#who done it the clue documentary

[ladyorlandodream]

ON IT!!!

[rainbowjay20]

So there is a Clue Documentary on Amazon/Freevee.

Who Done It: The Clue Documentary

I know a few of my friends on here will be interested in this. The shirt is not mine. The guy on the documentary was wearing it, and I thought it was cool enough to track down.

While I was watching Flash, I had to stop myself from putting every one of Cisco's tees on my wish lists!

[wynnyfryd]

Trailer park Steve AU part 21

part 1 | part 20 | ao3

“Right?” Steve asks, scratching his head as he glances back at the door. 

“No, I meant you, dingus! What the fuck was that with you?” 

Steve feels his face go hot. “What? What do you mean?” 

She throws her hands in the air, stomping over so she can get in his face and say, “Don’t ‘what do you mean’ me. Your faces” —she lifts her hands like she’s about to applaud, palms hovering an inch apart— “were like thiiis close to just…”

She claps them together, and Steve feels the blood drain right back out of his face, dread pooling in his gut as she twists her palms this way and that, like two people tilting their heads to kiss deeper. Oh, god. Oh, god. Were they—? 

“Mwah,” Robin says helpfully, mashing her hands more tightly together. “Mwah mwah mwah mwah—”  

Steve grabs her by the wrist. “Dude. Stop.” 

She drops her hands and stares at him — one of those Detective Buckley looks, combing over every inch of his soul for missed clues — and then her mouth does some horribly self-satisfied thing that he hates. “If I didn’t know any better,” she draws, “I’d say someone has a crush.” 

I’d say someone has a crush someone has a crush someone has a crush someone has a

Steve’s gonna pass out. The words feel like bile in his brain, acidic and sharp; like puking right after chugging a glass of orange juice. It’s not like he’s— 

Look, he knows that he’s— but—

The bell dings. Thank fucking Christ. A big family group, three generations of people talking and laughing and fussing over a baby in a stroller and carrying leftovers from the Italian place down the strip. 

Steve sags in relief. 

Robin hisses in his ear, “We are so not done talking about this.”

—

He doesn’t want to talk about it.

About Eddie, about the word Robin lobbed at him like a lit bottle rocket, about any of it.

Just thinking about it is giving him a stomach ulcer and a migraine and maybe an aneurysm, too. 

He was hoping he made that obvious enough during the last hour of their shift that Robin would just drop it, but that girl has never dropped a single thing in her life. Worse than Nancy, the little bloodhound. Steve saw this documentary once about crocodiles; remembers how they can lock their jaws shut after clamping down on their prey with up to 4000 PSI of pressure. 

That’s enough pressure to cut a person’s arm off with a jet of water. 

Damn, nature’s cool.

“Steve!” 

You know who’s not cool? 

“Steve!” Robin hollers again over the song he’s currently blasting to drown her out on the drive home. “Steve, you can’t use ABBA against me like this!”

Steve ignores her protests, responds by shout-singing “DIGGING THE DANCING QUEEN, OOH OOOOOH” at her in his most nasal falsetto because he absolutely can and will use ABBA against her like this, and it works like a charm. He’s pretty sure this song has, like, hypnotic power over her or something, because every time without fail she gives the answering “ooh-oo-oo-ooh-ooh-oooooh” as if on auto-pilot.

“HEY!” she shouts when she realizes what she’s doing. “No sir!” She reaches over and mashes the volume button. 

Silence falls over the car. Sucks the air out of Steve’s lungs in the sudden void; his ears adjust slowly, picking up the quiet thrum of the engine, the whispered whoosh of the wind outside. Is he ever going to get used to being kind-of-sort-of-deaf? This shit sucks.

“...Okay, look,” Robin says tentatively. She’s staring at the side of his head, and he keeps his eyes on the road; tightens his grip on the wheel. “We don’t have to talk about you, okay?”

“There’s nothing to talk about with me.”

“Right!” she rushes to agree. Playing along like they don’t both know that’s bullshit. “Totally.”

Steve risks a glance at her. Her expression is earnest, some full-paragraph silent communication like: whatever bathroom-floor-confessional crisis you’re having, we can leave it alone for now. We can let it stay hidden in the dark corners for a little longer; I promise I���ll put my flashlight down. 

“Totally,” Steve echoes, nodding at her. 

“Okay. Cool. Cool…”

She lets out a long breath, cheeks puffing out as she sits on her hands. Oh, my god, just spit it out. “Can we please talk about him, though?”

—

part 22

tag list pt. 1 below the cut, comment if you want me to tag you tomorrow (heads up i'm not tagging any new under 21 or ageless blogs unless we’re mutuals or you dm me to verify your age. gonna purge this list when i get some free time)

@heartsong18 @hellion-child @hiimlevi @hotluncheddie @jackiemonroe5512 @jaytriesstuff @littlebluejane @lololol-1234 @marklee-blackmore @melonmochi @messrs-weasley @mrsjellymunson @mugloversonly @nburkhardt @nerdyglassescheeseychick @noodle-shenaniganery @notsopersonalcharlie @novelnovella @nuggies4life @pending-dope-username @perseus-notjackson @ppunkpuppyy @questionablequeeries @remosdeerica @runninriot @sadcanadianwinter @shamelesspatrolshepherdcowboy @silver-snaffles @singmeyoursimpsong @slowandsteddie @slutforcoffein @solalasoforth @spookednsaucy @steddieas-shegoes @steddie-island @stevesbipanic @steves-strapcollection @taleah-bonnick @teatimeeverybody @th30ra3k3n @thealwithnoname @thespaceantwhowrites @thestarslittleking @thesuninyaface @trensu @violetsteve @wormdebut @yourmom-isgay @zoeweee @zombiecreatures

[greynatomy]

Espresso

Alex Morgan x Fem!Reader

I really liked how this came about when writing. I was scrolling through tiktok and this came around again of andrew garfield describing emma stone (which is the most romantic thing to describe a person you love).

Let me know what you think!

-grey

———

All of the United States Women’s National Team players are in the conference room, just finishing up a meeting with their coaches. Everyone is split up in their normal groups with the younger players sticking together. But there was one thing that they all have in common. It’s the love of one particular artist.

“Ohmygod! It out in five minutes!” Sonnett practically yelled for the whole world to hear.

“What’s starting?”

“The documentary all about how Espresso was written and put together.”

“Wait! That’s today?”

“Yes, Ashley. Come on. Keep up.”

Emily sets up her laptop, refreshing every second until the documentary shows up on Netflix.

“It’s right there! Click it.”

“I am, chill.” She swats Ashley’s hand away.

———

“Now, ‘Fairytale,’ what’s that about?” The interviewer asks.

A smile instantly shows up on your face.

“Uh, it’s pretty straight forward.”

“But go into detail. From listening to it once, I know it’s about how much you love someone and always wanting them close by.”

“That’s basically it.”

“Give me more man.” You both laugh. “Who’s it about?”

“Uh, I won’t be saying who, but she was-is pretty special. I’ve known her since we were kids. I was a pretty shy kid growing up, kept to myself most of the time, then she shows up out of nowhere basically demanding to be friends.”

“Then you became more?”

“Then we became more. She helped me open up and like the song says ‘with you I lose all my fears,’ she was always there to help me get by.”

You are now sat on a stool with your guitar and perform the song that was just talked about. (Fairytale by We Three)

“Are you still together?”

“Oh.” You let out a breathy chuckle. “No.”

“What happened?”

“I actually have no clue. It’s been, what? Thirteen years.” You start giggling.

“What’s got you gigglin’ over there.”

“Nothing, nothing. Just the number, that’s all. Don’t ask me about it.”

“Alright then, let’s backtrack. You said you don’t know what happened. How is that possible to not know what happened that led to the breakup?

“I just never got the closure that I needed, I guess. I mean yeah, she said she just didn’t love me anymore, but what else? What did I do? What could I have done differently? Just those questions that I have that haven’t and probably never will get answered.”

“Do you know what she’s up to now.”

“Uh, yeah I do. Not to sound creepy, but I’ve seen how she is and she’s doing amazing. She’s moved up in the world. A true inspiration, especially to her daughter.”

“So she has a child?”

“Yeah. And she looks so much like her.” You give a sad smile, a tear slipping from your eye.

“She must be real special to you, even after all these years.”

“She was like a shot of espresso, she’s like, being bathed in sunlight, she’s incredibly energetic and enthusiastic and she had this sense of play and fun which was, incredibly exciting. And then just like the sunset that illuminates her beauty she left, while like a dark night I got pulled into darkness.”

———

Alex Morgan sat in silence throughout the whole documentary. She hasn’t caught up with your career like you had done with her.

“I’ve never been described as a shot of espresso.” Ashley breaks the silence.

“That was the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard. Also very heartbreaking at the same time.” Rapinoe speaks up for the first time.

“But isn’t it weird that she’s still caught up on this girl after thirteen years?” Kelley questions.

“I don’t think she’s caught up, she just wants the closure she never got.”

“Man whoever left her just like that, we needa have some words.”

Alex excuses herself, saying she was tired and was gonna go up to her room. On the way to her room, she though about more of her life and the evens that happened in the past year.

She divorced her ex-husband after nine years, co-parenting—if you can call him seeing his daughter only when he feels like it.

And now that she’s thinking about it, the only reason she can come up with was not wanting to be the reason that you can express your love freely to the world. Alex isn’t out, she never was, never even planning to. That’s why she broke up with you because it wasn’t fair to you.

No, she just needs to tell you.

For closure.

Her thumb hovers over your contact, hoping it never changed.

Sunshine ☀️

Hi.

It wasn’t long until she got a reply.

Lover ♥️

Hey.

Sunshine ☀️

Would you like to grab a cup of coffee with me? To catch up?

Alex throws her phone on the bed, anxious to know what you would say. Her phone vibrating makes her grab her phone just as quick as she threw it.

Lover ♥️

When and where?

~~~~~

no part 2

[regulusrules]

Yo, I saw your post about orientalism in relation to the "hollywood middle-east" tiktok!

How can a rando and university dropout get into and learn more about? Any literature or other content to recommend?

Hi!! Wow, you have no idea how you just pressed a button. I'll unleash 5+ years on you. And I'll even add for you open-sourced works that you can access as much as I can!

1. Videos

I often find this is the best medium nowadays to learn anything! I'll share with you some of the best that deal with the topic in different frames

• This is a video of Edward Said talking about his book, Orientalism. Said is the Palestinian- American critic who first introduced the term Orientalism, and is the father of postcolonial studies as a critical literary theory. In this book, you’ll find an in-depth analysis of the concept and a deconstruction of western stereotypes. It’s very simple and he explains everything in a very easy manner.

• How Islam Saved Western Civilization. A more than brilliant lecture by Professor Roy Casagranda. This, in my opinion, is one of the best lectures that gives credit to this great civilization, and takes you on a journey to understand where did it all start from.

• What’s better than a well-researched, general overview Crash Course about Islam by John Green? This is not necessarily on orientalism but for people to know more about the fundamental basis of Islam and its pillars. I love the whole playlist that they have done about the religion, so definitely refer to it if you're looking to understand more about the historical background! Also, I can’t possibly mention this Crash Course series without mentioning ... ↓

• The Medieval Islamicate World. Arguably my favourite CC video of all times. Hank Green gives you a great thorough depiction of the Islamic civilization when it rose. He also discusses the scientific and literary advancements that happened in that age, which most people have no clue about! And honestly, just his excitement while explaining the astrolabe. These two truly enlightened so many people with the videos they've made. Thanks, @sizzlingsandwichperfection-blog

2. Documentaries

• This is an AMAZING documentary called Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Villifies A People by the genius American media critic Jack Shaheen. He literally analysed more than 1000 movies and handpicked some to showcase the terribly false stereotypes in western depiction of Arab/Muslim cultures. It's the best way to go into the subject, because you'll find him analysing works you're familiar with like Aladdin and all sorts.

• Spain’s Islamic Legacy. I cannot let this opportunity go to waste since one of my main scopes is studying feminist Andalusian history. There are literal gems to be known about this period of time, when religious coexistence is documented to have actually existed. This documentary offers a needed break from eurocentric perspectives, a great bird-view of the Islamic civilization in Europe and its remaining legacy (that western history tries so hard to erase).

• When the Moors Ruled in Europe. This is one of the richest documentaries that covers most of the veiled history of Al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). Bettany Hughes discusses some of the prominent rulers, the brilliance of architecture in the Arab Muslim world, their originality and contributions to poetry and music, their innovative inventions and scientific development, and lastly, La Reconquista; the eventual fall and erasure of this grand civilization by western rulers.

3. Books

• Rethinking Orientalism by Reina Lewis. Lewis brilliantly breaks the prevailing stereotype of the “Harem”, yk, this stupid thought westerns projected about arab women being shut inside one room, not allowed to go anywhere from it, enslaved and without liberty, just left there for the sexual desires of the male figures, subjugated and silenced. It's a great read because it also takes the account of five different women living in the middle east.

• Nocturnal Poetics by Ferial Ghazoul. A great comparative text to understand the influence and outreach of The Thousand and One Nights. She applies a modern critical methodology to explore this classic literary masterpiece.

• The Question of Palestine by Edward Said. Since it's absolutely relevant, this is a great book if you're looking to understand more about the Palestinian situation and a great way to actually see the perspective of Palestinians themselves, not what we think they think.

• Arab-American Women's Writing and Performance by S.S. Sabry. One of my favourite feminist dealings with the idea of the orient and how western depictions demeaned arab women by objectifying them and degrading them to objects of sexual desire, like Scheherazade's characterization: how she was made into a sensual seducer, but not the literate, brilliantly smart woman of wisdom she was in the eastern retellings. The book also discusses the idea of identity and people who live on the hyphen (between two cultures), which is a very crucial aspect to understand arabs who are born/living in western countries.

• The Story of the Moors in Spain by Stanley Lane-Poole. This is a great book if you're trying to understand the influence of Islamic culture on Europe. It debunks this idea that Muslims are senseless, barbaric people who needed "civilizing" and instead showcases their brilliant civilization that was much advanced than any of Europe in the time Europe was labelled by the Dark Ages. (btw, did you know that arabic was the language of knowledge at that time? Because anyone who was looking to study advanced sciences, maths, philosophy, astronomy etc, had to know arabic because arabic-speaking countries were the center of knowledge and scientific advancements. Insane, right!)

• Convivencia and Medieval Spain. This is a collection of essays that delve further into the idea of “Convivencia”, which is what we call for religious coexistence. There's one essay in particular that's great called Were Women Part of Convivencia? which debunks all false western stereotypical images of women being less in Islamic belief. It also highlights how arab women have always been extremely cultured and literate. (They practiced medicine, studied their desired subjects, were writers of poetry and prose when women in Europe couldn't even keep their surnames when they married.)

4. Novels / Epistolaries

• Granada by Radwa Ashour. This is one of my favourite novels of all time, because Ashour brilliantly showcases Andalusian history and documents the injustices and massacres that happened to Muslims then. It covers the cultural erasure of Granada, and is also a story of human connection and beautiful family dynamics that utterly touches your soul.

• Dreams of Trespass by Fatema Mernissi. This is wonderful short read written in autobiographical form. It deconstructs the idea of the Harem in a postcolonial feminist lens of the French colonization of Morocco.

• Scheherazade Goes West by Mernissi. Mernissi brilliantly showcases the sexualisation of female figures by western depictions. It's very telling, really, and a very important reference to understand how the west often depicts middle-eastern women by boxing them into either the erotic, sensual beings or the oppressed, black-veiled beings. It helps you understand the actual real image of arab women out there (who are not just muslims btw; christian, jew, atheist, etc women do exist, and they do count).

• Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. This is a feminist travel epistolary of a British woman which covers the misconceptions that western people, (specifically male travelers) had recorded and transmitted about the religion, traditions and treatment of women in Constantinople, Turkey. It is also a very insightful sapphic text that explores her own engagement with women there, which debunks the idea that there are no queer people in the middle east.

---------------------

With all of these, you'll get an insight about the real arab / islamic world. Not the one of fanaticism and barbarity that is often mediated, but the actual one that is based on the fundamental essences of peace, love, and acceptance.

[frozenoj]

Psych-O-Ween Episode Guide

Probably been done before but these are the episodes I'm rewatching for spooky season! If I missed any let me know and I'll add them.

S1 E7: Who Ya Gonna Call? Shawn and Gus must save a man who claims a ghost is trying to kill him.

S1 E15: Scary Sherry: Bianca's Toast Shawn and Gus step into a real-life urban legend, as they investigate a death suspiciously like the tale of "Scary Sherry," who met her untimely end at the now haunted Wispy Sunny Pines mental institution.

S2 E16: Shawn (And Gus) of the Dead Shawn is called to the Natural History Museum when a mummy goes missing and all indications are that it got up and walked out on its own.

S3 E1: Ghosts After Gus' boss demands he quit moonlighting at the Psych agency, Shawn must find a way to keep his partner while solving a haunting case and playing referee to Henry and his recently returned mother.

S3 E15: Tuesday the 17th Shawn and Gus are hired by a childhood friend to find a missing camp counselor who disappeared near their old sleep away campgrounds. Upon their arrival, spooky activity abounds and they must uncover if the dark past of the abandoned camp has come back to life.

S4 E4: The Devil is in the Details and in the Upstairs Bedroom A priest and former teacher of Shawn and Gus calls them claiming that an apparent suicide was in fact the work of the devil.

S4 E8: Let's Get Hairy A man fears he is dangerous to society and enlists Shawn and Gus' help because, he claims, he is a werewolf.

S5 E3: Not Even Close, Encounters Shawn and Gus get themselves hired onto the case when an unstable lawyer claims his assistant was abducted by aliens.

S5 E11: In Plain Fright While on the haunted house ride at Santa Barbara's Scare Fest, Shawn and Gus witness a murder and are soon led to believe the person who committed it is the ghost of a man who fell to his death at Scare Fest 13 years ago.

S6 E3: This Episode Sucks Lassiter's new relationship with a mysterious and beautiful woman is placed in jeopardy when Shawn and Gus are convinced she is a murderer -- the same murderer responsible for the blood-drained body SBPD is investigating.

S6 E11: Heeeeee's Lassie After Lassiter moves into a new condominium building and strange things start happening to him, he is forced to hire Shawn and Gus to figure out what could be causing the supposed paranormal disturbance.

S7 E3: Lassie Jerky Shawn and Gus join a pair of college students in the woods who are filming a documentary on Bigfoot.

S7 E5: 100 Clues Shawn and Gus attend a party hosted by an aging rockstar named Billy Lipps, a man the SBPD arrested years ago for a murder he doesn't remember committing.

S8 E8: A Touch Of Sweevil Shawn is ecstatic when he discovers he's finally been invited to participate in a prestigious paranormal convention for police consultants.

S8 E9: A Nightmare on State Street Gus' nightmares start to feel like reality when he and Shawn work to solve an unlikely case for the SBPD.

[bobamilkk]

TF2 HEADCANONS PART TWO ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

I told myself I’d get these up one of these days👍 I finished this list at 4 am last night so none of this makes any sense and every word is more chaotic than the ones before it and no I’m not sorry y’all sighed up for this bs

Scout

-Can understand a good chunk of French but can’t speak more than a few simple words if that, has no clue how he understands it (Spy spoke a good amount of French around him as a baby or something idk)

-Can be just has hard to find as Spy-once you loose sight of him he’s impossible to find if he’s actually trying to stay hidden-Like father like son

-Can and will steal your food-this includes Heavy and Medic-He has no fear whatsoever and has been sent to respawn god knows how many fucking times because of this-And yet he still does it

-Loves scifi movies and comics and if you watch a movie with him half of it is him pointing out random trivia facts because he’s incapable of shutting the fuck up (this is also what happens when you watch a movie with me irl. My grandparents are sick and tired of it. Yes this is even more self projection what of it?)

-has mastered the younger sibling talent of fucking climbing people if it means getting something that’s held over his head. He also bites

Soldier

-it’s impossible to tell if he’s insulting you or complimenting you 90% of the time

-Has stabbed Scout’s hand to the table to prevent him from stealing food before and no one stopped him

-The team has movie nights once a week and Soldier always puts on the same inaccurate WW2 documentary he made himself when it’s his turn to pick-he used to put on 10 hours of the American National Anthem but someone (read: The rest of the team working together) lost (read: Violently destroyed) the tape after the third time

-I said he was from Missouri once in a rp cuz my rp friend and I are both from different parts of Missouri so that’s my hc now

Pyro

-I always hc him as Irish for some reason idk why

-Can casually pick up every merc except for Heavy-He struggles a bit with Medic because that man is pure muscle but they can indeed pick him up

-May or may not be a cannibal-it’s a little uncertain but either way they’re banned from the kitchen and cooking duty

-I’m a sucker for the hc that he does not like water whatsoever-Getting this man a bath is like trying to bathe a cat except somehow even more deadly

Demo

-This may be the impulsive sleep deprivation but my brain randomly went “What If he can see general ghosts because of his possessed eye socket, not just Eyelander or the scream fortress ghosts” so sometimes people walk in on him casually having a conversation with the air. Considering he’s made out with his own organs in his head, this is one of the less weird things they’ve walked in on him doing

-Surprisingly he’s the best with kids out of all 9 mercs, Heavy is a good runner up though and Spy’s not far behind but will never admit it

Heavy

-Accent gets thicker when he’s talking to people he cares about

-Was the one who suggested the movie nights in the first place

-Actually cleans up in the base unlike literally everyone else

Engie

-People don’t realize how unhinged this man is ok??? Anyways he’s a caffeine addict and has developed the habit of pulling way too many all nighters if it means getting work done (like me. It’s 4 am as I work on this list. Help)

-What’s a southern farm boy without a few dozen concerning stories about pushing cousins out of second story barn windows or near drowning fishing story? My cousins lived on a farm when we were kids and they scared the shit out of me I swear there was a new broken bone every summer

-probably once had a sleep deprived mental breakdown on his workshop floor because the sweet tea one of the mercs made him wasn’t sweet enough idk man I’m sleep deprived rn and could really use a southern style sweet tea

Medic

-Mann vs Machine hc that his hometown would rather deal with the robots than having Medic anywhere near them ever again. They want him GONE

-Sleeps like a fucking corpse-You can’t even tell he’s breathing unless you look closely. He even crosses his arms like a corpse

-Will take you graverobbing for a romantic date-gotta get experiment canvases somehow he’s running out of room on the other mercs without them just dropping dead from it all

Sniper

-The opposite of a morning person, but his internal clock won’t let him sleep in ever. The suns up? He’s up! Someone help him

-Has befriended a wild owl and feeds it at night-The offense trio very violently helped him name it (They fist fought eachother over who’s name was better while Sniper spaced out thinking about random gator facts)

Spy

-An adrenaline junkie but will never ever admit it

-Spy can mimic voices to a near perfect even without his disguise kit-he however rarely uses this and instead simply mocks everyone instead because he finds it funny (“This is Scout! Rainbows make me cry!”)

-Wears a corset because I said so-It always matches perfectly with his outfit and underwear too-He feels SO bonita

Bonus since it’s Pride Month

-Scout is gay and so many levels deep in the closet it’s embarrassing-He’s also trans because I said so

-Soldier is trans, bi, and poly :) his list of wives consists of anyone and everyone /j

-Spy is bi and a cis man who wears dresses regularly he’s gnc af and I love that for him he’s my wife now

-Medic is gay and still legally married to his wife they’re mlm wlm solidarity married for tax benefits /j

-Pyro is trans, non-binary, and pan and uses he/they pronouns because I said so

-None of these men are straight ok

-Medic did both Scout and Soldier’s top surgery but both of them instead have overly extravagant extremely gorey stories on how they got their scars

[shelyue99]

I came across BoB only last year (thanks Netflix the best thing you have done to me) hence 22 years late. I wish I had done it earlier (I definitely heard about the title, maybe in the 2000s, but I was too young at the time to take interests in it and I forgot about it), but because of it there are already a lot of resources and materials (and numerous fanfics) to dig into. I love research and meta and here are something I found interesting and relevant to BoB (with a focus on Winters and Nixon) :

Documentary:

Ron Livingston's Band of Brothers Video Diary

We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company

He Has Seen War

Book:

Band of Brothers, by Stephen E. Ambrose

Beyond Band of Brothers: The War Memoir of Major Dick Winters, by Dick Winters, Cole C. Kingseed

Biggest Brother: The Life of Major Dick Winters, The Man Who Led the Band of Brothers, by Larry Alexander

Conversation with Major Dick Winters: Life Lessons from the Commander of the Band of Brothers, by Cole C. Kingseed

Hang Tough: The WWII Letters and Artifacts of Major Dick Winters, by Erik Dorr, Jared Frederick

Parachute Infantry: An American Paratrooper's Memoir of D-Day and the Fall of the Third Reich, by David Kenyon Webster

Tinderbox: HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers, By James Andrew Miller

Podcast:

HBO's official Band of Brothers 20th Anniversary Podcast

The Ross Owen Show, this blog has all the BoB cast interview recordings.

Dead Eyes

Other Materials:

"Band of Brothers" 20th Anniversary Symposium, the video can be found here.

Re the symposium, I love some of the trivia stories the cast shared, like when some replacement guy (I remembered it's Rene Moreno who played Ramirez but my memory could be fuzzy) were having dinner with the OG Easy men at this posh restaurant after shooting. Someone asked Moreno what he did today and he said he cut his hair and got to shoot the gun something like that, and Neal McDonough (Compton) asked him to drop and gave him 20, Moreno looked at Ron Livingston for help, who he thought was the only normal person at the table, but Ron was like yeah you had to do it, and so he dropped and did 20 push-ups and startled the waitress and other customers.

The other interesting episode is that when they were shooting for the river crossing scene in Ep 8, a replacement guy (Ramirez or Hashey?) who wasn't in the bootcamp and wasn't that immersed, jokingly told Dexter Fletcher (Martin) to fuck off, everyone went quiet like how dare you say to that to the officer, and Ross McCall (Liebgott) asked, "Permission to throw him off the boat, sir," Fletcher said let him think about it. They didn't throw him off the boat but I find the comparison between those who went to the bootcamp vs. those didn't and thus didn't have a clue is so interesting. Oh, and Matthew Settle still scared the other cast and staff because Speirs is so scary lol.

[yridenergyridenergy]

Hii, i’m big fan of your page. Everyday I scroll you page lol.

And i wanna ask ur opinion, is true that Dir now is more popular than before especially for english speaker fan? I see many english comment in Dir page (IG, youtube, twitter) than before

And peoples really noisy about AI and write rude comment in The devil in me (youtube). Maybe people write that comment because hate the MV. In my opinion, they are like new comer in Dir music world lol.

I think Dir also did video editing in previous video (i’m not sure it’s AI or anything else), like in Glass skin, Rinkaku, agitated.

And about the delay of The Devil MV, i think they are lazy to upload because so much negative comment before watching (lol kidding)

But in my opinion, AI not that cheap and still use money, effort, dresser, makeup artist, time and team for making that MV. So I disagree to people who said this is really cheap, artist thief that no use dresser, make up artist or more worker.

But actually yess, i agree art never can be replace by AI. But hey, this is just MV not art exhibition or art competition.

I feel like why people in this era too focus on something else than main masterpiece.

#sorryformyenglish have a great day!

Sorry for the slightly late reply; I had prepared my reply a few days ago but I'm glad I waited since the promotional edit of the PV was released since. Thank you for your visits!

I'm really not sure whether Dir en grey has increased their fanbase... And shows that play on nostalgia are not an accurate reference, so even if the shows this year were to be sold out, it doesn't mean anything because that could totally drop next time they tour with new material, unfortunately. I think that the European tour definitely awakened temporary fans who could disappear again once the buzz has died down.

Dir en grey's director has definitely used CGI in the past, but you still needed artists to achieve anything. I don't know exactly how the AI that the director used for The Devil In Me works, but the common conception is that you just input requests and the robot does everything for you. It's certainly a lazier way. And no clue how much using that technology costs, but it's not equal to several artists' and actors' salaries, probably.

Sadly, the behind-the-scenes on the Devil In Me video disc did not offer anything in the way of a hint at what the AI is and how they used it...

I'm still of the opinion that maybe it can take Dir en greys videos farther than they've been able to so far, and maybe materialize the director's vision more accurately. But yeah, if everything moving forward is AI-generated, that would leave a sour taste. Already, the Otogi backdrop video didn't seem like something that only an AI could come up with: artists would have done at least the same job, if not better, to be honest.

With The Devil In Me PV, I'll have to actually watch the Netflix documentary on John Wayne Gacy, but I'm having difficulty reconciliating how the lyrics tie in with either the killer's life or the person in the video who is chatting with an AI to try and see inside the killer's mind. That's not what the lyrics evoke to me at all...

[aegor-bamfsteel]

Why do you think George says that GOT Littlefinger isn't asoiaf Littlefinger? Except the whole stupid plot of marrying off Sansa to Ramsay, I don't see much difference between the book and show version. I really apologise if it's coming of as too argumentative.

I don’t think you’re coming off as argumentative, but I don’t know what else to say about show vs book Littlefinger that I haven’t already said in the previous ask, or what GRRM said in a Machiavelli documentary:

Book Littlefinger and television show Littlefinger are very different characters. They’re probably the character that’s most different from the book to the television show. There was a a line in a recent episode of the show where, he’s not even present, but two people are talking about him and someone says ‘Well, no one trusts Littlefinger’ and ‘Littlefinger has no friends.’ And that’s true of television show Littlefinger, but it’s certainly not true of book Littlefinger. Book Littlefinger, in the book, everybody trusts him. Everybody trusts him because he seems powerless, and he’s very friendly, and he’s very helpful. He helps Ned Stark when he comes to town, he helps Tyrion, you know, he helps the Lannisters. He’s always ready to help, to raise money. He helps Robert, Robert depends on him to finance all of his banquets and tournaments and his other follies, because Littelfinger can always raise money. So, he’s everybody’s friend. But of course there’s the Machiavellian thing. He’s, you know, everybody trusts him, everybody depends on him. He’s not a threat. He’s just this helpful, funny guy, who you can call upon to do whatever you want, and to raise money, and he ingratiaties himself with people and rises higher and higher as a result.

He’s saying that showFinger is an obviously evil beard-stroking villain wearing dark clothes with a bad reputation nobody should trust with their plans. By contrast, bookFinger is a helpful, witty guy wearing bright clothes who is willing to raise money for the higher ups. A minor lord like him couldn’t possibly have goals that involve getting the powerful people to destroy each other while they promote him because he’s obviously no threat. Keep in mind we’re still debating what exactly his goals are, and if Lysa hadn’t spilled the beans about Jon Arryn’s death, we would be even more in the dark about what he’s actually done.

A contrast is how they respond when swords are pointed at them. In the oh-so-amazing “power is power” solipsistic scene in the show, Showfinger boasts to Cersei about how he’s so powerful because he knows things, so in response she has a bunch of men hold him at sword point to show him she could have him killed at a moment’s notice. Bookfinger would never get himself into that situation because that’d be showing his hand and getting a valuable ally to distrust him. When he does get a sword pointed at him, it’s because he paid Lyn Corbray to cause a ruckus at the Lord’s Declarant meeting, buying him valuable time while looking like the wronged party. Sansa figured this out with few clues, but it had to be told because it’s so subtle (who could guess a hotheaded swordsman from an ancient family would be in Littlefinger’s service?). And that’s what GRRM was saying about book versus show Littlefinger: the show version lacks the subtlety that made the book version such a secretly powerful enemy.

[ladyorlandodream]

Ten People I'd Like To Know Better

Tagged by @walkingaline

Last song: it has been 2 days that I'm basically skipping all songs for no reason, Spotify says the last long listened is Cold Fire by Rush

Favourite colour: Red and Wisteria (I am not going to say black, even if I love it because black is the absence of colours, therefore not a colour itself)

Last book: finished? Different, Gender through the eyes of a primatologist by Frans de Waal. While I'm actively reading Italo Calvino racconta l'Orlando Furioso di Ludovico Ariosto

Last movie: I don't recall the last movie I watched, I think it was Deadpool and Wolverine, because I don't think that Who Done It - The Clue Documentary counts as a movie

Sweet/Spicy/Savoury: all of them, if it is well done and vegetarian, I will probably eat it...and ask for the recipe

Relationship status: AHAHAHAHAH!!! (Does it make things clear? If not...I am all alone)

Last thing I googled: Wisteria colour, because I wasn't sure it was its name in English

Current obsession: playing Squad Buster (because of my nephew), trying to find affordable exercise to be back at my fit form, Poison Ivy, Harlivy...I don't know

Looking forward to: results of a project I wrote, results of a couple of CVs I sent, my shoulder getting fixed because I miss doing aerial arts, a proper job, being independent again, more new-old music, new adventures, my scientific career to develop

I am not going to tag people; if you see this on your dashboard, it means you follow me, and if so and want to play it, feel free to tag me so I can read answers and know people!

[xplrvibes]

some people on twitter are getting really mad at colby for apparently ‘ditching’ shea for his new girl saying shit like oh he led shea on and now he’s pushed her away lol

they’re fully acting like he’s committed an awful crime like why are they cancelling him 😭

(side note - i’m actually, whole heartedly convinced that half of the fandom genuinely hates colby and everything he does fills them with rage lmfao)

This is going to be a one and done, on this topic. I don't like Shea, don't like what she's doing. Never did like her, as you all know, because she has been an absolutely awful and manipulative bully and generally trash person over the years and I don't want her taking up too much space on my blog because of it.

But I felt the need to just put this out there before I move on, so here we go, behind a cut for anyone who doesn't want to hear it lol.

You know, I find this whole "taking Shea on her word all of a sudden" thing interesting.

According to Shea, they had a 10 year (even though he was still living in Kansas 10 years ago) "on-again, off-again thing" that was "mostly just talking" and was "never official," although it was "almost dating, but not official" for 2 years (even though there hasn't been a 2 year period where Colby hasn't been at least seeing someone, if not hooking up).

She doesn't seem to know any of his friends and not a single one of them follow her on socials - in fact, most of them unfollowed her several years back. Of particular note is the fact that Sam, after all these years of her being Colby's future wife, still hasn't followed her back...but has followed several of the other girls Colby's been linked to over the years, including M.

She never seems to have a clue about what is going on in his life and has been promising (and not delivering) fans content with Colby for years now - including her telling everyone that her and Colby were going somewhere to film a documentary in January of this year when Colby had already told everyone on xplrclub that he and Sam were going to be in Vegas or in Texas filming in all of Jan and then in Australia for most of Feb. She promised to have him on one her streams on a day when he was actually in Hawaii, then another day when he was actually in Kansas visiting family.

She hasn't been invited to a single party or group gathering of theirs since 2019, save for one time when she visited Colby and Sam in Las Vegas - which came across as very awkward, given the above.

She complained about never getting invited to snc's Halloween parties - you know, the ones that have 500-1,000 invitees and snc have claimed include an invite to every single person they know and are friends with? Yet Colby's soul mate gets left on the list somehow, 6 years running?? (One year he had four different past flings there at once. But the future Mrs. Shea Brock just didn't make the cut somehow)

Oh, bonus: she once told a gc full of her fans that Colby asked her out, but she turned him down because she valued the friendship too much. Funny how those turns tabled.

Colby meanwhile, has never hidden that he considers himself single, does not think he's met "the one," uses Raya to find dates, hooks up and has flings....he's not just pretending to be single, he IS single.

So. to recap: They have had a 10 year friendship and emotional bond that Shea deluded herself into thinking was more. Colby comes around her again after having had a cancer that could've easily rendered him unable to have children, and her grand idea is to tell this guy she freely admits she was never even dating that she wants to cash in on some vague promise he may or may not have actually made to her about getting married and having CHILDREN???

I'd have left her ass, too.

But sure. He's the bad guy. By the way, to hear Shea tell it, Colby did the same thing to her that Sam did to Kat. But all the people trashing Colby were the first ones in line to defend Sam from big bad mean Kat and her hurtful words because "he wasn't ready" and wah wah wah. Isn't that funny...and on par.

So yes, lol. Most of the people pissed about this are using any excuse put in front of them to trash Colby cause that is the only enjoyment they get out of life. Trust me when I say they are backing the wrong horse with Shea. She's not the hero victim y/n sainted good girl she pretends to be.

[hestiasroom]

At first I wasn’t particularly inclined to watch Matt Walsh’s documentary What is a Woman? I know the answer to that one already. Everybody does.

A woman is someone who isn’t allowed a final say on what a woman is. Pretending not to know this — that defining “woman” is incredibly complex and bewildering — is an age-old tactic deployed by non-women, usually in order to excuse treating us badly. 

Are women fully human? Do they have souls? What do women want? Far greater men than the host of The Matt Walsh Show — Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Sigmund Freud — have tried and failed to answer these questions (they could always have asked an actual woman, but first they’d have had to establish whether women can think, and then they’d have been back to square one).

As Matt himself says at the start of his film, “I like to make sense of things. Making sense of females is a whole other matter”, noting that “even astrophysicist Stephen Hawking” was “completely dumbfounded by women”.

Even astrophysicist Stephen Hawking! Honestly, ladies, if the author of A Brief History of Time hasn’t a clue what the hell we are, what hope do any of us have? 

The thankless nature of the task may be why the twenty-first century version of The Woman Question has now been allocated to those somewhat lower down the male intellect hierarchy: Edinburgh fringe comedians, disgraced MPs, right-wing shock jocks, Owen Jones and Billy Bragg. 

The proposal that a woman is anyone who defines themselves as a woman — and that no woman may say anyone isn’t a woman — has led to a particularly unimpressive stage of the debate, one which can only be described as the Summa Theologica meets incels r us. 

On the bright side, it’s clear the men are bloody loving it. If you’re left-wing, it’s your chance to put those TERFs in their place after years of having to “do feminism” as part of the right-side-of-history package deal. If you’re right-wing, it’s your opportunity to own all those feminists who suggested female bodies weren’t inferior and that pink, fluffy ladybrains were a myth. As Walsh declares of his film, “the movie makes utter fools of educated elite liberals”. I’m guessing that’s the point. 

I confess to having known very little about Matt Walsh up till now. “I’m a husband, I’m a father of four, I host a talk show, I give speeches, I write books,” he tells us by way of introduction. Hey, that sounds nice! Alas, a quick perusal of his twitter account shows that he’s the kind of renaissance man who tweets things like “feminism is an ugly and bitter ideology” and “rapists love abortion. It helps them cover up their crime”.

He’s also the kind of man who, should feminists show themselves to insufficiently appreciative of his recent woman-defining efforts, tells us we would “rather be a victim than win the fight” and that we “just want to sit on the sidelines and whine”. He’s been, like, getting death threats due to his challenge to contemporary gender mores! Would you risk that, eh, feminists? What’s anyone ever done to you, JK Rowling, you massive coward? 

I first wrote about the problematic nature of a gender identity-based definition of women over eight years ago. Other women, such as Julie Bindel, were sounding the alarm far earlier, and with little support. I know we’re supposed to be eternally grateful to Matt for stepping into the breach. What a gent! As the Onion once put it, Man Finally Put In Charge of Struggling Feminist Movement (admittedly it’s a man who thinks feminism is an ugly and bitter ideology but hey, we can’t have everything). 

In any case, I gave in and watched Matt’s film, just on the off-chance I’d missed something (more fool me; I read Gender Trouble on that basis, and look where that’s got me). There was little in What is a woman? that I didn’t already know from the work of feminists themselves, but that’s no reason to discount it. What’s wrong with alerting the normies to the excesses of trans activism too? 

Walsh never acknowledges the role his own rigid beliefs play

Perhaps the most difficult thing about conveying the absurdities of extreme trans activism to anyone who hasn’t yet encountered it, is that you either sound as though you’re making it up (usually in order to “stoke moral panic”) or the person to whom you’re talking concludes you must have missed some essential point (it would indeed be horrific if teenage girls were having their breasts removed due to social contagion and “progressive” institutions were cheering it on, therefore it can’t be happening. There must be something else afoot).

One of the great things about Walsh’s film is that he shows, first, that harmful things are indeed taking place, and second, that there is no hidden meaning behind them. The therapists, surgeons, academics and politicians to whom he speaks don’t suddenly pull back the curtain and reveal, yes, this is the reason why it isn’t total bollocks to claim that no one really knows what sex anyone is. That moment never comes (and believe me, I’d have loved it if it had. Being a Known TERF is a pain in the arse).

Instead they say things like “a chicken has an assigned gender” and that the word truth is “condescending and rude”. Ha! Aren’t liberals ridiculous? At one point Matt interviews someone who identifies as a wolf (or some other animal. I got bored and went to the kitchen for a biscuit at that point). What’s striking is that you sense his interviewees know on some level that they’re bullshitting. That’s why a number of them end the interview early, citing Walsh’s alleged bad faith as the reason why. 

There are some genuinely moving sections to the film, such as the interviews with female athletes cheated out of prizes by the inclusion of males in the girls’ categories. The contribution from Scott Newgent, a trans man deeply concerned about the impact of medical transition on young females, was incredibly engaging. I could have watched a whole film on Newgent alone, as someone clearly driven by both personal trauma and compassion for others. 

So why, overall, did the film leave a bad taste? Am I just an “ugly and bitter” feminist, peeved that a man has come along and claimed a number of feminist observations as his own? Am I a purist, unwilling to accept any support from anyone whose views don’t align precisely with mine? 

I don’t think so. The problem for me is that Walsh never acknowledges the role his own rigid beliefs play in creating and perpetuating the current situation. 

He finds countless people convinced that the only way to avoid imposing harmful social norms on individuals on the basis of their sexed bodies, is to pretend we can’t define said bodies or impute any social meaning to them at all. Yet he does nothing to suggest one shouldn’t impose said norms, or that his own pink/blue fantasies of girlhood and boyhood might be leading those who don’t conform to feel they are somehow “wrong”. 

“Give my son a BB gun and that’s just about all the emotional support he needs,” he muses over a children’s party scene, all boys in blue jeans, all girls pink princesses. “My daughter on the other hand … I’ve heard people say that there are no differences between male and female. Those people are idiots.”

Hmm. I have three children, all biologically male, all of whom have played with dolls houses and worn dresses. Two of them have Frozen-style long blonde hair and I’ve never bought any of them a toy gun (nor have any of them asked for one). 

Women are caught between two forms of misogyny

According to Walsh’s own gender ideology, I’m on the slippery slope towards the erasure of any stable definition of “male” and “female” at all. This is the mirror image of the absurdities of trans activism. Both Walsh and the people he interviews conflate sex difference denialism with the rejection of gender stereotypes. He thinks we should suffer the stereotypes; they think we should suffer the surgery. Feminists believe we shouldn’t suffer either. 

There’s a particularly grim scene where Walsh attends a Women’s March, and delights in harassing female protestors who don’t want to give a precise definition of the word “woman”. Much as this reticence frustrates me, too, I know where it comes from. The polarised politics of the day has told these women they must choose between denying their sex and accepting an anti-choice, conservative vision of what it means to be an adult human female. It’s a vision Matt Walsh shares.

These women are caught between two forms of misogyny but to Walsh, it’s all “own the libs” fun and games. This man is not on our side, nor will he win over the women he lazily misrepresents as not knowing what’s good for them. 

At the end of the film, Matt returns home from his gender odyssey to his waiting Penelope. She is, of course, in the kitchen, and happens to be struggling with a pickle jar. 

“What is a woman?” he asks her.

“An adult human female — who needs help opening this!” she responds. Got it, ladies? He’ll defend our right to exist as a sex class, as long as we can all agree it’s the weaker one. 

In the end, I’m just so fed up with the machismo. Last year I spoke to one of the founders of Woman’s Place UK, who told me sex-based rights will ultimately be defended best by those in it for “the victory, not the glory”. The people, mainly women, often lesbians and women of colour, who do the dull, behind the scenes work of compiling data and challenging unfair practices one by one. The people who aren’t seeking to reimpose other, equally oppressive beliefs about sex and gender. 

It may be that What is a Woman? helps, by showing some still on the fence that the problem is real. Others, it may push in the other direction. Either way, women themselves won’t be thanked for their own hard work and significant risks. 

After all, that’s just what being a woman is.

[parabellum--72]

What are your thoughts on the Pekka documentary?

It wazn't a masterpiece. It waz awkwardly done with some parts. It really didn't offer anything new. Of course it iz an important topic altogether, but uhh it wazn't well done. Could of been better...!!

Well, with majority of people, the doc waz surely informative.. Or nuhhuhh actually... Idk. They think it'z horrible anyways. Because the whole topic iz like a taboo kind of. They wonder... 'why on earth you'd make a documentary of such a sick person..?!!? Yapyapyap' or would they, maybe I'm too cynical...?

Anywayz, I'm sure it could of included much more 'info' or videos or picturezzz.. One of the only interesting partz were of Pekka's friend... Bless her and all she'z gone through... </3 May she have a good life and be loved.

Uh not really interesting. Plus Alviina, she iz trying to be everywhere when it'z about fame relating to such a taboo topic. Then again yes, she iz kind of a victim too because after all, she waz there, in the school, classroom.. She was in a wayz lucky when Pekka just passed by... And she they didn't know what waz going on, they didn't have a clue what iz happening and how iz it going to end. They couldn't of know if they would of been next target of those bulletz. She was only a child when it happened,and it can be hella tramatizing. But it doezn't make her a better person necessarily.

But!! She is surely - I dare to say - enjoying her fame.... I mean.. Surely, anyone who would of in anywayz been related to the case or case similar to that, would be interested of the fame... Even if it would be the famouz five minutes of fame, they'd take it and use it. Think that they're something else, eh..

I mean, you can always argue about it, I thought that the document was lame. I'm glad it didn't glorify the 071107,and it wazn't one of those docs who would of just taken their info from Wikipedia....

But anyone who is not as familiar with ze case, would find it somewhat interesting.. I guezz. Not my cup of tea though. Maybe one day there would be muchoz better one.. <3 one can only hope..

[st4rshiptr00per]

ok heres a chunk from my seven + ace au rewrite whatever thing of midnight. i write sooooo rarely. yay

The doors of the TARDIS hummed open and a delicious, air-conditioned humidity flooded in. Ace shucked her anorak onto one of the console room chairs before stepping out, taking deep lungfulls of the chlorine-scented air. “We’re in some posh hotel in Miami, aren’t we?” “Not Miami.” said the Doctor, locking the door behind them. Ace turned a full circle, hunting for clues. She bounced a bit on the balls of her feet, took a deeper, slower breath in through her nose. “Not Miami,” she repeated, “Gravity’s too high for Earth. Ooh!” she grinned at him over her shoulder, “And the air’s got a little bit of that chemical-y fake-fresh scent in it, so it must be recycled. We’re on a galaxy-cruiser or something, right?” “Very well done,” said the Doctor, beaming. “Ace! I’m gettin’ good at this.” “But this isn’t a cruise ship.” Ace frowned. The Doctor ambled down the corridor a few steps, towards a neat armchair and side table set up against the fresh-laundry-colored wall “The gravity is stronger than Earth’s, and the air is certainly recycled, but we’re on the surface of a planet. There isn’t any atmosphere outside; the hotel itself was prefabricated and lowered piece by piece from orbit, then put together by remote-operated constructors.” “Alright,” Ace said, “How’d you figure all that out, then?” He passed her a logoed pamphlet from the side table. “Brochure.”

A set of plaques at a hallway junction indicated the directions of the foyer, restaurant, lifts, and the spa and pool. Ace swatted the doctor’s shoulder. “C’mon, I want to see the pool.” “We have our own pool,” he said, “and you hardly ever swim in it!” “I know, but this is a hotel pool.”

Through the dome of the sunroof a distant blue star spilled light onto the pool waves, casting blue shimmers all around the room. People lounged on beach chairs, soaking it up. Others, waiters, came in and out of the spa entrance with drinks on trays, dodging expertly the overhanging leaves of tropical plants. The whole thing was ringed by tall windows that showed a gleaming landscape — crystals in blues and greens sprouting up from the ground, diamond-white bluffs and spires reaching to the blue-black sky, rainbows refracting crazily through everything like spilled gemstones. Ace muttered a series of expletives that would’ve made the Doctor shake their head if they weren’t too busy smiling. She jogged around the circumference of the pool, getting askance looks from several sunbathers, to get a closer look at the crystalline vista. As she approached the window something shifted. Once she was within a few feet of it suddenly the view seemed to flatten, like she’d looked from the wrong angle and an optical illusion had broken. “It’s just a screen!” “I’m afraid so,” said the Doctor soberly. They pulled the brochure out of their pocket, flipping to the back page and the final paragraph, in a much smaller font, which contained phrases like ‘For the safety of our guests’, ‘ultra-realistic simulated environment’, and ‘heavy radiation shielding’. “This planet’s star sheds a form of exotic radiation, as well as deadly levels of ultraviolet light. It’s only safe when filtered through the highest rating of radiation-filtering glass-plex, and even then not for more than a few minutes, which would make it exceptionally bad for sunbathing.” “So I’m guessing these fake windows have UV lights in them so you can still work on your tan without having to crisp up like a slug on hot pavement, then.” “Precisely.” Ace leaned back against the backdrop, staring around at the guests. “All these people flew who-knows-how-far and payed who-knows-how-much so they could pretend to be in a tropical paradise that doesn’t even exist. You could get the same holiday experience with a light-therapy lamp and a travel documentary.” The Doctor leaned next to her. A passing waiter gave them a tight smile and he tipped his hat in return. “Oh, the planet outside really does look like that. Minus a smidgen of color correction to keep with the interior design scheme.” “That’s almost worse.” He chuckled. “I think it’s charming. Humans are so drawn to a mystery, they’ll push the bounds of whats possible just for the chance to stand near it. Here we are, at the very edge of human existence -- and the drinks are complimentary.” “I suppose.”

[blablaganov]

So apparently I set myself up for a disappointment by treating Dead Friend Forever as a mystery thriller and expecting to get at least some answers, but in my defense up to episode 11 it looked like one, swam like one and quacked like one.

DFF incorporated a lot of mystery elements, planted numerous clues and encouraged us to theorize, only to ultimately take all (or almost all) of it back in the finale; which is a choice considering it’s also what its ending relies on: fans theorizing and speculating about what really happened and what might follow.

That's the kind of ending I really would have enjoyed had we gotten a clear answer about what really happened to Non. The series decided to stick with a gory horror/thriller ending and expects us to simply believe that Non is dead, despite one of the first rules of horror being never to assume that someone is dead just because you saw the body? Especially with the mysterious ninth person lurking in the woods??

The entirety of Phee’s hallucination is just glorious, starting with him seeing himself as a director landing a project immediately after graduating and continuing with Jin, who explicitly stated not planning on coming back to Thailand ever after graduating, flying back after only two years just for the sole purpose of seeing Phee. And of course Phee being a petty bitch and giving Tee most hopeless ending ever.

Also, a character whose socioeconomic status partly granted him the privilege of staying “morally superior” to others till the end is now mentally stuck in an idealistic fantasy-turned-horror while his physical body is slowly dying of dehydration and blood loss? Chef's kiss, if done correctly.

It’s also why it’s even more baffling to me that the series, which has a commentary on society and power dynamics within it, ultimately decided to drop every plotline concerned with the police? politics? mafia? and carried out punishments on an individual level only, acknowledging the external forces behind the decisions made but never going anywhere with it. If we are ending the series as a revenge thriller, then I want to see everyone get punished. Uncle Joe's off-screen death doesn’t cut it, sorry.

But my biggest problem with the finale is the fact that it does look like a sequel hook, so not only did I not get my answers, but now a second season that never happened will haunt my dreams. Because it would be such a treat for DFF to go full on Blair Witch Project and do a true crime style second season. I mean, if you have "Uncovered version" in your title, I expect you to fully commit and let someone uncover it.

Maybe some college kids having heard about the Janta cult and the murder? mass suicide? cult sacrifice? that happened at the house decided to shoot a documentary about it, only to stumble upon one of the New’s cameras left behind. Let them investigate and finally give me all the answers.

How was uncle Joe caught? How did he die?

CONFIRMATION THAT TEACHER KENG IS SIX FEET UNDER

Who was the mole? Did they helped Non escape somehow?

WHO IS BEHIND THE MASK?

Who was man in power who shut down the investigation? Was it Por’s father? Is he involved in money laundering?

FOOTAGE OF NON DRINKING MARGARITAS ON THE BEACH

Why does Por’s father tolerate a cult temple on his doorstep? Is the Janta cult a Scooby-Doo Hoax designed to hide his involvement with mafia/organ trade?