#we are the team of three and i subscribed to take the role of the 'bad bitch' of the trio hahah

[katyspersonal]

I agree with this very much, fandoms are supposed to be about communicating about THE media fans love, and creativity is supposed to unite and provide communication, not to divide.

It is, unfortunately, not realistic that everyone will have a common decency to split their fandom blog and personal blog- heck, I struggle with this too, sometimes pulling my hot takes or mental health turmoils here where 95% of the posts are Bloodborne-related. There will always be those blogs you find through cool fanart or theory and want to check what else is there, and find like idk, horrible opinions, pinned DNI post that makes you cringe even if you don't meet the listed criteria, that they constantly reblog weird shit, vent and use slurs, you name it. But it should be your choice and your ALONE whether you want to block on the spot, follow for those things you DO like, crypto-follow (check on your own sometimes without following) or even converse. And whatever choice you make, it is YOURS. If YOU chose to block - it doesn't mean you now are entitled to run around and FORCE everyone to make the same choice. Pathetic that none of ya'll understood Djura's point /lh

It is something fandom used to understand because From's games tend to attract only mature fans. I still hate every coward who knew exactly what was going on for several months but did not mind, but it was when a manipulative post full of shit was shared when they collectively pretended to "have been bothered all along, actually" and ran away like rats. There is a difference between 'not liking a person based off who they associate with' and 'liking them despite that but running like rats when peer pressure looms over'. Such shallow, conditional "approval" has not been that big of a loss, of course, but fandom still could have done without that drama. If anything, it seriously severed the number of possible positive interactions - such as supporting each other's drawings, exchanging ideas and lore to mutually improve, encouraging each other to create more of this or that, spreading more good takes from each other. The natural system of mutual support is crippled, and even when some roundabout interaction DOES happen - people now are subjected to steal ideas without credit or draw without mentioning who inspired them. I for one cannot do that because my personal ideas of honor do not let me; regardless of WHO revealed this or that idea/knowledge, I MUST credit them, because not I came up with the idea. But I understand how safety and keeping larger number of interactions can be more important, it becomes a fair exchange of values because getting to reblog someone's darn drawing with a nice comment is important nonetheless /gen

It IS a huge relief that now people can confirm my claim on identity of the "anon" that harrasses, stalks, manipulates, lies and hate-watches blogs of users they dislike (wtf?!) was true. It won't fix the damage on the fandom (and on my formerly much nicer personality) that has ALREADY been done, but this feels justice-flavored enough to satisfy me. I've never tried to hide what I think or feel, so this is ironic that that dumbass played such a shit show with "exposing my true face" when in reality, THEY were the truly two-faced hateful hypocrite all along and THEY were the one harassing people without any regard to their feelings and comfort.

I am pretty sure that even if the news fly to outside of this mutuals circle, people will still accept what that person did and try to justify anon harassment and stalking blogs they didn't even like obsessively to find more 'dirt' with some sort of twisted delusion about them defending people I've never been a threat to outside of their DESIRED narrative, but doesn't bother me. People will be people, and they will always be glad to put even innocent victims (like Fantomette) on the altar of the battle THEY started. My goalpost personally was to ensure the truth is known, how people choose to react at it is, again, their choice.

Ok, I’m just gonna say some things real quick.

Finding out that it truly was one anon harassing my friend Fantomette for literal weeks (and me, though you’d never know because I don’t acknowledge it, nor give a damn), AND finding some pretty solid evidence about who this person really is…

Just…my God.

It was obvious enough already, I guess, but now we essentially “confirmed” it, and I find it really draining to know this person just sits comfortably in the tumblr Bloodborne fandom and is really this callous and manipulative. We are dealing with the Logarius of this fandom, haha.

I’m genuinely angry, and that’s rare. I don’t care about petty dramas and squabbles in fandom. I don’t get involved. I really don’t care. That’s why I don’t respond to harassment. I moved passed my “internet drama addict” phase a long time ago. It’s just easier to breathe when you don’t bother with things you have no real control over. You deal with enough online bullies and go through enough abusive “cyber” relationships, and it eventually wakes you up to see the obvious. It’s just an endless cycle of immature behavior.

But just this once, and mainly because I feel the need to clear it up, I will explain something.

I am aware that there has been drama in this side of the Bloodborne fandom. I wasn’t there when it happened, but I caught up on it and observed. I know who was involved, and I know who basically “won” the favor of the broader public—if you can even call this diminished fandom that.

Here are my simple thoughts on it all.

I don’t consider it my problem or business. I don’t care.

To initially avoid conflict, I have reached out to people and had private conversations that some harassing anon would never know about. I have clarified and worked out some of the really important issues that people are concerned with. There are details and elements of this story that no one even knows except me, and you wouldn’t because even some of the people that were involved are no longer around.

From this gathering of insight, I have chosen who I trust and who I believe. I listened to both sides of the story. That was all I ever needed to do, and really all anyone would ever need to do in a situation like this.

Direct communication is so important. You never get anywhere complaining about someone to yourself or your friends. It takes some minerals, but going straight to a person and confronting them is actually the most powerful and effective thing you could do. God forbid you even sort out the problem without getting others involved.

For me, I did what I felt I needed to do and was able to feel confident in my choices about to approach a conflict-torn fan group.

And guess what? It doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t matter to anyone. Why? Because aside from this post, you will never see me address or engage in this debacle. My blog is a safe space for everyone, and I mean everyone. No matter your identity or your PROBLEMS. You can have serious issues and talk to me and be my friend. I don’t mind at all. You can also feel safe to be my friend if you have a specific background or identify a certain way. I will show only love and support. I don’t hold judgements against people in general. It isn’t my nature.

If you are a bully? Manipulative? Cruel? If you repeatedly promote something violent or extremely harmful on your blog? I may withdraw in quietude and not associate so much, but that’s for MY mental health. It’s also to protect the mental health of my friends. I won’t spread that type of rhetoric or hate. I won’t even speak about it.

I am a journalist. I deal with controversy and human depravity on a regular basis. It’s my bloody day job. It weighs me down. I get easily depressed by it. That’s personal.

That won’t effect you or anyone else on my blog, because I use this blog to engage strictly in fandom. You won’t see me post about anything else related to life beyond the realm of casual entertainment. No intercultural crises, no politics, no social commentary, no current events. This blog simply isn’t for that. It’s my break *from* those exact issues.

I need this, and I won’t have it ruined. Fandom drama be damned.

I don’t care even if I make some theory post and get condescending vague-posts clearly in response to it literally a day later. Go for it, kids! I’m gonna keep sharing my ideas, and I will not start debates over it. I’m too tired for that.

This is my nest, and it’s where I’m going to hang out. If who I choose to befriend and speak to upsets you, even if you don’t have the full story or you are judging my entire character/belief system based on that interaction, that’s fine. Block my blog. Forget about me. If it makes you feel safer, then do it.

I’m going to live my own life, and that does not include catering to the particular needs of strangers in online fandoms. Harsh maybe, but I’m sure you can handle that.

My mutuals and friends deserve this same level of freedom, respect, and security. So anon…or rather person that we know is watching us and acting as a peaceful neighbor in the same fandom…you have your first and only acknowledgement from me. Go away from us, and leave my friends alone. I promise you’ll breathe a bit easier if you forget us.

[star-arcana]

In defense of Pokémon Horizons episode 79 "Over the Top" : Why Geeta isn't weak!

SPOILERS!!!

Ok, I already made a post on it on twitter, that site won't allow me to go into detail as much as I wanna. So I use THIS side to explain, as to why this episode is well made and why the ultimate outcome not only makes story wise sense, but was the best conclusion Horizons could take!

So I'm going to write a better version of my post, in defense of Geeta, La Primera,standing over the top, as well as for our Heroine Liko, and her friends, Roy and Dot! Llet's begin!

The Origin of Geeta's controversial role as Champion!

Geeta is considered to be one of the worst champions of all time, even as THE WORST champion by many. In Scarlet and Violet, she poses as the final challenge of the Paldean League and as champion battles us to see, if we can become champion too. Due to how poorly she perfomed however, people have a sour taste left in their mouth with her role as champion, despite having fulfilled her role rather masterfully, which I will get later on. Just know that before Horizons's most recent episode, Geeta had long before garnered a bad reputation as a poor champ, even if it's undeserved imo. So I will go in detail over that first to establish why that is bollocks and why she actually works well in the games, and how it influenced the anime's take of her. It was all made with the utmost care and sincere respect for Geeta as character that is even unmachted compared to her game counterpart.

She is in the anime even better than ever before and it will be soon not difficult to see why!

La Primera has a role to fulfil in Horizons, and it explains the outcome of this episode, as well as to why the controversy happened! So let's briefly go over her games's version first!

Geeta's role in the games!

You see, Horizons drew massive inspirations from Scarlet and Violet, not only with it's Pokémon, but setting as well! But Horizons is self-containted as storyline, and not established to be canon within the games. So therefore, it doesn't follow strickly or even remotely the same path of the game and has it's own story, making most of SV take a backseat for more interesting, compelling and well-written narratives!

But Geeta's anime counterpart and many of the elements of Horizons are based on the story of Scarlet and Violet, and they gave a template for how that character works, even if not fully used (since you cannpot blindly copy the games).

Now I come REALLY to her game's role:

Golden Owl, a youtuber who studied game design and lives in Singapore, outlined many of the reasons as to why Geeta isn't bad as champion. I will use many of his points here, as well as using some of his phrases, because they are funny! This video from Golden Owl influenced me, as well as my own reasoning regarding my views on Geeta in both media. So check his video out if you want to know his takes yourself.

He is really knowledgeable and trustworthy, check him out please and subscribe to his channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EghD8e3ziMM&pp=ygUdZ2VldGEgaXMgdGhlIHdlYWtlc3QgY2hhbXBpb24%3D

So as underlined in his video, Geeta was despite her role as champion never the final boss of this game. The Paradox Professors were, and Geeta is not even the final boss of the very storyline where you face her: That is Nemona!!! Da Da Daaa!!!

Scarlet and Violet is seperated into three storyline in total, not counting the DLC's as they aren't relevant here, and the final one happening after you finished all of the main three.

Arven's story, "Path of Legends", is about facing Titan Pokémon to help him heal his Mabosstiff's illness and meanwhile strenghtening your Koraidon/Miraidon (depending on which version you play as).

Penny's story "Starfall Street" is about with fighting against Team Star to stop them from bullying other students, and learning about their motives and why they are that way!

And finally, Nemona's story "Victory Road", which is the one where you face Geeta, so we go with this one here:

Nemona at the start of this storyline wants to make you, the player, a rival worthy of facing her in battle, as no one was able to truly make her go all-out on anyone. She convinces you to partake in the Paldean League to become a champion level trainer yoruself and face Nemona afterwards! So, you face the 8 Gym Leaders and occasionally battle with Nemona herself. Then you face the Elite 4, and finally the top champion Geeta , whom you have to beat to become Nemona's most worthy rival and opponent... ... ... ...and let's be honest here, Geeta's battle performance was...not so good...I won't go into very big detail here, since that had been discussed endlessly to death regarding Geeta, so I get this most basic info out straight:

1. Geeta's ace, Glimmora, should have been send out first to make most use of it's Toxic Debris ability to lay toxic spikes on the enemies's field to poison and weaken the enemy, if hit by a physical attack. Instead, it comes out last and Glimmora also has no defensive attack to stall the enemy. Thus the Spikes are, in addition to poor placement, are rendered almost useless, espcially when that ability can be ignored by using special attacks, which aren't hard to optain, especially super effective ones.

2. Gogoat, Avaluug and Veluza aren't particularly challenging and lack the defensive utility to help with Glimmora's spikes,especially with how late that mon comes out. They cannot help this team and can be easily taken out. Avalugg's ginormous defensive bulk is also marred by it's SUPER LOW special defense and therefore is REALLY vulnerable to special attackers.

3. Kingambit's most memable and powerful ability, Supreme Overlord, that buff it's attack stage by 10% for each fallen team member is never send out last (in fact it often is send out second) and therefore never fully maximized it's ability.

Thus the only Pokémon used competently here is Espathra with it's Opportunist ability and coverage taking advantage of your stat boost, by buffing itself with the same boost.

So...yeah...this team wasn't designed to be hard, it was built around rather the many biomes you encountered on your journey across the Paldean Region:

Gogoat representing the grassy highlands! Veluza the lakes northwest! Avalugg the top of Paldea's icy and cold mountains! Espathra the hot, burning deserts west! Kingambit the forests northeast! and Glimmora representing A0, the final destination awaiting you next.

You are in fact level wise meant to beat Geeta alongside the final bosses of the two other storylines, with Penny and Arven bein around Geeta's level. Meanwhile Neomona is slightly higher than them all, meaning Victory Road was concieved as the storyline to be finished last.

Thus Geeta wasn't gameplay wise meant to be hard, and she didn't needed to be hard, because Nemona is the true driving force and the final boss of that storyline, just like Blue in Gen 1. Blue was to the player in the first Pokémon games, as the most personal foe, who became champ first by beating the Elite 4 before you and losing shortly after the title to you! How exciting!

Geeta doesn't fulfil the same role as champ, Nemona does, and, in fact, neither she or Nemona are even the true final bosses of SV! That would be the Paradox Professors in the last storyline you unlock after you finish all the three others storylines.

You unlock the last challenge in the base game facing either Sada (Scarlet) or Turo (Violet) depending on each version in the final storyline called "The Way Home", where you enter Area Zero and face the truth of Paradox Pokémon and what happened to Koraidon/Miraidon, as well as the original Professors, basically a horror story with a good ending afterwards!

Therefore Geeta had to be held back, as to not outperorm the final bosses of that game. So yeah, for someone who says that they never held back, there was a lot of holding back done here, not by her, but by the narrative. This makes sense, as Nemona by Geeta's own words held even against her held back, because Nemona felt no true satisfaction in this battle. But now that even Geeta, the Champion of Paldea is defeated, Nemona is faced last, and she is actually much stronger, with a more competent team, but mostly gameplay wise, as Geeta herself is still considered by Nemona really strong.

So in the end, the issue of Geeta's bad impression on fans was with the role given to her, as another boss before facing the actual final boss. That is unlike many of the other champions in the whole series that peopled wanted her to be like, and a lot of fans were then dissapointed in Geeta!

Unlike Geeta, the other champions are the final bosses and/or super bosses of their respective games, like Cynthia, Lance, Blue e.t.c. They were powerhouses always meant to be fought last, as they are the ultimate challenge for the player to overcome and beating them therefore is the ultimate end goal of these games.

The only other game aside from SV in the series so far that had the actual champion be second fiddle to more powerful trainers, was Alder from Black and White 1. He is there the Champion of the Unova League and meant to be seen as powerful mentor with the twist of him losing his title to N, who defeated him and in turn became the new champion. Withonly the player, that is you, remaining as last hope to stop him. After you do this, Ghetsis then reveals himself as the true villain and final boss and gets taken out, too. Alder is then fought in the post-game, as an actually challenging boss. But aside from these two exceptions, champions are always seen as the strongest trainers and even the greatest rivals to overcome, with everyone else being a stepping stone between them and you!

This is unusual in the case of Geeta here, as she never recieved the role as final boss and ultimate foe. So, she had to be made weak compared to Nemona, as not to upset the flow of the story and game, since the strongest bosses are always meant to fight last. This is how and why Geeta is considered the worst champion of all time, because she was not the final boss many hoped she would be and instead is just another challenge.

One could argue they overdid this with lowering her potential in the base game, but I feel like this isn't so bad, after all, the finale of a game is what should be most challenging, not the stepping stones and she is good enough for this to work and delivered even more in the DLC!

How the DLC fixed this!

Geeta got in the Indigo Disk a massive buff with her rematch team in the League Club room. She has a more competent team and placement that actually benefits her Pokémon more:

She still has Glimmora, Espathra, Avalugg and Kingambit, but Glimmora is placed first and Kingambit last to maximize and optimize their abilities. Avalugg is the only weak link, but has somewhat good defenses to justify it's placement as bulky Ice type. She also has now a Chesnaught and Dragapult, the former being a defense mon and the latter a powerful Pseudo-Legendary with great coverage and attacks. This team boasts now a great defensive style with Espathra and Chesnaught to stall with defensive moves such as protect and Spiky Shield to stall enough the enemy for the spikes to work. And finally, once the heavy hitters are taken out afterwards , a Tera-Flying Kingambit with max Supreme Overlord to remove all of it's previous weaknesses can sweep through the enemy's team. Yeah, she really is utterly incapable of holding back!

Thus Geeta is now with this team considered really strong, with many saying that this team is amongst the best in the whole series when compared to that of other champions. Better than Leon's and even around Cynthia's level, maybe even better than hers! Overall Geeta impressed here many who tought of her as weak...but this wasn't enough.

Despite this, the original impression remains and was not possible to shackle, especially with her being hyped up as top battler that never holds back. She was made utterly incapable of delivering this gameplay wise, cuz the game clearly held her back...Even with this second chance that Geeta got, this impression never changed, which lead to a rather unfortunately place in the fandom that Geeta never deserves...

In conclusion...La Primera was not final boss material by design...which led to many dissapointed fans of the games and Geeta getting slandered into obliviion by many...but this isn't the end of all of this, since she would appear in a new storyline, that also led a lot of the same reactions, so let's finally go over there!

Geeta's role in the anime!

How well recieved the Horizons is by the fandom is a diffrent discussion for another time, but many have hoped that Geeta would have been given her just due in the anime, to making up for the "poor" performance in the games...many were happy, others not so much, which made me do this post to begin with!

I will go to her overall role later in detail, but first I wanna go to the episode first!

So lets's get that out of the way:

This episode's outcome was predictable all things considered!

Unless you ignored the implication of Floragato surviving the Tera Blast in the promo, as well as ultimately ignoring Geeta's conditions for the trio entering A0, namely defeating her or no entrance, there is no reason to assume that this battle shouldn't ever have ended in a victory for the RVT. Even considering the earlier losses of them against other foes before, many of which were trials to test their skills. But they were not challenges to overcome via winning, as victory was not the condition set out by their challengers, like Kleavor in Kitakami for instance.

So Geeta had to be defeated and lose, regardless of how powerful the title of champion is, and she did this with grace and excellency too. It took the trio much effort in terms of intellect, power, resilliance and strenght in spirit to overcome Geeta and it is not difficult to see why this is plausable! I will first go and briefly summarize the events of that battle and then explain Geeta's role in the anime, starting with the batle:

Liko with Floragato worked together with Roy and Dot, who brought with them Crocalor and Quaxwell respectely into battle to face Geeta as team. Geeta uses Glimmora as her Ace again, and is aided by two Glimmets, pre-evolutions of Glimmora. So Geeta uses a team of three, all of them very same evolutionary line. And as a small tangent, this correlates with the journey of our heroes and the usage of Glimmora in the games: Just like in the games, Glimmora is represented as a warning of what awaits the trio in Area Zero. The same role is fulfilled by the two Glimmets helping it to make this theme of Geeta's challenge team clear:

This is truly a test to see, if they can enter and even survive A0, hence why Geeta doesn't use her other mons, as they aren't from that Area, and would have thematically no relevance to either this fight or the episode. They are irrelevant to the RVT's current goals and wishes, they aren't right now exploring all of Paldea, and therefore Geeta built her team accordingly to their desires of the RVT. hus Liko, Roy and Dot face a team built around testing them for Area Zero, and if they win, they may enter, but if they lose, they can't, per La Primera's own words. Before the battle starts, Geeta warns them that she is unable to hold back during battles, so she will fight them with full force, setting an omnimous tone for the fight!

The Battle starts with Crocalor attacking the two Glimmets with Stomping Tantrum, but they use Rock Polish to evade the attack with enhanced speed. Roy and Dot ponder on attacking the Glimmets, but Liko knows better and realizes it is easier to attack focusing on one point first, that being, Glimmora itself. And all of them unleash their combined attack on Glimmora: Floragato using Magical Leaf, Crocalor Flamethrower, and Quaxwell using Water Gun, but that gets countered easily by Dazzling Gleam, which blinds the starters and the two Glimmets rain upon them from above with Power Gem. This shows how cunning and powerful Geeta is for cooking up this strategy, proving that she is no weakling. Immiediately afterwards, Dazzling gleam is fired up again to prepare for another double power Gem salve, but Roy counters it by telling Crocalor to use Disarming Voice to prevent them from attacking, as that move always hits, as well as bypassing accuracy checks like Dazzling Gleam. Meanwhile Liko and Dot tell Floragato and Quaxwell to attack Glimmora. Dot tells Qauxwell to use Liquidatio, but gets countered easily by Grassy spike. Geeta wants then Glimmora to use Power Gem on the approaching Floragato, but Liko tells her partner to use a good old sucker punch to delibetate Geeta's Ace, as that attack in response to offensive moves prevents the foe from attacking. But this attack activates the ability of Glimmora; Toxic Debris. Now the trio has their starters being poisoned by Toxic Spikes and the two Glimmets attack with venoshock, a poison type move that doubles the damage if the target has a status condition, like being poisoned, using thus the Toxic Debris effect to it's greatest potential. The team is concerned, as Geeta is fighting like no one else they meet before, but Roy gets an idea! He remembers Kleavor's strategy on using the sound of incoming attacks to avoid them, as that mon fought within a Bamboo forest using hearing to make up with poor eyesight. They use this strat learned from Kleavor to counter Geeta's Dazzling Gleam + double attack from above strat!

Thus the trio alongside their starters plan on goading Geeta to use use Dazzling Gleam again with Dot telling Quaxwell to use Water gun on Glimmora, who, as predicted, counters with Dazzzling Gleam. Once more the light blinds their Pokémon, but they are prepared and close their eyes, alongside their trainers and listen to the sound of the next attack. Geeta tells her Glimmets to attack Liko's Floragato with Power Gem, but Liko then counters it with telling Floragato to go left to evade the attack and then the Grass Starter uses her Yo-Yo buds to hold the two Glimmets. Roy then tells Crocalor to use Stomping Tantrum on them. Since Glimmets are 4 x weak to ground type moves, they are now on the verge of defeat, but Geeta uses this to her advantage! She orders the weakened Glimmets to use Memento on Crocalor and Quaxwell, thus hitting them with an attack that faints the two, but harshly lowers their targets Attack and Special Attacks, greatly reducing the two's capabilities in battle. This puts the trio at a massive disadvantage, and Glimmora has now to worry less about it's enemies's attack.

Dot begins to hope for luck to help against Geeta, but Liko realizes that Geeta puts too much effort in wnning for luck to work, as she would sacrefice everything needed for her for win. So Liko has to come up with a strategy that can fool everyone, and fooling everyone she did, because when the three charge at Glimmora, Liko tells Floragato to use Sucker Punch on Crocalor to prevent him from using Stompin Tantrum, while Quaxwell makes Glimmora use up Grassy shield with Liquidation.

Liko shocked everyone, especially Geeta, who is surprised by this turn of events. But this is not all, as Liko reminds Roy that Stomping Tantrum increases in power, if the previous attempt failed. Given that Crocalor was weakened by Memento, he needed a power boost to compensate for his weaknened state, and with Liko and Floragato's help, he got it. So now Roy's Crocalor can hit with enhanced power a 4 x super effective Stompin Tantrum on Glimmora, surprising Geeta massively. However as the battle continues, the poison does catch up with the starters, and Geeta, not able to hold back has no intention to stall them anymore. Liko also realized, that she cannot pull off that same strat again on her cunning foe! Geeta then resorts to use Terastallization to go all-out on them, having no intention to stall them and defeat them with her raw might!

In response, the trio then terastalize their Pokemon! Glimmora with Tera-Rock and the starters with their actual types! Liko tells Floragato to use Magical Leaf, but the poisoning weakened that Pokémon too much to use an attack, and Geeta sees an opening to attack with Glimmora's Rock-Tera blast, Liko's Pokémon. But Roy and Dot tell their Pokémon to shield Floragato and counter Tera Blast with Flamethrower and Water Gun respectively, but to avail, as not only do they get knocked out, but Floragato got hit too, facing the full brunt of that force!

But this isn't over, as Floragato toughed out the attack, so that Liko won't feel sad! Aww, so adorable and badass! This however is not all! On top of all of this, Floragato's ability Overgrowth activates, an ability exclusive to Grass Starters that powers up the Pokémon's attack and special attack by 50%, when they are at critical health. With Terastalization, the next attack is going to hit hard and super effectively. Sensing that this is her last chance to victory,Liko tells Floragato to use a great big Magical Leaf, clashing against Geeta's Glimmora, who uses Tera Blast to counter it, only to fail, as Floragato's Magical Leaf was stronger! And thus Glimmora was hit with a super effective attack and faints, winning the trio the match!

Liko, Roy and Dot win over Geeta, thus they all passed. Having defeated La Primera and earned their victory and thus permission to enter alongside Friede A0. Geeta has gratulated on them all for their performance and Liko has finally with her team won over a Champion, now ready to enter one of the most dangerous zones in all of Pokémon...but as the Rising Voltacklers arrived at Area Zero, Coral and Sidian follow them, to monitor their progress. But I leave that for next time, let's focus on the reaction to all of this!

Geeta is once again under cross fire + Liko bested a champion!MEGA FUEL FOR CONTROVERSY!!

This loss at the hands at relatively inexperienced trainer, coupled with an already poor reputation as champion, revived the hatred and dissapointment in Geeta. It also brought new ire towards Liko for winning, despite her supposive "lack of talents", as well as having now dared to be anywhere near able to beat Ash within such a short time!

"How dare she, Ash is the best, and I need him back"!

Ugh...this fandom...really!

Basically the outrage means nothing!

Geeta fought with a team even better at utilizing Glimmora's full defensive potential and ability, with two Glimmets being great damage dealers and capable of buffing themselves and debuffing their opponents. In additon to all of this, Geeta has Glimmora equiped with a powerful Rock-Tera blast able to take down two middle-evoled starters with ease, with the only one barely able to be left standing. Heck, she has two mons using Venoshock...to take advantage of toxic spikes...how cool is that?

And yes, this still wasn't enough and Floragato won against Glimmora. Liko ultimately won, not just because of her skills in battle and her unvawering heart, but because she also had the help of awesome friends in Roy and Dot, with their mons, Crocalor and Qauxwell being excellent as well. This was a team effort, with Liko taking this win as a group win, they worked together and while Liko performed the best, she is not arrogant to sorely attribute it to her own skills, instead she is way more humble, and praises her friends as well! Liko, Roy and Dot won together, as one, not alone, but as an unified trio!

Still, the people who hated Horizons and Geeta are not able to handle that well, and needed to invent reason as to why they have to downplay it by saying how weak Geeta is, how the trio are too inexperienced, and that Geeta held back, despite having not held back in the slightest.

And to make it quite clear, I have to explain now Geeta's overall role in the anime!

Geeta's role is very much the same as in the games, actually!

Remember of what I said about Geeta not being the final boss of SV? The same applies to Horizons! You see, The purpose of Horizons is telling a tale of self-discovery, as well as following in the footsteps of the Ancient Adventurer Lucius, who wanted to find a Pokémon Paradise known as Laqua (which I also have theories about what kind of place that it). To reach Laqua, they need to gather Lucius's team, the Six Heroes, who are all tera raid levels of powerful and beyond the level of any Pokémon team in the entire franchise. They helped once Lucius to enter Laqua with his friends in the past, and the RVT need them too, to reach the very same land he did with Rystal and Gibeon. Liko, Roy and Dot earned from 4 of them their blessing, with only Paradox Entei and Black Rayquaza remaining, and as Entei's paradox form is however found in Area Zero, and even reportedly sighed there quite recently, the heroes have to enter this most dangerous part of Paldea. Geeta therefore tests the trio, to see if they have what it takes to survive this hostile enviroment, and they have to win, or else, no entry! And she didn't use her more powerful mons in this fight as partners for Glimmora, yes, but not for the reasons many people think! It's not because she wanted to hold back. This wasn't done to go easy on them, this was done by Geeta because it was the most appropriate choice for the trial, since the other mons aren't encountered in that area really, and therefore teach them nothing about Area Zero. Now that they won, they proved that Area Zero is within their skill level to reach, and therefore, their next destination is all free for them to explore!

However this didn't diminish Geeta's power in the slightest. Instead she is shown as a powerful obstacle for the heroes to overcome, as the victory was a close call and took all of the heroes might to even defeat, and all of their bright minds to even challenge. And if they would have lost and still were allowed entrance, this would have not made sense with Geeta's role as character, and would be a repeat of the previous battles that served as trials with the condition of victory not being needed to met. In the Terastal Course for instance, victory was not necessary, just showing how able they are at using Terastalization, hence Dot, Roy and Liko passed without needing to win every battle, yet they grew stronger. So with all they had gathered in terms of experience and their battle spirit fueled by Liko's wish to fulfil Pagogo's promise to Lucius alongside the rest of the Six Heroes, this battle had to be won by them!

Hence, Geeta HAD to lose to the trio, predictably so, this was the only path. The only way to end this fight! And the Trio isn't as green as one might think, they already have experience dealing with powerful Pokémon, like the recent recruit Kleavor, a Pokémon that went full Ogerpon on them in the Kitakami arc prior to the search for Entei, after they cornered it. Johto's Entei even was impressed with them.

Ultimately, the heroes aren't real weaklings, all of them won against some of the most dangerous and vile opponents and grown much more than ever before.

Thus Geeta is like in the games fulfills the role of a powerful and wise opponent to overcome; to prepare them for the final bosses of Horizons, which would most likely by Gibeon, or maybe someone else we have not seen before.

Anway, Geeta's role was obvious with how Horizons didn't focus on the Paldean League and why Liko and the others don't hunt for Gym Badges, this story isn't about that. There is no Nemona creating her perfect rival here, hence even she had her role reduced to being a happy-go-lucky girl, and gave some advices to Roy, not to raise him as her great rival, but because she wanted to help him to unlock his true potential. Horizons is more complex that the previous anime with it's storytelling by not simply adapting the game's storyline into it's own, but crafting a one-of-a-kind story for Liko. That is why the outcome ended in a victory for them, Geeta was never designed to be unstoppable.

So if this is all clear, why the controversy? For the same reason as to why Geeta's game counterpart suffers so much hate:

She isn't like the older Champions! And that is the Ash Era's anime's fault! (not completely so, but they played an important part in this)!!!

The Ash era champions created an unrealistic pedestal to stand on!

Alongside the games, the Ash-era created this idea that champions are unbeatable and unreachable for almost anyone, because they were, to Ash Ketchum. As Ash was created to be the self-insert for the young trainers going on adventures to challenge the league and beat the champions, he won badges and took on the leagues to eventually challenge a champion. Hence all the ones he encountered were portrayed as unstoppable and powerful forces that no one, aside from Legendaries, could realistically defeat. This is why Ash and many others always lost to them, like Lance beating Team Rocket, Cynthia stomping everyone left to right, Kukui winning with his Incineroar over Ash's Litten and then Torracat at the start, and Leon being this unstoppable world champion until he lost to Ash in the world championship. They were designed to be like in the games, to be the final bosses of Ash's journey, hence they were the final opponents of Ash Ketchum in his last big arc! The Master's Eight!

This created another problem for Ash and why he declined as character: He couldn't be allowed to win, or else, his goal of becoming the greatest is achieved, and they had to retire him, perhapas forever! Thus Ash was made to lose every single league, and always resetted, as to make him mirror the next generation of new player's journey for 8 generations straight. Fighting with reset strenght against new Gym Leaders and partaking in another tournaments. This meant he had to continuesly lose, UNTIL the writers and the viewers had finally enough of resetting his power level, as his story got massively repetivie. They allowed thus Ash to win against Kukui, who was playing the archetype of a traditional champion in the SM games as well. He was no real champion, in fact he had this role only because he created Alola's first League with the player becoming the very first Champ of Alola after beating him, since he is this game's final boss.

Thus Ash as the stand-in for SM's protagonist, had to win because the game did that too, and on top of this, fans were starting to get fed up with Ash, as his constant loses in the leagues prior created a sour taste in the fanbase, with the results of the Kalos, Unova, Sinnoh and Indigo league being seen as the biggest dissapointments in the whole series, due to Ash being defeated in the most embarrassing ways. The worst of which happened in the OG Anime's 79th episode, where Ash lost in the fith round of the Indigo League against Richtie. Ash lost there, because most of his team was poorly trained with only Charizard being the only powerful mon he had, and when facing Ritchie's Pikachu, Charizard just stopped fighting. Viewing Ricthie's mon beneath it, it forfeited the match, despite Ash's pleading, rather embarrassingly, to fight. But to avail, giving Ash the most horrible defeat in his whole career to date, even worse than with Cameron, because while this guy was an idiot, at the end of the day, he was a powerful trainer with a mighty Hydreigon against most of Ash's rather weak Unova team.

This is the opposite of Liko's battle against La Primera, where she with her friends defeated Geeta. Floragato, refusing to give up and even toughening out the attack for Liko, as taken from the friendship mechanics of the games, as well as gaining a buff from Overgrowth and Terastalization, wins against Glimmora's ace, a champion level trainer's stongest mon. The whole trio grew faster than Ash did in this amount of time as trainers. Ash, who was arrogant, lost due to this and had to work on himself to get batter at battling. By comparison, Liko, who attributed her win due to her team's work, showed humility, grew as well, but more healthily. Yeah...Liko garnered with this a lot of ire from Ash's fans, for being now seen as someone outperforming him here as a trainer, and in the future, could rise above him, even at his strongest.

The fact that Ash's episode in the OG show where he had his hardest loss was the 79th one, with Horizons, featuring it's 79th epidoe with a defeat of a champ at the hands of our fledging heroine, just shows the contrast between the two protags: Ash winning would mean the end of his story, while for Liko, it would continue her story. And I have proof of this:

The writers of Ash's journey, like the fanbase, had enough of Ash, with his constant loses, and broke that trend with his victory in the Alola league, becoming this region's first ever champ. They however opened up pandora's box for the world champion league! It was hinted by Paul after he lost to Ash in the DP series during the Sinnoh League!, namely the world champion league where he wanted to participate to, until he decided to be instead a Gym Leader. This has always stuck in my mind, since I heard that, and I reveal to you a childhood secret:

I guessed that when Ash wins just one big league, he will become a candidate for the World Champion League, and win it, ending his series. I did that as teenager and I always suspected that he will focus more on preparing for this league rather than on focusing on the current gen's content and BOOM, after I grew into an adult, ALL OF THIS MOSTLY HAPPENED! This ending was predictable for Ash, and after around 25 years, the ending he should have gotten, since Johto or even Unova, where in latter's case, an actual world championship in the games was held in BW2.

That is the crux of all of this, Champions had been given for so long this pedestal by every media, until gen 9 broke that with Geeta, and made her comparatively weak to the true end bosses of the game and the ones we are going to see in Horizons.

So not only did the previous games, as well as the Ash-anime, set a big example of what a champion is supposed to be like, but created an easily to fail one as seen with Geeta. She was in neither media meant to be like Cynthia or Leon. She was meant to be the Chairwoman, helping the kids getting into the Terastal Course, help them with their search of Laqua and after the most recent battle, where she lost, gave them the permission to enter A0. Without Geeta's help, none of them could get this far, and I like her more here in Horizons, because she does far more for the heroes than for the player in game, where Nemona had mostly that role. But here, Geeta is a true champ with ginormous amount of skills and power, as well as a wise and cool personality!

Thus Geeta stands to me here tall, as Top champ and the greatest trainer the RVT ever faced so far. With only Lucius, Rystal and Gibeon being greater, and perhaps even Nemon and Kieran being also greater than if the last two will be allowed to be given bigger roles in the anime.

So yeah, that is why we are here, because of impossibly high expectations that weren't supposed to be met by Geeta, or even needed to met. Geeta proves that just because you are the region's strongest, you can still lose to a Heroine and her friends! Titles mean not everything!

Conclusion-When and when not to hold back!

Geeta imo shows in this battle her greatest strenght and betrays her greatest weakness!

Geeta's inability to held back makes her powerful and reckless, able to hit hard in battle but also leaves her wide open for any harmful attacks, skills and tricks...ironically had she not done this, and stalled their attacks, with poisoning withering the trio, Geeta could have won. But Geeza chose to go all out and made the coolest descision she could have done here! Giving us the best fight possible for this year's start and allowing us to have this discussion.

Because you see, even with all the negativety, this made Horizons relevant in the eyes of fans, and causes it to sparkle talks about what a champ has to be like, and how cool Liko, Roy and Dot were, making us question if champions should really be this invincible or not? Did Ash really had to lose all the time, and was it even a good idea to keep making him unable to face champs for this long? the answer is yes, btw! A more interesting disccussion is on how people simply underestimated Liko and her friends, and just didn't really saw how powerful they truly are. I make no secret that I enjoy somewhat the negativity here. I am like aGrimmsnarl and all of this alt feeds me!!! I love such heated discussions (to a degree) and actually enjoyed that Horizons doesn't hold back with it's story!

Everything they did so far broke in a few years more convensions, rules, tropes, cliches and ideas people have for Pokémon anime, and beyond, even the series itself:

From not following the route of going to the league (not just yet), to having an ancient adventurer having a team of 6 mega large Pokémon, 3 of the being legendaries, and the strongest being a Shiny. To the villain having a Shiny Legendary as well.

With a story uncovering the secrets of said adventurer and a new Legendary that the heroine catches, a female main protagonist, who is rather feminine, but not traditionally so, and shows characters traits both genders can relate to. That journey also being about exploring the world with a theme of self-discovery here and many more stuff. Now Horizons has cemented itself as the most unique Pokémon experience ever and will grow into something bigger, now a trio of relatively inexperienced trainers beat a Champion level trainer...how cool is that!

I could go into detail, but one thing is clear: Horizons pushes the boundaries of what Pokémon can be and is very novel, with unique concepts for a Pokémon anime, and even beyond, is really a good show!

Horizons even helped me pushed my very own boundaries of what I can be, because more than ever...I am interested in what my life is, if I keep taking more steps when stuck. I can, thanks to Liko and her story see how I can achieve happiness: By trying to continue and listen to myself!

Thus Liko showed me with great work, some loses, some wins, and being true to yourself and believing in your self and your own future, will help you make feel better about yourself. So Horizons has shown with this episod how to be truly over the top: Being willingly to sacrefice everything needed to win, without being truly evil that is, as Geeta and Liko are universally good people despite their dark tactics. Don't rely always on luck, use your head and try to find ways to be happy! Be more like Liko, listen to your true hearts desires and find like her, the will and courage to win even against Champions, with friends like Dot and Roy by your side, who will cheer you up, and whom you can protect!

In conclusion being a champion, even if that title carries weight, garantees no victory. Geeta lost, because despite her powers, she is ultimately not invincible and can be taken out by relatively inexperienced trainers, if they work together well. Still, Geeta is shown to be strong, having clever tactics and being brutal, while also being reckless. The Trio is not the most experienced, but they are able to handle themselves well and even impressed Legendary Pokémon and their equally impressive allies in the form of the Six Heroes and before facing Geeta, Johto's Entei, one of the 3 legendary beasts.

So don't underestimate the Rising Voltacklers: These three, Liko, Dot and Roy are champion level trainers in the making, and perhaps Geeta will return as a battler in the future, with a new team far stronger than before, given thus, like in the games via DLC, a second chance to prove herself, maybe in Paldea League arc...but that is a story for another time! Now, Liko and the others enter Area Zero, to find Entei, Black Rayquaza, Laqua and save the world!

Goodbye and see ya next time!

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

This left a mark: Christian Dior & Saks partnered for Light up the NYC Night for Christmas 2023

No doubt "DIOR Contract" was at the top of the 2017 RMM- DIANA 2.0 vision board & megxit manifesto. In other words: Sparry's 'honey do' for MeMe list: Meet Beyonce (on yellow carpet)✔ Disney (princess) gig✔. oh to be a fly on a Cali wall after that Dior ANNOUNCEMENT: guttural moans & tears for weeks! 😬

Dior in 2018: MEgain's inappropriate Dior cocktail dress w/pinwheel headpiece for 1st balcony appearance. She also appeared to lose a tooth during the reception.

2019-"Christening"

2021 & 2022 New York City

2022 Jubilee as Wallis Simpson & 2023 Sparry

A word to the wise and to the Meghans: The REAL Santa knows whose on the MARKLED List.

Play stupid games and MARKLE yourselves!

I'll buy that Jill Smoller (formerly Gina) badgered Dior on behalf of MEgain, but no way would Dior sully their brand with the toxic, mentally unstable, over seas royals who can't be bothered to iron 🙄

"Oh & I took FRENCH for 8 years in high school or was it 4 years?" 😉

"...but but I'm not a model, I'm just a mom. Thankfully Sparry was here to coach me that I can be both. I wonder how he became so wise?" Variety 2022

Please follow the link to subscribe to "Woman Behind Kate" & LIKE👍

Princess Diana 2.0 caught in the act

Sparry, YOU MARKLED yourselves. Stop blaming the BRF for your failures to launch.

Princess Diana 2.0 Tom Bower

The Sun: What is the history between Dior and the royal family?

December 12, 2023 || Born in 1905, Christian Dior, the fashion designer, climbed the ranks of several Parisian fashion houses before establishing his own establishment in 1946.

One of the early royal admirers of the designer was Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II.

She became a client of the fashion house and one of Dior's most famous designs, the "Margaret Dress," was named after her.

Queen Elizabeth II also shared a close connection with Dior.

She appointed Doir to design her Coronation gown for the crowning ceremony in 1953.

The gown, famously called the "Hartnell Dress," was a collaboration between Dior and British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell.

Over the years, various royal family members have continued to wear Dior creations for public appearances.

Dior dressed Prince Harry for King Charles' coronation in May 2023 - as the royal forwent wearing a military uniform. 

Shortly after the coronation ceremony, Dior took to its social media to reveal Kim Jones was the designer behind the suit. 

"Tailoring fit for royalty. Dior is honoured to have dressed Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, for the coronation of King Charles III in a custom design by Kim Jones," the brand wrote on Instagram.

"Seen arriving at Westminster Abbey, gain an insight into the savoir-faire of his three-piece suit next," it added. 

Why was it speculated that Meghan Markle would have a deal with Dior?

In June 2023, it was reported that Meghan was in talks about taking on a deal with Dior.

Following the cancellation of her Spotify podcast after just one season, there was widespread speculation that the Duchess of Sussex was poised for a new role with the French fashion house.

Meghan has worn Dior several times throughout her time as a working royal, including at the late Queen Elizabeth's funeral in September 2022.

However, sources close to the Royals said no contract had been inked.

Dior also expressed its surprise and confusion when the idea of a deal was initially brought up.

A source told the Telegraph: "The Duchess of Sussex is not in talks to sign a deal with Dior.

"There is no truth to the claims that she will partner with the French fashion house,"

A Dior insider said its team was "nonplussed as to how the story came about".

Who became 'the Duchess of Dior' in 2023?

Meghan lost out on the opportunity of a lucrative Dior job to a Kate Middleton actress.

It was revealed in November 2023, that Meg Bellamy, 21, who plays a young Kate Middleton in season six of the hit royal drama The Crown is to be the new face of Dior.

An insider told The Daily Mail: "They have been queuing up for Meg, she is playing the most famous woman in the world in a globally famous television drama, so many labels and brands want some of that.

"She is a total unknown, but she is being treated like Kate, an A-list princess."

What deals and contracts does Meghan Markle have?

After leaving the royal family and their royal duties, Prince Harry and Meghan vowed to become financially independent.

It was reported that the couple would support themselves through Prince Harry's $10 million inheritance from his mother, Princess Diana.

With the world eager to know their story, lucrative million-dollar deals started rolling in from AppleTV, Netflix, and Spotify.

The couple signed a deal with Netflix through their production company, Archewell Productions, with a hefty payment of $100 million for multiple projects.

They have since released one documentary, Harry and Meghan.

Their upcoming documentary series titled, Heart of Invictus, is in the works.

While their third documentary is to be shot in South Africa, the Sussexes are also planning to delve into the rom-com genre with the streaming giant

In June 2023, the couple made headlines when it was reported that their 25-million-dollar deal with Spotify had ended.

According to Rolling Stone, the couple would pay back a portion of their deal money and look for another company to produce podcasts with.

In a joint statement, they said: "Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together."

Royal biographer Tom Bower believes that the couple's "joint ventures are falling apart" and that Meghan is finding it difficult to sell her brand.

"They're beginning to taste the medicine that they handed out after the Oprah interview and they're finding it very very hard to keep their brand reputable," Bower told new magazine.

"They're constantly having to defend themselves and grasping at opportunities that don't exist anymore."

[jaydemayo]

(Central Virginia Sport Performance The Podcast)

Season 4 Episode 14 2024 Presenter Dr. Charlie Weingroff- “The laws of biology and physics govern everything”

He’s baaaaccckkkkkk! I am so excited to welcome my good friend Charlie Weingroff back to The Podcast and to introduce him as a presenter at The Seminar. Charlie has been, and always will be, one of the greatest sound boards to me in the world of performance. It doesn’t matter if we are speaking training or rehab (see what I did there), whenever I have a question or an idea about a direction we are thinking, he’s always been a person that provided some of the most constructive insight and thought-provoking questions about the directions we are looking to go in, to help us make better decisions. His track record in working in sport speaks for itself, and his willingness to share and help coaches and therapists learn and grow is second to none. All of this makes him, once again, the perfect addition to the docket this summer, and I couldn’t be happier to welcome him back to RVA this July. Throughout the awesome 60-minute chat Charlie and I get into:

1)    Social media as a tool to help educate coaches and grow as a professional  

2)    The line between raining and rehab, and why it may be translucent at best

3)    Work places culture’s impact on the success of rehab programs

4)    How teamwork, roles, and the hierarchy of positions drive culture in the performance and rehabilitation world.

5)    Where he sees the true role of leaderships positions, and how being in business has impacted this

6)    A change of perspective that could have a vastly positive impact on your teams’ culture

7)    The value of understanding what other people in your department do, while understanding where your role and lines you shouldn’t cost.

8)    Safety’s role in professional growth

This conversation, as they always are with Charlie, was sensational. I’m so happy to not just have him back on The Podcast, but cannot wait to have him here and back on the docket for The 2024 Edition of The Seminar. He’s always been a mentor and a great friend for as long as I’ve known him, and can’t wait for us all to be able to see him “in action” breaking down his approach to evaluating and programming in his presentation. Also, please let us know if you have a direction for Charlie’s presentation by using the link here:https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Lc4lTXOtwRxQD_oGlO1B4reVUmbAdhDr3q1Bj9IYMUM/edit?usp=sharing

This conversation, just like every conversation I’ve ever had with Charlie has made me take a step back and reevaluate some things we are doing, and I hope it has had the same effect on you. If you found value in the show please help me out with three things: 1st, please share the show with a colleague that would find value in the show; 2nd, if you haven’t subscribed on your favorite podcast platform please do; and 3rd, if you wouldn’t mind leaving us a review on our podcast player of choice I’d truly appreciate it.

[greenlycangaming]

Operation Valor: The Thrilling Top Down Shooter You Must Play!

If you want to watch the review video check it out here: https://youtu.be/8n85MUsmnAk

I’m green Lycan and today we’re going to be talking about Operation Valor. Operation Valor is a tactical top-down multiplayer shooter that provides large-scale combined arms combat through base building and teamwork. So in today’s review, I’m going to be talking about some of the gameplay, how the gameplay works, and how the multiplayer works. We’re going to go over some of the classes and what their abilities are within the game.

Operation Valor is a tactical top-down multiplayer shooter that is squad-based and allows you to use vehicles or go out on foot. The game requires strategy and logistics, as well as base building, to succeed as a team. In a multiplayer match, every soldier matters. The multiplayer is 27 versus 27, which involves AI when other players aren’t available to play. So you need at least one player on each side to get started, but the AI will join in and start working towards the objectives.

The game features seven different infantry roles, including squad leader, rifleman, medic, support, marksman, demolition, and engineer. The squad leader is responsible for building things. They can put down a radio to build respawn points and Habs. The game plays like a domination-style gameplay where you have to take over objectives to beat your opponents. The squad leader can choose to build respawn points anywhere on the map. This allows your squad to respawn at those points and then go in and attack the enemies. However, enemies can dismantle the respawn points using shovels. If that happens, you won’t have access to that respawn point anymore, and the squad leader will have to build new ones. Building requires time, shovels, ammunition, and other equipment.

The squad leader can also build bunker-like areas and sandbags. The riflemen are the basic infantry. They have a sidearm (pistol) and a main machine gun. Their job is to take out as many enemies as they can. When someone gets down, the medic is the one who can revive them. Medics have a medic bag that allows them to revive more people. The support class is equipped with an LMG, which provides cover fire. The demolition expert has an RPG and can set mines down on the field. The engineer can repair things using a wrench. Finally, the marksman is the sniper. Each class plays slightly differently, and they are all important for working together with your squad to beat your opponents.

After completing the training in the game, I went into a match with a Twitch streamer called Mills MF, who gave me some additional information about the game. I didn’t see much of this information within the game itself, so if the developers are watching this, it might be a good idea to include it in the tutorial or make it more clear. However, it would be a great time to hit that like and subscribe button right now if you haven’t done so already.

The game itself doesn’t have a large player base at the moment, so we need more players to make it more fun. In the team I played with, we had three people on our team, and there were three on the other team, which then increased to about seven, including the developers of the game. Of course, they kicked our butts, and we lost. But if we can get 27 versus 27 matches, it will be massively fun and entertaining. However, with AI involved, due to the lack of players, they tend to just run into an area and get killed constantly without contributing much to the team. The game does have a general chat and a voice chat, as well as a text chat, so you can communicate with your teammates throughout the game.

The mini-map in the game shows where the spawn points are when you discover them, but you still don’t know where the enemies are. One interesting feature is that when you aim down sights, it gives you more accuracy, but restricts your field of view. This means you can get more accurate shots, but you might not see enemies approaching from behind. Some matches can last quite a long time, around 20 minutes, depending on the gameplay. It’s an online multiplayer game, so new players can join anytime, which can change the dynamics of the game.

The game’s player base needs to grow in order to have consistent 27 versus 27 matches without players joining and leaving. The game is not expensive, making it easy to access and enjoy. If you like top-down shooters and strategy games, I recommend giving it a try. Thank you to the developers who gave me a key to try out the game. I enjoyed it and will keep playing. I encourage you to join and help increase the player base. I’ve been Green Lycan, and I will see you in the next one.

[5sosfanfictioncatalogue]

Fics Including Luke’s Family Masterlist

Arcadia (ao3) - paperstorm michael/luke E, 100k

Summary: Crisp, thin air. The rough scrape of blades on ice. The jumbled, unintelligible echo of male voices, ringing off the rafters and bouncing through the empty seats. The familiar smell, sweaty equipment and rubber flooring and Zamboni fluid. Luke’s taken to closing his eyes sometimes, cutting off his primary sense, and just absorbing the noise and the scent and the feel of cool air on his cheeks. That way, regardless of where he is, an arena still feels like home. Or, an AU in which Luke is a small-town hockey superstar who gets drafted to the Montreal Canadiens, Ashton is the bubbly team Captain, Calum is a defenceman with a bad habit of settling on-ice conflicts with his fists, and Michael is the NHL's first openly gay player.

Chimney Heart (ao3) - rollercoastar michael/luke T, 4k

Summary: A low moan escaped Luke’s lips as Michael started to play with his lip ring, pushing Luke as close to him as possible. ‘’Okay, enough’’ Ben laughed, ‘’I think you left our Lukey boy all hot and bothered’’. Luke blushed furiously as Michael let out a laugh, ‘’this is nowhere near as bothered as he can get’’.

Or, Luke and Michael spend Christmas eve at the Clifford's playing board games, and Christmas day being teased and asked about their sex life by Ben and Jack.

Comment, Like, Subscribe My Heart (ao3) - thesoulsailor michael/luke N/R, 54k

Summary: It didn’t take more than the first three videos and Michael was hopelessly endeared. Luke was funny in an unintentional way and his words and stories were simply intriguing. The vlogs were a lot barer, broadcasted Luke’s life right into Michael’s bedroom. It felt weird, almost as if he and the blonde boy were friends, the way Michael learned Luke’s quirks and character, little things like the fact that Luke preferred soda over coffee. And Luke was not wearing make-up in some of them. or Youtube!AU in which Luke is a non-binary beauty guru, Michael is the lead singer of Ashton's cover band and Calum thinks gender roles are overrated anyways.

Don't Blink (ao3) - paperstorm michael/luke E, 20k

Summary: Suddenly Luke’s skin is itchy underneath and his clothes don’t feel right. He’s sweaty and uncomfortable with how good it feels having Michael pressed up against him. It isn’t supposed to feel like this. Luke doesn’t know why he never realized that until just now. This thing they do, where they’re always in each other’s space, always touching, always wrapped around each other – it’s how Luke should be with a girl. Not his best friend.

flowers in your hair (boys can't be pretty) (ao3) - prettyluke (parting_ways) luke/ashton, michael/calum N/R, 71k

Summary: Ashton has been in love with the pretty boy next door since he was seven. Luke has called Ashton home since he was five. They grew up with the daisy field behind their houses, but nobody told them that they couldn't love anywhere else.

if we make it through december (ao3) - allsassnoclass (brightblackholes) luke/ashton T, 28k

Summary: “I didn’t tell them,” he blurts. Ashton falls silent on the other end of the line. “My family. I didn’t tell them about the breakup. And I know that I should’ve and I swear I will, but Gram asked about you today and it’s probably her last Christmas with us and you know how much she loves you. I couldn’t do it. It’d break her heart, and I can’t do that to her. Not right now. So if you-- I mean. What I’m trying to say is that you’re still invited to Christmas, if you want. You don’t have to, I can make an excuse for you, and I swear I’ll tell them after the holidays, but I thought maybe… maybe you’d want to see them one last time.”

In Memoriam (ao3) - paperstorm michael/luke E, 59k

Summary: An accident during a performance ends for Luke in blood and total retrograde amnesia; rendering his mind an empty slate that doesn’t know as much as his own first name. His band is left to help him reassemble the scattered pieces of his life, to coax his memories back, and to deal with the fallout when the most important thing is the one thing Luke can’t remember.

let me go (ao3) - lukeisababe michael/calum, luke/ashton T, 7k

Summary: “Oh my god.” Calum says quietly from where he's sat at the small table for two in their kitchen. Michael turns around from where he's standing in front of the stove, making scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast, to see Calum with an honest to god newspaper in his hands. Michael wasn't even aware that they still subscribed to it.

“What's up?” He asks as he goes back to cooking, finishing up the last few pieces of bacon before he splits the food up on two plates, but Calum doesn't reply as he's too busy reading whatever headline there is for today. “Cal?”

“They've found a body. That Hemmings kid.”

or: the one where luke went missing three years ago and his body has just been found. michael is a ghost whisperer who helps luke moving on to the other side by putting the guilty one in jail.

Long Time, No See (ao3) - ConfusedPython michael/luke, calum/ashton T, 23k

Summary: Michael hears a song on the radio, catches a radio interview where 5 Seconds of Summer talks about their new single (Beside You). And the names and voices are familiar. Then someone knocks at the door and maybe Michael's luck isn't so bad after all.

Mockingbird (ao3) - thesoulsailor michael/luke E, 43k

Summary: It was then that Michael realised two things. First off the boy on the ground was gorgeous. All fair skin and scrawny limbs, golden hair styled into a faux hawk and mesmerising eyes, coloured a clear, sharp blue. He was breath-taking in a subtle way that didn't call for attention. Secondly the boy on the ground wore a yellow band around his upper arm, three black spots explaining why he wasn't fighting back. He couldn't. The boy was beautiful. The boy was blind.

or Luke is blind, Michael is new and everything after they meet is nothing one of them would've ever expected.

no body, no crime (ao3) - jbhmalum luke/ashton, luke/calum, michael/calum M, 11k

Summary: the no body, no crime songfic no one asked for

Rest (ao3) - ShyyyVictoria ot4 M, 14k

Summary: Luke is taken from a rest area after being tricked into helping a 'hurt' man. Then is sold to three guys for who knows what. He should have listened to his brother when he told him he was to innocent and gullible to trust people so blindly.

the dream that you wish will come true (ao3) - prettyluke (parting_ways) luke/ashton G, 17k

Summary: Luke didn't think he would ever escape the malice of his stepmother and stepbrothers, and Ashton didn't think he would ever find a boy he could love.

Tidal Wave - @ashtcnirwin (elivigar) luke/ashton E, 127k

Summary: “We talked about it before we went over to fetch you,” Ashton starts, “and Michael talked it over with Liz, and we decided that you shouldn’t live on your own for the time being.”

“You decided that I shouldn’t live on my own,” Luke repeats. “Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m an adult who can make his own decisions.”

Ashton smiles, but it’s thin and void of humour. “You’re staying with me for a while, Luke.”

A story about figuring out how to handle the difficulties life throws at you, on your own and with the help of loved ones.

where the angels sing (ao3) - fermentedpotato michael/luke, calum/ashton N/R, 79k

Summary: The thing was: he kept seeing on TV and in ads on the sides of websites that told him to embrace your differences and that being different is okay! But those sentiments only rang true for his sexuality and his hair colour and his eyebrow piercing because once people found out about his cystic fibrosis they treated him differently. He was always alienated in some way and it always sucked.

or the one where Michael's illness gets in the way of almost everything and Luke takes a long time to open up

you've got a heart as loud as lions (ao3) - bisexual_jace M, 2k

Summary: “Are you gay?” It’s his father who asks, finally saying something. Luke looks at him sharply but his dad’s face is just as warm and intent, ready for whatever Luke has to say. Luke knows then, with certainty, that his family won’t ever judge him or condemn him for what he is. Stupid, again, to think otherwise.

“Yeah.” Luke confesses quietly.

The one where the Hemmings brothers walk in on Luke and Michael making out.

[awildgingeishere]

https://equalizersoccer.com/2021/03/05/christen-press-forward-position-training-profile-uswnt/

Christen Press is known for scoring world-class goals. The onlooking public swoons over the final product which is so often a picturesque finish bent into the side netting or hammered into the upper corner. Press often does this with such confidence that she makes the extraordinary look easy, even though it is anything but.

That final product, though, is in some ways the simpler part of the process. Press’ training habits and approach to the game embody the notion that most of an athlete’s work is done away from the public eye, on training fields and when nobody else is watching. Her unique approach to the game starts with individual training, where her focus on off-ball movement and manipulating tight spaces — rather than shooting for the sake of it, or individual dribbling drills — develops her ability to distinguish herself from any other forward. More than most, she can seamlessly transition between wide and center-forward roles.

“I think especially in the U.S., we don’t have as many players that manipulate space with off-ball movement,” Press said in an interview last year. “[It’s] something I learned in Europe and I think all European forwards do this, but we don’t often have players who do that. We typically have had players who are using strength to create space. So, I think when I play in the nine specifically, but even wide, my strength is off-ball movement, being very unpredictable, hard to mark, being dynamic and being kind of like blindside, off-ball so that I’m always stretching the line. And I think that’s a huge strength because it gives the midfield more room to play.”

All goal-scorers require a certain level of selfishness to be successful, which Press recognizes. What sets her apart is the execution in those moments. To paraphrase her teammate, Megan Rapinoe, you can always make a selfish decision to shoot and not pass… as long as you score.

“In the final third, I think I’ve always had a goal-scorer’s mentality,” Press said. “Once I’m in range of shooting, I don’t think about anything else. If I happen to pass, it’s because I couldn’t have shot. And I think that there’s a breed of players that are just wired that way. And then there’s a breed of players that play the same position that aren’t. I am wired like that, and there’s also pros and cons to it, but my first thought is always setting my feet to score, setting my feet to take a touch and then score. And then anything else that happens in that space is just a second option, honestly.”

***

Press blazed her own path to being a United States women’s national team regular. She left the U.S. club scene in 2012 to play in Sweden, feeling as though she needed to make a change after largely being left out of the U.S. picture by then head coach Pia Sundhage. Her back story has been recounted ad nauseam over the past decade, but it is still essential to understanding the person and the player – a do-everything forward who has been shaped by these experiences. Her path is unique among her peers of the same generation, and it shows in her different approach to playing forward.

Press famously thrived in Gothenburg, becoming the first American to win the Damallsvenskan’s golden boot. That move abroad — at a time when U.S. internationals not only were not playing abroad, but were actively discouraged from doing so — ironically solidified her place in the United States team ever since. Her goal in last month’s SheBelieves Cup against Argentina was her 60th, tying her with Shannon MacMillan for ninth in U.S. history.

Press grew up as a pure No. 9, a goal-scorer. She carried on with that through college, lighting up the scoring record books at Stanford, and used that to her advantage during that glorious first stretch of her career in Sweden. Cracking the national team was a different story. Abby Wambach was the incumbent No. 9 at the time, often alongside Amy Rodriguez, and Alex Morgan — who graduated college the same year as Press — burst onto the scene as the U.S.’ up-and-coming No. 9, meaning Press was often relegated to wide positions.

For a long time, Press’ place there felt shoehorned, no doubt a contributing factor to a relatively quiet World Cup in 2015, when she was pegged by so many to be the breakout star. Slowly, however, she adapted, choosing to accept whichever role she was given if it meant playing for the best team in the world. Now, she thrives in both wide and central roles. The difference was tangible at the 2019 World Cup, where the wide role which once looked so uncomfortable for Press was the one which she stepped into for the semifinal against England, due to Megan Rapinoe’s injury. Press scored 10 minutes into that impromptu start, helping the U.S. reach (and win) a second straight final.

“I think that I have more of a responsibility than any other forward to play in all the roles as needed and I think that’s historically been because I’ve been a substitute coming on,” she said. “So, you kind of have to be ready for whoever’s coming out; you’re the first sub on. And now, I think it’s just flexibility because I’ve done it and I’ve done it okay in several positions that everyone’s like, ‘oh, well she can.’ So, I think that’s a blessing and a curse. It gets you on a roster to be versatile, but I feel like having a stake on the field is like you’re in one position and you’re always going to show up in that position. I think that that has its pros as well.”

Today, it is accepted as fact that Press can play across all three positions on the front line: center forward, wide left and wide right. For years, that versatility was a burden she carried, a struggle through the purgatory of being an elite player without a defined position. Now, however, she has leveraged this to her advantage. Press has for so long juggled different forward positions that she has mastered each of them. Her lack of a defined position contributes to the outside world’s inability to explicitly qualify her greatness, but it is also the very thing which makes Press such a singular talent.

Her shift throughout the front line illustrates how the forward position varies between certain roles, even if in nuanced ways. Press said the definitions are a little more blurred in this system, and that each forward shares the responsibility to get in behind and score, but the physical difference in where each position lines up on the field affects how she plays each position.

“I think technically it is very different playing in the different positions, because your orientation is just completely changed,” she said. “And I think my whole career, I played with the offside line behind me. That’s a nine. So, playing wide for the first time was really hard because you see the whole game through one eye. And your dominant foot and your mobility of your hips — I know it sounds crazy — really affects what you can and can’t do on each side. But now I’ve been passed around so many times, I feel like I’m like, okay, my second eye is — I can still see out of this one.”

***

Press views each offseason as a little book of its own. In past years, she would write a draft of what those figurative chapters would be, listing the things she wanted to improve in her game and designing drills to achieve those goals. Press said that she has had trainers in the past, but nobody knows what she needs better than her.

She tries to balance the design of her training sessions to work on skills she thinks she is exceptional at and areas where she thinks she is not very good. Anything in between gets lost. This is where those subtle foundations are formed daily.

“I have a very regimented way that I train, a flow of when I control practice, this is how it flows,” Press said. “Within each segment of my training, I’ll have specific things that I’m working on, and always starting in the beginning of training with the most simple drills that you would never actually see a professional do —really, really childish and then just working on the mechanics and growing from there.”

Press points to quick-release shooting as one of these simple things she trains: she starts as basic as lining up a bag of balls on the six-yard line and quickly shooting with only one step, to work on generating power. Press executes this better than any other teammate and that is because she has, through the years, taken what is seemingly a disadvantage and figured out a way to create an advantage out of it.

Instead of viewing the ball as stuck under her feet, Press sees an opportunity to catch a defender between steps or a goalkeeper flat-footed. Whereas many forwards are especially dangerous when barreling down the field at speed, Press might be the best goal-scorer in the world from a standing-still position in open play. She trains that — again, by beginning simply. Press will line up a bag of balls on the six-yard line and shoot in quick succession, taking only one step back to reset. This is the foundation of generating power.

“I think that if I look through the years [at] the space I train in, it’s in that exact ‘D,’” she said, referencing the arch at the top of the 18-yard box. “And I think the way that you most often score there is using your defenders as a shield and a little bit into negative space, and then bending the ball. I think that’s absolutely my best way of scoring.

“And I think that’s because of my strengths. I can get into the pocket with speed often. I don’t actually like dribbling around defenders very much. I don’t practice dribbling so I’ve got one way to get by them, but I often work on manipulating my defenders so they can’t block my shot, rather than working on manipulating them so I can get by them. And I think that’s why then I developed a shot that I can take basically with the ball under my feet and generate a lot of power, because it’s unexpected for the goalkeeper and it’s out of reach for the defender.”

Training this type of skill is very intentional. Even on a field by herself, with no active defenders, Press knows that if she takes four steps before a shot, she has failed. In a game, with real defenders, she will have been tackled or her shooting window will have closed.

Soccer is about a feeling, Press says. U.S. Soccer sends film to players after each training session so they can self-evaluate. Press says she does not look at how she performed technically, but rather what her body language said about her approach to a given training session.

She has not gone without dry spells or rough patches, from the more subtle grind of transitioning to wide roles and changing teams, to the more obvious and overt moments, such as the penalty-kick shootout miss in the 2016 Olympic quarterfinal against Sweden.

There is a notion that forwards need short memories, to not dwell on such misses. Press said she views things slightly differently, borrowing some inspiration from fellow teammates.

“I think instead of even a short memory, I always told myself since I was a young person: the more I miss, the closer I am to my next goal,” she said. “Because it’s almost like once you play long enough, you’ve missed so many times that it’s no longer emotional. I guess a certain miss in a certain moment might be, but even those, I’ve done it; I’ve missed as bad as you can miss and I’ve let the team [down]. So, life goes on and I feel like if I’m in a game and I’ve missed an easy goal, that means the next one, I’m gonna score. Because I’ve missed a million easy goals before, and I’ve always scored again. So, that’s kind of how I approach it and I actually think I see this a bit in Carli [Lloyd]. If she ever misses an easy chance, she kind of becomes ravenous. She hunts and hunts because she wants to replace that memory with something else, and I try to even embody that a bit, where I’m even more hungry in the final part of that field.”

Lloyd and Press combined for a goal against England at the 2020 SheBelieves Cup. The play was a microcosm of all these things: Press intentionally drifting into open space on the opponent’s back line before receiving the ball, opening her hips to face up to goal in one fluid motion, and firing a quick shot which caught England’s defenders and goalkeeper by surprise. The camera angle from behind Press showed just how much the ball bent to tuck into the side netting. ESPN announcer Sebastian Salazar screamed a phrase which quickly made its way to a t-shirt: “Christen Press, what have you done?!”

It was another spectacular goal from Press, one worthy of all the plaudits it received. What had she done? Well, it was the same she has been doing for a long time, drifting between forward positions and scoring a noteworthy goal from skills she has developed away from the public eye."

[writemarcus]

HITTING NEW HEIGHTS

BY MARCUS SCOTT

ORIGINAL RENT STAR DAPHNE RUBIN-VEGA TAKES YOU INSIDE THE IN THE HEIGHTS FILM

Qué quiere decir sueñito?” The disembodied voice of a girlchild ponders. “It means ‘little dream,’” responds an unseen authoritative figure, his feathery tenor with a soft rasp and tender lilt implying there’s more to the story.

Teal waves crash against the white sand coastal lines of the Dominican Republic and a quartet of children plead with the voice to illuminate and tell a story. Usnavi de la Vega (played by Anthony Ramos), sporting his signature newsboy flat cap and full goatee, begins to narrate and weave a tall-tale from the comforts of his beachside food cart: “This is the story of a block that was disappearing. Once upon a time in a faraway land called Nueva York, en barrio called Washington Heights. Say it, so it doesn’t disappear,” he decrees.

And we’re off, this distant magic kingdom ensnared within the winding urban sprawl of farthest-uptown Manhattan, the music of the neighborhood chiming with infinite possibilities: a door-latch fastening on tempo, a ring of keys sprinkling a sweet embellishment, the splish-splash of a garden hose licking the city streets like a drumstick to a snare fill, a manhole cover rotating like vinyl on a get-down turntable, the hiss of paint cans spraying graffiti like venoms from cobras and roll-up steel doors rumbling, not unlike the ultra-fast subway cars zigzagging underground. So begins the opening moments of In the Heights, the Warner Bros. stage-to-screen adaptation of the Tony Award-winning musical by composer-lyricist Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) and librettist Quiara Alegría Hudes (Water by the Spoonful) that is set to premiere in movie theatres and on HBO Max on June 11, 2021.

This stunning patchwork of visuals and reverberations combine to create a defiant and instantly memorable collage of inner-city living not seen since Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic The Warriors or West Side Story, the iconic romantic musical tragedy directed on film by Robert Wise and original Broadway director Jerome Robbins. With Jon M. Chu at the helm, the musical feature has all the trademarks of the director’s opulent signature style: Striking spectacles full of stark colors, va-va-voom visuals, ooh-la-la hyperkinetic showstopping sequences and out-of-this-world destination locations.

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A Kind of Priestess

Joining the fray of proscenium stage vets in the film is Broadway star Daphne Rubin-Vega, who originated the role of Mimi in the Off-Broadway and Broadway original productions of Rent. She returns to major motion pictures after a decade since her last outing in Nancy Savoca’s Union Square, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2011. When we caught up with Rubin-Vega, she was hard at work, in-between rehearsals with her In the Heights co-star Jimmy Smits on Two Sisters and a Piano, the 1999 play by Miami-based playwright Nilo Cruz, a frequent collaborator. Rubin-Vega netted a Tony Award nomination for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role as the enraptured Conchita in Cruz’s Anna in the Tropics; that same year Cruz was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, making him the first Latino playwright to receive the honor. Despite significant global, social and economic disruption, especially within the arts community, Rubin-Vega has been working throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People around me have [contracted] COVID… My father-in-law just had it. I’m very fortunate,” Rubin-Vega said. “This collective experience, it’s funny because it’s a year now and things seem better. Last year it was, like, ‘Damn, how inconvenient!’ The one comfort was that, you know, it’s happening to every one of us. That clarity that this is a collective experience is much more humbling and tolerable to me.”

The last time Rubin-Vega graced Washington Heights on screen or stage, she acted in the interest of survival and hunger as a probationer released after a 13-year stint in prison and given a new lease on life as an unlicensed amateur masseuse in the basement of an empanada shop in Empanada Loca, The Spalding Gray-style Grand Guignol horror play by Aaron Mark at the LAByrinth Theater Company in 2015. In In the Heights she plays Daniela, an outrageously vivacious belting beautician with a flair for the dramatics, forced to battle a price-gouging real estate bubble in the wake of gentrification.

“She’s like the deputy or the priestess,” Rubin-Vega said. “Owning a salon means that you have a lot of information; you’re in a hub of community, of information, of sharing… it’s also where you go for physical grooming. It’s a place where women were empowered to create their own work and it is a place of closeness, spiritual advice, not-so-spiritual advice. Physical attention.”

She said, “Daniela also being an elder; I think she’s not so much a person that imposes order on other people. She’s there to bring out the best—she leads with love. She tells it like it is. I don’t think she sugar-coats things. What you see is what you get with Daniela. It’s refreshing; she has a candor and sure-footedness that I admire.”

With the film adaptation, Chu and Hudes promised to expand the universe of the Upper Manhattan-based musical, crafting new dimensions and nuances to two characters in particular: Daniela and hairdresser Carla, originally portrayed as business associates and gossip buddies in the stage musical. On the big screen they are reimagined as romantic life partners. Stephanie Beatriz, known to audiences for her hilarious turn as the mysterious and aloof Detective Rosa Diaz in the police procedural sitcom romp “Brooklyn Nine-Nine,” co-stars as the fast-talking firecracker, Carla.

It’s been a year waiting, you know. It’s like the lid’s been on it and so we’re just so ready to explode.

Where Is Home?

“Well, Quiara and Jon really expanded on what Lin and Quiara originally created and now they’re partners—and not just work partners, right? But they’re life partners,” Beatriz said at a March press event celebrating the release of the film’s two promo trailers. “What was so gratifying to me as a person who is queer is to see this relationship in the film be part of the fabric of the community, and to be normal, and be happy and functioning, and part of the quilt they’ve all created.”

She continued, “So much of this film is about where home is and who home is to you. And for Carla, Daniela is home. Wherever Daniela is, that’s where Carla feels at home. I thought that they did such a beautiful job of guiding us to this, really, you know, it’s just a happy functioning relationship that happens to be gay and in the movie. And I love that they did that, because it is such a part of our world.”

Rubin-Vega said she had no interest in playing any trope of what one might think a lesbian Latina might look or act like, noting that the queer experience isn’t monolithic, while expressing that the role offered her a newfound freedom, especially with regard to being present in the role and in her everyday life.

“Spoiler alert! I felt like not wearing a bra was going to free me. Did I get it right? Am I saying that gay women don’t wear bras? No, it was just a way for me to be in my body and feel my breasts. To feel my femaleness and celebrate it in a more unapologetic way,” she said, laughing. “To be honest, I was really looking forward to playing a lesbian Latina. It’s something that I hadn’t really explored before. Latinos [can be] very homophobic as a culture, and I wanted to play someone who didn’t care about homophobia; I was gonna live my best life. That’s a bigger thing. It’s also like, maybe I’m bisexual. Who knows? Who cares? If you see that in the film, that’s cool too, you know?”

Stand-out performances abound, especially with regard to the supporting cast; newcomers Melissa Barrera (in a role originated by Tony Award winner Karen Olivo) and Gregory Diaz IV (replacing three-time Tony Award nominee Robin de Jesús) are noteworthy as the aspiring fashion designer Vanessa and budding activist Sonny. Olga Merediz, who earned a Tony Award nomination for originating her role as Abuela Claudia, returns to the silver screen in a captivating performance that will be a contender come award season. However, Rubin-Vega may just be the one to watch. Her performance is incandescent and full of moxie, designed to raise endorphin levels. She leads an ensemble in the rousing “Carnaval del Barrio,” a highlight in the film.

Musical Bootcamp

“We shot in June [2019]. In April, we started musical bootcamp. In May, we started to do the choreography. My big joke was that I would have to get a knee replacement in December; that was in direct relation to all that choreography. I mean, there were hundreds of A-1 dancers in the posse,” Rubin-Vega said. “The family consisted of hundreds of superlative dancers led by Chris[topher] Scott, with an amazing team of dancers like Ebony Williams, Emilio Dosal, Dana Wilson, Eddie Torres Jr. and Princess Serrano. We rehearsed a fair bit. Monday through Friday for maybe five weeks. The first day of rehearsal I met Melissa [Barrera] and Corey [Hawkins], I pretty much hadn’t known everyone yet. I hadn’t met Leslie [Grace] yet. Chris Scott, the choreographer, just went straight into ‘let’s see what you can do.’ It was the first [dance] routine of ‘In The Heights,’ the opening number. He was like, ‘OK, let’s go. Five, six, seven, eight!’”

Rubin-Vega said that she tried to bring her best game, though it had “been a minute” since she had to execute such intricate choreography, noting that they shot the opening number within a day while praising Chu’s work ethic and leadership.

“There was a balance between focus and fun and that’s rare. Everyone was there because they wanted to be there,” she said. “I think back to the day we shot ‘96,000.’ That day it wouldn’t stop raining; [it was] grey and then the sky would clear and we’d get into places and then it would be grey again and so we’d have to wait and just have to endure. But even the bad parts were kind of good, too. Even the hottest days. There were gunshots, there was a fire while we were shooting and we had to shut down, there was traffic and noise and yet every time I looked around me or went into video village and saw the faces in there, I mean…it felt like the only place to be. You want to feel like that in every place you are: The recognition. I could recognize people who look like me. For now on, you cannot say I’ve never seen a Panamanian on film before or a Columbian or a Mexican, you know?”

Another Notion of Beauty

Rubin-Vega’s professional relationship with the playwright Hudes extends to 2015, when she was tapped to [participate in the] workshop [production of]  Daphne’s Dive. Under the direction of Thomas Kail (Hamilton) and starring alongside Samira Wiley (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Orange Is the New Black”), the play premiered Off-Broadway at the Pershing Square Signature Center the following year. Rubin-Vega also starred in Miss You Like Hell, the cross-country road musical by Hudes and Erin McKeown, which premiered at La Jolla Playhouse in 2016 before it transferred to The Public Theater in 2018. With her participation in the production of In the Heights, she is among the few to have collaborated with all of the living Latinx playwrights to have won the Pulitzer Prize; Hudes won the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for her play Water by the Spoonful, while Miranda took home the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for Drama for Hamilton. Speaking on her multiple collaborations over the years, Rubin-Vega also acknowledged having known Miranda years before they would join voices.

“Lin to me is like a little bro or legacy; he’s a direct descent to me from [Rent author] Jonathan Larson, which is a bigger sort of all-encompassing arch,” she said, though she stressed that she auditioned like everyone else, landing the role after two or three callbacks. “Quiara and I have a wonderful working and personal relationship, I think. Which isn’t to say I had dibs by any means because…it’s a business that wants the best for itself, I suppose. […] So, when I walked in, I was determined to really give it my best.”

Life During and After Rent

Rubin-Vega has built an impressive resume over the course of her career, singing along with the likes of rock stars like David Bowie and starring in a multitude of divergent roles on Broadway and off. From a harrowing Fantine in Les Misérables and a co-dependent Stella in A Streetcar Named Desire to a sinister Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show, her evolution into the atypical character actor and leading lady can be traced back 25 years to January 25, 1996, when Larson’s groundbreaking musical Rent, a retelling of Giacomo Puccini’s 19th-century opera La Bohème, premiered at the New York Theatre Workshop. On the morning of the first preview, Larson suffered an aortic dissection, likely from undiagnosed Marfan’s syndrome and died at the age of 35, just ten days shy of what would have been his 36th birthday.

On April 29, 1996, due to overwhelming popularity, Rent transferred to Nederlander Theatre on Broadway, tackling contemporary topics the Great White Way had rarely seen, such as poverty and class warfare during the AIDS epidemic in New York City’s gritty East Village at the turn of the millennium. Rubin-Vega would go on to be nominated for the Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Musical for her role as sex kitten Mimi Márquez, an HIV-positive heroin addict and erotic dancer.

  The show became a cultural phenomenon, receiving several awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and four Tony Awards, including Best Musical. Rubin-Vega and members of the original Broadway cast were suddenly overnight sensations, recording “Seasons of Love” alongside music icon Stevie Wonder, receiving a photo shoot with Vanity Fair and landing the May 13, 1996 cover of Newsweek. Throughout its 12-year Broadway run, many of the show’s original cast members and subsequent replacements would go on to be stars, including Renée Elise Goldsberry, who followed in Rubin-Vega’s footsteps to play the popular character before originating the role of Angelica Schuyler in Hamilton, for which she won the 2016 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical.

When the screen adaptation of Rent hit cinemas in 2005 under the direction of Chris Columbus, Rubin-Vega’s conspicuous absence came as a blow to longtime fans. The confluence of pregnancy with the casting and filming process of Rent hindered her from participating at the time. The role was subsequently given to movie star Rosario Dawson.

“First of all, if you’re meant to be in a film, you’re meant to be in it,” Rubin-Vega said. “That’s just the way it goes. It took a quarter of a century but this [In the Heights] is a film that I wanted to make, that I felt the elements sat right. I always felt that Rent was a little bit darker than all that. Rent to me is Rated R. In The Heights is not. It’s also a testament. Unless it’s sucking your soul and killing you softly or hardly, just stick with it. This is a business and I keep forgetting it’s a business because actors just want to show art. So, it’s really wonderful when you get a chance to say what you mean and mean what you say with your work. It’s a really wonderful gift.”

Rarely-Explored Themes

Like Larson’s award-winning show and the film adapted from it, In The Heights is jam-packed with hard-hitting subject matter, addressing themes of urban blight, immigration, gentrification, cultural identity, assimilation and U.S. political history. When Rubin-Vega’s character Daniela and her partner were priced out of the rent for her salon, most of her clientele moved to the Grand Concourse Historic District in the Bronx. Her salon, a bastion of the community, is met with a polar response when she announces she’s joining the mass exodus with the other victims of gentrification who were pushed out by rising rents. The news is met with negative response from long-time patrons who refuse to take the short commute to the new location. Daniela counters, “Our people survived slave ships, we survived Taino [indigenous Caribbean people] genocide, we survived conquistadores and dictators…you’re telling me we can’t survive the D train to Grand Concourse?”

The question is humorous, but also insinuates a more nuanced understanding of the AfroLatinidad experience in the Western world. The film also looks at the American Dream with a naturalistic approach. Leslie Grace, who plays Nina Rosario, a first-generation college student returning from her freshman year at Stanford University and grappling with finances and the expectations of her community, noted that while her character “finds [herself] at some point at a fork in the road,” she may not have the luxury to be indecisive because of the pressures put on by family, community and country.  

“The struggle of the first-generation Americans in the Latino community is not talked about a lot because it’s almost like a privilege,” Grace asserted. “You feel like it’s a privilege to talk about it. But there is a lot of identity crisis that comes with it and I think we explore that.” Speaking on the character, she elaborated: “Home for her is where her heart is, but also where her purpose is. So, she finds her purpose in doing something outside of herself, greater than herself and going back to Stanford for the people she loves in her community. I really relate to where she’s at, trying to find herself. And I think a lot of other people will, too.”

Worth Singing About

For Miranda, a first-generation Puerto Rican New Yorker that grew up in Inwood at the northernmost tip of Manhattan before attending Wesleyan University where he would develop the musical, this speaks to a larger issue of what defines a home.

“What does ‘home’ even mean? Every character is sort of answering it in a different way,” he said. “For some people, home is somewhere else. For some people, home is like ‘the block’ they’re on. So, that’s worth singing about. It’s worth celebrating in a movie of this size.”

Given the current zeitgeist, it’s no wonder why Chu, Hudes and Miranda decided to pivot with adapting the stage musical for the big screen, leaning in to tackle the plights and predicaments of DREAMers [children of undocumented immigrants seeking citizenship] stateside. In one scene, glimpses of posters at a protest rally read “Immigrant Rights are Human Rights” and “Refugees Are People Too.” Growing up in a multicultural household as a Latina with a Black Latina mother, a white father and a Jewish American stepfather, Rubin-Vega said she was used to being in spaces that were truly multiracial. Nevertheless, there were times when she often felt alien, especially as a du jour rock musical ingenue who looked as she did in the mid-1990s through the 2000s.

“Undocumented people come in different shapes and colors,” she noted. “To be born in a land that doesn’t recognize you, it’s a thing that holds so much horror… so much disgrace happens on the planet because human beings aren’t recognized as such sometimes.”

The film “definitely sheds light on that, but it also talks about having your dream taken away and its human violation—it’s a physical, spiritual, social, cultural violation,” Rubin-Vega said. “There’s a difference between pursuing dreams and being aware of reality. They’re not mutually exclusive. What this film does, it presents a story that is fairly grounded in reality. It’s a musical, it’s over the top… but it reflects a bigger reality, which is like an emotional reality…that people that are challenged on the daily, have incredible resolve, incredible resoluteness and lifeforce.”

She said: “Growing up, looking like me, I got to ingest the same information as everyone else except when it came time to implement my contributions, they weren’t as welcomed or as seen. The dream is to be seen and to be recognized. Maybe I could be an astronaut or an ingenue on Broadway? You can’t achieve stuff that you haven’t imagined. When it talks about DREAMers, it talks about that and it talks about how to not be passive in a culture that would have you think you are passive but to be that change and to dare to be that change.”

Dreams Come True

Dreams are coming true. Alongside the nationwide release of the much-anticipated film, Random House announced it will publish In the Heights: Finding Home, which will give a behind-the-scenes look at the beginnings of Miranda’s 2008 breakout Broadway debut and journey to the soon-to-be-released film adaptation. The table book will chronicle the show’s 20-year voyage from page to stage—from Miranda’s first drawings at the age of 19 to lyric annotations by Miranda and essays written by Hudes to never-before-seen photos from productions around the world and the 2021 movie set. It will be released to the public on June 22, eleven days after the release of the film; an audiobook will be simultaneously released by Penguin Random House Audio.

Hinting at the year-long delay due to the pandemic, Rubin-Vega said, “It’s been a year waiting, you know. It’s like the lid’s been on it and so we’re just so ready to explode.”

Bigger Dreams

“Jon [Chu], I think, dreams bigger than any of us dare to dream in terms of the size and scope of this,” Miranda said. “We spent our summer [in 2018] on 175th Street. You know, he was committed to the authenticity of being in that neighborhood we [all] grew up in, that we love, but then also when it comes to production numbers, dreaming so big. I mean, this is a big movie musical!”

Miranda continued, “We’re so used to asking for less, just to ask to occupy space, you know? As Latinos, we’re, like, ‘Please just let us make our little movie.’ And Jon, every step of the way, said, like, ‘No, these guys have big dreams. We’re allowed to go that big!’ So, I’m just thrilled with what he did ’cause I think it’s bigger than any of us ever dreamed.”

Speaking at the online press conference, Miranda said, “I’m talking to you from Washington Heights right now! I love it here. The whole [movie] is a love letter to this neighborhood. I think it’s such an incredible neighborhood. It’s the first chapter in so many stories. It’s a Latinx neighborhood [today]. It was a Dominican neighborhood when I was growing up there in the ’80s. But before that it was an Irish neighborhood and Italian. It’s always the first chapter in so many American stories.”

[miaclemeverett]

Wilbur, Fundy, and Purpled were interviewed for this great article on the Dream SMP and the Minecraft community! Full article below the cut. 

"Minecraft" launched over a decade ago and the video game is as popular as ever. With over 126 million players worldwide, the voxel-based survival game drops adventurers into a world where they can craft, build, explore, destroy, and create to their heart's content. Aided by tools, blocks, and creativity, the simple sandbox world allows anyone on PC, console, or smartphone the chance to project their own feelings and creations directly into their virtual space.

"As long as you have the mind for it, you can really just do anything," 17-year-old "Minecraft" YouTuber Purpled, who has 700,000 subscribers, told Insider. "Because of how simple Minecraft is and how easy it is to build with it, you can create whatever you want."

In recent years, Microsoft's never-ending game has evolved into a tool for content creators to express themselves, leading to high-profile collaborations with some of YouTube's biggest personalities. By creating their own private "Minecraft" servers, creators have been able to craft ornate worlds and stories that they can explore in streams and videos, immersing fans in a cinematic-style universe.

Minecraft has a long history on YouTube

"Minecraft's" versatility has made it an incredibly popular game for content creators and influencers. In 2012, a change in YouTube's algorithm promoting watch time over video clicks led to a renaissance of "Let's Players" who recorded themselves reacting and playing their favorite games. "Minecraft" was one of the most successful, spawning some of the largest channels of the time like SkyDoesMinecraft (11.3 million subscribers) and Tobuscus (6.25 million subs).

Though the popularity of "Minecraft" remained fairly steady, content about the title waned a bit over the next decade either due to content fatigue or newer titles like "Fortnite" taking the spotlight. 2020 flipped the title back into the forefront, with both streamers and YouTubers capitalizing on the title's popularity.  

The biggest breakout star for "Minecraft" in the past few years is Dream, an expert, faceless player with a neon-green avatar with over 17 million YouTube subscribers. YouTube labeled him the second overall content creator of the year and his streams consistently pull in a quarter of a million people.

In May of 2020, Dream decided to create a small, private server for his friends to play around in. This SMP server, or "survival multiplayer," started off with only a handful of content creators being invited. Soon, the server would expand to over 30 members, bringing in millions of views from fans who chronicle every moment of the lore the creators eventually created.

Viewership on Twitch of "Minecraft" content went from 17 million hours watched in January 2020 to 74 million in January of 2021, according to data from analytics company Rainmaker.gg.  

How the Dream SMP grew from a private server with friends to a cultural milestone

Purpled has been playing "Minecraft" for the past eight years and is a high-ranking player in a multiplayer game mode called "Bed Wars." He had started talking to Dream in the summer of 2019, when the pair were both small, mutual fans.

"When the SMP was in its infancy, I just asked him if there was any room because he said how it's just for friends and if a friend wants to join, they can," Purpled said. "So I asked him, he said, 'Sure.' He sent me the IP and I was in."

The server was originally just a place to create and hangout, with no intention of creating an overarching story or plot.

Fundy, a 19-year-old Dutch YouTuber with 2.7 million subscribers joined when only a handful of other creators were on."I had talked to Dream on a few occasions, out-of-the-blue Dream sent me a message about a survival world that they had going on. It was very small at first," Fundy said. "I thought it could be a fun little side-project I could stream every now and then on Twitch, so I decided to join."

Fundy joined in the early days alongside Wilbur Soot, a 23-year-old YouTuber with 3.8 million subscribers. Soot, after attempting to create an "illegal potion shop" on the server, decided to establish a nation of non-Americans players called L'Manberg. Soot said he wrote a "treatment" for how the formation of his country would go, creating an official canon that fans could follow along with.

"I was invited into the Dream SMP near its inception but I only joined fully when I had an idea for building a country in 'Minecraft'," Soot said. "I write up a series of plot hooks and points that should tie together, however we improv dialogue and comedy throughout to take us from point to point."

These streams and pieces of content all had a canon that could be followed and consumed like a television show. L'Manberg eventually started a war against Dream for its independence, staging a rebellion chronicled in YouTube videos with millions of views.

These streams and videos aren't just randoms in "Minecraft" trying to defeat the end-game Ender Dragon — these are performers putting on a show that their fans can't miss. As the lore expanded, so did the rules needed to keep a sense of continuity and order. For example, each player only has three lives before they are removed and deleted from the server.

"It went from a casual survival game to a whole story-line filled with plots and twists," Fundy said. "Role-playing at this point is a key-feature of the Dream SMP, some parts are scripted, some parts are improv, and some parts are 'non-canon,' where it is just counted as a standard 'Minecraft' server."

The fan communities have risen up and made their voices heard

Over the next few months, the lore and world would continue to grow and so would the fan base. Hundreds of thousands of viewers would tune in for these streams, trying to keep up with the lore and content. To help catalog the story, a network of fans established themselves as lore keepers, documenting each moment for those that had to miss a stream.  

The "DREAMSMP UPDATES!" account on Twitter has established itself as one of the most popular locations to find all this content and lore on social media. Starting in December 2020, the account has grown to over 147,000 users with just a team of seven administrators, ages 14-17, in different locations around the world, posting updates and stream notifications for fans. "Minecraft" is a game that appeals to all ages, but the audience for this content tends to skew younger, with 41 percent of Twitch's user base being 16 to 24, according to GlobalWebIndex.

"You can tell they're all friends and it's a lot more lighthearted in general and it shows," mod on the "DREAMSMP UPDATES!" Twitter account eclaire said over chat app Discord. "When it's not lore you see them actually having good chemistry and it really pulls you in because it almost feels like being pulled into a friend group."

User SamHQ first started the fan account with a couple of friends from high school but the group quickly expanded after the account tweeted that they needed more fans of certain streamers to join. She is online and runs the account "24/7" but "it's just like answering a text."

"When I started the account I knew lots of people who couldn't catch up because of work or school," SamHQ said. "So I gathered friends to help and now people rely on us when someone's streaming or to catch up with the lore when they can't watch."

For the fans that run the update account, keeping up with the Dream SMP isn't dissimilar to following the Marvel Cinematic Universe or a long-running television show. Characters come and go, but the improv and roleplay stay.

"The Dream SMP did something really special — taking an original idea, creating new things that have never been seen on 'Minecraft' and incorporating them with humor and characters that you can become easily attached with," mod NotAlex said.

Though other SMP roleplay servers, like EarthSMP and SMPLive, have been created over the years, none have been as successful or popular as the Dream SMP.

Finding a fan base on the Dream SMP can lead to major growth.

For the performers on the server, addressing fans and their responses comes with the territory.

"The Dream SMP viewers are very important to the Dream SMP, and the fact that they openly speak their mind about how a certain stream went only helps the streamers improve," Fundy said. "It's basically an instant review of what was liked and what wasn't."

Like most major fandoms with a young audience, fanfiction of these streamers has popped up online. Dozens of Dream fics and drawings exist online, some going a bit far and putting underage characters together. Dream responded on Twitter to those "ships," writing that they shouldn't "ship creators that are uncomfortable with it, and especially not minors."

The Dream stans, or the super fans, also tend to be very vocal online about the SMP. Hashtags on Twitter like #dreamnotfound and #dreamfanart consistently break-through to the trending page, confusing those who have no idea this world exists. The most ferocious of stans sometimes overstep the boundary between polite disagreement and outright harassment. This vocal minority has sent death threats and waves of harassment at those who criticize or disagree with their favorite content creators.  

The growth and future of these channels is in large part due to the Dream SMP server

The popularity of Dream SMP has helped grow the content creators that take part in it. Since joining the server, Purpled is gaining three times as many subscribers a month on YouTube and has been introduced to an entirely new fan base. His streams used to pull in 3,000 viewers but now his average is closer to 35,000 to 40,000 viewers.

"Some people think of them as obsessive or stalker fans, but those are people that really like to talk about certain creators and really get invested in things," Purpled said. "And it's really nice because they care a lot more and connect more with the creator than the content."

These creators understand the power of the fan base and know that they come for the content.

"I think the Dream SMP is popular thanks to the brilliant creators and funny improv moments," Soot said. "I think we'll be seeing the emergence of a huge wave of roleplay-centric gaming communities."

[twh-news]

[The article contains spoilers for The Good, The Bart and The Loki]

When Disney Plus launched with all of “The Simpsons” episodes, the team behind the longest running primetime TV series in history were thrilled.

“It’s a perfect fit and, you know, 100 million subscribers,” says executive producer Al Jean with a chuckle.

But there was one catch: While Disney Plus has specific tiles on its home screen for Pixar, Marvel and Star Wars, “There’s no tile that actually says ‘The Simpsons,'” he says.

So co-creator and executive producer James L. Brooks suggested “The Simpsons” should invade the rest of Disney Plus, through a series of crossover short films.

“It was just the desire that we had to reach out to the viewers [of] the other branches of Disney Plus, to see if they would be interested in us — you know, if they hadn’t seen us as much,” Jean says.

The first short, “The Force Awakens From Its Nap” — which placed Maggie Simpson inside the world of “Star Wars” — premiered on May 4 (i.e. the May the Fourth “Star Wars” holiday). As that film was wrapping up production in April, Jean zeroed in on Marvel Studios’ series “Loki” for their second film — but they had to move with superhuman speed, since that show was premiering in June.

The result is “The Good, The Bart, and the Loki,” with Tom Hiddleston voicing his signature role as the wily god of mischief after he’s banished from Asgard and lands, to his horror, in Springfield.

“They couldn’t have been nicer at Marvel,” says Jean. “They said, ‘Hey, would you like the Avengers music?’ And we said, ‘Would we?! Yes!'”

As Jean revealed in his conversation with Variety, the team behind the film, lead by director David Silverman, leaned into their knowledge of not just past films and series in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the upcoming film “Thor: Love and Thunder” — and, for the final post-credits scene, they had just a week to turn it all around.

There’s a great tableau in which a whole bunch of different Simpsons characters appear as the Springfield Avengers, including Barney Gumble as Iron Man and Milhouse as Hawkeye. How did you decide all that?

That was the most fun thing. In the room, we were just putting them together, and it was really fast. It was like, Patty and Selma are the Scarlet Witch and Agnes. My favorite was Ralph as the Hulk and Herman as Captain America — because he wears the Captain America shield on his shirt because he’s a gun store owner. It was about 10 minutes to put that together. We would’ve had more — I mean, there’s 100 Avengers — but we were just trying to make sure that the production got done on time.

When you made Lisa into Thor, was that a tip of the hat that…

…that Natalie Portman is going to be Thor in “Love and Thunder”? Absolutely. And then, to me, it was really funny that, you know, now that Lisa is Thor, she even has that over Bart, so he’s really aggravated. The parallel between Bart and Lisa and Loki and Thor is pretty clear.

Did Marvel have any notes? Or did they just kind of let you do your thing?

They really were great and supportive. The only note we had was we thought we could have a cameo by Stan Lee. We’re putting as many cameos and post-credits sequences into a four minute short as possible. But they said that their policy is that since he passed, they don’t use him in movies anymore, which I understood completely. And we had him on the show three times, so we had our shot.

The final post-credit sequence evokes the “Loki” Disney Plus show completely, down to the production design. How much turnaround time did you have for that?

A week, and it was really a nail biter. Jim Brooks said, ‘Oh, we’ve got to do something with the series now that it’s on,’ because we were coming out July 7. So that was based on the first episode only. I hadn’t seen the other three, and obviously, I have no idea how it ends, either. I suspect Loki is up to no good. That’s my theory.

Wait, so you had a week to write, record, and animate that?

Yep. We recorded Dawnn Lewis as the Judge. David Silverman turned it around that fast. So that whole ending, whatever, minute, is in a week.

The short ends with Lisa unknowingly sending Bart into oblivion and Loki takes over Bart’s life.

Well, in the last short, Maggie dies. She comes back as a force ghost, but she’s dead. This one, Bart doesn’t seem to have very good ending. [Laughs] Homer seems to be eating Flanders at the end of the Loki story, too, so there’s a lot of grim stuff under the surface!

So do you think that you’ll revisit the world of Marvel or the world of Star Wars again?

We definitely want to keep doing these shorts — definitely [with] those two, but also with the other properties, like Pixar and the classic Disney movies. We’ll probably take a little more time on the next one. We haven’t settled on what we’re going to do yet, but there are just so many things that are just so, you know — I mean, as a kid, I was a huge fan of Marvel. I started collecting when I was six. These are the things that we would want to crossover or parody, anyways.

[dornish-queen]

Pedro Pascal on Fame and ‘The Mandalorian’: ‘Can We Cut the S— and Talk About the Child?’

By Adam B. Vary

Photographs by Beau Grealy

When Pedro Pascal was roughly 4 years old, he and his family went to see the 1978 hit movie “Superman,” starring Christopher Reeve. Pascal’s young parents had come to live in San Antonio after fleeing their native Chile during the rise of dictator Augusto Pinochet in the mid-1970s. Taking Pascal and his older sister to the movies — sometimes more than once a week — had become a kind of family ritual, a way to soak up as much American pop culture as possible.

At some point during this particular visit, Pascal needed to go to the bathroom, and his parents let him go by himself. “I didn’t really know how to read yet,” Pascal says with the same Cheshire grin that dazzled “Game of Thrones” fans during his run as the wily (and doomed) Oberyn Martel. “I did not find my way back to ‘Superman.'”

Instead, Pascal wandered into a different theater (he thinks it was showing the 1979 domestic drama “Kramer vs. Kramer,” but, again, he was 4). In his shock and bewilderment at being lost, he curled up into an open seat and fell asleep. When he woke up, the movie was over, the theater was empty, and his parents were standing over him. To his surprise, they seemed rather calm, but another detail sticks out even more.

“I know that they finished their movie,” he says, bending over in laughter. “My sister was trying to get a rise out of me by telling me, ‘This happened and that happened and then Superman did this and then, you know, the earthquake and spinning around the planet.'” In the face of such relentless sibling mockery, Pascal did the only logical thing: “I said, ‘All that happened in my movie too.'”

He had no way of knowing it at the time, of course, but some 40 years later, Pascal would in fact get the chance to star in a movie alongside a DC Comics superhero — not to mention battle Stormtroopers and, er, face off against the most formidable warrior in Westeros. After his breakout on “Game of Thrones,” he became an instant get-me-that-guy sensation, mostly as headstrong, taciturn men of action — from chasing drug traffickers in Colombia for three seasons on Netflix’s “Narcos” to squaring off against Denzel Washington in “The Equalizer 2.”

This year, though, Pascal finds himself poised for the kind of marquee career he’s spent a lifetime dreaming about. On Oct. 30, he’ll return for Season 2 as the title star of “The Mandalorian,” Lucasfilm’s light-speed hit “Star Wars” series for Disney Plus that earned 15 Emmy nominations, including best drama, in its first season. And then on Dec. 25 — COVID-19 depending — he’ll play the slippery comic book villain Maxwell Lord opposite Gal Gadot, Chris Pine and Kristen Wiig in “Wonder Woman 1984.”

The roles are at once wildly divergent and the best showcase yet for Pascal’s elastic talents. In “The Mandalorian,” he must hide his face — and, in some episodes, his whole body — in a performance that pushes minimalism and restraint to an almost ascetic ideal. In “Wonder Woman 1984,” by stark contrast, he is delivering the kind of big, broad bad-guy character that populated the 1980s popcorn spectaculars of his youth.

“I continually am so surprised when everybody pegs him as such a serious guy,” says “Wonder Woman 1984” director Patty Jenkins. “I have to say, Pedro is one of the most appealing people I have known. He instantly becomes someone that everybody invites over and you want to have around and you want to talk to.”

Talk with Pascal for just five minutes — even when he’s stuck in his car because he ran out of time running errands before his flight to make it to the set of a Nicolas Cage movie in Budapest — and you get an immediate sense of what Jenkins is talking about. Before our interview really starts, Pascal points out, via Zoom, that my dog is licking his nether regions in the background. “Don’t stop him!” he says with an almost naughty reproach. “Let him live his life!”

Over our three such conversations, it’s also clear that Pascal’s great good humor and charm have been at once ballast for a number of striking hardships, and a bulwark that makes his hard-won success a challenge for him to fully accept.

Before Pascal knew anything about “The Mandalorian,” its showrunner and executive producer Jon Favreau knew he wanted Pascal to star in it.

“He feels very much like a classic movie star in his charm and his delivery,” says Favreau. “And he’s somebody who takes his craft very seriously.” Favreau felt Pascal had the presence and skill essential to deliver a character — named Din Djarin, but mostly called Mando — who spends virtually every second of his time on screen wearing a helmet, part of the sacrosanct creed of the Mandalorian order.

Convincing any actor to hide their face for the run of a series can be as precarious as escaping a Sarlacc pit. To win Pascal over in their initial meeting, Favreau brought him behind the “Mandalorian” curtain, into a conference room papered with storyboards covering the arc of the first season. “When he walked in, it must have felt a little surreal,” Favreau says. “You know, most of your experiences as an actor, people are kicking the tires to see if it’s a good fit. But in this case, everything was locked and loaded.”

Needless to say, it worked. “I hope this doesn’t sound like me fashioning myself like I’m, you know, so smart, but I agreed to do this [show] because the impression I had when I had my first meeting was that this is the next big s—,” Pascal says with a laugh.

Favreau’s determination to cast Pascal, however, put the actor in a tricky situation: Pascal’s own commitments to make “Wonder Woman 1984” in London and to perform in a Broadway run of “King Lear” with Glenda Jackson barreled right into the production schedule for “The Mandalorian.” Some scenes on the show, and in at least one case a full episode, would need to lean on the anonymity of the title character more than anyone had quite planned, with two stunt performers — Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder — playing Mando on set and Pascal dubbing in the dialogue months later.

Pascal was already being asked to smother one of his best tools as an actor, extraordinarily uncommon for anyone shouldering the newest iteration of a global live-action franchise. (Imagine Robert Downey Jr. only playing Iron Man while wearing a mask — you can’t!) Now he had to hand over control of Mando’s body to other performers too. Some actors would have walked away. Pascal didn’t.

“If there were more than just a couple of pages of a one-on-one scene, I did feel uneasy about not, in some instances, being able to totally author that,” he says. “But it was so easy in such a sort of practical and unexciting way for it to be up to them. When you’re dealing with a franchise as large as this, you are such a passenger to however they’re going to carve it out. It’s just so specific. It’s ‘Star Wars.'” (For Season 2, Pascal says he was on the set far more, though he still sat out many of Mando’s stunts.)

“The Mandalorian” was indeed the next big s—, helping to catapult the launch of Disney Plus to 26.5 million subscribers in its first six weeks. With the “Star Wars” movies frozen in carbonite until 2023 (at least), I noted offhand that he’s now effectively the face of one of the biggest pop-culture franchises in the world. Pascal could barely suppress rolling his eyes.

“I mean, come on, there isn’t a face!” he says with a laugh that feels maybe a little forced. “If you want to say, ‘You’re the silhouette’ — which is also a team effort — then, yeah.” He pauses. “Can we just cut the s— and talk about the Child?”

Yes, of course, the Child — or, as the rest of the galaxy calls it, Baby Yoda. Pascal first saw the incandescently cute creature during his download of “Mandalorian” storyboards in that initial meeting with Favreau. “Literally, my eyes following left to right, up and down, and, boom, Baby Yoda close to the end of the first episode,” he says. “That was when I was like, ‘Oh, yep, that’s a winner!'”

Baby Yoda is undeniably the breakout star of “The Mandalorian,” inspiring infinite memes and apocryphal basketball game sightings. But the show wouldn’t work if audiences weren’t invested in Mando’s evolving emotional connection to the wee scene stealer, something Favreau says Pascal understood from the jump. “He’s tracking the arc of that relationship,” says the showrunner. “His insight has made us rethink moments over the course of the show.” (As with all things “Star Wars,” questions about specifics are deflected in deference to the all-powerful Galactic Order of Spoilers.)

Even if Pascal couldn’t always be inside Mando’s body, he never left the character’s head, always aware of how this orphaned bounty hunter who caroms from planet to planet would look askance at anything that felt too good (or too adorable) to be true.

“The transience is something that I’m incredibly familiar with, you know?” Pascal says. “Understanding the opportunity for complexity under all of the armor was not hard for me.”

When Pascal was 4 months old, his parents had to leave him and his sister with their aunt, so they could go into hiding to avoid capture during Pinochet’s crackdown against his opposition. After six months, they finally managed to climb the walls of the Venezuelan embassy during a shift change and claim asylum; from there, the family relocated, first to Denmark, then to San Antonio, where Pascal’s father got a job as a physician.

Pascal was too young to remember any of this, and for a healthy stretch of his childhood, his complicated Chilean heritage sat in parallel to his life in the U.S. — separate tracks, equally important, never quite intersecting. By the time Pascal was 8, his family was able to take regular trips back to Chile to visit with his 34 first cousins. But he doesn’t remember really talking about any of his time there all that much with his American friends.

“I remember at one point not even realizing that my parents had accents until a friend was like, ‘Why does your mom talk like that?'” Pascal says. “And I remember thinking, like what?”

Besides, he loved his life in San Antonio. His father took him and his sister to Spurs basketball games during the week if their homework was done. He hoodwinked his mother into letting him see “Poltergeist” at the local multiplex. He watched just about anything on cable; the HBO special of Whoopi Goldberg’s one-woman Broadway show knocked him flat. He remembers seeing Henry Thomas in “E.T.” and Christian Bale in “Empire of the Sun” and wishing ardently, urgently, I want to live those stories too.

Then his father got a job in Orange County, Calif. After Pascal finished the fifth grade, they moved there. It was a shock. “There were two really, really rough years,” he says. “A lot of bullying.”

His mother found him a nascent performing arts high school in the area, and Pascal burrowed even further into his obsessions, devouring any play or movie he could get his hands on. His senior year, a friend of his mother’s gave Pascal her ticket to a long two-part play running in downtown Los Angeles that her bad back couldn’t withstand. He got out of school early to drive there by himself. It was the pre-Broadway run of “Angels in America.”

“And it changed me,” he says with almost religious awe. “It changed me.”

After studying acting at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Pascal booked a succession of solid gigs, like MTV’s “Undressed” and “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” But the sudden death of his mother — who’d only just been permitted to move back to Chile a few years earlier — took the wind right from Pascal’s sails. He lost his agent, and his career stalled almost completely.

As a tribute to her, he decided to change his professional last name from Balmaceda, his father’s, to Pascal, his mother’s. “And also, because Americans had such a hard time pronouncing Balmaceda,” he says. “It was exhausting.”

Pascal even tried swapping out Pedro for Alexander (an homage to Ingmar Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander,” one of the formative films of his youth). “I was willing to do absolutely anything to work more,” he says. “And that meant if people felt confused by who they were looking at in the casting room because his first name was Pedro, then I’ll change that. It didn’t work.”

It was a desperately lean time for Pascal. He booked an occasional “Law & Order” episode, but mostly he was pounding the pavement along with his other New York theater friends — like Oscar Isaac, who met Pascal doing an Off Broadway play. They became fast, lifelong friends, bonding over their shared passions and frustrations as actors.

“It’s gotten better, but at that point, it was so easy to be pigeonholed in very specific roles because we’re Latinos,” says Isaac. “It’s like, how many gang member roles am I going to be sent?” As with so many actors, the dream Pascal and Isaac shared to live the stories of their childhoods had been stripped down to its most basic utility. “The dream was to be able to pay rent,” says Isaac. “There wasn’t a strategy. We were just struggling. It was talking about how to do this thing that we both love but seems kind of insurmountable.”

As with so few actors, that dream was finally rekindled through sheer nerve and the luck of who you know, when another lifelong friend, actor Sarah Paulson, agreed to pass along Pascal’s audition for Oberyn Martell to her best friend Amanda Peet, who is married to “Game of Thrones” co-showrunner David Benioff.

“First of all, it was an iPhone selfie audition, which was unusual,” Benioff remembers over email. “And this wasn’t one of the new-fangled iPhones with the fancy cameras. It looked like s—; it was shot vertical; the whole thing was very amateurish. Except for the performance, which was intense and believable and just right.”

Before Pascal knew it, he found himself in Belfast, sitting inside the Great Hall of the Red Keep as one of the judges at Tyrion Lannister’s trial for the murder of King Joffrey. “I was between Charles Dance and Lena Headey, with a view of the entire f—ing set,” Pascal says, his eyes wide and astonished still at the memory. “I couldn’t believe I didn’t have an uncomfortable costume on. You know, I got to sit — and with this view.” He sighs. “It strangely aligned itself with the kind of thinking I was developing as a child that, at that point, I was convinced was not happening.”

And then it all started to happen.

In early 2018, while Pascal was in Hawaii preparing to make the Netflix thriller “Triple Frontier” — opposite his old friend Isaac — he got a call from the film’s producer Charles Roven, who told him Patty Jenkins wanted to meet with him in London to discuss a role in another film Roven was producing, “Wonder Woman 1984.”

“It was a f—ing offer,” Pascal says in an incredulous whisper. “I wasn’t really grasping that Patty wanted to talk to me about a part that I was going to play, not a part that I needed to get. I wasn’t able to totally accept that.”

Pascal had actually shot a TV pilot with Jenkins that wasn’t picked up, made right before his life-changing run on “Game of Thrones” aired. “I got to work with Patty for three days or something and then thought I’d never see her again,” he says. “I didn’t even know she remembered me from that.”

She did. “I worked with him, so I knew him,” she says. “I didn’t need him to prove anything for me. I just loved the idea of him, and I thought he would be kind of unexpected, because he doesn’t scream ‘villain.'”

In Jenkins’ vision, Max Lord — a longstanding DC Comics rogue who shares a particularly tangled history with Wonder Woman — is a slick, self-styled tycoon with a knack for manipulation and an undercurrent of genuine pathos. It was the kind of larger-than-life character Pascal had never been asked to tackle before, so he did something equally unorthodox: He transformed his script into a kind of pop-art scrapbook, filled with blown-up photocopies of Max Lord from the comic books that Pascal then manipulated through his lens on the character.

Even the few pages Pascal flashes to me over Zoom are quite revealing. One, featuring Max sporting a power suit and a smarmy grin, has several burned-out holes, including through the character’s eye. Another page features Max surrounded by text bubbles into which Pascal has written, over and over and over again in itty-bitty lettering, “You are a f—ing piece of s—.”

“I felt like I had wake myself up again in a big way,” he says. “This was just a practical way of, like, instead of going home tired and putting Netflix on, [I would] actually deal with this physical thing, doodle and think about it and run it.”

Jenkins is so bullish on Pascal’s performance that she thinks it could explode his career in the same way her 2003 film “Monster” forever changed how the industry saw Charlize Theron. “I would never cast him as just the stoic, quiet guy,” Jenkins says. “I almost think he’s unrecognizable from ‘Narcos’ to ‘Wonder Woman.’ Wouldn’t even know that was the same guy. But I think that may change.”

When people can see “Wonder Woman 1984” remains caught in the chaos the pandemic has wreaked on the industry; both Pascal and Jenkins are hopeful the Dec. 25 release date will stick, but neither is terribly sure it will. Perhaps it’s because of that uncertainty, perhaps it’s because he’s spent his life on the outside of a dream he’s now suddenly living, but Pascal does not share Jenkins’ optimism that his experience making “Wonder Woman 1984” will open doors to more opportunities like it.

“It will never happen again,” Pascal says, once more in that incredulous whisper. “It felt so special.”

After all he’s done in a few short years, why wouldn’t Pascal think more roles like this are on his horizon?

“I don’t know!” he finally says with a playful — and pointed — howl. “I’m protecting myself psychologically! It’s just all too good to be true! How dare I!”

[officialinuyasha]

https://youtu.be/PzP32lBZQnE

Channel - https://www.youtube.com/officialinuyasha

Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/OfficialInuYashaGroup/https://officialinuyasha.tumblr.com/

I just recieved new information of the magazine that features Yashahime as the spotlight for the August 2020 issue. The magazine is called Animage. I heard that there is actually two magazines floating around. This is just the first one.In this month's issue, Mr. Katsuyuki Sumisawa from the series will talk about the history of the project (interview continues in the next issue), on the picture it has bravely drawn illustrations of the three girls!

Nakajima did the manuscript (original picture) who is another animator. Their artstyle closely resembles and imitates Kumiko's art style from Secret of the Cursed Mask.

It said it was made as a fantasy adventure story that set in between 2 periods: Sengoku and modern periods... Started from Reiwa period. 3 half demon young ladies are going to weave the feudal fairy tale that filled with peculiar and romantic themes.

The show will begin at this fall.Rumiko Takahashi provided the foundation of the story, as well as the character designs for Yashahime. Rumiko Takahashi checks the scripts and approves of them. She is clearly stated as the supervisor."It seems Setsuna is a little embarrassed when Towa takes her hand...?"

There is also a

Q/A with one of the creators.

Q. The most adaptable ability in this dangerous world of war-torn era and modern times, and the one who is good at survival skills... 

A. I think that the skills and knowledge acquired in the Yokai extermination shop and the calm personality can be applied with stability in more situations.Q. Towa, Setuna, Moroha Who is most likely to look after you if you live together?  A. Moroha.

Q. Towa, Setsuna, and Moroha seem to have the strength to fight against youkai, but what other abilities do you need to survive in a survival-era Sengoku period? 

A. Is it economic power? I think Setsuna is a youkai extermination shop, Moroha is a bounty hunter, and both are 14 years old and have jobs in their hands because they need economic power.  Moroha is cheerful and friendly, so I think it's the most nostalgic girl among the three.

It seems that the Inuyasha production team has been gathering regularly since the end of the first series, and Suwa P [Suwa Michihiko] who is one of the anime producers - said on TV that he wanted to do Inuyasha again. It seems that there was an opinion that other than the original author would make a story that was once completed, so in the second generation it may depend on the content? It seems that the story of the leading role of the daughters of Sesshomaru was born.

What are the highlights of the Yashahime Princess Half-Demon?

Towa, Setsuna and Moroha are the characters of "Yasha Hime" and give the feeling of the atmosphere of the world of "Inuyasha". I made it with these two points in mind, so I hope that you can enjoy both the newness and the nostalgia.

What is your father's identity? Introduced by InuYasha to as Moroha's father, Towa & Setsuna's father as Sesshoumaru with pictures from anime.  An introductory note that he was traveling to Inuyasha with Kagome, who has the power of a shrine maiden, and that Sesshomaru was traveling with Rin, a human girl. When introducing Sesshoumaru as Towa and Setsuna’s Father, this is the picture they put.

The introduction picture is seen from the awakened Rin in Episode 9 . That was the episode when Rin was revived by Sesshoumaru from the Final Act. When he places his hand on her cheek. It must be implying the possible future he has with her.“A complete Youkai who has a Youkai mother. The elder brother of InuYasha. He was against InuYasha but also fought with him. He traveled with a human girl named Rin.

”They will reveal Sesshoumaru’s wife in Yashahime.”

The only two girls when mentioning InuYasha and Sesshoumaru, is Kagome and Rin.You heard clearly, this magazine mentioned that there will be more romantic themes in Yashahime.

While only mentionin Rin and Kagome when it came to the two fathers. Highly implying that Rin is the mom but also not directly saying that it's her. It definitely sounds like a marketing ploy to get our attention. Again, it is highly implied that the mother here is Rin. Unless they do a quick wild card on us and change all of what is implied.It said we are getting more romantic themes. I wonder what we are going to be getting?!

It amazes me that this magazine confirms that they've been talking about a sequel since the Final Act and the fact that Rumiko Takahashi even did the base story for Yashahime.

I remember in the Bluray interview with Katsuyuki Sumisawa where he talked about how he channels her visions while other writers fail to do so. He gets praise from her often with the work that he does. She checks all of the scripts, goes over them and approves of them.

This sequel is clearly important to both of them. It was created from Rumiko Takahashi's idea and Katsuyuki Sumisawa's writing ability to be able to translate it into what we will be getting very soon! The interesting thing is, Sumisawa also was the one that wrote the Drama CD that was bundled with the Final Act. In the Drama CD, Sesshoumaru actually proposes to Rin.Are you guys excited as much as I am?Do you guys think that Rin will be the mom? Comment below! If you want to stay on top of any Yashahime news, be sure to subscribe to my channel!

Highly Requested Spanish Translation: Acabo de recibir nueva información de la revista que presenta a Yashahime como el centro de atención para el número de agosto de 2020. La revista se llama Animage. Escuché que en realidad hay dos revistas flotando. Este es solo el primero.En el número de este mes, el Sr. Katsuyuki Sumisawa de la serie hablará sobre la historia del proyecto (la entrevista continúa en el próximo número), ¡en la imagen ha dibujado valientemente ilustraciones de las tres chicas!Nakajima hizo el manuscrito (imagen original) que es otro animador. Su estilo artístico se parece mucho e imita el estilo artístico de Kumiko de Secret of the Cursed Mask. Dijo que se hizo como una historia de aventuras de fantasía que se desarrolla entre 2 períodos: Sengoku y períodos modernos ... Comenzó en el período Reiwa. 3 señoritas mitad demonio van a tejer el cuento de hadas feudal que se llenó de temas peculiares y románticos. El espectáculo comenzará este otoño.Rumiko Takahashi proporcionó la base de la historia, así como los diseños de personajes para Yashahime. Rumiko Takahashi comprueba los guiones y los aprueba. Ella se declara claramente como el supervisor."¿Parece que Setsuna está un poco avergonzada cuando Towa toma su mano ...?"También hay una sesión de preguntas y respuestas con uno de los creadores. Q. La habilidad más adaptable en este mundo peligroso de la era devastada por la guerra y los tiempos modernos, y el que es bueno en habilidades de supervivencia ... A. Creo que las habilidades y los conocimientos adquiridos en la tienda de exterminio de Yokai y la personalidad tranquila se pueden aplicar con estabilidad en más situaciones.Q. Towa, Setuna, Moroha ¿Quién es más probable que te cuide si viven juntos? A. Moroha.Q. Towa, Setsuna y Moroha parecen tener la fuerza para luchar contra los youkai, pero ¿qué otras habilidades necesitas para sobrevivir en un período Sengoku de la era de la supervivencia? A. ¿Es el poder económico? Creo que Setsuna es una tienda de exterminio youkai, Moroha es un cazarrecompensas, y ambos tienen 14 años y trabajos en sus manos porque necesitan poder económico. Moroha es alegre y amigable, así que creo que es la chica más nostálgica de las tres. Parece que el equipo de producción de Inuyasha se ha estado reuniendo regularmente desde el final de la primera serie, y Suwa P [Suwa Michihiko], quien es uno de los productores de anime, dijo en la televisión que quería hacer Inuyasha nuevamente. Parece que existía la opinión de que otro que el autor original haría una historia que una vez terminada, ¿entonces en la segunda generación puede depender del contenido? Parece que nació la historia del papel principal de las hijas de Sesshomaru.¿Cuáles son los aspectos más destacados del Yashahime Princess Half-Demon? Towa, Setsuna y Moroha son los personajes de "Yasha Hime" y dan la sensación de la atmósfera del mundo de "Inuyasha". Lo hice con estos dos puntos en mente, así que espero que puedan disfrutar tanto de la novedad como de la nostalgia.¿Cuál es la identidad de tu padre? Presentado por InuYasha como el padre de Moroha, el padre de Towa y Setsuna como Sesshoumaru con imágenes del anime. Una nota introductoria de que viajaba a Inuyasha con Kagome, quien tiene el poder de una doncella del santuario, y que Sesshomaru viajaba con Rin, una chica humana. Al presentar a Sesshoumaru como el padre de Towa y Setsuna, esta es la imagen que ponen.La imagen de introducción se ve desde el despertado Rin en el Episodio 9. Ese fue el episodio en el que Sesshoumaru revivió a Rin del Acta Final. Cuando le pone la mano en la mejilla. Debe implicar el posible futuro que tiene con ella.“Un Youkai completo que tiene una madre Youkai. El hermano mayor de InuYasha. Estaba en contra de InuYasha pero también luchó con él. Viajó con una niña humana llamada Rin.Revelarán a la esposa de Sesshoumaru en Yashahime.Las únicas dos chicas cuando mencionan a InuYasha y Sesshoumaru son Kagome y Rin. Escuchaste claramente, esta revista mencionó que habrá más temas románticos en Yashahime. Aunque solo mencioné a Rin y Kagome cuando se trataba de los dos padres. Altamente implicando que Rin es la madre, pero tampoco dice directamente que es ella. Definitivamente suena como una estratagema de marketing para llamar nuestra atención. Una vez más, está muy implícito que la madre aquí es Rin. A menos que nos hagan un comodín rápido y cambien todo lo que está implícito.Dijo que estamos recibiendo temas más románticos. Me pregunto qué vamos a obtener.Me sorprende que esta revista confirme que han estado hablando de una secuela desde el acto final y el hecho de que Rumiko Takahashi incluso hizo la historia base para Yashahime. Recuerdo en la entrevista de Bluray con Katsuyuki Sumisawa donde habló sobre cómo canaliza sus visiones mientras que otros escritores no lo hacen. Él recibe elogios de ella a menudo con el trabajo que hace. Ella revisa todos los guiones, los revisa y los aprueba. Esta secuela es claramente importante para ambos. ¡Fue creado a partir de la idea de Rumiko Takahashi y la capacidad de escritura de Katsuyuki Sumisawa para poder traducirlo en lo que obtendremos muy pronto!Lo interesante es que Sumisawa también fue quien escribió el CD de Drama que se incluyó con el Acta Final. En el CD de Drama, Sesshoumaru le propone matrimonio a Rin.¿Están tan emocionados como yo?¿Ustedes piensan que Rin será la madre? ¡Comenta abajo! Si quieres estar al tanto de cualquier noticia de Yashahime, ¡asegúrate de suscribirte a mi canal!

[vienna-olive]

Dream SMP: Using Minecraft as a Vessel for a Storyline

With viewers worldwide, members of a popular Minecraft server known as the Dream SMP have drawn in viewers through their original roleplay content, using Minecraft as a vessel to tell a story and have fun with each other outside of the plot line. Over the past couple of months, members have broken some of the highest viewer counts on the live streaming platform Twitch, with long time member TommyInnit having a record high live viewer count of 650,237 and other long-time Dream SMP member, Tubbo, with 332,671.

THE ORIGIN OF THE SMP

The Dream SMP is a private and whitelist survival multiplayer (SMP) server in the game Minecraft created by the content creator known as Dream. The server’s beginning was streamed on Twitch April 24, 2020 and featured members of the group known as the Dream Team composed of content creators Dream, GeorgeNotFound, Sapnap, and BadBoyHalo. At the time the server originated, all members (producing content and not just friends of the cast) were at or less than 1 million subscribers on Youtube. According to Youtube, 1 million is a great milestone: “We’re honored to celebrate them when they reach Creator Award subscriber milestones,'' 1 million being one of those milestones. Its initial rise to popularity, however, began around July and August of 2020, when seventeen-year-old Minecraft livestreamer from the UK, Tommy “TommyInnit”, joined the SMP and began a series of arguments and banter with other members of the SMP. It would also ignite what is known as the Disc Saga: music discs acquired by Tommy that he and Dream would continue to fight about until January of the next year. TommyInnit didn’t just bring bickering, though, he also brought along many more members that would later become some of the most statistically large names of the SMP and the Minecraft community in general: Tubbo and Wilbur Soot. Wilbur Soot, particularly, played a critical role in the growth of the SMP.

BEGINNING OF THE STORYLINE

Originally, nobody had planned on the SMP becoming what it is today: whether that is from a high viewership perspective or how unexpected the creation of a plot line was. As far as plot, it was Wilbur “Soot” Gold that created it. He tells in an Insider interview that “I was invited into the Dream SMP near its inception but I only joined fully when I had an idea for building a country in Minecraft”. In the SMP’s infancy, Soot began creating an “illegal potion shop” that would spin off into a nation of non-American members called L’Manberg. He further tells Insider how he writes for the SMP, saying “I write up a series of plot hooks and points that should tie together, however we improv dialogue and comedy throughout to take us from point to point”. As Soot mentioned, these streams and videos that take place aren’t simply the players getting in-game achievements; the lore functions as would a television show, with some episodes holding more relevant pieces of plot and some just being the in-between pieces to help the plot develop. Another early member, Fundy, mentioned that the server went from “a casual survival game to a whole story-line filled with plots and twists,” and that “role-playing is a key feature of the Dream SMP, some parts are scripted, some parts are improv, and some parts are ‘non-canon’, where it is just counted as a standard Minecraft server”. The unique nature of the Dream SMP makes it viewable for people who may not be as invested in the lore as others. Additionally, moderator of the popular “DREAMSMP UPDATES!” account on Twitter with over 205,000 followers, NotAlex, told Insider “The Dream SMP did something really special--taking an original idea, creating new things that have never been seen on Minecraft and incorporating them with humor and characters that you can become easily attached with”. This statement is backed up by Youtube statistics: little over a year ago Dream had 1 million subscribers and currently has over 21 million Youtube subscribers, boasting over 1.8 billion views on his main channel. The numbers speak for themselves, and this is what people appear to like. In addition, there have been other SMP roleplay servers such as SMPLive or SMPEarth, but none of them have pertained to as large of a demographic as the Dream SMP has.

WHAT IS GOING ON WITH THE PLOT?

The SMP can be mapped into two different sections: Before Tommy, which was non lore-based streaming, and After Tommy, where he started an initial piece of lore and his friend Wilbur Soot created a storyline that would play off of that. The depths of the SMP can be broken down into many different smaller sections with different character analysis and connecting different plot points to each other, however here are is the most basic ideas of the plot:

Note: This is all roleplay and none of the malicious attitudes portrayed by the characters are that of the players themselves

*Indicate ongoing pieces of plot

1.Disc Saga: Tommy obtains music discs that become his prized possessions. Dream picks on Tommy and tries to steal them so he can have power over him. Tommy recruits his friend Tubbo to help him retrieve them. Ultimately, the Disc Saga ends January 2021 after Tommy and Tubbo retrieve them and send Dream to prison.

2. L’Manberg War: TommyInnit and Wilbur Soot create a new country entitled L’Manberg in hopes to create something “better” than the world of the basic Dream SMP. Upset with this, Dream declares war on the few members of L’Manberg against his own forces. L’Manberg seems to be winning and their ally, Eret, brings them to a final control room where it seems as if they were to get powerful gear to fight against Dream. However, Eret instead reveals to be a traitor and all members of L’Manberg lose one of their three lives. Here, the infamous phrase of the SMP is coined by Eret: “It was never meant to be'' and L’Manberg is blown up for the first time. It is also here where Dream and Tommy have a duel to decide the fate of L’Manberg’s independence. Dream wins, however Tommy gives his discs to Dream in order to give L’Manberg independence.

3. L’Manberg Election and Electoral Fallout: Wilbur Soot and Tommy run as President and Vice President of L’Manberg under the name POG2020 in order to show their citizens that it functions like a democracy. They have two main opposing sides: SWAG 2020, Quackity and GeorgeNotFound, and SCHLATT 2020, JSchlatt, who pool their votes together. The creators of L’Manberg, POG 2020, won the majority of votes, but because SWAG and SCHLATT pooled their votes, SWAG/SCHLATT 2020 won the election. As the new president of L’Manberg, Schlatt revokes the citizenship of Wilbur Soot and Tommy and they are forced into exile where they begin to work with long time Minecraft player Technoblade in an underground commune known as “Pogtopia''.

4. Manberg/Pogtopia War: Schlatt renames L’Manberg to “Manberg'' and it begins to function similarly to a dictatorship. Wilbur is driven to insanity as he cannot stand his beloved country falling into the hands of someone else. Throughout this time period, many members of Manberg escape to join forces with Pogtopia. In a final Pogtopia conflict, the forces of Manberg and Pogtopia clash and Pogtopia takes the victory. They reclaim the land and Tubbo becomes the President. Everything seems to be going fine, however, Wilbur leaves the celebration and enters a small secret room that is presumably connected to 736 pieces of TNT under L’Manberg. Just as Wilbur is about to turn his back on his allies, his father finds him and asks “what are you doing”. Wilbur explains “the thing that I built this nation for doesn’t exist anymore... it’s over”. He repeats the infamous saying that happened before L’Manberg was blown up once before and reveals himself to be the traitor of his own nation: “It was never meant to be”. Destruction occurs and Wilbur forces his father to kill him. This is Wilbur’s last death.

5. Exile Conflict: After the war, citizens begin repairing the damages of the nation. Meanwhile, Tommy and, at the time, new member Ranboo set GeorgeNotFound’s house to flames. Tommy takes the fall for this as Dream pressures for Tubbo to exile Tommy, his best friend, as punishment. Ultimately it is decided that Tommy will be exiled, alone. Dream visits Tommy a lot during exile to manipulate him into thinking they were friends. Later, Dream blows up Tommy's exile home and Tommy runs away to live with Technoblade and tries to restore the allyship they once had. They stick together until Tommy and Tubbo forgive each other and Tommy leaves Techno. Tubbo accepts Tommy back into L’Manberg and at this point, Dream has both of Tommy’s prized discs.

6. End of the Disc Saga: Dream leaves Tommy a compass and tells him that only he and Tubbo are allowed to meet him where the compass leads, otherwise the discs will be gone forever. They meet up and Dream brings them to his lair where he shows his plans to collect prized possessions from every member of the SMP so he has control over them. Dream threatens that Tommy can choose between the discs or Tubbo’s last canon life. Tubbo tells Tommy to choose the discs as he says that Dream “described me as a pawn, and this is checkmate”. However, Punz, a merchant that Tommy paid in hopes to make amends, arrived with the rest of the SMP to Dream’s lair. They all discover the truth about how Dream wants to have blackmail on them all. Tommy takes 2 of Dream’s canon lives, all of his belongings, and sends him to an inescapable prison. Tommy secures the discs and the disc saga ends as Tommy and Tubbo listen to the discs at their favorite location.

7. Prison Arc*: Tommy has visited Dream in prison several times, but went to say goodbye to Dream for the last time before starting a new chapter in his life. However, while Tommy is inside, TNT goes off somewhere around the prison and it is forced into lockdown. Based on a contract Tommy signed, he had to stay in the prison until the guard figures out what happened. While they were trapped, Dream taunts him in a playful manner, but Tommy is still shaken about it as the prison reminds him of several traumatic moments that happened in his past (the L’Manberg final control room and exile). Tommy is told of a resurrection book that Dream supposedly has. Tommy is skeptical and lashes out on Dream questioning him on why Tommy should believe. Dream beats Tommy’s body and Tommy dies. His closest colleagues are told of his death and many blame themselves. Days later, Tommy is resurrected from Dream in the prison, however, nobody knows that he got resurrected. Dream and Tommy discover that 1 day on the SMP is 1 month in the afterlife, meaning Wilbur has been in the afterlife for 9 years also meaning that Wilbur is the most informed person on the SMP. Dream plots to bring Wilbur back to life as he thinks that he will get Wilbur to break him out of prison.

8. Blood Vines*: Mysterious red vines have covered the SMP and emerge from what they call the “Egg”. Member known as BadBoyHalo becomes closest with the vines as he can hear them talking to him. He tells many people that “the egg demands blood” and tries to get members to join the Egg’s side, yet many refuse.

WHERE IT IS HEADED

It doesn’t seem like any of the fans are going anywhere, especially considering SMP members continuously reach the top spots on Youtube’s trending page. The Minecraft community in general has begun to flourish during the COVID-19 quarantine, as it has brought back older players that need something to do while stuck inside as well as the new generation of kids consuming this type of entertainment. It is safe to say that the Dream SMP storyline will continue to captivate viewers through its original use of Minecraft at least until the plot ultimately ends. To find more in depth information about the Dream SMP plot as well as the players themselves, visit the Dream SMP Wiki at dreamteam.fandom.com.

[f1chronicle]

Hello and welcome to F1 News Today with Tillie!  Let’s take a look at what’s making news in the world of Formula 1 today… 1) Uralkali Haas F1 Team confirms 2022 driver line-up 2) Kimi Raikkonen to return in Russia 3) Max Verstappen hits out at 'hypocrites' who said he walked away from Lewis Hamilton crash 4) Lewis Hamilton can empathise with 'intense' pressure Max Verstappen is feeling We’re powered by the F1 Chronicle, make sure you visit f1chronicle.com for more news ahead of the 2021 Russian Grand Prix, and subscribe to the F1 Chronicle YouTube channel so you never miss an episode of F1 News Today.  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit the Grid Talk store ►  https://ift.tt/3ljWC2A Subscribe ► https://www.youtube.com/c/Formula1GridTalk  Follow ► Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/F1ChronicleOfficial/  Twitter – https://twitter.com/F1Chronicle  Tumblr – https://f1chronicle.tumblr.com/  Artwork ► Avatar by Chereverie Twitter: @mewdokas Tumblr: chereverie Instagram: chereverie.art ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Transcription ► Hello and welcome to F1 News Today with Tillie!  Right, let’s take a look at what’s making news in the world of Formula 1 today. First up, in a move that surprised absolutely nobody, Haas confirmed Nikita Mazepin will continue with the team in 2022. I’m shocked… The team also confirmed Mick Schumacher will stay with the team next season too, squashing rumours of a potential move to Alfa Romeo.  Speaking about the driver pairing for next season, team principal Guenther Steiner said “We knew we wanted continuity behind the wheel in 2022, and I’m happy to confirm exactly that with Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin competing for Uralkali Haas F1 Team next year. “2021 has afforded both drivers the opportunity to learn Formula 1 – and as rookies – they’ve done a lot of that this year. “It’s been a tough season for sure with the package we’ve had, but at the same time, they’ve both embraced the challenge and worked closely with the team, to learn our processes and adapt to the rigours of a Formula 1 campaign, and all that brings – both internally and externally. “Now as we look ahead to the 2022 season, we’re confident we can move forward as a team and give Mick and Nikita a competitive race package to make the next step in their Formula 1 careers.” Next up, in news we love to hear, Kimi Raikkonen has overcome covid, and will return to the cockpit of his Alfa Romeo in Russia this weekend. After missing the last two races, the Flying Finn is happy to be back to work, saying “I’m pleased to be back in the car after missing two rounds. “Obviously, nobody wants to test positive, but it happened and we had to follow the rules. “But that is all in the past, and now my focus is on Sochi. “The team has shown some potential in the last few races, now we need to convert that into a good result. “I don’t think being back will feel any different, I just want to get on with my job and hopefully have a good race." Looking now to the title fight, Max Verstappen has hit out at 'hypocrites' who said he walked away from Lewis Hamilton after the pair came together at Monza two weeks ago. After the incident, which took both drivers out of the race, Hamilton said he was surprised Verstappen did not check to see if he was OK. Max, who has a three-place grid penalty to serve at this Sunday's Russian Grand Prix for his role in the collision, was annoyed at the implication that he had walked away. When asked what he made of the suggestion he had not checked on Hamilton, Max said: "I mean, there are a lot of hypocrites in the world that's for sure. "I jumped out of the car, I looked to the left and he's of course still trying to reverse, shaking the wheel, trying to get out from under my car so I think he was absolutely fine. "Also, flying to America on Monday or Tuesday to attend a Gala, I think you only do that if you feel fine so I think already there, everything was all under control." My word, things are really starting to heat up between these two. Well here’s hoping the duo can keep it on the track this weekend, and give us a thrilling final eight races of 2022. I’m tipping a Valtteri Bottas win in Russia, the Finn has been flying after the weight of his contract situation was sorted. Who are you tipping? Well that concludes this episode of F1 News Today with Tillie! Source Articles ► https://f1chronicle.com/uralkali-haas-f1-team-confirms-2022-driver-line-up/  https://ift.tt/3o2klqZ https://ift.tt/3lLv4TW https://www.espn.com/f1/story/_/id/32262018/lewis-hamilton-empathise-intense-pressure-max-verstappen-feeling   #F1NewsToday #F1NewsLive #F1News by Formula 1 Grid Talk

[warninggraphiccontent]

16 July 2021

Food for thought

At last week's Data Bites, I noted how 'Wales' is a standard unit of area. This week, along comes a map which shows that all the built-up land in the UK is equivalent to one Wales:

The map is from the National Food Strategy, published yesterday (and the man has a point).

It has divided opinion, judging by the responses to this tweet. I understand where the sceptics are coming from - at first glance, it may be confusing, given Wales isn't actually entirely built up, Cornwall made of peat, or Shetland that close to the mainland (or home to all the UK's golf courses). And I'm often critical of people using maps just because the data is geographical in some way, when a different, non-map visualisation would be better.

But I actually think this one works. Using a familiar geography to represent areas given over to particular land use might help us grasp it more readily (urban areas = size of Wales, beef and lamb pastures = more of the country than anything else). It's also clear that a huge amount of overseas land is needed to feed the UK, too.

The map has grabbed people's attention and got them talking, which is no bad thing. And it tells the main stories I suspect its creators wanted to. In other words, it's made those messages... land.

Trash talk

Happy Take Out The Trash Day!

Yesterday saw A LOT of things published by Cabinet Office - data on special advisers, correspondence with parliamentarians, public bodies and major projects to name but a few, and the small matter of the new plans outlining departmental priorities and how their performance will be measured.

It's great that government is publishing this stuff. It's less great that too much of it still involves data being published in PDFs not spreadsheets. And it's even less great that the ignoble tradition of Take Out The Trash Day continues, for all the reasons here (written yesterday) and here (written in 2017).

I know this isn't (necessarily) deliberate, and it's a lot of good people working very hard to get things finished before the summer (as my 2017 piece acknowledges). And it's good to see government being transparent.

But it's 2021, for crying out loud. The data collection should be easier. The use of this data in government should be more widespread to begin with.

We should expect better.

In other news:

I was really pleased to have helped the excellent team at Transparency International UK (by way of some comments on a draft) with their new report exploring access and influence in UK housing policy, House of Cards. Read it here.

One of our recent Data Bites speakers, Doug Gurr, is apparently in the running to run the NHS. More here.

Any excuse to plug my Audrey Tang interview.

The good folk at ODI Leeds/The Data City/the ODI have picked up and run with my (and others') attempt to map the UK government data ecosystem. Do help them out.

Five years ago this week...

Regarding last week's headline of Three Lines on a Chart: obviously I was going to.

Have a great weekend

Gavin

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Today's links:

Graphic content

Vax populi

Why vaccine-shy French are suddenly rushing to get jabbed* (The Economist)

Morning update on Macron demolishing French anti-vax feeling (or at least vax-hesitant) (Sophie Pedder via Nicolas Berrod)

How Emmanuel Macron’s “health passes” have led to a surge in vaccine bookings in France* (New Statesman)

How effective are coronavirus vaccines against the Delta variant?* (FT)

England faces the sternest test of its vaccination strategy* (The Economist)

Where Are The Newest COVID Hot Spots? Mostly Places With Low Vaccination Rates (NPR)

There's A Stark Red-Blue Divide When It Comes To States' Vaccination Rates (NPR)

All talk, no jabs: the reality of global vaccine diplomacy* (Telegraph)

Vaccination burnout? (Reuters)

Viral content

COVID-19: Will the data allow the government to lift restrictions on 19 July? (Sky News)

UK Covid-19 rates are the highest of any European country after Cyprus* (New Statesman)

COVID-19: Cautionary tale from the Netherlands' coronavirus unlocking - what lessons can the UK learn? (Sky News)

‘Inadequate’: Covid breaches on the rise in Australia’s hotel quarantine (The Guardian)

Side effects

COVID-19: Why is there a surge in winter viruses at the moment? (Sky News)

London Beats New York Back to Office, by a Latte* (Bloomberg)

Outdoor dining reopened restaurants for all — but added to barriers for disabled* (Washington Post)

NYC Needs the Commuting Crowds That Have Yet to Fully Return* (Bloomberg)

Politics and government

Who will succeed Angela Merkel?* (The Economist)

Special advisers in government (Tim for IfG)

How stingy are the UK’s benefits? (Jamie Thunder)

A decade of change for children's services funding (Pro Bono Economics)

National Food Strategy (independent review for UK Government)

National Food Strategy: Tax sugar and salt and prescribe veg, report says (BBC News)

Air, space

Can Wizz challenge Ryanair as king of Europe’s skies?* (FT)

Air passengers have become much more confrontational during the pandemic* (The Economist)

Branson and Bezos in space: how their rocket ships compare* (FT)

Sport

Euro 2020: England expects — the long road back to a Wembley final* (FT)

Most football fans – and most voters – support the England team taking the knee* (New Statesman)

Domestic violence surges after a football match ends* (The Economist)

The Most Valuable Soccer Player In America Is A Goalkeeper (FiveThirtyEight)

Sport is still rife with doping* (The Economist)

Wimbledon wild card success does not disguise financial challenge* (FT)

Can The U.S. Women’s Swim Team Make A Gold Medal Sweep? (FiveThirtyEight)

Everything else

Smoking: How large of a global problem is it? And how can we make progress against it? (Our World in Data)

Record June heat in North America and Europe linked to climate change* (FT)

Here’s a list of open, non-code tools that I use for #dataviz, #dataforgood, charity data, maps, infographics... (Lisa Hornung)

Meta data

Identity crisis

A single sign-on and digital identity solution for government (GDS)

UK government set to unveil next steps in digital identity market plan (Computer Weekly)

BCS calls for social media platforms to verify users to curb abuse (IT Pro)

ID verification for social media as a solution to online abuse is a terrible idea (diginomica)

Who is behind the online abuse of black England players and how can we stop it?* (New Statesman)

Euro 2020: Why abuse remains rife on social media (BBC News)

UK government

Online Media Literacy Strategy (DCMS)

Privacy enhancing technologies: Adoption guide (CDEI)

The Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset is now available in the ONS Secure Research Service (ADR UK)

Our Home Office 2024 DDaT Strategy is published (Home Office)

The UK’s Digital Regulation Plan makes few concrete commitments (Tech Monitor)

OSR statement on data transparency and the role of Heads of Profession for Statistics (Office for Statistics Regulation)

Good data from any source can help us report on the global goals to the UN (ONS)

The state of the UK’s statistical system 2020/21 (Office for Statistics Regulation)

Far from average: How COVID-19 has impacted the Average Weekly Earnings data (ONS)

Health

Shock treatment: can the pandemic turn the NHS digital? (E&T)

Can Vaccine Passports Actually Work? (Slate)

UK supercomputer Cambridge-1 to hunt for medical breakthroughs (The Guardian)

AI got 'rithm

An Applied Research Agenda for Data Governance for AI (GPAI)

Taoiseach and Minister Troy launch Government Roadmap for AI in Ireland (Irish Government)

Tech

“I Don’t Think I’ll Ever Go Back”: Return-to-Office Agita Is Sweeping Silicon Valley (Vanity Fair)

Google boss Sundar Pichai warns of threats to internet freedom (BBC News)

The class of 2021: Welcome to POLITICO’s annual ranking of the 28 power players behind Europe’s tech revolution (Politico)

Inside Facebook’s Data Wars* (New York Times)

Concern trolls and power grabs: Inside Big Tech’s angry, geeky, often petty war for your privacy (Protocol)

Exclusive extract: how Facebook's engineers spied on women* (Telegraph)

Face off

Can facial analysis technology create a child-safe internet? (The Observer)

#Identity, #OnlineSafety & #AgeVerification – notes on “Can facial analysis technology create a child-safe internet?” (Alec Muffett)

Europe makes the case to ban biometric surveillance* (Wired)

Open government

From open data to joined-up government: driving efficiency with BA Obras (Open Contracting Partnership)

AVAILABLE NOW! DEMOCRACY IN A PANDEMIC: PARTICIPATION IN RESPONSE TO CRISIS (Involve)

Designing digital services for equitable access (Brookings)

Data

Trusting the Data: How do we reach a public settlement on the future of tech? (Demos)

"Why do we use R rather than Excel?" (Terence Eden)

Everything else

The world’s biggest ransomware gang just disappeared from the internet (MIT Technology Review)

Our Statistical Excellence Awards Ceremony has just kicked off! (Royal Statistical Society)

Pin resets wipe all data from over 100 Treasury mobile phones (The Guardian)

Data officers raid two properties over Matt Hancock CCTV footage leak (The Guardian)

How did my phone number end up for sale on a US database? (BBC News)

Gendered disinformation: 6 reasons why liberal democracies need to respond to this threat (Demos, Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung)

Opportunities

EVENT: Justice data in the digital age: Balancing risks and opportunities (The LEF)

JOBS: Senior Data Strategy - Data Innovation & Business Analysis Hub (MoJ)

JOB: Director of Evidence and Analytics (Natural England)

JOB: Policy and Research Associate (Open Ownership)

JOB: Research Officer in Data Science (LSE Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science)

JOB: Chief operating officer (Democracy Club, via Jukesie)

And finally...

me: can’t believe we didn’t date sooner... (@MNateShyamalan)

Are you closer to Georgia, or to Georgia? (@incunabula)

A masterpiece in FOIA (Chris Cook)

How K-Pop conquered the universe* (Washington Post)

Does everything really cost more? Find out with our inflation quiz.* (Washington Post)

[paths-of-my-childhood-candid]

Lover Conquers All

By: Mark Sutherland for Music Week Date: November 4th 2019 issue (published online on December 13th 2019)

She’s the world’s biggest pop star, but despite her global success, Taylor Swift is also the music industry’s greatest advocate for artists’ and songwriters’ rights. And, with a ground-breaking new record deal and a bold new album, Lover, she’s not about to stop now. Music Week meets her to talk music and business...

Around this time of year, the Taylor Swift anniversaries come at you thick and fast. Nine years since her third album, Speak Now, every note of which was written entirely by Swift, hit the shelves. Five years since she released her mould-breaking pop album, 1989, and went from the world’s biggest country star to the world’s biggest pop star overnight. Two years since her Reputation record saw her become the only musician to post four successive million-plus debut sales weeks in the United States. And so on.

But today, Swift’s mind is drawn further back, to the 13th anniversary of her debut, self-titled record, and the days when her album releases weren’t automatically accompanied by mountains of hype and enough think-pieces to sink a battleship. Her journal entries from the time - helpfully reprinted as part of the deluxe editions of her new album, Lover - reveal her as an excited, optimistic teenager, but also one with a grasp of marketing strategies and label politics way beyond her years, even if she was reluctant to actually take credit for her ideas.

“It always was and it always will be an interesting dance being a young woman in the music industry,” she smiles ruefully. “We don’t have a lot of female executives, we’re working on getting more female engineers and producers but, while we are such a drastic gender minority, it’s interesting to try and figure out how to be.”

And, of course, when Swift started out she was, as she points out, “an actual kid”.

“I was planning the release of my first album when I was 15 years old,” she reminisces. “And I was a fully gangly 15, I reminded everyone of their niece! I was in this industry in Nashville and country music, where I was making album marketing calls, but I never wanted to stand up and say, ‘Yeah, that promotions plan you just complimented my label on, I thought of that! Me and my Mom thought of that!’

“When you’re a new artist you wonder how much space you can take up and, as a woman, you wonder how much space you can take up pretty much your whole period of growing up,” she continues. “For me, growing up and knowing that I was an adult was realising that I was allowed to take up space from a marketing perspective, from a business perspective, from an opinionated perspective. And that feels a lot better than constantly trying to wonder if I’m allowed to be here.”

In the intervening years, Taylor Swift has released six further, brilliant albums, growing from country starlet to all-conquering pop behemoth along the way. She takes up “more space”, as she would put it, than any other musician on the planet: a sales and now - having belatedly embraced the format with Lover - streaming phenomenon; a powerhouse stadium performer; an award-garlanded songwriter for herself and others; and a social media giant with a combined 278 million followers across Instagram, Twitter and Facebook (which would make the Taylor Nation the fourth most populous one on earth, after China, India and the US).

But her influence on music and the music industry doesn’t end there. Because, over the years, Swift has also become a leading advocate for artists’ and songwriters’ rights, in a digital landscape that doesn’t always have such matters as a priority.

In 2015, she stood up to Apple Music over its plans to not pay artist royalties during subscribers’ three-month free trials (Apple backed down immediately). She pulled her entire catalogue from Spotify in 2014 in protest that its free tier was devaluing music, sending Daniel Ek scrambling to justify his business model. When she returned in 2017, it was a crucial fillip for the streaming service’s IPO plans.

More recently, her ground-breaking new record deal with Republic Records contained clauses not only guaranteeing her ownership of her future masters, but also ensuring Universal Music will share the spoils of its Spotify shares with its artists, without any payments counting against unrecouped balances. And when her long-time former label boss Scott Borchetta sold Big Machine to Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings, taking Swift’s first six albums with him, the star publicly called out what she saw as her “worst-case scenario” and stressed: “You deserve to own the art you make”. She may yet re-record her old songs in protest.

In short, Swift has, for a long time now, been unafraid to use her voice on industry matters, whether they pertain to her own stellar career or the thousands of other artists out there struggling to make a living.

All of which makes Swift not just the greatest star of our age, but perhaps the most important to the future development of the industry as a more artist-centric, songwriter-friendly business. Hers is still the life of the pop phenomenon - she spent today in Los Angeles doing promotion and photoshoots (or, in her words, “having people put make-up on me”) as Lover continues to build on huge critical acclaim and even huger initial sales. But now, she’s kicking back with her cats - one of whom seems determined to disrupt Music Week’s interview by “stampeding” through at every opportunity - and ready to talk business.

And for Swift, business is good. The impact of her joining streaming, and the decline of traditional album sales, may have prevented her from posting a fifth successive one million-plus sales debut, but Lover still sold more US copies (867,000) in its first week than any record since her own Reputation. It’s sold 117,513 copies to date in the UK, according to the Official Charts Company.

Even better, while Reputation - a record forged in the white heat of a social media snakestorm over her on-going feud with Kanye West - was plenty of show and rather less grow, Lover continues to reveal hidden depths. Reputation struck a sometimes curious contrast between the unrepentant warrior Swift she was showing to the outside world and the love story with British actor Joe Aiwyn that was quietly developing behind closed doors, but Lover is the sort of versatile, cohesive album that the streaming age was supposed to kill off.

It contains more than its fair share of pop bangers (You Need To Calm Down, Me!), but also some gorgeously-crafted acoustic tracks (Lover, Cornelia Street), some pithy political commentary (The Man, Miss America & The Heartbreak Prince) and the sort of musical diversions (Paper Rings’ irresistible rockabilly stomp, the childlike oddity of It’s Nice To Have A Friend) that no other pop superstar would have the sheer musical chops to attempt, let alone pull off.

“Taylor’s creative instincts as an artist and songwriter are brilliant,” says Monte Lipman, founder and CEO of Swift’s US label, Republic. “Our partnership represents a strategic alliance built on mutual respect, trust, and complete transparency. Her vision is extraordinary as she sets the tone for every campaign and initiative.”

No wonder David Joseph, chairman/CEO of her long-time UK label Virgin EMI’s parent company Universal Music UK, is thrilled with how things are going.

“Love Story was a fitting first single release for Taylor here - she’s loved the UK from day one and has engaged so much with her fans and teams,” says Joseph. “She really respects and values what’s going on here creatively. To see her go from playing the Students’ Union at King’s College to Wembley Stadium has been extraordinary. Taylor is an artist constantly striving for perfection, and with Lover - from my personal point of view, her most accomplished work to date adore working with her and whilst it’s been more than 10 years this still feels like the start.”

And today, Swift is keen to concentrate on the present and future. She has a starring role in Cats coming up (and a new song on the soundtrack, Beautiful Ghosts, co-written with Andrew Lloyd Webber) and, after a spectacularly intimate Paris launch show in September, festival dates and her own LoverFest to plan (UK shows will be revealed soon). Time, then, to tell the cats to calm down and sit down with Music Week to talk streaming, contracts and why she’s “obsessed” with the music industry...

Unlike with Reputation, most of the discussion around Lover seems to have been focused on the music... Absolutely! One of the ideas I had about this record, and something I’ve implemented into my life in the last couple of years is that I don’t like distractions. And, for a while, it felt like my life had to come with distractions from the music, whether it was tabloid fascination with my personal life or my friendships or what I was wearing. I realised in the last couple of years that, if I don’t give a window into distraction, people can’t try to look in and see something other than the music. I love that, if you really pour yourself into the idea that an album is still important and try really hard to make something that is worth people’s attention span, time and energy, that can still come across. Because we are living in an industry right now where everyone’s rushing towards taking us into a singles industry and, in some cases, it has become that. But there are still some cases where clearly the album is important to people.

Does it matter that some new artists won’t get to make albums the way you always have? It’s interesting. Five years ago I wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal and said, maybe in the next five years, we would see artists releasing music the way that they want to. I thought that each artist would start to curate what is important to them, not just from an artistic standpoint but from a marketing standpoint. It’s really interesting to see different release plans, if you look at what Drake did and then what Beyoncé does, incredible artists who have really curated what it is to drop music in their own way. We all do it differently, which is cool. As long as people dropping just singles want to be doing that, then I’m fine with it, but if it feels like a big general wave that’s being pressured by people in power, their teams or their labels, that’s not cool. But I do really hope that in the future artists have more of a say over strategy. We’re not just supposed to make art and then hand it to a team that masterminds it.

Were you worried about putting an album on streaming on release day for the first time? Well, there are ways that streaming services could really promote the [whole] album in a more incentivised way. We could have album charts on streaming. The industry follows where they can get prizes. So you have a singles chart on streaming services which is great but, if you split things up into genre charts for example, that would really incentivise people. It’s important that we keep trying to strive to make the experience better for users but also make it more interesting for artists to keep wanting to achieve. But I really did love the experience of putting the album on streaming. I loved the immediacy, I loved that people who maybe weren’t a huge diehard fan were curious and saying, ‘I wonder what this is like’ and listening to it and deciding that they liked it.

You’d resisted streaming for a long time. Have you changed your mind about the format now? I always knew that I would enjoy the aspects of streaming that make [your music] so immediately available to so many people. That’s the part of it that I unequivocally always felt really sad I was missing out on. There wasn’t ever a day when I woke up and I was like, ‘Oh, I’m really glad that multitudes of people don’t have access to my music!’ So I always knew that streaming was an incredible mechanism and model for the future but I still don’t think we have the royalties and compensation system worked out. That’s between the labels and their artists and I realised that me, to use a gross word, ‘leveraging’ what I can bring to cut a better deal for the artists at my record label was really important for me.

How big a factor were things like that in you signing to Republic/Universal? That’s important to me because that means they’re adopting some of my ideas. If they take me on as an artist that means they really thought it through. Because with me, come opinions about how we can better our industry. I’m one of the only people in the artist realm who can be loud about it. People who are on their fifth, sixth or seventh album, we’re the only ones who can speak out, because new artists and producers and writers need to work. They need to be endearing and likeable and available to their labels and streaming services at all times. It’s up to the artists who have been around for a second to say, ‘Hey guys, the producers and the writers and the artists are the ones who are making music what it is’. And we’re in a great place in music right now thanks to them. They should be going to their mailbox and feeling like they’ve got a pension plan, rather than feeling like, ‘Oh yay, I can pay half my rent this month after this No.1 song’.

Did you have more creative freedom making Lover than on your previous albums? In my previous situation, there were creative constraints, issues that we had over the years. I’ve always given 100% to projects, I always over-delivered, thinking that that generosity would be returned to me. But I ended up finding that generosity in a new situation with a new label that understands that I deserve to own what I make. That meant so much to me because it was given over to me so freely. When someone just looks at you and says ‘Yes, you deserve what you want’, after a decade or more of being told, ‘I’m not sure you deserve what you want’ - there’s a freedom that comes with that. It’s like when people find ‘the one’ they’re like, ‘It was easy, I just knew and I felt free’. All of a sudden you’re being told you’re worth exactly, no, more than what you thought you were worth. And that made me feel I could make an album that was exactly what I wanted to make. There’s an eclectic side to Lover, a confessional side, it varies from acoustic to really poppy pop, but that’s what I like to do. And, while you would never make something artistic based on something so unromantic as a contract, it was more than that. It was a group of people saying, ‘We believe in what you’re making, go make what you want to make and you deserve to own it too’.

You’re obviously not happy about what’s happened at Big Machine since you left. But will the attention mean artists don’t find themselves in this situation in the future? I hope so. That’s the only reason that I speak out about things. The fans don’t understand these things, the public isn’t being made aware. This generation has so much information available to them so I thought it was important that the fans knew what I was going through, because I knew it was going to affect every aspect of my life and I wanted them to be the first to know. And in and amongst that group, I know there are people that want to make music some day. It involves every new artist that is reading that and going, ‘Wait, that’s what I’m signing?’ They don’t have to sign stuff that’s unfair to them. If you don’t ask the right questions and you sit in front of the wrong desk in front of the wrong person, they can take everything from you.

Songwriters are in dispute with Spotify in the US over its decision to appeal the Copyright Board decision to boost songwriting royalties. Do writers need more respect? Absolutely. In terms of the power structure, the songwriters, the producers, the engineers, the people who are breathing magic into our industry, need to be listened to. They’re not being greedy. This is legitimately an industry where people are having trouble paying their bills and they’re the most talented people we have. This isn’t them sitting in their mansions going, ‘I wish this mansion was bigger and I would like a yacht please’. This is actually people who are going to work every single day. I got into writing when I was in Nashville and it was very much like what I read about the Brill Building. You would write every day, whether you were inspired or not, and in the process I met artists and writers. Somebody would walk in and someone would say, ‘Oh, he’s still getting mailbox money from that Faith Hill cut a couple of years ago, he’s set’. That’s not a thing anymore. Mailbox money is a thing of the past and we need to remember that these are the people that create the heartbeat that we’re all dancing to or crying to.

You were clearly aware of music industry machinations from a young age... Reading back on the journal entries, I forgot how obsessed I was with the industry as a teenager. I was so fascinated by how it works and how it was changing. Every part of it was interesting to me. I had drawn the stages for most of my tours a year before I went on them. That really was fun for me as a teenager! A lot of people who start out very young in music, either don’t have a say or don’t have the will to do the business side of it, but weirdly that was so much fun for me to try and learn. I had a lot of energy when I was 16!

Are you doing similar drawings for next year’s LoverFest? Definitely. And that’s why it’s still fun for me to take on a challenge like, ‘Oh, let’s just plan our own festival’. Let’s create a bill of artists and try and make it as fun as possible for the fans. I’m so intrigued by what that’s going to be like.

Finally, when we last did an interview in 2015, you said in five years’ time you wanted to be “finding complexity in happiness”. How has that worked out? That’s exactly what’s happened with this album! I think a lot of writers have the fear of stability, emotional health and happiness. Our whole careers, people make jokes about how, ‘Just wait until you meet someone nice, you’ll run out of stuff to write about’. I was talking to [Cats director] Tom Hooper about this because he said one thing his mother taught him was, ‘Don’t ever let people tell you that you can’t make art if you’re happy’. I thought that was so amazing. He’s a creator in a completely different medium but he has been subjected to that same joke over and over again that we must be miserable to create. Lover is important to me in so many ways, but it’s so imperative for me as a human being that songwriting is not tied to my own personal misery. It���s good to know that, it really is!