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qqueenofhades · 2 years

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You know, it remains absolutely wild to me how... like... we know exactly who is responsible for this, where, when, and why. There's a short list of like 10 people. It looks like this:

Donald Trump, for being a fascist narcissistic grifter, con man, and criminal, who nonetheless managed to weaponise enough white grievance, backlash against Obama, voter apathy, Clinton smears from the Republican slime machine, and leftist moral posturing to get elected as President and have three Supreme Court picks, all of which were obtained dishonestly;

Mitch McConnell, for being the absolute worst, not to mention proudly on record as wanting to obstruct everything a Democratic president ever does, a power-hungry shriveled racist who refused to even hold hearings for Merrick Garland and then filled that seat with Neil Gorsuch, colluded with Trump to force Anthony Kennedy to suddenly retire and install drunken sex abuser frat boy Brett Kavanaugh, then jammed Amy Coney Barrett onto the bench to fill RBG's seat, eight days before the 2020 election, in brazen open hypocrisy of everything he had said about SCOTUS and election years, since the only principle that matters to him is maintaining Republican power;

Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett themselves, for doing exactly what they were put on the court by theocratic dark money fundamentalist operatives to do, and joining Bush-era fascists Thomas, Roberts, and Alito to overrule Roe vs Wade, as the culmination of decades of deliberate and openly stated Republican policy;

Rupert Murdoch and the Fox News disinformation ecosystem, for creating the alternate reality that made Trump possible and continues to empower his sycophants, supporters, cronies, and other bad actors, and generated much of the anti-Clinton slime and smears that made their way into the mainstream, were endlessly repeated by so-called respectable media outlets like the NY Times, and poisoned the American electorate, already disposed to misogyny, against the most qualified (and historic) Democratic Presidential candidate there has likely ever been;

James Comey, for deciding to issue the "we are still investigating HER EEEEMAILS!" letter a week before the 2016 election, which took just enough off Clinton's increasingly narrow margins to put Trump over the top thanks to the rigged and racist Electoral College, which has often functioned exactly as designed in helping non-popular-vote-winning Republican presidents into power;

Vladimir Putin, for running a well-attested and repeatedly confirmed wide-ranging disinformation and interference campaign in the 2016 election to boost Trump, the Kremlin's pet stooge, and discredit Clinton, as part of his overall and equally well-attested scheme to disrupt and destroy Western liberal democratic institutions and boost Russian power;

And like... in terms of direct, locatable, empirically provable concrete responsibility, that's it. I'm even being charitable and leaving Bernie off this list, though I feel that he played a major part in creating both the 2016 clusterfuck and the "I'm too good to ever vote unless for my perfect socialist messiah" attitude that now prevails among much of the Online Left. That is a small number of names. Their actions are all verifiable in public records and a wide variety of news sources, both partisan and non-partisan. (Protip, anything you can only find in one news source that precisely matches your own ideological beliefs is, uh, deeply suspect.) I'm a historian. I work with verifiable facts and evidence, even if they might lead me to conclusions that I personally don't like. And any wide-sweeping broad generalisation, with absolutely no specific evidence or sources cited, is... not how it works and will get you a bad mark on an essay or research project every time.

So against this short list of 8 people, all demonstrably bad actors with bad motivations, what does your average Online Leftist do? They blame Obama, who "said he would codify Roe vs Wade and didn't!" Well, you might say, did Obama ever have a filibuster-proof pro-choice majority in the Senate? No, he didn't, but that's not an excuse, it just means he and Harry Reid didn't try hard enough (this already after McConnell's announcement about making Obama a one-term president and obstructing everything). Obama had the greatest financial meltdown since the Great Depression on his hands, and then spent all his political capital passing the Affordable Care Act, lost the House in 2010 as a result and the Senate in 2014, and which, despite being an actual, y'know, codified law, has been subject to literally hundreds of Republican challenges to gut, reverse, or overrule it as much as possible? YOU'RE JUST MAKING EXCUSES! WHO CARES ABOUT THE ECONOMY? OBAMA COULD HAVE DONE IT IF HE CARED AND FORESAW THE FUTURE!

Likewise, the left's other favorite scapegoat is RBG, for not "retiring in time" or otherwise precisely predicting the moment of her own death and who would be in office at the time. Literally no blame for McConnell, the one who actually and deliberately crammed the three illegitimate justices onto the bench in defiance of all protocol and precedent. So let's see... the so-called progressives are blaming a Democratic black man and a liberal Jewish woman for the actions of a bunch of evil Republican white men. Or the other laughable false equivalence I saw yesterday, which claimed that ever since the Democrats were elected in 2020, civil rights, LGBT rights, and now abortion rights were being stripped away (with the clear implication that it was their fault). This just happened on its own, I guess, and not because specific Republican-controlled state legislatures and the Republican-packed Supreme Court had deliberately done this as a strategy of pursuing and consolidating fascist power even after Trump's forced departure from the scene. Name one non-Joe Manchin/Kyrsten Sinema instance of the Democrats actively doing the same thing. I will wait.

This is not even to mention the leftists repeating straight-up QAnon propaganda about how Joe Biden is a racist sexist child molester and, I quote, "the literal scum of the earth." There are legitimate policy and performance grounds to criticise Biden on: his speech yesterday said all the right things, but it remains to be seen how much of a promised "whole of government" action will actually be made, including the available powers of the executive branch to which Biden, as chief executive, has access. His personal response has, at times, likewise seemed slow and flat-footed. But the Online Leftists have abandoned all pretense of a rational and reality-based critique, in favor of hurling the most overheated personal moral slanders possible, like the Puritans at a witch-burning. Again, I ask, we're supposed to believe that these are the progressives?

I saw a stat recently about how only 23% of American adults use Twitter. That is... not even one quarter of the country. Out of that, the Online Leftists are only a tiny percentage. These ideas are not popular or universal or just something that "everyone believes" outside of a carefully curated echo chamber. It may feel all-encompassing, but it's not, and frankly, its denizens seem to be interested in anything except building workable, practical coalitions, if it would mean taking any criticism or compromising on their exalted ideals (which, as I have noted throughout this post, really aren't as great as they seem). As I've said before, my own political views are as far left as it's possible to go, and yet, I doubtless will continue to receive more messages like the charming anon from the other day who told me to kill myself for being "bootlicking slime." This is how they like to communicate with people who otherwise agree with them on every policy level (at least as outwardly stated and certainly not as practiced). This... kind of seems like a problem.

I've likewise written before about how ideological revolutions to drastically remake societies with the Right Idea have never, ever succeeded, and only bring more pain, suffering, and death. To all those people preaching "revolution!" as the solution: you realize that all the idealistic young students manning the barricades in Les Miserables get shot, right? And that it's not an actual, legitimate political plan, not least because it isn't a plan? It's a reactive coping-mechanism magical-thinking wish that everything bad would just magically disappear in a burst of glory, and everything would be better now. It's comforting to daydream about, but it's not something any sane, rational adult really puts any stock in, since it's never something that has ever worked in history. What revolution? How? When? Surely you don't mean like the January 6 rioters, unless you do, since overthrowing the illegimate government with overwhelming violence is, oops, once again straight out of the right-wing playbook. Still waiting for those promised progressive ideals!

Basically, even in the unlikely event that they actually acquired it, I wouldn't trust the current crop of Online Leftists with power any more than I trust the Republicans, despite them outwardly sharing my beliefs and values. They haven't proven that they're interested in anything except punishing those who don't hold their exact narrow and rigid idea of "moral" views, blaming other people who again, think largely or entirely like them, threatening or using violence against anyone who disagrees with them, and finding ways to constantly excuse and ignore the actual perpetrators of illiberal Christofascism. All, again, while claiming to be progressive! Like the AO3 anti crowd, who thinks that perfect morality in the world can be achieved by aggressively and abusively policing the fiction that people write for fun in their free time, it's about using cult-like techniques and tactics to position the entire outside world as the morally inferior enemy and building in-group solidarity by attacking them. Which seems like, oh, I dunno... Trump supporters. Again. Womp womp.

I don't know. Call me an old person; I definitely am. But as terrible and cynical and generationally damaging as the Dobbs decision is, and how it represents the greatest legal denial of personhood and autonomy to American women in most of our lifetimes, there's something even worse about seeing the generation who claims to "know better" blaming the people who opposed it, excusing the people who did it, and then going straight into more nonsense about why it's not actually bad and/or twisting themselves into pretzels to invent the hypothetical (white, rich) woman who somehow won't be affected by this. Maybe that's just me in thinking that is a profoundly flawed and wrong response on literally every level, but you know, I suspect it's not. So yeah.

#hilary for ts #history #american history #politics for ts #long post

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warringwarrioridiot · 1 month

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I now present to you..

Sugar Daddy Muzan

CW: GN! Reader, 5-10 year age gap (both consenting adults dw), rich Muzan, jealousy, Muzan himself, you're a warning too pookie, car crash, dunno what else to put. Oh wait- ig ur grandpa's death or smth like that idk just stfu and read the damn story 💀

Requested by: @demiboyenmu (AKA my platonic husband.)

__________________________________

You guys met at your old (and crusty) grandpa's funeral, where Muzan took an interest in you.

You seemed distant, yet social. You were also acting high, which amused him.

He soon took you under his wing as his "sugar baby", spoiling you rotten with things you never dreamed you'd get.

Like love and affection..

He bought you a really expensive car, but your awesome best friend crashed it into a tree and nearly fucking DIED.

"I'm okay 😃"

You and Muzan agreed to never let them drive again.

Never

Ever

Again.

Muzan grows jealous easily, and will not hesitate to show it.

He will randomly hug you from behind and start showing PDA in front of the source of jealousy.

Basically how he looked at the mf talking to you while resting his chin on your head:

Bro is super smug when you tell people about him.

When he met your parents, he was so polite. A gentleman, even.

When you met Kokushibo (his homie), you two got along pretty well.

You always lose to Koku Melon at board games, to which you demand rematch after rematch.

Muzan started getting jealous, but then he remembered you were just trying to kick Kokushibo's ass. And bc Koku Beans is married with two kids... And kinda fruity..

No more jealousy towards Koku!

Artwork by me

Meeting your parents was rough, he was smiling while he literally told them off..

You were just like 😦

ANYGAYS 😺

He may seem cold at first, but once you melt his heart you can't escape his love.

You are his partner in crime, his Jerry to his Tom, his Three to his Stooge, his-

Okay yeah I'll shut up now.

Ciao! ♡

#sugarbaby #sugardaddy #demon slayer #kny #i need therapy #warringwarrioridiot #goofy #demiboyenmu #muzan #demon slayer kimetsu no yaiba #kny muzan #kibutsuji muzan #muzan kny #muzan kibutsuji #gn reader #Spotify

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cant-get-enough-btr-forever · 25 days

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Even more random musing...

I like how Carlos, Alexa, and their kids have their own tour bus. To me, that's very wholesome and sweet. It just goes to show what a tight-knit and loving little family they are.

And then there are the freakin' Three Stooges on the other bus.

Source: https://instagram.com/p/Cgrzw2HOLay/

#big time rush #James = Moe because he's the sassy one who has to keep the others in check #Logan = Larry because he's the middleman who makes the best facial expressions #Kendall = Curly because he's bald #carlos penavega #alexa vega #kendall schmidt #logan henderson #james maslow #the three stooges

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violentdick · 3 months

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-source: Detective Comics #46-

Weapon of Choice: Three Stooges Gags

#dick grayson #robin #robin dc #nightwing #you know it's really sad reading golden age comics where Dick has balance like this #when you see where he is in comics nowadays and don't say it's because of a disability. DC can't let bats have those #sorry I'm trying to not go there on these posts #this is part of an older post but I just really loved this issue so separating it out

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randomfoggytiger · 1 year

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The Mulder Family In-Depth (Part VIII): Tena, Amor Fati, and Who's the Daddy

Tena's absence heavily marks Mulder's life post-Demons, stretching through the end of S4 and into all of S5 and S6. The incredibly close and traumatized bond she's shared with her son is shattered after his confrontation; and she reacts to this new schism like she has every other trauma in her life: denial, outrageous anger, and silent avoidance. This neglect contributes to Mulder's apathetic nihilism after Scully's recovery, slowly (and unknowingly for him) inserting a wedge in his and Scully's relationship that Diana Fowley tries to split wide open. Thankfully, Mulder is able to recover ground in S6; but the effects of her distance linger, leading up to her reemergence in The Sixth Extinction: Amor Fati.

The Aftermath of Demons

During Gethsemane-Redux II, Mulder has no emotional support outside of Scully like he had before: in End Game, he had his mother to tuck in. In The Blessing Way and Paper Hearts, Tena cooed at him and rewarded his visits with love and affection (she started to do so in Demons; but his confrontation and accusations turned her spigot of affection off.) When Mulder hits his lowest, his mind has already vetoed Tena as a source of support, having no one to stand between himself and his gun other than the few days or weeks Scully has left on this earth (not a powerful motivator.)

He “commits suicide” and Scully is called in to identify his body-- Tena never comes, never identifies, never approaches the situation at all. We’re not given any information on how she’s processing the news-- aggrieved and holed up, heartbroken, at home like Anasazi-The Blessing Way; or emotionally numb and ignoring any and all calls or news about her son-- but it’s safe to say that’s pretty telling and horrific to do to your own child, especially if the fault is all of your own making.

During all of the emotional upheaval of Redux II-- CSM producing Samantha for her brother, laying out a tasty proposition for him, then getting shot while Mulder exposes Raush’s connections with the FBI higher-ups, and (of course) losing Scully then almost saving her then losing her again then miraculously witnessing her recovery-- he does not once mention his mother, and she does not once check up on him. It’s a repeat of his relationship with his father, one he didn’t see happening with his emotionally-available mother.

During S5, Tena continues to be absent from Mulder’s life. It’s really a melancholy season: Tena is gone from his life, leaving Mulder to solely rely on a woman whose life is tied to a mind-controlling chip in her neck. Not only that, but he has to watch her life fall apart at the hands of the men his father worked with: men who extracted her ova, and callously used it to create a hybrids-daughter who can’t survive without being treated like a lab rat every day of her lives. Every action he takes in S5 led to a swift downfall; and Scully has to salvage the two of them constantly from his repeated mistakes and stubborn resistance to her gut instincts about aliens and God. By the end of the season, both of them are burnt out-- literally, when CSM destroys their office.

Again, his mother remains absent and unresponsive.

An important note: Scully uses his mother (and sister) to call back Mulder from the brink in Kitsunegari, stalling off his shooting rampage long enough to save both of them and stop Linda Bowman.

In FTF, Tena does NOT appear to support her son when he is hospitalized for a gunshot wound, leaving him to the care of his Three Stooges' friends and his boss. When he dips to Antarctica, she doesn’t seem to worry or care that her son has gone MIA ; or even worry about any additional bodily traumas and recovery time he has stacked on his plate. There is no response from what would have been a second hospital call in as many days.

During S6, Tena does not appear ONCE. Mulder has learned from Redux II onward that he has been effectively cut from her life; and has, by this point, grown used to her distance. Mulder doesn’t seek her out during his "toilet brush" detail at the hands of Kersh; instead, pouring all of his energy solely into Scully. It’s the start of a deeper, more human connection to Scully than he had been able to form previously;

and possibly could have allowed a more nuanced relationship with his own mother as well-- an upgrade to their usual parentification-alienation dynamic they’d cultivated. But none of that happens.

Another important note: Scully again refers to Tena in The Unnatural, asking if his mother had ever told him to go outside and play. The only two mentions across S5 and S6 have come from Scully to Mulder, proving she is that grounding, "normal" influence between tractor beams and familial, everyday life.

Then Mulder’s brain explodes and his physical abilities implode and all around him goes nuts during Biogenesis and The Sixth Extinction.

The Sixth Extinction-Amor Fati

The episode begins on Mulder’s blissfully peaceful face-- one we hardly ever see-- as he sits on a beach observing a family and their little son. As the boy grows up, Mulder passively follows his adventures, eventually shifting to active participation after extracting himself from his brain's induced, dreamlike state.

(Side note: There’s some speculation about the boy-- "Is he William because the writers were already planning for Requiem’s plot twist?", etc. I believe he’s a manifestation of Mulder’s inner, childish drive for the Truth. He yells at Mulder “You were supposed to help me!” while destroying the UFO sandcastle, a predecessor to dream-Scully yelling at him to “Get up and fight” while the aliens were invading at his doorstep. It’s that inner part of himself that gets lost in the wash of apathy he’s prone to; and which Scully always ignites and pulls him out of-- Little Green Men, Anasazi, One Son, etc.)

In the present, Mulder’s doctor gives his prognosis to Tena Mulder. This is the first we’ve seen of her since Demons; and she doesn’t seem pleased to be put in this position.

She loves her son, she does-- but she’s avoided his sick beds and injuries since his confrontation, blinding herself to the truth: he hadn’t come to cudgel her with the past (like CSM did in Talitha Cumi), and it was deeply unfair and cruel of her to smear him with that greasy label and cast him from her life. She had treated Mulder like her ex-husband: using Bill Mulder as the strawman for all of the past’s wrongs, including her own.

“Enough!” she yells at the doctor.

“There’s only so much bluntness a mother can take.”

Tena looks down and away, a bitter undercurrent to her grief. And while this applies to this specific moment, it also harkens back to the fracturing conversation in Demons and other breaking shouting matches in the past.

Again, Tena demonstrates her main reaction to unavoidable stress is anger, like her son (see here for Demons and here for Talitha Cumi.) She does not wilt: she commands and screams.

She’s already all in black, mourning her son while desperately hoping he’ll pull through. It’s part of their dichotomous relationship:

Mulder was dead to her for over a year now, hypothetically mourned and buried; but now he’s very much alive and truly dying.

She cuts off the doctor’s conciliatory remarks: “All you do is sedate him.”

Turning to her son, she mourns, “You’re turning him… into a zombie.”

The former Mrs. Mulder reaches out to touch her son's face--

but she halts her movements,

either out of guilt for trying to connect now or out of some misguided sense of self-denial. She turns her gesture into a utility, moving his face toward her to look for a sign of recognition--

and, though his eyes drift towards her--

they've listlessly moved, meaning nothing.

“I know you can hear me, Fox,” she insists.

“Can you give me a sign?”

This is incredibly telling: Tena firmly believes their relationship is so strong that Mulder would be able to pull himself from the brink to satisfy any of her pleas. And he would have if he'd been able to-- always will for those he loves (Scully says this directly to Diana’s face later this episode when confronting her in the hallway.)

It’s here that Tena realizes her son is truly beyond all help, medical and personal. There is only one option left: one she hoped to avoid.

Mulder responds internally-- “I can hear you, Mom”-- without realizing his words are trapped in his mind.

Tena has given up hope; and turns to leave-- “Fox…. I love you, my darling boy”-- resigning herself to her next task: calling in smokey reinforcements of the hated ex-lover kind.

Mulder can hear and it makes him desperate for her not to leave. This is the first time in years he has heard her say she loves him; and he can’t hug her or even keep her by his side. It breaks him, and his internal begging escalates to screaming.

It’s here when Mulder’s daydreams mesh with reality as CSM begins invading his thoughts (Note: His response to CSM is intriguing: “I could always hear you. Even when my mind is jammed with a thousand voices, I can hear you like a snake hissing underneath.”) But his mother’s involvement is not quite over.

After Mulder’s disappearance, security camera footage is combed through, showing Tena directly involved in signing out her son to CSM (while his men spraypainted the cameras to avoid detection--

only, they’re really bad at it, ineffectively spraying all of the cameras and catching Tena and their boss’s arm in the process.)

Thus ends Tena's involvement in this episode.

Biological Father?

An important aside is the biological father question; and it’s necessary to pause here to reflect more deeply on this issue.

It’s Amor Fati that takes another firm stance on the paternity issue, stating clearly and concisely that Carl Spender is Fox Mulder’s father, with CSM himself as well as side characters acknowledging this as irrefutable fact (Diana Fowley included.) This becomes canon from now on; however, in previous episodes the issue of paternity was only ever mildly called into question and placed firmly on Samantha’s shoulders: she was the lovechild of Tena and CSM, which is why he spirited her away after her abduction, never returned her, and kept her picture with him wherever he went (established in Redux II; and reaffirmed the rest of S5 and S6. Another post for another day.) In fact, it was firmly established that Fox Mulder was not CSM’s son; and was set up as the foil for Jeffrey Spender so that he could become greater than his rival (Mulder having disappointed and frustrated CSM and the powers that be by not embracing their ideology ultimately) in S5 and S6.

Can these two perspectives-- both held by the same character that had previously had the same conviction for the opposite viewpoint but changed it suddenly and (seemingly) randomly without any new information on the topic, unlike any other issue he dealt with previously in canon that had involved him directly or indirectly-- be reconciled? Or is it the writers’ fault?

Well, of course it’s the writers’ fault. But let’s examine the two theories:

#1. Bill Mulder is Fox Mulder’s biological father.

This holds up because it was implied he didn’t meet Carl Spender until they bunked together at the army base around a year after Fox Mulder was born. They were friendly enough for Bill to brag about his son’s first word-- “J.F.K.”-- but not enough for Carl to have known about the finer details of Bill’s family’s life (names, ages, etc.) Bill and Tena were married ten months before Mulder was born, meaning he was either a honeymoon baby or a very late out-of-wedlock baby. Regardless, that leaves no wiggle room for a paternity question. EXCEPT Travelers is set in the 50s, previous to the Mulders’ marriage in the early 60s, and Bill is sporting a wedding ring and recruited out of the army. Because of that hiccup in the timeline, it lends more credence to the show bible's interpretation (meaning: there was no show bible-- Chris Carter and his show runners were proud of that fact); or Bill, like his son, just likes to wear wedding rings without being married.

#2. CSM is Fox Mulder’s biological father.

Samantha is already established to have been his daughter (with strong confirmation in Demons alone; but continual proof since Redux II), so it wouldn’t change his abduction reason. But if this were true, why did he leave Mulder to be raised by a broken home where he would get less access to his son-- especially after the divorce-- and thus have less control? It was only by luck that Mulder decided to join the FBI when he was recruited out of school, whereas Jeffrey Spender had been (essentially) pushed and nudged since childhood into the FBI. If Mulder had decided against recruiting, all of CSM’s-- supposedly-- long-term plans for his son would have been for naught. And since he places so much time and energy cultivating Mulder’s interests and-- supposedly-- checkmating his moves left and right to engineer him down to the office and into the very hands of the Conspirators so that one day he might join (another post for another day), all he had to do was raise him, show him the bounties in store for him with the Syndicate, and groom him into being an intellectual mastermind on par with the best thinkers the Consortium has to offer.

On top of all that, he’d have to have known Tena without Bill knowing he knew Tena; and Tena would have had to manipulate Bill into marriage to cover up her mistake. Which would mean she is projecting a lot of anger onto Bill that belongs squarely on her own shoulders: her own children’s futures being related to this man and his dark secrets, involving herself in this mess through this man BEFORE her husband had even been recruited by this shadow group; tying herself forever to the darkness of the Conspiracy before her children were even born and she was even married. In which case: BILL was the unwitting victim, being recruited by CSM and co. to keep Tena close to her lover; and he was involved in something WAY over his head before he could even comprehend it. That could easily align with his perspective in Piper Maru and Travelers; BUT it wouldn’t align with his own self-loathing and distance, as he placed full responsibility on himself and tried to shield Tena from his work as much as possible. And it would place a more treacherous angle on Tena: woman who seduced the wrong man, covered up her mistake through marriage, kept going back to her mistake, volunteered her husband to his cause to keep Spender close and in her life, and eventually threw all blame onto Bill’s unwitting lap when CSM came to collect his dues.

While this is a great and more sinister reading, it doesn’t match up with her actions in the series:

her hatred of Spender at her 4th of July party in Two Fathers’ flashback; her hatred of him in Mulder’s Demons flashback; her hatred and fear of CSM in Talitha Cumi; and, more importantly, CSM’s reactions to her throughout the entire series. He's lovesick, but also vindictive: if Tena’s wrath weren't righteous and justified, Carl Spender would have rubbed her faults in her face and threatened to expose her to her son to keep her in line. He did none of these things; and respected her and her actions enough never to threaten or harm her.

So, ultimately: no, I don’t believe there is the wherewithal to manufacture a scenario where Tena and CSM were lover-like embracing throughout the years (too much intent and cunning involved, as well as fierce loathing from her side even before her children were abducted and the Mulder family fell apart.) No, there is no canonical weight for CSM to assume Fox Mulder is his son pre-The Sixth Extinction (as stated and shown multiple times.) No, there is no evidence to overturn his conviction that Jeffrey was his only son. No, there is not a shred of evidence to prove he and Tena Mulder had even MET prior to the Mulders’ marriage (not even in the mess up timeline of Travelers’.) So no, I do not believe he is Fox Mulder’s biological father.

OR-- and this requires stretching of the brain so vast that Mulder would have collapsed in a matter of seconds instead of days-- Tena met CSM once randomly before she married; neither thought anything of it; she becomes pregnant, assumes or passes off the baby as Bill's; and Spender doesn't remember the incident at all until he sees her picture in the barracks (CSM's flashback episode), carrying his suspicions with him from that point onward. Then Tena and he met again later, had another brief affair; and he said something she disliked and hated him ever since, keeping him away from her kids and angrily telling Bill off every time he let his friend into the family home. It would explain the long look at Tena's photo in the barracks. ...But, again, this is WILD conjecture that is a headcanon that really shouldn't be except the writers doubled down on the CSM paternity question. (AH, WELL.)

I liken this debate to a loose quote that I heard sometime while watching the show (do not quote me on this): If you repeat it often enough, a lie becomes the Truth. All evidence points to CSM not being Fox Mulder’s biological father; but everyone-- the show’s writers included-- repeat that he is; and now it’s become a truth of its own. You decide which side has more merit~.

In Summary

Tena Mulder is back, having no one else there to make medical decisions for her son. Seeing him so vulnerable breaks down that resistant wall she’d built up since Demons. Tena sees Mulder has no hope without the enemy's help; so she signs him over to CSM.

Also: there is more evidence against CSM being Mulder’s biological dad than for it. It all comes down which side of the discussion you deem more meritable.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

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kzele · 1 year

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Voice of Reason

In which Spider-Man arrives earlier than canon to the Gangland fight and subsequently changes EVERYTHING.

It wasn't hard for Peter to find the crime lords, as shooting everything in sight and leaving trails of destruction don't exactly lend themselves to subtlety. Then again, he thought as he swung closer to the source of the carnage, Ock really isn't one for being low-key when he's not planning from afar. Engaging the deranged doctor in person was risky, but manageable considering how easily he loses his cool when faced with quips and insults.

Tombstone would be harder to deal with, given his hand-to-hand skills, cool-headed demeanor, and problematic good public image. With any luck, Peter mused, Tombstone'll be knocked out or something before I have to deal with him. (But knowing the nature of his luck means that that chance is as slim as Rhino knowing Shakespeare by heart. Possible, but highly unlikely.)

And lastly, there was Silvermane. Other than being old, having Silver Sable as his right hand, and being the previous ruler of New York's underworld before Tombstone, Peter really had almost no info to go on here. He'd have to hope for the best and prep for the worst in dealing with-

"We were ALL betrayed! By Hammerhead."

What? What's going on? Peter's thoughts are interrupted by Tombstone's baritone voice as he swings his way to a stop behind a column.

An unknown man shouts out a response, "Hammerhead is a stooge! He doesn't blink without orders."

"Indeed. Your denial lacks sincerity," Ock's more familiar tone oozes in agreement and Peter was left feeling more confused than ever. It was just the three crime lords in the room and yet. . .

Something was off here. So, naturally, it was time for Spider-Man to do what Spider-Man does best: poke his nose in something that didn't really concern him.

"Pardon me for interrupting," all three heads turned in his direction, "but maybe you should hear him out before continuing your semi-public murderfest. I mean, I literally just got here and even I can tell something doesn't add up."

"Arachnid," Doctor Octopus's teeth were bared and his arms raised, "You will-"

"Be happy to punch your ticket at a later time. For now, though, I want to figure out why Tombstone would throw someone who's apparently very loyal to his organization under the bus to people who know of the guy's loyalty."

The dude in some sort of armor, who Peter can safely bet is Silvermane at this point, gives out a snort in response.

"This is the guy that's been giving you both so much trouble? Doesn't look like much to me, considering all he's done so far is talk."

Peter ignores the taunt. If he wants to underestimate him, then that'll make things a little easier in the long run when they actually do fight. Apparently, the other two thought the same as they also made no rebuttal.

Spider-Man turns his gaze towards the calculating gaze of the albino crime lord, "So. Hammy turned traitor. How do you know?"

(POV Change)

Tombstone glared suspiciously at his savior. The vigilante had the habit of being somewhat unpredictable, but this scenario was unexpected even by his standards.

Time to cut to the chase and ask a very important question.

"Why do you care? I would have thought you'd gladly let us tear each other apart. Or at least wait until we're weakened enough to pick us all off."

Spider-Man tilted his head and answered, "What, aside from blowing holes in classy buildings and harming the people here? Something's been bugging me about this whole fight for some reason and if clearing that up means a chance at avoiding a huge, drawn-out battle where there's a chance more people are gonna get hurt, I'll take it. Now, will you three stooges calm down and think for a minute about who's really arranging the set-up here? Why would Tombstone attend a conference with the ones that he's trying to off? Isn't Hammerhead his underling or something? Why not send him in his place?"

Tombstone couldn't believe it. First, Hammerhead betrays him after years of loyal service and now Spider-Man is speaking reason to the other crime lords in his defense? The world really has gone insane, he thought.

Silvermane was unconvinced, "Hammerhead knocked out my daughter and took out Octopus's lieutenant, too! If he wasn't loyal to Tombstone, why go to all that trouble to that and throw his boss a weapon, too?"

"I agree. Your conclusion is erroneous; Hammerhead's devotion is no secret here," Ock sneered.

Spider-Man hummed and asked them, "So then what? Who took him out afterwards?"

The two blinked in confusion and looked at each other.

The armor-clad crime boss spoke mockingly, "We never said that he was taken out. Were you even listening?"

The vigilante straightened up when hearing this and gave his own rhetorical question, "But if Hammerhead is so loyal and he wasn't taken out, why isn't he fighting alongside Tombstone right now? It's two against one against his boss, but he hasn't shown up yet. Shouldn't he have shown up by now?"

Dead silence.

Tombstone could see the realization hit both of their faces as they looked up at the hole and into the room where they last saw his (now former) employee. Doctor Octopus snarled, the man's ego clearly taking a hit over being tricked, and began making his way back up to the second floor.

Silvermane followed shortly and yelled after him, "Hey! You better not leave me outta this, Octopus! I want that flat-topped traitor to be eating his own plating after I rip it from HIS SKULL!"

Spider-Man cringed, "Annnd they're off. I should probably follow them to minimize any damage."

"Probably," the albino remarked dryly.

A sigh and, "Figures."

Just as soon as the younger man prepared to swing after the two murderous crime lords, Tombstone laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Thank you. You may not have done it for my sake, but I need to ask one more favor of you tonight."

Now it was the webslinger's turn to be suspicious, "That being?"

"That you help me find the real orchestrator of these events. You see, I also have a hunch. I believe your assessment is half-right, Hammerhead could very well be a pawn still even after betraying me. Whether he knows it or not however, is something less clear."

"It'll be harder to figure that out if he's dead and I doubt those two'll wait to ask. They've got their revenge goggles on right now, so tag along and explain on the way. Assuming it isn't too late yet."

His unlikely ally proceeds to hold out a hand for him to secure a grip.

"Very well," Tombstone says as he takes the hand offered.

Perhaps down the line this could lead to the more. . .mutually beneficial partnership he had hoped would happen between them when they had originally met. At least allying with Spider-Man guaranteed that he'd survive even if betrayed. Either way, it didn't hurt to side with the only voice of reason Tombstone had found on this day.

#tssm peter parker #tssm doctor octopus #tssm tombstone #tssm silvermane #Voice of Reason AU #tssm au #tssm spider man #tssm #the spectacular spider man

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savage-kult-of-gorthaur · 1 year

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"DO YOU SEE, DAREDEVIL, HOW IMMENSE EVIL IS?"

PIC INFO: Spotlight on a splash page of Mephisto looking like a hideous cross between a demonic bird, a creepy lizard, and Larry Fine of the Three Stooges, from the pages of "Daredevil" Vol. 1 #266. May, 1989. Marvel Comics.

Writer: Ann Nocenti

Artist: John Romita, Jr.

Inker: Al Williamson

Colorist: Gregory Wright

Letterer: Joe Rosen

Source: https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/marvel-general-three.544120/page-908.

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cyarsk52-20 · 7 months

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15 Years Ago: Rage Against the Machine Make Their Own Mixtape With ‘Renegades’

James StaffordPublished: December 5, 2015

Play Rage Against the M…

on Apple Music

Cover albums are usually afterthoughts in a band's catalog, but Rage Against the Machine's Renegades has a few things going for it that make it intrinsic to the band's identity. It's their last studio album, for one – their farewell gift to their rabid fan base. It was also produced by the great Rick Rubin, who worked wonders with Johnny Cash on his "American Recordings" series, so there's another. Inevitably, though, there's only one reason that truly matters: Renegades is a great album.

Covering other artists' songs can be a tricky business. The space separating "you made it your own, dawg" and "that isn't even the same song anymore" is ill-defined, yet simply playing the song as written is certain suicide. Faithful reproductions of the original material comes off as unimaginative at best and karaoke at worst. An artist covering Bob Dylan, for example, must honor the original while revealing something new about the song. A truly successful cover can transcend the original: Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watchtower," for example, is so definitive that even Dylan plays it like a Hendrix song.

Renegades succeeds in a manner similar to Hendrix's classic Dylan cover. From the front sleeve, which co-opts Robert Indiana's ubiquitous "Love" image, through Dylan's "Maggie's Farm," the album's closing track, Rage made it their own while leaving enough space for the source material to shine through -- most of the time.

At first listen, some cuts seem to be so Rage-ified as to no longer resemble the originals, but the connection is there. Afrika Bambaataa's "Renegades of Funk" remains a dance track, but updated from its pop-and-lock '83 roots to a millennial mosh pit. "Microphone Fiend" sounds precisely like an RATM song, but lurking under the covers is Rakim's smooth flow and Eric B.'s turntables, recreated here by Tom Morello's ostinato guitar riff. The lesson is clear: If you missed Eric B. & Rakim back in '88, it was probably because your musical bias was clogging your ears.

That's perhaps Renegades' greatest gift to its listeners. Rage stood behind a powerful bully pulpit thanks to their huge audience, and they used it to great effect. More than a collection of favorite songs, the album feels almost like a required listening list: Like punk? Check out MC5and the Stooges. Think the only two influential bands to break in '91 were Nirvana and Pearl Jam? Check out Cypress Hill's "How I Could Just Kill a Man."

The latter was one of the album's three singles, joining "Renegades of Funk" and a completely unrecognizable version of Bruce Springsteen's "The Ghost of Tom Joad." Where complete transformation might be considered a liability (why remake a song if you're just going to turn it into a new song?) in the case of "Joad" and Dylan's "Maggie's Farm," Rage-ifying the cuts demonstrated an uninterrupted continuum of protest music connecting the '60s folkies to hip hop. "Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge" -- Springsteen or Rakim? Exactly.

As Hendrix's "Watchtower" was to Dylan, Rage's take on "Joad" found its way back to the Boss, sort of. Morello joined Springsteen at the 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony for a mashup of the two versions.

Renegades also reminded us that some long tamed and de-fanged bands used to be feral beasts. They didn't come much more dangerous in the late '60s and early '70s than the MC5, the Stooges and the Rolling Stones. Rage's take on the latter's "Street Fighting Man" restores the anger and urgency that decades of costume changes and private jets had long worn off. As for the MC5's "Kick Out the Jams"? Well, honestly, there's no way to jam any more rage into the original. Covering that track is like saddling up an angry bull: the best any band can do is hang on and try to ride out the clock. Rage Against the Machine survive the ride just fine, but arguably it's the straightest cover on the album.

The least successful track on the album is Devo's "Beautiful World." The 1981 original juxtaposed a cheerful melody against an ambiguous sentiment: "It's a beautiful world, for you." Is the speaker celebrating the "beautiful people everywhere" in the song's "sweet romantic place"? Presumably so, and so the listener is lulled into this warm, perfect world only to have the rug yanked away in the song's closing lines: "It's a beautiful world for you, not me."

But Rage suck all of the sunny irony out of the track, recasting it as a minor key dirge devoid of any fun. Unlike "Tom Joad" and the other examples mentioned, we don't learn anything new about the song. Instead, we're left with an impression of a band that takes itself too seriously. That's a false impression, by the way: They sound like they're having a blast tearing through the Stooges' "Down on the Street" and Minor Threat's "In My Eyes."

It's worth noting that when Renegades was released, NME cited "Beautiful World" as the album's "most insidious track," reminding us that these kinds of judgements are awfully subjective. One person's throwaway track is the soundtrack to somebody else's life, after all. And thanks to Rage Against the Machine, more than a million buyers had the opportunity to add a dozen classic songs that they may have never heard otherwise to their personal soundtracks. As farewell gifts to fans go, that's a pretty damned good one.

20 Artists Keeping Rage Against the Machine's Spirit Alive

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jacquelinemerritt · 1 year

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Dragonball Z: Abridged Episode 11 Review

Originally posted August 19th, 2015

Equal parts reverence and revision.

The Freeza Saga is, as best as I can tell, the most famous arc in all of Dragonball. As such, the majority of the audience of Dragonball Z: Abridged would inevitably be approaching Team Four Star’s adaptation of that arc with a lot of pre-existing feelings about the story it is trying to tell, inevitably allowing those feelings to guide them in forming a critical opinion of it.

This “baggage” is clearly present among everyone in Team Four Star, and they are careful to open their second season and beginning of the Freeza Saga with a lot of reverence for their source material. But that reverence for the source material never blinds them, as at this point they have begun to recognize that the story they are telling, while related to the original Dragonball, is ultimately a separate being of its own, and they begin to treat it as much.

This is clear from the inclusion of a flashback to Goku’s first time meeting Mr. Popo. We as an audience potentially unfamiliar with the source material can assume that Goku and Popo have met before at some point, though we do not know how they met or what their meeting was like. This flashback very clearly articulates that Goku’s relationship with Popo is no different from Krillin’s relationship with Popo; they both fear him for the sadistic, omnipotent taskmaster that he is. It also serves as a more effective introduction to Popo than his actual introduction.1

Their reverence for the source material comes in how they handle the tone of Krillin, Gohan, and Bulma’s departure for Namek. It’s a dangerous and important mission, and both the source material and DBZA take it seriously. Unlike the source material, however, Team Four Star chooses to let the weight and importance of the mission come through Bulma, in both the performance (thanks to Megami33’s excellent voice acting) and use of score.

This is one of many revisions Team Four Star makes to the text, and they do so with good reason; Bulma is shallow, self-centered, and bitchy in the original, and there’s absolutely no reason one of the two only female characters should be this terrible a person.2 In this, Team Four Star acknowledges the strengths of the original story, while addressing some of the more problematic aspects of that story, and this is a trend that they continue to build upon.

Rating: 4.5/5

If you liked this review, please consider supporting me on Patreon.

Stray Observations

1I love the “pecking order” speech as much as anyone else, but seeing that Goku is just as afraid of Popo as anyone else more clearly establishes just how intimidating this guy is.

2Another change they make is with Chi Chi, who goes from a bitchy buzzkill to a reasonably concerned mother, countering a very unfortunate trope present in a lot of shounen anime (as well as Western cartoons, but that’s for another day).

Mr. Popo: “Oh, look at that, a woman who doesn’t know any better. What are the odds?”

Cutting to a drugged up, gurgling Goku as he still essentially votes for Bulma to go with Popo is a great visual gag.

Mr. Popo: “Yep, this carpet gets about ten thousand miles to the soul.” Bulma: “What?” Mr. Popo: “The gallon.”

Mr. Popo: “Making toast!”

Bulma: “So it responds to your name?” Mr. Popo: “No, it just knows better.”

Chi Chi: “Did you carry a baby around for nine months with a man who literally thought you had Cinnabons hidden in your shirt?”

Ambient ocean noise at Kame House and the ambient noise at the hospital give us a glimpse at the great sound design to come.

Weird how a Three Stooges reference is basically highbrow comedy in this show.

#dragon ball z abridged #dragon ball z #team four star #dbza #film criticism #dbza ep11 #aug 19 2015 #👍

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