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tomwambsmilk · 2 years

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Gonna write briefly about “The Rehearsal” on my succ blog bc why not. But I think it truly is brilliant, in hindsight of the finale, that the show turned out to actually be an effective criticism of itself, of reality tv as a genre (even and maybe especially the shows that are framed as being helpful for their participants), the use of child actors, and even, to a certain extent, Nathan Fielder’s own brand of comedy. All of that is 100% intentional - they could’ve shown anything they wanted and deliberately showed things that would make us deeply uncomfortable for ethical reasons, and deliberately highlighted the ways in which participants may have felt pressured into participating and how the presence of cameras impacts behaviour.

I’ve already seen the claim that the finale’s big twist is that it’s a “scripted narrative” and I don’t think that’s true at all. It’s pretty clear that Nathan and the team had an idea of where they wanted the show to go, but all the people they featured were real people. They didn’t script so much as… well, manipulate what happened by introducing certain elements, as all reality shows do. While they might have had a general sense of where they wanted the show’s “arc” to go, they were reliant on the participants behaving in certain ways or raising certain issues to dictate just how they went about achieving that arc. The brilliance here is making it fairly obvious to the audience what they’re doing, whereas most reality shows will try to hide it.

(And this premise is built into the pitch! We all expected to get a show about Nathan running these little rehearsals, and that idea is built on the premise that human behaviour is predictable and manipulable, if you control enough variables. And then we watched this exact premise play out entirely differently - and in a way that was much darker - from how we expected.)

There are so many more things to unpack about the show, obviously, but personally I just keep coming back to the fact that they made a reality tv show to say “hey, maybe even ‘helpful’ reality tv is somewhat unethical because these people are being helped for our own voyeuristic benefit, and those motivations will determine how producers approach the participants and the arcs they deliberately try to set up, even if we don’t see that on our screens.” It’s a bold move but I think they pulled it off well

#I keep thinking about this episode of queer eye I watched with a friend #long story short the guy they were helping had dropped out of school and hadn’t told his parents and they encouraged him to and had him #do it on camera #and my friend was horrified. they were from very similar immigrant communities with similar cultural norms #and she said ‘that’s so awful of them. this is going to make his life miserable for a while’#‘the only reason his mom isn’t beating his ass right now is that the cameras aren’t there’#and you could tell she was right. everyone except the queer eye guys was so uncomfortable with this #but they wanted their ‘happy ending’ arc so they pushed it #but even aside from that. isn’t there something inherently exploitative about ‘we’ll help you fix this problem but only if you let us #showcase it on national tv’?#and I think the rehearsal critiques that so well by showing Nathan derailing the rehearsals for his own purposes #the only difference is that he’s motivated by his own issues rather than being motivated by audience response #the rehearsal #nathan fielder #not succession #anyways. I think everyone has realized by now that the point of the show is that it was unethical. but I don’t think the takeaway is meant #to be just that the rehearsal was unethical but that a lot #of other reality tv is similarly unethical. we just don’t usually see those parts

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mount-and-do-blahaj-blast · 4 days

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Carter-A259 is the Dad That Stepped Up

Carter, Carter, Carter. Carter. The slept-on member of NOBLE Team.

He’s also the oldest SPARTAN III by a decent margin. Unlike the rest of Alpha Company, taken at four, five, and six, Carter is a whole-blown eleven. There were members of Alpha without any adult teeth. There were members of Alpha who DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO READ.

Enter Carter. Carter is the oldest and most mature kid there. Think about that. Think about the maturity gap between four and eleven. Between six and eleven. That’s five years between him and the second-eldest child. Five hundred scared children, and in a best case scenario, the instructors tolerate them. What exactly do you think happens?

Carter steps up. He’s probably one of the few people to actually stand up for rest of the kids. He’s probably the one they go to for support, at least in the early years. There’s a distinction between him and the others that just wasn’t present, really, in the original IIs.

Is this good? Fuck no. Carter’s a fucking tween, he shouldn’t have to parent anybody! Is this still how it goes down? Probably, yeah. It still matters that it happens.

Fast-forward ten years. The youngest Alpha-IIIs have graduated. Carter is twenty-one. Jun, Rosenda, and Emile are… around sixteen (their ages don’t actually line up with the data on Alpha Company, but lets assume they do.) Thom is fifteen. They get pulled from the lineup, and then Operation: PROMETHEUS happens.

Three hundred of Carter’s surrogate children little brothers and sisters die practically overnight, and he can’t do anything about it. He wasn’t even there. How do you think that would feel? Especially when one considers the reason he was pulled from the active company: he could handle children was a leader.

Carter is described as being a “born leader” but in all honesty, that’s complete bullshit. His superiors only think that because admitting the truth would be too depressing, even for them. He is a good leader - a really good leader - but only because he had to be. Because there were five hundred children looking somewhere for guidance and he was the tallest one there. Carter stepped up.

Three years pass. Carter (24); Jun, Emile, Rosenda (19); Thom (18). Carter has been assigned various missions. I imagine this is where his calculated stoicism hardens into what we see in Reach. Yet, right now, he’s about to get possibly the worst assignment of his fucking life.

NOBLE Team is entirely comprised of teenagers. They have him wrangling TEENAGERS. As a job!

This is, of course, when he meets Kat (14) and the others - none of which are people we know yet, all of whom may presumedly be from either Alpha or Beta, which puts them firmly in the 14-19 age range. Ain’t that bitch?

And they die. Holy shit do they die! Every member of NOBLE Team other than him and Kat are replaced many times over!!! Now he doesn’t have to worry about missing the deaths of people he cares about because he’s right there and he can watch it happen! Horrific.

Seven years of this pass. Carter (31); Jun, Emile, Rosenda (26); Thom (25); Kat (21). This is about the time when Jorge (fucking FORTY) gets assigned to the team. Apparently. The dates are so weird with these guys, because there’s dialogue implying Jorge is the least-recent addition to the team, but that gives Jun and especially Emile barely any time (less than half a year???) to have settled in. If that’s the case then holy shit, Carter and Kat are way bigger badasses for surviving that long. That’s eight years of suicide missions with high turnover rates! What the fuck.

Anyways. Jorge shows up. Carter’s no longer the oldest. Jorge has leagues more experience, and is one of the original SPARTAN IIs. Everyone on the team (including Carter) probably thought Jorge would take over as leader. Carter shakes his hand, expecting to reorganize the command structure, and then this guy fucking calls him ‘boss.’ Carter has spent his whole life being an Older Brother with Single Dad responsibilities and the second an actual adult shows up the dynamic doesn’t change! He just has another guy he’s responsible for!!! What the fuck, ONI.

And let’s not forget about Kat. Oh, boy, let’s talk about Kat.

Kat, of course, is the only other member of the original NOBLE Team, which aside from being INSANE, also explains why the two are so in sync. Thank you, Jorge, for that single, ambiguous line of dialogue in the Long Night of Solace intro cutscene. Kat does, in fact, have Carter “dialed-in.” They’ve worked together for eight years and are also the only constants in each others’ lives. Carter has seen her grow up and probably helped. She’s his second in command. She’s the XO to his CO. He willingly cedes operational control over to her very frequently, to the point where she’s in charge of NOBLE Team for an entire third of Reach.

Now, whatever you think Kat and Carter are to each other* you cannot deny that they have the strongest connection out of any two members of NOBLE Team. Jorge’s death is likely more distant for Carter. It happened instantaneously in space, which still hurts, but fucking hell. Kat dies literally right in front of him. She has a hole in her head and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. Eight years (eight years!) and it all ends in a heartbeat, like her life didn’t even matter, and he couldn’t stop it from happening. It’s an abrupt, untimely, undeserved, and unworthy end for Carter’s closest friend and family. In the end, all he can do is be the one to carry her body to the escape pelican. How do you live with something like that?

That’s why, when Six and Emile (and Humanity’s last hope, I guess) are about to be slaughtered, Carter does as any good father/brother/commander would. He takes a deep breath, assesses the situation, and steps up.

*my vote is for ‘everything,’ because relationships (of any variety) between people who didn’t have childhoods can be very blurred and messy, especially if their bond is formed around the traumas of war and bloodshed during their formative years.

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616phyla · 2 years

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what i took from this is that shatterstar is still a gamer

#tell me about your fave turn based tactical rpg star #my only takeaway from this issue #lin.txt

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skyllion-uwu · 1 year

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So was there ever supposed to be a heterosexual explanation for Hugo's mannequin and his general obsession with Batman or is it literally he's gay but doesn't know what that is

#sky screams into the void #im only on issue 2 of terror but thats my main takeaway so far /hj

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aadmelioraa · 1 year

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devoting time and energy to preemptively countering the worst possible bad faith arguments about your art won't help you make better art, but it will make you miserable, in addition to almost definitely making your art worse

#i think this has been one of my main writing takeaways of the last year #you can't control how people approach your work #you can only control the work itself #this site is hell when it comes to critical engagement #how dare you say we piss on the poor etc etc #but this applies generally #obviously twitter and other platforms have the same issues #by 'better' i mean artistic quality but also other considerations #and that's all i'm gonna say about that right now

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poorlittlevampire · 2 years

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also just watched a video detailing a lot of the changes made in the regent’s park production of legally blonde and aside from their diverse casting none of the changes really seem necessary OR better. enid being a lesbian is not somehow lesser diversity than her being nonbinary. and also nonbinary lesbians exist, it’s not one or the other. a lot of the changes are superfluous so like. i don’t like them but it doesn’t really matter, but removing a characters identity as a lesbian IS a big change, and for a production that’s whole selling point is supposed to be diversity, it just seems like a really really shitty choice

#there was also a comment thread abt how the lyric change in gay european is supposed to address biphobia #bc the character says he’s straight and then his partner responds with ‘u weren’t yesterday’#and they changed his response to ‘and im beyonce’#and ppl said its bc implying someone cannot be bi in the original but the character isnt bi????? hes gay.#how is it biphobia if the entire point is the character is a gay man lying about being straight #and you could have an entire conversation about how THAT concept in general probably shouldve been reworked for an updated legally blode #but the idea rhat somehow... the issue in that song.... is biphobia............. insanity #and im bi so dont fucking say shit to me lmao #its just so stupid #anyways yeah i think tho that just leads into how i feel like #some people see identities such as nonbinary and bi as somehow more ‘progressive’ or more lgbt than cis gay people or binary trans people #and that shit is so fucking weird to me #i think it lowkey stems from like. the more otherness of being nonbinary or bi #and then that fascination with different identities got reworked into this pseudo wokeness #im just fucking saying buzzwords rn lmfaooooo but i think i make sense #a cis lesbian is not lesser than a nonbinary bisexual #i think thats just what it comes down to #or maybe im just overthinking heehee #but my main takeaway is that elle woods absolutely can be anyone and casting needs to reflect that #elle woods can be a poc and plus sized. she doesnt need to be anything but blonde. that is the only physical feature she requires #and anyone can be blonde!!!!!!!!#okay rant over goodbye

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whompthatsucker1981 · 8 months

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you said you think gay sex cats is the new duchamp's fountain. i dont disagree and i kinda see what you mean already but please elaborate

it was a silly and tongue in cheek way to say that a lot of people are getting mad about it in a way that implies reactionary views on art, and that there's no way to say gay sex cats isn't art that wouldn't also imply that the fountain isn't art. a funny meme image is a funny meme image, but it is also funny to overthink and recontextualize them as art.

and the reaction makes the comparison even more apt. neural net generated artworks are anonymized mass produced images, vast majority having no artistic pretension or meaningful content such as a thomas kinkade painting. gay sex cats was made with no intent to be art, but the discourse it has with audience reaction and its appropriation in derivative works make it so. why is gay sex cats not art if people talking about it negatively allow it to be called art? is art only things you find beautiful and valuable? if so, what is value and beauty, and how do you draw the line? if gay sex cats was still ai generated but had more "aesthetic qualities" would it be art? if someone copies the original image by hand with all its ai generated faults where is the value generated? does the original still have no merit of its own, even after appropriation as a digital ready-made?

but the main reason as to why gay sex cats is comparable to the fountain still is because it made a lot of people with bad takes on art really really mad. and that the pissed off tags wouldn't look out of place as reaction to modern art in the 1920s. art is a flat circle

EDIT: well. putting an addendum because in retrospect more people took either or both the op and image in face value and much more self serious than ever intended. a lot of people understood the tone i was getting at, and i still stand by the questionings i added on, but still for clarification. the original comparison is not serious. it's self evidently ridiculous to compare a meme image to a historically significant artwork, the comparison was only drawn because they were both controversial to an audience, who reacted denying their status as respectively as an image and as art, and that it was funny that the negative reaction people had to the original image explicitly denied its status as art, even if the meme never had pretension to be art, so it was funny to draw a comparison and iterate on that.

i did think it was valid to bring in questionings about art and meaning because that's the reaction i saw most and wanted to make people think about the whys, and that also i do not think it's valid to base your dislike on ai art on either grounds of questioning its position and value as artwork, or even as a question of ip theft. regular degular handmade art can be soulless, repetitive, thoughtless, derivative, unethical, open and blatant theft, and much more, and that does not make it any less of an artwork. neural nets are tools that generate images by statistic correlation through human input.

the unambiguous issue with neural nets in art is its use as a tool by capital, to threaten already underpaid and overworked working artists and to keep their labor hostage under threat of total automation. in hindsight i regretted not adding the paragraph above as it was a way in which people could either misinterpret or assume things about me, but hindsight is hindsight and there's no way to predict how posts would blow up. so shrugs. i had written more posts in my blog that elaborated on that because asks would bot stop coming. and i think my takeaway is that people will reblog anything with a funny image without reading the words around it, or even closely looking at the image.

#oobs im noticing some grammar error. common translating in my mind L #ai art discourse

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andmineisyellow · 4 months

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I'll be honest, my biggest takeaway from the sneak peek wasn't, "Yes Pen, read him for filth!" It was, "Oh Pen is totally shame spiralling out of control." Because yes, Penelope has every right to be upset with Colin and tell him why she is upset, but most of the emphasis in this scene is on just how much Penelope hates herself. She doesn't believe Colin when he compliments her dress (a direct parallel to scenes Pen has had with Marina and Edwina in the past), she calls herself a spinster even though she's only 19 (I'm willing to bet Portia refers to Penelope as a spinster at some point before this scene), she assumes Colin sees her as an embarrassment, and again she points out that even though she managed to change her wardrobe, she is still a laughingstock.

This whole scene does way more to demonstrate Penelope's insecurities than it does to paint Colin as someone who needs to grovel for forgiveness. If anything, Colin is handling the situation maturely. He openly communicates his feelings, he doesn't deny what he said, and it's clear he wants to work through the issue.

Penelope is so unhappy with herself that she's taking it out on him more than she should. It's easier to blame him for the one thing he said rather than force herself to look inward. But I think once Colin comes to her again with his plan to help her find a husband, this is going to shift. Penelope will be put in a position where she will have to reflect on those insecurities and Colin will be the one with her on that journey.

Which brings us back to Nicola talking about Penelope putting Colin on a pedestal. He might be off of that pedestal after what he said last season, but she still doesn't view him as a fully flawed human being yet. Once Penelope forgives Colin at the end of 3x01, it's going to open up her eyes and allow her to see Colin as a full human being and as her equal (not as her idol). This is how we get "You're my mess," and "You're the imperfect man of my heart."

#The Scene did not happen at the end of season 2 to cause conflict between Penelope and Colin all of season 3 #It happened to push both characters into seeing eachother in a new light #Penelope will no longer idolize Colin #And Colin will no longer view Penelope as a sweet friend who is in need of saving #they will finally see eachother for who they are #polin #penelope featherington #colin bridgerton #bridgerton #bridgerton season 3 #season 3 speculation #bridgerton spoilers #romancing mister bridgerton #thought bubble

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lordoftherazzles · 11 months

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My takeaway from the past 24+ hours...

There are so many of us that rely on ao3, whether you're a reader or writer. It brings us joy, it gives us an escape from the real world, and it lets us come together as a community to share stories and scenarios about our favorite fandoms and characters. The amount of posts I have seen on multiple platforms lamenting over the DDoS attacks is overwhelming - but with most of them comes a delightful cheer to the volunteers working to resolve this issue.

I've seen so many statements of praise for those volunteers, which is exactly what they deserve, and more. Can you imagine working for over 24 hours straight, on a volunteer basis, against something like this? They're the real MVPs, and I think our appreciation for them gets lost until moments like this rise.

With that said, here is my first real takeaway...

Don't bitch when ao3 does a donation drive. They work hard to keep the archive up and running, and with that costs money. Every server, every new addition or feature you want to see added to help make the site better, it costs money. The legal team that is defending fanfic authors??? MONEY. SO! DON'T! COMPLAIN!

I'm not saying you have to go out and donate your paycheck to ao3 - but I will say that, especially with this situation, if you can donate even a little bit to show your support, it means more than you probably realize, and even if you can't donate (which is totally okay), be kind to those who work on the archive. Send them kind words of encouragement, rather than flaming the archive because it's under attack - because yeah, I've seen people bitching AT ao3 for not working fast enough, or for it still being down. STOP IT.

My second takeaway...

Don't believe everything you see on the internet. Ao3 themselves have advised that the group claiming to take credit for this attack is to be treated with skepticism. And not only that, let's NOT automatically make assumptions about who is responsible just because of an organization's name. It's just a NAME, it doesn't identify a person's origin, background, etc. But I'm not here to dive into that much further. Point: I better not see any Sudanese hatred on my dash, or I will bite you.

My third takeaway...

Treat your fanfic writers with respect. We all now see first hand how much we depend on these stories. As I said above, for some it's an escape, a creative release, and a way to communicate with other people through similar interests. It's a beautiful creation, neither above nor below any other kind of literature.

Consider commenting, reblogging, kudos, anything you can to let the authors know you enjoyed and appreciate their works. Everyone is free to communicate in the way that suits them best, but every little bit is appreciated - as a fanfic writer myself, I can tell you that even a little heart emoji has made my day. It's like receiving a second kudos, and tells me that someone appreciated my efforts enough to give me a double thumbs up.

Any form of communication with the authors is appreciated. It lets them know that people are genuinely interested. We live in a world where INSTANT GRATIFICATION is taking over, but creations such as this take time. Talk with the authors, ask them about their wips, tell them they're doing a great job. Do NOT pester about "when are you updating next?" or the dreaded AI option - again, I will BITE PEOPLE if I see you doing this. Just...have some respect, show your appreciation, it's more than JUST FANFIC.

At the end of the day I guess this post is about being kind. Not pointing fingers or slandering people due to a name. It's about appreciating the things we do have, and not taking them for granted. Whether it's the brave cyber warriors currently fighting these DDoS attacks on the frontline, or the authors writing for not only their enjoyment, but for others too. Let's all respect one another, and show our support when and where we can.

HUGE THANK YOU TO THE VOLUNTEERS AT AO3, YOU ARE THE REAL MVPS!!!

#ao3 #archive of our own #fanfiction #razzy's rambles

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orionsangel86 · 1 year

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Hob Gadling - A Queer Romantic?

I have been listening to The World's End chapters of The Sandman on Audible lately and just finished Hob's Leviathan. I didn't pay this story much attention when I first read the comic, as I tended to read through the stories quickly and put more focus into the stories where Dream had a larger role. But one of the reasons I like listening to the Audible book is because it allows me to absorb each story more thoroughly and take my time thinking about each one and the (usually multiple) meanings behind them.

Hob Gadling is a character that fandom has fallen in love with. I think this is clear to anyone that takes even a partial glance at Sandman fandom. This isn't a criticism - Ferdie's performance as Hob in the Netflix show has done wonders for Hob's character. He has made his version of Hob very easy to fall in love with!

But the truth is that in The Sandman comics, Hob is a minor character who we only get to know very little about. The story Hob's Leviathan appears in The Worlds End Sandman book. We only meet him twice before this, once in The Doll's House, where we are introduced to him in Men of Good Fortune, and again in Season of Mists when Dream comes to let him know that he may miss their next meeting. In both these issues, Hob is introduced via the narrator, and therefore I like to think that we are given a fairly honest representation of the kind of person he is. We watch him grow and learn throughout the centuries in MoGF, but one of the major takeaways from this I believe is that he tends to always be on the wrong side of history. He makes bad choices and can be a bit narrow minded. He is rude and selfish and also rather self-absorbed. I actually think that the performance of the voice actor who plays Hob in the Audible book emphasises these character flaws making him even more unlikeable in many ways, though I am aware that this could just be my own experience and opinion.

But Hob's Leviathan takes a different view of Hob. Literally. The narrator of this story is a young boy of 16 called Jim. Jim met Hob on a ship travelling from Bombay to Liverpool in 1914. Jim was working on the ship as a cabin boy and Hob had bought his passage back to England - though it is revealled at the end of the story that Hob actually owned the ship they were travelling on. It is clear that at this point in time, Hob is extremely wealthy.

Jim attends to Hob throughout the journey, and grows very fond of him. In Jim's tale, Hob is a good man, who is kind and thoughtful and cares about others. He saves the life of a stowaway (who turns out to be another immortal). He is shown to be patient, and funny, and very intelligent. Jim waxes poetic about how smart Hob is, and how much he impressed him. It is particularly clear in the Audible book that Jim is taken with Hob, to the point that it could arguably be a crush.

It is fascinating how much more likeable Hob is when narrated from the viewpoint of someone with a crush on him, whether this story is exaggerated through rose tinted glasses is of course something to consider. All the tales in World's End are just that, tales. There is a constant undercurrent of exaggeration and make believe to them where even the other patrons of the inn question elements to each of the stories. We are not supposed to take these stories as absolute fact, rather they are supposed to reveal to us more about the narrators as well as their own experiences existing in this magical and strange world.

When it is revealled that Jim is actually a girl called Peggy in disguise so they can get work on the ships, the quite obvious crush makes more sense to a heteronormative audience, but what I particularly like about this story is its queer potential. See in the comic, it isn't really clarified if Jim goes by Jim because they feel more themselves as a boy, rather than a girl, or if they are disguising themself as a boy just to get work as a means to an end. I would argue that the latter is the more obvious interpretation. Jim tells the other World's End patrons that they are getting too old to keep up the disguise and will eventually have to stop working in shipping, and that when that happens, they will take on a new name, a new identity and do something else, but that for now, the patrons can keep calling them Jim.

*for a lack of clarity around the point in the comic, I am going to use gender neutral pronouns for Jim going forward*

Now from Hob's POV, he figured out that Jim was a girl, and they talk about it briefly along with the sea serpent they saw. I think that at this point, Hob is impressively progressive compared to the previous times we have met him. Now whether or not this is biased storytelling from someone who has a crush on him remains to be seen, but if we take Jim's word as truth, not only is 1914 Hob a fair and honest man who is willing to pay the way of a stowaway and fully respect the secrets of a young girl disguised as a boy so they can work on ships, but he's also totally comfortable flirting with them.

I like that he calls Jim the "handsome cabin boy". I like that this version of Hob, whether real or an exaggeration skewed by Jim's feelings for him, respects Jim's identity. Jim may be a girl in disguise, but Hob doesnt call her pretty, he calls him handsome.

It's all just a bit subtly queer and I like that for Hob (But then I would do, I'm a Dreamling shipper HA)

When Jim finishes their story, they state that they didn't see Hob again after that, but the comics later do give us a possible outcome to Jim's story...

We next see Hob in The Kindly Ones where he is mourning the death of his girlfriend Audrey. He briefly reveals that Audrey was the first person he had loved since Peggy, who was his lover until her death during the Blitz. Whilst it isn't made clear that Hob's lover Peggy is the same Jim that we meet in World's End, it is a bit too much of a coincidence. The timing adds up. If Jim was 16 in 1914, they'd be in their early 40s during the Blitz. Hob remains forever in his early 30s so I'd say its a safe bet that Jim eventually found Hob again and they were together. Hob loved them enough that he wasn't with anyone again until Audrey in the 80s. That's 50 years worth of mourning. A long time not to be with anyone, even for an immortal.

It's funny because we know so little about Hob, but one thing that I have seen commented on here a lot is that comic Hob is deemed to be as Straight as an arrow. Now I admit that the voice actor in the Audible book plays him very straight, but that is still only one interpretation.

All this is to say that I am fascinated with how the Netflix show will adapt this, since Hob in the show already comes across much kinder and more selfless than his comic counterpart. He already has an entire fandom viewing him as queer, and the comics certainly don't outright shut down such interpretations. There are moments in the comics that you have to wonder on. He does call Jim handsome rather than pretty, and when he talks to Audrey's grave he mentions his wives and loves as separate groups. He talks about finding it easy to get sex if you want it, and he talks about it in generally gender neutral terms. In Sunday Mourning Gwen reveals that she thought he was gay when she first met him, though her reasonings were that he knew so many dead people (a dark reminder that these comics were published at the height of the Aids epidemic). He reacts very badly to the news of Morpheus' death. He states on several occassions just how much he liked Morpheus, and he is one of the few people to wake up from the Wake with tears running down his cheeks. I would arguably state that its between Hob and Matthew as to who had the worst reaction to Morpheus' death, showing just how much both Hob and Matthew cared about him, and placing Hob on par with Matthew in the comics is a big deal. He seriously considers accepting Death's gift when she offers it, simply because Morpheus is dead. He doesn't, because at the end of the day, its just not in his nature to do so, and given he then dreams of Morpheus, I like to think that it was a test, that he passed.

When it comes to how the show will adapt all this, I genuinely think it will take a new approach with Jim/Peggy. I think they will be either a trans man, or at least non binary. But I think having Jim be a trans man is the better option. In the comics, Jim's tale is only very subtly queer, Jim clearly likes being Jim, but it seems like its a means to an end, a convenience in order to get work on the ships, rather than being something that is core to Jim's feelings on their gender. Besides, if we assume that Jim is indeed the Peggy Hob talks about in The Kindly Ones, then we know that Jim goes back to being Peggy when they get older and apparently continues living as a woman whilst they are with Hob, otherwise I doubt Hob would have referred to one of his greatest loves by a name they themselves rejected and only used she/her pronouns when talking about them. Nevertheless there is no reason for the show to take this approach, and if they DO decide that Jim should be a trans man, then their relationship with Hob is canonically a queer one. Trans men are men and if one of Hob's greatest loves is a trans man, then Hob is a queer man himself. I genuinely believe the show will take this route and I can't wait to see it.

Going back to my point about narrators bias, if MoGF, SoM, tKO, and TW are all narrated by a neutral third party, then this must be the true Hob. A not overly likeable rather selfish man. He has his good points, and he has certainly grown and changed over the centuries, and carries a lot of guilt for his past mistakes, but he is still quite self absorbed. Jim paints a picture of a rose tinted Hob that is far more the dreamy romantic older gentleman that took a young person under his wing. Which is fair enough.

The show is of course its own adaptation, with changes from the comics as it sees fit, but I do feel it's my duty to remind you that the show also has a narrator guiding the audience through its many stories. Dream of the Endless, Lord Morpheus, King of Nightmares and Prince of Stories himself. Take from that whatever you will.

;-)

#why yes i did just imply that show!hob comes across so likeable because we are seeing him from Dream's POV #what of it?#lmao #sandman meta #the sandman #sandman analysis #hob gadling #dreamling #dream of the endless #the worlds end #sandman comic spoilers #major sandman comic spoilers #the sandman comics

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unpretty · 11 months

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it's a spaghetti western from the 70s so i was prepared for it to be absurd. i was prepared for the racism. i was prepared for the slurs. i was prepared for the pants. i was only slightly baffled by the opening scene where the dusty old desert town was in michigan.

what i was NOT prepared for. what the poster and synopsis did NOT prepare me for. was that the main character is followed at all times by an ashen-faced witch narrating the plot through extremely high-pitched song. the witch is never explained. keoma sometimes approaches the witch just long enough for her to tell him he's doomed, and he glowers at her and rides away. it is unclear if the other characters are aware of or can see the witch. it's a regular old western about a suspiciously italian-sounding blue-eyed native american in bellbottoms killing former confederate soldiers, except the main character is being tormented by an operatic witch.

HE IS RIDING DAY AND NIGHT the witch sings as he is shown riding his horse. KEOMA YOU SHOULDN'T KILL THOSE MEN she sings as he rides to kill those men. keoma's friend tries to save a woman but there are too many enemies and over the next shot of keoma riding his horse the witch sings YOUR FRIEND TRIED TO SAVE HER, HE DID HIS BEST, BUT THERE WERE TOO MANY ENEMIES AND IT WAS A LOT. DON'T BE MAD. HE REALLY TRIED. and then keoma says the n-word in a thick italian accent but the witch has no commentary on that.

halfway through the movie keoma also starts narrating in song, but it starts with him singing SHE FINALLY SHUT UP and then the witch sings NO I DIDN'T before she lets him sing about his daddy issues for a while. at the climax of the film he just sings I WANNA DIE in a low monotone while becoming christ imagery to a background chorus of the witch telling him she told him this would happen.

anyway my takeaway from all this is that more films should feature narration in the form of unexplained and tonally-dissonant diagetic opera, but preferably at a pitch that doesn't hurt my ears

#original #we could NOT stop cracking up at the wanna die song #WANNA DIE WANNA DIE WANNA DIE #i was willing to give it a chance but as soon as he started singing i couldn't handle it anymore

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deathsweetblossoms · 3 months

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The Prisoners Throne thoughts

Spoilers beneath cut! Heads up for a critical review but a positive Jurdan review 😂

Also did anyone catch the Roiben and Kaye mention? It was subtle but it was there..

I’m a little all over the place with my initial thoughts on the whole thing, but here are my main takeaways:

The pacing was weak, especially in the build up (or lack of build up) to Oak’s discovery of The Ghost being the main poisoner of his mother. In the span of two chapters, Oak goes from incandescent rage towards Ghost and his sisters/family, to then processing all of that because of the Ghost’s death?

My issue here is we never really saw Oak talking to his family despite his POV lamenting that they avoid uncomfortable topics. He’s right. They do. And so I would’ve liked for a genuine heart to heart.

On the topic of the Ghost’s death — what the fuck? Also incredibly weak. We didn’t spend enough time getting to know Garrett for that death to be impactful in any way (unless you are me and you’ve been crushing on the Ghost for years). The attitude around the entire thing was so blasé that I genuinely thought he was going to be brought back to life in a few pages.. I just don’t understand what Holly was trying to do here.

Overall this probably needed to be a trilogy so she could develop more of these ideas, because even the romance with Oak and Suren felt a little off kilter to me.

Otherwise, every Jurdan scene was incredible. Cardan, despite his few appearances, carried this whole book on his back for me. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE OAK. The tragedy of his upbringing, the way he was supposed to have a happy childhood but was turned into a monster by Madoc is so bittersweet.

I think the abdication of being heir was solved a little too easily? But it did leave the door open for some speculation about a Jurdan baby 👀

I was right about the political problem being about the Undersea and I’m really wondering if she’s going to write that from Jurdan POV or from Nicasia.. so that’s exciting!

I wish we had more *Elfhame* in this book. Where was the magic of TCP? I just felt something was lacking and I can’t put my finger on what.

Suren having a rebirth moment like Cardan only adds to my criticism that Oak/Suren has too many similarities to Jurdan that I wish had been avoided — BUT. I love the imagery of it and I’m happy our monster girl got the happy ending she deserves.

A lot of these Cardan moments had me going absolutely insane — him protecting Jude? Him playing with Leander? Oak pointing out that Cardan is brave and picked up a sword to fight in the end as well? Omg!!

How do I feel? Weird. I’m NGL, I feel kind of strange about this book. Perhaps I need to reread the duology or the entire series.

Some other odd things I noticed:

Lady Asha is still alive and kicking it at court? Lol.

Oak thought Taryn was the kind hearted sister who wanted a gentler world

The amount of dead deer imagery (the deer heart in the Citadel, the dead deer on Madoc’s clothes) that made Oak feel ill at ease was equal parts cute and sad LOL. My sweet hoof boy 🥹

The removal of Valerian’s curse and the confirmation that there was, in fact, a curse. What does this mean for Jude going forward?

#the prisoners throne #jurdan #the folk of the air #tfota #oak greenbriar #the prisoners throne spoilers

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i-love-your-light · 6 months

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too many thoughts on the new hbomberguy video not to put them anywhere so:

with every app trying to turn into the clock app these days by feeding you endless short form content, *how many* pieces of misinformation does the average person consume day to day?? thinking a lot about how tons of people on social media go largely unquestioned about the information they provide just because they speak confidently into the camera. if you're scrolling through hundreds of pieces of content a day, how many are you realistically going to have the time and will to check? i think there's an unfortunate subconscious bias in liberal and leftist spaces that misinformation is something that is done only by the right, but it's a bipartisan issue babey. everybody's got their own agendas, even if they're on "your side". *insert you are not immune to propaganda garfield meme*

and speaking of fact checking, can't help but think about how much the current state of search engines Sucks So Bad right now. not that this excuses ANY of the misinformation at all, but i think it provides further context as to why these things become so prevalent in creators who become quick-turnaround-content-farms and cut corners when it comes to researching. when i was in high school and learning how to research and cite sources, google was a whole different landscape that was relatively easy to navigate. nowadays a search might give you an ad, a fake news article, somebody's random blog, a quora question, and another ad before actually giving you a relevant verifiable source. i was googling a question about 1920s technology the other day (for a fanfiction im writing lmao) and the VERY FIRST RESULT google gave me was some random fifth grader's school assignment on the topic???? like?????? WHAT????? it just makes it even harder for people to fact-check misinformation too.

going off the point of cutting corners when it comes to creating content, i can't help but think about capitalism's looming influence over all of this too. again, not as an excuse at all but just as further environmental context (because i really believe the takeaway shouldn't be "wow look how bad this one individual guy is" but rather "wow this is one specific example of a much larger systemic issue that is more pervasive than we realize"). a natural consequence of the inhumanity of capitalism is that people feel as if they have to step on or over eachother to get to 'the top'. if everybody is on this individualistic american dream race to success, everyone else around you just looks like collateral. of course then you're going to take shortcuts, and you're going to swindle labor and intellectual property from others, because your primary motivation is accruing capital (financial or social) over ethics or actual labor.

i've been thinking about this in relation to AI as well, and the notion that some people want to Be Artists without Doing Art. they want to Have Done Art but not labor through the process. to present something shiny to the world and benefit off of it. they don't want to go through the actual process of creating, they just want a product. Easy money. Winning the game of capitalism.

i can't even fully fault this mentality- as someone who has been struggling making barely minimum wage from art in one of the most expensive cities in america for the past two years, i can't say that i haven't been tempted on really difficult occasions to act in ways that would be morally bad but would give me a reprieve from the constant stress cycle of "how am i going to pay for my own survival for another month". the difference is i don't give in to those impulses.

tl;dr i hope that people realize that instead of this just being a time to dogpile on one guy (or a few people), that it's actually about a larger systemic problem, and the perfect breeding grounds society has created for this kind of behavior to largely go unchecked!!!

#hbomberguy #james somerton #idk if any of this is coherent it just needed to get out of me #misinformation #capitalism is hell!

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haunted-80s-arcade-game · 26 days

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My opinion is that Macklemore and Kendrick are two different situations. Kendrick’s drop is important because it’s exposing genuine issues within the music industry and exposing a literal predator, womaniser, and someone who has essentially been shitting on the history of hip hop and rap ever since he started his music career.

Macklemore’s drop is important because not only does it call out the IDF and America’s complicity in Israel’s genocide on a huge platform, but all the streaming proceeds actually go to helping Palestine.

What isn’t important is Drake. That’s why Macklemore only shouted out how he isn’t interested in Drake’s response, and doesn’t mention Kendrick at all, because no one should give a shit about what that whiny little bitch has to say and waste time waiting for the response.

But overall, the main takeaway from all of this, including Macklemore’s song, is that you shouldn’t let the actual drama distract you from talking about and supporting Palestine. Kendrick has won the “beef”. We all know that he has, and we need to respect what he did as a legitimate moment in history for the hip hop scene and for the music industry as a whole. That’s why I think viewing it as just “beef” is stupid anyway. Kendrick fucking executed that guy and now Drake should fall out of relevancy for good. I don’t give a shit about Drake’s response either. This isn’t celebrity drama, this was a hip hop legend cleaning up the scene for us.

Meanwhile, we should also be streaming Macklemore’s song because it sends all its funds to the UNRWA, and funding the Palestine relief effort is important as fuck right now. You can have whatever opinion you want on Macklemore himself, but streaming that song will help Palestine.

Basically, the Macklemore song and the Kendrick songs are important for different reasons, and they should be treated as such and not pitted against each other. Even Macklemore’s not pitting them against each other if you actually read his lyrics.

Don’t stop talking about Palestine. Don’t let celebrity drama distract you. Fuck whatever Drake has to say, and stream both Hind’s Hall and Kendrick’s diss tracks.

#kendrick lamar #macklemore #music

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spacelazarwolf · 7 months

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I keep seeing posts claiming Israel’s UN representatives are wearing gold Star of David patches at meetings now? I’m inherently suspicious that it’s misinformation tho

this is actually true.

context: gilad erdan, a representative of israel to the united nations, pinned a yellow star of david on his jacket that reads "never again" in honor of the people killed in the october 7th massacre, saying he will wear the badge until the massacre is condemned by the un security council. erdan is opposed to a ceasefire.

response: erdan's actions and comments have been solidly condemned by many in israel, including government officials.

"Erdan thinks more about the Likud party primaries than about Israel's political and diplomatic efforts," one senior official told Haaretz. “We always attack other countries when they manipulate the memory of the Holocaust, and here comes the Israeli ambassador and does the same on the most central stage of world diplomacy.” He went on to say that Erdan had been acting independently of the rest of the governmental apparatus since the beginning of the war. "The feeling is that there is a person there who does what he wants and is not a partner in our overall effort." Another senior official in the ministry said that Erdan “acts on his own and we are very angry with him. These messages are completely contrary to our policy. He did not consult with anyone. He is deeply involved in a political campaign and is taking advantage of his position as Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations to advance his personal interests.”

Yad Vashem chairman Dani Dayan also slammed Erdan's act, saying it "disgraces both Holocaust victims and Israel." "The yellow star symbolizes the Jewish people's helplessness and the Jews being at the mercy of others. Today we have an independent state and a strong army. We are the masters of our fate. Today we shall wear a blue-white flag, not a yellow star."

In response to Erdan's move, Avi Dabush, a Sderot local who survived the October 7 slaughter, wrote: "What a disgrace. There is a cap. As a survivor who waited for the army for 8 hours in a failure that destroyed everything we knew and thought about the country, I refuse to participate in this discussion. We are not Holocaust survivors. We rose from this inferno and will rise again. The ability to see everything that occurs to us solely through the lens of the Holocaust is part of the issue, not the solution."

(source)

important things to keep in mind: - erdan is the grandson of holocaust survivors, so while many have condemned his statements as offensive, it is likely they are not entirely selfish or politically motivated. - erdan is a member of the likud party, which is quickly losing popularity in israel and has a history of fraud and corruption. it is not a 1:1 comparison, but the....vibes are similar to that of trump's presidency.

my takeaway: personally, i agree that his statements were offensive. i think they trivialize a catastrophic event in jewish history and twist jewish pain and trauma to justify horrific levels of violence. even taking him in the best faith possible, that he truly is worried for the safety of the jewish people, that he's worried hamas will succeed in their mission of driving all jews into the sea, the reality is that bombing innocent civilians in gaza is not only doing nothing to get hamas out of power but is actively destroying the safety of jews both in israel and in the diaspora.

i also worry that a lot of gentiles are going to use this as an invitation to engage in even more softcore holocaust denial and holocaust inversion, block any soft of conversation about how the holocaust shaped the modern state of israel and modern jewish identity, and just generally be really really horrible. my hope is that there are more people who will see this for what it is, which is an idiot politician representing a crumbling government grasping at straws.

#ask avishai #i/p

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