#‘something unique to human history’ yeah no it isn’t bitch

[thatjewishzionistscout]

@spot-the-antisemtism

Yeah, I don’t even know where to begin.

#israel #jewblr #jewish #antisemitism #i stand with israel #leftists brainrot #leftist antisemitism #left antisemitism #this is just gross #when Jews talk about oppression we’re main characters #when other groups do it their brave #‘something unique to human history’ yeah no it isn’t bitch #jews have gone through the same thing #even worse if you want to play the oppression Olympics #double standards

[morwensteelsheen]

farawyn and borodred for the ship ask game thing?

thank you so much!! :)

okay i’ll start with borodred because for some unfathomable reason i actually got there first —

1. What made you ship it?

One of my favourite Types of ships is the Elder Statesmen Of War-type set-ups, where it’s less about people brought together through theatrical romantic gestures and more about the steadiness of people who are going through similar (immensely difficult) circumstances, who know that in their hearts they’re always going to put their duty to that cause first, but still seek out human comfort in other people who will understand what their priorities are and why.

I think there’s also a lot of similarities about the kind of helplessness they both face despite having this tremendous innate strength. Both of them still have to deal with family dynamics that are complex (made more complex by the war) and that can’t be fixed just by their own sheer will power; both of them die these utterly unnecessary deaths (not that death makes a ship but I think in this instance it actually points to the constant tragedy these guys face); and both of them are meant to be the principal figures of their families and people and are ultimately sidelined by the cruel mechanisations of war and the forward march of history or whatever wanky term there is for it — my apologies to ep thompson's ghost, dont haunt me bro.

Plus there’s obviously the interesting thread raised when Faramir starts bitching about Gondor and likens Gondor (and by very explicit extension, Boromir) to Rohan. That always made me go ‘Hmmmmmm, wonder what else Boromir liked about Rohan,’ lmao.

Anyways for me the ship is the equivalent of Star Wars’ Kanan and Hera or (my OTP to end all others) Luke and Wedge, just people getting by on love and duty and without big ol fancy romance.

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

The fanon, I think, really makes it, as with so many other LOTR ships. battlefield manners, by themightypen is essentially the definitive take for me on them — these two guys who are just so fucking exhausted, man, but still overcome by defensive love for their families, even if their (foster-)siblings are naïve fools. That I just love, love, love. Plus I think they’re unique for their ability to pretty comfortable explore the relationship between Gondor & Rohan in advance of the Ring War without having to stray too far into AU, which I always appreciate.

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Not really, tbh, except in that I don’t think Boromir is necessarily as laddy as people like to portray him. I’m happy to play into it in, say, my modern AUs because I think that’s a fun and sweet niche for him, but I am a bit 🤪 about Boromir as this kind of reckless, drunken playboy (not least because I think that’s a much funnier niche for Faramir to fill, at least when he’s younger). Chapter Four of Swaddledog’s Hearts and Minds gets my preferred Boromir characterisation absolutely spot on, I think.

And now, sigh, the ultimate OTP, Farawyn —

1. What made you ship it?

For starters, I think I am obsessed with Éowyn in a way I’ve never quite been obsessed with any other fictional character. I came to reading LOTR at this moment in my life where I was intensely frustrated about everything — trapped inside permanently (helplessly!) because of the pandemic, just starting a new political organisation that I truly believed in but that was still making me feel like shit, facing down an untenable about of work, and, fundamentally, really, really hating being a woman and what that means. And along comes Éowyn, who is bitter, who is cold, who is ANGRY, and who doesn’t perform joy or softness or gentleness just because people expect her to. She’s this seminal Woman Of War in so many ways, I think the kind of person a lot of us wish we could be. She’s got her emotional taps cut off at the source, she holds her head high and faces down unimaginable personal and political terrors, and at the end of it all still has this abiding love for her family that, I would argue, is almost unparalleled by anyone else in the book.

After all that, she gets this incredible moment of emotional catharsis (or what we expect to be emotional catharsis): “no living man am I!” She undertakes THE greatest martial act of the Ring War, and in that moment there’s this unbelievably sophisticated dialogue happening about gender (“Éowyn it was, and Dernhelm also”), and leadership (Merry finding his courage not because of the immediate scenario of the Witch-king, but because he’s spurred into it by Éowyn’s presence), and love and care.

And then we learn that no, actually, this glorious act of violence wasn’t the emotional catharsis we thought it would be. She gets to ride to war, she gets to throw herself headlong at death, and in the end that hopeless act of individualism isn’t really what does it for her. She’s still left desolate and despairing, and actually all of her problems haven’t gone away.

And then we need to rewind a bit, because along comes Faramir, who is gentle, and is kind, and does seem to believe in joy, but not because people expect it — actually it's made abundantly clear nobody expects it — but because it’s something quite innate to how he figures the world. And he’s a huge fucking nerd too. I have a lot of thoughts on Faramir’s flaws and why I find them endearing, which I won’t put here, but almost immediately you get this sense of a guy who’s quite melodramatic, good humoured, and very much not made to live in a time of war.

But he’s also clear-headed about war and what it requires (tactically, if not strategically, though that’s a post for another day), but who is kind of cynical and weary of it in his own unique way. And it’s a unique cynicism given his personal circumstances because he’s the second son of The great family of Gondor, he’s apparently — though with some big ol’ question marks hanging about the extent — very able to command some of the elite units in the realm, and what’s more than that, he’s got all these fantastical powers (the light mind reading to start, to say nothing of this apparently magical ability to command animals too. bruh.). By all accounts he should be this brazen hot mess, but he’s not. He’s desperate to claw his way out of this war-torn cage of expectation his people have for how a man should comport himself in time of war. Is it a little naïve? Sure. A little fussy? Absolutely. But does it point to that same desperation that Éowyn has? Yes! But also the practicality, like, neither of them are really enjoying the circumstances they live under, but good fucking god are they both able to Make It Work.

So finally we get to the Houses of Healing and what is the finest and most aggressively romantic writing of LOTR. Seriously, it’s so fucking much. It’s breathtaking. It reminds me quite viscerally of this fabulous quote from Les Mis:

The power of a glance has been so much abused in love stories, that it has come to be disbelieved in. Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this way that love begins, and in this way only.

At some point I will devote more time to talking about the two reasons line, and the blissful Queen of Gondor speech, but I think to me that big, important line is: “And then her heart changed, or at least she understood it; and the winter passed, and the sun shone upon her.”

It’s not about Éowyn changing herself entirely (though, I think, it really does bear mentioning that she does change, and that’s every bit as important to understanding that scene as it is romantic), it’s about Éowyn coming to terms with how to live with herself as herself, and how to live in communion with someone else. She can’t just cut people out anymore, and she can’t just treat them as objects of infatuation as she did with Aragorn, she has to reckon with people as they are. And that’s sort of the moment where I knew I was about to plunge fully off the deep end with these two and never know a moments’ peace again, lmao.

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

Someone on here once called Farawyn a love letter to women and, by god, yes, exactly that. I love the capacity for emotional intimacy, that is beautiful in ways I can’t express. To me, though, my favourite thing is the promise of life they speak of. Not as in oh they shag loads and have babies (though not opposed to that, obviously), but in the sense that unlike Aragorn and Arwen, who are always going to be buried under/burdened with the crushing weight of history and tradition, Éowyn and Faramir are going out yonder those hills and they’re going to do some real cottagecore farming shit. Obviously with all the trappings of rank and nobility and whatnot, but they, unique to anybody else in the books, get to sow this new idea of what life should be. They are, outside of Aragorn, the single most powerful people in Gondor. Éowyn’s got the ear of a king, a steward (which is essentially a prime-ministerial deal here), and functionally her own prince (if the hobbits are to be believed when they refer to it as essentially hers). I suspect that, in life, there were remarkably few arguments she wasn’t winning, and that Ithilien probably trended towards the jumped up noble hippie camp Tolkien so desperately wanted Oxford to be (or, in other words — Cambridge, lol).

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

Yeah, man, everybody stop treating Faramir like he’s a big fucking crybaby and Éowyn like she’s some kind of shrieking 2010-era tumblr girl.

One of the single most important lines defining Faramir’s character is when Denethor roasts his ass for always trying to appear noble and lordly, if you ignore every other piece of textual evidence we have about him, what part of that line makes you think Faramir’s some simpering daisy? And why would you want to link tremendous emotional intelligence and care with being too limp-wristed to function, lol??? Like I struggle loads with writing Faramir, because I have never once in my life tried to be noble or self-restrained, so find it hard to get into that mindset, but better, I think, to imagine him too closed off than to do this wilting flower song and dance lmao.

And stop making Éowyn out to be this over-emotional angst machine. She’s got problems, yes, and she’s sure as shit got a lot of angst, but at almost every point in the book where we’re overtly dealing with her emotions, she’s sublimating them into something else. One of the most serious times we see her cry is when she’s fighting with Aragorn about riding out, and after that moment she literally tries to kill herself. Those tears aren’t standard, man, that’s a real watershed (lol) moment for her. You have to read around what the text is saying to get a better feel why everybody’s constantly calling her cold and distant.

#god this is probably obnoxiously long because i can't do cuts on my phone #but refuse to open the tumblr website on my laptop lmao #faramir #éowyn #boromir #théodred #farawyn #borodred #god sorry for these fucking tags man im just trying to make my blog slightly more organised #i just have a lot of thoughts #i should really write more metas it would probably help my writing out quite a bit #asks #meta

[streetsofsecrets]

@hammurabicomplex​   asked  : ❓ anyone and pat if you wanna

I could literally do Sal and Pat, but I feel like calling Dani out right now.

Does my muse trust yours?  To be honest, no. Dani literally has no reason to trust Pat, and even though she worked for her willingly without a struggle - and has a more or less friendly demeanor towards Pat, Dani just can’t let down all her walls. She’s been in fucked up situations - reallllyyyy fucked up situations - with people who she believed would have had more morals. Morals in the sense they would have enough humanity to look out for another person’s wellbeing, and she was proved wrong. It’s not personal, it’s just instinct to have reservations about the other woman. And if she ever finds out Pat isn’t a Scozzari forreal? And the name she knows her by is fake? Yeah, Dani’s going to laugh her ass off in a bad way. Like, “WOOOOW YOU’RE A FUCKED UP BITCH.”  

Does my muse dislike yours? Sometimes! Specifically when Pat is exerting her authority, or showing her boujeness. 

Would my muse kill someone for yours? Not even for a million dollars, baby. 

Would my muse kill your muse? Not even for a trillion dollars, baby. She genuinely thinks Pat could kick her ass though.

Would my muse save yours? In some form or fashion, yes!

Does my muse find your muse attractive?

                                                  Incredibly. She is a 10/10.          While Pat’s personality may be flawed, Dani doesn’t think Pat has a single physical flaw. Her breasts? Perfect. Beauty marks? Unique. Eyes? Gorgeous. Hair? On point. If Dani owned up to her feelings about Pat, she would feel like a detective who is caught under a femme fatale’s trance. 

Is my muse disgusted by yours? She would be if she knew her history with the cartel. But she’s also disgusted by her for being a ‘adopted Scozzari baby,’ but that disgust is more shallow (and envious) because Dani cannot stand the wealthy.  

would my muse go on a date with your muse?  She doesn’t know if they would actually get along on a date. Like, if Pat was ‘low maintenance’ Dani thinks maybe it could work. Maybe they could order a pizza and watch a movie. But Pat is not low maintenance and Dani assumes she likes to go to 5 Star Restaurants and Do Cocaine and Fuck in Bathrooms. Real American Psycho shit. 😔

would my muse kiss yours?  Yes. On accident.   

would my muse betray yours?  Nah. Unless Pat killed Rafael or something, then Dani’s selling her ass out.

my muse’s favorite thing about yours is Her smug aura.

the thing my muse dislikes about yours is Her smug aura when it mocks her. But mostly her bluntness when its really cutting. 

#hammurabicomplex #hammurabicomplex / pat. #dani / answers. #dani x pat.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

“ It’s Dylan who finally figures out it wasn’t a cult” can we get this as a Drabble? If not it’s fine but 🥺❤️❤️❤️❤️

CW: Referenced ableist language, referenced past head banging (brief), shitty language about the pet industry in a box boy setting

“Your stance on the human pet industry is pretty clear, obviously-”

“Obviously.” Nicole Berras’s voice is deep and slightly husky as she pats the thigh of the smiling, slightly blank-faced man who sits next to her on the plush red couch. 

Dylan has had a lot of nights he’s thought about the way it would feel to have the movie star’s voice against his ear like that. I mean, he feels pretty fucking ridiculous afterward, but once he’d seen her in that Marvel movie that was fucking it for him, slam-dunk, celebrity crush slot taken by one Nicole Berras, she of the wide, slightly almond eyes and soft lips worn over a black leather catsuit.

Even if the one time he’d tried to show Chris the movie (one more thing Chris hadn’t known about, and how do you not know about the biggest fucking franchise in movie fucking history, that cult must have been boring as shit), Chris had done nothing but bitch about how there’s no way Nicole Berras could do actual backflips like her character does in heels like that.

Of course not, weirdo, she has a stunt double for that. He’d thrown popcorn at Chris, who had caught it and grinned before popping it in his mouth.

Yeah, well. They, they, they-they-they still should have put her in-... in some, like, regular shoes or, or, or or or something. Chris had wiggled his toes under the blanket they were sharing. Or barefoot even would have, um, would-would... would be more realistic.

Nobody’s going to be barefoot in a leather catsuit, Chris.

Then why make, make her wear the the the-the catsuit?

... Chris, I swear to God-

That catsuit factors pretty fucking heavily into Dylan’s thoughts, too. In the interview, though, she’s just wearing like a regular white shirt and pants and even that looks amazing on her. Everything looks fucking amazing on Nikki Berras. 

Dylan checks his phone - an hour before Chris comes back so they can head to the dining hall together, which means an hour to daydream and watch Nikki’s mouth move.

“There’s a lot of Oscar buzz already surrounding your upcoming film, with celebrities as well-known as Vincent Shield speaking out and saying it ‘romanticizes a dangerous, damaging industry’. Do you have any comment or response to him on that?”

Nikki gives a brief, sweet smile. Dylan’s eyes, though, keep glancing over to the man sitting next to her, her pet. His name’s Yen or something, celebrities always give their pets ridiculous stupid names. Dylan wasn’t paying attention - the whole pet thing is kind of uneasy to think too much about, so he mostly doesn’t. Yen-or-Whatever is just... smiling away.

He looks fucking brainless.

“Vince and I have been in this industry a long time together,” Nikki says with a laugh. “And he’s always been kind of down on the industry, as long as I’ve known him. He’s of course welcome to speak his feelings, but I felt like there’s a lot of negative press out there about the system, and that really erases people like Yen-”

Oh, his name really is Yen. Yikes.

“-who are happy with the choice they made, well cared for, and just... you know, Yen and I talk about this a lot.”

“We do,” Yen says, and gives her a slight sidelong glance with a smile. 

“And we just... wanted to provide a little more of a balanced perspective. You mostly hear about the liberation movement now-”

“Yes, Shield produced a documentary two years ago that was very pro-liberation that received a lot of critical acclaim, as I recall. Is there a reason you chose a fictional feature film as opposed to an answering documentary?”

“Well, I am an actress.” Nikki flashes her impish little grin, but Dylan misses it. He’s stuck watching Yen, who is watching Nikki with perfect focus, sitting incredibly still. Like a statue next to her, with his head slightly tilted, chin down, looking up at her through his eyelashes even though he’s taller than she is.

Who has he seen look like that before?

Weird fucking deja vu has the hairs on Dylan’s arms standing up on end. 

“Feature films are really my wheelhouse, and I felt more comfortable working with a story that gave me a little more room to work multiple narratives into a single film. And Yen was so helpful, he really enjoyed getting to work with me on setting up the plot beats.”

“Right. So in the story, your character goes through the process of training after some serious life hardships, and things really kick off during that process. Can you tell us anything else about the story?”

“I can’t give too much away, Anderson,” Nikki says, laughing, leaning slightly forward. Dylan is still staring at Yen, whose eyes follow Nikki, whose empty little smile never so much as twitches, never fades. “But I can say... Yen helped me a lot with information on the training process! He was originally a demo pet with WRU so he had tons of inside information. The love interest-”

“Ah, right, played by... let’s see, played by Camden Oaks-”

“Right, Camden plays my love interest in the story - and Cam’s a big old sweetie, isn’t he, Yen?”

“Yes, he is,” Yen says automatically, almost before she’s even finished the sentence. 

“My love interest is actually a handler at WRU, so they meet early on but it’s not until much later that you see how that initial meeting really impacts my character’s story. Honestly, I’m really honored that WRU agreed to give me so much access to their methods! It was really great of them, and Yen came with me on every visit.”

Yen’s smile freezes, just slightly, but Dylan’s still looking right at him and catches the first flicker of a very different emotion on the man’s face. Even that seems familiar, the way that Yen’s hands twitch, just a little, and then he is very, very still. 

“Yen coached me quite a bit.” Nikki’s smile is all perfect straight white teeth. “Especially on dialogue, and how to get the expression just right. And all the work they do! Apparently Yen came with a pretty bad stutter, and one thing that they do is really give the pets individualized therapy that hits on their unique concerns to help them before they end up with an owner. So, like, Yen came with a bad stutter! So they really worked on that with him.”

Yen nods, slowly. “Silence is better than stammering.” His voice is perfect and even, doesn’t tremble in the slightest, has a hint of rote memorization that flattens the syllables and bleeds out all emotion.

Dylan jerks forward and rewinds a few seconds, then plays it again.

Yen, head cocked slightly to the side, giving a nervous, eager-to-please little smile. “Silence is better than stammering.”

Dylan’s breath catches somewhere in his throat, eyes widening.

Again.

“Silence is better than stammering.”

Again.

“Silence is better than-”

The barcode is visible on Yen’s left wrist, when Nikki pats his arm and he shifts a little, but if someone took that barcode off it’d leave a scar in the exact size and shape of the scarring Chris has.

The empty look in his eyes, like Chris gets sometimes if you yell at him or get into his personal space too fast. The hint of a slight smile, one that screams that he needs someone to tell him if he’s doing it right.

Silence is better than stammering. Chris had said that, when he was in the stairwell, rocking, hitting his head on the wall with tears running down his face, hiding behind his hands. Those exact. fucking. words.

Silence is better than stammering, stillness is better than what I do, silence is better than stammering-

“Holy fuck,” Dylan whispers out loud. “It wasn’t a cult. Oh shit. Oh fuck, shit, oh holy fuck he wasn’t in a cult.”

He’s going to be sick. He’s going to be so sick all over his fucking blankets.

“Chris was a fucking pet.”

His phone buzzes and he glances at it, feeling a wash of ice-cold fear straight down his spine when he sees the message. Chris’s class let out early and he’s on his way back, does Dylan want dinner early?

Chris isn’t even a fucking person. But he is, he’s definitely a person, he’s one hundred percent a person. But he’s not. But he is, but he’s a runaway, his name probably isn’t Chris, oh... oh fuck.

He really, really wishes it had been a cult.

Dylan swallows, hard.

What the fuck does he do now?

#whump #dylan means well okay #discovered whumpee #I want a tag for 'discovering the whumpee's secret' but i don't think there is one? #box boy #box boy multiverse #box boy universe #referenced ableist language #internalized ableism tw #escaped whumpee #recovering whumpee #caretaker #chris the strawberry blond romantic

[belliesandburps]

Followup with MGS4 Peace Walker and 5?

History has a funny way of repeating itself. :P

This one's actually gonna be long, so I'll cap it here to spare those uninterested in non-kink posts the burden of having to scroll past this fanboy rant. 'XD

Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

3. It's Okay

Soooooo...not a controversial opinion to say that I don't think MGS4 is GREAT. I adored it when it first game out, and I still enjoy replaying it from time to time. But good lord, so many of the interviews shed light on a LOT of this games problems.

Some backstory is required. Hideo Kojima was done with MGS by this point. He planned to move on and leave the series to the younger generation. But then, there was a lot of internal conflict and struggle to determine what MGS4 should be after Fukushima quit (AND was rumored to have been murdered by the Yakuza...how that rumor started...and became a SERIOUS rumor that millions believe, I do not know...). So Kojima came back, course corrected, and the end result was kind of a giant mess.

I'm not talking story because, there's just way too much to unpack. But as a game, MGS4 can't decide what sort of video game it wants to be. It had a brilliant idea that had never been done before with its Battlefield Stealth, which were the best parts of the game. And then they get dropped two acts in, and what gets replaced in their stead is not nearly as fun.

The game had substantially less boss fights than its predecessor, and a lot of them were mechanically simplistic or just didn't let you get creative with how you fought them. And we later learned there were a lot more bosses planned, more gameplay sequences planned, and an entire other PMC group that got canned in favor of the Scarabs so Shadow Moses could be guarded by machines instead.

There's a lot about MGS4 that I love. I think the first two acts are amazing, ESPECIALLY Act 2. I think the mechanics are great. REX vs RAY is criminally fun. The sheer buffet of insane weapons gives the game a good amount of replay value. And the graphics still hold up to this day!

But what I finally realized is that the game juggles way too many ideas and doesn't give any idea the time they deserve to flourish. Battlefield Stealth could've CARRIED MGS4. But it gets dumped before we can get our moneys worth. A disguise sequence could've been really creative, having to juggle different identities with OctoMask every time one identity is burned. But it's only used once and wasted because it's only used for a terrible tailing mission that doesn't let you actually explore the European City. And too many of the action set pieces are kind of bland except the bosses and piloting Metal Gear.

MGS4 should've been MGS4. Not MGS's "Best Hits."

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

1. LOVED it!

I know this is unpopular to say, but I'll say it. Peace Walker is one of the best Metal Gear games ever made. I adored almost everything about it. The gameplay improves on MGS4 in most ways because it doesn't juggle a billion ideas all at once. It's MGS4 stripped down to stealth action from start to finish, and that's all I wanted. The level design is great. The insane volume of guns changes the entire feel of combat in later post-campaign gameplay. The mission select options mean you can jump into all the parts of the game you enjoy the most. There's TONS of bonus missions that are really inventive and fun to replay. And the story is one of the best in the series. It's straight forward, very tight, characterized well, and is the best iteration of Big Boss to date.

Peace Walker's also the FUNNIEST MGS game by Kojima as well. There's so much more personality and levity to everything, to the point where Big Boss often feels like an MCU character. That might sound bad, but it's really not. That corniness fits MGS PERFECTLY, and I'd argue is tonally spot on for this series. MGS doesn't need to be dark, gory or explicit. It's a silly series that's about giant robots, corny bad ass super agents with an anti-nuke message.

The only downsides to Peace Walker are the QTE's and the boss fights. This was a feature that only ever appeared in this game and for good reason...it was fucking terrible. So basically, you had cutscenes that forced you to do various QTE's or else get dinged on your ratings at the end, even if you played perfectly. Fairly minimal, but then, you get to Strangelove's torture. And this is the single most rage-inducing part of any MGS game ever made. It's an insanely physically painful button mashing sequence that will leave your fingers raw and your PS3 triangle buttons jamming. And the ONLY way you can replay one of the best missions in the game (the prison escape where you have no items) is by redoing that sequence over and over. And the boss fights? While inventive, they're all just grindy bullet sponges with no personality, no stealth tactics, and no room for creativity the way you can get creative with every other MGS game's bosses. This was the biggest disappointment for me because the stealth and combat mechanics of PW are great and would've been SO good against human enemies like what Portable Ops had. Instead, every boss is a mini-Metal Gear all voiced by the VOCALOID AI from the mid 2000's, and each one takes forever to destroy. It sucks because PW had a TON of bosses, but only a few of them are any fun, and that's only if you have weapons that are strong enough that they don't take ages to destroy.

But asides from the bosses, the REST of the game is so damn good that I don't even care because that's just one element to a much larger, grander game. Which is even more impressive when you consider PW was originally on the PSP before the PS3 port. And this game has more content and replay value to it than most games I've played since.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

1. LOVED it!

Hooooooookay...so, I've rambled about my storybook romance with MGSV for YEARS now. (Just ask @twistedtummies2, he's been subjected to my fanboying of this game more than anyone in existence XD) But there's a reason I regard this game as one of my all time favorites and the best MGS game to date.

It's REALLY freakin' fun.

Kojima had been re-energized by the time he got to MGSV. He'd been working on the game around the time he finished Peace Walker in 2010. He KNEW it was his final MGS game and wanted to do something completely different...

...He wanted to make a game where the central focus was on...waaaaait for it...the gameplay...

MGSV was designed to be, what he described, as a toybox. You have these missions that all take place in structurally unique outposts like any level in MGS. And the missions are designed with the structure needed so that they all feel different, but all remain so open ended that you can play them countless different ways.

MGSV's game model is everything GTA SHOULD'VE been. It fully embraces the open world freedom and incorporates that into the missions flawlessly. And it plays in such a way that stealth and combat both feel like they were the primary point. In MGS, combat is usually a last resort. But with MGSV, you can fly into an outpost blasting away on your helicopters mini-gun, shoot up the bad guys, rescue your target, throw them back into the chopper and fly away while "The Final Countdown" blares on your choppers loud speakers.

Every method of gameplay is valid and the controls, the enemy AI responsiveness, it's all, bar none, the best I've experienced in ANY video game. Sneaking around feels tight and tense and combat makes you feel like Jack Bauer on adrenaline. (I mean, he IS the voice of Venom Snake)

And I really like the story for the most part too. Its weaknesses are really glaring. Namely, the "Fun" of MGS is completely devoid in the story (which is really odd since it's FRONT AND CENTER in-game). Venom Snake only has maybe six minutes of dialogue in the entirety of this 30+ hour long game. And the way Skull Face gets completely undercut right at the home stretch is something I have NOT stopped bitching about for almost six years, and my friends can personally attest to that.

That and the ending feels too abrupt.

We know that Kojima got fired by Konami's VP and said VP scorched the entire production company after that and made a series of dickheaded decisions that pissed off a LOT of fans, burning much of the good will Konami IP fans had towards the company. But that had nothing to do with MGSV's abruptness. That was the plan from the start because only Kojima would think to end the entire series on a plot twist like that.

And I think the issue isn't the twist at all. In fact, I LOVE the twist. The issue is that the game should've continued beyond it so Venom Snake could cope with the truth and realize how badly he'd been screwed. I think even people who hated the twist could've been won over if there was a little more to the games epilogue than Episode 46.

Also, the games boss fights were a tad underwhelming. Not the fights themselves, I LOVED all five of the games bosses.

Oh? There were twelve?

No. I meant what I said. Because so many of the games bosses are rematches against the same bosses. All MGSV has is the Skulls, Quiet, Eli, The Man on Fire, and Metal Gear. They're great bosses that do everything the best MGS bosses always did; give you tons of options, incorporate combat AND stealth, have varied attacks AND even have multiple methods to sneak around the boss and avoid the fight completely. But for a game as long as MGS, you need more variety. And frankly, the bosses NEED more personality. Skull Face should've had more XOF assassins acting as the bosses in the game along with the ones we have. Elite assassins like Quiet, with their own powers and specialized weaponry so the fights feel completely different from the ones we have. And oh yeah, SKULL FACE HIMSELF SHOULD'VE HAD A GOD-FUCKING-DAMN BOSS FIGHT!!!!

Buuuuuuut those issues don't even matter if for all the games issues, I still replay it frequently when it's almost six years old.

So yeah! There's the massive rant you totally didn't ask for! :D

#ask belliesandburps #mgs4 #mgsv #peace walker #metal gear #metal gear solid #seriously #i'm very very VERY bitter about how Kojima did Skull Face dirty #here's this really great villain with a super complex backstory and motivation #whadduya wanna do with him kojima-san? #I'VE GOT IT!!!!!! #we'll do...absolutely nothing! #he'll show up in five missions out of a thirty nine mission long game #he'll talk at venom snake a few times and do some cool things #then right around the time we're supposed to fight him? #a random twelve year old will hijack metal gear through a PSYCHIC twelve year old and crush Skull Face before we can do anything cool! :D #hold your applause children! :D #................we weren't clapping kojima-san........... #also sins of the father? #heaven's divide? #donna burke is amazing #seriously she is an in-freakin'-CREDIBLE singer #sorry cynthia hall #i got love #but... #whoooooa-HHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!!

[grayhouse3]

SJTR is my villain origin story

So I finished Stalking Jack the Ripper.

Originally I told myself that I was going to just stick it out and read the next one (“Oh, it’s about vampires and Dracula. It’s probably more fun. You can forget all about the pain this one inflicted on you"). No. I got 12% of the way through and had to DNF. So here are my messily compiled thoughts on the book, basically expanded from the last post. Honestly, kind of feel free knowing I won’t be writing more about this series. (Also I am adding some TWs down below but don't know if I am doing them right!)

More on the exoticism, weirdness with Audrey Rose's Indian mother, and the British Empire:

In chapter 14, we read, "Dark strands of hair were piled atop my head, my eyes more mysterious somehow with the dark liner, and my lips were the bright crimson of freshly spilled blood … I thought of my mother and the saris she’d brought me to wear from Grandmama’s homeland. I felt just as stunning now as I did then, and the memory warmed me.” I am still trying to figure out why Maniscalco made Audrey Rose mixed race. Why is Audrey Rose’s grandmother from India? Literally, what did it add to the story? Was it nothing more than just a cute lil quirky fun character trait to her? I don’t think I missed any key moments where there were important conversations about race, imperialism, British occupation, etc., mostly because Audrey Rose’s father (a big fancy rich lord) is a white man and because Audrey Rose is white-passing. I can’t recall any moments in the book where she faces the realities/consequences of being a socially mobile POC WOMAN in LONDON IN THE 1880s. Honestly, if someone else can point out a passage I glossed over or explain some nuance I missed I would actually really appreciate it, because this drove me CRAZY.

(Audrey Rose and her brother also go visit a circus in town in chapter 15; of course these events existed purely for England/colonizing countries to exercise and display their power and to exoticize/exploit the communities/cultures that they came into contact with. Audrey Rose sees silks, beads, etc. that remind her of her grandmother’s saris, smells the foods of her family’s “homeland,” etc. Also in the same chapter there’s this great scene where her brother is describing their mother and father’s marriage: “Grandmama told me she’d refused him twenty times just for fun,” Nathaniel replied. “Said he squirmed like a cobra in a basket. That’s how she knew he was in love.” Uhhh … Is that supposed to be romantic?)

On the feminism stuff:

I am too *gestures vaguely* to write much more on this. Yeah, it’s heavy-handed. Yeah, it’s cringey. But at the end of the day, it’s not really that harmful, I guess. Here’s just a fun sampling of some of my favorite lines from the book:A few of my favorite bites from the book:

***“close-minded society” (chapter 21) Okay

***"Why turn a murderer of women into front-page news?” (chapter 15) Bro do you know how the media works

***"But what of her [mother’s] insistence that I could be both strong and beautiful? Surely Father had to be wrong.” (chapter 21) Yes girl you are strong and beautiful!

***"There would be no skirts or bustles to wrangle with anymore. I was through with things confining me” (chapter 22) Ugh down with corsets just another tool of the patriarchy amirite

On the violence against women, weird classism, and stuff about prostitution:

I was bound to be uncomfortable about a lot of this because I have weird feelings about true crime stuff, and this is historical fiction set around the Jack the Ripper murders. It was going to go sour somewhere.

Consistently Audrey Rose wants to be sympathetic, but is unable to connect all the parts of this situation together: she struggles to imagine the women (very real-life victims) beyond their lives of prostitution, poverty, squalor. When she does, we see something like this: "The women he murdered did matter ... They were daughters and wives and mothers and sisters” (chapter 28). Oftentimes she wishes she could continue to cut cadavers open in peace (women in science!) without having to think about how those cadavers came to be on her examination table: “I needed to get away from those women and their tragic lives before my emotions got the better of me” (chapter 25). Perhaps Maniscalco deserves more credit here, and perhaps I’m just being a bitch, because Audrey Rose is a very privileged girl and her actions and thoughts make that clear. It’s just that the conclusions she comes to in the name of feminism, justice, etc. weren’t at all satisfying to me.

Also: OH MY GOD. Oh my god. There is this one moment that is BRANDED AGAINST THE GRAY MATTER OF MY BRAIN FOREVER and I will never forget it. At one point, Audrey Rose and love interest Thomas decide the best thing they can do is go out and—yes—stalk Jack the Ripper. To do this, they know they need to “blend in” with the crowds in East End. So … like … cosplaying as poor people? Audrey Rose manages to find and wear the dress of ONE OF THE MURDER VICTIMS (long story short her medical doctor uncle was in a relationship with this woman and when she died he acquired her worldly possessions). It’s like, so fucked up, I can’t even describe my reaction when I read it. In chapter 25 we read, "The dress was a little too old, a little too ragged, a bit too big. If I were to wear this ghastly dress out, I’d look as if I belonged in the East End, begging for work to feed my addictions … It was absolutely perfect.” Oh my god. And THAT’S NOT EVEN THE WORST PART. While they’re “stalking Jack the Ripper” on this incredibly stupid mission, the two main characters just … make out in an alley. Like, okay. People are being murdered and you’re wearing a dead woman’s dress and you suspect your father of being guilty, but yeah, that kind of stuff makes us all a little horny. Super relatable. Absolutely no concept of reality or consequences or anything at all.

Another random note on class: I noticed the only time Maniscalco writes in dialects/accents, she’s writing seedy/working-class characters. Not saying this is a problem unique to Maniscalco’s writing by a longshot, but ... something to think on. (I think it’s ingrained in a lot of author’s writing habits/minds at this point.)

Weird stuff about the dad, the brother, and what justice means to Audrey Rose:

I had to add a whole new highlighting color for this stuff!

Any growth Audrey Rose might’ve shown over the course of the novel—anything about how these women mattered, and how they deserved justice as any “highborn” individual might, simply by dint of being humans—goes away when she and Thomas come to the conclusion that the Ripper murders must have been committed by Audrey Rose’s father. She realizes her moral dilemma when she contends with the harsh reality: if her father is the Ripper, can she turn him into the authorities? Audrey Rose worries how that might impact her own moral virtue: "They’d hang Father. Given who he was, they’d make it as public and brutal as possible. Just because blood might stain his hands did not mean I wanted his on mine. No matter if it was right or wrong” (chapter 24). First of all, BITCH. You have to. You have to report this kind of thing. No ifs, ands, or buts. I HAVE to imagine Maniscalco’s intended audience would feel the same? It’s? Serial murder? Second: Audrey Rose, baby, sweetie, honey. This is just a reminder that ACAB. I actually don’t know a whole lot about how the late Victorian criminal justice system functioned, but something tells me her family's public outlook would’ve been less bleak than she imagines here.

Lucky for Audrey Rose, her dad isn’t guilty in the end—but her brother sure is. He’s a mad scientist, using the brutalized bodies and souvenirs of his victims for Frankenstein-style experiments. Ultimately, he wants to reanimate the corpse of his and Audrey Rose’s long-dead mother, and he believes he can achieve this by transplanting fresh organs into ? Her dead and decomposed body? The thing is that, this moral dilemma persists for Audrey Rose—and her dad, too. He pressures her not to bring the little matter of Nathaniel’s issue—you know, his casual murder of a number of local women—to Scotland Yard: “They’ll have your brother hanged,” he said quietly. “Could you honestly watch that happen? As a family, have we not suffered enough?” (chapter 29). Nathaniel electrocutes himself to evade capture by the authorities, and Audrey Rose and her father feel relief. The book ends by confirming that "Lord Edmund covered up Nathaniel’s involvement, I didn’t ask how. One day I’d let everyone know the truth, but the pain was too raw now” (chapter 30).

((Side note: Listen. I knew Nathaniel had something sinister going on from the GET-GO (I’m not trying to be obnoxious) because he basically started some nighttime vigilante group called the Whitechapel Knights of Justice or whatever bullshit, I don’t know. All I know is that my red flags IMMEDIATELY started going off because that sounds exactly like the terrible and awful Crusader cosplay clubs from my (bad) Catholic childhood, where everyone thinks they’re a knight for Good but really they’re the bad guy.))

Overall, kind of ...

I think one of my biggest issues with this ending was … You have already stepped into a realm of fantastical revisionist history here in writing such a fictionalized version of these real-life events. (I know Maniscalco is far from the first to do it.) That means that the rules you are playing by are essentially your own—evidenced by the liberties she points out in her Author’s/Historical note (dates changed for convenience or storytelling purposes, real-life individuals changed for narrative purposes, etc.). So WHY would you not conclude this fantasy retelling of the Jack the Ripper murders by meting out some form of justice? I hear the counterargument: "Well, because we still don’t know the culprit today. This book would ring hollow if it named someone since historians, forensic scientists, etc. still don’t know who committed these crimes." My question: is that really a problem though? This is a work of fiction. Nothing in history happened the way it is written here. Is it crueler to the women who were murdered and who remain spectacles for true crime junkies and authors like this, less satisfying to readers who want some more concrete kind of closure, to not offer that up? I am asking this in earnest here, because I don’t know. Maybe it is insensitive to make up a murderer, to fill in the gaps in order to make sense of the violence that happened. But in my brain it feels almost like a responsibility at this point, since these murders served as the backdrop for the romance between Audrey Rose and Thomas, for the background to Audrey Rose’s empty feminist diatribes, and as inspiration for a book that went on far longer than it needed to. To me it kind of feels like the least an author could do, but I have no clue.

Anyways, I'm just glad I get to put this series to bed. No more.I truly lost sleep over it this weekend. Onto something better, please, for the love of god.

#mnc reads #mnc writes #stalking jack the ripper #sjtr #I dont know what to tag this as but I dont want to leave anything out! #tw death #tw suicice #body horror #violence #classism #I guess #racism #maybe #I dont know #Im sorry

[meetthetank]

Cruciamen Chapter 4: Salt Statues

Rating: Mature Archive Warning: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Categories: F/M, Other Fandom: NieR: Automata (Video Game) Relationships: 2B/9S (NieR: Automata), A2/A4 (NieR: Automata) Characters: 2B (NieR: Automata), 9S (NieR: Automata), A2 (NieR: Automata), A4 (NieR: Automata), Emil (NieR: Automata), Kainé (Nier) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, genre typical violence, On the Run, Monster of the Week, 9S is a half demon, 2B and A2 are shapeshifter Dragons, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Smut in the future, inaccurate depictions of medical procedures, Fantasy Biology, A2 is Nonbinary Ao3 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25104214/chapters/64353769

A2 comes to the realization that they hate sand. It’s gritty, nasty, it gets into their clothes every time the wind blows. The sun reflects off the dunes and into their eyes without fail, constantly blinding them. Most heinous of all the sand’s sins is the fact that it’s practically boiling in the midday sun and burning the bottom of their feet. For a brief moment, they consider wearing shoes of some kind. Instead they resolve to bitch at Kaine for sending them out here, looking for salt of all things, as part of their repayment.

The witch’s ability to mend A2’s injuries was far more than they had expected. Within a couple of days the wound left by Hegel’s energy blast had been reduced from a searing pain to a dull throb. All the bruises, cuts, and cracked bones they hadn’t known about were patched together with skilled, but brittle hands. When she wasn’t flying at A2 with two wicked swords, Kaine seemed like an unassuming old woman. Her hands shook when pouring tea; she couldn’t stand up for very long without complaining about her back. She would look out of the windows of her hut wistfully from time to time, her sunken purple eyes betraying an age beyond what her body could present.

That, and Kaine had all the ornery fury of an elder from back home. If “respect your elders” hadn’t been drilled into their being from the day they were born, A2 would have told the old witch to shove it. But A2 can’t in good conscience refuse someone far older than them, and someone who is giving them food, shelter, and medicine.

So they trudge through the scorching desert looking for ancient brickwork jutting out of the dunes. Kaine described these structures as easily spotted from a distance, the only splash of color for miles, but A2 has yet to see anything other than sand and sand.

Movement on a dune in the distance catches their attention. They instinctively reach for their sword’s hilt and crouch low to the ground. The heat of the sand burns their face and hands, but they grit their teeth and bear the pain to get the drop on whatever demon or predator could be lurking about in such an inhospitable place. They peek over the dune inch by inch, not wanting to make any sudden movements. Without any camouflage like foliage or rocks, their pinkish hair would attract the creature’s attention if they move too fast.

As their eyes adjust to the sunlight they can make out more than one humanoid figure, but just as their heart sinks they see at least three or four smaller ones stumbling through the sand to keep up with the rest of the group. Humans, a group of ten by their count, with what looks like everything they own strapped to their backs. Even the children carry heavy loads that make their legs buckle with each step. A woman catches one of the kids as they stumble down the dune and gives him a loving pat on the head before taking his hand in hers.

A2 debates on doing what they normally do when coming across rival vagrants, doing what earned them a bad reputation along their erratic path. It’s the kids in rags that gives them pause. Those children can’t be more than ten years old and they’re forced to suffer conditions like these.

So A2 lets them continue on. They have their own issues to deal with anyway.

With a frustrated sigh, A2 takes to the desert skies. They already did a sweep from the air before, but there isn’t any harm in trying again. Kaine won’t let them back into the hut if they don’t come back with her salt, after all.

Sure enough, the ruins they’re looking for were sitting right under their nose the whole time. Red brickwork like Kaine described juts out of the sand. It would be impossible to miss, that is, if A2 wasn’t stupid. They can’t believe they looked over the white spire of some kind of cathedral as many times as they did.

A2 lands on the ground next to the spire and the building it sits on, kicking up a cloud of sand with the beating of their wings. They screw their eyes shut and shake their head back and forth as they transform back to their human form to try and get the sand out of their eyes. When that doesn’t work they furiously rub their eyes with the back of their hand, and then their thumbs. That seems to do the trick, but they hiss when their eyes are still itchy. They huff quietly, resolving to blink the remaining particles away.

The ruins around them are unlike anything they’ve ever seen. Great walls of identical bricks emerge from the sand like the spines of a great beast submerged in the dunes. Spikes of rusted, corroded metals mark the remains of buildings that had their bricks striped away by sand and time. Whatever used to live here had a unique way of building. They were able to keep their buildings standing long after their people either died out or left the city to rot—though those people must not have been that amazing if they had all died anyway.

A2 rubs their face as they look around for… actually they don’t really know what they’re looking for. They’re supposed to be looking for salt, but where in this place would that be? All of the buildings that still have all four walls are filled with sand, or totally empty where parts are above ground. If they were going to have to dig for salt deposits, Kaine could have given them a damn shovel or something.

In the center of a cluster of ruins, a strange shape sticks out of the sand. It looks like a small pillar of marble, but that shouldn’t be possible considering how soft the rock is. The desert would have swallowed it long ago, but it stands in defiance of time or nature. A2 strides over to the little piece of marble to get a better look at it. As they close in, they see five appendages sticking out of the top. It looks like a hand reaching out for the sun, or cupping it in its hand. Maybe this was a statue of some kind?

They reach out and grab the statue’s hand, its sharp, crystalline edges digging into their palm. With a small tug the hand snaps of the arm. A2 staggers back, gasping and almost dropping the statue’s hand.

“What in the…”

A2 stares at the hand, at the desperate way its fingers curl into claws, at the subtle musculature in its palm and wrist, at the ripples on its fingertips…

“Th-... This is… “

With a dry gulp, they turn the hand over to look at where it broke off. Just as they dread, there’s bone, muscle, veins and tendons. The same thing is inside the remaining arm. A clean, but geometric break across the crystal faultlines, with minute anatomical detail rendered in salt. A2 even sees the marrow running through the center of the two arm bones. Their hands shake, barely able to place the piece of salt into the roughspun bag Kaine had loaned them.

They dig through the sand, uncovering more and more of the statue. The arm connects to a shoulder, the shoulder to a neck, and the neck to a twisted screaming face. Whoever this used to be was now a moment in time, frozen in the throes of pain and terror. The realization of what was happening is clear on the poor soul’s face as they reach for the heavens for help that will never come.

A2 takes a piece of the statue’s arm and its head, stuffing them both unceremoniously into the sack.

The contents of A2’s bag are emptied out onto the wooden table as Kaine looks on with little interest.

“What the hell is this?” they ask with venom lingering behind their words.

“Salt,” Kaine responds as she picks up and examines the hand A2 brought back.

“I know it’s salt,” A2 snaps. “Why is it shaped like a person?”

“Because it used to be one.”

A2 knew the answer when they found the statue at first, but hearing Kaine say it with the same indifference that she’d use when identifying an herb unnerves them to the point of silence.

“Wh… How?! What the hell did you send me to dig up?!”

Kaine sighs, her shoulders sagging as she shuffles over to a cabinet and produces a small wooden hammer and a glass jar before sitting at the table across from A2. She picks up the salt hand and eyes it with disinterest before setting it down in front of her.

“... They’re leftovers from an event that nearly destroyed the world. The Great Dying.”

“What?!”

“A sickness tore through the ancient civilizations that existed thousands of years ago. It turned the people who were infected by it into salt piece by piece until their whole body was nothing but a white statue.”

“That… “ A2 can only stare at Kaine with their mouth agape. It is the one thing that they actually remember from their history education. They guess only the stories of great atrocities and mass death could capture the attention of the rambunctious cub that only wanted to play with wooden swords.

“Those salt deposits out in the desert are what's left of that disaster,” Kaine says,

“What the fuck could you possibly want with salt made from people?” There’s no malice in A2’s voice, just simple curiosity and confusion.

She shrugs. “It’s good quality salt.”

With the force A2 saw the day they met her, Kaine slams the hammer into the table, shattering the hand into dozens of shards. Again and again she crushes the salt down into a powder, then brushes it into the jar.

A2 grimaces, “Yeah, but… It’s… people.”

Again, Kaine shrugs. “It sells well. People around these parts have always used things like this. I remember there was a town that mummified corpses in honey, then sold the honey as a cure for all kinds of diseases.”

“You’re joking.”

“Nope. I’m fucking serious,” Kaine says with a barking laugh, “You’d be amazed what people think will cure shit like limp dick and cholera. I’m old, I’ve seen some shit.”

A2 laughs along with her, albeit with a twinge of hesitation. They’ve eaten a lot of things, but they’ve always steered clear of consuming human flesh. But this isn’t flesh anymore, it’s salt. And the human has been dead for thousands of years. So…

A2 stops thinking about it too much.

“So, you sell this stuff?” they ask, twisting a salinified chunk in their fingers.

“Yeah, but some of it I keep for other shit. Some potions and salves have to use this stuff specifically. Regular salt doesn’t cut it. That and it makes some damn fine cured meats.”

“You shouldn’t talk about the dead like that… “ Emil says, setting his long overcoat on a hook.

A2 doesn’t think they’ll ever get used to seeing his body covered head to toe in bandages like that, but at least this time they don’t gawk at him like a fish gasping for air.

Kaine scoffs, “What are they gonna do, salt me to death?”

“You should know better than to speak ill of the dead. It’s bad luck!” Emil huffs, putting his hands on his hip bones.

“Well I guess that explains my whole life then,” She mutters bitterly, crossing her arms over her chest.

Silence passes between the three as what A2 brought back seems to fill the air with dread. Minutes tick by before Emil finally speaks.

“The Great Dying was horrible,” he says, his head hanging low. “One day everything was fine, but the next… It was like the whole world came crashing down in an instant. People tried to leave cities and towns to escape it but… You can’t outrun something like that.”

“You’re talking about it as if you were there,” A2 mutters.

He holds A2’s gaze with sad, lilac eyes. “People looked for something to blame. They hunted demons, dragons… each other. The Theocracy and their religion gained a lot of followers desperate for some sort of salvation or comfort.”

“That’s enough, Emil.” Kaine grunts and gathers up the chunks of salt. “What’s done is done. We can’t be burdened by the past our whole damn lives.”

A2’s chest tightens at those words, as if they were directed at them. Their eyes drift to their sword leaning against the wall and the black feather dangling from its hilt.

He’d be ashamed of them.

#nier automata #nier fanfiction #fantasy au #a2 #nier emil #kaine nier #Tanks fics

[orihara-infobroker]

Ranty rant rant about stuff because this cat just needs to vent.

So I've mentioned this before a few times though I don't really talk about it all that much. One of my on-and-off hobbies is role-playing. Tabletop, live-action, or narrative writing, I pretty much enjoy them all. For similar reasons to why I love writing stories. I like creating characters and worlds. In writing I do all the heavy lifting but role-playing has the unique experience of collaborative storytelling and that adds an element that can be very fun. Also, sometimes it's just fun to play in someone else's sandbox for a change.

Some time ago, a friend invited me to check out a Harry Potter rp site. The site itself is pretty decently setup and it seemed like it could be interesting. I'm not a huge Potter nerd but I've seen the movies and I'm a sucker for fantasy settings. But this isn't the first time I've dipped my toes in the HP universe so I thought that instead of doing the standard Eurocentric character, I'd try something different.

I admit, I'd been working pretty heavily on Shadow and Light at the time so that was strongly influencing my mood insofar as what I wanted to play with. So I submitted the idea of a Japanese character who had grown up in Japan but recently moved to London (thus why I'd be attending Hogwarts). The character's parents were onmyoji, part of a branch family of the Tsuchimikado clan. This clan is somewhat famous for its relation to Abe no Seimei who is arguably the most famous onmyoji in Japanese folklore. I also requested that the character be a metamorph which is a wizard who can change their features. Basically a kind of shape-shifting. Tonks was a metamorph, for reference. In requesting this, I was asked to explain why my family had a metamorph. So I wrote a piece where the character's mom told him the story of Abe no Seimei's mom being a fox that his Dad saved and that there had been stories told of how Abe no Seimei could change his appearance. (Not into a fox. Just change his appearance.) And how sometimes people in the clan would be born with the same ability.

Note that everything I incorporated into this character's backstory is based off actual Japanese mythology and not Harry Potter universe. Harry Potter universe doesn't actually address anything about how magic is done in the East. (And if Rowling ever comes up with anything it'll probably be hideously racist anyway but I digress.)

All of this is important, I promise.

So I was a Japanese pureblood kid raised to become an onmyoji only to end up at Hogwarts by pure misfortune. I thought this would be fun to play, basically a foreign exchange student completely out of his element, not understanding how Western magic works, struggling with having to learn English on top of magic, etc.

Well.

Apparently my idea set all sorts of fires under the admin staff of this site. They were opposed because:

1. They didn't think I knew what I was talking about when I suggested being onmyoji (wherein I proved that I actually know more about onmyoji and Japanese mythology than them.)

2. They didn't have lore on the East therefore they didn't want me making stuff up because it might not mesh with what they might eventually get around to creating somewhere down the road. Even though they had no current plans to develop the Eastern setting. (Yeah. You read that right. I was told... in a role play game... not to make stuff up... which is ironic given that I didn't actually make anything up, just liberally stole from actual Japanese mythology. Further, my character was going to Hogwarts so all of this was just backstory and flavour.)

3. I CANNOT BE RELATED TO ABE NO SEIMEI HE IS LIKE THE JAPANESE MERLIN!!!!!!! (Oh yes. Please. Make more ignorant racist comments at me. From now on I shall refer to Merlin as the English Abe no Seimei. -_- Abe no Seimei, while unlikely to be as mystical as he was made out to be in the stories, was a real person. Merlin was never real. He was always a fictional creation. Further, I never claimed to be related to Abe no Seimei. I claimed to be a branch family of the Tsuchimikado Clan to whom Abe no Seimei was either a member of or the founder of, depending on varying stories. So. Apparently they don't understand how Japanese clans work? Or branch families? No? OK, great. GREAT.)

4. They claimed that my story about the kitsune wasn't appropriate because kitsune were a type of mythical creature and metamorphs are completely human so I can't be "half-fox". Further, one of them claimed I wanted to be "half-demon". (Which is both a grave misinterpretation of what I wrote *and* a completely incorrect assumption on what kitsune are. They are not any kind of demon. And I didn't want to be any kind of half demon or even half fox. It was a story told from a mother to a child, using a classic myth to convey a possible reason why their family sometimes had metamorphs. That's it. Which, if they had understand that whole BRANCH FAMILY thing, they should have definitely realized. But apparently I wasn't clear enough? Ok. Fine, maybe I was too fucking subtle. Still never asked to be half fucking anything. Asked to be a metamorph. That's it.)

5. Labeled me as a problem because of all of this. Which occurred over the course of two conversations and a handful of days. Yeah. YEAH. I'M A FUCKING PROBLEM BECAUSE I TRIED TO BE FUCKING CREATIVE IN THEIR FUCKING SANDBOX AND HAPPENED TO ACTUALLY KNOW WHAT THE FUCK I WAS TALKING ABOUT WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE SIGNIFICANTLY MORE THAN THEM.

And it's so frustrating because I was looking forward to playing with my friend on this site and I genuinely felt like they were targeting me because I didn't choose a basic bitch character and I had the nerve to ask questions when they tried to contest it. Like, it wasn't a genuine conversation where two sides explained their opinions. It was literally me trying to propose something and being treated like a child when I was repeatedly trying to explain where they were misinterpreting the things I had written because they didn't know Japanese history/mythology.

I've been a gamemaster/storyteller for games before. Over the course of my time role-playing, I've run four Larps, a handful of tabletops and hosted a couple online rps. My Discord server is technically a role play server that I moderate ( currently its mostly just chatting, not a lit of rp but it was designed to be rp lol). I know how these things work. And that just makes this more frustrating because my impulse, as a storyteller, has always been to work together with players to create engaging stories. I've always been willing to accept the potential of new ideas because the whole point of fucking role-playing is getting to exercise your imagination and tell stories together. So from my perspective, I'd be more than happy to work with them on this. I'd be more than happy to share what I know and talk about what could work or not work. But they don't seem to want to engage in that way and it makes me sad, frustrated, disappointed. Especially because I had really been looking forward to playing with my friend and now it seems that this whole thing is doomed to failure.

All because I got creative and asked questions. :/

#stupid rant #about something lame #that I shouldn't let bother me #it seems so silly but there it is #I guess I just don't understand people #I feel like this is a sign #just stick to writing my own stories #less drama #(｡•́︿•̀｡)

[jyndor]

paul krugman and the art of doubling down on shitty takes

so on september 11th, famed nyt editorial writer, keynesian economist and fave of your racist liberal uncle, paul krugman, wrote one of the shittiest takes I have ever seen on twitter, which is SAYING SOMETHING.

krugman famously tweeted this:

and got a million virtual shoes thrown at him for being so ignorant, because anti-muslim hate crimes did actually escalate after 9/11, and the bush administration eagerly fanned the flames of islamophobia in order to make their illegal wars in afghanistan and iraq popular with the public. muslims, sikhs, indians, literally anyone vaguely brown, and lots of black ppl too, were terrorized by their neighbors, (former) friends, classmates, coworkers, etc. and anyone with a muslim friend knows this happened because they've told us about it. and these attacks were reported on. they were, I remember reading about them when I was a kid.

(paul krugman works for the new york fucking times, and while I think the nyt is warmongering centrist garbage, they do actually report on things that happen in the world. he writes editorials for them, surely he reads the damn paper once in a while).

so today, I log on to twitter and see he has decided not to apologize, but rather do the ol' double down, which always works out well.

here are some highlights:

okay so first thing's first, no apology (obviously) since this is a double down. but we got a chart, and liberals do love a good chart when they are being racist and ahistorical.

he admits that the chart is actually inaccurate because it excludes all the other victims of anti-muslim hate crimes who weren't actually muslim (read: the innocents). okay. so already he is losing credibility because he is using an inaccurate chart as the basis of his double down, and really, we love to see it.

after this there's some shit about how he didn't say there wasn't an outbreak of white americans attacking muslims and people mistaken for muslims, but rather that it could have been worse. lol well anything can be worse than it was, as 2020 has taught us. it’s a pedantic mess and I didn’t feel like that was the meat of the double down.

so first off, the iraq war was definitely started for many reasons, but islamophobia was part of it. the bush administration wanted to invade iraq and depose saddam hussein, and steal iraq’s oil for multinational oil companies lbr, and so they exploited americans’ fears about muslims by propagandizing about how it was important for us to attack them over there before they attacked us over here with their weapons of mass destruction, and of course they would attack us over here if given the chance. why? because they hate our way of life here, our freedom. those things were LITERALLY said by bush people and also by their stans at fox news and the wsj, and yes, in the editorial pages at the nyt.

so to someone like paul krugman, who knows lots of conservatives who don’t seem racist, or are educated and distinguished and just... like war? idk but to him, he sees people like them and says, well... they’re not like uneducated filthy poors in west virginia, not that kind of racist.

but what he doesn’t get, or he is being deliberately obtuse about, is that in order for the bush people to dehumanize muslims the way they did, they had to personally place less value on the lives of iraqis than on the value of that sweet crude oil. they were willing to go to war, sacrifice hundreds of thousands of civilians in the process (as well as thousands of american soldiers, but this isn’t about them) because they didn’t see them as anything but collateral damage. and that is fucking racist.

and while I have no interest in playing the “which racist is worse” game, when the west virginia uneducated racist endangers those around them, the politician rich harvard educated racist writes policy and lies us into illegal wars that endanger millions. both are bad, both are racist.

and by the way, him “sticking his neck out” to speak up against going to iraq was brave and necessary, especially because the nyt was pushing the invasion. but when you put it like that... you just sound like a tool. like it was a burden to call out the liars and imperialists. bitch, you’re paul krugman, a nobel laureate and renowned economist. I do not want to discount the IMMENSE pressure and blacklisting that opponents of the bush administration experienced, because showing any opposition to the wars at the time was risky. but idk the way he put that just irked me, especially since he didn’t even lose his job like many in the media did when they spoke up.

usually what liberals do when they fuck up publically is a fake ass apology and a few hail marys, and I assumed he would be on twitter begging for forgiveness on this one since his garbage take went so viral and pissed off so many people. and of course was wrong.

but then he does this:

yeah. your eyes are not deceiving you. that chart is measuring anti-black, anti-lgbtq and anti-”islamic” (lmao who says that bro just say anti-muslim or islamophobic) hate crimes. shut up leftist twitter, black people have it worse than muslims according to my inaccurate chart. so stop attacking me, a rich white man who doesn’t really care about anything other than my reputation.

there is a lot to unpack here, namely that paul krugman is using faux concern for black people as a way to deflect from his shitty ahistorical take about how much restraint white americans showed after 9/11 towards muslims. maybe krugman doesn’t know any black muslims, but they exist. also oppression olympics is stupid even when used by well meaning essentialists, let alone by milquetoast academics.

not to mention that he has already discounted his own shitty chart by saying it doesn’t show the full picture of what happened in these anti-muslim attacks. but even if we take this chart seriously, it actually does not really support his point. look at how many more hate crimes there were against muslims in 2001 than there were in 2000. there are significantly more black people than muslims in the united states. I am not good at math, and surely I am no nobel laureate, but it seems to me that hate crimes against black people increased a little, and hate crimes against muslims increased a lot. and this chart only takes into account three years, and only two of which are post-9/11. so... idk man maybe we should look at what happened in, say, 2003? 2004? how about all of the 2000s?

(source: https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-09-12/data-hate-crimes-against-muslims-increased-after-911)

oh, that is actually pretty consistently bad! yes, there was one spike in 2001/2002, but it isn’t like we went back down to pre-9/11 numbers afterwards. and I am not sure if this information includes non-muslims targeted for “looking muslim” but I would say it is unlikely, since the data seem pretty similar to krugman’s olympic shit.

I am not writing this because paul krugman is particularly shit-for-brains, or because I hate him more than like... idk any other moron on twitter. there were plenty of anti-muslim takes on twitter friday like there are every 9/11, and every day. but krugman is actually someone liberals respect. he is, after all, a nobel laureate and a keynesian economist, and fairly mild mannered. when people in the media like krugman write these ahistorical shitty takes they are, as chomsky wrote, MANUFACTURING CONSENT. it is a deliberate tactic, and it works. and if you want to learn more about this theory, check out this short clip by al jazeera narrated by amy goodman (of democracy now). the media manufactured american consent when they pushed the wars. they continue to do so when they try to rewrite george bush’s history by making trump seem uniquely terrible to muslims.

elites in the press and in government have been trying to whitewash and rehabilitate george bush’s reputation for YEARS, and they are succeeding. and why would they want to do that? well, there are a lot of reasons. one, a lot of people in washington are complicit in bush’s crimes. two, democrats think they need to appeal to moderate republicans (lol) in order to win elections, and I guess they think there are moderate republicans left (lol!), and that those moderate republicans like george bush (LOLLL). three, they want to make trump look uniquely terrible. if they do that, then no one but trump needs to be held to account for his government’s failings. but these are just my speculation.

do not let them rehabilitate george bush any further than they have. it is a fucking shame he will never be held to account for war crimes, but an extra slap in the face to all of his victims when we act like he didn’t do things he did. like stoke anti-muslim hate. he invaded muslim countries with a smile on his face, and that is pretty fucking hateful.

paul krugman doubled down and tried to use Black Lives Matter like a human fucking shield. seems a bit racist imo.

#paul krugman #islamophobia #racism #war #imperialism #anti-blackness #fuck this guy i stg

[roseamongroses]

Winners Among the Losing: (5) City Secrets (Sittin’ Secrets)

Summary:It wasn’t a matter of whether or not they were worthy.It was a matter of who wanted it more. And now they were firmly on the wrong side of history. A history of unfathomable powers and all-knowing immortals, ancient forests and beasts, and a Stranger who wanted to challenge it all.

Vibes/ Tags:time is irrelevent, homophobia who?, magic and beasts, demigods

Warnings: Imprisonment, Mentions of execution, Blood/ injuries,  Mentions of past Death, repression, cursing, 

Characters: Deceit(Eden) Sanders, Remy Sanders, Logan Sanders, Virgil Sanders, Patton Sanders, Roman Sanders, Emile Picani

Ship: Roceit

Ao3

1) (2)   (3)  (4)  (5)

The Stranger dangled keys, “Get up, bitches,” and he offered a hand.

Eden groaned, blocking the sun from his eyes, “What…?” he moved to get up, but was trapped. Roman firmly attached to the non-bloody side of his waist.

When Eden moved to remove their hands, they tightened their grip with a soft, “No.”

The Stranger raised an eyebrow.

Eden rolled his eyes, managing to pry Roman’s hands off with minimal whining, before scooping him up, Roman’s face buried in his shirt. He somewhat managed to grab the Stranger’s free hand, and a flash of light engulfed them.

When they reappeared, it was thankfully not another forest, but rather a corridor lined with doors of a variety of muted browns, the air stale and thoroughly lived in. Seeing the environment change, Roman was now more awake, arms looped around Eden’s shoulders looking unimpressed.

The Stranger clicked his tongue, opening the door, “You shouldn’t stay in the hearth anymore,” he explained, “Waking and destroying something that old and territorial draws a lot of unnecessary attention.”

“You mean my brother.” Roman drawled, sliding from Eden’s arms and slinking into the room without another word.

Eden shuffled into the room, carefully looking over the wide single bed and tapered wallpaper. While it seemed relatively clean, everything did when compared to the musty forest floor of the universe’s forgotten playground. The foreignness of everything clung to every surface, with the lights being just dim enough to seem off, and the outside world making just enough noise to seem present.

After inspecting around for awhile, Roman wandered into a smaller room, the sounds of running water following.

Roman poked his head out, “Sorry-- forgot to ask. Did you want to bathe first?” He gestured to the browning, yellowed areas of Eden’s waist. The shirt he had tied over it hanging by threads.

“Huh,” He blanked, “I guess I didn’--”

“No need for that, Sanders,” The Stranger cooly injected, “He’s not staying here anyways; this room is all for you.”

Roman’s nose curled, “Ok, wow, rude.” He looked at the Stranger as if he were as mundane as the peeling wallpaper itself, “And that makes no sense. How is he supposed to ‘keep an eye on me’ if he isn’t near me.”

Eden cocked his head at that. Maybe Roman wasn’t as asleep as they’d thought.

The stranger waved a hand, chair materializing beside him, “He can sit in the hall while you sleep.”

“He can sleep in here.”

“There’s only one bed.”

“Oh my god,” Roman mocked, hand pressed to his forehead to swoon, “There’s-- gasp-- only one bed,” before his frown returned, “I grew up with five sisters who were never told no, I think I can handle sharing a bed.”

The Stranger’s lips twitched, a long stretch of silence engulfing the room. Eden would be horrified-- that is, he would be if he hadn’t wished he could say that to the man as well, without getting the nearest water source redirected at his head. Roman didn’t seem worried, impatiently tapping his foot, more concerned over his running water more than anything.

“Okay.” The Stranger finally said, Eden becoming uncomfortably aware of his stare. He turned around, disappearing before even passing through the door.

With him gone, Roman’s shoulders slumped, “I swear…” he mumbled, looking Eden up and down once more, “Anyway, let’s get that cleaned up properly.”

“You don’t need to--”

“I want to.”

--

Roman shifted, his breathing slow.

Eden was still mulling over earlier today, trying to make sense of… this.

Roman didn’t seem like the sharing type. He was probably used to getting everything he wanted without a second thought, so it was a safe assumption to make. And it certainly didn’t make sense for Roman to care about Eden or his well being. The Stranger said Roman liked Eden, but the question was... to what extent?

“Stop thinking so loud.” Roman grumbled, “And just ask.”

Eden rolled over, propping himself on his elbows, “There is no way you knew that.”

Roman’s lips quirked, eyes remaining closed, “And you know me so well?” His hands trailed Eden ’s bare arm, a shiver of scales following the pattern obediently.

“I want to,” Eden admitted, “Afterall, if I’m going to be watching your ass, I at least need to know something ‘bout this brother of yours.”

Roman’s eyes flew open, scandalized, “Gross.”

“Roman, come on.” Eden poked his sour face, “You can’t let a man into your bed and not tell him your tragic backstory. That’s just not proper etiquette.” He mocked. He noted that, despite being so clingy, Roman never quite met his gaze anymore.

“We’ve been sleeping on the same forest floor for the past few weeks- I doubt this is hardly any different.”

“Oh?” Eden smiled, twirling one of Roman’s curls, the motion causing Roman to falter.

“Uh- yea- yeah I’d hardly call us lovers-”

Eden decided to take a bit of a risk. His free hand tangled in Roman’s curls as he leaned down closer to Roman’s face, “I guess we do have a unique situation…”

“So- so some things are better not shared, right? ” Roman stammered, wide eyed. Roman was very much aware of how close they are and Eden may have lingered for a bit longer than he intended. He may have considered briefly taking another risk.

Roman’s lips were parted slightly, fingers still tracing patterns in Eden ’s arm, and for once he wasn’t looking away from Eden . Eden could easily lean in, he could easily tug them closer. He could probably get away with doing a lot more, if he were to be honest.

But Eden pulled back all the same, “Of course,” he said, tucking Roman’s hair behind his ear before rolling back over, “G’night Roman,”

A pause, and then, “...Goodnight,” Roman said, withdrawing his touch as well, if not more reluctant.

So that answers one question.

---

Tracking down Roman was usually an obnoxious affair, but it was certainly not the hardest job Logan has been tasked with. The finding was never an issue, more so the convincing. Apparently simply asking someone to go back to their stone prison did not always work.

He scanned the local map raptly, “It doesn’t seem like he’s gone to the usually places,” he said, frowning.

Virgil made a surprised noise, peeking over Logan’s shoulder, “Huh that’s a first,” he snorted, “Maybe Princey’s getting smarter after all?”

Logan tolled his eyes at that, “Highly unlikely, seeing as he decided to escape— again,” he said, tucking the map underneath his arms, “Oh well, we should still drop by Remus’s grave to be sure he still isn’t around,”

At that Virgil gaze falter, “Of course, “ he said, hands fidgeting, “Hey Logan…”

“You don’t need to ask, Virgil, I’m fine with checking myself,” Logan said and Virgil visibly relaxed.

“Thanks,” Virgil said, stuffing his hands in his worn out jacket. He tossed his hair from his eyes in a careless way, “While you and Patton do that I can check the next town over,” he said, “I heard some rumors about some ancient text and stuff being transported through there and while that's not usually Roman’s gig, it’s certainly of interest,”

Logan’s eyes squinted a bit, mouth tight, “Take Patton with you,” he said and before Virgil could protest, he held up a single hand.

“Don’t be rude, Virgil, you still aren’t technically supposed to be here.” The threat was clear, “Anyhow, Patton doesn’t like visiting Remus’s grave anymore then you do.”

“More like he enjoys it too much,” Virgil grumbled, but cut himself off quickly.

Logan sighed, “As much as you’re right, we can’t change his nature completely, after all—it isn’t… humane. Just keep a close eye on him, he was kept by the Sanders for a reason.”

Virgil knew he was right.

Right now, Patton was really a solid option for finding Roman, and fast. It was something to do with being blood bonded or some mumbo jumbo about being the Goddess's--and by extension the Sanders’-- watchdog. But it was always a risk to use. Patton’s loyalty to Logan would never be as strong as his draw to a full blooded Sanders, and that was simply in his nature.

Virgil didn’t want to discount the progress Patton made, nor the trust they’ve been trying to build, but... the careful gaze Patton held on him as Logan parted ways was something that Virgil's instincts couldn’t ignore.

Not again.

--

Roman was never fond of cities or towns.

And it wasn’t like he’d seen a lot of them, he hadn’t really seen much beyond the walls of the estate. He’d just had an inkling he would never get along with them and he was right. It was loud, ugly, and infested with people.

“Ugh,” his lips curled, “Are you sure you can’t carry me?” he said watching as Eden squinted at the ‘phone’ Remy had left in the room that morning.

He was having much better luck with it then Roman, who simply wanted to destroy the infernal device, and was leading them throughout the town’s twist and turns looking for...something. They both weren’t sure if it was a person or a place. It was just a list with hastily scribbled English.

Eden didn’t glance up, “You shouldn’t be tired, ” he said, taking a sudden turn with Roman easily keeping up.

“Not physically of course,” Roman huffed, “But emotionally, I’m drained--and that damn curse gets stronger the closer a council member get.” he said, and only at that did Eden slow, eyes meeting Roman’s in a curious manner.

Roman eyes fluttered, “Please,” he whined, feeling himself sway, “We’ve been at it for most of the morning,”

“...Fine,” Eden sighed, “There should be a park nearby you can res-- Oof,” Roman had jumped into Eden ’s arms, And Eden scrambled to hook his arms underneath their thighs, “Roman we’re in public,” he hissed, now hyper aware of the stares they were now getting and the hot trail of scales creeping up his back.

Roman simply hooked his arms around Eden ’s neck, something that was becoming startling familiar. “What of it?” he murmured, eyes drooping again.

“Hey, hey, hey, “Eden pulled them off to the side, making his way towards the park, “Try and stay awake” he said eyes scanning the crowds critically and , curling the other closer his chest, “Roman…Roman…”

“Mmm,” Roman smiled, eyes slowly opening, “Say my name again, won’t you?”

---

Virgil may have lost Patton.

Which… isn’t the best way to start any assignment, but it happens. More frequently then they’d ever admit to the council. So it was silly to freak out, so fucking silly, but Virgil was freaking out. His eyes sharply scanning the crowd Patton effortlessly slipped into, looking for his shining white curls. He was tempted to manifest some more eyes, but---

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash, and like that relief rushed over him

“Pat,” he groaned, hands sliding down his face, “You just can’t do that!”

Patton blinked, “Roman’s close,” they said, turning on his heels promptly, his cloak falling like waves behind him.

“Uh,” Virgil balked, “Oh.”

Before he scrambled after, phone already dialing for Logan.

---

It was in times like these, did Eden really fucking hate the Stranger. Not only did he have to deal with the consistent reminder that he’s a ticking time bomb, but he had to run errands for his supposed teacher in hopes that he actually got arround to fucking teaching them.

Oh, and lets not forget the really obvious crush a demi-god had for him.

Eden … didn’t really hate that though. It was convenient, it was amusing, and Eden could admit it was kinda flattering. The thing is...it was distracting. It was really distracting.

Cause with another person, Eden could probably get away with being an asshole about it, and getting the job done. But seeing as Roman could quite literally crush him with a whim, Eden had to be a lot more patient. So that’s why he’s here, in the park letting Roman rest up. Not because he’s completely lost, and frustrated, or because Roman batted his eyelashes at him.

That would be ridiculous, and completely and utterly, unprofessional.

Eden glanced down, feeling Roman stir again, “You feel better?” he asked.

“Mmm,” Roman arched his back with a yawn, “We should...you should…” he hooked his fingers into the material of Eden ’s shirt, face scrunched up in concentration.

Eden ignored that, instead eyeing the phone’s clock, “It isn’t too late, we can still make up for lost time,”

“Eden.” Roman said, and something about his tone put him on edge.

“Yes…?”

Roman met his gaze, sharp, “Duck.”

---

Patton had barreled into the park without hesitation.

They’re luminescent skin burned in the light as they struck at once, the ground rippling under his touch. And amongst the smoke, and dust, and screams of traumatized civilians just enjoying life there was Roman, effortlessly floating amongst the rubble, his hair a beacon that Patton had narrowed on easily. Roman almost looked surprised to see them. But in an instant, the surprise was gone, and Roman dropped back into the smoke.

Virgil fell into position behind Patton easily, “Left,” he whispered.

Patton twisted their head unnaturally, dodging the incoming tree branch with ease, before darting forward. He forced himself not to look back, hoping Virgil was close behind. The branch barreled into the ground, it’s bark blackened unnaturally, before it sharply twisted around.

“Two right,” Virgil said, and Patton dropped to the ground at once. A tree splitting apart, crashing around them, Roman’s laugh not far behind. They’d scrambled up, just in time for the ground below them to shatter, Patton crushing an incoming branch and Virgil jumping swift over the accompanying mudslide, hanging on tight to a tree, before dropping and diving behind Patton at once.

“Is there someone else here? He...I...” Virgil was out of breath, “Something isn’t right,” he managed to say. His many eyes were frantic, their vivid purple shining in the cloudy smoke. Searching...scanning…

“...Above…” he whispered, horrified.

---

Roman was extremely tired.

With a wave of his hand, the dust clouds dropped at once. Roman staggered, limbs heavy with every step. He eyed the uprooted land. Its blackened soil and crumbling remains a bleak sight. He felt the curse’s lull encroaching stronger. He faintly noted that while he could feel the dampened presence of the other two, but they weren’t full fledged council members. So...

His brother should be here soon.

At that thought, he felt his hysteria finally bubble. His laughter spilling in hiccups, as he swayed, not quite fighting the darkness that crept in his vision.

It wouldn’t be long till they get him again, it never took long.

He drank each second greedily, trying to remember the cool of the air, and the grumble of the earth beneath him. He held on those memories tight, feeling hot tears spill down his face. He felt his knees buckle, but he never felt the hard embrace of the ground, nor the swift coolness of sleep.

He knew without looking it was Eden ’s hands that steadied him. They were unnaturally callous free, but strong, easily gripping Roman’s waist and pulling him to their chest.

Only then did Roman let his eyes close.

#Roman Sanders #Deceit Sanders #roceit #sanders sides #ts sides #ts logan #ts virgil #ts remus #ts patton #ts remy #ts emile #Sanders sides fanfiction #fanfiction #winners among the losing

[ofthemuses]

True Detective Sentence Meme: Season One (another of my favorites, well, the first season at least.)

WARNING: Triggering content, NSFW content, religion/death/violence/sex/drugs/suicide mentioned. Lots of foul language 

Regular Quotes

I'd consider myself a realist, alright? But in philosophical terms I'm what's called a pessimist...

Oh, just a regular type dude... with a big ass dick.

People out here, it's like they don't even know the outside world exists. Might as well be living on the fucking Moon.

It's all one ghetto man.

Stop saying shit like that. It's unprofessional.

So what's the point of getting out of bed in the morning?

I tell myself I bear witness, but the real answer is that it's obviously my programming. And I lack the constitution for suicide.

Let's make the car a place of silent reflection from now on.

Can I ask you something? You're a Christian, yeah?

I know who I am. And after all these years, there's a victory in that.

Can you get pills pretty easy?

Listen, when you're at my house, I want you to chill the fuck out.

There's nothing I can do about it. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but... I'm gonna have a drink.

Given how long its taken for me to reconcile my nature, I can't figure I'd forgo it on your account.

Hmm. That sounds God-fucking-awful.

Isn't that a beautiful way to go out, painlessly as a happy child?

Trouble with dying later is you've already grown up. The damage is done. It's too late.

I can be hard to live with. I don't mean to, but I can be... critical.

Sometimes I think I'm just not good for people, that it's not good for them to be around me. 

Such holy bullshit from you. It's a woman's body, ain't it? A woman's choice.

Girls walk this Earth all the time screwin' for free. Why is it you add business to the mix and boys like you can't stand the thought? I'll tell you. It's cause suddenly you don't own it the way you thought you did.

Is shitting on any moment of decency part of your job description?

Nothing man, sorry, forget it.

You got some self loathing to do this morning, that's fine, but it ain't worth losing your hands over.

What's your deal?

I don't have "a deal".

You're kinda strange, like you might be dangerous.

Of course I'm dangerous. I'm police. I can do terrible things to people with impunity.

Now what do you mean exactly... these visions you mentioned.

Shiiiiit, just what have you two heard about me?

What the hell good is cake if you can't eat it?

You know, throughout history, I bet every old man probably said the same thing. And old men die, and the world keeps spinnin'.

What do you think the average IQ of this group is, huh?

Just observation and deduction. I see a propensity for obesity. Poverty. A yen for fairy tales.

I think it's safe to say nobody here's gonna be splitting the atom.

You see that. Your fucking attitude. 

 Not everybody wants to sit alone in an empty room beating off to murder manuals.

Yeah, well if the common good's gotta make up fairy tales, then it's not good for anybody.

Well, I don't use ten dollar words as much as you, but for a guy who sees no point in existence, you sure fret about it an awful lot.

I mean, can you imagine if people didn't believe, what things they'd get up to?

Exact same thing they do now. Just out in the open.

Bullshit. It'd be a fucking freak show of murder and debauchery and you know it.

If the only thing keeping a person decent is the expectation of divine reward, then brother that person is a piece of shit; and I'd like to get as many of them out in the open as possible.

Well, I guess your judgment is infallible, piece-of-shit-wise.

You figure it's all a scam, huh? All them folks? They just wrong?

People incapable of guilt usually do have a good time.

Do you wonder ever if you're a bad man?

World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door.

But I think I'm all fucked up.

You don't have to fall in love at first sight, you know.

Every time I think you've hit a ceiling, you, you keep raising the bar. You're like the Michael Jordan of being a son of a bitch.

Fuuuck! Hell of a bedside manner you've got.

Ahh, you know, being stupid is different than going in sick, and this is a bar, not a fuckin' bedside.

All the dick swagger you roll, you can't spot crazy pussy?

So, enough with the self-improvement-penance-hand-wringing shit. Let's go to work.

Oh God damn it, I am so done talking to you like a man.

What the fuck you think I want with you, huh?

I'm sorry. What are you suggesting, exactly?

I will skull-fuck you, you bitch!

This is none of my business... I don't want to hear it.

Do you know the good years when you're in them, or do you just wait for them until you get ass cancer?

What always happens between men and women? Reality.

Someone once told me time is a flat circle.

The newspapers are gonna be tough on you.

No, buddy, without me... there is no you.

Yeah. Fuck this. Fuck this world.

You know, people that give me advice, I reckon they're talking to themselves.

A man's game charges a man's price. Take that away from this, if nothing else.

I'm the person least in the need of counseling in this entire fucking state.

Thought maybe we should talk.

If you get the opportunity, you should kill yourself.

Hey, man, look. Why don't you just get out of here, please? I don't want to get arrested. Just - just get... before I do something to you.

I slept with someone... And you know him/her... You're close.

Oh... Now, what-what are you saying?... What - what are you - what the fuck are you saying to me?

Life's barely long enough to get good at one thing. So be careful what you get good at.

If you were drowning, I'd throw you a fuckin' barbell.

Why would I ever help you?

Hey. You better get those jumper cables ready, the motherfucker is lying.

Get on out of here, you're classin' the place up.

My family's been here a long, long time.

He ain't gonna talk with you.

I got a car battery and two jumper cables argue different.

A man remembers his debts.

Fuck, I don't like this place... Nothing grows in the right direction.

What happened in my head is not something that gets better.

Well you know what, I just got here; I was gonna leave, but then you woke up - Jesus, what's your fuckin' problem?

Not a care in the world.

I'm not supposed to be here.

Yeah... well, I'll come back by tomorrow, buddy.

Don't ever change, man.

Agh. Ah, fuck. Ah, he got me pretty good...

Do I strike you as a talker or a doer?

You'll rip out your fucking stitches. Stop it.

This is the place.

Everybody's got a choice, ____... Shit, I sure blamed you.

There you go... Everybody's got a choice.

It's hard to find something in a man who rejects people as much as you do, you know that?

Come die with me, little priest.

The DEEP SHIT™

I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution.

There can be a burden in authority, in vigilance, like a father's burden.

I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming. Stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction - one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal. 

This place is like somebody's memory of a town, and the memory is fading.

I contemplate the moment in the garden; the idea of allowing your own crucifixion.

I don't sleep, I just dream. 

You got kids? I think of the hubris it must take, to yank a sole out of nonexistence into this meat; a force of life into this thresher.

I know who I am. And after all these years, there's a victory in that.

Yeah, back then, the visions, yeah most of the time I was convinced... Shit... I'd lost it. But there were other times... I thought I was mainlining the secret truth of the universe.

I mean, it's like somethin's got your name on it, like a bullet or a nail in the road...

People... so goddamn frail they'd rather put a coin in the wishing well than buy dinner.

This... This is what I'm talking about. This is what I mean when I'm talkin' about time, and death, and futility.

They welcomed it... not at first, but... right there in the last instant. It's an unmistakable relief. See, cause they were afraid, and now they saw for the very first time how easy it was to just... let go.

All your life--you know, all your love, all your hate, all your memories, all your pain--it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person.

And like a lot of dreams, there's a monster at the end of it.

You see, we all got what I call a life trap - a gene deep certainty that things will be different...

Nothing's ever fulfilled, not until the very end. And closure - nothing is ever over.

I have seen the finale of thousands of lives, man. Young, old, each one so sure of their realness. You know that their sensory experience constituted a unique individual with purpose and meaning. So certain that they were more than biological puppet. The truth wills out, and everybody sees. Once the strings are cut, all fall down.

In eternity, where there is no time, nothing can grow. Nothing can become. Nothing changes. So Death created time to grow the things that it would kill.

And you are reborn, but into the same life that you've always been born into. I mean, how many times have we had this conversation? Well, who knows?

When you can't remember your lives, you can't change your lives, and that is the terrible and the secret fate of all life. You're trapped by that nightmare you keep waking up into.

I can see your soul at the edges of your eyes. It's corrosive, like acid. 

Sometimes... this feeling like life has slipped through your fingers... like the future is behind you, like it's always been behind you.

There's a shadow on you, son.

I saw you in my dream. You're in Carcosa now with me... He sees you... You'll do this again... Time is a flat circle.

There's no such thing as forgiveness. People just have short memories.

All my life I wanted to be nearer to God. But the only nearness - silence.

Some people, no matter where they look, they see themselves.

You see, sometimes people... mistake a child as an answer for something, you know, like a way to change their story.

Look, as sentient meat, however illusory our identities are, we craft those identities by making value judgments: everybody judges, all the time. Now, you got a problem with that... You're livin' wrong.

Once there was only dark. If you ask me, the light's winning.

#roleplay meme #rp meme #askbox meme #inbox meme #sentence meme #sentence memes

[rpmemesorwhatever]

New Girl Season One Scentence Starters

"So, you know in horror movies when the girl's like, 'Oh, my God. There's something in the basement. Let me just run down there in my underwear and see what's going on, in the dark.' And you're like, 'What is your problem? Call the police.' And she's like, 'Okay,' but it's too late, because she's already getting murdered. Well, uh, my story's kind of like that."

"Hey, are you gonna murder me 'cause you're a stranger I met on the Internet?"

"Okay, look, I'm meeting a girl for drinks tonight, and I'm probably going to bring her back here for sex."

"And frankly, right now I feel taken advantage of, and I just got out of a long relationship and I don't know what I'm doing emotionally or-let's be honest-sexually. I'll just... just get out of here."

"Are you trying to rob me?"

"That is the ugliest dress I have ever seen!"

"I'm really gonna need you to step it up tonight, okay? When I see you, I wanna be thinking, 'Who let the dirty slut out of the slut house'?"

"We just started dating, so we're still in that honeymoon phase. I barely sleep. So much doing it."

"He's so soft. Like a towel."

“I could pretend to be more like you, and live on a sparkly rainbow and drive a unicorn around and just sing all the time.“

“What's your stripper name?”

“Okay, first of all, let's take the Lord of the Rings references and put them in a deep, dark cave, where no one's gonna find them. Ever.”

“Pink wine makes me slutty.”

“We're reverse Mormons - one guy just isn't enough for her.”

“I'm doing sexy things with the pillow.”

“Did you just make up a theme song for yourself?”

“I was going for like a hot farmer's daughter kind of thing, like, oh, I'm gonna go milk my cows.”

“He flew in late last night, we took him straight to the bar, took a bunch of shots, got drunk, screamed I love America.Now he's happily passed out.”

“No! I can't call Spencer I haven't talked to him since he cheated on me with that ho! Actually, that's not fair. She might be a really nice ho.”

“Fancy name. 'Rochelle', like a mermaid.”

“So when I do the chicken dance I do it a little differently. Instead of doing claps, I like to do a peck. It's more realistic.”

“We don't want to be mean, we just don't want you to be yourself...in any way.”

“So what I need you to do is this. I need you to put vodka in a water bottle, ok? Then rendezvous with me in the restroom.”

“Sum up the last two years? The country's broke. Betty White came back.”

“Believe it or not, that's not the first time someone's broken my feeling stick. I have a travel size.”

“____ is delicate. Like a flower.Like a chubby, damaged flower who hates himself”

“I'm not like you! I don't just jump in the potato sack, with the first potato that I meet with diabetes!”

“Your mother's gonna slam on your mother.”

“Yea, I mean he seemed like a really nice...European DJ with a face tattoo.”

“_____’s really vulnerable right now. When she's drunk, she has no boundaries. She's really grabby, really physical, she's really loose with her body. So I just wanna apologize in advance for anything she might do.”

“You tell anyone we held hands, I have 2 people in my phone who will kill you.”

“Okay no matter how many emails you send, that's not real.”

“Here's another tip, don't ask a guy out on a first date, on the least sexy holiday in America.”

“The most sexy holidays are the 4th of July, Independence day obviously. Women's history month, and Christmas.”

“ I wanna let you know up front that I have some control issues in the kitchen. So if I'm gonna do this, I'm cooking the whole meal. I don't want you touching anything. And I don't want to hear ‘____, _____, you're using too much tarragon!’.”

“You get all mean and you make that little turtle face!”

“I sometimes touch the frayed part of the power cord just to feel something.”

“All I'm hearing is I can't use my bathroom because you're poor.”

“Eye of the Tiger ended the cold war.”

“I want friends who still lie to me because they don't want to hurt my feelings. I sadly kind of mean that.”

“So head's up, _____'s coming tonight. And I just wanted to tell you that I'm gonna tap him like a maple tree. I'm gonna search him for some syrups.....I'm gonna be having sex with him.”

“Are you like a Bond villain? You just told me your whole plan.”

“Yeah, I don't like getting a haircut, it's too intimate. What does that have to do with sex?”

“Because I choked him. I lightly choked him.”

“You better watch it, man, because I will take you down. I had figure skating lessons until I was 13, and then my mom sobered up and realized I was a boy. Let's do this!”

“I hope you appreciate that I have kept eye contact with you this whole time and made no reference of the fact that you are basically naked.....”

“Remember when Christmas used to be fun, and all I had to do was worrying about my drunk uncle asking me out again?”

“Is it because he's a d-bag? _____ says he's a d-bag.”

“I can't believe _____ got me roller-blades for Christmas. I feel so freeee!”

“My initial thought was to get him a gift certificate for piping hot sex. But I don't want him to think I'm using him for his body.”

“No it's great I love it! It's funny, and quirky and so sweet. It's like you. And that's why I love it. I love it! Thank you. I love it...I love you.”

“Coincidentally, I'm wearing my lap dance pants!”

“Last month, he went to a party called ‘Bros Before Hos on the Moon’. What does that even mean!?”        

“Damn it! I can't find my driving moccasins anywhere!”

“Guess whose personalized condoms just arrived!”  

“I'm about to go pay this fine, and my checks have baby farm animals on them, bitch!“

“I don't like you and I don't want to be your friend, so could you leave please, because I'm about to start crying, and you are the last person I want to cry in front of.”

“I want to cry too. Where am I supposed to cry? You can't monopolize the bathroom crying space.”

“What if I ate my own hair and pooped out a wig?”

“Any time a man wants to show a woman how to do something from behind it's just because he wants an excuse to get real close and breathe on her neck. Watch any sports movie.”

“I know you probably think cupcakes are totally lame. I know I do.”

“I have to go out tonight, 'cause I'm feeling pretty twirly.”

“If someone catches us, then I'm going to say that you're drugging me, and it's my word against yours.”

“I wish there was a word that meant complete satisfaction and complete self loathing.”

"I'm like a sexual snowflake. Each night with me is a unique experience.”

“Come on _____! I can't be the first woman who's ashamed to be with you.”

“I want to tell people about us because I think you are the dopest, flyest, smartest, ballsiest woman that I've sexually enjoyed in really long time.”

“I'm the guy who just can't jump into something if I don't know what's gonna happen. I've just never been that guy. I'm the guy that if I don't know what's gonna happen, I don't do something. Ever. I don't care how badly I want to do it. Like, if everyone went down to the beach and jumped into the water, I'm the guy guarding the wallets.”

“Are you using your friends medical crisis to feel my boobs with your face?”

“Are you sure you're okay? You're walking like a Disney witch. Let me drive you to your doctor.”

"You're like aging ballerina, child chess prodigy, old magician crazy.”

“Get rid of it. Pine has no place in this loft. It's the wood of poor people and outhouses.”

"I'm gonna have to run all the way home, and I have my slipperiest loafers on!”

"I'll raise the money myself! I'll get a ragtag group of kids together. An orphan, a lost soul, a Jewish kid with a keyboard, a little slut who can dance, and one fatso!"

“You were denied a cell phone because you have the credit score of a homeless ghost!”

"It smells like leather and Teddy Roosevelt and wistfulness.”

“I want to kill you...because I respect you.... I think I understanding hunting!”

“When I was your age I had a skinny ponytail and I think I was living off of selling my own blood.”

“I don't...I don't know. I found this in the lost found at the gym. I'm not really sure how sexy a ‘sexretary' is supposed to be.”

“Guess what you guys? My shoes are filled with blood!”

“You've all thought about me while self-completing!?”

“I need you to teach me to be a douchebag.”

“Would you line up around the corner if the iPhone was called ‘the slippery germ brick’?” 

“Actually, I don't trust what ‘cool’ means to all of you, so how about just ‘be normal’?”

“You're listening to the radio and writing with a pen? What decade are we in?”

“I got really nervous, and I tried to flirt information out of you.”

“I wanna rub my face on his face!”  

"Put on some pants or at least some really high socks."

“You like me? You like my *personality*?”

“Sandwiches and sex!? I want that!”

“I'm sorry I made you feel like Monica Lewinsky!”

"Old people freak me out. With their hands and their legs. They're like the people version of pleated pants.”

“First of all, you're never gonna be old, humans are going to be immortal by 2026.”

“What's wrong? You're stress-eating meat.”

“How's the new apartment? Does it smell like new paint and compromise?”           

#rp meme #rp starters #ask box meme #ask meme #rp resource #meme #rp

[potuzzz]

The Bible, and Why Thoughts Should Be Separated from the Original Source and its Backers

(((Forewarning: This post is a stream of thought. Don’t read if you’re expecting something that avoids the tangential and has a coherent structure)))

` ` ` ` `

     I don’t like hypocrisy--I’m guilty of it, as we all are, albeit I make it a point to avoid it.  And, sure, there are other (IMO) worse traits a human being can have.  But almost anybody would agree that hypocrisy is bad, and the hypocrite’s words are worthless at best, toxic at worst.

     I understand the sentiment, but, for the sake of perspective, I would like to defend the hypocrite and morally defunct with this following post.

     Now, being well aware of Tumblr’s main demographic make up, I’m sure most people on here aren’t big fans of the Bible.

     Truth be told, if you look at the world through the lens of the disgruntled, orthodox Christians, their fears, grievances, and predictions ring quite true--I’m not saying I agree with them, I’m just saying, through their worldview, the notion that Christianity is losing ground steadily to sin and depravity has enough evidence (for them) to enforce this worldview firmly. Homosexuality running rampant, men and women rebelling against their “roles,” brown heretics invading their bastions of innocence to rape and pillage and steal jobs, hip hop becoming the most popular music to corrupt their children and brainwash them to do drugs and get piercings and show shoulders and kill babies and kneel for anthems, these same Jaxton’s and Peyton’s being forced by the Deep State Pedo-Ring to take a non-English language class and learn evolution, fiery Hell, they’re even calling this the “Common Era” instead of “Anno Domini.” I can see how the modern age looks like the setup for the Apocalypse, their Book of Revelation. The rapidly growing Internet, which was once an obscure, semi-useless sort of nerd thing, and then in popular movies for a decade or two was only referenced as some silly cat-joke platform, is slowly but surely becoming a very serious aspect of human life. You can’t make it far without a WiFi connection, not in society, not in business, not in leisure, nothing. And this new frontier, this fresh-faced future, here they have it the worst, constantly being belittled and called names and having mean science-y devil worshipers “debunk” their worldviews, whatever slimy libtard nonsense that all means.

     Orthodox Christians that use a religion--a somewhat neutral thing--to justify their their bigotry, the sort of Christians that fit the of bedrock for an otherwise atheist and secular alt-right probably ensure, if anything, that liberally-inclined youngsters like myself push themselves as far away from Christianity as a whole as possible. Christianity is a sort of thing that people here in America almost thought synonymous with race; you were born into it, and you died with it. I mean, hey, people can’t seem to wrap their mind around the idea that Islam isn’t a race. People would identify as being Christian, even though they never went to church (save maybe Easter and/or Christmas), didn’t pray unless gramps was around, and never read a lick of the Bible, let alone mulled it over. Nowadays, there’s a growing portion of young people that aren’t just apathetic and passive with their family or culture’s religion, they’re proud to actively reject it.

     Orthodox Christians have made a really bad name for themselves, their religion as a whole, their precious Bible, and, alongside it, anything and everything they associate themselves with, especially ideas and opinions.

     (Quick disclaimer: I’m picking on Christianity right now, but insert whatever religious or spiritual beliefs you like. It just happens to be the biggest demographic here and easiest example that comes to mind for what I’m trying to achieve in this post. Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, paganism, Satanism, even atheism all are just ideas wreathed in metaphor (or “fact” when it comes to atheism) that are neutral on their lonesome, but are used for evil but society and the individual. Back to the program.)

     For the most part, I’m like, “serves you dumbass chauvinists right,” but I wouldn’t have made this post if I didn’t have mixed feelings about the deeper implications and consequences.

QUICK TANGENT TIME!

     Let’s say you have a...I don’t know...coworker, we’ll call him Fraxley (lol). So Fraxley isn’t most of everybody’s favorite. Ya’all work at a restaurant. He’s loud, obnoxious, entitled, immature, petty, judgmental, lazy, whiny, condescending, pretty much everything you’d dread in a coworker. But, one fateful day, you’re talking to your boss, Mrs. Boss. This is how it goes:

          Mrs. Boss: “Man, did you see the table by the restrooms?”

          You: “Uh, no, what happened?”

          Mrs. Boss: “Some party of two parents and their kids had a birthday party...not only did they leave a huge mess, but nobody used coasters, and now there’s horrendous watermarks all over.”

          You: “Reese’s Pieces, what?”

          Mrs. Boss: “Yeah, like the parents didn’t stop them or nothing.”

          You: “Damn...would degreaser or something help? I guess I’ll grab--”

          Mrs. Boss: “No no no, see, that’s the real problem, we’re out of all our cleaners and we can’t get any in here until next Monday.”

          You: “Ouch.”

          Mrs. Boss: “I guess just scrub it as best as you can. If Ownerpeople comes in tonight and sees it in that state, they’ll lose their shit.”

          You: “Okay, just let me see if--”

*Fraxley kicks open the front doors (letting in customers before you’re open), hocks a loogie on the window, flips a water bottle into the fryer, and blows Bongwater-flavor Juul clouds in your face that resemble Baroque architecture*

          Fraxley: “Sup, bitches. Heard we got some fuckin’ tabletop probs.”

          You: “Yeah.”     

          Mrs. Boss: “...Hi, Fraxley, could you--”

          Fraxley: “Well, Brossolini, if you don’t want to be an epic NPC fuckin’ retard about it, toothpaste works great for watermarks on wood. Makes that bitch moannnn. J to the S, G.”

          Mrs. Boss: “Fraxley, could you clock-in and put some ice in the bin?”

          Fraxley: “UghhHHGHhh. What’s up with you, sour tits?”

          Mrs. Boss. “Now.”

          Fraxley: “Meesa no likey. *winks coyly at you* Later, buddy.”

. . . 

      So, the question is, what do you do?

     Most people would ignore Fraxley, and for good reason. But his tip, his two cents, his wisdom (which, keep in mind, didn’t even originate from him!) shouldn’t be automatically discarded.

     Here’s another quick example. Read some of these quotes:

          “Words build bridges into unexplored regions.”

          “The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.”

          “He alone, who owns the youth, gains the future.”

          “Make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it.”

     Not my like, all-time-favorite, Earth-shattering, epiphany-inducing quotes, but still pretty wise, huh? Worth a mulling over? Worth soaking in, and applying to your life and your perspective, from time to time, eh?  Certainly, I believe I can apply, say, the last quote, to current-day politics. I can apply the first one to nearly every single second of every single day.

     I found these quotes by this Google search: “quotes from hitler”

     Yep!

     Words to me are kind of like children. The context of their parents is important, but, ultimately, they are their own individual beings, and shouldn’t be judged for neither the goodness nor the evil their parents have wrought on this world.

     You see, sort of, what I’m trying to say about the Bible? Really, anybody and anything, but for this discussion, the Bible?

     I have my own personal spiritual beliefs and worldview that I would like to think is particularly unique, one which doesn’t fit me smoothly into any predetermined box.  When it comes to the events of the New and Old Testament, I have mixed feelings. The Old Testament...I believe nearly all of it is more or less a metaphor. As for the New Testament, I believe Jesus was alive. Less surely, I believe he was the most powerful human being we’ve witnessed (or an extraterrestrial/extradimensional being, or something), a practitioner of magic that we all have the potential for, deep down somewhere. He’s a Level 99 person, whereas most of us never get past Level 4 to 7 or something along those lines. I believe many of the events in Jesus’s life, as recorded, did happen, and along the way, some areas were perverted by both his humanly human apostles recording them, as well as the numerous translations and re-writes and edits that have happened in the last 2000 years, with a fat ol’ margin for both accidental error and malicious, egotistic inserts.

      So as we can see, I’m already biased in part to favor some bits of the New Testament, and even be patient enough and curious enough to think about the Old Testament. It probably doesn’t help that I was raised Muslim, in America no less, so I probably have some learned sympathy for Abrahamic religions in general.

     Now, I’ve only ever really dug into the Book of Mark, thanks in totality to an Intro to New Testament class I took in college (it was either that or some even more presumably boring garbage). As for the rest of the Bible, I know the general events (as most of us do) of the Old Testament, I was challenged to read a bit of the Book of Job during a (horrifying) Ouija experience, and other little bits here and there have come to me by chance. I’m no expert. But, my bias acknowledged, it really makes me sad that some people are never going to consider a single word in the Bible as anything other than a weapon that has been used against them. It has some excellent metaphors, lessons, and stories that not only can be applied in simple day-to-day life, but I have found myself applying to my understanding of human psychology and the human condition, of my internal journey towards actualization and self-understanding, of love and hate and chaos and order, and my understanding (or accepted lack thereof) of the universe and reality I inhabit, the life within it, and the events after.

     What’s also important to add, is the Bible isn’t the skeleton of my beliefs and perspective. It’s not some major slice of the pie, it’s just a few Lego bricks in an enormous set that took me years to construct. Without it, sure, it’d likely be much the same, but in some ways, it wouldn’t. My fundamental ability to accept teachings from the Bible, both because of my subconscious bias for it and despite my growing conscious bias against it, are what have caused me to accept a wide berth of teachings, that, had I remained close-minded and say, only trusted celebrities I like and factual science (whatever the fuck factual means anymore), my enormous structure would instead be a trifling, misshapen, tragic little thing.

     The same thing that allowed me to accept the Christian Bible, to just entertain its ideas, has also allowed me to garner wisdom and knowledge from all sorts of celebrities, musicians, artists, politicians, generals, prodigies, and scourges both in my day and age, and throughout history, not just the ones I happened to like but even the ones that struck me the wrong way.

     I liked Sun Tzu, because why not, so I got to absorb bits of The Art of War, but I’ve also learned some wisdom from current day American generals who bomb my cousins. I never reached a high enough edge level at any point to consider entertaining Satanism into my lifestyle, but hey, Satanism has some interesting things worth a good mull, or even quoting in everyday conversation. People might look at me like I’m mad, but if you past the skins these jewels are shrouded in, you get to reap the intriguing beauty within, without compromising your core self in the process.

     I watch an unhealthy amount of YouTube at times--when I’m at my highest functioning, I limit it to drives to and from work. I like a lot of progressives, unsociopathic intellectuals, hip-hop commentators, and the like (links on names): Shaun, Jeffrey Almonte, ContraPoints, Academy of Ideas, D Respect, hbomberguy, TD Hip Hop Media, probably a few others.

     Emphasis on progressive. It’s hard for me to relate and appreciate much else--I don’t want someone mindlessly parroting pop-woke garbage, I just want someone with a little bit of soul and a lotta bit of brain, and I do well to forgive and forget when the aforementioned have opinions that differ from my own.

     But, a while last month, I was recommended a channel: Alternative Hypothesis.

     Now, silly ol’ me, read that as, “Oooh, someone who’s very likely counter-culture, possibly a little pretentious but let’s give’em a listen.”

     Basically, emphasis on ALT.

     I only got through about 5 or 6 videos, but see, that’s the thing. I could recognize the guy was well spoken, good at structuring a video and articulating a point. It wasn’t complete laughable swill like Ben Shapiro or Sargon of Akkad. This guy actually made me stop and think some pretty wild ass shit, like, “was slavery really that bad?” Fucking horrifying, right? Don’t get me wrong, I’m pretty sure I’m not a great debater, but I had enough sense to debunk his videos both logically and morally. But he really challenged me and my viewpoints. Made me stop in think. Now you might think, “well, it’s not like you’re black so you don’t exactly have a lot of eggs in that basket,” and I get why you’d think that. Even I double-checked myself on that. But I will let almost any of my core beliefs be challenged, and I don’t think that makes me a pushover or weak, morally or mentally or otherwise. If anything, it strengthens my resolve, and makes my beliefs feel more mine, and less insecure attempts to fit into a mold. I’ve let myself attack whites, suburbanites, Muslims, Arabs, rappers, specifically white rappers, writers, artists, men, the insecure, the dark (of head, not skin), the indecisive, Americans, talkers, introverts......these are all things that are me. If I’m critical of anyone at all, it’s me.

     Funny thing, I actually vaguely remember a quote that went something like, “Don’t defend your attacks on your character you know are wrong, or you’ve already lost.”

     I don’t really remember where that quote originated, whether it was the Bible or the Daily Stormer or Gandhi or Jake Paul, but it’s reminding myself right in this very second that I’m okay, I don’t need to justify shit, I going on a cutting-edge ramble or something, and I just need to be self-satisfied and go on my merry way. And I need that right now. I don’t care where it came from.

     Go read the Bible. The same book (Book of Leviticus) that forsakes homosexuality does the same with eating fat, eating pigs, wearing mixed fabrics (aka wearing most of anything nowadays), cutting your hair, touching weirdly specific things, getting your red wings, adultery, incest, mixing crops, getting tattoos, blasphemy, and working on Sunday. Obviously, a load of this is trash. Don’t get hung up on the little ugly bits.

     I recently finished reading Stranger in a Strange Land. The author obviously had a couple stupid worldviews, mainly general sexism and a part where a female character chimes in that 9 out of 10 rape victims were essentially asking for it. If I were the stereotypical over-sensitive, virtue-signalling young’un in today’s day and age, I would’ve thrown the book right then and there against a wall and lit the place on fire, vowing to purge every word I had read thus far from my mind. Instead, I kept reading, and the book is fucking amazing. I will look past the author’s glaring flaws, which we all have, and instead of sheltering myself from the real world, I got to add another excellent artwork to my experiences. Go read Stranger in a Strange Land, it’s about Martian Jesus.

     Stop having knee-jerk reactions--if you’re forming a demonized version of me in your head when you read me writing phrases like “over-sensitive,” or “virtue-signalling,” or “knee-jerk,” or my imaginary character Fraxley saying “retard” or “bitch,” you’re doing yourself absolutely no favors, in the short nor the long term. The world and its wisdoms are not PC. You can retain your morals and still absorb a wealth of knowledge from an individual that might be the antithesis of your beliefs. I literally think true progressivism, minus all the ulterior motives and “justified” cruelty, is nearly synonymous with morality. If this post has upset you, please get your head out of your ass. I’m telling you because you need to hear it, not because I want to put you down or assert superiority or any dumb shit, I literally want to see you and our planet succeed.

          I love you.

#bible #wisdom #judgement #open mind #progressiveyoutube #ideas #get your shit straight #pearl #reality #self love #quotes

[strangcrdoctor]

∞Okay last one for the night because I am really tired and very ready for bed but I’ve gotta get in my Avengers commentary because I have to start off tomorrow on a clean slate and ready to go. Thus, here we are.

1. In lieu of only post Infinity War MCU canon, Loki’s rhetoric at the very beginning of The Avengers sounds a fucking lot like Maw’s. In the initial scenes when he’s fresh off the Tesseract Express his words and way of speaking sound nothing like his own. Even comparing his speeches at the outset of the movie versus the one he makes in Stuttgart, the tones and focuses of them are very different. (IE the first speech focuses on the “powers at be” versus the Stuttgart speech focusing on Loki’s personal opinions of humanity which are more and more developed throughout the film.) But it struck me that these first scenes are precisely on-cue for someone tortured and brainwashed by, say, The Black Order. 2. Given I literally just watched the first Captain America yesterday, I find Cap’s “old fashioned” comment about the stars and stripes on his uniform to be both sad and interesting. Especially given the context that comparatively Cap hasn’t been “up” for very long, one particular comment made to him by Schmidt literally moments before he went into the ice stands out. Schmidt says that through the Tesseract he glimpsed the future, and that there were no flags. In the America and world Steve wakes up to, compared to the world of the 1940s that claim of Schmidt’s could very suddenly appear to be true, which would be understandably uncomfortable for someone like Steve who is usually determined and quick on his feet but at such a staggering disadvantage because of the gap between his mindset and that of his contemporaries which are more varied than he necessarily knows how to quantify right at the outset. Watching his progress throughout the MCU in light of that is interesting, but that one moment of introspection about the utility of the “stars and stripes” is a uniquely postmodern comment coming from a pre-modern/modern man. 3. Okay so this intrigues me now that we have the Guardians and pretty much the entire universe in play in the MCU, but what “greater worlds,” exactly, was the Tesseract supposed to unveil? True the Tesseract is the space stone and verifiably can open portals to everywhere and anywhere in the universe, but Loki specifically makes the claim that the Tesseract can open up access to “greater worlds,” and I’m honestly still not entirely sure what precise reference this was supposed to be making. Because Thanos barely might have arguably needed the Tesseract to get to the planet the Soul Stone was on, but even so that’s a connection that still somehow feels like a stretch. So my question is, what if they meaning the Black Order or Thanos or possibly even Loki needed the Tesseract to get at something else? Somewhere else? Then again, this particular slip might just be Whedon’s doing and not necessarily be reflective of the culmination of the MCU up to this point so IDK. 4. I’m not going to lie, I’ve found it fascinating from day one that The Avengers very openly plays with godhood, to the point that I’m genuinely not sure if they’re reifying it in the MCU or tinkering with it. I mean obviously in the later movies this theme is less stressed because the tinkering patently takes precedence, but it’s still cool to me that there are both scripted and visual imagery that tie in multicultural interpretations of godhood. Fury mentions the burial rites of the Pharaohs within the first ten minutes of the film, Loki commits a human sacrifice on a Babylonian bull altar straight from Gilgamesh era in Stuttgart, Cap makes a comment about how his singular god does and does not dress after Natasha herself labels Thor and Loki as gods, and Fury unashamedly labels Thor as a god when they release the Tesseract to his custody. And while a bit ham-fisted, the correlation between theism and the bleeding-edge demand to acknowledge the reality of the universe is still pretty neat guys. 5. The old man in Stuttgart because no FUCK. If any of y’all think that my Germanist ass won’t get misty-eyed and choked-up during this scene, you’re wrong. 6. Okay so I’ll premise this by saying that I haven’t cross-checked the official script because frankly... yeah frankly I don’t want to be wrong and I really can’t hear anything but what I believe to be my interpretation of the line even though I know what the other fan alternatives have been. But when Thor and Loki are arguing on the mountaintop, when Loki says that he, “Was and should be ---,” my hearing of it instead of having been “Was and should be king,” is “Was and should be killed.” And while I’ll bow to whatever official record claims otherwise, I like my hearing better so there. (Also... there’s zero hint of Hiddleston’s palate producing a “g” sound in that sentence but I’ll put my inner linguist away and leave it at that.) 7. In light of that scene, though, when Loki and Thor are arguing is one of the first moments when Loki actually sounds like himself after the Stuttgart scene? Prior to that point the only times we see Loki is when he’s marshaling his human troops and getting policed by those lording over him. In all of those initial scenes Loki feels... very un-Loki to me. Not because Loki isn’t a bastard (hint: he is), but because his motivations and justifications are vague and not seemingly personally motivated, which is what Loki is to a fault. Post-Stuttgart, however, and the personal element seems to return for him because of some reason or another. (IE I have theories but you can read your own into it.) 8. Let it never be said that Thor is a dull bulb. Yeah it’s still sort of unclear how Thor got to Earth (though nothing is unclear about why Thor is pissed), but Thor does walk in with more than enough information to be frankly a little surprising. Bless Heimdall and all that, but seriously the fact that Thor knows about the Chitauri but doesn’t know other things casts an interesting focus on what he was told by Odin and Heimdall before going. Most importantly, though, even from conversing with Loki for a few minutes, Thor is attentive enough to pick up on some of what Loki isn’t saying. Such as, just who showed Loki how to use the Tesseract and all the things Loki claims to be motivated by. Equally interestingly, Loki specifically refuses to answer that question. 9. I feel bad for Fury for sleeping in a den of vipers for so long - though I do like the build-up from the first Avengers into the following issues with HYDRA corruption - but in ways more important to the immediate issue in the first Avengers, Fury might be a shady bitch but he is not an idiot. Because while everyone else was having pissing contests and not trusting one another, Fury was not trusting the person that deserved to be trusted the least, which isn’t just good leadership, but is good spycraft. 10. As established later in the MCU, it’s exceedingly clever that even in the first Avengers there are scenes when even without a “wielder” present, the Mind Stone - as-yet unidentified as such in the MCU - can be seen manipulating those in its vicinity such as in the lab where the biggest catfight in the history of the MCU breaks out. I mean. Until CA:CW... 11. Steve Rogers, poor cinnamon roll, unexpectedly served at dinner instead of breakfast, who cracks jokes about technology he really isn’t that bad at as “seeming to run on some kind of electricity.” Bless. Though really that internal console, while doing complicated shit, is definitely not any more or less visually complicated than the interior of a radio relay which Steve definitely dealt with in his day but kudos for the humor bb, A+. 12. Still one of the strongest and most harrowing lines ever said in the MCU in my opinion: “We are NOT soldiers.” Know why? Because they aren’t. Hell, the only ones among them that are soldiers - and some by slim and emergency-driven margins - are Steve, Bucky, Rhodey, and Sam. The rest of them are brilliant, gifted, and tortured civilians trying to do the right thing. And to Tony Stark above all else, that means something. That means that they didn’t get training to deal with this shit. They didn’t choose for this to be their lives, necessarily. And above all, they don’t deserve to die. And even though Tony knows Coulson is a SHIELD agent, Tony still considers him a person before a disposable “soldier.” 13. Mother-fucking Marvel give me an entire series devoted to my Hawk Guy I need him. You have so much to work with and yet you’re so good at squandering him. I hate it. 14. In light of how bad NYC got fucked up, it’s honestly no wonder Jessica Jones has a drinking problem because I would too even without the personal loss, experimentation, and emotional maladjustment. 15. IN WHAT FUCKING POST-9/11 WORLD DO BUSINESS BUILDINGS NOT HAVE VERY STRICT EVACUATION PLANS. SERIOUSLY. I am a little mad that there are morons ogling out of office building windows when frankly that shit wouldn’t fly. Even on fucking 9/11 that shit didn’t fly and if you think NYC is less paranoid because 9/11 was a decade prior to this movie coming out, you’re wrong. Everyone remembers, and city evacuation ordinances will sure as hell never forget either. Come on Marvel. 16. As a point of interest my grandmother - who also went to see The Avengers with me when it was in theaters but not at the midnight showing like my mom - was 84 at the time and still sat through the whole thing with a bucket full of popcorn to herself, and her favorite moment to this day is when the Hulk tosses Loki around like a rag doll. She’s 90 now, and the Hulk is still her favorite character. 17. Mother-Fuckin Nick Fury will cock-block your nuclear strike with a bazooka because he thinks you’re that dumb. Do not test Nick Fury’s willingness to be Extra (TM) . You will lose. 18. Real talk, though, I’m really curious about whether the Chitauri actually are a hive mind race or, is it their technology that runs of a hive mind link? Because the armor at least on the giant toothy space whale monstrosities does not look organic - it looks implanted. The Chitauri foot soldiers also seem to have a unique biologically based interface with their weapons, armor, and technology in general, which begs the question of whether their biometric matrix is just somehow more inclined toward shared-existence technologies, or whether they self-engineered themselves into a corner by relying on said technologies too much. Seriously guys I have questions and why won’t Marvel give me answers. 19. As a final send-off, this is the first time Tony has ever driven an Acura in the MCU and I refuse to believe it’s not because of the Avengers “A” aesthetic. Tony is canonically an Audi man. Fight me on this.

Okay I’m seriously done for now it’s 1 AM and I need to sleep I have 4 more movies to get through tomorrow. I’ll be up and around and at my shit again in the morn.∞

#''the doctor is out #''marvel meta field notes #''MMFN

[overlordofthelollipopguild]

What shows apart from OUAT would you recommend?

Oooh I love this ask. Okay, I have a lot of shows i love, so I’m going to choose my top four of all time….I think…other than OUAT.

One Day at a Time (Netflix, 2017-Present): A comedy featuring a Cuban-American family. But wait, it’s more than just a comedy? It’s a show that has good representation and touches on real issues? Hells yeah, sign me up. 

Why is this show good? Because it’s freaking lit. Okay, two seasons on Netflix right now, and let me tell you: Amazing show. The characters are fantastic. You have POC representation, LGBT representation, real single mom struggles, teenage struggles, the struggle for accepting yourself for who you are (whether it be trying to figure out if you are gay or accepting that you are mentally ill and will always have that illness). Like Penelope Alvarez (Jutina Machado deserves all of the awards ever) is a fantastic supportive mom who is also still trying to figure out the things she wants in life, Elena is the gay teenage daughter who’s just starting to figure out life, Alex (Papito!) is the son who’s just too pure, Schnieder the awkward former drug addict/alcoholic who really becomes family, Leslie is Penelope’s awkward older boss who just….like you want him to be happy, and then finally….the icon, the myth, the legend Lydia Riera (portrayed by the iconic Rita Moreno) who is Penelope’s mother who is just integral to the show. So 20/10 recommend.

Lucifer (Fox, 2015-Present): The Devil is living it up in Los Angeles, but after a murder in front of his club, he meets and partners himself up with Detective Chloe Decker. Another cop procedural? Hell no. 

Why is it good? It’s a different take on the devil and actually makes him sympathetic, it has a strong female lead, and as the show grows so does the cast which is pretty equal between men and women. Chloe’s a full time mom and full time cop and a badass who doesn’t take Lucifer’s shit, but learns to accept him as a partner. Also Mazikeen is freaking awesome. The female characters are actually pretty well rounded and all have different personalities, but also get along fabulously. Lucifer’s family also tends to show up lol. Also half the cast is POC, like yes please. To be honest I am behind on this show, but I still think it’s worth a watch, and I have got to catch up.

Charmed (WB, 1998-2006): All right this is an old one, but I’m putting on because I have sentimental reasons. This show helped me when I needed something to hold on to at a time when I was very lonely. It’s a show about three sisters who find out that they are witches. 

Why is it good?: At it’s core, it’s about sisterhood and family. It also developed a unique fantasy mythology. You have three sisters that all struggle with balancing their lives between normal and magical. They also find out more secrets of their family’s past including: the history of a few ancestors, their mother’s affair, why their father left, a half-sister, and so on. There’s magic, romance, good vs evil, and family above all else. They go through a lot in 8 seasons, and each season has it’s pros and cons and some characters can be…problematic (personally my fave is season 6, but that’s because Chris is my favorite character). All in all it’s a magical show and you will fall in love with the characters. It will always hold a very special place in my heart, and to be honest, if you’ve heard of the CW Charmed Reboot and want to watch, I recommend watching this show first. 

The Good Place (NBC, 2016-Present): Eleanor is dead, and so is everyone else. They all made it to The Good Place, a version of the afterlife. The problem? Eleanor isn’t suppose to be there….

Why is it good? Well rounded characters that develop deep friendships and relationships. There’s Eleanor, our main girl, who is a terrible person, but also really wants to learn to be good. Chidi…oh Chidi….so pure, cinnamon roll, I adore him. He is an ethics professor who tries to teach Eleanor to be good. Tahani, you think is gonna be an alpha bitch, but like no? I mean she comes off that way at first but there’s more to her. Jason….oh bless him. Jason is a sweetheart, but the first bit of season 1, he never talks, and there’s a very good reason for it. Janet is also very cool and tries to be more human. Michael, oh what to say about Michael. He’s like so desperate for his “Good Place” to work out. You’ll never see the twist at the end of season 1 coming or I didn’t, but maybe I was too distracted by my love for all of these characters. 

Other Recommendations: Black-ish, The West Wing, Grace and Frankie, Star Trek (like pick any of them but TOS is really the heart and core of the franchise), Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Father Brown, Call the Midwife, Broadchurch (BBC), The Doctor Blake Mysteries, Death in Paradise, Parks and Recreation, Brooklyn-99, The Alienist, like I know there are more shows that I am forgetting because I watch way too much tv lol. 

Willing to answer anything that comes in ask right now

#one day at a time #lucifer #charmed #the good place #tv shows #odaat #lucifer fox #overlord answers

[justanothercinemaniac]

Epic Movie (Re)Watch #222 - Ghostbusters (2016)

Spoilers Below

Have I seen it before: Yes

Did I like it then: Yes.

Do I remember it: Yes.

Did I see it in theaters: Yes.

Was it a movie I saw since August 22nd, 2009: Yes, #437.

Format: Blu-ray

Disclaimer: In a perfect world I would not have to write this, but the world is not perfect so here it goes. If anyone replies or adds a comment to this post (via reblog) that is hateful or misogynistic, you are getting blocked and reported. There’s a difference between NEGATIVE opinions (ie: “This movie isn’t funny.”) and HATEFUL opinions: (ie: “Women aren’t funny.”). Also, no racist comments about Leslie Jones either. Now that we’ve established that...

1) The prologue at Aldridge Mansion.

I have mixed feeling about the prologue. It is not the BEST representation of the film’s humor so in that aspect it is not the best foot forward to start on. However, it does establish the film’s spooky tone well. There is a genuine sense of macabre-ness to when the ghost-stuff starts happening, which is where the film excels. I think this movie is very funny, but just not in this scene.

2) Kristen Wiig as Erin Gilbert

I think Erin is the main character of this film. She’s the protagonist. Yes, the team of four Ghostbusters is great, but it is Erin who goes on a wonderful journal throughout the film. She starts out trying to keep an aspect of herself - the ghost focused aspect - down, but when her beliefs are confirmed later in the film she is just ecstatic. Erin as developed as a character as the film goes on and on, with important character details revealed throughout. Erin is also the character who strives most for recognition out of the team. Abby is more concerned about being able to do the work but it is Erin who is fighting for the recognition she and her team deserve.

Wiig is incredibly charming in the part. She makes Erin wonderfully dorky and plays the insecurity well against growing self worth. Each of the four Ghostbusters in this film are master comedians who blend acting chops with humor beautifully and Wiig is no exception.

3) I’m a guy. I benefit from male privilege. Having said that I like the number of scenes in this film which (as I interpret them) take shots at the bullshit sexism that plagues western society.

Harold Filmore: “Oh, and about your clothes?”

Erin: “Yes?”

Erin: “Too sexy for academia?”

4) Even though Harold Ramis died before filming (even getting a dedication in the end credits), he still makes a cameo. Sort of.

5) I’m Benny.

Abby: “Erin.”

Erin: “Abby.”

Benny: “Benny.”

6) Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates.

What makes Abby so interesting is that her character (and the way McCarthy performs her means she) is dripping with conflict. And I mean that as a good thing, because conflict is interesting. She’s not going to take shit from anyone. She sticks to her guns and is proud of her work, even when others seek to shame her because of it. Clearly dedicated to her science, McCarthy is great in the role. Able to give a multifaceted performance through Abby’s brashness, passion, eagerness, and relationship with Erin. The fact she calls a ghost, “beautiful,” is incredibly telling of her character. McCarthy (and I’m going to start sounding like a broken record by the time this post is over) MAKES the character. Watching her rekindle an old friendship with Erin is incredibly fun to watch because they ARE working past their differences. It even leads to the film’s climax, but more on that later.

7) Kate McKinnon as Holtzmann.

Kate McKinnon is the ULTIMATE scene stealer of this movie. She plays Holtzmann in an exaggerated way, with a wonderful amount of sheer bizarreness and energy. Also an element I call Kate-McKinnon-ness, which is basically a not so fancy way to say only McKinnon could play the part this way. Especially because she doesn’t make Holtzmann a joke herself. Sure, she’s funny and leads to most of the best humor in the film, BUT you understand she’s as intelligent as any of her contemporaries. She’s just able to be freaking hysterical too (much like Bill Murray in the original film).

8) This film has some early pacing problems early on. It takes a little while to get going, but once it does it REALLY gets going. It’s just…did we need TWO training sequences to show off the technology? Especially when the first one is so brief and the second one is SO funny?

9) There are few characters I have so immediately related to other than Jillian Holtzmann. This line is why:

10) The encounter with the Aldridge Ghost.

It is from this point moving forward that the film gets a handle on most of its pacing problems. This is the threshold. The rules are established to a degree: ghosts are real! The scene is incredibly interesting to watch not only because the spookiness of the ghost is handled well, but the way each Ghostbuster reacts/is fascinated by her brings in the audience’s interest. It’s a brief but powerful moment of both tension and fun.

11) In reference to the disclaimer above about misogynistic comments, this is what counts as a misogynistic comment.

Erin [reading a YouTube comment on their video]: “Ain’t no bitches gonna hunt no ghosts.”

12) Leslie Jones as Patty.

Patty is way stronger as a character than she could have been, something I greatly appreciate. Upon our first meeting with her the audience understands she’s not the cliché “I hate my job worker” while getting a early sense of her curiosity. Because that curiosity is defining for the character of Patty. She’s the history buff, meaning that she is in many ways equally intelligent as the other three Ghostbusters. Her intelligence just isn’t in science, so she brings a unique skill set to the team.

Patty: “You guys know a lot about this science stuff, but I know New York.”

I know New York could’ve easily equalled some cliche street smarts, but Patty is more than that. She’s more than a cliche and Leslie Jones plays her as such. The actress freaking shines in the part, being able to make Patty unique of all her performances INCLUDING her work on SNL. She’s still doing what she does strong with occasional big humor, but she’s able to play Patty as a character and not a sketch. That’s not a skill all comedians are able to master, but Leslie Jones proves that there is not a weak leak in this quartet of heroes.

13) Rowan.

Ugh, a whiny fuckboi who thinks he’s better than everyone else because he got shit as a kid. What a perfectly hatable villain. They even observe later in the film that the four heroes, “get shit on pretty much all the time.” So yeah, it’s easy to root against that guy.

14) I like that the film puts the team in a Chinese restaurant instead of the firehouse right away.

The struggle these character have in getting recognized is much more important than the first film. Yes it was there, but the guys were more easily bale to shrug it off than these women can. The first team didn’t really care about being respected or treated well, they just did their shit. With this team it is a greater struggle because they know they DESERVE the recognition and won’t just get it handed to them for doing a good job. They have to fight for it. My personal interpretation of that its almost representative of how guys just get recognized because of male privilege but women have to fight for what they deserve more (but again, privileged white dude, I could just be mansplaining here).

15) Chris Hemsworth as Kevin.

Kevin is in this film for two reasons: to be in danger and to look pretty. You know, like most women throughout the history of big blockbuster movies. But the difference is the film KNOWS that. They’re making that joke on purpose, which means they’re able to make Kevin completely freaking hysterical. They juice him for every bit of humor he has and Chris Hemsworth absolutely DESTROYS it in terms of comedy. He’s in a film with four modern comedy heavyweights and is able to hold his own. And everyone’s surprised he’s so funny in the new Thor movie? Thor ain’t got nothing on Kevin.

16) It’s funny because it’s true.

Patty [after a ghost ends up on the subway]: “He’s going to be the third scariest thing on that train.”

17) Erin’s ghost story.

This is the freaking beating heart of the movie. Right here. Its pulse can be found int his one scene. Everything that motivates Erin’s character, that speaks to her study of ghosts, can be found in this heartbreaking childhood story. It is an intense human element which helps elevate the story above cash grab reboot, especially when all of Erin’s current friends reassure her that they believe her.

17.1) Wait…could the scene where Erin tells her friends about how no one believed her when a creepy person came into her room every night but her friends do now be representative of sexual harassment stories? Maybe it’s because of all the allegations coming forward now but, I wonder…

18) I try not to compare this film to the original Ghostbusters too much, but then you have the cover of the theme song by Fallout Boy & Missy Elliott. While the cover HAS grown on me, it doesn’t touch the original.

19) The Stonehurst Theater scene.

First of all, Patty is again awesome. I cannot tell you how long I waited for a character in a scary movie to just be like, “Yeah, no,” and walk away. But I digress.

There is a nice sense of tension throughout this scene (although it could benefit to slow down from the scene), upping the spooky factor greatly. The following concert scene is also crazy fun and perhaps has the greatest concentration of awesome Patty moments in the film. But it is this victory, this triumph where the Ghostbusters actually catches a ghost, is the moment when I fall in love with this team. I was rooting for them before, but now I’m REALLY rooting for them.

20) Bill Murray’s cameo.

Most of the cameos in this film are ones I like (except Dan Aykroyd’s, more on that later though), but Bill Murray is more than just a crammed in cameo. He is a new character. He’s a problem the team has to face. The representation of everyone who doubts them and wants to keep them “in their place”. He is INCREDIBLY different from Murray’s previous character Peter Venkmann, which in the end just makes everything better because we know this isn’t some version of Venkmann. This is a new character for a new film. Also, this fucking line.

Bill Murray (yes, I’m calling him Bill Murray): “Well I guess the graciousness has ran out.”

YOU BARGE IN ON THEIR PLACE OF WORK, CONSTANTLY CRITICIZE AND BELITTLE THEM, AND EXPECT GRATITUDE! This is the equivalent of, “People would like you more if you smiled, sweetheart.”

21) The Mayor’s Office.

I see The Mayor in this film as basically the system looking to discredit and keep the women down in this film. He says the Ghostbusters should step aside because, “These gentlemen are on it,” when they are very clearly NOT on it, before noting that they are, “drawing a lot of attention to yourselves,” just by telling the truth (again: sexual harassment metaphor?). Then later they call the Ghostbusters just doing the right thing and being competent a, “desperate attempt at fame.” It’s handled well but very purposefully irritates the audience.

22) Once ley lines come into play the film transcends fun comedy with spooky elements into much higher fantasy elements. The stakes rise considerably, adding a whole new dimension to the movie.

23) Hey, it’s Annie Potts!

Moving on.

24) The scene where Abby gets possessed is really great. There’s a nice tension and build up to it while McCarthy is able to play evil Abby as wonderfully creepy. It’s the most REAL danger the characters have had. It’s not ghosts, it’s their friend choking them out and bashing on shit. THAT is why it works.

25) I think casting Chris Hemsworth as Kevin was so he could fulfill two roles: cute dumbass and fun villain. When Rowan posses Kevin, Hemsworth acts as the film’s final act antagonist. And he does it REALLY well. Kinda charismatic actually, while still being an excellently punchable douche bag.

26) I love this line.

The Mayor: “Never compare me to the Jaws mayor. NEVER!”

27) Ugh, Dan Aykroyd’s cameo in this film is so forced in. Bill Murray, Annie Potts, Ernie Hudson, and Sigourney Weaver all fill natural roles either the story demands or the characters have. Dan Aykroyd? No. He’s just there. Ugh.

28) Obligatory Slimer cameo.

While it is fun and appreciated, this Slimer appearance, I kinda wish he was a practical effect and not CGI. Granted, that’s a note I have for this film in general. I’d appreciate a little less CGI.

29) I like the brief Stay Puft Marshmallow Man cameo in this film because it’s not exactly what you would expect. You wouldn’t think, “Parade Balloon,” cameo but it works.

30) The big ghost fight scene.

Let me address the little things I don’t love about this scene: the CGI is a little much.

That’s it, now let me talk about what’s good here!

An incredible amount of humor

The action flows well between the four main Ghostbusters

HOLTZMANN FUCKING LICKS HER GUNS! YAS QUEEN!

31) I really love this film, but I will say I hate this line.

Abby [insulting Rowan]: “Come and get your virginity out of the lost and found!”

Dude, you were doing so well. What’s wrong with being a virgin?

32) The giant CGI Rowan ghost is actually really interesting take on the film’s logo come to life. Not to mention the way he composed is interesting. His skin is very fabricy/baggy which is an interesting decision. I dig it.

33) ERIN JUMPS IN AFTER ABBY! OH MY GOD YES!

This is why I love their friendship. It’s so deep, so defining of both the characters and the film. It’s not even a question of IF Erin will go in after Abby it’s a question of HOW Erin will go in after Abby. And then you have the music and the…the…“I wasn’t going to leave you twice.”

34)

Holtz [after Erin & Abby come out of the portal]: “It’s 2040, our president is a plant.”

A plant would be preferable at this point.

35) A friend of mine observed that - when Erin and Abby have their hair dyed - the hair colors of the four Ghostbusters kinda match the colors of the “Ghostbusters” cartoon from the 80s.

36) Holtz’s toast about family is surprisingly sweet and I love it.

(Quality of the video isn’t great here but still)

37) See, Ernie Hudson and Sigourney Weaver have REALLY nice cameos in this movie. I like it!

38) And the film ends in the most perfect way possible: the Ghostbusters get the recognition they deserve!

39) I. Want. A SEQUEL!

I freaking love the 2016 version of Ghostbusters. While the original is a classic, I am greatly appreciative of this film’s massive human heart and its story about recognition. The four women who lead this film are incredible on their own and together, with Chris Hemsworth being pretty damn funny too. It’s just wildly enjoyable and I get such a massive kick out of it. There are people who hate it, but I’m not one of them.

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