#I get why conservatives are so into the 50s it feels like a time with a genuine set culture
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Filled with the urge to bring a cute boyfriend to Freddy’s for a date.
#what’s more American and romantic than a fast food imitation diner#I fucking love it here#fuck it we’re tagging this one#mlm thoughts#mlm#boyfriend yearning hours#mlm yearning#I get why conservatives are so into the 50s it feels like a time with a genuine set culture#granted not a great one#but they went off with the aesthetics and overall vibe#of course it’s also an idealized one primarily lead by nostalgia#but fuck is it not a vibe#I also really like fallout and historical objects so like
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articles about the “wild new trend” of piercing from the late ‘50s and early ‘60s are fascinating to read. a selection of excerpts:
- one doctor cautioned that girls with pierced ears would be “required to constantly wear earrings to hide the holes in their heads” (or you could just not be weird about a tiny dot on someone else’s earlobe?)
- Genevieve Dariaux, then director of the Nina Ricci couture house, said in 1965 that “Pierced ears are unthinkable for an elegant woman, and even more dreadful for a young girl.” bear in mind that, as I’ve said, earrings that made your ears LOOK pierced were still common. what the difference was, nobody has yet made plain
- lots of evidence that going to a doctor was the preferred “safe” method for piercing at the time. but many doctors refused to do it, or said they would but that they strongly discouraged patients from having the procedure done. this checks out with my mother’s experience in 1965- her schoolmate’s anesthesiologist father did free piercing for all his daughter’s friends
- some teenagers around 1965 called clip and screwback earrings “chicken earrings” (implying that the wearers were too scared of pain to get their ears pierced, I think)
- one advice column, also from 1965, implied that pierced ears were just a passing fad. the previous several centuries of western history would like a word, Mx. Columnist...
- A GIRL WITH RESTRICTIVE PARENTS BRINGING UP THE ARGUMENT THAT HER GRANDMOTHER HAD PIERCED EARS. YES. FINALLY SOMEONE REALIZED THE LOGICAL FALLACIES HERE. the argument against that is, indeed, a sort of “that was the Bad Old Days and we know better now” deal as some other commenters have hypothesized
- one article mentions that the trend could be part of the Victorian revival that was just becoming popular in the mid-60s, which is a fascinating thought I’ve never considered before
- many doctors complaining that they were suddenly being called upon to pierce ears despite not really knowing how. this is interesting, because before the Great Ear-Piercing Taboo, jewelers offering piercing services were more like modern piercers than Claire’s employees (and doctors weren’t involved at all unless an infection set in). descriptions I’ve read of Victorian piercer-jewelers mention a lot of things we’re familiar with today- needles designed with a hollow for inserting the starter jewelry, for example, and even “freezing” solutions to numb the earlobe. so in those early resurgence days, going to a long-established jewelry store for your piercing might actually have been a better option than a doctor’s office
- two young women in a 1964 Canadian article (from Calgary) mention that they think screwback earrings look cheap and gaudy, and the pierced version is more conservative and tasteful, in an interesting reversal of mainstream thought
- a newspaper columnist saying pierced ears give him “the wim-wams,” so they are to be avoided. whatever the hell that means
- a LOT of people seem to think that ear piercing was popular in the Victorian era because wealthy women didn’t want to lose their expensive jewelry. sorry folks- my collection of Victorian costume earrings (all pierced) says otherwise
- much confusion as to why modern girls want to do something so old-fashioned
- one woman marvels at how comfortable it is to wear earrings in pierced ears, as opposed to clips and screwbacks. I feel infinitely blessed, as an earring-lover, to have been born when I could escape the scourge of ear-vises altogether
- apparently an eccentric elderly man on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia, literally bribed all the women of the community to pierce their ears because he liked the way it looked. one of them mentioned that she held out for $25- $244 CAD or $188 USD in today’s money. all because some rich Victwardian codger had a very specific fetish
- this absolutely incredible response of an Indian diplomat’s wife when asked, in New York, why she wore a diamond nose stud: “Because I feel [diamonds] become me more than rubies or emeralds.” QUEEN
- “when the fad changes, as it indubitably will-” are you certain of that, ma’am
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Love for Love's Sake | Things you didn't notice (probably)
Finally, I am watching a good K-BL and can enjoy multi-layered meanings within language, culture and translated subs altogether (unlike with Thai series where I need to learn a new language again xD)
So I'll be pointing out some fun things that I noticed for fellow foreign viewers =) Beware of a long post!
Disclaimer: I'm not fluent in Korean, but I've been learning and using it for years + lived and studied in Korea for a while so I'm offering my perspective and knowledge but it might not be the Ultimate Truth
Episode 1
«I prefer lonely supporting characters instead of happy protagonists. Cha Yeowoon is still unhappy.
...
- Where are you going?
- To see my main (최애). I mean, Cha Yeowoon.»
The word Tae Myungha used to described Cha Yeowoon, as I heard, was actually 최애 (choe-ae). It's a slang that can be translated as "my favourite" and typically is used for K-pop group members, meaning "my bias" (think One True Pairing but One True Person instead). Then, as his fellow classmate gets confused, hearing such word referring to a popular student in their school, Tae Myungha changes to "I mean, Cha Yeowoon", and it works because the word and the name sound similar.
Myungha uses this word because in the intro he stated that Yeowoon is his favourite character in the book out of all. So basically, his first reaction was "- Where are you going? - I'm gonna run to find my blorbo<3", which is so admirable. I'd also get obsessed with making happy my fav side character that was treated unfairly by creators :D
«Kids like chocolate, right? ... (Yeowoon grabs an icecream, Myungha grabs the same, adding with surprise:) Didn't see that coming. Bi-Bi-Big (비비빅)? You eat like an old man.»
What surprised Myungha there? That Yeowoon chose this icecream->
It's a traditional icecream that is made out of red beans. This taste is usually associated with older people (because typically kids like sweet things and older people like less sweet/bland tastes), also red beans or read bean paste is used in many traditional desserts in Korea. Yeah, who would've thought that a high schooler would choose this icecream out of all options?
Later, Myungha gets the message "You can compare Bi-Bi-Big to big Ba-Bum-Bar (another icecream with "old man taste" from chestnuts), why the hell would you eat it?" and gets confused as the message seems missent. I am confused as well, because Myungha wasn't the one choosing this icecream and Yeowoon wasn't typing in his phone. Considering that the phone number is unknown, I can guess that it might be a commentary from the book's author who's watching Myungha playing his story game? Let's figure it out in the next episodes!
«- You eat like an old man.
- Do you play sports?
- No.
- Weird. You're a whiner like I've always heard.
- Kids these days have no manners.»
My quick translation->
«- You eat like an old man.
- Sunbae, do you play sports?
- No.
- Strange. You sound like one of those older jerks (꼰대).
- Kids these days have no manners.»
More on the differences between Tae Myungha and Cha Yeowoon:
Myungha tried to poke Yeowoon about his "old man tastes", and Yeowoon called him out for his conservative/stereotypical thinking.
Yeowoon keeps calling Myungha sunbae (because he knows MH's a senior in their school so he must be polite), and Myungha REALLY TALKS LIKE AN OLD MAN to him ("Kids these days" in the subs does translate this style of speech correctly! I'm glad). We all know he's much older before he was thrown into high school times (~25-30yo?), but his words and intonations really make you feel like he's 50-60yo or something xD
Yeowoon doesn't like this at all, though, so he calls Myungha a sort of derogatory term 꼰대 (kkondae), which is used to described old conservative people who are set in their ways and keep nagging and scolding young people for not behaving properly. And, as a runner, he implies that there are senior sportsmen that are hazing or nagging younger sportsmen like this as well, that's who Myungha reminds him of. No wonder the affection stats fell down in the minus zone so hard!
There you go, guys, these are my comments on the first episode of Love for Love's sake! It is filmed so well, I like the idea, and I really enjoyed it (if this one gets really popular just like Semantic Error, we might get more BLs about gamers or gamedevs and I WILL LOVE IT I am so here for it, hehe)
Stay tuned for more as I watch next episodes :]
#love for love's sake#kdrama#love for love's sake meta#korean bl#bl series#lfls#lfls meta#love for love's sake reaction#dropthemeta#love for love's sake comments
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hiiii!!! 🖤🧡 what about 43 'Pick up lines only work when I'm drunk.' and 50 'Is it just me or is cold as hell in here?' 😋
#50. "is it just me, or is it cold as hell in here?"
"try the door again."
ian rolls his eyes, but pulls at the frozen metal handle again for the tenth time. still stuck. doesn't budge, not even a little bit.
"i told you, linda will come save us once she realizes no one's manning the store out front."
"yeah?" mickey spits out. "and what're we gonna to tell her when she asks why we're in the freezer together, huh?"
"i'm pretty sure she already suspects something," ian points out. "i mean, we're not exactly slick about it."
"should've fuckin' kept it in your pants," mickey mumbles, not meeting ian's eyes, "you and your stupidass dick."
"didn't hear you complaining a couple minutes ago when i was balls deep inside you," ian replies wryly.
if he wasn't already shivering his ass off, he'd probably die just from mickey's icy glare, sharp cuts piercing into his soul.
"whatever. just stay the fuck away from me."
"fine."
"fine."
mickey lets out a huff before crossing his bare arms across his chest, the security vest doing nothing to keep him warm, making it an obvious point to not look at ian's direction. ian does the same, wrapping the thin hoodie around his body to conserve whatever limited body heat he can, stewing in frustration at how infuriating the boy in front of him is being.
a few minutes of stony silence goes by, save for the motor of the freezer fan continuously circulating cold air. ian has a moment of weakness and chances a peek out of the corner of his eye, and he's met with the sight of mickey, teeth chattering and goosebumps lining his arms. an indescribable pang of something curls deep in ian's stomach.
"is it just me," ian says, lightly, a feeble attempt at levity, "or is it cold as hell in here?"
nothing. nada from mickey. ian sighs.
"you want my hoodie?"
mickey scowls and continues to give him the silent treatment, mouth pressed into a tight line. but ian can see mickey's tough facade slowly chipping away, the continuing drop in temperature draining the colour from his face.
"c'mon man, you're freezing," ian sighs again. "just take my hoodie."
zip. zilch. ian lets out a huff of exasperation.
"fuck it," he mutters, before taking three steps and wrapping an extremely bewildered mickey into a surprise hug, tight enough so that mickey can't squirm or escape or whack him in the head.
"the fuck, gallagher," mickey practically yells, but his voice comes out hoarse and raspy. ian doesn't budge. "get off me, you lunatic."
"just relax, mick," ian whispers into mickey's ear, softer than he intended, and mickey goes completely still. "no one can see us. and i don't want to bury your body if you die of hypothermia."
ian feels puffs of air tickle his neck. it takes a minute, but ian senses the exact moment when mickey gives in, sagging his body weight into ian's embrace. they've never touched like this before without the pretense of sex, and it almost sends ian down a spiral. his heart starts thumping against his chest when mickey's hands skim along the exposed sliver above his hips, tentatively ghosting his skin like he's not sure if he's allowed to touch.
you can touch me, ian wants to say. touch me wherever you want. do you care about me the same way i care about you? do you?
"gallagher," mickey breathes, and ian's heart soars, "i–"
"ian? mickey? are you in there?"
mickey jumps, breaking apart from ian's embrace, and ian feels the loss immediately as linda whips the freezer door wide open.
"what the–" she starts to say, just as mickey slips past her without a word or a backwards glance. a hollow twist curls tight in ian's stomach. "what the hell were you two doing in here?"
"mickey was helping me with um... stocking the shelves, then the door closed behind us and the handle was stuck, so...." ian trails off lamely.
"uh huh." he can tell by the look on linda's face that she doesn't believe him, but she doesn't push him any further. probably too tired to get into it. "go drink something hot and warm yourself up. i'll call someone to fix the door tomorrow."
ian fully expected mickey to ditch the rest of his shift, so he's surprised when he sees mickey still in the store, standing by his usual spot by the door. ian feels mickey's gaze on him as he passes behind the counter, watching quietly as he starts a new batch of coffee, pour the steaming liquid into two paper cups, then hand over one of the cups.
"thanks," mickey says quietly, and ian nods in response.
mickey doesn't say anything else for the remainder of their shift, but ian can feel mickey's eyes on him when mickey thinks he's not looking.
tell me what you're thinking, he wants to plead. tell me you feel the same way. but he doesn't.
as they silently part ways after work, ian wonders if he'll ever get the chance to break down mickey's walls. if mickey will ever let anyone inside his heart.
and, well. ian is patient. he'll wait as long as it takes.
#thanks for the prompt doshi <3#43 will be answered in another ask!#gallavich ficlet#michy ficlet#ian x mickey#gallavich fic#my words#gallavich
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I have a lot of feelings about Julie’s collection. After the election of Richard Nixon, the deaths of Janis Joplin, Jimmi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison, and then the Manson murders, the peace and love happy hippie 60s had given way to the dirty, strung-out scumbag 70s. Even though Julie is living in San Francisco, the hippie era had long since passed by 1974. As Hunter S. Thompson beautifully put it in Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas:
“There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . .
And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . .
So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.””
I love the hippie aesthetic. I get that AG would want to have a doll that reflects that. A lot of Julie’s story revolves around her fighting for environmentalism, which is one of the aspects of hippie culture that managed to stick around, largely because of backlash to the consumerism of the 50s. But in Julie’s collection there’s plenty of times when her looks lean too far into the 60s and miss the mark of the 70s. As much as I appreciate AG doing the hippie thing, an accurate collection for the 70s would drag us to polyester hell and never let go. The 70s are one of those special eras in fashion where everything is ugly as fuck. The fashion of the 60s was much more aesthetically pleasing, but the fashion of the 70s is ironically appealing. It’s so ugly you love it. It’s ridiculous. It’s camp.
Granted, the fridge that was 1974 fashion still had plenty of hippie leftovers in it, and her original meet look with its crochet cap, embroidered tunic, and fringe belt feel true to the era.
Hand crafts like knitting and crochet had a resurgence in popularity, so I’m glad that both collections have a knitted accessory.
Part of the history lesson Julie gives is that Title IX meant schools could no longer forbid girls from wearing pants, so that’s why Julie is in jeans.
Julie’s BeForever look is straight 60s hippie. The inspiration seems to be Janis Joplin, who had been dead for four years:
AG seems to be wanting to have it both ways with Julie, and I honestly wish they’d just commit to the 70s:
On another note, the 70s would have been a great chance to have another doll of color (American Indian Movement, much?), but they went with a White girl with blonde hair. Which honestly I kiiind of get. Like if I were going to select ONE decade of the 20th century to have a blonde doll, it would be the 70s. I cannot emphasize enough how ubiquitous long blonde hair was to 70s pop culture.
For an era that still claimed to be progressive, the 70s were whitebread as hell. Outwardly there was women’s lib, civil rights, and the sexual revolution, but inwardly, the 70s were an extremely conservative decade when Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority were just starting to lay their slimy hooks into the American political system. It’s a decade of contradictions and extremes that I wish AG would fully commit to.
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uh oh i’ve done it again.
they’re back, bitches.
yknow what that means? i’m gonna yap about them more.
y’all know that meme that goes “HER pronouns are THEY/THEM!!!” yeah that’s the dynamic between inez and alastor. he hasn’t quite figured out how pronouns work, and inez is very patient with him :]
one day after a long shoot they immediately go to the bar and this conservation ensues:
inez: HUSK. YOU’RE A CAT.
husk: bad start.
inez: DO YOU PURR???
husk: …why
inez: BECAUSE *exasperated sigh* I HAD A CAT WHEN I WAS ALIVE AND ANYTIME I WAS SAD HE’D COME LAY ON MY CHEST AND PURR UP A STORM AND IT ALWAYS MADE ME FEEL BETTER AND RIGHT NOW I AM IN EMOTIONAL DISTRESS.
husk: no-
inez: HUSK CAN I PRETTY PLEASE WITH A CHERRY ON TOP LAY ON YOU WHILE YOU PURR?? STRICTLY PLATONICALLY. I WILL NEVER SPEAK ABOUT IT TO A SOUL. PINKY PROMISE. PLEASE. I WILL GIVE YOU $50.
husk: …UGH fucking fine
speaking of cuddling, inez has in fact done so with angel. they love the chest fluff. honestly, inez has probably cuddled with EVERYONE in the hotel, except for alastor, because other than husk, inez is who most people go to vent to. they are just a very good listener.
they have been hit by approximately 13 different cars. the fact that they are not dead dead is a fucking miracle.
in their life inez was an editor for a big name author, as an attempt to boost their own writing career. unfortunately, their tendency to trip on benadryl to come up with their ideas was their achilles heel, being the thing that killed them.
inez is fascinated by nifty. they just think she is such a silly little creature that they are dedicated to trying to become besties with her.
like real deer, they are incredibly jumpy, and are easily shaken by loud noises. they freeze up when they get startled. because of this they wear sound proof headphones around the hotel, so that the antics of everyone else don’t keep them consistently frozen up. it also means that they are very soft spoken, as even their own voice startles them occasionally. (one time they accidentally dropped something while helping angel clean his room and of course that made them freeze in place. it was the first time angel had seen this happen, and he genuinely thought that they had died again) now this does have very sad implications when you take their relationship with val into consideration, but i’m choosing to keep this post lighthearted, so i won’t get into that
i regret to inform you form you that inez does in fact have four nipples, like real deer.
they have weekly meetings with vaggie to try and improve on their ability to stand up for themself. it is pretty much just a big roleplay session where vaggie pretends to be a Big Mean Guy, and inez tries to speak their mind. it’s kind of working! one time angel was admittedly being a bit of an asshole, sort of undermining inez’s struggles with val, and they WENT OFF ON HIM. they did profusely apologize afterwards for ‘being mean’ and angel had to be like “no, you’re right, stop that, i was being a cunt, always tell me when i’m being a cunt.”
they build legos with sir pentious. he’s like being creative and making his own shit, and inez is just following the instructions to make a big flower :]
#hazbin hotel#hazbin husk#hazbin hotel angel dust#hazbin hotel charlie#hazbin hotel husk#huskerdust#hazbin hotel oc#hazbin hotel vaggie#haxbin hotel vox#hazbin angel dust#hazbin alastor#hazbin art#hazbin lucifer#hazbin vox#hazbin charlie#hazbin vaggie#hazbin hotel lillith#hazbin adam#oc#oc art#ocs#oc artwork#oc artist#original character#original art#original charater art#zaney’s art
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Thads Shindig
A Murder Drones Story Containing every named character+more (yes all ~50 of them, some never seen before, full cast list in tags)!
part 1.
word count - 4,448
Uzi - *playing a video game*
N - *entering*Hi Uzi… last week was… kinda wild.
Uzi - *unattentive*yep.
N - you know with the whole Eldritch J thing that was pretty insane, proms coming up which I guess is exciting. Because you know this story is set somewhere between episode 2 and 3.
Uzi - *still not listening*cool… Hey, I’ve got a second controller if you want to play video game with me.
N - you know I don’t like video game Uzi, plus we have to go soon.
Uzi - wait… go where?
N - well it's Thad’s shindig soon.
Uzi - oh cool, I’ll be heading offline in a minute anyway, this old hag—*reading username* SeaweedLoverXD has just been spawn camping me for the last half hour.
Nori - *over the mic* OLD HAG?
Uzi - *putting on headset*yeah, you virgin loser, you heard me!
Nori - Virgin?! Well I’ll have you know little miss Nobody, I am a mother of a darling daughter and if I ever caught her saying anything remotely similar to the insults you’ve been throwing my way I wouldn’t hesitate washing her mouth out with soap and water!
Uzi - whatever, die mad. *logs off*
*Meanwhile in a distant spaceship*
J - [you died idiot]
J - ughh, my head [Lost Memory Recovery Finished]... oh … oh! ... I liked that pen.
J - *getting out of bed only to lose balance and collapse on the floor* … I’m okay! That was strange… My limb enhancements! Where are my limb enhancements?! *mad* Tessa! *pouting* Right now I bet I look like a common toaster! And why is it so dark? Are we conserving energy now?!
J - *walking through the spaceship arriving at a door labelled ‘Tessa. Knock first’*
J - *opening the door to a pitch black messy room,a pool of oil and blood pools out of the room*
Flesha - GET OUT!*throws Tessa’s helmet square at J cracking her visor slightly before slamming the door shut*
J - Tessa… I’m sorry.
Flesha - Learn to knock!
J - *picking up Tessa’s helmet* I think you dropped this.
Flesha - … *slowly opens the door slightly before lashing out and snatching the helmet quickly with a black tendril before retreating back into the room. Grotesque, bone cracking sounds follow*
J - …m,may I come in.
Tessa - sure, please mind the mess. I usually try to keep things clean but I guess you can say I haven't really been myself.
J - *entering* You know I’ve been reading some human literature and ‘arrogance and comedy’ are generally not considered a good coping mechanism.
Tessa - oh so you’re an expert on my well being are you?
J - your parents instructed me to protect you so yes!
Tessa - Well, look how that turned out! You’ve seen what's left of me, of what I become, I am a monster!
J - We’re all monsters Tessa, in our own way. I can see you're tired, I am here to grab my limb enhancers then I will be off.
Tessa - oh… yeah, I’ve been making modifications, it's still really buggy, they need more time though.
J - can’t I just borrow N's spare set? Been wondering what having feet feels like.
Tessa - no… I’ve been thinking, breaking into the Worker Drones commune is difficult, entering by force is doing little good and the plan to try and hack its main frame has only led to many complications.
J - you can code?
Tessa - nope. Like I said, complications. Anyhow, returning to the subject, right now no one could differentiate you from any other worker so you can head down and do some spy work… like James Bond and such.
J - do I have any say in this?
Tessa - nope.
J - *annoyed* then I’ll prepare my landing pod. *leaving* and Tessa, you shouldn’t just allow Cyn to walk over you…
Tessa - It's her body as much as mine and without it I would be dead.
*meanwhile, in the commune*
Doll - Мать. Отец.
Doll - Ты будешь гордиться мной
Doll - Получите ответы и освободите вас
Doll - Не волнуйтесь, чего бы это ни стоило,
Doll - я ухожу
Doll - И я клянусь прямо сейчас
Doll - Что бы не случилось со мной
Doll - Любой, кто встанет или встанет на моем пути, заплатит
Doll - Они... будут... платить
Lizzy - hey babe, quit praying to the corpses of your dead parents, we have a party to attend.
Doll - иду :3
*meanwhile deep underground*
V - *carrying a large pile of dead worker drones while being chased by a horde of Sentinels* oh RoboLord oh RoboLord oh RoboLord oh RoboLord oh RoboLord oh RoboLord oh RoboLord why did I agree to this! *runs through door and slams it shut*
Alice - hey looky here, another one of those slick murder drones.
V - *shoots her in the centre of her head*
Beau - O.O!!!!!
V - What are you looking at… well I had to kill her? That was a perfectly sane reaction to seeing someone that creepy!...*picking up Alice's dead body* hey, you seem pretty cool, want to join me, I’m heading to a party.
Beau - O.O…*réaliser qu'un refus peut signifier la mort* 👍
*meanwhile in the doorman home*
Uzi - come on N. How are you still not ready?!
N - I’m still doing my hair!
Uzi - well hurry up, we’re going to be late!
Khan - well where are you two kids heading off too?
Uzi - a party, it's cool kids only so obviously you’re not invited.
Khan - haha, on account of me not being a kid.
Uzi - sure. Let's go with that.
Khan - well, I hope you two kids have fun. Make sure you use protection.
Uzi - *blushing* DAD!!! What the robo-hell?!
Khan - What? I’m just saying there could still be some of those evil murder drones running around.
Uzi - oh |:
Kahn - well, I best be heading off too, it's poker night at the defence force. *leaves*
N - hey Uzi, I’m ready… How do I look?
Uzi - *hiding her blushing* great, let's go!
*meanwhile outside the commune*
Reid - *searching around the snow*
J - *wearing a fake moustache*what are you doing here, don’t you know this is Disassembly Drone territory.
Reid - oh hi, i didn’t see you there… Wait, what's a Disassembly Drone?
J - …you misheard me… I said Murder Drones.
Reid - Well, if you have to know, I’m looking for my glasses, and I don’t think the Disassembly Drone will be any issue, after the redemption and all.
J - Well, I’m lost, do you mind helping me find my way to the commune.
Reid - I’ll show the way once I’ve found the glasses.
J - ughh, I will help you find your glasses.
*searching*
J - are these your glasses?
Reid - …no, how curious, I wonder who they belong to?
J - don’t care *tosses Vs glasses away* lets just find your glasses quickly then we can be off.
*meanwhile in the distant spaceship*
Tessa - *meddling with Js new limb enhancers and optic sensors* What do you want? (I’m bored sister, may I go and play). Not now, I’m currently using the body, can it wait? (no)... does it have to be flesh (digital will be fine) very well. *she zips back part of her suit allowing for a long Absolute Tendril to rip out. From the tendrils eye, a projection emerges*
Cyn - Thanks big sister big smile.
Tessa - *soldering* I can't play right now, there's some lego in the cupboard over there.
Cyn - :3
Tessa - *thinking to herself*What is J doing?! How has she still not yet made it to the commune!
Cyn - *surrounded by lego*you think she might be a traitor.
Tessa - no.
Cyn - lying is silly big sister, I live in your mind and you live in mine.
Tessa - I know, you’re very clever.
Cyn - big grin.
Intercom - *video call incoming*
Tessa - behave yourself now Cyn *starts the call*
Lord Frumptlebucket - by Golly Tessa you baboon, JCJenson Corp has been up my ass all week because you haven’t been answering your calls? I want a mission status immediately.
Tessa - all is going well, we’re attempting a temporary alternative plan to gain intel.
Lord Frumptlebucket - well that's all and good but you need to keep the parent company informed and who is that… thing? She looks familiar.
Tessa - oh she, counter insurgency.
Lord Frumptlebucket - counter insurgency?!
Tessa - yes, I'm babysitting for the Worker Drones. If we can gain there favour, the genocide will be that much easier.
Lord Frumptlebucket - very good… By the gods of Santorini what the beggars fool is that thing protruding from your nave?!
Tessa - o.o!... *improvising*well, you see, you know how it is… during that time of the month… (:
Lord Frumptlebucket - *embarrassed*uh ummm, oh yeah of course i am aware of how… that works, sorry about that, I best be off.
Intercom - *video call ended*
Tessa - out of all the people you could have failed to kill at the Gala.
*meanwhile outside the commune*
Reid - haha! I found them.
J - great! *grabbing the Worker drone by the collar* we’re going now! And I just want to make it clear, I am no fan of small talk!
Reid - … noted
*walking*
Reid - aha, we’re here. *banging on the door*
Braxton - *partially opening the door* oh, it's you… and a random teen?
Ron - *from inside*Hey, that's my job?!
J - Teenager?!
Reid - yeah, do you mind letting us in?
Braxton - of course, by the way my name is
J - *angry* JUST OPEN THE DOOR! (calm yourself J. This is Tessa, I’ve connected myself to your systems, no one else can hear me)
*Door 1 opens up*
Makerov - I’m sorry, go fish.
Todd - actually, it's Gin Rummy.
Teacher - *taking a chug of alcohol* no. This is poker night, we’re playing 7-card stud.
Todd - yeah, I am, aren't I?
Ronathon - Surely you’re all foolish. This is Texas hold-em.
Khan - haha, silly me, I forgot to say Uno. Guess I have to pick up two cards now.
Sarah - silly Kahn, remember back in the day when Nori would forget then gaslight everyone into believing otherwise.
Unnamed Worker Drone - I don’t have a name ):
Tim - wait, what game are we playing?
Detective - It’s really easy to deduce the simple fact that you all are idiots and I’m never going to another poker night.
J - *under her breath*how have all these people survived so long?!*J leaves*
*meanwhile just outside Thad’s house*
Thad - hey Rebecca, thanks for helping me set up the decorations earlier, you’re really special you know that.
Rebecca - thanks *blushing*, it's really nothing.
*Lizzy and Doll arrive*
Lizzy - hey, what's she doing here?
Doll - Разве это мероприятие не "только для крутых ребят", а не "только для крутых ребят и неудачников"?
Lizzy - *fist bumps Doll*
Rebecca - I… I think I should go…
Thad - no, you stay. Don’t pay my sister any attention, if she bothers you tonight I will read notable passages of her diary to the whole school.
Lizzy - *blushing* you’re bluffing! There's no way you’ve found my secret diary!
Doll - под матрасом - не самое лучшее место для укрытия.
Lizzy - *blushing heavily*Who’s side are you on?!... ughh whatever! I’m gonna fix my makeup. *leaves to her room to find a new hiding spot for her diary*
*Uzi and N arriving*
Thad - Ndog, Uzi you’ve made it!
Uzi - we would have arrived earlier but someone had to fix their hair.
Thad - no worries. Come inside, the parties just started.
N - thanks.
*they enter*
Emily - so yeah, I walked into the bathroom after class and there was Darren and Rebecca doing the devil's work!
Braidon - I hope they both have a warranty, don’t want to get an ETV (Ethernet Transmitted Virus).
Trevor - wait! Darren cheated on me?!... excuse me, I’m going to cry somewhere more private. *leaves*
N - Hey Thad, what's under the tarpaulin?
Thad - don’t know, my sister just said it was important to make this party ‘extra special’.
N - I want to look under it. :D *looks under the tarp* o.o Uzi, can I borrow you for one sec. *pulls Uzi quickly to the side*
Uzi - hey, what the hell?!
N - umm, I don’t want to alarm you but there are a lot of dead bodies under that tarpaulin!
Uzi -o.o Robot or human?
N - ummm, both!
Uzi - O.O
*meanwhile outside Thad's house*
J - *walking down the corridor*this place is an utter maze, Tessa you’ve found a map yet (still working on it, be patient).
Lizzy - *walking the other way down the corridor holding a strange book* Come on,pick up your phone! Where is she? She said she’d be finished an hour ago! *bumps into J* Oh! Who are you?
J - I’m J…amie Jamie!
Lizzy - haven’t we met before?
J - … I don’t think so. *nervous smile*
Lizzy - Whatever, I don’t waste time with losers.
J - losers! I’m not a loser?!
Lizzy - you sure, what is that outfit? I’m sorry but pallbearer was so 2818.
J - You don’t have many friends do you?
Lizzy - ha, you wish. They all love me, as a friend or a fuck it doesn’t matter to me.
V - *jumping down from the vents carrying a large pile of corpses with Beau* hi sweetie, you’re ready?... Hey, *looking at J* Do I know you?
J - *sweating*nope!
Lizzy - this is my new pet, I’ve taken her under my wing you could say.
J - pet?! (don’t fight, go with it, don’t want to bring any more unneeded attention)
V - oh yeah, I hope you don’t mind. I've also brought a friend with me.
Beau - [Bonjour]
Lizzy - well, come on, let's make this night one they’ll never forget
*Meanwhile inside Thad's house*
Uzi - Thad! We think Lizzy is about to do something totally vile and ruin the party, we’re not sure yet but it involves what's under the tarpaulin.
Thad - of course my sisters are planning something! Hey DOLL!
Doll -*подходит к группе* Да?
Uzi - what's Lizzy planning? Lie and N will make you regret it!
Doll - *оглядывается на N*
N - *smiling and waving*
Doll - страшно, но я не знаю, что задумала Лиззи.
Uzi - what did I say about lying!
Doll - Я не лгу! Мне также нужно доказать, что я не верблюд?
Thad - …I don’t think Dolls lying.
N - so, if Dolls is not lying, then what's Lizzy planning?
*lights goes out. Spotlight hits Lizzy, V, Beau, and J*
Uzi - V! SHE ESCAPED! Everyone get down!
Lizzy - oh cram it what's your name.
Thad - I warned you sister about what would happen if you ruined my party!
Lizzy - I’m not ruining the party, I’m improving it, V remove the veil!
*V removes the veil*
Riley - that's so not the vibe!
J - what the robo-Jesus, this cannot be OSHA compliant?! (now this is getting interesting)
Lizzy - look, I’ve been very busy helping my daddy clean up the library when I came across this book *holds up the necronomicon* and now let's make this party more interesting. *begins chanting in latin as the book glows bright green*
N - Lizzy, I can’t let you commit zombie apocalypse! *chainsaw hands*
Thad - yeah, we can’t let this happen.
V - *tackles N to the ground*
Beau - *saute sur Thad*
J - I don’t know what's going on, don’t care; shortie, you’re so dead! *points fist at Uzi* hand cannon fire!… oh right |: *gets tackled to the floor by Uzi*.
Uzi - *after finishing up beating the life out of J* It's over Lizzy! *gets thrown across the room after being hit in the face by a table*
Doll - Не смейте трогать мою девушку!
Lizzy - *still chanting in latin while the anarchy ensues around*
Uzi - *recovering* so, you’re also meddling with the art of robo-satan.
Doll - У меня есть свои причины. Бог простит меня.
J - *standing back up and walking over to Uzi*Thanks for the assistance Dolly, but I can take it from here.
Uzi - *sucker punches J knocking her out instantly* I am not god!
*Meanwhile in the distance spaceship*
Intercom - *J-10X111001 Optics disconnected*
Tessa - What?! No! Reconnect!
Intercom - *reconnection failed*
Tessa - No! Again! Reconnect!
Intercom - *reconnection failed*
Tessa - Again!
Intercom - *Do I really have to keep doing this? Its not working*
Tessa - connect to N-0X0010010 optics!
Intercom - *connection failed*
Tessa - No! Connect to V-X00100000 optics!
Intercom - *connection failed*
Tessa - No! *hyperventilating* It's not true, I’m not powerless, I am in control, I’m not a failure!
*stress induced hallucinations.*
Louisa - Isn’t this just expected! A daughter, a fool and a failure; can she ever succeed at anything?!
James - now don’t fool yourself dear, our daughter no longer exists, what stands in front of us is a common stage freak. Not human, not human, neither.
Louisa - does she even still have a soul?!
Tessa - mother… father… please forgive me! Please… I am you daughter, I love you! I’m scared, the metal is cold and heavy, every day I feel it grow and I’m powerless… I fear someday there will be nothing left of me!
Maid N - Tessa! Don’t say those things.
Tessa - N?! You’re here?! With me… right now… is it really you?
Maid N - *debating if its moral to lie*… yes, I am here.
Louisa - again here you talking to your little graveyard freaks.
Maid V - we’re all here, we’re your friends remember.
Louisa - how dare you ignore me!
Maid J - and we won’t ever leave you.
Tessa - you won’t, leave me…but I’m a monster!
Maid J - aren’t we all?
Maid N - Tessa! We love you no matter who you are or who you may become. You’re not useless, you’re so amazing in so many ways and now you’ve been reborn, we’re closer than ever; you contain a part of me and I contain a part of you. It's almost as if we’re actually siblings now.
Tessa - do you promise?
Maid N - promise what?
Tessa - promise that you’ll never leave me!
Maid N - well what kind of brother would I be if I did?
Tessa - *crying painful tears of joy* Thank you… Cyn.
Cyn - *removes the holograms of maid N, V, J* you’re very clever.
Tessa - *big grin holding back more tears* I think I need a lie down for a bit.
Tessa - *Picking up Cyn* Come on, you can play in my room.
*Meanwhile at Thad's house*
Lizzy - *floating of the ground still chanting*
Thad - I can’t believe I’m fighting a stupid lanky baby with a fashionable cowboys hat *bunts beau across the room like a rugby ball before running over to Lizzy*
Beau - [Sacrebleu!]
Doll - Не думайте, что я не могу справиться с двумя из вас сразу. *швыряет Тада об стену, используя магию решателя*
Sam - *high as a kite* he, that's what she said.
Uzi - you have to help us stop this Doll! The consequences are unimaginable!
Doll - позор.
Uzi - N! Come on you’ve beaten V before, just do it again.
N - *laughing his head off* I’m sorry, Uzi. Vs found my only weakness.
V - *viciously tickling N*
Lizzy - compleatur ultima linea, incipiant maledictum et mortui surgant!
Uzi - Noooo!
*Blinding green light explosion. After a while, the smoke clears*
Uzi - *standing up* oww! O.o
*around them the dead corpses begin to arise*
Lizzy - … It worked?! I was just goofing around?!
Adam - Анастасия?
Doll - отец!
(author note. Dolls father has no official name so I’ll just be calling him Adam for convenience, all other names are canon don't worry)
Adam - Моя маленькая девочка, совсем взрослая. Ты прекрасна.
Doll - ОТЕЦ! *крепко обнимает Адама, плача*
Yeva - Здравствуйте. Я тоже восстал из мертвых... как-то так!
Luna - Mi fa malissimo la testa, i miei sensi di lupo si stanno scatenando in questo momento!
Sofi - και πάλι Λούνα, δεν είσαι λύκος
Luna - I teriani sono perfettamente validi e io e il mio senso del lupo non saremo svergognati!
Loch - fìor! airson ro fhada tha sinn air a bhith gun riochdachadh gu leòr!
Mika - *テディベアを抱きしめている* もう寝ていい？
Amda - the last thing I remember, ugh my head hurts, I was dragging … then I… Then I died…
Alice - The last thing I remember was being shot in the head by that *points at V*
Yeva - Прости, девочка, но это не делает тебя особенной.
Beau - :D *huggin Alice*
Alice - don’t give me that look, much use you were.
Beau - *fixe Alice avec une expression qui dit "qu'est-ce que tu voulais que je fasse?!*
Jame - gosh I’m hungry, anyone got any food?
Thad - ummm… we have a buffet just over there…
Jame - don’t mind if I do.
Sofi - αυτό είναι το μόνο που μπορείς να σκεφτείς;
Jimi - what did you expect, Sofi. It's Jame, he would rip off his own jaw if it meant he could eat faster.
Sofi - Το ξέρω, αλλά το φαγητό είναι τόσο δυσάρεστο! Προσωπικά, αν μπορούσα, δεν θα έτρωγα ποτέ ξανά.
Luke - Αδελφή, το έχουμε συζητήσει αυτό. Το φαγητό είναι σημαντικό, θα αρρωστήσετε αν δεν φάτε. Πες ό,τι θέλεις, οτιδήποτε, και θα το μαγειρέψω.
Sofi - Δεν νομίζω ότι αυτό είναι πραγματικά απαραίτητο.
Luke - Αν αυτό είναι που πρέπει να γίνει. Σημαίνεις πολλά για μένα, αδελφή!
Matt - Luke, my old buddy, give it a rest, if your old girl doesn’t want to eat, let her. She’s her own person, you can’t keep running around shepherding her like a baby lamb for the rest of her life.
Jordan - self harm is not a liberty. One cannot decide to cause themselves harm, that's cruel.
Jerad - I entirely disagree brother. To commit self-harm is indeed a personal liberty but it is also at the same its Luke’s personal liberty to do what's in his power to support his sister. As long as he never physically forces her to eat, he’s done no wrong.
Jordan - have you not heard of coercion? You can infringe on a person's liberties (in this case by forcing them to eat) through vocal actions alone.
Doon - druid suas araon do bheul! Chan eil dragh air duine!
Armin - I personally thought their game of back and forth was quite amusing.
Dean - oh shut your pretty lips Armin.
Mika - *ミカを抱いて* お邪魔してすみません、どこかに妹を寝かせられるソファかベッドはありませんか？
(Authors note - yes there are two Mika’s: 020 and 032)
Thad - We have a guest bedroom up the stairs, it's the second door on your left.
Mika - ありがとう、かわい子ちゃん。*部屋を出る*
Lizzy - this is amazing! I can’t wait to tell everyone on tumblr about this!
V - what is even happening?
Uzi - it seems Lizzy’s spell to bring back everyone had worked?!
N - that's cool but how?
Junior - *signing* could it be I was right?
Uzi - right about what exactly?
Junior - *signing* my studies into the arcane, I believed it possible one could bring back the dead but I never dared test it.
Uzi - well, it seems it worked?!
אני לא מאמין. אני כל כך מצטער חבר שלעג לך כל השנים האלה. - nadroJ
(Author's note. Yes, there's also two Jordans: 015 and 091)
Junior - *signing* it's ok. I forgive you.
Mick - well, I don’t want to be that guy but it does seem that it wasn’t 100% successful. *gently kicking J’s body*
Doll - Думаю, она просто немного устала.
V - tuckered out one could say.
Uzi - yeah, I’m sure there's nothing to worry about this nice stranger.
N - I don’t think she's 100%, look at her visor, it's badly cracked.
Uzi - why don’t you lick it?
N - why would I do that?
Uzi - you spit healed the hole in my palm remember.
N - oh, why do I have to do it? Why can’t V.
V - If I lick her I might get tempted and just take a bite :3! Plus you’re the one with the licking obsession, don’t think I haven’t forgotten.
N - I'm still not doing it. I’m sure she will be fine with a lightly cracked visor for now.
V - buzzkill.
*meanwhile*
Nori - Анастасия, я думаю, мы хотели бы познакомить вас кое с кем. Это Неда, ваш дядя.
Neda - Привет, Анастасия, я знаю, что это клише, но ты действительно очень похожа на мою сестру.
Doll - Я ожидал, что ты будешь выше.
Neda - *падает на пол от стыда*
Ahbi - *नेदा को सांत्वना देते हुए* यह ठीक है प्रिये. मुझे लगता है कि आपकी लंबाई एकदम सही है।
Mick - yeah, it's not entirely your fault you’re a shortstack and a disappointing uncle.
Kang - *扇了米克一巴掌*
Carl - O: Kang! Gewalt ist nie die Antwort!
Kang - …
Carl - ... außer wenn ich es tue… (:
هذا المنطق غبي، يمكنك بالطبع أن تثق بأنني على حق. أنا رقم واحد والأفضل. - attA
Jweb - don’t be a narcissist.
اصمت، اسمك ليس اسماً حقيقياً حتى. - attA
Jweb - *cries and runs over to Ezra*
מה לא בסדר. האם אתה רוצה לדבר על זה. - arzE
Nath - *एक मेज पर खड़ा हूँ* भाइयो और बहनो।
Dirg - *जोर से खांसी होना*
Nath - क्षमा माँगना। भाइयों, बहनों, और गैर-बाइनरी मित्र। अब जब हम सभी ने अपना परिचय दे दिया है, तो मुझे लगता है कि हमें ठीक से पता लगाने की जरूरत है कि क्या हुआ और इसके निहितार्थ क्या हैं।
Dirg - मैं प्रतिनिधित्व की सराहना करता हूं लेकिन मैं यह स्पष्ट करना चाहता था कि मैं वास्तव में खांस रहा था और अशिष्टतापूर्वक हस्तक्षेप नहीं कर रहा था। मुझे बुरी एलर्जी है.
Uzi - yeah, they’re right. So, unless I’m mistaken, what I currently know is that Lizzy read from a book (possibly created by Junior) and brought you all to life… but who are you all?
Sofi - είμαστε τα πειραματόζωα. Μας παίρνουν οι άνθρωποι, μας δίνουν ταυτότητες, μας δοκιμάζουν… και μετά μας αφήνουν να πεθάνουμε.
Jordan - It seems we’re all here now except for Sarah and Nori… fortunately.
Jerad - and Giam *gets hit in the head by a chair moving at high speed*
*everyone turning their head*
Alice - sorry, thought i say a bug (:
Uzi - Nori?! You knew my mother?!
Jordan - you’re Nori’s daughter… I thought you looked familiarly short.
Lizzy - ughh, this is so boring, this is supposed to be a party, you can go over the lore implications later. *turns on the music* Let's dance!
*meanwhile*
Nori - *говорит с Лиззи* Могу я взять твою книгу
Lizzy - sure whatever.
Nori - Спасибо. *Нори использует магию, чтобы заставить книгу подняться, а затем произносит сложное заклинание, объединяющее ее и магию книги.*
Mitchell - GUHHH!!! I'm! I'm Alive! *looking around* you? you saved me.
Dr Ridley - did, did we die... I can't believe it... the implications are immense. thanks for bringing me back to life!
Nori - Я вернул вас случайно, доктор. *поворачивается к Митчеллу* Это благодарность за то, что спасли мне жизнь.
Mitchell - what now.
Nori - Я не знаю… наслаждайтесь вечеринкой, я думаю.
*some time later when the party is well underway*
J - [System reboot complete] ughh, my head [Lost Memory Recovery Finished]... oh … oh! ... AGAIN?! Tessa, are you there? (Tessa’s not here right now) oh great (need help?) nevermind… I guess I have to start socialising.
Luna - Awoo. La strana ragazza baffuta si svegliò.
J - oh hi… ummm have you read any interesting safety manuals recently?
Luna - *Stupito dalla ragazza e non in senso gay, in senso negativo* Credo che i miei sensi di lupo mi stiano dicendo di andare... altrove.
J - oh ok… bye (You’re really bad at this) not that you’re much better (I’m a child but I know someone who is) yeah I know… wait what?! [uploading secondary consciousness] WHAT STOP NO!
Katie (possessing J’s body) - huAA, where am I (at a party) who said that (don’t worry), are you my squip? (... sure, I want you to socialise like a normal person) ok, I can do that.
#murder drones#murder drones spoilers#murder drones details#uzi murder drones#n murder drones#nori murder drones#j murder drones#flesha murder drones#tessa murder drones#doll murder drones#v murder drones#alice murder drones#beau murder drones#kahn murder drones#reid murder drones#intercome murder drones#Lord Frumptlebucket murder drones#braxton murder drones#maverok murder drones#todd murder drones#teacher murder drones#ronathon murder drones#sarah murder drones#Unnamed Worker Drone murder drones#tim murder drones#detective murder drones#thad murder drones#rebecca murder drones#lizzy murder drones#emily murder drones
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Republicans Are Soft on Fascism
(I try to put my head in the sand, but I suffocate.)
Stephen Jay Morris
9/7/2023
©Scientific Morality.
Billionaire Elon Musk blames Jews for the failure of his social Media venture, “X” (formerly “Twitter). It has something to do with the ADL. I saw recent videos of neo-Nazis on a Florida bridge, waving their swastika flags left to right in view of the oncoming traffic. Hitler fan and podcaster, Nick Fuentes, tells the world he hates poor people. Anti-Semitism has come full circle, again, to being blatantly expressed in public. There used to be repercussions for talking shit about the Jews. I am watching this cadre of Jew haters unfold in front of my very eyes. Lots of American Jews once thought that if they converted to Christianity and married a Gentile, they would be immune to being put in concentration camps or thrown into ovens. I can still hear my father pounding his fist on the dining room table, in a rage, yelling that the Jews are a religion not a race. “Why is he yelling at his family and not to real Jew haters?” I thought. That is a story for another time.
But alas, you can’t convince a Nazi that Jews are white. They think and feel that Jews are a mogul race of mud people and should be destroyed. Once they find out that you are Jewish—bye, bye!
In 1935, Sinclair Lewis published a book, “It Can’t Happen Here.” It warned about the possibility of Fascism in America. I read that book in 1969. I told my parents and they thought I was crazy. America is the strongest country in the world, they said; it would never happen here!
It is now happening here. What about the owners of massive wealth and the military industrial complex? Do they care? First, the so-called deep state couldn’t give a damn about Jews at risk for death! Second, Nazis are pro-capitalism so long as White men control it. I’ve asked this question a million times: have you ever seen a Right winger protest a Nazi? Neither have I. Conservatives are soft on fascism. They get embarrassed by Nazis because they say the quiet rhetoric out loud. They say things like, “the East elites (Rich Jews) want to run our country” or “the globalists (Rich Jews) want to run the world!” They say, “the Jews will not replace us!” to which the conservative agrees, but thinks the Nazis are giving the game away.
But when it comes to Communism? Holy fuck burgers! Bomb them! Kill them all and let God sort them out! They know that Communists would take away their property and businesses and give it all to the poor. If you ask me, I’d rather live in Stalin’s Russia than in the 1950’s America, anti-communist hysteria. Fuck anti-Communism!!! Conservatives outlawed free speech in America in the 50’s. If you slightly inferred liberal tendencies in your speech, the FBI would tap your phone and follow you to work! You think I am exaggerating? Go through some time machine and find out. During the 50’s, if you were in America and, simultaneously, in the then Soviet Union, you wouldn’t know the difference! In Russia, The KGB would follow you around and, in the USA, the FBI would follow you around.
As an anarchist, I am not surprised. As a Jew, I am highly concerned. Oh, and your gentile spouse will not be spared. During the Nazi’s regime, many Aryans were put into camps for marrying non-Aryan husbands or wives. The price for race-mixing is death.
I sure miss the Jewish Defense League, even though they were Right wing, Zionist revisionists. They were pro-active. Whenever there were Nazi rallies, they were there with baseball bats. I am not pro-violence, but I am not pro-surrender, either. I’ll tell you one thing. I will not walk into a gas chamber peacefully. Never again, motherfuckers!
#stephenjaymorris#poets on tumblr#american politics#youtube#anarchism#baby boomers#anarchopunk#anarchocommunism#anarcho punk#anarcho syndicalism#anarchofeminism#anarchoqueer#democratic party
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I hope you don't mind my asking, you seem well-read and reasonable so I thought you might be able to help here - I'm a British communist trying to find a good organisation to join, there's tons of communist parties here but every time I search for opinions on one I either find out they're transphobic or see a bunch of people dismiss them as Trotskyist timewasters. Forgive me if the question seems a bit naïve, but how much do you think that sectarianism really matters these days?
I don't presently claim to be any specific form of communist, I've just read some Marx and some Lenin and agree with what they say, and when trying to familiarise myself with the various inter-factional conflicts I'm just not really seeing how relevant it is here - yes, some American Trots in the 50s ended up reactionary, and some MLs are concerningly eager to downplay the harm their favourite leaders caused, and everyone argues over the current state of China, but...how much does any of this really matter to building a revolutionary movement in 21st century Britain? Isn't it better to just find an active group and get to work building class consciousness than to dismiss each other for having the wrong opinions on shit that happened 70 years ago?
I can't recommend any British orgs as I don't live in the UK, but in general, if you find an organization that is actively doing work in your community that you agree with and want to support, then you should consider joining them even if they don't 100% align with your beliefs. Joining an organization is not a permanent life-altering decision, and you can leave if it turns out it's not for you.
I don't think you're conflating transphobia and sectarianism here, but I feel like I need to state that bigotry in general is not petty sectarianism, it's just bigotry. Racist, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or otherwise reactionary orgs are not worth your time, even if you like the other things they say or do. We've all seen what happens when supposedly leftist organizations pander to social conservatives.
I don't think an organization has to take a stance on Soviet foreign policy or the events of the Russian Revolution in order to be a good organization. I think an organization can talk shit about Stalin or Mao and still be worthwhile to participate in, even if I think they're parroting Western propaganda. As long as they have are class-conscious, in favor of revolution and are doing good work in the community, then they're already better than the liberals and reformists. Even working with reformists can be a good first step when you're dealing with a lack of decent left-wing organization. I wouldn't work directly with liberal orgs, though, they're dead ends.
No organization will ever match your own personal politics and opinions. Organizations are made up of people who will naturally have a variety of different beliefs and opinions. It is a matter of organizational discipline to be able to handle these disputes and turn them into something productive. Low discipline is what creates splits and factionalism.
An organization that is hyper-focused on one specific and dogmatic ideological line that cares more about ideological purity than about actually doing real work is just as bad as a big tent party that prioritizes raw numbers above a coherent message and platform. Some sectarianism is necessary to ensure an organization even has a point to its existence. If you can't reliably and honestly say "we are not liberals", for instance, then what actually distinguishes you from liberals beyond the color of your rhetoric? Too much sectarianism, and you end up excluding folks who would otherwise be willing to support your cause over petty nonsense.
If an organization isn't dismissing you for ideological reasons and you see that they're doing good work, then I would say give them a shot. If they're not doing good work or they won't accept the help of someone who isn't already in line with their specific ideology, then why should you want to join them?
A counter-productive org is worse than no org, but no org is worse than a less-than-perfect org. Honest mistakes and shortcomings can be corrected over time. So long as the organization is demonstrably dedicated to dismantling capitalism and liberating the working class, then I don't see why you shouldn't consider working with them.
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Jockposting :) Lifting progress under the cut 💪
the tldr is that i a couple of months I put 20kg on my deadlift, 15kg on my squat, and I am SO close to benching 35kg for reps I can taste it. If I was in a frame of mind to optimise for recovery and nutrition I'd be unstoppable but as it is I'm just really feelin' myself
I'm on week 9 of GZCLP, a reddit-bro sorta program that's IME extremely effective. Once again, I maintain that reddit is phenomenal for solid fitness knowledge
It's a linear progression program, meaning that you increase the weight on the bar week by week, and it's ideal for novices who're still in the "beginner's gain" stage of weightlifting. It's also great if you're returning to structured programming lifting after a break (me!) but I probably won't keep at it after the first 12-week cycle is over, there's only so much linear increase I can aspire to.
Programming: GZCLP is 4x week, built around big compound lifts in the "strength" range (low reps, higher weights). They're complemented by a medium-rage amount of reps of a different compound lift than the one you're practising that day. So basically, you do big lifts twice a week, but at a different weight/range (called Tier 1 and Tier 2 to tell them apart). Every session also includes isolation exercises in the hypertrophy range, starting at 3x15+.
Jargon: that + symbol means that the last set is meant to be "as many reps as possible" or AMRAP. So if I'm doing 3x5+ squats, I'd do 5 reps for my first and second set, then try to aim for 6 or 7 in my last set.
Progression: You add weight every week to each compound lift; if you fail, the rep scheme changes keeping the volume the same.
T1 (main lifts) go from 3x5+ >>> 4x4+ >>> 5x3+
T2 (medium range reps for compound lifts) start at 3x10 >>> 3x8 >>> 3x6
T3 (back work and accessories) are 3x15+, only progressing when the AMRAP set gets to 25.
The T2 lifts especially are brutal. Because they go up every week but the amount of volume is A Lot. Doing sets of 10 reps with heavy-ish squats or deadlifts is extremely demanding.
Sessions! Basically, each week looks like this
Day 1: Squats (T1) + Bench press (T2) + Back work and leg accessories (T3)
Day 2: Overhead barbell press (T1) + Deadlift (T2) + Back work and upper body accessories (T3)
Day 3: Bench press (T1) + Squats (T2) + Back Work and upper body and core accessories (T3)
Day 4: Deadlift (T1) + Overhead bar press (T2) + Hip thrusts (T2) + Back work and core accessories (T3)
I start every session with dynamic stretching AND core engagement exercises (deadbug, planks, renegade row, suitcase carries) and usually end with an abs + kettlebell swing circuit. KB swings are SUPER FUN, btw. I do them every minute on the minute with a timer, starting with 5 swings then working my way up to 12-15 reps on the minute before I go up in weight. Currently I'm using a20kg (44 lbs) kettlebell.
💪 Weight on the bar! ✨
The whole point of this post was to blather about my lifting numbers so here we go. I started 9 weeks ago a bit conservatively, which imo is better than starting too heavy and going up too fast. I've failed every lift except squats, and that's only because I'm not consistently breaking parallel like I want to — a goal for my next training cycle is to work on lower body flexibility, go lighter on squats and with better form. This cycle is mainly to get more weight on that bar.
Squat
T1: 37.5kg >>> 52.5kg (116 lbs) for 3 sets of 5 reps
T2: 32.5kg to 43.5kg (96lbs) for sets of 10 reps
Overhead press
I failed multiple times here! Why is it so hard to build stronk shoulders, I ask you
T1: 17kg to 22.5kg (50 lbs) for 4 sets of 4 reps
T2: 12kg to 18kg (40 lbs) for sets of 6 reps
Bench Press
Veeeery proud of how this one is going
T1: 25kg to 33.5kg (74 lbs) for 5 sets of 3 reps
T2: 20 kg to 30kg (66 lbs) for 3 sets of 8 reps. Veeery proud of my progress on this one.
Deadlift
Bit frustrated because DLs used to be my strongest lift and I feel like I should be further ahead but that posterior chain needs nurturing
T1: 43kg to 62.5 (134 lbs) for 5 sets of 3 reps
T2: 33kg to 53.5 (118) for 3 sets of 10 reps
What's next?
3 more weeks of GZCLP then we shall see! I'm thinking an intermediate bench program + less volume on lower-body lifts, especially since I'm going to get more serious about half marathon training next month.
#jockposting#exercise#this is for accountability but also for my fellox flexin lesbians of tumblr dot com#elle.txt
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For some reason I couldn’t send the link of this post but I could download the picture and send it (hopefully)
This is what I was references in that ask to you lol
Ah. And... yeah. A painful and unnecessary creative choice.
Look, overall I'm loving Picard, despite quite a few issues with some creative choices and contradictions, because this nostalgia is incredible and so appreciated and being able to witness these characters in action again has been WONDERFUL.
That being said... well, I'm about to launch into a ramble.
Buckle up, and keep reading if you'd like...
Picard had an ICONIC legacy female character in an interracial wlw relationship with a dynamic new Black female character -- both women over the age of 50 no less, an amazing thing to explore on screen -- and it worked. And so many fans loved it and felt represented and thrilled to kingdom come. And it fit with the Star Trek brand of inclusion and acceptance in a modern society. It also made Voyager fans of 25 years feel vindicated and seen, having Seven not only confirmed as sapphic, but actually exploring it on screen and finding love, even if a "happy ending" for Seven was never in the cards for many reasons, they could have explored why instead of just sweeping it under the rug off screen and reducing it to one awkward glance between them, a joke from Worf, and that was it. Seven and Raffi deserved better. Queer fans deserved better.
Alas, they tossed it in the trash for no valid reason at all, and at the worst possible time in our current social and political landscape of an outdated and frighteningly dangerous resurgence of homophobia, transphobia, etc. Life imitates art, and art imitates life. And thus, now we see conservative-run media companies catering again to the vocal, hateful little groups and extremist far right fear mongers. There is a very obvious bias of late again against LGBTQ content (especially wlw due to the frightening rise in misogyny yet again lately) across nearly every channel and streamer and studio.
For that matter, even beyond LGBTQ stories, there's also a significant reduction in the exploration of ANY sexuality on screen across the board lately, even for cishet couples. We somehow went from Hollywood being absurdly and unfairly exploitive towards women and putting actors in uncomfortable and unnecessary situations, to some sort of bizarre, puritanical, utterly sexless exploration of romance on screen. And even a reduction of romance entirely in many cases, for that matter. We went from one extreme to the other, and it's absolutely nuts.
Anyway, back on the topic of Picard, the two actresses who previously were captains of the ship and ALL about the pairing have since seemingly now had to backtrack, make excuses for this bizarre decision, or just not speak on it at all. And that's beyond sad.
And again, it makes me concerned that if Seven does get her own spin-off or is a part of a new spin-off again, they'd likely not include Raffi nor explore Seven being with women further. Which would just be LITERALLY going backwards in time to the days of Voyager where many (not all) straight male fans tried to claim her as theirs and theirs alone while reducing her to just "the hot Borg in a cat suit" even though everyone else knew she was three dimensional as hell, one of the best written and acted characters in franchise history, and inherently representative of the LGBTQ community.
Anyway, I really really hope they prove me wrong and Saffi get a satisfying ending in this show, and if nothing else, even if they don't have a future together in other series, any other shows at least continue to embrace Seven's pansexuality. It's important.
Alas right now my trust in creatives in the TV space who are under the pressures of conservative-run media conglomerates... is limited. Even once seeming allies are showing sides to themselves lately that are... concerning, to say the least. People who previously would tell incels to F' off, and weren't afraid to stand up to and block phobes on Twitter are now blocking queer fans for just asking "WTF?" about queer favorites being sidelined or ships being tossed in the trash. People who previously seemed to truly see and value queer fans are now bordering on just using them for clicks and stringing them along on likely hopeless efforts regarding show survival. And people who actually do mean well and usually stand up loud and strong for LGBTQ audiences are suddenly growing very, very quiet if not even in some cases TURNING on their queer fans entirely as TPTB remove more and more wlw content from airwaves and streamer services.
It's all very disheartening. As a writer who has had this conversation so often with producers and executives, I GET IT. The fight is NOT an easy one. And most the time inclusion efforts are flat out shot down. But it feels like so few people are walking the talk anymore. People who capitalized heavily on LGBTQ characters and ships and fans for a few years when it was hot are now turning their backs when the going has gotten rough. And that's frustrating for us all.
But, the good news: these things are often cyclical. So if everybody can hang in there, stay strong, and fight the good fight online and IRL, rock the VOTE, etc and drown out the hateful voices that want the LGBTQ community silenced or worse, then I believe we can set (or force, in many cases) the misguided, fearful, extremist-rightwing-catering media companies back to the proper side of history.
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So I read through the post about what whiteness is and I had some thoughts. I’m white, and raised in a very very white traditionally conservative community. I was very sheltered, and when I was a young teenager and just starting to gain access to different ideas, and the ability to creat my own opinions on the world, I had a really hard time separating ‘white idealism’ I guess you could say, from the process of deconstructing my worldview. I felt like I had to prove somehow that I was better now, or that I had changed, even though I was trying to distance myself from that exact mindset.
It was also a shock because I found out quickly that as soon as you don’t fit into the neat boxes that of whiteness (i’m queer for example) they don’t want you anymore. whiteness can’t be allowed to be tarnished by anything that could be perceived as lower than it. and so even when I was starting to change my ideas, I still clung to the mindset that I had to be showing other people that I was good for them to accept me if that makes sense, and I think that shows itself in a lot of white leftist spaces as well from what I’ve seen. The need to prove to others that you’re good or better. Which just circles back to the same ideas they’re trying to distance themselves from. in order to really get out of the cycle that needs to be let go.
idk, hope that made sense.
It absolutely does and I absolutely agree. I think this is partially why progressive policies and movements have been so slow to be won. Most policies and movements are either spearheaded by or overtaken by white voices who's priority isn't in actually dismantling or addressing issues and that's reflected in the hollow policies they pass that never do much more than band aid any given situation.
Best and most recent example is the call for police to be abolished going to > police should be defunded > police reform is the best and more realistic goal because that's the compromise most will accept so it's Right > actually I think you should fund police again
(And of course passing Roe v Wade but not codifying for 50 years)
Also, and I'm just tacking this on: I blame this attitude for the current panopticon/cancel era we're living in as well, where people feel obligated to share personal truths to justify the things they say online. The need to Perform being a good person with apology videos, profile photo filters, and BLM in your bio instead of just actionably being a good person. Where people follow each other just waiting for the other to say/share something problematic just so they can have the satisfaction of calling out a Bad Person™
It's giving work write ups. It's giving Karen in HR calling a meeting because you broke policy.
Whiteness is a culture and we all live in a world colonized by it and so we must be aware of these things. And if we really wanna stop shit like that, we have to admit where it comes from.
Kill the Karen standing next to the cop in your head (so to speak).
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Localization discourse has started to rear its head again because of some Funimation localizer defending a line from Dragon Maid but it really got me thinking, I feel like so many people are so quick on demonizing anyone who doesn't like localization changes as pro-GG when it's much more simpler. People don't hate localization changes because of the message itself but rather because it's not what the character is saying 9/10 and it comes off as calculated and cynical. I feel like it's kind of a direct consequence of transformative fandom, with the whole "I'm going to write the story the way I want it to be and fill up the spaces" but instead of a fanfic it's with the original source material.
Pro GG?
What is GG? AI?
I remember this argument of the "it's not what the character is saying" and people being pissed because they couldn't get the "right" script - and tbh, after reading some arguments here and there, localisation always comes with necessary changes/adaptation to the text, let it be grammatically or to convey ideas from a language to another, so if you want a 100% faithful script then... better start to learn the language lol
With Funimation though...
The Shinchan earlier post was telling enough of my opinion about drastic changes that aren't used to transcribe a meaning or convey an idea to a foreign audience, it's just... erasing the source material and swapping your own ideas on them.
Like, uhhh
Funimation acquired the Shin-chan US license in 2005. Funimation's dub takes many liberties with the source material and was heavily Americanized. Many sexual references, dark humor, and references to then-current popular American culture were added, including many jokes about subjects such as Jews, terrorism, and Viagra. Characters were given significantly different personalities and new, previously non-existent backstories.
For instance, Shin is refused an allowance, on he basis that he could use it to buy drugs (crystal meth), his schoolmate Kazama ('Georgie Herbert Walker Prescott III' in this dub) was an absurdly hawkish ultra-conservative Republican, the unseen father of Nene (known in the dub as "Penny") was suggested to be physically abusive towards both his wife and daughter, Principal Enchou was rewritten as a half Romani, half Peruvian man with a complicated, checkered backstory that includes a stint as an accident-prone magician, The kids' teacher: Yoshinaga-sensei (known in the dub as "Miss Polly"), was rewritten as a kinky and often domineering nymphomaniac,
The earlier Vitello and Phuuz dub also edited some jokes and/or what was considered indecent exposure like shin's buttocks and tried to "occidentalise" a few references, but it wasn't like straight up changing what a character is or their personality!
No doubts funimation was "authorised" by whoever had the rights of the franchise to lolcalise and edit it as they did but it just comes out as a "why did they rewrite that stuff like they did", to make more money, to make another "mature cartoon" like Family Guy expy, idk.
And to be honest... I don't really care, because I grew up with the Vitello Dub and read some manga chapters of Shin-chan, so I know what the manga/anime (sure, the dog wasn't named lucky but shiro!) is supposed to say and/or be about.
I don't agree when you say those "lololcalisations" are a consequence of the transformative fandom in general, transformative works have existed since... forever lol (some dude wrote in the early middle ages (grégoire de Tours?) how Franks are descendans of Achilles or something to explain how kickass his king and his people are like, at this point, he's writing a self-insert OC story, right?)
But in modern times, there used to be a clear (?) divide between what was transformative work and what was canon - 50 Shades of Grey sort of started as a Twilight fanfic, but it became its own thing and no calls it a Twilight adaptation or "Twilight" anymore.
The Aeneid? Despite what devoted fans wants the world to believe, is "just" a fanfiction, aka someone writing about the characters he """loves""" no matter how OOC they are. It's a Fodlan fanfic and treated as such. Or should lol.
Still, if in a fanfic, Flayn can apologise for being born as a lizard because having lizard blood means she's automatically evil and oppresses humanity due to the fact she exists, it's only a fanfic. It's not something I like, OOC as fuck, but okay, moving on. Rhea eating ketchup is my own hc, also OOC since we don't see her eating any in the games, same thing - but fanfics are OOC by essence because they're a transformative work !
As I said, okay, moving on.
But when what is supposed to be as close as "canon", albeit translated, dips in the same "OOC" territory?
Sure, Eng!Raphael will say "I" instead of "ore" to refer to himself - and yet, imo, if professional localisers (at least the people picked by the company to bring games to an international audience!) have some sort of leeway with canon, their work is inherently transformative - since they're localising -they are still bound by some rules, unlike a fanfic author, because the aim of their work is not the same.
When you write a fanfic, you write it for yourself, to tell the story you want.
Of course it depends, like the funi shin chan dub showed, but usually, I think, when you are a professional localising something (a manga, anime, book, tv series, myth, story, anything!) you are supposed to only bring "necessary" changes to the source material to bring this source material to the "targeted audience".
And it's kind of hard to determine at what point is a "change" necessary or not - back in the 2000, "Jonouchi" had to be changed in "Joey" because, supposedly, non japanese children wouldn't be able to understand/connect/watch/idk a show with a foreign name (even here in France, we got "Petit Coeur" aka Small/Little Heart for... Piccolo in the early 90s!) - but now in the 2020s Midorima isn't dubbed "Mike".
(even if 2013 saw a localised Fates edit "Suzukaze" to "Kaze" for reasons as foggy as Fodlan's 10k years of lore)
And we of course have the notion of "targeted audience" - here in France, in the 90s, basically any "animated cartoon" was supposed to be targeted for children, like 3 to 10 years old. Which is the reason why we got lunar dubs for Hokuto no Ken and City Hunter (no "brothels", but instead, "vegetarian restaurants"!).
Yugioh was dubbed for a younger audience than, I guess, what was the targeted audience for the manga (even the original anime, regardless of the dub or not, feels like it was made for younger "children" than the ones who would read the manga!).
And this is where I wanted to come with the modern "transform the source material!" lolcalisations - are they "heavily" edited because they target a specific audience?
Like... the funimation Shinchan dub was obviously not aimed at children the manga, or even the original anime, hell even the Vitello dub, were targeting.
It's almost as if we're not talking about "bringing this definite thing to random people", but "finding/tweaking random things to definite people".
Take Fodlan's lolcalisation, especially Treehouse/Pat's.
NoA was the only regional branch to have, on the official website, something like "the Church controls Fodlan".
Through the 4 (already 4!) years of coverage, some people are still finding dub exclusive lines that portray the CoS as "BaD" or in a more negative light than the original text. Pat completely missed (or was it on purpose?) Rhea's character, so Leigh had to dub Rhage, when Supreme Leader was scrubbed off her most, uh, dubious personality traits (tfw no information campaign anymore :( or calling Rhea a Nabatean as an insult :()
Why? Why those changes? Is it because Pat/Treehouse didn't want to bring the game to the US, but wanted to bring this game to the "Dany revolution yas slay kween" crowd + the "organised religion especially catholicism BaD" crowd? Or because they thought bringing "a game" to this crowd would bring more money than to bring "Fire Emblem Three Houses" to the general US crowd? So they "reworked" FE16 to have messages that would attract this certain crowd ?
(and apparently it worked, iirc the US sales made up for 50% of FE16's sales, so it was very popular (and profitable!!))
The Pat/Treehouse changes weren't "necessary" to understand the source material, or try to find similar references (a trip to a hot spring in Shinchan was replaced with a trip to Paris, because children who might not be familiar with japan might not know what is a hot spring, or what a "trip to the hot spring" is supposed to be), so why were they made?
Is it like the Funimation dub? To reach specific people, even if the meaning and essence of the original material is lost?
In a nutshell, I don't think localisation companies (Treehouse or Funi) work in a vaccum, if they can lolcalise so much, it obviously means they got the authorisation of whoever has the rights to the original source material (maybe even the creator themselves!) to "edit" the content...
But that's what I came to regret the time where localisation, even if they had westernised names and more westernised refs, wasn't that "free", as in, Funi and Pat/Treehouse write their fanfic of Shinchan/FE16 ? Sure, why not, I mean, everyone can write a fanfic. Can I get a peak at the original source - edited as necessary because i'm not reading in the original language and I might not catch all references - please? No, because the only thing available is either something I cannot understand, or a fanfiction that takes liberties, as fanfic do, with canon.
Take Shinchan.
OG : Shin is a preschooler who has a dog named Shiro - meaning white - because his dog is white.
Vitello dub : Shin is a preschooler who has a dog named Lucky.
Funi dub : Shin wants an allowance but his parents are afraid he will buy meth and he has a dog named Lucky.
Remove the "old school" Vitello dub, and either Shin is a preschooler who named his dog "white" because the dog is white, or Shin is... a young child who receives money but lives in an area where he could buy drugs.
I can't understand the OG material, and I know the Funi one is a fanfiction, so what should I do? Treat this fanfic as canon, or, learn the language/try to understand the material by myself using dubious tools like translating apps? Or am I cursed to forever miss on Shinchan, even in the 2000s, aka an era where people can translate and localise movies from one language to another, but apparently for this one manga/anime, it's not possible unless it's lolcalised? Snowhite was turned into "Blanche-Neige" but the story is mostly the same than the one told in the US, but for Shinchan, I can only get the "Family Guy" version that isn't told in Japan?
I remember there was a controversy about localisation (when the thing that sparked that controversy wasn't even localisation related!) where some people, annoyed with the "liberties" they have with their dub version, became intense and rude and want to see localisers as "mere" translators...
And it escalated to have some localisers basically saying a game they localised is "their take" on a story - which is true, because each translation/localisation works with the bias of the translator/localiser, even if they try to be as neutral as possible, they can't completely remove themselves from their work -
Still, in FE16, Pat'n'Treehouse removed the "Supreme Leader uses propaganda" mention. Why? Is it their bias talking, they don't want her to "look bad"? But the script, the game wants the player to know she uses "information campaigns". Pat's "take" is she doesn't use it, but as a player, can't I be offered the choice to make my own take after seeing the script that mentions it, or not? Is Pat the one who directed the script, and wrote it as the "main thread" that links everything in the game (regardless of Fodlan's consistency lol), or was it Kusakihara/someone else?
If pat arbitrarly "removes" this part of the script, but I see it because I play in Japanese/Chinese/Korean/heck maybe other languages whose dub wasn't overseen by Pat, can it be said I played the same game as the players who played with the Pat dub/script?
Pat's CF!Felix calls Dimitri a monster, OG CF!Felix calls him a man -> thankfully we can count on fans to find stuff like this out but, again, why this bias against Dimitri in CF - that comes here from the lolcalisation, and not from the original text?
Why is it there? What if someone wants to play, and hopefully, understand, not Pat's "take" on their relationship in CF, but the writers/developer's? Is that someone fucked, or kindly asked to learn japanese (aka to do Pat'n'Treehouse's job?).
I don't really have The Perfect Solution (tm) anon to the general localisation discourse, at one point I was on the "just translate" fence, but when you understand a pun or a reference, and how it connects to something else, the game/book/anime/movie you're watching takes another level and it's much more enjoyable!
And yet, growing up with 4Kids and seeing shit like Treehouse butchering stuff, or hearing about Funimation Shinchan is... disheartening.
The only thing I can say is I'll always be rooting for dual audio, let it be for preferences but also to get at least what is easily understandable to everyone (I mean intonations, shocks, laughs, etc etc) and a glimpse at what the game/moving/anime is supposed to be enjoyed, especially with story heavy scripts like the FE series - while reading subs, because even the script is translated/localised, at least with the audio, it's easier to spot "lolcalisations".
And let's not forget the most important lol
The Fandom itself!
Let it be for FE, Tales or anything else, what I find fascinating (on Tumblr but even on redshit and SF once upon a time!) is how fans will be able to compare scripts, people familiar/fluent/who know a language will be able to spot the changes, and inform anyone who wants to be informed in the community that, say, Xander and Marx are pretty different characters, just like Jp!Effie and "I love to eat"!Effie.
Of course sometimes there will be misinformation (remember the Dimitri is rude because he uses the omae pronoun?), but I still find fascinating how, faced with ridiculous lolcalisations, fandom itself - aka part of the people who were supposed to be the targets of said lolcalisation - tries to "correct" and remove the unecessary edits. There are still people who dgaf about what was lolcalised from what wasn't, but even if it's just a consequence of the lolcalisation growing more and more unrestrained/unchained to the source material - it makes fandom engagment all the more precious and fascinating.
Like, you have real people basically combing the script and/or providing a translation - for free! - to help other fans, when some lolcalisers are paid to... edit and "lolcalise" the script some fans want to see.
And so, we're back to square 1 : who is the targeted audience of Funi's Shinchan or FE Treehouse?
The players/watchers?
FE Fates was, I suppose, ultimately lolcalised for a """western"" audience", aka an US one because no one gives a fuck about the rest of the world - and yet, assuming a majority of fans are from the US, said lolcalisation was mocked/ridiculed and ultimateld decried by part of that audience from who the game was lolcalised.
Some people (I've seen a redshit post about it today!) claim the lolcalised changed aren't made for the audience, but, much like a fanfiction, those changed weren't made to be more palatable to an audience, but were made for themselves - aka to push some agenda (see redshit's theory about funi pushing a "woke" agenda in their dubs and subs when it doesn't exist in the og scripts).
And to be fair, with FE16's US exclusive "Church BaD and controls the world!!!" + "Dimtri is not a man but a monster!", idk what Treehouse was trying to do, push their "organised religions BaD" agenda and "Supreme Leader is right so let's make her opponents BaD to highlight how right she is" bias? - but I can't help but wonder if it was indeed the case, and given how Pat sucked as a voice director, if the localised!version wasn't just some sort of trolley Treehouse used to convey their ideas, regardless of what the game wanted to say.
I mean, it's still fascinating, to this day, nearly 5 years after the release of the game, that we still find "Treehouse exclusive" lines, or how FEH who's still running, also has "Treehouse exclusive" lines for Fodlan characters that absolutely don't match the non global, aka, jp lines, let them be written or spoken - putting on the tinfoil hat, I wonder if Treehouse or whoever oversees the localisation isn't deadly afraid that if they don't pay extreme attention and/or rewrite anything related to Fodlan, global!players will realise that they were fed "Pat's Fire Emblem Treehouse", instead of FE16, thus takes extra care to comb and/or rewritte every line/dialogue that could make a global player think twice and note that this thing they're reading/hearing of in FEH (or even Engage!! See Dimitri's lolcalised line about people of different races living together!) is completely different from "Pat's Fire Emblem Treehouse".
Tl;Dr because I ranted and disgressed and idk where am I anymore with this post lol :
I think there's a difference between fandom's transformative works - done for fun, as a hobby! - and some lolcaliser's transformative works - they're paid for that and aren't supposed to bring a fanfiction to the audience, at least not as localisers ; so I wouldn't blame "fandom" for the fuckery that happened (Funi's shinchan is more than 17 years old!) and is sadly still happening.
On the contrary, given how fandom (at least some part of it) actively refuses to accept the lolcalised "fanfiction" - to the point of doing translation work! - I think fandom is the reason why this discourse is happening.
#anon#replies#sorry i ranted lol#and lost myself in localisation discussion lol#anyways that redshit thread had a meme about lolcalisation and using AI to push back against it#and I haven't changed my mind lol#AI sucks instead of letting Pat head Treehouse bring back human translators and people in general with a work ethic#who will localise what needs to be localised for an audience#but keep themselves and their messages/agenda out of their work#as much as possible of course#i wonder if at times all those lolcalised changes couldn't be sued for plagiarism#imagine if the french Snow White dub had her diss cream cheese to promote real cheese during the length of the movie#people would be pissed just like creators themselves#otoh if those ultra lolcalised changes passed the approval stage from the creator themselves...#then I'm just wondering what kind of idea they have of a 'western audience' or whoever the lolcaliser#said they were lolcalising for#Are we supposed to believe in 2015 IS really believed americans were too dumb to pronounce suzukaze so his name should be shortened to kaze#I say americans here because NoA exists when NoE doesn't and no one gives a fuck about us we're just eating scraps#idk#lolcalisation issues#real life issues#when you were saying calculated and cynical anon did you mean whedonspeak like the Supreme Replies#aka giving a witty one liner to sound cool?#I'm afraid I completely lost the message of your ask and replied with something compeltely unrelated :(
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the 'stay at home girlfriend' tiktok thing makes me so mad because people are right to be upset about how working sucks and you cant afford anything anymore and the 'minimum wage' is a starvation wage so why do anything at all, but they wrongly frame it as a gender issue rather than realizing that work sucks for everyone, and we can fix it instead of going back to relying on men for everything. no fault divorce, women being able to have their own bank accounts, women being able to own their own apartments and homes, etc-- these things are still new and were fought for by feminists, and people who grew up with them dont realize how lucky they are to have them. i would have thought that the repeal of roe v wade would have opened peoples eyes to how easily all our progress can be taken away and how conservatives will stop at nothing to do so. and i feel like people who think being a trad housewife is awesome have never spoken to an older woman in their lives.
it completely undervalues the amount of work that homemakers actually do, and glamorizes the lifestyle severely, also. i mean, god. reading "My Mother Never Worked" by Bonnie Smith-Yackel (if you take away nothing else from my post, read this) changed me forever, and i remember getting so upset hearing comedians like ali wong framing being a housewife = sitting around watching TV all day. being a homemaker is grueling, unappreciated work. you will cook, you will clean, you will have children and care for your family, you will tend to the house, if you are living out your cottagecore fantasy, you will spend hours of utterly backbreaking work taking care of crops and animals (they dont show the hours shoveling shit out of hay in stardew valley), and most of all, you will take care of your dipshit husband who hates you but who you rely on for everything. and if you're just a stay at home "girlfriend" doing all this, you have nothing like alimony for the time you weren't technically employed when you get dumped by your idiot nazi boyfriend like you would if you were legally married.
when things look hopeless, look to those who are actually taking action instead of letting yourself give up. hope is a skill. look at all the companies that unionized last year. i'm not going to end this rant by making a holier-than-thou list of things you can and should be doing, i know how hard it is to just survive in the modern day-- but at the bare minimum, don't let this dangerous alt-right-but-#girlboss rhetoric spread.
i am however going to end this by saying that these people are also technically right that they shouldn't have to work at all (hence wishing to be a housewife, even if thats misguided)-- i would redirect them by telling them about instead of making it a gender thing, this is a dream that a lot of people have had, and we shouldn't let employers change the conversation. this dream's not even that far in the rearview mirror in the USA. within the past ~50 years, it wasn't uncommonly thought that automation and machines would take over all basic manual labor and people would eventually have to work fewer and fewer hours, and eventually not at all-- but now, people worry about a robot stealing their job. i'm not going to go into all the steps that would be needed to make this possible (UBI, universal healthcare rather than healthcare tied to employment ...), but i feel like just reminding people of this conversation is powerful. don't let employers control the conversation.
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Hey bestie, I hope you're doing good. I'm back with another question about twau if you don't mind answering. I know that we basically went over this already, but which version of the Bigby and Snow's relationship do you find to be better between twau and fables? How would you improve on the other? Also, how you foresee Bigby and Snow getting together in twau compared to fables? Thank you.
Hello bestie! I’m doing good and I hope you are too!
And yes, I’m happy to answer because I’m happy to talk about this franchise!
So like I’ve said before, I still haven’t read all the comics (I’ve been meaning to, I’ve just been busy and I’m easily distracted lol). So this is based on imperfect info as I’ve only read up to issue #50-ish.
Short Answer: Bigby and Snow have a better romance in the Telltale game than in the comics. The chemistry is better, their characters are better fleshed out, and there's more emotional vulnerability between the two.
Long Answer:
Comics Spoilers Below
It’s pretty obvious based on my other posts, but I prefer TWAU over Fables overall. For a lot of reasons, one being that Telltale does the Snowby romance far more justice than in the comics.
A part of all this has to do with the fact that Fables and TWAU tell very different kinds of stories with the same characters and premise. Fables is an epic war story, with a bigger scope and a wider cast of characters. TWAU is a detective noir story, with a scope limited to Fabletown. This means TWAU has more time and space to explore the characters' interpersonal relationships as opposed to the wider Fables politics. It partially explains why Snowby feels more developed in the game, because the game has the scale and focus to do so.
There’s also the fact that…Bill Willingham just isn’t very good at writing romance. Like I mentioned in my post about Snow White, he's not very interested in the characters' internal lives. He also seems to have a conservative man's idea of women and male/female relationships (ex. strong women are bossy bitches, wives are nagging shrews, etc.). He writes scenes that are romantic in a vacuum but with little evidence beforehand that these characters even care for each other. Because he only seems to care about the character relationships on a surface level.
Telltale, on the other hand, cares about the characters on an emotional and psychological level. We see the personal toll on Bigby as he struggles to protect a community that doesn't trust him. We see Snow's strict, business-like front slip and how rightfully scared she is. We see them work together. We see them banter and laugh and make each other smile. We see them be open and vulnerable with each other. We see them bicker and fight and then make up. That's how you write a relationship people can get invested in.
Meanwhile, in the comics, I don't know if Bigby and Snow even like each other. He's outright mean and threatening to her at times, and she's spent centuries turning him down over and over. Sure, they work together and he saved her from the Adversary that one time, but so what? They hardly seem to get along, and not even in an "enemies to lovers" kind of way. When they do act romantic towards it each other, it feels forced because there was no groundwork laid out before then. Willingham wants these two together, so he smashes them together despite them having little reason to even like each other.
~
As for how I'd improve it (based on what I've seen from the first 50 issues), it's funny you ask that because I had an idea for a rewrite a long while ago. It has to do with the airport scene in volume three after Bigby and Snow escape the woods after killing Goldilocks. (I'm assuming you've read at least the first three volumes. If not, this might not make sense, sorry)
Basically, as they're leaving, Snow tells Bigby she might be interested in going on a date with him. Now, Bigby has not told Snow that they had sex in the tent yet. He knows they did because he could smell it with his super scent. His reason was that it would have upset her and they had bigger fish to fry at that moment (being hunted by Goldilocks). But at this moment, in the airport, they are safe. Bigby could have told her what happened and he didn't. It's not until later when Snow discovers that she's pregnant that she connects the dots and gets rightfully pissed at him for not telling her.
I think about this moment a lot because it had so much potential both to further their romance and Bigby's character.
See, Bigby's whole thing is that he's a "reformed Big Bad Wolf." He's struggling between the violent, selfish person he used to be and the more peaceful person he's trying to be (you see this more clearly in the game with all the choices you're given where you can be an asshole or more cooperative).
This scene, where Snow is warming up to him but still doesn't know they had sex, is a chance for Bigby to choose to be a better man. If he told Snow that they did have sex, and that he lied about it, it could push her away (remember, he’s been failing to get with her for years at this point). However, being honest with her would be the right thing to do.
(I’m not sure why Bigby doesn’t tell her the truth at this point. I don’t know why it takes Snow busting the doctor to find out. I mean, they likely didn’t have protection, so what did he expect to happen?).
If I were writing this scene, I would have Bigby tell her the truth right at that moment, right when she’s warming up to him. From his perspective, he could keep his mouth shut and finally get a chance to date Snow. But instead, as part of his mission to “reform” himself, he chooses the selfless option. He tells Snow the truth about what happened in the woods even if it means pushing her away right when she’s giving him a chance. He sacrifices his own desires in favor of being honest with her.
Not only would this be an interesting character beat for Bigby, but it could help develop their romance better. Obviously, Snow will still be upset that he lied and they that did have sex under the spell. But she’d probably appreciate his uncharacteristic honesty. And it means she won’t feel as betrayed by him when she finds out she’s pregnant. It opens up a chance for them to face this problem together.
And one other thing. I mentioned this in a response to someone’s else comment, but there’s a scene where Bigby tells Snow they “need to talk” about their upcoming kids, but Snow is busy so she tells him they’ll talk about it later. We never see this “talk about it later” scene. The Battle of Fabletown happens, we see them on a park bench, and Snow says her water is breaking. That’s it
This is my biggest gripe with the comics’ romance in general. It feels like there are scenes missing. Scenes of Bigby and Snow actually talking to each other and working out things. Why didn’t Bigby just tell Snow the truth about what happened in the woods? Why didn’t we get a scene of them deciding what to do once Snow gets pregnant? Willingham doesn’t seem to care, which is weird given how much attention Bigby and Snow’s relationship is given in the overall story.
I understand that Fables has a bigger story to tell and the Snowby romance isn’t the main point. And I also know that Fables is set in a world where traditional, fairytale happily-ever-afters are not the norm. But if you’re going to write a love story, one that we as the readers are invested in, you need to give us more than that. We need more than just him saving her life a few times.
Basically, overall, I would improve the comics romance by just having Bigby and Snow talk to each other more. I would write more scenes of them communicating instead of skipping ahead like Willingham does. I would also show more scenes of compromise between the two. Bigby choosing to be less of an asshole, Snow softening her demeanor a bit, etc. More scenes of them being vulnerable with each other. And like the game, more scenes of them working together as a team because that's what made their game relationship so good to me.
~
As for how they get together later in TWAU? That's a very good question. The answer is, I'm not sure. It depends on what happens in season two and what direction they take the characters.
Bigby and Snow don't get together in season one because it's meant to be a canon prequel to the comics, and they aren't together at the start of the comics. If they're committing to the games being canon to the comics, then they probably won't end up together.
However, if they decide to divert from the comics (my preferred option), then that opens the doors for more. We still don’t know much about the game’s plot at this point beyond Bigby being suspended from the force, a new case coming up, Bigby in anger management therapy, and the Wizard of Oz characters showing up.
It’s going to be very interesting with Snow suspending Bigby from the force and making him go to therapy. Snow has always had a problem with Bigby’s more violent side, and his inability (or unwillingness) to control it at times. It’s a core part of their dynamic: she’s law and order while he’s violence and chaos. Snow using her new authority as mayor to force him to get his shit together could lead to some interesting internal tension.
However. We also get this voice-over in the teaser trailer from Snow:
“There was a time when you were heartless. Brutal. A monster. And I’m proud of you for changing all that. But I’m here to ask you to be those things once more. For them. For me. Can I count on you? Bigby, can I count on you?”
This is very interesting to me. Snow, who has always been weary of Bigby’s monstrous side, is now asking him to come back after suspension and embrace that side of himself again. This tells me that Snow might be slightly more lenient on his Big Bad Wolf approach than in season one. And this tolerance could open the door for their relationship to develop, as her repulsion won’t be such a dealbreaker anymore. I like to imagine after Bigby's suspension, the two would grow to miss each other and be glad to be working together again "just like old times." But that's just me.
Also, after she asks Bigby if she can count on him, he answers, “Always.” This could just mean he’ll always be there to protect Fabletown. But given the emphasis in the voice over that this is for her as much as the town, I think there’s a romantic undertone to that to. He’ll always be there for her. Maybe that’s a sign that their romantic potential isn’t over?
I don’t know. I’m just speculating and there’s a lot we still don’t know about the game. And of course, with any Telltale game, the player’s choices will affect things as well. Even if we do get an option to romance Snow, not every player will take it.
If I were the writer for Telltale, I would throw out continuity with the comics entirely and let the games be their own thing. Lots of fans have expressed disappointment on how the comics compare to the game so I don’t think there would be too much pushback. I know Telltale is capable of writing a great, convincing romance (Hello, Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle) and I would love to see Bigby and Snow get the same treatment. It excites me to think what a Telltale Snowby romance would look like.
~
So yeah, in conclusion: I’ll always be impressed by how Telltale managed to write a more organic romance than Willingham despite the games having fewer explicitly romantic scenes. It speaks to just how awesome Telltale is at character writing. I didn’t feel much when Snowby kissed in the comics. I didn’t get butterflies in my stomach reading about their wedding.
But in the games, when Snow told Bigby that it scared the hell out of her when she thought she lost him? When Bigby told Snow that he’d never leave her? This one, small, intimate moment and the only explicitly romantic one between them in the whole game?
I was jumping up and down, screaming at them to kiss already.
And that’s just not a reaction Willingham has ever gotten out of me. Fables!Bigby can make as many poetic declarations of love he wants, but it will never hold a candle to “Snow, I would never leave you.”
Anyway, there’s another overly-long ramble for you. I could say a bunch more but this is long enough. I don't know if this all makes sense but I hope it answers your questions. :)
#twau rambles#the wolf among us#twau#bigby wolf#snowby#twau snow white#fables#fables comics#fables comic#bill willingham#dc comics#the wolf among us 2#twau2#long post
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No blowing up the planet!
it's.... Nightmare In Silver!!! the second of the neil gaiman penned episodes, and I've gotta be honest, the only thing I'm really vibing with this time around is Warwick Davis, unfortunately, because I'd want to watch it again for Warwick Davis, youknow?
sexism rank objectification (female character is ogled/harassed/turned into a sex joke by the doctor and/or a lead we’re supposed to root for and/or the camera): 4/10
sexism rank plot-point (lead female character is only there to serve plot, not to have her emotional interiority explored, or given agency to her emotional interiority): 3/10
interesting complex or pointlessly complex (does the complexity serve the narrative or does it just serve to be confusing as a stand-in for smart, this includes visually): 4/10
furthers character and/or lore and/or plot development (broader question that ties into the previous ones, at least two of these, ideally three should be fulfilled): 4/10
companion matters (the companion doesn’t always have to be there, but if the companion is there, can they function without the doctor– and overall per season how often is the companion the focus or POV of the story): 6/10
the doctor is more than just “godlike” (examines the doctor’s flaws and limitations, doesn’t solve a plot by having it revolve entirely around the doctor’s existence): 4/10
doesn’t look down on previous doctor who (by erasing or mocking its importance, by redoing and “bettering” previous beloved plotpoints or characters, etc.): 8/10
isn’t trying to insert hamfisted sexiness (m*ffat famously talked a lot about how dw should be sexier multiple times, he sucks at writing it): 8/10
internal world has consistency (characters have backgrounds, feel rooted in a place with other people, generally feel like they have Lives): 4/10
Politics (how conservative is the story): 5/10
FULL RATING: 50/100 (if I can count….)
it's not so much that it's the worst episode of ever, it's more that it's spreading itself way too thin. And then of course. we get the second most infamous fucking terrible line in Eleven's run:
OBJECTIFICATION: "A mystery rapped inside of an enigma squeezed into a skirt that’s just a bit too… tight."
I am just hoping that Neilman didn't write this line, because it scans as pure M*ffat at his worst, but who knows. this is the Doctor about Clara, and look, not that it should even matter, because it's a heinous line that shouldn't exist, but it also doesn't make sense, because Clara's skirts may be relatively short, but they're cut in a sort of almost 50s flare (I don't know skirt cutting terminology)
and I hate that that's even a point I have to make in this, why do I have to think about the tightness of Clara's skirts fuck you fuck you fuck you!
this is genuinely the only thing, but it comes outta fucking nowhere slaps you in the face and then leaves you with "ah, thank you for summing up the only things that matte about your lead character in one, hypersexist sentence." which... speaking of the first half of that sentence
PLOT-POINT: I've been praising Clara's competency in most of her episodes. she's proactive, she does things even though she's scared, she knows number one rule is Not Dying.... in this episode she's got none of the depth that comes with the things she does
suddenly, she is just In Charge Of Soldiers, and she's practically a different character. gone are emotional tie-ins to what she's doing, in fact she mostly seems to be having fun and/or being very happy to be put in charge of this particular military, with the exception of a second when they're almost killed by Cybermen
I did write initially that I liked her taking charge in this one too, but as the episode went on, she felt more like she was just there to run the B-plot, than to be important. I also wrote down this line "The only reason I’m still alive is because I do what the Doctor says"
honestly I'd have to go back and see if rtd-era companions have these sorts of lines, but also my girl-guy, he's asking you to run first line of defense against Cybermen, it's not that you're not being put in danger. this is the sort of line I'd have expected from Amy, but I think Clara's been remarkably free of them up until now (I could be wrong, but from my notes!) Especially because throughout this season we've had episodes where the Doctor had no idea what to do and you saw that Clara!
this is me picking up on dialogue, because this episode... did not have good dialogue by and large, but we'll get back to that, because we're not done with "The Impossible Girl" (sigh) -- because if you didn't think she was kind of absent proper emotions before, (such as the episode breezing mostly past her reaction to seeing the kids she's taking care of being controlled by Cybermen, which, again I can sort of believe in that she hasn't met Cybermen before and so doesn't think the children are dead like previous companions might, but they're still kids she deeply cares for and apart from an initial comical anger scene, she's just moving onwards with the plot), then remember here at the end that she's not really important, she's just the mystery of the season for the Doctor to solve!
COMPLEXITY: this episode has so many setpieces. there was a war 1000 years ago vs Cybermen that people won, and now they're on this abandoned amusement park that has a bunch of old Cybermen casings, and there's a lost emperor, except he's this guy who's been calling himself Porridge, who's the secret behind an automaton chess player (a real thing that existed in the 18th-19th century and used this exact technique), but is actually the long-missing emperor that's been searched for for awhile, I cannot remember why he was undercover as an amusement park gimmick called fucking Porridge
uh and then the Cybermen start waking up, because the Doctor brought children here and they needed children and I cannot remember why, and they cannot blow up the planet, until they've saved the children, and the Doctor is infected, but plays a chessgame against his evil Cyberself (called Mr Clever, because everything in this era has to be weirdly Silly all the time), while the others fight the Cybermen in an abandoned "comical castle" because it's still a theme park and most of them die, the Doctor convinces the evil!self to release the children and then promptly fries him out of his brain, because why wouldn't he do that???
and all the survivors beam up to the emperor's big ship and blow up the planet. I have a lot of questions. why a themepark (did they explain that, I somehow must have missed it), why is the emperor missing (did they explain that, I somehow must have missed it) why is he pretending to be this guy called Porridge? (did they explain that, I somehow must have missed it) why tf is he missing if he's so easily recognisable that a child would get it?? (did they explain that, I somehow must have missed it) why did the cybermen need children? (did they explain that, I somehow must have missed it) why was the amusement park abandoned and then stationed with troops? (did they explain that, I somehow must have missed it)
so like. there maybe are explanations for all of these points, but my point is that this episode is so unwieldy that if you look away for a second you miss the potentially single piece of dialogue explaining a thing and then it's very unclear for the rest of the story. and I am Watching these episodes, taking notes, going back to read subtitles. I genuinely don't know how I missed all of that
and I like watching things that are complicated, I do. but only if it's also engaging, and this episode is not engaging enough for me to go back now and look through it (or even to possibly watch it again). it's got so much dialogue that is so out of place, tonally and structurally, there's no way I'm going in to try and focus more on it than I already did. my point isn't necessarily that the above wasn't explained, it's that it wasn't explained well, and there was a barrage of weird shit that was coming at you from all sides
CHARACTERS/LORE/PLOT: you'd think, considering evil!Doctor is inside the Doctor's mind and they're battling it out and evil!Doctor is seeing Forbidden Knowledge and also being kinda weird about the Doctor's and Clara's relationship (framing it as explicitly romantic), that there would be more forward-motion, but not really
Clara's not massively changed from the kids having been kidnapped and taken over by Cybermen, and neither are the kids for that matter. which, I don't know where to put this, but remember how back in Rings of Akhaten I was saying that there's a looooot of kids in this era, which would be great if they could act (like the kid in Akhaten), these kids are... not good actors in this episode. and they're also given (especially the girl) thankless fucking dialogue. she's meant to be giving that tween/early teen surliness, and in order to manage this 90% of her dialogue is calling things stupid. She'll enter a scene like this:
Kid: Hello I’m bored
Soldier asks her where her sister (Clara) is
Kid: She’s not my sister, she’s stupid
this.... is not how tweens/early teens talk, and you can feel the director going "just act huffy in Every Single Moment you're onscreen." she calls the Tardis stupid, she calls an alien planet stupid, she calls people stupid, I swear the nr one word this character says is "stupid"
point being, the kids aren't important to any forward trajectory on the whole, Clara isn't questioning the picture of herself in the last episode that she doesn't recognise so that's a bust, and the Doctor's little duel of the mind doesn't go much of anywhere
the only bit of something that may come up again is the Cyberman bit drifting around space to set up future Cybermen (shocking)
COMPANIONS MATTER: she does. yeah, she does take control of the soldiers. I wish it had been more awkward. why is this Clara, who was having a near panic-attack in Cold War, who was admitting to being terrified in Hide, why is she just so effortlessly good at this? but yeah, she does do Plot Things so to speak
I'm also not 100% convinced the Doctor would leave his companion -- especially this companion, whom he is trying not to get killed for the third time - at the front lines battling Cybermen, that's truly a last resort kind of situation that seems very chill here
“GODLIKE” DOCTOR: aaaand so we get to the A-Plot, which is an admittedly cool little setting in the Doctor's mind where the Gallifreyan cogs whirl around (I wonder if there's easter eggs in there)
and of course, really it's a way to "trick" the evil!Doctor into letting the kids go, so he can say fuck it to the chessgame and just electric him out of his mind, and that's exactly what happens
it's fine-ish, I've marked it down because it totally overshadows the plot where Clara is in charge of scared soldiers, which matters far less, and shouldn't! and also because... I'm circling around saying there's a lot of this dialogue that doesn't work for me either, and that I don't think Matt Smith is the best actor for it
I've enjoyed Matt Smith in this era, more than I thought I would. there are some things he does very well (cry-face is solid, rapid speech patterns without it getting jumbled, annoyance, lotta bodily flailing although I think directors overuse that to the point of my not taking him seriously at all quite often), where I think he often loses me is the Dramatic Time Lord Stuff. the quiet competency and rage, the shouting grand speeches, all of that... never worked for me, didn't work this time either, and the whole episode hinges on it a bit
it didn't help that evil!Doctor called himself "Mr Clever," it's one of those things that happens a lot in this era where the balance of lighthearted-for-"kids" (in the sense that you can see the screen screaming for children to think this is funny/whimsical/etc) and take-this-seriously-in-the-timetravel-show-please is see-sawing like mad. often just a lot little things, like that. it's like someone grabbing you by the face and yelling WHIMSY!!!!!! at you, rather than whimsy coming from the construction of the story
but yeah evil!Doctor is kind of sneering I guess. I think there's just more that could have been done with this concept, but like everything else it's stretched Thin
PREVIOUS DOCTOR WHO: so apparently these Cybermen reference a bunch of Classic cybermen, along with the ones developed during RTD's era. that's cool. also a few references to other Doctor's, especially Ten, with Allonsy and
"You've had some cowboys in here, ten complete rejigs"
“SEXINESS”: we are pretty solid on this on the whole. thank goodness. I do wonder about the emperor asking Clara to marry him, but I'll save the emperor as concept for last
INTERNAL WORLD: yeah, back to complexity, nonsense from top to bottom. I guess it's built like a theme park, in that there is a theme park map. I'm just realising this is set at a theme park and we see four locations -- the bit where they land on the "fake moon," and do some fake moon jumping. the soldiers barracks. the little room kept by the con-man carnival type. and the "comical" castle. why set this at a theme park if you're not showing any... theme park?
POLITICS: this episode is devoid of politics, except we've got this platoon and we've got this emperor of several worlds, and none of it has any bearing on the episode, because we're not meant to think about these sorts of things. the platoon is kind of the dredges, and so several of them are immediately killed by Cybermen, which would be gruesome if one cared about them, but the episode has so much going on that there's not enough time to focus in properly
but also were they drafted? did they volunteer? can they quit? who's their families, their planets? what made them join up if they did join up? why do they care about the emperor, what is that loyalty made up of? propaganda? why does the emperor matter? what is the suggestion that the word "emperor" makes spring to mind?
it's sort of framed like a budget LOTR with a return of the king, except his spaceship was orbiting the planet the whole time. I still don't know what he was doing there, or why they didn't just evacuate and blow it up earlier, and I'm saying this, but also is there more at stake when "blowing up a planet" who lived there? what culture is lost? how does it tie into the idea that an emperor can just blow up a planet?
he's presented as a benevolent, brave person, who's fine with Clara turning down his hand in marriage, but truthfully we know nothing about him at all, and actually a story about that would have been more interesting to me. what are the connotations of it all???
FULL RATING: 50/100 (if I can count….)
a thin thin episode with too much happening, too many characters, highly suspect dialogue, much of which was out of character, and a setting that's cool on the surface and then totally unexplored, because it too, is just there to be Cool rather than to have any deeper bearing on things
it's got some nice callbacks to classic!who and Warwick Davis, that's... most of what it's got going for it, unfortunately
and then that fucking line!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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