Hot take: the Ben 10 fandom and the NSR fandom are pretty much complete inverses of each other when it comes to what kinds of characters they simp for.

Ben 10 has tons of sexy aliens to the point of literally featuring an entire species of buff leotard-wearing cephalopod people that you think would attract alienfuckers by the dozen, but like 80% of the fandom simps for the basic white boy and white girl.

NSR has an entire boy band of conventionally attractive anime boy robots who outright flirt with the female playable character, but like 80% of the fandom simps for the DILF cyborg war veteran with a screen for a head and the space-themed forty-something DJ with a bowling ball for a head.

The NSR fandom said 'those old men can GET IT' and fucking ran with it so hard that it's the most written about romantic relationship (going by ao3 stats) by almost 50 give or take if you're reading with an account or not- honestly? 'Round of applause, y'all really meant it, those old men CAN get it!

But I suppose it might be helped due to the more 'boss rush' style presentation of NSR, being a game centered mostly around who you fight rather than who you fight as. More time is proportionally spent in the media (game in this case) actually focusing on characters like DJ Subatomic Supernova - representation of the self-centered DJ - and Neon J - representation of boybands and specifically as the manager - and getting a comparably significant amount of focus; space themed object head has an ego so dense it LITERALLY causes a singularity (and causes spaghettification) and war veteran cyborg ordering around troops with protocols.

With Ben 10 god I fucking wished more people simped for Tetrax, bestie is just such a cool fucking character let alone how he was introduced and thus executed, but as a show with MANY iterations we kinda need to have a central cast (that gets narrowed down eventually into a central character). Whoever wears the Omnitrix - the one main driving force of the series - is essentially forever a main character, and that character just so happens to be Ben Tennyson after one alien device did what it did.

Despite it's main focus BEING the aliens that Ben turns into - in addition to being a universe with an active alien presence - it never particularly set out to be more than anything other than a sci-fi alien flavoured action story, centered around a human boy (who probably gets his egg completely shattered only to crack an entire coop of eggs in the aftershock) walking only a few steps in other species' shoes. It was only rather late that the actual extraterrestrial exploration of the series really came around, at least in full force (SoTO my beloved 😫). Kinda hard for EVERYONE to simp for your favourite side character when you've got like... seasons worth of a mostly human main cast, lmao-

Untouchable for Life, Chapter 1 (Anetra x Sasha Colby) - Writworm42

Admin Note: I'm so worry, Writ!! You should have been in the last queue, and I'm also sorry that it's taken me a million years to fix it after you told me. I have no excuse, I just completely forgot and I apologize deeply! -V

A/N: Summary: Anetra should be grateful for his new job as a photographer for the city's biggest queer tabloid. Especially considering how hard he fucked up before landing there. But it's all lost on him until he's roped into a special assignment, one that ties Sasha Colby into his life. But can the knots that bind him to his past be undone? Or will the cord he and Sasha walk on snap?

Sorry not sorry for all the puns in the summary fhdsjfk but I promise chapter summaries will have more specific to the chapters themselves and the story as a whole!!!

Anyways, remember how I said I'd never write another multichap bc they're too much stress? WELP! Thank you nickysjaida for encouraging me and athena for beta-ing, you're both so wonderful <3

Fic title from I Turn My Camera On by Spoon

Anetra sighs, dropping his head into his hands as his thoughts race. His boss watches in front of him intensely, almost to the point of scrutiny, but what can he do?

He doesn’t exactly have options here.

“I just don’t get why—“

“The board wanted you gone,” Michele shuts him down immediately. “Hell, they wanted your head on a platter! This is the best I can do for you. You either take it, or you go collect your things.”

“But I wouldn’t even get to write!” Anetra huffs. “Not even captions or anything!”

“I know,” Michele says coolly. “Why do you think I was able to negotiate this? You’re too good to lose, Anetra, but I guarantee if you walk, it’ll be the last time you ever work in journalism, photo or otherwise.” 

Anetra groans. Michele is absolutely right—he fucked up, and fucked up big. Lose his credibility big. Sue the whole company big.

But does that really mean he has to go to Q-Beat ? He’ll be a laughingstock in the journalistic community— Q-Beat may be the most popular queer magazine in the country, but it’s barely above a tabloid. Hell, maybe it’s worse—they’re probably the only print mag he can think of that has more listicles in one issue than actual pieces, and the product placements are so obvious they might as well just say Absolut wrote the news updates. 

There’s a reason the whole industry calls it Q-Bait as a joke. 

But with the scandal he’s in, he can’t afford to negotiate now. If he wants to do anything other than Walmart Christmas portraits for the rest of his life, he has no choice but to take this job.

"Fine," he finally sighs, grabbing the contract and pulling it closer. "Give me a pen."

--

The Charles Media building is often referred to as a marvel of architecture in the city, and the reputation isn’t unearned. Standing under its sloped, pink-painted roof are twenty-five floors of different print outlets, each an empire in its own right. Anetra has to admit, it’s kind of impressive--from magazines to books, encyclopedias to graphic novels, if you can flip or scroll through it, you can find it nestled among the offices in the tower.

Perhaps most impressive, though, is the way the architects were clearly so committed to the bit when they designed the place. From floors one to twelve, everything is wide, spacious, and decorated in black and silver. The floors narrow slightly after that, and from thirteen all the way to its sloped roof, the building’s colour scheme is a deep magenta, with sparkle and hints of blush. And that’s just the outside--within the walls of 96 Tucker Avenue, things are even more colourful, bringing the entire aesthetic full circle.

The perfect shade of lipstick for the perfect media queendom, both inside and out.

At least, that’s the vision the company projects. Right now, Anetra feels anything but perfect—and from the way his coworkers avoid him in the elevator, he’s pretty sure the feeling is mutual. 

At least Q-Beat is near the top floor. Once the last few people filter out around the sixteenth floor, he has the elevator car all to himself, leaving him alone to try and collect his thoughts. 

From what Anetra knows, the farther up the tower you go, the more isolated the group, meaning there’s a chance that no one at Q-Beat knows who he is or what he’s done. A perfectly fresh start. Good; his talent will speak for itself that way, and he can make friends based on that. If he even wants to--maybe friends aren’t such a good idea. The main condition of being able to keep this job was to lay low, after all. 

Plus, the longer he tends to stay in one place, the less people seem to want him around. Especially now that he’s a liability. 

It’s a thought that hurts, and he’s glad to be able to swallow it as the elevator comes to a stop at the twenty-third floor.

The sight that awaits Anetra as the elevator doors glide open makes his jaw drop. 

Back on the eighth floor where Anetra’s old magazine was located, everything had been all business all the time. The walls and the floor were a stern black, with tiles that clicked under your feet as you walked. There had been almost no decor in the entrance either, other than a pair of leather chairs under a harsh silver sign directing visitors to various offices tucked behind heavy mahogany doors.

But on the twenty-third floor? 

Anetra can’t help but feel like he might as well be on an alien planet. He had expected pink, had expected some sparkle and embellishment. But he had had no idea just how much of a culture shock it would be. It’s such a contrast, he barely knows where to start—though maybe the entrance is as good a place as any. The floor’s lobby is fully furnished with tables and chairs and even some floral arrangements, separated from the action by only a glass door and floor-to-ceiling windows that allow a clear view of the Q-Beat workspace behind it. The floors are plush zebra-print carpet, the walls an almost violent pink lit up by a fluorescent sign welcoming visitors to Q-Beat with cursive font. And when Anetra peers into the office space, he sees not a maze of cubicles, but an open floor plan that’s bustling with people in casual dress.

In other words, friendly coworkers and lax norms without anywhere to hide from either. 

Fuck. 

“Are you Anetra?” 

Anetra snaps to attention and sees a tall blonde standing in the office’s doorway looking at him with anxious eyes. 

"Oh, um… Yes?" He frowns. He was supposed to meet the editor-in-chief first, but this woman is in jeans and a tank top that shows off well-defined muscles and big tattoos, her hair fluffed up in an almost rockabilly style--definitely not like any chief Anetra has seen before.

"Are you asking me or telling me?" The woman's eyes narrow. "Because I have a meeting in fifteen minutes and only ten before my Ativan hits, so I really need to get a move on orienting you if you are."

Anetra decides right then and there that no matter who this woman is, he definitely likes her.

“I’m Anetra,” he tries again, stepping forward and extending a hand for the woman to take. 

“Loosey LaDuca, she/her pronouns, editor-in-chief,” she shakes his hand firmly. But before he can drop his hand away, she grips it harder, pulls him forward through the glass doors and into the office. 

“Let me introduce you to the others, they’re really excited to meet you.”

Crap.

—

Loosey’s tour of the Q-Beat workspace is a whirlwind, so fast that Anetra almost wishes he’d brought a notebook with him. Though that probably wouldn’t have done much to help him either; Loosey doesn’t even stop to breathe as she charges through the office with Anetra in tow, so he seriously doubts she would have let him slow down to write. At least he avoids seeing too much of the team this way; Loosey’s version of ‘introducing’ is more like drive-by name-dropping, and Anetra is perfectly content to settle for the waves he and his new coworkers exchange as he passes. 

Good things can’t last forever, though, and sure enough, Loosey’s tour comes to a hard stop right in front of a large table surrounded by people who immediately turn all their focus on Anetra. 

“This right here is our photography department. Well, two of them are,” Loosey rolls her eyes. “The rest of you, get back to work please?” 

“Hey, they were working!” a short woman with hair almost as big as Loosey’s protests. “Half of them were reviewing the photos that are going to go with their article.”

“Uh-huh, and the other half?” Loosey retorts. 

“Is this Poppy’s replacement?” The other woman left at the table pipes up quickly, a smooth change of subject accompanied by an even smoother smile. 

“Oh, yes,” Loosey says, her eyebrows raising in surprise as if she’d forgotten Anetra was beside her. “Anetra, this is Mistress--” she points to the smaller woman, who nods curtly, “--And this is Salina. Ladies, Anetra is coming to us from News Summary Weekly , so things might work a little differently here than he’s used to. So be nice, Mistress.”

“Hey!” Mistress huffs when Loosey shoots her an extra-pointed look. 

“You know I’m right,” Loosey rolls her eyes. “Now, will you guys take over from here? These pills are not doing what they’re supposed to, so I’m gonna go take a three-minute power nap before I have to talk budget for the rest of the afternoon.” 

“Sweet dreams!” Salina calls after her, cackling when Loosey shoots her the middle finger over her shoulder in response. 

Just like that, their attention is turned back on Anetra, giving him the distinct feeling of having been thrown to the wolves. 

“So you’re from the political phonebook, huh?” Mistress starts in right away, her lip twitching as she looks Anetra up and down. “You’re certainly dressed like it.”

“Hey, wait a second,” Salina adds pensively, “Ain’t that the magazine with the guy who--”

“Sorry, what are your guys’ pronouns?” Anetra cuts in fast before Salina can finish that sentence, hoping to God the heat he feels rising in his cheeks isn’t visible to the two women before him. “I use he/him.”

“She/her for both of us,” Mistress answers with narrow eyes, her tone of voice skeptical. Anetra’s going to have to look out for her, he can tell. But at least Salina seems distracted enough—her attention is already back on her computer, which she wastes no time in sliding over to Anetra.

“Alright, newbie, come here and sit down, let me show you all the different softwares and shit we use in this department.” 

It’s a close call, but he’ll take it. He smiles gratefully as he moves over beside Salina, leaning in close to get to work.

Pride Challenge Points: 2806

Spoilers for the ending of the soul eater manga

Finished reading the soul eater manga and uh,

Wha?

I am

A bit

Confused;

And also deeply conflicted....

First off, What the FUCK is Boob madness, hello?????? Also did they just fuck over Crona like that in the ending??

I dunno if I prefer the manga ending more than the anime ending if I'm being honest lol

Manga definitely had more time to develop and finish characters arcs and build tension, but the ending was,, a little odd and a bit rushed imo. They just brushed over Lord Death's death, things went back to "normal" way too abruptly, and I get that Crona's committed an unspeakably heinous act and deserves to be punished, but they just left them on the moon with a sorta cliffhanger? Pair it up with the boobs as an attempt at comedy, it's enough to take me out of the immersion.

Anime and its ending was rushed, but some of the direction for certain scenes/episodes took my breath away. A good mixture of music and imagery is always a guaranteed hit with me. Also the art style has this charm that the manga doesn't quite grasp at the ending.

Veryyy personal preference/nitpick, but I really prefer the way Anime!Maka's drawn more compared to how the Manga drew her later on. Something about the dead eyes with no highlights and particularly stylized body proportions makes Anime!Maka's art style more appealing to me.

(Thar's the girl I fell in love with <33)

I like how the face and limb proportions are stylized in a way that makes her not look like a generic anime girl, uh for a lack of a better term. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but point is, I just like how she looks cute, but in an aloof and kinda hardened way. A fine line to walk on but I thought BONES handled it beautifully.

I'm tempted to feel the same way about Manga!Soul (who's also been smoothened out a bit like Manga!Maka) but his identifying features like the shark teeth, droopy eyes and pinched eyebrows are still there.

...

Alright, to give an overall review of my personal enjoyment: episode 1-24 was peak Soul Eater imo, apart from some episodes, it was a continuous hype train for me.

After that (with the exception of episode 33) it didn't get my blood rushing as much as the first half did.

I read the manga, picking up from the Brew scuffle, and it was pretty good! That is, up until the book of Eibon in the lust/sloth chapter which made me want to bash my head against the wall again.

The Lust chapter was so cringe, it had no redeeming qualities in my eyes. Mayhaps the "creepy fucking asshole" vibes (which made me deeply uncomfortable) served the narrative for the Sloth chapter, which is Giriko wanting to instill absolute fear into Maka, but still, blergh. The fight with Black*Star and Kid was pretty neat I guess.

I don't mean to sound so negative, but this barely scrapes the amount of disappointment I felt. I came for Maka, my heart was stolen by the duo of the show, but in the end, SE is probably not the best when it comes to female protagonists in shonen imo, lol-

6/10, really strong start, such a damn shame it fizzled out and died at the end though.

it is vitally important that Sloan and Don exist

And I know that is true for me because I had an overwhelming urge to log in and leave myself a record of my sudden re-obsession. Because it's been 3 days and I already can't remember what reminded me of them in the first place.

Cassaravi's Counting Paths is a fantastic fanvid btw. I'd never heard the song but am growing more and more attached, I can see why it's used in vids a lot. Very much Dead Can Dance around the edges, I'll probably analyze it in a different post. I want to do something with it. And I really just want to write something that I can find the click and follow the beats. Everything I try has been uneven at best for quite a while.

So Sloan and Don. I do't know what the original intentions were for Sloan. I know Don evolved quite quickly from the initial plans. But some of the absolute best of Sorkin comes out of stuff surprising him and him being very wise and running with it. Donna/Josh ftw? I think because once the characters, actors, interactions take on a life of their own, he just writes them and great stuff happens. Otherwise his attempts at (non established relationships) are forced and the characters are defined by that, which is so anti-Sorkin that I'm too disappointed to have bought the thing so I could rewatch at leisure.

That's actually why I meh'd on The Newsroom quite a bit. It followed logically from everything he'd done (I adore Sports Night and The West Wing and have seen both many times), with swearing, and a hard left into a pond with the absurd characters. I actually like Mac, though it's sometimes hard to buy her as a real person. I hate Maggie and Jim because why are they there? Maggie especially, because, hilariously, she seems to serve as Don's girlfriend, when he was supposed to be her boyfriend. She's not great at her job when the hallmark of Sorkin is that everyone IS FANTASTIC AT THEIR JOB, that is the point. If they aren't, there's a reason, and the reason generally is because in his world, if you're inept it's because you are being willfully ignorant.

They're like Sorkin decided to write a different genre and should have tried writing a few shorts.

In this context, Sloan and Don are nicely fleshed out characters who I buy as real people with flaws, who are not written as star crossed lovers because there's no need, they actually fit together. Sorkin writes them as friends and the falling in love happens because sometimes that happens, and leads to the bestest relationships.

Don does a lot of the heavy lifting. I like the lowkey gender reversal, where, despite his fear of commitment, Don is actually a pretty emotional guy who is so straightforwards that intimacy just happens when he really cares about someone, and whose eyes show everything he's feeling. Who learns to trust his gut and shake off his jade armour. Sloan is a nerd lacking human skills, who starts tripping over the curb where intellect abuts emotions, and is comfortable with Don being there to catch her, help her up, or be the thing she lands on.

And the writing uses their relationship to highlight their growth individually and with the rest of the crew, a little sparkle around the edges gives it that littl..e something extra.

When Sloan is having a nutty, it is founded in logic (a logic) and the way she approaches the world. Which is why she doesn't feel ridiculous. And Don is a great foil because his sarcasm and emotionality means that he can bounce back whatever she needs, and what will connect with her.

It's super cute that Sloan asks a stranger (I think) if it would be too forwards to ask a man to coffee. I don't think she's ever asked a man out in her life, which leads to a lot of superficiality, and she likes it that way. But not really because when naked pictures are posted, she hunkers down in Don's office, where she's guaranteed to not be alone - even if she's "used to [it]" Also useful is her statement that you can't tell that bad guys are bad guys - in contrast with her being dead certain that Don isn't a bad guy. Maybe it's like how if you're worried you're crazy, you're probably not. If you think you're a bad guy, you're not. Not really.

Only one set of clips I've found had the scene where post "not a bad guy" speech, Sloan lays down a conversation and eye contact embargo. With, of course, a logical response to Don's fair point that the plan isn't realistic. Sloan demonstrates both self-awareness and also the sense of comfort she has with Don. She lays out her embarrassment, she doesn't immediately avoid him forever. Meanwhile I can very much picture her getting into a mortifying situation (especially if emotions are involved) and spending the rest of her life ducking around corners to avoid them. Yeah, working in the same offices poses a problem, but I don't believe that is what motivated her laying it out for him.

My first impression is that was her tacitly admitting she revealed too much, accepts the rejection, and would like to live pretending that never happened. This despite the fact that her belief they'd never see each other if she quit knocked up against his conviction that they would.

Bedtime but head canon that Don knew it wasn't her who signed the book, because he knows what her handwriting and signature looks like. Which is exactly the sort of irony Sorkin likes. I hope we saw the counterfeit book in his office somewhere - once Sloan found out about the forgery, her obsession with righting the wrong would make it valuable to him beyond making her feel good and not embarrased.

A case in suburbia, domestic dynamics, and a forever home. What could go wrong?

the moment i’ve been waiting for! chapter one is up now! read here or under the cut.

Cas and Dean were searching for a forever house. They had been pretty much since Cas got back from the empty. They were ready to distance themselves from hunting. Dean had always wanted a sort of suburban, white picket fence life, even if he didn’t admit it to anyone. And since he already admitted how he truly felt to Cas, why not throw his need for a domestic lifestyle into the mix. Cas was all for it. Ever since Jack had given up most of his powers to Amara, thus causing her to take his place as God and him almost human, Cas had been hoping for a place to raise him like a normal child. The bunker was great for hunting and a place for Cas, Dean, and Sam, but not so much for raising a 5-year-old kid.

House hunting had been a burden to bear, but they were making out alright. Up till this, they’d looked at about 3 other houses. They were all a no for different reasons. The first one Cas decided was in a school district that wouldn’t be good for Jack, the second didn’t have a big enough garage or backyard, and the third didn’t have enough bedrooms for all of their family to stay. With the whole credit card scam they’d been running for as long as they remember, budget wasn’t really a problem, but they didn’t want something extravagant.

There it was, 538 Chapel Street in Pine River Crossings. It wasn’t too far out of Lawrence, only a few hours' drive, and all the houses looked nice. Very cookie cutter, but that was sort of the appeal. They couldn’t guarantee that they would fit in with the traditional, upper middle-class people, but what the hell, if they could kill god they could take suburbia.

A few days passed, and they were set up to look at the home. They drove the hour and a half to the next medium-sized town with the belief in their minds that this was the one. It had all they needed, a two-car garage, a respectable school district, and two guest bedrooms. They were so caught up in this concept they made the mistake of not checking the news for the nearby areas. Once they arrived, a realtor who showed them around the dwelling greeted them. It was all they could ask for and more practically too good to be true, especially for people like them. The actual presentation of the house went over without too many problems. The person exhibiting the residence commented on how it had been on display for almost a month now, which was the first red flag. A house as nice as this, in a densely populated area, would usually not be on the market for that long in weeks unless there was some hidden con.

They signed on it not a day after seeing the house in person. It was all set up and they could officially start moving stuff in the next week. They officially shared the good news with everyone the day after they signed. Sam was beyond happy for them. Not only would he finally have a space to himself, he was proud of his brother for living the life he’d always wanted. Jack was thrilled that he would get to go to actual school and have friends that were his age and not cosmic entities. In the meantime, Cas did more research into the neighborhood. There was their hidden con. The newspaper Cas had pulled up on his phone said, “Local Couple Murdered in Own Home.”

“Dean, look at this.”

Okay, that was a setback. A murderer on the loose in the neighborhood they were moving into was not exactly what he had planned, but he had delt with worse. “Alright, that could be a problem.”

“I think it’s a little bigger than a problem,” Cas retorted.

“Is it our type of thing or just something local law enforcement could deal with?”

Cas read on in the article, “the couple was stabbed, there was no sign of forced entry, neighbors reported nothing amiss besides lights flickering before the murder. The weapon, as well as the perpetrator, was never found. No official suspects have been labeled, everyone has seemed to have an alibi.”

“It definitely sounds like our thing. Lights flickering, no breaking and entering, and all.”

They decided they could pose as residents, as it seemed perfectly normal for the newcomers to be concerned about the literal murderer on the loose. Since Cas was newly human, and Jack was, well, 5, Dean thought they might need outside help. Being out of practice to spend more time with your husband and child really had its fallbacks. Sam was off the table as backup. He was out of town and Dean didn't want to interrupt his first weekend without him in god knows how long. Plus, they needed someone who wouldn't draw too much attention to their family dynamic.

“Hey, Cas, what do you think about calling in Claire to help us with this one? You think she’d do it?”

“Calling her in for help is a good idea, whether or not shed actually do it is another question.”

“I’ll call and ask, and if she wants to help, and if not then I can think of something else.”

He kept his promise and called Claire not an hour later. He decided it might be best not to tell her it was undercover work, or that it was taking place in a white picket fence neighborhood, as that might turn her off from it almost immediately.

“Hey Claire, its been too long since we’ve talked,” he started.

“Hi Dean. what do you want, there’s no way you’re just calling to catch up if you’re starting with ‘its been too long.’”

“You got me there. I was just wondering if you wanted to come with me and Cas on a hunt. Its not too far from the bunker and we’d have you back home in a week.”

“Sure, that works. When do we start?” She hadnt seen Dean and Cas since they rescued Cas. That was over a month ago, she’d been meaning to visit, but she’d been so busy with hunting, and getting to know Kaia again now that she was finally back. This seemed like a perfect opportunity to reconnect and not miss out on anything too big back at home.

“If you could come down here by Wednesday, that’d be great.”

“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.” She was tempted to sign off with an ‘I love you’ but she was never a lovey-dovey person in that way.

On tuesday she promised Jody she’d be extra careful and would be back in under a week. Kaia told her to make sure to call every day and update her on what was happening. Claire agreed, promising to keep in touch. She spent the rest of the day driving down to Kansas.

Back on Dean and Cas’s end, they were trying to get the house set up for 4 people when they had no furniture prior to this. Cas had always loved furniture shopping even before he had a use for it. When he worked at the Gas-and-Sip, he would browse the home improvement magazines in his spare time. Dean was pretty much the opposite. He had never had reason to care for it, so he didn't. Maybe his hatred for Swedish furniture was rooted in his deep-seated commitment issues. It didn't matter much why he hated it, he just left most of the choices up to Cas. there was then the issue of appliances and such you couldn't find in a furniture store. That was left up to him. Cas sent him out to Walmart to get things for the kitchen. That was something he could do. He picked out a mixer, some silverware, and a pioneer woman kitchenware set. It came with pots and pans, mixing bowls, and a few normal sized plates. That was enough for him to consider it an absolute steal. He brought his finds home to the bunker, setting them on the table designated for things that were to go in the new house. Jack was sitting on Cas’s lap, pointing at things on the computer.

“What’re you guys finding?” Dean asked, hovering behind Cas’s shoulder.

“Djungelskog!” Jack exclaimed, showing Dean a photo of a large stuffed brown bear.

“I thought you were looking for furniture?” Dean directed the question more at Cas, but he was still looking at Jack.

“We are. Jack just got us a bit sidetracked. We found the majority of what we need. Among other things not of as grave importance.”

Dean looked over the shopping cart and then gave the go ahead. Not before adding the stuffed bear to the cart, though.

The next day Claire arrived. Everyone was thrilled to see her. Jack ran up and threw himself around one of her legs and Cas gave her an awkward dad side hug. Dean wondered when he would tell her what the hunt would actually consist of, but he didn't want to interrupt the moment.

A few hours later, Dean fixed everyone a real dinner and had them sit down at the kitchen table. The realization dawned on him that this was going to be his last sit down meal officially living in the bunker. Everyone sort of just sat in silence for a beat. Perhaps reflecting on their own lasts of officially living there. “Claire, I sorta forgot to add this when I called you, but the case is a lot of undercover work. Also its in a suburban area.”

“And why didn't you tell me this sooner?”

“Well to speak freely, I wanted you on this case and I was worried it would make you not want to come.”

“It almost does, but i'm already here now, and i wouldn't want to waste a days driving on something i'm not actually going to do.” She guessed this would probably take longer than a week. “And i'm guessing this isn't just something you decided to do out of the goodness of your hearts?”

“We bought a house in the area, and we just wanted to make sure it was safe,” Cas explained.

“Hang on, you bought a house for real and you didnt even think to tell me? You didn't think that that was valuable information?”

“It didn't come up in our phone call,” Dean said.

“And? That’s no excuse to leave your daughter out of major life events!” The ‘daughter’ part just sort of came out without her noticing, but seconds after she said it she regretted it. God, how embarrassing.

“You’re right. We should’ve told you sooner. It was kind of a recent decision, though, so you haven’t been out of the loop for too long,” Cas said.

The next day was moving day. Dean loaded the appliances into the back of Claire’s car, since the back of the Impala was already full. Claire took her own car, while Dean, Cas, and Jack rode in Baby. Their real furniture was being delivered as they spoke. Cas offered to ride with Claire, but she assured him she’d be fine by herself. The drive wasn’t even that long, especially compared to the distance she drove yesterday.

Dean was silently nervous. He wouldn’t admit it out loud but it was written all over his face. His first real stable house, with the man he loved, and his two kids, he could only hope that he didn’t mess it up. Cas put a hand on his shoulder showing he saw how Dean was feeling.

They turned onto Chapel Street and pulled up into the driveway of the house. It somehow looked bigger and more daunting than it had during the walkthrough. Claire arrived almost ten minutes later. Everyone just sort of paused in front of the house for a minute, reveling in the stability most of them had never had.

A Rant on the End of Tremors 7: Shrieker Island

As the main man said,

Throwing caution to the wind because this blew up elsewhere.

If you can do it with Justice League, fuck it, let's do it for every shitty movie we've got.

While we're at it, can we change the ending of the 7th Tremors movie so *MAJOR FUCKING SPOILERS* Burt Gummer doesn't die or at least bring Jamie Kennedy back, or Marvel style recast Jon Heder, so he dies saving his son instead of a random-ass person who could have easily saved themselves. Or cut the forced montage of Burt clips at the end so his death is at least ambiguous. Seriously beyond pissed about that one. THAT is no way for him to go.

I would also like to point out that the next Tremors *HAS* to be titled Tremors 8: Ouroboros and bring everyone back for Burt's funeral . Otherwise, what's the fucking point?

I have feelings about it, people. *FEELINGS!!!*

One of my favourite childhood memories is picking out Tremors 2 from the local gas station's movie rentals and forcing my parents to watch it. I was probably 5-6 at the time.

Let's say that it's been a lifelong love affair ever since. It took me another 10 years before I even watched the 1st. Probably why I hold good sequels in such high regard.

I didn't even know about the 1st until it played as a trailer in front of 2 and never thought to watch until years later. That's a testament to its filmmaking if I ever knew one.

So seriously, that's how they chose to kill off one of the most well known and prolific characters in a movie/TV series known around the globe? With an unnecessaryily needed death and a montage of clips from all the other movies that are obviously better than this one.

And I'm saying that as someone who defends Chibnall/13th Doctor...

...and I'm fucking fuming because THIS is how you *actually* destroy something people love and hold dear to their hearts. It's like the ending of Game of Thrones. His shitty ass death has made it a loooooot harder to rewatch. And they are one of my favourite series!!! Not flawless but fun. But I will defend every other movie and all the episodes except this. Honestly I'll still defend 7/8ths of this one as well.

Like I said, it's easily fixed too. Fucking vice versa swap out Jon Heder for Jamie Kennedy, who the movies have been building up for the last two, and have Burt save his son in front of his old flame. Boom, you won't even need the montage of clips cause you can just have Travis and his mom reminisce about Burt instead. Show not tell. I don't even care he died by Graboid (although in all honesty, I've allways wanted El Blanco to take him down or Burt kills himself from the PTSD. It would have AT LEAST MADE SENSE. Hell, the best would be a heart attack to callback Val's "Yeah, Burt, the way you worry, you're gonna have a heart attack before you get a chance to survive World War Three.". But none of us ever get the best death.). And it's not even about Burt sacrificing himself to save a nobody. Cause that could work too. BUT YOU NEED TO BUILD THAT SHIT UP. Not just fucking drop it like it's hot.

Like I said too, the first 7/8ths ain't bad but it's an entirely different story than a swansong for a hero.

It's all about some billionaire scientist/cowboy hunter dude who likes to get his jollies off hunting the biggest and the baddest who ends up inviting people to this island so they can hunt down Super-Graboids he designed for shits and giggles. But then some Shrieker-fy....

And the pretentious douches come and die one by beautiful one while Burt tries to save them anyway and it's all spectacularly dumb fun until it comes crashing down in the final 10 minutes. Fuck, they should just cut the last 10 minutes. Then it's a perfect little Tremors ditty.

#RELEASETHE7THTREMORSWITH10MINUTESFROMTHEENDCUT

This isn't even about Jon Heder either. He's just doing his job. Hell, do what /u/VoiceofRonHoward pointed out.

"It is clear that Jon's character was just pasted in over Jamie's, the artifacts of the father-son relationship are all over it. They should have gone full Marvel and just replaced Jamie with Jon and acted like nothing happened."

CAUSE FUCK YES!! The only time a story sucks is when they don't commit. Commitment makes all the difference. Now, I'm pissed double-pissed they didn't do that instead since Heder and Kennedy are similar in terms of white-boy-ness.

Even Michael Gross agrees:

"Yes, yes. Now I can't presume to speak for Jamie [Kennedy]. My understanding was they asked him and he said no. And so that's why they went with somebody else. So I had nothing to do with that decision. I just heard the stories. I missed him for that reason. You begin a relationship with the character, and you want to continue it....

...As you build a relationship with this son, we had two, it would've been nice to have three, but that was the hand I was dealt."

One of my favourite bits of Tremors lore comes from the 5th too so it's not like I hate sequel changes out of hand:

"This is a warrior dance. Our ancestors hunting the lnkanyamba and the Impundulu.

"What's that?

"Impundulu. It's what you call the Ass Blaster.

"Ass Blaster.

"Yes.

"Yes.

"Hey, you know, you make Ass Blaster sound good.

Primitive cultures fighting Graboids, Shriekers and Assblasters. I just love that thought.

Hilariously, my meta opening to the 8th movie would be a flashback to 10,000 years ago and a Neanderthal-like Burt Gummer teaching others how to drive Graboids off cliffs like they did with mammoths.

Thank you for giving me the space to rant. Cause fuuuuuuhhhhhhhhuuccck!!!

Here's Michael Gross' own words from his AMA that prove the people making Shrieker Island didn't know their shit.

"The Tremors series is one very close to my heart and I want you to know how appreciated your continued effort is for your core fan base.

My only question would be were there ever any studio decisions made for Burt that you refused to comply with? Or was everybody pretty much always on the same page on what to do with the character?

Thanks again for your dedication.

- Josh"

"Thanks for the kind words, Josh. As regards the first four films, with Wilson and Maddock as the writers, we were very much on the same page. 5,6, and 7 were a bit different, because there was a 13-year hiatus between 4 and 5, and we had to refresh our memories while "reinventing" the franchise for a new audience. I will give you one example: in an early draft of Shrieker Island, a new writer wrote a draft where Burt threatened to shoot one of the bad dudes, and I had to tell him—this is true—"Burt never intentionally points his gun at another human being."

And his own thoughts on Burt's "death" and how to bring it all back together again.

Universal and the director [came] to me with this idea, and they said, 'This could be emotionally very powerful, if we have to say goodbye to this man after 30 years. And I hemmed and hawed, and I thought about it a little bit. And I said, 'You're absolutely right about the emotional gut punch this can be.' And I said, 'You're going to hurt a lot of people's feelings.' And I said, 'But I thought this franchise was over after four. So I could certainly live with it being over after seven.'

"What we negotiated -- well, it wasn't really a negotiation, we all agreed on this -- is that we kind of left the door open. >!Because although Burt is gone, we never see a corpse. We never see his remains. Everybody assumes he's gone. Is he buried somewhere? Is he unconscious somewhere? We never see Burt dead. We see Burt gone. We see Burt not returning. What does that mean? Has he been knocked out? Does he have amnesia somewhere? Does he wander off? Is he in a kind of coma? So yes, the way it ends is pretty profound."

"As regards to the end of Tremors 7, let me just say that while people ASSUME Burt is gone, we never see his remains, do we? Just sayin.'

"The only reason he has become the main character is that everyone else in the original cast moved on to other things. I NEVER thought of him as the central figure, but it just worked out that Michael Gross, like Burt Gummer, was a "survivor." :0) "

"No one would like to see it more than I!!! One of my greatest regrets is that so many other cast members fell away over time. Reba was on to other things, Kevin said no to a second, Fred said no to a third. I would LOVE one last go with all of them, but it is not up to me. :0( "

"There are no guarantees, but for those who wonder aloud if this is the final film, I will say what I have said before: SALES drive sequels, Show biz is 5% show and 95% business, so if this latest addition to the Tremors franchise, sells well, [Universal] will follow the money, and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment may will be back for more."

/u/ActorMichaelGross, the bell has been rung and the song sung. Get the producers on this ASAP!!

I was also the first person to discover the symbolic foreshadowing of Stumpy's end with Earl's sleeping bag in the original movie.

Let's just say, I really *really* love these movies. So if anyone knows anyone, hook me up to the producers of this series and I'll Justin Lin in the Fast and Furious out of this shit.

Since I don't think it's good to critique without proposing either, I say we can make up for this fuck up with the next movie. We'll call it Tremors 8: Ouroboros. After the snake which eats its own tail.

We find out Burt faked his death to get the Proudfoot Corporation to let down their guard and when everyone from the previous series comes back for Burt's fake funeral they give him ever loving shit for being such a paranoid whack-job that he would fake his death to fool a government agency. Why would he do this? He found an old photo of Hiram Gummer with a Graboid warning on the back and asks himself why this valley, why these things, why allways me? And we find out, it's not Burt. It's that lifestyles of extremes will end up in places of extremes. Burt and the Graboids are survivors of different species. Sure the Proudfoot Corporation IS using Mixmaster to combine Graboids, Shriekers, and Ass-Blasters into one super creature for the military but it pales in comparison to Burt looking at his life and wondering in shame how many ancient giants like himself he has killed. And with that, he actually dies, and we keep the ball rolling with the rest of the characters trying to stop what they allways thought was just another one of Burt's crazy conspiracies.

That's why it's Ouroboros. Everything comes back around. We could end/start the movie with Grady, Earl, and Jodi opening a Monster World in Perfection Valley a la Desert Jack's Graboid Adventure. I don't know. I'm fucking trying harder than the people they paid to do this already.

It ain't perfect but I'm building on sand here so changes are gonna get made.

Like if the makers of Tremors notice this,

Then DM me because fucking A you guys need some help.

To Maybach -- Anon 2023 again. Honestly, my other major option is Brown (and Penn, but that's out by now) and I'm concerned that I'd be sacrificing happiness if I choose Pton. "Happy" is a part of the Brown brand, whereas "ahhhhh" seems to be a part of Pton's. I want the name and the opportunities Pton would afford me. I suppose that's not a question, but how would you respond? Do you understand what I mean? Is it so awful to pick Pton 4 name/opportunity (in addition to the other stuff)

Sorry for the delay everyone, I just got caught up in a lot of obligations. Due to multiple popular demands from both pre-frosh and current students, I decided to structure my Brown and Princeton story in the following manner. In the first section, I’ll give my background context prior to starting college and my feelings throughout the years on the subject. In the second section, I’ll specifically address the above question in more detail with my many thoughts on key distinctions between the two schools. I think the combination will serve the purposes of everyone quite nicely. Lastly, if any pre-frosh ever want to talk to me, feel free to reach out and ask for my contact information. Or even better yet lol, I just remembered that PREVIEW started, so I guess it might be easier to just talk in person to me. I actually don’t even have class tomorrow haha. I just think that talking is sometimes easier than writing and also in these responses sometimes I have to speculate. For example, I can pretty safely state that if a pre-frosh is almost certain of being a pre-med, Brown is probably going to be a much less stressful experience, but I have no idea if this applies to you beforehand.

So anyway, even though it was four years ago, I still remember it like it was yesterday. Boy time flies. I was not the most studios or stand-out HS student. I wasn’t the valedictorian or salutatorian of a rather small school far away from major cities. While some Princetonian HS students spent summer doing lab research at universities, I spent mine goofing off with friends and traveling. We used to actually have a bonfire at the end of the school year and burned stacks of our HW up to 4 feet high lol. When it came to applying to college, I did not actually even again acceptance to NYU or BC lol even though my stats were more than up to par. I guess maybe they were concerned that I wouldn’t be a very hard-working student. Luckily, I am very fortunate that despite coming from an extremely educated family (grandfather and mom went to Columbia, Dad went to Berkeley, etc.), my parents never put that much pressure on me. So as you can imagine, I was super excited when I heard that I got into Princeton, Brown, Cornell, and some other schools. For a period of time, I was actually getting ready to go to Brown. My SO at the time had committed to URI and I was psyched by the super expressive culture of Brown. Students prided themselves on being true to themselves and also took full advantage of freedom with responsibility. The location was close enough to NYC and some kids from my HS were already there. I always hated excessive structure and authority growing up and the prospect of 70%’s A’s granted, no +/I’s, and pass/failing anything was totally alluring! On a side note, I always laugh when they say that people don’t abuse pass/fail and use it only like 10-15% of the time. Well, maybe that’s because they’re already handing out A’s like it’s water and all A-’s become A’s haha. But anyway, I was psyched. Who wouldn’t want to live at camp Brown and take it easier than HS, but still be guaranteed a legit degree on your resume? However, after I visited Princeton, connected with a large number of alumni, and actually started putting real thought into my education, my perspectives slowly, but surely started to change. I think what I really underestimated was the power of the Princeton degree and how impressive our alumni network truly is. The people I met and still meet to this day are absolutely brilliant in several respects (e.g. they aren’t just nerds in one subject) and many are focused on maximizing their impact and allocation of influence in this world. The alumni donation rate is nothing short of incredible and the chance to be part of this network was alluring. I remember meeting a guy actually who got waitlisted and was already attending Duke when he got the chance to go to Princeton. He lived every moment to the fullest with his academic pursuits, the social network of brilliant, but diverse persons, and solid career plans. Anyway, it just became more clear to me over time that while Princeton was rigorous, it’s academic qualities could be much more intimate and engaged than Brown and the intellectual horsepower of its students (mostly) created truly incredible and impactful people. Jeez lol I forget sometimes how many alumni we have on the SC, in politics, business, arts, etc. At Brown, all they do is gush over Emma Watson in an almost cult-like way (sarcasm). But anyway, I was getting pushed as you can imagine, but I was still worried as I wasn’t the best HS student and grade deflation had literally only ended the year before. But eventually, the offer was just too good to pass up. Once you become a Princeton student, your life truly does change and people will treat you give you credit solely based on this fact (whether it’s right or wrong is another story). I remember before I even committed, I was hanging out at the Princeton Club in New York and a few days later some of the guys (who literally knew me for like a few days), invited me out and basically paid of lunch at Smith and Wollensky and lauded me on my “accomplishments” lol and how they could always be resources to bolster a Princetonian. Pretty soon after I committed.

As for answering your specific question, I’m already seeing red flags. Whenever you choose a school for the name, that’s setting yourself up for a bad time. Yes, our opportunities are better. Look at the difference in endowments lol. It’s like that for a reason even though they have way more students and more grad schools. It’s also reflected as well in our post-graduation salary averages. Brown is more creative with RISD and it’s curriculum, but that doesn’t always equal more opportunities. Princeton has the most power and resources of any university on a per-student basis and gives us an incredibly powerful brand and network. That said, you should probably explore why you want to go to Princeton other than the name and brand. One of the miserable people I know picked Princeton over another school because it was the “Best” school she got into and that’s just not fun when you didn’t research enough beforehand. By contrast, I know someone who turned down Harvard for a small liberal arts school in the middle of nowhere and she had an amazing time. If you feel like and click with Brown’s social scene, that’s another reason for not going to Princeton. Academically, Princeton is better for people who want rigor and want to truly maximize their learning in a short period of time and be around amazing minds. Our depth is much better than Brown’s and it shows with how strong our students are in critical thinking skills both inside and outside of their majors. However, there is a downside to this. For example, if you want to major in physics at Princeton, you better adapt fast or be damn good at it. You can’t just “love” physics and be relatively bad at it (compared to your peers) to succeed here because we teach you to be the best students possible from professors who literally wrote your book. At Brown, sure you don’t learn as much or go as deep, but you can major in almost anything because you just aren’t held to the same standards. So there’s a tradeoff. If I majored in Brown’s business program, let me just say that I would not NEARLY be perceived by others to be so intelligent (even though I’m not lol). I know the kids in the degree, it’s not like they are dumb, but jeez lol is it a joke a bunch of the time. Relating sociology to business for example on the surface can seem like a good idea that teaches people until you actually see what they’re writing and working on. I would probably have a 4.0 without working as hard too. And I don’t mean this to mean I’m like super smart or anything. It’s just not comparable to Princeton. However, I am super blessed and thankful that I did take Economics here seriously. The kinds of critical thinking skills and the ability to analytically dissect complex multi-faceted problems that I have developed serve me very well and I feel so rewarded. I literally got a position at a hedge fund with no experience at all because the interviewer liked how I wrote a research paper on guns an applied rigorous statistical analysis in many novel ways to answer new questions. This is no different in many ways than using public information using novel techniques to find value where nobody else sees it. But overall, I think that I’m feeling Brown for you unless you are willing to work harder here for greater depth of learning. I just want to say too though that despite me working hard, I still don’t pull-allnighters almost ever and I still have achieved very high grades. You don’t have to be a genius to do well here. Take it from me. I had piss-poor test scores (by Princeton standards) and was not a valedictorian, but if you are strategic and work reasonably hard and are disciplined, the work is more than doable. I don’t want to brag because I think it promotes bad culture, but you ought to know that a student like me can succeed academically and perform at the top of their class without working in the library all the time. So you should really evaluate what kind of learning experience you want and where you will be most likely to be happy and healthy. Some people just want a break after HS and don’t care about going super deep into their learning development. That’s totally fine, but then Brown is probably better (assuming you also like the culture). Some people would really abuse Brown’s system, not really learn, develop unhealthy and bad habits, and be kind of bored. In that case, Princeton is better. It really depends on you, but if all you see here for you is a name, you’re probably shooting yourself in the foot coming here.

Anyway hope that all helps. I can answer specifics if you have them too.

Edit. also I realized how long this all is and noticed that maybe some of you should just call me or I can connect you with people I know who love Brown lol. It’s sometimes harder to write these things and express everything properly compared to like a 30-minute dinner conservasation. Just putting it out there. I’m also exhausted lol from staying up until 4am the past few nights for this huge deal coming up. I did this tonight so that I wouldn’t mess up my sleep schedule any further and avoid taking a nap lol.

(Cult of Thing 1/2) Context: Villain gets powers from a Thing that feeds off fear and pain; tells Child whom she has kidnapped as a baby from someone she hates, that Thing is the god that created the world and that they need to appease it to avoid its wrath. She tells Child "your birth mother abandoned you, I'm all you have" (which is a lie, Birth Mom doesn't know she's alive). Child believes her for years, devotes self to Cult of Thing out of fear/desperation for approval from Villain (...)

(Cult of Thing 2/2) (…) before seeing things that make her question it (she ends up leaving as a teen, switching sides to the “heroic” one). Villain firmly intends to flaunt the way she’s twisted Child to work for Villain’s Organization, to the person she hates (aka Child’s Birth Mom), which means she wants to keep Child alive, but Villain tends to be cruel and selfish. As stated, she’s raising Child in effectively a creepy cult so there’s “religious” conditioning. Thoughts on this situation?

Well it doesn’t seemunreasonable.

There’ve been cases ofpeople from one side of a conflict stealing young children and babies frompeople on the other side and raising them. The easiest cases to look up areprobably the ones in Argentina- searching for the Grandmothers of the Plaza deMayo will give you an overview and some interviews with people who went throughthis as children then found their birth relatives later.

Generally speaking howwell people cope with this sort of situation depends on their relationship withtheir adoptive parents and whether they know they were taken. Even a very goodrelationship with the adoptive parents takes a knock if/when the child findsout they were stolen.

The way you have yourvillain tackle that works: I’ve read cases where the adoptive parents have donethat in real life. When combined with genuinely good parenting it tends to meanthe children are firmly supportive of their adoptive parent’s ‘side’. Theymight see themselves as having been ‘rescued’.

When combined with thesort of poor parenting you’re describing though- well it seems perfectlyreasonable to have the ‘child’ character later switch sides.

A lot of how this sortof situation comes across is down to how it’s written though. It’s allplausible but I can see a lot of places where this could fall down, not interms of realism but in terms of writing.

Establishing thecharacter’s relationship with her adoptive mother is important but the readersare also going to need to see how the ‘child’ character changes with time, howshe comes to see her ‘mother’ differently and how this leads to her abandoningeverything she’s known. That’s an awful lot of character and relationshipprogression to fit in and I’ve seen a lot of stories muck up the pacing of thatsort of long term plot.

I don’t personallybelieve in absolute ‘rules’ for writing. I don’t think there is one guaranteedway write anything successfully. As a result my advice tends to be prettyflexible and general: I know that what works for me won’t necessarily work foryou.

I do really think thatthe pacing would be important when you write this though. How much you show oftheir relationship at different points and when you show it is going to reallyshape not just the overall story but how the readers see the characters.

Your audience is goingto have a very different view of the Villain if they’re introduced from the‘child’ characters pov when the child is still young. Seeing the Child gothrough that realisation that her ‘mum’ is bad, seeing the messy mix of loveand hate the character would have gone through- that’s going to leave a very differentimpression compared to seeing the Villain primarily from the hero’s pov.

I think how much spaceand time you devote to showing this relationship and how it develops is alsohugely important. Too much and it could easily swamp other aspects of the storyand other sub-plots. Too little and there’s a real risk readers won’t be ableto understand or sympathise with the Child character.

For me writing is aboutstriking a balance and the potential issues I see with this scenario are lessto do with realism, respect for victims etc and more to do with how youactually execute the story.

There’re a lot ofdifferent elements to balance here.

In terms of thecharacter progression the Child goes through- I think it’s probably best toignore the fact the Child was stolen to some extent. I don’t mean that doesn’tmatter. It’s more that it strikes me as something that will have a largereffect later when the Child haschanged sides and is in a position to learn the truth. When she’s still in theprocess of working out how she feels about her adoptive mum I think their relationship would be the moreimportant factor.

You haven’t beenentirely clear on- well just how bad the Villain is as a parent. I’d suggestavoiding outright physical abuse. Instead I think leaning into the toxicemotional aspects of the kind of parent-child relationship you’re buildingcould be more effective. Make it messy and complex. Perhaps have the Child tryto reconcile or ‘fix’ their relationship a few times before ultimately changingsides.

That could workespecially well if she tries to ‘fix’ it by impressing her adoptive parent withjust how much she can do for the Villain’s side. That could feed into yourstory very well whether she can follow through with the violence and cruelty ornot.

Anecdotally theresponses people have to awful parents vary considerably. One of theinteresting cases Fanon talks about in TheWretched of the Earth is a white French girl whose father was a torturer inthe Franco-Algerian war. She describes this total disconnect and disgust withher father, feeling almost relieved that he died. He sounded like a distantparent but not an overtly unkind one.

The girl in thisaccount didn’t do anything as overt as leaving her family or actively opposingher father, and the impression I got was that she felt too powerless to make adifference. That seems like it could be relevant to your characters andsituation. The Child might want to leave for a long time before she feelscapable of following through and acting.

I’ve read otheraccounts where people have struggled to reconcile the image of parents theyloved with the people who committed horrific crimes. That might be a morelikely response with good parenting.

A Darkling Plain has an interview witha man whose father was part of the SS, but having quickly looked through Idon’t think it could add much to your story- the father died before the man wasold enough to remember him.

The last thing I canthink of to keep in mind is that being raised in this Cult there’ll be a lot ofthings the Child character won’t question and will see as ‘normal’ until shehas a chance to see how things work outside. If she grows up seeing a lot ofviolence she’ll probably assume that’s what life is like everywhere- she mayeven feel her adoptive mother is a very goodparent for not inflicting that violence on her.

That doesn’t mean thatshe won’t be hurt, or affected by what happens to her and around her. It couldmean that she hangs on longer than she would otherwise, trying to be ‘better’for her mother though.

And I think that’s allI’ve got. I hope that helps. :)

Disclaimer

Allyyyy I start hsc on Monday and I'm supppppeeer nervous. I have been studying a lot but ofc enjoying my time with everyone at the library and talking etc. I'm stressing about my atar bc I really want to get in to social work bc I really wanna help people :((((( I wanna do psych but it's 99!!!!!

My tips for anyone starting Year 12/HSC/Senior Year:

Know that it’s perfectly normal to be nervous! I’m pretty sure I was scared to start VCE from Year 7 onwards, it always seemed like this giant, scary, looming monster that would destroy my happiness and suck out my soul like a dementor. Mostly, I just assumed I would have no free time, wouldn’t be able to keep up with the workload, and would fail absolutely everything.

Then, something funny happened. Year 11 came around and I realised… nothing had changed. The work might have been harder, but I had done the required training (aka Years 7-10) and was fully equipped with the skills to handle it. The transition from Year 10 to Year 11, and then again from 11 to 12, is really not that significant or scary! Your workload might increase a tiny bit, because (and in hindsight now I can look back and 100% support this) practice really does make perfect. Teachers don’t make you write 100 essays because they hate you and want you to be miserable or have no social life, it’s because they want you to be a good writer, but more than that, they know that the more essays you write, the easier it will be for you to write one come exam time. It will be less stressful, less terrifying and so much simpler to just regurgitate a piece of writing you’ve practically memorised because you’ve ingrained it into your memory throughout the year. That’s just an example for say English or Literature, but I think the same thing applies for all subjects, no matter how you’re tested. Practice makes perfect. Or at least, practice makes progress, haha.

Now, ATARs. Those finicky little bastards. I’m not going to tell you to forget about it, because I know that when I was in the midst of VCE it was always on my mind. I even had older kids, who had already graduated, constantly telling me how insignificant it was and that it wouldn’t matter one year from now, but I didn’t believe any of that. Now, looking back, I know that they were right. In terms of measuring your intelligence or potential for future career success, ATARs mean nothing. No matter what score you get, I promise you, you can go on and be anything you want to be in life. There will always be obstacles and challenges between you and your dreams, but if you want something and you’re willing to work hard and be nice to others, nothing can stop you. The only difference an ATAR can make is the journey and how you go about it. The only thing an ATAR determines is which course you might do. You might have your heart set on a dream course with a super high ATAR. If you want to shoot for that, go for it! Just know that if your number is lower, there are still ways to pursue it. You can take a gap year, travel, discover the world and find out who you are, uncover your passions, gain some experience. Do a TAFE course, start somewhere else, transfer. Defer it, reject it, volunteer somewhere, change your entire perspective on life, completely change directions. You still have the choice. Unis will often accept someone who didn’t get a first or second round offer initially as a mid-year enrolment, or you could do a semester or two somewhere else and then jump across and hopefully they’ll let you keep those credits under your belt. You may not even want to go to uni! There are many many options and paths you can take, don’t let a number limit or define your future.

Personally, I knew I wanted to further my education but wasn’t entirely set on any particular existing occupation. I knew my two favourite subjects were Psychology and Health and Human Development, but that I also enjoyed writing for English, so I could envision myself happily doing something that encompassed those things. For me, an Arts degree was the perfect choice because it allows you to dip your toes into many different areas of study, test the waters of various fields before arriving at a favourite – your major. The course I most had my heart set on had a pretty high entry score, one which I actually thought I had no possible chance of achieving, but I set it as my goal anyway because as I was so undecided, I didn’t want to ‘limit myself’ (typical Year 12 brain thinking). It worked out wonderfully for me, somehow I found the drive and ended up doing a lot better than I’d expected, really surprising myself (and probably everyone else) and guaranteeing a spot in the course. However, I wholeheartedly believe that had I not achieved the score I did, had I gone to a different university or course, or even taken some time off from studying, I would be just as happy. I would have found another way to continue learning, whether it be by sitting in a lecture theatre or travelling to see it myself. I could have enrolled in a different course, disappointed in myself and thinking it was only temporary, and ended up LOVING it. Maybe even more than this course! Who knows? These are the kinds of ‘what if’s and ‘maybe’s that make my brain want to explode. Being a human can be exhausting.

Whether you have a goal course you’re hoping to get entry for, a dream uni, hopes of studying abroad, a plan to defer for a year or no desire to study at all – but they’re all okay and all achievable! No matter what it is you want in life, there are ways to get there. Not just one, but limitless varying courses of action you can follow. One might be more direct, but it might also be more boring, or less challenging. It might grow you less as a person, or prevent you from meeting some really interesting people that another path will introduce you to.

Year 12 is an awesome time. It can be stressful, overwhelming, demanding, sleepless. It can invoke self-doubt, nostalgia, fear of plummeting into the depths of the unknown (your future) and leaving behind the safety and security of routine (your past). However, it can also be rewarding, exciting, bonding, enriching, growing and deliriously fun. I say delirious because there will definitely be times when you and your friends are so overcome with work and anxiety that you just have to laugh. Misery loves company and Year 12 is proof of that. Study dates are perfect for simultaneously motivating each other and collectively crying into the bowl of chocolate you just devoured. I’m probably not painting the best picture here, but seriously, it can be a terrific time.

If I could give you one piece of advice for entering VCE, it’s to maintain a balance. Balance in life is the key here, because otherwise you will either burn out from too much studying, fall behind from not enough, get sick from not taking care of yourself, or something else just as un-fun. When you’re studying, dedicate proportionate amounts of time or energy to subjects depending on their current level of significance. If possible, do assignments as soon as you get them, but prioritise the ones that are due first or worth the most. More importantly, ensure you have balance throughout your whole life, holistically. It’s just as important to take care of your mental, social and physical well-being as it is to reach your education goals. Make the time to keep active, even if it seems like there is none. I can’t even tell you how beneficial it is to get outside, clear your head and get your heart rate up. Endorphins are your best friend and a powerful stress-buster, so keep a pair of runners at the ready. If you’re not a fan of solo workouts, can’t stay motivated or simply don’t enjoy it, I highly recommend joining a team sport! In fact, I recommend this for everyone, because it’s beneficial to your mental, social and physical health. All at once. Plus there’s the accountability factor – you can’t just skip the workout or hit snooze when you don’t feel like it  - you made a commitment and your teammates are counting on you! Honestly being a part of a group like that will make you feel so needed or wanted, and it’s great to make new friends or connect with like-minded people. SPORT RULES. Taking care of your physical health also means nourishing your body with the right foods, getting enough sleep and drinking plenty of water – all the basics. Back to balance – it’s also essential to dedicate time to doing things just for you. Bubble baths are a great choice, there’s also reading, meditation, getting a massage or mani-pedi, having a movie night, seeing a friend, anything that makes you feel relaxed, happy and at peace. These are the things that keep you going! Imagine a pie chat, split into 3 sections. One section is school and schoolwork, one is health and fitness, and the last is dedicated to me-time or fun activities. The three sections represent mental, physical and social wellbeing = all equally important and necessary for not only success, but holistic health in general. If you’re feeling stressed out, look at which of the three sections might be out of balance. Are you not getting enough sleep? Have too much on your plate? Need some alone time? Not fuelling your brain and body with enough or the right nutrition? Try to keep these things in check and remind yourself that they’re all significant and deserving of your attention.

Most of all, know that VCE is completely unique to your own experience. Like karma, you will get out only what you put in. You can make it an easy time, just for socialising and blowing off class, you can dedicate 110% of yourself to studying every waking hour, never lose a mark and never see anyone else, OR you can have the best of both worlds and strike that beautiful, sweet balance.

Decide what your own goals are. Make your own rules. Ask yourself what motivates you, and then go after it. Use this time to challenge yourself, grow as a person and exceed any expectations, limitations or barriers that have been set by anyone – including and especially yourself. It’s an exciting time that you should definitely make the most of, because it will be over before you know it. I know it’s hard, but try to forget about ATARs, or at least diminish the all-mighty power and holy-grail presence that it can take. It’s just a number. If you try your best, that’s all you need to do. I have complete faith in you anon, 

YOU CAN DO IT :D

I'm not completely sure why Ouma wanted to trap everyone in Gonta's lab and make them watch the motive videos?

These asks are not exactly the same, but they are related to the same topic, so that’s why I’ve decided to answer them together. The second ask also made me realize that summarizing from that particular conversation between Momota and Saihara is perhaps one of the best ways to explain why Ouma did what he did.

The discussion they share in Hoshi’s room while looking for the motive video he had pretty much hits the nail on the head. As the second anon says, it starts when Momota admits that he actually wanted to have everyone get together and share all their motive videos right away, rather than holding onto them and not talking about them like Kiibo suggested. He talks at length about how he believes that’s the true meaning of “cooperating,” and how doing so would probably have actually strengthened the group as a whole. By embracing those motives and watching them, Monokuma couldn’t have used them against them. Here’s a screencap, to show what I mean:

As shown, Saihara realizes belatedly that that’s exactly what Ouma tried to do by holing them all up in one place and trying to force them to watch all the motive videos. For all that Ouma talks at length in Chapter 2 about how the group shouldn’t cooperate with each other and how he doesn’t believe that cooperation will solve anything, his plan was actually about cooperating in the truest meaning of the word.

The reason Ouma talked so emphatically against cooperating with the rest of the group’s plans while actually putting a plan of his own into motion to try and force everyone to cooperate and review their motive videos was because he knew that he had to act the part. Acting friendly and trusting and cooperative, not only in ndrv3 but in any DR game, is a surefire way to make sure the ringleader will just send out another motive in order to cause more paranoia and suspicion. Ouma himself says in Chapter 2 many times that it’s exactly when they all start getting along with one another and trying to cooperate that Monokuma comes around “to torment them.”

Kirigiri even alludes to this as early as dr1, in fact. I’ve been doing a dr1 reread recently, and I was amused to see in dr1 Chapter 5 that Naegi has many questions for Kirigiri similar to what many characters in ndrv3 have for Ouma. She says that she knew from almost the start of the killing game that there was a disconnect in her memories, and that her talent and purpose at Hope’s Peak must have been disadvantageous to the mastermind, which is why she was made to forget them. Naegi then asks her why she didn’t just talk to everyone else, so they could all cooperate together and act as one big group of friends in order to find out her talent and her reason for coming to Hope’s Peak.

She responds by saying that such a plan wouldn’t have worked for quite a few reasons. The first, of course, is that cooperation would only have drawn the mastermind’s attention. Acting like a big group of friends would only have given the mastermind more cause to try and split them up and get them to distrust one another. The other reason is that she couldn’t eliminate the possibility that the mastermind was one of them, someone actually hiding within their group and only pretending to be their friend.

Even in dr1 Chapter 1, Kirigiri says point-blank that trusting people too much is just as dangerous as not trusting anyone at all. So she couldn’t trust the group enough to cooperate with them in order to find her memories, other than Naegi—and her bond of trust with Naegi was something only built up gradually throughout the story, not something immediate and inseparable.

All of this sounds… well, very familiar. Ouma’s reasons for acting in the shadows and putting these plans into action without telling anyone his reasons why are pretty much exactly the same as Kirigiri’s. Like Kirigiri, he knew that open talk about cooperation and being friends would only cause the ringleader to give them even more motives and incentives to kill. And like Kirigiri, he suspected the ringleader was someone in their group only pretending to be friends with them (and in this case, he was right).

So, his plan with capturing everyone and forcing them to watch the motive videos in Gonta’s lab was the perfect way to try and neutralize the threat of everyone’s motives, while still seemingly refusing to cooperate. After all, he pulled off his plan in such a way that he seemed incomprehensible, chaotic, and self-serving—but even Saihara notes that Ouma doesn’t actually seem evil or malicious when putting that plan into action. He thinks to himself that he can’t actually see a single trace of “evil intent” on Ouma’s face, before quickly shaking his head and thinking that that could very well be another one of his lies.

But we know, of course, that it’s not. Given all the evidence we’re presented with in Chapters 5 and 6, Ouma’s objective was to stop the killing game. He hated killing and death; that’s simply a canonical fact about his character, not a subjective opinion. And so he was willing to use extreme measures in order to try and force that game to a halt.

By watching everyone’s motive videos, not only would they all have been able to theoretically shoulder the burden by knowing everyone’s motives in addition to their own, but they would also have known immediately who was most likely to kill. While motive videos were originally an incentive in dr1 Chapter 1, I’m honestly more reminded of dr1 Chapter 2, with its “secrets you don’t want anyone else to know” motive.

In dr1 Chapter 2, all the characters similarly considered sharing their secrets with each other—the idea was proposed by several characters and considered heavily, but ultimately everyone was far too embarrassed and paranoid and afraid to share them with one another. Had they actually done so, however, Mondo’s murder of Chihiro would’ve been avoided entirely. Knowing everyone’s secrets at the time would’ve taken away Monokuma’s leverage over them, and caused them to come to terms with their own dark secrets, all the while enabling the rest of the group to keep an eye on the characters they knew had the secrets most worth killing for.

The same applies to ndrv3 Chapter 2. Kirumi’s motive video was rigged to go to her from the start precisely because it was such a guaranteed trump card that would start the killing game up again. Her motive video “went to her by mistake, because the Monokumerz messed up,” but that’s simply an excuse; the Monokumerz do whatever they’re scripted to do, as part of the killing game show, and that means that Kirumi was absolutely going to get her own motive video no matter what, because it had the juiciest incentive of all to kill for.

Had the rest of the group seen her video, or even seen Hoshi’s video with its blank and depressing message, they would’ve had a much better idea of what was at stake. Everyone would’ve been able to discuss the potential fate of their “most important loved ones,” everyone would’ve been able to talk to both Kirumi and Hoshi and keep an eye on them to monitor what they were likely to do after seeing such horrible videos.

And of course, everyone would also have known about Maki’s talent as a SHSL Assassin, which was something Ouma wanted to make clear to them as soon as he found out himself. Having an assassin hidden in their midst who wouldn’t come forward or tell them about her talent even though she was extremely dangerous and had killed plenty of people in the past was a very dangerous, unstable scenario.

Having that fact brought into the open might not be something Maki herself liked very much—but it was undeniably necessary. Keeping her talent a secret was unfair to the rest of the group, and the longer she kept quiet about it, the worse the backlash would’ve become. That’s the reason Ouma goes ahead and exposes her talent at the end of the Chapter 2 trial anyway, in order to try and force the group to come to terms with the fact that Maki is a threat and should be watched carefully.

In addition to all of these things, I strongly believe that watching all the motive videos together would’ve exposed several inconsistencies, both in the videos and in their own memories. Having these inconsistencies exposed would’ve made them seem less credible; without even knowing if the videos or their memories were even real, the characters would’ve been a lot less willing to kill for them.

For example, Kirumi’s status as the “shadow Prime Minister of Japan” can be called very easily into question just by looking at Momota’s FTEs. Momota mentions in one of his FTEs that he actually introduced the current, elected Prime Minister of Japan to politics. In fact, he wholeheartedly seems to believe this. If that were actually true, then he and Kirumi should, theoretically, know each other, or at least know about each other. Even if Momota never knew Kirumi, because she was such a well-kept secret, there’s no way Kirumi, as a SHSL Maid whose duty was to remain diligently on top of everything, wouldn’t have known who one of the Prime Minister’s close friends was.

And yet, they know nothing about each other prior to the game. This inconsistency can’t be easily explained away by “they were made to forget before the game started,” because Momota did know about Hoshi prior to the killing game, having looked up to him as a sort of tennis-playing hero in middle school. Therefore, if Kirumi were really the “shadow Prime Minister,” then she should have known about Momota. But she didn’t.

Realizing and discussing this fact would’ve made her motive video seem instantly less believable. Without believing it to be true, the likelihood that she would’ve been willing to commit murder for it decreases significantly. There’s no reason to risk one’s own life or to kill everyone else over something that seems so obviously fake, after all.

As someone who clearly distrusted his own memories and the motive videos right from the start, Ouma knew these things, and that’s exactly why he tried to put his plan into action. Had he actually managed to succeed, I do believe there was a very good possibility it would’ve worked—not least of all because Tsumugi looked very shaken up when she realized his plan herself. If the ringleader looks so obviously dismayed after hearing about a plan like that, then that seems to indicate Ouma was probably on the right track.

Anyway, this has gotten long, so I’ll stop now, but I hope I could clear up the first anon’s question. As for the second anon, thank you so much for stopping by—I was also very glad to see Momota and Saihara hit on the right track in that conversation, even if it was only briefly. Going back and seeing all these little clues and hints to the fact that Ouma was doing things with the group’s best interests at heart is so rewarding, because I feel like there’s always something new to see.

Thank you both for asking!

Hi! I'm not sure if anyone's asked you this before, but I was wondering if you'd be willing to talk about your experience with the disney college program, like the application process and the role you were in and everything? I'm really interested in applying for next year but it's all a little overwhelming and it would be really awesome to hear from someone who's actually gone through it! Thanks so much!!

i had a college program tag, so if i had it would be in there but i think that tag ended up being mostly…casual day-to-day text posts rather than useful information about the program lmao. but yeah! i’m actually planning to apply again soon (applications for spring 2018 drop in mid-late august). there’s the application for the general disney college program, the culinary program and then various applications for professional internships. the regular college program will place you in a $9-10/hour minimum wage job (merchandise, attractions, lifeguard, etc.)  but professional internships are higher-paying, much more selective more like typical internships (roles at team disney and other office buildings on property, or career-specific roles like research development or marine biology at epcot). you’re allowed to apply for multiple professional internships on top of the regular college program (they suggest applying for no more than three iirc) and that’s probably what i’ll be doing this summer.

this will probably be very, very extremely long because…there’s a lot but skim as needed! 

professional internships require all the usual tedious prep-work (updating your linkedin, resume and cover letter, an application screening process and two phone interviews) but the general college program is a lot less rigorous! you get guaranteed housing, complimentary transportation, and free admission to the parks either way. applying for the regular college program is basically a three-step process. when the applications drop (in late august) you’ll fill out your basic information (personal information, work history, etc.) and they’ll also ask you to weigh your interest in each role. you can choose between “high interest,” “medium interest,” “low interest” and “no interest at all,” and if you genuinely don’t feel capable of performing a certain role or just don’t want to do it, mark “no interest at all.” they make a genuine effort to place you in roles you marked with high/medium interest, but if it’s a short-staffed season, they can assign you to a role you’ve marked “low interest.” that being said, imo try to avoid assigning “no/low interest” to too many roles, because a) it gives them fewer opportunities to place you and b) it makes it look like you care about yourself more than disney…not to be wild but disney Does Not Like That one bit. 

pretty much everyone is passed onto the second step which is the WBI (web-based interview) but this is where you need to be…careful. if you’re nervous, i would recommend searching “dcp web-based interview” on youtube, google, etc. for an idea of what you’ll be asked. if you’ve worked minimum wage retail jobs before, you’ll probably have seen something similar (i took a web-based interview to work at macy’s and it was somehow even worse than disney’s) but it’s basically gauging a) your competency (not w/ a specific role but just like: if a kid gets hurt, what do you do? if a guest complains, how do you respond?) and b) how much you value the opportunity/how hard you intend to work (like: do you mind working late hours? do you mind working holidays and weekends?). people will tell you to be honest…um. do not. literally no one wants to work christmas day and new years eve (i worked both), but saying that makes it look like you don’t care. a friend of mine attended a lecture during our program and someone involved in the application process basically confirmed that no one actually expects you to be honest…it’s a test of loyalty to the company. i was also told that if you fail the application process 2-3+ times and keep trying, they’ll automatically admit you because you’ve shown how much you care about disney…showing enthusiasm for and commitment to disney is literally the #1 thing they’re looking for. they’ll train you in how to do your job on site. 

the third step is the phone interview and it’s pretty typical of phone interviews, if you’ve ever done one before. i’ve actually done it twice (i got into the program earlier but had to decline the first time for personal reasons) and your interviewers are usually very friendly and patient…the whole thing lasts 10-15 minutes at most. again, you can google and youtube search “dcp phone interview” and find a list of the exact questions you’ll be asked. i’d recommend looking each of them over and getting an idea of how you would answer, but don’t type it out and read off a paper. you want to sound personable/cheerful/etc. (more so than in your average phone interview) and it’s worth being less than eloquent or stumbling a little here and there if you can stay smiling throughout the conversation. in my exp. they’ll start by asking general questions about your interest in the program (why do you want to do this program? how does the program relate to your area of study? are you comfortable living with multiple roommates?) with some one-offs thrown in like “what’s your favorite disney character?” then they’ll segue into asking you jobs about specific roles…usually 2-3. these are the roles they’ll be considering you for (like, if they start asking you about your experience with a video camera, you’re being considered for photopass. if they start asking you if you’re comfortable with public speaking, you’re being considered for attractions). at the end, they’ll ask you if you have any questions, and it helps to have one prepared (again, pretty general phone interview procedure). you can also request placement at specific parks or resorts at this point, but don’t expect a guarantee. 

re: housing, if you’re going alone, i would say to make a facebook if you don’t already have one (you’ll use it for trading shifts during the program anyway), join some DCP groups for your class and hook up w/ people to room with. they’ll ask you to rank the dorms in order of most to least interest…imo just put vista way last lmao. 

imo, it’s worth knowing going into this that the workload is no joke…you get a week or so to settle in, but once you’ve attended traditions (a 5+ hour lecture where you’re given your ID card and taken into magic kingdom for the first time) they’re going to load your schedules with lectures, basic training, disney history (subtle brainwashing tends to come with the territory w/ these) on the job training, and then you start work. while i was there, you were able to trade shifts either for a different day or for a free day, but i have two friends on campus now and they told me you can’t trade for a day off anymore w/o a leader’s permission b/c too many CPs were missing rent (they take your rent $$$ right out of your paycheck) so you’ll be working 5-6 days a week, and like i said, they absolutely will schedule you to work holidays. you can call out but there’s a points system (i won’t get into that) so you need to be careful when and how often you do. 

anyway…i was chosen to be a lifeguard which was a disaster. disney’s lifeguards are ellis-trained, which means you need to swim eight laps to qualify, and then go through three days of physically intensive training. i was fortunate enough to get Extremely Fucking Sick mid-way through this training, and had to transfer jobs (job-hopping is very, very hard to do and discouraged, so i wouldn’t count on that; i was told right there on the phone that they would see what they could do, but i could potentially be dropped from the program). but they allowed me to choose my role and my location, so…i was kind of spoiled. i was adlib (adventureland/liberty square) merchandise in magic kingdom. i loved my job very much, and i’m desperately hoping i get placed in magic kingdom again if i get in. i worked in all of the shops in lib square and adventureland (so like, the pirates of the caribbean shop, the shops in agrabah, the haunted mansion gift shop and the christmas ornament shop) (EDIT: i forgot to mention that one of the perks of merchandise is that you can pick up shifts at any store, across the parks, the resorts, ESPN and disney springs. so i’ve picked up shifts in most areas of magic kingdom and also hollywood studios; main street was my favorite place to pick up) but adventureland is in charge of the magic kingdom glow carts, and most of the college programs and younger cast members are assigned to glow carts 24/7 because we’re younger and it’s…a lot of work. this was a very specific outdoor/crowd-intensive role that you probably won’t be dealing with (they do have glow carts in all of the parks, so you never know!) but i adored it. i got to attend all of the christmas and halloween parties free, wear the christmas and halloween costumes, and watch all of the parades. i got to watch wishes every night (and occasionally celebrate the magic and other castle shows, if i was on main street or in the castle hub) and had lots of Magical Moments™ which you’ll learn about if you wind up in the program. 

this is absurdly long but there’s just…so much to cover it’s a little ridiculous. imo it’s a bit of a double-edged sword. if you do love disney/the parks, i really, super highly recommend doing this internship. if you’re not 100% up to your ears in childhood nostalgia for disney, the DCP will probably drive you up the wall from sheer, constant overexposure to all things disney. i left campus maybe one (1) time, for the orlando pride parade…i ate only at disney restaurants, talked only to other cast members (parks gossip and what fireworks shows are getting replaced with new fireworks shows, etc.), every single night out was at the parks. and i loved it but some…did not! if you do like it and want to continue, adding all of your cast members (especially leaders) on linkedin/facebook/etc. and keeping in touch with them is essential…i didn’t do that and i’m kicking myself for it daily. there are tens of thousands of cast members working at disney, and 10,000+ CPs alone…it’s an enormous community and it was a very strange thing to be a part of…sometimes very rewarding, sometimes exhausting! but if i was offered a free trip to wdw right now, i would feel weird about going because i feel weird about being there as a guest and ultimately valued my experience as a cast member so much more. so all that being said, i think it’s an experience worth having–again, if everything i’ve discussed here is your cup of tea. 

anyway, if you have any more specific questions i’m sure i could hit you up with a response of a much more reasonable length lmao. good luck, and if you’re planning to apply for 2018, i would definitely consider giving it a shot this august. 

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Finishing up complete at OMD has uncovered me to managing several of the most significant aids make inside of the market and my complete is acquiring caught in within the course of the chunky items of labor. Dealing with existing media clientele, it could not sound correct not to supply the help, and it wouldn't clean to argue the toss for not ending up Lookup motor optimization. Towards the very same objective, integration with other electronic and over the highway channels is crucial also. Offline advertising and marketing types in no way at any time are quite probably to understand digital also to be practical, there exists undoubtedly most likely a mutual misunderstanding even so the two channels need to carry out jointly to your higher outstanding and co-ordination is crucial between groups. Advertising and marketing campaign Primarily based SEO Integration One normal failing of over the freeway could be the truth that there exists no measurability. You may uncover ways that to rectify this through self-importance URLs/domains and redirecting with marketing and advertising campaign examining codes despite the fact that not absolutely everyone will usually do not fail to remember the model identity, never to level out the URL. Just as much as Tv established advertisers will dislike confessing it, folks will frequently sustain in your mind the advert despite the fact that not the model identify, unless of course obviously the design is drilled in for the head for your phase of infuriation these kinds of as being the Go Consider and We Purchase Any Vehicle adverts outlined underneath in Britain. Although within the function the branding is not sturdy, however, you may find out other approaches to get website visitors to the website using other marketing and advertising and promoting and marketing and advertising channels and make sure the design and style notion is handed.  I remember seeing this movie as opposed to acquiring completely constructive what it experienced been for quickly afterward on, so this is a fantastic state of affairs in the placement of what I'm talking about. In genuine truth, the on-line video clip is marketing and advertising Cadbury's Dairy Milk; nevertheless, even numerous correct soon after the advert, you will find associated phrases that aren't design related. I have intentionally excluded unrelated and merchandise situations, which combine for the volume of queries and even with the truth that the volumes normally aren't ground breaking, the advert is four a very long time prior, and it truly is nevertheless getting lookup quantity. Queries for these phrases additional prolong the measurement of greater than the road motion and improve site visitors and make sure the producer affiliation is produced in regard to the web if it was not extremely apparent to have started out on with. Inside this specified occasion, the producer (Cadbury's) seems eighth though inside the examination constructive facets about the phrase, however, visibility is inadequate on account of the dominance of repeated seek out. Not undoubtedly a single of the movies or photos are from an official YouTube channel furthermore to the product title affiliation isn't unique throughout the titles which might be undoubtedly not finest. Other, non-TV marketing can thankfully endure the positioning in harmony with normal posts, notably whether it is humorous or emotive indirectly. This will be within the type of marketing and marketing from newspapers, journals, pub bogs or common standard community transportation. The same suggestions apply. My strategy for integrating strategies in to show up also to acquire the best possible publicity and offline checking would look for almost everything these types of as currently being the pursuing. one particular specific. Be certain the buyer retains you inside the loop with any impending promoting and marketing and advertising actual physical exercising It actually is hard to carry out marketing campaign optimisation approach with no becoming forewarned. This will likely be usually probably 1 on the most hard component so place jointly to obtain reactive. two. If in any respect attainable get a sneak peak in the advertising and marketing campaign within the shopper or inside truly very the extremely the very least a fast Nevertheless yet again, a great magnificent while in the celebration you could make it occur but viewing the advertising and marketing and marketing and advertising marketing campaign very quite very firsthand will give a noticeably greater comprehension of precisely what the promoting and advertising and marketing campaign it actually is and let you to definitely undoubtedly successfully brainstorm achievable appropriate vital expression lookups. three. Generate formal YouTube and Flickr accounts should to they tend to not exist presently Relatively obvious period, however you’d be amazed utilizing the amount of brand name names that never make use of a branded YouTube account. four. Prepare a paid out search for marketing campaign masking design and advert associated phrases, also as any generic phrases that will use, i.e. "drumming gorilla" All of us are educated that guaranteeing range somebody positions for every very likely important phrase is tough so for max publicity and tie in to earlier pointed out the highway, PPC can support assist and promise maximum protection. five. Be sure there exists a tad inside of the website for adverts and techniques and take advantage of a custom-made landing web page for compensated find out, as well as Analysis motor optimisation Yet again, a quite distinct amount despite the fact that not all product names have locations on their own very own private  website for his / her marketing approaches. 6. Speedy other electronic groups to incorporate appropriate imagery for present and affiliate movement to amplify the marketing campaign digitally Screen creatives demand to be altered regularly and however I'm no knowledgeable on show, it could sound correct for them to match any tv marketing. Exactly precisely exactly the same creatives may be handed on to affiliate networks for affiliate marketers to operate with on their own private website, which require to amplify the affect and engrave the advert on peoples’ minds. seven. Put together and optimise a landing page on your own advertising and marketing campaign in worry, integrate imagery furthermore a description from your advertising and marketing campaign for that visually impaired Not similar to phase 5, which suggests obtaining a targeted component throughout the website for marketing and advertising and promoting, my phase here's to make sure a fully commited landing page for every advert and by no means all adverts within the solitary web page. 8. Begin the advertising and marketing campaign By start, this could be the very first Tv airing, day of security in newspaper, and the like. Another post begin off method need to have to get to crop up instantly later on and will be pretty self-explanatory: The final phase is crucial; generally tends to make will take away way more seasoned adverts from their websites and YouTube channels, that is totally useless. Even though within the celebration the advertising and marketing campaign is successful and unforgettable it could push website visitors for the extended time period to return yet again. One particular a great deal more amount I'd emphasize is examining articles or blog posts on third social accumulating entire world extensive websites making use of the Google Analytics URL builder the area attainable. Lookup could be prevented entirely jointly using the use of QR codes, however I'd argue that until and finally, QR code viewers are indigenous in around day smartphones, relatively than necessitating the third get with one another application, the uptake may well be heading for being modest and irrespective, there'll typically be lookups, so it really is however in fact properly well worth masking all bases.