#and Ryan to a lesser extent

[stale-popsicle-queen]

Plenty of y'all fans in the Watcher fandom really gonna just gloss over the fact that you were vile to these people just a few days ago.

[lemonhemlock]

I did not get into Game of thrones when it first started airing. In fact, I waited until it was long past it's heyday (around s6 or 7) to check it out because the marketing and the conversation surrounding it misled me into thinking it was nothing more than "grimdark" bullshit. As one famous YouTuber sarcastically called it "hot fantasy that fucks." So, I avoided Martin's work for literal years due to the impression that I got from online reactors and show-only casuals who did as you and a few others have described as his work being fundamentally misinterpreted.

Fortunately, I overcame my hang-ups, purchased the books (even the supplementary material) and fell down an entire rabbit hole of ASOIAF which led me to recognizing that this world he spent decades creating is far more complex than what had been portrayed onscreen. Regardless of the possibility of the books remaining unfinished (which I am fine with, personally), what George has created is a genuine work of art that I imagine took a tremendous amount of time and energy. So, for so many people online to behave like children and throw tantrums because they feel entitled to him (ew) instead of ushering forth more reasonable conversations and legitimate debates about the nature of his situation frankly makes me look at this fandom with a heavy dose of skepticism.

It is truly baffling to hear even professional critics and see articles describing George as being "ungrateful" or "unprofessional" when it has been well-documented just how often authors get locked out of the adaptation process and left to the wayside as consultants. Look at what happened to Rick Riordan and Christopher Paolini! George R.R. Martin is not the only author to have qualms with how a multimillion dollar studio has mishandled his creative work, and to act like he should remain silent just because he's amassed a certain degree of wealth is quite frankly, ridiculous. He shouldn't have to settle down, be grateful, and stay quiet because the greedy corporate executives and their media drones will get offended by actual criticism that could alter the perception of the adaption being revealed as mediocre for having departed from the source material.

TLDR: authors should be allowed to speak up about their art being sacrificed for commercialization.

Thank you so much for this message, anon! This needs to be talked about more, because I don't think a lot of commentators truly understand the vulgar, late-capitalistic sheen that seems to set in and slowly poison any ASOIAF adaptation. It honestly baffles me how quick some members of this fandom are to rush to the defense of, what is essentially (let's not be kidding ourselves here), a cashgrab by a giant corporation to the detriment of the actual artist and the actual creative foundation behind it.

Why else would "MAX" (if that is even their name) make another (or several other) ASOIAF adaptations? Not to stay true to any philosophical aesthetic vision, as it has become more than apparent with Season 2, but to increase shareholder profits by appealing to the lowest common denominator. Even the basic premise has been shifted in order to address popular trends and satisfy the mindless consumer that doesn't want to engage with anything deeper than their favourite tropes, prettily packaged:

from a story about a doomed ouroborous family superimposed on the pitfalls of feudalism, with villainy and heroism to be found on both sides, it has been simplified and reduced to a narrative that exalts white feminism and disqualifies anyone who opposes its girlboss protagonist. This is Sheryl Sandberg's version of Fire and Blood.

Truly, I think Sara Hess did (unintentionally) outline it the best: "civilians don't matter in Game of Thrones". They don't matter in Game of Thrones, but they matter in A Song of Ice and Fire. The entire heart of the series is contained in Septon Maribald's speech. The writers "kind of", must have forgotten, though.

[astrobydalia]

Predicting the chart of your future spouse

First of all, thank you to @harmoonix for inspiring me to make this post!

I wanted to share some key thing I've observed that you should look out for in your Groom (5129) and Briede (19029) persona charts if you want to know what placements your future spouse might have. Look at Groom PC if you're looking to marry a man and Briede PC if you're looking to marry a woman. These asteroids move very slowly so in order to get more insight about your person looking at these charts is important

For other options you can apply these to Descendent PC and to a lesser extent Juno PC, those can ring true as well, but the main research of this post is focused on Groom/briede

These are patterns I've extracted based on my research analyzing the charts of married couples. Presented in no particular order

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

work by astrobydalia

The Ascendant/1st house/Placement of asc ruler

… in the groom/briede pc. This I’ve seen correlated mainly to the Sun or Asc of spouse since it is indicative of their main personality traits and characteristics. It can also relate to other prominent placements/energies of spouse

Hailey Bieber has Scorpio ASC in her Groom PC and Justin Bieber is a Scorpio ASC

Justin Bieber has Sagittarius ASC in his Briede PC and Hailey is a Sagittarius ASC

One of my clients had Cancer ASC on her Groom PC and her husband was a water ASC with moon in his 1st house

Blake Lively has Sagittarius ASC with Uranus, Saturn and Neptune 1st house in her Groom PC and her husband Ryan is a mutable rising. It’s worth mentioning the he’s also known for having a bold, eccentric (Uranus) and humorous personality, he's also older than her (Saturn) and he's from a different country (sag). He also has Sagittarius IC and Venus

Joanne Woodward has Virgo Asc in her Groom pc with its ruler falling in Libra and her husband Paul Newman was an earth rising with Venus and Mercury conjunct his Asc

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

Moon placement

this one is so important! 9/10 your spouse's moon will have similar qualities as the moon in your groom/briede pc or spouse might have placements in this sign

Most common case in my research: spouse’s moon is in the same element or modality as the moon in the Groom/Bride pc

Other example is a client of mine had Cancer moon in his Briede pc and his wife had Moon-Jupiter conjunction in her chart (jupiter expands moon’s qualities and is also exalted in cancer)

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

Part of Fortune/Vertex

I’ve seen these being a less literal indicative of actual placement but it does show prominent energies in spouse definitely, specially within the relationship

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

Dignities

pay attention to this one!!! I’ve seen it being SO accurate! I’ve noticed that if a planet (particularly inner planet) is in good or bad dignity in your groom/briede pc, your fs will likely have that planet in one of its signs of domicile, exaltation, fall or detriment. This also makes that particular planet significant in your person’s chart (meaning it might be dominant, on the angles, in joy houses, etc)

Mila Kunis has Scorpio Mars (mars’ domicile) in her Groom PC and Ashton Kutcher is a Cancer Mars (mars’ detriment)

She also has Sun in Aries (sun’s exaltation) in her groom pc chart and Ashton in an Aquarius Sun (sun’s debilitation)

The client I mentioned above also had Aries Sun in his briede pc and his wife had her Sun in the 9th house (sun’s joy)

Blake Lively has Taurus Moon (moon’s exaltation) in her Groom PC and Ryan is a Scorpio Moon (moon’s detriment)

Grace Kelly had Libra Venus (venus domicile) in her Groom pc and her husband was a Taurus Venus (venus domicile)

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

Angular houses

similar to the last point. The common consensus I’ve seen with this one is that if you have a certain planet in an angular house in the groom/briede pc, your spouse likely has that planet in an angular house too or that planet is significant in them

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

Degrees

planets at critical degrees in your groom/briede pc can be significant or manifest quite literally in your person’s chart

.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ . ⋆ * .♡ *:･ﾟ.   ݁ ˖ ࣪ .

work by astrobydalia

[gwenllian-in-the-abbey]

How would you (if you were Ryan Condal) have fleshed out book Aemond in s1 without woobifying him too much?

Good question anon!

If we're going book!Aemond and keeping the book timeline, I think there's very little chance of woobification because Aemond plays a much more overtly antagonistic role in F&B from the start. I think lots of HotD fans, even those who have read the book, kind of mentally default to the show version of Driftmark, but the book version has him pushing a 3 year old into dragon poop and he's absolutely beating the shit out of Jace when Luke-- who is 5-- runs up and slashes his eye. Baela and Rhaena aren't there so there's really no "stealing Vhagar" plotline, and while it's 2 on 1, Aemond won the fight, taunts them by calling them bastards, which makes them engage again, and is once more winning the fight when Luke gets in a lucky shot. The same criticisms of the adults still apply of course, and Viserys is still equally useless at acknowledging Aemond's injury, but it is harder to feel sorry for the guy when he is the one doing the bullying and the bullying just so happened to backfire horribly. And I think that while it is true that for Alicent, this incident proves once and for all that Viserys does not care what happens to her children, what book!Aemond takes from this is that he will never allow himself to be beaten by someone he considers his "lessers" again (and the Strong boys are half his age, so this is a humiliating defeat, not necessarily something he'd want to be coddled over). There is this fanon idea of Aemond, is the dutiful son who does what he is told, who does everything right but gets shat on for it, and who finally gets sick of playing by the rules and snaps. But Aemond (and I'd argue this even applies broadly to show!Aemond) is actually quite defiant and combative from the start, often to the detriment of himself and his family. Not only is he not as competent as he believes himself to be, he causes a lot of his own problems and then gets mad when others do not want to help him fix them.

I do not necessarily think Aemond needs a sad backstory to be a good character, and I've never cared for the show's take on his villain origin story. The bullied kid becomes a mass murderer is a tired trope in 2025 but I think it falls flat with Aemond in particular for a number of reasons that I won't get into here (and Aemond's messy and incoherent S2 arc is a direct product of the show's inability to pull off his heel turn-- I could write an entire post about that in and of itself). I think if I were adapting book!Aemond, I would lean into Aemond's problems with authority and the massive chip on his shoulder that comes from him being a powerful, warlike, ambitious man with no outlet for his ambitions. Not only is he not the secondborn son, he's pushed further down the line of succession by Viserys keeping Rhaenyra as his chosen heir. He's never knighted, despite being an excellent fighter, is not betrothed during Viserys' lifetime so he will have no holdings of his own, and although he accepts his role as the "enforcer" of the family, he clearly believes he would make a better king than Aegon, whose claim he must nevertheless uphold. And to be clear, I do not believe book!Aemond has studied history and philosophy (or the Valyrian language for that matter) to any greater extent than Aegon has, he is simply a warrior whereas Aegon is not, but to Aemond that is all that matters.

So I would show Aemond as man who has followed the tenets of Westerosi masculinity but who has not, in his own view, reaped the rewards that he believes should be his due. I would juxtapose this with Aegon, who is the eldest son but who has never been treated as an eldest son and therefore does not even attempt to perform the swordbro variety of Westerosi masculinity because what would be the point? It would get him nowhere and worse than nowhere, it might cast him as a true threat to Rhaenyra's inheritance. Aemond's disdain for Aegon therefore would come not from Aegon's failure to embrace his "duty," because there is no duty for Aegon to embrace, and Aemond doesn't care about duty anyway, he cares about power. Aegon's hedonism makes him soft in Aemond's estimation, and that is what Aemond cannot tolerate (which is not to say he does not love his brother, he just does not respect him). In contrast, Aemond has learned that there are few problems that violence cannot solve provided you have an unlimited capacity for violence, and his cruelty grows in proportion to his ability to enact violence upon others. The more he is enabled by his family (who also cannot tell him no or punish his misdeeds in any significant way because Vhagar is too important to the war effort), the bolder he grows. Remember, there is a reason why Aemond, much like Maegor, turns his nose up at the idea of making a trip to Dragonstone to claim a hatchling (which, despite Viserys' condescending phrasing, is very likely how Aegon claimed Sunfyre). No mere hatchling will do for Aemond, it has to be a war dragon. He needs to be, if not the one wearing the crown, then the one with the most firepower, the one who cannot be refused.

Even Aemond's one canonical romance, with Alys, is one in which he claims her as a "war prize," and Alys feeds his ego with visions of the future, giving him an excuse to abandon his allies and family. He takes Alys along with him when he seeks out Daemon, as she has become a sort of talisman, proof that he will emerge victorious-- she has seen it in her visions, after all, or so he believes. Soon the war itself becomes secondary Aemond's own self aggrandizement and his need to justify all of his previous acts with ultimate victory, not for the greens, but for Aemond himself. And again, I would contrast this with Aegon, who undergoes a transformation during the war, his sense of self shattered and pieced back together again in a way that he never truly recovers from. He shows himself to be tougher and more tenacious than anyone expected, but the cost of this transformation is his body, his health, his dragon, and most of his family. In the end Aegon is exhausted by the effort it takes to survive, clinging to the last shreds of his humanity in his refusal to execute a child, and increasingly more concerned with how his family is remembered than with his own legacy, commissioning statues for his brothers yet none for himself.

In Aemond's final days, he does not negotiate, he does not coordinate with his armies or his Hand (who is of course long dead due to Aemond's refusal to ), he does not lay patiently in wait or spring any traps; he burns the countryside indiscriminately in search of one man, an effort which brings him no closer to his goal. As he burned the countryside, Aemond must have felt like a god on dragonback, immortal and unstoppable, and yet mere months later the dragons (and Aemond) are no more. I would portray him as a man with more power than sense, whose actions helped ensure that an army that had no real reason to keep fighting would nevertheless refuse to surrender. Ultimately, Aemond and Vhagar can be viewed as a cautionary tale about the might makes right aspect of Targaryen dragonpower. Aemond thinks he can ignore the existing power structures because he has Vhagar and no one can stop him or punish him, and yet his misuse of that power dooms his faction, much as the Dance itself speeds the end of the Targaryen dynasty.

[karizard-ao3]

Anamnesis Playlist

First of all, I did not at all realize how freaking long this playlist is. 53 tracks! After I deleted some that made no sense that I didn't remember adding or why! Whew!

Anyway, let’s get to it. 

Here is the full playlist. Let me know if you can’t open it. I switched from Spotify to Tidal and I’m not sure how sharing works. Their website says you’ll be able to select any platform to stream on, I am not sure if that’s true.

Song by song breakdown:

Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Once upon a time while I was in school, I had to make a found footage music video for a song and I chose this one, then paired it with all the most disturbing (but not graphic - this was for school) video clips I could rip from YouTube. Thanks to that, and to other relevant life experiences at the time I made the video, that song took on an ominous feeling to me, and that’s why I used it the way I did in this fic.

I Won’t Say (I’m In Love) from Disney’s Hercules. This song just screams Mikasa in the fic for many reasons: she’s a musical theater nerd and would absolutely insert musical numbers into her daily life if she thought she could get away with it, she wants to be a voice actor, and she cannot admit she has feelings for Eren.

This December by Ricky Montgomery. I didn’t have a specific reason beyond that the vibe was right. It actually doesn’t work for the fic in a lot of ways, when you get right down to it, but it helped get me in the right mood.

Wannabe by the Spice Girls. This is because Eren must brave the gauntlet of Mikasa’s loyal roommates on his quest to win her heart.

Bad Child by Tones and I. This is how Mikasa felt about her family after she was rescued and returned home as a child.

Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen. I like this song. That’s all.

Take Me To Church by Hozier. Eren basically worships Mikasa. And, honestly, so does her freak stalker, but he’s not a true devotee like Eren is. Eren would die for her and kill for her.

Jolene by Dolly Parton. Because Mikasa and Eren both are super insecure about each other’s past relationships/ hookups and think that they are second best.

Just Like Heaven by the Cure. This song reminded me of them because they are both lonely but still in love.

Morph by Twenty-One Pilots. Mikasa struggles to connect with herself ever since what happened to her as a kid. She doesn’t feel like her real self, but she also can’t quite remember who her real self was. To a lesser extent, this is also something Eren struggles with due to his mental health issues.

Overwhelmed (Ryan Mack Remix) by Ryan Mack. This made reminded me of Eren and his panic attacks and the way he will go off the deep end sometimes when he’s not on his medication.

Fallin’ For You by Colbie Caillat. Mikasa once she starts falling for Eren, although she is way more stressed about the fact than this upbeat song makes it seem like.

Snowman by Sia. I mean, they haven’t seen snow in years, but I feel like the cold represents a reprieve for them, for one thing, and I liked the push and pull between eternity and transience in the song. It seemed fitting. Like, “let’s fight to stay together even though the sun is waiting behind the clouds.”

I Hear a Symphony by Cody Fry. I think it’s a cute song and I think it suits how Mikasa starts to feel about Eren.

Where Is My Mind? by the Pixies. This reminded me of both Eren and Mikasa. Both of them feel alienated from their own thoughts sometimes, and I feel like they are both trying to find their real selves.

Heather by Conan Gray. Because Mikasa spends a good portion of the fic convinced that Eren was in love with his ex-girlfriend, Heather, and sulking about it.

My Girl by the Temptations. This is another song that gets referenced in the fic. 

redesign by awfultune. This is an Eren song. He wants to be a different, healthier person, but he is the way he is.

Because of You by Kelly Clarkson. It’s not a great match lyrically, but the chorus reminds me of Mikasa’s feelings about [redacted] and the fear she still lives with as a result of what happened when she was nine.

All I Have to Do Is Dream by the Everly Brothers. This is all Armin and his Quantum Zee.

This Magic Moment by Jay & The Americans. I like oldies and I feel like this could totally be Eren’s feelings when he first hooks up with Mikasa, or it can be what Jean is drunkenly thinking when that thing happens at his apartment.

Memory from Cats. Mikasa is a musical nerd and she has dissociative amnesia so she thinks a lot about her past and how she used to be and how she’s changed and how she wants to change again. I feel like a lot of parts of this song would resonate with her. She probably sings it for auditions and stuff.

Miss Wanna Die by JubyPhonic. My kid was really into this song at the time and it ended up on a lot of the playlists I was making at the time. This really has nothing to do with the fic.

Smithereens by twenty one pilots. Eren would try to fight a titan for Mikasa.

idfc by blackbear. This is Eren and Mikasa towards each other when they’re both convinced the other one isn’t that into them. Trying to play it cool, but they’re both total wrecks.

I Wanna Be With You by Mandy Moore. I guess I added this when I was looking up Crush. I don’t remember doing it. I’m going to leave it on, though. It reminds me of watching TRL as a youth.

Crush by Mandy Moore. This is Reiner’s karaoke go-to song.

I Deserve To Bleed by Sushi Soucy. This is yet another Eren song. He hates himself so much and the intrusive thoughts don’t help.

despair by leo. This song is for Mikasa and her fear of commitment and romance.

Broken by Anson Seabra. This might as well be the Anamnesis theme song. Any time I was having a hard time getting into the right mindset, I’d put this on. I feel like it slightly more suits Eren as a character, but it worked for getting into the right space to write either of them. It captures that feeling of being unrecognizable to yourself and feeling worthless because of it.

Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me) by the Temptations. Eren after they first hooked up, when he was thinking he was going to get with Mikasa and live with her happily after only to find out that she doesn’t date.

When He Sees Me from the Waitress musical. This is because Mikasa is a musical theater with commitment issues and a crush on Eren.

die first from Nessa Barrett. Eremika’s private thoughts about each other after they realize their lives are actually in danger.

Only Us from Dear Evan Hansen. Once again, Mikasa is a musical nerd. I wanted to incorporate this into the fic because I felt like it would remind her of Eren, but I couldn’t fit it in in a natural way, so I didn’t. But if Mikasa were to make a playlist of love songs that make her think of Eren, she would put this track on it.

I’ll Have To Say I Love You In a Song by Jay Durias. This version is a cover, but I liked it the most out of all the versions I listened to. Mikasa physically can’t bring herself to say, “I love you” for trauma reasons. This song would also go on her Eren playlist.

The Boogie Monster by Gnarls Barkley. This is another Eren song. He is really enemies with his own self.

Perfect by Ed Sheeran. I feel like this is a very Eremika song in general.

Pancakes for Dinner by Lizzy McAlpine. This is a Mikasa song to me. She really wants to tell Eren how she feels about him, but she has to find other ways to show him how much he means to her.

everything sucks by vaultboy. This feels like an Armin song to me.

broken by lovelytheband. This is Mikasa when Jean was telling her what a psycho Eren is and she instantly became more interested in him. 

Carry On by fun.. I put this one on the playlist because even though the characters in the fic are all dealing with some shit and often feel hopeless, overall they choose to keep going and trying to survive.

 Yesterday (Remastered 2009) by the Beatles. This is a Mikasa-centric song. She misses her old self and how much easier life was and how much happier she was. She doesn’t know how to get it back or what changed, but I think she spends a lot of time longing to go back to how things were.

The Other Side from the Greatest Showman. This song gets referenced by Falco in the fic.

I Think I’m Going to Kill Myself by Elton John. Most of the characters want to die a little bit.

Murder! Murder! by American Murder Song. I think this is self explanatory.

Brave as a Noun by AJJ. This is how Eremika feel about their own mental illnesses and related struggles.

I Can’t Decide by the Scissor Sisters. [Redacted] wouldn’t listen to this song, but I think this is accurate to him. 

Love You Madly by Cake. I think this is kind of a Mikasa song, although she would never say “I want to love you madly.” She does want to keep her feelings in the moment as much as possible and not think about it too deeply.

You Don’t Own Me by Lesley Gore. This is a song for Mikasa as well. It’s kind of her whole thing until she meets Eren.

Numb Little Bug by Em Beihold. Once again, the vibe was right.

Any Other World by MIKA. This is another one of those songs that reminds me of what Mikasa is going through feeling disconnected from her past self. I think that to her the time before what happened to her does feel like a different world and it’s a better one. I mean, that’s one of the reasons why I settled on Anamnesis for a title. It means “The remembering of things from a supposed previous existence.” It alludes to Mikasa’s amnesia, her feelings about her life before her trauma, Armin’s Quantum Zee use, and also a bit the fact that they all do have different lives in the alternate universes (even though those are more like concurrent existences).

Have a Seat, Misery by Shayfer James. Sometimes, you get comfortable with sadness and you start to embrace it. I feel like in some ways Mikasa is afraid to let go of hers.

As the World Caves In by Matt Maltese. There’s no nuclear apocalypse in this fic (beyond it being used as a setting in the hit YouTube sensation Nuclear Picnic) but I think there is a feeling of doom as the fic progresses and things get worse, and all Eremika want as things get shittier and shittier is each other. Whew! That was a project! I’ll get started on Bless This Mess next. If you haven’t yet and think you might want to take a foray into my stab at writing angst, you can read Anamnesis on AO3.

[unlikeable-female-character]

I love this response Ryan posted yesterday but it also sucks that he should have to defend himself and his inclusion in the Variety Actors on Actors thing. The hate towards him (and to a lesser extent Hugh, though that seems fuelled more by the recent tabloid fan fiction frenzy) is so weird and forced and seems to be down to nothing more than they had a really really successful and popular film!??

I’m struggling to understand what his ‘crime’ is other than that. Since I’ve been following him over the past few months I’ve seen a man who deeply cares about his family, his friends, his work and just people in general. If I had to make a list of top 100 villains currently operating in the world I’m pretty sure he wouldn’t be on it

I confess I’m a bigger fan of Hugh’s work but I’m a firm fan of Ryan as a person, especially during the DP&W press tour - his honesty and openness about his anxiety struggles, his clear love for Hugh and their friendship (and vice versa). The way he he has become a figure of hate for simply existing is just bizarre to me.

But maybe that’s just Film Twitter for you 🤷‍♀️. The clear snobbery displayed by people who can’t handle the fact that sometimes a film can simply entertain and be silly and make people laugh and doesn’t need to change the world and be making An Important Point all the time

[whoblewboobear]

I feel like dropout is the wrong comparison to make with watcher tbh? Dropout started out of necessity because college humor went out of business. Dropout offers a lot more variety and has a more varied roster of talent to fill out a full weekly schedule.

When watcher launched their new channel, it seems like that was always the goal to have bigger roster of shows that eventually featured different personalities. But in the past 4 years they’ve been independent, not all of the shows have worked and the shows that didn’t feature Shane and Ryan and to a lesser extent, Steven, really failed and never got brought back. A majority of people aren’t excited for Worth It to come back either and that being one of the selling points is kinda.. I’m fully biased, I haven’t ever been much of a Steven fan and the episode of here’s what you do where he said he’s still close friends with people that are homophobic/racist left a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t watch his shows. Which isn’t a huge deal, but with how Watcher’s release schedule is, they’re airing one show at a time, weekly updates til the season ends. So if you don’t like the show currently airing you’re kinda out of luck. If that changes to them pumping out 2-3 shows or more at a time, then it could justify the price. But I don’t see how that can happen either when the shows people want to see are mainly Shane/Ryan/Steven. It would be unsustainable for them to be shooting that much to keep up with a schedule like that. They mentioned that from now until May 31st will be a trial period but a lot of people really aren’t willing or cannot afford to be a company guinea pig right now.

This is very ambitious and a big ask for a lot of fans right now, there’s no way around that. It can work, it reminds me lot of how Noel Miller and Cody Ko moved away from Patreon to launch their own streamer. They still post on YouTube, but the draw of TMG Studios is that you get an extra hour of bonus content along with other shows. You have the option to choose which shows you’d like to support and opt out of at different price points. Hell, even Rhett and Link still post on YouTube while having a streamer of their own with the Mythical Society and the major draw of that is seeing what the crew is up to. In both of these cases, both TMG & Mythical took their time before making a leap like this. I believe TMG took 7 years and Rhett and link have been in the game for even longer.

I’m not familiar with the watcher crew, they don’t have a lot of other front facing people on the team outside of Ryan/Shane/Steven making shows at the moment. I don’t want them to fail and I’m sure they will be fine, but it’ll be a rough transition to start and I hope they survive it. Completely leaving YouTube does not feel like the move though. I feel like you need a lot of balls in the air and plates spinning to keep drawing people to a new subscription service. Whether that’s YouTube, TikTok, instagram, etc, if no one knows what you’re up to outside of 1 episode of a new show/season hitting the YouTube channel you abandoned every couple weeks/months then it’s a tough sell.

[demonproofboi]

ok, putting my thoughts in order

I get the why. youtube sucks and each year that passes, it sucks more. they have a company and employees, and they've said before that watcher wasn't actually making a profit. it is way too harsh to say they're too greedy or "just like buzzfeed" or other stuff I've seen thrown around. they deserve to get money for their work, we are not entitled to free content, etc! I agree with all that.

the thing is though... I don't see how this could feasibly work? like, putting aside how most people are fed up with the sheer amount of streaming platforms popping up lately, the way I see it, their content does not have enough variety to warrant a paid subscription. and if it were to become varied enough, it would probably need a bigger cast and shows run by different people. and the problem with that is that we can't deny that the main appeal of watcher is how much people care about shane and ryan and (it pains me to say this, you all know he's my favorite but, to a lesser extent) steven. a ton of us are here because we wanted to keep watching them. for the people, not the shows, essentially. that is very clear when you look at the views of their shows.

idk, what I mean to say is, I don't see how they could have a catalog of content that justifies paying a monthly subscription if you're not a very avid fan willing to support them just because they're them, and even then those avid fans might end up dissatisfied because either a) a lot of the content will not include the people they want to see or b) the content will not be frequent enough. maybe I'm wrong and there is a third option here but, let's be real, there's gotta be a limit to how many different shows they can put shane and ryan in to have a varied catalogue and frequent upload schedule. and if it's not them in those shows, we bump into problem a.

I know the topic of whether or not $5.99 is a lot of money also became a reason for fights around here. this is what I have to say, as an international fan: depending on what country you're from, it's the sort of expense you just can't justify. like, the sort of money you shouldn't even spend on netflix with its very extensive selection of content. the sort of money you could use to pay a whole bill, buy groceries for a week, a month even! as it stands, here in brazil, for now, it's not really feasible. R$312 a year is a ton of money for me and I can't even say I'm struggling financially.

still on this topic, it is really hard not to take this "affordable to anyone and everyone" thing to heart being someone outside of the US, because it is the sort of thing that happens again and again, this sort of americentrism the internet at large seems to be stuck in. when they outright say they view this price as affordable to everyone it's very clear they have not taken international fans into consideration or they just don't really care. if they hadn't said that with so much certainty, maybe I'd feel a little less hurt. and you know, whatever, it's my feelings vs the needs of a company, and companies are not your friends but! ever since the beginning, the relationship between us and them has been very parasocial. lol it's like a good friend of mine said something that hurt my feelings. although maybe that's my own fault for placing them in that role in my head in the first place.

anyway, idk if this makes sense, the goal here isn't even to pick a side or tell anyone they're wrong... as with most things this is just too complicated for that. what I can say is that the way they went about this could have been a lot better. and for now what I am feeling is that this is eventually going to crash and burn but well, I just really hope I'm wrong. they deserve good things.

[eretzyisrael]

AHA: The report identifies three main factions within the movement: Islamists, communists/Marxists/anarchists, and to a lesser extent white supremacist groups. Based on my reading of your report it seems to me that the Marxist-Leninist types are in fact the most practically and ideologically influential in the U.S., who then provide rhetorical support and justification for the Islamists. How did these factions come to work together despite having vastly different ideologies?

Mauro: The Islamists, such as those organizationally, historically, or ideologically connected to the Muslim Brotherhood (a transnational Sunni Islamist organization founded in Egypt that seeks to establish Islamic governance globally) and Jammat-e-Islami (a South Asian Islamist group advocating for the creation of an Islamic state governed by Sharia law), made a strategic decision to let their non-Islamist political allies take the lead after the October 7 attacks.

Cover photo of Ryan Mauro’s report “Marching Toward Violence The Domestic Anti-Israeli Protest Movement.”

In fact, as I documented in the report, the Muslim American Society, which federal prosecutors have stated in court was founded as the “overt” arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the U.S., instructed its affiliated leaders to refrain from mentioning Hamas when publicly preaching and praying for the anti-Israel cause.

By having their non-Islamist allies take the forefront, they broadened the appeal of the anti-Israel offensive by preventing the impression that it is a purely religious, ethnic, or national movement. The organizations whose logos appear on posts advertising the protests and social media memes are mostly non-Islamist. Unfamiliar audiences will see organizational names with terms like “human rights,” “ceasefire,” “peace,” and “justice,” and assume their content comes from credible civil rights activists or moral sources of information.

The cross-pollination of these extremist factions has a long history. It is partly intentional, with different activists and organizations deliberately collaborating on shared issues and common enemies, and partly organic, arising from overlapping online ecosystems.

For example, there are Middle East-oriented chats on Telegram aimed at audiences of one faction, but it’s common to find adherents of one or two other factions active in them. They often appreciate the content and enjoy engaging with others interested in the topic, even if there are some differences in opinion.

It is very common for an Islamist group to post content in its chat, which is then forwarded to other Islamist chats as well as chats of non-Islamist factions, and vice versa. Content even spreads between Antifa chats and white nationalist or “far-right” chats, often while both sides are simultaneously discussing physically clashing with each other.

There is also a symbiosis where a faction’s morale, radicalization, and recruitment increase whenever an opposing faction succeeds. This occurs because both sides favor instability, follow ideologies that foresee and encourage violent nationwide upheaval as a core tenet, and crave opportunities to demonstrate their importance. I’ve dubbed this phenomenon the "War of the Extremes."

Sam Westrop (left), Director of Islamist Watch at the Middle East Forum, leads a discussion with Jeff Breinholt (center) and Ryan Mauro (right) on tracking and stopping the funding of Islamist activities at the CLARITy Coalition’s 2024 Conference “Defending the West.”

The term “alliance,” when referring to these factions’ relationships, is somewhat misleading because it implies collaboration between distinct entities. Instead, they are all part of the same foundational ecosystem, sharing many core beliefs about the world and the necessity of anti-Western revolution, insurgency, discord, and separatism. The massive overlap and the "War of the Extremes" symbiosis are why I refer to these factions as a single threat: The Seditionist Movement.

More broadly, the Seditionist Movement is essentially the U.S. wing of a global anti-Western governmental and non-governmental coalition that I have chosen to name the Axis of Sedition. The Axis of Sedition consists of the anti-Western governments with the seditious goal of destabilizing, overthrowing and remaking the Western-led international order.

A strategy of sedition matches these seditious goals: Attacking their enemies through their domestic seditious movements and groups and sedition-fueling sentiments and behaviors within their enemies’ civil societies, like anti-Westernism, hate, tribalism, disinformation, apathy, the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and generic feelings of desperation and disempowerment.

The Axis is led by the governments of Iran, China, Russia, Turkey, and Qatar and their government allies like Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Cuba, and various other countries with anti-Western regimes.

Nongovernmental members based outside the U.S. are also included, such as the legions of pro-Axis NGOs, terrorist groups, and proxies like Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, the Russian-backed militias in Ukraine, and Marxist, communist, anarchist, and other pro-Axis political groups.

[mysterywheeze]

what a weekend, huh

I've refrained from using this blog to share my thoughts on the [gestures vaguely] situation for- well, for a few reasons. For one, I haven't been directly involved in the fandom for a while for personal reasons (I will reiterate that I am Mostly Fine). For two, until today we didn't have an official update on the matter. And for three, there's been A LOT of vitriol within the fanbase, so saying anything felt like stepping into a minefield.

Point three still stands. But what the hell? I've thrown my thoughts into worse rings.

My opinions on the whole fiasco can be summed up in four points.

ONE: Their initial plan was bad, and the way they announced it was even worse.

I don't think I have to explain why cutting off a large number of low-income and international fans is a shitty thing to do. That the initial treatment of Patreon fans was poor is, I think, similarly self-evident. And not just because we weren't initially given free access to the streaming platform; the abrupt cancellation of WW+ and early access screwed a lot of annual-membership patrons over.

We now have confirmation that Watcher needed a new revenue stream to stay operational, and that the team viewed this change as essentially a last resort to avoid layoffs or worse. We did not get this information in the "Goodbye YouTube" video. The Watcher team could have been upfront from the beginning, but they decided not to be. Instead they hyped up the announcement, even had a countdown, leading us to think that this was a sign of something good, when in reality it was a sign of something dire.

I hope we can all agree that more initial transparency would have significantly improved the audience reaction to the announcement.

TWO: The update/apology video was a good one.

They addressed why they made their decision, admitted to their fuck-up, and changed their plan. That's Owning Up To Your Mistakes 101. What we got was a compromise; they aren't scrapping the streaming service altogether, but they aren't abandoning fans who can't afford it altogether, either. And of course, they've told us that the streaming service is necessary for the survival of the company. Better late than never.

There's still a lot that they need to do before they can fully gain my trust. And I say gain, not regain, because this isn't the first time they've had a business fumble (NOTE: this is not about the HWYD incident). From Patreon rewards coming months late to factual errors in their educational shows, to what I strongly suspect is mismanagement of funds leading to their current financial troubles, they've always had flaws that ought to be addressed.

But it's a start. A good start at that.

THREE: Some fans reacted to the announcement (and to a lesser extent, to the update) in deeply inappropriate ways.

Look, I don't think you have to ~deeply adore~ Steven Lim to be a Watcher fan. I'll admit that, as a diehard Unsolved fan since 2017 who rarely watched Worth It before 2020, Steven's shows appealed to me less than Ryan and Shane's content did. The average viewcounts of Steven's shows compared to Ryan-n-Shane's shows indicates that my preferences are pretty common.

That being said, as someone who isn't particularly enthused about Steven content, I can appreciate the things he's done for Watcher and as a human being. He's always been the guy pushing hardest for Asian-American representation, as Grocery Run, Hidden Narratives, and especially his response to the 2021 tragedy in Atlanta, made very clear.

From years ago to just last week, he's said some poorly-worded and even insensitive things. He's a human. We're prone to doing that.

If you think that it's okay to insult him on a personal level over this weekend's fiasco, to drag up an old mistake he already publicly apologized for, or to make unfounded accusations about his moral character, you are solely mistaken and have some serious maturing to do. If you actually partook in any of those activities, I sincerely hope that you regret your actions and avoid repeating them. And if you're one of those people STILL trying to pin all the blame on Steven, or even calling for his resignation(?!?)... I don't know what to tell you. I really hope you become a kinder person soon.

This also goes for people who started getting personal with the other members of Team Watcher, or with their friends or loved ones outside the company. So what if Sara had an imperfect take? She's not responsible for Watcher's bad decision, and we shouldn't be dragging her into the discourse just because she's married to a guy who did a fuck-up.

And yeah, Shane did a fuck-up. It ain't cute to act like he's an innocent anti-capitalist baby being dragged into this mess by Steven. Same goes for people saying Ryan didn't play a part in this, but over the past few days I've seen way more support for Shane among conspiratorial fans than for Ryan. I'm not going to act like racial bias is the only factor at play here, clearly it's more complex than that, but making up conspiracies to protect your white fave while scapegoating the outspoken-against-racism Asian guy... it's not a good look. You have to realize that and evaluate your biases.

FOUR: The backlash to the backlash has become excessive and unhelpful.

I get it. When people are being dicks online, it's natural to speak out against it. And boy howdy, were some people being dicks this weekend. Emphasis on the some.

Yes, there's been a lot of mean-spirited, unconstructive hate sent Watcher's way over the past few days. There's also been an incredibly large volume of constructive criticism from all corners of the fandom. Some of it's been discussed between fans, some of it's been shared directly with Team Watcher. It doesn't stick in your mind as strongly as blatant hate does, but I can assure you, it's there.

And in the effort to defend Watcher against that hate, a lot of you have made it really hard for good-faith criticism to be heard.

Seriously, every time I see someone on the Wiscord politely criticize one of Watcher's decisions, they're immediately shut down by a fellow fan. Same thing happened to me in an unofficial fan server earlier today. My good-faith critique wasn't as important as the fact that some asshole could hypothetically make a similar argument in bad faith. Any attempt at a calm, reasoned discussion of Watcher's issues as a company gets drowned out with blind positivity.

Let me make my stance crystal clear: people are allowed to be upset about things that they aren't being forced at gunpoint to pay for. That's like, the the basis of media criticism. "You don't HAVE to pay for it so you shouldn't complain about it" is not an argument that should be taken seriously here on Al Gore's internet.

There's also been a lot of disingenuous use of the "don't you believe artists should get paid?" argument, because yes I do, and yes they have been getting paid. By thousands of people at once - far more supporters than most working artists receive in a lifetime. I personally have been supporting them financially since January of 2020, literally since day one. Watcher's situation evidently isn't ideal, but as far as independent creators go they're pretty darn privileged to have the following they have.

And if you think that Team Watcher has actually totally been doing the right thing all along, then you're wrong. The guys at Watcher themselves admitted that. If they really are the bastions of honesty you're convinced they are, you'll accept that. Above all, the changes they announced today are not proof that "the bullies won". If the bullies won, there would be no streaming service. What happened was a compromise, and the assholes in this fandom didn't want a compromise.

Look, I know you guys. I remember the old days, when we weren't afraid to provide feedback to Watcher when they fucked up, and over much smaller fumbles than this recent one. I know we've all put a lot of money and time into this company and the people behind it. The sunk-cost fallacy is a very powerful thing. But please don't let your hatred for bullies and love for the boys completely blind you to valid criticism. You can't entirely shield them from growing pains if what you want for them is real growth.

FIVE: This isn't a real point in the list I just had to separate my closing thoughts from the rest of the essay I accidentally wrote. Whoops.

The other day, I saw somebody (can't recall their handle, sorry) describe some fan reactions to Friday's announcement as "post-divorce honesty". It's far from the only comparison to a breakup I've seen. That phrase has been ringing in my head for a while now. Because this situation has made a lot of people reevaluate what they like about Watcher, why they became a fan in the first place, and if it's worth sticking around.

Watcher made a mistake. One that they could walk back but can't undo. Their reputation is never going to be the same as it was before. Likewise, a lot of fans said things that can't be taken back, and now that's tied to their reputation in our community. I can't blame anyone for feeling uneasy right now.

Hm. When I started writing this, I had an actual ending in mind. I don't know where that went.

Maybe that's the note I end this massive ramble on? Watcher's future is uncertain, the community's future is uncertain, so I'm uncertain about the last part of this post...? Agh. There's a reason why I'm more of a fiction writer than an essayist. It's getting late, I've got stuff to do tomorrow, and my browser's beginning to slow down from the sheer weight of my draft being open for so long.

Just... try to take it easy on each other, okay? It's been a hell of a week, and we haven't even finished Monday yet.

[wernerherzogs]

i wouldn’t be surprised if R said no to buddie to protect himself. people joke about grindrgate and that other time he accidentally shared something, but if he actually is queer, he clearly doesn’t want to be out publicly and/or is trying to pray the gay away

dating a man onscreen, kissing a man onscreen, having intimate scenes with a man onscreen (only to the extent 911 usually does ofc), promoting his character being queer and being in a queer relationship, having it define his acting career… it wouldn’t help him stay closeted. there’s already so much rpf hype, so many jokes and spec about his sexuality etc. and being gay onscreen is just going to increase the speculation about him in real life. ‘he is so comfortable kissing a man lol wbk’ kind of stuff

there’s also the idea that only queer people should play queer characters, which people like kit connor were subjected to (and even O a little after bi buck) and that would also put him in a potentially uncomfortable position if he is closeted

obviously idk if he’s said yes or no, if someone else said no, if buddie is actually happening or not… these are just my thoughts after seeing your anon who mentioned his social media habits when it seems like buddie is imminent

ok i will answer one (1) ask on the topic so please don't send more and if you're a mutual don't DM me about this either (sorry!).

anon, kindly, i'm very much not interested in doomerism. i think this is very much a "we won't know until we know" situation, but a lot of things seem to be pointing out to him having said yes already? he's stopped referring to eddie as straight in recent press, brought up buddie on his own, and then there's the show's canon, especially the very evident tommy-eddie parallels (as much as i dislike them lmao. but they seem to be deliberate, and work v much in our favour!) and the on the nose ending of 8x06. also, like, while we all know that ryan's tim's special princess, i'm not sure if he'd have a genuine say (as in, a veto) on the topic once tim had decided to Go There tbh. (as in, i straight up Don't Know! like ryan's not angela bassett; tim might like ryan, but ultimately not give a fuck about his opinion on the topic.) also keep in mind that him rejecting the storyline could turn out to be a bad PR move for him, too, if the word had got out that it's not happening due to his refusal as the world has got more #Woke now (i'm simplifying a broader issue, but yk what i mean) and it would be easy to have him accused of homophobia due to that. that COULD be a potential PR nightmare. look at it that way: if he says/has said yes even if he's scared, it can actually help him out Privately, long term. :) i'm not sure if he still has realistic chances to break Bigger (probably depends on how well the rosario dawson movie does?), and lower celebrity profile can actually mean a lesser pressure to stay in the closet imho. there will always be people who gossip on the internet, sure, but i feel comfortable saying that the larger part of the mythical GA won't give a fuck, and that it won't necessarily change things much in his career trajectory. i remember reading up on jonathan bailey a few years back once i had seen broadchurch and then watched crashing and taken a look at his carefully curated IG (it was very interesting! hardly any other people besides him and his family and some friends featured in the pics, and he was always Doing Some Things; it didn't seem like an Intimate Look into his life at all) because i was getting A Vibe from him, and i found his attitude (i think) interview where he talked about Being So Happy To Be An Ally, and look at him now. ;) andrew scott is doing well too. luke evans and lee pace and richard armitage still have careers. it might not be easy, but it can be done!!! we'll see. to be fair i'm not sure how smaller celebs like colton haynes are doing, should do research on if coming out has affected his career badly.

if buddie doesn't happen it'll probably be safe to assume then that ryan did have a say in it and decided it'd be too much, and i just hope everyone remembers to be kind if that happens. but i'm staying optimistic, like i said, to me personally many writing choices in s8 (and, in hindsight, in s7), seem to be pointing out to canon buddie. :)

[embraceyourdestiny]

Tbh, I get lauraryan, they’d be cute and I am intrigued by their angst potential, but it bothers me when people insist they are lovers because they found “The Lovers” card when that’s not what the card means. Tarot are symbolic, not literal.

“The Lovers” actually represents balance. Balance between the masculine and the feminine (Ryan and Laura are the respective ‘leaders’), balance within your relationships, being reflective of said relationships and your place in the world… there are many meanings to “The Lovers” and most all of them apply to Laura and Ryan’s character as individuals, not necessarily them as a pairing.

For relationships, Laura and Ryan are both trying to pursue a lead about someone they care about, Max and Chris respectively. To support this even more, they also find the “Emperor” card as well, which represents masculinity, stability, and paternity, aka Chris (and to a lesser extent Max, who is Laura’s rock and her entire reason for going on). Tying into being reflective, Ryan is having an upheaval of his emotions because he’s realizing the man he cared for, his father figure, is not who he said he was and he has to reevaluate the faith he has in him and honestly his entire emotional world inside himself.

As for Laura, though it’s not stressed as much because Ryan is the main focus, she’s also going through some heavy shit not only being a werewolf but also the fact that she killed someone and both those things obviously change your place and feelings in the world. Just like she says, if Laura let her conscious get in the way everything is a lot harder. When all this is over, Laura is going to have to wrestle with all the shit she did and determine what that makes her and if it was worth it in the end.

Additionally, like Eliza says, “there is harmony in disagreement, brought to light by the sparks of passion.”

This isn’t saying Laura and Ryan are enemies to lovers, it’s saying that spurred on by their goals, they have to work together in order to accomplish their mission, which is the only reason Ryan came with Laura in the first place, to dissuade Laura from harming Chris because he’s good. They have to balance their anger and each other’s emotions in order to successfully complete their mission, otherwise if they don’t get along it could get them killed. They gotta put their shit aside and be a team, even only temporarily, because one slip up and it’s game over. And who wants to die over being petty and stupid?

There’s nothing necessarily wrong with taking the card at face value, but I personally feel that does a disservice not only to the narrative but to the developers efforts as well because you’re essentially diminishing all the thought and hard work they put into where each Tarot goes and why. It’s also not very good analysis to only go with the surface interpretation when narratively this shit runs deep.

Like I said, Tarot aren’t literal, and it’s far more enriching to really dig in deep and think of all possible meanings. It’s easy to make a quick judgement, but it’s far more rewarding when you piece it all together and realize, if even for a moment, Laura and Ryan are tied together by fate and they have to work together if they want to make it out alive, and “The Lovers” represents that perfectly.

Plus they literally exchange blood, so, how much more “in harmony” can you get 😝

[baeddel]

In contrast, conditions that do not support people’s need for autonomy (i.e., controlling environments) induce stress (Reeve & Tseng, 2011), and can even result in behavior that is opposite to what is desired (e.g., Chan, Lonsdale, Ho, Yung, & Chan, 2009; Stephens et al., 2013). For example, Stephens and colleagues found that persons with diabetes, who felt pressured by their spouses to follow dietary recommendations, experienced more worries and stress than did those whose spouses were more supportive, and they followed dietary advice to a lesser extent. The counter-productive effects of controlling conditions have potentially important implications for other health-related settings. In recent years, calls to engage in physical activity have increased as regular exercise has been shown to be associated with reduced risks of various medical conditions and chronic diseases (e.g., diabetes, stroke, breast cancer, osteoporosis) (e.g., Physical Activity Guidelines Advisory Committee, 2008; Sui et al., 2013; Warburton, Charlesworth, Ivey, Nettlefold, & Bredin, 2010). Yet, adherence to exercise regimens is often less-than-satisfactory (e.g., Rhodes & Fiala, 2009). Ironically, in an attempt to ensure that their clients engage in sufficient exercise, personal trainers, athletic trainers, or physical therapists tend to prescribe certain exercises, weights to be lifted, or numbers of sets and repetitions for given exercises. Yet, as Teixeira, Carraça, Markland, Silva, and Ryan (2012) have speculated, such an approach that “might be prevalent in fitness clubs or other settings where exercise is externally prescribed, could thus be partially responsible for the high dropout rate. In fact, the pervasiveness of social and medical pressures toward weight loss, combined with externally prescriptive methods may be ill-suited to promote sustained increases in population physical activity levels” (p. 2).

Wulf et al, 2014, Choosing to exercise more: Small choices increase exercise engagement (click)

[cynicalbisexual]

my thoughts regarding watcher entertainment's business decision

i can't claim to know anything about running a business but personally i think there were probably better ways to keep your business sustainable without alienating your viewers. like, why on earth would you get your fans excited for a goddamn week only to say your whole channel is moving to a subscription service where fans will have to pay $6 a month to access content we've been getting for free for fucking years? it doesn't make sense whatsoever. ESPECIALLY in this economy. watcher has already lost ~40k subscribers (if social blade is accurate) and it's possible they might lose more. i understand watcher needs money to make the high quality content they've been giving us.

i think they should reconsider the high quality content and go back to basics. people have said they don't care about the quality and the production. they care about ryan and shane. (and steven, to a lesser extent) if they care at all about their fans input and comments and ideas and whatnot (which they have stated in the past that they do care) they will at least consider making a statement regarding this business decision sometime soon.

there's no way the watcher team hasn't seen the thousands of comments criticizing (rightfully so) this decision. and if they don't make any kind of statement acknowledging the criticism and they just straight up ignore their own fans.....idk what will happen but it's not gonna look good.

[smokefalls]

Title: The Devil Finds Work Author: James Baldwin Publication Year: 2011 (first published in 1976) Publisher: Vintage Genre: nonfiction, essays

The Devil Finds Work is a little hard to categorize, in that it technically is a book-length essay, but it also has memoir-like elements to it, especially how Baldwin draws attention to some of the many films he watched during his lifetime. Ultimately, though, this book is a critique of racial politics in US films (and European ones, as well, to an extent). In a way, these films that serve as case studies in this essay are reflections of society and, in many cases, how society constructs identity (mainly focusing on race and, to a lesser extent, sexuality). There is a somewhat surprisingly wide variety of examples ranging from the unexpected like The Birth of a Nation (1915) to the unexpected like The Exorcist (1973), and it was really illuminating to see how he broke down the white gaze and its pervasiveness, as well as the Black experience in film (which even included jabs at blaxploitation films).

Baldwin’s lyricism and clarity come through in this book, but what definitely came as a bit of a surprise (albeit a fun one) was his occasional snarky remarks, adding a distinct bite to his analyses and criticisms. I think the only downside of reading this book was my unfamiliarity with some of the mentioned films that I couldn’t fully appreciate the points Baldwin was making; I feel film buffs who want a deep dive into social issues in relation to film would get even more out of his thoughts. However, many of the points he raised in his essay remain relevant to this day, I feel— It really makes me wonder how he would react to films such as the ones directed by Jordan Peele and Ryan Coogler.

Content Warning: racism, racial slurs (specifically the n word), slavery, homophobia, references to death and rape

[bi4demibuddie]

Kind of conspiracy theory in here but maybe they shot a buddie hint/sort of confirmation scene. And then they sent Oliver (and Ryan on a lesser extent) on a crazy press tour to promote buddie and then, they cut the scene last minute and threw Oliver and Ryan to the wolves.