#react-19

[generallyjl]

the long, long shadow of ally beardsley falls once again over the dome, regardless of their physical absence...

LET'S GET SLAMMED DOWN BIG STYLE, FOLKS!!!!

[endlesspaint]

"Ford doesn't know 9/11" "Ford doesn't know the princess died" "Ford doesn't know th Cold War ended--" FORD LIVED IN ISOLATION FOR SO MANY YEARS??? He probably has NO IDEA what was happening around him cause he was way more focused on the portal??

[dashielvlup]

PapiXP 💖 DashieXP

[tenebrous-academic]

Actually I can’t stop thinking about the way Watcher dropped the news on the same day as the release of TTPD. Did they…think that it would somehow cause us to associate it with they hype of a new album? Or were they hoping the news cycle would focus on Taylor and let them sneak this one by us? We know they have swifties on staff - what was the thought process here?

[attonposting]

Can we stop to talk about the conversation with Atton where he rambles about women and the idea of love? Because good lord can this man project like a movie theater. We're talking fractal projection. Give him a frickin' medal, because it's projection all the way down.

It's a very missable bit of dialogue. You can only get it with a male Exile, and only then if you've cheesed off Brianna by causing her influence to dip 30 points below Visas's. Unfortunately, this also causes Brianna to permanently stop talking to you, so this is something you're only ever gonna see by accident. I only learned that could even happen pretty recently, and that's with maybe 6 male Exile playthroughs under my belt. I guess I'm just very thorough about exhausting everyone's dialogue options all the time.

So. Brianna's permanently cut herself off as a companion, courtesy of Kreia whispering in her ear, and that sucks. But at least your trashman pilot has something to say about it... and whoa boy is it a consolation prize. Atton proceeds to launch into an arm-around-your-shoulders buddy talk that has exactly nothing to do with your problems and everything to do with his personal issues.

Exile: The Handmaiden lost her temper with me.

Atton: Oh, there's a surprise. Trust me, she's a handful - all warriors are. They're not used to dealing with things they can't punch, kick, or break. Look, I know how it is. Me, there's no denying that I'm a good-looking guy. You have it worse, because even though you might not be as good-looking as me, you have that whole tortured past, that command presence. Women want to save you. They think they can help you.

Exile: What are we talking about?

Atton: They think that everyone can be redeemed, and that they're the only ones who can do it. And you don't know if it's you, or the idea of you that they love.

Exile: [Awareness] Are we talking about me or you?

Atton: We're just talking. Like I said, I've never understood women. It's possible they don't love you at all. That they just want to help you... help you hear yourself if you've gone deaf to your own voice. We all lose our way sometimes, and we need someone to pull us back.

Exile: [Awareness] Sounds like you've had that experience before.

Atton: Don't remember. Truth is, I still don't listen to my conscience even when it's shouting. I think there's times I'd rather be completely deaf than hear it. But all this talk doesn't matter. I'm not qualified to give advice. Besides, when I open my mouth, I'm usually lying anyway.

Like. Just. Holy shit, Atton. Yeah, he's clearly talking about the Jedi who tried to save him, but there's so much more to unpack in here. Let's break it down.

“Women want to save you. They think they can help you.” - Atton wants to save you. He wants to be the hero to your story, something he projects at Mical (to the latter's confusion), but which can also be read into a lot of his actions – when he starts taunting the assassin on Telos to draw heat off you, when he runs out on Nar Shaddaa to give you medpacs and do the same thing with the bounty hunters. The hard evidence is on Malachor. If Atton dies, he says it outright: “Did I save you yet?” And if he falls to the Dark Side, he tells Mical that “he wanted to protect [the Exile], to help her” before he lost his chance.

“They think that everyone can be redeemed, and that they're the only ones who can do it.” - Yeah, it's not really about helping the Exile. Atton needs to be the one that 'saves' you, as a balm to his own lack of purpose and self-worth, and he gets real pissy if anyone else does a better job helping you – or god forbid gets close to you. He's constantly insecure, he's unhappy with most new party members when they join up and, and seriously, the only crime Mical ever committed was being a genuinely good dude in a crew full of misfits. Too bad the galaxy's greasiest pilot reads that as a threat.

“And you don't know if it's you, or the idea of you that they love.” - Atton's attraction to you in a nutshell, and that's before you get the question of Force Bonds involved. Like, seriously. Does he genuinely love you as a person, or is he in love with you as an ideal – as someone who could stop running and face the music for their unforgivable crimes, as someone who actually tries to fix the damage they did? As someone who can still find it in them to care about people after the war broke them down? As a Jedi that actually lives up to the ideal both the Council and Revan failed to? As someone he believes he can relate to, because he thinks he knows your reasons for what you did? Are you a stand-in for his dead Jedi and his hundred conflicting feelings over her? Is he just in love with the idea of having a purpose and wants someone he can bury himself in? Is the idea of martyring himself and finally dying for a reason what he's really obsessed with? Pick your flavor, because who knows! He certainly doesn't!

“It's possible they don't love you at all.” - While this has a lot to do with him wondering why the hell anyone would have tried to save him, I also think this is him reflecting on his own confused feelings towards the Exile. They might not be romantic with an M!Exile (or if they are, he's having intense bi denial), but they're absolutely there and he does not know what to make of them.

“That they just want to help you... help you hear yourself if you've gone deaf to your own voice. We all lose our way sometimes, and we need someone to pull us back.” - This has nothing to do with the Exile, the Handmaiden, or anyone who isn't an ex-Sith assassin who had empathy forcibly shoved into their brain after years of progressively more fucked-up descent into all-consuming hatred.

“Truth is, I still don't listen to my conscience even when it's shouting.” - He almost gets away with this one, but Atton's deep in denial here. He doesn't want to hear it, but he can't turn it off, the same way he can't stop feeling things when he used to have total control of his emotions (because he barely felt anything at all.) It's all why he can't go back to who he was, even though he badly misses the certainty he used to feel. Atton is a pro at ignoring his conscience, which definitely has nothing to do with how much he hates himself, total coincidence... but as soon as the Exile gets involved, that goes out the window, because Atton's self-preservation glitches out. Their Force wound tugs on his better nature... or it yanks at his opposite. And if that happens, Atton is very aware of what's happening to him. He succumbs, but he has more to say on the Exile's fall than anyone short of Kreia. And light or dark, his (im)moral compass gets jarred from 'cover my own ass' to 'protect the Exile' and he repeatedly sticks his neck out for no gain, so yeah, I call bullshit here. He's smack in the middle of his biggest crisis of conscience since the Sith.

“Besides, when I open my mouth, I'm usually lying anyway.” Well, at least he admits it.

[metabolizemotions]

... and the association of Vic with Beckett...

There's this thing about associating a woman with a man. Whatever happens, there is like a transference of hate to the woman and love to the man.

Men already get less hate doing something worse than women and more love when doing something minimally decent. The way the narratives are framed on the show don't help.

The choice to - make Maya give Beckett the bottle shifted the blame to her, absolving him. Somehow to some, she became the worst person on the show and whatever she did was her personal unique moral failings. Beckett's long list of poor choices made throughout his captaincy that endangered himself, his team n civilians... The resolution was merely his voluntary stint at rehab. Oh and quietly demoted. No mention of his wrongdoings again. Everyone's just fine with him already. Just like how they accepted his bad behavior right from the start.

The choice to - make Vic to not notice maya's distress and say those words about her, a longtime friend and teammate while being hyper aware of Beckett's state and being especially empathetic towards him.

I hope the speculation isn't true. It'll be a disservice to Vic as a character. It's the use of a well-liked female character to redeem a disliked male character.

On a show where already

... the men don't really need to work on themselves - the characters around them simply lower their standards to accommodate.

... toxic masculinity is conflated with addiction/ mental health issues,

... the men's addiction and wrongdoings - related or not to the addiction, are systemic issues - of the healthcare system failing Sullivan or an inter-generational alcohol problem trapping Beckett

I'm all for the empathy for the struggle with addiction n underlying issues but against using them as excuses to not hold people accountable for bad behavior.

[britneyshakespeare]

hold on. i was just going through my saved pictures on my laptop and i've used this same laptop since 2017. i just came across an image titled "for whenever u need to be reminded to get over (guy's name)" (this was a guy i met in the library once who i thought was soooo charming but he was too old for me at the time and we never hit it off) and it was a screenshot of his facebook profile showing he had liked ben shapiro's official page. LOOOOOL

[secretlyhuntokar]

tmagp 19 live reaction

(spoilers below cut)

[mayasdeluca]

“And now the truth is out and you’re not even the one who told me. And you need me to be on your side? You need me to be on your side. This is emotional blackmail, Maya. Which is not entirely similar to what you did to Chief Ross.”

[froggtogs]

oh no

[remembertheplunge]

The witch hunt is in full regalia

Monday, July 19, 1993

Clinton weenied out. He announced the new policy of" Don’t ask Don’t Tell" regarding gays in the Military. Zoe called. …don t tell, don’t ask. 

Some employees in the Stanislaus County Court House stand in dark, cloistered corners and say “Lew’s sexuality…did you hear?"

July 20, 1993 Tuesday

One month now into age 38. 

Well, I guess my grandiose plans of becoming a major general  in the military are out. (I’m gay and I do tell)

Don’t ask. Don’t tell Don’t pursue are the watch words of the day here in Police State USA.

And, if you so much as slightly touch, you’re out on your ass. Each touch (in the military) a lost career. 

The witch hunt is in full regalia.

I came out to two fellow deputy public defenders today in the public defender library in honor of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy passing.

They acted as if they’d known forever. They knew a peace in it I do not know.

I think really they were in pre process mode where they may indefinitely remain on this issue.

It’s funny—what I did today in the library could result in my being "fired” if we were in the military. “Don’t Tell” 

“Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” has been my life experience today.

End off entries

Actually, I would be fired from my Deputy Public Defender’s job 39 days later on August 29, 1993 basically for being vocal about being gay and promoting gay related issues. I paid the price for “Telling"

President Bill Clinton, in his speech in which he laid out the details  Don’t Ask Don’t Tell on July 19, 1993, called us Homosexuals at the beginning of his talk.  He called  Don’t Ask Don’t Tell an honorable compromise. He said It will bring  an end to witch hunts for gays in the military. Later in his speech, he referred to the  the gay ban and to  Gay service members. If you say you are homosexual,  there is  reputable presumption that you will engage in prohibited  manner. The  presumption may be defended against. Unacceptable conduct  is unacceptable on or off the base and would result in discharge. You must remain celibate if you are gay.

Zoe was my younger sister.

[his-saiko]

[andromedasummer]

Liverick you're gonna make me play fallout 4 again and fight to understand how the new nexus mod installer works....

JOIN ME JOIN ME

also honestly ive found the new installer to be easier to use?? but also. we both hate change and i wont lie it took a little bit to adjust to.

[theangel-aziraphale]

what if I'm a mosquito who really really really loves you

*He has to resist the urge to snap you all the way to another country. Instead, his face turns rather serious.*

I will not have any mosquitos in my bookshop. If you are one, please leave this instant. No amount of scientific explanation will deter me from wanting nothing to do with any more insects!