#show fans who have read the books once and lack basic reading comprehension in the first place are reallllllly draining on me rn

[thelioncourts]

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#we're at a really weird moment in the iwtv fandom where like #there are book purists who hate the show #there are book fans who love the show but look down on fans that don't know the books and are also like. #really unmoving with certain ideas and whatnot where it simply doesn't make sense #show fans who have read the books one time through and think they're experts on the entire lore of it all #show fans that are slowly and hesitantly making their way through the books #and show fans that have no desire for the books because - as this is an adaptation - they view it as its own entity #and like #nm i won't say all i want on my opinions of it all but i will say that #show fans who have read the books once and lack basic reading comprehension in the first place are reallllllly draining on me rn #the book fans who have the superiority complex are always draining but the #'i've read the books' you read them once calm down #ooof the 'i've read them once' crowd who act like they understand every nuance and can speak on it are something else

[meltingpenguins]

One of the things that makes me extremely distrustful of the show omens storyline (which has already completely betrayed me) is that it's been said many times that season 2 is a "bridge" to season 3 aka. the things that were talked about to be a sequel long ago, but almost nothing in season 2 makes sense for an idea based off the book. I know this has been said many times by you and others in the critical tag, but I cannot understand the choices made. And it's worse because Neil has been on tumblr, answering questions since season 1 came out. We know some of his thoughts on things, we know some of his ideas. For example, we know he never thought of Gabriel and Beelzebub as a couple and thought it odd that people shipped them, but wouldn't tell people what to do. And then suddenly season 2 comes about and they're a hastily thrown together couple. Very strange. I don't know who is making these decisions, if it's in Neil's hands or not, but whatever is happening in the show, it's very based off of fan interactions on tumblr and fanservice and it doesn't make a good plot or good characters. It beats the characters into the ground until they're nothing and no one can remember what they were supposed to be like, how they were supposed to act, or what they were supposed to represent in the first place. It's as if someone read the book once twenty years ago, spent their time reading fanfiction, and came back to write a sequel without revisiting the source material.

I would have much preferred a plot focusing on an actual mystery, on Gabriel's circumstance and the finding out about and fixing of that circumstance, rather than at least half of the runtime amounting to Aziraphale/Crowley fanservice and "fun" plots that someone thought would be nice to throw in without any impact on the actual story. Maybe then the ending to season 2 would have been at least somewhat comprehensive to me, both for the Aziraphale/Crowley and the Gabriel/Beelzebub plots. As it is, the second season felt like a bunch of ideas were thrown up on a whiteboard and added into the script without thinking any of it over or trying to construct a story. Instead of a good show with a few bad moments, it was a bad show with a few good moments. Basically, I'm disappointed and lacking any faith that season 3 will be at all good.

Thank you for the ask. :)

Now, said it before, saying it again: S2 reeks of a weird mix of 'milking the cashcow' (via fanservice that runs a steamroller over the character's personality and arcs and continuity) and a 'make the conservative christians happy' which is even worse.

The latter is already an issue in s1, what with just how everything is very allocisheteronormative. All the pairs have a distinct 'nuclear family' vibe to it (except the dowlings, where it feels Mrs dowling, being a bit bolder and not submissive to her husband is painted as if warlock being a POS is thus her fault), including Crowley and Aziraphale. In the book these two are equals and on eye-height (as it honestly should be in a good relationship), but on the show? What purpose does it fulfil to make aziraphale so dimwitted as he is? Make him out to be nothing but crowley's cheerleader? Why make crowley this obnoxious incarnation of the bad box chosen one?

It doesn't do anything for the plot, I'd even say it hinders it, because this crowley doesn't care for earth. This crowley only seems out to stop armageddon because if not he'd have nothing anymore to stand in the spotlight (should Hell win). He'd be one amongst many, with no one to do the work for him.

Show!Crowley is the kind of person Book!Crowley hates with a passion, judging by the book.

Now back to s2:

I am 98% convinced s2 only exists to have the 6-6-8 pattern, and nothing else.

Now, to be fair, there have been time constraints, general crunch, only 2 writers, cut budget, etc, basically everything the WGA striked against.

It's nevertheless baffling. It might be the lack of experience Neil still has with screenwriting, mixed with bad input from others, maybe, but this isn't a bridge. And if, it's this bridge:

(did I make this joke before? yes, it's a good joke)

It doesn't connect anything from any incarnation to what we know about the sequel (Neighbour of the Beast).

It could ave been amazing. Imagine, for example this:

Heaven and Hell, both on their own, send someone to spy on crowley and az to figure out how they got their immunity to holy water/hellfire. crowley and az catch on, and that in the course of this someone might find a way to just test it (which would def kill them) so they have to swap bodies and live each other's lives till the coast is clear. Thus learning more about the other, growing a deeper understanding (which really wasn't there in s1). Meanwhile, Heaven and Hell also realize they are trying the same thing, and we get more interactions between gabe and Beelzebub, maybe, just maybe laying a foundation for -something- (prolly also involving Dagon, because what we're not going to do is ignore that potential ship that had much more foundation in s1 than anything else (beelzebub and dagon that is, not the polycule))

On the side we -could- have maggie and nina, though actually back as ex-sister mary and ex-sister theresa (back from the dead by adam's fixing). It could have been that sister therese, knowing she's been dead decided to fulfil her lifelong dream of owning a recordstore or something, and by chance opening one just next to/across from aziraphale. Cue sister mary visiting on the regular (maybe being co-owner) and both of them slowly catching on to crowley being around, and hadn't there been rumors from below that he's been fraternizing with an angel long since before the antichrist thing? Then (after the bodyswap) Not-Crowley wanders into the store (thinking/knowing crowley would do that) only to run into the two humans in London who know exactly who and what crowley is. Mary and Tess catch on to what's going on, and offer to help, when not-crowley notices an air of love around the two women, and figures there's something but both of them are not willing to say it out loud. So not-crowley (far less clumsily than in s2) tries to pay them back for their help by helping them come to terms with their feelings. Not-aziraphale, meanwhile, has to deal with whoever heaven and hell send (Muriel was a good idea, I give the show that :3 ) and, worse, potential customers and generally running a bookshop, thus gaining a lot of insight into actual-aziraphale's (private-) life, leading to more respect for the angel, and general growth, because actual-crowley realizes how much the angel neglects actually living on earth for nothing but crowley's sake.

It all could end with a dramatic climax where both want to confess their feelings, but are interrupted by heaven and hell trying to kill them, managing only last second to swap bodies back, so the attack hits the one who's immune to it, before the metatron steps in, stops everyone and announces the second coming.

This COULD have easily been done with what they (cast and crew) had to our knowledge, and the Buddy Holly song would have genuinely been a countdown to something.

But as things are now there's not really any hope for s3 cause it just has no solid foundation for an actual story.

It's sobering. And as said in another post, if Neil would make it clear that all incarnations are legit, that would help take the sting out of it

:/

#good omens #good omens critical

[bisexual-medal-alex]

HOMESTUCK 2: WHAT IS THE POINT

So Homestuck 2 has been out for around a quarter of a year now and despite my reluctance I have been keeping up with it and reading the main updates as they’re coming out. I’ll admit that there’s things that I like such as the new kids, Davekat and Roxy. But it’s not clicking with me the original Homestuck did and there’s a lot of in story reasons (and some meta reasons too) but there’s a big fundamental flaw of this project that everything wrong about this story revolves around, at least in my eyes. I’m having a hard time understanding what the point of Homestuck 2 is.

That is to say I’m having a hard time just grasping what’s at stake and why I should feel invested in it. On the surface I have a basic comprehension of the plot; Dirk gets so high on his own ego that he basically kidnaps and brainwashes Rose so that he can give the story a villain. And also Terezi joins him for whatever reason, a bunch of good guys and a ghost from another timeline are traveling to stop them and in an alternate timeline Jane is making a fascist takeover of their home while all of this is happening. That’s the basic summary of the story without trying to untangle all of the alternate timeline bullshit that is quite honestly harder to follow than anything in the original comic.

Don’t get me wrong Homestuck Classic is dense and hard to follow if you’re not paying attention. But I do feel like it had a point or at least a narrative structure that enhanced the story. Homestuck was ultimately a story about kids playing a game and it used adventure game tropes and conventions to not only make the world more cohesive but also to comment on said tropes and conventions. All of the kids struggled to meet the expectations thrown on them by the game, they all handled it in different ways from passively accepting their lack of agency to trying to wildly rebel against their fate and even then in some weird twist it always turned out that even their rebellion was predetermined by some higher power. I feel like the point of the original Homestuck beyond just being a silly story making fun of video games was a commentary on growing up and feeling like you have no control over anything in your life. Whether or not the ending was a satisfying way to end such a ambitious narrative like that is another debate entirely but for all of its faults the original Homestuck has a purpose.

Hell I’ll even go so far as to say I understood the point of the Epilogues and what they were trying to do. It was trying to be a commentary on the metafictional implications of continuing a story past “happily ever after” using the framework of a dark fan fiction. It makes sense to do it like this, trying to build on the themes of agency and choice that the original Homestuck started and having the characters feel lost and without purpose now that the “story” is over so while they’re still trying to settle into adulthood there’s also the existential threat of ceasing to exist without a plotline. And again like the original Homestuck they’re dealing with this existential stress in different ways either trying to live peacefully and explore their own identity or trying to be as disruptive as possible in an attempt to stay relevant. It’s supposed to be a story about how happy endings don’t exist and life still continues even after you close the book.

Putting aside for a moment whether or not the Epilogues succeeded in conveying those themes well, I think Homestuck 2, being a direct continuation of the Epilogues, is trying to build on those themes. The trouble is, again just speaking personally, I don’t understand how it’s trying to do it and it just seems pointless at best and like overly indulgent naval-gazing at worst. It comes down to A. Dirk’s role as the “bad guy” and B. How disconnected the story feels.

So in the Epilogues one version of Dirk becomes so self-absorbed after tapping into his highest potential that his god-tier powers grant him that he’s able to assume control of the narrative and as a result he decides that the best way to take advantage of this new power is to give the story a point by becoming a villain himself. I can accept all of that especially knowing that of all the human kids in the original Homestuck he was the most emotionally unstable and he always seemed to be stuck in his own ego. He always had that kind of narcissistic self-loathing where he hated himself but he also saw himself as the only person who could save the day and y’know despite fans not wanting Dirk to become a self proclaimed “bad guy” I can see why he was in a position where he would look at the possibility of ceasing to exist, see it as a problem to fix himself and think that the best way to do it would be to just embrace his most toxic personality traits and step into a new villainous role to drive the “plot” forward.

With aaaaaaaaallllllllll of that being said I do not understand his plan or why he’s doing any of the things he’s doing. I don’t understand why he needed to kidnap Rose and turn her into a hollow metal husk of her former self, I don’t understand why he roped Terezi along for the ride, I don’t understand why he’s taking a spaceship out into the middle of space, I don’t understand why he wants to play Spore and create two competing races of aliens on an uninhabited planet. I can guess and hypothesize why he’s doing these things, like maybe he took Rose and manipulated her into going along with his plans just so he’d have an intellectual equal and Terezi is in the best position to stop him so convincing her to come along is a good way to ensure she can’t help the heroes and frankly the whole alien thing coupled with the brief re-opening of the suggestion box feels like he’s trying to relive the glory days of Sburb like a middle aged dad trying to live vicariously through his son making him join the sports club even though he might not have any interest in doing so.

But I don’t understand the core drive behind any of these things and it feels like a hollow attempt to keep the story going even though it feels like everyone involved has already moved on. Maybe that is the point and I’m drastically overthinking Dirk’s role as a villain, he’s just doing all of this because he’s bored and doesn’t know how to continue the story in any meaningful way. It still makes the story feel hollow and it’s Hussie trying to be tongue-in-cheek about the fact that he wants to keep writing Homestuck but he doesn’t have any ideas on what to do with it.

Which is pretty obvious when you look at the B plot involving Jane becoming a fascist and having to deal with an uprising against her rule over Earth C. Hussie really wrote himself into a corner with the Epilogues focusing on two timelines; it might seem like an arbitrary choice to have a story where literary infinite possibilities coexist but then only focus on two of said possibilities but it did work in context of the Epilogues because it showed how profoundly your life can change just from making one choice over the other and it worked with the meta-narrative about stories and the theme of whether or not the characters have control over their lives now that they’re free from the “story”. But now the writers have to deal with the fallout of that decision and manage not only the plot with Dirk dicking around in space and a bunch of the characters coming to stop him, now they have to deal with the story of Jane holding onto her empire in TWO different timelines (well only if you’re paying for it but we’ll get to that).

I know Homestuck is famous for juggling multiple plot lines at once but the thing about that is that all of those plot lines were important for the overall story and that’s not the vibe I get here. It’s honestly not that interesting and feels like a distraction from what the story should be about. Nobody in this side of the story except maybe original flavor Vriska is aware of what’s going on in the other side of the story and the stakes are much less personal. I care more about Dave, Karkat, Roxy, Kanaya and Calliope/Jade trying to rescuer Rose and stop Dirk than I do Vriska dragging Gamzee’s corpse with a bunch of teenagers while Jane gets turned into a Donald Trump analogue.

And like honestly the fact that there’s updates hidden behind a paywall really bugs me. I understand that with the nature of crowdfunding you need some substantial incentives to get people to donate, I’m not shitting on crowdfunding as a way to fund your story and truthfully I don’t see anything wrong with having some bonus content exclusive to those who are willing to pay a little extra (trying my best not to sound like an EA or Activision executive here). But with a story like Homestuck, where the reader has been conditioned into seeing every update with every innocuous detail as something important that will later advance the story, having some updates be exclusive to backers feels wrong because you’re either saying that said updates aren’t going to impact the story so they’re just pointless fluff or you’re keeping critical story details hidden from people that can’t afford it so they’re missing out and really neither of those possibilities are a good look for your story.

And really the fact that Homestuck 2 used the Epilogues as it’s foundation is not a good idea because that’s a really rocky foundation. I know I spent a good chunk of this essay actually defending the Epilogues and their themes in a way but just because I think a story has some hidden depth like that doesn’t mean I think it’s good. It’s still needlessly grim with a lot of poorly handled character development the excuse from the creators of this being just a possible canon outcome for the series feels like a cop-out since this may as well be the main canon since nothing else for the series featuring these characters is advancing their story (unless you count Pesterquest which to be blunt feels like an extended apology for the Epilogues). Truthfully I don’t know if the Epilogues or HS2 have anything more profound to say about continuing a story past the happy ending than Into The Woods or a straight-to-DVD Disney sequel (not that I’m comparing an award-winning Broadway play to a Disney sequel in terms of quality I’m just saying I get more enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from the meta-narrative of Lion King 1 1/2 than Homestuck at this point).

Maybe I’m being too harsh to judge Homestuck 2 when it seems to have only barely just gotten started. It’s going to continue whether or not I enjoy it or not and maybe over time it will validate itself. But right now to me personally it just feels like a hollow imitation of what we used to enjoy about Homestuck.

#homestuck #homestuck 2 #homestuck 2 beyond canon #upd8 #randomguywords

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

@shattered-catalyst asked me what underused female Marvel characters that I’d like to see in the RPC. I misread it as asking what underused female characters I would like to see in a canon Marvel story, and started making this list. Then I realized what they ACTUALLY asked me---and answered it HERE-- but since I had this list started I thought I would post it! As a note, I tried to overlook my own biases for whom *I* simply want to see back in action, versus if there’s actually story potential there that I think other fans would genuinely want to see. It’s also by no means complete/comprehensive, so if you think someone is missing and deserves to be on here---you’re probably right! Feel free to add to it! BLINDSPOT - Blindspot is a female member of Mystique’s Brotherhood who was friends with Rogue, and had the powers of memory manipulation. After several missions, Mystique decided to cut ties with her due to lack of trust. Blindspot left, but not without wiping herself out of Mystique and Rogue's memories first, as she always covered her tracks, which is why Rogue doesn’t remember her (actual reason is she was retconned in, she’s a 2000s creation) Years later, when Rogue had become an X-Men, they would come into conflict once more, as Blindspot wanted to ‘save” Rogue from Xavier’s “brainwashing”, but Rogue would still leave Blindspot with her X-uniform to remember her by. Blindspot is unique in having been a Brotherhood friend to Rogue, as she was never shown as close to any of the other members, and was also mysteriously immune to Rogue’s powers. I think Rogue fans might enjoy seeing her in a Rogue story again, and perhaps learning more about their time together. CATSEYE - I think ALL the Hellions were criminally underused, and I know from X-Men/comics discussion boards that there’s an audience for their return. Catseye seems to be the favorite in terms of who people found most interesting, and I agree. A girl who believes she’s a cat who can turn into a human form, rather than the reverse, is a really neat concept, not to mention Sharon had a charming personality with surprising depth for what little time she got. There’s a lot that could be done with her return, and I think she could totally be the lead in a revived Hellions story on Krakoa, or a story depicting their time as Frost’s students at the Massachusetts Academy. CORDELIA FROST - Look, everyone loves Emma Frost, I think it’d be easy to get people interested in a Cordelia story. Not to mention the fact that like...Adrienne is dead, Christian was institutionalized, but Cordelia has been running around this whole time. She seems to have had some big plans once upon a time, what happened to that? Nothing ever came of it. Why not? What’s she been up to all this time? Also, we should finally get to see what kind of powers she has! I’ve seen it quoted around the Internet that Emma claims Cordy is “the Professor Xavier of empaths” but I’ve not only never seen the source for where she says this, she’s never demonstrated ANY kind of powers in canon, besides Emma not being able to read her mind. I would like to see what the “subtle, dark, and devious” Frost baby gets up to! DARKSTAR - Darkstar is a mutant and she’s been present in the comics since 1976. She’s been a member of X-Corps, as well as served in the Champions with Angel and Iceman back in the day. Yet her loyalty (coughBRAINWASHINGcough) has always brought her back to serving Mother Russia first and foremost. We saw recently though that Russia has gone back to its “All mutants serve the State or die!” position, and not allowing its mutants to go to Krakoa. It’s pretty easy to work Darkstar into a story about that, and finally exploring the way she was deeply conditioned to the point her “choice” to serve her country is probably anything but, and coming to terms with that at last. I’d really like to see a story like this, because Darkstar is kind of unique in that her brainwashing wasn’t a dramatic trauma-conga full of torture and abuse, she actually seems to have been treated well, she was just also kidnapped as a baby and never knew anything else. I think it’s about time we get a story that shows abuse doesn’t always “look like abuse” and how denial of someone’s agency can run so deep that their own choices that they THINK they’re making of their own free will, really are products of that. Also, her story could be an easy way to get my STARLIGHT fix, and FANTASMA on top of that. Remember, Fantasma was banished to Limbo, and pulled Starlight in after her. Why WOULDN’T Darkstar want to go rescue her teammate? And there’s a member of the X-Men who is mistress of Limbo and can open portals there, it’s totally easy! Darkstar enlists Magik (who has a huge fan following, and thus would get people interested) to guide her through Limbo so they can find Starlight and bring her home, but on the way they run afoul of Fantasma! Who, being a Dire Wraith sorceress, makes a great foe for Magik! PHANTAZIA - During 1990s, Toad struck out on his own and formed his own Brotherhood, which consisted of several old faces---Pyro, Blob, and Sauron (despite Sauron not being a mutant)---and a new one, the woman known as Phantazia, aka Eileen Harsaw. Phantazia had the power to manipulate electromagnetic energy fields. This allowed her to fly, disrupt machinery, and  disrupt the bioelectric energy fields and nervous systems of other living beings as well, resulting in pain, paralysis, loss of physical coordination, and in the case of superhumans, the inability to control their powers, causing them to fluctuate in strength, cease functioning altogether, or spew out uncontrollably. Not much is known about her personality, but she seems to have been well-educated, as Blob refers to her as “Ms. PhD” and tended to stay out of the arguments between her male teammates, ignoring them while she read books on scientific subjects, such as astrophysics. . She also displayed loyalty, such as when she also opted to stay with her teammates when only she among them was invited to Magneto’s new mutant sanctuary of Avalon. Alas, Eileen met a wicked fate---for some reason, she was one of the few mutants to retain their memories of the “House of M” reality shift, and the shifting back and forth drove her insane. She was last seen in a S.H.I.E.L.D. custody cell, babbling “House of M” over and over. I think Eileen was interesting. She had a cool powerset, hints of a personality, and was never much of a “bad guy” certainly not enough to deserve what happened to her. Female Brotherhood members are also pretty rare, so she catches my eye for that too. I like to think Xavier found her and fixed her mind, and she’s going to hang out with her old pals Pyro, Blob, and Toad on Krakoa. HAVEN - I’ve been yelling about her on this blog for like 5 years, but if you’re not familiar with her, Radha Dastoor aka Haven was a villain who ran a cult dedicated to bringing about the end of the world as we know it in order to usher in a golden age of peace. She only did this, however, because she was being possessed by a demon. Her real self was a kind, charitable woman who was just all about feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, and, as it happens, advocating for mutants. Though it had little to do with her villainy, Haven still found time to be a demon-posessed super-terrorist AND write books promoting mutant/human peace and give lectures condemning bigotry. She seems like someone who SHOULD have gotten saved from said demon, but no, she dies alone in the mud after being victim-blamed by a Marvel deity. Her entire arc is really misogynistic, she’s only possessed because she had sex once and then got pregnant, she’s basically punished for breaking the purity taboos of her culture once, and it’s also pretty...racist isn’t the right word, but she’s the first Indian and Hindu character in the X-Men comics, and a lot of her terrorist philosophy fed to her by the demon comes from actual Hinduism, which has unfortunate implications, as does the fact that the “brown woman with a funny religion ended up being a terrorist just like the government said so X-Factor attacking her before they were sure of this is okay” was part of her story. Eesh. Anyway, she was a very good person and an interesting character, I think bringing her back as someone trying to do good in the world again as a human ally to mutants while also dealing with what happened to her and what she did and her loss of 20 years of agency to possession, would be a good story. I at least want to see a cameo of her taking care of a bunch of orphan and refugee kids who are a mix of mutants, Inhumans, Warpies, aliens, and humans. LORELEI - Lorelei is another little-known woman from the Brotherhood of Mutants, and unique in that she’s NOT a mutant. At one point, Magneto used a machine to mutate members of the native tribes in the Savage Land, giving them super-powers. These Savage Land Mutates served him in their homeland, fighting the X-Men at his command, but he left them behind when he returned back to the rest of the world...all save Lorelei, who he took with him for his new Brotherhood, citing a possible “Pygmalion complex” for why. Lorelei was a beautiful blonde woman who could control men with her voice. However, she seems to have a childlike intellect, as she speaks very simply and in the third person, and doesn’t really seem aware of what she’s doing or why she’s being told by Magneto to do it. It’s a really worrying dynamic, and I also worry about Lorelei once Magneto just...kinda ditched her, I guess, and left her with Unus, Blob, and the Vanisher. Then she turns up back in the Savage Land serving yet another bad guy. Lorelei--or Lani Ubanu, as seems to be her name before Magneto transformed her--comes off as an unaware innocent that just gets constantly picked up and used by greater villains because she doesn’t know any better, and given that this is because of the powers Magneto gave her, I’d like to see that come back and have him take responsibility for her. And if she’s NOT as unaware and innocent as she seems, I’d like to see that, because she’s been around since 1969 and she doesn’t have a personality and she barely speaks! Flesh this girl out! MADELYNE PRYOR - I feel like this one is cheating a bit, because I’m not sure I’d say Maddy is under-used. She’s seen more action just this decade than all the others on this list saw in their entire careers COMBINED. It’s more than she’s just...not used well, in my opinion. 2000s writers generally seem to forget that her stint as the Goblyn Queen came from being infected by demonic energy and also insane (for VERY understandable reasons), and seem to think she’s just evil on her own. Not to mention they take all the depth out of her; she’s a character with a full personality of her own and some very fucked up struggles that she was not to blame for, but that all gets boiled down to “Scott’s sexy evil ex who is mad he left her so now she trounces around in skimpy clothes she never actually wore when she wasn’t possessed because EVIL LADIES ARE SEXY CUZ FEMALE SEXUALITY IS EVIL” and it’s just....u g h. When Maddy was herself, she actually was very heroic, to the point she sacrificed her life to save the world (her FIRST death, which everyone forgets). But she also has good reason to be really angry and bitter at the X-Men, and I don’t see her letting go of that even when she’s back in her right mind. So I think depicting her as an anti-hero, who saves innocent people yet works against the X-Men, would be a neat story, with the ultimate conclusion being her letting go of her grudge, not for THEIR sake but for HERS, to not have her be tethered to them any longer, not even by hate, and finally live a life that is HERS. MISS SINISTER - So, Miss Sinister is NOT Nathaniel Essex in a lady suit. She’s actually an entirely different person, and actually has a very sympathetic situation. She’s a woman named Claudine Renko, whom Mr. Sinister injected with a virus containing his own DNA. The idea was that in the event of his death, the virus would activate in her or one of his other test subjects, transforming them into Sinister complete with his consciousness replacing their own. But when it activated in Claudine after Sinister’s apparent (but in fact only temporary) death in the “Messiah Complex” story, Claudine did not become possessed by Mr. Sinister nor become him---not exactly. She became essentially a female clone of him, gaining aspects of his appearance (such as the chalk white skin) as well as his telepathic powers. He might also be how she got her wicked personality, but since we don’t know anything about her prior to this, that could just be how she was already. But she also suffered invasive memories of Essex's life, and that as a malignant presence within her mind, he was slowly killing her as a means of self-resurrection. He even managed to manifest briefly before being re-absorbed back into her. It was for this reason that she wanted to switch bodies with X-23, thus gaining Laura's healing factor, something she had wanted after her stabbing, and thereby freeing herself of Essex. The plan backfired when Essex took control of Laura's body and used her to mortally wound Claudine. Laura managed to overcome Essex's presence in her mind, expelling it through force of will. She was next seen working with Emma Frost on using The Mothervine, though Emma ended up turning on her. I remember feeling bad for Claudine when I read her story with X-23. Having someone else trying to take over your body is a pretty good motive for doing something as evil as trying to steal someone else’s, while also being inexcusable to do. It’s unlikely she was a willing subject for Sinister, so she probably isn’t to blame for what happened to her, but is to blame for her actions after, which is the kind of villain I like. Also, while she’s usually in lingerie ala a Black Queen of the Hellfire Club, she wore a really cute little normal outfit in a story with Sebastian Shaw and Daken...which ironically is when she actually was Black Queen! I’d like to see more of Claudine, and find out more about her story and who she was before all this, and whether or not she’s REALLY free of Sinister, as she seems to be now. After all...is anyone ever free of him? Bonus if she teams up with Madelyne Pryor! NOCTURNE - No not TJ Wagner, THIS LADY! I don’t think anyone (except me) is hoping for her return, as I don’t think anyone else really knows about her, but Spider-Man stuff is still popular so there’s no reason she couldn’t come back and have a prominent role in that. I really hope they go with the interpretation that she’s gay, since now is a time that they can actually have that open instead of coded, but more than just the representation of a gay WOC (which is awesome) I really am interested in her adjustment and journey into her new identity, and in particular her communication via empathy powers rather than speech. That really intrigues me about her. I think she could become very compelling and popular if brought back and handled well, perhaps in a story that brings back other neglected characters in the Spider franchise as well. SAT-YR-9 - Okay, so in the Captain Britain/Excalibur comics of the 80s, there was a woman named Courtney Ross. She was a banker and Captain Britain’s ex, and she became a side character, having adventures with the team and even besting none other than ARCADE through STAND UP COMEDY. Then one night, a version of her from another universe emerged in apartment, killed her, and took her place. This evil counterpart was Sat-Yr-9, who had been a cruel dictator in homeworld, and has been running around doing evil in 616 since while masquerading as Courtney. Captain Britain discovered the ruse and vowed revenge...but has yet to really do anything, probably because Sat-Yr-9 herself really hasn’t done anything since either. She popped up for a brief moment in the 2000s as the new White Queen of the Hellfire Club, but that’s it. I would like to see more of her, in that role or outside it. Given her connection to both the Hellfire Club and to Kitty (whom she was grooming under the guise of “Courtney Ross” and seemed to have big plans for, as well as some mysterious connection to that was never explained) I think she’d be great for the Marauders series. Or in the new “Excalibur” series that stars Psylocke as the new Captain Britain! I also think there would be interest in a story that finally resolves her murder of Courtney and shows Brian finally at least TRYING to make her pay, I still see it talked about on Marvel boards how unsatisfying and frustrating it is that Brian vowed revenge DECADES ago and has yet to do anything about it, and how much of a waste that makes Courtney’s death (Courtney was surprisingly popular with fans even to this day due to how she handled Arcade, it instantly endeared them to her...and then that’s RIGHT when she got killed off, literally the evening after) Maybe Betsy is the one who finally gets her at last! THRENODY - I think that Threnody’s coming back in the recent Deadpool series revived enough interest to justify bring her back yet again, and I think her baby being killed, however monstrous it was, means that fans are probably ready to see her get a happy ending for once. I know I sure am. ZALADANE - Zaladane was a personal villain to Polaris, and given that Polaris has never really had a book that was about her (as far as I know, I’m far from a Lorna expert) I think bringing her back as the bad guy for a Lorna solo series would be cool. I also would like it resolved if she’s Lorna’s sister or not. It seems to add up at the time it was written, but changes to Lorna’s backstory continuity since make it impossible. I think that a suitably comic-booky explanation could work for that, such as “she *is* Lorna’s sister but from another dimension, not 616, and also that explains how/why she’s in the Savage Land” or something like that. Plus it satisfies both the people who think she is and who think she isn’t.

#xmen #x men #x-men #marvel #marvel women

[jackoshadows]

Jonsa fans: Jon is deliberately seducing and playing Dany to use her dragons because his true love is Sansa. He does not really love Dany and is using her. He is essentially like LF who used and seduced Lysa Aryn for the Vale. If he is not playing Dany then he is an incompetent, idiotic, selfish fool who betrayed Sansa by bending the knee and should have stayed dead after season 5. Kit looks so ugly next to depressed Emilia, Haha! Kit and Emilia are bad actors, Jon looks like he is having a panic attack when he is with Dany, Dany forced Jon to sleep with her – she’s so evil! Sansa should undermine Jon, he is such an idiot. Go Sansa! Undermine Jon, yass girl!

Jonsa fans: Dany is an evil, power hungry tyrant who deserves to get seduced, die alone and miserably, killed by the man she loves etc. She’s as bad as Cersei, even worse! – she burned those poor, innocent, nice Tarlys! Here are several long’metas’ and  hundreds of gifsets about evil Dany again and again. Did you know that Dany asked people to bend the knee?! Like that right there tells us how evil she is – Here’s a gif of the evil blood sucking vampire queen of the Queen of the damned Vampire Chronicles asked people to bend the knee!! See? Dany is so evil! Like how dare she?

Jonsa fans: Arya and Bran are irrelevant. One is a killer and the other is a cripple. Sansa is the most important character of ASoIaF because she’s the most important Stark and the story is all about the Starks! She’s the KEY TO THE NORTH – because Tywin, LF, Roose etc. said so. The entire series is about the STARKS and NORTHERN INDEPENDENCE which basically means the entire series is about SANSA because who cares about Arya and Bran – they are going to serve Sansa and her plot, die or go away. Arya will be Sansa’s executioner and Bran will be Sansa’s adviser – that’s what their stories have been leading up to this entire time. A TIME FOR WOLVES! STARKS FOREVA!

Jonsa fans: Why does everyone hate us?! Whyyyyyy? We are such nice guys, honestly! We love Dany, Jon, Arya, Bran so much!  – We just think they would all be so much more interesting as dark characters!  Except for Sansa – she’s the most compassionate, intelligent best queen with no flaws. We are such expert book readers and film students/cinematographers unlike Jonerys and other folks who lack reading comprehension and really think that Jon and Dany are in love with each other haha! We are all experts trained in art history, film, literature, culture, ancient history, science, engineering and that’s why we know for sure that Jonsa will certainly happen in both the books and show unlike the other poor fools who are unable to see the subtlety and beauty of Jonsa that GRRM/D&D are writing! They all just hate Sansa and that’s why they hate us and Jonsa. Poor us. Jonsa is coming, Jonsa is endgame, wargs before targs etc!!

On that note, what does wargs before targs even mean with respect to Jonsa/Sansa, considering that Jon is a full blooded Targaryen who is also one of the strongest wargs in the books along with Bran and Arya and Sansa is the weakest warg in the series having never even warged once after Lady’s death early in the first book? That phrase is just so…nonsensical. As are most things put out by the Jonsa fandom lol!

#anti jonsa #GOT #ASoIaF #Jonsa fans acting like victims after spending the entire hiatus shitting on every other character except for Sansa #Jon Snow #Daenerys Targaryen #Arya Stark #Bran Stark

[jobsearchtips02]

‘An Extremely Stable Genius’ authors on Trump’s inefficient White House

President Donald Trump’s White Home has actually long been viewed as a workplace of mayhem and dysfunction, however some of the information of the president’s rage and lack of knowledge are genuinely shocking.

The authors of “An Extremely Steady Genius” have assembled among those most meticulously-sourced accounts of the Trump administration to date.

Insider spoke to co-authors Phillip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, both long-time Washington Post press reporters, about their new very popular book.

Go to Service Expert’s homepage for more stories

“ A Very Steady Genius: Donald J. Trump’s Testing of America,” one of the latest insider-based accounts of the Trump White House, debuted at the top of The New York Times non-fiction bestseller list upon its release earlier this month.

Written by Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, respectively the White House bureau chief and a national investigative reporter for The Washington Post, the book is based on interviews with over 200 well-placed sources within the administration and in Trump’s inner circle.

Expert spoke with the authors about the stories they recounted in the book of Trump’s stunning lack of knowledge of world affairs, his frightening screens of rage, his ostentatious insults towards cabinet members and military generals, and his administration, which is apparently devoid of standard procedures.

This interview has been modified for length and clearness.

Phillip Rucker and Carol Leonnig, co-authors of “An Extremely Steady Genius”.

Melina Mara.

Expert: “An Extremely Stable Genius” has an episode where Trump meets Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the president tells him, “It’s not like you have actually got China on your border.” You wrote that a number of leading White House authorities were aghast at Trump’s ignorance. Why was this particular instance such a problem for them?

Leonnig: We did interviews with more than 200 former and current senior level authorities, advisors, friends, and assistants to the president. The reason they shared these stories is they feel that the president declines truths and information. It resembles he can’t be troubled with it. And his rejection of an instruction before he went to meet with Prime Minister Modi had dreadful repercussions.

Modi went from being a person who was attempting to have a genuine major settlement with Trump about partnership, about how to safeguard himself from China and Russia and Pakistan. And as an outcome of the president not knowing that India shares an extremely considerable border with China, Modi started to withdraw a little and, as told to us by assistants, saw Trump as just not severe adequate to negotiate with.

Expert: You have actually got Trump quoted in the book as saying Rudy Giuliani is “the only man in the world who’s less ready than I am … Rudy goes on TELEVISION and doesn’t understand what the f– he’s discussing.” During Trump’s success lap speech following his impeachment acquittal, a thank you to Giuliani was notably absent. What’s Trump’s relationship with Giuliani like right now?

That’s something the president truly values.

Expert: Where do you think [former national security adviser] John Bolton goes from here?

Leonnig: I pick up both from individuals close to him, and from just enjoying Bolton navigate this, is that he always was believing about how he was going to stay a part of the Republican Celebration heavens and not be an individual who was running in to testify.

Rucker: It’s impossible for us to answer that since we can’t forecast how somebody might act in a provided moment.

Insider: Another story in the book that leapt out at me was when the documentary filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi [Nancy Pelosi’s daughter] is standing next to a thirsty and bewildered Trump in the White House, and there’s no one around to give him a bottle of water.

Can you talk a little bit about some of the more jarring examples of the desertion of normal White House procedure in this administration?

Rucker: So that scene with Alexandra Pelosi and the Aquafina bottle in her bag is funny and cute, however we also believed it was really representative of the general mayhem and dysfunction inside the White House, specifically in those early months. And the absence of preparation by the staff and by the president himself for these jobs and for the awesome obligation that includes it. The truth that there wasn’t a standard staff protocol because particular minute was illustrative of the more comprehensive pattern of the administration.

U.S. President Donald Trump screams as he steps off Air Force One after coming to Charlotte Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S., February 7,2020

Leah Mills/Reuters.

Insider: You estimated a previous Trump Organization staffer who described Trump’s anger as “scary.” You have both been covering presidents for a long time. Is Trump particularly prone to fits of anger compared to other presidents?

Leonnig: It sure feels like it after talking with people over and over once again who had similar experiences. Many of these I recounted in the book, however possibly not all of the ones that we heard. The time he was yelling at [former Homeland Security Secretary] Kirstjen Nielsen and calling her early in the early morning and late during the night after watching [Fox Business host] Lou Dobbs, then scolding her to adopt and carry out the ideas that Lou Dobbs has actually whispered to him on the phone.

Nielsen attempted to describe to the president that a few of these concepts were going to break the law or that the department was already doing them. Often he would call her back in the morning after calling her in the night, and she would say, “Mr President, I have not done what you’ve asked yet due to the fact that everybody in the office is sleeping in the stepping in hours and I can not get any response for you right now.”

But there were lots of others who were on the receiving end of the president’s barking. [Former Attorney General] Jeff Sessions being cursed at and told that it was all his fault that a special counsel had been selected. [Trump] yelling at the top of his lungs so loud that when individuals were excused from that space they could hear him through the doors screaming, and were crossing themselves about how happy they were that they were no longer there.

Fox hosts typically have more pull with the president than his own cabinet members

Expert: You mentioned Lou Dobbs. It appears that the president, specifically now 3 years into his administration, appears to be getting a great deal of his policy and workers hints from Fox hosts. Between the voices that are really in the room with him and the voices that are on TV, who do you think he’s listening to the majority of?

Rucker: He’s listening to a little bit of everything. One of the problems that a lot of sources determined to us in our reporting for “An Extremely Stable Genius” is that the president is not great at focusing on amongst his consultants.

He’ll take something that the national security consultant says and hold it up weighed [against] something that Jeanine Pirro may tell him on the phone one night. He takes what Kirstjen Nielsen, who he tasked with being in charge of his immigration policy, and sort of override that with what Lou Dobbs, the Fox character and commentator needed to state on his opinion show that night.

So the president takes advice in all locations. And Trump would see that as one of his characteristics in management as a president, that he’s looking for recommendations in various places and listening to lots of individuals. The individuals who work for him find that in fact to be a real detriment to reasoned and reasonable decision making.

Expert: A great deal of Trump’s advocates would state that the title of your book, “A Really Stable Genius,” even though it’s a direct quote of his, is East Coast elite facility snark. And that any ramification that Trump is not a genius because of his accomplishments and his pounding of the establishment would make the reporting in your book moot or prejudiced.

What do you think is the most essential reason that your book should be read by everyone, including people who would dismiss you out of hand for operating at The Washington Post and writing a book like this?

Leonnig: To begin with, we have actually gotten some very nice evaluations basically stating that all we do is what we planned to do, which is gather the truths, place them in this book and let individuals make their own minds up and make their own judgments of this administration, this president, and individuals who serve him. And even [Trump’s] own opponents, those truths about them are in here also.

We picked the title due to the fact that we wanted to hold up the president’s own self-definition, one that he’s provided 5 times now. It’s not an error that he calls himself this. We wished to hold that mirror up to him and also stress tests this definition, this name, with individuals who know him finest who had been at his shoulder for months and years serving him and are supportive of his agenda, but to see him up close every day and took us into this room.

We’re not attempting to utilize this book as a political tool to persuade anyone no matter what their celebration is. There have actually been Republicans and Democrats who have actually composed to us, routine individuals, and said that it actually moved them and it altered their impression a little bit, a solidified impression that they might have had either in support of the president or not in support of the president. There was a military dad who wrote to us applauding our reporting of that “Tank” conference and revealing some concern about whether the president is truly the best individual to lead the nation if he’s going to treat the front line of national security in this way.

Read more:

Trump is not a fan of civil liberties, and Americans are more ready to give up their rights when they’re frightened. Here’s why there’s factor to be worried, despite what happens with Iran

Trump doesn’t truly regard members of the military. He utilizes them as props.

‘ Never Trump’ Republicans need to choose whether the GOP deserves saving

%%.

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/an-extremely-stable-genius-authors-on-trumps-inefficient-white-house/

[wknc881]

ALBUM REVIEW: BLACK FLAG- My War

BEST TRACKS: My War, Beat My Head Against a Wall, Nothing Left Inside, Scream

  Though Black Flag was already a widely popular west-coast punk band with an affinity for harder, faster, and more experimental music than virtually any of their contemporaries, it was the addition of Henry Rollins that defined the band’s distinct sonic and aesthetic composition.  “Damaged”, the first album with Rollins as frontman, was simultaneously one of the first definitively “hardcore” punk records ever created and the inception of the young movement’s most charismatic frontman. For these first few years at the turn of the decade (“Damaged” was released 1981), Black Flag echoed other hardcore pioneers such as Minor Threat in their rampaged delivery of staccatoed screams under the banner of a disciplined, straight-edge lifestyle.  But just as Minor Threat disbanded in 1983 amid founder Ian McKaye’s realization that playing incredibly fast and loud was limiting, Black Flag was forced to reflect on how the band could move forward without relying solely on uber-aggression (which was becoming increasingly violent). The result: Black Flag became an art punk band. Well, I guess that’s not fair to say. Black Flag was actually always known for their intricate posters and album covers designed by Raymond Pettibond, and they had always demanded that their listeners take their music more seriously than some of LAs earlier punk bands which had become incredibly silly by the end of the 1970s.  But when faced with the crossroads brought on by the end of basic hardcore punk, two distinct voices emerged within Black Flag. Greg Ginn, the guitarist, founder, and only consistent member of the group began experimenting with free jazz and doom metal in what became the invention of the classic “anti-solo”, and Rollins began his descent into poetry and spoken word performance of bleak, basic lyrics hinged on frustration and alienation. Unsurprisingly, the two ended up tearing the band apart with their separate aggro-insistences on the future of alternative music, but the albums that were released prior to this inevitable fracture are some of the most interesting and crucial in any punk library.  And nowhere is that more clear than on “My War”, the punk rock equivalent of Johnny Marr and Morrissey dueling with their equally insufferable voices and somehow creating a musical texture unlike anything else. Ginn and Rollins are rarely in step together, their ideas flowing out from vastly different channels. But, somehow, as if a flash of congruency lined up beneath the band for the recording of the album, “My War” is Black Flag’s magnum opus.

  California’s most important contribution to punk rock was birthed in 1976 by father Greg Ginn, in the vein of typical influences like the Stooges, MC5, and, of course, the Ramones.  Ginn’s role as the band’s guitarist and primary creative force meant that there was more of a focus on what Ginn could make his guitar do rather than having it purposefully act as the simple engine for pounding aggression. Ginn quickly established his new band, freshly named “Black Flag” (“Panic” was taken) as distinct from punk contemporaries in the sheer work ethic he required from every member of the band.  While this was partially a conscious effort to avoid the excess which killed off many members of punk’s first wave, this work ethic was also necessitated by LA’s lack of (figurative) underground infrastructure. With no punk-friendly clubs or distribution avenues, Black Flag created America’s most impressive DIY music network. As Ginn boasted a plethora of posters advertising each performance (a minimum of 500), self-booked shows at picnics, schools, and abandoned warehouses, a list of punk-friendly fans who could host the band to stay the night, and a comprehensive map of every all-you-can-eat buffet in within their touring scope, Black Flag as an entity required its members to commit every fiber of their being to punk rock.  And it paid off. Fans all over the country were enamored with what was then the least compromising sound or image of any other American band, and Black Flag’s cult status propelled them to underground stardom sans support from anything that even resembled mainstream music institutions. That’s where Henry Rollins comes in. In 1980, when Ginn’s rotating array of vocalists signaled that it was time to find the newest iteration of Flag’s frontman, Washington D.C. superfan, and Haagen-Daz manager Henry Rollins was tapped to join the band. Packing up his custom-built muscle T-shirt and nothing else, Rollins moved to California so the band could record “Damaged”. The shaved-head muscle bound Rollins was visually antithetical to everything that punk initially promised, in his ratty jeans and vocal abstention from anything vice-related.  But he soon embodied what would become “hardcore punk”. Their second full-length album instantly cemented them among the Gods of the movement’s newest wave with acts like Bad Brains and Minor Threat (led by Rollins’ DC friend Ian MacKaye). The reliance on pure, inflamed rebellion proved unsustainable, though, and rather than become irrelevant or force off their wheels, Black Flag turned to more experimental sounds and, well, lifestyles. While Ginn remained relatively the same whip cracking band leader (albeit with a little more interest in avant-garde jazz), Rollins began his transformation into his most unbearable form. Often performing in just his boxers, Rollins insisted on opening ‘83 and ‘84 era performances with lengthy readings from his journal. He was visibly larger, becoming a devout bodybuilder and frequent aggravator of crowd violence. He would carry around a pool ball that he would grind in his palm for nearly an hour before the set started, staring down the crowd with an ever-more concerning insistence on brute masculinity.  He and Ginn grew their hair out, alienating them from the classic Black Flag skinhead fan base. They no longer committed themselves to hectic live performances focused on pure energy, but would rather let the audience stew in silence while Rollins prowled in near nudity. At the time, it was confusing. And “My War” was the final nail in the coffin which forever broke Black Flag from standard hardcore. The album’s slowed down, meandering, tempo-shifting landscape was hated by fans of the original straight edge scene. However, despite an inevitable backlash brought on by the band’s abrupt shift to more experimental and brooding tones, it is this experimentation and willingness to break from a sound which they helped originally establish for the sake of artistic integrity that makes “My War” Black Flag’s most daring and interesting album.

  It’s fair to point out that not every song on “My War” was destined to be placed on a Black Flag greatest hits compilation.  The titular song was a pretty standard Flag romp, with Ginn’s classic mid-drenched overdrive pulverizing a single riff while Rollins peeled his throat to paranoia drenched lyrics like “My War/You’re one of them, you said that you’re my friend/ but you’re one of them.” So, immediately, the greasy shaved head fans of the band’s earlier material were at least momentarily satisfied.  Though the intro may have deviated slightly from “Damaged” era speed-power just because it acted as a pressure build to elevate Rollins’ eventually shriek, it supplemented the breakneck pace of the rest of the song quite well. Great, so this is Black Flag’s new sound? Skinheads could handle their violent tempos occasionally coupled with a dissonant platform for Rollins to thrive if that’s what they needed. But after the album’s titular track, songs begin to drift further from any resemblance of original hardcore punk.  “Beat My Head Against the Wall” is a bizarre combination of classic Sex Pistols abrasion, pop music, and experimental west-coast noise bands like Flipper. Adopting doom-metal tempo shifts, the song shifts between Rollins screaming about ramming his head on a wall before switching to a sugar-coated pop chorus garnished with a heavy Ginn line, before switching again to a blisteringly dissonant free-jazz guitar solo and then leading into a final sludgy riff to end the song. In a span of two minutes, Black Flag recorded what is probably the worst song I’ve ever heard in my life.  But it’s genius. Once the initial disgust has worn off, it becomes evident that to remain relevant within a molting scene, Black Flag was forced to continually subvert expectations even within punk rock etiquette. The result is almost unlistenable at its worst but thought-provoking when it gets it right. And “My War” gets this formula right more so than any other late-stage Flag album. “Nothing Left Inside” is a seven minute, doom metal march of a song where Ginn does his best Black Sabbath meets Miles Davis impression as Rollins groans endlessly of self-hatred and agony. “Scream” takes “Nothing Left Inside” a step farther and, while still relying on slow methodical drum patterns and punk jazz heaviness, features Rollins literally screaming and croaking for seven minutes straight.  If you were to judge punk rock strictly off of how distant it drifted from the Ramones, then Black Flag would certainly be disqualified by this point. But “My War” has the sheer ability to drive every person who listens to it up a wall, something that no other genre drives to do.

  In the years following “My War”, Black Flag released three more studio albums before calling it quits.  By the end of the legendary Punk band’s demise, Rollins had become drowned in his own ego, forcing too much conflict with Ginn’s long-established control freak attitude.  “Family Man”, “Loose Nut”, and “In My Head” all contained the warring personalities which first butted heads on “My War”, but each suffered more from a bitter disconnect.  “My War” might be an accident in its beauty, but hardcore punk’s transition into darker and weirder territories has never been exposed in its naked horror more than on this Black Flag classic.

- Cliff Jenkins 

[cinephiled-com]

New Post has been published on Cinephiled

New Post has been published on http://www.cinephiled.com/interview-adam-michael-james-writes-definitive-finale-tv-series-bewitched/

Interview: Adam-Michael James Writes the Definitive Finale for the TV Series ‘Bewitched’

A few years ago, I spoke to author and Bewitched expert Adam-Michael James about his deliciously comprehensive book, The Bewitched Continuum, an encyclopedic tome packed with everything you ever wanted to know about the classic TV series including synopses of every episode and a brief description of James’ wonderful wished-for series finale. Now, 45 years after the show went off the air, Adam-Michael James is back with an insanely fun and perfect wrap-up to television’s most beloved supernatural sitcom

Cover art by Dan Parent

In the show’s original 1964-1972 run, the tale of witch Samantha Stephens and her mortal husband Darrin ended on what might be called a “regular” episode, since series finales were not commonplace back then and they likely didn’t know yet that they wouldn’t be coming back the following year. With his new book I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin, Adam-Michael James gives Bewitched fans of all ages the closure they’ve always wanted. This two-part “episode,” presented in novel form, takes place a week after the show’s final first-run installment in 1972, bringing back all our favorite characters, creating backstories for Samantha and Darrin, and building on the show’s always strong message of equality and acceptance.

In the story, McMann & Tate advertising executive Darrin gets a long-awaited promotion to full partner. But things get a little crazy during a party that Samantha throws for her husband when she is forced to out herself as a witch to her mortal guests to explain a magical mishap involving one of her children. This leads Samantha into a full-on battle with the almighty Witches Council in a high-stakes fight for her marriage and her family. Both wildly entertaining and surprisingly moving, I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin brings the series full circle and brings the characters, so wonderfully played by Elizabeth Montgomery, Agnes Moorehead, Dick Sargent, Maurice Evans, Alice Ghostley, Paul Lynde, and many others back to life in an almost startling realistic way. James is so well-versed in the nuances of the show that after reading the novel, I felt as if I’d actually seen the imagined final episodes. The book, available on Amazon, is a must for fans of the show. I talked to Adam-Michael James about why he chose to put this out there now.

Danny Miller: It’s pretty astounding how you were able to perfectly recreate the speech patterns, syntax, and style of dialogue for every single character on the show. from Samantha and Endora all the way down to Gladys Kravitz and Louise Tate. Was that just because of your insane encyclopedic knowledge of this world, or did you go back and study how each character talked?

Adam-Michael James: I didn’t really have to go back and study them. As you say, I’ve lived with the show for 40 years and you know, it was weird — I felt like I could almost hear them in my head as I was writing. It’s almost as if they were telling me what to write!

I loved the synopsis you included of this hoped-for finale in your last book, but there are so many other details here that are so fun. How did you go about fleshing it out?

I followed the basic storyline that I had already written, but as I started going I found myself adding many other connections that I hadn’t even thought of. To be honest, it all started one night about a year ago when I was taking a bath! I started thinking about Darrin looking out of the window from his office down on Madison Avenue and all of a sudden, all these details about his history popped into my head. It was all I could do to jump out of the tub and start writing it all down before I forgot! And it went on from there. I felt like something was guiding me along.

We talked last time about the eternal debate regarding the two Darrins — played by Dick York and then by Dick Sargent who took over the role after Dick York left the show because of illness. Did you ever consider restoring Dick York to the role of Darrin in your book?

I didn’t. With no offense to the legion of Dick York fans (and I am one of them!), I never thought of that simply because Dick Sargent was part of the last season and if you were gong to continue on with an episode the following week in 1972, you just couldn’t switch Darrins. But, of course, you do see a few little references in my book of characters talking about how Darrin seemed to look different than he used to.

I loved that stuff — you even had his daughter Tabitha making such a reference. But you did make a few exceptions to what would have been possible to do in 1972. I’m thinking of the wonderful material about Aunt Clara.

Yes. I was always frustrated by the show never addressing what had happened to Aunt Clara. She was an important character who suddenly disappeared, obviously because actress Marion Lorne had died. I thought it was weird that the show never mentioned her again and just brought in Esmerelda to take over her babysitting duties. I’m sure they had their reasons for not addressing it — I mean, they couldn’t really say that Aunt Clara had died.

Although some shows of that era did, like when Will Geer who played Grandpa on The Waltons died, they dealt with it head-on and had his character die.

Sure, but rarely on sitcoms, especially a show about witches who were supposed to live for thousands of years! So I was happy to get the opportunity to explain where Aunt Clara had been.

Love it. I was also glad to see Serena, Samantha’s “identical cousin,” pop back in towards the end of the book. I was always so impressed how well Elizabeth Montgomery pulled that off. I’m not sure I even realized as a kid  that she was playing both parts.

I know! Especially with the fake credit at the end: “Pandora Sparks as Serena!”

And your writing for her was perfect, you totally captured her hippie persona that I’m sure Montgomery had a blast playing. It’s crazy how many references you were able to layer in to past episodes without it ever seeming heavy-handed.

That was really fun. You saw the gazillion endnotes I included in the book. I wanted people to be able to go back and reference an episode and say, “Oh yeah, that’s where that came from!” And, of course, I wanted to give full credit to what I came up with and what was created by the writers of the show back in the 60s and 70s.

The scenes at the Witches’ Council where Samantha is defending her marriage were beautifully written. As a fan, I expected to enjoy this book which I did, and I laughed a lot, but a few scenes were so moving they made me burst into tears which I never anticipated.

Oh wow, I’m happy to hear that!

We talked last time about how the show grappled with some very real issues of the day — issues that are all-too-important in our current climate — despite the fact that some people viewed Bewitched as just a frivolous magic show.

It was only a frivolous magic show on the surface. From the very first episode, the show was about overcoming prejudice and living in a way to be true to yourself even when people didn’t understand it. And, of course, being in the middle of the civil rights movement, it was pretty bold for Elizabeth Montgomery and her then-husband and producer Bill Asher to layer these messages into the show. A lot of times they were very subtle, but then there were times when it was very direct like the Thanksgiving episode where Darrin is put on trial in old Salem for being a witch and Samantha talks about how the hope for this world lies in our acceptance of all our differences and a recognition of our common humanity.

Which was an important message of the entire series.

Right. And then the Christmas episode where Tabitha has an African American friend, Lisa, and uses witchcraft to make them both polka-dotted. I always thought it was a shame that they didn’t bring Lisa back which is why she shows up in my finale. These were all very important messages back then, and, as you well know, we’re in a place right now, spurred on by a particular person and certain groups, where we’re being dragged back to a time where there was more intolerance and inequality and the idea that some groups are superior to others.

Is that why you wanted this book to come out now?

Yes. I wasn’t going to do anything with that synopsis of my imagined finale that I wrote for The Bewitched Continuum, but when all of this started going on, I felt the need to speak out since those messages were such an important part of the show.

Even the whole notion of Darrin’s lack of acceptance of Samantha’s powers, I thought you resolved that so beautifully. And the scenes were Tabitha is upset because she hears about how worried Darrin was that she’d be a witch, I can see that resonating with every family who has ever grappled with having an LGBTQ kid, for example, or families were are dealing with any differences. Speaking of which, I thought the brief reference to Uncle Arthur’s preference was a lot of fun. Did you ever think of going further with that?

For the most part, I decided to write the book as if the dialogue were being spoken on a TV show in 1972 with the social mores and the network limitations in place, but there were a few times when I pushed it just a hair. (Laughs.) I think mentioning Uncle Arthur in that way was pushing it just a bit!

I’m glad you did, I’m sure Paul Lynde would have loved it! I’m sorry most of the actors are no longer with us, I’m sure they would have so enjoyed this book, especially Elizabeth Montgomery.

I think if Elizabeth Montgomery were here now and if Bewitched were back on the air, you would see Samantha once again talking about these same things that our country is still grappling with. I don’t want to be presumptuous about it but I hope Elizabeth Montgomery would be proud of the book.

Oh, I’m sure she was part of your writing in some way. You perfectly captured everything she was about on and off the screen. I think you’ve honored her memory very well.

Click here to order Adam-Michael James’ book, I, Samantha, Take This Mortal, Darrin. You can visit his Bewitched Facebook page here.

#Adam-Michael James #Agnes Moorehead #Bewitched #Dick Sargent #Dick York #Elizabeth Montgomery #I Samantha Take This Mortal Darrin #Interviews #What's Hot

[chroniclesofedward]

Left on the floor #3

Obscure Misadventures (Early April of 2017)

Hey viewers, so 3 months since my last vlog, my writing muscles are rusty, so I’ve undertaken most of my senior year exams, I have been forcing myself to study intensively through 5 consecutive weeks, and I am left drained and mentally exhausted, 5 grueling weeks. The skin of my finger literally peeled off from extensive periods of writing, and I am still not sure if i’ve done well or not. These test scores have a tremendous impact on whether or not I will be granted a MEXT scholarship.

Anyway through the months I have not been documenting the events of my life, I have actually written 3 or 4 scripts before this one, but I hadn’t had time to record and edit them, so i’m starting with an all new script. During the past few months, I have gone through several predicaments of both corporeal and incorporeal concerns. So i’m going to talk about those in this vlog.

First thing I want to talk about is Logan, if you’ve watched my previous videos, specifically the one titled “XMEN obsession” in that video I said, well I did went through all those phases, only it was much more intensified and prolonged that it spanned to a week. It was actually interfering with my studying for exams, that’s how severe the emotional impact that movie had on me. It’s the last of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. I’ve been a fan of XMEN since long before Shakira sang Waka Waka for the world cup of Africa, that’s a long time before I even had a computer. So I am quite attached to Logan. I don’t care much about other Marvel movies. That was the first time I think I truly lived up to the term “Obsessed” because during the 12th of March which was the day I watched Logan for the first time, until the 19th of March, Logan was the my dominantly preoccupying subject of thought, it’s the first things I thought of when I wake up and the last things I thought of before I fall asleep, every waking hour within this days, I spend ruminating and somewhat grieving about Logan and his demise, I shed a few tears when I was alone in my bedroom or even as I was filling out the answer sheet, it was rather intrusive, hence it interrupted my studying for exams. I detailed the sentiments I had and still have to some degree for that movie, on a tumblr blog post I posted privately, because it’s too heartfelt to be bared publicly. I downloaded so many pictures of Logan, of the sceneries and promotional posters too, I even extracted the font they specially made for the “1974 frames of Logan” website through the means of some HTML wizardry, So March 3rd, that’s Logan’s day.

During that one week of being obsessed I was so unwilling to depart from the world of wolverine, so I kept myself immersed in it’s atmosphere, and one of the side effects from lingering too long in the life of another person especially so comprehensively and lengthily, is that you start losing your sense of self. In short, I had something called quarter-life crisis, which I have also made a blog post detailing so, and this one’s posted publicly. It’s about how I am not sure the path i’ve elected to take after high school might ultimately satiate myself. And it’s detracted me from my initial focus of striving for high academic scores.

now for a predicament of corporeal nature, I lost my phone. My iPhone 6 I had only had for a year and a half. I had taken great care of both it’s physique and battery life; and it’s processing prowess were still fine. It happened 3 months ago, when I was in the mall shopping for snacks and cooking materials for home economics class. I was wearing shorts, and I think during the taxi ride home, it slid out of my pockets. With my hands full with grocery bags, I didn’t notice that my phone had been absent, until the night, when my father asked me for help that required me using my phone. That’s when I started looking and after a while, recognizing the possibility that it might be gone, I started to panic, and started to turn the house upside down. I couldn’t sleep for a day or two after that, thinking about where my phone is. I also didn’t have find my iPhone turned on, because that requires logging into iCloud, and I don’t like iCloud, it’s confusing and invasive, the way it always prompts me to sync each one of my apple devices, every time I connect them to the wi-fi. So i decided to just not log into iCloud on all of my apple devices.

It’s been a significant lost to me, when my Po Po or the grandmother from my mother side, died. I wasn’t affected. When my uncle died, I wasn’t affected as well. But then again the care I pay to the once of my kin, is close to non-existent. Moving on! But when I lost my phone. It’s like I lost the loyal friend I never had. Who says I don’t have loyal friend? This baby has been with me since get-go. But you know, a phone goes with you wherever a phone can possibly go. And now that I no longer have that companion. It’s a loss. It’s not like I am on my phone all the time, but these days having a smartphone is very useful, its pervasively functional, I don’t know if I can use that adverb like that, but i’ll leave it in. It’s been a month now, the last internet history entry from that phone was: Alexander visiting Diogenes living in a barrel. I lost in on the 14th of January. I have been borrowing phones from so many classmates in school, and I can feel each time I do they are getting a little more pissed at me.

I got a new phone on February it’s an iPhone 5SE, which stands for special edition but I’d like to think it stands for Small edition instead. I’m recording with it so I can’t show you, but i’ll take a picture of it, for documenting purposes, not for a purpose of vanity.

Another predicament of corporeal nature is that I shattered my iPad, what happened was that, I was in my room googling something, and the search won’t go through, with my wifi router that’s been branded as super powerful by the seller, I figured the fault wasn’t in the wifi router, so I toggled the wifi switch in my iPad, it didn’t cinnect to the network automatially like how it was supposed to, so I had to open the settings and tap on the name of my house’s wifi network, then it asked me to enter the password to the network, when I know full well this network is saved in my iPad, and I thought about how neither my MacBook nor my iPhone have the same problem, I thought about how lousy this iPad is at doing something as basic as connecting to the wifi network, and the I think I was overcame by tis red cloud, that just came down form the sky and thought the ceiling that enveloped my head, and I heard the opening to RWBY play in my head, and when I came to, my iPad was already in the state it is in now. I was under the influence of the red cloud.

Also I got my new3ds in January, this was a from the black Friday of 2016 but I had to wait for my cousin to come back from the states to bring it to me, and I got 2 for the price of one, that was not a part of the deal, the seller sent an extra one unintentionally. Although my immoral immoral parents told me to just sell it, I chose to take the higher ground, I told the seller about the extra one through an email, and they said I can keep it, so I sold it and I regret doing so, because I was in a haste to save up money to replace my lost iPhone 6, I sold the extra 3ds for only half the price I could have sold it for.

For the last portion of this video, another problem of incorporeal nature, I lost my calm, and I am not particularly anxious, but before I decided to abstain from partaking in leisurely activities, to devote almost all my waking hours for studying, I was in this pleasant state of mind, when I am so contented with reading, reading about eveyrhting, from wikipedia, to blogs, to books. I was working on getting off of youtube, and even if I was on youtube it would be because my hands are preoccupied with eating dinner, so i’d watch a ted talk video. I had acclimated myself to the stimuli I get from reading. But when I committed myself to studying full time, when I ate dinner, I resorted to watching other youtube videos not just ted talk whilst eating. At first it was just something to keep me preoccupied while eating dinner, not it’s carved a hole in my daily schedule, it has again become a daily requirement. And I don’t like it, I’ve reverted back to my initial trajectory. Now it’s hard for me to feel contented with just reading a book for entertainment, now i have to watch videos that are more hectic. I need a certain inner peace, that would subsequently allow me to enjoy the words in a book. But i’ve lost it. When I had it it was so profound, but so fleeting. It had slipped through my fingers. I was constantly thinking about intellectual topics, I devoted my waking hours for such intelectual endeavors, i’m dissapointed that i’m derailed from that position. I was thinking about Ubermensch, about why I like rain, about Neology. I have to reattain that, for lack of a better phrase, mental state.

Well then that’s all for today’s episode. Boy was it long, editing process is going to take so much time. Well then, goodbye.