#i am. i have been. eviscerated. mentally. i have started this season and they have butchered my fave so bad.

[iratusmus]

i feel as if the gaping jaws of the earth have been rendered asunder beneath my poor unsuspecting feet and swallowed my soul directly into the coldest pits of hell

#ive been binging . a show. ive watched like 70+ episodes in the past like 3 or 4 days #i am. i have been. eviscerated. mentally. i have started this season and they have butchered my fave so bad. #they ruined his design. they changed his voice actor. they give him a girlfriend (and lemme tell you this show SUCKS at romance #so i know its gonna be really bad). i have been told that they also butcher to some unknown extent his dad who is also one of my fave chars #and then i find out. and then i find out they changed his va. so they could give him a girlfriend. i hate. i hate everything. im so . i #this is my karma i think for putting off very important duties in favor of watching this show. honestly. its what i deserve #im not even sure if i can go on. this was too much information to process all at once. #i am. im . i #iratusmus.png

[rosartemis]

Your Phenomenal Dramaturgy DSMP Animatic

Was gonna post a YouTube comment, but then I realized I didn’t want to get eviscerated by the dsmp fandom for having a different opinion, so submitting my interpretation of the lyrics/animatic in regards to c!Dream here instead :P

“But I don’t know a thing, love or losing, see?” I believe references how before Wilbur and L'manburg these kinds of conflicts/wars were never a thing on the server and Dream had no idea how he should deal with it. “So I threw to the side any human in me.” Implies Dream believed he had to make harsh choices to end the conflict, he couldn’t be soft, “No mercy” right? “If I live a lie of shallow words and empty replies, then what am I?” implying Dream keeps his word, but the people of L'Manburg don’t. It’s framed as a response from Dream to Wilbur during the declaration of independence, and makes sense if you consider the fact that Wilbur was scamming everyone out of their own potions supplies and made L'Manburg in part as an excuse to get away with it when the other members of the server got mad (Dream was uninvolved at this point, but he likely heard about it from Sapnap, who was one of the people that had confronted Wilbur and Tommy about their theft). “Then it stuck in my head, gotta run away” Dream and Sapnap getting carried away with burning down the forest surrounding L'manburg. “Playing out like a scene, posing every lead Near the end of the show, waiting in the wing, see?” Not sure about the first line, aside from referencing how everything’s a play and Dream’s the lead actor, but the second line refers to Eret’s role as the hidden traitor “Waiting in the wings”. “Run to front stage, you’re all actors anyway, no one to watch, You’re all part of the play” Dream having to make tough decisions as the de facto leader of the Greater Dream SMP faction during war. He’s planning out strategies with George and Sapnap, but the map turns into a chess game and he hates how he has to consider using them like pawns in the game to win this war. “There’s no one inside me There’s no one that’s hiding Always been me, empty, a body but nobody here to see” Montage of Dream prepping for the battle, there’s a scene in which he’s stepping into an argument between George and Sapnap. He’s steeling himself for the battle ahead. From a meta standpoint, these are all the scenes we as viewers never got to see, but they still happened, and it was still Dream who had done all this for his faction. “And knowing that those eyes are watching…” From the animatic implies that Dream seems to think things aren’t quite over yet, so he’s keeping an eye on things. “Til before we could see, we were monsters in skin ” Dream and his relationship with being called a monster/tyrant/villain continuously by the other members of the server, in particular those that are a part of L'Manburg. Could also be how he hadn’t noticed himself slipping into that role until far too late. “But even if I had tried to move on, why can’t I leave my past?” Same as above, but this time with the bonus of Pogtopia Wilbur manipulating him and convincing him he’ll be nothing more than a tyrant, a villain despite his clear attempts to amend that opinion of him and change by siding with Tommy (and Wilbur), who he thought were the “good guys”. ““Considering it’s you, better give up soon” “Cuz no matter what you do, you will always lose”” Dream talking in reference to Tommy and Wilbur (?). “And then I was alone way before I knew Blocking every little thought that I couldn’t sit through” George leaving the conflict (and Dream) alone to build his own thing. Dream realizing he’s alone/his friends don’t seem to care about him as much as he does them, and trying not to think about it. “All they want now is safety from what’s around Waiting for help but never learning how” Dream constantly covering for George and Sapnap during conflicts they got themselves into without asking for anything in return, and George and Sapnap never learning how to stop causing conflicts/resolve them by themselves. (taking advantage of Dream’s help) “I don’t wanna think now” Doesn’t want to remember the good times he’s had with everyone/his friends. Him swiping away the pieces like he wants to stop this stupid game of chess. “I’ll play dumb anyhow” Reference to Dream losing his godly powers because of the exorcism and being split into 2 (as explained by creator of the animatic) and pretending everything was fine afterwards. “Always been me, empty, a body but nobody here to see” Realization he’s lost his powers and can’t rely on XD to help resolve the Manberg/Pogtopia conflict. Here his mask goes from covering the top of half of his face to covering his entire face, a “loss of humanity”/“empty” (from a circle to being fully molded onto his face covering), and is also when the strings motif starts. Trading chessboards for puppet strings. Very obviously, you can see him slipping and his mental state deteriorating. “So standing at the front line and maybe this time I’ll be there with a flag high” Reference to the Manburg shield hinting at his allegiance and how he’s leading the Manburg “army” during the battle. “Outmatched but easygoing "Never gonna need a script with me”“ Dream surrendering and playing along with their expectations (Pogtopia winning against Manberg). "Oh you too yes yes so take a deep breath "Swear that you’ll see me again” One chance is all I have now And so I better make it count Climatic ending, come see The final act, I’m shaken to my knees" Speaking to Tommy about meeting him for the final confrontation, Tommy realizing this is his chance to take down Dream for good, “climatic ending” the finale Dream’s planned out for them. Dream is determined to see things through to the bitter end. “Yet crying and lonely” But what has he lost to get to this point? (also the juxtaposition of Doomsday Dream with his armor and cloak staring at the sunset atop his obsidian grid, framed by destruction being swapped out for an image of the old Dream, still with strings tied to his hands, but staring up at the softer night sky being framed by trees, is just, so good) “The world that I locked out is nowhere to find The people who mocked me are gone from my sight Emotions and feelings are useless to keep The tears that had fallen were not mine to weep” Hardening his heart against George/the rest of his friends (who later in turn abandoned him/left him), beating down those who had wronged him in the past, letting go of Spirit and the attachment associated with them so they’ll never be used against him again (representing him cutting off the rest of his attachments to do the same thing) despite it being very obviously painful and hurting to do so. (choosing to let go, but finding that doing so hurts anyways. Crying for something you think you shouldn’t cry for.) “The kindness and warmth, I can’t feel them at all The hands that are offered, I’m scared that I’ll fall The hole dug inside me can’t hold any love Instead, you can see me break down from above” Unable or unwilling to form healthy emotional attachments/connections with other people. He’s scared that if he does he’ll just be hurt again, and so he pushes them away, even those who’d offer him their help. He’s lost so much that he’s grown emotionally repressed (his past as Cornelius and how he lost his entire family in a week) and has trouble feeling things like “love”, and starts collapsing under the lose. (his mental health spiraling hard) “Hey, remember when you saw that they were nearing their end? And you looked like you were laughing at the pain they were in But what did you see? Oh really what could it be Well, take a breath ‘cuz you’ll need it, so c’mon saying” Something more happening with Dream behind the front of “big bad villain” that he puts on for the rest of the server, what was he really feeling? What was he really planning? We don’t know. “We’re pulling at the boundary, unseen A curtain dyed in black soon came to be And knowing that those eyes are watching…” The end of a season/the “show”, Dream’s put in prison and the curtains appear to be closing, but there’s still some loose ends that haven’t been tied with the other characters, and Dream’s presence can still be felt all around the server despite him being locked up in a literal torture box with no real power (power that could get him out of said torture box). (also, just loved how you incorporated the chorus! I’ve known about Dramaturgy for a long time but hadn’t realized how well the lyrics just fit with the DSMP plotline XD)

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

Wow, thanks for such a detailed response to my animatic :D I’m really glad you enjoyed it enough to type so much out!

I really like your interpretation, you basically got most of the things I was going for. While I yearn to type out something longer, I don’t really want to tell people how to interpret something lol

Thanks again <3

#submissions #submission

[thesickpanda]

Honey, there's isolation and then there's isolation.

I've seen many chronically ill, neurodivergent, poor and disabled people discussing their bemusement at the cries of lament from the well-off able-bodied people who now have to self-isolate, cancel their plans, postpone holidays and miss out on fun events. It's quite something to behold. It’s fascinating (in a horrible way) to witness these people who are used to getting what they want now finding that they can't have it; that that instant gratification has been removed for them. Now they're staring down the prospect of being lonely for a few months, unable to see friends, sometimes even family, unable to go out to the movies or the festivals. And we're sitting here like, yo - welcome to our world.

 It's hard to put into words how frustrating it is to see governments putting in measures for tele-health services, working from home practices and teaching through Skype to students et cetera. For decades, disabled/sick/neurodivergent folks were told that these accommodations couldn’t be made for us, but now suddenly they can. Now suddenly there's money for it. Funny that.

 When we've talked about how lonely and isolated we feel as people with disabilities, we've been dismissed, victim-blamed or infantilized. But now the ableds are feeling it, a flood of “community compassion” initiatives and “mental health advice for dealing with isolation” is being made freely available to them.

 And yet previously, we used to hear things like: “You're so lucky you get to stay at home: I wish I could just be on Netflix all day!” Or, “You don't have to deal with people. That sounds like utopia to me!” 

Not so much fun in reality, is it?

The latest banger I heard was from my sibling. I told her that after a long winter, months of bushfires, unprecedented floods and now this virus, I had essentially been self-isolating for six months and another six months was going to make me lose my mind. Her response was, “well, at least you've had practice. This is all so new for the rest of us!”

 Yes, I have had practice. I have developed strategies for dealing with crippling loneliness. I have had to find ways to entertain myself whilst experiencing horrific symptoms of pain, nausea, digestive issues and more. I've had to learn not to take it too personally when friends cancel on seeing me or sensing their disappointment/bemusement when I cancel on seeing them. Yes, I have had lots of practice. It doesn't make it any less awful though.

 Australia has had a particularly bad run. The bushfires broke out in spring and for almost all of November and December we literally could not go outside because the air was toxic. The smoke blocked out the sun, rained apocalyptic ash and embers on us which sparked more fires. I have a compromised immune system and so I really felt the effects of the smoke. Red eyes, runny nose, sore throat - the works. That crushing, extended period of terror took a huge toll on me mentally, as well. Then, just as the smoke started to clear a little, the heat waves came. I'm talking about 48°C (113°F) days. You cannot go out in that. More people die from heat waves than most other natural disasters combined, and people were dying in Australia. People died from the smoke and the heat and that doesn't even include deaths from the fires themselves. Then the fires were put out not just by some heavy rain but by actual torrential flooding. So for a few weeks in February we were cooped up indoors unable to go out because the train lines had literally washed away and it was too dangerous to drive.

 And then the coronavirus hit Australia.

 Now everyone is being told to lock themselves in their homes. For many of us, particularly the chronically ill and most vulnerable, we've already had months and months of that. And bear in mind: I had to pretty much self-isolate all winter. Because such cretins like anti-vaxxers exist, it's really difficult for those with compromised immune systems to go out in winter and not get sick with the flu, which can be crippling or even deadly for us. Secondly, winter is extremely hard on my body. My pain gets infinitely worse in the cold weather. Last year I spent most of winter inside. I barely saw the sun. The only way I can get through those 3 to 5 months of cold is keeping in mind the prospect of spring and summer, when I can go out more often. But I couldn't go out in the spring and summer of 2019. My long stretch of being stuck indoors went on and on and on, and now I'm being told it could be another six months before I can go out again  - just in time for the start of the next bushfire season.

 After all the hardships we endured last year and after finally giving up running my not-for-profit due to worsening health, we really needed something to look forward to in 2020. I had no less than 14 medical appointments in the first eight weeks of this year. We spent thousands of dollars on seeing specialists and therapists to try to fix my broken body. The only time I would be out of the house was to see another medical professional. And then I broke up with my friend of 14 years (and his family), which led to me feeling more alone and more depressed. And then my elderly friend died at the end of February. Everything looked bleak.

 Strapped for cash, my partner tried to think of affordable ways we could still have fun this year. We finally had our own home, so maybe we could invite people over. Our social lives really suffered while running the non-profit, especially with all the drama of last year, so this year we pledged would be different.

We spent half a day in February in front of our wall planner and planned boardgame nights, our birthday parties, dinners with friends and excursions at local festivals and markets. I felt my spirits pick up a little and hope stir in my heart.

 All that has been cancelled now.

 For someone who is chronically ill and alone most of the time, we live for these outings. We live for the moments of socialization and human bonding that we are otherwise deprived of so much of the time. These things are the light at the end of the tunnel of pain and nausea and sickness. So to have that taken away from us? There are no words to describe how eviscerating that emotional pain is.

 To add insult to injury, we’re currently watching able-bodied people behaving even more despicably than usual. They descend like locusts on stores and rob the vulnerable, including our poorest regional communities (STILL RECOVERING FROM BUSHFIRES), of their food and resources. We’re witnessing them stepping over the disabled, sick and impoverished to panic buy all basic necessities. We hear them complaining about how hard it's going to be to give up seeing the football and to stay home with the kids these next few months. It's fucking galling. Now they are starting to taste what we have to experience, and yet there is still no consideration for what we’re going through.

 Instead, we hear shit like: "The self-isolation thing is so annoying. I mean, it's only the sick and elderly who will die from it so I don't see why I can't go out to a concert!"

 Only the sick and the elderly: this implies our lives have no inherent value. But I guess, under a capitalist system, that's how people see things.

  I am just so goddamn tired. I’m tired of trying to be positive all the time when things are just terrible right now. I’m tired of being dismissed, ignored, or made to feel like a whiny burden. I’m tired of the hypocrisy.  I am tired of the fear and selfishness and ugliness all around me. I’m tired of being sick and I’m tired of being punished for it.

This coronavirus has highlighted so many deep flaws with our culture and our economic system. It’s shown up humans for the self-centered, individualistic bigots we are. It’s illuminated how pathetic our treatment is of the world’s most vulnerable. It’s really underscored how incompetent our leaders are. Not that this will motivate anyone to change anything. Keep selfish, carry on.

And so it goes. Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…

#spoonie rants #chronic illness #chronic pain #the ableds are at it again #abledsareweird #fuck ableism #coronavirus #covid19 #Fibromyalgia #seriously Australia #get a grip #disability and isolation

[shimmershae]

Personally?  I'm all for Carol and Daryl experiencing a little emotional catharsis.  My girl has been fucked over six ways to Sunday since Rick abandoned her on the side of that road.  Since before that really.  Being married to Ed Peletier, enduring his physical and mental abuse and being on constant alert that he might try something untoward and evil with their own daughter had to be a living nightmare.  Finally being released from that prison only to lose Sophia so tragically and feel the guilt over not doing more to find her?  Oh my heart.  My girl has suffered in so many ways and for so long.  She's barely had a moment to settle into some kind of peace and be her true self, the person she always wanted and thought she could be, without having to regroup after some tragedy and don another mask.  What we're seeing this season, whether it's ever explicitly spelled out or not, is a cumulative effect of every bit of that.

So yeah. 

 Bring on the angst. 

 Lance those wounds so the ugly infection can start to be cleansed. 

 Do I deny that she's acting recklessly?  That I'm just as frustrated as Daryl that she is almost impossible to reach right now for more than a few, brief moments of clarity and peace? 

 Absolutely not. 

 I'm not that kind of fan. 

 But I am a fan with a long memory and I remember Michonne chaining reminders of her own executed vengeance and always present loss to her person and having them follow in her wake.  I'm also a fan that recollects Rick ripping out the throat of the nasty bastard that would have raped his son. 

 Some might argue that those acts didn't endanger anybody good, anybody not considered family, and I'll give them that.  But see?  Those instances, at those points, were relatively isolated in comparison.  They didn't manifest as a result of soul-breaking after soul-breaking loss mounting one right over the top of the other. 

 Ed Peletier physically, emotionally, and probably sexually abused his wife for years.  He looked at his own little girl with evil in his thoughts and his heart.  Walkers got to him and Carol got to take a pickaxe to the human representation of the traumas of her past.  But did she get a moment to actually breathe and exist peacefully before life hit her cruelly again? 

 Barely.  Because Sophia was lost, bitten and turned, and she had to endure the trauma of not only that but Rick putting a bullet through her little girl's head. 

 Dale was eviscerated. 

 Andrea put herself between Carol and some walkers with the downfall of the Farm, too.  Survivor's guilt is real, ya'll.

 Then they found the Prison and things were looking up.  They really were. 

 Hershel was bitten and from that moment, everything snowballed.  Because Rick had to amputate his leg and Carol found herself promoted to Lori's main source of medical help.  She did what she could to prepare, but it was all for naught because that little punk Andrew got his revenge and ultimately two of Carol's closest friends perished.  And again, she got to carry that guilt.  Because T-Dog sacrificed himself to save her.  She wasn't there to help with Judith's birth.  Can you imagine how she felt?  I can and it was at this point, that a pattern started to really emerge, IMHO. 

 They got Andrea back, only to ultimately lose her again.  Merle was also killed by the Governor. 

 Fast forward some and things were starting to settle again.  Real happiness and peace seemed to be within reach and the sickness started.  Not wanting to lose anymore of her family, Carol made the hard choice to do something to try to stop it from spreading and put down a too far gone David and Karen. She carried the secret for a while, had to put down her friend Ryan and become the reluctant adoptive mother of Lizzie and Mika, and then Rick figured things out.  He took her on a mission, passed his unilateral judgment, and left her on the side of the road like trash. 

 Now, Carol has never been shown to be unfeeling.  Never.  She didn't react with histrionics but she was hurt deeply with Rick's way of handling the situation.  Still.  That didn't stop her from going back at the first hint of trouble for her family and what did she find? 

 She found the whole place in ruins and thought her entire family was dead until she happened upon Tyreese and the girls.

 I don't have to go through the painful details of Lizzie and Mika.  Anybody that has ever loved the character of Carol Peletier and/or afforded her an inkling of unbiased understanding knows how much the Grove gutted her.

 Then there was Terminus and getting her family back again, only to feel like an outsider.  Finding Beth and witnessing her pay for her childish impulsiveness in such a cruel way.  Trying to bring Daryl back from the brink of losing a child himself when Lizzie and Mika and what happened still haunted her.  When the only other person that was haunted by Lizzie and Mika died so tragically so soon, how do you think she felt?  Hmm? 

 They get to Alexandria and she took to hiding herself and her emotions behind masks and distance. 

 She met Sam and echoes of her own abusive past rise up to confront her. Sam ultimately met a grisly end.  Morgan arrived and honed in on her like some kind of morality police, constantly picking at the scabs of the wounds that just wouldn't heal.

 By the time Denise was murdered and the kill floor happened, Carol was thisclose to breaking. To just giving in.  And guess who swooped in again? 

 I won't keep going on in detail because this has already turned into a novella. 

 But Carol has suffered inordinately under these writers' pens. 

 Aside from the people I've already mentioned (more than enough to drive any sane person to break), she also lost Glenn and Abraham, Sasha, Noah, Carl, Benjamin, Enid and Tara and finally Henry. 

 Henry. 

 Tell me.  If it had been Judith on one of those pikes, would there be any acceptable limit to the vengeance doled out by the likes of Michonne and Daryl, possibly even Carol herself? 

 I don't think so. 

 In fact, I think any or all three of the characters would have been praised for the lengths they would go.  Particularly Michonne. 

 But Carol's efforts are too much? 

 Paint everybody with the same brush or admit to your own bias.  Stop persecuting a particular character and her fans because you just don't prefer her.  Everybody's welcome to have their own favorites.  I'm certainly not here o police anybody on that.  The objections roll in when the demonization starts because from where I stand, as a fan of both the remaining originals and Michonne? It's just not warranted. 

 Anyway, let me climb back out of that long and winding rabbit hole to reiterate my original point, lol.

 Bring on the angst and the arguments if need be.  It's past time for all the feelings, and I do mean all the feelings to be voiced.

 That is all. 

 Goodnight. 

#ignore this if you want #I'm feverish #hahaha #I'm not even going to tag it any further #for reasons

[bomberqueen17]

football

So today Sister toddled off to the bank with one of those zippered vinyl envelopes so stuffed full of cash and checks that it looked kinda like a football.

That’s the winter survival money. It’s always so nerve-wracking, until it’s all put into the bank. Even then, waiting for checks to clear and such is a bit of a nailbiter. But it’s pretty much all set now. A few loose ends to tie up, but a major source of stress, gone.

The cattle, too-- three steers they bought as yearlings and fed out this year-- are loaded up and on their way to the processing facility. In two weeks they’ll be back, freezer-packed for distribution and sale, and the money from them will go into the bank. 

So there are a whole lot fewer live animals on the farm, almost no living plants that need tending, and the farm is settling into its relative state of dormancy. It’s never totally dormant, and we just had sixteen piglets born in the last couple of weeks, with hopefully one more litter to join them in the next couple of weeks somewhere, and the pullets’ fence is bad and they’re out all over the barn and surrounding countryside, and the hens are on strike and need more light and who knows what else, and so on and so forth. But. No more turkeys, no more cattle, no more garden chores.

I re-set the slaughterhouse today, deep-cleaned everything again, set up for packaging simultaneous with processing. Painted nu-skin over all the scratches on my hands that haven’t healed since Saturday (the rough ends of the neckbones scratched me up during panic-packaging, I’m realizing-- didn’t quite break the skin enough to bleed, but did enough to make the skin inflamed with tiny infections, angry pink and slightly swollen and really really annoying), and took a shower finally and re-did my hair and am mentally steeling myself for tomorrow. Only 90 birds. Maybe I can arrange *not* to be packaging this time. i’d love to *just* eviscerate or pluck. We’ll see!

Sister dosed herself up with NyQuil, she feels awful. Tomorrow morning she’s to sleep in, and see the kid onto the school bus, and then come out-- we’ll only have been going for half an hour, at that point, and we can manage without her until then, her job is literally the end of the line and we won’t have really gotten into it yet. I can probably do her job to start with, though if I set myself up there, then I’m totally going to get pulled off to do packaging. Noooooo....

Anyway, the last of setup is all on me and that’s usually what I do anyway, so I’m not super concerned. I should be asleep, though. 

I spent an hour or so this evening researching how to cap a spring to use it, and I might make some efforts to do that around here next season. Not only would it improve some of the areas where there’s horrible chronic mud, it’d also mean we had to haul less water for livestock watering. I know you can get human-potable water out of those, with a little work, but it seems to me it’d be even less work to get livestock-potable water, so maybe that’s what I’d go for on my first try.

Between that and the grey water systems, I’m starting to think of possibly too many projects around here... 

#farm life #about the author

[woolishlygrim]

Winter Weebwatch #3

I feel a little bad for giving out so many two and three star scores, so I should probably clarify that three stars is meant to be ‘generally pretty good’ and two stars is meant to be ‘watchable but very flawed.’ We’re not working on IGN metrics here.

Also, this week is the week I finally drop a show! What could it be, what could it -- it’s Plunderer. Of course it’s Plunderer. I couldn’t get all the way through this week’s episode and life’s too short to bother watching any more of it.

Also also, while In/Spectre hasn’t been dropped, it gets subbed so late that I’m skipping it this week and rolling this week’s episode over to next week’s post.

ID: Invaded.

★★★★☆

God, why was this show relegated to the Death Season, Where Anime Goes To Die? For three weeks running now, ID: Invaded has stood head and shoulders over all of its competitors, and while there’s always the possibility it could collapse in under its own weight, it so far seems to be going pretty strong.

So episode four (again, see remarks about how one and two aired in the same week) sees Sakaido and the team in a race against the clock to catch the Gravedigger, a serial killer who traps people into enclosed spaces with just a few oxygen canisters and livestreams their struggles, showing the world their final moments and even continuing the livestreams to show their bodies decaying. The Gravedigger has kidnapped a new victim, and for the first time left enough cognition particles behind for Sakaido to dive into his mental world.

Whereas previous episodes have focused heavily on the mystery angle, this episode largely focuses on the stress the case puts on Sakaido and the team. The Gravedigger’s world is a uniquely dangerous mess of fire, explosions, and shifting architecture, and Sakaido dies again and again as he struggles to find any evidence of the Gravedigger’s identity.

Much like the last episode, this would sit at a solid three stars, being a fairly engaging and somewhat harrowing story of Sakaido and the team putting themselves under immense stress to save a victim. What boosts it up to four stars is the moment where the writers pull the rug out from under the characters and the audience: The Gravedigger they’re hunting is only a copycat of the real Gravedigger, and his victim has been dead for days, the ‘livestream’ actually a recording.

The episode also hints at a bigger role for the Perforator in future, as the team attempts to use him as a back-up detective, Akaido, only to find out he’s ill-suited for the role.

Pet.

★★★☆☆

Pet was so close to a four star rating this week. So close. 

So, this week’s episode continues an unclear amount of time after the last week’s episode, with Hiroki and Tsubasa having bought a fish store (as in a pet store that sells live fish and naught else, not a fishmonger’s), which Hiroki believes means they can stop doing work for the shady Committee -- only for Tsubasa to inform him that the Committee paid for the store in the first place, but not to worry, he’ll do all their jobs, and Hiroki doesn’t have to do any of them.

So this episode is … moderately upsetting, actually. Intentionally so.

The bulk of the storyline, in which Tsubasa alters a bodyguard’s memory so that he’s compelled to murder one of his boss’ friends, isn’t what’s upsetting about it, although it does deal with some sensitive subjects, namely domestic abuse and the objectification of vulnerable people. No, what’s upsetting is that, like with last week’s story about Hiroki and Tsubasa altering the memories of a couple, this one also harks back to Hiroki and Tsubasa’s relationship -- specifically, that Tsubasa is emotionally abusing Hiroki.

We get hints of this early on, when Tsubasa is deliberately vague about whether he’ll psychically synchronise with Satoru, another character who, at least in Hiroki’s mind (although evidently not in Satoru’s), is something of a romantic rival. As the episode wears on, Tsubasa goes about his work, while Hiroki, left alone at the fish store, begins showing his immaturity by acting out with his powers before eventually becoming sullen and unresponsive. All of that wouldn’t be enough to indict Tsubasa as being abusive, except in the final scene, as Katsuragi snidely remarks that their new store will never be successful and Hiroki will have to return to a life of crime, Tsubasa mildly returns that he knows it won’t be successful, and he knows it will hurt Hiroki, but that’s just part of ‘taking care of a pet.’

Aaaand we get our title, with all of the unpleasant implications of how Tsubasa views the much more immature and emotionally vulnerable Hiroki.

This episode would have scraped a four star score, but the early parts of the story are a bit too fast paced and a bit incoherent. That really was the only thing holding this absolute gutpunch of an episode back.

Bonus points to the episode that the thing that prompts Hiroki to act out with his powers is seeing a woman’s domineering and callous boyfriend, implying that he is at least somewhat aware of what Tsubasa is like.

Honestly, when this show started I was not expecting a meditation on the subject of abusive relationships, but here we are, and I’m down for it.

Darwin’s Game.

★☆☆☆☆

Oh my god, I just watched it. I just watched it, guys, and I don’t remember even the tiniest bit of it. Am I crazy? Is this what crazy feels like? It’s like I’m blotting the show out of my memory.

I remember something to do with plants and that’s … that’s actually the only thing I remember about this episode.

I don’t even think Darwin’s Game is bad (although let’s be honest, how would I know), it’s just not really anything. It has somehow hit that sweet spot between good and bad where it just fails to make any kind of impact at all, and my brain just interprets it as background noise and proceeds to flush all data pertaining to it.

I might drop it just because this has got to be getting boring for anyone reading these reviews by now. Watching this show is like a sneak peek of suffering from dementia. 

And yet, I still know for a fact it’s better than Plunderer, so it gets one star.

Plunderer.

☆☆☆☆☆ (DROPPED)

Aaand I’m out.

Look, after the shitshow that was the first episode, I should have dropped it straight away. I gave it a chance, and the second episode convinced me that, hey, maybe this wouldn’t be so terrible, maybe the first episode was just an outlier.

The first episode was not an outlier. Episode three isn’t entirely sexual assault and sexual harassment, but about twelve minutes in it does segue into an extended sequence of exactly those things, getting worse with each passing minute. I got up to fourteen minutes, the point at which a supporting character was cheering on the protagonist to sexually assault someone, before I just couldn’t stomach watching anymore.

This show could be the most interesting, engaging, thought-provoking thing on television, and the constant sexual assault would still make me drop it. Luckily, even if you take out all the sex crimes, all you’d get is a show that was basically okay at best.

So zero stars for Plunderer, and I’m dropping the show. To be perfectly honest, I should have dropped it after episode one. 

Sorcerous Stabber Orphen.

★★★☆☆

Onto more pleasant news, man, I just don’t know what’s up with Sorcerous Stabber Orphen’s pacing. Having proceeded at a truly glacial pace for the first two episodes, this episode caps off the entire current story arc, bringing it to an abrupt close.

Now in the company of his old mentor Childman and a task force of sorcerers, Orphen tracks down the dragon-ified Azalie, attempting to reason with her, only for Childman to stab him and eviscerate Azalie. In the aftermath, however, Orphen realises that he’s been played: The dragon he thought was Azalie was actually Childman, and the person he’s been thinking of as Childman is actually Azalie.

So, that was a weird twist. It’s not, in fact, completely out of the left field. The episode sets up early on that Azalie was skilled not only in elemental Black Sorcery, but also in telepathic White Sorcery, and that she should have access to those spells even as a dragon, something which is cause for concern because nobody in the task force has White Sorcery, including Childman. Later on, the confrontation with Dragon-Azalie (Drazalie, if you will), has a character call attention to how she hasn’t used any White Sorcery since the battle started. So when it’s eventually revealed that Azalie did, in fact, use White Sorcery, secretly swapping her mind with Childman’s and letting him die in her place, it actually fits together in quite a neat fashion. 

The episode ends without any real hint as to where the story is going to go next: Azalie escapes in Childman’s body, and Orphen is still an exile from the Tower of Fangs, and there aren’t any other pressing story threads, so I guess we’ll see.

Infinite Dendrogram.

★★☆☆☆

This is the second week in a row that I’m giving Infinite Dendrogram two stars, and it actually physically pains me to do so, because I really like this series. I think apart from ID: Invaded, it’s my favourite anime this season, by quite a significant margin.

But nothing at all happens in this episode.

Okay, that’s only half true. The episode opens with the Player-Killers roaming around Altar having all been killed, which journalist (that’s literally her character class, which I kind of love as a concept) Marie Adler says was the work of just the four ranked players. One by one, she shows the main cast a video of each one taking out a clan of Player-Killers in their own unique way: Arena gladiator Figaro takes his targets out one by one, sadistically toying with them before striking the killing blow; cult priestess Tsukuyo uses magic to immobilise her targets, before letting her cult skewer them one by one; martial artist Lei Lei takes them out in a surprisingly friendly and sporting fashion; and the King of Destruction, whose identity is unknown and definitely not Ray’s big brother, definitely, absolutely, just levels the entire forest his targets are hiding in.

I … do see the necessity of introducing them. The Superiors are basically this show’s Gotei 13, or Gold Saints, or Hashira, or <Insert Group Of Loosely Allied Big Tough People That Are In Every Post-Saint Seiya Shounen Anime> here. There are, however, more interesting ways this could have been done than having the characters watching four videos of fights they already know the outcome to.

For example, what if, instead, you had an episode setting up the characters all getting trapped in different areas, pursued by higher level Player Killers, only for them each to be saved by a Superior. That would actually have some tension and dramatic stakes, and it’d be a much more dynamic way of introducing them. 

#plunderer #id invaded #infinite dendrogram #sorcerous stabber orphen #darwins game #winter weebwatch

[letmetellyouaboutmyfeels]

Who You Should Fight: Timeless Edition

So I did a version of this months and months ago but it was at the very beginning of season two and is no longer accurate so take two, here we go!

Note: This assumes you have read @timeless-season-three. If you haven’t, what are you doing? Do you not love yourself? Go read it.

Lucy: Um. I mean. On the one hand yes, you should fight Lucy because she’s got a lot of rage she needs to work out and you will provide an excellent opportunity but on the other hand Flynn’s going to literally murder you. And Wyatt’s probably gonna help him. So I mean if you want to get one good fight in before a 6′4″ one man army mows you down and obliterates your soul then sure! Go right ahead! But why you’d even WANT to fight Lucy is beyond me, who are you, Emma? What did our darling historian ever do to you? Do you just hate sunshine?

Wyatt: Please fight him. Absolutely. Here I’ll help you. Boy needs a good ass kicking. Will you win the fight? Possibly, I mean, God knows Wyatt’s gotten his ass kicked by both Emma and Flynn multiple times now so his record isn’t all that great but on the other hand he was trained by an elite military squad so I’m not sure whatever gym membership you have is going to cut it. BUT WINNING DOESN’T MATTER. FIGHT HIM. ABSOLUTELY FIGHT WYATT LOGAN.

Rufus: Okay first of all what kind of monster are you. You would fight this cinnamon roll? After all he’s been through? After he’s been nothing but a good and pure soul who has saved the day constantly? Did you not get hugged enough as a child? Sure. SURE. Go ahead and fight Rufus. See how long it takes before the entire Time Team pile drives you for it.

Flynn: Hahahahahaha. *cough* I mean. Yes, you should fight Flynn because he’s always in the mood for a good fight but uh. I hope you made arrangements for your funeral ahead of time. You’ve seen him in action right? There’ll be a stain on the floor where you used to be standing. Really, for your own personal safety, don’t fight Flynn.

Jiya: ...you want to fight the woman who spent three years alone in Chinatown and has visions of the future. I wasn’t aware that you had a death wish, but far from me to stop you from dying by Jiya’s hand if that’s how you want to go. She’s not going to fight fair, I can tell you that much, she definitely now carries at least one (1) knife concealed on her person at all times. And even if you did somehow win you’d have Flynn to deal with for kicking the ass of his basically-adopted-daughter, so, y’know, either way your ass is grass. Don’t fight Jiya. She is Tired and wants a Rest. Don’t fight her.

Denise: Y’know what? Yes. Fight Denise. She needs to get off her high horse a little especially after all that bullshit she dumped on Flynn and God knows she hasn’t been able to get out all the frustration the Time Team’s been giving her. She deserves a good fight just for all that romantic bedhopping drama in season two. One hundred percent fight Denise. You’ll probably lose, but it’ll be a good fair fight and she’ll buy you dinner or something afterwards. Fight Denise.

Mason: If you really need an ego boost, then definitely fight Mason. The poor man’s probably thrown a punch, what, twice in his life? By all means fight Mason. It’ll kind of be like kicking a puppy while it’s down because of all the emotional shit he’s been through and the guilt he feels constantly over inventing time travel and losing the man he loves as a son and being stuck alone in a safe house for a month thinking all his friends had possibly died... actually how about you don’t fight Mason. My God. Hasn’t he been through enough?

Emma: Please fight Emma. You’ll die in the process but you’ll die a goddamn hero and you’ll have the entire Time Team up in her ass avenging you. And hey if you surprise her you’ll actually get a few good hits in before she eviscerates you. Go to Valhalla. Fight Emma.

Jess: Okay let’s start with how if you’re fighting a pregnant woman I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Second of all, I mean, good fucking luck staying alive once Wyatt hears about it. You fought his pregnant wife and endangered the life of his kid? I mean with that track record he’ll probably be able to convince Flynn to help him and that is NOT a duo you want on your back. Of course this is all assuming you win the fight, because Jess might not have a lot of prowess but she’s also literally at the end of her mental rope and I’m not sure you want to be the person she finally unleashes all of that rage on. Don’t fight Jess. Why am I even having to explain this to you. Just don’t.

Temple: If you don’t fight Temple or at least want to fight him then I’m not sure I can respect you as a human being. The man’s useless at hand to hand combat so you’ll actually win this fight, too, and that’s always a fun ego boost. Fight Temple. In the street, in the office, on the bus, in the Denny’s parking lot, it doesn’t matter, JUST FIGHT TEMPLE.

Jane: Well, you’ll have Wyatt to deal with afterwards, and I’m not sure why you would want to fight a literal teenager, but if you want to feel better about your fighting skills then feel free to fight Jane. She’ll put up a good fight and I don’t think she’ll hold that much of a grudge afterwards. If you want a good fun friendly fight, then fight Jane. Just be prepared to run for your life when Wyatt hears about it.

Timothy: You want to fight a literal baby boy who just wants to be himself? Are you truly heartless? You’ll literally kick his ass to kingdom come, kid’s like 90 pounds dripping wet, but Denise will show you no mercy afterwards and Wyatt’s gonna be real pissed that you reopened all those stitches he put in so it’ll possibly be the last thing you ever do. If you’re determined, sure, fight Timothy, but I’m not responsible for where your soul goes afterwards.

#timeless #timeless s3 #timeless-season-three #Time Team #bunker family #lucy preston #garcia flynn #wyatt logan #rufus carlin #jiya marri #denise christopher #connor mason #emma whitmore #jessica logan #michael temple

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

My Pitch for how to rewrite Arrow.

So, a while back, after me and my brother had a chin-wagging session on why Arrow was a legitimately terrible show after Season 2, I decided to do a little think piece: say I was tasked with rebooting Arrow a couple of years down the line. How would I do it? What would I change (a lot)? What would I keep the same (not a lot)? I decided to sit down and write out a basic outline for a rewritten Arrow Season 1.

...two weeks, 2000+ words and another basic outline for Season 2 later, I am pleased to present my pitch for Arrow Season 1 under the cut to anyone who might give a shit.

WARNINGS for: discussion of violence, mental health and swearing.

The first season is almost exactly the same as Arrow, but with a few not that big rather large differences

1.       First off, no Felicity. You could probably bend her characterization into something likeable, but it would just be too much work for too little payoff.

Seriously, if we need someone to do hacker bits? Oracle is right there, you guys.

2.       More overtly a Robin Hood story-Team Arrow are the Merry Men, Malcolm Merlyn is the Sherriff of Nottingham, some episodes are entirely ripped from lesser-known Robin Hood stories, etc. (Full disclosure: this is mainly because I love Robin Hood, and will fight to the death to have another good Robin Hood show for this generation)

3.       Have Oliver be explicitly an SJW. I say this because Arrow really lost something the instant it turned Oliver into just another Batman clone. If I may reference a comic I haven’t read (yet) I think one of the most interesting (and easily incorporated) elements of the Rebirth story is Oliver coming to terms with the idea that he can’t really ‘fuck the man’ if he is ‘the man’, and it could also give Thea something to do besides be all ‘self-destructive teen’-and also it’s a great way to introduce Roy.

4.       In addition, have Merlyn be an actual morally opposed antagonist. Maybe have Tommy bring up that Merlyn could do anything to help the people of the Glades and be more faithful to his mother’s memory, but it’s easier for him to pretend that he’s ‘curing’ the city by getting rid of the poor people.

5.       And for God’s sake, don’t have Oliver open up a nightclub in the middle of a dilapidated area that needs literally anything except another fucking nightclub. Like… anything. Hell, have him open up a soup kitchen that also gives out really expensive clothes he doesn’t need any more, and have Moira be all ‘but charity? What is the SJW bullshit?’

Thus Thea’s whole ‘I work at a law firm except now I run a nightclub aren’t I a caring soul?’ becomes ‘I worked at a law firm and now I run a soup kitchen because this will actually help people.’

6.       But the biggest change has to be to Black Canary.

So, when Oliver returns from the island Laurel is… different. For one thing, she’s going by Dinah now. She’s also got a new personal trainer (Wildcat), and… that scene in episode 2 when China White attacks them? Dinah kicks ass.

But that’s not the only thing that surprises him.

See, when he goes to strike the first name off the list-a name, I may remind you, that Dinah is suing in court to no real effect-he runs into complications.

Complications in the form of an apparent thief named Black Canary.

See, Dinah’s been doing this Daredevil shtick for a while now. Apparently she compulsively activated her meta-gene in grief after her sister’s death, and the Canary Cry is actually effective in this-the Canary Cry in the comics can take out Wondy if she’s not prepared, so we’re talking that level of effectiveness.

Why she decided to be a vigilante is up for debate-maybe she actually has a Daredevil-esque ‘I trusted in the law, and it screwed everything up, so fuck it, I’mma do it myself!’ or maybe she found out her mother was the first Black Canary and took up the mantle (or both. Both is good)

Regardless, she’s here to hack into Hunt’s computers and release a ton of info onto the web to use in her case against him. Oliver’s here to hack in and give the money Hunt stole back to the people.

Neither of them mention this.

They fight.

Dinah wins (of course)

And thus, for more or less the first half of the first season, both of these dorks are convinced that they’re having a ‘Batman/Catwoman’ style romance, with the other one as Catwoman.

They arrive in more or less the same area, they trade witty banter, they both somehow get what they want despite the other person opposing them, rinse and repeat.

Even better, Oliver goes to Dinah in her civilian identity in like Episode 3. So Dinah starts thinking ‘maybe he’s not so bad after all’. So she starts pulling her punches. Which results in Oliver sometimes winning (rarely, but sometimes). Which results in him thinking that it has more to do with his skills than it probably does.

Meanwhile, out of costume, Oliver and Dinah exchange as much flirty banter as in costume. Like, sometimes it’s the exact same flirty banter.

Diggle, after he joins Oliver, immediately susses out who Black Canary is based purely on the flirty banter, and spends the rest of the first half of the season constantly going HOW HAVE THESE TWO NOT FIGURED IT OUT YET?

7.       The mid-season finale has GA and BC fighting Merlyn, wherein a) they both discover who the other is and b) Oliver gets sure-fire proof that Moira is involved in the Undertaking

8.       This leads to Dinah and Diggle both telling Oliver to give the evidence to Lance (who has been hunting for both of them, but keeps on hinting that he knows who Black Canary, at least, is) but Oliver is all ‘but she’s my mom.’

9.       And because Diggle and Dinah are having none of that shit, Dinah goes to her dad and he starts investigating Moira.

Oliver is not happy.

They fight.

Dinah wins (of course)

10.   Oliver spends about three episodes brooding about this, until Diggle, Thea (unknowingly) and Dinah kick his ass back into gear (This is also where we get the majority of the island flashbacks, which, btw: almost the same, but no Slade and more Yao Fei and Shado.)

11.   Tommy finds out who GA and BC are (how I’m undecided on. Maybe Dinah tells him, maybe Oliver does, maybe he figures it out on his own, idk) and agrees to help investigate his dad, because Team Arrow figure that Malcolm has to be involved.

Btw, Tommy’s been working in the soup kitchen because Oliver’s paying him and he, at least at the start, thinks he can convince Ollie to give up this weird SJW thing he’s got going on and go back to being a partyer

This all changes when he meets one Roy Harper, because Roy is basically him but with no money and an even bigger chip on his shoulder (also Native American cos I’ll be fucked if anyone gets whitewashed in my fucking Green Arrow show)

Basically for every scene the show devoted to that fucking love triangle I want a scene of Tommy and Roy being bros.

12.   Moira isn’t convinced to out the Undertaking by Oliver tricking her, but by Oliver confronting her at the same time as Tommy confronts Malcolm, and the two giving more or less the same speech eviscerating the notion that the Undertaking is good for anyone.

Seriously, I want full on Marxist, socio-economic and class-based ideas being raised. I want this to be so overtly political that newsgroups will be talking about it for years. You wanna prove comic books aren’t just for kids anymore? Have an adult conversation about the world comic book Green Arrow would want us to live in, and see the conservative nerd sites explode.

For a bonus, have Malcolm talk like a commentator on Fox News, all ‘entitled poor people’ and ‘benefit thieves’ and ‘they shouldn’t be born poor if they didn’t want to get killed by an earthquake machine’.

13.   Ultimately, the speech convinces Moira that she needs to turn over everything on the Undertaking to the authorities, and convinces Malcolm that Tommy just doesn’t understand his plan, and that he needs to start it right away.

14.   From then on, the finale goes more or less as it goes in canon, with one major exception: Oliver and Dinah are both there when Tommy dies.

15.   But before we get on to that, a word about the Green Arrow and killing:

Now, straight up front, I prefer my heroes to not kill if they can help it.

I do have caveats to that belief (e.g. I am in general agreement with @bluefall-returns‘ stance that Superman and Batman’s ‘killing is okay as long as it’s not humans’ ethos is… problematic, to say the least, and Wondy’s whole ‘don’t attack until you first talk, but if someone is a proven threat and killing is your only option, make sure they aren’t getting up afterwards’ is such a refreshing concept that I even incorporated it into the morality of one of my main characters) but on the whole, a superhero like Green Arrow, who stands for a specific set of real-world beliefs, shouldn’t kill unless absolutely necessary, and certainly not admit that he enjoys doing it (seriously, wtf Guggenheim?)

That being said, I will acknowledge that Oliver should kill at the start of the series. That only makes sense. He’s got fucking PTSD for fuck’s sake. Of course he’s reacting the way he did on the island.

But – and here’s the key thing – YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THE PTSD!

YOU DON’T HAVE YOUR ‘LOVE INTEREST’ MAKING JOKES AT YOUR EXPENSE ABOUT FUCKING ‘FANTASY ISLAND’!

YOU DON’T HAVE HER ACTING ALL CLUELESS AS TO WHY YOU’RE OPPOSED TO KILLING NOW!

YOU DON’T HAVE PEOPLE BEAT YOUR MAIN CHARACTER DOWN FOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES AND CALL HIM AN ASSHOLE IF HE RESPONDS NEGATIVELY TO TRIGGERS!

I APPARENTLY HAVE TO TELL PROFESSIONAL WRITERS THAT PTSD ISN’T SOMETHING THAT CAN JUST SOME AND GO AS IT PLEASES

I’S SO FUCKING STUPFOWRBUORVN PNFWEONVOEWVN OWRENVORENVREO

…

…sorry

Anyway, have Oliver go to Dinah for help, because hey, she took an elective in psychiatry in college, maybe? (I don’t know how American school works)

(That may seem a bit too Mary Sue for some of you, but I say that if Batman can be a detective/ninja/billionaire/whatever else, and TV!Ollie can be a member of the Russian Mob before he even comes back to the city and no-one questions it, the fucking Black Canary can be a therapist if I want her to be. Also, at the very least it’s from a piece of comic book media (Young Justice) and associated with the right character, which already puts it ahead of anything Error has done with its female characters.)

So Ollie stops killing people after a while (which, for bonus points, removes a lot of the ‘WHAT WERE YOU THINKING’ from the Huntress episode)

(Yes, episode, because the second episode was pointless and I hate it.)

16.   So, anyway, that happens. Thus, when Ollie fights Merlyn, it’s less external ‘will Tommy forgive me if I kill his dad’ and more Batman style ‘if I kill him, will I be able to stop/will I go back to what I was before?’

I still haven’t figured this out, btw. If Oliver kills him, then events proceed as they do in the show and Oliver is left with the realisation that killing Merlyn didn’t do anything except add another casualty to this insane plot. If Oliver lets Merlyn live, everything Merlyn does in later seasons are things Oliver could have stopped in this moment.

17.   Where’s Dinah during this fight? Simple: she’s helping the evacuation of the Glades, because she may be able to help with the fight, but both her and Oliver know that’s secondary to getting the people to safety, and Merlyn’s all kinds of right wing shite, so it’s reasonable to assume he’s also sexist (he probably isn’t, but they assume he is) and so more willing to fight just Green Arrow than just Black Canary.

18.   But, yeah, back to the angst.

19.   So, Tommy dies. More importantly, Tommy does not die propping up Green Canary, because killing off people and having their final moments be about propping up another ship is a terrible idea. So, no, Tommy dies exactly as he does in canon, but with Oliver and Dinah there, and they both get closure.

20.   The result is Oliver doesn’t just go fuck off to Lian Yu, but instead walks up to Dinah after Tommy’s funeral and is all ‘This city is going to go down the shitter. Thousands of people are now homeless, the rich bastards (Dinah ‘you know it’s not healthy to speak about yourself in the third person’) are gonna be trying to get as much of the opportunity pie as they can, and on top of all of that, we need to find out just how many of them were involved in this. It’s gonna be a hell of a job. You up for it?’

21.   Dinah smiles. It’s simultaneously beautiful and dangerous.

22.   ‘I thought you’d never ask’ she says.

So, that’s my idea. I’ll freely admit this isn’t complete, nor is it perfect - I didn’t really have many ideas for Detective Lance other than ‘Commissioner Gordon meets Sam Vimes’, which doesn’t really come across here, and my lack of knowledge about Roy Harper beyond Arrow and Young Justice (both of which I’ve been reliably told by @oathkeptroxas are not good representations of his character) lead me to be unsure of what to do with him, but I just wanted to get this idea off my chest. Thanks for listening to my rambles, and if you have any questions, ask what you will.

#green arrow #anti arrow #anti olicity #rewrite #fanfic #black canary #tommy merlyn #roy harper #morality #heroism #sjw superheroes #fixing arrow

[latoyarubalcava3546]

ICYMI: RuPaul's Drag Race Alum Robbie Turner Explains False Car Crash Claims — Says She Had A 'Vivid Dream'!

This mystery has been officially -- SOLVED!

As we reported earlier this month, RuPaul's Drag Race alum Robbie Turner took to social media and claimed she survived a harrowing DUI-related crash, which allegedly left her Uber driver deceased. However, after the specifics from Turner's story weren't supported by local authorities or Uber, it seemed pretty clear that the popular drag queen had lied about her collision.

Related: Janelle Monae Is Pansexual!

After Turner's fans and RuPaul peers mocked her for seemingly lying about the incident, the season eight contestant FINALLY broke her silence about what the fuck actually happened. In addition to making a statement on Instagram (below), Robbie spoke with Entertainment Weekly to share her side of the story.

Here's what she had to say...

Much public attention followed my recent posts on social media. These were posts I regret sharing. I don’t remember much of that night, including leaving my place of employment. I do recall waking up bruised, disoriented, sore, and with an extremely vivid recollection of events that had, to my mind, absolutely occurred. It is clear to me that they did not, in fact, happen. The past few months have been very stressful for my family and I. The stress, depression, heartache and confusion during this time have overwhelmed me. On the advice of physicians and caring mental health professionals, I am taking a break from work and social media to spend more time with family and practice some important self-care. In addition, I apologize to Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s CEO, for naming a company I respect in such a negative public way. That’s not who I am, but it’s what I did, and I am sorry for it. I also extend my apologies to Queer Bar, as well as anyone who may have felt that my original post lacked sensitivity. For that I am also regretful. I appreciate the continued support of my fans and respect for my privacy during this time. I hope to take better care of myself, learn from this painful season and nourish what brought me joy about my art to begin with.A post shared by Robbie Turner (@therobbieturner) on Apr 27, 2018 at 5:51pm PDT

Huh. Well, we're sure Uber and everyone else appreciated the apology, but it's still a bizarre claim to make without any other evidence.

Robbie further explained her troubling Twitter claims, as she noted in the EW interview:

"I woke up with bruises on my body, and I woke up with a headache, so my initial reaction was I thought I had a concussion. I was worried because I was alone… I wasn't going to be seeing anyone for a few days. I usually try to rest and sit still after a weekend of shows. And I more or less woke up worried that I had a concussion, [so I] made a scheduled post for when people would be waking up Sunday morning… I was already falling asleep and was panicking… I did wake up with very large bruises and a headache, and I've always had this irrational fear of concussions."

Thankfully, the magazine pressed Robbie to spell out why she jumped to the conclusion that she had been in a car accident. The reality TV vet continued:

"After days of poking around and sleuthing to figure out everything I had gone through, days later I saw footage of me coming home, getting out of a car, and getting into my apartment okay. What [I] think happened is that I was slipped something [in my drink], because I didn't drink that much that night, and [that I] slipped and fell in the shower. The hat I was wearing is completely bent and gross, so we think I hit my head in the shower, got out of makeup, went to bed, and had a very vivid and ridiculous dream.

The seasoned entertainer doubled down on her claims that she believes she was slipped something AND slipped in the shower, thus, she had a crazy dream about a car accident:

"Both, because I didn't drink that much that night… I went home immediately after [being out]. I don't 100 percent remember leaving, and I do not remember coming home at all. At the time that I came home, I had this vivid dream and thought it was 100 percent real, especially once I woke up and had large contusions on my thighs, shoulder, and my head was pounding."

As to why she didn't call the authorities upon waking up, Robbie relayed that she already thought she went to the hospital, as she had a "very vivid recollection of being in an emergency room." Turner can confidently say that the crash did not happen and has sought mental health treatment following the controversy.

She shared:

"There have been many deaths and a lot of loss, and the social worker and psychiatrist [said] it sounds more like I had a mild mental break, and it was triggered by slipping in the shower and being slipped something [in my drink]."

Per Turner, this isn't the first time she's been drugged by a stranger or had super vivid dreams. Man, oh man.

In regards to the backlash she's faced following the false claims, Robbie has said she's become a victim of a larger "bullying community":

"It's like, well, I hate to point it out, but no one is perfect and everyone makes large mistakes that they regret whether it be on a public level or not… Unfortunately, I don't think people have control, and they start reading one thing and turn it into a giant campaign to basically eviscerate someone when they don't actually have 100 percent of the proper information."

As for the shade she's received from her RuPaul peers, she stated that she isn't "terribly surprised," especially since they aren't all that close. Nonetheless, Robbie is "a little horrified" that she published the story on her social media accounts. Yeah, we would be too...

What do YOU think?? Are you buying her explanation??

SOUND OFF in the comments (below)!

[Image via Instagram.]

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

Cole Anthony Wants to Revolutionize Basketball (And Play Zelda)

“Come on, Cole!” It’s a sticky Saturday night in a rec center on the Upper West Side, and Cole Anthony, the most talented high-school basketball player in New York City—and arguably the preeminent point guard in the entire county—has just missed his third straight jump shot.

His obvious disappointment is quickly masked by unwavering energy and focus. Anthony nails a series of step-back threes with instinctive precision. His T-shirt, which was light gray 45 minutes ago, now resembles a gushing raincloud. Another exasperated cry echoes off the gym’s wall like a clap of thunder. “Short!”

A handful of middle-school-aged boys are dribbling around below two hoops that flank Cole’s basket. Each one pretends to ignore the sound, but not staring at its source —a blur of green shorts and white Nikes—would be impossible for anyone.

Anthony is as likely to toss a self-alley-oop off the backboard as he is to orchestrate a surgical half-court set. His game is capricious in the best possible way, with physical and mental characteristics that can’t be learned studying film or living in a gym (both of which he does fastidiously). He’s an immediate learner with a voracious appetite for information, and the older he gets—Anthony has played up a level in the AAU’s 17-and-under division for the past couple years—the more complete his game looks.

As the session strings through shooting drills aimed to quicken his release and attack in various ways out of a pick-and-roll, DJ Sackmann, a skills trainer who regularly works with some of the top high-school players in the country, asks Anthony if he wants to go a little longer than they originally planned.

He spins his head as if the question was “Would you like a piece of cake?” then trots to the corner and fires up another 10 minutes’ worth of jumpers. Once that’s over, Sackmann directs Anthony to stand about four feet behind the top of the arc. The postscript to this workout’s postscript is for him to make 20 NBA-range threes.

“20 in a row?” A devilish grin slides across the high-school junior’s face. He swishes eight before a misfire—short!—but eventually reclaims his rhythm. The ball doesn’t hit the floor. Instead, it flies from Cole’s fingertips through the nylon net to Sackmann’s reach below the rim…then back to Cole. I think about how long we’d be in the gym if anyone else in it had to sink 20 shots standing about 24 feet from the rim. Anthony wraps it up in under a minute.

“He has a different mindset as far as his work ethic is concerned,” Sackmann says a couple weeks later. “He’s very receptive to criticism and he’s willing to take everything in and try to work on his weaknesses to improve his craft. You don’t see that from any high-school kid, let alone a top-10 kid. He’s already a Division-I point guard.”

Two or three of the kids who were dribbling on the side have stuck around to watch Anthony wrap things up. Each has turned his basketball into a makeshift chair along the baseline, a few feet behind the net Cole’s jumpers are eviscerating. Free front row seats to watch a teenager who’s all-around flair and technical skill suggest he’ll someday compete in the NBA’s Slam Dunk and Three-Point contest.

Ray Lego

Coming off a summer in which Anthony dominated several circuits, invite-only camps, and AAU tournaments—all overflowing with the best prospects in the nation—the young point guard has begun to treat the present as daily preparation for what very well could be a lucrative future doing what he enjoys most.

“I think he has a chance to be the prototype for how the point guard position is played at the highest level,” says Greg Anthony, Cole’s father and a former NBA player turned basketball analyst for Turner Sports. “He’s what I call a natural basketball player. He’s not methodical. He sees it before it happens and that’s a special trait that all the great players have, is the ability to see things two, three steps ahead.”

Anthony’s days start at about 5:15 AM, when he arrives at a recreation center a couple blocks from his home. Andre Charles, an assistant coach from his PSA Cardinals AAU team will guide him through drills via FaceTime from Staten Island if he can’t make it in person.

Anthony is 6’2″ and is still growing. His primary goal heading into next season is to bulk up his trim frame, so before he ventures down to his building’s basement for an hour-long calisthenics workout, he chases a peanut butter sandwich down with an Ensure. Before he leaves for school, Anthony will inhale a plate crammed with pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

After school, he’s back in the gym to hoist some more shots up, then home to focus on his academics—according to a mandate from his parents, if he doesn’t maintain a B average, he can’t set foot on the court—before he climbs into bed by 8:00 PM every night. The routine hardly sounds sustainable for anyone, let alone someone who celebrated their 17th birthday a few months ago, but in addition to his unparalleled talent and surreal athleticism, it’s Anthony’s innate drive and discipline that will soon allow him to play basketball at whichever college he wants.

Ray Lego

“He truly loves the game every bit as much, if not more, than I do. I think the better he’s gotten, the more he’s wanted to improve,” Greg Anthony says. “It’s been a fun journey to watch thus far.”

Indeed, Cole’s future feels filled with endless possibility. As he sees it, “[The NBA] is really not that far ahead. If I play my cards right, do what I need to do, I’ll be in the NBA in probably three or four years? I’ve just got to keep my head on and stay focused.”

On the court, Anthony is simultaneously cerebral, steady, and relentless. He anatomizes defenders with ease and can already attack in myriad ways from all three levels. Duck under a screen and he’ll stick a pull-up jumper. If a defender steps up to take away the shot, Anthony, who first dunked when he was 14, will slip by and deliver a teeth-rattling finish. In June, he was named Co-Most Outstanding Player at the Pangos All-American Camp, an honor once awarded to James Harden, John Wall, and Harrison Barnes. The subsequent weeks were filled with impressive performances at an array of invite-only camps and tournaments.

“He’s a top-five-in-the-country athlete,” says Terrance Williams, Anthony’s head coach on the PSA Cardinals. “But he doesn’t rely on his athleticism.”

Towards the end of the summer, Anthony had the opportunity to meet Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving while his family vacationed in the Hamptons. According to Anthony’s mother Crystal McCrary, the four-time All-Star flipped the script and told Cole how much he loved his ability.

“He actually said he was a fan of my game,” Anthony says. “It was awesome.”

Ray Lego

Anthony is nestled near the top of just about every prospect list there is (For the Class of 2019, ESPN currently has him ranked sixth and Rivals.com has him fifth), but instead of worrying about who’s in front of him or what schools are rumored to have interest, he instead studies his peers at every position, reading scouting reports and absorbing film to get a solid understanding of those likely to become his friends and foes at the next level. All other elements of the process—contact with college coaches, scheduled visits, etc.—are controlled by his father.

“You want to feel good and be proud of the program and all it has to offer, not just on the court but off it,” Greg Anthony—who helped shepherd UNLV to a National Championship in 1990—said. “That stuff is really important because that becomes your family. And that’s gonna be a part of your family your entire life. So all that stuff will play a role and we’ll look more at it as he develops more.”

Thanks to his dad, Anthony can forget about college recruitment and zoom in on all the ways he can improve as a person, player, and student. Anthony enjoys playing hide-and-seek with his four-year-old brother, and sometimes wakes up at 3:00 AM to play video games for an hour or two before his day begins. His favorite, he says, is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. “I beat that game like three times already,” he adds.

There are few distractions in his life, and his family, which constantly demands humility, help prevent his ego from creeping in and becoming an antagonistic force. He feels no pressure outside that which he sets on his own shoulders. He doesn’t care about the simmering belief that he can be one of the most exciting guards to ever emerge from New York City, and comparisons to his dad don’t stress him out in the slightest bit.

“He is my dad and I’m his son,” he says. “There’s really been no disadvantages for me. Everything’s been an advantage.”

Ray Lego

Anthony hears his name whispered when he walks down the hall at school, receives complimentary DM’s from fans all over the globe (most recently from someone in New Zealand), was once recognized while on vacation in the Bahamas. Spike Lee, a family friend, is in his cell phone. The taste of celebrity is nice, but Anthony’s self-awareness and head-down concentration keep his priorities glued in place.

“[Popularity] is not something you can fall into,” he says. “I didn’t make it yet, so I can’t get accustomed to that.”

Though he may very well find himself shaking NBA Commissioner Adam Silver’s hand on draft day in the not-too-distant future, right now Anthony is driven less by NBA dreams than he is by a pair of crushing defeats he suffered in recent months. In early spring, Anthony’s high-school team lost in the Catholic High School Athletic Association championship by two points, with Anthony missing what would’ve been a game-tying bucket in the final seconds.

A few months later at Peach Jam—a Nike sponsored AAU tournament that pits the nation’s best programs against one another—Anthony led all scorers in an event that also featured Duke commit and future NBA lottery pick Marvin Bagley Jr., but his PSA Cardinals failed to make it out of pool play, losing in the final seconds to a team that went on to win the whole thing. (“That’s gonna be in the back of my head until I win Peach Jam, which we’re gonna do next year,” Anthony says.)

“How he handled defeat was really telling,” Greg Anthony tells me. The elder Anthony then imparts some wisdom he’d gleaned from Pat Riley, his former coach whose legendary idioms have become gospel among basketball fans. “[Coach Riley] used to say there are two things in competition: There’s winning and misery. And you have to embrace both. And the guys that embrace the misery oftentimes are your best winners because they know what it’s like not to win, and they’re gonna do everything in their power to not feel that misery.

Ray Lego

Since Cole was a small child, the act of competition was a minute-by-minute way for him to validate his supremacy at everything, but especially the most mundane activities—whether it was dashing past his sister into the bathtub before she could climb in, seeing which of his siblings could eat dinner the fastest, or brush their teeth the quickest. When he was still tiny, a foot race against a nine-year-old first taught him to hate losing. Anthony came up short by an inch; he was inconsolable.

“We were thinking ‘Oh you did such a great job. What an effort,’ and he was just crying and crying, and we were like ‘Why are you crying? You did such a great job!'” McCrary remembers. “He said ‘My feet are supposed to be faster than his. I was supposed to win.’ He was three years old.”

Anthony was born in Portland, Oregon, while his father was a backup point guard for one of the best teams in Trail Blazers history, then moved to Manhattan when he was still a toddler. (Greg and Crystal divorced over ten years ago.) He could throw a wiffle ball before he could walk, and as he grew it became clear to his parents that their son had uncommon agility. Competitive juices around the game of basketball started to bubble up right before he entered the fourth grade, when Anthony would frequent local parks and look to prove himself in pickup games.

He’d patiently wait for his turn on the sideline, eager to square off against kids that were five or six years older. At first they were amused: Look at you, little guy, little Cole. Anthony’s response was fiery: I’m not little. Stop calling me little Cole!

“He has dog in him, as they say,” McCrary laughs. (The one trait Anthony admires most in an NBA point guard is Russell Westbrook’s tenacity.)

Shortly after, he joined his first AAU team. At that age, Anthony’s talent level didn’t stand out relative to his peers, but he played with irrepressible emotion and a level of aggression that bled over from his desire to win at anything and everything.

“I used to call him the Charles Oakley of fouls, because when he fouled somebody, he fouled them,” Billy Council, the team’s coach, says. “So if you had beat Cole to a spot or you beat him to the basket, you best believe he was gonna chase you down and foul you hard so you won’t do it again.”

Ray Lego

Though his passion shined under Council, Anthony truly came into his own in the fifth grade, when Steve Harris—an established figure in New York’s AAU scene who also mentored NBA All-Star Kemba Walker—became his coach. After Anthony’s first game with his new coach, Harris, going off a gut feeling, told his newest player he could be the best kid in the country as early as next year—course-altering words that awoke a confidence inside Anthony that he didn’t know was there.

“He looked at me like I was crazy,” Harris says. “The next year he was the best kid in his class.”

That team utilized Cole at every position, in every role imaginable: On the wing, down low, at the high post. 25-point performances were the norm; he was the hub of their entire system. In one game against the top team in his region, Anthony’s squad entered as a 25-point underdog. Harris remembers how worried he was before the opening tip, until Anthony walked by and looked up at him, as if to say, Coach, keep your head up. We got this. We’re gonna beat them. We’re gonna run them out the gym.

In the end, Anthony’s team won by 25.

“When he steps on the court, you can see his whole facial expression change,” Harris says. “Like, he’s a lion. I see my prey, I’m going to kill it. I’m going to eat today…I talk about it with my kids to this day: ‘You gotta be strong-willed like Cole.’ That’s what separates him.”

As Anthony was about to start his freshman year at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, he decided to switch over to the PSA Cardinals, an AAU club that competes in the Nike-sponsored Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL). The move allowed him to cut his teeth beside and against some of the best players in the country.

During that first year he was one of the youngest players in AAU’s oldest age group, on a team that featured several NBA prospects slated to play for Division-I schools this winter, including Mohammad Bomba at the University of Texas and Brandon Randolph at the University of Arizona.

Anthony still started every game while averaging double figures in points, then blossomed into the tip of PSA Cardinals’ spear this past spring. Not only did he become the first sophomore point guard to be named Defensive Player of the Year in the EYBL, but he also grew to embrace the expanded leadership role his coaches and father have urged him to accept. He’s conscious of how his body language affects those around him, and understands that each teammate is wired differently.

“I think his ultimate strength now is he’s learned how to lead individually, where he can understand and define different guy’s trigger points,” Williams says. “He knows one guy needs to be yelled at where another guy needs to be coddled; another guy needs a phone call. So he’s been able to expand his knowledge of leadership.”

Ray Lego

Anthony’s living room is spacious enough to fit several couches and a glass coffee table that’s neatly concealed by enormous books on Michelangelo, Diego Rivera, and The Image of the Black in Western Art. He lives with two siblings, his mom and stepfather Ray, an investment banker at Citigroup who played basketball at Harvard. Between towering windows that overlook Central Park, the walls are adorned with paintings by William Johnson and Norman Lewis that make the room feel like it belongs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A black baseball bat autographed by Derek Jeter rests in a glass case on a mantel above the fireplace.

“Cole is a child of privilege,” McCrary says. “What we constantly remind him is ‘There but for the grace of God go I.’ This could all be taken away in any number of ways.”

Given his surroundings, it’d be so understandable for Anthony to behave as if the entire world revolved around him. But his support system is wound by unbreakable cable. Everyone around him is there for a reason.

“It’s pretty unique,” Williams says. “It’s holistic. His situation is so pinpoint that no one gets into the other person’s lane. So like his dad has a role, his mom has a role, his step-dad has a role, AAU has a role, he has a role, even high school for a certain amount of time has their role, and then no one steps on each other’s toes but everyone is connected.”

Ray Lego

Impending fame separates Anthony from a vast majority of people his age. But he has also grasped his own good fortune. He has a selfless streak.

“He’s definitely learned compassion and appreciates his life and his upbringing,” Greg Anthony said. “And that in order to truly be the kind of person he wants to be, you have to be someone who’s willing to be generous with your time, whether it be to teammates or friends or those less fortunate.”

Over the summer he was given free shoes, shorts, and t-shirts as a participant of adidas Nations. Instead of keeping the free goodies for himself, he gave everything to an 18-year-old assistant coach who’s headed to college in the fall. “It just shows that Cole is mentally mature, that materialistic objects don’t trigger him,” Williams said. “And that’s a little different for his age group. Most guys enjoy that stuff.”

Anthony’s munificence applies to people he doesn’t even know, a reflection of the belief his family has instilled in him: To whom much is given, much is expected.

“I joke with him, like, I see him on social media and he gives away his sneakers,” Council said. “If a kid wants his sneakers he’ll tell them to hit him in his DM’s. He’s got more sneakers than a sneaker store, and he’s just a good-hearted individual.”

Last year, Anthony took a self-imposed six-month break from social media. “I just felt like it was a distraction,” he said. With over 53,000 followers on instagram, Anthony has a link on his page to a GoFundMe he started to help those in the Houston area who were affected by Hurricane Harvey. It was an idea that started after a conversation with his sister and mom.

“I see a lot of people on Twitter, on Instagram, just say ‘oh pray for…’, alright thanks for that,” Anthony said. “It’s not really doing much. I wanted to actually go make a change. I know I’m not physically there, but see if I can do something that’ll physically help them.”

There’s no way of knowing what the future will hold for any person (let alone an athlete) as young as Anthony, no matter how dominant they are or how much better they project to be. Guarantees do not exist in the world of sports. But reasonable optimism surrounds Anthony, whose ascendance is only accelerating.

“If Cole didn’t make it to the NBA, I would say it’s gotta be a bunch of politics or he just simply didn’t want to be there,” Harris said.

Again, so much can go wrong between now and then. Immense odds are stacked against each and every individual who wants to earn millions of dollars playing a game. But Anthony’s foundation foreshadows a happy ending; it’s admirable how well he balances confidence and wariness as the stakes around him start to rise.

Back in the gym, Anthony and Sackmann are working on a few advanced separation moves. In one fluid motion, he stabs the ball into the court, sidesteps back and to the right, then, without losing his balance, rises up a few feet to stick a jump shot. He gets the ball back and does it again. And again. And again.

Cole Anthony Wants to Revolutionize Basketball (And Play Zelda) syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

[flauntpage]

Cole Anthony Wants to Revolutionize Basketball (And Play Zelda)

"Come on, Cole!" It's a sticky Saturday night in a rec center on the Upper West Side, and Cole Anthony, the most talented high-school basketball player in New York City—and arguably the preeminent point guard in the entire county—has just missed his third straight jump shot.

His obvious disappointment is quickly masked by unwavering energy and focus. Anthony nails a series of step-back threes with instinctive precision. His T-shirt, which was light gray 45 minutes ago, now resembles a gushing raincloud. Another exasperated cry echoes off the gym's wall like a clap of thunder. "Short!"

A handful of middle-school-aged boys are dribbling around below two hoops that flank Cole's basket. Each one pretends to ignore the sound, but not staring at its source —a blur of green shorts and white Nikes—would be impossible for anyone.

Anthony is as likely to toss a self-alley-oop off the backboard as he is to orchestrate a surgical half-court set. His game is capricious in the best possible way, with physical and mental characteristics that can't be learned studying film or living in a gym (both of which he does fastidiously). He's an immediate learner with a voracious appetite for information, and the older he gets—Anthony has played up a level in the AAU's 17-and-under division for the past couple years—the more complete his game looks.

As the session strings through shooting drills aimed to quicken his release and attack in various ways out of a pick-and-roll, DJ Sackmann, a skills trainer who regularly works with some of the top high-school players in the country, asks Anthony if he wants to go a little longer than they originally planned.

He spins his head as if the question was "Would you like a piece of cake?" then trots to the corner and fires up another 10 minutes' worth of jumpers. Once that's over, Sackmann directs Anthony to stand about four feet behind the top of the arc. The postscript to this workout's postscript is for him to make 20 NBA-range threes.

"20 in a row?" A devilish grin slides across the high-school junior's face. He swishes eight before a misfire—short!—but eventually reclaims his rhythm. The ball doesn't hit the floor. Instead, it flies from Cole's fingertips through the nylon net to Sackmann's reach below the rim...then back to Cole. I think about how long we'd be in the gym if anyone else in it had to sink 20 shots standing about 24 feet from the rim. Anthony wraps it up in under a minute.

"He has a different mindset as far as his work ethic is concerned," Sackmann says a couple weeks later. "He's very receptive to criticism and he's willing to take everything in and try to work on his weaknesses to improve his craft. You don't see that from any high-school kid, let alone a top-10 kid. He's already a Division-I point guard."

Two or three of the kids who were dribbling on the side have stuck around to watch Anthony wrap things up. Each has turned his basketball into a makeshift chair along the baseline, a few feet behind the net Cole's jumpers are eviscerating. Free front row seats to watch a teenager who's all-around flair and technical skill suggest he'll someday compete in the NBA's Slam Dunk and Three-Point contest.

Ray Lego

Coming off a summer in which Anthony dominated several circuits, invite-only camps, and AAU tournaments—all overflowing with the best prospects in the nation—the young point guard has begun to treat the present as daily preparation for what very well could be a lucrative future doing what he enjoys most.

"I think he has a chance to be the prototype for how the point guard position is played at the highest level," says Greg Anthony, Cole's father and a former NBA player turned basketball analyst for Turner Sports. "He's what I call a natural basketball player. He's not methodical. He sees it before it happens and that's a special trait that all the great players have, is the ability to see things two, three steps ahead."

Anthony's days start at about 5:15 AM, when he arrives at a recreation center a couple blocks from his home. Andre Charles, an assistant coach from his PSA Cardinals AAU team will guide him through drills via FaceTime from Staten Island if he can't make it in person.

Anthony is 6'2" and is still growing. His primary goal heading into next season is to bulk up his trim frame, so before he ventures down to his building's basement for an hour-long calisthenics workout, he chases a peanut butter sandwich down with an Ensure. Before he leaves for school, Anthony will inhale a plate crammed with pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

After school, he's back in the gym to hoist some more shots up, then home to focus on his academics—according to a mandate from his parents, if he doesn't maintain a B average, he can't set foot on the court—before he climbs into bed by 8:00 PM every night. The routine hardly sounds sustainable for anyone, let alone someone who celebrated their 17th birthday a few months ago, but in addition to his unparalleled talent and surreal athleticism, it's Anthony's innate drive and discipline that will soon allow him to play basketball at whichever college he wants.

Ray Lego

"He truly loves the game every bit as much, if not more, than I do. I think the better he's gotten, the more he's wanted to improve," Greg Anthony says. "It's been a fun journey to watch thus far."

Indeed, Cole's future feels filled with endless possibility. As he sees it, "[The NBA] is really not that far ahead. If I play my cards right, do what I need to do, I'll be in the NBA in probably three or four years? I've just got to keep my head on and stay focused."

On the court, Anthony is simultaneously cerebral, steady, and relentless. He anatomizes defenders with ease and can already attack in myriad ways from all three levels. Duck under a screen and he'll stick a pull-up jumper. If a defender steps up to take away the shot, Anthony, who first dunked when he was 14, will slip by and deliver a teeth-rattling finish. In June, he was named Co-Most Outstanding Player at the Pangos All-American Camp, an honor once awarded to James Harden, John Wall, and Harrison Barnes. The subsequent weeks were filled with impressive performances at an array of invite-only camps and tournaments.

"He's a top-five-in-the-country athlete," says Terrance Williams, Anthony's head coach on the PSA Cardinals. "But he doesn't rely on his athleticism."

Towards the end of the summer, Anthony had the opportunity to meet Boston Celtics point guard Kyrie Irving while his family vacationed in the Hamptons. According to Anthony's mother Crystal McCrary, the four-time All-Star flipped the script and told Cole how much he loved his ability.

"He actually said he was a fan of my game," Anthony says. "It was awesome."

Ray Lego

Anthony is nestled near the top of just about every prospect list there is (For the Class of 2019, ESPN currently has him ranked sixth and Rivals.com has him fifth), but instead of worrying about who's in front of him or what schools are rumored to have interest, he instead studies his peers at every position, reading scouting reports and absorbing film to get a solid understanding of those likely to become his friends and foes at the next level. All other elements of the process—contact with college coaches, scheduled visits, etc.—are controlled by his father.

"You want to feel good and be proud of the program and all it has to offer, not just on the court but off it," Greg Anthony—who helped shepherd UNLV to a National Championship in 1990—said. "That stuff is really important because that becomes your family. And that's gonna be a part of your family your entire life. So all that stuff will play a role and we'll look more at it as he develops more."

Thanks to his dad, Anthony can forget about college recruitment and zoom in on all the ways he can improve as a person, player, and student. Anthony enjoys playing hide-and-seek with his four-year-old brother, and sometimes wakes up at 3:00 AM to play video games for an hour or two before his day begins. His favorite, he says, is Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. "I beat that game like three times already," he adds.

There are few distractions in his life, and his family, which constantly demands humility, help prevent his ego from creeping in and becoming an antagonistic force. He feels no pressure outside that which he sets on his own shoulders. He doesn't care about the simmering belief that he can be one of the most exciting guards to ever emerge from New York City, and comparisons to his dad don't stress him out in the slightest bit.

"He is my dad and I'm his son," he says. "There's really been no disadvantages for me. Everything's been an advantage."

Ray Lego

Anthony hears his name whispered when he walks down the hall at school, receives complimentary DM's from fans all over the globe (most recently from someone in New Zealand), was once recognized while on vacation in the Bahamas. Spike Lee, a family friend, is in his cell phone. The taste of celebrity is nice, but Anthony's self-awareness and head-down concentration keep his priorities glued in place.

"[Popularity] is not something you can fall into," he says. "I didn't make it yet, so I can't get accustomed to that."

Though he may very well find himself shaking NBA Commissioner Adam Silver's hand on draft day in the not-too-distant future, right now Anthony is driven less by NBA dreams than he is by a pair of crushing defeats he suffered in recent months. In early spring, Anthony's high-school team lost in the Catholic High School Athletic Association championship by two points, with Anthony missing what would've been a game-tying bucket in the final seconds.

A few months later at Peach Jam—a Nike sponsored AAU tournament that pits the nation's best programs against one another—Anthony led all scorers in an event that also featured Duke commit and future NBA lottery pick Marvin Bagley Jr., but his PSA Cardinals failed to make it out of pool play, losing in the final seconds to a team that went on to win the whole thing. ("That's gonna be in the back of my head until I win Peach Jam, which we're gonna do next year," Anthony says.)

"How he handled defeat was really telling," Greg Anthony tells me. The elder Anthony then imparts some wisdom he'd gleaned from Pat Riley, his former coach whose legendary idioms have become gospel among basketball fans. "[Coach Riley] used to say there are two things in competition: There's winning and misery. And you have to embrace both. And the guys that embrace the misery oftentimes are your best winners because they know what it's like not to win, and they're gonna do everything in their power to not feel that misery.

Ray Lego

Since Cole was a small child, the act of competition was a minute-by-minute way for him to validate his supremacy at everything, but especially the most mundane activities—whether it was dashing past his sister into the bathtub before she could climb in, seeing which of his siblings could eat dinner the fastest, or brush their teeth the quickest. When he was still tiny, a foot race against a nine-year-old first taught him to hate losing. Anthony came up short by an inch; he was inconsolable.

"We were thinking 'Oh you did such a great job. What an effort,' and he was just crying and crying, and we were like 'Why are you crying? You did such a great job!'" McCrary remembers. "He said 'My feet are supposed to be faster than his. I was supposed to win.' He was three years old."

Anthony was born in Portland, Oregon, while his father was a backup point guard for one of the best teams in Trail Blazers history, then moved to Manhattan when he was still a toddler. (Greg and Crystal divorced over ten years ago.) He could throw a wiffle ball before he could walk, and as he grew it became clear to his parents that their son had uncommon agility. Competitive juices around the game of basketball started to bubble up right before he entered the fourth grade, when Anthony would frequent local parks and look to prove himself in pickup games.

He'd patiently wait for his turn on the sideline, eager to square off against kids that were five or six years older. At first they were amused: Look at you, little guy, little Cole. Anthony's response was fiery: I'm not little. Stop calling me little Cole!

"He has dog in him, as they say," McCrary laughs. (The one trait Anthony admires most in an NBA point guard is Russell Westbrook's tenacity.)

Shortly after, he joined his first AAU team. At that age, Anthony's talent level didn't stand out relative to his peers, but he played with irrepressible emotion and a level of aggression that bled over from his desire to win at anything and everything.

"I used to call him the Charles Oakley of fouls, because when he fouled somebody, he fouled them," Billy Council, the team's coach, says. "So if you had beat Cole to a spot or you beat him to the basket, you best believe he was gonna chase you down and foul you hard so you won't do it again."

Ray Lego

Though his passion shined under Council, Anthony truly came into his own in the fifth grade, when Steve Harris—an established figure in New York's AAU scene who also mentored NBA All-Star Kemba Walker—became his coach. After Anthony's first game with his new coach, Harris, going off a gut feeling, told his newest player he could be the best kid in the country as early as next year—course-altering words that awoke a confidence inside Anthony that he didn't know was there.

"He looked at me like I was crazy," Harris says. "The next year he was the best kid in his class."

That team utilized Cole at every position, in every role imaginable: On the wing, down low, at the high post. 25-point performances were the norm; he was the hub of their entire system. In one game against the top team in his region, Anthony's squad entered as a 25-point underdog. Harris remembers how worried he was before the opening tip, until Anthony walked by and looked up at him, as if to say, Coach, keep your head up. We got this. We're gonna beat them. We're gonna run them out the gym.

In the end, Anthony's team won by 25.

"When he steps on the court, you can see his whole facial expression change," Harris says. "Like, he's a lion. I see my prey, I'm going to kill it. I'm going to eat today...I talk about it with my kids to this day: 'You gotta be strong-willed like Cole.' That's what separates him."

As Anthony was about to start his freshman year at Archbishop Molloy High School in Queens, he decided to switch over to the PSA Cardinals, an AAU club that competes in the Nike-sponsored Elite Youth Basketball League (EYBL). The move allowed him to cut his teeth beside and against some of the best players in the country.

During that first year he was one of the youngest players in AAU's oldest age group, on a team that featured several NBA prospects slated to play for Division-I schools this winter, including Mohammad Bomba at the University of Texas and Brandon Randolph at the University of Arizona.

Anthony still started every game while averaging double figures in points, then blossomed into the tip of PSA Cardinals' spear this past spring. Not only did he become the first sophomore point guard to be named Defensive Player of the Year in the EYBL, but he also grew to embrace the expanded leadership role his coaches and father have urged him to accept. He's conscious of how his body language affects those around him, and understands that each teammate is wired differently.

"I think his ultimate strength now is he's learned how to lead individually, where he can understand and define different guy's trigger points," Williams says. "He knows one guy needs to be yelled at where another guy needs to be coddled; another guy needs a phone call. So he's been able to expand his knowledge of leadership."

Ray Lego

Anthony's living room is spacious enough to fit several couches and a glass coffee table that's neatly concealed by enormous books on Michelangelo, Diego Rivera, and The Image of the Black in Western Art. He lives with two siblings, his mom and stepfather Ray, an investment banker at Citigroup who played basketball at Harvard. Between towering windows that overlook Central Park, the walls are adorned with paintings by William Johnson and Norman Lewis that make the room feel like it belongs in the Smithsonian American Art Museum. A black baseball bat autographed by Derek Jeter rests in a glass case on a mantel above the fireplace.

"Cole is a child of privilege," McCrary says. "What we constantly remind him is 'There but for the grace of God go I.' This could all be taken away in any number of ways."

Given his surroundings, it'd be so understandable for Anthony to behave as if the entire world revolved around him. But his support system is wound by unbreakable cable. Everyone around him is there for a reason.

"It's pretty unique," Williams says. "It's holistic. His situation is so pinpoint that no one gets into the other person's lane. So like his dad has a role, his mom has a role, his step-dad has a role, AAU has a role, he has a role, even high school for a certain amount of time has their role, and then no one steps on each other's toes but everyone is connected."

Ray Lego

Impending fame separates Anthony from a vast majority of people his age. But he has also grasped his own good fortune. He has a selfless streak.

"He's definitely learned compassion and appreciates his life and his upbringing," Greg Anthony said. "And that in order to truly be the kind of person he wants to be, you have to be someone who's willing to be generous with your time, whether it be to teammates or friends or those less fortunate."

Over the summer he was given free shoes, shorts, and t-shirts as a participant of adidas Nations. Instead of keeping the free goodies for himself, he gave everything to an 18-year-old assistant coach who's headed to college in the fall. "It just shows that Cole is mentally mature, that materialistic objects don't trigger him," Williams said. "And that's a little different for his age group. Most guys enjoy that stuff."

Anthony's munificence applies to people he doesn't even know, a reflection of the belief his family has instilled in him: To whom much is given, much is expected.

"I joke with him, like, I see him on social media and he gives away his sneakers," Council said. "If a kid wants his sneakers he'll tell them to hit him in his DM's. He's got more sneakers than a sneaker store, and he's just a good-hearted individual."

Last year, Anthony took a self-imposed six-month break from social media. "I just felt like it was a distraction," he said. With over 53,000 followers on instagram, Anthony has a link on his page to a GoFundMe he started to help those in the Houston area who were affected by Hurricane Harvey. It was an idea that started after a conversation with his sister and mom.

"I see a lot of people on Twitter, on Instagram, just say 'oh pray for…', alright thanks for that," Anthony said. "It's not really doing much. I wanted to actually go make a change. I know I'm not physically there, but see if I can do something that'll physically help them."

There's no way of knowing what the future will hold for any person (let alone an athlete) as young as Anthony, no matter how dominant they are or how much better they project to be. Guarantees do not exist in the world of sports. But reasonable optimism surrounds Anthony, whose ascendance is only accelerating.

"If Cole didn't make it to the NBA, I would say it's gotta be a bunch of politics or he just simply didn't want to be there," Harris said.

Again, so much can go wrong between now and then. Immense odds are stacked against each and every individual who wants to earn millions of dollars playing a game. But Anthony's foundation foreshadows a happy ending; it's admirable how well he balances confidence and wariness as the stakes around him start to rise.

Back in the gym, Anthony and Sackmann are working on a few advanced separation moves. In one fluid motion, he stabs the ball into the court, sidesteps back and to the right, then, without losing his balance, rises up a few feet to stick a jump shot. He gets the ball back and does it again. And again. And again.

Cole Anthony Wants to Revolutionize Basketball (And Play Zelda) published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv