Tumgik
#because a) he hates women b) giving it to anybody would be admitting his own mortality
beronicalongcon · 2 months
Text
it's so heartbreaking how in the first season shiv is pretending so hard that she's uninterested in being a part of the company and that she has her OWN Good Liberal Agenda and her OWN desires and beliefs and her OWN ways to get power and success and no tom don't worry I don't even want it!!! ofc she wants it more than anything in the world but she knows that to express desire is to be vulnerable to humiliation. but then that OLD CUNT coaxes her out of her shell and makes her believe she has a chance only to humiliate her over and over again and make her entire life about him because he can't stand for any of his kids not to be obsessed with him. "I've managed to get myself into this situation where what does my dad think is my entire fucking universe." sarah snook emmy logan roy kys 1000 times
393 notes · View notes
Text
Today I will be addressing SuperCorp and some of the issues that have been floating around about fandom. And I will be saying some stuff that both is for it and could be used against it even though I am ultimately a super big supercorp fan. Like it says in the tags you're free to express your opinion but they will not be changing mine but I am always open-minded to opinions that can actually be explained and eloquently expressed (receipt's needed) and aren't just basic. Also just so what is noted I have been a part of this fandom since the first episode I have literally shipped Kara with everyone from Lucy to Cat even James.But Lena has just stuck out the most for me but I'm Equal opportunity.
Number #1, Lena's character in no way shape or form has ever been xenophobic she has never once shown any hate towards aliens her problem with Kara in season 5 Wasn't because she was an alien it was because she was a "Super" like Kara could have been a flying purple fucking octopus from the planet of shzjxfdf and Lena wouldn't have gave two fucks but no she was a "Super"but let's dig deeper on that point if we really look at why she was mad it wasn't even the whole alien aspect it was because she wasn't told and no I don't think she's entitled to it but I do think it played into the fact of a trust issue she has with the fact that people would think she would be just like Lex if she had been told Sooner. Which is disproved in 5x13 (also personal note: I also think she wouldn't have reacted half as bad if Kara had just told her that night at game night or the next day when she wanted to probably still would have been pissed but not to the same extent). But okay with that being said I do disagree with the kryptonite entrapment torture scene and basically half the s*** she did in season 5 it was shown that she truly can tap into her Luthor side and be dark when wanted but fortunately she does always return to the light and in all fairness it has been shown several times that Kara has a dark side of her own that could rival the luthors.
Number #2, I do disagree with the abuse of actresses and actors just because of a ship and or character they play don't blame them it's just a job they have I think Melissa and Katie do a beautiful job of bringing Kara and Lena's characters to life couldn't imagine anybody else playing them.
Number #3, I also will say about the reason bombarding of comments on Nicole's social media at least I saw the video via tiktok in that video was fucking hilarious I love Nia, Dreamer,and Nicole in general she's funny and beautiful and is an advocate for everything good in life and well it is normal to even ask other actors if they have the scoop on anything it does not mean we need to be bombarding them in videos on something relating to their character or their love of something a simple comment or so maybe but what I saw NO.
Number #4, The William of it all well I think though his character seems like a nice gentleman he also seems to be bland as hell also I did not know he was a POC to be honest I thought he was a tan white man and we'll be doing further research on people in the future as I can learn from my ignorance also but unrelated I did not know that the woman who played Maggie was apparently just a tan white woman I thought she was of some sort of Hispanic descent but apparently not according to various things I've read on here tonight... But anyways back to William I feel like a lot of people might have perceived him as a white man therefore that might play into the whole scenario of people hate that they just want two white woman together when it proves if she was a man they wouldn't give two f**** about it whether that's true or not I don't know but mine two cents.
Number #5, I will never bash someone for being for or against a certain ship and or character and well I am allowed to certainly disagree with their opinion all opinions are valid because we all see the world a different way some see it bright and shiny and others like I'll admit myself see it through the glasses of trauma. And I think that's why we all have the opinions we do most of the time when you like a shipper character it's because you relate to them somehow even if it's the most minor thing to someone else it might be huge for you. You never know what the person on the other side of the screen is going through in those characters or ship or fanfiction might have literally saved their lives.
Sidenote: Like okay personal story I was been both mentally and sexually abused as a child so I relate to both Kara and Lena respective childhood trauma so that draws me to them. And I kind of see them both as the opposite attract trope (two side of the same coin) because well we never fully get over trauma Kara had a great support system with the Danvers whereas Lena didn't get that with the luthors I mean sure she had Lex at first but even that was only to a certain extent because of his psychopathy that was starting to manifest he couldn't perceive human emotions the same as Lena who in my opinion is just a big mushy nerd who can be a badass when needed as evident by the season 6 episodes after she's quit L-Corp she's constantly trying to help out inventing new stuff and she's wondering how Nia's suit works and it just shows that she just has a curious mind and also she looks happier even with the guilt she feels over Kara's phantom zone incident when Nia called her a part of the family that smile could lit up a city all she's ever wanted is to belong and I can relate to that therefore to her.
Number #6, I feel like this should have been addressed in earlier number but as far as sexuality goes I would want to believe Kara is pansexual because of everything I've ever read and saw I don't believe she perceived sexuality like humans do because of her Kryptonian upbringing for the first good chunk of the life. Like even though she says she's not gay in the first episode, A. It was the first episode so they didn't even know where the story was going in future seasons if they got them also that means maybe she just didn't perceive herself as the Earth's definition of gay. B. Even in the first season she made a comment about how she bought Lucy was gorgeous and hell she would date her. C. She made some comments about Irma and other woman that don't sound totally heterosexual and don't get me wrong women can admire the beauty and intelligence of other women without it being sexual but as a bisexual woman it just struck a cord in me you can tell the difference when it's coming from a straight woman mouth. Now on the subject of her and Lena strictly I do think there are instances of "queerbaiting"because just because you perceive they haven't been promised to us doesn't mean that some of us haven't picked up on things or the fact that they're simply queerbating because somehow they do hype up Kara and Lena to keep a nice chunk of the audience who ships them mainly those of the gay variety interested in the show which is also considered queerbaiting. Also the fact that they've been called sisters or family or my personal favorite "that's what friends are for"doesn't mean crap because honestly at this point the overuse of friends just sounds more like they're trying to convince themselves than us.*** Also I don't know about you but even on the basic level of things they've done I've never shown half those feelings towards my friends and the ones I have it's because I started to think of them as more than friends.
Now with Lena's sexuality no they have never shown her as anything besides straight canonically but don't get me wrong she totally sends off that college experimentation vibe especially with Andrea for some reason but that may just be me.
Number #7, my main point is let's just be kind to one another because guess what there is toxicity from every ship in a fandom there will always be shitty people on both sides and then there will be those of us who just want to see the characters together for one reason or another and yes I'm not afraid to admit that part of my reasons I want to see two gorgeous woman kiss sue me LOL.
Number #8, the conclusion of my rant is that how about we leave the hating to the ones who want to do that and the rest of us like adults or whatever your age is in the fandom that has any type of maturity behave because I truly do wish the best and in the end well I hope they end up together I'm realistic that they probably won't especially due to the CW Network motto of "homophobia and racism"because they've already broken up several good gay and interracial couples on that show. But at the end of the day my true wish is just that all of the characters end up happy and healthy.
Best of luck to all shippers out there anti and supercorp and or any other couple alike may we try to make it out of this with a modicum of sanity and even if they fail us we always have fanfiction thank you and good night.
33 notes · View notes
tortoisenottortoise · 3 years
Text
Am I the only one who likes seeing muscular women in media more than muscular men?
Alright so, this one will probably end up much shorter and a little more ranty than I'd like, but this is kind of personal so be fairly warned. 
 Recently I've seen a few complaints about the new He-Man show and honestly, I fully understand and empathize with them. Whilst I haven't fully seen the show, from what I've viewed I can personally speaking agree (or at the very least understand) where most criticisms come from. I think it's incredibly shitty that the writer basically lied to his audience about how the show would run. Now normally I'd be fine with a twist such as He-man dying, but he's an important part of the show and the way the marketing & merchandising for it was running kind of comes across as him basically using He-Man's name to get people into the show. I also feel like it's fine to view Teela as obnoxious and annoying, nothing about her personality-wise seems likable to me. I also heard a few complaints about Orko's (I think that's his name, don't crucify me) backstory and how his character was handled.Yet as the title suggests one that didn't stick with me was the criticism of Teela and a general trend towards the criticism of women in media as being "masculine". 
I've heard over and over that Hollywood representing strong women by giving them masculine traits is a bad thing and yet... I kind of don't get it? It feels odd to say, almost like I'm the dumbest man alive for admitting something which most people on the internet seem to be so sure about, yet I just don't understand where this is coming from. I've seen this thrown at She-hulk, Wonder Woman, Abby, and many other characters, yet when inquired it usually loops back around to, "Yeah they have muscles", and that's about it. This type of criticism in specific seems to overly focus on the appearance of said characters. It's the one critique I just can't get behind and it feels like at best it's a shallow criticism that fails to get its point across, and at worst it's actively demeaning to women who desire to or show masculine traits. But first, let me break this down into sections.
Section 1: Muscles =/= Masculinity (In my opinion at least)
Oh boy, I feel like this is a section that might rustle some feathers, but I'm going to try and explain myself best as possible. I simply do not view muscularity as a feature that is inherent to or should be inherent to men. I'm not going to pretend as if muscular men aren't more saturated in media and art, nor as if they're societally treated as masculine, but one of the reasons I fail to understand this criticism is that I see muscles beyond the horizons as being just a masculine trait. 
I believe that muscles should instead be seen as a sign of hard work and determination. As someone who's currently trying (and struggling) to stay healthy and fit, it's much harder than a lot of media portrays it to be. It's a test where you push yourself to the limits, not just for the sake of doing it, but so you can improve as a person. Whenever I go to the gym and see a muscular gal or guy walk by, my immediate thought isn't, "how masculine" or anything like that my thought is, "wow! They worked hard to get like that, I should work hard as well!". 
This interpretation tends to feel like it's just simply taking a piss on people who actively work hard to achieve higher levels of strength. Especially when society places and enforces these unrealistic standards onto people. If you don't have a six-quintillion pack nor can bench press a fucking house then you're worthless, of course, that is unless you actually attempt to pursue said standards which in that case you're automatically dismissed as cheating your way to gaining your muscles instead of putting any work in. And that's just for men who often don't have to deal with traditional idiots who are stuck in the year 1950 where I can't walk on the same street as them. My skin crawls when reading tweets from older men talking about how weightlifting women are "ruining their fertility" and I absolutely hate it when people in my life treat these women as if they're mythical creatures from a fairy tale, or when females who have trained to such a degree are simply dismissed as being inferior. 
Obviously, I don't think the people who say this are like that, but whenever I hear this type of critique I can't help but think of the culmination of all these experiences I've gone through. But then again, this might honestly just be because I'm personally attracted to muscular women.
  Section 2: Body type diversity
  Another reason that I tend to like muscular women in media over muscular men is simply due to the sheer oversaturation of muscular men. Don't get me wrong, I have no problem if anybody likes muscular men. I totally get wanting to shove your face in between some man titties or get inspired by their physiques. In all honesty, almost everything I said earlier can directly apply to men, but one of the reasons I bring up body type diversity is that there tend to be much less muscular women than men. I
f anything, I'd have to say that muscular men are almost treated as the default when it comes to things like superhero comics, movies, video games, anime, etc. In a similar vein, the default for women tends to be slim and curvaceous, you get the drill. Whenever someone who doesn't fit into either body type shows up and isn't treated like a joke/gag or a character to rip on, I can't help but be happy about it. As much as I have no clue wtf is going on with TLOU2, I can appreciate that Abby's portrayal doesn't seem to exist solely as a joke meant to demean women for working out. I'm excited when an anime protagonist is a fat character who can go beyond just being a "fat guy" and is treated the same way a normal person would be.
 Regardless of what you think about whatever trait you're criticizing, there's probably someone out there who fits it. If you're not into it or dislike it, then that's fine, but I'd rather have that expressed than it being actively made out as a harmful trope as opposed to just literally another body type that some women have.
  Section 3: Muscular women inspire me more
Ok so, we've now blown into a full-on personal experience, buckle up boys, girls, NBs, anything in between, and I feel like I'm forgetting someone so apologies! But yeah, muscular women in media tend to be a lot more inspiring than people seem to give them credit for. This comes down to a mix of both the qualities I outlined earlier in what makes the characters inspiring but also plays into the idea of body diversity. 
One of the traits that make amazons seem more inspiring is their inherent rarity/lack of screentime. As I stated earlier, whilst I do enjoy my fair share of man-titties, it kind of gets to a point where it's more depressing than inspiring when all you see is just super-models shoved in your face whenever you walk into a theater. If for every Goku I could find ten other guys who were on the chubbier side then I'd be able to take more from when I see Goku and other characters with his body type, yet it's so saturated that it no longer becomes something to aspire to, but simply the norm.  It's not that you can work to become muscular or skinny with hard work and effort, you have to be muscular or skinny unless you want to be deemed a failure. Being chubby often isn't presented as a starting point but just treated as a defect. As someone who spent years battling with my own self-perception, that's just not a good message to get across.
Now, this obviously isn't to say that people can never make muscular characters. After all, it's their story so they can put whatever they want in it. The aim of the game isn't to stop people from making a specific type of character, but to encourage a diverse set of people to make a diverse set of characters. This is the reason why I view muscular women as so inspiring. Instead of coming across as just "the norm" or "the standard" they stand out from the crowd and despite knowing what they have to deal with, are still ready and willing to work out and improve their bodies. They had a goal in mind and set time aside to achieve said goal, that's something I can get behind.
  Conclusion:
This will be another short section, but I just wanted to mention it because it caps off my thoughts on this post in general. What originally started as me just not getting the reason why people disliked Teela's design somehow turned into a passionate rant and I'm A) not sure if it fits on this particular subsection of the community, B) scared I'm going to get ripped to pieces, and C) somewhat unsatisfied with all that I said. At the end of the day, this probably won't be seen by too many people, but to those who do see it, I hope you have a wonderful day. I just wanted to talk about something that was near and dear to my heart and hoped that I made it clear why I view things the way I do. 
P.S: Can we stop having this double standard where we act like women whose arms show the slightest hint of definition are "unrealistic" whilst men can look like tree trunks and be considered normal and healthy? please and thank you!
7 notes · View notes
imo-chan-imagines · 4 years
Text
『 Haikyuu!! Week 2020 | Day 3 』
· Sept. 27th → Irresistible Force ·
Characters: Karasuno team
Prompts: A. favourite team + B. crossover/AU
Tags/warnings: Haikyuu!! (anime), PG, fluff, crack, a teensy bit of angst (because who doesn't love a sad superhero backstory), headcanons, AU, superheroes, HaikyuuWeek2020
A/N: Again, I love all the teams and didn't want to pick, but life is cruel, so here I am. This is headcanons about my fav team (Karasuno) in an AU (superheroes). I was thinking of a Hero Association, kind of like in 'The Boys'? But less corrupt... Maybe more like in 'One Punch'? I think you get me.
All of my Haikyuu Week 2020 posts will be SFW, but I have NFSW content on my blog if that butters your biscuit. Feel free to check it out! Thanks for reading! Please enjoy ♡ Imo~
Tumblr media
Karasuno / Superhero Association AU
×
☆ Sawamura Daichi ☆
Powers: nigh invulnerability, super strength, enhanced healing
If he's not the ordinary cop that somehow befriends the heroes I was tempted then he's definitely the leader of the superhero group
Kind of like Superman in the old-school Justice League, just not as OP lol
Looks damn good is spandex those thighs *sweats*
Cape!! so ✨majestic✨
Probably wears dark-ish, neutral colours with a dash of blue
A bit serious. Not the kind of hero to go around making quips all the time, but will make light of his own suffering like Captain America
Takes younger heroes under his wing like the true Dadchi he is
Strong moral compass. Unbreakable
Won't hesitate to lay down his life for others
Who am I kidding. He's basically Captain America with a cape
Poster-boy for the Hero Association
×
☆ Sugawara Koushi ☆
Powers: telekinesis
A soft, pearly aesthetic with his suit, hair and skin. Lots of white and silver
A favourite among the ladies he's just too pretty, damm it T T
Very plucky and adorable
People in the vicinity will literally faint when he goes all serious to concentrate and use his powers
Has a duo move with Daichi where he literally throws him like a missle YEET
Has the most followers on Twitter and TikTok and his fans can be pretty nuts
Has a perfume line named after him and models for the adverts
Will smile like an angel right before bringing a building down on top of you fuck, I find this one really funny
×
☆ Azumane Asahi ☆
Powers: regeneration, enhanced stength
Kind of like Wolverine or Deapool but, like, much, much softer on the inside uwu
Wears green and black
Messed up big time back in the day and dropped off the grid out of guilt some people died :(
Was convinced to come back when his old teammates finally found him again because they needed his help in a crisis
Literally shed tears of relief when heroes and citizens alike welcomed him back instead of hating him mah heart *sniffs*
Can withstand seemingly anything and fully heal within a matter of days
Doesn't know the full extent of his powers himself. How exactly do one test it? 🤔
Still has to psych himself up for a fight, though big softy, really
×
☆ Shimizu Kiyoko ☆
Powers: electrokinesis, flight
Powers like Storm from X-Men, and kicks ass like Wonder Woman
Refuses to wear a revealing suit, but looks bomb af anyway
Kiyoko = absolute queen
One of the most powerful heroes, but doesn't throw her weight around unless she's kicking bady-guy booty
Stella gynamast, and has mastered several martial arts
Can literally throw a guy three times her size, all without any strength powers Tanaka: 👁👄👁
Somehow has perfect hair all the time secret superpower??
Is active on the political stage as a human rights activist, headlining women's rights yes, yes yes
Will strike you with lightning for sexual harassment
Comes up with really good mission plans
Is a soothing balm for Tanaka when he loses it
Black and gold aesthetic✨
Asymmetrical cape! super fashionable
Poster-girl for the Hero Association
Tumblr media
☆ Tanaka Ryuunosuke ☆
Powers: fire generation and manipulation
Tanaka brings the heat literally
A bit of a chaotic-good, but what's new there?
Can get out of control if he loses his focus, so his friends have to keep him grounded Kiyoko is a literal angel when that happens
Kiyoko: Sun's getting real low...
Bonus points if you get the reference
Is terrified of hurting innocents if he gets out of control
It rarely happens, but if he loses his self confidence, his powers don't seem to work
Shouts cringy lines at the villains before roasting their asses lmfao
Wears a black and orange flame-retardant suit, and actually looks pretty fine in it 😌👌
Literally head over heels for Kiyoko just imagine it. Biggest hype man
×
☆ Nishinoya Yuu ☆
Powers: animal metamorphosis, enhanced speed
Think Beast Boy from 'Teen Titans', but less green he's more likely to be yellow or orange, lmao
Handy in lots of different situations. Very versatile
Incredibly cheeky and joins in with Tanaka's cheesy jokes and one-liners
Absolute maniac, but the people love him, especially schoolkids lmao
Has his own energy drink flavour, and he's STOKED about it
Yellow and black suit, kind of like his hair
Has a surprisingly large following of fans
Laps up the attention, but it doesn't really go to his head
Quiet and serious when he's on a mission/fighting
Tumblr media
☆ Hinata Shouyou ☆
Powers: self replication, super speed, levitation
His powers took a while to properly manifest, which left him feeling isolated as a teen
Was pretty lost until Ukai helped train him
Got into a fight with Kageyama in an alleyway when he first met him MET HIM IN THE STREET, LMAO
Argues with Kageyama a lot at headquarters, but they work together like a dream when taking down bad guys
Has a heart of literal gold precious baby
Is contantly amazed when he helps significantly
Was inspired to become a hero by his idol, the Little Giant and it's his dream to inspire someone else 😭😭
Uses his replication ability to confuse the bad guys ULTIMATE DECOY
Levitates around the room when he's excited like Aang from ATLA, hahaha
Wears an orange, white and yellow suit with little wings on his heels cuuuute
×
☆ Kageyama Tobio ☆
Powers: water/ice generation and manipulation, breathing underwater, superhuman reflexes
I was tempted to give him fire/ice powers like Todoroki, but I didn't want to detract from Tanaka
Has problems focusing his powers, and can be quite turbulent in the heat of battle
Finds it hard to work well with others initially, but really makes an effort
Has hurt people close to him by accident before and never wants to do it again it would tear him apart
Becomes a power duo with Hinata when Ukai helps train them, even though they don't seem to get on well at first
Broody boi on the surface, but a cinnamon roll deep down
Wears a dark blue and deep purple suit that has fins to assist in underwater escapades which are his forte
Freezes Hinata's feet to the floor when he pisses him off or anybody's feet, tbh
Can dodge almost anything because of his reflexes don't ever try to punch him. You'll look stupid
Is surprised by the number of people in his fan club especially the number of women asking to marry him??
×
☆ Tsukishima Kei ☆
Powers: telepathy, superhuman intellect, mind control on weak-willed individuals
Prefers to outwit his enemies rather than getting into a brawl
But his self-designed gadgets and tech help him out if he has to a bit like Tony Stark, wink wonk
Sometimes makes you question if he's really a hero or not Tsukki, please
Doesn't take orders well
Baits villains by insulting them and getting the better of them with his words it's hilarious
Comes up with good plans, but improvises well with whatever he's got
Probably wears suits over his spandex most of the time fancy shmancy
Is prepared to die to protect Yamaguchi waahhh
×
☆ Yamaguchi Tadashi ☆
Powers: invisibility, force fields, teleportation
Susan Storm with added teleportation, lol
Often finds it hard to value his powers because they're not as visually strong and impressive as other people's
Rather than squaring up to a battle, he often has to 'hide' from it by literally going invisible
But he gradually becomes aware of how vital his powers can be, and learns to control them and make them as advantageous as possible
Is a highly important and valued member of the team
Soft bean that gets nervous and throws up before a fight
But he's hella determined and won't back down
Honestly, just wants to protect Tsukki and make him proud PROTECT HIM
×
☆ Yachi Hitoka ☆
Powers: size manipulation
She can shrink and enlarge herself and objects she touches at will, including other people
Sometimes shrinks really small to avoid social situations she doesn't want to be in samez, honey
The clumsiest and least experienced on the team
But she tries her best, gradually getting to grips with her powers
Sometimes uses her powers by accident, like when she's nervous
Once touched a watermelon slice on the refreshment table and accidentally blew it up to the size of a car Hinata, Kageyama and Noya fully dug in with their faces 😭😭
Nearly passed out when Daichi, the literal god of the Hero Association, told her she had great potential
Don't worry, Yams teleported and caught her
Tumblr media
☆ Ukai Keishin ☆
Powers: laser vision, metal mimicry
The has-been hero who lost his enthusiasm for hero-ing and retired some years ago
Was really cool back in his hayday. Big hot-shot with a fan club
Has been working as a convenience store attendant to pay the bills and is bored out of his mind but refuses to admit it
Was convinced to get back in the game when he found Hinata and Kageyama fighting, both struggling with their abilities. He broke up the fight and agreed to coach them
Doesn't do much of the flashy hero stuff anymore, but will occasionally get stuck in when he's needed must protecc his children
Is only, like, ten years older than the other heroes, but they treat him like some fossilised sensei out of Natuto, or some shit
Tbf, he has the back problems of one 😭😭
×
☆ Takeda Ittetsu ☆
Powers: power absorption
Transferred from being a hero to hero management after having having issues with the effects of his powers he has a conscience :(
He felt guilty and responsible for permanently taking the powers of others, even if they were criminals
It was like removing a piece of their souls it kind of broke him
These days, he makes sure nobody knows about his powers, so it can't be used against him
He helps in any other way possible
He would only use his powers again in dire circumstances he knows he'll eventually have to
Is generally chipper and good natured, though
If he was ever captured by a villain, they'd probably send him back because he talks too much omg, hahaha
Helps gather info for the team and direct them on missions and in fights
Gives bomb inspirational speeches ✊
Tumblr media
© imo-chan-imagines 2020
Tumblr media
57 notes · View notes
leverage-ot3 · 4 years
Text
notable moments from The Gimme a K Street Job
leverage 5.05
lemme just start by addressing the episode synopsis: “to take down a competitive cheerleading company which profits by putting teenage girls at risk, the team must tackle their most corrupt foe yet: congress”
y’all they went SO HARD for 2012 and I stan them SO HARD for that
- - - - -
Parker (into video camera on phone): Do you hate me? You hate me. Is that why you’re making me—
[Leverage Headquarters]
Parker (on display): —do this?
Nate: No, Par-Parker, these girls... they need a coach, and you’re the best gymnast I know.
Hardison: Besides, it puts you on the inside at Pep H.Q. In D.C. They’re running cheer camp for the next week up until championship.
Parker: But they’re teenage girls. What do I know about teenage girls?
Nate: You were a teenage girl?
Parker: Only sort of
parker I guarantee you’ll be in your element soon enough
but, in the meantime, parker complaining to nate like an offended child to a parent is everything
- - - - -
Sophie: Look, did you know about this? Girls being dropped from 20 feet. It’s unbelievable.
Parker: I know, right? 20 feet? Psh! Walk it off.
Sophie: Parker, you do know that normal people don’t just “walk off” a 20-foot fall, right?
Parker: So... all those times I pushed Hardison off a building and he was all “aah!”... he wasn’t just being funny?
(Hardison shakes his head)
Eliot: I thought it was funny, Parker.
Hardison: No way in hell was it funny.
Eliot: You’re always upside down, man.
Hardison: I fell off a building. I was upside...
Eliot: Like a Himalayan tree frog.
Hardison: You calling me a frog? You calling me a damn frog? Say it again. Say it to my face
I’d die for this chaotic ot3
eliot “I thought it was funny” spencer made sure to both reassure parker and fuck with hardison in the saME B R E A T H
- - - - -
Nate: Ah, there’s the crux of the problem right there. Technically, legally, cheerleading is not a sport. It’s an activity.
Sophie: What’s the difference?
Eliot: A sport has legally mandated safety standards.
Nate: Yes, and a for-profit company cannot run a sport, which is why pep wants to keep Competitive cheer from becoming a sport.
I don’t know why I was expecting someone to bash cheerleading the show had never ever let me down and I should have known better
- - - - -
Sophie: Ah, I love government. Shady deals, back-room meetings... It is grifter paradise.
Eliot: This is wrong. We work outside the law, not smack-dab in the middle of it.
Nate: Relax, Eliot. Elected officials are the easiest marks in the world. Between their ego, the greed, and the politics... More hooks than a bait shop
another fucked up government episode let’s go
- - - - -
Eliot: Right. Assuming it passes.
Hardison: Assuming what? It’s a bill to keep high-school girls out of wheelchairs. Who’s gonna vote against it?
[Congressional Meeting]
LeGrange: Ladies and gentlemen, this bill is a staggering... I say a staggering overreach of government power.
Eliot: You were saying
eliot is smug and loves proving hardison wrong on principle
- - - - -
LeGrange: Now, I was a quarterback in high school, so I think I know a thing or two about cheerleaders. And one thing I know is that they do not want big government getting all up in their business.
(Barron and Snyder enter the room)
LeGrange: Cheerleaders are strong, independent young women. They don’t need a bunch of white-haired old men from Washington telling them what to do. They don’t need a nanny state dictating their every move
this whole thing was so gross wtf
- - - - -
(Hardison uses his phone to create feedback on the sound system. A technician struggles to fix it while Hardison hands Eliot his phone)
Hardison: Just press this button.
LeGrange: I said, who knows what...
(Eliot presses button and the feedback gets worse)
they lowkey grinned at each other when they did it ,,,
they’re a chaotic duo that thrives on fucking with people and I stan them so hard for it
two words: assholery boyfriends
- - - - -
Nate: No, not... not marks. Elected officials. We do this right, we’ll have them eating out of our hand by dinner.
(hours later, Hardison enters looking exhausted. The others are seated around looking tired as well)
Eliot: “Eating out of our hand by dinner,” huh?
Hardison (sits down): Anybody else feel like we’ve been chewed up and spit out
and that’s government, people
- - - - -
Sophie: I like stealing things that are real. Cash... of course. Land... sure. Art... yes, please. Corn subsidies? Not so much.
let sophie steal expensive art from rich snobs pls it’s what she deserves
- - - - -
Girl: Um, coach?
Parker: Right! Okay, who’s up for some basic gymnastics drills?
(Parker presses a button and LASER light lines shine between orange cones. A girl in the back raises her hand)
Parker: Yes. You. What are you called?
Madison: Madison. Can I be excused? I don’t feel well.
Parker: But... We have... laser grid, Madison. Laser grid. Huh?
(on phone call)
Parker: They’re so jaded
I hope they still learned how to dodge lasers at the end
also ,,, THEIR PERFORMANCE WAS SO GOOD AT THE END PARKER TAUGHT THEM SO WELL
- - - - -
LeGrange: No, no. Listen carefully, son. Now, people don’t donate to me to buy my vote. People donate to me because they already know how I’m gonna vote. People donate to me because of my integrity. Now, if your people are interested in me, I’m happy to have your money. But if you think you can buy a vote off of J.J. LeGrange, well, you got another think coming.
[Empty Office]
Sophie: You mean...
Eliot: Yeah, I mean the guy’s got integrity. Elected official or not, you can’t con an honest man
congressman: *is honorable*
eliot:
sophie:
hardison:
nate:
*team collectively embodies the surprised pikachu meme*
- - - - -
Nate: Okay, so what’s your next play?
Eliot: Well, you’re supposed to be the mastermind. He doesn’t want power. He doesn’t want money. Maybe he really is an honest man.
Nate: Everyone has a hook, Eliot. Everyone has a weakness you can exploit.
Eliot: Do you?
Nate: No. You?
Eliot: No. Look, maybe this doesn’t fit into your world view, Nate, but there are some people out there that just want to serve. Trust me. I served with them.
Nate: Okay. Well, if all they want to do is serve, you can exploit that, too.
they totally have hooks and it’s the team but smh act like y’all are untouchable whatever
- - - - -
(Parker turns on a light in Ashley’s face)
Ashley: Madison talked to me in confidence.
Parker: A big word for a little girl.
Nate: Where’s Madison?
(Parker leans down into Ashley’s face, growling)
she literally G R O W L E D LMFAO
- - - - -
Parker: Madison? Madis... (sees Madison) Madison, hey, what are you doing down here? (helps Madison up) Everybody’s freaking out. Come on, we got to get you to the competition.
Madison (jerks away): I don’t want to compete.
Parker: What? Why not?
Madison: I don’t want to mess up again.
Parker: What are you talking about? When do you mess up? You’re great.
Madison: Seriously?
Parker: Oh. You were Marcy’s spotter.
Madison: I don’t know what went wrong. We’d done it a hundred times. Everything was going perfectly. (sits down) I just don’t want anyone else to get hurt.
(Nate clears his voice. Parker sits beside Madison)
Parker: Look... I’m not afraid of heights or falling or... Anything I probably should be. But do you know what I am afraid of? Letting down the people I care about. Look, you don’t have to compete if you don’t want to compete. But I think your friends are gonna feel a lot safer knowing that you’re there, instead of having no one there.
(Madison nods)
Parker: Right? Did, uh, that work? Because I kind of got to get all the way up to the roof, so... (leaves the area)
parker NEVER would have been able to be vulnerable and understanding like that in the earlier seasons and we are SO PROUD of her and her character growth
+
“But do you know what I am afraid of? Letting down the people I care about.”
SHE LOVES HER FAMILY SO MUCH AND NEVER WANTS ANYTHING TO HAPPEN TO THEM
also ,,, nate’s fond look at her when she’s saying this ??? im soft
- - - - -
Cheerleader: Ready! Ready!
Announcer: Let’s hear it for the MHS Badgers!
Announcer: Ready! Ready! Let’s go!
Nate: Ready?
[Congresswoman Berkus’ Office]
Hardison: Ready.
[Sophie’s Office]
Sophie: Ready.
[Hallway]
Eliot: Ready.
[Pep Athletics Headquarters]
Parker: Ready.
Nate: Let’s go.
they’re so extra I love them
- - - - -
Ashley: Where’s coach?
Madison: She’ll be here. She won’t let us down.
Man: Wolves, you’re up.
Female announcer: Let’s give it up for the Wolves.
Parker: I’m here! I’m here! I’m here! All right, let’s huddle up. I bet you guys could use a pep talk right about now, huh?
(cheerleaders agree)
Parker: For Marcy?
Madison: For Marcy.
Parker: Go, wolves.
All: Go-o-o-o, wolves!
(cheerleaders perform an outstanding routine. Barron approaches Nate as he watches)
parker THRIVED during this episode and you can’t change my mind
- - - - -
parker watching over the cheer team with pride is my religion
- - - - -
also BIG PROPS to the producers that showed male cheerleaders too
- - - - -
LeGrange: Hi. (to Parker) How are you? J.J. LeGrange.
Parker: I don’t vote.
parker is chaotic and we love her for it
- - - - -
Hardison: And what was that about?
Sophie: Huh? Oh, I was j... I was, um, just planning a little trip to the gulf. The military are breaking ground on Fort Devereaux.
Hardison: Fort Devereaux?
Sophie: Mm-hmm. I love government.
Parker: Missed you guys this week. Good game.
I WANNA SEE FORT DEVERAUX
also parker wrapping her arms around sophie and hardison, happy to have her people and admitting that she missed them? the pOWER
- - - - -
Nate: Good job on this one.
Eliot: I know what you’re trying to do, Nate. You could have told me how to hook LeGrange the whole time, but you wanted to see if I could figure it out on my own. I trust someday very, very soon, you’re gonna tell me what kind of game you’re playing.
Nate: Good job on this one.
(Nate walks away. Eliot smiles, but watches him walk away)
eliot’s bashful little smile at the end is everything
66 notes · View notes
hotel-japanifornia · 4 years
Note
What’s your feelings on godot i do feel sorry for him and i don’t hate him but he was a huge prick to Phoenix
Godot is a rather complex character. I like him as a character in general, however the fandom does seem to misunderstand who he is and what his motives are, even his fans.
When we first meet Godot chronologically, we meet him as the defense lawyer, Diego Armando. Diego is honestly pretty charming, he’s smooth, he’s confident, he’s cool, and I like the way he plays off of Mia. I personally never found the “kitten” nickname sexist nor do I understand why it would even be considered that way. It’s never said once that Diego doesn’t think Mia is lesser for her gender. In fact, in their first conversation during the case, this is said:
Armando:No, no, no… You’ve got it all wrong! Today, YOU’RE the finest! After all, it took an amazing amount of guts to take this case! Imagine… An escaped death row convict for a first client!
If anything, I think the whole kitten thing is probably just his nickname for rookies in general, and not necessarily women. I’ve seen people think it’s his way of flirting with her, and that’s possible too, just not necessarily how I see it. Anyways, at the end of the case, Mia beats herself up because she thinks that she was the reason her client died and Diego gives her this piece of advice:
Armando:Don’t you get it? You can’t cry yet. The only time a lawyer can cry is when it’s all over.
Mia:M-Mr. Armando…
It’s honestly a good piece of advice, and I love how Mia takes inspiration from that quote and uses it towards Phoenix even if it’s said in a different way:
“The toughest of times are when lawyers have to put on their biggest smiles.”
It’s not exactly the same as what Diego said, sure, but it does have the same meaning. In that way at least, you can see the impact he must have left on Mia. Regarding the two’s relationship for a moment, I do think they had just started dating when Diego was poisoned. It does explain why Grossberg calls Diego Mia’s boyfriend, but I digress.
When we meet him in 3-2 and 3-3, it’s obvious he dislikes Phoenix but we don’t know why yet. Honestly, Godot is probably one of my favorite parts of 3-2: he’s mysterious and confident, but he also has some goofy moments like when he refers to himself as a legendary prosecutor because he’s never lost a case but he’s also never won one either. I don’t know that it was intended to be funny but it’s always made me snicker a little. He comes off as being a jerk sure but so did Edgeworth and Franziska, and like them, we learn more about Godot and his motivations later on.
Godot in 3-3 is why I can never agree that T&T has a filler case. For one, in 3-3, you learn about Godot’s inability to see red on white when he fails to notice the ketchup on Maggey’s apron. It’s an extremely subtle moment, but it’s given quite a bit of focus so the player could then assume that that unique feature will be important later on. Godot is still mysterious and a jerk but I love the way that he handles Furio and willingly admits to being the one who summoned him to court. Like Nick said after the fact:
(T… Too cool…) 
Not only that, but he does manage to have a somewhat nice moment with Phoenix at the end of the case after throwing coffee at him:
Godot:Well done… Trite. I saved my 17th cup of coffee just for you. Savor it… While you watch your caged prey. 
While we don’t learn that much more about Godot than we did in 3-2; what we do learn about him plays a very important role in a case later on. 3-3 isn’t directly involved with the Feys at all, but it does have some importance to the overall plot of the game.
We meet Armando in 3-4 which is the first playable case chronologically in the trilogy’s timeline. Right off the bat, we notice he looks similar to Godot, the two even have a similar suit to each other, just different colors and have a similar hairstyle. I’m not entirely sure how many people guessed that Godot and Diego Armando were the same person right away but I think people might have at least thought the two were related at least (I’ve even seen people think that Godot and Diego were identical twins!). As for me, I kinda had a feeling since the two look alike and have the same love for the hot, bitter lady known as coffee.
Godot is extremely important to 3-5. If it wasn’t for him forming a plan to save Maya with Misty and Iris, Maya would be dead. Thing is, I don’t agree that Godot is entirely to blame for not going to the police and bringing the plot to them or just burning the note the whole way through. If the latter had happened, Pearl would have told Morgan she couldn’t find it and Morgan would definitely suspect that something was going on and possibly even relay the plan to Pearl herself. The former happening is unlikely because of reasons that I will go into a bit deeper. Another problem lies in that Misty also shares some of the blame herself but this post isn’t about her so I won’t go deep into it. 
We don’t see Godot until the second investigation period when Dusky Bridge has been rebuilt and Phoenix enters the Inner Temple, desperate to find Maya. It’s there that we learn why Godot hates Phoenix so much. Godot blames Phoenix for the murder of Mia Fey. He states that since Phoenix was there at the time, he should have protected her and by failing to do so, he in a sense, killed her. And because Maya is missing at the time, he goes further and says that Phoenix killed Maya indirectly by failing to protect her when she needed it most.
Personally, I find this conversation to be more Godot venting out his frustrations on Phoenix. Think about it, the guy spent 5 years in a coma because a psycho killer poisoned his coffee. He wakes up and he finds out that his girlfriend was murdered while he was in a coma. He feels mad at himself for not being able to protect Mia and thus sought to protect Maya as a way to make amends. While it seems like a weird conversation and just another example of Godot being a douche during one’s first time going through the case; a replay of the case after finishing it helps shed new light on the conversation the two have. 
We also learn more about Godot’s inability to see red on white during that same encounter in greater detail. He says that his eyes are messed up and that mask is the only way he can see. Although it’s not much, it is something. 
During the first trial portion of the last trial day, Godot starts acting rather strangely. When he learns that there was writing in red on the stone lantern in the Inner Temple Garden, he starts freaking out. Not only that but he actually helps calm Phoenix down when he freaks out over Dahlia’s suggestion that Maya jumped into the Eagle River from the Inner Temple side, and tells him that would be impossible to do.
Eventually, after Dahlia has been exorcised from Maya’s body, the Judge attempts to hand down his verdict. Godot immediately objects and says that they still don’t know who killed Misty, and the only person who can testify about that is Maya Fey. Some people have called this move callous and insensitive to the state that Maya is in, but it really isn’t. Godot could have simply let the Judge hand his verdict down and get away with his crime. But he doesn’t, he requests that they summon the one person that could incriminate him. Also, he does show a fair bit of empathy towards Maya in this exchange of dialogue towards her before her first testimony:
Godot:Straighten up this moment, young lady!
Maya:Huh…?
Godot:Pick your head up and speak clearly. There’s always time for crying later.
Maya:B-But I…
Godot:Your mother was killed right in front of your eyes! There’s nothing you can do to change that fact.
Maya:…!
Godot:But there’s something you can do… You can finish this. You’ve been watching the whole thing right? You’ve seen the witnesses come out and you’ve seen us squeeze the truth out of them. Now it’s your turn. …Let’s hear your testimony. On the night of the crime… what exactly did you see happen!?
It’s pretty obvious during Maya’s testimony that she’s willing to protect the identity of whoever killed her mother, even to the point that she begs Phoenix not to reveal his identity and even suggests that she thought it was a man for other reasons than the three red glowing lights. We also get to hear about this one cute little story about an interaction between him and Pearl in which he actually comforted her and gave her coffee. That’s pretty sweet…and kinda dangerous.
Still, it’s quite obvious upon cross-examining Maya that Godot is the killer, so why is she covering up for the man who killed her mother to the point that she’d be found guilty otherwise? Godot did save Maya’s life in the process of killing Misty who was channeling Dahlia at the time and would have killed her if Godot hadn’t intervened. Maya is plenty aware of this and it is in character for her to do something like that.
We also learn through Godot’s self-reflection that he knows that he could have killed Pearl instead of Misty that night and that Misty’s murder was out of a fit of rage against the ghost of the woman who ruined his life. He also goes on to say that he’s not really sure that him saving Maya’s life was out of a genuine will to protect her, and even tells her that if he genuinely wanted to help Maya, he should have gone to Phoenix instead. Despite this, Maya genuinely believes that he wanted to save her life and so does Phoenix even despite the way Godot had treated him up to that point.
Godot is an extremely gray character and it’s really interesting to study him as a character, who he is and what his intentions were. I don’t think he truthfully wanted to kill anyone that night in the Inner Temple Garden, all he wanted to do was protect Maya the way he wanted to protect Mia. He was never willing to actually kill anybody and even helped Phoenix catch him in the end. Iris and Misty both played a role in this plan too and made their own share of screw-ups so I don’t understand why people shift so much of the blame for it onto Godot?
Honestly though, I think that the whole black-white morality lens that people typically view characters through doesn’t really work with characters like Godot. Godot is not a good guy but he’s not a cookie cutter bad guy like some of the culprits in this series seem to be and that’s what makes him so intriguing to me. He’s not my favorite character, but I can see why someone may say he’s their favorite.
131 notes · View notes
five-wow · 4 years
Text
on to 10.16! the valentine’s episode!
fjdkfdjkfd a very worried-looking woman accepts a valentine’s bouquet and i was like, did she kill her husband and he’s lying on the floor somewhere and that’s why she looks so awkward about it? and then there’s a BLOODIED HAMMER and A BODY and i was probably right, omg, i love it.
oh! looks like she maybe called hpd herself? that’s an interesting twist.
oh my gosh, noelani is getting surfing lessons, and that alone is cute enough but then suddenly there’s a whoop and it’s tani on the beach giving vocal emotional support and I LOVE THAT. after a very, very long draught, this season is so good for us when it comes to female friendships.
lou is mad that adam put his niece’s life at risk, and that’s fair, but maybe... also be mad at adam for doing crimes? like, that’s bad? maybe?
fjdkfd we ended the last episode with danny and steve in the kitchen and that’s also their first appearance in this one. this is beautiful.
steve: “i do have a date, indeed.” danny: “with who?” steve: “a lady.” LISTEN, i am taking this as the “a lady” part being not just an evasive maneuver, but intended to be an actual answer, because it could also not have been a lady. bi steve. it’s canon now.
steve LOST COUNT of how many dates he’s been on with brooke (the lady he’s ironing his shirt for on valentine’s day) and he’s kind of smiling while he says it and that’s cute!! i like that for him!! but also. when the fuck did he go on all of these dates with brooke when he was also dating the vet in between, out of the running entirely for at least a month or two, and he’s been continually living with danny since he got back to hawaii and danny apparently knows nothing about these dates. what kind of stealth techniques has steve been employing? has he had brooke sneak in through his bedroom window at night so danny wouldn’t find out? how many times did he have to cancel a date because danny refused to sleep on the couch and there was no space left for brooke in steve’s bed? (i kid, but seriously, what is this timeline?)
danny: “i’m glad somebody has a life.” steve, pointing at danny: “oohhh, tani and quinn are going to the movies tonight...” fdjkfd, first bi steve, and now tani and quinn have a movie date. good stuff. i’m enjoying this.
fjdkfjdkf, steve, whAT. “tell you what, buddy, if i finish up early with brooke, i’ll give you a call, we can hang out.” i mean! that’s really sweet! but also very wtf, because he’s essentially going “hey, maybe this thing i have to do (date my girlfriend, ugh) won’t take very long and we’ll have time to hang! :D” and i just. god. i’m laughing, but i am so glad brooke is not a real woman because i feel very sorry for her.
danny a) recognizes signs of domestic abuse and b) has done his research and c) is appropriately gentle with this woman, even though they have her in custody and she’s already admitted to killing her husband and she potentially started an international conflict by doing so, and just. yes. good. this is a danny i love.
side note: adam is just randomly present at hq with the rest of the team when steve and danny are on the phone with them. and, oh my god. did he not just kidnap a suspect to make a secret deal with a yakuza boss? is that not the sign steve had been looking for, the reason why steve’s spidey sense had been tingling around adam? they still trust him currently and he’s just back on the job without so much as a warning? i mean, to be fair, steve is the type of guy to be all for crazy shit if it gets results, so maybe he’s glad adam did what he did, idk, but i am genuinely so confused at this point about what the writers are telling us about where adam stands, both with the team and in his own life, and with the yakuza, for that matter. is he now an active gang member while also trying to earnestly protect the law in five-0?
i love how this episode is escalating, omg. first we’re told the wife killed her husband, then he’s a thai diplomat, then the wife’s boyfriend killed the husband, then he didn’t, then thailand wants the wife while five-0 knows she didn’t do it and so they STEAL HER. taking a page out of adam’s book, i guess, though at least this time the entire team knows what’s going on.
except for tani and noelani, who are being held hostage by two amateur criminals in a convenience store, which is also a subplot i really like! honestly, not a bad moment in this episode so far.
okay, one very minor note though: please, for the love of all that is holy, do not let this woman they’re saving become a love interest for danny. they have a lovely talk in the back of a truck during the grand escape and that’s wonderful and good and i like it, but i can’t help but be really scared that the show is aiming to somehow make that romantic at some point because oh, dear lord, danny has dated enough abused women under questionable circumstances. doooon’t add a third one to the list, i beg of you.
the amateur criminals are trying to get cash that they need for MEDICAL CARE. god, i hate a world in which your options are a) commit crime or b) die. it’s a good plot, though!
kamekona is providing a safehouse for danny and the woman and he’s being very kamekona about it - warm and welcoming, but warning danny off of texting too much with kamekona’s phone because it’s ten cents per message - and it’s glorious.
oh dear lord. the couple robbing the store can’t afford the surgery the husband needs, so tani presents mandatory medical attention for prisoners as a solution, and that’s a good way to talk the wife down and probably also the best the couple can hope for in their current predicament, but it’s also very fucked up. you shouldn’t have to wave a gun around to get help for your brain tumor.
danny and the woman are found and get arrested, and the VERY NEXT SHOT is danny turning to steve in the car and asking how he got him out so fast. that WAS very fast, danny, you’re right. zero seconds has to be a new record, dang.
steve: “i may have promised yang that if she didn’t release you immediately i was gonna make a whooole lot of noise.” i do understand what this means, but i also enjoy the thought of steve literally making noise. any noise. if you don’t release danny, steve will appear at your door and start quacking like a duck very loudly. you’ve been warned, state department!
ahhh! they solve the case, find the actual killer of the abusive diplomat husband, make sure the wife gets to stay where she is and reunite her with the concerned doctor boyfriend who didn’t kill anybody!! this makes me very happy, all the more so because they won’t have her date danny if she’s already dating someone else, which puts my fears to rest. this season continues to be better about things than this show has been in the past and i appreciate the heck out of it.
adam gets an ominous warning to watch his back from a criminal he’s delivering information about hpd to. are we supposed to be on adam’s side? i’m still very confused.
fjdkfd, danny walks into the house to find the entire team getting ready for a night of hanging out and wonders if he invited everyone and forgot about it, and steve walks in, already chewing on something, and says “it’s possible, because you’re old now”. what a brilliant burn, steve. very impressive.
i won’t recount everything that happens because i know i’d end up writing a stupidly long paragraph but i do adore everything that happens and want that noted. the whole team just chilling and arguing about whether love actually is a romcom or a christmas movie? yes, please! a hundred of those.
danny takes steve aside to tell him he doesn’t have to worry about danny and steve gives an unconvincing reason for why he totally didn’t arrange this because he was worried about danny, which essentially makes it canon that he did plan all of this for that exact reason, which is SO EXTRA. they live together, they’ve spent the entire day together, and then steve cancels a valentine’s dinner with his girlfriend (who he told earlier that he didn’t want to involve danny in their relationship, because he’s too nosy) and invites like six other people just so he can hang out with danny again.
annnd they end up snuggled together on the couch. on valentine’s day. you know, like homies do.
THIS. WAS A VERY GOOD EPISODE. thoroughly enjoyed practically every second of it, 10/10, would like more like this.
46 notes · View notes
Note
They have nannies and Jared at least I don’t think is with the kids full time. If he was home with G all holiday, I think she would make sure to shove a camera in his face before the Christmas family pic like she usually does. So I don’t think that they’re that exhausted. An aside annoying how the wives are treated like the average mom, when they have tons of help, money and don’t have a job. Most actual working moms can’t up and leave for vacation anytime they feel like to like G and D do.
I don’t think they took the nannies (or nanny idk if they have more than one) on this particular trip though they probably are taking advantage of the fact most ski resorts/lodges have daycare/day camp for kids where the kids spend the morning doing arts and crafts and the like and then in the afternoon they go back to their parents. I personally think Jared spends more one on one time with the kiddos than G does but that’s just me. 
He probably wasn’t home with G all holiday he was probably more with his kids, with Jensen, with his friends, with his family, but knowing G I wouldn’t be surprised if she did a whole day photo shoot and she’s just saving the pictures to use at a future time. 
But neither of that means that they can’t be- or at least Jared can’t be- absolutely exhausted because traveling is tiring, dealing with kids even for a short amount of time is tiring, and the holidays are tiring. And look, I won’t deny it I’m one of the first to roll her eyes whenever G complains about how tired she is (and good lord does that woman like to complain!) but during the holidays I’m more willing to give her a pass because the holidays can be draining even with help like just emotionally they can take so much out of someone that it makes them physically and mentally exhausted. So while she might not be outright ready to collapse I think she probably is tired and ready to just go home and back to her version of normal with all the comforts her life provides where she has her own space, and doesn’t have to deal with the kids (as much) and can come and go as she pleases. 
All that being said- I’m gonna say this ahead of time cause I’m about to go on a rant right now like anon you don’t know the door you have opened; the argument could be made that D does have a job because of the brewery, and some could argue that G also has a job though I personally wouldn’t cause I think she’s more the face of her blog...it’s sort of a gray area whether you consider her blog a job or not.
Moving on from that, warning wive rant ahead: 
I completely 100% agree with you about it being annoying that D and G are I would say not just treated as an average mom but seemingly put on a pedestal for acting as if they were hard working moms like all the others- some people act as if it was a personal offence to even suggest that those women have nannies, that G has a professional photographer take all the pictures for her blog and insta, that they most likely have someone who cleans or helps clean their house - as if they have to hustle and work hard to make sure their kids are fed and have clothes on their back and they were doing it all on their own when the reality is that Jared and Jensen have worked their asses off and can afford to make sure their kids are taken care off; most hard working moms can’t afford daycare much less 24/7 nannies.  
D and G have the privilege- cause it’s a fucking privilege - to have nannies and one of the things that gets the most under my skin about those two and in particular G - cause at least D has admitted it! D admitted that her kids have a nanny! But G has made the hard working I’ll say I’m not perfect even though I’m selling you the fucking opposite mom her whole entire brand, and I fucking hate that, it gets so under my skin that she acts like a wonder woman and as if she didn’t have any help, and let me be clear I don’t have a problem with them having nannies, if you can afford to have someone help you out with your kids there ain’t nothing wrong with that my fucking problem is with G (and on occasion D) acting as if she don’t have that help. And building her (G) whole entire brand on that idea! 
If they were just honest and acknowledged every once in a while that they have help, and can afford it because their husbands earn a nice salary it wouldn’t bother me so much. 
And anybody is even thinking of going ‘what about when jared and jensen praise the wives’ a) I’ve already stated in the past they’re gentlemen they’re not going to bad mouth D and G especially to fans and b) yeah, it annoys the fuck out of me then too every time they do it I roll my eyes and go ‘boys I love you but cut that shit out you know that we know you have help with the kids and the home’. 
13 notes · View notes
ebola-kun · 4 years
Text
L.A.'s Music Industry Women Are Sick of the Same Old Song When It Comes to Equality | L.A. Weekly
"Threats, hate accounts, weird fan interactions, being hacked several times over the last year — reporting harassment and blocking just became a part of life as I now know it," Addams says. "For some fans it became their life's mission to watch my every move via social media, create false narratives, all in order to let people know that I am not perfect. The same fake accounts of online detectives trying to prove by my actions that I might possibly be lying. They suggested I deserved what happened to me. They questioned why after 20 years would I destroy a man's life? I did not destroy anybody's life. The man who did what he did to me and many other women destroyed his own life by his egregious actions."
Courtesy Purple Crush
Women in the music industry who come forward with similar stories can expect just as much harassment, judgment and doubt online as support, and probably more of the former because "sex, drugs and rock & roll" is built into its mystique. It's expected. Still, some have been brave enough to speak out regardless. In the pop world, Taylor Swift and Kesha were the biggest names to call out behaviors ranging from inappropriate to abusive. And in R&B and hip-hop, the list of men accused of varying degrees of assault goes on and on: Russell Simmons, R. Kelly, L.A. Reid, Chris Brown —all of whom seem to have been for the most part, unscathed professionally. Indeed, the inherent rebelliousness and seduction of the music world makes for a slippery slope. While I spoke with women in indie and rock music for this story, there are so many more to talk to and the problem is far-reaching. The L.A. Weekly will continue to explore these issues within other genres and L.A. nightlife environments on a regular basis next year.
The dance music world for example, is particularly troublesome. Isla Jones of the electro-dance group Purple Crush and promoter of L.A.'s Banjee Ball parties recalls how she found herself the target of cyberbullying via DJ/producer Diplo's Hollertronix message board. "There was this 'dude bro' persona that Diplo iconified, which legions of internet DJs emulated. Being the outspoken woman that I am, I became an easy target for them and was clowned on a weekly basis," she says. The clowning translated into physical violence a couple times, and Jones, who is known in L.A. for her inclusive LGBTQ events, says that it was celebrated online. "It felt like digital rape."
Alice Glass, former frontwoman of Crystal Castles, is one of the few indie artists who came out with a story similar to Addams', accusing her ex-bandmate and beau Ethan Kath of physical and sexual abuse in October 2017. He denied it and filed a defamation suit against her, which was later dismissed. She has gone on to make some of the most powerful music of her career and now is seen as an advocate for victims of assault. In general, though, women who want to prove they can rock with the boys seem more likely to suck it up. As one rock legend tells it, it's hard enough getting acknowledged as a musician in the first place.
"The Go-Go's had been together for three years and could sell out any club we played on the West Coast," recalls guitarist/songwriter Jane Wiedlin, "yet not one major label was interested in us. The attitude was, there'd never been a successful all-female band and so there never would be. There was even an article on the front page of the L.A. Times' Calendar section: 'Why Can't The Go-Go's Get a Record Deal?' It was very frustrating. Finally, a new and tiny label, I.R.S. Records, came to see us, loved us, and offered us a record deal."
Brit Witt at Coachella
Zane Roessell
Though I.R.S. was small, it cared about the band and supported them irrespective of sex, which put The Go-Go's on a successful, hit-packed trajectory. Still, when Wiedlin forged a career on her own years later, she was not immune to vulturous actions. "When I first went solo, in 1985, I took a dinner meeting with a record producer who claimed he wanted to work with me," she recalls. "He ended up trapping me in a room and wouldn't let me leave until I 'put out.' I ended up giving in because I didn't know what else to do. For decades I thought it was my fault, because I hadn't fought back. Now I feel differently about it. Now I know I was assaulted by a sexual predator."
Wiedlin's story is not revelatory but it does reflect how women who accepted these behaviors back then view their experiences now. And whether onstage or off-, the challenges remain the same. Even when women seemingly are in control, they often have to deal with limitations that hinder their success if they don't act a certain way. Men in power were — and are — allowed to wield it without judgment; women, not so much.
Michelle Carr at Jabberjaw
Courtesy Jabberjaw
Britt Witt has made a name for herself booking and running the Hi Hat in Highland Park, but it didn't come easy. "I think I was in denial. I think I still am because I've always just focused on getting the job done rather than why I can't," she explains. "I [used to] attribute being dismissed, ignored and underpaid to just not being good enough. Nowadays, I realize that I'm constantly overcoming the challenge of being considered intimidating, brash or bitchy just because I put my foot down in the same places men do. Encountering skepticism with ideas and facts where a man repeats the same statement minutes later to celebration."
From management to booking to being a club owner, the frustrations I've heard from women working in the music biz over the years have played like a badly broken record. "Owning a music venue with a guy was very frustrating in that I was never taken seriously," says Michelle Carr, proprietress of legendary '90s music venue Jabberjaw, where Nirvana famously first played L.A. "Most would not take my word. They more often than not would seek out Gary [her former partner] for any wants or needs — he was the default. What was most surprising was when even the Riot Grrrl contingent would treat me as such."
Dayle Gloria, who booked the legendary L.A. club Scream, helping to discover bands like Jane's Addiction in the process, and later the Viper Room, echoes Carr's complaints about being taken seriously. "In order to do that I had to really 'man up,' leaving so much of my femininity behind," she admits. "I was always a tomboy but had to be harder than that. If I asked for something once, it was never enough. It was getting to the point where to be heard I had to yell and scream. To get things done. It's not a great way to live."
"I wanted to be seen as a professional manager and executive, and not looked upon as a groupie, girlfriend or disposable mommy," echoes Vicky Hamilton, known for her work managing Guns N' Roses and Poison in the '80s. "To be treated fairly and paid equal to a man for the work done. I have a much better track record then many of my male counterparts, and the bands I have worked with have sold over 250 million records collectively, but I feel it is much harder to get financial backing for my new record company than it would be for a white male with lesser achievements."
Dayle Gloria with Scott Weiland
Courtesy Dayle Gloria
Witt books some of the hottest shows in L.A. right now, but Gloria and Carr are happily out of the music and club business (though Carr is working on a documentary about Jabberjaw). Hamilton soldiers on with a new label, Dark Spark Music, even after years of not being acknowledged for her contributions. "[When] I was an A&R person at a major label, the executive who was supposed to be mentoring me, who took full credit for a band that I brought to the label, told me that my snake in the grass was about recognition and credit. My response was, 'No shit, since I never seem to get either around here.' A month later my contract option was not renewed," she recalls.
Fear of not being seen as a team player or even losing one's job has been a factor for many women in terms of the varying levels of bad treatment they might accept. It's one of the reasons the news about FYF Fest founder Sean Carlson took so long to surface. Nobody wanted to be the first one, possibly standing alone against a powerful man, to put the truth out there. But as detailed in a 2017 Spin magazine article, Carlson's misconduct was "an open secret" for quite some time. Though the Spin piece featured all but one woman sharing stories anonymously, the tales of assault at FYF-associated parties were corroborated by many on social media afterward, and Carlson himself issued a statement to Spin acknowledging his behavior. "I acted inappropriately and shamefully, and deeply regret my actions," he wrote, though the end of the statement went for the all-too-common "blame it on the alcohol" type of excuses that some felt were disingenuous.
Goldenvoice severed all ties with Carlson just before the story broke around this time last year. Soon after, in what should have been a validating and somewhat victorious moment for women, Goldenvoice announced that FYF would go on, unveiling a female-heavy lineup minus Carlson's input, curated mostly by women at the company, including Goldenvoice vet Jennifer Yacoubian, who previously booked the El Rey Theatre and the Shrine Auditorium. The lineup, one of the best FYF would ever see, included Janet Jackson as headliner along with Florence + the Machine, St. Vincent, The Breeders, The xx, U.S. Girls, My Bloody Valentine, Charlotte Gainsbourg and more. But a few months later the entire fest was canceled, reportedly due to low ticket sales. Many journalists, including this one, were dumbfounded that a lineup like that could fail, and a fair share wondered online if there was more to the cancellation. Many of us are hoping that FYF will try again for a similarly gender-equal lineup next year. We'll see.
Vicky Hamilton with Bret Michaels
Courtesy Vicky Hamilton
Festival culture has in many ways become a microcosm of the music world these days, reflecting sexual culture and pop culture in general. The biggest, Coachella, also put together by Goldenvoice/AEG, has made some strides in representing the concerns of women onstage and off-, but for many of us more is needed, and all the major promoters could do better. Warped Tour brought in a group called Safe Spaces to monitor safety for young girls at the event, and even amidst controversy concerning the group's tactics, it was a signal for change that had a positive impact. Unfortunately, Warped is now kaput.
Warped vet Monique Powell of the ska-punk outfit Save Ferris has used her social media to call out the disparities she's seen as a performer on the festival circuit for years, such as flyers, posters and advertisements that belittle female performers by putting them at the bottom of the bill, even when their bands have bigger followings. She also has told the world about the outright sexism she's encountered on tour from promoters, other bands and even her own bandmates. Like Addams, Powell became the victim of brutal online harassment after a legal battle ensued over use of Save Ferris' name when she sought to forge a comeback after a long hiatus. It got worse when she won the case.
"People didn't like that I was bringing it back and I was doing it my way," she says wearily. "I was trolled. I got death threats. And the commonality was unmistakable: They were all young men, 25 to 35 and they all liked a specific band from Orange County."
Powell stops short of naming the band but says a long-held rivalry with a male singer in the scene has led to her feeling unsafe and targeted in recent years, even by the media (TMZ, Perez Hilton and O.C. Weekly's reports about the lawsuit all seem to subtly villainize her). Powell, who lives in L.A. now but grew up in Orange County, says she became "a punching bag. I believe that in Orange County, and in L.A. as well, there's still an accepted underlying misogyny, where strong women who have a voice are not considered ladylike, and therefore not to be trusted."
Save Ferris' Monique Powell
Josh Coffman
To counteract this perception, Powell is shining a light on it, sharing her experiences online and hashtagging them with #dontskirttheissue. She hopes to take the conversation that has emerged and turn it into something bigger, with meetups and a bona fide watchdog group that points out women in music being overlooked and judged by their gender unfairly, in promos, media and more.
Mobilization is coming from all fronts right now, and speaking out is only the beginning. Like the women mentioned thus far, Daisy O'Dell, Ana Calderon, Michelle Pesce and Kate Mazzuca are all names known in local music circles nightlife and beyond, the first three as top L.A. DJs and music curators/supervisors and the latter as a marketing and events entrepreneur. Last year, around the same time that #MeToo started building steam, they sought to make change for women in nightlife by creating a group called, fittingly, woman. The collective grew out of a weekly lunch gathering of female DJs, and its goals were many, but the main one was to create welcoming and safe environments for women in a music and club scene where objectification and discrimination had become commonplace and stories of assault and druggings at venues, some where the gals spun, had started to become more frequent. The women of woman. realized that it was the mindset — of venue owners and promoters, who were all male — that needed to change.
Calderon recalls her aggravation sitting in on club meetings. "We would hear some of the most obscene discussions that you would never expect to hear today about women and women attending venues," she reveals, going on to recount the conversation that made her quit doing clubs in bottle service–driven West Hollywood. "I was brought in to bring more interesting people to the club, and it was a lot of Eastside creatives and LGBT, but at one particular meeting a promoter said he appreciated the mix I brought in but he wondered if I could 'target prettier trans people.' I walked out. I was sad and grossed out and felt like something needed to be done. We couldn't have clubs owned and run just by men anymore."
"What's interesting is that these feelings of unrest, of wanting to take action in terms of sexism and misogyny — even though we were all somewhat isolated from each other — happened simultaneously," interjects O'Dell, who encountered a lot of both as a touring DJ for concerts and in clubs. She realized it was embedded into the system she was a part of. "We were all coming to the same realization that, as veterans in this industry, we had to do something because the younger generation kind of looks to us to lead anyway."
Courtesy woman.
Earlier this year, the ladies pulled together their resources and sought to open an all-female-run nightclub. But as fate would have it, on the day they were going to sign the lease for the perfect Hollywood space, an accusation of abuse emerged against one of the building's owners by his former girlfriend. Though he was a male ally to their vision, they opted not to move forward. Hesitant to qualify the allegations as true or false (charges have since been dropped), they admit there was internal conflict. "It was a very difficult decision to make because we had worked so hard and we had come so far and we had gotten so close," O'Dell says. Adds Calderon, "It was heartbreaking."
O'Dell and Calderon say they will open up a club one day but in the meantime they are channeling their energy into initiatives: The first is a list of guidelines for the nightclub industry touting inclusion and equality; and the second is an even bigger objective that goes beyond clubs and into events, including the all-important music festival arena.
soteria.
Named for the Greek goddess of safety and salvation, "soteria." is a designated safe space and service hub at music events created to ensure "the safety and well-being of any visitor experiencing trauma trigger, harassment, sexual misconduct and/or assault."
If you like this story, consider signing up for our email newsletters.
You have successfully signed up for your selected newsletter(s) - please keep an eye on your mailbox, we're movin' in!
They already instituted soteria. (which they stress is for everyone who might feel vulnerable at music events, not just women) at the Form festival in Arizona and the Summit LA18 event last month in DTLA with great success, providing safety ambassadors and crisis managers on the ground as well as a private "sanctuary room" and lounge area. They promise much more to come, changing the game for people who love music and those who make it at events.coalition
Sadly, Addams is not making music any longer, but for those who are, like Glass, and new female artists, establishing boundaries is key so that the various forms of mistreatment outlined here will no longer be normalized. Despite the challenges, more women than ever are out there rocking, and in L.A. acts like Starcrawler, Deap Vally, The Regrettes, Cherry Glazerr, Kate Crash, Beck Black, Feels, Dorothy, War Paint, Best Coast and so many more are re-defining the roles, audaciously and unapologetically, scoring huge opening-band tour slots and higher rankings on festival lineups in the process. Local female ground-breakers like L7, Allison Wolfe, Abby Travis, Alice Bag, and Miss Wiedlin herself, are still at it too.
In addition to woman. other groups are providing even more platforms: the Women of Rock project has been collecting stories for some time now, and there's the Girl Cult coalition (which has an event this weekend). There's also Women in Music L.A, and the new book Women Who Rock has spawned an activist group as well. Private women's groups on Facebook have been a resource for women from all walks of life (the music world included) such as "Girls Night Out" and "Binders Full of Women Writers," both of which throw events in town. The latter has led to a popular annual event called BinderCon in various cities.
Beyond supporting each other and holding certain men responsible for their actions, the cultural reckoning happening right now is about finding power in numbers. In the L.A. music scene, it's transcending talk, taking action and hopefully transforming old norms so that real change can occur and everyone, no matter what gender they identify with, can unite and celebrate life. "Solutions are the future of the conversation," O'Dell says hopefully. "It's so exciting to see what was born out of women in nightlife and music holding space for each other."
This content was originally published here.
1 note · View note
thesportssoundoff · 5 years
Text
What Happens When You Take A Bad Idea And Make It Worse? LET’S TALK ABOUT THE BRAWL FOR ALL!
Joey
March 11th
The Mother Fucking Brawl For All.
Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I'd actually get around to this but there are miracles around us and what better time than now? The Brawl For All is generally regarded as one of the worst ideas of all time in a business with an entire genre dedicated to grown men and women smashing each other with fluorescent light tubes and slamming one another on beds of nails and thumbtacks. In a business that up until the mid 80s featured nazis goose stepping around and up until 2003 or so regularly and routinely featured women wrestling in their bloomers, the Brawl For All is the one idea that every human being unanimously believes was a disastrous failure. It's the one unanimous tire fire that not even it's most ardent supporter can put out. Not even WCW's junkyard battle royale which featured multiple injuries due to WCW not gimmicking the cars and just having guys taking bumps onto cars and through glass windshields is hated this much. The Brawl 4 All is one of those things people can't even sum up with "It was bad!" and move on. You have to go through layers and layers and levels of badness. You have to view it almost as an affront to your sensibilities, as a personal attack on you as a fan. Hell not just as a fan but as a human being!
Vince McMahon and company have failed in previous ventures before and ventures after. The XFL, the World Bodybuilding Federation, the ECW relaunch, 65% of the undercard Attitude Era angles, their really expensive WWE Films attempts. Some could even argue that the brand split originally was a failure in some respects given that Smackdown never really got going on its own and Raw declined sharply from the brand split onward. That said those failures at least had SOME inkling and morsels of promise behind them. Not the Brawl For All. It was a bad idea from the start, a bad idea during and made even worse by what happened afterwards. Also? The Brawl For All is one of those things that every wrestling fan and every wrestling personality has a hard opinion on, the kind of shit that lends itself to so much gossip, rumor and conversation. Over the next few weeks, I want to discuss the Brawl 4 All a bit more. I want to delve into it because it's as close as we'll ever get to a universal no hope no spin failure by the WWE and because...well...it's one of my favorite fuck ups of all time. It's always been something that fascinated me from watching it live as a casual fan to laughing at it as a smart fan when I stumble across it to making a near yearly pilgrimage to youtube to watch every single fight of it I can find before it got yanked. It's one of those wrestling stinkers that like December 2 Dismember or the Heroes Of Wrestling card that I'm magnetically attracted to. Every wrestling fan FEELS for the Brawl For All even if those feelings are utter disdain for everyone involved with it.
The Concept And How Fucked It Was From Jump
To get why this even happened, you have to go back in a time capsule. Despite catching fire in 1998, the WWF (for the purpose of being as thorough as possible here, we're gonna call 'em as they were when this happened) is still struggling to keep track with WCW Nitro. They're in the midst of an 83 week long ass eating from Ted Turner's Atlanta based wrestling promotion and "good ideas" are running dry. Understand that at this point the WWF has the single hottest property in the business but that sole property isn't enough to get over the hump vs the NWO, the cruiserweights, an ascending Bill Goldberg, Bret Hart, the return of Sting and what was genuinely just a better overall card. Even if Wrestlemania 14 gave birth to so many great stories going forward (Austin vs McMahon, the hard reboot of DX as a faction, Kane vs Undertaker's first match), WCW is in the midst of its highest grossing year ever. Vince McMahon has James Harden putting up 50 points a night and winning on his back but he's still looking up to the Golden State Warriors. Making matters worse, both companies are in the pro wrestling equivalent of an arms race.  Remember how when the UFC and Bellator in 2014 and 2015 signed anybody with a pulse because they were trying to fill up two insanely bloated schedules? It's a bit like that. Anybody who is good (and not a walking flag factory so to speak) is either in WWE or WCW at this point which means if you ONLY have two hours of content, you've got a lot of guys doing nothing.
The Brawl For All on its surface and without malice seems like an awful idea to try and remedy that. Pit sixteen dudes in a shoot tournament and let them go at it with set rules in place. It gets guys on TV, gives them something to do and at the end, in theory, the winner doesn't just get a big financial prize but come out in the end as a star. It's a chance to do something with a section of guys who are doing absolutely nothing at all. Sounds good, riiiiight? Well now let's break into some sexy rumor mongering about what this really was about:
-We can start with the mastermind! Vince Russo is the man who apparently concocted this concept which should be somewhat redeemable if what I laid out above was entirely 100% accurate. It's not entirely the case, even according to Russo's own words. Per Vince Russo, a large reason the Brawl For All came to be was that he had a beef with one of the wrestlers (Bradshaw aka John Bradshaw Layfield aka that guy who got flattened by ring announcer Joey Styles) consistently bloviating that he was the toughest guy in the locker room. Right off the jump, any sort of noble designs are whittled away. Now often in pro wrestling, there's 100 different stories to the same single event often shared by people IN the same room. Imagine how pronounced it is that a) everybody agrees that it was Russo's idea, b) everybody is under the impression that it was over a tiff with a pro wrestling with no shoot fighting experience and c) EVERYBODY agrees it was one of the worst concepts imaginable. The Brawl For All's entire seed was planted not so much out of a design to get guys work and on TV but out of wanting to see a loud dude get punched up. That's insanity out the gate.
-The Brawl For All was by invitation only and depending on who you believe, the process to select wrestlers was rather...exclusive. Bruce Prichard discusses in his podcast with Conrad Thompson that he was the guy who had to round up the talent to fill enough spots in the tournament. Prichard says he had to play to the egos of wrestlers and in a separate interview, Bart Gunn talks about how he got recruited basically by another member of the writing team as well. The name Bart Gunn will become pretty important down the line so jot that down in your notebooks real quick. Wrestlers were recruited with what seems like a pretty easy enough pitch and one I'd imagine that the UFC uses today  with their fighters; basically a "I mean don't you believe you're the toughest dude here?!" and a "We'll pay you!" and we're off to the races. Despite this, the Brawl For All struggled to get people to fill in the spots in no small part due to the fact that no star is going to partake in an absolutely stupid concept like this when they can just make their money being a star. The Brawl For All isn't even a TUF; it's a PFL tournament where all the dudes nobody else wants are lumped into a tournament format with the golden carrot of a $100,000 prize at the end of it.
-Perhaps worth more than the $100,000 prize was the either legit or illegitimate golden carrot of the winner getting to work a program with "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. Understand that no one single act was as hot and drawing as much money at this time as Steve Austin was. He was the it guy, the biggest star in the business and noway near close to peaking as a talent either. The Brawl For All $100,000 prize? That's cool and all  plus that was basically the downside guarantee for a year's worth of work. The opportunity to work with Stone Cold on a pay per view? That's the big money ticket. That's the opportunity to be a made man like how working with Hogan in the 80s was. For top guys, that opportunity may come along at any given point. Again going back a bit to TUF and the PFL, imagine if the UFC offered eight of its guys the chance to compete in a tournament for $100,000. Enticing! Now imagine the winner gets to fight Conor McGregor on a PPV. Tell me if it doesn't get every guy not named Khabib and Tony Ferguson jumping into it. That would be a great no doubt can't miss opportunity!
EXCEPT
-It was probably a lie. Scratch that. We can factually tell that any sort of Austin match for the winner was a lie since every person involved (sans one) says it was real and the winner never actually got said shot. Imagine if the tournament wasn't build on anything truthful but instead on a "The winner will be in the mix" from Dana White. While Bruce Prichard says there was no official plan for the winner to face Steve Austin, everybody else involved from talent to wrestling guru Jim Cornette seems to suggest there WAS a plan in place for the winner to win. That is, assuming of course, the winner was the guy they thought was going to win all along. More on that in the future but just know that the Brawl For All's fighters were flirted with a hush hush unofficial promise of facing Steve Austin that was probably never going to be fulfilled unless won by a specific party. Bart Gunn says he was told the winner would face Stone Cold and well....more on that at another time. Let's just say sports entertainment and combat sports have a long storied history of perhaps listening to the matchmakers a bit too closely.
-The rules for the Brawl For All? Well those were a mess. According to Bruce Prichard, the rules were still being worked out the week of. According to Steve Blackman (a dude who Bob Holly admits would've won the whole thing), there were plans to allow leg kicks and those rules just happened to get yanked the week of. The glove size seems to change depending on who you ask as the WWF says they were 16 ounce gloves but Bart Gunn argues repeatedly they were 22 ounce gloves. Some of the guys admittedly didn't even think it was a shoot fight either and at least one fighter fought thinking it was a work. According to Bart Gunn, even halfway through the tournament he kept expecting it to be a work suddenly.  The "official" Brawl For All rules had points for takedowns, points for a knockdown and points for more punches thrown across three one minute rounds. The scorecard part doesn't even matter at this point. To be honest, it didn't even matter then.
So let's talk about the big problem here
So imagine putting together a tournament designed around the concept of "Who's the toughest guy!" in a show where the audience is conditioned to believe that the toughest guy is the world champion or if the champion is a heel, the toughest guy is the babyface chasing said champion. We already in theory know who the toughest guy is or at least we're willing to suspend our disbelief. Also if we're to believe that the winner of the tournament is the toughest guy in the company, why aren't the big name tough guys we've been told are the tough guys competing in it? The concept falls flat right there on its own but the hole isn't deep enough. We gotta go from six feet to nine feet so now imagine that you've come up with this concept that pees on the first rule of your product. Make it worse. Make it so that the audience is being told to believe that what they see HERE AND ONLY HERE is legitimate.  NOTHING is as frustrating in pro wrestling as "a shoot." For those not addicted to sports entertainment meth, a shoot is something on the program that the audience is led to believe is real. Now for something to be "real" on a show that's already "real" then that in turn means what we're seeing is fake, right? So a "real fight" on pro wrestling ultimately means that what we're seeing is fake. Now most wrestling fans since the 70s and 80s have probably believed wrestling in some form or fashion is/was not real. We accept it as entertainment and as Jerry Jarrett once lovingly put it "theater of the illiterate." The key is to not remind us that what we're seeing is clearly fake (a problem wrestling fans seem to be having right now with Ronda Rousey). Reminding the audience that what they're saying is predetermined scripted fakeness and then asking them to invest into the REAL portion of the product that breaks their illusion only works if a star is doing it. It doesn't work if a bunch of random dudes and mid carders are doing it. Imagine if in the middle of one of those UFC Embedded gimmicks, we saw Conor McGregor rehearsing the press conference lines and then he went out to try and sell his beef with Cowboy Cerrone as legitimate. You've already hurt the audience's feelings and the Brawl For All actively did that at a time where all WWF fans wanted was to watch Stone Cold kick ass and DX make inappropriate jokes. You've brought DOWN the segment.
So now we're nine feel into the hole. Let's go sixteen feet deep. Nope! Let's go from here to fuckin' middle earth on this bad boy; pro wrestling is a TEAM effort. It requires two or more able bodied people to work together to create a magnificent fake fight spectacle that tells a story and ends with you becoming emotionally invested in its finish and what's to come. That requires participation. Now come up with a tournament where guys are going to beat the holy shit out of one another FOR REAL and then have to go back to participating with one another as if nothing happened! Every single wrestler involved in the Brawl For All has spoken about the bad blood and residual effects the Brawl For All had. Also remember these are not trained fighters either. Some of these guys are amateur wrestlers who probably haven't done that for years. Some dudes dabbled in kickboxing or BJJ on their spare time or in years outside of wrestling had some formal combat sports . Some of these guys were bodybuilders by trade and some of these dudes were just pro wrestlers who happened to have a few "So and so cleaned out a bar room with one hand and six beers!" type magical fishing trip stories. So you're taking a bunch of ego driven (some chemically enhanced) guys and sending them out there to beat each other up on a Monday or a Tuesday and then magically get over it in time to make the house show loop where they're going to team together. We've officially come out the other end through China, folks.
And yet despite all of this very obvious right in front of our faces warning signs, the Brawl For All existed.
Next time we'll talk about who was in it a bit more---and why IF the Brawl For All had a true tertiary motive designed to elevate one guy to superstardom, it was an even bigger failure than humanly possible.
20 notes · View notes
overdorks-blog · 6 years
Note
HanMei (if you heard of the ship) and what if Hanzo was walking minding his own business when Snowball suddenly appeared and asked for help. Hanzo follows and finds a drunk Mei. He carries her to her room, and she asks him to stay with her.
Sorry this took so long to get to you! I’ve just been so uninspired recently. 
Also, whoops. There was angst. My hand slipped. 
————————————————————–
Hanzo didn’t come to Overwatch to make friends. The true and genuine reason he appeared at Watchpoint: Gibraltar, was because of his brother. Even now, in the time that he had been there, even though Genji seemed glad to see him, constantly, Hanzo couldn’t help but feel that their relationship was rocky. That Genji was saving face around him for his own comfort. His brother was an entirely different man from all those years ago, so Hanzo couldn’t at all be sure. 
But he stayed, regardless of how he felt things were going, because he felt obligated to try and make things work out here, if nothing else. And make things work he had, certainly. 
There was Genji’s best friend, Jesse. He was…an interesting character. Loud, bullheaded and brash. He was about as typical as an american stereotype can be. But the man had a good heart and seemed to cre greatly about the organization. There was Hana, the teenage warrior with an affinity for modern technology, and an online persona that of a girl with no insecurities and endless confidence. She would chat at him excitedly in Korean and take unflattering pictures while he wasn’t looking. The list of characters went on, and Hanzo got to know them each as well as they would let him, or as well as he would let himself. 
Hanzo could call them friends, he supposed. Did he expect to find someone beyond that? Certainly not.
He had met Mei in the shooting range in his first few days on the base. The woman had been squinting slightly in focus as she shoots ice crystals out of her contraption and into the chassis of a training bot downrange. He frowns a little, watching her. She seems to be doing fine on her own, and interjecting advice at this point, Hanzo decides, would be rude. Surely, if she was on this team, she was more than capable of handling herself. Even if her posture for such things was absolutely awful.
Uncasing Stormbow, Hanzo slings the quiver over his shoulder and finds a high up place where training bots ‘patrolled’ by. He dispatches them with ease, turning slightly to tag the few stationary bots within his line of sight. It was horridly simple, but he refused to adjust the difficulty settings while someone else was in the training area with him. 
He feels eyes on him and turns, and the scientist seems to jump a little, blushing at being caught. She stammers something about needing to leave in Mandarin, and makes her escape quickly. It confused him, at the time. 
It became more clear, over the months. He would stumble into the kitchen in the morning to find her sitting over a large amount of sweet sticky rice, far too much for one person to eat on their own. she would always smile and offer him some, and he would take it, because….well he wasn’t entirely sure why. Perhaps it was how she sounded still tired in her yeti pajamas, how hopeful she looked when she asked him if he wanted any. He couldn’t say no. 
And it only escalated from there, he would say. It went from her offering to share, to them making breakfast and eating together. Sitting and having tea and chatting in Mandarin or Japanese, whichever one they happened to fancy that day. 
Of course, Hanzo would never admit that his feelings for her went beyond that of friendship. A relationship in a place like this, with the lives they had wouldn’t be beneficial to anybody, and could put anyone here at risk, including themselves. 
~~
Today in particular, Hanzo had been resting. After a mishap in a mission, he had hit his shoulder harder than he should have when breaking his fall. He miscalculated, is all, and he was certainly feeling it today. 
At least, hr had been resting. Something cold nizges his arm and his eyes open, frowning and looking down. There, pressed against his arm, was Mei’s assist-bot, as he had come to think of it, not quite sure if the thing was a robot or an omnic. Either way, it was her companion. What was it doing so far into the base, and away from her lab or her room? 
“What?” He demands, and the flaps on the side snap down and it sinks a bit, before nudging against his hand. He pets it, as Mei often does, but as soon as his hand is over the top, it darts away, as if attempting to pull him out of his seat with his hand. 
“Ow- hey!” He scolds and snowball whirrs at him insistently. it goes to the door and then back, whirring and chittering at him. “You…want me to follow you?” He inquires, and the flaps on the side come up and it comes back to him. That seems to be an affirmative, but Hanzo isn’t sure. He stands and the bot races to the door, confirming his suspicions. “Fine- I will follow. but what is the meaning of this?” He asks, and snowball whirrs. 
That isn’t at all helpful. He sighs and resigns himself to following the bot. 
It leads him into the lab area, most of the lights are off. Mei, in those adorable yeti pajamas, looks to be pouring over data, she looks over at Hanzo when he enters, turning away quicky and wiping her face. he frowns, approaching her. “Mei, are you alright?” 
“I- yeah!” She turns around beaming at him and brushing some holoscreens into a digital folder behind her. Her eyes are red and her face is heavily flushed, almost entirely red. It’s more than clear that she’s been drinking. Now, Hanzo was no stranger to having a drink, and, yes, occasion getting drunk. There was nothing wrong with either of those things in moderation, but Mei was clearly also upset. 
“I was just- There’s still so much data from when I was- yeah.” She nods, eyes focusing on something on another desk, and she goes for it, stumbling over her own feet before she gets there. Thankfully, she’s caught by a strong, dragon-tattooed arm rather than the floor. “Be careful.” He chides, and Mei frowns childishly. “I don’t need your help.” she huffs, fixing her glasses and gently pushing his arm away. 
He frowns as she moves to the desk, shuffling through papers, shaking her head and and lifting her glasses to rub at her eyes. She sniffles and HAnzo frowns, sighing softly. “Mei-san. You’re distraught.” He isnists, and she looks over at him, fresh tears gathering in her eyes. 
“I- My team, Hanzo. I- I have to do this. They- I was the only- I can’t just-” 
Her shoulders shake and she hands her head, and Hanzo can’t help himself but to wrap his arms around her. she had told him about how she returned to Overwatch, waking up on Ecopoint: Antarctica and her entire station’s cryochambers being compromised after nine years of sleep. 
“Let’s get you to bed.” He decides, pulling back and tucking a bit of hair behins her ear. Mei frowns, starting to protest. “Hush.” His instruction is firm, but gentle at the same time. “You are intoxicated, and hardly in any state to be reviewing data. We will get you some water amd to your bed.” Her eyebrows knit and it looks like she’s going to be stubborn and protest again, but she relents, looking away and nodding. 
He steps back and she turns towards the doorway, taking a few uneasy steps before stumbling over herself again. She was more drunk than Hanzo originally thought. He catches her again, this time scooping her up to carrt her against his chest in a cross between bridal-style and the way one typically carries a child. She huffs, resting her cheek on his shoulder. “You don’t have to carry me.” 
“I do, if I don’t want to guide you across the base like a blind dog.” He answers easily, and she sighs, giving in. He feels strange, carrying her like this into the women’s barracks, but he didn’t have much of a choice. He approaches the door and she prattles off her door code, him fumbling a little and adjusting to put it in without dropping her, so he gently sets the woman back on her feet to punch in the numbers. 
The door slides open and he turns on the light. Mei seems to have figured herself out enough, shuffling instead of trying to walk to her bed.  She sits on it, and looks at him, taking her glasses off and her hair down, fluffing it out of it’s neat bun with a clumsy hand. He blushes, looking away and clearing his throat. 
“I- I suppose this is where I take my leave.” he nods as she adjusts her pillows and blankets with immense concentration. “Oyasumi, Mei-san.” 
He turns the light off, sure to leave on the lamp by her head as she gets settled in. He sighs down at her, petting her head once before straightening up and going to leave. “Wait.” She sits back up a little, frowning at him. “will you stay with me?”
“I- hardly think that’s-”
“I hate waking up alone. Not after Antarctica.” She blurts quickly, recoiling a little at her own words and looking at the ground. Her face would be redder if it was physically possible bast her drunkenness. “B-but If you don’t want to, then that’s fine, I just-” she’s backpeadling already, but hanzo gives her a small, sad smile. 
“If that is what you want, Mei. I will stay with you.” She nods once, and he moves to sit on the bed with her, laying out beside her. She turns over to snuggle against his side, a fuzzy, blue cloudy blanket between them. He wraps an arm around her, looking down at the woman, already falling asleep again. 
“You will never wake up alone, then. If that is what you want.” He rumbles softly 
47 notes · View notes
neshatriumphs · 6 years
Text
(R)Evolution 01: What You Know Is Right
A city. A mood. An atmosphere. She wished that there was at least some uncertainty that it was good or bad, instead of the knowing dread that it was bad - not all bad, but mostly. None of these people had good intentions. She could tell. She always just knew. As her dark brown fingers fiddled with the spade symbol pendant on her necklace, she bundled up, wondering what in the world was wrong with this weather? Honestly, she should go back home, right now, as the dread was growing, almost exponentially, like a seen danger impending, but she didn’t see anything. Her breathing became heavy and she shut her eyes long enough to try to either calm herself or accept whatever this fate she feared was.
“Ouch!” she hissed. Her eyes flew open and she held her neck. Was that a mosquito? That stung a bit much for one of their bites and wasn’t it too cold for mosquitoes to be out, anyway? She continued to walk, nervously, and now light headed. “What the fuuu…?”
She collapsed and fell onto someone and heard a man’s voice say, “There, there, princess. You’ll be alright.” How did he know that I’m called a princess? She wondered, as she fell unconscious, not too far away, if she could have seen - from a community bulletin board with numerous missing persons attached to it.
Six years in prison hadn’t been the terror that she would have imagined. Embezzlement, fraud, and robbery - for the things that she needed in order to survive in a world, in a country that felt like it was constantly trying to destroy her. Okay, so perhaps she was melodramatic  about her plight, but she robbed the rich. It wasn’t like she kept babies from their mom’s breast. Her targets were richer than anybody should even be allowed to be, hence the reason  why she wound up getting in trouble when she got caught.
As she was prepped for her release, the president was on the tv in the background, “America has evolved and is constantly evolving. We will only continue to flourish, because we are a nation of survivors. We are a nation of the fittest. We’re resilient. We’re resourceful. We continue to rise…”
“Evolving,” she repeated and rolled her eyes as she was handed her belongings. Her ride was waiting for her outside and she immediately went to sleep in the jeep.
Folami had a job waiting for her as an analyst in a laboratory, and was under strict supervision with no access to anything connected to the funds. It had been a generous set up for her, and she was grateful to be able to easily return to some degree of normalcy. Of course, in a lot of ways, she would never be normal again, but at least she had a good job that made her great money. “I don’t understand what my exact purpose is here,” she admitted to her supervisor. “My credentials say “analyst,” but I’ve mostly been taking notes and watching interviews. Is that what I should be doing, or…?”
“If you go into the company’s intranet system and view the job description for analyst, you should understand better. If you can’t, then we can have a discussion about your future here.”
Whenever he left the room, a girl in the room asked, “Do you have a criminal record?” She turned around suddenly to give her a look for the gall. “I’m just throwing it out there, that if you do, they hire you because they know that a lot of people won’t. They pay you well to do trivial things, and if need be ever arises,” she whispered, “To be an alibi or witness.” The girl was cleaning up as she said, in her regular voice, “It’s a shady place, but to wipe a few counters, throw out some trash and dust mop… I probably get paid what you get paid to grab coffee and read unimportant emails.” Folami couldn’t be insulted. But, she was curious.
“Analyst!” Somebody called and she reflexively turned around. They handed her a box and said, “Document these items, bag separately and store the box.”
“Done,” she said.
She put on her gloves, reached into the box and began to record herself bagging the items, as the computer typed up her report. “One pair of black cashmere gloves, one black fur shawl, one pair of thigh high black boots, one… necklace… with a card symbol on it.” She paused the recording to look up the symbol, then resumed, “A spade.” She boxed put the items into a new box, one of the ones that they used for filing away the test subjects things, as they were in testing, printed out a label for the post it note that had been put onto the former box Princess of Spades, and put it on the shelf for P’s.
Walking to the subway, Folami passed by the missing persons bulletin every night. It wasn’t too far from the lab and almost right at the stairwell. She reflexively looked at it, all the time. Just, because she felt bad for all of those people. So many were missing, and the number seemed to grow everyday. Her view automatically zoomed in on the missing black faces that she saw, the women in particular. She shivered, shook her head and fought back tears. Nobody even seemed to be looking for those people. In fact, most people seemed to try to avoid even looking at the board, much less for the people posted on it. Damn, she hated this world.
“Analyst!” She sighed, but forced a smile and went to the counter. “New admission. Key in the information.”
“Please,” she added for the admissions technician.
He gave her a look and corrected her, “Now.” Folami snatched the clipboard and the admissions tech left the woman at the counter to go gather some materials.
“Well, somebody was having a bad day, huh?” she asked.
Folami shook her head and commented, “Girl, they’re always like this. I get that they work really hard on, I don’t even know diseases or cures or something, but I leave my house black everyday, so they can calm down.” She checked the paperwork, “Dahlia. Oh, that’s pretty.”
“Girl, it’s a flower. My mama didn’t even know when she named me that. She’d just heard the word and thought it sounded pretty.”
“She was right,” Folami said and continued typing in the information. After she printed out an ID for her, she smiled, handed it over and said, “Good luck, Dahlia.”
“Thank you. Hopefully, they’ll figure out what to do about my condition.” She smiled gratefully and returned to the seat to wait for the team to come retrieve her. Folami went back to her shredding party of blacked out pages, with the TV on in the background. “Lord, I hope that they find that sista,” Dahlia commented. Folami looked up and saw the face of a woman, probably around her own age, with similar markers - dark skinned (though a few shades darker), dark eyes, long hair, thin, but with fuller lips, smiling from a photograph. Who is she? She turned it up.
“Daughter of political activist, Tejumola Uchechukwu, the recent college graduate was scheduled to meet with her father and some business partners about a possible future assignment, but never showed…”
Tejumola Uchechukwu, a man who Folami could tell was of Nigerian descent, like her dad, was very emotional as he expressed that he had many enemies, but his daughter was the kindest, most moral person that he knew and he would stop at nothing to have her returned to her loved ones.
“It’s so sad. She do charity and stuff. Her life was just bout to start. I hate to say it, but she been missing for days. They probably not gonna find her…” She didn’t want to say alive, but if they found her, it would likely be dead. But, something caused Folami to march closer to the TV and stare up at it, centering in on it as admissions came to retrieve Dahlia. She didn’t even hear her say, “It was good to meet you!” Because she was focused on the necklace in Niyilolawa Uchechukwu’s photo. One spade necklace…
“Analyst.” The voice was softer than usual and almost quiet. She turned, more shocked by that than when it was barked at her. “Make sure that you do your job and don’t get…” he searched for the right words, “Buried in the details, too much.” That was a threat. But, she simply nodded her head and turned off the TV. Someone else came and handed him a box, which he passed to her. “What do you do with this?” He asked.
“Document these items, bag separately and store the box,” she repeated her job description.
“Thank you,” he said, for a change, then left.
She did her job, documented and put the box labeled “Bloom” in the B’s… But, ashe couldn’t help but to go check that other box. She remembered it was in the P’s, but couldn’t remember the label. Pendant spade? Prime spade? She searched for several minutes, before seeing “Princess of Spades!” She grabbed the box, looked inside of it and couldn’t find the necklace, but she knew that this was the box and that she had put it in there. She went into the records and her recording had been edited. There was no record of her placing the necklace into the box. She frowned and sighed. This was super shady. Did they have somebody here, against her will, or did this person enter a crazy program and failed to tell her parents?  
Whenever she came into work the next day, after virtually no sleep, she entered to the face of her work bestie, the secretary/front counter receptionist. “Hey… They want you to meet them upstairs as soon as you clock in.”
“Shoot, what’d I do?” she asked.
“Probably just paranoid. I guess you accessed some file without permission, or something. I mean, you’re still new so they shouldn’t trip too much. Probably just will remind you of the protocol.”
But, her heart leaped into her throat and she nodded her head, “Okay. Thanks.”
“Have lunch with me today. I gotta show you this commercial that I saw last night. It is a riot. I was gon’ text it to you, but I wanted to see your face.” Folami went to her workstation, clocked in, put her things away and headed upstairs. Her immediate thought when she came in was that she was in deep trouble. She saw the admissions tech from yesterday, her supervisor and one of the scientists. This couldn’t bode well, but whenever she got all the way into the room, she saw her.
“Hi…” She said, confused. Niyilolawa Uchechukwu nodded once, with a soft smile and fiddled with her necklace pendant.
“Have a seat for us, Analyst Adebowale,” Her supervisor said. So, today, they know my name. She did so. “We just wanted to bring you in, because admissions was concerned about your interest in a very sensitive case that we’re currently working on. We wanted to make sure that you could sleep tonight, by knowing just enough to smooth over your concerns.” How they know I couldn’t sleep last night? “This is Niyilolawa Uchechukwu. You may have seen her face on the news, as her parents issued a missing persons alert for her. However, she has entered herself into the program, and for the safety of others, as well as herself did not wish to publicize her decision.” Folami looked at the woman. She forced a smile, but Folami knew that in distress look anyway and her conscious ached for something to do to help this person. “When it was noticed that you accessed her file, and searched her possessions box, we brought her in to speak to you, personally.”
Niyilolawa said, “I turned over my necklace at admissions, but was allowed to have it back, later.”
“We remove possessions from record whenever we give them to the guest, so that we’re clear that it isn’t in our care,” the scientist said. “However, protocol dictates that you not access the files without instructions from a scientist, supervisor, or technician, so why were you in her files?”
“Because, I recognized the necklace, in the news. I double checked to make sure that I had made a mistake, and thought until just now that I must have.”
Niyilolawa could sense Folami’s fear and her struggle, so she reached for her hand, “Thank you for your concern. I’m sure that you will do what is right with what you know.” You know that I do not wish to be here. You know that I am missing. You know that these men are evil. Please help me… Her eyes said.
“Well, if you in the future have any concerns, see your supervisor. Stay behind for a moment.” The others left the office and it was just Folami and the scientist. “How has the job been treating you?” he asked.
“Good. It’s treated me well,” she answered, her soul shaken up by the encounter with that woman.
“And it’s been enough for you to get back on your feet, so that you no longer have to live with your four sisters?” he asked.
She felt like this was yet another threat, but answered calmly, “We want to live together. Life is hard and the world is dangerous. There’s safety in numbers.”
“That there is. You all look identical. How does anyone tell you apart?” he wondered, looking at her social media profile photo of five women with the exact same face.
“They don’t, but we know,” she said.
“Hopefully, nobody ever has a grudge with any of you. I can’t imagine how it might feel to get on someone’s bad side, then have someone else suffer for it.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time, so, we’d manage.” She clasped her hands together and wondered, “Is there anything else?”
“Yes. Do your job and mind your business. There are various levels in this facility, and you are at the very bottom. I won’t feel the need to explain myself in the future.”
“Of course. I will do what I am paid to do,” she told him and nodded her head…
“I can’t just do what I’m paid to do! Something is happening there. Something bad. I can feel it. That girl’s voice is burned into my head and I don’t know… When she touched me, it was like I could read her cry for help, right there in her eyes. I could hear her voice begging me to do what I know is right.” She looked at her four identicals and said, “We… have to do something, right? We gotta try to help her, or am I on my own?”
“Now, when have you ever in life been on your own?” the other four asked in unison.
3 notes · View notes
bravagente · 6 years
Note
hello dear mod, thank you for everything you do. i have a question i apologise if it's heavier than the tone on this blog. recently a popular italian blogger said that race in italy is racist&was a product of il ventennio. i am french&i understand that we in europe don't like to say the word 'race', but i just want to understand how the construct of racism in italy, especially with all the far right/macerata from an italian persepective. I did read amara lakhous. thanks for everything you do!
Hi! Sorry for the late answer, it’s just such a complex matter to talk about and I’m not entirely sure I have the right perspective to handle it properly both as a white woman and as someone who lives in a city where that’s still relatively not diverse. Plus I study languages so I’m not really in the area - I basically really wanted to do right by this and I hope I will.
Disclaimer: it is true that in Italy the very concept of race, at least the way we know and use it in English is racist and a product of the ventennio. Whichever its etimology and original denotation, the word race (razza) has been very clearly connotated since Fascism: if you say men have razze, you’re implying some men have a pure, superior razza and some don’t. Nowadays in Italian dogs and horses have razze, not people. So, usually, if someone uses ‘race’ in italian as opposed to, say, ethnicity (etnia, colore), you’ll be quite sure they’re racist. It’s not that just because people don’t use the word they can’t be racist, but it does say something about how hard it is for us to cope with the American concept of race and the discourse that follows. The paradox is Americans are rightly very sensitive and careful about what they call race, when from our pov they’re just seeing it all from an inherently racist perspective: there are whites and then there are “people of colour”, all of them. Basically, a white race and then all those other races. Again, all of them. We can’t quite wrap our head around it, especially since we don’t really have a concept of, say, “brown” people. Come over in August, we’ll all be brown. We like a tan. It’s just beyond us.
Moving on to racism. It is possibly the most divisive thing in Italy right now and any conversation about it will escalate quickly because a) no one ever admits to being racist b) not everyone necessarily knows they are, if they are. Like everywhere else, it’s not always glaring. It’s not always a “racist slurs” kind of thing. There are subtle forms of it even here and not just in the alt right: I believe many liberals are actually as racist as one gets, they just don’t show because they never deal with people of colour in the first place. I once interviewed an otherwise pretty decent man who told me immigrants today don’t actually come here willing to work and therefore should be sent back home, another one praised a city he visited because he saw no blacks selling stuff there. I think it speaks volumes on how complex this thing is getting: you can deal with assholes who are 100% assholes. You can ignore them and decide they’re not worth your time and energy. But when they’re half-decent it’s just disheartening and makes you wonder where we’re going. Another reason conversations about racism often won’t end well is they slip into politics and fascism is far from over. Even though more-or-less openly fascist parties didn’t do well at the latest elections, the winners (League and the Five Stars) are firmly anti-immigration, making it about law and order as any Trump of the world would.
Having said this, race as we discussed it might be rooted in Fascism, but is the same true for racism? It is and it isn’t. There’s evidence that sub-saharian Africans were of always discriminated against. We had our own slave markets we don’t learn much of in schools, and while it’d buy and sell people of any race black Africans were definitely amongst them. There’s recently been a lot of discourse about how (in)accurate Still Star-Crossed was, with someone arguing that Alessandro de’ Medici was just an example of a class of black nobles. I’m afraid that’s not true. If I’m referencing to this particular period of time it’s because Renaissance is a personal interest of mine: The Ugly Renaissance will offer information about racism against dark-skinned Africans in 15th-16th century Italy. While light skinned Africans were considered as white as any European, sub-Saharans were thought to be strong and valuable workers, but also “uncivilized simpletons who could never hope to occupy a position of parity with the white majority”. That was a long time ago, sure, but it was bound to remain embedded in people’s mindset. And it did in ways we’d think were behind us by now.
Now, subtle forms of racism aside, there are many racists of the in-your-face, insulting type, more and worse than I ever thought possible growing up. They’ve actually probably always been there, it’s just now they have the Internet so they feel somehow validated and it’s made them unashamed to be openly hateful and ignorant with the support of the right.
However I have to stress that there many, many many more, non-racists. When fascists parade in our streets, anti fascist marches will follow. There’s always a firm reaction, it’s just decency doesn’t make any noise and rarely makes it to the headlines. Anyway I’ll give a few pieces of news  encapsulating the two souls of Italy:  
Refugee drowns in Venice as people film on their phones and do nothing
Teenager saves black child from getting hit by a train in Milan
Mein Kumpf-owning man shoots black immigrants on sight
Italians protest against racism
Refugee killed in Fermo after defending his wife from slurs
1500 in march to commemorate him
Black man shot to death in Florence
Italians join black people in march to commemorate him
So there’s the bright side I guess, we are genuinely engaged and young people who actually read books know we’re a country with very diverse genes, owing much of our language and culture and even food to “others”. This matters deeply to me because I think othering is the root of most, if not all, issues in our societies. This is a cultural problem first and foremost and I actually believe that. We often speak of inclusiveness or tolerance, but these are all patronizing concepts to me. Who the hell do I think I am to include or “tolerate” someone? No, I have to know in my heart of hearts that “others” aren’t to fear.
Anyway, racism is definitely an issue that exists and that’s getting worse. I’ve personally come to conclude racist behaviours in Italy are caused  and fueled by three broader factors that often inform one another.
Ideology is the most glaring: most racists are unapologetic fascists and racism is mounting and growing together with a wave of nostalgia for Mussolini’s party. A lot of fascists obviously never lived under the Duce in the first place, but they have a misguided perception of the ventennio as a time of justice and order where trains would run in time and so on. Something you’ll hear from time to time is that the duce “ha fatto anche cose buone” (also did good things). To these people, the presence of black people or muslims goes hand-in-hand with crimes and chaos: they’ll rape women! They steal and murder! They’re drug dealers! The fact that these things are sometimes true because eventually a rapist or killer or drug dealer will statistically have to be black is irrelevant: if caught off guard they’ll admit to believing every racist stereotype out there.
Xenophobia is more nuanced. The reason I don’t necessarily associate xenophobia with racism is that, until just a few years ago, the most feared foreigners in Italy were the very white Romanians and even Albanians before them. The media are also to blame for the way headlines were worded and they still tend to, often unwillingly, magnify the one crime someone black commits as opposed to those commited by Italians. The Macerata episode was most probably “inspired” by the killing of a young girl cut into pieces by at least one Nigerian immigrant. What do you now, since the news spread every Nigerian person has become a public enemy. Another huge media-related problem is they’ve created an unjustified alarm on the refugee emergency, treating it as if more people than in the past were arriving in our country (they weren’t) and as if the situation was completely out of control (it isn’t, although it’s not easy either). Crime is just one thing, though: people are afraid because our times are scary and dangerous, there are no jobs and the welfare is dying. They are hoping the government will help them and fearing that we’re too many for it to be sustainable. There’s a common misconception for which every immigrant in Italy is being hosted in a hotel and given 30 euros per day while unemployed Italians don’t have any money to buy food: while you can argue that the immigrant will only get 3 of those 30 euros, Italians still live this as if those resources are being spent on foreigners as opposed to themselves because scapegoating is a human, if wrong, thing. Clearly this is turning into a war of the underprivilegeds that will only result in diffidence and hatred, and the staggering misinformation about black people being all but enslaved in some areas of out country isn’t helping.
Conservativism, finally, is a branch of ideology but it’s not necessarily related to actual racism (though it can be). There are some who are entirely cool with people of other ethnicities as long as they “don’t bother” them. They’re too culturally lazy to accept anything different than what they knew as children, they fear Christmas will be cancelled and they don’t want, say, mosques, because they hardly know what they even are. They’re usually the same people who are annoyed by vegans: probably harmless, but they certainly don’t help.
Again I hope this helps. I really tried to be clear and truthful and not offend anybody.
8 notes · View notes
monumentalnightmare · 7 years
Text
Insecurities
This is another piece I just needed to get out my head. I’m still getting into writing again so not sure if it’s any good but I still hope you enjoy it! 
There are some things Waverly doesn’t like to discuss with Nicole regarding their relationship, but she has a way of helping her open up. 
Before Waverly began exploring her sexuality, she dated a few guys – the main one being Champ Hardy. He was the one person at school who seemed to ignore the fact that she was an Earp and wouldn’t be awkward around her. Champ actually seemed to like her and that made Waverly feel really good. It was what she had always wanted – someone to like her for herself. When they began dating, things still seemed off. He didn’t pay that much attention to her unless he was touching some part of her body or kissing her – it didn’t exactly make her feel wanted. At first, it was nice that someone wanted to be around her, but then she just got sick of him touching her all the time. She realized it didn’t make her feel good and it was more of a chore than enjoyment.
Whenever they had sex, the few times they did since she avoided it as much as she could, Waverly didn’t enjoy it at all. Champ cared more about his pleasure than her own so the first time they did have sex, the pain was unbearable. She remembers crying herself to sleep once he was unconscious – luckily, they had been at his place or else Wynonna would most likely have beaten him to a pulp. Ever since that day, and the few times she had sex with him after that, she had been extremely insecure about the sexual side of the relationship. It was as though she couldn’t get sexually aroused because of the fear of the pain she had felt in the past – Champ wasn’t the only person this had happened with either. A few guys she had dated before him had the same thing happen and it was as though Waverly had gotten to the point where any person she dates just makes her insecure.
Nicole Haught. Damn, she is a completely different category. Before they met, Waverly had never even thought about being with another woman. Yes, she had seen other girls in her year and thought they were hot, but Waverly had just put it down to admiring the way they look. She never thought it was because she could be into women and the thought of that never even crossed her mind – no one she grew up with ended up being homosexual so it never even came up. Nicole changed all of that. She came in confident and was never like anyone she had met in the past. She was beautiful and once they met, Waverly started to realize she may have had feelings like this before. They were just ones she didn’t want to admit. When you grow up in a small town where everyone knows everyone it’s hard to be yourself – you have to fit in or you are cast aside. After having Wynonna taken away, she needed to fit in and it took her ages before everyone started treating her as Waverly instead of ‘the sister of the girl who shot her own father’. When people started to like her for the person she is, Waverly focused on being that person. She didn’t have time to figure out a lot of stuff so she did what everyone expected. Date guys, smile and not act weird. Nicole Haught changed all of that when she walked into Shorty’s.
Everything about Nicole and their relationship was different to anyone she had ever dated and it wasn’t just because of being with a woman for the first time. Nicole actually cared about her and never pushed her into anything she didn’t want. The redhead had never once even mentioned the sexual side to their relationship when Champ didn’t wait before mentioning it. A lot of the time she wanted to compare Nicole to Champ but there wasn’t even any competition. Nicole was everything she had wanted in a person and sometimes she had to pinch herself just to make sure she’s awake since it seems as though she walked right out of her dreams. Waverly knows how cheesy that sounds but it’s true – how did she get so lucky? They hadn’t been dating very long but even just thinking about the prospect of having sex with Nicole scared Waverly. Hell, she had to stop herself from shaking sometimes when she thinks about it. What if Nicole realizes she can’t get aroused and leaves? It would be the best thing, right? Who wants a sexless relationship?
Currently, Waverly is standing at the kitchen sink in Nicole’s apartment cleaning one of the cups she had been using. Nicole popped into work not long ago so Waverly just decided to stay and clean up a little. It was nice to have time to think without worrying about Nicole asking questions. She had done everything she could to not talk to her girlfriend about her fears – Waverly knew she wasn’t ready to be disappointed or hurt. It was all new but she really liked Nicole and wasn’t ready to let her go. Not yet.
Putting the clean mug on the draining board whilst deep in thought meant Waverly didn’t hear any doors opening and closing so when she felt a pair of arms move around her waist, she couldn’t help but tense and freeze out of habit.  She remembers when Champ used to do the same thing and it wasn’t uncommon for him to make a move and try and get her into bed.  She hated it and the fact that she couldn’t be calm even in her girlfriend’s apartment wasn’t something to be proud of. Waverly felt a pair of familiar soft lips against her jaw helping her to calm down a little before she allowed herself to relax leaning back into the familiar embrace.
“It’s only me, baby,” Nicole whispered into her ear before pressing her lips against Waverly’s temple. “I’d be very worried if it wasn’t since I locked the door behind me when I left.”
Waverly bites her lip nodding before drying her hands and tracing her fingers along Nicole’s arms. “You just surprised me, that’s all.”
She closed her eyes enjoying the way Nicole is holding her when she feels herself being turned around. Opening her eyes, Waverly is met by her girlfriend who is giving her a warm smile which is definitely helping her relax a little more. Waverly moves her hands up Nicole’s arms locking her fingers behind her neck. Nicole’s hands remain on her waist before pulling her closer so their bodies are pressed against each other. It makes Waverly a little nervous but she’s trying her best not to show it.
“Waves – you okay?”
She doesn’t process Nicole is talking to her until she notices her mouth moving.  Smiling, Waverly nodded her head in response not wanting to alarm the redhead.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” Waverly asked, leaning up pressing her lips against Nicole’s trying to distract her. “I’m just happy, that’s all.”
Nicole raises her eyebrow pulling back a little. It alarms Waverly wondering what is going on when Nicole takes her hands in her own stroking the skin with her thumbs.  Waverly feels her heart-pounding – she isn’t sure what Nicole is thinking and that really doesn’t help. Nicole pulls her hand walking slowly towards the table sitting down on one of the seats pulling Waverly between her legs causing the brunette to smile. She loves the small things the redhead does and it’s all just to make her smile. Waverly’s hands go to Nicole’s hair taking the braid out running her fingers through her hair enjoying the softness of her girlfriend’s hair between her fingers.
“God that feels so much better.” Nicole admitted with a sigh leaving her lips. “I hate how I have to have my hair for work. It pulls on it so much.”
“I love your hair, but I will admit – I prefer it down.” Waverly moves her fingers until they get to the ends of Nicole’s hair. “I love running my fingers through it and it’s always super soft.”
Grinning, Nicole moves her hands to the back of Waverly’s legs with a smile. “You know you can talk to me, right? About anything.”
Waverly looks down nodding her head. “Yeah – yeah, of course.”
“Do you though? I mean – you did date Champ Hardy and he doesn’t really seem like a boy who let you talk to him about anything.”
Nicole was right – as per usual. Champ didn’t listen to her issues and pretty much just laughed when she was upset about anything. It wasn’t as though she didn’t trust Nicole, she did, it was just why should she believe Nicole wouldn’t do the same thing. Champ was the reason her insecurities came out and now it could affect her relationship with Nicole too. Her head is packed with so many things currently that she doesn’t notice Nicole pull her closer so she’s sat on her lap. Waverly feels fingers on her back jolting her back to reality.
“Waverly…talk to me.”
Waverly shakes her head looking down at her lap. “You wouldn’t understand.”
She puts her focuses on her fingers in her lap when a finger goes underneath her chin lifting her head so their eyes meet. She sees a twinkle in her eyes she hasn’t ever seen in anybody she’s dated in the past. Waverly just wants to run but she knows Nicole wants her to open up. Is she ready for that though? What if Nicole just acts like Champ? Of course, Waverly doesn’t always compare the both of them, but it’s a possibility for sure.
“I can be surprising,” Nicole said, with a smile. “Try me. I’m all ears.”
Waverly sighed looking down before looking back at Nicole being pulled in by her gaze. She knows she can trust Nicole and they do say facing your fears is supposed to be good for you. Waverly cups her girlfriend’s cheek stroking it with her thumb whilst she tries to get her words together. She can’t believe how soft Nicole’s skin feels – gosh, she really does need to focus.
“So, you know I dated Champ?”
Nicole groans nodding her head moving a hand to Waverly’s leg. “Don’t remind me, Waves.”
“Well – I don’t know how to tell you this – but I’ve never – well – you know,” Waverly mumbles trying her best not to say it out loud. She already feels herself going red.
Nicole raises her eyebrow in confusion. “You’ve never had sex?”
“What? No! I’ve had sex before. Well, I’ve had sex with a guy – Champ to be exact – but I’ve never really – he was…”
Taking Waverly’s hand, Nicole kisses her hand softly. “Take a breather and continue when you’re ready.”
Sighing, Waverly doesn’t feel as though she will ever get out what she wants to say. How do you tell your girlfriend you’re worried she won’t turn you on? How do you tell someone you’ve never been aroused by your previous partners? It is so embarrassing. She’s avoided telling anyone and, frankly, she doesn’t want to tell Nicole but she’s insistent. Of course, Nicole would notice when something is bothering her – she notices things about her a lot more than Champ did.
“Don’t judge me,” Waverly said before taking a breath looking at Nicole. “In my past relationships, I’ve never got – you know – turned on.”
Nicole’s fingers trace over her thigh in a comforting manner. “Never?”
“Never. The first time Champ and I had sex was unbearable. I ended up crying myself to sleep once I knew he was already gone. He only cared about his pleasure so since then I’ve – I just don’t want you to be disappointed.”
“I won’t be disappointed, Waverly,” Nicole assured her cupping her cheek with a smile. “You know why?”
“I’m sure you will be but enlighten me.”
Nicole chuckles shaking her head. “Baby, do you really think all I care about is sex? I mean, I’m pretty sure this is the first time we’ve even spoken about this.”
“I know and I also know you’re different to anyone I’ve dated previously, but I just -” Waverly drifted off shaking her head. “I actually care about losing you, Nicole.”
Looking down at their fingers, she notices Nicole entwine them together enjoying the feeling she gets just by holding Nicole’s hand. She enjoys the small things and that is what makes their relationship so special. It’s not all about sex and they could literally just sit here all day and talk without either of them getting bored. Well, she certainly wouldn’t get bored anyway. Smiling, she leans against Nicole wrapping her free arm around her girlfriend’s neck trying to forget about the insecurities her head is coming up with. Everything is so much easier with Nicole. She feels a kiss to her shoulder causing a smile to form on her lips.
“You won’t lose me, Waverly Earp. Never.”
“Never is a very long time, Officer Haught.”
Nicole grins nodding her head. “It is indeed. But I want to explain something to you – I know why you’re scared.”
“Yes, because I don’t want us to finally get intimate and have me ruin it.”
Waverly is surprised when she sees her girlfriend shake her head again. “No – what you are really scared of is the fact you’ve never slept with a woman before so you think your body is going to react the same way it did when you were with a boy-man.”
Waverly chuckles. “I cannot believe you still remember the way I described Champ.”
“Ssh – that name is not to be spoken about in this intimate discussion,” Nicole said putting a finger to her lips. “Now, I want you to know something. I know you are insecure, baby – I’ve noticed this about you and I find it adorable. However, the intimacy between us will be completely different. You know why?”
Waverly shakes her head in response. “Because we care about each other?”
“Well I was going to say because we’re women, but your answer works too,” Nicole responds winking at her girlfriend causing Waverly to laugh nudging her playfully with her shoulder. “See? You have nothing to worry about and it’s not even something you need to be even thinking about yet. When you’re ready, you’ll know.”
Looking at Nicole, Waverly couldn’t believe how lucky she got. Leaning in, she brushes her lips against Nicole’s not being able to stop herself from smiling as her girlfriend kisses back. Even though she has a lot of insecurities to deal with, Nicole is always going to be there to help her deal with them. And even if she can’t always help her feel better, at least Waverly knows she will always be there with her arms open.
“How do you always know what to say?” Waverly asked, moving her other arm to join the one already around Nicole’s neck locking her fingers together. Nicole presses her lips against Waverly’s with a smile.
“Someone has to make the famous Waverly Earp smile - I’m honored it’s me,” Nicole answered standing up lifting Waverly in the process before setting her down wrapping her arms around Waverly’s waist. “So, I was thinking we could just hang out here tonight. I’ve got an early start tomorrow and I know you have a morning shift.”
Waverly grins nodding her head. “I think that sounds fantastic. Is Calamity Jane joining us?”
“Of course – I know how much you love that cat.”
Shrugging her shoulders, Waverly agrees. “You mean she loves me more than you.”
“That is only because you coddle her too much,” Nicole accuses, shaking her head with a smirk before kissing Waverly softly. “However, I’m glad you get along with her. You should see the way she reacted to my ex-girlfriend.”
Waverly shakes her head biting her lip motioning to the door. “Movie night?
“It should be me asking you that after the way you’ve been feeling lately.”
“Well I’m asking you – in your apartment – to have a movie night with me; your girlfriend.”
Nicole laughs nodding her head wrapping Waverly up in a hug.  
“That sounds perfect.”
Waverly forgot all about how insecure she had been feeling and instead pulled her girlfriend out of the kitchen and into the living room sitting down on the couch. Nicole joined her with an arm wrapping around her shoulder turning on the tv.
Waverly couldn’t keep the smile off her face.
66 notes · View notes
helmes-deep · 7 years
Text
Thoughts on Season 3 of Fuller House:
Yeah, I know it’s a horrible/corny show (and I didn’t even watch the original growing up leoooool), but Fuller House is also a very sweet, fun, family-oriented, and heart-warming show – which can make it enjoyable, imo. Anyways, I’ve just finished Part 1 of Season 3, and I just can’t NOT talk about it y’all:
Season 3 of Fuller House is not the best, imo (yes, I’ve watched all three seasons of this show lol). It has some great and funny moments, but it’s not Fuller House at its best. Yes, Season 1 was a bit cringe-y/slow, but I blame that on everyone still getting into the groove, so it’s understandable (and yes, I do think S1 had better writing/dialogue than S3). Season 2 is the best of Fuller House so far imo; it had the same level of writing as Season 1, but also the best jokes/most laughs from me so far. Season 3 of Fuller House just seems... Iunno... off???? Like, maybe it’s because the episodes were shorter so Season 3 just seemed wayyyyyy more choppy and quickly cut/edited (ESPECIALLY THAT FIRST EPISODE LIKE OH MY WORDDDDDD), or maybe it was Jodie Sweetin’s accident that called for a slight lack of energy/inactivity??? But overall for me, S3 just seemed a lot more rushed and a lot less witty, in terms of writing and dialogue (if you can believe this show was ever sharp – which I argue it was and/or had its great moments :p). There were just too many times during this season where there was no good punchline for a joke’s set-up or the audience laughed their heads off and I didn’t (I’m actually okay with a laugh track as long as the audience isn’t laughing at every dumb joke like I refuse to do). There did seem to be some great servings of nostalgia though, with parallels between the older and newer episodes (I didn’t catch much, though). Overall, I give the first half of this season a B+. It wasn’t at its best shape, but Season 3 of Fuller House still did a great job of mostly developing the characters and giving everyone screen-time.
By the opening scene of Episode 1 of Season 3 of Fuller House I was like “wtLOL PLEASE TELL ME FULLER HOUSE HASN’T BECOME A MUSICAL PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!”, but whenever the adults were doing a number for karaoke night, I was kind of down for it looool *hides face in shame*
MY WORD bless their stylists/make-up artists because at 30+ years old, a lot of the original/older cast still looks GREAT!! Like, is John Stamos getting younger?!? haha Candace Cameron Bure and Jodie Sweetin both look AMAZING for their age!! I just want to be able to rock some Adidas, a tight-fit dress, or any of Kimmy’s outrageous outfits by the time I hit their age!! Also, the children are growing up too look pretty fine, too!!
Max is still annoying to me, though arguably less so this season; his parts have always been the ones I drudge through the most. He’s just... not pulling off the “pretentious” or “know-it-all” attitude just right. Also pretty sure I hate his “gf” Rose more then him leol. I also can’t really stand the Max and Cosmo scenes, though I kind of just go with it now.
The original trio’s wives lol... Danny suddenly revealing that he’s gotten a divorce from Terry (the “one time you brought her here” joke was hilarious though lol) and was unexpected for his character, and we never really get to see Joey’s wife... On the one hand, I get it: what purpose would either of these women serve for the show now, and I’m sure the writers had no idea what to do with Danny’s and Joey’s love lives when they were planning on starting Fuller House again. On the other, the OCD-shipper in me really wants a continuous and logical storyline for these two post-Full House lol.
I can’t tell what is a shipping scene and what is specifically character/episode/storyline development anymore??? (although I suppose the two aren’t mutually exclusive.) Which, I think, is a good thing. At some point during this season I realized that Fuller House is really starting to become a show that is just about the happenings of an everyday family – just like the original. All of the characters are getting their own storylines and development – and in a pretty evenly distributed manner, too imo. Which is amazing if you think about it because Fuller House has like 20+ characters to account for at this point. It’s just a show you can watch and laugh with your family now – and the storylines are interesting and enjoyable for both older and younger generations imo – which is pretty stankin’ cool, if you ask me.
I can’t believe they brought Grandpa Katsopolis back!!!! Like W O W. This show knows how to indulge their fans, snap.
I feel for Jackson breaking up with Lola, but honestly, I wasn’t feeling that ship. There just didn’t seem to be any strong chemistry there. I am kind of digging the “nice guy” Jackson and “bad girl” Rocki ship though haha..... (idk, I’d just really like to see that dynamic play out), but I kind of don’t like how they’re making Gia come off as a “bad” mom (even though I barely watched her character/parts in the original show). I think I would have liked it more if they played her more as the “competitive and super-cool mom” type.
Also good to see that Jackson is finally getting a bit more development as a character, instead of just being the “dumb/loser kid/student.” Is he going to become the Reese (of Malcom in the Middle) for Fuller House through his superb coffee-making talents?? :p
I’ve loved Fernando since Season 1 (even though I think everyone else really didn’t), and I’m glad that he’s stayed on since. Honestly, I needed, was watching out for, and was kind of disappointed that I didn’t get more Fernando x Kimmy moments!! >:c
STEPHANIE AND JIMMY ARE THE CUTEST COUPLE EVERRRRRR!!!! LIKE EVERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!! LIKE OH MY WORD JIMMY IS AN ABSOLUTE DUMB-DUMB AND THOSE TYPES OF CHARACTERS USUALLY DRIVE ME OFF A CLIFF BUT OH MY WORD HE IS SO SWEET AND CARING AND BLESS THE WRITERS OF THIS SHOW FOR ADDING HIM LAST SEASON AND KEEPING HIM FOR THIS ONE BECAUSE HE IS TOO SWEEEEEEEEET ♡♡♡ HAHA MARRY HIM ALREADY STEPHANIE MARRY HIM!!!! XDXD
Kind of disappointed in the Gibbler House?? Like, it looked a bit too fake and the inside wasn’t as weird/whimsical/preposterous as I imagined it to be/expected. I also don’t like the idea of Fernando not living at the Fullers’ with Kimmy and Ramona (somebody has to be the next Uncle Jesse and Aunt Becky!! haha), although I do think that Jimmy needed to live somewhere (and I do like the idea of Fernando buying it for Kimmy~).
Speaking of which, are Fernando x Kimmy or Stephanie x Jimmy the next Uncle Jesse x Aunt Becky??? xDD Idk I used to really love Fernando and Kimmy but Jimmy’s been really workin’ his way up there by being such a sweetie and AUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO CHOOSE ANYMORE!!!! XD
I don’t blame Ramona for breaking up with Popko, but MY WORD they made such a cute couple!! I honestly hope he changes for her in the future... *fingers crossed, mind slightly doubtful*
Also, I don’t necessarily ship Ramona and Jackson (though I am definitely absolutely not against it), but when Ramona was like “why can’t I just find a nice and caring boyfriend?!?” after her break-up with Popko, and I was kind of like, “.....You mean Jackson????” XD Idk, I think the Ramona x Jackson shippers have gotten a bit too far in my head.
I’m #TeamSteve 100% – I think they should have been end-game in the original, in the first place – but I cannot deny that there is currently more chemistry between Matt and DJ than there is between Steve and DJ. Chalk it up to old age and a younger, better-looking Matt beating out an older and less attractive Steve (although to be fair, Scott Weinger’s been out of the acting game for a while), but I have to admit that I enjoy watching DJ interact with John’s character more than I do Scott’s at times. (People say Steve was a bit creepy during Season 1 and maybe 2 and I do agree that he came off a bit strong in the beginning, but I partly blame that on Scott’s return to acting; also I think that most of Steve’s desperate scenes at the beginning were pretty funny – come on, this is a comedy, y’all). Honestly, I’m just hoping that whenever anybody sees the slight lack of chemistry between Steve and DJ that they remember the wealth of chemistry that did happen between the two in the original and remember that #TeamSteve will always be the one to live on in our heart of hearts lol.
The wedding dress scene between DJ and CJ was so heart-wrenching... and savage lol. On the one hand, I do ship Steve and DJ 110+%, and yes, they do look like a “pretty” couple haha. On the other, if any girl had worn my wedding dress, I too, would have “killed her” LOL xD
Idk how Jesse and Becky’s baby almost outgrew DJ’s baby (though I get why they did it), but she. is. so. stankin’. cute!! Also I’m getting Michelle Tanner vibes from her :3
I actually kind of liked Joey in the original (minus the puppet), and I can see and like the idea of him running a brood of 4+ children, but his kids are. SO. A N N O Y I N G!!! Their "mischievous” antics come off as corny, cheesy, and annoying rather than adorable, making the kids seem like horrible, immature jerks rather than possibly lovable ones... although I suppose that’s how everyone felt about Joey in the original anyway lol.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but Stephanie’s whole “I can have a baby now!!” storyline is moving wayyyyyyy too fast, imo. (She and Becky getting excited over her finally “getting to become a mom!!” was so sweet and awesome though; I love how she doesn’t see being mom as an “obstacle” to her identity as a woman :’3) I’m okay with Stephanie seeing a fertility specialist, but honestly, I think it was brought up too soon. I would have rather had her see a fertility specialist sometime in Season 4 and let there be more development between her and Jimmy first during this season. As soon as she was told there is a possibility that she could be a mother, things escalated too quickly (although I suppose with invitro, things kind of have to). On the other hand, I don’t understand why Steph would want to have a baby now anyway when she clearly can’t afford raising one at this point: aren’t they always joking about how broke and how much of a freeloader she is right now?? (Oh well, chalk it up to the disillusion of this all being a fake TV show, I suppose.) On the other, other hand – and probably my most unpopular opinion – is that I don’t think Stephanie should raise a kid by herself. I’m sorry, but I really do believe that kids need two parents at the helm to give them a balanced, well-rounded life. The single-mom life is hard and raising kids all by yourself is no joke (I speak with some experience). I just think she really needed to get her life together and/or find a stable bf/husband before she thought about raising a child (being a mom is great, yes, but whatever happened to her developing singing career???)
Overall, I needed more jealousy storylines and PDA between the adult couples lol. Only DJ and Matt seemed to have any sweet moments, while everyone else’s love life was kind of put on the back-burner. I would have loved to have seen Kimmy get a bit jealous over Fernando and the real estate agent and/or Gia (maybe they’re developing this one, idk) or Jimmy getting jealous of Stephanie’s possible “baby daddies” lol. Idc if it’s cheesy or lame; I just really needed that in my life. Again, I think everything was paced a bit too fast at the beginning of Season 3, but we’ll see how the second part ties things up.
The ending OH MY WORD THE ENDING!!!! I cannot believe they left us on a cliffhanger where Matt is about to propose to DJ but DJ has just unknowingly confessed to Steve while they are both about to attend Steve’s upcoming wedding in Japan!! Talk about the drama waiting to happen for the second half of Season 3; I CANNOT WAIT FOR PART 2!!!
Welp those are my thoughts on this season so far. Will probably write a follow-up post with my thoughts on the second half of Season 3 when it airs!! Feel free to reblog and discuss any of these points with me!! I really need to talk to some more people about this show lol!!
15 notes · View notes
Text
So I've been mentally writing this sterek fic (I am literally always mentally writing a fic, it's the actual writing part that I struggle with) and it's SUPER frustrating because I'm realizing that I totally do not know the sequence of plot events in TW at ALL after the whole nogitsune shenanigan.
Like okay so it starts with The Summer Fling, which is canon fight me. And Derek angsting about Stiles age and Stiles low-key panicking about Scott finding out and the usual stuff there. And then comes the Unofficial Breakup that has to be Unofficial because they were never Official but after the vault and Erica and Boyd, it's all a little too Real for Stiles and he's like whoa pump the brakes.
So that's chill, and then the no-tell motel, Derek is Dead drama whereafter Stiles goes to the loft to like, mourn or whatever. Turns out Derek's not dead, that's great! Not great? The pair of delicate feet and slim ankles appearing at the top of the Sexy Spiral Staircase over Derek's shoulder. Obvs Stiles just like bolts at this point because Derek isn't his boyfriend, he has no right to be there, Derek's not dead and moved on it's all SO wonderful.
In all the running away, Stiles misses that A. The ankles belong to his English teacher and B. Derek's been magically seduced! Tragic. Rapey. All very much part of Derek's general milieu. Where's Cora? Honestly who cares like I hate to say that about a female character but she's so obviously a stand in for Erica that they murdered for no reason that I just Cannot with the interchangeable women. Miss me. She's running around the woods grieving Boyd. Maybe burying him.
Anyway. There's drama! Alphas! Ice bathes! Root cellars! The canon nonsense. Derek gives up the alpha powers still because that matters later for my plot so i guess Cora is around somewhere. Being vaguely poisoned.
Except that after it's all over Derek turns up in Stiles room to uuuuuh dance around an apology/explanation for the whole Ms. Blake misunderstanding and of course Stiles tells him that it's not his fault and there's uuuuuh... comforting. Where's the sheriff? Fuckin sleeping, dude had a rough night.
And then of course Stiles ruins the afterglow. Because he and Allison and Scott, they did something. And you don't get to fuck around with death magic without consequences. And for Stiles, lovely hella extra Stiles, who cares too much about everything it's that now he doesn't care at all. Not personally. He knows he should, he used to, that he can fake it for his dad and for Scott but he doesn't want to Have To fake it for Derek so he tells the truth.
Which naturally for Derek is a Big No. He's not gonna be with somebody who isn't with him, not really. It all touches on some weird consent and trauma issues and it's just bad news all around and everyone (really just Derek, cuz stiles isn't big on emotions RN) is real sad. Super sad. Pack up with my magically healed sister and ditch town sad.
And then of course comes stiles spiraling deterioration, because he wants to get mad about the whole thing but he can't and that just makes him want to get madder and things aren't going well and then nightmares hallucinations nemeton etc etc Possession. Cool. Literally do not talk to me about the creepy asylum sex or the coyote girl. Stiles' possessed, sleep deprived and drugged up to his eyeballs. It's problematic at best and I'm not about it. Too bad, not sad, don't care. Didn't happen.
Anyway. That's a whole rigamorole. Derek pops back into town, there are some tragedies, again canon nonsense not too caught up in the details here kids. And then! Since you can't be a wolf and a fox at the same time, the nogitsune is defeated and it turns out that when it puked stiles new body out in a pile of bandages, it kept his pretty little darkness all for itself. Convenient! Stiles has Feelings again y'all I could shed a tear.
Except that I WON'T because this is where I basically don't know the plot anymore. I just had to read Wiki plot summaries of the last 3 seasons, which are, ohmilordy, absolute fucking nonsense.
All the shit with the Calveras and Kate being a purple leopard and Derek being both de-aged and human, the Desert Wolf and Kira leaving and the benefactor and the mute and the Beserkers and Liam being introduced and Lydia figuring out the Banshee thing and whatever dumb Peter shit goes on ALL HAPPENS IN SEASON 4? MY GOD. Plus there's extra nonsense with bonfires and magical werewolf viruses and tea leaves that I didn't even KNOW about?
I feel like I deserve a medal for a 5 minute perusal. Anybody that watched all that shit deserves a fucking National Holiday named after them. And that's before all the nonsense with Theo and the Dread Doctors and the Nazi alpha that is apparently NEVER dealt with because of the Ghost Riders and Kate AND Gerard SOME MORE and then some dude named Monroe like Y'ALL.
Y'all.
The plots of this show are a fucking Rat King and Jeff Davis be shot.
Anyway.
Now I know that after Stiles gets his Feelings back, he keeps that shit to himself. Derek's got a lot going on. He's kidnapped! And then is a fetus! And he picks up a hot mercenary girlfriend somewhere and she teaches him how to use guns cuz he's a wooby human for a while. Basically all the plot anybody cares about picks up again in the van on the way to Mexico Part Duex.
Because that's the first time Stiles spends any real time alone (isnt liam passed out for most of it?) with Derek, and he got the feels, but Derek doesn't seem to be doing the weird chemosignal sniffing. (Does stiles know about the humanity in canon? Idc.)
So Derek doesn't appear to like... know. So stiles keeps keeping that shit to himself because it's Too Late anyway. Anything they might have had is long dead.
Speaking of dead! Derek gets gutted! Again y'all. And so of course Stiles is really missing the times when he didn't feel stuff because he loves Derek, fuck does he, and Derek is always a friggin martyr so instead of staying he lets braeden handle it and goes to save scott. With long seconds of forlorn staring and several glances back beforehand, of course. Aka what happened in canon.
So then Derek evolves like a Pokemon, as one does, and when stiles (hauling scott) comes out of the church he's just standing there in the moonlight in all his naked glory.
Stiles drops Scott. There's an affronted sounding 'oof' when he hits the ground, but it doesn't even register for Stiles because Derek's head whips around, nostrils flaring and Stiles knows that Derek Knows.
Stiles blinks and Derek is just there, right in front of him, one filthy hand cradling Stiles jaw.
"Why didn't you say something?" Derek asks and there's more than a little accusation in his voice. Stiles scoffs as dismissively as he can manage.
"What was I supposed to say? 'Hey Derek, surprise! I'm capable of loving you again, so you should break up with your hot, age appropriate girlfriend to go back to sneaking around with a teenage moron who may or may not ever actually tell anyone about you!'"
"Yes," Derek shrugs, and now there's definitely some affronted noises, both from Scott and from Braeden.
"Your girlfriend has a gun," Stiles points out, but it sounds weak to his own ears and Derek doesn't acknowledge it. Stiles is very focused on the rough pad of Derek's thumb tracing the thin skin under his eye. Derek's other hand clenches in the fabric of his shirt, hauling him closer. His own hands come up to curl around Derek's neck and tangle in his hair. It's gritty and greasy and Stiles couldn't care less; Derek's naked and throwing heat like a sauna pressed down the length of him. It's intoxicating against the freezing desert night and Stiles huddles closer.
"So kiss me already," he huffs, and Derek's answering grin is blinding for the split second he can see it before Derek jerks him in the final few inches. Stiles makes an embarrassing noise against Derek's mouth and can't bring himself to care.
Derek's hand slides down his back, settles in the curve of his spine and his fingers dig in. Stiles moans into his mouth again. He can't stop running his hands through Derek's hair, down his neck and shoulders, thinks vaguely he might be trying to climb him but it doesn't matter.
It's probably a long time, longer than Stiles would like to admit, but Lydia finally does interrupt them.
"As lovely as this reunion is, do you think we can go now?" She asks finally, voice strained. Stiles breaks away from Derek just enough to glance over and find her heaving slightly under Scott's weight. Scott, who looks extremely bemused and unhappy, but not terribly angry. Braeden, when he thinks to look for her, is straight up gone.
"Uh, yeah. Hang on," he turns back to Derek, "Do you have like, pants?"
There's more, with like feelings and stuff where Derek says he wants to be with Stiles more than he wants to leave beacon hills, and Stiles is like, deeply moved. And then physically moved because he still does the FBI internship program, Derek just goes with him and stays off the FBI most wanted list.
And that's that on this week's self indulgent bed time story. Now that I've done this I'll have to think of another one for tonight. Oh well.
0 notes