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funkopersonal · 1 day

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Im quite literally so done with this shit. i keep on going back and forth between hiding all the i/p related tags, but then I realize that its seeped EVERYWHERE. It's in the motherhood tag, and jewish history tag, and everything else. I can't fucking escape it. I opened tiktok yesterday to see one of my favorite characters (iron man) weaponized to support the one group that wants to see me dead, the user saying that iron man would support palestine, and be an antizionist because he "spoke out against the public" and he wasn't like the sheep. It frustrates me to no end this horrible cycle of fucking misinformation that exists.

As a Gen Z, I simply do not understand how its reached this point? I can't even write all my feelings and information about how shitty this is in a single sitting because 1) it'd be too long and 2) my joints wont let me write that long. But how did it reach this point?

How did it reach the point where jewish/isreali stores are fucking marked to notify the public. Their windows are being broken and the stores are being robbed. How did it reach the point where jewish students on some campuses are told to stay home? how they're harassed out of specific areas, and campuses have been made unsafe? How did it reach the point that people literally have written "I ♡ Houthis & Hamas" and "no mercy for Jews."? How did it reach the point that there are nazi symbols, and hanging deadmans, and communist symbols being drawn on college campuses? How is it possible that students are calling for the end of jewish student unions and hillel international on campus? that'd be like calling for the end of the fucking muslim student organization, or disbanding an african-american affinity group. Which would never be acceptable, but apparently its fine when its jews.

I'm sick and tired of all the horrible conditions of palestenian cities being blamed on israel. Palestine is its own country. They had their own government until they elected Hamas to lead them. Hamas, who diverted all their funds to the military. Hamas, who uses hospitals and public spaces as their bases. Hamas, who built miitary tunnels under cities so that when they're invaded, the cities will collapse on itself. Hamas, who steals all humanitarian aid from its citizens. Hamas, who controls palestenian media and teaches hatred to its children. Hamas, who wants their citizens to become martyrs for their country, to die for their goal. Hamas, whose number one goal is to eradicate all jews. Hamas, who denies the existence of the holocaust. Hamas, who enlists children as soldiers and suicide bombers. Hamas, who has has never expressed an interest in a 2 state solution.

Is this the organization you consider freedom fighters? because i dont think they should ever, in any context, be called that. Hamas is nothing but terrorists.

Yes, the deaths and treatment of palestenian citizens is horrible. but no, this is not a genocide. Israel is trying to rid them of Hamas, because quite literally, no country should ever be forced to live in "harmony" with a terrorist group. Especially one who denies their existence and actively wants to kill them all. Israel has been letting palestenians get jobs in the country, has let palestine use their resources and water, all for years. They've let hamas continously bomb them, they've gotten used to a life of bomb shelters in every residence. Hamas has done nothing but crippled their country's own economy and society.

None of the surrounding coutnries want to let in palestenians, or live with palestenians. Egypt wants to annex Gaza, and Jordan wants the West Bank. In fact, they did own that land for a part of history! Yet Israel has let palestenians govern themselves for years, even when Hamas originally came into power, they didn't interfere. Not until they were provoked.

Yes, Israel has flaws. But welcome to the fucking real world, princess. Every country has flaws. Even America, you dipshits. This is not a little fandom for you to play sides on. its not some fictional world that has a black and white solution. Yes theres going to be deaths, just like in any other WAR. But you really can't call for the destruction of a country on the basis that they're trying to make sure they're allowed to stay a country? Because guess what honey bunchkins? "from the river to the sea" really doesn't mean what you think it does. It just means that you want to kill all jews, or at best, forcefully remove them and scatter them around the middle east. (to countries that have killed them in swaths in the past. To countries that have emprisoned jews for helping others escape. To countries that avidly hate jews and want them dead). I don't understand how that would mean peace in any way shape or form?

Not only that, but half of "protestors" and "activists" for palestine, haven't even done basic research. They dont know what river or sea theyre talking about. They dont know that "palestine" was not a palestenian state in 1948, but it was instead a BRITISH MANDATE, that was NOT fully occupied by palestenians. In fact, "palestenians" weren't a thing. Palestenians are just muslims and arabs from countries like syria, who lived alongside jews and christians in the same land (which was largely uninhabited for the most part). Yeah, you heard me right.

Honestly my thoughts on this issue are so scattered its so hard to make a solid points when I can just keep on going forever.

Fact is, Israel deserves to be a country. No one should be supporting Hamas. Everyone should be supporting the eradication of Hamas (and I mean Hamas not palestenian citizens). I don't get how these are debated, and seriously don't understand how citizens of america are so quick to support a terrorist group, to resort to antisemitism.

Im so done with this all. I cant believe we have to tell you gentiles that stoning a 13-year old kid for being jewish is horrible. That throwing a brick through an israeli-owned cafe in New York is horrible. That students not being able to be on campuses because of their religion or ethnicity is horrible.

This has to end.

Do your research, or don't speak (and terrorist-controlled propoganda channels don't count).

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richkidcityfriends · 1 year

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the next time i see americans blindly supporting the fucking ira i am going to kill someone

#no i actually dont care what they started as #i dont care whether not all of the original ira were provos #because nowadays when you say ira #or tiocfaidh ar lá #or dumb shit like that #no one is fucking thinking of the war of independance #and its all well and good for you to be like #'wah wah its very important to my ancestors'#when you have one great grandfather who went over in the 20s #but you fail to realise that for anyone actually living in the fucking country #or with any real connections to it #that to refer to the ira is to refer to a terrorist organisation #who has killed many innocent people #and before any of yous start i am not a fucking unionist #i do not like england ask anyone who has ever interacted with me #and i understand that they were originally freedom fighters #and that the situation was complicated and nuanced takes are necessary #but what the ira became was an organisation which killed civilians and children #and they are not a group which should be blindly and emphatically supported by people who know nothing about them #other than that they wanted independance #mo rudaí

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blluespirit · 3 months

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Overall NATLA Thoughts

Okay, now that I've watched the series, I can give my thoughts.

Overall, I thought it was good!!! I had fun watching it! I'd rate it a solid 6.5/10. It's nowhere as good as the original, but it was definitely enjoyable and made some nice changes here and there that I liked. There were also some things I was also Not a fan of too.

I said in another post that it's best to treat this like an AU of the original. There will things that are great and things that are bad. That's the nature of adapting something.

Having said that, I need to get my initial thoughts off my chest... here we go.

Things I thought were good:

Sokka's characterisation - I really enjoyed him! I thought Ian did a good job! He played the funny moments well and retained the underlying seriousness/cautiousness. It wasn't perfect, but I enjoyed the changes a lot and think it was overall a solid performance.

Zuko's characterisation - Like Sokka, I do think I was most satisfied with their performances. A lot of Zuko's moments from the cartoon are sometimes... well, cartoonish and definitely wouldn't translate to live action, but I think Dallas did a nice job at balancing Zuko's desperate anger and that occasional sassiness well.

Zuko and Iroh moments were great. Had me on the floor crying. As it should have.

The bending looks a trillion times better than the movie - I understand it would not have been easy for the actors but, overall, I was very happy about it.

The scenery was stunning. It just looked so beautiful. I loved it so much.

Absolutely ADORE that they made Zuko a good calligrapher and artist. I read a fic about a million years ago where Zuko is a fantastic calligrapher and I thought it was perfect and made so much sense, and now I can say it's canon. This is perfect for me.

S U K I

The Freedom Fighters were ✨ perfect

They were so real for making Oma and Shu lesbians

Koh, Wan Shi Tong and Hei Bai looked fantastic, but I have more to say about all of them below, unfortunately.

I actually like the change they made that Katara is Aang's sole waterbending teacher.

Aang is not perfect, and needed more goofy scenes HOWEVER, I did like how they've had Aang's guilt more prominent in the story. The original didn't do a very good job with that, imo.

Zuko entering is breaking and entering era by breaking into an impenetrable Earth Kingdom prison is just perfect.

In Masks, I like how Aang and Zuko got a longer conversation - that was pretty cute.

I liked how they changed Yue a bit and got her out of the arranged marriage... how Yue saw Sokka in the Spirit World before meeting him in the real world.

Things I didn't like:

Far too much info-dumping/exposition. So much spelling things out. It was not as egregious as the movie, and I get there's a lot of information that needs to be conveyed well and quickly... but sometimes it really took me out of the show.

Why are Mai and Ty Lee here.... I was hoping the live action would give them a bit more depth (and they might as it goes forward!), but why put them in season 1 at all if they're just going to stand around???

Some odd changes - putting this as one point, but there are some bizarre changes that didn't make sense to me, as they did not benefit the story or deepen the characters. I have two main examples: a) making it so Aang didn't run away from home, and b) making it so Zuko actually fights Ozai in the Agni Kai.

Characterisation of Katara was Not Great. I don't think I got many hints of the reckless, compassionate, badass Katara until the end when she fights Pakku and rallies all the women together to fight (which happens off-screen). She was sweet and kind, but she just lacked the fire that OG Katara has.

Azula's characterisation - Azula is desperate to impress Ozai and so her character is just…. brewing with anger, frustration, desperation. I was SO excited to see the Azula we are introduced too… perpetually and irritatingly calm, calculating and ruthless. She's perfect, she's terrifying! She's literally the character of all time. But this Azula had more Zuko vibes? I don't think there's anything wrong with giving Azula more concrete motivation by wanting to impress Ozai and establishing that Ozai is abusive to both his kids, but I do think trying to do that right off the bat is a mistake.

WHY is Wan Shi Tong here. I love Wan Shi Tong, but like I said: Why Is He Here? Why could we not have his iconic, ominous as fuck introduction from The Library, and instead he's introduced in a random season 1 episode giving Aang Information(tm) about the Spirit World.

When Aang gave Koh the statue, and then he just takes it and immediately lets all the villages go, and neither of them even say anything, I actually laughed out loud. Like, I am so sorry, but what in the jesus fuck was that.

Speaking of Koh - I think Koh is better the less we know about him. Roku saying ~all Koh wants is a family like the rest of us~ just pissed me off?? I like my Koh the Face Stealer Terrifying and Unknowable, thank you.

NOTHING EVER REALLY HAPPENS WITH HEI BAI!!?? where's my precious spirit bear?? Like Aang never really does anything with him and the replacement Koh story is boring and it sucks.

Bumi.... sorry I just didn't vibe with him at all.

Things I can't decide on:

Fancy spirit knife to kill the moon spirit annoyed me a bit, but I guess they wanted to Kuruk something to work with and a little bit more interaction with Aang which I get but idk. I really flip/flop on this one.

I've been very on the fence about having Azula (and Ozai) being in the show in season 1 in general. I'm not sure if it benefited either of their characters.

Azula & Ozai's dynamic - Okay, so, I think they're trying to give Azula more depth, right? They're trying to establish what it was like for Azula to live with Ozai and that she's also (like Zuko) trying to desperately prove herself to him, but Ozai using Zuko's... achievements to do that just felt so weird. I get he's doing it to manipulate her, but that just felt so wrong when in canon it's very obvious that Ozai just didn't give a single fuck about Zuko. Ozai pits Azula against Zuko by saying he's a failure, he's a bad bender etc. Azula is born lucky, Zuko is lucky to be born - like, Ozai says that to Zuko's face. I don't know if I am communicating this point very well, but it just didn't seem right to me??

Zuko vs Zhao in the Siege of the North... I genuinely do not know how to feel about it! I didn't love it, I didn't hate it. I don't know how to feel about Zhao telling Zuko that his mission is a sham and that Azula is the prized one... It feels like it's saying the quiet part out loud? In the OG we all know that Ozai sending Zuko on that mission was an excuse to get rid of him, but we can work that out, no one actually says it. And then Iroh just fucking killing him/mortally wounding him instead of the Iconic scene where Zuko reaches out to save him despite everything Zhao has done to him, but Zhao's own pride gets in the way from letting him accept help from Zuko.

Zuko’s crew being the 41st is not necessarily a bad thing at all!!! But I do just want to say that in the original, the attack goes ahead, and presumably, those soldiers die. It’s horrible. Zuko’s sacrifice is in vain, and it was always going to be in vain because the Fire Nation as it stands would not allow Zuko's compassion to win. Ozai would not allow it. While not necessarily a bad choice (all the soldiers bowing to Zuko on the boat was so sweet I loved it!) but I think it does take away some of the horror of Zuko’s story (same as it does with making Zuko fight back in my opinion) because the whole point is that Zuko did the right thing - and he was punished for it, and those soldiers died anyway.

anyway...

Okay!! got that off my chest. I know I just had a big whine here, but I still had a lot of fun watching this show. I think some of the backlash is a bit over the top and unwarranted. It was never going to stand up to the original - and that's okay.

Enjoy it for what it is!

#zuko #sokka #katara #aang #yue #iroh #zhao #azula #ozai #jet #koh the face stealer #wan shi tong #hei bai #natla #avatar the last airbender #atla netflix #avatar netflix #jack talks #live action series

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anim-ttrpgs · 2 months

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Why I Dislike PbtA Games, and How Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy is Their Opposite

@tender-curiosities

It is no secret that I hate PbtA games.

Though due to a recent misunderstanding regarding another post, I’m going to preface this post by saying that this is going to be a very opinionated post and

I do not seriously think that PbtA games are inherently bad, though I may sometimes joke about this.

While I do often question the taste of people who make and play PbtA hacks, I do not think poorly of their moral character.

While I am going to call for PbtA to be used less as a base for games in the future, I’m not saying that the whole system and all games based on it should be destructified. It’s good for what it’s good for, but unless you’re doing that, I really think you should use something else.

Now that that is out of the way, here’s what I have to say about it.

My first experiences with PbtA games were pretty rough. Monster of the Week was not the first, but it was one of the first ‘indie’ TTRPGs I played after having previously played mostly only D&D3.5e and 5e. I really appreciated that the use of 2D6 over a D20 meant that the dice results would be more predictable, and I really liked the various “classes” I was seeing. (At this time, I didn’t really understand that they weren’t really “classes” at all, though I think I can be forgiven for this because many people, even people who like PbtA games, still talk like “classes” and “playbooks” are interchangeable.)

I was very enthusiastic to play, until it came time to start actually “making” a character, and found that I couldn’t “make” a character. I wanted to make a nuanced, three-dimensional PC who was simultaneously stereotype-affirming and stereotype-defying, with a unique backstory and dynamic with the other characters—but when I went to actually fill out the character sheet for basically any “class”, I found that most of the backstory and most of the personality for my character was being set for me by the playbook. It felt like the only thing about the character I really had a say in was their name, and that two PCs of the same playbook would actually turn out to be almost identical characters. At the time, I thought this was very restrictive and very bad design.

Later, now that I understand the design intent behind it, I still think of it as very restrictive, but I think of it as very bad design for me, not inherently bad.

When I play a TTRPG, I want more freedom in who my PC is. That doesn’t mean I want less rules, in fact having more rules can often increase freedom, but that’s a different post. I want to create original, unique characters, that I won’t see anywhere else. If it’s a class-based system, I want that class to barely touch the details of my character’s backstory or personality, so that I can come up with something original and engaging for why and how this “Fighter” fights. This means that two level-1 Fighters, despite having almost the same mechanical abilities, will potentially be very different people.

PbtA games don’t let you do that. In a lot of PbtA games, you’re not playing your own original character, you’re playing someone else’s character, that every other player that has picked up the same playbook before you has played. It’s more like “character select” than “character creation.” I think I could liken it to playing Mass Effect or The Witcher. Every player may pick a few different dialogue choices in those games that change the story, but we’re still all playing Shepherd or Geralt. No one is going to experience a new never-before-seen story in Mass Effect or The Witcher, which is very much a factor of them being video games and not TTRPGs, and therefore limited to the amount of code, writing, and voice-acting that can go into them.

This anonymous asker who sent a message to @thydungeongal seems to feel pretty similarly to me about PbtA games, and @thydungeongal's response is a very good response about how people find this appealing.

I have more respect for PbtA now than I did, but I still don't like it because to me it seems to play so much against what I consider to be the strengths of TTRPGs as a medium, much like how video games like The Last of Us and David Cage games play against the strengths of the medium of video games, and I will never like it. But other people clearly do, so to each their own.

Then another reason I don’t like it is because I think it’s oversaturating the TTRPG space. I’ve referred to PbtA before as “indie D&D5e”, and i do think that’s a reasonable comparison, because in much the same way that you always hear “D&D5e is a system that can do everything”, I think a lot of people seem to be under the impression that the PbtA system is a system that can do anything. It’s kinda the système du jour for indie TTRPGs right now, and many iterations of it make it clear that many designers do not consider how PbtA differs from more traditional TTRPGs, and how it is specialized for different types of TTRPG gameplay. Just like how I feel PbtA isn’t playing to certain important strengths of TTRPGs, I think that many—maybe even most—PbtA hacks don’t play to the strengths of PbtA. But this isn’t really PbtA’s fault, that comes down to any individual indie TTRPG developer on a case-by-case basis. And the cure for that is something I’m always saying: If you are going to be a writer, you have got to read lots of books. If you are going to be a director, you have got to watch lots of movies. If you are going to be a video game developer, you have got to play lots of video games. And if you are going to be a TTRPG designer, you have got to read and play lots of TTRPGs. That and you have to understand that TTRPGs are specialized. Even "agnostic" systems like PbtA are somewhat specialized, and therefore might really not be a great fit for the game you’re trying to make.

That and, to get more subjective again, there’s like an ocean of them, and I don’t even like the ones that are actually good.

Now that I’ve talked about how I don’t like PbtA games, I’m gonna talk about a game I do like: Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy. Obviously, I like it because I’m the lead writer for it, but I would also like it even if I wasn’t the lead writer for it, because it’s just my kinda game. Eureka is the opposite of a PbtA game. I wrote it to play to what I feel are the strengths of the TTRPG medium.

Eureka’s character creation uses personality traits as a mechanical element of the character, but it does so in a deliberately freeform way. You build your character’s personality out of a list of traits, so who your character is is very much linked to what your character can do, but we aren’t just handing you a pre-made character.

Eureka is designed to incentivize organic decision-making by the PCs, most often by the mechanics of the game mirroring the world they live in. Every mechanic aims to create situations wherein “what will the PC do next?” is a question whose answer can be predicted - it doesn’t need to be ordained by a playbook.

One of my favorite examples of this is, rather than a “Fear Check” forcing the PC to run away if they fail, or “Run Away from Danger” being a “Move” on their character sheet, Eureka opts for the Composure mechanic. The really short version is that one of the main things that lowers a PC’s Composure is encountering scary stuff, and the lower a PC’s Composure, the more likely they are to fail skill checks, and the more likely they are to fail skill checks, well, the less brave they and their player probably feel about them standing up to this scary monster. So if the PC has low Composure, they are more likely to choose to run away. The lower their Composure, the better idea that will seem.

This system really really shines when it comes to monster PCs in Eureka. Most monsters benefit a lot more from having high Composure, but have fewer ways to restore Composure than mundane PCs. Their main way to restore their Composure is by eating people. The rulebook never says “your monster PC has to eat people”, but more likely than not, they’re going to be organically steered towards that by the game and world itself. Sure, they could decide to be “one of the good ones”, and just never eat people, just like you reading this could decide to stop eating food. You technically could, but when your body starts to fail, how long would you? (This is a big part of the themes of Eureka and what it has to say about crime, disability, mental illness, and evil. People don’t just arbitrarily do bad things, it is often their circumstances that leads them down that path until they see little choice for themselves in that matter, and “harmful” people are still just as deserving of life as people who “aren’t harmful”, but that really deserves its own post.)

It has been said that Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually arrives at much the same end as the PbtA game Monsterhearts, and I actually don’t disagree, but it gets there from an entirely different starting point and direction. The monster PCs in Eureka are very likely to eat people and cause drama, but it won’t be because they have “Eat People and Cause Drama” as a “Move” on their character sheet.

Monsters in Eureka have a lot of abilities, which they can use to solve (and create) problems as the emergent story emerges organically.

(Oh and Eureka is about adult investigators investigating mysteries, and sometimes those investigators are monsters, not about monster kids in high school, to be clear. The same “end” that Eureka and Monsterhearts reach is that of the monsters being prone to cause problems and drama due to the fact that they are monsters, though this isn’t the sole point of Eureka, just one element of it.)

You can pick up the free shareware version of this game from the download link on our website, or the full version for $5 from our Patreon.

And don’t forget, Eureka is fundraising on Kickstarter starting on April 10th, 2024! We need your support there most of all, to make sure we hit our goals and can afford to make the best version of Eureka we can make!

Interested in branching out but can’t get your group to play anything but D&D5e? Join us at the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club, where we nominate, vote on, and play indie TTRPGs, all organized by our team with no strict schedule requirement! Here's the invite link! See you there!

We also have merchandise.

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captain-mj · 2 months

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Celebration or Funeral

Graves invites the crew out to a bar for seemingly no reason and hopefully no ulterior motives.

Price was dumbfounded at the audacity honestly. Graves had sent out an invite to the 141 and Alejandro and Rodolfo. Even included plus ones if they had a partner to bring.

He didn't understand at all. It was so bizarre. The invitation was safe. They had a team to check for anthrax and the like. But everything had been given the seal of approval.

There was a time, date, location, even coordinates in case they didn't know the place. He had checked. It was a bar in Texas that was close enough to the border that the Los Vaqueros wouldn't have to travel too far from home. It was close to where they had chased Hassan originally.

The 141 would have to fly of course, but that's cause they were stationed in Urzikstan at the moment.

Price mentioned it offhandedly to Farah, planning to toss it out and never ever seeing that traitor again.

But Farah had smiled at him. "Oh! Yeah, Alex and I were going to go. I'm glad Phillip decided to invite you guys."

"Phillip? You guys are on first name basis now?"

She frowned at him, immediately looking displeased. "Price, remember what we talked about. We've been working together for a while now."

"You can't trust him."

"I never said I did. I simply ask you trust me." Farah huffed. "And I will be going to their outing. He does this with his closest Shadows often and Alex and I always have a nice time. Maybe you all need to come along. It might be good to clear the air since we will continue to work with each other."

Price really wished he could convince Farah to stop working with him, but if she insisted on doing so, he would be there. "Fine. I'll come."

The other three agreed to come immediately, not wanting Price to walk into an ambush, relatively, alone.

The plane ride was... uncomfortable to say the least.

Ghost was currently glowering at Alex who kept glancing over at him and grimacing. He'd sigh passive aggressively and Alex would turn around to glare at him back.

"And why are those two acting like jilted lovers?" Price aske Gaz and Soap.

"Oh, Alex said he and Graves had become friends and Ghost is made because the two of them and Alejandro are friends. He considers it a betrayal to their friendship." Gaz explained.

"Ah. Are you also upset, Soap? You did get shot."

Soap nodded. "Well. I am pissed. But with Makarov around, Graves helping Farah to fight him, and him betraying Shepherd to throw him under the buss, I'm trying to stay level headed about it."

It was a shockingly grounded take. Price wished he could do the same. Inside, the anger was too hot. Too volatile. He didn't know what it was about Graves that just got under his skin, but forgiveness wasn't on the table.

Honestly he wanted to just beat him into the ground. Hurt him like he had hurt Soap and Ghost in Los Almas. Like he had hurt the Vaqueros.

He felt like a rabid dog when he thought of it. Normally, he was so much better at keeping his emotions in check.

Farah patted him suddenly and he glanced up at her. "Do you want a drink, old man?"

"Yeah. I could use one." He stood up and followed her to the cabin. The plane used to be a private one, but it had been repurposed for Farah and her Freedom Fighters. It was better for long distances than a helicopter and it had better optics when they had to make speeches or talk with government operations.

Farah didn't keep much alcohol on board, but she did keep a thing of whiskey for the two of them to share. She poured them both a glass and he took it from her gratefully.

"I understand why you're upset."

"And I understand why you're working with him." Price interrupted. "I do. I promise. It's just an adjustment. Especially finding out you socialize with him."

"Mostly I socialize with Oz actually."

"Oz?"

"His second in command! He's great. Very cool. He's shown me how to play video games." Farah smiled so softly, almost like she was embarrassed.

Price smiled a little himself, thinking of Farah being... normal. She had fought for so long. Her entire childhood spent in hell. If she enjoyed spending time with this "Oz" guy, he must not be awful. "Okay. I'm going to give all of them a chance, alright?''

"Thank you, Price. I do appreciate it." Farah squeezed his arm. "Really. I hope we can all work amicably."

They settled back down with the others and rested for this rest of the plane ride.

The moment they touched down, Farah and Alex were quickly getting out. Price bit his tongue and hung back, the 141 one quickly following his lead, even though Gaz did glance at Alex and Alex did glance back.

"Try to play nice. No unnecessary fights." Price ordered, patting Gaz's back.

"Aye, Captain." Soap responded.

Ghost stayed very quiet, only giving the slightest nod.

"At ease."

They didn't really separate. Maybe it was unease at being on unfamiliar turf or the fact that they were all enemies.

Alejandro was smoking near his car, Rudy at his right. His body language shifted, relaxing at the same time the grin appeared on his face. "Hermanos!"

Soap smiled. "Alejandro, Rodolfo. Long time no see."

Alejandro grabbed his hand and pulled him into a hug. Soap did the same with Rodolfo.

Gaz nodded at them. "Colonel Vargas. Sergeant Major Parra."

"I feel we're on a first name by now, Sergeant Garrick." Rodolfo smiled at him. "Nice to see you again."

Alejandro nodded but jumped into business. "Our invitation said this was an... apology. You guy's mention anything about this?"

"No. Just an invitation."

"Interesting. Let's head inside."

The bar itself was full of people. It took Price a moment before he realized it, but, with the exception of the bartender, every person in the room was a Shadow. All of them were in civvies, but he recognized a few of them from chance in encounters. They all talked about their work with no issues.

Alex had a cowboy hat on. For some reason, this was something he noticed immediately. He was currently downing a pint, trying to drink it faster than a dark haired woman who was currently beating him.

Farah was chatting animatedly with a giant man with strange makeup on. HIs hair was set up a bit like a vikings would be. He was smiling at her and nodding excitedly.

Price didn't like it.

The giant man looked at him and quickly looked... embarrassed? It was an odd look on such a big man.

Farah followed his gaze and waved Price over. He quietly walked over, keeping an eye out on everyone. Most people were drunk or getting there so there weren't many threats.

Oz smiled at him, standing up. Price didn't like that he had to tilt his head up to look him in the eye.

"It is nice to meet you, Captain. You too, Colonel. The rest of you." Oz seemed unsure of himself.

"Oz, I'm assuming?"

"Yes, sir." Oz nodded.

Farah smiled. "We were talking about a game he showed me! It's called Terraria. It's so much fun!"

"Now, Osmond." There was that familiar accent. Graves was smiling, looking... stupidly casual. A flannel shirt, tight jeans, a belt buckle. A walking stereotype of American. "Please tell me you haven't converted Farah to your nerdy shit."

"Hey!" Farah defended him. "It's fun!"

Graves shook his head, a bright blush on his face from intoxication. "Whatever you say, ma'am." He looked at them. For a moment, he made eye contact with Price and it was like a lightning bolt. But then his eyes skipped right over to him to Alejandro. He took a deep breath. "It's nice to see you again, Colonel. And you, Sergeant Major."

"The feeling is not mutual."

Graves stepped a bit closer, on the very edge of his personal space. "Alright. Hit me."

Alejandro frowned.

"One free hit. Consider it the start of us getting even with each other. There's no guns in here. No one is going to stop you and I'm not going to hit you back. So, hit me."

Alejandro weighed his options for a split second before socking Graves so hard on the side of his jaw that Oz had to catch him before he stumbled.

Graves took a split second, blinking involuntary tears from his eyes. He faced him again. "Great. Your drinks are on us." Despite the freshly blooming bruise, he still managed a rather charming smile.

Alejandro shook his head but stepped back. Rudy didn't.

"Only fair I let you have one, yeah?" Graves smiled right before Rodolfo hit him hard in the stomach.

"Stay out of Los Almas." Rudy hissed to him.

"I was planning on it, amigo." Graves managed to straighten up after a minute. "You four aren't getting a hit."

"Gonna let me shoot you later?" Soap growled at him.

Graves laughed. "Nah. Have as many shots as you want though." He nodded at them and walked away, clearly hurting a little but playing it off.

Price ordered the most expensive whiskey available. He downed a shot, keeping an eye on Graves as he went to each table. His hands touched every Shadow's shoulder. It was a light touch but Price recognized it. He did the same thing when the 141 came back from missions. A light touch to let him know they were alive.

"John." Simon muttered. "How are we feeling?"

"I'm following the Colonel's lead. He seems to be trying to run up a tab. I'm going to do the same. Farah also seems... happy. A normal friendship outside of the military will be good for her. Or as close as this is."

Ghost nodded and sat next to him. They observed them for a good minute before Gaz slunk to Price's other side. Soap was mingling.

There was country music playing. It sounded modern, but Price didn't exactly listen to the genre. He sighed and ordered another whiskey, hoping to keep himself just drunk enough to relax but not so drunk he couldn't fight.

As the songs flipped through, Price got tipsy enough to mildly enjoy himself. His friends had left him at some point, not too far away, just around.

Something came on the radio and Graves climbed on to a table. The top few buttons of his shirt had been undone and he was panting a little bit.

"Turn that motherfucker off!"

"Come on, Graves it's just one song!"

"No! I've hated that motherfucker for ages and suddenly he wants to prounce around like a little bastard. That motherfuckers went to a fucking private school! Get his ass off my radio!" Graves hissed.

Price swallowed thickly. Maybe it was the whiskey, of which he was a few glasses down. Maybe it was the sudden anger and passion in his face. But he felt flushed from more than alcohol.

The next song, which sounded like a love ballad to him, seemed to please Graves who started to sing along. Despite the table being wooden, it held his weight as he stomped his boots on it. He smiled brightly as he did and someone handed him a whiskey bottle to drink during the chorus.

Price made eye contact with him and quickly glanced around to talk to his team.

HIs team which was not there.

Ghost and Simon had started to banter, making fun of people in the room despite never looking away from each other.

Gaz, who now had that cowboy hat on, had gotten swept up in Alex, the two of them currently dancing. Alex was a little out of step, his prosthetic leg probably making it harder.

Farah was now dancing with one of the pretty Shadows. The two of them twirling around.

Even Alejandro and Rodolfo were staring at each other, Rudy's hand was on Alejandro's chest.

Fuck. He didn't have anyone around.

Price looked back up at Graves who had looked away but somehow a few more of his buttons had come undone. His head tilted back, showing off a pretty neck. Fuck, his chest was heaving, breath puffing out of him.

They were making eye contact again. Graves licked his bottom lip and drank more of his whiskey.

Price got up and went to the bathroom. He took off his hat for a moment and splashed his face with water to try to sober up a little.

"Price." That fucking accent sounded from behind him. Maybe he should've hid in one of the stalls. But that would've felt juvenile.

"Graves." He looked in the mirror at him.

The man smiled. "Sorry if I'm interrupting. You alright?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I?" Price growled out, watching those red cheeks got redder.

Graves shrugged a little. "Don't know. Maybe I'm projecting on ya a little." He looked away, drinking more of the bottle.

"I'm angry."

"is it all at me?"

"No. Not just you." Price sighed and straightened up. He walked over until he was standing over him. Graves straightened up a little but he let Price take the bottle from his hand. His eyes followed his lips as he took a long drink.

Graves sighed. "Good?"

"Cheap tasting." Price tried to tease him, but it fell flat.

The pretty blue eyes peering up at him wouldn't let him go. It was infuriating. He found himself leaning down, lips pressing against Graves's, tasting the whiskey off of them. His tongue darted out to deepen it. For a blissful moment, his mouth opened up to let Price in.

Then he was turning away. "This isn't going to fuck up your team, is it?"

Price blinked and it was like reality slammed into him. "It is."

Graves smiled sadly. "John, I'd love to. But I'd be a right ass fucking up what you got going on. I think I've done enough damage."

"It'd feel great. God, I'd treat you right."

He laughed and Price felt his stomach clench. The rest of the whiskey bottle was slipped into his hand. They shared another kiss, tongues chasing each other.

"If you're sober, and still want to, go ahead and call me."

#cod #call of duty #call of duty modern warfare #Phillip graves #Price x Graves #Graves x Price #Captain John Price #jason aldean hater #kyle gaz garrick

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morallyinept · 3 months

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Shoot: The Rake Magazine, October 2016, Issue 48

Photographer: Anders Overgaard

Interviewer: Tom Chamberlin

Grooming: Jessica Ortiz

Full interview, behind the scenes, outtakes & shoot photographs below. 👇🏻

Jett's Pedro's Shoots Masterlist

• Cover shot and original images used in the magazine

• Outtakes and behind the scenes images.

• Full Interview

As a stickler for timing, it was a tad disconcerting for me that half an hour into an hour-long interview, Pedro Pascal was still barely a year old. The family history of this actor is a story in itself, one that Pedro intends to write one day.

Happily, Pedro was very generous with his time, and, as with our photoshoot at The Carlyle Hotel in New York, and with every role he has played, he understands the difference between a hash-job and a job well done. Perhaps this is why Pedro will be on screen pretty much non-stop for the next year and is fast building an enviable C.V.

His roles as a protagonist span big-budget Hollywood movies and the finer works of subscription television, namely Game of Thrones and Narcos, whose second series is currently available on Netflix. It turns out he is also the epitome of America: an immigrant who has taken his talent and ambition and made a success of himself in a country that takes people in and gives them a chance to succeed. And The Rake was given the opportunity of an in-depth discussion with this star player.

I should firstly elaborate on the extraordinary tale of his early life. His family name is Balmaceda, his father is a doctor, and his late mother (whose maiden name was Pascal) welcomed José Pedro Balmaceda Pascal into the world on April 2, 1975 in Santiago, Chile. Those of you familiar with the South American governments of the time will know that this was not a simple epoch in which to be born in Chile. It was less than two years since Augusto Pinochet had deposed Salvador Allende, the first democratically elected head of state in Chile, in a coup d’état. Allende killed himself in the coup but his supporters remained a thorn in the junta’s side. So, as any self-respecting dictator would, Pinochet found opposition members, rounded them up, and tortured them for information on other dissenters who could be found, rounded up, and so on.

One such occasion was some years later, when our cover star enters the fray. A cousin of Pascal’s mother was Andrés Pascal Allende, a powerful revolutionary and supporter of his uncle. One day, during a gunfight, this freedom fighter would be given medical aid and shelter chez Balmaceda, and it would be this gesture that put the family on the ‘list’. Pedro recalls (through no memory of his own but that of his father’s) that, “the Pascal family wasn’t particularly safe." He adds: “There was a priest who was brought [Andrés], who had been shot in the leg, to my mum and dad’s house. My father took him in, hid them for a few days, and patched up his leg. I was a baby, my sister was just three, and she says she has a vague memory of being really angry that our parents had put strangers’shit in her bedroom, including guns and stuff.”

The innocence of youth! But the story becomes more and more like a Bourne movie: “The priest was taken into custody and tortured; he gave names, and they went looking for my father at the hospital he worked at. By chance it got to him that they were downstairs, asking where to find Dr. José Balmaceda. My father sneaks out the back and gets my mum, his sister gets my sister and me. They work out that their only option is to go into hiding, which they do for about six months, and they end up sneaking into the Venezuelan embassy and sought asylum.”

You can see why we spent so long on the subject. His light-hearted approach to talking about this may be because he was too young (about nine months old when they came out of hiding) to have been affected by the process, but there is pride in his parents’ actions, the way in which they carried him and his sister to safety in a climate in which even children were not safe. The solution wasn’t ‘doing an Assange’ and locking themselves in the embassy - they had to leave.

Though they would ultimately settle in the United States, it was Denmark that took them in first. Pascal was still too young to recall a great deal; after a year his father was contacted by a Chilean professor in San Antonio, Texas, and was offered a job. San Antonio was a great place for South American immigrants. With a large Spanish-speaking population, it wasn’t as much of a departure, or culture shock, for the family as Denmark had been.

They lived there until 1986, and it was during this time that he developed a love of movies and the desire to become an actor. He says of that time: “Strangely it was my father’s fault, because he was a huge moviegoer and he would take us to the movies a few times a week throughout my childhood. Of course, we got cable television and HBO came into the fold. Uncensored, uninterrupted movies in your living room: it was some kind of fucking miracle. I remember sitting there and it feeling like absolute magic to me. I remember perfectly watching my first movie on HBO and thinking it was magic.”

While television was developing its appeal, cinema was the family craze, and his father was the most zealous disciple. Pascal adds: “I am telling you, we would go several times a week. And it wouldn’t matter, if my dad wanted to see a movie, and there wasn’t a babysitter, we would go with him or he’d just want to take us. It is my father and Steven Spielberg’s fault - Spielberg being the ruling aesthetic of Hollywood at that time. Throw MTV and Nickelodeon into the mix, and public school systems in San Antonio and very cool parents - these were socialising us and forming us. It is in such stark contrast to what it would be in Chile. In Chile I have 34 first cousins. And in Texas it was just us.”

Though he is a self-confessed “dork”, his hinting at loneliness, and his circumstances as an immigrant in a poor neighbourhood in San Antonio being a psychological burden, is an interesting passage through which he developed his sense of imagination, fantasy and the requisite skills as an actor. “I spent so much time alone and I wasn’t allowed to watch cable from morning into night, so my options were me and my imagination and it was all so completely ruled by the idea of being on these movie adventures,” he says. “I remember seeing Rambo and The Big Chill. I was fascinated by [The Big Chill], as JoBeth Williams was the mother in Poltergeist, which I had seen seven times already in the movie theatre, and I was shouting, ‘That’s the mum from Poltergeist, this movie is amazing!’ I was a big reader as well. I read Stephen King from a very young age.” He tellingly concludes that movies “ruled my imagination and to an extent my identity."

His isolation grew when his father moved the family to California when Pedro was 11. His father was part of a team of fertility experts that had pioneered an advanced form of I.V.F. called gamete intra-fallopian transfer, or GIFT. But this move took him away from a Spanish-speaking neighbourhood and into Newport Beach, Orange County, “which is about a 99.9 per cent white town." He found it hard to fit in, though not because of how he looked. “It was more a matter of me being a nerd and a movie geek and not a good surfer and interested in art,” he says. “I already knew I wanted to be an actor.” His determination had been made manifest by spending his free time reading plays and going to see Search and Destroy by Howard Korder at the South Coast Repertory, which left him “fucking floored."

This problematic period in his youth might explain why he decided to move to the other side of the country, to New York City, to study theatre, where his inclination to academia was compromised by metropolitan life. He says: “Once I made it to New York I wasn’t reading the things I was supposed to read. I was a terrible student.” The Tisch School of the Arts, a school with an impressive list of alumni, including Woody Allen, Alec Baldwin and Billy Crystal, nevertheless provided a stable platform for him to pursue his acting ambitions. He could break out from being the little child in a strange town and muck in with like-minded people in a city founded on immigration and pluralism.

This time in his life ushered in the beginning of a long-standing friendship with American Horror Story and (gravely underappreciated) Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip star Sarah Paulson. Pedro’s charisma made it very easy to become friends with him, Paulson tells The Rake, explaining that it was a “just-add-water friendship." What drew her to Pedro, she adds, was that “he had an enormous amount of gravitas and at the same time a great deal of levity. He would be the first person to fall on the floor laughing.”

After Tisch he found himself working plenty in theatre, too. One particular play, Beauty of the Father, at the Manhattan Theatre Club would begin another friendship with an acting luminary, Star Wars and Ex Machina star Oscar Isaac. Isaac told The Rake, in regards to both of them achieving recognition around the same time and at similar ages: “We started off-Broadway, so for both of us it has been a parallel path where we have been treading the boards together and facing a lot of uphill climbing and rejection and trying to make a living here in New York. To be able to go on that journey together and for me to be able to see him explode on to the scene, I couldn’t be prouder of him.” He says of Pedro: “He is someone who has a very profound depth to him. He wears his heart on his sleeve and he has a great mind and incredible empathy, and he is also incredibly sharp-witted and fun to be around.”

Pascal would find that achieving the kind of success he had imagined was to be parked while he worked solely to support himself. He did the rounds, doing irregular slots on long-running U.S. television shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Without a Trace and CSI. He says: “The idea of experiencing exposure or being on the cover of a magazine like The Rake was totally abandoned at a certain point well into my thirties, once I’d learnt how to live and support myself as an actor and be unknown outside a small community. I had come to terms with the idea of just hoping to work.” This is the fate of 90 per cent of actors who graduate from drama schools, and frankly the realisation and acceptance of living a life in which you support yourself with work speaks to a very grounded, grateful and pragmatic individual.

Fortunately for us, his prospects soon changed.

In 2014 he appeared in the world’s biggest T.V. show since Friends, Game of Thrones. It was the fourth series that saw the arrival of a new kind of Alpha male in a series with no shortage of them. Pascal played Oberyn Martell, the Prince of Dorne. However, where Charles Dance’s anti-hero ne plus ultra Tywin Lannister commanded the ‘patriarchy’ side of masculinity, and there was the brutish, drinking and farting muscle mass that was Rory McCann as The Hound, Pascal’s Oberyn was a more complex and interesting personification of masculinity and sexuality. Oberyn was affecting from the start, and even before we see Pascal’s incarnation he is described as “not a man for welcome parties” who is famous for “fucking half of Westeros."

His demeanour was a refreshing change to the grimy, armour-clad male leads that were a mainstay of the storyline: colourful, well-groomed, softly spoken yet threatening. You get an idea of the nature of the character from Tyrion Lannister’s face (threatened, anxious) when he discovers who had come from Dorne for the royal wedding. Then, when we meet Oberyn, in long, elegant robes of mustard and gold, there is a menace and intent; the audience salivates as it waits to find out what he is capable of. And we are kept waiting. What is most interesting about Oberyn is that his lust is not limited to the fairer sex. Oberyn is a sexual omnivore: he has what he describes as his paramour, Ellaria Sand (played by Indira Varma), who acts as both angel and devil on his shoulders, reminding him that he can take whatever he wants.

His fluid sexuality is culturally under-represented in film, television and certainly music. The co-creators of the show, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, have used the fantastical setting of Westeros to curate a fascinating experiment into what a ‘man’ really is and how audiences react to sexual behaviour. It is not controversial to say that even hinting at homosexual tendencies can put off a chunk of the male audience, sad as that may be. The fact that Oberyn is convincing as masculine, strong and fierce, without any suggestion that his sexuality will undermine his masculinity for the audience, is a real feat in developing cultural norms. It is a benchmark for progressive leading men, and considering the success of this one, we hope there is more to follow.

Not only is Oberyn bisexual, he is openly so. His arrogance and comfort with himself means that he needn’t hide it like many other characters in the series do. Pascal says: “It’s fucking hilarious because straight guys fucking love Oberyn. In talking to D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, I was really surprised to hear that through the audition process there were takes on Oberyn that, because in the audition scene it is revealed that he includes a man in the mix of his orgy and reveals himself to be bisexual, they would immediately interpret him as more effeminate and add that quality to the character. What had been so right for them was my not having done that. It is interesting because it never even occurred to me that he wouldn’t be so completely male and have the quality of something Alpha and archetypically masculine. It made complete sense that the world was his and every part of it was his, and everything he wanted to partake of, it is very much in the writing.”

Benioff took the time to speak to The Rake to lend some words of praise to Pascal. He says: “It was a very difficult part to cast because [Oberyn] encompasses so many contradictions: he is charismatic, he is ferocious, he is sexy, but also he can be quiet and intimate. It can be very hard to find someone who can do everything. He can be hard to pin down because he is so multi- faceted. A big problem was that no one felt quite sexy enough.”

And then along comes our cover star, who “did a very cheap video on his iPhone. It couldn’t have been more low-rent, but it was incredibly compelling. It’s interesting, as it’s not that we had a particular look at the time. We didn’t know what we wanted until we saw it, and with Pedro it was pretty clear.” He adds of Pedro’s interpretation: “He brought a sense of humour to the part. There’s something fun about someone with a sense of humour who is utterly fearless. There is also something a little insane about that.”

Pedro enjoyed the rakish side of his character; the costume designer Michele Clapton helped him tap into the character’s braggadocio. He says: “Stylistically, what Michele did, I’m never going to look that good again. I mean, that fucking mustard robe with the leather belt and sometimes a sash. These are all feminine garbs that could not have been more masculine. It made me feel so powerful and male.”

Pedro waxes lyrical about his employers on Game of Thrones: “To be honest with you, my take on the part had everything to do with what was on the page. I looked up Oberyn in the books and it’s all told through the perspective of Tyrion Lannister - it’s a very cool character, but the way David and Dan [Weiss] fleshed him out on the show was a pure set-up for success for me. I give all credit to them: it was their idea to create a progressive, radical badass that two straight married men have a crush on. You could tell they loved this guy. That was why it ended up being so good, and I understand that it could have gone in the wrong direction by being interpreted differently, but I didn’t see it in any other way.”

The demise of Oberyn was the first time in four years I wanted to pack in watching the series. There was a sense of having had enough with the show for not giving me enough of this character. They held back on how exciting Oberyn could be, with his athleticism and the insouciant cool of fighting a man wielding a sword that was, as Pedro puts it, “quite literally my height” - and, of course, the way in which he ‘dispatched’ him. Going from that high of poetic justice - from being everyone’s favourite spear-wielding hero - to the crushing low of the red-porridge mess of his head crushed on the floor in the space of five minutes was genius television making; never was an audience so crushed as well.

Even Pedro hated it.

When I shared with him my frustration, he related by saying: “Yes, because it feels terrible. Why should I go to bed with this horrific feeling in my heart? I love that people felt that way about Oberyn because I had felt that way about the Red Wedding (a shocking scene in which several major characters were killed off at a wedding feast). I almost stopped. I was in the process of auditioning for Oberyn and I had already had my heart crushed. I remember thinking very specifically, ‘Soon it’s time for bed and I’m in a place of such darkness because of watching television - this isn’t good for me’.”

Fortunately, Pascal’s particular brand of bravura masculinity returned in 2015 with Narcos, Netflix’s true events epic about Pablo Escobar and the rise of the Colombian drug trade. It is a show The Economist describes as “doing a better job than most narco-dramas in getting across the brutal seediness of the drugs business.” Pascal plays Javier Peña, a man who isn’t afraid to break a few eggs to make his omelette, a man very much part of the aforementioned brutal seediness.

In an era in which scrutiny of our institutions is critical, a show set in a time when there was plenty brushed under the carpet conducts an interesting moral waltz with the audience’s empathy. Pedro says: “I don’t see him as moral. I see him as pragmatic and work obsessed. It is all due credit to the creators of the show, who allow me to interpret the character in the most interesting way possible. I love that Peña and the writers of Narcos and Netflix are totally game for him being a character who exists more ambiguously and represents the greyer elements of this drugs war that the U.S. gets involved with. I think he, as a character, is definitely wanting to get the job done however he sees fit, and this is a guy who never got married, who never had attachments, who could easily disappear into this world with nothing to lose, and I think that’s what makes him good at it and helps him achieve some of his objectives - because he can assimilate, he can participate, he can get on the inside culturally and psychologically, and be totally badass, of course.”

He has plenty more to do in the second series, so the challenge for Pascal is to elevate the performance and not leave it still and stagnant, a challenge he revels in. He says: “I feel like, in a way, the first season is, in terms of the character, somewhat of an introduction and opens up the opportunity to see more in the second season. When you meet him he’s already on the inside, he’s having sex with a gorgeous prostitute who he has this strange relationship to: they are lovers, she’s his informant, they are friends, and we don’t get that many private adventures of Peña in the first season. I would say in the second series there is more opportunity to spend a little more time with that character, so it almost feels like season one and season two is a two-act play, and in the second act Peña has more to do.”

Now, as expected, momentum is very much in Pedro’s favour. Next year will be a big year for him. We have seen a trailer for his first feature film, The Great Wall, the first attempt by anyone at joining the forces of eastern and western cinema. He teams up with Matt Damon in this cross-cultural epic directed by Zhang Yimou. He says of the film that, “We shot it in China for five months. When I was just graduating from college, Matt Damon turned into a comet as an actor, and rightly so, so he has been very famous for most of my adult life. It was a big deal to go work alongside someone as famous and talented as he is. From my perspective he has always been much more an actor than a celebrity.”

When he began talking about Zhang Yimou, his unashamed inner nerd came to the fore: “When I expanded my curiosities as I got older, I was reading plays but I was also getting into independent and foreign cinema. I saw Raise the Red Lantern in 1991, and saw The Story of Qiu Ju by myself because I was that much of a fucking dork - I walked by myself to see the Chinese movie that was playing - and I saw Shanghai Triad four times at the Angelika [in New York] while I was at college. I saw it early and said to friends, ‘Have you seen this?’ I took two friends and I took my mom when she visited New York to go see Zhang Yimou’s films. I had a period in the nineties when I was really quite obsessed with his movies. He showed what he could do with Hero and House of Flying Daggers, which were very different from his arthouse films he made in the nineties, which are all brilliant, and now this is taking it a step further because it is a big Hollywood ‘creature-feature’ that meets epic Chinese cinema. So for me it was very surreal, because I had admired him as a filmmaker and one I never expected to meet or work with - and then in my first film. I was working with him alongside Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe and Andy Lau and an amazing Chinese crew and brilliant Chinese actors. I had no idea how it would turn out but it was a very surreal experience.”

Damon was able to talk to The Rake about having Pedro as a teammate on the movie. It may be obvious as to why Damon, one of the most respected and loved men in Hollywood, would have been picked for the part, but why the relative newcomer Pascal? Damon without hesitation answers: “He was picked because he was the best actor available for the part; he is a fantastic actor.” He cited Pedro’s time acting in the theatre in New York as the way in which he developed his craft. He says: “He came out of [Tisch] 20 years ago and just started doing theatre. If you can last into your forties doing that - he had his 10,000 hours a decade and a half ago. He’s really mastered his craft and you can see that with the level of technique and how agile he is as an actor, he can really do anything. I’d say he can dial up or dial down whatever the director needs. When you are that versatile, it is a real boon to a director because they can temper the piece exactly how they like. It’s really fun to play off him because he does different things, he has a lot of fun and there is a lot of joy in his work, and we laughed a lot. I have always said about great actors that they are good enough for both of you - they’re so overwhelming that they pull you right into the scene. Personally I end up not having to work because I am being taken, like you board a train and you go along for the ride. That’s what it is like working with Pedro, he is a really uniquely talented guy, but that comes from years of theatre in New York. It is not just the raw talent, he has honed his technique over the last couple of years.”

Pedro feels his rise to fame in his early forties comes as a double-edged sword. On the one hand fame at a young age “fucks you up. I don’t think that as a rule, but it can fuck you up.” On the other hand, “in my experience I feel quite naïve. I was doing plays and guest spots and some bullshit indie films that no one will ever see. It is interesting to be completely grown up and feel like a freshman.”

Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which is due out next year, was the same for him. He says: “I was just in some kind of strange candy shop doing Kingsman 2, finding myself in a scene with Jeff Bridges and Colin Firth and Halle Berry and Channing Tatum and getting to meet Julianne Moore. It was really kind of a movie experience on crack." And reveals that Jack Daniels, is the biggest badass of them all.

This is all to say that Pedro Pascal, the political refugee who employed all of his talent, all of his ambition and passion to create a success of the opportunity given to him in the land of the free, is very much Mr. America. His old friend Sarah Paulson says that, “It is a very sweet thing - watching him land where I always thought he should land. Proud doesn’t begin to cover it; it feels righteous.”

America is built on the type of tolerance, kindness, humility and skill that Pedro Pascal embodies. And his rise to prominence comes at a time when there is a narrative - one that is extremely close to executive power - suggesting walling off Central and South American immigrants, a suggestion Pedro says is “revealing some of the ugliest things of which we are capable as a nation”. Damon agrees with The Rake, saying, “I’ve often thought, especially listening to Donald Trump do his thing, that Pedro’s is the quintessential American story, and that’s why we don’t build walls.”

Perhaps it is the responsibility of magazines like ours to make clear that no one is more American than Pedro Pascal. And it is only fitting that, as America continues to seek progress - the repealing of ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell’, its first black president, perhaps its first female president, a fairer medical system - Pedro embodies everything beautiful about a beautiful country, and it feels righteous.

Jett's Pedro's Shoots Masterlist

#pedro pascal #pedro pascal photoshoot #pedro pascal the rake #pedro pascal interview #jose pedro balmaceda pascal #pedro pascal photos #pedro pascal words #pedro pascal magazine

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thatahjumma · 3 months

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I had to pause the show, I am currently at the fight scene between Bumi and Aang. I have to say the characterisations of most of the characters so far have disappointed me. I can't help but compare to the OG ATLA because its literally based off the show and the characters in the animated series are already so fully fledged and complex, the live active just had to follow suit, instead of adding their own interpretations. I'll comment about main characters after I've watched the whole series but now,

Jet and the Freedom Fighters: They were casted so brilliantly!! And the actor for Jet did the absolute perfect job in being the charismatic leader of the 'lost boys' who lived in the trees. What I didn't like was how Netflix labelled him a "terrorist" and "acting out of hate". They outrightly labelled what he was doing, which made him less of complex character vs the animated series portraying him as a boy dealing with the traumas of loss and war, finding family with others who had to deal with the same loss, and failing to see the complexities of war. I don't know, the characterisation in Netflix's ATLA feels off.

Uncle Iroh: I like that Netflix addressed that he was a war criminal and how that affected the soldier on a personal level as well. But when Iroh said "War pushes us to the edge. I wasn't talking about me", I felt again that it does not feel like the Iroh I know from the animated series. The Iroh, who regretted his past decisions, the Iroh who was compassionate and on the search for enlightenment, the Iroh who was part of the White Lotus as a way of redeeming himself. Even the fight scene in the animated series, he did not use any firebending againts the Earthbender soldiers but in the Netflix one he did. In the animated series, it was significant to me that he did not use firebending (only the chains) -- from his past, he understood that he should not use his power to oppress. Somehow, without explicitly fleshing our Iroh's past, the animated series succeeded in creating a more complex, fully fledged character.

Lastly, BUMI T.T I understand that Netflix wanted to set the show in the context of war and so it kept bringing it up and I understood that the Netflix characterisation of Bumi was trying to act as a foil to Aang: someone who lived through 100 years of war vs someone who "ran" away from the difficulties of it. But this made Bumi wholly unlikeable and very much NOT BUMI. The animated Bumi acted as someone who could potentially be Aang's earthbending teacher and a "mad genius", someone who prepared Aang for the tough journey ahead and taught him to think outside the box. To me, while people do change and become jaded by war, Bumi was one of the characters that retained his 'madness' and joyfulness/zest for life (that's why he was part of the White Lotus). In the OG ATLA, he changed over a 100 years in terms of the wisdoms he gained and imparted to Aang. In the netflix series, he seemed like just an angry old king, who was jaded and took his anger out on his old friend? He even made the remark of airbenders being "flighty" after Aang said that they all died??? What on EARTH really, King Bumi liked to joke but he would never disrespect Aang or a whole peoples like that. Crazy characterisation choice by NetflixT.T

Anyway I'll stop ranting here and finish the episode (ALSO HOW COULD THEY TAKE AWAY THE AANG X KATARA MOMENT IN THE CAVE?? I'm really starting to understand why the original creators pulled themselves out of the Netflix project)

#Netflix ATLA #NATLA #atla live action #atla #Avatar the Last Airbender #Bumi #King Bumi #avatar netflix #iroh #uncle iroh #jet atla #atla jet #jet

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xtruss · 4 months

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‘You Become A Traitor And A Bad Jew’: “Illegal Regime of Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 Isra-Helli” Anti-War Activists Speak To RT About Their Country’s Actions

Despite the Extremely High Level of Support for the War in Isra-helli Society, Some Isra-hellis Advocate Peace and Condemn their Government

— January 30, 2024 | RT | Elizabeth Blade

For more than 115 days Israel has been fighting in Gaza, in a bid to free its 136 hostages and destroy Hamas, the Islamic militant organization responsible for the October 7 massacre that claimed the lives of more than 1,200 Israelis.

So far, over 26,000 Palestinians have died in the relentless Israeli shelling. Thousands more have been injured. Israel is facing strong international pressure to end the war, but officials in Jerusalem are refusing to budge, while a recent poll indicated that 87% of Israeli Jews support the operation and want it to continue.

Yet, there are also those who refuse to follow the majority view. RT spoke to two representatives of the so-called anti-war bloc, which is calling for an end to Israel’s occupation. Gaia Dan is a 23-year-old Jewish student originally from Haifa in northern Israel. Dr. Salim Abbas is an Arab Geologist. Both are concerned about the route Israel is taking, and have been resorting to demonstrations to change the reality.

‘There Is No Justification For The Murdering of Innocent Civilians’

RT: First of all, how did the events of October 7 impact you? What was your reaction?

Dan: I was at my place in Be’er Sheba, where I am renting an apartment for my studies. I had just come back from Canada and I was really sick. Suddenly the alarms went off and I was too sick and confused to understand what was going on. Only after two hours of alarms did I realize what was happening and went down to the neighborhood shelter. At the time they said there was an infiltration of terrorists... no one in my vicinity understood the magnitude of the incident. The next day I returned to Haifa and started to slowly realize what had actually occurred. At that moment what I felt was mainly great pain. We knew it would happen someday, because there is a limit to how much you can belittle and how arrogant you can be when it comes to Gaza, but the pain was enormous, the pain for the innocents who died and those who would die later.

Abbas: The events of October 7 surprised us all, and especially me, I did not believe that Palestinian freedom fighters could commit such atrocities and descend to such a disgusting and painful level as the behavior of the occupation army and the fascist settlers. I believed in a just struggle of an entire people living under continuous humiliation, oppression and murder but there is no justification for the murdering of innocent civilians.

On October 7, I was on my way to a Palestinian village in the occupied territories (near Qalqilya), where we were supposed to pick olives with Jewish friends. But the news did not stop pouring in. Even now, with after more than 105 days, the magnitude of the tragedy and the failure – due to which I lost good friends, and some are still kidnapped – have not been determined yet.

‘This Is Pure Revenge’

RT: What promoted you to take this path of demonstrating against the war?

Dan: When October 7 happened, I was in no hurry to leave the house with chants of protest. I believed there was still a chance for negotiations. But as time passed, and the bodies in Gaza piled up, I realized that it is not in our culture to negotiate; we only understand the militant language. They slaughtered us so we will slaughter them back. This is pure revenge.

But I’m not ready for them to act on my behalf. I am not ready for them to ignore the big picture of why the events of October 7 took place. I’m not ready for people to be massacred, or settlements inside our outside the Green Line to be erected. Not ready for them to lie that what they are doing is for our security.

Plus, I have an aversion to people who sit on the sidelines and are ready to watch the world burn. I don’t have this privilege.

Gaia Dan, Anti-war Activist Participating in a Demonstration Demanding the End of the Operation in Gaza. Haifa, January 20, 2024

Abbas: I am a social activist and coordinator of a group of citizens against crime, which brought me to be at the heart of the current storm... I am not used to sitting on the fence as a citizen. What has been happening in recent years, the madness and the destruction caused by the fascist right-wing government hurts me. So as a citizen who has a dream and a vision for a reformed and equal democratic state for all its citizens, I wanted to act. This impulse comes from my parents, who were born in an uprooted village called Maalul (5km west of Nazareth), and I decided to go in the footsteps of my father, pursuing the just struggle that he fought for all his life. I have hope and optimism that it is possible to bring change for the better, that it is possible to build a reformed state that strives to live next to an independent Palestinian state, in peace.

‘We Can Only Dream of Raising The Flag of Palestine 🇵🇸’

RT: How freely can you actually protest? We are not seeing these protests that often...

Dan: Even before October 7 it was difficult to demonstrate. It was tough to raise Palestinian flags. We made countless attempts to do so during protests, but it all boiled down to the mood of the police officers. Sometimes our flags were taken away, sometimes we were arrested. Sometimes they were less violent and sometimes more. But we did manage to negotiate and even reach some understandings with the police – for example small Palestinian flags were indeed allowed.

Then came October 7, and now we can only dream of raising the flag of Palestine. Any attempt to demonstrate against the war is brutally dismantled, whether it is in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem or Haifa. Gagging is everywhere. They tell you that the war is justified, that Israel didn’t have a choice. When you try to protest against it, you become a traitor, a bad Jew or an anti-Semite. Your opinions become irrelevant.

On Saturday we staged a demonstration after going through the High Court of Justice. There, too, the police were present. They checked each of our banners. Such words as “Massacre” or “Palestine” serve as a trigger for them, and prompt them to act violently. So we constantly need to think in what language and what exactly we will write on our banners so that they don’t take them away from us.

Police violence is a big problem for us, simply because people don’t want to leave the house, fearing they will be arrested or beaten up. Another issue is that the police remember you so if you happen to be a prominent activist in Haifa, you end up living with a constant feeling of political persecution. It frightens people, so this intimidation works.

Abbas: It has always been problematic to demonstrate against the occupation and its injustices, but in recent months the situation has worsened in the face of the political persecution of Arab and Jewish activists and the prohibition of demonstrations and protests against the massacre and the extermination of the people of Gaza.

We are facing more and more restrictions through the threats of the police and the Shin Ben [Israel’s internal security agency - ed.] – something that I have experienced myself. I can say that for the first time I felt fear and despair, something that brought me back to the period of martial law that was imposed on the Arab community within the country [from 1949 till 1966 - ed.], a period which included suppression, arrests and political persecution. Yet, these things only prompt us to go on and swim against the current. They make us strengthen our humane position against a mentality that sanctifies the horrific circle of blood.

Salim Abbas: A Palestinian Anti-war Activist.

“Zionist 🐖 🐷 🐖 Terrorist Isra-hell” Wants Its Citizens To Be Violent

RT: Israel prides itself on its flourishing mass media that provides a platform for all opinions. Would you agree with this? And what do you think of Israel’s education system and the set of values it gives?

Dan: Only two local media outlets gave me the platform to express myself – Sikha Mekomit and Haaretz. Others don’t invite me. The media is mobilized for the war effort. We are being hidden because they don’t want to show that there are other options. They don’t want to show that people like me exist.

They are talking about the de-Nazification of Gaza but what about de-Nazification here? Listen to how people here are talking, they are calling for mass extermination, and this is exactly what they see in the news.

As for our education system. Israeli society is militant because we are in the mindset that everyone wants to kill us. People grow up on this ideology, in schools they pump you the narrative that everyone is against you so it gives you an existential dread.

We are a society where the discourse is violent. Your success in life is measured by what you did during your military service, and how combative you were. Israel wants its citizens to be violent. Of course, I can blame the education system and the media for the current mess, but the truth is that they are only tools in the hands of the government.

Abbas: State media tries to ignore the sane voice that fights for peace, equality and social justice for all citizens.

As for education, the problem is that the majority of Israeli society is militant. It comes from an education that is built on a militaristic mentality that raises generations of fighting machines and not normal human beings. This mentality is based on fear and terror while cynically exploiting the issue of the Holocaust and the concentration camps. It can thereby turn the young people into murder and hatred machines for anyone who opposes their spirit.

RT: Do you think the events of October 7 changed things for the worse?

Dan: I think that every incident of terror or violent resistance in which innocent people are involved changes Israeli society for the worse. What happened on October 7 was not an exception. Just like violent acts before, it brought out the demons in 90 percent of Israelis including in those who were initially supportive of peaceful solutions to the conflict, and following the events ditched that path.

Abbas: Such events always succeed in changing Israeli society for the worse because most of the citizens are led as a herd and the establishment media concentrates all its efforts in transmitting disinformation in favor of the government which has failed in the simplest task: to secure its own citizens. Let’s not forget that similar events on a smaller scale – such as Hamas’ suicide attacks from 1996 onwards – led to the radicalization of Israeli public opinion and resulted in the right-wing government and Bibi’s Likud coming to power [reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - ed.].

Unfortunately, the victims of Hamas have become the fig leaf of the Israeli occupation. They are now used by the Israeli government to incite the world public opinion and divert it from the daily injustices of the occupation.

‘Salvation Will Not Come From The Zionist Terrorist 🐖 🐖 🐖 Cunts Jews’

RT: Do you think a change is possible? What needs to happen for it to occur?

Dan: I do believe in change but for it to take place, it requires a reset of Israeli society as we know it. It requires us ditching the notion of a Jewish and democratic state because if you define yourself as Jewish, you cannot be democratic towards non-Jews; and it requires a lot of international pressure that will force Israel to reach a compromise.

For me, one thing is certain: salvation will not come from the Jews, the ones who will eventually end the occupation and bring about a revolution will be the Palestinian people themselves. What I can do as a Jew is to spur it on, speed it up and push it in every possible way as I am doing now.

Abbas: I do believe that the situation will change for the better despite the difficulty and madness that rages around us.

The road is still long but what prompts me and my partners in this struggle is the belief that we are fighting for future generations, for the sake of young men and women who deserve a bright and just future.

It seems that many things need to be done for us to reach that goal. First of all, is the establishment of a left wing, Arab-Jewish democratic bloc that will unite all human rights organizations, movements and parties. Then, later on, it will expand and grow stronger until it becomes a true partner in a government coalition. Such a development can also involve a serious ambition from political parties to design a constitution for the country through a referendum that can guarantee full rights and equality for all citizens.

— By Elizabeth Blade, RT Middle East Correspondent

#Feature #Illegal Regime of the Terrorist Zionist 🐖 🐖 🐷 Cunts #The Bastard Child of the United States 🇺🇸 and the West 🇪🇺#Terrorist Satan-Yahu #Forever Palestine 🇵🇸#Gaza #Gaza Strip #Gaza Genocide #RT

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art-the-f-up · 5 months

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If I came across as snippy or trying to start something, I apologize, I'm barely holding myself together right now. I just saw some of the comments people have made about the situation on your Palestine AU and got frustrated. I want to be sure people have the whole picture, but whenever I try, people shut me down without really listening and blocking me. A guy got my original account deleted for "hate speech" when I posted my story just because they didn't like what I said. That's why I'm staying anon.

The truth is, I have someone over there who's being held in the middle of it all. She went on a school trip a few months ago and was reported missing. My family panicked not knowing what happened, and then a few weeks later all hell broke loose with this war.

My family was furious with Israel, and jumped to the conclusion it was like Russia & Ukraine, but later found out they were trying to take out Hamas, who had taken her and some of her classmates hostage.

No one knows what it's like to have someone over there, and no one seems to try to understand or even care. In their minds, Israel is the big bully and Palestine is the sole victim, but things aren't that black and white. Hell, Israel negotiating for hostage releases is the only reason a couple of her classmates have come home.

Meanwhile, everyone online seems to keep preaching about how Palestine must be free and how they need to stop supporting this war while offering no real alternatives to stopping Hamas, even going so far as to say they are a bunch of freedom fighters who need the support. Sometimes the only options you have are bad ones... But you still have to choose...

I'm not saying what's happening to the innocent people in Palestine isn't a tragedy, or trying to just brush it off, but men who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with. I wouldn't wish this on anyone; knowing those monsters have her is a living hell, and not a day goes by that we don't hope and pray that they'll be stopped, just so my sister can come home.

Sorry for rambling, I just really needed that release. I've said my peace, I promise I won't bother you about it again.

Hey, I completely understand your situation. But we have to admit this is a sensitive topic for many. NOT forbidden, just sensitive. You can expect me to listen to what you have to say and even understand your perspective, but you won't find many people like that when it comes to this topic and that is just what the internet is like. Just because I am understanding you doesn't mean other people are, and they each have their own right to being exhausted with justifications of crimes on any side. If there's anything I've learned it's that pointing fingers in an argument is not going to get anyone anywhere. I am someone who has been trying to hear out both israelis and Palestinians because like anyone else, after oct 7 I wanted to get the whole picture, as you say.

But your entire discussion started with being biased instead of trying to show the whole situation. You started with saying "israel is not the bad guy" but also said "Hamas is a terrorist organization" and I want you to really look at the use of words if you want people to see the "entire picture". Otherwise you ARE going to get shut down. The entire point of starting an argument online is that you first have to claim you've tried to study the complexity thoroughly. Chalking it up to Hamas being a terrorist organization and justifying a genocide is not going to cut that.

I am completely against trying to shut down someone's grief no matter how big or small it is. Everything comes down to the fact that we are all human, we all have feelings and every life matters. I can only send my condolences to the family that's going through this first hand. First of all, if you are actually someone who has been so closely impacted by this, trying to show the 'bigger picture' on the other accounts instead of your own is ALREADY a pretty dangerous thing for you to do, let alone to the art account of a local tribal artist in the north of some little country.

Now I really want you to evaluate your situation. Your family is tensed, is grieving, they are beside themselves with worry. Just thinking about it makes me sad and I sincerely hope that everything safely gets resolved for you and hopefully everyone is safe. But can you seriously say that as soon as your family found out "oh, Israel is just trying to eradicate a terrorist organization by blowing up the very place where the hostages could potentially be" they were…. okay with it?

I understand what it's like. I understand and I care. I grew UP on the stories of people going missing, people being blown up, people getting martyred in Palestine. Trust me I understand what you are going through.

I will never try to justify what happened to civilians on oct 7. it is horrible. What happened on oct 7 and what has been happening in Palestine for years makes no one but the innocent suffer at the hands of evil powers. But you cannot, with all due respect, try to say you're showing a 'bigger picture' when you clearly failed to mention the entire history.

Everyone living in Israel knows they are, first and foremost, living in an apartheid state. It is not that difficult for anyone mature enough to see the situation around them and look up and research to come to that conclusion. And many Israelis have. And many have left. Because they knew what living being such a place will entail for them.

And keep in mind I am also NOT in support of trying to make any Israelis leave, who have documented proof of any of their ancestors being from that land and/or don't have second citizenship somewhere else in the world. I hold them to the same level of rights as I do Palestinians.

I don't need to get into overcomplicated finger-pointing and yelling. You can look up Israeli soldiers shooting their own hostages in Gaza despite them shouting in Hebrew and holding up white flags. And the army only apologized because they were identified as Israeli citizens. How does that differentiate the Israeli army from Hamas? I don't need to pull up multiple sources or proof provided by the Israelis themselves. They are already everywhere. What I've heard and what I've seen from October seven, I'm seeing more and more of it being done by the Israeli Army. So we need to be really careful trying to call one side a terrorist, because that will automatically mean calling the other side the same. Which is true. In terms of definitions, what's happening in Gaza is blatant terrorism.

If Palestine was an apartheid state, you would see me speaking out against them. If Palestine was a colonizer apartheid and the people stood up to fight back against a powerful army with resources far more than that of them, you would see me calling them freedom fighters, not terrorists. Because I did happen to read a little bit about the international laws. I do happen to be from a family with a history of armed freedom fighters.

So yes, I am incredibly sorry that this is impacting you mentally, I hope you and you family stays safe and united, but if the impact is making you say biased things, it's better to go offline, take a break from social media, and spend this time trying to pray for your family and spending time with them.

#asksss

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halfmoth-halfman · 7 months

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About the scene you just talked about:

I actually saw it (or interpretated it) as less problematic because Samara was part of Farahs group and therefore a freedom fighter, then she was forced to do you know what by Makarov. Makarov used not only the negative stereotypes that exist against middle eastern people, but also the fact that Farahs group is one of his main enemies in Urzikstan and this is where I think that COD actually did a good job i guess? Because stuff like this happens, especially in these times of the war in gaza, middle eastern (also mainly muslim people, but idk if Samara is explicitly muslim) people have it harder to fight against stereotypes and media are quick to blame them and use these stereotypes (which was also shown in mw3 with the news thing). Idk if it was their intention or if I just optimistically interpretated it like that, but I thought the scene was like a depiction of what happens in real life, short: middle eastern people being negatively used to push an agenda which is easy because of the existing stereotypes

I hope i was able to explain it well and not offend anyone. I would love to hear more opinions on this :)

(there are spoilers below)

i can understand that they may be trying to emulate real life, but personally i think regardless of samara's ties to farah and her being a former ulf soldier, they should've chosen a different way to go about the mission. yes, it could be understandable for makarov to want to frame farah and urzikstan, and that it could be playing off of real stereotypes and experiences that middle eastern people go through, but i don't think activision put that much thought into it and i don't think they care.

the original no russian mission involved makarov framing america despite the 141 (also his enemies) not being american, but activision chose to change that to specifically frame the middle eastern country for terrorism (mirroring a 9/11 style event) and kept that in during a time when there is actual genocide happening in palestine and islamophobia is growing back to a post-9/11 high in the us, the country they're based in.

and honestly, the change really cheapens makarov's character for me. he's supposed to be some big, menacing villain who is at the forefront of his movement and willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goal, and in the og games we see that in the way he carries out the no russian mission himself. in this game, he does what? threatens samara then jumps out of a plane and that's it? the worst he does is give a speech explaining why he's doing it - it's his men that do most of the work forcing her to carry out the hijacking.

he's also supposed to be the 141's big bad, their mortal nemesis, but there's more emphasis on the way he and konni group terrorize and kill farah's friends and soldiers - dena and samara, in particular - than when he shot soap, a main character, and i think that's very telling.

if it were another gaming company that put more thought into their plot and considered the nuance of their storylines, maybe i could be convinced it was well intentioned, but activision makes military games. these game are meant to be military propaganda above all else, so i'm not willing to give them that kind of grace. i think it was a deliberate choice for an american company to not have their villain frame america like in the original game and instead fall back onto the same, tired "let's frame the middle eastern people as terrorists storyline" that's in every pro-military game and movie, during a time when there is a humanitarian crisis happening in palestine.

#luvmeraxes #moth answers #answered #mw3 spoilers #mwiii spoilers

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arceespinkgun · 7 months

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I keep speculating about what Earthspark Prowl will be like after seeing the toy. Personally I feel like having Prowl in the show presents a huge quandary and it boggles my mind that he'll likely be in it. I'm not sure it's possible to even use this character effectively in any media after what he's become over time. If in Earthspark he's an antagonist like he's been recently, then it will have to grapple with his face literally being the Autobot logo. If he's heroic like older versions of the character, then it's sweeping the character's history of connections to police brutality and fascism under the rug. Considering the main characters are the Maltos it especially seems like a terrible place to try and explore Prowl to me. I think I actually commented while watching season one that he'd be the worst character to show up in the present time in the show!

That being said, I'm very morbidly curious and kind of excited since the show impressed me in so many ways in the first season. After the Shockwave Earthspark gave us ended up being the kind of guy who laughs maniacally, is Megatron's rival, and looks down on organic life—just like the Marvel comics iteration—I keep wondering if Prowl might end up being like the one of the Marvel comics, too.

Prowl in the Marvel comics was a really different character than more recent versions. Despite becoming an angry square over time, originally he was a competent, cool-headed commander (often very literal-minded) whose frustrations were largely understandable. He was both relied on heavily by Optimus and spoke of him in a worshipful way, but then also had to watch everyone bear the brunt of increasingly irrational decisions Optimus and later Grimlock were making. Prowl was guilty of black-and-white thinking, but ultimately, he wanted the Autobots and Decepticons to live in peace. He wanted to give the Decepticons second chances—he even let a Decepticon join the Autobots in the UK comics. And later, he feels forced to play nice with them because Grimlock keeps picking fights with them, and that causes Prowl to overplay his hand and get punished more for it. And despite the rigidity and exasperation and jealousy Prowl ended up developing, he always cared deeply about people, had close friends like Wheeljack and Jazz, and his flaws did not overshadow his heroic traits. He was a very sympathetic and complex character. And despite his alt-mode, he wasn't a cop or cop-adjacent in his role. His backstory as revealed in one of the UK annuals was that of the leader of a teams of freedom fighters.

Prowl was compelling because he swung hard in two directions. He would be like, "Let's just create super soldiers and crush the Decepticons and end the War instantly—what do you mean that's evil?" but then also like, "Of course I'll tell the Decepticons everything about our plans in the name of peace and unity—what do you mean they're using that to betray us?" Whereas the more current versions of the character are like only one half of this one. This panel sums up Marvel comics Prowl:

The thing is, I thought Bumblebee of all people in Earthspark is already a lot like Optimus's rigid, disillusioned beleaguered secretary in many ways? He already feels like this character! And that makes me even more curious about how Earthspark will execute Prowl. While I have so many misgivings it definitely got me thinking...

...but no matter what Earthspark does, if it gives us Prowl but not JAZZ I'm going to be furious!

#earthspark spoilers #transformers earthspark #Prowl #transformers marvel #transformers g1 #my analysis

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strawberrycamel · 2 months

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Oh hey I have another one! Smash Bros., the only hyperfixation I have that beats Toonami in how obsessed I am with it. 25 years old as of last January. I will also be talking about the lore. A lot of this stuff will be partially me interpreting the events in my own way. It starts when the og 12 playable fighters...most likely get kidnapped and either get turned into or have their consciousness put into doll version of themselves. Sakurai said it himself that the first game is of toys trying to escape the world they were put in...but everyone interpreted that as them really being toys and that they were trying to escape into our world. So maybe I see it the way I do out of spite? Who knows. Anyways, the toy fighters defeat the one who put them into this situation, rendering them unconscious at the very least...but in the process, returning to inanimate states. Melee is rinse repeat of this situation except now they're trophies/statues and the fight for freedom is much harder. Also there's two final bosses now. At the end, they manage to negotiate with the otherworldly beings into fighting still, but on their terms, cuz yeah, the fighting was pretty fun. Then Brawl happened. We all know what happened in Brawl. Subspace happened. The original being from the first game, who you can probably tell is Master Hand at this point, gets captured by the embodiment of Subspace, Tabuu, in order to fool certain villainous...and very gullible Smashers to being commanders of the Subspace Army. Mr Game and Watch has bugs in him that are used to create the majority of said army and R.O.B., who goes by the Ancient Minister for most of the story, has his people held hostage in order for the enemy to create bombs that suck the world that the story take place in into Subspace...and is one the characters who gets the shortest end of the stick in this story. His home, the Isle of Ancients, doesn't even come back at the end of the story like the other locations that were sucked into Subspace cuz waaay too maby bombs were set of at once and has rendered the former land into nothing but a literal sparkle in the sky. And him no longer haaving this home plus the rest of his people wiped out and still canon in later entries. And then Smash 4 happened...which technically doesn't a story like the last one did. But what it does have is a new boss in the form of Master Core, an entity that comes out of Master hand, I kid you not, when the difficulty is high enough (speaking of! the first time I fought and beat this boss was on accident!) There's no canonical explanation as to just what Master Core is- whatever flavor text we have for it in game is pretty vague. So the way I interpret is that the Swarm, the substance that makes up most of this boss, and the true form, the true Master Core if you will, are intense emotion given form that runs on pure instinct and whatever emotions it spawned from and the...well just put an apostrophe+s in between its name and there you go. It probably showed up now because...well, get captured, literally puppeted, be forced to watch as the world you created gets sucked into the one you're stuck in, most likely be in pain the entire time, nearly die after escaping...and you understand that Master Hand, to say the very least, is fucking traumatized. THen Ultimate happens and we all know what happens here too. Or at least I do. I might be one of the only people out there actually enjoyed playing World of Light. ANyway, both Master and Crazy Hand get captured this, Galeem light beams everyone to death, and renders all non fighters and non boss entities in what's implied to be the multiverse...into spirits. Except Kirby cuz his warp star can warp out this existence for a few seconds. I also personally interpret Galeem and his counterpart, Dharkon as alternate timeline versions of the Hands where went south for everyone after Subspace, to say the very least. ANd that's only what I can think of off the top of my head as explanations for each game. ..You can probably tell I've put a lot of thought into these things.

oh shit smash bros lore my beloved!! i've played all the games (not finished, but played!!!) so this was a treat

master hand going Thru it in these games huh dkjfhgdfjg RIP

#ask #answered #super smash bros #hell fuckin yeah lee #learnin a lot for smash stuff today

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quietmonologues · 3 months

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I haven't finished the show yet (just need to watch the last episode) but so far, I'll give the live action adaptation of ATLA a 7/10.

Long post.

To start with what I like about it...

I think the VFX is spectacular. Omashu, the Water Tribes, the Fire Nation palace, all the bending effects and fights are stunning.

Seeing all the characters come to life. The Gaang, but also the past avatars, the mechanist and Teo, the freedom fighters, Bumi, Zuko and the family, even Mai and Ty Lee. Aesthetically, everyone fit really well.

I enjoy (most) of the acting, but especially Zuko. I feel like Dallas captures the character incredibly well and his scenes with Paul as Iroh have been very fun to watch. I enjoy seeing more of Azula and getting into her psyche early on, and seeing more of Ozai has been enjoyable as well. Daniel Dae Kim is great. Ian and Gordan also do a great job of playing Sokka and Aang, respectively.

Merging the Jet stuff with the Mechanist stuff is an interesting way to cram as much of the story as possible without being too convoluted. The re-interpretation of The Cave of Two Lovers episode was a change I was iffy about but I grew to appreciate it. Instead of focusing on a romantic love, I liked that it was about familial love (between Sokka and Katara). I wouldn't be surprised if people didn't like that change, and I understand, but I didn't mind it. It didn't feel like the live action was hinting at Aang's crush on Katara anyways (correct me if I'm wrong).

Love the emotional aspects. Iroh and Zuko, Aang and Gyatso...it can definitely get the waterworks going.

In terms of what I don't like....

Something feels missing in this adaptation, and I think it's the tone. There's still funny moments but it's definitely a bit more somber than the cartoon. On the one hand, the original show does deal with heavy themes and it makes sense for the live action to emphasize that seriousness. Like, it made sense for a cartoon geared towards children to have a "lightness" to it, to have moments of goofiness and sillyness. But on the other hand, that lightness being interspersed between all the serious moments made the story of ATLA what it was, and I do feel that that is missing in the live action. I guess that's the downside to limiting a 20+ episode season into just....8 episodes. But the live action did the best it could.

I feel the same about the characters. The Gaang seem a bit more serious. But it's not completely bad, Aang still feels like Aang and Sokka still feels like Sokka. Katara is the one who sticks out to me like a sore thumb because she just...doesn't feel like Katara. No idea if it's Kiawentiio's acting or how she's written, but whenever I watch her, she just feels really flat and demure. Katara is a kind and compassionate character, but I do remember her being a bit more fierce. We do get that fierceness near the end but...I don't know, it comes off as stiff. And that's why I think Dallas as Zuko is my favourite, because Zuko was always a serious and somber character in the cartoon, so his performance in the more serious live action adaptation fits really well (it still would've fit perfectly if the adaptation was more goofy of course).

The pacing at times is bumpy. I felt this especially in episode 4. There was just...way too many things going on and they decided to throw in a couple flashbacks too. Like I said before, I liked that we got more Azula, but I felt like some of her scenes didn't flow well with the rest of the episode (episode 6 i think). We were following a straightforward plot, and then we just have a scene or two of Azula doing her trials and shooting lightning. It just made the overall episode feel choppy and disconnected.

I don't remember how the whole Suki/Sokka/Yue thing went in the cartoon, but yes I do think it's very weird that Sokka and Suki kissed in episode 2, and then he's kissing Yue in episode 7. Maybe in the cartoon it wouldn't be "that deep" but in a live action, it's kinda strange to me lol. I don't know, that's a bit of a minor nitpick I guess.

To me, Book 1 of the original show is the weakest season and my least favourite (it's still good). But if Netflix renews this, then I'm hoping Book 2 (and Book 3) will be much better!

Okay that's it, off to watch the last episode.

(also I do think you're lying if you say the movie was better)

#just my thoughts and opinions #avatar the last airbender #atla #atla live action #atla spoilers #atla netflix #my posts

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whymustyouhurtmeinthisway · 6 months

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I know “Sudden and unplanned reboot for legal reasons that abruptly ends the previous story and permanently gets rid of many fan favourite characters” isn’t a good thing to happen at any point in any series, but Archie Sonic really got fucked over when you look at where the story was at when the Super Genesis Wave happened. There were so many cliffhangers and story setups that just never got explained. We never got to see Mighty, Ray, and Matilda happy together, we never got to see what happens to Bunnie and Antoine, we never got to see Shard’s true fate, we never got to see the conclusion of Silver’s traitor mission, we never got to see how Sally gets unroboticized, we never got a real conclusive sendoff to any of it.

I love post-sgw Archie a lot, it’s what initially introduced me to the series, I adore the new characters (as well as how they used the old characters) and the story was great, but I think I’d rather the super genesis wave never have happened and the original series continue even just a year longer than ever have gotten the post-sgw series (love it as I may). Hell, even post-sgw got cut off midway through, I’m absolutely certain they didn’t plan on the Unleashed arc being their only one (you could say the memory returning section at the start was another story arc, but I sure wouldn’t) and the stuff they were setting up with Eclipse, the Nauguses, Eggman’s dozen, and Breezie near the end pf it promised to be really interesting, only to once again be abruptly stopped for business purposes (I mean, we did get an ending to the shattered world arc, but considering that main plot and ending was just Unleashed’s, I consider it a somewhat hollow victory).

Now Archie’s gone, seemingly never to return, and I’m just frustrated about how it all played out. I adore IDW, it introduced some of my favourite characters of all time and I read every chapter as they release, but its complete replacement of Archie always bums me out (though I do understand why they would just wipe their hands clean of it). I also sometimes worry that IDW might meet a fate similar to Archie’s, but I’m not too concerned. Sega’s definitely tightened their terms of employment since the Penders fiasco and IDW’s far more popular than Archie ever was, so it definitely won’t be going down for the same reasons as Archie.

I know it’ll never happen, but here’s hoping that the Freedom Fighters come back someday, at least in some capacity.

#sonic #sth #sonic Archie #Archie sonic #rant #sonic IDW #me

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embeanwrites · 2 years

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Glimpse of Us

Tech x Reader A/N: This story is inspired by Joji’s Glimpse of Us and the million and one Tik Toks I’ve seen about it. Originally it wasn’t going to have a happy ending, but I found myself wanting these two to be happy the more I wrote.

It had started as a simple coping skill Tech had picked up when he was younger. Tech had always had a hard time understanding others and their actions so he did what any good researcher would do, he took notes and tried to learn everything he could about other people. He even had notes on his brothers, except for the most part those were about dislikes and likes and less about observations and notes. He used it to cope with the fact that socializing didn’t come naturally to him, and he had learned the hard way that people didn’t like being treated like a science experiment, so he kept the notes private on his data pad. Only adding to it discreetly. People were complicated, but over time Tech found that most individuals followed a pattern and once he had figured them out, he felt more at ease around them. His brothers, of course, knew he did it, but they all had a silent agreement that this was something that would help Tech with what he called his “deficit”. Tech was hard on himself when it came to his lack of social skills, but his brothers were just happy he had found a way to make himself feel better about it. Hunter’s notes were mainly about his senses. How to calm them down, and what happens when he gets to overwhelmed. Crosshair’s were about his subtle body language and what it meant. Wrecker’s were about what kept him busy and what calmed him down when things were overwhelming. Later on, Echo’s were filled with maintenance notes and how to treat his psychological wounds alongside with the physical ones. Their Jedi was the first one outside his brothers to get a full page to themselves.

When the Bad Batch had first met their Jedi, Tech had spent every spare moment reading their file, in an attempt to understand them before meeting them. Clone Force 99 had never expected to get a Jedi general, Tech figured if they ever needed to complete a mission with Jedi, they would simply be partnered up with another squad that had one. Before meeting the Jedi, the notes were simple. Their name. Their lightsaber color. Their Jedi master. Their past battle stats. At their first meeting, Tech barely waved hello before gluing his eyes to his datapad in hopes they would move on and talk to his brothers instead of him. However, shortly after their introduction, they came over to ask him what he was working on. At first, Tech thought they were just humoring him. But they wore him down and got him talking and laughing. That’s how the first note rooted in a feeling and not a fact got added. Persistent.

Tech’s notes only got increasingly more complicated over time. The ones about their appearance started with simple colors and style notes and turned into almost poetry about their appearance and fighting style. And strangely enough – how they made Tech feel. Crosshair was the first to comment on one of the notes. Crosshair and their Jedi had gotten into a fight over a battle plan, Crosshair had taken it a step too far and insulted their old master and battalion. The change in their demeanor was like night and day, their eyes harden, and their jaw was tight. Within moments they had put him in his place. And it was later in the evening when the mission was all done that Crosshair peaked over Tech’s shoulder. He raised his eyebrow at the back of his brother’s head. Fierce like the waters of Kamino, never threaten anything they love for they will swallow you alive. “You got that right.” He mumbled and threw himself in the seat next to his brother.

He had been working on the ship while they sat in the copilot seat keeping him company. The others were in bed after a short rescue mission for some freedom fighters. They had been rambling while he found himself deep into the console controls, lying on his back with his helmet and top half of his armor off. He liked listening to their Jedi talk, especially about things they were passionate about, he had even found himself researching similar interests so they would have more to discuss. However, right now, after the long day they all had had, Tech was more than happy to just work and listen to their soothing voice. “I’m not keeping you from working, am I?” They asked softly, nudging him with their foot in case he was no longer paying attention. “Not at all, it’s nice to have company during the monotony of work.” He replied as he plugged a few more wires in. “I’m sorry I’m not as conversational as I normally am.” “Don’t be, you being here is enough, Tech.” They said with a smile that Tech returned bashfully. Kindhearted.

Tech felt as if his entire body had been through a ringer, which it basically had been. When he had tried to sit up, he gasped for air and fell back down, and immediately cried out in pain. At least two ribs had to be broken and as he slowly moved his body, he only felt more breaks and cuts. He couldn’t even raise his hand to his vambrace, he was stuck until someone found him. He could barely hear what was going on around him over the blood rushing through his ears. He felt as if his body was on a delay until he felt someone tap his helmet and even then his eyes wouldn’t focus. “-ech! Tech!” He heard their Jedi shout as they pulled his helmet off. The first thing he noticed was the tears in their eyes. He gasped as their hands began checking his wounds. “Ribs broken.” He gritted out as their hands stilled on his chest. If he wasn’t in so much pain, he might have cherished the gentle touches. He felt them remove his goggles and hold his head, so they were staring right at him, their eyes were shiny which Tech attributed to the smoke in the air. “Do you trust me?” They asked in all sincerity and if he had any energy left, he may have laughed, but he managed a small nod before they kissed his forehead and pressed their hands to his chest. Tech was blinded by pain as they pushed against the wound, not enough to make the break worse, but enough to make him even more aware of it. He cried out and tried to arch himself away, but they held steady and after a few painstaking moments Tech felt as if his ribs were mending themself. He gasped as he sat up, his body was healed, their Jedi gave him a sleepy smile and promptly passed out into his arms. Self-sacrificial.

When his…their Jedi woke up the first thing they did was ask Tech how he was feeling, and he let out a shaky laugh as he brushed their hair out of their face. As their eyes met, Tech felt the tension he had been holding fade. “Sorry I scared you.” They murmured, holding his hand against their face. He smiled as they nuzzled into his hand. “Sorry I got hurt; I didn’t know you could heal through the force like that.” “I worked in the hall of healing before coming to you guys, you didn’t know?” Tech blinked owlishly behind his goggles. He did know that how could he forget? He found himself forgetting more and more whenever their Jedi smiled at him. They laughed and pulled his goggles up, inspecting the bags under his eyes. The hummed softly as he closed his eyes. Cherishing their touch. “Tech, you need to get some sleep.” “Ever the worrier.” He said with a soft laugh. They shook their head and slowly moved over in the small bed. He tilted his head and watch them lay back down and make grabby motions towards him. “Rest with me.” And for the first time, he wasn’t sure if the word he added was more about them or himself. Fondness.

Tech found himself doing nearly anything to be near them. Any excuse and he’d take it. He began noticing they would do similar things. Constantly asking him to teach them about the Havoc or to test them over local flora and fauna. Over time Tech noticed something else, even when he knew that they knew something – they’d still ask him. They’d find themselves in friendly debates during their night shifts on the Havoc, quiet enough to not bother Hunter. He loved listening to them talk, he remembered joking about they should’ve been a senator instead of a Jedi. To which they got very quiet, but before he could change the subject they murmured something that surprised him. “But then I never would’ve met you, Tech.” He knew his face was on fire after that, but he couldn’t help the timid smile on his face. “Now that would’ve been a crime.” Intelligence to rival my own.

Omega was positive she wasn’t meant to scroll this far. Tech had lent her his datapad, which had notes on her brothers’ mutations and other information about some of the Regs they had dealt with in the past. But one name didn’t really match up with the rest of the clone names and the rest of Tech’s notes. The rest were factual and short, but this individuals over time became almost like diary entries. Omega read through the notes and short stories. Some didn’t make sense, but others gave her goosebumps, thinking of her brother writing these things. Tech didn’t speak of this Jedi and neither did the other guys, but that didn’t stop her from wondering. Talented at making flower crowns. Had the Jedi made one for all of her brothers? Themselves? Just for Tech? And another note stopped her from thinking they were just squad mates. Loves bad puns and jokes, their smile lights up a room – find more on the holonet! Smile lights up a room? Find more on the holonet? Tech had gone out of his way to find more Omega didn’t know much about love but it really seemed like Tech loved this person and that they loved him back. Omega chewed on her thumb, as she continued to scroll. She skimmed until she found one that made her gasp. It’s irrational to fall in love with a Jedi, but I love them.

Tech frowned at the view at hyperspace the shades of blue zooming by. His shift in the cockpit was at least another two hours and he had lent Omega his data to read through his notes over their brothers. She expressed interest in how they were growing up and growing into their enhancements and Tech couldn’t think of a better way to teach her than to allow her to read how they grew up and the changes through his own eyes. Tech pushed his goggles up as he stretched his arms. He heard a soft knock on the cockpit door and he listened as Omega padded towards him. He held out his hand for his datapad back, but she ignored it and instead sat in the seat next to him staring at the page. Tech waited for her to say something, figuring she had come across a note that had confused her and wanted a more in-depth explanation, but instead he was met with silence. “Omega, are you alright?” He asked softly. “You were in love?” She asked, Tech blinked in surprise as they made eye contact. The look on Omega’s face was solemn and that echoed through Tech’s mind. He gulped and looked away from her, debating what to say. He had forgotten that their Jedi’s notes were at the bottom of the squads’ notes. How much had she read? It didn’t matter, there was no sense in lying. “Am, Omega. I am in love.” He responded tightly, pulling his legs into his chair. He wrapped his arms around his knees and laid his head down, facing away from the young girl. The two remained in silence watching out the window.

Omega didn’t press and if she talked to the others about the Jedi, Tech didn’t know. Ever since Order 66 none of them talked about their Jedi. They were being leant to the Halls of Healing during their mission on Kaller. Late at night Tech wondered what would have happened if they had been with them when it all went down. He remembered Crosshair leveling his sniper at that Padawan, would he have done it to their Jedi? If Tech had been near their Jedi would the order have triggered his chip? It didn’t matter. They were on Coruscant and if they had survived there was no way they’d ever trust clones again and for good reason. Tech could only imagine what a blood bath the temple would’ve been. He closed his eyes and laid down on his bunk. If he thought about it hard enough, he could almost picture them lying next to him. His heart stuttered in his chest as he curled into a ball and faced the wall.

Echo had helped her send the message. He was the only one she told since she didn’t want to get the others' hopes up. They were sitting at Cid’s with Echo next to Tech and Wrecker with her and Hunter were playing holochess. “I know you’re hiding something, Omega,” Hunter commented as he moved his piece. He watched his younger sister for any surprise look, but she kept her poker face. “I know you sent a message with Echo. I just haven’t figured out to who.” Omega simply shrugged, causing Hunter to laugh. Hunter froze at a familiar scent filling Cid’s bar. He looked at the door as someone in a robe walked to the bar. He was unable to see their face, but he followed them with suspicion. “You’re looking for who?” They heard Cid yell. The whole batch was now staring at the interaction. The person in the robe attempted to make themselves smaller as the Trandoshan woman further inspected them. Hunter watched as the person began fidgeting and pulling their sleeve. “If you don’t know where they are that’s fine.” They responded softly. Hunter was sure he was the only one who heard them, but his entire squad’s eyes were on them. “Echo, it worked!” Omega shouted as she ran towards the stranger before Hunter could stop her. “Omega, stop you don’t-” Echo started but stopped when he made eye contact with the stranger. Tech jumped out of his seat knocking over him and Wrecker’s drinks.

It was their Jedi. His Jedi. On Ord Mantell. In Cid’s bar. 15 feet away from him. Tech didn’t even realize he was moving until the two of them collapsed in each other’s arms. Tech let out a soft cry as he pulled them closer, a hand fisting their hair. He knew his armor couldn’t be comfortable but selfishly he didn’t care. His Jedi was back, and he wasn’t going to let all his thoughts go unsaid this time.

#tech x reader #tech bad batch #The Clone Wars #bad batch #bad batch x reader #star wars clone wars #star wars x reader #clone trooper echo #wrecker #crosshair #omega #cid #glimpse of us #fluff and angst #x reader

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