#there is definitely also some selection bias at play

[sequencer987]

Nothing bugs me more than when people online claim that everybody aged faster in the past, and then they post a bunch of old pictures of completely normal looking 20 somethings who are just wearing clothes and hairstyles that we now associate with old people.

[lanternkiwi]

another blue lock rant (act surprised) and i’m just gonna talk about pxg and bastard and how their match might go down, taking a page outta ego’s book, through personal bias and like 5% data from the manga

sooo manga spoilers for the neo egoist league arc

idk it feels like france is gonna be the final boss of the neo egoist arc, right ??? rin, shidou, loki, karasu, nanase, and zantetsu ???? it feel like they’re setting up foils such as rin vs isagi, shidou vs kunigami or kaiser or both fuck it, loki vs noa- if they decide to play, nanase vs ness, and zantetsu with like idk yukki or something if anything zantetsu’ll be moral support LMFAO i just wanna see zantetsu again fr idc if he’s on the bench 😭

anyways assuming karasu and nanase make the starting line up (we already know rin and shidou did) there could be some really interesting matchups when bastard finally plays against them. especially now that isagi has gone up many levels and kunigami only had a few moments to shine so far in the fc and msc matches and they have to prove wild card program did something right ? and kunigami could get his revenge on shidou for eliminating him in the first place. 

the way kaiser could serve as a rival for rin, shidou, OR loki to be honest LMFAOO he’s bastard’s strongest player and the player closest to sae in terms of skill level so rin could wanna duke it out w him ykwim but no doubt this match is gonna focus on him and isagi, it’s been between them since the second selection and it’s definitely not gonna stop cause of kaiser. and loki is an up and coming player at SEVENTEEN ?? he and kaiser could have an interesting matchup, if they sub him in. and shidou loooovess a strong player so he might wanna challenge kaiser and yk kaiser will throw some wild insults back at him LMAOO plus they’re both unpredictable and have pretty good physical strength i mean

yall see my vision for these two shits right

well if all else, kaiser could be locked down by karasu so he could show his improvement since u20 when he was holding defense together

nanase has always been a good support/passer so i could see him running into troubles with ness (assuming nanase even makes the starting line up and ness actually does shit) but i think ness actually WILL contribute this time considering he disappeared the second half of msc vs bm, he needs his own little moment or obstacle. but i also think unless loki TOUGHENED up nanase, he might be too passive for someone as sadistic as ness but i have faith in my fruity little guy

IF ANYTHING... i think nanase and hiori could be an interesting match up. hiori has been studdyinngg bastard, fc, and manshine since the start and there’s no way noa isn’t picking up on that. we need to see what hiori learned and how he improved or maybe they could save hiori’s growth for the italy game since he’s known for getting through tight spaces and italy is stacked on defense fr but we’re assuming france is the final boss and we’ve already played through italy

BUUUTT karasu and yukimiya were teammates before, so having them as rivals now could be interesting, like nanase and hiori. karasu could prove to understand yuki and he’d be another good obstacle for yuki to overcome. and yuki, now that he has his new gyro shot, he could be a harder player for karasu to defend against. 

i could definitely see karasu being all over the place, kinda like chigiri and otoya. also zantetsu, if he’s on the starting line up, can be like karasu’s support as we saw he’s able to attack and defend in the first selection. he would be able to cover the empty spaces that karasu might not be able to cover if he’s busy with kaiser or yukimiya

karasu could play a big role in locking bastard down and holding up defense, we know he can do it as we saw in u20. and maybe similarly to u20, karasu could be supported by nanase and zantetsu like how chigiri and niko were running around and manmarking and reo and hiori were subbed in and able to cover defense more

also it would be a good final match to conclude. everyone would be going against their foil, as mentioned earlier, and someone better than them. 

rin and isagi, it’s obvious what they’ve got going on.

kunigami and shidou need to settle their rivalry, seeing shidou again could trigger something in kunigami

whoever kaiser will matchup with, they’ll have to evolve a shit ton in order to make moves on him like isagi did. unless it’s rin. personally, i think having rin and kaiser AT LEAST MEET is a good way to reveal kaiser knows sae and crushed him in their game together which caused sae to switch positions

but counterpoint could be rin completely has detached himself from sae after u20 and was set on being THE best so it would be a little harder for kaiser to get a rise outta him by just mentioning sae. but idk maybe kaiser revealing he was the one who started the catalyst of rin’s biggest turning point of his life could trigger something, kinda like what happened with rin and leonardo luna

you see what i’m saying

and you know kaiser’s gonna be a piece of shit about it too. rin could score the first goal and kaiser will say “oh well, would you look at that?! so that’s what sae itoshi’s little brother is capable of, hm?”

and he’s gonna pull another

trying to figure out kaiser’s role now that isagi locked him down is a little difficult. but what’s also difficult to figure out is HOW THE HELL JULIEN LOKI GOT RIN AND SHIDOU TO COOPERATE W EACH OTHER

as kind and polite loki looks, i think the obvious creative choice is for him to be an absolute monster. from what we’ve seen of him so far, he’s got a stern voice and he’s got quite a lot of say between the top five. judging by the way the top five DEGRADED bllk’s top player, they have to have respect for loki. 

but this aint about loki

if france is the last game, i have NO IDEA how kaiser and isagi’s relationship/rivalry could even begin to develop from the ending of msc vs bm LMAOO if italy comes after, i don’t really have any creative ideas other than they try to work together but fr just can’t. and idk maybe they have some magical chemical reaction in this game for the sake of crushing rin or shidou or both again fuck it but who knows

anyways that’s all i have im desperate to see pxg play but i will sit happily through the italy game if it makes france the final boss

and also i miss oliver aiku 

[battleangel]

NFL Machine: 2023 to 2024 False Narratives

While the young players in tonight's draft will be full of excitement and hope, the promise of a boyhood dream on the cusp of being fulfilled, a literal lifetime of sacrifice, blood, sweat and tears finally culminating in the dream of playing in the NFL, walking across that stage, shaking Roger Goodell's hand, putting on that team jersey with their name on the back and putting on their team hat, smiling for the cameras, their childhood dream coming true...

The fact of the matter is, a lot of these same men once they have exited the league, the majority of whom will do so within 3 years, and even the Pro Bowlers who play an average of 12 seasons, may not be smiling in 10 to 15 years after their playing career is over as that is typically where neurological symptoms of diseases like CTE, early-onset dementia, Parkinson's, ALS and Alzheimer's begin to surface from repetitive head trauma caused by subconcussive hits.

Not concussions -- the hundreds of thousands of subconcussive hits these men endure during spring training, training camps, practices, drills, scrimmages and games from Pop Warner in their youth, to high school and college as young men all the way to the professional level in the NFL.

While positions vary, and linemen, linebackers and running backs obviously take more hits than a quarterback or wide receiver, the fact is that every single person that plays the sport of tackle football is required to block and tackle and plays are only blown dead by a whistle if you take the ball carrier to the ground and physically stop their forward progress. You could also force a fumble, intercept a pass, the QB could slide or run out of bounds or throw the ball away -- but the inherent nature of football, unlike its predecessor rugby, is that every single square inch must be fought for and defended. Naturally, that results in some type of contact on nearly every play.

The majority of concussions at the NON-professional level -- UNpaid WITHOUT health insurance -- in high school and college occur during practice which means they are entirely preventable but still to this day only the Ivy League conference and one other university has removed hitting from their practices.

That is a lot of hits and they do add up and they do take their toll later on.

While not every football player develops a neurological disorder from playing football, and while there is an obvious selection bias in the brains autopsied for CTE by Dr. McKee as those players were already exhibiting symptoms or else they would not have had their brains donated to be tested in the first place, there has been a link proven at this point by Dr. Bennet Omalu and Dr. McKee that repetitive subconcussive head trauma absolutely can cause CTE and that every year of playing tackle football adds to the risk.

That is irrefutable at this point.

What we don't know is why some players develop neurological disorders and others don't -- but it isn't a question anymore that the more subconcussive hits a player endures, the more likely it is that they will be diagnosed later with a degenerative neurological disorder.

There is no test currently that can diagnose CTE in a living person as it can only be confirmed via autopsy posthumously.

So, we don't have a definitive way of knowing who does and doesn't have CTE until that individual dies and an autopsy is performed specifically looking for the tau proteins that form in individuals with CTE.

So, the link has been proven and the risk is there -- what we don't yet know is how many tackle football players have CTE?

All linemen? Most linebackers? Most runningbacks? Quarterbacks who take a lot of sacks? Other position players who play for more than a decade? NFL and college players who start tackle football between 5 and 8 years old versus waiting until high school?

While we won't know the prevalence of CTE until a test for living players is developed, we certainly know the risks, and instead of the NFL doing something to mitigate that risk, they have their team doctors lying to Tua and telling him that quarterbacks don't develop CTE, it is more a thing that happens to linemen and runningbacks when Miami's own former quarterback, Morrell, the back up to Griese during Miami's famed undefeated 1972 season literally died with the most advanced form of CTE, Stage IV.

And while Morrell played during an era where quarterbacks were unprotected by the rules, there have been college quarterbacks diagnosed with CTE, so for the team doctor to tell Tua when he was contemplating retirement that he has nothing to worry about because he is a quarterback and CTE isn't seen amongst players in the position he plays is an audacious lie.

With the NFL draft being tonight, I wanted to share a document that I put together of last year's season (2023 to 2024) where I documented in NFL games I watched any hits that seemed to lead to a concussion where the player either wasn't evaluated or passed the protocol too quickly or where the player was temporarily removed from play only to re-enter the game later or where the player finished the game only to report concussion symptoms after the game or in the following days to the team's facility.

I also notated where the announcers explicitly took place in creating false narratives for the viewer and I will include clips and/or images of the hits I am referencing when I have them.

Specifically, the announcers would either gloss over egregious, sometimes helmet to helmet hits, or there were times I saw a player collapse (Amazon Prime Black Friday game) and even having seizures (Cowboys game late season) and we were never provided with an update by the announcers and, in the latter case, the announcers never even mentioned that the Cowboys player was visibly seizing on the field (I tried to find footage of the hit on Youtube, Twitter & Reddit and was unable to).

In this post, what you will see is that the NFL is a machine that is constantly propagandizing both its viewers and players through the announce team, play by play and color commentating, as well as pre-game shows like Game Day Morning (NFL Network) and Sunday Morning Countdown (ESPN) by either minimizing, justifying, glossing over and/or glamorizing the violence on the field.

You will also see teams continuously lying about player injuries, especially concussions, dishonestly claiming after the game that a player had a knee injury when he clearly lowered his helmet to deliver the hit then promptly proceeded to collapse on the field (Amazon Prime Black Friday game) yet Miami stated the player had a "knee injury" after the game.

There are many, many other examples like this which should remind you of Miami lying two seasons ago that Tua had a "back injury" when he clearly had suffered a concussion as he was wobbly (classic ataxia symptoms) and struggled to get up and had to have multiple players assist him just to stand yet he still finished that game against the Buffalo Bills.

2023 to 2024 False NFL Narratives 11/24/2023 - Dolphins vs Jets On October 23rd, 2023, Jevon Holland fell to turf after colliding with fellow Dolphins defender vs Eagles.

He was on the turf for several minutes then evaluated in the lockerroom for a concussion by the UNC (unafilliated neurological consultant) and he cleared the test and was put back in the game.

The next morning (Monday), Coach Josh McDaniels confirmed that Holland had reported concussion symptoms and had been entered into the concussion protocol. He cleared the protocol a week later on November 1st and rejoined the secondary.

Tonight, approximately one month after Holland sustained a concussion against the Eagles, during the inaugural Black Friday game on Amazon Prime on November 24th, late in the 4th quarter, Holland lowered his helmet to deliver a tackle and immediately collapsed to the turf.

Earlier in the game, Holland had had a 99 yard pick 6 touchdown.

The broadcast stepped away to a commercial break directly after the above hit occurred and, when they returned, there was no update on Holland as they displayed a graphic on screen displaying the current AFC playoff picture and returned to the in-game action without providing commentary on Jevon Holland, who we had just seen collapse to the turf after lowering his helmet and delivering a hit just prior to the break.

The game concluded, and while Al Michaels & Kirk Hebstreit commented on Hollands incredible 99 yard pick 6, they never provided an update on how Holland was doing, if he had been evaluated for a concussion or if he had been ruled out of the game with a concussion.

In other words, the announce team acted like Holland had never collapsed to the field after lowering his helmet to deliver a hit.

As the game concluded, Al mentioned that the sideline reporter would be interviewing Jevon Holland about his 99 yard pick 6.

Holland was lucid, clear eyed and seemed 100% in control of his faculties.

There was no mention of him lowering his helmet earlier to deliver the tackle that left him collapsed and lying motionless on the turf.

Miami Dolphins claimed after the game that Jevon Holland had injured his knee, but during the broadcast of the game, a slow motion replay clearly showed that Holland lowered his helmet to deliver a tackle then he collapsed to the turf afterwards.

This is eerily similar to when Tua Tugavoila, Miami Dolphins QB, fell to the turf after a hard hit vs Buffalo Bills on a Sunday afternoon game two seasons ago, and had difficulty getting up, was visibly wobbly, stumbled, and had to be assisted up by several Dolphins players.

It was reported by Miami during the game at halftime that Tua had suffered a "back injury" and that he had experienced "back spasms" that made it difficult for him to walk when very clearly Tua had displayed concussion symptoms after being hit which included ataxia, a loss of motor control/instability.

Despite how obvious this was during the broadcast, Tua was never evaluated for a concussion and Miami Coach McDaniels defended the lack of even evaluating Tua for a concussion in the press conference after the game.

Four days later, Tua and the Dolphins faced the Bengals on Thursday Night Football at Paycor Stadium.

Tua sustained another very hard hit and slammed his helmet against the turf and immediately went into a fencing response.

He was put on a board and immediately ruled out of the game and taken to a local hospital where he was diagnosed with a concussion.

The Amazon Prime broadcast did mention that the head impact Tua clearly appeared to sustain on four days prior on Sundays game against the Bills which he then went unevaluated for and played through and there was additional speculation whether both head impacts occuring in four days could have led to Tuas fencing response with the hit he sustained during that current nights game against the Bengals.

After sustaining his second concussion in four days against the Bengals on Thursday Night Football and exhibiting a fencing response, a few weeks later, Tua received another very hard hit and he appeared to be concussed but he was unbelievably never evaluated.

Tuas QBR prior to the hit was over 100, his QBR after the hit was under 60.

Tua admitted after the game that he couldnt remember any of the plays he had just called during the game.

Despite all this, Tua was never evaluated for a concussion or ruled out of the game despite suffering a serious concussion a few weeks earlier vs the Bengals that led to a fencing response and him being evaluated at a hospital only four days after sustaining a hard hit Sunday vs the Bills which resulting in Tua stumbling and having to be helped to his feet by several fellow Dolphins for which he was never evaulated for nor removed from the game.

Still no concussion evaluation during the game although Tua admitted after the game he couldnt remember any of the plays he had just called during the game and his QBR in the game was over 100 prior to the hit and under 60 after the hit. And he had already suffered two concussions in four days just a few weeks prior to this game.

Still no concussion evaluation.

The next day, on Good Morning Football on the NFL Network, the hosts announced that Tua had reported concussion symptoms that morning when he reported into the team facility.

Tua was diagnosed with a concussion, placed on Injured Reserve, and ruled out for the rest of the season.

Even with all of this occurring to Miamis quarterback just last season, even with Jevon Holland falling to the turf after colliding with a fellow Dolphin on October 23rd vs the Eagles and lying on the turf for several minutes motionless and even after Holland was evaluated for a concussion in the lockerroom then allowed to return to play in that same game, even after Holland reported concussion symptoms the very next morning to Miamis training staff (just like Tua did last season) and they ruled him out with a concussion for a week, even after they cleared Holland on November 1st and Holland returned to play, even when Holland lowered his head approximately a month after sustaining the concussion against the Eagles on Amazon Prime's Black Friday game to deliver a tackle which once again left him motionless on the turf, Holland was still not evaluated for a concussion and he was instead incorrectly diagnosed after the game with a "knee" injury.

This is a systemic problem with the Miami Dolphins, their head coach Josh McDaniels, their training staff, the unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants (UNC) and independent spotters -- they have all failed.

Did the NFLPA, the players union, step in on Holland's behalf and intercede as they did with Tua the season prior which led to the "Tua rule" and ataxia being added to the list of "no-go" symptoms in the NFL's concussion protocol that if exhibited automatically removes a player from the game? You know the answer to that because unless you are a Dolphins fan, you have no idea who Holland is.

Miami is reckless with their players health and we have seen this play out multiple times now in back to back seasons.

Will the NFL do anything?

Will the NFLs top medical director say anything? Last season, the NFLs top medical director did admit that Tua "did not look like" he sustained a back injury.

Okay -- thats it?

No fines, suspensions, warnings or loss of draft picks for Miami's head coach and their trainers?

The UNC that cleared Tua last season and cleared Holland in October -- why havent they been fired?

The independent spotters that missed Tuas concussion last season and Hollands concussion last month should be fired.

Who protects these men from themselves AND their coaches, trainers, independent spotters, unaffiliated neurotrauma consultants, Roger Goodell, the NFL machine and the purposely oblivious fans and often neutered and ineffective NFL Players Association?

11/30/23 - Dallas vs Seattle On November 30, 2023, Dallas played Seattle on Amazon Prime Thursday Night Football.

During the third quarter, Tony Ferguson (#87, Tight End) caught a pass from Dak Prescott on the 5 yard line and Quandre Diggs (#6, Safety) hit him helmet to helmet.

It was an egregrious hit that Al Michaels commented on the broadcast.

However, there was no flag.

This is extraordinary given that Seattle & Dallas were the two most penalized teams as of that current season in the NFL.

Carissa Thompson even said during halftime that the laundry was flying like crazy.

Additionally, Bobby Wagner (#54, Linebacker) was called for pass interference for defending a pass to Tony Pollard that was nowhere even close to DPI.

Literally, even the Amazon Prime broadcast stated there was nothing there and it wasnt pass interference.

So, an egregious gratuitious helmet to helmet hit -- let 'em play!

But for the crime of playing defense, Wagner gets hit with DPI.

One of those plays -- helmet to helmet hits -- causes concussions and permanent brain damage and was supposed to be legislated out of the sport.

Pass interference doesnt cause the players' jelly and egg yolk-like unprotected brains to move around violently and rupture against the inside of their sharp and bony skulls.

Yet pass interference is what gets the yellow flag and what gets penalized.

Permanent irreversible and preventable brain damage is nbd.

11/9/23 - Panthers vs Bears Hayden Hurst (TE, Carolina Panthers) suffered an extremely hard yet legal hit from Jaquan Brisker vs the Bears on 11/9/23 that caused Post Traumatic Amnesia.

Hayden Hurst's father tweeted the following on 12/6/23: "@haydenrhurst has been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Amnesia by an independent neurologist as a result of the hit he took in Chicago November 9. Slow recovery, don’t know when he’ll be back. Prayers appreciated!"

Per the above linked video, the hit was hard but perfectly legal. There is no way to legislate hits like this out of the game without removing tackling.

Post Traumatic Amnesia has happened in an NFL game before, even if it wasn't diagnosed as such at the time.

Troy Aikman still to this day does not remember winning an NFC Championship Game for the Cowboys in the mid 90s.

He was concussed so hard that when he arrived at the hospital after the game, he asked if the Cowboys had won the game.

Aikman says to this day, he watches the game back, but he doesnt remember himself playing in it while literally watching himself play.

Joe Burrow told Colin Cowherd on The Volume podcast during the 2022 to 2023 season that there are entire quarters and halves in college games he played that he doesnt remember due to extremely hard hits that happened during the course of those games.

Burrow claimed that he was strictly talking about his LSU days and that this hadn't happened to him in the NFL.

Cowherd replied that he wasnt surprised and that Drew Bledsoe and Trent Dilfer had personally told him in the past there were entire games they couldnt remember due to how hard they had been hit.

Cowherd said it may be a part of the game fans dont typically know about but he agreed with Burrow that it was extremely common.

Is this level of violence acceptable?

Hurst now has anterograde (post traumatic) amnesia not from a car accident or an explosion in a war or a physical assault but from the sport of football itself.

Unbelievably, the Panthers have confirmed that Hurst is already back at practice as of 12/6/23 and Hurst advised that, far from the hit being career ending as many observers and journalists rightfully wondered, that he would be "back in a week or two" but not before confirming he still has 4 hours of memory from the game when he was hit (11/9/23) that he doesnt recall at all -- aka he is still suffering from the effects of anterograde (post traumatic) amnesia.

I realize some people never regain their memories of the lost time -- but should he already be jumping back in with the live bullets less than a month later in padded practice?

It hasnt even been a month and hes already back at practice and Hurst says he may play next week!

That is totally reckless.

It unbelievably gets worse -- Hurst was not removed from the game after receiving the hit from Brisker that later caused the anterograde (post-traumatic) amnesia and returned to play the rest of the game on 11/9/23.

Per the Panthers, Hurst didnt enter the concussion protocol until the next day after the game (11/10/23).

So, how many more hits did an already concussed Hurst suffer when he returned to play after the Brisker hit?

Could there have been a second concussion?

Once you are concussed, it takes much less head impact to sustain a second concussion.

When Hurst reported concussion symptoms the next day at the team's training facility and the Panthers entered him into the concussion protocol, is it possible that unbeknownst to himself and the training staff, that he could have been reporting symptoms for two concussions?

Since Hurst was irresponsibly allowed to return to the game and continue playing after the Brisker hit, we will never know.

From ESPN.com on 12/7/23: Hurst entered the protocol during the Thursday night game after taking a hit that caused his head to hit the ground. He re-entered the game and wasn't placed into the protocol until the next day.

He later was told by the independent neurologist that he was suffering from post-traumatic amnesia.

"That's what I was told by the neurologist but sounds way worse," Hayden said.

Post-traumatic amnesia, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is amnesia that develops after an injury. It can involve multiple forms of amnesia. It can invoke confusion and frustration in those impacted because they have difficulty remembering where they are, how they got there or any new information since the injury.

"I'm doing better each day," Hurst wrote ESPN on Thursday in a text message. "It's not going to end my career, just being cautious as I come back. Should be another week or two."

"I appreciate everyone reaching out & checking on me. I suffered a pretty nasty concussion against the Bears a few weeks ago & don't remember up to 4 hours after the game. Scary situation but the Panthers have been incredible walking me through this process," he wrote on X.

He added in a follow-up post: "While it was scary, it is NOT career ending. I'm starting my return to play this week, so fingers crossed I make it back for the last few weeks! God Bless & Keep Pounding !!!!"

Keep pounding???

12/11/23 - Texans vs Jets On 12/11/23, CJ Stroud (QB - Texans - Offensive Rookie of the Year) slammed the back of his head against the turf at MetLife Stadium and was entered into the concussion protocol and was removed from the game.

It is well documented at this point that 1/4 of all concussions occur from the players heads slamming against the turf - 1/4!

25% of all concussions in football, permanent brain damage, are caused by the players heads slamming against the turf!

Replace all turf in all NFL stadiums with grass!

Soccer players have refused to play on turf in the World Cup so they are switching the turf out for grass then literally switching it right back to turf for NFL players -- how wrong is that?!

The owners have the money and, as has been proven, for the World Cup they can and will remove the turf and replace it with real grass.

They just dont give a damn about players in their own league!

The NFL Players Association has tried to get turf replaced with grass in their CBAs to no avail.

On top of the unnecessary permanent brain damage, it has also been proven that 36% more injuries happen on turf vs grass.

Cleats get caught. Players get caught.

They slip and slide.

Tendons and ligaments tear.

And the NFL owners dont give a damn.

So, the injuries and permanent brain damage continue.

Additionally, the Texans coach was asked post-game if CJ Stroud would be playing next Sunday.

He had just been concussed that same night, removed from the game & entered into the concussion protocol and the coach was already being asked if Stroud would be playing in exactly one week.

Its disgusting, infuriating & fucking terrifying that this decision is left to individual team trainers, coaches & UNC (independent neurotrauma consultants).

NFL has NO mandatory time off after a concussion -- the only professional American sport that doesnt have a mandatory sit out time period for a concussion like the NBA, MLB, MLS, NHL, UFC & boxing all do -- all you have to do is "clear the protocol" and you can be back at a padded practice a few days later Wednesday then playing in a game Sunday.

For that to be happening with everything we know about CTE is terrifying, infuriating, disgusting, inhumane, fucking reckless, disingenuous and a fucking slap in the face to every player who has died from CTE, who has committed suicide, who has harmed themselves, their families, their friends, their neighbors & strangers.

Week 11 - 12/4/23 On 12/4/23, a week  prior to the hit that caused the concussion on 12/11/23, CJ Stroud suffered a hard hit against the Denver Broncos.

Two concussions in one week but this one was undiagnosed yet clear as day from watching the broadcast.

He needed help from teammates to get back to his feet and he appeared wobbly afterwards.

Stroud wasnt checked for a concussion and played out the duration of the game.

During another play against the Broncos in the same game on 12/4/23, Stroud briefly rolled his eyes to the back of his head, closed them for a few seconds then appeared unsteady once he stood back up.

Although none of the Texans trainers or independent spotters reacted to this, one of the refs motioned a Texans trainer over to check on Stroud.

The trainer checked Stroud on the sideline then he was immediately put back in the game.

The following Sunday (12/11/23) vs the Jets, Stroud suffered an extremely hard late hit from Quinnen Williams. The back of his head slammed against the MetLife turf and he laid on the field for several seconds before being ruled out with a concussion.

Week 13 is coming up this weekend and Houston has a chance to make the playoffs.

Although Stroud was entered into the NFLs concussion protocol Sunday (12/11/23), it appeared given Stroud seemingly briefly losing consciousness, appearing wobbly and needing two teammates to help him to his feet the previous week against the Broncos on 12/4/23, that Stroud suffered concussions back to back two weeks in a row -- the one against the Jets on 12/11/23 was diagnosed and the one against the Broncos on 12/4/23 wasnt.

Stroud was also in MVP discussions leading up to Sundays (12/11/23) game vs the Jets and is on pace to potentially break some rookie records.

So, there was pressure for the Texans coach to start Stroud and not Mills or Keenum that Sunday against the Titans.

Thankfully, when asked if the Texans will play Stroud Sunday, the head coach said he is going to put Strouds health and career longevity above any "win now" demands.

However, many Texans fans disagreed with this and have stated online if Stroud clears the protocol, since the Texans havent ruled him out of Sundays game, if hes medically cleared then he should be out there as he obviously gives the Texans the best chance to win on Sunday and keeps their playoff hopes alive.

Here lies one of the existential dilemmas facing the NFL: why is this decision left up to the coaches?

Because the NFL is the only professional sport in America -- out of the NBA, MLB, MLS, NHL, UFC & professional boxing -- that doesnt mandate a specific time off period once an athlete sustains a concussion.

Literally, Stroud could have done a full padded practice three days later that Wednesday if his coach wasnt looking out for his well-being and cared more about keeping Houstons playoff chances alive then whether Stroud will be able to remember his own name in 25 years.

Stroud has been concussed two weeks in a row -- against Denver last Sunday (12/4/23) and this past Sunday against the Jets (12/11/23).

What would have happened if the Texans HC felt differently and Stroud played Sunday?

What if he lost consciousness again and sustained a third concussion in three weeks?

What if he died on the field from Second Impact Syndrome vs the Titans on Sunday and, unlike Damar Hamlin, what if he didnt come back?

Thats where tackle football is headed.

Flag football has been added to the 2028 Olympics.

NCAA has added flag football as a collegiate sport eligible for scholarships.

The Pro Bowl this season and last were flag with no tackling.

There is a sea change coming as the CTE test in living players will be available in 3 years max per Dr. Ann McKee, the famed CTE researcher at Boston University.

That CTE test, once available, is going to confirm CTE in almost all current NFL and many college and high school linemen, most linebackers and running backs, many tight ends and some quarterbacks, wide receivers and defensive backs.

This is all coming.

Its why the Pro Bowl game is now flag football.

If I know this, the NFL knows this.

Its why you keep seeing flag football commercials with female players with the NFL's biggest stars like George Kittle and Tua Tugavailoa.

The NFL knows its where the sport is going in 10 to 15 years so theyre gearing up for it now.

CTE test in living athletes will eliminate the NFL's feeder systems (high school & Pop Warner) because the lower level leagues will not be able to be insured once its revealed that the vast majority of linemen, linebackers as well as a sizable amount of running backs as well as some tight ends, quarterbacks, wide receivers and defensive backs who are currently playing have CTE.

CTE has been found in non-professional tackle football players at the high school level as young as 17.

The NFL knows tackle football is going away and will be replaced by flag.

So then why not implement some changes now before we get served a live death on Monday Night Football along with our Buffalo Wild Wings?

Eliminate kickoff and place the ball at the 35 yard line.

66% of all injuries occur during kickoff.

Eliminate QB sneaks and onside kicks.

Institute weight limits to get rid of lopsided matchups of 100+ pounds (tight ends vs linemen, etc.).

Replace artificial turf with grass as turf causes 25% of all concussions and 36% more injuries.

But the NFL wont do any of the above.

Just like CJ Stroud potentially getting concussed again had the Texans HC played him and possibly dying against the Titans, the NFL just doesnt care.

12/17/23 - Browns vs Bears During Week 15, on 12/17/23, the Browns played the Bears. Towards the end of the fourth quarter, Za'darius Smith (Browns, DE) accidentally collided helmet to helmet with fellow Browns defender Myles Garrett (Browns, DE).

It was an extremely hard hit and Smith laid on the turf motionless for several seconds afterwards then the broadcast cut away for an injury timeout.

When the broadcast resumed, we were informed by the announce team that Smith was in the blue medical tent.

This was towards the end of the game so no additional updates on Smith were provided.

I googled Smith the following day (Monday - 12/18/23) and here is the first link I saw: "Cleveland Browns defensive end Za’Darius Smith exited the win in the final moments against the Chicago Bears. Smith was injured when he collided with Myles Garrett on a stunt in the game’s closing seconds. Smith was blindsided and stayed on the field for quite a while before being moved to the medical tent. His injury wasn’t disclosed in the immediate aftermath of the game. The Browns cannot afford to lose Za’Darius Smith for multiple games. The team has lost over 15 players to injured reserve."

The Cleveland Browns wont tell you but I will -- the incredibly hard accidental hit to the head that Smith suffered when he collided with Garrett and collapsed motionlessly to the turf for several sustained moments before being taken to the blue medical tent was 100% a concussion.

The reason the Browns "didnt disclose" Smiths injury in the "immediate aftermath of the game" is because they know he was concussed but they have already lost 15 players to injured reserve, its December football and a very tight race in the AFC North heading into the end of the season so they dont want to enter Smith, their best rusher behind Garrett, into the concussion protocol.

Even though he should have been. Even though he was concussed.

12/17/23 - Cowboys vs Bills During Week 15 (12/17/23), the Cowboys played the Bills on Sunday Night Football.

Donovan Wilson (#6, Cowboys) is a safety for the Dallas Cowboys.

Wilson was injured during a play and the broadcast briefly showed him convulsing on the field right before a commercial break but commentary didnt say anything.

Wilson was removed from play and evaluated for a concussion then he returned to the game late in the second quarter.

I tried to find footage of Wilsons injury and subsequent convulsions on the turf but I could not find footage of Wilson going down and momentarily convulsing on the field on twitter, youtube or reddit.

At the end of the day, convulsing on the turf after a hard hit and then being evaluated for a concussion should be enough to get you ruled out of the game.

Instead, Wilson was evaluated for a concussion -- after convulsing on the turf for several sustained moments -- then returned to the game.

12/21/2023 - Rams vs Saints On Amazon Prime Thursday Night Football, the Rams faced the Saints on December 21, 2023.

After a hard tackle, the running back for the Rams, Kyren Williams' (#23), helmet popped off and a player landed very hard on him with his full weight.

Williams was slow to get up.

Williams was then shown entering the blue medical tent and the broadcast mentioned he was being checked out.

Kyren then almost immediately exited the tent and reentered the game.

There was no additional commentary regarding Williams' helmet popping off after the hard tackle, the player landing on him after, him being slow to get up, him being checked out in the blue medical tent then him immediately exiting the tent and then reentering the game.

Was Williams checked for a concussion in the blue medical tent?

Did Williams clear the concussion protocol that quickly?

It was a huge career defining game for Williams, after he had made several mistakes in the previous weeks game, as he scored a touchdown and had several big runs.

Williams was interviewed on the sidelines after the game as one of the key reasons for the Rams victory.

What hit? What blue medical tent? What concussion?

12/17/23 - Jaguars vs Ravens "Pederson said Lawrence suffered the concussion on a scramble up the middle with five minutes remaining in the Jaguars' 23-7 loss to Baltimore last Sunday (12/17/23).

Lawrence did not leave the game but completed only one of his seven pass attempts after that play."

This is proof that Lawrence was concussed!

Just like with Tua the season prior when he suffered his third concussion that season and, during the game, his QBR went from 100 to 60 yet he was never even evaluated for a concussion.

Lawrence didnt complete 6 out of 7 passes after the hit.

He was never checked for a concussion.

He never was checked for a concussion in the blue medical tent or on the sidelines.

Per Pederson, Lawrence self-reported symptoms after the game and it was immediately apparent that the concussion was sustained on the scramble up the middle.

Pederson said Lawrence self-reported symptoms after the game and was placed in the concussion protocol.

Lawrence did not practice that Wednesday or Thursday.

Lawrence cleared concussion protocol the following week exactly seven days after suffering his concussion and was cleared to play against the Buccaneers on 12/24/23.

12/31/23 - Bengals vs Chiefs "Pacheco was forced out of the game on Christmas Day due to the accidental blow he took to the head from a teammate as his helmet was knocked off and fell backward. The impact from the defender caused a nasty collision as the independent doctor ushered Pacheco off the field for further examination and was later ruled out for the rest of the day."

Pacheco cleared concussion protocol and played on New Years Eve against the Bengals on 12/31/23 than six days after the concussion he suffered on Christmas Day -- less than a week!

Pacheco cleared concussion protocol in six days!

That is ridiculous and absurd.

Unfortunately, the NFL's concussion protocol is five stages and each stage can be cleared in just one day.

So, technically, a player can actually clear concussion protocol in just five days.

That is a totally reckless, dangerous and insane concussion protocol!

There is no literal way that anyone can clear concussion protocol in less than a week and be recovered enough to play a violent and collision-filled sport like football with guaranteed head impacts, hits to the head, hard tackles and required blocking and tackling on every play that result in subconcussive head impacts.

1/7/24 - Saints vs Falcons During Week 18, on Sunday afternoon (1/7/24), the Saints were playing the Falcons in the last week of the regular season -- win or go home for both teams so there was a lot on the line.

Algiers (Falcons, Tight End) collided with Avante Taylor (Saints, Safety, #1) helmet to helmet.

Taylor dropped to the turf without body control and lay still for several moments.

Noone called timeout to check on him and the next play was about to start.

The independent spotter signalled for a timeout and pulled Taylor to check him in the blue medical tent.

Despite the high stakes in the game for both teams and the high adrenaline inherent in the "win and youre in" nature of football, the system worked as designed for once when the Saints' coach and trainers did not call for an injury timeout but the independent spotter did the right thing and called for a timeout. Thats why the spotters are there and why they are independent and unaffiliated from the team.

Later on in the same game (Week 18 - Saints vs Falcons, 1/7/24), Tyrann Matthieu (Saints, Safety) lowered his shoulder for a very hard hit against Drake London (Falcons, #5, WR).

This was a legal hit as Matthieu delivered it textbook style with a lowered shoulder but it was an extremely hard hit.

London was very shaken up after the hit.

London was never checked on the sidelines or in the blue medical tent but he most definitely should have been evaluated for a concussion.

The independent spotter who earlier in the same exact game did such an exemplary job signalling to the ref and calling timeout to check on Taylor even though his own teams coach and trainer neglected to do so was nowhere to be found to do the same for London who also needed to be evaluated for a head injury.

The hit by Matthieu to London occurred on 4th down so perhaps the thinking was, they're coming off the field anyway, he'll be okay once he can catch his breath on the sidelines.

You cant "catch your breath" from a concussion.

2023 NFC Wildcard Playoff Game - Rams vs Lions Matthew Stafford (QB, Rams) was tackled by Aidan Hutchinson (Lions) and then a second defender came in and hit Stafford very hard in the ribs then Stafford hit his head hard after falling to the turf during the 2023 NFC Wildcard Playoff game.

This is the picture that started this post.

Stafford immediately grimaced and was in obvious pain & discomfort.

Stafford was then shown on the sidelines being walked into the blue medical tent.

The broadcast mentioned Stafford looked hurt and Collinsworth added that Stafford had hit his head hard on the turf.

When the broadcast resumed, they replayed Stafford slamming his head against the turf.

It was clear that Stafford was concussed and seemed to exhibit a brief fencing response.

The broadcast showed Stafford walking into the blue medical tent holding his side.

The broadcast then announced that Stafford exited the blue medical tent as Nucua (WR, Rams) entered the tent to be evaluated.

After Nucua exited the medical tent, Tirico announced the UNC (unaffiliated neurotrauma consultant) called a medical timeout to ensure that Nucua (RB, Rams) had been evaluated -- this was the right action by the UNC as Nucua had been shown on the broadcast as slow to get up.

However, Stafford had been shown in a slow motion replay slamming his head very hard against the turf, after which he seemed to briefly exhibit a fencing response and Collinsworth commented during the replay how hard Stafford had hit his head against the turf -- if Collinsworth saw it and we in the audience saw it why didnt any of the UNC or independent spotters see it?

Why didnt the UNC or independent spotters call a medical timeout to ensure that Stafford had been evaluated for a concussion?

Because this was the Sunday Night game of Wildcard Playoff weekend and it was the most Hollywood-esque anticipated storyline -- each QB used to play for the opposing team in the matchup for the first time ever in playoff history -- Stafford played 12 seasons for the Lions, then they traded him to the Rams and the very next season, he won the Super Bowl with the Rams and this was his first time back playing against Detroit -- Goff had played multiple seasons with the Rams, the Rams traded him to the Lions, Goff then took the Lions to the playoffs -- so, stakes were high on both sides and the Lions had not won a playoff game since 1991 and the game was in Detroit. Eminem was there and did the intro for SNF. And exactly none of that meant that Stafford wasnt concussed, didnt briefly exhibit a fencing response and shouldnt have been evaluated for a concussion -- but he wasnt.

1/20/24 - Divisional Round - Niners vs Packers Deebo Samuel (WR, 49ers) suffered an extremely hard hit to the side of his helmet and he was very slow getting up.

There was an injury TO & commercial break.

Once the broadcast returned, Deebo Samuel got checked in the blue medical tent.

Deebo reentered and then left the game several times.

With 9:40 left in the 2nd quarter, Deebo was shown running into the lockerroom.

With 4:09 remaining in the second quarter, Erin Andrews reported that Deebo was questionable to return with a shoulder injury.

Erin also advised that Deebo had previously missed two games earlier in the season due to a shoulder injury.

However, the replay of the hit Deebo suffered clearly showed a helmet to helmet hit against him.

We then saw Deebos shoulder being examined on the sidelines and Erin Andrews advised that he had previously injured his shoulder earlier this season and missed some time.

Deebo was then shown in the lockeroom at halftime without his pads.

When the game resumed after halftime, we were advised that Deebo had undergone some xrays of his shoulder.

We then saw Deebo on the sidelines in a hoodie and Erin Andrews reported that Deebo was still questionable to return to the game.

Deebo did not return to the game.

Chris Rose advised during NFL Gameday Final that Deebo had been checked for a concussion during the game and was cleared before being removed from the game due to a shoulder injury.

Per replay of the hit, however, the head impact Deebo suffered was due to a hard hit to the side of his helmet where he was slow to get up.

This is is the same hit they also claim he hurt his shoulder on and the shoulder injury is why he was officially ruled out of the game.

I think Deebo also had a concussion from the hit by Greenlaw and they covered it up by saying he reinjured his shoulder.

In the same game, Tucker Craft (TE, Packers) was hit extremely hard by Dre Greenlaw (49ers) on the side of his helmet as he blocked for Jordan Love (QB, Packers).

Craft was shown on his knees holding his head and was very slow to get up.

There was an injury TO and the broadcast went to commercials.

Upon returning to the broadcast, Greg Olsen (color commentator) advised that Craft had been slow getting up prior to the commercial break and that he was on the sideline, getting his eye checked out and that he appeared to "just need to take a breath".

Kevin Burkhardt (play by play announcer) then quickly advised that Craft had actually just entered the blue medical tent and he was getting checked out.

1/20/24 - Divisional Round - Bills vs Chiefs Shakir (WR, #10, Bills) suffered an extremely hard hit where he was sandwiched between two defenders then hit very hard.

Tony Romo stated on the broadcast that he could "hear the hit all the way up in the broadcast booth".

Shakir was shown on the turf holding his head.

Romo then advised the broadcast would be stepping away and there was an injury timeout and the broadcast went to commercials. When the broadcast returned, Shakir was shown jogging on the sidelines and Nantz announced that Shakir was jogging into the lockerroom.

Tracy Wolfson then announced that Shakir was being evaluated for a shoulder injury.

It was an extremely hard hit and he was holding his head when he fell to the turf -- not his shoulder.

Shakir most likely had a concussion and, just like Deebo Samuel during the playoffs and Tyler Brate (Bucs, TE) the previous season, they lied and claimed it was a shoulder injury.

Just like Tua's "back injury"  the previous season vs the Bills on Sunday -- before he was concussed a second time four days later against the Bengals on Thursday Night Football -- undiagnosed concussion Thursday vs the Bills where he finished the game --  then a diagnosed concussion four days later against the Bengals where he exhibited a fencing response &  was stretchered off the field, right?

Shakir returned to the game in the 4th quarter with under 5 minutes to go.

In the same game, in the first quarter of Chiefs vs Bills, Mike Edwards (S, #21, Chiefs) took a hard hit and was very slow getting up.

It was then announced on the broadcast that he was evaluated for a concussion and that he was entered into the concussion protocol.

Edwards was then ruled out of the game with a concussion in the 2nd quarter with 8 minutes left. The concussion protocol worked correctly in this instance as Edwards never returned to play and was subsequently ruled out of the game.

However, later in the same game, the concussion protocol failed spectacularly again -- remember, it had already failed earlier in the game when Shakir (WR, Bills) was allowed back into the game with a clear concussion in the 4th quarter with less than 5 minutes to go.

Knox (#88, Bills) taken out of game to be checked. Hard hit, slow getting up.

L'Jarius Sneed (Chiefs) also was "a bit shaken up" on the same play as Knox (#88, Bills) per the broadcast but Sneed stayed in for the next play and he wasnt evaluated.

Tracy Wolfson then advised that Knox was checked in the blue tent for a head impact and she said it "remained to be seen"whether or not he would come back in to the game.

Nantz then interrupted  Wolfson and advised that Knox was already back in the game.

AFC Championship Game - 1/28/24 - Chiefs vs Ravens Mike Edwards (Chiefs, S, #21) slow to get up and walked to the sidelines.

The broadcast stated he had been knocked out of last week's game vs the Bills with a concussion as I notated within this document two pages up -- two concussions in 8 days!

NFC Championship Game - 1/28/24 - 49ers vs Lions Dre Greenlaw (49ers, 2nd Quarter) delivered an extremely hard hit and appeared to injure his shoulder.

Greenlaw struggled to get up from the field.

He limped off and then slumped down on the sidelines and was in significant pain.

He was surrounded by trainers who removed his helmet.

The broadcast mentioned that his shoulder appeared to take the brunt of the hit and that Greenlaw was receiving a lot of attention on the sidelines.

The broadcast then cut away to commercials.

Upon returning from commercials, the broadcast announced that they were concerned about Greenlaw and that Erin Andrews had an update on how he was doing.

Erin advised that Greenlaw suffered a stinger after the tackle on #87.

Andrews further advised that despite suffering a stinger, Greenlaw essentially ran out of the blue medical tent and the broadcast showed a slow mo of Greenlaw running to his teammates on the sidelines.

Andrews further commented that people say that when Greenlaw hits you, he runs right through you, and the broadcast replayed Greenlaws hit on the Lions player (#87). 

The broadcast then showed Greenlaw on the sidelines receiving a shoulder massage from a trainer while another trainer removed his jewelery. 

Greenlaw returned to the game in the same quarter (2nd quarter) with 7:45 remaining. 

After suffering a stinger that caused him to collapse and drop to one knee on the sidelines in agonizing pain, Greenlaw returned to the game within five minutes and was shown delivering hard hits. 

Greenlaw was in the blue medical tent for less than a minute. 

The broadcast then advised that Greenlaw was the 49ers enforcer.

What stinger?

Later on in the same game, Brock Purdy (QB, 49ers) was tackled by 3 Lions defenders. 

Purdy was shown crushed underneath the defender flat on his back on the turf, his helmet partially off as it was an incredibly hard hit. 

The announcer conceded that the Lions "probably got away" with not getting a RTP call and that the crowd had noticed it and reacted to the missed penalty. 

As the broadcast went to commercials, Brock Purdy was shown walking to the sidelines in slow motion with a bloody lip. 

The broadcast stated again that the Lions had gotten away with a missed penalty and Purdy had a "bloody lip and all".

After commercials, the announce booth asked Dean Blandino (rules analyst) if the refs missed a RTP penalty on the last drive.

They replayed the hit against Purdy and Blandino advised that Houston (#41, Lions), lowered his head after Purdy had been tackled to the ground with force. 

Blandino advised he believed that the refs missed the penalty and Houston (#41, Lions) should have been flagged for RTP.

Later on in the same game, McCaffrey (RB, 49ers) had a very physical run where he got within a few yards of the end zone. 

When he was tackled to the ground, he landed hard on his head. 

The broadcast showed him a bit slow to get up. 

The broadcast then mentioned that McCaffrey landed on his head on the last play and that that was probably why he headed to the sidelines because he "needed a break".

Did he need a break or did he have a concussion?

After the 49ers scored a touchdown, their sideline was shown celebrating while the stadium erupted. 

While McCaffreys teammates cheered, he was shown on the sideline with trainers working on his neck as he grimaced in pain. 

The broadcast did not mention this as the stadium and 49ers were still celebrating the touchdown and, instead, advised that the Lions would need to score soon as there were 3 minutes left in the game.

What neck injury? What concussion?

The NFL Draft: Exploited Dreams As is probably clear from the above, I won't be watching the draft tonight. I have previously written articles on my tumblr questioning why I continued to watch the NFL despite all of the violence, dehumanization, head trauma, permanent brain damage, unguaranteed contracts, exploitative players union and commodification of players as products to be consumed.

For the past 13 years, I have watched football every Sunday from 9 am (Gameday Morning) or 10 am (Sunday Morning Countdown), the 1 pm, 4 pm and 8 pm games and Gameday Final -- from 9 am or 10 am to 12:30 am every Sunday; Mondays, pre-game on ESPN, Monday Night Football then ESPN post-game -- 7 pm to 12:30 am and Thursdays pre-game on Amazon, Thursday Night Football then Amazon post game -- 6:30 pm to 12:30 am.

28 hours of football a week, every single week, and me and my husband -- the only reason I ever got into football as I hated it prior to meeting him -- would make a different dip every week which we would then watch all day while we watched all the games. It was definitely our couples routine.

That was 2011 when I started watching football with my husband and slowly became a fan of the physical courage, larger than life personalities, confidence, swag, charisma, courage, physicality, calm under pressure and the general hypnotic and quixotic thrilling allure of the game, the spectacle of it all, the violent chess game that required aggression and strategy all appealed to me.

But I could never get over the helmets crashing, violence, injuries and concussions.

I bought Nate Jackson's book, Slow Getting Up, in 2016 -- he is a former TE for the Denver Broncos -- and that started nearly a decade's worth of research which has involved reading thousands of academic, scholarly and scientific journal articles, books, blogs and studies and conversing with attorneys via email who have been involved in litigation against the NFL.

Despite being a huge Joe Burrow, Bengals and Eagles fan, the amount of research, and the limitless depths and levels to the NFL's deception and depravity have finally served to mostly turn me off from the NFL.

I have previously attended Eagles and Ravens games in person. I have a Joe Burrow t-shirt, orange and black beaded necklace, sunglasses and cat ears as well as Eagles t-shirts and Super Bowl shirts and I attended the Eagles parade live when they won the Super Bowl in 2018.

From all of the above, I have decided to minimize my interactions with the NFL.

Over 85% of players who have applied for payouts under the NFL's $765 million concussion settlement have been denied. That's not okay.

The race norming bias where the NFL assumed that Black players were less intelligent so if they didn't fail their neurological assessments spectularly, they were denied disability benefits. That's not okay.

It's a long list that as you can see from this post kept getting longer and I could no longer put up with the racism, exploitation, lies, denials, gaslighting, subterfuge, underhandedness of the NFL.

The NFL is too similar to Israel - who they staunchly support while they murder 35,000 Palestinian civilians in a genocide yet the NFL would only give a moment of silence to the Israeli civilians who lost their lives -- 4,000 to 35,000.

Do the math that the NFL refuses to do.

The NFL's treatment of Colin Kaepernick.

Goodell's disgusting statements on George Floyd.

The NFL's treatment of players who chose to kneel during the anthem as is their right per the first amendment.

The NFL's racist dog whistles to its mostly aging and white audience regarding Trump, Israel, zionism & Black Lives Matter.

Its a long list that only gets longer.

Their exploitation of Damar Hamlin.

I have decided to go from watching nearly 30 hours of NFL programming a week every week for 4 months to only watching Eagles vs Cowboys, Bengals vs Chiefs, Eagles MNF & SNF games, Bengals SNF & MNF games, the AFC & NCF Championships and the Super Bowl.

I prefer this to zealotry and trying to just cut it all off -- I would rather cut off 90% of my NFL watching then try to go for 100%, fail and then things stay the way they were for the past 13 years.

I have unfollowed the Bengals, Eagles & NFL accounts on all social media and also unsubscribed from their newsletters.

I will not attend any more games at Lincoln Financial Field nor will I attend another parade if the Eagles win another Super Bowl.

I also won't be watching the draft tonight nor tracking who the Bengals or Eagles select.

I can't unsee these young men tonight, full of hope promise dreams and ambitions, twenty to thirty years from now unable to work, talk, remember their playing careers, their wives & childrens names.

I can no longer embrace these young determined men lured by the bright lights and big money of the NFL being exploited for their courage, physicality, talents, intelligence, strength & heroic feats on the field.

[the-technicolor-whiscash]

me reading your posts about astronaut history (i literally do not know anything at all but am drawn in by your thoughts and read all the posts all the way through)

Thank you lmao I know too much about the early astronauts and have no one to subject to my knowledge so I bring it here. I cannot deny i definitely have a little bit of a parasocial thing going on there but unlike many who blindly deify these men I at least acknowledge that many of them were extremely flawed (which speaks to why so many of them got divorced because they were workaholics riding death machines for a living) and while i greatly enjoy learning about them and poking fun at them, I will be the first to admit that some of them should not be admired for anything other than the work they did. Alan Shepard was a total dog who cheated on his wife obsessively (and he was also kind of a bitch if you didn't play his game right), Buzz Aldrin's a notorious shithead who was a raging alcoholic and even the other astronauts couldnt stand being around him, Jim Irwin was an abusive husband before having a religious experience on the moon and becoming an evangelical, and several of them went on to become republican politicians. These guys were a product of their time and their upbringing. Nearly all of them were former military test pilots. None of them were good at expressing human emotions except for maybe Alan Bean (whose artistic spirit caused him issues in the astronaut office but resulted in some of the most beautiful space artwork) because they effectively had the emotions beat out of them by the nature of being a test pilot and watching up to 50% of your coworkers get turned into ground beef.

The early astronauts were an interesting crowd in a totally unique time in human history. That's why I like learning about them, learning about their dynamics, their personalities. Do I think I'd be capable of being friends with many of them? Absolutely not. Truth be told I get on pretty well with former military folks but what I can't stand is an ego. These sons of bitches had egoes that stretched up to the moon and back. And part of the issue is that the astronaut selection process back then was looking for the all-american boy (preferably with a degree in engineering) who just so happened to have a personality capable of being stapled into a capsule with as many as two other dudes for a week or two with no private toilet. I am extremely glad that we've moved beyond that in our astronaut criteria and have gone on to hire people who can express human emotions. And also gay people shoutout to Sally Ride for being the first known queer person to fly in space (even though she wasn't out at the time she flew). We may not have gotten the first man in space but we did beat the Russians on gay people in space so I'd consider that a space race victory.

Oh also don't take my word as gospel here much of my knowledge comes from firsthand sources which have a certain degree of bias from whichever astronaut has chosen to write a memoir to capitalize off of the last successful thing he did in his life because he figured it could net him a little cash (Buzz has done this many times, Fred Haise has done it most recently albeit with a fair bit of success because at least his book is pretty funny) and every single one of these guys has a different description of events depending on the angle he's coming at it from so while I try to read as many different perspectives as I can, outside of video/audio footage, official documentation, and mission transcripts you are never going to get 100% of the story from just a personal account. That's part of why i read the transcripts I didn't even know about the piss tube problems on Apollo 7 because as far as I can remember Wally didn't even mention it in his memoir but it takes a prime seat in the transcripts. But that's also a point of view you should take to all historical research there is never just one perspective and each perspective outside of the genuine technical facts has biases and opinions one way or another.

Anyway this got long but I'm glad you enjoy my carefully curated astrodrama

[nanjokei]

my wrist sure cramped up at a hold note x

in general the maps are easy. im able to clear songs ive never heard before on normal with no trouble. maybe for a gamer they want more challenge, but for me, who sucks at games, i like this ^_^

though honestly it just feels good to play a rhythm game thats responsive after so long. this isnt me talking shit but on both devices ive tried proseka on no matter how many times i recalibrated it always had some fucky delay (i bounced off of prsk for a lot of other reasons though). i think bandori also had a similar issue.

aaside worked fine so i dont think it was my phone.

but yeah, prerelease i was kind of mad the gameplay and UI seemed like a bandori->proseka->prismpro game of telephone, but tbh, i feel like it aped all the good stuff from proseka (mostly. i hate the monthly pass costumes/accessories so much) and improved on it. and it launched feeling like a complete game. i swear im not talking out of some kind of malice or bias but when prsk dropped it was NOT complete at all, it felt like a beta.

prismpro definitely has its own unique identity that is very well defined i'm not saying it is bandori or proseka AT ALL and the comparisons i make are just kind of objective comparisons that are inevitable. bc unfortunately most new idol rhythm mobage are bandori these days (sanrio ill never forgive you for making sb69 into a half assed bandori clone). including proseka. and proseka's by far the trendiest and most successful (ig aside from a select few) and history is written by the victors so. of course others will look to it.

in conclusion: can we bring old sb69 back. im so sick. i still mourn her every day. that game was special

[farshootingstar]

The silliest boy is finally done and we finally get a cover of a guy without creepy eyes going on. I thought I would get some sleep before finishing this cover and stuff, but my body said no and Bear (my cat) is judging me hard over it.

Here's Kadsey's playlist for all the Main Squeezies! I'm not going to lie, this particular playlist is a weird one and I won't blame anyone for questioning my tastes here. I did what I could and certain biases are showing. You'll definitely notice I feel a stronger need to explain myself on this playlist, so buckle in for the long haul if you want to understand these weird choices I've made.

When I saw dubstep was listed as a favorite genre of Kadsey's (complete with a pic of Skrillex), I knew without question what the first song would be. It just had to be Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites by Skrillex.

The second song, the one that tends to be more about character vibes, sort of is and isn't when it comes to Kadsey. I gave him the song Spoiled little brat by underscores, since I liked the hyperpop vibe of it and that it definitely has references to e-celeb culture. Also, I can't help clowning on Kadsey just a little bit because of certain events in REBOOT (well, one specific one, but no spoilers in this section). Incredibly, I think this is the first song in one of the playlists to mention taking a picture. Took long enough! :p

Spoiler cut below, as usual.

The next couple of songs are some bangers to dance to. Also, the starting example of my Jamiroquai bias, since I think Kadsey would also like some acid jazz on occasion. Yeah, though: Canned Heat, Eat Sleep Dance, and Move Your Feet are all a ton of fun. I particularly have fond memories of Move Your Feet as a song I would sometimes play on Dance Dance Revolution.

One of the distinctly odd ones is next and I absolutely feel like I need to justify myself on why I put the song Skiptracing by Mild High Club in here. It's very chill, so I think it makes a good breather in general, but also I couldn't help thinking of this song for Kadsey chilling with Ashton. Don't know why I get that mental image, but I feel like this song could fit for Kadsey realizing he loves the guy. Is that kind of weird? I mentally debated over this inclusion for a while, but ultimately put it in the playlist. I can just sort of imagine they were hanging out, generally vibing, and Kadsey had a spark of realization. Also, it's interesting that the song is called Skiptracing when there's no actual mention of skiptracing to be had (skiptracing is basically tracking down someone's whereabouts, particularly when it's someone on the run, if I recall right). I guess I should trust my instincts, since I picked up on the crush in the first game but brushed it off by thinking that was stupidly presumptuous. Clearly, I was Boo-Boo the Fool all along. The next song, Mine by Slayyyter, kind of piggybacks off of that crush aspect I mentioned.

Since I kind of think the crush stuff in general probably started before the whole "discovering the code" business, I put in Virtual Insanity next to somewhat cover that event. I don't think Kadsey would feel so condemning towards the whole thing- since he was always more moderate with messing with the code for pranks and so just saw it as a little fun- but things do start going downhill sometime after that. It doesn't seem to right away, though, so I tossed in Bangarang next for some extra fun.

Digital Love and Meet Her at the Loveparade are the selections kind of around where things start going wrong and the player makes an entrance. I feel like Digital Love can be especially apt for Kadsey's awkward position in the weird love polygon going on, since he has an unrequited crush on Ashton, Ashino has an unrequited crush on Kadsey, and how the player feels can be a bit of a mystery (personally, I'm cool with being Main Squeezie Numero Dos). On a side note, I recommend checking out Interstella 5555 (an anime movie/music video that was made for Daft Punk's Discovery album, which Digital Love is from). And hey, Meet Her at the Loveparade is our second Radio Edit version song and instrumental track in the playlists, two things that both showed up in Ashton's playlist previously. Does it mean anything? No, but it's kind of fun to note.

I'll admit, when I saw there was a Skrillex Remix of the song SICKO MODE, I was just like "YES" and slapped it in. I just think it's neat. The energy kind of fits in around the time Ashton starts murking everyone and leads us into a strange little choice...

Yes, I did put in an EDM cover of Total Eclipse of the Heart in this playlist. Consider it my own little jape.

The next one has a title and artist name that I can't type at all. I mean, just look at the playlist. That's a nightmare to puzzle out. Anyway, it's an atmospheric song I chose for when Kadsey's stuck out in the void that is the recycle bin after Ashton got the drop on him in the first game. Poor guy had a really bad time.

Luckily, he at least gets back out of that particular situation soon enough, leading us to World's end Rhapsody and Hysterical Us. Little side trivia, but I decided to try looking up what lyrics were in World's end Rhapsody and what I found didn't look like what I was hearing, so I carefully listened to it for a while and I think it changes part of the way through and people tend not to notice because of how repetitive it is. It sounds like it starts as "Check it out, baby. You're gonna find, that I love you." and changes after the instrumental break to "Oh, baby. (Don't tease me.) Check it out, baby. You don't know why, I love you." and then back again. I found that interesting and I'll fully admit I put this song in because I really miss Nujabes (gone too soon). I feel like Hysterical Us is a bit more straightforward in terms of being "Wow, that was terrible and we're all kind of traumatized, huh?"

D.A.N.C.E. is when we start getting into more stuff to dance to, though I can never shake the feeling that this song sounds a bit desperate. Hence it being in the general area it is.

Give Me Back My Man- Party Mix is another one I knew I'd have to include. I always had a feeling I'd stick in a B-52's song somewhere, though I could totally imagine someone predicting something like Love Shack, Rock Lobster, or maybe something like Your Own Private Idaho. Nope, though. When I saw there was a Party Mix of a song as tragic as Give Me Back My Man, I knew it would be the pick. Also, I like the slightly more aggressive guitar in this version. Fortunately, Kadsey's not stuck with futile efforts in the search of someone lost and very likely dead (the song heavily hints that the man in question is at the bottom of the sea), so there's more coming.

Next up is Space Cowboy both because I wanted something chill but fun and also because it's totally a weed anthem. I headcanon that Kadsey occasionally tries a little and I will hear nothing to the contrary. Skiptracing also had one little mention of marijuana in it. I guess we can also take the whole song being about the return of the space cowboy to also potentially reference getting Ashton back, especially with the line "Everything is good, oh, and green. Say, I'm red again." Come on, it may be a weed reference, but it also fits.

And, if we need something more straightforward, then there's About Damn Time. I really wanted a happy song in there about getting through some shit and this felt right. We could all use some more Lizzo positivity, please and thanks.

Last of my Jamiroquai bias shows up with the song Seven Sunny Days in June, the other song regarding Kadsey's crush. They've been friends too long for it to be a thing, but it is some closure. Also, I just realized that so far, Kadsey has the most songs with references to drinking. That's kind of funny since, in an answer to a fan question on everyone's favorite alcoholic drinks, it's pointed out that Kadsey has been banned from drinking by the entire group.

Next up is Sandstorm and DARE, both as a fun little treat. Besides, if you're going to have EDM in a playlist, then Sandstorm is one of the most obvious picks to go for. I am not immune to the practical meme that is Darude Sandstorm.

Interestingly enough, Skiptracing has a very short and even softer cover by Luna Li called skiptracing lullaby and I decided to stick that in at the end as a fun reprise. Never really had the opportunity to put in some form of reprise in the playlists. So far, what happens at the end of REBOOT is still unknown, but I really hope things turn alright for Kadsey. That dude's been through a lot.

Next up will be Vincent and, surprisingly, I have even more to say on that one since several songs are classical pieces.

[dojae-huh]

I have mixed feelings about the hard versions of Fact Check album. The presentation doesn't help to persuade to buy, really.

The order the versions were uploaded on X was confusing. The Storage version that is meant to be the main one was shown last.

Storage ver. seems to be silver. If it will have embedded cover, then it should look good. On the other hand, a flat cover surface would look cheap and boring. Fingers crossed. The photoalbum is yet another compilation of pictures with no effort for layout design. The only saving grace is neos' clothes and make up. The designer picked the worst spreadsheet for the ad, heh. I hope the final print is not as dark as it seems. No play on money, art objects, no peculiar inclusions... another distilled "pretty boys" album. *sobs in Limitless*

Exhibit ver. Making a separate package solely with pocas and posters is a good idea. Fans can buy their bias without needing to throw out a photoalbum. SM gets additional sold albums for the charts. Most will buy Storage/Chandeliar+bias Exhibit. I think it's the first album/photoshoot version among all 127 albums where I would buy (having money, which I don't, heh) all the versions because everyone looks good. What a difference a proper concept makes, huh. All the clothes and the styling is impecable. I also like that eventhough neos portray rich Auctioners/Art buyers, there is still that Circus feeling present. It connects to Chandeliar. The small black and white icons in the left bottom corner of the posters were also selected well.

This! The matching flowers, the poses, the characteristic hairdos. I'm in love.

5. Chandeliar ver. Looks very plain. But has 128 pages. If the photoshoot is nice and the print is good quality, than it should be OK. The blur on the pictures looks promising. It gives the mysterious/otherwordly feel to pictures. I like the sticker set. Bare minimum, but cute.

6. QR ver. I don't know what to think about Taeil's absence. It's not the main album version. Still, personally, I'd prefer the animation version of Taeil over the lack of him. He is going into the military soon. It's his last album for some time. Even if most of his fans won't buy such a version, the inclusion would count, the unit complete. Also. This version is very simplistic, and Taeil's character was dressed in a simple suit. It was possible to come to his house, put him in a suit and take a few close up shots. If he thought of coming to the Seoul concert, he was not bed-ridden. Another way: take some old pics of him, draw clothes like in the animation on top.

7. QR ver. is called Nemo ver. in the ad. Should I consider it as "fact check" esster egg or blame stuff's forgetfulness? Heh. There is also a missed space after a comma in the copyright words in this version.

In conclusion: definitely better than Ay-Yo. A well defined concept thanks to the clothes, fresh looks. However, the hard albums themselves remain very simplistic, unimaginative. There is little play on the concept, which actually gives a lot of room for creativity. No decorative elements, no inclusions, no mysteries. There is no additional effort really. The selling point is still "pretty boys".

[dumbsack]

I beat the original Seiken Densetsu 3/Trials of Mana without changing my characters' classes. YouTube keeps suggesting me stupid challenge runs for other games, so I had to do my own for my very favorite. In the past, I've done the solo character run with Duran... Twice! How hard could this be?

[Inaudible screaming here]

I told my sigma reader and good buddy pop I wanted to try the challenge. I asked if he wanted to play too to make it a little easier.

He messaged me, "why? That sounds unfun. What's wrong with you?"

"My curiosity is piqued," I replied.

That's how it goes. So, I embarked SOLO without that dork LOL. Take that. 😠

As a disclaimer, there was heavy use of savestating on my, uh, very legitimate Super Famicom that I definitely own. Otherwise, I think I would have stress-grayed the rest of my hair doing this challenge.

Now, onto my character choices... Behold! The squad handpicked for this task after about two minutes of thinking about it.

I guess I should explain why I chose these three dingbats (besides two of them being my favorites... No bias in my selection process for this, I promise!)

It was imperative that this challenge was done on the Dragon Lord route due to my familiarity with it and for a few other reasons I'll explain later.

I picked Duran as the leader. He's a pretty beefy boy who can tank hits and dishes out damage pretty decently. Had I gone with Hawkeye or Riesz, I don't think my damage output would have been good enough, even with Hawkeye's cracked CS building capabilities. Also, he's explicitly told to class change in his intro. That's one of his goals. Uh, yeah... too bad for him, I guess. He also gives access to some very important items later on.

Secondly, Kevin is a given. He's similarly beefy and comes with that invaluable beastman form that can poop out damage like no other. Also, Kevin has an exploit I could use in case of an emergency... But I did my best to only save that in case I didn't think the challenge was possible.

Lastly, I chose Angela to round out the party. To more seasoned players of the original, she appears to be a counterintuitive pick, what with her slow cast times and arcane ability to piss off boss monsters and invoke their counter attacks with her spells. But! She might have been the crux of this entire team and this challenge being successful— The MVP, even!

Despite her magic being basic, it came in handy in later parts of the game and managed to dish out even better damage than Duran and Kevin in some cases, especially against normal enemies. Go figure! She was also there to throw Poto Oils to heal the party. And she tanked magic spells like a champion! You go, Angela!

In fact, here's a recreation of the Dangaard fight below with my super awesome phone drawing skills to demonstrate:

Speaking of poto oils... Wow. Doing this challenge taught me some more shit about the game I didn't know. I had no idea Mind Up/Sahagin's Scales actually decreased your casted healing magic! Yes, I would watch Angela's poto oil heals go from 130 to 100 after a Sahagin scale. Very peculiar. Then again, SD3 is a game that manages to run despite itself by being fueled by Ishii's drunken hopes and dreams.

Another thing to note is that stats cap off. Once you hit the cap, well, that's it. Angela's MT Poto Oil healing was locked in at 130 HP for the rest of the game once her spirit had been maxed. Defenses also don't scale very well, it seems. HP... Seems to, however? I found their HP at the end seemed to be pretty comparable to their class 3 counterparts. 🤷‍♀️

Also... ??? Seeds. You will always get light aligned items even if you're still in your base class. This was absolutely CRUCIAL to the late game. And, we can't forget the Black Market, purveyor of chopped off monster hands, chipped off monster scales with buffing properties, healing oils squeezed from cute little lizard monsters, and... prince slaves.

... Ew. Kill me

Thanks!

The first part of the challenge is simple. I won't detail how the journey went in the first phase of the game because we all know how that goes. Blah blah, Duran gets owned by Crimson Wizard, blah blah, he goes on a journey to get stronger, blah blah, Faerie, go to Wendel, blah blah, meets his future wife in front of a cave, beat up crab, werewolf Goku busts you out of prison, blah blah elementals, etc.

You don't technically class change until after you return from Beuca... Unless you're a crazy person (like me.).

So, the golems fight and Bil and Ben fights went fine. Nothing really remarkable. The Ludgar fight was kind of... Weird? He never used Seiryu Death Fist or Suzaku Aerial, only the janky throws I intermittently forget Kevin used to have. He also went down like a little bitch despite having no elemental weakness. Gg, Jobgar, you dumb baby.

Grapplavine wasn't too difficult, either. But, I was getting destroyed by the normal enemies. Oh, yes. The enemies just kinda... They're awful when you play like this. Towards the end of the game, I found myself simply running away from encounters whenever I could. I could not always do this and oh my God this one part might have been the hardest thing I've done in any video game ever. The reason why? Even though you get weapon upgrades even in Pedda you stop getting armor upgrades in Mintas!

Now, this is deceptive. It looks like I can buy and equip this stuff, but I can't. Believe me, I TRIED. And, Weapon/Armor seeds didn't give me jack shit. Yep. I was stuck with shitty, pre-Ludgar armor for THE REST OF THE GAME.

So, that's really what it boiled down to. Normal enemies could clap my character's cheeks like a hearty round of applause. But, bosses?

Total cinch in comparison. All I needed to do was use buffs from the Black Market, the appropriate sabers on Duran and Kevin, and go to town. Since the bosses usually focus on using spells and the occasional physical attack, my dumbasses were rarely in danger of getting killed. Magic damage actually scales with what class you are, from what I can tell. I rarely took heavy damage from any magic spells, yes, Ancient included. And, when the boys got low, Nurse Angela was there to shove candy into everyone's mouths.

All in all, I'd say the hardest Benevodon was probably Lightgazer. I didn't have access to a dark saber item equivalent for it. Oh well. Two uses of the Minor Mallet and a Poto Oil would undo the damage from Prisoner. It was just a war of attrition, but its was PLUCKED and SQUASHED eventually.

When I needed to grind in between Bendovers, I found the safest place to do so was in Gusthall. It was decent XP and enemies died pretty easily.

... But then, I found out something very strange. After you defeat every Benevodon and get the Mana Stone scholar to tell you where the darkstone is, the enemies in Benevodon dungeons just straight up disappear. I did not know this happened. Pop didn't either when I told him this discovery after scouring for safer places to level up before Crystal Desert. Thankfully, I farmed for a set of important items I needed before that happened.

So, with all eight Benenedovers defeated, it was time to tackle the penultimate dungeon.

...

God, Crystal Desert was a friggin' nightmare.

[END OF PART ONE]

[britcision]

They definitely also mention this during the jury selection meeting, which is where everyone who was summoned gets to answer questions for both sides to determine if they count as being unbiased enough to sit the jury

Danny was considering playing the “can’t, I died” card in person, or just saying he’d heard about the case on the news, which is usually an immediate disqualification

(Indicating any preconceived bias will usually get you out of it, like “anyone who cheats deserves the death penalty”)

Imagine his surprise when that vague ghost sense he assumed was due to all the ghosts haunting the courthouse pings when some other guy drops the line first

(The judge is not amused, and accuses Jason of faking his death certificate. Jason asks if he wants to see the autopsy scars and is probably spending a night in jail for contempt of court for stripping)

Neither he nor Danny get on the actual jury unless the court are hella low on acceptable jurors from the list, but let’s say Jason plays it cool enough to go under the radar and Danny decides he needs to know more about That Guy, so they’re both in

Now, jurors aren’t allowed to talk about their personal lives, or ever discuss the case outside of their special talking room

(You’re not even allowed to google potentially relevant details - like the guy who worked out a cop’s tattoo was a white supremacist symbol and got in shit, they’re meant to ask a court official to research it for them)

So Jason’s not gonna learn much about Danny just from sitting jury duty together; his main concern is keeping Danny safe from the GIW, should they catch wind that he ratted them out

This does not stop them from making extremely sarcastic eye contact and hand gestures during super fun jury field trips (where you all sit in silence on the bus and only look at exactly what you are told to look at)

Or making sarcastic comments during deliberations with the rest of the jury

(Jason refuses to vote for incarceration unless it’s a rogue, because fuck the penal system it doesn’t work anyway and Gotham’s is only worse, he can just break the accused’s kneecaps once they’re out if he decides they’re guilty)

(Danny opposes him for one hour of glorious over dramatics solely because the guy who DOES wanna send the accused to jail is a dick and the longer Danny and Jason filibuster the less anyone wants to listen to that asshole)

(When Danny is finally dramatically won over the guy nearly screams)

Jury Duty

Danny has been living his best life in Gotham, hiding from the GIW but mostly moving forward with his life. (College, job, whatever)

Until his name is drawn for jury duty.

He complains to his friends. They bring up a few interesting points. Shouldnt being dead disqualify him? Eventually the anti ecto acts are brought up. Can the government enforce jury duty on a citizen that was declared legally non-sentient?

Now, it might not have been danny's smartest idea, but he replies to the summons with a "cant, i died," attaching a copy of the anti ecto acts and a short argument that its hypocritical of the government to strip him of his rights but still expect him to fulfill his civic responsibilities.

Whatever government desk job gets danny's reply to the summons thinks its a joke at first (theyre no stranger to the colorful and creative excuses people come up with to try to get out of jury duty), but danny provided all the right paperwork and instructions for them to jump through all the hoops necessary to locate the obscure law. They send it higher up the chain of command.

But this is Gotham. After several days of ruminating over the strange law, they decide to leave a tip on the bats' hotline (set up and maintained by Oracle). The whole situation felt a bit left of reality, and they weren't paid enough to deal with that shit. And if the government really was the problem here (look, they might have landed a secure government-funded desk job, but they were a grunt and held no loyalty to the government that continuously screwed over their home city), then merely passing the buck meant it would get covered up instead of exposed.

Oracle gets the message and starts digging, determining that this is A Big Problem, Actually. First order of business is to track down this Danny guy and give him a bat-level security detail. Second order is to push this to the Justice league.

The thing is, the giw had successfully hidden themselves from the justice league up until now. They covered their tracks, took care of loose ends. The laws were written to look like pest control.

They never considered that someone would respond to a jury duty sommons with "cant, im dead." First of all, they dont know about halfas, who could be dead without ever being legally declared. Secondly, why would a ghost pretend to be alive? Thirdly, why would they blow their cover? ("Sir, its *jury duty.*" "point withdrawn.")

It was pure chance that the desk job took it seriously enough to report it, and oracle only recognized the threat as it was because she made the logical leap from ectoplasm to lazarus water.

The bats investigate by intercepting danny's summons. Fortunately, the higher up decided it was a joke and didnt share it any further. Unfortunately, they told danny that he better show up for jury duty, come hell or high water.

That route blocked, they hack in a jury summons for jason todd. Being Actually Legally Dead, with all the paperwork correctly filed, means that he would never actually get a summons, but they need someone on this inside that clearly falls into the same category as danny to keep a close eye on him.

Anyways, this was a long and twisted set up to get not one, but two individuals in the same jury duty line up claiming they "cant, i died."

[chelseainjapan-blog]

Independent Excursion: Media Reflection- Studio Ghibli Museum

Free Writing

Today was really fun! We went to the Studio Ghibli museum and enjoyed the different parts. My favorite part had to be the first room when you entered to the left because they had film and stop motion characters and videos playing. The creativity of the exhibit included flashing lights and moving claymation, featuring characters like Ponyo and My Neighbor Totoro. Funny enough, we ate at the cafe (which the food was pretty bad) and ran into a University of Florida exchange student! We had lunch with her and talked about her different experiences and recommendations for us. After, we continued to explore the museum, with another good part being the museum-exclusive short film shown. I haven’t watched a Ghibli movie in a while and seeing the creativity and childlike emotion evoking narrative really was something worth the trip. After, we tried to go to Shirohige’s Creampuff Factory (which I was really looking forward to) but the creampuffs were all sold out once we got there. Finally, we went to the starbucks in the station by our place and got some sweet treats (matcha scone and blueberry cheesecake). Having the last day in Tokyo was super bittersweet, I really loved my experience in this city and will definitely miss it.

Looking back on the Studio Ghibli museum experience, I realized it combined many aspects of what I enjoy aesthetically. For instance, it was a pretty small space, but every single corner had something new to look at in a creative maximalist way. The areas that show the different art boards and mood collages contrasted ones I’ve seen at Disney Epcot, which were in contained glass cases and didn’t evoke emotions of what the artist was feeling and/or thinking.

Academic Reflection

The media representation I selected would be the Studio Ghibli film, “Howl’s Moving Castle”. Howl’s Moving Castle is a romance animated film that centers the pairing of Sofie and Howl. There are other character’s, such as a flame lamed Calcifer, and witches who contribute to the World War 2-esque setting. While the romance is front a center, the film is staged in a wartime setting and Howl’s home, a moving castle power by Calcifer. This media represents Japan in many ways. For instance, Howl’s castle seems to have a million things going on at once, both aesthetic and function-wise. This parallels some of my experiences in Japanese stores, namely the popular souvenir store Don Quixote and the many curated thrifted/second hand stores I’ve been to. Japanese aesthetics in these stores are proud of effortless maximalism and don’t shy away from using the small spaces to create senses of grandeur. Addedly, the film’s character fashion also represents Japan, as there are coquette-inspired pieces that hail from French aesthetics, but also durability of Western denim, hence Japanese denim coming from the occupation.

In my own experience in relation to representation in media, I think it matched quite well. I entered a lot of spaces, the Studio Ghibli Museum included, that used the aesthetics of many different places. For instance, there is an “American-core” aesthetic that I didn’t know that could exist, that presented itself in many places. Diners, cowboy boots, California surfing, and burgers, all show how media presents itself in Japan then spits itself out again in a different “Japanese-d” style. Of course, Howl’s Moving Castle is a fantasy film that is heavy on the fantasy, but the idea of mysticism and how it can materialized in the real-world seemed to be highlighted through my whole time in Japan. Taking into account, many of my interests lie in finding cute cafes and thrifting, so that bias may affect my perspective. Therefore, there are obvious slippages between reality and media, but overall Japan and the Studio Ghibli Museum seems to have perfected its unique charm.

[larkingame]

Asking here because you are a relatively established author within this community, and I'm curious what you + others think but don't want to spam multiple authors' inboxes with this question. Additionally, this isn't bait, just a genuine question I've been ruminating over for some time now. As an author, do you feel female/non-binary ROs get less positive attention than male ROs? Do you feel they're more likely to be ignored outright by readers or even receive more vitriolic hate? To be clear, this includes gender-selectable ROs, where their female/non-binary versions get ignored/more hate than their male versions. I put female ROs/non-binary ROs in the same category here even though they're different genders because I'm mostly curious as to whether or not you think there's positive male bias in the readership of the IF community. I ask because, as a long-term reader and community member, I've noticed consistently that male ROs are favored by fellow readers. Overall, male ROs get more asks, more positive asks, and thus more attention from authors. I've seen a repeating pattern where readers will default to using the author's set male pronouns for a gender selectable RO when sending in an ask, even if the ask isn't related to the male version of that RO.

On the flip side, it seems like female characters are way more likely to be ignored (asks are simply not sent in about them) or downright hated. I've seen truly vitriolic hate sent in about female ROs to IF authors like I've never seen for male ROs, or at least on the same scale. That's not even *touching* the absolute disrespect and transphobia I've seen towards non-binary characters before, such as Clementine from The Northern Passage (I mention that character as a specific example here- but I don't want to bring this discussion to that author's doorstep because I've noted a particularly high number of bad-faith individuals tend to harass them). This pattern exists for fanart, too- especially for gender selectable ROs, the male version seems to exist as a "default" for many fan artists.

I bring this lengthy ask to you, instead of making my own post, because I was curious to get an author's perspective on this. As a reader it's a repeated pattern I've noticed time and time again, especially the bigger IFs get, but I was wondering if a 'behind the scenes' perspective might have anything else to add.

Feel free to ignore this if you'd like! Overall I am just curious as to whether or not other people see this pattern.

No, I think you're absolutely correct in this. I definitely think that there is something of a bias within the IF community that leans towards Male / Masc Presenting ROs. But this of course is speaking purely from my own perspective of working on my own IFs and playing a handful of others.

Speaking from Larkin's perspective--it's no secret that my male characters get a lot more attention from readers than any of my female or nb characters. But, the thing here is, I think, even in traditional media, (movies, books, video-games) that's also something of a trend, so while it's disheartening and disappointing, it's unfortunately, not surprising.

I do certainly agree that there is a lot of issues within the IF community concerning how characters with marginalized identies are treated. (whether that be through misgendering in conversation, white-washing or the plethora of downright vitriol and hatred spewed at characters and authors alike.) These are all issues that I've taken notice of just as someone who's experience within this community has been relatively tame compared to some of my fellow authors.

But as someone who's both white and cis gendered I don't really think that it's appropriate for me to wax-poetic about the issues faced in the community by people who identify otherwise, especially when we're a community filled with plenty of talented and diverse creators who can all speak on this better than I can.

What I can speak on however is my experience as a queer female author, writing queer female characters. When I started writing my games I wrote them primarily from a perspective of wanting to write a game that A) I'd want to play and B) one that had things that I saw were lacking in other games. Whether that be through mechanics, relationship dynamics and characters.

While it isn't explicitly clear just yet because of the point in development I'm at, I write my female love interests from a more saphhic perspective with female and non-binary identifying main characters in mind. It's something that I've slowly come to realize throughout the process of working on my project, as I've come to terms with my own identity. Rose, Celina, NB! Ace, and F! Hollis (and a few other characters that have yet to be introduced properly but identify with the labels of female or non-binary) are all characters that I hold near and dear to my heart, and have all helped me realize things about myself as I'm writing. So while I love all of my characters equally, it is, like I mentioned, a little sad to see the male characters favored--but not something that I wasn't expecting going into writing my game.

Thank you for sending me in this ask and sharing your thoughts and indulging me in mine!

[originalwindycity]

Listening back through all of them to decide, and felt like trying to make my own personal ranking of them while trying to figure out my favorite

(Hoping it's not impolite to do this directly in a reblog of a post by the person who made them The post itself is asking to pick a favorite, so hopefully this is fine If I should've kept my thoughts to myself I apologize!!)

(Also to be clear I do like all of them—even if for some of them I might focus more on the parts I didn't like, ultimately I would gladly go back and listen to each one multiple times over and take a probably unreasonable amount of time before I get tired of it)

8. 2016 but all the best memes happen at the same time

I think this one starts off really awkwardly—I feel like the beat doesn't quite line up between "We Are Number One" and "File Select" (SM64), so it's hard to start getting into the music until "Bouncy Ball" kicks in

I really enjoy the bit from ~0:24 to 1:00, but after that I think it gets harder to listen to for the remainder of the mashup

Overall a noble first installment in the series, and I'm sure the things that I'm not a fan of are largely due to a lack of prior experience making mashups like this

7. oh, 2017?

The intro to this is interesting, but I feel like it happened awfully early into this series? Idk, maybe there's something I'm missing (I think actually it'd have even fit better in 2016, establishing itself as the first finannual meme mashup in the series?)

If we treat the mashup as starting around 12 seconds in, I think "Jump Up, Super Star!" is a really fun way to start things off

I think I don't have anything particularly negative to say about any of the rest of it?

The bit starting at like 1:49 is really fun I think :D

6. let's get this 2018

I think this has one of my favorite introductions out of all of them? It starts off with Steamed Hams audio, tying it together really nicely with the end of "oh, 2017?", and "Well Seymour, I made it. Des—pacito" is such a smooth transition I love it so much

The pause in the middle, with the second half starting off quite slowly, I think messes with the momentum built up by the rest of the mashup (I can sort of understand the idea behind a slower section in a longer mashup, but this one isn't even 4 minutes, so I don't think it was necessary?), but I think the part after that does a good job of building that momentum back up

Overall, I think it works nicely, definitely stronger than the ones that came before it, but compared to the ones that came after it I can't really place it any higher

5. 😳what if we kissed​😳​in 2019😳

(Trying not to talk in too much detail about this, because I'm conscious of how long this post is getting and I want to try and rein myself in some, given how long this mashup is)

I think I expected this to be one of my favorites of the list, but it seems like it ended up being more in the middle? Wondering if the length has something to do with it

I think I disagree with what I said for 2018—I think the slow sections in both of these do just get rid of the momentum that's built up, and I think in this case it does take longer to regain that momentum (maybe because the slow section goes on for like 2 minutes)

4. 2023 extract

Okay, so like, I'm sure recency bias plays into my ranking some, but I think for what it is it still is really nice?

I think the singing did feel out of place at first in the context of the rest of these (nothing against your voice, I just wasn't expecting it), but it didn't take very long to get used to, and the fact that it is almost all just you singing over "Beware the Forest's Mushrooms" makes it feel really unified, which is something I think a lot of the others in this list have struggled with

Of course this has the fewest memes out of any mashup (4 or 5, depending on how you count), but that's not at all the fault of the mashup, and I think it doesn't take away too much from the experience—it just makes the experience different

3. 2020 has progressed past the need for months

At first I wanted to rank this slightly below 2018 because I felt like the speaking at the beginning went on for too long on its own, but after thinking about it for longer I think it contributes really well with the overall tone of this one in comparison to previous mashups (which I think also fits well with the year itself), and the instrumental coming in under the speaking nearly 20 seconds before the rest of the mashup gets going helps to smooth things out more (like how in musicals you might have the characters speaking while the instrumental comes in, to smooth out the transition between speaking and singing)

I think it's still a slow start, but I think the rest of the mashup is still strong enough to make up for it, and I think I prefer it to having a break in the middle

2. hey, don't cry. 2022 meme mashup ok?

I had a hard time deciding whether I liked this or 2021 more. I think overall this is my favorite, because it just works so well musically I feel like? It's probably the best musical experience

But at the same time, it doesn't necessarily feel quite as like, meme-y as 2021? I understand this is due to a shortage of memes from that year, but I think 2021 reads more as meme mashup than 2022 does

I love both of them either way, though, if given the option I'd have ranked them both in first (but I need to pick one for the poll sdlkfjghsd)

1. there are many benefits to being at the end of 2021

The first half or so feels like the most frantic that any of these mashups get¹ (probably the combination of "BIG SHOT" and everything else feeling like it's sped up to fit with "BIG SHOT"), and placing "Welcome to the Internet" in the middle of that I think works very well—at that point it really feels like "a little bit of everything all of the time"

The second half, with "Hot Milk", is significantly slower, but something about it feels like it fits so well together with the first half? I have no idea what exactly, it just feels like something about it clicks

I think it's like, rather than completely stopping all the momentum by switching to something slower (like I feel like 2018 and 2019 did), it's like all of the speed of the first half gets channeled into "Hot Milk", so rather than letting go of the energy and momentum that's been built up, it just turns it into a different form, switching things up without making it feel like it's completely disconnected from the earlier part

Throughout the second half, the energy feels like it gradually swells up and then simmers back down as "Hot Milk" builds up in intensity and we move through different memes, before we're left with just "Hot Milk" and "Astronaut in the Ocean"

Overall very smooth in execution I think, there isn't anything I'd want to change

(¹To be clear, I don't mean this as a negative thing, I wouldn't be putting this one so high if I did mean that negatively)

====================

(lskjdfhglskjdhglsdf in hindsight spending 2 hours on this before having breakfast was probably not the wisest idea—oh well)

[btsqualityy]

Truth or Drink: A Run BTS! Special Part 7

Jungkook x Reader

Genre/Rate: 18+, fluff, crack

Summary: You and your husband play truth or drink for Run BTS.

Warnings: Some sexual questions.

WC: 1.2K

“Are either of you feeling nervous about this game?” The producer asked. 

“Nope,” you shook your head. 

“Me either,” Jungkook agreed. “I’m excited to find out what Y/N has been keeping from me.”

“I’m not keeping anything from you,” you rolled your eyes playfully. 

“Let’s start with a few questions for the both of you first,” the producer said. “How long have the two of you been together?”

“Six years in total,” Jungkook replied. 

“And how did you meet?”

“We met in school and ended up just staying in touch,” you added. 

“Ok, well let me get into the basics of the game,” the producer began. “The two of you will ask each other questions and the other can either answer it truthfully or take a drink and not have to answer the question. We have a lovely selection of spirits right next to you on the table, as well as some regular juice and water as well. Sound good?”

“Sounds good,” you both replied. 

“Jungkook, start us off,” the producer instructed him. 

“Alright,” he nodded as he grabbed a card. “We all have an ideal or dream partner. Do I give you everything, or almost everything, that you want or are searching for in a partner?”

“You give me almost everything,” you answered easily. 

“Almost everything?” Jungkook scoffed. “I’m attentive, loving, a great father to the girls, and I fuck you like no one else. What else could you ask for?”

“For you to be a little less immature sometimes,” you shot back. “I love how childlike you are but it also isn’t fun having to be the responsible one most of the time.”

“You should have just taken the drink,” he pouted, making you laugh.

“There’s no fun in that,” you giggled as you grabbed a card. “What is the one thing that annoys you the most about me? What is my most annoying trait or habit?”

“I’m taking the shot,” he sighed as he grabbed the bottle of whiskey.

“Aw, come on,” you goaded him. “Don’t wanna get something off your chest?”

“With how you never forget things?” He chuckled. “No, I’m good.” You watched with a smile as he quickly took his shot before he picked up a new card. “Is there anyone that you have the hots for among your workmates or acquaintances in the neighborhood?”

“No, I work alone so I have no coworkers,” you giggled. 

“Thank God because I don’t know if I’d have the energy to constantly threaten men’s lives the way Yoongi hyung has to do with his wife,” Jungkook sighed. 

“You literally wouldn’t be forced to do that, crazy ass,” you shook your head. 

“Crazy about you,” he cooed as he blew a kiss to you and you just rolled your eyes as you grabbed the next question.

“What was the wildest kink you have ever done or that you'd like to do with your partner?” You questioned.

“I’d say that time that we fucked on the hood of your car in an open field was probably the wildest thing we’ve ever done,” Jungkook laughed. 

“Yeah, that’s definitely near the top of the list of sexual experiences we’ve had together,” you nodded. “I don’t think either of us really have anything we would want to try though. I mean, you fuck the life out of me literally every time so I don’t have much more to ask for.”

“That’s my job baby,” he winked at you, grabbing a new card. “Who’s your bias in BTS?”

“Definitely you,” you said. 

“Is he really?” The producer asked. 

“Absolutely,” you nodded. “You can ask anybody, I’m the loudest person in the crowd whenever he’s singing.”

“I can confirm that,” Jungkook laughed. “The hyungs’ wives have been complaining for years about how loud she can get while they’re watching our shows.”

“Well, I have to support my man,” you smiled. “Next question. Would you let me read through your text messages if I asked to right now?”

“Yeah, I have nothing to hide,” he shrugged as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it to you. Since you knew his passcode, it was nothing for you to unlock his phone and you went to his messages, taking a few seconds to scroll through them.

“Did you seriously have to ask Hobi to unlock your studio for you?” You wondered as you looked up at your husband. “Again?”

“I forgot the passcode!”

“Jungkook, that’s the fourth time in the span of like a month,” you reminded him. “Why don’t you change it to something easy for you to remember? Like our wedding anniversary or one of the girl’s birthdays?”

“I did, I changed it to the day we started dating,” he smiled. “Moving on to the next question. Oh, you might want this.” 

“What does it say?” You wondered as Jungkook set the bottle of whiskey in front of you. 

“Do you regret getting married so young?” He asked you. 

“Fuck,” you huffed as you grabbed the bottle and proceeded to pour yourself a shot before quickly downing it. “I don’t necessarily regret it but I don’t think it would’ve killed us to wait two or three more years than we did.”

“Why? We were in love and wanted to get married,” Jungkook said. “Two or three years extra wouldn’t have changed anything.”

“But can you honestly say that knowing what we know now, you would’ve still made the same decision to purpose to me as soon as you did?” You wondered and Jungkook just sighed heavily as he poured himself a shot before quickly drinking it. 

“Anyways, moving on,” you murmured. “Who is hotter: me or you?”

“Absolutely me,” he stated firmly. “I’m in my hotboy era right now.”

“We have been spending entirely too much time together,” you cackled. “Just ask the next question.”

“Who’s smarter?” 

“It kind of depends on the topic,” you replied. “Things like music and performance and artistic things, you’re better at those. Things like business are my domain.”

“I agree,” he nodded. 

“Ok, next. What’s the worst thing you’ve ever said about me behind my back?”

“Nope, not touching that one,” he scoffed as he grabbed the whiskey bottle. 

“At least you know better,” you told him. “I’d rather not know since it was said behind my back for a reason.”

“I’d rather you not know too, hence me taking the drink,” he responded before swallowing the alcohol. “Alright, I have the last question. What are your biggest fears when it comes to our future together?”

“I don’t have any.”

“Not any at all?” The producer asked. 

“Nope. Jungkook is the love of my life and the great thing about our relationship is that I’m the love of his life too,” you began. “So I know that no matter what happens, we’d get through it together.”

“Damn right,” Jungkook grinned widely. “I love you baby.”

“I love you more Kook,” you replied, getting up from your seat and walking around the table, planting yourself in Jungkook’s lap before pressing a firm kiss to his lips. 

“Thank you for coming to play this game for us,” the producer said. 

“It was fun so no problem,” you replied as you snuggled into your husband. 

“Thank you for having us,” Jungkook said as he bowed lightly to the producer and the camera crew.

“And that concludes our truth or drink special for Run BTS!” The producer announced. 

[kdramaxoxo]

Hi im new to kdramas and I'm interested in a kdrama that is a romantic comedy and has a good ending any recommendations?

Welcome to K-dramas!

I'm so excited for you - you're gonna have the best time!

Before I select my favorite happy ending rom/coms, here are a couple of lists you might like:

Light & Fluffy K-Dramas with no Melodrama (Updated 10/2020)

Light & Fluffy K-Dramas & Web Dramas (Updated 10/2020)

Light and Fun Rom Coms with Happy Endings:

Below are some of my favorite rom/coms that I feel like everyone new to k-dramas should watch.

Fight for My Way: I love this drama! The couple is one of my OTPs and it’s really funny and a mostly lighthearted story of a group of friends. It’s down to earth and adorable - I’ve never had anyone complain about this one!

Shopping King Louie: Ridiculously fun and lighthearted romp following a spoiled and useless chaebol with amnesia who is being taken care of by a country bumpkin in the city. Very low stakes, super adorable couple, and as many tropes as you can fit in your bag, this one is one of my favorites to recommend.

The Best Hit / Hit The Top: A famous 90′s boyband dude travels into the future and meets up with his family and friends in this really cute drama featuring Yoon Shi Yoon. I LOVE Yoon Shi Yoon in pretty much everything but this role was made for him - he is hilarious. It’s a slice of life but features the k-pop music industry so the setting is unique.

Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo: A K-drama fandom favorite! Adorable college romance about a female weightlifter and a super hot swimmer dude. I mean she’s hot too. Anyways, two cuties!

Oh My Ghostess: A shy withdrawn girl working at a restaurant possessed by a sassy ghost. Do I need to go on? There is a little bit of sad but for the most part it’s super fun.

Run On: I loved this slice of life drama about an athlete, a translator, a painter and a CEO so much that I have already rewatched it. This drama has so much to offer: Interesting and strong characters, a painter I’d die for and unique friendships. Did I mention there’s a legit ACE character? I mean... AMAZING.

Into The Ring: Seo Gong Myung is a hard nosed civil servant who ends up working with Goo Se Ra, one of my favorite ladies in a K-drama ever. She’s passionately ethical and into civil ordinance complaints (you read that right) which drives Gong Myung crazy, but like, in a “I’m definitely going to fall for you” type of way. This is a hilarious and heartfelt slice of life and I loved it.

Other Great K-drama Essentials I recommend to new viewers:

Coffee Prince: A classic (if 10 years old can be considered a classic) rom com with genderbending. It’s a great drama that really plays up the gay as much as a k-drama of it’s time really can and I loveeeed it so so much.

Healer: Everyone knows healer will always have my heart and it’s a super popular k-drama. Healer is played by Ji Chang Wook (swoon) and he gets involved with a feisty reporter played by Park Min Young (also swoon). It’s an action adventure with some very classic tropes: Rich people scandals, murders and hidden pasts. But it also has some of my favorite tropes: Beta Male Lead, childhood friends to lovers and traumatic pasts.

Extraordinary You/ A Day Found By Chance (fantasy/romance): This magical k-drama has my heart. It plays with all of the predictable tropes and then just goes crazy! While not perfect towards the end, I give this show bonus points for being super creative AND inspiring me to read a LOT of fan fic. I think about this drama more than any other.

Just Between Lovers (romance/melo): Slice of Life romance between poor trauma babies just trying to live! The OTP is one of my favorite couples EVER and even as the years go on, very few couples have matched their love in my opinion. There’s a lot of comfort/healing themes with for me is just *chef’s kiss.* Lee Junho became my bias wrecker because of that drama.

[babylyctor]

can John actually control time or am i making things up? trying to reach a conclusion via tumblr posting

so as a theory this is 75% vibes. however there’s some things in the books that give me pause, and i wanted to put together all those bits and see if there’s something there. i’m not totally on board with this idea because it seems too complex to leave entirely to the last book, and i don’t know how it could fit with the rest of the narrative (or do i?) but in any case i keep thinking about it so here’s this way too long post. spoliers for everything

first, this fucking suspicious sentence that’s one of the first things John tells Harrow (Chapter 2, HtN)

"I would let you come back, bit by bit, until you felt entirely ready to wake up. I can’t. I mastered Death, Harrowhark; I wish I’d done the smarter thing and mastered Time. I have to ask you to get ready soon, and so I am going to show you something I hope might … trigger your readiness.”

so this sounds like a really dull complaint on this immortal god’s part but also i don’t trust a single thing out of this man’s mouth, and this would be the exact kind of private joke he would make if he had actually mastered Time (capitalized) too. Also the context in which it’s said, talking about Harrow coming back from her coma, regaigning consciousness, awakening... you get it, oddly relevant theme wise.

then there’s the whole Soup Moment (Chapter 25, HtN), in which John seems to actually stop time maybe? i have doubts about this so lets see what our narrator tells us;

And God said, “Stop.”

The world slowed down. Augustine and Mercymorn stopped, arrested in the act of half-rising from their seats. Ianthe stopped, left arm paused, outflung, to shield her face. You stopped, sitting upright in your chair: your bones somehow rigid and still, and your flesh chilly and rigid around those bones. The shrapnel spray from the Saint of Duty did not stop, [...] But what remained of him stopped too, half man, half rupture—his prurient details hot and white, naked insides clothed with the sinus-drying burst of the power of God.

so here John freezes all the lyctors in place, they’re still conscious, or at least Harrow is, but they have their range of movement almost totally restricted. this is not like Mercy pinching Harrow’s dorsal nerve to paralyze her, this is a completely different feeling, maybe John’s thalergetic powers? it would make sense, all the lyctors are living bodies, they have thalergy and Johs is able to manipulate that, presumably. the bits of Gideon OG cascading down the table don’t stop but that might be John selectively using his powers, or it might be that that’s no longer living flesh.

so we’re saying this could just be John’s super special thalergy magic and nothing else. the first problem though is that technically he shouldn’t be able to use it against his lyctors without touching them, thanks to lyctoral invisibility. in fact when he explodes Mercy’s chest (rip in peace queen) he expressely reaches out and touches her to do so, because presumably he needs to make contact with a body in order to use magic against it, same as Mercy. so that’s a caveat, then there are these descriptions from the same Soup Moment;

You stared down the table at him: at the blank, remote faces of your two nominal teachers—at the frozen ivory stillness of Ianthe, her hair now whitish pink—at space outside the window, where the asteroids themselves seemed to hang in tranquilized arrest.

The Emperor of the Nine Houses stood. The spell, whatever it had been, dropped like a white sun setting.

These seem to imply certain ambiguity. John’s God and all that but i don’t think thalergetic magic should be able to affect asteroids, lifeless space rocks. of course it says they “seem” to hang in tranquilized arrest, not that they are really unmoving, but i think it’s a suggestive sentence all the same, and i’m suspicious of every word Muir writes. The second quote, specifically the highlighted part, is also a bit frustrating. It seems to imply that John isn’t exactly doing magic as we know it, but something else. If it was Harrow narrating we could go further with it, but since it’s Gideon we could simply attribute it to her lack of knowledge and familiarity with magic. However, two sentences after that we don’t have that problem;

The construct gamely clamberign our of the Saint of Duty dwindled to a powder of pink dust. The shard you had been driving up the cervical vertebrae to the base of the spine [...] simply disappeared: destroyed or removed, you could not tell.

This is still Gideon narrating but in this case she’s specifically telling us that Harrow doesn’t understand what John just did, it’s not magic Harrow is familiar with. There’s also the contrast between what we know is a normal process of destroying a construct - reducing it to dust -  vs this mysterious disappearance, that doesn’t really fit into what we know so far about the way thanergy/thalergy work.

so far, nothing conclusive, we know John is really powerful, but we don’t know exactly how, where his power comes from or what it can do. Then there’s the moment he unexplodes himself (Chapter 52, HtN);

White light.

It bleached the insides of your nose and the back of your throat. It hurt coming out your ears. It bled out your eyeballs. It wasn’t a flash of light, more … a suddenness; when it was gone—as though it hadn’t even existed, but had been a luminous hallucination—time stopped.

That light took colour from the room—everyone was a slow-motion cavalcade of greys, of eyes caught widening, of mouths parting in stone-shaded articulations of shock.

It happened in an instant. It happened over a myriad. A wet red construct knitted itself back together, [...]

again that white light that has been associated with thalergy magic and again all these references to time slowing down, stopping or just behaving in strange ways in general. again lots of ambiguity, this could be a thalergy based power - the ability to hold living bodies in stasis, and therefore make everyone feel like time has slowed down - or it could be that John is actually affecting time, maybe even reversing it (?) since he literally un-exploded himself, after Mercy put all her millenia of expertise into atomizing him and reducing him to almost nothing.

is that even explicable with regular thanergy/thalergy based magic? i’m not sure, a regular necro could never do that, a lyctor couldn’t do that. So if John isn’t just an overpowered lyctor what’s the difference exactly? i mean, how do his powers manifest differently from those of every other necromancer we know?

the other person we’ve seen using powerful thalergy magic is Silas. Whenever he siphoned, Gideon describes a similar vacuum sensation to the one that John’s magic also provokes, as well as white light;

As he faded, the pale Silas incandesced. He glowed with an irradiated shimmer, iridescent white, and the air began to taste of thunder. (Chapter 17, GtN)

Gideon felt an internal tug, like a blanket being pulled off in the cold. (Chapter 17, GtN)

Silas clambered to his knees, clasped his fingers together, and the feeling of suction popped the pressure in both of Gideon’s ears. (Chapter 34, GtN)

Silas is nowhere near as powerful as John but siphoning - thalergy based magic, condemned by God - still causes that suction effect and is marked by white light and lightning, just like John’s magic. However, there’s no mention of a time altering effect, no slowing down, no freezing in place, and seeing how both kinds of magic are similarly coded otherwise i find this difference suspicious.

To end this somewhere, two quotes, first, this thing Harrow tells Ortus when they both discuss what it must be like to be a lyctor (Chapter 5, HtN);

“Nigenad, what would be the tragedy in living for a myriad? Ten thousand years to learn everything there is to know [...] What is the tragedy of time?”

honestly to me that sounds like Muir making Harrow say things she will regret later. of course it could be about any of the numerous tragedies in Harrow life but still, gave me pause, specially because it kinda echoes John’s earlier sentiment, wishing he had mastered Time.

finally, a quote that might be totally meaningless and completely off base in this theory or it could round it up perfectly, i haven’t decided yet;

[...] ; yet you prayed all the while knowing Ianthe’s facility for tergiversation would have given the whole universe pause. (Chapter 36, HtN)

we know Ianthe is a girlboss and gaslighting is her thing. However, isn’t this sentence a bit too dramatic to describe Ianthe? doesn’t it sound kinda ominous to you? it definitely does to me, and although it might totally be my Ianthe bias wanting her to play an important part, who is Ianthe hanging out with lately? exactly John God “Jod” the Emperor.

in conclusion, i haven’t reached any conclusion. but i still think there’s something off with John’s powers beyond what we’ve been told, which isn’t much really, and i think there’s something going on with Time within the narrative (that’s another whole post though), and i think these two things are most probably related. but i can’t say i’m 100% sure of any of it. this was fun though. if you made it here thank you so much you’re the best <3