for a year Shelina has been with the company for over twenty. She knows more about BBB than anyone. And yet because she is a woman all her years of experience, all her hard work mean nothing.

If you’ve gotten this far thank you for reading. I know I went a little all over the place here but I hope you got my point. This amazing badass woman is treated like shit on a daily basis. I just wish there was something I could do other than writing this stupid blog post about it. Because she deserves the world.

#bed bath and beyond #sexism #feminism #woc #anti sexism #I hope I properly showed how awesome and badass of a woman she is for dealing with this shit on a daily basis #she is fucking incredible and I'm proud to know her #rambling

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mitchbeck · 6 years

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CANTLON: NIGHTHAWK GREAT ANDERSON ENTERS AHL HALL OF FAME

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings SPRINGFIELD, MA - John Anderson's road to the AHL Hall-of-Fame is a true hockey journey. Beginning with his captaincy during his junior days with the first edition of the Toronto Marlies of the OHA (now OHL). He was a first-round pick and spent eight years with the Maple Leafs. His journey continued for a brief one year stay with the Quebec Nordiques, who had drafted him during their WHA days. Anderson then had a strong four-year run with the Hartford Whalers. While in the Connecticut capital, Anderson would score the game-winning goal that gave the Whalers their one and their only division title. After leaving the Whalers, Anderson headed for Europe, which didn’t make me him happy. “I really hated it. I wanted to come back. The following summer I had worked as hard as I could, but I got no tryouts to any training camps and I have to admit, I was angry with the game at the point. Then, I got a call from an old friend, Gabby (Bruce Boudreau) to come to Ft. Wayne. He said, 'Play with me. We'll have some fun again.' I asked him, 'I’m not much on geography where is Ft. Wayne?'” After a season with the Ft. Wayne Komets (IHL) and listening to Boudreau, it was his best hockey decision. “It was a great piece of advice that I listened to. I was worried about riding the bus everywhere and the whole nine yards. It was the best thing I ever did. It was such a close-knit group. Everybody checked their egos at the door. I appreciated those guys giving me back the love of the game. It was a very special group.” Anderson would then begin to make his AHL mark with the New Haven Nighthawks as a Player/Assistant Coach a year later. “I really have to thank the New Haven Nighthawks. They made an old hockey player feel good and resurrected. It could have been over for my career. That was a very good group of players we had that year. It made me, an old player, feel a bit young again.” Anderson captured the Les Cunningham AHL MVP Trophy that season playing with a team that was half a crew of refugees from the Quebec Nordiques. The team they assembled was one of the last two Independent AHL teams. The line he was a part of, was one of the most fearsome in league history. Anderson played on the left wing. Stan Drulia manned the right wing while Paul Willett was the center. The group compiled 277 points in 1991-92. Drulia had 102 of those points. He was one of only two players in Nighthawk history to top the century mark in total points. Willett had 80 points. Anderson had 41 goals and a team-leading 54 assists (95 points) and a plus-42, as the trio blitzed goalies in what was then, just a 15-team AHL. Putting that in perspective, it's less than half of today’s what today's AHL landscape encompasses. Interestingly though, the line almost never happened. “I was injured late in the year in Ft. Wayne and didn’t play in the playoffs, I had a bad charley-horse. In fact, they thought it was broken. It actually laid down extra calcium (similar to Cam Neely’s career-ending injury). It never really healed in the summer, I barely trained, so I walked into camp, literally walked in, as a free agent. The only other person who had a worse camp than me was Stan. I saw him play one game the season before, you noticed him. "Dougie Carpenter (the team's head coach) wasn’t going to sign him and he had like 140 points the year before (with Knoxville ECHL). I said he had something special and I really lobbied Carpenter to sign him. Drulia took a pay cut to play in New Haven. He was being offered $1,500 a week to play in the East Coast League that year. "Then there was a shooting in the mall (Chapel Square Mall) around the corner from the arena (New Haven Coliseum) during camp. His wife was like, 'What are we doing here?” said Anderson. The AHL minimum at the time was far below what it is today ($70K) and this was just before the first rise in salaries that started with the 1994 NHL work stoppage. Anderson mentored many of his teammates. One of those he taught, Trevor Stienburg, has for the past 17 years, been a head coach with the St. Mary’s University Huskies (AUAA) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Stienburg was one of the ten players on that Nighthawk roster who were Quebec Nordiques prospects assigned to the team. Another ten were an assortment of AHL free agents of which Anderson was one. “John was such a good guy and a great teammate. He is so worthy of the honor,” Stienburg said in a phone interview from Halifax. "John’s style at that time might not fit the way hockey is structured today, but it was highly effective back then. “John played hockey like some people play basketball. He would set picks for others. He was the dean of subtle obstruction. When I would have the puck in the offensive zone, he would skate to me trying not to get open, and then at the last minute he would shake his coverage with his pick and he was open for the pass or created an open lane for you to shoot. He would always say, 'Act like an object'" The seeds for the second half of Anderson’s AHL career as a head coach were planted in New Haven. “John was the MVP of the league in so many ways. He always took the time to teach guys. He was maybe one of the very first player-assistant coaches in the AHL. He and Doug (head coach Doug Carpenter) were a good team and he gave him a lot of opportunity. "I would be a veteran at the point, and to be honest I wanted to be in Halifax. So, when I went to New Haven with that group, it felt like a demotion, because it was. To be honest, I was down emotionally. As we grew as a group, it got better each day and John was a big part of that. He was open. If you didn’t understand something, he would say, 'Come over here, I’ll show you.' He made me receptive to learning new things. That really helped me at that point in my career and down the line. "As my skating started to suffer late in my career, I always remember what John taught me and others in New Haven. I teach that to my players now just, in a bit more of a modified approach.” Anderson was an important part of the fabric for that edition of the Nighthawks. The Nordiques didn’t think they were prospects to be with the Halifax Citadels, the primary farm team for the Quebec. “He was the centerpiece of the team; a natural born leader, and he has accomplished a lot in this game. He is a Hall-of-Famer in my book,” said Stienburg. For Anderson and that team they started off quite poorly at 3-14, but his troublesome charley-horse finally began to heal and the trio started to click and collect points. They turned their record around with an inverted 14-3 run. “Stiener was one of funniest teammates I ever had, and he and all the guys made me feel so welcomed. He was the reason we turned it around had such a good year. We had so many good players in that group. Scotty Arniel, Brian Dobbin, and Lou Francheschetti were on the other line. Once, I got healthy, and guys got to know each other, we got better as the season went along. "All of the guys on that team got an NHL contract to sign except me,” Anderson said with his huge broad smile and a laugh. It was in New Haven that Anderson caught the bug for coaching which would be the other half of his sterling AHL career with the Chicago Wolves. “Doug never called me his assistant coach, he called me his little helper. We went up to Adirondack together to watch a pre-season game there to see if we might be able to pick up a couple players for us. We were up in Lake George. It was a beautiful fall day and Doug says, 'Do you want to sit in the restaurant?' I said, 'No, let’s go on the tour boat.' Doug was kind of a staunch guy, I was a bit (adventurous), but we're symbiotic as coaches together. That year he lost his mother which was very hard for him, but he was a great coach because he let me do my thing." He remembers his last AHL game in Springfield as a player vividly. “We sit down after the Star Spangled Banner. I see guys at the end of the bench to the right are laughing. I look left the guys are laughing and our head coach, Dougie Carpenter, is behind me. He’s laughing, and so I Iook at Stan Drulia and said, 'What the heck is so funny?' He said, 'Look behind you. "A guy came down behind the bench with a huge sign the size of a bedsheet: 'Anderson: Caution Microwave In Use.', "I wish he were here today because I have a new pacemaker and its microwave proof - Ha!” Chicago is where Anderson made a tremendous mark with two of the three last IHL Turner Cups, and their first year in the AHL won the Calder Cup over Bridgeport in five games. “We had all the ingredients. Kevin Cheveldayoff (the GM) has more rings than fingers, who might get one more in Winnipeg was great and he just let me coach. The owners, Don Levin, and Buddy Myers gave me all the tools I needed. And by tools I mean money.” Anderson said chuckling. The Wolves captured two titles in the AHL and the two in the IHL for an impressive seven-year run and add in the United Hockey League title he won in Quad Cit,y Anderson’s resume had the word winner stamped on it." The team also helped Anderson with their affiliation with the now-defunct Atlanta Thrashers where he eventually got his first NHL head coaching gig. Teaching others came naturally because of his strong competitive desire. “I really wanted to win that year. It was important to lead by example with such a diverse group that we had in New Haven. Being personable with players was a big thing. It doesn’t take much but finding out how a guy is doing. Bruce Boudreau and I have the same philosophy. What we always talked about was talking to every player, every day, because you don’t know what is going on. His kid might have been sick, or something else going on. It went a long way with players.” After two more years playing with San Diego, he began his hockey coaching odyssey in the Southern Hockey League in 1995, a six-team reincarnation of the mid-‘70’s version that lasted all of one year. Anderson had a tale from his Winston-Salem Mammoths days that brought the house down. “There was a lot to learn you had to do a lot yourself there wasn’t an assistant coach at the time. I even learned how to put up signs on the dasher boards. I learned a lot valuable things. "I was at the dinner table with my (unofficial) assistant coach Victor Posa, and I get a call from Walt Podubny (Ranger from the 1980s), the head coach of the Daytona Beach team. "We start discussing a trade. He wanted a guy we had on defense, and I wanted one of his offensive defenseman. We talked about 20 minutes and I ended it, 'Hey Walt, We're set. We have a deal? Yes, we do. "Next morning, he calls me and says his owner won’t let him make the deal, so the deal is off. I said, 'OK Walt if anything changes and you can call me.' "We have a game that night. We're playing great. We were down to four D as one player got sick before the game. So we're ahead in the third period, and one of my guys punches a guy in the head, the defenseman I was going to trade. So he gets tossed and we're down to three D and are shorthanded the rest of the game. "So, my youngest, Spencer, was six at the time, and he hung up things in the locker room and he goes in there and the player is throwing a fit. He’s throwing everything, gloves, helmets, and shoulder pads. "Spencer asks him, 'What’s wrong, Travis (Hulse)?' "Your father is gonna kill me if we lose this game. He’s going to be angry with me. It’s gonna be horrible.” "My son gives him a Gatorade and says, 'Don’t worry, Travis my Dad is going to trade you anyhow.' "Note to future coaches never discuss work at the dinner table.” Going to the AHL was always a place of last resort for hockey players in his day. “Everybody says I don’t want to go the American League till you get there. I look back as a player and a person how necessary and vital it was to go there to grow and develop personally. I realize just how vitally important the AHL is and it made me a better coach and a better person in being honored today says everything for me.” John Anderson has shown just how valuable the AHL is, and how valuable he has been to the modern era of the AHL as he proudly takes his place the Hall of Fame. Read the full article

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delicatefury · 8 years

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Pre-Noon tales from LCS

The temp job is temporarily over. The project had very little left to go yesterday, so my supervisor said if we didn’t want to come in for a part-day, we didn’t have to. I’m losing like, $50, but I’ve got family coming in, and apparently one of them is sleeping on my floor (on an air mattress). So I appreciate the extra day to make sure there’s floor for them to use.

I have to run errands today, too (bank and groceries), so I decided to get my couple hours out of the house done all at once. The plan was to be here at 8:30. Considering my phone died and I accidentally slept through till 8? That didn’t happen.

A couple in front of me in line looked like they stepped out of a 90′s tv show. I am absolutely serious. The blond bob with the bangs all pinned on top of the head, the multi-layered cut that looked like it belongs on Mike Myers. He wore too short dockers with a tucked in long sleeved polo. She wore too tight jeans paired with a cut short sweater and a jelly watch. All she was missing was the butterfly clip/necklace and the tiny backpack. I know 90s fashion trends are making a come-back, but still.

There was a mother with small children at the table I ended up snagging. While mom was throwing the trash away, (and after I had swooped in) the daughter (maybe one and a half, old enough to walk, but definitely younger than my 2yo niece) came back to the table, climbed up a chair near the table, and then smiled at me. What a sweet kid. Don’t worry. The shop’s pretty open. Her mom had her in sight the whole time.

The shop is in a little complex that houses 2 vegan restaurants (there’a only a handful in the entire city but two of them share the same building. That does not seem like wise placement), a Japanese place, artisan ice cream (which is delicious) and a couple of shops. My point is that, when the shop is empty, the parking is full, and vice versa.

I have my first case! I’m not getting paid or anything, because it’s for my sister, but still. Experience! It’s a small court claim, one that people often go after without a lawyer, but still. I am way too nervous. I think it’s worse because it’s family. What if, despite the obvious right solution to the matter, I still screw up? Ugh. It’s not like I have anyone I can go to with this. I never really established a mentor as a student. Too shy. Now I wish I had someone I could just go to to ask. The lawyers at the temp job have been helpful though. Now I at least know trying to resolve things without going to court is a waste of time (in this particular matter. It’s often very beneficial to stay out of court).

There’s a puppy! I know that’s random, but he literally just showed up. A fluffy little jumpy bug. What a cutie! I keep forgetting it’s puppy season. All those christmas puppies finally leash broken enough to go for walkies! It is a shepherd puppy of the germanic persuasion. Or a near cousin.He keeps looking at his owner like “am I doing it right?” and “Don’t worry, you’re still the best person in the entire universe”. God, I love dogs. And cats. And pretty much everything they represent.

I am resigned to the fact that I will have at least four pets at some point after I get a steady job. There’s Terrapin of course (my cat), who I’m sure will live to be ancient. Then there’s the dog I’m getting after I’m settled enough to handle my student loan payments and getting out of debt, a maltese (because I grew up with one and they are the best little dogs out there) who will be named Kenobi. And I will get so much heat for that. Then there will be a second cat. Because of course there will. Either a tiny little rescue kitten that gets my heart at one of the pet stores that participates in my city’s cat rescue (which is every one of them. Petsmart and the local stores, so it’s only a matter of time), or a Maine Coon because they are giant and fluffy and awesome. I would go the adult cat route, but between Terrapin being a butt and the dogs, in might be easier to start from kittenhood. I’d hate to introduce a full grown cat that Terrapin hated. And I’d hate to reject a cat that I’d honestly get attached to as soon as I decide to bring them home because of Terrapin being unhappy. He’d adjust easier to a kitten. Finally, and the timing of this depends on when my sister and I finally part ways, a big dog. Most likely a German Shepherd, but I’m not adverse to Rottweilers or Bernese Mountain Dogs. These 4 are the bare minimum. That number could always go up.

Chapter 3 is not fighting me. I am simply being lazy on writing and focused on getting the blanket for my nephew done. I’ll try today. I intend to stay at the LCS until noon, at least, so I’ve still got plenty of time.

Philosophy videos on youtube are the best. I wasn’t even looking for them, but one came up on auto-play and now I’m hooked. I’ve missed this stuff from college more than I realized.

#Fury's life #Fury writes #tales from the Local Coffee Shop #I wrote more than I thought #especially about pets #but I've thought about it a lot #and 4 is the magic number #Well #maybe three #That second cat does depend on a lot of factors #including me not freaking out #which happened the last time I thought about getting another cat

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365footballorg-blog · 6 years

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Wiebe: Why your (playoff) team will lift the 2018 MLS Cup

October 31, 20182:34PM EDT

Can your team win MLS Cup? Sure, why not? It could happen. It probably won’t, though – better to get that out of the way now.

That’s how I started this column back in March, in which I did my best to make a case for all 23 teams to win MLS Cup. Let’s just say there were some serious logical fallacies in there. Looking at you Colorado Rapids, San Jose Earthquakes, Orlando City and eight other clubs for whom the dream is dead. Better luck next year.

For the 12 who qualified for the Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs – in my book, the bare minimum it takes to call the league season a success – there’s another case to be made for lifting the Phillip F. Anschutz trophy on December 8. There’s also a chorus of haters waiting to bring everyone down.

Here we go, from No. 12 to No. 1 in the Supporters’ Shield standings, all in 280 characters or less because we’re all addicted to Twitter and nobody’s got time for 5,000 words on a Wednesday gameday. Don’t forget to get your Audi 2018 MLS Cup Playoffs Bracket Challenge set and join the ExtraTime Radio league.

Real Salt Lake

Thanks to the LA Galaxy’s improbable defeat on Sunday, RSL veterans Nick Rimando, left, and Kyle Beckerman have one more shot at playoff glory | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because they’ve done it before. Remember ’09? RSL eked into the final playoff spot and won it all. Rusnak = Javi, Savarino = Espindola, Beckerman/Rimando = Beckerman/Rimando and … there is no Saborio equivalent. If they can get past the KO Round and get a home game, they’ve got a shot.

Haters Will Say Those “1 in a million” odds aren’t going to go their way twice, and LAFC already dropped five on them earlier this season at the RioT, and won 2-0 in Los Angeles. No playoff team has taken more road Ls (11) than RSL. Rested or not, Knockout Round is the logical end of the road.

Philadelphia Union

Jim Curtin, left, said Ilsinho, right, will play a key role in Wednesday’s Knockout Round game at New York City FC | USA Today Sorts Images

They’ll Win Because Corey Burke and Fafa Picault get stupid hot, and whoever pairs in central defense (pick from Auston Trusty, Mark McKenzie, Jack Elliott) goes full Maldini. The Union can draw on their USOC run. That will give them the drive (and necessary pragmatism) to grind out an MLS Cup shocker.

Haters Will Say it’s a step too far. If Philly couldn’t finish the Open Cup job in Houston after a raft of home games, what makes anyone think they can get past NYCFC at Yankee Stadium then the Shield-winning Red Bulls then likely ATLUTD or D.C. United and finally MLS Cup on the road? Dream on.

Columbus Crew SC

Gyasi Zardes, left, has made a strong bid for comeback player of the year with 19 goals this season | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because It’s fate. After the toughest year in club history off the field, Gregg Berhalter and the boys cook up the perfect reward for Crew SC supporters. Justin Meram, Pipa Higuain and Pedro Santos turn the clock back to 2017, and 3G cooks up the perfect tactical plan round after round.

Haters Will Say no team scored fewer road goals this season than Columbus (11), and you think they’re going to Audi Field and knocking LuchoRoo and D.C. United off their perch as league darlings? Please. Ain’t gonna happen. Their season ends on Thursday night.

D.C. United

Ben Olsen, right, is having his most enjoyable stretch as a head coach. Wayne Rooney, left, is a big reason why. | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because The Law Firm of Rooney, Acosta, Canouse & Hamid has quality, momentum and home-field advantage on their side. Check out the matchups. Semifinals against Red Bulls? You can’t hold them back, c’mon. Next up Atlanta? Benny vs. Tata = W. Bring the raccoons to the parade. They’ve earned it.

Haters Will Say They’ve won just once away all year. Red Bull Arena and Mercedes-Benz Stadium don’t have the same juju as Audi Field. Rooney’s magic has to fade at some point, right? You can get to Lucho Acosta by kicking him, which will happen a lot in the playoffs. Their luck will run out.

Portland Timbers

Can the Timbers surprise folks this postseason under first-year coach Giovanni Savarese | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because Diego Valeri is healthy this year, Sebastian Blanco can win a game singlehandedly and Diego Chara lives to smother your happiness, assuming you aren’t a Timbers fan. Gio’s got titles. He knows there’s no need to overcomplicate things. Solid defensive block and counter … all the way to MLS Cup.

Haters Will Say You can’t play Real Salt Lake every game. Since winning 3-2 at Seattle back on June 30, the Timbers’ only wins against playoff teams are the Union and Crew SC at home and the recent double vs. RSL. That’s two No. 6 seeds and a No. 5. Same period, other playoff teams: 0-3-2.

New York City FC

Will the return of Yangel Herrera, pictured, and Maxi Moralez spark NYCFC to a playoff run? | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because They’re finally healthy (ish). Did you read what David Villa said about Yangel Herrera? You should. NYCFC were already nails at Yankee Stadium. Now they’ve got their most influential player back in the nick of time. Jesus Medina is back, too. And everyone is doubting them. Good mix and a good read on it to boot.

HATERS WILL SAY Dome hasn’t found the answers, Villa isn’t the Villa of old and 2 wins in 10 (against Chicago and Philly … at home) aren’t indicative of postseason success. It’s too much to ask of Herrera to dominate games. Medina will be rusty. Same old, same old for the blue side of New York, which is to say … playoff flame out.

FC Dallas

Reggie Cannon has been a key part of Dallas’ steady back line | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because They’re consistent, if unspectacular. The backline isn’t gonna make boneheaded errors, and Maxi Urruti and Michael Barrios go HAM. Dated reference? Fair, but you could say the same about Urruti the goalscorer. May is a long time ago. Basically, Dallas find a way to score, and that sluggish second half doesn’t matter.

Haters Will Say Dallas can’t score and that sluggish second half matters. Forget MLS Cup, the Timbers are going to win in the Knockout Round because they have better attacking players and won’t give Dallas space to break into on the counter. Even if Dallas win, they’re not on the same level as Sporting, Seattle or LAFC.

LAFC

LAFC part-owner Will Ferrell is hoping his club’s inaugural season has a Hollywood ending | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because That’s what Bob Bradley does in expansion seasons. Coaching matters, and Bradley’s gonna gameplan like there is no tomorrow. Also, they’ve got the best collection of top-end attacking talent in the Western Conference. Vela, Rossi, Diomande and a couple former MVP candidates in the midfield.

Haters Will Say The backline can be shaky, and they can’t hold leads. And when you can’t hold leads, particularly at home, you lose in the playoffs. That could apply to the Knockout Round, but it most definitely applies to home-and-home series in which road goals matter a whole hell of a lot.

Seattle Sounders

Raul Ruidiaz celebrates his game-winning goal in Seattle’s win over San Jose on Sunday | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because they’ve had the best half-season in MLS history, they know exactly what it takes to get to MLS Cup and they have Stefan Frei, Chad Marshall, Ozzie Alonso, Cristian Roldan, Nico Lodeiro and Raul Ruidiaz up the gut. That’s a #squad. Roll the balls out, let these guys do their thing and have a parade at the end.

Haters Will Say What are they even good at? Do they have an identity? Whoops, that was Bobby Warshaw circa four months ago. Don’t worry, he’s come around.

They’ll be eliminated because they come up against a team as good or better (Sporting? LAFC? East top two?) and just can’t get it done on the day. The Sounders have weaknesses – every single team in MLS does – but I find it near impossible to pick against them in the playoffs.

Sporting KC

Sporting Kansas City clinched the top spot in the Western Conference with their victory over LAFC on Sunday | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because They’re balanced. No more defense and timely goals win championships … or perhaps more accurately, get you eliminated in the Knockout Round. Bad jokes aside, this version of Sporting can shut you out and blow you out. They’ve got loads more attacking quality and they’re deeper than ever before, plus the back six and Tim Melia are rock solid.

Haters Will Say Seth Sinovic is the key to everything and he’s missing the first leg of the conference semis. I’m only partially kidding. Dude only scores in the playoffs. Look it up. Haters will say that they still don’t have a primary goalscorer. It’s true. They’ve got a whole bunch of sporadic scorers, and that’s been more than enough. But in the playoffs when there’s no room for a dry spell?

Atlanta United

Striker Josef Martinez scored an MLS record 31 goals during the 2018 regular season | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because they’re the most talented team in MLS, and they keep things tight in the first leg of the Conference Semifinals to buy time for Miguel Almiron. He helps finish off either NYCFC or D.C. United, then Atlanta get two weeks to rest up and recover for the Red Bulls, who bottle it like usual. MLS Cup at MBS? That’s a win.

Haters Will Say “Hahahahahahaha [deep breath] Hahahahahahaha”

That’s literally what they’ll say on Reddit and Twitter. They’ll say it because Miguel Almiron wasn’t ready to be Miguel Almiron again, Josef Martinez’s historic season sputtered at exactly the wrong time and Tata said adios before the job was done. Don’t worry Five Stripes faithful, you’ll be fine.

New York Red Bulls

A young Red Bulls fan celebrates the club capturing its third Supporters’ Shield on Sunday | USA Today Sports Images

They’ll Win Because they’re MLS’s best team. Most points ever, and nobody understands their collective ethos/identity better than these Red Bulls. That goes a long way in the playoffs, when the games get more physical and the margins narrow. Then there’s the legacy aspect. This club isn’t lacking for motivation or pressure.

Haters Will Say “That’s so Metro.”

Need I say more?

Series:

Topics:

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Wiebe: Why your (playoff) team will lift the 2018 MLS Cup was originally published on 365 Football

#2018 #lift #playoff #team #Wiebe

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flauntpage · 7 years

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The Outlet Pass: Charlotte's Tailspin, Cavs Trade Targets, and NBA What-Ifs

1. Can Charlotte Turn Things Around?

The Charlotte Hornets are stuck in an injury-induced tailspin. They’ve dropped eight of their last 10 games, including two straight at home against the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls. Their head coach is out with a health issue (get well soon, Steve Clifford) and they’re four games back of a playoff spot, with four teams—the Orlando Magic, New York Knicks, Miami Heat, and Brooklyn Nets—standing in their way.

At one point last week they went to their bench and I literally didn’t know the first names of two players on the court. Michael Carter-Williams is making Marcus Smart look like Glen Rice and Malik Monk is barely in the rotation while Donovan Mitchell (the next guard selected) is averaging 27.2 points per game in December.

Charlotte's starting five is fine when everybody’s healthy but they've only played Kemba Walker, Nicolas Batum, Marvin Williams, Dwight Howard, and Jeremy Lamb together for seven minutes all season. Normally, they are stuck with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on the floor, dragging the offense down. Just look at how disrespectful the Thunder are to MKG in the play below.

Kidd-Gilchrist isn’t fooling anyone from deep, but he’s now a modestly-reliable safety valve from 15 feet and in. The Hornets are rushing to execute a 2-for-1 on this particular sequence, but it’s still jarring to see an NBA starter find himself SO open and not come close to touching the ball.

Their primary Batum + Bench unit was doing pretty well before Cody Zeller had knee surgery, though, partially because Lamb was in it. When Dwayne Bacon replaces Kidd-Gilchrist in the starting lineup they destroy people.

Ultimately, it all comes down to the Hornets just not being very good when Walker isn’t in the game. According to Cleaning the Glass, Charlotte is 22.1 points per 100 possessions better with Walker on the floor. Even if Batum is the de-facto primary ball-handler, their offense is stagnant and averages less than one point per possession. That’s so bad, but everything goes to hell when they’re both out. (The starting five is okay, but not crushing opponents enough to justify heavy minutes together while the bench can’t fend for itself.)

In what almost felt like season-saving victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, interim head coach Stephen Silas stretched Walker and Lamb’s playing time into a 15.5-minute stint to open the second half. In his eyes, Charlotte’s bench was a Rob Zombie-directed blood bath. Slaughter would commence the second he switched up his backcourt.

Silas knew Charlotte needed that game. For extending his starters, he was rewarded with ridiculous, completely unsustainable shot making against a defense that sorely missed Andre Roberson (I think Alex Abrines just fouled another three-point shooter). But a win is a win is a win.

With their upcoming schedule providing zero seconds to exhale, the Hornets will either get healthy, tinker with the rotation and stop their ship from sinking, or face some difficult questions before the trade deadline. (‘Does anyone want the $76 million left on Batum’s contract? How about the $29 million owed to Marvin Williams?’ or, ‘Can we please for the love of God find a backup point guard?’)

Barring a significant transaction, next year’s roster will look about the same as this one, plus whoever they get in the draft. But whether or not this team views itself as a buyer or a seller is another relevant discussion. The Hornets have enough talent to make the playoffs and even win a few games once they get in (or even an entire series if they can somehow grab the sixth seed).

Rebuilding won’t be easy with this cap sheet, and Walker is smack dab in the middle of his prime. If Monk doesn’t make rapid progress from here on out, do they think about dealing him and/or their first-round pick in the 2018 draft for immediate help? Injuries stink and so does bad luck, but the Hornets aren’t as rudderless as they currently feel. We’ll know even more about the direction they should head as the next couple months unfold.

2. This Year’s NBA What-Ifs Are Pretty Great

This season has been filled with a handful of shocking developments. After a possible career-altering injury to their best all-around player, the Boston Celtics are very good. With their entire roster 100 percent healthy (relatively speaking), the Oklahoma City Thunder are not very good. The Indiana Pacers are good. The Miami Heat are bad. The Portland Trail Blazers are Stranger Things Season 3.

Based on reports and rumors from various points throughout the offseason, here’s a semi-educated look at how things might look today had a few key moves gone down a bit differently.

A. Carmelo Anthony is traded to the Portland Trail Blazers

For the sake of argument, let’s just say Portland gave up Evan Turner, Mo Harkless, and a future first-round pick. So, in all likelihood, the Blazers would start Melo at the three, Al-Farouq Aminu at the four, and Jusif Nurkic at center. That starting five looks offensively unstoppable on paper, but, like, so does Oklahoma City's. Make this trade and what happens to Portland's top-five defense? Are they still rebounding this well? Do they score at will or does Anthony further impede what’s been an unusually static offense?

Photo by Joseph Weiser-USA TODAY Sports

In addition to transforming into a gigantic whoopee cushion whenever he's around the basket—Melo’s days of getting to the free-throw line are, at 33 years old, understandably dunzo—his assist to usage ratio ranks in the ninth percentile at his position. Even though the percentage of his shots that are unassisted hasn’t been this low since he was with the Denver Nuggets (which feels 7,000 years ago), he still loves long twos and there are defiant insecurities related to how he’s approached the seasons' first couple months. His stubbornness has contributed to the league’s most glaring disappointment, and he’s shooting 37.6 percent from the floor over the Thunder's last 10 games.

Would things be different in Portland? Would Anthony play better off C.J. McCollum and Damian Lillard, next to role players who won’t clog the floor and know how to pass? The stakes would be pretty low; Portland would remain unable to circumvent its own flaws and triumphantly battle through a ruthless playoff bracket. But they might be incrementally better than they are now, guaranteed a spot in the postseason, with pleasant vibes carrying them forward.

The other key side effect, assuming every other move happens as it has, is that Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott would still be on the Thunder instead of enjoying Westbrook-free serenity in midtown Manhattan. How would Anthony being in Portland affect Paul George in Oklahoma? Besides more shot opportunities, it’s hard to say. Assuming Billy Donovan chose to stagger his two best players, George would have more time on units that’d call for him to be one of the dozen best players in the world. The team's defense might be even better than it already is.

Westbrook could also spend more time going Full Westbrook, even though Full Westbrook as we knew it last year might be a permanent thing of the past.

B. Gordon Hayward signs with the Miami Heat

Would Kyrie Irving express interest in re-signing with the Boston Celtics if Hayward chose a different team, or were Al Horford’s harmonious style, stable ownership, and Brad Stevens' genius already enough? If not, the Celtics would likely be in the middle of the Eastern Conference with Marcus Smart starting at point guard and Terry Rozier playing 30 minutes a night. They'd disintegrate when Horford hit the bench, and any long-term injury that'd keep him out would be fatal. Also, Jae Crowder would still be around, likely clogging a pipeline that's seen Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown flourish.

If Hayward is healthy, what does Miami’s roster look like? (WHERE IS KELLY OLYNYK?!?) Is Miami better than it is right now or would Hayward struggle within the cramped confines of a Hassan Whiteside-Justise Winslow frontcourt? Even if they didn’t want to re-sign James Johnson or Dion Waiters with Hayward in tow, the Heat might still turn to decreasingly unconventional means, perhaps permanently plopping the one-time All-Star at the four, and having guards like Goran Dragic and Wayne Ellington set ball screens for him 35 feet from the basket.

C. Paul George is traded to the Boston Celtics

Things have so far worked out fine in Boston, but let me crawl out on a limb and declare that this team would be really freaking good if they somehow had Paul George, healthy Hayward, Irving, and Horford on the same team. Sub George for Tatum right now and they’re (maybe but not definitely) a better regular-season team. Their ceiling elevates on both ends in the postseason.

The more important ripple effect here is with Westbrook and the Thunder. Does he sign his extension or demand a trade? What does professional basketball in Oklahoma City even look like? And where are the Indiana Pacers? They don’t have Victor Oladipo (a hipster’s MVP candidate if there ever was one) or Domantas Sabonis. Their optimism would instead spout from Tatum’s magical touch and any other assets Kevin Pritchard could pry from Danny Ainge.

Even though this exercise is purely hypothetical, I’m far too lazy to trace imaginary steps and figure out what Boston’s roster would actually look like, but if the Celtics’ starting five somehow had four All-Stars and Jaylen Brown, um, that team would probably go to the Finals.

3. So, Who Isn’t Shooting Threes?

The highly scientific requirements to answer this question are such: A) a player has to launch no more than one three per game, B) he must average at least 12 minutes, and C) he needs to have appeared in at least 20 games. Here are the 49 players who qualify.

If you hold those benchmarks up against last season (and raise the minimum number of games to 55) that number rises by 12 players. Five years ago that same list had 99 players on it. For those counting at home, with my admittedly arbitrary qualifiers, that means the number of players (who actually play) who don’t use the three-point line is about half what it was during LeBron James’ third season in Miami—hard evidence of a revolution that’s been identified in real time.

Photo by Shanna Lockwood - USA TODAY Sports

Let’s go back to this year’s group, which reads like an endangered species list. How many players on there are useful despite their inability/unwillingness to shoot threes? If we first look at total minutes played, Ben Simmons unsurprisingly ranks first and is a revelatory prospect who's simultaneously defying convention while meeting his expectations. From there we’re infested by a crap ton of traditional big men who impact the game in other areas. They rebound, protect the rim, and set screens. Some space the floor by diving through the paint. Some are still dangerous at the elbow, and can engineer decent offense with their vision and a mid-range jump shot. A very small handful do damage with their back to the basket.

The non-bigs here are exactly who you’d expect: T.J. McConnell, Kyle Anderson, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Shaun Livingston, Tony Allen, Ish Smith, Kidd-Gilchrist, Dejounte Murray, etc. Omri Casspi is on there for some reason, too, somehow posting the highest True Shooting percentage of his career and the lowest three-point rate (The. Warriors. Are. Not. Fair.)

Over a third of everyone listed is at least 29 years old; five years from now this register will probably be half as long as it is today. This is foreseeable and a little depressing. The three-point shot is a game-changing roller-coaster, and when a collection of great shooters help frame the court in a way that broadens driving and passing lanes, the aesthetics can be breathtaking. (The. Warriors. Are. Not. Fair.)

I also just enjoy watching guys like Kidd-Gilchrist and Hollis-Jefferson—those who stand out with idiosyncratic limitations—but if you’re trying to win a championship right now it’s hard to justify their presence in your rotation. None of this is new, but stopping to think about what it means for basketball’s future every so often is necessary. I don’t want every team to play like the Rockets even though no team in the world is more entertaining.

4. Houston’s Angles are Ridiculous

Speaking of the Rockets, I’ve thought about this pass almost every day since it happened:

Like, what the hell? I have so many questions, starting with: In the moment: when did Chris Paul first believe that flinging a one-handed cross-court pass—directly parallel with the baseline—would actually work? Was it born from frustration or design?

As the shot clock ticks on, Tarik Black appears unsure of what he’s supposed to do. Paul directs him to set a down screen for Trevor Ariza, but Ariza instead jogs away in an attempt to drag his man to the weakside corner. Black then runs up to set a ball screen for Paul. There’s six freaking seconds on the clock and not even two dribbles into his assault Paul rifles the ball at an impossibly difficult and rare angle to create a wide-open three on the other side of the floor.

As the pick-and-roll unfolds, Thabo Sefolosha points for Royce O’Neale to stay in the paint and help defend what, in all likelihood, will either be a shot from Paul or Black. Does Paul see this and know it means Sefolosha is about to drop half a step toward the baseline to worry about Ariza in the corner? How is he so smart?!?

Paul and James Harden combine to average 19 assists per game. They’re second and third in the league in that category, respectively. But the Rockets only rank 12th in assist percentage and 29th in passes per game. They’re 28th in secondary assists and 13th in potential assists. That’s partly due to the fact that no team isolates more frequently than Houston. They maximize the space provided by their collection of human catapults and take advantage of the virtuous one-on-one skills possessed by their dual MVP candidates. (Not only do they isolate more than anybody else, no team is more efficient when attacking that way. This team is absurd.)

But Houston’s offense doesn’t peak when the ball is dribbled. Jaw-dropping, spontaneous passes made at angles very few players can even dream about allow the Rockets to generate efficient shots that catch defenses off balance. The surgical precision seen above is not attainable for most guards around the league, but it's basically second nature for Paul and Harden. Quick sidebar: Harden is probably going to win his first MVP this season, but not enough words can be written about Paul, who’s re-asserted himself as the second-best floor general in basketball and an automatic All-NBA member. Passes like that one help explain why.

5. J.J. Redick’s Game Isn’t Supposed to Expand, but it Has

At 33 years old, Redick is playing 33.5 minutes a night for a team that’s averaging 103.2 possessions per 48 minutes when he’s on the floor. Redick has never played this fast and his minutes have never been this high. As everyone fawns over Paul distancing himself from the formulaic style he enjoyed in L.A.,, Redick is experiencing the exact same thing in a role that doesn’t allow him to step on the gas whenever he wants.

Instead of seeing his responsibilities narrow, Redick’s doing more stuff in different ways. According to Synergy Sports, the percentage of all his jumpers that were off the dribble last season was 39 percent. Right now, that number is 47 percent, somewhat-expected uptick that's lowered his accuracy and can partially be attributed to greener teammates.

But heading into the season, without Paul for the first time in half a decade, I wasn’t sure Redick could do much beyond space the floor while Simmons ran high pick-and-rolls or Joel Embiid corralled entry passes on the block. Glue him to the corner and run him off a bunch of pindowns and Philly couldn’t be criticized for misunderstanding their marquee free agent acquisition. Instead, they’ve expanded his responsibilities in some very smart ways.

The ball feels like it’s in his hands far more than it was in Los Angeles. Instead of running through an endless maze of bodies, Redick's slicing defenses open with direct hand-offs and a bit more pick-and-roll action, all ultimately designed to turn the defense’s brain into toast.

Knowing the Lakers want to switch everything, Philly has Redick’s DHO turn into a staggered screen-and-roll. But Kentavious Caldwell-Pope doesn’t stop his pursuit—because Redick is that scary—momentarily putting two on the ball and allowing Redick to find Robert Covington wide open on the opposite wing. Kyle Kuzma switches off Amir Johnson in time to run Covington off the three-point line, but his off-balanced helps introduce the ball to the basket.

Whenever he sets a ball screen, two defenders are forced to communicate in an instant. Should they switch or fight through? Sometimes that question goes unanswered and both follow Redick. And sometimes the split-second hesitation is all a monster like Simmons needs to spark a match and pour gasoline all over the court.

Philadelphia is not good when Simmons and Embiid aren’t on the floor, but Redick stabilizes things as best he can, preventing bad from becoming apocalyptic. His assist rate in those minutes soars up to 25.8 (with a dependable 5.67 assist-to-turnover ratio) and his True Shooting is an uncanny 68.2. Covington is the only Sixer with a higher usage percentage.

All this is a pleasant surprise. I, personally, thought Redick was entering a different phase of his career after Joe Ingles crushed him in the playoffs. But in a new environment, as an elder statesman, Redick has shown that he's far more than a shooter, in a league that should be able to make good use of his talent for years to come.

6. C.J. Miles and The Babies

Since O.G. Anunonby cracked Toronto's starting lineup and Delon Wright dislocated his right shoulder (two events that basically happened at the same time, about a week before Thanksgiving), Raptors head coach Dwane Casey decided to hitch 30-year-old C.J. Miles to a bunch of children. Norm Powell (24 years old), Jakob Poeltl (22 and in need of a better nickname than "Austrian Hammer"), Fred VanVleet (23), and Pascal Siakam (23).

This is Toronto's second-most common five-man group over the past month, and they've been absolutely dreadful on both ends. But guess what? I don't care! Stubborn Casey is good sometimes. Yes, the Raptors should go back to a Lowry + Bench unit that makes opposing second units weep—swap Lowry in for Miles and that exact same supporting cast crushes everybody—but this makes me feel like Miles is a lovable babysitter that you can't, in good conscience, stay mad at.

Playing Miles at the three as opposed to the four doesn't make a ton of sense, but using him to space the floor for an inexperienced collection of players Toronto will need in the playoffs is fine enough for now.

7. Austin Rivers is an Isolation Genius...or Something

Thanks to a slew of notable injuries that have quickly transformed the perennial playoff-contending Los Angeles Clippers into the Los Angeles Clippers, Austin Rivers has been thrust into a role far greater than his ability can handle. But despite being an inefficient, borderline first-option with shaky shot selection, Rivers is also one of the league’s top one-on-one players.

Photo by Kim Klement - USA TODAY Sports

According to Synergy Sports, Rivers averaged 0.94 points per possession in isolation situations last year, a figure that placed him in the 73rd percentile. That’s not bad, even though it was likely boosted an unquantifiable degree thanks to Chris Paul, Blake Griffin, Jamal Crawford, J.J. Redick, Marreese Speights and even Ray Felton occupying the opposition's attention in various ways.

This year, surrounded by G-League talent more nights than not, Rivers’ isolation numbers are even better. He’s averaging 1.05 points per possession (74th percentile) and is actually more efficient than established All-Stars like Kyrie Irving, Russell Westbrook, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and DeMar DeRozan.

Some of this is because the career 35.5 percent three-point shooter has canned 40.7 percent of his outside attempts—including 42.7 percent of his 3.0 pull ups per game. And some of it’s because he never ever ever turns it over. But few players symbolize the “million dollar move, 10 cent finish” expression better than Rivers, who’s a master at breaking his man down off the dribble, entering a crowd of rim protectors, and lofting a prayer towards the basket.

Given that this is such an uncertain time for the Clippers, swapping Rivers out for a second-round pick and expiring money (he has a $12.6 million player option for next year) should be an objective for their front office. Maybe there's a general manager out there who sees these numbers (particularly that impressive shooting) and wonders if Rivers can help his playoff team in a seven-game series.

8. Cleveland’s Juiciest Asset Is Not Really That Juicy

The Brooklyn Nets are, officially, no longer atrocious. Heading into Wednesday night’s action, they had a higher winning percentage than 10 teams despite not having their opening night backcourt starters for most of the season. They’re below average on both sides of the ball, but only three teams launch threes more frequently and only one owns a faster pace.

Brooklyn’s starting five—DeMarre Carroll, Spencer Dinwiddie, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Tyler Zeller, and Allen Crabbe—has obliterated opponents by 25.3 points per 100 possessions since Kenny Atkinson turned to it right before Thanksgiving, and adding Jahlil Okafor, Nik Stauskas, and healthy D’Angelo Russell to the mix will only improve their depth and diversify their offensive options.

When teams start to really tank in March and April, the Nets will be busting their ass to win games and get better at everything they do. All this is bad news for the Cleveland Cavaliers. What was once their crown jewel for Kyrie Irving might now be Zach Collins (who's actually playing pretty well, but that's beside the point).

Does this mean Koby Altman should aggressively shop his best asset around the league? It’s probably still a little too early for that, considering their current rhythm and fact that they’ve yet to see what Isaiah Thomas looks like in their rotation. But the odds of that pick staying in Cleveland feel a lot lower today than they were a couple months ago.

The pick’s dropping value also changes what it’s worth. That means strapping a top-three protection to it and checking on Aaron Gordon’s availability is far more likely than getting someone like Paul George or DeMarcus Cousins. Realistic targets are now closer to the Harrison Barnes, Batum, or Rodney Hood mold (a lottery pick for any of those three is still a dramatic overpay, even though they’d help the Cavs match up better against the Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets in the Finals).

A couple weeks ago, before the Memphis Grizzlies fired David Fizdale, I wrote that Cleveland should give up the Nets pick for Marc Gasol. I didn’t believe they ever would, but now it’s not so crazy! When you have LeBron James doing UNBELIEVABLE LeBron James things every night, holding back as a front office feels criminal.

What’s the worst that could happen? They lose in the Finals, he leaves, and they don’t have the 10th pick in the draft? How much better off would Cleveland be if they hold onto that pick, lose in the Finals and watch him leave? They were arguably the worst franchise in the league during the four seasons he spent in Miami. Dark days lie ahead no matter what. The best thing they can do is go all-in and capitalize on a historic season from an all-time icon. Trade the pick, Cleveland! Convince him to stay! You're screwed if he leaves even if you have it!

9. David Nwaba is a Good NBA Player

Every time I watch Nwaba he makes three to five effort-intensive plays that makes Chicago feel like a competitive team. He’s just so damn physical, a tenacious rebounder who defends, draws fouls, finishes around the rim, and never turns it over.The Bulls (yes, the Bulls) are outscoring opponents by 4.5 points per 100 possessions with Nwaba on the floor, performing like a 53-win team. He’s awesome, and aside from the fact that he doesn’t shoot threes and there won't be a ton of money to go around this summer, one of the league’s 30 teams would be smart to offer present the restricted free agent with an offer sheet.

10. Finding Hope in Memphis

Almost exactly one year ago, Deyonta Davis tore the plantar fascia in his left foot, a devastating injury for any human being but particularly savage for someone who plays professional basketball and weighs 240 pounds. It essentially ended his rookie season.

In year two, as Marc Gasol’s primary backup thanks to Brandan Wright’s nagging groin injury, Davis is averaging 3.9 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. But in limited time he’s shown decent mobility on the defensive end and a feathery touch around the basket.

As someone who isn't fast enough to scamper around the perimeter, Memphis has him drop defending almost every pick-and-roll. Here he is stepping up to force Abrines to pass to Jerami Grant, then sliding back and forcing a turnover.

Now, against an actual playmaker who knew how to string his dribble out a bit longer, this sequence would probably not have the same result. Davis struggles against bigs who can shoot, too, forcing the Grizzlies to late switch or surrender open threes.

But according to Cleaning the Glass, whenever he's on the floor Memphis allows a ridiculous 11.3 fewer points per 100 possessions. (Opponents are also barely hitting threes when Davis is in the game, so, yeah, that's kind of meaningful and has nothing to do with his defense.)

On the other end, he's shooting 79 percent at the rim. That's really good! And aside from the natural hiccup as he learns to read the floor, taking shots as a roller when he should hit the open man, there are examples of him identifying what he needs to do and executing immediately.

Before he even catches Ben McLemore's pass out of Washington's trap, Davis' eyes are set on the opposite wing, initiating a sequence that leads to an open three and one of the most beautiful possessions Memphis has experienced all season.

He's still a project, but one who only played 600 minutes in college and hardly saw the floor last season. Davis is shooting 72.7 percent whenever he rolls to the basket; the day Gasol leaves Memphis will be dark, but Davis is beginning to flash the talent of someone who deserves a chance to *attempt* to fill those humongous shoes.

The Outlet Pass: Charlotte's Tailspin, Cavs Trade Targets, and NBA What-Ifs published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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The Outlet Pass: Charlotte’s Tailspin, Cavs Trade Targets, and NBA What-Ifs

1. Can Charlotte Turn Things Around?

Charlotte’s starting five is fine when everybody’s healthy but they’ve only played Kemba Walker, Nicolas Batum, Marvin Williams, Dwight Howard, and Jeremy Lamb together for seven minutes all season. Normally, they are stuck with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist on the floor, dragging the offense down. Just look at how disrespectful the Thunder are to MKG in the play below.

2. This Year’s NBA What-Ifs Are Pretty Great

Based on reports and rumors from various points throughout the offseason, here’s a semi-educated look at how things might look today had a few key moves gone down a bit differently.

A. Carmelo Anthony is traded to the Portland Trail Blazers

For the sake of argument, let’s just say Portland gave up Evan Turner, Mo Harkless, and a future first-round pick. So, in all likelihood, the Blazers would start Melo at the three, Al-Farouq Aminu at the four, and Jusif Nurkic at center. That starting five looks offensively unstoppable on paper, but, like, so does Oklahoma City’s. Make this trade and what happens to Portland’s top-five defense? Are they still rebounding this well? Do they score at will or does Anthony further impede what’s been an unusually static offense?

Photo by Joseph Weiser-USA TODAY Sports

In addition to transforming into a gigantic whoopee cushion whenever he’s around the basket—Melo’s days of getting to the free-throw line are, at 33 years old, understandably dunzo—his assist to usage ratio ranks in the ninth percentile at his position. Even though the percentage of his shots that are unassisted hasn’t been this low since he was with the Denver Nuggets (which feels 7,000 years ago), he still loves long twos and there are defiant insecurities related to how he’s approached the seasons’ first couple months. His stubbornness has contributed to the league’s most glaring disappointment, and he’s shooting 37.6 percent from the floor over the Thunder’s last 10 games.

The other key side effect, assuming every other move happens as it has, is that Enes Kanter and Doug McDermott would still be on the Thunder instead of enjoying Westbrook-free serenity in midtown Manhattan. How would Anthony being in Portland affect Paul George in Oklahoma? Besides more shot opportunities, it’s hard to say. Assuming Billy Donovan chose to stagger his two best players, George would have more time on units that’d call for him to be one of the dozen best players in the world. The team’s defense might be even better than it already is.

Westbrook could also spend more time going Full Westbrook, even though Full Westbrook as we knew it last year might be a permanent thing of the past.

B. Gordon Hayward signs with the Miami Heat

Would Kyrie Irving express interest in re-signing with the Boston Celtics if Hayward chose a different team, or were Al Horford’s harmonious style, stable ownership, and Brad Stevens’ genius already enough? If not, the Celtics would likely be in the middle of the Eastern Conference with Marcus Smart starting at point guard and Terry Rozier playing 30 minutes a night. They’d disintegrate when Horford hit the bench, and any long-term injury that’d keep him out would be fatal. Also, Jae Crowder would still be around, likely clogging a pipeline that’s seen Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown flourish.

C. Paul George is traded to the Boston Celtics

3. So, Who Isn’t Shooting Threes?

Photo by Shanna Lockwood – USA TODAY Sports

Let’s go back to this year’s group, which reads like an endangered species list. How many players on there are useful despite their inability/unwillingness to shoot threes? If we first look at total minutes played, Ben Simmons unsurprisingly ranks first and is a revelatory prospect who’s simultaneously defying convention while meeting his expectations. From there we’re infested by a crap ton of traditional big men who impact the game in other areas. They rebound, protect the rim, and set screens. Some space the floor by diving through the paint. Some are still dangerous at the elbow, and can engineer decent offense with their vision and a mid-range jump shot. A very small handful do damage with their back to the basket.

4. Houston’s Angles are Ridiculous

Speaking of the Rockets, I’ve thought about this pass almost every day since it happened:

But Houston’s offense doesn’t peak when the ball is dribbled. Jaw-dropping, spontaneous passes made at angles very few players can even dream about allow the Rockets to generate efficient shots that catch defenses off balance. The surgical precision seen above is not attainable for most guards around the league, but it’s basically second nature for Paul and Harden. Quick sidebar: Harden is probably going to win his first MVP this season, but not enough words can be written about Paul, who’s re-asserted himself as the second-best floor general in basketball and an automatic All-NBA member. Passes like that one help explain why.

5. J.J. Redick’s Game Isn’t Supposed to Expand, but it Has

Instead of seeing his responsibilities narrow, Redick’s doing more stuff in different ways. According to Synergy Sports, the percentage of all his jumpers that were off the dribble last season was 39 percent. Right now, that number is 47 percent, somewhat-expected uptick that’s lowered his accuracy and can partially be attributed to greener teammates.

The ball feels like it’s in his hands far more than it was in Los Angeles. Instead of running through an endless maze of bodies, Redick’s slicing defenses open with direct hand-offs and a bit more pick-and-roll action, all ultimately designed to turn the defense’s brain into toast.

All this is a pleasant surprise. I, personally, thought Redick was entering a different phase of his career after Joe Ingles crushed him in the playoffs. But in a new environment, as an elder statesman, Redick has shown that he’s far more than a shooter, in a league that should be able to make good use of his talent for years to come.

6. C.J. Miles and The Babies

Since O.G. Anunonby cracked Toronto’s starting lineup and Delon Wright dislocated his right shoulder (two events that basically happened at the same time, about a week before Thanksgiving), Raptors head coach Dwane Casey decided to hitch 30-year-old C.J. Miles to a bunch of children. Norm Powell (24 years old), Jakob Poeltl (22 and in need of a better nickname than “Austrian Hammer”), Fred VanVleet (23), and Pascal Siakam (23).

This is Toronto’s second-most common five-man group over the past month, and they’ve been absolutely dreadful on both ends. But guess what? I don’t care! Stubborn Casey is good sometimes. Yes, the Raptors should go back to a Lowry + Bench unit that makes opposing second units weep—swap Lowry in for Miles and that exact same supporting cast crushes everybody—but this makes me feel like Miles is a lovable babysitter that you can’t, in good conscience, stay mad at.

Playing Miles at the three as opposed to the four doesn’t make a ton of sense, but using him to space the floor for an inexperienced collection of players Toronto will need in the playoffs is fine enough for now.

7. Austin Rivers is an Isolation Genius…or Something

Photo by Kim Klement – USA TODAY Sports

Given that this is such an uncertain time for the Clippers, swapping Rivers out for a second-round pick and expiring money (he has a $12.6 million player option for next year) should be an objective for their front office. Maybe there’s a general manager out there who sees these numbers (particularly that impressive shooting) and wonders if Rivers can help his playoff team in a seven-game series.

8. Cleveland’s Juiciest Asset Is Not Really That Juicy

When teams start to really tank in March and April, the Nets will be busting their ass to win games and get better at everything they do. All this is bad news for the Cleveland Cavaliers. What was once their crown jewel for Kyrie Irving might now be Zach Collins (who’s actually playing pretty well, but that’s beside the point).

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9. David Nwaba is a Good NBA Player

Every time I watch Nwaba he makes three to five effort-intensive plays that makes Chicago feel like a competitive team. He’s just so damn physical, a tenacious rebounder who defends, draws fouls, finishes around the rim, and never turns it over.The Bulls (yes, the Bulls) are outscoring opponents by 4.5 points per 100 possessions with Nwaba on the floor, performing like a 53-win team. He’s awesome, and aside from the fact that he doesn’t shoot threes and there won’t be a ton of money to go around this summer, one of the league’s 30 teams would be smart to offer present the restricted free agent with an offer sheet.

10. Finding Hope in Memphis

As someone who isn’t fast enough to scamper around the perimeter, Memphis has him drop defending almost every pick-and-roll. Here he is stepping up to force Abrines to pass to Jerami Grant, then sliding back and forcing a turnover.

But according to Cleaning the Glass, whenever he’s on the floor Memphis allows a ridiculous 11.3 fewer points per 100 possessions. (Opponents are also barely hitting threes when Davis is in the game, so, yeah, that’s kind of meaningful and has nothing to do with his defense.)

On the other end, he’s shooting 79 percent at the rim. That’s really good! And aside from the natural hiccup as he learns to read the floor, taking shots as a roller when he should hit the open man, there are examples of him identifying what he needs to do and executing immediately.

Before he even catches Ben McLemore’s pass out of Washington’s trap, Davis’ eyes are set on the opposite wing, initiating a sequence that leads to an open three and one of the most beautiful possessions Memphis has experienced all season.

He’s still a project, but one who only played 600 minutes in college and hardly saw the floor last season. Davis is shooting 72.7 percent whenever he rolls to the basket; the day Gasol leaves Memphis will be dark, but Davis is beginning to flash the talent of someone who deserves a chance to *attempt* to fill those humongous shoes.

The Outlet Pass: Charlotte’s Tailspin, Cavs Trade Targets, and NBA What-Ifs syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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junker-town · 7 years

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7 takeaways from the USMNT’s rotten, yet important 1-1 draw against Honduras

The Americans got the result they needed, but it sure didn’t feel good.

The United States men’s national team did not play well on Tuesday evening. Its 1-1 draw with Honduras was a terrible game to watch. Field conditions, weather, the classic laissez-faire CONCACAF style of officiating, bad tactical choices and bad individual play led to a game that was thoroughly unenjoyable. Then the USMNT clawed its way to a set piece goal, and now the Americans are in decent shape in World Cup qualifying again.

Despite the game having so few positives for the USMNT to take out of it, a draw made it more likely than not that it would progress to the World Cup.

With the 1-1 draw in Honduras, #USMNT's SPI chances to qualify for the World Cup are now at 74%. http://pic.twitter.com/iaBeqEt3fI

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) September 5, 2017

So we’re left to consider what to take out of a game in which the USMNT played poorly for the second match in a row, but ultimately did its job.

5 players deserve credit for great effort on the equalizer

Christian Pulisic was largely invisible in this match, but went on an excellent dribbling run to win the free kick to set up the Americans’ only goal. Then four of his teammates combined to find the back of the net, so let’s single them out for their efforts too.

GOOOAAAAL: It's a mess, but @BobbyS_Wood to the rescue for #USMNT! #USAvHON http://pic.twitter.com/FbtF4b6ToS

— beIN SPORTS USA (@beINSPORTSUSA) September 5, 2017

Kellyn Acosta, for a great free kick on target. It would have gone in if not for an excellent save by Luis Lopez.

Matt Besler, for chasing down the rebound and getting it back into play.

Jordan Morris, for an excellent flick-on header.

And Bobby Wood for his very composed chest trap and finish.

This might have been the only truly good moment of the game for the Americans, but it was solid bit of set piece play, featuring big efforts from players who had looked like they were physically incapable of running about two minutes prior.

Now to the bad stuff — that stunk

By expected goals, a 1-1 draw looks like a fair result, and the Americans don’t look like they played particularly poorly.

xG map for Honduras - USA. The US men just barely snag a draw on the road with a late set play goal. Wheee. http://pic.twitter.com/g0STfyUFIc

— Caley Graphics (@Caley_graphics) September 6, 2017

But the biggest chance by far was the goal, and the other big chance is probably a bit overstated by the xG model — it was taken by Pulisic in the 41st minute, and the Honduran goalkeeper Lopez was in great position to make an easy stop. It would have taken a truly miraculous finish to beat him. The other seven shots are of little consequence; the USMNT created nothing from open play.

The passing stats look even worse. According to Opta, via the MLS Match Center, the Americans completed only 50 percent of passes in the final third and an appalling 8 percent of crosses.

via MLS Match Center

The passing map looks even worse still than the stats — the USMNT completed one forward pass into the box.

via MLS Match Center

The lack of completed passes to attacking areas on the flanks is alarming too. Even the center of the park looks bare. There’s nothing to like here.

Bruce Arena made miscalculations in back-to-back games

Against Costa Rica, Arena sacrificed a midfielder to get two strikers on the pitch, thinking he’d be better off with an extra body in the box. Jozy Altidore and Bobby Wood struggled to combine, while Michael Bradley being isolated in midfield by himself led to the opening goal. After the game, Arena admitted he got outcoached.

On Tuesday, Arena decided that he needed a runner in Jordan Morris and a second striker behind him in Clint Dempsey, rather than hold-up or possession players that might let the USMNT keep hold of the ball. The Americans barely got Morris running onto the ball and Dempsey was a total non-factor.

The best attribute Bruce Arena has as a coach is that he makes the right game-day tactical decisions, helping a team become better than the sum of its parts and limiting the opposition’s strengths. That’s why the LA Galaxy succeeded under him while cycling through replacement-level minimum salary USL players, and that’s why U.S. Soccer thought he was the best man to clean up Jürgen Klinsmann’s mess. He’s whiffed on pre-match tactics two games in a row.

The individual errors from center backs are inexplicable

I’ve watched what Omar Gonzalez does on the Honduras goal about three dozen times and I’m still at a loss for words.

GOOOOAAAAL: @RomellSamir strikes first, and #USMNT will have to wake up from an early nightmare! #USAvHON #WCQ2018 http://pic.twitter.com/cIvRMugIU2

— beIN SPORTS USA (@beINSPORTSUSA) September 5, 2017

Regardless of what you think of Gonzalez and his errors in a USMNT shirt, he’s a solid player. Pachuca offered him more money than the LA Galaxy was willing to pay him because he’s a good player, and he was a key starter for them in a title-winning season because he’s a good player.

And even if he wasn’t a good player, any professional center back should be able to get a toe to a ball that is right next to them. Omar Gonzalez has made this play literally thousands of times. He makes this exact play successfully at least once every game. Even though there was no pressure on the passer and the grass was weirdly long, Gonzalez will look at this tape and tell you he expects to make this play 100 percent of the time.

Gonzalez started this game in place of the dropped Geoff Cameron, a first choice player for Premier League team Stoke City. Cameron is technically solid for a center back, which is why Stoke has used him in midfield and the Houston Dynamo even played him as a No. 10, but he was benched for giving the ball away repeatedly while under little pressure against Costa Rica.

For good players to make individual errors as poor as Gonzalez and Cameron did in back-to-back games is something that shouldn’t happen. Maybe they won’t do it again. There’s nothing to analyze here, they just have to not make uncharacteristic errors anymore.

Build around the team around Christian Pulisic

For the second straight game, Pulisic started on the right wing and it didn’t go well. His passing map is ugly.

via MLS Match Center

Pulisic also went 34 minutes without attempting a pass, from the 47th to the 81st minute.

via MLS Match Center

Even though he’s just 18, Pulisic is already the USMNT’s most talented player and its most effective attacking option. He was primarily responsible for the Hex win over Trinidad and Tobago, the draw in Panama, and was arguably the man of the match in the 6-0 home defeat of Honduras. He’s had a spectacular start to the season for Borussia Dortmund. The USMNT should be built around getting him the ball in dangerous attacking positions as often as possible.

Pulisic’s best games for the USMNT have come in the center as a No. 10, and his usual position for Dortmund is on the left wing, where he can cut in on his stronger right foot. He’s more effective in both roles than he is on the right wing, so that’s where he should be played, even if other players need to play out of position to accommodate him.

The USMNT has a fullback problem

DeAndre Yedlin is injured, Timmy Chandler’s USMNT performances have never matched his Bundesliga performances and the Eric Lichaj experiment didn’t go well in the Gold Cup, so Arena’s decision to play Graham Zusi at right back is understandable. So was his decision to turn to the experienced DaMarcus Beasley in a tough road game in Honduras. But those two players got absolutely roasted by Honduras’ quick wingers, repeatedly.

This is a problem without an obvious solution. Jorge Villfaña is quicker than Beasley, but also makes more mental errors. Fabian Johnson prefers playing midfielder over fullback. And even when Yedlin is healthy, he’s a very attacking fullback who relies on his speed to cover for defensive mistakes. It’s probably too late in the cycle to pluck a new player out of MLS and throw them into the deep end.

Arena switched to a 3-5-2 formation at the end of the game, and it’s something Klinsmann experimented with as well before he was relieved of his duties. The USMNT’s personnel seems to fit a back three better than a back four — it has good center back depth, but no obvious starting pair, and fullbacks who are athletic but mediocre defensively. But that’s probably too extreme of a change to make ahead of two must-win games, so Arena’s stuck with trying to pick the least bad fullbacks for his back four and praying.

Why are we sure the USMNT can win 2 games?

The USMNT doing enough on Tuesday to control its own destiny is... good, I guess? In most cycles, getting a win at home against Panama and a win away to Trinidad and Tobago would sound very doable. But this iteration of the USMNT only has two wins in the hex and is coming off two bad performances. Panama outplayed the Americans in the draw between the two teams in Panama City, and T&T contained the USMNT in Colorado before Pulisic took over the game. In the previous round of qualifying, T&T earned a 0-0 draw at home against the Americans.

These games are not gimmes for the United States. October is going to be dramatic.

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ibloggingkits-blog · 7 years

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New Post has been published on Blogging kits

New Post has been published on https://bloggingkits.org/asus-rog-gr8-ii-mini-gaming-pc-evaluate/

Asus ROG GR8 II Mini Gaming Pc Evaluate

Mini gaming Computers haven’t been as popular as Valve could have preferred – their Steam Machines platform launched and died quicker than a North Korean missile – but they’re nonetheless kicking around as a gap alternative for those who need something compact and pre-constructed. The Asus ROG GR8 II, which I’ve been placing via its paces within the last week, is one such example.

The GR8 II is designed for folks who want a compact gaming system for a table or living room, but could instead something more effective than an Xbox One or Playstation 4. This system is comparable in length to contemporary-generation consoles, but its use of excessive-cease Intel Kaby Lake processors and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 pics leads to a miles faster experience.

This more performance does come at a fee: a GR8 II plus controller will set you returned as a minimum $1,000, while you can currently buy a Ps 4 Pro for just $400. Asus does declare the GR8 II is “VR-prepared” for top class headsets just like the Oculus Rift and HTC Viva, although once more, that is a much greater high-priced setup than Sony’s Ps VR.

Permit’s spoken about length first of all. The GR8 II occupies 7.four liters of the area, with 4 liters of the inner area. This makes it barely larger than the Playstation 4 Seasoned (five.three liters), and larger once more compared to the Xbox One S (four.3 liters). The GR8 II’s angular layout manner its bodily frame doesn’t pretty occupy a complete 7.4 liters, but it’s nonetheless extensively larger than cutting-edge console offerings.

Correct and Terrible in Gaming Gaming is certainly one of the largest interests or even careers inside the world. Human beings play video games for fun or getting to know even as others record videos about the video games. In this article, I will awareness more on gaming itself and not a lot the aspect of the way to make gaming movies. Game enthusiasts are available in all one-of-a-kind a while, genders, religions, locations and shapes. The backgrounds of individuals who are Game enthusiasts make gaming that much more fun.

Backgrounds of Game enthusiasts can play a component inside the form of games that People play. There are all kinds of mixtures for unique categories relating to the form of games and form of Gamers. You actually need to observe the sport’s website to get all of the pertinent facts previous to buying.

There are numerous on-line systems in which you may purchase games from including Steam or Humble Package deal. The one’s websites will provide you with the outline, videos by way of the organization, pix, user and non-consumer tags, opinions, internet site, business enterprise and their social account(s). Be conscious the sport’s website won’t display you the entirety you want to realize. At the least, a gaming corporation will show a quick sales pitch description, small quantity of photos (five at nice), one or two movies with the aid of them and their social bills. The most they will offer is an informative description, their social debts, person critiques and motion pictures by means of them.

Let’s dive right into what is perceived as bad about gaming. The majority of the poor matters about games come from the actual lifestyles Humans on The one’s games, the sort of games and the forms of video games for the incorrect character. A game can be poorly made however it’s now not usually the case in which the game itself is Bad. It can be where it become the wrong type of sport for the wrong character. this is in which the kinds come in. Maybe a game has a bit of violence. That doesn’t make it Terrible; it simply makes it the incorrect kind of recreation for a seven 12 months old. Or Perhaps you acquire a puzzle game for someone who loves action kind video games. So the motion loving person might not enjoy it, but That doesn’t make the puzzle sport Horrific!

The styles of video games are infinite from nudity, capsules and alcohol, horror, playing with cash and extra. These different types are incorrect for teens Gamers in addition to incorrect for people who don’t like seeing such things.

Gaming has Good and Bad aspects much like everything else. The secret is how Precise and Bad are The ones facets. As an example, a few games have a Terrible facet with players that want to fight plenty. this is not unusual in video games. Recognize for plenty of Game enthusiasts this is not a massive deal; but, for youngsters who are new to the sport or maybe gaming in widespread this can be irritating. There are instances when you want to keep away from the Terrible facets all collectively. There are instances when the good outweighs the Bad. If this takes place and there are not any troubles with the sport itself; then the Horrific facet is simply that one little fly to your room which is no big deal. Caution: If the Bad outweighs the good, I’d strongly recommend fending off that recreation.

Some other element that People will nag a recreation developer or creator about is illustration. Ought to I say, a lack of illustration which is not constrained to race, frame type and message in the sport. In case you are capable of personalize your man or woman, then of route you will no longer have a hassle with illustration. There’s a hassle in a few video games in which they do not constitute sturdy and smart women, minority females and males, massive, small, tall, and short ladies and men. Observe how I failed to placed “males” after girl for robust? It’s because men in games are always represented as sturdy and clever.

In games that display a male sturdy and clever, he’s going to generally likely be white, tall, skinny, movie famous person looking and buff. you may rarely see him be a minority, brief, chubby, not buff, nerdy searching, at the same time as nonetheless being robust and clever. You see this even Less for girls. a few ladies in games are also white, tall, thin and sturdy whilst displaying skin like no tomorrow. You only see These females in Mmorpg video games (Vastly Multiplayer on-line Role Gambling recreation) although. RPG video games are supposed for fantasy worlds where you in most cases combat Humans and monsters. Of route the women’ stats could be strong however they may not appearance robust.

In maximum video games, after they upload a man or woman so that you can play they continually upload a white male first, then a white girl, then a black male, and then a black woman. They do not even honestly upload folks who are mixes of races or in among. On the subject of the black characters they best add one colour of “black” or “African American” and not each black individual on earth is that shade.

In games, The general public of the characters are always skinny and tall. You do not sincerely see characters which are brief and thin, tall and obese, brief and chubby, and so forth. There are a whole lot of those who aren’t skinny and who are not tall.

Then ultimately, There is the intellectual message that goes with the gender, race, and body type. What do I mean by using the intellectual message? some video games send an oblique message about that character being robust and clever or some thing else. at the same time as for different games it is able to be a mental message either on cause or now not. For example, in the game you play and you see a minority female who is short, chubby, nerdy searching and her trends are to be a goof ball, naive, and dumb. It is able to send a intellectual message to you that People that look like her are much like her. They’re no longer smart, they aren’t skinny, and aren’t tall. They did poorly in college, and so forth. and so forth. So that you start questioning The ones things based on not most effective seeing this in that recreation time and again again, but when it happens in different video games too.

The worst element is NONE of these items are real. Yes, a few Human beings are not thin, tall, and Perhaps no longer that shiny; however no longer All of us is like this! You do have quick chubby minorities who are clever as all get out! You’ve got all kinds of mixtures of folks who ARE clever! Of route, all these things about gender, race, body type, and messages aren’t simply in gaming; They’re in films, Television suggests, advertisements, and so on. What’s interesting is that a number of the creators who make the games, movies, Television indicates, advertisements, and many others., are minorities themselves and they make up the population of the earth. (Search “world population with the aid of race 2016” and click on the first 3 links If you don’t accept as true with me.)

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