Man “Battle Nexus: New York” was a great episode but I do have one major gripe with it.

Like. Raph being paired up with Ghostbear? Makes sense. Works great. Works amazing, even.

Mikey being paired up with Meatsweats? Yeah that checks out!!

Donnie getting…Hypno…? I mean. I guess Donnie doesn’t like magic so it kindaaa works but Kendra would have been a much better choice to me personally. Maybe Big Mama didn’t wanna include a human or something…

And Leo getting…uh…one of the Sando Brothers???? Of all villains? Nah let’s be real, his main villain is more Big Mama herself (or Leo could be considered his own worst enemy lmao-). Hell Hypno would have probably worked better here considering their shared love for magic tricks and stuff, but Carl Sando????

If you could switch any of the routes, how would you do it? For example, put Noah in super easy mode by giving him Bobby's route. Or make Gary the Unicorn (Kassam's route).

((live footage of me thinking about noah having any other route than his own))

so, let’s see...

i would like noah’s playthrough to still have the flavor of his indecision, and plenty of dialogues so i could fall even more in love with him... but you know, less snakey and painful, soooo, i would give him rahim’s route. we get to be with him since day one, but he switches to someone else because of his insecurity, eventually becoming ours again when the right timing is right.

rahim should’ve had noah’s route. hear me out! he’s the one who cannot deal with confrontation. noah still bickers back when he and hope fight, and gives her some hard time when she says she makes more money than him. the only person who truly doesn’t take confrontation is rahim. he actually lets priya go for noah on operation, and i still don’t understand why he wouldn’t say anything, unless he was scared of calling her out. with that being said, he’s not out there at all, handsome, quiet and timid. that’s much more gentleman-y than noah ever was on those first couple of days! priya going after him on “operation nope” would make more sense than noah, because rahim is exactly her type, not book boy! she says she likes guys that can be cheeky and that’s who rahim is, despite of delivering the lines wrong. noah isn’t throwing pick up lines back and forth, and rahim was the one saying he doesn’t want to be friends with her because something else is on the table. and if we’re all playing the same game here, instead of hope, we put lottie on it. cause you know... cuckoo over a guy... and the fights with priya would stay in that realm of making sense. lottie going for priya’s guts would’ve actually been justified!

as for crane boy, i wanted to see something flavorful in than just lottie pining over him while he’s entirely into mc. it’s just very annoying she calls dibs without ever being with him. lucas’s route would fit gary so well, because he’s still unsure of whether he should trust someone or not, after being burned. and it would make sense for him to switch because he’s conflicted. it makes sense for lucas, but not for henrik (that was ooc), so gary could take that part. after mc is back and alone, he realizes the mistake he made and apologizes. it suits him better than henrik, i’ll tell you that. plus, if they made blake convince him? even better! one more for the “naive gary” for the win.

henrik could’ve been a casa amor guy. he’s the kind of boy you either fall in love right away or never give him a second look. imagine this dumbass of a guy trying to get with you in less than three days, while being confused about everything felix says! getting him so desperately trying to get with you being his confident self would’ve been another level! it also doesn’t make sense for him and lucas to come after the girl they’re with. they’re mates! it needed to be something about the frenemies trope and not the little brother-big brother. if we could put henrik on carl’s place, alien boy would’ve been a bombshell: 

carl coming in on day 5, taking henrik’s spot, would have a much richer development. he has a lot to learn about trust and control, and spending more time with us would teach him that. if carl brought someone back from casa amor, it would give sense to what he says later about “ending things before they get serious”. the angst would’ve been far more intense and the compensation of his arc much more satisfying than it is, giving him a full circle of a “awkward and scared” trope and giving us the carl arc we deserved.

rocco can stay put. his arc kind of fits him well and i don’t mind not seeing him again.

lucas could have gary’s route, and i would love to fight marisol over him. bear with me, it will make sense in a bit. lucas being an og boy would actually be cool since he doesn’t make the best first impressions with the guys, only the girls. the friendships would’ve been conditional and i would love to see that! plus, a little of hope’s glances towards him. but back to the marisol thing. she knows this is a place to find love, but also to play a game when it’s needed. once you get the breakfast gate happening, it’s on! marisol would be interested in him because of his looks and background. being so educated, honest, blunt and rude as he is, for once, she would’ve stirred from her usual type, and we could’ve had a little bit of a healthy competition.. imagine the snarky comments but still, the friendship with her being intact if one of us gets the guy. and marisol still being a love interest would only make everything more flavorful. “i thought i was competing for him, but it turns out, i was into you the whole time.”

bobby getting the unicorn route, in casa amor. imagine the players that unlocked him saying “did you know he’s a baker who makes cupcakes for his friends when they’re sad?” it would actually be a unicorn because once you’re on his route, and is sweet just like him, he boops you. PLAYERS POSTING ABOUT THE UNICORN GUY BOOPING THEM. i bet fusebox would’ve fixed that shit already, given he would become quite popular, not only because of his looks (because let’s face it, he’s adorable) but also the things he says and does. plus, if they played the cards right, he would’ve gone down on mc during casa, and OH MY GOD, the stans would lose their shit even more!

kassam would get bobby’s spot, and honestly? he would’ve been a direct competition to mysteryous lucas. he has so much to offer, but after casa amor, all the guys become the same person and that’s honestly a waste! kassam being there since day one would’ve been legitimately the quiet guy. even more so than noah.

elisa coming in from casa amor and staying, instead of shannon. again, hear me out. elisa still being an li it would mean she falls for us after being with a guy, and in this case, noah. elisa being a mean casa girl, but falling for us and having a completely new “enemies to lovers” route? UM, YES! much more interesting than what they gave her. let’s face it, girl was robbed! plus, day 19 is when everything happens, and elisa being jealous of whoever we saved (or brought back) is actually a dream! i still want a cool girl to be jealous of my mc!

shannon coming in later would make much more sense if she foght jo over one of the boys. the betrayal is far superior given they both came in together and were supposed to have each other’s backs. the fight would happen, and because shannon is not with him, it would also be understandable for her to not get the guy involved.

this second part you didn’t ask for, but like, my brain is gonna be scratching if i don’t match them like this:

‘new villa’

‘og boys and girls’

noah + hope become: rahim + lottie (staying together until the end, and it would make sense for lottie to be paranoid about priya and mc)

rahim + marisol become: noah + hope (would split right after hope realized he’s not her type)

gary + hannah become: lucas + hannah (hannah still gets dumped, but lucas is entirely for grabs after day 10)

rocco as rocco // rocco + mc (that could be the obligatory choice until he gets kicked for getting with someone else, and that would interchangeable among the girls depending on who you flirt with)

kassam as bobby kassam + marisol (it looks and feels cursed, but they would’ve mixed and matched once marisol noticed he’s not her type)

‘bombshells’

carl + gary

‘casa amor’

henrik coming in instead of carl, the other boys as themselves.

elisa being brought by rahim, and blake being brought by either carl or gary. much easier to manipulate, let’s face it.

shannon and jo come together and fight over one of the guys (probably)

‘disaster recoupling’

- jakub would choose lottie

- rahim would choose priya or mc (depending on your participation on operation rattie... or lohim)

- bombshell that stayed (gary or carl) chooses mc, stealing her away or staying in a couple as they were after girls’ choice

- noah chooses hope (and the surprise would be just as big, given hope doesn’t think anything of him because he’s too shy)

- lucas chooses chelsea

- kassam goes for marisol

‘stick or switch’

- jakub stays loyal (despite of bedding someone)(lottie going insane over the fact that he did that, regardless of how she feels disgusted by him)

- rahim stays loyal to priya, or brings blake back, if he’s with mc

- bombshell (gary or carl) brings blake back or stays loyal (depending on operation lohim)

- noah brings elisa (even though he’s not a hundred percent sure, and you can choose him the next recoupling)

- lucas stays loyal to chelsea, regardless

- kassam stays single

- marisol still switches to graham (even on her route)

- chelsea brings elijah back if you stayed single, or stays loyal to lucas if you switch

my brain is tired, i’m going night-night after this one.

Reactions: 11x03 Frances Francis Franny Frank

While I feel like I’ve said a million words about this episode already I still have a lot more to say, so... 

* To start: I think there’s a lot about this episode to recommend it. I think it plants seeds I fully expect to see grow over the rest of the season. I think it might have the first real hint of the ending. And I think it did things with two characters I often do not enjoy that made me enjoy them. So full credit on that front. 

* Father Lip and his extremely tricked out baby room is delightful to me. I have come full circle on Lip. I was pretty exhausted by him in the later seasons, but this season I’m just like... You’re doing ok, Lip. Keep figuring it out. 

* And look. I live in a country with universal health care so a huge portion of this episode is like watching a horror movie to me -- but a horror movie that takes place on Mars, where you’re just like “This is TERRIBLE. You guys should get off of Mars.” Give up everything to save your baby because that’s the only choice afforded you. I really want someone to tell me that isn’t actually a thing that can happen to people. I fear no one will. 

* Gallavich: Enter fucking. In an entirely new way! I don’t think I paid this enough mind my first trip through the episode because I was too focused on things like “Did he just call him a dirty convict?” -- but there is so much going on here in terms of what we’ve ever seen of their sex life. Overt dirty talk, choking, Mickey on his back... And while it goes off the rails FAST, I do like the energy of Mickey’s move to switch positions because it reminds me of their play-wrestling in season five, a dynamic I think is very real and very indicative of a loving relationship between two teenaged boys. Ex-teens now, but it still works. 

* Ok, but... Like Ian looks honestly freaked out and that is... um... interesting. I reblogged @gallavictorious ‘s post earlier on this scene which I recommend. In general Ian’s reluctance makes sense to me, but I still get a level of unease that surprises me. They may never comment further (I don’t expect them to), but. It’s notable to me. 

* I still like the intimacy here. The rolling around together on their tiny bed and everything. I dunno. Even with all the conflict, they still seem in sync with each other. 

* watching from my app with captions is helpful. Debbie isn’t that crazy. She asks someone to take Franny to school and then Ian and Mickey say yes to taking Carl to work which is reasonable for her to assume means they’re taking Franny. But... Liam quickly points out that this has happened to him before. 

* For the second week in a row there is something happen on this show I am more interested in than the Gallavich story. And it’s Frank. WTF. 

* Kevin REALLY needs to watch Better Call Saul. 

* Oh my GOD does it feel like classic early-season Shameless, having Mickey and Kev in a scene together. I approve. I am in for more of this on every level. Actually, at The Alibi in general, Mickey feels so deeply familiar. But also, does Kev REMEMBER he’s had his keg robbed before? They taped him to a chair, for God’s sake. 

* It is flat out magical realism to tell us Mickey doesn’t work out.

* So on second viewing I think the emasculation of Ian at the hands of the retail giant is more clear. I still find a lot of the misogynist language tough to listen to in that context. Honestly, there’s something about the whole concept of emasculating that bugs me because of what it suggests about gender. Doesn’t mean that it’s not a very loaded thing for Ian to be experiencing, though. 

* I really don’t have much to say about Carl the Cop. I think they are taking the position that the cops are the worst, but this is also one of those things I don’t find entertaining. 

* You know who I DO find entertaining? Sandy. And she’s a pretty great girlfriend. 

* I cannot even tell you how low my tolerance for Frank generally is. This is may be the only episode where I’ve enjoyed him. 

* I like the fact that Debbie keeps entering rooms yelling “FRANK GALLLLLLAGHER” a la Mickey in season one with Ian. 

* Ok, so... Yeah. I just don’t like how mean Mickey and Ian are to each other in this episode. I don’t like the rubbing the salt in the would when Ian quits his job. I don’t like the fighting. @fiona-fififi wrote a comprehensive post about their physical fighting and it’s well written and I do not disagree... but I hate it when they hurt each other like this. I’m just not here for it. 

* V is the voice of the show here. Like, this is what they want to hammer home. And her speech is a good one. But I’m still just not enjoying how dark this one got. I DO get why Ian is not rushing to forgiveness because man did Mickey go in on him at a vulnerable moment. 

* Ok -- I said this before but I’ll repeat it. There is something in the scene with Frank and Franny makes me feel like we’re getting foreshadowed hard. They really hold on his confusion and he seems unnerved. Disorientation is normal for Frank. But he seems to be signalling in the moment that what he’s experiencing isn’t normal. Hmm. 

* Seriously. The American health care system is a nightmare. It should be the title of a Ryan Murphy series. 

* I honestly think Presley Schrader is doing a great job in this episode. Ditto Christian, who doesn’t have a lot to do, but nails Liam’s long-suffering resignation. 

* Second viewing, I found Debbie more sympathetic, but I feel like we don’t get nearly the sense of her “running everything” the way we did with Fiona, so her frustration with her siblings seems extreme. Also, Sandy clearly disapproves and I think they intend for us to see Sandy as a voice of reason. 

* I have a lot more understanding of Lip yelling at Debbie than I ever had of him yelling at Fiona, which is maybe indicative of not feeling like her load is as heavy. 

* Milton continues the proud tradition of random Gallagher acquaintances who are fundamentally decent and helpful. He goes into the Parthenon along with Ryan and Barb. Because YES, Lip is pouring a lot of time and money into a house he doesn’t own, and apparently he didn’t make ANY arrangement about that. Milton doesn’t have to do what he does. But apparently he’s just a good guy. 

* This is very random but I’ve read so much from people complaining about mask use on TV right now -- how people take them off when they should most be on -- and I enjoy the fact that Shameless is at least nodding to why someone isn’t wearing a mask.... But Tami had the absolutely best and most convincing reason.  * So we close on Gallavich as we found them (RIP anyone who is home at that particular moment) -- fucking and fighting about the Jonas brothers. I really like what @pathoftheranger had to say about that scene so I think that’s going to be the bulk of my comment. Just... well. They seem to have moved through some stuff. I guess we’ll see where they’re at come January. 

TUA Season 2 Thoughts

Okay, I know I’m extremely late to the game here, and I’m sure a lot of people have already touched base on the good and bad moments of this season; so I promise that the bad points that I do touch upon, will be short cause I do want to focus on what I loved.

First and foremost, I want to say that I did love season 2 with my whole freaking heart! I was ooooooh so very wrong with a lot of my predictions (and right in others *cough* Lila *cough*) but as I continued watching, I couldn’t bring myself to care (not too much anyway, there were a few things I was mad at, but meh).

 I loved seeing Hazel and I loved that the big oaf at least got 20 years with Agnes before she finally passed on. While I wish we could have seen snippets of that life and love rather then just flash backs to them in season 1; I’m still happy that Hazel got to live his life the way that he wanted to live it. Sure, I wasn’t happy that they killed him off, but for plot purposes it made sense—but on a lighter note, at least he could cross over into the afterlife and be happy with Agnes again. Right?

 Elliott is a hoot and I feel so bad that he died. All that poor man wanted was validation that he wasn’t crazy (which he got) and for someone to eat his damn Jell-O (I love ambrosia btw, but even I wouldn’t eat that ambrosia he made… sorry Elliott).

The sibling interactions between ALL OF THEM!!! JUST AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!! It’s everything I could have hoped for and then some!!! The slap fight between Klaus and Ben on the street, Ben’s “You’re so independent, you fight your own damn battles”. Five and Luther reuniting “She’s too young for you” “Dad should have left him on the moon” (I snort laughed at both of these sentences). Then there’s Klaus and Allison reuniting, Allison not even hesitating to jump into the pool to hug her brother. OR THE WHOLE FAMILY REUNION!!! That Vanya and Allison hug! That hug as Klaus joined in and planted a kiss on the top of Vanya’s head!!!! The whole interaction between Allison and Diego “Can’t say Hi to anyone?” just omg, I could go forking on and on with this, because the banter and snappy comments from all of them are just total sibling culture and I relate sooooooooo much to it. (best believe I will jump on someone’s back like a damn spider monkey to protect my siblings, but I’d also sooner shank them too)

RAYMOND AND ALLISON!!!!! I’m ALLLLLLLLL FOOOOOOR THIS RELATIONSHIP!!!!! LIKE OMG!!!!!! WHY DIDN”T SHE TAKE HIM WITH HER!!!!! THEY ALREADY SCREWED THE TIMELINE UP ENOUGH BY JUST EXISTING THERE IN 1963 ANYWAY!!!! Like seriously, I’m actually upset that she didn’t take him with her, and now it looks like her daughter doesn’t even exist either… like omg Allison, sweet heart. Nooooooo.

I LOVE Luther’s development this season, the fact that he goes to apologize to Vanya, and actually takes blame for what happened, just makes me happy to know that the big lug is trying. Yea I know he took the gun with him, but honestly, I can’t blame him either. He was obviously scared and didn’t know what he would walk into, would she try and kill him again? Like we know the gun wouldn’t do sh*t to help him, but Luther wasn’t sure of that. Plus he never actually pulls it, his hand is constantly on it, but he never pulls it out, which shows that hurting her was not the end game. He wanted to actually apologize and he hoped that his sister would hear him out enough to allow him to do it.

I loved sissy and vanya. The friendship that turned to romance was cute, and while I’m still iffy with it because Sissy was married, I also understand to a small degree that Sissy truly felt stuck. Even without Vanya’s interference, I highly doubt Sissy would have been able to get a divorce and manage to keep possession of her son. Carl is an absolute bag of d*cks, and with Carl having a brother in the police force, who’s to say that they couldn’t spin something that would allow them to take Harlan away from her? I honestly can see a divorce between these two getting messy and none of the outcomes working in Sissy’s favor. She would have never been happy inside or outside of her marriage. But Vanya gave her the hope that she might actually find it. (IDK, I’m still really on the fence with it, and the infidelity, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy Sissy/Vanya’s cute little moments while it lasted…)

Also, can I just say, Sissy blowing the scent of coffee into Vanya’s sleeping face, was truly and utterly adorable and such a dorky thing to do and I loved it.

ALL OF THE KLAUS AND ALLISON INTERACTIONS!!!! ALL OF THEM!!!

THAT SALON SCENE!!!

THAT DANCE AT THE SALON!!!

Also, not going to lie, Odessa was a bad ass b*tch and I love and will protect that woman as much as I will love and protect Raymond Chestnut. I don’t even care that Odessa was only in a few episodes, that woman stole my damn heart and I truly would have loved to see more scenes with her and Allison and the friendship they had.

The elevator ride going up to the light supper, the freaking conch shell, and the siblings’ interactions during the whole thing (Allison rumoring Diego to punch himself, and Vanya’s cheeky “oops” after showing off her powers, just *chefs kiss*).

Ben and Vanya!!! I FORKING CRIED!!! I had to bloody pause the damn episode because my tears were getting in the way of me watching!!!! (trust me, there was a long moment of silence for Ben after that.)

All of them piling into Vanya’s car on her way to save Harlan. That entire scene was a masterpiece “Child get in the back” followed by Klaus just flopping on top of Diego and Allison, like OMG!!! And Luther… poor Luther “If I hear one fat joke, I’m out”

Everything to do with Five and Older Five was hilarious. I’m sorry call me immature, but the fart jokes were funny (even if they did start to get old after a while). Also, poor Luther, once more. We stan one lousy spotter but a brother who tried his forking best anyway.

Luther being a big (little) brother and covering Allison AND Klaus during the hail of bullets.

Klaus being observant and noting things long before anyone else. Like even at the end, when Vanya was taking her power back, everyone else was watching her but not Klaus. He kept glancing around himself while also taking in the scene periodically. There is something there, I can forking feel it. Between that pill scene in season 1, him looking up to the moon with no reason to do so, him spotting The Handler and Lila, him knowing/guessing that Lila can only mirror one power at a time—despite never actually fighting her himself—it all has to add up to something??? RIGHT???

I didn’t think I would like the Swedes… yet here I am putting them in this column. Still mad that they killed Hazel (but as Five told Lila, the job was a job, it was never anything personal). They hardly had any lines at all but their personalities alone and the little things we saw were just… what the hell but I still loved it. haha.

 I CAN”T WAIT TO SEE IF WE LEARN MORE ABOUT THE OTHER CHILDREN MYSTERIOSULY BORN!!!!! Like I wanna see the sparrow academy kids, but I hope we might learn about a few others too. Like how many of those kids didn’t make it? How many of those kids were born with a twin? Were their any triplets??? Like can you imagine that poor woman who had to give birth to not one child, but two that she didn’t have an hour ago??? (and possibly three even though I doubt there were any triplets… but what if there forking was!!!)

SPARROW BEN!!!! WHAT THE HELL!!!! I mean, I’m glad Justin is staying on the show, he’s awesome and I do like Ben, but I’m a bit sad that this won’t be the Ben we’ve seen in the last two seasons (I’ll still eat it up, don’t get me wrong, cause I’m curious to see this alternate Ben, but I’m still sad).

 Also that Vanya and Diego interaction at the end, neither of them having to say anything but still leaning on each other for support, just AHHHHHHHH

The sibling bonds that have begun to form between all of them is what really killed me this season and I loved each and every second of it!!!

 All the one-liners were pretty good too, like the “Ikea mafia” “Think of Batman than aim lower” “Is it too late to be un-adopted?” just efgjoiwengjowegnwrjngwe

Vanya actually using her powers to save someone, and Ben solidifying that fact by telling her she isn’t a monster. 

the music choices!!!! 

 I’m sure I will add more to all of this in another post, I’m still forking reeling over here and can’t get all of my thoughts straight, but goddamn I loved this season! Dysfunctional idiots—the lot of them. But at least they were making dysfunctional decisions together XD

Okay, now for the things I didn’t like…

Again, I’ll be brief cause I know that there are probably plenty of people who have touched on this already and I’m sure you all are sick of seeing or hearing it by now (so feel free to skip over it all together).

Klaus not telling his family SEVERAL TIMES that Ben was there.

Ben possessing Klaus without his consent (and Ben breaking the rules that Klaus had put into place as Ben nearly got frisky with Jill)---like I can’t even say I’m mad that he possessed Klaus at the light supper. I didn’t like it, it made me uncomfortable, but from Ben’s perspective I understood it. to Ben, he felt like he didn’t have a choice, Klaus had constantly taken Ben’s choice away by not telling the family he was there, so if Klaus wasn’t going to tell them on his own, Ben had no choice but to try and do it himself. I get that, I did. But the whole “Burrowed” scene in the elevator made me cringe something fierce.

The fact that we get Klaus looking badass in the first five minutes of the season, and then Klaus basically being useless the rest of the season, pissed me the ever-loving fork off. I mean, come on!!! EVERYONE ELSE FOUGHT LILA!! WHERE THE HELL WAS HE!??? I’m hoping this is all just setting Klaus up to be something greater in the next season, that maybe now that Ben is gone Klaus will have no choice but to relay on himself and tap into that “Potential” that Reginald had hinted at in season 1 (my fingers are soooo crossed that this is the case)

Not getting their reactions to Ben sacrificing himself (I needed more then just seeing Klaus lying forlornly on a bed, I’m sorry, but I definitely needed more than that). Klaus and Vanya’s interaction in the car did not make up for any of it either.

I don’t know where to put my thoughts on Lila and Diego. While I liked them in the beginning, their relationship kinda lost me the moment she spiked him and basically kidnapped him. I like Lila, don’t get me wrong, but that scene made me really uncomfortable too.

The interactions with the Handler and Five. Like okay, I get that the Handler isn’t treating him like a child because basically Five is supposed to be 58, but it’s still forking creepy to see her swaying her hips behind Five who is stuck in his 13-year-old body. Just… no.

The fact that we only see Allison mentioning her daughter 2 times. Like sure, she’s had 2 years to grieve, but I want to see that grief!!!!

How the show tied Sissy and Vanya’s story line up, and how they tied Allison and Raymond’s story line up… like nooooooo. How the hell would Sissy be safe in the past???? Carl’s brother was a forking police officer??? Does she seriously think his brother isn’t going to come after her when he learns his brother is dead????? Also how is Raymond supposed to explain that he suddenly doesn’t have a wife anymore???? These things don’t just fix themselves!!! Like I understand Five saying they couldn’t come, that it could change things beyond repair, but all seven of them existing in 1963 in the first place has already forked everything up enough as it was.

(Ignore me, I’m just salty that we won’t be get any more Raymond/Allison interactions…)

Anyway, negatives pushed aside, I can’t stress enough how i did love the season!!! And I can not wait to see where season 3 goes!!! I HONEST TO GOD CAN NOT WAIT!!! In the mean time, I will be attempting to write several things for season 2… fix-its, in between moments, whatever I can think of. Let’s see where that goes.

Does Ragna try to take the easy way out?

Probably a pretty silly question to pose about the character whose theme is “Rebellion”, or I would hope it is but the fanbase has surprised me before. In fact, I bring this up because someone argued for this very point and I am hard pressed to think of a time when someone has misunderstood a character so badly. At least when the person also claims to like the character and isn’t trying to purposefully misrepresent them, at any rate.

Now, on its face, I can see someone believing this argument has some merit. Ragna’s lazier mannerisms and multiple moments where he insists to others that the is not who he is to avoid trouble could lead someone to believe he does indeed seek the easier route in life. If they haven’t seen much of him anyway. Still, to anyone who has played through the story and paid attention to his character, the thought is ludicrous.

And I can prove it, too, for those who consider it necessary.

The simplest place to start would, naturally, be the beginning of Ragna’s story. We all know what happened when Terumi came a knockin’ and what followed. Once he understands the situation, he is faced with a choice with what to do next, and he decides to fight. He commits roughly a decade to training with Jubei learning how to fight, use his grimoire, cook and likely more general knowledge and survival skills. Not terribly easy, I’m sure we could all agree, yes? This is all in preparation to fight what is essentially the world government almost single handed, mind you. This was all made abundantly clear to him, as well, when Rachel explicitly spelled out to him that he would face hell, and he readily accepted it.

How about we jump ahead to CS, though? Ragna finally finds Terumi only to discover he is no match. He seems absurdly powerful and even Rachel says Ragna has no hope of defeating his arch enemy. She goes as far as to assure him she will have it handled and its best he remains on the sidelines for the time being. Does he just nod and understand he isn’t ready to face Terumi yet? Not one bit. He takes the challenge and he charges ahead knowing full well he might not survive. Moving toward the end of CS and after he saves Rachel, which is out of his way in and of itself, he is told Noel cannot be saved and he has no choice but to kill her. An easy enough task for him, especially after Hakumen softened her up, but instead he sacrifices his only remaining arm to bring her back. No walk in the park there.

We can skip to CP and while he wasn’t allowed to do much of anything, by the end of the game he makes another big decision to rescue Nu. This is despite her attempting to violently murder him earlier and stabbing him moments after he makes the decision. She is actually actively denying his attempts and I think everyone can agree it would be the much easier choice to give up on the deranged girl, but he keeps at it all the way through CF. Speaking of… The entirety of CF. He is on his last legs, there is no getting around that, but he repeatedly denies any helping hand. Amane offers to Observe him in Rachel’s place and he says no and for no real reason. We then have others like Kagura and his gang insist they help him in his endeavors, but he still says no and only begrudgingly accepts assistance towards the end. This means over the bulk of that game he is knowingly making things much, much harder on himself.

Now, in the interest of discussion, the counterpoint was made that things such as these are irrelevant because of his personal investment. That these are not valid examples of him choosing the harder path because these choices would be a given for him. I would call a point like this moot for a couple of reasons. The first being that is not the topic at hand. The question is “Does Ragna try to take the easy way out?” As in, do we more often than not see Ragna attempt to avoid exerting effort? It is irrelevant what he gets out of the given situation or what he is saying he wants, because what matters is the actual actions he takes and by his own choice. This is especially important for a character with such limited agency like Ragna (which is a whole different can of worms) because so little is in his control. As for the second reason?

Well, lets try some smaller examples, shall we?

It would be easier to push Litchi aside and kill Arakune in CT rather than let the creature which is trying to eat him (and briefly succeeds in the very next game) roam free, but he doesn’t. It would be much easier to walk away from the crazy cat girl who just tried to rob him, especially after he beat her down, but instead he takes her to a restaurant. Even just giving her money would’ve been easier, but he took her himself. It would be easier to just run away from Tager instead of fighting him seeing as he is so slow, but Ragna stands his ground and fights instead. It would also be easier to kill Tager their first meeting seeing as Sector 7 is no ally of his and we as the audience knows Tager will go on to pick a fight with him every game, but Ragna always spares him as a detriment to himself. Family or not, Ragna would be making things much easier on himself were he to kill Jin, the man who attempts to kill him more than once and had a hand in the destruction of his life, but he always lets him go. He would’ve saved himself a lot of time and pain if he didn’t pull his punches so hard against Carl at the start of CS, but he decided he’d rather give the kid the option to retreat instead of forcing him. You can refer back to his run in with Tao for what happens with his first run in with Platinum. It would be much easier to stand back and let the others handle Azrael when Bullet and Celica are in trouble (especially seeing as Rachel and Kagura do just that), but Ragna runs right in despite being virtually crippled at the time. In fact, accepting any fight in that condition was exceedingly more difficult for him than if he were to lay low like he was told. Also…

The entirety of CF.

Heck, I can even include a plug for myself and suggest reading my last post where I shine a light on his extremely limited use of the Azure Grimoire for half the games because that is him making every fight harder for himself considering if he turned that on he would win almost all his fights in seconds.

The final point being you can look across the four games and you will see while he often is not happy about it, Ragna will not shy away from doing things the hard way by any means. Whether this is thanks to personal investment, some kind of honor code, pride, or what few morals he still has left is up for debate and very much circumstantial, but the common theme should be clear to everyone. Whether he is aware of it or not, Ragna does tend to make things harder on himself and always follows through even if it is with all the complaining in the world backing it.

Personally, I would argue this is one of the strong points of his character seeing as vocal reluctance to take on more challenge and responsibility is very human (a trait many anime styled protagonists lack), and the fact he marches on all the same is what makes him more compelling but I digress…

Honestly, I probably put more effort in this than necessary. People screw up a lot of things about BlazBlue and especially Ragna, but I can’t bring myself to believe this one is a common sentiment. I can’t imagine the majority of people actually think Ragna of all characters is actively avoiding trouble.

So, share your thoughts if you like. If you read all that and disagree, well, I guess I’ve still heard worse.

Do you have any favorite moments with your muse? Any dream thread you want to rp?

[I certainly do! Under the cut for length, honestly, lol. Part 1: Favorite Moments, honestly, since this got long. I’ll answer my dream threads in a separate post.

Chapter 28: Freedom March is one of my distinct favorites. It’s also the moment we discover that Markus is capable of deviating without any form of physical contact. The march itself, as Markus deviates every android in the street and leads the cry of ‘We are alive!’ gives me chills, and I think the resulting stand-off with the police is another powerful moment. Markus is calm and steady, and if you choose to stand your ground he radiates determination. His choice to sacrifice himself so the rest of his people can flee also just speaks to him as a character. It’s reckless and largely unplanned, but he realized the authorities weren’t going to stop and made the decision that if he had to die so they could live, so be it. 

Even if you choose instead to attack the soldiers, Markus leads. He leads the charge, he leads the attack, and he can slay in that scene if your good at QTEs.

Overall, it’s a powerful scene in the terms of the narrative and certainly as far as Markus’ character is concerned.

Chapter 32: Demonstration is probably my most favorite in terms of visuals, dialogue, etc. I’ve tried before to express that Markus’ choice in this chapter is one that defies the gut human reaction. Retaliation is obvious and understandable, and I’m going to dare to say not wrong in this context. If he chose to fight it would be to free his people, so either choice he makes, I’m honestly behind him. Their both desperate choices, made at the end of their hope (and his hope, honestly) and Markus isn’t certain any of them are going to live. But in the demonstration he makes the choice to peacefully march against a group of fully armed soldiers intent on killing them. The courage it takes to do that? To say, ‘No, we aren’t going to hurt you. We aren’t going to exact a death for a death. But we are going to stand, and we are going to be free, and you can’t take that’ while staring down the barrel of a gun?

Wow. I can’t describe.

Markus’ dialogue choices are on point. I’ve always picked ‘Calm’ and and then sit, because there is something moving about all of them just sitting in the street, refusing to be moved. They aren’t on their knees, showing subservience, they’re sitting.

And then the whole barricade. Markus clearly is tormented by his choice and his doubts. He isn’t sure he did the right thing, especially when he knows their people are dying in the camps. A very small, subtle dialogue piece he has with North that really stuck out for me is his, ‘I lost all contact with the people at the camps… I can’t hear their voices any more…’ 

He was communicating with them. Listening to them. Something about that just hits me. He was trying to be there for them too.

But even though he is obviously torn, his various interactions with androids in the barricade just speak to how good of a leader he is. When he comforts the frightened android that doesn’t want to die, when he kneels down in solidarity with the grief of another. These are his people, and he tries to be there for them.

Also his conversation with Perkins is on point. Perkins is a piece of trash, but Markus, if you choose not to accept the deal, just… has so much emotion. He’s appalled that Perkins would think he’d agree to betray his people. He’s determined to stand to the death, even if Perkin’s jabs at North do affect him, if their in relationship. 

AND let’s just take a minute to appreciate that moment where he STANDS UP and gives one last little speech and there are TEARS IN HIS EYES. He’s terrified, they’re terrified, he knows the end is coming, but he’s calm and resolute and honest and I can’t with the little tilt of his head and the shine of grief in his eyes.

Oop and then when their attacking?? And he does everything possible to save as many of his people as he can??? I just!! He defends his people until the end. 

And it all culminates at the final four choices and the singing honestly made me cry and it’s my personal favorite. But kissing North is also gorgeous too, and bold, and just… beautiful. And lighting himself on fire is peak sacrifice, but it’s also horrible because they just shoot them all, so let’s not talk about it.

Small favorite moments include: Speech in Cyberlife Store in Capitol Park, Stratford Tower speech, trying to comfort North after she tells him her past, his ‘I needed to see the daylight’.

AND his very first conversation with Carl. The subtle smiles, the soft chuckle, just everything in that scene. The quiet, playfully warning, ‘Carl….’ and then the long-suffering, ‘Thank you.’ 

I love him.]

well, post mid season finale, what are your thoughts concerning daryl's arc that you previously laid out? did we hear/see enough to think he is done "going rogue"? his comment to dwight about going to hilltop "all together" possibly signals he has learned his lesson? his holding judith melted me---i would love to be done with rogue daryl :) thoughts on beth's return? did we have to fall even lower to appreciate "hope" when she arrives? do you see carl's death as demise of show as some do? tks!      I am very sorry to whoever sent this in for not getting to this ask sooner and also I apologize because I had some technical difficulties with the tagging and accidentally deleted the original ask. Thankfully I still had the text from the ask in my email inbox so I could copy it into this response . I saw it and really wanted to respond but life has been very hectic with work and the holidays coming and there just haven’t been enough hours in the day. But I am hoping to have some free time this weekend to address this and so much more having to do with the MSF because I actually have a lot to say about it. 

     Okay so for the first part of this what are my thoughts concerning Daryl’s arc? As far as Daryl goes I honestly think it will be very interesting to see where he goes from here. Some positives from the MSF. . . he got his vest back (yay!) , he didn’t kill Dwight on sight when he had just vowed to do so, and he was holding Judith again which to me signaled some very important things about where Daryl’s head is. Remember back to when the group arrived at the ASZ and Daryl was so defeated. He was barely hanging on and he told Deanna that he was going to try to make the ASZ work because of the boy and the baby. They became his reason to persevere after losing Beth. I think that we can assume that Daryl’s love for those children is multifaceted because of course Rick is his brother and he loves them for that reason but Daryl also has a very unique bond with Judith and was well aware as was everyone of Beth’s love for the little girl. So I think we can’t discount that connection and what it means to Daryl so to see him holding Judith again after such a long time of not doing so was very moving. Also the context of the moment is very telling and suggests a lot of things. Then of course Daryl does indeed say that they need to go to the Hilltop “all together” suggesting that he has most likely learned his lesson about going rouge. He’s also probably anticipating that Rick is going to need him and in true brother fashion he is going to be there for him no matter what differences they might have had to this point. The seismic shift that we see happening in the MSF is either going to do one of two things. It’s either going to bring all of TF together like the shift we saw after losing Tye and Beth in Them (5.10) or it’s going to drive an even bigger wedge between members of the group. I think given Gimple’s style that this change will serve to bring the group together for the final parts of the war. I think we will have to wait and see what this means for Daryl’s overall emotional state but I think the last episode or so has drawn Daryl back from the ledge enough that he realizes he can’t just keep acting on his own. We saw his kill them all on sight mentality tempered a bit in his response to Dwight so I think overall we may be headed in a better direction for Daryl. 

     Now on to the second part of this ask which has to do with the direction the show has taken in the MSF and what that means for the show overall. Do I think that Carl’s death heralds in the end of the show? What does this all mean for Beth? I have lots of thoughts on this and I am hoping to post more on it later today but overall in summation I think that Carl’s fate has had an interesting effect on the audience. I’ve listened to lots and lots of people talk about this and write about this and the overall attitude of most people is that the show is in trouble and this last twist in the narrative is a death knell for the show. The fascinating thing to me is that people don’t seem able to actually verbalize why they feel this way beyond general statements of everything about the show has become about being hopeless and about death and suffering. Now I actually agree with this because thematically this has been a thing for a while on the show. I started to think back over the last few seasons and I realized something. This theme of hopelessness and darkness and loss has been a steady ongoing pervasive part of the show since a specific point in the story and that point can be related directly back to Beth. Season 4 had its low points it did. After all this is an apocalyptic drama but overall the general theme was one of hope and perseverance. There were many tiny moments of triumph most of the characters experience dynamic and rewarding growth. Then we moved to 5A and again there was still hope. Even at Terminus TF was sure they would overcome. It wasn’t until Coda that we began to see this dynamic shift in a marked way. Beth’s death heralded in a whole new theme. Think back to the final scenes of Coda when Daryl is standing in the courtyard of Grady and the camera pans back and opens up (in an eerily similar shot to what we just saw in the final moments of 8.8 but in reverse) leaving Daryl and Beth sort of the focal point at a distance with storm clouds gathering in the background. This is the point where thematically the show shifts to a much darker place. After this point the losses just continue to pile up for TF with one after another and while there are small moments of triumph overall the theme becomes much darker. I think that is what the audience is picking up on and can’t verbalize. That pervasive and suffocating feeling of loss that started with Beth and which has continued. The interesting thing to me is that thematically 8.8 was the darkest episode to date. The lighting was even dark and they chose to do it at night in the absence of light and it is during this time that the characters are dealt their biggest blow in the inevitable loss of Carl. For TF this has to be the darkest moment that they’ve faced in possibly ever and with this writing choice Gimple has brought the audience emotionally to the same place the characters are at. Rick, Michonne, Daryl, C@rol, Maggie this final loss is guaranteed to bring them to their lowest darkest place and because of the writing and the way Gimple and his team set this up they’ve managed to do the same to the audience. They’ve made the audience feel what the characters are feeling. What are most people saying about the show? Most commonly what’s the point, why bother watching if there is no hope, it’s too depressing to keep watching, they have no future now so how can this show even continue, how can the show recover from such a low point. The thing is that the writers have presented a lot of those same questions to the characters with this loss so they’ve managed to elicit in the audience a lot of the same feelings the characters themselves would be feeling.       It’s something I find absolutely fascinating and I wonder if they will be able to capitalize on. Done correctly this could be a huge moment for the show. We saw tons and tons of tunnel symbolism around Carl in 8.8 and upon examination Beth and Carl’s stories are too similar for it to be a coincidence. It’s also my personal opinion that this change in the story was something Gimple was planning all along or at least was planning as an option all along. There are hints as far back as S4 that the show might be headed in this direction eventually and there have been subsequent scenes since then that hinted at this outcome. So I don’t believe this was in any way a last minute choice. That’s just my opinion though and I understand that not everyone feels that way. But where do I see the show going from here? Well here’s what I hope to touch on in later posts this weekend to give you an idea of what I am thinking. First of all the tunnel symbolism we’ve seen since S5 with Emily and Chad’s title card was thrown at us hard and heavy in 8.8. I think the thematic darkness we’ve seen since 5.8 with Beth’s death is related to this tunnel and I think that Carl’s death in 8.8 is the completion of this theme and the last we will see of the tunnel symbolism. This is the darkest moment TF has ever faced and after this they will come out of the tunnel into the light. All the deaths and things we’ve seen related to the tunnel symbolism since S5 can be connected through the completion of Carl’s arc in 8.8 and what I expect we might see in 8.9. Gimple is a master story teller when it comes to pulling these story threads together so I think 8.9 might reveal some very interesting things. Given that I believe the tunnel symbolism began in 5.8 with Beth and will end because of what was revealed in 8.8 I think it’s interesting to consider that there are a lot of similarities between Carl’s arc and Beth’s arc. Too many similarities for it to be a coincidence. Then of course there is all the foreshadowing that has been happening since S4 and what exactly does that mean for the future of the show and the passing of the torch? So I think there are still a lot of things to discuss.      Overall though I personally am very intrigued to see where the show goes from here. I know there are a lot of people who are no longer enjoying the show or want to watch it. That’s of course their prerogative. I’ve always said that this show is meant to be enjoyed. That all fiction is meant to be enjoyed and that if you’re no longer doing that maybe it’s time to move on. Good fiction and literature is meant to be a respite from real life. It isn’t intended to make your real life more stressful or miserable. Therefore if you’re no longer enjoying something you shouldn’t continue to engage with it. However, I see this change in story as possibly opening up so many doors that haven’t previously been options. Such a radical change in direction will allow Gimple to do things with the television show that could not be done in the comics. Gimple is a very different type of story teller than Kirkman. Not that one is better than the other they are just different and I think this change allows Gimple to pursue the story he wants to tell which I think could be very exciting. I think we’ve seen enough hints for where this might be headed that I want to see what the actual outcome is. Hey maybe we are wrong and it has nothing to do with what we think it does but maybe we are right too and I want to see what actually happens moving forward. After all this is fiction and anything can happen in fiction so I am excited to see what Gimple does with the possibility of anything can happen from this point forward because the roadmap has been set on fire. Everything we the audience thought we knew and assumed had to happen has changed with this pivotal change in story and it’s opened the door to possibilities most people never even considered. One thing I am sure of is that Gimple has a plan for those possibilities. You know what maybe it’s a horrible plan. I concede that’s totally possible but maybe it’s a genius plan too. Gimple is the man who rewrote Andrea’s pointless death and turned it into a meaningful story, Gimple is the man who wrote episodes such as 18 miles Out, Clear, The Grove, “A”, What Happened and What’s Going on, The First Day of the Rest of your Life, and Mercy, Gimple is the man who orchestrated the conclusion of major arcs such as Tye’s, Abe’s, Sasha’s. These are beautiful and intricate stories and while I don’t know this for sure and I am not sure anyone does yet I would bet that Gimple will have a hand in writing 8.9 and the conclusion of this arc as well. I don’t know what Gimple has planned exactly but in my mind his past planning and writing has earned my respect and my trust in where he is going to take this story. But of course as I’ve said these are just my feelings and I respect that everyone has the right to their own and I would never fault them for that.      But do I think that Carl’s death is heralding in the end of the show? No I don’t. I think it might actually be creating a future for the show a future most can’t imagine that will reinvigorate the show and bring it back to a place of light and hope. Am I still here for Beth? Yes I very much am still here for Beth. Episode 8.8 thematically had so many links to things related to Beth and those things have piqued my interest in regards to the story. Plus there’s this and it’s what I’ve always said. Daryl’s story was intrinsically and purposefully linked to Beth’s in S4. So until we see a resolution to that through Daryl much as we saw with Sasha and Abe I am here to see where it goes. Because Gimple doesn’t leave loose ends so whatever that conclusion is one way or another it’s coming and until we see it I am sticking it out to see what happens. Plus I genuinely enjoy the show. I enjoy complex characters who are more grey than black and white and I enjoy the moral questions the show examines. I also sort of enjoy the way the writers can bring a character to their knees and make you despise them and then later redeem them in a way that has you rooting for them (cough cough Dwight). You don’t see that much on television anymore and I enjoy the complexities of the human interactions examined in the context of what would happen if the world no longer had any rules or social norms. That’s the crux of dystopian literature and it’s something I’ve always enjoyed examining and I think TWD does it in a more down and dirty way than most people dare to. Because in TWD world are there really any good guys or bad guys or are they all just people trying to survive in whatever way they know how?

So I've now made it through season 4 of the Walking Dead (and the first few episodes of season 5) with @copperfire, and I have lots of scattered observations and opinion.

The "can we come back from this" is a pretty heavy theme throughout the season.  Terminus says no.  But I think Team Family says yes.  Or yes with one major exception.

Characters like Michonne, Daryl, Glenn and Maggie would indicate that yes, they can.  Michonne is a breath of fresh air in season 4.  She's so warm and open.  She talks honestly about her losses with Carl (the Carl-Michonne dynamic is a thing of beauty).  She just seems so happy at the prison.  And then when she meets up with Rick and Carl again, she settles in so comfortably that it feels like she was never not there.

Tangentially: I will never understand anyone who says Richonne "came out of nowhere".  Because Michonne and Rick were pretty much acting like a couple from day one.  That razor was a fucking courtship gift.

It was also fun to see Daryl learning to interact with ugh, people.  Though I have learned from his excursion with Beth that he should never be trusted to make any kind of actual decision, because it will apparently end in booze and arson.  Those two needed a fucking adult.

And Glenn and Maggie are still the highlight.  I also liked Tara a lot, though I resented the Governor getting two whole episodes, when I really just wanted to see our Prison folk get a chance to be happy before the Governor destroyed everything.

I might have shouted at the screen when the tank smashed Rick's farm.  I'm not proud of that.

And then there's Carol who pretty much embodies the "can we come back from this" question.  She broke pretty hard somewhere along the way, to the point where she's willing to murder innocent people to protect the group as a whole.  But she did come back from that, earning Tyreese's forgiveness and being able to be the cavalry to save the group at the end.

I don't really know how I feel about Rick exiling her to begin with.  I remember seeing someone call it hypocritical, because other members of the team had done worse.  But honestly, I'm not sure who had done worse at that point.  There's a difference between not helping someone (i.e. the hitchhiker in season 3) and murdering two people in cold blood.

I don't feel like exiling Carol was the right option, because I think she needed help, but I also think there was no way she could have gotten that help at the prison.  I think maybe it was the best option Rick had at the time though.  At that time, Carol was so far gone that she didn't even seem to see a problem with what she'd done.  And that's pretty scary.

I think maybe that's the point of Lizzie, the girl who thought the zombies were humans and killed her sister to prove it.  Lizzie wasn't evil, just sick, but there wasn't any way to help her when she couldn't even comprehend what she'd done wrong.  But thankfully Carol wasn't as far gone as Lizzie, and it was clear that by Season 4B at least, Carol did come to regret her choice and came back from it.

Carl's arc in season 4 hits the theme too.  When he shot that kid in season 3, he also seemed like he was pretty far gone.  His justifications were sad and kind of terrifying.  

But it's interesting how, after the whole Claimer incident, Carl says that he finally understands what his father was trying to do.  But that he worries he's a monster.  It's a sad little monologue, but in a way it's kind of uplifting too.  Because while Carl, like many others, seriously needs a counselor or therapist who can help him deal with this shit, he's now in a position where he can recognize and fight his darker impulses.

Carl, by the end of season 4/beginning of season 5, is a boy who will run to save a stranger calling for help.  And that's wonderful to see.  Whatever else you can say about Rick in season 4, he succeeded there.

Of course then there's Rick's own arc which is something else entirely.  It was a little alarming to see farmer Rick at the start of the season.  And honestly, I'm not sure that I think that he seemed in a much better place mentally than he was when he was actively hallucinating.  He seemed more based in reality at least, but the blithe farming in front of the zombies, burying the gun, needing to be talked into TAKING his gun when he goes outside...  Those were all pretty disturbing signs that all is not well.

He does however seem much happier when he's not in charge.  And I said this in my last post, but I really don't agree with the interpretations of Rick's character as a "natural leader" or someone who "has to be in charge."

I think early season 4 shows us the opposite.  Rick is someone who genuinely hates to lead.  He doesn't even unconsciously take the lead during the plague disaster like most former leader types.  It's only when he's put back into a position of authority, when they want him to look into Karen and David's death, that he ends up in a position to have to make a command decision again.  And he seems utterly miserable.

I also have a deep resentment for anyone who claims that Rick was "taking a break" during this time.  Because:

a)  Dude wasn't just loafing on his ass, he was trying to un-murderer his son!  That's a pretty fucking big job.

b)  Dude was growing food!  Food is important.  Humans can't live off squirrel and deer and expired canned goods forever.  They need actual vegetables!

c)  Dude had a fucking psychotic break.  He STILL looks like he's a stiff wind away from utter collapse.  (And somehow that bandage from when he fought Tyreese just makes him look even MORE fragile.)  Let him rest!

I realize c isn't really a counter argument, but fuck you.  If it were a break, he would have earned it.

But of course, Rick’s general equilibrium ended with the season finale, which caused a lot of very inappropriate laughter from me.  Just the juxtaposition of the entire Claimer confrontation, and the flashback where Hershel's like "what are you teaching your boy?!"

Apparently, Hershel, it's to bite people's throats out.  Oh god, that was the single greatest moment on the show for me.  That whole mess of a scene, the throat biting, the completely shocked and horrified stares, poor Carl's little FACE when it happened.  I haven't been this delighted with a tv show for so long.  HE BIT HIS THROAT OUT.

It is a fascinating turning point in Rick's character evolution though, because I honestly feel like Rick, after this point, isn't even HUMAN anymore.

He's not evil.  He's certainly not fucking Shane.  (That comparison annoys the shit out of me.  When he tries to rape someone or murders one of Team Family, then we can talk.)  But it seems pretty clear that Rick has broke from any idea of "going back".  His entire focus is on his family, on the group, their safety, their well-being.  He will do anything he has to to be sure of that.  (Shane might have talked big about this, but somehow we never saw him actually make any sacrifice or take on any personal inconvenience to make sure it happened.  I suppose, the closest direct comparison, is that Rick has now become the being that Shane CLAIMED he was.)

I joked about Rick being a feral cat in one of my tags in an earlier post, but I genuinely think that's where we are now.  I could practically SEE a tail lashing when Rick and Abraham were arguing over the bus.  He practically SNIFFED Father Gabriel when they met him.  I am honestly wondering if the stage direction for Andrew Lincoln in these episodes is "you are literally a cat."  Because he's selling it.  You know that sound an angry cat makes, that mmmrrr sort of growl that gets higher pitched as it goes?  I hear that every time Rick talks now.

At least he doesn't seem fragile anymore.  Feral and slightly rabid, sure, but not fragile.  Don’t fuck with his kittens.

I think that it's not a coincidence that Rick's own fall comes about after biting someone's throat out, and then we meet the Terminus residents who are so fanatic about "not going back" that they've transformed themselves into the ultimate predators.  On their own, the Terminus residents are a pretty cartoonish set of villains (though it was very satisfying to see Rick and Carol destroy them), but I think they're more intended as a set piece for Rick's season 5 arc.  The others came back, can he?  Can Rick find his humanity again?  Does he want to?

Poor Rick, he did succeed in saving his son's humanity in the end, but only at the cost of his own.  Still, I feel like that's a choice he would have happily made.  

But apparently Morgan is/will be back!  And he seems saner!  So maybe he can help Rick too!

7 days or 150,000 steps. Your choice…

Highlights

By far my favorite thing here was eating at Zellers Bistro. I may or may not have cried at the dinner table. I now realize that I will never amount to that level of happiness again so I can die. Dad said they are ranked in the top 10 restaurants in Budapest. They greeted you with some elderflower champagne (made in house) and said goodbye with some miniature cupcakes. The whole atmosphere was so sweet, like some basement/wine storage place that was last minute turned into a wonderful little restaurant. I had the Hungarian gray beef steak with jacket potato and green peas, and dad had the Cod with black risotto. Needless to say, the steak was better. It just melted in your mouth as tears of joy came running down my face.

The restaurant

Cod and black risotto

This dude keeps following me

Beef and peas, and some of my tears

Carrot cake

Margaret Island comes in close second. I don’t know whether it was just because I was tired of being around people, or whether it was the natural (although hella manicured) quality of the island. But it was just a relaxing day. I followed some self-guided walking tour of the island – there were some Roman ruins, an old convent (for Princess Margaret – her father said if he won the war he would give her to God, so she became a nun at the ripe old age of 9), the Grand Hotel Margitsziget (it used to be the most fashionable hotel in all of Budapest, simply known as “the Grand,” but after WW2 the hotel was modernized), a cute little rose garden and finally, a Japanese garden (waterfalls, streams, bridges and all). The only disappointment was that there was suppose to be a musical fountain, playing old Hungarian tunes, but for some reason, there was neither a fountain nor music. Maybe I liked it so much because it was away from all the traffic and tourists, or maybe it was because I didn’t have to have the stress of trying to keep up with a tour group that I would eventually lose.

Roman ruins

Rose Garden

Rose Garden

Water Tour

Princess Margret

The Convent

The Grand Hotel

The Grand Hotel

Japanese Garden

Japanese Garden

The neither Musical nor Fountain

Japanese Garden

And for my final highlight, it must have been the Opera. Surprising, I know. But actually, they are low key known for their amazing performances. We went to the Hungarian National Opera theater to see “Marios and the Magician” and “Bluebeards Castle,” both written by Hungarian composers. So, although they were in Hungarian and I understood nothing, they had surtitles translating in English. Unfortunately, the theater will be closed down for the next five years for renovation. The singers were so powerful, and the music was just amazing. I have never experienced something so dramatic in person.

The theater, we were on the third floor so a few people got nose bleeds.

It me

The outside of the theater

Daily Activities

Seeing as that was nearly a day worth of activities I figured I should give a slightly more detailed description of my time here (but not too much because this post is already long, so more so pictures than anything).

Day 1

I got in around noon and slept most of the day. Dad and I went out for a sunset walk to see the Parliament, Chain Bridge, and some other things in the nearby vicinity. He works at the Ministry of Agriculture, so he wanted to show me that as well. We then ate a cherry-poppyseed strudel (they are in love with poppyseed things, and strudels so I’m here for it).

The fat policeman statue – rubbing his belly brings you luck

Cherry and Poppyseed Strudel

Imre Nagy Statue, the bridge is made out of Soviet tank pieces (parliament in the back)

The Parliament

View from the Chain Bridge

Day 2

I wanted to get some hardcore tourist shit in still, but dad not so much. We compromised and went on a free alternative walking tour. It was quite interesting – there is a competition every year to design murals on blank walls, it is meant to make the city more beautiful. One of my favorites was the Rubix cube, up close it’s just a bunch of dots, but further away it becomes a cube! The guy who invented it is Hungarian (a lot of things are actually Hungarian – with Greek inspiration of course). There is a quote next to the cube that says, “There is more than one way to solve a problem.” Which is think is super applicable to everyone’s life and honestly, that is a really good thing to keep in mind when doing anything. I was talking to Joe a few weeks ago and something he emphasized in his personal belief is just perspective. Everything needs to get put into perspective in order to try to understand it – maybe it is a person, or a problem, anything really. I just felt like those two went hand in hand and I truly appreciate the beauty of both statements. We saw a lot more street art (attached below I’ll explain it for you, although mom you can just call and I’ll tell you. I know it’s just you reading it…).

Rubix Cube, the quote is “Mindig van megoldás és nem is csak egy!”

This was a Spanish painter, and the man depicted help save a lot of Jewish people during the War. Unfortunately, I cant remember his name.

This was a cute little sticker that is all over Budapest

This is a depiction of Buda and Pest (two separate cities, but they come together because of love). It tries to switch up the stereotypes of both sides of the city.

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The theme for this was “all things Hungarian,” Poseidon one has a bunch of little features (like the train), and the girl is suppose to be a classical Hungarian girl.

It’s me and dad trying to take a selfie in front of a fish!

Day 3

Today was Pentecostal, so more or less everything was closed. Since it is a Christian holiday, I decided to do the Jewish legacy walking tour. We walked all over the Jewish Ghetto and there were three Synagogues we saw – the Great, the Modern, and the Orthodox. All of which were beautiful, but none really resembled a traditional Synagogue. The Great Synagogue – biggest on continental Europe (I think) – had a weeping willow tree made out of silver. Each leaf had a name on it. Around it were rocks everywhere, this is how Jewish people signify their love at burials – the rocks last forever to signify that they will not be forgotten. It was so touching and sad, Hungarians have such a rich history with the Jewish folk during WW2. Of about 700,000 before the war there were only 60,000 left when it ended. We saw the mass burial ground and heard about the Shoe Memorial by the Danube (see Day 4). There were some positives though, there was a statue of Raul Wallenberg and Carl Lutz. Both of them played a major role in saving thousands and thousands of Jewish people during the war in Hungary. If you’re reading this, you honestly should take 10 minutes out of your day and read about Hungarian history and World War 2. Currently, the government is trying to deny all responsibilities. They are blaming the Germans for actions the Hungarians took. Of course, there was an influence, but the Hungarians went above and beyond to destroy a culture and a people. The government even built a fountain (Day 4) trying to avoid all blame. Total and complete bullshit.

Raul Wallenberg Memorial

Synagogue – Modern

Synagogue door – it is under reconstruction

Carl Lutz Memorial

I think this is super applicable to a bunch of incredible people I know

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Weeping Willow Tree

Memorable Jewish people

The Great Synagogue

The Great Synagogue

Day 4

Seeing as losing my tour group yesterday was traumatic, I decided to try again. I went on a “Red” tour – i.e. communism. And although it was super interesting and good, I think jet lag was catching up with me making me super out of it (also see Day 5….). First off, I woke up to an e-mail saying I was Unconditionally Accepted to my Master’s program (WOO!). But then I went to lunch at dads work and got an amazing view of the Parliament. The tour was good, I saw the interactive fountain/blame it on the Germans fountain,  but I just wasn’t all that into it. So I kinda “lost” them and went to do my own thing. I saw the Shoe Memorial on the Danube and just wandered around Budapest.

The Parliament from the Ministry of Agriculture

The “its the German’s fault” fountain

The Parliament from the back.

Shoe Memorial

Shoe Memorial

The Chain Bridge

View from the Chain Bridge

Chain Bridge

Sticker on the bridge

Day 5

The food was too good the night before, so I’m pretty sure my body needed to calm down a little. Went for a short walk but nothing too extraordinary.

Day 6

Ya girl finally did the whole city tour – I got over to the Buda side! We saw St. Stephens Basilica, the first metro station in continental Europe, the little princess (I took the same pic 4 years later, see my insta min.mosa), the Palace, St. Matthias Church, fisherman’s bastion, and then got lost trying to get back. Those places are really beautiful, but I think you can just see it and be done. I’m not sure I have much to say about these places, overall beautiful but I think it is super touristy. AND in Budapest it is very traditional to go to Baths – water helps cure everything right? So, we went to St. Lucas Baths, which were really kinda small. It isn’t the touristy place (Szechenyi Baths, which I was at 4 years ago), but instead one where locals go. I was a little iffy on this idea because bath with your father doesn’t sound too good…. But It was just a warm swimming pool with a jacuzzi and a swirling current. It was fun to go to, but I wasn’t the biggest fan. My life would have been the same without it. If you ever make it over here, it is definitely something you have to do, just to cross it off your bucket list (which by the way, I have been hungry in Hungary, so #winning).

First metro station

The little princess and I

Views from the Chain Bridge

St. Matthias Church

The Fisherman’s Bastion

Views from the Fisherman’s Bastion

Me getting lost

Still lost, but found a cool window

St. Lucas Baths

Selfie at the Baths, ft. my new camera (thanks dad!)

Parliament at sunset

Day 7

Margret Island, and just putzing around, later we did the Opera!

Onwards…

I really enjoyed my time here, and would recommend it! I think it has a lot of history, beautiful art, and some really neat people. Overall, I can see why people call it the “Paris of Eastern Europe.” I don’t think I would go that far since 98% of the time it smells like pee, but I would say it is really pretty.

On my last day before being in transit to Jordan, I think we are just gonna hang out and maybe take some pictures. If you get a chance, you should come here. Maybe don’t spend a whole week (or maybe do since beer is only a euro…), but if you do be sure to check out some of their wonderful history and culture.

This place really makes you understand your good fortune. At least mine. I really have had a lot of time to think (both because tour groups get lost, and because I sit a lot on my own). I can’t believe how lucky I have been these past four years. Yeah, a lot of shit happened, but honestly, overall, I don’t know if I would have become the person I am today without it. I grew up, I am able to reflect on things, and most importantly I like who I am. If that isn’t something to be celebrated, I am not sure what is.

The first time I was here, I was on my way to becoming a freshman, getting my BS in something, and now I am on my way towards getting my MS in international development. I never thought my college experience would have turned out this way, nor that I would have ended up in a field like this, but holy shit am I lucky. I am so lucky to be pursuing a career that I think I’ll love, I am lucky to have known some amazing people, and I am so lucky to have love, support and good fill every corner of my life. Even if I can’t do that for myself, I know I’ll have someone else who can get a flashlight and blind me with light. So thank you to everyone who has contributed to my last four years, good or bad. You have made me better, stronger and wiser.

7 Days in Budapest 7 days or 150,000 steps. Your choice... Highlights By far my favorite thing here was eating at…

What does Stack Overflow want to be when it grows up?

I sometimes get asked by regular people in the actual real world what it is that I do for a living, and here's my 15 second answer:

We built a sort of Wikipedia website for programmers to post questions and answers. It's called Stack Overflow.

As of last month, it's been 10 years since Joel Spolsky and I started Stack Overflow. I currently do other stuff now, and I have since 2012, but if I will be known for anything when I'm dead, clearly it is going to be good old Stack Overflow.

Here's where I'd normally segue into a bunch of rah-rah stuff about how great Stack Overflow is, and thus how implicitly great I am by association for being a founder, and all.

I do not care about any of that.

What I do care about, though, is whether Stack Overflow is useful to working programmers. Let's check in with one of my idols, John Carmack. How useful is Stack Overflow, from the perspective of what I consider to be one of the greatest living programmers?

@StackExchange @codinghorror SO has probably added billions of dollars of value to the world in increased programmer productivity.

— John Carmack (@ID_AA_Carmack) September 17, 2013

I won't lie, September 17th, 2013 was a pretty good day. I literally got chills when I read that, and not just because I always read the word "billions" in Carl Sagan's voice. It was also pleasantly the opposite of pretty much every other day I'm on Twitter, scrolling through an oppressive, endless litany of shared human suffering and people screaming at each other. Which reminds me, I should check my Twitter and see who else is wrong on the Internet today.

I am honored and humbled by the public utility that Stack Overflow has unlocked for a whole generation of programmers. But I didn't do that.

You did, when you contributed a well researched question to Stack Overflow.

You did, when you contributed a succinct and clear answer to Stack Overflow.

You did, when you edited a question or answer on Stack Overflow to make it better.

All those "fun size" units of Q&A collectively contributed by working programmers from all around the world ended up building a Creative Commons resource that truly rivals Wikipedia within our field. That's ... incredible, actually.

But success stories are boring. The world is filled with people that basically got lucky, and subsequently can't stop telling people how it was all of their hard work and moxie that made it happen. I find failure much more instructive, and when building a business and planning for the future, I take on the role of Abyss Domain Expert™ and begin a staring contest. It's just a little something I like to do, you know ... for me.

Thus, what I'd like to do right now is peer into that glorious abyss for a bit and introspect about the challenges I see facing Stack Overflow for the next 10 years. Before I begin, I do want to be absolutely crystal clear about a few things:

I have not worked at Stack Overflow in any capacity whatsoever since February 2012 and I've had zero day to day operational input since that date, more or less by choice. Do I have opinions about how things should be done? Uh, have you met me? Do I email people every now and then about said opinions? I might, but I honestly do try to keep it to an absolute minimum, and I think my email archive track record here is reasonable.

The people working at Stack are amazing and most of them (including much of the Stack Overflow community, while I'm at it) could articulate the mission better — and perhaps a tad less crankily — than I could by the time I left. Would I trust them with my life? No. But I'd trust them with Joel's life!

The whole point of the Stack Overflow exercise is that it's not beholden to me, or Joel, or any other Great Person. Stack Overflow works because it empowers regular everyday programmers all over the world, just like you, just like me. I guess in my mind it's akin to being a parent. The goal is for your children to eventually grow up to be sane, practicing adults who don't need (or, really, want) you to hang around any more.

Understand that you're reading the weak opinions strongly held the strong opinions weakly held of a co-founder who spent prodigious amounts of time working with the community in the first four years of Stack Overflow's life to shape the rules and norms of the site to fit their needs. These are merely my opinions. I like to think they are informed opinions, but that doesn't necessarily mean I can predict the future, or that I am even qualified to try. I've never let a little thing like being "qualified" stop me from doing anything, and I ain't about to start tonight.

Stack Overflow is a wiki first

Stack Overflow ultimately has much more in common with Wikipedia than a discussion forum. By this I mean questions and answers on Stack Overflow are not primarily judged by their usefulness to a specific individual, but by how many other programmers that question or answer can potentially help over time. I tried as hard as I could to emphasize this relationship from launch day in 2008. Note who has top billing in this venn diagram.

Stack Overflow later added a super neat feature to highlight this core value in user profiles, where it shows how many other people you have potentially helped with your contributed questions and answers so far.

The most common complaints I see about Stack Overflow are usually the result of this fundamental misunderstanding about who the questions and answers on the site are ultimately for, and why there's so much strictness involved in the whole process.

I wish more people understood that the goal of Stack Overflow is not "answer my question" but "let's collaboratively build an artifact that will benefit future coders". Perhaps SO could be doing more to educate people about this.

— Jeff Atwood (@codinghorror) April 30, 2018

The responsibility for this misunderstanding is all on Stack Overflow (and by that also mean myself, at least up until 2012). I guess the logic is that "every programmer has surely seen, used, and understands Stack Overflow by now, 10 years in" but ... I think that's a highly risky assumption to make. New programmers are minted every second of every day. Complicating matters further, there are three tiers of usage at Stack Overflow, from biggest to smallest, in inverted pyramid style:

I passively search for programming answers.

Passively searching and reading highly ranked Stack Overflow answers as they appear in web search results is arguably the primary goal of Stack Overflow. If Stack Overflow is working like it's supposed to, 98% of programmers should get all the answers they need from reading search result pages and wouldn't need to ask or answer a single question in their entire careers. This is a good thing! Great, even!

I participate on Stack Overflow when I get stuck on a really hairy problem and searching isn't helping.

Participating only at those times when you are extra stuck is completely valid. However, I feel this level is where most people tend to run into difficulty on Stack Overflow, because it involves someone who may not be new to Stack Overflow per se, but is new to asking questions, and also at the precise time of stress and tension for them where they must get an answer due to a problem they're facing … and they don't have the time or inclination to deal with Stack Overflow's strict wiki type requirements for research effort, formatting, showing previous work, and referencing what they found in prior searches.

I participate on Stack Overflow for professional development.

At this level you're talking about experienced Stack Overflow users who have contributed many answers and thus have a pretty good idea of what makes a great question, the kind they'd want to answer themselves. As a result, they don't tend to ask many questions because they self-medicate through exhaustive searching and research, but when they do ask one, their questions are exemplary.

(There's technically a fourth tier here, for people who want to selflessly contribute creative commons questions and answers to move the entire field of software development forward for the next generation of software developers. But who has time for saints 😇, y'all make the rest of us look bad, so knock it off already Skeet.)

It wouldn't shock me at all if people spent years happily at tier 1 and then got a big unpleasant surprise when reaching tier 2. The primary place to deal with this, in my opinion, is a massively revamped and improved ask page. It's also fair to note that maybe people don't understand that they're signing up for a sizable chunk of work by implicitly committing to the wiki standard of "try to make sure it's useful to more people than just yourself" when asking a question on Stack Overflow, and are then put off by the negative reaction to what others view as an insufficiently researched question.

Stack Overflow absorbs so much tension from its adoption of wiki standards for content. Even if you know about that requirement up front, it is not always clear what "useful" means, in the same way it's not always clear what topics, people, and places are deserving of a Wikipedia page. Henrietta Lacks, absolutely, but what about your cousin Dave in Omaha with his weirdo PHP 5.6 issue?

Over time, duplicates become vast fields of landmines

Here's one thing I really, really saw coming and to be honest with you I was kinda glad I left in 2012 before I had to deal with it because of the incredible technical difficulty involved: duplicates. Of all the complaints I hear about Stack Overflow, this is the one I am most sympathetic to by far.

If you accept that Stack Overflow is a wiki type system, then for the same reasons that you obviously can't have five different articles about Italy on Wikipedia, Stack Overflow can't accept duplicate questions on the exact same programming problem. While there is a fair amount of code to do pre-emptive searches as people type in questions, plus many exhortations to search before you ask, with an inviting search field and button right there on the mandatory page you see before asking your first question ...

... locating and identifying duplicate content is an insanely difficult problem even for a company like Google that's done nothing but specialize in this exact problem for, what, 20 years now, with a veritable army of the world's most talented engineers.

When you're asking a question on a site that doesn't allow duplicate questions, the problem space of a site with 1 million existing questions is rather different from a site with 10 million existing questions ... or 100 million. Asking a single unique question goes from mildly difficult to mission almost impossible, because your question needs to thread a narrow path through this vast, enormous field of prior art questions without stepping on any of the vaguely similar looking landmines in the process.

But wait! It gets harder!

Some variance in similar-ish questions is OK, because 10 different people will ask a nearly identical question using 10 different sets of completely unrelated words with no overlap. I know, it sounds crazy, but trust me: humans are amazing at this. We want all those duplicates to exist so they can point to the primary question they are a duplicate of, while still being valid search targets for people who ask questions with unusual or rare word choices.

It can be legitimately difficult to determine if your question is a true duplicate. How much overlap is enough before one programming question is a duplicate of another? And by whose definition? Opinions vary. This is subject to human interpretation, and humans are.. unreliable. Nobody will ever be completely happy with this system, pretty much by design. That tension is baked in permanently and forever.

I don't have any real answers on the duplicate problem, which only gets worse over time. But I will point out that there is plenty of precedent on the Stack Exchange network for splitting sites into "expert" and "beginner" areas with slightly different rulesets. We've seen this for Math vs. MathOverflow, English vs. English Learners, Unix vs. Ubuntu... perhaps it's time for a more beginner focused Stack Overflow where duplicates are less frowned upon, and conversational rules are a bit more lenient?

Stack Overflow is a competitive system of peer review

Stack Overflow was indeed built to be a fairly explicitly competitive system, with the caveat that "there's always more than one way to do it." This design choice was based on my perennial observation that the best way to motivate any programmer .. is to subtly insinuate that another programmer could have maybe done it better.

This is manifested in the public reputation system on Stack Overflow, the incredible power of a number printed next to someone's name, writ large. All reputation in Stack Overflow comes from the recognition of your peers, never the "system".

Once your question is asked, or your answer is posted, it can then be poked, prodded, edited, flagged, closed, opened, upvoted, downvoted, folded and spindled by your peers. The intent is for Stack Overflow to be a system of peer review and friendly competition, like a code review from a coworker you've never met at a different division of the company. It's also completely fair for a fellow programmer to question the premise of your question, as long as it's done in a nice way. For example, do you really want to use that regular expression to match HTML?

I fully acknowledge that competitive peer review systems aren't for everyone, and thus the overall process of having peers review your question may not always feel great, depending on your circumstances and background in the field — particularly when combined with the substantial tensions around utility and duplicates Stack Overflow already absorbed from its wiki elements. Kind of a double whammy there.

I've heard people describe the process of asking a question on Stack Overflow as anxiety inducing. To me, posting on Stack Overflow is supposed to involve a healthy kind of minor "let me be sure to show off my best work" anxiety:

the anxiety of giving a presentation to your fellow peers

the anxiety of doing your best work on a test

the anxiety of showing up to a new job with talented coworkers you admire

the anxiety of attending your first day at school with other students at your level

I imagine systems where there is zero anxiety involved and I can only think of jobs where I had long since stopped caring about the work and thus had no anxiety about whether I even showed for work on any given day. How can that work? Let's just say I'm not a fan of zero-anxiety systems.

Maybe competition just isn't your jam. Could there be a less competitive Q&A system, a system without downvotes, a system without close votes, where there was never any anxiety about posting anything, just a network of super supportive folks who believe in you and want you to succeed no matter what? Absolutely! I think many alternative sites should exist on the internet so people can choose an experience that matches their personal preferences and goals. Should Stack build that alternative? Has it already been built? It's an open question; feel free to point out examples in the comments.

Stack Overflow is designed for practicing programmers

Another point of confusion that comes up a fair bit is who the intended audience for Stack Overflow actually is. That one is straightforward, and it's been the same from day one:

Q&A for professional and enthusiast programmers. By that we mean

People who either already have a job as a programmer, or could potentially be hired as a programmer today if they wanted to be.

Yes, in case you're wondering, part of this was an overt business decision. To make money you must have an audience of people already on a programmer's salary, or in the job hunt to be a programmer. The entire Stack Overflow network may be Creative Commons licensed, but it was never a non-profit play. It was always imagined as a viable business from the outset, and that's why we launched Stack Overflow Careers only one year after Stack Overflow itself ... to be honest far sooner than we should have, in retrospect. Careers has since been smartly subsumed into Stack Overflow proper at stackoverflow.com/jobs for a more integrated and most assuredly way-better-than-2009 experience.

The choice of audience wasn't meant to be an exclusionary decision in any way, but Stack Overflow was definitely designed as a fairly strict system of peer review, which is great (IMNSHO, obviously) for already practicing professionals, but pretty much everything you would not want as a student or beginner. This is why I cringe so hard I practically turn myself inside out when people on Twitter mention that they have pointed their students at Stack Overflow. What you'd want for a beginner or a student in the field of programming is almost the exact opposite of what Stack Overflow does at every turn:

one on one mentoring

real time collaborative screen sharing

live chat

theory and background courses

starter tasks and exercises

These are all very fine and good things, but Stack Overflow does NONE of them, by design.

Can you use Stack Overflow to learn how to program from first principles? Well, technically you can do anything with any software. You could try to have actual conversations on Reddit, if you're a masochist. But the answer is yes. You could learn how to program on Stack Overflow, in theory, if you are a prodigy who is comfortable with the light competitive aspects (reputation, closing, downvoting) and also perfectly willing to define all your contributions to the site in terms of utility to others, not just yourself as a student attempting to learn things. But I suuuuuuper would not recommend it. There are far better websites and systems out there for learning to be a programmer. Could Stack Overflow build beginner and student friendly systems like this? I don't know, and it's certainly not my call to make. 🤔

And that's it. We can now resume our normal non-abyss gazing. Or whatever it is that passes for normal in these times.

I hope all of this doesn't come across as negative. Overall I'd say the state of the Stack is strong. But does it even matter what I think? As it was in 2008, so it is in 2018.

Stack Overflow is you.

This is the scary part, the great leap of faith that Stack Overflow is predicated on: trusting your fellow programmers. The programmers who choose to participate in Stack Overflow are the “secret sauce” that makes it work. You are the reason I continue to believe in developer community as the greatest source of learning and growth. You are the reason I continue to get so many positive emails and testimonials about Stack Overflow. I can’t take credit for that. But you can.

I learned the collective power of my fellow programmers long ago writing on Coding Horror. The community is far, far smarter than I will ever be. All I can ask — all any of us can ask — is to help each other along the path.

And if your fellow programmers decide to recognize you for that, then I say you’ve well and truly earned it.

The strength of Stack Overflow begins, and ends, with the community of programmers that power the site. What should Stack Overflow be when it grows up? Whatever we make it, together.

p.s. Happy 10th anniversary Stack Overflow!

Also see Joel's take on 10 years of Stack Overflow with The Stack Overflow Age, A Dusting of Gamification, and Strange and Maddening Rules.

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