#you guys have got to respect that media is meant to be diverse and that is does not have to be happy or make you happy in order to be good

[libidinous-weeb]

oh waaaaah jjk sucks because my fave died!! okay then go back to children’s shows or something where no one ever dies at all.

since the beginning of the series it was established that being a sorcerer was incredibly dangerous and ended with most sorcerers having short lives. it’s one of the first things discussed by the characters.

it’s a dark series and that means people will die. “people dying = bad and predictable writing!!!” it’s a fantasy series and you aren’t the one fucking writing it. it’s not even complete and you don’t actually even know who’s dead or not or who will actually stay dead. they haven’t even fully revealed what yuuji’s team’s plan is yet.

like…if you don’t like that then take your ass back to bnha or grow tf up.

[leandra-kinard]

Quick summary is: they had a little rift years ago. Ryan's wife used racial slurs and ryan defended her in an instagram live, saying he also uses racial slurs all the time. oliver (and aisha) publicly called him out for it and oliver unfollowed ryan. They made up after ryan apologized and promised to learn and change... and now he has split from his wife. (Huge respect to them for not letting it show on screen? I never would have known just from watching the show)

I know the story, and I still find it completely ridiculous, blown out of proportion virtue signaling level of outrage over nothing. What Oliver said back then, as far as I remember the wording, sounded more like a diplomatic statement on the issue so he wouldn't get in trouble himself. As one does when in the public eye, whether you secretly disagree or not.

Also, you're misrepresenting the story. Chrysti quoted a song - many years ago at that - which contained the word "nigger" (there I did it, am I a racist now just because I quote a word?). People on the internet found it and got all holier-than-thou about it, and he defended her, justifiably and rightfully so, and stated that his buddies - who come from various diverse backgrounds including black, Latino and Asian - jokingly use such terms for each other among themselves. Which is completely fine and normal. Regular guys do that all the time because they know how it's meant.

I know groups of "dykes, faggots and trannies" who call each other that because they know they all respect and support each other; and we have a whole community of people who have reclaimed the slur "queer" (many of which technically have no place to do that because they're not even same-sex-attracted, btw!), and that is totally fine and peachy, but god forbid someone use the n-word.

I'm just so fucking done with all of this social justice woke bullshit, tbh.

There are people out there who have real problems, but no, social media is all about words and who might be offended by something because they're too stupid to look into context.

Honestly, I'm so done with all of that. Not gonna participate any longer.

[yoonpobs]

bad boy good thing v.

pairing: jeon jungkook x oc

genre: angst, smut, fluff, miscommunication (we hate her lol), pining

warnings: smut, jungkook is really an asshole, the angst hurts a lot tbh, unhealthy relationships (?)

words: 2, 435

summary: a series of drabbles where you're confused and jungkook's confusing

a glimpse into the past

“Yes. I’ve literally just stepped foot into my apartment.” Jungkook huffs with his phone between his ears and his shoulders as he attempts to multitask, hands moving a box of the dining table.

But Jimin is persistent and he’s yapping his ear off, something about dropping by in a few but Jungkook is barely paying attention, not when the existential crisis of no longer being a high school student that could hide under an institution with a false sense of security. College was different. He was on his own, even with the presence of his friends; and Jungkook was both terrified and excited.

He’d always dream of the start of his college life. Jungkook was a bit of a dreamer, and he aimed to live out the best life possible; all while trying to juggle his academics and do some extracurriculars on the side. When he told Taehyung about his ambitions, his friend just blinked and him and offered a snort; with an almost taunting pat on his shoulder.

You’ll see.

Jungkook didn’t know what he meant then, and he can only wait to find out.

“Do you need help moving in? Tae and I just finished a lecture and we’ve got the rest of the day off.” Jimin asks over the phone, and while Jungkook wants to start off his journey being independent; there were boxes of his belongings that looked way too unappealing to deal with alone.

“You’d to that?” Jungkook sighs, eyebrows furrowing when he searches for the box that goes into his bedroom.

“Come on, Kook.” Jimin whines, “You think your own hyungs won’t help you out?” His jibe is lighthearted, which only makes Jungkook roll his eyes at his friends' words.

“I know.” Jungkook affirms, “Just college life, you know? Thought you’d be busy having your third existential crisis of the week to help out.”

Jimin snorts over the line, “Try this day, kid.”

Jungkook chuckles, and mumbles something under his breath before puffing; grabbing his phone with his hand as he thinks of a question he’s meant to ask for a while, ever since he stepped foot onto campus and his accommodation.

“Is ____ with you?” Jungkook asks.

Jungkook did so some growing in the time after you’d graduated, and he supposes that he relied a little too much on you as well as Jimin and Taehyung growing up in high school. Because once the three of you graduated, Jungkook was essentially left to fend for himself when you no longer were able to pick him up with a call away or help him out with difficult math problems when you had college to worry about.

It was horrible at first, purely because Jungkook missed you and your kindness. Sure, phone calls and texts worked—but your presence was always more than what words could ever offer, and Jungkook found himself searching for other methods to survive the next two years in high school without you there looking over him.

His football teammates had always been just his football teammates until he was forced to fraternise with them on a deeper level, and he realised that they weren’t too bad. They were fun and full of life, definitely the type of people that he found himself having fun with. He’s always been surrounded with people that were older than him, you, Jimin and Taehyung for example—and having peers his age to hang out with was a pandora box he never knew he’d ever get used to.

Take Eunwoo for example. Jungkook was petrified of him because there was no way a sixteen-year-old could look that could, and if he looked like that before puberty finished its course—then what the hell was he going to look like after?

But he was a nice guy, a fun person to hang out with and he definitely taught Jungkook some things he’d never dare ask Jimin or Taehyung. Things about women and men; the interrelationships that could be navigated with enough practice.

And enter Yuna, the first girl he’s ever had the ability to get to know in his life besides you. It was the typical cheerleader-meets-footballer trope that Jungkook would always scoff at, but according to Eunwoo “it’s only right that the same type of people minded together.”

Jungkook furrowed his brows when Eunwoo clasped him on his back when he told him that with a wink, suggestive eyes when he exposed a not-so-secret that Yuna had on Jungkook after one of their football games during his senior year.

But Jungkook thought otherwise, probably because he remembered you telling him that people were fundamentally different and social interactions with different walks of life only made life more beautiful and worth living. Seeing the diversity in cultures and experiences opens up our hearts to a world that doesn’t exist for us—it keeps us humble.

Jungkook blindly agreed then, likely entranced with you in general to consider the weight of your words. But Eunwoo was like a constant reminder, and he was older then—a little more subdued enough to pay attention to the words of his friend.

And when Jungkook continued his high school life, it seemed like more and more people seemed to pay attention to him. It wasn’t like he was unpopular before, he definitely caught the eyes of many—but it was different then. It was like Jungkook was his own person and people thought he was cool enough to approach.

So when Yuna shyly asked him out for a date, Jungkook said yes even though he still thought of you.

And when Eunwoo slapped a pack of condoms into his palm while his other football teammates hollered, Jungkook took the leap of faith and lost his virginity the same night.

So, yeah. Jungkook did some growing up—and he hopes that it’ll be enough for you to see him as a man.

“—she’s always doing so much that she barely has time for us and I get that she’s always been an overachiever but we miss her, you know?” Jimin complains, and Jungkook just about returns back from his flashback.

“Sorry, what did you say?” Jungkook says sheepishly.

“Were you not listening to me rant for the past five minutes?” Jimin exasperates and Jungkook hears some shuffling and a chuckle, possibly coming from Taehyung, on the other end of the line.

“You do have the tendency to go off tangent, Jimin,” Jungkook mutters.

Jimin scoffs, “It’s called paying attention to the details you brat. But anyway, to sum it up for you since you wanna be annoying—_____ isn’t with us. She’s got this student council thing and a meeting with a bunch of ambassadors visiting the campus in the evening.”

Jungkook blinks, taking a moment to process the information. He smiles fondly to himself, realising that you always did fine on your own—and he supposes it’s always been that way. You were quiet and never imposing, but you still did your best.

“Oh.” Jungkook says, “Will I be able to see her soon?”

Jimin snorts on the other end.

“Why are you asking me? You have her number right?” Jimin retorts, “Though it may be difficult reaching her cause she takes like five business days to reply if you aren’t work-related.”

Jungkook chuckles while he fiddles with his thumb. He can see you working hard, eyebrows furrowed as you type out emails and organise events like the efficient woman you were.

He’s seen pictures of you on social media, courtesy of Jimin and Taehyung who’d post stories of your pouts when they’d drag you out for some social time, according to their captions. And God, did you grow up even more beautiful than you were in high school.

Jungkook saw you as the girl he admired in high school and it was mostly his puppy-loved up brain thinking of you like this super smart and out of his reach senior that he wanted to respect. But now that Jungkook was … older. He still thinks you’re admirable and smart, but he can’t lie and say he didn’t notice other things.

Like how certain tops flatter your collarbones so nicely that he wonders what it’s like to sink his teeth into them. Or how you’ve experimented with tennis skirts that look like easy access for a territory Jungkook’s used as one of many of his spank bank materials. Even the way your eyes innocently glance up in pictures makes Jungkook’s brain hazy.

Jungkook was older, and so were you. The two of you were in college and it was different. You weren’t just his high school senior and he wasn’t just the little kid that worshipped you. It was free game and Jungkook wanted to make to most out of it.

“I will.” Jungkook nods with a declaration and a sense of determination in his chest. “What time does she finish?”

A brief moment of silence until Jimin responds, snorting to himself.

“She usually gets off her meetings at—10 pm?” Jimin ponders out loud. “You’re really going to wait for her?”

Jungkook wants to add he’s been doing that all this while, but keeps it to himself.

“Just can’t wait to see her.” He shrugs casually.

“You still have that schoolboy crush on her?” Jimin teases. But Jungkook doesn’t flush this time. He’s had his handful of experiences to navigate his way with feelings and desire.

“Not a crush.” Jungkook rolls his eyes. But he wasn’t going to admit that to Jimin or Taehyung just yet. “Is it bad to want to see an old friend?”

“Whatever you say, Jungkook.” Jimin sing-songs. “But I will warn you; _____ isn’t the type.”

At this, Jungkook furrows his eyebrows.

“What?”

Jimin sighs, “Whatever it is you’re thinking … stop.” And his words oddly set off an uneasy feeling in Jungkook’s chest that he doesn’t like. “You know _____. She’s not the kind of person that dates or fucks around. I don’t think she’s even looked at any guy on campus ever since we were enrolled two years ago.”

Jungkook rolls his eyes, feeling slightly ashamed that he’s been caught so early on. But along with growing up, Jungkook’s grown quite a bit of an ego too.

“What makes you think I want to fuck her? What if I really just miss her?” Jungkook snaps.

“Kook, I love you and you’re my best friend but I’ve seen your Instagram stories and escapades. I have no problem with you being sexually active or whatever—you do you, as long as it’s consensual and within respectable boundaries. I know you think college is like this unobstructed territory where you can just fuck around with people but _____ really isn’t like that. I’ve been there and I’m telling you to drop it.”

Jungkook clenches his jaw, “You’ve wanted to fuck her?” Jungkook accuses.

He can practically hear and feel Jimin’s eye roll over the phone.

“No, you idiot.” Jimin sighs, “I’ve had the same intentions as you with other women. While they may be receiving and comfortable with that, _____ won’t be. I hear and recognise your tone and I’m warning you against it.”

Jungkook purses his lips, wanting to defend himself further. But he realises, who is Jimin to tell him what to do with his life? He isn’t a kid anymore.

“You’re reaching.” Jungkook tells Jimin, “You don’t have to worry okay? I just miss ____ and I want to see her before orientation on Friday. Is that a crime?”

“Again, I don’t know what you really want so I won’t project anymore. But I’m telling you, ______ is _____. You don’t think dudes have tried with her before?”

Somehow the revelation of the fact that you did have two years to mingle around with other people and potentially get with men (or women) that weren’t him causes a different type of dread to fill his stomach, an ugly emotion of jealousy. One that he’s never felt before and he doesn’t like it at all.

“God, I haven’t even seen you yet and you’re already micromanaging my entire life.” Jungkook scowls.

“The double standard is real.” Jimin scoffs, “You used to follow _____ around like a lost puppy when we knew each other first? I feel betrayed, man.” Jimin is joking but the reminder makes Jungkook still.

"That's ... different." Jungkook protests.

Jimin snorts as if he doesn't believe his friend.

"Oh, it is different all right. You, my friend, are whipped." He snickers, "Too bad the two of you are basically polar opposites, huh?"

Jungkook freezes on the other end when Jimin casually lets it slip the thought that somewhat plagues his mind, too.

"We're not that different." Jungkook defends himself.

"Says you Mr Athlete all throughout high school. I bet you ten bucks that you were already recruited by one of the football dudes here."

Jungkook scowls because Jimin was spot on.

"Okay. I do sports and she doesn't. That's it." Jungkook snaps.

Jimin clicks his tongue, "You're all for the attention, dude. _____ always keeps it on the down-low while you do your best when people are cheering you on. It's like the spotlight follows you wherever you go and she does her best avoiding it."

Jimin clenches his jaw because while Jimin's words were lighthearted, and he knew better than to ever put you down because the three of you were all good friends—the fact that someone as close to the two of you as Jimin; was laying out the obvious makes Jungkook doubt himself a lot more.

"Oh, and you're the best at psychoanalysing people right?" Jungkook sneers.

Jimin snickers on the other end but Jungkook can't find it in himself to laugh.

"Relax. I'm joking, all right?" Jimin reassures his friend. "You don't even like her that way, right? That's what you said anyway."

Right. He didn't. That's what he told Jimin.

"Right," Jungkook says stiffly.

"If the two of you ever ended up together, though ..." It's as if Jimin was the one dead-set on pushing for it as Jungkook wishes for him to drop it. "Nah. It wouldn't happen. It probably wouldn't work out either."

Jungkook forces a dry chuckle before muttering a lame excuse and hanging up.

He loved Jimin, the guy was a good friend on an average day and an absolute sweetheart on better ones. And Jungkook knew that Jimin meant no malice when he spoke of the potential relationship between you and Jungkook because, well ... Jungkook has always been the younger guy. And that would be weird, wouldn't it?

But Jungkook knows he's done some growing up. And he'll prove it—in whatever way possible.

Jimin doesn’t need to know.

[kalzoni]

Thank you so much to the crew and fandom, you made something absolutely incredible!

I really can’t express how much I love this show and this crazy family

When Rise of the TMNT ended and I cried, I don't really think I've ever cried at a show ending before. So I wanted to write some stuff from the heart, because no show has ever impacted me the way this show has:

This show itself has such a beautiful focus on family, Family is the people you choose, whether biological or not. Platonic and Familial relationships are so hugely important in a child’s life and I’m so happy the show put such a hard focus on it, I don't think enough shows put this level of care into it. The show handled the idea of family beautifully in such a healthy and wholesome way. There’s no such thing as an average family. The world we live in is diverse. And the people we love come from all sorts of places. Family isn't defined by your blood relation, it's defined by your love for each other.

The show also had some really progressive views on its characters, with male characters being emotionally vulnerable and open and female characters being total badasses and written realistically to how a lot of girls actual act. And Splinter as dad? Man, his whole arc was just fantastic! He is a really genuine character, all the characters are! And the way sibling dynamics are written are so realistic and hilarious! The characters are all just written with so much care and I love it!

The crew of Rise are INSANELY TALENTED and PASSIONATE people who put so much love into this show, and you can see it in every single frame! The colours are vibrant, the character animation is excellent and the fight scenes are just PHENOMENAL and genuinely JAW-DROPPING! The show was visually amazing and just and totally out there! The love and care put into the show by every crew member is unlike anything I've ever seen before. The show is absolutely fantastic and is the very definition of passion project, from the first episode to the last. It’s absolutely stunning to watch and a pure inspiration.

Perfect is an understatement.

I really can’t fully express just how much this show meant to me and how much it impacted my life.

I discovered Rise of the TMNT two years ago totally on accident during a pretty low point in my life. I saw an article for this show and checked out the trailer and I was totally blown away by the animation. I loved the art style, I loved the animation style, just everything about it! It was like a group of people sat down and made a show just for me. I would just watch the promos frame by frame and animate alongside it for hours on end. I felt like a little kid! The only thing I would talk about was this show (and tbh that hasn’t stopped haha) This show reignited my passion for my future and my animation and gave the drive to push forward and keep trying my best. This led me to dropping out everything else around me and putting all of my focus into my portfolio to my dream course (mostly full of turtle drawings haha), and about 5 months after the first episode premiered I got accepted!

And it's not just the show alone that’s important to me, the Rise fandom has been the most welcoming and kind fandom I’ve ever had the pleasure to be a part off. You guys are absolutely amazing. When I first started posting two years ago I didn’t expect to get more than a couple of likes, but this fandom gave me such an overwhelming amount of support and kindness I really didn’t expect. You guys gave me so much confidence in myself and in my art and just made me so incredibly happy. I remember I used to purposely post late at night just so I would be able to wake up to your responses first thing in the morning, it always made my day. Every fandom I’ve been in a part of in the past has been purely for the sake of talking about content, but you guys have been so much more than that for me. You mean the world to me and I really can’t express just how much your kind words and support have impacted my life. <3

I am currently the happiest I’ve ever been in my life and I thank this show and fandom hugely for it. This show has continually been my inspiration as an artist to work hard to achieve my animation industry dreams. When I felt the lowest of lows this show pushed me forward and gave me the drive to work hard and get where I wanted to go. This show has been my comfort for the past two years. Whenever things weren’t going my way, I knew I could always pop on an episode or check out the tags and watch this funky family do their thing. This show and fandom just bring me so much joy and are so incredibly important to me.

This show has gone too early, but I’m so grateful it came into my life when it did.

I think this is the kind of media we need more of. Media made by people who genuinely LOVE what their making and who's inspiration comes from the heart. Media that’s spreads strong messages of family and love that the creators really believe in. 

Shows made with love and passion reflect on the audience watching it. We can see it, and we love it.

The crew that worked on this show are all amazing, and I have the absolute highest respect for them.

They had a story and a message they wanted to tell and they stuck by it till the very end. I honestly think the children currently growing up with this kind of content have to be some of the luckiest kids in the world.

The show may be over but it had such a huge impact on me that it will forever and always be one of the most important and special shows in my life.

To the fandom, and to the entire crew and creators of Rise of the TMNT.

You’ve made something absolutely incredible and I love you all for it

Thank you all so much

#Anatawa Hitorijanai #SaveRottmnt

[shezowhero]

Why Aisha, Flora and Musa having love interests are important.

Winx Club is one of the most diverse magical girls shows. It has 3 women of color. Aisha is black, Musa is Asian and Flora is Latina or Hispanic. 

These girls are important cause women of color aren’t treated like they way they are treated in media, especially American media. Aisha is a princess. They are all powerful, they’re the most powerful fairies in their universe but most importantly they all have love interests. Women of color rarely get be love interests or have love interests. They are rarely shown to be desirable and loved, especially black girls. When they are love interests or have a love interests it doesn’t last long. They’re detour love interests. Detour love interests are love interests that are meant to be there for a short time before the main character gets with the endgame love interests or there are there while the main character and endgame love interest get more development with each other before getting together. Like Lana Lang is a detour love interest while Lois Lane is the endgame love interest for Superman. 

Sometimes when a women of color is a love interest to a white character, the white character ends up with another white character at the end of the show. A really good example of this when it comes to cartoons is Danny Phantom where he had two women of color as love interests, Valerie a black girl and Pauline a Latina girl but he ended up with Sam a white girl. And doing this is really problematic and kinda racist. You’re telling women of color that they aren’t desirable compare to white girls/boys. That they shouldn’t be loved, especially by a white person. And the worst part is, that fandoms are okay with this. They’re okay hating on interracial ships while shipping the white character with another white character over the canon or somewhat canon/meant to be canon interracial ships. And they don’t see why or understand why it’s racist. Women of color especially black women call it out in fandoms but no one listens. It’s such a big problem in fandoms that we have name for it called fandom racism. There are web sites, blogs and twitters about it.

They gave Aisha a black girl 3 love love interests Nabu, Roy and Nex. Black girls especially don’t get to be love interests or have love interests in media. Winx Club was like ‘Nah we’re having Aisha be a beautiful black girl and two guys are going to fight over her” too bad it was the seasons people don’t like, seasons 5 and 6. It took a while for Musa and Flora to get love interests. All the girls got love interests right away except for Flora and Musa. As a kid it felt like they ran out of guys to give to the girls. It also felt like to me Flora and Musa were going to be in a love triangle with Riven but they didn’t. They had Flora get with Helia and Muse get with Riven. Flora and Aisha have good relationships with their guys but Musa always has drama with her man and it’s really annoying and forced. They had drama in the earlier seasons and they made up but they had drama again in the later seasons. People don’t want drama they want a happy healthy couple. And if they do want drama with their couples they don’t want it the way Musa and Riven have drama. I can understand if people don’t like their relationship, the writers basically ruined or at least hurt Musa and Riven’s relationship for drama.

Winx Club has 3 women of color. A black girl, a Asian girl and a Latina girl. They are all powerful, beautiful and loved. Winx Club is one of the most diverse magical girls show but it shoots it self in the foot by white washing them in the later seasons. Aisha, Flora and Muse are very important to girls of color, Aisha is especially important to black girls so it’s very disheartening that they’re white washed in the later seasons.

Thankfully there are more diverse magical girls now where they can’t get white washed. Talia from Lolirock can’t be white washed cause the show is sadly over. None of the characters in Adorned by Chi can be white washed cause it literally has a black creator and straight up takes place in Africa. Princess Love Pon can’t be white washed cause once again she has a black creator who is also dark skin. 

There are more non Japanese magical girls of color and we need to support them. We need to hype them up to show that we like them and want more of them. If Winx Club won’t respect their female characters of color and their female fans of color than we’ll take our business else where. We should and well support diverse magical girls series that respect their characters of color and their fans of color. We can still like Winx Club but no more supporting it. No more buying merch/dolls from it. It’s already hard legally to watch it in America but no more legally watching it, if you choose to continue to watch it. Pirate it. 

When it comes to diverse media, if you want more diverse media you absolutely shouldn’t pirate it. It’s important you don’t pirate diverse media cause executives will think people don’t like it or there’ll think diversity doesn’t sell or there’ll think the world/people aren’t ready for it and there’ll cancelled it. I can understand if you can’t legally watch some diverse shows if it’s on stream services and you can’t afford stream services but try to support it in different ways like merch if it has merch. Talking about it and telling people to watch it on your social media helps. Representation really does starts in fandoms so if you make fanart/fan content, make fanart/fan content for diverse media. If your fanart or fan content gets popular executives may or may not see it and see that people like diverse media or that diverse character and will do more with it.

But no more supporting Winx Club if keeps mistreating it’s characters especially it’s female characters of color. Don’t make characters of color detour love interests especially women of color. Give more women of color love interests. Let women of color be love interests and not just love interests let them be endgame love interests. And it doesn’t matter what that character gender and race are just make sure their relationship is good and well written cause the relationships in Winx aren’t written that good.

[calacuspr]

This England team has shown us all what the power of sport really means

There have been a few times in recent years where the entire nation has appeared united and optimistic – and almost all of them have been connected to sport.

The World Cup in Italy in 1990, the EURO 96 in England and the London 2012 Olympic Games all come to mind as moments that will endure as epochs that transcend everything else going on in the world.

England has been particularly divided in recent years as the Leave and Remain factions argue; the challenges facing the nation during the COVID-19 pandemic; and the economic struggles that so many have encountered pretty much since the financial collapse a decade ago.

At Calacus, we work with organisations who see the value of sport to positively transform society and the England team has shown that throughout the build-up to EURO 2020 and beyond, they have brought the nation together in a way little else can.

Granted, it helped that England did so well, reaching the final of the tournament. It is hardly a new phenomenon that the squad is so multi-cultural, with players with family heritage from around the world.

While the aftermath of the defeat to Italy has shown the unpalatable side of society, the way in which the England manager and players have conducted themselves has been a masterclass in authentic communications.

STAY TRUE TO YOUR VALUES

Taking the knee has been part of football tradition in England for more than a year now, highlighting inequality and promoting diversity.

The England team have been criticised by many, with the Conservative MP for Ashfield, Lee Anderson, announcing that he would not watch “his beloved England team” while the players took the knee; Home Secretary Priti Patel suggesting that it was nothing more than “gesture politics.” and Prime Minister Boris Johnson refusing to criticise those who booed the team.

Given the racism that the likes of Marcus Rashford, Bukayo Saka, Raheem Sterling and others have suffered, particularly from online trolls, it’s remarkable that politicians sought to condemn them and accuse the team of Marxist tendencies and BLM affiliation rather than a compassionate plea for solidarity and equality over division.

England defender Tyrone Mings said: “Everyone’s entitled to their opinions. The home secretary is one of many, many people who oppose us taking the knee or refuse to defend it . . . we [have tried] to educate and inform the minority who refuse to acknowledge why we take the knee and want to boo it.”

Notably, the boos faded as the EURO 2020 tournament progressed and the team got to the later stages and it speaks volumes that many of those politicians who criticised the team then tried to associate themselves with them through staged photography that fooled no one.

CELEBRATE INCLUSION

This England team are no strangers to speaking up for those who don’t have a voice.

Marcus Rashford has campaigned for an end to child hunger and has twice forced the government to make u-turns over free school meals.

Raheem Sterling, one of the stars of the tournament for England and who has been vilified himself by media and fans alike, has fought hard to call out bigotry in the fight against racism.

EURO 2020 started during Pride month and saw players wear rainbow laces and captains use rainbow armbands, despite some mixed messaging from UEFA.

When England played Germany in the round of 16, captain Harry Kane joined his counterpart Manuel Neuer in wearing a rainbow armband with England's official Twitter account saying: “@HKane will join @DFB_Team 's Manuel Neuer in wearing a rainbow captain’s armband for tomorrow’s game at @wembleystadium to mark the end of Pride month, as the #ThreeLions stand in allyship with LGBTQ+ communities around the world.”

Kane himself explained: “From our point of view, it is a show of solidarity with the German national team from all of us at the England national team to be united in trying to kick out all inequalities there are. We’re on a huge platform on a big stage so it is obviously a great opportunity to do so.”

Jordan Henderson has shown himself to be a captain on and off the field, supporting local charities during lockdown as well as leading his Liverpool team to success over recent years.

He is thought to be one of the main drivers behind the team planning to donate its EURO 2020 prize money to good causes.

Their donation – which could be in the millions – will be made to NHS charities now that the football tournament has concluded.

The team made a statement last May which said: “Following positive discussions with the FA, the England senior men's squad are pleased to confirm that a significant donation from their international match fees will be made to NHS Charities Together via the #PlayersTogether initiative.

“This contribution will be taken from a fund already set aside to support a variety of worthy causes using all match fees collated since September 2018.”

While England supporters still let themselves down by booing national anthems at times during the tournament, it shows the progress that this England team has prompted that Joe White, an England fan who co-chairs Gay Gooners, Arsenal’s LGBT+ supporters group, attended the England v Germany match at Wembley Stadium “in full makeup.”

They wore red lipstick, shimmery eyeshadow and mascara along with a rainbow flag and England flag painted on their face to complete the look.

They tweeted: “This is a really small and personal point but today was my first game at Wembley in full makeup and overtly queer (as opposed to just camp). Absolutely no issues from fans and some lovely chats.

“Despite being absolutely petrified pre game, really proud of our fans”

Henderson responded: “Hi Joe great to hear you enjoyed the game as you should. No one should be afraid to go and support their club or country because football is for everyone no matter what. Thanks for your support, enjoy the rest of the Euros.”

How refreshing that the LGBTQ+ community can now support the national team with no fear of abuse or intimidation and that the Three Lions Pride can display positive banners – understandably celebrating Henderson’s goal against Ukraine.

ENCOURAGE TEAMWORK

England manager Gareth Southgate arguably had one of the most talented England squads in recent memory.

The team’s headquarters at St George’s Park became a centre of fun with photocalls featuring the likes of Bukayo Saka jumping into a pool on a flying unicorn inflatable and Ed Sheeran playing a special concert for the team not to mention a preview showing of Top Gun Maverick and call with its star Tom Cruise.

While early on, there was uproar among fans over players who had been left out of the starting XI or even the squad, with flair giving way to pragmatism, Southgate showed how much the team ethic mattered to him.

After the 4-0 victory over Ukraine, Southgate paid tribute to the members of his squad who had not featured much during the tournament.

He said: “I am thinking about the players who I had to leave out of the 23 because they have been such a massive part of what we’re doing. It is so difficult to keep a group of this size feeling valued and yet those guys have been phenomenal about how they have sacrificed themselves for the group.

"I feel the responsibility keenly. But it is these challenges that make us."

Not once during the tournament did any stories leak of disgruntled players, while the players reflected the afore-mentioned values by resisting well-trodden paths of nationalism that previous encounters with the likes of Germany may have engendered.

In fact, this England team have shown dignity in the face of criticism and the very definition of what it means to be a team – there are no egos, no vested interests.

Where once supporting England meant violence and xenophobia, this England team has inspired a new identity with a commitment to diversity, inclusion and a more tolerant society, which is a credit to them all.

SHOW REAL LEADERSHIP

It was quite telling when, during the celebrations following England’s win over Denmark, former international Gary Neville said: “The standard of the leaders in the past couple of years in this country has been poor but look at that man there... he’s everything a leader should be: respectful, humble, tells the truth, genuine. He’s fantastic, Gareth Southgate.”

Southgate has been humble, engaging, honest and resolute that he knew what he wanted to do and would not waver, even when senior politicians criticised some of the decisions made by him and his management team.

Ahead of the tournament, in an essay on patriotism, titled Dear England, Southgate linked football and national identity and underlined why the game means so much more than just sporting excellence.

“I have a responsibility to the wider community to use my voice, and so do the players. It’s their duty to continue to interact with the public on matters such as equality, inclusivity and racial injustice, while using the power of their voices to help put debates on the table, raise awareness and educate.

“On this island, we have a desire to protect our values and traditions – as we should – but that shouldn’t come at the expense of introspection and progress.”

Southgate has been calm and assured throughout his tenure, ensuring that he and the team are consistent in their focus, messaging and conduct. There have been no scandals, no drama and every press conference or media opportunity has been assured and engaging.

FACE ADVERSITY HEAD-ON

Losing on penalties is part of football, but it’s also something that England have encountered at a number of major tournaments.

The backlash after England’s defeat was brutal, with the three players who missed penalties, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka all targets of racist abuse.

Some MPs also used the defeat as an opportunity to tell players to keep out of politics, such as Andrew Rosindell, who tweeted: “We are all proud of our England team, who have had the support of the whole country over recent weeks, but please focus of football, not politics. If you win for England, you win for everyone!”

Home Secretary Priti Patel expressed her outrage at the racism, prompting Mings to again address her double standards.

He said: “You don’t get to stoke the fire at the beginning of the tournament by labelling our anti-racism message as ‘Gesture Politics’ & then pretend to be disgusted when the very thing we’re campaigning against, happens.”

Soon after the game, the mural in tribute to Rashford was vandalised, prompting hundreds of positive messages and fans voicing their support for the Manchester United forward.

Rashford tweeted: ““I’ve grown into a sport where I expected to read things written about myself. Whether it be the colour of my skin, where I grew up, or, most recently, how I decide to spend my time off the pitch.

“I dreamt of days like this. The messages I’ve received today have been positively overwhelming and seeing the response in Withington had me on the verge of tears. The communities that always wrapped their arms around me continue to hold me up.

“I’m Marcus Rashford, 23-year-old black man from Withington and Wythenshawe, South Manchester. If I have nothing else I have that. For all the kind messages thank you. I’ll be back stronger. We’ll be back stronger.”

CONCLUSION

The England team have shown without doubt the power of sport to unify – and while EURO 2020 is now over, we have the Olympic Games coming up where athletes will come together in the spirit of competition and camaraderie.

As Southgate put it: “The reality is that the result is just a small part of it. When England play, there’s much more at stake than that.

“It’s about how we conduct ourselves on and off the pitch, how we bring people together, how we inspire and unite, how we create memories that last beyond the 90 minutes. That last beyond the summer. That last forever.”

While the positivity has proved to be a brief moment in time, the England squad showed society how to empathise, respect and engage in a way that has been in short supply for so long.

[the--highlanders]

liveblogging the Highlanders: episode 1

I haven’t seen this in ages let’s gooooo

reconstruction said ‘a battle rages between Highlanders and Redcoats’. good start guys. but hey, the primary source for this was Prebble, so

LOVE one of the only pieces of moving footage from this serial being the TARDIS doors opening

Polly saying ‘you never give up hope, do you’ about Ben thinking they’re home is so cute.... how many times has this happened before

‘the Doctor allows Polly to lead him up the slope’ I’m.....

Alexander saying they never got close to the government army is interesting because they would probably have been on the MacLarens and Stuarts of Appin regiment, which did bear the brunt of hand-to-hand fighting at Culloden and ended up being surrounded by the government forces. the fact that the laird, Alexander, and Jamie have survived probably means they didn’t make it all the way (I guess because the laird was injured so they fell back?)

Jamie playing his chanter while they’re meant to be hiding is so hecking funny because like. it’s probably just the chanter ripped off the full set of pipes. if that’s anything like a modern bagpipe chanter that’s louder than the actual bagpipes

this kind of takes the interpretation of the film Culloden (1964) that Prince Charles was a widely-disliked coward who ran away as soon as the battle started going badly for him (that film was also based on Prebble, which admittedly I haven’t read, so they may be drawing this from the same source). it’s probably not super accurate but if read from an in-universe perspective says something interesting about Jamie’s more skeptical take on Prince Charles/the Stuarts versus Alexander’s more out-and-out monarchical loyalty, and accidentally reflects the diversity of Jacobite motivations and beliefs

whoop that cannon’s too big for Culloden iirc afshjgd

a Jacobite bonnet with a slogan like that does actually exist!! it was in the Treasures of the British Library exhibition a couple of years ago. don’t remember off the top of my head whether the slogan was original or a later addition - it does seem more romantic in tone than the textile-based slogans I’m familiar with, but I’m not super up on masculine/military-oriented slogans, so I could just be comparing that to a totally different set of items

again the playing on the foreignness of Prince Charles and the Duke of Cumberland as Italian and German respectively seems very in line with earlier films about Culloden - I feel like this serial definitely shows its influences from other Culloden-related media, especially in its general trust of ‘ordinary’ people versus its villainisation of officers and leaders

Solicitor Grey is so wonderfully slimy and a great stand-in for the hangers-on who came to do some dark tourism/see if they could profit after the battle, even if he’s meant to be there in an official capacity

speaking of non-military people around, I love that Kirsty is here!! I love Kirsty in general. it’s implied that they live nearby (her saying her family use the cave as a shelter after a cattle raid), so did she come out to see the battle as many people did, or had she been following along with the army? who knows

I also love Polly and Kirsty’s dynamic, and the way Kirsty is much more reluctant to take action. I’m pretty sure it was meant to be a simple active-modern-girl versus passive-historical-girl, but in so many ways Kirsty is right to be scared. she’s got a sort of contextual street-smarts that Polly’s confidence doesn’t let her have

Two pretending to be a German doctor is just. it’s so funny.

Ben’s perspective here is really interesting too actually!! just the way he interacts with the soldiers, being from the navy himself

‘strange looking scoundrel’ ‘extraordinary rogue’ we’re two serials in and they’ve already summed him up perfectly gdjkhldghfjg

‘you don’t live here do you?’ that’s another thing I like about Polly and Kirsty’s dynamic, it really lets Polly be patronising and stuck-up and flawed in a very human way, without villanising her. Kirsty’s upper-class in her own right, but Polly doesn’t really see it, and it’s a great bit of depth for her

[arttheclown]

3, 10, 24!

  slasher ask meme! || status: accepting!

   thank you @oceansinmychest !! ♡

   3. who is your favourite final girl?

    answered here!

   10. most underrated slasher movie in your opinion?

   i think jeepers creepers gets overlooked a lot because of who the director is (here’s some information on it for those who don’t know; major tw for p*dophilia & CSA, there’s some heavy shit in this thread so please proceed with caution if you click on it), which i do understand. you don’t want to financially support a piece of subhuman feces, and you shouldn’t! but jeepers creepers 1 & 2 were released almost 20 years ago, so there are a lot of resources online that allow you to watch them for free; he won’t get a dime from it. though i’m cautious of some of the subtext in these films for obvious reasons, there were a lot of good put into them completely unrelated to the director. i’ll list them in bullet points below.

the creeper’s design is fucking awesome. even better is that he wasn’t just randomly thrown together to look scary - his appearance actually makes sense from a biological standpoint! my friend @antlercrack is a good person to talk to about that; he loves the character as much as i do and has done a bunch of analysis on him.

speaking of gay shit, the first two movies are full of it. here are three very good articles on the subject.

the first two films are almost completely devoid of heterosexual romance. JC1 revolves around the relationship between two siblings and the sequel revolves around a fairly diverse group of students trying to survive the night. the only real het relationship is a toxic one featured in JC2 and we are not meant to like the guy.

continuing off of my previous point, jeepers creepers 2 addresses issues like racism & homophobia in a very real way. even better: the racist homophobic jock gets the axe & all the POC & gay-coded characters survive!

the male lead in JC1 is heavily implied to be gay & the female lead’s sexuality is never revealed. it’s mentioned she had a recent boyfriend, but the relationship did not go well.

speaking of the characters - you actually give a shit about most of them & they have endearing personalities, especially the jenner siblings! you don’t want to see anything happen to them!!!

the women are not reduced to their bodies!!! they all stand out from each other!!!

the creeper himself does not speak, but he’s still full of personality! see this clip as one of my favourite examples. wish he got some more love from horror fans!

the crew put 110% into those special effects & they still hold up really well!

the score of the first two films are fucking incredible & thrilling and you can listen to them both on spotify!

there are comics available to read online that explain the creeper’s origins! they gave his character a lot more nuance... and they’re explicitly gay! he is gay!!!

just skip the third one btw it’s. not worth your time. we don’t talk about JC3 in this house

   24. shout out some creators in the slasher fandom that you love!

   sure thing!

@antlercrack: my best friend of nearly 3 years, frequent fanfic collaborator & rp buddy! obsessed with his art, cosplay & character analysis. also, his jokes have me fucking crying on at least a weekly basis.

@teensiest: super cute fanart & awesome makeup cosplays! it’s extremely uncanny how many common interests teensie & i share!

@rulerofpurple: has great takes on various pieces of horror media, tons of cool OCs & a brand new au rewriting the origins of billy & agnes from black christmas!

@masks-n-steel: absolutely in love with their jason design. so cute and full of personality!

@guljerry: has written some incredible fanfiction on freddy, jason & the sawyer family! possesses a grasp on these characters that i admire a lot!

@rotten-carcass: has a really nice, colourful art style & has drawn a number of my faves!

@stinkyfishystinky: super lively, fluid, distinctive art style! includes a ton of different body types in their work with a variety of different characters, including ones who don’t get the spotlight very often! also, their freddy is fucking adorable & one of my favourites in the fandom.

@psyducktheterrible: has come up with some insanely cool freddy concepts & has a ton of passion for his character!

@the-thot-clown: has drawn pretty much every horror character you can think of and always manages to capture their respective vibes & personalities perfectly. their blog features tons of different m/m and f/f ships, which i appreciate!

@45lampkinln: a+++ content. amazing art, amazing hcs and tons of cool canon divergence. absolutely wonderful world-building. i give this blog a lot of credit for helping me get back into slashers at the beginning of the year. it’s always a joy to see them active!

@kinrypu: their art style is just... chef’s kiss. i have a weakness for their drawings of robert englund especially!

[sleepykittypaws]

The Christmas House

Original Air Date: November 23, 2020 (Hallmark) Where to Watch?: Hallmark will replay it multiple times this season, and for every season in perpetuity

It's impossible to review Hallmark's The Christmas House without noting that this time last year, then-Crown Media CEO Bill Abbott was personally taking phone calls from a SPLC-designated hate group, and pulling a Zola ad showing two brides chastely kissing from his network, at that hate group's behest. The ensuing firestorm of well-earned criticism following Abbott's bad judgement, is, without question, what brought us to today, with Abbott ousted, a woman of color, Wonya Lucas, now at Hallmark's helm, and a still totally G-rated holiday lineup that now regularly features former Hallmark no-gos like, interracial romance and LGBTQ+ inclusion, improving Hallmark's abysmal diversity record, one movie at a time. 

So, even though Hallmark had to be dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century, it's still hard not to be at least a little emotional that they're finally joining us here. The bigots are still having online temper tantrums about losing their all-white, all-straight safe space, but Hallmark's holiday ratings are up 7% year-over-year—a significant jump in a world where cable subscriptions are declining by 10-15% annually.

Now, what that progress looks like on a network known for being “clean,” conservative and about as unwilling to take risks as any channel on the planet, is another story. Frequent Hallmark star, and out gay actor, Jonathan Bennett, has been tirelessly talking about The Christmas House, since the day it went into production. And Bennett brings a lot of energy to this ensemble story, written by co-star Robert Buckley, of a family getting together to decorate their home one more time before it's sold. 

Buckley and Bennett play the sons of Sharon Lawrence and Treat Williams, a recently retired couple struggling with that fundamental shift in their relationship. Buckley is the star of a ridiculous court show, Handsome Justice, of which we luckily get to see a clip, and Bennett, a baker, and his husband, played by Brad Harder, are waiting to hear about an adoption, after several previous disappointments. 

Bennett and Buckley bring more humor than is normal for Hallmark to their portrayal of loving, competitive brothers, who clearly enjoy ribbing each other.

How conservative was past hallmark, you ask? Well, that Buckley's girl-next-door love interest is divorced, not widowed, is still a somewhat shocking twist in that world, as is the fact that both Buckley and Bennett are "allowed" to sport some facial scruff, rather than be clean shaven. Oh, and that the family next door is (gasp) Latino, is also something we likely wouldn't have seen in the Hallmark of yore. All of which is just mind-blowing, since those “days of yore” for this TV network were [checks notes]…2019, not 1968.

Lawrence and Williams are believable as a long term couple, and their life-change struggle to re-center their relationship feels real, but the way it's revealed is almost as anti-climactic as its resolution. The movie laid very unsubtle hints along the way—all storytelling progress aside, Hallmark movies are still written so you can half watch and not a miss a thing, allowing folks to join 20 minutes in, or do the dishes and come back without being confused—that Williams and Lawrence's wanting to have "one last Christmas" was about more than just downsizing in retirement. 

When Lawrence told the story of the clearly-actually-brand-new-and-from-Homegoods Santa pot, and what it meant to her, I thought Williams was going to later accidentally break Checkov's sentimental teapot and, in her anger, Lawrence would blurt out something about that's why they were separating, shocking their grown sons. 

And, honestly, as predictable as that would have been, it would probably have had more impact than what did happen…Lawrence just casually telling Buckley while stringing lights, and then nobody really mentioning it again, excepting oblique references during a single conversation between the brothers, and then Lawrence just announces at breakfast that they're not doing that after all.

Definitely feels like Hallmark's aversion to conflict in its stories is one of those provisions that is still firmly in place. (We saw a similar unwillingness to commit to actual marital difficulties, despite that being the central plot point, in Cranberry Christmas.)

Which is too bad, because Lawrence and Williams being much better than the actors usually used for these parent roles, could have handled a more realistic story well, and brought some real emotional beats to the movie.

As expected, Buckley's romance with Ana Ayora was the definite A-plot here, but why did their memory lane rekindling catalyst have to be close-up magic, the worst of all entertainment options? Was there no mime troop they could have been teenage members of? When it comes to magic, and jazz, I'm like Indiana Jones and snakes…Why'd it have to be magic?

Also, no way that 29-year-old guy they have playing "teenage" Mike grows up to be Robert Buckley. Nope! They definitely had to soft focus all the mostly unnecessary flashback scenes so that those actors, easily less than a decade younger than our leads, didn't quite look their age. 

And, c'mon, Buckley, who, again, is the star of his own TV show, gives the love of his life a necklace he bought…in high school? For real? I'm surprised we couldn't see her neck turn green in real time. At least get a gal a little upgrade. Sheesh! 

The whole rival real estate agent thing went nowhere. And what was that subplot even supposed to be about? Would have much rather seen a scene from the Handsome Justice episode where Buckley's character defended a dog accused of murder, than that whole waste of time. 

On the other hand, loved the Grift body spray mentions, and so glad we go to see that ad. Hallmark doesn't do subtle—"But will they get it?" is basically the network's motto—but this is one case of subtext just being text that worked.

Oh and, how did his parents buy a house on the Hudson river just by selling a nice, but fairly average, suburban home? Sure, they said it was a fixer upper, but anything on the water is gonna be way more pricey than where they were, and you've still got to have the cash to do the fixing. Also, you know the old adage about how nothing soothes a struggling marriage like a whole house renovation project, amirite?

Speaking of money…Why didn't Buckley just buy his folks the house right away if he didn't want to see it go? I mean, even if he's only a mid-level TV star, this wasn't some extravegent manse, and certainly wouldn't be an unusual thing for a well-off child to do for their middle-class parents. Why all the rigamarole with the weird guy and the rescinded offer? And, like, what was that all about? So many stories I'd have rather seen from this talented cast than some of the filler we actually got.

Harder didn't get nearly enough to do, but he and Bennett had decent chemistry and they got most of the best lines. The joke about "Will we decorate like this for our kids," and Bennett's emphatic, "No," cut the tension of an emotional scene well, with perfect timing, making it actually, laugh out loud funny—a Hallmark rarity. And when Harder appears in doorway after hearing from the adoption agency, and Bennett knows just by looking at his face what the call said, I got emotional.

That all the couples in this one got to kiss, including Bennett and Harder, is important. With the specter of last year's Zola debacle absolutely lingering over the entire movie, it's hard to think of a better, actual example of #LoveWins, than that moment.

I also teared up when we saw Bennett and Harder's family at the end, not only because it was a long overdue Hallmark milestone, but also because Harder's real-life son, Kael, played he and Bennett's on-screen adopted child, and is just so stinking cute.

Am I giving this bonus points for finally having an LGBTQ+ storyline, even if it was pretty far from the foreground? For sure. But Buckley and Bennett also brought humor and heart to this one, of a variety not usually found on Hallmark, and Lawrence and Williams also upped the ante on the quality here. Notable that Hallmark also sprung for two actual, name-brand holiday songs, so they were willing to spend a little bit of extra cash on this effort, which says more about their “commitment to diversity” than years of empty promises ever did.

Would have liked House even more, if Hallmark had been brave enough to swap the storylines; Bennett falling in love the boy next door, and Buckley and his bride waiting to hear about adoption, but barring that, do wish it had been bit more of a true ensemble (i.e. all three love stories had equal weight).

Despite quibbles, I'm still putting this on top of the 2020 Hallmark heap, at least for the moment, because I laughed, I cried and I felt good about the progress that has been made, no matter how long overdue it is.

As I've said so many times, representation really does matter, particularly on a channel like Hallmark, which caters to exactly the audience that most needs to see LGBTQ+ people laughing, living and loving, just like every other family.

Representation really can change lives. It opens hearts and minds. It can help those struggling within themselves feel seen and worthy. Really can not underestimate how transformative these normalizing glimpses can be, particularly for a network like Hallmark, with a large "conservative" audience. 

"Conservative" is in quotes, because there's nothing genuinely conservative about human rights, and respect for those unlike you. Empathy and acceptance for others should be a baseline standard for living in a society—not a political statement. 

No one has the right to deny someone else's humanity, and someone's choice to hold hate in their heart deserves no respect from Hallmark, or society at large. Really hopeful that some kid out there who feels excluded and awful about themself because their family and upbringing has told them everything they're feeling is wrong and sinful, can now see representation like this on their family's safe space TV channel, and know it's going to be OK.

It's a small step, but it's definitely a good one, and I'm really looking forward to the actual lead LGBTQ+ holiday romances coming soon, like Hulu's Happiest Season (Nov. 25), Lifetime's The Christmas Setup (Dec. 12) and Paramount Network's Dashing in December (Dec. 13), and hoping Hallmark joins that club in 2021.

Until then…

Final Judgement: 3 Paws Up

[bluepulsebluepulse]

Top 5 Reasons Why BluePulse Should Become Canon:

Below I have compiled a list of reasons why the legendary characters both Bart Allen and Jaime Reyes, have the potential to be more than just best friends (which is what most relationships start with 😉). And I don’t even care if it isn’t in YJ but that would be ideal. And with that, let’s get started!

1. They provide for perfect character development:

Here me out, so... both Bart Allen and Jaime Reyes and their characters seem to explore very similar themes, and the great part is, they do this together as best friends, but it could easily continue through the format of a relationship as well which would make it more rewarding. The hypothetical feelings are powerful enough to justify, I mean and understandably so, when two people, are facing something as grande as changing fate itself together! And by that I mean the Reach apocalypse. I mean they can’t truly know if they have succeeded or not, and what better way to be prepared and feel like you can face anything the future can throw at you then having the love of your life by your side? And they are the perfect candidates for one another???

2. They share a lot of dynamics:

The two have the potential to help support one another through their hardships as they share a lot of the same dynamics. For instance, both Bart and Jaime have to deal with facing their fears (the same fear). But they are also the key to each other’s freedom! Because without Bart having coming back to the past, and without Jaime’s cooperation, neither of them could have obtained their own respective freedoms (that’s ignoring the freedom of everybody else in existence too 😂) and how could they not love one another for giving each other one of the greatest gifts of all? Freedom.

3. Their relationship would provide the perfect opportunity to teach life lessons:

Both of their origin stories are fascinating and when written by talented people, can be a really rewarding story that could be made even better by the two of them becoming a couple. Relationships without drama are boring and unrealistic and these two can offer plenty. Take your pick from the vast range of elements these characters have to offer to provide that; hidden truths from their past’s and or future’s or their superpowers and the conflicts that come with living that life. And that’s not even including the great story telling that could come as they navigated their way from friends to lovers! When family and friends are considered for the two, they would likely face a few unsupportive people who were not accepting of their relationship, for instance maybe Jaime’s father? Dealing with parents who don’t accept you for who you are is something A LOT of people face, even when not considering the LGTBQ+ aspect, and this is definitely something I know I, and many others, would appreciate seeing answered through the narrative of story telling. The life lessons that could be further enforced by them becoming official are endless too. If Bart can hypothetically fall in love with Jaime (and be loved back), that sets the example that you can’t judge a book by its cover and that forgiveness is strong enough to overcome anything! Bart could have easily assumed the worst of Jaime coming back to the past, could have never let down his guard with him, never trusted him, but Bart did. And as for forgiveness, Jaime is literally the same person who tortured Bart, and despite being under Reach control at the time, Bart would have likely and understandably so, assigned a lot of blame to Jaime because living in a dystopian future doesn’t exactly endow one with the energy to care about carefully assorting blame to the correct parties.

4. They have truly amazing chemistry (and provide an overwhelming abundance of heartwarming humor):

Do I even need to explain this? Anyone who has watched Seasons 2 and 3 of YJ, will know exactly what I’m talking about. Obviously the pair haven’t featured a lot in what we have currently seen from Season 3 😢, but in Season 2 they were the stars of the show and it was amazing. The chemistry they had alone was enough to warrant an eventual relationship to flourish between the two. The humor between these two is electric (in a good way). The contrast in their personalities makes their friendship an absolute delight to watch and I just think about all the new avenues of humor that could open up if they became an actual item.

5. They can set an important standard in representation and diversity:

Not only is there a severe lack of LGTBQ+ representation in just general media, it is also apparent in the superhero mediums (especially animated). DC is becoming progressively better with live action, as is evident with Legends of Tomorrow, Doom Patrol and now Batwoman. So I am not saying there is none at all, but if we are looking at DC animated properties, well... I don’t think I need to finish that sentence. And Bart and Jaime are perfect candidates. Most people see Jaime as bisexual and Bart as gay and I actually agree with this general consensus. I like it that way too. Anyway, they are both relatively minor characters in the DC Universe so it’s a great place to start. And that isn’t meant as in insult, popularity wise, these two characters are ideal to place in a romantic relationship without upsetting too many people. I could understand people getting upset if DC allowed YJ to make a very popular well established character gay such as Batman or Superman or something. But Bart and Jaime aren’t well established so I ask you... why not them? And not only could these two set a good precedent for representation for the LGTBQ+ community; but also diversity in general due to Jaime’s Latino ethnicity. 

And to summarize, these are basically the top 5 reasons I have but believe me I have more! And yes, this was me trying my best to condense what I had to say. If you got this far, I applaud you. Haven’t Bart and Jaime been through enough in their lives? DC just let them be happy together!

PS: For those of you who are about to jump down my throat over the age gap, please understand that I was hoping for them to be together this season, not last season, they were indeed too young to date back then. And when I say together this season, I mean starting out dating. I am not asking for them to jump into bed right now and then heck, why not elope next season? NO. This season they could literally start out with just hand holding or something. Next season I would expect kissing (amongst other things) though from a hypothetical canon standpoint. They will both be well and truly old enough. The notion that Jaime is taking advantage of Bart (because he is a few years older) is the stupidest thing I have ever heard. Firstly, Jaime isn’t that kind of guy and secondly, Bart was mature for his age right from the beginning. They are superheroes for goodness sake, they’re ALL forced to grow up quickly and when you keep that in mind, it makes sense. For anyone who plans on leaving negative or derogatory comments on this post, know I will block you and lose no sleep over it. I rope homophobes and racists into the same category, you’re wrong, so there’s no need for an open and honest discussion on your thoughts and opinions regarding this topic so I just block and move on. Simple. For anyone else who disagrees but for other logical reasons, well then I can respect your viewpoint but know if you dump on this post I am just going to ignore it lol. Also anybody else who has a problem with this ship, just block me so you don't have to see posts from me about it since that's literally all I ever do.

[internaljiujitsu]

Negrito: Race In The Latino Community

I had lots of nicknames growing up. Bolita (little ball) when I was a toddler because I was round. Jun (short for Junior), because I share a name with my dad. But the monikers I heard most from my mom and extended family were Negro (black), Negrito (little black) or Negrolo (black something or other). Notice a pattern?

As the darkest person in my Puerto Rican family, that’s how my loved ones would address me. It’s a common practice in Latino cultures. Identifying someone by their color, frowned upon in politically correct, modern society, has morphed into a term of endearment among racially diverse Latinos. Or so it seems.

Despite the wide range of hues within Latino culture that would suggest an evolved view of skin color, these societies are just as racist as any dusty mid western town full of red cap wearing “Americans.”

When a black South African, Zonzibini Tunzi, beat out Ms. Puerto Rico for the ridiculous Ms. Universe crown, the supervisor for the Island’s Education Department called the winner, “La prima de Shaka Zulu.” It means Shaka Zulu’s cousin. You know, the legendary African military leader.

In case you were wondering, there is no relation.

In 1937, Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo had forty thousand Hatitian migrants massacred to “whiten” the population of the Caribbean nation. Sixty years later, every Dominican in the world hailed the dark skinned Sammy Sosa as one of their own when he chased Babe Ruth’s legendary home run record.

And now — twenty years after that — Sammy Sosa is white.

In the eighties, my friends and family referred to African American people as “Morenos” (Dark Skinned) or “Cocolos” (a term originating with a dark skin group of people in The Dominican Republic.) We were all living in the same impoverished, dilapidated neighborhood together, but never felt the same. There was always an us against them attitude. We often felt as if we needed to fight for respect within our own neighborhood while buying into media perceptions of what it meant to be black and brown. And what we saw around us everyday did little to give us faith in ourselves or our darker brethren.

But I could blend in anywhere — while feeling comfortable nowhere. I belonged to a light skinned (except for me and my dad) Puerto Rican family growing up in a black neighborhood but I found myself relating more to white culture. While the Cosby Show was number one, I watched Family Ties. While kids were listening to Chuck D or KRS 1, I was head banging to Guns and Roses. I hated baggy clothes, preferring tight jeans and t-shirts. But I didn’t feel like I was rebelling - I just liked what I liked, and got plenty of shit for it.

To me, the Cosby show was bullshit. That’s not how it was for the black and brown people I knew. It was fantasy. Family Ties I had seen play out before my own eyes at white friends’ homes with cookie cutter lives that seemed perfect (spoiler alert: they weren’t). I wanted what they had so badly — peace of mind and enthusiasm for the future — and I wasn’t finding it where I lived.

I also hated my brother at the time (who I love to death) and wanted to be the opposite of him. He was a thug who always gave my parents headaches. He set a terrible example for his little brother while constantly asserting the fact that he was six years older and wiser. Once I stopped idolizing him, I detested everything he stood for. He has long since proven me and the old neighborhood wrong.

It took me years to become as secure as I am, but even now I get shit from people in my life. I’ve embraced my heritage and have ensured that my five year old daughter does the same. But when my parents hear my daughter speak proper Spanish without a Puerto Rican accent, they make fun of us. She’s been attending a Spanish speaking school since she was two. Her mother and I have attempted to be consistent with the dialect we use with her. That means she actually rolls her r’s and doesn’t sound like she’s gonna hock a loogie when she says “carro” or “perro.” My family thinks it’s fucking hilarious.

But it’s not just family. In a recent conversion with an old friend who had just retired from the police department, he called me an “Oreo.” Black on the outside and white on the inside. This guy is in his fifties. I chuckled when he said it, but haven’t returned his calls since.

The thing is, I know he was just fucking around. He himself is of mixed race and sounds like an Irish American with a Brooklyn accent, but looks Japanese. But there is something about police perception of dark skin people, how we are supposed to sound, that bugged me about what he said.

There’s too much chuckling that goes on. Too much nodding. A former close friend of mine, who is half Puerto Rican and married to a dark skinned Dominican woman, once complained that a guy he knew had “niggered up” his car ( because he added shiny rims, window tint and other bells and whistles). It wasn’t the first time I heard him use the word. Each time it turned my stomach. I didn’t get it — I was his friend. Both me and his wife would have been denied access to white bathrooms and water fountains. Just because we did not identify with black culture didn’t mean we wouldn’t be exposed to the same bigotry and hatred. What the fuck? It was too much for me to overlook. We haven’t spoken in years.

There was an ugly song I remember from the old neighborhood back in the day. There were two versions:

“A fight, a fight, a nigger and a white, the black don’t win, we all jump in.”

Or,

“A fight, a fight, a nigger and a white, the white don’t win, we all jump in.”

Which one you sang depended on who you were with. Which “us” against which “them?”

I remember, as a teenager, going to the Sunset Park pool in Brooklyn with a bunch of Latino boys. On the way home, there was a group of black kids walking ahead of us. The group I was with, only one of whom was my close friend, started taunting them. They hurled racial epitaphs and threats at the black kids for being in their neighborhood. I was silent and utterly confused.

As a kid, it was actually my one close white friend, Jesse, who was the least racist kid I knew. He might have been the most genuine friend I ever had. I stopped returning his calls because I didn’t trust his friendship. Not because of anything he did — My negative view of myself kept me from believing that he really wanted to be my friend. Why would he? He was from a great family that lived in a beautiful house and valued the things that mattered to me but weren’t for me.

When I hung out with Jesse’s friends, the chip on my shoulder was always ready to bash someone over the head. At a party in some kid’s basement, someone spilled a drink. The host, an Italian kid that I didn’t know, asked me to help clean it up. I told him to go fuck himself. Then he asked me, “What are you?”

The party ended when I dragged him down a staircase and started beating him down before being pulled off and barely escaping the awaiting mob. I am my brother’s brother, after all.

So even though I felt like a Martian in my own neighborhood and knew I wanted better, I didn’t think I belonged on the other side either. I was stuck in this bizarre place where the only role models I had were Roberto Clemente, Eric Estrada and Slater. I never knew anyone else successful that looked like me. At the same time it seemed everyone around me was determined to make sure I never forgot where I belonged.

When I was twelve years old, I refused to attend my zone school because it had a reputation for being the worst in the city. It wasn’t my parents that refused, it was me. I told my mom and dad I would not go to junior high unless they transferred me. What if I hadn’t done that?

As it turns out, the school I ended up going to (because my dad used a friend’s address) was in a good part of town and was the best public education I ever experienced. The work was so advanced that I went from being one of the smartest kids in class to struggling. I actually had to study — something I never had to do much of and found excruciatingly boring. At that new school, I felt like the bad boy. The outcast. The kid that didn’t quite belong and couldn’t keep up.

My grades suffered that year, and when I transferred to a another school, I wasn’t placed in the gifted program for the first time in my scholastic career. I petitioned the principal and pleaded my case, explaining the difficult circumstances of the previous year and promising that I would shine in his “7SP“ class, which got to skip the eight grade and go straight to “9SP” in the fall. Like when I refused to go to that war zone of a school, I once again stood up for my own education. I was thirteen years old.

The work that year was far easier than what I had learned at the other school. I breezed through. The kind of disparity that existed between the two public middle schools I attended is indicative of the subpar education that children of color receive within what is supposed to be one school system. Kids in bad schools aren’t exposed to the same world that their crosstown rivals are and are ill prepared for the reality that awaits — be it a college admissions exam or the job market. Those who do not take it upon themselves to find opportunities for advancement can’t rely on working parents with little time or education to advocate for them. They are left with shitty choices and no one to champion their cause.

The scourge of poverty and racism is further sullied by the structural hierarchy of “shade” in communities of color. In the Autobiography of Frederick Douglass, the trailblazing abolitionist and former slave writes of the preferential treatment lighter slaves received, even among the others in bondage. Proximity to whiteness, then and now, is proximity to power and privilege.

In the late 1700’s, Spain instituted the process of gracias al sacar. Mixed race people could purchase a decree that converted them to white. One such royal decree granted to Cuban Manuel Baez in 1760 says that it erased “the defect that you suffer from birth and leave you able and capable as if you did not have it.” Ain’t that some shit.

Alice Walker coined the term “colorism” in her book, “In Search of Our Mother’s Garden”. She describes “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on color.” Research has shown that skin tone affects the outcome of job interviews, court cases and elections. This is not a secret among people of color. They grow up believing that the whiter they look, the easier they’ll have it.

How does that make a kid feel who wants so badly to get ahead in life but has the mirror, the media and the world outside his window saying he doesn’t stand a chance? As if even after you do all the work and get to the finish line, the tape will be pulled back another few feet each time you stretch to get across. The life you want will be just out of reach, no matter how long or how fast you run.

There has been a delusion among some that because we’ve had a black president, hip hope rules the world and the Rock is the world’s biggest movie star, racism doesn’t exist anymore. There are people of color in positions of power and prestige, but they are few and far between. There just hasn’t been enough time for all the seeds of opportunity that were only planted a generation or two or three ago to compete with those who have seemingly inherited an eternity of racial privilege. Just because so many people fought for and finally earned some basic human rights doesn’t mean the playing field has been leveled.

The destruction of the long standing racial hierarchy is a challenging ongoing project that the world must decide to address together. The perpetuation of negative stereotypes of black and brown people is not only meant to strike fear in every suburban household, but to reinforce in the mind of the oppressed their role in society. Centuries of subjugation have purposefully convinced young men and women of color that they are born with an inherent disadvantage. Then, once their will to fight was clear, the oppressors barked that those they once lorded over should be grateful to simply be out of their chains.

It is up to people of color, whether African American, Latino, West Indian, or any other subdivision of “black” that may exist, to burn down the old models. The carefully calculated lie that “whiteness” is more attractive, desirable or indicative of ability must be deleted from our main frame. We must believe we are just as capable, because we obviously are. We must know that we have the opportunities, even if we have to work harder for them. And we cannot fight among ourselves, to the delight of those that would sooner see us dead, in jail or all together erased from the annals of history.

With dog whistles long having been discarded in favor of bull horns, the paper thin veil has been lifted from our union. In a country already in pieces, further division because of infighting is not something people of color, no matter their shade, can afford.

[kallura-icedcoffee]

Following suit and posting my letter for the @justice-for-allura project to try and boost awareness. You’ve still got time to send a letter (due 1/25). I encourage you all to please do so. It doesn’t have to be a novel, even a few words to express your feelings will help. Likes and reblogs are not enough, they won’t see it. We need to tell them that the stories of women of color, dark skinned women of color as just as important and should be handled with care.

As a black child I never really saw myself in the media I consumed. So I pulled out my dolls and imagined stories were girls who looked like me could be intelligent, beautiful, brave, loved and at the center of the narrative.

As a black teen I still never really saw myself in the media I consumed. So I pulled out my paper and colored pencils and I drew and made comics with my friends. We re-imagined franchises we loved and created original characters and stories where girls who looked like me could be intelligent, beautiful, brave, loved and at the center of the narrative.

As a black woman I became tired of never really seeing myself in the media I consumed so I pulled back significantly. I was tired of so-called diversity that never included black women. I was tired of black female characters being relegated to nothing more than the token sassy best friend. I was tired of black female characters receiving underdeveloped stories. I was tired of never seeing a black female character being the center of a narrative among a truly diverse cast.

And then someone recommended Voltron Legendary Defender.

I looked it up and when I saw Princess Allura I cannot fully describe the way my heart soared. Now I was previously aware of the 80’s Voltron but never watched it as a child. So to see they had made the decision to make Allura a dark skinned character, the child in me leapt out. I was beyond excited and immediately dove in.

I admittedly had some issues with the writing in the beginning but I let it slide because nothing is perfect and there was still this beautiful, smart, strong but also soft, brave dark skinned princess who was the main character in the story. That was enough.

As the later seasons progressed my concerns increased, but again, dark skinned princess who was the main character in the story. It was enough.

Then the leaks before the final season came and my heart sank. Everyone tried to reassure each other that they were fake, that the show wouldn’t possibly kill off Allura, but in my heart I knew it was very possible because it’s happened before. Shows carelessly kill black women all the time without hesitation (Abbie from Sleepy Hollow, Tara from True Blood, Bill from Dr. Who) while others may be lucky enough to live in the end but whose characters are treated poorly throughout the course of the show (Bonnie from Vampire Diaries). It’s part of the reason I stopped watching shows as an adult. But I thought, not this time right? It’s a “children’s show”. They wouldn’t.

And then you did. You killed her.

I wasn’t surprised and yet devastated all the same, perhaps because I’m tired. I’m tired of being sent the same negative messages about dark skinned women in media. And when I sit back and think of the direction her character was taken throughout the course of the show, I realized so many ugly messages were sent about her.

You took a dark skinned woman and victim of genocide and tried to make her out to be a racist against her own teammate.

You took a dark skinned woman and victim of genocide and allowed her to be manipulated and used repeatedly by her oppressors, even going  so far as making her fix their mistakes and assist in their redemption at the end of the show.

You took a dark skinned woman and stripped her of her leadership, her home, her status, her importance, her involvement in her own story, constantly sacrificing without getting anything in return.

You took a dark skinned woman and told the audience the only love that she deserved was one of her manipulative oppressors and a walking “nice guy” trope who swooped in when she was at her weakest and desperate for love, family and belonging. It was unhealthy and painful to watch. It’s also not lost on me that in every other iteration of Voltron Allura was allowed to be with the main male lead without question…until she was no longer white of course.

You took a dark skinned woman and spent the entire final season putting her through emotional torture and then killed her off while her teammates did nothing to stop her all the while attempting to push messages of found family and togetherness for the previous seven seasons.

You took a dark skinned woman and buried her and then had her teammates take smiling selfies at her memorial/makeshift grave which is beyond insulting and disrespectful and would never be appropriate in real life.

You took a dark skinned woman and you ruined her and you sent the message to dark skinned girls and women everywhere that once again, we’re disposable. We aren’t meant to be princesses. We aren’t meant to be heroes. We aren’t meant to be vulnerable and tender and protected. We aren’t meant to be loved properly and healthily. We aren’t meant to win in the end after our hard work and sacrifice. We aren’t mean to be anything other than plot devices and then tossed away (a fate that has no previous version of Allura has ever met, again of course, until she was no longer white). The fact that there has been no response to the backlash surrounding Allura only further sends these messages loud and clear.

My faith in the DW/WEP brand no longer exists. I will never support another project with Lauren Montgomery or Joaquim Dos Santos names attached to it. My time and money is better spent elsewhere.

I’m not sure what could be done to fix things at this point, if you even care about fixing it, which I have a feeling by your silence that you don’t. But I hope, if you want to avoid repeating this mistake going forward, that you’ll consider one thing: diversify your creative staff. Hire more women, and not just white women, but more women of color. Hire more LGBTQ individuals. Hire more people with disabilities, with different body types, with knowledge of mental illness. Hire more people with a broader world view, from different walks of life. And listen to them when they speak. Your audience is diverse and the media you produce should not only reflect that but do so in a respectful way. It’s getting to a point where you will no longer be able to afford not to.

[theincitingscreenwriter]

Screenwriting Master Post

Online Outside Resources | These are websites that compile a lot of information for beginning screenwriters in the industry, have contests/other resources written within, and are just plain helpful and not really any place collected together. (Please let me know if there’s more because I’ve been collecting and learning for years.)

Screenwriting Contests/Representation

Writers Guild of America (WGA): Where writers for the industry work and organize, have contests, just general resources of information on questions on how to get started

Blacklist: Started in 2008, this website was a list of the most read scripts, represented and not represented scripts, that get compiled together for agents, producers, any other members to find stories on this website, it has been getting bigger for years, their twitter also posts stories from their submitted stories, always recommending one sentence stories that are popular from it

ScreenCraft: By far the most popular and stuck out contests, it has been getting bigger for years and the list of contestants give feedback for script submissions and different genre categories with industry lead ins for screenwriting contests

Women in Film (WIF): I only discovered this organization recently but right now they have a contest collaboration with Blacklist where they want more diverse scripts from women having labs for scripts for actors to read with industry lead ins so they are definitely a place to check out

WeScreenplay: This website was started by Ava Duvernay but it also has a lot of contests looking for diversity and is something to check out; also to submit scripts, you can get feedback at a small fee but I found this really helpful for anonymous feedback for my own scripts

Recommended Books

Basics

The Screenwriter’s Bible by David Trottier: This is what my screenwriting teacher recommended me to read first because it was a basic overview of the screenplay formatting, act structures, dialogue, story, etc for me and covers a lot of ground if you have never got started on this

Screenplay: The Foundations on Screenwriting by Syd Field: Definitely a useful resource that I still go back to from now and again if I have questions on what to do with my own scripts

Making a Good Script Great by Linda Seger: This was another read recommended to me and it still covers the basics of writing a story for movies from beginning to end

Story

Four Screenplays by Syd Field: Additional reading that helped me understand certain things to highlight such as character emphasis, themes that undermine characters and their actions, adaptations from a book to the screen, the challenges of it, along with the dramatic writing for an epic and how it was done

Bird by Bird by Annie Lamott: This doesn’t focus on screenwriting per say but I found very helpful to focus on why I’m writing on what I’m writing with her insight and come back to every now and then

Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting by Robert McKee: I haven’t read this all the way through but LFTS refers to this book all the time in his videos and I am confident that it would help anyone with this 

Character

Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author's Guide to Uniting Story Structure (Helping Writers Become Authors) by K.M. Weiland: Learned about this from youtube but come back to this book a lot of the time because it’s useful at understanding character arcs and navigate on how you want them to be in your stories

YouTube

Lessons From The Screenplay (LFTS): Love LFTS for all his work on movies because everything is beautifully done and still entertaining to get you inspiring to write scenes and why we write them a certain way, explores story, themes, dialogue, etc and always will watch

Every Frame a Painting: This channel doesn’t produce any more videos but the ones still on this website provide a lot of insight for movie techniques and everything is artfully done and entertaining

The New York Times || Anatomy of a Scene Series: Very useful insight into how directors purpose and story behind key scenes of current movies that I find very interesting while writing my own

Vanity Fair || Expert(s) Notes on a Scene Series:  Useful and insightful to watch directors break down why they choose to do certain things with the story, the budget, the effects, and learn something new

VF: Actor/Composers’ Career Timelines Series: This is still fairly new but I think it is amazing how each person gets to comment and reflect on what has happened so early and so far in their own careers and stories that occur behind the scenes of movies they made

VOX || Pop Culture & History: I originally watched this for the film technique series such as how The Wizard of Oz was being made in technicolor and how cinematography has changed dramatically for the better to capture wildlife we would never have seen 50 years ago but there are plenty of series in this entire channel that provide interesting bits and pieces of stories that make you expand your mind and provide entertainment and learning that I find useful still

The Cosmonaut Variety Hour: I give it to the main guy who writes these a lot of credit for providing insight on what he loves and talks about story, it is hidden behind a lot of sarcasm and tiredness, which I can relate to, and believe he makes a lot of valid points within his videos, he loves what he loves and I respect him for it for making me believe in movies a lot and also very entertaining

Nerdwriter1: I don’t always watch every single video but there are some good ones nestled on this channel as well; focusing on several different topics in story

Wired || Technique Critique Series: Love this series in particular because it showcases experts who provide insight and advice on scenes, accents, movie magic, and such

GQ || Iconic Characters’ Series: Even though GQ is meant for the “men”, there are still interesting stories the actors relate and show with their movies throughout their careers and I find it very interesting through the filmmaking process

kaptainkristian: Love this guy and the way he edits all of his film essays, provides a lot of insight in stories, themes, and choices for films

Wisecrack || Philosophy of ... Series: Love this series in particular because it can sprout from film, tv, books, and culture in general and they’re all interesting to watch if you’re ever in a halt

Just Write: Love this channel’s way of editing and exploring themes of movies and such too

Pop Culture Detective: This channel explores a lot of themes throughout tv and film which I find interesting and wish more of this existed on the internet because they are so damn well done for a wide range audience

Patrick (H) Willems: Love this channel as well because it expanded my viewpoint of why we make films, love them, and how we can go further with film technique and what we can do about it in interesting formats and such

Screenwriting Tips, Tricks, & Other Useful Things

General

Read as many scripts as possible, read your favorite movies, read scenes where you want to emulate into your own scenes, analyze why they work/don’t work and keep reading scripts to understand how past writers wrote something to borrow something for your own

Read theatre plays and attend them if possible because they provide direction and themes to works people have incorporated in scripts for TV & film

While writing drafts of films, tv, scenes, have a trusted reader or reading circle who can give you feedback and insight on what to fix, what’s missing, spelling errors, word choice, actions of a character, you’ll need this to make your scripts better

Follow a close, inspiring niche of artists, writers, producers, actors, fans, organizations of inspiration on social medias: Instagram, Twitter,  Pinterest, etc; this will provide insightful knowledge and information for you to work on your own stuff instead of just walking around in circles

Especially recommend Pinterest to create storyboards/mood boards that evoke the feel and tone of your stories such as the aesthetics of movies you enjoy, get influenced from, and aspire to make, these will truly help give direction to the characters, setting, background, dialogue, and such to your screenplays

On YouTube, create a playlist of videos that give you inspiration, this can comprise of film scenes that make you not give up on life, movie trailers I definitely recommend since they hype you in two minutes, film edits, tv scenes, monologues, anything that can be played at a moments notice for writer’s block; if they are very important to you, I would download them to refer for your personal viewings

Format

Celtx: You can make a free account on this website where you can automatically make the script format and produce scripts with whatever you want to get started on

Final Draft: Another screenwriting program a lot of people in the industry use and have automatic formatted screenplays

Script Examples

Film

imsdb.com: This is the biggest website where all scripts seem to end up on for people to read

TV

The 100 Writers Room: I love this show so when the writers release some jpeg glimpses of their scripts from past episodes, I think this is very kind and useful to understand what they write comes to screen

[khafarperet]

voltron never had ethnic characters or gay characters to destroy in the first place. like we can look at a pic of the cast and say yeah look thats a diverse cast!! but is it really? take away the characters skin tone and youve got a white character. aside from shiro, because he has an ethnic name, and kinkade, who actually looks black in a non-racist way (but sadly falls into the strong but silent black male character archetype) and MAYBE hunk bc he doesnt look that white when u just show the lineart, vld has no actual ethnic characters.

how can i prove this? well, lets make a checklist.

ethnic characters must have

- a genetically possible skintone for their race. this is undebatable.

but if you actually want to create a believeable ethnic character that gives proper representation, you should include at least some of the following elements:

- an ethnic name. this is high up on my list, and while due to westernization of course there are many poc out there with western first names, and quite a few with western surnames as well, if youre making an ethnic character its a good idea to give your character at least an ethnic surname! unless you imply or state in the story why their surname is different (although this doesnt apply as much to african americans since many freed slaves chose westernized names), just go with an ethnic one to be safe!

- ethnic features and hair (hair texture applies mostly to those of african and asian descent, while hair color often applies to most ethnicities). racist caricatures are Not Okay, but a part of racism is also the westernization of everything. if you westernize an ethnic characters features, thats racism! and trust me, EVERYONE DOES IT. thats part of the learning process! racism isnt always an active thought. but anyways, when making an ethnic character we must acknowledge that people look different! for example, those with asian and african descent tend to have flatter noses and less defined nose bridges. also, people of african descent tend to have very different hair than white people do! even when straightened, african hair is very different. to make a well rounded and believeable ethnic character, we have to RESPECT AND REJOICE IN THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN RACES!!!!! and when designing ethnic characters this must be taken into account.

- ethnic references to culture. this one is a bit harder to express in media without it being stiff and forced. a lot of times this ends up being something like badly written bilingual characters, or a character with stilted dialogue like “Sorry I’m late!! I was busy eating FRIJOLES with my ABUELA in our CASA. Did you know that I’m LATINEX?” (thats an exaggeration but u get what i mean). the saddest part about voltron is that we had the perfect opportunies to see this. lances comment about garlic knots couldve easily been changed to a cuban dish, and hunk couldve easily made hawaiian traditional dishes, and neither of these wouldve been painfully obvious references. stuff that works for this includes: food, religion, celebrations, well written bilinguality, uh,, idk man just culture stuff!!! look it up

- ethnic clothes. i put this separate from culture bc its definitely something that can exist without a stated reference in dialogue being needed, and its a whole world of its own. this can include religious headgear/garbs, but also just? fashions that are specific to that characters region (NOT CARICATURES. looking at you logan paul and your hat.), or patriotic gear like a shirt with a flag on it! this aspect of making ethnic characters should pprobably be used sparingly, since its easy to turn your character into a caricature if youre not careful.

theres definitely subsections of each of these aspects and probably smaller sections i havent covered, and i apologize for that! but lets look at voltron.

out of the main characters/supporting characters of color:

-skintone is covered. this is vlds claim to diversity

-shiro is the only character with an ethnic name

-kinkade is the only character with ethnic features. hunk maybe

-no character ever references their culture. except alteans but they dont count. if you count lances family becoming farmers,,,,, i will break your computer (i wont but like Oh No if you think that WHY are you reading this)

-no characters have ethnic dress

for background characters,,, yeah skin tone is the only thing covered.

so, great job vld. you failed.

onto gay rep!!!!

there is none.

shiro is canonically stated to be gay, but? do we ever really see that aside from that one thing at the WAY end thrown in to try and satisfy the fans? not really. adam is meant to be his fiance, but to anyone watching the scene with them, theyre just bros. even my gay ass seeing that wouldve said that theres no actual established romantic relationship there, and i see gay in EVERYTHING.

maybe thats not a good enough reason for me to justify that theres no gay rep. but straight historians have looked at literal writings about guys sucking other guys dicks and said they were bros, so for them the adam and shiro relationship might as well have been nonexistent.

so! TL:DR: i dont think that vld has any valid poc or lgbtq+ representation. the poc characters in the show, minus 2 (possibly 3) are poc by skin color only, and shiro isnt properly portrayed as actually being gay. i completely believe that he is gay, but they did a SHIT job of showing it.

thats my hot take, anyways.

[calacuspr]

Calacus Weekly Hit & Miss – Carl Nassib & UEFA

Every Monday we look at the best and worst communicators in the sports world from the previous week.

HIT – CARL NASSIB

“I hope that one day videos like this and the whole coming out process are just not necessary," said Carl Nassib, the Las Vegas Raiders’ defensive end after revealing that he is gay.

In making his admission, during Pride month no less, Nassib becomes the first active National Football League player to come out publicly.

Nassib added: "I'm a pretty private person so I hope that you guys know that I'm really not doing this for attention. I just think that representation and visibility are so important.

"I'm going to do my best to cultivate a culture that's accepting and compassionate."

He followed up with a written message admitting that he had “agonised over this moment for the last 15 years” and it was only after he received so much encouragement from family and friends that he decided to go ahead.

“I am also incredibly thankful for the NFL, my coaches, and fellow players for their support,” Nassib wrote. “I would not have been able to do this without them. From the jump I was greeted with the utmost respect and acceptance.”

Nassib is also donating £100,000 to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth in America, a creditable gesture which highlights his understanding of the struggles many young people face.

Amit Paley, CEO & Executive Director of The Trevor Project, gave thanks to Nassib for his generosity and said: “The Trevor Project is grateful to Carl Nassib for living his truth and supporting LGBTQ youth. Coming out is an intensely personal decision, and it can be an incredibly scary and difficult one to make. We hope that Carl’s historic representation in the NFL will inspire young LGBTQ athletes across the country to live their truth and pursue their dreams. 

“At a time when state lawmakers are actively trying to restrict transgender and nonbinary youth’s participation in school sports, this news should serve as a clarion call for greater LGBTQ inclusion in the locker room and on the field.”

Of those who have admitted that they are gay in the past, Michael Sam came out before being drafted into the league in 2014, but never played a regular season NFL game.

Roy Simmons, who played for the Giants and Washington in the 1980s, was one of a number of players to come out after retiring. He told the New York Times in 2003 that he did not feel safe announcing that he was gay while he was in the NFL.

“The NFL has a reputation,” he said at the time, “and it’s not even a verbal thing – it’s just known. You are gladiators; you are male; you kick butt.”

Hall of fame quarterback Warren Moon revealed that gay players had long been a part of the NFL. He tweeted: “As long as they helped us win and were great teammates- their sexual preference was never a issue..

“We live in a different time now where diversity is much more accepted. Cheers Carl, and I hope this lets other athletes know, its OK to say who you are...”

The Raiders tweeted: “Proud of you, Carl” while club owner Mark Davis played down the significance of the announcement and said: “He’s a Raider. If he’s happy, I’m happy. It takes courage. I thought we got to the point where this wasn’t (a story). It doesn’t change my opinion of him as a man or as a Raider.”

The NFL was swift to offer their support for Nassib with Commissioner Roger Goodell saying: “The NFL family is proud of Carl for courageously sharing his truth today. Representation matters.

“We share his hope that someday soon statements like his will no longer be newsworthy as we march toward full equality for the LGBTQ+ community. We wish Carl the best of luck this coming season.”

NFL Players Association executive director DeMaurice Smith added: "Our union supports Carl and his work with the Trevor Project is proof that he -- like our membership -- is about making his community and this world a better place not for themselves, but for others."

Certainly 20 years ago, Nassib’s announcement may have ended his career based on the macho culture within the NFL locker rooms but the fact that his shirt was the top-selling NFL jersey on its network after his announcement according to sports apparel retailer Fanatics.

Nassib is now a poster boy for a new era in American Football and it is to his credit that he is embracing the challenge.

"I do not know all the history behind our courageous LGBTQ community," he added, "but I am eager to learn and to help continue the fight for equality and acceptance."

MISS – UEFA

The football community has been largely united in support for the LGBTQ+ community recently, from European players donning rainbow laces and calling out blatant acts of homophobia.

However, UEFA have been criticised for not explicitly challenging or condemning homophobia during Pride month.

German captain Manuel Neuer’s decision to wear a rainbow-coloured armband was initially banned by UEFA before they quickly changed their position.

UEFA then last week rejected a request to illuminate the Allianz Arena in Munich with rainbow colours during the EURO 2020 Group F match between Germany and Hungary.

There was suspicion that the proposal was a response to new Hungarian legislation, which has banned the promotion of homosexuality to those under the age of 18.

In a statement posted on social media, UEFA defended their decision by saying: “UEFA is proud to wear the colours of the rainbow. It is a symbol that embodies our core values, promoting everything that we believe in.

“Some people have interpreted UEFA’s decision to turn down the city of Munich’s request to illuminate the Munich stadium in rainbow colours for a Euro 2020 match as ‘political’. On the contrary, the request itself was political, linked to the Hungarian football team’s presence in the stadium for this evening’s match with Germany.”

The major of Munich, Dieter Reiter, was one of many who saw this as a missed opportunity from UEFA and he had hoped that the illuminations during the match would “send a visible sign of solidarity” with Hungary’s LGBTQ+ community.

The Germany and Hungary game finished 2-2 and summed up the mood from the footballing community perfectly towards homophobia and UEFA’s decision.

A pitch invader took to the field with a rainbow flag as the Hungarian National anthem blared out around the stadium, while Leon Goretza celebrated his late equaliser for Germany by running over to away fans and making a heart gesture with his hands, conveying the simple message that homophobia will not be tolerated.

Undoubtedly, UEFA have not a strong and clear position regarding homophobia throughout the EURO 2020 tournament.

Earlier, during Hungary’s opening Group F game against Portugal in Budapest, a set of Hungarian fans were seen holding a sign that read “Anti-LMBTQ”.

UEFA had an opportunity to react instantly to confirm the LGBTQ+ community as equals in society and in football but its delays had the result of many feeling unwelcome.

It took five days for UEFA to release a short statement on their website on the incident and no action has since been taken against Hungary.

The delay meant the message was not instantly dismissed, which suggests UEFA do not take the issue seriously enough.

Joe White, a spokesperson for the LGBTQ+ fans group 3LionsPride, has criticised UEFA’s messaging. In a statement, he said: “UEFA will tout themselves as supporters of equality and rainbow-wash their brand when it suits them, but rarely proactively engage or make improvements for LGBTQ+ people involved in the game.

“LGBTQ+ people across the game are not able to enjoy football when they have to face hatred in stadia and online.

“It’s clear that UEFA once again has its head firmly buried in the sand and is no ally of the LGBTQ+ community. Until UEFA start taking serious action against discrimination, the beautiful game is once again allowing its ugly side to rear its head.”

The rainbow symbol in football stadia reassures to LGBTQ+ individuals watching EURO 2020 that they are welcome in football. It demonstrates that attitudes towards homosexuality are improving within the sport.

Without the rainbow, particularly during Pride Month, those messages are lost.

Germany has led a continental call for greater LGBTQ+ unity throughout football. In the days following the UEFA Allianz Arena rejection, officials across Germany ignored the guidance, as stadia in Frankfurt, Augsburg and Nuremberg, as well as in Belgium, joined Munich by lighting up in rainbow colours.

Elsewhere, UEFA sponsor Booking.com, will use a rainbow outline in all of their pitch-side adverts for Round of 16 matches, including Holland’s game against the Czech Republic in Budapest.

Ahead of the tie in the Hungarian capital, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that Hungary has “no place in the EU,” unless they retract their homophobic laws.

UEFA have demonstrated that the rainbow symbol will not be universally accepted in football, which is hardly consistent with their own claims to be pro-LGBTQ+.

The inconsistency shown by European football’s governing body during Euro 2020 underlines the fact that they have a long way to go to regain the confidence of the LGBTQ+ community.

Perhaps it is time for UEFA to go back to the drawing board and come up with a consistent policy which allows freedom of expression in the promotion of sexual equality.

[secretsofthemasquerade]

V5 Corebook, no gloves review P.1

Y’all know me, it had to be coming. Sorry it took me so long. Part 1 is about the physical aspect of the PDF (I don’t have the physical book at hand yet), Part 2 is going to be about mechanics and “content”, since I’m still testing that out.

So first and foremost, the small Mature Content Warning that was added last minute to the PDF. It has been published online on its own so I have no issues posting it here:

Mature Content Warning For the past several decades, Vampire: The Masquerade has addressed the darkness in the real world through horror stories: it has talked about AIDS, capitalist exploitation, sexual predation, the resurgence of far-right political extremism, religious fanaticism, state and private surveillance, and many other issues. This version of the game does not shy away from any of the above, and we believe exploration of subjects like these is as valid in roleplaying games as it is in other media. Including a problematic subject in a Storytelling game is not the same as glorifying it, and if you take the chance to explore it critically, it can be the exact opposite. If we understand the problems facing us, we are better armed to fight them. V5 includes in-world references and expressions of the following: sexual violence, political extremism, physical violence and gore, mind control, torture, abuse, imprisonment and kidnapping, racism, sexism, and homophobia, to name a few. It’s a game about monsters. “Why are you telling me this?” you might be saying. Someone at your table is not familiar with this game. Someone at your table has dealt with some of these issues in real life. Someone at your table wants to know that you read this warning and know you will be considerate to them as players, while putting their character through the wringer. In the Appendix, you will find concrete techniques on how to handle difficult subjects in your game in a manner that is respectful to your players and their experiences. Calibrate beforehand which techniques your group wants to use. People have different needs and not every method works for every person. This is a game about monsters. But it is only a game. Don’t use it as an excuse to be a monster yourself.

This is something I consider good (that last sentence is more necessary than I’d like to know), considering the rest of the contents of the game, but I wish they had taken a far more respectful approach to the mature themes instead of name-dropping horrors without meaning.

Now, the PDF itself has MAJOR issues in terms of book-making. The bookmarks are terrible, they integrate stuff from the side boxes that just make no sense, there’s little to no proper hierarchy, some are even missing, the internal links don’t work very well, it’s just poor, poor design.

Seriously look at this:

How can I navigate this? Like seriously ? I know there’s a table of contents, but it should be in the navigation bar as well, that’s how PDFs work.

(The Nossies are missing, it makes me laugh because it’s the Nossies, but they’re there, that’s why Malks seem to have two sections about Disciplines and Banes)

Now, the layout itself isn’t the worst I’ve ever seen, and some parts of what I’m going to be saying may fall upon “personal taste”, but I’ve been editing PhD thesis for long enough to recognize bad layout when I see one :p

Like, this is fine, I really like the new Tremere Clan Symbol (all the clan symbols are pretty neat tbh, and the Disciplines symbols are the VTES ones so that makes me extra happy), and they’ve used beautiful fonts, even if we disregard that they couldn’t be bothered to spell HERMETIC correctly...

However there are two major issues with the book layout as it stands, as you flip through the pages. First, the text isn’t justified (aka aligned left and right), and second, the text is sometimes in two columns, sometimes in three. Quite often, the titles are at the end of a column (see here “The Anarchs”) and some paragraphs have poor lonely lines in the precedent page or column and it just looks bad. I screenshot some pages with low res: the text itself does not matter so it’s ok if you can’t read it ;) But notice how “Relationship” is hyphened because of the three columns there...

Then, you have plenty of pages which have either black background or colorful background. That would be fine if some of the pages weren’t the kind of pages you’d want to print out to give as handouts to players...

My poor eyes.

These four pages would be far more useful with black on white, even if plenty of us like reading white on black because it’s easier on the eyes on a tabler, but this isn’t printer friendly when you sell a pdf... This should have been in the Appendix with a printer friendly version.

Sometimes the placement of elements is just weird or off putting in certain pages:

This image touches the bottom of the page, but there’s three meters of white space above. There are examples of the exact opposite (the image touching the top of the image with extra space at the bottom).

This chart should be centered, I think.

Something’s wrong here, isn’t there something missing above the first page? And that block alone on the second column, it’s very common across the book.

Now, on a tablet or phone, it’s easy to double tap and match the column length, and the fact that the text isn’t justified isn’t much of an issue when reading plain text, but I find that the text not being justified in any of the pages is just Bad Design.

I did like the separations, the small lines between the columns and all, they looked great, the change of fonts in between “boxes”, “quotations”, “examples” and so on was also well made. 

Now, the Art.

Some of the art is old WWP art, some of it is WoD MMO art, some of the art is newly commissioned illustrations, and some of the art is photography with (or without) filters.

Old WWP Art is clearly to link back. The old Helena art is there. Theo Bell got new art (I think it’s new?), but Helena didn’t.

They also reused MET By Night Studios photography for Jeanette and Therese, and cropped the photo, taking away the key composition of the original. Did Bradstreet give the rights to alter his work with such cropping? 

Note that I personally dislike this picture, cropped or not, a lot, simply because being a Bloodlines fan I don’t think it represents either Therese or Jeanette properly. Jeanette wouldn’t be caught with a power stance and serious face like that, Therese wouldn’t be caught with such a non imposing, reserved pose, and coming from Bradstreet, I am VERY disappointed, because he has done official art for Jeanette for the video game before and it was far better representative of her; the model from the OG picture looks far closer to the Jeanette we meet in the game, but this is truly a matter of personal taste and opinion so I won’t scream again about it.

The MMO art is overall great quality, and sometimes it’s even used in a very smart, beautiful way:

(I’d have put this image on the Embrace and not on Predators, tbh...)

They also used the fashion spreads looks for the MMO in the corebook, some of it is plain silly, and I’m very much afraid they’re used literally as how PCs look like. Here’s the Gangrel Fashion splat:

I consider the art to be good, and to be great concept art for a MMO, and great fashion shots, but.. in VtM? this is not Masquerade Friendly. Also these types of art (as well as the Investigator image you can see on the first few pages I pasted above) are all 20 something model-like people, and yes that involves the Nosferatu, because they’re fashion drawings. Fashion drawings have stupid proportions and no realism, since they’re meant to show the clothes, not the model. And for a book about characters, well, why? This was suitable for the MMO because MMOs have transmogs and such and such.

I just find them to have completely missed the “Punk and Gothic Aesthetic of the World” and just stacked as much weird clothing as they could to look “hype and modern”. Hipster Instagram Fashion that’s unwearable.

Yes, vampires are marginal by nature, but please, their goal is to blend in, not be noticed, and considering how long they’re effectively inactive, and how age affects your will to stay on trend... Eh. 

The New commissioned illustrations are hit and miss, and some of this criticism does fall on “personal taste”, but here I ranted about one of those art pieces (which was the page for the Vault, but it’s in the book). They’re all a little bit like this, some having a far better composition even if they all seem to be this saturated. They’re all overall good and I like most of them.

This one is “look at my butt” kind of situation. I’d have rather have this picture just without this foreground couple, it would have been a perfect street look example, and the two jumping above the roofs guys would have had the attention they deserved. I love the fog, the graffity, the textures are nice, i just hate the butt.

And finally, the big chunk, the Photography Art.

I understand how they made it so that most people would be able to “make their own art” (photography being now more accessible to the masses than illustration), and that is something I nod to, appreciate and completely understand. HOWEVER, Photography IS art and not everyone can be a Photographer with a snap of their fingers (or a click of the camera :p).

What’s good with photography art is that they picked diverse looking models of all sorts, and they put them in interesting and somewhat telling situations. What’s bad is that “suddenly” all “positions of power” are held by middle-aged (so plain old 60yo) looking vampires and all Anarchs Rebels looks like they’re in their twenties.

This goes against VtM. Older vampires tend to look younger because being a King or Queen at age 14 wasn’t uncommon until the 1800s. Embracing people right at the end of their teenage years, at their prime, at their best, as they’re “perfect” is the best a vampire could do (remember Dark Ages have rules against embracing the young, the elderly, the crippled, the insane...).

It’s only after WWII that embracing people over 40 wasn’t uncommon.

I’d have LOVED to see a 60yo looking Punk, and have the Dominating Prince on Their Throne look like, 15. And own the place.

Now there are plenty of issues with some of the photography art, and here’s one (page 232) that I’ve screamed at for like, two weeks now.

This picture had one of the best compositions, the diagonal works great, the leaning away, the androgyny of the chalice (despite them still having a personality and free will...). How he filled the glass with the blood from the chalice through this.. pinky finger condom thing, okay, sure, weird af but why not. Does’t explain why the chalice has two marks on their forearm but okay. Sure. Also, FINALLY a photography in VtM of a dude wearing a suit that’s actually his size? Great. And it doesn’t come out of a Goth Store (tm). Great! Amazing! 

But there are in this picture TWO things I just cannot forgive.

First, the guy has his jacket buttoned. When you Suit 101, when you sit, you unbutton. You button up when you stand up. Now this is supposed to be The Ventrue (tm), this is just wrong.

Second, his fucking zipper is down. YES HIS FLY IS DOWN. How the hell did this not get photoshopped in like two seconds? Because of the jacket, I know this is an accident; the model just isn’t used to suit etiquette. You could explain this away by saying he’s a pervert or something, but in that case you’d have needed to add slightly more eroticism to the guy (jacket and maybe shirt open, no glass, slight smile, leaning towards the chalice and not away from them?).

Some of the photography-manipulated art is just beautiful, let’s be honest, this is the splat before Disciplines:

I’m not a fan of the orange (simply because I’m not a fan of orange in general), but this works just so well, the composition, the lines of sight, the shadows, the mirroring, just, top notch choice here, who did this??

But then you have post apo band :p

I mean I like this group shot, it’s very classical, it looks like a fine coterie with a specific turf.. But is this Mad Max? I know Gehenna happened, and I do know some people actually dress like that, but if you’re being tracked down and hunted into oblivion by the Second Inquisition, you.. just don’t do this.

Most of the photography is like this; marginal overdressed looks. Now this is personal taste again, I just wish we had more.. normal looking people. People who are exceptional, but not through their looks or clothing style. The back of the book claims “A Storytelling game of personal and political horror.” and I see little of it in the pictures and illustrations. 

Anyway, want more Art Rants? click here

Stay tuned for part 2!