I'm sorry but I feel like non-Australians just will not be able to 100% get Ca$h's character, like I don know if you can understand how impactful it is unless you know eshay culture and how harmful it is. Like I know Chooks, they went to my schools, they take my busses, literally every time I go outside I'm scared of them. Literally as I'm typing this there's a group of them on the bus behind me and it's making me anxious. Ca$h trying to tear himself away from his eshay group in order to protect his friend and safely be with his black nonbinary partner and their alt friend group is like. A massive deal I can't imagine the eshay types I've been close with ever doing that for me

Edit: Not to even MENTION having the eshay character be unapologetically queer and asexual like that is CRAZY. Like there's a reason Darren was so surprised if you're queer and an eshay most of the time you do NOT say it and to have it being portrayed so beautifully is. Gods.

Sandra-Lynn and Sklonda are having a "What Do We Do About Kristen" phone call as we speak

Sometimes I think about how liberating that moment must have been for Aziraphale:

Like yeah, scary too, I'm not trying to paint Aziraphale's experience in Hell as some kind of a fun trip.

But also.

Angel spent most of his existence (since Before the Beggining!) fearing something would happen to Crowley. With a big part of this 'something' coming from the very fact of them being close - can you imagine living with the knowledge that you are one of the reasons why your loved one is perpetually in a mortal danger?

And here? Aziraphale has a chance to change it. Maybe not forever (though I think Aziraphale would want to believe it is possible), but for a while for sure.

Scare all of Hell's demons away from Crowley. Make Michael of Heaven aware that holy water won't work on him. Convince everybody that Crowley has a lot, a lot more to offer, and he's the one to be feared. Make people who might hurt Crowley- Beelzebub, Hastur, Dagon, Michael - agree to left him alone for foreseeable future.

Can you imagine - living with a fear so big that it has become basically a part of your identity, and then get a chance to laugh the sources of that fear in their faces? Break away from that constant feeling of terror and hopelessness, believe that you can finally save your loved one in a way that matters most to you?

Yes, it didn't last long - for 4 years at most. Then all that happened in S2 made it clear they won't be left alone by their higher-ups, and that their de facto partnership is still something that can be used to put a collar of fear on angel.

But that exact moment? I think it was everything for Aziraphale.

Yennefer at Thanedd.

💙❤️Happy Holidays!❤️💙

unhealthily obsessed with the tone that Oscar piastri has when he climbs into the Singapore GP ‘23 ice bath and goes “Kim told me it was 23 [degrees], that dog”

not just me right. (it might be just me.)

i found the way he signs his name very cute

The Codfather a small redesign :)

Every single person’s Ninja designs are unique from each other even if it’s by the slightest amount and I just think that’s really neat :)

no but like kevin wright actually saying loki cares more about mobius than ANYONE they ever cared about is insane bc. anyone?? more than their brother?? more than their MOTHER????? that is a WILD thing to say i respect

New article with more details (from Jason Schreier who first broke the story). If you can't see it, I'll copy the whole text under read more.

About 100 employees were laid off in total (8%) and one of the main reasons listed is "underperformance," "sharp drop in popularity" and "poor reception of Lightfall."

So you know when for the last year and a half content creators have been shitting and pissing on the game as a full-time job and the amount of negativity and ragebait content became the only thing to make content about for them? Well they certainly won't take the blame, but I will let it be known. These people either don't understand the influence they have or they do and they're doing it on purpose, and I don't know which of these two options is worse, but I am 100% confident that their campaign of rage and hate contributed to this.

You don't base your entire community around constantly hating everything about the only game you play (despite clearly not enjoying it anymore) and somehow avoid galvanising thousands and thousands of people into perceiving the game negatively. Imagine being employees who have barely worked there for 2 years and the only community reception they've seen is 24/7 hate train for their work and then they get fired because of "poor reception" and "drop in popularity." How can they not take that personally? I am absolutely devastated for these people who delievered a banger product and who were met with an unrelenting barrage of toxic gamer children which ended up having more sway over their boss than them.

Which brings me to the next bit and that's FUCK THE CEO. He is now my mortal enemy #1. I am projecting psychic blasts directly into his brain. What an absolute spineless coward who is more willing to bow down to fucking gamers than to protect his own employees. This is absolutely rage inducing because this has happened before. From the article from 2021 about the toxic culture at Bungie:

Reading this shit from the new article absolutely fucking sent me into blind rage because I immediately remembered this. Another instance of employees suffering because of comments on reddit. And because of toxic players. And proof that leadership is not protecting employees and is instead siding with players.

Match made in heaven. Asshole gamer content creators and asshole CEOs, all of whom sit at home on piles of money made from someone else's labour. I hope they all explode. None of the people that worked on this game deserve this.

Another article with an infuriating comment from the CEO:

In an internal town hall meeting addressing a Monday round of layoffs that impacted multiple departments, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons allegedly told remaining employees that the company had kept “the right people” to continue work on Destiny 2.

"Kept the right people." Really. Veteran composers weren't the right people? Die!

Bloomberg article in full:

Bungie’s decision to cut an estimated 100 jobs from its staff of about 1,200 followed dire management warnings earlier this month of a sharp drop in the popularity of its flagship video game Destiny 2. Just two weeks ago, executives at the Sony-owned game developer told employees that revenue was running 45% below projections for the year, according to people who attended the meeting. Chief Executive Officer Pete Parsons pinned the big miss on weak player retention for Destiny 2, which has faced a poor reception since the release of its latest expansion, Lightfall. The next expansion, The Final Shape, was getting good — not great feedback — and management told those present that they planned to push back the release to June 2024 from February, according the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly. The additional time would give developers a chance to improve the product. In the meantime, Parsons told staff Bungie would be cutting costs, such as for travel, as well as implementing salary and hiring freezes, the people said. Everyone would have to work together to weather the storm, he said, leaving employees feeling determined to do whatever was needed to get revenue back up. But on Monday morning the news got worse: Dozens of staffers woke up to mysterious 15-minute meetings that had been placed on their calendars, which they soon learned were part of a mass layoff. Bungie laid off around 8% of its employees, according to documentation reviewed by Bloomberg. Bungie didn’t respond to requests for comment. Employees who were let go will receive at least three months of severance and three months of Bungie-paid COBRA health insurance, although other benefits, such as expense reimbursements, ended Monday, sending some staff racing to submit their receipts. Laid-off staffers will also receive prorated bonuses, although those who were on a vesting schedule following Sony Group Corp.’s acquisition of Bungie in January 2022 will lose any shares that weren’t vested as of next month. The layoffs are part of a larger money-saving initiative at Sony’s PlayStation unit, which has also cut employees at studios such as Naughty Dog, Media Molecule and its San Mateo office. TD Cowen analyst Doug Creutz wrote in a report Monday that “events over the last few days lead us to believe that PlayStation is undergoing a restructuring.” PlayStation president Jim Ryan announced last month that he plans to resign. Many of the layoffs at Bungie affected the company’s support departments, such as community management and publishing. Remaining Bungie staff were informed that some of those areas will be outsourced moving forward.

For $5 USD stop making everything about that goddamn show for five minutes.

@abihoffman

Alexi: It was really important that Lucy had agency this season.

Also Alexi: Takes agency away from Lucy at every possible point.