#one thing i hardcore gotta work on is figuring out how time passes in writing LMFAO

[thisaintascenereviews]

Normandie - Dopamine

Due to how saturated lot of scenes can be, regardless of genre, there are a lot of bands that I don’t listen to or that I haven’t listened to. It’s not always because I don’t like these bands, but stuff falls through the cracks. I can’t listen to everything, especially when I’m trying to limit a lot of what I listen to. Not that I’m purposely skipping things, but when I got back into new music, and got back into writing about new music, I made a pact to myself that was essentially only listening to things I’m genuinely interested in. Back about a decade ago, I would write about anything and everything, as well as listen to whatever I could find. Part of that was due to discovering new music, and getting into a lot of new stuff, but I just got burnt out. Whether it was from writing about music, and having a lot of the same things to say, and listening to stuff because I felt I had to, not because I wanted to, I just couldn’t do it anymore. Part of the issue I have with a lot of critics is that some feel as though they need to cover the hot album of the week, versus what they want to talk about, even though I understand wanting to hitch a ride on the hype train when something is popular, but why sell yourself out when it doesn’t make you happy? My point is, I miss out on things every now and again, but I’ll gladly give bands that I passed out a chance.

That includes the new album from Swedish band Normandie, entitled Dopamine, and they’re a band that I’ve definitely missed out on, but better late than never, right? I’ve heard of this band, though, just never listened to them, but part of that is because they never really interested me enough to seek them out. With how saturated their brand of pop-rock meets post-hardcore is, I was never curious enough to listen to them, but I have gotten into that sound a lot more over the last couple of years, so I figured I’d check out Dopamine to see if it’s any good, and I gotta say, I really enjoy this album. It might even be one of my favorites of the year, or at least an early contender, but I’ll admit that they don’t do anything I haven’t heard before. Normandie’s sound is rooted in the pop-rock and post-hardcore that bands like Caskets, Archetypes Collide, and Wind Walkers are utilizing, but they have an emphasis on pop-rock. Their sound is hookier, catchier, and less “heavy” than a lot of other bands in this vein, which I think is a good thing, because they focus more on hooks than being heavy.

This wouldn’t work if the hooks weren’t strong, and frankly, this album has some of the best hooks I’ve heard in this vein in a long time. It helps that their vocalist is great, too, but their hook-heavy sound really works to their advantage. The main issue I have with this album is that it is rather generic, and they don’t do anything with their brand of post-hardcore, but I will admit that when the album goes a little heavier in a few songs, it’s a welcome change. It adds a unique flavor, and I always love when bands get slightly heavier to accent their sound, versus using it at a crutch. There isn’t much else to this album, and ultimately, if you like this sound, you’ll like this album. Dopamine has a pretty straightforward sound that you’ve heard before, most likely, but it’s done well. The performances are all good, and the lyrics are quite good, too, but this album is a good example of one that does what it does well, and that’s all you need sometimes.

[rhaenyratargcryen]

Can we get a fluff Steve Harrington request where he and the Henderson!reader take Dustin to meet Suzy at a museum and maintain a distance from them and they reminisce about how they started (childhood friends to eventual lovers) and they talk about their future?

this is so cute i'm crying 😭 i got a little carried away hahaha hope i did this justice for u!!

just some stinky stupid face-melting fluff <3 also i imagine this taking place at the natural history museum in SLC, idk when it opened and when they had what and hell i don’t even know if they have a second floor, but you and dustin and steve all road tripped out to utah to visit suzie et. al and took them to the museum for the day on a lil date bc everybody knows utah is the place to BE for fossils!!!!

no warnings, steve harrington x henderson!reader (this one doesn’t have any gendered language/any gendered descriptors, so gn!reader!), ~1.4k words :)

"Alright, kids," Steve sighs, shoving his wallet back into his pocket after shelling out the admission fee for the four of you. He crosses his arms over his chest. "You get two hours on your own, then you meet us back here, you hear me?"

Dustin is glancing around at the other museum guests, his hand tucked in Suzie's, and you smack your brother on the shoulder. He yelps Ow! and fixes you with a glare, rubbing the stinging skin with his free hand.

"Are you listening to Steve?”

"Meet you back here in two hours," Suzie says, smiling, and you nod at her, reaching down to grab Steve’s hand in yours.

"Two hours. If you need more time after that, we’ll set you off again, but I’m so serious. I don’t want your parents killing me because I lost you today, alright?”

“I’m setting an alarm on my watch for an hour forty,” you say, pressing a few buttons on the Casio at your wrist. Dustin and Suzie mutter their understanding and then shuffle off, Suze pulling him toward the stairs. She wants to head to the gemstones first, but Dustin’s protesting faintly about wanting to see the dinosaurs. Their bickering trails off as they get further away from the two of you, you and Steve laughing lightly. 

"God, they're cute," you sigh, and Steve snorts, squeezing your hand. You watch Dustin and Suzie as they disappear around the corner.

"For a couple'a dweebs."

"Harrington," you murmur, glancing up and setting your most accusatory look on him.

"Alright, alright," Steve says, chuckling and bringing your joined hands up and around your front so that his arm is now resting over your shoulder. "They're cute, I guess."

“So, where are we heading first?”

“Well, I think those two nerds are on their way to the gems and minerals exhibit. Wanna go look at some dinosaurs with me, baby?”

“Do you even have to ask, Steve?”

Steve grins and kisses the side of your head, and the two of you wander away from the admissions office, stopping to pick up a map from one of the museum attendants.

“Looks like we gotta go up,” Steve murmurs, bumping his hip against yours to get your attention, then dropping your hand and taking the stairs up to the second floor two at a time. You whine as you trail behind him.

“What, you really want those two beating us back out here? We’ll never hear the end of it. Gotta step it up, baby.”

You roll your eyes at him and hold your hand out, making him take it in his again. You have to walk through a few other exhibits before you make it to Past Worlds, your eyes widening at the sight of all the skeletons in the room. 

“Wow,” you whisper, and Steve hums, seemingly as speechless as you are. “This is insane.”

“Look at that guy,” Steve says, using your joined hands to point at a Stegosaurus. “Bet nobody messed with him back in the day.”

You smile over at him and lean in to kiss him on the shoulder. I love you so much, you think, the look of wonder on his face twisting your stomach into knots.

“Are you guys following us?”

You whirl around at the sound of Dustin’s voice and smile at him from across the exhibit, waving with three of your fingers. The two of them look so at home admiring all of the fossils, it kind of warms your heart.

Steve snorts, immediately bristling at the accusation. “Why would we be following you, asswipe? We thought you were going to see the shiny rocks. We’re on a date, too, here.”

You elbow Steve but you start to laugh, too, at the expression on Dustin’s face. Suzie is laughing, too, leaning up to mutter something in Dustin’s ear. His glare fades, but he rolls his eyes at Steve all the same, putting on a tough guy act that you think is, quite frankly, adorable.

“Alright, well, just. We’re heading down to gems and minerals now. I better not see you losers there.”

Dustin pulls Suzie out of the room, but not before the two of them stop short in front of the Ceratopsian wall and gaze up at it in awe.

Steve scoffs, looks over at you, and you can’t help but laugh even harder at the offended look on his face. “Seriously, where does he get off?”

“It’s his first girlfriend, Steve,” you mutter, looping an arm around his waist and squeezing. “I’m sure if you had an older sister who chaperoned all of your dates at that age, you’d have been a bit sensitive about it, too.”

“At that age, I had had a dozen girlfriends, so.”

“I remember,” you groan. “Vividly.”

Steve purses his lips and leans down to kiss the top of your head. “Aw, baby. You know it’s always only ever been you for me.”

You pinch Steve’s arm and he yelps, jumping back. 

“What was that for?!”

“It’s how I’ve decided to check your ego whenever you say something like that,” you laugh, relishing in the sour look on Steve’s face.

“I thought I was being romantic! I mean, seriously, Henderson,” Steve sighs. “Can you imagine if we’d had our shit together at that point in our lives?”

“What, you mean, like, if we’d figured out we were in love with each other before our senior year of high school?”

“Exactly,” Steve says, smiling softly at you. “Imagine all those years we would have had together.”

“Yeah, but, Steve - as much as I love holding your hand and kissing you and all that stuff, and as much as I want to do it for the rest of our lives - you’ve always been my best friend. So, you know, I’m alright with when we got our shit together.”

There’s a brief, comfortable silence, and then Steve smirks at you. “You want to do this for the rest of our lives?”

Your face flushes. “You know I do, Steve.”

The grin on his face widens and he leans down to kiss you deeply, and you let him for a few moments, before pushing your hand against his chest.

“There are quite literally children here, Harrington,” you murmur, carefully shoving him off of you.

“Yeah, but I’m lovin’ on my baby,” he laughs, and you groan at him, twisting your hand into his hair and scratching gently. “And my baby wants to love on me for the rest of our lives. That’s the kind of stuff you gotta celebrate, you know? With kisses.”

You shake your head but the smile growing on your face betrays you. You let him lean back in to plant a few short, quick kisses on your mouth before you slip your hand into his again and pull back.

“I do love you, Steve Harrington,” you say. 

“I love you too, sweet thing,” he replies. “I always have.”

You groan and point a finger down your throat, fake gagging at the two of you, and Steve laughs, throwing his head back.

“Enough outta you. More dinosaurs?” Steve tugs on your hand, but you shake your head, and he drops it, backing off to go check out some of the older fossils while you stay put in the Jurassic period. You can’t help but watch him from across the room, studying the way his face gets all pinched when he reads something he thinks is cool, the way he has to squint to see the fossils high above his head. You smile at the thought of how many more museum dates the two of you have ahead of you.

He glances over and catches you staring, blows a kiss at you and laughs when you blush, before going back to reading the information boards in front of the exhibit he’s checking out.

After a while, you meander back over and lean into him. He throws an arm across your shoulders and steers you to a large fossil on the opposite side of the exhibition.

“Woah.”

“Right?”

“Huge,” you agree. The two of you stand there in silence, both heads cocked to the side, studying the dinosaur carefully.

You feel a buzz at your wrist, so you check your watch and furrow your brow. You’d been wandering around the museum for almost two hours already?

“Steve,” you mutter, glancing around. No red EXIT signs in sight.

“Yep,” he replies, popping the p, staring straight up at the Allosaurus.

“How the fuck do we get out of here?”

[familyagrestefanblog]

Ml Meta analysis: Adriens current absents, season 4 structure and theory on whats to come

Here I am back again with my endless rambling.

I'm just as worried for our cat son as everyone else (maybe even more) which is why I tried figuring out for my own sanity why he is so absent currently.

Upfront I wanna warn yall that I wrote this post in one rush this night and therefore had no time to do alot of editing. So things can probably get a bit more messy than usual but I tried to write it clearly, while writing 2 other ml essays as well. This is the one drawback of having so many episodes in such a short time, I have no time to write my posts x3 I had another theory planned for before Optigami airs but I don't think I can manage before tomorrow.

But let's not waste any more time. Grab a snack and here we go:

It's 2am right now but I think I just realized why Adrien/Chat Noir is being sidelined so much recently.

Sure, yes, it'll come into play in the very obviously set up Ladynoir drama later on but what I wanna talk about now is more the structure of how s4 is most likely written in terms of both Marinettes and Adriens side of the story. And then deep dive a little on why I think so.

You see season 4 is now reaping what has been built up from s1-s3, but this also includes that you have to take the time now to properly recreate the new possibilities out of the loose pieces of the broken status quo.

Seriously, season 4 has to handle and reinvent ALOT. The show got now officially announced to have 7 seasons, which is exactly the amount of seasons Astruc said they have story for. I couldnt find the official tweet from Thomas himself but I one from another source:

And now look take a look at the possible shows structure:

- s1-s3 was the first status quo and built up everything so now they can pay off after pay off while...

-... S4 is now the transitional season where the old status quo gets left behind as we work towards the new one.

-I have nothing to proof this of course, but in the same sense it would now make sense that s5-s7 where/are planned to play out under the final status quo. If I'm not wrong at first the show was under contract for 5 seasons, which would mean that after the transitional season 4 there was only 1 season of the final status quo for sure. Still, done right it could have been worth the wait. But this isn't where Miraculous will end. The show actually got the 7 seasons the creator wanted and THIS is how I think the long term plan makes the most sense. Nothing all too complicated but still hella effective in its execution.

But now back to our two main characters, because Marinettes and Adriens development are the two aspects that will raise the show to the intense heights of the s5-s7 status quo.

From s1-s3 Marinette was the active player but she was hardly involved with the actual PLOT of the show, since most of the plot and backstory of the show lies directly with the Agreste family. She only started to get her own plot when she literally created a new one by getting involved with the miraculous lore, because the closest Marinette got to the Agreste plot was "The collector".

Adrien in the other hand was always literally right in the middle of the plot but he wasn't enough of an active player to bring us further either.

Season 4 is now going to add the missing parts for both of them and as the very beginning of the season showed us: there are going to do it SEPERATLY.

This is why "Truth" and "Lies" have been structured the way they are (One Marinette-centric the other Adrien-centric). Yes, Marinette and Adrien are meant to end their story victoriously together, but they are simply not the people they have to be to become such a powerful team. Certain aspects of their journey they have to do... basically disconnected from the other one. The "Miracle Queen" endcard shows it quite nicely as well where they are heading now: away from each other.

Obviously the season started with Marinette growing into her new guardian status including everything miraculous related, since she is the main lead and because the new ways the episodes can now utilize everything Miraculous need to be established first before we deep dive into the messed up Agreste mystery.

So while I totally agree that it is annoying to get so little Adrien/Chat Noir content currently I also understand the practicality behind it. As I said, before s4 Marinette was the active main character who mostly didn't really have her own plot. So now adding her plot aspect and have her ACTIVELY figure everything needed out means that right now Marinette/Ladybug is the active focus main character who is solving a huge part of her s4 character arc. That simply drowns out Adrien as the currently still mostly-inactive secondary main character who, yes, may be right in the middle of the shows emotional + villain plot/lore/backstory, but that side of the story simply isn't in focus at the moment.

And I gotta say, I'm kinda glad they're doing it this way. Because I'm gonna be honest, when the season starts giving us Adrien/family Agreste episodes like "Lies" and "The collector" (in this case "Gabriel Agreste" for example) again, I don't want the narrative to be forced to spend time with something guardian lore based just because they didn't took their time to do it earlier.

So, as we see on the s4 episode raster "Gabriel Agreste" is episode 9. Honestly, I expect most of it (especially the ones near the beginning, so ep. 5 included) til that episode to be Marinette based the way everything else til now did (besides Lies obviously and Guilt trip didn't hardcore focus on Marinette/Ladybug either and that's because it's after "Gabriel Agreste") in the spirit of "Truth". It's just the needed set up from Marinettes side of the story and I can live with that.

Because we actually saw the change after "Gabriel Agreste" already in "Guilt trip".

I don't know why some people pretend like Chat almost cataclysming himself after hearing how guilt-eaten Nino is for Adriens sake isn't a huge indicator that the episodes afterwards will not only acknowledge but also DEAL with Adriens/Chats situation and problems. Remember, we are talking about CHAT NOIR here not Adrien Agreste. The show has always portrayed and acknowledged ADRIENS issues very straight forward and with the proper seriousness (especially when it comes to his family), whereas Chat Noir was often mostly used for comedic purposes with some exceptions of his problems being properly delt with (since Marinette/Ladybug was mostly oblivious to them, since Adrien keeps them hidden so well). But now in "Guilt trip" LADYBUG was confronted head-on with just how much negativity Chat has inside and how quickly and extremely he drowns in it.

Sure, correct, the episode also has his negativity "washed away" rather quickly by Ladybug opening up to him on how important he is to her

But this is in character for both of them as "Lies" very clearly showed us that the way BOTH OF THEM behave here is where the problem lies. There Ladybug was freaked out after Chat threw his life away once again but quickly accepted Chats very direct avoidance of the confrontation, since he seemed to be alright to her.

Something I also find noteworthy here is that Ladybugs dialog is "Seriously, you need to stop doing this to me!", which is.... a VERY Marinette-centric way of acknowledging the problem.

It completely shifts the issue away from Adriens extremely alarming self-harmful/suicidal tendencies and instead only calls out how it affects Marinette (whose feelings here are definitely valid, don't get me wrong!). It showcases perfectly how unaware Marinette still is of her partners inner tumult at that point and also parallels how Marinette called Adriens life "perfect" at the beginning of the episode (This is no shade towards Marinette, in general the entirety of "Lies" is about showing us just how harmful Adriens Chat Noir persona actually IS to him so these two moments of her being oblivious to Adriens and Chats immense problems very much fits into that episodes narrative and sets up what's about to come. I still have an entire essay in the making for "Lies" but, guys, it's just getting longer and longer. I suck xD).

So the fact that an episode after "Gabriel Agreste" brings this scenario back, just a little different but ALOT more revealing of Adriens immense problems to his partner, is VERY telling. Besides other things it tells us that this happens at the beginning of the arc that deals with (at least) Chats issues since Ladybug is still way too quickly too ready to accept her partner as "completely fine" again just because Chat makes it seem that way (while some negativity increasing guilt bubbles still to stick to him.).

And yet, others have already pointed it out that Ladybug IS noticing what Chat wanted to do and reacted accordingly...

she just didn't speak of it the way it is because it overwhelmed her, which calls back to Ladybugs "You have to stop doing this to me!" dialog.( For a great breakdown of her dialog HERE is a link to @flightfoot​ post)

In "Lies" Marinette was way too stressed by her new guardian role to even consider Chats side of it and therefore only spoke of her own, but in "Guilt trip" she's already past that stressful arc. So here she is immediately able to recognize Chats suicidal action for what it is, come to his (much needed) aid and lift her partners spirit the best she can by emotionally opening up to him (which is something we KNOW is incredibly hart for Marinette).

The difference between her reaction in "Lies" and in "Guilt trip" shows that Marinette has her guardian role already mostly handled and is now mentally able to be there for others again, so the extremely Marinette-centric "Truth"-like episodes are mostly passed. Now the episodes can bring Adrien/Chat Noir more into the game again and even shift to "Lies" - like episodes because MARINETTE can pay more attention to him again and isn't faced with something new, important and overwhelming Miraculous related every step she takes.

And THAT is extremely fair from a narrative standpoint.

---

I really need to stop elaborating so much on these posts because I'm only NOW actually getting to the point of where Adriens journey will disconnect for a while from Ladybugs. Sorry guys.

Okay, to understand where I'm going with this I will have to quickly explain how I always saw Chat Noirs place in the Ladybug+Chat Noir vs Hawkmoth war ever since s1.

Because here is the thing: Adrien wasn't able to truly leave the battle field ONCE since the origins. Marinette was completely out of Hawkmoths and Gabriels reach once she detransformed, which balances out her basically being the personification of the good sides force. And Gabriel literally decided whenever or not the battle is even ACTIVE right now! Besides that he is in complete control of his own actions and environment, which gives him all the necessary time, safety and downtime he needs to act as the personification of the evil sides force.

Marinette and Gabriel always knew when they were safe and off the battle field, but ADRIEN never had that and it left him LITERALLY right in the middle of both Ladybugs and Hawkmoths sides.

You see, because before Adrien became Chat Noir he basically was part of Hawkmoths side just by default. He was born into this family, that's his father and lost mother and everything he knows. Adrien didn't/doesn't even have to KNOW that he is part of Hawkmoths side, he's his son at some level he just IS! And I'm not saying this as anything negative, Adrien coming from Hawkmoths side is literally the reason why he became Chat Noir!

Because whereas Gabriel is having the time of his damn life as evil terrorist, created out of tragic and sinister circumstances, ADRIEN on the other hand couldn't handle his families environment and very same circumstances anymore and accepted the role as Paris' hero to escape his heritage for a while.

Keywords being: a WHILE.

Something unique about Adrien I always loved is the fact that he is the villains abused, isolated and overworked SON, who becomes a hero to escape his depressing life and YET it was never Adriens intention to LEAVE IT. Adrien merely wanted to use his time as Chat Noir to let of some steam and breath freely while doing some hero work so he can go back into his civilian life and try to one day successfully ment his broken family. He couldn't handle the current situation anymore but he still always saw worth in his family/father. I have SO MUCH respect for that!

But him not intending to leave his family and instead regaining strength as Chat Noir to continue to hold onto it came with the downside of him not being able to fully become part of the good sides people/force either. Hence why Adriens/Chats place always felt so lost in comparison to Ladybugs and Hawkmoths clear positions. He's caught in between their extremes trying to balance out BOTH at the same time. What an impossible task!

So he couldn't put in the same focus as Ladybug into being the good sides force because he is literally burned out from his civilian life on Hawkmoths evil side. But he also couldn't be involved as an ACTIVE member of his fathers evil force, because he chose to find refuge in his friends and as a hero on Ladybugs side.

Adrien unknowingly is part of BOTH the shows two extreme moral sides of good and evil and this season we will see Adrien/Chat Noir grow into his own within BOTH sides as well.

Because he simply couldn't have done so right away in s1. Now after 3 seasons Chat Noir is more than solidly established as one of Paris Heros and his time with Ladybug, the other heros and his normal friends helped him greatly to find his place on the good side. "Lies" set this up as Chat Noirs arcs starting point that now he has to stop connecting "being heroic" strictly with following Ladybug (as Marinette is the STAND IN personification for the good side, she's still a flawed human being like everyone else and not the ultimate force of perfect and good. Big difference.) just as he has to start looking past his fathers sympathetic moments/qualities to see that Hawkmoth isn't a 100%, inhumane monster just because he is the stand-in personification of evil in their fight, but the man he calls Father and still needs to be taken down. (I talked about this in more detail on THIS post)

Adrien has to seperat himself from Ladybugs path and focus on his family and I believe it'll start with the much dreaded (but expected) Ladynoir fight.

Funnily enough, what I'm talking about was actually already set up in "Frozer" I just didn't remember that for a bit. In "Frozer" we saw Ladynoir having a fight which caused Chat Noir to go his own way in the episodes battle.

I always found it interesting that the episode didn't had Chats decision, to not follow Ladybugs lead here, turn out to be a huge mistake. Almost every other show would have done so but now I think I understand. This episode and s2 in general SET UP the s4 conflict, s3 LEAD UP to it and now s4 DELIVERS it.

So what happened in "Frozer" is a direct parallel to what about to go down:

Ladynoirs fight will cause Chat Noir to not simply  follow Ladybugs side anymore the way he used to, but note, he DOESN'T leave the good side AND they make up again in the end after Chat saves Ladybug from the akuma. He just does things on his own because he isn't on great terms with her for a while. "Frozer" showed Chats decision to not only NOT be a mistake but also a necessary part of defeating the akuma, just the way it'll be in s4. Damn, Adrien breaking away from Ladybugs side, the way she (unintentionally tho) did at the beginning of the season, to focus more on himself and his family will be the game changing factor, when Adrien will have his completing arc where he goes from "not active character within the villain/backstory plot" to "ACTIVE character within the villain/backstory plot".

And we already saw with Marinette how many fast breakthroughs we get through these completing arcs. Which is also a reason for why Adriens/ Chats arc comes later in the season, because BUDDY. Once Adrien starts to actively uncover his families mystery and fathers secrets Gabriel is SCREWED! Adrien will gain the needed inside knowledge that complements Marinettes Miraculous power; and reunited they can take on whatever the hell kind of scale the Agrestes plan actually is.

So how to end this post? My biggest intention was to raise hope for everybody (myself included lol) who is right now very concerned and upset about how side-lined our boy is at the moment. But I prefer doing so in a way that actually works with canons context instead of sugarcoating what I don't like. And Adriens/Chats current position I definitely do NOT like but accepting it as realistic outcome from s1-s3 and set up for the escalation for both Ladynoir and his home situation gives it the proper purpose and pay off (narrative and character wise) that it SHOULD have.

Basically, the endcards of "Truth" and "Lies" show it perfectly.

It looks like ShadowMoth is turning a blind eye towards Adrien/Chat Noir because of Ladybugs new guardian status and "greater importance". But Gabriels tunnel vision on Ladybug will leave him vulnerable to his own sons secret actions against him and Gabriel won't see it coming until its already too late.

[msgrumpygills]

Social Media Anon Here!

Firstly, never change Grumpy ;) you are probably the only person on Tumblr to LISTEN to another view and let it change a prejudice.

Secondly, the Padagram/Social Media change bus continues. Don't be fooled people will be looking at positive and negative reactions to that change on social media.

So here goes!

1. They are starting to market season 2 of Walker in Hiatus. That really doesn't happen. That means they know they need to target new viewers. They are acknowledging they have a problem. The main problem is Jared either didn't learn enough about production quality on SPN (Jensen/Misha were both more interested in behind the camera's) or that he thought he could stick a Stetson on and we all had such sh1t for brains we'd watch anything. So they need a viewer boost DESPARATELY and are going all out to (a) persuade Walkers remaining viewer(s) that it's worth sticking around and (b) get back old viewers or convert 1m+ viewers to season 2. So now we see all the cast (and Keegan has more followers than Jared and Lindsay has a VERY engaged following) trying to persuade their followers how fabulous Walker is. Expect this scrabbling to continue if they want their COVID paychecks.

2. Connected to 1, Jared has started trying to break out of the fandom bubble. I don't think he's trying for power couple (the clue in a power couple is that two FAMOUS people get together and create a super brand, here we have one niche C famous guy and a hanger on wife), I think we are in Jared profile raising and trying to raise his recognition score, which is probably a little low having half assed it in the last year and a half. He's doing it by scatter-gunning so I'm not sure it's going to stick.

3. Connected to 2,

(i) if I run my algorithm clean laptop with a "Jared Padalecki" news search, I get (a) a daily mail article on Jared "clarifying the rift" (b) a "hello" magazine saying he's been "inundated with support after death of "family member"" (c) the new york times article on Walker and Supernatural. It then goes into a variety of articles about Jared raising money for Holly's family (fucking atrocious in my view to use her death for publicity) and a series of derivative articles on his mantrum and later explanation. ONLY THE NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE MENTIONS WALKER other than as a throw away, all of the others link to Supernatural only. Walker isn't on the main radar of anyone as a show. It's not mainstream enough to mention. it has ZERO buzz.

(ii) if I run the same search on my compromised tablet, I get a SEA of fluff articles "jared padalecki goes to venice", "jared padalecki's wife wishes him a happy birthday" "jared padalecki goes to watch soccer" "jared padalecki goes to the wrestling". I'm expecting "Jared Padalecki defecates regularly" tomorrow.

At the end of that I get the same articles as in (i) but the majority of his publicity is still going through the fandom and the, not very viewed, endless zine type websites that update on every episode of every geek show every day.

So we are seeing, and I expect it to continue, a break out Padalecki, (who knows he and his forehead may wish to have a final crack at films), and a fluff Padalecki, trying to stay relevant a year after SPN relevance ended, because he hasn't got the same push for season 2 of Walker as he had for season 1 and Walker has zero presence. No one, not even the fans are talking about Walker.

Will it work? I don't think so. Keegan has 7m followers on Insta and that's because he's a photographer and writer and it's interesting. I would follow his account (I don't), but certainly it isn't a Walker instagram.

Jared is a clever guy, but he's boring on social media. He has a limited appeal. He does family snaps, hunk snaps, flogs orange pee and flogs his show. He says "family" and "mantra" a lot but that's really it. The clue is, if you didn't know who he was and came across his instagram you wouldn't follow him. Why would you? For a video of a guy running up steps? A smug picture of two middle aged men trying to flog you something?... (oh and lots of "brother" comments on Keegan's social media, which is irritating. It's like he thinks that is his repeatable formula and it isn't).

His media approach won't work because advertising and exposure pushes a product. In TV's case, it's not a one off product and there is a lot of competition. Product Jared needs to be more interesting (his mantrum's are the only exciting thing about him - and that is tragic) and his TV show just needs to be BETTER, well, a LOT BETTER.

Soooo, expect the Padapush to continue, but it's not about a couple, it's about individual marketing and for Jared breaking out of SPN bubble. For Gen, it's her tag along profile that she'll never break out of. She'll have to be satisfied with her superpower of being able to persuade people to buy toothbrush's and dog food (if she can).

Expect though the couple's bit to die off a little. Jared is getting over exposed. His engagement rating is plummeting (nearly 3% is a plummet) because of the repetitive photo content. He'll have to back off or people will switch off (I have already). What makes me laugh is.... from the dawn of time when cavemen took their wives 2 miles away for a new cave weekend.... NO ONE HAS EVER BEEN INTERESTED IN SOMEONE ELSE'S HOLIDAY SNAPS.... Gen and Jared apparently need to learn that lesson...

I might stop these posts now because, well, it's gotta be a bit boring for you and I write LONG. :)

Stay safe and wear your masks ;) xxx

I don’t want you to ever ever change, lovely! Also, I’m NEVER bored by your messages! You put so much effort into the research you do and the messages you send and it’s appreciated! <3 

I started following Lindsey on IG because she seems pretty genuine, and her cat is way too cute! Plus, I like her attitude. I haven’t followed her for the whole Walker season, but even she doesn’t post a lot about it. She posts interviews and then posts about that night’s episode, but other than that, nothing.  Can’t speak for Keegan, but how are fans and non-fans supposed to be excited about a show when the people STARRING in the show can’t be bothered? Maybe they’re all aware of how shitty it is or maybe they’re lazy, but it doesn’t make sense. 

I’m always interested to see the difference in an “algorithm-free” setting and one that has an algorithm. I always figured Google was the same for everyone, but seeing the difference in articles you’ve outlined is insane. It really just goes to show that Jared isn’t the star that his stans think he is. He’s not as important as they think he is, he’s just an actor.  It’s even more jarring to see just how little Walker is talked about at all. All of my devices probably have been “contaminated” when it comes to algorithm so I can’t really speak personally about the public and fans talking about Walker or not talking about it. I can say that on the posts about Walker from the Supernatural Facebook page, a good chunk of the comments are people saying they stopped watching, never got into it, or thought it was trash. There are only a handful of comments talking about how they enjoy the show. 

I think it was disgusting for him to use a fan’s passing for publicity. And no, I don’t think it was anything other than a PR stunt. Her family had a GFM going that was promoted by plenty of the case INCLUDING GEN, so you know he knew about it. But for him to make his own special one and then have articles posted everywhere about how charitable he is? That’s gross PR bullshit and I hope it backfires. 

I still follow a few Supernatural fans, Jared fans, Jensen fans, etc. on Tumblr and even they aren’t mentioning it. I think maybe the hardcore Jared stans post gifsets or whatever, but I don’t see much praise for the show itself, just Jared’s looks. Even the fans aren’t biting and that would make me reevaluate everything if I was Jared. 

I'm expecting "Jared Padalecki defecates regularly" tomorrow. This made me laugh way too hard!

who knows he and his forehead may wish to have a final crack at films You are on a ROLL!  Maybe I’ve become biased, but I can’t see Jared doing films. I mean, I could see him doing like a side character role or something small, but I can’t see him having a big part of a movie. Like I said, maybe that’s me being biased but I see him staying in TV. I could be proven wrong, but I don’t know. 

I agree about Jared being boring on SM. I used to get some giggles from his Twitter posts and even some of his early IG posts because they were goofy, clever, and candid. It showed his humor and was more personable. Now it’s just all fake and comes off as someone whose only motivation to engage with fans is money and that’s a big turn off. 

For me personally, I think that if instead of the “couple goals” bullshit that they try to push for their lavish trips, if they just posted cool pictures they took of different locations, activities, food or whatever, that would be more palatable than all the “Look at my hubster and I! We’re in Italy! Look at how in love we are!” But maybe that’s because I’ve become a bit of a photography nerd? 

I guess time will tell whether or not Jared will make positive changes and if Walker can be saved, but I’m not really optimistic about it. 

I AM optimistic about your takes on things so keep them coming! Long posts or not, I love them! <3

[medea10]

My Review of Wotakoi: Love is Hard for Otaku

[ryanmeft]

No, Nintendo Does Not Hate Metroid

Nintendo, a company that makes video games, recently announced that after almost two years, they were scrapping all current work on Metroid Prime 4, taking it from whatever mystery studio was working on it, and giving it to the hallowed minds at Retro Studios to start over with, hoping to get it right.

This was greeted with rapturous applause by Metroid fans, who almost universally recognized how good Nintendo was being to them, and were highly appreciative of the fact they’d be willing to write off all the resources they’d spent so far, just because the game wasn’t up to snuff.

I am of course kidding. That up there was a joke. Metroid fandom contains the whiniest, most entitled, hardest-to-satisfy fans of any Nintendo property, and while the majority of fans were cool, the loudest ones were typically the whiners. Most notably, a not-insignificant section of the fandom has gripped, with an unshakable hold, the idea that Nintendo doesn’t respect or even dislikes the franchise. I’ve listened to this particular whine for years and years, ever since there was an unimaginable eight-year gap between Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. Never mind that other beloved series of yore, from Mega Man to Final Fantasy, have also gone similar periods without a new game. Never mind that non-Japanese fans of Nintendo’s own Earthbound are still denied the chance to play the final game in the series, and probably always will be. Never mind that Sonic fans suffered under a notorious drought of good games lasting two decades before Sonic Mania finally happened. None of that means shit: Metroid fans are the most persecuted, victimized, and unfairly treated fandom in video games.

Now, I’m the last guy to feel I need to defend a massive company like Nintendo, but in this case I’ll make an exception. Because just like Ghostbusters fans who can’t figure out their particular obsession just isn’t as relevant as they want it to be, Metroid fans need to grow up and start appreciating what they have gotten, rather than what they haven’t. Below are the three reasons why Metroid fanboys aren’t even the least bit as ill-used as they think are.

Almost Every Metroid Game has Been Excellent

The nature of video games is such that many more entries in a successful series are usually produced than in other mediums like film. Even a series like Metroid, which has been iterated less often than Nintendo’s other properties, has had eight fully fledged games since 1986, and 10 if you count the heavily re-worked upgrades of the original game and Return of Samus. Of those, only a single one, Other M, has been poorly received, and there’s no indication that’s what Nintendo expected. After all, fans were excited when the series got handed to Team Ninja; the idea that this was callous on Nintendo’s part, for not developing the game themselves, is something that only took hold retroactively, and you know what they say about hindsight. The original Metroid, Super Metroid, Fusion, and two of the three Prime entries are among the more critically lauded games in history, and excepting only Other M, all of the others have received highly positive reviews. The Metacritic average for the mainline Metroid games is an 89 of 100. Boy, look how much Nintendo hates this franchise, going out of their way to make good games for it and crap like that.

The Bad Spin Offs are Nothing Compared to Other Series

One of the big pieces of evidence Metroid fans like to roll out to prove Nintendo loathes Samus like unto the heat of a sun is that they’ve spent some of their time on it making poorly received spin offs, like Blast Ball and Federation Force, that don’t capture the spirit of the series. “Look!” they shout, from atop the Tower of Cluelessness high on the Oblivious Cliffs, “They aren’t doing what a bunch of us fans who have never programmed a game or made a decision about a franchise think they should be doing, so they clearly don’t care!”

You might already see the flaw in this thinking. By this standard, nearly every company with a long-running series hates that series. Capcom has inserted Mega Man into soccer and allowed him to be licensed out for extremely shitty PC games, and have pooped out almost as many crappy Resident Evil-themed spin-offs as there are main Resident Evil games. Square has pimped Final Fantasy out to every possible genre, from racing to fighting to freaking tower defense, all while taking ages to finish the next main entry in the series. Nintendo themselves have slapped Mario on every possible thing they can, and despite strong sales to dumb people, Mario Party is notorious for being a bunch of slapped together mini games for people who like their games to be completely random.

If bad spin-offs proved anything about what Nintendo thinks of Metroid, the fact they’ve spared it from as many as other series get would actually support the idea they are more protective of it.

Metroid Doesn’t Deserve as Much Love as You Think it Does

Economics 101 is now in session. All right, children: why does a company make things?

“To make their fans happy, Mr. Eft!”

Wrong, little Dingleberry! They make things to---say it with me---MAKE MONEY!

See, companies like money. And this is especially important for an industry with relatively low margins and high costs like video games, because folks like the evil satanic Metroid-hating demons at Nintendo need games to sell well not only to justify further games in that series, but to fund further games in that series. Unlike, say, Disney, they don’t typically have the option of busting out an Avengers and making 1000% profit. Unless it is something really massive and popular and guaranteed to sell, like Call of Duty or Pokemon, most franchises live entry to entry, relying on the previous one being profitable to decide if the next one will ever be made.

And here’s some economic reality for you: almost from the outset, Metroid has failed that test more often than it has passed it. Yes, the series has sold decently---for a minor franchise. The fact that it is legendary among gamers and highly influential among designers has not traditionally translated into the kind of money it needs to guarantee the entries keep rolling out. One of the most frequent desperate cries of the Lesser American Hardcore Metroid Fanboy plays out something like this: “If only Nintendo put as much effort in as they do for Mario and Zelda, it could be a real blockbuster!”

Except it couldn’t. And it has proven that time and again. It has sold, it is often said, respectably. That’s a business term for “We didn’t lose money…but it didn’t exactly pay our salaries, either.” Metroid’s critical and fan status is simply not reflected in sales, where Samus is holding at the 14th overall spot in Nintendo’s history. She’s managed to scrap together around 17 and a half million units moved in three decades, compared to just over a hundred million for Zelda and hundreds for Mario (that’s including every Mario game of any kind, but if you only include platformers, the series is still on top).

Simply put, Metroid doesn’t get the same attention as Mario and Zelda for the same reason Luke Cage or Cloak and Dagger don’t get as much love from Marvel as Spider-Man and X-Men: financially speaking, it doesn’t deserve it. No one argues that means Marvel hates Luke Cage; the sales just aren’t there to justify an equal amount of time, energy and resources.

Given all that, fans ought to be grateful the series is still around at all. Nintendo has tossed all of the Prime 4 resources spent so far down the crapper and re-started it just to get it right, when they would have been fully justified with just abandoning it. As a big fan of many minor characters and series, take it from me: when your preferred fan obsession is far from being top dog in the overall culture, sometimes you gotta stop whining and take what you get.

[bthenoise]

Q&A: Here’s How Some Of Your All-Time Favorite Music Videos Were Made Thanks To The Brilliant Max Moore

So you want to make music videos? Well, we have some good news and we have some bad news. The bad news? It takes a TON of hard work. The good news? We have some pretty solid advice from one of if not the best music video directors in our scene. 

Working with the likes of Converge, Code Orange, Knocked Loose, Motionless In White, Movements, New Found Glory and a ton more, Max Moore has built quite the reputation of being an ultra-consistent, ultra-creative and incredibly hard-working director working his way up from the DIY hardcore community. 

Talking with The Noise about getting started behind the camera and what he suggests to up-and-coming filmmakers, Moore commented, “I think it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game of what camera somebody has starting out or where you live.”

“I don't live in Los Angeles,” Moore said. “I live in a random ass city in the Midwest. And if you can just get away from all the bullshit and just focus on making really creative, cool ideas, then you're going to be somewhat successful over the people who just freaked out about the new stabilizer or piece of gear.”

With a resume of nearly 100 music videos, commercials and short films under his belt, Moore clearly knows his stuff -- which is exactly why we wanted to reach out to the talented 28-year-old and find out how he got his start making some of our favorite music videos.

To check out Moore’s story and insightful guidance for future directors, be sure to look below. Afterward, for more, head here.       

How long do you think you usually spend on an edit? Obviously different videos vary but what’s your average time?

MAX MOORE: Well, not all directors edit their own stuff. But for me, it's a big part of what I do. And in terms of having control over the final product, I mean, you can shoot and direct something amazingly [but] if you don't have a good editor, it can all kind of fall apart there. So editing is the one thing that I still do all myself. So as you can imagine, it just depends on the project. But even more so than that, it really just depends on the timeline from the label or management or whatever. 

For example, the [recent] Knocked Loose video, I edited it in like a week. And you know, that's like working on it six to eight hours for a few days or something like that. But I've also had crazy deadlines where it's like, “Hey, the video is literally supposed to come out in three days from when we shoot it.” So I'll just hunker down and edit nonstop for like 48 hours. So I've literally shot a video in LA, flew (because I actually live in Kentucky -- Louisville, Kentucky -- where Knocked Loose is from) back home and edited a video and turned it in and it came out like two days later. So yeah, it really just depends. But I think the biggest thing is just if the labels are like, “Hey, it’s not due for a while,” I'm gonna let it sit. [laughs] I'm not trying to kill myself just to get it done.

Do you ever overlap with videos? Or is it usually one project at a time?

I usually always kind of have multiple projects going at the same time. It's varied in different years. I've been doing this full time for about six years. Some years, I did insane amounts of music videos. Some years, I do a little bit less. I think the most I did one year was like 40 music videos or something crazy. So if you think about that, there are only 12 months in a year. So there's obviously going to be some crossover. But these days, I'm trying to -- when I was first doing this I was like, “I want to do as many as possible and work with as many artists as I can.” But these days, I'm trying to be more selective about what I take on and I'd rather do fewer, really good [videos] than just pump them out. So I've also started directing commercials as well. I don't want to do 40 music videos a year. It’d be nice to do a handful of ones I’m really passionate about.

For young filmmakers and directors who are just learning, what’s your time management like or the schedule that you give yourself on a day-to-day basis?

I think the biggest key, especially when I was getting started, I would get a lot of offers to do videos and I was just so excited to have the work that I didn't know how to say no yet. So I kind of overbooked myself, like the year I did almost 40 videos, that was so stupid. Like, truly. I mean, I worked like seven days a week for the entire year basically. So I think it starts before you even get the work. By that, I mean learning when to say no. You know, “That video sounds really cool, I like that band, but I just don't have time.” Or you know, “Hey, it's a good budget. I don't care about this artist. Nah, I'm going to pass.” You know what I mean? So I think it starts from the get-go and I'm learning to be better with that. 

As the years have gone on, in terms of the day-to-day, I think it's just like any business. It's prioritizing things that need to get done based on when they're due. I think that sounds like a really non-answer but I think it's important to keep to your schedule -- especially when you're self-employed and you do a lot of it yourself. It's really easy to get overwhelmed and not know where to start. But I like to stay organized by keeping a well-established schedule and prioritizing by what's due when and knocking it out in that order if that makes sense.

Is there one video in particular you had to turn down that you're super bummed about?

Yeah, I mean, there's been lots of cases over the years. But it's been less of that, like, “Hey, we want you to do it” and I feel like I have to pass. The things that I mostly get more bummed about are the videos where I write it -- so the way the normal process works is it's not usually, it happens a lot for me [with] someone I’ve worked with several times [where] we're directly working together and they know “Hey, we want Max to do the video.” So we’ll figure out the treatment and what the video is going to be, but I am working directly with them. 

But usually, the way it works is that my rep, my music video rep, which is just like (that's what they call it, it's like my agent, basically) and so she will send me tracks from record labels and say, “Hey Max, do you want to write on this?” And so say it's a really awesome artist that I would love to work with, it’s like, “Oh yeah, I would love to write a treatment for that.” She says okay, so then I spend the day putting together a music video treatment, sending it off to her and she sends it to the label. But the label is also collecting several treatments from several different directors and you don't know how many, who's writing, who else is also writing on it or how many. 

And so back to the original question. I've definitely gotten bummed like, “Oh my god, I'm writing a treatment for blah, blah, blah, whatever band or artist. I'm so excited!” And then it's like, “Yeah, they went with somebody else.” And then you’re like, “Ahhhhh.” [laughs] This is the name of the game. It's as frustrating as it can be music video directing, or directing for some production in general. [You] kind of just gotta have tough skin. And if you get your feelings really hurt by not getting a job or the client not liking the video or the edit, or whatever, you gotta just have thick skin and roll with the punches. The people that can roll with the punches consistently and keep trucking even though they get bummed on not getting stuff, those are the people that are successful and can have consistent work. Not saying that's me [laughs], but yeah. 

When you're writing treatments, do you feel like the ideas come to you pretty instantly? Or do you have to think for a few hours, sometimes days?

I think it just depends on the specific situation. There have been times where I'll get sent a song and I immediately have something come to mind and the treatments done in like an hour. Then there are also times where I've literally sat at a computer for hours and hours and hours and gone on walks, took a shower, left and drove around and there's nothing I can do [because] I'm 100% in writer's block. I finally just end up being like “Alright, I’ll write this down and submit it.” But I think it just depends on the situation. I think it's always easier in a situation where it's an artist that I know and that I've worked with previously. Like a band like Code Orange or Knocked Loose. I've worked with both those bands multiple times and we have a rapport, a creative rapport that we can kind of reference previous videos or it's really just a trust thing. Those kinds of artists that I’ve worked with trust me and trust what I'm writing is going to make sense for the song or the record or whatever. So it's always easier when I have a direct relationship with the artist rather than when it's just more the standard business thing where there's several layers of middlemen in between– my manager, or my rep, their manager, a video commissioner. That's where the creativity is a little harder to pin down.

It’s interesting having a job in a creative space because there isn’t just some button you can push to come up with ideas. Like when people say, “Hey, think of some ideas for this.” It’s really not that easy.

Totally. 

But talking about the artists you've worked with. You mentioned Code Orange and Knocked Loose. When you came up in this music scene was that the music you were listening to?

Yeah. So when I was younger, I'm 28 now, but all through middle school and high school, I played in lots of different punk and hardcore bands and toured. Did that whole thing. My friends were in a band called Xerxes that was signed to No Sleep Records, which was kind of a poppin’ label back in the day and so that was very much my world that I came from like the DIY punk hardcore scene. So naturally, a band like Code Orange -- I was friends with them and that was the music I was already playing and it sort of just kind of lent itself for me taking on those kinds of videos. I didn't like set out to specifically direct music videos, it just kind of happened naturally from the fact that I had a big background in music and all these friends that were in bands and all these connections. 

But at the same time, I stopped playing music and went to film school and then those two things just naturally lead together into one. But yeah, to answer the question: Yeah, I mean, that's the world I come from and that's kind of why so much of my work has been in that scene, whatever you want to call it. Obviously, I've worked with lots of different kinds of bands like pop-punk bands, indie bands, stuff like that. But it's all really under the umbrella of “alternative music,” that’s what I would call it. But the cool thing about having my rep is that she and the production company I'm signed with, they can kind of give me opportunities to write for artists and bands that are kind of outside my own connections. Like a pop artist or hip-hop artists or something like that. So, though I come from punk and hardcore, I love all kinds of music. I listen to hip-hop mostly these days. And so even though [punk and hardcore is the] majority of what my work is done in, I definitely have a strong desire to branch out and flex creative muscles in a different genre or different types of video. If that makes sense.

Yeah, so who are some dream artists you'd love to work with?

I mean, I’d want to do the biggest of the big. [laughs] I want to do a Beyoncé video [laughs]. I’d do anything, man. But the cool thing about my background is people kind of pin me down as always the “hardcore director.” But in reality, if you actually know me personally, you know that my kind of interests is so much broader than just hardcore. When I was 17, I was a hardcore kid. At 28, I'm just Max [laughs]. I can like Drake. I can like Beyoncé. I can like whatever. So really the dream artist is anybody who's willing to give me the time. I know that’s kind of a cop out answer, but yeah. Anybody who's just down to let me make some cool stuff. I'm always interested in working with them.

So do you think some advice to incoming videographers is to not pigeonhole themselves into just one category and instead branch out and try everything?

Yes and no. I think, oddly, some of the reasons why I've had consistent work over the last few years is because there is this network of bands in the scene. Whether it's the record labels I work with, I think just like any business you get hired because you get good at one thing where you specialize in something, like you know, a plumber or electrician or any type of business. A plumber is going to get hired to do plumbing and in that way, it's been good for me to continue to work with bands in a similar genre because it just keeps the ball rolling and you’re able to create a style. 

But that’s why I think, starting out, I think it is kind of cool. This has just worked for me. The thing about music video directing, or directing as a whole, is that there's no right or wrong path. It's not like becoming a doctor where you have to take a test, you pass the test and someone gives you a piece of paper and says you’re a doctor. Everybody's path to music video directing, or directing any type of production, looks very different. So I'm just speaking personally and what’s worked for me. So I think working in this kind of genre of music has allowed me to basically make a living. But I think once you get to a certain level, or have a certain amount of videos under your belt or if you're just bored and want to try something different, I think breaking out and not being afraid to branch out, that's the biggest thing. Be consistent and put yourself out there but at the same time, don't be afraid to try new things with new kinds of artists or people.

A good example of that as far as your music videos go has to be the Chapel music video you directed with all the giant breakfast stuff which we assume was pretty challenging for more reasons than one. Speaking of, what has been the most challenging music video for you to shoot personally?

I would probably say, the most challenging would probably be the [Code Orange] “Forever” video -- and then I'll have the worst day on set story, I'll share with you. But with [“Forever”], there was just a lot of logistics. I actually self-produced the music video. We shot in Louisville, Kentucky. So there's just a lot of working parts to the video. I mean, there's so much in it and the biggest thing, the challenge is the big pyrotechnic stuff at the end of the video. You know, if we were shooting in LA or somewhere like that, getting a pyro person is no problem. They're everywhere and you can get them. Normally, when I’m shooting in LA, there’s a production team, the producers will handle all that and make it happen. But trying to like, you know, maximize the budget and put everything I could into this video, shooting in Louisville was a better option, which is where I'm from and just finding a pyro team in Louisville, Kentucky was not possible. [laughs] There isn't anybody. So we had to bring people in from Nashville and it was just a lot. I remember being totally overwhelmed. If it was any other artist, I would have been like, “I can't.” But because my relationship is strong and special with that band and I care about the art and believe in what they're doing, I was like, “You know, this is an important record, this is an important single” and I just felt that it was like “You gotta go hard on this one.” And yeah, they ended up getting nominated for a Grammy for that song. I'm super proud of what they've done and seeing them grow. So I think just because I cared so much, that's why that was the most challenging one if that makes sense.

Totally.

And then the worst day on set was with this band called Motionless In White, which also involved a ton of pyro behind the stage. It was just the longest day and our gaffer, who had all the lights and equipment, he was a no-call no-show the morning of the shoot and set us behind. And then the pyro thing, we had all this fire on the stage inside this warehouse and it popped the sprinklers and sprinklers went all over everything and I had my camera in my hand and I'm like running out. And it wasn't clean water, this was like an old warehouse and it's black fucking sludge coming out of the sprinklers. And I was like, “Oh my god, dude.” I was freaking out like, “It's done. It's over.” 

But then somehow the crew like shop-vacuumed it all up and we kept shooting and then finally the stage caught fire. There was like 300 screaming tweens -- they were just fans but they were in the video and it was just straight chaos. Anyways, it was a crazy day. The video turned out, came out and that's all that matters. So what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

What do you think is one of the biggest things people misinterpret about being a music video director?

I think the biggest thing that people don't understand, the biggest part of my job that I didn't even know was the biggest part of the job is it's not just about “Hey, can you direct a video? Or can you make a video?” As a working music video director, it's all about writing. That's something I had no idea about when I first got into it. Like, you can yell action and you can shoot and you can edit and produce and make an amazing, clean product. But you will not get work consistently or at all really if you don't know how to write a treatment and accurately portray your idea and write it and set it up in a way that all parties involved can clearly understand. 

So the biggest misconception is that it's not just about being on set. So much of my day-to-day is writing and pitching. In that way, it’s not good enough to just be a good director. You have to be a good writer and a good salesman for the ideas that you have and that you believe in. And even if you don't believe in it, you have to make them think that you believe it. And then when you get there, and it turns out it works, everybody's happy. But I think that's the biggest misconception of what a day-to-day music video director is. It's a lot of sitting in front of a computer and finding reference images for your treatment or searching online for that one still [image] you remember from a movie that will be great to go into the treatment or coloring reference images in Photoshop. I mean, most of my job is that. It’s pitching. And then, that's intercut with the shoot days and the edits. But it's a lot of hard work and it's not for people who, you know -- production isn't like the cozy nine-to-five thing. You got to really want it and you’ve got to be willing to continually be putting yourself out there. And it's hard but when you find some level of success and work consistently [and] see people really dig the videos -- like the Knocked Loose video came out the other day and people were digging it -- that's when it feels like “Hey, you know this is really hard and sucky sometimes but wow, it's worth it.” 

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A post shared by Max Moore (@maxmoorefilms) on Apr 18, 2019 at 12:24pm PDT

What are some of your favorite music videos you've seen that really inspired you or made you wish you thought of first?

I think watching older Smashing Pumpkins music videos is huge for me. Also weirdly, My Chemical Romance. I was right in that era where they were huge when I was like in [my] teen years and I was certainly into hardcore and all that but I'm a sucker for pop-punk. I was into that kind of stuff and I was watching Fuse after school and stuff like that. So, those era music videos are iconic to me. 

From a young age, I always thought those videos were sick. [And] like Underoath videos and stuff like that. There's a theme of like, darker imagery that I was just naturally drawn to. But those are things growing up like, “Man, that’s so cool. I would love to do something like that.” [And] now I've gotten to write on some Underoath music videos recently, so it's all kind of full circle. I would love to do a Smashing Pumpkins video, that’d be amazing.

Did you ever watch Making The Video on MTV?

Totally! Looking back on that era of music videos, the music industry has changed so much since then with streaming and how the budgets were bigger for music videos. But I think now music videos are so much more important and relevant than they have ever been. You know, when I first started directing music videos, YouTube was really in its infancy for music videos. Vevo wasn't a thing, viral content was just getting on record labels’ radar. So I kind of slipped into the industry when it was in a lull, like YouTube wasn't this giant thing where music videos lived yet and here comes this little kid and I just had a DSLR and got into the DIY punk thing. Then as that rose back up and labels started to put in more money for music videos, I kind of rose with that as the internet gave a rebirth to the music video in some ways. 

I mean, certainly there was always the major label people that were getting good budgets even during this slump when streaming stuff started to come out. But for me, in punk and hardcore, I was able to slide in there and just -- there is such a big disconnect between watching Making The Video and then my early music videos because it's like a kid shooting in his bedroom some close up that is on a shitty $600 DSLR [camera]. I think even now, the biggest budget things I do now, I still always have that DIY, do it yourself, punk mentality. At the end of the day, even if I have like a 60-person crew, 40-person crew, 20-person, 10-person crew, I'm steering the ship and no one's going to care more about this video than me. And I just still try to take that kind of DIY spirit into everything that I do, even today.

Is there anything else you want to tell the people reading this?

I have a lot of kids DM me or email me asking like, “Hey, what lens should I get? Or what cameras do you shoot on? Or how do I get into directing?” And I think to kind of mass answer that or to give some encouragement -- I always say this but I think it's important -- I think it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game of what camera somebody has starting out or where you live. I don't live in Los Angeles, you know. I live in a random ass city in the Midwest. And if you can just get away from all the bullshit and just focus on making really creative, cool ideas, then you're going to be somewhat successful over the people who just freaked out about the new stabilizer or piece of gear. 

There's a time and place for that, you certainly have to be good at the craft. But beyond that, it's all about being creative and sticking to being DIY. If you want to direct music videos, there's no reason why you can't. Especially [since] everybody's an artist or some SoundCloud rapper these days. So everybody has someone that they probably know, at least by like a few degrees that is making music. And like, my phone shoots 4k [laughs] so there's no reason not to be able to make something if you want to do it. So just get away from all the bullshit and all the distractions and really just focus on creating cool ideas that are unique and push the boundaries.

That's really great advice. 

For sure. And I think it's, you know, people always hit me up because they want an easy-to-click answer. But the fact of the matter is everybody's path is going to look different. And if you just want it enough and you have that drive, you're going to figure it out. I think that's just with anything in life, for the most part. So the last thing I want is to come off like, “[If] you do this, you will be like me and have this.” I just work hard and I try to work with artists that I like and that's basically it.

[jpolish-writes-queer-ya-fantasy]

3 Secret Weapons for When Your Plot Hates You

Writing LUNAV took me about three years, give or take: that time frame includes at least five full rewrites. 

Writing LOST BOY, FOUND BOY -- which is literally a fourth the length of LUNAV -- took me a full year, most of which was time during which it just sat, partially done, in my notebook, antagonizing me.

The plot for LOST BOY, FOUND BOY hated my guts. Hardcore.

With LUNAV, I wrote chaotically. I wrote scene after disconnected scene, and then -- hence all the rewriting -- figured out what shape my plot wanted to take and wove them together.

With LOST BOY, scenes wouldn't come to me. I knew where I wanted to go, plotwise. I knew the elements I wanted to include. I knew what Peter's main emotional journey was going to be, I knew the subplots. I knew how the lesbians were going to fall in love. I knew everything about the damn thing.

Except I couldn't, for the life of me, write it.

Because the plot hated my guts.

But I had secret weapons. Granted, it took me a year to figure them out, but when I did? 

Score one for Jenn, score zero for that pesky plot.

What were my secret weapons, you might ask? Read on, dear reader. Read on.

1. Call a Truce (aka, take a break)

As writers, we often feel like we've failed when we take a break from our characters, our worlds. We feel like we're letting someone -- or the entire world -- down. We feel like not writing means we're not worth it as people.

But you are -- we are -- worth it, even when we're not writing, I promise.

Given that we often feel those things, though, it's tempting -- and I tried to do this so many times -- to say "oh look, I gave it a break: I didn't think about or look at my draft all weekend." And good try, but... no.

Gotta be longer than that. 

To really cleanse our minds, we've gotta turn to different projects: and sometimes, those projects are best not being writing at all. For me, it's the gym (it's always the gym, for me). It's also fan fiction (lots and lots of fan fiction).

I put LOST BOY down for, oh... eight months? I had no choice. I kept trying to force it, and the more I tried, the worse it got. 

I only came back to it when...

2. Talk it Out (with a reader, not a writer)

For me, a friend who's not a writer was actually most helpful. That's not a knock on my wonderful writer friends! It's just... the friend who isn't a writer listened to me moaning about LOST BOY, and the fix was pretty immediate.

She tilted her head and pursed her lips and said the most obvious thing in the world: obvious to her as a potential reader, not as a fellow writer empathizing with my pain about pacing and point of view and other such plot agonies.

As a potential reader, she shrugged her shoulders and made a passing statement that not only transformed and clarified how I was thinking about the project, but that also renewed my passion to dive back into a project that had been causing me so much emotional grief.

Suddenly, the project was new again; suddenly, I liked it again. Don't underestimate the power of liking what you're working on. It's so important, every time.

And, for those of you who're wondering: all she said was, "okay, so Tink is the computer." And... it all went from there.

3. Set a Liveline (get it?)

A liveline for yourself, you know... a deadline, except without... death.

Seriously, though: for me, telling my editor (or someone else to whom you feel accountable) that I was working on this project and could send it to him by xx date really lit a fire under me. And, because I'd set the date myself, it was something that I felt in control of, something that I was excited for. 

Saying to myself, "okay, you've marinated on this project for almost a year now; you've had a truly transformative conversation about it (in addition to a lot of non-transformative conversations about it!), and now you're excited about it again. Great! So... finish it by this date."

For me, it was invigorating and exactly what I needed.

You might notice that very little of this was about the plot itself. And that's intentional. So much of writing is in our own minds, in our own senses of self-worth; in our own feelings. Yes, it's a craft, and there are lots of craft-oriented strategies -- storyboarding comes to mind, as I've written about on here before -- but there's something about addressing our emotions as writers that, to me, is extremely helpful in the actual writing process. 

What about you? How do you get through when your plot hates you?

[girlwiththestories]

Too Nice - Rocky Lynch Imagine

You climbed up the steps of the bus with a sigh. You had a little bit of time until the show started and wanted to relax a little so you would be ready. Normally, you preferred to hangout at the venue, but tonight’s venue had such subpar dressing rooms that the cramped bus actually sounded better.

After locating your tablet, you sat down and put on the next episode of the show you were watching. You were completely engrossed in your show when Stormie Lynch appeared.

If you had learned anything the past few weeks, it was that Stormie was just as kind and caring in real life as she was on camera. She had welcomed you to the band bus with open arms calming your nerves about joining the tour as a non-family member. She had told you when you met that she would be your tour mother and that if you needed anything you could just ask her. Although your shyness had kept you from asking any favors, she had found opportunities to make tour life easier for you. She made sure to find time to chat with you, ironed your clothes before shows, and had even invited you to help her with making breakfast once she had learned how much you loved to cook.

Despite her kindness, you still didn’t feel perfectly comfortable with her. She was very talkative, and you were a little shy especially in new situations.

She said something you couldn’t quite make out and shook your shoulder gently as she walked by.

You took out your earbuds reluctantly–you had really been hoping to finish episode. “What?” You asked.

She laughed. “Oh, I was just asking how you’re doing today. I see you’re in here all by yourself.” She busied herself with clearing off the table.

“I don’t hangout in dirty dressing rooms. I’m usually not too picky, but these ones were really bad.”

“Well, I’m glad to see you’re making the best of the situation. You never know what tour is going to bring. That’s part of what makes it so amazing. You never know when you’re going to meet someone really neat or hear this story about how you’ve touched someone’s life. And the unpleasant things always end up being what we laugh about later…. I’m so glad you’re with us this time. It’s made this tour so special.” Having finished clearing the table, she took a seat at the bench behind it.

“Me too,” you said, giving words to the thoughts that had often been on your mind. “I’m so thankful for the opportunity. Never in my wildest dreams would have imagined getting to do this, and it’s been so incredible.”

She smiled. “I can tell you’ve been enjoying it. It’s done my heart good to see you hanging out with the others. It seems like you’re always laughing or smiling, and you play so beautifully night after night without getting tired. It’s like you were born to play keys for R5.”

“Thanks. I’ve been loving every minute of it. Piano has my heart, and it’s pure magic to get to play it with musicians as talented as your kids.”

“You’re talented too, sweetie,” she said. “And you’ve clearly worked very hard.”

You felt your face turn red. As much as you liked other people acknowledging your hard work, compliments about your playing still made you feel uncomfortable. “I love it so much it’s felt like nothing. Ever since I was a little girl, I have wanted to make music like this, and I’ve only fallen more in love with that dream as the years have passed.”

“That’s obvious. I always see pure joy on your face when you’re playing. But are you sure there’s not some other reason you’re really enjoying tour? Like getting to hang out with one of the boys?”

You squirmed in your seat not knowing what to say. You had always been a Rocky girl, and the two of you had been flirting all tour. But you still didn’t want to admit to Stormie that you were crushing on him. You knew she would be nothing but kind about it, but she seemed like just the one to bring it up at an awkward moment. So you avoided eye contact hoping she’d drop the subject.

Your heart sank when she continued. “Is it Rocky or Ryland? I’ve seen you flirting with Rocky, but that is also a great idea if you’re wanting to get Ryland jealous,” she said with a laugh.

You stared at your lap nervously. “It’s Rocky, and it’s always been Rocky.” You looked up and giggled awkwardly. “I’m too nice to flirt with Rocky when I’m really wanting Ryland’s attention. I know he doesn’t generally prefer overly nice girls, but that’s who I am.” You shrugged. “I can’t help it.”

She laughed. “I know he always says in the interviews that he wants a bad girl, but what guy wants to tell his guy friends that he wants a sweet, kind girl who’d be a good mom? I know my Rocky. He’s really looking for someone sweet like you.” Just then, a figure walked in. It was Rocky. You felt the color come to your cheeks as you moved your feet so he could pass. “Right, honey?” Stormie said to him. “Rocky?” She called when he didn’t answer.

“What?” He said when he reappeared from the bunk area with a chord of some sort in his hand.

“You’d prefer settling down with a sweet, kind girl to a bad girl who you know is bad news?”

“Uh.” Rocky looked at Stormie and scratched his beard. “I’m not sure yet. I’ll tell you when I find her.” He quickly made his exit.

After the door slammed, Stormie continued. “Maybe he doesn’t know yet, but I do. I’ve always known that he’d end up with a sweetheart of a girl like you.”

You looked down to avoid her eyes. “Stormie?” You asked. “Can you please not say anything to Rocky about this?”

“He already knows, honey. We’ve all known since tour started.”

“I know he’s aware of my feelings, but I just don’t want him to feel any pressure. I know he’s independent enough to not be swayed by anyone else’s opinion, but if he really likes me I’m sure he’ll say something.”

“Awww, you’re too sweet,” Stormie said.

“Please,” you pleaded. “Don’t say anything to Rocky about this.”

“Okay, I’ll promise you I won’t say anything unless he says something first.”

“I really better go. The stage makeup is calling my name.”

Stormie gave you a hug. “Love you, sweetie. You’re going to kill it tonight as usual.”

“Thanks,” you said, making your escape.

You opened the door of the venue and proceeded toward your dressing room. Ross met you in the hall. “We were looking for you.”

“Sorry,” you said as you followed him down the hall. “I was in the bus watching my show.”

“A longtime fan here has requested that we play Ain’t No Way We’re Going Home, and we realized you’ve never played it,” Ross explained. He poked his head in the dressing room. “Rocky, found her.”

“We’re out of time. The fans are already out there,” Rocky said ping pong paddle in hand. “We’ll have to just skip the keys this time.”

You felt your heart sink hating to be left out of any songs. “It’s okay,” you said in spite of the fear you felt at the thought of doing a song you hadn’t practiced. “I can do it.” That part was true, but you were still amazed at your own bravery. “Just give me a lead sheet, and I’ll wing it. Improv is the name of my game.”

“And I thought you were the girl who always insisted we practice?” Rocky responded in a sarcastic tone.

“Just because I prefer to practice doesn’t mean I have to. I’ve been preparing for situations just like this for years.”

Ross set his arm on your shoulder. “Thanks,” he said.

Rocky raised his voice to speak to Rydel who was across the room. “Yo, Del, will you print _____ up a sheet of Ain’t No Way We’re Going Home. She’s going be doing it with us.”

“Uhhh,” Rydel said looking up from her phone. “There’s no printer here, and I’m not sure we have time to find a copy place.”

“I’ve got this,” you said heading over to your backpack. You pulled out your pencil case and a notebook and sat down by Rydel at the table. Looking up the lyrics on your phone, you copied them onto a blank page.

After you finished, you showed it to Rydel. “Can you add the chords and when I’m supposed to play?”

“I’d help you, but it’s all muscle memory now. And I can’t exactly play my instrument.” She lightly tapped her fingers on the brace around her right wrist. “You’ll have to ask Rocky.”

You went over and stood by Rocky waiting until he made a shot that went over the other end of the ping pong table. “Rocky? Can you add the chords for me? If I have them, I know I’ll be fine.”

He took the pen. “Okay. Just a minute,” he added to Ellington. He walked over to the couch, and you followed him. “You’re serious about this aren’t you?

"Why shouldn’t I be? I wouldn’t want to let you or the fans down. It be a disappointment if even the fake Rydel wasn’t playing on that song.”

He smirked. You don’t have to be so hardcore, but thanks for jumping in.“

You watched him write the chords in his distinctive cursive script when you realized how little time was left into show time. "I gotta go,” you explained. “Wouldn’t want to go on stage with my face and hair looking like this.”

He smiled. “I’d tell you it’s fine, but that’s not what you want to hear.”

You laughed as you walked away. He was completely and totally wrong. You’d take a compliment about your appearance from him any day. Maybe you were too nice, but what could be better than being the girl that made him change his mind?

[preservationandruin]

Oathbringer Liveblog, Part Three: Chapters 63-67

Onward!!! Sorry for more delays, but we’re trucking into finals season here, and I’m constantly busy. 

Shallan’s visit to the palace cuts deep, I speculate on Kaladin and cheesy old high school romcom tropes, Jasnah writes the most Extra essay of all time, a lunch is stolen, Dalinar has a PTSD flashback, and I found Hoid

Still with Shallan, here, in Kholinar. Well, Veil, technically, who’s enjoying being in a city, even one as fucked up as Kholinar. The worst areas of Kholinar are near the city walls, where everything is cramped and overcrowded, but the entire city is going to shit. Near the palace, though, shit’s emptier. Even the soldiers, around that area, seem off. 

People in spren costumes are guarding the way to the Oathgate. That’s not good. And there’s fire coming from the platform, and...uh...screams. 

If there are ritual human sacrifices happening I’m going to be so pissed off. Anyway, turns out Veil has more of a thing for Kaladin than Shallan does, although BOTH have SOMEHOW mistaken Kaladin for a brooding bad boy. 

Kaladin’s not a brooding bad boy oh my god. He’s like...a grumpy nerd mom friend. It can be mistaken for brooding edginess from the outside, but. It is not. The way Shallan/Veil describes him you could see him as the typical leather-jacket-wearing bad boy smoking a cigarette in an old high school romcom movie but. Listen. The leather jacket is a hand-me-down and it hides a kitten he took in because he found it in a box in the rain and he’s not smoking, but he sure is delivering a lecture about lung health to whoever is. He glares bc he has 0 sleep and insists on taking on the problems of everyone around him. 

Anyway, the palace. Shallan gets in with the message from Elhokar, although the guards don’t break stride or even say anything. Shallan’s perception of the place is weird as well--the stairs seem to go on forever and then suddenly she’s at the top. 

“I was supposed to deliver it in person,” Veil though she itched to be out of this place. To flee madly, if she were being honest. She had to stay. Whatever she learned here would be of-- One of the soldiers ran her through.

YO WHAT THE FUCK

So uh, that happened. Shallan is trying to think of how to get out of there, and hits on what Jasnah did--faking death, and taking in just enough Stormlight to keep her from bleeding out. She wants to see what they’ll do to a dead body, I think. 

The guard carrying her passed a floor-to ceiling mirror rimmed in a fancy bronze frame, In it, she glimpsed the guard with Lyn thrown over his shoulder. And beyond that, deep within the mirror, something turned--the normal image fading--and looked toward Shallan with a sudden and surprised motion. It looked like a shadow of a person, only with white spots for eyes. 

I reiterate: YO WHAT THE FUCK

She’s dumped in an area where there is just. a line of corpses, some of them rotting, dressed in nice clothing. They’re in what was once the wine cellar. She engages in some hardcore repression to avoid thinking about the fact that she was just impaled and dumped in a room full of rotting corpses, and heads out of there. 

She gets out, and sends Pattern to go get Kaladin. Kaladin, although worried, manages to play it down and make a shitty pun, which helps with Shallan’s repression. 

You know, I would say repressing this isn’t healthy, and it’s not, but at the moment it’s sort of a crisis situation. There isn’t time for a freakout now; repressing it for now and coming back to it later could be the best option. Of course, being Shallan, she’s not going to want to come back to it. 

Over to Dalinar. He’s getting the Honorblade he found, musing to Stormfather that some people thought he was Jezrien or Kalak. Stormfather also notes that Ishar is at least as mad as the others, “more, perhaps.” That’s worrying. 

Only one, [Stormfather] said with a rumble. I...have seen Ishar. He curses me at night, even as he names himself a god. He seeks death. His own. Perhaps that of every man.  It clicked. “Stormfather!”  Yes? “Oh. Uh, that was a curse...Nevermind.” 

This is so funny. Somehow I didn’t think of it happening before it did, despite Stormy’s name being a common swear on Roshar. Anyway, turns out that the god-priest of Tukar who says he’s a god and is waging war and is generally a Thing that’s Been Happening, is Ishar. 

Great. 

Yours is the power Ishar once held. Before he was Herald of Luck, they called him Binder of Gods. He was the founder of the Oathpact. No Radiant is capable of more than you. Yours is the power of Connection, of joining men and worlds, minds and souls. Your Surges are the greatest of all, thought they will be impotent if you seek to wield them for mere battle. 

So that’s kickass. 

“Are there others like me out there?” he finally asked.  Not right now, and there can ever be only three. One for each of us. “Three?” Dalinar said. “Three spren who make Bondsmiths. You...and Cultivation are two?”  The Stormfather actually laughed. You would have a difficult time making her your spren. I should like to see you try it.  “Then who?”  My siblings need not concern you.

BUT STORMY I WANT TO KNOW

Anyway, Dalinar gives the Honorblade to Bridge Four to facilitate their training as Windrunners. Rock ends up taking it, apparently only trusting himself with something that powerful, which is fair. 

Meanwhile, Navani has learned how to give Dalinar’s fabrial wristwatch to have alarms. I love the evolving tale of the fabrial wristwatch and Dalinar attempting to get used to it. 

Anyway, Fen and Dalinar are waiting for Gawx’s Oathgate to open. Dalinar’s going through the gate alone, trying a suggestion from Fen. Navani packs him a lunch and...oh no. I know where that’s going and it’s not to Dalinar. 

Meanwhile, some random soldiers, trying to figure out how to get stormlight, are discussing whether or not you can swallow spheres. God dammit, guys, don’t be idiots. Also, shocking nobody, Sadeas’ men have become even worse under Amaram’s control.

Dalinar notes that it seems completely normal to see Jasnah with a sword, which, fair. Anyway, he’s in Azir on his own. We’ll see how this goes. Again, Dalinar has a moment of almost being able to understand another language. Stormfather comments that if he touched one of them, he could use “Spritual Adhesion” to make the connection. It works--he can speak Azish now. 

And what he brought to Azir wasn’t a sword. It was an essay, written by Queen Fen. And another treatise from Navani, offering state secrets. And the final essay, which was called “Verdict” and written by Jasnah. it’s just one page. 

And if you ever thought Jasnah didn’t inherit the Kholin Extra Gene: 

Though this was the shortest of the essays, he heard them whispering and marvelling over it.  “Look, it incorporates all seven of Aqqu’s Logical Forms!”  “That’s an allusion to the Grand Orientation. And...storms...she quotes Prime Kasimarlix in three successive stages, each escalating the same quotes to a different level of Superior Understanding?”  One woman held her hand to her mouth. “It’s written entirely in a single rhythmic meter!”  “Great Yaezir,” Noura said. “You’re right.” “The allusions...”  “Such wordplay...” “The momentum and rhetoric...” 

JESUS CHRIST, JASNAH. ALL OF IT IN A SINGLE RHYTHMIC METER. WHAT THE FUCK. 

We get another moment of Dalinar getting bothered by the Rift, Rathalas, again--something else happened there. Also, it turns out that while Alethi parshmen had acted Alethi, immediately gathering for war, the Azish parshmen had lodged a complaint with the government. 

Dalinar: contests of kingdoms are supposed to be masculine i should be able to handle this Stormfather: LMAO

AAAAND HIS LUNCH IS GONE. Lift, that was some fast work. 

Lift cocked her head. “Huh. You smell like her.”  “Her?”  “The crazy spren who lives in the forest.”  “You’ve met the Nightwatcher?”  “Yeah...you?”  He nodded. 

She does offer him one of the bowls of dried fruit, which is a surprising gesture from Lift. In any case, they sit there in silence until the viziers come back; Dalinar notes that Noura, the main vizier, does seem fond of Lift, although Lift doesn’t see it that way. 

And Gawx and the council have agreed to meet with Dalinar!  And it was Navani’s essay that convinced them, giving Dalinar a moment to brag a little about his amazing wife. Noura mentions that she thought he would be an animal, a monster--

And it triggers something. A flashback, the worst yet--all of the memories coming back. 

He remembered what had happened to Evi. It had started in a cold fortress, in highlands once claimed by Jah Keved. It had ended at the Rift. 

Oh shit y’all, we’re getting what happened. 

We’re back eleven years ago. Adolin is looking out a window with Dalinar, and Dalinar is showing him a tactical defense against Shardbearers--I gotta say, tween Adolin is adorable. He’s 12. 

Though the last few fights had been disappointing, having his son with him had been an absolute delight. Adolin hadn’t gone into battle, of course, but he’d joined them at tactics meetings. Dalinar had first assumed the generals would be annoyed at the presence of a child, but it was hard to find little Adolin annoying. He was so earnest, so interested. 

This is the cutest shit I’ve ever seen. I wonder what Renarin is doing--he’s probably back with Evi, given that he’d be around, what seven to nine at this point? Still pretty small. 

Dalinar in the present: I’m so glad that I’m exploring ways to ally with people without shows of force. I’m tired of my entire life being fighting and blood and people getting hurt

Dalinar in the past: 

It was gratifying to see how much one could accomplish in both politics and trade by liberally murdering the other fellow’s soldiers. 

Yikes. 

Anyway, Evi comes in and starts fussing over Adolin, who was supposed to be wearing a jacket but wasn’t. He has to go to his geography lessons, but he doesn’t want to leave Dalinar, which again, is adorable. Also he still hugs his mom, even though that’s “un-Alethi.” 

Honestly, being a proper Alethi sounds utterly joyless. Dudes can’t eat sweet food and you can’t hug your parents? That sounds like bullshit. 

Apparently, Renarin stays mostly in Kholinar, and Evi still thinks Dalinar doesn’t see him enough--which, given that Dal literally didn’t answer her letters or talk to her until she came to the battlefield, I’ll believe. Ren probably never sees his dad. 

I know I’ve said this before, but Dalinar did not deserve his wonderful wife and perfect children. He’s connecting with Adolin, but only because Adolin isn’t like him, and he’s not even making an effort with Renarin, and that’s fucking awful parenting. 

Gavilar has sent a letter, saying that they need to talk,  but first, he needs to send Dalinar to the Rift; Dalinar will meet up with Sadeas’ forces, and also someone--nobody knows who--is supporting Tanalan, the person rising against Gavilar’s forces. 

Great. Dalinar, Sadeas, and the Rift. Clearly nothing here will go wrong. 

Dalinar says, casually,  that he doesn’t think they’ll settle back in Kholinar at any point--and then is startled when he looks up to see Evi crying. 

The sight stunned him, and he dropped his pencil. She tried to hold it back, turning toward the fire and wrapping her arms around herself, but the sniffles sounded as distinct and disturbing as breaking bones. 

I love how the similes that Dalinar uses, like the rockbuds like skulls and here, the sniffles like bones breaking, give so much insight into how violent his personality is. It’s wonderful writing.  Anyway, Dalinar didn’t understand how painful living seven years on the road, seven years of constant transition and upheaval and war, were to Evi. Evi even thought of going to the Nightwatcher to ask for intelligence, so she didn’t feel so outclassed by the other women in the area--and when Dalinar says that’s blasphemy, she points out that the only time people seem to care about Vorinism is to point out that it’s better than her beliefs or to swear on the names of the Heralds. 

She’s got a lot of points. And then Dalinar suggests that they go, vacation somewhere, maybe bring Adolin...and Evi has to point out that Dalinar has two sons. 

...you know, I’ve been the kid who gets left out when planning family trips. And it fucking sucks to be the one who always gets forgotten because the other kid is more important. My tolerance of Dalinar’s bullshit (when he’s at this age--current Dalinar is much more appreciative of Renarin, and thank god) is dropping by the second. 

DALINAR! DOES! NOT! DESERVE! HIS! WONDERFUL! WIFE! AND! AMAZING! CHILDREN!

Anyway,  he’s planning to go to the rift, and I’m planning to physically manifest in the book to fistfight him--or, more practically, to infiltrate Kholinar and befriend little Renarin, because it really sounds like he needs more care and affection than he’s getting. 

Anyway, after that, we get to go back to Shallan, who’s still repressing the fact that she was brutally murdered, because she’s Shallan and represses everything. 

I want to make it clear--I love Shallan. I just keep pointing this out because I see it, and it’s dangerous to repress all your emotions. 

A day after being murdered in a brutal fashion, Shallan found that she was feeling much better. The sense of oppression had left her, and even the her horror seemed distant. 

This! is! repression!

Anyway, Elhokar is drawing out a representation of the city, a full map with the palace and Oathgate platform. Shallan even notes that it’s pretty good. He’s still refusing to accept that Aesudan might be part of the problem, but...listen. We all know Elhokar is the world’s worst judge of people. He might just...remain in denial on this point. Certainly everyone else is just like “...sure, Elhokar, we’ll go with that” and exchanging glances behind his back. 

We get that his son’s name is Gavinor, though. That’s adorable. He’s gotta be around six, though, right? Elhokar was at war for around six years, and nobody mentioned trips back to Kholinar. 

Brandon please do not hurt the six-year-old. I realize this is a very low bar but given these books, if we learn that the fires on the Oathgate are ritual sacrifices and whoops, Gavinor was burned to death, i would not be surprised, but I would feel sick to my stomach for the next decade. 

Elhokar has a plan--infiltrate, try to figure out what’s going on with the Oathgate. Adolin and he can try to reconnect with prominent lighteyes who are still doing things and are alive in the city; Kaladin can see who this Azure person is on the wall. 

Adolin points out that they still have to address the fact that Aesudan was accused of being hugely wasteful; Elhokar mentions that Jasnah said that he shouldn’t marry her, but that Elhokar did because he felt like he needed someone strong--oh, I see what happened. It looks like Aesudan was another in the line of people who saw Elhokar, knew that he was weak, and her approach was to gain power by offering herself as a tool to make him look stronger. 

Or she’s a good person, Elhokar’s right, and we’re all barking up the wrong tree. I don’t think this is true, but I want to keep an open mind. 

Shallan is going to investigate the Cult of Moments, and Kaladin also points out--they need to figure out where on earth the food is coming from in the city. 

Veil is on the move in the city! She’s going to try to get a feel for the attitude of Kholinar, how the people think, why this Cult of Moments has such sway. We also get that the bodies that Veil found in the palace were only a few of the over thirty who were supposed to have met with Aesudan, and that these were some of the less powerful ones. 

God, Kholinar is choking to death on its own mysteries. 

Shallan finds a grain station, but it’s not being run well and apparently,  they purposely withhold grain from the poor and the young--some of those who will need it most. Yikes. The servants of lighteyes get food, and the poor darkeyes don’t. Veil is pissed--she seems to be gaining Kaladin’s indignation at lighteyes via osmosis. 

That’s a really weird thing. Shallan is herself a lighteyes--and one who is habitually fairly blind to her own privilege as one. But Veil is a darkeyes, albeit one with access to all of Shallan’s resources. As Veil becomes more definite, I wonder if Shallan will start to empathize more and understand her own position, or will she keep the experiences of her various selves separate? 

HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WIT IS IN THE CITY, SPOUTING SOME BULLSHIT ABOUT THE MOONS, OF COURSE. He’s dressed weirdly--he’s gotten his hands on one of Sadeas’s livery coats? and a scarf? 

Anyway, he’s busking, as he tends to. he’s telling a story about Tsa, a queen of Natanatan, and Mishim, the middle moon and the cleverest, who tries to escape her duty. Wit’s doing that thing where he’s using powders and smoke to make magical scenes in something that is and is not like Lightweaving; something startled him for a moment, but he moved back into the story. Mishim gets Queen Tsa to think that one of her towers--her works of art--were blemished from the top. Tsa then offered to trade places with Mishim, so she could see from the top. 

And Wit recognizes Shallan, despite her wearing Veil’s face. Of course he does. I’m not even surprised. 

Anyway, apparently Tsa got along better with the other two moons than Mishim did, and apparently Tsa had a child with Mishim--a child with blue skin, and that’s why the people of Natanatan have bluish skin. Interesting--I wonder if some part of this is relevant or true? We know that it’s possible that the Natanatan people are half-Aimian and that’s how the skin happened. 

Anyway, Wit doesn’t answer why he told that story now, but instead says that he misses his flute, and then says that Shallan looks like she could use the opportunity to...buy him food. 

Well, our favorite freeloading magic hobo has returned. 

[universal-kitty]

I'm going through... Girl issues... So I was wondering how you'd imagine your F/O's would react if they found you upset over your time of the month?

   Y’know, this actually lets me to bring up a fun fact I’ve never really gotten to use before.... The fact that sometimes, I have a headcanon about everything. From what they do/use while showering, what modern clothes a certain older-time-period F/O would wear, and so on... Just little details I think up while going about my own day.

   So! While I haven’t thought of this one actively, it’s definitely something that’s cropped up for me. When things hurt, the only thing you can do is think up an F/O to comfort you, right??

   So! For those who I have icons for, we’re gonna get right into how they start comforting when things get to be too much. Sorted into “knows what they’re doing” down to “has no idea, but is trying their best...”

Abe Sapien: He has no idea what’s going on, at first. This is something he has to study, so the first time it happens, he’s a bit behind on the program.

Come the next time, Abe not only completely knows what to do, but even starts to soothe pain better than what most human doctors could provide.

Hard to figure out how he does it, but honestly, who’s complaining?? He’s a savior to those who deal with cramps and his way with words make it easy to just listen to him and not focus on how gross nature can be.

Kurama: You want a sweet boyfriend who’s going to fuss over you until you feel better?? Look no further than the sweetest redhead, Kurama.

When he was forced to get along with humanity by being reborn, Kurama ended up getting attached to his human mother. So that meant learning about ways in which he could help, especially as she gets older. This meant learning even more than he thought would be necessary, but that’s fine. Bound to be useful someday, right?

Sooner than he thought.

But it’s worth it, in it’s own way. He finds it really fulfilling to help his “mate” with such a problem.

Also likes to pride himself on getting used to it and knowing sometimes before even the other does that, oop, you need this now, right? Here you go~

Mordin Solus: He prides himself a scientist, so when the topic of cramps and bleeding comes up, Mordin immediately wants to learn all about it.

I rank him as “helpful”, but sometimes that’s a bit questionable, to be honest. He’s mostly there for research. He will help with the pain, though. Can’t have that!

“But pain is fascinating. Judging by flow, must be to stimulate it. Get it all out. Remarkable.”

He’s a little gross like that, but still lovable. Besides, he likely ends up learning a lot from that, thus making your own period-experience go a lot better.

Thane Krios: Thane’s been around long enough to know that humans bleeding are a thing. Especially in undesirable places in females. Isn’t that life, though? He usually didn’t pay much attention to it.

But now he’s picking up that past slack, recalling things he’s heard and learning things as he goes to help.

It honestly upsets him a little when his Siha is in pain, but feels better knowing that later, she’ll feel better... This wave of pain just needs to pass.

He’s the most understanding of the ones who “don’t get it, but do their best”, honestly. Thane understands that it’s a messy thing and if things get bloody in the process, it’s alright. It’s natural and he’ll help out however he can.

Toshinori Yagi: He’s bleeding, they’re bleeding... It’s a mess. Everyone in this apartment is bleeding in one way or the other. (But his isn’t supposed to be happening naturally, so... She’s the one better off, hah!)

It’s a little...embarrassing, but he’s happy to help. Especially since most people will now call him out for having a girlfriend and that’s just.... Such a nice thing to be constantly reminded of. He’s got a girlfriend. He’s helping his girlfriend by doing this. Nice.

He fusses a lot for the first one, but by the time a year is out, he’s got everything down pat. Remind him of how much better he’s gotten. Watch him be proud of himself. It’s CUTE.

Godot: Speaking of sweet guys doing their best, here’s a Godot. Not as sweet as the others, maybe, but his bittersweetness is still great to have around. (Okay, I’ll try to chill with those lowkey coffee refs.)

...Actually, there’s not much to say on him. He is a really good boyfriend in that he goes out and buys what his girl needs, no problem. Doesn’t bat a lash at it, aside from asking about what brands she prefers. Oh, and does she want snacks? Probably should get a few of those two.

Most of the comfort snacks will probably involve coffee...and by “probably” I mean most certainly. Coffee is love, coffee is life.

Link: He has no idea what he’s doing, but is he going to do his best?? You betcha!!

(Gonna have to write this one in some kinda...modern AU. Cause do Hylians even bleed? What do they do, then, when it happens?? These are questions unanswered.)

It’s pretty frustrating for him at first; he has no idea what he’s doing and his girlfriend is in pain. If there’s anything this reincarnated hero doesn’t like, it’s people in pain that he can’t help.

It’s why he has to learn from example and then slowly gets the idea of how to make it all work. From working with cravings to what brand and type they like best.

It’s no Ganon, but seeing her smile makes him happy, sO--

Tom: He’s a mild bit surprised when he realizes ‘oh shit, my gf is bleeding and that’s natural’... Cause for some reason, it strikes me that Tom would likely not know a lot about this kinda thing.

He does his best and that’s what counts, though.

Also tries playing his bass sometimes. Anything that might distract from the pain of cramps.

This is coming from the possessed guy, but humans are fucking weird.

Tord: He initially tries to play it off like he doesn’t care...but he does. He goes through multiple stages of emotions before deciding that it must suck to bleed like that....but that’s so cool!!! So hardcore!!!!! Bleeding and pain, hell yeah!! How do you make periods into a Red Army motto?

It’s mostly Paul and Patrick who tend to his S/O more than he does, but... Mm, Red Leader business is happening. He’ll be back whenever he feels like it.

...It’s sooner than you think.

He’s so awkward, but he tries. Mostly cuddles by the way of him flopping on top first, and then rolling over when complaints are being muttered into his hoodie.

He actually surrenders it sometimes??? A real treat, coming from him. And it’s always the one he’s been wearing up until that point, so.... Perfect.

Captor Family: I’m gonna use Psii as a placeholder, cause... Honestly, the fam as a whole would more or less treat their S/O the same way, SO..... Yeah.

They’re all confused. Human girls bleed?? Why??? Trolls don’t. Why would humans? What... What?? Makes no sense. Something must’ve gotten lost in translation.

Sollux acts like he doesn’t care (much like Tord), but also will still shove things onto them that they don’t know how HE knows.... Either he snoops or he’s been spying again. ...Letting him off the hook this time...

Mituna does his best. It’s mostly getting things for you, while collabing on snacks, and then he contributes by trying to make you laugh and feel better. It’s...nice. He’s a sweetie~

Psiioniic is the biggest adult of the trio, in the sense that he does what needs to be done and without any of Sollux’s tsuntsun attitude. Is it still a little embarrassing for him? Yes. Does he do it anyways? Of course! Also, being cradled in psionics is a 10/10 experience. Super comforting and also a little tingly.

Sidon: One of the most baffled of this group, Sidon is also the most concerned when his beloved admits to bleeding from time to time. That does not sound good! Do they need a medic...?

Being natural is even harder for him to accept, but he does... Still worries him, though. (He later files it under “More Reasons Why My Beloved is Amazing” and starts using it as another excuse to sing praises, but.... Who’s complaining to that....?)

He does what he can to make things more comfortable. If it’s in his power to do (and usually, it is), then he’ll do it!! (Or ask Link for help, if it’s something harder for him to do alone. Surely the Gerudo could help more??)

Pain will lessen with Zorae doctors on the case and you’ll never feel too bad when Sidon reminds you of how amazing you are.

....Someone please get me a real-life Sidon, I need a do-gooder fish guy in my life--

And to represent the vampires of DiaLovers as a whole... Kanato icon. Cause honestly, if you ever wanted to watch a group of guys usually end up enept because of a monthly thing, welcome to the Sakamaki/Mukami/Tsukinami households.

Kanato is often the worst of them. The scent of blood makes him want to drink, but that kind is bad...and for the moment, he does recognize that he can’t have his fill because of the current situation. It makes him mad and fussy.

He only finds his peace when sitting in the gardens. Keeping them just far enough that he see, but not smell, and singing to himself softly. That’s much better for him.

Kou Mukami also gets pouty, but handles it a lot better. He also actually knows how to help with such issues, which is a relief.

Azusa Mukami is...less talented than Kou, but that’s often why he’ll go to the other for help and advice. He sorta thinks bleeding like that is neat, but... Mm. Also not entirely interested. It’s a confusing thing for him, really.

Carla Tsukinami is the worst of the group... Second only to Kanato, maybe. Gets huffy with the scent of blood in the air, prone to angry fits, and doesn’t know how to help. So it’s bad for awhile. Gotta point him in the right direction and then he’ll start cooling off...

Yeah, that’s the trick, here. Once he feels helpful, then he relaxes. Like.... Jinkies, Carla, calm down. It’s not the end of the world, yanno.

[machinehead]

CHARLOTTESVILLE

I’ve debated even writing this. You all know how I feel. I’ve said probably all I’ll ever need to say on the subject a year and half ago. I’m going to tell you the conversation my wife and I had Sunday morning. As she drank tea (me; Blue Bottle coffee) I told her about the white supremacist rally(s) held in Charlottesville, Virginia on Friday and Saturday, she had only heard bits… She was appalled. We discussed how people could feel that way, read our president’s pathetic “many sides” response to a domestic terrorist attack by white supremist's, watched the horrifying videos of a white supremacist's car barreling though counter-protesters killing one woman and injuring 34, and looked at the barreling car photo in the NY Times showing a pair of shoes on the ground (where a person used to be) while men hung upside-down in the air. It was seriously disturbing. She looked at me and said “ I hope you’re not planning on writing a General Journal about this…?  I don’t want to have my life threatened again, I don’t want to have out kids lives threatened again… this kind of stuff scares me”. I sat in silence.  I let her know I had begun dabbling with one a little before she woke up. She continued, “Berto, I was scared to go to your birthday bash, worried that some whack-o was going to bomb the place or do something crazy to you, or me, or someone else." "People know how you feel, do you need to add fuel to the fire?” And she’s right. I don’t need to add fuel to the fire. What happened to my family as a result of the “Racism In Metal” video was fucking scary. She’s not over it. I’m not over it. Hence, why I debated this. Even a year and half later, when I go out to most big metal shows, at least one group screams “white power” at me. I keep my head up, do my best to ignore them. And while a healthy fear of whack-o’s comes with the territory of being married to someone famous, no one “wants that”. Out of respect to her, I told her if I finished writing something, I would show it to her before posting asking for her blessing. She read this and said "go for it". So I’m not gonna offer my opinions on the events in Charlottesville. Instead, I’m gonna tell you a story about a journalist I used to know. His name was Onno Cro-Mag. He was a Dutch hardcore journalist / hardcore scene supporter /and co-owned a record company with Agnostic Front’s Roger Miret. He passed away a few years ago, but the mark he left on me was deep. And while the story is a little hazy to me 20 years later, I’ll do my best to honor the dead. I first met him on our 1994 tour across the Europe.  He interviewed me a few times, we shared a mutual love of the hardcore band Cro-Mags, (that’s Onno who comes up and sings back ups on our Cro-Mags cover of “Hard Times” in the Dynamo ’95 YouTube clip). Ya see… Onno was an ex-skinhead.  An ex-racist-skinhead. He was extremely open about that to me during our conversations / interviews and it always caught me a little off-gaurd.  Not in a bad way… but let’s face it, how many ex-nazi’s do you know?  It’s not the first thing you expect to hear out of someone’s mouth. He explained to me how he’d gotten caught up in some bullshit in the scene, at some point something serious happened, serious enough that it shook him out of it. He never looked back. At least in the handful of conversations we had, he looked back on those days with a brutal honesty and regret that was palpable. But he wasn’t apologetic about it, he was strong about it.  He fucking owned it.  It was a life-lesson that he never let himself forget. I gotta tell you, I’ve never met anyone quite like him. And it’s not like because he realized the error of his ways, that all was forgiven.  No, no, no.  He faced considerable danger from his ex-partners, he faced a considerable lack of trust from people who knew the “old Onno”. It bothered him deeply. We could all learn a lot from Onno Cro-Mag. We should all aspire to be so honest with our flaws. Because we all have them. We were/are all assholes at one (or many) points in our lives. I’m no exception to that. I look back on the person I was in my mid-twenties and think “who the fuck is that guy?” And if you change, someone will always be there to shove it in your face, the asshole you have been. Now more than ever, in today’s “gotcha” society someone is gonna try and say to you “LOOK, you were like THIS before!" I can assure you, as soon as I post this, some dickhead will post a 22 year old photo of Kerry King and I (from when MH and Slayer toured together in 1995), arms by our sides, walking alongside Jeff Hanneman and Gary Holt (both in nazi-salute), and go “why didn’t you write a song about these guys?!” Or say, “you’re a hypocrite for saying what you said about Anselmo!” That’s been the racist's rallying cry for decades, “how, if you’ve ever been racist, can you decry racism?”. Welp… Guess what..? That just ain’t gonna happen. And the fact is, most people are incapable of change. Once someones mind is made up, whether via political party, religion, whatever... it’s nigh impossible to change. It usually takes a considerable tragedy to shake ‘em out of it, and even then... But people can change. I don’t care if someone was in the nazi rally Saturday, if they were disgusted by the senseless death of Heather Heyer, and said “Fuck this shit, enough... I’m out”…. we need to be tolerant enough to respect that. A tad skeptical…?  Sure. As I wrote this today, I read a story about an ex-white supremacist named Christian Picciolini who started an organization to help people get out of the WP movement called Life After Hate. In a nutshell:  they are a non-profit created by former members (called “formers”) of the American violent far-right extremist movement. Their goal is to "work with individuals who wish to leave a life of hate and violence, and help organizations (community, educational, civic, government, etc.) in grappling with the causes of intolerance and racism.” In their own words, "Life After Hate works to counter the seeds of hate we once planted." Because on the flip side of this fiery topic, we need be non-judgemental of the defectors of that movement.  The Onno Cro-Mags of that movement, who wish to change, who want out, but fear they won’t be accepted by anyone other than their own. I’ll leave you with this. Saturday my buddy Sean Doolittle (ex-Oakland A's pitcher and current National's pitcher) was on a tweet rampage (he along with comedian Patton Oswalt were seriously giving me hope for the entire world). Amazingly Sean has not been silenced and regularly post provocative, thoughtful opinions on political land mines for subjects. Kudos to him for being such a high profile sports figure, and still letting his voice be heard. He tweeted: "People say, 'if we don’t give them attention, they’ll go away'. Maybe. But if we don’t condemn this evil, it might continue to spread.  This kind of hatred has never gone, but now it’s been normalized, they didn’t even wear hoods. It’s on us to condemn it and drive it out. There is only one side. Actual nazi’s just marched on Charlotesville, we have to come together and drive this hatred & domestic terrorism from our country. While it’s important to protect free speech, we have a patriotic obligation to condemn racism and domestic terrorism." - Sean Doolittle Links: https://www.lifeafterhate.org https://www.exitusa.org http://www.npr.org/2017/08/13/543259499/a-reformed-white-nationalist-speaks-out-on-charlottesville

[minaminokyoko]

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (Spoilertastic Review)

This is definitely the right film to kick off the summer movies of 2017. It’s so nice to be able to just sit down and have fun at the movies. Marvel really has nailed the sense of wonderment and escape, although we do get more serious subject matter this time around. I’d say that while I really enjoyed this film, I don’t quite like it as much as the first one. However, that’s not to say it’s not as good. It’s just personal preference after the premiere. I’ll decide further after I see it a second and third time.

 Naturally, spoiler alert.

Overall Grade: B+

Pros:

-Man, can I just say how much I appreciate the cinematography for these films? So few people can properly tackle a space epic and make the weird worlds out there in the galaxy feel foreign, but still believable. I love the visuals. I love how clean and creative they are. What I found impressing me the most was probably the effects for Ego (Kurt Russell)’s various forms and as he deteriorated or got destroyed. It was incredibly impressive. I’ve always enjoyed how immersive the Guardians films are and how they make a point to look different from other space flicks, which is a feat in and of itself. It’s easy to fall into traps borrowing from older works, but they do a fantastic job of keeping things fresh.

-Like the first movie, gut busting lines are perfectly sprinkled throughout the film. There is always something to break up the heavy subject matter at just the right time.

-I really like that they explored Peter’s backstory a bit more, especially when we saw a handful of flashbacks with him as a kid and little side adventures with him and his team members during that last scene in the final act. It’s good to humanize Peter, since it would’ve been easy to just make him cavalier like Tony Stark. I also love how he immediately stuck to his guns (literally, holy shit) the second that he realized that Ego wanted to wipe out all life and that he killed his mother. It takes a lot of nerve to rebuke a small-G god and I was really proud of him for having the balls to stand up to his father.

-Although I wish there had been pay off for it (will discuss that below in the Cons section), I also like that we get to see a little more of the developing relationship between Peter and Gamora. I know I’m in the minority fandom-wise, but I ship the crap out of them and I really liked the scene where they go for a walk and she talks him through his feelings. I love the idea that she’s his confidant and that she’s actually invested in how he feels even if she does have a bad case of the Lady Doth Protest Too Much. It was really sweet to see that she listens to his stories and she cares about not only his physical well-being, but his mental well-being too. Plus, little things like the lack of personal space between them (one of my favorite things about a ship, honestly) or how she indulged in a little dancing just for him was truly sweet and it showed that she’s not just a conquest to Peter, but a friend and someone who provides a unique relationship instead of just being a love interest.

-A more in-depth look at Gamora and Nebula’s relationship was brilliant. Not only does it pass the Bechdel Test, it’s fantastic because I always sensed in the first movie that there was a larger history at work, but the film didn’t have time to explore it. I’m glad they did. It lends much more sympathy to both characters and lets you in on how strong both women are to have survived Thanos and each other in the meantime. It gives an all new meaning to that line, “Of all our siblings, I hated you least” and it shows why Nebula was so damned intent on killing Gamora the first time around. I can’t imagine what it had to be like to be tortured every time you lost a fight and all you ever wanted was to be left alone or have someone in your corner, and it’s even worse that Thanos did that since it was beyond Gamora’s control. Lose and get tortured, or win and someone else gets tortured instead. I really hope Thanos gets what’s coming to him.

-It was a pleasant surprise to see them also focus on Rocket, who I believe was the runaway favorite character from the first movie, on a real level discussing what a complete and total asshole he is (mostly) and bringing up the fact that while it’s not totally just an act, he’s hiding insecurities under all that venom. I certainly didn’t expect to see that in this film and it’s quite refreshing that they could surprise me this way. Especially when they did a comparison to Yondu, which was also a surprise to me, but again, we’ll get into that below.

 Cons:

-Yondu’s redemption arc was pretty damn abrupt. Now, keep in mind, I am a casual comic book fan so this may have been a nod to all the hardcore readers, but as someone going into the film with zero prior knowledge, this was a big heel turn for me. Keep in mind, I went to the double feature showing and so I saw the first film immediately before the sequel and that’s why it felt so sudden for it to be revealed that Yondu had a code of honor and was part of a larger organization. He felt completely cold blooded and self-serving in the first film, so it’s hard to swallow that he had a heart this whole time when I’m kind of convinced he would have killed Peter in the first movie. I just don’t feel as if they provided enough evidence to prove otherwise, even with the noble sacrifice in the end. Now, this is not to say that his redemption arc was unsuccessful, but it sorta feels like a retcon. His actions don’t match each other from film to film, though his actions are clear when you watch the films separately. I was genuinely touched when he saved Peter, but I just think it doesn’t quite gel with the evidence provided in the first film.

-The Taserface gag was a little flat and it took up a lot of time that I think it didn’t need to, honestly. Most of the lines and jokes in the film are genuinely hilarious, but I think they tried a little too hard with that one. Plus, they still haven’t explained how much of Terran culture the aliens are aware of or where we are relative to them. I think it raises too many questions and it wasn’t that hilarious to begin with, it was more distracting than anything else, but keep in mind that I’m an author and I think too much.

-The music was good, but I think the first movie has a stronger soundtrack.

-I wish the payoff for Peter and Gamora had been a little stronger. I’m not talking about just the fact that we didn’t get a kiss. I think that Gamora had a realization towards the end, but it would’ve been nice for them to hold a whole conversation rather than just reference that “unspoken thing” trope. (Although I’m kind of laughing because I made a post about the Held Gaze trope between them and it almost feels like the movie brought that up, but I’m just being dumb.) I wanted a kiss, if only because it sounds like everyone’s gonna fucking die in the Infinity War movie and I like having closure before we get to the apocalypse of the Marvel movies. I know I’m just a shipper and shippers gotta ship, but it would’ve done me a world of good for a sweet moment like that after shipping them for three straight years.

-Baby Groot is a bit overused. I know that large franchises like to push mascots or characters that they know they can capitalize on, but he did start to wear on my adult brain after a certain point. I just don’t find him that irresistible, personally, and while it wasn’t as bad as something like that goddamn useless fucking snowman from Frozen, it did make me slightly disappointed that they leaned so hard on him for comedy and for screentime. Thank God unlike the stupid snowman from Frozen, he was useful throughout the film, but I do think it’s worth mentioning that they made no bones about his marketability here and maybe I’m not okay with it.

-I’m kind of bummed that almost everyone but Peter got sidelined in the final act. I called it earlier when we found out Ego was evil and I was trying to figure out how the team would defeat him, but they didn’t, it was all Peter. I regret that a lot since they didn’t get to contribute the awesomeness we saw in the first film. I loved Yondu with the save and the sacrifice, but it sucks Gamora, Nebula, and Drax didn’t get to directly stop Ego. Rocket, Yondu, Peter, and Mantis basically did the work and that’s a bit underwhelming from a storytelling standpoint, especially since they were so essential to the victory in the first film.

-This is a bit nitpicky, but it bugs me that Rocket tasered Gamora to prevent her from going back for Peter, and ignored Drax as well. Now, I do agree that it’s a bad thing done for a good reason, but my beef is that the film skips to after they find Peter and the late Yondu. I think Gamora would have gone fucking ballistic on Rocket when she woke up and it would have been more pay off for the blossoming romance between Peter and Gamora for us to see Gamora mad with grief that she thinks Peter is dead and even though she couldn’t have hoped to save him in under a minute, the fact that Rocket made that decision for her was just awful to think about. She’s a very strong, active protagonist and I think it robs her of some weight by not showing us her reaction when she wakes up and Peter is presumed dead. Honestly, it bugs me so much I’m going to probably write that scene myself. I feel as if it’s a missed opportunity, nothing more.

As always, Marvel always delivers a good time and I look forward to our next installment!

[qweenvamp]

Netflix Review Series: Last Shift (2014)

APOLOGIES FOR MY ABSENCE I KNOW I’M A PIECE OF SHIT

Oh hey look! It’s my first sorta official review on this blog! Let’s all pray I don’t fail miserably! 

(this first little bit is an intro, if you wanna skip to the actual review a few paragraphs down, I won't be mad. pinky promise). 

As a recent college grad with very little semblance of what most would call “a life”, I watch quite a bit of Netflix. While I mainly stick to only 2 genres that the site has to offer (if you guessed horror and anime, good job. you read my ‘about’ section and know I’m an otaku garbage can. gold star for you), my narrow focus has allowed me to dive pretty far into the depths of what’s available in these categories. And man oh man, I’ve seen some shit. One interesting thing about Netflix is that it has no real standards for what they choose to stream. The only non-straight-up-porn movie I’ve ever read about them refusing to carry is A Serbian Film (which is a whole disgusting can of worms I plan on writing a post about later), but other than that, it’s really a scary, scary guessing game in terms of what you’re gonna get. I’m not usually one of those “let’s just give it a chance” kinda movie watchers. I can pretty much tell if I’m gonna like something or not within the first 10 minutes, and if I don’t, it’s immediately on to the next. But to everyone else who has a harder time making up their mind so quickly, it can be a bit confusing, and before you know it you’ve just sat through a two hour fuck fest of terrible writing, horrendous acting, and even worse direction, and you begin to question what exactly it is you’re doing with your life while staring into the empty can of pringles you just ingested all in one sitting, crumbs all over your face and shirt and grease all up on your fingers. Look at you. You slob. 

But never fear, this is where I come in to keep this terrifying scenario from happening to you! My plan is to do a weekly (or bi-weekly, if I can manage it) review of the finest, and not-so-finest, Netflix has to offer in horror films and TV. I’m mainly going to focus on movies you may or may not have heard of, as Netflix does, thankfully, carry some of the classics (which if you haven’t checked out, what the hell are you doing here?), but as I said, I’d rather talk about the films you’ve maybe had in your queue for a little while but you’re unsure of whether or not you wanna give it a chance. Because I’m sure you’ve got much much much more important things going on in your life and can’t be bothered to take the hour and a half out of your day to just watch the damn movie and get it over with. Right pringle face? Ok, done rambling. Without further a-do, here’s my very first horror review on this blog!! Oh boy!!!!!!

REVIEW STARTS HERE ***contains some spoilers***

Browsing around Netflix looking for a good horror film to watch can be a bit of an onerous task. Basically, all you have to go off of is their not-so-accurate star rating system, a short, jazzy little description (seriously who the fuck writes those??) and the movie poster, both of which can be entirely misleading in terms of what you’re gonna get. Scrolling around the horror section, the image for Last Shift caught my eye. Netflix was telling me I’d rate it 3 stars out of 5, (you don’t know me like that, Netflix), but I gotta admit, I see some sort of Satanic element like a pentagram or some shit, and I’m pretty much sold.  Reading the description, I was also happy to see that the main character was a female police officer, so maybe she’d be a little less stupid and arm flail-y than your average direct-to-DVD horror heroine. I decided to give it a shot. 

Basically, the story is that a rookie cop is given the task of babysitting an old police station that’s about to close as things get set up at the new station down the street. The twist is, she’s all by herself and has to stay there throughout the entire night to make sure nothing crazy is happening, and needless to say, crazy things start happening. 

My first impression was, “wow, this is a lot like John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13, but with ghosts!” And, as I continued to watch, I began to have more and more of these moments where I would be completely reminded of a device used in another film (for example, the main character walks into a room, then walks out, turns around, and sees all the chairs stacked into a tower on top of a table. Poltergeist, anyone? And, I won’t say who, but another character is revealed to actually have been dead the entire time, but in an entirely The Sixth Sense fashion.) While there’s certainly nothing wrong with paying homage to the horror greats of the past, using these kinds of tricks over and over again to compensate for a lack of originality is a big no-no in my book, and I can certainly imagine that the most hardcore of your horror fans might find it a little distasteful. Did Last Shift 100% without a doubt do this? It’s hard to tell. The whole plot is centered around a very Manson-esque family that’s come back to haunt our lead heroine, so that in and of itself is taking inspiration from an outside source, but I do think the film contained enough creative and disturbing imagery to somewhat satisfy my standards for originality. 

For instance, there are some wonderfully tense and downright creepy scenes about halfway through the movie that did mess with my head a little, and a few good jump scares that featured some great makeup work, especially from what I assume to be a lower budget on that front. Now let me be clear, I’m not really a fan of the jump scares. They’re fun and exhilarating in the moment, but throwing them in by the bucket load does not a good horror film make. What I find most disturbing, is when things seem to be out of place, but you can’t exactly put your finger on why. Our brain doesn’t know how to register them, or specifically why they are disturbing to us, and that is what makes them terrifying. I need my horror films to have at least some of this, or I can’t really rate them anything above ‘mediocre’. Last Shift kind of passed the test. I won’t go into too many specifics, but I think this film did a particularly good job of building up the eerie tension in the first quarter or so, and had some very bizarre scenes with a homeless man that will leave you scratching your head, and also a little disturbed. 

However, at about the halfway point, you start figuring out the backstory, and things start becoming less mysterious. The film begins to focus mainly on the ripoff Mansons, and the the solid performance put out by Juliana Harkavy in the main role is somewhat overshadowed by over-acting of the “Paymon Family” who are just trying wayyyyyy too hard to be evil, which ends up coming across a little comical. The last half hour or so turns into this very mind-fucky, dizzying labyrinth of ghosts and gore, which, reading that back, sounds fucking awesome, but in the actual movie it just winds up being kinda frustrating. It seemed as though the filmmakers gave up on the plot a little, or just didn’t know how to end it, which was a huge letdown at a moment when I was craving some sort of justice for the main character (who’s actually fairly well fleshed-out and likable) or SOME kind of resolution... and I got nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true. I got an ending that PISSED ME OFF TO NO END. I won’t tell you what happened, but let’s just say I haven't been as angry at a horror movie since I saw 1408, which, if I could erase any movie from my head, it might just be that absolute piece of dreck. Now, this wasn’t quite as bad as the aforementioned film which I do not want to call by name again lest I have terrifying flash backs of how god awful it was, but it was far from satisfying, especially when things up until that point weren’t half bad.

Overall, is Last Shift anything to write home about? No. But is it better than probably 75% of what’s in Netflix’s limited horror selection? I’d say yea, probably. A good acting job from Juliana Harkavy, some very good and gory makeup, and a nice build-up of tension and general creepiness in the first act of the film are almost cancelled out by the film’s so-so second act and the lazy, messy third, but not quite. I’ll sum it all up with what my mom told me after she finished watching it: “It was alright, but why didn’t she ever just leave the damn station?”

3/5 Stars

[canaryatlaw]

alright, well today was ok. I woke up at 12:30 to my alarm since I’d made the chiropractor appointment for 1:30. I spent fifteen minutes lying in bed because kitty had decided it was an opportune time to lie on top of me, then eventually got off and I got up and got ready. Ate quickly and headed out, they were doing construction again at the nearest intersection meaning I couldn’t get through, so I took a detour through the nearest alley and basically made a square to get to where I was actually going on the other side of the initial intersection, lol. but in general the location was very good for me. So I got checked in, the internet said they didn’t take my insurance so I was kinda worried about seeing what that whole deal would be like but when I showed them my insurance card they were like “oh actually we do take this” so I was like okay perfect! works for me lol. so I go back to meet with the doc and tell him about the history of my back pain, how I was in PT for a year with it and they eventually took an MRI then sent me back to PT and told me to try harder, and it eventually mostly went away and I was able to stop PT but its flared up again a lot in the last few months. so he like felt my back and how tight it was and tested strength in my legs and other shit like that and was basically like yeah you have a pinched nerve on your right side which we can treat with like 2-3 months of 2 half hour sessions a week, which is a whole lot better than PT for an indeterminate amount of time for an undetermined diagnosis, and honestly just hearing a concrete diagnosis was extremely relieving. So we did more of the chiropractor stuff then did some more exercise based stuff for like posture and what I can do at home, some of it was actually a callback to my voice and diction class sophomore year, like she said it and my brain was immediately like oh I know this!! so that was cool lol. The doctor did also say to treat it with ice, not heat, because heat actually inflames the nerve and makes me swell which feels relieving but is actually bad for you, which was a big like well fuck for me because I’d be hardcore relying on my heating pad this whole time lol. so when I headed out I walked down the street to the Walgreens with the intent to buy an ice pack since we didn’t really have one. There’s a Walgreens and then another 200 feet or so on there’s a grocery store so I figured I’d try the Walgreens and if they didn’t have it I’d try the grocery store. There was an older man in a wheelchair I’d seen a few times before outside the entrance asking for money, I truthfully told him I was fresh out of cash and change (gave the handful of coins I had to someone a few days ago) but was about to go inside and buy something so was there something I could get him? He said a Arizona iced tea which comes in these big cans if you’re not familiar usually for $1, so I promised I’d grab one of those for him and went inside. I was looking at the first aid options and didn’t really see anything, but while I was doing so I got approached by a woman (guess I was looking charitable today) who was telling me she cleaned houses and had just found out the woman she was working for was in the hospital for a hip replacement and she didn’t know about it before today when she went to clean, and she very nicely asked if I could buy her some soap and a few other small things, so of course I said of course, like how could I refuse buying someone soap of all things? She was very sweet and thankful, so she grabbed the stuff and I checked the freezer section for any food ice packs but they didn’t have anything either, so I grabbed the iced tea and checked out. So I wound up getting things for two people and nothing for myself 😂which I was mostly just amused by and not at all annoyed about. When given small opportunities like that to express the tangible love of God I have even when I don’t utter a word about God, how could I be cruel and selfish when I have been blessed with so much? I used to think the interaction would only “count” if I slipped something in there like “God loves you” but I’ve come to know that He can work through my actions and expressing His love without a word coming from me, just tangible expressions of love. So I try to do that when I’m given the opportunity, and of course I was happy to do so today and was glad I was able to help these two people. After paying I gave the woman her stuff and hugged her, then walked outside and gave the man his iced tea before walking over to the grocery store to see what I could find there. In their first aid section I was able to find a reusable gel pack thing for the lower back that could be used for hot or cold (depending on if you freeze it or microwave it) so I grabbed that and walked up the freezer aisle just to see if there was any ice cream I wanted lol, and in their little special ice cream section where they have all the fake ice cream (you know what I mean) and I spotted one that legit was like “avocado ice cream” in mint chocolate chip which of course I had to take a picture of and send it to Jess since we had our epic failure trying to make avocado ice cream in mint chocolate chip, and she immediately responded like YOU HAVE TO GET IT and I was like but it’s so bad!!! But she insisted we had to try it to see if we’d screwed it up somehow, so I grabbed it and headed to the checkout. There were like three registers open, one was the 15 items or less one that had a line of like 10 people, then one with a huge backlog of food while they dealt with some problem, then the one I was left to that was just a bit of a line lol so I got in line and waited to get checked out. Once I had done so I walked home and put stuff away, then sat with my computer for a bit listening to podcast episodes that I was behind on, and did that for a few hours until Jess got off work and we met up to get dinner because we both wanted cheese curds from the irish pub place that makes them so fucking good, so we got food from there and talked and made plans and all that good stuff before heading back to our respective apartments. we were trying to figure out weekend stuff because Jess has to put away laundry but also wants to go thrifting and then there’s a birthday party on Saturday for a cosplay friend out in some suburb that we were gonna try to attend, so we gotta figure all that good stuff out. Once I got back home I watched The Resident and of course cried because like 9-1-1 this show just gets me every damn time, especially when there are kids involved. And of course I laughed my ass off at the end where the old woman had this past love come to visit her just so she could tell him to go to hell 😂😂😂fucking hilarious. After that I didn’t really want to watch anything else so I flipped over to what was supposed to be the news but still had the Cubs game playing so I just said whatever and watched that for a bit, by far the best part of this was when an announcer was recounting a story like “on this day in sports history” or something like that the Yankees were somewhere for a game and decided to organize an eating contest between one of their players and a local ostrich, and they did so only for the results to be unclear because the ostrich passed out after eating its 11th plate of pasta. I swear to god, that’s what they said lol so of course that was wild. Eventually it turned to the news and then to Jimmy Kimmel which was entertaining, he’s doing is “Las Vegas Week” where they film there and he grew up there and tonight they took a crew to his childhood home which currently has people living in it and was just like “can we come in?” and they were like sure, so he gave everyone a televised tour of his childhood home, including various stories that happened in different spots, and it was all very entertaining. After a while I started getting ready for bed and then had to do my pill box which always takes a while but eventually got here and started writing this and now I am here. Don’t have anything like official to do tomorrow, so we’ll see how that goes. It’s like 1:45 am now though so I should be getting to bed. Goodnight babes. Have a good one.

[canaryatlaw]

Well, today was kind of blah, mostly because I'm still in the same shitty mood from yesterday. And now that I'm back here even though I have a handle on most of my things I still feel ridiculously stressed out and can't stop my mind from racing and I could really use some fucking Xanax right now (I only say that because I'm awaiting my prescription for it from the company, I don't normally throw around comments like that). Ugh. But anyway. My alarm went off at 9:45 and I got up, got my things together and got ready, then ate some breakfast and my dad took me to the airport. I made it through all my goodbyes okay, despite having the feeling in my chest that tears were lurking right below the surface, waiting to be set off at the smallest trigger, but it somehow subsided and I was okay. The airport is small, so I made it through security and to the gate in no time. The first flight was fine, nothing spectacular. I mostly worked on my appellate brief, fixing citations and breaking up sentences (because I have a habit of making 4 line sentences, grammatically proper but I know my prof won't appreciate it) and just generally trying to get my word count up. We landed in Baltimore pretty soon and my next flight was in an hour, with the gate pretty close by to where I was. So I grabbed some sushi that looked appetizing from one of the places then sat at the gate and took advantage of the free wifi I finally managed to hack into without actually paying (it's not actual hacking, it's just knowing how to navigate the system). And with that wifi I looked up and downloaded the rest of the cases mentioned in the trial court fake opinion so I could use them for the second section of my paper. Flight boarded soon, and when we were in the air I started reading cases and working on them, and made a solid amount of progress. Landed after not too long, took for-fucking-ever for our bags to come, and then my uber app flipped out on me and kept saying my request wouldn't go through so I'm like fine whatever I'll use Lyft, so I do and the driver gets there a lot quicker than they usually do since the airport makes them wait in a special lot until they get a pick up. So I get in the car and we started chatting, apparently they had been leaving the airport after another pick up planning on going home but had their app on to see if they'd get anything going north towards where they lives and they got me haha so they turned around and so we went. And then I get a notification saying my uber driver was arriving now and I'm like ????? I bring up the app and it doesn't even have a trip going, so I'm like wtf....and then a few minutes later the poor guy calls wanting to know where I am and I'm just like....I didn't order an uber?? Haha it was strange. But my driver and I established pretty early on that we're both tumblr people, so that kind of set the level of understanding of each other for the rest of the conversation haha. So we talked about a lot of things, they talked about figuring out that they were non-binary and picking a new name, and of course we eventually got into religion and it's social effects and I was happy to hear that they were still actually a Christian even after having grown up in a crappy conservative Christian environment and dealing with all that shit. So they were telling me how much they love their church and I in turn told them how much I love my church, and yeah, it was nice. Got home soon enough, and as expected my white canary boots had arrived, so I had to try on my whole costume to make sure they work of course, haha (I'll post a photo when I'm down here). They fit, thankfully, and they match the costume pretty well- they're a little darker than the actual suit, but the jacket is a darker gray so with them together they just look awesome, so I'm very happy about that. So I settled in and started catching up on my tv shows, which I'll try to comment on if I can remember what I watched, lol. But I kept working on my appellate brief until I had about 4700 words (out of the maximum 5000). I had one more case I was gonna cover but the opinion was so confusing and its relevance to our case really tenuous, so I said ah screw it and called it there. Hopefully I can make up the last 300 or so words in final edits and adding transitory and other necessary things. I'm not worried though, which is good. I've said this a million times before, and I fucking hate it so much, but every single time I have to write something I get scared I won't be able to write as much as needed, even though I pretty much always exceed the word count and being too short is almost never an issue, and while knowing this, I still think it, and 5000 words was looming over me this whole week as some unattainable goal, so now that I'm a lot closer to it I'm feeling better about it. So yeah, tv. I initially picked out my recording of powerless, only to find out the dvr had actually recorded the premiere of trial and error. Okay, well I wanted to watch this anyway, so I might as well keep watching, and holy Jesus this show is amazing haha I already love it so much, although I know the legal inaccuracies are gonna kill me even when I'm telling myself it's a comedy ffs (but in the episode they were pulling shit like "oh homosexuality as a crime was never repealed here" and I'm like uh bullshit Lawrence v. Texas much???? Lol). But I enjoyed that a lot. I think I went to Designated Survivor next, which was a thoroughly epic episode, fairly major spoilers ahead (you've been warned) but ahhh I can't believe just like that MacLeish is dead??? The Vice President is dead?? And how that's just gonna look so much worse for president Kirkman and not just that MacLeish was a dirty traitor....ugh. I was glad to at least see my girl Hannah FINALLY getting vindicated cuz I was like ahh yes you go girl cuz I've hardcore been pulling for her this whole time, lol, so that was cool. But yeah, really intense and awesome episode, I liked it a lot. Riverdale next I think, and holy shit that episode was so sad???? Like dang man, Jughead's life is really fucking depressing. I was of course calling major bs when the sheriff supposedly took him in on literally no evidence and then had his school record because that's not fucking illegal or anything?????? Ugh. I'm glad he's at least living with Archie now though. Veronica continues to be awesome, and with the whole Betty and Polly situation I was thinking the whole time yo do not trust the Blossoms they evil AF so of course I was right there. Good episode though. Then I started last week's episode of Time After Time, which I managed to start in time to finish right before this week's episode started without actually meaning to at all haha so I watched the two episodes back to back. Continues to be an intriguing show, I think it's still finding its footing a bit, but the twists have been very interesting so far. I'm not sure how sustainable it is in the long run, like I'm not sure I can see it going more than one season really, which is unfortunate because it's clever, the plot just doesn't really allow for it. They also love killing people off haha I guess that's what happens when you have a show featuring Jack the Ripper. HG Wells continues to be an gem ("he came over right after world war 2" ".....there was more than 1???????") and the rest of cast does well too. So when that was over I knew I had just missed the live episode of Chicago justice, but I didn't really have much else to watch at this point so I watched the second episode. It wasn't bad, annoyed me less than the first, though that's likely just because they spent less time in the courtroom, lol. They're not quite mastering the time jump thing yet, where they go from crime to investigation to trial in one episode, without any real inference to time passing, which makes it feel like it all happened over like 3 days, which isn't just unrealistic, it's confusing, because they're like "oh who are we gonna bring to the grand jury?" and then the next scene is "the grand jury returned an indictment!" and you're just like da fuck?? Lol. The episode itself was interesting though, I wish they tied in their twist a little sooner, it seemed like too much of an afterthought with the entire plot they had come up with, but it was a well-thought out and well-played twist for sure. It kind of annoyed me that through the entire episode everyone was like "oh you know any cop who gets put on trial is gonna be found guilty" when that's pretty much categorically false, as cops are almost never convicted for officer involved behavior?? Lol, like I get that they're connected to Chicago PD or whatever but they gotta get that down a bit better. And yeah, when that was over I let the news play for a bit while I finished up the queue for the week on the company tumblr. Throughout the night I also wrote my "speech" (it's like a paragraph and a half) for the PAD election speeches tomorrow- so needless to say I decided that I would run. I had kind of come to that decision last night and was gonna text the justice (president) but I was already falling asleep, then I woke up and started doubting it again, but then came back to that conclusion and went for it. I'm not running for justice though because I know that would be too much, so I'm running for service chair (my current position) and vice justice. I don't know the current state of people running, but I have to imagine it's not gonna be all that many. I guess we'll see tomorrow though. And yeah, that's about it. Tired and about ready to fall asleep, back to real life tomorrow. So goodnight friends of mine. Hope you had a relaxing weekend.