Mr. RADical Wins the Cadaver Clash Grudge Match!

Say hello to the Mojave's most valuable corpse! Even from beyond the grave, nobody was flexing more autistic swag than him. It's just a shame that his special interest was profoundly, unbelievably lethal nuclear waste. At least it was very convenient for him to die in the middle of Clark Field, where we could pillage the trusty radiation suit that had served him so well from his body, so that we ourselves could finally explore some radioactive areas of our own (and hopefully with better results).

Mr. RADical (53.9%) takes this victory over Trash (46.1%), the other dead darling in the bracket, who put up an incredible fight with a lot of vocal support. Unfortunately, it looks like the trash...got taken out. YEAHHHHHHHHHHHH

As for what's next for this blog, we've still got another highly anticipated grudge match in the pipeline between two old, old men. Will the immovable object from Goodsprings beat Novac's unstoppable force? We'll see, we'll see!

TRU ROCK N ROLL SHOW IN ANASLIME, CA

JANUARY 13th

$3

SLAM GARAGE

5:00

Darcy's role in P&P would work for me anyway, but tbh it works for me 10x better because he halfway reverts back to form towards the end of the book.

Radical Goodness part 4: our world

“I know kindness exists because I am kind. You say, ‘people aren’t good.’ But I am People. I am good. You are wrong.”

radical goodness part 1

radical goodness part 2

radical goodness part 3

I will continue to do fandom updates but I will also keep doing ones from our world. I've got a list and my adhd brain has never been so happy about the fact that there's a list.

Season 8 was like 6 years ago(I feel old) and I know ppl have differing opinions on the Mr Echo thing (but it was intended, made it to storyboard and blocked animation and then dropped, soooo) but. I can see his recruitment p easily tbh. Bc the whole reason Dr J was in that lighthouse was because he was resurrected, forced there, and ordered to build Skulkin vehicles by Samukai. But Samukai in the flashback we see has already been deposed as leader of the Skulkin/Underworld. Which means the orders to do so most likely came from Garmadon.

And since Mr. E is one of the head honchos, he's likely an early arrival to the team, so I don't think Harumi has a whole lot figured out at this point, she's just got her Trauma and some Bad Influence Friends and an obsession with Lord Garmadon. So. Like. Plausible deniability road trip that she's just visiting important markers of Ninjago's recent past, all of which involve Lord Garmadon in some meaningful way; its sightseeing, its cathartic, and it gives her time to develop her dream Motorcycle Gang/Resurrection Cult. She's not looking for anyone at the Lighthouse, but she is looking for vehicle blueprints so she can be the Koolest leader on the block. But oops she looks in the basement and there's an Echo.

And she's flipping out bc??? A Ninja???? In the Lighthouse basement??? I mean it makes sense that it would be this one but???

Except this rusty old robot has no idea what she's talking about with this Ninja stuff, he's just waiting for his dad to come back.

And Harumi pauses.

Because how long has he been waiting? He's not sure, he had no proper way to measure time in the basement, and he doesn't have the best view of his clockwork heartpiece. But it was after his father saw a strange ship docking; Echo was worried it was the People who had locked up his father in the first place, but instead his dad sounded happy when he saw whoever was out there. It could have been a front, though, as clearly it was never safe to let Echo back out. Then Dr J popped down briefly, while everyone above was resting, to tell Echo he was desperately needed elsewhere, that it wasn't safe to bring Echo, but that he'd be back in no time.

And the pieces are fitting together for Harumi. And she's like. Your dad's dead, bro.

And he's like. What? Did he die doing what was needed of him?

And she's like. Oh, no. He died a few years later.

And he's like. Why didn't he come back for me????

And she's like. Probably because they kept him away.

And he's like. Who's they?

And she's like. The Ninja I was talking about earlier.

And it surely can't be hard in universe to find pictures of Zane and Dr J post s2-pre s3, so she pulls one up and shows Echo who is freaking out bc why is that one kind of like him and Harumi explains that that was the droid his father created first, that he became a Ninja, and that hes probably the one who took their father away and kept echo waiting for years.

But Echo has doubts, shocked as he is abt a new older brother, he wants to believe the good in the situation so he's unsure. But Harumi mentions that the Ninja's failures to uphold more than their self preservation/interests has led to uncountable losses and devastation in Ninjago time and time again, before delving into her own story. And she seems so kind, and so hurt, and I do think there's a genuine connection btwn these two that forms from this shared emotional torment that they decide came from the Ninja, and now Echo is more receptive.

And then Harumi gets to start her Garmadon pitch because wait! If Echo was made here, then that could only have happened because of Lord Garmadon. And she reiterates that he's the reason she and her city could have even survived The Great Devourer. And maybe Echo's family-by-creation left, maybe they were untrustworthy and lacking, but that's OK bc if you look at it all a certain way, Garmadon is more of a father to Echo than Dr J was. And Echo is a vulnerable, overwhelmed mess who just found out his dad fucked off for years without him and also died, and also he has a brother??? Who their dad clearly seems to have favored??? Did they even know about Echo??? Did they delight in their life free of him???

Basically. Kinda Spinel-core but getting abandoned and left completely alone does that to you. Especially when the first person to find you after being abandoned is a deeply hurt and misguided teen who is probably kinda desperate for someone, anyone else to see the Ninja the way she sees them.

i will never not have belief in, and hope for humanity. and if i am killed slowly and painfully by the same people i valued, i would have died for what i belived in. and in turn, i will die believing that my death will inspire at least a few to do what they can to continue the human growth towards a better life for all.

'I'm the X' is a banger but let's be real for a second Mr. Spock

“He was no longer trembling, but his head felt very fuzzy. Drinking didn’t help, but it at least gave him something to do with his hands.”

-from Babel by R.F. Kuang, ch. 5. 

wow macklemore's palestine song (hind's hall) is actually really good. i knew about it but hadn't listened to it because i'm not particularly interested in the mack

yeah you're right man honestly.

Knightley isn’t the Secret Villain of Emma

The book Jane Austen, the Secret Radical by Helena Kelly has been haunting me despite the fact that I’ve never read it and I probably won’t because everything I hear is wild. Theories from that book come up in discussions a lot.

Anyway, I would like to address the author’s theory that Mr. Knightley is actually the villain of the novel, marrying Emma just to he can enclose land and become more powerful/wealthy. Also, he caused the turkey theft by making people poorer. There is a argument against this theory here and, by the excellent John Mullen: here.

So firstly, this goes against everything we know about Mr. Knightley’s character. He shows concern for everyone, especially the poor, and he respects people of the lower class, such as Robert Martin. We see many examples of this, the Bates being a prime example. He sends his last apples to Miss Bates and offers his own carriage for the Bates and Jane Fairfax to go to the Coles. (This also proves he can use his carriage if he wants to). The most dramatic point of the book is him scolding Emma for being unkind to someone poorer than herself!

Secondly, there are still common fields, it’s right in the book: if one is blown over in the bleak part of the common field there will be the other at hand. I dare say we shall be all safe at Hartfield before midnight (Ch 15).

Thirdly, I don’t see how this is evidence at all of Knightley having evil plots:

“True, true,” cried Mr. Knightley, with most ready interposition—“very true. That’s a consideration indeed.—But John, as to what I was telling you of my idea of moving the path to Langham, of turning it more to the right that it may not cut through the home meadows, I cannot conceive any difficulty. I should not attempt it, if it were to be the means of inconvenience to the Highbury people, but if you call to mind exactly the present line of the path.... The only way of proving it, however, will be to turn to our maps. I shall see you at the Abbey to-morrow morning I hope, and then we will look them over, and you shall give me your opinion.” (Ch 11)

Knightley is talking to his own brother, among family. We have absolutely no reason to believe he is lying. In his annotated Emma, David M. Shapard points to this same passage as an example of Mr. Knightley’s thoughtfulness to the local people. If anything, this makes him an ideal, not a villain.

Fourthly, like, theft happens people. In every society all the time. Poultry are smallish and stupid and easy to steal. And to blame Knightley for poverty when even Jesus admitted that poverty will literally always exist? One man can only do so much!

Finally, Jane Austen does mention enclosure in her novels, indicating she’s not scared to bring it up, and which character does it? John freaking Dashwood. When telling his sister why he is so poor, John says, “The enclosure of Norland Common, now carrying on, is a most serious drain [to his finances].” (Ch 33, Sense & Sensibility) Of course he’s not poor; he also does not engage in charity at all, not even when he makes a deathbed promise to his father. If you read both of these novels and somehow took away that Knightley is another John Dashwood than... I mean honestly I don’t even know what to say.

But it’s also unclear in S&S if Austen though enclosure was a bad thing. Henry Dashwood, the girl’s father, seems to me to be presented as a good man, and he might well to have been planning enclosure as well:  

Mr. Dashwood’s disappointment was, at first, severe; but his temper was cheerful and sanguine; and he might reasonably hope to live many years, and by living economically, lay by a considerable sum from the produce of an estate already large, and capable of almost immediate improvement.

Which leads me to believe that the real crime of John Dashwood was to complain to his impoverished sisters, not necessarily the enclosure itself. He’s claiming poverty while doing something to make himself more wealthy.

Either way, however Jane Austen actually viewed enclosure, I don't know how you can read Emma and decide that the thoughtful, caring, polite, and truth-telling Mr. Knightley, who gives up his actual home to live with Emma and her father, is somehow the villain.

Additional Note: I am pretty disinclined to believe anything in the book Secret Radical because of her argument that Fanny bought a knife for Betsey to protect her from the abuse of Mr. Price. Which is.. just insane. I really doubt either Susan (14) or Betsey (5) could fight off a former Marine Officer with a pen knife, even if that was how child abuse worked... but also none of the Price children ever act like they are afraid of their father. He yells at the boys once to zero effect and then they come and make noise right in front of him... Anyway, I'm just addressing the Knightley thing because it comes up a lot online now.

whats everyone’s favorite obscure fallout characters mine are ignacio rivas and mr RADical

FNV Minor Character Poll - GRUDGE MATCH - Cadaver Clash

Left: Mr. RADical, a nuclear waste enthusiast who died outside of Novac doing what he loved.

—Day 1: Love the suit. Can scavenge anywhere now, screw the rads. I hereby christen myself Mr. RADical. Get it? Ha! —Day 4: Suit passed first test with flying (yellow) colors. Overnight visit to Yucca Mountain. Didn't go too deep because something big moving down tunnel. Rad level high even where I was, and I didn't feel a tickle. Go, rad suit, go! —Day 5: Vomited all morning. Didn't splash on suit or I'd be pissed. Must be something I ate. —Day 9: Exciting! Ran across old woman's scrap yard. Bought glowing container for measly 50 caps. Heading for Clark Field to prove suit at higher rad levels. If it holds up, I'm going to pop this jar of goop open and pour it all over me! I bet I could swim in this stuff if I had enough of it! Oh yeah!

Mr. Radical was the 101st seed in the tournament overall on the A-side bracket. He beat Ronald Curtis (a.k.a. Picus) and Jimmy before being defeated by Keely, the ultimate runner-up, in Round 3-A.

Right: Trash, a wannabe ghoul who died in the Nuclear Test Shack doing what she loved. —Dear Die-ary: I'm so done being confined in this human body. So, today I moved in to the shack at the abandoned test site. There should be enough radiation there to turn me into a ghoul. All around me this world is bleak and dreadful; is it so wrong to want a body to match it? I wonder what color my skin will turn and if I'll be able to find a good shade of lipstick to go with it. Probably not. God, everything is so miserable. —Dear Die-ary: I've been in this shack for almost a week now. Nothing is happening. I'm so bored. And this shack is so hot. And it's totally ruining my hair. It's like, so hard to find dye this color in the wasteland. This sucks, I want to be a ghoul now. I hate all this waiting. Life, ugh, living is so overrated. —Dear Die-ary: Good news Die-ary! I think it's finally starting to happen. Ok, so I do feel like, totally miserable (what else is new ha-ha-ha) and my skin is starting to peel off, but I'm pretty sure that is the first step. Oh, and my hair! I finally got it just the way I like it and now it starts coming out. Why does ghoulification have to be so unfair?

Trash was the 104th seed in the tournament overall on the A-side bracket. She beat Ada Straus and Pacer before being defeated by Harland, an ultimate quarter-finalist.

[Bracket | Info & FAQs]

just a question, who is “Miss Clara”?

Miss Clara is the name given to the Pottsfielder with pigtails who tells Wirt he's early. I believe in the credits she's called Pumpkin Gal. She first appears in Miss Inky's Good Fences and crops up in several other fics by Miss Inky, including Blutrunst. Where I was charmed by her and her brother Clark. She shows up in several other fics, including my own.

If you're familiar with Danny Phantom's Wes I would say she's somewhat like that, not quite whole cloth a fan creation, but very much so has grown outside of canon.

The lovely @nellynee is responsible for my favorite story about Miss Clara: Over the River and Through the Wood (to my sweetheart's house we go)

i remember enjoying mr robot as a tv show but in retrospective that show was a lot of cleverly disguised progressivism with rebellious/revolutionary mass appeal yet anti revolutionary, defeatist and pro status quo conclusions.

Like actually the biggest villain being a closeted trans chinese government official creating a mega secret weapon for earth bending destruction. The Amazon Alexa in world product placement. The FBI agent-Anarchist Hacker Lesbian Forbidden Love, the bicurious murderous corporate executive. and the worse-than-before chaos that ensues once our radical protagonists do achieve their goal of deleting the world debt record.

a show that does this similarly in having conservative politics disguised through diverse casting or/and good acting/art direction/big budget/decent story is The Last of Us and Station Eleven too. I think station eleven is more insidious with it tho, more explicitly conservative in its world conclusions, like the toward the end of the series the antagonists are hillbilly Che Guevara lookalike child groomer who proclaims radical politics and an interracial interclass couple running their post apocalyptic community like a pair of cruel dictators.

I need more of Midge’s housewife to feminist pipeline please and thank you.

When you think about the whole show, this could cannonly fit somewhere in there, maybe after her first protest.

(via The Death of Mr Spock - Roots Radics (1983)