#actually you do but those people get clowned on as they rightfully should | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dikiyvter · 3 years

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23 & 31? :eye: for either or both

Of course aid anything 4 u <3

Uncommon Questions [ accepting ]

23. How does envy manifest itself in them (they take what they want, they become resentful, etc)?

For Gio: Envy is... kind of a scale of ugliness for Gio, to be honest. First and foremost his envy is typically not something ugly; It's typically something that turns more into a hopeful longing other than any sort of truly resentful behavior. Just because he wants what someone else has doesn't mean that he needs to take it from them necessarily; the world is not a pie to be split among it's inhabitants. He views the world as an endless wealth, and if he wants something someone else has, all he has to do is work to get it himself. Ultimately his longing to be human and to take a quiet role in human society spawns from envy of the lives that humans lead.

... And then there's the far uglier envy. Gio is a rather childish individual who experiences emotions very strongly; In part this is subconscious acting, and in part it's genuine truth; He's really never been good at things regarding emotions primarily because he's never been taught a whole lot in regards to control of ones emotions or ways to manage them. He's a bit... emotionally stunted but more in the 'seems like an erratic mood swing-y mess because he feels very strongly' sense and less, you know, [gestures at Baal and Zhongli]. There is thus always a chance that when Gio becomes envious of something, his first reaction is that of intense resentment towards whoever it is that has what he doesn't- This is partially true even for his love of humanity. Even though he starts off with the thought of "this is beautiful" it was still interlaced with a lot of bitter resentment that he would never really have that; Coming to terms with his worldview is what got rid of that. But it's a bit harder to have a mentality of 'the world isn't a pie; someone having a bigger slice than me doesn't mean i can't have more if i want it' when its... say...

A person whom you love whose fallen for another or is having all of their time taken up by them.

For Riga: ...Riga gets a much shorter paragraph and for that I apologize, but I have a lot more thoughts regarding Gio on this subject considering that lil clowns got a lot of conflictions and nuance to ramble about. Riga, on the other hand, tends to be far more simplistic in the things he is feeling and how he is feeling them; though this isn't to say he feels any less strongly or erratically than Gio does.

Rigatello typically feels envy as a genuinely ugly awful emotion that typically results not just in resentment but in a very, very intense form of frustration. A major part of his character is that he is someone who wants very little, but the few things he does want are things he perceives more as needs; Case in point being he doesn't perceive wanting Gio to care about him as being a want, he sees it as a need, and when your needs are denied you become... what? Angry. Frustrated. Depressed. Envy turns him violent, because why should others have what's rightfully his? Why are others entitled to the few things he truly needs? Why is he not deserving of these things? There's a tangible cycle to a lot of Rigatellos emotions, and it's that he is confronted with something ( or someone ) he wants; He becomes reliant, he thinks he needs them ( using gio as an example; He cannot imagine who he is without Gio nearby. He cannot imagine himself in the hierarchy that is set between them both and Dottore without Gio there, because Gio has always been the one to provide a release of tension, even if the relationship the two of them shared was at times very far from healthy; The change of something he sees as being integral to his identity and his place in his little corner of society is something that throws him VERY badly; Rigatello is someone very afraid of any meaningful change because the fear of what comes next and that change leading to potential failure is one that haunts him ) ; They move away from him, and he panics, because he has very little and thus clings desperately to what few things he has; Cue the cycle of seeing that which he 'needs' with someone else, being angry, being frustrated, falling down the rabbit hole of wondering why he isn't worthy, arriving at depression, resparking that frustration, and... repeat.

A lot of his envy spawns almost purely from a place of this frustration-depression loop of wondering why he isn't good enough-- something that ties in heavily with the way he was 'raised', where threats of being scrapped were thrown freely, and any failure could potentially result in his literal destruction.

Wait this wound up being longer than Gios. Whoops.

31. Who are they the most glad to have met?

Okay here's where we ease into me being able to make coherent sentences again bc i'm not bound purely by my muses emotions <3

For Gio, It would be Venti, in more ways than one. First he had technically met Barbatos. The ideal Barbatos gifted to Mondstadt that rubbed off on the freshly-created and quite impressionable Gio; It was Mondstadt and their talk of freedom that lit the little fire that eventually turned into Gio pursuing his autonomy and humanity. Then was the archon; Barbatos gave his vision to him, and without that Gio never would have managed to escape Dottore, and if he didn't currently have it he wouldn't have been able to evade capture for this long. It also served as a constant reminder of Mondstadts ideals -- And not just that, but the special shape that the vision takes has always been a symbol that although Snezhnaya was his home-- Mondstadt was where he belonged. Then came Venti; Someone who made him feel welcomed in Mondstadt when he was initially very nervous about being there. He and Venti became dear friends ( possibly more ) and now that's someone he looks forward to every time he's on his way back to Mondstadt. The city truly feels like home to him now, and that's mostly because of Venti-- and even if his friend doesn't wish to be seen as Barbatos the archon, Gio cannot help the appreciation he feels for those previous actions, nor for the general ideals that Venti / Barbatos inhabit.

For Riga, that would be Lio, no contest. It.. it would take me ten years to explain all of Rigatellos feelings towards Lio there's so much shit at play they mesh so fucking well together their traumas and mentalities are such similar echoes, Lio is literally the only person in the world that Rigatello has felt genuine love and affection for and not in some way panicked and tried to burn the bridge before it could burn him; He feels genuinely safe and happy with Lio, and the fear that constantly haunts him is eased in their presence; He trusts not just Lio but himself, the fear he typically fears when he touches others is gone because they trust him so thoroughly that in the midst of their love it's hard to be afraid of himself. He feels for once that he can be something that protects instead of something that exclusively does damage; He feels cared for, wanted, loved, when all his life he's felt rejected and constantly on the brink of destruction. Where he once was told his wants and thoughts don't matter he has now found someone who cares very much for what he wants and what he thinks and FUCK I have a lot of thoughts about these two.

40. How sensitive are they to their own flaws?

Oh god, here's another thing I can't fully explain.

For Gio: Immensely. Gios current mentality is essentially that if he just closes his eyes and refuses to think about it then he doesn't have to deal with his flaws, and if anyone points them out he can just get mad about it and avoid them until he dies because he does. not. want. to. think. about. it. He HATES feeling bad, he hates feeling negatively about himself, he doesn't... know how to genuinely change things about himself; And I think that. That itself can be very much shown in how he treats the fact that he's not human? A person? Yes, he's a fully sentient person with his own thoughts and expressions and free will, a human? Not exactly. He's made out of metal and circuitry and artificial materials, and this is simply a factual statement, its not opinion; But he almost treats it like it is. He sees this idealized version of humanity that he wishes to be a part of but he cannot fathom how he can be apart of it if the core thing about himself isn't changed, but its NOT something he can change; Instead of accepting that, however, and still going on with his goal to pursue his autonomy and humanity despite this, Gio would... honestly rather stick his fingers in his ears and go "lalala" because he doesn't really have the toolset to mentally deal with the contradiction of "I want to be human but I can't". He perceives a need to change that isn't there, and instead of trying to address it he ignores it entirely in hopes that... it'll just stop being an issue that he needs to address with himself at some point. The same mentality applies to a lot of his flaws. Does he know hes being avoidant of his problems? Does he know that it's going to cause more issues in the future? He does. But he can't even address it with himself because it makes him feel bad, let alone with someone else who could actually provide him with skills that he needs to change his behaviors and mentality.

For Riga: Okay he genuinely gets a shorter paragraph this time because in short? Rigatello doesn't care. Admittedly he kind of wears his flaws on his sleeve. He's a "says it right on the tin" kind of guy most of the time, where he's typically mostly open about the less positive parts of himself-- If not exaggerating them as a means of keeping people away. There are of course the flaws that he hides due to them stemming from traumas, and his general desire to hide all things relating to his personal thoughts and feelings-- But this in and of itself could be perceived as a flaw, though one very unexplored considering Lio is his first close relationship with another person where he's been in any form open about his own thoughts and feelings, away from the influence of Dottore or the Fatui.

Rigatello does have... slightly less healthy perception of what counts as flaws in himself, though, such as having his own thoughts and emotions. He perceives his traumas as weakness, and weakness is a flaw, to him-- So too, then, are his traumas. He's not sensitive about this in the sense that Gio is where he's willfully ignoring something he's doing wrong; Riga doesn't... know that this isn't a good mentality. He.

Riga is kind of hard to explain this regard because of how severely impacted Rigatello is by the traumas hes endured, the people he was 'raised' by, and the current lifestyle that he leads. His emotional understanding is extremely limited and always has been, and I'm not entirely sure how to put it in coherent wording; Because typically when I try to talk about Riga and emotions it devolves into word vomit because his thoughts are just... nonsense screaming pain mush that he doesn't know how to cope with so he tells himself to toughen up, shoves it in the closet, and goes on with his day until he can lay down at night and have a meltdown--

E) Are they someone you would get along with? Would they get along with you?

Honestly? The general rule of thumb is that I don't typically write people that I myself would get along with, if only because I know way too much about my own characters and their flaws? When. I look at people that I get along with, its primarily people who are patient enough to deal with my memory issues and my general lets say... low iq, to be nice. They're mostly laid back people who don't give too much of a shit one way or the other, but are friendly and fun to talk to because they have interesting ideas to contribute to a conversation, give room for others to contribute, and don't mind a bit of chaos when things inevitably devolve.

When I look at the characters I write... They all have some sort of flaw that directly contradicts the core things I typically find in someone I get along well with?

Gio is someone who I think I could get along with for a while; But inevitably his flaws, his distress regarding those flaws, and his subsequent refusal to acknowledge them in any meaningful form would inevitably stress me out and it would start to get tiring.

Bluntly put Riga is scary and I feel like I'd be stressed out 24/7 that I'm going to irritate him... And his general mindset of emphasizing his own flaws to push people away would just make me angry and I'd probably wind up letting him isolate himself because, having once been someone who was very much that way, I no longer deal well with that degree of self-pitying behavior b/c it pisses me off.

Outside of this blog, Ku Shen and I could probably get along pretty well, but I think the issue is that he's a massive introvert who would go Weeks in-between texting, and I have the memory of a goldfish and i'd inevitably find myself in a position where i have a text from him that's been waiting for me to answer for the past week and I'm too nervous to reply because I feel awkward being like 'hi i have untreated adhd sorry', and then suddenly three months has passed and I just can never talk to this man again.

...I'm going to include my Morax on here as well even though it's blog isn't super active; Look I might actually be able to chill with Morax if only because we vibe in either 'i am listening to you ramble for 3 straight hours with occasional questions or commentary' or 'we have both been dead fucking silent for the past 3 hours' and these are both my ideal ways to exist in someone elses presence. Also I feel like it'd wanna do fun shit and likes going on walks or smth. 10/10 I think I could get along with Morax.

H) What trait do you admire most?

Ah fuck okay. Uh. For Gio... I admire his optimism and hope. I consider myself to be a generally hopeful person but I'm not typically the kind of like... ~ * direct action * ~ person, and Gio VERY MUCH IS in most regards. He's generally super fucking ambitious and if he WANTS something he will GET IT and you cannot STOP HIM and I just wish I had that level of

I. Dedication II. Energy III. Optimism in actually completing the goal

For Riga? I guess it would be his general tenacity and endurance. He goes through. A lot of shit. Constantly. And he just keeps trudging on forward without pause. He does what he needs to do, and if you get in the way of him and what he needs to get done, then he'll make you fucking regret it. Top tier shit 10/10 good for him.

#❄ ⤚ ᴏᴜᴛ ᴏꜰ ᴊᴏᴋᴇs ( ooc. ) ⇾#❄ ⤚ ᴛᴏss ᴀ ᴍᴏʀᴀ ( inbox. ) ⇾#oh... my fucking god this is a long post im so sorry

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wrongfullythinking · 3 years

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Twitter and the “Public Forum”

There is a very large looming legal question about whether or not social media sites, such as Twitter, are “Public Forums.” Most would agree that they are not... at least... not yet. But the question is... should they be?

First, a look into why it matters.

In a public forum, all First Amendment protections apply. So you can say any number of very objectionable things (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12634874511090553174) and be protected. In a private forum, this is not so. I can kick you out of my house for wearing an Abercrombie shirt, and you have no Free Speech/Expression reason to contest my staggeringly good decision-making.

Second, the public forum cannot be policed for any content that may be stated. This is why if you go to reserve time at a public park, you don’t have to tell the Parks and Rec department what your event is for. Just things like how many people, how long the event will last, etc. This is well-established and well-backed by many years of precedent.

Finally, there is the very serious matter of personal liability. In certain circumstances, officials can be held personally liable if their policies deliberately and knowingly infringe upon Bill of Rights protections (most often First Amendment protections). This means that you could literally sue for the property and assets of a person. (Also, this is why those of us who own either physical property [like a house] or intellectual property [like a book] buy “Umbrella Coverage” from insurances... I recommend State Farm, but that’s totally irrelevant and I’m not getting any kickbacks for that shill =P.)

But hang on... so if the government owns a billboard and rents it out to whomever can pay, can I rent it and post a naked lady?

You could try, and you might win! What you can’t do is post something obscene. And yes, whether or not a naked person is obscene is staggeringly controversial. There’s a 3-part test from the Burger court, a host of vague terms like “average person” and “contemporary community standards,” and “lacks serious artistic/literary/political/scientific value.” And then there are protections for children, a whole separate piece, as well as child pornography, which is always classified as obscene... except when it is not, like in the cases of naked cherubs in church windows. So, confused yet? We’re off topic, but I make this point to explain that even in public forums, where First Amendment rights are fiercely protected, there are still outstanding issues of content censorship.

So, is Twitter / Facebook / Tumblr a public forum?

At this point, the answer is no. They are privately controlled by companies, not owned by the feds or states or local municipalities, and thus can make almost any policy they want. The idea here is that the free market dictates the life or death of these platforms... and that idea tends to hold true! Tumblr itself is a good case-in-point, because it has lost millions of dollars in value due to bad leadership decisions, and at least partially because of censorship. There are countless examples of others... I remember when Yahoo! was the primary search engine of the internet and Xanga was the biggest blogging platform. While you can still Yahoo, I’m not sure there are more than a few hundred people on Xanga, if it still exists in any useful format. So, since places like this are subject to the free market, and thus can die... they should be allowed to make all the good or bad decisions they want about their content. Or at least, that is how the theory runs.

But really... ARE they subject to the market? Now we’re getting into the really interesting territory. If Facebook shut down tomorrow, would it be a problem? Maybe, but life would continue. But if Google shut down tomorrow? Well, millions of schoolchildren are in GoogleClassrooms right now, so that would certainly be a problem. It would at least cause massive disruption... and Facebook shutting down would cause some disruption. Likewise, Twitter controls so much speech that instead of publishing headlines from Newspapers, newspapers publish headlines from Twitter! The 14-year-old looks at that line like “well, duh” and the 44-year old reads that line like “wow, we’ve come a long way,” and the 84-year-old reads that line with just a sad headshake.

So, now we’ve joined one of the most controversial points of the last 20 years... the Fannie Mae “Too Big to Fail” problem. Basically, a set of banks and big mortgage companies (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) made a bunch of bad decisions in about 1995 - 2008. [As an aside, whether or not Fannie Mae {technically, the “Federal National Mortgage Association”} is actually a company comes up as an issue... it originated as a government program, but is today a publicly-traded company and has been since the late 60s, though it was delisted from NYSE and is only traded off-exchange]. And the government had to step in. You can read all about that issue at another time, the bottom line is that actually Fannie Mae has paid back more than it borrowed, but there was a ballooning of the debt ceiling by over 800 billion. Some people care about the national debt, some don’t, and again, not the subject of this commentary. The point is that it set a very odd precedent, whereas a company could make extremely bad decisions and then the burden would be placed on the taxpayers to fix their decision, because the company itself was a part of so many people’s lives. Would social media fall under this guidance? Unlikely, and I think we would all run from state-sponsored social media... but hey, what do I know.

So... get to the point. Should they be public forums, or not?

My two cents always comes down against censorship, especially censorship by entities that don’t have my best interests at heart... so basically, everybody else. I think that it is so easy to self-censor the internet at the personal end (for example, by installing filters and blocking services for objectionable content), that companies should not be unilaterally making these decisions, especially if those companies want to be venues for mass public communication.

Let’s go with another example... let’s say you wanted to call up your buddy and have a nice long phonesex session. Good for you. Or just chat with them about the latest Dr. Doe video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgT8WXaPUY), because enthusiasm is important. Would you be okay with Verizon telling a robot to monitor your call, and then automatically hang up if you said “penis” too much? Or “Trump”? Or “Black Lives Matter?” What about “Nazi,” “Rohypnol,” “Mary Jane,” “negritos” [I’ve got your back, Mr. Cavani], “snowbunny,” or “Insane Clown Posse”? I think most people would be upset about any of those, and they would rightfully tell Verizon that they will find another provider. So Verizon doesn’t do that, although it could. But Twitter does do that. And the availability of another Twitter is in question. Will something succeed Twitter? Absolutely. But right now, Twitter is under no market pressure, so it is succeeding at taking off its platform any number of conversations that it probably should not be policing.

There’s also a social-justice side of this. So, let’s say that we all decide Twitter is a bad platform and move to something else. And that something else costs us 10$ a month. I wouldn’t notice this fee. Others would. So that’s an access issue. Or, let’s say that some people start migrating to a new platform, and they only tell their friends about it. That’s okay, right? Absolutely... but imagine that college student who is trapped at home in a pandemic right now who cannot get any viewpoints outside of what her parents approved of, and previously used Twitter to explore and challenge her upbringing. If she doesn’t get an invite to the new platform, is she just lost?

And that brings up the Pandemic. Many, many common public forums have been shut down due to the pandemic. This alone has caused serious controversy (see: BLM protests on crowded streets where state governors participated, while those same governors implemented executive orders enforcing 6-foot distancing in churches and stores), so the argument for Twitter censorship “but you have many other public forums!” is tough to substantiate during the COVID-era. And this is a HUGE problem. Historically, taking away public forums is always an early move of totalitarian regimes. Taking away rights to assembly and speech follows soon after. We’re now in Phase 2 there... and our governors keep assuring us it is temporary... while at the same time, encouraging Twitter to take off any viewpoints they don’t like, under the guise of “false or misleading information.” Soon, they start moving into the schools, and that leads to...

SCIENCE!!!

So, to talk about what rigorous debate means, we need to understand a bit about Science. And specifically, the philosophy of science, what scientific discourse looks like, and why review and critique are parts of the scientific process.

Point 1: “Scientific consensus” is hogwash. Yes, we all agree that the Earth orbits the Sun, and the Sun itself moves, but beyond that, there isn’t much scientific consensus. If you see an article that starts with the phrase “Expert say,” you can go ahead and close your browser window right there. The rest is bull****.

Point 2: The limits of science are boundless. Any specific scientific paper is, by necessity and the peer review process, very strictly bounded. “Whether or not a vaccine is efficient” is an entirely different paper than one titled “Whether or not 80-year-olds with lung cancer should get the vaccine,” and both of those are different than “How the US should achieve herd immunity, and if it is even possible for COVID-19 before significant mutations cause current immunizations to be ineffective,” and all three of those are different from “Do we need to vaccinate our cats from COVID in order to reach herd immunity?”

Point 3: There is no “finalized” science. The answers are never finished. What is “cutting edge” science today is out-of-date tomorrow, barbaric and backwards by the end of the year, and grounds for an abuse lawsuit by the end of the decade. The best examples of this are from Psych treatments.

Point 4: I get very worried when anybody starts to censor scientific content... especially those without any qualifications. Okay, so this one is a personal sentence (note the “I”), but I’m going to go ahead and guess that Twitter robots and interns flagging posts don’t have any idea the difference between sensitivity and specificity, the background as to why the FDA has never approved an mRNA vaccine previously, the difference between statistical and clinical significance, and how to read a limitations section. The people who are qualified to do so are peer reviewers... and in the case where those fail (which happens!), the rest of the writer’s peers. And we do that. Anything published is open to critique, which leads to the final point, that...

Point 5: Critique and Review are THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS of scientific publishing. If a piece is published without review, it is called an “opinion” and not science. Even more worrisome than the censoring of unpopular papers is the censoring of the opinions of scientists on the papers of their peers. Should someone publish a paper where I believe they overstretched their claims, it is a HUGE part of my job to call that out. For an agency like Twitter to be able to say “you don’t have the right to say that they overstated their claim, because expressing a concern about a vaccine is against our Terms of Use” is a very big problem for science.

The flipside is that you get into the part where now a company can, through its policy, dictate what science gets done. For example, lets say I wanted to examine an unpopular question... and I’m a social scientist, so there are plenty of those, but say I wanted to do something semi-controversial but apolitical. I’ll say my research question is “How do the happiness of those in committed multi-year polyamorous relationships compare to the happiness of people in similar economic and social situations but in closed marriages where additional intimate partnerships would be viewed as grounds for relationship termination?” There are plenty of ways I could conduct this study and I’ll spare you my methodological musings, but safe to say there are platforms who would not want me to publish my results. And that’s fine.

But let’s say that I did publish my results, and a commenter took to Twitter. And their response was “I read your paper, and I see your conclusion that those in committed multi-year polyamorous relationships score no differently on a happiness scale than those in the closed marriages. However, I disagree with your use of this scale, because it was tested on populations of retirees, and most of the people in your sample are in their late 20s or early 30s.”

That is an EXCELLENT and VALID critique. And let’s say that Twitter was heavily into the social justice and had a policy that said “you can’t say negative things about polyamory.” And they deleted this person’s comment. Now, Twitter has interfered with the scientific process. That comment IS PART of the dialogue and that dialogue is part of Science. Yes, there are other places that those comments could be made, and not be censored... but we should not be encouraging that censorship ANYWHERE. And Twitter has vastly overstepped the line on this point. Random Twitter employees have no business removing professional critiques about a study, even if there are other platforms for those critiques.

Other Thoughts

1) Generally, you can’t prohibit meetings in a public forum based on prior behavior. Thus, “X group was violent in the past” is not a reason to prohibit X group from accessing a public forum for speech. So there’s no saying “Proud Boys were violent once, so no Proud Boys on Twitter” if it were to be declared a public forum.

2) I’m really not aware of any large precedents for taking a private company and declaring it a public forum. That may seem redundant (obviously, if there was precedent, this wouldn’t be such a hot-button issue), but it bears specific mention.

#twitter #public forum #legal #science

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wrongmiraculous · 5 years

Text

#kidnap adrien agreste party 2k19

Word count: 1156

This is a self indulgent crack!fic.

It started out as a joke. A conversation between new friends, but things spiralled out of control. People from all over the world caught wind of the news. Gabriel Agreste was an awful parent. Adrien, deemed sunshine child by all of his friends, needed to be saved. They made a plan, one unbeknownst to Adrien, Gabriel and his assistant Nathalie; but one that would change everything. That had everything set up, it was more planned out than the area 51 raid and more convoluted than Ladybug’s plans involving lucky charms.

Tumblr users banned together, meeting at the Basel airport in eastern France. It was a six hour drive to Paris with a stop in Gare de Nancy. They were tired when they got to Paris, a day full of flying and driving to a toll on people. A lovely woman offered her house as a home base. Her daughter had almost forced her into it when she heard what was going down.

The amazing Sabine Cheng let her bakery be their home base. Her daughter Marinette had already made suits that would leave each of them completely unrecognizable. They were completely black, except for the five striped pocket, resembling the pattern on Adrien’s shirt.

“How did you make these so quickly?” @xthreeravensx asked, holding the exquisitely stitched fabric in their hands.

“I’ve always had a knack for designing, so it was my pleasure to help you guys. I completely support your cause,” Marinette replied. “Gabriel Agreste is an awful man. Adrien shouldn’t have to endure his torture.”

Chorusses of agreements ran out amongst the room. Annoyed scoffs rang along with them. Gabriel Agreste was once a great man, but he was nothing more than a grade-a snob now. A scumbag that deserved to rot in jail.

“I saw all the discourse online but I was too scared to join the group chat. What exactly is your plan?” Marinette asked. Rightfully so, something as illegal as a kidnapping had to have some planning involved.

“At first we were going to hire a hitman to kill Gabriel Agreste but @themiraculousladyblog said that was ‘too illegal’,” @justsomegarbageperson said, and something along the lines of party pooper was muttered under her breath.

“We decided to just get Adrien out of that house, and to a place that would cherish him,” @wrongmiraculous added. “We didn’t think anything would come of it, but low and behold here we are.”

“But for the actual plan, why don’t you come along for the ride, find out for yourself?” @angelwolf-156 bargained. “It’ll be fine, come on.”

“I can’t, I have a curfew now that school has started. Although I did hear that Ladybug was gonna show up,” Marinette grinned.

“Ladybug? Score!” @purplewhiteandgold exclaimed. “With her luck on our side this will go off without a hitch.”

If you drowned out the chatting, and listened close you could almost hear a high pitched giggle followed by a quiet shush.

“As long as Adrien gets given a hug I’m happy. That boy deserves it with all the trauma going on around him,” @bug-nette shook their head. It was downcast and had a sad expression written on it. Faces around the room mimicked it before @themiraculousladyblog spoke up.

“We leave after dark. The window to Adrien’s room shouldn’t be hard to deal with. With Ladybug joining us, she can get us up there with her yo-yo. Adrien loves Ladybug, as everyone should of course,” everyone nodded in agreement, causing Marinette to blush faintly. “So she’ll wake him up and carry him out of there.”

“ @thequestionablyhuman has already agreed to be the getaway driver. @sometypeofbirthstone and @catchacha are going to be the fake getaway drivers that will lead anyone astray. @poshplumcot is bringing the fluffy blankets to make the hugs better. @pricklypoisonousplant and @hiccstridgirl are standing watch for the police and such, while @kagamiinette , @its-destiel-ass-butt , and @yerabearmum are gonna fight of Gabriel, Nathalie and anybody else that becomes a problem,” @wrongmiraculous finished explaining the plan. “Alright clowns! We’ve got this!”

Tom, Sabine and Marinette were all taken aback by the loud cheers that rang out after it. Everyone was filled in, everything was set up, now all that was left was time. To pass the time, Sabine brought everyone fresh pastries and hot chocolate, Marinette put on the Ladybug and Chat Noir movie.

As the hours passed, more and more people showed up. Marinette was so glad she had made so many suits, she’d have to thank Tikki for helping her. A kilogram of fresh bakery cookies should do the trick.

The sun had set, the sky was pitch black. The only source of light was the pale dim moon and scarce street lamps strung across the roads. Marinette had gone to bed a while ago, Ladybug had joined the party soon after she left.

“Let’s go, clowns,” she said, the moonlight reflecting off the shiny material of her suit, Alya desperately wanted to touch. She whispered that she had wanted to feel it to @scientistkink, who had agreed.

With Ladybug’s help they had easily gotten through security. Adrien’s window was in sight and was surprisingly unlocked.

“Adrien,” Ladybug gently caressed his shoulder waking him up slightly. Adrien gasped at the sight of his lady. This must be a dream, if it was he never wanted to wake up.

“My Lady?” Adrien whispered, his eyes boring into hers, while her mouth hung open.

My Lady? She thought. Only Chat calls me My Lady. Oh my god! Is Adrien Chat?

“Chaton?” Ladybug whispered, her bluebell eyes glistening with hope. He relaxed into her touch, humming sweetly. Marinette didn’t need any more convincing, this was her kitty, and she was his lady. “Come on Chaton, we have some travelling ahead of us.”

He stood up, calling upon Plagg to transform him. In his place sat a leather clad superhero with ears and a tail.

Alya’s jaw dropped to the floor, as did Nino’s. However, all those coming from outside of France just shrugged, saying it was obvious. They quickly left the mansion, into the getaway vehicles. Marinette leaned her head onto Chat’s shoulder lifting his hand, entertaining his fingers with her own.

“I have something to tell you, Chat,” he nodded his facial expressions were that of worry, and acceptance. Marinette released her transformation. Alya and Nino’s eyes went wide. Their two best friends were the heroes of Paris. As they thought about it, it made more sense. Why they got a miraculous, of course they’d be superheroes.

“Hi, I’m Marinette,” Chats eyes widened, his transformation falling. He embraced her with the biggest hug, filled with all the emotions he could muster. Silent promises made. Words left unspoken, but addressed and known about all the same. The night bore on, and they feel asleep hand in hand, hearts beating in sync.

They would deal with the tabloids tomorrow, tonight was for them to cherish. Tonight was for him to feel loved.

#kidnap adrien agreste party 2k19 #give adrien agreste a hug party 2k19 #ml #crack fic #reveal fic #gabriel agreste is garbage #Marinette #adrien #alya #nino #nathalie #self insert fic????

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sonicringbond · 3 years

Text

Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey - Scene 31

New year new cour!

Hopefully the start doesn’t feel too slow. I have to establish the plot a bit as and current state of the world. and the survey I had going while writing this scene was last trending towards having more plot over anything else. So i have quite a bit that I hope will wet your appetite in...

~Things had changed quite a bit since I met back up with Sonic. I couldn’t have been happier to find Sonic out of all my friends though, because with Sonic I just know we’ll find all our friends and continue our Journey home. At least I hope so.

~Like I said, the world really changed a lot. That red lightning bolt-like crack in the sky which is like a window to another world is visible all the time. For all the mountain ranges, prairies, deserts, islands, and towns and cities I’ve run through with Sonic, it never goes away, just like that horrible little planet which is always watching me. I can hardly sleep at all because of it. It makes my skin crawl, and something about it even affects my cards. I haven’t been able to read a fortune or ask for advice for some time now.

~And I could use it too.

~Sonic was right in that I didn’t understand. The damage done by those mean old pirates was a lot worse than I imagined. And it was easy enough to learn about it as more and more people took up the life of traveling sightseers after the crack appeared in the sky and that dreadful planet stopped going away at night. Everyone is afraid the world is ending and getting really funny about it. Some people have started traveling, others have given themselves even more to their work, and then there are those affected by the pirates in the worst possible way.

~They hurt a lot of people, but this was even worse. They also inspired a lot of other people to become sky pirates and hurt people too. It was the worst possible outcome, even with the old owl beat. At least I think he is. Despite all the stories of all the new pirates flying through the skies on airships they likely stole from the Engineers, I haven’t heard one about that mean old owl who we couldn’t keep that last Red Star Ring From. But I like to think we beat him. Because if we didn’t, I can’t imagine what he is up to.~

“Nothing! To think I thought the fool fox the greatest enemy of the Battle Kukku Armada. But no, it’s little wonder why that clown Eggman always challenged him. Allowing him to live Is certain to assure complete and utter failure!”

Tossing his feathered hands up in defeat, Doctor Fukurokov fell to his knees and looked out at the ruined city he had been wandering for what felt an eternity now. The concrete structures and skyscrapers could never have been built with glass and steel as they were with the typical steam and Ring technology he was used to working with. The city was obviously ancient and from before technology had fallen to the point of early industrialism and steam craft. Yet for all the wonder that could have built such a city, there was nothing left of value and an ever-growing forest had made it its home. Should Doctor Fukurokov not find his way to actual civilization either however…

“A pitiable state for a creature of the heavens.”

The voice that addressed Doctor Fukurokov was new to his ears, but he both enjoyed the recognition of his status and hated it.

“Choose your words wisely, whoever you are,” the old, mad owl warned as he rose to feet. Turning he was greeted to a sight most peculiar. A stone golem fashioned after the long extinct echidnas, painted white and garbed in flowing purple robes adorned with massive gear like decorations. In its right hand he held a staff with half a cog for a head. Held between the two halves a crystal rose spun and glowed purple in contrast to the golem’s glowing blue eyes. “A golem that speaks?”

“Indeed, elder of the heavens. I was once known as Pir’Oth, a very long time ago. Now I am known simply as Ix the Ring Striker. How the order of the world has fallen. Evident surely in your pitiable state. Bested by meager dirt dwellers as an old friend of mine would say.”

“I suppose this old friend of yours has business with the leader of the Battle Kukku Armada?” Doctor Fukurokov probed the intentions of the golem, Ix, with a question. He was not prepared for the laughter that met him in answer.

“If my friend were so readily at hand, neither of us would be in this pathetic state we find ourselves in. No, the one who has business with you is me.”

Giving his staff a twirl, Ix slammed it into the ground and several cracks tore through it like a spider web. From those cracks, Rings burst forth and with a wave of his staff Ix gathered them to a single point. With a flash they formed into a massive Ring that anyone could easily step through, and then he looked expectantly at Doctor Fukurokov. “What I desire from you is your knowledge and loyalty. With these two things I can assure your return to glory and your rightful place in the heavens.”

“A bold claim from a man made of stone.”

“Only this body,” Ix countered,

“Come, if you desire the return of what is rightfully yours. I can show that this simple vessel is but a small part of what I am.”

Stepping through the portal, Ix left Doctor Fukurokov to make up his mind. But Ring gates did not persist indefinitely, and that with but a staff, animated stone formed one that could be used by several people and persisted at all was a curiosity he could not resist. Nor was he one to waste an opportunity to leave his would be grave.

On the other side of the portal however, he found an even greater forest awaited him. One so thick and lush that it was impossible to see the sky or daylight. It was only the glow of Ix’s staff and eyes that illuminated the darkness. Save bioluminescent lifeforms Doctor Fukurokov had no intention to interact with.

“I don’t see how this is an improvement,” The old owl sneered only to be met with more laughter.

“No, as an outsider of this abandoned world, I suppose you would not.” Turning and walking away Ix explained.

“This forest, much like the prairie you must have passed through is a prison for myself. With the Red Star Ring relieved of its power, we can access it once more. And within, find me again.”

“Your words make no sense golem.”

“And yet you follow.”

There was no argument from Doctor Fukurokov. He followed as he had no choice. His willingness was a desire to survive, and the clearing with the dismantled golems of wood that resembled almost comical puppets was a sight he felt defied that. Yet, true to Ix’s words, awaiting them there was Ix again. Though this Ix was made of carved and polished wood painted white with only his robes hiding his nature as a puppet.

“Then I am not the first to wake.”

“The second, Pir’Oth,” Ix answered his wooden double. “Only two Red Star Rings of five have been used. But I suspect from the state of the sky that we are fortuitous that you woke at all. We have enemies in this distant future that still know of us.”

“And the flightling behind you?”

“A gift for your waking and our steady restoration.”

“A gift? Doctor Fukurokov balked and moved as though to retreat. But he knew he had no such options as he again watched Ix strike the ground and summon forth Rings. “Preposterous. Doctor Fukurokov is a gift to no one. I am the ruler of the skies and–!”

“You are no ruler of the skies flightling,” the wood Pir’Oth spoke into Doctor Fukurokov’s ear from behind him. He had never even seen the movement and turned in stiff disbelief. “But I must know the state of the world.”

Caught between the stone Ix and the wood Pir’Oth, Doctor Fukurokov could do nothing as both threw out a Ring towards him. One pointed with open hand and the other his staff, and caught between the sudden locked in place Rings, Doctor Fukurokov could only let out a shrill scream of terror before falling to the ground. Twitching as he lay helpless, a swirling cloud of golden motes of light settling into him and the two golems.

There was a long silence though before at last one of the golems spoke, and the stone Ix was astonished. “This knowledge! The world beyond this abandoned husk! Who is this Eggman it houses! His creations…! Never… never have I witnessed such things. I must have this knowledge he possesses!”

Pulling Doctor Fukurokov back to bis feet, the wood Ix glared into his stupefied eyes with his intensely glowing blue ones. “This Eggman, and this fox who can make use of his technology. Tell me flightling, where are they.”

“Hehehehehe…Doctor Fukurokov laughed amused. “So, you saw inside my head and don’t even know that much. It would seem I am more useful to you than you thought. But the fool fox is mine. If you want that buffoon Eggman, you’ll have to find a way to the lands I hail from. But I doubt you can pull it off. Whether you leave the fox to me or just seek out a way to Eggman, you’ll have to face him. The scourge of all who desire power.”

“Who?” Ix demanded to know. “I would know the champion who would challenge my ambitions.”

“Hehehehehe… It’s so funny you don’t know.”

“Who, flightling!”

“Who else? Sonic the Hedgehog…”

Scene 31 · CLEARED And After That, to be continued

-----

And there we have it!

Though I’ll dash any hopes of Eggman appearing soon. He’s getting a lot of mention, but if you noticed, so is Tails. That survey I mentioned above had had tails listed as the go to character for Rosy to go after next, and as he has knowledge about Eggman’s machines and tech, it’s a nice little way to mention Eggman and set up that tails is in likely danger. but that is for another time.

Thank you so much for reading, and I hope to see you next time!

-----

Special Thanks to Cutegirlmayra Story by @JoshTarwater/SonicFanJ Inspiring Song – Lumacie Archipelago: Mystic Woodland – Tsutomu Narita – Granblue Fantasy Original Soundtrack

Fair Use Disclaimer

Sonic the Hedgehog and all affiliated characters and logos are the express property and Copyright© of SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS used without permission under Title 17 U.S.C Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976 in which allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. “Fair use” is use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be considered copyright infringement. The Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey alternate universe (AU) consumer written work of fiction is a non-profit transformative work primarily for personal use and can and will be taken down without warning or prior notice at the request of the copyright holder(s) should it not be recognized under “fair use”.

*Sonic Ring Bond logo created by DEE Art – twitter.com/daryliscute.

Sonic Ring Bond AU and Sonic Ring Bond: The Journey are the creation of Joshua David Tarwater/ynymbus/sonicfanj/@Joshtarwater and is to be, including all contents herein considered for all legal purposes the property of the Sonic the Hedgehog intellectual property (IP) and copyright owners, SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS. All story contributors via prompt, suggestion, written scene, art, and all and every other contribution acknowledge that all contributed material is forfeit for legal purposes to SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS upon official request from SEGA SAMMY HOLDINGS.

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic fan fiction #sonic au #sonic au series #sonic ring bond #the journey #classic amy #amy rose #rosy the rascal #au amy #amy redesign #doctor fukurokov #pir'oth ix

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ben-the-hyena · 4 years

Note

Steven Universe for the unpopular opinion thing?

While everyone is sad for Steven "nuuu my precious baby ;.;" THANK GOD FINALLY HE IS ACTING LIKE AND BECOMING A REAL CHARACTER WITH A REAL PERSONALITY. A tragical character at that, at this point I didn't see it coming ! (AndhonestlythefirsttimesitwashappeningIwasblissfulhewassufferingbecause"aaawlifeishardmrsmileyisntit?" I'm awful) He went from one of the most annoying characters to the only sane one. FINALLY he gets angry and rightfully so (except maybe for Greg who didn't know not telling him about his parents would be bad and did it sincerely, and to Connie who didn't break up but just said "not yet" for the proposal ; but eh he is troubled), finally he sees the Gems are absolutely brainless and gave him a Messiah Complex and made him an outcast because "ROOOOOSE ;.;" and "we have been living her for millenia listening to Rose but how do humans function ?" (I HAD FAITH IN YOU GIRLS... NOW YOU ALL SEEM LIKE CLOWNS TO ME), finally Connie's mom calls these horrors out, he is becoming angry serious and down to Earth at fucking last, AND WE SEE HE ACTUALLY DIDN'T FORGIVE THE DIAMONDS HE ACTUALLY *TRIED* TO BECAUSE HE THOUGHT IT WAS THE RIGHT THING BUT HE STILL IS VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THEM and he finally realizes they should pay and better that (too bad he failed killing White Diamond, I don't care how "good" she became I suspect they don't do it out of goodness but just because "heh I found a new passtime with my slaves" ; also I do like the Diamonds. As VILLAINS. I have been hating and HATE how they show they are nod """good""" and that he is in the "wrong", Genocidal Oligarchies should be punished with death for the good of everyone and the respect of those who lost their loved ones because of them especially they don't seem remorseful about THAT just to have upsetti spaghetti "Pink")

Sadly knowing Rebecca Sugar I KNOW he will turn normal and happy again and not because (it would have been good if so) everybody would understand what wrong they did to him and apologize and actually give him a good therapy lasting years but just for a "we luv you Steven" "omg right it's my name :D". So instead at this point I would even love if the end of the show is either him running away forever far from them on some new planet to start a new life far from all these crazy people and have a new purpose, or him dying and making people realize too late it's partly their fault (and who knows, maybe once Steven dead Pink would return and FINALLY be called out the way she deserves) and/or him snapping and turning into a villain and the new enemy because he is tired of their shit. But none of these four scenarii, these 3 and the first I said before, will happen for sure. Sigh. It's MLP FIM all over again with SU...

#moi #steven universe #ask #anon #fandom #psychology #fans don't look

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quakerjoe · 4 years

Link

In the end, not even the Progressive Bernie Base showing up for Hillary in larger numbers than her own supporters did for Obama in 2008, could prevent the inevitable. A massively flawed candidate who failed to electrify the Democratic base and make the case to Rust Belt voters- why she is the better option than the Populist candidate spraying out anti-trade rhetoric.

Blame whatever you want. The blame rests squarely on all of us. But there is so many lessons to learn from the 2016 Primary and General Election. Populism and Progressive policy became the central topic. Healthcare is a right. The ultra-rich are KING in America, and they must be reigned in. Primary process should be more fair. Flowery platitudes aren’t enough to generate excitement for the poor to turn out, etc.

Literally ZERO of these lessons were learned. Even in the face of an ACTUAL Corona-virus pandemic, with over 30 million unemployed, more and more uninsured at the time of writing this- the Democratic party has done nearly nothing to fix the problems from 2016. Actually, in all my shock- they’ve made them worse. The Democratic party pulled every string it could. Bent over backwards to not only stop Bernie Sanders, but stifle Progressives and our policy agenda. All in an orchestration to crown their nominee just years after a 2016 lawsuit said the DNC can meddle how ever they like in their own “Democratic process”. All to push a man who did next to no campaigning in any states past South Carolina. A man who didn’t actually work for your vote, but instead- coasted on “Hope and Change” establishment nostalgia, for when times weren’t so chaotic.

So for pragmatism sake, let’s push all that aside for just one moment. We can debate all day about how “fair” Joe Biden’s path to the Democratic Nomination has been. But let’s view Biden on his own merits for his candidacy’s sake. What’s the incentive for Progressives to vote for Joe? Well- unless you’re sticking to the concept of the very first paragraph of this article, the answer is: There isn’t one.

If Hillary Clinton were a flawed candidate, Biden may just be the worst nominee in history. A long history of terrible behavior including coddling racists, racist behavior, repeated threats at slashing the safety net, warmongering for a devastating Iraq war that’s helped kill endless innocent civilians all based on a lie, the nomination of Justice Thomas and controversial treatment of Anita hill, the Obama administration’s failure to even pass a Public Option with a Super Majority government, while pushing a healthcare plan that was little more than barely a small step in the right direction.

Now- Biden stands as the presumptive Democratic Nominee, and with a sizable Progressive Bernie Base up for grabs, what has Joe Biden done to earn our vote?

Answer: Nothing. Well, at least nothing significant.

Three items come immediately to mind on what Joe Biden is doing to “reach left”.

1: Joe wants to lower the Medicare age to 60. By comparison, Hillary Clinton wanted to lower it to as low as 50.

2: Joe Biden wants to eliminate student debt for those making under $125K. By comparison, Bernie Sanders wanted to eliminate it universally.

3: Nebulously- Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders have created “working groups” on various policy issues focusing on education, criminal justice, climate change, immigration, the economy, and health care policy. As of yet, nothing has come of these “groups” on policy.

As the Primary was coming to a close, I as a Progressive- was completely open to Joe moving (not reaching) left on policy positions.

Overwhelmingly, if you ask Sanders supporters what they care about most, it’s Policy.

What will you do for the underprivileged working class people of America?

What will you do for my children and grand children facing a Climate Change future?

What will you do for your Mass Incarceration mess, ending the drug war, legalizing Marijuana, and freeing non-violent drug offenders?

What will you do for the upwards of 45K people who die each year because health care is not affordable?

The 67% of American bankruptcies being due to health care costs?

BUT. Sanders supporters also believe in principle. Consistency. History. Fighting for change. Decency. Human rights. We’re also majority young people (a group Joe Biden did not do well with). Perhaps these things could be talked out. But now there’s a bigger elephant in the room. One that establishment Democrats and Joe’s supporters are ignoring.

Joe Biden was credibly accused of rape.

Democrats spent months yelling about “Believing Women” during the Kavanaugh Confirmation hearings. Rightfully fighting for Christine Blasey Ford’s story to be heard- knowing it would be a fruitless task at the hands of a twisted Senate Republican majority. Now, establishment Democrats are making the media rounds with Biden campaign talking points with denials and every attempt to downplay Tara Reade as not a credible accuser, even as several corroborations of her story have surfaced, 1 of which was an archive video of who Tara Reade alleges is her mother discussing the issue with Larry King on CNN in 1993. Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s campaign has it’s surrogates and supporters on news networks shielding Biden. Nancy Pelosi downplays the accusations, Kirsten Gillibrand (who helped cancel Al Franken) is downplaying the accusations. Alyssa Milano, prominent #MeToo voice, who made a performative appearance at the Brett Kavanagh hearings, now wants to “change the rules” on the movement in favor of a sort of ‘Due Process’- a process that many perpetrators cancelled by #MeToo never got, in favor of protecting Joe Biden.

What this means to me is that Democrats think it’s perfectly fine to be selective on who and who doesn’t deserve to be heard and taken seriously, based on who’s on your team. As if it should be that easy to just shed your principles like Snake skin, hypocritically protecting one predator, while gunning for another that doesn’t fit with you politically.

In 2016, I was perfectly fine voting for the “lesser evil”. Now that the party has loudly stated that not only does my values, principles, and policy demands for the poor and sick of America, not matter- I should fall in line with a candidate that has helped endless innocent people die overseas with America’s imperial military reach, helped endless people die at home because they cant afford a doctor, said that he has “no empathy” for young people- the same young people that have to live and suffer under the conditions of Climate Change while he’s dead and gone, sexually assaulted and violated multiple women, said that nothing will fundamentally change for the same rich people who are now gaining BILLIONS under pandemic conditions while their workers get sicker, if they’re even employed at all.

Moderate establishment Democrats and voters tell me that Trump is the number one threat. That we need to “vote blue no matter who”. Just how “blue” is Joe biden? Just how dissimilar is Joe Biden and his supporters from Trump and his following? For all of the cries of the “angry Bernie Bros” online, I see countless accosting and abusive discourse examples from Biden supporters calling any dissenters “Russian Bots”, or “MAGA Hats”. Being told that I’m somehow a Trump voter by default, for not immediately supporting Biden. All this when all I’ve ever seen from “the Bernie Bros” is aggressively holding smear artists to facts and truth in a thick environment of misrepresentation of Bernie Sanders and his platform.

So- Why shouldn’t Progressives vote for Joe Biden?

This Democratic party doesn’t give a damn about you. Nor does it care about Progressive policy. The party and its supporters spend all this time, smearing Sanders and his base as “Not democrats”, angry “socialists who want free stuff”, “How are you gonna PAY for it?!” etc etc, all while claiming to support SOME form of our policy, and then dropping it the second it doesn’t feel politically advantageous. This party threw everything it could into stopping YOU. With tactics like voter suppression, using a silly app suspiciously funded and supported by shady actors in Iowa, taking WEEKS to give final results, running Super PACs against Bernie and our movement, fear-mongering about Bernie when he did win states, gas lighting the public on “elect-ability”, using a literal pandemic against Bernie to guilt him into dropping out while attempting to blame him for continued spread of COVID-19, while they sent voters to the polls and we didn’t.

And after zero policy concessions, zero good will, repeated demands we fall in line after more than a year of being slammed and disrespected, showing up for Hillary Clinton and then being blamed for her loss anyway, which is inevitable again if Joe loses? Are we just going to keep allowing that? Just how long do we have to hold our noses, voting for Moderate do-nothing lite Republicans who would sooner see you die, than provide you affordable and universal healthcare, because a Billionaire would stand to lose money. Even NOW, during a Pandemic this party has done next to NOTHING to secure the livelihoods of American citizens, as more and more die, get furloughed, and cant pay their bills. All while Trump and Republicans take credit for pitching more common sense plans (even though they want to send us all back to work/school to feed the machine).

This- is the “resistance” party? THIS is the best we can do? Performative rage against a fascist clown while propping up an accused rapist warmongering corporatist with cognitive decline and previous racist tendencies? THIS is what the party keeps telling us we better support or be shamed as somehow supporting the “bad guy”?

Listen, #NotMeUs- this will never stop. This party will NEVER stop using us as a prop for our ideas and passion, then throwing us under the bus when they think they no longer need us. They cannot continue to be allowed to drag us further to the right with guilt trips and shaming. They will NEVER take you seriously unto you take serious action. We’ve been preaching about “action” this whole campaign. Why should that “action” stop in the ballot box? Have some foresight for just a moment and envision how this plays out in future elections, unless you stand up and make them WORK for your vote.

I, for one will not vote for Joe Biden. But I wont shame you for your vote, no matter who it’s for. Why? Because the party did a terrible job at earning -your- vote. I’d maybe only criticize you if you don’t show up at all. There’s so many down-ballot candidate who need support. Even if you leave the President box unchecked, at least show up for the other races.

But consider: There are other options that have been stifled for way too long. Perhaps its time we give them a shot, no? Green Party is running Howie Hawkins and a platform that is much closer to our principles that Biden would ever try for. Justin Amash just jumped into the race if you’re a little more on the Libertarian side. Jesse Ventura is also discovering running on the Green ticket as well. Just imagine Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura on the debate stage with Donald Trump? Popcorn for DAYS.

In order for us to be taken seriously, we must prove that we’re capable of holding the party accountable. Not voting for them is the ultimate accountability, and you get to keep your principles intact.

Now- to the ultimate argument you’d inevitably get: “You would be helping Donald Trump secure 4 more years”.

My response? You don’t have to bare the blame for that. You wont be at fault for Joe Biden losing any more than those who chose not to vote at all. It’s on the party to earn these votes. That’s how elections work. If you hate the candidate and don’t feel good about them as a person, why is it your responsibility to put them in office? To me- one of the most personal things a person has, is their vote. Not their dollars, or their Tweets. It’s checking a box for the person YOU chose to represent you. If that person doesn’t believe in hardly anything you personally believe in- why is it that they deserve your vote, again? How is it that they’re are somehow entitled to that vote? They don’t, and they aren’t. I’m looking at you too, Republicans.

In closing…

Progressives, I’m sorry to break it to you but- Medicare For All is not on the ballot. Taxing the rich is not on the ballot. Ending corruption and crooked politicians is not on the ballot.

But- ending a terrible two-party system IS on the ballot. Taking your personal vote back, IS on the ballot. In my opinion- the only wasted vote, is the one you were demanded in giving up to what you don’t believe in.

-LZ

https://medium.com/@legacyzero/why-sanders-supporters-should-not-vote-for-joe-biden-a9146bee189b

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arlingtonpark · 5 years

Text

SNK 111 Review

Milkshake Duck Edition

“This subversive anti-corps organization shall be known as the Yeagerists.”

Dude, Eldian Freedom Caucus. That name is so much better.

So, the EFC really cares about Eldia. Cool. Here is why that’s racist:

First off, let’s establish here that Eren is basically a racist. He believes there are intractable differences between the races and that peaceful coexistence is impossible. What’s more, he seemingly supports restoring the Eldian Empire. This could be construed as supporting the restructuring of the global racial hierarchy so that Eldians are the dominant race again. That’s racist.

Racism is a commonly misunderstood term. Racism is a system of inequality built around the concept of race. It is not just prejudice. Racism is also an ideology. It is the idea that there are meaningful differences between groups of people (i.e. races exist) and that society should be hierarchically structured to reflect those differences. But racism also has another important component to it: power in society. Racism does not just hurt the dominated. It helps the dominators, the dominant race in society. In the United States, white people benefit from racism even as white people are occasionally the targets of racial prejudice. This is because the ideology of racism, which is pervasive in our culture, structures society so that benefits are accrued to them at the expense of other races.

Presently in the world of Attack on Titan, there is a globalized racial hierarchy that places Eldians at the bottom. But previously, the Eldians were at the head of an empire that dominated the world. But then, in a totally ridiculous chain of events, I’m sure, society was dramatically restructured basically overnight so that Eldians were at the bottom of the food chain. In this context restoring the Eldian Empire can only be understood as restoring Eldians to their former place at the top of the racial hierarchy.

That’s. racist.

The EFC is an inherently racist group fighting an inherently racist cause. Floch is a racist. Zeke is a racist. Grisha was a racist. That girl Mikasa saved and then threw in the slammer is a racist. They’re all racists.

And Eren has chosen to stand with them. He is a racist de facto if not de jure.

It is worth noting there are similarities between Eren’s view of race relations and the proto-racist views of the 18th century.

“Deep rooted prejudices entertained by the whites; ten thousand recollections, by the blacks, of the injuries they have sustained; new provocations; the real distinctions which nature has made; and many other circumstances, will divide us into parties, and produce convulsions, which will probably never end but in the extermination of the one or the other race.”

-Thomas Jefferson, on why he rejected the notion of whites and blacks living peacefully together.

This was bullshit when Jefferson said it and it is bullshit when Eren says it. The races can coexist. Obviously. Things are somewhat complicated by the fact that there are real biological differences between Eldians and the rest, but even that doesn’t make things intractable. Eldians only transform under specific, inordinate circumstances. Widespread public advocacy can educate the public to this fact.

And unfortunately the possibility that Eren is not just pretending to support the EFC’s cause but actually genuinely believes in it cannot be ruled out. It is entirely believable that Eren is a racist person. The reason Eren would support restoring the Empire would probably have something to do with his dominance centric mindset. Eren sees the world in terms of the dominators and the dominated. As such he believes you have to be strong in order to protect what you care about because that’s the only way to be safe from the domination of others. In the case of the Eldian race, that means restoring the Empire and Eldian global hegemony with it. This naturally also means Eren believes conflict is inevitable and unavoidable.

In this way, Eren’s ideology would be no different from your typical racist asshole, from your racist neighbor all the way on up to Adolf Hitler himself: racial conflict is inevitable (indeed, the defining aspect of human history) and the only way to win the war of the races is to be strong and dominate others.

Eren has an insular, possibly racist, worldview. This worldview informs his belief in Paradis’ impending doom and because he views the Survey Corps as being “soft on Marley,” he commits an act of insubordination, murders innocent civilians in the process, and drags his country into war. In multiple posts I’ve called on the series to make it clear that Eren’s actions were immoral and now we know where the series stands on the issue.

Not only is Eren a hero for what he did, the series casts him as a visionary ahead of his time!

While everyone else was dragging their feet, he was the one who acted (because he’s a nationalist), he was willing to do what no one else was willing to do (because he doesn’t give a shit about human rights), and, as far as the series seems to care for, he got results (except not really).

I seriously hope I’m misreading things here because it seems the series is actually trying to legitimize the grievances of these racist assholes! The story is plainly saying that the racists are the ones who didn’t have their heads buried in the sand. Those people called for a hardline stance against Marley because of their racism, because they rejected the notion of peaceful coexistence between the races. Stories are constructed and Isayama has chosen to construct a story that says the racists were basically right.

Excuse me while I have a minor panic attack as the notion this series is a right-wing nationalist screed keeps getting harder to refute!

Even worse, the series seems to cast attempts to avoid the conflict as a waste of time! Suing for peace is never a waste of time and it is never too late to sue for peace. People die in war. Was it not worth it to try and avoid that?

As I am writing this, it is the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. That war started with the July Crisis, the rapid escalation of tensions between European powers that directly precipitated the war. But even at the eleventh hour, even as they were. Mobilizing. For. War. there were still serious, earnest overtures for peace being made. Can you imagine Eren even considering that? He thought suing for peace was folly before going to Marley.

Racial conflict is not inevitable and it was not a waste of precious time to make overtures of peace. In any other story Eren’s actions would rightfully be depicted as the work of a radical extremist, but here his opposition concedes the point to him even though he has no point!

The Military Police were planning on going ahead with Zeke’s plan, just without Zeke himself. Even after the stunt Eren pulled they were still planning to conduct experiments with the Rumbling. They never truly foreclosed on using the rumbling, but Eren had foreclosed on peace as a meaningful pursuit a long time ago.

Hange’s concession to Eren is so complete they even adopt Eren’s rhetoric on the matter. Hange frames the Survey Corps opposition to what Eren wants as them not moving forward. In prior chapters, Eren has framed his actions, the same actions the Corps opposes, as moving forward. By having the opposition capitulate and begin adopting their opponents framing, the story further emphasizes the point that Eren was right and they were wrong. That’s bullshit!

But things are even worse than that! Recall what I said earlier about racism being a system of inequality built around the concept of race. Well here’s the rub: the concept of race itself was invented by Europeans to justify their domination of the world. Because of this, the very idea of there being differing races is itself racist. This is why the story’s tackling of race will always be flawed at best. To frame racial conflict as being over legitimate differences is to not just miss the point, it is to concede the point to the racists.

(I really hope conceding the point to racists doesn’t become a thing with this series.)

Here’s a possible ending to the series: Eldians and Marleyans are unable to resolve their differences so they decide to self-segregate. All the Eldians are sent to live on Paradis and Paradis agrees to maintain an isolationist foreign policy. That ending would have a very pro-nationalist message, which is exactly why I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s how the story ends. I don’t want this story to have a pro-nationalist message, but there is a ton of smoke right now.

Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

All that said, I can’t exactly blame them for deciding to negotiate with Eren. I just wish the story wasn’t written in a way that legitimizes the EFC’s worldview. Marley will be bearing down on them shortly and Eren has the titan shifter powers plus a small army of over 100 soldiers plus the advantage of being able to wage a guerilla style campaign against Paradis. Eren had a huge advantage and Pixis was smart to realize that.

This chapter can be divided into two halves. I just finished addressing the bigger one so that just leaves the smaller one.

It’s going to be hard for me to talk about this half of the chapter because of how difficult it is for me to read it. The whole sequence is like a black comedy.

Let’s run it down:

Nicolo is a total idiot, and I’m not just saying that because he’s racist. So this clown finds himself face to face with the girl who killed Sasha, you know, the good Eldian, and his response is to go in front of people and invite them to murder her?

WHAT AN IDIOT!

And yeah I know he’s acting in a fit of rage, but in a way that makes what he’s doing even more revealing. He’s not thinking so he’s acting on pure instinct, and what we see in this chapter is a man with the instincts of an asshole.

He’s so full of rage he’s totally cool with murdering Gabi. But what’s really revealing is his assumption that Mr. Blouse would feel the same way, when any reasonable person would just assume he wouldn’t. That’s why this whole moment plays out like a scene in a comedy, because of the irony of it. Nicolo thinks his dumb idea that Mr. Blouse will kill Gabi is a good one, meanwhile everyone else, including the audience, knows it isn’t.

The fact that Nicolo just assumed that they’d all be just as willing to kill a kid as he was speaks to him being a very closeminded person. He can’t fathom that other people would seriously object to his thinking.

The other reason is the sheer ridiculousness of it. Imagine being in Mr. Blouse’s position. You’re enjoying dinner with your family when out of nowhere the chef comes in with a knife and two bloodied children with him. Then he says the girl you’ve befriended is actually an enemy soldier who killed your daughter!

Someone give Mr. Blouse an award. There wasn’t a single trace of “What?” on him! All this crazy stuff is going on and he just rolls with it, even though he’s being asked to assume the veracity of things most people would at least question. I don’t know if I should call this a plot hole or what.

And then we get to the climax of the chapter: Mr. Blouse’s speech.

“Sasha was a hunter. I’d taught her how to use a bow and we’d go hunt food in the forest since she was a little one. Because that’s how we lived. But I knew the day would come when we couldn’t keep living that way. So I made Sasha leave the forest. Then the world got bigger. Sasha became a soldier. She went off to other lands, shot people, then got shot herself. Turned out, just when I thought she’d left the forest, the whole world was one big one. It was still kill or be killed. I think Sasha got killed because she wandered too far in that forest. We’ve got to let the children out of this jungle, at the very least. Or else the same thing’s just going to happen again and again. As adults, it’s our responsibility to shoulder the sins and hatred of the past.”

I will say this first: Mr. Blouse is a good man. The idea that he had to choose between revenge and forgiveness is a false dichotomy. He could have chosen to not forgive her while also not choosing to seek revenge. And he would have been well within his rights if he had.

The problems I have with this speech are about what it portends for the future. Mr. Blouse describes the world as being like a forest where you have to kill to survive. That’s basically how Attack on Titan presents the world as well. But Mr. Blouse rejects this as an untenable way to live. He got Sasha out of the forest because he knew that in a world where you either kill or be killed you were eventually going to be killed.

What he says next is key.

To break the cycle of violence they have to get out of the jungle. As far as the analogy is concerned, that’s true. If the jungle is a dangerous place to be in, the solution is to leave it.

The million dollar question here is, how do you translate that analogy into an actionable objective? If the whole world is a jungle, then how do you leave it?

The answer is simple.

You don’t leave it. You change it.

If you can’t leave the forest, you have to make it livable, and Mr. Blouse demonstrates this himself by forgiving Gabi. The world is a forest partly because people aren’t very forgiving. By exhibiting the virtue of mercy, Mr. Blouse shows how we can make the forest, the world, a better place to live.

But here’s another question: He shows how you can change the forest. But can you actually change it?

There’s still a good chance the series will answer this question with a resounding “no.”

Is Isayama hinting at how he intends to give his story a happy ending? Or is he showing us what he thinks people should do while planning to end the series with what he thinks people will do?

Isayama had Kaya turn on Gabi because he wants to remind us of the latter possibility. Kaya considered Gabi a friend and even she was filled with homicidal rage.

The message is clear: however warm and cuddly we may feel when we see Mr. Blouse show empathy for his daughter’s killer, there are always people who think and act in the opposite way and they could literally be anyone. If even a little girl can be driven to act and think in this way, can Mr. Blouse’s way of thinking really win in the end? Not likely.

So Mr. Blouse forgives Gabi, but what does he think of the act itself? It’s notable that he frames Gabi and Sasha’s actions as taking place in the context of a kill or be killed situation. Which unfortunately gives me chapter 100 flashbacks. My take away from that chapter was that both sides see themselves as being in a fight for their very existence and that they are simply doing what comes naturally in a situation like that. I also read an important statement about metaethics in that chapter.

The…exact reason why is hard to articulate, but ever since chapter 100 came out, one of my biggest fears have been that Isayama just doesn’t understand what he’s talking about. (see: smoke, lots of)

The series has made a point of emphasizing the humanity of all those involved in the conflict. That is not necessarily a bad thing, but what I fear is that the series will lose sight of the fact that you can want nothing but peace on earth and still be a fucking asshole.

“Eren isn’t a bad person, he’s just a guy with an opinion about what the right thing to do is and he’s not afraid to act on it.”

Do not make the mistake of thinking that being a bad person and not being a Saturday morning cartoon villain are mutually exclusive. They are not. If you think they are then you don’t understand morality.

This utterly revisionist version of morality, called student relativism (warning: PDF link) by professional philosophers, is pervasive in our society. It is not true that morality is “just an opinion,” as the above statement implies.

For many reasons.

Morality is objective.

Does Isayama understand that?

If the series does endorse a naïve moral relativism, then it is part of the problem. That problem is creeping nihilism.

Our society has been trending towards a bigger and bigger embrace of nihilism for centuries now. Friedrich Nietzsche very famously identified this trend in the late 1800s. This isn’t completely bad. It used to be in vogue to think that history was a march towards inevitably greater prosperity. Now it is recognized that greater prosperity is not completely assured.

But it is bad in other cases. The belief in the inviolability of “opinions,” as opposed to the unwavering truth of “facts,” is an example of that.

A big driver of this trend is the increasingly secularized nature of society. People in the West are conditioned to view morality as an imperative from God. Objectivity is conflated with divine command. But if God is dead, as Nietzsche famously put it, what happens to our notion of objectivity?

That notion falls by the wayside, even though it doesn’t have to.

There are many ways to get to an objective(ish) morality that doesn’t rely on the dictates of a god. Elaborating on those ways would be beyond the scope of this post (*cough* copout *cough*) but needless to say the idea that morality is in any way relative is a fringe opinion among people who study morality professionally. Almost no one defends it.

Which brings us back to Attack on Titan. The story does not shy away from showing the gruesomeness of the characters’ actions. But separate and apart from that, what is the series saying about the morality of those actions?

In chapter 40, Ymir and Historia (and some other people) are on a tower teetering towards collapse. Titans are swarming the tower’s base. At any moment they could be dead.

Ymir says something to Historia:

“I have no right to tell you how to live. So this is just a wish of mine. Live your life with pride.”

This is the first reference to student relativism in the series. We can’t tell people how to live their lives because that’s a matter of values and values should not be imposed on others because there are no correct values. When I realized what I was reading, my heart sank.

This one line completely ruins Ymir’s character. All this time she’s called for Historia to live for herself, but in the end she never truly believed in that. How can she? How can you think something is correct if you also don’t think it’s the binding Truth?

Ymir believes Historia should live for herself. “Should” implies “must” because if you should do something, you are obligated to do it. But if Ymir believes that she can’t tell Historia how to live then she doesn’t actually believe Historia should live for herself.

Attack on Titan, like all stories, is a work that tries to say something. But could it be that all this time it’s been “just a wish” on Isayama’s part that we agree with him?

If so, that’s very cowardly.

It’s cowardly because he’s trying to have his cake and eat it too. He’s trying to assert his opinion (and in a strong, high profile way at that) while also trying to dodge the liability that is inherent in making an assertion. He is trying to enjoy the benefits of partaking in public discourse (voicing his beliefs) while trying to avoid the pitfalls (the possibility of being wrong).

Saying that what you believe in isn’t binding truth is not only self-contradictory, it is a way of avoiding scrutiny. If we live in a world where there is no correct way of doing things then we live in a world where no one can be wrong; saying that, “No one can be wrong,” is just another way of saying, “I can never be wrong.”

That is the cowardice of student relativism.

And yeah, Ymir is a coward too for believing in this. I told you that line completely ruined her character!

…And it’s at this point I realize I’ve trailed off significantly from the point I was trying to make.

The bottom lines are these:

(1) Attack on Titan’s themes might be informed by junk philosophy ripped straight from the forums of 4chan; because

(2) The author might be the type of person who has to deny truth itself exists before he can make a claim in public; which would mean

(3) The story doesn’t truly stand for anything; and therefore

(4a) Reading this manga has been a complete waste of time

(4b) The corrosive trends that are undermining our society have been reinforced

(4c) The narrative is flagrantly self-contradictory and even hypocritical

(4d) Nihilism is the overarching theme of the story; and

(4e) In the end, Mr. Blouse probably does think the “kill or be killed” situation is exculpatory.

(it isn’t)

Ultimately what’s significant about this chapter is what it portends for the future. Attack on Titan has begun its final story arc, so the moment of truth is almost here: what does this series truly stand for?

#snk 111 #snk chapter 111 #shingeki no kyojin #attack on titan #spoilers

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sparda3g · 6 years

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Tokyo Ghoul:re Chapter 166 Review

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There is an old phrase that goes, “Careful what you wish for.” This chapter reassures that this series would never go with your way, no matter how nice and wishful thinking it is. On the positive light, this was a very thrilling action packed chapter that should leave fans celebrated, but the end justifies the mean. Well, not really, but it certainly caused the fans to lose their mind in sadness and anger.

Let me start off by saying that the chapter’s title is a huge giveaway to the reveal of that creature from the last chapter. Hell, I was like, “Okay, I already know who that monster is. Thanks, Ishida.” I was a bit anxious to see the reveal despite already knowing, because when it comes to this series, you can’t be so certain about everything. After this chapter, no doubt I won’t think of a happy place for a long, long time.

There is a brief scene with Kaneki and Ayato to let the audience know their next destination. They’re heading to A20, which is the vast underground beneath the 19th ward. Basically, it does scream for Kaneki to fight against Furuta and maybe Rize. Wouldn’t that be overpowering Kaneki, especially if Rize is to believe to be the same level as him? Either way, that’s their destination and it won’t be for another chapter or so to focus with them entirely. Right now, we got some intense Kaiju battle approaching.

I did tell myself to wait for the next chapter to get a better view of that monster and my wish was granted. The monster is the Owl, Kakuja form and all. You don’t even need Ui to say it to know what that is. The design is every shape and form that resembles Owl; only difference is the face and the size is larger than before. Therefore, we can safely say that it’s Eto behind that monstrosity and the theory can now close…

Right?

The action kicks off with the Owl strikes first in great devastation. It’s been a while watching the investigators getting dismembered like some finale of a series that decide to kill Earth completely. It’s rather bone-chilling and I love it. Watching a Kaiju-esque scene in motion against normal people with no tanks or any heavy artillery is brutal stuff. It is how the scene starts off with “you got to be shitting me…” vibe to a massacre that got me thrilled; all well presented with those use of distorted effect and onslaught display in each panel.

It does seem clear that Ishida is ready to kill off many characters before entering the next part of the series alas part 3. Granted I can’t confirm it with one scene but Misato appears to be killed off with the rest of others behind her. All the fire power didn’t work on it; only for it to fire back. If she did die, look at this way, she didn’t get dismembered to the point of unidentifiable. It is an indication that this is the part where Ishida roll call the characters and kill them off. Prepare yourself.

The preparations before engaging combat with Owl is very engaging; got me really hyped for this intense battle. It reflects the fact that Shinohara and Kuroiwa are no longer with them. Hirako can’t even assist Ui as he is handling this one strong V guy, so the pressure on Ui has gone up tremendously. From here on out, it’s time for Ui to take in charge of this beast. It was a nice added touch with him reciting the similar line about coward from his last encounter with Owl.

I really like the whole formation scene with Ui in charge and gather men as many as he can. It does highlight the number of characters in the field; tracking them for possible death or survivor when the smoke clears out. It’s riveting to see nearly everyone helping Ui out with the sensation that can be best described as calm before storm. It has that finale feeling towards it, especially since CCG’s number one target has been centering on Owl for a long time. It’s like finishing the fight scenario; it will finally end with this.

It’s great to see Shuu and other Ghouls to help Ui out with this as well. Not only Ui has evolved to a bona fide leader, but he has grown to appreciate the Ghoul’s aids for the Human. The days of when he was a hater are nearly if not entirely over. A touching yet possible eerie omen scene is before he roar cry, he remembers Hairu and Arima; lending him courage one more time. I am aware of this calling mean death flag and yes, it has been raised. Will he die? It depends if Ishida has more subplots in mind.

The chapter then shifts to Hirako versus a V guy. It’s possible that it’s the leader, Kaiko, though it’s not really confirmed at this time. For now I’ll call him “Kaiko” until further notice. The fight isn’t just with Hirako; Takeomi, Itou, and Yusa are joining in to assist him. From there on, we get a round of great battle with solid teamwork and fearsome intensity.

Kaiko is proven to be a serious foe with his impressive evasive maneuvers while taking on four men at once. As swift the investigators are here, he is quick on his feet with those two swords; blocking and dodging moves swiftly. Itou tries to sneak attack, but Kaiko got some impressive sensor to detect ambush and cut him with ease. Takeomi comes in to attack when he was in recovery process, only to block it with his little sword or dagger; close call. I thought it was cool when he tosses that small sword in the air and try to strike him with his other sword and then the small one lands right on the shoulder. That was clever.

The main highlight of the battle is when Yusa and Hirako step in. It’s worth mentioning that Kaiko is pretty taunting with his words; rubbing in people’s faces with his smart ass remarks. Maybe because of recent anime, but I can’t help but image him with Frieza’s voice. It was getting close for someone to be killed off and Yusa is the last victim to struggle to survive. Interestingly enough, Kaiko was responsible for training Arima; so that led him to mock Yusa for being nowhere near his level. Thank God Yusa wasn’t having it and then stabs right on his foot.

The way how it sets up for the finishing blow is dramatic, though rightfully so. Kaiko was close to kill them off and Yusa is the future generation that lives with the name of Arima. Hirako passing him the weapon to finish the job was sweet. Yusa swings and off Kaiko’s face; like really split his head apart. It was brutal yet satisfying. The kid deserves the honor and a medal of greatness. Hm, I guess if I do call that V guy Kaiko, it would mean the V main leader has died.

Right?

The chapter returns back to the team that is fighting the Owl and it’s getting to the breaking point with Kagune dissolving and they have to attack before they all get wiped out. That is until Banjou comes with an assist to recover them. You got to love Shuu’s appreciation. This whole battleground is well coordinated with everyone helping out like one crazy main boss in a MMORPG; it’s riveting as hell. Once they are told to aim for the neck, that’s where Suzuya becomes the star. Thank you, Attack on Titan!

But seriously, how great it is to see everyone cooperating to take out the Owl. It was damn great for Ui to use his quinque and make an opening path for Suzuya to take it out for good. When you combine this scene and the one with the V, it makes a really inspiring and gratifying moment of triumphant. It’s a good feel moment that I would love it to be completely true. If anything, this chapter was outstanding with great character’s evolution, exciting scenarios with slick action, and plenty of satisfaction. Then, we got to the final scene.

The atmosphere of the fan base reminds me of my days in wrestling; actually, it can be said for anything. Have you ever encounter a moment that you was like, “Oh my God, this is nearly perfect! I love everything about it,” and when you reach to the end, the last moment is what overrides your thought and can’t compute anything else? Well, this chapter has done that. Not me personally; I thought it was mind crushing and frightening cliffhanger. Basically, we may have known who the monster is with the chapter’s title, but never thought this would be the case at all.

It’s Eto alright. Just headless, that’s all.

People wished for her, they shall be granted. But not like this. I have read people saying that it’s not her and it could be someone else, notably Hairu. Now let me play two sides of the coin. To begin with, let’s say it is Hairu’s body instead. This does make sense on the account of Ui getting the main focus. It would be a cruel fate for him to face his old friend like this. It would align with his development, so I can see where people think of this. It also makes sense since it’s only a body and the head’s placement is placed with a cross; clearly this is Donato’s work. The timing is on this fan’s side. That said I do think otherwise as well.

Eto has disappeared for a long time, so this revelation, while brutal, is shocking. It does make sense with her being placed here as well but under different circumstances. It was highlighted to be CCG’s sendoff to finally defeat Owl after so many tries; now Ui will grant that victory. Part 3 is inevitable at this point, so if Ui lives and win, there’s room for more developments and taking out Owl would be a start. Hairu could somehow come in play, but in part 3 maybe; unless Ishida just throw it out completely, but we’ll see. The point is CCG is yet again facing the recurring threat.

You probably wondering, “What about her head then?” Donato is using his cross to control it somehow, so say if Eto was alive and conscious, she won’t obey these Clowns, so why not decapitate her and replace with a remote control. The most possible giveaway is the title “E T.” While it is brilliant from Ishida, it freaking hurts like hell because not only it’s an indication of headless hence missing “o,” but it is a reference to Noro, who once called Noroi. Damn… The only question for both scenarios would be the missing head.

The other possibility is Donato created a clone of Eto. His capability is left in vague in a way, like how much can he copy a person in terms of ability and such. It must be intentional from Ishida to leave us hanging. Honestly, I would just wait longer and see how this unfolds. It will ease your mind. Eventually, we will learn the actual story behind this Owl.

The chapter as a whole was a lot of fun and excitement that clearly got overshadowed by the end; at least to the fans. The sensation of terror is well portrayed. The preparation of Ui and his men before the battle was exciting to read through their contribution and dedication. The action was engaging and thrilling with really cool moments. The artwork was very solid with its effect and action set pieces. The ending was something that threw me off entirely and it only got worse with Kaiko reattaching his face like nothing. All I know is we are about to see a lot of bodies hit the floor next.

#tokyo ghoul:re #tokyo ghoul re #tokyo ghoul #tokyo ghoul :re #chapter 166 #review

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evenstevensranked · 6 years

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#19: Season 3, Episode 15 - “The Big Splash”

Louis surprises everyone by joining the diving team, but then surprises no one by only doing cannonballs. This eventually leads to Louis reevaluating the future he envisions for himself. Should he remain a class clown forever? Or should he start taking life more seriously? Meanwhile, Ren’s on a mission to win “Best Smile” in the yearbook.

We start our episode with Tawny, Twitty and Tom (oh wow I just realized that all of Louis’ friends names start with the letter T lol) sitting in the stands at a school dive meet. Louis told them to go, yet he’s suspiciously nowhere to be found. Until a mysterious hooded guy walks out with LJH’s team, dramatically takes off the hood and… yeah. It’s Louis. Louis is apparently good at diving according to Twitty and Coach Tugnut (“Stevens, you don’t stink so bad!”) but he decides to squander his talent for laughs instead by doing cannonballs. It’s so cringy. Not only because doing cannonballs at a dive meet and soaking the entire audience & judges is beyond immature -- but, because his cannonballs are so fake lol. There’s the initial surface splash, and then an immediate second one that looks like a freaking nuclear bomb. Unless we’re all watching this from the perspective of Shallow Hal and Louis is actually 600 pounds, it makes no sense. I know it’s just for the lulz... but still. The gang gets a kick out of it.

We cut to the subplot where we see Ruby rushing around and tallying people’s votes for yearbook superlatives. Ren finds out that she’s a lock for “The Big Three” -- Most Likely to Succeed, Most Intelligent, and Best Personality. Is it just me, or is Best Personality a little debatable? (No offense, Ren.) Monique asks who’s in the lead for Best Smile and Ren gets salty when she finds out it’s some random chick Kelly Kerwin. Sooo, now Ren is determined to beat Kelly for Best Smile, as if she doesn’t currently hold the title for literally everything else. Seriously, girl. Let some other people get their time to shine. Dang.

After school, Ren lets the cat out of the bag to Steve and Eileen about Louis joining the diving team. Steve is beyond excited and tells Louis he’ll try to make it to the next meet. Clearly, Louis does not want his family to attend and witness his latest goofball stunt.

Next, we get a time-lapse of Ren being her own personal dentist in the bathroom before school because god forbid she doesn’t win Best Smile. It then cuts to Ren having a smile showdown at school with Kelly. This is the second time in the series where we get that annoying sepia, cowboy standoff thing. This cliché never works for me, ever. This goes on for 1 minute and 14 seconds which might seem like a short amount of time, but my god does this scene crawl by. Definitely the lowest point.

Steve decides to attend Louis’ next dive meet and brings his boss, Mr. Kupchack, along with him. Oh, boy. Tugnut compliments Kupchack’s fancy blazer and he responds “Thank you. It’s the finest Italian suede” and all Tugnut can say is “.........too bad.” HAHA. Of course, Louis gets up there and does another massive cannonball, completely soaking the audience... Including Mr. Kupchack and his fancy Italian blazer. Steve is livid and rightfully so.

Louis’ guilt is starting to sink in...

At home that night, Steve has a serious talk with Louis. He tells him that he was incredibly proud before the meet, (hence why he brought Kupchack along) only to be disappointed yet again. Louis tries to brush off his immature decisions by saying “I’m a kid. That’s what I do. I have fun.” But, Steve poses the question “It may be fun now… But where are you gonna be 10 years from now?” This really resonates with Louis. It cuts to a dramatic shot of him looking at a crap ton of “Class Clown” trophies later that night. Uh… When did Louis get all those trophies?! Where does he keep them? They don’t really let us see lol. It seems like they have their own private display room! Do schools even give out trophies for prestigious accomplishments such as “Seventh Grade Class Clown”? That’s the real question here. Anyway. This fades into a daydream Louis has of a 10 Year Lawrence Jr. High reunion.

As a kid, I always thought 10 years was too small of a time jump. Especially because Louis imagines Tom married with two kids and another on the way. But, 2017 marked the 10 year anniversary of my own middle school graduation. Now I'm 24 and a recent college graduate. Not to mention a lot of my friends are already getting married, having kids and starting their careers of course. So… Looking back at this as an adult, it's actually pretty accurate.

I love how since Twitty is a musician, they had to give him a ponytail down to his freaking butt.

I’d also like to point out that Tawny is a fashion designer, wearing rope lights as part of her outfit, and talks about spending time in Rome. Was Disney Channel under the assumption that clothes featuring rope lights are a high fashion ~Rome~ thing? Exhibit B:

Louis’ daydream is so depressing... but I absolutely love it. He basically imagines himself as a total screwup man-child. He can’t relate to his accomplished adult friends because he never grew out of being his middle school jokester self. It’s too real. You just cringe the entire time because everyone is trying to have a mature conversation and Louis is literally incapable of doing so. One by one, they all become annoyed by Louis’ antics and make up an excuse to leave. Twitty’s the only one left in the end and asks for Louis’ email to keep in touch. We reach the final straw when Louis says: “It’s [email protected]..... With a K.” OHHHH GODDDDDD IT’S SO BAAAAADDDDD. I just wanna die of embarrassment. Twitty is fed up at this point too and peaces out. Louis snaps out of the daydream and whispers “No...” to himself -- clearly deciding against a future like that.

The moment Twitty lost all hope.

That whole sequence is definitely the standout moment of the episode for me. Not because of how funny it is (like you might imagine a standout Even Stevens moment to be), but because of how not funny it is. It’s something we’ve never really seen on the show before. I think taking a peek into Louis’ potential pathetic future was so great. It’s almost like they expanded on what they started in Uncle Chuck. This profound moment segues back into the pointless Best Smile drama. I think it’s kinda interesting how Louis’ plot is very existential here and Ren’s is very superficial. I wonder if that was intentional or not.

Since Ren was so desperate to win and forced herself to smile non-stop, her facial muscles end up getting stuck in a rather disturbing grin lol oops. She’s scheduled to sing the school song at the dive meet in 5 minutes. This somehow leads to Ruby giving Ren a makeover to “distract from the mouth.” She also gives Ren the brilliant advice to cut through the steam room on her way to the pool. The end result is the long lost sister of Pennywise. Ren, The Singing Clown:

Hiya, Georgie!! (No, but really. She looks terrifying.)

Even though he wishes Louis would take it seriously, Steve still goes to the meet to show support. Kupchack also makes another appearance because his first-grader son (Played by Hayden Panettiere’s little brother) wants to see “The Cannonball Kid!”

Louis has built up a name for himself apparently. There’s a massive crowd there to see him! I would imagine these are the same kind of people who stand right next to the log flume ride at amusement parks just to get soaked while fully clothed for whatever unimaginable reason.

You can see that Louis is under a lot of pressure to either give in to the weirdos in the crowd and give them the cannonball they want -- or to take the first step towards seriousness and do an actual dive. In the end, his decision to do a real dive is so admirable!!! I love it so much. But, naturally, when he emerges from the pool and declares “You know what? From this day forward... Let it be known: I am not a clown” we see that he’s standing there as naked as the day he was born.

I was going to ask why Louis is the only team member who wears trunks instead of a speedo... but I guess this is the reason why, haha. He needed to wear something flimsy so it could fly right off of him later I guess? lol. I’d also like to point out Tawny’s freaking FACE:

Um... okay, gurl. I always thought it was weird how she (along with, like.. 50 other people) saw her future boyfriend naked in public like that.

Anyway, Louis scurries off embarrassed and that’s it! The “final minute” bit is Ren coming home from school with a copy of the yearbook already??? She won The Big Three... and the last minute honor of “Best Class Clown.” It’s like Louis and Ren swapped stories in the end. THAT’S WHAT YOU GET, REN! That’s what you get!!! This is also the second time we see Ren wanting to achieve perfection in the yearbook and having it totally blow up in her face.

I love this episode. It was actually the one I was most excited to rewatch while I was organizing my list. Since Louis is my favorite character, this one obviously gets a lot of “personal favorite” points for me. As I mentioned, it isn't even necessarily funny. As soon as Louis does his first cannonball, I get kinda depressed actually lol. The reason I'm ranking this one higher is because I just really love the plot-line and this more serious side of Louis which is seldom seen this prominently. In contrast to Uncle Chuck though, this episode spins the depressing factor into a positive and leaves you feeling optimistic about Louis’ future. You get the sense that he’s actually going to finally make an effort moving forward.

This episode would be even more effective if they actually aired it in production order!! “The Big Splash” is #320 in production. “Model Principal” is #319 — Ya know, the episode where Louis acts like an actual clown and singlehandedly turns the entire school into a circus??? Yeah. They decided to place that episode 3 episodes after this one. If “Model Principal” aired the episode before “The Big Splash” — LIKE IT WAS MEANT TO — it would’ve been so much better. We would’ve seen the height of Louis’ ridiculousness followed by the sobering episode where he decides to knock it off. The episodes leading up to “The Big Splash” in production order are all next-level zany Louis stuff. The few episodes that follow don’t include too much over the top stuff from him, so it would all make total sense. Instead, we get a really solid episode for Louis’ character development, later followed by a total regression of that development. Curse Disney’s f’d up schedule! WHYYYY?!?!?!

Thanks for reading!!

Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! Hope you all had a nice holiday. I took a break for Christmas, so yeah. I was actually so mad that the Christmas/Hanukkah episode wasn’t next on the list. It would’ve been perfect timing to review it last week. Oh, well. That episode is really good and deserves even higher than #19 ;)

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#rank #even stevens #shia labeouf #louis stevens #season 3 #louis plot #ren stevens #disney channel #old disney #review #tv #tv shows #tv review #steve stevens

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catcomixzstudios · 7 years

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How To Life Chapter 56 - Monarchies

If Your Dad’s Good At Leading, Then You Must Be Too!

One thing that has always seemed strange to me is just how popular Monarchies have been in human history. I mean, in theory, I can see the appeal: The current leader (often someone who gained power through military conquest) reigns supreme and then passes that leadership on to their children when they die to create a dynasty. It sounds like a pretty simple and consistent system of government. The one thing you’re going to learn about nearly every government from this point on, however, is that for as great as they sound in theory, they almost always suck ass in practice.

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves.

To avoid much of the overlap with Feudalism (the two often go hand-in-hand), I’m specifically considering a Monarchy to be an entire nation under the rule of one Monarch. They might end up going to war with the nation next door at times, but there’s only one Monarch’s face on the money within their own borders. I mean, it’s often just Feudalism on a bigger scale when it’s between Monarchs of multiple nations, but there’s more centralized leadership when it comes to Monarchy. And by centralized I mean it’s usually one asshole calling all the shots and hoping they don’t get poisoned by whoever wants their chair.

Now, it’s not a secret by this point that all governments have some level of corruption, but from this chapter on, it’s going to become way more evident just how stupid of an idea it is to give total power to a very small group of people without any real way to make sure they use it responsibly.

Monarchies, in an ideal situation, would be stable and simple. One Monarch rules over everything (or at least have final say on everything) and would do their best to keep things running smoothly and protect their people. They might be willing to hear from their people about what issues need to be dealt with and have the power to swiftly deal with them. If they’re really cool, they’ll even encourage their people to get educated and prosper. And once they’ve grown old and are not long for this world, their offspring will take the crown and continue this era of peace, growth, and stability.

What almost always actually happens instead though, is that it’s a shit-show run by one asshole wielding supreme power and using it to make life great for them. They’ll rarely view their population as much more than cheap labor and only protect them because they need someone to be willing to die for them. It’s not to say that power always corrupts, but even good people may do really bad things if no one can stop them.

The simplistic aspect of Monarchies is unsurprisingly not usually so simple. If the Monarch has multiple children before they die, leadership is often bestowed on the oldest child. But then most of the other kids will want (or even actively try to make) something bad happen to their older sibling. And this is the best case scenario.

If the Monarch doesn’t have any children, then the real fun begins. Some Monarchies give power to the widow, or whoever is the closest advisor to the Monarch, or don’t really have any plan at all and there’s a huge power vacuum that will threaten the stability of the entire nation. I mean, most people secretly want their Monarch dead anyway, but getting that wish rarely turns out the way they’d hope.

Monarchs having an heir is critical. Much of the drama they live through comes from who they’re going to marry and have kids with. They need to pick someone with good connections who can assist in maintaining the power structure. Most also arbitrarily decided that only the male lineage matters, so their daughters are just viewed as prizes to marry off and pop out more kids. God forbid somebody can’t produce offspring (whoever’s fault it is, it will almost certainly be blamed on the woman). The whole goal is to create a lasting dynasty in the name of whichever ass-clown first took over; as soon as they can’t have a boy to marry off to some girl to ensure things stay stable, things get messy.

Of course, finding someone from another family they can trust is difficult. Hell, most of the time they can’t even trust their own family. Still, you’ve gotta find someone to have kids with to make sure the dynasty continues. Some Monarchs found a loophole by just marrying their siblings or other family members. All cultures and specific types of Monarchies are different, so whether this is a genius move or absolutely disgusting depends on the nation itself. Personally, I think it’s both.

But whatever, the Monarch has found a partner (that may or may not be their sibling) and have had children. Now they’ve lived a full life, and are ready to pass away and leave leadership to their oldest child. This person and their siblings were likely raised from birth to lead, and now must take charge. And how well they’ll end up doing is a complete and utter crapshoot.

To be fair, even electing leaders is usually a total crapshoot, but at least there’s a choice in the matter. The child who ends up taking the crown might end up much better than their parent, sure, but if they have no idea what the hell they’re doing, the nation is stuck with them until they’re inevitably assassinated by a family member and/or possible lover.

Transfers of power rarely goes smoothly in Monarchies. Even with set rules for how new leaders are chosen, everyone has their preference for who should be on the throne. Often it is themselves, or it’s somebody who can be easily manipulated, or it’s someone who will kill all of the right people to make life great for themselves. The average citizen of a Monarchy is usually screwed no matter who’s in charge. It’s really not a fun time for anyone.

So much for simple and stable.

Over time, humanity has rightfully decided that Monarchies are pretty shit. Most have abandoned them altogether, but for others, old habits die hard. Some nations have a Constitutional Monarchy, which basically means they have set laws (and often elected officials) to govern, but also still have a Monarch. The Monarch in a Constitutional Monarchy usually does fuck-all; while they still hold a little political power, the main thrust of it comes from the constitution and a real government. The Monarchs in this case are more of a mascot than anything.

All in all, Monarchies are really not that great, and the first in the line of governments where giving absolute power to one person or a small group almost exclusively backfires disastrously.

PROS:

- Provides the most common governing structure for fantasy stories

- Can be simple and stable

CONS:

- Is rarely simple and stable

- In fact, it’s usually just a circle-jerk of selfishness and incest

GENERAL RATING: Mostly awful. Almost any of the advantages for this system are exceedingly outweighed by the negatives. Everyone’s trying to kill everyone else to gain more power, and the average citizen it usually screwed no matter who wears the crown. For everyone single good Monarch, there are probably at least five awful ones coming. While elected systems are going to have bad leadership too, at least in those cases, they don’t have to wait until someone murders whoever’s in charge for change to happen.

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#how to life #htl #chapter 56 #monarchies #governments #advice #humanity #life #philosophy #humor

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fly-pow-bye · 7 years

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Powerpuff Girls 2016 - “People Pleaser“

Written by: Haley Mancini, Jake Goldman

Written & Storyboared (sic) by: Jaydeep Hasrajani, Leticia Abreu Silva

Directed by: Nick Jennings, Bob Boyle

YouTube videos! To-do lists! Evil goo!

This episode, which became the season finale whether the writers knew it or not, starts with a lesson on what biomes are from a fake YouTube personality. Said personality seems to be stuck in the worst part of the 90s.

Braeden: This is Biomes with Braeden! We talk about biomes 24/7! (sudden cut to him playing an electric guitar) diddledodiddledodiddledo-wreeeeeeeeeeeooooh!

Yeah, he's no Strong Bad. He never appears after this scene, his only purpose is to teach the kids at home what a biome is. They could have had Blossom explain what it is, but it just wouldn't be hip if we aren't down with the Yous and the Tubes. He also introduces the Make Your Own Biome set; so easy, a baby can do it.

Bubbles is apparently less than this baby, as she can't get a tree to stand up. This still unnamed outside of the three seconds in one of the shorts school has given our girls another Science Project. Bubbles is doing a taiga biome, Buttercup is doing the egg drop, and Blossom is doing nothing. I guess she got a free pass after making that animal ray reversal button.

Bubbles: I got the tiger! (stock tiger roar)

Bubbles can actually do this with her special power of speaking animal, but it's hard to tell if this joke was made with that in mind. Since Bubbles can't build the biome herself, Blossom promises to Bubbles that she'll help her out after school. In her words, it's her top priority, as she puts it as number one in her cell phone's to-do list. After school, she helps her out, and the rest of the episode is about the girls punching monsters in the face.

At least, that's what could have happened, but what about this? During school, Miss Keane calls on Blossom to do a favor for her. She needs someone to write a speech for a guy that runs a bean resturaunt. Apparently, Blossom is literally the only person in the entire class that won't make fart jokes.

Blossom puts it in her to-do list, and being the loving sister she is, she immediately puts Bubbles below the bean enterpeneur. Anyone can guess where this plot is going at this point. Most PPG 2016 episodes seem to take plot points from the original, but in this case, it's taking the plot from Run, Blossom, Run. The big difference, is that in that short, Blossom felt the need to do everything immediately so she can get to class without guilt.

In this episode, she constantly takes on new favors, and instead of doing them, she just puts it on her to-do list. In her mind, any new favor should be her top priority, no matter what. Of course, this comes at the expense of poor Bubbles. She doesn't even care, and this will be far more apparent later.

I'll give one example, because it really shows how forced this plot is. One of the favors she decides to take is to deliver a pizza to a bunch of “hangry” astronauts. They really rub in that word, too; they have this mission control say what it means, and then has some yelling astronauts repeat it in a cutaway "gag". Huh, delivering a small box to a satellite in space quickly. A perfect job for someone who could fly really fast and survive in a vacuum.

This seems like something she can do instantly, but because of this episode's plot, she puts it in her to-do list. Those astronauts can starve while she fills her list full of silly things like deliver clowns to the clown college. Get it, clowns? Yeah, I don't get it, either.

It's long after school, and Bubbles is rightfully sad that Blossom isn’t helping her out. Out of luck, Buttercup shows up. Oh yeah, that Buttercup subplot about the egg drop. The egg drop simply consists of finding out how to drop an egg without breaking it. The running joke is that Buttercup's experiments consist of throwing eggs at her sisters, because that's what humans do.

Buttercup wonders why Bubbles is crying, and Bubbles explains her situtation. That rascally little green princess decides to help her out in Blossom's place. All this episode needs is a sitcom "wah wah wah" sound effect, but they thankfully wasted those in the last episode.

We get a montage, cutting between Buttercup helping out Bubbles, and Blossom finally doing her favors. I guess after getting 500 of them, she finally decided to do them. If there's one improvement over the short: at least some of these favors actually involve superpowers. For example, she uses super speed to fix the library, and eye lasers to light up the Non Copyrighted Multinational Sports Event's torch.

Of course, Buttercup's help doesn't go too well. Buttercup shoots the paper trees like shuriken, pours soda all over the taiga, and drowns the entire project in marshmallow goo. Bubbles initially laughs, and then starts crying that her project is "terrible".

Buttercup: There's only one thing that can cause Buttercup to be terrible.

It is way too easy to respond to this line, so fill in the blank: "____________________? No, she's referring to Blossom." She leaves, not realizing the biome project is slowly expanding. This will have an explanation, but it will not be a satisfying one.

There might be someone who is thinking, "well, maybe this is all against Blossom's will, and she's desperately trying to get to that Bubbles favor!" Well, that's not the case. Buttercup confronts Blossom on not doing the favor of the one person that truly matters.

Blossom: The Professor?

Buttercup: NO! Bubbles!

Blossom: Oh no, I forgot!

Yeah, she completely forgot about Bubbles. I guess she was too busy adding things to her to-do list than to be a caring sister. To try to rub it in, Buttercup tells her that she had to help Bubbles.

Blossom is more concerned that Buttercup decided to take her place, because Buttercup is incompetent! Buttercup tells her to relax, because insert obvious joke about character talking about something that can't possibly happen but will happen after the character talks about it.

Buttercup: It's not like marshmallow goo turns biomes into giant rampaging monsters!

Yes, marshmallow goo turns biomes into giant rampaging monsters, who knew? Blossom treats this as if this is supposed to be common knowledge. She does throw in a line about chemical composition, but that's all we get. Hmm, there is this magical chemical they could have used that would make a better explanation.

Come to think of it, I don't remember if Chemical X ever appeared in this reboot beyond the opening of the music video. Now that's one part of the original that could have been expanded upon. All we know about it is that it creates life, causes superpowers, and has an antidote. Wait, I'm rambling again. Quick, get me a non sequitur scene that adds nothing to the episode.

Oh yes, it's completely necessary to have a random scene where Buttercup pours marshmallow goo out of an oil barrel. Seems to be a staple of Hasrajani and Silva episodes to have poorly animated scenes that only serve to make this cartoon worse than it already is. Well, there is a giant monster, so can we get a giant monster battle?

Buttercup tries to defeat the monster by throwing eggs at it. Remember, that funny running joke that isn't funny or a joke? One of the eggs lands in the marshmallow goo covered portions of the monster, and doesn't break. This gives Buttercup an epiphany on how to drop an egg without breaking it, finishing her homework assignment. The Buttercup subplot ended, and the world became slightly happier because it did.

Blossom's Plan B: actually punch the monster! Wait, "the toughest fighter" didn't think of that first? The bigger shock, unlike every other time they tried this strategy in this reboot, it succeeds! The monster doesn’t even land a hoof on her, it’s just like the old days. Well, except for the hit flashes. Better hit flashes than previous episodes, but still.

Unfortunately, this turns out to be a bad thing, as Bubbles is sad that her biome looks even less like the picture. Finally doing her favor to the second person she cares about the most, she uproots some trees from the nearby forest, steals a water tank to give the taiga a river, and uses her ice breath to make it snowy. She apparently had learned nothing from the Snow Month incident. Average for the show, really; how many times did Buttercup have to learn to not be selfish?

This ends up making a biome big enough for the whole class to experience. Buttercup isn't too impressed; she was the one that made the biome a gigantic monster in the first place. It turns out those stolen trees, stolen water, and climate change-causing superpowers were put on the monster, apparently making it habitable and friendly. Eh, I'll take anything at this point, thumbs up.

Bubbles gets an A on her project, she turns into one of those chomper plants from Super Mario World, and those astronauts probably died of starvation. The episode ends with Blossom putting "get the monster out of the parking lot" on her to-do list, showing that she has learned nothing. Honestly, after watching 39 episodes and 4 shorts that might have counted as one, the biggest lesson I've learned is that I shouldn't take Cartoon Network's quality for granted.

Remarks:

Is the title accurate?: One could say that Blossom is pleasing people by doing them favors, though that title could refer to any time Blossom does a favor to someone. I could mention that this episode didn't exactly please me, a person, but that's kind of a foregone conclusion with this show.

Clarification: According to Buttercup’s paper, her and apparently Blossom’s nickname for Bubbles is actually spelt “Bubbz“. I will not use that spelling.

Come to think of it: One of head writer Haley Mancini’s previous works was an internet show called Raptor Raptor. According to the credits, it was directed by Matt Chapman, one of the creators of Homestar Runner. Maybe it could be a tribute to Bubs after all.

Final Verdict:

The season was going to either end with a bang or a whimper, and this one falls in the latter category. However, I feel like being a little charitable to this one. I liked how the biome monster ties to the ending, I do like how Blossom was actually using her powers, making the superhero part of the show necessary, and it didn't have any bad memes. Also, it's because it's the last episode of Season 1, and I can finally say that this blog completed something. This episode gets...

Uh, Buttercup. I said it wasn't that bad. Come on, try to straighten that face.

Oh dear. I guess after judging this whole season of the PPG 2016, her face got stuck in a permanent scowl. I could imagine 2016 itself didn't help. Maybe I should try to fix that up; I'll put that on my to-do list.

← Somewhere Over The Swingset ☆ Bubbs and Donny Get The Mail (Short) →

#fpb ppg 2016 #ppg 2016 #fpb reviews #cartoon network #powerpuff girls

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larrykrakow · 4 years

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Leftist Movements: Where Were You When We Needed You?

New Post has been published on https://theprogressivemind.org/leftist-movements-where-were-you-when-we-needed-you/

Leftist Movements: Where Were You When We Needed You?

Leftist movements have played a critical role in American politics in the past. They brought about the New Deal in response to the Great Depression. They attracted masses in search of civil rights. The left brought us out of the Vietnam War and into a period of relative peace. Even if you are on the right, you need to read this piece. It shows how YOU were taken for a ride by our current system.

So where have the leftist movements been?

It seems that they are starting to re-energize after decades of decline thanks to the campaign of Bernie Sanders and the rise of political giants like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, but the war on the left began in the post World War II era. The first shot across the bow was an attack on labor. President Truman signed Taft Hartley in 1947. Since then, we plowed through the McCarthy Era into the Civil Rights Movement. Many believed that the death of Martin Luther King Jr. was a major blow to the economic left.

Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr. was the leader of one of America’s most successful progressive movements. He was not solely working towards racial justice. Perhaps, the one thing that the plutocracy feared the most was that he was working towards bringing about working class dignity for ALL races.

Doctor King planted a flag for the working class. It was not only about race for him. He was about fairness in our society. This is the fairness that has been stolen from us over generations. Unfortunately, the attacks continued and reached a breaking point. Richard Nixon divided us up with his Southern Strategy and Reagan went after the air traffic controllers as a symbolic shot that government had disdain for the working class. Sadly, that has led to destruction of organized labor across the country, organized labor of black AND white people.

Fortunately for us, people have started to wake up. The minimum wage has become a litmus test for many on the left. States are now passing laws raising the wage, but in reality, it is still not enough. Leftist movements like Fight For 15 have won some victories, but the country still has a $7.25 minimum wage.

The attacks however have gotten worse. When the economy collapsed in 2008, there were no prosecutions related to the fraud that brought down the economy. Occupy Wall Street started in response. Sadly, there was no leadership or organization. It was quickly co-opted by the Democrats and fizzled out.

Donald Trump is a symptom of a broken system.

The establishment Democrats paid lip service to the working class. They pushed the same trade deals that have led us down the path to where we are today. The only difference is that this time, the guy who says he is against bad trade deals actually signed one. As Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership was shelved, Donald Trump was reworking NAFTA and out came an agreement that further put the corporations in charge.

If you want to talk about a wolf in sheep’s clothing, look no further than Donald Trump. He came into office calling Hillary Clinton crooked. She may have been in the eyes of many, but he is every bit and more. He added several Goldman Sachs lackeys to his cabinet and appointed some of the worst corporate actors as well. He made sure that his daughter and son in law were able to exploit positions of power for personal gain. Trump violated the Emoluments Clause of our Constitution by profiteering off other governments.

Covid-19 is perhaps the breaking point.

Out of tragedy, we often see hope. Times in our history have shown that. When George Floyd was murdered by the police, nationwide outrage started to simmer, but it is nowhere near what is expected to come. The Federal Reserve has been pumping money into financial markets to make them go with the intention of driving economic growth and saving struggling companies. This kind of action never brings money into the hands of people like you or I. It puts the money in the hands of corporations who are now flush with cash as people are losing everything.

We are getting closer and closer to seeing millions of people being either evicted or foreclosed upon. Sadly, the response by our government has mostly been to bail out corporations. As people are forced home, people like Jeff Bezos are expanding their wealth far beyond what is imaginable. This should wake up the left. If it does not, then we have a structural flaw in our society.

It is high time for an uprising unlike we have ever seen.

Economic justice is a tough thing to achieve. The mainstream media never covers the suffering of average Americans. They have the power to create a narrative that highlights suffering brought on by our corporate social capitalist system. This very system socializes losses for the corporations and privatizes the gains. That is how crony capitalism works. In down times, it is you, the tax payer who must bail out these poor corporations so that we can save the country. When you need a savior, all I here is crickets.

Leftist movements are not made at the ballot box. I can tell you that Donald Trump has been an even bigger part of the problem than any corporate Democrat. His tax cuts largely went to the plutocracy while your stimulus payment was enough to buy a couple of months worth of groceries and gas in your car. After that, you are on your own. In fact, Congress went on break without a deal for economic relief for the people. Unbelievably, they did not believe that a break would hurt people facing eviction.

Here are some statistics to wrap your head around. Around 40% of all renters nationwide are at risk of a rent shortfall and/or eviction. The state with the highest number is West Virginia at 59%. The lowest percentage comes from Vermont with 22% of renters at risk. The state with the lowest percentage STILL RISKS HAVING OVER ONE IN FIVE RENTERS RISKING EVICTION!

If you are not outraged by this when American billionaires increased their wealth by over 500 billion dollars during the pandemic, I don’t know what to say to you. I put this blame squarely on Mitch McConnell AND Donald Trump. I also put this blame on the American people for not standing up to power and demanding what is rightfully yours.

Don’t listen to Hannity or Rachel Maddow. Even though they are on different sides of the fence, they are there to watch out for the plutocracy. How do you feel about your right wing values when you may not have a home to place your flag? The media will not tell you that the economy is in such a bad place that your small town businesses may go under, leaving your brother, sister, cousins and friends without jobs. They also will not give lip service to leftist movements.

What you may NOT realize is that we are being divided up and powers that be are walking away to the bank!

You are told that the left only wants to give away free stuff. That is a crock! As a member of the left, I can tell you that I always want the dignity of a job and one that pays well. We are NOW living in a pandemic that has taken the lives of 167,000 Americans. It has caused our economy to contract by 9% in a single quarter, the largest contraction in American history. If you want to talk about FREE stuff, look no further than the crooks that gave it all to wealthy corporations.

We should never be forced to put the pressure on our politicians, but the reality is, they are owned by powerful special interests who have the desire to rig the game in their favor. Getting back to those of you on the right that support the clown in the White House and the goons in Congress, remember, the only thing that they have promised that they have kept is that they would make sure that those people of color are not your problem. Unfortunately for you, they are linked to you, like it or not.

They WOULD be your natural ally for working class solidarity if you let them, yes, the brown people. They would march in picket lines with you. It is very simple when you ask someone who is really considered to be on the left in America what they want. We want a living wage, universal healthcare, a Green New Deal, ending the wars, ending the war on drugs and ending mass incarceration. I doubt that I am asking too much. Every American should be able to be able to have a roof over their head, the ability to see a doctor and the ability to live in a clean world. That is all that the leftist movements are about!

The corporations don’t care if you have that or not. They care solely about their profits. They do not give a shit about you. They don’t care about the 59% of people in West Virginia who could lose their housing during a pandemic. These people are parasites to our society and intend to keep us divided.

Just remember one thing. Leftist movements are not an attack on your freedom. It is an attack on greed and corruption. This corruption has brought our system to its knees. We have people waiting on bread lines across the country. How can we allow this to continue? I cannot understand why. Is it really that important to see Trump build a wall that you will allow the greediest in our society take EVERYTHING? Chris Smalls asked Amazon to provide protective gear and hazard pay as his coworkers were getting sick. HE is a man of color that fought for ALL of us, no matter what the color of our skin is! This is a black man that fought to help prevent you, maybe a white person from getting sick with a potentially deadly illness.

Our differences are only skin deep. We are all strugglers in the vast ocean of society. The plutocracy is made up of the sharks like Donald Trump that are eating us alive. They are taking our last resources as a nation and hoarding them, because they know the end is near. They know that one day, we will rise up together and take them on. Donald Trump is just a symptom. The disease comes from a system that has been manipulated to control you. It comes from the media that is owned by billionaires and the divide and conquer tactics that distract us from the REAL Truth. That truth is that the American dream is dead. You have to be asleep to believe in it. If you wish to revive it, stand together with people that you normally do not like, because the people at the top don’t care about you.

#leftist movements

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oldmanessays · 6 years

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A Reflection On The Society That We Live In

Let us not murder equality, let us not create a divide, let us not weigh the aspects of the world we live in, measuring everything on a scale of biasedness. Let us not teach our children, the forerunners of the generation to arrive, that all Indians are my brothers and sisters, let us not tell them that the whole world is their family, let us not tell them that we are at war with some other country, that we are hell bent upon suffocating each other within, let us spare them the contradiction. Why embrace equality to finally murder it, our innocence begins to die since the very day we are born, raging psychopaths are we, if anything, for who conjures ethical principles only to wound them open and spill them as guts of innocents, a horrid dream for some, till it becomes a fairy tale notion. You are a Hindu, you are a Muslim, you are a Christian, You are a Jain – wait, why didn’t I begin the sentence with – you’re a Jain, or you’re a Muslim? If I had been born and brought up as a Catholic in America, I might have had initiated my lines with the aspects of being a Christian – see, it has steeped within our minds, infecting our subconscious – the prominence of dominence. A la a in George Orwell’s Animal Farm – ‘All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than the others’ – hence no matter who you are, residing in what so ever part of the world, a fragment of equality shall be denied to you, if you hold your rights back, they shall be snatched, if you fight for them, you would be fought back by people with a zero fundamental range who recite slogans of dementia, and the fight shall continue, until you’ve won or until they have succeeded in oppressing your voice. The righteous has a voice, for the ones the will of who is flawed enough to be judged as wrong, have brute force in the form of guns and bombs, tear gas and pellets, agents of wounds that age into scars, tears that end up nourishing revolutions. Look there goes a Kashmiri, frown upon him. Reason? Isn’t being a Kashmiri enough, he must be despising us, he should be despising this nation and if this form of trending propaganda doesn’t appeal you much, then I shall churn out one too many for you. Come close and I shall whisper in your ear, I whisper for I know, I shall sound rotten to the core – he is a Muslim too. What am I? A Hindu and I feel as if I am flowing in a stream of equality, I have always thought as such. For my life is such a bliss. All through my childhood, I was taught, that in Hinduism exists a caste system, synonymous to ranking – from the most elite in the society, to the most futile – Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra and not only this – I always thought I was a Kshatriya until my father told me that I was a Kayastha and we didn’t belong in any of the above-mentioned categories. And though we were categorised as ‘General’, we were signing petitions to be listed as ‘scheduled castes’, so that we can derive the quotas, that drive the undeserving to access and claim what should have had been rightfully belonged to the deserving. Reservations. Just because, forefathers of many were oppressed a hundred years ago, that means that the future generations of theirs shall be provided with special privileges indefinitely, thereby making up for all that they have lost, no matter if they really deserve it or not. I don’t hear of a black quota in America. Are we Indians coward enough, does hard work and putting up a fight to win over something scares us to such an extent that we adhere to means as mean as such? Now a days, those who are actually capable, those who actually deserve, lose a lot more due to this reservation system, and we don’t realize that in a way, history is repeating itself, if not on a grander scale, if there is no elephant in the room, yet this parasite of a system is sucking us dry. What is this system, where biased tactics thrive, and what’s rightfully someone’s, shall be taken away? It happened then, it’s happening now and it’s just like standing in front of a mirror when axis change but the sense of the scenario transpiring remains the same. Where is the essence of equality in that? I don’t get it. As of being a Kayastha, my father told me that we specialized in writing and other aspects that involved a pen and a paper, but I cannot forget that a classmate of mine in college, a person replete with castists beliefs, was spreading rumors about me, relating them to my caste – hence, you honor, if there is any, if one tries to create a divide with respect to religions, I rest my case, for my religion is rotten enough in itself, that I did rather unfollow the notion, become an atheist and kill any form of religious perspective, that might have had ever existed in me. Thank you. Equality, is it? I believe in the rights of women, I travel via the metro, I witness the separate compartment reserved for them, I witness their reserved seats. All right by me. What is not right by me, if when you are in your twenties, leisuring about your reserved seat, hooked up on your phone, all fine – walking, talking, then how can you deny an elderly woman, who has a problem standing in a crowd, the people in which are basically sticking to one another? From when did our ethical human virtues were taken upon by one’s right as a woman. Finally, a guy stood up and offered his seat to the woman. Equality – woman fight for equality when they cannot stand for one another. My words can be criticized, but yes, a singular incident is exemplary for human nature. Women’s magazines, with women acting as editors, don’t feature obese women on their cover, no short woman, no physically flawed woman, no rape survivors, no acid attack victims – for once we can do without the glitz and the glam, for once we can consider all women equal, and start treating them equally amongst one another. That would be the first step. Same goes for Men’s magazine, same goes for the billboards that prostitute around entire cities, same goes for everything. The truth lies within the folds, it’s a pity we are not opening up. LGBT, people treat your sexuality as if a weapon, people even treat the notion of sex as an abomination. The reason for their very being is an abomination. Three cheers to that. If you’re gay, you shall be frowned upon, you shall be bullied, here in India, you can even be killed honorably. That’s the story, you are a walking talking nuclear weapon, hell you can even be infectious, you shall not be interacted with – and the funny part is, that many a people, who take pride in claiming that they stand with the LGBT movement, make use of words of the likes of ‘Gay’ and ‘Lesbian’ in manners that are nothing short of being derogatory. Hypocrisy, I tell you. And if that’s not enough, in comes racial bigotry. Brown people looking down upon blacks, yellow ones looking down upon brown, a white man looking down them all. Even here, even in our good old nation, if you are dark complexioned, you must be familiar with sarcastic slangs that find their derivation from the color of your skin tone. When not many, but a few in our own nation are racist, how offended are we, when we face racism in distant lands! Religion, sexuality, gender, color – and the forms of inequality have we derived from them are nothing but detestable. What should have had held us together, what should have blended everything in shades that please the eye – is tearing the world apart. And you know what, the most dangerous beings of all, the intellects, use your fallacies to their benefits. Yes, they understand what’s right, they understand what’s wrong, and they are spread everywhere, from politics to corporate enterprises, and yet they do nothing about it, because of narcissistic reasons, they want to be in power, they want to govern, they want differences to arise, they want the debate to go on and on and on, they love playing the puppeteer to us puppets. Every sane mind realizes that loving someone can in no manner what so ever be wrong, and yet, the government doesn’t legalize same sex marriages, owing only to one reason and one reason specifically – they don’t want to succumb to your demands, they want you to beg, plead and even fight them, for they want to show you who is in power, that who is ‘in-charge’. Such dismissive actions reflect of their importance. If the people in power grant us every single thing we demand, they shall be taken for granted, they shall not be regarded and owing to this, they prefer not to lose their Midas touch. That’s the recipe. The world today The world today- bans love, represses voices, kills innocents and chooses maniac clowns for leaders. Here, there, everywhere! Polish your principles to such an extent, that you, yourself, become the principle, then pick up a fight, for in the world as such, there are people who want to bring the change and people who want to stand beside revolutionaries and be noticed. They possess a greater threat than the one we believe we are facing. The change should first occur amidst ourselves, then should it be scattered like pollen in the world yonder, for the greater good.

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joementa · 7 years

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A Playlist About Me.

A couple of months ago, a really great friend of mine asked me to send her a playlist of songs that have had a big impact on me. I’d also say that these are songs that probably best describe my life until now. I spent a lot of time working on that playlist, so I figured I would post it here.

I usually keep a playlist to 20 songs, but that was an impossible task. So I decided to get a little creative and order the playlist the way a good show’s setlist would flow. I think I did a really great job doing that. So here you go – 23 songs that tell my story. At the bottom of the playlist, I’ve included some notes about each song. I tried not to provide too many details, but if you would like more, please contact me and I will give all of them to you. Some of these have a lot of extra analysis and details that is just too much for here!

Hopefully you enjoy this playlist and potentially discover some new music as well!

Intro/House PA song: Wilson Pickett – “In The Midnight Hour” (In The Midnight Hour)

Dave Matthews Band – “The Best of What’s Around” (Under The Table And Dreaming)

The O’Jays – “I Love Music” (Family Reunion)

Arthur Conley – “Sweet Soul Music” (Sweet Soul Music)

The Crystals – “Da Doo Ron Ron”

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – “The Tears Of A Clown” (Make It Happen)

The Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back” (Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5)

The Five Stairsteps – “O-o-h Child” (Stairsteps)

Fleetwood Mac – “Don’t Stop” (Fleetwood Mac)

The Beatles – “Yellow Submarine” (Revolver)

Elvis Presley – “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You”

Donna Lewis – “I Love You Always Forever” (Now In A Minute)

Sister Hazel – “All For You” (Somewhere More Familiar)

Bob Dylan – “Like A Rolling Stone” (Highway 61 Revisited)

Journey – “When The Lights Go Down” (Infinity)

Boston – “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” (Boston)

The Rolling Stones – “Tumbling Dice” (Exile On Main Street)

Prince – “Little Red Corvette” (1999)

The Gaslight Anthem – “Mae” (Handwritten)

Bruce Springsteen – “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” (The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle)

Main set closer: Counting Crows – “A Long December” (Recovering The Satellites)

E1 (1st song in encore): Bob Marley & The Wailers – “Turn Your Lights Down Low” (Exodus)

E2 (2nd song in encore): The Beatles – “Twist & Shout” (Please Please Me)

Notes:

Intro/House PA song: Wilson Pickett – “In The Midnight Hour” (In The Midnight Hour) When I was a kid, I used to spend a lot of Friday and Saturday nights by myself, pretending I was a DJ in my bedroom. I would imagine people in my room, dancing and singing to all the music that I was playing. My “intro” song was this song. I would put this song on before I would start my pretend DJ set, and would walk around my room hyping up the imaginary crowd.

Dave Matthews Band – “The Best of What’s Around” (Under The Table And Dreaming) In the summer of 2005, I started playing the guitar, and I got bored very quickly with just strumming chords. A friend of mine recommended that I start listening to DMB. At the time, I had never listened to any DMB songs, at all, before. I bought what I thought was their first album (technically, Remember Two Things is the first one), Under The Table And Dreaming. It was a beautiful summer afternoon. I put the album into my car’s CD player, rolled down the windows, and couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had never heard a song like this before.

I listened to this song on repeat at least 10 times before I even made it to the next song on the album. It’s interesting that they became one of my favorite bands ever, because in middle school and high school, I hated them. They were the band that all of the cool kids went to go see. I was never one of them, and I was never invited to go to those shows. So I hated them without ever even listening to them. By the time I got into them, they weren’t even cool anymore, and had actually just released what is widely considered to be their worst album (Stand Up). Flash back to today, and they are my most-seen band!

The O’Jays – “I Love Music” (Family Reunion) This is pretty self-explanatory. I love The O’Jays, of course, as well as anything TSOP-related. I seriously think it is one of the most underrated musical genres. Gamble & Huff are two of the greatest songwriters ever.

Arthur Conley – “Sweet Soul Music” (Sweet Soul Music) Another one that’s pretty self-explanatory. I love music that’s about music, and I love soul music. I’m not a fan of categorizing music, but sometimes it’s necessary. Motown soul is probably my most favorite type of music. Even when I was really young, I knew all about the bands/musicians that Arthur Conley name drops in this song.

The Crystals – “Da Doo Ron Ron” Just a classic. I don’t even remember learning this song.

Smokey Robinson & The Miracles – “The Tears Of A Clown” (Make It Happen) I have this vivid memory of lying on my bed upstairs after school, with my parents downstairs prepping dinner. They played this song a lot. The riff is infectious. Of course I’ve always loved Smokey and this song in particular is one that brings back fond memories. Even today, when I hear this song, I literally can still smell the house that I grew up in and hear my parents singing this song to each other.

The Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back” (Diana Ross Presents The Jackson 5) When I think of my most favorite bands ever, I have to include The Jackson 5 in there. As a kid, they were up there with the Beatles for me. This was the first song of theirs that hooked me in, and rightfully so. It’s amazing (obviously).

The Five Stairsteps – “O-o-h Child” (Stairsteps) This song is beautiful.

Fleetwood Mac – “Don’t Stop” (Fleetwood Mac) I love how this song is upbeat, but addresses some heavier topics. If you’re someone who has struggled with being negative, or feels down, you should be thankful that a song like this exists.

The Beatles – “Yellow Submarine” (Revolver) The Beatles are my most favorite band ever. Legend has it that this was the first Beatles song that I loved. I used to run around the house singing the chorus over…and over…and over…and over. It’s obviously not my favorite Beatles song, but I had to include it. I literally don’t remember learning the Beatles’ music. It’s always been in my life.

Elvis Presley – “I Want You, I Need You, I Love You” Elvis was the first musician I remember actually discovering on my own. It was in second grade. Someone gave me a bunch of used cassettes, and Elvis’ Golden Records was one of them. I obviously knew who Elvis was, but I didn’t know his music. The more I listened to this, the more obsessed I became with Elvis.

Donna Lewis – “I Love You Always Forever” (Now In A Minute) This is the first modern song that I ever remember consciously listening to. I taped it off of the radio and listened to it over and over again.

Sister Hazel – “All For You” (Somewhere More Familiar) This is the song that started getting me into ‘90’s music. I remember hearing this, and it sounded so unfamiliar to me. It’s easy to say that this song has “the ‘90’s sound”, and it does – but before I heard this, I literally had NO CLUE what ‘90’s music sounded like. I didn’t know any of the quintessential ‘90’s bands. So when I first heard this song, it sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. And that’s because I hadn’t!

Bob Dylan – “Like A Rolling Stone” (Highway 61 Revisited) This is the song that hooked me onto Dylan.

Journey – “When The Lights Go Down” (Infinity) The first summer that I had my license, I was living in down at the beach by myself. At the time I was in a heavy classic rock phase. Very late at night, I would hop into my car, roll down the windows and put this song on repeat while I drove around the beach and bay areas in South Jersey.

Boston – “Let Me Take You Home Tonight” (Boston) This was another song from that same first-summer-with-my-license at the beach. I love listening to classic rock in the summer, especially bands like Boston. This is by far my favorite Boston song.

The Rolling Stones – “Tumbling Dice” (Exile On Main Street) This is a great anthem for feeling confident. Throw this one on in the daytime in the summer, roll down the windows, and you’ll feel really great.

Prince – “Little Red Corvette” (1999) This is my second favorite Prince song (behind “It’s Gonna Be Lonely”), and is the first song of his that I ever loved. Prince is definitely up there with my all-time favorite musicians. I would probably put him second behind Bruce for me. Fun fact – it wasn’t until COLLEGE, after hearing this song for almost TWO DECADES, that I realized this song is not actually about a car.

The Gaslight Anthem – “Mae” (Handwritten) This is one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite bands. The music fits perfectly to the mood of the song. It’s so well done. I always thought that this song should have opened Handwritten. Imagine this song transitioning right into “45”. That would have been perfect!

This is my favorite opener that TGA does. The crowd and band are pretty chill throughout the song, but just like the song itself builds up, you can feel the emotional buildup in the crowd. It gets thicker. You can feel the anticipation from the crowd. When that last note hits, you can feel the crowd getting ready for the mayhem that’s about to ensue, because you know a fast rock ‘n roll song is immediately coming next.

The transition from “Mae” into the next song on this list is perfect (and intentional).

Bruce Springsteen – “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)” (The Wild, The Innocent & The E-Street Shuffle) This is my favorite song ever, hands down, off of my favorite album ever, hands down. How fun is this song? SO FUN! I will never get tired of hearing this song live, nor will I ever get tired of hearing it. Those opening chords create an excitement that is nearly incomprehensible. And every time I hear “Incident On 57th Street”, I always hope that it will segue directly into “Rosie”, the way it does on the album. It’s the best segue I’ve ever heard on any album. This song leaves you breathless by the end. That’s why we need to follow it up with a slower, reflective song.

Main set closer: Counting Crows – “A Long December” (Recovering The Satellites)

I listen to this song a lot, especially in the winter. This is one of those songs that gives you the hope that even if right now is not okay, but tomorrow can be.

Encore

E1 (1st song in encore): Bob Marley & The Wailers – “Turn Your Lights Down Low” (Exodus) You always want to start off the encore with a chill, slow song, right before you go out with a bang. I love this song because it doesn’t sound like a typical reggae song. To enjoy it best, listen to it at night with the lights turned down low (duh…), preferably out on a deck with the smell and sound of the ocean surrounding you. It’s the perfect way to enjoy this song.

And now for the bang…..the mayhem that ensues when you first hear the opening chords of…..

E2 (2nd song in encore): The Beatles – “Twist & Shout” (Please Please Me) The same way I used to always start my DJ sessions with “In The Midnight Hour”, I always ended them with “Twist & Shout”. This is one of my favorite songs ever, it’s just 2 and a half minutes of rock ‘n roll and soul bliss. Fun fact: this is my favorite cover that Bruce does, and even though it’s a cover, it’s one of my favorite songs to see at his shows.

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oddlymysteriousphoenix · 7 years

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#62 12:51am May 29

Huzzah, I have achieved the next level of life for most people living in first world countries, I have graduated. Won’t lie, the experience of graduation is something I won’t keep closely to me at all. Things that have happened before and after will. Again, I’ll do what I can to recollect all the memories. Before graduation I had to wake up various times to go for testing, all I feel that I did well in, not a good sign, but it’s in the past. On that testing week, Jessica and I went out for a wall starting from the school. It was a long walk. Wonderful experience, to be with a buddy and out of the influences of stress. We walked around these collection of stores and off we went to Burger King. Since it was still morning that Friday,I think 11am, they weren’t selling the vege burger she wanted so she got something else while I ordered (she did, I was too shy) a burrito basically and a drink. We ate and spent the time well, she payed for it as I had no money, how kind of her. Not only that we went to a nearby Goodwill and we were there for a good amount of time. I can’t avoid to mention she bought me some stuff we were trying out like sweaters and suits. In the time we were there, I found old CD cases and video games for the Xbox and PS1, I miss old box art on them. There were also vinyl discs including the soundtrack to Ben-Hur and Vincente Fernandez, I took pictures of them. Eventually we ended up getting items in which she, again, bought for. She got a mini plate of a clown and some child, a blue painting with yellow eyes to it, a sweater that was bigger than her sweaters. While I got some random sweater and suit, all of it was cheap. We soon parted ways as I didn’t want my need to poop come instantly so I walked back home. My mom told me tell sweater is made out of wool and would costed around 90 dollars, I got it for free, nice. Skip some days, graduation practice occurred. I hated those two days, ah. Then graduation occurred this past Friday night, at the Germain Arena, small arena if I must judge. I sat with a very few people I knew, also I had this golden rope around me to signify my GPA, but I didn’t care. My mom put on Bobby pins to hold down the hat, I look like I was balding. Worthy mention was that my dad was there and he recorded it, but he complained the video wouldn’t focus and I’m too terrified to look into it, he never had my camera to play around with. I was glad, of course, to have him there. It was the plan to leave the next day, but Rose is coming down here tomorrow as I write, well, today, so I’m having a good feeling to me. Before I go too fast, we ate at an Italian restaurant that I enjoy, dad and I ate “underwear” my favorite Italian food. Oh, also, my mom and I went out before the day of graduation to look for a suit for me. I’ll probably post a picture of it, it’s a flawless suit. Mom tried to show me over suits to get, but it was calling to me and I required to get it in order to be glad in something I wear that’s fancy for once. My dad had to leave the past Saturday to go back up in order to work. He took my computer so when Rose comes to my house, she won’t be able to see my “ultimate power”. Eh, oh well. I’m almost at ease that I’ll be meeting up with her, just hoping her blinding by her boyfriend won’t get in the way of our enjoyment. As the day got closer, she has been texting me more and just a few hours ago I could actually tell she was happy for once unlike the other times she texts me. Not saying she texts upset, just no faces or such, you know? I’m seeing if I should say what I’ve been fighting to hold in. She’s so happy with the guy and if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work. I’ll need to clean up my act too, especially my habits that plague me, such regrets. Good thing is that workout had worked out a bit, that’s a plus. On Sunday I managed to get to Bubba as it was his birthday, I gave him some money that was given to me by my mom. So my mom gave him money, basically. We, as in Bubba, Russian guy and some dude along with me were in his room the whole time. I’ve known tell Russian guy for many years, just never tried to keep contact to the guy and Andrew, the other guy, seemed cool. We all got along very well and we laughed at each other’s jokes and so on. There was some food, I barely ate the cheesecake and I mostly had some cheeseburgers and Dr . Pepsi. Bubba and his family must drink soda everyday as he never fails to not have any. I was there at 12 and mom picked me up at 8:10pm. His mom, dad and relatives were there too. I brought my Xbox, we were going to pay Resident Evil 7, but his computer was a mess so we played Bioshock Infinite for a bit, mainly me that I bought as no one else wanted to play as he was trying to fix the computer. It was something to do with Windows that was messing up. We eventually played spilt screen Minecraft and then to YouTube watching videos, obviously. It was wonderful, I loved it. Now Rose will be coming around, we’ll see what happens. Also, Mollyboo and I chatted awhile back to meet up in Toronto as I was talking to my dad about it, my favorite movie is set there. I have no clue where exactly in the city, but oh well. Dad is up for the idea. So is Mollyboo. The bad news so far as been Alyssa hasn’t been doing well. Her health is diminishing as she left me a voice message on snap chat about it. She’s doing awful, they’ll have to move somewhere in about a year so I dearly hope I could possibly drive up there to her to get a chance to be with her. I honestly miss her, I do. Erin, on the other hand, I don’t care, I won’t mention of her anymore. I hope Alyssa texts back with something soon, I’m afraid for her health and life in general. There would be no problem if I had to take care of her, she’s a good person at heart, an innocent heart with some unique characteristics. Oh, about that Jenna girl, she disappeared suddenly from my life. She just stopped replying a bit after I offered for Skype. As for now, I know who to care for and who I shouldn’t care much for. Deep down I’ll always care regardless. Over the summer, I’ll be practicing a lot of guitar and maybe drawing or Russian. Time passing will only make the motivation get stronger, I wouldn’t mind getting better at guitar and singing was to kill me. I do believe what you love will kill you, hopefully others will understand what I mean. Probably best way to die, or dying peacefully knowing all who you love will be safe for now. I don’t want to think too far, it’s not the time. Almost forgot, dad shaved my beard so I look whiter and younger. Hah. Not like it’ll make a difference with people assuming my background. I think I’ll have to pass by to my school soon, I want to keep contact with a bit more teachers. I haven’t done that with Estock yet. I was going to invite Mr.Sharp to the graduation, but during the practice they told us, including the audience, to not even cheer to hear the names properly as they say and honor the students rightfully. People cheered anyway. Plus, we were off to eat right after that so yeah. I’ll see what I can do if I can go tomorrow, maybe. If they’ll let me, who knows? As for now, I’ll do what I can. Stress has been low for now, I’ve made some progress with what I want to do and that’s good. Unfortunately, I’ll be off to college near here, plan is to leave Florida in about less than 3 years. I want to go. I need new surroundings and places. A new identity. My true identity. But for now, I need true sweet dreaming. Good night.

1:42am

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