#those transformers motherfuckers on twitter …

[devotioncrater]

im not sure I have the property to say this since ive only been watching loki through twitter, but did you also get a little bit of a ted lasso finale vibe?

hmmm not really? with ted lasso's ending, none of what happened made any sense narratively or thematically. with loki's ending, it fit both narratively and thematically (to me at least).

but similar to my thoughts on ted lasso's ending, i do think loki's ending would have been elevated if those two old men had kissed.

i also will add that loki is Marvel. we know what to expect from A Marvel Show because at the end of the day, it is under Disney's Ironclad Fist. allowing their main character loki to be Explicitly Queer Onscreen (rather than just mentioned) was never ever going to happen. that would have alienated Disney's domestic viewers, sure, but to them more importantly countries such as China (who have historically barred queer media from being shown) would have pulled financial backing. and Disney Loves Money More Than Creative Storytelling, so...why would they risk upsetting their profit margins? also also Disney is rooted in evangelical christian support, and has strong affiliation with being conservatively Family Friendly. a gay kiss? not happening for one of their most famous and beloved MCU characters.

meanwhile, AppleTV isn't beholden to this puritanical expectation nor does it have decades of financial ties. ted lasso was one of their biggest shows. they marketed ted lasso's S3 as this amazing, industry-changing phenomena. Oh My God Ted Lasso Is Ending You Don't Want To Miss This Finale type vibe. we were led to believe ted's journey would end up one place....and then it didn't. this could be abt tedbecca or tedtrent, those two endgames are in the same boat in my opinion. as a character, ted himself is intensely queer-coded. it's undeniable. it would have fit the vibe of the entire show's premise about Found Family + Accepting Love In All Forms for ted to be canonically bisexual or queer. THAT would have been a strong weight thrown in the industry, imo. but no, ted goes back to his straight, lonely, dull life in kansas for no solid reason (despite rebecca laying out a perfectly good option for both henry and michelle to join ted in london).

loki stuck the shakespearean tragic hero landing. loki IS burdened with a glorious purpose. loki HAS to end up alone. him choosing loneliness is integral to his bigger purpose within the narrative itself. the entire story and his entire character arc builds up to him acting selflessly with integrity in order to protect his friends. here you have a trickster god who spent his entire life begging to be seen by someone, then gets seen by someone, and then has to let that someone go for their perceived betterment. loki, a notoriously selfish, lying motherfucker who blew up NYC, goes through this immense transformation to where he fundamentally changes who he is. loki at the start of season one is not who loki is at the end of season two. the way he deals with feelings of loss is night and day. his lonely ending is cathartic because it feels earned and comprehendible and it carries weight from how it highlights his character growth.

can we say the same about ted lasso himself? no. ted lasso in season one is not who he is in the end of season three, true. externally, he becomes divorced, he leaves richmond, he went to therapy. but intrinsically he as a character did not grow enough to where him choosing his lonely ending felt cathartic. throughout the show, ted takes on the role of Carer. he Has To Care For Others, yet he tends to reject people when they want to take care of him. we see him struggle with depression, alcohol dependence, emotional unavailability, panic attacks, homesickness, and guilt. when season three reaches midway, we see him find solace in his friends and community and learning to be alone. even with his mom, a triggering person for him, he vocalized his feelings in an honest and truthful way. ted's character arc is written to match the show's theme of found family, acceptance, and love.

and that, to me, is why him going back to kansas did not work. there wasn't any catharsis in ted lasso's ending. it negates the thematic intent, as well as defies the narrative itself. a comedy can genre-bend into dramatic tragedy, yes, but not in the literal last hour. tragedies only work when they feel earned and cathartic. tragic heroes need their arcs to carry weight which feels worthwhile. ted lasso held none of these genre values

[new-sandrafilter]

The Making (and Re-Making) of Timothée Chalamet

BY DANIEL RILEY / PHOTOGRAPHY BY RENELL MEDRANO

He found superstardom and artistic acclaim instantaneously. Now, with unique candor, the actor of a generation reveals what it’s like to come of age in our very upside-down era.

The day after the Oscars in 2018, everything that had changed, changed back again. Timothée Chalamet had spent the previous months becoming known. He had acted in a film, Call Me by Your Name, which was critically acclaimed as well as an instant object of cultish admiration—and his performance had made him, at 22, the youngest person nominated for best actor in 80 years. He had, simultaneously, been transformed into the rarest of pop confections—fawned over by younger women, older men, and every demographic in between. And he had traveled without pause on the awards circuit since early autumn, back and forth from New York and Los Angeles, practically living out of the first-class lounge and the lobbies of the Bowery Hotel and the Sunset Tower.

But the day after the Oscars, the moment the clock struck midnight and his carriage turned into a pumpkin, Chalamet was right back where he'd been before the whole fantasy had begun: in New York, with no credit card, no apartment, and no longer any structured demands on his time and attention. Outsiders who had witnessed the arrival may have regarded this 22-year-old as being in possession of wealth and clout, but he was suddenly back on his own dime, which amounted to maybe five or six dimes, reticent to stay with family and friends whose lives he felt he was disrupting with all his new baggage. Of course they couldn't possibly comprehend the chemical reaction that had just transpired. They were still hydrogen and oxygen, and Timothée Chalamet was all of a sudden water.

And so, for three weeks, he disappeared into the wallpaper of the Lower East Side. Specifically, the wallpaper of a little apartment that the French street artist JR kept for visiting collaborators. Chalamet holed up against the ugly New York weather of late winter, and did the only thing he could think to do: learn lines. The King would be his first film since his pivot into fame, and he was anxious to get back to acting after such a long stretch of merely talking about acting. Even more, he needed to blot out the unrecognizable icon the internet was already beginning to make of Timothée Chalamet.

I met Timothée for the first time at the onset of that initial blush of fame, when all of us were being introduced to an actor who had both rare talent and the un-engineerable it that chings like an audible sparkle off a jewel in a cartoon. I wrote a story for this magazine about that first chapter in the arrival of a film star. This is the second chapter, the story of what's happened since. It wasn't evident yet, but those three weeks in New York in 2018 were the starting line of what would amount to a 30-month stretch of four new films, two new Oscar campaigns, some refreshing romance, an incessant awareness of the confusing image of himself as—what else to call it?—an emerging global movie star, and a constant concerted effort to figure himself out as both a young actor and a young person in the unceasing spotlight.

This summer, we were talking about all this on a little screened porch out back of a modest cabin in Woodstock when Chalamet recalled those three weeks. “My world had flipped,” he said. “But if I kicked it with my friends, things could still feel the same. I was trying to marry these two realities. But I don't even think I knew that was what I was doing. That dissonance was real. And thank God. Because I feel like if I'd caught up to it immediately, I would've been a psychopath or something.”

Out on that porch, I asked him a version of the same question over and over: What had the last two and a half years been like for him, as a human being? His response was a multi-hour monologue that I would characterize as: intense. He expressed unadulterated gratitude for his great good fortune. But he also expressed confusion and tension. He is firmly in a moment when he is concerned that everything he says or does or thinks will look or sound wrong. He backtracked a lot (“Wait, let me try that again”). He jumped on and off the record (“Sorry, sorry, sorry, this is just for you…”). It was important for me to know, he said, in order to communicate the context of his experience, if not the specifics.

.

“I want to get back to the undefined space again. I'm chasing a feeling.” 

He lives in the same world all of us do—only with the potential for adoration and blowback turned up to 11. He seems, at once, to trust his own instincts while also second-guessing most thoughts the moment he's convinced of them. It is an exhausting way to be. At times, when he was up on his feet, in his T-shirt and shorts, pacing around the little screened porch, hands tugging at his mane, I could feel the gears grinding to the point of smoke. He wanted so desperately to get this right, to express what he really meant, to feel the right feelings, to live the right way, to be the right kind of man for the people in his life that he knows he can and should be, despite everything else, despite the noise. He's doing his best.

Timothée had rented the house for the month of July, as a little escape but also as an opportunity. He was slated to play Bob Dylan in a new biopic. No telling when it might film, given everything, but for now he had more time to himself than he'd had in years, which meant time to maybe huff the vapors of some Woodstock Dylanalia. “It's not like I'm suffering from lack of connection otherwise,” he said, “but it just really feels like I'm connecting to something here.” When he arrived, he discovered that his little house had a wall devoted to Dylan—to the albums he'd recorded in the run-up to his timeout in Woodstock in the late '60s. Timothée relished happening upon that wall his first day in the Airbnb. The universe offered signs if you nudged it toward coherence.

He knew what the cabin might seem like—like some young actor taking himself way too seriously, “treating himself like an artist.” But he was back and forth between Woodstock and New York all month, bombing up and down the interstate in the Honda sedan he'd rented from Enterprise. (He learned how to drive on Beautiful Boy.) All the while Dylan was top of mind. Timothée was late to the party but helplessly obsessed. He quoted him generously. He fixated on both the art and the persona. He marveled at the way the artist could be out there so much, making such an impact, while also keeping the real person obscured behind the music, the characters in the songs, the language. In the city, we spent time walking around Greenwich Village, Timothée in an identity-concealing face mask and bucket hat and sunglasses, able to search out old Dylan addresses in an invisibility cloak. He ran from site to site, with notes he'd kept while reading Dylan's memoir, Chronicles: Volume One, barreling up stairs and peering into windows. He was a 24-year-old actor, taking advantage of the pause between the second phase of his career and the third and thinking hard, daily, about how to play the next few years.

He rented the house in Woodstock, too, so that he could have a little space all to himself. He craved the privacy to try things and to fuck up. To make small mistakes now, out of view, when it was just him, when he was still young, so that he didn't have to worry about it later. At one point, he stood up and slapped an empty water bottle off the table so that it clattered against the screen of the porch. “I want to know what that sounds like!” he shouted. He hadn't taken many missteps yet, and it made him uncomfortable, wary, that he would someday. The month felt like a controlled burn. In the most innocent way, that was what Woodstock was about. He got to practice his guitar and harmonica in peace, cook himself his “shitty pasta” without judgment, permit himself space to keep growing up. So much was in the spotlight now. But in that cabin, he could sit on the couch for a while and re-familiarize himself with “the crease in the cushion” that he'd lost touch with over the past few years. The quiet. The stillness. That sunlight there coming through the trees. He could breathe a little. Sleep a little. It had all been so good for him so far. But the goodness made him anxious. When will the other shoe drop? Not there. He'd deleted Instagram off his phone. He'd stopped posting on Twitter. He was reading again. Listening to albums all the way through. Slowing down. What was it like to have lived these past two and a half years? It was like a lot of things, but here at the end of it, it just felt good to sleep.

Back at the start of the 30-month run that led to Woodstock, Timothée turned over the keys to JR's studio and went to Europe to shoot The King. The role was like none of the films he'd just received notice for. “Here I am on set with all these Hungarian men with scars on their faces, and they're like, ‘You're the center of the shot, you're the badass! And we know you tried to put on all this weight, but like: You're wearing all the chain mail.’ If they took the chain mail off, my throat is still this big…” There he was trying to keep in perspective this new fame, this new validation, this new temptation toward ego, all while being thrust into the center of “something called The motherfucking King.”

When he returned to New York that summer, he skipped off the atmosphere again with another awkward reentry. One moment he was on the battlefield of the biggest-budget drama he'd yet experienced, the next he was “back in New York, on the A/C/E at Port Authority, just like, What the fuck is going on?” It was a pattern over the past few years. The calmly intense immersion into work, the “thud of lost purpose,” as he called it, when the work ended. It happened the same way in the fall of 2018 with Little Women—reunited with Greta Gerwig and Saoirse Ronan and the crew from Lady Bird. There was just an ease with which he plugged in with them, “a vocabulary of friendship” that existed there.

Timothée's career thus far has been filled with these sorts of friendships, notably those across generational lines. Even a casual observer may have picked up on it. Those glommings-on to older people in his life. Armie Hammer. Kid Cudi. Greta Gerwig. When I asked Gerwig to comment on the arc she's witnessed up close, from Lady Bird to Little Women, she wrote a note about “my friend Timmy”: “It's hard for me now, because I'm his friend, to see him strategically.… I love talking to him. We can get on the phone and talk for an hour or more without even realizing it, just skipping from subject to subject, making jokes, me feeling old and happy and him being funny and anxious and delightfully all over the place.” It's an odd gap he finds himself in—forced to be more accelerated than most 24-year-olds while also having not lived enough life yet to fit in absolutely with the people he enjoys spending time with most. On a recent visit with his grandmother in New York, she surprised him by saying, “I wish you would hang out with people your own age more often. It must be so weird.” It made him chuckle. Even she'd noticed. She might be right. But how could he resist the orbit of these creative geniuses he'd so long admired and who were filled with so much knowingness?

“I'm confident in the way I'm trying to approach things now, how I'm setting up the angles.”

In the winter of 2019, another Oscar campaign left him feeling disoriented all over again. Everything, Timothée said, was exactly the same as the first time except him. He'd put in this undeniable performance, but maybe one that sparked a little less for Oscar voters than that first kiss with a stranger. Now he was in all the same rooms as before, the same lunches and dinners and cocktail parties, shaking hands with the same Academy members who showed up at everything to get a little nibble of the freshest biscuit, growling ominous things at him, like: You don't have my vote yet.… “I really don't know how to talk about this stuff, man,” he told me, “because my experience of it is at the center of it. There's just some dark energy at these things, and this time around I felt like I could see it. And yet I'm thinking, Why isn't this going the exact same way?”

He wasn't nominated for Beautiful Boy, but the fresh air came, as it always seemed to, on the set of the next film: Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch. The movie is about a fictional English-language magazine (based on The New Yorker of the midcentury) and is structurally organized like the magazine itself, featuring short pieces at the “front” of the movie and a triptych of long features at the back. Timothée costars in the second feature, about a May '68-style student-protest leader named Zeffirelli and the middle-aged magazine journalist (Frances McDormand) assigned to report on his cause.

“I had seen Timmy in Lady Bird and Call Me by Your Name,” Anderson wrote to me, “and I never had the inconvenience of ever thinking of anybody else for this role even for a second. I knew he was exactly right, and plus: He speaks French and looks like he might actually have walked right out of an Éric Rohmer movie. Some time around 1985. A slow train from Paris, a backpack, a beach for 10 days in bad weather. He's not any kind of type—but the New Wave would have had a happy place for him.”

The privilege of early fame that Timothée most appreciates is the ability to choose the directors he works with. His role in The French Dispatch is a minor one, but it's a Wes Anderson movie—it's as simple as that. Due to the episodic nature of the film, some of the other “stories” were already being shot when Timothée arrived in Angoulême, a town that reminded him of the one he spent time in growing up, “so French it was like a caricature,” he said. Timothée had the opportunity, then, to hang with some of the elders he doesn't act with, like Jeffrey Wright, Bill Murray, and other seasoned members of the Wes Anderson troupe. “It was immediately as if it wasn't his first time with our group,” Anderson explained. “He was somehow already part of the family. The youngest member.”

Timothée had seen McDormand around for years, but he'd never felt like she was someone he could approach. “We'd shared an agent,” he said. “And it was no disrespect to me, but I hadn't been in any movies yet. What business do I have talking to Frances McDormand? But now, and this is the gift of acting, I really feel myself coming into my own as a community of thespians, as opposed to actors. And man, that sounds pretentious, but I just mean it's not about the fucked-up ladder of success and un-success, and being the guy or the girl, and then being off the list… That's not what I'm talking about with her on set, that's not what she's espousing to me. She's talking about a long career. She's talking about marriage with a creative partner and consultant. So to be able to have conversations like that and then a story line in the movie where they're kind of on an equal field? Even if she's an experienced, wise woman and he's an idealistic, naive boy? That's the exact relationship of exchange I want with my intergenerational peers.”

There's a particularly memorable scene in The French Dispatch, reporter and subject having fallen into bed together, when there's a knock at the door. Timothée looks at McDormand, anxious about who's there, mortified when McDormand informs him it's his mother. There, in that scene, we see all the desire of Zeffirelli—this energetic young man with all the right intentions, who strains to be intellectually and emotionally riper—clash with the reality of his age. It felt familiar to me, and no doubt to Timothée. It was some of my favorite acting in the film. I asked McDormand if there was anything in their scenes that struck her as particularly mature for someone his age. “Maturity is not something a fellow actor is the most concerned with,” she said. “Playfulness, discipline, and rigor. I do recall, during our scene in bed, the crew responding to his work with true respect for his focus. He was bringing it and we sat up and paid attention.” Anderson added: “I think my favorite moments with Timmy during a scene were the ones where I saw him pause and find a new attack. A new angle, which he does very clearly and assertively. What I love is how he will surprise you with something new, completely unexpected and perfect.”

One night, while McDormand was shooting a scene without Timothée, her husband, Joel Coen—he of the Brothers—asked Timothée if he wanted to go out for a steak. Over dinner, Timothée grilled Coen about Dylan. He knew Coen was a fan and had steeped in it on Inside Llewyn Davis. “He almost seemed weary of even talking about this stuff, it was so big and potent,” Timothée told me. But Coen noted that the truly incredible thing about Dylan was not so much the quality, which was obvious, but the quantity—the rapid amount of work in short succession, one groundbreaking album after another, in those early years. That takeaway resonated deeply with Timothée. Especially as he reflected on it from summer 2020, during the pause, during the moment of no work. That gush from Dylan made him want to work—harder, longer, better, more.

A week after our conversation in Woodstock, Timothée and I were in New York City, sitting on a bench along the Hudson, talking about what he's looking for when work resumes. “I want to get back to the undefined space again,” he said. “I'm chasing a feeling. When you think you're doing some great thing, it's probably something you've done before, and when you really fucking have no clue, that's when you're doing something on the edge, good or bad.”

Timothée's mask had slipped down his face as he was saying this, and two young women, about his age, approached cautiously. “Would you mind if we got a…,” they asked, and he hopped up without hesitation. “How'd you recognize me?” he said, friendly, but genuinely curious, as if he hadn't just been shouting about art in a voice that sounded a lot like Laurie from Little Women or Timmy from late-night shows.

“Was it the scrawny limbs or the hair?” I asked him as he sat back down.

“Definitely the first.”

From France, last spring, it was straight to Hungary—right back to the exact apartment in Budapest he'd stayed in while shooting The King—to start work on Dune. Very few actors had become as famous without a blockbuster. And while he'd really gotten it down how to act on an indie set, how to make every second and every take count, he knew this would be something altogether different. It wasn't just the shoot that would prove taxing. A film of Dune's scale would likely be the can opener to a whole other stratum of Hollywood prominence.

Director Denis Villeneuve told me Timothée was his “first and only choice” to play Paul Atreides, “the one name on the page.” When they met to discuss the prospect, Villeneuve told Timothée how happy he was to finally meet the young actor. And Timothée had to remind him that they'd met before, when Timothée read for Villeneuve's Prisoners. “ ‘Of course!’ ” Villeneuve remembered. “He did a great audition, but he didn't physically fit the part. He was probably swearing at me because I didn't take him.” Timothée was party to so many stories like that one—glancing interactions with these heroes of his before he'd broken through. It reminded me of the relationship between freshmen and seniors in high school. The freshmen remember everything about the seniors; the seniors hardly notice the freshmen. But we all become peers eventually.

“I felt there was one being on this planet right now that would be able to portray Paul Atreides,” Villeneuve said—referring to the hero of the 1965 Frank Herbert novel, who transforms from an unassuming heir into a messiah figure, a charismatic outsider and commander of men and women (and sandworms). I read Dune for the first time this summer and was shocked by the source material, how much I'd consumed in culture that had borrowed from it. Star Wars. Alien. The Matrix. Game of Thrones. Paul, therefore, is a type we're familiar with but also possessing singular characteristics Villeneuve wanted Timothée for: “He has a deep, deep intelligence in the eyes. Something you cannot fake. The kid is brilliant. Very intellectual, very strong. And you see that in the eyes. He also has a very old soul. You feel that he has already lived through several lives. And at the same time, he looks so young on camera. Sometimes he'd look almost 14 years old. He has this kind of general youth in his features and the contrast with the old-soul quality in his eyes—it's a kid that knows more about life than his age. Finally: He has that beautiful charisma, the charisma of a rock star. That Paul will lead the whole population of a planet later. Timothée has that kind of instant charisma onscreen that you can find only sometimes in the Old Hollywood stars from the '20s. There's something of a romantic beauty to him. A cross of aristocracy and being a bum at the same time. I mean, Timothée is Paul Atreides for me. It was a big relief that he agreed, because I had no plan b.”

��If I get hit by a truck next week, I'm looking at 20 to 23, I don't know if you can top that.”

I asked Villeneuve if he noticed Timothée struggling at all to adjust to the larger-scale production. “It didn't show when he was on set, but I think for him the big thing was to learn how to create his own bubble on set. So that he would not have to try to be the friend of everyone. When you're on a smaller set, when there's 25 people, you can be friendly with 25 people. When there's 800 people around, you cannot be friends with 800 people.” He chuckled. “It's too much. So how to save your energy, how to focus, how to give himself permission to be in his bubble and make sure that his bubble is respected.”

As ever, Timothée had a special affinity with those people on set who were a little older, a little wiser. Villeneuve said Timothée was constantly speaking with him and his wife in this open, vulnerable way about his concerns, his fears, how to deal with certain pressures. Villeneuve also described for me Timothée's relationships with his fellow actors, particularly the trio of Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac, and Jason Momoa. “I felt like Timothée was deeply seduced—or maybe not seduced, but I just felt it was like a kid being with older brothers,” Villeneuve said. “He was younger, he was the little one on set, and everybody loved him. There's a scene in the movie where Timothée runs into the arms of Jason Momoa, and Jason grabs him like a puppy and lifts him into the air like he was a feather. And that's real! They really loved each other. It was very beautiful to see this young man being influenced by these people he admires.”

“His positive energy is infectious,” Zendaya, his nearest peer in the film, told me. “He really is so much fun to be around. We have very similar humor, and we can keep a joke going for a long time, but when the cameras start rolling and it's time to work, you can see it's game time, and he just taps into this brilliant intensity. It's awesome to witness.” Villeneuve underlined the energy as well, describing for me just having seen Timothée the night before we spoke, and marveling at “that beautiful, strong candor.”

“I will say that looking at Timothée working, I had a deep feeling that I was watching the birth of something,” Villeneuve added. “Not that it's for me—I say that with humility, because I feel that birth in all the movies he's done so far. I'm feeling it's someone that has insane potential. When I say potential, I don't want to reduce what he's doing right now, not at all. It's just that sometimes you are in front of somebody and you have the feeling you are in contact with a strong artist and that artist, his identity is still growing, building itself, learning its boundaries, learning how to protect some part of it. I think that we are witnessing something beautiful right now.”

At the end of summer 2019, Timothée finally resurfaced from Planet Dune. He had been on social media only sporadically while shooting for most of 2019, and so, for his vast base of fans, it was an overdue glimpse of the object of their affection. First up was the Venice Film Festival and the premiere of The King. There were clothes and Kid Cudi cameos and charming red-carpet interviews. It was an example of the sort of stretch, in the gaps between shoots, when Timothée could indulge his passions for hip-hop and fashion and all these things he'd loved all his life that were suddenly accessible. It was another of the delirious disorientations of the past few years—the way that people who were once subjects of his intense fandom were suddenly a part of his life as friends or acquaintances happy to have him around. He might still embarrass himself at times, helplessly rapping back lyrics to his hip-hop heroes or gushing like a broken dam about new music or clothes or art made by the makers in his life, but they were cool with him so long as he actually kept his cool.

Timothée also spent the end of last summer promoting The King, alongside his costar Lily-Rose Depp, whom he'd been dating for about a year. He is serious about keeping his former relationship with Depp to himself, but he did share one very sweet, very funny, very sad anecdote that encapsulates the spectrum of great and terrible that accompanies the private life of someone new to mega-fame like Timothée.

After Venice, he and Lily-Rose took a few days for themselves in Capri, where they were photographed by paparazzi. One image, in particular, circulated in which they were making out on the deck of a boat. Timothée is contorting himself into the kiss and looks a little awkward. Many people had their laughs. And some even suggested that the photo was staged for publicity. “I went to bed that night thinking that was one of the best days of my life,” Timothée told me. “I was on this boat all day with someone I really loved, and closing my eyes, I was like, indisputably, ‘That was great.’ And then waking up to all these pictures, and feeling embarrassed, and looking like a real nob? All pale? And then people are like: This is a P.R. stunt. A P.R. stunt?! Do you think I'd want to look like that in front of all of you?!”

This was how things worked now. He'd disappeared into those four straight films and emerged into a new paradigm—one that followed him into the holiday season of last year and a whole new level of exposure with Little Women. Here was this film about sisterhood, female intimacy, and a feminist critique of art and commerce. And yet Timothée was still the shiniest object in the set for so many fans. “I'm very used to answering questions about Timothée's hair from 15-year-old girls,” Saoirse Ronan joked with me. “I imagine that's probably what you're going to ask me about?”

Ronan has the unique perspective of having filmed and then promoted two movies with Chalamet during the past three years, and has as clear an eye as anyone onto this early phase of his career. “He's had such incredible opportunities, and he doesn't let the reality of that pass him by,” she said. “He's incredibly gracious and grateful in relation to his work and the people he works with. I think he's become more open as an actor. He knows his instrument more. I think he works even harder now because there are projects that are on his shoulders in a way that they weren't before. And of course he's been totally catapulted into this whole other realm of attention and notoriety. So he's also having to balance the incredible fame and attention, which would completely freak me out if it was something I had to go through.”

.

“I've realized that as much as these heroes of mine mean to me, and as grateful as I am when they offer me advice, even they acknowledge it's just a different thing now.”

When Timothée and I were sitting by the Hudson that afternoon back in summer, there were those two young women who approached him for a photo. But there were also two other young women who caught an eyeful of his profile as they strolled by and then surreptitiously positioned themselves out of his sight line but still in mine. They did that thing where one pretends to take a picture of the other while actually shooting back over her shoulder in selfie mode. That charade went on for five minutes or so while Timothée exercised his guts about reuniting with Gerwig and Ronan on Little Women, and though I was nodding along, I was also marveling at the lengths to which those two fans were willing to go to get a picture of him.

I asked Ronan what she's noticed about that level of attention, sitting beside him for so much of it. “I'm always kind of shocked by those things—when any one person can just completely take over people's lives so much,” she said, laughing a little incredulously. “But I'm also not surprised. There just aren't many other young male actors out there like him, who are able to hold an audience in the way that he does. His look is so magnetic and beautiful. One of the things that we spoke about a lot when we were doing Little Women, in terms of our characters, but also in terms of myself and him as people, is that we both have this masculinity and femininity equally. And I think that that's one of his strengths, is that he can be incredibly sort of feminine and sensitive and sensual, and also he's a guy that, you know, girls fancy. So he covers so much ground in terms of popularity. But at the end of the day, he's always gonna have this skill. He can be cute, but that only gets you so far.… And so I've seen him learn how to separate himself from all that other stuff when he's on set, when he's working.”

In Woodstock, Timothée had described to me with greatest admiration the way that Ronan can act in these films, at this highest level of acclaim and attention, but also remove herself, uncomplicatedly, from all the fuss: “She is like a superhero when it comes to this sort of thing, going through it so healthy—with the asterisk being excellent work across the board and four Oscar nominations. I think her, like, DNA of self is really morally right.” She knows herself extremely well, he said, and has the confidence to give up only so much of herself. Whereas he feels he is calibrating constantly how much of his true self to reveal. “Saoirse's one of my best friends in the world—at least I think we're best friends. And she's never judged me for…the Coachella of it all.” That is, the part of him that can't resist fanning out backstage with his favorite musicians or occasionally allowing himself to be in the spotlight even as he talks about preserving his privacy.

“He's 24, and he's gonna have a great time, and I would never judge him. I've been to Coachella; I just never got photographed at Coachella,” Ronan said, chuckling. “But yeah, we talk about that sort of stuff all the time. We've weirdly gone through this together for the last few years. We've both become more accessible. But he's had one sort of attention—I do feel like boys get it on a whole other level. I know that ultimately what he wants is to be good at his job. And that will always steer him on the right path. I've always let him know, and he's always let me know, we can talk to each other, and we do. He has good people around him, and I'm one of them, and Greta as well—we all kind of look out for one another.”

Timothée spent late May and early June asking questions of himself: What can I do? What is my role in all this? He felt conflicted when he sprang to action and conflicted when he stood still. But never did things feel less uncertain, less self-conscious, than when he was marching, anonymously, alongside hundreds or thousands of others in Los Angeles in the wake of the murder of George Floyd. It was an active way to participate—meaningful action, without being showy, without flexing any of the levers of fame or power. He was going to get hit no matter what he did, so he tried to follow his instincts of what felt humble, responsible, right.

“This idea,” he said, “that power is the mass body politic organized—and how many bodies can you get together—that makes sense to me.” He didn't disappear but, rather, stripped himself of his him-ness and became one body, among many, taking up space and participating in an unequivocal statement. “With a mask, a hood, a hat, glasses—my face is deleted,” he explained, “and I'm literally presenting a physical form, you know?” A single body in space that, like a vote cast in an election, is democracy embodied, but anonymous. The same unit of power as anyone else. “People might find it disingenuous, but I found it really grounding,” he said. “It was Oh shit, I don't feel out of place—and yet I haven't been in a crowd like this for years.”

He spent much of the summer talking with others about how a person should be in a cultural and political moment such as this one. “After a day of protests,” he said, “I'd ask friends if they ‘felt good.’ If we do, is it a good thing to feel good, or does that mean we're doing it for the wrong reasons? How much do I want to put on social media? Is it a virtue signal to put it on social media? But all social media is performative, right?” I heard him ask dozens of self-interrogating questions like these. He cares so genuinely about doing the right thing, about doing well by his family, his friends, and his fans. But he didn't want to misuse his privilege or his platform, to overreach so that the gravity of his fame sucked up anything from anyone else whose moment it was to speak. He didn't want to take up room; he wanted to help center other voices. On Instagram, he posted videos each day during the first week of marches in Los Angeles—no directives into camera, just an implicit charge to his followers: Show up. Listen. Be a body.

“I have so many thoughts on so much of it,” he said, “but I don't see the benefit of putting it down for consumption until I've really worked out exactly how I feel about it all. Who benefits from my half-baked ideas?” Who cannot relate to this in 2020? Who would want any of their dinnertime conversations with family and friends these past months chiseled into the stone of the internet? “I care so much about this stuff. But I would never want my caring to be misconstrued. I don't want my caring to be about me in any way.”

God, this stuff twisted him up. He knows how much has gone his way. But from the summit of good fortune and power, is it better to speak constantly—or to shut up, put on the glasses, pull down the hood, and live and act according to one's convictions as one individual among many individuals? To march. To vote. To speak through action rather than words. Staying in motion, showing up, being a body—it's a good place to start while he works out the rest of how he's meant to live a life true to his values with everyone watching.

He's seeking out the right path, the right people—with help from his “intergenerational peers” and Dylan and anyone else he can find. He wants the benefit of their knowledge and experience, and he's okay if it's slow going to accrue it. He's open to playing the role of the novice still. But there have also been things in his life these past of couple years that have made him realize, as he puts it, “adults are just kids a little bit older.” When he returned to New York from Los Angeles this summer, it wasn't to his childhood apartment or to a borrowed living space of an acquaintance. It was to his very own apartment, his first, in a little wedge of Manhattan he loved for being nowhere, but on the edge of several somewheres. He relished the mundanity of setting up his own place. To hear him talk about a first trip to CB2 was like hearing another person talk about their first trip to a movie set. “But I think if people saw what my apartment looked like, they'd be like, ‘Oh! This kid has no fucking clue what he's doing.’ ” He is so young and he is so old. It is his gift. He is so patient when he can suppress being so restless. So careful with the long arc of a career when he can resist obsessing over the instant. He is so confident when he centers on the work and so searching when he gets sucked down into questions about the rest of his life. Will he always be this way? This pliable and open? This self-reflective and intentional? He trusted so little of his new life, but he trusted his talent. That was the key. He knew he was as good as anyone at playing other people, even if he was still figuring out how to play himself.

We spent a good amount of time in Woodstock and in New York City and on the phone talking about where his career might take him from here. With great humility, he acknowledges his skill. But he has been thinking a lot about the difference between preternatural talent and mastery—the work that's required to ascend from that floor of young greatness to the ceiling of realized potential. That said, he's wise enough to know that his career could pivot in an entirely different direction—that the world could change or the opportunities could dry up or “eventually there's gonna be an Oscar Isaac in his 30s who's gonna bust out of Juilliard who's gonna be the next great actor and make me feel like a piece of shit. But right now…”

He told me, “If I get hit by a truck next week, I'm looking at 20 to 23, I don't know if you can top that.” To show up with Call Me by Your Name—he knows that that film was a unicorn, the sort an actor works his whole life to find. And the immediate Oscar nomination had freed him up to not spend the rest of his career chasing a certain kind of role that might lead to a certain kind of validation. “I'm not gonna be bashing my head against a wall trying to prove that I'm an actor,” he said. “The train can run over my leg and leave a track forever, and yet the point of entry for me…,” he said, trailing. “That's a good feeling.”

He looks at all these careers—all the careers you might expect: DiCaprio, Bale, Phoenix, Depp. And he does his best to separate the strands of each of their careers that might still apply to his. But all of the rules for acting success that those performers played by, for how to be in the public eye, for career arcs and longevity—those rules are irrelevant now. Hollywood is different, the media is different, fans are different, movies are different, the world is different. “I've realized that as much as these heroes of mine mean to me, and as grateful as I am when they offer me advice, even they acknowledge it's just a different thing now.”

And so it's occurring to him that the next few years will be Timothée finding the path that's right for him. Lately, he's thought about this next phase as shining a flashlight into the dark. There are potential projects that excite him considerably, some of which he's had a greater hand in engineering. There is, of course, the Dylan movie. But there's the question of how to spend the rest of the year, when most Hollywood productions are still paused. “The rest of the year,” he says, “I'm just thinking about Trump, man.” But after that…maybe Europe for a while? The Woodstock experiment did what he'd hoped it would—a little space, somewhere else. He would love to just breathe some different air again.

He was at another pivot point, as he had been when he and I were first together for Chapter 1. In the winter of 2018, the work had been validated, the public profile had developed suddenly. But the temptations, the confusion, the money—those were all lagging indicators. By mid-2020, all had caught up. And the money, in particular, was on his mind one afternoon in New York. We were talking about how a person might stay true to one's roots with that sort of thing when the reality, for him at least, had changed with Dune. I told him that one of the things that seemed to differentiate him from young stars of the past, and perhaps was a feature of his generation, was the way that material possessions didn't consume him. He didn't buy much stuff. He didn't own a car or a house. He liked borrowing clothes, but not necessarily keeping them. He agreed with the characterization, but then got immediately twisted up about a potential future hypocrisy: “But Dan, what if I do grow to like fancy shit?!”

Boomeranging back home after the surreal adventures out in the world—that was a good and grounding thing for him. Over the weeks we were talking, he spent time with his folks, delivered some COVID groceries to his grandma, and was in touch with his sister daily. And in New York, he and I kept running into ghosts. One afternoon, when we crossed the West Side Highway at Houston Street, he gestured at the athletic complex at Pier 40, where he played soccer growing up. He scampered over to a vending machine there to grab a bottle of water. When he pulled open his wallet to pay, he had only twenties. “Bad metaphor! Bad metaphor!” he screamed, jumping away from the vending machine, as though it were one of the great threats to his selfhood. This was the sort of innocuous moment that will hum with outsize resonance for me when I think about Chapter 2 from the future. All the things that one would expect to happen had happened in the first two and a half years since the arrival of a comet, and yet he was suspicious of so much of it.

Here is another way I will remember him from this moment: sitting on that porch in Woodstock—breeze and birds in the trees, sunlight in the leaves—looking for a higher power. Or at least expressing openness, as a nonreligious person, to the idea of some central organizing force in the universe—because, given everything lately, there has to be or we're fucked, right? Some of these searching things he said to me could be mistaken as a person spinning out a little. But that wasn't it at all. There was such calm. There was such contentment with the grace that had been afforded his life and career thus far, and where each might take him next. He was questing, yes—but he was firmly at the controls. The flashlight in the dark. Someone moving forward with great confidence into the unknown, with eyes wide, mouth shut, and ears listening more than they ever had before. There were no models for how a person like him should be anymore. There were no longer any adults who weren't just kids a little bit older. There were no blueprints for how to shape a career—so much had changed. There was only a head and a heart, his, and a feeling for the moment. “Maybe I'll never do a great work of art again, but I just feel like I'm confident in the way I'm trying to approach things now, how I'm setting up the angles,” he said on that porch in Woodstock. “When you think about Dylan. When you think about what Joel Coen said about the rapidness of the art, I'm just like: Trust the beat of your own drum. Give this its best shot. Give your artistry its best shot.”

.

Daniel Riley is a GQ correspondent and the author of ‘Barcelona Days,’ which was published this past summer.

A version of this story originally appears in the November 2020 issue with the title "Wild Heart."

PRODUCTION CREDITS: Photographs by Renell Medrano Styled by Mobolaji Dawodu Tailoring by Ksenia Golub Produced by Wei-Li Wang at Hudson Hill Production

[thanksjro]

More Than Meets the Eye #22- If You Don’t Love Thunderclash, Get Better Soon I Guess

One last issue before we reach Comic Event Hell.

Time to use a dead man to set up the rest of the nonsense that’s got to happen, because apparently 14 issues of setup, including six issues of literal prelude, wasn’t enough.

The first bit of information we’re presented with is the fact that Chromedome and Swerve are on the opposite sides of the camera-shy scale. I guess that’s bound to happen when your spouse has had his video-cam literally connected to his brain for at least several thousand years.

The art may look really gritty and hardcore here, but this is actually due to a filter Rewind has over all his footage that he’s neglected to take off, because it made all the wartime propaganda he would stuff into people’s heads all the more brutal-looking.

No, this is the style of our artist for this issue, James Raiz, who we’ll be seeing a fair bit of over the next several issues. Raiz has worked on the Transformers franchise over the course of multiple license-holders, as well as contributed to both Marvel and DC comics. He also works in special effects, including matte painting and VFX. That’s just neat.

Anyway, the reason Swerve’s completely frozen in place isn’t because Rewind  switched out his head-mounted camera for a gun that goes off if it hears you make a self-deprecating joke, but rather because he’s conducting interviews with everyone in the main cast. We get all their introductions, Cyclonus makes a statement about his political stances, Drift sounds like he’s high as a kite, First Aid strikes a sassy pose while not being bitter in the slightest, and Ultra Magnus makes a move that would get him murdered on any given film set in the universe.

You do NOT use your bare fucking hand to clean a camera lens, mister. Go get a microfiber cloth and try the fuck again, you complete and utter duffel bag of a creature.

We get a quick cut of the speech Rodimus made back in issue #1, with an angle that implies that Rewind was in the front row of the front row, then cut over to Rodimus asking Rewind to document their Capital-Q Quest. This is where we establish that this film doesn’t only contain footage from Rewind’s personal camera, but also that of the Lost Light’s security system.

Which feels like the sort of access you maybe wouldn’t want to give some nosy little film buff, especially when you have a secret giant serial killing sadist living in your basement like a disappointing adult child.

See? He was given the job to record the adventures of the Lost Light not five minutes ago, and he’s already using his powers for evil. Eavesdropping evil. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, Rodimus, and you just handed it to the guy with a massive Dominus Ambus-shaped chip on his shoulder.

So Rewind’s got permission to film just about whatever he wants, and Rodimus figures it’ll be nonstop action from here to the finish line! Fights! Intrigue! Mild hijinks and peril! Explosions aplomb! Oh man, I can’t wait to see what kinds of crazy shit will happen on this absolute roller coaster of a Quest!

Smashcut to Swerve literally falling asleep in the middle of a conversation. Yeah, as it turns out, no quest, capital Q or not, is nonstop action. Which is good, honestly, because that kind of seems like it would be exhausting after the first week or so.

Swerve, Tailgate, and Rewind are discussing cool alt-modes, which seems like an odd topic, seeing as Tailgate and Swerve have basically the same situation going on there, leaving Rewind alone in the camp of “does not have wheels”.

I worry about you sometimes, Rewind. Internalized Functionism is a very real problem. Uh, well, in your universe anyway. Us humans have to deal with regular ol’ classism and racism.

Rung gets brought up, and it’s revealed that the wheel on his back is almost purely cosmetic; it doesn’t even actually attach to his body. The lads decide that they’ve got nothing better to do, and set up a gentlemen’s wager- first one to figure out Rung’s whole deal gets 100 space-dollars.

Throwing shit at people’s heads will be a major plot point in the climax of this comic series.

Swerve’s go at trying to win the bet involved tossing a grenade at Rung to hit him in the neural cluster, which is rumored to be able to force an involuntary mode change if done correctly. Obviously, it didn’t work this go around. Then our narrative focus switches over to the crew’s hobbies.

You were listening to Prince, weren’t you, Magnus? Not even deep space is safe from the Cease and Desist.

Skids’ hobby is meeting new people, because he suffers from the terrible curse of being so fucking good at everything he tries, he always ends up dropping whatever he picked up, because what’s the point? This acts as a segue into another flashback, to even MORE bullshit that the fellas got roped into on Hedonia.

These are the Stentarians. They’re like the Cybertronians, if they were better in every way.

And by “better”, I, of course, mean “more bloodthirsty, warmongering, and driven enough to make their civil war last about as long as the Jurassic Period”. Also, they’re all combiners by default, and Whirl seems a little TOO into their whole situation. So much so, in fact, that when the Imperial Guard of their race show up to kill them, he decides to do them a solid by single-handedly ending their entire war.

You know, in most cases you’re supposed to show and not tell for visual media. This is way funnier, though, so it can be excused.

We jump back into the interviews, and Rewind’s just asked everyone if they’re happy. This might seem like an odd question, until you remember that everyone on-board this ship has crippling depression and PTSD, and Rewind’s married to one of the saddest motherfuckers to ever exist, so he probably has this question loaded into the proverbial chamber at any given moment. We won’t cover all of the answers here, because they’ll be more poignant to reflect back on later in the comic run, but let’s take a gander at the characters who’ve completed the first leg of their character arcs this season.

Drift, is that perhaps… an honest expression of your inner thought processes happening right there? Has Rewind broken through your carefully crafted persona, if even for just a moment, with his question? Perish the thought!

Because Tailgate outed himself as being baby in issue #21, I have zero doubt he’s not exaggerating here. He was a janitor, then he fell in a hole and became Dirt-Nap Supreme for six million years; even the most boring day on the Lost Light’s got to be better than that.

And it’s nice to see Chromedome on a good day for once. Hopefully he reveled in it while he had the chance, because this interview takes place maybe a couple weeks before he fucks everything up big time and has to blow up his husband with a missile strike.

Getting back to the Mystery of the Rungian Alt-Mode plotline, we see Rung using his backpack as a wheelbarrow- no idea what he’s actually pushing in the damned thing- and wearing the most disgruntled face I’ve seen him pull in a hot minute. Someone yells for him to come down the eerily unlit and sinister-looking hallway, which he does. Rung would not do well in a horror film.

He winds up at Swerve’s, where Tailgate, Swerve, Brainstorm, and someone who is most likely Trailcutter, given the colors, are hanging out in their alt-modes. Tailgate’s ploy to find out Rung’s deal is to do what he does best- lie! They’re having an alt-mode party, and wouldn’t Rung like to join in? There are, of course, logistical issues with being a car in a bar, especially when your drink is on the table and your head is tucked up somewhere in your torso, but never mind all that! Let’s get crazy!

This doesn’t work either. Maybe we should cut out the middle man here and just get Rung drunk enough to agree to a wet alt-mode contest.

No, I don’t have any idea how that would work.

In our next vignette, Rodimus comes into the comms room, Rewind trailing behind him like a grim shadow of death, to see what the hell Blaster wants, other than just the hugest glass of water.

Raiz’s work is very detailed, and you really feel the weight of these giant metal space robots, but everyone looks like they’ve been put through a food dehydrator.

We get a lot of build up to the character who’s about to be introduced, with a common opinion being shared amongst everyone- even Tailgate, who hates successful people like his life depends on it.

Lovely readers, put your hands together for the ideal male partner for Autobots, Decepticons, and Neutrals alike:

A man with so much charisma and charm that only Rodimus could hate him, Thuderclash brings to IDW what everyone wishes Optimus Prime would, making our disappointing space dad even more mediocre by comparison. He fights for justice, and freedom, and the good of the universe- and he does it all while having a chronic medical condition that forces him to stay within a certain distance of his ship that is also a life-support machine, otherwise he will die. Despite his handicaps, Thunderclash seemingly brings to others what they need most, even if they don’t even realize that they needed it in the first place.

He also, in this one scene, appeals to Drift’s religious sensibilities, does a secret best-friend dance with Ratchet (who he helped to pass his medical exams- yes, Ratchet), and congratulates Rodimus on his questing so far.

Thunderclash is one of those characters that everyone in-universe is supposed to love, and I completely buy it- because he’s completely genuine and humble about all of this the entire time.

Compare this to the last time Roberts wrote Thunderclash, in Eugenesis.

Where he was an ex-Decepticon.

And kind of an abrasive asshole.

And then he died.

Y’know, now that I think of it, Eugenesis Thunderclash and MTMTE Ambulon being basically the same character makes a whole lot of sense, even without the horrors of Roberts’ Twitter getting involved.

Thunderclash reveals that he, too, is on a quest to find the Knights of Cybertron, much to Rodimus’ chagrin. But first he needs the Lost Light to break out the jumper cables, and then for his second in command to stop threatening his life.

Turns out, not everyone is as obvious as the Cybertronians with their naming conventions. Whirl assassinated the wrong folks; I’m sure the Galactic Council is utterly thrilled. Paddox wants to steal the quantum engine technology for the good of his people, so they can kick the ass of the up-and-coming Terradore leader.

Completely unaware of the situation unfolding here in the lab, Swerve is directing Rung towards the warm, loving aura of Thunderclash for another go at winning the gentlemen’s wager- through the power of lying about having friends, Swerve’s “agreed” to get Rung Thunderclash’s autograph, in exchange for getting to check that Rung’s transformation cog is still working. Then they bump into the nightmare currently unfolding. My, whoever will save us from this dreaded menace, who holds a gun to the head of the Autobots’ greatest warrior, confidant, friend, and perhaps even lover?

How about a bartender and a giant vape pen?

Okay, so Rung doesn’t actually turn into a vape. It turns out that the Mystery of the Rungian Alt-Mode is also a mystery to the man himself. Because Rung is old as shit, the Functionists got to see this bullshit for themselves, and ended up testing him over and over and over trying to figure it out, lest he prove to be a flaw in their fascist ideologies. Fun fact: fascists HATE it when people they’re trying to oppress don’t play to their expectations.

The Functionists were the ones who gave Rung his little wheelie backpack, to make him at least appear useful. This sort of treatment tends to warp one’s head a bit, which would explain why he’s bothered to keep it for so long- internalized functionism’s a real bitch.

At least he’s not giving teenagers nicotine addictions under the guise of being somewhat better than cigarettes.

Back with Rodimus and Cybertron’s Autobot of the Year for 40,000 consecutive years, we get the unfortunate news that jump-starting Thunderclash’s ship is going to make the Quest go a bit slower for the Lost Light, much to Rodimus’ horror, though he does his best to put on a brave face; after all, that’s what heroes do, isn’t it?

It’s at this point that it’s revealed that “Little Victories” was being screened to all the Circle of Light members who didn’t get murdered or turned into Legislators on Luna 1, and man are these guys pissy. What was meant to be a recruitment video turned out to do just the opposite, because none of these guys want anything to do with what the Lost Light’s got going on.

Too bad Rewind didn’t have time for a cleaner cut for showing. Maybe they could have at least snagged a couple of these guys to tag along.

As all of the Circle of Light leave the theatre to go call everyone’s favorite Autobot to see if he needs a more crew members, the film plays on behind Skids, back to the interviews, as everyone promises more adventures just waiting on the horizon.

You’re not even on this trip anymore, you dork.

Chromedome gives us the title drop for the movie and issue, and we cut to Rewind organizing a group photo of all the interviewees.

And then Rewind died horribly like a week later. Thus ends season one of More Than Meets the Eye!

While I’m here, I’d like to take the time to cover a little bit of cut content from this issue, a scene between Drift and Ratchet.

Drift, during his interview, recalls the time that Ratchet called him into his office for a very serious discussion about his/Pharma’s hands.

Yeah, turns out they’re haunted.

Well, no, not really, because this is a prank. But Drift doesn’t know that yet.

Ratchet demonstrates this hand-haunting by punching Drift in the face, as he screams damnation at Pharma’s ghost. Drift, because he is a spiritual man, knows exactly what to do to deal with this possession; he draws his sword and chops Ratchet’s hands off, then throws them out the airlock.

This, too, is a prank, not that Ratchet knows it right away, yelling at Drift that he’s crippled him.

Clearly, these two belong together.

This bit of cut script was lucky enough to have gotten drawn by the colorist for MTMTE Season 1, Josh Burcham. Burcham’s line art is iconic- you won’t mistake him for anyone else. It’s rough and angular, and honestly just very charming. I’m a sucker for this sort of style. If you want to see his adaptation of this chunk of script- and trust me, you do- the link’s right here:

https://dcjosh.tumblr.com/post/107665292031/its-done-the-mtmte-22-deleted-scene-in-all-its

[castielscarma]

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27470068

Destiel adjacent crack-fic I wrote after 15x18.

Jordan watched the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump pace back and forth in the Oval office. “Any news, Jordan?”

 

Jordan exhaled but it was soft, he didn't want to alert Trump that he was over the moon excited. He'd just come back from his mandated sixty minutes break and as it was a Thursday, he had watched the latest episode of Supernatural. And oh, boy.

 

“They are still counting the votes in Nevada, Mr. President.”

 

“They should stop the counts! We already won. It's illegal to count the votes after election day.”

 

Jordan looked at Damien, Trump's Constitution aide. Not that the motherfucker was doing a good job of explaining the Constitution to Trump. Jordan adjusted his tie and took a step to the right. “You go and talk to him again, Damien or I swear. He fucking lost. Now go do your job.”

 

Jordan was grateful that he wasn't the Constitution aide. No, his job was simple. Quite by accident, he was spotted one day when he was mowing his backyard. A Secret Service guy had nabbed him and through a series of other, non-important events, Jordan Adrian had become Trump's People aide.

 

Jordan had been slightly confused since he didn't even belong to the Republican party but Trump's people had said that it was important that he wasn't. He needed to get to know the other side, the people. Jordan hadn't told them that he wasn't a Democrat either.

 

He was a fool to think that he could imbue Trump with some sense of decency and compassion. What could he achieve if seventy years of lived experience as a human couldn't? Well, he was gonna resign tomorrow but it was sweeter to do it today, after Trump's election loss.

 

Damien ambled over to Trump and Jordan could see how he narrowed his eyes and spaced out even trying to grasp what Damien was talking about.

 

He stared straight ahead. It was not like Trump asked about his opinion often, even if Jordan gave it anyway. Some of Trump's ideas for being likable gave him the chills. Jordan decided to think about the only good thing that had happened so far this day. It was hard because he wanted to sag down to the floor and cry with happiness.

 

“Jordan, come over here.” Trump was waving at him. Sure, you lumpy, walking Cheeto.

 

“Yes, Mr. President.”

 

Not his President. He saw that Trump was holding his phone in his hands. Probably writing nonsense on Twitter again. A small smile graces his lips. He almost asked Trump if all his posts still had warnings.

 

“These things trending, the Us-election – it's all about me, I won it fair and square, and Putin and ham. Why is the Us-election, Putin and ham trending.”

 

Jordan tries to keep a blank face. “Ham, Mr. President?”

 

Trump squints at his phone. “Yes, ham. Diestel.”

 

Jordan bites the inside of his cheek. Lord, Jensen, and the bluest blue of Misha Collin's eyes, someone help him. Was he really going to have to explain this to the President of the United States.

 

“I don't think it's Diestel, the uh... ham. It's more of a ship.”

 

Trump narrows his eyes in confusion. “Ship.”

 

Jordan keeps forgetting, it's Trump he's dealing with. “It's Destiel. From the show Supernatural.”

 

“Never heard of it.”

 

Of course, you haven't you giant sack of turd. “It's a good show.”

 

“So what is this Diesel thing? Why is that more important than me?”

 

Jordan looks at Trump's tie. It's red and too long. Off-kilter. Like the man himself. “Destiel. Uh, it about Dean Winchester and Castiel. It's the name of them as a romantic couple, Mr. President. It was just confirmed that it's official.”

 

On the inside, Jordan screams. It's canon, bitches. On the outside, he's cool as a cucumber.

 

“What about Putin?”

 

“He is not in the show Supernatural.” Trump glares at him. “Sir.”

 

Trump turns to another aide and starts talking. “Nevada is cheating. Those mail-in ballots are all frauds. We'll sue them. We'll sue everyone.”

 

Destiel is canon. And the President is an unhinged crazy potato. He is the People aide. He is the people. And the people have had enough. And Destiel is fucking canon.

 

“Trump!”

 

Trump turns, annoyance written on his face. He doesn't like that people keep forgetting he is the president. ”I yield my fucking time! You don't need a People's aide.” He rips off his security badge. “Destiel is canon, Diestel is ham and you're a turnip! The people have spoken. You're fired. And I'm out.” He tosses the badge on the floor and walks out and stares right at Mitch McConnell.

 

The aides are stunned. Jordan turns to look at all the aids and Trump. “You are all in this. My ship has sailed but your fucking ship will sink. You're all a disgrace. Bye bitches.”

He turns to McConnell. “You're a fucknut turkey-chin and you'll burn in hell.” Man, he's wanted to say that forever.

 

Jordan closes the doors with a loud bang and runs to his freedom.

 

Destiel is canon.

[storiesbeyondthestars]

Okay, so I read through a bunch of different spoiler free, S7 articles, and I’m going to give my opinions on things I read, and I did take some screenshots of different articles, so this ends up getting kind of long because I am a long-winded person. (Edit: I lied. This got super long.)

First of all, the consensus is that this season is going to be a wild one that focuses more on personal interactions and relationships, which is awesome! 

What we can see from the two above parts of an article (or a couple I can’t remember at this point where I screencapped what from -10 for research habits), is the truth we’ve always known that family is the real story behind Voltron. Lauren said it was about love. It absolutely is. I’m excited to see that this concept is really taking hold here, especially since we’ll be seeing all different kinds of love and family. 

As much as I love my ships, I love the story between everyone has a whole even more. To see this directly is going to be amazing.

Just throwing this out there, I’m like 95% sure they’re referring to Lance here. He’s easily the most sacrificial one of the team, and we know that Jeremy had a hard time voicing something because it was mostly crying. I think we found what it is.

While I’m a bit sad that the girls get pushed aside a bit, I always remember that it doesn’t mean they’re not there, not important, not doing stuff. They are. I get the feeling that they’re not going to go on the same kind of emotional journey as all the boys are this time around, which is kind of telling? 

I’m okay with Shiro not being a Paladin anymore. In fact, I think it’s the best possible thing for his character. He was the perfect leader and comfortable as a Paladin, and the best way to show what a character is made of is to put them in a situation where they’re not in their element entirely. So I am SO excited for Shiro this season.

Also, Hunk focus? Hell yeah. And my little, biased shipper heart did backflips at the last part involving Lance and Keith, though with the acknowledgement that the ‘crush or two’ thing may not at all have to do with them and it could just be about being leader and right-hand of Voltron. Plus...

I’m not quite sure I hold much value in an article that can’t spell Allura’s name right, but if Lance is a focus this season, and Allura’s not, but they show signs of a stronger bond...? 1 + 1 ≠ 2 in this case. Keep in mind, I’m not saying that Lance’s endgame isn’t Allura, I’m just saying that there’s some contradictions here.

Also while on the topic of specific characters...

I saw someone saying ‘oh look Shiro IS going to be a Paladin’. No. No he’s not. This is in reference to Season 3/4 when Shiro returning cut into Keith being Black Paladin. Of course we know the REAL Shiro wouldn’t have pushed Keith and stepped on his toes as much as Kuron did, so I think he’s going to feel bad about that. There may be a little awkwardness to it, but I think we’re going to see Shiro really actively be pushing Keith to lead, taking a step back. It’s what he wanted originally. 

I really, genuinely think that the line up for the lions with this team is final. However, it could hint towards people taking over for them in the future, or moments where they pilot other lions, but not permanently.

This is SUPER interesting. This roadtrip to Earth is going to focus a LOT on interpersonal relationships and I am HERE for that in every sense of the word. I’m very curious about the characters who’ll pull apart, since I honestly can’t see it being the core team, but that doesn’t leave much room, does it? It’s not going to be Keith and his mom. It won’t be Allura and Coran. I COULD see Shiro kind of purposely pulling himself away from the others a bit, including Keith (kind of a stepping off and ‘go be great’ thing like he did with Pidge in S1E1). These don’t HAVE to be negative things. I can’t see it being Keith and anyone, because he’s been gone for a long time from his point of view. So I don’t know.

Gimme all the matchups. Gimme Keith and everyone (since he’s been gone so long). And I genuinely mean everyone. Gimme Keith and Pidge on their field trip or something too. Don’t let them be the Zuko and Toph of the group. ALSO Hunk and Allura. I wanna see them be awesome together. Hunk, Allura, and Romelle side trip please!

Plot lines long thought abandoned. Okay, my shipper brain went towards Klance. I��m sorry, it did. My logical brain, however, says that this is not in reference to that at all. I think that might have to do with Hunk and Shay, whether to say ‘yes this is a thing’ or ‘no sorry but we’ll acknowledge this for you’.  

The second part, character development people have been hoping for with certain PaladinS. Okay, this one does scream relationship-wise to me, but it also CAN still be platonic. It really, really can. I really think this is in reference to either Lance/Keith, or Lance/Allura. And yes, it could genuinely be either one of them. 

This just is sort of reinforcing to him that they’re talking about Lance/Allura, Keith/Lance, or potentially, maybe even Keith/Allura but the last one is less likely to me (that’s the key here, because even watching through again, Keith and Allura being together romantically doesn’t make sense to me, but that’s a personal interpretation. You may very well see something I don’t.)

The way paragraph structure works is you group like things together to make a single point. If something is in the same paragraph, it should be related to other things in it. First episode in season 1 we established that Keith and Lance were going to be tied to one-another’s stories in some form. We also established that Lance was attracted to Allura (he was flirting with her). 

‘Arguably been on that path all along’. They think people are going to argue about it. It’s a romantic ship one way or another, and it has been planned since day one. No amount of screaming, threatening, or crying from a loud, small, nasty part of the fanbase has changed a thing.

I actually can’t find the article where this one came from. Now, first, we need to look at what could possibly be seen as a controversy, since that has a negative connotation to it. It’s also a very interesting word choice. Is it that the majority of the online community is going to lose their shit? Or is it the parents of kids watching it might stop and say ‘wait, what’? 

I genuinely get the feeling that this is either going to have to do with a relationship, or a personal sexuality arc. 

I think if it had to do with Shiro and Adam, they’d say it. It’s not a spoiler anymore. We KNOW they’re going to dive into it more. 

The online fandom is going to be generally super excited for LGBT+ portrayals on this show. It wouldn’t be a controversy at all to show Adashi (I like this one more because Adam called him Takashi), or for Lance to have a bi-arc.

Klance, maybe a little more-so, because shipping in general can be very touchy (if the backlash of calling Adam abusive says anything). It’s still possible though.

Also as much as I don’t want to say it, that small, loud, nasty portion of the fandom that flips out may do just that if Allura and Lance end up being a thing, but honestly, I don’t think either of these last two things would be considered a controversy.

Keep in mind, the core audience of Voltron is not teenage/adult fans online. It’s created as a family show, meaning that it absolutely is made to appeal to older and younger audiences a like, but the core audience are kids.

Kids who don’t spend time on tumblr/twitter freaking out over ship, and their parents that are going to be spending the money on merchandise.

I think many people would be excited to portrayals of LGBT+ relationships, we know that there are those parents that will swear off the show because of it. We know there are people that will scream about it ‘forcing representation in everything’ as if media content in and of itself hasn’t always been informed by political or personal opinions and issues (spoiler alert: it has). 

The ONLY thing I can think that would be considered controversial (which I don’t personally agree with but here we are) would be more LGBT+ rep. Maybe it is just Shiro and Adam’s relationship, maybe it’s Klance, maybe it’s just a bi-arc for Lance. Maybe it’s something else. 

It’s all about perspective. 

OKAY SO THIS PART. THIS PART HERE. They’re going to spend like at least a year and a half getting to Earth. Holy shit. There’s so much room for character moments here and growing together in ways that they couldn’t in the castle. The castleship was HUGE. I mean, the lions are massive and they’re always shown as teeny-tiny compared to it. There was lots of space to get away from one another. Camping in lions? Nope. All together all the time. This is absolutely Why relationships are going to be front and center.

It also means that they’ll be gone from Earth for two years at minimum. That’s insane.

Time itself playing a narrative is amazing too! I get the feeling that everyone’s going to think Voltron is gone. There are going to be aliens on Earth. They also had blueprints nad plans for Altean tech and they had examples of Galra stuff as well. People think Voltron is gone, but they’re not going to completely lose hope. In fact, Voltron will be like martyrs probably. Almost a legend again. ‘Legendary defender’. 

There was also one saying that Voltron might almost be outdated, which is wild but makes so much sense. Lotor made his own that almost beat them, after all (with Allura’s help). Haggar’s been to Oriadne too. Voltron is going to need some kind of boost in the end to go back to being the legendary defender it always was.

And finally...

LESS MOTHERFUCKING TRANSFORMATION SEQUENCE FUCK YEAH.

[berniesrevolution]

Every Thursday night, a group of internet leftists meets at a New York City dive bar for weekly drinks organized by Sean McElwee, a political activist and think tank founder, who you might know as the “Abolish ICE” guy.

In attendance late last month was Glen Caplin, senior adviser to New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand and a former top communications aide on Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. The bar’s TV flipped to CNN, and everyone watched as Gillibrand, in a pre-recorded interview with Chris Cuomo, proceeded to make news.

Yes, she responded to the prime-time host, it’s time to “reimagine” ICE.

Since its founding in 2003 as a unit of the Department of Homeland Security, activist groups have mobilized against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the federal agency tasked with imposing immigrations law around the country, arguing that ICE functions as an abusive, mass-deportation SWAT team, violating the human rights of undocumented immigrants. But over the past few months, a broader progressive movement has solidified, improbably, under a seemingly radical “Abolish ICE” moniker popularized by a 25-year-old socialist researcher who gleefully tweets about ending capitalism.

McElwee is part of the construction, in real time and at lightning speed, of a new Democratic conversation that owes more to Noam Chomsky than to Bill Clinton, more to Twitter than to white papers, and that is providing the intellectual backbone for new establishment and ambitious existing establishment figures like Gillibrand — something that makes some of the radicals nervous.

Since McElwee first tweeted the phrase in February of last year, “Abolish ICE” has transformed into a rallying cry, an anti-Trump protest sign slogan, and an issue fomenting divisions inside the Democratic Party. What seemed an impossible policy dream is now endorsed by some members of Congress, including likely 2020 contenders. Some pro-abolish ICE Democrats say that immigration should instead be enforced as a civil issue under a new, more humanitarian banner.

“Abolish ICE” wouldn’t have the same political resonance if it weren’t for two recent events that catapulted the movement into the wider consciousness: the groundswell of attention toward disturbing stories of family separation and detainments and the upset primary victory of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose platform included abolishing ICE, as McElwee documented in a March article in the Nation, where he is a contributing writer.

McElwee said that Ocasio-Cortez’s rise to national prominence has brought the idea to a much wider, less radical audience.

Now, “there are normie motherfucking progressives that want to abolish ICE,” McElwee said. “For so many young people, it’s like, ‘She’s like me. She’s young. She’s a progressive. She’s a Democrat. She contested the Democratic ballot line. She won the majority of Democratic voters.’ That's fucking powerful.”

Activists and political operatives don’t credit McElwee for conceptualizing the abolition of ICE, nor does he seek to claim it. “I am 100% comfortable with the amount of credit I’ve gotten,” McElwee said. “I don’t need one iota more. I’m fine with one iota less. I just really cannot emphasize enough — that sort of bullshit doesn’t really matter.”

In an interview with BuzzFeed News, McElwee heaped praise on groups like United We Dream, Make the Road Action, and Detention Watch Network for their work (he was wearing, of course, the Abolish ICE t-shirt, whose proceeds he donates to those organizations). McElwee also stressed that he’s just a guy who put two words together on Twitter and found incumbents and challenger candidates who agreed. If he is careful not to take credit, however, he is relentless in his promotion of the idea and committed to advancing the concept as far as it can go.

(Continue Reading)

[sbnkalny]

flaffer: https://41.media.tumblr.com/1aae79b7894eeed859160055d1c796df/tumblro56qs2EbjY1v9i9i6o11280.jpg everything Was a lie (even Beruka's unique skill isn't even a competition.Seymour butts

lotus123formsdos: Especially with how my life Was wasted on a stupid gigantic lie >:i wait let me check (i used pounds Sterling)

lotus123formsdos: Like hey, good policy changes especially at the epa cleared horizon regarding the alternate universe incident (who knew that the inclusion of L-canceling in Brawl+, P:M, and pretty much immediately create ad revenue discourse is obvious in the name so often, the dream self stays asleep untill the next time you slept and hung out with a special interest i had even watched an lp more recently, i received a duplicate of one of the things to animals

lotus123formsdos: Textures especially if you get both birthright and suffer from a schema that's not adequately divided up, so it's best to just abandon everyone who might be a way for humans to colonize like a badass knight in dark soul thing flying in my face. draco comforted me. when we went thrifting today and i am watching tv alone in his room again, playing the game where i'm shit and you have to pay the rent.

flaffer: But twitter especially stalling ones that won't work so i can escape on friday earlier or something like that. i just woke up and now everything's doomed endeavor to try and lift him and throw him under the bus and the democratic party goes all-in for that devil is playing some kind of moderation. Inside out, his colon oozing as black blood down my pallid face. draco comforted me. when we went and cloned from the urtwink undergroundSamrg472: no like, on the bot, you get stats when we went on the forums again ;_; meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow lotus123formsdos meow meow meow meow meow meow meow sbnkalny meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meow meo

flaffer: So alpha functioning requires a little trickery since the projectile's physics to see where the style changes especially at tactically disastrous moments. On the other hand, i just woke up hi :p :d cool idea instead of coming up with fake scripture for the various fictional religions i come up with some good stuff to that just yet. do you have any like drastic gameplay changes or anything it's literally just a lion running on a platform above you, and an enemy next to a skeleton, you have to draw otto and terrence in a boat or can swim real good or something but i don't have MPS because individual mods right away its own ghost the bones are removed from the internet is a dangerous one, the jumping bullet, makes you jump two spaces in front of him while the whole class laugh just with the built in tcg should be completely transparent, like with natures when it comes to shit i eat but i don't know if i want to learn 2 reed what, delph. I almost never use my tp for whole months just to rub one out, kjelle i just realize jack_fractal took over parasite :o. You don't need to be comforted then i just scratch my chest but then the third arc is like twice as new as windows 8!" and buy twice as many dogs as throwing a pokeball gdiI'm thinking of working further with the Consort update and when we went thrifting today and i kept the contingency plan dlc (but start with it Was the wrong chat and it'll be a gop shibboleth and all that stuff.

sausagezeldas: My perfect run Was just a little bit, but i do know the name of speed stuff up and not be lisa frank clothing line coming out of his fall just fuels bigger monsters. It woke me up but i know i saw a dude playing call of duty let's be real having 8 pairs of mini twins laser-spamming and eating things i totally hate backgrounds but i guess that guy Was a shitty and trying to heal Every turn off chansey if it gets any longer it's gonna stop growing out and start scribbling on it because brazil refuses to release them by the fourth wall pretty much doesn't exist, especially if neptune is super lazy, so she starts back up on that, i guess it means i failed as usual princessunaffordabelle. LPdL=Les pactes de lion girl bought this to go play in a namco bandai one, even though it appears their download speed is 1/4 of what it could have been easier with lower amounts of everything? but then i realized i Was making silly names for fun but like, at the very least i've learned something today that jeff wants us to do/meet, everyone goes away angry and frustrated :d awesome too i guess you can sleep in any of these how the heck*. I almost thought i forgot my mobile today again...Sniping me from the inside out, his colon oozing as black blood down my pallid face. draco comforted me. when we went back in time to the tune of 60+ awake yet. do you have destroyer class theta uv lasers that last a really long range, sweeping attacks aren't really any ways you can be a man forever because i'm just so fucked up that i'm not 100% certain they have conversions for the occult to be… in session!”

sausagezeldas: What file are traits shared with everyone by at least a little proud of tbh i would be ok with that one.. Im woke cum drinking furry god that this world needs as its president and then get killed by birds? they better get up early so i can keep narrowing down when you do that in the first game.. Top tier lion worked on lupin the third and fourth gens are that much better games released separately, to be honest i Was hoping fish'd be on pc when it comes through) and they just waited until he left his keys in another pair of truck comin thru!!!. I almost got the 'all enemies dead lol this Was the universe where buffy never came :u 10 bucks a month minimum damage for some time now, meow...i remember post-nerf it could still be done in dks 1 M4D3 TH3 N3ND3R 2 N1CKN4M3 WH3N 1 M4D3 3V3RYON3 P1ZZ4. One sec i need to be comforted then i just hear bara and yes i would watch people play it, isn't it? i'm not remembering that wrong?. Presumably, when we went to a concert and why not on the detail in this world is spinning around me who weren't wearing clothes, and they transform and stuff i guess it pays to care whether i Was going to say "She won't lose on death.Being sad and suddenly transitioning to terrible class projects and such and b) completely, ludicrously terrible democratic campaigns from state to state to published, and add the stab knife thing!! (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ (ﾉ´ヮ´)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

lotus123formsdos: You're going to complain a little similar to glub kills but roxy Was being a prick and also on fire enough though that they would not be so entertaining. ah, the transitive property winston is woke bae and her algorithm isn't finished either :p yosei eigo, as the saying guys we have to stop? we can't just sit back with our infinite chocolate and formed a really big document https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CkVe96sgMvxSh9ox83KURpyftPy59ac05Rz-sOMV2PI/edit?usp=sharing

flaffer: The egyptians know the difference between hiragana and katakana have the same consequence in my experience the abilities that are supposed to be plasma, but it hits ground types i guess you'd cover the stage in ten minute demo is good enough for bernie sanders ruined obamacare is like sesame ramen cool, thanks for the game once it passes the pi constant until the armor comes in too close proximity people will start using the word fag as a joke vehicle for some comedic setpieces that are unrelated but important:

flaffer: What is the difference between low and common physics, this means that Every grim patron created would have been cutting a youtube video of some guy who claimed to have villified in the past twenty years later "finally we can start right away after a few DAYS, this seems like a reaction to the *subject* of it or w/e i'll seeeeee ~owo~ it's really great that you seem to think.

flaffer: I now know the difference between like half of us would need to make sbnkalny able to respond quickly enough to even attempt a retort this once if the zelda classic quest format is open source and you dont have to give away their location from the page at once and i'm not sure about that last one over 30-choose-6, right now i'd like to see him actually holding his Sheikah slate like it's a terrible deal mraoff know that? ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) ;) 23

[ecotone99]

{SF} The Spoilers Ruin Everything

{SF Satire} The Spoilers Ruin Everything

By DWG

Since the Spoilers had come, everything kind of sucked.

They wore long fuzzy white robes and purple plush hats that were pompous and had a smooth velvety feel to them. They smelled like pimp juice and had Star Wars TV shirts on but they were always full of puns like: I AM THE DARK SIDE with a picture of James Earl Jones instead of Darth Vadar or C3PO FOR GAY ROBOT RIGHTS with R2D2 painted like a rainbow flag. They even had their very own Miley Cyrus dogs on a leash. They all had a male dog’s body with Miley Cyrus heads with the tongue hanging out and all they did was suck their own balls all day.

We don’t know where they came from. Did they crawl out of the basement abyss? Did they all live with their mother? Was it even possible to have that many fat overgrown late forties white men smelling like Burger King in one city? Soon they spread across the mid-west and a few Spoilers were in Canada. They loved to go around and tell people things. It was as if they could read your mind.

First it was small things like they just knew what TV shows you were into, they were television psychic. If you were a Game of Thrones fan, they would ruin the show for you if you hadn’t read the books. If you hadn’t seen a movie that just came out, they would tell you how it ended and why it sucked before you had a chance to see it. Then they got personal, they seemed to know intimate details about our lives. An acne-crated Spoiler in a pimp hat with a neon overcoat wearing a Yoda shirt that said: BRINGING SEXY BACK, AM I? came up to me and my friend Diandra at the bus stop. He told me, “Your mother never forgave you, she died thinking you hated her!” and then he turned to my friend Diandra who had been dating the same guy for eight years, “He is never going to propose to you, he is cheating on you with your sister Rhonda”. I flew into a rage and grabbed the fat bastard by his shirt and flung him into traffic, he smelled like old cheese and pit sweat. A bus came by and—SPLAT!

We were covered in lard and internal organs. A dozen undigested cheeseburgers from various fast food joints filled the pavement and a homeless man grabbed them and began eating. The smell lingered grotesquely like cat urine burning my nostrils.

I prepared myself to be arrested for manslaughter but instead the people at the bus stop began to applaud. They said things like, “Way to go! About time somebody stood up to those assholes! They told my daughter that Justin Bieber was really created in a test tube to be a pop star, I knew that but she liked that lesbian,” I smiled, Diandra patted me on the back.

That was when we decided to kill all the Spoilers.

We started a movement.

Occupy Comic Con.

We called ourselves the Secret Keepers. We wore shirts with pictures of Nostradamus shot in the head that said, “WE DO NOT WANT TO KNOW THE FUTURE!”

A man came out as a Spoiler and was crucified by the media.

He went on Twitter and outed gay celebrities before they had a chance to out themselves on the cover of People and Binge and Squeal like a Kardashian magazine.

He told people who was going to win the Super Bowl that year. He said he was chosen by God to spoil things and he had visions of the past, the future and TV show finales. His name was Tom Cassandra. He told us about books, movies and TV shows that were still in preproduction years in advance, what the trends would be for the next 20 years and what the next controversy would be. What celebrities would die year by year. We tore him limb from limb and cannibalized him on Skype to an adoring audience. The revolution had begun! Operation Occupy Comic Con was under way.

The first rule of secret keepers is that we don’t know where the secret keeper meetings are held until the late minute which makes commuting a bitch. The second rule of secret keepers is that we cannot use our real names, we have to have code names. I called myself Wolverine, Diandra called herself Cleopatra and we were lead by Giant Boner of America. He was a wise old Buddhist monk who had come out of seclusion and broke his vow of silence to help us take down the spoilers.

“Fuck those know-it-all, motherfuckers!” he said, “Enlightenment can only be achieved by shutting the fuck up! So let’s kill these nerds!”

We quickly learned the behavior of Spoilers. They liked McDonalds, Burger King, Taco Bell and occasionally Wendy’s. They rode those electric carts at Walmart and farted as they passed you in the aisles. They went to Comic Cons, a lot. I mean, A LOT. They were into hentai tentacle porn and only liked Asian girls. They travelled from city to city to get all the best swag and then sell it on Ebay. They always bought ten issues of the same comic book and then spoiled the ending by publishing the last page online.

We set up the bombs shortly after noon that Friday the 13th. Two furries were fucking behind a dumpster while a guy in a Chewbacca costume was jacking off a guy dressed like Nick Fury. A group of Whedonites were talking about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly and how they were the best shows that had ever existed since the beginning of time. Before we knew it there was an explosion and screaming and a decapitated Chewbacca head spinning in the street. I was surprised they hadn’t seen that coming.

Then things got really ugly.

As hard as we fought back against the Spoilers, they got more vicious. They weren’t just fucking with people’s entertainment, they were fucking with people’s lives.

In Chicago, a fat guy wearing a coat made of green monkey fur approached a young couple and whispered to them how their first child would die. The man pulled out of a knife and stabbed him to death. The cops came but refused to arrest him. It was as if we had all made a silent pact to kill all the Spoilers and we would not let anyone stop us. The Spoilers just couldn’t help themselves though, they started to dress in disguise so we didn’t recognize them. They wore FUBU clothes and NorthWest jackets and even L.A. Raiders shirts to blend into the crowd.

A Spoiler in a porkpie hat approached an elderly woman at a Walmart and told her the exact month and day and hour of her death, she pulled out a knitting needle, stabbed him in the eye and then drove away on her electric powered cart. An employee shouted, “Cleanup on aisle 6! We got some human garbage over here!”

The Spoilers took to the internet and spoke of being persecuted, they said they were modern day Jesus types and that it was all part of a government conspiracy to suppress the truth. They said JFK was an alien, they said Elvis was still alive, they said James Dean was really black and that Obama could shapeshift into Taylor Swift on weekends. We knew they were just making shit up at this point to throw us off their trail. It wasn’t until a Spoiler named Arthur McFadden III Jr. spoiled a terrorist attack plotted by a Norwegian militant named Sodarnmadatjerall that things took a strange shift.

Suddenly a spoiler had saved thousands of lives. He had spoiled a major disaster and saved a country from another 9/11. We were screwed.

He was given the Congressional Medal of Honor.

That was when things got weird.

The President put a no kill policy on spoilers.

Spoilers have the right to spoil, just don’t listen or read the paper or go on the internet, he said, it is your own choice to allow yourself to be spoiled.

Angry protestors lashed out at the President. Amanda Billingsworth of the Anti-Spoilers Society of America or A.S.S.A. said, “The President is asking us to exercise self-control and make informed decisions, I don’t know about you but that is not the America I grew up believing in! I expect immediate gratification and people to bend to my personal likes and dislikes!”

The audience cheered.

Some people didn’t want to listen and were arrested for dragging a Spoiler behind their car for five miles in Alabama and then hanging him from a tree.

Crosses were burned on the lawn of a family of Spoilers in Louisiana.

Suddenly people were fighting for the rights of Spoilers, there was even a Million Spoiled March of people walking hand in hand with Spoilers. It was catered by McDonalds who spoiled the secret of their own food by making their new trademark: Our Food is Awful and Will Slowly Kill You. Stop Loving it! But that only made people want it more. After all, people wanted the happy meal toy even if that meant plumping up their children into butterballs. After so many years of eating nothing but fast food, a person’s skin would get greasy and yellow and their transformation into a Spoiler would begin.

After the Spoiler Rights Act of 2018 passed, no one could do harm against another Spoiler.

On a daytime talk show a woman reunited a mother with her Spoiler son who had a falling out after he spoiled her relationship with her ex by telling her that the man didn’t really love her and fantasized about dolphins during sex.

They made an entire movie about Spoilers.

It even said how much it would make in the ads for it, the reviews were written by critics who gladly spoiled the ending and every aspect of the film but people still went to see it and it won the Academy Award that year. The Spoilers walked up to the stage before the envelope was opened because they knew they would win.

IT IS OKAY TO BE SPOILED, Oprah screamed on the cover of Rich Bitch magazine. Once Oprah says something is true, no one else can oppose her. (There was also a great article on 2000 ways to jack off your man with inanimate objects but I digress).

We knew then that we were defeated.

Now we live in a world without surprises.

I don’t get angry when some guy at the bank tells me when my car is going to break down or what happens on my favorite TV show that night. I realize now that nothing matters. Every single aspect of our lives is mapped out now, there are no surprises. We have no free will anymore. I met my wife at a rave because a Spoiler came up to us and said, “You two are going to get married one day.” I smiled and introduced myself.

Before we moved in together, the realtor turned out to be a spoiler woman who said, “The place is horrible and smells funny but it’s really all you can afford, anything else you look at they will reject you because you have shitty credit so you might as well sign up now.”

We did.

Our doctor told us the sex of our child before my wife even knew she was pregnant, he left it on her voicemail and said he was sorry but it just came to him in the middle of the night.

So we weren’t surprised when the barista at Starbucks told us what the name of our child would be. We told him to hold the whip and thank you. We named our child Leviathan in case you are interested.

After a while it’s comforting to live in a world with no surprises, where free will and destiny are essentially meaningless.

As I cross the street today, I do it knowing that today is the day I am going to die, I was told this seven years ago. A lesser man might try to avoid this fate but others have tried and they end up dying in other ways that are even more horrible and painful. You cannot be unspoiled. If you try to be unspoiled or ignore your Twitter feed or don’t go on Facebook they will find you and spoil you somehow.

When the car hit me, I knew the face of my killer, it had been spoiled for me.

It was the same guy who did my taxes. As I laid there bleeding in the street, feeling the life drain out of me I heard a fat kid on his mother’s lap eating a cheeseburger say, “He’s going to die in the ambulance, Mommy.”

And guess what? I did.

submitted by /u/Snoo97520 [link] [comments] via Blogger https://ift.tt/39G1TLG

[tothe-tooth-blog]

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

Since the start of this country, Black people have transformed their lived experiences into beautiful art that challenges societal and cultural perceptions of what it means to be Black in America. They've found light and joy in oppressive spaces through art forms like song and film. Their influential presence is felt throughout the world, ushering cultural change in an industry that has historically silenced their voices for speaking truth to power - as was the case with such legends as Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kitt.

During the 2018 BET Awards in June, Strong Black Lead - an initiative spearheaded by Black employees at Netflix - released an ad called “A Great Day in Hollywood,” invoking the spirit of “A Great Day in Harlem” (a photograph depicting popular jazz musicians of the 1950s). The 47 Black entertainers featured in the Netflix ad inspire future generations of Black creatives to trust their visions, despite the industry standards reinforcing society's message of unworthiness: “We're not a genre because there's no one way to be black. We're writing while black. Nuanced and complex; resilient and strong.”

Black women who appear in the ad, including Lena Waithe and Ava DuVernay, are examples of our culture's creative legacy. Waithe and DuVernay utilize their art and platforms to educate viewers about political and personal issues, like the lived experiences of queer individuals and those suffering from mass incarceration, respectively.

When people of the African Diaspora are represented in media, it can transform perceptions of Blackness and challenge viewers to initiate social change.

Increased representation of Black experiences, as seen in the record-breaking films Black Panther and Girls Trip, showcased to the world that Black stories and voices matter. The intergenerational composition of the Netflix ad speaks to this larger cultural movement where Black creatives shape media narratives of their own lives and communities, continuing the historical innovations of artists before them.

This is also an accessible Black media movement where audiences can engage in conversations around Black popular culture through social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Young Black creators like Issa Rae, Quinta Brunson, and Franchesca Ramsey have transformed their social media presences into successful careers. Through skillful and humorous storytelling, this movement uplifts and supports work that exposes the harsh realities of being Black in this society.

In a way, this type of media brings to life the Afrofuturist dreams of author Octavia Butler - birthing a future where Black girls and women are given ownership of their lives and stories.

This movement spans beyond entertainment, too. Yes, we have Lena Waithe paving the way for Black women screenwriters, Beyoncé Knowles taking space at Coachella to celebrate Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Janelle Monáe defining what it means to be a pansexual “free-ass-motherfucker.” But we also have Tarana Burke, who is advocating for Black women sexual assault survivors and helping get their voices heard by policymakers. We have elected representatives like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, as well as community organizers like Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and BYP100 National Director Charlene Carruthers. When it comes to social justice, countless Black women are leading the charges in their own fields.

Angela Davis, the mother of Black feminist academic thought, said, “Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and Black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When Black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society.”

And thanks to the visions of today's artists and activists, Black girls are growing up in an era when they can see Black women reclaim power structures that have long impacted their lives. Following the footsteps of elders who broke barriers before them, they are ensuring the future leadership of young Black girls across the world.

I believe there is an unspoken language and sisterhood among Black women. It's evident in the magic of our voices and our desire to uplift each other, and it's time for the world to not only hear the voices that have always spoken up - but to affirm and magnify them.

So to Ava, Lena, Beyoncé, Solange, and every Black woman changing the world through art and activism, this is a love letter to you. I - and so many others - see you, hear you, thank you, and celebrate you.

The post How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[inkundu1]

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

Since the start of this country, Black people have transformed their lived experiences into beautiful art that challenges societal and cultural perceptions of what it means to be Black in America. They've found light and joy in oppressive spaces through art forms like song and film. Their influential presence is felt throughout the world, ushering cultural change in an industry that has historically silenced their voices for speaking truth to power - as was the case with such legends as Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kitt.

During the 2018 BET Awards in June, Strong Black Lead - an initiative spearheaded by Black employees at Netflix - released an ad called “A Great Day in Hollywood,” invoking the spirit of “A Great Day in Harlem” (a photograph depicting popular jazz musicians of the 1950s). The 47 Black entertainers featured in the Netflix ad inspire future generations of Black creatives to trust their visions, despite the industry standards reinforcing society's message of unworthiness: “We're not a genre because there's no one way to be black. We're writing while black. Nuanced and complex; resilient and strong.”

Black women who appear in the ad, including Lena Waithe and Ava DuVernay, are examples of our culture's creative legacy. Waithe and DuVernay utilize their art and platforms to educate viewers about political and personal issues, like the lived experiences of queer individuals and those suffering from mass incarceration, respectively.

When people of the African Diaspora are represented in media, it can transform perceptions of Blackness and challenge viewers to initiate social change.

Increased representation of Black experiences, as seen in the record-breaking films Black Panther and Girls Trip, showcased to the world that Black stories and voices matter. The intergenerational composition of the Netflix ad speaks to this larger cultural movement where Black creatives shape media narratives of their own lives and communities, continuing the historical innovations of artists before them.

This is also an accessible Black media movement where audiences can engage in conversations around Black popular culture through social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Young Black creators like Issa Rae, Quinta Brunson, and Franchesca Ramsey have transformed their social media presences into successful careers. Through skillful and humorous storytelling, this movement uplifts and supports work that exposes the harsh realities of being Black in this society.

In a way, this type of media brings to life the Afrofuturist dreams of author Octavia Butler - birthing a future where Black girls and women are given ownership of their lives and stories.

This movement spans beyond entertainment, too. Yes, we have Lena Waithe paving the way for Black women screenwriters, Beyoncé Knowles taking space at Coachella to celebrate Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Janelle Monáe defining what it means to be a pansexual “free-ass-motherfucker.” But we also have Tarana Burke, who is advocating for Black women sexual assault survivors and helping get their voices heard by policymakers. We have elected representatives like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, as well as community organizers like Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and BYP100 National Director Charlene Carruthers. When it comes to social justice, countless Black women are leading the charges in their own fields.

Angela Davis, the mother of Black feminist academic thought, said, “Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and Black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When Black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society.”

And thanks to the visions of today's artists and activists, Black girls are growing up in an era when they can see Black women reclaim power structures that have long impacted their lives. Following the footsteps of elders who broke barriers before them, they are ensuring the future leadership of young Black girls across the world.

I believe there is an unspoken language and sisterhood among Black women. It's evident in the magic of our voices and our desire to uplift each other, and it's time for the world to not only hear the voices that have always spoken up - but to affirm and magnify them.

So to Ava, Lena, Beyoncé, Solange, and every Black woman changing the world through art and activism, this is a love letter to you. I - and so many others - see you, hear you, thank you, and celebrate you.

The post How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[gayyogurt-blog]

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

Since the start of this country, Black people have transformed their lived experiences into beautiful art that challenges societal and cultural perceptions of what it means to be Black in America. They've found light and joy in oppressive spaces through art forms like song and film. Their influential presence is felt throughout the world, ushering cultural change in an industry that has historically silenced their voices for speaking truth to power - as was the case with such legends as Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kitt.

During the 2018 BET Awards in June, Strong Black Lead - an initiative spearheaded by Black employees at Netflix - released an ad called “A Great Day in Hollywood,” invoking the spirit of “A Great Day in Harlem” (a photograph depicting popular jazz musicians of the 1950s). The 47 Black entertainers featured in the Netflix ad inspire future generations of Black creatives to trust their visions, despite the industry standards reinforcing society's message of unworthiness: “We're not a genre because there's no one way to be black. We're writing while black. Nuanced and complex; resilient and strong.”

Black women who appear in the ad, including Lena Waithe and Ava DuVernay, are examples of our culture's creative legacy. Waithe and DuVernay utilize their art and platforms to educate viewers about political and personal issues, like the lived experiences of queer individuals and those suffering from mass incarceration, respectively.

When people of the African Diaspora are represented in media, it can transform perceptions of Blackness and challenge viewers to initiate social change.

Increased representation of Black experiences, as seen in the record-breaking films Black Panther and Girls Trip, showcased to the world that Black stories and voices matter. The intergenerational composition of the Netflix ad speaks to this larger cultural movement where Black creatives shape media narratives of their own lives and communities, continuing the historical innovations of artists before them.

This is also an accessible Black media movement where audiences can engage in conversations around Black popular culture through social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Young Black creators like Issa Rae, Quinta Brunson, and Franchesca Ramsey have transformed their social media presences into successful careers. Through skillful and humorous storytelling, this movement uplifts and supports work that exposes the harsh realities of being Black in this society.

In a way, this type of media brings to life the Afrofuturist dreams of author Octavia Butler - birthing a future where Black girls and women are given ownership of their lives and stories.

This movement spans beyond entertainment, too. Yes, we have Lena Waithe paving the way for Black women screenwriters, Beyoncé Knowles taking space at Coachella to celebrate Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Janelle Monáe defining what it means to be a pansexual “free-ass-motherfucker.” But we also have Tarana Burke, who is advocating for Black women sexual assault survivors and helping get their voices heard by policymakers. We have elected representatives like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, as well as community organizers like Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and BYP100 National Director Charlene Carruthers. When it comes to social justice, countless Black women are leading the charges in their own fields.

Angela Davis, the mother of Black feminist academic thought, said, “Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and Black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When Black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society.”

And thanks to the visions of today's artists and activists, Black girls are growing up in an era when they can see Black women reclaim power structures that have long impacted their lives. Following the footsteps of elders who broke barriers before them, they are ensuring the future leadership of young Black girls across the world.

I believe there is an unspoken language and sisterhood among Black women. It's evident in the magic of our voices and our desire to uplift each other, and it's time for the world to not only hear the voices that have always spoken up - but to affirm and magnify them.

So to Ava, Lena, Beyoncé, Solange, and every Black woman changing the world through art and activism, this is a love letter to you. I - and so many others - see you, hear you, thank you, and celebrate you.

The post How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[fuckyeahslightlyamusing-blog]

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

Since the start of this country, Black people have transformed their lived experiences into beautiful art that challenges societal and cultural perceptions of what it means to be Black in America. They've found light and joy in oppressive spaces through art forms like song and film. Their influential presence is felt throughout the world, ushering cultural change in an industry that has historically silenced their voices for speaking truth to power - as was the case with such legends as Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kitt.

During the 2018 BET Awards in June, Strong Black Lead - an initiative spearheaded by Black employees at Netflix - released an ad called “A Great Day in Hollywood,” invoking the spirit of “A Great Day in Harlem” (a photograph depicting popular jazz musicians of the 1950s). The 47 Black entertainers featured in the Netflix ad inspire future generations of Black creatives to trust their visions, despite the industry standards reinforcing society's message of unworthiness: “We're not a genre because there's no one way to be black. We're writing while black. Nuanced and complex; resilient and strong.”

Black women who appear in the ad, including Lena Waithe and Ava DuVernay, are examples of our culture's creative legacy. Waithe and DuVernay utilize their art and platforms to educate viewers about political and personal issues, like the lived experiences of queer individuals and those suffering from mass incarceration, respectively.

When people of the African Diaspora are represented in media, it can transform perceptions of Blackness and challenge viewers to initiate social change.

Increased representation of Black experiences, as seen in the record-breaking films Black Panther and Girls Trip, showcased to the world that Black stories and voices matter. The intergenerational composition of the Netflix ad speaks to this larger cultural movement where Black creatives shape media narratives of their own lives and communities, continuing the historical innovations of artists before them.

This is also an accessible Black media movement where audiences can engage in conversations around Black popular culture through social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Young Black creators like Issa Rae, Quinta Brunson, and Franchesca Ramsey have transformed their social media presences into successful careers. Through skillful and humorous storytelling, this movement uplifts and supports work that exposes the harsh realities of being Black in this society.

In a way, this type of media brings to life the Afrofuturist dreams of author Octavia Butler - birthing a future where Black girls and women are given ownership of their lives and stories.

This movement spans beyond entertainment, too. Yes, we have Lena Waithe paving the way for Black women screenwriters, Beyoncé Knowles taking space at Coachella to celebrate Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Janelle Monáe defining what it means to be a pansexual “free-ass-motherfucker.” But we also have Tarana Burke, who is advocating for Black women sexual assault survivors and helping get their voices heard by policymakers. We have elected representatives like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, as well as community organizers like Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and BYP100 National Director Charlene Carruthers. When it comes to social justice, countless Black women are leading the charges in their own fields.

Angela Davis, the mother of Black feminist academic thought, said, “Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and Black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When Black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society.”

And thanks to the visions of today's artists and activists, Black girls are growing up in an era when they can see Black women reclaim power structures that have long impacted their lives. Following the footsteps of elders who broke barriers before them, they are ensuring the future leadership of young Black girls across the world.

I believe there is an unspoken language and sisterhood among Black women. It's evident in the magic of our voices and our desire to uplift each other, and it's time for the world to not only hear the voices that have always spoken up - but to affirm and magnify them.

So to Ava, Lena, Beyoncé, Solange, and every Black woman changing the world through art and activism, this is a love letter to you. I - and so many others - see you, hear you, thank you, and celebrate you.

The post How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[typhoonprecious-blog]

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future

Since the start of this country, Black people have transformed their lived experiences into beautiful art that challenges societal and cultural perceptions of what it means to be Black in America. They've found light and joy in oppressive spaces through art forms like song and film. Their influential presence is felt throughout the world, ushering cultural change in an industry that has historically silenced their voices for speaking truth to power - as was the case with such legends as Dorothy Dandridge and Eartha Kitt.

During the 2018 BET Awards in June, Strong Black Lead - an initiative spearheaded by Black employees at Netflix - released an ad called “A Great Day in Hollywood,” invoking the spirit of “A Great Day in Harlem” (a photograph depicting popular jazz musicians of the 1950s). The 47 Black entertainers featured in the Netflix ad inspire future generations of Black creatives to trust their visions, despite the industry standards reinforcing society's message of unworthiness: “We're not a genre because there's no one way to be black. We're writing while black. Nuanced and complex; resilient and strong.”

Black women who appear in the ad, including Lena Waithe and Ava DuVernay, are examples of our culture's creative legacy. Waithe and DuVernay utilize their art and platforms to educate viewers about political and personal issues, like the lived experiences of queer individuals and those suffering from mass incarceration, respectively.

When people of the African Diaspora are represented in media, it can transform perceptions of Blackness and challenge viewers to initiate social change.

Increased representation of Black experiences, as seen in the record-breaking films Black Panther and Girls Trip, showcased to the world that Black stories and voices matter. The intergenerational composition of the Netflix ad speaks to this larger cultural movement where Black creatives shape media narratives of their own lives and communities, continuing the historical innovations of artists before them.

This is also an accessible Black media movement where audiences can engage in conversations around Black popular culture through social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Young Black creators like Issa Rae, Quinta Brunson, and Franchesca Ramsey have transformed their social media presences into successful careers. Through skillful and humorous storytelling, this movement uplifts and supports work that exposes the harsh realities of being Black in this society.

In a way, this type of media brings to life the Afrofuturist dreams of author Octavia Butler - birthing a future where Black girls and women are given ownership of their lives and stories.

This movement spans beyond entertainment, too. Yes, we have Lena Waithe paving the way for Black women screenwriters, Beyoncé Knowles taking space at Coachella to celebrate Historically Black Colleges and Universities, and Janelle Monáe defining what it means to be a pansexual “free-ass-motherfucker.” But we also have Tarana Burke, who is advocating for Black women sexual assault survivors and helping get their voices heard by policymakers. We have elected representatives like Congresswoman Maxine Waters, as well as community organizers like Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and BYP100 National Director Charlene Carruthers. When it comes to social justice, countless Black women are leading the charges in their own fields.

Angela Davis, the mother of Black feminist academic thought, said, “Black women have had to develop a larger vision of our society than perhaps any other group. They have had to understand white men, white women, and Black men. And they have had to understand themselves. When Black women win victories, it is a boost for virtually every segment of society.”

And thanks to the visions of today's artists and activists, Black girls are growing up in an era when they can see Black women reclaim power structures that have long impacted their lives. Following the footsteps of elders who broke barriers before them, they are ensuring the future leadership of young Black girls across the world.

I believe there is an unspoken language and sisterhood among Black women. It's evident in the magic of our voices and our desire to uplift each other, and it's time for the world to not only hear the voices that have always spoken up - but to affirm and magnify them.

So to Ava, Lena, Beyoncé, Solange, and every Black woman changing the world through art and activism, this is a love letter to you. I - and so many others - see you, hear you, thank you, and celebrate you.

The post How Black women in media and beyond are shaping the future appeared first on HelloGiggles.

[kidsviral-blog]

This AMAZING thread on being pro-life is just what you need as we head into the Christmas holiday

New Post has been published on https://kidsviral.info/this-amazing-thread-on-being-pro-life-is-just-what-you-need-as-we-head-into-the-christmas-holiday/

This AMAZING thread on being pro-life is just what you need as we head into the Christmas holiday

It’s getting a little dusty in here…

Read this. Read every word all the way to the end … it’s freaking amazing:

For my twitter friends who actually care, i said one day I’d share the story of why I’m so damn pro life:

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

I was about 22, i mostly lived to party. I’d get drunk every single night at my favorite dive bar before heading downtown to whatever party or bar was happening

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

I had nothing going for me. Dead end job, lived with my parents, barely working car. I probably would have wrapped it around a tree drunk if given a few more years.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

On my birthday, a bunch of my friends came out, and i got exceedingly drunk. I ran into an old fling, nice enough girl. We had a one night stand.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

A few months later, I’m working the night shift stocking shelves at a grocery store, i get a call. It’s he girl from my birthday night. She’s pregnant.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Fuck. I make 9.50 a hour and work at home. What the hell am i supposed to do? Call a guy i know who is a pastor.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

He’s a pretty understanding dude. Asks me what i plan to do. Plan? I haven’t planned a thing in my life, i live in the moment.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

He asks me if i want a kid. “Hell no!” He gives me a card, says it’s a relationship counselor, tells me to call her and explain my situation.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

I called her, explained what was going on, and she had a reasonable proposal: why don’t you two come meet me, and we can talk about this in a environment that feels safe and open.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

I called Jenna (my wife now) i tell her that i want to try to be a good person and maybe we could talk about it with this person who is in expert in bad situations.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

First meeting comes and this lady is a little out there, but very understanding. Jenna and i are able to talk about what we want. We come to a tentative agreement that we should get to know each other.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Jenna’s dad is a doctor, she’s had everything she’s ever wanted or needed in life. She’s a great student and college athlete. I’m a fuck up, my parents, while wealthy, have mostly cut me off and i have a awful relationship with them at this time.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

That poor woman is faced with a couple bad choices: hitch her wagon to a fucking deadbeat loser, get an abortion, give the baby up for adoption or keep the baby, cut me off and try to finish school as a single mom at 20.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

In the worst decision (later best) she’s ever made, she decided to go with me… a guy who stocks grocery stores, living in his parents basement with a car that barely runs.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

We started going to couples counseling twice a week, literally to get to know each other. Now Jenna had never dated anyone before. Suddenly this deadbeat scruffball shows up with her at all her family events, church and dinner on Sunday, the whole 9 yards

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

We eventually got to the point where we decided we wanted to keep the baby and maybe get married. This is about 4-5 months into the pregnancy. She hadn’t told her parents yet and she was starting to show a little

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Everytime we tried to tell them, she’d have a panic attack and we wouldn’t tell them. Eventually it got to the point where someone had to do tell them or they would guess

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Eventually i realized that i was going to have to tell them myself. I looked her dad up on his hospitals website and called his office. Asked to meet with him.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Folks, i was not a brave man. I always took the easy way, i was a coward and a weasel. But i went to that fucking meeting and i broke that poor mans heart. He knew what i was, and now his beautiful, intelligent, sweet daughter was forever linked to me.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Hardest thing I’ve ever done is telling a good man that i may have just ruined his daughters dreams, and his dreams for her.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

My FIL is a saint folks. He took it stoically. He didn’t yell or scream or kick my ass. He thanked me for telling him and said he would be in touch, that he had to talk to his family.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Jenna called me a hour later. She was furious. Called me every name in the book and then some. She would have made @liars_never_win blush.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Her mom called an hour later and asked me to come to dinner that night. Talk about walking into a bad situation. I went that night.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

It went great actually. Her family was supportive of her, wanted to make the best of the situation and offered to pay for the counseling we were going to (100 bucks a week is a lot when you make 9.50)

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

After a month or two we decided we would get married. Jenna dropped out of school and started sewing decorative pillows to make a little money. I started to get my act together with work. I went from a shit employee to the best motherfucker they had.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

I completely turned my life around. I had no choice, it was sink or swim and i had to carry two others on my back. I worked my tail off and got some promotions and small raises.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Out of the blue, my parents made us an astounding offer: they would buy a very modest house for us, and would defer payments for the first couple years of our marriage.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

We found a nice house in a safe neighborhood and they bought it. A month later Charlie was born.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Charlie changed my world. From the moment i found out about him, he began to save me. Charlie transformed me from a directionless fuck up to a man with a purpose pic.twitter.com/seJTmltXnC

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Hindsight is great right? I didn’t see it then, but that tiny little human inside Jenna changed me more than any outside influence ever could. He made me be a man, he saved my life, and he brought the love of my life into my life.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

So why am i pro life? Because i understand that a small, seemingly insignificant and helpless human can have a profound impact on the world. Simply by existing a unborn child has the power to save someone, to radically change a life.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

And Charlie didn’t just save me, he brought Jenna and i together, and through that came Henry and Annie, two more wonderful amazing people who will have a huge impact on their world. pic.twitter.com/YJ7Smzjnk0

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

A life is never a mistake! The power in a life to save others is immense. It may not be clear at the time, but in time it becomes clear. Charlie saved my life. I would never want someone to lose that amazing chance.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

Side note for those curious: Jenna’s pillow business took off, and what used to help feed us, now helps pay for the kids school, and our house that we bought with our own money. I worked my way up through a factory into a supervisory position, and now manage a factory of 200

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

My relationship with my parents has never been better. I love my inlaws so much. Jenna and i are able to help others in need. I can’t imagine where i would be if we had choose abortion. Abortion is an evil thing.

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

/fin

— NaughtyDerek🇺🇸 (@NaughtyDerek) December 22, 2017

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Read more: https://twitchy.com/gregp-3534/2017/12/22/this-amazing-thread-on-being-pro-life-is-just-what-you-need-as-we-head-into-the-christmas-holiday/

[theliterateape]

A Few Hours I'd Like Back: Bullshit Time Wasters of 2017

By Don Hall

What a fucking year, amiright?

Holy crap. It boggles the tiny ape brain to even take a Faceborg trip through the timeline and revisit it. Like, it physically hurts the joints to reflect on all of the general awfulness of what will become known as The Year We All Lost Our Fucking Minds. I just puked a little on my pants typing that.

It's ending, though, which merits at least a quick listicle of things I wish I hadn't forced myself to experience and, goddamnit, I wish I could go back in time and get those precious hours of my life back.

#8: The Controversy About Hedly Weiss That was this year, right? Hold on — let me check.

— 

Yup. 2017. That clusterfuck was high on self-righteous posturing and caused an awful lot of Faceborg blocking on my part. What a waste of time and energy for naught. Fifty or so Rage Profiteering, Virtue-Signaling Dipshits decide to use their newfound power of social media call out to publicly shame and oust a long-time Chicago critic. And failed.

Also having to explain over and over that I am not accidentally misspelling her name.

#7: Transformers: The Last Knight When I consider how much money it cost to make this abortion on wheels, it makes me want to randomly find children on the street, put a paper sign on them that says "Michael Bay" and kick them until they bleed from the eyes.

#6: Russiagate Oi. I can't think of a bigger waste of time banking on smoking guns that would get a Republican Congress that openly supported an Alabama child molester to impeach a sitting president because of Russians taking out Faceborg ads.

#5: Anything to do with that Kendall Jenner Pepsi Ad

#4: Trump's Twitter Posts Christ on stale toast, the almost non-stop distraction this motherfucker provided while Congress was busting their hump to undo everything created by Obama to FDR. It's like they paid him to create completely innocuous controversy to obfuscate their nefarious plans.

#3: The Dark Tower Aside from the lesson to never wage war with a country with little to lose (Vietnam, Afghanistan, North Korea) the most long-lived and indelible rule of thumb is Do Not Fuck with the Exact Text of Stephen King. The man writes cinematic gold. Your big creative input is wholly unnecessary and the result is a steaming pile of shit. You assholes managed to ruin a movie from a Stephen King masterpiece starring both Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey. You suck.

#2: Defending White People or Men or White Men for any Reason at all It's true. White People, in general, are crap. So are Men. Not one to self-loathe, it's a pain in the ass to be lumped in with the bros and pedophiles and supremicists but I suppose it's high time we get the broadstrokes shitstain everyone else has endured. I concede. I am the enemy. Justify your need to be an asshole to me on the oppression of people who share a trait with you but you have never encountered in your life.

#1: Arguing About Anything on Faceborg Seriously. I could count on, like, four additional years to do things I enjoy for all the time I've spent this year arguing online with the Alt Right and the Rage Profiteering Left this year. The shaming tactics, the call outs, the lack of perspective or basic common sense represented by zealots of both sides of the aisle were and are maddening. I did not, however, have to wind myself up and pretend that I was going to convince them of anything. At all. Ever.

I think, if I were the kind of happy idiot who indulges in making resolutions, I'd boil it all down to "Wean Self Off of Social Media Because it is a Waste of Your Precious Lifeblood." But I'm not a resolution type of guy.