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reidscanehand · 3 years

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Spencer Reid x BAUfem! Reader

Category: Angst (this is very sad)

TW: The Reader is dead after losing her battle with leukemia and the subsequent grief surrounding her death and funeral.

++++ = change in perspective; ~~~ = passage of time; italics indicate a flashback

Based on a request by @you-sunshine

This request has taken me a long time to fill because I wanted to do it justice. I’m very lucky in that 99% of the requests I receive are really beautifully thought out and intricate in detail. I’m also very lucky that a lot of you guys trust me enough to allow me to write darker material, or material that touches on topics like grief, anxiety, trauma, drug abuse, etc. I joke about being angsty, but I’m truly honored to be given such a responsibility. This was actually quite cathartic to write and I hope you enjoy it as much as you can. I’ll have something slightly happier out soon. Love you all xx

~ “Those we love never truly leave us. There are things that death cannot touch.” - Jack Thorne ~

Aaron Hotcher has seen a lot in his time on this earth. He’s taken down countless criminals, beaten his own ex-wife’s murderer to death, fought tirelessly for justice and peace, but he knows this funeral is going to be one of the saddest things he’s ever witnessed. He’s been retired from the FBI for nearly five years now. In truth, he’d only met you a couple of times. He’d obviously been to the wedding about three years ago, but was seated on the groom’s side. You were a lovely person, he just didn’t know you terribly well. He’d heard you were sick, but didn’t really know the details. However, upon your passing, David Rossi had given him a call. After exchanging some pleasantries, Dave had been silent for a moment before sniffling and swallowing. It took Aaron a moment to realize Dave was crying.

“Dave, what’s-”

“Y/N died this morning,” Dave rasped.

“Oh, God, Dave...I’m so sorry,” Hotch breathed, a lump forming in his throat. He didn’t know you terribly well, but he knew the team loved you very much. That Spencer loved you very much.

“Um...I mean we all...we all knew it was coming, she’s...um...she was diagnosed last year with leukemia. She was in chemo for a while, but...she decided to stop treatment a while ago. It got worse and...and well...” Dave’s voice drifted off and he sniffled again. “I know you didn’t know her super well, but, uh, the kid...the kid is pretty far gone at this point and, um, I think it’d be great if you came to the funeral.”

“We’ll be there,” Hotch agreed immediately, “Jack and I both. Where do I need to send flowers?”

“Um, I’ll email you the funeral home details,” Dave had answered. “Um, Aaron, I need to ask a favor of you, actually.”

“Anything, Dave,” Hotch replied.

“Could you, um...could you escort Spencer to the funeral? I think the fact that you didn’t know his wife that well will, um...make this easier for him,” Dave had asked.

And that is how Hotch found himself now waiting outside apartment 23 having dropped Jack off with JJ. He knocks again, worried Spencer hasn’t heard him.

“Reid,” he calls. There’s a few muffled footsteps and the turning of a lock and the door opens to a disheveled Dr. Spencer Reid. Eyes puffy and red-rimmed, his hair in somewhat of a disarray, looking pale and sickly himself. His black suit makes his bright blue tie stick out even more than it usually would.

“Hey, Hotch,” Spencer croaks out, attempting a smile. He steps to the side and allows Hotch to walk into the apartment. Hotch doesn’t bother to take in the space, knowing, from his own experience, exactly the devastation he’ll see.

“Can I...can I ask for your opinion?”

Spencer’s quiet voice is so surprising it makes Hotch jump a little. “Oh, of course, Reid. Anything.”

“The tie…” he replies, looking down at it. “Does it look too, um...festive? Y/N...she, uh…” Spencer swallows, clearly not ready to say your name quite yet. “She asked me to wear it...it was her favorite.”

“Then you should,” Hotch responds gently, “but, no, it’s not too festive.”

Spencer nods, stuffing his hands in his pockets, shifting his weight uncomfortably from side to side, “Thank you, by the way,” he whispers. He meets Hotch’s eyes and tacks on, “For the flowers. Peonies are...were...were the flowers Y/N liked the most.”

“You’re more than welcome,” Hotch says, quiet enough to match Spencer’s tone.

“Thank you for coming to get me, too,” Spencer adds, looking away as he grabs his keys. Hotch only nods in understanding.The two men slowly make their way to Hotch’s waiting car in complete silence. They’re about ten minutes away from the graveyard when Spencer finally speaks again.

“How did you do this?” his raspy voice asks. The tinge of youth and innocence that always plays on Reid’s tone isn’t gone, but sounds lost, numbed by too much pain in such a short time.

Hotch takes a deep breath before responding, “I’m not offended by you asking me, Reid, but our situations are very different.”

“How?” Spencer inquires, still staring ahead.

“With Haley,” Hotch begins, the wound never quite as healed as he would like, “I always felt a strong sense of guilt. It was my fault she died, in many ways, no matter what anyone tells me to the contrary. I loved her, deeply, but I know that there was some guilt behind everything I did for her after we divorced.” Hotch chances a look at Spencer who nods dazedly.

“You have no reason to feel guilty about Y/N,” Hotch assures him, “and no matter how much you’re blaming yourself for this loss...that’s what it really is. It’s just a great, gaping loss.”

Spencer says nothing, but nods again as they pull into the parking lot. Hotch watches as the younger man takes a deep breath, looking down at his hands.

“Is it okay…” he begins, swallowing around his tears again. “Is it okay for me to still be wearing my wedding ring?”

“Of course,” Hotch assures him again.

“I wish I was...I wish I was stronger,” Spencer whispers, almost as though Hotch hadn’t spoken. “She was so strong...and...and now….”

“Spencer,” Hotch breathes, putting a hand on the younger man’s shoulder, “you’re one of the strongest people I know. I know this feels impossible, and it will for a while.”

Spencer nods and quickly squeezes Hotch’s hand on his shoulder before sniffling and getting out of the car.

++++

“Thank you all for being here,” Spencer begins, looking out at the crowd of people in the small Virginia graveyard. “My wife, Y/N Reid...had only a few requests when she started to plan her funeral. She sat me down at the hospital and told me that she wanted as few tears as we could possibly manage, and that she would like her team to deliver a profile...her profile. In addition to these requests, I selfishly had one of my own.” Spencer takes a deep breath, trying to pull it together. “I have always loved stories, as did Y/N. We read more than the average couple, the both of us, and we always….we always said that...if-if we had k-kids, they’d...they’d read a lot too.” He futilely wipes at his eyes before continuing, “So, I asked if I could tell some of my favorite stories about her and she said I could, as long as she had approval on which stories,” he smiles to himself, a single tear falling down his cheek as a light titter of laughter comes from the crowd. “This is the story of one of the first times I had a conversation with my wife,” Spencer continues, barely able to speak around his now flowing tears, “outside of the office, anyway. She told me she’d read my doctoral dissertation; my first dissertation from CalTech. I asked her why...”

“I wanted to know what you were like before you became the prestigious ‘Doctor Reid’,” you giggle, your hands shoved into your pockets. It’s a cold Wednesday in early November. A local case is giving the team nothing but headaches, especially Spencer, who’d been slaving away at his desk, barely functioning from sensory overload. The geographical profile keeps changing and, with it, the unsub’s victimology changes as well. The signature is always the same. Everyone’s in a bad mood, but Spencer could barely work, hardly able to form coherent sentences. You’d noticed because, of course you had. The poor genius was sitting at his desk, barely able to read a page in ten minutes, let alone his usual five seconds. With Emily’s permission, you’d decided to go for a walk to clear your head and had practically dragged Spencer along with you. It didn’t take much convincing from you to get Spencer to go with you, but he’s been unsuccessfully attempting to quell the steadily growing crush he has for you, and going for a walk with you proved far too tempting an opportunity to pass up.

“And?” Spencer asks. “What did you find?”

“Not much,” you admit, “you were very much the same.”

“Ah,” Spencer muses, scrunching his nose, “that’s disappointing.”

You stop walking, staring at him curiously, “Why would that be disappointing?”

“You went to find someone who wasn’t Doctor Reid-”

“And I was lucky enough to find him anyway,” you say, as though it’s simple and right. “Going to look for someone else and still finding you isn’t a bad thing Doctor Reid, in fact it’s quite the opposite.”

“You don’t have to call me Doctor Reid, you know,” he teases, blushing a bit. “You’ve been with the team for almost a year now. You can call me Spencer.”

“For this conversation, I think I need to be speaking to Doctor Reid, actually.”

“What conversation?” he looks down at you, trying not to get too distracted by how pretty your hair and eyes look gleaming in the soft sunlight of the late afternoon.

“I read your dissertation,” you smile up at him, “and I have questions.”

“Oh,” he manages to reply. He was...not expecting that. “Um...why?”

“Because,” you respond, walking ahead, “I’m no genius-”

“I don’t really think intelligence can be quantified-”

“Says an actual genius,” you tease. He looks down at you, eyes scanning your face, surprised to see nothing but pure, unadulterated admiration and kindness in your eyes. “Are you profiling me?”

“I’m waiting for the other foot to drop,” he deflects because he is, indeed, profiling you.

“What do you mean?” you tilt your head to the side.

“You’re joking, right?” He stares at you, attempting to not be too aggressive as he waits for the inevitable.

“I’m still lost,” you counter.

“When are you going to tell me that you’re only kidding or something?” he asks, trying not to sound snappy, but stuff like this always happens to him. No one in their right mind is ever interested in his work, so why would you be all of a sudden?

“Oh,” you nod, looking a little stunned. You stop for a moment, not looking at him, your mouth opening as you start to say something, only to stop yourself. “Yeah, um...I’m sorry if I’ve, um, if I’ve annoyed you, Doctor Reid. It won’t happen again.” You start to speed walk away and he just manages to grab your elbow to stop you.

“Wait, wait, wait,” he exclaims. “You’re...you’re not annoying me, Y/N, but...you can’t be serious.”

“Why can’t I be serious, Doctor Reid?” you ask, not looking at him even as he holds on to your arm.

“Because...because why would you want to know about my dissertation?”

“It’s not really about the dissertation, Doctor Reid,” you sigh, finally looking at him, “even though I’d be thrilled for you to tell me absolutely everything you know about anything, including identifying non-obvious relationship factors using cluster weighted modeling and geographic regression. It’s about...it’s about-”

“What?” he asks, very confused. You let out a deep sigh, looking down at your shoes. You look up and scrunch your nose for a moment before decisively continuing.

“It’s about getting to know you,” you whisper, looking him directly in the eyes. “I like you. And I don’t know how you’ve missed that...or maybe you haven’t missed it at all and you’re just purposefully avoiding it, in which case-”

He pulls you to him, hands resting on your upper arms, “You like me?”

“Very much,” you murmured, eyes drifting down to his lips briefly and back to his eyes. “Is that...is that okay?”

“It’s more than okay,” he manages to whisper before slotting his lips over yours.

“I guess I probably should have said,” Spencer jokes, “this is also the story of our first kiss.”

There is another small titter from the crowd and Spencer manages a small, tight smile as he allows the memory to finish playing in his mind, “My wife always knew how to make the best out of any situation. I think I speak for the whole team when I say it was her sunny disposition that got us through many a difficult case.” There are some nods of agreement from the team, even from Rossi who is struggling not to sob too loudly.

“She had a particularly generous soul,” Spencer continues, fruitlessly trying to push through the lump in his throat. He clears his throat before going on, “A soul that never stopped giving...not even in the end. When-when Y/N decided to s-stop chemotherapy treatments she told me while sitting up in her hospital bed and reading a book…”

“Did you know that the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau objected to a song sung at his bedside when he died?” you query. Spencer looks up from the papers he’s grading at your bedside, admiring how, even weakened by illness, you still look adorable and beautiful.

“Yes, actually,” Spencer replies. “Didn’t he tell the priest singing to him to stop?”

“Yes,” you giggle airily, “to be more accurate he said, ‘What the devil do you mean to sing to me, priest? You are out of tune.’ Those were his last words.” Spencer eyes you cautiously before putting away the last of his essays to grade and standing, crossing to your bed and sitting down gingerly next to you.

“What are you reading?” he asks, curiously. You turn over the book, showing him the cover, but not meeting his eyes.

“Famous Last Words,” you answer quietly. Spencer studies your face, but you still refuse to meet his gaze.

“Why...why are you reading that, Y/N?” he whispers, hating that he already knows the answer. You take as deep a breath as you can manage, an extremely difficult task for you nowadays.

“I need inspiration ,” you rasp, “for what I’m going to leave you with.”

“Y/N-”

“Spencer,” you interrupt, finally meeting his eyes. You take his hand and squeeze it tightly. “The cancer has spread further. Even if the doctors were comfortable continuing chemo, even if I wanted them to, it wouldn’t do any good.”

“Y/N, please-”

“Baby, listen to me,” you whisper, tears slipping down your cheeks. Spencer wipes them away, tenderly laying his forehead against yours, placing a kiss on your hairline. Even through your tears, you smile gently, “We have done all we can. The doctors have done all they can. I have done all I can. It’s time...it’s time to let it happen.”

Spencer breathes out a harsh breath, “And now, the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation will, per her request, deliver the profile of Y/N Y/L/N-Reid.”

The team crosses from their various places around the coffin to stand next to Spencer. Penelope squeezes his elbow from her position next to him. He grants her a tight smile as Luke takes her other hand, pressing a kiss to her knuckles for comfort.

“Y/N was a female in her mid to late twenties,” begins Emily, trying desperately not to cry.

“She was intelligent and kind,” adds JJ. “The kind of woman that made even the darkest days seem bright.”

“She remembered things about others that no one ever bothers to recall,” Matt manages to rasp out. He chokes back a sob, wiping away some tears before continuing, “Things like your second daughter’s favorite color, and what your third son’s favorite class at school is.”

“She drank more coffee than what seemed humanly possible,” Luke states. “Somehow even more than her husband.” There is a small titter and Spencer nods to Luke in appreciation.

“She was so beautiful,” gasps Penelope, barely able to breathe around her sniffling. “I’ve never seen someone continue to look glamorous, even on the hardest of cases. She’d come out of the smoke of an arson fire or the siege of a shoot out looking as flawless as she was going in.”

“She was the best profiler this team ever had,” rasps Rossi abruptly. “It takes a very strong soul to look evil in the face every single day and somehow still smile and recognize that even the worst of unsubs are just humans too.” It’s this admission from Rossi that gives everyone pause. There are several strong sniffles and Penelope begins to subtly pass round a pack of Kleenex.

“She-she was…” Tara begins, “she was the kind of friend you always dreamed you’d have. And we were so lucky to have known her.”

There is another huge pause as the team moves to the side, leaving Spencer alone again. He gets another squeeze on the shoulder from Emily before she moves back to her previous spot. He looks at the grave in front of him, barely seeing it through the unshed tears in his eyes.

“My wife was always somehow able to see the good in everything,” he almost whispers, barely able to speak. “But I doubt even she would be able to see this as anything but what it is...a massive, painful loss. I think this goes without saying, but I’ll leave you with this, Y/N was the greatest thing that ever happened to me. To a lot of people, actually. And someone so wonderful hardly deserves an ending like this. So, to quote her favorite of the famous last words: as he died Sir Arthur Conan Doyle grabbed his wife and said, ‘You are wonderful’. And nothing could be closer to the truth of my wonderful darling, Y/N.”

~~~

“Hey, Boy Wonder,” Penelope says. She’s standing in his doorway pretending to not notice the books scattered everywhere behind him, pretending not to notice the blankets piled on the couch that he clearly had just exited, pretending not to notice the coffee cups haphazardly placed around the room, and pretending not to notice how horrible he knows he looks. It's been a week since your funeral. Your mother’s called a few times to check in and he’d answered the best he could, but Spencer hasn’t left your apartment. He hasn’t showered in days, has been living on coffee and the occasional spoonful of peanut butter and his own tears. He feels numb. He’s not surprised to see Penelope, of all people, attempt to come and visit him.

“Hi, Garcia,” Spencer rasps, his voice incredibly raw. He steps to the side and lets her come in.

“I come bearing gifts,” she attempts to sound bright, but Spencer knows she’s sad too. Knows that he’s not the only one suffering. She places a fruit basket on the side table near the door.

“Pineapple and bananas, and then some nuts and seeds,” she tells him, gesturing to the basket. He wants to respond, Spencer really does, but he just stares at her. Garcia’s smile fades slightly when he doesn’t reply, “The nuts and seeds have magnesium, and then the-the pineapple and banana have naturally occurring-”

“Serotonin,” he interrupts, gruffer than he means to. He clears his throat before continuing, “Thank you, Garcia. It’s appreciated.”

The pretty blond huffs out a gentle breath before meeting his eyes again, “I’m not even going to ask if you’re okay, 187, because...because I know you’re not. No one would be. But...um, I actually...I have something else for you.” She shimmies the laptop bag off of her shoulder and stares at him.

“Uh, Garcia, I don’t-”

“I should say,” Garcia interrupts, with only a little more force, “that Y/N has something for you.”

Spencer opens his mouth to speak but nothing comes out. He hasn’t said your name since the funeral, hasn’t allowed himself to.

“Sorry,” Garcia states quickly, “I should’ve...I should’ve...said that differently. Um, she recorded a final message for you with strict instructions to bring it to you one week after the funeral.”

“A message?” Spencer repeats, barely able to comprehend what’s being said.

“Just a recorded voice message,” she clarifies. In a matter of minutes, Spencer and Garcia have cleared a small area on the couch so that they both can sit, Garcia’s laptop settled on the slightly cleared off coffee table. She quickly locates the file and hovers her hand over the spacebar.

“I haven’t listened to it,” she blurts, suddenly. “Just so you know.”

“Okay,” he replies numbly. She glances at him, still apprehensive.

“I’m just letting you know that...I don’t know what this is going to be like.”

“That’s okay,” he responds, voice barely above a whisper.

“I just want you to know that-”

“Garcia,” he interrupts, only a hint of sharpness to his tone, “this is going to be difficult no matter what you say.” She doesn’t look at him. Awkwardly, he reaches out and gently pats her shoulder. “It’s okay.”

She attempts the tightest of smiles before nodding. Spencer retracts his hand back to his own lap as Garcia presses the spacebar.

“Hey, Spencer,” your voice rings through the computer. He chokes out a sob. He’d been avoiding listening to old voicemails, old videos, anything of this nature because it was just too hard, but to hear you, and to hear your recent self, your soft voice tinged by illness and exhaustion, was almost too much to bear.

Penelope hits the space bar, pausing the recording, “Should I keep going?”

“Yeah,” Spencer whispers, not looking at her, arms hugging around himself.

There’s a long pause on the recording before your voice continues, “This is so fucking sad, isn’t it? This might be a stupid idea, but, um, I’ve asked Penelope to bring this to you the week after the funeral. I know that you’ve been trying to read and probably not sleeping much...I also know the apartment is a mess, but...that’s how grief works, I guess.”

He smiles slightly at that, glancing around the apartment. The books everywhere, the piles of blankets where he’d been attempting to sleep, the coffee mugs...you’d known him so well it hurt. Tears well in his eyes with the futile wish that he could somehow be stronger for you. That the apartment was clean and he was adjusting quicker. But he also knows that a quick adjustment would feel like disrespecting your memory. Spencer feels Penelope watching him and realizes she’s paused it again.

“Keep going,” he urges, “please.” She nods and taps the space bar, a deep breath playing on the speakers before you continue.

“I love you, Spencer. And I know I’ve said that to you almost every day for four years, but I need you to know that...of all the things in my life...” you’d taken a deep breath and swallowed thickly, clearly trying not to cry. “I have had a wonderful life. I had a great childhood, I got to live my dreams and work for the FBI, I had awesome friends and a fantastic family...but the last four years have been...the absolute best thing that has ever happened to me. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

Spencer doesn’t even try to stop the tears spilling down his cheeks now. Best thing that ever happened to you? Spencer is nearly 39 years old and, other than the ten months he’d spent talking to Maeve, he’d always believed, until he met you, anyway, that he’d be alone forever. And he’d been as content with that fact as one can be, but you? You’d saved his life, saved his heart, really. And he’s not sure he’ll ever be able to recover from this.

“I’ve never been a pragmatist, or anything like that, but until I met you....I don’t know that I ever believed in it all. I’m not sure that I’d ever really believed in true love and...and magic, really. But, then, you came along....and, suddenly...suddenly, not only was I in love, but I was in love with a man who can pull a nickel out of thin air.” You let out a breathy laugh and Spencer’s heart lurches as it turns into an intense cough that you’re clearly, painfully trying to quell. After another small pause, you continue, “I don’t have much time left...and time...time has never really seemed to matter as much before...but... all I want now is more time with you. That’s greedy, I guess. I got to spend four years loving and being loved by you...that’s enough for a lifetime.” You pause, clearly crying, sniffling over the recording a bit. “I know what I want for my eulogy won’t be easy for you and I’m sorry, but I have one more dying wish to ask of you, my darling.” You take a deep breath, obviously trying to keep your voice even.

“Take your time. Live the life I can’t anymore. Keep being the extraordinary man you are. The world needs more people like you...strong, brilliant, kind, brave, silly, wonderful...and willing to make the world a better place. Take your time, Spencer.” You pause again, a sob breaking through the sniffles. Another breathy laugh leaves you, “I don’t want to say goodbye to you...but this recording has to end sometime. As you know, I’ve been reading famous last words...trying to figure out something to leave you with...I know his actual last words were ‘Oh fuck’, which feels appropriate, but just before that Roald Dahl said, ‘I’m not afraid, you know, it’s just that I’m going to miss you all so much’.” You’re fully crying on the recording now, the sobs ringing through the speakers. You sniffle after a moment, “God, I love you.” And with that, the recording ends.

Spencer stares ahead blankly, tears flowing so freely that the collar of his pajamas are wet. He can’t even look at Garcia, though he can hear her trying to stifle the tears. He’s finally able to break eye contact with the computer and look over at Garcia, trying to silently sob. He looks at her, now barely able to contain their mutual sadness.

“Thank you,” he rasps out, before crashing into her with a huge hug. The two of them exhale, both letting out enormous sobs. “Thank you for giving us this,” he chokes out.

“What do you mean?” Garcia asks.

“Thank you for giving me a way to say goodbye,” Spencer sighs. “I’m not better...I don’t think I ever will be, but...just, thank you.”

“Anytime, 187,” Garcia breathes. She pulls away from him and stands up, wiping off her eyes. “Are you okay? Do you need me to stay here?”

“No, you go on home,” Spencer replies, “I’m sure Luke is waiting for you.”

“He’ll be fine if you need me,” Garcia assures him. Spencer shakes his head and hugs his friend goodbye, thanking her again as she leaves the flash drive with your voice recording on it.

When the door is closed, the sun is beginning to set through the windows of Spencer’s apartment. He takes the flash drive and places it on a shelf among some other deeply prized antiques. He looked around in the quiet light of the afternoon sun. He hasn’t quite stopped crying since the funeral, but the tears are less obtrusive now, less numbing. As though the knowledge he can still feel is better than nothing at all.

“Well,” he whispers, knowing that, somehow, you can hear him, “I guess I should clean up. I have a life to keep living for you, my love.”

~ “Unable are the loved to die. For love is immortality.” - Emily Dickinson ~

~~~

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just-a-fangirl13 · 3 years

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MacGyver s5 theories..Time jump? MacRiley? Trust issues and more

OKAY! So we finally got our first (3) SNEAK-PEEKS at 5x01 and I have soo many thoughts.

Here are the links incase you missed it: https://just-a-fangirl13.tumblr.com/post/636474561109639168/the-new-sneak-peeks-for-macgyver-5-01-are-out

Firstly let’s talk about the elephant in the room...The TIME JUMP....?

MacGyver writers really like their time jumps. From season 3 to season 4 we lost about 18 months, and in that span of time the Phoenix shut down, Mac and Desi dated, lived together, had a pet? and a “nuclear breakup” and then proceeded to live their lives, Riley also started seeing someone then moved in and had been living with him (Aubrey) for about 6 months and of course Bozer directed his own movie. So clearly a lot happened.

This 10 month jump might not be as eventful (or can it be?!) since it seems that the writers have included the pandemic into the storyline. Now if the characters were quarantined like we were I have tons of questions..

IS THE PANDEMIC OVER IN THEIR WORLD? WAS IT A DIFFERENT KIND OF PANDEMIC OR COVID? WHAT ARE THE REPERCUSSIONS?

DID THEY STILL GO ON MISSIONS? or were they literally just doing nothing like the rest of us? *I wonder if Mac burnt down the house....hehhehe*

DID RILEY MOVE OUT? or was she stuck quarantining with Mac and Desi?

DID MAC AND DESI BREAK UP? I cannot imagine them quarantining together for 10 months and maintaining their sanity. 10 months is a long time for MacDesi and if they survived it... It is possible them breaking up this second time around (for MacRiley to happen) just got a whole lot more complicated.

So there are 2 possibilities because we know Mac and Riley have to happen at some point RIGHT?!! *I WILL LOSE IT IF THEY DONT*

1. Mac and Desi broke up a few months in and this press release photo has more going on then meets the eye. At face value it seems like Mac and Desi might still be dating but I doubt that very much. Why? ill talk about that in a minute. Also if they broke up a few months (into the 10) that would leave sufficient time for Mac to get his head back in the game and if he and Riley happened then she wouldn't look like a rebound. (OH GOD PLEASE BE THIS!!)

2. Mac and Desi haven't broken up but knowing their track record they haven't exactly had a smooth 10 months. Now this would mean that when they do break up eventually, (there is a certain chance they may not at all and MacDesi might be endgame...NOOO) we will actually see it happen but I dont know why the writers would want to risk pulling the show down by anchoring Mac and Desi in this chaotic relationship not a lot of us are even fans of and slowing down the whole timeline of things. This is the theory I am not a big fan of but I guess we will know in the next 48 hours.

Okay now that we have the relationships out of the way lets talk about the plot.

We know Codex isn't done yet. LeLand is still out there and they seem to be the main focus this season. Again we dont know much about this and only time will tell.

The team does seem to be back and going on their usual missions but you have to remember there are around 4-6 episode from the original season 4 that never aired (due to covid). Plus the show runner changed so it will now be an alternation between the old s4 episodes that are definitely more Codex focused and the usual missions that might somehow tie into the big picture (even if they dont im not complaining!) This will give them time to develop the other plot lines and hopefully give us some happy moments too! (can we not kill anymore of Mac’s blood relatives? oh wait THEY ARE ALL ALREADY DEAD!!)

Another HUGE THING that I am very happy that the writers decided to tackle in terms of inter personal drama is trust issues.

As we all know when Mac kinda-sort-of went rogue towards the end of season 4, Riley was the only one who had complete faith in him while Matty and Bozer knew there was clearly more going on....BUT Russ and Desi didn't stop for even a second to consider that Mac might be doing the right thing.

Now you have to know this. Russ and Desi are not only new to the team but the world is very black and white for them. (Desi more than Russ actually) While Russ did some very gray area things he always thinks like a soldier just like Desi. For them people are mostly good or bad. You cant do (kinda) bad things for good reasons.

As we saw in the sneak peek where Russ doubts Mac and Mac gives Russ a piece of his mind about not trusting him, there is definitely a lot of conflict going on. (I expect Mac to have the same issue with Desi because if I remember clearly unlike Russ, Desi never apologised to Mac about holding him at gunpoint. How pronounced that issue is and if Mac and Desi break up because of it..only time will tell.)

I have to say though Mac telling Russ off was pretty amazing. It seems like he’s finally talking his mind and not taking shit from people. I cant wait to see more of sassy Mac!!! (wonder what brought that out...hmmmmmmmhmmm)

The events of season 4 are definitely going to influence a lot of what happens in season 5 and I cant wait!! Less than 48 hours to go!!!!!!

P.S. One more quick thing. Everyone has been saying that since MacGyver now has a LA unit Jack might be back since George Eads wanted to be closer to LA but all the shooting for MacGyver happened in Atlanta so that problem might have been resolved (I dont know how likely or unlikely that is its just something that came to my attention).

Also our favourite psychopath aka Murdoc could show up in S5 too since David Dastmalchian the actor who portrays Murdoc is also in LA right now (or at least he was till the 29th of Nov) along with Meredith Eaton for whom travelling to Atlanta is dangerous because she has several health issues. (I am happy they haven't written her out completely just because of COVID) We shall just have to wait and watch!

#macgyver #cbs #cbs macgyver #angus macgyver #riley davis #macriley #macdesi #desi nguyen #wilt bozer #russ taylor #matildawebber #lucas till #tristan mays #macgyver fandom #one day to goo #macisback #macisthebest #macgyverstills #macgyverseason5

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violetwolfraven · 4 years

Note

I already asked this in the @s, but I’ll ask it here too, javid with either 28 or 23, (I don’t really care) pleaseeee :0

We adopted a kid/kids.

and

What if we kissed because we were arguing and I really wanted you to shut up but we both enjoyed it? Lol jk... unless..?

How about kind of both? Lol. Get ready for a canon-era Something to Believe In scene rewrite with a side of The Truth About the Moon! Also, this gets corny as fuck towards the end FYI.

...

Davey was at home and he couldn’t decide if he wished he wasn’t or not.

He’d helped out at the Lodging House, comforting the others, as long as he could, but eventually, almost everyone was already asleep or dead on their feet, and Race just gave him a look that said he saw how drained Davey was, and told him to go home.

Besides, he needed to get Les to bed and tell Sarah what had happened, as she wouldn’t have heard with her factory job.

So, now, he was out on the fire escape with his twin, while their mom put Les to bed after he cried himself to sleep.

Davey wished Jack making Les cry made him angrier.

“Maybe he had a good reason, David. Maybe he—“

“Shut up, Sarah.”

His tone was barely above a whisper, but Sarah stopped talking for a second.

“David,” she said slowly, “We don’t have all the facts. We know Jack... we know he scabbed on us, but...”

She trailed off, seeming to realize there was no good explanation for this. There were no facts either of them could think of that would make this better.

“The point is, we don’t know what was going on in his head,” she said finally, “Jack’s smart. Maybe there was—“

“Shut up, Sarah!”

Davey turned around, ignoring how now that he had, she would see him trying not to cry.

“Saz, we both know there is nothing you can say to make this better, so why don’t you shut the hell up?!”

She only stared at him levelly, “Is it really me you’re angry at?”

Davey shook his head, “No. No, it’s not. I should be cursing Jack’s name; not yours. I’m sorry.”

“You’re not angry at him, either,” Sarah realized, “You can’t be. You’re angry at—“

“If you finish that sentance, I’m going to say something I’ll regret.”

Sarah stopped talking.

“Look, Saz... just... go. Please go.”

She sighed, “David, things don’t always have to make sense. Feelings rarely do, and... and that doesn’t make it better—in fact, it probably makes it worse—but... damn. I don’t know how to explain this. Just... I’ll go inside if you want me to.”

When Davey didn’t tell her to stay, she climbed in the window and left him alone.

Davey sighed. He was so messed up right now. He was so messed up because... because he wasn’t angry at Sarah. He wasn’t even angry at Jack. He couldn’t be, because...

Long story short, he was angry at himself, because he couldn’t be angry with Jack.

Davey looked up, seeing the moon shining above. At least one thing still made sense.

“Latin name: Luna,” he muttered absentmindedly, “Hundreds of thousands of miles away from here.”

He remembered reading about this. Thinking back on every fact he remembered about the moon was certainly better than thinking about his own emotions.

“No signs of water, or life, or atmosphere.”

At least facts never changed on him. They made sense. Davey wished everything could.

“This is the truth about the moon. The facts are black and white.”

He smiled, despite himself, thinking about only a few days ago, when things were simpler and nobody had gotten hurt yet.

About a boy who made it so not everything had to make sense, because you felt good when he smiled at you, and that was enough, even if it didn’t make sense. Facts didn’t have to matter.

Davey couldn’t deny what he was feeling, even if the facts didn’t make sense.

Jack was a boy.

Jack made Davey feel like no one ever had.

He smirked at the sick sense of humor the universe had and mumbled his thoughts to himself.

“Shall I try to deny all I know from moments that’s gone? Would my heart let me be someone different from me from now on..? No.”

Davey wished he could be angry, but he couldn’t. Because even if it didn’t make sense, he knew how he felt.

And he was completely, stupidly, still in love with Jack Kelly.

That handsome, charismatic, dime-novel cowboy who still believed in a fantasy called Santa Fe.

As confusing as they were, Davey still had some facts about Jack, and he might as well try to organize them.

“Given name: Jack Kelly. Someone who seems to get by with a smile.”

Jack was smart in his own way, could even have a way with words, sometimes, but he had never gotten an opportunity to go to school, or sit down and read a book, and often made his points by appealing to emotion instead of logic; something that was the opposite of how Davey had always done it, yet somehow was still effective.

“Having no substance, he compensates with style.”

It was so effective that he had everyone believing what he said. He had Davey believing in what he said, when he said he cared, when he said he wouldn’t give up.

The truth about that boy was that he was a leader, a protector, or at least everyone thought he was, and he had the kind of eyes that drew you in. That made you want to keep on looking at him and make him see you, too.

Davey still couldn’t quite be angry, but bitterness definitely crept its way into his tone.

“And if I first thought he was who he claimed he was, it’s just because that kind of boy must be good at what he does.”

Davey was so stupid. Jack had admitted that he had a way of improving the truth. He had proved that he didn’t have a problem with lying to survive.

The problem was that he was so good at improving the truth that everyone believed his truth was the real, actual truth.

Revising a previous thought, he lied to survive or to get what he wanted.

And he was too stupid to see that despite all he said, his dream was really of a home, of a family, and it was right in front of him. Santa Fe was nothing he didn’t already have and if Jack still couldn’t see that after throwing away what he had, then... then let him throw it all away and fly away to Santa Fe.

“Santa Fe,” Davey mumbled sarcastically, “You’re the scene of a dream, not a plan.”

A lovely, dream, sure, but nothing that was really out west, that was really real anywhere but right here in New York.

“The dream of a boy, not a man.”

Davey took a deep breath, realizing that he wasn’t close to tears anymore. Sorting through his thoughts and facts, about the boy and about the moon, had worked, for the most part.

He looked up. The moon was still there. It always would be.

“Latin name: Luna.”

He wished the boy was, too, like he’d made it seem like he would be.

It was what had made Davey fall in love with him, how he was clearly always there for his friends. His family.

He remembered that first day, how a few different kids had come up to him and Jack had hugged them, suggested how to fix a problem, helped patch up a scraped knee, all with the patience of a loving big brother even with no blood tying him to the others.

As much as Davey had loved his charisma, his fearlessness, it was that softer, gentler side that he’d really fallen for.

Maybe it had just been an act, but Davey was still in love with him, no matter how much he wished he could just be angry and hate him.

“Lovely name: Jack.”

“Davey?”

Davey reeled back towards the window as he realized who was climbing up next to him.

“Dave, wait, please.”

That tone in his voice, the broken, almost-crying one, was what made Davey pause.

“Give me one good reason not to go inside and lock you out here.”

Jack sighed, “I... I don’t have one. Not for me. I don’t blame ya if you never want to see me again, but... here.”

He held out a paper, and Davey took it, reading with suspicion.

“Katherine wrote it,” he explained, “Pulitzer has an old printin’ press in his basement we can use, and the idea is to pass these out to all the workin’ kids of the city. If we play our cards right, it might just work, but... but I can’t do it alone. And I know Race. I know he won’t so much as talk to me right now, but we need him to get the other fellas to help. Kath’s busy gettin’ some friends who know how to work the press, so... so I need you to get through to him. He’ll listen to you.”

“And who’s fault is it he won’t listen to you?”

Davey hadn’t thought he would be able to summon that much ice in his voice, but he was glad he could.

Jack took a shaky breath, “Mine.”

As he finished reading it... the article was good. Really good. It might actually work, if this was for real.

“Jack Kelly,” Davey warned, “I swear to God if you are bullshitting me right now, I will let Spot Conlon push you in front of a carriage. He already offered to do that, by the way. Race declined.”

“I’m not bullshittin’ you,” Jack promised, “I swear on my life, I—“

“What’s that worth?” Davey snapped, not meaning a word of the angry rant he stepped forward, getting in Jack’s personal space, “Two days ago, you told me you’d give your life for this strike, for these boys, and you betrayed them! You broke their trust, Jackie! You broke my trust!”

“I know, but—“

“No!” Davey shouted, “You don’t get to voice an opinion! You’re supposed to be the one that protects everyone! You know that more than a few of them cried on my shoulder tonight because they saw you as a big brother and you abandoned them? What—for a city you’ve never seen?”

Jack looked like he was going to cry. Davey tried to act like that didn’t bother him.

“Ya know what? Kath is right. You’re crazy, Jack Kelly. You paint a place you’ve never seen and call it home. You say you want a family and ignore the one right in front of you. And you are a goddamn idiot for trading your family in for a place where you will never find what you’re looking for.”

“I... I didn’t do it for Santa Fe.”

Davey scoffed, “Then why?”

Jack’s eyes still had something broken inside, but some of the strength from before everything started to go to hell was starting to come back.

“I did it for you.”

“What?”

“I did it for you,” Jack repeated, louder, “Pulitzer threatened you, by name. He mentioned Crutchie and Les, too, but he said he’d come after you and... dammit, I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let you go to the Refuge.”

“This was always going to be dangerous, Jack. That’s not good enough.”

“You don’t know nothin’ about the Refuge.”

“I knew the risk when I signed on to this strike with you!” Davey argued, “I knew from day one it could end in me goin’ to jail getting hurt or even dying, but I don’t care.”

Jack glared at him, and as he took a step forward, his voice sounded haunted and strong all at the same time.

“You have no idea what you’re talkin’ about.”

“What the hell are you—“

Davey stopped as Jack turned around, having pulled his shirt off most of the way, revealing...

Deep, criss-crossing scars across his back. More than Davey cared to count and certainly enough to shut him up.

“Snyder thinks it’s funny,” he said bitterly as he put his shirt back on, “First time was when I was 13. I got out the next night, but he got me again when I was 15, then again when I was 16. Each time, I barely made it out alive. Do ya think I would ever let one of mine go through that if I could stop it?”

“I ain’t one of yours,” Davey tried to argue.

“No, you ain’t,” Jack grumbled, “Mine let me protect ‘em.”

“I don’t need your—“

“Davey, don’t you get it?” Jack yelled, grabbing Davey’s shirt as he got all up in his face, “Pulitzer knew exactly how to get at me! He knew who to threaten because you won’t let me protect ya, but you’s probably the one I wanna protect the most! So hit me if you want, but agree to the Children’s Crusade because we don’t have time for this!”

Davey grabbed Jack’s wrists, “I ain’t gonna hit you, Jackie.”

“Just do it!” Jack shouted, “I know I deserve it! Kath already punched me in the face and she apologized but we both know I don’t deserve that shit because I’m a traitor and I hurt everyone including you so just—“

That was when Davey kissed him, needing him to shut up shut up shut up. To stop talking about getting hurt like he deserved it, to just be okay.

Jack gasped against his mouth and Davey almost pulled away, but then Jack was desperately kissing him back, gripping his shirt like it was a lifeline and half-sobbing as Davey let him pull him in closer.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered as they pulled apart enough to breathe.

“We don’t have time for that,” Davey whispered back, “Be sorry later. Rally the troops now. I’ll meet you at the Lodging House.”

“Wait,” Jack said as Davey was about to climb in the window to grab Sarah and Les and let his parents know where he was going, “Wait, Dave. What... what’s this about?”

Davey knew he wasn’t talking about the strike.

“Am I... am I kidding myself, or is there really something..?”

Davey rolled his eyes in exasperation, “Of course there is.”

“Well don’t just say it like I happens every day!”

“Jack, I—“

“No! I’m not an idiot! I know boys like you and me...” he sighed, “I know we don’t get happy endings, but... standin’ here right now, lookin’ at you... I just wanna grab hold of somethin.’ Make time stop so’s I can just keep on lookin’ at you.”

“I know what ya mean, Jackie. But we have work to do, so we should just—“

“Wait,” Jack insisted, grabbing Davey’s arm, “Please. Can we just... can we talk? For 5 minutes?”

Davey could see how badly Jack needed reassurance. How bad he needed to see that no, this wasn’t just his imagination, a pretty painting in his head. This was real.

“Look,” he said quietly, grabbing Jack’s hand, “You snuck up on me, Jack Kelly. I never even saw it coming. Till the moment I found you, I thought I knew what love was. But now I’m learning what is true. The world finds ways to sting you, and then one day decides to bring you something to believe in for even a night. And if you’re gone tomorrow... what was ours still will be. I have something to believe in now that I know you believed in me.”

Jack nodded in understanding, “We was never meant to meet. And then we meet—who knows why? One more stranger on the street, just someone sweet passing’ by. An angel come to save me, who didn’t even know he gave me something to believe in for even a day. And if I’m gone tomorrow...”

He trailed off, and Davey grabbed his face gently to make him distract him.

“Do you know what I believe in?”

He hoped Jack could just look into his eyes and see.

They almost kissed again, but Jack pulled away at the last second.

“If things were different...”

They both knew what he was really saying, but neither of them said it.

“If you weren’t still chasing Santa Fe...”

Because he was. No matter how stupid that dream was, Jack couldn’t give it up just after a 10-minute talk.

“If Kath’s father wasn’t probably going to kill me.

“Wait, what?”

“Oh, it turns out Katherine is Pulitzer’s daughter. Don’t worry, though, she’s on our side.”

Davey decided to process that later, “You’re not really scared of Kath’s father.”

“No... but I am pretty scared of you.”

Davey slapped his shoulder gently, “Don’t be!”

“Well...” Jack smiled, finally, “I have something to believe in, now that I know you believed in me.”

Davey couldn’t help it. He kissed Jack again, quickly, then backed up.

“I’ll wake up Les and Sarah and meet you at the Lodging House, okay?”

“Yeah. And by the way, if we’s together now... I should probably warn ya that I might not always have time for ya. I’ve been sorta takin’ care of all the other fellas since I was 14, so...”

Davey rolled his eyes, “Jack, I’m already stuck with Les. I am more than happy to adopt all of your siblings, too.”

“Oh. Okay. Ya know they ain’t actually my siblings, though, right?”

Davey shrugged, “You always act like they are, so it’s close enough.”

“Fair. Guess ya have been helpin’ take care of ‘em these last few days, so the change shouldn’t phase ‘em too much.”

“Yeah, they’ve got bigger things to worry about.”

“So... you’re sure you’re in for... whatever this is? Cause there ain’t no goin’ back in time, so... are ya in for sure?”

Davey nodded, “For sure.”

Luckily, that seemed to put Jack’s mind at ease enough for him to leave.

#newsies #javid #javey #jack kelly #davey jacobs #jack x davey #angst #something to believe in #the truth about the moon #jack and davey are the mom and dad friends #canon rewrite #violet’s writing

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merry-melody · 4 years

Text

umbrella academy s2 thoughts

Or you can read here if you prefer. Formatting’s probably easier there and this is like 4k, so be warned.

So, was not much of a fan. (Wasn't surprised to learn none of the S1 writers were retained into this season, either!)

I feel like it's a little early for this show to be separating the siblings into New Lives, considering how little they interacted throughout the first season.

I would have liked more childhood flashbacks, having an additional Reginald subplot in a show stuffed with seven (or six and a half) leads seems a choice when it didn't link into the siblings in any meaningful way.

It also made all the siblings curiously less sympathetic, as Diego and Luther in particular, but also Vanya and Klaus to an extent, are berated for showing any kind of effect of their upbringing; but without much 'showing' of said upbringing (or emotional impact at all from the last season - Vanya's obviously out for that own with the hackneyed amnesia plot; Diego is completely over Patch's death - and Grace's, for that matter, although she does at least get acknowledged; and Klaus for some reason seems to have stopped seeing ghosts 99% of the time.)

I'm very mistrustful, as I mentioned in my S1 notes, that the show will in any way support Reginald's abuse, whether it be the siblings furthering their patterns of copying him without learning to recognise and address this; or by some kind of time loop casuality bullshit.

This season didn't really allay that, just with the general tone - the line Vanya had about sarcastically saying he was loving, or Five calling him 'no boy scout' just seem tonally a very different vibe from S1, like there were already aspects of that where it felt like none of them except Klaus really acted like they'd been raised by a guy who outright harmed them so much as a tough Professor type; and here it seems to double down on that idea.

Five in particular was almost his father's yes man to an extent, he had several lines about how right their father was; although it was intriguing to see Diego reference how Reginald may have become even worse after Five's disappearance with that 'golden years' remark.

I was intrigued by the lizard reveal, though.

So, Luther wise...hmmm.

Also, on shallow notes, the hair and fashion was really lacking from last season, like apart from Allison/Emmy who looked lovely in the 60s clothes (and Five, Ben and Vanya, who remained pretty much the same), everyone looked worse (even Luther had a little Tintin grown out hairdo going on!)

Didn't love the toilet humour, either, but again, YMMV.

He was a little more likeable than S1, I appreciated how he acknowledged his own failings (which iirc, no one else but Vanya really did all season, and since she didn't recall hers at the time, there wasn't as much emotional impact) - although the cocked gun lessened it a little, lol. And the return of that lovely musical score during, too, nice touch.

It was good to see at least two scenes with him and Vanya interacting, and for them to return to the Five/Luther duo.

It was also interesting to see how Luther, like all his siblings, projects his own feelings onto others, (like his first instinct being that Vanya's pulling some 'bullshit game' when obviously, Vanya was pretty upfront when she lost it; whereas it was Luther who was the one scamming her into the hug-n-choke.)

I liked them bonding over Five being an asshole, too.

(Although I think once again, the lack of trust between the siblings was almost contrived, like Luther in particular seems genuinely pissed off that Five didn't, what, let them all die in a fiery death? I get that they grew up in an environment that promoted mistrust and that they don't really seem to understand their own powers or each others, and Five never explains when he makes a mistake, anyway, but I'm just not sure what Luther's ideal outcome here was.)

I'm clearly an asshole also, because the 'Rooming House for Solitary Men' sign made me laugh every time they showed it.

I feel like some of his characterisation was unsubtly telegraphed (although that's a complaint over all, not just him specific) - like they decided 'sensitive' was their key word there, and just jam in everyone referring to him as that rather than showing it. (...Is Luther sensitive? Like, not dragging him, I'd just not pick that at all for him as a description.)

I also didn't much enjoy the pairing of him and Diego, like to be honest, it was never a pairing even from S1 that I was particularly fascinated by, it's such a well-worn dynamic; and while at least they weren't bickering over numbers, the dude bro banter ('women, amirite?!') and matching lack of IQ (I never thought I'd say Diego seemed dumber than cracking a raw egg to posture, and yet...) was just kind of lowhanging fruit.

I also feel like the goon for Jack Ruby stuff seemed inserted purely for plot contrivance to link to JFK.

(This is also a universal complaint, but I really felt for the actors doing promo, like they come up with all these well thought out explanations about why their characters are making these choices, but the work doesn't really show up in the writing or what was shown onscreen. IIRC, Tom Hopper was talking about Jack Ruby as a replacement father figure and how it's Luther's first stab at independence in terms of supporting himself; and there's this whole thing of Ruby saying he treated Luther like a son, when really, he's in like, two scenes and Luther is very clearly a paid goon. Which isn't to say that's not supporting yourself, a job's a job! I just felt like it didn't really go anywhere.)

I liked the idea that he's the only one who looked for their dad; I liked him still eating his feelings, funnily enough, it's just a good character note.

I don't particularly have investment in him and Allison one way or another yet - I don't care about the moral indignation; I just feel like when they're together, it seems one part them being smug about the others, one part yearning based on the same plot as S1 (she's moved on but seems to want to keep Luther as her back up guy.) Like, I'd love to see those two actually interact over something based on their disparate characters (what would Allison have said if she'd heard Luther's little defense of the Feds to Five?)

There's also a return to that odd juxtaposition from S1 of Klaus' drinking with Luther taking drugs cheerfully and to no effect. (I'm not expecting a DARE commercial, it's just all over the place in tone. That, and I thought Luther 'waSN't ReADy for THaT!')

(This isn't Diego specific, either, but they also do that thing I hate in TV, where they purposefully reference someone specifically in the episode before they rereturn, and Diego got the short straw on that one with the Pogo mention apropros of nothing, so we know we'll see Baby!Pogo shortly.)

Diego: Again, lots of telegraphing. (Do you think the writers want to get across Diego has a hero complex? I wasn't clear after he cat leaps through dimensions, stops a mugging, obsessively stalks JFK, and almost everyone he meets literally holds up placards mentioning 'DIEGO HAS A HERO COMPLEX'.)

Diego got a lot more time onscreen, which is a plus, but the haircut combined with his role as plot monkey made it a neutral point.

I also think Castaneda got the short straw on some of dialogue this year, oof, that Luke Skywalker 'it's a great reference' dialogue felt a bit try hard.

(Sheehan also took a body blow later with the 'Sexy trash!' one, ouch, like that felt very Designed to Retweet/Gif.

No one's topped S1 for blatant exposition yet, though: 'You haven't been sober since you were a teen! Not since you started taking drugs to block the ghosts out.')

Randomly, I liked the decent English accent he pulled out of nowhere. And again, David Castaneda I believe, mentioned Patch's death, so it's neat that he thought about the impact of her death on his character, even though it wasn't evident in the plot.

As I mentioned up top, I think Diego kind of suffered from the same thing Klaus did last year, where upon he seems to be the only one who recalls they were actually brought up in an abusive environment; and yet here the focus seems more generic to Diego's a baby (right down to constantly talking about 'bad guys' like a three year old) who has masculinity issues about his mean pop (who tbh, seems to be presented as entirely correct in labelling him a fuckwit, since he behaves like one pretty much all season: 'We chop off his trigger finger!')

(Also there's that contrived Batman style ethics that came up with Luther last year, where they're like 'We can quip over bodies and we grew up literally murdering people', but for some reason, Diego won't 'kill a man before he's committed a crime' (he can stalk one, and cut off his hand, though?)

Likewise, there wasn't a ton of interaction between him and Allison, like in S1, I enjoyed how they kind of overcame their initial mutual dislike with small moments of bonding; whereas here he has to be prompted to talk to her (and that was an adlib, which again, means the actors were considering something the writers overlooked.)

Last year I talked about how much I enjoyed Diego's character and how they walked a very fine line between him combining his desire to be the stereotypical macho figure with his innate sensitivity, so naturally this season we get him butchified to a factor of ten ('I'm the man, here!' 'You're a big pussy!') and almost zero interactions with Klaus, the person besides Grace who brought that out the most last year.

(What happened to those two, last time we saw them they were pretty much the closest in the family besides the Allison/Vanya link; here, Diego's almost contemptous. Has he levelled up in his mind now he's bffs with Luther?) I wanted to find the scene with him and Ben endearing, since we get so few interactions with Ben and any one besides Klaus, but it wasn't even that personally linked to them beyond 'Remember our one specific memory? Anyways, lolz, u should keep Klaus' body, idgaf.')

Allison Allison I think suffers from a lot of the same problems as she was introduced with - like Vanya, her powers are kind of linked to a lack of control in a way that the guys aren't; and a lot of her development is offscreen.

I actually really enjoyed the episode focusing on her, though, I thought it was one of the strongest of the season.

Her husband got a bit OTT with his catchphrase - where Diego's was 'JFK', Ray's was very clearly ' the movement!' and I found it odd how easily all the siblings but especially Allison gave up on returning to their own time and committed to another relationship built on lies (albeit this time of omission - baby steps!) but I kind of like that, like that's Allison, kind of co-dependent and self-deceiving.

Really, I feel like Allison's more interesting when they plunge into her darker side, I was riveted in the 'more!' scene, as well as the 'I heard a rumour you killed your brother'.

I think it's especially important as she's a WOC, which this season focused on more, like, it's very important not to fall into the common writing trap where the guys are allowed to be vindictive or needy or selfish and the women are there to be the moral guidance (for the same reason, I also loved the Five/Vanya stand-off); and that goes double for the model minority bit.

I was worried that they'd fall into the trap of Allison needing to be twice as good not just with how the sit-ins were portrayed but also generally (she speaks seven languages! She makes extensive notes on the state of race relations with specific regard to Dallas in the 1960s!) and once more, it seemed like Emmy Raver Lampman was trying to put across a more interesting read on Allison in terms of how isolated she was from any awareness of oppression in the outer world, first in the Academy and then through being a powerful celebrity and the contrast that creates for her in Dallas which didn't quite get met by the writing/direction.

It was great to see how she got to become part of a community in a way the others didn't, also, and particularly being protected by the beauty shop ladies when she arrived; like, the imbalance of genders as well as races in the Academy genuinely made it refreshing to see.

(The relapse is also very up and down in tone, like they make attempts at pathos, but it's also accompanied by the Styx soundtrack/60s light effects...)

Klaus and Ben - Probably my least favourite aspect of this season.

There was a bunch of telling not showing (Klaus' three year sobriety being expressed in Ben's expository sentence and that .5 second shot of him turning down a joint) and once you remove the biggest impacts on Klaus' character (the addiction and his power) without explanation, you're basically left with 'Klaus causes problems for himself for comedic value.'

I don't really care about who fights well or which powers are developed (didn't read the comics, don't plan to) but it seems to be like the best portrayals of superheroes show the powers as metaphors for their lives - Vanya struggles to control her emotions, Ben feels powerless, etc. If you take away the powers, you take away the reasoning behind the character.

Why is Ben pretty much the only ghost (particularly when in S1, they seemed ever-present)? How or why did Klaus learn to summon them in the alt-apocalypse?

I liked the scene of Klaus interacting with Ray before they find out he's married to Allison, that was cute.

I also liked seeing him interact with Vanya and Allison (there was an interesting shot where Allison says she has a life she worked for, and Klaus smiles - is that because in contrast, he doesn't? I'd have liked them to acknowledge the link between cults and celebrity, tbh, those two have a lot in common. Or is it because she isn't using her power and neither is he?), and I thought it was cool to note how when the group are reunited, they fall into a power structure right away.

Like, right away, Klaus sells out Vanya and Allison to the guys ('It's usually Vanya!' or mentioning how Allison's being 'involved in community politics'.) Likewise, everyone kowtows to Five, then Luther, over the rest (like when Five says they won't go with Vanya to the farm) and no one speaks up for Diego in front of Reginald.

I want to give the others the benefit of the doubt and say they were kind of shitty to Klaus in particular in this season because they were in a group, because it's a huge downgrade in compassion (especially since Allison was like, covering him with a blanket when they're alone.)

Like, I get sibling culture, I have 'em, but I feel like when you're bringing possible 'seizures' up, you're sort of skirting what's then played as comedic (Luther dragging him, the 'check please' line), especially Diego's: 'He's probably having an overdose.' (Kinda seeing why no one rushed to join Team Zero.)

Like, he and Klaus do just kind of seem contrivedly not communicating - I would think after the isolation, you'd crack through boredom if nothing else.

Ben's kind of an odd duck - I feel like with Steve Blackman's comments, he's supposed to be this philosophical voice of reason; but tbh, he seems as self-involved as Klaus, and if anything, they mirrored each other (that line in S1 about Klaus being cowardly plays a little differently after the revelation 'He was afraid to go into the light'...) rather than separating him into his own person.

I mean, I don't want Saint Ben (or St. anyone!), but Ben does kind of irritate, like it's not like he even particularly gets much wit or personality in his lines (and I doubt Justin Min would be short of inspiration there, so it does seem to be a writing choice) or they give him much warmth or concern (I still like that shot of him walking off in the sixth episode of S1, though - where is he off to?!) In S1, we do at least get to see him panicking and how helpless he must feel that he can't alert the others to danger etc. He doesn't really offer opinions that offer a personal philosophy beyond 'Stop being a junkie' (he was willing to shut off Grace - was that to tick off Klaus for taking the opposite opinion, or is he super pragmatic generally?) or 'Admit it, Klaus, Luther's Okay!' (Again, is this nostalgia for the other siblings, or what? It would have been nice to have Ben interact with all his siblings, considering they included the whole possession plot for less than necessary stuff like 'Ben kisses a girl!' and 'Vomit shenanigans!')

I just feel like his personality was kind of an afterthought still, and it made his sacrifice for Vanya, touching as it was, feel a little unearned.

Why doesn't Klaus tell Ben he wants to go back for Dallas for Dave? Why doesn't Ben tell Klaus he wants to go back to San Francisco for Jill? Was Ben in Vietnam? How come he's gone from using Dave as A Reason to Get Clean to a 'fling' - dark reading of Ben, tbh, like does he want Klaus clean purely for his own gain, and now he is, Dave's of no further value? What does Ben think Klaus is looking Dave up for - he says it's 'selfish', does he literally think Klaus is just there to hook up with Dave pre-death? It's hard to parse whether Ben has a low opinion of Klaus in particular or whether he, like the rest of them, has kind of adopted to a point Reginald's views - it was neat to see a comparison of the two there.

The possession stuff was a cool parallel, as well, if underused on the whole - Ben's happy to take advantage of Klaus' body despite his clear ambivalence and then outright refusal; Klaus is happy to take advantage and have sex with his own cult followers.

The cult stuff was even less strong, imho - I said last year how I'd enjoy a darker reading of Klaus, as S1 I felt sometimes was unfair to the others in that we see them being impatient with him; but never how his addiction would have impacted upon them negatively; but here, there's no real exploration of Klaus' narcissism or manipulation (in fact the plot seems to play out exactly the same as Allison's in S1 - we start with all the action about why they pursued fame etc. dealt with offscreen, and begin when the lead has already tired of it all.)

I mean, Klaus is self-destructive, as we saw in S1, but here it's an odd combination, like he's at once both cowardly of physical harm (in a way he wasn't really in S1, even post-Dave, so it doesn't seem to be in reaction to his death) but also running a cult for the attention, but the attention is presented as negative almost exclusively throughout.

Like, I'd get it if it was an interest in money and the finer things in life, even, you could make an interesting point there (and iirc, Robert Sheehan and I think Emmy Raver Lampman have) about how while the Hargreeves were abused, they were also 'spoilt rich kids'; and reflect on that; but it's literally just there for gags.

There's no real explanation for the cult itself (they literally just regurgitate pop culture references) or an exploration of Klaus as a con artist (again - here's where you could show some kind of progression in character, whether it's forward or backwards, and use the powers; and have Klaus working as a shady medium, but nope, it's physical comedy only.)

You could delve into his refusing to even tell the others about Ben's presence, but that's handwaved as much as ever (Five didn't go 'Huh, well, Ben was there when the Soviets came...') not just from the other siblings, but also Ben and Klaus themselves.

‘Cause I could see how Klaus would feel guilty about saying that, regardless; but then Ben's all 'Well, I was chicken to go anyway'

It might have been a little more affecting if Ben's motivation for possessing Klaus wasn't Jill, a character we know exactly zero about, but talking to his family; not to mention a lot more sympathetic towards Ben himself. As it is, it plays more like he's petty and jealous Klaus gets to be alive, rather than frustrated that Klaus is essentially silencing him.

And again, that's fine, maybe that is Ben, he stopped aging at 17, after all, but I'm not sure what the point is of a plot where we don't really get to see much exploration of either character.

Like, what did we learn about Klaus from this specific sub-plot? We knew in S1 he felt guilty that Ben died young, and that he was happy to allow his siblings to believe Ben is gone.

Likewise, Ben? We knew in S1 he was envious of Klaus being alive, and bitter that his position was so powerless.

It was nice to see the teenage actors (did they dub Teen!Klaus??? Odd.) post Ben's death, but it kind of didn't resolve much, really - it seemed like Klaus was supposed to be bullshitting about the 'golden light' and whether or not you can just...'go' whenever you please, but then it seemed like it turned out to be true?

(Might want to have mentioned that, then, like I get he's a Hargreeves and therefore a fail at interpersonal relationships, but you'd think it wouldn't take a smart guy to figure that if your brothers already toying with self-destruction in his teen years, it might not be the most genius move to additionally allow him to believe you're trapped in the 'real torture' of berating him endlessly solely due to his advice; if for no other reason than your one link to humanity is then going to keep up the booze and drugs that blocks you from his presence.)

I was inclined to like the Dave subplot a little more than I did last season, just because something was happening at all (and we got some tiny semblance of Dave's personality, even if it was basic as hell - he likes hamburgers!), but I feel like the Dave recasting thing really stretched credulity.

I would guess it was written backwards, in terms of if Dave was the clearly fully grown adult we saw in S1 a mere five years later, why wouldn't he just go 'Oh, thanks for the tip, dude, I'll avoid all that military jazz'? And why wouldn't Klaus just be like 'Fuck it, can we not just...date now?' Aha, we could make him a little younger, chuck in a Mean Uncle, throw in some manufactured conflict, and zow-pow!

It definitely wasn't the most contrived plot ever or anything (or even on this show), but I did feel like it's weird that again, via the cult, we're kind of asked to see Klaus as this expert manipulator of people, when he seemed almost purposefully stupid here (like, even compared with Luther and Diego.)

Why act as if the only chance you'll ever have to see the guy in the same timezone as you is right that second in front of his crazed uncle? Why say you've tried everything when you met the kid three times (once instigated by him, and I have to say, it's sort of odd, like Klaus is just drinking throughout, like you'd think this would be the one opportunity he'd take to truly and honestly engage without that) and basically just asked him twice, and in the least convincing way possible.

Shoot him in the foot! Burn down the recruitment office! Use your international platform and pull with local government to influence your huge movement towards stopping the war in Vietnam!

Like, if what you're going for is that Klaus is defeatist and unimaginative, fine, but I'm not sure it's not just that they kind of didn't write beyond the circular 'telling him only made him sign up sooner' casuality because it's so Tragic.

(Also, I feel like they're overplaying the iconography of those damn dogtags, like at this point, Klaus looking sadly at the dog tags has still probably had more screen time than Dave himself.)

I liked the scene with him and Vanya facing off?

Five I think didn't really get much more development than S1, he drives the plot forward, but not much else. In fact, in S1, he probably was more interesting, in that he interacted with all of his siblings and showed moments of vulnerability and care (knowing Claire's name, telling Luther not to waste his life, asking Klaus if he was okay) and got to properly react to his siblings' deaths.

Um...it was cool to have two of him?

It was nice and kind of ambigious where he lied to her about the cause of the apocalypse, like you could go by what he said about how he wanted to avert her anger, or you could wonder if it's a rare moment of kindness in his old age, lol.

I also loved it when he said to Luther about whether he could talk to her 'without squeezing her to death'.

I found Sissy probably the most interesting of the new characters (probably her and Lila more so than Lil!Dave and Ray, tbh.)

Vanya I probably have the least to say about. I was satisfied with how they portrayed the culpability of the others, particularly Luther, without erasing Vanya's part in the apocalypse. (I really, really hope this'll end the endless discourse on her emails book now, that got tired fast.

I could also do without the endless 'lolz, Ellen Page was so bad at playing straight they had to write Vanya as gay'. Ellen Page is pretty convincing as an actor - I bought her raping Rainn Wilson in 'Super', for god's sake, I doubt 'heterosexual' is a challenge.)

The amnesia plot was pretty cliched, and it did mean we didn't get so much actual interaction between the 'real' Vanya (so to speak) and her siblings but I really enjoyed the dream sequence of her in the academy.

#the umbrella academy #ua meta #meta #s2 #i didn't love it #to warn you #luther hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #vanya hargreeves #ben hargreeves #allison hargreeves #diego hargreeves

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thenixkat · 5 years

Text

Animorphs notes: 20

Book 20

A Marco book

Marco strikes out with a probably Black girl at the school, who has probably been insulted about her name before

And frankly she’s got good instincts to not trust a class clown

Marco is still a fuckboy, ‘females’ really

Marco’s just shit at pickup lines

The general refusal to make a distinction b/w enslaved peoples and the yeerks controlling them.

So either the Animorphs never checked the spot where Elfangor died to see if there was anything left they could use, that the yeerks didn’t go through shit for anything they could use (I’m just going to assume there was no attempt to make a grave marker) or Toomin put the block there for David to find

Yeah Toomin put shit in places (won’t stop me from using it in a fic if I feel like it)

Have I mentioned that the whole litteral deity who does whatever he fucking feels like means that there are absolutely no stakes in this series? I don’t like that.

Yeah, weirdo stranger that ignores “I don’t want to interact with you” signals would get on the nerves

Ya know. It doesn’t feel like the Animorphs are all that hard up on getting the box if they wait that long to start to do anything about it

I still feel sorry for Ax. He is but a jock forced into the role of the one who knows shit.

Wait. Why can’t the chee just steal the box. Just ghost David, see where he puts it. Take it. And ghost out?

STill not fan of aliens having any sort of roll in building the pyramids in particular and non-White historical structures as a whole

There’s some yeerk plans involving the President and the UN afoot

The chee piss me off for so many reasons. SO many

Again, it really doesn’t feel like the box is all that important

Jake attempts to pass of a half bird morphed Marco as his deformed little brother

Very lucky those weren’t Controllers

Why exactly did they not decide to have Tobias the most experienced flyier there do it? Right these characters are dumb as fuck and don’t really care about retreiving the mnorphing cube

I mean its perfictly reasonable to shoot a big fuckoff bird trying to attack you

I am reminded of all the shit Cassie talks about Marco being perfictly willing to end innocent bystandars. Of course Cassie is not a trustworthy source of information.

They were not able to retraive the box through a fuck lot of incompenence and some bad luck

David is def one of those spoiled edgy kids

But the trained birds is not an out there theory given the behavior of the animorphs

Well he’s not that reckless, but Marco would be shit help in a dangerous situation as far as David knows. Dude’s tiny.

David is also very paranoid

Again, why can’t they ask the Chee to help?

Ax: Have you considered unplugging the computer?

Listen, Ax, do these kids look like they have that much common sense?

Oh, I see alarm systems exist again

A cobra living under teh bed in a cardboard box would be so unhealthy

The writers really hate nonavian reptiles

Ok. The writers have no idea what a cobra actually is.

According to these writers cobras have heat sensing pits like pit vipers and like to eat spiders

Ah yes, cobras do a threat display towards food they plan to eat b/c the writers know jack shit about anything that isn’t a thermal Those are hork-bajir controller not hork-bajir warriors

Slithering pretty well for a snake with 2 bullet wounds

Aww, David tried to get his pet snake out of danger

You’d think David’s dad would be taking his kid and fucking fleeing

Got damn how does Marco still have venom? Snakes don’t regen that shit instantly and he’s used a fuckload already

David’s dad and snake were captured by the yeerks. I’m going to assume that the cat is either dead or also captured

David was knocked out of a second story window, and def landed hard enough to lose consciousness so very lucky he’s still alive

David’s mom is also captured

So yeah lets recruit this kid who’s just lost everything partially due to our incompetence instead of trying to send him out of town or seeing if he has any other family he could go to.

I will give points to Ax for ya know thinking about recruiting help, this just isn’t necessarily the best time

You could go places and prove shit right now, you just don’t want to risk yer own necks

I feel like you should really be asking David before decding this shit or seeing if he has any intrests in fighting this war the way you do

Ax… proposes adding people to the group and then votes against the idea. There are multiple ways in which this doesn’t work.

SO why exactly does Marco hate David? B/c he’s edgy, a bit paranoid, and doesn’t like his humor?

Like you should ease someone into the yer parents are being tortured and enslaved thing after receiving a huge blow like you are now homeless and have to be on the run

Apparently visser rhymes with kisser

So yall really didn't ask him whether he wanted to join yer team and fight along side you. You decided that he was going to. That can’t end well. And given these writers it won’t end well in the way that it should

of course i know that later David does things like murder animals and try to kill the animorphs but like, how much is that just the writers going... oh, shit um quick how to we make it more clear that the Animorphs are better than this kid?

David whent home with Marco, sure why not

Marco catches him trying to call his parents and leads him to a payphone to use

Ah yes, the Animorphs unnecessarily causing hosts harm once again

Nice way to win him over to yer side guys

So they waste a perfictly good chance to rescue David’s dad

??? They move David… to jake’s house. Who’s brother is a controller…

Oh yer trying to get the kid captured. I see

Tobias get the fuck over yerself, Cassie can release her patients whereever the hell she wants. If you have a problem stop living in the fucking wilderness when you don’t fucking have to

David has very good points. Also you can aquire fucking both of the birds. You are not limited to one of each kind of morph.

Cassie, Marco clearly doesn’t like him and Jake’s trying to boss him around and you all forced him to join you

Like David makes very valid points. You’ve done nothing to show you’re trustworthy individuals not trying to use him to your own benifit

Isn’t there a big yeerk thing happening soon? SHouldn’t yall also be working on that too?

Ya know the controller at the meeting is probably a local, given i assume they have a portable kadrona machine and if that shit breaks or need maintenance they’d probably want to be close enough. And i know there’s no global pool network just from the stuff in like book 7?

And they’re taking the new recruit, in his first morph on his first flight on a damn recon mission. Nothing can go wrong there.

Oh look the other shoe i was waiting to fall. Ya know this would be a lot more interesting if the writers didn’t decide to make David an asshole and he still decided to leave/betray the team

So the yeerk forces on the blade ship are wearing their uniforms. But the ones on the ground? Nudists

ya know goading people into doing shit for the first time in a litteral life and death scenario ()b/c who needs things like practice() by calling them a pussy is not going to build any kind ill will

I don’t think this is a well thought out plan from the yeerk side if what’s happening is what the Animorphs think is happening

I wonder if the Animorphs will remember that roaches can fly

Ends on a too be continued

#nix reads animorphs #animorphs #david trilogy

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bangkokjacknews · 4 years

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Is Wikipedia Reliable, Credible, Accurate or Fake?

Is Wikipedia Reliable, Credible, Accurate or Fake? Wikipedia provides Internet users with millions of articles on a wide range of subjects and often ranks first in search engines. But its reliability and credibility fall well short of any reasonable standards.

Anybody using Wikipedia as a research resource should definitely cross-reference their results in at least two other places. In fact, people are now starting to avoid using Wikipedia for anything. And this should not be surprising. According to Wikipedia itself, 'While some articles are of the highest quality of scholarship, others are admittedly complete rubbish. Original Albert Jack content. Use Wikipedia with an informed understanding of what it is and what it isn't.' Okay, well let's have a look at what it is and what it isn't. The Philip Cross Scandal 'Philip Cross' is a so called credited editor of Wikipedia. This means he has access to any page and is able to edit anything he, or she, wants to. The subject of Wikipedia pages does not have any editing access to his or her own pages. If you are reading the Wikipedia page, story first shared by Bangkok Jack, come over and join us, of Joe Bloggs then you know that Bloggs is banned from editing any content in his name. Anything can be written about him, or anybody else, and yet he has no right of reply or correction. Philip Cross has not had a single day off from editing Wikipedia in almost five years. 'He' has edited every single day from 29 August 2013 to 14 May 2018. Including five Christmas Days. That’s 1,721 consecutive days of editing. In the last FOURTEEN years Philip Cross has made 133,612 edits to Wikipedia pages, which is more than 30 edits per day, seven days a week. Journalist and broadcaster Craig Murray has plotted them here

Craig Murray points out that the 'operation runs like clockwork, seven days a week, every waking hour, story first shared by Bangkok Jack, come over and join us, without significant variation. If Philip Cross genuinely is an individual, there is no denying he is morbidly obsessed.' There are three possible explanations. 1. Philip Cross is a spin company, with multiple users all logging into the Phillip Cross account, employed by who knows who and with a clear political agenda. 2. Philip Cross is a paid individual, working FULL TIME to add positive content to some Wikipedia Pages and vile lies to others 3. Philip Cross is a dangerous sociopath. This 'editor' has consistently discredited the reputations of prominent individuals who question and challenge the Left Wing corporate and state media narratives, especially in respect of UK Foreign Affairs or American President Donald Trump. Philip Cross also spends a lot of time improving the reputations (and public information available) of Conservative journalists and media figures, particularly in respect of the interests of Israel. Craig Murray writes that is it 'particularly interesting that Philip Cross‘s views happen to be precisely the same political views as those of Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia. Jimmy Wales has been active on twitter recently being particularly rude and unpleasant to anybody, story first shared by Bangkok Jack, come over and join us, questioning the activities of Philip Cross. His commitment to Cross’s freedom to operate on Wikipedia would be rather more impressive if the Cross operation were not promoting Wales’ own opinions. https://albertjack.com/2018/07/10/the-epidemic-of-stupid/ Interestingly enough Wikipedia’s UK begging arm, Wikimedia UK, joined in with equal hostile responses to anyone questioning Cross.' Former British MP and broadcaster George Galloway has had his Wikipedia page 'negatively edited,' or 'distorted,' by Cross 1800 times. Think about that for a moment - 1800 times. Do you think the Wikipidia entry for George Galloway is accurate now? And Galloway has no right of redress or correction as that is against Wikipedia rules. It doesn't matter which side of the political divide you stand - Wikipedia is clearly no longer a reliable source of information for anybody, thanks to the likes of Philip Cross. The contributor with an agenda always prevails. The idea behind Wikipedia's group editing process is that, story first shared by Bangkok Jack, come over and join us, by general consensus, unreliable contributions and edits will be removed and/or corrected. But usually the contributor who 'wins' is not the one with the soundest information, but rather the one with the strongest agenda. The one who is more persistent and committed. Irish student Shane Fitzgerald, who was conducting research on the Internet and globalization of information, posted a fake quotation on the Wikipedia article about the deceased French composer Maurice Jarre. Due to the fact that the quote was not attributed to a reliable source, it was removed several times by editors, but Fitzgerald simply continued re-posting it until it was allowed to remain. Fitzgerald was startled to learn that several major newspapers picked up the quote and published it in obituaries, confirming his suspicions of the questionable ways in which journalists use websites, and Wikipedia, as a reliable source. Fitzgerald e-mailed the newspapers letting them know that the quote was fabricated; he believes that otherwise, they might never have found out. Fitzgerald demonstrated that if he can 're-write' history that easily then so can everybody else. https://albertjack.com/2018/05/20/only-32-of-the-british-still-trust-the-news-media/ Individuals with agendas sometimes have significant editing authority. Administrators on Wikipedia have the power to delete or disallow comments or articles they disagree with and support the viewpoints they approve regardless of whether they are factually correct or not. For example U.K. scientist William Connelly became a website administrator and subsequently wrote, story first shared by Bangkok Jack, come over and join us, or rewrote more than 5,000 Wikipedia articles supporting the concept of climate change and global warming. More importantly, he used his authority to ban more than 2,000 contributors with opposing viewpoints from making further contributions. According to The Financial Post, when Connelly was through editing, 'The Medieval Warm Period' disappeared, as did criticism of the 'global warming orthodoxy.' Connelly has since been stripped of authority at Wikipedia, but he can obviously continue to post, edit and lie. He simply needs to sign in with a new user name - that's all it takes.

Accurate contributors can be silenced. The small group of editors known as 'deletionists' often rely on the argument that a contribution comes from an 'unreliable source,' with the competing editor deciding alone what is reliable or not. For example, when the Taliban kidnapped New York Times reporter David Rohde in Afghanistan, the paper convinced 40 media organizations plus Wikipedia not to report on it out of concerns that it would compromise Rohde's safety. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales told the Times, once Rohde was free, that 'We were really helped by the fact that it (postings on Rohde) hadn't appeared in a place we would regard as a reliable source.' In other words Wales and other senior Wikipedia editors demonstrated how willing they are to rely on unreliable sources to delete accurate information they had been given by perfectly reliable sources, regardless of what justified it. Which leads directly to number 5 The number of active Wikipedia editors has fallen. The number of active Wikipedia editors (those who can make at least five edits a month) has significantly fallen. The reason given is that it is not worth bothering to continue in battle with 'progressive editors' with a political agenda. It is, after all, only a hobby for most people. It remains to be seen whether the current number of active editors can maintain and continue updating Wikipedia with any accuracy or honesty. It has become harder for casual participants to contribute. According to the Palo Alto Research Center, the contributions of casual and new contributors are being reversed at a much greater rate than several years ago. The result is that a steady group of high-level editors has more control over Wikipedia than ever. The 'deletionists' are said to 'edit first and ask questions later,' making it harder for new contributors to participate, and making it impossible for Wikipedia to provide 'the sum of all human knowledge.' - Their mission statement. Furthermore, Wikipedia appears to have no intention of overcoming the problem of being controlled by a stagnant pool of editors from a limited demographic and with a clear political or social agenda of their own. In many subjects Wikipedia has become a place of MISINFORMATION, SPIN and MANIPULATION and has no obvious desire to correct that. In fact, that could well be where most of their funding comes from. Vandalism Vandalism is always fun, for some tiny-minded people. Wikipedia is no exception to that and often false entries are missed and can remain online for months, if they are ever spotted at all. For example, John Seigenthaler, a former assistant to Robert Kennedy, was falsely implicated in the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers on his Wikipedia biography for a period of more than 100 days without his knowledge. This is a common problem for Wikipedia. And finally, the biggest reason of all to avoid Wikipedia as a source of reliable information Because Wikipedia themselves say so. Wikipedia's own disclaimer states, We do not expect you to trust us. It adds that it should NOT be considered a 'primary source' of information and that 'because some articles may contain errors,' you should 'not use Wikipedia to make critical decisions.' And as Wikipedia warns in its 'About' section, 'Users should be aware that not all articles are of encyclopedic quality from the start and they may contain false or debatable information.' Which is Wikipedia's own way of warning you that they CANNOT AND SHOULD NOT BE TRUSTED. - Albert Jack – Stay up to date with BangkokJack on Twitter, Instagram, & Reddit. Or join the free mailing list (top right) Please help us continue to bring the REAL NEWS - PayPal Read the full article

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thestoryweneededtowrite · 7 years

Text

Javid Titanic AU - Chapter 18

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10 Part 11 Part 12 Part 13 Part 14 Part 15 Part 16 Part 17

Content warning for minor physical violence. Also there's a brief mention of rape but not referring to anything that's actually happened. Last chapter for at least a few days, I promise :’)

Feeling acutely like he was under house arrest, Davey glared at his mother as she paced the room in front of him. Sarah was still at his side, silently providing some measure of support, but he knew she could only go so far to try and protect him without ending up in some kind of trouble herself. The crewmembers had left when Jack had been taken away; Mayer had followed, unable to stand being in the same room as his son after knowing what he’d done; but Snyder remained, leaning against the door and looking down on Davey with narrowed, untrustworthy eyes.

It was uncomfortable to know everyone was probably thinking about him and Jack. What they’d done and where they’d done it. He knew Sarah wasn’t going to judge him, but that didn’t mean he was exactly happy with her having seen Jack’s drawing of him. Considering Esther had seen it too, he was glad it was locked back up in a safe that only he and Sarah could open. If she destroyed it, he’d hate her even more. It wasn’t something that appeared to be on her mind, though, as she walked circles around the room, unable to even look at her eldest son. Davey couldn’t stand the silence. They were all thinking so much that not talking about it was making the room close and stifling with the unspoken. So he voiced one of his thoughts.

“He is everything I have ever prayed for,” he admitted, his voice steady and certain.

When he’d still been futilely trying to like girls, he’d prayed that someone right would make him feel something. When he’d accepted the fact it would never be girls he was interested in, he’d prayed he’d find someone patient and gorgeous and kind. Jack ticked every box and then a dozen more for things Davey never even dared to pray he’d get. Still, Esther couldn’t see that.

“You stay quiet, or you’ll end up right down there with him,” she warned, as if she thought that was a bad thing. Davey would have given anything to be with Jack, but he knew Esther thought it might still be possible to save him whilst it was too late for Jack. He didn’t want to be saved. “I deserve it as much as he does,” Davey pointed out.

“David,” Esther warned with a growl.

He didn’t get it. If the crime was loving a man, he was guilty. If the crime was being intimate with a man, they had what amounted to almost corporeal proof he was guilty with Jack’s sketch. Davey had no idea how Esther had managed to get Jack taken away, and not him. Unless, of course, she’d told the Master at Arms that he was the victim, that Jack coerced him and convinced him to go to bed with him against his will. Davey shuddered, hating the idea that there were people on board who thought Jack was both capable and guilty of rape. He felt sick at the thought and it only added to the anger that was slowly boiling in his stomach.

“Do you think I didn’t want it?” he asked, practically spitting the words. “Do you really think I didn’t ask him, beg him, to touch me?”

Before, he’d never have dreamed of saying it out loud, he would have hated to even think it. But he was done pretending it was something to be ashamed of. Even if the words were said mainly to rile up his mother, every one of them was true.

Esther froze in her pacing and finally turned to look at him, her eyes wide with shock and despair. Davey met her stare with his own, one of defiance. There was nothing she could do to him that would make him regret a single second he’d spent with Jack.

There were a few beats of silence, calm enough that Davey could feel his own heartbeat in his veins, until Esther lunged forwards and slapped her son across the face as hard as she could manage. Davey refused to give her the satisfaction of crying out, instead clenching his jaw and gritting his teeth to bear the bloom of pain, defiantly maintaining eye contact. Sarah shrieked, instinctively covering her mouth and cowering away before realising that Davey wasn’t going to protect himself if Esther decided to hit him again and scrambling to her feet and put herself between him and their mother.

“Enough,” she ordered. She knew Davey was strong enough to endure the verbal harassment he might get, but physical harassment wasn’t going to be happening to her little brother whilst she was around. “That boy is a corrupting influence,” Esther hissed, pretending Sarah wasn’t even there.

She glared at Davey over her daughter’s shoulder, willing him to see what she was certain was true. This wasn’t the son she had raised. She stepped closer, like she was going to bodily move Sarah out of the way to reach Davey again, but a sudden knock at the door stopped her in her tracks.

Frustrated, she pressed her fingers to her temples. “Not now,” she called out.

The door swung open anyway, a steward bustling in. He paused for a second when he saw the scene in front of him, but he brushed it away after a second’s thought, knowing better than to meddle in the lives of passengers.

“Excuse me, I’ve been told to ask you to please put on your lifebelts and come up to the-” he began, clearly repeating a spiel before he was cut off.

“Not now!” Esther repeated sternly, losing her patience.

“I’m sorry to inconvenience you, Mrs Jacobs, but it’s Captain’s orders,” the steward insisted, crossing the room to open a cupboard and pull out the room’s lifebelts. “Now please, dress warmly. It’s quite cold out tonight.”

Davey blinked, concerned. If they were handing out lifebelts then that meant the ship really was sinking. Suddenly Jack’s absence got far more pressing. He remembered a conversation he’d had with Mr. Andrews, the head designer of the ship, whilst walking circles round the first class deck. There weren’t enough lifeboats for half of the people aboard. Fear crawled up his back to curl around his shoulders like a cat, leaving tiny pin pricks of pain from its claws. Wherever Jack was, he wasn’t safe.

“This is ridiculous,” Esther scoffed, still not understanding the severity of the situation.

The steward tried to hand her a lifebelt, sighing and placing it on the end of the couch when she refused to take it. “Don’t worry, Sir,” he said, catching the fear in Davey’s eyes. “I am sure it’s only a precaution.”

Davey nodded mutely, unable to tell this stranger that he wasn’t worried about himself, but about the man he was in love with who was somewhere else, somewhere that wasn’t right beside him where he belonged, on a sinking ship.

The steward left, moving on to the next cabin along, and Esther resumed the conversation as if nothing had even happened.

“I’m telling you now, David, never think about that man again,” she threatened. This all had to be Jack’s fault.

Davey laughed bitterly. He didn’t care what she thought anymore. “I wanted men long before I even met him. I had dreams about it, even before Albert. If there is a god, they made me this way, not Jack,” he said, not caring that the words hurt her. It wasn’t his fault she couldn’t accept them. “And I’m in love with him. I could never stop thinking about him,” he added as a second thought. He hadn’t properly said it out loud yet and he was a little disappointed that the first person to be hearing it was his mother, but he was so sure of himself that he wanted to say it as many times as possible, starting now.

Esther gasped like Davey had returned a hit of his own. It was one thing to know he had slept with another men, but it was another to hear that he had genuine feelings for the boy that he didn’t even seem to regret. “I can’t listen to this,” she said, holding back tears and taking a step towards the door. When she reached half way she turned, her eyes narrowed. “Sarah, out.”

If there was one thing she didn’t trust, it was her daughter not to encourage Davey’s unhealthy addictions. Sarah pouted, desperate to stay with Davey. To make sure he was safe and to eventually pry some gossip from him about how his evening had gone. It sounded particularly colourful and she was dying to get as many details as he’d tell her. “Mama-” she protested.

“Out,” Esther interrupted. “You are not to speak to your brother again. Mr Snyder?” she prompted, turning to the man by the door. “I will watch the boy,” he promised calmly, too calmly for Davey’s comfort, not even needing to be asked.

Davey just groaned, feeling more and more like a criminal in a cell. He didn’t need to be guarded, he wasn’t dangerous. Sarah pulled him in for a hug before she had to leave, and he took the opportunity to whisper a hurried message in her ear.

“Sarah, Jack- He’s not safe down there- Please-” he mumbled, his thoughts scrambled. He needed to get out, to get to Jack, but he had no idea how he was going to get out of the room. Snyder almost certainly had a gun on him and, while Davey was pretty sure he wouldn’t actually fire it at him, it wasn’t something he wanted to test. He had a long and happy life with Jack planned, and he wasn’t keen on a bullet putting an end to that before it could even begin. That meant Sarah was his only hope.

“I’ll do something, I promise,” Sarah whispered back, reluctantly pulling away from the hug and leaving Davey alone with Snyder as Esther grabbed her by the arm and dragged her from the room.

Once they were gone, Snyder stepped in front of the door and turned the key in the lock, dragging a chair across so he could sit in front of it.

“You’re a disgrace, boy,” he spat.

Davey rolled his eyes and stuck up his middle finger, refusing to dignify the remark with a verbal response. He couldn’t bring himself to say sat still, getting up from the couch and pacing up and down the length of the living room, his fingers playing with the hem of Jack’s blue shirt at his hips. Always. More than once Jack had said that he’d always follow Davey, and now it was Davey’s turn to return the favour – just as soon as Sarah got him out of his cell.

#newsies #newsies fanfiction #javid #Jack Kelly #david jacobs #Jack/David #Titanic AU #Snyder is mean #Esther is mean #Sarah is a saint #Jack is in Trouble

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ultrasfcb-blog · 6 years

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World Cup 2018: Why England must take Joe Hart to Russia

Everyone who says Joe Hart is not good enough to go to this summer’s World Cup is missing the point – the West Ham goalkeeper is not England’s best number one any more, but he is our best number three.

Based on how well he is playing, of course Hart should not be on the plane to Russia. Out of all the regular goalkeepers in Europe’s top five leagues, there are only two with a worse shot-to-save ratio this season.

West Ham keeper Joe Hart has saved 53 of the 91 shots on target he has faced in the Premier League this season. Of the 125 goalkeepers to have faced 20 or more shots in Europe’s top five leagues – England, France, Spain, Italy and Germany – only two have a worse save % – Southampton’s Alex McCarthy with 56.6% and Alberto Brignoli of Italian side Benevento with 56.3%

Burnley’s Nick Pope, who realistically is Hart’s main rival for a place in the squad, is at the other end of that scale. While Hart has had a mostly miserable season and made several obvious errors, Pope has had an amazing one and been inspirational for his team.

But form is not the factor that England manager Gareth Southgate will be considering when he makes his decision about who will be back-up to Jordan Pickford and Jack Butland, despite everything Pope has going for him.

Nick Pope has the second-best save percentage in the Premier League this season, behind Manchester United goalkeeper David de Gea. He is ranked fifth in that statistic in Europe’s big five leagues.

The role of a third-choice keeper at a major tournament involves many things, but they hardly ever get on the pitch. Since 1934, only four out of the 435 teams to compete at World Cup finals have used all three of their keepers – and the last team to do it were Greece in 1994, after they had been eliminated.

Instead of looking for someone who might shine if they get a chance, Southgate will be looking for the right character and someone he can trust to support his team-mates and be a positive influence on the whole squad.

That is not playing down what the role entails, though. I have heard being the number three goalkeeper described as simply being a cheerleader but, having done it at a major finals myself, there is a heck of a lot more to it than that.

Yes, you are there to support the team, but you can be very influential while you do it. Do not underestimate the job by thinking Hart would just be going to Russia to help out in shooting practice.

Hart’s form irrelevant

Joe Hart watches as Peter Crouch pokes the ball home following a fumble from the England goalkeeper in West Ham’s draw with Stoke

It has been suggested that Hart is playing his way out of Southgate’s plans for Russia with performances like the one he put in against Stoke last week, when his fumble cost West Ham a goal with the England manager watching on.

I don’t think that is the case – nor does it matter that Hart cannot try to impress this weekend because he is ineligible to face Manchester City, his parent club.

The things Southgate wants to see are more to do with what he will get from Hart in a training camp with a tight-knit environment, and he knows that already.

If he makes it, these will be Hart’s fifth major finals and his third World Cup – he has been first choice at all of them apart from the 2010 World Cup, when he was third choice.

His experience will be invaluable to Pickford and Butland, who have played at several age-group finals but have been to only one tournament at senior level between them – in 2012, when John Ruddy’s broken finger in training saw Butland bumped up from the standby list.

Joe Hart has been in every squad Gareth Southgate has named as interim or permanent England manager since he took charge in September 2016. In the 16 games that Southgate has been England manager, Hart has played in 11 of them and the only competitive game he has not featured in was the win over Lithuania in October 2017 just after England had qualified for the World Cup

I know Southgate has shown himself to be a brave manager who is willing to make changes with some of his selections, but this is slightly different.

It comes down to personality, not ability, and, despite calling Pope up into his last squad in March, Southgate cannot be sure of what he is like when he is away for five or six weeks – especially compared to Hart.

In this situation I would expect him to go with what he knows.

Experience can improve the blend of the squad

If selected, much of Hart’s work in Russia could come with his fellow keepers on the training ground

The ranking of first, second and third keeper in any squad is usually clearly defined, and they will be this time too. I think Southgate will go for Pickford, Butland and Hart – in that order.

Unlike any of the outfield players, the third-choice keeper does not travel to any tournament expecting to play, so Hart will have no illusions there.

He will be aware of the dynamic that a group of keepers has at international level, and the part he has to play in it – which is to do everything he can to support the number one and number two during the tournament.

While the second choice is looking to excel in training and has to be ready to step in at almost any time, including during games, the number three – or 23 in terms of their usual shirt number – is usually in the stand during matches.

Rachel Brown-Finnis won 82 caps for England and went to six major tournaments. She was third choice at Euro 2001, second choice at Euro 2005, the 2011 World Cup and Euro 2013, and was England’s number one at the 2007 World Cup and Euro 2009

Hart will also be playing third fiddle to what the other two keepers need in training in the build-up to matches, but he is still important because of his knowledge – what he can suggest during those drills and also by offering some analysis and feedback before and afterwards.

He would also be Pickford’s confidant, and his go-to person for information on scenarios that the young Everton keeper has not been in before.

Although it is possible Pickford may not want to seek advice from Hart, it is not even an option for him with Butland and Pope as the other keepers.

I also think Hart would improve the blend of the whole squad. One of the things I like about Southgate is that he has given young players and new faces a chance, but an experienced older player can still bring something to the mix if they are still motivated.

I don’t know him personally but I am sure Hart’s attitude is right. Southgate knows him well and he would not consistently pick him otherwise. Put all that together and he is the best fit to be the number three.

Who will be England’s number one?

Joe Hart (second from left) has 75 England caps – the other three contenders have a total of nine between them. Jordan Pickford (far left) made his debut against Germany in November and won his second cap against the Netherlands in March. He is yet to concede a goal for the senior England team

I am a huge fan of Pope, and put him on my shortlist for the player of the season because of the impact he has had in his first campaign in the Burnley team.

While form is not important for the third-choice keeper, you could definitely argue that it should decide who is England’s number one.

On that basis, Pope who would be first choice, not fourth. He has played well consistently for the past few months too, not just recently.

England goalkeepers 2017-18 Games Clean sheets Goals conceded Shots on target faced Saves Save % Errors leading to goals Jack Butland 32 5 58 189 133 69.31 1 Joe Hart 19 4 39 91 53 57.14 4 Jordan Pickford 35 9 54 167 114 67.66 0 Nick Pope 32 10 28 134 106 79.1 0

But it appears goalkeeper distribution is something that matters a lot to Southgate too, because of the way he wants England to play.

That seems to give Pickford the edge, because he is excellent at it, and I would agree with that choice based on the same criteria that Southgate is using.

We do not see Butland play out from the back very often for Stoke, or Pope for Burnley. Hart has never really looked comfortable doing it, which is one of the reasons his career has stalled.

Pickford’s ability with his feet is his big strength over the other keepers but he is also extremely confident, which makes me think he is ready for this stage. He does not make many mistakes but I don’t think an error would faze him, which is crucial.

When Pickford joined Everton for £30m in June 2017, his manager during a loan spell at Preston, Simon Grayson, said: “He is vocal and he is a winner. He loves the pressure of being the best he can. He will be looking at the England situation at the moment and thinking the next port of call is to be England’s number one. We felt he could have played outfield with the quality of his feet.”

You could argue a case for each of the keepers I have mentioned, though.

It is unusual that England don’t have an established number one at this late stage before a World Cup, but I don’t see it as a problem – it is an exciting time.

Hart did not really have any sort of steady competition during the years he was number one, so it is refreshing for Pickford and Pope to emerge now as well as seeing Butland stay consistently fit.

That has coincided with Hart’s dip in form to produce the situation we are in. However, there is no need to panic.

We are not sure who will take the position long term, but we have some excellent goalkeepers to choose from.

Rachel Brown-Finnis was speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.

BBC Sport – Football ultras_FC_Barcelona

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#Football

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njawaidofficial · 7 years

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Bureaucrats on TV: 'The West Wing,' 'Parks and Rec,' 'Veep'

http://styleveryday.com/2017/07/04/bureaucrats-on-tv-the-west-wing-parks-and-rec-veep/

Bureaucrats on TV: 'The West Wing,' 'Parks and Rec,' 'Veep'

There are plenty of reasons to hate The Simpsons’ Patty and Selma Bouvier. For instance, their sour attitude makes their sister Marge’s life a living hell and they’re exceptionally mean to Homer but perhaps worst of all, they’re lifers at DMV.

The Bouvier twins aren’t the only TV characters who have given civil servants a bad name over the years. President Underwood and his staff on Netflix’s House Of Cards are so craven, they’d get even Machiavelli to cry “Uncle.” Leslie Knope’s team on NBC’s Parks and Recreation usually seemed more concerned with their personal issues that public policy. And for every heroic Fox Mulder, Dana Scully or Jack Bauer, there always seems to be a devious bureaucrat eager to undermine their work.

“There are two different ways government officials get portrayed on television,” explains Zach Patton, executive editor of Governing, a monthly magazine that offers policy insight and analysis for state and local governments. “One is with police and fire departments and public defenders, who are seen as mostly positive and heroic. Then, there’s every other government employee, who for the most part are portrayed as bored or unmotivated or totally incompetent.”

Sure, there have been exceptions to television’s relentless use of government employees as whipping boys and girls. There’s NBC’s beloved The West Wing, of course, and more recently, CBS’ Madam Secretary. For the most part, though, from Selina Meyer’s self-obsessed staff on HBO’s Veep and the vicious world of Scandal’s Olivia Pope all the way down to sitcom mailmen Cliff Clavin and Newman of Cheers fame, the people who work for taxpayers more often than not come off as lazy, self-absorbed or downright evil.

“There’s definitely a mismatch between what you see of public servants on television and who these people really are,” says Patton. “I’d love to see more positive portrayals because the vast majority of people at all levels of government are good people and good public servants. I don’t doubt that the buildup from constantly seeing these people negatively can eventually affect how people feel about their own government.”

It’s pretty clear that at this point in history, it’s not particularly a feeling of love and understanding. A Pew Research Center study this year found that faith in government was nearing an historic low. Roughly 68 percent of Americans said they trust the government only some of time, with an additional 11 percent noting that they never trust the government to do the right thing.

There’s no recent research to quantify whether a constant barrage of cynical civil servant characters on TV leads to a cynical view of civil servants in real life or it’s the other way around. Given that we now have a longtime television personality as president, though, it’s safe to say there is at least some linkage between what we see on the screen and how are views on government reflect that.

“Entertainment does affect the way we see lots of things. People used to get their sense of self and right and wrong from church and family but now, it’s just as often from what they watch,” explains Madam Secretary executive producer Lori McCreary.

This might explain why government workers come up to her on a regular basis “to say they’re so glad we’re showing another side to what they do.” It’s not like Madam Secretary never explores the dark side of federal employees but for McCreary, the goal is to keep the primary focus on the little-known civil servants who still believe in what they’re doing even if the public they work for does not.

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“I hope our show will allow people to see not just the five or six major people who make the news in government,” she explains. “Behind them, there are thousands of people who make our government work. And hopefully by seeing what they do, viewers might even think they could be one of those people.”

Despite those good intentions, though, there’s no denying that TV government employees frequently seem to possess all the comfortable charm of a paper cut. Professor Robert Lichter, director of George Mason University’s Center for Media and Public Affairs, has studied the connection for two decades now and figures the “negative portrayals are a crutch. People are more likely to be impressed by a show that takes that approach than on that takes a positive approach. It’s the easy way out when you do something negative about the government.”

And it’s been that way for a while now. Things started to sour in the late ‘60s and ‘70s, according to Lichter, courtesy of the way in which Watergate, the Vietnam War and the civil rights movement started “delegitimizing government. Television has usually tried to reflect the views of the mass audience in order to appeal to them and once it created its own vision of reality, people start buying into that.”

Even four decades later, TV is still feeling the after-effects of the Watergate era.

“There’s definitely been an arc to politician characters on TV for several years,” says Veep showrunner David Mandel. “In the early days of television, they went incredibly into one direction, getting put on pedestals. That led to shows were we saw that one day, they’d eventually break your heart. And that’s where Veep lives.”

Similarly, 24 executive producer Evan Katz admits that his show might never have become what it was were it not for the Nixon administration. Look no further than the deeply corrupt President Charles Logan character (played by Charles Itzin) for proof.

“Watergate made it clear to most Americans that the president can be crooked, which freed people to tell more critical stories about government,” he says. “I feel like the default position for politics on television now is that the government is corrupt.”

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That’s not necessarily a bad thing. A little skepticism can come in handy when it comes to portrayals of elected officials in particular.

“TV tells stories and reflects the time in which we live,” explains Mike Schur, the co-creator and executive producer for Parks and Recreation. “And the current way government is represented is more honest across the board than it was in the old days. TV used to put a happy face on everything from government to marriage to other institutions and I far prefer a world where television is more honest.”

To be fair, there have been plenty of crusading TV characters in shows like The X-Files, 24 and Homeland who try to do the right thing. However, the villains they’re crusading against are frequently fellow government employees.

“It’s ironic that when you do get a positive portrayal, you’re almost automatically going to have an equally negative one,” says Lichter. “That fosters the notion that the whole system is corrupt and while our heroes can fight against it, they’ll never entirely win.”

Of course, civil servants are definitely not the only TV characters who have been portrayed in a negative light over the years. However, Patton believes “it’s more dangerous when it happens to public officials. If you see negative portrayals of a chef or a lawyer, it doesn’t affect you in the same way because you’re not paying the salary of those folks. I won’t say that TV has a responsibility to show government workers in a positive light because that’d be really boring but absolutely there are consequences from the way they are shown.”

That’s something Barbara Hall is keenly aware of. The creator of Madam Secretary, CBS’ peek at the inner workings of the State Department, grew up in a military family and spent plenty of people who worked in government. So, while she doesn’t consider it her job to provide good PR for a career in public service, she does try to provide a more encouraging view of folks who have those jobs.

“I want a more realistic depiction,” she explains. “I want to focus on people who are doing this for all the right reasons. Our show tries to be a bit aspirational in that way. The No. 1 obligation is to entertain people but when that’s done right, there’s no way to doubt you’re making a contribution to society.”

Take Cliffy from Cheers, for example. The character was designed to be a know-it-all blowhard, admits one of the show’s former executive producers, Cheri Steinkellner. That made for good comic relief having “this guy taking his duty as a civil servant seriously to the point where he gets ridiculed by others.” At the same time, though, there was still something about Cliff Clavin that endeared him to audiences.

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Says Steinkellner, “He wore his uniform with pride, even though he was a lower-status guy in the bar than even Carla. That put a human face on him and maybe for other mailmen.”

It’s one thing for a show to get some laughs out of an arrogant postal employee. Their professions are ones most of us deal with on a personal level at some point. We can form opinions about them based on our own experiences. When it’s a government gig that mostly happens behind closed doors, though, what viewers see could clearly have more of an impact.

“When you have aspects of government that are kind of like a black hole for a lot of people, it’s always possible that someone’s perceptions could be affected,” Patton explains.

That element of the unknown may carry more responsibility for writers and producers but it’s also what attracts them to the topic in the first place.

“TV is at its best when it’s an invitation to a world you know but don’t really know,” says Frank Pugliese, co-showrunner on Netflix’s House of Cards. “We pull a curtain aside and invite people in. It’s up to viewers to decide how they want to take what they see.”

Adds fellow Cards showrunner Melissa James Gibson, “There have been many shows about government at this point, and well before The West Wing they were already offering different perspectives. Now we’ve got Scandal, Veep … not one of them claims to portray the reality of government. Everything should be seen through the point of view of each individual show. The obligation is to serve the story.”

In other words, series featuring civil servants “don’t aspire to be accurate,” believes West Wing co-executive producer Kevin Falls. Each one should be viewed on its own terms and not as part of a trend influencing America. “House of Cards takes a darkly cynical look at government. Veep is hilariously satirical. Scandal is outsized soapy,” he explains. “West Wing went for inspirational.”

The plan seems to have worked. Patton has heard over the years from a generation of public policy students who tell him, “I went into public service because of The West Wing.” The series is also indirectly responsible for one particular group of TV bureaucrats.

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“When we pitched Parks and Recreation, we described it as a comedy version of The West Wing because that seemed like the perfect reference point,” says Schur. “It’s just that the stakes in West Wing were China moving troops in Kazakhstan and for us it was the boys and girls soccer teams both booking the field for the same time. This was not a show about lofty ideals on a national level. Things happen on a federal level that don’t or won’t affect people for years to come. It’s more abstract. Our interest were much more concrete. We wanted to tell stories that reflect where people live.”

That might explain why for all her staff’s occasional indifference to their work, the central character — ever optimistic Leslie Knope (Amy Poehler) — has become a bit of an icon for civil servants around the country. Schur says he’s heard anecdotally that local government employees “have said that her hopeful vision of government was helpful in times of crisis.” There were even Leslie Knope signs spotted at the Women’s March in January.

“There’s an aspirational quality to Leslie,” explains Schur, whose current NBC comedy The Good Place features an afterlife that’s also stymied by bureaucracy. “She offers a kind of blueprint for how we might go about curing certain problems in government.”

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Given all our current level of satisfaction with how government is operating, we could probably use some new Leslie Knopes. If the disillusionment of the Watergate era drove television to all the subsequent negative portrayals of civil servants, there’s always the chance that the Trump era might do just the opposite.

“I think there’s no question what we’re experience now will eventually be reflected on TV,” says Katz. “I’m just not sure how that’ll happen, whether the approach will be things getting more cynical or something that gives people hope that things can get better. A lot of our institutional norms about how we look at people in government are up for grabs at the moment.”

The doesn’t mean “every show has to be a documentary that restores the public trust in civil servants,” adds Patton. “At the same time, though, I’d love to see someone start mixing in more portrayals of government employees who are dedicated to what they do and doing it well. If you can’t make them heroes, at least let them be good role models.”

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#Bureaucrats #Parks #Rec #TV #Veep #West #Wing

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celticnoise · 7 years

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As Dodgy Dave King nears the end of his Ibrox tenure, it seems like a fitting time to look back a couple of years to the time of his takeover and the way it was handled.

Three things were influencial in persuading this guy to finally make his move and assume a controlling interest from which he could oust the board and take over for himself.

The first was a worthless sycophantic media who were his principal cheerleaders if they were not outright partners in the enterprise. He simply could not have managed it without them, and those of us who have thoroughly enjoyed the entertainment owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for ushering a third base liar and charlatan through the doors and up the marble staircase. It really is quite the achievement.

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, shame on me.

What’s fool me three times? A job with The Daily Record?

A lot us weren’t fooled and told their fans the horrible truth about Whyte and about Green.

We told them Ashley wasn’t to be trusted either.

But when it came to King, there was no need for us to have struck up the orchestra and played our song.

That guy, more than any of the others, arrived here a known quality. A South African judge made it about as clear anyone ever could, when he described King in the most savage terms. He was, the judge said, “not to be trusted on any subject” unless his claims were backed up by hard evidence.

The hacks loved this guy. Some of them still do although time has proven that his presence on the board has been like a toxic fume, spreading throughout the club. Sevco was not formed in shapely splendour; Charles Green and his embrace of the gutter, his heady dive into the swamp of West of Scotland slime and sectarianism took care of that, but the club’s current outlook is as aggressive, warped and delusional as I’ve ever seen it.

So much of their hatred spews from a South African address.

When it comes to this guy and the media, I am admittedly prejudiced.

I’ve been way ahead of my writing in hating their sycophantic slavering attitude towards this geezer. When he first appeared on the scene, giving David Murray £20 million back in the crazy days, I marvelled at the way they slurped at his feet. This was a guy from the south side of Glasgow who had somehow acquired a fortune in one of the most corrupt and ignorantly run countries on Earth, during international sanctions and universal odium, when doing so meant crawling into the bed with some of the most loathsome and reprehensible bigots on the planet … and not one question was ever raised in the MSM about how he had managed that spectacular feat.

We now know of course that it was by virtue of a fraud, the one for which he was later sanctioned by a South African court and for which he could have got 80 some years in prison over there. This “favourable settlement” kept him out of leg irons, but there’s no longer any dispute about how he made, and lost, that fortune. He was, and is, a criminal and everyone in Scotland, everyone who knows his name, is wholly aware of that fact.

The media did its job, on his behalf, admirably. Even those who weren’t taking PR low Level handouts were fully on board with plan. A case in point is Graham Spiers, who was one of the few who called King exactly what he was and said he ought not to have been allowed a role at the club. Even he could not bring himself to say that it would end in disaster and shame, “Whatever your view of this King decision – and I find it ridiculous – it is time now to let him get to work, and let him be judged by what he can or cannot do for Rangers,” he wrote at the time, as if the good of one club was all that mattered in a moment that shamed our sport.

Others were even more blatant about it. The general feeling appeared to be, “He has money, he says he will spend it, therefore to Hell with the regulations.”

And this, of course, was music to the ears of the fans too.

Imagine for a second that Celtic had been reduced to rubble by the actions of one man.

Imagine some version of our club was on the verge of being saved, but the guy who was stepping up to do it looked even dodgier at first glance than the one who’d wrecked it.

Can you imagine us letting him take control? Can you imagine his board being ousted by a third smirking wide-boy, this one with a history of fraud and deception behind him? We’d have burned down the ground before we let any of these people control our destiny in such a way.

Rangers’ fans cheered Whyte all the way down the Broomloan Road. As Sevco fans they hollered their approval for Charles “Chuckles” Green. Their breath-taking ignorance of the sort of man King is really takes the cake though. It wins the Grand Prize.

If this couldn’t have happened without the media, then how do you judge the role the fans played in all this? I still say this happened in the first place because they were already recognised as amongst the most gullible supporters in Europe.

Craig Whyte is a career man. What he did to Rangers was not unique. As some of his associates had already pointed out, in the famous BBC documentaries which took this story off the net and put it where the public at large could see it, this was his MO right from the start. This is what Craig Whyte did for a living, and perhaps what he still does.

But he had never dipped a toe in football. How did he decide that was an enterprise worth his time, his effort, and one that could net him a bag of money? Someone suggested it to him, for sure, but what made the decision for him? I’ve always thought it was the nature of the support, one that was ready to hear a message of hope no matter how ridiculous from any source no matter how incredible. When the News of the World wrote a story about the Russian gangster who was sniffing around the club their editorial piece made it clear most fans at other clubs would shirk such interest, but that at Rangers it would be acceptable if he brought money.

What chancer looking for the next big scheme could resist that?

Charles Green knew he could get the same fans onside simply by invoking the old supremacy nonsense, and tapping into the hate vein. They might as well have queued up to hand him their wallets there and then, because from that moment on it was a done deal that they would. The share issue was a sham the bloggers identified as one from the start, and we knew the money would soon be frittered away. They lined up to give it to him anyway.

A lot of people have made a lot of money at the expense of these folk, but their willingness to buy in to fantasy is bottomless. King clearly thinks their pockets are too, and he may be right because he was able to jack season ticket prices up at the start of this season on the “Going for 55” guff. Their tickets, for their first year in the top flight, are the most expensive in the country, costing, on average, 10% more than those of the champions.

They allowed him to recast the supporters’ organisations during the summer too, and made sure his own point-man was one of the leaders. Naturally, he wanted access to Rangers First’s fund-raising ability, and what they had in the bank, and he got it.

You can’t fault this guy for being able to play the game. He does it well. Sort of.

When he’s not dealing with idiots though he comes across like such an amateur, such a small time chancer of limited intelligence. He picks fights where they aren’t needed. He allows himself to be lulled into thinking winning minor skirmishes equates to winning the war.

His falling out with commercial partners, his inability to interest “outside investors”, his appalling relationship with the most important people at the club (outside of his pet directors) have led to set-backs, crisis and now erupt full-blown into scandal, and we’ve not seen anything yet.

If King stays, it’s entirely possible that even greater consequences are waiting for him.

The Financial Services Authority is already sitting on numerous complaints – including one from Ashley – that King was responsible for fraudulently manipulating the share price of the club so as to make his “concert party” takeover more manageable. That one carries a jail sentence, and if he lied to the South African Revenue Service about his shareholding in Sevco that might be waiting for him anyway, in the country he call home but feels not the least loyalty to.

And none of it would have been possible, and he would not have been allowed to place the club and himself in such a precarious position, if it wasn’t for the most gutless football association on the planet, which ought never to have let him near the board of a major club.

It is was, and it remains, a scandal that they went along with any of this.

If Dave King ends up subjected to criminal charges in relation to his time at the club, even after he has departed, the questions these people will have to answer will be the sort that end careers. It’s all well and good saying that, of course, because some of these people ought not to have careers anyway for the way they’ve acted throughout this, but this will be different. King’s background should have permanently barred him from the game here; at no other club but Sevco would they have blithely waived that through.

And it gets worse, because the suspicion remains that the money which paid off Ashley originated in South Africa and not in Asia as the Sevco board allege. The SFA may be unwitting parties to money laundering because they didn’t do due diligence and examine how the club was being funded. That’s massive, and they ignored it.

They can abrogate responsibility to the clubs themselves as much as they like in an effort to pass the buck but in seventeen days the deadline to meet UEFA licensing requirements on financial disclosure come into play and the SFA still has no basis on which to say Sevco is heading for “break even” or knows how they’ll get through next season. If they waive this one through, and Sevco is licensed, then the clubs which miss out, and have played by the rules, will be perfectly entitled to scream bloody murder about it.

Sevco will be shackled either way; the only way UEFA will grant them permission to play in Europe will be if they can guarantee to get their finances under control and that means the new boss will be preceding over a series of cuts rather than spending.

The vice they are in is tight and getting tighter and there are no quick fixes.

In many ways, this is the right time for King to go. He’s a busted flush and everyone knows it. His “leadership” of the club is nothing of the sort; he hides in South Africa whilst the decisions that matter, including appointing the new manager, are taken by those at the sharp end. They’re the ones who do the work and provide the money when it’s needed to keep the lights on. His chairmanship is a fraud like much else in his career.

If he hangs on it’s because he knows he’ll do so largely without scrutiny. Yesterday’s news got a few brief paragraphs in the papers, but as per usual the real analysis was left to the bloggers, who’ve done a sterling job of going through the verdict and its implications; few of us believe he can survive this, but as there are life forms that would survive a nuclear war it might be too early to dig this guy a limestone pit, at least as far as Sevco is concerned.

But to all intents and purposes, this is the end. The City of London authorities have already found against him in a major case, and there are others. They will be looking at the allegations outstanding with renewed interest and pursuing them with renewed vigour. South Africa’s tax authorities will also be watching him closely, and in particular if he suddenly pulls money out of the mattress to buy worthless shares at 20p a pop.

It might be the beginning of the end, but it’s no longer the end of the beginning. We’re in the final phase of Dave King’s “chairmanship” of Sevco and it comes amidst scandal and crisis, even as the newest inhabitant of the manager’s office warms his seat.

Three separate groupings have acted as his enablers and, if we’re being honest, have enabled each other all the way through this. The media has manipulated the fans and refused to ask questions of the governing bodies. Their fans have slammed the media whilst swallowing whole every positive story they wrote on the “saviours” who’ve bled the club dry and they’ve tried to silence criticism with intimidation and threats and those have cowed the SFA – “civil disorder, anyone? – into giving these people a free ride. And the SFA has bent regulations, disseminated propaganda and got the media on board with the idea that this club is “too big to fail.”

These incestuous relationships have wreaked havoc on the club they were designed to strengthen. It is the great irony of this affair that everything they’ve done to help has made matters worse and King is only the latest manifestation of what has been unleashed.

His departure won’t bring this to an end either. The Ibrox fans and their friends in the press offices and at Hampden have been on this merry-go-round too long to get off now. This sense that they are something special remains in spite of one club circling the drain and swirling down the plughole and the NewCo suffering humiliation on top of it all for five straight years now.

As Murray beget Whyte beget Green beget Ashley beget King we know not what the end of his regime will mean except that it will likely be more of the same. Because until this club gets over itself, until it realises how everything has changed, it will be easy prey for the next band of crooks and villains who come along.

And the media will cheer them through the front door and the SFA will rubber stamp the next fraud without any compunctions at all.

None of these people ever learn, and until they do they’ll never change.

“Past is prologue” said Shakespeare.

If you want to know what will be, you just look at what has come before.

Or to put it the way George Santayana did, “Those who will not learn from history are destined to repeat it.”

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