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fizzingwizard · 3 years

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I could cry y’all. Episode 37 was SO GOOD. So good!! It truly felt like a Mimi episode, and it truly felt like Digimon Adventure, in multiple ways. It’s seriously fantastic!

I feel at once super duper relieved that this show is, really and truly, capable of this time of episode, and also super duper confused why, if it could do this, it hasn’t been doing it the whole time??

Anyway, we’ve now had four or five solid episodes in a row, so I’m letting myself feel hopeful again!

This episode is called “Mimi Wars,” but I feel it might be more aptly titled “Sailor Mimi”

In the name of employee rights, I will punish you!

More below!

Okay... so as I was watching this episode, I really got the feeling that they were parodying something again. Like last we had a Mimi episode - far far away in the distant past though it was - when they very obviously parodied Castle in the Sky. That’s twice now Mimi’s been compared with a girl with twin tails, Usagi’s pigtails and Sheeta’s braids xD

Although the poses Mimi uses aren’t exact replicas of Usagi’s, though, so maybe I’m wrong. I got the Usagi vibe from her personality even more, so maybe using the poses would have been considered copyright infringement and so they had to change them a little. Or, maybe Mimi is parodying someone else who also uses dramatic hand movements and talks a lot about justice in spite of being generally clueless...

See the resemblance? XD

But what I REALLY think is going on is, they’re spoofing the genre in general, while also taking it seriously. That’s important. It’s not just a joke here. This is the girl power episode, in a way, and in my opinion, it’s a better girl power episode than the fare I got used to growing up, which went more or less like this:

Guy: *does something with good intentions but inept*

Girl: Ugh! Men don’t respect women!

Guy: I’m sorry, what did I do wrong?

Girl: I won’t tell you because feminism! C’mon girlfriends, let’s assert our confidence as women by going on a girls night out shopping spree and making a bunch of random guys stare in awe at us for no clear reason!

Girls: Yes! This is third wave feminism!

... that was more or less the formula. It was... awkward. I’d like to blame on “those episodes were written by men who think all feminists are angry feminists,” but I think if I went and checked who the scriptwriters were, there’d be some women in there for sure.

What we got in THIS episode is something I’d actually want my daughter to see. First off you’ve got Mimi, who loves pink and pretty things and comes across as a real girly girl, not to mention a bit of a ditz. And the show’s straight up, “but just because you have flaws doesn’t mean you can’t grow into a great person. Also, being girly is not incompatible with being a boss.”

Mimi doesn’t need to be a man, nor does she need to be a hard ass, nor does she need to be especially kind and sweet to soften her orders. All she has to do, according to this episode, is care about her craft, care about quality, and care about worker conditions.

I mean... a show where the girl boss wasn’t a Russian spy in a former life?? A show where the girl boss isn’t a Stepford wife who got where she is by marrying rich and funding her perfume company that way? She’s... she’s Reese Witherspoon in Legally Blonde. She gets to be flawed and girly and fun-loving and bossy and ditzy all at the same time. She loves diamonds - but diamonds are no longer a “girl’s best friend.” Rather, Mimi herself is the diamond in the rough!

This actually makes her a really good set with Sora. Sora continues to be both a tomboy and very sisterly. Mimi’s very girly but very bossy. Between the two of them, they can conquer the world. Of course, I don’t know that the show would take it any farther than they already have, but I’m just happy to see this development for Mimi at all. We had it to a degree in 99 Adventure, and Kizuna took it a bit further by making her an entrepreneur. Reboot Mimi is a remix of that for the 21st century.

*deeeeeeeeeep breath*

so... back to our regularly scheduled programming!

As awesome as Mimi is, she’s not the only one who’s great in this episode. The others get to let their real personalities shine, at least. We needed this episode sooooo bad like 20 episodes ago... le sigh.

Anyway, we start off having mad camp, for some reason (why aren’t they just staying on Komondomon?? whatev)

Food! They’re going to get food! They’re splitting up and making a plan in order to get food!!! I still miss the “food desperation” of 99 Adventure but hey, at least they’re acknowledging that they need to eat.

Sora advises Hikari and Takeru not to go too far on their quest and Tailmon swears like a knight of the round table to protect Hikari with her life.

Taichi: Oookay... note to self: don’t piss off little sister’s hotheaded partner...

Taichi adds that they’re also counting on Patamon, who is just thrilled to go off and play with Takeru.

Tailmon: *BIG SIGH*

Lol I really love that they’re bringing back the old Patamon/Tailmon dynamic where she’s all grown up serious and he’s got the priorities of a toddler most of the time... It’s Black Widow and Hawkeye bahahahaha

We even get to see them COLLECT FOOD what did I do to deserve this they are COLLECTING FOOD IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN I REPEAT IT’S NOT HAPPENING OFF SCREEN

Taichi even has to warn Agumon not to eat the food becaues they’re supposed to be gathering it to share ;___; omg... we actually get on screen proof that Agumon is a glutton??

Then Taichi tries to “help” by shaking the tree and the tree falls and they -

BAHAHAHAHAHA

humor!!! Poking fun at Taichi even!! Over food!! Because he has a klutz for a partner!!! And because he himself was overzealous!! ;_; I could die of Cute.

Sora absolutely shocks me this episode too. I expected she’d just watch Taichi and Agumon drift away with their folly while sighing and shrugging her shoulders or something.

NOPE

She jumps DIRECTLY UP and into the water without a moment’s hesitation, like they’re going to die without her - I don’t even know what her plan is here, she seems to want Piyomon to evolve and pull them out, but why does that mean Sora has to be in the water too?

I think her sisterly instincts just freaked out on seeing Taichi looking wet and confused and clinging to a tree trunk so she just did the first thing she could think of which was “Get to him!!”

Piyomon then fails to evolve, reason unclear, I suppose she’s hungry... they never do eat though so I’m not sure why she can evolve later xD (probably they eat off screen)

But I mean I just love that we got this bit with Sora. I call it freaking out but she doesn’t seem freaked out - she stays calm and seems decisive and takes action - all good things. It’s just hard to understand her thought process xD But it’s all good info about Sora. (again stuff we needed more of AGES ago)

Now I had thought this was all just a funny bit that was separate to the main story, but this is how Taichi and Sora end up washed up in the rocky area Mimi is. This does mean Koushirou, Takeru, and Hikari aren’t much in the rest of the episode, sadly. Not sure why but the reboot does seem to struggle with writing episodes for the whole group.

Like last week, I’m somewhat miffed that, in the end, the main group finds the stragglers instead of the other way around. It’s even worse this time because at least last episode Koushirou told them where he was and they had a reason to go there. This time they have no idea Mimi’s gonna be there and it’s all a big coincidence. On the other hand... I do think Mimi was born under a lucky star, so that explains it. :P

Taichi and Sora suddenly find them selves trapped Gulliver’s Travels style and they’re both immediately like, “Hmm... something about this situation seems very familiar...”

Taichi and Sora: Oh that’s RIGHT we totally forgot that the pink cowgirl we hand out with is also TOTALLY BATSHIT

D’awww. Our future overlord is just so adorable, I don’t even mind when she flogs us in the street

TBH, up till now they’ve woefully underestimated just how batshit she is. And it’s wonderful.

So Mimi has happened upon some poor, disenfranchised Digimon who are being forced to work for an evil boss who collects the beautiful gems that grow in this area. Like in 99 Adventure, Mimi will have none of this sort of crap. Her reasons, though, have evolved with the times:

omg... she voted for Bernie Sanders!

This is how Harry and Ron reacted when Hermione said she was starting a house-elf welfare organization called SPEW.

Though I joke - like I said before, even though Taichi and Sora are rather mind-boggled by Mimi’s mood swings and fits of passion, and there’s definitely humor there, Mimi herself is not a joke here. We are shown strongly that, however in the clouds her head might be, her heart is not only in the place, it’s also already internalized the fact that people don’t always get treated well in the real world and it’s up to those with power to ensure that are protected.

I mean. At this point, I’m going, “Sorry but ISN’T MIMI THE REAL LEADER IN THIS SHOW?!?!”

Of course she does have another, less lofty motivation... she really likes pretty stones.

Buhahahaha.

Mimi’s names are as creative as they are incredible, just like her. Taichi and Sora have trouble keying in with Mimi due to how changeable she is, but they never talk badly about her or reject her. They never try to wrest leadership from her either! Taichi might think Mimi’s names for the stones are over the top, but sort of sidesteps it and just goes along with her plan.

Reason #14567876867867 why I love Yagami Taichi: when someone else is the leader, he can be a follower. And he’ll be the BEST follower. Keep reading to see why.

The story of how Mimi befriended the enslaved rock Digimon here is pretty much how Goku became besties with Vegeta.

Men communicate their hearts through their fists! Or swords, depending on the anime. ANOTHER AWESOME SUBVERSIVE MOMENT FOR MIMI - she’s now even got cliche shonen hero tropes assigned to her!

Taichi and Sora, like I said, don’t try to change Mimi’s mind - they’re actually touched by her strong feelings about workers’ rights and her desire to help her new friends -

Taichi: Wait... what?

Sora: Well, she’s still a ten year old girl.

The rock Digimon show their allegiance to Princess CEO Mimi. They don’t even mind having their names and identities stripped away and being reduced to numbers on an Excel spreadsheet...

Taichi: I hate Excel.

Sora: I do too, but I’m more impressed that she remembers the numbers she gave us back in episode 6.

Taichi: Impressed? More like filled with a sense of impending doom

Only Taichi seems to understand Mimi’s unique power bahahaha.

But back to what I said earlier, about Mimi being the real leader: I don’t know if the show’s gonna keep doing anything with this at all, but I really like that they didn’t NOT do this in order to ensure Taichi’s the only leader. (I mean, Yamato’s so far not made much of a bid for leadership so he’s been pretty uncontested thus far. He also hasn’t had to do all that much leading given how often the group is separated... but I digress)

I love the idea that Taichi can step back and let someone else take the reins when they’re best suited. Which Mimi is, due to her easy ability to make friends and gain trust. Mimi had this ability in 99 as well and it was used in the final battle to muster the troops, so to speak. It ought to have been a bigger deal but wasn’t since she missed most of the final battle :/ But I loved that “social, able to make friends” wasn’t some stupid “Girls talk too much” trait, it was actually something that was useful. This is a great place to take that with the reboot.

At the same time, while Mimi and Taichi both have similar leadership traits, there are places they diverge that potentially make them leaders for different situations. Taichi’s pretty cool and strategic even in emergencies. He was more of a hothead in 99, but Mimi’s always been quick to anger. (And quick to cool down.) As we’ll see in this episode, that’s sort of where Taichi’s true ability lies: he’s serious, determined, strategic, and reliable as well as brave. But this is Mimi’s episode, and Taichi isn’t going to get to be the hero anymore than he (almost) was last week with Koushirou. Because more than one character can have positive leadership traits! Hallelujah.

Quick nip over to Komondomon and the others - Koushirou’s group is going to try to find them, but Komondomon falls asleep. Oh noes. I wish someone (Koushirou) would ask, out loud, “Gee, what are these strange symbols that appear when we communicate via digivice? Do they mean something? How were they assigned?” I really thought we’d get a hint what with all the conveniently colorful gemstones this episode, but still nope.

My girl looking like a BAMF!

Mimi explains her plan to her servants employees. She is surprisingly artistic!

Sora plays the role of bait to create a diversion while Greymon digs a tunnel to get to where the gems are stored. Mimi congratulates herself on a job well done.

Taichi: A job well done? Who d’you think has been doing the work here?

Greymon: That would be me.

Taichi: Right, right I was going to say you >.>;

So we do see bits of Mimi’s self-centered side as well - she’s not perfect, but who is? Taichi just lives with it. Mwehehehe.

... will be fired! LMAO

No. 72 is Taichi, btw. Mimi gave up calling people by their names for Lent.

Taichi: Lent’s not for over a month.

Mimi: It’s never too early for religious sacrifice.

Taichi: And you’re not Catholic.

Mimi: I celebrate Mardi Gras.

Taichi: yOU JUST LIKE THE COSTUMES AND KING CAKE

He’s miffed and he.... just lives with it. Again. xD

It’s hilarious. And adorable. I love both that 1) Mimi is an awesome boss while being, in fact, rather bossy, and that 2) in spite of being a boss type himself, Taichi not only listens to Mimi, but he totally indulges her like he’s her older brother or something x’D He wouldn’t be out of line for saying “I have a name you know!” On the other hand, I guess he knows her well enough to understand that she doesn’t mean anything by it, and... there’s no stopping her when she gets like this :P

Feel the wrath of Tachikawa Mimi!!!

So Mimi’s plan has worked so far, and she’s got everyone listening to her despite her questionable business practices, and then she... suddenly rushes off in another direction.

Taichi: That’s it, I am through being her personal assistant if she’s just going to change the plan on a whim!

Taichi: ... I don’t want to see her get hurt or be sad though...

Greymon understands Taichi’s heart ;___; and enables him to go after Mimi. I don’t really get why it’s wise to split up given that Taichi can’t fight big rock Digimon without his partner... x’D So I’m going to chalk this up to, Greymon understands that Taichi is, at his core, the team Dad. He’s got to be allowed to worry and check up on the kids, even when it’s not so advisable. Awwwwwwwww.

Indeed, Taichi doesn’t get to be the hero this ep, but small moments like this give us waaaay more character development than always being the hero!

Fortunately Mimi does have her own partner and she’s not afraid of the enemy’s rock hard abs. :P

They make it into the storage center for all the gems. IT’S SO COLORFUL. Ten year old men is squeeing just like Mimi.

Come on!! She’s holding yellow/orange topaz and purple amethyst! It could be the material for Taichi or Takeru’s and Koushirou’s crests! (I always liked fire opal for Taichi though xD)

Taichi’s been promomted!! To chief pack animal x’D Just because it’s a cool name doesn’t mean that’s what the job is, Meems.

Taichi’s just like, “I think I’m too young for that position.” Bahahaha.

He’s going to be carrying her books to school before long.

Then something big and hard hits Taichi in the head!! He freaking starts to cry, it hurts so bad!!

Taichi: Owww! Omg I think I got a concussion from that! Help someone call an ambulance!

He was hit in the head by a diamond, which Mimi loves. So she goes off on a monologue about how much she likes diamonds. She never asks him if he’s okay x’D

Taichi: Don’t worry about me, I’m fine, not that you asked or anything.

Mimi: Please, everyone knows your head is already harder than diamonds.

Taichi: ...

The pile of gems looks like Fruity Pebbles. Mmmmm

It turns out the mastermind of this whole operation is Gogmamon, who is the bastard child of Gogmagog I assume :P He eats the gemstones as well as Gotsumon for power. He then produces the diamonds?? I didn’t quite understand if he was spitting out the diamonds because he didn’t like them, or he was creating them inside him when eating and then spitting them out like... diamond turds...

...

they’re diamond turds aren’t they >__>

Mimi is not interested in big business bulldozing the mom and pop shops and small upstarts. And she hates sweatshops! She is pro-Fair Trade all the way! And she will yell it in your face!

Taichi: It’s the yelling part that I’m having trouble with.

Mimi: A good speech from the boss is what keeps up employee morale!

Taichi: Yeah, that’s less true when the boss is about to be gobbled up herself...

Golemon and Togemon try to fight Gogmamon and this results in Golemon falling to pieces.

Taichi: Are you okay?

Golemon: My HEAD was knocked off, but sure I’m doing JUST FINE -____- little brat

Taichi stands protectively in front of Golemon’s head. Lol. He’s thinking of strategies... perhaps regretting rushing after Mimi and leaving his own partner behind...

Mimi joins him and Gogmamon finds her a formidable opponent in the war of words. Gogmamon argues that all the rocks, all the Digimon, everything here belongs to him and him alone! And Mimi brilliantly counters with:

“Fuck that! They belong to ME!”

x’D He just like... under his breath... “she admits that’s how she thinks of us...” hahahaha... I laughed out loud...

It might not be 3D but this is an excellent evolution sequence xD I haven’t said so yet but the animation in this episode was good! Good for the show anyway. It was smoother than usual despite some mechanical-like mouth movements and more than that, it had character and expression!

okay important question everyone: Taichi = Kermit, Mimi = Miss Piggy... discuss??

So Gogmamon has a pretty cool-sounding attack, “Curse Reflection.” I have often complained that the villains we fight and get new evolutions with aren’t that scary, but Gogmamon not only seemed pretty formidable (if not the smart, I mean he does have rocks for a brain), he also had a good story build up. My one disappointment in this episode is that the ending is so fast and Gogmamon so easily dealt with. This would have been a good time to introduce Rosemon (like how last week would have been an appropriate time for HerculesKabuterimon). But in both cases, we’re definitely supposed to take away at least that these guys are almost there... Anyway yeah, I would have liked a tiny bit more meant to the resolution but.

So here’s ANOTHER cool thing! Taichi notices that Gogmamon rejects the diamonds, and realizes they’re the key to defeating him. But he doesn’t just tell that to Mimi. He asks her “Did you see that?” And guess what - she did!

So even though the show couldn’t resist telling us that yes, Taichi would have been able to handle this situation - it doesn’t even let him give Mimi a hint towards victory. She figures it out for herself! The most we can say he does is point out the diamond, but she understands the implication and is able to use it against Gogmamon through her own intellect.

TAICHI DOESN’T MANSPLAIN Y’ALL. HE’S NOT A MANSPLAINER. HALLELUJAH AND PAST THE PEAS!!

Mimi is very influenced by her hardworking, CEO grandpa, Tachikawa Genichiro, who’s taught her things about business and things about values, and it really reads as if she’s the one who will inherit the family business - like she’s the family investment. You know, the role that traditionally only falls to sons. That’s changed with the world, and apparently Tachikawa Genichiro-jiisan is totally on board with his granddaughter being more than just a pretty heiress!

... btw what are they making...

“You’re fired!” Mimi yells as Lillymon takes Gogmamon down x’D kill me I love it

Like last time (and it sure was a long time ago that we saw it ;_;), the aftereffects of Lillymon’s powers is plants start growing everywhere. This is such a cool effect, I don’t get why it’s not used more. Right now I feel like Mimi/Palmon are the best set in the show.

(I did think it was funny when Mimi gives the diamond to Lillymon to use against Gogmamon and Lillymon acts like Mimi’s making this huge sacrifice since she loves diamonds so much. But 1) it wasn’t the only one, and 2) they were spat out by Gogmamo! that’s gross! that’s got to cut into the value! hahah)

The others finally catch up and the day is saved. Golemon is an employee for life now. Awww.

AWWWWWW.

I gushed about all this before so I won’t repeat myself, but yeah, I’m so happy with this episode.

Lol Sora and Taichi have accepted their places in Mimi’s world, in the end. They might have numbers instead of names and their boss might change her mind about things every five seconds, but other than that it’s a pretty nice gig overall.

Again the art, so sweet. This reminded me of Miyako yelling to Mimi about how she wants to be like her when she grows up in 02 so I capped it.

And I absolutely love this little play on words since it’s in English! Wow!

SO CUTE. How did a Mimi episode kick every other episode out of the water? Scratch that, we always knew Mimi was fantastic. A shojo hero for the 21st century.

Well I said a ton and this is really long now so I’m gonna assume you all get my thoughts on this episode. 9.5/10, really awesome, totally unexpected but perfectly suted to Mimi. I’m so so happy this show seems to have figured things out and remebered that it’s supposed to be freaking Digimon Adventure, it seemed like it forgot for a while there. I just hope we haven’t wasted too much time on those more lackluster episodes, I want so many more stories like this one.

Next week looks like another winner:

OK, that concept is hilarious x’D I’m so sorry. But also, leave it to Yamato and Gabumon to get the tragedy episode.

The mood maker will be this guy! I’m totally psyched for Yamato and Jou. Taichi’s been important in the past two episodes even though they were centered on Koushirou and Mimi, so I wonder if/when he’ll be involved this time? Or maybe it really will be just Yamato and Jou - my dream combo?? I can’t wait either way.

DID NOT CHECK FOR TYPOS! See y’all next week.

#fizz watches digimon 2020 #digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure:#digimon adventure reboot #digimon #digi spoilers #this took forever because i loved it so much #so many caps so many comments hahahahaha

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whitehotharlots · 3 years

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It’s all religion, and it’s all profane

Over the past few days I have delved, rather pointlessly, into the messy scenery of the UK’s ongoing gender wars. My interest was equal parts morbid and academic. I hoped to answer two questions. First, why is the back-and-forth between trans rights advocates and gender critical feminists so vicious in the UK, culminating not just in the threats and recriminations found in the war’s American iteration, but in women being blackmailed and even arrested.

The second question is why is it even happening? That is, why is the UK in particular a hotbed for an ideological war of this type among liberal-identifying people, while in the US the feminist movement has accepted trans ideology more or less uniformly and with minimal pushback. My first inclination was that it was a matter of professional survival. Perhaps academic jobs aren’t as precarious in the UK, meaning that it’s somewhat safer for people to issue heterodox opinions. But, again, the viciousness of the first question seems to rebut my assumption in regards to the second. Losing your job is bad, but going to prison is worse.

Of course, I found no clear answer to either question. UK academe is utterly unknowable to an American who’s never experienced it. I found out what “O Levels” means but after that I got kind of lost. As much as a shitty lie our myth of academic meritocracy might be, the UK makes us look like a Dutch Montessori school run by doctrinaire Quakers. If your first name isn’t proceeded by Lord, Lady, or Sir, or if you don’t have a number after your name that’s at least as high as The Fourth, there’s not much of a chance you’re going to get yourself a gig within Oxbridge.

So I delved into the viciousness, and oh boy did I get what I was looking for. The English are renowned for their dry, cutting humor, but that’s because only the best of the best come into the American purview. The majority of pedestrian UK humor is a sort of sarcasm without jokes. Like, let’s say you brought home a sausage pizza. I asked you what the topping was and you said “It’s pepperoni, mate.” And then you opened it up and it was sausage and that made me confused and slightly pissed. That’s the extent of the comedic ability of your average Brit.

The fights, meanwhile, are more direct and blunt, really a sight to behold. Again, there’s no attempts at humor, which tend to accompany the verbal conflicts of Americans. When Americans fight, we’re usually doing it to try and get the people around us to think we’re cool. When UK people fight, they just want to hurt the other person.

Of course, there’s much in common between the US and UK iterations of gender discourse. Minor disagreements are regarded as violence, hyperbolic overstatements of harm are routine, and person who uses terminology that was considered progressive up until very recently can find themself labeled a Nazi for not making linguistic adjustments quickly enough. But it’s still somehow even more rancorous in the UK. You get a sense that they’re not in it just for online clout but out of a desire to cause real, physical harm to members of the other side.

One of the more salient aspects of UK arguments is how their insults will often consist of a simple description of a person. Sometimes you’ll get “fat” or “snaggle toothed” or something most of us would consider mean. But other times it’s like “you blonde cunt” or “you working class shite” or something else that us Americans would never regard as an insult. Mentions of religion are surprisingly common. They say “you Catholic bigot” as opposed to “you bigot,” or “you deranged Protestant” instead of “you freak.”

This really struck me. You’d never, ever see that in America. Firstly because it’s taboo (unless it’s a Republican talking about Muslims). Secondly, because we simply do not care. Your average religious American cannot articulate any meaningful difference between Catholics and Protestants. We have no need to, because as much as we love Jesus we don’t bother with any of the messy parts of religion, such as having a faint understanding of the faiths we claim to adhere to.

This, I have always felt, is the greatest folly of New Atheism. What are you gonna do, present a scientific case demonstrating the absurdity of the creation myth? You gonna stick solely to the bible and highlight its multiple hypocrisies and contradictions? What is that gonna achieve? These people had Donald Trump autograph their bibles. They think salvation can be purchased by giving 20% of their paychecks to millionaires who preach in stadiums. There’s nothing an outsider can do to profane their religion that’s more obscene than the manner in which they practice it.

(I recall a time in my mid-teens when I attempted to “A-ha!” a youth pastor with my knowledge of the story of Jephthah from the Book of Judges, who committed yahweh-approved ritualistic sacrifice of his eldest daughter. In response, the pastor informed me that he hadn’t read that part of the bible, and that his relationship with Jesus was more about the feelings it gave him than some words written down in an old book. Needless to say, he won the argument.)

The UK is, even now, broadly to the left of the US in regards to their social safety net and most cultural matters (this is a low bar, for sure, but they do clear it). Perhaps people who us Americans would identify as liberal (in that they don’t openly want to murder poor people; they’ll often still do it, but they won’t giggle while doing it) aren’t as ideologically siloed over there. The Democratic party is, after all, an unworkable mishmash of a few dozen different concerns, and their basic strategy since the Clinton era has been to blame the incompatibility of those concerns for the fact that their governance is indistinguishable from that of the GOP.

An American liberal therefore doesn’t focus on piddling things like principles or ideals or even whether or not a policy they support does the exact opposite of what it’s supposed to achieve. Paying too close attention to the workings of our coalition will reveal its manifest contradictions, which will in turn weaken it, and if gets too weak then we’ll once again have an evil fascist doing the exact same stuff that a good and honorable man like Joe Biden is presently doing. Instead, we must understand politics as a means of achieving self-actualization through the process of deferring our concerns to others. Those concerns are not addressed within the present system, no, and neither are our own, but worrying about cause and effect and results is not the point. It’s much more important to exist, to validate, and to listen.

In the UK, politics is still understood as politics. It is a means of gaining and exercising power. In the US, politics falls eerily in line with our profane understanding of what religious devotion entails: an acontextual, borderline illiterate expression of ourselves, which we have been trained to believe connects us to some kind of higher power that unifies us as humans by calcifying our utter disconnectedness from one another.

And so maybe that’s the difference? In the UK, people are delusional enough to think that politics is entered into by people who have something to gain or lose. In the US, it’s all about vibes.

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cbrosa-archived · 3 years

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What are your biggest pet peeves?

i hope you're ready because they're a lot lmao here we go:

arrogant and narrow-minded millennials with a boomer mindset

music snobs, mainly from the classic rock simp cult

people who hostilely interrupts when others are speaking

LBGT people who want sit their asses and hate and discredit human rights protesters and riots claiming it won’t do shit but they totally forgot pride started thanks to a fucking riot

pro racism/bigotry suporting conspiranoid psychos

gen zs who wanna jump on the 00s nostalgia wagon and at the same time truly think they nail the aesthetics but they make a total opposite error after error on it

the smell and taste of seafood

people who spit and talk shit but never listen when they have to

morons who confuse being critical of abusive/toxic public figures with cancel culture

nosy people

passive/agressiveness

all kinds of misogyny

gatekeepers

people who bully on others who are into questionable/toxic ships acussing them on glorifying rape and abuse out of the sudden

people who judge and shit on people with invissible illness and/disabilities

hostile customers

grown ass women with internalized misogyny without being unlearnt and deconstructed

people who love to hate out loud on random shit without being at least objective on the real roots of what makes them hate whatever nosense theyre talking about and love to shit on others vibing to said things.

rape apologists

the pro-ana and pro-mia movement

the cult of blind fanatism

performative activists

mansplaining

racists

dense rich people who have the ‘’live laugh love do what u love yay stop being poor’’ priviledged bubble mindset

the antivaxx cult

pseudo feminists who claim women never rape, abuse or inflict any sort of harm on victims

white latinos who don't recognize their priviledge.

rape culture apologists

people who believe shit like gore and stupid taylor swift are okay but draw the line at k-pop and their simps not even letting them vibe in peace and are suddenly whining on why they push people away

people who bitch at sexual assault victims for not being open about their experiences

boring straight people

riverdale

toxic bill skarsgård simps

religious people who bully on atheists or others with different religious beliefs

atheists who bully on people with religious beliefs

art elitists in general

people bitching at others eyebrows for not being too thin, perfect or thick enough like oh my gosh pendejo STFU already

poorly done, exagerate and mediocre ass minimalism

fandoms

00s low rise jeans FUCK THAT FOREVER.

people who believe there’s enough inclusivity in films, music, tv shows, arts and brands

fatphobia

TERFS, SWERFS and MAPS

‘‘gRow suM ThICK SkIN KiddOOOOO’’

people with zero empathy

gen z girls who deny they’re looking for male approval and think they look edgy and cute and like hot shit when they claim why they don’t need feminism and misoginy deconstruction

the shallow toxicity of things like tik tok, fast fashion, ig influencers and related

“aaa so u like the fucking beatles huh NAME ALL THEIR ALBUMS SONGS AND BAND MEMBERS U DUMB BITCH” bitch shut the fuck up and stop being jealous at some cute chick who looks damn better than your crusty bitter ass in band merch.

human idiocracy in general

#i've been easily irritated at humanity lately lol #more than usual #ask #anonymous #answered

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balioc · 5 years

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Your ideology -- if it gets off the ground at all -- will start off with a core base of natural true believers. These are the people for whom the ideology is made. Unless it’s totally artificial, they are the people by whom the ideology is made. It serves their psychological needs; it’s compatible with their temperaments; it plays to their interests and preferences. They’re easy to recruit, because you’re offering something that’s pretty much tailor-made for them.

This is the level at which ideological movements are the most diverse, in terms of human qualities. Natural true believers are heavily selected, and different movements select for different things. A natural true radical feminist is a very different creature from a natural true fascist, and neither of them looks very much like a natural true Hastur cultist.

Life in a baby movement, populated entirely (or almost entirely) by natural true believers, can be pretty sweet. You may not necessarily be getting a lot done, but you’re surrounded by kindred spirits, and that’s worth a lot by itself.

One of the most common ideological failure modes involves imagining that expansion is tantamount to “transforming outsiders into natural true believers.” It’s not. The population of natural true believers is a limited and precious resource, and while it’s theoretically possible to make more...if you have some truly gifted cultural engineers...it’s a difficult, costly, and failure-prone process at the best of times. It doesn’t work at scale.

You can grow, but the growth process necessarily involves attracting other kinds of people to your ideology. And then it won’t be the same.

Success, I think, requires some understanding of what growth is actually going to bring you, and being able to roll with those changes.

**********

The first outsiders to flock to your banner will be the perpetual seekers -- or, to put it less charitably, the serial converters. These are the hipsters and connoisseurs of belief, the people who join movements because they really like joining movements.

They’ll think that you and your doctrines are amazing, at least for a little while. They’re primed for that. But they get bored easily, and they like chasing after the high of new epiphanies. Unless you figure out how to hold their attention in a sustained way, which requires constant work, they’ll drift off.

This is the second-most-common way for a movement to die (after “never really getting anywhere in the first place”). You attract a few interested seekers, but not enough of them to give you a foothold in less-accessible demographics, and after a while they just give up and move on. If you’re lucky, they leave you with something like the original core of natural true believers, sadder but wiser after their experience trying to go big. If you’re unlucky, they cause lots of drama and shred everything on the way out.

These guys can be very annoying to natural true believers, but if you want to expand, you 100% absolutely need them. If you’re smart, you’ll take precautions to make sure they don’t walk off with key pieces of your infrastructure.

**********

If you display some serious growth potential, you start getting the profiteers, who don’t much care about your doctrine or your happy vibe but do care about that growth potential. These are people who see your movement as a vehicle for their private ambitions, who want to sell you to the world and ride you all the way to the top.

...I’ve used some mercantile language here, but they’re not necessarily merchants trying to get rich, although that’s the prototype case I have in mind. They may be going for political power, or simple fame, or all sorts of things. Whatever it is they want, they think that you can help them get it, because your star is rising.

In the long term, even the medium term, the profiteers can utterly wreck you if you’re not careful. They tend to amass a lot of movement-internal power very fast, because they have big plans, and they promise concrete rewards quick. But they usually don’t get whatever-it-is that the movement is really about, and even if they do get it, they don’t care as much as you do. Their instinct is to make your Whole Thing as bland and generic and palatable as they can, so that they can sell it to the widest possible consumer base in the shortest possible timeframe. This is a miserable and degrading experience, of course, but it’s also bad strategy in an eating-your-seed-corn kind of way. The world gets a constant stream of bland generic palatable Hot New Things, and it chews through them fast. There’s a future in being something genuinely weird enough to change the world; there’s no future in being last year’s fad. The profiteers, however, aren’t interested in being careful shepherds of your movement’s power and credibility. The arc of an individual’s career is not that long. Consciously or otherwise, they are happy to burn you up as fuel for themselves.

In the short term, the profiteers are super awesome. They will work tirelessly to help your movement grow, and they will do so in a very effective and practical-minded sort of way, without getting bogged down in the dysfunctions and the arcane abstract concerns that (probably) dominate your natural true believers.

Yes -- these first three groups map roughly onto the geeks, MOPs, and sociopaths of that one Meaningness essay. There’s a lot of applicable insight in there. It’s important, however, that if your group is built around a serious ideology rather than a consumable toy, standard-issue Members of the Public aren’t going to come flocking to you during these early stages. Members of the Public don’t adopt new ideologies that easily. Your weirdos will be able to attract only other, different kinds of weirdos.

**********

Close on the heels of the profiteers, you will get the exploiters. Where the profiteers are trying to sell you to the world, the exploiters are trying to sell themselves to you; where the profiteers are trying to make your movement grow (for their own purposes), the exploiters see you as an environment that’s already big enough for them to thrive in it.

Some of them are hucksters and con artists. Some of them are, yes, sexual predators in the classic mold, going after a known population of unusually-naive unusually-vulnerable people who let their guard down around anyone speaking the right shibboleths. (That describes pretty much any ideological movement at this stage. Sorry.)

And some of them are just lonely people desperate to belong to something, who think that they’ve found your movement’s cheat codes for belonging. Some of them are fetishist-types who don’t have the whatever-it-takes to be one of your natural true believers, but who admire or desire that thing, and hope that they can be around their favorite people and get a Your Movement GF or whatever.

Often they’ll be harmless. Sometimes they really, really, really won’t. There will be more of them than you expect.

At the very least, they’re a marker of success. Apparently you’re worth exploiting!

**********

You’ll know that you’ve really made it, as a movement, when you start getting the fifth wave of converts: the status-mongers. They’re joining up with you because they think it will be good for their social lives or their careers -- not in an “I’m going to be the guy who gets rich off of this” kind of way, but in a much lower-key “this makes me look cool or smart or moral, this is good for my reputation” kind of way. They want the generic approval that comes from being on the forefront of the zeitgeist, and apparently the forefront of the zeitgeist is where you are, now. Congratulations.

The arrival of the status-mongers represents a crisis point for your ideology. There will be a lot of them; they’ll soon outnumber all your other people by an order of magnitude or more. (Status-mongers attract more status-mongers, as each one makes it clearer to the world-at-large that your ideology is in fact cool.) They will become the general public’s image of your movement, whether you like it or not. Most of them definitely will not get your Whole Thing, not really. They are interested mostly in being comfortable, in showing off to unenlightened mainstream audiences, and in using your doctrine as a cudgel to beat on their personal rivals.

At this point you don’t really have to fear disappearing into obscurity, but you’re in more danger than ever of losing your way and becoming something totally alien. The status-mongers will be doing their level best to make that happen. You will also start attracting enemies far more powerful and dangerous than any you’ve known before. Anything truly popular and high-status represents a threat to someone big. You need to start prepping for persecution, culture war, and other varieties of large-scale social conflict.

**********

If you can weather all that and come out on top, you finally get the sixth wave of converts, the big prize: the normies. People will join your movement because that’s what everyone else is doing, because that’s what they’ve been taught, because they don’t want to stand out or make waves, because they don’t really care and you represent a plausible default.

Most of the people out there are normies.

That’s the endgame, the victory condition for an expansionist ideology: that you are the normies’ choice.

**********

These are the groups that are out there. This is what you’ll get, when you turn your gaze toward the path of growth. This, and not whatever visions of radical social transformation dance before your eyes when you look at your beloved allies who are just like you.

Brace yourself for it.

#culture engineering #social analysis

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staliasjeronica · 4 years

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Riverdale S4 Ep7 Thoughts *Spoilers*

- FRED 💔💔💔Coming DIRECTLY for my heart I see, okay Riverdale

- WAIT… YOU’RE TELLING ME NO ONE RAN AGAINST HIRAM SO NOW HE’S THE FUCKING MAYOR? I, despite knowing nothing about how to be mayor, would run against him SOLELY so he wouldn’t win and I know I’d win because NOBODY trusts or likes Hiram fucking Lodge………………. god this show

- Do they guys not know that “the guy from the community center” is the one that found and took Dodger to the hospital? I mean I guess not because Archie’s a minor and doesn’t HAVE to stay, he could have just dropped him off and left but like… this is some fucking reaching shit right now. Archie as their enemy has never gone after them without Dodger attacking FIRST. He’s trying to help the KIDS, how does that make you think HE is the one who fucking did it???? The fucking reach… but also…. who DID do it 👀👀 Probably Hiram’s bitch ass…

- This bh scene of them talking on the phone while Betty packs could have been cute but at the same time it’s bh. Plus, I find it hilarious that Jughead doesn’t wait for Betty to say “I love you” back like???

- I love Choni, but God Toni looks EXHAUSTED. I hate how they’ve turned one of the healthiest ships into… this. Toni loves Cheryl which is why she’s not leaving her despite all of this batshit crazy shit going on, but Toni is caring and hardheaded (before they took away her personality smh) and she would shut this dumb Julian and Jason shit DOWN. Just let my girls be happy again, please… putting Cheryl through all of this bullshit CONSTANTLY is getting real old, real fast.

- Why do people always get afraid of killing someone when it’s self defense?? Like, you won’t get in trouble! You were P R O T E C T I N G yourself/someone you love. It’s the same mistake Alice/Betty made with that mystery guy that tried to hurt Chic or whatever, it was self defense but God forbid anyone actually goes to the police and doesn’t have something to use against them later on 🙄🙄🙄

- Veronica goes above and beyond I wanna cry

- Hiram really has to be a bitch ass ON THANKSGIVING? What a real dick… BUT YASSSSS FP BEING ON ARCHIE’S SIDE WE STAN

- FP not quitting because he knows that’s what Hiram wants, ALSO because he’d just put in another Minetta… ALSO SUPPORTIVE FALICE UGH WE STAN! Can they just get married already? They’re basically already married and I’m soft for them.

- FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE! FLIRTY ALICE!

- Hermosa does realize that the only reason she’s actually invited to a dinner with her father and his family is to manipulate Veronica, right? Like, throughout ALL the years even after her mother died we can tell he didn’t invite her because Veronica didn’t know about her. Like… I just…

- YES VERONICA!!!! WE STAN THE QUEEN BAD ASS BITCH OF RIVERDALE!!

- MARY 💔💔💔💔💔💔💔💔 GOD I’M SO SAD

- Toni’s hair is amazing, and Cheryl’s dress is FIRE

- JUGHEAD WAS THINKING OF MR. CHIPPING WHILE HAVING SEX (I mean it’s implied because they’re cuddling in a bed and the way they’re holding each other tends to be how they hold one another after sex) I’M—THAT’S SO FUCKING FUNNY. I love that when they have sex both of them think of literally ANYTHING else.

- Betty with that hair and that shirt? Yes. See, if they weren’t almost step-siblings and didn’t bring out the worst in each other, this soft scene could actually be cute!

- BETTY… ORDER CHINESE FOOD? THERE’S A LEVEL 4 STORM OUTSIDE?? WHO WOULD BE OPEN DURING AN ICE STORM? Then again… Veronica is the baddest bitch and a go-getter so Pop’s would definitely still be open (also because of the still)

- POWER MOVE ALICE OMGGGGGGG FP IS LIKE “WTF NO”

- First of all, that “Yes my fantasy of eating junk food for thanksgiving!” Betty was so cute… but like that’s also a really weird fantasy… although they are almost step siblings, are still together, AND fuck to serial killer documentaries like weirdos so

- lmao “I’m too cool for everything” Brett put on that bunny mask… to scare Jughead? I know he’s annoying (although not as much this season THANK GOD) but damn you buried the kid let him breathe

- This dumb blonde bitch really thinks this kid brutalized Dodger like that despite CLEARLY being a sweet person like??? Maybe pay attention to the clues and don’t just take their word (who also said it was PROBABLY if I’m remembering correctly)

- That pajama jughead with Veronica in her PJ’s,,, the perfect duo that Riverdale will never give us. How fucking tragic 😭😭😭

- What, does Betty suddenly know how to make some kind fo truth serum or something?

- ALL THIS FRED TALK I’M SO SOFT BITCHHHHHH PLUS SHADE ON HIRAM?! Also,,, you can’t give a previous alcoholic drinks, also also that speakeasy is not yours but umm… it’s for Fred so I’ll let it pass

- LMAO BETTY YOU ARE NOT IN THE SERPENTS FUCK OFF. YOU SAVED A DOG. Oh bitch I just KNOW people are going to use that in those not-really badass edits of Betty… but at least Betty KNOWS that she’s not a sweet/nice person lol. Doesn’t mean I don’t miss when Betty was actually a nice, sweet, good person back in season one though

- OH MY GOD ALL OF THE KIDS STANDING UP FOR ARCHIE YESSSSSSSSSSS! WE STAN!!!!

- Can’t she just wait for, idk, dodger to get out of his coma and then ask him who did it? Like I know it was Hiram hiring someone but like???

- VERONICA OH MY GOD THE BADDEST BTICH OF RIVERDALE!!!! WE STAN!!!! STAB HIM HUNTY YESSSS

- YES MARY!! THE QUEEN OF RIVERDALE! Also them being surprised that she went mama bear? girl wbk Mary was a badass not to be fucked with

- HIRAM STOP TRYING TO MAKE FP GET DRUNK WE KNOW YOU’RE TRYING TO FIND A WAY TO FIRE AND REPLACE HIM

- OOH BITCH FP NO ONE IN THIS ROOM WILL CARE IF YOU KILL HIRAM. THEY’LL KEEP IT A SECRET!!!! Also,,, Billy Loomis vibes and uhhhhhhhhhhhhh YES

- WAIT,,, THEY REALLY FUCKING… OH BITCH??????

- NOT ANOTHER TEACHER STUDENT AFFAIR OH MY FUCKING GOD. DONNA I TRUSTED YOU, WE ALL TRUSTED YOU.

- “I’m a serpent, every bone in my body is a Serpent.” YES BRING BACK THE SERPENTS, TAKE OVER FROM JUGHEAD AND MAKE ALICE THE QUEEN YES UFDSOHFSHFS WE STAN FALICE

- Choni is so soft ughhhhhhhh <3

- UGHHHH NOW ONLY IF THEY COULD MAKE CHONI GET OUT OF THAT DAMNED PLOTLINE THAT’S RUINING THEM THEY COULD RULE RIVERDALE AGAIN

- NOT BETTY REALLY BELIEVING THAT DONNA WASN’T MANIPULATED… and people still want to call Betty a feminist icon? She’s ANYTHING but.

- How would you not realize a camera in your room?? It’s BLINKING.

- “Dig in, everyone.” A SOBBING

- “We monitor our patients very closely” *patient is gone* cliche of course… there’s no way they could get him out without tripping any alarms. My mom was in the hospital and on a respirator because she couldn’t breathe by herself and ANY slight movement that meant she couldn’t really breathe it would do like this jingle and it was really loud and wouldn’t stop until a nurse came in to fix it. But anyways this is Riverdale and nothing is realistic

- Mmhm Betty once again butting into things she shouldn’t and hurting someone in the process… why do people think she is a good detective again?

- NOT THIS BEING USED AS A WAY FOR JUGHEAD TO QUESTION DONNA’S STORY OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDD

- OMG ARCHIE PLAYING THE GUITAR AGAIN PLEASEEEEEEEE MY HEART

- THAT WAS YOUR DAD WATCHING OUT FOR US PLEASE SOMEONE GRAB MY HEART BECAUSE IT JUST FELL TO THE FLOOR.

- A PLAQUE FOR FRED I’M SOFTTTTTTTTTTTTT

- FP WEARING A LEATHER JACKET THAT I’M ASSUMING IS A SERPENT JACKET.

- If this means my Serpent babies are going to come back…. I’m going to CRY.

#Riverdale #Veronica Lodge #Jughead Jones #Archie Andrews #anti-betty cooper #Jeronica Nation

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Enola Holmes Review: Millie Bobby Brown’s Revolution Lacks Revelation

https://ift.tt/3iTajDr

Sherlock… Mycroft… and Enola! The Holmes siblings—we’re looking for a mind at work! It is easy to insert the names of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective and his brother—and their baby sister, Nancy Springer’s relatively recent creation—to the tune of “The Schuyler Sisters” from Hamilton. It’s just the sort of playful, futzing-with-lore vibe given off by Enola Holmes, Netflix’s feminist riff on Doyle’s canon. But unlike Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical, the Netflix movie won’t stick in your memory beyond the credits. Still, it’s diverting fun with a valuable message for both its Victorian era women and contemporary young adult viewers.

Sixteen-year-old Enola Holmes (Stranger Things’ Millie Bobby Brown) grows up being told that she can do anything that she puts her mind to. And why not? Her sole role model is her mother Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter), a brilliant artist and cryptographer who knows how to guard secrets with codes and her fists, and who rears Enola in the same interdisciplinary manner. Sequestered away from society in their family’s downtrodden country home with a limited and loyal staff, the two women enjoy their own bubble of safety and learning for learning’s sake.

It’s only when Eudoria disappears on Enola’s birthday, leaving behind a cryptic message, that the bubble pops. In come Enola’s older brothers Sherlock (Henry Cavill) and Mycroft (Sam Claflin), the latter to take her on as his ward and send her to a stultifying finishing school to catch up on all of the ladylike traits she (gasp) never inherited. Instead Enola wants to follow in Sherlock Holmes‘ footsteps, putting their considerable intellects together to locate Eudoria in London, but while the detective is sympathetic to her hurt and fear about their mother’s whereabouts, he does little to help her.

And so Enola is reminded of Eudoria’s seemingly cruel trick in giving her an anagram of a name that spelled backwards means alone. Not that it lasts long since Enola’s escape to London to find her mother soon intersects with the path of Viscount Lord Tewskbury, Marquess of Basilwether (Louis Patridge), and yet another mystery to solve arises with gunmen in pursuit. Try as she might to not get caught up in more intrigue, Enola nonetheless has danger literally stalking her just out of frame for all the times she offers droll asides to the camera.

Director Harry Bradbeer, who helmed almost every single episode of Fleabag, brings that series’ iconic fourth-wall break to Enola’s story, providing the loner girl with the closest thing to friends in an audience she engages with directly. Yet the device isn’t nearly as effective as when Phoebe Waller-Bridge does it, not least because Enola’s asides hardly ever shock. Despite being a fledgling detective, she’s surprisingly candid about her intentions to most everyone she meets, so when she makes eye contact with the camera, she’s rarely imparting new and shocking information or a drastically different read on a situation.

Enola shares her brother’s knack for disguises, shrewdly moving throughout London and the surrounding area in a variety of personas; an especially amusing recurring joke is when she frequently offers to trade outfits with random boys (sneakier than showing her face in a garment shop, and cheaper too). This code-switching across society allows her to convincingly occupy every role from newspaper boy to black-swathed widow, without any of them defining her. Because the real Enola is a patchwork of all of these identities.

While Enola clearly inherited the Holmes family’s wits, she lacks the real-world experience that hones such deductive skills, and winds up reacting just as much as anticipating new contacts and clues. It’s a refreshing change from mysteries in which Sherlock has all the answers, allowing the viewer to follow along with Enola as she explores Eudoria’s network of fellow revolutionary women and their ties to the suffragette movement. Yet once she uncovers signs of a greater conspiracy, Enola begins to wonder at her mother’s capacity for violence in the name of changing the world order.

By adapting the first of Springer’s popular YA novels and combining it with the period-appropriate conflict of women’s suffrage, Enola Holmes makes lofty pronouncements about changing long-established systems to make space for women and people of color. And some of it feels like terribly unsubtle lip service, at least to more cynical audiences, but one exchange stands out: Eudoria’s friend Edith (Susie Wokoma), who runs a tea shop and teaches jiu jitsu to young women on the top floor, challenges Sherlock that his apathy for helping his sister or mother is because the world as-is perfectly suits him—and he has the grace to look abashed.

This movie had the amusing unintentional PR boon of getting sued by the Conan Doyle estate for depicting Sherlock as having (dear me) emotions—a trait that does not exist in the public domain because the stories that did delve into his feelings are still under copyright for a few more years. Yet Cavill’s Sherlock arguably has a pretty limited character arc that could best be described as “begrudgingly affectionate,” while Claflin’s Mycroft is a delightful dandy who gets to sputter a few times but is mostly ineffectual. Both brothers could do with more screen time, but because this is Enola’s coming-of-age story, they are mostly relegated to a few obligatory scenes.

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Enola’s trail doesn’t lead her anywhere near Baker Street, probably because at this point in the story Sherlock is famously a solo detective and couldn’t possibly work with a partner; even his little sister spends the entire film convincing him of her mettle. While one might expect a sly Watson meet-cute by the end of the movie, it would seem that the filmmakers are saving that canonical touchpoint for potential future installments. It certainly would be amusing to see an Enola Holmes franchise in which Sherlock and Watson have cameos as their cases intersect with Enola’s, and in which Mycroft gets to be more of an obstacle to her fledgling career.

It takes the movie a noticeably long time to build to the interesting notion that a world-changing mystery is rooted in a seemingly mundane case. The movie zigzags so much between its two branching plots that by the time it sets up for its big showdown, viewers might feel a little out of step and not fully appreciate the payoff. That’s partly why even though Enola has her very own Captain Marvel “fall three times, get up four” moment, it lacks the emotional punch of Carol Danvers’ win over the patriarchy.

Like a sloppy cypher, Enola Holmes crams a few too many elements into one narrative, jumbling it in parts and lessening its overall effectiveness. But if this is just the first installment, then it is a promising beginning. There will always be a need for stories that carve out spaces in history for people other than white men, and a plucky girl detective who knows her way around a corset and a cryptograph is herself a much-needed role model.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Enola Holmes is available on Sept. 23 on Netflix.

The post Enola Holmes Review: Millie Bobby Brown’s Revolution Lacks Revelation appeared first on Den of Geek.

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#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

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pussiehands1 · 6 years

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meta #8 // ‘lets go rage, dee’ tw: sexism, misogyny, aids mention

One of the most underdeveloped relationship on the show has to be Mac and Dee, their relationship hinges purely on the fact that Mac, Charlie and Dennis are friends. Dee is an outcast amongst outcasts, struggling hard for nearly twelve seasons to garner enough of a voice that doesn’t render her as just ‘the background chick’. Arguably, however, Mac and Dee have the most unique of the gang member relationships and that’s because their development is barely seen on screen and when it is it’s not elaborated upon. Where other members of the gang will always pair off, Dee is usually there as a last resort. Even characters like Frank show some dynamic with Mac, Franks obvious discomfort coming from Frank’s views on Mac’s homosexuality (S11E6). This meta is going to attempt to give some insight into their relationship and give some (speculation based) background about their dynamic. To explain this completely I also need to give some idea about where Mac sits in terms of his issues with femininity.

IDEOLOGIES

So Mac wasn't introduced to femininity until high school but at that point he was already semi-invested in religion/masculinity so there’s this double standard about men and women already rooted in place. Mac's mother has short hair, she wears neutral clothing and she's not exactly stereotypical feminine ( though Mac does refer to her as beautiful regardless ). But then Mac begins feeling things for guys which he can calm to some extent, its the 80′s so being gay is not a thing you want people to think you are because of stuff like aids / lack of rights / understanding etc. It’s media hatred that pushes this idea so Mac oppresses it, he uses weed/alcohol/religion etc. to keep it down. But then there's these women who dressed freely, you have things like the feminist movement you have this move from the classic american family into a more modern way of living and its progression that he resents. This is an issue that he has with Dee specifically and it’s because she's sexually free, she dresses how she wants and she behaves how she wants to behave without restriction. How come she can live guilt free when I cant? Of course Mac’s big problem is himself, not her, but he refuses to acknowledge that because of his denial.

There's a few times in canon when he talks about making women feel small by calling them names (S12E6) ( cunt, bitch ) or by making them feel bad about themselves to make himself feel better (S12E4), and he’s so insecure and threatened by the idea of womanhood that he can't confront it. Mac expresses so many stereotypical feminine traits, he's sensitive, he's very fragile in how he needs to be handled, he responds to emotional and physical touch very easily. If Mac links that to womanhood then he, by his own logic, is admitting that he is weak because that's how he views women - as lesser, not as strong, not as dominant. Then you add Dee into that equation and it flips it. Dee is everything Mac’s version of a ‘classic woman isn’t’. She’s opinionated, she’s intelligent, she’s sexually active with multiple men, she has no problem in asserting authority over men, she drinks, swears and generally these are things Mac has never witnessed a woman do. Dee represents everything a 21st Century female is, she embodies the true meaning of freedom and that can’t be understood by a man like Mac who’s entire sense of self has to be based on toxic masculinity in order to live his life as a closeted gay man.

BACKGROUND

(S413) Mac was originally supposed to play the Dayman in Charlie’s original script and this character in turn would be the one to get with the ‘Princess’ (Dee), they then have a scene where they sing and then kiss. Charlie, at the end of the play, then inserts himself as the Dayman. Though this is yet another example of how Charlie projects himself onto Mac as you can read in my Mac x Charlie meta. The show places Mac and Dee in a position of a classic ‘Will they won’t they’ position that is then explored in a later episode (S9E3) when they try to reinvent a traditional sitcom type vibe. While they do mock this, the episode (S1E4) shows Dee going to kiss Mac underneath mistletoe that she’s carrying, shown in the same fashion that his girlfriend comes in to surprise him. With Dee wanting to annoy or anger her mom (interested in a lower class drug dealer), it’s very likely that at least early on Mac and Dee had some kind of romantic connection, at least from Dee’s point of view. As they grow older it distinguishes and after he rejects her (emotionally, physically) then things start to become stressed, they drift apart and they begin to loathe each other. Mac and Dee then become closer in S3 but then drift apart again, I don’t think anything character wise happened but I do think because of Rob and Kaitlin getting together around this time this then influenced their screen time somewhat from this season out.

ADULTHOOD

Mac and Dee team up only a handful of times, though there’s no specific reason as to why. Most often than not it’s because of their mutual understanding on topics but generally it’s out of convenience. Mac, as stated above, believes very much in the idea of a nuclear family as shown in (S3E1) stating that children should have a mother and a father. He then agrees to be, one, of the Dads of her baby (S6E12) later on in the show. The relationship with Dee is the closest Mac gets to having a relationship with a female (at least long term) and he has no foundation for that. Therefore no social boundaries are established, however, Dee does not conform to these regardless of any knowledge that he may have. Mac’s authority in his life has always been his father and after he went to prison it’s obvious that the relationship with his mother went downhill. Dee often expresses hatred towards Mac and insults him right out (S3E5, S7E11) and he does not react to either of these things, instead, he stands at the back and refuses to acknowledge the insults with anything more than a grumble. Paralleled to Dennis, or even Charlie, Mac has no issue in launching themselves at them (S9E3) in order to defend himself, he becomes almost reserved at Dee’s attacks.

After Mac is called out for being gay in S6, his relationships with the entire gang begin to change, especially as it moves into S7. From this point onward Mac and Dee start to become closer as a duo. Mac and Dee work together to find a guy online, even investigating different areas and going with each other (S7E8) Without the rest of the gang the two get along well, they barely argue and they’re even supportive. This continues as a theme (S7E10) where they try to find an avatar for Mac, Dee even raising a bro and asking ‘For You?’ when they’re checking out a guy together. These two being paired together for something as artificial as that is potentially showing parallel to what may happen later, with Mac accepting that he is gay and that (as shown times before) he and Dee are compatible when it comes to what they look for in a man. Dee, in fact, is the only member of the gang who doesn’t judge Mac for being gay and is the only member to be happy for him. In Hero or Hate crime, Dee is the only one that expresses joy to Mac coming out of the closet by smiling while the others look shocked. As Dennis and Charlie are closer to Mac than Dee, it gives a good indication of where they are. Dee has obviously had other struggles, ones she can relate to Mac with, and arguably she is the only one that accepts herself for what she is - for Mac to then join that group, it places them together.

As we move into S13 I believe that they will get closer, that they will begin to bond over certain things that will change their previous dynamic. Mac has already shown progression in this (S10E1) in showing worry for Dee and the amount she’s drinking. Earlier seasons may not have cared and would have probably encouraged her to drink more. They then team up to go drink and hang out with the locals (S11E3) while the gang goes off and does their own thing, separating them entirely. Mac and Dee also express interest in having a ‘favourite water ride’ (S12E2) that they’ve planned to go on before relaxing together at the pool for the rest of the day. As the season slips by in S12 Mac becomes less interested in Dennis (who in turns becomes more interested in Charlie), and therefore the dynamic to slip into is Mac / Dee. The two are very strong willed, very stubborn and very much alike when it comes to wanting acceptance and wanting love.

Where they differentiate is how they go about that. Mac is very open about wanting love and giving it and Dee is very sheltered in her affection, only doing so when she feels safe or a sense of place and yet they both have strong fears of abandonment or at least of being left by the people they love. Dee has never had somewhere to call her own, she was shunned out of her family as Dennis was favoured and then she was shunned out of the gang as he was favoured again. In her eyes Dennis then choosing Mac becomes a sore spot to take and it’s a clash of resentment that doesn’t really go away until they begin to spend time together. This distance is shown not just in the show but also surrounding implications from the show. (S2E4) Is aptly titled ‘Mac Bangs Dennis’ Mom’, not Dennis and Dee’s mom. Understandable given Dennis is the one this effects, however, Dee is not even considered. The episode could have easily been titled Mac Bangs Mrs Reynolds, but it isn’t. The disassociation with Mac and Dee has been long running, (S3E3) he admits to not having her phone number, (S6E7) he completely dehumanises her and presents her as an actual ostrich. Dee, who is probably used to this from her mother, reacts in a passive manner but treats him with the same amount of resentment that she had for Mom.

They’re both growing as people, both able to understand themselves and their feelings and what that means for other people. They’re beginning to show awareness especially about the people that they love (S12E8) and they most likely will grow with each other. Teamwork has been there in their relationship before (S3E14, S4E12) and will no doubt blossom. As Dee wants to get closer to Charlie the easiest way through that is with Mac, and for them to develop a bond that would give them both someone to rely on would be the healthiest thing Sunny could offer moving forward. With the amount of support Mac has to offer and the amount of support Dee needs to flourish, the two almost complete each other and with the potential for Dennis to be out of the picture it’d only encourage them.

#ᶜʰᵃˢᵉ ᵘᵗˡᵉʸ ᶠᵃᶰᶜˡᵘᵇ : mac x dee #{ fuck me this was SO fucking hard to write }#meta.#{ PLEASE - this is just #if not more important than my charlie one }#{ theyre such an underrated dynamic and dee herself is such an underrated sunny char - i adore her }#{ also this is shit sunny give me more contnet thanks }#{ this was poor if anybody has anything else send it my way! }

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ogiarts-blog · 5 years

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MY PRESENTATION- IT’S NOT JUST A HAIR STYLE

My topic is identity. My project has mainly focused on how race and gender are part of my identity. I’ve looked at other black artists, feminists and how important I think that those communities are and how they impact me. But also how being a person of colour, being mixed race, and a woman have affected me. And addressing somethings like my hair growing up and my hair now as a part of my identity and also about inclusivity, wanting to see people who looked like me growing up in books and on television. I’ve been exploring this from a personal perspective and also looking at other theorists and also artists who look at similar themes.

For a lot of people culture, race , ethnicity is part of their identity. Its part of your history, your lineage and for some people a huge sense of pride. For my presentation I will be focusing on a reading called “ Hair matters”.

Below there are some terms in the reading and terms I will use to discuss my topic.

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION-

“the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture:"

BLACK FACE-

“black makeup worn (as by a performer in a minstrel show) in a caricature of the appearance of a black person

also : a performer wearing such makeup

NOTE: The wearing of blackface by white performers was, from the early 19th through the mid-20th centuries, a prominent feature of minstrel shows and similar forms of entertainment featuring exaggerated and inaccurate caricatures of black people. Its modern occurrence in imitation of such performers is considered deeply offensive.”

WHITE PRIVILEGE-

“the fact of people with white skin having advantages in society that other people do not have:

The concept of white privilege explains why white people have greater access to society's legal and political institutions."

MELTING POT-

“A melting pot is a metaphor for a society where many different types of people blend together as one. America is often called a melting pot. Some countries are made of people who are almost all the same in terms of race, religion, and culture. Historically, it is often used to describe the assimilation of immigrants to the United States.[1] The melting-together metaphor was in use by the 1780s.["

CULTURAL EXHCHANGE-

“provide an opportunity to explore other cultures, traditions, customs, beliefs, societies, languages and much more. Hence, such opportunities make you view the world with a different lens. This provides alternative perspectives! It broadens one's horizons and increases the tendency of acceptance. “

TRANS-CULTURATION-

“ is a term coined by Cuban anthropologist Fernando Ortiz in 1947 to describe the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures.”

THE READING-

these extracts are from a book called Hair Matters, written by Ingrid Banks in 2000.

The reading I will look at further and more in depth in my blog. But I just wanted to refer to some parts from these extracts, which build a picture of how hair plays a big part in identity for other people.

The introduction explains there’s a lot of anecdotes from different people. And “ their experiences with hair, intersecting with race, gender, motherhood, freedom, law, appropriation and identity”

Straight away it highlights all the issues surround hair and black women. It is not as simple as just hair- it can cause discrimination, law suits with work or education, cultural appropriation, gender and hair length, and cultural aspects of how women wear their hair. And how all these different personal experiences build a very individual picture of what hair means to them and how it plays a part in their identity. And because it can be individual and personal how these discussions need to start .

In some instances for people of colour hairstyles can result in certain prejudgments being made and stereotypes being assumed. The extract states “ I infer that hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Afro- wearing Black women were arrested, harassed and arrested by the police, FBI and immigration agents during the two months I spent underground” which is in reference to natural hair at the time immediately being associated with “ radical black groups”. And today, other assumptions may be made about class, hygiene, and other things based on someones dreadlocks or braids. Also resulting in discrimination and job loss.

“ Understand how hair meanings represent broader articulations about beauty, power and a black woman’s consciousness “ then going on to explain the consciousness as something“… that represents difference and the multiple realities that black women face” and that “ A social and political history and reality exist that constitutes what is meant to be black and female within a racist and sexist society”. Showing that a hair style should not just simply be taken at face value. That it can be a paving journey for some women to finding self love, or acceptance. It can be a hair care change or be and this is known as a “ hair journey” for many black women. And say how their hair can define their “blackness”. Whether there’s a certain image of the time period or wanting to look different and stand out like the afro , where the civil rights movement inspired people to wear their hair naturally.

And even though this book was written in 2000, I would like to highlight the relevance. This month, February 2019 it was made illegal to discriminate in a work place for people of colour in New York City. Which is shocking to me because that means it is still legal in many states to fire an employee based on their hair in other states in America, in 2019. People are loosing their jobs for what is a hair style. Below are some extracts from the reading “ hair matters” where I have got the quotes from.

Personally I can’t agree that when it comes to dreadlocks and braids that “ its just a hair style”. The problem stems from generations of discrimination but also the Eurocentric beauty standards. When for two reasons it isn't as simple as that for us. One there may be generations of culture or history behind that item of clothing and/or hairstyle.

Two, for the fact that it would be nice if it was “just hair” but the simple fact it isn’t unfortunatlety. But there are literally thousands of articles and stories of people being discriminated against for having dreadlocks or braids. From being kicked out of school, loosing a job, all because of a hair style,. Furthermore, for many this hair style may be used as protective styling for many people, braids and cornrow are to maintain the condition of their hair and essential in order to manage their hair. Others have their hair for spiritual reasons, like dreadlocks for people who are Rastafarian.

To go further back to slavery cornrows were used as a protective styling and essential for them. They were only allowed one day of the week, Sunday. To do their hair, which meant they had to maintain the same style for a whole week. And this was after a few years. When slaves first were taken to America they were forced to shave their heads. Which stripped them of any choice, any identity. Because from the tribes in Africa people coloured their hair, weaved materials into their hair and braids which were used to signify who you were, where you were from and your status in the society.

The problem sets in when this is normalised or ‘white washed’ it in turn wipes away the culture. In this photo Kim Kardashian is wearing Fulani braids. I Some may argue that she has a black husband and mixed race children, and she wants to be inclusive. But the problem prevails when the disregard for where it came from arises.

But Kim posted the photo on Instagram with M followers she said “ bo braids”...

*Fulani Braids come from the fulani tribe. “Fulani. Fulani, also called Peul or Fulbe, a primarily Muslim people scattered throughout many parts of West Africa, from Lake Chad, in the east, to the Atlantic coast. They are concentrated principally inNigeria, Mali, Guinea, Cameroon, Senegal, and Niger.” https://www.britannica.com/topic/Fulani

However, the Bo braids Kim was referring to was in reference to actress Bo Derek who had Fulani braids for the 1979 film 10. She said in a video she's wearing “ bo braids” and “ she's really feeling this look”. Not only is it not the correct term, or giving recognition to where it actually originated from. But after the film 10, people of colour were getting fired from jobs for their hair style. Even having court cases rejected because the court deemed people to be “ copying from the film not culture” . And thats where it becomes a problem, because bo Derek had the opportunity to be “ deliberately provocative” and wear a black hairstyle at the time was un common. And it became a trend, a trend which had repercussions for the lives of black women. Who were wearing their hair in a style of their culture for maintainace, protection or even just styling, were denied the right to do so.

And still from 1979, it wasn't learnt that this blatant disregard and ignorance for black culture, is damaging. Kim references it in 2018 as “bo vibes” as if its history repeating its self and no-one has learnt.

What is evident is that designers have a blatant disregard for consideration of their customers who are of colour, their customers who and worse, an almost arrogance amongst the fashion industry to continually insult and disregard the feedback and backlash that they recieve from the black community. And for me that comes from a stand point of being in the position of a white privellage. Where it is allowed to disregard and not consider the effect on the black community .

And then theres the infamous Marc Jacobs SS17 runway show where he had all his models wearing dreadlocks attached to their heads. Which caused a lot of controversy.

Designer Marc Jacob responded “ funny how its not a problem when people of colour straighten their hair”

Firstly not all “ people of colour” have curly hair , many hair textures which vary between person to person. Not only is the comment ignorant to the disregard that P.O.C can have straight hair it is worsened by the fact that “ straightened hair” is not a culture, it’s a genetic factor, similarly to having curly hair. Because it is not a culture it is not being appropriated. DR DELICE said that cultural appropriation "happens when there are power inequalities between different cultures” and that is the problem here. Furthermore, this is comment comes after years and years of people believing that it was more desirable to have straight hair. Generations of instilling that it is better to be white and more beautiful to be white. Even after slavery was abolished and black people were moving from Southern States more North to cities like New York. And it was encouraged to wear wigs and perm your hair as it was seen as more Hollywood more glamorous. Women used knives and hot combs to get straight hair back in the 1800’s and then later in the 1860’s people were using potato, egg and lye. Which often caused severe burns to the scalp . People went to extreme lengths to conform to beauty standards and these attempts often resulted in people loosing their hair https://www.bustle.com/articles/189044-a-brief-disturbing-history-of-all-the-times-society-straightened-afro-textured-hair . And therefore, I believe the criticism he received was justified because even when confronted on the matter Marc Jacobs, did not credit where the style was influenced from him and his stylist said “ rave culture” and then made his uninformed remark about straightened hair.

Marc Jacob in ANOTHER instance got recignition for the “ mini bun” a “ new trend”. Which is also known as bantu knots.

Jane kellock works in the fashion industry, she has worked for Topshop and many other brands.She said...

"Design is a mish-mash of different styles, cultures, ideas - and that's what makes it interesting," she says.

"I really, genuinely don't think that designers look at other cultures and think 'I'm just going to copy that and I'm going to rip off that culture'."

JANE KELLOCK- https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-46297329.

Which I believe would be a lot of peoples response that cultural appropriation is sometimes appreciation. And a lot of people may consider that in the world we live in, that there is an amalgamation of people and cultures and that its only right to share and appreciate what else is around you. And I am not suggesting that all designers deliberatly “ rip-off” cultures. But whether intentional or simple ignorance the problem still stands, it is happening.

But she then went on to say...

"Fashion brands have to be more aware and diverse in general, because they're not. They're really not.”

"They'd rather use a celebrity that they know will get lots of people interested in it, rather than the original source of the idea.”

"In most cases, unfortunately, designers don't even have time to undertake proper research and appreciate a culture.”

She acknowledges the lack of diversity and inclusivity for P.O.C in these industries.

Going back to the earlier point about Eurocentric beauty standards. Even amongst the black community there are issues surrounding colourism, without including other races. There is an ideology amongst a lot of people of colour that it is more desirable to be lighter it is more desirable to have a paler complexion than to be a dark skin woman. Which is relevant again for me and my project more personally women of colour. There is often a sense of inadequacy. I didnt really notice too much until I was older the distinction with “ light skin “ or girls being “ lighties” and this being a sexualised preference for some men. And also the term “exotic” and the derogatory undertones of highlighting that essentially you’re “ different”. That the lighter you are the more attractive you are which also ties into hair. Black hair is often described as messy, nappy, frizzy often quite negative descriptions people pay a lot of money to get hair relaxed, treated or wigs or weaves to achieve a different look. And of course, for a lot of people this is a choice, and some people do like change. But it stems from certain beauty standards which we are upheld to. With hair shops throughout the UK selling bleaching and lightening creams and even ‘celebrities’ like Blacc Chyna selling lightening cream in Nigeria to impressionable followers, who will believe this light skinned sucessful rich blonde woman is the standard of woman they’re against.

As it said in the extract also black hair comes with stereo types and labels. And after years of women trying to conform to the Eurocentric beauty standard people do wear their natural hair more than in previous decades and it is frustrating to often hear these styles are ghetto or hood or ratchet but may be called “ urban” “raw” when not referring to a person of colour with the same styles.

Recently more so there has been a celebration of natural hair, curly hair, with yearly conventions like “ CURL FEST” and other festivals encouraging embracing who you are and what you were born with . A lot of people are transitioning their hair back to natural and stopping using harsh relaxers which are very damaging to afro hair.

On top of all of this, I think that there’s also a blatant disregard for black customers and black people in general for a lot of high end brands.

Recently a lot of designers have been called out for creating racially insensitive clothing . Even last month, it was Black History Month and people were highlighting on twitter and other social media platforms which then led to the companies often removing the stock and following with some kind of apology. But Prada, have released the “ black monkey red lips” Gucci last month the black balaclava with red lips, chanel and their urban tie cap ( du rag you can get anywhere for a pound) , D&G and their $2,395 SLAVE flip flops, Moncler and their “ penguin Malfi, from friendswithyou” a campaign from Moncler who said the aim was “global friendship”, and Burberry and their “noose” which people were offended at the history of lynching and even insensitivity also towards suicide victims.

These brands announce diversity education and initiatives in order to “ stop these kind of events happening again”. But it seems unnecessary for these things to ever occur in the first place and to believe its even accidental in the first place seems naive. And makes it hard to want to “share” braids, and dreadlocks, and dashikis when high end brands also sell wolly wog printed items and blackface.

So it calls me to ask how will society move forward as a melting pot of cultures or a society built on difference but acceptance. Holding the title ‘ white privilege ’ isn't a fault of anyone now but it is deep rooted into society but to me, it should just be handled well and with consideration. And SHOULD therefore prioritise the other cultures before taking casual wear and someones hair style at face value. And to wear it as though it is simply just a costume, or just an accessory. A lot of people will argue its not our job to educate others, but I think it’s good to start the discussion .

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doofcake · 7 years

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BEST OF 2016

Hello everyone! I've got a list for you. In fact, I've got SEVERAL. Introducing:

Doofcake's Lists of Best of 2016

Let's have a look at what wasn't an absolute disaster in 2016. Starting off with the most important list.

BEST MUSIC

#1 Kero Kero Bonito - Bonito Generation

Released just at the end of October, but I feel like in that short time, it's already my most listened album in 2016. I was pretty excited about Bonito Generation's arrival all the way up to its release and I'm glad that my excitement was justified. Bonito Generation is an incredibly fun album from track 1 to track 12. I'd normally have a hard time picking out my favourite album, but not this year. Bonito Generation is my number 1.

#2 Suiyoubi no Campanella - UMA

I was pretty excited for this album's release and I really love the direction Suiyoubi no Campanella went with it. They make strange music that makes me feel strange. Strangely euphoric. It makes me feel good. I’ve danced to Chupacabra more times than I can count. I love it!

#3 Daruma

Daruma is actually a compilation of sorts, but they released 5 volumes in 2016, Daruma volumes 5 to 9, and I like to think of them as one single collection, since they are all very similar and I always listen to them all together. Daruma volumes deserve a little special recognition from me. They're beautifully crafted strange loud music.

#4 Quentin Sirjacq - Far Islands and Near Places

The mellow sounds, soothing melodies and overwhelming feeling of beauty and peace. It’s super zen. Everything about this album is right up my alley and I don't think I could ever get tired of it.

#5 PC Music - Vol. 2

Would be incredible if they didn't make this a Spotify and iTunes exclusive. I can't buy it on iTunes! So I'm currently forced to only listen to it on Spotify. Anyway, PC Music is something I can't and don't want to explain. It is its own thing. It has almost spawned its own genre as other artists try to copy their style. It's awesome. Go check it out.

#6 TOYOMU - Imagining "The Life of Pablo"

Fun story with that one. Basically Kanye released his album on a platform that wasn't available in Japan, so this guy TOYOMU, who's a big fan of Kanye, got mad and made this album in a sort of protest. He looked up the samples and the lyrics Kanye had used in each of the songs on the album, and then created his own version of the Life of Pablo album with the same samples and lyrics run through TTS, without ever hearing the original songs. And the result... Well, in my opinion, the result is BETTER than the original album. I love it to bits. From the idea to the result itself, it's a masterpiece.

#7 Perfume - Cosmic Explorer

Yasutaka Nakata sure likes making BANGERS lately. This album is full of it. Sweet happy tunes coupled with loud banger instrumentals is my jam. Getting my body moving while also making me feel happy, euphoric even. Thank you, Yasutaka.

#8 Haywyre - Two Fold pt. 2

This album is COMPLEX. Pretty diverse songs here. Calling it banger would be wrong, although at times it kind of is. It's mostly actually very chill. I mean, one of the songs is basically funk. So it's music that you can dance to and it has a nice beat, but it's not LOUD and all up in your face. It's perfectly good music to just sit back and relax with some drinks.

#9 Charli XCX - Vroom Vroom EP

Produced by SOPHIE, who is one of the most prominent PC Music artists. Silly stupid fun music. I sure do like PC Music and I love SOPHIE so it was pretty obvious I’d love this album. Beep beep!

#10 General Mumble - Pollogamy

I like to think of this as Mumble's "best hits". It certainly includes most of my favourite tracks from him, if you exclude the entire PEGASII +- DOGGE AM album, but that was 2015. I actually reaaaaaaally love Mumble’s Vibe as well, but I wanted to limit the list to one album per artist. Can’t leave it unmentioned though.

Runner ups

David Bowie - Blackstar

The King's Parade - Vagabond

KANYE WEST - The Life of Pablo

Kikagaku Moyo - House in the Tall Grass

FAMM'IN EP

Astrix - He.Art

Overhead, The Albatross - Learning to Growl

Noisia - Outer Edges

There's a whole bunch of other albums from 2016 that I listened to, and I can assure you they were all great, but just didn't have enough of an impact on me for me to give them a shoutout.

But I do want to give a shoutout to a couple of singles from 2016. They're single! They deserve love too!

Harrison Fjord - Approximately 900 Miles - This was almost like me and my friends' summer hit.

Yunomi & nicamoq - Indoor keinara track maker - It's FUN!

And now I'd also like to have a couple of special mentions for music that wasn't released in 2016, but which I either found out about in 2016 or just listened to a lot in 2016.

Mura Masa - Lovesick Fuck - I'll be honest, I mostly listened to this a lot because it made the LEDs in my PC look cool. But it's a cool song without the LEDs too!

DNCE - Swaay EP - God damn it's good. It's just good vibes put into music.

Petit Biscuit - Sunset Lover - I'll be honest, again. I found out about this song through the best video of 3D tits I've ever seen. The editing on that video was stellar. Damn nice chill music too.

Kentaro Shimizu - Shitsuren Restoran - I listened to this song a lot last year and I listened to this song a lot this year. It's timeless.

Alright!! That's enough of music now. That was my favourite music in 2016. Applause *clap clap*

BEST VIDEO GAMES

Best Multiplayer Game of 2016

Competition was rough with Call of Dutys and Battlefields and whatnot all fighting to be the best multiplayer shooter this year, but the crown goes to

OVERWATCH

I don't think there's really any competition here. I know some people don't like it, but MOST people who have tried will probably agree it's the best multiplayer game this year, hands down.

I was incredibly skeptical of this game for a long time. Blizzard making a first person shooter? It's a TF2 clone? Has some MOBA elements in it? Pfft, it'll fail. Then they put out cinematic trailers, which of course aren't any sort of indication how good the game is, but damn the trailers looked gooood. Like straight up Disney. Still thought the game itself will fail. But then the public beta arrived and oh my dear lord, I couldn't stop playing it. It was the most fun I've had in a multiplayer game since GTA Online. Right. Well, the beta ended, and I thought I was burned out and done with it.

BUT OH MY DEAR LORD, I decided to buy the game because everyone else was playing it and now I am always up for a round of Overwatch. It's just, so damn well made. Sometimes incredibly frustrating when a cycle path gets in your way, but other than that, it's just... So damn well made.

Best Singleplayer Game of 2016

2016 was a FANTASTIC year for video games. It really, really was. So it's incredibly hard to pick out a number 1. So I'm going to pick out 3. Not in any order. They're all equally amazingly number 1.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst

It got a lot of flak for bizarre reasons. Most of the early negative user scores on metacritic were saying it's feminist propaganda, but... how? Why? What That aside, there is of course some criticism that is well deserved. The story isn't super amazing, especially since the beginning of the story is told in comics, sold separately. And a lot of the backstory is kind of hidden in texts and audio logs AND in the original game. So people who aren't hardcore fans of Mirror's Edge like me were probably incredibly confused by just about everything in the story. But Mirror's Edge Catalyst SHINES in the areas where I want it to shine. I don't play Mirror's Edge for the story. I play it for the gameplay and the setting. And both of those are huuuuuugely improved from the first game. The running feels a lot faster now, your movement has a lot more impact to it and you can get through enemies without fighting or just knocking them out in the middle of running, without having to slow down. The world building is a lot more fleshed out, they did a lot of work with the backstory. And the world is full of huge electronic screens and neon lights, with a lot of grimy areas. Visually, it's almost my dream cyberpunk world.

Gravity Rush Remastered

This game came out on the Vita already in 2012, but I didn't get to play it until the remastered PS4 version came out and I finally got around to buying it. I didn't know much about this game when I went into it. Just that you control gravity as the name implies and that people on the internet wouldn't shut up about how everyone needs to get it for the PS4. Well, those people on the Internet were right. That game ended up being incredible. It was a bit difficult to get into at first, especially once the skill upgrade screens popped up and the map filled with dozens of "challenge missions" that you seemingly had to undertake in order to get those upgrades. And if you know me, you probably know I absolutely HATE RPGs mainly because of the very same overwhelming skill screens. But I ended up only doing one of the challenge missions just to try it out and the skills were very straightforward and in a fairly small number, so it wasn't overwhelming at all! The gameplay was incredibly fun. You control gravity, but only in a very small radius so the gravity shifts only affect you. And you use this ability for traversal and combat. Already the idea sounds fun! And the execution was well done. Although quite a few times I did get a bit disoriented, but that's to be expected and the game had clever visual cues to help you understand which way is up. All of that exciting gameplay coupled with an imaginative world and a superb story made this game an incredible experience. BUT! The story leaves a LOT of things unanswered and sort of ends on a cliffhanger. I don't really like it when games do that, since you never know whether there will even be a next game, but thankfully in this case, Gravity Rush 2 exists and is already coming out right at the beginning of 2017, and I can't wait to dive into that world and gameplay again. When I said Gravity Rush was difficult to get into at first, then after a short while, I could no longer stop.

Titanfall 2

Perhaps the biggest surprise to me and I'm sure many others. I played the original Titanfall only in the beta and it didn't leave me much of an impression, so I didn't even bother buying it. When Titanfall 2 was announced, I didn't care for it much, but the mention of a singleplayer campaign piqued my interest. The idea of a Call of Duty-esque singleplayer campaign with giant mechs sounded pretty neat, but only so-so. The huge amount of praise this game got, especially for its singleplayer, made me jump on board to see what it's all about and... Once again, those people on the internet were right. This campaign wasn't Call of Duty-esque at all. It was better. Way better. Everything was perfect. The story has you form a friendship with a giant war machine. The gameplay is full of really fun and awesome feeling traversal and offers various methods of approaching your enemies. It has BOSS FIGHTS! I LOVE a good boss fight, which has become awfully missing from first person shooters. And Titanfall 2 had a boss fight every half an hour. Even featuring that sweet camera zoom on the bosses like in Borderlands. The titans all have their own set of abilities and you can choose a set to use at any time as well. Each one providing completely different gameplay. It's kind of like Overwatch. Yeah, actually it's totally like Overwatch. Each titan setup even has its own ultimate ability that you need to charge up. Fighting against soldiers on the ground felt like just fighting creeps in a MOBA, coming up against enemy titans is where the real fun started. The only problems I have with Titanfall 2 is that the campaign only took me 4 hours to beat, which may actually be a good thing, you don't want to drag out the game to the point where it turns from amazing to a snoozefest. And the other problem is that the game has poor sales, because not only did the game come out at the same time as two major shooter franchises, but the marketing efforts were also focused on EA's other game, so people don't even know much about Titanfall 2 to think to choose it over the other games.

And that's all the awards I have for video games! Though I should give a very honourable mention to the new Doom. This game does things very, very right. The only thing I don't like about it from the little I've played is the huge focus on animated melee finishers. The reason I can't really say much more about the game is because I simply haven't been able to purchase it yet. Not necessarily because I can't, but because I want to get a new graphics card first, so I can enjoy its glory with the best visuals and highest framerate.

BEST TV SERIES

Orange is the New Black

Took me completely by surprise. It’s a series about women in prison and I can’t stop watching. Each individual character’s story is so intriguing and has me cheering or jeering on non-stop. It makes me feel frustrated.

BEST ANIME

South Park

It's South Park.

Member when South Park was just ass jokes and swearing kids and Kenny getting killed every episode? I member. But I like this new South Park a lot more. Actually, I don't know if that's really fair to say. It's so different, you can't even compare it with the old South Park. They're both great. But man the last 2 seasons have been amazing.

Jokes aside. My favourite actual Japanese ani-may was probably

91 Days

It was slow to start, but when it picked up, it gave me a cliche riddled mafia story, which... was a good thing. For one I'd never seen something like that done in anime and the story, although full of cliches, was still original and exciting enough to have me hooked. And the way it ended took me completely by surprise. And that was also in a good way. One of the few anime series in 2016 that didn't end with "oh shit we have to end the series somehow, let's just stop trying and let the writer smack his head into the keyboard, see what happens"

BEST MOVIE

Sigh...

Bad year for movies. Prettttty bad year for movies. Most of the time I saw the cinema banners full of supehero crap and they all got really high scores too. It's been that way for quite a few years now. Don't people get tired of superhero stuff already? And that fad doesn't seem to stop any time soon.

EDIT: Originally, I named Zootopia my favourite movie of 2016 and also complained about remakes and reboots that were just pure fan pandering like those superhero movies. But I’ve changed my decision now.

The best movie of 2016 BY FAR is

Kubo and the Two Strings

The best movies, music and video games always hide behind all the popular stuff it seems. I had heard nothing about Kubo and the Two Strings up to its release and even when it was in cinemas I only knew of its existence thanks to looking up what’s currently running. What took my interest was a video on YouTube showing a little bit of the “making of” process of the film, which made me realise it’s a stop-motion film! Needless to say, I really wanted to see it. It’s pretty rare to see a stop-motion film these days.

The story is about a boy, Kubo, whose eye was stolen by his grandfather, so Kubo’s mother escaped to save him and they’ve been hiding ever since. Kubo goes out to the nearby village every day with his shamisen and magic to manipulate paper into moving origami characters, to tell stories of his father who was a mighty samurai fighting the evil Moon King. Of course, Kubo’s story doesn’t stay there, as his grandfather finds him and he has to escape once again. That’s where Kubo’s journey begins.

That journey was breathtaking. When I began watching the movie in the comfort of my seat, I thought I’d go and lie down on my bed to watch it, perhaps try and have a nap while I’m at it. But I couldn’t get out of my seat. The story had me so captivated that I couldn’t even bring myself to pause it to grab a snack. The story coupled with flawless stop-motion animation, which was done so well that most of the time you couldn’t really tell it was stop-motion, made the whole film experience magical. And it made me tear up numerous times, dealing the final blow with the ending and catching me in tears. Happy tears. Truly happy tears.

I wish more films were as imaginative and beautiful as Kubo and the Two Strings is. I’m sad that the film got seemingly very little attention, but I’m glad I decided to dive into it.

And I guess that's it! Thanks for reading!

Have a lovely 2017!

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deruste · 6 years

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Lord of light: Rise in the afternoon.

As one would do in my situation as soon as the rich redhead from new york said I was the son of god. Or was it a son of a god. I threw a tray the muscled surfer as the blonde with gray eyes and Jamaican goat man looked in surprise. I wish to say that I thought it was a bull right there and stormed out like a boss. What I actually must say is that I took the quickest way to the elevator and used the employee key to shut it off immediately. My hand was still shaking on the key still in the control panel. “ What the fuck!” I clapped my hands onto my face. “I threw my best job away.” I should properly chastise myself for thinking about my minual wage job and not the fact that those people were properly from a cult. And not the fun kind. I sat in the corner of the elevator trying to compose myself and figure out what the hell is going on! My hand and face were beadings with sweat and with my hands being over them it started to pooling into them. The door finally opened to the main lobby door. And while I could start talking about the gaudy Greco-roman statues and water fountain with a naked bearded man that looked suspiciously like mister...Adriano, I rather run as far away as possible from those loons. The letter popped into my mind when I said his name and the name on the letter kept rattling in my mind. Oceanus, Oceanus, God damn Oceanus. Why the hell does that name sound familiar! It clung and clanged like a loose bot in a long rusted machine. By the time the frustration stopped, I was in front of the statue of Bossman. The statue aside from some difference in features they looked exactly the same. The biggest difference were horns on the sides of his head that looked like crab claws. Maybe...no,no,no,no,no! I'm not believing those guys just because my boss looks like some statue. I looked at myself and saw the nameplate of the statue which made me anger grow. It had Oceanus engraved with some info on the gold plating. Oceanus, eldest of the Titans, father of the rivers and their nymphs. Most importantly of all the most faithful of the divines. Faithful had a marker adjustment the read “mostly” on the tail end along with “tethy forgive me”. Which sounded uncomfortably like Adriano wife Betty...tethy...betty. The more I sounded it out in my head the more they sounded similar. NO no, I'm not going down that rabbit hole. I went past the fountain and went into the kitchen to get friends help. In most case of poverty like me, no family help and no love for foster homes you learn to make backups when you're found out for running away or being an unsupervised youth in general. My backup is Aigle, I know a weird name but she is the closest thing I have to a friend along with Manual. She was in front of a stove cooking some empanadas. The scent nearly distracted me from Aigle. “Seriously one Blanco was enough to make you quit your post.” She said with a low, harsh voice. Imagine your abuela smoking a 12-pack daily while garbling several pounds of sand and you have Aegle sound and look. Very leathery skin that resembles a burlap sack bleached white with very sharp eyes that sometimes flicker like a predator. She was, as I can best describe a grandmother who fought, lived and breathed war than let herself go a bit except for her arms. She flicked her braided silver hair over her shoulder as I described the loons but didn't mention the camp or the son of a god shit because I didn't even want to think about that bit. “You know those Jesus camps on the other islands. The ones were they force people to submit to Jesus or they never leave. They gave me that vibe.” She shrugged her shoulder at my concern giving me an empanada. “ Seriously they were like PTSD ridden cultist,” I said biting down on my food. “Elio remember the Feminist conference.” I shuddered for a few seconds have Nam flashbacks to a large group of women yelling patriarchy and privilege left and right. I still hear them at night, offer one lady a free drink and suddenly you're running from the convention from a mob paying for later damages. “I don't want to but yes, But these-” she held a hand over my face. “And then there was the congregation of those Haitian Santa Marians.” The sound of several angry priests rattles in my mind as the image of me, Aegle and Manual carrying several snakes away burned itself into my eyes again. The smell of snakes didn't leave my arms for a week. “You were the one who wanted to rescue the snakes.” She gave me an exasperated sigh. “And you verbally assaulted the priests and their faith. You told the head of the congregation that he was a bargain bin pope and his priest’s pedophiles in training. You have a tendency towards-” “Honesty and frankness,” I said earnestly chowing down on another empanada. “ being an assshole, yes.” she gingerly puts a hand on my shoulder as she pulls a fresh batch of food from the oven. “ You tend to assume the worst and then make it worse by reacting according to what you think and not what is not there.” she eyes my messy eyesight, the way my vision darted around to find something to focus on. “You took your pills for the day right?” She chided me. She inspected my face with rigorous perception and urgent worry oozing from a disapproving frown. She was close enough to me that I could count her liver spots. I give a sigh. “I didn't take the pills, they make me slower.” listening to myself it sounded whiny like a kid stomping his foot and crying while his parent was trying not to be mortified. Raised her hands to her face, cupping them in disappointment. “ What did you see?” she held my face gingerly examining my reaction quite closely, her hand felt quite cold and hard for some reason like her leathery skin became part iguana for a moment and her skin flickered green for a moment. I took a breath. “The pale Jamaican had goat legs and you had green skin for a second there.” Her face went stone face stuck in quiet contemplation. For a few seconds, her face went through a gambit of movement. First anger that made her eye go “predator stalking its prey” mode for a second, or what is more vengeful? Then it went more towards sad resignation, a sense of fear that crept into eyes darting every which way. She grabbed me with a pot of food. “What are you-?” she pulled me from the kitchen, the pot swing back and forth as burst through multiple doors. “What else did they say to you?!” Her voice was starting to crack in a panic yelling sort of way. She finally stopped running in a frenzied state and started frantically looking in all directions. After orienting myself I saw we were in the back parking lot of the Hotel, specifically the employee parking spots. It gave me some ideas as to why was Aegle dragging me here. She has no car so in all likelihood with her frenzied state, we might be “liberating” a car. It's also a bit funny that Aegle was reprimanding me for leaving my post but now she is dragging me around in the parking lot looking for a getaway vehicle and I know she is looking for one because she has settled on the “o shit,o shit” look of despair and fear. A classic face in times of crisis most popularized by small black comedians such as Chris Tucker and his upgrade Kevin Hart. “They said some bullshit about me being the son of a god!” it came out angrier than it should but I didn’t care anymore. She didn't seem to hear my words anyway, standing still and staring blankly. I saw a look of pain spike in her cheeks. “Are you-” She began to change. What do I mean by that? Ever seen in some superhero or fantasy stories where there is a shapeshifter that changed seamlessly into a new shape. Remove the seamless part and that was basically what I saw. Through painful, baneful screaming she started to burst through her own skin. Her leathery, wrinkled skin was shedding away making way for hard emerald scales that gleamed what little light that was in the parking lot. Scales popping from the worn skin like long-buried ingrown hairs minus the puss thankfully. I got weirder when I saw what was happening below her waist. Now before you start making a mental image I'm not talking naughty sections. Trust me if I had to trade what I saw with being harassed by a flashing hobo all day I would seriously consider the merits of staring at a random man's dingleberries. Her legs began fusing quite painfully as her screaming suggested into a large snake tail slightly longer than let's say your average lady, so about 5’5 in length. It had a brown splotchy pattern like the boa snakes that are common this side of the island. Faced with this amount of excitement I took the manliest route and passed right there and then. Dreams are weird, at least that's what I'm told. Visions people have at night that might be related to what they did in the day or nothing at all. Never got it as a concept, or at all really. I didn’t know people dreamed until I left home. Before any conclusions are made I do sleep. It's just I see, feel and experience nothing when I do. Imagine endless darkness to what felt a few seconds to you but when you wake and its morning. That doesn't mean I don't get nightmares, by god do I do get nightmares. It's just that for me they happened when I was awake. Imagine little confusion at people talking about there weird dreams while you nothing or the worst nightmare. Thank you, life. As I ascribed, I simply woke from my lack of dreams. The time was early sunset as the clouds were starting to get bloody red in preparation for when they would be drenched of the black of night. I felt a crushing sensation, not enough to harm but enough to know I can’t move without something hard and rough giving me “Indian burns”. Who invented that phrase by the way? I don’t remember any story about a tribe uncomfortably burning peoples arms, trust me my tribe at least had the capacity for much worse. The discomfort was coming from my torso so I gazed downward trying to glimpse what was constricting my movement. Sure enough, a snake tail was pinning me to the corner of a pickup truck, spilling out from the drivers back window. “Oh good your up. I don't have to prop you up.” The tail receded into the driver seat. With that, I could now see that I was in the back of a pickup truck with my stuff from my apartment on the far back while I was behind the driver seat. “Ssshame, I thought you would be sssleeping the whole the trail through like when we first met.” A memory went quickly in my mind of a kindly older women letting a preteen catch a ride in her truck and her giving some pitty by buying some food for the both of them. I looked around again to get specific info on what trail we were on. The path was a very messy gravel road, they are not too uncommon in the south end of the island to some of the lesser villages, meaning...oh no. “We ain't going towards El ponce if you hadn't figured it out. There'sss a ssstop I want to take you to before we do anything elssse.” The voice was definitely Aegle but much sharper and smoother and snake lisp. She always had one but now it was overpowering. “ So how long?” I said, stealing my nerves. I don’t really want to know, I wanted to forget all this happened and wake to Aegle at my bedside saying I caught a bug the knocked me outperform I could deliver the food. I won't deny that but I also didn’t want to be left in any darkness anymore. “How long were you hiding ...this?” I could barely describe what I witness or at least recall it in a way that didn't warrant a similar response. She apparently heard me because the truck immediately stopped hard enough to send me flying if I didn't have an iron grip at the moment. “You know what, ssscrew sssecrets, ssscrew hiding at this point. You remember how to start a fire?” That seemed a bit disjointed but I obeyed seeing as it was my only option for answers. I gathered some dried sticks and leaves from the forest floor on the side of the road the side of the road. Aegle kept a close eye on me with full reptile eyes as she took the pot of empanadas from the back of the truck. Guess my clothes will smell delicious now since they had been right next to it. “Alright, the first question What are you and what am I?” Obvious questions first to anchor everything in a sense of this what normal is now. “You're a demigod, half mortal half divine. I'm a sssnake.” A bit too obvious but at least she still acted the same despite scales. “A bit too quick to lay it on me but is that a good or bad thing?” “Yessss and no”. She sighed. Aaand back to gibberish Again. “Why?” She held her head with an inquisitive hand while stirring the pot over the fire. Her feature became more youthful, my best guess is that since I witnessed was her shedding her skin in the horror film way and the natural way snake actually does. Her skin was still tanned but now inlined with green scales along the edges of her body like natural body armor. All the rest is what you expect from a snake hybrid, Snakes eye slits, flat nose, fork tongue, and fangs. I would properly be sacred if the face didn’t mostly stay the same. Kind but stern, attentive when needed but will bite your head off if you piss her off, guess that's literal now. “Demigodsss, as the name impliesss are the children of the godsss. In your case the greek onesss.” She explained. “There are other ones? Wait what about Jes-” she clasped her scaled hands over my mouth. “Sssaying the names of godsss draw their attention, that or being very attractive. In the cassse of that one.” She trailed off. “Besides the Judeo god is more metaphysssical nowadaysss.” “That explains nothing.” “Quiet! The godsss are a very … whats the word you would use for angry and horney all the time.” She stammered looking the sky with legitimate fear. I start to rattle in my mind all the greek stuff I could remember, it wasn’t much but a few things rattled. “Bangry, so they have children with humans sometimes. How does this apply to me in any way.?” She poured the food from the pot in two small clay bowls and gave one to me. A simple soup with a few pieces of steak takes me back to when she let me travel around with her learning to survive. “ Yesss, that is the big question that I don’t know. If they wanted you for their camp they would have done that when you were younger. Then again since they just got out of combat, they may want to quickly replenish their numbersss.” She jabbed me several times in the chest. “Combat? Wait didn't that Jackson guy talks about a camp.” I Recalled, rising to my feet. “Yesss, Wait for What!.” She shot out from her seat and looked like I just said Hitler came back to life and is marching this way. “Are you sure that his name was Jackssson!” She was yelling now, nearly straight to my ear. “I think so?” I blurted out. Her snake features made it look like she was going to pounce on me and swallow me whole for mentioning that guy's name. “Oh by the light of Heliosss! A sssatyr and Jackssson, must be Underwood and the other one? Did ssshe have blond hair and grey eyesss?” She commanded. She opened her mouth and let her forked tongue waggle in the air. Yeah weird but explainable. Snakes smell by flicking their tongues in the air, it's why they flick it every few seconds. Does Not make it less weird just explainable and in this case, the more explainable bits of weirdness are welcomed. “Yeah and a redhead who likes to draw on her clothes, what's the point? Wait! You know those people!” I’m what you can call the quick-witted sort. For example, if Aigle was a monster that wanted me dead or eats me, should have done it by now so I did not have much to fear from her. Hopefully. Another example if she knew them by name and even as a big snake monster quaked by their mention, safe to say that there either dangerous for both of us or to her. Either way unacceptable. “I have heard storiesss from the mainland of a child of the big three, the main godsss of olympusss. Of a child who fought against all The Fates could throw at him and stand still.” The surfer? Although now that I think about it. I remember the sharpness, the tension in his demeanor. He was playing the fool or perhaps was one but has done things that won't leave his mind. “Their spawn are some of the most powerful, I heard it said that he fought your father sssingle handedly and left without a scratch.” “Not that big of an accomplishment if I don’t my father position in the divine Ma'am.” She blinked twice and starting laughing. “It’sss nice to know that you still treat fairly, even knowing what I'm truly am. Your father wasss… Remember you can tell me to stop whenever you please. I know it's overwhelming and I know how talking about your family tends to set you off.” I trembled a tiny bit, my fist rested on my four head while my other hand was covering it open palmed. I have mixed views on father and only pity for my mother. Aigle gave away he was the divine one between but I didn’t the hint. Gods don’t die. My father was also arrogant enough to be one. Only his swagger was enough to silence a room, his voice could be reading bedtime stories and be frightful, his stare made men turn to little boys in a few minutes. My mother had fear at least. She always found ways to frighten people, whether wanting to or not, whether caring or not. She did as she wanted and there's where my compliments end. “No, if this is my life now. I have no choice in the matter. Tell me everything that is useful to me.” I raise my face to match her, match her reptilian, predatory stare with my own. She slithered towards me and hugs me. The scales poking into my skin. I saw something clutched in her hands. A gleaming necklace. May surprise you but I really like gemstones, they shine and blind those who seek them and when properly maintained don't lose their luster. One of the two places I actually liked working at was a stand selling Taino necklaces. Sure they weren't actual tribal jewelry, they use more wood and lizard/turtle symbols but I could stare at them all day if I wish. I can barely explain why I like them but they do bring a simile to my face. Aigle let me go and held the necklace in front of my eyes. “Thisss isss my gift to you, a form of protection from certain ...dangerousss elementsss thought I am aware of your opinion on cryssstal healing.” I shrugged. “Honestly with everything that happened I believe Superman is properly in the bushes waiting for Wonder Woman to give me several years worth of birthday money.” She snickered at my comment. I still didn't really believe the crystal healing nonsense but she means well. It also looks really nice. “It's not that grandiossse but this will help keep your mind at eassse. If not that then at leassst focusssed for what comesss ahead.” She wrapped the necklace around my neck. The chain was made of lustrous gold on the right, the left of it was silver. The centerpiece, the thing that had the gems, was an inverted pyramid. “So is it just a snake thing your is that a lisp?” “Oh that, I just wanted to know if you're paying attention. Most of my kind has but I got rid of the accent years ago to get better work.” She said matter of factly, Thought it did make sense. “ Being a demigod is very dangerous the more one knows about the more your scent becomes irresistible. Monsters hunt your kind for sport or food when they are aware of you.” “Wait for what?” I was drawing a blank the size of Texas. “Think of it this way, typically you learn you're a demigod late in childhood or at least near puberty end. You start making a magical scent when that happens. Either a satyer finds you and bring you to their camp, camp half blood or your die. Your a….” She spread her arms and let them slump making a clunk sound when the scales of her arms hit her torso. “Special case to say the least.” I start to piece together what I understand. “I'm screwed is what you're saying.” she nods. “Oh most definitely its only because your father laid claim to the island.” I listen, particularly to the last bit. Dad was frightening but taking the isle and battling someone that would a fraction of his age was disorienting. “Again I won't say his name but you will know his place in the divine totem pole. What do you know of the Titans?”

#oc #fanfic #fantasty #demigod #snake woman #titans

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