#making him some kinda douche on a podcast

[therealtrashpanda]

So.. I gave derision another chance.

And... I still hate it so much.

[kudosmyhero]

Superman (vol. 1) #233: Superman Breaks Loose

Read Date: May 19, 2023 Cover Date: January 1971 ● Writer: Dennis O'Neil ● Penciler: Curt Swan ● Inker: Murphy Anderson ● Colorist: {uncredited} ● Letterer: Ben Oda ● Editor: {uncredited} ●

**HERE BE SPOILERS: Skip ahead to the fan art/podcast to avoid spoilers

Reactions As I Read: ● I like that Superman’s cape even left an imprint in the sand ● not sure if I’m just a bit stoned, but in the digitization process of this issue, speech balloons and thought bubbles have a crispy, extra-white effect that makes it pop out from the surrounding art. I kinda really like the effect

● Mr. Edge is a douche ● i don’t think you can just throw someone in front of a camera if they’re not used to it. surely a change in Clark’s contract/salary/etc would be involved, hair and makeup (maybe it was done between panels?), training with actually speaking professionally on camera, etc. ● …what did Superman just eat? was it actually kryptonite-turned-iron, or something the crooks disguised as kryptonite? either way, why did he eat it? ● “My heat vision isn’t working.” maybe because you ate kryptonite? its altered state is too new and untested for him to be safe just eating it ● ok, that’s cool! ● 👏👏👏👏

Synopsis: Superman helps out with an experiment involving Green Kryptonite as an alternative power source when the experiment goes haywire, the energy harnessing machine about to explode. Superman tries to contain the explosion, but fails, being knocked out by the force of the blast and by exposure to the Green Kryptonite. Strangely, the explosion also causes all forms of Kryptonite on Earth to transform into harmless iron, which in turn is interpreted as Superman now being totally invulnerable.

Clark Kent is now hired on by Morgan Edge as a television reporter for WGBS, and his first assignment is to cover an experimental mailing rocket that will travel from Metropolis to Los Angeles. When Clark spots some would-be saboteurs who want the rocket for their own purposes, he goes into action as Superman and tries to stop them. However, he begins to notice that his heat vision powers no longer work, as well as a temporary drain on his physical strength powers. As he returns to Metropolis fulfilling his job reporting the rocket launch, a figure resembling Superman made of sand emerges from where he had been laid following the Kryptonite energy machine explosion and starts wandering about.

(https://dc.fandom.com/wiki/Superman_Vol_1_233)

Fan Art: Superman by Cris-Art

Accompanying Podcast: ● Relatively Geeky: Uncovering the Bronze Age - episode 01

[stinkysidebitch]

BNHA students as youtubers! Pt.1

Ft. Midoriya, Bakugou, Tenya, Todoroki, Kirishima, Tokoyami, Kaminari, Jiro, Shinso, and Asui

-Midoriya

FITNESS CHANNEL!!!

He's all like: 😁🏃‍♂️🏋️‍♂️💪

He's not a douche abt it tho, its genuine tips and tricks to help other people 😌

Common guest in All Might's vlogs too

Generally discusses health and sometimes how to get in shape if you arent already 😋

Very helpful

Did I mention he's helpful?

Because he's helpful...

Does Dad vids with Eri sometimes 😍

Often features the Dekusquad 🤭

He was also on Present Mic's podcast but he wasn't talking about anything juicy so his airtime was cut in half 😔

Sorry my boy, but you aren't very creative with names... his channel name is just "Izuku Midoriya" 😩

-Bakugou

Step tf off Guy Fieri 🤬

Our boy is a youtube chef 👨‍🍳

Thinks that us "extras" need to learn from a pro

Yes, yes he actually does call his subscribers extras...

I feel VERY attacked ngl 😩

He do be kinda cooking doe 😳

Basically just bullies you into cooking properly

Has featured Kirishima a few times but after Kaminari shorted his brain AND the oven out Bakuguo swore to never let anyone BESIDES Kiri feature in his vids 😔

Kami was like: 🥴 and Bakugou was like: 😤

His channel name is definitely "Katsuki's Kitchen"

-Tenya

Ah yes, the CEO of boi hands

Tenya was a pretty difficult one tbh 🧐

Personally I see him as an educational channel on youtube 🤷🏻‍♂️

But not boring education, he talks about different types of villains to watch out for..

Definitely talks about evasion tactics and fighting styles

He's also unintentionally very funny

Does this a lot: 🤚🏻

Also did a series on how to be a good class rep

Please smash like, he's trying his best y'all 😩

He let his class pick his name (of course) so now he's stuck with "1-A's Dad" 🤧

-Todoroki

This guy is multifaceted

Meaning he does multiple things on his channel based on his interests

I see him as someone who teaches meditation and construction

Teaches people about proper Japanese home design and how to renovate it 🥰

YES, this is SOLELY based on when he changed the flooring in his dorm 😭

We do know that he likes traditional Japanese style homes though because he basically says that

I only said meditation because he's usually so chill 🧘‍♂️

I feel like either Mina or Midoriya introduced him to it because of how angry he can get sometimes so he needed it ☝️

Channel name is probably "Icyhot's World" because I really can't see him coming up with anything better, and also it annoys Bakugou 🤭

-Kirishima

The moral integrity of the youtube gaming sect 🤗

He has videos addressing current event issues too like BLM when things get really serious

YES, he is very politically correct

Respects wamen ���️

His gaming videos are commentary and he usually plays online multiplayer

Expect to hear the voices of Bakugou, Kaminari, Sero, (ocassionally Tokoyami) and Mina whenever Kiri DOES play online

If they aren't all there (because they have their own channels to upkeep) sometimes he may add Midoriya, Jiro, or Shinso fairly often🤷🏻‍♂️

Rlly just depends on whose online, but he's open to playing with anyone

Works really well as a teammate, and is super positive and funny

Says that teamwork in games is just as important as teamwork irl (it's also "SUPER MANLY!")

He also loves to fuck with Bakugou in his videos a lot

Channel name is "Shitty Hair Plays" (much to Bakugou's chagrin)

-Tokoyami

Our goth lord and savior 🙏

Teaches us abt goth culture

He's like: ☻☠🧛‍♂️🖤

This includes goth design, history, styles of goth/alternative clothing, and also darker styles of music

Also reads his own spooky poetry

He's really good ngl 😳

Sometimes records himself gaming

Also his main feature is dark shadow so expect a lot of "ft. Dark shaow" on his page

Overall very interesting and deserves your subscription

And also his channel name is " The Dark Harvest Official"

- Kaminari

CrAcK cHaNnEl

Comedy reaction channel

He's kinda like Jontron, except he's an idiot 🚶‍♂️

At first I thought he might not have the self awareness to do this because he would need to be able to critique, but I honestly think Denki is smarter than he lets on 🤓

Does features, so think of the videos of Drew Gooden, Danny Gonzalez, and Kurtis Connor when they all collabed (or Noel Miller and Cody Ko)

Usually features Kiri and Sero (Bakugou gets too annoyed so he's rarely in the videos at all)

Mineta would get his ad revenue taken away so hes not in the vids

Also I hate him, so... 😌💕

His channel is probably called "Mr. Electric reacts"

We STAN a shark boy and lava girl reference 👏

-Jiro

I think you already know what I'm going to say

Obvs a music channel

Singing, playing instruments.. etc

Step aside Hannah Montana ✋👱‍♀️

She did do a video singing the transitions from the show as a joke though, so she isnt totally serious with her page either

Also has videos bullying poor Denki 🤧

Trys to teach you how to play but also does covers of her own

Has a few random videos of some of her classmates being morons on her page too.

I feel like her name would be "U.A's Taste" or something because sometimes it seems like no one else has any 🤷🏻‍♂️

She would def do a video explaining that

-Shinso

Shinso's page can only be described as a deepdive critique channel

He makes those 30 minute long videos discussing depraved youtubers horrible behavior with receipts, but he doesn't do it for drama, he does it to put the truth out there

And no I'm not talking about the big youtubers like "Tati" or "Pewdiepie", I'm talking like really screwed up abusers like "Onision"

(AN: Sorry this got so dark 😖)

POINTS OUT LOGICAL FALLACIES IN THE EVIL YOUTUBERS ARGUMENTS!!

But he also games sometimes, usually horror or online games

His audience challenges him to scarier games to try to get a reaction out of him but he NEVER flinches

He thinks jump scares are cheap

After one he'll just sit there and be like: 😑 "Well, that was annoying"

Firm believer in "if you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen" (Needless to say a few people have deleted their channels from the roasts this man can dish out)

His channel is probably called "Shinso Listens" basically to make fun of Onision speaks 😅

-Asui

This one was easyyy

Our queen is a book critiquing channel

Think of strange æons and krimson rogue if they somehow had a child 😩

Yes, she did critique Onision's books and YES the videos did feature Shinso

And yes, it was entertaining as fuck

"Woah, that's a little harsh Shinso.. even for you.."

They both ripped him a new one in that video 😅

Not that he doesn't deserve it 👏

Mina reviewed Shane Dawson's books with her after he was canceled and sis... when I tell you it was pure genius 🖐😌

She and Tokoyami reviewed Gabbie Hannah's awful poetry book and it was PHENOMENAL

Her channel name is "Call Me Tsu" 🖐😌

Truly a gem on youtube 🤧

[popculturebuffet]

Nightmare Time Episode 1 Review: The Hatchetfield Ape-Man/Watcher World

I take a look at the first episode of Starkid’s new show Nightmare Time! Starkid, returns for a zoomcast, bringing back the casts of both Hatchefield plays for an anthology series of science fiction double feature picture shows! This week’s tales of terror:

The Hatchefield Ape-Man: A british heiress gets romanced by a shaved bigfoot with the help of everyone’s favorite kooky college professor. Forgotten fiances, murder and described nudity naturally insue. 

Watcher World: Bill and Alice return as Bill drags his daughter to a kitschy theme park for a day of family fun, which Alice enjoys and is as respectful about as much as you’d expect. As you’d also expect given Bill’s general luck, things take a turn for the Shining real quick. Spoilers and full review under the cut. 

Well this was a nice suprise. With the ongoing pandemic I genuinely did not think Starkid would be back anytime soon. Having just gotten back into them this years after several years of forgetting they existed via the Hatchetfield plays, I was pretty bummed, if understanding. So last week’s announcment of not only this series but a full scripted series from their sister production company the tin bros was a HUGE shot of happy I needed in this troubling times. Still need to watch spies are forver love the soundtrack nto important. 

Point is the Lang Brothers and their merry band of actors found a way to continue on via  format I didn’t realize existed outside of table reads but is a nice way to do things: The Zoomcast, basically a podcast done live on zoom, with the actors in plainclothes for the most part, with one person, in this case Nick Lang, reading out descriptions of what’s going on. Being a starkid production this also has musical director Matt Bohm playing accompaniment and pretaped if still via the actor’s own camera musical numbers. Overall while i’ts an understandably cheap production, only what costumes the actors have on hand and most props mimed, it WORKS, allowing for way more elaborate set pieces than the stage would allow and is anchored by Lang’s impeccable descriptions and the cast’s amazing as always acting really making the stories pop.  So things worked on a technical level despite having the barest of bones to work with. But did it work on a story level? Well yes, but if I ended my reviews with just that i’d have less than the 3 or 4 fans I do have, so without further ado, it’s nightmare time! The Intro: 

Now normally in my reviews I don’t talk about the intro because I come in mid way or because I just didn’t think to. This is an exception since 

A) I should be doing that anyway or at least when I cover a show’s first episode since intro’s are sometimes one of the most memorable parts of a show 

B) It’s a full musical number that’s been stuck in my head since the trailer for this series and has now set up an apartment there.  C) This series is a musical, if not to the same degree as the two plays before it, so it’d be weird NOT to talk about it’s signature song. 

So with that out of the way the intro.. is fucking impressive. Seriously taking disparate videos with probably as much as the directions “Sing this part of the song and be kind of creepy or alluring or whatever” and making it really flow? Good work, both to the starkids for bringing their a game to it as always and to Nick and Matt really did a good job   editing this together, musically and visually to be an abolute jawdrop. And somehow finding utterly stunning stock image animations that none of us realized were stock footage but still fit the tone perfectly. Just great stuff.  Some stray notes: Mariah is absolutely stunning in both voice and apperance in this, John Matheson’s bit as paul was great, and Jeff Blim of course got a great bit with his always astounding hair blowing in the breeze with him at full high pitch. Just an utterly great intro, and for Starkid’s first series in over a decade, and really ever but semantics, they really brought it. Good stuff. Onto the actual episode content. 

The Hatchetfield Ape-Man: Lucy, a british heiress played by Angela Giarratana, was saved by the legendary “Hatchefield Ape-Man”.. who apparently has a hyphen like spider-men because while sasquatches can do that. Point is she’s come back every year in the hopes of reuniting with her savior but has so far failed.  But as Lucy prepares to leave from this year’s failed expedition, an old friend finally gives her what she needs... old friend to us to her she’s just some grey haired lunatic who showed up out of the mist. Which while accurate, dosen’t quite quantify everyone’s favorite playwright/college professor/murderous psychopath/composer.

Yes at long last Professor Hidgens has returned! I honestly didn’t expect the anthology to bring in such a huge fan faviorite so soon. I mean I expected returning characters, mostly because the project allows old faviorites to come back for their own stories or for the stars of the musicals to get a chance at a much happier ending... there’s a lot of potetial there. That and let’s face it “Jane’s a Car” is a pretty dead giveaway it’s going to be about Tom’s dead wife and Tim’s dead mother coming back in horrible mash up of christine and my mother the car. Maybe. I could be wrong. I also doubt many of you know what my mother the car is and to that I say it’s an old sitcom i’m honestly suprised I know exists and know nothing about other than the title and it being about a son’s mom’s ghost possesing his car apparently. Well that and it was the basis for this. 

Point is, while I expected some returns, I wasn’t expecting one this large and this bombastic so soon, but BOY was it welcome.  So getting back on track after all that, HIdgens seemingly takes Lucy to meet her ape man, who goes by the name Klonk, played by everyone’s faviorite sexy caveman Joey Richter. Also it’s adorable he and Lauren share a streaming screen. I know practicality and all that but their engagment is genuinely a sweet thing to hear about at a time when the world’s going down the toilet fast. Fun Fact: I pegged the Ape-Man was either going to be Jeff or Joey, leaning towards Jeff, though given my love of Joey I wasn’t disapointed with him, especially with the twist... but I was EXASTIC to learn the answer was basically “Both.. kinda?”. But yeah Lucy soon bonds with the ape man, with HIdgens encouraging her since it’s more than he’s gotten out of Klonk in 11 months of looking after the guy, and this way they can get him to learn enough to decide what he wants for himself. 

So a few months, and some romantic bonding between woman and ape-man, pass but a wrench is thrown into Klonk’s wooing and attempt to tell lucy he loves her: Jonathan, Lucy’s just now mentioned fiance and royal dickhead played by Kurt Mega. And credit where it’s do whlie he clearly didn’t have to dress up, he did have a nice 50′s monster movie british person suit he put on.  Lucy is now conlficted and what not even though Jonathan is kind of an asshole who just wants to drag her back home. And i’ts not like Lucy didn’t keep in touch: she sent him texts and probably called, so i’ts not like he didn’t know she was here. He’s also a hunter for extra dick points as if he needed them.  Naturally when meeting his romantic rival he’s a dick.. but raises some valid questions: While Hidgens claim he shaved Konk due to lesions, there’s no mark of lesisons or the shaving. But his natural dickheadedness shines through and Jonathan talks about shooting Klonk before lucy takes his ring off and throws it and Jonathan goes after her.  Annnnd yeah turns out the disposable dickhead fiance for once is RIGHT. In a twist I did not remotley see coming but damn if it wasn’t clever, Klonk.. is Ted from TGWDLM and the plan was to seduce lucy with this con, marry her and then bump her off. It’s a hell of a twist and cleverly hidden since Joey’s such a starkid mainstay, it’s not a huge suprise he was Klonk and thus easily hid the fact he was also Ted. It’s clever stuff and pivots the story nicely. 

Ted is naturally a douchey as ever, going along with Hidgen’s plan to have him marry lucy then kill her and take her dough for themselves.. and unsuprisingly, so Hidgens can get Workin Boys off the ground. Granted there are easier ways to do this with the same scooby doo scheme: Just have HIdgens plan working boys casually, have Klonk really love it and being the sweetheart she is LUcy would fiance the thing just to make them both happy. I mean he can still marry her and ted can still have direct acess to her money if they want, it’s just an easier way that dosen’t shine supscion on the caveman who looks exactly like a local douchebag who everyone he’s met would testify against him. I mean would Paul and Bill REALLY be that suprised that Ted did this? 

Exactly. Then again neither of our “heroes’ Here is very bright, and this scheme only works because Lucy is clearly very sweet, very naive, and very much wants a romantic evening with an ape man after all this time and effort searching, so she wants to believe him. So the fact the best they could come up with is something out of Scooby Doo is unsuprisng but still great.  However things take a turn for the

Pretty quick as Hidgens takes disposable british douche fiance hunting.. then kills the guy after freely admiting he’s a fraud in what’s an INCREDIBLY chilling scene. Seriously it’s amazing how Robert takes a character as loveably redicilous, even his evil and murderous plan during TGWDLM was still hilariously rediclous, and makes him UTTERLY TERRIFYING. Even when dropping my fair lady refrences. Amazing stuff.  So the next day, after Konk “asks” what an engagment is and what not, we then get Lucy wondering just WHERE jonathan is and we get the second biggest laugh of the night as Hidgens gives us the iconic line of “Oh he left... said something about you being crazy and going back to london and basically to go fuck yourself. “. Naturally Lucy has followup questions and goes to find out while Ted, also naturally, isn’t exactly pleased when he finds out his partner in crime did a murder on someone. 

Ted may be a sleazy dickhead.. but even he sees maybe murdering a rich british person who just came here, went basically ONLY to this one location, and whose probably got many people who will misss him, one of whom is their primary target, is kinda dumb. Then again this is a plan that hinges on someone who could easily be identified, as he has or at least probably had an office job and three coworkers who know him, assuming a false identity to marry someone for their money. But again we’re dealing with a guy who thinks working boys is marketable to anyone who isn’t a starkid, and a moron who soon says he does his best thinking while erect. They only got this far because their target REALLY wants to fuck a sasquatch, is sweet but naive and well Ted IS still joey richter, and no longer has the porn stache so there you go.  Ted decides to cut Hidgens out of things.. partly because you know, he killed a person, and partly because instead of killing Lucy, Ted realized he honeslty has a LOT to gain by simply marrying her and staying married. He gains a hot rich wife (his word’s not mine, but angie is genuinely beautiful so fair point), a mansion, and while Hidgens points out the obvious, he has to stay Konk.. that’s actually appealing to Ted as he feels better as Konk, not just because he impresses an attractive woman for doing basic stuff, but because he feels better as Konk. This is.. an intresting turn for Ted i genuinely like. It shows that Ted may, as much as he presents with bluster and ego, actually LIKE the kind of shithead he knows he is. I mean looking at his life he has two workmates who calling them friends is a bit of a stretch, and one who he’s having an affair with but seems detemrined to make her doomed marriage to an even bigger asshole work. He really dosen’t have much as ted so it’s easy to see why being Konk is better: He’s a better person as him who actually has someone who cares about him.  Naturally Hidgens takes this as well as you’d expect and when Ted/Konk tries proposing he goes with the logical option for taking the fourtune for himself:

Yes really. Hidgens strips naked, and swings his arms around like an orangutan to try and convince Lucy he’s the real hatchetfield apeman. Sadly this dosen’t mean we get a shirtless robert manion as he needs to keep the turtleneck on for later, but the mental image.. I had to pause the video for a good minute to laugh over it. Just everything about it from it somehow being a dumber plan than his scheme this episode, to the orangutan swaying to just.. everything. It’s fucking genius.  But Higdens has more than a mighty penis to compete with Ted.. he reveals ted’s phone and Ted ends up revealing himsef by telling Hidgens to go fuck himself. Naturally Lucy is distraught and tries to leave and the professor pulls out his shotgun to threaten her into financing his musical because of course it’s about workin boys. Lucy tries to run, Hidgens tries to shoot.. and ted , doing the first good thing in his entire life, takes the bullet.  Lucy gets ted out of there then locks the door behind them, and we get the SCARIEST bit in this segment as Hidgens leans into the camera, simulating the peep hole of the vault door to the ape man inclosure and begs her to let him out. It’s some real Jack Nicholson in the Shining stuff and it’s utterly terrifying, but it’s also an amazing bit of acting. Nice job Rob.  So ted bleeds out, as much as Lucy wants to save him he knows he’s not going to make it and prefers to die as Konk, finally happy with himself. And I just realized everyone at Paul’s job is horribly miserable. I mean good god, Paul himself has serious depression issues judging by “Let it Out”, Ted clearly hates himself, Charlotte is in a horrible marriage and Bill just got out of one and has a strained realtionship with his daughter we’ll get into more in a bit. I mean honestly, Mr. Davidson is the only one of them who really dosen’t need therapy.. he just needs to tell his wife he wants her to choke him while he jerks off. For as ungodly hilarious as that line is he’s probably the most well adjusted person there. Go figure. 

Naturally being already insane, Hidgens breaks out, still naked mind, and chases after Lucy. Also noticable is apparently some people thought hidgens was manipulated by the blue shit hive mind in TGWDLM. Which.. no. I do love the guy dont’ get me wrong.. but it was very obvious both from the way his musical number was done compared to the rest of the ones in the musical, and his actions that was entirely him, and his playing the music was so he could join, especially since we don’t see the hive mind use any mind manupluation on anyone else. Regular manipulation sure as seen with you tied up my heart and not your seed, manipulating charoltte into freeing her asshole husband so he could infect her and torturing bill for funsies. Just something to get out of the way. Point is he was always crazy we just now have him chasing an innocentish woman with his dong hanging out to prove it.  He eventually catches her as Lucy catches herself in one of his bear traps when she hits the woods, because he had those for some reason.. and he has a resonable way out: Just give her the 30,000 dollars he needs for his musical. Thing is she dosen’t have the money.. or hardly any. She spent all of it trying to find the ape man and was marrying jonathan for his money and him for her title. And while it is a bit skeezy, it’s very clear both were using each other and likely knew it, and Lucy still comes out the most moral of our cast here.. granted it’s not a big stretch as hidgens is criminally insane, ted’s a skeeze and Jonathan.. well he’s just a diiiiiiccckkkk. It’s not hard is what i’m saying.. much like hidgen’s dick flopping around in the rain. But yeah he dosen’t take it well, Lucy goes up a tree, which is apparently something Becky did once. But before Lucy can die at the hands of a naked thespian, the REAL Ape-Man shows up and tears Hidgen’s arms off, taking lucy in his own arms afterwords and revealing he remembers her. The two hit it off instantly, it turns out his name is chumby in an excellent gag as that was what Hidgens wanted his fake ape man to be named but Ted froze, and go off into the night together. Awww.. what if a naked ape man played by my boy jeff blim and a british person can’t work who can? 

We then close out the segment with a cameo appearance by Jamie Lynn Beatty, who while not part of the cast for this double feature, does get a fun showtune about the ape man. Also fun fact that i found out here on tumblr: That costume is from something Jamie did in HIGH SCHOOL. As in well over a decade ago. Like holy shit, good for her. She looks great in it. But yeah it’s a fun song and a nice way to close it out.  Final Thoughts on the Hatchetfield Ape-Man: This was a great way to start things off. This one was more in line with starkids pre-hatchetfield work, a goofy story with some hidden depth inside. And like the guy who didn’t like musicals it was utterly terrifying in spots so yeah good stuff ,utterly hilarous and a great way to bring back some old faviorites while giving us a neat new protaganist. Good stuff. 

Watcher World:

Now from a mostly comedy with a horrifying ending to just.. pure unfiltered horror and depression! It’s Watcher World! Bill and Alice are back! And given I love Mariah Rose Faith and Corey Dorris, I was exastic to find this was what the second segment was about.. mostly because I had no idea Starkid had teasers for the episodes on their instagram, or I would’ve known Hidgens was coming. I wouldn’t of known he’d be stark naked for the last third of his story but still, pleasant surprise.

So Bill and Alice are spending the day at Watcher World, a run down amusement park on the edge of town. It’s Alice’s last weekend before College so Bill’s trying to reconnect with her by cramming a good old fashioned family vacation down her throat. Alice is less than enthused, both because she clearly resents her dad in general, and because Deb is throwing a huge rager on the same night. My honest interpretation of that is that Deb fully inteded for her girlfriend to come but Bill sprung this on Alice at the last minute and being pretty oblivious and hating Deb, either didn’t care about taking alice from one last night with her friends and girlfriend or didn’t generally think that through. I mean don’t get me wrong normally i’d side with a parent not wanting their daughter to attend a huge teen rager on their last weekend together.. but it’s also Alice’s last weekend in town for some time, and it’s likely a saturday.. so he has another day, and presumibly had friday before this and while things with his ex wife are tense, fighting for an extra day with her would be understandable and i’ts not like Alice, even if she hates Bill, would really fight him on getting an extra day in the town she didn’t want to leave. 

But that’s what I really like about this one that it’s layered. While Alice is slightly more in the right, she’s still shutting her dad out, refusing to let him follow her on instagram (though he does agree with her keeping it private as he dosen’t want Ted perving on her, which tracks, or Ted’s brother doing it which.. wait what?), and being on her phone the whole time to very clearly spite him and rub how much she dosen’t want to be there in her dad’s face. She dosen’t WANT to be at watcher world but instead of trying to talk to her Dad just wants to complain and apparenlty has on all their vacations.. it’s easy to see why Bill is annoyed by his daughter at times and thinks he has to FORCE HER to have fun with him, because otherwise she’d gladly ignore him for their entire weekends together for Deb. She’s so determined to punish her dad for the divorce, that she refuses to see on some level he IS trying, and is just sad about her leaving, and possibly leaving him forever and alone with nothing else in his life but his buddy Paul, whose getting married next week so that’s probably not helping.  On the other hand the reason I say Alice is more in the right is that well.. Bill’s a grown ass men. And while, speaking for himself, grown ass men don’t always make the right decisions, and not speaking for myself neither do fathers... Alice’s acting out is understandable coming from an 18 year old whose been through hell over the last year, having her parents divorce being forced to move, loosing her friends. Bill however just kind of uses her age and angst as an excuse to undermine and belittle her feelings. Because he doesn’t like deb for the very stupid reasons of she does pot, instead of assuring her that Deb wouldn’t cheat on Alice with Deb’s former crush Zigg, starkid’s first non binary character in a nice show that Nick Lang wasn’t just covering his ass when he said there’d be more representation in starkid, which in his defense I didn’t doubt him on but it’s still nice he did so at the earliest opportunity and very clearly plans to use Zigg if he can find a nonbinary actor for them. 

But yeah instead of assuring his daughter, Bill is just like “well sometimes relationships don’t work out” which while true is clearly his self serving way of trying to get Alice to break up with someone he dosen’t like. INstead of supporting her in her dreams of writing plays, one of which was good enough to get her a scholarship, he tries to act like she has no plans for her future and get her to be a doctor for more security, even though having a secure job has done.. no one at his office including him favors. I mean again, the most stable and happy person at the office is the guy in charge, and even he can’t tell his wife he wants her to choke him out at night. He wants her to choke him, he wants her to choke him while he jerks off, he wants her to choookeeee himmm while heeeee jerrrkssss offfff. 

While part of this seems to be that Deb plans to be a starving artist who can mooch off her parents in a pinch, Alice GENUINELY seems to have a full plan for her life. I do get his worrying about her future.. but she’s a smart kid. A bit of a brat but she knows what she wants clealry and clearly has talent. He’s just projecting his own fears on her. He also refuses to accept any responsibility in the divorce.. his hating his ex wife IS valid, as she took his daughter away, uprooted her life a year before graduation and spends gobs of money on impressive outings, the latter two seemingly just to spite him when honestly, it’d of made more sense for Alice to stay with Bill for the year before she graduates and been better for her. However, Bill still doesn’t take responsibly that he too is shoving fun down her throat to try and win her over, hates her girlfriend and refuses to treat her with any respect, and really DOSEN’T know Alice all that well. As we learn during their fun day she has anxiety, and he never knew about it. And the divorce isn’t really an excuse when he had years before that.  It’s the real problem of their relationship: Bill feels ENTITLED to a good father daughter relationship, but isn’t working at it and blames his ex wife or Alice for it instead of himself. While Alice isn’t an innocent as i’ve made clear, putting up walls and not telling dad things, given bill ignores her when she DOES try to tell him about her life, it’s easy to see she’s just given up. If he won’t listen why bother. Which yeah i’ve found myself there with my own dad from time to time. Bill’s not a bad person, he genuinely loves Alice, as he says “to the moon and back”, but it’s very clear from this outing he still loves the little girl who loved him unconditionally and not the complicated and mopey adult sh’es become, and dosen’t WANT to adapt to that and fears once she leaves for college she’ll avoid him for good, which isn’t unfounded. It’s a good, complex rich dynamic.  Naturally with.. all this I covered up front instead of sprinkling it throughout, the day doesn’t go great, with Alice utterly miserable most of the time, and ending up in a goofy novelty t-shirt due to a log ride. She also has an unsettling encounter with park mascot Blinky, our newest adorable abomination, who not only shows up the moment she does something bad on camera but also stares at her ass, which.. Paul you mind coming back for a second?

Thank you. They end up at the Watch Party, a cheesy kids show musical because Bill apparently equates this with his daughter loving musicals. I mean granted cheesy kids stage shows can be rad just listen to this. 

But I get Alice’s annoyance here. Thus we get the return of the sniggles, who apparently serve whatever eldrich deity is around this week and our first song of this segment, The Blinky Song. Which is catchy as hell as well as hilariously dark (”I’m so hungry”), and uses the stock footage well, as I could buy a cheap theme park ran by an eldtirch eye goblin using stock footage. But yeah it establishes Blinky as always watching and kinda fucked up.  Also the sniggles are now clearly the smurgs with Angie’s now being named Sniglette, Jeff being papa Sniggle and James being Snigglotts. However Sniglette considers leaving with another song with a long string of words. Then, things get.. dark as the rest of the sniggles don’t want her to leave and try and mob her, and then Papa Sniggle accidently wings her with a mallet and apparenlty injures the actual performer, before everyone’s ushered out and the usher pretends nothing happened. Good mind screw horror stuff. 

Alice and Bill then bicker a bit with my above point being made as Alice TRIES to get Bill to accept some respoinablity but he refuses and blames her mom. It’s now time for the Tear-Jerker, the reason they came. Bill’s buddy Paul says someone died. They also find three other people waiting in line and when one goes to the bathroom the other two start making out which.. yeah, dosen’t help Alice’s worry Deb’s going to cheat on her. So she takes the first single rider pass she can, with Bill worming his way in as to not let her get away.  The two naturally end up fighting on the Tear-Jerker before it stops up high, and ends up stalled, with the gloriously returning Nerdy Kid played by Joey from Black Friday being as helpful as usual. Seriously bless them for bringing him back. Man in a Hurry also showed up again, bless him too. Alice picks this time to reveal her fear of heights and anxiety, and an approaching storm isn’t helping. So Bill.. steps up. He helps ease Alice down taking her phone for her, if loosing it due tot he rain and helping her stay calm. It’s a REALLY nice portrayal of an anxiety attack, with Mariah herself apparently having them and thus portraying it really well. As someone who has them myself it really hits home and Bills calm attempts to help her are really heartwarming, getting her to describe her musical for him and the two bonding. It’s genuinely sweet.  But.. it can’t last, as Alice freaks out about her phone and Bill for once is in the right, as .. he was you know.. trying to save his daughter having a panic attack, and really stepped up given he was obnovious she had anxiety in the first place, and managed it well. He then gives the utterly heart stomping line “I love you to the moon and back, but sometime’s it’s really hard to like you. “

Just damn. So Alice runs off and both find their way to the fairway. Bill tries winning a doll for Alice, getting into a test of strength where he fails repedatly and is constantly mocked by the barker, played by James Tolbert who also played Blinky.. 

That should be Tolbert’s twitter handle. Anyway point is, Bill keeps trying even as he wracks up 400 dollars in credit card debt, for a 49.95 doll, before eventually the barker and hte crowd’s jeers get to be too much and he does smack it hard, thinking of all of his pent up rage towards alice.. just as the bell at the top takes the shape of alice’s head and explodes.  Bill is naturally horrified by this by the barker assures he loves him.. and that he should totally hobble his daughter misery style to make her not leave him and use the mallet for it.  Meanwhile Alice is at the shooting Gallery not wanting the blinky doll she wins, just blowing off steam when she runs into an old crone played by Lauren Lopez. But this Crone has her phone... which suspiciously has a ton of instagram photos of Deb and Zigg making out while sharing a toke. Granted Deb COULD’VE cheated, but given Alice is insecure, and her phone was given back to her by a witch working for an eye goblin.. yeah maybe just maybe Deb was loyal, and if she wasn’t wouldn’t be dumb enough to put it on instagram. But given Alice is already worked up it’s easy enough for her to beliive that her relationships in danger and if she gets there in time she can stop it and oh look her gun is now a real gun and can help her get the keys.  So yeah it’s time for a creepy as hell Shining-esque showdown, but if both sides were possesed instead of one. It’s.. a CHILLING as hell scene, not helped by Alice wielding a gun again as both fight. I was gripped the entire time and don’t have much to say utter than HOLY SHIT THIS WAS AS TERRIFYING AS IT WAS RIVITING. 

But a crowd gathers as the fight continues.. all with purple eyes which ave been seen on and off, watchers with a thousand eyes.. and with Blinky, now revealed NOT to be a costume probably, above them all. We also get one hell of a line.  “This is an amusement park but not for YOUR amusement.”

So yeah I love this sequence.. and Blinky as a villain. While it’s vague if he and Blinky  are the same entity.. I’m going with not. It’s not a stretch that like Cthulu, Wiggly has brothers in the black and white, with their own motives, methods and ability to get into our world. Unlike Wiggly.. Blinky’s already here and has no real ambition other than to find people to mentally tear apart and set loose on one another for his own amusement. He doesn’t have grand plans of burning the world.. he just wants to be entertained. It’s an interesting and chilling motive and I hope we see him again eventually. I also believe those at the park are trapped there bound after their own day there and trapped doing whatever Wiggly needs. Except maybe squeaky voiced teen. He probably just complains about cleaning up so much blood.  But yeah Blinky is very happy as the fight escalates into the hall of mirrors and Alice looses her gun.. with Bill now poised to strike down his daughter as the mirror reflects the various workers at the park, all encouraging him to kill her... it’s utterly terrifying as Bill’s eyes take on a purple tint.. and we get a POWERFUL use of the score and the “why does it hurt to love you’ bit from TGWDLM.. as Bill sees himself and what he’s about to do, sees his daughter understandably having a panic attack.. and calms her, his eyes returning and the two reconciling.  Of course Blinky isn’t happy about this “sappy bullshit” and brings htem into his domain, charging at them. But kinda missing that giving a pissed off teenager a rifle she knows how to use when you have a giant target for a face isn’t a good idea and she shoots him, with him bleeding a flood of purple goo that sends them out. While I doubt Winky’s dead, he is done with them.  Our story concludes on a sweeet note as the two find their car, and they finally make as tep forward, Bill having seen almost too late how selfish and controlling he was being and accepting his daughter on her phone.. and Alice realizing her need to open up and after checking Instagram, likely finding out those photo’s weren’t real, she throws her phone in the back.. but not before accepting her dad’s request, letting him in. Sure the road ahead is rough.. but the two have made a good first step towards repairing things and loving one another again in a healthy manner. and all it took  was bill nearly murdering her and allice shooting an eye goblin int he face and getting covered in his blood. Cue the credits, a beautiful song called “One Thousand Eyes” with Jeff Blim fucking nailing it. A great way to send off this bit.  Final Thoughts: This was the best one of the two. While Ape Man is really good too, this one took the darker tone of black friday, but with a tighter narrative. By focusing on a smaller cast, the darker elements really played better and the conclusion felt more satisfying.. though it helped that BOTH of these tails ended without everyone dying, and while I doubt EVERY story will have a happy ending, it makes things more interesting knowing that the heroes can get a happy ending this time around instead of an apocalypse. 

Overall Thoughts: This double feature was great, I’ll be getting a ticket to the next one if I can afford it, and if not i’ll see it presumably in December or next year when it comes on YouTube. Really excellent stuff.  So this was a first for me but if you’d like to see more starkid stuff from me, let me know in the comments or my askbox, commission me to review one of the musicals via dm, and if you liked how I did this review follow this blog for weekly ducktales and loud house coverage, and amphibia coverage when that returns, among more fun reviews. And until next time.. don’t blink. Play us out Jeff. 

I really hope this is the ending theme for the series. 

[weekend-conspiracy-theorist]

three mcelroy brothers

I would like to have justin as the guy training me at mcdonald's because real life weeks worked at wendy's for a summer and the girl training them made them cry one time. justin mcelroy has big dad energy. justin mcelroy would never make me cry.

I cannot decide which of the remaining two brothers could POSSIBLY be worse to be lab partners with, especially if we're assuming there's some sort of time travel world bending going on because in the one picture I have seen of a younger!travis he looks like SUCH a douche bag and regardless of if that is TRUE high school!weeks or even college!weeks if this was like, freshman year chem 117--

side note, neither of these men could possibly be worse lab partners than the actual lab partner I had in chem 117, who was terrible at math and following directions and then stopped showing up halfway through the semester without actually dropping the class--

anyway, I am always like 🔪🔪🔪 knife emoji self-defensive about dudes who look like frat guys, so as soon as I got partnered with this tall tall asshole looking mother fucker with a bad goatee I would never know a moment's peace. also as far as I can tell he does not know anything about science and I care too much about my grades, which griffin knows nothing about science either but he ALSO has very strong "may set me on fire by accident" vibes as just the sort of chaotic entity which he is.

I guess I'll go with travis, though, because maybe it can be a heartwarming family movie about friendship and not judging books by the cover, and also because I would VERY much like to be stuck on an elevator with griffin for ten hours.

we're both so cataclysmicly socially awkward that it takes two hours before we acknowledge each other, but eventually I admit I know who he is and listen to his podcast and that I think he is a very funny man, but more importantly I would like to know his opinion on the current season of survivor, please, and I'm curious to know who his favorite player of all time is. around hour 4 I admit that one time I fell asleep listening to an episode of mbmbam where they mentioned survivor and I ended up having a dream where the three of them were all playing on the same season and I was early allies with travis but I got kicked off before the merge. I also let him know that I was very grateful they did not follow up on travis's suggestion in amnesty's second arc to fight the water monster at a water treatment plant because I interned in utilities with county engineering for several summers and have toured multiple water treatment plants and would not have been able to enjoy the episode around the anachronisms. we have a rousing conversation about chlorine residuals. hour 5 I show him pictures of my dog and refuse to let the conversation breach any sort of actual serious topic because I don't want to be weird about the whole thing. this in and of itself makes things kinda weird. conversation peters off around hour 6. I think about playing music on my phone but I don't want him to judge my tastes. I remember I have carly rae jepsen's e.mo.tion on there, and we badly sing along to several songs before the battery dies. hour 7 I ask him which live action spider-man actor is his favorite and we have a two hour argument because he didn't say andrew garfield and when he counterinterrogates me about batman, I have no opinions about the best live action batman because I don't care about batman, but I do put my hands on my hips and do my best adam west impression to say "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!" we shake hands when we finally get let out after the tenth hour. I'm at a liveshow two years later and don't get an autograph because I can't decide if it would be more awkward for him to recognize me or for him not to recognize me.

[coldsweatwriting]

12 labors of Jerkules (Drunk Mythology podcast) Starters part 1 

" Twelve nights of Hercul- one night. "

" Hercules only - one night! "

" Thanks Disney. "

" (singing) Her-cu-les. "

" Hera hated his ass. "

" Womp womp. "

" Zeus was the sluttiest douche. "

" This bastard took it a step further. "

" What a little tricky dick! "

" It is me. Your normal husband. "

" He ... You know "

" Little baby Herc , he's a biter. "

" He takes a little bite too hard on Hera. "

" She like punts him back to earth. " 

" I'm gonna look up to the sky and think "that's boobie milk". " 

" She's furious - not at Zeus. Never at Zeus. "

" Normal Hera shit : sling some poison, yo. "

" Do babies go in cradles or lairs? " 

" He's the most accomplished baby to come out since Hermes. "

" I killed two snakes , what's up? "

" He kinda kills his teacher because he messed up. "

" It's a normal Greek lion. "

" That shit sucks. "

" Head, shoulders, knees, and toes. "

" He's still there. "

" Imma fuck you up. "

" So he kills the shit out of them. "

" So I accidentally killed my kids. "

" Uh , no , I don't provide advice to child murderers. "

" No. Fuck you. "

" Apollo and Hercules are there acting like two grown ass gods fighting over a fucking chair. "

" He's fighting Hercules for a chair. "

" I will turn this temple around. "

" I will make Delphi face the wrong way. " 

" He took my chair. "

" " I will not stand for this " and she sits down. "

" Not ten , that's for bitches. Twelve labours. "

" Everyone who is not the priestess laughs. "

" Ugh , I hate this guy. "

" Ugh , I guess. "

" He's my cousin. "

" He's the son of Zeus , that little bastard. "

" It's fucking shit up. "

" PUT UP YOUR DUKES. "

" Lion? No. Tripod? No. "

" Say the password. " 

" Just hide in a vase. "

" (muffled from inside vase) nothing. "

" Hera hates his ass but he's actually a pretty cool dude. "

" Ah, shit. "

" This dude knows how to run an RPG. "

" We didn't come together. "

" I'm not with this guy. "

" God damn I thought you were dead. "

" You might think this is a bunch of bullshit but it is. "

" I hate your face. "

" It's like a field of shit. "

" It's like a whole battlefield of poo. "

" Like any good Grecian king : he lied. " 

" My fingers were crossed. "

" I will fucking remember that. "

" I'll be fuckin' back. "

" The bird is the word? "

" They people eatin' birds. "

" Hephaestus the best of us. "

" I'm gonna send you to Crete. "

" You remember the minotaur right? "

" Why all the non-killing? "

" Where in the world am I gonna find- oh, there he is. "

[randoreviews]

LEE INTERVIEW 2

Ben: So yeah, again, these are like really simple questions. No real brain busters. Should I just start? Lee: Yeah, just dive right in, man. Ben: Okay, cool. So what was the last thing you had to eat? Lee: Ahh, this morning I had some breakfast, I made some... potatoes, some scrambled eggs, with a little bit of creme fraiche in em and some cilantro and some sausage. Ben: Oooo! Lee: And then I hit it with a little green Tabasco. Ben: I was gonna ask you any ketchup but green Tabasco, okay. Lee: Yeah, green Tabasco. It's the only way to fly. Ben: Nice. And I was gonna ask you what was the last thing you had to drink, but I can join it up with this question: did you have coffee this morning and how was that? Lee: Yeah, I have coffee every morning. Ben: Does it make you, like, wanna listen to heavy metal or? Lee: No, just a pleasant way to ease into the day, I find. Come down and throw on a pot. Feed the dog. Let the dog out. By the time all that's done there's a fresh hot pot a coffee waiting for me. And just sip on that for a while. Ben: Nice. So in general it usually relaxes you? Cuz I know sometimes for me it can give you that gentle boost you need or like for me it'll make me wanna do like twenty different things at once and plan a trip around the world. Lee: Yeah, I think the jitters is what they call that. But ah, I'll just avoid drinking it late at night, other than that it keeps me rollin through the day. Ben: Yessir. Cool. So when was the last time you had a Pop-Tart? Really random question. Lee: Pop-Tart? God I feel like it was actually more recent than you would think, but I can't put my finger on when it woulda been. I feel like Pop-Tarts were in my life fairly recent... Oh yeah, cuz my fiance's brother is big into Pop-Tarts, so I think when he was out here earlier this fall he had a little stash and then when he left I think there were a Pop-Tart or two leftover. So I'm gonna say it was probly sometime possibly after Thanksgiving but before Christmas. If you can believe that. Before that it was prolly... ten years? Ben: I can, yeah. Cool, so pretty recently, I knew there was a reason I asked you that. Lee: Oh, yeah. Very timely question. On point as always. Ben: Haha. Those things will last twenty years in the cupboard. May as well not let em go to waste anyway. Lee: No. In fact I'll probly go back inside and check and make sure I didn't miss any on my last round. Ben: Haha. Okay. I have just so many random questions just scribbled down. What one makes sense next. Lee: That's cool. Ben: Arrre youuu watching any shows right now with your fiance, since you just mentioned her. Any Columbo. Lee: No, we haven't... well, I'll take that back, sooo... we both enjoy The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on... Netflix, I believe? No, it's not Netflix, it's Amazon. Ben: Yup. Lee: Yeah, that's a really good show and I think they only have like two or three episodes left in the, I guess it's the series. It's definitely season 3 maybe but I don't think they're makin another one after that. Ben: I've heard it has great costumes. Lee: Yeah, great costumes, great set design. The dialogue's just... razor sharp. (starts laughing to himself) Ben: Haha, yup. Lee: And it's a pretty unique concept or storyline or however you wanna put it, it's not something I've seen anything like before so... Ben: And that's about the housewife who becomes a standup comedian? Lee: Yeah, pretty much. Yup. Ben: Okay, okay. Is she your favorite character in the show? Lee: She's great. She's also got this lady who plays her manager who's (starts laughing to himself again) pretty hilarious at times. And then, oh, maybe you can help me with this one -- her dad is played by the guy who was in that show, you would know his name. He was in, I wanna say he was in The Man Who Wasn't There but I can't put my finger on where he woulda been. But he played that like neurotic detective on some TBS show I can't remember. Ben: Huh. Okay. I don't think I can remember? But I'm just gonna look it up and I'll include it in the transcript of the interview.   https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001724/ Lee: Yeah, but his character is probably my favorite of the bunch. Ben: Nice. So Mrs. Maisel and no other shows right now? Lee: No. No, we try to avoid the TV as much as possible which we do a really good job at but every once in a while we’ll watch... we watched Clue? The movie Clue last night from 1985? Ben: Oh I love that one. Lee: Yeah, it's the first time I'd seen it. Ben: Oh, it's great. Great ensemble cast. Lee: Yeah, Christopher Lloyd and the guy whose name I don't remember but I think he was in like Rocky Horror Picture Show. Ben: Tim Curry. Lee: Tim Curry, yeah. He was really good. I didn't recognize anyone else, I think. Ben: Yeah. And then the maid. I've seen it a couple times but when you're really young that maid with the great cleavage, it's like, I like this movie. Lee: Lotta great cleavage in that movie, to be honest. I pointed that out as we were watchin it, I was like, yeah... pretty decent amount of cleavage. They knew what they were doin back in the 80s. Wouldn't get away with that now, I'll tell you that much! Ben: Yup, yup. Lee: So yeah, that's about it. Ben: That's a good one, man. So keeping on this same line of questions: last movie you saw in the theater?? Lee: I do actually know the last movie I saw in the theater is I went to see Joker. Ben: Nice. Lee: And I was thoroughly disappointed in that movie, I didn't like that at all. Ben: Really? You thought it was overdone? Lee: Uh, yeah, it's just, I didn't find it at all... interesting, or compelling or... I dunno. Like I just didn't understand why I was sittin there watchin it. And I love Joaquin Phoenix, I think he does a great job in everything I've seen him in but I didn't find his performance all that interesting, or I didn't find the character of the Joker the way they wrote it all that interesting either. I've heard it compared to like Taxi Driver before but it was basically the same story, this kind of loner, isolated, gets a little obsessed with the wrong things and all of a sudden he's crazy. Ben: Right. Yeah. And that was the last movie you saw in the theater? Lee: Yeah... I think so. And then before that Christopher Robin. Ben: Cool, haha. How was that? Lee: That was a great movie. I'll take Christopher Robin over Joker any day of the week. Ben: Hahaha. Lee: What are you laughin at? Ben: Did you see that with your nephew or with your fiance? Lee: Well she was not my fiance at the time but uh, we had just started dating and we went and saw that and, both enjoyed it. Ben: Nice. Have you been listening to any music? Lee: Mmm, gash. I meaaan... a little bit. We'll throw on some tunes around the house every now and then. Ben: Do you have a speaker system or like a bluetooth speaker err? Lee: Yeah, like a little bluetooth speaker, which is fairly decent, it just kinda fills up the room. And then if I'm workin out I'll put on somethin in the headphones just to supplement the coffee, so I feel like I can take on the world. But it's been a long time since I've consistently listened to music, I'm more into podcasts and stuff these days. Ben: Yea, I think that's like a lot of people. What are your favorite podcasts? Lee: Uumm... geez louise... aahh... my favorite podcast is called Part of the Problem by a guy named Dave Smith. And it's sort of a equal parts I guess political and current events. Ahh... what would you call it. I dunno... discussion, or whatever. Ben: Discourse. Lee: Huh? Ben: Discourse? Lee: Yeah, well it's him, Dave Smith, who actually got his start in and still is a standup comedian, so he's got a really good talent of bein able to sort of dissect political news, current events news and then put a usually pretty funny take on it. And if not he's just an incredibly interesting guy and has a take that I sort of identify with more often than not, so... Ben: Is he our age or older err? Lee: Actually, yeah, he's exactly our age, I believe, he's 36, 37. Your birthday's comin up, what, next week, right? Ben: Uh, yeah, I guess it's kinda been in my mind but, I'll be celebrating by myself. Lee: Are you ready? Ben: Yeah, 37! Seems like a fine age, ya know? Lee: It is a fine age, to be sure. Ben: Yeah, yeah. Just keep on learning little things, little improvements. Lee: Yup, every day. Ben: Soo... podcasts, so yeah, any others besides the Dave Smith one? Lee: Umm... I mean, yeah, I mean I've sort of got my little Rolodex that I'll roll through from time to time, this guy Tom Woods I like listenin to a lot. I've actually been pretty good at eliminating podcasts from my diet, not addin em, just kinda cuttin out the riffraff. Ben: Some podcast pruning? Lee: Yeah, exactly. The Joe Rogans of the world have no place in my heart anymore. Ben: Shh, I was just thinking the other day about isn't it crazy Joe Rogan is like the Walter Cronkite of our generation? Lee: Haha, yeah, I know, but he's such a fucking douche too. Not that Cronkite wasn't a douche but... Ben: It's like, can you picture Walter Cronkite being into jiu-jitsu, I mean, tha'd be pretty great, but... Lee: That would be pretty great. And like slammin DMT and smoking like insane amounts of weed and basically just agreeing with everybody on his podcast, everything they say all the time. Ben: Haha, ahh, him saying JFK was assassinated and then immediately smoking a joint right on TV, that would have been great. Lee: Yup, and then comin up with some conspiracy theories and then backtracking completely within the next 24 hours.  Ben: Haha. Well another little random question at the top here is, how do you get your news? Is a lot of it through podcasts or? Lee: Umm, yeah, well what I consider news is not what used to be considered news, like I don't really get day-to-day news because it's all so preposterous and I mean it doesn't affect anybody's life really in any way other than some major stuff, ya know, issues of war and peace and issues like global pandemics, those are gonna affect you much more than, ya know, if you just sort of think back on the last ten to twenty years of what the news cycle consisted of it's just largely preposterous and irrelevant and usually not even true and when it is true it's so quickly spun into a cause or some, you know, political stance, it's like, I'm kind of pruning podcasts and I'm also pruning unnecessary information or opinion out of my life as much as possible and really been enjoying that so, I just gotta find really people I trust and usually not even from a news perspective but if they are discussing something it might pique my interest to look into it a little bit. I'm still stickin with things like theory over day-to-day, you know, I'll prefer to read economics or history or something rather than turnin to the news because I feel like you can learn so much more about patterns and humanity and what not by doin it that way. Ben: Right, right. Your degree is in philosophy, right? Lee: Yes. Ben: Yes, cool. So yeah, the day-to-day politics is pretty much just like watching Real World/Road Rules Challenge, it's just like all drama, people talking shit about each other behind their backs, people tweeting nasty things... Lee: Yeah, but I don't want the takeaway of this to be that the Real World/Road Rules Challenge isn't a fantastic show because it is. Ben: Haha. Lee: Honestly, I think that was a terrible comparison that you just made? I THINK I get where you're comin from but...? Yeah, it's just so dumb, it's not only that it does not seem true or accurate or important at the time but, what?, less than, what, 72 hours usually it's just like, nobody's talking about it anymore, nobody cares, nothing has changed. I just feel like it's a really great way to fill your life with a whole bunch of unnecessary anxiety and anger and animosity towards other people or other groups or whatever it is, it's just like a really awesome way for you to distract yourself from what actually should be at the front of your mind which is what you're doing on a day-to-day basis and the health and well-being of your family and close friends and, sorta how you can contribute to makin the world a little bit better and makin yourself a little healthier and happier and the people you love happier as well. Just don't have any time for it. Ben: Right. You don't have any time for, “Nancy Pelosi ate Mitch McConnell's ice cream out of the fridge” and uh... Lee: Haha, “She drank his milkshake!” No, I don't, I mean every once in a while I'll kinda click somethin, tune back in, just to remind myself how... how... just the word I keep using is how preposterous it all is and how much weight some people put on it and like I said it just becomes such an unnecessary energy suck and soul suck and just, yeah... No need! Ben: Yeah, yup... So what are your go-to apps? What apps on your phone do you find yourself using the most? Lee: That's actually interesting, I sort of am gonna contradict myself but there’s an app I use called Newsvoice which, I liked it a lot better when I started using it, now I feel it's not quite as cool, but it used to just be an app that would compile headlines, you know, local, international, national, whatever, and it would offer, say, for every story it would give you five or six different headlines from different, um, organizations with different political leanings, so you'd get like a HuffPo article and then you'd get a, you know, Wall Street Journal and you'd get the same story covered four or five, six different ways, which is kind of a cool way to avoid unnecessary bias. So that's one I've kinda been hittin up a little. I've really been enjoying everyone's hot takes on the Facebook app with this Coronavirus, just really gettin a sense of (starts laughing) how everybody's reacting. That's really enjoyable. Ben: Yup, yup. So Newsvoice and Facebook? Lee: Yup, I like those. And then you know, I do all my mobile banking and bill paying through apps, so I got apps for those. Ben: Useful... useful. Lee: Yup. What else? Oh, Golf Clash. That's a great one. I play a little Golf Clash when the time is right. Ben: Golf Clash, niiice. If you hit a good ball on that is it like do you feel it in your body still? Lee: Oh, it'll let you know. They'll yell great shot at you or perfect shot and it's like, my entire day has been validated. Ben: Haha, nice. All right, soo... going back to the music question, I know you said you're not listenin to too much music but what was the last concert you saw? Lee: Ooo. Wow... Ahh... Honestlyyy... unless I can remember something else, I think it was the Rancid and Mighty Mighty Bosstones New Year's Eve bash in Los Angeles. Ben: Nice. Where was that? What was the venue? Lee: That was aaat... oh god, if you rattle off a couple of the big ones around there I'll remember it. Ben: Ehhh, I'm blanking on those, there's the Hollywood Bowl of course but it was probably at a smaller club. Lee: No, it wasn't that, it was an indoor venue. Ben: The El Raaayy. Lee: No, it's recongizable but I can't remember what it was.   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrine_Auditorium  But that can't be right though because that would have been like... four years ago at least?    Ben: Yeah, and when did we go to that Weezer/Panic at the Dis... maybe I shouldn't even mention Panic at the Disco but when did we go to that Weezer show, was that four or five years ago? Lee: You mean when Weezer opened up for Panic at the Disco? Ben: Ohh god, no, no, Panic at the Disco opened up for Weezer. Lee: “STOP SMOKING!” Ben: Hahahah... oh gosh. We didn't really fit in with the Panic at the Disco fans. Lee: No, but was that after? Cuz honestly, man, my timeline is so blurry and like out of sorts that you could literally pick an event within ten years and another one within ten years and I couldn't tell you which came first, with like a four-year margin of error. It's pathetic. Yeah, I don't remember. I honestly don't remember. Ben: Yup, but that Rancid/Bosstones New Year's show was pretty good? Lee: Oh, it was awesome, man. I was like thirty rows or, it wasn't rows cuz everyone was standing up but I was probly about thirty heads deep, so great view of the stage and what I considered close but I was like, well this will be certainly out of the way of any aggressive moshpit that might break out. So I was just kinda sittin there waitin for the show to start, sippin my beer, Rancid comes out, and like the FIRST note they play, which is from “Maxwell Murder” cuz they played ... And Out Come the Wolves from start to finish, first bass note I just get a fucking forearm to the back of my head and my beer goes flying like six rows up. I was like, well this is on! Ben: Haha. Lee: I kind of fought my way out of it but basically just retreated another thirty rows and, enjoyed the rest of the show. Ben: Nice. Got another beer, I hope. Lee: Got another beer or two, although I did have to be, that was when I was doing the PI work so I had to be like downtown at like six in the morning for some surveillance thing, and the show basically didn't start until almost midnight, so I didn't get insanely intoxicated or anything cuz I was trying to be responsible cuz I had to be at work the next day. But it was a blast. Ben: I think the Rancid lead singer... Tim Armstrong? Lee: Yup. Ben: I think he lived in our neck of the woods. I think he lived in Highland Park. Lee: Yeah, he did, I think he lived in Highland Park and that bar that Heather used to work at, she said he used to go there quite a bit and just hang out. Ben: Yup, I love that place. Lee: Eedendale or Ed-endale? Ben: Edendale, yup. Tom Mix, Casey Mix's grandfather's old stopping grounds. Lee: Isn't it crazy how you can remember like these minute little details like that but you ask me like what year something took place and I'm like, I have no idea, I think it was some time in the 90s but I could be wrong about that. Ben: Haha. I think Zack de la Rocha from Rage Against the Machine also lived in Highland Park/Eagle Rock area. Lee: Yep... yep. Although I think he's about to move up because from what I hear, the crazy anarchist/socialists of Rage Against the Machine are reuniting to go on like a CitiBank tour or something (starts laughing). Ahh, that's so fucking depressing. Ben: Haha. They're finally taking the corporate money. Lee: Well everyone's gotta make a living, ya know? Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Ben: Haha. So are you reading any books? Lee: Umm... actually no, I'm not. I've been sort of lookin around for a book around here that I haven't read but I feel like every book I have I've read at least once or twice. I kinda want something new but of course the libraries are shut down. Ben: Right. You want something fiction or nonfiction or? Lee: Yeah, I don't read fiction. I haven't read any fiction since I think R.L. Stine back in the day. Ben: Haha, gotcha. Lee: I just find nonfiction a lot more interesting. So yeah, I’m not reading anything and I'm ashamed to say it, because it's a great time to read.  Ben: Yes... indeed... uuumm... so what was the last alcoholic beverage you had? Do you like to have a drink some nights err? Lee: Oh yeah, oh yeah. Typically my go-to has always been whiskey. But I was talkin to a colleague at work and he was sayin that he just really enjoys drinking tequila and I was like well I’ve never really had a taste for tequila and he just started talking about how great it was and then I was like well shit, maybe I should give tequila another try, so last couple nights I’ve had a little bit a tequila, which is... somewhat enjoyable. Still not my thing but... Ben: Yeah. It gives you energy, I think it’s the only... upper? Lee: Yeah, the only upper, stimulant, whatever. That’s what he told me and I was like, well that doesn’t make sense cuz it’s alcohol and alcohol is a depressant all the time, it just depresses your nervous system. So then I looked it up, er, googled it, and it was like a super non-clear, vague answer and it was like, well while it technically is a stimulant it’s also ethanol which is also a depressant. And I’m like, well what the fuck does that mean? But I did notice that when I was drinkin it, we were sittin there playin Yahtzee and I was like fired up.  Ben: Right? Lee: I dunno. I dunno if it’s just fired up just cuz of the Yahtzee and I thought it was gonna be lame and I fuckin loved it. But I was super into it and I was kinda shakin my leg a little bit like, yeah, let’s do this, let’s play some more Yahtzee and I was like, is this the Tequila that’s doing that or is this the Yahtzee or am I just like in a really good mood. Ben: I think that’s what tequila does cuz I HATED tequila, never drank it, I remember sitting next to a girl at a party at Saint Mike’s and her breath, she was drinking out of a big bottle of tequila and her whole being just wreaked of cheap tequila. And I think I was like nineteen or twenty at the time so I was like, that is the worst smell I’ve ever smelled, I’m not going anywhere near that. Flash forward to Clapp’s 30th birthday, we went to the Clippers game at Staples Center and then afterwards we were at a bar downtown and someone ordered Patron shots for everyone and I was like, I dunno if I can do this. And then we do the shot and then like twenty minutes later, two or three more shots and people are like dancing on the tables. A little bit different than sippin on scotch, so... Lee: Yeah, well the other pointer that this guy gave me was, you know, most booze you can usually get away with drinking cheaper stuff out of a plastic bottle or somethin, if you wanted to buy some cheaper whiskey out of a plastic bottle you should be fine but he was like, just don’t ever do that with tequila. If you’re gonna do it just make sure it’s somewhat decent stuff and it’s in a glass bottle. I have no way to confirm whether what this guy’s saying is accurate or not. But tequila does seem to be...a bit of an enigma for me, so I might try to get to the bottom of it a little more. Ben: Nice. Let’s seee.... How’s the dog doing? Lee: Dog’s great, man! Dog is absolutely great. He’s settled in beautifully. For the first few months we had him he was a little bit, um... I dunno if neurotic’s the right word but he definitely was a little bit more on the nervous side and it takes a while to build up trust obviously, and we couldn’t take him off the leash, we live backed up against a pretty wide open area of land where we would love to walk him but we really couldn’t take him off the leash and it would suck because it’s such a great place for the dog to run around and we just never knew when he would come back and blah blah blah. Ben: Yep.  Lee: And he would not let you like sorta touch his collar, he wouldn’t bite but he would let you know, like a little fake snap or whatever if you touched his collar. He drooled a lot. But right around month 3? He just like totally settled in. And now every day twice a day we just kinda walk around, whether it’s backwoods or on the street, off leash, and he kinda just like trots up ahead, looks back at us, waits for us to catch up. And then if we yell, if we say “Here” he kinda turns around and comes runnin back towards us. If we say “Stay” or “Wait” he just sits there. He sleeps, he’s like the most cuddley dog of all time, you can’t be anywhere near him without him coming up and putting his face on your lap. I think he’s gotten better looking too, to be honest with you. When we first got him I didn’t think he was very cute, but I think he was just carrying a lot of stress in his face.  Ben: Right. Lee: And his face sorta always seemed a little bit tight or contorted as if he was unsure. But now he just kinda melts into everything he does. And he’s super cool. And he’s gained fifteen pounds since we got him, which is awesome, because he was really underweight. Ben: Nice. Yeah, was he a rescue? What’s his name, by the way? I’m forgetting his name. Lee: He is a rescue. His name when we got was Chance and we were like, well that name sucks and so we changed it to Bojo. B-O-J-O. Yeah, he was a rescue who apparently spent like the first year or two at some shelter down south in Colorado, this place had like no money, they kept him outside in like a coat year-round, which is rough here in Colorado, it gets cold in the winters. And then he was transferred up to another shelter up here and like no one would adopt him. We dunno why now cuz we look at him and we’re like, we have the perfect dog, we’ve got the best dog of all time. And I know everyone thinks that about their dog but... he really is cool... Ben: He’s a mix? Lee: Yeah, we were actually thinkin about doing one of those dog DNA tests because he’s soo like, he looks... we think he’s a boxer/lab mix, he kinda looks like that. But he also looks like he might have some Mastiff in him, and he’s got some tendencies of some other breeds, so I dunno, it would just be kind of a cool thing to know exactly what he is but... We just tell people boxer/lab.  Ben: Yeah. That sounds like a handsome dog. Lee: Yeah, he’s a real handsome fella. Ben: You’ve earned his trust and... nice. Lee: Yeah. And we trust him too now which is super cool, we can just kinda walk around the woods together and just have a good old time.  Ben: Nice. Yeah, you’ve always been a dog person. Lee: Yeah, I think they’re great. I just think they’re great. Ben: Haha. So what’s the weather like in Colorado? Lee: Uh, it’s pretty much beautiful. It’s kind of annoying because the winters are SUPER long and like by the end of it you’re just ready for it to be over and you think spring’s comin because it gets like sunny and mid-forties for a couple days. And then you’ll get like three days of snow and everything that melted’ll just come right back. Ben: Yeah. Lee: So that’s kinda where we’re at right now, where you can hear snow melting off roofs but there’s still basically snow covering, you know, ninety percent of the surfaces. But it’s like sunny and 45 or something today, so... yeah. Just kinda hopin it stays that way. I’m ready for spring now, I’m a summertime guy. Ben: Yup. Have you seen any signs of spring, any flowers er...? Lee: No flowers but there’s definitely some wild grasses showing, and the sagebrush you can actually see the tops of it now. It’s not like blooming or anything but it was just buried in snow for the last seven months so it’s kinda cool to see some open patches of grass and some sagebrush and... more birds. Stuff like that, so... definitely some signs. Ben: Nice. Will Bojo munch on any sagebrush or any grass? Lee: He does enjoy a... I mean this is our first real spring with him so we’ve never know him to react to how the snow is melting. He loves snow, he loves jumpin around in it but he does seem to be chewin on more grass now that it’s melting. And he did show up yesterday for the first time with a dead squirrel in his mouth. Ben: Mhm. I’m sure he was probably pretty proud of that. Lee: Oh yeah. And then we were like telling him to drop it and put it away and he was just like lookin at us like, what are you guys doing? Ben: Haha. Yeah, right. I brought you guys dinner! Lee: Yeah. And we were like ah, we’ll just put it in the trash bag that’s full of dog shit and then throw it in the dumpster, and he’s like, whatever.  Ben: Haha. Ah, that’s great. Are the people in Colorado much different than they are in MA? Lee: Umm... It’s been a while since I’ve lived in Massachusetts to be honest with you so, like, the sort of the quirks of everybody... I dunno, Colorado’s a very active outdoor community. But up here, like IN the mountains where it’s like ski resort country... there’s just a lot of um... the term “shitbag”’s probly not nice to use but like just a lot of people you can tell their reeeal concern in life is like bein able to shred some fresh gnar. Ben: Haha. Yes. Lee: And other than that you can like pretty much go fuck yourself. And they’ll be nice people and they won’t, you know, go out of their way to hurt anyone but like, you can’t like RELY on them for anything.  Ben: Right. They just wanna shred gnar. Lee: Yeah, they just wanna shred some fresh fresh buttercream and like I don’t blame them for that? But at the same time it’s like you need to be able to pull your weight a little bit.  Ben: Haha, yup. Lee: So that's one group of people, but then there's another group of people up here that's just like active, engaged, friendly, um, usually a little bit older, maybe people who are early retirees or just retired or whatever who seem like really topnotch people. Ben: Which proves our point that the older you get, maybe the cooler. Maybe the cooler. Lee: Yeah, the cooler, the wiser, I mean that's the way I feel about myself, for sure. Ben: Have you gotten on the mountain at all this year? Lee: Yeah. I mean it sucks now because they had to close... this whole county, I mean just like everywhere else really but this whole county, they had to shut down about a month before the official end of ski season so, we didn't realize the time of our last ski day was gonna be our last ski day, but... We try to get out, like, in my line of work obviously, bein a chef, the holiday season and that winter season up here I'm just getting slammed like nonstop for a couple months while everyone's up here on vacation and doing all their skiing. BUT once all those people go home and February and March rolls around and it really starts to slow down then that's my time where I'm like, cool, I'm gonna ski like at least once, maybe twice a week and just enjoy everything around here and not have to fight crowds cuz, you know, I'm obviously not off on weekends or anything. So late winter/early spring these last two years has been my time to get up there. That got cut short a little bit this season but, got to get out on the mountain on the skis. We do a lot of hiking and we've been snowshoing every day since we've been quarantined, like we just go out on either some hike or some snowshoe, we went sledding with the dog the other day and that was just insanely fun even though it was kinda dangerous. But yeah, there's no shortage of outdoor activities for me right now. Ben: Yeah. That all sounds great. Lee: It is great. Ben: And these are all things you can also do in New Hampshire, are you guys still thinking of moving to New Hampshire? Lee: Yeah, it's definitely, um, we've got a shortlist workin right now in terms of options or where we wanna go from here or what we wanna do and they're all sort of... what's the term?... I dunno... co-related, codependent, whatever, like one factor's obviously dependent on several others. But New Hampshire's definitely up towards the top of the list. So I was excited, she was excited. And then we had a couple other options sort of present themselves to us so we're kinda weighin those out now and, uh, we'll figure it out. Ben: Yup... Options like... out west or.. back east? Lee: Um... Just options, Ben, you know what I mean? I don't feel like I need to get into any more than that. Ben: Haha, all right, I don't wanna get into your business too much, okay. Lee: Haha, no, you'll be the first to know once we decide though. Ben: Good, good. And also I didn't want to get into politics too much because it can just be a drag like we both agree but... Lee: Sure. Ben: ... and this is kind of a tricky question in the post-#MeToo movement and now that you're engaged but, carrying it over from our last interview, do you still want to boink Hillary Clinton. Lee: (trying to suppress laughing) Ahh god, I have no recollection... Ben: Haha, just purely hypothetically! Purely hypothetically! Lee: I have no recollection of that conversation ever happening. Ben: Hahah. I mean it's on my Tumblr but... Lee: Oh yeah, well... I don't even know how to get on a Tumblr so... Ben: Haha. Lee: No, I don't actively want to, uumm... If the situation presented itself, like if I was a single man... yeah, it's obviously something you'd have to consider but... yeah, maybe the desire has lessened as compared to what it was the last time we did this. Ben: Still a lot of power in play there. Lee: Yeah, for sure, I mean that's... Ben: Part of the appeal? Lee: I could be theoretically a couple heartbeats away from the White House like if things worked out between Hill Dawg and I, which I would make sure everything was kosher on my end but... Yeah, that's funny that you mentioned politics and I thought about our last conversation and all that was goin on and all that we talked about and the question you had is do you still wanna blank Hillary Clinton. Topnotch journalism. Ben: Haha. I mean I spent hours honing these questions. Uumm, yeah, again I don't wanna ask annyy.... we're pretty much at the end here because I do have to transcribe all of this which will take me like thirty hours... but I enjoy it, just savoring, retyping every word that you've spoken but ahh... obviously having in mind what's going on in the world right now -- where do we go from here? Lee: Ahhh, gosh. That's a big question. Ben: Just... more tequila and Yahtzee err? Lee: I mean, you say that I think tongue in cheek but... Ben: Not really!... not really. Lee: Yeah, no, I mean my whole mentality from the day it sort of became clear that this was gonna be a serious thing was, um, it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me to put my energy anywhere I want and to focus it anywhere I want, and the way I've chosen to do that is like I've said focus on my family and the people around me who I care about and care about meee... you know, get out in nature every day, get exercise every day, try and learn something, we've been doin a ton of cooking at home, pickling pretty much every vegetable in sight... Ben: Nice, that's exciting. Lee: ... Yeah, and just gettin back to the good life and I feel like there's a lot of people who are embracing similar approaches. And then there are also the people whooo, ya know, take ahh... one of the first headlines I saw was like, “Pornhub offers free premium membership for everybody,” and it's like okay, you can spend the next two months just furiously whackin it with your pants around your ankles. You're not gonna come out of that in a good place and you are gonna be terrified the whole time and you're gonna come out in some fucking self-induced stupor and like you're not gonna know what to do or where to turn. So I feel like there's already sort of two mentalities developing and there's two approaches we can take and, I dunno what we're gonna do as a nation, because that's just insane, that many people all tryna choose a path, but at the same time when I said like I'm tryna cut off useless information and stupid politics, what it boils down to is people's individual decisions they make and paths they choose to take. I dunno where we go, but I know where I'm goin so... that's what I'm focused on. Ben: So... Pornhub in moderation? Lee: I would say no Pornhub, if you want my advice, I would say stop whacking yourself silly altogether and choose somethin else to do, find another focus. Ben: Haha. Okay, cool. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about or...? Lee: Uh, I want to let you know that I love you. Ben: Thanks! Lee: And I hope you're doin well. And I hope everyone else back home is doin well. And I've been meaning to send you something, and I finally figured out how I'm gonna do it. The vessel was sort of always the issue, I think I've got that solved. So keep an eye out for something in the mail. Ben: Ooo, a package from Lee. No offense to you but I will be sure to fully sanitize it upon receiving it. Lee: Haha, yeah, for sure. Sanitize everything. Ben: I talked to Shaun right before doing this and I asked him if he had any questions to ask you and he said, "Ask him where the fuck he has been and why we never hear from him." Lee: Haha. Ben: I assume it's cuz, you know you were saying, well, usually you're working and now you're able to enjoy yourself but life for a chef is just like, you're not even able to think, it's just like french fries, french fries, french fries! Right? Lee: Yeah, it's pretty much all about french fries all the time. Ben: Haha. Sometimes sweet potato fries. Lee: But I dunno, I could put that back at Shaun, like when was the last time... I mean... I dunno... look, man... I'm not tryna... Ben: Haha. Lee: Ohh, I miss you guys, I miss Shaun especially. I'll do my part to make sure that we reconnect sometime soon. Ben: Cool. I think that's the perfect... perfect way to end it.

[wingsofanillyrian]

Week 5 podcast: Heir of Fire

Thank you to the wonderful @aelin-and-feyre for coming up with these!

OK so let me start by saying that I am currently re reading Heir of Fire bc I am having some tough times and I found this post about how in the beginning of HOF Celaena is in a real bad place too, and by the end she becomes her boss ass bitch self again?? So I was like “Yeah I’m gonna be Celaena!”

MOVING ON!

ROWAN

So at first I thought Rowan was some super hot douche guy. Which I mean, he kinda was. He swaggers on in with his immortal grace and thinks he’s king shit?? Like no bruh step back take it down a notch. (But ok I do have to admit, I was instantly in love with his tattoo! And after seeing @merwild’s rendition of him just put that attraction over the top.) And when he saves her from the skinwalkers and says its only because of the blood oath?

Favorite quotes:

-WHEN HE CALLS HER FIREHEART!!!!!!!!

-“There you are”

CELAENA/AELIN

So once again, while in the process of re reading, I realized that Celaena really learned to accept her past and accept her magic. She’s the best, honestly.

When she shifts in the skinwalker scene and uses her magic to burn them, and yet manages not to harm herself or Rowan, I think that’s when she realizes that maybe she can control the monster inside her. That maybe she can handle it, with a little bit of help. And that scene is a huge turning point, in my opinion, because of that.

Fave quotes:

-“She was Aelin Ashryver Galathynius- and she would not be afraid.” ICONIC

-“She was the heir of ash and fire, and she would bow to no one.” My new personal motto tbh

FAVORITE FAN ARTS

Above art by @merwild

Above art by @may12324

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS -I really wish we heard more about the cadre; more about their dynamic, how each of them interact with each other more, ect..

-I think Celaena sees Luca as a younger sibling. You can tell she cares about him, and he rattles on about everything to her… idk man

-So I honestly think that if Rowan had been not necessarily nicer, but just more understanding, from the beginning, that Celaena would have realized her potential sooner. And she would have accepted her magic easier, would have found out they were canarram sooner, ect…

-TOTAL HARDCORE THIS BOOK MADE ME SHIP ROWAELIN and I haven’t looked back since

-Additionally, I don’t hate Chaol. I could go on for hours about that alone, but I’ll leave it at this: he’s trying okay?!

Feel free to message me about any of my opinions or to make your own points! i love hearing from everyone!

[daughters-and-winsisters]

Huntress- Part Sixteen: Wayward Daughters

Sam x Daughter!Reader, takes place in S12 E16 so warning: SPOILERS

Part one Part two Part three Part four Part five Part Six Part Seven Part Eight Part Nine Part Ten Part Eleven Part Twelve Part Thirteen Part Fourteen Part Fifteen

Perched on the table, your legs swinging underneath you shared a bored look with Uncle Dean as he paced the room. Your Dad had his arms folded, but hadn’t given up yet. You knew Mick would come, he’d never turn his nose up at a meeting with the Winchesters- you could only dream.

“That’s it I’m waiting in the car-” Uncle Dean declared, readying himself to leave. Only, Dad stopped him. “Wait, come on-”

“No. Okay I didn’t sign up for this reporting for duty crap!”

“Just wait.” You sighed, not bothering to deal with any conflict. “Sorry I’m late.” Mick’s voice made Uncle Dean turn round, shooting him a frown. “My report ran over. Everything’s been a bit hectic till uh...well,” he glanced down at the blood stain “Well. Best not to dwell.” “Must be so hard for you.” You rolled your eyes.

“Okay, enough. What’s the deal?” Dad silenced the argument before i escalated any further.

“Case in Wisconsin. Looked like an animal attack. The girl’s in the hospital, but her brother lost his heart. We recon it’s a werewolf.” “That left a survivor?” You raised an eyebrow. “Maybe it got scared before it could finish the job?” Uncle Dean suggested. Mick shook his head doubtfully “Perhaps but it usually takes more than just a fright to put a werewolf off it’s meal.” “The hell do you know that?” Uncle Dean scoffed. “I studied them at Kendrick’s.” “Kendrick’s?” Dad echoed.

“It’s where British Hunters train. Kinda like Hogwarts.” You explained. “Cool.”  “Not cool.” You countered.

“The case sounds easy enough.” Uncle Dean shrugged, ignoring any more points to be made. “Then you won’t mind if I tag a long?” Mick tilted his head, aware he’d get some serious reactions out of that statement. You snorted, “Nice one, mate.”

“Mick, hunting isn’t really what you’re suited for...” Dad was trying to be a little more nicer about it than you had been. “There was a reason Mum never taught you.” You smirked- no doubt offending him in the process.

“I’m a fast learner.” He remarked “Our team were thinkers. We need to be ready for whatever happens next.

“One moment.” Uncle Dean threw his head back, gesturing for you and Dad to have a “talk” about it. When you were outside he rolled his eyes “No way this is happening.” “Dean, these people have some serious knowledge.” “I have that same knowledge, though!” You protested. “Y/N’s right. Besides, you can’t learn this crap in a book. You put on a flannel, you pick up a gun and you go out there and you get good fast or you get dead faster.” “He might come in handy.” “What if he get’s himself killed?” “I heard that.” Mick appeared at his side, making Uncle Dean back away a little from him: “Good.”

Unfortunately, Mick was in the back of the Impala next to you so you sat on one side, staring at your phone screen. To add to the excitement, Mick had one of his stupid podcasts playing. Sure, you liked interesting facts, but this was just torture. “Had to listen to one of his podcasts?” Uncle Dean frowned at his brother. Mick paused it, not wanting to miss anything. “It’s educational. Besides, I’ve been wanting to listen to this one.” Dad sighed. “And there I was beginning to think you weren’t so bad.” You rolled your eyes, getting a smile from your Uncle.

After they continued to argue over hunting, you took a headphone out and decided to see if it was worth getting into. “I’d take a handful of silver bullets any day over that crap!” “That crap, meant that the last werewolf seen in England was in the 20s.” Mick sassed. You mimicked Mr K’s posh accent “The last serious werewolf case in the United Kingdom was in 1923. I can’t believe you listen to him.” “Thank you for that, Ketch.” Mick rolled his eyes. "Any time, Davis.” You sassed.

“Were they all evil?” Dad asked, going back to the werewolves. “I’m sorry?”  “Well not all werewolves are. We had a friend who was bitten, but he learnt to control it. Alongside lots of others.” “Werewolf’s are natural born killers. Monster’s don’t just stop becoming monsters.” “Mick-” You wanted to stop him, but he kept going. “They live to kill!” “Not everything’s in black and white you know.” You sighed.

Mick might have ignored you. Or perhaps he didn’t care: “Turn here.”

After flicking through endless lore books on all sorts of mythology, Dad, Uncle Dean and Mick arrived back from the hospital. They’d gone for more information, but it felt like they’d gone for a holiday at the speed they were taking things. They got in and began to explain what had happened. “She wasn’t bitten?” You were surprised to hear that “You sure?” “Positive.” Mick didn’t look at you when he spoke. “So now what?” “Well. You remember Jody?” Dad turned in his seat a little to face you. “The Sheriff Hunter?” “That’s her. She has two uh...adopted daughters. One of them, Claire Novak, is here working on the case. She’s gotta be about your age actually.” “Novak?” You repeated it, you could have sworn you’d heard that name somewhere before. “Isn’t that...Cas’ vessel’s name?” “Yeah...” Uncle Dean nodded “How did you know that?” “He told me.” You shrugged.

Not that you’d admit it, you were excited to meet another Hunter your age. You just hoped she wasn’t a jerk...but, if Jody brought her up how bad could she be?

You sat down next to Dad on the sofa, Dean sitting the other side of you. Opposite was who must have been Claire. She had long blonde hair and the sort of eyes that changed from blue to green. She wore a jacket like yours, only it was green. She had the Hunter look for sure. Her head tilted and eyes furrowed in your direction “Who are you?” She asked. 

“Y/N.” You answered, not sure what else to say. “Claire, this is my daughter.” Dad explained. Her eyes widened and she smiled a little “Daughter?” “Sup.” You nodded. “Your accent...British, right?” “Which one?” You rolled your eyes. “There’s more than one?”  “Yeah-lots.”  “Oh...sorry.” You smiled “That’s cool.”

“You hunt?” She asked, obviously curious. “Duh.” You smirked, making her smile.

“Beers all round.” Mick appeared, placing beers down on the table. “Who are you?” Claire was now even more confused. “Mick Davis. British Men Of Letters.” Mick took her hand, shaking hers and his at the same time. “Long story.” Dean sighed. “Long story.” You agreed.

You and Claire both reached for a beer when Dad and Uncle Dean stopped you. “No.” They both said, dragging the bottles away from your grasp. You both shared a look before sitting back.

“Either way. That alibi...massive lie.” Claire continued. “Hayden’s Mom said the same thing.” Dad nodded. “Where was she?” “Local dive bar. Eating trash...anyway she was on a date. But the guy was a total douche-bag. Motorcycle, weird-ass hair, snarky...grabby.” “Grabby?” Uncle Dean echoed, he did not like the sound of that. “I’m a big girl,” Claire assured him “I handled it.”

“Better call it a night.” Mick rose, having barely been seated for a minute. “It’s 5:30.” You frowned. “My reports due in at six sharp. Nice meeting you.”

You watched him go, becoming more and more suspicious but it was too ealy to say anything. “So...” Claire spoke up “Your foreign exchange student it totally lame.” “Which one?” Uncle Dean joked. You hit his side, making him almost drop his beer. “Ow!”

“Anyway,” Dad cleared his throat “Why aren’t you with Jody?” “She’s busy with Sheriff stuff. Said to call if anything came up.” ‘Sheriff stuff’ sounded incredibly vague to you.

You watched in fascination as Claire dressed herself up to look twice her age. “Why do you keep staring at me?” “How?” You asked in amazement. “It’s so I pass as FBI. Why what do you usually do?” “Wait in the car...” You admitted, realising how pathetic that sounded. “That sucks.” She chuckled “Come here, I’ll show you.”

The Hospital was pretty big with endless corridors and hallways, but you found your way to the right room. Last night Hayden, who was in the hospital before, had died.” “Any idea what happened to her?” “The autopsy isn’t till tomorrow...it’s hard to tell. Perhaps a heart attack.” “At her age?” You asked, well aware she was probably similar age to you. “Well...yeah that’s what’s weird. Also, when we first found her she had gashes all along her arms. Now...” The Doctor pulled back the sheets to reveal her bare arms. There was no sign of any sort of wounds.

“Excuse me.” The Doctor left the room, leaving you all to ponder over the case. “What the hell?” Claire started off with the same words that had been running through your mind since you’d arrived. “What if she...turned?” Dad suggested. “I guess that would explain how she healed...but then how did she die? And you said she wasn’t bitten.” You pointed at Mick who stuttered for words. “Not that I saw.”

“None of this is making any sense.” Uncle Dean shook his head.

“But if she did turn then that means the werewolf wanted her turned.” Mick suggested. “So it’d have to be friends...family...” “Someone from the bar.” Claire finished.

“Okay, Sam, you and Claire go talk to the girl she was supposed to be crashing with. Me and Mick’ll hit the bar. Y/N, pick a side.” You rolled your eyes and followed on after your Dad.

Claire grabbed her headphones from the back of the car before putting her hand on the door handle. “Okay, so you wait here.” She ordered your Dad, making you chuckle. “What?” “You really think she’s gonna want to talk to some old skeezer...or us.”  “She’s got a point, Dad.”You patted his shoulder before spelling aloud “B r b.”

After getting the information you needed from her friend you headed back out, only you paused in the doorway. “You coming?” Claire raised an eyebrow, turning round. “I will be. Just need to uh...make a phone call.” You said, heading round the back. “Okay.” 

You hovered over the caller ID before pressing “call”. It rang for quite some time, reaching the point where you almost didn’t think they were going to pick up. “Y/N? What’re you doing?” He answered. “You called me yesterday,” You began “Why do you keep calling me?” “I can’t say it to your face..your Dad might overhear me and then that’ll just spark even more questions.” “So what if he does hear you? All you do is say dumb stuff.” You sighed. “I’m sorry. I should never have intruded on your family.” He sighed. “You keep saying that. In every damn voice mail you’ve left.” You snapped. “I’m fed up. Just say it to me. It’s ridiculous! We see each other every other bloody day and you ignore me. But the moment you’re not near me you call up to say sorry for everything!”  “You’re right...I’m not as brave as you.”  “I swear to God the next time you call me I’m going find you and throw your phone off a cliff. Stop it. Stop leaving voicemails I never listen to and stop apologising. I don’t care anymore.” “Y/N...” “Mick. Grow up.”

You hung up. Fed up of Mick calling you. So what if he had things to say? If they were that important he’d say them to your face. He’d left those messages a few months back...he kept apologising and you’d had enough. When you turned the corner you were greeted with the sight of Claire walking off in a huff from your Dad. Oh boy. “What did you say?” You asked, looking impressed he’d managed to piss her off that quickly. “Jody thinks she’s looking at colleges.” Dad sighed. “And?” You shrugged, earning a shocked look. “And?!” “Yeah. If she wants to hunt she wants to hunt. She’s not stupid.” “I know. It’s just not as simple as that.” “It should be.” You sighed.

You were about to add to your point when you noticed he wasn’t fully convinced, but froze when a cry of pain erupted from the nearby woodlands. After worriedly glancing at your Dad, the pair of you leapt into action. 

You raced down towards the noise, fiddling with the inside of your jacket t grab your knife from the pocket. Only, when you reached the incident there was no obvious threat. “Claire!” Dad shouted, kneeling down beside her and clutching her close to him. She was still just coming out from an unconscious state, her eyes blinking into reality. You knelt down in front of her and examined her for wounds. Your eyes landed on her shoulder. The army-green jacket had a rip where the rims of the tear where dyed crimson. Blood was pouring from the scratch...no...bite

“Dad...” You managed, trying not to make it anymore painful for her. Dad glanced down to where you were looking and his face fell. “Oh God...”

“How long do I have?” Claire’s shaken voice filled the tense air. “Sometimes it takes a full moon and sometimes it just takes time.” Dad answered. “Can I help?” Mick asked. “Stay out!” Uncle Dean snapped. “I understand you’re angry-” Dad didn’t let him finish “Listen. You killed a kid. We’re not angry we’re done!” Mick turned his helpless eyes to you and you glared back “Don’t look at me I’m not helping you.” You spat, drawing your attention back to Claire. You sat down next to her and peeled the bandage back a little, examining her wound like you could help.

It had worsened considerably more since you’d last seen it. Now a deep red with swelling purples surrounding the teeth marks. You stuck it back over, patting her back gently.  “Listen to me,” Uncle Dean knelt down in front of her and clasped hold of her hand. “I’m not saying it’s going to be easy, but you can live with this.” He assured her. Claire shook her head, “No...not me.” “All you have to do is lock yourself up a couple nights a month. Other than that you’ll be just you.” He carried on, ignoring her protests. “Dean listen to me!” She cried, making him stop “I can barely keep it together on a good day. I don’t want to hurt Jody...or Alex...I’d rather die.” 

You watched her eyes glisten with tears as she spoke, her hands shaking a little. You understood her completely, if you ever reached that a point in your life you know which route you’d take.

“Mick...there’s an experiment...it says here one out of nine subjects were cured.” Dad read over your shoulder. “That experiment was on mice. It doesn’t work.” Mick sighed, but when he saw Uncle Dean’s stern glare he explained “We experimented with the blood of some werewolves.” “You can reverse the early stages in rodents.” You piped up “Not humans.” “How do you know?” Uncle Dean snapped, angry you were so against the idea. “Because we tested on a human once.” Mick answered for you. “And?” Dad pushed, his eyebrows raising expectantly. “She died in agony.” You whispered, not looking anyone on the eye.

Claire hadn’t given up, it seemed: “Second time lucky?” “No.” Uncle Dean stated “You don’t get a vote in this.” “It’s my life.” Claire protested “I get all the votes.” “Sam...Y/N...wanna back me up here?” “It’s her life.” Dad agreed. “Don’t, Claire.” You sided with Uncle Dean, not wanting Claire to die the same way the last one did. She glared at you “Why should you get a say and not me?” “Because I’ve seen what happens.” You argued, trying not to shout at her. “That was one time.” She scoffed. “Please.” You were out of reasons “You can’t.”

“Watch me.”

“Okay....what do we need?” Uncle Dean changed his tune, having decided. You stared at him in shock, feeling very much in a corner. Mick hesitated “Uh...blood from the werewolf that bit her.” “Okay, me and Sam’ll go. Y/N, you stay here and make sure he doesn’t kill again.” Uncle Dean pointed at Mick. You nodded reluctantly, you couldn’t believe they were actually going along with this. When the door closed you slumped back in the chair, lost for words and to tired to say anything if you knew what to say.

After a few minutes of silence Claire spoke up- “Why are you so against this idea?” “Like I said, I’ve seen it happen. It didn’t end well. Not for anyone.” You sighed, sharing a worried glance with Mick. Then, you got angry. “Why did you tell them. If you’d have kept your stupid mouth shut none of this would have happened!” You shouted at him. “I-I didn’t mean...” “Shut up! I’m fed up with you and your-” Your rant was broken by Claire hissing of pain, she stumbled over some furniture as she tried to turn in the mirror to see her bite-mark. You held your tongue, forcing yourself into silence so she didn’t feel anymore stressed. “This is your fault.” You murmured before helping Claire.

“It burns!” She managed through her deep breaths. The three of you watched as her wounds began to heal- she was beginning to turn. “Claire, we need to tie you up so you don’t hurt anyone and so we don’t have to hurt you, okay?” You said calmly.

She ignored you and reached for the gun, Mick grabbed it in the nick of time and held it out in front of himself. “Please, you don’t understand.” Claire hissed through the pain “It’s happening. Give it to me!” “No.”  You froze. You didn’t know what to do anymore. Death by a bullet would be less painful than what was to come...but what if she was right? What if it did work? “Then you do it!” She begged. Her desperate eyes then fell on your gun in your pocket “Or you! If you want me dead so bad!” “That’s not what I want...Mick put the gun down.” You ordered him. “I know a man that would shoot you right now without second thought. Every instinct I have tells me to do the same...but my instincts haven’t been so grand of lately...” You listened curiously as Mick explained “So sit down. I’m not gonna shoot you.” You offered your hand as she stumbled towards the sofa, helping her sit down. She didn’t let go.

“With any luck, when you wake up this will all be over.” Mick trid to reassure her as he put everything together ready to restrain her. “If I wake up.” Claire corrected.

A loud crash tore your attention away from her as a man with a skull mask opened up the doors. “Stay back!” Mick shouted. He attempted to shoot the man with his pistol, but the man was much quicker. He dodged and slammed his fist into Mick’s head, making him unconscious. You and Claire shared a worried look, she smashed a vase onto his head, but it didn’t seem to phase him. You reached for your gun yet realised halfway that this must be a werewolf. Bullets meant nothing and you were out of silver. That hesitation was your mistake, a heavy object smashed into the side of your head and you were out cold.

“Claire!” A familiar shout dragged you into reality. “…Y/N!” You felt two strong arms haul you up off the floor, forcing you to look into their eyes. “Dad..” You groaned, feeling the dried blood on the side of your head. “What happened?” He asked, running a thumb over your wound. You winced but didn’t complain as he made sure you were okay “The wolf…I think he took her.” “Three versus one and you couldn’t stop him!” Uncle Dean shouted. He wasn’t just angry at Mick but you as well. “Dean, come on. That’s not fair.” You ignored your Uncle. “We need to find her.” You tried to ignore the pain on the side of your head as you dragged yourself up, not accepting the help from your Dad.

“I put a tracker in her pocket.” Mick said. “You planted a bug on her?!” Dad shouted in disbelief, making you flinch a little. “You can kill me after we find Claire.”

Ready for a fight, you charged into the building. Dad went straight for the werewolf, tackling him to the floor. You followed Uncle Dean to where Claire was tied up, only as he reached for the rope you grabbed onto his jacket and tugged him back. “She’s turned!” You warned over the timpani of clatters. She growled, her sharp teeth and bright eyes revealing how there was no more Claire. Despite her reins she broke free and lunged at the pair of you. Immediately, Uncle Dean stepped out in front of you and threw her against the cabinets behind. “Sorry, kid.” He apologised.

A blur appeared in your peripheral vision and you ducked just in time, parrying to the left before kicking the wolf away from you. You then leapt over to where a gun, fully loaded with silver bullets, was lying. You reached for it in a panic, cocking it and aiming. Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

The shot rang out, followed by the wolf collapsing in front of you. You watched as it fell to the floor, the needle still sticking out of it’s neck. You handed Mick his gun back without bothering to look at him. He took it before kneeling down next to the werewolf, taking out the needle to extract the blood.

“Move.” You warned him, watching as Claire began to waken. He side-stepped away, joining your Dad and Uncle. “Is that thing ready?” Uncle Dean barked. “Ready.” Mick handed it to him, stepping away once more. Just as she fully regained consciousness she lunged at Dad, who blocked, allowing Uncle Dean to inject the blood. She hunched over in agony before staring upwards, her eyes somehow even more yellow than before. Somewhere between a scream and a growl erupted from her throat before she collapsed.

You couldn’t bare this any longer. Minutes, that felt more like years, of watching as Claire shook and cried out and shifted and screamed. You tore your eyes away. This couldn’t be happening. Not again.

“I need some air.” Uncle Dean mumbled then left the room.

You held your head in your hands, not wanting to watch any longer.

Her cries grew louder as she adjusted her position in a constant cycle. She growled and hissed and cried. She whined and groaned and jolted. She twisted and shouted and…

She fell still.

You glanced up, Dad managed a quiet “Claire?” before raising his voice “Dean.”

Uncle Dean walked back in, he noticed your pale face, your Dad’s blank stare and the silence. His eyes fell on Claire’s still body and his heart sank.

A small murmur made you properly look up. You watched in amazement as her sharp claws retracted and her body stirred. Claire’s eyes, her eyes, opened slowly. “You guys look like crap.”

The drive back to the Bunker was silent on your part. You half listened as the brothers upfront bickered about nonsense and lightly argued over small-talk. You didn’t wear headphones. Your eyes followed the scenery outside back and forth along the roadside, but your mind was elsewhere.

You barely noticed that you’d made it home until the slam of Uncle Dean’s door dragged you back to reality. “You coming, kid?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. ‘no’ you wanted to say, thinking about curling up into a ball and falling asleep there and then just to prove a point: “...Yeah.”

 Part 17: Power

Masterlist I do not own these gifs

(Tag list after cut)

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[canaryatlaw]

alright, so today was ok. for some reason I couldn’t make myself get out of bed for church which I know is bad but I just couldn’t and oh well there’s nothing I can do about it now. I woke up at like 12:30ish and messaged Jess to see how dead she was (the answer was super dead) but still up for getting brunch so we went to the regular place which was good. Went back home after because I was supposed to get “coffee” with a guy at 3 so I got ready for that, did my makeup and everything then met up with him at this little bakery/coffee shop on main street that I’d never actually been to, I was still pretty full from brunch so I just got some hot apple cider that was very good. so we sat and talked there for a while, just normal stuff, he’s gonna be at the con next weekend so I’ll probably see him there, though the con is massive and there will be a million people there lol we’ll see how it goes. Once we finished since it was pretty nice out we decided to go for a walk, so we went down a few blocks and then crossed the street and went back up, then back down to where I actually live (I let him “walk me home” but not to my actual house, just the block because you never know when might be guys are sketchy about knowing where you live). And yeah, we kinda just left off planning on seeing each other at the con next weekend, so that was good. I got home and did some podcast listening and reading Batwoman comics since we’re gonna try to record an episode tomorrow for a while before Supergirl was on. I still haven’t watched the episodes from the last two weeks since I just haven’t gotten around to it, but given the special people who were coming in this episode I decided to watch it anyway. I was a bit confused as to just how we got to where we were but I did alright managing it all. The first person I wanted to see was of course Lex Luthor, a character I have rather strong feelings about (mostly thanks to Michael Rosenbaum’s stunning and humanizing portrayal of him on Smallville) and it just so happened that he was being played by Jon Cryer, which I’m sure is of no significance to just about anybody else, but he actually happens to be involved In one of my favorite podcasts so I’ve been very used to listening to his voice over the past few years, so I tried my best to vouch for him when people were questioning his casting and praying he would live up to it (though I have to say, I’m 100% convinced that this casting happened because they were like “we like legacy casting, who’s been involved in something Superman related and is now bald? Jon Cryer, perfect let’s cast him” and that’s exactly how that occurred). It was a very different Lex we’re used to seeing for sure, I can’t really remember a portrayal of Lex that is after he has been imprisoned for years and is actually dying at this point, so it was a very different portrayal of an older man who’s gone through a lot more than some of his younger incarnations. Overall I liked it, definitely true to the character and picking up on some of the bitterness that we’ve seen in a younger version except now magnified significantly due to everything that’s happened to him. I did very much enjoy the touching moment between him and Lena when he told her about his interactions with her mother, it reminded me of a much more humanized version of him very much like that we had on Smallville (I really love Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex okay?). And then of course there was the end where it was revealed he’s still a massive douche (no surprise there) and then he just pulls a whole escape plan that I mean honestly they should’ve been better prepared for so I mean honestly that’s on the security that was supposed to be guarding him. So it’ll be interesting to see where his plot line goes from here. The second person I wanted to see was the addition of Jimmy’s sister, especially with the news in the past week that she had been promoted to a season regular for the next season. This was of course the character that was supposedly going to become a love interest for Alex, so of course i wanted to see how that went. It was pretty mellow, it’s an introduction of course so I wasn’t expecting anything crazy, but I thought it was a good establishment of a friendship/relationship where they had to endure some traumatizing events together and forged a fairly strong bond through that. So i thought that was good. I know I have friends who very much still ship Sanvers, but at this point I think the healthy thing to do is acknowledge that it’s gone, even though I know how painful that can be (believe me, I spent two seasons of Legends anxious for Leonard to come back and get fulfillment on my strong Captain Canary feelings, but at the end I had to accept it wasn't happening, and that sucked but it was for the best). And I mean, Alex is a great character and I think we should want her to be happy. So that’s my feelings on the matter anyway. Overall I thought it was a pretty strong episode, especially compared to the others this season that I’ve found rather mediocre and sometimes disappointing. From there I went back to watching Reign, getting into their second season now, and the main conflict has been infighting between Protestants and Catholics and how much violence there has been because of it. And I’m just sitting here in my 21st century Christianity thinking about this and just how insane it was that people were literally hunted and down and killed because they wanted to worship God in a way that wasn’t controlled by the Catholic church?? Like were they really that desperate for power?? (I mean I know the answer to that is yes, but still.) It’s just so hard for me to wrap my mind around. I know it was a very different world obviously but like....why would you give a fuck about how someone else chooses to worship God, if they’d like to run their own church services instead of attending one with organized religion and government? Why would this be such a ridiculously huge deal that you’d literally go around killing your neighbors because they didn’t want to go to the same church as you and challenge some of the beliefs of the Catholic church? Maybe I’m somewhat biased as someone raised as a Protestant, and in the religion I was raised in there was definitely somewhat of an anti-Catholic vibe (some even going so far as to suggest they’re not actually Christians) but I’ve since come to fully appreciate my Catholic brothers and sisters and hold absolutely nothing against them for believing somewhat different than me. I think it’s incredibly narcissistic to believe that you are right on every single tiny matter of doctrine or tradition or what else over the hundred and hundreds of positions that have to be taken over these things, are you really saying you have it right and literally every other person has it wrong? that doesn't sound very Christ-like to me, and I believe that we should extend grace in these matters (especially as Christians) and not allow superficial differences to divide us. I’m ranting now and have gone completely off subject I know, so I’ll end that little diatribe there. But yeah, I’m really enjoying the show so far. And yeah, I watched that for the rest of the night before starting to get ready for bed and now I am here. I don’t have like, much of anything to do this week currently, I’ll probably make a short grocery run tomorrow mostly because we’re almost out of toilet paper and obviously running out of that would be a problem. So we’ll see what happens. It’s just turned 2 am now and I am tired so I think I will be retiring to bed now. Goodnight dears. Be well.