#unlike 99% of any fanbase

[throughpatchesofviolet]

It's both amusing and annoying that the fandom sees Ho.ng Lu, D.on Qu.ixo.te, AND Sinc.lair as people who have no idea what sex is ... when Ho.ng Lu and Sinc.lair have dreams about the subject in their source material. And D.on Qu.ixo.te ... sorry but her source has the character turn down any romantic advances because he feared how his Lady Dulc.inea would perceive it as unfaithful.

On the other side of the coin, people who draw Hea.thcl.iff in a manner that's clearly exaggerating certain features and who talk about how intense he'd be also piss me off. Besides him not being that way in the source, he's also a character of color, so it's just disgusting.

[red-might-be-dead]

hello hi here to force strange thoughts into your brain once again, this time about jrwi (wow who could’ve guessed)

been thinking about this for a little but it’s basically what i think some campaigns would be if not podcasts, i haven’t listened to some of the older ones so i’m sorry they’re not on here :(( if you have any ideas feel free to add them btw :DD

RIPTIDE!!!!! - really long animated series

not an anime though, no matter how much grizzly wants it, it would be an animation style where the characters could have very clearly different nose, face and body shapes, really pushing my riptide nose agenda here sorry, each episode would be like 20-40 minutes long and instead of coming out in seasons there would be massive gaps in between episodes, from 2-6 months long, to leave time for writers and animators to get stuff done (massive team of animators btw, i feel like it would be pretty successful)

PRIME DEFENDERS!! - comics

literally nothing else they could be, just really well made, well performing comics (i’ve already talked about this before you can stalk my talk tag if you really want to find it lmao), the comic company making them would be keeping well away from movies n shit btw

APOTHEOSIS!!! - i wasn’t really sure about this one to be honest

i had to ask my friend and she said anime which i don’t agree with but i can see it, i think maybe a short book series where each book is 150 - 300 pages and is about a different god they have to kill/a different episode, i think that works but if anyone has any better ideas please tell me :D!!

BLOOD IN THE BAYOU!!! - i hate to say it, i really do…

bitb would be a really long really good 80s horror book with strong homoerotic undertones, a satisfied fanbase and lots of active members in the community making fan comics, films, writing, theories and art ect… until well after the book came out……….. and then it would be made into the most egregious and awful live action movie you have ever seen, the most awful casting (like chris pratt as officer dudes….. throws up) and even worse sfx, oh yeah and the characters would be ruined and the story would become so butchered it wouldn’t make sense, they would do some shit like cut out becky so kian just kisses some random lady (removing both a really good and well written character and a layer of kian’s character that i think is super important) and make rolan really be an evil bug spy the whole time so rand has to kill him to save the town also add in a whole new sub plot that never existed like the rand family is secretly a long line of bug alien hunters or something fucking stupid like that and the entire fanbase would murder whoever thought re-writing the story was a good idea (ahaha can you tell ive been through something like this before ahahaha, character morals and motives being removed and whatnot ahahahhahahaha.)

anyways………

THE SUCKENING!!! - live action series

it would be well made though, unlike the bitb movie it would be its own original thing, have great makeup and effects also be well casted and well shot, well written, ect ect, it would bloody and gory and not suitable for people who can’t handle showing bones and organs all over everywhere, lots of shitty rip off merch would be made though and the fandom would be 99% gay little freaks (normal suckening enjoyers) and 1% homophobic straight white men who get mad whenever they see soda and emizel having gay sex on screen or whatever fag shit that biting thing was

again feel free to add your thoughts and ideas and shit in the reblogs it would be nice to read them :DD!!

[captainsspnanon]

C2E44 - The Diver’s Grave - rewatch reaction

Watching Talks, they’re hinting about something big at the start of next episode….I think we’re getting the animated intro!!

IT ISSSSSS they just played little clippets (clips, snippets, the fuck am I saying) AAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!

LET’S DO THIS

Hello Taliesin, your mohawk is particularly fantastic this episode!

I think top table has fuzzy camera again.  They’ve been cutting to it a bit and they look more 720p.

Also, you can see Sam’s dice really clearly during his ad bit, and MAN I wish the green ones were Nott’s dice!  I can still hope, they haven’t been released yet!  So something similar, please???

Huh, I actually didn’t get super hyped when watching the intro?  I guess I’ve just seen it so many times that the intensity has worn off.  (also it felt slower than normal, which is really weird because the only times I ever watched through C2 at a faster speed was during the first phase of Lucien climax battle, where I watched at 1.25x.  AH WELL.) I told myself when I first saw it, and was suitably hyped, that I’d never skip it, but because I was binging the episodes HARD I ended up skipping it after just a few episodes.  This time around I probably won’t skip it because I’m taking this rewatch at a much more reasonable pace.

(though all the hype loss might be because I have MANY times watched and rewatched user uploads of live shows singing along to the opening, so that may be my new level of hype for it)

LOL Travis panicking because he can’t remember the name of his own ship, and Sam just roasting him for it.

I do love the suspension of disbelief that you have to have in order for a campaign to work.  They confirm that this is salt water, the magic is letting them breathe underwater, but what allows them to have their eyes open?  IT’S A CAMPAIGN IT DON’T MATTER they can see and aren’t suffering the pain of SALT TO EYES.

Mmmph, unfortunately the Sabian aspect of Fjord’s backstory really is the only aspect that was left unexplored in the campaign.  Sure the orphanage wasn’t touched either, but Fjord/Travis never really brought it up, so I don’t consider it a loose thread.  Unlike the majority (I think?) of the fanbase, I’m not actually bothered by where the Uk’otoa thread ended up.  If Fjord remained on land he would not be bothered any more, if Fjord got rid of the crystal literally ANYWHERE he wouldn’t be bothered any more, but by continuing to go on sea while still being in possession of the crystal, he keeps Uk’otoa’s eye on him, until eventually it’s stolen or he dies.  While it’s not tied in a nice neat bow, it’s resolved ENOUGH, at least if there weren’t options of one shots after.  Whereas everyone elses’ stories seems to have been resolved from major or minor points, the Sabian thread still bothers me.  Not that he got away scot free, but because we never find out WHY Sabian blew up the ship.  Was it for Uk’otoa?  Avantika?  Some nefarious scheme for himself?  Revenge on Vandren because Fjord got better positions?  We don’t know!

I really appreciate how Matt doesn’t punish a player for rolling a nat 1 outside of combat.  Fjord doesn’t fall through the floor or get muck in his eyes or whatever else he could have when trying to go through Vandren’s room.  Instead, he’s caught by emotion and memories, which prevents him from searching as thoroughly as he should.  It’s a moment that leads to beautiful roleplay, and not just a fail of a roll.  (though poor Travis is rolling like shit omg)

I’ll admit, I’m going slowly through this episode with lots of pauses and breaks, mainly because I don’t want to jump into ANOTHER big combat with Dashilla.  Fjord’s arc is really good, but it also has a LOT of combat.  (2, 9, 11, 14, 24, 27, 30, 31, 33, 37, 42, 48, 49, 56, 57, 58, 61, 62, 70, 71, 72, 74, 76, 77, 78, 83, 84, 88, 90, 91, 92, 97, 99, 101, 103, 108, 109, 110, 111, 114, 118, 121, 122, 124, 125, 130. So, to be fair, there are 46 episodes in the campaign without combat, which is nearly a third of the episodes!  Totally thought there was less, so I shouldn’t be as complainy as I am.  I do enjoy combat I’d say about half of the time.  Then about half of the remaining time I’m not bothered by it, and for the remaining section I get bored and zone out during it.  Maybe it’s just because this section has BIG combats with long lead ins…. We had the hydra battle, but with the jungle combat getting there and the escape sequence out of it.  We had the Avantika battle, with the break in getting there and the tense negotiations after.  We’re going to have the Dashilla battle with the ghosty creatures getting there.  Checked CR status for the next, we get happy fun ball next episode YAY!  There’s combat in it, but it doesn’t feel as BIG, per se.  And then after that we have two epsidoes of combat where Fjord is placing the crystal.  It’s GOOD SHIT, it all is!  But OOF does it feel exhausting to me at times.   Which is 100% a viewer criticism, because PLAYING it would be engaging on the level that viewing isn’t.)

(out of curiosity… 12, 14, 20, 24, 36, 38, 45, 47, 50, 53, 56, 57, 59, 60, 64, 65, 67, 69, 70, 73, 74, 75, 78, 81, 84, 89, 90, 91, 95, 101, 103, 104, 106, 109, 112.  So 35 episodes in C1 with no combat, for just above 30% without combat [not counting the one shots which all had combat]. Huh, honestly more than I thought as well!  I suppose in C1 we had a lot of ‘prepping for combat’ episodes too, which may have made it feel MORE.  Though I admit the fact that I didn’t connect as much with C1 also played a part, less emotionally invested in some of the combats.)

Sabien, Sabian. Vandran, Vandren.  Goddamn these names and me ALWAYS spelling them wrong.  I try to go back and correct, but apologies, it’s gonna happen.

I have mixed feelings about underwater combat in D&D.  It pretty much falls under the same category as a water level in a video game.  It’s usually in a gorgeous setting, it imposes some set of realistic disadvantages, and because of that it’s kinda sucky and gets really frustrating.  XD  Disadvantage on all melee attacks?  Ranged attacks auto-miss if outside the first distance range?  Makes 1000% sense! Also super annoying.  Movement halved?  Total sense!  Super annoying!

Despite having multiple clerics in campaigns and one shots, Prayer of Healing totally just feels like an Iconic Caduceus spell.  I don’t want any other clerics to have it (despite how beneficial it is!)!  ...Then again, I fall in the trap of not wanting anyone else to have Spiritual Weapon (used by multiple clerics) because it seems so iconically Jester, no one else using ...well, a LOT of spells that feel iconically Caleb, despite being fairly standard wizard spells (at least the dunamancy is new for him, though that doesn’t mean that any casters going forwards couldn’t use it).  It’s my C2 bias coming in to play.  Seeing Pike cast Spiritual Weapon felt wrong…..but Guiding Bolt is totally an iconic Pike spell, regardless of it being a very common cleric spell.  I think even Cad used it?

Does anyone think that Nott actually starts believing in Buttonbeard?  Her switching her tune on the legend was always a little jarring to me, as I interpreted it as her joking, but Sam says it with a level of sincerity to the point where if he said that Nott ended up believing it, I wouldn’t be surprised.  I don’t remember if there’s ever an answer to this in campaign or Talks, but I’ve read it as her going along with the joke once she’s calmed down a little from her anxiety.

As they go to break – I will never buy Wyrmwood for myself because they are expensive as shit, but I do like their full dice trays, with the little section for dice at top and then the full tray?  I like it a lot. :)  But when you can use something like the lid of a shoe box as a tray, spending around $150 on a tray seems….excessive.  LOL nope, $90 for the cheapest, but $328 for the most expensive, fuuuuck that.  Even their ‘little’ dice trays (which I don’t personally like because they seem too cramped for me) are $70 to $276.  Their resin dice are at least reasonable, but if I’m spending money on dice I’m buying the CR dice :)  (can’t comment as to the price of their gemstone dice, I’ve never actually bought really pricey dice so have no clue if it’s reasonable or not)

(apropos of nothing at all, if Sam had a beard this episode, I’d be thirsting after everyone.  They are just ON POINT)

I’m glad that Taliesin frequently had Caduceus speak to plants and animals, because with the amount that he does so, it feels like the few times that Matt had the flora/fauna listen to him and respond in a noticeable way felt very reasonable.  It gives a strong sense that Cad is always making requests, and just every once in a while it works out. (*gives a little salute to the fly that would have*)  A very reasonable balance.

Watching Travis absolutely lose his shit is DELIGHTFUL, though it does make me wonder.  This is a very respectful group, who would 100% respect each others limits and discomforts.  I could speculate on some things which the group does not play and if it’s related to someone’s discomfort or not, but I’m not going to.  But I wonder if Travis has ever explicitly told Matt that he was fine with all the ghost/scary stuff before it came up in game, considering his extreme reactions to it.  I don’t doubt that he’s fine with it!  I can’t see Matt NOT following up with Travis after a session had he not known beforehand, but it’s a curious thing.  Because it’s something that Travis is clearly uncomfortable with, but also something that he seems to be okay with?  Akin to the reaction of someone who is very frightened by horror movies and so watches them to feel that fear rush.   ...I think this is more that I wish I knew the limits that the group has put on the game, which I fully admit comes from a somewhat voyeuristic place.  I don’t need to know what makes them so uncomfortable or what topics may be so sensitive that they don’t put them in the game!  It’s something that’s super personal to them, if they even have ANY.   ….butikindawanttoknow.   *sigh* at least I can acknowledge when I’m being a creep.  (and for the record, the only place that I post about CR stuff is here or if I send a message to suicidallyreckless.  I don’t tweet, I don’t reach out to the cast, I don’t post on youtube or on twitch.  So at the very least, my grossness is very limited in the audience that it reaches.)

I also admit that I want to know a LOT of the behind the scenes stuff that I have no reason to actually be privy to.  Like what are post game conversations like?  What does on in the group thread?  Did any of them actually ever speak to another, whether player or Matt, saying that something that happened wasn’t cool and either want an apology or clarification?  Was there ever something Matt planned that he had to back off of because he realized it would come across poorly?  Were there lines crossed?   ….as much as I hate to admit it, I do have a little gossipy corner of my soul and I WANT TO KNOW.  But also, I absolutely should never know, because that is not information that anyone who isn’t part of the game should be privy to.  It’s like when fans ask an actor during a Q and A what’s the worst experience they’ve had on set/with a fan/whatever.  The person is never going to answer honestly, because they’re in the public eye and speaking publicly.  They’re never going to say ‘my co star was a complete jackass and had their head up their butt and should get punched in the face’, they’re never going to say ‘a fan was completely inappropriate and crossed so many boundaries that I wanted to say screw all fans forever you guys are creepy AF’.  But that doesn’t stop the little deep seated inappropriate curiosity inside us.  ….i’m just making myself look veeeery bad right now.  Again, this shit never leaves my head!  I never actually approach or ask anyone!  (I don’t know why I’m so concerned about what y’all think of me, but apparently I am XD)

...so I have my captions set to be 50% size, and every once in a while youtube will reset them to 100% and I am shocked by how big they are.  And I had them at 100% for aaaaages!  It was only during the rewatch that I shrunk them down.  Never going back!

“Fuck off, ghost!” Taliesin has said that he regrets having Cad curse here, but honestly?  He said it in his normal voice, so I always read it as Tal saying it, not Cad.

I love that Jester is super scared of ghosts (though I remember her being fine with them during the porn scene), and I love to think that it’s just Laura poking fun at Travis by making a scaredy cat character.

Paying close attention to the table, because I just rewatched the tower reveal last night.  That is such a comfort scene for me, and is basically the only section from C2 that I rewatch all the time.  Watching Liam shout “I love you” at his friends in character never gets old.  I only regret that he didn’t have something for Matt at the time as well.

Sam is so pleased that everyone else is so excited that Nott is immune to fear when drunk.

I really like that Caleb was the one who ended up scared to death, because imo when Matt is saying he feels his deepest fear well up inside of him, YEAH I THINK CALEB HAS THE WORST DEEPEST FEAR OF THE BUNCH.  Makes sense he’d be the one PTSD’d to death!

Sam lending Laura a d8 and then singing that his die rolled the best of the three.  ILU YOU GOOBER

Even though Dashilla should have died (poor math kept her alive), I’m really glad she’s still around.  There’s a sense of naturalness about her, she’s something that is existing in the world and having impact on her own. I like that she still remains, still causing her shipwrecks, still stealing her treasure.  I have similar feelings about Gelidon still being alive.  It makes sense that these powerful creatures that are in some ways a force of nature upon the world aren’t just resolved by a small group of assholes swinging some blades and doing some magic.  I consider it once of the big differences between the M9 and VM, and it’s appreciated.  Smaller heros doesn’t make them less heroic.

Ooooof, Liam is giving me the CREEPS here, his face is so fucking intense.  Caleb is being so calculating at this moment, and it really does play out so well.  It also pays off by 111 where the altar of Dashilla is no more than a book table for Fjord because of how much Caleb cares, as compared to a transactional exchange for favors and support that it was here.  (also I love that Liam is willing to go to 1hp for this XD He’s not AS much of a button pusher, but he sure does love the results of having buttons pushed)

OOoo I REALLY like how Travis and Liam play the handshake moment.  You can TELL that to Fjord, the cut palms touching really is a blood brothers thing, there is so much meaning to it in that moment, for past and future relations.  And you can see that Caleb, while not disrespecting it, doesn’t attach the same emotions to it (and we find out in Talks that he don’t give a crap at all, except for knowing it matter to Fjord, which gives him leverage).  THEY ARE ALL SUCH GOOD ACTORS

I wonder if Ashley had been there, if Yasha would have donated blood.  I can’t see Yasha deciding to do that this early on, but Ashley is a big button pusher too.

Best way to end an episode, Travis fucking LOSING it when he realizes how badly he nearly fucked them over.

….nope it ends with Caleb spending hours writing letters to his dead parents.  OUCH MY HEART

@suicidallyreckless

[weaselbeaselpants]

The virgin Hazbin vs. The Chad Helluva

((hey is the “virgin vs. CHAD” meme associated with alt right or anything iffy guys I’m kinda worried it is. PM me please))

This is long. Also read my earlier post for context.

Earlier this month I was chatting it up with a friend about how Viv gets heat for her material stuff while other purposefully “edgy” or “problematic” writers get a pass. The convo made me realize another important note about why I prefer Helluva to Hazbin and that’s it’s approach to it’s own themes and humor:

There’s a spectrum of pure shock/schlock humor to biting, meaningful satire. South Park, Drawn Together, Panty and Stocking and anything by Brandon Rogers is on the schlock end. Bojack Horseman, King of the Hill and Aggretsuko are on the black-comedy-satire end. In the middle are Rick and Morty, Kill la Kill and Venture Bros, where the humor can be either basic and cruel or strive for something more.

The schlockiest of schlock still have their followings who are in on humor that’s, first and foremost, out to get under your skin and even makes fun of them. When these works are “progressive” it’s usually just through sheer representation of a minority, and if they DO strive for a message, it’s little more than a much needed hot-take pointing out how stupid something is. South Park in it’s prime was ESPECIALLY good at the former.

Another interesting about these properties? The characters aren’t really that complex. They ARE strawmen! They are stereotypes! They ARE awful people. But either through the sheer audacity of the situation or how much the plot involves them, you somehow end up caring for these miserable, one-note people.

Viv’s humor fares more on this basic “schlockynottooseriousparody/comedy”-side of things, but Helluva Boss does this better than Hazbin.

Helluva Boss -both the actual pilot and it’s promotional material- doesn’t make any promises for any “deeper” character development. None of these demons at I.M.P are good people. None of them are SUPPOSED to be good people - they are literally demons who were never human and know nothing but absolute sin. 

((yes, I know this sounds similar to the “they’re in hell” non-argument. My point is not that this defense is foolproof, but that it works better in the context of Helluva vs. Hazbin. It’s a world building quirk, even though I’m not 100% sure Viv and her audience are in on the joke))

It makes their weird bits of NOTawfulness more funny because what business do they have being polite about their work or having any emotional connection to each other(Moxxie and Millie)? But they do! Blitzo is weird, even for a demon, but again he IS ONE, so his breaking into his coworkers house is just “annoying” to Moxxie and Millie rather than, you know, stalking which is absolutely what that is <--- it’s a bit of comedy that, to me, tells you what you need to know about these demons and what somehow is and isn’t good to them, which is to say: it varies!

((The one MASSIVE exception to this is Stolas who is 100% predatory and it’s played for laughs. Beejesus no. Get  owl boy out here. ))

Different series use their mythical creatures to different affect. In Satina the joke is that this demon-antichrist really is more of a little girl with a looser dad w. the version of hell being a send up to classic, even basic depictions of demons in media. Helluva’s different, with the Hell in that world being more of a ritzy, scummy city where everyone’s a dick to everyone else, and that’s fine. Even the joke in the beginning where the imps interview one of their clients tells you all you need to know about why this guy is in Hell, how he doesn’t get the point, and what the humor and tone of the short is striving for. I guess that’s why I’m just not offended by them using the R word, Blitzo laughing at the homeless (which is more of a joke on Blitzo, I thought), or the child murder. It felt oddly in character for these awful little creatures.

Helluva knows what it is and what it wants to be. While it’s fans and creators still take it too seriously, it really doesn’t set out to do much.

Hazbin has 99 problems and good world-building aint one. What IS one of those 99 problems - just as if not more than the lackluster storytelling or world building - is it’s attitude towards the subject matter.

Hazbin wants to have it’s cake and eat it too, but it isn’t properly established and the creators/fanbase already overemphasis how our cast ‘isn’t ALL bad; deep down’ and how they’re ‘complicated’. It gets me mad when people claim Angel IS GOOD representation because I just ‘don’t know the whole story yet’.

-You’re right! I don’t. Stop building it up because as I’ve said before what we have at the moment is what we 100% get. I can’t criticize what I don’t know but I can criticize what I do know.

And what I know about it is Viv tends to promote her brand as being representive of LGBT+ people. Her fans and her act as though her works are actually a total net-positive ‘guyz we’re just being edgythey’reinhellandit’sapilotsoit’sfreefromcriticismanywayletswritefanfictionforaserieswedon’tactuallyknowyet.’

If Viv and her brand didn’t promo Hazbin as being deeper than it actually is/NEEDS TO BE at the time of this production in the storytelling - well THAT would axe a lot of the bad criticism right there. For all the discourse in the She-Ra and SU fandoms about what is and isn’t good representation, the showrunners of those cartoons don’t aim to stereotype + hit for the lowest common denominator while also insisting that their show is actually woke and ya’ll “just don’t get it.”

((As an aside, if you are any of the following: gay, crossdresser, sex worker, undead spider demon-whatever, and you DO find Angel Dust empowering. GREAT! AWESOME. MORE POWER TO YOU.

But just because you aren’t offended by it and it was made with good intentions does NOT give it a pass < that’s the point I’m trying to make. ftm even with the explaination of the infamous ‘Charcoal’ design in SU, black people still have the right to be offended))

Remember the episode of Family Guy where Quagmire’s dad transitioned? It was Family Guy so no matter what it was gonna fumble the message, BUT what made things 100000x worse was Seth McFarlane promoting the episode as something the Trans community would really like.

It’s one thing to be ignorant or trying -and failing- to make a difference. It’s another to be arrogant about it. 

If you are gonna go all schlock-humor I think it’s best to take the lead of Bltzo’s voice actor, Brandon Rogers. He makes A LOT of sacrifices for the most insanely-purposefully-offensive jokes that straddle between making fun of everyone or just rustlin some jimmies. Dude’s the modern John Waters.

He also doesn’t promote himself as a gay icon. He just is gay and what helps a lot of his characters is that he’s often making fun of gay stereotypes by giving them character or making homophobes the butt of the joke. Brandon doesn’t act like a net-positive. It’s when you hear him in interviews that you know he’s genuine and know he’s not a threat.

And it’s why I don’t have the same expectations I have for his work that I do for Vivs; Vivs works are often telling me how I should feel. ((ftm it’s also why Brandon’s approach to writing, comedy and potentially deeper elements are better than Doug Walker’s or Sam Fennah’s attempts to make awful people “moving”))

.....hey is there anyway we could give Viv’s shows to Brandon cause I would love a Brandon-Rogers-flavored Hazbin/permanent Helluva!

---

TL:DR: If Hazbin had established itself like Helluva with it’s cast just being unlikable, nothing else you needed to know about them, it could have then PROBABLY have worked it’s way up to being like Venture Bros or Rick and Morty in it’s activism. As is, it’ still only “progressive” in a hypothetical sense, and I’m sorry but that hurts it’s credibility as a joke and a thought piece, which or whatever it wants to be...

[silver-falling-star]

Sing me a song, o muse, of your bitter hatred against catcher in the rye bc SAME

Oooooh boy, I smell one of my long winded rants coming on. Strap in folks its about to be a wild ride.

So, Ima preface this by saying that I have NOT read it since I was forced to read it in 11th grade. For like, several fucking reasons. (the primary one being that I don’t want to, the 2nd one being I don’t know which bookshelf my dad stashed my copy on. He stashed all my required readings on various bookshelves after I was done with them. Because we were all given copies for free by the teachers that we were allowed to keep. I’ll chalk this up to private school benefits I guess? I’ve been out of the public school circuit since the end of 5th grade) So basically my memory of like, most of the events that take place in the book are foggy at best and unremembered at worst.

@ my mutuals and followers who like this book, that’s fine you do you, but I personally am not and probably will never be a fan of Catcher in the Rye. My feelings of why I dislike it are my opinions and I’m not gonna force them on you.

Problem 1: Main character is an unsympathetic asshole

My biggest gripe about the book is honestly a gripe I have about SEVERAL books. Unlikable characters, and I don’t necessarily mean written poorly (though I don’t remember being awed by how the book was written, I’ll be honest.) I mean unsympathetic asshole little bastards that make you want to just chuck the book across the room. Other books that share this problem are The Great Gatsby (that book is hot fucking garbage in terms of likeable characters and I WILL die on that fucking hill do not even @ me), Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Main character is an asshole little snobby bitch and despite being a murder mystery written in first person she literally figures things out at such a pace its not fun for the reader because she STILL ends up caught in shit situations she KNEW WAS GOING TO GO DOWN BECAUSE SHES SUCH A SPECIAL LITTLE SHIT- okay that’s a rant for a different post) and The King Must Die. (If you ever want to read a book with shit diction, pick it up.)

Now, as a writer/roleplayer of almost a decade, I’ve made plenty of characters that fall into the unsympathetic asshole role. My problem isn’t with the archetype, it’s often used and often done well (fandoms later trying to apologize for them aside) My PROBLEM comes when that’s either the archetype for the only character given any spotlight, or ALL the characters have that problem. (see, Great Gatsby.) Holden Caulfield(or however the fuck you spell it) is an unsympathetic asshole, and also the character who’s perspective is the only one we get to see, and the only character we really know much about. (Mainly cause he just doesn’t deign to care to give a legitimate effort in giving a damn about anyone else aside from how innocent children/his sister are. More on how creepy that shit is later.) Making a book like this means that I’m far less likely to enjoy it because I want to be able to root for someone. I can root for an asshole, so long as they’re likeable in some regard. Holden is a grade A fuckboy in the making and as such I am not a fan.

TL/DR: It’s possible to have likeable unsympathetic asshole characters, it is almost impossible to do that if that’s all you have exposure too in your cast.

Problem 2: I was really not in the best place to receive such a fucking depresso espresso lesson about life.

Switching gears momentarily from problems with the writing/book itself to problems with the timing of this book showing up in my life. High school was the time when all my trauma I’d successfully… repressed? Avoided dealing with? whatever, basically all my mental health shit suddenly decided to spring itself on me and yell “SURPRISE, YOU’RE MENTALLY FUCKED AND WILL NEVER BE THE SAME!” in 10th grade and it wasn’t until halfway through 11th grade that I even started getting a handle on shit. I almost failed high school and it was *bad*, especially for someone who was just trying to get to college so I could get to vet school and be qualified for a job that requires an ass load of education. So in walks this fucking book and it’s message of “adulthood is a sham, nothing matters and you really should just fuck around and do whatever because it’s all bullshit anyway. Childhood was where it’s at.”

Like???? Alright, that’s not what I need to hear when I’m barely passing high school. Go to fucking therapy and get some help, we all have trauma and therapy is the best path to work through it. I dunno like, yeah okay some people need to hear that message at whatever time in their life they read the book, but that message really wasn’t great to my Anxiety/Depression/ADHD struggling ass trying to just stay steady enough to get into college.

Honestly, even to this day I HATE HATE HATE books with depressing messages like that. I already deal with the struggle of being afraid of failure, getting where I want to be, all that shit. I don’t want that in my literature. Give me a person who struggles but still succeeds and finds some sort of happiness and self-worth in the end. Give me someone overcoming their traumas in such a way that they can at least have a good quality of life afterwards, even if the trauma will never leave, so long as they’re happy. I’m tired of YA novels that try and sell our generation and gen z the message that life sucks. Give me more hope, more heroes, more people making a difference because hell life is short so best make the most of it making a difference.

To quote GotG, why do I care so much about stories that revolve around saving the world, even if that world is just as small as a found family?

And my existence might as well be a happy one and have HOPE GOD DAMMIT.

TL/DR: If a book leaves me feeling like shit after reading it because it ends on a super shitty note, I’m generally not going to enjoy that book. And the fact that most YA novels these days that are given to highschoolers fall into this category is hot garbage when this is around the time they’re trying to find some sort of direction in life.

*Note: I realize that there are times and places for books that give more somber messages. Hell, I’ve even enjoyed some books with messages of such a tone. But media these days, and honestly for most of my life starting in mid to late teenage years (and maybe earlier) has started taking a turn towards the more depressing/somber stuff, and its overwhelming and just bad. And even back then when first reading it this was something I picked up on and didn’t enjoy. It just was not the right time in my life to hear a message so devoid of giving a shit.

Problem 3: Holden is honestly, super fucking creepy.

Okay, we back on the train of the actual book’s writing. Holden the dipshit is honestly, really fucking creepy. Towards women specifically. I have no direct quotes from the book specifically, but I DISTINCTLY remember the way he talked about women (or even young children/girls) being creepy as shit. Like, he waxes lyrical about his kid sister and her classmates and how innocent they are and how he wants to be the “Catcher in the Rye” to keep them innocent and to keep them from realizing how bad the world is. Great, lovely sentiment Holden. Except that the way you’re going about it comes across as being a pedophile.  You’re at the very least sexist as fuck, because you’re objectifying the fuck out of people anyway.

That scene with the sex worker in the hotel room is also one I remember making me feel super uncomfortable. Not because the sex worker is there, but because uh, just, god, that whole scene gave me the creeps. Probably because I felt bad for the woman, coming into the room expecting to be paid for work and there’s just this kid who breaks the fuck down, tells her some depressing shit, and maybe pays her? (does he pay her? I can’t fucking remember, I’d like to think he does, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t, because he’s an ass.) Actually, bigger question IS HE EVEN OF AGE TO HAVE SEX WITH HER LEGALLY? HOW OLD IS THIS KID? HES STILL IN HIGH SCHOOL RIGHT?

…. so I looked it up, he’s 17. SEVENTEEN. HE IS A M I N O R. I’m like 99% sure that the woman he hires is like, twice his age at least. That’s straight up illegal.

god this just gets worse.

TL/DR: Holden is a 17 year old creep who comes off as a pedophile in the way he talks about kids, and also definitely hired a sex worker while he was underage. Idk if that was legal at the time this book was written, but if it was (and I doubt it), that has aged very poorly.

Problem 4: It’s got a lot of male fans who fall into that all too dangerous category of having Fight Club or Rick and Morty being their favorite bit of visual media.

Okay, again, not a problem of the book. But when the majority fanbase (or at least, the most vocal part) are a bunch of abusive men who don’t realize that the message they took away from a work of fiction is incredibly problematic? Or worse, know and don’t care because they think their take is superior? Uhhh, how do I say, big yikes.

Like, this could be your favorite book, whatever, that’s you, I don’t care, but if your reasoning for it is because Holden is, in your opinion, an unflawed idealized version of yourself/your ideals?

thats a nope from me bro.

———-

That’s all I can do off the top of my head without going in and reading the book again. Which I probably won’t do for a long time, because I don’t need to hear that struggling to make a place for yourself is dumb and proves you’re just “part of the machine, the man has made you his bitch.” while I’m still trying to y’know, get to where I want to go.

But there you go, four solid reasons why I really really do not like Catcher in the Rye.

[mr-mr-ontheradio]

i followed you on ur old fan blog and you weren't a louis fan at all but then you became a larrie and now ur obsessed with him. that's messed up ppl like you only love louis because of the ship not because he's amazing on his own

Okay that’s a fair opinion to have I guess. But I wouldn’t say I wasn’t a fan of Louis. The truth is I didn’t really notice him during 1D, which is really sad because I feel like I missed out on a big part of the magic of one direction. I used to be the kind of fan that crushed on the boys incessantly, dreaming of marrying one of them one day. That was about 99% of their fanbase back in the day so can you really blame me?

I just followed the official story of things so to me, Louis had a long-term uninteresting girlfriend, hated Harry (who was my favorite since the beginning), and was more of a behind-the-scenes player than anything because he didn’t sing much and did a lot of the song-writing.  I never had much interest in him and I never gave much thought to the Larry drama because a. I believed/wanted to believe Harry was really very extremely into women and perpetually single so I had a chance(lol) and b. I thought it was tin hat shit that upset Harry (just like modest wanted me to). But I never actively disliked Louis.

Once i started really looking into Larry, I began to see Louis through Harry’s eyes and my entire world changed. Louis became this funny, powerful, kind-hearted, protective, beautiful person and tbh I’m astounded I was so blind to it before. I started to see him as someone who loved deeply and fiercely even though he was being told his love was wrong. I realized he was strong and honest against all odds because even when he was forced into silence, he was still brave enough to write his truth permanently in his lyrics and all over his body. 

Within that I started to see that he really was(is) extremely artistic, creative, and talented. His lyrics and the songs he wrote on are to this day the basis of One Direction’s sound and even now his solo music is the only one that sounds like 1D. Everything he writes is pure gold imho and the songs he’s written for Harry just echo this amazing love story so loudly I’m shocked I didn’t pick up on it before. 

So yes, their relationship did give me the incentive to take a closer look at Louis, but it went beyond that. I started to realize he was the real centerpiece of One Direction. He was the glue holding all the boys together. I started to see how Louis was this magnetic force and all of the boys were drawn to him, not just Harry. His playful sarcastic attitude kept things easy and light for the boys. He was the reason we always saw them messing around and having fun together, enjoying their time in 1D instead of being super-professional and taking everything really seriously. And unlike the other boys, he wore his emotions clearly on his face so that we could always see when the boys were annoyed/bored/in an uncomfortable situation or when they were truly enjoying what they were doing.

Tbh I think we should be grateful that Larry showed the fandom this entire side of Louis that Modest tried to keep quiet by putting him in the back, shipping him off with Eleanor and sparking a fake fued between him and H. I’m grateful af that I’m able to go back and watch old 1D videos through a completely different lens because now Louis is the one I see the most. It’s almost like I’m getting 5 years worth of new content (almost :/).  I’m also grateful I’m not going to miss out on Louis’ solo career which I might have been oblivious too otherwise because it’s gonna be fucking amazing, not to mention that means more support for Louis where he clearly deserves it. 

Props the the observant ones who saw Larry from the beginning. I’m jealous I really wish I could have watched it unfold over the years I really really do. But most importantly props to the people who have given Louis the attention, love, and support he deserved since day one. If I could go back in time and stan him since xfactor I would in a heartbeat. I feel like i wasted a lot of years not seeing him for the extraordinary king he is. The most i can do now is try to make up for it by supporting him in any way I can with every single thing he does from now on. 

[peppermint-shamrock]

I was thinking about that post that said something about how in the ygo fandom we have conversations where we all use different names for the same character but it’s still understandable (because of sub/dub/transliteration differences, plus when a character has multiple names in canon in some cases). And I thought about how there’s a definite difference in the prevalence of dub name usage in the fandoms for the newer ygo shows versus the older ones. Maybe it’s just my perception, and admittedly I’m only really involved in the DM and Arc V fandoms, but it seems to me that dub names are less prevalent the newer the fandom is.

With DM, I think it’s more or less equally split between dub and transliterated names, though if you include people who aren’t active in the fandom but are familiar with the show, there may even be more dub name usage. And it depends on the character, too - people who use dub names for most characters might still use “Anzu” simply because that’s easier to type since you don’t have to use an accented letter, and they don’t want to call her “Tea” since that looks like the drink. And conversely, “Yami” (a dub-only “name”, and only in the first two seasons at that) is absolutely ubiquitous even among people who otherwise exclusively use the original names.

GX has significant dub name usage as well, probably on par or nearly on par with DM. While I’m not that involved in the GX fandom, I do see quite a bit of it and I think I’m almost as likely to see “Jaden” as I am “Judai”, and same goes for most of the rest of the cast.

5DS, while again I’m not that involved with the fandom (and I haven’t watched it yet), from what I see of it, the dub names are still prevalent but less than that of GX. Of course, unlike previous series, 5DS has a lot more characters that keep their original name in the dub, which probably has a significant impact on this perception. Probably the only characters I really see having their dub name used commonly in fandom are the twins.

Zexal, again, haven’t seen the show, not involved in the fandom - but what I do see of it mostly uses the original names. I’ve maybe seen a few people use “Kite” instead of “Kaito”, but not much more than that.

Arc V I have maybe seen one or two people who have gone out of their way to use the dub names and that’s it. I am involved in this fandom, have been for a while, and 99% of the people I’ve seen exclusively use the transliterated names. The name divide here is mostly over how to tranliterate the names - most reject the official “Ute”, “Joeri”, and “Hyugo”, but I still see more usage of those than of dub names like “Declan” and “Lulu”.

Vrains, I admittedly see only a little of it on my dash these days, and the dub is still very new, but I honestly don’t even know any of the dub names and would have no idea who you are talking about if you used them without mentioning their original name. As far as I can tell, fandom usage of dub names for Vrains is nonexistent (though it is probably too early to tell).

I think the main reason behind this trend is the greater accessibility of quality subs, even official subs. The first exposure the Western fanbase had to the early shows was through the dub - no one would have heard of the show otherwise. The only access to subs was through bootlegs - which gave us the infamous Hong Kong subs that are great for shitposting, not so great for watching.

But then access started to open up. Better quality subs became available, and a lot of people grew disillusioned with the dubs. Not only that, but YGO had gotten an established fanbase that would actively seek out new content - the shows didn’t have to establish themselves like a non-franchise show would have to do. So why wait for the dubs to come out when those wouldn’t air for a significant amount of time after the show started, especially when subbed episodes could be found within a week to a few days of airing in Japan? Hell, with Vrains it’s a day, and it’s legal, official subs, even. The situation has flipped - the sub is more accessible than the dub now, and as such, the prevalence of dub names and dub canon in general in the fandom has completely dwindled compared with the fandoms of the earlier shows.

[junker-town]

Western Illinois’ Final Four run in Year 20, continued

The epic conclusion of Western Illinois’ Cinderella run to the Final Four as a No. 12 seed in College Hoops 2K8.

Welcome back to our simulated dynasty with the Western Illinois Leathernecks in College Hoops 2K8. You can find a full explanation of this project + spoiler-free links to previous seasons here. Check out the introduction to this series from early April for full context. As a reminder, I simulate every game in this series (even the ones we watch on Twitch) and only handle the recruiting and coaching strategies.

We pick up with Western Illinois in the Final Four of the 2027 NCAA tournament. Here’s a recap of everything that has happened so far this season:

Western Illinois entered the season seeking redemption after losing to Cal in the first round of the NCAA tournament last year. We began the new season rated as a 96 overall with three new starters. We went 3-6 against a difficult non-conference schedule before sweeping the Summit League and again capturing the conference tournament championship. We enter the NCAA tournament at 24-6 overall.

We earned a No. 12 seed in the NCAA tournament. We defeated No. 5 seed Minnesota, 89-72, in the first round. We beat No. 4 seed Ole Miss, 116-85, in the round of 32 as senior wing Wilky Henry set a program record with 46 points. We defeated No. 1 seed Dayton, 109-82, in the Sweet 16, and then we beat No. 2 seed Indiana in the Elite Eight, 105-69. You can read a full recap of our road to the Final Four here.

We recruited for one scholarship and are poised to land five-star JUCO shooting guard Edwin Wolfe after the season.

Read: Western Illinois, Year 20, 2026-2027

Read: Western Illinois’ NCAA tournament run in Year 20, continued

Here’s a look at our roster heading into the Final Four:

It seems like just yesterday I was a fresh-faced 25-year-old taking over arguably the worst program in college basketball. Now in my 20th season, our Leathernecks are making their fourth Final Four appearance and looking for their third national championship.

Our opponent in the Final Four is No. 2 seed Pepperdine. The Wave enter the game at 34-2 on the season. You can find their roster here. We’re rated as a 99 overall, they’re rated as a 94 overall. Here’s how the two teams stack up:

I could feel the heat when we started this tournament run. The program came maddeningly close to breaking through in Year 16, Year 17, and Year 18, which each ended with a loss in the Elite Eight. The first round exit last season only made matters worse. Part of me always felt like this would be the year before the year given that three of our top players are juniors. At least that’s what I was telling myself when we were under-seeded yet again by the committee and given a difficult opening round matchup vs. talented Minnesota team in the 5-12 game.

I was expecting an all-out battle with the Golden Gophers, and we got it — for the first 20 minutes. Second half team has become a rallying cry for our Leathernecks on the Twitch streams, and we pulled away after halftime again. From then on, it’s been nothing but blowouts.

Round of 32 vs. Ole Miss: This was The Wilky Henry Game. Our senior small forward set a program record with 46 points on 10-of-16 shooting from three-point range.

Sweet 16 vs. Dayton: The Flyers were the top-seed in our region, but we turned the game into a beatdown by halftime. Junior point guard Tron Whaley led the way with 21 points even as he sat on the bench the entire second half.

Elite Eight vs. Indiana: Just a 36-point victory to punch our ticket to the Final Four, no biggie.

We were winning by an average of 27.75 points per game on our road to the Final Four. We have never approached anything like this before, not even during our two other national championship seasons. This team was firing on all cylinders, but it didn’t mean a thing without the ring.

This team just has so many weapons. Junior power forward Allan Cunningham — 6’11, 290 pounds — is an absolute monster on the interior and has soft touch out to three-point range on his jump shot. He feels like the best four in program history. Wilky Henry is everything we want out of a wing — big, athletic, always ready to fire from three. Tron Whaley has given us a point guard who can take care of the ball and stretch the floor. Mathew Alloway has a super bright future and has held his own as a freshman starter. Pat Giddens is comically large and is finally starting to play up to his rating.

I am very confident entering the Pepperdine game. I am nervous about the potential national championship game matchup against the winner of Villanova vs. Maryland. As we simulated into Final Four weekend, Tron Whaley goes up one point to 90 overall, and Alloway goes up one point 86 overall. That has to be a good sign.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. As always, I’m not controlling Western Illinois; we’re watching a simulated game played by the computer. I’m not playing any of the games in this series, I only do the recruiting and set the coaching strategies. The game will start when you press play.

FINAL FOUR, LET’S GO!

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Win, 93-70. We’re going to the national championship game!

No star performance this time around — the whole team balled out. Again, we blew this game open in the second half. The most impressive thing is we didn’t even have a particularly good shooting night, only hitting 26 percent of our shots from behind the arc. It didn’t matter because we dominated the glass and made so many big plays defensively — 20 combined stocks (steals + blocks), many of them leading directly to offense going the other way.

Honestly, I thought our center Pat Giddens was the player of the game. Giddens has been heavily criticized by the fanbase throughout the year despite being a projected lottery pick and the highest rated junior in the NCAA tournament at 94 overall. While Giddens has been knocked for being unpolished as a scorer and a little underwhelming as a rim protector, he put it all together vs. Pepperdine. He made some sweet moves offensively and anchored the defense with six blocks. I know the fan who wrote “The Case for Pat Giddens” on our Subreddit had to be thrilled.

There really isn’t too much else to say about this one. We were clearly the better team at both ends of the floor. Here are some clips from reader Abby, starting with my favorite play of the night: this monster dunk from backup freshman center Kevin Brazzle:

Great ball movement leading to the Wilky Henry three:

Brazzle with the block, Wilky Henry with the powerful two-handed slam. This is when the flood gates really started to open:

One win away from title No. 3.

Our opponent in the national championship game is No. 5 seed Villanova, who defeated Maryland in the other Final Four game.

No. 12 seed Western Illinois vs. No. 5 seed Villanova, national championship game, 2027 NCAA tournament

Villanova was the team we didn’t want to see. The Wildcats have been about as good in our simulation as they’ve been in real life lately, which is to say: really damn good. Nova is the rare team with the size up front to compete with Ham and Giddens. They have dynamic guards too who will be a threat out past the three-point line.

Nova enters the game rated as a 100 overall, one point higher than us. Here’s a full look at the Villanova roster:

This is going to be our toughest test of the tournament. It’s been five games and five blowout victories so far. Something tells me that’s not going to happen again against Villanova.

We streamed this game on Twitch on Sunday night. We had more than 1,700 people watch at least part of the stream and we hit 500+ concurrent viewers at one point. The game will tip off when you click play, but you should click through and watch it on Twitch’s interface to read all of the comments. Thank you everyone who came out. New fans are very much welcomed and appreciated.

One win away from a national title. LET’S GO!

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Win, 97-67! THE WESTERN ILLINOIS LEATHERNECKS ARE NATIONAL CHAMPIONS FOR THE THIRD TIME IN PROGRAM HISTORY.

Just pure dominance, man. I can’t believe we just 30-pieced Villanova in the title game. This team just completed a six-game NCAA tournament run where they won by an average of 27.3 points per game.

And we’re the lowest-seeded team to ever win the NCAA tournament, breaking our own record back in Year 8. Not bad for a No. 12 seed.

Our best players carried us in this one. What more can we say about Wilky Henry? The man is a legend. He finished the title game with 30 points on 13-of-19 shooting to complete arguably the most brilliant individual tournament run in program history. Allen Cunningham was every bit as good. He finished with 21 points, 13 rebounds, and six assists, and was named Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

Ham turned the game with 17 minute left. We were only up five when he unleashed this poster dunk for the and-one.

It was pretty much curtains for Nova from there. We have had some great teams at Western Illinois in my 20 seasons as head coach, but this feels like our most complete group ever. We had size, we had shooting, we had depth. At no point did I ever think we were going to lose. What a team.

Here are a few clips from the title game, starting with this three + stare-down (!) from Silky Wilky:

Ham from NBA range!

Wilbur Ager with the MJ shrug:

Legends, all of them.

Western Illinois became America’s team with an unlikely run to the national championship in Year 8, or 2015. Our second title in Year 13, or 2020, solidified the fact that this program is for real. Now our third title in 2027? Well, that just proves we’re one of the greatest college basketball programs of all-time.

This one’s for you, Neck Nation. There’s only one thing left to do at this point: enjoy this “One Shining Moment”.

Please check out our beat writer Matthew Morrow on what this third title means the fanbase and the legacy of head coach Ricky Charisma. To whoever edited the Wikipedia page for the most national championships by one head coach in college basketball history ... thank you.

The game gives you 40 seasons before it forces you to retire, and I plan on playing it out. I’m coming for you, Coach K.

National champs, baby. Let’s hang the banner!

The scary thing? We could be just as good next year if Giddens and Ham decide to bypass the NBA draft to return for their senior seasons. Let’s go to the offseason — just skip to the end of the title game to watch me play through it on Twitch.

Offseason

Your 2027 national champions: the Western Illinois Leathernecks. 12-seed. Soak it in.

Wilky Henry gets selected in the NBA draft. One of the all-time greats

GIDDENS AND CUNNINGHAM ARE COMING BACK. Oh my. I thought we were for sure losing one of them. Year 21 is about to be lit.

We lose an assistant coach. I love seeing our guys get head coaching jobs. I think we found a pretty good replacement: 72-year-old Leighton Merriex, who has an A+ rating in teaching and a B+ rating in scouting. Welcome to the staff.

We only had one scholarship to recruit for this season, and we’re been chasing the same player all year. He signs on the first day of spring recruiting: five-star JUCO shooting guard Edwin Wolfe out of Federal Way, Washington. We’re excited to add to him to the program. We’ve had a few stellar JUCO players through the years and we’re hoping he can be next.

Now it’s time to set our schedule for Year 21. Here’s what I came up with:

@ Dayton, Maui Invitational, @ LSU, @ Louisville, @ Charlotte, vs. Illinois, @ Kansas, @ Florida.

Year 21 is going to be a ton of fun. In addition to having a team that can repeat as national champs, we also have four scholarships to recruit for. We need to make sure our present is as bright as our future.

Year 21

Here’s a first look at our roster for Year 21:

We start the year at No. 18 in preseason polls. How are we not No. 1???? The disrespect never ends.

Unfortunately, Wolfe came in lower than we were hoping: he’s a 70 overall with C+ potential. He’ll redshirt. Either way, we’re totally stacked next year. We’re going to stream the regular season in Year 21 on Friday, Aug. 28 at 8:30 p.m. ET on Twitch. Please join us.

Western Illinois, Year 21, 2027-2028 regular season stream

Game: Western Illinois Year 21 regular season stream. We’ll watch one regular season game, recruit for four scholarships, and sim to the NCAA tournament.

How to watch: My Twitch channel

Date: Wednesday, August 28

Tip-off time: 8:30 p.m. ET // 7:30 p.m. CT.

I hope to see you there.

NATIONAL CHAMPS! Go ‘Necks.

[janeaustentextposts]

I had a question abt the answer you gave for that recent Sofia Coppola ask; does the movie industry really consider Jane Austen adaptions as "lesser" works that good/experienced directors don't consider worth their time? Also, as a side note, I'd give up a body limb for any Austen adaption with a completely POC cast.

I hear you, anon. Black Dashwood ladies are my own personal headcanon and no-one can tell me they aren’t. There’s historical precedent and it totally works.

In thinking of Austen adaptations I gotta draw a line between what I wish would happen and what I predict will happen. There’s kind of three types of directors that have, in the past few decades, been attached to Austen adaptations; and this does, in part, depend upon the kind of release an adaptation is going to get, and how it’s marketed.

First you’ve got what I’d call the major players--the widely-known and well-regarded ‘Hollywood’ professionals who will, on occasion, throw the Austen fans a bone and do a lusher feature film adaptation of a novel. These are not without the adaptational pitfalls of shorter running times compared to miniseries, but being a more condensed story, they are easier to pitch. I’d flag up the three directors/adaptations I see as falling into this category--Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, Joe Wright’s Pride and Prejudice, and Whit Stillman’s Love & Friendship. Wright is perhaps right on the edge because he’s more BAFTA than Academy Award, but I would say the higher profile of his more recent films and the release/fanbase they’ve gotten nudge him more into the major players category. (Rozema’s Mansfield Park was a feature film with an ostensibly similar release-style to the other films I’ve mentioned, but her career, though garnering awards-nominations elsewhere, hasn’t really seen her break into the boy’s club of Hollywood.) Ang Lee’s S&S came right as he was breaking into that scene, so perhaps that adaptation is more prophetic of the rise of his American career rather than indicative of how well-thought-of he was in the Americanized industry, already. And these guys tend to be much less prolific than other directors of Austen adaptations, so their works are brought forth and marketed in different ways. When it’s an awards-nominated director making his a film for the first time in several years, it becomes a bigger deal than it might otherwise be.

Where I say I think it’s unlikely that Sofia Coppola would then ‘stoop’ to direct an Austen adaptation--even one of these higher-profile adaptations such as the three major player feature films I’ve just mentioned--it’s because she doesn’t quite mesh with the Austen director archetype...which is basically men. And these men’s films were still not guaranteed blockbusters, by any means. Their success seemed to almost come as a surprise to many, and compared to many other Hollywood films, they’re still not that successful, however well critics and audiences responded. They’re not going to draw the same kind of bank and pomp as a superhero comics adaptation. Even the ‘biggest’ Hollywood Austen adaptations tend to be handed off to men with respectable film credits, but nothing close to the cachet of being a Coppola. She’s got the major awards nominations, but the tendency of her film work is drawing her more away from what we’re used to seeing with Austen adaptations, not towards it. Of course anything could happen and I could end up eating my words, but trends wouldn’t lead me to place any money on Sofia Coppola directing an Austen adaptation.

(Sofia Coppola’s film work also tends to be 99% exclusively written and produced by her, as well; so unless she makes that decision, herself, that she wants to do an Austen project, I don’t see her being likely to just pick it up if it’s someone else’s script or production, her involvement tends to be so thorough.)

For the lower-status films and minieseries, usually produced by British broadcasters, you get a slew of ‘jobbing’ directors with smatterings of small-screen and theatre directional credits to their names. Again, most tend to be well-regarded within their corner of the industry, but few have broken through to major awards nominations and whatnot. Roger Michell is maybe dancing along the cusp of that, but it’s worth noting that his Persuasion did get a feature-film-style release which is arguably in part responsible for the follow-up success of both Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (which had a staggered release in cinemas between the UK and America to capitalize on buzz surrounding Persuasion and the 1995 P&P as well as attempting to market it as an awards-worthy film,) so the producers took a greater risk on that Persuasion as a made-for-TV-film which then helped kick off the Austenmania trend of the mid-1990s.

Now I’m gonna list all the names no-one really recognizes: Diarmuid Lawrence, Douglas McGrath, John Alexander, Jon Jones, Iain B. MacDonald, Adrian Shergold, and maaaybe you’ve heard of Simon Langton because the swirling pink-satin credit-sequence is permanently etched into the darkness behind our eyelids at this point. Anyway if you’re doing a more lowkey Austen adaptation you’re more likely to get the job of directing if you’re a man whose name is Jon/John than if you’re a woman, basically. These are the less adventurous telly adaptations that get churned out to us on Sunday nights by the BBC/PBS with not much to surprise but aren’t their dresses pretty?

Thennnnn there’s...well, I don’t wanna say counter-culture Austen adaptations, but it’s worth noting that here is where the majority of women directors are to be found. Patricia Rozema’s Mansfield Park adaptation gets slotted in here because I feel it has more in common with the other films in this category than with the big-budget Hollywood features OR the smaller-scale period-drama standard miniseries, in terms of actual risks she was willing to take with how she put together her story. Here we also find Amy Heckerling’s Clueless and Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice. These films are definitely in a league of their own compared to the boys’ club movies and TV serials, but in a sense they’re also just...more interesting to me, because of the risks they dare to take and the fun they have. Does it always result in a ‘better’ movie? That’s an argument for another day; but to me it’s clear that when women take the chance to direct these adaptations, they bring a hell of a lot more heart to what they do, because those chances are so few and far between. Would Coppola’s Austen have more in common with these films than with the male oeuvres of Lee, Wright, and Stillman? It’s hard to say without actually having a film to look at and compare. But just speaking speculatively, the differing statuses of Austen adaptations, the divides between British and American styles of period-drama productions (though sometimes there are collaborations,) and the gender gap in the industry make me feel it’s unlikely Sofia Coppola will end up directing Austen unless she firmly makes up her own mind to do so.

(It’s been a very long week of yelling about Gender in Hollywood, hasn’t it?)

[whyblankiscoolhalloween]

Scary Movies for a Halloweenie: Underworld: Evolution (10/3/17)

For a movie whose fanbase (I can only assume) consists mainly of young adults looking for an action heavy gore fest, the plot of Underworld: Evolution is surprisingly convoluted and overly complex. Relying heavily on flashback and the assumption that anyone watching this particular installment has seen the first one is a recipe for confusion. If I’m being honest, for the first hour I had pretty much 0 idea what was happening.

There are mostly bad things concerning this movie, but before I drain it of all life, I guess I can touch on the few parts I enjoyed. The effects and creature designs are top notch. Especially the design of the original vampire, who is a genuinely fresh design, and my favorite part of the movie. In addition to the effects, the action sequences are all really stellar and are the only engaging parts of the entire film. They’re varied well (from ground fights to ship fights to car chases) and I could actually follow what was happening, which is more than I can say for the rest of the film...

Now onto the bad. There’s so much I dislike about this movie I definitely won’t be able to touch on everything, but I think most of my issues all comes back to its structure. Unlike 99% of films, this movie does not follow a 3 act structure. It has 5 acts, which are obvious and transition terribly into one another. On top of that, the movie has no idea how to escalate and seems to think introducing more overpowered monsters, at any time, is the only way to build tension. It’s a disjointed mess which is only saved through its entertaining fight sequences. Otherwise, there are too many forgettable characters, too much exposition, and one particularly gratuitous and unnecessary sex scene towards the beginning, which was clearly included to sell this movie to 13 year old boys.

Kate Beckinsale does a good job as Selene, who is actually a really compelling character once she cuts loose the dead weight (Michael). I think the most dissapointing part about this movie is how much potential it had to be good, but which it ultimately could not figure out. The last 40 minutes is the only part worth watching.

Favorite Line: “A true God has no father,”- Marcus (the main villain) as he stabs his father. This scene was confusing but I dig the sentiment.

Rating: 2/19 featured characters from this dreadful movie

Chances I’ll Sleep Tonight: I’ll probably be up all night reading the wikipedia synopsis trying to figure out what the heck this was even about... 

[clonesrightsactivist]

Look you have every right to be upset about the clear playing field rian appears to be using. But even ignoring the team of story writers who've been assigned to the trilogy instead of the independent movies, ensuring a cohesive linear storyline, the point of a movie isn't to tell you what's going to happen in the next one. Maybe I'm just upset bc a lot of "theorizers" in the sw fandom tend to be asshole pissbabies who bitch when the movies don't go the way they want, but...

…but we’re not entitled to create the story. Sure it may be fun to try to find little hints and clues littered throughout tfa, but saying that rian’s freedom is going to fuck up the story is bullshit. It may go a different direction than we expect, but that’s kind of the point of the movie, and it’s highly unlikely he’s going to through the entire trilogy off course when he’s surrounded by a team of writers ensuring the flow of the story. Disney may be a corporate mess only after money…

… but they’re not stupid enough to bomb one of their biggest franchises. There are precautions so they won’t fuck it up. Too badly. But I’m getting off track. I really just wanted to emphasize that just because there are plot twists and fundamental themes that differ from expectations doesn’t mean it deserves hate for not being exactly what was wanted. Attempting to nail down a movies plot before it’s due is foolish, especially with the sw franchise. Look at what happened with Rogue One….

… People theorized and they were wrong. Granted, not everyone was broken up about it, but there were definitely some people who were butt hurt because their theories weren’t validated. But that’s not Lucasfilm’s job. Their job is to give us an entertaining movie, which is impossible if we’re able to guess the plot beforehand. You can get upset at rian for taking risks, but don’t complain just bc your precious predictions are being openly challenged.

You know, I guess I deserve this ask which assumes that I’m an entitled fan who apparently hates plot twists and expects the story to 100% play out to my specific expectations and complains because my “precious predictions” are going to be openly challenged, because I’m not that good with conveying my thoughts through text. 

I’m 99% sure this is for the “the entire fanbase has been over-analysing every bit of TFA for hints of foreshadowing and meanings and now apparently we’ve all been wasting our times like a bunch of gullible idiots.” line. And reading it, yeah I deserve it. And I don’t know how to better convey my points to not suggest that I somehow believe that we should glean what’s going to happen in TLJ and IX from TFA. There are people much better with words than I.

You make some valid points. edit: Particularly that not having it planned out beforehand doesn’t mean it won’t necessarily be good or that they are not taking care to make the storyline work with TFA. (I suppose that depends on your faith in the writing team at Lucasfilm.)

And I’m sorry if my cynicism about the sequels, according to Rian, not having any overarching plot or having some of the storyline planned out upset you.

I suppose I should remain open minded. After all, I can’t trash a film before I see it.

[entergamingxp]

DualShockers’ Favorite Games of 2019 — Lou’s Top 10

December 25, 2019 10:00 AM EST

Whether it was putting too much time into Slay the Spire or getting scared out of my mind in RE2, here are my top 10 games of 2019.

As 2019 comes to a close, DualShockers and our staff are reflecting on this year’s batch of games and what were their personal highlights within the last year. Unlike the official Game of the Year 2019 awards for DualShockers, there are little-to-no-rules on our individual Top 10 posts. For instance, any game — not just 2019 releases — can be considered.

Seemingly, 2019 is a year of gaming backlog regret — with less disposable time this year (thanks wedding planning), I tended to invest myself in games that just wouldn’t stick, or would disappoint massively only after getting hours into it. When things boiled down to Game of the Year 2019, I realized that I hadn’t touched most of the titles that were grabbing the gold… and so my backlog grows.

What specifically? Well, my Nintendo Switch has been building dust through the year as I side-stepped major RPGs like Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Astral Chain. Games I tended to be more skeptical about — Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Gears 5, and Devil May Cry 5 — slipped through my grasp, only to be followed by deservedly rave reviews. And I’m hoping to get Death Stranding for Christmas, so I can finally see what all the fuss was about.

With that said, 2019 was a surprisingly strong year for gaming as we lead to the swan songs of this generation. With most of the biggest names in games colliding in 2020, we are set for possibly the best year in gaming…ever. The possibilities are strong for the next generation of consoles, and boy is it great to be a gamer.

Now enough with the rant, here are my Top Ten Games of 2019:

10. Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Truth be told, I’m thrilled to see that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night managed to win Best Metroidvania in the DualShockers Game of the Year Awards for 2019. Koji Igarashi had made a lot of claims about what this game would be, and — despite an audience hungry for 2D Castlevania successors — the hype for the title seemed to fizzle. But despite some hype deflation, there is a ton of fun to be had in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night — especially its signature polish and style that only Iga can bring to a game.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.

9. Apex Legends

After 2018, I had just about given up on the Battle Royale genre. Everyone was doing it, and seemingly no better than anyone else. Then in comes Apex Legends out of nowhere and takes the esports world by storm overnight. Introducing the ping system and being able to revive teammates — things that would eventually be lifted by other competing titles — Respawn Entertainment was able to show that they have the chops to make in impact in any genre at a moment’s notice.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Apex Legends.

8. Kingdom Hearts III

Controversial. I know. And perhaps my review for Kingdom Hearts III hasn’t stood the test of time…but I maintain that for all the game’s weirdness and quirks, it was the best PS2 game I played this year. And that’s not to be flippant about it.

There is a market for remastered games in 2019, and sure — Kingdom Hearts III isn’t that. But…isn’t it? Stunning graphics, updated gameplay, and themes and gameplay designs that feel stale in 2019. It is a blast to the past, perhaps a perfection of the Kingdom Hearts series that we’ve known so far. But without some fundamental changes, the series might quickly run its course.

Thankfully, there is a smart development team behind it, and the game is fun. The series certainly has a dedicated fanbase that will stick with it, and I earnestly that they know where the series has to grow. And as we’ve learned, sometimes wishing is just what you need to save the day.

Check out DualShockers’ review for Kingdom Hearts III.

7. Assassin’s Creed Rogue: Remastered

After the news about multiple bugs in Assassin’s Creed Unity, I gave the series a large berth — even after the brief hiatus and soft-relaunch with Assassin’s Creed Origins. With all the clamoring about the series’ comeback, I thought it was time for me to pick up where I left off.

Though I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the Nintendo Switch port of the game, the underappreciated Assassin’s Creed Rogue is just a much better Black Flag. Where Black Flag pushed the boundaries of what an Assassin’s Creed game could be, Rogue lifts those same elements and layers in a compelling story of betrayal and personal growth.

More importantly, Assassin’s Creed Rogue Remastered feels like an old AssCreed game, and sometimes that is what you need. Relatively short, kind of like a checklist, and great to play as you have something on in the background.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Assassin’s Creed Rogue: Remastered.

6. Far Cry: New Dawn

Another controversial take, but I really liked Far Cry: New Dawn. Is it perfect? No, not by a longshot. Is it the best evolution that Far Cry has seen since Far Cry 3? Without question.

Here’s the deal: if you don’t actively follow the Far Cry series or never played Far Cry 5, what New Dawn does will probably be lost on you. Adding in RPG elements, overhauling (read as “re-skinning”) Hope County, and linking the games was excellent. But the game was also weird — not nearly substantial enough as a standalone game, but underappreciated and ignored as an expansion.

I still maintain that if Far Cry 5 waited a year and added the content from New Dawn as a late-game epilogue (similar to the ending of Red Dead Redemption 2 or Pokemon Gold/Silver), complete with the radical new tone and gameplay elements, Far Cry 5 would have revolutionized the series at large.

Instead, we have a fun experiment that critically flopped.

Check out DualShockers’ review for Far Cry: New Dawn.

5. Slay the Spire

The top five games are really where I spent most of my time this year, and Slay the Spire is probably where I sank the most time. On the other hand, I don’t think I’ve ever put more than an hour into the game in a single sitting. Slay the Spire became my handheld game of the year in 2019, offering a surprising amount of depth and an addictive roguelike structure. It’s hard to explain, but the game scratched an itch in all the right ways.

4. Judgment

I didn’t pick up Judgment until I heard rumblings that the game was in substantial consideration for Game of the Year 2019 (spoiler alert, it won our GOTY award). While it had been a game that I was hoping to play, I — like many people I’d talked to — was waiting to finish the Yakuza series before taking the plunge into a spin-off series.

And while I haven’t beaten the game, it has monopolized my playtime since I’ve started. There is something so perfectly ‘gamey’ about Judgment; it’s fun to play and an absolute joy to watch. With a bit more time, this may have topped my personal list, but chances are I will be exploring Kamurocho for weeks to come.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Judgment.

3. Tetris 99

Tetris 99 is an evil game that wants me to sell my soul to finish in 1st Place. And I’m pretty close to doing just that.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Tetris 99.

2. Resident Evil 2

Not sure if I’ve ever made this known, but horror games are my jam: both the absurdly polished and the flat out disasterpieces. Without surprise, Resident Evil 2 was in the former, being a terrific game across the board — a love letter to arguably the best game in the storied series’ history. Capcom put in a ton of love and thought into Resident Evil 2, and they should all be recognized for it.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Resident Evil 2.

1. Red Dead Redemption 2

It seems like an annual tradition for me to give a top slot to a game that didn’t come out this year — and that’s precisely what is happening again. With all of Red Dead Redemption 2 firmly under my belt, I can say with confidence that this is not only my game of the year… but probably also my game of the generation. It’s been repeated time and time, but Rockstar has reached new heights with the story and characterization of Arthur Morgan that has yet to be surpassed. While I get where the expansive open world and unintuitive gameplay may throw people from the start, those willing to stick around (much like I did this year) will be rewarded tenfold.

Check out DualShockers‘ review for Red Dead Redemption 2.

Check out the rest of the DualShockers staff Top 10 lists and our official Game of the Year Awards:

December 23: DualShockers Game of the Year Awards 2019 December 25: Lou Contaldi, Editor-in-Chief // Logan Moore, Managing Editor December 26: Tomas Franzese, News Editor // Ryan Meitzler, Features Editor  December 27: Mike Long, Community Manager // Scott White, Staff Writer December 28: Chris Compendio, Contributor // Mario Rivera, Video Manager December 29: Scott Meaney, Community Director // Allisa James, Senior Staff Writer // Ben Bayliss, Senior Staff Writer December 30: Cameron Hawkins, Staff Writer // David Gill, Senior Staff Writer // Portia Lightfoot, Contributor December 31: Iyane Agossah, Senior Staff Writer // Michael Ruiz, Senior Staff Writer // Rachael Fiddis, Contributor January 1: Ricky Frech, Senior Staff Writer // Tanner Pierce, Staff Writer

December 25, 2019 10:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2019/12/dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-lous-top-10/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=dualshockers-favorite-games-of-2019-lous-top-10

[bizmediaweb]

14 Exciting New Things to Try on Social Media in 2018

Each new year signals a new beginning—especially when it comes to your social media strategy. If you try new things on social this year that other brands aren’t doing, you have a much better chance of surprising your audience and engaging them.

We’ve outlined all the major updates and new features for each of the major networks so you can incorporate them into your social marketing strategy for 2018.

Bonus: Download our free guide that shows you how to 10X your social media performance and beat your competitors. Includes the tools, tricks, and daily routines used by three world-class social media experts.

Facebook

1. Experiment with TV-style content using Watch

When you’re thinking about your 2018 video strategy, consider Watch, a platform for hosting TV-like shows on Facebook.

The shows that a Facebook user will see depends on their interests and what their friends are watching—with highlights like “Most Talked About” or “What’s Making People Laugh.” This Netflix-style approach to targeting viewers based on interests is a big deal for brands. You’ll be able to extend your reach through your existing fanbase.

Watch is currently being introduced to a small group in the U.S. and will soon extend access to other groups and content creators .

2. Create collaborative Stories in groups and events

Facebook’s Stories—which allow you to post content that disappears after 24 hours—is now available for groups and events. People can post Stories that are visible only to their groups or on any event page. These Stories will have a private hashtag and will be moderated by admins to make sure that content is appropriate and on-brand.

If your brand uses Facebook Groups or Events, collaborative Stories offer a fun new way to engage with your audience. For example, if your brand is promoting an event on Facebook, you can build excitement by sharing insider, sneak peek clips before the day.

You could also provide incentives (like prizes) to get people to share their experiences at an event. User-generated content from attendees can help build a sense of community and brand advocacy, and give you more information on your most engaged customers.

3. Add royalty-free music to your Facebook videos

Adding the right soundtrack to your video is key to creating a successful social video. To help make this process easier, Facebook has introduced the video editing tool Sound Collection, which lets you add sound effects or music—free of charge—to your video clips.

Audio files on Sound Collection are royalty-free so you don’t have to worry about copyright infringement or blowing your budget. It can help you save time and money while producing your video.

Instagram

4. Showcase your best content using Stories Highlights

Instagram Stories Highlights lets your brand showcase your best Stories and post them permanently on your Instagram profile. This feature is super valuable for brands because, unlike self-destructing Story content, Stories Highlights can be saved, reposted, and measured for long-term performance. You can organize your own Stories Highlights however you want before you post, whether it’s by theme, campaign, or date.

Stories Highlights is also a good way for you to promote the content you want users to see first. They appear right below your bio for easy viewing.

5. Be more transparent

Instagram has introduced a paid partnership tagging feature so that influencers and brands can be more transparent about disclosing which of their posts are sponsored. When an influencer tags a business in their post with the paid partnership feature, that business will then have access to performance data for that post, including metrics such as reach and replies.

If you run influencer marketing campaigns on Instagram, you’ll want to use this feature. While the paid partnership tagging may not meet all of the FTC’s requirements, it still allows you to disclose important paid partnership information and provides additional user behaviour data.

6. Broadcast live with a guest

Instagram now lets users and brands broadcast live with a guest in a split screen format. Broadcasts will appear in the Stories section of the platform with two circles (instead of the typical one circle). If your broadcast receives a lot of engagement, you could end up in Instagram’s Search and Explore tab.

When planning a collaborative broadcast, think about how two speakers can create unique content for this new format. You might choose to invite a guest from a strategic brand partnership for an announcement or ask an influencer to co-host an Instagram takeover.

Image via Instagram Press

Snapchat

7. Add website links to sponsored filters and lenses

Brands can now track what a user does after they’ve seen a sponsored lens or filter, which makes it a lot more appealing to direct-response advertisers.

When you buy a sponsored lens or geofilter, you can attach a Context Card to the ad so that people can swipe up and tap on the link provided. Since this additional functionality is free for advertisers, it’s worth trying so that you can better track conversions and the performance of your ads.

8. Easily create branded Snapchat lenses

Snapchat’s Lens Studio enables any user or business to create their own augmented reality (AR) lenses. The desktop app offers instructions for beginners to start with basic 2D animation, while more advanced creators can actually access the API and create complex lenses from scratch.

Once you’ve created your lens, you’ll receive a unique Snapcode to share from anywhere, and anyone can unlock your lens.

If you have an in-house creative team that can help build and create lenses for campaigns, this is a great opportunity to try something a little different on Snapchat and engage users.

Twitter

9. Tell a story in 280 characters

Twitter has officially rolled out their 280-character limit around the world (with the exception of several Asian countries). In its announcement, Twitter said that the character increase would allow people to express more, while still encouraging the importance of brevity.

Play around with new storytelling concepts that would have been formerly impossible under the 140 character limit—but don’t write more just because you can. Being clear and succinct is still the way to go on Twitter.

10. Send more creative, personalized direct messages

With Twitter’s Direct Message Cards, your brand can share engaging images and videos—with customizable call to action (CTA) buttons—all within your message conversations.

Direct Message cards give brands the freedom and flexibility to consider the customer experience and take a more visual approach to customer interactions.

11. Automate Promoted tweets

Twitter’s Promote Mode will let small businesses and brands run automated ad campaigns on Twitter for $99/month. Once you’ve enabled Promote Mode, Twitter will automatically amplify your brand’s best tweets based on Twitter’s algorithms. To users, the ads will appear the same as any other promoted tweet.

If you don’t have a dedicated team to run your social ad campaigns, then this is a good option. LinkedIn

12. Educate your audience using LinkedIn video

LinkedIn video allows you to create and share videos with the LinkedIn community. You can make recordings using the LinkedIn mobile app or upload a video file to the app.

Creators will get valuable audience insights into their video audience such as job titles and location. You’ll also be able to monitor comments and social reactions.

LinkedIn video is a great way for your brand to share expertise and showcase specialists within your business. Think about how you can take thought leadership articles, blogs, and interviews and repurpose them for LinkedIn video.

13. Get your executives mentoring on social

LinkedIn’s Career Advice feature is a new way for users to find and connect with other professionals for mentorship. Here, users can enter preferences and the type of advice they’re looking for and LinkedIn will make relevant recommendations.

If your business has executives, thought leaders, or other experts that want to share their knowledge and build your brand’s credibility, then it may be worth incorporating this feature into your corporate social strategy. Pinterest

14. Feature your products in inspirational photos

With Pinterest’s visual discovery tools (including the new Lens Your Look), users can take photos of objects they like and Pinterest will match it to photos on the platform. For example, if someone takes a picture of a chair they love—and your business sells a similar chair that’s featured on Pinterest—then there’s a good chance that your photo will pop up for them to see.

Right now the Lens is best used for home decor, food, and clothing, but Pinterest plans to roll out the feature more broadly in the future.

Image via Pinterest blog

By revamping your social strategy and trying out new things on social networks, you have a better chance of increasing your engagement and delighting your audience. Use this list to guide what new features and tactics you try out in 2018.

Manage all your social media in one place. From finding prospects to serving customers, Hootsuite helps you get more out of social with less effort.

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[theworstbob]

yellin’ at songs, 3.11.2017

after a rather rough week on the hot 100, bob! doesn’t know what he’s fighting for or why he has to scream

27) "Tunnel Vision," by Kodak Black

There’s this song, if you’ll permit me a second to discuss something I like, by Frank Turner called “Recovery,” and it has one of my all-time favorite lyrics: “Broken people can get better if they really want to/At least, that’s what I have to tell myself if I am hoping to survive.” To tie this to Kodak Black, we must first go on another tangent: Casey Affleck took home an Oscar for his performance in Manchester by the Sea. Casey Affleck settled two sexual harassment lawsuits out of court. These two facts co-exist, and while I'm in the camp that thinks maybe we should not be giving our highest honors to horrible people, I am also in the camp that suggests that flawed people should still be allowed to find themselves and make great art. I supported Michael Vick in his comeback to the NFL; should I not do the same for Casey Affleck? Vick went to jail, Affleck settled with the victims. When do we forgive someone for their crimes? That isn’t a question with an answer. What I need to see, though, is some act of contrition, of a debt being paid to society on the part of the offender. There needs to be a sign, just a subtle little glimmer, that broken people can get better, if they really want to. I don’t get that here. I don’t even get a sense this dude’s aware he’s broken. When the second line of the first verse of your song is, "I can get any girl I want, any girl I want" -- hell, when the line "I need me a lil' baby who gon' listen" is repeated in the chorus -- I am disinclined to believe there is any contrition on the artist's end, and I, as a human being and not a court of law, am under no obligation to afford anyone the benefit of the doubt. I’m not listening to this dude again.

41) "How Would You Feel (Paean)," Ed Sheeran

The best thing I can say for this song is, a lot of people learned a new word because of its title! It's nice that our boy is committed to expanding vocabularies! But yeah, this is an Ed Sheeran Ballad, it sure is. Again, like Bruno Mars last week, cheesy Ed Sheeran is always a threat to appear at any given time, but unlike Bruno Mars, Ed Sheeran has yet to add a new dimension to his schmaltz. There is a valiant attempt at a Falsetto Moment, and I appreciate the gumption it took to go for it, but this is the sort of thing I was afraid of when I decided to undertake this silly project, the whole "Ed Sheeran is going to release the same ballad as he ever has" of it all. We’ve got at least two more down the pipeline, too, most likely. :/

44) "Love," by Lana del Rey

...Man, this is a rough week, innit? Might could be I'm just thrown off by the lack of breezy stoner jams on the occasion of the 3.11 chart. This one, though, this is... I'm trying to find the right word here, but the only one coming to mind is "boring," and there's not a lot of critical value in that word. But! I mean! There are thousands of songs about being young and in love, and none of them make that feeling sound as lifeless. I think I'm missing something. I never fucked with Lana del Rey because, before I started this chart, I didn't have to, and I never felt like I was missing much. Right now tho? I wish I’d been a little more into her. ‘Cuz like I’m kinda aware I think that Lana del Rey has some sort of persona thing going, and if that’s correct, understanding what that is is likely key to understanding what is supposed to work about this song. Right now I just kinda hear a version of Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Maps” where everything is worse.

46) "Draco," by Future 49) "Mask Off," by Future 54) "Rent Money," by Future 91) "Super Trapper," by Future 99) "Zoom," by Future

Hey! I actually listened to the AAA release which litters the Hot 100 this week! That's a timesave, right there! Future is actually the most I've ever liked Future. With a lot of his other stuff, it kinda feels like he's going through the motions, bleakness here, despair there, trap beat, we did it, but here, I dunno, maybe it's the fact there hasn't been anything new from Future in a year, but there's a different energy on this album, I found myself enjoying it all the way through. I've actually been putting off HNDRXX simply because I want a little more time with Future, so I guess I lied in the last meandering sentence, I do know, it really is the fact there hasn't been a new Future release in a year. Still, I endorse Future. As far as these songs, I agree with the nation’s enjoyment of them. My favorite ("POA") is missing, which, enh, but "Draco" and "Rent Money" are clear highlights, and the other three are pleasant, and keep close these kind words for Future as we steel ourselves for three more Future albums before the solstice.

52) "Heavy," by Linkin Park ft./Kiiara

fucking christ I take no issues with the song on its own, the song's actually really good. I see this is a Julia Michaels joint! She is dope at this songwriting thing. I take issue with the fact that it's being delivered by Linkin Park. I just, I think that, it's hard t -- I keep imagining some 14-year-old, they're in their older brother's car, they're driving to a Shake Shack because that's what you do on a summer night, and this song comes on the radio, and it intrigues the 14-year-old. "Who is this?" they ask their brother. "Look at the fucking ticker, ya putz, this bit is clearly set in 2017. Use Shazam," the brother says, so the 14-year-old looks, and they see the name scroll across: Linkin Park. Intrigued, they go home and research Linkin Park, and they see Linkin Park has been around for over twenty years! "Incredible!" the 14-year-old says, elated to have discovered a band with such a deep back catalogue, and they're going to start with the first single: "One Step Closer." Do you understand what I'm getting at, here? Do you understand the dystopian future I am laying out before you? Our nation's #teens are in danger of discovering nu-metal. Say what you will about Ko[backwards R]n, but they have never stopped making the same shitty music they were making in 2001, and thus they are STAYING in 2001 where they BELONG, only to be visited by people already in their fanbase. The youngest living Ko[backwards R]n fan is 29, and that’s how we need it to stay. Linkin Park should be a whisper on the lips of those who have always believed. They shouldn't be chilling on Top 40 radio with Future and Selena Gomez. They should not be dueting with starlets, they should be inquiring as to Amy Lee’s availability. This is reckless endangerment of a nation’s youth. An actual living #teen may enjoy this song, and two months later they’ll have just discovered Staind and be watching the "It's Been a While" video while leaving the comment, "I was born in the wrong era," because they just heard the Hybrid Theory remix album and crAWLING WAS THEIR FAVORITE FIRST BETSY DEVOS NOW THIS HOW COULD WE LET DOWN OUR NATION'S YOUTH LIKE THIS FUCKING GODDAMNIT

56) "Something Just Like This," by The Chainsmokers ft./Coldplay

There is a tiny, faint drum fill I'm not 100% sure I didn't imagine at the 1:50 mark of this song. There was something of value in this song, which, given what this song is, I will gladly take. "I've been reading books of old/The legends and the myths" Classic literature! I'm glad Coldplay's taking time out of their busy schedule to broaden their horizons. "Achilles and his gold/Hercules and his gifts" Ah, and they're sitting down with some Greek mythology, too! How learned of Coldplay! The word "gold" doesn't appear on the Wikipedia page for Achilles, so I'm not sure what Coldplay is reading, but I'm glad they're reading it! "Spiderman's co Ah, yes, of course. Those classic tomes, the Spiderman comics! Nearly lost to time, they were, when the most recent reboot only made $750m at the box office! HOO BOY it says a lot about the week that was that this was probably only my fourth-least-favorite song. Always knew there'd be weeks like this.

Should I even do a Top 20 this week? There's only one new song. ...I'ma do a Top 20. It's routine. It's what we have, together. 20) "My Old Man," by Zac Brown Band (2.25) 19) "Castle on the Hill," by Ed Sheeran (1.28) 18) "Call Casting," by Migos (2.18) 17) "Running Back," by Wale ft./Lil Wayne (2.11) 16) "I'm Better," by Missy Elliott ft./Lamb (2.18) 15) "Way Down We Go," by Kaleo (1.14) 14) "Everyday," Ariana Grande ft./Future (3.4) 13) "Light," by Big Sean ft./Jeremih (2.25) 12) "Draco," by Future (3.11) 11) "Guys My Age," by Hey Violet (2.11) 10) "Good Drank," by 2 Chainz ft./Gucci Mane & Quavo (2.11) 9) "Yeah Boy," Kelsea Ballerini (3.4) 8) "It Ain't Me," Kygo x Selena Gomez (3.4) 7) "Now & Later," by Sage the Gemini (2.25) 6) "Shape of You," by Ed Sheeran (1.28) 5) "That's What I Like," by Bruno Mars (3.4) 4) "Despacito," by Luis Fonsi ft./Daddy Yankee (2.4) 3) "Issues," by Julia Michaels (2.11) 2) "iSpy," by KYLE ft./Lil Yachty (1.14) 1) "Run Up," by Major Lazer ft./PARTYNEXTDOOR & Nicki Minaj (2.18) swear to ra if my favorite song of my year with this project is a major lazer song that didn’t even spend multiple weeks on the chart i’ma throw a stool through my window. should i rerank? i feel i should rerank. “iSpy” is dope and “Issues” is dope and people have heard those songs. i -- ah fuck this wretched week.