#never once have we claimed you cant relate to a character

[is-that-plural]

> blog just opened

> mini-hiatus once you start getting criticized for being overly hateful

> mfw

?? we've been open for a few days and we're not getting criticized for being overly hateful ??

the hiatus is merely to catch up on all the submissions we have, so we can better organize and clear through things, thats all ^^

-💜

[ottoslab]

You know: Re: “there’s an in-story reason there are no fat characters in xyz media,” I feel like there’s a lack of understanding about the root idea behind why there should be fat characters regardless of the “in universe” explanations.

Im going to keep this conversation in line with Into the Spiderverse/Hero media, because I’ll be honest: I don’t disagree with the idea that there’s never a reason for there to be less body type diversity in a cast. I think the reasons are fewer and far between than people claim, but I don’t think they’re not there. Maybe it’s important for worldbuilding, maybe there’s another reason. Just getting it out of the way so I can say that I’m not talking about these specific instances where fat characters wouldn’t work in the narrative for whatever reasons.

I’m talking about: Spider-Man cant be fat. He’s too busy running around and swinging on webs to be out of shape. There’s no way there could be a fat avenger, they’re way too active. Etc etc.

Ok. Cool. I don’t care.

When it comes to body diversity in media, my first thought is not usually the in-universe reasons for the body diversity, for fat characters being fat. My mind is always going to the intention behind the writing first and foremost.

The Spider-Man series, and a lot of superhero stories, are stories about empowerment. Spider-Man itself is a character built around the idea that “anyone can wear the mask.” The spiderverse movies are built around that idea.

Spider-Man, in universe, is a character who fights crime, who has the weight of the world on his shoulders, who does super cool stunt moves and is usually like 16 years old and fighting off super monsters.

But, like. That’s the in universe stuff. The subtext, the reasoning for the plot, the character evolution, is so much more than that, isn’t it? It’s a story about empowerment, about encouraging the viewer, you, whoever you are absorbing this media, to take great risks and to evolve. Spiderverse isn’t asking you to put on a mask and swing around and fight a woman with octopus tentacles. Spiderverse is using a very specific in-universe challenge to ask you how you’d operate with great power, and the price to use it responsibly. Etcetera etcetera. Generally speaking.

And anyone can be viewing that story. Even a fat person. Who wouldn’t “realistically” be able to be a spider-man. Fat people still face adversity, still identify with having goals and taking risks. Like anyone else. That’s the point of the “anyone can wear the mask” thing. Why couldn’t there be a fat Spider-Man, for audiences to relate to just as much as they would a skinnier Spider-Man, but with the added “hey, that’s like me,” factor for some people who don’t usually get that?

And then comes the other stuff. The fact that, while a lot of media may not have positive representation of fat characters, they still have fat characters. They still exist. And where are they?

Well, usually being the butt of the joke, probably.

We can’t have a fat spider-man, but we can have a Peter B. Parker, down on his luck, pitying himself for the decisions he won’t make, at a low-point in his life. And how do we portray this? Oh, yeah, we’ll have him be fat. And we won’t stop pointing it out. We won’t stop mentioning it in a way that would have a laugh-track playing after every mention if we could. Because being fat is bad, because being a fat spider-man means you’ve done something wrong. And once you’re doing better? You’ll be less fat, probably. Because it means you’re probably doing something with yourself.

I don’t mean to say that there’s absolutely no reason a person could gain weight when they’re at a low point in their life, or that losing weight can’t be a sign of someone’s progress in their life. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the writing, I’m talking about the framing of this. Peter B. Parker is the only fat Spider-Man in Into The Spiderverse, (I know there are plus sized background characters in across the spiderverse, but theyre few and far between and do not take away from the treatment of Peter B in the first movie) and they’re going to make sure you remember that, and they’re going to hope you laugh at him for it. Peter B Parker isn’t a real person, but a real person, real people, had to write his character and how people treated him.

TLDR: If you’re making a story, I don’t give a shit if there’s “no reason” for a character to be fat in universe. Let them be fat anyways. There’s probably “no reason” for half of the things they are or aren’t, but we still give characters those traits anyways. And I guarantee, in the stories where there “shouldn’t be” fat characters, there will be anyways. They just will be there to be laughed at, to point at as a sign of “greed,” to be the antithesis of what the protagonist should be. Because from a writing standpoint, apparently, where anyone can wear the mask or whatever, being fat is still wrong.

[acourtofthought]

What are ur thoughts ?

There’s an ig live with sjm and her friend steph where Steph asks if Azriel will be getting book. Sarah excitedly says she “Cant confirm anything yet, but once we get to the end of SF we will know who the next book is about” (indirect answer from Sarah but directly after steph asks about Azriel book)

It almost feels like she’s saying “I can’t say it officially for legal reasons but the question about Azriel— YES”

Ive seen the clip where Sarah is asked if we will see Elain in next book and Sarah answer “we’ll see her in some form.” The way she answered this didn’t sound nearly as enthusiastic

(My point is wouldn’t Sarah sound just as excited when she starts writing Elain’s book; she comes off as someone who can’t contain her excitement while writing about her characters when they’re in the forefront of her mind )

That's definitely one way of looking at it and I think many would agree with you!

But SJMs phrasing in response to the question was "when you get to the end of the book, I think you'll know who the next one is about and Azriel's JOURNEY is one I'm very excited to write about.

First, at the end of the book we're told it's Beron, Koschei and the treaty they still need to worry about. It's specifically stated those are the threats they need to focus on versus Gwyn and Emerie joking how the Illyrians will be "in hysterics for decades." The end of the book also ends with Nesta placing Elain's rose carving on their fathers grave as a permanent marker of the beauty and good he'd tried to bring into their world (Elain is often symbolized by roses and is full of light, kindness and generosity). Nothing at the end of SF points to an Az related plot in my opinion, because Koschei, the treaty and Beron are things more strongly connected to Elain and Lucien. While the treaty is something Mor was working on, she's not been able to accomplish it and Az is definitely not going to be the character who tries to secure Vallahan's signature, that's a job for emissary's and courtiers.

Second, way back when Sarah spoke about how the second the sisters came back on page in book 2 she realized that they had their own journey's beyond what Feyre was seeing and that she'd like to write their own books someday.

She then spoke about, because she knew early on where she wanted the sisters stories to go, she was able to plant seeds for their journey's early on in ACOMAF, ACOWAR and even ACOSF for Elain.

Journey is different than a character getting the next book. Journey is all the information the author lays out for a character to build up to their eventual book.

When we have lines like "She has no interest in him anyway" (Az in regards to Elain and Lucien), and "I think Lucien will never be good enough for her." and "I'll defeat him with little effort" I feel strongly that Az's "journey" is going to involve him seeing exactly how Elain is very much interested in Lucien, that Lucien is extremely good enough for her and he's not really going to be able to defeat Lucien with little effort. When we have a character like Az going off half-cocked and arrogant, authors don't usually reward that behavior by giving the character a HEA of their own while the characters he belittled are left suffering. Remember Az rejected Elain and hurt her, he claimed she couldn't handle the Trove, claimed Lucien wasn't good enough. Narratively speaking it makes more sense for them to prove him wrong first before he gets his HEA.

Also, SJM was very quiet on Rhys before ACOMAF and said she was so excited to finally be able to gush about him after the books release. She was very quiet on Chaol to the point that readers thought she hated him only to later say how she had been building up for his story for a long time, people needed to just wait for it to all come together. Sometimes, her going quiet on a character has meant she's getting ready to give them a book.

As far as "you'll see some of Elain in the next book", I'm not sure why that's being taken as she's not getting the next book. There was no way for Sarah to answer that question any other way. "Elain is going to be in the book a lot" and people would use that as confirmation she's next. "Elain is not in the book much" and that confirms she's not the next POV. Since they have wanted to keep the next book a secret, she answered in a way that keeps everyone guessing.

While I do understand why some are taking her IG Live with Steph and using it as confirmation of Az, I think it's safe to say that nothing in these interviews is true confirmation of who is next. If they wanted us to know, they would have come out and told us but it's been said time and again that when the time does come, Bloomsbury is going to want to make it a thing so until then mum's the word.

We have no way of knowing whether she's trying to throw readers off, keep them guessing, phrasing things in a way that is purposely ambiguous, and so on. At this point I think everything is on the table for who's next because valid arguments can be made for all sides.

[imaginarianisms]

my& hands are folded. lil review. like. okay. i& didnt think this episode was terrible or anything but there's. a few things that annoyed me. like i figured this was coming but the ..... whole merging of rhaena & nettles (who doesnt exist in the show for whatever reason) plotlines as if they're not completely different characters & acting as if theyre interchangeable just bc they're both black girls & jeyne arryn's lesbianism erasure. yknow. just like they took away rhaena & elissa's whole thing in f&b w/ taking dreamfyre who was the mother of daenerys' three dragons & elissa's whole dynamic w/ rhaena who're canonically lesbians & were together & instead making syrax the mother of those dragons when drogon, rhaegal & viserion dont look like syrax At All and the fact that dreamfyre being the mother of daenerys' dragons is that. thats the One Thing that connected helaena (& the rest of the greens by extension) to daenerys who helaena dreams of & they took that away from her to give to rhaenyra who already Has a bunch of parallels (& antiparallels) to daenerys, she doesn't need more of them & on top of that it would make helaena matter more to the storyline.

& also like ....... ok. in the books corlys was Furious at rhaenyra for a bit & that only seemingly got resolved in one episode?? idk man i dont buy that. rhaenyra's allowed to grieve luke (which is. obviously more than justified) but corlys cant spend more than one episode grieving his WIFE FOR DECADES???? also in the books daemon never Once tried to usurp rhaenyra or challenge her claim to the iron throne ever. like dgmw i love the scenes w/ young rhaenyra, viserys (& w/ aemma hiiiiiii aemma rip bbygirl u shouldve been at the club) but like he's Still stuck at harrenhal. like cmon.

also uh. alicent & ESPECIALLY helaena were well loved by the smallfolk? like canonically yes the common people are angry that there's no food but they NEVER attacked or blamed HELAENA for it, it was the fact that jaehaerys died that the smallfolk were FURIOUS w/ rhaenyra & the blacks & even moreso when helaena dies. like. helaena was BELOVED by the common people, she wasn't attacked in the streets.

on the more positive side of things im glad we got to see viserys again bc paddy's acting is just. literally so phenomenal. larys' whole monologue w/ aegon had me evaporating. aemond calling larys a toad made me gigglesnort im so sorry larys. rip ser darklyn u were a Real One. also rickard thorne is there hiiiiiii ser rickard. i'm glad we got to hear of daeron but imo he shouldve been mentioned a lot earlier. i'm glad we got to see some alicent & gwayne scenes bc their dynamic's rly sweet i think. gwayne told alicent what she needed to hear: "i'm sure you did your best". which. sadly is true, she did her best with what she had at the time (in the show anyway). mysaria's backstory was like. so hard to listen to especially as a .. well survivor myself. but like i like her even more than i already do bc its. sadly relatable in my case (not the exact same situation ofc thank g-d). i'm glad we Finally get to see rhaenyra kissing girls like she was implied to in the books, i just wish they'd done it a lot earlier like she's implied to have been w/ laena (& mysaria for that matter) in the books. addam & alyn i love them sm + addam's whole dynamic w/ seasmoke is so fun but like i have no idea if laenor died offscreen or not (i doubt they'd just kill him offscreen but w/e). so they'd probably have to think of some way where like idk maybe a rider can intentionally sever the bond for whatever reason idk. but also larys' monologue w/ aegon especially as a disabled & neurodivergent person myself was soooooo EUGH.

[olderthannetfic]

Sorry to drag on the antis and kin thing, but hi! Ive been in otherkin spaces for 10+ years and I can say that everyone is sort of right here- it is both coming from antis invading our spaces and using us as talking points and doing the kff 'steal our serious words to mean 'I project on a fictional character' thing AND from kin who havent been taught appropriate 'kin manners' so to speak.

See back in the forum days it was generally understood you Never Ever went into fandom talking about 'kin and how fandom effects you as fictionkind. It was understood that they were engaging with fictional cutout dolls that just happened to mirror your experiences (in past life or otherwise)to an uncanny degree. It was understood you did not make your kintype the fandoms problem, and more importantly Never Ever made it the creators problem. If fandom negatively effected you, that was a YOU problem, not that they were evil or whatever for playing pretend.

We used to be able to teach people to manage this stuff dammit!

With the advent of tumblr and its telephone game, it sort of ruined the ability to make sure newbies were given this sort of coaching or knew the oft unspoken rules. Newbies(often YOUNG newbies) now high on tumblr sj and newly Awakened and having not yet integrated their experiences, then started doing the things that they were once told to not do but no longer were(helped along by tagging culture and broken search). You would see kin in the fandom maintags, you see kin talking to small-time creators of their source, things that used to be opt in to see were put in front of those who might feel profoundly upset about it. These people, not knowing the most important part of being fictionkin(and many other 'woo' ey communities like astral travelers and immersive daydreamers) is how to integrate it safely into your life so you dont start eroding your ability to tell fiction(people writing fictional characters being hurt) from reality(terrible things happening to *you*) and that if you are struggling with that you should be seeking therapy instead.

The real problem was the advent of Yandere Bitch Club. Maybe not them specifically, but they popularized the 'kinning is a social justice act' thing because they wanted to be the Most Valid version of their kintypes. They also were white cis women racefaking, pretending to be trans women, and faking DID and having been actually caught doing so iirc. They sent gore to people and threatened them for 'kinning outside your race'. Which is a concept that has a lot of problems im not getting into. Because it sounded 'sj-ey' enough, people hopped on the bandwagon, kin and nonkin alike. They may not have been the first people to claim this, but they certainly popularized it. When people said 'hey kin isnt a cute fun choice, this is serious and integral to our identity' the tune became 'saying this is not a choice is racist then, it totally is a choice and not that serious' because that was the only way to keep their point held up.

About at this time things like 'you cant kin an abuse survivor' and 'if you arent a gay man specifically you cant have a gay man kintype' and 'if you have a exomemories of abuse and arent an abuse survivor thats ableist' and other inane policing of integral identity. This went hand in hand with anti-ism almost always.

This is when KFF started getting real bad, because it became a performative faux social justice thing because otherwise their 'no im the most valid' wouldnt hold up anymore. Kin was telephoned to mean 'like family, relating to' instead of Kind shortened to Kin as in 'identifying as, like mankind'.

On both these fronts is where the 'antis who are kin' thing comes from. Same with the huge amounts of plural folks who are antis. A lot of these people are abuse survivors who drank the radfem kool aid unknowingly then because they have no good outlets and want to feel valid enough they start hurting others and with the encouragement of antis using them as a tool of violence ('see this person had a panic attack because they saw that bad ship art!' its materially hurting The Real Character) and often eroding their ability to keep those fiction-reality boundaries separate you end up with the droves of people who are antis like this.

Antis destroyed a community that was older than they are. Fictionkin tags used to have like 30+ active posters, you used to see them frequently on forums, now they have all but vanished in part because if you were too problematic in public theyd skin you for it and in part because they encouraged people to end up with terribly unhealthy relationships to their source, and in part because antis saw it as a tool to hit people with if they went 'oh im x then' (as in related to the character) and then went 'that means I can harass others and have it mean something'.

Those goku-against-ddlg and 'ed-against-elricest or whatever blogs often used to be run by either 14 y/o kin who were encouraged to have no boundaries with reality or KFF using fictionkin as a bludgeon to attack fandom. They were a staple of anti-ism in 2016 or so for a reason. These blogs used to actively encourage eroding fiction-reality boundaries and actively and (I strongly suspect)intentionally used to trigger their followers so they became a rabid hoard of hurt kids to throw at the target of the week.

There is a reason now so many fandomfolk hate otherkin and its going to be so hard to patch that because of what antis did to both our communities and it sucks real bad.

So theres the dumbest wank history I know guess! Sorry for the psychic damage.

--

[antiloreolympus]

10 Anti LO Asks

1. I wish Rachel hasn’t used the gods to create the comic but rather turned them into human OCs. The fact that they’re rich, immortal and attractive make the stakes so damn low we don’t even have anything to genuinely fret over narrative wise.

2. WAIT I HAVENT READ LORE OLYMPUS IN A WHILE BUT DID SHE REALLY MAKE APOLLO THE SUN GOD?! STRAIGHT UP IGNORING HELIOS THE ACTUAL SUN GOD?????? How could Rachel say she did research and still choose to incorporate one of the biggest misinformations about Greek Mythos.

Look I don’t want poor Helios to be seen in Lore Olympus style if he hasn’t yet, but that’s such a simple thing to get wrong.

From OP: Both of them are still sun gods, the main issue is that RS also made Leto a sun goddess for some reason.

3. im sorry but the only distinguishing factors between literal gods and humans is that the gods are neon colors and thats it is so dumb?? like what about demi gods? how about exceptional mortals? like how can anyone compare psyche to a goddess then if shes not neon colored? also theres a ton of myths where gods are easily able to blend in with humans without changing anything because they are supposed to look like them, so how can they do that if humans are normal skin tones but the rest are neon?

4. I honestly feel like a big part of why LO is so bad is it's just way, WAY too long. The first few episodes were fast paced and kept you interested, but once it really pocked up on popularity you can see Rachel just started stretching everything out and dragged it back to a snail's pace. I'm all for a slow burn, but that shouldn't for the readers. If it was this long and there were months/years of progress in story I would excuse it, not at most a month in all this time. It's exhausting to read.

5. ok but why do even the humans in lo look so wonky? idk i think her more early abstractions with human forms was really so much better than this more realistic but also more cartoony look, it just doesnt mesh well. sure its technically cleaner looking but it starts to show the many flaws in the art than the previous look didn't. in the early look you could excuse it as coherent stylization, in this current look it just looks like rachel and her team either are very lazy, cant draw, or both.

6. also the disney hercules movie 1) never claims its myth accurate but also 2) its still just a fun movie?? LO in comparison is a self righteous slog that thinks its reinventing the wheel and is more legitimate than the actual texts all while being so wrong its not even"myth fanfic", its just a completely different story with greek names slapped on it for marketing. disney also had the good sense to not make the whole story about a dark topic, meanwhile LO is milking R//PE for a creepy romance.

7. ngl im even surprised rachel would even call hades anything zeus related because she seems so vindictive against anyone who isnt hades/persephone/hera that i would have thought she would make a point to say zeus would rather be be called "light hades" or w/e.

8. Omfg I just realized Hestia and Athena are an incestuous couple. Hestia is Hera's sister and Athena is Hera's and Zeus' daughter. Hestia is literally dating her niece. So the only non-stright couple in LO is incest. I just... how do fail this fucking badly at represenation?

Also, bc I know someone is gonna say it: Yes, incest was pretty much par for the course in Greek mythology, but in LO Rachel seems to actively want to avoid that particular aspect (which is understandable). Zeus and Persephone were orginally biological niece and uncle as well, since Persephone was the daughter of either Zeus or Poseidon and Demeter, but in LO this is retconned into Demeter making Persephone herself without a father being involved, making HxP still sketchy but not blood-related at least.

The Hestia and Athena-situation seems like a comedic mistake RS made. She hastily threw together two same-gender characters to counteract the accusations of homophobia and straightwashing and it just... backfired in the most hilarious possible way.

From OP: Athena and Hestia aren’t technically related in LO but it’s still really odd that Demeter, Hera, and Hestia come from Metis but have no relation at all to her other than she created them. Like, you’d think even Metis’ power would connect them in someway but I guess not. The three even used sisters to refer to each other (although, it was only retconned once and left in the other time) so I still their (Athena and Hestia’s) relationship weird.

9. This isnt just an LO thing but it's ironic Rachel is in that group of WT creators who went to art school and yet have some of the most subpar art i've ever seen, meanwhile the self-taught creators who went to school for medicine, engineering, comms, etc all have some of the most beautiful art i've seen in a webcomic. Anyway LO stans have to stop using the "she went to art school" excuse since it'd pretty clear she's not the only example where art degree =/= good art.

10. ok now im a bit sus about about the LO stats and tbh every other original bc i just saw an original creator say the actual numbers (esp for popular series) are all overinflated by porn and spam bots and webtoons wont get rid of them to make it look like they have more engagement and market them as more successful than they let on💀getting real tumblr will ban boobs but not the n//zi blogs energy from that info ngl

[uh-velkommen]

The White Lotus, HBOMax

Alright four episodes in and things are finally starting to ramp up. My face throughout the whole episode was stuck on discomfort. This show packs so much tension in every 45 minutes that I'm constantly waiting for somebody to pop off or something crazy to happen but instead we get teased with the smallest little plot pusher. Which is working. I'm officially intrigued. I do wish I knew the overall point of the show because that's what would've helped me decide if I wanted to keep up with but now my determination to find out how this all ends is doing just that...

Character breakdown + Spoilers/Predictions

Armond: The manager of the White Lotus resort. I love him in all his poor choices. He's just constant chaos simply because he has the power to create it. He's also the biggest driver of drama. He lies a lot, almost pathologically, and he will carry those lies to the grave for no real reason.

Nicole Mossbacher: Resort guest, Mark's wife, and Olivia and Quinn's mom. She's a pretty basic character who is teased about possibly having OCD and working during vacation. She was pretty chill in the first 2 episodes but every once in a while she says things that gives off I'm a centrist but my views lean a little more conservative.

Mark Mossbacher: In the beginning he's stressing about possibly having testicular cancer because his father died of cancer... Turns out his father had AIDs. He has a depressive episode over his dad being gay and then, while drunk, he inadvertently comes onto the Armond. The next day Armond tests the waters with Sober Mark and we get uncomfortably funny scenes of Armond coming onto Mark in front of the whole family. Mark's a very passive dude who doesn't do anything exciting in the show but we just find out that he has, in the past, repeatedly cheated on his wife and didn't tell her (he told his son that he did tell Nicole but I don't believe it) I think his theme is just being genuinely unhappy with his life at the moment.

Olivia Mossbacher: She's a college sophmore and has many moments where she calls out her parents questionable statements. She carries herself with a weird nonchalance where you'd think she's a mean girl but she's only ever expectedly mean to her brother. However, she brought along her friend Paula and we start to see that their friendship is built on some unspoken competition. The girls do tons of drugs on vacay until Armond gets his hands on them and breaks his 5 year sobriety. This is when and why shit starts to hit the fan. They know he stole the drugs but because everyone avoids admitting to having illegal drugs, no one is ever outright accused.

Paula: Olivia's poc friend, possible hypochondriac, and supplier of drugs, has secret rendezvous with one of the Hawaiian native resort workers. She refuses to say anything when asked about her nightly disappearances but Olivia knows why or for whom Paula keeps sneaking off. We learn that Paula doesn't want Olivia to know about her and her beau because Olivia always wants what she has. My theory is that this wouldn't be the first time Olivia has stolen a partner of hers and I think now because Paula isn't admitting to hooking up with this guy, Olivia is gonna steal him and use Paula's secrecy as a way of blame.

Quinn Mossbacher: Involuntary loner in my opinion. He comes off as a classic video game nerd, obsessed with the internet, cant live without his Switch and Fortnite. He doesn't have any friends and he takes all the teasing from Olivia and Paula without a fuss. But he starts sleeping on the beach alone and keeps running into these amazing sights to see. This is where we start to see him blossom and speak up. Its ever so slow but in episode 4 he actually walks up to a group of guys and introduces himself, interested in their boat related sport[?] (Or maybe even the guys themselves🤞) He's also the only one who knows about the Dad's affair and stupidly hints at it at the family dinner (he's just genuinely stupid).

Shane Patton: Also a resort guest and the funniest character to me. He's your run of the mill self-centered male Karen (Kevin if you will) and he arrives at the resort with his wife Rachel. They're on their honeymoon but so many moments make you question why in the hell did these two get married? He is in an unnecessarily one sided battle with Armond. First the resort accidentally downgrades his room. Armond gaslights Shane into thinking that he never purchased the bigger room. Shane gets a receipt. Armond tells him there's a German couple staying in the receipted room longer than Shane and his wife are there so the room will not be ready for them in time. Shane finds out the Germans are actually leaving wayy earlier. Armond apologizes and books them a romantic sunset dinner on a boat. The boat is actually a funeral where a strange grieving woman, named Tanya, fails to spread her mothers ashes in the sea. Shane confronts Armond and asks for Corperate's number. Armond creates a fake business card and when Shane realizes the number is fake, he bursts into Armond's office to find him rimming a coworker while high on Ketamine. Prediction: Armond's gonna get blackmailed for abuse of power in a classic Monicagate manner.

Rachel: Shane's wife. Rachel's a journalist who actually looked up to Nicole (her job as CEO of god knows what puts her in the public eye) but when she finally got to sit with Nicole over lunch, Nicole calls her out for writing an incredibly slut shamey article, claiming that Nicole used her femininity to get her where she is now. This is the first smack in the face that maybe journalism isn't for Rachel. Well that on top of the constant teasing from Shane about her career choices. Shane's family is much more wealthy than Rachel's and he always finds subtle ways to make it known. Shane also pays her no mind, flirting with Olivia and Paula and battling Armond. Even during their arguments (which happens too many times for newlyweds) Shane doesn't look at Rachel and just gives periodic "mhmm"s and "okay"s. Also Rachel hates the Mossbacher family simply because they all seem to be doing better than her.

Now for the boring ones

Tanya McQuoid: An eccentric resort guest (which is a polite way of saying, a weird ass person who is over polite and basically pushes herself into every other character's drama in the most unintentional way, she's also bad at reading the room) She comes off as calm and quiet but we find out that her mother recently passed and she's in Hawaii to spread her mothers ashes. She becomes creepily obsessed with the resort's massage parlor manager, Belinda, after a complimentary massage and suggests becoming a beneficiary so Belinda can open up her own massage parlor. Her "obsession" could possibly just stem from Belinda showing her an act of kindness during a hard time but I know I questioned Tanya's intentions for at least the first two episodes... In episode 4, some random dude, Greg, shows up and invites Tanya to dinner after "accidentally" mistaking her room door for his own. Tanya postpones a business meeting with Belinda so she and Greg can hook up that night. The presence of these characters feel a little out of place. Unlike the Newly Weds and the Mossbacher family, there is not a lot of plot overlap. Tanya will often pop up to converse with the others and brag about Balinda's skills but she doesn't cause any trouble. Tanya's also very wealthy so I definitely thing this "Greg" has some secret plot to take down Tanya or plant something or steal her cash and unfortunately I do not think Belinda will see anything bright in her future. Her plans will be left on the backburner which I say is unfortunate because she's a kind woc who is just trying to do her job and is clearly very skeptical about going into business with this strange, rich white, resort guest.

Honorable Mention

Lani: A Hawaiian native, trainee at the White Lotus. She shows up in episode one as her first day on the job. Later we find out she's also pregnant and goes into a premature labor on the job. She has her baby and disappears for the next three episode. Come back Lani, Armond has just started getting your name right!

Show Themes

The show does touch on conversations of race and class but I would not consider this a political show or one with an agenda (it's satire). I point out the characters of color here because their race becomes a device used to create tension but not in a Token POC kind of way. All the characters are rich and they are shamed for it by the show writers. By this I mean nobody is spitting in their faces and calling them Climate Killers but the choices the characters make, the things they say, and the way they act gives the viewer something to laugh at. Their ignorant entitlement juxtaposing with the beautiful Hawaiian beaches and tragic Hawaiian history creates an underlying experience of, look at these rich people not having a good time and they can't even realize why! As for the characters, there is plenty of time to sit back and question, is this character a good person, who's the real antagonist, how do these stories intertwine, who do we root for What story is attempting to be told here? What is the message!?

[sakkac]

re: fumetsu no anata e as of chapter 139.2

this started as a response to @bestbonnist​‘s post on chapter 139.2 but now i’m just dissecting differences and similarities between tonari, mizuha, and kahak like im writing an essay for a uni class. i interchangeably use he/they pronouns for fushi and my writing may be clumsy (bc im not actually writing for uni ❤️).

mizuha is a broken mirror to tonari (and kahak a foil to the two aforementioned) in this modern-day arc, especially in their expressions of love for fushi. tonari’s love for fushi is aged over hundreds of years and mizuha’s, at first glance, is an infatuation just based on how long they’ve known each other. im the biggest kahak stan ever, but even i understand kahak’s love started as an infatuation for parona’s form. though, i’d consider the word infatuation compromised when it comes to defining mizuha’s love, bc u cant be sure if her love for fushi is entirely her own, seeing as it had been passed from generation to generation of guardians.

(chapter 134, read right to left)

tonari and mizuha aren’t that different once you look deeply into the both of them. mizuha’s personality and actions are factors in tonari’s dislike of her, but what ultimately repels tonari from mizuha is that she knows they’re similar, and that manifests most clearly in how she reacts to fushi being with mizuha. i.e. resenting fushi for using her friends’ vessels to help their “love life” in chapter 135.5. she can’t stand mizuha bc mizuha is able to express her love for fushi and fushi does not reject (or accept) it; tonari still hasn’t fully admitted to herself that she likes fushi romantically (perhaps because she can’t separate it from the devotion that led her to harden her body to poisons and to promise her corpse to rest at fushi’s feet), so seeing mizuha appear to progress further than she has irritates her. as for kahak, tonari only has the biases of the other pseudo-immortals and her own of past hayase reincarnations to rely on. (this is not as plot-related, but these two also both like books. kahak read tonari’s fushi book, so i wish they actually met, but in a world where tonari didnt hate hayase beyond death.)

tonari as a child seemed like she thought herself superior to others, perhaps a natural result of her upbringing. she was raised on a prison island, but she herself never committed any crime; banding together w other kids like her, writing about her life in her book (which keeps her separate from or above others in a way). but this thinking ceases at her relationship w fushi. however, i believe this started before they even met. tonari’s childhood dream at seven years old was to write a book her father would be impressed by. she also used to believe in god, while her family was still whole. she even prayed to god when he decided to participate in the tournament in chapter 35. however, she stops referring to god by the time her father had shown tarnish. coincidentally, she meets fushi, who would “upend everything... jeannanda and [her] fate.” she ends up, instead of writing for her father, writing a book to allow a peaceful existence for fushi for whenever they decided to come back. this act shows that the adult tonari has written fushi to a level above her, out of her reach. 

(chapter 35)

here i’ll quote ray’s words about kahak and tonari: “she also has a surprising amount in common with Kahaku, too, with the ‘I want to protect you even if you disagree.’” the way tonari had waited and honed her body for fushi resembles kahak’s attachment; she had finished living for herself, so now she was only allowing herself to live to further create an ideal vessel for fushi (which also brings up one of hayase’s goals). the difference is that kahak lived for fushi because, as raikkousaki said, fushi was the only thing he was “ALLOWED to live for.” however, while tonari is unquestionably devoted to fushi now, what pulled her to him was black hood’s coercion. as a result of black hood’s words to her, she manipulated fushi into helping her solve her problems, to save her from the island. this first “meeting” also revealed that she was attracted to their white hair; she later admits that she admires their fair skin, contributing to the idea that she could view fushi as the equivalent of a god or at the least, a vision of purity (which is :/ imo, bc of her dark skin). we should also keep in mind that, this, technically her first impression of fushi, and his later display of violent immortality in the arena would further his image as a “legend.” 

mizuha was exposed to fushi’s immortality and reveres him like tonari and kahak respectively do and did. instead of the specific word “legend,” it’s “immortal monster.” her first formal exposure to fushi’s fabled power was not unlike tonari’s, since mizuha had went into her grandfather’s library and read on fushi in chapter 124.1. after this, she manipulates fushi to save her, again paralleling the beginning of tonari’s relationship with fushi, but it’s from her overbearing mother and herself. both tonari and mizuha forced their problems onto fushi, but mizuha doesn’t have black hood stepping in front of her saying “you must lead him.” instead, she may have been influenced by the left hand, but i believe mizuha’s thoughts are majorly her own (left hand lies in wait within mizuha’s consciousness like a predator), and what they appear to say is that she’s leading fushi until he decides to follow her willingly. as for kahak, we only have a few pages on his childhood and what we can make of it and of his actions as an adult is that he was willing to follow fushi wherever they went, until left hand betrayed them both.

mizuha’s superiority complex comes from a different place than young tonari’s; she was a prestigious child from young, in addition to her fear of her uniqueness fading as she aged. this caused her to feel separate from other children. when she meets fushi, she sees how different he is from everyone else and uses subtle ways to keep him with her, while never directly admitting she wants him to stay with her, except for ch 125′s “i’m scared. stay with me tonight,” after her mother’s sudden murder. she usually uses excuses instead, like cutely demanding fushi to walk with her after school and go on dates with her.

(chapter 36 vs. chapter 128.2)

as fushi was introduced to the people around tonari and mizuha, they received similar reactions, i.e. “your hair is so pretty!” and “woah, his hair is white!” in the pages following these, the similarities continue into tonari and mizuha gaining ownership over fushi: in ch 36 oopa declares “tonari found him. so he belongs to tonari,” while the islanders try to get on fushi’s good side, and in ch 128 fushi goes out of their way to ask which club mizuha belongs to when asked to join a club (vocalizing her claim on them so she doesn’t have to directly do so).

(chapters 38, 106, and 139)

when the opening comes for mizuha to actually admit her feelings in chapter 139, she tries, but demands instead, “so... love me.” this recalls kahak’s confession to kai in 105.3, that he wants to “protect fushi’s humanity.” kahak and mizuha were both covered in blood when they spoke, but the atmospheres and characters are different; mizuha is clever w her words, but still too immature to let go of her pride, whereas kahak was the exact opposite. he rid of himself of his pride for fushi when he was a child, but said a lot of the wrong things to fushi when it came down to it. additionally, mizuha, when she wants something, she’ll phrase her words so that it seems like there’s only one choice: to follow her. this has been the case for others including fushi (chapters 120.2′s testing of hanna with “if i died, would you cry for me?” and 132.1′s “i’ll teach you about love” and the following guilt-trip). tonari is more direct with her words and meaning than either mizuha or kahak, bc of her personality. she directly confronts fushi when she realizes he had felt betrayed by her in chapter 38, because she still needed him for his plans. but mizuha is more direct with her actions; in chapter 129.1, she latches herself onto fushi, while trying to get information out of him. after the failed marriage proposal, rather than physically attaching himself to fushi like mizuha, kahak used acts of domesticity and protection to subtly appeal to and maintain his space next to them.

(chapter 38 vs chapter 139)

tonari’s “there are people in this world who are better off dead” above isn’t far from the knockers’ reasoning behind “wishing for death is paramount to being dead” and the reason for mizuha’s mother’s death: left hand decided to “eliminate the cause of [mizuha’s breaking point’s] stress.” what this shows is that tonari can also justify murder, though granted, this is from a hundred chapters ago. however, this black and white thinking comes back in the modern era where tonari holds prejudice against mizuha because of her relation to hayase. tonari knows her dislike of mizuha is unfair, she can’t get around it. tonari is still as prideful as she was when she lived on jeannanda; it’s just that she is able to use fushi to justify her opinions now. i also want to bring up mizuha’s reaction to her mother’s death and funa’s knocker’s “purging and guidance.” mizuha seems comfortable with the sight of death, despite having a more normal childhood than tonari, because her actual main concern overwhelms it; she is always thinking on how she can appeal to fushi (almost like kahak), or in other words, how to salvage her pride. so instead of being concerned over being the actual murderer, she is concerned with appearing as a murderer to fushi.

so to actually answer ray’s question, objectively, tonari’s love is as excessive as kahak and mizuha’s. but personally, i think tonari’s love for fushi right now is also unhealthy, though it comes out of good will. kahak’s love also ended in fushi’s benefit, but it was undoubtedly unhealthy. and ofc, mizuha’s love is also unhealthy; she reaches for fushi for perfection, tonari reaches for fushi for humility.

[jett-dawson]

BELLA ARC

The Rule

the rule states that any student who takes pictures of student work at rainbow high well experience an immediate expulsion. why does this only apply to bella? why not violet or karma, or anyone else who has pulled out their phones to take photos of things on campus? sounds like double standards to me.

the rule is dumb. especially since the students LIVE and WOR at rainbow high 24/7. they have a right to their work. the rule is dumb and is definitely a form of symbolism. i have seen this theory go around the fandom before & i have even addressed this theory before. i will address it again. stay tuned in the next slides for more on that.

The Timeline

we all knew bella was gonna get kicked out. whether or not we wanted it to happen, it was heavily implied in episode one that someone in the runway group was going to get kicked out. bella was the odd one out. she’s not in the wave one lineup, she’s not a part of the actual rainbow, and she was (more or less) a surprise to us when first seeing teasers for episode one. after that, the series of events through the first episodes had absolutely nothing to do with bella’s expulsion. there was no lead up! it was very sudden and the rule was very new to us. never was this rule stated before.

while i hate that it was written like this, i think i may know a meaning. this is a kids show. we are consuming children’s media. there is absolutely nothing wrong with that & anyone of any age is free and welcome to enjoy kids cartoons. what we have to understand is that this media isn’t exactly targeted towards us. i’m sure MGA, the company, is aware of us older fans. they use social media for that matter. that is where you find older fans. so that is where they get direct feedback from us. anyway... this show is obviously targeted towards a younger audience. if they were to extend the plot line, younger kids may not catch onto a lot of stuff that us older fans would. that’s not necessarily bad, but it doesn’t seem to be what the writers want. they write with simplicity, while still keeping in mind of laying out specific things in the show for specific reasons. so this sequence of events was written for younger kids to understand. bella was written & planned to be kicked out from the very beginning. kids may not have known this. so they introduced a rule that was unheard of so they have a reason to kick out bella. do i agree with this method? no. absolutely not. do i think they could’ve done better in finding a way to kick bella out? yes. absolutely. but younger kids will look at this and see that Bella broke a rule. Bella got kicked out. simple as that.

Symbolism

there have been theories that have gone around the fandom on the symbolism behind bella’s arc. her character, removal, and replacement all seem to line up with a real life sequence of events. allow me to explain.

bella is definitely a reference to barbie. her shirt is a direct take on a barbie shirt we have seen before. her character/personality is almost a lot like barbie if you think of it. if you’re into dolls and you’re into the community, you will know that Barbie/Mattel is MGA’s main rival. they have been going at it for years. constantly trying to dominate each other. MGA has made it very clear that they do not like Mattel. the creator of rainbow high himself stated that he “respects” barbie but believes it is time for her to leave the shelves and retire. it’s time for something new, something fresh, something modern.

think of it in the rainbow high timeline. bella(barbie/mattel) is living in this world of rainbow high(mga). the creator of bratz created the bratz concept while technically working for mattel. it just so happened that he was on leave. he took the idea over to mga and they went with it. mattel got mad, claiming the work as their own.

the rule of rainbow high can be related to this. whatever work is made at rainbow high stays at rainbow high. if any third party gets involved then you are due to immediate expulsion. this just so happened to bella.

bella/barbie was working on something she wanted to take to an outside source. rainbow high said no. this is our work. bella/barbie took it outside anyway resulting in an expulsion. bella is pink. pink is not part of the initial lineup. she reached the end of her rainbow.

amaya comes in. amaya resembling all things rainbow high. amaya the main character. she is the embodiment of rainbow. her character revolves around everhthing this company has preached for rainbow high. she is new. she is fresh. she is modern. she replaced bella. (no, i do not blame amaya for any of this. amaya is a whole other story)

barbie is flopping. barbie is not doing well. mga wants to take barbie down. mga is dominating the toy isle. they have created many successful lines and will probably continue to do so for awhile. bella is barbie. amaya is mga. amaya took over. mga took over.

Bella Herself

now i do not blame bella one bit for going and doing what she did. yes, she broke a rule. whether or not the rule is stupid, she did it. and she got what she asked for.

but you have to keep in mind who she is. bella is a young girl, age 14/15. at that age... i, too, would’ve done just about anything to work with my idol. someone i admired so much has practically thrown out an opportunity that i’m positive i could win. i would most definitely go for it. and bella did. but the problem was taking a picture. bella is known to be impulsive. we can see this in several different episodes where she wanted to complete the tasks given to her and to help her friends complete theirs. even though jade did her very best to persuade bella not to do it, bella chose to. she consciously chose to. now what i think a lot of people haven’t realized is that bella literally pulled nearly 2 all nighters contemplating on what to do. the first night she stayed up thinking about the internship and making the set. the other night she spent running around the school with jade and taking the photo of the art. this poor girl must’ve been tired. she was conflicted. do you risk your dream school and everything that comes along with it for a summer internship? or do you wait for another opportunity that could possibly never come again? if bella were older and more matured, i’m sure she wouldn’t have done it. but she is young. and she has learned from this experience.

unfortunately... she was expelled on the spot without any warning. we still haven’t gotten any closure on who saw her sneak the picture. that’s very suspicious but then again... it’s probably just poor writing. but with what we can assume, they probably involved bella’s space & privacy to get that information. anyway. bella had no bad behaviour whatsoever prior to this situation. rainbow high is a hard school. they are very tough on their students. they gave bella no chances. she didn’t even have much time to process it, pack her things and properly say goodbye to her friends. it all happened so fast. she said it herself... “i cant believe this is happening” yeah me either

as for the teachers... yes. they are doing their jobs. i have seen this point being made several times and i agree! technically they are! but RH is lowkey a messed up school system. they pressure their students day in and day out to be the very best and do the very best. i get why, but it’s to the point these students are sleep deprived. staying up all night to do assignments and have escape rooms. having to start class five minutes after completing night assignments. so much to the point that jade’s response to the question “what will u so if u pass the runway project?” in Violet’s AMA was “SLEEP!” this school is messed up. working like a big company and claiming these poor students hard work as their own is mean. and these teachers support it by working at this school. they may be doing their job, but they’re allowing this poor situation by being a part of it. this can be related to REAL life in places like media and the music industry. i have little knowledge on it, but you can compare it to the situation with Taylor Swift and how she technically doesn’t own a bunch of the music that she made. i believe it has to do with legal matters, and if i remember correctly something she got involved with when she was only young. yeah. theres that thing again. getting involved when you are only young. same with bella. there’s a direct correlation and that’s where i believe that type of symbolism could potentially come in to play.

this opportunity that was given to bella was life changing. and it was a SUMMER internship. SUMMER. if RH operates anything like schools IRL, they’d have to give their students a summer break. why was it so major to them when bella could still work for.. i mean attend to rainbow high all year then take the summer of for the internship. something that rainbow high could’ve looked good for having!

again, if RH operates anything like an IRL school, schools often pay attention to their students and outside opportunities. opportunities that boost the students status. the better the students, the better the school. with this high-end, once in a lifetime opportunity, bella could’ve gotten it and not only done better for herself but better for rainbow high itself.

bella knows what she did. and i know she realizes the consequences, especially now. but this poor girl has suffered through so much. all for this drama to her exploited on a very popular & very exclusive drama channel.. the vi life. but no way in heck was any of that fair.

Amaya Raine

i don’t wanna dwell too much on this one since i haven’t really seen much drama about it lately and i’ve already said enough before. but amaya is definitely not to blame. she had absolutely nothing to do with bella’s expulsion as far as we know. i remember there being fan theories that she would be the one who had found a way to tattle on bella, securing her own spot at rainbow high. as far as we know, this is not true.

amaya had been wait listed for her dream school. it’s lucky but kind of underwhelming. so the moment she got the call that she finally had a spot in RH, she was beyond excited, not knowing what was ahead of her. oh, yeah, btw, not gonna ignore the fact that they secure a spot for amaya THE SAME NIGHT bella took a photo of the artwork, not knowing she was gonna be caught and then expelled. in her mind, she was positive she wasn’t caught and wasn’t gonna get in trouble. it’s the fact the staff was very prepared for this all under 24hrs.

anyway. amaya was already hella nervous. she seems to be an anxious person and was definitely wanting to make the best first impression. heck, she even made her own outfit so she could stand out! but unfortunately to her surprise, she was greeted with a bunch of frowns and a few dirty looks. she was forced into this situation with absolutely no warning and had to put up with everyone disliking her at first (except our favourite ray of sunshine, our mutual blue bby & our drama chasing diva)

so it’s unfair for amaya to be blamed for all of this when she didn’t even know. yeah, i am sad that jade was viewing her so wrongly. but i cannot blame jade. jade is sorta stubborn and obviously struggles with major change. she lost the one she was closest to and suddenly was forced to adjust to this new girl who took bella’s place. if i were as cold of a person as jade, i’d have that exact same reaction. she didn’t wanna believe bella was gone. she didn’t want to experience this change. she didn’t bully amaya, thank goodness. she just paid little to no mind to her. of course she threw her a couple angry looks and was very brief with her whenever she spoke. but eventually they made up. no one was bullied, no one is mad.

FINAL COMMENT THEN I AM DONE

yea ok if you bully me or anyone else for simply digging into RH lore then you can leave. or i’ll just block of that’s easier for you. some of u only watch at surface level and that is okay! if that’s what you enjoy, k. cool. you do you.

some of us dont watch at surface level and that is also very very okay. some of us want to get as much as possible out of rainbow high, given the circumstances. so we dig into it more than others might. some of us try to find the symbolism or pick up on tiny details that had gone by unnoticed. some of us go as far as redesigning the characters and reimagining their personalities and life at rainbow high. creating fun headcanons and making cool associations. just don’t bully people who do that. don’t get mad at us and tell us “getting too deep into this is worthless” “you’re not gonna get a job in life if you sit and defend a character all day”

news flash, it is some people’s literal jobs to read pieces of art and media and analyze it. english majors literally do this exact thing. heck, it may be more complex than this. but anyway. stop telling people that. can we normalize enjoying this without being insulted for it??? if you don’t wanna enjoy the episodes then okay. cool. you do that. i’ll go analyze my favourite characters and enjoy as much of the show as i can because i find enjoyment in this <33

[doggomochi-talks-skam]

Honestly, the main thing I was worried about was how they were gonna make them equals. Fatou was infatuated with kieu my, put her on a pedestal, and kieu my seemed so unreachable. But they did so well. They slowly broke the view the viewers and fatou had of her into pieces, and showed us what shes actually like.

Kieu my didnt try to tell fatou that she is different or intelligent, she emphasized the parts fatou is fantastic at. Which, from my experience, is always the better way to build someone up. It also showed us how kieu my sees fatou.

I think she was scared of her because of exactly those things. Fatou is soft and careful, and kind, but she won't let others walk over her. Which she showed kieu my. Kieu my thought she could do this thing with fatou in a way that fit her view of herself and her role in the world, but fatou was having none of it.

I love how its kieu my going after fatou. How shes the driving force, showing us and fatou that she really wants this, as insecure and scared as she is.

And fatou baby, dont Google things like that ;-; I have ADHD and as a part of my diagnosis I had to do a IQ test. And did so so differently each session, always because I had more focus one time, less the next. I just never felt as dumb, I was never told I'm dumb, but it was always clear that i was having difficulties. I really hope someone brings up a learning disability to fatou soon. Someone she actually wants to listen to, maybe kieu my, ava or even ilai. (I dont think she'd take this well if it came from her family tho)

Or maybe a teacher that actually cares?

What I want the next few weeks is a focus on Fatous academic stuff. In Nora's season we had the mother plot line in the first half, and then Nora's declining mental health in the second, and I really liked that structure. It gave both plot points enough time to be explored. So maybe stuff with the instas and kieu my telling sporty spice to fick off is gonna happen in the background, but the main focus could be Fatous academic stuff now.

I adore how they showed Fatous family. They love her, they dont know how to communicate, but they will figure it out eventually.

It's so important that parents dont get mad at their children for academic stuff, especially if they're obviously struggling. I wish it was a mandatory part of parenthood to take classes on how to recognize learning disabilities, adhd or autism in your kids, and how to act. And that getting mad and controlling will only push your kids away.

Anyway, we also got almost 30 minutes! Yay. That's the other thing bothering me, so I loved that this ep is so long. Had hopes for it when the museum date clip was so long already. I didnt watch the presentation, I don't need that anxiety in my life, been there to many times. I've gotten really good at bullshitting speeches and stretching the info I have into a passable amount of time, but that's not something i could do when I was 16, good god, poor fatou.

You could really see how the words got stuck in kieu mys mouth:( personally cant relate, I start ranting, I'm very much like fatou in those moments. But kieu my honestly has my full heart, now she's gotta stand up to constipation and then I will officially claim her as one of my fave skam characters.

I really do hope we get more than 4 seasons. I'd also not mind if they did a new squad once this one has graduated, to take on new issues and new people. I'd honestly appreciate it, and that way each age range of teens can find something for themselves.

[nobody-knose--archive]

i’ve been aching to commentate spirit phone’s commentary for ages. glad i finally got around to it, this was an ejoyable experience. liveblog below the cut

-i'm like half certain i've heard this commentary before. maybe not the whole way through & it was probably actual years ago

-nice hearing stuff like this. in-depth personal view of the album-making process. makes it seem like more of a real thing i could do myself someday

-neil cicierega real person momence

-i could probably go real in depth about neil cicierega/tally hall parallels specifically concerning like. the arc of their musical careers. but i won't, here

-wild how i legitimately don't care much about micheal jackson

-didnt we get a bunch of spirit phone stems from the needlejuice release/his patreon? we could probably hear the funny track he speaks of here in that

-i love hearing musical artists, especially neil cicierega, talking about the meanings of their songs. like, not only has this song been claimed to hell & back by the tumblr gays, but with later ones i just can't see where he gets these ideas from. also, claiming there's any one meaning or plot to a song just seems silly to me

-shoutout to neil reusing a midi from like, 1998, that he made at 12 years old, whose entire melody was reused for the main verses of everybody loves raymond. loved finding that out on my own 2 years ago. now it's common trivia in this fandom. not bad times

-it'd be neat if neil did individual trans tracks here like he did with view monstel, those things are half of why i consider it my favorite album

-it's a lot easier to ignore the creator's intended meaning behind a song when he can't even remember it. thanks neil

-seesaw effect

-and there's my joke all but 1 of my followers wont get. moving on

-what kinds of movie theater lobbies has neil been to where there are arcade machines. i mean im not one to talk but that does sound rather strange

-why do songs' titles even need to be taken from the lyrics. ive never seen that as any sort of requisite. it's like titling any form of prose you can just give it whatever name ya like

-"this part sounds pretty cool right"

-is neil's vocal range only mildly better than mine? with training i could change that

-oh i haven't processed any of the last 25 seconds hold on

-god. a shit ton of vocal modification in this song. it's like neil returned to his roots but with quality this time

-i, as an ace/aro, have never related more to an allohet guy in my life. what is the point of eyes!

-professional humming/whistling takes skill. it's different from the recreational or casual stuff. i'd know

-there's a name for the way sound (especially music) gets distorted when moving past you and i can't remember it but it's probably what neil's referring to here in the way he recorded the intro

(- update: it's the doppler effect no need to tell me cas already did)

-as someone who hasnt seen the rugrats or take me there by blackstreet i'll just say it sounded like a bouncy music box melody. nice to hear a song that messes with the typical scales though. lydian & diatonic.

-that's a rather specific thing to be glad about, but given what he talked about in his last full audio commentary about the jew harp i suppose i'm not surprised

-i know that tmbg song now. listened to it & saw the music video too. yep they're different alright

-where the hell does neil get all these instrumence from anyway

-huh. hadnt heard this part of the commentary before making my oc concerning this song but i like to hear neil's approval concerning part of my interpretation

-i love how ive heard a billion different tellings of this mellified man story from lem dem fans talking about this song and neil's is by far the wildest

-good god that does only make it worse neil

-i love making liveblogs of lemon demon albums. with the fullerenes or tally hall i cant name a specific dude to take out my woes on generally but with lemon demon i can just say neil all the time. i like being on a casual first name basis with this dude ive never interacted with once ever

-is sweet bod the one other than cabinet man with a demo in the bonus tracks? i forget

-holy shit the boston molasses disaster someone call up soapy if it doesnt already know, it'd love this

-two thousand nine. god i miss the fiddle solo. the ver with it is truly the best one

-he pronounces it jeff? i've always read it as gef with a hard g. that's what i get for knowing words that are never spoken aloud

-that's a fun meta interpretation of this ghost story that's over a century old. i like that

-i've noticed neil generally does the same synths across a whole album. it's especially more clear in the earlier ones, and does mean i occasionally mix up songs between clown circus & live from the haunted candle shop

-ah! ancient aliens! my least favorite track on this album. i cant even claim to have the least interest in a popular one i've just generally not liked this one much from the beginning. so im curious to see what neil's got to say, i think ive been in ~new commentary zone for a while now

-anyway. newest update on the loolin not realizing a song's funky time signature front: i think this one's in 6/4. or at least switches a lot between time signatures. granted i dont listen to it very often for the reasons stated above

-see the way neil describes it. eldritch horror upon being visited by the unknown at a time when humanity'd hadn't even yet had a chance to imagine such a thing occurring. should be right up my alley. but the sound itself & many of the lyrics simply turn me away.

-must i specify i don't dislike it? spirit phone is neil's best album it not being my favorite doesn't mean i think it's bad yadda yadda nobody should be surprised by this it's not like anyone in these fandoms reads my liveblogs <3

-granted i think this is. the first bit of spirit phone content i've made on my blog ever. so who knows things can change <3

-the transitions in spirit phone are much less view-monster transition tracks & more extended outros. view-monster's were a bit more intro than outro sure but they also seemed directed upon making a 2-way rather than 1-way bridge between tracks. or something like that

-.............soft fuzzy man is an incredible nickname for a cat. i'd steal that if i werent afraid of introducing my relatives to lemon demon

-jirls

-an underlying metaphor is good enough. the literal side of the lyrics are fun. nothing but agreement here neil my good man

-the transition into as your father i expressly forbid it from soft fuzzy man is the best one in this album

-buddy you ask if a musical idea has been used before odds are the answer is yes in this day & age the question is has it been used in the way you're using it. like sure this soul jazz record from the 60s that was sold out in kansas stores for a week used this bassline that youve found yourself copying. but seeing as youre using it in some angsty garage rock ballad type tune does anybody actually care

-doesn't everybody like to say things in an unhinged manner from time to time

-imagine having a guitar dad, i say, with my dad being a folk accordion/fiddle dad, which is infinitely worse in every way

-i think he was in an actual folk band at some point. idk the 90s were weird

-iron my life?

-m-more intimate? there are a lot of ways i'd describe this song but intimate isn't one of them. granted as your father is negatively intimate so from there i guess you've got nowhere to go but up

-...still glad to see his interpretation kinda supports my oc at least

-the way he says characters in songs shouldn't worry about death really strongly makes me think this is some sort of. thematic continuation of stuck from dinosaurchestra, even if there's no real death in there. interesting. would also mean that the dad from these past 2 songs is named carlos betty (no last name)

-i literally never assumed this was a flute solo. piccolo at best. it's pretty clearly a recorder

-my mom plays the recorder. i wonder if she can play recorder better than neil cicierega

-we can throw a party in honor of the crushing weight of responsibility! i simply won't be the one throwing it because i have enough on my plate already <3

-what the hell does "a sense of intent" mean

-i've never heard rush before however i disagree with neil's understanding of 6/4. 6/4 is meant to have emphasis (onbeat or another term i can't remember) on the 1st & 4th beat of every measure, which is greatly different from a measure of 4/4 then a measure of 2/4. it's why his 5/4 always sounds weird, because while it's recognizable in sequences of 10/4, it's more 2 measures of 4/4 with one of 2/4 tacked on the end. that's also how it's different from 3/4. i don't know much music theory but what i do understand i will fight to the death about

-"canonized" that's. a very interesting term to use when referring to a former president

-from now on i will interpret every love song directed at some unseen "you" to be inviting me to marry them for tax purposes. thanks neil for being an aromantic icon

-ah hell yes hell yes man-made object is my favorite goddam song on this album

-short & sweet & good damn vibes. neil's thoughts on it all are only making it better

-wild how he uses very few vocal effects for a song that he clearly is straining his vocal range for. go off neil

-the qualifier of man-made is a wonderful thing. oldest or biggest thing? oldest or biggest man-made thing? what a incredibly important specification. a world of possibilities lie between the two. oh i love it

-just gets me thinking yknow! what we consider weird/impressive in another species, in our own species- what kind of equivalent to that would there be from an outsider looking in? are there alien versions of the significances we place upon things, that we could never imagine? the limits of the human imagination mean we could never conceive of something else in the world that isn't, in some way great or small, just like us- and are we wrong for thinking that? such a juicy topic i wish there were a name for it because it's kinda hard to explain concisely

-spiral of ants. my second favorite song from this album, in fact. a good one to experience

-the vocals are just another instrument. they really truly are. i wasn't going into this commentary expecting to feel solidarity for neil cicierega in this chili's tonight on more than one occasion but here i am.

-like, his whole stance on interpreting songs is something i agree with almost entirely. you can take it at face value, you can dig to their very depths, you can listen to songs without caring what the lyrics mean whatsoever, and those are all fun. & yeah while any of these people can be annoying as one of the types who enjoys gliding on the surface more than anything i find those who dedicate themselves to figuring out the whole meaning of a song over anything else to be both slightly scary & slightly annoying <3 keep up the good work

-i want to make songs for my siblings the way neil makes songs for his sibling(s)

-spinch

-neil really shouldn't be allowed to be this funny like this whole album youre thinking golly! he's just a normal man this neil cicierega! and then he starts listing the cat hacks jokes & you remember he's had ridiculously consistent viral success with all his humorous endeavors and holy shit it's neil cicierega in action talking about his music. god bless you neil

-you're welcome, no problem, my pleasure. good eveternoon, radio audience!

[brelione]

The Surfer And The Siren

Chapter Three:The Conspiracy Blog,The Investigation and The Shitty Sister In Law

Chapter One       Chapter Two

Warnings:Mentions of racism,homophobia

S0rry that this chapter is kind of short.The next one will be longer.

You didn't understand how you had never found out about this.The article was from 2012 by a conspiracy blog.There were dozens of photographs of you,a bright red circle showing where you was in group photos that were taken in the fifties and more from the seventies.There were a few photos of your large scales the size of quarters that had been found on coral reefs and posted on facebook with captions asking for someone to tell the finder what animal the scale belonged to.Another photo showed a photo of your fluke splashing out of the water.In some your hair had been tucked into your old red hat so the mess of blue waves wouldn't be seen.But somehow those photos had been linked to others from the bridge of your nose and the color of your skin.You kind of missed the old days before all the facial recognition technology.

You went through the photos to see paragraphs and paragraphs with quotes from the interview with Linden. “Linden Sislip,sister of poet and former pawn shop owner claims that her brother was in love with the sea monster of Outer Banks.For decades a murderous mermaid-like creature has haunted the waters and supposedly lured multiple men to painful water related deaths.Outerbanks is known as Paradise on Earth and is home to countless millionaires AKA the sea monsters preferred prey.Some think the creature has migrated elsewhere because of a string of similar deaths closer to California.What do you think?”That article had to be the most bull shit thing you had ever read.Luckily most of the comments agreed,calling the photos fake and saying the scales were that of a tuna’s.

That was pretty insulting to say the least but at least they didn't actually believe you were a serial killing sea monster.That made you feel better but knowing how much Linden hated you definitely hurt a bit.She had hated most people though.She hated the poor,people of color,lgbt+,cats and babies.What kind of sociopath hates cats and babies?You couldn't wrap your head around the fact that somehow she was raised by the same parents he was yet she ended up like that.He was ahead of his time.He was respectful and kind and he loved everyone regardless of social status,race or sexuaity.That’s what made you feel so close to him.Linden had always stared in disgust when he bought extra newspapers to bring to people who couldn't afford them or when he saved his food to bring to children whose parents worked three jobs and still couldn't pay for a decent meal.

You pitied Linden,you couldn't even imagine being that closed minded and ignorant.Things were much worse in the South for sure but you tried your best to get to people.After he had passed away Linden had forced the rest of the family to completely shut you out.You couldn't go to the funeral or even go into their home to grab things that you could remember him by.She blamed you fro his death when she should have blamed herself.It was a terrible thought because in reality there was noone to blame but he had spent so much time in his life trying to convince her to be a good person and convince her to respect people.It had been a waste of years trying to wear her down and make her good but you cant help them all.

The interview didn't really shock you that much.She had always been bitter about you and your origins bit what did shock you was the fact that she had a son in 1950.A son named Bellamy Maybank. “Shit.”You whispered under your breath.Richard waited for you to explain your shock but when you didn't say anything he grew impatient. “What?”He asked.You just nodded,trying to form words.This was real life.This wasnt some weird dream or a conspiracy.This was actually real.This article was published 8 years ago and you had never seen it.

How could you have never seen it?You wondered if Richard knew and had hid it from you but that couldnt be.He knew just as little as you did. “You were right...but theres a time gap.How good are you at investigating?”You asked.A wide smile came across his mature,wrinkly face. “Are you forgetting about how I sunk Ward Cameron’s boat and completely trashed his plans in like...two hours?”He asked.You laughed quietly.Richard had always been so proud of that. “God,how could I forget?”You grinned,looking back up at the TV. “So what do you need me to find out?Make me a list in my notes app.You know which one the notes app is,right?”He teased.You rolled your eyes,opening the app and making a new note.

Close the time gap (after 50-now)

Learn about JJ,Pope,Kiara and the other one.

Check up on Ward’s plans

It had been a hot minute since you had Richard investigate someone.Last time had been nearly 20 years ago.Turns out Ward Cameron was hunting you down in attempt to kidnap and sell you.he was a fucked up son of a trout and you would most definitely say that to his face if given  the chance.You placed the phone down,looking back up at the tv.The main character was threatening a rude looking blonde boy with terrible fashion sense. “Could we drive around for a while?”You asked.He nodded,standing up from his chair.His feet were sore but he always pulled through for you.You two went back out to his car.He turned on your favorite CD that belonged to Billie Eilish.So much had changed since just a few years ago.Someone like Billie would absolutely be an outcast back when you were her age.

Something about the way that cars moved made you happy.It was strange to see the world shifting around you.How poor people rode horses and the rich had cars and how the tables had turned.You had seen so many wars and so many deaths yet you had watched multiple births.You watched segregation end and witnessed people of all races and ethnicities get the right to vote.You had seen the day that the lgbt community finally got rights.And you had helped with it all.You had experienced the life of the poor and of the filthy rich and you were only a quarter through your life.You had been a friend to Marilyn Monroe and saw the day that JFK was assassinated.You had seen so much that no one else had experienced.

You had heard so many old folks complain about the music of today and how it had been so much better back in their day but you could not disagree more.There was no reason to bash the modern ones music.All music is good music except for country music,of course.Richard drove through figure 8 so you could gaze at all the houses.It was quite disgusting that there were only an average of three people living in huge mansions with six bedrooms that they didn't need yet there were families of eight suffering in tiny houses made for three people maximum.The rich were greedy,bitter and overall selfish and annoying.

The poor were generous and grateful for everything they did have and were more likely to be kind and understanding.It was really just a sad place but you didn't want to go anywhere else.A lot of other areas had water that was far too polluted but definitely had better people and a better atmosphere on land.It didn't really matter how great the land was when you could only see it once a month anyways.Plus OBX had a great cave system and pretty nice weather.Richard turned his car,going back to The Cut.If you were to live anywhere in Outer Banks it would most definitely be The Cut.It had an all around better atmosphere,friendlier people and better hiding spots. “So how are the naiads?Have you heard from them?”He asked,purposefully driving slowly.You sighed,turning down the radio. 

“Not really,the only river entrance got blocked off by a ton of fallen branches.I haven't gotten any calls from them though so thats good.Its not that I don't like them or anything but they're just….god,they're so annoying.”You leaned back in your chair.He chuckled. “Does Esmerelda still have a crush on you?”He asked,turning down the dirt road.You nodded. “She’s just….she’s cute but she’s annoying,you know?”You asked.He nodded. “That ones always been kinda strange in the head.”He agreed.Once you got back to the house the sky was lightening up which meant you had such little time.You sat in the backyard in one of the camping chairs with your paper bag in your hand and the drawstring bag hanging off your shoulders.Blue sat with his head on your knee,staring up at you with his big shiny eyes.

He knew the drill by now,his drool making a dark puddle on your jeans as he whined for attention before you had to leave again.Richard had tried to bring the dog out to see you before but it never worked out.Blue got eager and excited and walked to fast for Richard and it wasn't safe for a dog to walk along rough and bumpy rocks.It wasn't exactly safe for an elderly man either but it sucks to suck.You stared up at the sky,wiggling your toes while you still could.As the sun began to come up over the horizon a similar aching pain spread from your heels to your thighs,your body feeling heavy. “I’ll see you next week,(Y/N).”Richard stood up to hug you.You hugged him back,tears pricking at your eyes.

Blue pawed at you,licking your jeans.You kissed his forehead lightly before limping down to the water.You dragged yourself into the water,collapsing when you were at your knees.Your legs tingled,your head slipping under the water as your legs knit together in a painful mess.From below your hips your tail grew,your hair falling in your face as all evidence that you had been human left you.Your hend clenched the deteriorating paper bag as you swished your fins,gaining control over your body again.The sun was now reflecting off the water,nearly blinding you.You ducked under the water,going deeper and deeper.

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[popculturebuffet]

The Jeffersons: Sorry, Wrong Meeting (Comission by WeirdKev27) (Black History Month)

Welcome on up! HAPPY BLACK HISTORY MONTH!  Yup i’m going to spend a good chunk of the month celebrating the best and brightest in black characters in animation, amid valentine’s coverage in the first half and a few bits of the usual stuff throughout. But i’m still throughly dedicated to showing off some of the finest media about black struggles and starring black characters, and going through it the best I can as a white dumbass. If I slip up or misinterpret something, never be afraid to call me on it, but I feel I can still try my best to honor these amazing characters who’ve brought such joy to my life and these wonderful stories.  So starting us off is a commission from Kev that’s been sitting in the queue for far too long. And it’s not due to lack of intrest: While before today I’d never seen an episode of the Jeffersons, I had seen the live performance of an episode done for that live with norman lear thing nbc did in 2019, and it was excellent and piqued my intrest. But with me never thinking to get the dvd’s, and not having Starz nor really wanting starz, there was no real easy way to stream it. But a few episodes were on DailyMotion, so I was fine with reviewing it for Kev and giving this series an honest try and the fact the episode dealt with white supremacy, at a time where we’d JUST gotten rid of a bigoted, white nationalist backing, piece of shit president, I was naturally all for it, I just never thought to clear space on my schedule and by the time I was scheduling things better, I purposfully saved it for this month as while the Klan isn’t as prominent, assholes like them sure are. And given the Captial Riots last month with sedionsits shitheads proudly waving the confederate flag around, I’d say this episode is even MORE relevant than ever. 

But before we can dive into why this one is so good, yeah i’m not going to hide it this is a really fantastic episode of television, we have to talk about the series itself. The Jeffersons was created by Norman Lear, a progressive and prolific television writer and producer who is a legend in the business for damn good reason. He created All in the Family, which shattered norms and standards for the time, and would go on to create Sanford and Son, Maude and Good Times, all to massive sucess. However this show came about because the Black Panthers showed up one day at his office to raise a valid point: While he did have black characters in his tv shows they were mostly poor and barely scraping by, with his two black lead sitcoms dealing with characters in object poverty. And while this was still a worthy subject to tackle.. they were absolutely right there should be a counterbalance to that, to show the obvious truth black people CAN be successful. Norman agreed and set to work. Norman already had the perfect lead for that: George Jefferson, an opinnated dry-cleaner with several sucessful stores. George was, and still is, a fascenating character with lairs: being cranky and curmodgenly as you’d expect with some fairly average sitcom quirks: He loves money, often overspends on flashy stuff to revel in his sucess, snarks at his maid and likes to scheme as a sitcom character can. He’s also in the early seasons a bigot himself, not really fond of white people or interacial marraige, which naturally makes living next to an interacial couple and their daughter marrying his son thorns in his side. But as far as I can tell from looking on wikipedia he does soften with time and grow as a person and by this episode he’s fine putting up with both his neighbor Tom, said guy married to a black woman and his goofy british neighbor, if snarky as hell because hey, that’s who he is. I bring this up for reasons related to the climax, trust me. 

So eventually the Jefferson's moved on up to that deluxe apartment in the sky, hell of a theme song, and got into their own adventures with the aforementioned supporting characters.. and so here we are. And after the cut we’ll take a look at just why this sitcom is awesome, why I desperately want to get some dvds for it at some point now or a starz trial, and how much the klan sucks. 

We open at the Jefferson’s Deluxe Apartment in the Sky. where his wife Wheezy and aforementioned maid Florence are preparing to take a CPR class.. which were that possible I certainly would after this episode, as I feel Florence is right in stating it’s a skill everyone should have. She also remarks that George had every employee at his drycleaners take it, even if it was because he got an insurance writeoff. But hey, doing something that can help your workers and customers in an emergency even if i’ts just to save money is sitll better than MOST businesses these days so props to him. There’s also naturally some banter and it’s really damn funny. As with my Darkwing Duck reviews,, I won’t be going into it bit by bit, but it’s good stuff and holds up REALLY well. To me that’s the mark of a good sitcom, one that can show it’s age.. but still make you laugh, think or cry all the same. So yeah in less than a scene the show had won me over.  So as the ladies depart for CPR class, George’s peace is soon interupted by Harry Bently, british person and wacky neighbor. Aka me if I were british and lived in the 70′s. He returns a tv guide, last weeks hence why he’s done with it, and ther’es some schtick and what not before Tom Willis runs in, upset because he’s been robbed. They took all his stuff, and while he’s thankfull his wife’s gone for the week so she didn’t have to be there for this, he’s obviously worried and suggests forming a building watch to prevent this, with Harry on board. George.. has no time for this nonsense, and after making a joke about Florence in curlers scaring them of, bredguringly agrees to attend if someone else starts it then slams the door on them once their out the door.  At CPR, our heroines volunteer enthusastically and meet the cpr dummy. resuscannie.. I don’t know how to spell that and frankly I don’t wanna because she is FUCKING terrifying. 

She looks like she’s going to come to life and strangle me. She looks like a hollowed out corpse doll a serial killer makes. She looks like something Charles lee ray would rnasfer into. She looks like Micheal Meyers grandmother. She looks like the corpse of Jason’s mom come back for revenge. She looks like sue sylvester transferred herself into an auton. Look I could go on, but the series does make jabs at the thing and most cpr dummies are objectively terrifying, so fair play to them. After some more gags, things.. take a turn. Part of what makes this episode so effective to me is this turn. It starts with, and even goes back to after this for a bit, some sitcom gags and cliches.. but it lulls you into thinking this will be an average episode... so when the instuctor asks two men to go next, an older man and his college age looking son refuse to participate.. and their reason is he refuses to touch anything tha’ts been touched by a ... well he uses a certain word and let’s just say you know what it is, I know what it it is and if I could’ve reached inside my computer and choked the life out of hte man, I fucking would’ve. 

Yeah turns out these two are KKK, with the older asshole leading the local chapter and their about as reasonable or likeable as you’d expect with Wheezy BARELY holding Florence back from giving them a well deserved thrashing, and only doing so because it’d both sink to their level and because they’d just use it as more fuel for their racist bullshit. And that’s WHY this works so well: It seems excactly like a normal episode.. until it suddenly isn’t. Until suddenly things are a lot darker, a lot more tense, but the easing into it means it still feels like the same unvierse. To me the good “very special episodes”, are the ones that use this: that ease into the heavy topic before punching you in the face with it and tackle it with nuance and skill. A Diffrent World has a TON of episodes like this, and it’s why it’s one of my faviorite sitcoms: it tackles a lot of really heavy topics with  a steady brush and while it can be heavy handed, sometimes heavy hands are necesary to carry a heavy topic.  The racists showing up suddenly also fits because Racists hide in plain sight. You don’t know someone you know is prejudice or some stranger is till they reveal themselves. They could show up any time anywhere and you can’t be ready. And I cant possibly claim to know what that’s like, but I’m sad that in this nation of ours this shit has never, and probably will never go away. So it fits that our antagonist shows up out of nowhere, having until now perfectly blended in with the other suited white guys in the class. Naturally, the instructor orders them to fucking leave and naturally klan monster makes some big white suprimacist speil. And being a sitcom he runs into Tom, with Tom mistaking him for talking abotu the crime and White Supremacist mistaking Tom for a fellow racist. Tom decides to invite george.. and while it’s clumsily framed as a wacky sitcom misunderstanding.. it’s very clear things just got VERY dangerous. 

Speaking of George he’s awoken from his nap by the ladies who are both still worried and while he goes into his usual digs on florence, and questions why she needs her bat... he instnatly sides with her and prepares to go kick some racist ass once he finds out what happened. It’s a nice shift, as it once again breaks the tranquil normalcy of this sitcom with the violence of racisim. And while there was no phsyical violence form the asshole.. to me racisim itself is still a form of violence. Thinking you are suprerior to another race just because your skin’s a diffrent color and wanting them gone or not to be near you is in itself violent to me. And while Wheezy again has good reason for holding George back, tihs is just what the fuckers want, Geroge is also right: right NOW it’s talk.. but how long before they start burning stuff on thier balcony or come for htem in the night? there’s.. no easy answer her, no easy solution.. just a man fearing for his life justifably whose probably been through this time, and time, and time again, dealt with his buisnesses being vandalized and his life being threatend and probably been beaten some too JUST for being a black business owner. So it’s understandable he’s fucking fed up and just wants them gone. Tom naturally invites him to the meeting., and harry agrees, botht hinking i’ts just a floor meeting and not a disguised KKK Rally. 

So at the meeting, the KKK Fuck does his spiela nd tries to assure them that “what you’ve heard about us is wrong”. And again this si part of what makes the episode resonate: guys like this try to make themselves seem resonable. THat “Their not racist” their the right ones and your wrong for wanting equality. It’s why these movements gain traction, they tap into people’s inner ugliness and disastifaction with life and give them an easy target for it. It’s what the president did for four years, i’ts what his sycophants at fox news CONTINUE to do: try and present being a racist, homophobic, xenophobic peace of shit as a viable and stable option when all it makes you is a racist , a coward and a dinosaur who can’t accept change or things difffrent than you.  When this guy eventually goes into a rant, as George showing up triggers it and Tom and Harry dont’ take his shit for as econd, with tom proudly mentioning his black wife, and both holding George back for the same reasons Wheezy did with Florence, he talks abotu them “taking our property and destroying our homes”.. and it all sounds EERILY like when Tucker Carlson went on about property damage during the black lives matter protests last year... and as a wise tucan in a suit once said, fuck you tucker. And as John didn’t say but I certainly will, I Hope you choke on your own spray tan you racist seditionist prick. My point is this sort of rhetoric, trying to frame black people as the enemy.. never fucking went away and is on cable news every night. It was in our white house for four long years. It won’t go away and probably never will and everyone of every race has to be on guard to find these pricks and make sure their message is drowned out with love. And that’s what makes this whole thing relevant: that these pricks hide in plain sight and mask their arugments with civlities.. but at the end of day are just hateful monsters who just want a scapegoat for their problems or even may just hate because it’s easy, or because they just wnat to and don’t need an excuse to be the worst human garbage imaginable. 

It makes what happens next all the better: Asshole has a heart attack, HORAY, and no one knows CPR since the kid walked out on the class with his dad before they actually learned it. George relucntantly sighs.. and knows what he has to do. He goes and saves the fuckers life. And that, friends, is why I brought up George’s racist past and i’m glad I knew about it giong in: because it shows how far he’s come. From hating white people.. to saving the WORST of the WORST of white people.  He regrets it of course, saying the guy should’ve died, and that he won’t be greatful and he’ll just keep on hating.. but his friends point out the truth: George was the bigger man. He saved the life of a man who hated him just for existing and who’d gladly have him lynched if he could and was trying to run him out of his rightful place in the building, because it was the right thing to do. Because that fucker sure as hell wouldn’t. Because despite being a monster.. it’s still a life.. and he can waste it however he pleases.. but he’ll now ALWAYS know a black man saved it. George may regret his decison.. in the dark, where no body would blame him for letting the fucker die or even know he could’ve saved him until he got home, and his wife would’ve barely blamed him, he still choose to save the worst of humanity proving depsite his curmodgnley nature, he’s some of the best of it.  It dosen’t change the asshole, he leaves on a gurney telling his son “You should’ve let me die”. George is unsuprised and leaves with his friends. And I do like this: the racist dosen’t MAGICALLY change because he’s saved by a black man, he’s still a fucking monster. And that is what sets him apart from George: Whiel George was a bigot, he not only never went as far as this monster, but he changed. He learned to let go of his hate as it was eating him alive, and while he certailnly and rightfully won’t let go of his resintment for white people, he’s accepted he can’t hate ALL of them for what some did to him. This asshole has no such excuse and no such growth, he probably died being the same miserable piece of shit he was , resenting forever a black man saved him. And that’s hwo it should end.. youc an’t save everyone and you can’t change a person that dosen’t want to. George changed only because he wanted to and he realized he was wrong evne if he’s loath to admit it. This guy wont’ and never will becuse some racist pieces of shit just will never accept the truth that all people were created equal.

His son though clearly has, thanking George before he leaves, and later as the rest of the meeting, realizing what these people are and what they plan on, leave as the assholes right hand man tries to continue said son refuses to acknowlegde him rips up the poster and leaves. See the old man not changing worked.. but so too does this.. showing some simply dont’ know better and some CAN change.. but like George.. they have to WANT to change. Only you can change you. And hopefully it’s for hte better. 

This episode was excellent as i’ve made clear, and I don’t have honestly much to add to it. It was a pleasure and black lives matter. 

[qboo78]

Episode 11 thoughts

There is just a lot of things to unpack about the truth & dare scene and the confession scene. It is all thanks to such amazing cast and their great acting that there is a lot of nuance to those scenes... it makes the scenes work so well and the things that are left unsaid is even conveyed...

first off it started with the bottle pointing to Yi Seo, with Yi Seo not very happy to receive truth questions, then everyone reacted with wanting to ask questions anyway but Sae Ro Yi seems fine just letting this one pass, then Geun Soo, this sly boy, called him out and ask him if he has any questions for her. Sae Ro Yi being put on the spot looked at Yi Seo gauging her reaction, while Yi Seo is of course suddenly amenable with receiving questions if it comes from her Sa Jang Nim lol, I found it very telling how Hyun Hyi is very interested on what Sae Ro Yi will ask, but Sae Ro Yi looking at Yi Seo seems to sense her vulnerability and decided to not ask any questions and said “Not really, I know everything about her”. Yi Seo took the words as like Sae Ro Yi saying I’m not really that interested in anything more about her... but, what was telling was Hyun Hyi’s reaction to Sae Ro Yi’s words and actions, maybe because Hyun Hyi is so much older than Yi Seo but she seems to understand why Sae Ro Yi refrained from asking any questions, Hyun Hyi’s smile at Sae Ro Yi seemed to imply “Aww, he does not want to put her on the spot, that is sweet” and she seems to not be surprised about that, can I say that Hyun Hyi feels like a Sae Ro Yi x Yi Seo shipper like me lol. I like that Sae Ro Yi listened to Yi Seo and understood that she is not really comfortable with this game, but I also know that Yi Seo’s vulnerability that she showed when she welcomed Sae Ro Yi to ask questions was because she wants to see if Sae Ro Yi will be interested in her enough to ask questions, it’s a case of these two looking at the situation on different perspectives and it seems only Hyun Hyi is clever enough to pick up on both. Yeah, I love how they acted this part. Then Geun Soo, being young, determined and greedy in love, just do not have the maturity to demonstrate what true loving is about proceeded to demolish Yi Seo’s plan ruthlessly. He started off by staking his claim by saying that Yi Seo has made an implied promise to him that she will accept his suit if he takes over Jangga and asked her if she remembered that. Again, kudos to Park Seo Joon for the subtle acting, when Sae Ro Yi heard those words of Geun Soo, you could see if you really pay attention how Sae Ro Yi lost his smile after hearing those words... It seems Sae Ro Yi is actually bothered by what was being said. He does not seem to be happy that Geun Soo and Yi Seo have an understanding. Seung Kwon then ask Yi Seo, if there was something going on between them, Yi Seo said an emphatic No while on the background you could see Sae Ro Yi is still looking at Geun Soo with a not happy expression on his face which is at a contrast to Soo Ah's reaction who does not really care about what is happening hehe.. you could see Sae Ro Yi and Yi Seo have identical expressions of not being happy at the situation on their faces...

He seems out of it too coz he was startled when Yi Seo told him “Sa Jang Nim, it’s not like that” like he shut down for a second and then when he said “OK” he doesn’t seem to truly believe her...

Again, Hyun Hyi is really after my own heart because she was quick to get Seung Kwon to change the subject and she even said it's not fun.

Then we got the first kiss question and Sae Ro Yi seem to have froze before he could answer the question lol... Yi Seo liked the idea that she was the first kiss lol even though for me it doesn't really qualify since she did it while Sae Ro Yi was drunk, which she should not have done in the first place lol. Then next we got the Are you just friends with Soo Ah question and how Sae Ro Yi responded to that question was just... i dont know how to explain how off his response was it was like he was just reading the phone book... he gave more emotions when he was talking about Yi Seo's importance to Danbam in the other episode smiling and saying "I can't imagine Danbam without Yi Seo", He said "I like Soo Ah" but he does not seem happy about it, he did not smile, he did not even once looked at Soo Ah in this whole scene not once but if its regarding Yi Seo, he would look her in the eyes and he just keeps on looking at her in this scene. Again Sae Ro Yi is just clueless about his own feelings i think, it could just be my shipper heart but Im just not convinced... Soo Ah seems to be touched with his reply but is not so happy about it? Sigh, she said she likes Sae Ro Yi but yeah just not buying them as a unit yet...

Then because Geun Soo seems to be in a self destructive mood he went ahead and ask Sae Ro Yi AGAIN if he has feelings for Yi Seo... Sae Ro Yi's reaction was instantaneous like "This again??" and he does not like the question but he also looks challenged by Geun Soo, then he looked to Yi Seo again gauging her reaction, the previous question about Soo Ah he never once looked at Soo Ah lol... this makes me think, why Sae Ro Yi? why the hesitation? Why you have to think about what your feelings are for Yi Seo? Why are you looking at Yi Seo right now before answering? What are you looking for to find in her expression?" Like Seung Kwon said "What kind of question is that? Isn't it obvious?"

After looking at Yi Seo, maybe he saw again her vulnerability and seem to decide on something, i mean kudos again to Seo Joon for his acting coz he did a clenching of his jaw then answered the question. See what I mean on how Yi Seo can bring out Sae Ro Yi's emotions while about Soo Ah, he is just like an automaton lol. If Sae Ro Yi truly did not have any feelings for Yi Seo, he would just immediately and simply said no to Geun Soo... why he had to qualify how he looks at Yi Seo with "dong saeng (younger sister) and partner?" I might be reading too much into this but....it just feels like Sae Ro Yi is lying or hiding something... I could be wrong but that is how I see it the way Seo Joon acted that scene like there is something happening beneath the surface coz the tension was just so thick... poor Yi Seo just cant help reacting to his words though, my heart just went out to her, i mean she was already hurt and wounded with Sae Ro Yi's declaration of "I like Soo Ah" and she was able to hold her hurt feelings in but hearing the words of "No (to having feelings). Not even once." would just be too hurtful for a person crazy in love... I don't want to see Yi Seo hurting because I just love her but Kim Dami's acting here was just so heart renching in a good way... It just felt so real and just make me relate to her so much... I am so thankful that Kim Dami is the one playing Yi Seo, if it were someone else I do not think I would enjoy and love Yi Seo so much as much as I do, I mean I would still appreciate Yi Seo’s character a lot but Kim Dami playing Yi Seo is just phenomenal... it was the same reaction I got when I first watch Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as John Watson.... their acting was just top notch and breathtaking...anyways this is already a long post and I will continue my thoughts (review?) on my next post... the confession scene will be next...

[sometimesrosy]

Anonymous said:Why? Why would Bellarke diminish [Clxa]?! That's something I'll never understand. I just don't get it. Why on earth would it diminish [Clxa] ? Is Clarke forever doomed to mourn a past lover, and not be able to move on ?? Especially with her best friend, the man she cares deeply about, and always have.

Twice I tried to answer this and twice I ended up on long winded rants/analyses, and I don’t like to post rants. So let me try this again, in brief. (oh dear this isn’t going to be brief either.)

Short answer: CL is canon, and that cannot change. From midseason 2 to midseason 3. L as a character has an important place in the narrative and CL as a relationship has an important place in Clarke’s character development. 

When Bellarke becomes canon, it will be long after CL, and it will not erase CL. So you’d think that it wouldn’t diminish CL. As canon, CL CAN’T change. Their story arc started, developed, met obstacles, united, and then ended in tragedy. That was the story, more or less. Bellarke becoming canon won’t change it. Won’t change that Clarke loved L or that CL affected her greatly.

But that brings us to how our PERCEPTION of the events in canon can change based on context. 

Now we’re getting to the long answer and the complications.

Because here’s the thing. Fandom, oh not just fandom, culture, has a tendency to look at the facts of a situation, in this case canon, and relate to it in an entirely personal manner. Which means that the narrative is less important for the story it’s telling and how we FEEL about the story is more important. So if we LOVE CL then that becomes the center of the story and the rest of the story is erased or fades away into unimportance or is relegated to conflict. THUS we had many people focusing SOLELY on L and CL, thinking that was the main story, the grounders were the heroes, L was the main character and Clarke was the love interest while Bellamy was the villain. This was their EMOTIONAL truth. How they related to and loved the story.

And then canon came in and went the direction it was always going, away from that CL emotional truth, with Clarke and Bellamy the main characters, Lxa a love interest/antagonist, the 100 the heroes, and Lxa died. And the CL fandom was CRUSHED. First they’d gotten really attached to Lxa and CL and THEN they’d declared ownership over the story and claimed it for LXA and rewrote the story to fit her as hero, for their emotional truth. They followed their hearts and their hearts created a story out of canon that fit.

Until Lxa died, they were able to maintain their emotional interpretation of the story that kept L the main character, and all the missing pieces of her stories were filled in with fanon, and the real main story was tilted to be the supporting story for Lxa (Clarke the gf, Bellamy the villain, skycrew the oppressors etc,) and they erased or ignored anything that outright contradicted their emotional truth. They switched the POV of the show and told the story from L’s pov. It might seem that is just another way to interpret the story, but it changes the meaning of the story a great deal. Which...well... that’s their intention isn’t it? 

At this point, they have lost L, but are still retaining a L centered interpretation of the story, saying that CL is endgame, or even just L is the love of Clarke’s life and always will be. That is their last holdout for canon CL centered story. I mean it doesn’t really make sense, because even with occasional mentions, the story is not about L, or the grounders, but about Clarke, Bellamy and their families and struggles, and L has been relegated to a lesson and experience of the past.

But yes. They would rather see Clarke alone than with someone who she loves more than L. They would rather see her hooking up, lonely, sad, on the outside, than with Bellamy. I think it reflects their understanding on a deeper level that Bellamy IS the rival who endangers CL primacy. Even L knew it. They’d rather see her with someone she’s only meh about than with her soulmate partner. BECAUSE they don’t think someone should be more important to Clarke than L, despite the story that places many people above L in Clarke’s life.

But the story being told, now and before, doesn’t really matter, because the accepted interpretation is STILL L centered, it is still their emotional truth It doesn’t matter if the story is Clarke centered, her love for L makes it CL. It doesn’t matter if Bellamy is the second protagonist, they’ve accepted that finally, he’s a partner and more attached to spacekru than clarke. It doesn’t matter if Bellarke is the central relationship of the show, they’ve latched onto the “platonic” reading and won’t let it go. They clutch onto B/E as PROOF that Bellarke is not romantic and won’t ever be romantic, despite it not being the story being told, because it is a shield against the interpretation that Bellarke is romantic and THUS the romantic story at the heart of The 100 which makes Bellamy Clarke’s true love, not L. 

Now we’re getting to the point where Bellarke “diminishes” CL. It does not diminish CL in the story. In CANON. CL is part of Clarke’s life, and that is not changing. CL’s place remains what it has always been. However, Bellarke is, and always has been, more important to the story than L and CL. If CLs face that, then CL is reinterpreted as secondary, not primary.

In this interpretation Bellarke DOES diminish CL because if Bellarke is made the central, epic love story... then that means the whole the 100 was never about the epic love story of CL, but about Bellarke. That means that CL was not the center of the story, but Bellarke. It makes L a guest star in the story of Bellarke. Which... well... she was. ADC was literally a guest star. But that’s another thing that they ignore, with their confirmation bias that erases the evidence they don’t like.

If Bellarke kiss/confess/sex, that is the evidence that fandom uses in shipwars to say that their ship wins. As long as Bellarke doesn’t do that, then they can feel that CL wins the ship wars, and CL is canon and Bellarke is not. 

Despite the fact that Clarke has always been the hero and Bellamy has always been her partner and Bellarke has gotten closer and closer every season and even though they both have had other partners, their relationship remains central, and JR has stated they are the central ship, and it’s about the 100, and they are soulmates and they have told this story with ALL the romantic tropes showing that Bellarke is romantic and they love each other...all of those things can be ignored in fandom because they minimize the story on screen and clutch on to certain markers. Kiss. Confess. Sex. As long as they have that with CL, then they win.

Once Clarke and Bellamy have their kiss, confess their love for each other, then the CL fandom can no longer claim that they’ve won and feel superior to Bellarke. 

Because if Bellarke has those canon markers, then that means they are romantic, by their own rules, and when you interpret the whole story from the beginning, Clarke had romantic feelings for him from before meeting L.  It means that CL was an intermission in the Bellarke love story. It mean that L was not Clarke’s one true love. It might even mean that L was a rebound after Bellamy rejected her. 

They can handle a platonic life partner soulmates story... even though at this point they are twisting the characters, narrative, dialogue and filmmaking to fit that story. This is why everyone jumps on every suggestion from JR that Bellarke are not romantic, despite the obvious story. Because THEY CANT HAVE THAT. And bellarke fans are no better. They’re so afraid of romantic CL and platonic bellarke that it’s all they can see. 

It’s as if they can’t accept a love story for itself in canon. CL I mean. It happened. It was real. It won’t go away. That will not stop. The bellarke fandom gets mad at this, too, when they get insulted that there are continued mentions of L years after she died. This comes from the same emotional place of interpretation. The CL fandom is hungry for those mentions because it means CL is still “central.” The Bellarke fandom hates them because it means CL is still “relevant.” I think both interpretations are flawed, because the truth of it is, while CL WAS romantic, it is no longer. CL has become an incredibly affecting period in Clarke’s life, and L is a historical figure. The L mentions are now ALL about Clarke’s character development, her ability to love again, AND the heda system and the flame. They aren’t romantic CL at all. But both fandoms read them that way. 

There is a flaw with fandom interpretations, in general. And the flaw is that fandom has a tendency to be deeply biased in their interpretations, and whoever they stan or ship is placed at the center of their interpretations, whether or not they are placed at the center of the canon narrative, and anything that does not support fandom’s love of that character (like other love interests)  is either erased or turned into a villain. There are only a couple of things that fandom can’t erase or twist to their interpretation. Death and sex. 

L died, and that was the biggest wound to their fandom. When Bellarke have sex, they will see that as the second, and possibly final injury. Listen, the CLs are TRYING to erase L’s death. I’ve seen posts where they say anything can happen in sci fi (which is not really true) and to bring her back to life. Or reverse the trope. Or go back in time. Or they wanted her to be put into a host. Or endgame in the flame. (Those last two are off the table now because the flame with L in it is gone now.) How can they maintain that Bellarke is less than CL if Bellarke have all the markers of romance that CL have, but Bellamy is alive, and Bellarke is endgame, on TOP of being the central relationship of the show???

Fandom tries to retain their EMOTIONAL truth long past where the canon truth supports it. If you come into this process at the end, it seems patently ridiculous, but if you start at the beginning it’s a slow process of erasing small bits of canon evidence, inventing small bits of fanon that that the fandom accepts, and step by step creating a story out of the canon, that is NOT canon, but is accepted as an emotional truth in fandom. 

They’ve been fighting long and hard for that emotional truth to remain supported by canon. When Bellarke kiss/confess/sex, the strength of their emotional truth will be diminished, because they depend on CLs kiss/confess/sex as evidence that it is superior, one true love, and endgame. Bellarke will “win” the shipwar. And they have set up Bellarke as opposed to CL, so that will mean CL loses the shipwar, and thus they will consider it diminished.

If Bellarke kiss/confess/sex, a lot of them will no longer be able to ignore the narrative Bellarke love story being told without those things. CL endgame one true love supremacy will be jossed. It’s the fanon that is diminished, not the canon CL. You’d think that the diehard CL’s would be able to ignore that too, and I’m sure they will, but it’s gonna hurt. 

[yeoldontknow]

Hi! Can I ask question about the movie Paris Texas? I am not sure if youre the right personbut i have always wondered why it is so highly revered. Like I liked the movie, i thought it was good. i could feel the longing the characters are going through, i liked how it was shot(?),i can see why the 'booth' scenes are always replicated in music vids & other shows & stuffBut idk what makes it iconic- like everytime i listen to people talk about films, they bring that movie up.

my favorite actors and directors for around the world even mention that filmLike i enjoyed it and know its good, but i am not sure on what makes it great. what are your thoughts on this film?

ahh hello! lmao im so happy people are asking me to talk about film lmao this really does excite me. and im so glad you came to me with this! just in general! thank you!

trust me like...i get it. paris texas is a great film, and i did enjoy watching it, but i see where you come from. i can understand why its been so revered, so hopefully i can shed some light on that for you. but! i really do understand where you come from. if im honest, theres a lot of flaws and issues with the film. its slow, doesnt actually handle the heavy themes the script attempts to portray very well, and doesnt really actually offer any nuance to janes character. shes actually a really complex character, but shes boxed into the role of like...the manic pixie dream girl, except not that. shes not and ideology of freedom or growth or perfection the way that trope is usually portrayed. instead she exists to further a male centric narrative and the depiction of women is really shallow, so trust me i get why there is a dissenting opinion. 

that said, there are a lot of things that make the film as cult and important as its become among cinephiles. they range from the use of americana as a plot device, colour theory, voyeurism, the breakdown of the american dream, etc. ill be breaking down some of the major points here under the cut, but there are even more ways to read this. and!! i stress!! it is ok to read all of this and still disagree! thats the beauty of film studies.

to really understand fundamentally why this film is so important we need to focus on two intertwining notions - that the film is a portrayal of america and this portrayal of a america is coming from a foreigner. the director of the film is win wenders, a german filmmaker, who has always claimed to be fascinated by the history and character of america. effectively, america itself becomes a character within the film. it does not matter that ‘america’ is the backdrop - it plays such an integral role in shaping the narrative of the story, one could argue it has more autonomy than jane. take for example the opening scene - it opens with the scene of a man walking aimlessly through the desert with a gallon of water - nameless and aimless. from this very first moment, we are presented with land. an endless expanses of land in which there is no real ownership; from this moment, we are meant to understand this america shapes the lives of its people as much as this perspective on america is shaped by the director of the film. 

furthermore, if we consider the opening shot; the saloon; the fact that a full 26 minutes elapses before the main character says a single word, we can argue the mise en scene within each of these scenes a visual alignment to the classic genre of western cinema. here, too, in this genre is the stress on land as it relates to and symbolizes the importance of freedom, autonomy, and identity, but moreover is there a stress on the notion of the anti-hero. by cultivating this understanding of america and the western, we can immediately align travis with the failed man, the failed husband, a failed owner of land, and a failed dream. 

but...did he fail? or did the notion of americana and the american dream fail him, instead? this seems to be the case as we considered the continual use of americana references. one of the fundamental aspects of americana is the nature of nostalgia - americana is traditionally idealized as the desire to return to small towns and cities from the turn of the century. the hope of creating a home, only for that essence of home to be lost; the period of exploration from 1820 to 1880, and then the comfort of being settled from 1880 to WWII. these are the fundamental aspects to understanding americana but they are foundational in the nostalgia that drives the narrative. aspects like: a barber shop, a diner, route-66, etc these small town notions are the driving pieces of nostalgia. and these are the elements of nostalgia that generate the plot device of paris texas.

im taking a moment here to really stress the following: western films and the concept of americana is inherently problematic. it exists on wester colonization, appropriation, and genocide. americana is a white-washed version of history and that, explicitly, is why all the elements of americana, nostalgia, and the american dream fail within this film because, again, it is america from the perspective of a foreigner and the perspective is profoundly unforgiving. 

(also, like, i literally hate western films because they are so racist and sexist and hyper-masculine, from any historical or modern perspective, so again...me being me saying i understand why you might have had a hard time with this movie lmao but when you realize this is not speaking in favor of those things it kind of hits you like...oh, damn. like, imagine this film from the perspective of a white american male, you know? travis would be a king, someone admired rather than someone youre not even sure you like or tolerate by the end)

right! so! now that we understand how important the elements of a failed america and american dream are to this film, we can see how nostalgia continually presents itself - not for a home lost, but for the hope and the opportunity lost. consider: the colour, the wide, open expanses of land (could have been owned, but are entirely empty), the way characters gaze at their own reflections - hell, the conversation between jane and travis at the end, double sided mirrors, jane forced to look at herself in the mirror while travis looks at nothing because its his memories and his memories are presented at a visual and emotional distance. memory presents itself through illusions, reflections, and disorganized narrative structures - it is not that they cant remember, but that they want to remember without criticism. this comes to a head when they view the home movies, another example of how life was or could have been - how it was supposed to be, and the sudden confrontation that it very much is not that. 

primarily for me, the thing that makes me enjoy the film (apart from realizing wenders has an extremely unforgiving view of america) was the colour theory. you cannot talk about this film without discussing the colour. the predominant tones in the film are red, white, and blue - americana and american flag. but why all the green (i.e the doctors office)? why the isolated events of solid red (i.e the strip club)? well, green and red are put perpetually at odds with one another. green, a usually soothing colour, is subverted to denote internal conflict; red, becomes regret, falsehoods. the colours in the film exist to at a sub-textual layer that speaks for the characters when they refuse to speak for themselves. and by the end, the colours return to a normal palette. black, beige, tan - travis recounting their history to jane in a room that is natural. things are finally exactly as they are meant to be, the intense colours of their emotions faded by distance and time, and forced now to confront their truth. 

but still...the elements of voyuerism exist. because he can see her...if he chose to. she cannot see him. she can only see herself. and so we are left, then, understanding that there is no hope. no connection. the achievement of the american dream is a falsehood of nostalgia that exists to drive our motivations, forcing us to live in a time or a place or a hope that never once was tangible, but craved just the same.