#underdogs 2013

[beastlymessofmine]

Me anytime I rediscover an obscure childhood movie and see that it has a tiny fandom surrounding it

[sunmoonjl]

¿¿¿¿¡¡¡Metegol es una adaptación!!!????

[myobsessionsspace]

Thinking about their struggles, when it all would get too much, what do they do…

Travel TOGETHER

2017

It would only be during their MMA 2018 after winning the Dasaeng that Jin would reveal the depths of their troubles, that the group had been contemplating disbandment.

At the time in their career they were reaching new successful career heights, but also impossible physical and mental lows as a team and individuals. They documented this time period after the fact, in their show ‘Monuments: Beyond the Star’ and also their autobiography ‘Beyond The Story: 10 Year Record of BTS’.

BTS were reaching new heights in their career, starting to receive greater Western awareness and achievements, after already making waves in their home country of South Korea (debuting in 2013) and Japan where they debuted the following year. They were in the final stretch of their Wings World Tour, which had started in February 2017, but all was not well for the group members.

They were overwhelmed and overworked and each trying to cope in their own ways, sometimes leaning on each other or others but mostly trying to power through alone.

As a belated birthday gift for Jimin (whose birthday was Oct 13th), when the members had some downtime from their tour dates, which would end in December 2017, Jungkook paid and planned for the two of them to go to Tokyo. Somewhere Jimin had wanted to go when not working.

Jimin had expressed interest in visiting Disney and had also through the years, expressed the desire to be able to spend personal time travelling with Jungkook as well.

Jungkook brought Jimin’s desires to life in the middle of one of their most difficult times in their careers.

Jimin & Jungkook head to Tokyo 2017

2023

Another milestone period in the groups career, this time it wasn’t the looming consideration of disbandment plaguing the members but the inevitable pause of group activities, with all of them agreeing to complete their country’s mandatory military service for all able South Korean men.

Time and time again the members have let it be known their love for performing, being active members of the group and being able to connect with their fans, ARMY.

This time Jimin and Jungkook weren’t part of a group 4 years into their stardom but members of an established, globally accomplished group of 10+ years worth of fans, success and stardom.

Before enlisting in the army, something that had been the subject of national and international discourse for years. Before they would be under instruction from military superiors and surrounded by new comrades they’d never met before. Jimin and Jungkook decided to not just travel to Tokyo together like they had done in 2017, but visit several spots, to enjoy each other and the world before essentially being benched for 18 months.

Jimin & Jungkook head to Tokyo 2023

Why I Think They Share

2017

Jimin and Jungkook both documented the trip to Tokyo in their own styles and shared it online.

It was a trip for the two of them, but like anyone who goes on a trip, sometimes during it or sometimes when we return, we post on our IG, our FB etc. We share videos and photos with our friends and family, our colleagues even our neighbours. We want to revel in the memories, share the stories of the fun we had, places we saw and food we ate.

Jimin’s video is totally that vibe…whilst GCF Tokyo is something so much more.

2023

Now superstars as a group and in their own right as solo artists, more internationally known than ever before and in the middle of (more than a break from a tour) solo promotions and preparing to retreat from society to serve in the military for a year and a half Jimin & Jungkook still made it possible. They still made it possible to enjoy time with each other and travel but also to share that like before.

This time not a video by Jimin and a GCF by Jungkook but an 8 part series! Not one trip but several trips, not a video each from Jimin & Jungkook but several episodes on a globally accessible platform. Something for people to watch whilst they are out of the public eye, they enjoyed during and now we can enjoy now.

I’ve said this before with Jikook and I’ll say it again.

Some things change but some things stay the same

🖤🤍

TL;DR as third parties watch after the fact and be happy, smile and laugh at the fun times they enjoyed with each other. Witness and appreciate their sincerity and bond. Hope they have many more opportunities to do this whenever they need and want to, not just when rough times are had or coming. Be happy for them.

[hrrtshape]

THE ROLES IN MY FAME DR

before i start, a foreword; my fame dr's roles are very much "oh...she wants that cookie(acting excellence)." very much overpowered.

⋆  2002: PONETTE as ponette – a tender and heart-wrenching role as a four-year-old girl grappling with the devastating loss of her mother. she holds on to the fragile hope that her mother might miraculously return.

⋆  2006: LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE as olive – a quirky, lovable underdog bursting with childlike optimism and dreams of winning a beauty pageant, despite her family's chaotic road trip.

⋆  2007: LÉON: THE PROFESSIONAL as mathilda – a street-smart and fiercely determined young girl navigating loss and revenge while forming an unlikely bond with a professional hitman.

⋆  2008: ATONEMENT as briony tallis – precocious and imaginative young writer whose misinterpretations and choices create tragic consequences that echo throughout her life.

⋆  2009: TRUE GRIT as mattie ross – fearless and headstrong teenager bent on avenging her father’s death, driven by her sharp wit and unyielding resolve.

⋆  2011: LOLITA as lolita/dolores haze – a beguiling and precocious girl cloaked in innocence but steeped in rebellion, a mix of youthful charm and intoxicating danger.

⋆  2012: MOONRISE KINGDOM as suzy – a whimsical and mysterious young girl embarking on an adventurous and heartfelt runaway journey with her first love.

⋆  2013: BLACK SWAN as nina sayers – a driven and fragile ballerina unraveling under the intense pressures of perfection, teetering on the edge of madness and obsession.

⋆  2014: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL as agatha – a kind-hearted and resourceful young baker, whose quiet courage plays a pivotal role in an eccentric heist and love story.

⋆  2015: CINDERELLA as cinderella – a girl strong-willed girl with enormous faith that she'll finally be able to live out her dreams.

⋆  2017: LADY BIRD as christine/lady bird – a fiercely independent and ambitious high school senior wrestling with her small-town upbringing, family tensions, and big-city dreams.

⋆  2019: ROMEO AND JULIET (directed by sofia coppola) as juliet – the luminous, romantic heroine in a tragic love story of passion, rebellion, and youthful defiance.

⋆  2019: ONCE UPON A TIME IN HOLLYWOOD as sharon tate – an enchanting actress and rising star, embodying the golden glow of hollywood’s bygone era with grace and optimism.

⋆  2019: LITTLE WOMEN as amy march – a spirited and ambitious young woman chasing her artistic dreams and navigating love with unapologetic confidence.

⋆  2019: STRANGE COLOURS as naste – a struggling musician in 1980s NYC, whose pursuit of success leads her to morally complex decisions in a crime and punishment-inspired tale.

⋆  2020: THE QUEEN'S GAMBIT as beth harmon – a brilliant yet troubled chess prodigy navigating personal demons, ambition, and addiction while conquering a male-dominated world.

⋆  2021: THE FRENCH DISPATCH as juliette – a lively and enigmatic character in a whimsical anthology capturing the spirit of journalism and artistic eccentricity.

⋆  2021: PROFIL PERDU as josée – a woman caught in a crumbling marriage, drawn into a web of intrigue and liberation when a wealthy magnate offers her a new life filled with possibilities.

⋆  2022: X as maxine – a daring and ambitious young woman pursuing fame in the adult film industry while navigating fear and survival in a horror setting.

⋆  2022: PEARL as pearl – a dreamer turned unhinged by isolation and frustration, whose violent tendencies emerge as her craving for stardom spirals into tragedy.

⋆  2023: POOR THINGS as bella baxter – a curious and eccentric woman reborn into a surreal world, exploring life with uninhibited wonder and self-discovery.

⋆  2023: HUNGER GAMES: BALLAD OF SONGBIRDS AND SNAKES as livia cardew – a capitol elite and symbol of privilege, showcasing the decadence and oblivion of her class in a world on the brink of rebellion.

⋆  2024: MAXXXINE as maxine – a raw and determined character fighting to make her mark in a world that feeds on fame, continuing her saga in the x-pearl trilogy.

⋆  2025: FRANKENSTEIN as the bride – a haunting and tragic figure, torn due to her her husband's newest project

[sgiandubh]

Autopsy of a gay lie: the Wikipedia trail

“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can not fool all of the people all of the time.”

― Abraham Lincoln

For starters, sorry for the length and numerous screencaps. It is an investigation, after all and these are sorely needed.

Never underestimate the conjugated power of Internet, a Sunday afternoon and the lightbulb moment that can happen while baking something, because you know, people have also to reward themselves at some point.

I might have fucked up my foolproof Lemon Squares recipe, but I regret nothing. It took me three hours I could have gratefully used to finish that spirits post, but this is too damn good not to share.

Remember Meow Kabob's cross my heart and hope to die pinky swear she found confirmation of Data Lounge's allegations on Wikipedia, out of all places? How she regularly unburies that infamous screenshot listing S under the Wiki "Gay Actors" category? How she told us, filthy and uneducated shipper mob, over and over again, that story about STARZ people scouring the Internet far and wide and scrubbing any gay reference related to S, as soon or shortly after he was cast as JAMMF?

I can confidently prove now Lincoln's perennial truths I quoted above apply to this situation.

I was just pouring my lemon juice, eggs, flour and sugar mix over the hot and nutty shortbread when I stopped in my tracks: 'wait a second, isn't Wikipedia an open source project? BUT OF COURSE IT IS, SILLY COW - yes, I very often talk to myself like that. RUN. NOW. I HAVE TO KNOW.'

Sure enough, like death and taxes, the full edit list of S's Wikipedia page was there for everyone to see:

Even better, since Internet is forever, we have full access to all these edits and can take screenshots.

This is how Sam's Wikipedia odissey started, on November 11th 2007, when he was the complete underdog:

A ' strapping lad with natural dark blonde hair and 6'2'' tall', ideal for the role of Alexander the Great - pious silence and RIP. I grinned, because it sounds well, naïve? It also sounds gay, perhaps? What else does it prove, other than the gay crowd has an acute interest for novelty and a wandering eye?

Nothing. Not even remotely related to S.

Also, note the two classification categories: British TV actor stubs/ British actor stubs. Mark them, they stayed still and alone for a looooong time.

Up until 2009, in fact, when the wikientry was no longer considered a stub and even got several category additions:

Then again, some movin' on up, on that semi-dormant page, in 2013. Totes normal:

By early 2014, even more interest in S commands an expanded webpage and a longer, more detailed, category listing:

Let's quickly peruse 2015...

2016...

The incorrect Irish descent category stayed there for about ten days, until removed by another user. This is how it is done and it is then added to the list:

2017, 2018, 2019, early 2020, no change in the categories, but all hell broke lose content-wise. From Cirdan, the 'estranged brother' acting in a very gay connotated theatre production I have never heard about, in London, September 2016...

...... to a woman named Tiffany Trach who used to dream the impossible dream, in October 2016 (and she was not the only one, far from it)...

...to some halfwit being rightfully slapped for adding brainless Flukenzie Floozy content in March 2017:

By that time, I was getting supremely bored clicking on links and wanted to pack the tent and throw my lemon squares in the trash bin. But, lo and behold, what do I see on January 26th 2020:

With the tag possible vandalism:

Whodunnit?

A very brave person, hiding under a string of random numbers...

... and one single contribution EVER to the Wikipedia juggernaut. This is what I would call a targeted attack:

It stayed like that, unmolested, for five days only, until the user Spiderpig662 decided enough is enough and did something about it...

....categories being then restored to the previous wording:

The last vicious gay reference on Wikipedia dates back to May 28th 2020 (Ha-wa-wee, anyone?), was labeled as 'hate speech' & promptly removed:

Where wuffter is, in British Cockney slang:

Same modus operandi, this time an IP address, pinging in (you simply can't make this shit up, can you?)...

County Durham, FYI.

I then asked myself when exactly did Meow Kabob appear on Tumblr?

Even more exactly, on...

That is, to say the least, a troubling coincidence.

I do not imply anything, I have no wish to attack anyone. All I am saying, is that particular argument, which this user is shouting anytime she is prompted to, had a very short online lifespan. How could an American woman, who appeared in this fandom shortly afterwards, have known about changes operated for five days only, by an unknown user, on the open source webpage of a B-listed British actor?

I have only one question, Your Honor:

WHY?

I rest my case.

[Edit]: To make it maybe more clear, I now know where the person adding that category lives, thanks to Wikipedia's own tracking system:

No surprises here:

Augusta. Georgia. USA.

Now, yes. Now I rest my case.

[jmdbjk]

Episode 2: Adolescence 

Beyond the Star, produced by HYBE Media Studio

They begin by conveying how important concerts are for them. Concerts. Not performances. Concerts.

They thought they “made it” in 2016 when they booked the Olympic Gymnastics Arena for a concert. It was the dream venue for idols at the time and are amazed they are performing there and never imagined they’d have a concert that big.

During the interviews where they are expressing their thoughts about what performing during concerts means to them, we see footage of different concerts illustrating what they are trying to explain. 

Hobi harkens back to their first concert in October 2014 for The Red Bullet tour, at Seoul’s AX Korea with 6,000 in attendance. He says they didn’t care about how many hundreds or thousands were there, they were just so thankful for the fans who came to see them.

Attendance rose at each progressive concert. Their fourth concert in 2015 had 13,500 in attendance at the Seoul Olympic Handball Gymnasium, and their fifth concert in May 2016 at the Olympic Gymnastics Arena, mentioned at the beginning of this episode, had 25,000 in the audience. They were in awe at how huge it was when they first arrive at that venue, looking out at the empty seats before they began rehearsing.

They were always so emotional during their ending ments, so thankful for what they were experiencing after knowing how hard they’d worked from debut up until the end of each one of those concerts.

In the early years, the hearts of those young men were bursting with passion and to see so many fans supporting them had to be an overwhelming relief, its no surprise their emotions overflowed.

Though they finally saw their hard work being appreciated, the joy was tempered with having to deal with pushback.

One of the things I noticed that was not mentioned yet in Episode 1 was how much pushback, bullying, negativity and hate they received from their peers and other fans outside their team and company from the very first day.

Working their asses off to fulfill their dreams while being faced with all that makes it even more amazing that they stuck with it. 

It was them against the entire kpop industry. We all know how much BTS is hated by other kpop fandoms. We see it daily on the X timeline. The jealousy is real, it's destructive and it's dangerous.

BTS is untouchable now but in 2013, Jungkook was 15 years old. A CHILD! Jin was 20! BigHit had no money. There was a point after debut when they were asked to move out of the dorm because the company couldn't afford it anymore. Underdogs is an understatement, truly what the hell did they think they were doing up against all these established kpop groups, their fandoms and the big 3 companies?

Now, in Episode 2, we start to hear how the guys handled all this. For some of them, they did not handle it very well. Namjoon talks about his panic attacks and how he avoids the internet and going online during a song/album release. 

In Episode 1 we saw Hobi and Jin so thrilled and excited, anxiously waiting and monitoring online their very first album release at midnight on June 13, 2013 and for Namjoon to tell us now he can’t enjoy the thrill of that is so devastating to me. 

When an artist sends their art out into the world, it is like a living part of themselves, an extension of themselves that they lay bare to the world. The visceral reaction of panic when seeing people hate you for it…and the amount of courage it takes to ignore that and keep going and make more art to release into the world…I challenge anyone to show me they have THAT amount of courage.

And I implore you to understand the depths these guys LOVE their fans ESPECIALLY BEFORE THEY WERE BIG to keep doing it in spite of the hate.

Yoongi was incredibly diplomatic when he says “we had a lot of unreasonable controversies.” I would have said "we had a lot of total fucking bullshit that meant nothing thrown at us by a bunch of stupid butt hurt people." There, I fixed it for you, Yoongi.

They had a ludicrous amount of people gunning for them, hating them for being successful, hating them for being different. Jealousy drives people to do the most hateful things.

Jimin says, “having to deny the bad rumors was always so upsetting.”

Namjoon recieved death threats during the Red Bullet Tour. Early on they were accused of chart manipulation because they sold so many albums. This is the company had no money, there was no money to spend on chart manipulation!

They were accused of plagiarism and brought to court and were exonerated because it wasn't true.

Jimin received death threats at the end of the Wings Tour.

Being the humans that they are, with feelings and emotions, Yoongi says they and the fans were getting desperate and spiteful in the face of all this backlash and hate. 

The fan song “2! 3!” was an anomaly. It is somewhat somber for a song dedicated to fans. Most fan songs are light and cheery. But this song fit the emotions BTS was experiencing and bonded them closer with their fans and was again, another instance of the members being sincere and genuine in their expressions. 

The emotional scenes of BTS standing on stage, Army singing the lyrics back at them, waving their purple plastic bagged Army bombs, has to be one of the best memories for them. A truly bonding moment between artist and fan.

December 2016, Mnet Asian Music Awards, they win Artist of the Year. It is their first major award. Yoongi says “in a movie, the ending credits are supposed to roll at this point.”

They’ve reached the top… as they knew it. End of story... 2016? Nope.

Early the next year while they were on the Wings Tour, they were told they were going to the United States for the Billboard Music Awards. No other Korean act had ever done that before. They had no expectations for that trip. They had no idea what they were supposed to do when they got there.

It’s kinda cute seeing them prepare and wondering what to expect. They are so young and you can tell they are trying to figure out if they’re supposed to try to emulate the image of a western pop star.

When they get out of the van at the red carpet event, they all look around the back of the van to the other side of the street and see the fans screaming at them. They knew who the real fans were and they wondered what everyone else thought: perhaps people were just curious about who they were. 

Namjoon wonders how different it may have been had they, the members, been a little more culturally proficient, meaning at that time, they were inexperienced, naive and ignorant about the impact they were making. It was all a big wonder to them at that point. They were thinking “do they even know who we are?” 

Then they win Billboard’s Social Artist award, not a major award but still, it had been won by Justin Bieber for many years prior and now it was BTS’ opportunity to kick in the door. And they did. With all seven pairs of feet. Western artists began to take note and wanted to collaborate with them. The thorn in the western music industry's side had arrived in the form of this team of 7 and their fans.

Yoongi thought it was a one-off token award, but then they were invited to perform at the AMA’s. They can’t believe they’ve made it that far. 

They are soaring and going places they never imagined they’d go. Everything seemed like a fairytale, the success, the adulation, the global attention…

But it was happening too fast, their young minds, their emotional development and sense of self never had a chance to mature and catch up to their work load and the pressures and expectations their image and success placed on them. They never had a chance to stop and assess themselves personally and consider if this level of fame was something they even wanted.

Literally, they never. stopped. working. When they say "we just kept running forward" that is not a euphemism, it is literal.

As soon as one event, concert, appearance, fan meet, photo shoot, shooting Run BTS, music shows, whatever was over, it was on to the next one...from plane to hotel to venue back to hotel back to plane, to be repeated over and over.

In mid-2017, by the time they talked about resting for a while, it was perilously close to being too late. They still had the rest of the Wings Tour to complete through December. Some of them had already considered quitting. Some did not possess the confidence to endure the burden. Some of them wondered if pausing was the right thing since they were doing so well. 

They were confused by how they could be feeling like this after they’d worked so hard to get to this point.

The title of this episode is "Adolescence" and it pertained not only to the members who were just emerging from it and their careers that had gotten past the starting line and now riding an almost out of control rocket to stardom. It also was a point in time for the company trying to get its feet under it, for its leader Bang PD trying to steer this team, to figure out how to manage this worldwide sensation they'd created.

Bang PD had to learn how to deal with his team's enormous success as he watched them begin to burn out. He embraced a philosophy of focusing on the importance for an artist to have autonomy and be happy as a person which was not a thing in the kpop industry at that time. He was worried about their mental well being and their happiness. He suggested a break.

They knew there was an "end" coming eventually. End of contract, military... et al. They pondered the inability to enjoy the fruits of their hard work and that it couldn't "end" with them being unhappy.

We know in 2018 they renegotiated their contracts. 

For a group as close as they were, as committed as they were to their careers and to each other, they had to come together and discuss how they were feeling while being burned out, they had to admit to each other they wanted to quit. We don’t know the nitty-gritty details of how it went down but they worked through it and re-committed to each other and their team.

They didn’t give up and that tells me not a single one of them are quitters.

My own personal thoughts are that they recognized they needed to stop at that specific point in time and regroup. They knew enlistment was coming eventually and the typical life-cycle of a kpop group had been about 7 years when idols aged and younger ones took their place. But they'd reached places in the stratosphere that none other had before. I think they paused, recalibrated and actually let themselves seriously think of a future after enlistment that would allow them to keep up this level of success, to keep pushing boundaries...and therefore they re-evaluated what was in that contract to include things that ensured their well-being so they could grow. That new contract was set to expire this year, well after Jin was supposed to be back from the military and most likely all of them. I am curious to know what that original 2018 contract planning included...

Anyway, I accidentally rambled a lot adding extra context and my own thoughts while watching this episode.

Review of Episode 3 next…

[smolwritingchick]

Forced To Believe Masterlist

A Dean Ambrose x OC story! The Shield 4th member.

Summary: Taking place during the start of The Shield's debut in 2012, follow Morgan Lopez's career as she becomes a member of The Shield, revamps herself as The Outspoken Diva and makes a name for herself in WWE.

OC Profile of Morgan Lopez

Chapter 1- So, You Wanna Wrestle?

Chapter 2- My WWE Debut

Chapter 3- Fighting Back

Chapter 4- My First Wrestlemania

Chapter 5- Becoming Heel

Chapter 6- Total Divas Season 1 Episode 1

Chapter 7- The Shield's Girl

Chapter 8- Total Divas Season 1 Episode 2

Chapter 9- The Shield Isn't Unstoppable

Chapter 10- Total Divas Season 1 Episode 4

Chapter 11- Justice Continues Being Served

Chapter 12- The Underdog from Philly

Chapter 13- Catching Up Before MITB

Chapter 14- Money In The Bank 2013

Chapter 15- Total Slap!

Chapter 16- Frustration

Chapter 17- Total Divas Season 1 Episode 5

Chapter 18- I Know What I Have To Do

Chapter 19- Do You Know Who I Am!?

Chapter 20- Total Divas Season 1 Episode 6

Chapter 21- Army of One

Chapter 22- Wiping That Smirk Off Your Face

Chapter 23- You Look Like You've Seen A Ghost

Chapter 24- Total Divas Season 1 Episode 7

Chapter 25- Mommy Knows Best

Chapter 26- Revenge Is Sweet

Chapter 27- Total Divas Season 1 Episode 8

Chapter 28- Is That You Being Serious?

Chapter 29- In Due Time

Chapter 30- Trying To Gain Momentum

Chapter 31- The Slammy Awards

Chapter 32- That Was A Miracle

Chapter 33- The Answer Is No

Chapter 34- Tribute To The Troops

Chapter 35- Morgan's Answer

Chapter 36- Move Thief

Chapter 37- Meeting Hot Rod

Chapter 38- Respect

Chapter 39- I Hate Snakes

Chapter 40- If Only You Knew

Chapter 41- Making A Statement

Chapter 42- Yikes

Chapter 43- Sister Abigail

Chapter 44- I Lost Her

Chapter 45- She Belongs To Us Now

Chapter 46- I See What You Want

Chapter 47- Armageddon

Chapter 48- Armageddon Part 2

Chapter 49- That Supernatural Stuff Don't Work

Chapter 50- What Are You Doing!?

Chapter 51- Things Got Personal

Chapter 52- He Kept His Word

Chapter 53- Harley Mode Was Captivating

Chapter 54- Rosa's Mind Games

Chapter 55- Togetherness

Chapter 56- Public Displays of Affection

Chapter 57- The Shield Against The Authority

Chapter 58- Bad News Dinner

Chapter 59- Getting The Upper Hand

Chapter 60- Annihilated

Chapter 61- Catching Up With Old Friends

Chapter 62- Wrestling's Fun

Chapter 63- Get Back Here!

Chapter 64- War

Chapter 65- Trust Is Dead To Us Now

Chapter 66- Confronting The Sellout

Chapter 67- Going Our Separate Ways

Chapter 68- They Can't Control Me

Chapter 69- Clock Is Ticking Morgan

Chapter 70- Outsmarting The Architect

Chapter 71- Closing The Chapter

Chapter 72- I Win (All Hell Breaks Loose)

[daisyunchained]

#CarylersAnthem #Caryl #Carylers #Daryl #Carol #TWDCaryl #TWD #TWDDarylDixon #TBOC #DarylDixonSeason2 #SoulMates #Epicduo #DreamTeam #MyCarylLovingHeart

Caryler’s Anthem

October 1st 2024

I saw so many spoilers for #TWDCaryl on Tik Tok & I just let myself watch them all. Since we’re not getting what we want, what’s the point? I don’t want to give anything away about what I saw. There’s so much I have to say that I’m sorting through my head, (not about the spoilers). So before antis laugh, let me explain.

Why we are #Caryler’s -

Since S2 of #TWD we watched Caryl and Daryl become each others person in so many ways. They understood each other. They filled in the gaps for each other. He was the yin, she was the yang. When the world constantly tried to throw them way, they were there to remind each other “you matter.”

In a real world that mirrors the show (minus the zombies), many of us have felt like underdogs. When these two underdogs that no one expected to live through the first season began to grow & strengthen, we rallied around and cheered them on. They were us. Everyone knew, they couldn’t have made it without each other.

While this was happening, we could see how truly special these two actors were. Even better was how much Mel & Norm cared about each other irl. Watching their friendship blossom was a treasure. Their chemistry was undeniable on & off screen. Every scene between them electric.

At the same time this was happening, Norman/Daryl was becoming a known heart throb, even landing himself the title of People Magazine’s sexiest man of the year in 2013. While the public praised him, Melissa/Carol often got a different reaction.

Mel, an actress true to form let her hair go gray for the show. It was realistic. And with her grey, she was gorgeous in her own right. She began to break the mold. This shy actress started a trend among woman who suddenly weren’t afraid to go grey.

Yes she is easily noted as the best actress of her time, which can be seen by anyone who has eyes but she’s had to battle agism left & right. None of her counterparts in her age group, including Norm himself who she was always paired with. No one else got that kind of negative attention. Her fans quickly came to her defense. So did Norman.

Norm was known to say that Mel hated when she was referred to as Daryl’s mom. He often came to her defense in interviews, proclaiming how beautiful she was, inside and out: but things amped up online, antis were cruel, her fans defended. With all the fighting and negativity, Mel left even Twitter.

Further more, when anyone asked both Carol and Daryl about Caryl going canon, they would often tease about it. Even with the writers the answer was never no. Their chemistry just grew with the show. Haters were still awful with their taunts, saying things like “Why would Daryl go out with an old lady.” 😢 But Norm continued to speak highly of her. He is Melissa’s biggest fan & dear friend. It didn’t matter if she fit the social norms. Carol and Daryl, as well as Mel and Norm were forging their own path. They were breaking the mold in Hollywood & it was beautiful. The great thing about Norm, he’s the type to see the value in that.

Their scenes together were always passionate, moving, magnetic, powerful, sexy and captivating. When the spin off was announced, we all celebrated. If Caryl didn’t get together by the end of the series, it just meant they were saving it for the spin off. Right?

Caryler’s always respected #TWD for giving Daryl integrity. We praised the show for not throwing the hot actor with some young actress for cheap ratings. We Caryler’s believed in that whole heartedly. We were grateful to the show for staying true to form in that aspect.

I can leave this out. Carol had her relationships in the show but they were more on the surface. Even her relationship with King Ezekiel seemed like an escape, Henry, a reason to carry on. She did love the boy. When that arc ended even Carol called it a fairytale.

“I don’t regret the fairytale...” she said while giving Zeke back her ring.

Daryl had his almost none existent stint with Leah. It was more a means to an end, or a beginning I should say. It was a story arc that would lead us into the finale. Covid changed things. As a writer, I could see where they were headed. I believe there would be a story arc between Leah and Carol over Daryl, including the reapers arc but with Lauren Cohen returning to the show, I believe the story line was given to her to bring her back into the fold. But with the spin off announced, a Caryl centric story arc could now be moved to their own show. Even with Melissa taking a year off, we had every reason to hope.

I really thought the spin off would respect Caryl’s sacred bond & expand on it. I figured they would go that way out of respect for Melissa. Finally hooking up Daryl & Caryl romantically would break the mold on the unfair, ageist bull$hit people kept throwing at her when being compared to Daryl. The way the last seasons of #TWD were going, all signs pointed to yes. We became hopeful. We began looking forward to see Carol and Daryl cross that last boundary.

We had many reasons to hope that we would finally see Daryl and Carol give each other the love they both desperately deserved while they battled new surroundings. And who better for each other than Carol and Daryl themselves. No one knows their hearts, their wounds, their pain, their wins, shared and separate like Carol and Daryl. No one deserves it more.

Maybe it will still happen in S3 but with seeing all the spoilers, I don't think I should continue to hope. I do hope I'm wrong.

I still praise the actors valiant efforts & superb acting. Mel & Norm are at their best. Carol facing her trauma and ptsd is superb. She deserves healing. I just feel like we were mislead on Caryl going canon. Even the advertising for the show was misleading. Maybe the creators became bitter with the idea of Caryl going canon after toxic bouts with over zealous fans who in their own right, had invested 14 years into these characters and just wanted to see their favorites happy. If you wonder why Caryler’s are taking this hard, this is where our heads & hearts lie.

Much love from my forever Caryl loving heart.

PS. On a side note, I have never, not once, looked at my parents or siblings the way Daryl and Carol look at each other. ❤️‍🔥

[multicolour-ink]

Someone told me that Mario treats Luigi badly in games, is that true?

I don't understand much about it, I just watched the movie

Sorry for the late reply on this 🙏🏻 I put this aside for a bit until I could find the time to answer and make sure I had the right stuff.

Oh boy. Take a seat cause this one is going be a ride...

So there's a certain part of the Mario fandom that believes Mario is a bad brother to Luigi. And a bad person in general. I'm not 100% sure where this all started, but to put it simply, there's been this "running joke" as such in the games where Luigi is an underdog and gets left behind and disrespected, but Mario goes on the adventures and gets all the praise.

This is not a narrative of the games. It's just a recurring "joke" that's spread out through multiple games and spinoffs of the Mario series.

In regards to Mario - people like to point out instances in the games where Mario doesn't seem to care or react to the way Luigi is treated, but the main source people turn to is this scene from Mario Power Tennis (a sports spin-off game released on the GameCube in 2004). In this game, whenever the characters win a tournament and get a trophy a cutscene plays. This one in particular just so happens to be (mostly) the source to the claims of Mario being a bad brother - as in the cutscene Mario steps on Luigi's foot while his brother is celebrating, and laughs in his face!

Now, I don't recall any feedback on this scene back in the day - as the internet and social media sites were still pretty young back then. But it wasn't until a certain YouTuber, Mat Pat from Game Theory (and maker of other theory videos) published the infamous "Mario is Mental" video on October 20th 2013. I'm sure you can guess just based on the title - but long story short the video goes out of its way to go through various instances in Mario's history to pinpoint the plumber as a terrible person - including putting a spotlight on the Mario Power Tennis scene. THIS is basically the snowball that truly seemed to cement the "Mario is a bad brother" believers - and to this day they will still bring up that particular scene and Mat Pat!

You can see why a lot of us were pretty happy to see the brothers portrayed with such a loving relationship in the movie ^^

Quick disclaimer to all: this is NOT a hate on Mat Pat or any other Mario fans. This is for educational purposes, and I'm certain I haven't got ALL the facts right. Please do not go and harass any of these people - especially Mat Pat. There is no reason to do that to anyone, and I don't tolerate that behaviour.

Anyway, hope that helped you understand the situation better :)

To answer you question: NO. Mario is NOT a bad brother. It's not true. It's just more a case of a running joke and a theory video being blown out of proportion and some fans still cling to it. But Mario and Luigi are just as loving as they are in the movie :)

I recommend checking out the Mario & Luigi games. They are PACKED with brotherly love ^^

[broadwaydivastournament]

Broadway Divas Tournament: Round 3

Anika Noni Rose (1972) is a Tony-winning actress known for Caroline, or Change (2004), A Raisin in the Sun (2014), and the 2013 first workshop of Hamilton where she originated Angelica Schuyler. She is also known for being one of the iconic Dreamgirls in the 2006 film, as well as the voice of Tiana in Disney's The Princess and the Frog. In 2011, alongside Lea Salonga, she was named a certified, official, Disney Legend. Her latest Broadway show, Uncle Vanya, will open this week.

Multi-hyphenate LaChanze (1961) won her first Tony as Celie in The Color Purple (2006) and is known for her fantastic work in shows like Once On This Island (1990), Summer: The Donna Summer Musical (2018), and Trouble in Mind (2021). She is the only Diva to have two Tony Awards for producing, having won both of them last year, one for Kimberly Akimbo and the other for Topdog/Underdog. This season, she has produced Here Lies Love and Jaja's African Hair Braiding, and is co-producing The Outsiders.

NEW PROPAGANDA AND MEDIA UNDER CUT: ALL POLLS HERE

"I continue to remain in awe of this woman's undeniable beauty as I eagerly await the day I see Uncle Vanya."

"LaChanze is a wonderful performer, but she truly is a divine producer. I have loved nearly every single show she's put on since she started a few years back, and I hope she keeps raking in those Tonys for it."

[deadlyanthem]

what's good gang! ares here with canon kd1 (the king 2016), han wonbin. super excited to be here! without further adieu, below the cut you will find info on my kennedy wannabe. hit this post with a like and i'll swing into your dms to plot 📩

look, you should know...

the han's come from a line of noblemen, old money, people with positions of power

his father, for a long as wonbin can remember, has always been for and in the conservative political party. a real stickler for traditional ways, keeping the rich rich and the poor, well, working.

ruled his house in a very cutthroat way; you either wise up or shut the fuck up.

but that was exactly wonbin's problem. the black sheep, the sore thumb, he did everything different. he's a lover, not a fighter. too smart for his own good. listens too keenly. wears two faces. gets under your skin. gets you right where he wants you. his father doesn't trust a man who smiles a lot. wonbin gleams.

this divide between the han patriarch and the youngest son fostered a mean spirit inside wonbin, but don't worry, he keeps it under wraps. no one ever knows what he's truly thinking. he's charismatic, a friend to everyone and enemy to none. your mother would love him.

but only because she doesn't know him. really, he's an entitled, spoilt philanderer with a skewed view of how the world works and how it should work for him. maybe he's not so different from his father after all? but yeah he's known as the peasant king, and yeah, despite being in a right wing political party he feigns interest in the layman's life. but only because he wants to keep them there, where he thinks they belong.

long may you rule when you no one knows your true intentions and at the end of the day, you think they're all beneath you.

the king and all of his...

it's not totally strange for him to get into the king's club. his father and his brothers had been through the same process although it was unbeknownst to him at the time. see, he thought he had something over them, thought that he might have been the better han. he doesn't know yet that he is all of the things his father simultaenously hates about himself and wishes he could be.

he's approached by the queen in 2013, son of a prolific politician and debate team hopeful, he's so full of promise. wonbin quickly manipulates her into vouching for him and helping him in getting the leg up on all of the rituals.

the kid is smart, he's got brains but they're not doing him any good. his weakness was women. his daddy issues meant that he sought validation in the eager eyes and the plush lips of a lover. it's almost like a drug, the way he craves someone to look at him and only him as if he put the stars in the sky. and when he's a chessmaster, he learns the perils of such hunger.

he cheats on his fiance. it's a paltry offence in his grand scheme of things but the fallout is divisive. he'll blame their differences, they were on the out for a long time, it was hardly love

but this is where he differs from his father. ever the lover, never the fighter he takes this set back like a punch to the chin. he tries on humility for size. dare he turn the other cheek.

he champions the underdog, he places them strategically on his chessboard. he coaches them to victory. he makes diamonds out of coal and maybe he loses himself in the process. his father stares at him every time he looks in the mirror and there's something so violent about his smile now.

2024, the ghosts are knocking at your door...

he follows his father's path, hot on his heels. he scrutinises him and all his shortcomings as he builds his own case. president han is a steadfast and vicious leader, his cabinet knows this well. but he is as only smart as tradition limits him and this is where he'll fail, wonbin thinks.

wonbin swears he's going to best him, don't you worry. for now he bides his time, and solidifies his seat at the table. he climbs his way up to deputy minister of health and welfare and soon the policies and laws that he takes part in implementing thrusts him into the public spotlight. with all these eyes on him, he stresses the need to be a man of the people, unlike his dear father. they all trust him, for now. but they do not know of the man behind the mask, they do not know of his greed.

[pendraegon]

i do not care HOW many years pass, fall out boy ending their save rock and roll (2013) album — the album that they came together after everything that was borne of folie à deux (2008), after the hiatus, after everyone thought fall out boy and its members were washed up, overdone, rinsed out. a band who was arguably THE defining band of the 2000s and simultaneously the industry and media’s punching bags, the kings of the scene AND the underdogs, borne from a desire to CHANGE the hardcore scene of chicago — with a song featuring elton john where they bellow “we won’t go / cause we don’t know when to quit” will never ever ever make me not want to burst into tears.

[isthatawe3d]

Not to Oscar dick ride but The Boy and The Heron was the clear winner in my head there was literally no competition in the category. You had the second spider verse movie that was great but had clear and evident flaws compared to the first, and was the second in the trilogy of superhero movies. Elemental, which. If you like it go off, but it’s not a top tier Pixar movie. Nimona, which I loved but honestly if it won I would have been sooooo surprised. It was my underdog pic, but I wasn’t confident in it. And then Robot Dreams, which I haven’t seen, and it looks very good but it also would have been a long shot. Compared to the first Hayao Miyazaki movie to be nominated since 2013(?), gorgeous, an animation titan. And the cherry on the cake is that he didn’t even come to pick up the statue. Love that guy.

[honey-dont]

@umlexis sorry for writing a whole essay about stex pfjslk i love trains <3

so the basic plot is engines from all the world are coming together to compete to see who will be the new champion and rusty the underdog steamer wants to enter to prove that steam is still relevant and also impress his crush. things go off the rails (pun intended). the main antagonists are elvis, a nonbinary bisexual drag queen in a polycule, and a trucker-slash-clown-slash-conman. train god is there. a brick gets thrown into the audience.

stex originated in london and ran there from 1984-2001, but there's a revival happening next summer! it's also been running in germany since 1988 in a special custom-built theater (i got to see it there last spring it was so so cool<3), so there were 2 separate versions of the show happening at the same time for a while. it's also been through MULTIPLE rewrites, the most recent was in 2018. there's supposed to be a new cast recording for the update coming out soon and i'm just. staring impatiently.

a lot of videos/recordings got scrubbed recently which is honestly such a bummer, pour one out for the 1988 bochum concept album </3

ENGLISH RECORDINGS:

the 1984 original london cast recording is a good place to start imo! it's not a full recording so there are some bits of the story missing, but the actors are all fantastic

the 1987 music & selections album is actually not a cast recording, it's just contemporary artists singing (modified) songs from the show, but i still enjoy it a lot

the 1993 new starlight london cast recording is for the 'new starlight' show rewrite in 1990. also not a complete recording but it has some of my favorite versions of the songs! the stretch from freight to crazy is just chef's kiss

GERMAN RECORDINGS:

the 1989 bochum cast recording is a complete recording, a lot of the songs on the internet archive are out of order/mislabeled tho :(

the 1991 bochum cast recording is also not a complete recording, has some versions of songs that aren't on any other recordings

the 2013 bochum cast recording is a full recording of the show! it's in german and just fantastic all around. it got scrubbed from youtube a few years ago sadly but the internet archive still has it

SPANISH RECORDINGS:

the 1997 mexico city cast recording isn't a full recording and the quality isn't a bit crunchy, but it's still good! there was supposed to be a professionally released album but it never happened :(

the 2000 amateur spanish cast recording is also not a full recording but tbh it slaps and the quality is great

-

this channel on youtube has clips from various versions of the show that's a good place to start watching! i also have a pretty big boot collection so you're free to shoot me a message if you want any :)

posting some misc vids i like a lot too!

[mariacallous]

It’s election season in Europe, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has decided that George Soros can again win him votes. “The Soros network is embedded in the European institutions. They are so embedded that the European institutions give them money to operate,” Orban said in late March on his near-weekly interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Radio. “They’re in the Commission, in the Parliament, and quite a few prime ministers are clearly Soros holdouts.”

Between June 6 and 9, citizens in all 27 European Union member states will choose a new Parliament, and Orban kicked off his campaign in Hungary with a fresh dose of attack politics. Brussels, he said in his March interview, was “increasingly becoming a prisoner of the international network of activists that George Soros has built up over the last 30 years with great effort.”

This isn’t the first time Orban has used Soros, the Hungarian Jewish financier and philanthropist, as a punching bag in an election campaign. He has done so before to win elections in Hungary. What is new this time, however, is that Orban’s spokesperson immediately translated his boss’s stinging attack on Soros from Hungarian into English and posted the translation on X (formerly Twitter). Clearly, the attack is being taken to a new, European level.

How attack politics works, and why the Hungarian prime minister has used it often during the last 10 years, is described in a 2019 BuzzFeed News article, “The Unbelievable Story of the Plot Against George Soros.” (An earlier version appeared in the Swiss magazine Das Magazin.) It tells the story of two American spin doctors who designed Orban’s first hate campaign against Soros back in 2013, managing to turn Soros—who got rich in the United States and poured billions of dollars of his fortune into organizations supporting democratic governance and freedom of speech all over the world—into Hungary’s most hated man within weeks. In fact, their anti-Soros smear campaign was such a success that Orban, who himself worked at the Soros-funded Central European Research Group and studied briefly on a Soros scholarship at the University of Oxford, won the election.

These two spin doctors, Arthur Finkelstein and George Birnbaum—Jewish themselves—worked with a simple idea: If you want to win elections, make sure you go on the attack. The underlying assumption is that many voters know whom they will vote for. Consequently, it is difficult to motivate them to vote for another candidate. Demoralizing them, however, is easier. You discredit your political opponent with a volley of accusations, mostly false, so your opponent’s supporters will start having doubts. As a result, some will not vote. Others will defect to you. Finkelstein and Birnbaum called this “rejectionist voting.”

The duo used this technique first in Israel in 1995, just after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination. New elections were scheduled, with the social democrat Shimon Peres as the designated winner. Very few observers gave the young conservative Likud candidate Benjamin Netanyahu, who was polling 20 percentage points behind, any chance. Netanyahu contracted Finkelstein and Birnbaum to help him get out of the underdog position. They told him the only way he would have a chance of winning would be if his campaign focused on spreading the rumor that Peres intended to give half of Jerusalem to the Palestinians. Peres did not want to do that; it was a complete fabrication. But the more the line spread, the more journalists asked him about it. Instead of pushing and discussing his own political agenda, Peres was forced to defend himself against Netanyahu’s lie. Netanyahu completely trapped Peres and, to the surprise of many, won the 1996 election, with more than 50 percent of the vote. This is how Netanyahu’s spectacular rise in politics began.

In the early 2000s, Finkelstein and Birnbaum helped Bulgarian and Romanian politicians gain power with similar campaigns. Then Netanyahu introduced them to another ambitious politician in Europe: Viktor Orban. He had been prime minister between 1998 and 2002 before losing power. Orban felt so humiliated that he swore he would never lose again. In 2010, the spin doctors advised him to conduct a tough, polarizing campaign against bureaucrats and foreign investors. It worked: Orban’s alliance won a comfortable two-thirds majority in the National Assembly, and the social democrats suffered a stinging defeat that they still have not recovered from today.

During the next election, in 2014, the opposition hardly managed to get a word in. Still, Orban took no chances and again consulted the advisors who had helped him win earlier. They told him he needed a scapegoat with a familiar face. They suggested he use Soros and depict him as a Jewish financier with a secret political agenda: to weaken Hungary and then dominate it. According to some reports, this campaign fueled antisemitism in the country; however, since Hungary keeps no official data on antisemitism, the EU’s rights watchdog, the Vienna-based Agency for Fundamental Rights, found it hard to substantiate this claim.

During this campaign, Orban blamed all his problems on Soros and his “tentacles”—from the financial and economic crises that had hit the country to the arrival of refugees from war-torn Syria and other countries. In 2014 and again in 2018, Orban won elections, consolidating his grip on power in Hungary. In the run-up to the 2018 vote, posters appeared all over Hungary depicting Soros with the text: “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.” That year, the Hungarian government also forced Central European University (CEU), founded and partially funded by Soros, out of the country. CEU eventually found refuge in Vienna, from where it still operates.

As Birnbaum once said, “It’s good to have an enemy,” calling Soros a “good target.” Soros was defenseless. If he fought back, he would only crank up the rumor machine. If he entered the Hungarian political fray, Orban could accuse him of being power-hungry. So he did not say anything, and the rumor spread anyway.

Birnbaum’s father survived Auschwitz. (Finkelstein, who was much older, died in 2017.) That their campaigns featured racist tropes and fueled antisemitism does not seem to bother Birnbaum in the least. Once he asked an interviewer: “Can I not attack someone because he is a Jew?”

While Orban successfully won two Hungarian elections deploying the “Soros monster,” the first time he used this strategy to win a European election was in 2019. Posters went up picturing then-Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and Soros, with the words: “You have the right to know what Brussels is cooking up!” Orban’s campaign then focused on migration: Brussels’s “secret” plan to use migrant visas to flood Europe with immigrants and Europe’s so-called attempts to prevent Hungary from guarding its external borders.

Soros largely kept quiet, but Juncker—who had once called the Hungarian prime minister a “dictator”—immediately began to refute the charges. He strongly denied Brussels was working on secret migrant visas or was hindering border guards. In short, Orban’s strategy went according to plan. His alliance won 53 percent of the vote.

That the Hungarian prime minister is having his attacks on Soros translated into English this time is telling. A Hungarian diplomat once told me, “Viktor Orban thinks Europe will either be his Europe or Emmanuel Macron’s Europe.” In countries such as France, where far-right politician Jordan Bardella from Marine Le Pen’s National Rally is clearly the front-runner, the election campaign is dominated by a similar binary choice: Europe will be shaped by the likes of Macron or the National Rally.

Now that several far-right parties in different countries do not want to leave the EU anymore because of what Swedish politician Carl Bildt has called the “BTP effect”—meaning, Brexit, Trump, Putin—they seem to want to instead enter European politics for the first time and attempt to change it from the inside. Consequently, they are trying to form coalitions to maximize their influence. Orban told a party congress last year that Europe needs to be changed, not ditched.

Herbert Kickl of the Freedom Party of Austria, Geert Wilders of the Dutch Party for Freedom, and several other far-right politicians are starting to talk more and more about what they want with Europe: ditching climate legislation, changing the existing migration policy, and blocking aid for Ukraine. In the run-up to this year’s elections, the European center-right is already moving somewhat in this direction, just as it does in member states when it tries to prevent voters from fleeing to the far right. Several polls, while showing that the center will hold after the elections in June, have predicted substantial gains for the far right in several member states.

According to Paul Lendvai, a Hungarian journalist in Vienna who has written a critical biography of the Hungarian prime minister, Orban has Hungary “in his pocket, and Europe will be his next step.” He seems intent on using—or rather abusing—Soros to this end once more. Europe had better be prepared.

[sibyl-of-space]

Ok I know probably none of your guys are as plugged in to #chessdrama as I am but like, putting aside Hans's horseshit for 8 seconds, I am SO EXCITED about the championship match upcoming in 2023.

It's like a Hollywood underdog movie come to life.

The chess championship works like this: there is a "candidates tournament" where only a very small handful of the best of the best are invited to participate, and the winner of that candidates tournament is selected to face off against the incumbent grand champion in the championship match.

There are TWO "but"s about it this year.

1) One of the players invited to the candidates tournament, Sergey Karjakin, publicly announced support for the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. As a result he was banned from FIDE events for a time - therefore disqualifying him from the candidates' tournament. This will be very relevant later.

2) Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen declined to defend his title. The likeliest reason being that he has held the title since 2013 and has repeatedly shown himself to be on a league of his own, and already defeated this year's winner of the candidates' tournament (Ian Nepomniachtchi) in LAST year's championship match... anyway for whatever reason he will not be participating and will relinquish the title.

So who is the championship match going to be between? The top TWO finalists of the candidates' tournament. The top finisher was also last year's finalist, Ian Nepomniachtchi.

And who finished second place in the candidates' tournament 2022....?

This is where it gets super juicy. The second place finisher was Ding Liren, who was not originally invited to the candidates' tournament, but was a last-minute replacement for the banned Sergey Karjakin!!!

The guy who wasn't originally even in the candidate's tournament now has a shot at the world champion title.* Y'all it's so exciting. I can't fucking wait until April. Like even if Ian wins the title you can't tell me Ding having a seat at that table isn't some chefs kiss shit.

Anyway here's my favorite picture of Ding Liren which I'm pretty sure was a photo op specifically to announce his invitation to the championship match, and you can't say they didn't flex at the opportunity (but I'm also laughing at the not properly buttoned up dress shirt and ill-fitted suit):

This has been your reprieve from chess drama involving Hans. Thank you for your attention

* it should be clarified that Ding Liren is like up there among the highest ranking players EVER, with a batshit impressive resume of his own, hence he was chosen as a replacement (iirc as the highest ranking player not already in the tournament). So it's not like he's some nobody. He is very very much somebody. it's just the circumstances around his candidacy for the championship title this year are so.. DRAMATIC