#someone in the Reddit comments pointed out that she did the commentator camp

[melodiousoblivionao3]

Did you see Zerboni's Instagram comment? There's a reddit thread about it. No disrespect to her, but The SALT 😭 girl what

No full disrespect to her that was so annoying like girl. She’s pissed because they didn’t want to re-sign her, which like duh she could only go in for the last 10-15 minutes of the game max and when she was in it wasn’t like the worlds best game I’ve ever seen. She’s 38! It’s okay to just admit that you weren’t that caliber of player anymore!! Also idk why she’s talking about an “unrefined” style of game when her main party trick over the years has been kicking people and playing dirty.

Teams do keep veterans if they’re performing well and are helping the club! That wasn’t her!

[oathkeeper-of-tarth]

@buckysleftarm replied to your post:

After reading this, I happened across this video: https://youtube.com/shorts/-X5l5GFeg1k?si=H2lrsmx0pv60wn1h They're not in our camp anymore and I wouldn't know how to view the non companions anyway on PS5, but it feels like she definitely is taking some time off from Selune without breaking her oath full?

I sure did use this reply as an excuse to mash out a giant post! Hope you don't mind.

I do actually love that you've brought this up, because I keep seeing variants of it around and have been wanting to comment on it, if for nothing else than to make me feel better. The gist of it goes something like this: after killing Lorroakan, Aylin's "Child of the Moonmaiden" ability no longer shows up when you examine her character sheet, meaning her immortality has been taken away, she is being punished by her mother, has broken her paladin oath, or is feuding with her in some other way. Now... people in the comments of that video sure have takes on Selûne and on Aylin and on paladin oaths and aasimar abilities in general that make giant question marks spawn above my head. 

Personally? I dislike it immensely and think it makes zero sense for a variety of reasons, both in-universe and out! To be fair, as with most headcanons and theories, I'd genuinely love to see someone get creative and do something interesting with it. But I have this knee-jerk reaction to it because so far I've only seen it in the context of people parroting it completely uncritically, just regurgitating it on endless reddit or forum or discord threads and what have you, and actually shutting down or completely derailing Aylin-related discussion. Which frustrates me, obviously, because I want cool, detailed, thought-out takes on my fave, always, and - to be really petty for a moment - since my fave isn't the fandom darling, I only get crumbs to start with! It grinds my gears because so very often I'll want to read this potentially interesting thread about a character I love, but nope, instead here's a dozen comments how "nah man she broke her oath and there's special oathbreaker paladin dialogue with her about it" - no there isn't. That's a very easily verifiable fact, my guy. You made that up, my dude. How dare you just go and make things up on the internet. 

A ton of BG3 discussion has been flooded with a weird wave of statements that are just put there as well-known fact but in reality read like "I heard from a friend whose uncle works at the Nintendo Larian department and he told him Halsin went on a special mission and killed Isobel a century ago because he wanted to emotionally compromise Ketheric but then playtesters reacted badly to it and Wizards made them take it out but it's still hinted in the game, and also if you use an Elixir of Hill Giant Strength and do an unarmed attack on the cart at the entrance of the Emerald Grove you can get Mew" and I find it so grating. And then people waste time debunking this and arguing in the same circles and nobody ever moves on to more interesting stuff. I say this, as if I haven't been an active participant of internet fandom for decades and have literally anyone but myself to blame here, hah.

For instance, the way you phrased it here, as Aylin herself taking a break or trying to step away instead of the "being abandoned and punished by her mother" angle from the video and the comments? That's something I think has potential and something I want to rotate in my mind - would she do it? Could she do it? What would this entail and what would it mean for her? What would actually be enough to prompt her to even try? And it's cool that a little gameplay mechanic thingy prompted that! However - and I'm keeping it kinda vague because I don't want to spoil you on things that happen after the point you seem to be at - if we're talking purely established canon things and not brainstorming an AU or a post-game trajectory for this character, there is nothing actually in the game to indicate Aylin is taking a break from Selûne or her duties, especially not to the extent of having any of her abilities suspended. Quite the contrary, in fact. Everything we get from her and Isobel after the Lorroakan situation is handled shows she is, for better or worse, very much resolved to be her old self and very righteously angry and smiting evil in her mother's name as the Sword of Selûne and actively engaged in protecting Selûnites Realms-wide, and she has her full set of powers and blessings while doing so.

In this essay I will In the rest of this post I will try to be less cranky and I'm going to get a bit technical to try to actually explain what is going on with the "Child of the Moonmaiden" ability.

TL;DR: the buff is disabled as soon as Aylin enters the wizard tower, before any fight or backbreaking or feelings of loss and sadness, likely for the purpose of you being able to win or lose the fight no matter if you side with Aylin or betray her. It is a purely mechanical contrivance and has no narrative meaning, nor is its presence or absence mentioned or reflected in the narrative at all.

Here's Aylin in camp just before being told about the wizard:

Here she is at the start of the fight, when she is sided with:

And here she is, when you side against her:

The above is an oversimplification, however, because the actual implementation of Aylin's immortality is a bit of a mess.

There are two implementations of her resurrection active in the game, and both are implemented as a Status: "GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION" and "GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION". Now, I don't know what was going on there and I'm certainly not a Larian dev, but that underscore situation there is... weird. I also don't know enough about BG3-specific scripting yet to come up with an explanation on why there would be two variants of it at all - if anyone does, please let me know! I'm very curious. However, these two implementations of her resurrection ability work very differently, and you can see the effects of both of them in-game. 

The first one, GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION, is named "Moonmaiden's Reconstitution" and is tied to the "Child of the Moonmaiden" Passive (itself called SHA_NightsongResurrection, side note: GLO is the "global" prefix and SHA is a prefix that signifies the Gauntlet of Shar area in Act 2). This ability makes Aylin auto-stabilise when downed instead of rolling death saves, go into the kneeling stabilised animation where she can be helped up or healed just like your party members - you know the one, with the little asterisk hovering above them. Then on the start of her next turn she heals for exactly 1HP (unless she's under a healing-disabling effect, such as Bone Chill, which is why people have trouble with her in the Myrkul fight) and she has only her Bonus Action, the same as any other previously downed character.

Mechanically, it applies the "GLO_NIGHTSONGRESURRECTION_DOWNED" Status to her which modifies what happens when she is Downed to implement the above non-standard behaviour, and also does stuff like turn off her Moonbeam if she had it active.

The "Moonmaiden's Reconstitution" Status itself is completely invisible in-game: it has properties such as "DisableOverhead;DisableCombatlog;DisablePortraitIndicator" aka doesn't show up as that little text popup above the character, doesn't show up in the combat log, and doesn't have a visible indicator icon anywhere.

The description for "Child of the Moonmaiden" is:

"Blessed with the favour of a goddess, Nightsong cannot be permanently killed. When unconscious, [at] the start of her turn she recovers 1 hit point."

The second one, GLO_NIGHTSONG_RESURRECTION with the extra underscore, is a Status called "Nightsong Soars Eternal", and that one doesn't have any other Statuses or Passives tied to it, it simply resurrects her immediately when she dies, and at full health. When it triggers, you can actually see her portrait drop out of the initiative tracker at the top of the screen as if she completely died, and then she gets put in again. This one is active even when the first one isn't, so you can see it in places like camp after she comes back from Lorroakan, and after she comes back for the finale all the way until the end of the game - and by "see it" I mean since it doesn't have any Passive ability connected to it, you have to actually get Aylin killed to see it trigger (I'm so sorry Aylin, it was important for the post, I swear).

The description for "Nightsong Soars Eternal" is:

"Nightsong will be resurrected by the powers of Selûne whenever she dies."

In Lorroakan's tower, BOTH of these are disabled, and if downed, Aylin will just lie there as if she died for real with the little red skull and the "Dead" status until she gets rezzed for a cutscene after the fight or, if betrayed, you go to long rest and then come back to see Lorroakan's progress, at which point she will be up and in the cage with a total of 1HP and that "Soul Caged" status instead. 

Note again that she visibly has "Child of the Moonmaiden" disabled as soon as she enters the wizard tower area, betrayed or not, before she does anything to anyone. It's a way of making sure the Lorroakan fight is actually winnable/loseable/concludable without her getting stuck in that revive with 1HP at the start of her turn loop. "Nightsong Soars Eternal" also obviously doesn't trigger. Instead she says her "I will rise again!" line and stays down. She has every other ability and buff active normally, even ones that explicitly mention coming from Selûne, like her iconic following Moonbeam, for example, or her fancy unique Smite.

Again, significantly: she does not have her immortality buffs if you fight against her, either, betraying her and causing Selûne's wrath and desire to protect her daughter to manifest physically in the room, including empowering Aylin herself with buffs that are called things like "Moonmother's Embrace". See what I'm getting at?

Interestingly, she also doesn't have it when you first meet her:

What does this all mean? Well, I'd say that if we took every gameplay/implementation thing about this game as in-universe gospel, Aylin herself would look a lot different and be far more scaly, for one.

(Makes me chuckle every time.)

In all seriousness, though, if something as big as this happened to a side but still fairly prominent character, the game would tell us about it. Or at least make a bigger deal of it than the deactivation of a passive ability visible on the Examine screen that many people sadly don't really tend to look at and read.

And here's the best thing: nobody has to take my word for any of this, you can see for yourself, without actually knowing how to unpack game files or having my frankly ridiculous amount of hard saves! I think this is super helpful in general, especially for people playing on console:

Here's a link to a truly amazing and consistently updated resource - every bit of dialogue in the game, nicely parsed and laid out and super readable (as well as some additional tools to play around with). 

Here's a website where you can search inside BG3 scripts and other files and take a look at a lot of the nitty-gritty implementation stuff in a convenient way.

I recognise that I go way too deep into things and overstuff my brain with minutiae, but that's just how I work. I take forever to post anything anywhere on the internet because I just physically cannot click a post button without triple-checking everything and quoting and screenshotting things, even if it's the same thing for the twentieth time, and that's certainly a me problem. I very much don't expect people to do things my way, but I also find the games of telephone these things so rapidly become really frustrating, you know?

But my biggest problem with this particular Aylin thing - beyond the annoying preponderance of it, as I've already whined - is that in-universe it just makes no sense and I, an aasimar paladin enjoyer, personally dislike it.

Oath of Vengeance paladins abide by the following tenets: Fight the Greater Evil. Exerting your wisdom, identify the higher morality in any given instance, and fight for it. No Mercy for the Wicked. Chasten those who dole out their villainy by wiping their blight from the world forever.

Putting the rest of this post under a cut because it's long and ranty and you didn't actually ask for it.

My first problem: the common argument that Aylin is in the wrong for killing Lorroakan like she did because he has "done nothing to her yet", and that she breaks her Oath of Vengeance because she attacked him preemptively.

The man put a price on her head and sent violent mercs to beat her up and kidnap her. He tries to (temporarily) kill her and imprison her as soon as she refuses to cooperate by… demurely waltzing into the prison and putting the chains on herself? He knows exactly who she is, what has been done to her, and he wants to do it again - no, doesn't want to, he is actively doing it again. The fact that (if you side with Aylin) he fails mid-attempt doesn't make him innocent of it. He refuses to stop and, if denied, gets violent and murderous. 

Player: Have it your way. I'll bring her here. Lorroakan: Good. I was growing scared for you. The last person who disappointed me is suffering for it still. Do not return without my prize. Do you hear me? Good day.

Player: I'll think about it. Lorroakan: You aren't the only one who knows what's on offer for the Nightsong's retrieval. Consider carefully whether you'd like to see your fortune in someone else's hands. Someone who might slip into your camp at any moment, or harry you through street and inn until you're run ragged and surrender. The choice is yours: fortune or imminent death. I know you'll choose wisely.

Mark my words: the Nightsong is mine. With or without your help, she will ascend to her grand fate here, in this tower.

Player: You heard me. The answer is no. Lorroakan: Pity. Then again, perhaps word of your agonising death will draw your little friend to me. Myrmidons - imperatum!

He is fully equipped for it and has set up a whole magical trap and is just waiting for her to show up to trigger it, or for someone to drag her there against her will. He says she will go into the cage "kicking and screaming" and really, this is who she is wrong for "picking a fight with" and "attacking preemptively"? Surely nobody actually thinks that Aylin is at fault here or that she actually overreacted by killing him? I don't really want to go into some people's really, really shitty attitudes towards Aylin for sadly entirely predictable reasons but… man. She went over there and threatened him with violence, demanding an explanation after he sent cronies to attack her in her sleep? Wow, what a weird thing to do. Also, he literally is the one to attack first! She is there threatening and goading him, doing her little "face me charlatan" bit, but he is the one who sics the myrmidons on her (or the player) and actually starts the fight, every time. To be clear, I don't think this is very relevant at all, but people do seem to love bringing it up.

Is Aylin brash and reckless and clearly struggling after her captivity, dealing with rapidly flaring up anger and outbursts of violence - only ever, may I emphasise, towards actually horrid people, and she is really rather shockingly forgiving and tolerant of the player character messing with her? Yes! Does she seem to have that classical aspect of "she might go too far one day" or "she might lose herself in the anger and vengeance if she focuses on it exclusively"? Absolutely! Do I think she could have been, say, a Devotion paladin before her imprisonment and it might have been the betrayal and century in the Shadowfell that made her change to Vengeance instead? I love that idea! I also think it's likely she has just always been a very zealous, very smitey and offence-oriented Vengeance paladin, called Selûne's sword for a very good reason, fulfilling a very important role in the ongoing struggle against Shar.

And the whole problem is… Lorroakan will, as we've seen, not stop trying, and people like him will always be around and never stop coming after her especially now that the cat's apparently out of the bag after Balthazar, and Aylin needs to live with this, forever. That is why she is so messed up about this one rando wizard she's never met before. That is why this specific incident is so triggering for her. She has just escaped torment on a timescale that's not something the normal human mind can really grasp. "In this moment, I want for nothing." ended up lasting, indeed, barely a moment! Her mum is a powerful god and right now it seems that what Aylin actually gets from it is having a target painted on her back and, to quote Isobel, she can be hurt just like anyone else, she just gets to suffer longer! She keeps being dealt these shit hands and, yeah, it'd make anyone go… why? Seems unfair, right? What exactly is the point of this? 

The various dialogue options you have while warning her about Lorroakan's intentions and which include trying to convince her to just leave him be include her being so, so frustrated, and so understandably, it makes me feel horrible for her. 

She always ultimately goes to confront him, because she has no other real choice. He will keep coming after her, he will keep sending people after her, and she will never, ever get a bit of rest, and she's, what, supposed to go live in hiding somewhere if you convince him she's dead? Until the jig is inevitably up or this guy dies by someone else's hand? And there's also the element Aylin herself will point out if you keep her in the dark about the plot and Aradin and his cronies come to attack your camp: how long until someone hurts Isobel during one of these attempts or actively goes after her as a bargaining chip?

I guess I just genuinely do not understand the arguments about this guy who has been deliberately constructed to be a horrible, hateful piece of shit with exactly zero redeeming qualities, to an almost comical extent. He beats his apprentice and uses his assistant for target practice! He's a sick, sick asshole! His life's dream rests on kidnapping and enslavement! The guy is conspiring and trying to ally with Ketheric and Balthazar of all people: 

Lorroakan,

I have responded out of respect to my counsellor, Balthazar, who advises me that you may prove a loyal ally in the coming fight. I understand you wish to know about the soul cage which binds the Nightsong to me. Details, I cannot and will not provide. But the magic itself is necromantic in nature, designed by my aforementioned counsellor. I hope your curiosity is satisfied.

General Ketheric Thorm

This is who people think a vengeance pally will break her oath over? Over what, a technicality of who struck first? "Desecrating a corpse"? No, it was Ketheric she did that to, and nothing happened. She just finished this guy off in a violent and dramatic fashion. 

While you can play a paladin yourself and kill so many people in so many ways without anything happening, this is more of a consideration if you play Oath of Devotion or Ancients. It's also one that makes parts of the game harder - comically evil cultists torturing and executing prisoners cannot simply be attacked out of nowhere, and instead you need to announce your challenge first. You need to walk up to them and start talking, establish their villainy, and then fight "fairly". This is also partially an issue arising from the implementation of hostility flags and game logic, by the way. However, Oath of Vengeance gives precious few fucks about this and is a really hard oath to break. In fact, in a very similar situation to the wizard tower, in the House of Grief, you break the Oath of Vengeance if you spare Viconia - at that point lying on the floor soundly defeated and bleeding out much the same way Lorroakan was. Viconia who, may I note, never "did anything to you" but did harm a friend of yours.

Also, and this is a whole separate discussion, but... it's a FR DnD game. You kill bad guys in it. You kill vaguely morally grey, or even good guys in it. You and your friends kill so many people before this point. Multi-act quest arcs conclude with "go to place and kill someone". You mete out "justice" personally, repeatedly, and can harp on that fact, especially if you're playing a paladin. You don't exactly call the guards on people instead, even in the middle of the city. Ludo-narrative dissonance or no, why would this one wizard suddenly be different, and why would this one woman be singled out for a thus far completely typical approach and set of actions? 

My second problem: a great big "Selûne wouldn't do that". I understand Forgotten Realms "lore" is a giant unwieldy self-contradicting mess of a beast and I'm not saying people should be scholars of it to participate in the discussion, far from it, but I would like them to engage with what is presented in the game itself at least.

For the most succinct possible example, look at what Selûne does when Aylin is betrayed. She buffs her in order to enable her to violently and zealously win that fight. Literally empowers Aylin to smack her enemies around more and with greater strength and also burn them alive in holy fire. Not after she's imprisoned and well and truly "wronged", but during this fabulously absolving "mere attempt" on Lorroakan's part.

Also, may I point out the sweet little shielding- and healing-focused cleric of the same goddess is actively disappointed that you and Aylin won't let her come with to hit the guy a few times herself! This goes for the entire party of assorted weirdos, goody-good or otherwise, who firmly believe Aylin should just obliterate that guy. Like, c'mon, my man Wyll! (Super sad and touching exception: Karlach, if you've killed Gortash already. When she begs you not to tell Aylin about any of it at all and go deal with the wizard yourselves, just so Aylin can have a bit more peace and keep her sword sheathed for just a little while longer. Ow, my heart.)

In summary, basically, my twofold beef:

"Selûne punishing and abandoning her daughter for over-zealously defending herself" - nonsensical and uninteresting. Stops people from actually delving into and discussing the complexities of that relationship.

"OoV paladin broke her oath by killing an evil wizard who is actively trying to do horrible things to her and attacks her" - nonsensical and uninteresting. Let's instead actually engage with the material and discuss Aylin's trauma and how she might deal or not deal with it in good or bad ways. What would recovery even look like, for her. How does the way she intrinsically ties her entire being into being a smite-happy moon-magic knight play into it. Let's actually consider the weight and role of duty in her life and the wombo-combo of being an aasimar paladin, an existence with a very "purpose-made" aspect to it. You know, the good ol' Being A Sword thing, including being born into it. Combined with being rather suddenly rather intensely humanised by a loving relationship with a mortal woman, with all sorts of ticking clocks, unique challenges, and both past and pending tragedy there.

Or let's talk about the dissonance present in Aylin's cool and badass scenes of smiting deserving evil. Scenes that go into very violent and very over the top territory, that make you both cheer and cringe, that make a point of showing the other characters reacting in shock. Because I genuinely feel so bad for her and deeply worried for her, all while my silly little brain goes fuck yeah smite him shiny lady! Ooooh look, a flashy Aylin scene, ripping a deserving villain to pieces! But at what cost to herself? Feels so good to have someone deliver some justice! But if I think about it for 5 seconds I don't actually want her to - no, no, I do. I don't want her to have to, is the thing. (It's kind of like that one Gundam meme.)

I will conclude this mess by doing a salty little yeah. It's fine, this is fine, this is sadly pretty much part of the standard experience of liking a female character in fandom. God forbid women do anything indeed. Outside of a few select, narrow and highly dedicated circles, half the (scarce) posts about her are something that's either flat-out wrong, or just assumes the absolute worst of her and reduces her to two and a half shitty stereotypes, and half the fics tagged with her are actually about fandom's favourite two dudes and barely feature her at all.

And on that note, I'm off to actually be a positive force and poke at my own fic some more.

[spider-socorro-stan]

Avatar 3 script leaks

Potential spoilers ahead! If you don't want to know anything about Avatar 3, this is not the post for you. And for those of you who have seen the leaks, this is not new info, I'm like super late with this, I'm just trying to compile all the script pages into one post. Plus there is one page that I feel like has not been discussed enough, hence this post.

Spoilers under the read more, you have been warned!

Okay, first of all, yes, I'm well aware the script leaks might be fake to throw us off, or at the very least no longer true because some rewrites have happened. I get it. But, in this post, I will treat them as an accidental leak, so bear with me.

I think most of you are now aware of the first two pages, I have seen a lot of posts with them, so I'm not gonna dwell too much on those. Here are the transcripts, by reddit user hdk759:

Another reddit user, Ereska, was able to transcribe a little bit more from the second page, so combined, these two pretty much give us the whole page:

Right, so Jake and Quaritch have a little talk about Spider, who can now breathe Pandoran air, and for once these two are not actively trying to kill each other, so that's pretty interesting. What is also interesting is that all the kids are also supposedly there, when they rush to a wounded Neytiri (and on that note, where has she been? Who was she fighting?). Neytiri hugs her kids (excluding Spider, might I point out), then we cut to them all returning to High Camp where Tuk and Mo'at hug. And we have seen that scene in the behind the scenes footage, which is another reason why I really don't think the script is fake.

Note: Avatar Theory also did a video on these script leaks and in the comment section someone mentioned Va'ru is an old name for Tarsem, the new chief of the Omatikaya. So it's not a new character, just good old Tarsem, very wise for his young age :)

Onto pages 3 and 4!

These are sadly harder to read, since a lot of the text is covered, but a twitter user AkumuHoshi did their best to transcribe them too:

There's a lot of stuff missing, but I found this screenshot from reddit user BentusFr which is in pretty high definition and you can read more of the text there:

So we start off with Jake and Neytiri in a Biolab in High camp, looking at Spider, who's probably being looked at by the scientists. Jake talks about how Spider is now in danger and can't stay there, because he will become RDA's target if they find out he can breathe the air, and then Neytiri suggests: "If he is so dangerous [text hidden], you should just kill him." Cool cool cool. Guess she ain't warming up to Spider anytime soon. Jake, understandably, does not like that idea, to which Neytiri replies: "Toruk Makto knows [blurred text, but to me it seems like duty? I dunno, it's one short word, that one made the most sense to me.]" EDIT: Actually, now that I look at it, I think she actually says "Toruk Makto grows soft." Which also makes a bit more sense to me than the duty thing.

The rest of the text is too hidden to make much sense of, but we do cut to a different scene - the Tree of Souls. Kiri is trying to connect to Eywa, but gets another seizure and Mo'at has to disconnect her from the tree. And then we have a scene with Mo'at and Kiri, where we find out it was Kiri who made it possible for Spider to breathe the air, and she did so without any sacred trees nearby, she just made the roots to obey her and performed the miracle. She doesn't remember actually doing it, but Mo'at tells her she knows in her heart, and Kiri admits she did it herself. Mo'at then warns her to tell no one about it.

So here's what I want to know, were Kiri and Spider the only ones included in that miracle, or was Jake and the kids, possibly even Quaritch, there to see it? Remember, on the first script page, Jake tells Quaritch "You witnessed it tonight." and then a "long night of horrors and miracles" is mentioned on the second page. So who all knows what Kiri did? Who is Mo'at trying to protect her from?

And finally, we get to the last somewhat readable page, there is still one more that is unfortunately too blurry to be readable, at least I never saw any mention of anything else happening. So, page 5 it is!

I have no idea when the scene on that page happens, could be before the events on the first four script pages we have seen here, could be after. Personally, I think it's before. But it's just a guess. Here's the previous screenshot by BentusFr cropped and rotated to get a better look at it:

As far as I know, nobody has transcribed the text, and it does get more blurry as it goes, but the beginning is somewhat readable, so here's my best attempt at transcribing it:

VARANG WILLS Quaritch's arm to [text hidden] bulging, as his HAND OPENS and he [text hidden]

WAINFLEET takes a [text too blurry for me to read] untangling his head and arms, [can't read this one] He drops two WILD [blurry and hidden text] slams into the first na'vi to him [hidden text]

Another BOLO entangles his legs and [hidden text]

Honestly, from this point the text becoms too blurry for me to read, I do recognise a word here or there, but can't really make out a sentence from that. However, JAKE is mentioned in the next paragraph, so he's probably also there. Varang also goes on to have a bunch of lines that I sadly can't read. But if any of you can make sense of this text, by all means, feel free to let me know!

EDIT: Important addition!!! u/Ellestra on reddit just shared a link to a twitter thread where user itscaptainmarty was able to decipher more of the Varang scene! And hooooly shit it gets juicy!

Here it is:

There's s few more bits and pieces in the replies, I'll just add them here to have them on the same page:

VARANG takes QUARITCH'S hand, remembering the --

VARANG

You are strong, sky man. There is a -- in you.

(a feral grin)

I will enjoy eating your heart.

So it appears Quaritch and Wainfleet (and possibly Jake) get captured by the Ash Na'vi led by Varang. And somehow, Varang is able to control Quaritch's hand. Tsaheylu, anyone? Though probably not very consensual. But the idea of Ash people being willing to use their kuru for taking control of their enemies is quite interesting, and also really disturbing. And barely anyone talks about this! (And yes, I did make this whole post because of this one snippet of script, sue me.) EDIT: And OMG, are they also cannibals? Or is Varang just super dramatic? Who knows, but I'm intrigued. But yeah, she seems to take a weird liking to Quaritch, she's probably not used to many people fighting off her mind control. Oh yeah, and Jake is definitely there too.

So why do I think this scene happens before the whole Spider can breathe Pandoran air miracle? The leaked image from Jon Landau's video. You know, this one:

Here's Quaritch talking to Varang, still in his RDA military gear, with Spider, Lo'ak and either Kiri or Tsireya (probably Kiri) being held by the Ash na'vi in the background.

What if this is what leads to Wainfleet showing up to help Quaritch, and Jake and probably Neytiri (and other Omatikaya) coming in to save their kids, they fight with Ash na'vi, Neytiri stays behind which might be when she gets injured, while Jake and Quaritch get the kids out of there. And maybe, somewhere along the line, Spider's mask gets broken, they don't have a spare, he starts suffocating and Kiri saves him.

So yeah. That's my take on it. Thoughts?

[taylorikeet]

ok so i need to write out my thoughts and i don’t want to make a reddit account and i like the people on tumblr better anyways. i’m watching season 27 of survivor, the blood vs water season, and i am just so disgusted with brad culpepper.

from the start, he decided to have an all guys alliance. i don’t know if it’s bc he’s used to being around other guys, but someone even mentioned it (i forget which tribe member) about him having his little “locker room group” or whatever.

he definitely targeted marissa just because she made a comment towards him during the first day and he’s salty. it’s so immature. it’s clear it was just him being petty and the others following along. and the fact that he then is surprised and confused by being disliked by people is wild to me. yes, they blame you because even though the tribe voted them out, you’re the one that’s clearly calling the shots. and people can say “it’s just a game”, but in this case, it does feel gross to me because of how he treats people and makes decisions.

yes, candace told her husband to give the clue to monica. but immediately, jeff pointed it out and commented on the dynamic. candace did say it with a firm and sneaky tone of voice, whereas when brad told monica to put it in the fire, he was much more demanding. but then jeff didn’t call that out. candace did comment on it, good for her. caleb later pointed that out when he was talking with the others back at camp, but they’re all ignoring the sexist undertones that’s been going on. from the start, brad didn’t even TRY to include the women on his tribe and it was very much a boys club. even when he told monica to put the clue in the fire, he said “atta girl”. notice how people refer to the guys as “men”, but how brad referred to his wife as a “girl” despite her being a full grown woman?

i’m also not a fan of her defending him when she got back to camp. we get it, he’s your husband. it’s clear that she’s some trophy/trad wife that does what her husband tells her to do and doesn’t question it.

i think it was stupid for them to have voted out john instead of brad. yes, john probably had the idol (i forget if he actually did or not), but he was way more trustworthy in general, less bossy, and the only one that took initiative to try to make an alliance outside of the guys group. if they voted out brad, then the other guys would have more control and say in the group in general and the girls would have been in a better position (i guess even now i’m saying girls… to be fair, katie and ciera are pretty young). hayden, john, vytas, and caleb would be much more open to including katie and ciera and working with them and letting them have a say in what goes on if brad were gone instead of john. therefore, i think it was a stupid move.

also, why was ciera so salty that rachel was chatting with john and not sticking to the girl group? rachel explained it well in her confessional and the logic tracks. they’re at a disadvantage, numbers wise, so it makes more sense for her to try to at least bro down with one or some of them than to stick to the other women. she’d at least be able to stick around longer and not be picked off as soon if the majority are just going to vote off the women (or one would assume, in a regular season, but this is different because of the season theme).

ciera was overly confident in her abilities and seeing her and katie get their butts kicked by their moms in the first puzzle and the sumo match was satisfying.

for context, i’m on like episode 4 i think? i’ve seen it before but am just rewatching.

i also love aras shutting colton down. i love their tribe’s dedication to directing addressing drama and making it clear they won’t tolerate it from the start. it’s not that “no one wanted to strategize”, but it’s that they know there’s no point for unnecessary drama and are all mature enough in general and experienced enough in the game for the most part that they’d rather relax, bond, have a good time, and win challenges before things get crazy. doing challenges while running on subpar sleep and meals with reduced calories is hard enough as it is. they’re not trying to make it harder than it needs to be. colton just can only be in control if there’s drama and chaos, so that’s what he wants. if he were more patient and planned better, he’d realize that his tactics only work on newbies and won’t work on the experienced players he was with, but there’s still a way to turn it around. he needed to adjust his strategy. if he gives up just because what worked before didn’t work immediately now, then that’s foolish. i truly hated how despicable he was, but i did read the reddit AMA he did from 2019 and it does seem that he’s matured a lot and grown as a person, so i’m content with that.

i guess i’ve growed up on the receiving end of a lot of bullies and people taking advantage of their authority, power, social statuses, etc over me and it’s always bothered me when it happens. it’s gross to see it play out on tv and especially when it’s not addressed.

i just want to watch to enjoy tyson and his antics, but brad and colton make it hard. monica makes it hard as well. the fact that she’s there the whole time is grating. her holier than thou, trophy/trad/christian wife persona is grating. every damn time, she goes on about how she’s going “to start playing for monica” and then goes along with what tyson and gervase want. god, she’s so dense.

and while we’re on brad culpepper, the way he treated tai in game changers was gross. people say he apologized during the reunion and he did, but i don’t buy it. people on reddit have said he seems like a genuinely nice person outside of the game. people have also said he’s admitted that he hates how he was on survivor when watching himself on tv. i guess i could believe that he’s typically a nice guy, but gets intense and competitive during things to where he gets ugly. but in that case, i do think he generally lacks self-awareness then, such as during his confessionals in blood vs water where he seems pretty confused as to why people are hating on him for voting people out, but then admits that he’s trying to make it SEEM like other people have a say in what goes on. so idk. i guess i find it slimy when people can be genuinely nice but in other contexts really get ugly. i know it happens and we’re all only human, but there fact that there seems to be a limit where civility and integrity and morals end is gross to me.

[tuulikannel]

Chihiro, Mondo & toxic masculinity

(what a pretentious title that is XD)

(spoiler warning for DR1)

I saw a relatively recent post on reddit about how there’s a lot of hate toward Danganronpa on twitter, and the right place to comment on all this is of course tumblr, right? Or, well, at least on one aspect of this, something I had been thinking about earlier, too. Namely, the accusations of transphobia. This is of course about Chihiro’s murder. Now, I just got to say this, I cannot see him as trans. To me that's almost painfully obvious... I’m sorry if that goes against your headcanon, but it becomes very clear in the game that Chihiro identifies as a boy. (Honestly, I find it a little annoying how some people’s mindset seems to be that a boy in a dress = trans, as if a man could never wear a dress otherwise.) But anyway, that’s actually not important here.

First things first, I perfectly well understand that Chihiro’s case can make a trans person very uncomfortable. On the surface it certainly feels like a case of very violent transphobia: we have a girl who confesses to a guy that they’re actually a boy, and immediately after this the man kills them. Whether or not Chihiro is trans is pretty much irrelevant here (it’s not like Mondo knew the details that closely, either.)

Still, what I think the game is trying to do here has nothing to do with transphobia, but it’s instead attempting to comment on toxic masculinity. Chihiro and Mondo are both victims of it, though they represent the opposite ends, you could say. Chihiro was a weak boy, bullied over it so much that he sought refuge in “an even greater weakness” (I’ll always remember that rather unfortunate turn of phrase), that is, femininity. It’s acceptable for a girl to be weak… it might even be desirable in some people’s eyes.

At the same time, Mondo represents a very masculine man, brimming with testosterone. He has very strong sense of what being a man is about, and strength is a central part of that. And when he realizes that this weak little girl whose admiration has made him feel even more like the strong man he wants to see himself as, is in a sense stronger than him… well. Like often before, he reacts with violence to something that upsets him. He didn’t kill Chihiro because Chihiro was a boy in a dress; he killed Chihiro because it became clear to him that Chihiro was preparing himself for his big secret being revealed, while Mondo himself must have been terrified of everyone finding out his secret. Chihiro had until now been someone who made him feel better about himself and suddenly the rug was pulled from under his feet.

I’m sorry if this feels totally obvious to you. I mean, it feels obvious to me, and I’m just kind of baffled people are genuinely accusing the game of being transphobic here. Like I said, I think the game was trying to do something completely different. How good job they did about it is of course another question.

ETA: This just came to my mind, so I'll throw this here as an afterthought... In the AU side games, Ultimate Talent Development Plan & Ultimate Summer Camp, Mondo is aware of Chihiro's secret and is training him to be stronger. They're best friends. Based on that, it's quite hard to see Mondo as a transphobic character.

ETA2: I was thinking about Chihiro and his gender identity a lot today. I don't in general mind what kind of headcanons people have, but seeing Chihiro as trans... is pretty problematic.

Think about it. If Chihiro identifies as a girl... well, then she does. End of story, there's no problem here. But if Chihiro identifies as a boy, things are quite different. He is someone who felt like he couldn't meet the expectations of the society. He was, in a sense, forced to act and dress as a girl even though he is not a girl and does not want to be seen as such. And this... is a huge problem.

And I think that is the very point of Chihiro's character. Like I said before, this is all about toxic masculinity and the overly strong gender roles of Japanese society. And if we make Chihiro a transgirl, we utterly erase this issue from the narrative.

[freifraufischer]

The above timeline was posted today by someone on reddit for a Simone Biles potential return for Paris.  I want to talk a bit about these kinds of “Simone waltz back into the sport” narratives for a bit.

Let’s start with a few basic facts.  Elite gymnastics is really really hard and requires intense training.  Simone Biles is incredibly talented but she didn’t do the amazing things she did with raw talent she did it with an incredible amount of work.  “She’s still doing cardio” is not gymnastics conditioning.  She took a break of just over a year after Rio and the first thing she talked about when she came back was how out of shape she was (out of shape for you and me and normal people).  And now she has another quad and another five years on her body (as well as living in pain every day according to her own interviews in 2021).  

When Aly Raisman came back after London she had to do a year of conditioning before she started doing serious gymnastics again.

[I’m not going to blame the OP for the summer wedding idea, apparently Simone has talked about a summer wedding and honeymoon which seems wild to me given that she’s marrying an NFL player and training camps for the NFL start in July.]

Let’s start picking apart this little fan fiction more seriously with the “skip 2023 Nationals, go to Worlds” bit.  

You can’t do that.  If you are injured or have some emergency (looking at you British gymnastics and the Downie’s having a death in the family) you can petition.  It does, by the way, require a doctors note explaining the injury.  You can’t do it because you just don’t feel like going through the qualification stages.  People want USAG to be more fair and transparent.  But not if it’s the person they’re wanting to usher through the process ahead of everyone else.

Now over in reality land where there are selection procedures and qualification since she doesn’t go to to 2023 Worlds without doing 2023 Nationals she also now has to qualify for 2024 Nationals which means she has to have scores at a NT camp sometime in the winter or spring.  Which yeah she can probably get.  But that means she has to have those routines ready a lot sooner than “yeah she’ll be adding bars at Olympic Trials”.  Even Nastia Liukin’s incredibly ill considered attempt at a come back involved showing the events she intended to do at Nationals.

But maybe unlike our valiant OP you ask what if she does go to 2023 US Nationals.  I just want to point out that would be within a week or two of getting back from her honeymoon.  This sounds like we’re landing in “Nastia Liukin tries to do bars at Nationals in 2012 having trained for a week and a half” territory.  

Speaking of Nastia.  Let’s talk about comebacks.  They’re hard.  And no American has ever done it by coming back in the Olympic Year.  In fact none have done it with less than two years of full time competition.  You may think many things about Tim Daggett the commentator but he competed the entire 1988 quad (including a horrific injury) and couldn’t make it to the last step because he had too much pain.  

Shannon Miller tried to come back in 2000, and they could perhaps have used her given the state of things in 2000.  She was pushed through to trials but just didn’t have the time to come back properly. 

Dominique Moceanu competed most of the Sydney quad and through she was injured in the end she wasn’t trying to come back from a long break. 

Shawn Johnson did come back to elte competition in 2011 after a knee injury but ended up retiring in 2012 she says after the realization that Marta was going to break her if she stayed.  

Nastia Liukin took three years off and then attempted to return to elite in the 2012 where she was passed along through the qualification process with substandard mistake riddled routines.  

Mykayla Skinner tried to come back to elite after the 2019 NCAA season with the intent of taking a year to train for the Olympics.  She ended up the alternate on the 2019 Worlds Team and it turned out she needed the extra year that the pandemic gave her.

Being an Olympian is hard.  Doing what Simone Biles did is hard.  It’s hard even for her no matter how many times the commentators said “its’ so easy for her.”  I actually find it incredibly disrespectful of fans to act like she didn’t need to work to win.  And that’s what is being said when people say she could come back in 2024 (as the OP of that time line suggested at another point).  

And that’s not even touching public pressure, the media, the twisties (which at least as of the end of the tour last year she was still experiencing), and how much elite gymnastics has taken from her.

I often hear people talk about how she and her coaches haven’t closed the door.  The standard reply to that is Olympic athletes commercial value sinks as soon as they officially retire so they often wait as long as possible before announcing retirement.  Shawn Johnson actually had to repay sponsors when she retired before the Olympic trials in 2012.  And it’s not like Simone is an uncontroversial figure.  I don’t like the people who insult her.  I think they’re idiots.  Proctor and Gamble may even think their idiots.  But they’d still like to sell those idiots dishwasher soap.  Simone has done amazing things to raise awareness for mental health, but those kinds of efforts don’t pay as much as doing a Tide commercial.  

All of that said... even though I think she’s done (and that’s fine), I think there is a small chance that she tries to make a come back.  That’s what lead Nastia Liukin to her incredibly last minute attempt to prove she could still make it.  But I want to make it exceedingly clear.  If she started today it would be a tight timeline to make it to Paris.

[rickriordanfandam]

opinions on riordanverse ; my edition

a lot of people have been doing this so i decided why not right. probably gna lose some followers or smth but anyways. pls respect my opinions! if u disagree, thats fine, but please be polite. unless any of my opinions strikes u as morally wrong then pls point it out to me respectfully. thanks!

- i actually liked drew. im so sorry to everyone who hates her but full offence, why. think about it this way ok, first of all drew became hc because silena died. silena was the traitor, the one who betrayed chb, yet after she died campers celebrated her as a hero? and then drew suddenly has to replace her and live up to idk that legacy she left behind,, when all of a sudden this girl named piper swoops in and takes her place. idk abt u but i wld be salty abt that too. not only that, but as an asian, the chances of drew having faced racism/bullying as a child is pretty high (she studies at brooklyn academy). which means that when she finds out shes a demigod, and arrives at chb where most of the campers are white (this is an assumption btw), she’d obviously be scared of being bullied for her skin color right?? so the first thing she wld do before the campers get to bully her is to bully them before they can do so. (sentence structure here is wack i apologize) ofc this might not even have happened, drew could have had a perfect childhood && was a b1tch for no reason, BUT EVEN THEN HER ROLE AS A BULLY WAS PRETTY VITAL BECAUSE THAT FURTHER SHOWED THE CONTRAST BETWEEN HER AND PIPER,, HIGHLIGHTING PIPER AS A HERO//GOOD CHARACTER,, AND THEREFORE MAKING READERS LIKE PIPER MORE. anyway stop hating on drew please. ALSO WHY IS THIS SO LONGA SDFJHG

- jason isnt bland, the fandom just kinda erased his backstory (thanks to @pjohoo-memes for the phrasing lol)

- reynabeth wouldnt have lasted/would have broken up several times. idk i just see them as two extremely powerful characters who have firm opinions and will definitely clash at some point. in a platonic relationship,, i can see them as really good friends but as lovers? idk i just think theyll break up

- PIPABETH

- i dont really like jercy,, i see them as better friends than lovers. also idt jason and percy were that close..?

- the dam and not my type jokes are srsly cringey and were never funny. ik that seems hypocritical since my username literally makes use of the dam joke but honestly i dont actually like the joke. its not funny to me and has never been funny

- the seven were not best friends. they definitely argued,, and honestly probably werent as close as the fandom makes them seem. like ure dumped with 6 other people, out of which u only know a few. my introverted ass would have jumped off the argo 2 quicker than leo valdez could bomb camp jupiter up. also leo was a dick to frank. so what if frank is bigger sized?? thats not a valid reason to tease him

- the fandom needs to stop hating on octavian while worshipping luke. if u hate luke and u say u hate octavian too, then okay. but if u tell me ure a luke stan but u despise octavian?? imma disagree w u. luke was worse than octavian im sorry. first of all, octavian being a dick was kinda justified. hes been after the praetor position for so long, and everyone keeps saying to “wait for jason” when suddenly this dude, whos a son of NEPTUNE (neptune wasnt liked much by romans), and the camp decides to make him praetor?? dude i would be pissed off big time. and then afterwards, he finds out that greek demigods are real and the dude they made praetor is greek. AND THEN GREEK DEMIGODS COME TO CJ AND ONE OF THEM BOMB IT UP?? octavian has been told all his life that greeks are scum and this dude called leo valdez attacks cj. sure it was an accident, but did octavian know that? no. so it was honestly justified that he was such a salty prick im just saying. also some of yall be hating on octavian for cutting a teddy bear open and thats the funniest shit ive ever heard i swear 

- luke didnt go to elysium

- travis and connor stoll r way too underrated. the two have been head counselors of the hermes cabin since luke was revealed as a traitor, can u imagine the stress? luke, the person they probably looked up to as a brother, betrayed them. and they didnt even have time to process this when they were  thrown the roles of being hcs. that would have been so stressful and i would probably have broken down if i were them. the stoll brothers taking turns to wake up at ungodly hours because a new camper is crying and homesick and terrified, the stoll brothers having to comfort and take care of new campers, having to deal with the amount of people in that cramped space because not enough campers are being claimed fast enough. having to resolve issues between campers in the hermes cabin all the time. the stolls arent just comedic relief, and we need to stop treating them as such

- tratie shldve been canon idc idc

- demigods of the demeter cabin arent talked about enough and i love the fact that meg was demeters kid. like she isnt the child of one of the big three yet shes so powerful.

- we need to hype clarisse up more her character arc was phucking amazing 

- rachel is overhated. sis found out greek gods exist and regularly come down to earth to fuck around and went “ok cool”. queen shit behavior methinks

- the floor 19 crew of mcga is srsly underrated. like do u even remember halfborn gunderson, mallory keen, tj, etc??? bc i feel like we only remember samirah, magnus, alex, and sometimes blitz and hearthstone

- sadie (tkc) was kinda annoying at first. i like her more now tho but i rmb not liking her for a phat while

- tkc and mcga need more love

- carter kane and jason grace arent boring. theyre just really sweet boys who are too good for this world and yes yes yes 

- hazel and frank (especially frank) need to be hyped up more. i hardly ever see anything about them. also yall seem to forget that frank was literally made praetor and that even hecate admired hazel and was willing to fight beside her because of how powerful she was

- frazels age gap is kinda sketch but i still think theyre really cute

- nico definitely had trauma from going to tartarus on his own

- GROVER IS PERCYS BEST FRIEND

- annabeth isnt smarter than leo but neither is leo smarter than annabeth. ive seen a lot of discussions about who is smarter and heres my hot take on it: neither. theyre equally smart, just in different ways. leos a genius mathematically speaking. he has no issues solving math problems meant for people much, much older than him. annabeth on the otherhand, is great at strategies etc. she can make an army of 1000 more powerful than the enemy, even if theyre outnumbered. so in my opinion, both are equally as smart//u cant compare their intelligence, because their talents lie in two different areas.

- while i do agree rick riordan isnt a god and that hes bound to make mistakes,, AND that hes given us a lot of representation,, if the representation offends the people its sposed to represent, then theres a problem. im talking about piper as a poc and wearing feathers in her hair. im not a poc, so i cant speak for them on whether or not its wrong, because i dont know either. HOWEVER, i have seen multiple posts BY pocs talking about how they didnt really like rick’s representation of piper, and thats an issue. pocs have been and are still oppressed and discriminated against by many. as a white cis man, we cant really blame him for not knowing (tho he could have done a research,, asked some pocs,, idk), but by representing pocs in that manner, hes influencing impressionable kids/teens into thinking “oh pocs wear feathers in their hair all the time” etc, which isnt true. the pjo/hoo series is extremely successful, and kids who read the books will probably start forming inaccurate opinions on pocs. the amount of fan art that depicts piper with feathers in her hair dont help either. “but rick said so in the books, so its canon” yeah well rick isnt a god and he can get some things wrong at times. im not saying we should cancel him, im saying we should start educating ourselves and not spread false info like pocs wearing feathers in their hair all the time. also that snake song shit where she sang Summertime was just- yeah. bc heres the thing you can be racist, and still include minorities, but portray them in a racist way. And even then, ignorance isn't a thing to admire. Getting those facts wrong still has a major impact. It continues to perpetuate racist stereotypes.

“ With the feather thing, I looked it up myself; it takes less than five minutes to figure out that Cherokees don't braid feathers into their hair. I didn't grow up in the country where my parents are from. I have many other first/second generation American friends who have also been through that, with a bit of a disconnect from their culture. But something that most of us have in common is that when we didn't know something, and when our parents weren't that big of a help, we looked it up. We sought out resources online and through other people from our culture to be able to connect more with where we came from. Some of that took a Google search. So I find it hard to believe that Piper, a girl who Rick's trying to portray as someone who is attempting to connect with her culture and is totally against racist stereotypes, wouldn't know that eagle feathers aren't supposed to be braided into your hair casually. She may be disconnected from her culture, but she's also shown to want to connect back to it. Piper wouldn't be casually braiding feathers into her hair while also telling off people for being racist. It makes no sense.” - reddit thread (down below) 

for those of yall who wanna know more please please read this, it has a lot of things i wanna add in here : https://www.reddit.com/r/camphalfblood/comments/gy3gl2/piper_mcleans_portrayal_is_innacurate/ 

as well as https://finding-my-culture.tumblr.com/post/189422373260/maxie-ratties-and-cattie-finding-my-culture 

i will be posting screenshots of these in future posts so if ure viewing this on ig and u dont have tumblr,, dont worry 

- the fact that most of the strong female characters in the series refuse to be “girly”, and ngl i dont really like that. just because ure girly doesnt mean u cant be strong. 

- piper would have been a great way for him to start making the strong characters act girlier, but instead he went with the “I’m not like other girls” trope which is quite obnoxious to hear constantly, and I don’t think it’s necessarily great for younger girls to read that idea growing up.  the closest we've ever had to a strong female character who was also into "girly" things was Silena. when I was younger I admired Piper's "I'm not like other girls" thing, but then I got older and realized that the whole mentality of "not like other girls" is super obnoxious, and a little bit toxic

i have a heck load more that i cant rmb rn but yeah feel free to add more 

[spookyboogie3]

MY FAVORITE AH MOMENTS W/O R*an H*yw**d

Also keep in mind some of these moments i picked Bitch Face r*an may have been present for but this aint about his stupid ass. 

The straw bit on Off Topic

Fiona and Trevor’s “Look at us” “Look at us” “Look at us” in TTT

Drunk Jeremy inhaling helium, followed by Jack and Trevor on Off Topic

“Krusty KrAYAYAB!!!” TTT

Jeremy trying to slam his face through a table, followed by Michael doing the same thing

“my god…… the munchdew” “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!” Minecraft: Skyfactory

Actually all of Simple Farmer Geoff from Skyfactory

Whatever those sounds were that Jack was making in the beginning of GTA video

Alfredo screaming as he continues to fall down a steep tube in a GTA race

DESTROYING THEIR OFFICE DEAR LORD

“How did he drown though?” “UNDERWATER, MATT!”

Anytime Fiona starts to RAGE in TTT (bonus if others join in)

The time Gav was the phantom in TTT and he kept dying and being brought back and Jack spitting water and then trying to catch it

Alfredo’s Magoo moments in Minecraft

Geoff laughing in the background of a video hes not in

Lindsay fucking around with Chef Mike on Harecore Minigolf

Lindsay fucking around in general

Gavin and Fiona playing Animal Crossing and laughing at the stupidest shit

The Fish Tempura incident on Wheel of Fortune

Lindsay’s reasoning for why her and Michael should have 4 kids

Geoff’s fucking ad reads (my favorite is 23&Me)

The whole thing during Push the Button where everyone especially Michael gets mad at Fiona because she said the best candy to get while trick or treating was lollipops

Matt’s fucking desk in the corner of the room

Anytime Millie is in a video

Everyone falling off the pink ladder during TTT and dying repeatedly because of it

Alfredo “the two-time champ” Diaz dying very early in YDYD 3

Gavin and Michael fucking up almost every game they play on Play Pals

RAY OR NO and then RAY OR NAY on Off Topic

Reddit Roasts Geoff

Gavin asking if someone could kill 20 cows with their bare hands and the proceeding so say he could rip out a cow’s veins by reaching into its neck

Ify’s narration during Let’s Roll Ave Caesar

The internet losing its shit when Jeremy shaved his head years ago

“We need a knife” Gavin comes back with a hammer

Griffin chain sawing the Off Topic table up

“How do I put the boat in the water??” “Right click you animal”

As of 2020, 8 years of playing Minecraft, certain people still do not know how to play the basics of this fucking game.

Honestly it took over 200 episodes for some of them to figure out how the compass worked. You know after they decided that the sun was setting in the wrong direction. (this was in 2016??)

Flynt coal still is a joke they make

So is Day 2

Whatever happened in that GTA lets play where someone called a mugger or a hit on someone and the game glitched and 50 guys showed up and lined up on the street below from where they were playing

Anytime Gavin gets mugged, it’s an old running gag but it’s a classic

The time a mugger fucking started driving the fire truck away after mugging Gavin with Michael and Jeremy still in the truck thinking the other is driving and it takes them like 2 minutes to realize what happened while Gavin’s yelling “come back”

They got a water jug and immediately started water boarding each other

“It pinged and went dingle”

“Hey Trey-Boi” “Hey Gay-Boi” Immediately realizes what he has said

Jeremy’s website puns

(OLD) Ray jerking off in the corner during a let’s play

(OLD) the world in Minecraft never loading and everyone screaming about as Geoff says its fine for him

Jeremy’s “I AM MONSTER TRUCK”

Jack taking AH to Disney……in Minecraft

On Twitter, Gavin asked about recommendations for a computer mouse and Fiona starts sending him pictures of actual mice.

“Its not ghey, if its on the moon”

Literally anything Fiona does as Po

Jeremy saying the heterosexual flag is boring

UNO THE MOVIE!

Geoff fucking cackling the whole time.

“here’s looking at you kid”

the video was almost 3 hours long

“you know what my favorite color is? blue” “oh really? You know what my favorite hand is? Yours

They all want it to end but no one wants to lose and so they fuck each other and that prolongs the game. Also they put on more rules, so they just keep getting more cards if they don’t have a card to match the previous

Alfredo saying he won’t participate in ghost hunter because he knows what happens to people of color in horror movies

Fiona walking in on Off Topic with a protein shake and Gavin asks if shes drinking milk and she says without missing a beat “ah no that’s cum” and everyone laughed not expecting the answer

(OLD) “SURPRISE MOTHERFUCKER” *falls in hole*

(OLD) Ray and Gav running in a panel dressed as X-Ray and Vav and Ray running the whole way around the room before he got to the stage

Duck taping Jeremy to the wall

(OLD) All of Minecraft Episode 3 Plan G (This was the very first AH video I watch and why I know who they are)

Geoff and Gav creating Achievement City and giving everyone houses just to prank Jack into burning house down with lava.

Ray’s house is a dirt block with no furniture and single torch

Geoff’s giant ass house next to Ray’s tiny house

Jack tries to destroy everything with lava throughout the episode

“lets be honest, I realistically didn’t lose anything”

Michael stealing art from Gav’s house “NOO! I want nice things”

The sign to Michael’s says “Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Approval, Awaiting Approval” he runs into house and say “I’m home”

Ray also steals this sign at some point

Plan G – The failsafe.

“Oh whats this? Is this a button? Whats this? (pushes button) Yeah it was a button”

“Did you push the button?”

“Yeah”

“okay”

“wh-what does it do?”

“uh…”

Cue Achievement City beginning to explode as Michael starts screaming

Rays reaction “NO, MY SHITTY HOUSE JUST GOT EVEN SHITTIER!”

Not something funny but something VERY IMPORTANT. AH admitting that they all fucked up and how shitty their behavior was when dealing with harassment in the fanbase. People were racist, sexist, homophobic, misogynistic, and just downright horrible to a lot of the employees at RT and AH. This came up after Mica Burton left the company and talked about it publicly and how nothing was done about it. Fiona who also experiences these same things, along with Lindsay and other employees, but Fiona took the charge on the Off Topic talking about people can’t continue to get away with that behavior. She got to sound off her feelings to a group of white men who all respected her and LISTENED to what was saying and how she felt. She cried; Geoff cried. They all want to do more, so this doesn’t happen in the future and they’re not tolerating the racist and horrible comments. AH taking a mature moment to talk about how they failed to stop these comments and Geoff was right when he said the company has a long way to go.

 Outside of AH each member has more to them than just all of the comedy and laughs and dumb shit they do

Geoff helped found Roosterteeth and Achievement Hunter. He has a beautiful daughter in Millie who is awesome in her own right. He’s a recovering alcoholic. Currently doing F**k Face podcasts. Was in the fucking army. Takes accountability for every mistake he makes.  

Jack also helped start Achievement Hunter. He does so much work for charity. His twitter is full of things to help people go vote. He’s like the dad to AH, especially Fiona. He’s happily married to his wife Caiti.

Michael was an electrician and has a lot of handy man experience. He made a few videos online about him raging at games and that got the attention of RT. He’s currently married to Lindsay who he met because of RT. They have two kids together.

Gavin is an expert at high speed filmmaking and know how use and edit footage from a slow-motion camera. He has worked on actual films. One of the creators of the Slow Mo Guys. Worked his ass off to get to work for RT. Currently dating model and cosplayer Meg Turney

Lindsay flips between being the mom of the group and a complete chaos queen and we all love her for it. She started as an editor for the RT podcast and then AH stuff. She is an incredible voice actor, most known for Ruby Rose (RWBY), Space Kid (Camp Camp), Hilda (Xray & Vav) just to name a few. She also has a degree in finance

Jeremy started as a fan who made videos on the community page. He took over Ray’s place after Ray left to do Twitch full time. He is a self-published author and a skilled rapper and singer. He’s currently married to his wife, Kat.

Matt also started as a fan making videos on the community page. He actually interacted and made stuff for the guys in really early Minecraft episodes. Seriously this guy is like king of Minecraft. He has a degree in electrical engineering. He also has pretty decent singing voice.

Trevor is THE BOSS. Has a degree in aero-space engineering and is getting paid to babysit AH. Currently dating Barbara Dunkelman, RTs queen of puns.

Alfredo worked at IGN before RT and is a well-known streamer. He is the best when it comes to first person shooter games. He and Trevor look so similar.

Fiona. Po. Her majesty. Host of This Just Internet. A Twitch streamer. Baby of the bunch. Grew up in Europe. Her and Gav act like a pair of siblings. She has stated and showed time and time again she will fight for people to have safe spaces for anyone who needs them.

Ify, our new guy. He is wonderful and I want to stay forever. He’s a comedian, a writer, and an actor. Co hosts F-ing Around with Fiona. Has his own film podcast, Who Shot Ya? I look forward to more content with him in it, cause everything he’s been in so far has been great.

 Were all hurting but well make it through this

We have all these wonderful moments and a lot more that I didn’t list and this incredible team of personalities with their own accomplishments and achievements. Not to mention old team members who were also great additions and the entire crew behind the scenes editing and making videos look the best that they can.

 Here’s to Achievement Hunter and to this community. We need to be here for each other in times like these.

@theonyxranger gave me the idea for this based on their own post they made about the fans giving their favorite moments without bitch face and there were just too many. Oop. 

[love-takes-work]

I shouldn’t argue with people on Reddit

My clown encounter

I was talking to someone about the Camp Pining Hearts graphic novel on Reddit, and among other things, I made a joking comment about how Mr. Frowney appearing in the audience of the Camp Pining Play to watch Mr. Smiley perform might mean they’re married now. Someone in the comments had this to say to me:

Reddit clown: 

That would imply that anyone on SU cares about developing characters.

Follow the jump if you would like some bloviating about how this show fails at complex relationships, a funny conspiracy theory about how fan response directly controls which characters appear and what plots the Crew writes, and a smug conclusion that No One Can Answer This Deep Question and Therefore SU Is A Bad Show.

Reddit clown:

It’s clear that the author is trying to prop up their ship by purposefully making Amedot out to be unhealthy and problematic, even if it means derailing established personality and history. It’s pretty childish really.

“Does that imply what I think it does about Mr. Frowney and Mr. Smiley? Hey, maybe they’re married now. :)”

That would imply that anyone on SU cares about developing characters.

I addressed part of the Amedot comment and also said this:

Me:

Re character development: This graphic novel was not written by anyone who writes for the show. There's not really any constructive conversation I can have from here if your position really is "no one on SU cares about developing characters," though. This just seems like such an unnecessarily negative "lol this show sucks, edgier-than-u" comment that I don't know where it can go from here and I'm not planning to follow wherever you're trying to take this.

Reddit clown:

Well in general, the show doesn’t have a good track record for character dynamics

[link to a blog post on Tumblr which is literally a one-sentence repetition of what they just said about bad group dynamics]

And given that Frowney only appeared once, sadly there’s zero chance of him and Smiley ever getting back together. Same with Mystery Girl and Pearl.

lol ok

people who have only shown up once obviously won’t ever show again

no source needed on having a good track record, we’ll just believe it’s obvious if you can find an example of someone saying this on a Tumblr blog somewhere agreeing with your assessment

Me:

I have no personal stake in whether a rare character appears again--I'm not yearning for either of those people to return--but it's straight-up weird to say someone will never show up again because they only showed up once.

Then again, I remember how confident people were that Bismuth would never return (and how consistently they coupled their absolute certainty with sneering comments about how the voice actor was surely too expensive), so I guess it's not too surprising to me that some folks still think certain characters are guaranteed to never return. Bottom line is you never know when the throwaway mailman character in episode 3 will turn out to be a regularly returning character starting in episode 56. It just doesn't make sense to pretend such things are obvious. You do not know.

As for the continued weirdness of claiming that this group of characters has no character dynamics to speak of, I mean, it's literally one of the things I've appreciated the most all along about the show, and . . . I don't have to exaggerate or read into what I see to find it, nor am I confused about whether it's actually there. I again have no personal stake in whether you feel that way. It just strikes me as a bizarro world kind of comment. You're having a VERY different experience of this show from the one I've had.

Reddit clown:

That’s different. Bismuth was brought back thanks to fan demand. Meanwhile, these are specifically one off characters, especially considering the show’s halfway over. Not everyone can rise above a one shot character.

And can you name any notable character dynamics not attached to Steven? Compare that to say Adventure Time which had great character dynamics.

Oh god

“”””Bismuth was brought back because of fan demand””””

““““Can you name any notable character dynamics”“““

Dear lord what show is this cheese log of a person watching?

Me: 

It's really weird that you think Bismuth was brought back because fans "demanded" it. You don't know how the show works at all. 

And "then name character dynamics not attached to Steven" is a bizarre request. If you truly did not see the literal thousands of years of history between characters that enhanced who they are and how they act long before Steven was there, me trotting them out isn't going to help you believe it's there. Steven being the strict point of view character creates a situation that Adventure Time doesn't have, so it's weird to expect the show to diverge significantly from the lens it's designed to be viewed through, but believing you've presented a gotcha here is basically admitting you haven't noticed any of the relationships between the characters that Steven actually spent a ton of time discovering--whole episodes were even dedicated to relationships between characters who aren't Steven or aren't relating to Steven when they're revealing such things. It's not even subtext.

Reddit clown:

Well after fan backlash from the episodes Bismuth, they basically had no choice but to bring her back. And given how expensive the VA is, it hurt their budget. And really, what relationships? The whole thing revolves around Steven. The Gems are Steven’s moms, Connie is Steven’s love interest, the town is Steven’s friends. The only interesting dynamic is Lars hating Steven and even then he joined the Steven cult. Look how wasted Lapis and Peridot became when they escaped Steven’s clutches.

Oh 

Oh this person is one of those

““““the steven cult”“““

The objectively only interesting thing is when someone hates someone

Cartoon Network’s budget was exploded by hiring a voice actor oh god

Me:

Wow. Your obliviousness and misplaced confidence is baffling, but . . . to be honest I feel like I'm watching someone who doesn't understand they're embarrassing themselves, and it's getting uncomfortable.

I know that you don't know what's going on behind the scenes of this show, but it is really bizarre sometimes that fans believe their behavior and their outrage is changing the writing or influencing what characters they use.

You really think fans raging about things is an actual "demand" they respond to. That they "had to" bring back Bismuth because of something FANS DID. Yikes. But I guess I shouldn't be too surprised that people are still saying things like this. Some people still think the writers stole plot elements from fan theories. I don't know why some people in fandoms think they're that important or relevant. The show is not being controlled by our responses in any way. If "fan backlash" worked to bring characters back, there are many others who would have returned long ago. 

And isn't that lovely, you've got a little conspiracy theory about how paying the scads of money you imagine are required for Bismuth's voice actor have "hurt the budget" (oblivious to how many voice actors on this show have done more episodes despite being more famous/having higher net worth). You clearly have zero clue about how any of this works, and you shouldn't keep pretending you have knowledge about it, especially not while talking to people who do.

As for relationships, you're not really asking me. Like I said, if I wasted my time trotting out descriptions of relationship dynamics that you should have seen for yourself if you watched the show, there's no way that would convince you they were worthwhile, well-developed relationships if the show itself didn't. I see complex and multifaceted relationships, growth, change, conflict, and resolution, in so many relationships, like Greg and Rose figuring out what love is to them, Ruby and Sapphire growing into a healthier version of who they are together, Pearl learning to think independently of serving Rose even as she struggles with her nature, the long history of Pearl with Garnet, Amethyst with Pearl, even Greg with Amethyst (all things Steven has to discover and understand only partially as the show goes on) . . . but if you truly believe characters in this show who existed before Steven appeared 14 years ago have shown no evidence of having layered relationship dynamics that do not focus on him or depend on him, I don't know what show you're watching and I can't help you.

I don't know why you're even here since just about every bit of content you've posted here is "the thing you like sucks" and completely unsupported comments about why, sourced in nothing. It's just like . . . not even an argument, it's just a weird demonstration that you don't get what's going on so you've concluded nothing is. It's weird, and normally I've got no problem with criticism or spirited discussion, but these comments are just . . . they're empty. They're demonstrations of obliviousness or willful ignorance. It's just so, so weird to talk to someone who thinks they're laying down critical points but reads as so ignorant of what even happened in the source material or behind the scenes.

For the record, this person was going on in other threads about how Amedot is better than Lapidot “objectively” and partly because “it looks cuter,” saying the writing on the entire series is garbage, that “Steven as a character doesn’t make sense,” and that the show’s writers have no standards. Wow edgy.

Reddit clown:

I mean think about it; a famous celebrity gets more likes around the same the animation goes down hill?

And I would consider the following on the writers stealing fan content; keep in mind that Rose being Pink Diamond was a widely circulated fan theory and people were very stubborn about it. It could be that the crew felt like they needed to validate them. This lead to them to an unsatisfying and out of left field twist.

And I simply don’t see the powerful character interactions people brag about. What’s the character dynamics of the Gems? Again, the blog post I posted is the gotcha moment that no can answer.

I reiterate that the blog post referenced here is one sentence, and it says, “For a show that revolves around a group of characters, SU doesn’t have very interesting group dynamics writing (when they bother having them at all).” That is this person’s “gotcha.” That is this person’s “NO ONE CAN SATISFACTORILY ANSWER THIS” criticism.

omg I’m so confused and weirded out by this.

But

THINK ABOUT IT

A CELEBRITY “GOT LIKES” AND THEN THERE WAS A SPECIFIC TIME WHEN THE ANIMATION GOES DOWNHILL

It’s obviously because Cartoon Network was bankrupted in their ANIMATION BUDGET because they had to pay Uzo Aduba

And this was “”””forced”””” to happen by FAN BACKLASH

When we whine about wanting a character back we decimate the animation budget and make it go downhill guise

AND THIS PERSON ALSO ADMITS TO BELIEVING THE SHOW WENT IN A DIFFERENT “UNSATISFYING” DIRECTION THAN THEIR ORIGINAL INTENT BECAUSE THE CREW NEEDED TO VALIDATE STUBBORN FANS. AND THEY THOUGHT THE PINK DIAMOND REVEAL WAS “OUT OF LEFT FIELD.” YIIIIIIIIKES. 

I had to stop replying here (and should have much earlier) because like

wow, how can someone have NO ABILITY TO INTERPRET THE CONTENT OF A SHOW and then still be this smug about thinking they’ve got its mediocrity nailed? While also being so confident about thinking they know fans control the structure of the storytelling? Unnggggh 

[samtheflamingomain]

zeke the survivor

I'm always late to the game on things, so I just recently decided to see "if" Survivor has a subreddit. Of course it does. It has like 6.

Anyway, I sorted by most popular of all time, and what do my eyes have to read? A fucking novel of an excuse for Jeff fucking Varner. By a former player, no less. She’s "a friend of his", she said.

I know this happened like a year ago, but long story short, at Tribal Council, Varner was on the chopping block. Having not eaten in several days, having the toll of Survivor on his psyche, (these are his words, NOT mine,) he tried to paint Zeke as a liar by saying (basically), "How can people trust you? Zeke's not who you think he is..." and continued hinting at the reveal that would "save him" and "prove his point": "Why are you lying about being transgender?"

Fucking EXCUSE ME? Again, I know this was ages ago, but I'm still pissed. I hate bringing attention to Varner, so I will talk about Zeke in a minute, but first, let's review the facts.

Varner outed Zeke to every single person on the planet. NOW, I MUST POINT OUT, that the editors of the show CHOSE TO KEEP THIS IN. I think it's because they knew they'd get some virality from it. That aside, Varner literally endangered a man for life by outing him. He's recognizable. He's from the South. He wouldn't be the first trans person to be assaulted for being trans.  Maybe people don't get it: Outing. People. Can. Get. Them. Killed.

Every person on that tribe is starving to death in the blistering heat with intermittent extreme cardio workouts. Nobody has EVER used a personal attack of that volume to try and make a move. That's part one of why I don't believe his bullshit "apologies".

Part 2: He hints at it. I don't have a transcript in front of me, but for a good few minutes the two are bantering, both at risk of going home. Varner keeps saying things like "There's stuff you don't know about Zeke" etc. This was not a spur-of-the-moment "temporary insanity" as it is put in the reddit post trying to paint him as a victim.

But there are some other facts I must point out. He is, by the dictionary definition, a victim: of online harassment and death threats. Nobody deserves that. That is illegal. But as I mentioned earlier, Zeke, as a result of what Varner did, probably recieved a lot of the same shit he did. But if Zeke got death threats (I have no source, but I'd bet my last dime on it), that's because of his gender. Varner got hate because he did a terrible thing.

Now, another mitigating point I must concede: I do not think Varner is a transphobe. He says it was a lapse in judgement, I think it was a planned, specific move, and the plain fact is that it got him unanimously voted out. He was nearly in tears at the post-tribal confessional. You could see it in the man's eyes the moment the words left his mouth. Instantly, he knew he had completely, irreversibly fucked up. It cost him a million dollars. It cost him his job. It cost him a lot and he knew that in an instant. He truly is sorry. I believe that.

But the fact that he follows up that apology with the excuse he did kind of renders it moot.

But here's another thing, the one thing really, that makes me absolutely despise Varner and have absolutely 0% sympathy for him: he wrote a goddamn book. "Surviving Shame". Bitch, you shouldn't survive that shame. That should linger with you till the moment you die. And to make MONEY off the fact that he OUTED A TRANS PERSON ON TV is absolutely sickening. I don't care enough to look it up, but I do think he mentioned that "all royalties will go to some trans charity" but I don't care. You're still getting a fucking book. You are now a public figure of sorts.

You know who should have a fucking book? Zeke. The moment the camera moved from Varners stupid face to his, I was prepared for all-out war. It was almost like he knew this would happen. It's all of our worst nightmares.  But he sat there, his face calm. And he said something beautiful: “I didn’t want to be known as ‘the trans survivor’. I wanted to be ‘Zeke the survivor’.” I think we all want to be X the Y, not the trans Y. 

He took it like a goddamn champ. It helps that the entire tribe supported him and they immediately voted Varner out, and Zeke talked a bit about it at the finale, before Jeff interrupts him to PLUG. VARNER'S. BOOK. I shit you not, go back and see, it's the very last thing that's said before credits.

The post talks about how Varner was very depressed after the episode. And people were commenting saying they hope he gets better. And I hope he does too; nobody deserves capital-D Depression, but that's not what happened. He was depressed and ashamed about a horrible thing he did. He SHOULD be depressed and ashamed, at least for a while. You know who else might've been pretty depressed? Zeke.

Look. I don't think he's a bad person. I think he's like everyone else: desperate to save face when possible. I don't know what on Earth he was thinking when he decided on a book, but I'll charitably chalk that up to general stupidity and ignorance.

Before I close, I want to throw you back even further to Worlds Apart, just to point out that this shit isn’t new. Remember Shirin? Kinda annoying, but had a really awful story (abuse, neglect, no parental contact) and was absolutely HAMMERED by this ASSHOLE for NO FUCKING REASON, AT CAMP, IN FRONT OF EVERYONE. He said something very very close to "You have no reason to be here. Nobody loves you. Nobody's waiting for you back home." And everyone at camp just kinda sat there. She went into the jungle crying alone. There was a good bit of outrage, and she used that episode to raise awareness about bullying, but I think, to make one last point, we need to talk about the show itself.

There are already limits in place on how “survivor-y” Survivor can get. There’s medical help, menstrual products, meds. They’ll even fix your glasses! That department is obviously completely separate from the editing department that decided to keep these moments in, but if they’ll allow you to retain your physical health, I think (to a point, without ruining the point of the show) they should put more thought into mental health. Part of me wonders if anyone intervenes if someone has a panic attack. Probably not. That’s part of the problem.

But they also need to make more careful editing choices. I assume they would’ve consulted Zeke on whether that would air or not because I like to believe the world is a nice place sometimes. 

And I hope nobody buys Jeff Varner’s goddamn book. Fuck him.

Anyway, I post this because I've been up all night getting lost in rabbit holes, and this was one of them. Stay Greater.

[koalathebear]

A redditor named  wldmr has posted an extremely thought-provoking post over at reddit  about a scene in episode 2.08.  I’d assumed that it was going to involve the refugee ship but surprisingly it involved the scene on Tycho Station with Drummer.  

You can see my response below the cut here but also at the thread.  I thought it was an interesting post and it’s a shame that the post is getting down-voted just because everyone is caught up in the “oh cool” aspect of it rather than thinking it through.

I think it's a shame that you are being down-voted because you've raised a very interesting point.For my own part, I'm also in the camp that went: "Yay! Go Drummer!" when she shot Edin and Staz and admit that I definitely comparmentalise my fiction/drama from "real life" and do not tend to use the same societal norms as I would in real life. 

For instance, there have been a large number of heroes and heroines I have loved who in real life I would not have because they were on their redemption arc - which means that they have done something which in 'the real world' would have probably landed them in jail for a very long time. In fiction, people can come back from the unforgiveable. 

My favourite character Peter Quinn in Homeland is someone who has done a great many terrible things in his life and in Show Reality, I want him to redeem himself. In real life, I believe he probably should have been made to formally answer for what he has done. I once wrote a couple of posts about fictional characters and redemption here and here.

Taken at its worst, Drummer is guilty of murder - shooting two unarmed in men in cold blood without a trial or any authority to do so. Even worse, those two men could have been characterised by some as prisoners of war, although there have been no formal declaration of war and they belong to only a splinter of the OPA that does not represent the rest of the OPA so are probably more like a terrorist group than a Fifth Column or formal resistance group of sorts. 

In any case, as far as we know, while she's head of security, I don't get the sense Drummer has any formal authority to deliver summary executions.I think though that what many have pointed out is correct. The Belt is essentially lawless, having reverted back to an almost Hobbesian society where life is "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short". It's like Colonial America or Colonial Australia where the colonising power (Great Britain) attempted to exert its authority but its grip due to the tyranny of distance was quite weak. Mars because of its smaller population and possibly because of its military strength remains in check, probably largely through military justice so therefore does not seem to have descended into chaos despite its distance from Earth. I think Mars has been around long enough to put in place its own justice system and enforcement.

The Belt, caught between Mars and Earth, basically the slave labour and the underclass of society is still in its early stages of development as a political state. Ceres Station is an example - it's got a police force but it does very little if anything to check the crime and corruption that controls the station. As someone else has pointed out in this thread, justice is likely to be proportionate and I can imagine that the death penalty would apply for a lot of crimes in order to conserve valuable resources - although my husband points out that hard labour might also be aPeople like Fred Johnson can see that the OPA cannot survive if it's not coordinated and seen by Earth and Mars as a cohesive power and potential State and not just a group of warring factions but as someone has pointed out, he is at his core still a Mafia boss keeping order by ruling with an iron fist and the likes of Drummer's summary justice. 

I think when we see Drummer mete out punishment, we have a sense of satisfaction because we know that: 

1. not only was she herself shot, but the Black Skies just killed a bunch of their people 

2. they were trying to bring about a war of almost catastrophic proportions 

3. chances are even had they gone through the trial, they'd have received the same judgment.

I know fan fic isn't really a thing here on this subreddit, but after the episode I did scribble a short fan fic called 'Loyalty' about Fred and Drummer in which I was thinking a little about these issues - although it was more along the lines of the fact that Fred had been willing to die and to let Drummer die rather than disclose the codes.

[khalilhumam]

COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: Surrounded by walls of glass

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/covid-19-diaries-from-wuhan-surrounded-by-walls-of-glass/

COVID-19 diaries from Wuhan: Surrounded by walls of glass

A cleaner wears torn protective gear. Photo credit: Guo Jing. Used with permission.

The following post is the eleventh in a series of diaries written by independent filmmaker and feminist scholar Ai Xiaoming and feminist activist Guo Jing. Both are living in Wuhan at the initial center of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here are the links to the first, second,third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth part of the series. Check out Global Voices’ special coverage of the global impact of COVID-19. This installment was written between March 11 and March 14, 2020. The original Chinese diaries are published on Matter News.

Guo Jing: March 11, 2020

今天，人们还在接力转发《发口肖子的人》，版本越来越多，英文版、日文版、越南语版、盲文版、甲骨文版、16进制编码版、摩斯电码版、空白版……这是封锁下的艺术，简直是一种世界奇观。人们转发的不再是文章本身，而是在表达情绪，有对审查的愤怒，有对发哨人的敬佩，有坚持发声的不屈。

People keep sharing the article “The whistleblower” today, and we have it in different languages: English, Japanese, Vietnamese, braille, oracle bone script, Hexadecimal code, Morse code, and blank verison with no word… This is a collective work of art in the lockdown, like a world wonder. People are not only forwarding the article itself, but their emotions — their anger towards censorship, their respect towards the whistleblowers, and their insistence on speaking out.

[Editors Note: “The whistleblower” is an interview with Dr. Ai Fen who was the first person to distribute the lab report on the novel coronavirus. The article was quickly taken offline by government web censors and people started distributing the posts in different language versions to circumvent the censors.]

Ai Xiaoming: March 11, 2020

我的封城日记没那么好运，接连被连刪了两篇。我在公号上至少传了十多篇文章，一半不见天日。有关博客，我先后做了三个，早已去向不明。有的文章，连一个晚上都没有活过。不能得到众多的点赞就算了，这样耗费一个又一个白天黑夜，所为何来？ 我家有个小平台，平时与客厅相隔的玻璃门都开着。有一天我不知门已关上，兴冲冲地闯过去。结果？倒退五步抱头歪嚎。 每天写公号的感觉，就是这么回事。你就算一身是胆，胸怀绝技，四面透明的玻璃幕墙罩着你。你去撞，只管撞……

My diary about the Wuhan lockdown is not that lucky. Two of them were deleted one after another. I have submitted more than 10 articles using my Wechat public account, but half of them have failed to publish. I have opened three blogs, and all of them have been taken offline. Some of my articles did not even survive one night. I don't expect them to get a lot of attention, but what's the point of spending day after day writing and uploading articles that won't even survive online? I have a small balcony at home. I usually keep the glass door between the balcony and the living room open. One day, I was not aware that door was closed and bumped onto it. The result? I stumbled five steps back, held my head and moaned. This is how I feel every day when I struggle with my Wechat public account. Even if you are courageous you are surrounded by walls made of glass. You try smashing through them, but they are always there.

Guo Jing: March 13, 2020

People picked up delivered food at the gate. (Photo credit: Guo Jing. Used with permission.)

封城前，偶尔到野外露营或者去郊外游玩，静谧中的鸟语花香会让人欣喜。现在每天在鸟叫声中醒来，却没有轻松愉悦的心情。 昨天小区群里有人发了肯德基的团购，我有点心动。可是，家里的菜都还没吃完，坏了太可惜，就想着先把家里的菜吃完。

Before the lockdown, I would sometimes go camping or hiking. I enjoyed being surrounded by birds, flowers and nature. But now when I hear birds singing in the morning, I am not in the mood to enjoy it  anymore. Yesterday someone initiated group buying from Kentuckey Fried Chicken. It was tempting. However, I still have some vegetables at home. It would be a pity if they were to rot so I decided to eat the vegetables first.

Guo Jing: March 14, 2020

有个朋友把我拉进一个群，群里的人在分享最新的交通管制信息，交流“离开”的经验。湖北除武汉外的县市开始放松了一些管控，已经有人迫不及待地想要离开，有人为了复工，有人为了团聚，有人只是想离开。当然，也有人想回湖北的，但很多火车票不卖到湖北地区的票。 离开要有通行证和健康证明，可是各个县市乃至村子的开放程度和政策不一样，有的通行证只能在市里活动，有的地方开通了城际巴士，有的地方可以自己驾车走高速出省。 出了湖北，能不能进入别的省市又是一个问题，进入也需要工作单位或社区开的接收证明。有的省份不承认在支付宝上申请的绿码（健康码），有人开车上了高速，到了目的地却下不了高速，去江西、四川、重庆的群友都遇到了这样的情况，他们被迫原路返回。 有的地方可以接受进入，却要求隔离14天。温州、台州、广州要求集中隔离，自己出钱，每人每天300元；东莞、杭州要求集中隔离14天，政府出钱。 没有统一而稳定的政策，人们的出行很难有保障，往往只能自己亲身试验，试验就会付出一些不必要的成本。 昨天12点多睡觉，楼道里有窸窸窣窣的声音，搞得我半天才入睡。早上7点多，楼道里又时不时地传来开门声，我就被吵醒。我的小区旁边正在修建地铁，封城前，晚上工地上也会有轰隆隆的机器声，可我基本不受影响。现在我的感官似乎时刻在寻找信息，很难关停。 有个上海的朋友说，自从她家附近有人确诊之后，她老是听到救护车的声音。

My friend added me to an online group where people share the most up-to-date traffic information and their experience of “leaving” Hubei Province. Aside from Wuhan, some cities and counties in Hubei Province hae started to loosed their control. Many people cannot wait to leave, because they want to return to work or to reunite with their families and friends. Some people just want to leave. Of course, there are people planning to come back to Hubei Province, too. However, many train stations do not sell tickets coming into the Hubei area. If we want to leave, we need to have a pass and a health certificate. However, every city, county and village has their own set of rules regarding people's mobility. Some pass holders are only allowed to move inside the city. Some pass holders can take the intercity buses. Some pass holders are allowed to drive their cars on the highways to leave the province. Even if we leave Hubei Province, whether we can enter another province or city is still in question. People need to obtain a certificate issued by a business unit or a residential district to enter a province or city. Some provinces do not recognize the green code (healthy code) on Alipay. Some people can drive on the highways, but they are not allowed to leave the highways when they arrive at their destinations. Several people in the group have had this kind of experience when they went to Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Chongqing. They are forced to drive back. Some places allow people to enter, but they needed to be quarantined for 14 days. Wenzhou, Taizhou, and Guangzhou request centralized quarantine, and people need to pay a RMB 300 yuan (US$ 42.5 dollars) quarantine fee per day. Dongguan and Hangzhou also request centralized quarantine for 14 days, but their governments pay for the quarantine. If there is no standardized policy, it is difficult to plan ahead for travel. People have pay for the cost of trial and error. Last night when I went to bed, at around 12, there was some noise in the hallway. I had difficulty falling asleep because of the noise. This morning at around 7, I woke up to the sounds of doors opening in the hallway. Before the lockdown, the metro station near my community was being renovated. The construction was very noisy at night, but I was not affected. Now my sensory organs are hyperactive in search for external information, and it is difficult to turn them off. A friend in Shanghai told me that she always hears the sounds of ambulances after someone in her area turns out to be COVID-19 positive.

< p class='gv-rss-footer'>Written by Winston Chiu · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

[ah17hh]

Need advice as a monogamous person in a relationship with a polyamorous person via /r/polyamory

Need advice as a monogamous person in a relationship with a polyamorous person

This is probably a typical issue for anyone in this situation, but I want to learn how I could be better.

So, my partner, Rob, and I have a long history together. I dated him in high school and after we graduated high school. Pretty much dated in my early 20s until he failed college and had to move to Colorado (several states over). I've known the guy for 12 years of my life. Even when we weren't dating, we would text. There have been a few times where we didn't speak to each other for a year or so and some months in-between. We didn't try the long distance thing, he soon got with someone else and that was history. At least I thought.

Rob signed up for the Navy. He went to boot camp. I knew he had dated someone else a few months after he left abruptly from failing college, but after not speaking to each other for several months he sent me a text before leaving boot camp and asked me to send him letters. Me, none the wiser, did. I was still in love with him so I sent letters and then once he got out of boot camp, I learned he was still with someone else. Rob hid that fact from me. Didn't speak to him for awhile, obviously because of the distrust, but we eventually started talking again.

We texted each other often even when I dated other people, and that in turn caused turmoil in my monogamous relationships because they felt threatened by Rob. I would always tell my boyfriend at the time that I was talking to him, but often it would be my boyfriend asking me to quit speaking to him. So, I would say I would... and stop talking for a day, then secretly speak to him. Even if the talk wasn't romanticized, however throughout our long history I would every now and then reminisce of the past and he'd remember. If there was another Cold War, trust that Rob and I were. I would say something intimate, but once he said something I felt didn't suit what I wanted him to say, I recoiled thinking something wasn't there between us. He did the same.

The past few years I knew Rob was married and he recently had a baby with his wife. In January we randomly spoke of possibly meeting up to it being talking about a possible poly type of relationship. I thought of it as a "just him & I" kind of thing. The timing wasn't right though even when I couldn't see him because of the Navy, I was also in a monogamous relationship with someone else. My partner learned I was emotionally deceitful and left the beginning of October. I tried fixing my monogamous relationship and it didn't work.

Flash forward to now, I don't know how it started, but Rob and I started talking about what we thought in January. My concern was sharing someone I viewed as the love of my life with someone else. (Even though, I have pretty much done this ever since Rob left my home state when I'd date guys for a long time, but still speak to him and think of in a romantic way). I knew of his wife Dakota, mainly from learning of Rob's secret from hiding her from me when he was in boot camp years ago, but he spoke of their relationship and how it was open, even from the get go. (Though, he did reveal to me Dakota cheated on him with 2 other guys on a road trip when they were dating). Dakota suggested being poly when they first started dating. Dakota even knew of me (most likely because Rob and I text daily) to where Rob had spoken to her about me and our history.

It all happened rather fast, Rob and I opening up about him coming to visit me in the summer next year. Then it turned to him stating he was going to speak to Dakota about dating me. She agreed to it. I trusted him when he said that, but for some reason I wanted to hear her say it. I knew what this was and I wanted to respect her relationship, her marriage, and wanting that thought of competition out of my head. The next day I called Rob to ask Dakota for her permission to date him and she said yes. Later I ended up talking to Rob while holding his baby and hearing Dakota interact. I would much like to be friends with her.

This is day 2 thinking about the possibility of this relationship. I mainly focused on Rob visiting me because I haven't seen him in 7 years. Our main form of communication is texting and phone calls, we don't have each other on social media. We have recently talked about me visiting and Rob stated I could stay at their home if I'd like (they live in Florida, I live in Indiana). Of course, that is jumping ahead in the months when Rob is about to be deployed next week and won't be back for several months. Right now it is total honeymoon phase, like high school all over again. We both pulled the trigger and the Cold War was over.

There's just a catch that I'm noticing. Rob and I spoke tonight and he mentioned him and Dakota speaking of hypothetical situations. Such as, what if I wanted to live with them down the line? Or if I came to visit would the other be okay with Rob staying in the guest bedroom with me one night and then the next night with Dakota? Would it be okay if Dakota did that with her girlfriend? Obviously this is jumping ahead and Rob made the comment to me saying that he didn't want to scare me off by stating those hypotheticals. And I think the conversation from that stemmed from me stating about boundaries if I was to visit. Would Dakota be openly affectionate towards Rob while I'm there? Because I most definitely wouldn't be affectionate towards him in front of her.

What I thought I was somewhat okay with now has me thinking differently. When I imagine Rob visiting me, I only think of him and me. Cause it will just be him and I during that time. But now that I'm thinking about visiting him at his and Dakota's home, I feel not okay. Me thinking about Rob going into staying in his room with Dakota another night breaks my heart, actually angry. I even told him that I might not be okay with that because I feel I might feel neglected (especially when I'm coming to visit and will only be there a short time because this is a long distant relationship, but at the same time I don't want to disrespect their relationship). I know where his priorities lie. He's a father first, then a husband. I'm flattered that he chooses me after he's done his fatherly and husband-like duties.

Rob tonight had voiced his concern of wanting this to really work because he cared and loved me very much. I know he does, I don't question it. I know jealousy won't magically go away even if I practice waning it. I just want to get to the point where I don't feel threatened if I was to visit. I was completely fine thinking of me visiting, but doing nothing physical. However, I know that might not be the case if I was to visit.

I also hate that I don't want to date anyone else, even though Rob stated he would understand when I asked if he'd be okay if I was to date someone else. He obviously can't be here if I plan to not move anytime soon. I just don't find anyone as interesting to date, but I also feel I wouldn't have much luck of finding someone being open to poly. I guess I'm strictly monogamous and it might come down to all being a DADT kind of situation. For the longest time of Rob and I speaking, I didn't want to know of his relationship with Dakota or even his child. Slowly, I have accepted him talking about her and his daughter. It's just that dang physical contact part that is tripping me up. Am I wrong to ask for such a boundary? I really don't want to see it. I can see for what I'm asking from him to stay with me the whole visit while I'm with him to stay with me would be inconsiderate when he does have a wife to attend to. She has needs, too.

Reading some negative comments about poly, like I'm just filling a void, turns me off a bit about possibly thinking of this relationship. I also thought about what if I'm just loving the thought, the fantasy, of seeing Rob again. I'm conflicted.

Submitted October 22, 2019 at 11:25PM by bookof_kalamity via reddit https://ift.tt/2PbUF9X

[ladykristianna]

Sleepers - Part 5

The story continues…

This is a work in progress story based on a writing prompt from /r/writingprompts on reddit. Jess and David wake up in an ancient forest surrounded by over a hundred other sleeping people with nothing but headaches and questions. Suddenly an ominous voice rings out around them, “Rise and shine,” and the sleepers awake.

I am writing this for funsies as a side project. It has not been edited. Please don’t copy/paste elsewhere without my permission first. I work hard on my writing so please don’t plagiarize. Questions or comments? Shoot me a message here on tumblr or to ladykristianna on twitter. Thanks for reading.

Start from the beginning. [Part 1] Read the previous chapter. [Part 4]

Read more of my writing.

Sleepers - Part 5

JESS

I woke up to David jabbing me in the ribs with his elbow. “Jess, wake up.”

“Damnit,” I sat up and rubbed my face. “I didn’t mean to fall asleep. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. You were tired, so I let you rest. I was too wired to rest, so I had a look around while you were napping. You’ve only been out about thirty minutes,” David said. He waved his hands at me. “Come on. I’ve got something to show you.”

“Let me get my feet covered up again,” I said. As I wrapped my feet with the cloth strips, I noticed something. “Hey, David? Have you noticed that the sun, or whatever it is, hasn't really moved that much? I thought when I first woke up here that it was around sunset, but the light hasn’t changed all that much. We’ve been out here for hours. Shouldn’t it be night by now?”

He grabbed my hand and helped me up off the ground. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s true, but I think it looks a bit dimmer now than it did when we first left the clearing. Or maybe that sun thing just sets slower than what we’re used to. Either way it seems like this place is messing with our heads.”

“So what do you have to show me?” I asked.

He grinned at me. It was the first time since I had met him that I’d seen his face light up like that. “It’s a surprise,” he said. What ever it was, it must be amazing from the way he was smiling.

David led me down through the trees a slight way away from the cliffs to a trail that led through the brush. “I wonder what uses this path. I haven’t heard any sounds from animals the whole time we’ve been here. Do you think there are other people here? Besides the ones from the clearing.”

He didn’t say anything in response, but just kept walking ahead. The path twisted downward back in the direction of the cliffs, and we broke through the brush again. We were back at the cliffs but this time we could see more of the valley below us. David made a wide gesture to a Here there were stairs carved into the cliff face leading down into the valley below. They hadn’t been visible from where we were earlier. It was a stroke of luck in more ways than one. It meant there was a way down, and it meant that there were people here, or at least there used to be at one time.

I smacked David on the shoulder. “Awesome find David. Maybe our luck is getting better.”

“Don’t jinx us,” he smiled. “Let’s head down and see what we can find.”

While the cliff steps were an advantageous find, they weren’t exactly the safest way down, and as we didn’t have rock climbing equipment, we had to inch our way down with our backs against the rock walls. The steps were narrow and uneven, and there were no hand rails or ropes to help us. Just slow and steady movements and pure luck. It was a long way down, and the climb seemed to take forever.

The stairway twisted along haphazardly but eventually we made our way down to the valley over a hundred feet below. The area around us was much like the forest above: trees of all types and low laying brush.

“David. I think I see some berry bushes over there,” I said and pointed towards the edge of the cliff wall at some low lying bushes heavy with round purplish-red berries. “They don’t look like any berries I have ever seen before. I’m not sure if they’re edible or not, but we can test them once we find water.”

“Test them?” he asked.

“Yeah. Just a little survival trick I learned from my dad when I was a kid. You taste a tiny bit for bitterness, rub some on your skin, and wait a few hours for a reaction. If they aren’t too bitter and there’s no reaction, they should be safe to eat. If there is… well. You just wait it out and flush your system by drinking a ton of water. That’s why you only eat one or two berries to test. If they are poisonous then it won’t affect you as much,” I told him. “Hopefully,” I added apprehensively. I knew there were some types that existed that could cause extreme reactions or even death even in small amounts. I didn’t tell David that. I picked a small number of the berries, wrapped them in the last bit of cloth strips, and put them in my pocket.

“I hope our luck stays with us. Let’s see if we can find some water,” David said.

As we walked, I tried to keep the landscape in my mind, taking note of odd looking trees and rock formations for future reference as a sort of mental map. For the most part everything looked the same, which would make it ridiculously easy for the average person to get lost, but I was able to keep track. I was realizing how grateful I was to my dad and those survivalist camping trips he took me on all those years ago. I thought they were so stupid at the time, but I wasn’t thinking that now.

This whole situation made me think about him. He would have been in his element here. My heart ached remembering his goofy grins as he showed me some new knot or other trick. It had never bothered him that I wasn’t born a boy, even though I knew that was what he really wanted in a child. My mother wanted a pretty doll to dress up, and my father wanted someone to romp around in the wilderness with. As a result, I was the weird amalgamation of the two parenting styles. I could throw on a perfect winged eyeliner and start a fire with nothing but a few sticks in about the same amount of time, though only one of those skills seemed useful to me now. I sent a silent thank you to wherever my father was now. He had died in a car accident when I was thirteen years old, and my mother was never quite the same afterwards. She had wasted away, lost in a prescription medication addiction, and died two years later of an overdose. I stayed with some random great aunt on my father’s side for a year and became an emancipated adult at the age of sixteen.

I’d had a hard, lonely life. People always looked at me with sympathy. We’re so, so sorry. Is there anything we can do? Even if they said it, there really wasn’t anything they could do. Either that or they ignored be because they were uncomfortable and didn’t know how to handle me. I was alone, and I dealt with it. Usually with my twisted brand of sardonic humor.

“Hey Jess!” David called me back from my drifting thoughts. I had fallen back a ways from him.

“What?”

“Listen,” he said. “Do you hear that?”

I stopped and listened. “David,” I grinned and elbowed him in the ribs. “You are a good luck charm.”

“Ow.” David rubbed his ribs while I rushed ahead.

We quickened our pace as we wove our way through the trees to that beautiful, beautiful sound. And suddenly, there it was. We broke through the trees to the sight of a small waterfall breaking through an alcove of boulders rushing down into a clear deep pool lined with smooth rocks at the bottom. It was one of the most glorious things we had ever seen.

“It’s a natural spring!” I said. “It should be safe for us to drink.”

“It gets better, Jess,” David said with a smile in his voice. I turned to see what he was talking about. Nestled behind a cluster of large bushes to the right of the waterfall was the entrance to a small cave. It was just tall enough for us bend down and enter.

“This is fantastic. We now have a base of operations!” I jumped around in my version of a happy dance while David looked on in amusement. I sat down in front of the water, cupped my hands, and drank. It was the most delicious water I had ever tasted. Nothing in a bottle had ever tasted this good. Either that, or I had underestimated how thirsty I truly was.

Shedding my giddy excitement, I stood and looked around. Between the cave and the water, this place really was perfect as a temporary shelter. David was splashing water on his face and rubbing his neck. “David, I’m going to make a fire and do the taste test on the berries. If we can eat those, that will be one food source we can count on for a little while at least, but we will need to try and find something else to eat. We should try to keep an eye out for nuts and fruits in the forest too. I haven’t seen any animals, but you never know. Maybe there are rabbits or squirrels. But I’d have to find a way to snare them, and we don’t have any knives or cord…” I trailed off and tapped my chin, deep in thought. I had literally nothing to work with except the clothes on our backs, and I’d already torn up my undershirt. I was going to have to get really creative.

[To be continued in Part 6.]