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tigerkirby215 · 3 years

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5e Xayah, the Rebel build (League of Legends)

(Artwork by Riot Games)

Holy shit they actually just flip the artwork. No this is genuinely Xayah’s “official” artwork it’s just a flip of Rakan’s...

So uh I had this build prepared back in August... and then I forgot it. Luckily I did write it down! See? I’m smarter than Rakan!

Honestly I’m quite thankful for Tasha’s coming out because it made my Xayah build a lot better. So I’m happy that I’m publishing it now in February instead of back in August when I made the first draft. A lot of things get better with age and love’s also one of them~ 💓

GOALS

Dodging seems to be a weak spot of yours - Sick of only hitting one enemy at a time? Make some Clean Cuts to strike behind your enemy. That’s what’s known as efficiency!

Move your feet, or lose some toes - Ever tripped on a feather? How about having your heels slashed?

A thousand cuts is only the beginning - In case of emergency push R button to dodge damage, and send a ton of feathers at your foes!

RACE

Xayah is half bird, but her taunt flat out shows she can’t fly which leaves Aarakocra out of the picture. She’s also very chatty (holy shit have you seen how many voice lines Xayah and Rakan have?) so Kenku is definitely not an option. So when in Rome as a furry look no further than a Shifter.

All Shifters have Darkvision and their Shifting ability to gain temporary hitpoints, but everything else is determined by their subrace: you’re the girl with the plan for the hunt. The Wildhunt that is! Your Wisdom increases by 2 and your Dexterity increases by 1. You’re a Natural Tracker with proficiency in Survival. And your Shifting Feature will let you become one with nature for advantage on Wisdom checks, and you can up your dodging game so no enemy can hit you with advantage.

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - You’re a marksman. That means attacking with a ranged weapon, which takes nimbleness.

14; WISDOM - Wisdom will let you connect with the natural magic of the world. Most literally as you’re going to be using Wisdom to cast spells!

13; INTELLIGENCE - You’re the one with the plan.

12; CONSTITUTION - Ha ha ADC health bar go brrrr, but even if Xay is squishy in LoL that doesn’t mean we can’t grab Grasp for a bit more health.

10; CHARISMA - Xayah has a degree of rough charm to her. But I mean hey: you got Rakan to fall for you?

8; STRENGTH - As much muscle as dancing takes you don’t need it to cut through your foes.

BACKGROUND

You’re a freedom fighter. A rebel with a cause fighting as a Faction Agent for the Vastayan cause. You get proficiency in Insight along with any Intelligence, Wisdom, or Charisma ability. For a dance under the moonlight with Rakan get Performance proficiency: it takes two to tango after all! You also get proficiency in two languages: unfortunately Aarakocra isn’t an option but Auran (or rather Primordial) will serve well to speak the Vastayan-bird language. And to learn the ancient language of Ionia I’d recommend Sylvan.

As a vastayan rebel you can gain access to a Safe Haven for you and your allies. By using secret signs and passwords you can identify other rebels who can bring you to a safe house, give you a free place to stay, or assist you in finding information. They won’t risk their lives for you but as long as you remember the password they’ll be willing to help. Be sure to remember the password by the way. Because Rakan definitely won’t.

(Artwork by XhiliaJP on DeviantArt)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - FIGHTER 1

Starting off as a Fighter for a few things known as saving throws, but also for skills like Acrobatics and Perception to see incoming skill shots and dodge them with grace. You also get Second Wind to heal for a d10 plus your Fighter level for some health pots in lane.

Your main choice as a Fighter at early levels is your Fighting Style and we’ll be grabbing a Bladecaller root very early thanks to Superior Technique from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. You learn a Battle Master Maneuver from the Battle Master subclass: we’ll be going for Trip Attack to hinder enemy movement. You then get a d6 Maneuver die to use on Trip Attack, and nothing else because spoilers: we won’t be getting other maneuvers.

LEVEL 2 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get their Action Surge, allowing them to take two actions in a turn instead of 1. For now that only means two attacks. For now.

LEVEL 3 - FIGHTER 3

Third level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype and to channel some magic into your “blades” (read: arrows, because you should be using a longbow) go for the magic of the Arcane Archer. Arcane Archer Lore will give you proficiency in Arcana or Nature (we’re actually going to be going for Arcana) as well as either the Prestigiation or Druidcraft cantrip (naturally as a naturalist we’ll be going for Druidcraft.)

"How can humans not hear the magic?"

"They're too busy building things."

"Why?"

"Because... they're afraid."

Of course the main feature of the Arcane Archer is their Arcane Shot. Once per turn when you fire an arrow from a bow, you can apply one of your Arcane Shots to that arrow. You decide to use the option when the arrow hits a creature, unless the option doesn’t involve an attack roll. You have two uses of Arcane Shot that come back after a Short or Long rest.

Let’s talk about your Arcane Shots then, hm? To root your foe (sorta) Grasping Arrow does an extra 2d6 Poison damage and lowers the target’s movement speed by 10. Additionally if they try to move without Flash (or other means of teleportation) they’ll take an extra 2d6 slashing damage. The target can use its action to remove the brambles with a successful Athletics check against your Arcane Shot save DC, or ask their support to do it for them. Otherwise, the brambles last for 1 minute or until you use this option again.

Piercing Arrow meanwhile doesn’t require an attack roll. Instead you target all enemies in a 30 foot line and force them to make a Dexterity save. On a failed save they take damage as if they were shot by the bow, along with an extra d6 of piercing. On a successful save however they only take half, but realistically if you’re hitting 3 or more people with this arrow it’s still worth it even if you miss.

(Artist unknown. Made for Riot Games.)

LEVEL 4 - RANGER 1

Feel free to take one more level in Fighter for an ASI but I’m going to go to Ranger now and grab Nature proficiency from the class, which is why we took Arcana earlier!

Also thank god Tasha’s is out because instead of the meme known as Natural Explorer we get Deft Explorer. Canny gives you Expertise in one of your skills (I personally opted for Acrobatics to evade any Shadow Assassins who may try to kill you, but honestly any one of your skills make sense for Expertise so feel free to pick whatever you think will be useful) and two language proficiencies of your choice. (Choose whatever you think will help your cause.)

But the more interesting feature is Favored Foe. When you hit an enemy you can choose to mark them to make your feathers just a little more sharp. The first time on each of your turns that you hit the marked target and deal damage to it (including when you first mark it) you can do an extra d4 of damage to them.

The bond lasts for 1 minute unless you get hit hard enough to lose your concentration because yes: this feature takes your concentration for some reason which is why we went into Fighter first for proficiency in Constitution saves. You can use the mark a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest.

LEVEL 5 - RANGER 2

Second level Rangers get their Fighting Style, and since we didn’t take Archery from Fighter we’ll instead be taking it here.

But more importantly you get Spellcasting. You can learn two spells from the Ranger list: to keep enemies in place with Bladecaller take Ensnaring Strike. Alternatively if you want to increase your evasion with your Deadly Plumage Zephyr Strike will make it so enemies can’t make attacks of opportunity against you, and you can end the spell’s effects to do more damage with an attack and then increase your movement speed afterwards.

LEVEL 6 - RANGER 3

Third level Rangers get to choose their Ranger Archetype, and with Tasha’s Cauldron out we have an explanation for Xayah’s Deadly Plumage. Why, it’s a swarm of feathers of course! Xayah’s a Swarmkeeper! After hitting an enemy you can use your Gathered Swarm for a variety of different effects. You can do an extra d6 of piercing damage, force a Strength save or be pushed up to 15 feet horizontally in a direction of your choice, or you can move yourself 5 feet horizontally in a direction of your choice.

You also get Swarmkeeper Magic for a variety of spells. For one you get Mage Hand, and you also get Faerie Fire to light up all your enemies’ weak points. You can also learn another spell like Hail of Thorns for Clean Cuts through any foes who may be bunched up.

And to top it off you get Primal Awareness for a few extra spells. You learn the Speak with Animals spell, and cast it once per Long Rest without spending a spell slot.

LEVEL 7 - RANGER 4

4th level Rangers get an Ability Score Improvement. Increase your Intelligence by 1 and your Dexterity by 1, because why not replace one uneven ability score with another? "And an F, for effort."

LEVEL 8 - RANGER 5

5th level Rangers get an Extra Attack. Two attacks per round for a bit more attack speed.

You also get access to second level spells, and from your Swarmkeeper Magic you get the Web spell, which perhaps isn’t too fitting but you shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Additionally Primal Awareness adds Beast Sense to your spell list, and lets you cast it without spending a spell slot. Perhaps not the most useful spell, but as Xayah would say: "Spiders are my spirit animal." And finally you can learn another spell too like Lesser Restoration for some QSS in case of emergency.

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 9 - RANGER 6

6th level Rangers see their Favored Foe damage increase to a d6. Additionally they get Roving from Deft Explorer for 5 additional moving speed and some help with swimming and climbing.

LEVEL 10 - RANGER 7

7th level Rangers can at least try to fly thanks to Writhing Tide. As a bonus action you gain a flying speed of 10 feet and can hover. The effect lasts for 1 minute or until you are incapacitated. You can use this feature a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus, and you regain all expended uses when you finish a long rest. It perhaps isn’t the most useful thing for mobility but it’s good to use your feathers to get the perfect angle on your foes, or to keep away from melee bruisers looking to slice your chicken.

You can also learn another spell at this level like Enhance Ability, for a boost to give 120% when you need it.

LEVEL 11 - RANGER 8

8th level Rangers get another Ability Score Improvement: to maximize the deadliness of your plumage take the Piercer feat from Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything. Along with a +1 increase to your Dexterity you can also reroll one attack roll that did piercing damage (your longbow does piercing damage) to hopefully turn a low roll into a high roll. But to top it off when you score a critical hit (that deals piercing damage) you can roll one additional damage die when determining the extra piercing damage the target takes. Any ADC can attack an enemy but Clean Cuts is what lets Xayah stand out from the crowd.

LEVEL 12 - RANGER 9

9th level Rangers get more spells. From Primal Awareness you get Speak with Plants, to understand why the land of Ionia is upset at the humans. You can also grab Conjure Barrage for a Featherstorm to cut down a full crowd. But if you want to evade with Featherstorm your Swarmkeeper Magic grants you the Gaseous Form spell, to become untargetable (to an extent) and still be able to move and dodge (to an extent.)

(Artwork by SplashBrush on DeviantArt. It’s considerably easier to find artwork of Xayah than it is to find artwork of Rakan :c)

LEVEL 13 - FIGHTER 4

Back to good ol’ Fighter to pick up that ASI I ignored. +2 to Dexterity? That’ll max out your hit chance and attack damage!

LEVEL 14 - FIGHTER 5

5th level Fighters get an Extra Attack... which you already have. "I can't even... I don't know where to begin."

LEVEL 15 - FIGHTER 6

6th level Fighters get more Ability Score Improvements! Since your Dexterity is maxed out you can choose to increase either your Wisdom for better Ranger spells or your Intelligence for better Fighter Arcane Shots. Pick whatever suits your fancy but remember that your Arcane Shots come back on a Short Rest while your Ranger spells are restricted by Long Rests.

LEVEL 16 - FIGHTER 7

Do you have a Magic Weapon? Well you do now! 7th level Rangers get Magic Arrow, which makes their shots magical for the sake of overcoming resistances and immunity. Is total level 16 way too late to be getting this? Yeah probably.

Good thing you also get Curving Shot! If you miss an attack you can redirect it with Clean Cuts, spending a Bonus Action to roll an attack on a different enemy within 60 feet of the original target. And to top it off you get another Arcane Shot option: Seeking Arrow is a good way to target backline enemies, but it’s also really useful to deal with any invisible foes. "Did they deserve it?" "They deserved it."

(Artwork by Riot Games)

LEVEL 17 - FIGHTER 8

8 is the magic number for more ASIs. Intelligence is nice; so is Wisdom. Increase what you want.

LEVEL 18 - FIGHTER 9

9th level Rangers can pick up Mercurial Scimitar and get out of CC with Indomitable. If you fail a saving throw, you can reroll it! But it’s only once per Long Rest. Note that you can reroll death saves, so don’t die or that would make Rakan sad.

LEVEL 19 - FIGHTER 10

10th level Fighters get another Arcane Shot option. Yup that’s literally it. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, I guess. Regardless this late into the game some CC would probably be good, so take Banishing Arrow.

LEVEL 20 - FIGHTER 11

Our capstone is the 11th level of Fighter for an Extra Attack that does stack, giving us three total! Cap off that attack speed to slice through foes like butter! "I love watching you kill." "I love killing for you." "Let's make out."

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Hurray; they all died - You’re really good at Fighting, almost like you multiclassed Fighter with a half-Fighter. You’re incredibly precise with a +13 to hit with your longbow and have plenty of tools to increase your overall DPS.

What? They were in my way - You’ve also got plenty of tricks up your sleeve. Arcane Shots, one use of Trip Attack, Gathered Swarm shenanigans, and plenty of dangerous utility spells.

Oops, your bad! - You’ve got quite a few aces up your sleeve to stop you from being blown up. Higher than average movement thanks to being a Ranger, and your Swarmkeeper abilities lets you increase your movement. Not to mention utility spells like Gaseous Form. And you also have two different ways to boost your health (Second Wind + Shifting), 17 AC with Studded Leather... oh and did I mention you have +17 in Acrobatics?

CONS

Can I just hate you to death? - You’ve got limited resources on top of limited resources on top of limited resources. Two Arcane Shots per Short Rest, spell slots that are limited by Long Rests, healing and temp HP that’s tied to a Short Rest... Be sure to ration out your abilities so you don’t run out when you need them most.

Chaos is the preferred state of nature - All your saving throws are rather mediocre, notably your Charisma which is a nice flat +0. Rakan’s the talker, but a beautiful smile will keep you out of any banishing spells.

Magic is not some river - So it turns out multiclassing two sorta-casters means that you can’t focus on either stat. If you can easily get a 19 in Intelligence (such as with a Hextech Headband) perhaps focus on Wisdom. If not? Well Point Buy is an option.

But if you were perfect why would you need Rakan? He’s there to pick up your slack, and you’re there to make sure he doesn’t screw up. Dance along with him and cut down anyone who stands in your way. There’s nothing you can’t defeat with the power of love... But a good plan is also helpful, so make sure Rakan actually remembers it this time.

"Hey, I have a plan."

"You... have a plan?"

"Yeah! I'll go on instinct!"

"That's the opposite of a plan."

(Artwork by Riot Games)

#valentine's day #love #xayah and rakan #dnd #dnd build #dnd guid #League of Legends #League of Legends Xayah #dnd 5e #dnd fighter #dnd ranger

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introvertguide · 4 years

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Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001); AFI #50

The current movie for review from the AFI top 100 is the most recent of the films, Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001). This was the introduction of director Peter Jackson to much of the mainstream American audience despite him having a 20 year history of film making in New Zealand. The film is beautiful in so many aspects, from the special effects to the cinematography to the sets creating the world of Middle Earth. The film received 12 nominations at the Academy Awards and received 4 of them, a feat unheard of for an epic fantasy film. This is also the only “incomplete” film on the AFI list because there are no other “too be continued” stories. There are some films that are first and second parts (specifically The Godfather 1 and 2), but this is the only one that intentionally stopped with intent for the story to pick in the next film. With that being said, the sheer number of characters and the intended incomplete nature of the film makes it almost impossible to summarize without just going scene by scene. There are 100 movies on this list and I am not going to set any precedence that I will be doing that, so here is a very brief synopsis of what happens in this film without diving into too much of the lore concerning the rest of the trilogy or The Hobbit:

SPOILER WARNING!! I DON’T KNOW WHY IT IS NECESSARY ON THIS ONE, BUT I DO IT EVERY TIME AND I WANT TO BE CONSISTANT!! IF YOU HAVEN’T SEEN THIS BY NOW OR ARE UNFAMILIAR WITH THE STORY, THEN YOU ARE LIKELY VERY YOUNG, LIVE UNDER A ROCK, OR PURPOSEFULLY AVOIDING IT!!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED SO I DON’T WANT TO GET ANY NOTES ON THIS ONE!!!

So here is the general outline, there was an evil guy named Sauron that gave out rings of power to the Elves, Dwarves, and Humans in a realm called Middle Earth. This land is a fantasy realm that has a mix of Dark Age castles mixed with monsters and human like races. It looks strangely like New Zealand through a lot of the country side. Coincidence I am sure. Anyway, Sauron tricked the different races because he kept for himself one ring to rule them all and bind the ones wearing the rings to him. This did not go over well so the humans, elves, and dwarves rose up and fought Sauron and his armies and were able to get the master ring during battle. There was a chance for them to destroy the ring but human corruption prevented this and the ring was eventually lost. It eventually ended up in the hands of a man that kept it close and allowed it to suck away his life until it was stolen by a small human-like creature named Bilbo Baggins. The ring was taken on many adventures (see The Hobbit films for this story) and it gave this little hobbit prolonged life, but it also became an addictive burden. Bilbo decided to go off and leave the ring for his nephew and this is where the story begins. I know, it’s a lot.

A wizard named Gandalf (Ian McKellen) comes to the hobbit village as Bilbo is leaving and makes sure the ring is left in the hands of the nephew Frodo (Elijah Wood). The wizard confirms the ring is the one that rules them all and reveals that Sauron is regaining power and wants the ring. For the safety of the shire, Frodo must take the ring to Rivendell, home of the Elves, to figure out what must be done. Gandalf has to take care of some business so some other hobbits - Sam (Sean Astin), Merry (Dominic Monaghan), and Pippin (Billy Boyd) - get wrangled into the journey and the group of four go off to a local human town to meet Gandalf and continue forward. This short trip proves treacherous as the 9 humans that were given rings of power had been corrupted and turned into Nazgul that are attempting to track down the little group of hobbits. Gandalf does not show up, but the group run into a ranger named Strider at the human tavern and he helps fight off the ring wraiths. With the help of his elf girlfriend, Arwen, the group are able to make it to Rivendell where they are presumably safe for the time being.

A meeting is held at Rivendell and representatives of the different races all show up to decide what must be done. The ring must be destroyed so a fellowship to transfer the ring to Mount Doom is formed. It is made up of the four hobbits, Gandalf the wizard, an elf named Legolas (Orlando Bloom), Strider the Ranger who is actually a human king named Aragorn (Viggo Mortenson), a dwarf named Gimli (John Rhys-Davies), and another human named Boromir (Sean Bean). I have seen enough movies with Sean Bean as a side character to know that he is for sure going to die. It is only a matter of when.

So the group heads off toward Mount Doom and initially start by taking a path through snowy mountains but have to turn back and instead decide to go under the mountains. The dwarf is excited because he can visit his cousin who is king under the mountain. Alas, all they find is skeletons and an evil race created by Sauron called orcs. This race also seems to have other evil creatures enslaved including a cave troll. The Fellowship is chased through the bowels of the mountain until the orcs suddenly back off and the group finds something even worse, an ancient evil called a Balrog. Gandalf takes on the creature at a stone bridge and screams the now memed words “You shall not pass!” The Balrog falls into a pit but drags Gandalf down as well, reducing the number in the group by one wizard.

The group mourns the loss very briefly (and dramatically) before traveling to an elven forest where Frodo is told by a queen that he will have to take on the quest alone and that one of the fellowship will betray him. They continue on and it turns out that a wizard named Saruman that was corrupted by Sauron (confusingly close in name, I know), has created super buff orcs called Uruk-hai (pronounced “Orick Eye” all blended together) to hunt down the party. Boromir tries to take the ring from Frodo but immediately makes up for it by sacrificing himself to protect the hobbits from the super orcs. Sean Bean was kind of a bad guy and was killed. What a surprise. That actor really needs to find different roles or he is going to spend his entire career being type cast.

Anyway, Frodo and Sam break away from the group to go off on their own, the other two hobbits are captured and taken by the orcs, and then Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli decide to track everybody down. To be continued.

This probably seems like quite a short synopsis for a 3 hour movie...but legitimately the movie is a visual spectacle in which not a lot happens. Most of the movie is traveling, fighting, introducing the lore of the world, and introducing characters. Not a whole lot of plot progression in this particular movie, but it sets the stage for the second film to be nothing but battle and progression (an hour long battle of Helm’s Deep which is amazing), while the last one is nothing but battles and resolution of every story line. It is an incredible trilogy and this is only the beginning and it had audiences drooling for more.

In fact, Peter Jackson films set the standard for special effects for the early 21st century. His team took home the Oscar for best visual effects in 2001 for Fellowship of the Ring, in 2002 for The Two Towers, in 2003 for The Return of the King, and in 2005 for King Kong. No film series with consecutive releases has done this except Lord of the Rings (not even with Star Wars, Marvel, and DC universe films coming out constantly). The series really is something special. Attempts had been made to tell the trilogy as an animated movie, but no drawings could do the world justice. It took advanced computer graphics, motion capture technology, an expansive New Zealand countryside, a quirky director that had envisioned this world his whole life, and a dedicated cast and crew that was fully committed to the project. It is an amazing piece of filming.

If I have any complaints, it is that there is some really corny drama. The amount of times that Elijah Wood overacts in pain or despair is more digits than I have. Especially when the group is mourning the loss of Gandalf...it is kind of embarrassing. It is that “inconsolable parent who lost a child” acting with scream crying and shouts of “Noooooo!” It is all the hobbits, too, which doesn’t help that they are the size of children and are having a despair tantrum. Luckily they keep going and that is a one minute scene, but still it is embarrassing. Also, Frodo is stabbed and presumed dead twice. I can see why there were no nominations for best actor because it was not the best acting.

It is all made up for by the incredible battles. For me, it is the chase under the mountain with the orcs and the cave troll and the balrog. That is about 30 minutes of constant fight or flight that left me short of breath. I realized I kept forgetting to breath I was so mesmerized by the constant intensity. There is also a good amount of comedy since the hobbits are generally peaceful farmers and they don’t know how to (or want to) have adventures and keep messing things up. Pippin and Merry keep touching things that they shouldn’t and it brings all kinds of trouble. I think it is one of them that knocks some armor into a well that catches the attention of the orcs under the mountain.

Two specific scenes that I found memorable in that they are burned into my brain forever were the Nazgul fight and the appearance of the cave troll. The Nazgul are absolutely terrifying in that they have no face and have only one intent: kill whatever they are hunting. A good comparison would be to Dementors in the Harry Potter universe. The Nazgul are like Dementors with swords and armor. What is worse, Frodo can use the one ring to make him invisible, but it puts a target on him for the Nazgul and they come straight for him. They idea that you can’t hide from this evil and attempting to will make you stand out more is kind of horrific. I found the Nazgul truly disturbing. The cave troll is just awesome and huge. At no point was I worried for the team on this occasion because the wizard, elf, dwarf, and humans seemed undefeatable. It was more of curiosity about how they were going to handle this challenge. The detail of filming all the actors and sets so they were affected by the troll made the huge beast and the threat it posed in an enclosed space seamless.

There was some question why this movie was on the AFI list and the other movies in the trilogy were not, especially with the third film winning 10 Oscars including best picture. It is because this was the watershed film that made the others possible. I got to see the film in the theatre and it was an experience like no other. I cannot think of a movie that had created such a complete fantasy world like LOTR and it made for a truly cinematic experience. I generally do not like movie theatres because people around me whom I have no control over can affect my experience and I am not normally willing to pay for that. However, the theatre I was in had tiered level seating that was graded enough so that nobody blocked my view and ample leg room that also prevented kicking from behind. It was a thing of beauty and I went and saw the other two films in the theatre as well. It was amazing.

So does this film deserve to be on the AFI 100? My goodness, I would think less of the AFI if it wasn’t. It changed audience expectations of what a movie could be and set the tone for the new millennium as far a big budget cinema. Would I recommend it? Please, I own it. If you come by my place and you haven’t seen it, then I will be happy to put aside 3 hours and watch it again with you. It is the easiest epic film to get through, in my opinion, and I don’t think you will be sorry to give up the time. Just a fantastic movie.

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nodesiretogrowup · 4 years

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alright, round 2

Quack Pack!:

Damn, they just throw you into the sitcom. I love it. All the overacting and over the top poses/reactions are great

Dewey’s entrance is great

Is the bear the one from the last episode?

“I’ve shenaned-once, I’ll shenan-again” BEAUTIFUL

And then he just one-legged hops up the stairs backwards

I liked the Della and Louie are both wearing green. It’s a cute thing to tie them together

ON THE MOOOOOOOOON

Louie totally did this scheme with Dewey in Della’s place at some point

The fact that Scrooge stops to entertain the idea is great

“We’ve got about...30 mins” I love when shows make allusions to the actual runtime

Beakley and Webby had the BEST ENTRANCE! They must have seen the Lady Gaga halftime show

That dangerous agent stuff is probably gonna come back. Next week is the spy episode so...

“I’m not a spy” I wonder how that worked in the plot of the fake show. Did Beakley do spy stuff? It just doesn’t make sense for a sitcom

From the get-go Huey could tell things were off

WHY DID DONALD HAVE TO MAKE SUCH A SEXY FACE AT THE CAMERA?! I DON’T WANT TO HAVE A CRUSH ON DONALD! CURSE THE DT CREW FOR MAKING DONALD HOT! AND THE SEXY VOICE!

I wish they had just used the Quack Pack intro for the theme this episode

I want Launchpad’s band to somehow exist. I liked the girl’s design a lot

INTRODUCING DELLA!

“QUACK PACK WAS TAPED IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE.” Oh 90s sitcoms

When you rewatch the episode you can see they foreshadowed the twist. Donald looks directly into the camera an awful lot for someone that doesn’t know there even is a camera

Knox Quackington? Even for a show full of punny names, that is a ridiculous name

His outfit looks more “ace reporter” than “eccentric photographer”

“He’s a spy” Do you think Gene was trying to pretend to be a spy for the wacky misunderstanding of the episode in-universe or he just didn’t know how photographers act?

“YOU’RE SO SMALL! But so STRONG!” Webby has probably killed a man

The screen wipes are GREAT, though that feels more like an anime thing than sitcom. Sitcom scene wipes usually were establishing shots of the house they live in or the city. I’ve watched far too much tv

Louie’s lie speil was great and solid logic

“Time is money, kids, and I’d rather spend time because it’s not money” Inspirational

Donald sure cares a lot about the lighting. How would he know the office had the best lighting, hmmmmm

Something about that hand movement makes me think 90s but I’m not sure why

Dewey doing the dance that the triplets do in Mr. Duck Steps Out is cute

The blank pages made me think about how people can’t read in their dreams

“On the moon we had this old saying-always check your pockets” To be fair, that is good advice

Poor Huey just CAN’T catch a break! First he hallucinates a talking guidebook (THAT BURNS TO DEATH AND COMES BACK AS A GHOST) now reality is SHATTERING BEFORE HIM. Yeah...this season’s gonna do a number on this kid. Hopefully he gets a break next week

“Since when are YOU a hairstylist?” “SINCE THE INTERNET” Now THAT is a quarantine MOOD right there

So we learn later that SHABOOEY is Gene’s catchphrase, is Dewey saying it because he’s being controlled by Gene in that moment?

Donald looks into the camera again

SOMEONE HELP THIS CHILD! HIS WORLD IS SPINNING OUT OF CONTROL

THE FUCKING PEP COMMERCIAL! GOD IT WAS SO 90S AND BEAUTIFUL!! I NEED THE SONG TO BE RELEASED!

Maybe because it was a soda ad in a Disney Afternoon-based show, but the commercial made me think of Coo-Coo Cola from Rescue Rangers

Ducktales-the ONLY Disney show with an in-universe “and you’re watching Disney Channel”

I love Huey dearly but....it’s really fun watching him MCFRICKIN LOSE IT

Dewey can’t throw...because he’s a theatre kid

Donald looks at the camera again

Louie’s wipe DEFINITELY looks like something out of an anime. Is Louie secretly a weeb? I mean he is in a different show

Gene doing his best not to break character. A true thespian through and through

“Yo” *all the ladies cheer*

All of the sudden BAM Launchpad has a band. Is he the Uncle Jesse?

I love that we don’t get to hear them play

“Trapped in a mystical prison that’s constantly laughing at us” I call that my brain :’)

“WHO ARE THOSE LITTLE GUYS?”

“I figured if anyone would crack, it’d be Dewey” Huey seems WAY more likely to snap imho

“But that was from soul-crushing loneliness” Della, you wanna talk about that? With a professional perhaps?

“We need some wacky hijinks!”

“HOW DID I GET HERE? WHY AM I DANCING?” Huey gets SO MANY great lines this episode

And once again we have Donald looking directly into the camera

“Cute girl stuff” Della probably went around with a meat tenderizer as a kid, so it’s normal

Goofy seemed to be aware of the cheering. HMMMMMMM

AAAAAAAAAAAAND.....GOOF TROOP POSE

I’ve been calling DT17 Goofy Chibi Goofy because of how short he is compared to how he normally looks. They probably made him shorter so he and Donald fit in a single frame easier. I know a lot of the boarders/animators for the show have a hard time doing scenes with Launchpad and the kids because of how MASSIVE he is compared to the kids

Goofy knew something was different about Donald. HMMMMMMM

The way Don delivers the line “You CAN help” has a weird inflection, at least to me

I want Goofy thinking to become a meme and people put random sounds over it like those are Goofy’s thoughts

That face-slap was loud

AND DONALD LOOKS INTO THE CAMERA LIKE HE’S ON THE OFFICE

Where was Dewey that whole time? He kind of just...disappears for a bit

Oh Launchpad, you MAJESTIC himbo. And Gene smiles, too cute

“Getting the lid off that peanut butter jar was an adventure” In that household it probably could have

Donald using Louie and Della’s names when he could have just said you broke your mom’s vase or something like that

You look pretty nervous there, Donny-boy

“I don’t mean the last episode” Good, because you kinda lost your mind in the last episode

Wow, flashbacking is TRIPPY

“EVERYONE, TILT YOUR HEAD TO THE LEFT THEN SCRATCH YOUR CHIN” So that’s how you do it

“We should really get back to the plot, I mean problem”

Why don’t you want to flashback, DONALD?

lol Goofy does it too even though he wasn’t present for that event

Gene’s just blankly staring in the background

“REMINISCE HARDER” What you tell yourself as you take a test and are trying to remember what you studied

Yay, the journal is brought up!

“How many lamps did this jerk have?” Excellent question

Webby looks INSANE and Huey FULLY SUPPORTS HER

DONALD HAS PTSD AND NEEDS HELP

I feel like Gene took some MAJOR liberties with Donald’s wish. When I think normal family problems I don’t think of sitcoms. In fact that is the FURTHEST THING from what I think of as normal. Then again Gene is played by Urkel, so that might be his normal

Speaking of, does Gene know that they are all ALREADY in a tv show? How far does this rabbit hole go?

“EVERYONE STOP CATCHPHRASING!” “Is ‘I’m not a spy’ seriously my catchphrase?” You deserve better, Beakley

Of COURSE Dewey’s cool with it...because he’s a theatre kid

DEAR LORD, SOMEONE HELP THIS MAN!

Gene just trying to sneak out. I don’t think he wanted to deal with all that family drama

“HOW MANY MORE SECRETS DOES THIS AGENT HAVE?!” Oh Launchpad. Next week you’ll learn all about secrets and agents and secret agents

Gene feels like what would happen if all of Genie’s pop culture references were limited to the 90s. I LOVE IT

“AGES! The long ago year of 1990!” Well I feel old (born in 91). His eyes after he says it are just AMAZING

Gene being so knowledgeable about what makes great tv is hilarious. Clearly he should have directed the Darkwing movie lol

Seriously though, this really gives us a good look at Donald’s psyche. The guy just wants his family to be safe. But it’s even deeper than that. He wants to be normal, which includes him having a voice that’s easier for people to understand. He’s got a lot of baggage and trauma that needs to be dealt with, mainly how he views himself. Like, fuck

The HURT you see in Della’s eyes when Donald talks about why he likes it there BROKE ME

Huey’s line about adventuring being who they are got me teary eyed

Goofy just shrugs as he walks out

Of course Launchpad was gonna get the multiple dates plot. We’re ALL thirsty for some Launchpad

“Probably at least 3 seasons, plus spinoffs, and I assume they’ll reboot the show eventually.” Lines like this make me think Gene is very aware he is in a tv show

WHY THE FUCK WERE THE AUDIENCE HUMANS?! IS GENE AWARE THAT HUMANS EXIST AND ARE WATCHING THE VERY SHOW HE’S ON?! WHAT IS REAL ANYMORE?!

“HORRIBLE, FLESH-FACED MONSTERS!” Not gonna argue with that

Dewey is SUCH a drama queen

I don’t like how Scrooge called Gene genie. He told you his name, there’s no need to be rude

POGS

Ok the study date girl kinda reminds me of Laura from Family Matters, but that might just be because Urkel is there lol

How old is Launchpad supposed to BE in the sitcom? I don’t think a 30-something is going on many study dates

“You all seem real nice, I feel bad about the mix-up” LAUNCHPAD YOU BEAUTIFUL HIMBO

OH GOD THE LAURA DUCK IN THE BACKGROUND. JESUS

Beakley and Della telling the dates to find themselves and to be independent SLAYED ME. I was NOT expecting that!

“AH, MY PET SNAKE!” “Louie why would you have this?” “THIS IS A POORLY CONCEIVED STORYLINE!” “Eh, everyone’s a critic.” Louie’s right though, DEWEY would be the one with an exotic pet. Or any pet

Tiny Johnny and Randy

WHY ARE THE HUMAN KIDS’ PROPORTIONS SO MUCH WORSE THAN THE ADULTS?! THEY HAVE GIANT FUCKING HEADS!

PUT SOME PEP IN YOUR STEP

The ENTIRE SCENE of Goofy and Donald together was SO HEARTWARMING and something we could NEVER GET before this series! Having Donald and Goofy talk about being parents is WONDERFUL! It’s something we’ve never seen before with these characters. Donald just wants to be normal and Goofy giving a beautiful speech about how there really is no normal so enjoy the candid moments in life. I LEGIT CRIED

OF COURSE Goofy would have the wallet overflowing with pictures, he is THAT DAD. Seeing Max was great. I thought we might see PJ but I SQUEE’D when they showed the picture of Max and Roxanne! I hope they show up for real later on

We get a hint at the OTHER twist here with Goofy actively encouraging Donald to put things back to normal while everyone else that aren’t the Duck family are trying to keep them there

Also, Goofy’s ears have bones

DON’T MESS WITH DONALD’S FAMILY. It will NOT end well for you

Goofy just starts snapping pics, like the true photographer he is

SAX TIME

“LET’S GET QUACKING” It’s no “I AM THE STORM” but still good

AVENGERS CAMERA SPIN

“A lamp in a lamp?” I can’t tell if that is BRILLIANT or lazy. Or BRILLIANTLY LAZY

“YA HA HA HOOOOWIIIIIEEEEE” It wouldn’t be a proper Goofy cameo without the yell

The scorpions got bored and left

“The sound of no one laughing never sounded SO GOOD”

“BEST EPISODE EVER!” Definitely in my top 5

“Gawrsh, that’s sweet.” *does a cute wave* “Wait, Goofy was really here this whole time?”

Ok, but where was Goofy before then? Did Gene poof him away from something important? I WANT ANSWERS!

I bet they had this bit so people wouldn’t freakout like they did with Darkwing

I love Launchpad just being confused and waving at Goofy. He’s never met the dude before so it’s understandable. But I NEED they to have a proper interaction. THING OF THE PROPERTY DAMAGE!

“Magic’s got NOTHIN’ on a big name guest star” YOU KNOW YOU’RE IN A SHOW!

Lowkey want that Goofy lava lamp

The little Maxes flying over Goofy’s head...ADORABLE

PLEASE TELL ME THEY GOT GOOFY HOME SAFE

Donald using his last wish on the picture made me tear up. He could have had ANYTHING. He could have wished for a normal voice. But he used it for a family memory

Donald and Beakley both looked into the camera for the picture. WHILE FIGHTING DEMON HUMANS.

I can’t lie, THIS was the episode I was most excited for even before we got the premiere date. I was excited for the 90s cheesiness. Then we found out Goofy was gonna be in it and I got even more excited. Goofy is one of my faves, especially Dad Goofy. I was expecting it to be balls-to-the-wall insanity nonstop but they got me in the feels too. I want more of this Goofy and Donald. The two of them being single parents who lost someone close to them. Like I said earlier, this episode is in my top 5 for sure.

#ducktales #goof troop #dt spoilers

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nny11writes · 4 years

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1, 33 and 48 for the writers ask meme? :)

1. Tell us about your WIP!

Oh god which one?????? Fic I’m currently get good writing in on and excited about is How to Quit You which is already posting but not finished. Buuuuut, I think I want to talk a hot second more about the dang Art Model AU that jumped me in a back alley. One of my friends has a story she’s writing/planning for a different fandom (Power Rangers: Jungle Fury!) and we were hashing through her idea that one of the characters was an art model back in college and he took his crush to an art gallery where a nude of him was hung up. I liked it! And then weeks go back by, maybe months, and suddenly all I can think is, “How fucking hilarious would it be if Adora was an art model? Like, she’s not ashamed of her body or nudity, she’s not bothered by the process or images of her being put out into the art world.” and then the very next thought was, “We all like hc Catra as an artist in Modern AUs, oh my god she could be the disaster lesbian she is!”

And now I’m a few thousand words into it and Adora has started attending the drawing sessions when she’s not a model with a cheap drug store “art book” and her mechanical pencil she chewed to death. Because she’s fallen for the mean artist and wants to impress her she has a genuine interest in learning how to draw even if everything she puts on paper looks like a misshapen potato.

I’m going to force them to ride in the car while Animotion’s Obsession plays on the radio and they both break out into a sweat.

(Warning for that song, it’s one of those “oh this is so catchy, but I can’t hear lyrics when listening to new songs” and then I looked it up and it’s a bit date rapey. Like, why do so many 80′s tunes I like end up really skeevey?)

33. What’s your revision/rewriting process like?

I would hesitate to say I even have an actual process for revisions and rewrites. Basically, every time I open my doc to work I always go back to the start of the chapter I’m working on and re-read until I hit where I need to write.

This gets me in the right head space for the fic, helps me remember what the characters are doing/plot, and nail down the same tone in my writing.

But it also means that every time I write I do a bit of editing before hand. Heck, if I need to re-read an older chapter or skip ahead to a later one to double check consistency I’ll do some editing /while/ I’m writing as well.

Because I tend to look at one fic then a different one then a different one, with no consistent schedule it ends up being the great advice of write it and walk away. Come back a day or two later and look at it again because you’ll see more errors that way.

I think this isn’t the best system for most people. A lot of folks need some separation between writing and editing so that they don’t hamstring themselves via perfectionism. I’ve been learning over the last year that I’m, in fact, not a fat lazy bastard like I’ve always thought I was. I am, in fact, a fat overachieving hype-man. Which is wild! So I know I fall into that trap sometimes too.

Great example is Chapter 18 of how to quit you, I wrote the chapter, edited that for about two or three months, then realized it was really not good and deleted it to start over, edited that for a few weeks and realized it’s still not right. So I might need to delete it again but I’m going to try and fix it via smaller section re-writes and adjusting what I thought I wanted plot wise. But what chapter isn’t finished and is next to be posted? Chapter 11. Fucking, god damn it all. Almost every chapter from 11-14 has been heavily ignored despite needing to be in the story and being good I just can’t get my brain to work. So instead I get stuck editing and editing and editing and not WRITING.

On the other hand, I tend to bulldog it and then when I do ask people to edit/beta read there’s not as much obvious stuff that they have to slog through since I’ve caught most of my common spelling mistakes (-ign instead of -ing will kill me some day), tense mistakes, and consistency errors.

I like doing it this way, and while it can get it the way it normally helps. But again...it’s not exactly planned out. I just launch into a fic and go “cool I wanna write something for this fic” and I’m not a chronological writer so god speed little dude.

48. Do you prefer to write skimpy drafts and flesh them out later, or write too much and cut it back?

I mean, kinda like I talked about above I tend to edit and polish parts of my draft while still actively writing other parts of it. Like, with the same chapter and across the whole fic.

I honestly fall into both categories because I’m somewhat of a blend of them. I lean more towards expanding on what I’ve already written but I don’t tend to write super skimpy drafts that need actual fleshing out.

I do love [I DON’T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS BUT TRANSITIONS ARE MAGIC] for areas I have a vague idea about, but there’s usually fully fleshed out scenes on either side of it. It’s just when I’m doing the editing to write thing that I’ll sometimes go, “Oh, wait, this would be much more impactful if I expanded a bit more.” So a one off line about Obi-Wan realizing that Palpatine ordered Maul to kill Qui Gon and is trying to corrupt Anakin, became a third of a chapter that I felt was really well rounded already both before and after that moment. Or a short paragraph about Glimmer and Catra riding back into work devolved into them teasing one another and got some good descriptions in (I’m so bad at describing physical things in stories, so that one line about Catra’s cheeks looking like hibiscus from her blushing was fucking god tier for me), and all the sudden I didn’t just have a short transition area, I had a full blown scene. (Thank you again dontcallmebugaboo for listening to me ramble about how the transition sucked and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and you just said “romantic horse ride” and the clouds fucking parted, ilu) The most COMMON version of this is when Characters Suddenly Take Over and completely derail my story. Because then as I look around I go, “Hey yeah that could work, but I need a chapter about A and then need to seed in more references to B before I can expand on C.”

So idk is the short answer lol. I tend to write things out as I go along and every so often I get jumped in a dark alleyway.

#writer meme #writer game #ask game #about the author #lightasthesun

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skunky2 · 5 years

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Top 11 Worst Cartoons of the 2010′s!!

We had so many great cartoons introduced in this decade and while I haven't seen every last one I can say this decade was one of the best for animation in general! Sadly for every good animated show produced in this era there are also some bad apples in the bunch the following cartoons are some of the worst I have seen but please remember this is only my opinion if you like any of these shows then that's great continue to enjoy them don't let me stop you!!!

Now let's get this list started!!!

11. Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs the series (2017-2018)

Ok before we talk about the show I want to make one thing clear I don't hate the films in fact I actually find them enjoyable even going as far as calling them guilty pleasures the show on the other hand is a huge flop compared to the movies were the films had creativity and fun humor the show lacks that in fact this is by far the most boring show to be based on a freaking film about an invention that makes it rain food!! The other problem I have with this show is it's set before the events of the films so Flint hasn't even become an inventor yet but instead it's about him in high school and apparently him and Sam knew each other already did they even watch their first film!? Also the mayor is the principle because why not seriously this has got to be the worst show based on a hit animated film it's so painfully unfunny that I question how kids found it entertaining to begin with!!!! Not every movie needs a tv series and this one proves it!

10. Total Dramarama (2018-ongoing)

Oh the pain to see the Total Drama series downgraded to this especially since the original Total Drama Island took a ton of risk for a show aimed at kids also how did we go from a series that spoofed reality shows to a bad Muppet Babies rip-off!! What's really sad is that creators have no desire to produce a new Total Drama series they just want to work on this. On the plus side it's still not as bad as other shows your going to see later on the list.

9. Super Noobs (2015-ongoing)

Other then the "how do you do fellow kids" title I wasn't expecting this show to wow me considering it was brought to you by the same dude that brought us Johnny Test aka the original most hated cartoon of all time I got the DA pics to back me up! The worst part is this show has a very interesting concept but it's ruined due to the bad humor and characters. The show is about a group of outcast middle schoolers who receive super powers in the form of power balls from aliens who then become their mentors and how they must save the world from an evil virus that threatens the world sounds like an awesome plot too bad it's not pushed further.

8. Almost Naked Animals (2011-2013)

Yes this is a children's cartoon not a title for an X rated film. All I can say about this show is why? Why would anyone greenlight a show about an animal nudist hotel not only is it disgusting but those character designs yikes!!!! They look so ugly looking no one wants to see something that looks this hideous!! Not to mention the humor is just as terrible as the art design.

7. Breadwinners (2014-2016)

You know when you feature twerking in your show you automatically fail. The best way I can describe this cartoon is it's just awful first off the two idiot main characters who I'm not going to refer by name since they are some of the most stupidest names for characters seriously SwaySway and Buhdeuce!? Anyway the show is about these two "ducks" I say ducks like that since they look nothing like ducks they look like frogs or aliens or something. Try to make your character if they are an animal try to look as close as possible as the species they're supposed to be so it will make it easier for you audience to identify them. Well they fly around in a rocket car or something I really don't care and deliver bread to stock-image ducks which brings me to another problem they can't even draw background characters they just go on Google find a duck photo and photoshop cartoon eyes and whatever on it how lazy a can you be!! Also I found out a long time ago your actually not supposed to give ducks bread yeah it can use malnutrition and illness to them so this cartoon is spreading the wrong message to kids.

6. Brickleberry (2012-2015)

You know why I despise most adult cartoons because most of them are either trying way to hard to be quote on quote "adult" with overuse of swearing, gore, shock humor, and sex jokes and guess what this show is full of this!! Not only is the animation similar to that to Family Guy it's just as disgusting and offensive!!! The show revolves around these park rangers and their everyday lives at their jobs and the characters aren't very good either they are pretty much all assholes, stereotypes of usual characters you see in adult animation, and your typical characters that are just there to offend you! In fact the little bear cub character is pretty much the shows answer to Brain from Family Guy with the personality of Cartman from South Park. Now I haven't seen this show in a long time but I just remember it wasn't a pleasant experience if you want to check it out just be warned it's not for the faint of heart. Also the creators of this show produced another show for Netflix that is just a carbon copy with cops instead of rangers and I though that Seth McFarlane was lazy when it came to plots!! It's called Paradise P.D. btw

5. Teen Titians Go! (2013-Ongoing)

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah you've heard it all before this show is garbage, a disgrace to DC comics, stupid etc. The animation community has tore this show apart so there really isn't much to say that already hasn't been said but I will say this I never intended to hate this show as much as I do in fact I was fine with it when it fist came out I mean the original Teen Titians cartoon from 2003 will always be better then this show in every possible way but I wasn't one of the fans to jump on the hate wagon when this was announced I mean I had nothing wrong with it just focusing on comedy if you remember correctly the original had eps that were just as silly and bizarre. The main reasons why this show is so high up on this list is for the following reasons the first is I've never seen a show like this disrespect a fan base this much it's like the creators have it out for the original fans and they get joy out of mocking them with all these pathetic critic call out eps they do it also shows that they can't take criticism at all!!!! Second is how the creators view their show and animation in general they literally came out in an interview and said the reason why they made the show so stupid is because it's for children you do know kids aren't stupid right guys they deserve shows that don't try to talk down to them!!!! But the main reason for my anger towards this show is how they made an episode awhile were the moral literally was that cartoons are only for kids and told the original fans to grow up!! Mainly the creators themselves have this warped mindset that I honestly wish would just die out that only children should be allowed to watch cartoons and that their show should be immune to all the hate since it's for kids so they use the "just for kids" excuse for their show being like it is. It's hard to believe they would even have a mindset like that when they are adults themselves making an animated cartoon show. I didn't mean to rant this long but I mainly hate everything this show stands for and sadly it's going onto to get 300+ eps. Personality I really think it's time for this show to officially Go not because I don't like it's mainly because it's showing signs it's on it's last legs and with that Sixth Titian thing they pulled this summer and repeating episode plots is starting to show that the writers are becoming burned out this show was never good but I think it's time it ended. There are tons of other reasons this show is bad but I rather not go into them this has gone on long enough already.

4. PPG 2016 (2016-Ongoing)

Well TTG isn't the worst reboot/spinoff Cartoon Network produced in this decade the honor has to go to this piece of trash Powerpuff Girls 2016!! Why was this made simple CN wanted more money so they made this show to sell toys yes that was the only purpose of this reboot to sell merchandise too bad the show sucked so hard that the target demo along with the fans of the original Powerpuff Girls hated it! There are tons of problems with this reboot that have already been explained such as god awful animation errors, bad writing, and let's not forget the memes those outdated memes. Not to mention they removed the character Ms. Bellum since the creator thought that having a beautiful, warm-hearted, motherly, intelligent and strong-willed woman on the show was offensive to the new generation! Not to mention they got rid of breast but they did allow the girls to twerk tho!!! Yes because having an intelligent good-looking woman with boobs is bad but kindergarteners doing a sexually explicate dance is fine!! Seriously I feel so bad for Craig McCracken it was bad enough he was screwed over by Disney but to have his show turned into this!!

3. The Problem Solverz (2011-2013)

If you want to know my opinion for the worst animated show Cartoon Network has ever made it would be this one! Not only is the show ugly to look at but it uses enough bright colors to make your eyes bleed. The show is about these detectives who solve problems in their home town too bad they cause 90% of the problems they need to solve. These characters are so nasty to look out we got this ugly fish-like man, some robot, and a big nosed hideous lipped Domo wannabe. It was cancelled from tv but ran it's final season on Netflix. I still feel pain for any child that had to sit though this.

2. Pickle and Peanut (2015-2018)

Ugh this show!!!! If you've never seen it you may guess this would be something on Adult Swims line up since they're more known for wired shows like this but no it's not from Adult Swim in fact you'll never believe who made this Disney!!! Yes Disney Television Animation produced this the very same company that bought us shows like Gravity Falls, Phineas and Ferb, Star Vs. and so on made this garbage. There are several problems with this show first off the animation remember when I said that Breadwinners was lazy for using stock-images as background characters well this is the same damn thing but in reverse they couldn't even animate a pickle and a gosh darn peanut this is a peeve I have with most modern cartoons if it's not for a joke then why use stock-images it just makes your show look lazy! Second the humor it sucks it's mainly is "trying" to be Regular Show since both characters are slackers and get into bizarre adventures. Also this show loves to show gross-out shots like the ones in Spongebob for example but unlike Spongebob these are not funny and just plain disgusting like how is this show fun for kids to watch I mean I can understand why kids love cartoons like TTG but I can't see any child liking a show like this!!! Finally we have to talk about the god awful theme song it's not even a theme song but a random robot voice listing off things adults think that children are into so pretty much they're trying way too hard to appeal to kids just like with PPG 2016. There really isn't much more to say about this show it's just awful and it's still hard to believe Disney had a part in making this.

Now it's time for the cartoon from the 2010's that I believe disserves the crown as the worst show from this decade. Out of all the shows I've seen this year none of them of completely disgusted me more then this one it pretty much has everything I despise in modern adult animation it makes Brickleberry look tame in comparison!!! It comes to us from our friends at Adult Swim may I present to you the cartoon that I consider the worst!

1. Mr. Pickles (2013-Ungoing)

I honestly don't know where to start on this one it's just god awful!! First it's got all the things I despise in adult animation shock humor, sex jokes, violence for the sake of it, and ugly character designs!! The show is about a family who owns a dog who is either the devil himself or one of his loyal followers and the dog does extremely messed up things to people stuff I rather not try to remember let's just say this show is MA for reason. If you have a faint heart please stay away from this show at all cost!!!

So there it is my opinions for the worst shows from this decade I hope you all enjoy it since I worked really hard on it.

I didn’t include Big Mouth or Paradise P.D. because I’ve never seen them but yeah I know they’re bad.

#top list #cartoons #my stuff #just my opinion #I'm going to make a best list soon #worst cartoons #ttg #cartoon network #nickolodeon #adult swim

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girl-in-the-library · 4 years

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I was talking with @blue-maelstrom and @pocket-pickett about Pokemon and the potential SwSh leaks and which versions we were going to get plus our starters (I think all three of us are going to get sword, I’m picking Sobble and both of them are picking Scorbunny, if I remember correctly.)

But then we started talking about how we felt about each of the generations of games, and I found it interesting the differences in our game preferences! They can tell you specifically their favorites, and while we didn’t talk much about gens 1-3 (which I know we all agree are very good, either because of nostalgia or actual quality) our favorites between 4-7 varied quite a bit.

I know we’re different people, so this shouldn’t actually surprise me, but it made me think about what my favorites in order would be, if we counted all the games in the main series (so that doesn’t include games like the Pokemon Dungeon series, Pokemon Rangers, Pokemon Stadiums, Coliseum, or Gale of Darkness, that weird one that had the Samurai, Trozei and Puzzle League and Hey You Pikachu and Pokemon Channel and Pokemon Let’s Go and Pokemon Rumble, and more that I can’t think of off the top of my head...so...yeah...)

And this is what I came up with:

This list includes games from Gen 1 to Gen 7...including the gen 1-3 remakes because Gen7 sort of made them back to be part of the mainline canon instead of just remakes: (1) Gen 2; Silver (reason: nostalgia) (2) Gen 3 remake Alpha Sapphire (3) Gen 1 original Yellow (4) Gen 3 original Sapphire (5) Gen 2 Crystal (6) Gen 7 Sun (7) Gen 5 Black 2 (8) Gen 6 X (9) Gen 1 remake FireRed (10) Gen 2 remake SoulSilver (11) Gen 5 Black (12) Gen 4 Pearl (13) Gen 3 Emerald NEVER PLAYED: Red, Blue, Gold, Ruby, Diamond, Platinum, White, White 2, Y, Omega Ruby, Moon, Ultra Moon, Ultra Sun

EXPLANATIONS AND ANALYSIS UNDER THE CUT

If not for nostalgia, Silver would probably fall down to number 3, and Alpha Sapphire and original Yellow would be pushed up to 1 and 2.

Also, this is actually reordered a bit from the version I sent to @pocket-pickett and @blue-maelstrom because I’ve thought about it more. Basically, I moved the FireRed and SoulSilver down further and moved up Sun, Black 2, and X and reordered those.

I never got to play Red and Blue because I didn’t have any money as a child (They came out when I was 6 years old, I didn’t get my first Gameboy until I was 8 years old, and my parents bought me Yellow version). The very first Pokemon game I bought for myself was Sapphire. So I missed the cultural milestone that was Red and Blue.

Up through Gen 3 I would get one version and my sister would get the other so we could trade Pokemon and find out the differences in story...so, while she also got Yellow as her first game, she got Gold and Ruby while I got Silver and Sapphire. I also got Crystal and Emerald because I was more into Pokemon than she was. FireRed came out and even though my sister didn’t want to play anymore, I definitely wanted the chance to play through the original game with the choice of the original starters, so it didn’t matter to me that she wasn’t playing with me (though I think at that point none of my friends were playing either...I didn’t know anybody who had LeafGreen, at least).

By the time Gen 4 came out, I was definitely the only one I knew who was still playing Pokemon and I was definitely buying the games for myself. Interestingly, this was also the only time I went against my gut (which told me to buy Diamond) and I bought Pearl. This was my least favorite generation. I honestly don’t remember anything about the plot at all, nor any of the gym leaders, your rival, or any other characters. I didn’t like the new evolutions for previous Pokemon that didn't evolve (like Tangela to Tangrowth, Nosepass to Probopass, Misdreaveous to Mismagius, Sneasel to Weaville...etc) or making baby-regular to baby-regular-third (like Elekid-Electabuzz to Electrovere, Magby-Magmar to Magmortar, and Magnemite-Magneton to Magnezone...etc) which is kinda weird because I like the new Alolan and Galarian forms because I think region divergent evolutions is incredibly cool...though I kinda don't like new Galarian evolutions to older lines (like Farfetch’d to Sirfetch’d or Zigzagoon-Linoone to Obstagoon?) I guess that falls into what I thought about before. The only thing I remember liking is Lucario, and that’s mostly because I honestly enjoyed the Pokemon movie Lucario and the Mystery of Mew.

Point is, if I had no one to play with I didn’t see the point in purchasing Diamond (which would be basically the same as Pearl except with exclusive Pokemon) or Platinum (because I didn’t like the game too much.) ...I guess I was also in my genwunner phase really hard at that point...so I’m not sure I would have liked any new Pokemon game...though I guess my genwunner phase also included gens 2 and at least part of 3, though I remember being dismissive towards at least some of gen 3. Either way, I didn’t like Gen 4, and I don’t to this day. I’m actually looking forward to the remakes whenever those come out so I can revisit the plot and the Pokemon with fresh eyes, now that I’m no longer a genwunner and don’t care whether or not I have friends who play.

SoulSilver came out on Pi Day my senior year in high school and by then, Pokemon was cool again (I was considered a Pokemon Master by the other kids in my grade, even though I had friends who were far better players than I. I was just well known for my continued love of Pokemon. I had people asking me advice when they all brought their gameboy colors and Pokemon yellow games into French class.) My friends and I all went to the mall to get either SoulSilver or HeartGold (yay! I had people to trade with again!) and then we went to my friend Maggie’s house, ate a bunch of pie, watched Pokemon the abridged series for one or two episodes, and played the original Pokemon monopoly before going back to our own houses to begin playing our new games. It’s one of my best memories of high school. SoulSilver was a nice trip down memory lane, and I loved it a lot because it was a remake of my favorite game and for the first time since Yellow, your Pokemon could follow behind you! But honestly? If my memory serves it was nothing special.

For Gen 5 I was in college and had new friends who played Pokemon. We made our way to the Prudential Center, which still had a Gamestop when Pokemon Black and White came out. I was in casual Ash Ketchum cosplay (No binder or wig, just the hat and gloves and Ash’s shirts and jeans. My hair was in a ponytail pulled through the back of the cap. I think I might have carried my Pokedex in my pocket too. RIP to that Pokedex...I may buy another one someday because it was my favorite prop.) We all bought either Black, White, or both and went to California Pizza Kitchen for lunch. I remember something about one of my friend’s being another’s “dipping sauce bitch” and there is definitely a picture of it on Facebook.

With regards to the actual game, and to Black 2 when that came out, I LOVED Team Plasma, even though I can never remember they are called Team Plasma, and N...though I sort of wish that the plot was related to an actual team who felt that Pokemon fighting was wrong (like N did for most of the game) and not that sort of evil puppetry...but I did also like the plot as it was. I also remember really liking some of the stuff they did with the graphics at the time. I don’t remember anything at all about any of the gym leaders or other characters. I also don’t remember the point of Black Kyurem and White Kyurem. I always think I remember less of Black/White than I do. So that was actually a generation I liked...though unless I think about what happened in it, my instinct is that it’s forgettable.

Pokemon X and Y are similar - it is a generation I definitely liked but my instinct is that it was forgettable. Yet again, I remember nothing about the gym leaders or the characters except Team Flare Red Hair Guy and Professor Friendo who totally trusted Team Flare Red Hair Guy and was like, “Haha - you joker, you’re hilarious” when Team Flare Red Hair Guy said “I’m going to destroy the entire fucking world.” I also remember going WAY TOO FAST on roller skates, being excited that you could finally customize your trainer, the fact that it was PokeFrance, and that you could give your Furfrou a haircut. I also remember the “It’s been 3000 years” thing that turned into a meme. Again, I loved this generation.

I didn’t get White, White 2 or Y for similar reasons that I never got Gold, Ruby, or Diamond - they were the Other Game, and I didn’t feel, plot-wise, the need to get essentially the same game save minor differences twice for completion’s sake.

ORAS is my absolute favorite game in the main series so far. It’s a remake of what I think is the best generation without looking through nostalgia goggles, the graphics are the best up to this point, it’s fun to revisit the whole Team Aqua - Team Magma thing that was so different from the other one-team-taking-over-the-world thing the other games had, as well as revisiting some fun features like Dive that never really came up again (I liked Dive...I don’t know if anyone else did lol). It brought back contests, which I always thought were a lot of fun, and SECRET BASES! But then...but then! The Delta Episode. The Delta Episode was STUNNING and began to bring a coherency to the entire Pokemon franchise that really hadn’t been there before. And my heart absolutely SOARED. Brilliant.

(I didn’t get Omega Ruby for, again, the same reasons as the other “Other Games”)

Then came Sun and Moon. I LOVED Sun! It had beautiful graphics, they were trying out new things (even if I didn’t think the trials really worked out gameplay wise, I was glad they tried!) The characters were amazing! I loved Hau and Lillie. Gladion was my precious emo child oh my goodness. Lusamine is amazingly crazy. Team Skull was a brilliant Team-Rocket-Wannabe made of millenials who actually just wanted a place to fit in. The designs of all the characters were incredible. I loved the idea of Alolan forms and divergent Pokemon evolution. The only thing was that there are now so many Pokemon I can’t even recognize them all. Through X and Y, even if I can’t name all the Pokemon, I can recognize them all if you show my a picture. That is...not true of all the ones in Sun and Moon. I also never really understood why they differentiated Ultra Beasts by calling them “Ultra Beasts” instead of just like...Pokemon from other dimensions? Because wasn’t, technically, Giratina also from another dimension? But that leads me to the fact that I adored that the alternate dimensions bit from the Delta Episode was further expanded on. Just <3 <3 <3.

I never played Moon (or, I suppose, Ultra Moon), again, as the “Other Game” reason...but the only reason I never played Ultra Sun was...I didn’t have the money to buy it. I’m a Real Adult now...but I’m also a Real Adult with a severe problem handling money appropriately and a mental illness that keeps me from holding down a job that allows me to actually buy little things like video games...it’s easier to justify spending money I don’t have on things like clothes or going out to eat...or even little things like a keychain because, hey, I need clothes and food, and that keychain is only $6...and a new video game is AT LEAST $60...and $60 is a lot. Basically....I’m bad at money and don’t have any to spend anyway.

That’s why I’m saving up for SwSh...I think I’ll probably get Sword because that’s what my gut is telling me. I hope that, if my sister (who is finally back into Pokemon!!!) gets one, she’ll get Shield. Though if she really wants Sword, I am probably going to get Shield just so we have opposite games again. Unlike Pearl and Diamond, where my gut told me to get Diamond but I got Pearl...my gut feeling for Sword versus Shield isn’t as strong as that. It’s a preference, not a deep sort of...something.

In every other generation, I had my head and my gut, which were usually aligned, telling me which version to get. (Aligned: Silver, Sapphire, FireRed, SoulSilver, Black, Black 2, X, Omega Sapphire. Unaligned: Diamond (gut) vs Pearl (head); Sun (gut) vs Moon (head). Pearl purchased, head over gut, Game disliked. Sun purchased, gut over head, Game liked.) I dunno if it means anything, but it’s been a pattern. For SwSh, my head and guy are aligned again, but they’re saying “I’d prefer Sword, but Shield is good too.” So I don’t know how to take that.

At the end of the day, and the end of this long analysis of the machinations of my mind with regards to Pokemon, I only have two things to say: (1) Pokemon is good and I love it and (2) I really want a Pokemon Coliseum/XD: Gale of Darkness reboot.

#pokemon #rambling about pokemon #opinions #pokemon opinions #oh the inanity!

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rain-drop-sky · 6 years

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As a prompt could Sid and Geno do a reality show

It’s a brand new reality/celebrity/travel/game show mashup where contestants are assigned into random pairs and are forced to learn and work together as a team over the course of 3 weeks while completing various tasks around the world, all while being filmed 24/7. All the contestants are celebrities of some sort and they’re each competing for a 3 million dollar prize to go to a charity of their choice.

Geno is the beloved captain of the two time Stanley Cup Champions Pittsburgh Penguins. He has smashed hockey records left and right and together with his close friend Alexander Ovechkin, led Russia to gold at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Sid first started out as a self-taught cooking channel on Youtube and endeared himself to the public with his earnest instructions and series on cooking with a tight budget and limited equipment. His dream was to go to culinary school and when his fans found out, they donated money to help with his tuition costs. Combined with his ad revenue and sponsorship deals, he’s able to attend and graduates at the top of his class from the International Culinary Centre. He now owns and runs a Michelin Star farm-to-table restaurant located in NYC

As a teaser, the show releases snippets of each celebrity’s audition tape to join the show. Some are the standard polite “Hi, my name is ___ and I’m signing up to raise money for ____.” staged puff pieces with stylish clothing, bright natural light, and minimalist sets. Some, usually younger indie celebrities, film their audition tapes while doing something extreme. One teenaged singer filmed himself shrieking his audition lines while bungee jumping.

But there are two that go viral. The first is of Evgeni Malkin laughing as he squirms on a barstool wearing a bright Pens jersey. “Why I need do this, you already bought me dinner yesterday and I say yes Ilya,” Geno says to someone off-camera. A muffled voice tells Geno exasperatedly to just do the intro, they need it for the show. Geno sighs dramatically and looks to the camera. “Hi, my name is Geno Malkin. I play a little hockey. My friend run this show and is very sad–” “Hey!” an outraged voice cuts in while sounds of laughter can be heard off-camera. “–very sad, so he beg and promise me fancy dinner if I join the team. This isn’t an audition Ilya if I’m guaranteed a spot! Fake!” Geno shouts, sticking his tongue out cheekily. He’s still laughing as he’s pelted with wadded up paper and the camera cuts off as a short dark haired man walks into the frame, “screw you Zhenya, this is my show and you will stop being a pest–” The second looks like a real tv show trailer - there are elegant shots of of New York City and the interior of a rustic restaurant along sharp crisp shots of cooking and food prep. Interspersed are candid clips of a smiling man. “My name is Sidney Crosby.” “I’m the owner-chef of Alexandre here in New York City.” “Supporting youth outreach programs and homeless youth shelters is very important to me.” The official audition tape ends with a shot of Sidney’s hand sliding a beautiful entree into frame but a clip is attached to end where a much more rumpled looking Sidney Crosby is in the kitchen and frowning at the camera as he wipes his hands with a dish towel. “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember signing up for a reality tv show. Are you sure you have the right person?” A hand holds out an ipad and he watches the tape shown earlier. “Wait, I remember this shot. And this one. Wait, where’s Tanger?” He twists around. “Tanger? TANGER. DID YOU SIGN ME UP FOR REALITY TV YOU *BEEP*” He looks over his shoulder apologetically. “Sorry, kitchens don’t really have clean language. KRISTOPHER.” The camera cuts to a new scene where a pretty man in chef whites and long shiny hair gives a very Gallic shrug. “I have a talent for editing along with cooking I suppose.” He smiles slyly. “You’re dying to get him on though aren’t you?”

Geno and Sid are paired up and awkwardly introduce themselves to each other. Sid hasn’t really followed any sports aside from his sister’s gymnastic meets since he quit hockey as a kid after having his leg broken twice by other vengeful kids in the local leagues. Geno doesn’t care or have much opinion on food aside that Russian food is best and steak is mandatory before games. He’s confused and wonders how on earth Sid runs a farm with a fully functioning restaurant in the middle of Manhattan until Sid explains what farm-to-table means. “I’m no clotheshorse like you but even I know Eurotrash is never in style and Jesus, he was wearing a shirt made up of 3 different shirts poorly stitched together,” Sid hisses into the phone to Tanger. “Does it make him or me look more like an ass when he can’t keep up with me during physical activities?” Geno muses to Sasha. “He’s a chef, I highly doubt he walks more than a couple kilometres a day.”

All the show pairings are a bit lopsided to be fair. Some pairs start off being overly polite and not wanting to step on any toes while some are instantaneously comfortable and ooze charisma. Some fail at everything spectacularly, aiming for comedic relief, and even a few agree to be the (comparatively mild) villains that all reality shows need for ratings. Sid and Geno start off as one of the polite teams until Geno forgets himself and screams “DRIVE FASTER SID, WHAT ARE YOU, BLIND GRANDPA? DON’T LET *BEEP* TONY AND ELEANOR BEAT US *BEEP*” while Sid first drives a Zamboni in the relay race. “WHO’S A SLOW *BEEP* NOW, YOU’RE PAID TO BE FAST. SOME *BEEP BEEP* HOME ADVANTAGE YOU’RE PROVING TO BE” Sid yells back when Geno tries to gun it on his turn. “I’m so happy you competitive too,” Geno says as afterwards when they’re the first and only team to make it onto a flight to Alaska. “I’m a chef, we’re all hypercompetitive control freaks.” Sid replies. The ice is broken from then on. “I’m impress with how much swear,” Geno comments as they’re setting up a tent in Costa Rica. “Have you never seen a cooking show?” Sid snorts. “We’re not PG at all. There’s a reason why studios don’t do live shows in real kitchens.” He looks directly into the camera and grins sunnily. “*Beep beep beep* and *beep beeeep* you *beeeeeeeep*” Geno looks at him with admiration. “Need to use that on team,” he declares.

Sid and Geno quickly become fan favourites. The show has some pacing issues and a few pairs never end up with any appealing chemistry but Sid and Geno make the show rocket to the top of viewership ratings and become meme lords on their own. “No Geno, don’t pet!” “But it’s cute!” becomes one of the show’s taglines. The internet delights in making memes and gifs of Geno cradling any kind of animal declaring “It’s cute so I pet!” while Sid facepalms to the side. Viewers comment online how much chemistry the two have and how adorable they are together. Fans lose their mind when Geno cries on camera when they get to meet real emperor penguins. “I’m sorry Ilya for make fun of you,” he sniffles as he carefully pets a patient penguin. “You best friend. Best.”

They unfortunately don’t win and exit the show as the third to last team. They lost their original 4 hour lead due to a freak storm that grounded all flights from their terminal. Fans are devastated and the producers try to cushion the blow by including an extra clip of Geno and Sid parting ways before returning to their regular lives. “Keep in touch, okay Sid? Have to come watch and cheer on Pens when we come crush Rangers at Madison Square Gardens.” Geno says seriously as he holds onto Sid’s shoulders. “I’ll feed you steak before your games,” Sid promises. They hug tightly and the episode ends there before they step apart.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? Ask various prominent news outlets. Accounts are set up to track where Sid and Geno are spotted and whether or not they’re still in touch. Nothing seems to go on between the two of them although Geno puts out a press release after pledging 3 million dollars to support research at Children’s Hospital of UPMC and assisting families of sick children. When asked, he shrugs and answers “joined show to raise money for hospital. Didn’t win but I’m still hockey player. Pittsburgh always support me so I’m want to give back.” Sid is featured in New York Times when he does a feature on a new week-long limited menu that will be featured at Alexandre’s come November. “All profits will be donated and split between Big Brothers Big Sisters and local homeless youth shelters,” Sid states. “Although I didn’t win, I still want to donate and support youth in our city.” Fans are disappointed when it appears the “It’s Cute!” ship has sunk until a picture appears on Geno’s instagram account. Best Friends )))) is the caption under a shadowed picture of Geno and Sid grinning in Moscow. An investigative frenzy launches but it turns out that Geno did a late post and Sid is long gone from Russia. There’s a buzz night of the first Rangers/Pens game in New York and dedicated fans capture Evgeni Malkin stepping into Alexandre’s and getting the pre-game steak he was promised. He leads the Pens to a 5-1 victory while Sid watches by the glass, netting himself a natural hat trick along the way.

Two years later, Sid announces he’ll be opening a new restaurant, Sophia, in Pittsburgh. When asked, he responds that his restaurants are named after his sous-chef and business partner Kris Letang’s children. When further pressed, he smiles and says he has friends in Pittsburgh who made a convincing case for opening his new restaurant here. No official comments are made though Geno and the rest of the Pens are seen often frequenting Sophia and Sid can always be spotted at home games and Pens events. Nine months later, an eagle-eyed fan spots and tweets a picture of a silver band topped with a sizeable diamond glittering on Sid’s left hand as he cheers at Geno’s game winning overtime goal.

Send me an anonymous (or not) summary of the fic you wish I would write starting off with ‘I wish you would write a fic where…’. (maybe I will write a tidbit)

#ask rain-drop-sky #sid/geno #sidney crosby/evgeni malkin #hockey rpf #reality tv!au #prompt fill #pittsburgh penguins #my writing #krynny

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lady-proudmoore · 6 years

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You knew this was coming Shippy Question: Jaina/Varian Choose your favorite

Meme: Shippy Questions (accepting)

What Happened to Jaina on the Broken Shore & Why She Wasn’t Able to Save Varian

29-one headcanon about this OTP that breaks your heart.

// You had asked me once before what my theory was on why Jaina disappeared at the Broken Shore. I wanted to write it as a story but I have unfortunately not yet been able to do so, nor am I sure I ever will at this point. Below is the synopsis of my story - sorry for the rough edit -let me know if something doesn’t make sense//

Jaina arrives at the Tomb of Sargeras with Varian, Genn, the High Tinker and so many Alliance champions. They fight as best they can and are holding their own against the waves of demons Gul’dan is sending their way. They could make it to Gul’dan and end this here, she thinks. There is a pause in the battle, and as Gul’dan taunts them, vast amounts of demons suddenly materialize before them. It is overwhelming. In the back of her mind she knows it. They should retreat - save as many lives as they can at this point.

“……damn.”

She looks to Varian - he’s rallying all to fight. Of course she will stay. For Azeroth. For the Alliance. For Varian.

She’s fighting, helping tactically in the best way she knows how. She uses her frost magic to freeze and slow the largest & most dangerous demons, decreasing their threat and allowing champions more time to take them out. Sylvana’s rangers are still handling the demons in the sky. She continues to focus on ground threats.

A horn bellows in the air. She’s still casting, but pauses at the sound and looks up just in time to see Sylvanas’ archers leave their posts.

“She wouldn’t……

“No, of course she would!” Jaina seethes.

Her anger overcomes her focus. She wasn’t paying attention. A fel meteor blast hits too close and it flings her further back along the shoreline like a rag doll. She loses consciousness. Everyone is busy trying not to die. Nobody catches this or if they do, unfortunately they aren’t able to get to her because everyone is fighting *something*.

In an odd sort of plot line convenience luck for her, in her current position on the shore, some of the demons have fallen and died in front of her unconscious body, obscuring her.

She regains consciousness - and the pain hits immediately. She’d known this before. She felt the sand under her hands, the ache through her entire body, blood pounding in her ears, sharp, intense throbbing in her head. Her vision was blurry and she could barely move. Her flight instinct held at bay only by the shortcomings of her physical body. Theramore. It was Theramore again.

No, wait, this was different. Her awareness starts to push through to the forefront of her mind, brushing aside the fear and raw emotion. She tries to process. She looks to the side sees the shoreline, then looks to her other side and notices the bodies of demons. In the sky, she sees their airship - it looks damaged. Where is the green smoke coming from? Cautious and slow, her head still throbbing, she lifts herself up enough to see a clearly damaged, gigantic fel golem laying on the shore, directly under the airship. She grows more confused and anxious.

“What happened?”

Her mind races, trying to put the story behind the scene together. She frantically looks around for her staff. She finds it close by and thinks she’s able to get to it. The ringing in her ears is fading, and she catches voices in the distance - yelling, and the harsh voice of what she thinks is Gul’dan. She painfully and cautiously lifts herself up enough to glance over the body of the large demon obscuring her view.

Varian. No. Surely it’s not. He’s on the ship. Of course he’s on the ship.

No.

Just as Jaina’s mind processes this scenario enough for her to start to move in desperation, in some vain attempt to try and help - the King’s body contorts, cracks, and shatters.

Pain.

There was no sound. It was easy not to scream. There was nothing left within her to make such a sound as to express such sorrow. Only silence. It was deafening.

Hollow.

She collapses behind the demon’s body again and watches the airship grow smaller in the distance. She cares not if the Legion finds her. She wills it.

“Let them come.”

She waits. Nothing.

No. She smiles. Why would something come to release her from this pain that she feels. She deserves it. She’d failed to maintain her focus, no better than an apprentice and was caught off guard. And now in her torment she must live with the fact that her failures had once again helped death take from their world yet another in her life whom she loved very much. And she would have to face both herself and his son with that knowledge. Anduin.

Agony. Her chest lifts and she opens her mouth to scream -

Silence.

She lays there coming to terms with the fact that cosmic forces above her understanding had yet again deemed her life somehow more valuable than one loved by so many more. She wonders why.

Finally, she moves. Her body aching, she crawls to her staff and still half collapsed on the ground, digs deep within to draw forth what mana left within her and teleports herself to her study in Dalaran. Upon catching the familiar smell of books and magic in the air, she collapses and sobs.

And when her body has no more tears to shed, her sorrow turns to hate, for if Sylvanas had kept her people there, covering their flank - Jaina would not have lost focus and she would have been better able to help Varian and their people. She had failed, and the Horde had helped her.

And in her sorrow, she raged at both.

#jaina proudmoore #jaina x varian #💕 Never Temper Your Passion 💕 (Fluffy February)#varian wrynn #jthorsten #// queued //

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sylvansoldier-a · 3 years

Text

Get to know the mun! Repost, don’t reblog.

(PEN)NAME : Dani, Leafmun (a holdover from back when Tess was an Epic oc)

PRONOUNS : She/her

ZODIAC SIGN : Pisces

TAKEN OR SINGLE : Seeing someone

——— THREE FACTS ! ♡

I love building computers! I learned by watching a lot of youtube videos, and to date, I’ve built two computers for myself, one for my parents, one for a friend, and co-built one with my younger sister on the other side of the country, and I’m building another for a friend next week. I love the control that assembling my own machine gives me, and I like researching upgrades and making improvements. It’s been difficult to get ahold of some parts because of the pandemic and the jump in demand for graphics cards, but with some patience and a few early mornings driving an hour and standing in line at the closest computer part store, I’ve snagged some great parts.

I’m a big fan of D&D, despite never having grown up with it. Like a lot of new players, my introduction to D&D and tabletop games in general was Critical Role. I recently completed a 3 year long campaign (made longer by the rona), and I’ve played a half-orc monk, a tiefling cleric, a halfling rogue, an aarakocra barbarian, a dragonborn ranger, a kobold wizard, an elf sorcerer, and a dwarf druid. Some of those were oneshots, but the majority are from ongoing games in various states of hiatus.

An extension of the last fact—I love to learn new things. In the last few years, I’ve taught myself how to stream; I’ve learned about audio and lighting equipment; I’ve studied HTML, CSS, and Javascript; and soon, I’m going to try my hand at mini painting. If something is simple enough that I can learn how to do something on my own, I’ll do it. I’ve replaced my own car filters and restrung a set of blinds for my window, rather than paying for convenience. I always like to try to do something on my own before asking someone else to do it for me.

——— EXPERIENCE ! ♡

I’ve been roleplaying in some form or another since the days of the Neopets chat boards—back when you had to get a parent to sign a permission form to allow you to interact with other users if you were under 18, I believe. I’ve been writing here since 2013, and Tess is my one and only muse. I’ve dabbled with other characters, but they fizzled out before they even got off the ground.

Tess used to be an original character from the animated movie Epic. I really loved the movie, and when I found a few roleplayers here on tumblr, it kind of kicked the door open to the whole rpc. I’ve made truly incredible friends that have kept in touch daily for the last 8 years, and some of us have even met in person. While I still love the movie for all its quirks, the fandom was never particularly large and it only shrunk as time went on. Plus, I found the story a bit limiting in places, and I liked the idea of expanding Tess’ world and interactions with other muses and settings. She’s due for a massive blog overhaul and possibly a purge. Eight years is a lot of baggage and a lot of growth.

——— MUSE PREFERENCE ! ♡

Tess is the kind of character I liked to read about when I was younger. I prefer to write and play women, simply because I feel like I can draw from so many of my own experiences and feelings. I know what it’s like to be hungry to prove yourself and to be made to doubt yourself, despite knowing well your own capabilities. I know what it’s like to be frustrated with the indifference and casual cruelty in the world and to want better. I like writing characters who play a supporting role, rather than seeking out the limelight—I’ve always loved those stories.

——— FLUFF / ANGST / SMUT ! ♡

FLUFF / ANGST : I’m of the opinion that a good will have a bit of both. Too much of one or the other can get boring really quickly. Don’t get me wrong—I love writing softness and flirting as much as I love writing gut wrenching pain and despair. Nothing is better than setting up a few characters with differing goals and worldviews and letting them bounce off each other, complete with all the character exploration and conflict that brings. I think I tend to write more fluff than angst, but I’m open to both. Writing isn’t my strongest mode of expression, but I always want to be better than I was when I started.

SMUT :

For someone under the ace umbrella, I actually really enjoy writing smut. I definitely think my feelings on sex come through in Tess’ attitude—trust is paramount and relationships are work. While she’s more comfortable with physical relationships, she has difficulty really putting her faith in someone and making herself vulnerable. Not to say she’s impervious to being manipulated—it’s happened before and it’ll happen again. She’s just very wary of getting in too deep with anyone she thinks is unlikely to stick around, erring on the side of self-deprecation and cynicism when it comes to relationships.

PLOT / MEMES :

I am not historically great at plotting, but I genuinely want to get better. It’s just really difficult to do with a new partner right off the bat. I’m always really nervous about annoying anyone and tend to read too deep what I think someone’s responses might mean, especially when I really admire someone’s writing and I’m really excited to work with them. Memes are a fantastic icebreaker. When I first start to follow someone, I will take every opportunity to send in some memes to get a feel for their character and for the mun, themselves. It doesn’t always work out, as some muns don’t like replying to memes from new folks, and honestly? That’s a real bummer. I’m not the most confident person, and if I run into a mun with a lot of walls and barriers to entry, I tend to bounce off and give up.

My discord is open to mutuals, and I’m always open to IMs, even from non-mutuals or new followers who just want to ask questions. (I know that Tess’ blog is a bit of a mess, and it’s not really well laid out for anyone looking for a good, quick summary of her character.)

Tagged by: @ofdeathandfear

Tagging: Anyone! Seriously. I would tag folks, but I think everyone in my orbit has done some version of this. But if you haven’t—yes, I mean you—then steal this and go do it.

#the mundane speaks : 「 ooc 」

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proteus-no · 3 years

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What exactly is going on with supernatural? I’m outside the fandom, but it sounds real exciting... whatever is happening...

brooooo...... SO MUCH is happening right now, so here’s a not quick run down cause I ended up rambling, have fun anon:

- Castiel was introduce 4x01, and from literally the day after, the fandom has been shipping him and Dean together. Cas was planned to be killed off fairly early on, but the fans loved him (and his dynamic/relationship with Dean) so much that the writers kept him around

- Originally a female angel (who Dean had sex with) was supposed to be his guardian angel. But the fans....

- And so begins a long and torrid history of Destiel, which personally I have been shipping for 10-11 years, and so have many other fans. There were too many things that added up, like every Cas did, he did for Dean. Like.... literally everything. And somewhere along the way, Misha (Castiel’s actor) started playing Cas like he was in love/pining

- People labeled Jensen as homophobic because he, personally, didn’t headcanon Dean as bisexual (even though most fans did), and got testy and upset with Destiel because fans would harass him over it, which is understandable

- But then season 15 happens

- The writers focused a LOT on Dean and Cas’ (platonic) relationship. And fans were getting hype. They loved it. They were acting like an old married couple and we were living.

- And in 15x10, Dean is high on anesthetics from getting dental surgery, and has a bit where he’s dancing in black and white, and it’s very much a Hayes code thing. And he briefly dances with a lamp (this is where the lamp memes come from). Light fixtures, light in general, and lamps have always been a symbol/stand in for Cas, so every goes nuts

- Also in 15x17, God says that in every other universe, Castiel never disobeys. He saved Dean from hell, then did what he was told. But this universe’s Castiel had a “crack in his chasis” and was the only one who disoeyed. Who rebelled. And now he was outside God’s plan

- And God (Chuck) has always been a stand in for the writers. So Castiel, who was so loved by the fans that he was kept on the show and completely changed their plans, is also outside the writers hands. We all just went 👀 👀 👀

- And then, on November 5th, 2020, 15x18 airs and the internet loses its collective shit. It doesn’t matter if you were a die hard fan, lost interest along the way,never watched it but was interested, or never had any interest at all, EVERYONE was talking about this episode.

- Because, my dear anon, Castiel explicitly confesses his gay, homosexual love for Dean.

- Sadly, Death wanted Dean dead for trying to kill her. And there was this entity called the Empty (which everyone calls Turbo Hell) that also wanted Death dead. But the thing is, is that Cas made a deal with the Empty to save his adopted son, Jack, who was trapped there. Jack would get out, but the moment Cas experienced true happiness, the Empty would take Cas.

- So Cas doesn’t want Dean to die. So he starts talking about how Dean is a good person, an amazing man. And fans were like... oh? And he continues, talking about how everything Dean has done, he has done for love, for his love of Sam and Jack, and how he loved the world and wanted to save it. And we’re like Oh????????? and then he says Dean changed him, and that he LOVES Dean. And then we lost out collective shit, and he pushes Dean away and gets eaten by the Empty.

- Everyone started calling Dean and Jensen homophobic because Dean wasn’t reacting much but like???? Home boy was being chased by and about to be killed by Death, and Cas starts saying stuff that no one has ever said to him before (see, Dean hates himself and thinks he corrupts everything he touches), and THEN his best friend (who he thought was straight, amongst other things but I’ll touch on that later) confesses he loves him before promptly dying.

- But the thing is, he was dying from experiencing true happiness, and his happiness was just confessing, not even being reciprocated, which is a huge oof.

- Also everyone not in the fandom conveniently ignores how Dean broke down crying on the floor immediately afterwards.

- But then the behinds the scenes information comes out and OH BOY.

- As it turns out, the actors joined the writers for writing and planning out season 15, and you want to know what was the first thing they wrote for this season?

- Thats right, you guessed it, Cas’ love confession. So they wrote the entire season with he knowledge that Cas is hopelessly in love with, and always has been, in love with Dean.

- I cannot stress this enough, but Cas has always been in love with Dean.

- And in the scene, when Cas pushes Dean away, he leaves a bloody handprint on the location that Cas had branded him when he dragged him up from hell.

- You want to know who gave that suggestion?

- JENSEN “HOMOPHOBIC” ACKLES

- BUT WAIT IT GETS EVEN BETTER

- BECAUSE JENSEN IN A CON SAID THAT HES BEEN PLAYING DEAN, SINCE HE MET CAS, WONDERING IF CAS EVEN FELT LOVE LIKE HUMANS SINCE HE’S A CELESTIAL BEING

- WHICH MEANS DEAN’S BEEN WONDERING IF CAS COULD EVEN LOVE HIM

- AHHHHHH

- THE JACKLES LONGCON FOLKS

- But then the next episode airs, and Dean is in a forward spiral, blacking out drunk. Everythings bad, but Cas and his confession arent really brought up and we’re like?????? ?????

- But the main story, really everything but Cas, gets resolved at the end of the episode.

- But also, the show runners have keeping Misha’s location during filming a secret. So we have no idea if he’s even in the finale. So everyone's obviously going to watch, and hope, that Cas comes back and Dean can finally reciprocate.

- But then the finale airs, and at first we were hopeful. Dean’s room is full of lamps, and Cas’ coat can be seen in the background. We also see an application as a mechanic on his desk. And we’re so hopeful, that Dean is moving on from the hunting life. He’s going to have an actual life

- But then Dean dies, from a fucking juggalo vampire, impaled on a rusty nail (actually its bent rebar, but rusty nail is funnier). During a simple hunt. And Dean doesn't want to be saved, which goes against ALL OF HIS CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND HIS ARC FROM NOT ONLY THIS SEASON, BUT THE PAST 5 YEARS

- DEAN, WHO IS CALLED A KILLER BY GOD AND SAYS “YOU SEE, THAT’S NOT ME” BECAUSE CAS SAID HE WAS A GOOD PERSON WHO LOVES SO MUCH

- JUST.... DIES.......

- And on top of that, Sam, who’s arc the ENTIRE SHOW has been moving past his toxic co-dependency from his brother and finding his own life just..... doesn't move on...... he spends literally the rest of his life grieving over his brother. Naming his kid after him, the whole shebang.

- And there was this awful “old Sam” who was in really bad make-up and a silver party city wig. it looked so bad.

- And Dean? Up in Heaven? Just drives his car around. Like, that’s it. He learns from Bobby that Cas is out of Turbo Hell and is fixing up heaven with their new God (Jack, which also goes against Castiel’s arc that he isn’t God’s little soldier, he’s his own person, he’s outside God’s plan. And yeah, Jack is God now, and he’s still Cas’ adopted son, but the point still stands that he’s God’s soldier again) and just continues driving until Sam finally dies and comes to heaven.

- Oh and not to mention that Sam’s love interest for the past couple of seasons (Eileen, a deaf woman) is just never mentioned again, even though she was shown to be brought back, and Sam was grief stricken when God snapped everyone out of existence. No, Sam gets a blurry face woman as wife instead, and Eileen is never heard from again.

- So basically the writer taunted us with Cas to get us to watch the finale because they knew we wouldn’t watch if Cas wasn’t in it.

- So even though the show has ended, more news comes out every day. Like, for example, the heavy focus on Sam in finale and lack of acknowledging the homosexual declaration of love was because they wanted to keep the Sam girls and cis white heterosexual audience pleased so they would follow over to CW’s new show, a Walker Texas Ranger reboot staring Jared Padalecki (Sam’s actor)

- It was also brought up that even pre-covid, the show runners didn’t even bother to ask past characters to come on the show for the finale, even though they said they wanted to have a big scene with all of Sam and Dean’s found family showing up in heaven (including the band Kansas, and I find the implication that the Winchester’s killed them is hilarious) but yeah. They never even asked.

- Jensen also asked a crew member to record the scene on his phone while they were filming, so it has all the cut content. And like Jensen, release the tapes.

- Misha also made a tweet linking an article about how to tell if nuts are rancid, highlighting that it leaves a bad taste in your mouth

- There’s a lot of other stuff that happened, but I’m forgetting

- But RECENTLY both the latin America and indian dub of 15x18 was released and more information came out.

- For example, Dean was originally supposed to scream Cas’ name that it could be heard from blocks away.

- But the BIG news is that, okay in the American version, Dean says “Do do this, Cas” as in, don’t sacrifice yourself. But the lips movements never really lined up.

- However, in the LA version, Dean says “y yo a ti, Cas” which translates to “And I you, Cas”, and in the Indian version, it’s translated to “I’m yours, Cas.”

- AND HOLY SHIT

- DEAN ACTUALLY CONFESSES HE LOVES HIM BACK

- AND JENSEN’S LIP MOVESMENTS WOULD LINE UP MORE WITH “I’M YOURS” OR “AND I YOU” THAN “DON’T DO THIS”

- So basically Destiel is not only canon, but RECIPROCATED, but like, only in Spanish, but hey, we’ll take what we can get.

- AND THEN Misha releases a video that’s summed up to “It was a rogue translator, blah blah blah” and just seemed like CW was holding a gun to his head to do damage control

- Everyone was pissed for like .2 seconds but then Misha immediately apologizes and goes to his replies and has been talking with fans about why they’re upset, and just genuinely just learning about the strife and anger people are feeling. It’s big “Dad trying to understand his kid’s problems at school” vibes.

- And Jensen has been radio silent the entire time even though it’s obvious CW has been trying to get their actors to quell the fans, and honestly he stan a king.

And that’s what you missed, pretty much. But new information is coming out every day, so periodically send asks and I’ll update you on this shitshow, anon

#supernatural #spn #destiel #dean winchester #castiel #jensen ackles #misha collins #Anonymous #spn anon

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gethealthy18-blog · 4 years

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349: How to Be Your Best in High Stress Situations With Former Army Ranger and CIA Agent Jeff Banman

New Post has been published on http://healingawerness.com/news/349-how-to-be-your-best-in-high-stress-situations-with-former-army-ranger-and-cia-agent-jeff-banman/

349: How to Be Your Best in High Stress Situations With Former Army Ranger and CIA Agent Jeff Banman

Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.

This episode is sponsored by Joovv Red Light Therapy, a natural red light therapy in your very own home. We may not think of light when we think of essential nutrients that our body needs, but light is absolutely necessary for the body. This is the reason I go outside as soon as possible after waking up in the morning, and the reason I spend time in front of my Joovv. Light is energy and our bodies need light in certain forms in order to sustain healthy cellular function. Red light in particular, especially in certain wavelengths, has very specific benefits for hair, skin, and cellular energy. I like Joovv because they are third-party tested for safety and performance and use a Patented modular design which allows you easily treat your whole body in under 20 minute and lets you use anything from a small system to a larger system that you would find in a Chiropractors office. Joovv uses clinically proven wavelengths of light that provide energy to the body. They have Bundle pricing discounts which allow you to save more money when purchasing larger setups. Get free shipping at joovv.com/wellnessmama and use code WELLNESSMAMA for a free gift!

This podcast is brought to you by Wellnesse, a new company I co-founded to bring the best personal care products from my family to yours. Our whitening toothpaste is based on my DIY formula that I have been making and perfecting for over a decade. Now, after almost 100 rounds of tweaking the formula and thousands of positive reviews, I could not be more proud to share this with your family. Have you ever read a tube of normal toothpaste? I did when my older kids were little, and I found a warning that said, “Warning, keep away from children. Do not swallow. If ingested contact Poison Control or seek medical attention immediately.” That seemed a little extreme for something that I was putting in my mouth and my children’s mouth multiple times a day. And I didn’t want my kids using something that often that I would need to call a poison control center if they accidentally swallowed. I set out to create a truly safe and effective alternative. And the Wellnesse Whitening toothpaste is just that. It’s designed to support the oral microbiome and the natural process of saliva and teeth so that teeth can stay white and strong. This dentist approved formula is safe for the whole family and will leave your teeth shiny and your breath fresh. You can check out our toothpaste and our completely natural hair food hair care products at wellnesse.com. An insider tip, if you grab an essentials bundle or try autoship, you will lock in a discount so that you can try everything at a great price.

Katie: Hello and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and wellnesse.com, my new line of completely natural and safe personal care products that work, as well as conventional alternatives. And in this episode, we’re going to talk all about how to be your best in high-stress situations, which probably a lot of us are experiencing now and over the past few months. I am here with Jeff Banman, who is a former firefighter, US Army Ranger, and CIA Counter-terrorism Operator. And he has dedicated his life to discovering what separates people who are successful from those who aren’t. He’s conducted operations and missions all over the world, including in combat zones and high threat environments. And before you sit and think, “Well, what does that have to do with me?” I have always maintained that parents have a lot in common with special forces and we’re gonna go into that today. In fact, I would put moms up against special forces, at least mentally, quite often, but we’re gonna talk about that and how you can use lessons learned from people who operate in these really high-stress, extreme situations to be better in your own day-to-day life. And Jeff is a parent as well, so we also talk about how to foster this mindset of resilience and strength in your kids from an early age, focusing on what he calls the three Cs of this: comfort, confidence, and creativity. Super fascinating episode and I know that you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording. Jeff, welcome. Thanks for being here.

Jeff: Hey, thanks for having me, Katie. I really appreciate it.

Katie: I am so excited to chat with you because I have listened to a couple of podcast interviews that you’ve done with other podcasts and gained some really useful tips on things we can learn to be our best in high-stress situations. And I feel like modern life certainly has no shortage of high-stress situations these days, especially right now. And so I think this is gonna be a very practical and helpful interview. And for anybody who just heard your bio and is thinking like, “Okay, this guy is amazing. He was a ranger and in the CIA, but what does that have to do with me?” I just wanna preface to all of my parents listening by saying that I actually think I would put moms up against Special Forces in a lot of scenarios. And I’ve joked about this for a long time, but I think there actually are some similarities, not just the joking ones about sleep deprivation which, to my understanding, they actually stopped using as a form of torture but moms still endure.

But just the leadership role of running a family, managing a team, all of the daily challenges that we face and the inability to step back from that as a mom or as someone in combat. You don’t get the option to just walk away and take a vacation. And so I think that there’s a lot of similarities there. And I think that the parents listening can learn a lot from your research and your mindset because of that.

Jeff: Yeah, I appreciate it. I mean, it is. There is a stream that runs through all of us. And for me, I’ve always kind of come to this place where it’s like, it doesn’t really matter what the situation is or whether you’re overseas and doing crazy stuff or running into a burning building or trying to, you know, manage three screaming kids. It’s a matter of fact. I’ve, you know, I will tell on myself. It’s like easier to be in the world than it is to be home some times. So I’m in complete agreement with you that you could take a lot of parents and you could definitely take a lot of moms and you can put them up against some of the ”best of the best” out there and they’d probably come out better on the other end because of the complexities they deal with on a regular basis.

Katie: And I think there was something interesting I learned from you and I’d love to kind of delve into is the idea that hopefully many people listening have never been shot at or been in a really like combat type situation. But from what I’ve heard from you and read from you, the brain doesn’t necessarily know the difference between that type of stress and other types of stress that we encounter daily. Is that right?

Jeff: Yeah. I mean, I think, what we’ve learned over time is the perception of stress is so individualized that you can’t come with, “Oh, they have it harder than I do,” right? You can’t come with this mentality that somehow, you know, but I’m just gonna use the example. Somehow life as a mom trying to run a household and manage kids and do everything they need to do and sometimes probably trying to keep their husband in line or vice versa, or whatever it may be, whoever really kind of runs a household. You know, that that is somehow less stressful or less important or less, whatever than, running into a burning building or chasing bad guys down or operating around the world. It’s not a point of comparison in my book, right? How you perceive and how you process is always so, so individualized.

And so we’ve gotta approach it that way. We’ve gotta give ourselves a little bit of grace to that, you know, and stay away from this, “Well, you know, I only do this.” No, that’s a huge lift every day. That’s a huge accomplishment, a huge task. There’s a lot to that. And, you know, I think sometimes as humans we don’t give ourselves enough credit for what we do and how we do it and the things we have to deal with along the way.

Katie: Yeah, I agree. And there’s a lot of memes and jokes going around in the mom community about like, you know, I kept the tiny humans alive all day. But that speaks to the fact that we have these people who are completely responsible for us, that we do have to keep alive just like in a combat situation and the team is responsible for keeping each other alive and safe. And so our brain, especially as moms, those are very much high stakes, very real world stakes. And so of course, there can be stress that goes with that. I’m curious what you found in your research of what separates those who tend to do well with stress from those who struggle more in such stressful situations.

Jeff: Yeah, it kind of goes into this what I call the operational mindset because of what I do in the community I now serve and what I get to…how I get to contribute now. You know, and I had the opportunity to really dive in and do some deep dive research, look at human behavior in high-stress environments. I tend to say I was doing biofeedback and mindset stuff before they were cool. So you were talking quite some time ago. And, you know, as I began to look at kind of the traits and postures of people, there were three things that I kind of came to and it was very interesting and it came from data and interviews and looking at kind of who, you know, the top 1% of performers in my world.

And you heard it in their language, in their stories and really it came down to three kind of key points. The ability to be highly comfortable in extremely uncomfortable situations, right? And that’s not a model of complacency. That’s like a place of, okay, I’m good and yes, this isn’t maybe a great situation or this is uncomfortable for me, or this is a new experience, or this is just stretching me, but it’s kind of a reminder that me, I’m okay. I’m good here. I can manage this. Which bleeds to the second point around competence, right? So comfort and incompetence. And that’s not arrogance. That’s not like I got this, I can handle that. It’s stepping back to what I call…refer to as like your own power, right? Settling in. Okay. Again, that’s a reminder, I’m good. I can deal with this. I don’t necessarily like it. I don’t necessarily wanna be dealing with this right now, but I’m okay and I have the self-confidence. I’m gonna rely on my own skillset and my own emotional control and my own points of stability to create the competence I need to kind of work through or manage through whatever it may be this kind of high-stress moment in time.

And then the last one is creativity, right? And this is like, I don’t know, but I surely will figure it out. You know, and mothers, I feel like mothers do this far greater than fathers. I’ve watched this, I watched this in myself. They have an instinctive ability to redirect or move or be creative in a moment or find a creative solution. And, you know, that’s one of the key things that I’ve spent years training operators to understand how to bring a unique level of creativity to the environment because nothing is ever gonna go the way we planned it. Nothing is ever gonna happen the way we want it to happen. And if we’re not stepping up our game in that level of flexibility and being adaptive in those situations, you know, then it starts to avalanche, right? It starts the downward slide of I don’t know what to do. No, I don’t know what to do. And then I start beating myself up and then I’m frustrated or I’m anxious for whatever else and I’m not gonna get anywhere at that point in time. So really, the three kind of mastery traits I’ve seen are that comfort, confidence and creativity. That’s what we try to achieve in a lot of ways.

Katie: I love that. That’s so easy to remember and to focus on. Do you have any practical tips for both learning that as adults and then also for fostering that in our kids as a mindset? Because I homeschool my six kids and I’ve basically written my own curriculum because I realized that the school system, I didn’t feel like it was preparing them for whatever the future of technology makes their adult life look like, which would be highly adaptive. And so we focus on core values of creativity and critical thinking and connecting the dots and thinking outside the box so they get rewarded for those things. And so I’ve kind of learned how to do that in a school environment. But I love what you’re saying and I’m curious, how can we as parents learn to do that in the moment when things get stressful and also help impart that to our kids?

Jeff: Yeah, I think, you know, this is Katie, this is always the fun stuff. It feels like there’s a lot of complexity behind some very simple things, right? And so at the end of the day, you know, whether…it doesn’t matter when I’m working with my kids or my, you know, I’ve got a two, I’ve got the gamut of 16, 14 and two and a half. So I went back and did it again, which has been spectacular. We operate very much kind of in the conscious parenting zone in raising the children, pay attention to a lot of things. But at the end of the day, here’s what I feel like we don’t give ourselves or give our kids or give our families a lot of time. And that’s just space.

And so how do we create space, right? The freedom to learn, the space to actually like be present and digest what’s happening. And that to me, the best tool for that is breathing, right? And there’s a million and a half, you know, options for breath work and all kinds of things and different times to use for different things. I always teach people, it’s like, find what works for you. You know, maybe it’s just that four in, four out rhythmic breathing process and maybe it’s 30 seconds, maybe it’s a minute, maybe it’s five minutes, right? But it’s just the breath actually does a couple things for us. It gives us the opportunity to ground ourselves, to anchor in the present moment. You know, you’ll see me, I’ll stick into a breathing cycle and I’ll look around and hear a bird chirp or what’s actually happening now, right? And get hyper present to what’s actually taking place. I’m able to connect with my kids that way, what’s going on for them.

Because when I do that, it settles me, settles them. And then there’s actually this calm space in the environment. My go-to word, and, you know, I say it on my podcast all the time, but I feel like my world, our job and parents’ job is, it’s our commitment to bring calm to chaos. And if we’re not the calm, we’re the chaos. And so that’s like the…that’s the metal check I do, right? And am I creating the chaos or am I the guy bringing the calm to the chaos right now? And so when I use that mental check, I can step back. I can just kind of trigger into an easy float breath cycle and then my energy settles and when my energy settles, everyone else’s energy settles. And then we like, “Okay, what do we need to do now? What’s the next step?” And that has been true, you know, in a burning building, that has been true in combat. That has been true running operations around the world and looking for bad people and all kinds of things. So I feel like that’s like the universal anchor that we can apply.

Katie: Yeah, I love that. That’s such a simple but really, really practical thing we can try. And I feel like another thing that I’ve read or listened to from you is kind of the idea, and you touched on it a little bit, but that people are typically better at handling like direct stressors or things that we identify as stressful or like a lot of people say like, I’m great in crisis mode. And my husband and I even said that like, we’re great in crisis mode, but what’s tough is those little like kind of paper cut annoyances that build up. And I know for moms that’s usually at the end of the day like that 4:00 to 5:00 p.m that’s when the stress hits and you have that just kind of like overwhelming kind of sense of stress and overwhelm. And it’s because of all those little miniature things that have built up all day. So any tips for dealing with that when it’s just kind of nothing huge, nothing massive, nothing cataclysmic, but that like buildup of small annoyances?

Jeff: 100%. So this was probably one of the catalyst points when we were doing research. So we were able to really look at minute shifts in heart rate variability, which is the measurement tool for stress on the system, on the body, right, internally. And we found a very interesting phenomenon. So what we did was we divided up stress into three key categories. So direct stressors, those are things that come at us that we’re kind of prepared for, we train for or we expect to maybe happen throughout the day or throughout the environment. Then we have indirect stressors. Those are things that could happen, but tend to blind side us, right? I often compare it to like you’re driving down the road, you know. Yes, there’s always a possibility being an accident, but you just, somebody just ran a red light while you were in the middle of the intersection totally sideswiped you. You didn’t see it coming. And that’s a level.

And then there’s this third category, which I call indirect or I call satellite or peripheral stresses. These are like annoyance things in the environment. These are I can’t find my keys. These are, you know, the kid stuff the cell phone under the cushion and you can’t find it, right? And what I have found through a variety of things were we watch performance drop minimally a direct and indirect stone, but we watched performance drops significantly when we really ramped up the satellite or peripheral stressors in the environment. And this was very curious to me because we started to see where the inability to recover from small moments in time created what we call the stacking effect.

So literally, it was a nuanced stress, didn’t recover kind of annoyance factor, continued to operate or continue to work. Another one raised the bar, another one raised the bar, another one raised the bar and there was a failure to recover along the way. Or like I talk about being recoverable, like it just exists in you 24/7 where you can actually feel anxiety creep in. You can feel frustration creep in. You can feel the sensation in the body start to build, which is the trigger point to go,”Okay, I need a point of recovery.” And that may be a half a second, you know, behind a piece of cover while you’re getting shot at. And that may be setting the kids in front of the TV for a second and going in the other room and do it, you know, a quick just sit on the bed and okay I’m breathing now and settle down. It could be any number of things, right?

So you have to create what works for you. But really the essence is how well can you recover from the small things and not to let those things compound because it will then result in something significant. You find you almost create the direct stressors yourself down the road if you allow that to just build over time. Does that make sense to you?

Katie: Yeah, that does. That makes total sense. And I can see that in my own life. Just the difference between days when you’d like, you just feel that point and then everything seems just inconquerable at that point. Like you have to cook dinner and it’s the end of the world. And also, it’s a good reminder too, because I think our kids feel that as well. You know, when you have a young child who hits that just complete meltdown point, that’s probably exactly where they are as well. And so remembering, you know, they’re not being a problem, they’re having a problem. And how can we help them go through the same thing and reset, like that’s a great reminder.

Jeff: Yeah. And that’s it, and that triggers back to if you…it can be very easily, like you end up in the chaos without even realizing it sometimes. And that’s the checkpoint. It’s like, wait a minute, I’m actually, I’m being the chaos right now. Maybe and as a parent I’m bringing it cause it is my response. I just read a great book where he talked about energetic consent and so how to be responsible for our own energy in the space and the impact that can have on everyone around us. You know, and I know from my world that was huge. You know, if I’m walking into a high-risk meeting or I’m coming into a space in time, or we’re running a fire or things aren’t going well, how I respond, not just in words but in energy, makes a significant difference in the people around me and it does with my kids, right? How my energy bleeds into the environment is significant.

And so I have to really, you know, I can, you know, lock into command and control Jeff, right? Because that’s just how I’ve lived my life for 35 years. But I have to be really responsible for that and understand and match my energy to the needs of the situation, you know, as it is unfolding rather than fall into the trap of frustration or anxiousness or, you know, whatever it is. And so that’s a… and that’s a daily practice. I mean, I fail at it at least once or twice a day, if not five times. Some days I’m great, some days I’m awful. You know, this is nothing that you’re going to like zen out and be the master of. This is a daily practice of life really.

Katie: Absolutely. And it goes back to something that has been a lifelong journey for me and that I always remind my kids of as well is that we always have the ability to choose our own reaction and our own response. And at least in my own life, I’ve noticed I am infinitely happier to the degree to which I focus on the things that I have the power to change, which is almost often always just my own emotions, my own response, how I’m reacting to any stimulus versus trying to focus on all of the things out of my control that there’s literally no way to impact like current world stuff that’s going on. Or you know, even the behavior of my children. I think a lot of parents, it’s easy to get in that stressful loop of like, why can’t I make them do this? Why won’t they do this? And truly any parent knows.

Jeff: I never do that, Katie. Never do that.

Katie: But you have no control over it, do you? Any parent who thinks they have no control. Try to go to control two-year-old, you know. But going back to that idea that, and I tell my kids all the time, like as a parent that I need to be an example of that, but that also we are all happier to the degree that we focus on that which is in our control. And from a parent as a leader versus kind of like a dictator perspective to touch on conscious parenting, I tell my kids you’ve heard the phrase,”With great power comes great responsibility,” but in our house it’s reversed. It’s “With great responsibility comes great power”. When you take ownership for yourself or the things in your control, that’s when you earn freedom, you earn power because you’re showing that you’re responsible and capable of that.

And I think it’s a lesson for parents as well. And it’s a hard one that certainly it’s not easy to just every day wake up and go, okay, I’m only gonna focus on the things that I can control and I’m gonna stay calm today, obviously. But that’s one tip. It definitely really helps me when I’m able to keep that focus.

Jeff: Well, you know, and the other thing that we find is we are rarely ever present to the conditions, right? We’re rarely here now with what is happening. And, you know, it’s so interesting being able to go back and do this again and watch little man grow up, right, and have this little amazing rad human being running around. You know, he’s not forecasting things. He’s not thinking about, “Oh, am I gonna have playtime this afternoon or what’s the lunch gonna be?” Or, you know what I mean? He has no forward look. It’s all right now. And as parents or as leaders, you know, we get locked into future casting. We just get stuck there and it’s always trying to get somewhere or always trying to go to the next thing. Or, you know, what do I need to prepare for? I need to make sure lunch is set up. I need…it’s always coordination and preparation for something to happen. And rarely do we give ourselves the opportunity to enjoy the moment or be present with what’s going on or be connected to what’s actually happening. And, you know, we get stuck way out.

And so I feel like, you know, and that’s true. Listen, I would have not been successful. There’s times I probably wouldn’t be alive if I had not had the or something or someone bringing me back to what is actually happening right now. And for my world, there is so much freedom in that space when you can actually just calm down and be like where you are with who you are in that moment. There’s like, “Oh, wow.” And just all kinds of new stuff arises. That’s where you get to be comfortable. That’s where you get to be confident. That’s where you get to be creative because you’re actually in it with the people around you and especially your kids.

And I do think that’s a disservice that we create in our children is this future stuff. If we’re always jamming forward, if we’re always like planning and prepping and gotta be this and gotta be that, that’s what they know. That’s what they grow up with. And then so they grow up worrying about like what’s next or later this afternoon or scheduling or this or that. I’m not saying, you know, don’t be coordinated. You can’t, you know, you can’t not be coordinated. You can’t not plan. But being responsible for our own connection to the present moment I think is a game changer for a lot of us.

Katie: I absolutely agree and it surprises me sometimes and fingers pointing at myself as well, but as adult even how hard it is for a lot of people just to be too comfortable, to be quiet. And, you know, there’s all these great books and quotes from all of these philosophers and Stoics about how that’s one of our great works of life is to learn to be just still and how there’s a great book called, ”Stillness is the Key.” And just, I feel like that’s a lost skill in today’s world because there’s constant stimulation. There’s always the next thing going on. And perhaps recent events have actually been a great teacher of this is when all of that’s taken away, we have to just focus on what is and just learn to be and to be present and how hard that’s been for some of us, me included.

Jeff: Yeah. We don’t like to be with ourselves. We don’t like to be quiet. Because then it starts this uncomfortable feeling of, Oh, you know, I should be doing something or, you know, what do I need to be doing right now? Or, you know, we’re just, we were working up society and a culture and a life now that has become about what we’re doing next, not what we’re doing now. Listen, I have the opportunity to train some amazing people and develop some amazing people who are doing things well. You can even pay me, you know, a billion dollars to go do a year. Like no, thank you. And the only way they’re ever successful is when they understand how to be there in that moment.

You know, if you’re thinking about, you know, how am I gonna work this guy? What intelligence am I going to get from him? How’s this going? You know, there’s a time and a place to do all that. But then when you step into the world, when you release into the day, you know, when you start getting breakfast together for the kids and the day has started, that’s your time to be hyper present. You know, we used to have a running joke in the military, which was, you know, the plan never survives first contact with the enemy. You know, you can get up in the morning, here’s the day, this is what we’re gonna do. And then I wake the kids up and plans plain shot, right? But you have some framework top right under, you gotta be flexible with it. And it’s, you know, it’s just all, this is why I love it, right?

This is why I love kind of normalizing this idea of life in the extremes and normal life, right? Because there’s so many similar patterns to it. There’s not, like I kind of said at the beginning, there’s not a judgment back and forth. It’s not like, “Oh, well I have it easier than they do” or “I’m just, you know, a stay-at-home mom.” Nope, sorry, take that out of your language completely, you know. All of those things come into play because, and life can be stressful in any context, in any moment, in any situation. And, you know, the tools and the techniques and the way we look at it, it’s all the same at the end of the day. It’s all the same.

Katie: I agree. And I think to another parenting point that probably has a strong tie in here. So I love that creativity is one of those core things. And as a parent that’s always been a top of mind thing for me is how can I foster that in my kids? Because what I realized both from my own life and now working with all of my kids is you can’t really train creativity nor can you structure creativity obviously. And if anything, boredom seems to be the best teacher of creativity. But so many kids today don’t get the opportunity to be bored. They don’t get the downtime because there is that constant stimulation and the constant desire to learn more and be better in extracurriculars and so much is on their plate so young. So I’m curious both what you’ve seen and if there’s any research on this and then how you navigate it as a parent of helping to foster creativity with kids if you let them be bored on purpose or how that works.

Jeff: Yeah. I think, you know, it goes to the, it’s all going to draw some similarities here, right? So if I have a leader in my environment that’s always telling us what to do, how to do it, how to get things done, you know, I go back to my days in the fire service, I would tell people, listen, you know, if you’re driving the truck for instance, you have a pretty critical role and one of those roles just to get a ladder to the second floor. Because if I’m taking the crew inside, I need to be able to exit the building, right? If it’s on fire, we have a problem. I gotta get out.

And, you know, in the driver outside being alone, kind of out in the outside space there are controlling the exterior environment. And, you know, ladders are not light and they’re not easy to manage. They can be cumbersome and then given the situation and the slope and everything else, and I would just tell my guys, say, “Listen,” tell my people, “it doesn’t matter what it looks like, I just need it done.” You know. Yes, there’s technique and yes, there’s proper way to do that and there’s the correct way to do things. But if I don’t give the freedom and flexibility to my people to operate, right, the ability for them to see what’s going on, make their own choices, navigate their own roads, knowing the result we need to produce, then I’m really failing them as a leader.

And the same thing goes to my kids. If I’m telling them when I need them to do it, how they need to do it. It’s like the girls, you know, the girls were there back to online school. Things are kicking back up this week. There’s a little bit more requirements now in place, even though they’re not physically in school. And we talked about it, how do I support you? What does that look like? And they both said to me, “I don’t need to be micromanaged. I don’t need you to tell me when, you know, what to do. But I do need support in like you being the dad saying, ‘Okay, we’re all gonna, it’s work time now. You guys go work on school and I’m gonna go work, you know, on the business.’” “Okay, cool.”

So creating the parameters and kind of the left and right limits to accomplishing something rather than structuring out what they need to do. And then, you know, did you do this and did you do that? You know, one of the things that we do with little man is we really try to just, again, create space. It’s like, “Do you wanna go play in your room?” “Yeah.” “Okay, cool.” And that’s it, right? I don’t need to go any further. Do you wanna play with this toy or this toy? No, I think we tend to over options are kids, right? What was the book ”Apathy of Options?” Have you ever read that? Katie: I haven’t.

Jeff: Yeah. We tend to over options our kids and then they don’t know what to do and then they don’t have…they don’t know how to make their own choice. They’re making a choice based on what we’re providing them. And it’s the same in adults. It’s the same in this place. It��s like how do I foster creativity? I give the space for creativity to unfold and that is individualized, that’s not directed, that’s not staged. And I actually take options away from them rather than put more options in front of them. And it’s feels kind of counterintuitive. But when you do that, they really start to like, okay, wait a minute. You know, okay, I need to figure something out here. And they begin to satisfy themselves, not satisfy me as the parent or me as the leader. And that’s a unique space that I’ve seen unfold pretty well, if that translates or make sense to you.

Katie: Yeah, no, that’s…I love that answer. And another like parenting note that I have a feeling has a pretty good tie in here is I’m so curious your approach in what you’ve seen in research on letting kids take risks. Because this is another thing that I think has changed really drastically even since I was a kid and certainly since my parents were kids, is kids being able to do activities that are considered risky or play unsupervised or ride their bikes more than, you know, without the seeing distance of their house. And I’ve written about this a little bit.

Like, my opinion is that it can be a disservice to our kids if we overprotect them and they don’t get those opportunities for learning to work through things on their own for minor injuries, for taking risks and failing because a lot of kids get to adulthood, haven’t had to face actual failure or any really severe natural consequences of natural failure. So I’m probably on the one extreme was the mom who’s sending my kids out to climb trees and encouraging them to climb things and jump off things and whatever. But I’m curious, A, what the research says, and B, how you navigate that?

Jeff: Yeah, so I think the one of the research papers I read, I don’t know, maybe a couple of years ago, came out where they did a whole study on like rough housing and the development of emotional intelligence in children, right? And so, which was, and it didn’t, you know, sex wasn’t, not, doesn’t matter, boys or girls. But really more, you know, timely and proper kind of rough housing play with children actually begins to build their resiliency process, begins to build their decision making skills. They actually begin to establish the boundaries of what’s okay and not okay for them. You know what I mean? And so there’s this listening dynamic and I see this, you know, this is part of like growing up over 12 years, right, between my last one and then, little man, you know. I can see what the girls where I was definitely over protective.

I was always, you know, trying to catch them. If they fell I’m like rushing over, are you okay? Are you okay? You know, and all these things and then it creates this timidness in them, you know. I see where they’re a little bit more anxious and I’ve gotta be responsible for that if I’ve created anxiety in them by me overreacting to them or not giving them the space to kind of sort it out. Whereas today, I only come to the, you know, “come to the rescue” when Decklan’s hurt, you know what I mean? Or the possibility of that. And even then giving him a little bit of space to sort himself out. If he like, I don’t know, falls or something, it’s kinda like I instinctually, I don’t fight my instinct and kind of pause back and wait to see, let him process through what just happened. Do the self-assessment, am I hurt, am I bleeding? You know, there are any leaks going on right now about what’s going on for me right now. And then what do I feel about this?

One of the major things we’ve committed to with him is we never tell them it’s okay. Like we’ve extracted, we just completely removed that from our vocabulary because we don’t know. Well, maybe he’s not okay. I don’t know. He can’t articulate that yet. And I think as parents we often…we wanna come to the rescue, we wanna protect our kids, we wanna create safety for them, but we’re actually not, we’re creating spaces of questionable, I don’t know, am I okay? Is it okay to not to be okay right now? All these fundamental things that go into, you know, what I believe creates confidence in a human being, which is the ability to self-regulate, self-manage, self-assess, and then speak, you know, in some ways speak our truth, if you will. And that may be crying or maybe upset or, and that may just be like, Oh.

I mean, I’m amazed at this kid given the space from a fall that I would be like, Oh, this is gonna be a major one. He gets up, brushes it off, like, you know, trucks onto something else. But I gave him the space to sort it out and the freedom to experience whatever he was experiencing there. And if he’s upset or hurt, then I come over. I give him a hug. I’m like, “I got you bud. You know you’re safe. I got you.” I don’t ever say you’re okay because he’s not. And then if he’s done something and he’s upset at something that I don’t…that doesn’t really have a framework for it or like an anchor point for me, it’s like, okay. And it causes me to now be curious about his experience or what’s going on for him. And that’s an opportunity as a parent to help him maybe begin to navigate things for himself, not through my view or my lens, if that…yes, if that answers your question.

Katie: That absolutely does. Yeah. I think that’s a helpful strategy to have on hand and a good reframing of not trying to tell them that it’s okay or to frame the experience for them, but to help them learn the tools to work through it themselves. I think that’s a really, really important point.

I’ve also heard you mentioned in past podcast a couple of things I’d love for you to define and walk us through those being the 10-foot rule and the 30-degree rule.

Jeff: Okay. Okay. Yeah. So this goes back to presence, right? This kind of all goes back to absolutely being present, not getting too far out in front of each other. So, you know, I talk about like the 10-foot rule, which is, that’s kinda my span of control. If I get past 10-feet in any environment, you know, I have no control over that. And, you know, if I’m going into a burning building or I’m dealing with a crisis or I’m dealing with things as they are, that’s about the span I’ve got around me to really kind of deal with what I need to deal with. When I creep past that, now I’m in…I can, but I need to be aware that I’m creeping past it. I need to be aware that I’m really now getting into a more predictive state, right? I’m future casting. I’m dealing with things that have not happened or may not happen yet.

And so if I do that too much, if I live outside of 10-feet, then I’m never really present to what’s actually happening and I’m not dealing with the conditions as they exist. I’m dealing with them in some idea of how I want them to be or how I think they should be or how they might happen or how it might unfold. So I’m really dealing with false data at that point in time. When I can stay within kind of my 10-foot rule, then I’m actually present to what’s actually taking place. And then this goes to kind of the 10-degree or 30-degree rule, which I say, you know, you move into the environment and I’m adjusting 10 degrees left or right based on the conditions as they exist.

So for instance, I use this example in my teaching because it was relevant. If I go to a house fire, I show up, I’ve got a two-story single family home, heavy fire from the second floor. I kind of do my walk around. I look outside, I see what’s going on. I collect as much information as I can, but I know the minute I stepped through the front door, the conditions have changed. And now new information coming at me. I now know how hot it is or you know where the fire may be located or how far it may be progressing. I began to really get in touch with what’s going on in the sensations of the environment, what the environment is telling me.

And you know, maybe my job is to locate with seal fire or do a search for victims that that doesn’t change. My mission doesn’t change, but how I go about accomplishing that task will depend upon the conditions and the allowance that I have in the conditions of the environment. Does that, you know, so I’m able to kind of more flow through what’s taking place rather than like, Nope, I gotta do this and I’m gonna push through and I’m gonna drive through and I’m going to own this thing. It’s, if I’m not present, then I can get myself in trouble significantly. In my world, you know, trouble means serious injury, possible death, you know, and then I’m not… and effectiveness is dropping significantly. So if I get outside kind of the 10-foot span around me or the three-foot span around me, depending upon what’s going on or I’m not present and I’m not kind of like, okay, I can go left, I can go right. Minor adjustments. I’m not coming off my mission, I’m not coming off my cast or my purpose or my intention, but I am available to what’s taking place and now I’m working with the environment rather than forcing an outcome.

That’s, I mean I had, so that’s a daily practice with the kids, right? I mean, working with them and not trying to force an outcome. That’s like the…that’s the translation for me. And that’s the, again, kind of the checks. And you can see the reaction of them. I think you see this in your own kids, right? When you step into that place, the more rigid you become, the more resistance you have back at you. At least that’s what I tend to experience and I’m sure, with six, you do as well.

Katie: Absolutely. Yeah. Another thing I think you’ve touched on, but I’ve got on my list to ask you about is the top five fractures in performance that are relevant across the board. So walk us through that.

Jeff: All right. So first one is always and definitely has been a perception of my own abilities and this is a huge breakdown point. This is a place where we often drop the ball almost right off the bat. You know, and if you look from like my world, if you have an operator, you have somebody going out operating in the mission and they’re questioning themselves, right? They’re unsure of themselves, then that’s going to begin to break down their ability to perform, their ability to see things, read the conditions, be open to what’s taking place along the way. And really then, you know, we start to see kind of this fracture and performance.

I mean, I think we all…I’ve never met a person, I don’t care out of what community they’ve come from, whether they’re, you know, a dev group, guys, seal team, six guy, Delta operator or, you know, the best of the best out there. There will always come a point in time where they question their own ability, right? They have a lingering voice in the back of their head. They’re just not 100% sure of themselves in that moment. And that is huge. Just a huge breakdown, right?

Number two, we see fall into complacency or what I kind of call the common state. This is where we take our foot off the gas. We really stopped paying attention to things. We start making a lot of assumptions about the situation or the environment or the people around us. We really kind of just, well, we basically check out of what’s going on.

The third one is always interesting because the third one deals with fear. And so I classify fear that fear can’t exist in the present moment. Fear doesn’t exist. You know, in a firefight, fear doesn’t exist. In a working fire, fear doesn’t exist. I may have excitement, I may have a state of arousal, but it is not fear. Fear only shows up as a future point in time of something that may happen or may not happen.

And then when I allow that fear to collide in the present, I can end up in a point of panic. You know, I don’t make solid decisions. You know, I often related to this and this is I think relevant to all of us. You know, and you too, it’s like, have you ever been woken up in the middle of the night by kind of the noise, right? You wake up, something, somebody banged on the front door just…or it’s a bad dream. You don’t really know what got you up, but you are more alert, more aware, like more ready, you know what I mean. If you’re a mom, you’re like, you know, mama bears coming out of your dad or you’re like me. Like you’re grabbing a gun and clearing the house, right? You’re in it. And there’s something that drew you into that moment that is a, what they would classify as emotional, you know, fear-based response, which I hate this word, but that is a high state of arousal. Your body’s moving into action, giving you what you need in that moment in time.

Now here comes the question. After you validated that there wasn’t anything, everybody’s safe. Everybody’s good. You go crawl back in bed. How quickly can you go back to sleep? And most times we’re kind of stuck. Now, we hear every little creak and crack and noise and we’re hypersensitive the environment. And what we’re doing in that state is we’re generating this kind of fear response. We’re generating this physical response of preparedness in ourselves. And if something then were to happen and this is, you know, relevant to my world, but then if something were to happen, I’ve kind of already put myself in a weird condition and I’m inhibiting my body from doing what it needs to do and then panic collides and then I’m incapable. I can’t function in that space. And so I’m not working with my body.

Number four is not being open to the idea, right? This is a lack of openness. Openness is a huge component of really carrying a powerful mindset or whatever you wanna call it. Open to the idea that things could happen. You know, I say if you’re, if you get in the car and drive down the road and you have no expectation and no idea that you could ever get in a car accident, that’s just like not in your frame of reference. And that’ll never happen. And I’m not worried about it. You know, and then if it does happen, what then physiologically causes, you know, it is a new event. It is an unfamiliar event, and you were unprepared for it. And so you’re caughtoff guard or your reaction time slows or your decision making slows or your perception of that slows. So just simply, you know, the lack of openness in this space and open to the idea that things could happen or might happen without generating fear is really the fourth one.

And then the fifth one is, and this is true across the board, it is how I allow the influencers or stressors of my day to impact me. And it goes back to what we talked about earlier, the lack of being recoverable, the lack of, you know, literally being disciplined enough that when I can’t find my car keys and I find them, I actually allow myself to settle for a minute and be like, okay, I got my car keys and then transition to the next moment. Not, I can’t find my car keys. Where is my car keys? Okay, I got them now let’s keep going, right? It’s that control mechanism. And when I give up that control mechanism of how things were impacting me, I fall into the stacking effect. And then, you know, things compound and I find myself kind of in a crap show at some point in time. I find myself in the chaos rather than, you know, being calm in the chaos.

So those are the five, those are the five that consistently without fail. If I look at a failure performance or a fracture in performance or things not going the way we want them to go almost every time, one of those five or multiple of those five are clearly defined and existing in this space.

Katie: Yeah. That’s so helpful. Yes. To just have a framework to be able to work through like that. And I can’t believe our time has already flown by so quickly. This has been such a fun interview. A couple questions I love to ask at the end, the first being if there’s a book or a number of books that have had a dramatic impact on your life and if so, what are they and why?

Jeff: Yeah, so, you know, you had sent that to me so I had to go back and look because books for me are like timely really, right? They tend to show up when you need them. But I would say probably some of the more recent ones that I think have really helped me make transition between my old life and the life I now live. One was ”Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself” by Joe Dispenza. I really appreciated the way he approached looking at ourselves, this idea of calmness, this idea of physiological response because he took both a very scientific and, you know, almost esoterical approach to how we deal with ourselves. And a lot of evidence-based research in there. I guess his first book about the brain was ”Super Brainiac”. I’ve not read that yet. I would probably enjoy it. But you know, from the way he lays it out, most people were kind of like, “Okay, Joe, too much information.” But that was a pretty significant, pretty significant book for me in a lot of ways.

And then early on, early on in my career, I had the opportunity you know, big failure leadership I talked about on my podcast and I use it in all my teaching tools. But I read Daniel Goldman’s ”Primal Leadership” where he breaks down six distinct styles from affiliate of all the way down to the other end of the spectrum of like pace setting and commanding. And at that time I could see where I lived in this pace setting, commanding style of leadership, which we can get into very easily as parents. You know, kind of like, “Hey, we gotta go, here’s the deal. This is what we gotta do.” And I’m setting the pace and I’m commanding environment.

And, you know, it was funny because I had, I mean I virtually had like a mutiny on the crew. They basically came down to Jeff’s a jerk, him or me, we’re out. We’re not gonna deal with this anymore. And the way he articulated when he laid it down in the book, he talked about the great benefits of the commanding style leadership and the pace setting style leadership and driving to the car like, “I’m gonna turn around, I’m gonna sit everybody down, they’re gonna listen to this because I’m right.” And then he talks about all the negativity of it and how it should be used in a very finite point in time and how it should be limited. And I just started to almost tear up at like, “Crap, he’s right, I’m not going back,” you know. And it was a good call out book for me and what I needed to be responsible for and how I needed to kind of shift my architecture.

So those are good. And then like you said, you know, Ryan Holiday stuff, ”Ego is the Enemy.” And even Mark Manson stuff is really great. So I’m avid reader. I love to read people’s research and then I actually look at the research that they found that, you know, built a book around as well. I’m a little bit of a geek that way. But I would say, you know, those are pretty applicable across the board and know those are pretty significant for how we operate in our normal lives as well.

Katie: I love those. I’ll make sure those are in the show notes at wellnessmama.fm for any of you guys listening who went to find those. And for people who want to keep learning more or who are curious about your work, where can they find you online?

Jeff: Yeah, so the podcast is ”Mindset Radio.” It’s mindsetradio.com, and that’s actually provided by, through the Operational Mindset Foundation. So that’s my life now. I really committed to creating a pathway to mentally, physically and emotionally prepare the men and women who choose to place themselves in harm’s way every day. I think we’ve…having come from that community. The conversations you have on your podcast are new to this community, right? I mean they’re still stuck in the old school stuff. And my purpose was really bring a new conversation to the table to talk about consciousness, to talk about the struggles that we have. The things we’re exposed to, how to deal with that, how to really have a full life both on and off the job. And so now the foundation, is it mindset.org and the podcast is a mindsetradio.com are available on all the platforms.

Katie: Perfect. I love that. And lastly, any parting advice you wanna leave with the listeners today based on anything we’ve said or any other advice that you’d wanna give?

Jeff: Yeah, I mean I think the way I treat, you know, I run my show very much like you do Katie, you know, very conversational and I have a belief that people that listen to a podcast, need to have something they can do like the minute it’s over. And so I try to leave my listeners with like the challenge out of that piece. And I would say, you know, today, presence, right? And really work the breath today. Like be hyper present to your breath and what’s going on right now. Be curious, be curious about yourself, curious about your kids, curious about the situation and stay there like just hover there. Just you know, and if you feel yourself getting too far forward, too far to dinner, too far to the next day, too far to the next week, be curious as to why that is, why you need to feel that way, what that provides for you and just no judgment, right? No right or wrong. You’re not doing anything wrong, you’re not bad, none of that. Just curious. Just be curious, be present and see what shows up. That would be what I would say.

Katie: I love it. I think that’s a perfect place to wrap up and I’m really grateful for your time. This has been such a fun conversation and hopefully helpful to everyone listening. Thanks for being here.

Jeff: Thanks Katie.

Katie: And thanks as always to all of you for sharing your most valuable asset, your time with both of us today. We’re so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the ”Wellness Mama” podcast.

If you’re enjoying these interviews, would you please take two minutes to leave a rating or review on iTunes for me? Doing this helps more people to find the podcast, which means even more moms and families could benefit from the information. I really appreciate your time, and thanks as always for listening.

Source: https://wellnessmama.com/podcast/jeff-banman/

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