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The American people overwhelmingly oppose Trump’s plan. In fact, a recent poll found that only 14% of voters support cutting social services to fund an extension of Trump’s tax cuts. That’s why Republicans passed the bill early in the morning when no one was watching — because they know how wildly unpopular it is. This bill is NOT a done deal. It still needs to pass the Senate. It's important that we get in touch with our senators and tell them to vote NO on this bill. Keep calling. (202) 224-3121

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Sigh.

Once again, you're allowed to be critical of media, and having these valid opinions/feelings does not mean you're deserving of fandom ire or exile. Period.

I, for one, have been disappointed with how the show has (mis)handled its overarching narratives, character development, and pacing since even before the mid-season break. On top of everything else, with the advent of this week's PR blitz I also feel like it's not at all off base to feel baited to an almost unprecedented degree. And I'm sure there are folks that can and will succinctly argue more hopeful takes on it all, but the bottom line for me is that I no longer trust the storytellers and I think that's a sign that it's time for me to bounce for the time being (beyond the actual summer hiatus). No shade to anyone who's still all in, I'm just not feeling it anymore.

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From this article, this is essentially where I’m at.

Goodnight and good luck to all of y’all tomorrow. I’ll check back once the dust has settled (like a coward 😅).

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I’m so happy for these new podcasts, so much Buddie stuff, it’s actually insane

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I need to throw a dictionary at some people

Mainly those who do not understand what abuse is

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overall feeling pretty good about staying on the sidelines of fandom cuz, like, wow. This post episode discourse has everything: incorrectly throwing around the term abuse, needlessly standing up for fictional faves by either woobifying or villainizing the other party, bad faith takes from other or anti-shippers, people being ravenously hot and bothered over their ship arguing—well, I’ll give that one a shrug because it’s tumblr…

All I’ll say of the scene in question is that grief is complex and the conflicts it breeds don’t require a defined good or bad guy. When you grieve, everyone is gonna fuck up and the best a person can do is own up to it when they do and continue pushing through the miserable indefinite-step process of it all. I think the writers and the actors did a decent job of reflecting this. Maybe a hot take, but stop throwing around terminology that’s insulting to people who have actually been in the thick of harrowing, life threatening treatment.

As for the rest of the episode, happy for y’all who liked it and who are feeling better about the show looking more like its roots. I still don’t trust the creative team at this point, so I continue to tumblr lurk and yap when I should probably just stfu.

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IDEK anymore.

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:p

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[blazeeblake]

a few great films that are free on the internet archive

in decent quality too!

here is the archive collection of these films so you can favorite on there/save if desired.

links below

black girl (1966) dir. ousmane sembene

the battle of algiers (1966) dir. gillo pontecorvo

paris, texas (1984) dir. wim wenders

desert hearts (1985) dir. donna deitch

harold and maude (1973) dir. hal ashby

los olvidados (1952) dir. luis bunuel

walkabout (1971) dir. nicolas roag

rope (1948) dir alfred hitchcock

freaks (1932) dir. tod browning

frankenstein (1931) dir. james whale

sunset boulevard (1950) dir billy wilder

fantastic planet (1973) dir. rené laloux

jeanne dielman (1975) dir. chantal akerman

the color of pomegranates (1969) dir. sergei parajanov

all about eve (1950) dir. joseph l. mankiewicz

gilda (1946) dir. charles vidor

the night of the hunter (1950) dir. charles laughton

the invisible man (1931) dir. james whale

COLLECTION of georges méliès shorts

rebecca (1940) dir. alfred hitchcock

brief encounter (1946) dir. david lean

to be or not to be (1942) dir. ernst lubitsch

a place in the sun (1951) dir george stevens

eyes without a face (1960) dir. georges franju

double indeminity (1944) dir. billy wilder

wild strawberries (1957) dir. ingmar bergman

shame (1968) dir. ingmar bergman

through a glass darkly (1961) dir. ingmar bergman

persona (1961) dir. ingmar bergman

winter light (1963) dir. ingmar bergman

the ascent (1977) dir. larisa shepitko

the devil, probably (1977) dir. robert bresson

cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) dir. agnes varda

alien (1979) dir. ridley scott + its sequels

after hours (1985) dir. martin scorsese

halloween (1978) dir. john carpenter

the watermelon woman (1996) dir. cheryl dune

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Exercises for all the homies who want to have a long career drawing.

The true problem with being an artist and drawing all day (as I wanted my whole life) is that human backs are not designed to hold that position, so it is very common for artists and designers to have really stiff shoulder blades, creating a chain of muscle strain towards the arm AND the back… and a lot of pain.

These are some physical exercises for artists and honestly anyone who works at a desk.

(all credit to my physiotherapist)

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Touché, Oliver Stark...

Me at those latest stills:

I am side eyeing but otherwise unmoved.

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Me at those latest stills:

I am side eyeing but otherwise unmoved.

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okay so like. in the grand scheme of things, I am nobody important in the 911 sphere. however, I know I still get comments/kudos on my fics and have people here who mainly followed me for weewoo reasons and I have Thoughts and Opinions™ about the state of the show and the past two weeks (under a cut for length)

I love (loved??) 911. Genuinely, I can’t fully express what this show meant to me. I started watching in 2021, around the time I first started developing chronic illness symptoms and my life was in a state of upheaval (covid, college graduation, friendship stuff, etc). So much of my life was melting down around me — my purpose, my health, some of my close relationships, and my world as I knew it. 911 became a stabilizing force. I lived Monday to Monday during that last semester of college, and after I graduated, I really lived Monday to Monday.

I processed my depression and grief through season 5b. As cheesy as it sounds, I found the courage to start medication for depression and keep living because of Eddie’s arc. Later, again through Eddie’s character, I began to understand my sexuality. I loved this show and all it represented in my life. I loved it deeply, and I could love it like that because I trusted it. 

To me, storytelling is the ultimate exercise in trust. It’s a contract of sorts. To simplify it: the writer provides a world, a story, in which there are rules, expectations, and boundaries; within those boundaries, the audience becomes invested. As a writer myself, I feel as if that contract is precious. People could be doing anything with their time, and they’re choosing to stay with my story for a bit. When I write, I try to stay within expectations. This isn’t to say that there can’t be plot twists or surprises. Mostly, I’m using “expectations” here as a way to say that if you’re, for example, telling a story where dragons don’t exist, it’d be a hell of a surprise to have a dragon coming soaring in during the third act (and not necessarily a good one, sorry dragon fans).

Or, if you’re telling a story where main characters survive the impossible — tsunamis, blod clots, slit throats, and hearts stopped for 14 minutes — killing a main character in Season 8 breaks the contract of storytelling that 911 established for itself. And not only did 911 shatter the audience’s trust, they did it in a cruel way. 

I cannot overstate how mean-spirited this felt. In my opinion, Bobby’s death is more than a simple betrayal of the trust between writers and audience. It’s a deliberate dismantling of something the audience loved deeply. It’s killing a character who spent eight seasons overcoming suicidal ideation. Storytelling comes with responsibility. Bobby isn’t real, but the people who were loud about feeling seen in Bobby’s survival are. Bobby’s death mocks the audience and is the type of narrative decision that ripples backward to make the rest of the show feel pointless. Personally, I have no desire to rewatch old seasons now that I know how the 118’s story ends. 

This reminds me a LOT of two things: BBC’s Sherlock and Avengers: Endgame. I loved both deeply for similar and different reasons. I imprinted on Tony Stark like a baby duck (hello, character with suicidal ideation who chose to live); I believed Sherlock was telling a clever story worth following, and while I didn’t fully know why at the time, the potential of queer storytelling meant the world to me. 

Tony Stark’s ending resonates in just how stupid I find it, and just how narratively unsatisfying it was. Sherlock’s resonates for a different reason. Over the past two weeks, I have been reminded of TJLC (The Johnlock Conspiracy, a theory that still makes its rounds sometimes). For those of you who don’t know, TJLC is the theory that there is a secret, unaired episode of Sherlock that is the real ending because the ending we got couldn’t possibly be so terrible.

Could it??

In my opinion, yes. Was it deliberately bad? That’s more difficult for me to say. Sometimes, I think straight, white male writers begin to hate or resent their audience. They want to be the smartest person in the room (or on the Internet). They hate that their story has come to mean so much to women, non-binary people, queer people, people of color, etc. They hate that their story is “predictable” (well-told) and that the audience is predicting what’s next. They hate the audience and turn to destruction — to shock value. 

I can’t say for certain that this is what’s happening here with 911. But I can say that 911, for a few seasons, told deliberate, precise, and excellent stories that fulfilled the trust the audience had given it. Bobby’s death and the dismantling of what so many people loved about 911, as well as the cruelty with which it was done, also feels deliberate and precise. Again, we can only speculate why. Parasocial relationships and fandom are two-way streets. Toxicity gets to people. Shows end. At the end of the day, it’s television. 

I can’t choose where the story goes, but I can choose whether or not I turn on the TV. After all this, my main question was: do I trust 911 enough to continue watching? Personally, I’m leaning toward no. I turned on 911 to forget the world for a bit. The night 8x15 aired, I’d spent the afternoon worrying about my brother, a student who was on lockdown due to the active shooter at Florida State University. I’d had a shit day. I trusted 911 to provide 45 minutes of escape. Sure, 911 had off episodes, but it was never cruel like this. 

It’s difficult to know where to go next, and I don’t think anyone is looking to me for answers. I’ve never watched Sherlock again, and I don’t really think about it (until I miss when plugging in my phone charger, iykyk). I wrote a 50k fic about Endgame for my own closure and never watched another Marvel movie again. I don’t know what I’ll do with 911, but I do know that I certainly won’t give Tim Minear my time or attention by hoping Bobby is alive or that, somehow, this is still a giant gotcha. Even if it is, I won’t be tuning in, I think. I’m not interested in a show that is mean. Yes, I am still invested in the storyline. Yes, I think there's a non-zero chance of Buck/Eddie happening. I care about that deeply, but again, the narrative has been extremely mean to Eddie. Not interested, sorry.

My final note: the comfort and creativity that anyone drew from 911 is not fake. Tim Minear fucked up, so the characters and the world are yours now. Fuck canon. Write AUs, write fake scripts, write analysis. Honestly, in retrospect, the theories and creativity from this fandom provided some of the best and most meaningful experiences for me. No writer is God; we are the audience, so the story belongs to us. 

And for anyone who writes, remember how this feels. It sucks to see a show you love so much go this way, but it’s valuable in learning the contract of storytelling. The world always needs storytellers, and now, they’re needed more than ever. I know so many viewers of this show who will be writers I can trust fully. Maybe you won’t be telling the 118’s story, but there is always an opportunity to create something new. 

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I will also say, and only because it’s been nagging at me for weeks,

I really am sick of the pervasive binary in popular storytelling that Strong Black Women™️ experience grief in two ways: pushing it down with work and anger until the dam breaks, or moving with a kind of almost supernatural calm and enlightenment. I know this is fiction but we contain multitudes. We are the bearers of generational pain and trauma and so much intermingled historic tragedy and triumph. I dunno, maybe hire some Black women writers or something. Maybe let Black women be held and cared for in media. Yes, we’re badasses in the worst of times, but having to be that monolith is also killing us all the time. Let fiction be transformative.