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saywhatjessie · 20 days ago

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This article was too hot for my editor to want to publish it on the website so I'm posint it here, babey!

Would Spider-Man help catch the UHC Assassin?

Current events have Spider-Man fans asking, “What is justice?" And how would our favorite web-slinger deal with this?”

Since the lethal shooting of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson on the morning of December 4th, citizens across the country and people around the world have been eagerly awaiting news of the so-far uncaptured assassin, but maybe not for the reasons one may expect.

By and large, people appear to be celebrating what they see as a direct action against the oppressive state of American health insurance and the predatory models of these businesses that end up with multi-billion dollar CEOs. Private insurance is inherently exploitative, killing 68,000 Americans every year due to denying them coverage for care that could otherwise have prevented their deaths. The fact that it’s been almost a week and the police are still trying to pinpoint a clear suspect since so many people had motive is entirely damning. It makes us wonder, since this happened on the streets of New York, would Spider-Man be assisting the NYPD in their search for this man many have been calling a hero? Or would he align with the will of the people and decide that justice has already been served?

Peter Parker has his own complicated history with billionaires, what with his relationship to Tony Stark and the fact that in later iterations of the comic, he becomes a CEO himself of Parker Industries. It could be easy to say, “Spider-Man doesn’t kill, and he knows that billionaires are people too, so he would surely help hunt this killer.” But I’m not so sure.

The way this case has been playing out already reads like a comic book: the assassin shot this man in broad daylight on a city street and then made his getaway on a Citibike. He wrote “deny,” “defend,” and “depose” on the bullets, making sure there could be no mistake of what the motive was and why this man was killed. His backpack was found after four days, full of Monopoly money, and his gun appears to be a weapon mainly used to euthanize pigs. This is the kind of action comic book writers salivate over: the themes, the metaphor, the cheeky false evidence. The gunman’s avoided detection for so long because he’s been playing with the US Justice Department’s reliance on a surveillance state, exploiting the nature of essentially living in a panopticon and adjusting for it. He is vengeance. He is justice. And people are responding.

There have been calls for economic revolution in this country for decades, but especially in the last few years. The cost of living continually escalating and a global pandemic leaving many financially and sometimes literally crippled, with medical care being denied left and right, has left many—most, even—completely unsympathetic toward billionaires. People celebrate pods of killer whales sinking yachts off the coast of Spain, protestors have shown up outside of CEOs’ homes with guillotines, and there was a party on Twitter when the OceanGate submersible killed 3 billionaires in an implosion last year. And who can blame them? When growing up, all our cartoons were about fighting against corporate greed and giving back to the people; of course we’re going to cheer for the downfall of the richest among us. From Robin Hood to What’s New, Scooby Doo? It’s always been about plucky upstarts spitting in the face of public officials and taking down the people with enough money that laws wouldn’t touch them. One of the opening scenes of The Incredibles (2004), Bob Parr nearly kills his boss at Insuracare, outraged at his denial of claims and dismissal of human life. And this was his return to heroism. Our feelings about this don’t change just because it’s happening in real life.

Shops around the world have sold out of jackets that look similar to the one the assassin wore, and New Yorkers held a UnitedHealthcare CEO shooter look-a-like contest. The community is rallying around this man, internet sleuths refusing to assist police in finding the killer. Who’s to say Spider-Man wouldn’t refuse, too?

I wouldn’t be surprised if a fictional version of the past week’s events eventually showed up in a comic somewhere—in several comic universes, really—and I’m sure different writers would have their take on what Spider-Man would do. But my Spidey would let the cops figure it out. I think he’d figure that since the state of American insurance is the government’s fault, it should be the government to sort out the consequences on their own.

#long post #spider-man #UHC Assassin #Personally I think they're cowards this would definitely up traffic on the website #but eh

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canmom · 1 year ago

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Wait is ratfic not fiction about rats???

I can talk about fiction about rats too! Let's talk about some British childrens' book series! And one American comic book.

The four relevant works for our discussion would be the Redwall series by Brian Jacques, the Welkin Weasels series by Garry Kilworth, the Deptford Mice series by Robin Jarvis, and the Mouse Guard series by David Petersen. All these works portray a world inhabited by semi-anthropomorphic animals that are at the scale of real world animals. And indeed all of them include rats, albeit mostly as antagonists.

Redwall is perhaps the one that has most penetrated internet pop culture, thanks to articles like this one on SomethingAwful which mocked some of the series's recurring elements while painting Brian Jacques as a bit of a nazi. I ate those books up as a kid, but in retrospect I truthfully can remember only snatches: the shrews' battle cry of 'logalogalogalog!', the pages of elaborate descriptions of feasts.

Redwall is a big sufferer from the 'evil races' problem. A certain arbitrary set of species (e.g. rats, stoats, weasels, ferrets) are ontologically evil, and various other species are standins for various stereotypical British social classes (e.g. iirc moles are always working class). As unfortunately tends to be the case, it even makes the strange decision to double down on this - I believe in one of the books, a member of one of the evil species is raised in the Abbey, but inevitably his evil nature comes out when the good rodents and mustelids are once again threatened by an army of bad rodents and mustelids.

Nevertheless, as repetitive and ethically dubious as these books are, they do conjour a very specific flavour which makes them memorable. The author's enthusiasm for food as child of the Blitz shines through, as does his evident love for the idyllic Redwall Abbey. There's a lot of really charming elements like the 'logalogalog' thing. Having these read out to me as kid was great, it had a bit of a panto feel, where I could join in with the expected beats.

The first Redwall book implies that humans exist in this world, but this is subsequently quietly retconned to an only-animals fantasy world.

The Welkin Weasels series is a lot shorter at six books, and you may well bounce off the author's enthusiasm to insert puns and references all over the place (I recall one book managing to set up "badgers? we don't need no stinkin' badgers"), but from what I remember of them they benefit from having more explicit horror elements which makes the stakes much more engaging. I recall the weasels trying to weasel their way into a crypt full of horrible pitfalls and finding it very tense as a kid.

There is once again a sympathetic-unsympathetic species divide - weasels are our plucky heroes, while stoats tend to be aristocratic and cruel. However, it does play out a little differently: the first three books are in a medieval fantasy setting with explicit magic, but over the course of the novels, the mustelids manage to rediscover humans, leading to a timeskip forward into a more steampunk setting where the animals and humans have built a joint society together.

Honestly, I would quite like to reread these books! They may well not hold up today, but it would be fun to revisit them.

The Deptford Mice series by Robin Jarvis - author of Deathscent, a highly memorable novel in which Elizabethans have been transported by aliens into a space archipelago where all the animals are robots which run on the four humours - is a pretty fun one, although my memory is very foggy. It's set in our world, in London, and as I recall the first book involves an evil cat wizard attempting to resurrect the Bubonic Plague from the plague pits. I recall a scene in which rats dig up the plague pit and have their paws melted by the lime coating it. Beyond that I can recall very little but I definitely think it merits inclusion in this list of rat fic.

Once again we have the good rodent/evil rodent problem. Mice and rats are almost identical creatures, so it's weird that the sympathetic/unsympathetic divide falls so consistently.

Mouse Guard is an American comic series about mice with little cloaks and swords. Making it be a comic is kind of a great idea because you get to see how cute they are at every turn. The mouse guard are responsible for defending the other mice from threats such as snakes. They have a pretty high mortality rate.

I'm... actually not super familiar with the comics, but they inspired a roleplaying game by the creators of Burning Wheel, using similar mechanics - e.g. its beliefs system, the simultaneous-resolution combat system. That got a lot of buzz around the late 2010s. So if you want a game to play as an rat at the tabletop, it's probably a good one to check out!

We might also at this juncture mention the wildly popular novel Watership Down, which imagines an elaborate rabbit society complete with a substantially fleshed out rabbit religion. I wrote about the animated film for Animation Night a couple years back - it's quite a memorable one.

Sadly, this is mostly mousefic (with a bit of weaselfic). I don't know of any true ratfic - centred on rats as protagonists. Perhaps this is an opportunity for someone out there to write ratfic ratfic to correct this imbalance.

edit: omfg i forgot the rats of NIMH. thanks to both the people who reminded me of that one

#fiction #novels

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boome11 · 19 days ago

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Retail sites like Amazon are taking action against Luigi Mangione-inspired merchandise.eBay prohibits items that glorify violence. It doesn't ban the phrase "Deny. Defend. Depose."Mangione has emerged as a folk hero of sorts in certain corners of the internet.Retail platforms like Amazon, Etsy, and eBay are slapping down merch listings that glorify Luigi Mangione — the suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.In the wake of Thompson's murder, some people on social media were unsympathetic, given their grievances with the American healthcare system. And after Mangione was arrested, he emerged as something of a folk hero — and heartthrob — in certain corners of the internet.That sentiment soon made its way into the merch space. On Etsy, products were being offered with Mangione's likeness and the phrase "Deny, Defend, Depose," BI sister site Morning Brew reported. Luigi Mangione-related shirts have popped up for sale on eBay. Screengrab Those words were etched onto bullet shell casings found at the scene of the killing, police said — and are similar to a 2010 book scrutinizing the insurance industry titled "Delay Deny Defend."Many of the Mangione-themed items offered for sale came from drop shippers, Morning Brew reported — or sellers who print products on-demand after they're ordered. Some of the items included cups, sweatshirts, and hats, according to The Washington Post.Other items were also being offered for sale on sites like RedBubble and the TikTok Shop, according to Morning Brew, which noted that Amazon and Etsy were taking down many listings that referenced Mangione or the shooting.An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider that the products in question were removed because they violated Amazon's rules against offensive and controversial items. A "Free Luigi" shirt is among the Luigi Mangione-themed items popping up on Etsy. Screengrab And an eBay spokesperson told BI that items that "glorify or incite violence" are prohibited from its marketplace. That includes items that celebrate the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, the eBay spokesperson said. The company doesn't prohibit the sale of items with the phrase "Deny, Defend, Depose," the spokesperson said.It appeared some of the platforms were playing a game of cat and mouse with sellers — with various listings still live as of Wednesday.The eBay spokesperson said the company is "continuing to sweep the marketplace for other prohibited items," including one listing that was still live as of Wednesday — which the spokesperson said was being removed because it featured an image of a gun.Etsy, Redbubble, and the TikTok Shop didn't immediately respond to BI's requests for comment. window.allScripts = window.allScripts || []; window.allScripts.push( type: "load", script: "%3Cscript%20id%3D%22meta-pixel-script%22%3E(()%3D%3E%7Bvar%20e%3D%7B69531%3A()%3D%3E%7Bvar%20e%2Cr%2Cn%2Ct%2Co%2Ci%3Bfunction%20s()%7Bwindow.Fenrir%3F.cm%3F.usPrivacyApplies%26%26%22ACCEPT%22%3D%3D%3Dwindow.Fenrir%3F.cm%3F.userConsent.OPT_OUT%3Ffbq(%22dataProcessingOptions%22%2C%5B%22LDU%22%5D%2C0%2C0)%3Afbq(%22dataProcessingOptions%22%2C%5B%5D)%2Cfbq(%22init%22%2C%221988166924554892%22)%2Cfbq(%22track%22%2C%22PageView%22)%7De%3Dwindow%2Cr%3Ddocument%2Cn%3D%22script%22%2Ce.fbq%7C%7C(t%3De.fbq%3Dfunction()%7Bt.callMethod%3Ft.callMethod.apply(t%2Carguments)%3At.queue.push(arguments)%7D%2Ce._fbq%7C%7C(e._fbq%3Dt)%2Ct.push%3Dt%2Ct.loaded%3D!0%2Ct.version%3D%222.0%22%2Ct.queue%3D%5B%5D%2C(o%3Dr.createElement(n)).async%3D!0%2Co.src%3D%22https%3A%2F%2Fconnect.facebook.net%2Fen_US%2Ffbevents.js%22%2C(i%3Dr.getElementsByTagName(n)%5B0%5D).parentNode.insertBefore(o%2Ci))%2Cwindow.Fenrir%3F.cm%3F.cmStarted%26%26window.Fenrir%3F.cm%3F.userConsent%3Fs()%3AsetTimeout(s%2C1e3)%7D%7D%2Cr%3D%7B%7D%3Bfunction%20n(t)%7Bvar%20o%3Dr%5Bt%5D%3Bif(void%200!%3D%3Do)return%20o.exports%3Bvar%20i%3Dr%5Bt%5D%3D%7Bexports%3A%7B%7D%7D%3Breturn%20e%5Bt%5D(i%2Ci.exports%2Cn)%2Ci.exports%7Dn.m%3De%2Cn.c%3Dr%2Cn.o%3D(e%2Cr)%3D%3EObject.prototype.hasOwnProperty.call(e%2Cr)%2C(()%3D%3E%7Bn.S%3D%7B%7D%3Bvar%20e%3D%7B%7D%2Cr%3D%7B%7D%3Bn.I%3D(t%2Co)%3D%3E%7Bo%7C%7C(o%3D%5B%5D)%3Bvar%20i%3Dr%5Bt%5D%3Bif(i%7C%7C(i%3Dr%5Bt%5D%3D%7B%7D)%2C!(o.indexOf(i)%3E%3D0))%7Bif(o.push(i)%2Ce%5Bt%5D)return%20e%5Bt%5D%3Bn.o(n.S%2Ct)%7C%7C(n.S%5Bt%5D%3D%7B%7D)%3Bn.S%5Bt%5D%3Bvar%20s%3D%5B%5D%3Breturn%20s.length%3Fe%5Bt%5D%3DPromise.all(s).then((()%3D%3Ee%5Bt%5D%3D1))%3Ae%5Bt%5D%3D1%7D%7D%7D)()%3Bn(69531)%7D)()%3B%3C%2Fscript%3E" ); https://i.insider.com/6759b51352dd0818d1a6696a?width=1200&format=jpeg 2024-12-11 17:54:38

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normalonside · 22 days ago

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The utterly casual, cheerfully acerbic disregard that people have over Brian Thompson's death and the reaction every rich CEO is having is one of my favorite things about our generation.

Public opinion is the biggest thing for rich people's money. They've disregarded public opinion because the law lets them do so, and now they are scrambling to understand how we can be so unsympathetic.

This is so deeply, viscerally satisfying. I feel like a starved dog sinking their teeth into a fresh kill, ripping the flesh away to get to the heart of my feast. But I have not eaten for any of my years on this Earth. So I am not satisfied. I'm still hungry.

#i have written more poetry in the last few days than i have in ages

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myplasticadversary · 6 months ago

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Anyway I liked that more than Summer Dreams but I can see why Brian found it distasteful. His portrayal isn't exactly unsympathetic but it is pretty degrading, and then that paired with Mike calculatedly being made to come off in the best possible light.

#the beach boys

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ailtrahq · 1 year ago

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The trial of the former CEO of defunct crypto exchange FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), is set to begin on October 4 (Jury selection coming up on October 3). In line with this, legal experts have weighed in on how the case could play out once the trial commences. From The Prosecution’s Angle In an interview with Decrypt, these legal experts mentioned that the Prosecution’s proactiveness shows they are confident of securing a conviction. Usually, the prosecution takes time to gather as much evidence as possible before moving to trial to ensure that it secures a conviction. However, in this case, the Department of Justice (DOJ) has moved swiftly to kickstart the trial, which suggests that they have all the arsenal to put Sam Bankman-Fried in jail for a long time. Daniel C. Silva, a former federal prosecutor, stated that the case could be “pretty overwhelming” for the jurors, especially if it is laid out the same way as in the indictment. Per the latest indictment, Sam Bankman-Fried is charged with seven fraud-related crimes. However, several revelations have come to light since FTX’s collapse and SBF’s arrest, which could undoubtedly be too much for the Jury to handle. Meanwhile, the prosecution will have to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, and the jury members will have to determine SBF’s guilt of each charge based on the evidence adduced. Kramer Levin, another former federal prosecutor, told Decrypt that Caroline Ellison would be critical to the case as she could bring a lot of “dramatic moments” to the trial. Most importantly, her testimony would tell the story and grab the jury’s attention when the prosecution puts its case forward. Judge Kaplan, the judge in charge of the case, had alluded to the fact that the focus would be more on the elements of fraud than the crypto element. However, Brian Newman, an attorney at the law firm Dykema Gossett, mentioned that the prosecution must give the jurors an idea of what these crypto tokens are if it wants to win the case. He stated that if the jury doesn’t know what is being talked about (crypto tokens), it will be hard to “convict beyond a reasonable doubt.” Sam Bankman-Fried Needs To Tread Carefully Sam Bankman-Fried’s lawyers are expected to argue that their client acted in good faith and relied on the counsel of his lawyers. However, Paul Tuchmann, a partner with law firm Wiggin & Dana, noted that this defense could be a “tougher sell,” considering that Judge Kaplan had denied Sam Bankman-Fried’s request to access documents from Fenwick & West LLP (FTX’s primary counsel). They will also be looking to discredit the prosecution’s witnesses, including Ellison. However, Silva has warned that the defense must be careful when doing this as it could backfire, especially when dealing with an “unsympathetic jury.” According to the former prosecutor, the jury could look at the defense with “disdain” if they were attacking Ellison or anyone else who has admitted guilt. If that happens, the jury could see every evidence presented in the “worst possible light” against the defendant. FTT flounders as trial sets to begin on Tuesday | Source: FTTBUSD on Tradingview.com

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tilbageidanmark · 1 year ago

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Movies I watched (and books I read) this Week # 143 (Year 3/Week 39):

Jules, E.T. for senior citizens. A simple (and simplistic) story about 79-year-old Ben Kingsley (with a head full of hair) and early onset dementia who discovers an alien ship in his back yard. More of a character study that sci-fi. It's nice to see a light movie about old people. 4/10.

🍿

2 documentaries from a 'different' New Yorker list, Richard Brody's '62 Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking':

🍿 The Lenny Bruce Performance Film (1967), more of an interesting historic document, than a funny-ha-ha stand up of the iconic rabble-rouser. His next-to-last live performance, at a small San Francisco cabaret hall, consists mostly of readings from the legal transcripts of his prosecutions. Paranoiac ramblings, strung on drugs, intense. Born 30 years too early.

🍿 A Plate of Sardines, (1997) a short Syrian poem about Quneitra, a city at the Golan Heights that was razed to the ground by the Israeli army in 1974. Disturbing (but not a very good).

🍿

The last film I saw in Israel, Tel Aviv on fire, only my 3rd Palestinian movie. It's an implausible story about a soap opera of a Palestinian spy who falls in lave with an Israeli general. Filmed in Ramallah, it is popular with Arabs and Jews alike. A low-level production assistant on the set becomes a writer, and is forced to use input for the plot from a soldier who mans the checkpoint he must drive through every day. An intriguing premise which predictably ends as a light soap opera itself.

I had a hard time with the more realistic parts of the movie, showing the oppressive humiliations that the Arabs have to go through every day, as they live "side by side" with the occupying soldiers. It's the first film I've seen that takes part on the eastern side of the border wall.

🍿

(Completely unplanned) 2 With minor character actor Guy Boyd:

🍿I've seen all but one of Charlie Kaufman's eight features, but I can't say I'm a big fan. His 'mysterious', unexplainable I'm Thinking Of Ending Things didn't win me over. Creepy Jesse Plemons brings his new girlfriend to meet his bizarre parents at their secluded farmhouse, and "nothing is what it seems" there. I liked the enigmatic ballet and "revelations" at the end, but the 'snowstorm from hell' and intellectual, unsympathetic characters turned me off. 3/10.

(From a list of '96 Best Thrillers')

🍿Body double, one of the old Brian De Palma Hitchcock homages, felt like one of the worst movies I ever saw. I know it wasn't, but it felt like it. 80's gratuitous "voyeurism", trashy prurient porn-parody, with a young Bill Maher-clone who can't act as the protagonist. Just horrible. 1/10.

🍿

2 X London gangsters action from the early 2000:

🍿Snatch, my first crime comedy by Guy Ritchie. All macho and bravado, bad accents and testosterone-fueled attitudes, wise cracks and brutal mayhem.

"In the quiet words of the Virgin Mary… come again?" 8/10.

🍿"Listen, I know it’s not your thing, but if you ever have to kill someone, never ever tell a living soul."

Layer cake, another highly-quotable story from the same source, with the same people and the same sensibilities. The film that helped Daniel Craig land the role of James Bond. Terrific entertainment all around with a shocking last scene. 8/10.

RIP, Michael Gambon!

🍿

7 more shorts:

🍿 Shall we kiss? (On s’embresse?), one of my favourite French shorts. (Video Above).

🍿 How to count a wolf, a short conservation documentary, about the process of tracking wolves across many seasons in Washington state.

🍿 Encarnación, a New Yorker documentary: A Ninety-Five-Year-Old Shares Her Secret to Happiness.

🍿Also, 4 more of Wes Anderson shorts:

Now that Netflix spent £500 million for Roald Dahl's works, we'll see many more of them. The swan, The rat catcher and Poison are 3 adaptations from his short stories. I've seen nearly all of Wes Anderson's films, features, shorts and commercial, and he is indeed a real 'auteur', but (Like Kaufman above), his work, except of small brilliant moments here and there, leave me cold.

Castello Cavalcanti is actually my favourite of today’s bunch. Another stylish Prada advertisement, a Fellini product placement, rustic Italy for nostalgic tourists.

🍿

Alice Kuypers’ Life on the Refrigerator Door, a British book about a 15-year-old and her single mother who discovers she has cancer. It features a unique 'hook'; The story unfolds 100% via a series of notes the two leave for each other in the kitchen. It’s a very light, 240 page / 40 minute read - 7/10.

🍿

(My complete movie list is here)

#movies

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bewaretheidesofmarchyall · 4 years ago

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Soulmate Shenanigans Part Two (Electric Boogaloo)

Good morning (or at least, I’ve started writing this in the morning! Who knows when I’ll complete it)!

I’m continuing my Soulmate AU Tomfoolery (you can find part one here)

Prompt #2

There is a timer that counts down to when you will meet your soulmate.

Warnings for death mentions, and temporary major character death

World Building

Everyone blames the mad scientist.

Which is fair. When someone makes billions of clocks in about a weeks time, each declaring when everyone in the world (including people who wouldn’t be born for decades) would find their soulmate, it’s considered to polite to stick around to answer questions

Instead, Logan disappeared to who-knows-where and left everyone else to pick up the pieces.

Rude.

Ever since the early 1910′s, the clocks have existed, one for each person. When any kid is born, the first thing a new parent does is rush to the register to see when they’ll meet their soulmate. It’s a big deal.

If your child isn’t going to meet their soulmate in the next 13 years, they are told the exact number on their 13th birthday

Philosophers have been enraged by all of this. Is free will a thing? Is existence a lie?

Non-philosophers will often close their curtains when they see a wandering philosopher, which are easy to identify by their look of abject confusion and plucked chickens.

Characters

Remus: Remus pretended that he didn’t care about who his soulmate was when his 13th birthday rolled along. He wasn’t the best actor.

His brother seemed happy when he found out that it would be sixteen years until he found his soulmate. 29 wasn’t a bad age at all, considering that some people would have to wait until they were old and in a nursing home, or would never even meet their soulmate at all.

Remus waited for his parents to tell him. They gave each other nervous looks, and he was convinced for a few seconds that he didn’t have a soulmate after all.

The actual answer was much weirder

526 years. 526 years until he met his soulmate.

Remus said a silent thank you to his soulmate for making him functionally immortal. After all, that meant that he’d survive until then!

HE WAS IMMORTAL

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Now, whenever someone would try to say something like, “Why do you like serial killers? Planning to become one?”, he could just look them dead in the eye and say,

I’m going to outlive you, Brian

(On an unrelated note, Brian disappeared a few months later. It actually wasn’t Remus’s fault, surprisingly. One minute, he was at a museum, the next, gone)

Remus would be fine with never finding his soulmate, honestly. Connection is nice, but being eldritch is more fun.

Virgil: Virgil didn’t want to be immortal

Sure, he wasn’t a fan of dying in practice, but in theory he didn’t want to live to over 250!

His family and friends were going to die, and he’d have to live through it. And for what? To meet a soulmate? Who gave a fuck? Virgil had never wanted a romantic relationship in his life, and he didn’t think that a 526 year wait was going to change that.

He was determined to find his soulmate early so that he could live a normal life like a normal person who doesn’t cause additional distress to the wandering philosophers.

Plot

It was easy to find Remus. Local Child Will Live To Over 500 makes a good headline, and Remus wasn’t one to shy away from attention.

When Virgil was 16, he packed his bags and ran away from home to go meet his soulmate. He didn’t ask Janus how he got the bus tickets, but he did ask him to tell his parents that he’d be okay.

Virgil knocked on the door, and waited. Someone who looked almost exactly like the news site photo answered. The conversation went something like this:

Virgil: So, YOU’RE Remus McFricking Sanders-

Roman: Nope, not him, whatever he said isn’t my fault.

[Roman slams door]

Virgil was pretty sure that he had, in fact, met Remus, and he was just being annoying. Roman believed that his brother had just manage to piss off yet another person.

Virgil retreated to a restaurant, and looked up the photo on the news article, just to make sure. No denying it, that was him! Same eyes, same hair, same general face-wait.

Remus had a nose that had obviously been broken at least once. The guy who’d greeted him at the door had definitely been in less scrapes than his soulmate.

Whoops.

Meanwhile, Remus had a plan to avoid Virgil at all cost. Virgil had tried to shy away from press attention, but he tracked down a photo eventually.

And when his brother told him that some emo with “awesome” eyes had turned up on the doorstep looking for him, he had a bad feeling.

Well, spooky boy wasn’t going to cost him his long future.

And so the dance began.

In one corner, Virgil, who had spite, stubbornness, and a deadline on his side (he had to get home to his parents eventually)! Never discount a spiteful Virgil!

In the other corner, Remus, who has nothing on his side but fate. Fate, however, has a sense of humor, and Remus read enough old myths as a child to know that whatever happens can’t be changed by petty human actions.

Virgil tries breaking and entering many times, each failing in a more ridiculous way. He is a careful, but Remus is practically Kevin McCallister in terms of traps, and he fails to meet his soulmate face to face all day and all night.

They do get to have some verbal exchanges, which are pretty much

Virgil: You think you want the existential hell of immortality??

Remus: Oh, fuck off, I’m going to have the best vampire aesthetic!

Virgil: The vampire aesthetic is wonderful, but can we do everything for aesthetic?

Both at the same time: Yes. Yes we can.

And then Virgil is herded out of the house by Remus’s pet rats.

However, the final encounter goes a little differently. No witty quips, just Virgil picking the lock of yet another window, and then a very specific sound.

Have you ever heard a stubborn emo get pulled into a portal in the spacetime continuum?

It’s a distinct sound that is along the lines of loud crash-The fu-whirring noises-nyoom-eerie silence

Remus didn’t give a second thought before diving into the portal after him. If he had, he would have thought hey, this’ll probably bring us face to face, something I’ve been avoiding or maybe jumping into random portals in a stupid idea or I’m going to grab a weapon before just running at it. But his first impulse was to make sure his snarky soulmate hadn’t died, so into the portal he went.

The Year: 2550

The Portal: Glows a lot, thank you for asking

The Reason: A mad scientist has only one thing left to lose, and is terrified as it slips away

Logan: Logan was a geek at heart. He loved science, in both theories and practice. He probably should have toned down his obsession with Nikola Tesla. He wanted to travel to the sky, and touch the stars, and watch time like a film reel.

Time travel was his passion. If people could travel across the physical seas, why not the metaphorical ones of time?

It was pure luck that he actually figured it out, but figure it out he did. Logan loved his creation.

He wanted to create a million inventions, but more importantly he wanted Patton to see them all.

If there was one thing he loved more than science, it was him.

The two kept each other from drifting off into the stars, or sinking into the dirt because they’re too afraid of being rude. One of Logan’s favorite memories was he and Patton running through the St. Louis fair, giggling at terrible puns and sharing a quick kiss out of sight, before catching the next exposition.

Patton was kind, and caring, and knew how to talk to people to get them to like him, and was just good. He was good.

Logan dealt only in facts. And it was a fact that it would have been better, more fair for Logan to have died in the fire.

It was a fact that he didn’t (even though it felt like it sometimes). It was a fact that Patton had been the one to notice the smoke. It was a fact that the love of his life waited for a few seconds in the doorway, trying to call the cat out. It was a fact that, after Logan was out of the house, he turned around to see the doorway collapse.

He found a way back into the house, but it took too long.

Fact: Humans can only endure severe smoke inhalation for a few minutes before dying.

Logan took one look at his time machine, somehow still undamaged. He’d never tested it before, but he really didn’t have a choice, so he kissed Patton on the forehead and stepped into a portal.

Back To The Plot

Virgil and Remus immediately knew that they were in the 26th century.

How? There was a sign!

Hey! If You Happen To Be A Time Traveler, This Is 2550! Check In With The Lord Cerebrum To Know More, Unless You Don’t Have A License, In Which Case

You Know What Happens

They don’t have much time to mull over this before Remus tries to murder Virgil. He’s not IMMORTAL any more, and it’s not FAIR, and it’s all HIS fault!

This is where we enter the Rivals To Friends (While On The Run From Time Management) section

Remus and Virgil have many adventures escaping from Time Management, while learning to appreciate the other as a friend. They are platonic soulmates, after all!

But Time Management is nothing if not patient, and the boys are caught eventually (you know how it goes. You forget to check around for listening ears, you use 21st century slang, and suddenly a single “yeet” and a “same” get you dragged before the Lord Cerebrum)

A Handy Dandy Guide To The Year 2550 (transcript from the Handy Dandy Infomercial Station)

Hey, time travelers! I know that everyone likes zipping around the time-stream and seeing what the fates throw at them to keep them from murdering their grandpa, but we have to do this by the Rules!

If you break the rules, you know what happens

The Year 2550 is protected by Logos Industries’s time dilation filter, to ensure that no one gets the wrong idea about going free range!

If you have a license, just proceed to the Lord Cerebrum to get your stamp of approval and philosopher disguise for the maximum positive effect! After all, Logos Industries needs funding to protect us all!

If you don’t have a license, you’ll see the Lord Cerebrum too!

Have a Handy Dandy Time :)

Back To The Plot

The boys are led through a menacing government facility, taken to see the Lord Cerebrum. They try to ask questions, but Time Management is rather disinterested in their fleeting existence, so nothing much gets answered.

The final destination is a computer room, where the Lord Cerebrum sits. His form was half hologram, half skin, his age unchanging for 526 years, and recognizable at first sight to Remus

Lord Cerebrum, aka Brain, aka Brian: Hey, Remus, what exactly did you say about outliving me?

Brian: Brian was a dick. There’s no other way to put it.

He and Remus used to be friends, sticking brand new phones in water to see what would happen and planning out pranks (they made their history teacher think that she was being haunted by the ghost of Charlemagne!), but things changed, and by 8th grade his dickishness was on full display

It was really easy to get away with being cruel to Remus. He naturally unnerved people, and anyone in a position of power immediately knew he was trouble (which was true), so when there was a conflicting story between a star student and the kid who poured ketchup in the principal’s desk, you can guess who’d always get believed.

Brian was a dick, but he was 13. He could have grown later in life, regretted his ways (or at least stopped), but instead he touched an antique time machine on a museum tour of the Clock House (home of Logan, the famous inventor of soulmate clocks).

He’d been planning to snap off the handle and pin it on Remus (or maybe Roman for variety), but instead

Crash-what the-whirring noises-nyoom-eerie silence

And Brian arrived in the year 2520, the first of many time travellers.

He became a celebrity. The parts of him lost in the wormhole were quickly replaced with state-of-the-art holograms, and his fame went to his head.

Thirty years of good marketing later, he was the Lord Cerebrum. And when a desperate mad scientist came crashing through a portal of his own, it was easy to get him to work for him under the promise that Brian would let him save his “Patton” once he made some technology for him.

He recognized Logan from the museum. He knew who’s fault it was that he was trapped travelling through time, whirling through the portal, praying and promising and in the end just screaming. Brian knew who was to blame for the fact that he couldn’t tell how much of his body would stay when the power went out.

So the tasks got longer and more complicated, Patton dangled like a carrot over Logan’s head.

Fact: Logan would never win, and someday Brian would get tired of this game and there would only be one genius left in 2550.

Back To The Plot: Virgil punched the Lord Cerebrum in the face. He didn’t know all of the context, but his best friend seemed not to like the guy, and he seemed evil, so he punched the overlord in the face.

Brian was offended, and abandoned all plans for a monologue in favor of leaving them to die.

The most fitting way to do away with a time traveler is to send them everywhere at once. It’s an awful death, one where molecules are slowly lost as the traveler in question hits walls and trees and memories.

The duo managed to survive five or so timelines, before the machine miraculously shut off. A mad scientist ran into the room, unscrewed the vents in the walls, and told the teenagers that they’re late.

Things are explained as they escape the facility.

Things

Logan needed a way to break the time dilation filter. He did the math (which he tried and failed to explain to the boys), and it was determined that Remus and Virgil had the most butterfly effect capabilities to influence this particular event

Basically, removing them from the timeline changed things just enough for Logan to find the chink in the filter’s armor.

The duo’s job is done, and Logan is only sorry that he didn’t find them earlier to get them home.

Back To The Plot

Everything seems like it’s going to be fine, and the duo are almost able to go home, when the Lord Cerebrum finds them.

CLIMATIC SHOWDOWN

An Ending

In the end, Brian is sent to the 22th century, the year where nearly all of humanity were turned into giant rats for some reason

Logan found his way back to the 1910′s, and used the 26th century technology to heal his love. The time machine burned in the fire. Good. Space travel was where it was at, anyway.

Virgil had so much explaining to do to his parents

Remus knew that no one would believe him. Roman did.

Virgil and Remus stayed the closest of friends. They dressed up as vampires for Halloween. They stuck together. They got to grow up.

More soulmate shenanigans, amiright?

#sanders sides #ts sides #remus sanders #virgil sanders #logan sanders #logicality #platonic dukexiety #time travel #soulmate au #beware the drafts of march #soulmate shenanigans #unsympathetic brian #i don't know why this random shorts character is awful in my mind #i'm sure he's a perfectly nice fictional character #i love writing #fan fic #sanders side fic #sanders sides fic

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mossdeemo · 5 years ago

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Patton, about splitting King: Technically not murder, definitely bad!

#sanders sides #king creativity #creativity sanders #patton sanders #source: brian david gilbert #unsympathetic patton #if u see it that way

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ehghtyseven · 6 years ago

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“my fucking feet are killing me” in the room: milestones, memories

#in which dumo is unsympathetic lol #justin schultz #brian dumoulin #pittsburgh penguins #mine:gif #mine:pens #gif:pens #these two are super cute tbh #jeff #dumo #penguins #bench antics #itr

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dykeceit · 5 years ago

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janus' playlist not-really-analysis just me screaming

so first of all this whole playlist absolutely SLAPS, its the first side playlist that's just my taste and it doesnt surprise me that it's janus' bc of course it is i am absolutely 100% more attracted to him now somehow,

im absolutely not okay and this isn't gonna be articulate in any way but i. have to.

1. black hole sun

???hes sad?? apparently its about depression with some sexy snake metaphors....maybe hes just sad in general or he misses virgil. also postmodern jukebox hell yeah

2. it seemed the better way

this feels like it could be about patton or like thinking one thing and then realizing its not true ig could be that w society in general or people...him developing his trust issues possibly "i better hold my tongue, i better take my place" or like oh the other sides hate me ig ill be a villain then...

3. anywhere

janus sanders says fuck capitalism!

4. talking at the same time

eat the rich,,,virgil left me:(

5. all the good girls go to hell

he's needed and the others are starting to realize it. hes quite smug abt it "my turn to ignore ya, don't say i didn't warn ya" damn right boy

6. denial

he blasted this song after svs while crying "please don't turn the light out, i don't think the conversation's over" he had to wait almost a year but he finally got to continue that conversation,, "i know where you'd wanna go, oh i do, but do you?"

7. trust in me

i mean yeah sexxy snake moment right here

8. razzle dazzle

so obviously its just his aesthetic tm but the lyrics...are the jabs at roman or himself, perhaps both? i never took him to be very insecure but that's a possibility

9. when the chips are down

basically his speech about society in svs and how he doesn't want thomas to be disadvantaged in it

10. mandy goes to med school

uhhh yeah who knows there's a bit of a i know what im doing jk vibe going on and Doing Harm but the thing itself is necessary to Have yknow right to abortions its just theyre not legal so hes doing them illegally and apparently two ppl died from them so not great,,"my partner brian" at the end made me think of remus tbh "hes a nice man, thoroughly reliable, he's in a rock band" kinda gives off the vibe of eh yeah hes totally reliable lmao dw tho, so basically what im taking from this is dukeceit is canon thanks for coming to my ted talk

11. i put a spell on you

i mean its definetely his Vibes but idk if its @ anyone specifically...could be virgil, could be roman, maybe thomas himself...its a vengeful kinda song, hes like fuck you you're listening to me now im done you treating me like shit

12. evil night together

so aside from this being an extremely hot song its def dukeceit vibes as in they'd both like it but the hero part as others have pointed out is giving out major roceit vibes and thomas and co know this those bastards

13. cabaret: don't tell mama

im assuming this is more of a..this is what he likes to listen to plus its about secrecy which is his thing but i guess "mama" could be someone in particular as well, and/or he could be singing it to someone in particular...

14. you're a cad

bruh. first of i loved this song already secondly iM SORRY THOMAS WHAT ARE YOY IMPLYING HERE like first i was like this isn't abt Him right that wouldn't make sense so is it about...virgil...well ofc it is bruh what the fuck bro....im loving this bc its casting virgil in an unsympathetic light and i love that shit but also its revealing janus still Feels quite a lot for him and idk how to feel abt this i. the part of me that still loves anxceit is screaming and the part of me that hates virgil is also screaming they haven't stopped for a minute-

15. as far as i can see

so dukeceit vibes possibly virgil reference since he "went down the staircase" to his spot,,so basically he and remus maybe virgil and orange too like pushing ppl down the stairs bc they feel unheard

16. criminal

this is where the angst train rly starts choo choo....so. who is he singing about here. my god i want it to be roman so bad but it Could be virgil...which would imply he thinks he's wronged him somehow which would mean virgil has a more valid reason to dislike him and I Don't Like That. but whoever hes singing about is clearly important to him... "he's all i knew of love" bro....that's just screaming virgil right i dont like it op...basically he feels guilty for smth and to be "redeemed". he clearly doesn't need redemption from his canon actions so far, and he hasn't acted like he regrets any of them, which is making me think its abt smth in his past buut maybe he does feel bad for manipulating roman now bc he realized how hurt roman was and thats what i wanna believe it's about ok roceit rights except roman youre a bitch apologise

17. change

this made me fucking lose it bro im still losing it ive lost it. he's not okay and neither am i....bro i didnt think he'd be so....insecure but....i mean all of them seem to be so...but yeah this song is very,,,i have trust issues and im learning to love again vibes and i am crying while my wig is being ripped cruelly from my head....i choose to interpret this as less like ive been bad uwu i can change and be good now and more as ive been too afraid to care bc im so aware of the harm it can do to me but i realized its worth it so im trying now....and i think that's beautiful

18. devil in the details

hes telling thomas to Just Do It. he "made amends in the general sense" but "the devil's in the details" and he "knows the cause" and "wants to stop" but he "just can't do it". this seems kinda like more virgil angsty times for me or maybe the cause is just him being...him and just being well i cant stop being my function so...but he sees it as The Reason theres still animosity even if hes "made amends".

19. come little children

first i was like bruh its a bop but y is it here. but the lyrics are basically repeating how horrible the world is, "murdering beauty and passion", and the singer doesnt have to be killing or kidnapping the kids maybe its just a friendly fae helping some abused kids yknow you never know...basically fae!janus confirmed i know you have connections with them thomas i know you do

20. into the unknown

i like that this is short it kinda feels like hes coming to say okay im done bye after this whole musical that is his playlist. i am ashamed to say im not familiar w the plot of over the garden wall but someone said smth abt killing kids. well yknow how it is sometimes...but yeah very sexy, very fae, i will stan forever etc.

#janus sanders #deceit sanders #roceit #dukeceit #sanders sides #idk bro im losing it #i love him and his music taste #basically all the songs are hot

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teabooksandsweets · 4 years ago

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I was tagged by @pythionice ♥ Thank you very much!

Pick 5 shows, then answer the following questions. Tag 10 (or however many) people.

All Creatures Great and Small (BBC)

Sherlock Holmes (Granada)

The Golden Girls

The Nanny

Jeeves & Wooster

(1. is my favourite show in the world, and 2. my second fave. The other three are among my numerous favourites, because I thought them better suited for this kind of game than most of my other favourites.)

Who is your favourite character in 2?

The main cast—Watson is of course fabulous, and Mrs Hudson is a grem. But most of all Sherlock Holmes himself. One on hand, the entire series is very true to its source material. On the other hand, despite Conan Doyle’s own remarks about his most famous creation, Holmes has all the warmth he actually does, and in adaptations (which often make him unsympathetic—and not in the right way, but in a completely different, just nasty way) should have. And more. It’s in the small actions, the way he, in his rational clear-thinking way just cares about people and shows affection in quite his own way, and I got to be honest: I think a lot of that is just a natural thing coming from Jeremy Brett. He made Holmes as sleek and cool as he should be, but he radiated such a warmth and gentleness.

Who is your least favourite character in 1?

I could hardly think of one, except for the occasional really nasty animal owner or farmer, as those certainly do turn up. But of the recurring cast, I don’t exactly dislike one. If I’d have to pick an important character I like less, then Calum.

What is your favourite episode of 4?

Propably the first episode. Or the first Christmas episode.

What is your favourite season of 5?

Oh. Of them all, it’s got the least variety. And I honestly don’t know—I could pick a favourite season for 1. and for 4. if I had to, but here? No.

Who is your favourite couple in 3?

Romantic couple? I don’t know. The girls have this and that affair, and while I like some of the men more and some less I don’t have any sort of favourite couple for them. But since Dorothy ends up actually marrying the Lelsie Nielsen character (forgot his name) I suppose it’s them? He’s nice. And endgame.

Who is your favourite couple in 2?

Same! I have no idea. There are no proper couples to speak of, except for the occasional romantic couples who appear only in one episode or so. Watson doesn’t even get his own wife.

What is your favourite episode of 1?

Oh, dear. Merry Gentlemen. But The Last Furlong, Pig in the Middle, and The Brink of Disaster are all very close.

What is your favourite episode of 5?

Uuuh, I think The Village Sports Day at Twing or probably Wooster with a Wife.

What is your favourite season of 2?

Umm... no specific one, but I like the episodes in the middle—all episodes are very good, but it’s not as stiff as the very early ones, and... and it does not yet pain to see poor Jeremy Brett so poorly.

How long have you watched 1?

Oh! Well! I used to watch it occasionally as a child, since it’s pretty much a family favourite ever since it came out, but I properly re-watched it about a year ago, for the first time as an adult, and fell absolutely head-over-heels in love. It’s incredibly dear to me. And I had such an unfortunate start as a child: Since it’s so popular in my family, when that 1974 movie came on everyone thought it was that show, and even though it turned out to be something else, it was left on, and I had to watch it, and it was so horrible. Everyone was disappointed, but for me it was my first contact with it, and I was very reluctant about the series and the books at first afterwards.

How did you become interested in 3?

Also an old family favourite, and at some point it just came on tv (I knew the show existed, but never seen it) before, or I think after some other show I watched, and I immediately liked it.

Who is your favourite actor in 4?

Daniel Davis. Definitely. He’s fabulous. And a great singer, too!

Which do you prefer, 1, 2, or 5?

One! Definitely!

Which show have you seen more episodes of, 1 or 3?

I’ve watched all episodes of both of them, but 3 has twice as many episodes as 1. They are roughly half the lenght, though.

If you could be anyone from 4, who would you be?

I wouldn’t want to.

Would a crossover between 3 and 4 work?

Perfectly, actually. The sense of humour is so similar, and the time overlaps.

Pair two characters in 1 who would make an unlikely but strangely okay couple?

This is difficult in a show in which the majority, though not all of the characters are technically real people. I personally do find that, although I don’t want Siegfried to be with anyone but Caroline, that he and Margery had lovely scenes together. In fact, though I know Donald Sinclair objected to these episodes, I do wonder if Margery, with all the similarities, as a first try as an equivalent for Audrey, before Caroline so to speak. But I definitely don’t want them as a couple! Otherwise, I think Tristan and Deirdre would have made a good couple. I don’t like how Calum treated Deirdre (though I may be one of the few who really like Deirdre and like her better than Calum) and I think it would have Tristan good to actually get married, like Brian, instead of having to play the youthful bachelor for another (nearly) four seasons. And I like that they don’t suit each other so well, as Deirdre and Calum did. They were different, from different backgrounds, but they both treated each other well and got on well, even after they seperated.

Overall, which show has the better storyline, 3 or 5?

Well, neither show has a storyline. The episodes do, and they are all fine! The shows have... concepts. So to speak. And both have fabulous concepts! Alright, Wodehouse’s concept for the Jeeves & Wooster books is stellar. But as a tv show, I think the Golden Girls were very much revolutionary, so 3 in this case.

Which has better theme music, 2 or 4?

Both are iconic, and in no way comparable.

I tag: @serenastella @sublimegentlemanalpaca @narnianarcher @lovehugsunexpected aaand... everyone who likes to!

#tag games #television

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thisiswhatwereupagainst · 5 years ago

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TL;DR Went into Captain Britain and Excalibur just to read Meggan, expected to hate Brian, found out they both were bad to each other and are both very injured, traumatized characters grappling with gender norms in their own way, and I have a lot of sympathy and love for them BOTH now even if they definitely are not a good couple at this point. So, I am keenly interested in Meggan Puceanu as a character and a concept. Just learning some very basic things about her prompted THIS META POST three years ago. And that was before I really plunked down and decided to read all her stuff in order. And while I have yet to read ALL of it by a longshot. But I’ve gotten through about 20 issues now, from her first appearances in “The Mighty World of Marvel” in 1984, to meeting and joining up with Brian Braddock/Captain Britain in the second series of Captain Britain in 1985, to the first five issues of Excalibur in 1985. So yeah, keep in mind reading this, I am only up to Excalibur #5. And I know I probably should wait before writing all this stuff, read more, see if my interpretations hold true. But I have so many thoughts and I just can’t wait that long! So please read on with the understanding I may be proven completely wrong in these perceptions later. That said.... I had some basic knowledge of Brian and Meggan’s dynamic. I knew that she was completely emotionally dependent on him, that her every emotion hinged on his approval and attention, that a lot of her very identity was based around pleasing him as his girlfriend. I also knew he’d been a real dick to her, and that his descent into alcoholism had made him an even bigger dick. So, I was really prepared to dislike him. And while I do still dislike the power imbalance that their relationship was founded on, I ended up having very different feelings about Brian himself than I expected---I thought I was going to encounter a shitty macho man himbo asshole who treated Meggan like shit just because. Seriously, look at THIS and THIS and THIS! What a JERK! I was all prepped to despise this guy and yell about toxic masculinity and how Meggan deserved better. Instead, what I found was someone who was as broken and in pain as Meggan herself, but who got far less sympathy for it than she did, both from other characters and from fans. The first big shock that I got was that Brian had been raped twice by female villains in the second Captain Britain series, before Excalibur began. I had actually read about this a couple years ago on TV Tropes, but seeing it was something else. I wrote a longer post about it HERE As noted in the post, Brian never told anyone about either of these incidences as far as I know, nor getting any kind of therapy or treatment. He also started drinking after this happened. And as of Excalibur beginning, Betsy is dead (or so he believes) and he’s grappling a lot with that too. I think it was unethical of him not to rebuff Meggan when she first came on to him, for reasons I’ll discuss later in this post, but also makes sense for his character, not because he’s an unethical person but because he’s actually very passive and seems to just accept whatever is demanded by him of others; he talks about this with Courtney, how he has no choice in being Captain Britain, how it was imposed on him, asking if he’s a coward for just wanting a little of his own life and she unsympathetically says it’s “obscene” how he “can’t be bothered” to “take charge” of his own life (Excalibur #3). It’s a very unusual flaw for a male character. In his own way, he’s at the mercy of what others demand him to be as much as Meggan is with her powers, and I find that really interesting. I already knew that Meggan is very much a reflection of the demands placed on women by society, literally twisting her own emotions and physical forms to coincide with what is considered beautiful and what others desire, whereas Brian, it turns out, is himself a reflection of the demands placed on men---he has to be a warrior, whether he likes it or not (and he doesn’t, it’s part of his backstory that he doesn’t see himself that way at all), he has to be the hero and take care of the girl and he feels he has to just go with it when Meggan decides he’s her man and she needs him. And Meggan is more flawed than I expected. She’s oftentimes shockingly selfish in her obsession with Brian. For instance, when his ex Courtney is kidnapped by the sadistic murderous Arcade, Brian is understandably upset, and this troubles Meggan because she thinks that his being upset means he still cares for Courtney. The selfishness there is staggering; a woman’s life is in danger and Meggan’s first concern is her own love life, and she assumes that the only reason Brian could care about said woman’s life being in danger is if he’s in love with her. Or when Brian’s drinking is first brought up by the rest of the team, Meggan says it hurts her that he turns to those bottles instead of to her (Excalibur #3). So, her problem isn’t that Brian is obviously becoming addicted to alcohol, it’s that SHE isn’t the one that he turns to. She’s got a lot of moments like this. That said, I LIKE this about Meggan. It makes me like her MORE. It makes her WAY more realistic and flawed and human than the archetypical frail damsel who is just an accessory to her man that I was expecting. She’s clingy, she’s possessive, she’s downright nasty and hostile over him a lot! She may not think of herself as a real person, but the writers treat her as one, complete with flaws. Her dependency isn’t treated as a good or romantic thing either, it’s not held up as a female virtue like I was expecting; Brian is actually bothered by it, he confides in Kurt that he doesn’t think he can handle how she relies on him for everything, how he actually PREFERS Courtney because unlike Meggan, Courtney is her own woman-- “She doesn’t seem to NEED me as completely and desperately as Meggan seems to. Sometimes I feel I’m the total and absolute focus of Meggan’s life. It’s a responsibility I don’t think I’m capable of handling.” And Brian is right, this ISN’T a good thing to do in a relationship, Meggan is putting a lot of unfair emotional weight on his shoulders, and he’s already got a lot to bear from his own trauma and loss. In fact, one could even argue that her behavior would be seen as toxic if the genders were reversed. She’s still very sympathetic, of course, because this is coming from a place of real insecurity and need and probably her powers too, but it’s more three-dimensional and complicated than what I originally expected. But I like that. Because again, it’s more realistic, both in terms of Meggan’s behavior and in Brian’s reaction to it---he doesn’t WANT a woman being totally dependent on him and thinking the sun shines out his ass and needing him for everything, he wants another human being. That’s not what I expected a Bad Macho Man Stereotype to be saying! But in fact, Brian says another thing he prefers about Courtney is “she’s her own woman” and “I can talk to her, Kurt.” (Excalibur #5) Brian is a man who wants to be able to have someone he can be VULNERABLE with, to talk with as an equal about his fears and anxieties---which he does with Courtney, as mentioned---and he can’t do that with Meggan because of the pedestal she puts him on and her needing so much care herself. He says as much himself to Kurt. He also recognizes that he himself probably isn’t equipped to deal with Meggan’s issues, she needs much more help than he can give. This isn’t an idealized thing at all, this is a realistic depiction of two very emotionally injured people in a very messed up dynamic that is bad for BOTH of them, hurting them BOTH. Up til actually reading it, I was expecting it to be one-sided, with Meggan being the only one suffering, but it’s not! And Meggan being like this, of being obsessed with Captain Britain and behaving in a very “cliche” way over him, makes a TON of sense for her, she’s not just obsessed with him for no reason like a typical “just the hero’s girlfriend” character. Meggan grew up being kept secret in her family’s camper-trailer for her then-monstrous appearance, til during the Jasper’s Warp when reality shifted into a world that was putting superhumans, including herself, into concentration camps. While she was in the camps, Captain Britain was a legend as a liberator and freedom fighter who was fighting back against the regime for the sake of people like her. And when reality returned to normal, Meggan was one of the few people who remembered that it had ever changed; she remembered the camps, and she remembered Captain Britain. Even though she’d never even seen him at that point, she clung to him as her one hope. Then the real Captain Britain found her when she was homeless and living in an abandoned warehouse, and he lets her live with him in his mansion because she has nowhere else, which is probably more kindness than she’s ever been shown in her life, and from someone she idolized. Which, as I said way earlier in this essay, does make their relationship an inherently unethical one because of their power imbalance, as he’s got a lot of power over her in terms of being the one providing her with a home, food, clothing, etc., not to mention her emotional dependency that’s obvious well before she makes a move on him. So we’re already starting on really problematic territory. But it makes SENSE for her. Add to that Meggan was raised on television in a VERY literal sense. Again, she was locked up in her camper trailer all day every day her whole life, and so she spent most of her time just watching TV. It’s shown that this has given her SOME UNREALISTIC IDEAS ABOUT HOW TO BEHAVE so I think that absorbing the media’s depictions of how women are “supposed” to behave towards their men is actually pretty realistic. She’s not doing this because the writers think this is just how women are----NONE of the other female characters act at all like she does!---but because SHE thinks it’s what’s normal and expected, and she’s probably very much imprinted on the media’s fantasy fairytale depiction of relationships. Given how she grew up as an ugly monster and seeing herself as such, I can very much see her as latching on the idea of “beautiful sweet woman who is valued for her beauty and being with the lead man and has no identity apart from that” that’s prevalent in media, which she would take for a reflection of reality, a reality that she thought her whole life would be denied to her. So all her behavior has a good in-character reason; she could even be read as a criticism of trying to enact gendered media stereotypes in real life and how they can’t actually work in the complexity of the real world, and how damaging they are to those who absorb them. What’s also funny is that despite appearing to be the standard “strong man, pretty woman” couple, especially with Brian becoming emotionally distant and cruelly pushing her away whilst she’s very emotional and obsessed with pleasing him, is they actually subvert this paradigm as much as they play it straight. The Juggernaut WIPES THE FLOOR with Brian at one point, and then Meggan shows up, shapeshifts into a GIANT MUSCULAR VERSION OF HERSELF, and comes to his rescue with Rachel and Kitty! That’s right, a buff lady and two other ladies save the dude in distress! And then afterwards, she acts like SHE was the one in danger, resuming her default petite form and jumping into his big manly arms while he asks if she’s alright and she says “Always in your arms!” ---it’s hilarious! (Excalibur #3) And of course, speaking of subverting gender stereotypes, there’s Brian’s desire to have a partner he can be vulnerable with, which is really astounding to me----he’s very much grappling with the expectations of toxic masculinity in a way that’s harming him as much as Meggan. Not just in relation to Meggan, but also, as mentioned before, in relation to not having control of his own life as Captain Britain, and being responsible for others. In particular, he’s messed up over Betsy’s (seeming) death, and over not having protected her, as a man would be expected to protect his sister. In the panel right before the “changeling cow!” scene I linked earlier, THIS IS WHAT HE SAYS. He doesn’t see himself as any good if he doesn’t meet impossible standards. And while Meggan reacts to pain by getting teary, Brian consistently reacts to his pain (or trying to hide it) by getting ANGRY, which is consistent with how women vs men are socialized. Which is not to say it’s anything but VISCERALLY HORRIBLE when he lashes out at Meggan, especially given how dependent she is on him, and she absolutely SHOULD have dumped his ass then, but it’s also a lot more three-dimensional than the emotionally abusive drunken bad boyfriend stereotype I was expecting. I know I’m a broken record on this, but I am just so shocked at how sympathetic I ended up being to a guy I was so prepared to hate and was so cruel to a character (Meggan) that I was already very sympathetic to and invested in. Instead, I’m invested in them BOTH now and want to see them BOTH heal from this, and from each other. So, basically, I was really ready to be mad about Meggan’s lack of agency and her dependence on Brian. And these are things that happen. But the writers are clearly AWARE of it, and treat them as issues to be addressed and overcome. Meggan and Brian come off not as the cliche male and female stereotypes they first appeared, and that I expected, but very critical examinations and sometimes subversions of them, and both are shown as being hurt by the expectations of their gender, and being hurt by each other as they enact those expectations. It’s not totally perfect, not by a long shot, but it’s very interesting and a lot more nuanced than I expected some straight white guys in the 80s to be writing, it’s definitely a far cry from the typical idealized relationship between a hero and a leading lady, and I’m pretty impressed with it. And I’m looking forward to reading more.

#meggan #Meggan Puceanu #brian braddock #excalibur #captain britain #meta

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janicechenblog · 4 years ago

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2. A new turn in political communication: the development of political brands

Political brands date back to the 1990s in British and American political elections, and in 2008 the Obama team and the 2016 Trump team's political branding highlighted some of the characteristics that echo the new model of political communication. Political communication in the United States is exemplary, and the political communication techniques and methods used by the United States are often emulated by political campaign teams in other countries, and spread rapidly around the world, such as Canada, Germany, Australia and other Western democracies, and even as an emerging technology, into the political campaigns of developing countries such as India and Indonesia. Political brands are widely used in various types of "political products", including personal brands of politicians, political party brands, government brands, policy projects, urban brands, national brands and so on.

The rise of political brand is a reflection of the political shift in western countries influenced by the postmodern trend. The "postmodern" trend is a complex political and social overall turn, which coexists with the "modern" trend, which in many cases presents many contradictory, conflicting and even completely opposite characteristics. This trend has had a profound impact on political communication.

The first influence is that the political communication environment tends to polarize, and the influence of identity politics increases. With the deepening of the trend of pluralism and polarization in post-modern society, new political parties or interest groups based on the demands of small groups are emerging. The public in political communication is no longer broken down by traditional geographical, demographic and other factors, but by groups based on different identities. This means that the public facing the current political communication is no longer the "majority" in classical representing democracy, but a "multi-minority" based on personal status. Under this new trend, the individual emphasizes the identity characteristics of the individual who distinguishes himself from the other; But unlike individuals in modern politics as isolated "atomic individuals", the current public is linked through a small group of self-organizing groups and participates in political communication accordingly. Political brands operate as a response to this trend, reflected in an ability to be linked to customers and build relationships between brands and users by promoting the formation of brand communities, resulting in long-term brand loyalty.

Secondly, the grass-roots trend of political communication began to divide. With the advent of postmodern characteristics, the democratic model of modern democracies and the associated ways of political participation of the public have changed dramatically: traditional congress democracy appears to be somewhat "obsolete" and is beginning to shift to participatory democracy. On the one hand, public power has increased, and the degree of direct democracy has been strengthened, on the other hand, social movements have emerged, social conflicts have intensified, and anti-elite popularization and populism have emerged. Under the influence of this trend, the political communication structure begins to divide from the form of a media-to-audience slope pyramid to institutionalization and grassroots. Political communication actors are emerging into an "audience-centric" atmosphere: politicians communicate with the public in more popular language; Political talk shows, street interviews related to political issues and other programs are welcome; As a result of live broadcasts on television or video sites, serious parliamentary debates begin to take into account media logic and audience preferences; New things such as consultative polls and citizen news are emerging. As the representative of the new mode of operation in the western political communication, the political brand is widely regarded as a result of the continuous growth of consumer power in the political communication, which reflects the "empowerment" of the communication audience by the new technology represented by the Internet under the trend of social structure change. Many of the operations in the macro framework of the brand, such as brand management, brand culture, brand resonance, etc., focus on the public as participants in the social construction of the brand.

Thirdly, political mistrust, cynicism and relativism have intensified in the political communication. In the field of political communication, scholars believe that modern political communication needs to be responsible for the emergence of the above phenomenon, because political communication is becoming more and more intelligent, more and more "strategically constructed" information, more negative reports used to attack opponents, the public from this information to distinguish the motivations of politicians, and thus more and more disgusted with politics, the emergence of so-called "cynicism spiral" and political values of "relativism." The traditional marketing path of political communication has been unsympathetic to this and has even exacerbated this trend. In order to gain political support and votes in this new trend, political communication has begun to explore new paths and methods.

References

Kenneth Cosgrove, Jennifer Lees-Marshment & Brian Conley. (2014). Personal Political Branding at State Level. Political Marketing in the United States.

Robert Busby & Sue Cronshaw. (2015). Political Branding: The Tea Party and Its Use of Participation Branding. Journal of Political Marketing, Vol.14, No.1-2, pp.96-110.

Alex Marland，J. P. Lewis & Tom Flanagan. (2017). Governance in the Age of Digital Media and Branding. Governance, Vol. 30，No. 1，pp. 125 - 141.

Eleonora Pasotti. (2010). Political Branding in Cities: The Decline of Machine Politics in Bogotá, Naples and Chicago. Cambridge University Press.

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mexcine · 4 years ago

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Jungle Street (1960) review: as an adolescent in the Sixties, I was a fan of the "Man from U.N.C.L.E." television series, and was firmly in the "Team Illya Kuryakin" camp, preferring the cool, accented, black-turtleneck wearing Russian agent to the Brylcreemed Napoleon Solo. This didn't translate to a life-long David McCallum fandom, but I'll admit McCallum's presence in Jungle Street was one reason I decided to watch this admittedly minor film.

Working-class Terry (McCallum) supplements his income as a garage mechanic by committing crimes; however, when a senior citizen robbed by Terry subsequently dies of his injuries, Terry decides to leave the country. He'd like to take Susan (Jill Ireland, McCallum's wife at the time)--an "exotic dancer" at the Adam & Eve club he frequents--with him, but she rejects his advances: she's the girlfriend of Johnny, currently serving time for a robbery he and Terry committed.

Johnny is released from prison: he reunites with Susan and demands his share of the previous robbery's proceeds from Terry. Terry has spent it all, but suggests he and Johnny rob the strip club's safe. They do so, but Terry double-crosses Johnny, knocking him out and fleeing with all the cash. Terry confronts Susan at Johnny's apartment and tries to force her to accompany him, but the police arrive, tipped off by Johnny. A neighbour is accidentally shot to death during the hostage situation. A screaming Terry is dragged off by the police to pay the price (presumably hanging) for the two deaths he caused.

What could have been a routine crime film with a fairly simple plot is spiced up with a bit of "kitchen sink" drama, some police procedural footage, and several interesting performances. Jungle Street also contains a number of strip-tease performances-- while quite tame, the dancers are generally attractive, seem to actually know how to dance (except Jill Ireland, but she was an actress, not a professional dancer, as the others apparently were--even in the context of the film she’s not supposed to be an expert stripper), and the shots of the middle-aged men in the audience are subtly ironic.

The influence of the "kitchen sink" dramas of the era is evident in several sequences of Terry's home life. These scenes are extended and effective. His surly father does manual labour in the market (”lifting sacks of potatoes”), spends his free time in the pub, and makes no secret of his disdain for his "soft" son. Terry's mum plays peace-maker between the two. In one interesting scene, Johnny visits Terry's home in search of his former partner in crime; he introduces himself only as an old friend of Terry (who isn't home), and chats up Terry's mother over a cup of tea. Although she tells Johnny that Terry is "artistic" and deserves a better life, the viewer sees no evidence of this in the film itself. Aside from mooning over Susan, Terry seems entirely self-absorbed, weak, and has no particular goal in life. The script gives him no scenes of introspection that would help the viewer understand why he is the way he is. He's not a sympathetic character at all and goes to pieces at the conclusion, struggling and protesting in a juvenile manner, highlighting his lack of maturity.

Not that other characters in the film are especially sympathetic. Johnny doesn't appear until the plot is well-advanced; he's shocked to learn Susan has become a stripper, and hits her, but they reconcile. Susan is not especially pleasant--to be fair, until Johnny returns we see her mostly fending off her lecherous boss Jacko and avoiding Terry's (very) slightly more well-intentioned advances.

Perhaps the most entertaining character has little or nothing to do with the main plot: Joe Lucas (Brian Weske), a smarmy, hypochondriac spiv who hangs around the Adam & Eve club. 21st century viewers might find him reminiscent of some of Eric Idle's later sleazy, pencil-thin moustachioed characters from "Monty Python's Flying Circus." Joe is a shady character who behaves insouciantly regardless of what happens to him, including enduring repeated police interrogations; he threatens to blackmail Terry and gets a punch in the face for his trouble, but shrugs it off and says the blow just confirmed his suspicions (that Terry was the mugger who killed the old man early in the film).

Jungle Street spends a fair amount of time on Inspector Bowen and the police, depicted as competent and professional. They discover the murdered man's wallet, complete with fingerprints of the presumed killer, and resolve to fingerprint everyone in the area to solve the crime--and "pay close attention to anyone who refuses to be fingerprinted," Bowen adds.

While one wouldn't want to claim Jungle Street as an unsung feminist film, it is interesting that a fair amount of film is constructed around the exploitation and objectification of women by men. Obviously, the concept of a strip club, where (mostly) middle-aged (and older) men stare fixedly at the performers as they disrobe, is a large part of this. The women have some agency, but it's chiefly exposed as a fiction: Jacko uses (or tries to use) his dancers as his personal harem (late in the film he's hiring a new performer and makes it clear her salary is based on how "friendly" she is to him). Susan says she hates working at the club and despises Jacko, but he has "long arms" and would pursue her if she quit (this doesn't seem entirely logical, but she believes it). Both Johnny and Terry have "honest" intentions towards Susan, but they also both view her as a possession and both threaten her violently. Terry's father doesn't abuse his wife openly, but he seems to treat her in a dismissive manner and apparently spends most of his evenings in the local pub (although there is a reference to Terry's parents attending the cinema together on a sort of “date night,” so he's not completely oblivious to her). Even Joe, having an affair with dancer Dimples, brusquely bursts into her dressing room and orders her to get out so he can have a private conversation with Terry.

Jungle Street was clearly made on a low budget but this doesn't seriously affect the film's impact. Shot at the Twickenham studios, it also includes some actual location footage; the sets are adequate, the direction (Charles Saunders), cinematography and editing are all fine, albeit without a great deal of style.

The performances are satisfactory. McCallum--who rather shockingly reminds one a bit of Macaulay Culkin in some shots!--is stuck with playing an unsympathetic character but does his best; Jill Ireland (who somehow looks...different than she did later) is adequate. The aforementioned Brian Weske turns in the most entertaining performance, although Martin Sterndale (Inspector Bowen), and Thomas Gallagher and Edna Doré (as Terry's parents) are also fine. Special mention should be made of Meier Tzelniker as the ill-fated tailor Mr. Rose: Tzelniker, a Romanian-born Yiddish theatre veteran, had a substantial career in the UK, chiefly playing (as he does in Jungle Street) somewhat stereotyped Jewish characters. Mr. Rose stands up to Terry at the climax, encouraging him to hand over his pistol and surrender to the police, only to be accidentally shot when the police burst into the room. It's a tribute to Tzelniker's acting--in a two-scene role-- that his character's death has considerable emotional impact on the audience.

Not a classic or even deserving of cult status, Jungle Street is nonetheless interesting, well-paced and entertaining.

[Trivia note: This film was also known as Jungle Street Girls (the U.S. release, billed as in “Sin-O-Rama”), Criminal-Sexy, and (translated) Murder in the Strip Club [Morderen fra Strip-Tease Klubben]--the latter title is rather misleading, since neither of the two deaths that occur in the movie take place in the "Adam and Eve" club.]

#Jungle Street #british cinema #crime film #david mccallum #strip-tease

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