#so is ''what the fuck richard'' and ''is scott here''

[stackyshenanigans]

Woe! Cringe be upon ye

Watch me slowly get the hang of motion tracking lmao

[deimosbreakfrost]

I had to stop my homework just to focus on this. Y'all better be glad.

- the trailer of episode 1 just dropped... It's prediction time, you FUCKS.

- anyways, something that anyone i can notice in this trailer is that it focused on 9 characters.

Whose are; Anastasia, Ted, Isabel, Alessio, Ivy Marissa, Lyndia, Spencer and Amelie. I theorize that they'll either be really important to the season or just make the plots of episode 1 happen.

(I think that the ones that will actually be important will be Anastasia, Ted, Lyndia, Isabel and maybe Marissa. I could've put Spencer on there too but I already know that he is just there to be the disventure camp Twink™ of this season, I just know he isn't a big deal)

1. Anastasia:

- umm... Funny story but-- the UNIC audition tapes that I've saw we're from Ted, Richard and Isabel. So I was surprised with her accent, I think that she'll be the main antagonist of this season. I just can't look at her and Don't see a fusion of Heather and Julia, my predictions is that she'll pull a Heather move on half of the cast till she either go to the finals or at least till the final 5.

2. Ted:

- MY MEN WILL BE IMPORTANT AND NOT JUST A JOKE ANTAGONIST, I SWEAR. I'm already not normal about him but with the fact that he'll definitely do something in this season actually makes me wanna tweak out, I don't think that'll he be a heather type of manipulator but a Scott one. He'll definitely have the S1 Ripper and ROTI Scott treatment, he will either be hated by the fandom or the characters in the show but will still go far.

AND I HOPE SO, I really want to him to go to the merge or finals and eliminate Spencer along the way, I already have a beef on Spencer just because of DCAS Jake and I want that ugly ass Twink to simply be humiliated along the season. Is that cruel? Yeah, but he's a white twink that it's own character development will definitely go around a guy that he'll date, don't take it seriously.

(you all bet me a follow if I'm actually right about the fact that Spencer and Diego will date)

3. Isabel:

- GIRLIE IS A TIKTOKER??? Okay, you know what? Girl literally killed the "antagonist" allegations. I just hope that her interactions with Natalia aren't the same that with S1 Gabby and Grett, I want them both to be friends 😭😭 (or girlfriends. Wait, am I allowed to say that I lowkey ship them 2??)

4. Alessio:

- umm... Well... Yeah, he's definitely on my favorite characters list. HE GIVES HUGE "festa?" BY SUPERCOMBO VIBES I LOVE HIM. I WANT TO DRAW HIM LIKE THOSE GRIMM EMO ALBUM COVERS LIKE: The jaws of life by Pierce The Veil, Fever by Bullet for my valentine and Silverstein's discovering the waterfront. I WANT TO DRAW HIM AND MAKE HIM BEAUTIFUL STOP.

Anyways, I think he'll have some fun dinamics with the characters. I think it would be fun if him and Ted Interact alot, Ted would definitely love to annoy him and Alessio just wants him to die. I don't know, they give Ripper x Damien vibes...

5.Ivy:

(I forgot to take a screenshot of her, sorry. I'll probably put in here later)

- My first impressions on her is that she would've been this season's Gabby or Izzy but she low-key gives Dakota & Nichelle vibes...?? Like, Nichelle because she is an actress and wants to proove that not all actresses are bad people and Dakota because she's rich but is genuinely really nice and caring to the people around her. Until now I actually like practically the entire cast

(not counting with Benji and Spencer. If they we're my Ocs I would do horrible things against them.)

6. Marissa:

- I have a HUGE feeling that she'll end up like S1 Axel oh lord. And also, I HOPE THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN WITH HER. On TDI 2023 I love both Axel and Ripper but on S1 they made their team lose and voted Axel instead of Ripper and the fandom started to hate him, AND THAT TIME GIVES ME PTSD. ONC FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON'T DO THIS TO ME AGAIN😭😭

Anyways, again. She gives off huge Axel vibes. But like, a fusion of Axel and Leshawna. She's Strong but she also seems pretty nice and caring to the people, and judging by how she acted on her audition tape and what she said during this trailer, she'll definitely slay a lot of times. Anyways, I LOVE HER, ONC PLEASE DON'T MAKE A RIPPER VS AXEL FANDOM DISCOURSE 2.0 STOP I'M SCARED 😭😭

7. Lyndia:

- she's actually so nice and cute?? I already love this women. But again, I strongly believe that mostly of the time she'll be there so someone can ask her to vote on someone. I don't believe that she'll just be a S2 Ally and stuff, but I also think that she's well aware of what she'll will be go through and she'll be confident enough to actually go far in the (different of Ally, whoops! You haven't heard nothing.)

8. Spencer:

- ... Is it cruel that I want him to go through the worse on this season just to lose in the end? Seriously, I really don't expect much of this character but just to be there to be the be part of the Gay Couple™ of this season. I'm sorry but I actually don't like this guy really much and I genuinely think he's just there for fandom "oh! A Twink!" Gaze.

- 9. Amelie:

- okay, she's actually the one that I wanted to take about the most (not counting with *giggle* Teeeed😻😻)

For me she's most likely the Eva of this season, but I don't want her to end up just LIKE Eva. I WANT THIS WOMEN TO EAT EVERYONE UP, she gives huge "I'm on my way" vibes. Oh and also, the fact that's she's REALLY strong will mostly be really helpful to her team on this season. And maybe... Even be an antagonist? GIRL IS WAY TOO PRETTY JUST TO BE ELIMINATED.

And by conclusion, I hope Benji dies, Spencer receives hell, Ted becomes more loved than what Ripper was (or hated just to I have him to all my self...) and Amelie or Jade win (or Ted, idk)

[sloshed-cinema]

Robin Hood (2010)

What an exquisitely awful origin story. In using both familiar elements of Robin Hood’s mythos and changing up the norm, Ridley Scott sets up his audience for failure. These are the gritty 2010s, so Robin can of course no longer be slavishly devoted to a war-mongering Christian Nationalist King Richard. No, he has to call out the Lionheart for his zealotry. But it doesn’t even go so far as that. The alliances of England and the power brokers on that sceptr’d isle are confusing and muddy at best, as imagined here. But where things cut to the core are the essential thesis thrust of this film: fuck the French. “Godfrey… and his marauders… ARE FREEEENCH!!!” Ridley Scott harnesses the Robin Hood folk hero to… craft his epic anti-Fr*nch manifesto? All of the usual Saxon/Norman soft-coding typically used is absolutely discarded here. Particularly hilarious notes include the normally skilled Léa Seydoux turning in an absolutely atrocious performance with an exceptionally escargot-chomping accent, Mark Strong sinisterly whistling “Frère Jacques” to summon the unholy hordes, a sort of reverse D-Day in the final assault on Anglo shores, and all of the unsubtitled French to signal this was a nonsense language spoken by the unclean. Fucking wild. Qu'est-ce que c'est que ça?

THE RULES

SIP

Someone speaks Fr*nch.

A noble title is named.

Drinking songs are sung.

King John's mother looks disapproving.

BIG DRINK

Parchment paper with illegible text on it appears onscreen.

Bee talk.

Awkward slo-mo.

[ladyfromaspookyforest]

My Unhinged Scott Clarke Theory Post

oKAyyyAYYYYYEYYEYE here we go. In Mr. Clarke's first scene, he's announcing a test to his class. He says:

This will be on the test which will cover chapters 10-12. It will be multiple choice with an essay section.

So naturally, I thought, MULTIPLE CHOICE?? LIKE.....MULTIPLE TIMELINES?? Because I'm slowly losing it. Here's my favorite thing about analyzing Scott Clarke:

The irony. "You're seeing patterns that aren't there. Coincidence." That's probably true, tbh. But I can't get over the fact that Scott is our very first introduction to the concept of an alternate reality. When he gives his flea and acrobat speech, he says:

You’ve been thinking about Hugh Everett’s Many-Worlds Interpretation, haven’t you? Basically, there are parallel universes. Just like our world, but just infinite variations of it.

And then the boys are like "nah nah nah man you misunderstand." But, let's go back to my OG Scott ramble when I talked about how he serves largely to deliver themes and information we'll need to know, often without knowing that we need to know it yet. Did we understand the significance of his brain lesson in that moment? No. So Scott telling us about infinite variations of our world feels important. Because NOTHING Scott says is throwaway knowledge.

And it wouldn't be a post by me without connecting probably unrelated things because they're the same color, so Scott moves between seasons 1 and 3, but here's his first house:

And this is Brenner's house. They both have blue doors and brick steps.

Because I was in the midst of my crazed yellow lamp hunt when I noticed this, I began also keeping an eye out for blue doors because the intro to this episode with Brenner's house has a lot of blue shutters and doors. But it turns out that hypothesis was a flop and blue doors are not a recurring motif. But SCOTT CLARKE HAD ONE. And Brenner had one.

I was writing a lengthy post on everything that seems to connect Scott to HNL, but I feel like aside from the door thing, it's all been said already. So I'll spare you and summarize as:

Scott knows just a few too many things to be natural. His knowledge is convenient as fuck and *suspicious.* I.e. there's no reason for him to know the precise ratio of salt:water to make a sensory deprivation tank off the top of his head. Why did he ask El where she was from the way he asked her ("Where are you from exactly?") with a squinty-eyed, suspicious expression? I also want to tack on this post here by @aemiron-main which is something I myself did not notice, but also links Scott to the lab. The point he makes is that there is an abnormal abundance of extras at HNL who look like Scott.

Additionally, back to Scott's first lines in the show, he says:

Answer 12.3 on the difference between an experiment and other forms of science investigation. This will be on the test.

His first line is not only about multiple choices, but about experimentation and investigation. And if Scott Clarke does one thing in this show, it's set us up for what we're about to witness.

Anyway, back to my doors. There are canonically two versions of Dr. Brenner: Martin and Richard. There are canonically two houses for Mr. Clarke: blue door and brown door. At least one version of Brenner canonically has a blue door. Scott Clarke is canonically related to alternate realities, even if solely because he is the character who introduced them.

Different colors are often used to differentiate realities. For example, the theory that the yellow UD and the blue UD are different dimensions rather than the same dimension in different times. But also in other shows or movies. Take Fringe, for example. They changed the color of their opening credit sequence from blue to red when the episode took place in the alternate dimension and then to orange when a new timeline was introduced.

What I'm getting at is that maybe there is a version of Scott who IS linked to the lab and maybe there's a version who is not. And yes, I went there because of his blue door.

Now allow me to also make you rewatch the phone call between Dustin and Mr. Clarke. I stripped the music from it and it turns out, Scott isn't telling him how to make a sensory deprivation tank at all. They pulled the audio from The Flea and the Acrobat and had it playing in the background so the audience would hear Scott's voice faintly over the phone, but not what he's saying. Listen to it. It makes no sense. It's the same vibe as when Dustin was pretending to be on the phone with someone about Mews in season 2 for his mom's sake.

What? The hell? This is likely a belated addition in the editing room because they decided it sounded odd without any voice coming from the other side and couldn't get Randy Havens to record anything for them at that point. But it's weird. Of all the audio for them to choose, they chose Scott talking about needing a massive amount of energy and opening a tear in time and space. They could have used him talking about anything else. They could have used him talking about the HAM radio, they could have used this same conversation but like a minute earlier. That would have made the most sense because he's literally talking about a sensory deprivation tank. But they chose this. IT'S. WEIRD.

And in that quote from The Flea and the Acrobat, Scott blatantly says a tear in time AND space. Throughout four seasons of the show, we've seen that these tears are possible and that people can in fact travel through them to the Upside Down. But what about time? What about other Spaces? Scott said there could be INFINITE versions of our world, and as I said before, Scott doesn't say anything without a purpose. Whether or not he himself is involved with the lab or with these other timelines, the simple fact that he talked about them feels like enough evidence that they exist for me.

[fancoloredglasses]

The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Making it fun to yell at the movie since 1975), Part 1

[All images are owned by 20th Century Fox Disney....wait, really?! Anyway, please don't sue, kill, eat, or...whatever they did to everyone at the end...me]

WARNING: This review is NSFW, as it deals with sexual themes. You’ve been warned.

Are you OK with this? Good, then let’s continue.

(Thanks to 20th Century Studios)

In 1973 a little-known actor named Richard O’Brien decided to write and compose a musical stage production as a way to explore his own questions about his sexuality. Two years later, it was adapted for a movie…and late-night movies (especially around Halloween) haven’t been the same since.

While the movie wasn’t well-received as far as ticket sales went, when theaters started doing midnight showings of the film it developed a cult following, as well as becoming a banner for the queer community, with patrons of both genders dressing as the cast, as well as in their best feminine intimate wear…

(Thanks to Liverpool Echo)

…and talking back to/over the movie (a la MST3K) and bring props to display/throw (much to the employees’ chagrin. After all, they have to clean it all up after the movie’s over). Most theater-goers have a “script” of how they choose to do so (of course, if everyone has a different script in their head it can get very chaotic) If you’re curious, there are several versions online. Here’s one such example.

This review is going to be done slightly different than most, even the one that was essentially a musical in that I will be going over the songs after the clips (as most of the plot is driven through them) and will be including audience partici…

SAY IT!

…pation lines (at least the ones I do) on occasion. These will be done in chat font, as above.

(Word of warning, despite whatever I may say at the movie, it’s not intended to be mean-spirited. I’m just going along with the show)

So, without further ado, let’s get on with the show! If you would like to watch the film, it's behind your favorite paywall, or if you want the full experience, find out which of your local theaters is showing it on Halloween!

(Thanks to Dr. Frank-N-Furter)

So just whose lips are those? Well, scuttlebutt says that Mick Jagger volunteered his, but was turned down. Instead, those belong to Patricia Quinn (who plays Magenta). However, the voice is not Quinn’s, but O’Brien’s. Now, if you actually paid attention to the opening credits instead of just responding to the song, you’ll know exactly who is playing what. However, I will clue you in when they make their first appearance anyway.

Now, back to the movie as we dissolve to a church…

These lips died for your sins!

…where a wedding has just transpired (This is where the audience should start throwing rice at the screen). The photographer gets a photo of the happy couple and the family.

Now I have their souls!

The groom has a quick chat with his best man, Brad Majors, ...

ASSHOLE!

...played by Barry Bostwick (who was the mayor in Spin City) as the bride throws the bouquet

Hey, who has herpes?

…where it’s caught by Brad’s girlfriend, Janet Weiss, ...

SLUT!

...played by Susan Sarandon (who was half of Thelma and Louise)

This inspires Brad to sing to her. Before we get to the song, I have to wonder…

…who the hell puts a billboard in the middle of a cemetery? OK, on to the song!

(Thanks to Goldie McDuck)

OK, that’s an efficient church!

Those who are observant will recognize the church workers as O’Brien, Quinn, and Nell Campbell (AKA “Little Nell”). We’ll be discussing them later. For now, we go to the expository section of the film, narrated by “the Criminologist” (played by Charles Gray, who played Blofeld in a number of James Bond films)

…and has no fucking neck!

The Criminologist explains that, after getting engaged, Brad...

ASSHOLE!

...and Janet...

SLUT!

...decided to visit their old friend and former professor Dr. Everett Scott. He then foreshadows that the night is going to be memorable, but not in the way they’d hoped.

Speaking of the lovebirds, they’ve gotten hopelessly lost. Even worse, Brad’s car gets a blowout! Brad remembers passing a castle.

Castles don’t have phones, asshole!

Brad and Janet trudge through the rain to the castle. As the weather worsens, music starts to swell…

(Thanks to Gothic Witch Chick)

(Quick note: Susan Sarandon had pneumonia during filming. Props to her for doing this number in the rain in her condition)

Does the castle have what they need or is this the end for the happy couple? Tune in for Part 2 and find out!

[ofhxrror]

HIGHKEY missing all of my old oc’s that are currently taking space in the back of my mind and I keep thinking about them in their fictional little universes. I wanna ramble for a bit so below the cut are where I imagine them ending up at the end of their lives. 

Ophelia Richards (hellstate--rp/hellhqs) - the apple of my eye and the love of my life ( my favorite child let me honest ), i wonder about her the most in her fictional little bubble. she was the most changed and better off them all so like i wonder how she would be fairing in the zombie outbreak of cheyanne. would the zombie’s have died off by now and would she have set up a house with a puppers ( maybe with a certain somebody??? ) or would the zombies be still around and would still be the redheaded rolling stone. i think the zombies would be dying off and she would have a little cabin, a small shop too where she would sell blankets and canned goods; also like two doggo’s that she would maim someone if they touched. maybe a noah ashbury in her life idk about that though- but like she would just be okay. maybe she found her little sister again and they live together. just OPHELIA HAPPY- ( i also hardcore crackship her with my other kiddo juliet kemp don’t fucking at me okay they make sense...kinda ) 

Juliet Kemp (hellstate--rp/hellhqs) - my broken bird ohhh my heart legit aches every time i think about her- like holy mother of GOD i ruined that character didn’t i??? she was such a fucking shit show of a human, like rick grimes level’s of bullshit happened to her. she’s from the same universe as ophelia so going off of the “zombies are dying off” ( i don’t like to think that zombies are supernatural creatures and hellhq lore was pretty clear it was some type of plague so...bodies...rot after awhile and yeah i could babble on about zombies rotting but imma stop because i know some of you guys are normal folks who don’t like to hear about that stuff. ) i imagine her as semi-okay, not AS happy or well adjusted as O but alive and sometimes..maybe even smiling. i can see her living in a big house with room for any kids she finds because that’s her weakness, she loves all the little kiddos and just wants them to be okay. honestly juliet is now your adoptive mom if you don’t have one at the end of the world. she would build gardens for food and paints the whole house to be happy for the kids. just peace is all i want for her and her head. but like lemme be honest she’s your wine mom because what she’s gone through ohhhh boi yeah she’s PTSD for life. ( but like also hi yes my crackship make sense here because them ophelia and her can like have all the outbreak orphan’s together and love each other???? no...yes??? )

 Gabrielle Jackson (hellstate--rp/hellhqs) - ANGEL BABYYYY!!!! she wasn’t my favorite to play because she was so nice??? like i cannot be that nice all the darn time to people (also christianity turns out its a goddamn trigger for me.) but like after I had her get stabbed and lose all faith??? yeah she got easier to play for me, plus anytime I had her with her joker it was funny because oh boi she’s angry 100% of the time. but like in her future honestly she wouldn’t have one, gabby is super one of the muses I can see not making it in the new worlds. she’s clung to tightly to the ideals of a forgotten world so honestly I can see her kinda just dying? like I’m sorry not sorry- she’s so the type to get her ass stabbed trying to help someone. that or might end up on some type of mushroom hippie 60′s aesthetic to cope with her life just going to shit, smoking pot on a cute little farm far away from town and selling handmade blankets because that’s nice right? ALL I KNOW HER AND GOD NO LONGER SPEAK. 

Penny Scott ( hellvt ) - speaking of not talking to god meet my angel child penny! ironically an actual angel, like sent from god wings and all, but hates the motherfucker with all of her being for kinda being a deadbeat father i guess. she’s what you would call a “useless lesbian” and honestly that trait I feel like she would honestly get better with as she spends more time on earth. I can see her ending up with a cute girl in a nice little cottage somewhere, but honestly she might pull a stupid and die protecting someone she loves? idk she has tragic written all over her because she sees the best in the world but the world is a shithole. 

Nathlia Scott ( butterflieshq ) - MY ROLEPLAY AND MY KIDDO! i had to close it because health reasons so we never got to hear nathlia’s full backstory i had planned out and honestly i’m going to leave it up to ??? incase i get healthier and am able open butterflies back up one day but a possible future for the kiddo? she’s a missing person who is persumed dead her future is the up there with my bleak kids ( it goes kenzi, nathlia, and ginger ). but she either ends up dead, alive but in a mental hospital for a good couple years, or [ ERROR TEXT NOT FOUND ]....i thought i fixed that glitch oh well. 

Kenzi Carlson ( ??? ) - my sweet sweet punk child who I loved with all of my heart and still cry over to this day, she was an early-ish muse of mine i believe from a scream inspired roleplay. she doesn’t have a future i can tell you that right now because she was canon fodder durning the roleplay when the admin asked if there was anyone who was willing to let their characters die and I was like sure! ( I now know I will never do that again I fucking hate character death scenes ). she ended up being killed in the same way her mother died and I was like ohhhh boy my sweet baby not even eighteen. so she’s stuck with me for some reason, i call her my ghost. 

Ginger Adams ( ??? ) - My Ginger Fitzgerald inspired muse for an unknown horrror roleplay that i was apart of that never really got off the ground but it was nice while it lasted,  she’s honestly my mess of a kiddo who i love so much but honestly once again i do not make happy people so on this girl is honestly a wreck. unlike ginger fitz from the movie, this ginger acidentally killed her sister in a fight and is on the run after her mother told her she would clean it all up ( which oof to that mom ). i don’t see her having a happy life after that- like honestly nothing good happening for her due to a. the ptsd of killing her sister/becoming a werewolf and b. the fact she is a werewolf. so honestly lets just mark her down as fucked up and move on. 

[demonicpi13]

RHPS Theory

Like everyone else people have theories on what the plot of RHPS is. My partner and I have a theory, that thought I would share here. This theory involves the original script,the movie and the unmade sequels.

In the beginning of the film we see Frank, Riff Raff, Magenta and Columbia at the wedding. If they are making Rocky, they would need body parts so working at a place that does weddings and churches for body parts and victims would be great idea. Now, why do they target Brad and Janet, one, they needed humans to witness that human life can be by aliens or that Frank is trying to find a human to repopulate with. I lean more with the later due to one of the scrapped sequels Frank had gotten Janet pregnant and Riff Raff was tasked with getting Janet to come back with him to the planet.

When Brad and Janet arrived at the castle, they ask for a phone. It seemed Riff Raff was trying to lead them to a phone, he was leading them where but gets distracted with Magenta singing Time Warp, the song of their people. Magenta didn't know what Riff Raff was trying to get them to a phone.

By the time the song is over it's too late. Frank has arrived. Now Riff Raff has to carry on his plan to get rid of Frank around the two humans. Magenta is on board with this plan to kill Frank. The two have been treated unkindly and Frank has abused them. In the commentary of RHPS Richard O'Brien says that the looks Riff Raff gives Frank are due to envy and anger. Riff Raff could be envious for a number of things, one of them being Frank being seen as a genius. In the original play when asked what they think of Rocky Riff Raff says this "It's a credit to my-I mean your genius Master" and the magenta pipes in quickly to calm Frank then Columbia says Rocky is just okay.

Frank continues his plans to lure, fuck, and try to keep the Brad and Janet. Obviously to Riff Raff and Magenta Frank's plan has gone two far and his life style is seem as too extreme. We don't know much about life on their planet but it is hinted through out the film and play that it's different then earth. Riff Raff and Magenta's plan does seem to work. They drive Rocky and Janet together, like how Columbia and Eddie were able to bond and fall in love due to Frank's abusive nature to them. Frank tried to kill Eddie once due to his jealous nature. He was able to kill Eddie a final time.

After the dinner scene Frank believes he is the one who messed up creating Rocky. He gets upset when Magenta doesn't want any reward from Frank for being 'Loyal' so Frank continues on with the floor show while that is going on, The two are able to continue with their final plan. They get into their planets outfit and grab the gun. The kick in the doors and tell Frank that it's all over, his lifestyle is now two extreme and they are going home.

Frank begs to be heard out, Riff Raff and Magenta agree to hear him out. Frank sings about wanting to belong and how he feels like he finally found where he belongs (I believe Frank is a Trans Male. Most think he's trans woman but I believe he's a Trans Male who likes feminine things.) But it would be nice to go home. Magenta think it's sentimental and Riff Raff thinks it's amusing how Frank thinks he's going with. They kill Columbia, because she screamed to try to distract them to let Frank run away, or jumping the way if it's the play. Frank tried to run but gets killed along with Rocky (Columbia and him where brainwashed by frank by this point due to the transducer.)

Magenta was surprised that he actually killed them."I thought you liked them,they liked you." She thought they were going to take them prisoners and hinting that Riff Raff had a thing for Frank.

Riff yells back at her, as he cried "They didn't like me! They never liked me!" In the movie but in the play he's response is " You saw the way the things were going. "

Dr. Scott applauds them for doing the right thing. Riff Raff and Magenta walk over and lower the gun. They apologize for Eddie's death and allow Dr Scott, Brad and Janet time to leave before the manor is shot back home. As they leave Riff Raff and Magenta talk about how they can't wait to go home, see their lovely planet and do the time warp again.

I plan on doing a theory for Shock Treatment as well at some point. Yes they are some things I left out, like the sibling incest. That I don't think was that important to the theory or plot of the film, we don't know how it works on their planet.

[ntshastark]

NUlts lb

i am, once again, catching up on the last few weeks (but now it's just the anniversary oneshot, uxm and usm)

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Ultimate Universe: One Year In

lmao tony is literally the protagonist of this universe, so iconic of him

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i thought this was some rare southern hemisphere rep (HELL YEAH FOR SUMMER CHRISTMAS) but using fahrenheit??

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that one woman who got arrested for repeating the words on luigi mangione's (allegedly) bullets

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ah nvm just global warming. anyway, happy first day of summer! it means rainy season is finally here and the temperature should start to go down!! that's right bitch, i pulled a double jeopardy (i don't actually know if that's the right way to use this expression)!! yeah it's the southern hemisphere, but it's also the fucking tropics babeyyy

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oh wow. they finally did it. they made the worst possible nick fury. the ultimate son of a bitch, if you will.

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ROBERTO????????????? WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO MY BOY

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LOL

LMAO EVEN

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i was gonna say that's giving people way too much credit, but popular opinion on the ceo thing apparently proves me wrong so

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is that a falcon suit?? so no sam? :(

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HE KILLED MANTIS AND DUMDUM????????????????

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ah damn, a huge shift on the status quo would be so interesting. well.

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he should be at the club :(

also, thinking of 616 beto and illyana meeting these versions...

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ok what the fuck are these things supposed to be

and why was everyone drawn with their eyes closed so much on this issue?? was it on purpose? does it mean something or is it just a stylistic choice?

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...charles?

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ah so the wolverine/winter soldier is logan. i was kinda expecting a plot twist where it'd be bucky

well, apparently the wolverine comic is gonna be a lot more classic x-men than uxm itself. i can't believe they're putting the x-men behind a paywall, and the pay is having to read one of logan's solo books. and i don't even get scott >:(

well, at least my faves didn't get saddled with the evil russian trope, so i guess it could be worse

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Ultimate X-Men #10

i didn't even check if i should've read this one before the 'one year in thing' uhhh oops

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me n the gc

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i'm sorry, this looks so stupid

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i genuinely don't know if i just don't vibe with peach momoko's style or if she's really getting sloppy because of deadlines (which, if it's the case, is totally understandable), but like

this is so ugly, i'm sorry. these are thumbnails.

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sigh.

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oh. uh.

oops?

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is this hank???

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yeah, i guess this makes a bit more sense coming before the 'one year in' thing, since the oneshot makes christmas references and so does the next comic (usm), but this one doesn't. i have absolutely no idea how big christmas is in japan, but i think it makes for a smoother read? (this is me thinking about my 6160 reading order btw)

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Ultimate Spider-Man #12

they're married at this point

==

OOOOOOOOOOOOO EDDIE BROCK REF AND MJ FAMILY DRAMA

==

oh my god are the watsons going to be the focus of this issue, would hickman be that nice to me???? i mean, three whole women????

==

ma'am you're looking at him with his husband!!!! can't believe mj's mom is a homewrecker

==

oh my god

==

*banging on the table* WATSON FAMILY DRAMA WATSON FAMILY DRAMA WATSON FAMILY DRAMA

==

not posting a lot of screenshots of things i'm enjoying bc it'd just be the whole fucking issue atp

==

jjj being richard's cool uncle is certainly Something

==

guys i think i love the watson sisters

==

oh my god gayle is such an absolute bitch, i love her

==

wait, am i actually supposed to believe they're not fucking????? what's this whole thing been about then???????

(like, i didn't think they'd make it canon or anything, but i genuinely thought hickman was writing it with the intention that it'd implied bc like. why the fuck else would you do half of what happened in this run)

==

damn. one of the best spider-man issues i've read in my entire life and i don't think peter's actually said a single word in it.

==

oh wait there's more

==

OH HOLY SHIT

HOHOHOLY SHIT, EVEN

==

OH WAIT THERE'S EVEN MORE

==

OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT, JONATHAN HICKMAN THE MAN THAT YOU ARE

[jxrm]

book log - 2019

my kind of perfect by hannah ellis

not the girl you marry by andie j. christopher

the wedding party by jasmine guillory

sweet venom by tera lynn childs

obsession by amanda robson

the proposal by jasmine guillory

maybe in another life by taylor jenkins reid

the last librarian by brandt legg

exit west by mohsin hamid

the water cure by sophie mackintosh

the broken hearts' society of suite 17c by leighann kopans

royal holiday by jasmine guillory

the good samaritan by john marrs

fuck marriage by taryn fisher

christmas with friends by hannah ellis

the death of mrs. westaway by ruth ware

gabi, a girl in pieces by isabel quintero

swipe right for murder by derek millman

#therealcinderella by yesenia vargas

shutter island by dennis lehane

the wedding of rachel blaine by amy cross

pieces of her by karin slaughter

these witches don't burn by isabel sterling

a spark of light by jodi picoult

the friend by teresa driscoll

frankissstein by jeanette winterson

how to hang a witch by adriana mather

the bride test by helen hoang

just one bite by jack heath

the babysitters coven by kate williams

blame game by c.j. cooke

about the night by anat talshir

wreckage by emily bleeker

our house by louise candilish

just what kind of mother are you? by paula daly

the other ann by amy cross

in a dark, dark wood by ruth ware

spare room by dreda say mitchell

jar of hearts by jennifer hillier

without remorse by tom clancy

the amateurs by liz harmer

exhalation by ted chiang

the astonishing color of after by emily x.r. pan

all the beautiful lies by peter swanson

batman: year one by frank miller

go by kazuki kaneshiro

the bird and the sword by amy harmon

q is for quarry by sue grafton

guilt by amanda robson

blame it on bianca del rio by bianca del rio

size 14 is not fat either by meg cabot

the banker's wife by cristina alger

a good enough mother by bev thomas

someone we know by shari lapena

the man i thought you were by leah mercer

radio silence by alice oseman

the butterfly garden by dot hutchison

in twenty years by allison winn scotch

what happened at the lake by phil m. williams

the thinnest air by minka kent

you know me well by nina lacour

the waiting room by emily bleeker

sleeping murder by agatha christie

we were mothers by katie sise

bunny by mona awad

the one by john marrs

losing leah halloway by lisa reganby devney perry

the song of achilles by madeline miller

daughters of the lake by wendy webb

remember me? by sophie kinsella

the birthday list by devney perry

a curse so dark and lonely by birgid kemmener

spindle by e.k. johnston

the babysitter by sheryl browne

a serial killer's daughter by kerri rawson

the ex by alafair burke

the meryl streep movie club by mia march

watership down by richard adams

every ugly word by aimee l. salter

the rhythm of blues by love belvin

killman creek by rachel caine

undead girl gang by lily anderson

the turn of the key by ruth ware

smart girls gets what they want by sarah strohmeyer

girl gnoe virals by arvin ahmadi

the perfect roommate by minka kent

brother by david chariandy

that time i loved you by carrianne leung

lock every door by riley sager

the zen man by colleen collins

stillhouse lake by rachel caine

daisy jones & the six by taylor jenkins reid

once upon a river by daine setterfield

the good widow by liz fenton

sadie by courtney summers

dead girls by tim kizer

half past by victoria helen stone

the woo-woo by lindsay wong

ender's game by orson scott card

smoke by catherine mckenzie

the favorite daughter by kaira rouda

xo by jeffery deaver

whiskey in a teacup by reese witherspoon

the truth lies here by lindsey klingele

save the date by morgan matson

i am wathcing you by teresa driscoll

the last time i lied by riley sager

alex and eliza by melissa de la cruz

little fires everywhere by celeste ng

the long deception by mary mccluskey

fast forward by juliet madison

emergency contact by mary h.k. choi

two weddings and a fugitive by donna joy usher

the rules of magic by alice hoffman

i dream of johnny by juliet madison

friends like these by hannah ellids

the perfect mother by aimee molloy

a beautiful poison by lydia kang

girls with sharp sticks by suzanne young

the other woman by sandie jones

from twinkle with love by sandhya menon

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid

instant mom by nia vardalos

finding claire by lisa regan

the silent patient by alex michaelides

hidden bodies by caroline kepnes

playing with matches by hannah orenstein

the last resort by marissa stapley

robin by dave itzkoff

the perfect child by lucinda berry

sugar run by mesha maren

the afterlife of holly chase by cynthia hand

bright side by kim holden

convenience store woman by sayaka murata

the perfect mother by nina darnton

rush by lisa patton

girls' night out by liz fenton

the tattooist of auschwitz by heather morris

the power by naomi alderman

bird box by josh malerman

all we ever wanted by emily giffin

the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson

this is how it always is by laurie frankel

eligible by curtis sittenfield

the better sister by alafair burke

an anonymous girl by greer hendricks

educated by tara westover

nine perfect strangers by liane moriarty

the good neighbor: the life and work of fred rogers by maxwell king

harry potter and the philosopher's stone by j.k. rowling

five feet apart by rachael lippincott

the seven deaths of evelyn hardcastle by stuart turton

harry potter and the chamber of secrets by j.k. rowling

verity by colleen hoover

the wedding beat by devan sipher

harry potter and the prisoner of azkaban by j.k. rowling

boy swallows universe by trent dalton

the polygamist's daughter by anna labaron

harry potter and the order of the phoenix by j.k. rowling

starstruck in seattle by juliet madison

harry potter and the goblet of fire by j.k. rowling

13 minutes by sarah pinborough

harry potter and the half blood prince by j.k. rowling

the silver star by jeannette walls

harry potter and the deathly hallows by j.k. rowling

the girls by emma cline

the sun is also a star by nicola yoon

[thevaudevilledemon]

1001 Comics Project

So… I decided to do something crazy, because I am just that kind of weirdo who likes having big projects. Being someone who used to find comics a… fairly esoteric medium, it's only fitting that I decided to go through the 1001 Comics you Must Read before You Die book and read each comic. Why? Well, it does harken back to me finding comics an esoteric medium, and I think going through this would not only be great for me to be more acquainted with comics, but also give me a good understanding of the history of comics. Media history is one of the things I love, so getting the chance to read these comics would really give me a glimpse into the history of it all.

And I figured, let's really make this interesting. Every few comics or so, I will share my progress here, and whether or not the comics really belong on the 1001 Comics list. Why? Because I like to talk about these things. On top of that, sprinkled around every now and then, I'm gonna read a couple extra comics that… aren't in the book, but may still be worth checking out.

So, let's begin this journey into comics, graphic novels, manga, manhwa, newspaper comics and the comix underground.

Entry Number: 316 (No I'm not gonna do this by the book) Title: Mickey Mouse Meets the Air Pirates Funnies Writers and Artists: Dan O'Neill, Bobby London, Gary Hallgreen, and Ted Richards Year: 1971 Genre: Underground, Adult, Parody Type: 2-Issue Comic Series Read: 2024-04-30

Verdict: Yes I can't quite say this is a "Must Read" comic, but it is definitely something that many art loving punks have probably always wanted to do, but never had a the balls, guts or courage to try and get away with; fucking with Mickey Mouse. Disney characters swear, and commit acts of coitis. This is the kind of thing many in the underground would salivate over, so if you enjoy seeing The Mouse (TM) get beaten, cussed at, fucked and all around mistreated, this two-issue comic series may be for you.

Entry Number: 212 Title: Spy Vs. Spy Writers and Artists: Antonio Prohías (And others) Year: 1961 Genre: Humour, Silent Comics Type: Magazine Comic Read: 2024-04-30 to 2024-05-01

Verdict: Yes I wasn't even half-way through Spy vs. Spy The Complete Casefiles before I made my decision. The humour, often simplistic, is marvelously crafted with zero dialogue. It is the classic essence of a good old fashioned slapstick cartoon put to paper, and unlike Tom and Jerry or Road Runner and Coyote, both spies get bamboozled, and the best part is, it isn't always to the death, sometimes one spy just gets the better of the other, but it's always in a clever, unique, and sometimes just goofy way that compliments the absurdity of cartoons and comics. I will say I am not as much a fan of the Peter Kuper comics, the artstyle and gag writing just doesn't feel right, and when the comic is in colour, frankly that just kills the whole thing, still these are fun comics and absolutely should be checked out.

Entry Number: 627 Title: Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art Writers and Artists: Scott McCloud Year: 1993 Genre: Reference, Analysis Type: Analysis Material, Graphic Novel Read: 2024-05-01 to 2024-05-02

Verdict: Yes I think ultimately, Under Standing comics may be a good reference to look at while learning how comics work, what makes them tick, so to speak. Scott McCloud does kind of go overboard, I think, over explaining, and ultimately making the issue at hand a bit more complicated that it needed to be, or maybe I'm just not very intelligent. All in all, for what this book is, I do think that yes, it does belong on this list, but if there is another comic about explaining comics, than they may also be worth looking into just as much.

Entry Number: 709 Title: 300 Writers and Artists: Frank Miller and Lynn Varley Year: 1998 Genre: History, War, Action Type: Five-Issue Comic Series Read: 2024-05-03

Verdict: Yes What really made me enjoy this book more than I thought I would, was the dry wit and sarcasm from King Leonidas, Frank Miller knew how to write the perfect response to come from the Spartan King's mouth. On top of that, the artstyle was fantastic, full page illustrations with Lynn Varley's colouring were incredible, and when something needed to be grotesque, it was pretty grotesque. I think ultimately, even if you don't find yourself really into the art or writing, it's only five chapters long, and it could be read in about an hour or so. I enjoyed it for what it was, and I can definitely recommend it. Plus, if you're familair with the 2006 movie adaptation, some, if not all of your favourite lines from the movie are in the book.

Entry Number: 106 Title: The Adventures of Tintin: The Seven Crystal Balls Writers and Artists: "Hergé" Year: 1943 Genre: Adventure, Mystery Type: Comic Book Read: 2024-05-03 (I was eager to read a Tintin comic)

Verdict: Yes If I had to pick only a couple Tintin comics to include in this book, The Seven Crystal Balls is absolutely one of the books I'd select. The Tintin comics were often enjoyable mysteries and fun adventures and The Seven Crystal Balls is one of the best mysteries of the series. There is just one concern here, and that is that for whatever reason "Prisoners of the Sun" is not included in this book at all, not as an entry, not even part of a shared entry with this one. Since The Seven Crystal Balls directly leads into Prisoners of the Sun, I say that you can't have one without the other. So take this as sort of a double recommendation, though after all this, I will be doing Prisoners of the Sun as a separate entry.

And as a bonus, a comic that isn't on the list, but I read anyway

Title: The Intertidal Zone Writers and Artists: Stephen Hillenburg Year: 1989 (Some sources say 1984 but the comic available on the Internet Archive is dated 1989) Genre: Educational, Humour Type: Educational Comic Book Read: 2024-05-05

Verdict: Should be on the list The amazing characterization and art of Stephen Hillenburg is displayed in not only a humorous comic, but also a cute and fun way to learn about some sea life. I could imagine an entire comic series of this, and I can also see some seeds planted that would eventually become a little TV show that changed animation, I'm not talking about Bob the Sponge, I'm talking about SpongeBob SqaurePants!

[hollowwish]

Quick list of some books I read in school/on my own time! (I love most of not all of these. Some might not exactly be classics, but they're still a worthwhile read)

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (Or, it's full title: A Christmas Carol. In Prose. Being a Ghost Story of Christmas) This is my favorite Christmas story and has been since I read it. Ebenezer Scrooge is such a fucking dick and I love him for it. The ghosts of Christmas are all very good characters, HIGHLY recommend. (I know most people have seen some rendition of this in media, but I'd still go out and read the orginal!)

The Pearl by John Stienback. A very short read! I expected to not like it but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit!

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I LOVE this book. Such a good stroy in only nine chapters. You can even make Nick and Gatsby gay if you try hard enough (you barely have too.) (90% sure nick sleeps with a married man at the end of a chapter) (there's literally pictures of the author dressed in drag and it's my FAVORITE trivia about this book)

Lord of the Flies by William Goulding. I have yet to finish this one, but it's very good so far!

Hatchet by Gray Paulsen. I barely remember anything about this book other than it being a survival story, but I always look at it fondly on my shelf. (Survival story as in the main character has to survive in the woods.) (I think Paulsen is also an author worth checking out, based on what I've seen!)

Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. This book is set in the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, and shows the struggles of living during that time.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Spear. A book about a Quaker woman and a girl who keeps coming to visit her. It's set back in the time period when people were accused of being witches

The Giver by Louis Lowry. I loved this book enough to go out and by the squeals (because yes, this is a series!) Lowry makes such a good and interesting world in her stories.

1984 by George Orwell. A dystopian novel about challenging the party in control. Can ring pretty relevant in today's times

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. The one book here I've never actually gotten my hands on. But my friends from out of state liked it a lot! So it felt worth mentioning (i do plan to read it one day)

Flowers for Algeron by Daniel Keyes. This book made me cry. It's an extremely good story that challenges the "ignorance is bliss" idea.

White Fang by Jack London. I actually have no idea where I read/learned about the story but I AM very familiar with White Fang. It's a dog/wolf book. I love animal books. Would read again.

The Call of the Wild, also by Jack London. My whole class loved this book when we read it, and half of them hated reading. If you like books about dogs (and sled dogs, specifically), this is a pretty good one.

And, If you read Watership Down and like it, there's a squeal: Tales From Watership Down, also by Richard Adams. I have sadly not read it yet, but Watership Down is one of my top five books ever. I know it's gonna be good.

Literally any Twain, Dickens, Orwell or London book is a good start. (My old history teacher was very vexed about us not reading Twain anymore. Made me wanna see what I missed out on)

Also, I second a lot of what op already mentioned. I love a lot of those books to bits and they are ABSOLUTELY worth a read

Hey so like many of you, I saw that article about how people are going into college having read no classic books. And believe it or not, I've been pissed about this for years. Like the article revealed, a good chunk of American Schools don't require students to actually read books, rather they just give them an excerpt and tell them how to feel about it. Which is bullshit.

So like. As a positivity post, let's use this time to recommend actually good classic books that you've actually enjoyed reading! I know that Dracula Daily and Epic the Musical have wonderfully tricked y'all into reading Dracula and The Odyssey, and I've seen a resurgence of Picture of Dorian Gray readership out of spite for N-tflix, so let's keep the ball rolling!

My absolute favorite books of all time are The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Classic psychological horror books about unhinged women.

I adore The Bad Seed by William March. It's widely considered to be the first "creepy child" book in American literature, so reading it now you're like "wow that's kinda cliche- oh my god this is what started it. This was ground zero."

I remember the feelings of validation I got when people realized Dracula wasn't actually a love story. For further feelings of validation, please read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. There's a lot the more popular adaptations missed out on.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier is an absolute gem of a book. It's a slow-build psychological study so it may not be for everyone, but damn do the plot twists hit. It's a really good book to go into blind, but I will say that its handling of abuse victims is actually insanely good for the time period it was written in.

Moving on from horror, you know people who say "I loved this book so much I couldn't put it down"? That was me as a kid reading A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Picked it up while bored at the library and was glued to it until I finished it.

Peter Pan and Wendy by JM Barrie was also a childhood favorite of mine. Next time someone bitches about Woke Casting, tell them that the original 1911 Peter Pan novel had canon nonbinary fairies.

Watership Down by Richard Adams is my sister Cori's favorite book period. If you were a Warrior Cats, Guardians of Ga'Hoole or Wings of Fire kid, you owe a metric fuckton to Watership Down and its "little animals on a big adventure" setup.

A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry was a play and not a book first, but damn if it isn't a good fucking read. It was also named after a Langston Hughes poem, who's also an absolutely incredible author.

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is a book I absolutely adore and will defend until the day I die. It's so friggin good, y'all, I love it more than anything. You like people breaking out of fascist brainwashing? You like reading and value knowledge? You wanna see a guy basically predict the future of television back in 1953? Read Fahrenheit.

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee are considered required reading for a reason: they're both really good books about young white children unlearning the racial biases of their time. Huck Finn specifically has the main character being told that he will go to hell if he frees a slave, and deciding eternal damnation would be worth it.

As a sidenote, another Mark Twain book I was obsessed with as a kid was A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Exactly what it says on the tin, incredibly insane read.

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin is a heartbreaking but powerful book and a look at the racism of the time while still centering the love the two black protagonists feel for each other. Giovanni's Room by the same author is one that focuses on a MLM man struggling with his sexuality, and it's really important to see from the perspective of a queer man living in the 50s– as well as Baldwin's autobiographical novel, Go Tell it on the Mountain.

Agatha Christie mysteries are all still absolutely iconic, but Murder on the Orient Express is such a good read whether or not you know the end twist.

Maybe-controversial-maybe-not take: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov is a good book if you have reading comprehension. No, you're not supposed to like the main character. He pretty much spells that out for you at the end ffs.

Animal Farm by George Orwell was another favorite of mine; it was written as an obvious metaphor for the rise of fascism in Russia at the time and boy does it hit even now.

And finally, please read Shakespeare plays. As soon as you get used to their way of talking, they're not as hard to understand as people will lead you to believe. My absolute favorite is Twelfth Night- crossdressing, bisexual love triangles, yellow stockings... it's all a joy.

and those are just the ones i thought of off the top of my head! What're your guys' favorite classic books? Let's make everyone a reading list!

[avengersrewatch]

"Meet Captain America'

Okay, I have lost all my will to live with all the mini-sodes. I'm going to do the Captain America one in order. It did air in order online, which ?? Why is Captain America the only one the series cared about?

OH wait. It's because Captain America isn't part of the first Avengers team. He shows up later and the viewer has to know who he is. That's why they need us to understand his arc. I see what you did there, show.

I do want to talk about the mini-sodes more, especially "Welcome to Wakanda" and how is it such a lesser portrayal of Wakanda than the Ryan Coogler movies. (Admittedly, it's a "child-appropriate" version of the comic book canon at the time, but it's still fucked up.)

The main difference from Captain America's backstory in "Meet Captain America" than Captain America: the First Avenger is that Bucky is a kid, like he was in the comics, and not Steve's peer. They brought on kid-sidekicks to draw in younger audiences so of course they keep him as a kid on the cartoon. (Nerd note: Young Bucky is voiced by Scott Menville, who you might recognize is also Robin on Teen Titans and Teen Titans Go. So really a classic Teen Sidekick voice.

We also see that Nathaniel Richards, aka Kang the Conqueror is sort of the narrator of Captain America's story. Although they also add an old-timey newsreel type opening, which is odd. Seems unnecessary to do two frame stories. Anyway, Kang is looking back into the past and apparently he's watching stupid newsreel footage instead of actually seeing through time, which he can do.

Kang's storyline has a lot to do with Steve in the EMHU . In the MCU we only so far know him as a villain of Loki and Ant-man (Scott Lang version). Though we know from marketing announcements he will eventually face the Avengers as a team.

Of course Kang in the MCU has to be involved with breaking the "multiverse" open now that Disney own all the rights to all the Marvel characters, including the X-Men and Fantastic Four.

This series, since it's a different medium, already had access to the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. We see Wolverine in a World War II flashback in this episode. (Which some people hoped Fox would allow when Captain America: the First Avenger came out, but they did not. It would have been cool to see Bucky, Steve and Logan just hanging out.)

However, since this is and Avengers show and not a Marvel Universe Show, Wolverine (the only X-Man to be part of the Avengers in this show), and the Fantastic Four only really show up sparingly.

I do wonder if the MCU will, at some point, be force to break the universe in pieces a bit. Some people only the the X-Men books in the comics and maybe major team ups. Can they do something like that in the movies? Find a way to make each franchise feel different from the others? Make mainstream audiences chose their heroes the way nerds always do every Wednesday?

(An example, make the X-Men films the darker and more adult stories, the Avengers series occupies this middle zone of big popcorn everyone comes out, and the Fantastic Four franchise is a more kid-friendly, younger audience?)

Under the cut I compare this more to Captain America: the First Avenger

Skinny Steve, scientists, Bucky and the Howling Commandos, Red Skull, group fight. That is pretty much the same structure as Captain America: the First Avenger.

Except CATFA needs to have a romance with Peggy Carter. The cartoons aren't entirely "ew cooties romance" as it could be. But here it finds no female relationship as important as the one to Bucky. (And I do think the MCU initially took that approach of a young boy that doesn't care about girls telling the story. And then they were a bit surprised female viewers of the films cared what happened to Peggy. Like the comics at the time just has Gail and there's very little we know about her.

(Like Kevin Feige was like, "wait the women have to be important in the flashbacks before the important stuff too?" Shit, give Peggy and show and the only way we can make Carol important enough to male viewers is to say she existed before. She's an old hero like Cap and Namor and Wolverine. ??? )

(Is being a hero during World War II the greatest honor we can bestow on our mainstream heroes? Wonder Woman, Cap, Wolverine, all have that element.)

I shouldn't get high and watch these cartoons??? What does it mean that they didn't give it to Isaiah Bradley in the show?

[bamfdaddio]

X-Men Abridged: 1981

The X-Men, those back-to-the-future mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(Uncanny X-Men 141 - 152) - by Chris Claremont and John Byrne, Brent Anderson, Dave Cockrum, Jim Sherman, Bob McLeod and Josef Rubinstein

While I also committed various fashion atrocities at the age of 14 (tye-die and fauxhawks, oh my), even Liberace would find Kitty’s outfits too much. (Uncanny X-Men 149; Uncanny X-Men Annual ‘81)

We dial back from the v. epic scope of the last few arcs. Instead, 1981 is just a lot of fun! We get:

Storm and Emma doing a Freaky Friday!

the X-Men vs. Magneto (again!)

A surprisingly effective Alien rip-off

An dystopian future! (OoOoOoOo)

Last year was the year of the Dark Phoenix, this is the year of Kitty Pryde. That’s not to say Jean’s death is swept under the rug: all throughout, we see her friends mourning her loss or remembering her fondly. (Scott even gets to have a demonic adventure about it.) But in general, Claremont puts Kitty in the forefront, fleshing out his YA-addition to the team. And what would a YA heroine be without a grim dystopia? Roll out the iconic Days of Future Past!

To be fair, 2013 was a dark time for all of us: What Does the Fox Say somehow got to the top of the charts and I was still watching Glee. (Uncanny X-Men 141)

How cool would it have been to see a name like Jonothon Starsmore or Eva Bell on those tombstones?

Anyway, that’s Kate. Kate’s had it rough. Mutants are at the bottom of the foodchain, most X-Men are dead and only a small cadre of resistance fighters remain, Sentinels dominate, and while she is married to Piotr, her children have been murdered. Bleak. Luckily, the rebellion has concocted the plan to shunt Kate’s spirit back in time to prevent this awful future from happening. (You’ve seen Days of Future Past, the last passably good X-Men film, you know what’s up.)

Let’s do the time warp again! 1981!Kitty’s mind gets taken over by 2013!Kitty, who promptly tries to convince the X-Men that a new Brotherhood of v. Evil Mutants will try to kill Senator Kelly, a presidential candidate who tries to put the mutant menace on the agenda. (Mutants tend to blow stuff up when he’s around.) Since the X-Men recently took a literal trip to Dante’s Infero and also befriended a cosmic world-ending entity, they basically shrug and go: “Yeah, this checks out.”

Off to Washington they go (zoommm) and there, they happen upon the Baddest Bitches in Herstory:

“How dare you hate mutants, senator Kelly! We’ll fix that by killing you!” (Uncanny X-Men 141)

This All-New, All-Different Brotherhood consists out of:

Destiny, a blind woman who can see the future. Definitely the eeriest member of this group. Badass lesbian, though that won´t be canon for years.

Avalanche. Greek who makes things shake. Is a long-standing member of the X-Men Rogue’s gallery, but rarely features in the spotlight. I think he got more characterization in four years of X-Men Evolution than he ever did in the comics.

Mystique. Shapeshifter. Ruthless and unhinged, the Cersei Lannister of the X-Men universe. Absolute legend, secretly the wife of Destiny, currently not as unhinged as she’ll be later. Immediately implied to be related to Nightcrawler: it’s the yellow-eyes-blue-skin-combo.

Pyro. Can manipulate fire, not create it. Absolute pillock, in all the best ways of the word. Originally intended as gay, but they decided to make him Australian instead. (?!)

Blob. Big, strong, immovable. We’ve seen him before.

One of the details in this fight I enjoy is that Storm is still struggling with her leadership, although she has a better grip on things than Cyclops:

Wolverine then proceeds to use those iconic but deadly claws about twice per issue for the next, oh, forty years. (Uncanny X-Men 142)

While the X-Men fight the Brotherhood in the present, we cut back and forth to the future. There, the X-Men consist out of some familiar faces - Storm, Colossus, Wolverine - and some surprises: Magneto (in a wheelchair), Franklin Richards (son of) and an unfamiliar ginger girl called Rachel. (She’ll be important later.) We even learn (one of) Magneto’s names: this is the first time he’s canonically called Magnus.

One of the strengths of Days of Future Past lies in its brevity, the way it tantalizingly taunts us with a brutal but familiar future without giving away too much. It’s single-handedly responsible for all those dark future timelines the X-lines are so fond of which will eventually culminate in time-displaced grandsons from alternative dimensions and the impossibility of a succinct answer to the question: “Who’s Cable?” Too much of a good thing and all that.

Still, what Days of Future Past does so successfully is:

Put the idea of the mutant menace back at the forefront, hammering home the metaphor of mutants being a minority. Mutants being put in camps and being forbidden to breed should - regretfully - make us think of all too many real life equivalents. (Specifically, all of the imagery harkens back to the Holocaust.)

It starkly shows what happens should the X-Men lose, reminding everyone of the stakes. The X-Men are here for a reason: bridging the gap between mutants and humankind. If they fuck up, we end up with mutant concentration camps.

It helps that the X-Men in the future almost all die horribly: Franklin is incinerated, Storm is impaled… It's brutal stuff. The only one to survive is Rachel, who wonders if their plan actually changed the future or if they created an alternative timeline. (It did the latter, sorry ‘bout it, Rachel.)

In the present, Kate chases after Destiny, who trains a gun on senator Kelly. I always wondered how this works: if Destiny saw the future, she knew that killing Kelly would trigger a terrifying future. What in the current Marvel timeline made her decide that the Days of Future Past was better? Did she see her own death? Did she see the Onslaught-crossover coming? The Chuck Austen run? What was it?

In any case, time-anomalous Kate stops Destiny from killing Kelly and the future is safe! For now. Kate disappears, Kitty returns to her body and some of the Brotherhood are apprehended. All is well, for now.

After being a key figure in DoFP, Kitty is also the main character in the Christmas special, which is basically a straight up horror and a pastiche of the Alien-movie.

Seriously, John Byrne still isn’t sure why he wasn’t sued by Ridley Scott for this. (Uncanny X-Men 143)

If you love Kitty Pryde? Read this issue. If you’re not convinced you like 80’s Kitty? Read this issue. It’s not continuity relevant and it’s basically Kitty playing the part of a Final Girl in a horror where she’s being chased by a demon, but it’s so good. It showcases all her strengths and her foibles. Kitty’s intelligent, cute (sometimes preciously so) and brave, but she’s also young, self-conscious and hot-headed. And it's not as if the other X-Men automatically adore her: Storm berates her all the time, she’s afraid of Kurt because of the way he looks (though she grows out of that) and she fights with Professor Xavier a lot. Moreover, she has a clever power-set for a young superhero who faces menaces on a daily basis: a thirteen year old who can go intangible is far less likely to have reality ensue on her and be dramatically offed because she's better at protecting herself.

I’m sure there are people who thought Sprite was hogging the spotlight, but I, for one, say she brings more to the table than, say, Angel. She’s not the Dawn Summers of this franchise.

Scott also gets a side quest. Poor guy can’t catch a break: first the love of his life dies, so he quits the X-Men, then he realizes he can’t do much else than be a superhero. He becomes a sailor on the ship of spunky captain Lee Forrester, is drawn into the sadistic plans of a demon unironically named D’Spayre and then shipwrecks in Bermuda with Lee.

The X-Men, meanwhile, are tormented by a team-up of Doom (who’s currently Latverialess and working on a comeback) and Arcade, that annoying crony. Locke, Arcade’s dom, has kidnapped the loved ones of the X-Men (Moira MacTaggart, Jean Grey’s parents, Illyana Rasputin and Amanda Sefton) in order to blackmail them into getting Doom to free Arcade. Apparently, Arcade accidentally insulted Doom and DOOM DOES NOT FORGIVE THAT FOLLY.

While the B-Squad (Polaris, Havok, Banshee and Iceman) goes to save Arcade’s hostages, the X-Men sneak into Doom’s castle. Well, except for Storm, who doesn’t give a single fuck and simply flies up to Doom, demanding an audience. Doom likes the cut of her jib and invites her to have dinner. (This is pre-Tinder, so this is a legit way of scoring a date.)

If Storm has a flaw (I said if!), it’s got to be her atrocious taste in men. (Uncanny X-Men 145)

The X-Men find Arcade’s cell empty, while Arcade casually saunters up to Storm and says hi. Storm realizes too late that this is a trap: while the X-Men are all trapped in Saw-like traps, Storm is encased in ‘living chrome’.

If you remember she’s claustrophobic, you know why this is a bad move.

While the X-Men free themselves from their traps - Polaris hilariously has to deal with a murderous merry-go-round - Storm is slowly driven mad in her prison, triggering a worldwide tempest. (She causes Lee and Scott to shipwreck.) Under the threat of Wolverine’s claws, Doom releases Storm - or rather, unleashes her.

“Instead of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen, not dark but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Tempestuous as the sea, and stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me and despair!” (Uncanny X-Men 147)

The memory of Jean brings Ororo back to herself and she starts undoing the superstorm she created. (If only climate change were reversed that easily.) Their confrontation ends by Storm easily forgiving Doom, because she apparently trespassed on his grounds without adequate cause.

Mkay.

All of Arcade’s hostages return to their homesteads, except for Illyana Rasputin, Piotr’s sister: she’s staying at the mansion for a while. Angel, who’s sort of been a part of the team since the Phoenix thing, has had it with Wolverine and his ‘tude, and decides to quit the X-Men : he doesn’t want to be a part of an outfit that has a killer like Wolverine on it. (Or maybe he’s just mad Claremont didn’t give him any storylines: his presence has been mostly pointless.) It’s too bad he left before Kitty started experimenting with her outfits: I bet he would have loved her ugly-ass costumes.

Equally inconsequential is the introduction of a brand new character, who then proceeds to disappear from the narrative for the rest of the year:

Black Tom has tried to kill you at least twice, but him sending you a long-lost daughter doesn’t give you pause? Ugh, Sean, you deserve Moira. (Uncanny X-Men 148)

Intrigued by Theresa? TOO BAD, WON’T SEE HER AGAIN ANYTIME SOON.

Another new character is the lonely, decidedly mutant looking Caliban, who can sense “people like him” and is on the lookout for companions. Like many lonely people who try and grasp at friendship, he decides to overshoot his shot and ruin the night of Storm, Kitty and Jessica Drew at a Dazzler concert. Because he tries to kidnap Kitty, the girls react a trifle aggressively. When they realize their mistake - the eerily pale Caliban is a simpleton rather than a menace - he’s already fled. No mention is made of the Morlocks yet!

There’s also another dull annual where the X-Men team up with the Fantastic Four to save Arkon’s dimension from the Badoon and yaaaaawn. Far more interesting is the landmark issue #150. Slowly, through the adventures of Scott and Lee Forrester, Claremont has been setting things up for the return of a favorite villain. While the X-Men investigate Magneto’s old base in Antarctica on a hunch of Professor X and tangle with Garruk, Scott and Lee survive Storm’s tempest, only to wake up next to a strange island that seems to have been raised from the ocean.

It’s apparently some ancient citadel from a long forgotten civilization with a fondness for squid statues. (I don’t know man, I’ve never been to the Bermuda Triangle, maybe this is just super-accurate.)The tentacles make Lee Forrester feel very amorous, but before Scott can tell her he is way too repressed to just have sex with an attractive someone he’s known intimately for a month or two, Magneto saves his ass by revealing he, in fact, raised this island from the seafloor.

Oh, Magneto. So extra.

My ambitious little mutant demagogue then proceeds to take the entire world hostage, showing how much he’s grown from the pompous, raving madman from the sixties. (Sure, Magneto is still a bit of a madman, but increasingly, he starts being on the right side of history.)

“I’m trying to make Magneto more sympathetic.”

“Just put him on a page with some bigger villains who are less noble, like the Vanisher, Count Nefaria, or…”

“Reagan, Thatcher and Brezhnov?”

“Er.” (Uncanny X-Men 150)

It’s obvious Magneto is being pivoted as a more noble villain, codified into the well-intentioned extremist we know and love today. Not only do we get the first hints at his past, fleshing out his motivations, he’s also not wrong. Humans are historically not great at taking care of the planet or each other.

When the Russians call his bluff and launch nukes at Magneto’s new island, he quickly disarms them. His retribution is swift and ferocious: the entire citadel is a machine that massively amplifies his powers. He sinks the submarine that launched the missiles, condemning the entire crew to death, and he casually erects a vulcano in a Russian city in Siberia.

Damn. Not messing around this time.

Despite his good intentions, Magneto is still definitely in the wrong: not only because of his methods, but as Scott points out: if Magneto unifies the world under his kind of benevolent dictatorship, all of that will simply fall apart as soon as Magnus dies.

In a way, Magneto is just as big a dreamer as Charles is: Charles believes in peace and integration, whereas Magneto believes his iron fist will be enough to make a perfect world happen. Both of them ignore the reality that acceptance is difficult and messy, because you’re trying to change essential human nature: the fear of the other. Magneto believes in big, sweeping gestures that will fix the world in move, while changing the world is also boring, hard work. One step forward, two steps back. Magneto just wants to leapfrog to his ultimate goal.

The X-Men fly over the citadel, returning from Antarctica, and their plane crashes into the ocean. (Magneto does not brook planes over his territory, humans!) The Professor is also nearby, looking for Scott with Moira, Peter Corbeau and Carol Danvers. The X-Men sneak onto the island, but to their horror, their powers are nullified by some machine of Magneto. They reunite with Scott, who formulates a plan to thwart the would-be ruler of the world.

While the rest of the X-Men go to trash the machine, Storm, Kitty and Lee infiltrate the control chamber where Storm finds a sleeping, shirtless Magneto. Once again showing her terrible taste in men, she is not weak in the knees at the sight of a sleeping Magnus: instead, she contemplates killing him.

Storm knows how dangerous he is, but she also knows that he’s a great man who’s fighting for ideals, no matter how misguided. She hesitates too long: Magneto stirs, suspects an attack and tosses her out of the window, to her death.

Magneto quickly undoes the sabotage the other X-Men have wrought to his machine. A fight erupts. Storm, meanwhile, has managed to grab hold of a ledge. She crawls back up and smashes an important-looking computer, restoring everyone’s powers.

The battle turns grim, but Scott sends Kitty away to wreck Magneto’s machinery. She sneaks off, following Scott’s orders and destroying both Magneto's power-up device and all of his plans by phasing though the computer circuitry. Magneto senses this and furiously gives chase. Overcome by rage, he attacks Kitty and disrupts her phasing power with a magnetic bolt, seemingly killing her?

Everything about this story beat is great: mama bear!Ororo, mournful Magnus and even the fact that Kitty’s godawful outfit serves a narrative function: highlighting to us (and Magneto) just how young she is. The fact that Kitty’s Jewish is just icing on the cake. (Uncanny X-Men 150)

And thus, the softening of Magneto commences. 1981 might be a year with wildly varying narratives, but it has given us at least three enduring legacies to the X-Mythos: a new kind of Magneto, a fondness for dystopian futures and the character of Kitty Pryde, who's really come into her own this year.

Ugliest Costume: Kitty! Purposefully, but still. Best costume, by the way, goes to Destiny, with her creepy, creepy golden mask. Just imagine this lady casually strolling across a battlefield, eerily calm and collected, dodging everything you throw at her. Awesome design.

Best new character: I usually pick one character - what good is having a shared award when declaring the best of anything? - but this year, it’s going to one of my favorite couples: Mystique and Destiny. Can’t wait to see more of them.

Most audacious retcon: Blob somehow retroactively becomes a member of the original Brotherhood, which is not what happened. Ever weirder is Xavier pondering that he never met Magneto before his attack in X-Men #1, while their cordially adversarial relationship rooted in a youthful friendship would soon become a cornerstone of the X-Men.

What to read: Uncanny X-Men 141 - 143 and 150 - 152

[henrysglock]

THEY ARE THE SAME FUCKING PERSON!! THE SAME FUCKING GUY!!

RICHARD AND MARTIN AND HENRY AND EDWARD.

THE WHOLE CONCEPT OF SWAPPING PLACES.

RICHARD AND MARTIN BRENNER…BEING HENRY AND EDWARD GOING BACK IN TIME, AND THE TIMELINES BEING SWAPPED.

I TALKED ABOUT IT TO EM AND IT FUCKJNG COHERES.

HENCE WHY ALICE AND VIRGINIA SWAP PLACES IN THE PAPERS, THE CRIMSON PEAK REFERENCES, THE FACT THAT THE HAPPY HENRY IN THE TRAILER IS NEVER REFERRED TO BY NAME AND NEITHER IS ALICE…

ID MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD AND ID GET HIM TO SWAP OUR PLACES

HENRY BECOMES THE RICHARD BRENNER OF EDWARD’S TIMELINE. EDWARD BECOMES THE MARTIN BRENNER OF HENRY’S TIMELINE.

ME WHEN HENRY/EDWARD WAS TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO SAVE THEIR SISTER/FIND A UNIVERSE WHERE THEIR SISTER WAS STILL ALIVE, BUT THE THING IS THAT SHE IS ALIVE. ALICE CREEL OF HENRY’S TIMELINE MIGHT NOT HAVE DIED/MIGHT HAVE BECOME CONNIE AS A RESULT OF BEING STOLEN BY EDWARD/MARTIN. AND THEN THE SAME WOULD GO FOR VIRGINIA, EDWARD’S SISTER, IN EDWARD/MARTIN’S ORIGINAL TIMELINE WHEN HENRY GOES BACK AND BECOMES RICHARD BRENNER AND STEALS THEM.

SCOTT’S PARALLEL UNIVERSE STUFF.

HOPPER’S “YOUR SON IS NOT YOUR SON, AND YOUR WIFE—”

MARTIN BRENNER SLEEPS WITH VIRGINIA, PRODUCES HENRY. HERNY CROSSES TIMELINES. BECOMES RICHARD.

RICHARD BRENNER SLEEPS WITH THAT TIMELINE’S ALICE, PRODUCES EDWARD. EDWARD CROSSES TIMELINES AND BECOMES MARTIN.

BOTH TIMELINES, PAPA BRINGS THE CREELS TO THE HAWKINS LAB. BECAUSE BRENNER IN BOTH TIMELINES ARE THE FATHERS OF THE CREEL SON.

ME WHEN BACK TO THE FUTURE, AND STEVE’S THING ABOUT THE SON WANTING TO FUCK THE MOTHER. ME WHEN IT WAS THE MOTHER WHO WANTED TO SCREW THE SON IN THAT MOVIE, BUT STEVE FUCKS IT UP, SUBVERTS IT, IN THAT PARTICULAR WAY AT STARTCOURT MALL, RIGHT UNDER THE FLASS CEILING THE FLESHFLAYER WOULD COME THROUGH.

ME WHEN MARTIN’S “What. Have. You. Done.” BECAUSE EL GOT RID OF THE GUY THATS SUPPOSED TO GO BACK IN TIME AND FINISH THE TIME LOOP. EL YEETED HENRY CREEL, WHICH MEANS THAT HE NEVER GETS PUT INTO EDWARD’S TIMELINE TO FATHER EDWARD CREEL. HENRY GOT PULLED OUT OF THE TIME LOOP.

ME WHEN SCOTT WAS RIGHT, THERE IS A DIMENSION WHERE NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENED TO WILL BECAUSE HENRY GOT PULLED OUT OF THE TIME LOOP AND STUCK IN HAWKINS INSTEAD OF GOING INTO EDWARD’S TIMELINE. HENRY SHOULDN’T BE HERE IN 1979-ON.

ME WHEN THATS WHY WILL’S VANISHING IS SO FUCKING WEIRD AND WHY IT SEEMS LIKE HENRY IS SO BRENNER-LIKE AT TIMES. BECAUSE HES LITERALLY MEANT TO BECOME BRENNER. ITS PHYSICALLY AND LITERALLY THE CYCLE OF ABUSE. THE SON BECOMES THE FATHER PRODUCES THE SON.

ME WHEN HENRY AND GOD IMAGERY AND HOW HE SEEMS MORE LIKE THE WRATHFUL GOD THAN SATAN. WHY WOULD SATAN PUNISH THE SINNERS? WHY WOULD HENRY PUNISH THE EVIL UNLESS HE, LIKE GOD, WAS A PREDATOR FOR GOOD?

ME WHEN THAT MAKES WILL JESUS, GOD’S MOUTHPIECE, AND THE SHED SCENE IN ST2 WAS JOHN 16:5-7, GOD COMING TO RETRIEVE JESUS. ME WHEN THE SHADOW MONSTER BEING THE HOLY SPIRIT WOULD MAKE SO MUCH SENSE, AND THE FOUR VICTIMS BEING THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE…ME WHEN JESUS IN THE BOOK OF REVELATION IS ONLY ABLE TO STEP IN WHEN THE FIGHTING WITH SATAN’S FORCES REACHES ITS PEAK.

ITS THE FUCKING BOOK OF REVELATION AND JASON IS THE FALSE PROPHET, WILL IS JESUS, HENRY IS GOD, AND THE SHADOW IS THE HOLY SPIRIT. ME WHEN JESUS DOESNT FUCKING KILL GOD, HE GETS THE FIGHTING TO STOP AND SAVES THE TRUE BELIEVERS BY PUTTING THEM IN THE CITY OF GOD. THEN 1000 YEARS LATER, AFTER A FUCKING TIME SKIP, THE CITY OF GOD DESCENDS FOR THE SECOND DEATH IN WHICH SATAN’S UNDEAD FORCES TRY TO OVERTHROW THE CITY OF GOD AND GOD WIPES THE FLOOR WITH SATAN AGAIN, AND THE TRUE BELIEVERS LIVE ON IN PARADISE.

WILL WON’T KILL HENRY, BUT HE’LL GET HIM TO STOP THE FIGHTING. THOSE WHO BELIEVED JASON, THE FALSE PROPHET, WILL BE PUNISHED. THE TRUE BELIEVERS, THE CREW, WILL BE SAVED.

ME WHEN BRENNER INITIALLY UNLEASHED THE UD BY PRESSURING EL INTO REACHING OUT TO THE DEMOGORGON. BRENNER UNLEASHED HELL, JUST LIKE SATAN.

ME WHEN BRENNER IS SATAN AND THIS HENRY IS GOD AND THEYRE BOTH THE SAME FUCKING GUY JUST FROM DIFFERENT TIMELINES.

SATAN IS JUST GOD IN A TIME LOOP.

HOW ARE YOU GONNA LOOK ME IN THE EYES AND TELL ME THEY DON’T ALL LOOK THE EXACT SAME…

IM FUCKING STARING AT CRIMSON PEAK BEING ON THE ST4 MOVIE BOARD…WE NEVER SEE WHAT VIRGINIA DID TO WARRANT HENRY’S WRATH…SHE’S THE ONLY ONE WE DON’T SEE…

PLUS THE UNNAMED DEAD GREAT UNCLE? THE FACT THAT BRENNER WAS LIKELY BORN BETWEEN 1909-1919 BASED ON HIS GREY HAIR WHEN HE’S TATTOOING HENRY AND VIRGINIA WAS BORN IN 1923? THE FACT THAT THEY LOOKS SO SIMILAR? THE FACT THAT HENRY, LIKE THE PROTAG OF CRIMSON PEAK WHO CAUGHT THE SIBLINGS, WAS PUSHED OUT AN UPPER WINDOW/BALCONY OF THE HOUSE?

THE DEAD GREAT UNCLE AND THE FACT FHAT THE CREEL HOUSE IS ESSENTIALLY ACROSS THE STREET FROM HAWKINS NATIONAL LAB??? BRENNER INSISTING ON BEING CALLED PAPA???

WHAT DID HENRY SEE??????? WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE BRENNERS AND THE CREELS??????

[when-did-this-become-difficult]

The SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act: An Update!

The US Senate bill that would let disabled & elderly people save more money while still keeping their Social Security benefits (and which is pegged to inflation so we don’t need to keep passing increases over and over!) aka baby’s personal favorite legislation of the 117th Congress, has a little update!

On 06/06/2022, the bill’s original sponsors, senators Sherrod Brown (OH Dem) and Rob Portman (OH Rep), were joined by two new sponsors, Senator Ron Wyden (OH Dem) and Senator Bill Cassidy (LA Rep). (Source: official congressional website for the SSI Savings Penalty Elimination Act, also known as S.4102) The more bipartisan support, the better a chance it has of actually passing, so I’m excited!

Right now, it’s still in the Senate Committee on Finance. Keep in mind that Sherrod Brown actually introduced this legislation (or something very similar) in a previous year and it didn’t go through, but now he has Portman on board and Portman is going to get replaced in 2022, probably by a far worse Republican (fucking JD Vance, a massive capitalist who thinks welfare is Bad), so the time to get this passed is now! We don’t know what the 2022 midterms will bring.

Here’s all the current Senate Committee on Finance members, with links to their Wikipedia page. If one of these belongs to you, now would be a great time to call or send a letter! If you enter in your state on the official Senate site it will tell you their official Senate contact info. If you'd like to read the full text of the bill, I recommend it, it's very short, probably shorter than this post! I don't have a head count of who supports it at this point, but it wouldn’t hurt to let them know that they should! (I mean, I’m guessing Elizabeth Warren’s on board, lmao, but.)

DEMOCRATS on the Senate Committee on Finance

Ron Wyden, Oregon, Chairman - new co-sponsor

Debbie Stabenow, Michigan

Maria Cantwell, Washington

Bob Menendez, New Jersey

Tom Carper, Delaware

Ben Cardin, Maryland

Sherrod Brown, Ohio - original co-sponsor

Michael Bennet, Colorado

Bob Casey, Pennsylvania

Mark Warner, Virginia

Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island

Maggie Hassan, New Hampshire

Catherine Cortez Masto, Nevada

Elizabeth Warren, Massachusetts

REPUBLICANS on the Senate Committee on Finance

Mike Crapo, Idaho, Ranking Member

Chuck Grassley, Iowa

John Cornyn, Texas

John Thune, South Dakota

Richard Burr, North Carolina

Pat Toomey, Pennsylvania

Tim Scott, South Carolina

Bill Cassidy, Louisiana- new co-sponsor

James Lankford, Oklahoma

Steve Daines, Montana

Rob Portman, Ohio - original co-sponsor

Todd Young, Indiana

Ben Sasse, Nebraska

John Barrasso, Wyoming

[volcanolotus]

answer ALL of the hyperfix asks for mappy. if you wish.you can skip any you want.but heres an excuse to say so many words

OMG OK SO SINCE I ALREADY ANSWERED SOME OF THE QUESTIONS HERE’S A LINK TO THOSE IF YOU’RE INTERESTED 

AS FOR THE REST

📃 what is the plot of your hyperfixation? and is it a movie, game, show, etc? 

OK. The plot of shiftylook mappy is.

Mappy loses his job as a cop because of some Goro related shenanigans leading to him destroying priceless artwork. So he needs a new job. but guess what? GORO is back and he’s got a job opportunity and an opportunity for Mappy to snatch up because he IMMEDIATELY lets Mappy know that he’s in the process of committing crimes. so Mappy takes the job because he sooooooo badly wants to be the one to put Goro in jail. he’s obsessed with the idea, frankly. So he spends the series working as a security guard and finding out what Goro’s up to.

 ✨ what draws you towards your hyperfixation? what is interesting about it? 

I Love Psychoanalyzing Mappy. I think if he met me and i explained his brain to him he’d be upset. In general though, the comedy never fails to get me, and the improv feel of the show’s dialogue is a nice change of pace from like everything else. I love the way Kris and Scott bounce off each other and that really shines in episode 4 when it’s just Dig Dug and Mappy in the desert. and just about any scene with just the two of them. best buds!!!!!! 

🎥 do you have any favorite scenes from your hyperfixation? 

WHERE DO I FUCKING BEGIN. 

oh my god. I have a near 17 minute long compilation of scenes that live in my head rent free but some of my favorites are (in no order)

The scene where Goro tries to insult Mappy with the world’s worst insult and Mappy’s trying to put into words why the insult sucks but then gives up.

The scene right before that where sky kid is Lying Very Terribly about being at the gym

“Attention all Nyamco Employees..................................... Named Mappy. Attention all Nyamco employees named Mappy if your name is Mappy please report to Goro’s office immediately. If your name is not Mappy you are not required to report to Goro’s office at this time. Please Mappys only.”

Dig Dug lifting his shirt to reveal a 6 pack, to which Mappy goes “oo...”

“Prince OUT.”

“Hey you prince out too, my man.”

“....................You’re an idiot............”

“Maybe i should fire you.”

“Yeah maybe you should.” (THIS IS EPISODE THREE AND MAPPY’S ALREADY HAD ENOUGH)

“Look I didn’t hire you to pry into my affairs.”

“Actually you DID hire me to pry into your affairs.”

“... That’s a completely DIFFERENT set of affairs.”

The entire scene in episode 7 where Mappy’s prodding at Goro about how he said that he was his best friend, which ends with Goro saying I love you, and refusing to acknowledge or elaborate upon questioning.

Dig Dug laughing at a man who literally just died because he’s high key salty that Goro allowed him to dig for buried treasure and not Dig Dug, to which Mappy shakes his head disapprovingly the entire trip back to Goro’s office.

Tarosuke’s entire appearance.

Goro testifying against HIMSELF in a court of law.

Sky Kid dropping an F bomb in court

Goro’s ending speech, concluding with him and Mappy laughing maniacally together and dig dug falling over lifelessly.

 💔 tell us about one of your LEAST favorite characters and why you dislike them.

Richard and Keith are so annoying. I literally can’t stand they ugly asses. but they do make for good comedy moments in my head unfortunately

 💎 are there any fun facts or trivia that you would like to share? 

Two livestream interviews came out recently, and this isn’t really a fun fact but Kris just talking sounds SO MUCH like Mappy that i wanna make animatics of the livestreams just for funsies. 

Another fun fact is that one of the pieces of royalty free songs used is also used in the dance recital dvd i have, but that’s only relevant to me personally. 

Instead of calling him Taizo Hori, they opted for Dig Dug’s full name to be Diglas D Duglas, which i’ve seen like 65 spelling variations of. 

There are some expressions Goro makes that never reappear in later episodes and i wish they appeared more.

We could have had it all.

the nyamco office building is based on the real life namco building! Furthermore, “Nyamco” is Goro’s original name. He’s only called Goro in the localization.

💢 what do you NOT like about your hyperfixation? is there something you would want to change about it?

Not to be cheesy but i don’t like that it ends.

... Ok. It’s actually good that it ended but it ended so EARLY. i can tell they wanted to do more and gradually pan out with more details of Goro’s plan being uncovered, but unfortunately if you don’t know any better it feels rushed and you won’t understand why that is. 

I ALSO DON’T LIKE HOW BATSHIT INSANE THE LORE IS DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU DECIDE TO TAKE SERIOUSLY.. Me and my friends spent hours trying to figure out where Mappy took place and several details contradicted each other. There was also The Universe Debacle, which took a total of 5 pages to explain. Except i’m lying because that was really fun i love overthinking. But it WAS a lot. Shiftylook is not known for its consistency.

I don’t like the way they draw Mappy’s head. he looks like undertale jerry. fidget spinner lookin ass.

I wish the prince appeared more, also.