#//everyones blogs and everything is so dang fancy

[factual-fantasy]

19 Asks! :00 Thank you! :DD 🧁

And now you see my frustration and lack of patience. <XDD

Its the easiest to follow boundary that I can think of. Yet people still wanna fuss about it and send me horrible messages and run me down. Calling me selfish, ungrateful, spoiled.. Its exhausting. :( 💔

Sorry, I don't take requests. :/

Do beasts like that exist in the game?? :00 Dang, that's spooky-

Well, I imagine that Seafoam, Octo, Louis and any other tough guy on the ship would go down there and weed it out. Dragging it up onto the deck so that Blue Beauty could snatch it and dispose if it however she needed to <XDD 💀

I must specify that my cookie run characters are not in "my version" of the world- <:0 as in I didn't create the world they live in and how it works-

These cookie characters are fan OCs for an existing game! And note, its a game that I know next to nothing about! <:( I only researched enough to make characters that might fit into that universe somewhat realistically,, other than that, I've got nothing! :(

So about a pirate community being led by a King or Queen of some other chocolate brands..?.. aaaaaa I have no idea! <:0 Its not my world! Does it fit? I don't know.. Sorry.. :(((

@yourstrulylightstar283

Thank you <:) but hey, I have high hopes that this trial will end within the next few weeks! :D ..I really hope it will :')

@neo-metalscottic

:DD No problem! While I am spending an unfortunate amount of my time just lounging around trying to feel better.. I at least want to get around to answering asks! Its darn near my favorite part of running this blog after all! <XDD

When it comes to the Commander, he is not meant to have any fancy powers like in the movie or from Kamek. Magic in my universe is meant to be a very complicated practice. Something that would take years of studying and training to perfect. At least to the level where it can be used reliably in combat.. What I mean by this, is I don't think there's any magic related tricks that the Commander could "pick up" or be taught.. Magic also has everything to do with a magikoopa's gem staff thing, soo... <://

Though I suppose that the "superspeed flight" and the "self destruct" aspect could be incorporated into the Blue Parakoopa species somehow.. Perhaps due to the shape of their winds and flying styles, they could be incredibly fast. And Since they are so big and sturdy, perhaps they have been known to rocket towards their enemy and come crashing down onto/into them with all their might. Completely obliterating what ever they happen to hit. Like an explosion! XD Hmm.. I might just adopt that XDD Thanks for the idea!

Also he might make for a decent sparring partner if he was asked to do so! :0 though that's not his primary job..

As for Larry, unfortunately I've thought about him the least amongst the Koopalings. :((( Though I do intend to keep his star mark somehow.. and I didn't know about the music thing! :0 My Larry definitely wouldn't be a DJ, but I could certainly add an interest in music into his character! :0 Sounds like you kind'a built a bit of Larry for me! XD

@kaylee4509

Thank you so much!! I'm glad to hear it! :DD And "like spam", XDD there's no such thing on my blog! I consider it a huge compliment! :DD

@ripchaos69

:DD Thank you very much!! I'm glad you like what I've made!! :}} ✨💖✨

Me neither man, me neither. If someone else had set a boundary like that I would just drop it no questions asked. I don't get why its so hard for others to do the same.. and its such a small and simple boundary at that. It just baffles me, it really does. :'((

@petra-creat0r

I always knew/assumed that's why people harp on me so much about it. "All other artists like it. So why don't you like it? You make no sense."

I understand how everyone else sees it, but even then I wish people would get the message and just leave me alone about it. You know?

When I set a boundary, don't come into my ask box and question me about it. Don't start criticizing me or send me death threats or call me selfish and ungrateful. As has happened before..

Just read the boundary, "please do not make fanart of any kind for me" and then leave it/me alone. Its all I ask. :( I promise I would/will do the same for you, 💖

Thank you for the kind message and support, it really means a lot <:}

I'm doing by best every day to heal and work on myself as much as I can. I'm hoping to see improvements soon! <:}

@jennifergacha

Sorry, I don't take requests. But it sounds like you already have a good idea goin. Why not give it a go yourself? :0

:DDD Thank you so much!! That means the world!! :}} 💖

I have not :( I've seen and heard wonderful things about it though! No doubt its an awesome show :}}

@littlelightfish

WAAHAHAGG THANK YOU!! :DDD Nothing means more to me than to see people so passionate about my original characters! My ORIGINAL! CHARACTERS!! 😭😭💖💖💖 IM SO HONORED!!

XDD No no don't worry! You're fine! :}

Now, I do advise that people don't shove headcannons onto my charaters- BUT! I say this because in the past people have shipped my original characters together and have put mental illness and sexuality headcannons on themm.. which is just not ok. It made me super uncomfortable and should be a no brainer. Don't do that with peoples personal characters unless they say they are ok with it-

But this is a bit different, taking what I've already established and just gushing about it/digging into it a little deeper is alright! Honestly its such an honor! :DD It makes me very happi :}}} 💖💖

@jayden-for-now

@komikudikentalendo

:(( I been goin through it ngl. But I'm sure in a few weeks and maybe after I get a couple good rainy days under my belt? I'll be back to my old squiggly self :}

@beryl-shade (First link/video in question) (Second link/video in question)

I like to look at my cookie crew through more "serious" glasses. I don't think they ever would be involved in a coordinated musical number..

But even if they were, I'm not too sure how they'd react/feel.. :( I know Octo and Spidercrab wouldn't be having a good time though, that's for sure! XDD

[nobodysdaydreams]

I WAITED ALL THIS TIME FOR CUTTER’S TRAGIC BACKSTORY AND IT’S THAT HE GOT HIS TELESCOPE STOLEN AS A TEENAGER AND DECLARED REVENGE?

Oh, well then, forget Hilbert’s family dying of radiation, Jacobi’s guilt over his failures, and Maxwell’s alienation from her family, THIS was the sad villain backstory the show was building up to. And Cutter is so serious about it too, y’all I can’t. 🤣

(Or my reaction to Wolf359’s Special Episode: Volte Face)

Hi Dear Readers. Gonna be doing some work during this one, but I hope you like the reaction regardless because I've put off enough, but I hope you enjoy it anyway. Here we go!

Tagging the mutuals who got me invested in this, and if you want to be tagged or untagged from these posts, lmk, or you can follow my blog or simply follow the tag "#bods wolf359 reactions". Anyone who has followed me for a while knows my updates are inconsistent, so I apologize in advance for that and for any spelling/grammar mistakes in my posts.

@sophieswundergarten @oflightningandstars @acollectionofcuriousreblogs @herawell @commsroom @lovelyladylavie

Special Episode: Volte Face

Huh. A few years before the start of the show. This should be interesting.

Oh ew Rachel.

Wait is this her origin story?

Enlil (yes I looked up the spelling this time, yes I was careful, and yes I did this after the reaction) is so cheery. Like Cutter if he was actually nice.

Wait. Why are they calling her “Miss. Nash”?

Oh. They tried to kill her at the hotel. And she seems to know they’d try to do this, is totally okay with it, and willingly getting on a plan with them? Okay?

Don’t like this David Clark fellow.

Nash is not nice Enlil. She’s not nice at all.

Does Cutter kill or hire all the reporters that come to his door? If so, I hope Minkowski’s husband is okay.

The safety video is on mute? That’s symbolic.

The AI is the only character I like.

Andrea Nash? Am I hearing this wrong, I swear that’s Rachel Young.

So Enlil got the job Hera wanted. Flying a fancy jet all day. Hera did say that’s what happens when you’re happy and do as you’re told.

Huh. Did not expect Cutter to be a Harry Potter fan.

Ew not Cutter doing the “welcome to Wolf359” I hate it.

Was Goddard the OG Marcus? Wright-Goddard? Interesting… let’s see… 40s, 50s, 60s… AI.

Renamed in 1974… so that’s significant. Also when Cutter says “things no monkey could do” why do I think he means humans?

1976. So that’s when he took control.

People? I don’t like the sound of that.

Change the world for the better? …no. I respectfully disagree.

Oh she’s not asking about certain things. Restraining bolt?

“where were we” “how you were gonna change the world for the better” 🤣 yeah. Right after he removes everyone’s free will, sure.

Are all these people that are being listed Cutter? That’s a lot of new people.

Right they all disappeared.

Do the names of the stars have a similar pattern that the fake names have?

What does she mean by “I have EVERYTHING”? What is everything? Like… everything everything?

Oh they got that restraining bolt.

David. I think Cutter might decide to give you the restraining bolt instead.

“The same reason you don’t hold this job for more than a decade” DANG!

Matthew Newman?

Oh that’s him isn’t it? The real him?

IS THAT A GUN?

This escalated so quick.

Oh she got him. And Cutter took this so personally.

Come on Cutter. Drop the backstory. Oh Andrea Nash isn’t her name either.

Yep. Matthew Newman. Here he is.

Ah. A little high school student poking his nose where it didn’t belong. Oh so Cutter has been infatuated with aliens since he was a boy.

Wait. That’s it? The government took his telescope when he was 15 and he declared revenge? That’s his sad backstory? That’s the best he could do?

Oh and then he got fired when someone had to take the fall at the company. That too. But he still said he declared revenge when he was in high school? This is ridiculous. And further proof that science nerds who are also over dramatic theater kids cannot be trusted (expect for me because I’m special 🥰).

Oh so when Matthew left he gave the restructure order. I see… but then how did he get the new bodies?

He found Miranda Pryce. But how did she have the tech?

Maybe he used plastic surgery the first time around.

Oh. He was Miranda’s first test subject. And she wanted to manipulate the human body probably because of her blindness.

“Revenge is fun” “you can just steal one” “space exploration is only part of the bigger picture: progress. I want a better future” put those three statements together and tell me if you sound like a good guy, Cutter.

I see. So rather than stop him, Nash wants in so that she can have a hand in it. She’s just as gross as he is.

“No” *cuts to Andrea as Rachel head of special projects*

Cutter has seen Monsters Inc?

“More productive use” “Volte Face” okay this is the part where you should have brought a gun… oh the wave radiation. Good thing she’s knows that. I guess that’s enough to give Cutter the job. Rough day for you David.

Oh she has to reinvent herself. Rachel. Yep. So this is how she got here. I don’t like her. She knows what Cutter’s about, and her response is she wants in? Absolute worst.

“Goodbye Miss. Nash”

Well that was sort of a dark ending. You either willingly give up your humanity to join Pryce and Cutter or they take it. One way or another.

Anyway, now we know more about Rachel and Cutter. Gotta say, his sad backstory is funnier and lamer than I could have ever imagined. I was, bear minimum, expecting something like the board members who pushed him out of the company were close personal friends, or maybe his parents yelled at him and forced him to give up his space dreams or even a line about the kids at school laughing at him for being a high schooler who believed in aliens. But nope. He stumbled upon something, got his telescope stolen by the government and was like “you know what? I’m gonna spend the rest of my life and several more lifetimes getting revenge for this specifically.” The people who took the dang telescope aren’t even alive anymore! Look, I get they also ransacked his house and yelled at him, which is a lot for a teenager, but to respond by declaring revenge then and there and plotting world domination, I just…

I mean, I guess the moral of the story is don’t inconvenience a young science genius if they’re also a dramatic theater kid. Because they will immediately jump to world domination and change their name as part of that process and befriend(?) an evil woman who gives them next level tech. It’s happened too many times in too many of my fandoms (well two so far, show Curtain and Cutter. At least show Curtain’s sad thing was that his family left him. Still not an excuse considering his brother was also a kid at the time, but it’s better than a telescope).

I can see why you all hyped this up. It’s hilarious, but also shows how being affiliated with Cutter makes people slowly lose their humanity (again, one way or another) despite Cutter calling himself a “people person”.

Also if Rachel knows about the modified bodies, does that mean she has one? Or maybe she’s not old enough yet.

On a more serious note: Rachel’s character makes me sad. She could use her powers for good and expose so many bad people. And it sounds like she did for a while. But then she decided to sell out. Disappointing. What a waste. And since Rachel and Andrea were both fake names… we might never learn who she really is. Or maybe that doesn’t matter, since that person, who ever she was, no longer exists. Again, Cutter and Pryce do specialize in taking away other people’s humanity.

Well. Only 2 hours left. Not tonight, but later. When I have time to really sit and give a good listen. We’re in the endgame now dear readers. I hope y’all are ready!

[murfeelee]

Hello murfeel, I don't know if anyone ask you this before but what do you think about the news of sims 5 being planned by ea?

Hi! I see we're starting 2023 on a positive note, getting me triggered by EA's shenanigans! 🤣

Yeah, so far I've only commented briefly about TS5 in this post, when EA did that stupid Summit thing where they showed off how much they're trying to one-up Paralives. 🙄 OOoOoo~! They're bringing the color wheel back after swearing on a stack of bibles that CASt was the worst feature in TS3 and TS4 didn't need it and their wacka** LACK of customization was the FUTURE of gaming--zomg lemme get my wallet ready~~! 🤡

Like, EA, everyone knows you're good at Build/Buy mode and CAS--people don't call TS4 a DOLLHOUSE SIMULATOR for nothing. But where is the EFFING GAMEPLAY? I feel the same way about Paralives--I don't need to see anymore of their builds or Paras--I want to follow sims INSIDE their places of work and school (no more EFFING rabbitholes); and see how they act come rain, snow or shine; and I want pets aside from just cats & dogs and RODENTS EA. And different cultural representation, so it's not the same generic American suburban cookie-cutter crap all the time--give me simulated life of the islands, the tundras, the equator, the poles, the Nth/Est/Sth/Wst hemispheres, the cities, the farms, the jungles, the corporate ladder, off the grid--in fully fleshed out EXPANSIONS with living breathing WORLDS, not watered down Game Packs, for crying out loud. Do y'all even remember what Expansion Packs are, EA? If only every pack was given HALF the content and attention to detail that Seasons always gets! It's a sad state of affairs when the best pack y'all ever released was for VAMPIRES. 🤦‍♀️

I get stomach ulcers every time I hear about how people spent over a THOUSAND DOLLARS on TS4 and are clamoring for the torture to be over already so TS5 can hurry up and screw them over instead. The biggest complaint simmers have been screaming at EA about is how dang BORING TS4 is, because

the game is too easy, and people have to cheat to make the game HARDER wtf

the game is too buggy and none of the fancy "features" effing WORK, releasing ENTIRE PACKS BROKEN, with patches that make everything worse

the features TS4 does have that actually work are shallow AF and a lot of them are repetitive/redundant or they don't carry over to other EPs/GPs/SPs to make the gameplay deeper and richer you had one job EA

TS4's worlds are too small and we don't even have CAW, but EA promised us that smaller non-open worlds with no CASt and no Story Progression would make TS4 run so much smoother than TS3--gosh golly, now if only my save would stop laaaaaaagging 😩

where are the skills where are the careers where are the hobbies other than streaming/blogging where are the NPCs where ar--

the sims' emotions & action queues are out of control, but the EMOTIONS were the MAIN thing the dev's pitched when TS4 was announced over a decade ago; why are my sims acting like crack heads when you said they'd be so much smarter?

the kids are totally ignored, where the teens are basically young adults with curfews--but zoinks! they're finally going to update the bassinet-babies after TEN YEARS so the legacy players can actually PLAY WITH LIFE and interact with babies! Maybe if we're lucky, they'll patch in some frikkin preteens so the life states in a life simulation game actually make sense!

the alpha vs maxis match saga continues

Look at everything Sims Freeplay has--it's monetized to hell and back, but at least they have COOL stuff! WHERE IS IT in TS4? Will that stuff be in basegame TS5???? EVER? Or will EA just keep showing us how many throw pillows we can rotate on couches in rooms full of clutter that aren't even interactive objects? 🙃 Paralives has Paras ziplining off of rooftops into their pool--will basegame TS5 even launch with pools and swimmable water, or will that feature be locked off behind another lukewarm paywalled EP where you can only ever swim in ONE (1) world? 🏝 And now that EA making basegame TS4 free to play, they have carte blanche to microtransaction people to death with useless Kits full of DECOR and mess in TS5, too, huzzah!

And they keep bringing up MULTIPLAYER--THEY BETTER NOT. 💀

GOD, I hope the TS4 simmers go off on EA and tell them that TS5 CANNOT be TS4 2.0. Don't have EA walking around thinking TS4 was the right way to do life simulation gaming. TS4's enormous player base means diddly squat if people don't play the game to PLAY the GAME, only using it as the base for their Blender renders -- quantity does NOT equal quality, EA!

I'm not even staying on top of TS5 news anymore, listening to Lindsay Pearson lie to my frikkin face; promising me the moon only to have it turn out to be made of government cheese. The proof is gonna be in the pudding once the game actually LAUNCHES in a zillion years; I refuse to get hyped.

But I am PRAYING EA does TS5 right. Or at least that they make something better than TS4--it's a low bar, I know, but baby steps. Believe it or not, but I'd actually like to play a sims game that isn't TS3 sometime this decade. 🙏 TS4 had so many red flags; everyone knew it was a mobile game port, we're not THAT dumb, EA. Plus, TS4 was just too effing ugly for me. I hate the cartoony playdough look, and the lack of CASt and customization was an IMMEDIATE dealbreaker; so at least EA learned ONE lesson in all this time. *slow claps* Now we just have to see what they'll do about the actual GAME, the part that MATTERS.

Lemme stop, before I pop a blood vessel.

Wake me up when TS5 has more gameplay than Animal Crossing and Stardew Valley.

[sinfulwonders]

You’ve probs already been asked this but, saiouma for the quarantine ask thingy? Hgn I love your blog sm ❤️❤️❤️

I heard y’all like Oumasai. Also, thank you, to the person who said they like my blog. I appreciate it.

Oumasai

Who adapts easily to working from home, and who's climbing the walls?

Shuichi easily adapts from working from home. Honestly, he’s thriving. He loves not having to be around people every day and just barely rolling out of bed before getting to work. Kokichi, on the other hand, is just bouncing off the walls. He has to take walks and get outside or do something otherwise he’s just gonna go stir crazy.

Who wants to take advantage of not having to stand apart when they go outside on a walk because they've been quarantined together anyway, and who's so paranoid of getting yelled at by strangers (whether that scares or just irritates them) that they insist the pair of them still walk six feet apart?

Kokichi doesn’t care, he’s looping an arm through Shuichi’s immediately, and leaning on him while they take walks. Shuichi, on the other hand, is pretty paranoid of getting yelled at! When strangers walk by, his gut instinct is to separate from Kokichi so they don’t get in trouble.:P

Who gets really into cooking?

I see Kokichi doing this actually! He tries to become good at cooking because he’s just so dang bored, but he actually gets pretty good at it. When Shuichi compliments him on a dish he makes, oh boy, he goes all out the next day. He wears a frilly apron (Shuichi didn’t even know they owned that...) and makes them a fancy candlelit dinner and everything.:P

Who gets really into a TV show they'd never thought to watch before?

They both watch so much TV together now that they probably both get into things they never expected to!

Who starts doing improbable musical performances on the balcony/fire escape/by the front window/in the backyard?

Kokichi serenades Shuichi on the balcony and the whole neighborhood gets in on it! It becomes a whole concert with Kokichi loudly leading. Shuichi honestly loves it.:3

Who gets the idea that now's a great or at least practical time to get a buzzcut, and does the other try to talk them out of it, sigh "it's your hair" and relinquish all responsibility, or offer to help so it's even?

Shuichi gets super irritated when his hair starts to get in his face all the time and decides he’ll just cut it all off then! Kokichi is honestly horrified when Shuichi comes into their room with a pair of scissors and lopsided uneven bangs with a pitiful look on his face, but Kokichi is able to salvage and make the haircut look at least somewhat decent! :P

Who starts keeping a journal and calling it their apocalypse log?

Like I said on the Oumota one, Kokichi definitely does this and takes his job on leaving a log of all the greatest memes for the survivors very seriously.

Who makes sure they can video chat with everyone else in their lives and who is baffled by technology?

They’re both pretty good at technology, but Shuichi is the more likely to zoom call. He’s introverted, sure, but Kaede and Kaito have video chats scheduled so that they don’t lose touch with him! Kokichi joins a lot, too, but he’s just less inclined to want to video chat.

Who gets into social media arguments reminding strangers to self-isolate?

Kokichi is such an online troll, he probably does. Shuichi is much more passive and doesn’t tend to fight with others online.

Who starts making weird videos two days in?

Definitely Kokichi.

Whose sleep schedule goes totally off the rails?

Shuichi and Kokichi already have a terrible sleep schedule, but Shuichi probably suffers more. Especially if for some reason he can’t get coffee. :o

If they're in a relationship, do they start sleeping together more often?

Yep! Since Shuichi’s a detective he has to travel for work, but if he’s self isolating then he’s around more and thus they do the do more! (Although in real life he’d probably be considered essential.) Also it’s a great way to get some of Kokichi’s energy out.:P

@kam-cactus @just-a-coffee-tin @lunatic147

[roxannarambles]

Firewatch Review: Where There’s Smoke

This is a repost on a new blog. The original post was on Mar 4, 2016.

Contains major, major spoilers including endgame. Do not read if you haven’t played!

When I first started into this game I thought it was a horrifically depressing introduction. It opens telling a tale of a man and a woman who fall in love and it’s a lovely story and then the woman falls ill from a rare hereditary disease and slowly gets worse and loses her career and the man loses the wife he knew and struggles to care for her and it’s fucking awful. Then the game opens with the man– you– taking up a summer job in a park near Yellowstone. He’s done this to get away and have some time to think about his life.

He works in a watchtower. Lone rangers station in these towers to watch the horizon for signs of fire. He has little to do but keep an eye out and sit alone in his station up there. His only company is his supervisor, in the nearest watchtower over, whom he speaks to via walkie-talkie. (these are the days before cell phones) Her name’s Delilah.

All I was really told about this game is that it involved exploration and was story-centric. And that’s an accurate description. And while it starts off with a rather depressing backstory, the main part of the game is not all bleak and bleary. It is a story about the interaction between Henry and Delilah. There is a mystery plot involved in the game as well; the game starts off with small park dramas and tasks to ease into things, then develops a mystery, which eventually gets rather intense. But entwined with this mystery story, always central and foremost, is the character-driven plot of these two.

The voice acting is fantastic, and the writing is excellent, so it carries well. Dialogue writing is certainly not everyone’s strength, but the writers here did a very good job. The two characters have excellent chemistry; it flows naturally and is very enjoyable. The quips and interactions are fed in small bits steadily throughout the game as you explore, providing an enjoyable regular stream of interactions. It’s a satisfying blend of exploration and conversation.

The game is atmospheric and beautiful to look at, and that’s not something to dismiss either. Those factors really do add something special to a game.

And here’s the thing. I fell in love. It was such a compelling story. And the characters felt so real. I found myself deeply engrossed in the mystery and unable to stop. I found myself deeply emotionally invested in the characters and I truly cared about them. They were relatable human beings. And I loved Delilah. She was the light in the dark. The beacon in the middle of the loneliness. My lighthouse; my watchtower. Quippy, caring, flawed, human. I shared my troubles with her, and she listened.

Early on in the game, one of the conversation responses caused Henry to say something that annoyed Delilah and kinda offend her a little. I had accidentally overheard a phone conversation she was having (she left her walkie-talkie button depressed) and it sounded like kinda maybe she had been talking about me? So I asked her, were you talking about me? She was confused and surprised at the accusation and no, it had just been a conversation about work, and besides, was that really any of my business?

So the good mood killed, she stepped out for a while and I couldn’t talk to her anymore on the walkie-talkie. ‘Cause she was annoyed and didn’t feel like talking. And the thing is– I felt so bad. Like, I really felt sorry and wanted to apologize and felt I’d been a bad person for accusing her of that, and I wanted her to like me. And I didn’t want to be left alone. It was hauntingly quiet, unlike the rest of the game, when Delilah wasn’t there for company. I think this plot point was especially effective because it was in the middle of what had been at that point the deepest conversation we’d had so far, and we had been really bonding and sharing. But now I’d screwed it up.

Eventually Delilah forgave us for our rude question. And I cannot tell you how much of a relief it was. Heck, I thought I’d lost my chance and it would never be brought up again and I’d never have a chance to apologize, but she brought it up later. (She actually apologized for being so snappish over it, and said she knew what it was like to get too lost in your own head out there and start imagining things.) I felt so much better knowing we were cool again. It was that delicate part of a budding new friendship, you know, and I didn’t wanna mess it up. I really commend the game for including the callbacks to previous conversations. It enhanced the feeling of history between us and internal consistency throughout the story.

There have been many people online complaining about the way the game ultimately ended. In my humble opinion, those people are missing the point of the game. Indeed, with games like these, that have a somewhat open-ended conclusion (and there’s plenty of stories that fall into that category), how you interpret the ending and its meaning says a lot about the person who played the game. The whole point of an open-ended conclusion is for a person to think and draw conclusions, after all, but many people seem to fail to realize this.

One game that comes to mind is ‘Presentable Liberty,’ a game that you spend in a prison cell for the vast majority of the time, reading letters that are delivered to you. It had a very open-ended and nebulous ending. But that game made so many people think, and I think Firewatch makes you think a lot too.

I won’t lie, of course; I do somewhat understand where the critics are coming from. In some ways the ending did feel anti-climactic to me. It felt like it was possibly building up to something and that payoff never came. Yet … that experience in and of itself was fascinating to me.

Let me explain in detail. First of all, I reached the conclusion of the mystery plot. Plenty of people bitched about this online as well, but I loved the way it concluded. The plot was suggesting a very exciting but rather typical video-game story where a government conspiracy was uncovered that was studying human subjects (perhaps a psychological study of the effects of isolation in people), and Henry and Delilah were the subjects in these nefarious privacy-violating experiments. However, this “plot twist” of a secret government study ended up being a false twist. Instead, the story ended up in a less typical direction. As it turned out, the group of mysterious people behind all the spooky hijinks wasn’t that at all … it was one man. One lonely, desperate man living as a hermit with a tragic, awful secret he was hiding about an accident during his job as a fire watch. It was our fears and paranoia that had conjured up this imaginary, yet very real-feeling plot of conspiracy and subterfuge.

And I loved that. I loved that it was something driven by a simple lone man who was guilty and afraid. I loved that was the explanation, that it was something so prosaic rather than fantastic and fanciful. Like the best horror stories are about man as being the worst monster instead of werewolves and vampires, this showed the best mysteries were about human loneliness and desperation and guilt rather than complex conspiracies or extraordinary mojo. Indeed, you felt bad for the man who had been unintentionally tormenting us this whole time.*

After this conclusion to the mystery plot, hot on its heels– literally, because you were being chased by the spreading wildfire– was the conclusion of the Henry/Delilah plot. I was rushing out of there to rendezvous with a rescue helicopter so I could escape my post before fire consumed everything. They landed near Delilah’s watchtower, before I had made it to the rendezvous point– I’d been busy tracking down the ending to the mystery. She told me the helicopters would make another pass for when I got there, but … she might just leave now since the current copter was there.

“Wait for me,” I said into our walkie-talkie. I wanted to leave with her. Together. She was very reluctant when I begged this of her. But she finally relented that ok, ok, she’ll wait. I hollered I was on my way. I rushed as fast as I could.

I finally reached the spot– it was Delilah’s watch tower. The point in the distance I had always gazed upon but never had been to until now. But something didn’t feel right as Delilah was oddly silent on the walkie.

I entered the empty watch tower. I saw a small sign, “Pork Pond” attached to her wall and smiled faintly. I *knew* she had that sign. I put on the radio headset and called.

Delilah answered, in a tone that made it clear she knew I wouldn’t exactly be pleased to be listening to her voice over the radio waves yet again instead of seeing her standing there. She asked me not to be mad.

“I’m not mad, I’m just …”

“Disappointed?”

And yes. I was. That was it exactly.

It hurt. I genuinely felt sad and hurt that Delilah had left without me. It felt like she abandoned me. She stammered about having not want to meet me in the shadow of that poor dead child I had just learned about, but … it still hurt. After all we’d been through the least she could have done was waited. And you’ve no idea how much I had wanted to finally meet Delilah in person, dang.

But I pondered it after, and it made a lot of sense, her actions. She had been afraid to meet me in person, I think. It would have made the whole thing even more real, you know? If it was just over the walkies, fine. But … in person would have made it too real. Delilah was afraid of getting attached. Not just because she had had her heart broken by her long-term boyfriend and was afraid of getting close again to someone, but probably for more practical reasons too. Henry was still married, for Pete’s sake, and in a very complex situation with his sick wife. Any smart girl would want to avoid getting involved with a guy who’s still married. So her early departure and lukewarm response to me asking for her to come with me back to Boulder, well, it made sense.

As much as it had hurt for her to not wait, I understood and forgave her for it. In a way, I suppose, it may have made it easier for us both not to face the anguish of a relationship not working if we never saw each other in person to begin with. But … fuck. Had it been me, I would have wanted to see her in person anyway. I would have asked her to wait. At least for a goddamn hug.**

We spoke on the radio as I waited for the helicopter to swing back around to pick me up. We talked about our future plans. We both didn’t know what they would be. Delilah thought I should go back to my wife and do my best to make things right. Somehow.

And it ended once we were pulled into the helicopter.

People online whine that this ending was a 'cop out,’ not a real conclusion. I don’t believe that. I think the entire point was that feeling of uncertainty about the future and that missed chance at getting together with Delilah. Life is uncertain so often. We don’t know how to fix things, what to do, and what things mean. It’s our search for meaning that is so valuable. This game was a reflection of life experiences many can relate to. Not necessarily all the details– a wife that fell ill with premature dementia– but the general themes? Absolutely. This story is about people struggling to cope with loneliness, seeking to connect with others, struggling to deal with hardships in life, seeking purpose and meaning, seeking direction. And it does not provide solid answers at the very end, but that’s OK. It doesn’t have to. It’s OK if the players can provide some of the answers. Sometimes asking the questions is as valuable as providing the answers in a story.

And yeah, sometimes the guy doesn’t ‘get the girl.’ Sometimes relationships don’t work out. (Especially if the guy is still married and needs to deal with some shit before either staying with his wife or breaking up and pursuing something else.) That doesn’t mean our connection with Delilah that summer didn’t have meaning or purpose or value, just that … such things don’t always have a future as a long-term relationship.

I earnestly believe the ending to this game was fine as-is. I might even say it was a perfect ending. Although I admit I desperately wanted to meet Delilah at the very end***, I’m pretty sure my sense of diappointment and feeling of sorrow at not seeing her were kind of exactly the point of the story. All in all, it ended on a tone that was sad and nebulous, but not deeply depressing. There was still a sense of hope about things, and I think that’s important.

(Amusingly, much later I learned there is an option at the very end to NOT enter the rescue helicopter. It leaves without you if you wait long enough, implying suicide of your character Henry. Much darker option than the one I describe above. But again, in stories like these, it depends on player’s reactions, input, and interpretations too, and fortunately most do not have quite that bleak of an interpretation of the tale– and quite that bleak of a choice.)

So many of us sit alone in our own watchtowers, isolated, searching for any meaningful human connection we can come across. I think the themes of connection and isolation were masterfully explored in this game. You really fuckin’ felt it, you know?

And to me, it’s noble. That human beings stand in this intense loneliness but continue that search, and they sometimes find somebody. It may not always end well, but that doesn’t mean you should stop the search and that you won’t find another. Or even rekindle old flames.

Either way, you shouldn’t stop searching the horizon.

————–

Footnotes:

* That’s not to say the dude wasn’t guiltless in his actions. I think it was rather awful of him to just leave his poor kid’s body down in that hole instead of facing up to what had happened, going home, letting people and loved ones know what went on, etc. Also pretty stupid of the guy to pressure his son into doing that dangerous rock-climbing when the kid didn’t have the skills. But, ya know, you felt bad for him too.

** I should note, I have no idea if Henry should break up with his wife Julia (& tried things out with Delilah) or not. I had no opinion on it because who knows? Choices like that are friggin’ complex. Seriously.

*** And yes, I realize the game never had a model for her character anyway, so from a technical standpoint it would have been impossible, but it’s best to use in-story explanations for events, not technical explanations.

[zygzags]

Magic Stuff (basics?)

This post was inspired by my best friend, who wants to get into the Craft, but doesn’t quite know where to start, or what’s what quite yet. So, with no further ado, here’s how to get into witchcraft, even if you only have a barebones basics idea of what witchcraft even is.

EDIT: I originally posted this when I was @everywitchway, but since I deleted everything from that blog and started fresh, I’m re-releasing stuff off of my old digital grimoire I wrote for tumblr. Please don’t repost. Only I can repost me. XD

Can I be a witch?You may be thinking that witches are old white ladies with black cats and pointy hats, but really, anyone can be a witch. As long as you want to be a witch, and you incorporate some level of magic into your life, congrats, you’re a witch! You officially have permission from someone (though of course I’m no authority, I’m just some random on the internet). Some may say you have to be initiated by another witch or by a coven to call yourself a witch, but those folks are going off of the ideas and rules of their own specific practice. They can’t say you can’t be a witch by their rules, because you don’t have to follow their rules. If they refuse to see you as a witch, then that sucks, but they aren’t the boss of you, and you can identify as a witch if you dang well please.

You don’t have to be any specific race, religion, gender, sexuality, or other label to practice witchcraft. Some say you have to be a woman, but witches of all genders are present in the community! Some say you have to be straight, but witches of all sexualities are everywhere! Some say you have to be a specific race, but witches have existed in every corner of the world and every shade of skin for as long as humanity has known how to think about how things work. Some say you have to be Wiccan or Satanic, and both of those religions are valid, but not required! Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, and other witches are totally a thing!

This also means that jerks can be witches, though. Racists, sexists, and more can and do exist in witchcraft communities. This sucks, but all you can do is vow to do your best to be the best version of yourself. They are, unfortunately, allowed to be witches too.

How does MAGIC even work?

There are so, so many theories on how magic works, and you can subscribe to any one of them, multiple, or none! You can totally make your own theories and ideas. The most popular ones include...

PLACEBO THEORY: The idea that magic works only because we’ve tricked our brains and bodies into thinking it does. Magic, in this case, is the “sugar pill”. If you’re confused, do a quick google, and learn about the placebo theory in medicine.

ENERGY THEORY: The idea that energy flows and exists everywhere, and can be manipulated by a practitioner to create a change in perceived reality.

DEITY THEORY: The idea that a practitioner can get in good standing with a deity, and use that gained favor for help when they need it. Deities aren’t spell ingredients, and shouldn’t just be USED, but some practitioners believe that their magic works because a deity sees fit to MAKE it work.

QUANTUM THEORY: The idea that a practitioner can manipulate the tiniest bits of matter through magic, to create a change in perceived reality.

UNIVERSE THEORY: The idea that a practitioner is part of the universe, and that if they push hard enough with their will, they may be able to have an effect on the universe as a whole. Think... an ant in a bubble. If that ant tries hard, the bubble may move the way it’s trying to steer it.

PERSONAL THEORY: The idea that a practitioner can use their actual personal soul/energy to manipulate perceived reality.

ECLECTIC THEORY: Multiple of the above, or other theories!

Okay, cool. What do witches even do?

Witches do so, so many things. The only things that seem truly universal are spells. All witches, generally, do SOME sort of spellwork. This can be as small as making a wish when you blow out your birthday candles, or as big as a fancy ritual on the blue moon. You can still identify as a witch, even if you haven’t done a “proper” spell yet, because magic is everywhere, and you’ve already likely done some degree of magic without even realizing.

Where do I start?

GET A GRIMOIRE. A grimoire, book of shadows, or magical journal is the first and most important step in your journey. I’d recommend sticking to a plain old spiral notebook, or filler paper in a binder at first. If you’re like me, you’ll likely jump notebooks and get new journals, and if you have a really nice, fancy notebook, or are going for an aesthetic, it can be really hard to actually DO anything in it. Don’t be like me and immediately buy a hundred dollar Italian leather embossed grimoire on day one. Your grimoire should be usable without fear of messing up. Digital Grimoires are also totally valid, and a word/google document or an evernote/OneNote notebook are perfectly useable. I personally have like... a bajillion physical grimoires AND digital ones going. Don’t worry too much about it, just have a way to keep track of what you’re learning.

RESEARCH: Research the moon, research the stars, research the sun, research herbs, research crystals, research anything you can. Don’t use tumblr as your only source, and take EVERYTHING you read with a piece of salt. Even what you find in published books by big names can be riddled with misinformation and cultural appropriation. Try to find reputable sources (Google scholar is A+), and compare what everyone says. If only one person says it, maybe it’s what that one person thinks. If a BUNCH of reputable people say it, it’s more likely to be true. The first thing you should do beyond (and maybe during) your research phase is.....

PROTECT YO SELF. Some magic can be dangerous, especially if you’re working with spirits or entities you can’t see from the get-go. Learn at least one or two methods of banishing, one or two methods of cleansing, one or two ways of warding, and maybe what sorts of things repel bad energy and malicious entities. If you’re not working with entities at all yet, don’t worry overmuch, but it can be nice to have ways to keep bad vibes away, or protect yourself from other witches. Jerks do exist in the community, and witches have been known to curse one another. It’s fairly rare, if I’m being real, but it’s still some good stuff to know.

HOW DO SPELLS WORK? Look into the parts of a spell, the structure of it. Maybe learn about how to cast circles, if that sounds like your kind of thing. If you want to work with elements, learn to call the elements. Look into what you feel you’ll actually want to use in a spell, and write it down! All in all, most spells involve some sort of hyping-up of energy, building and directing it towards an intent, and releasing the energy to do what you want it to do. This is, of course, just one way a spell works, and there are plenty of other ways.

CORRESPONDENCES? Oh yeah. They tend to be made out to be a major big huge deal in the community. “What’s ___ good for?” Is a common question. However, a better place to start may be “What’s good for ___?” Make a list of things you may want to do with magic, and then see if anything you have on hand has a correspondence that fits. If you can find something that works, great, write it down, and use it in that spell. I personally used incense, salt, a candle, and a water bottle in my first spell, and it went perfectly fine.

OTHER STUFF is cool too. Once you get past the things above, you can start getting deeper in. Sigils are cool, and so is divination. You can get further into spells, or focus in on herbal and crystal healing, or check out astrology. You can learn to meditate and then to astral travel, or you can try your hand at enchanting objects. All in all, your path is yours, and you can do so, so much with it.

Things to watch out for:

CULTURAL APPROPRIATION: No, you’re not “smudging” when you wave around burning sage to cleanse. You’re smoke cleansing. Smudging has more to it than just smoke, and is a Native American thing. If you’ve not learned how to properly smudge from someone in a native religion, you shouldn’t be using the term. This is just one example of culural appropriation, but honestly, the problem exists in every single culture. Some other things you shouldn’t be using without checking in with an existing member of that culture/religion include: voodoo/hoodoo, Kabbalah/Qaballah, chakras, dreamcathers, karma, the third eye, spirit animals, etc. All in all, if you’re not sure, ASK. And if you’re asked by a member of another culture/religion to stop doing something because it’s offensive or appropriative, do your best to listen and understand.

GURU’S AND WITCH IDOLS: No one is the witch pope, king/queen, boss, or master. No one knows everything. I’ve been practicing for years, but if a beginner who just started today knew something I didn’t, I wouldn’t be surprised. We’re all still learning. We’re all wrong sometimes. Don’t look up to any witch too much, don’t put any other human on too much of a pedestal. You have power, and you have value, and you are magic. No one saying otherwise has the authority to do so.

BUYING ALL THE THINGS: Again, don’t be like me. It’s incredibly tempting when you first start out to run out and try to buy all the tools, all of them. You’ll want a wand, and an athame, and a fancy chalice, and a deck of cards, and and and.... But you need exactly ZERO of these things to be a witch and do magic. You, on your very own, with nothing else, are magic, and can do magic, and can be a witch. Don’t break the bank on your first day. Take your time, and when you’re financially able and something calls to you, you’ll know you’re ready to make that tool yours.

D-D-D-DISCOURSE: On social media especially, someone’s always bickering with someone about something. Witchblr is a wonderful resource, but take EVERYTHING you read, even this, with a grain (or large chunk) of salt. No one is the witch authority. No one is always right. No one knows everything. Everyone’s wrong sometimes. Be careful who you trust, and even more careful who you decide to make an enemy. It’s easy to be angry, take the challenge and try to keep the peace.

[ngame989]

Earning the Happily Ever After: Star’s Season 4 Arc Prediction (with a primer analysis for Seasons 1-3)

Time to break in my blog with my very own speculation post. This is going to be a very general but also very far-reaching take on the final arc of the show for Star, based on what I know about the show thus far and the tiny bit of detail we got at SDCC. I’ll be doing overviews on Star’s arcs and how the show always ties in the personal growth she’s undergoing to her relationship with the kingdom and her relationship with Marco. Finally I’ll try to piece together how things, on a broader level, might go down for our rebel princess and karate boy in what is almost certainly the last 21 episodes of the show.

The bulk of this post breaks down the past 3 seasons. There will almost certainly be redundancy with other posts people have written for Tumblr or elsewhere, and I don’t claim any of it is brand new information. I still do hope you give it a chance as it ties everything together in a way geared towards providing context for my Season 4 assertions, but if you are so inclined to skip ahead, simply search for “Season 4” and jump to the next instance after this paragraph (or even “TL;DR” for the fully abbreviated experience). There will be a recap of the critical context included.

Long post after the break!

So let’s begin breaking down Star’s primary arc season by season. Obviously character growth is fluid and you can’t pin down individual moments as the moment a character flaw was “fixed,” but there’s still some discernible changes to extract here. Each season’s title is her major obstacle during the season and the aspect of maturity she gains as a result of her growth.

Season 1 – Innocence/Awareness

Star’s defining trait of season 1 was being carefree to a fault. She uses her magic for whimsy and doesn’t really heed the consequences. It was the reason she was sent to Earth, after all!

Similarly, her initial crush on Earth is based entirely on literal flights of fancy.

As the season goes on, Star gets her first tastes of the seriousness of the real world and culminates in her first major confrontation with it. It’s almost poetic that Blood Moon Ball, where Star and Marco’s relationship gets the first real hit of emotional depth, is paired with the segment which introduces us to the first serious threat in Star’s life.

(see this is why I need new copies of the episodes smh goshdang subtitle typos)

She’s still not the most mature about it and is still scared to death or outright ignorant of the complexities in the world for a while,

but still makes some initial steps forward in her character.

The season concludes with Storm the Castle, a turning point where she has to tackle a major decision with serious consequences head-on. Is it any surprise that this involves both her relationship to the kingdom and Marco? By this point I should hope it isn’t.

Season 2 – Avoidance/Determination

So after Storm the Castle, Star had passed a point of no return. She was officially aware that the world is a complex place, that it’s not always going to be fun and games and rainbows and unicorns. Most of this season is about Star realizing that she can’t just sweep them under the rug and hope everything gets better on its own.

The season opens with both the results of plot seriousness and relationship seriousness affecting Star’s life, because of course it does.

Fetch, an episode most notable for appearing in lists of reasons why people don’t like season 2A, actually delivers one of the most direct character arc expositions in the show.

Let’s throw in By the Book, a segment entirely focused on her desire to just brush off magic training, just for fun.

And Sleepover is where it first becomes painfully obvious that she has romantic feelings for Marco,

but it’s clear from her diary in My New Wand (and especially now that the SDCC panel blessed us with the full “My Thoughts on Marco” chapter) that she’s been lingering on them and trying to avoid them since the beginning of the season, just like her other problems.

Star’s denial ran deeper than the actual Nile. Moving on.

Then we have Bonbon. Hey, what do you know? A pivotal episode in Star’s character growth which includes and connects both her relationship to plot and her relationship with Marco!

“I lost everything.” …mere minutes after feeling like she was losing Marco. Hell, even seconds if you count the moment he and Jackie had right after the green vortex closed.  Clearly the line is consciously about her book and mentor, which are very important to her, but obvious subtext is obvious.

There aren’t really any major turning points during season 2B until the finale. In Face the Music, Star uses Song Day to open up to the world because she knows hiding things for too long isn’t right, which (with a bit of “help” from Fallout Boy) spurs her to apply that to her love life in Starcrushed. Star exposing her bottled-up princess secrets to the world and her bottled-up feelings to Marco both happening in a finale? Egad, I dare say this seems to be a pattern! Let’s pretend like this is surprising.

Battle for Mewni is a bit of an edge case, as it is sort of separate from the Season 2 arcs while also being the resolution to them. Suffice to say that while the “official” character arc in Season 2 of hiding or running from her problems was “solved” within the official boundaries of Season 2, it took BFM to have her actually tackle the immediate danger posed by it.

And she’s fully owning up to her feelings for Marco to boot.

Season 3 – Idealistic Hastiness/Wisdom

I struggled more coming up with a single term to best address my take on this season’s arc, especially because it seems (to me, at least) that Star’s plot arc this season is split a bit more heavily by midseason than in Season 2. To elaborate on my choice of “Idealistic Hastiness”, I’m referring to her finding problems that she needs to solve and taking what seems like an easy solution – unlike in Season 2, when she may have tried to apply bandaids to cover up the problems, in Season 3 she is genuinely interested in solving them but jumps the gun and struggles with what seems like the “easy/obvious/right thing to do” not actually working.

I may abbreviate some details here, since I already helped Seddm construct the post to end all posts about this particular season, so please consult that for any further examples and supporting evidence about the meanings of Star’s words and actions especially in the relationship arc.

(It seems my subtitles are broken for most of Season 3 so I’m adding manual captions sorry if they look different or bad)

As the main part of Season 3 opens, we have Star identifying problems in her life and wanting solutions to them. In the case of Marco, it’s her unrequited feelings driving her insane.

In the case of the plot, it’s initially a vague desire to “be a better princess” which later takes a few coherent forms.

And Star isn’t totally clueless about her relationships, she knows she needs support and that her life is too chaotic to throw herself into a committed romance.

But the heart is a tricky thing, and a genuine emotional connection with someone she has some attraction to (plus a lingering heartache from Marco) leads to a romantic relationship with Tom. Suffice to say, that turns out to have the exact problem Star herself prophesied! She largely ignores Tom and isn’t willing to commit to their relationship (for a host of reasons, most of which involve Marco). And Tom isn’t a stellar supportive boyfriend either, but this post isn’t about that. Simply put, the emotional connection between them over their mutual struggles to improve is real, but it’s gone about in a very suboptimal way that they think is the correct one – Idealistic Hastiness at work.

For Marco, a similar dissonance between what she says and what happens are two different things. Lint Catcher has the wedding squire vows, in which Star basically outlines the importance Marco has in her life in a flashy ceremonial manner

followed by a nearly immediate 180 in Trial by Squire.

She did, to some degree, believe that the current situation was ideal, with Tom as her boyfriend going through a similar phase of self-improvement while Marco was still her very close friend to hang out with and help her. As everyone knows, Star ends up turning to Marco for virtually anything except for handholding and smooches from now until the end of the season, because of that dang ole’ rushed solution to her problems that didn’t really match what she wanted or needed.

Star knows she wants to help Mewni, but decides that the best way to go about it is throwing herself into a “princess” mold. Star knows she wants Marco by her side, but decides the best way to go about it is throwing him into a “squire” box. 

Interesting.

Now on to the plot side of things: we’ve got a lot going on here, so I’ll be briefer with each section, since none of them are all that subtle. Her encounter with Eclipsa in Stranger Danger is the first attempt at “being a better princess,” when she seeks to right the kingdom’s unfair treatment of Eclipsa. Her approach is respectably even-handed too, since she maintains a healthy skepticism of Eclipsa’s motives and isn’t jumping the gun too much.

There’s also the curious case of the sleeping portals. Once again, Star confronts the problem, but taking Eclipsa’s advice to just let herself go and see what happens almost gets her hunted down by Hekapoo. It takes Marco’s secret assistance in Night Life and their final expedition in Deep Dive to stop the portaling. The Realm of Magic is a whole separate issue, one which the show hasn’t fully covered, so I can’t clearly say she “solved” that. But the immediate problem at hand was actually more or less solved for real, so this is sort of a sped-up microcosm of Star’s character arc.

You all deserve a breather, so have a wholesome bug hug.

And finally, we have the issue of monster rights. This kickstarts in Starfari where Star explores the injustices against monsterkind on Mewni: Moon is unhelpful, Jelly Goodwell is a nutjob, and Star’s takeaway from it is to appoint Buff Frog to an ambassador role of sorts. A noble and well-intentioned idea with some actual thought put into it, but one which doesn’t really address the roots of the issue (as we’ll see when it eventually fails in Is Another Mystery).

Monster Bash (and the treaty in Death Peck) are similar cases where Star thinks that channeling her passion and drive will make everything work, but it doesn’t – hard work and idealism aren’t always enough to get the job done, and can’t quite combat centuries of ingrained prejudices.

This is sort of a turning point where all her rushjobs start to collapse on her head. If you somehow don’t believe me that this is the crux of all of her problems now, let the show itself tell you even more directly than in Fetch.

She finds out the injustice against Eclipsa is so much bigger than she could have imagined, Buff Frog leaves Mewni, Booth Buddies floors her with the revelation that their friendship/princess-squire relationship isn���t perfect like she thought it was, and she even finds out her birthright to the throne isn’t even legitimate! And in each and every case her next step is to say, essentially, “Well clearly my initial, rushed approach didn’t work. What now?” And that question doesn’t get thoroughly answered within season 3 in every case, but we can identify some key progress made.

Monster rights is one where not much happens, but we get a hint in Is Another Mystery about it becoming more relevant in the future. She’s learned her lesson with rushing in this specific case already, so Star should have a better head on her shoulders to try and make things right in the future.

Marco makes his return in Divide after being mildly absent to make way for the 20 billion other things crammed into 3B. Although stuff like Moon going missing has kept Star from dwelling on her feelings for Marco or Tom, she’s wearing her heart on her cheeks (in a different way than usual)

…and again in Conquer, where those feelings manifest as soul-crushing despair with his balloonifying (much like that which Star was feeling with monster rights, with her mom being gone, and with Meteora) and sheer joy when he returns.

It’s clear that her feelings for Marco are back in full, without any trepidation, and the only thing she needs is a moment to think about it when her or her loved ones’ lives aren’t in imminent danger.

At the tail end of Conquer, the whole issue with Eclipsa and her lineage comes to a head when she gives up the wand. Star sees herself as finally righting the wrong of how Eclipsa was treated – while it’s not entirely certain, however, it seems like she only really thinks she’s giving up the wand.

Eclipsa getting her daughter back and going to find her husband came as a surprise with potentially ominous consequences. And that’s where Star ends the season.

I’ll save the recap for those who opted to skip this whole shebang. So with that, let’s jump into the final section.

Season 4 – Inexperience/Efficacy and Stability

Hello everyone just joining us from your app or browser’s “find in page” option, welcome to this post. You missed a bug hug, shame on you. I’m opening this with a recap of Star’s character at the end of season 3:

She has failed at bringing monster equality to Mewni, but understands the flaws in her efforts before and should have a much better mindset to bring about the proper change. Her feelings for Marco are 100% back and stronger than ever, simply awaiting a calm moment to reflect on them, and she rectified the injustice of the throne by giving up the wand to Eclipsa (with foreboding implications).

This was all the info we had until a certain SDCC clip from season 4 was revealed just a few days ago. I’ll be truly brazen for the first time in this post and unshackle myself from the hilariously short chain binding my analysis to already-aired canon. I believe this two minute clip gives us most of the information we need to predict Star’s broad character arc for the rest of the show, and this is my explanation and attempt at justification for my theory. 

Clearly there’s a ton of context we don’t have yet, but there is some concrete information present in the clip. Moon is still missing, which is expected and obviously a very important plot point but not directly tied in to Star’s individual character arc (that we know of). Eclipsa being queen, on the other hand, is massive. We don’t exactly know the details, but one way or another, this prison torturer and his prisoner both accept that their ruler is Eclipsa right now. Star is still called a princess by the torturer, so it doesn’t necessarily seem like she’s been disowned, but she’s not actively in charge. And while many people thought Star would be queen for a large part of the season (myself included), it potentially makes a lot more sense for her own personal growth that she isn’t.

All three past seasons, and her three arcs have essentially been Star maturing on her path to being ready for the throne. Star’s far from perfect, but the fundamental flaws in her attitude about her role have mostly been covered. She knows what the problems are, is genuinely dedicated to fixing them, and has (or is prepared to have) a healthier and more patient mindset in tackling them now. If she became Queen… what exactly would there be left? SVTFOE is a heavily character-driven show, where plot doesn’t just drop from the sky and push the characters around and arbitrarily force character growth. The wand cleaving, Toffee/Ludo taking power in BFM, and Eclipsa getting the wand (and likely the throne) are all consequences, in large part, of Star’s actions.

If even a wandless Star was put in power, there’s nothing that stands out about her mindset that would lend itself to a season’s worth of impeding monster equality. If Star had the awareness, determination, wisdom, and efficacy to achieve her goals, the only things stopping her from “ruling Mewni her way” would be the passage of time, bureaucratic red tape, or enemies appearing out of thin air - none of which fit the show’s focus on character-driven plot. Even when she was the recognized legitimate princess trying to change the system from inside, it wasn’t all that effective, so one could argue she never really had the power to enact lasting change anyway.

(As a slight aside, Eclipsa being in power presents a lot of cool opportunities for Star and for the show – Eclipsa spent most of the season as a sketchy character, but one who was consistently pitted against the obviously unfair “system”. Neither the audience nor Star has actually gotten to see her in a vacuum, and a lot of neat plotlines could happen off of that.)

Technically we haven’t seen it in action yet in season 4, but even when Eclipsa officially gets the throne, I should hope it’s fairly obvious that Star is still going to want to act for the betterment of Mewni. Is Another Mystery and Conquer had strong moments of Star asserting her desire to protect monster rights and the people of Mewni in general, despite her already knowing she wasn’t a blood relative of the original Butterflies. So essentially, when the labels defining Star’s role on Mewni are broken down, she still takes all of this on as a personal choice, because it’s what her heart is telling her is right. Remember that last sentence.

I can’t call anything about specifics, but my conclusion here is that Star’s character arc for the final season is essentially using all of the growth she’s had thus far to rise up to the challenge and truly earn her destiny (figuratively and now quite literally). Plot would be much less driven by Star consistently screwing up on a fundamental level, and more about tackling the remaining consequences of her past screwups and learning through experience how to truly “rule Mewni her own way”. Just because I say she has largely matured doesn’t mean she’s perfect - simply having the maturity required for a good ruler doesn’t automatically qualify Star as a “finished” character, because her endgame as Queen must have some authority and permanence to it. Even if Star was in power now, we’d need to see her maturity actually take effect to confirm when the curtains close on this show forever that a “happily ever after” is in place (and having her not in power, at least temporarily, gives way more weight to the consequences of Star’s past actions and allows for more conflict). And if she’s constantly making things worse via her own personal flaws until episode 18, there’s no way she can actually achieve that happy ending.

If you know anything about me by now, you should know what topic is coming next. As I hopefully have established about 66.7 times throughout this piece, Star’s character arc always applies across all of her relationships and interactions in sync, so how does Marco fit in? Star has essentially gained all the internal maturity needed to start the process of becoming an effective ruler. At the same time, she’s essentially gained all the understanding of her own feelings, gone through ups and downs and knows in her heart that Marco is the one she wants as a partner in life and in love. I said above that all she needs is a moment to contemplate it to become fully conscious of her feelings (which would then result very quickly in the Tomstar breakup and a Starco talk). And guess what?

It’s already almost certain that the clip is from very early in the season (otherwise it’d spoil too much context) but there’s even some possible evidence it’s from the first episode of the season. Couple that with the previous importance of the Beach Day photo and you have a recipe for Star’s full realization happening very early on.(Additionally – and this is just my own pure speculation, so take it with a grain of salt – while we can’t say for sure the SDCC clip is from the beginning of a segment, we can also almost guarantee it’s not at the end of it from the general context of the clip. And it would be highly uncharacteristic for the show to linger on an important moment/symbol earlier on in a segment without having that be relevant to the segment itself, which gives me strong impressions that this segment may actually be where something important happens for Starco.)

Need more evidence stacked up for the immediate future of Starco? Like I said earlier, Star’s attachment to the “princess” label as a genuine attempt to help Mewni mirrors her attachment to Marco’s “squire” label as a genuine attempt to have him as a life partner. And that princess label got broken down, but she still did - and will almost certainly continue to - fight for bettering the kingdom. Is it so wrong to guess that, since the “squire” label (and even, to an extent, the entire concept of their relationship as purely platonic) clearly were nuked immediately following the kiss, Star will similarly open the season accepting Marco fully as her life partner without restraint? I don’t think it is, and therefore will claim that Star and Marco will start the season accepting their romantic feelings for each other (and the change in their relationship as a result) just as Star is doing for her role in the kingdom. Maybe they don’t call it “dating” until a handful of episodes later, but any hesitancy in figuring out and tackling the fact that she loves Marco for more than an individual segment focused on it would betray all the growth she’s gone through, just like being hesitant to continue striving to help Mewni would betray her growth. When the labels defining Star’s role on Mewni relationship with Marco are broken down, she still takes all of this on as a personal choice, because it’s what her heart is telling her is right.

Jumping to the endgame now - just like that maturity isn’t enough for Star’s queenly endgame, this isn’t enough for Starco’s endgame either. Star’s almost certain future as Queen of Mewni is a serious thing, and a serious commitment for Marco to make even if they have feelings for each other/are dating. Once again, a mirror to her princess arc can be found – if they keep screwing stuff up in the fundamental nature of relationship with their own flaws and doubts, there’s no way to dig out of that hole cleanly for that happy ending, so it’s gotta start sooner rather than later. Plus we already know that Marco’s arc is essentially coming out of his shell and finding his place in life (read the Seddm masterpost for way more in-depth info on that), so it’s apparent that a rock-solid endgame for Starco requires clarity that the two of them are prepared for everything a permanent romantic relationship means. In essence, we need to see the growth that lead to their mutual feelings applied practically, just like we need to see that for Star’s role within Mewni.

TL;DR Star’s season 4 arc will focus on applying her awareness, determination, and wisdom gained from the past 3 seasons to tackle the consequences of her past decisions, starting from a point of making the personal choice to embrace both her desire to help Mewni and her love for Marco, and through this she will both earn her place as permanent and effective ruler of Mewni, and develop her relationship with Marco into one that will confidently last forever. She’s gonna damn well earn that happily ever after.

There’s certainly a level of speculation to all of this, of course, but I have confidence in the requirements for endgame, so the general path seems clear enough to me. Naysayers on any side of the shipping war make claims that Star and Marco won’t get together for a long time, that the feelings are still uncertain, maybe that they’re not even endgame at all. If you’re a Starco fan that thinks this, then it’s likely that the whiplash of 3A was like a bad breakup that makes you never want to date again. I feel you, I really do, but it had its purpose. Don’t get yourself down that Starco is all a bait just because it didn’t happen one particular time that Star said Marco looked cute. As for anyone else, first off, thanks for sticking around this far! I honestly didn’t expect that! This post doesn’t attempt to shoulder the ambitious burden of convincing you why Starco is good on a philosophical level (my brutally honest response is “fix your eyeballs and earholes and watch the fucking show”), but at the very least I hoped I’ve made a strong claim for all of the connections in the past three seasons and how it will tie together in the fourth and final season of this show.

[murfeelee]

♡ Simblr Questions ♡

I saw these questions reblogged here, and I’m killing time again, so....

1) Which is your favorite Sims Expansion?

TS1: Makin Magic | TS2: Apartment Life & Night Life | TS3: Supernatural

2) How long have you been playing sims?

19 effing years. *pours another shot of Pepsi*

3) Do you have any favorite simblrs?

One of the very first simblrs I ever followed was Kosmokhaos. They’ve been wowing me since their days at Cstyles, and I’ve been in love with their style & creativity. So. Yeah.

4) How would you describe your gameplay?

Derivative and sporadic. I'm almost always inspired by fandoms -- shows I watch, other games I play, and things I’ve read. I bounce around regularly, and my gameplay reflects that -- one week I’m doing this, and the next week I’m doing that. I might not return to something for months or even years. Who knows. Welcome to my crazy.

5) What made you want to create a simblr?

I was lurking Momosims’ blog for CC, and TSR was getting on my nerves. So I killed 2 birds with 1 stone -- I was able to follow Momo, and post my CC conversions without needing to follow some other site’s rules and whatnot.

6) What is your favorite Sim age?

Young adult, of course. The Sims is just not optimized for the younger & older ages, despite there being an entire expansion pack dedicated to them. It’s ridiculous.

7) Do you use cheats when you play Sims?

8) What is your favorite thing about the Sims?

I was drawn to The Sims 1 because I love interior decorating, and when I was younger I was obsessed with architecture & design. My favorite part of simming is building lots. I only create CC cuz I’m often frustrated by the lack of objects I want to see in my sims’ homes. And I effing HATE making CC.

9) What is your least favorite thing about the Sims?

I'm strongly influenced by fanciful genres, so I am most interested in things from different time periods, cultures, religions, etc. And that’s like the least represented theme in the community. I wish more simmers would get into fanciful gameplay, particularly more content creators. The more simmers who play that way, the more we can influence EA to stop making boring AF packs about the same ole boring generic predictable stuff.

10) What expansion pack are you hoping for next?

The first TS4 EP to even marginally interest me was Seasons, cuz they added more holiday stuff than TS3 did. And they had that Day of the Dead patch, which was COOL. I hope they’ll keep including more holidays and festivals like that - give the Sims some multiculturalism, EA, dang. This franchise is so Westerncentic Californiacentric it makes me wanna puke.

City Living is a step in the right direction - I love the boho Asian-ish thing they added -- too bad it was in a weak AF half-baked EP where the “city” was just distant terrain. It’s mess like that that makes me nervous to even ask for a more fanciful EP like Medieval times or Steampunk, cuz the game engine's so dang limited. There's no horses, cars, or any transportation -- so how can we have knights? Or a live-in dirigible? Or dragon riders? How can we have mermaids or Pirates of the Caribbean or Chinese junk ships when sims can’t even swim in the frikkin ocean? Expand on THAT, EA. Ugh!

11) Do you like to play the Sims in the morning or at night?

Whenever I have free time.

12) Do you have a aesthetic for your Sims?

It depends on the gameplay. I TRY not to make my sims look too pudding, but I don't use reshade and HQ mods and any of that fanciness, so.... :\

13) What are your favorite Sim names?

14) What is your favorite Sim Career?

The Ghost Hunter from AMB, and the Magician from SHT.

15) What is your favorite Sim World?

Shang Simla, as always~!

It’s just so effing gorgeous -- the misty mountains and the DRAGON cave and the colors and the culture and the foliage and just everything about it. World Adventures was freaking awesome.

16) Do you prefer small or large Sim houses?

Larger houses tend to not have as many routing issues, plus you can add more clutter in them! I’m a cc-holic, okay.

17) Do you prefer more modern or traditional Sim houses?

Traditional. Which is ironic, cuz one of my 2 main gameplays is my Nagron couple, and they live in a modern home in freaking Starlit Shores. :P

But I chose that cuz this is how I play TS3 the “straight” way (LOL!) -- I took my Spartacus sims out of their original medieval-ish save, and integrated them into a modern AU. So the fun for me is how I imagine these 73 BC characters would live in today‘s time. (Which is why I use Nagron for all the OC prompts & questionnaires I do, too).

18) What is your favorite Sims Challenge / Prompt?

The Simblreen photo challenge -- I always look forward to seeing what simmers come up with; Simblr turns into Halloween Town, and I love it.

19) What Sim emotion would you most often be?

Asleep.

20) What is your favorite skill to level up?

Spellcasting.

21) Describe your favorite Sim.

I’ll just direct y’all to my Nagron Page, cuz I describe Nasir all the time. :P

22) What kind of computer do you play Sims on?

As of Nov 2017, a Windows 10 Dell laptop. Before that I was on a HP Vista laptop, which I sorely miss.

23) Do you use Mods in your game?

YES

24) How many hours of Sims do you think you have played?

Thousands. Mostly spent in Build/Buy mode. :P

25) What are you planning to do next in the Sims?

I have some conversions I’m working on, a few requests I took, some lots I want to get started on, some gameplay pics I need to finish, and just a bunch of simming!

I’m just so tired & low energy right now. But this is my last couple of months of free time I’ll have before I go to grad school in the fall, so I want to get as much done as possible. *sigh* I’m stressed.

I tag everyone!

[thevintagebluebird]

Unpinned - Winter Squash and Wild Mushroom Curry

Tumblr tells me it’s been six months since my last post. That seems pretty on-brand for me and this blog. Valentine’s day is coming up, and I could offer you all flowers, chocolates, and promises I don’t intend to keep: or I can just try to cook new recipes and take photos of them more often. 

Let’s see, what’s new...well, we left the nightmare world of 2020 behind and are now firmly in the nightmare world of 2021. Still in lockdown. Still hanging out on Zoom. Oh! But the fella and I did the unthinkable: we MOVED! Yes, after eight long happy years together in a two-room apartment, the pandemic finally broke us. Working from home gets really cramped when you can’t walk behind your partner’s conference call to get to the bathroom. With everyone fleeing the cities for the space of the suburbs, apartment rents in our little commuter city plummeted! So we finally, FINALLY found our unicorn apartment. Same city, same rent, AND THREE BEDROOMS BABY. And that means no more plastic blue countertops here! So allow me to present my first vegan recipe AND my first post from the new digs: 

Winter Squash and Wild Mushroom Curry! Straight off the never-fail pages of the New York Times cooking section, I printed this recipe sans images and left it hanging on my fridge for weeks, waiting for the right moment. Apparently at 4:45pm driving home during a snowstorm I realized it was THE right moment, because I stopped at the grocery store, loaded up my cart with a concerning amount of mushrooms, and got to work.

Verdict: Is the Pintrest photo complete bullshit? I need to hit up my local Indian grocery stores because I have no idea where you find a branch of curry leaves in Shaws, but other than that not really!

Is it crazy expensive/time consuming/confusing? No! It came together shockingly fast! The mushrooms can start to add up a bit but 100% worth it.

Does it taste good? So good I’m considering making it again TOMORROW.

Winter Squash and Wild Mushroom Curry

INGREDIENTS

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

10 ounces butternut or other winter squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces

Kosher salt and black pepper

1 or 2 small green chiles, such as jalapeño or serrano

3 medium shallots or 1 small onion, finely diced

½ teaspoon black mustard seeds

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

Handful of fresh or frozen curry leaves (optional)

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Pinch of ground cayenne

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

1 pound mushrooms, preferably a mix of cultivated and wild, trimmed and sliced 1/8-inch thick

¾ cup coconut milk

2 tablespoons lime juice

Cilantro sprigs, for garnish

In a wide skillet, heat oil over medium-high. When hot, add squash cubes in one layer. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 2 minutes, letting cubes brown slightly, then flip and cook for 2 minutes more. Use a slotted spoon to lift squash out, and set aside.

Cut a lengthwise slit in each chile to open it, but leave whole. (This helps the chiles heat the sauce without making it too spicy.)

Add shallots, salt lightly and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds and curry leaves, if using, and let sizzle for 30 seconds, then add garlic, coriander, cayenne, turmeric and chiles. Stir well and cook for 30 seconds more.

Add mushrooms, season with salt and toss to coat. Cook, stirring, until mushrooms begin to soften, about 5 minutes.

Return squash cubes to skillet, stir in coconut milk and bring to a simmer. Lower heat to medium and simmer for another 5 minutes. If mixture looks dry, thin with a little water. Taste and season with salt.

Before serving, stir in lime juice. Transfer to a warm serving dish and garnish with cilantro.

Look at that spread. And LOOK AT THOSE NON-70S-BLUE COUNTERS! I may have gone a tad overboard with the mushrooms but they are nature’s meat, after all.

My sous chef for the evening. Pretty dang excited to marry that cutie in the aftertimes.

Ah yes, my favorite part of any recipe: trying to do shoddy math in my head. It calls for 10oz of butternut squash which, due to packing/shipping small boxes almost every day for the last ten years, I can eyeball fairly well, but this was a 1lb 12oz box. I have no idea why they didn’t pack a pound, a pound and a half, or 2lbs, but there ya go. I hate cutting butternut squash so I really shouldn’t complain.

Stop what you are doing to feed the cat because she is a cruel mistress and demands a sacrifice NOW.

Ask your partner if the 3″ cubes look close enough to 1/2″ cubes and admit that they probably need chopping. Oh well. Chop ‘em.

Does he look fly as hell? Yes. But these are our snazzy utility sunglasses. Not only do they make you the coolest person in any room, they also a) reduce overstimulation in a pounding nightclub b) keep the oils from onions from burning your eyes during chopping c) I guess block the sun sometimes.

Get those now-tiny cubes into a hot pan! Perfect! ...for now. Foreshadowing.

Wash your fungus. Now, I’m not fancy and don’t have wild mushrooms or foraged mushrooms (I haven’t gotten to see my mushroom guy at the Somerville Winter Farmer’s Market in a while). I got some shiitake, baby portabella, and plain ol’ white mushrooms. Store brand baby.

Snazzy sous chef grillin’ the onions.

So it’s about time I admit: I did not have some (read: many) of the spices this recipe called for. I have never seen curry leaves. I don’t know what black mustard seed looks like. I don’t own coriander. We turn into weeping piles of burned sand whenever there’s a pepper in the house. So I did a lot of substitutions: entirely left out the chiles (sorry flavor fans) and skipped step 2, swapped ground cumin for the seeds, used curry powder in place of leaves, and threw in a dash of cardamom instead of coriander (it smelled like something that would be happy in a curry dish plus they’re close alphabetically). I added a good dose of black pepper to make up for the lack of mustard seeds (?!) and, anyway, my meals are often struggle meals. 

Ah yes, the other inevitable moment of the evening: when I realize there’s no way the rest of the ingredients will fit into my pan. Tall Allan to the rescue, pulling down our dutch oven gifted by the lovely Ann and Joe when we helped them move a million years ago! It doesn’t get nearly enough use. Maybe I should store it somewhere I can actually reach.

WHOO NOW TWO DIRTY HAND-WASH-ONLY PANS!

Ok now we’re getting somewhere, starting to smell pretty damn good...

If you are not a cilantro-is-soap person, chop up your fresh leaves. I did splurge on these because I also have salsa and can make next-level nachos next time I need a snack. Or put it in a salad or whatever. Mainly nachos.

This is the moment you realize that despite crafting this blog for a few years and being both a person who cooks food sometimes AND a professional pantry chef in years past, you STILL don’t ever closely read the recipe all the way through first. The curry needs rice. What are you even doing with your life. How could you forget to start the rice. Now everything will be done in minutes and you’re starving and the rice is RAW. Concede defeat, promise to make rice FIRST next time, and pull out some tiny bit of starch: these mini whole grain naan breads. They are my new obsession. They’re $3.50 for four slices but holy heck I love them so much.

Done! The whole thing came together in under a half hour, and looks nice on a plate!

We’re skeptical that sans rice this vegan meal will be filling enough, but moments after this photo was taken and before a single bite was had, our doorbell rang and who was it but THE KENTS with GIRL SCOUT COOKIES!  Delivered to our door in a snow storm no less! Desert safely secured, we sat down to discover our fates: it was GOOD!! Filling! Tasty! 

Final final verdict: I’ve yet to try a NY Times recipe I didn’t end up loving (the one and only salad recipe I have is their orange/radish/pistachio dish I was shown a few years ago - amazing) and this was no exception. We’re trying to eat less meat (and have already virtually cut beef and pork from our normal rotation) so finding easy vegan meals is really exciting. We freakin’ love mushrooms and I can’t wait to make this again. Probably later this week.

[crushinteachers]

TCC BLOG

Hey so hi guys, I’m a brand new TCC blog and I’m excited to share my adventures because I HAVE A LOT of stuff to share about him ohmygod. His name is F. (This is not his actual name, ima just call him F)Here is the story:::

Once upon a time back in Freshman year of high school, I was sitting in my algebra class when this SMOKING hot dude walked into the class and Iwas like??? That’s a student???? what???? no way??? i was shook bc he was soo hot and so young at the same time. My friend told me that I couldn’t get my eyes off of him for like the five minutes when he was in the class. I just laughed and said he was a hot person. Flash foward to the end of my freshman year I kept seeing him in the hall and he always wore really nice clothes and he just looked rlly nice in them.

Okay so this year, I’m in Geometry and I see him go in and out of my class all the dang time and I asked my teacher “whose that” and she laughs and says “he’s an amazing teacher, that’s Mr. F he teaches Advanced Geometry” Soooo im like lowkey sad and shit.

I don’t care about it though, not at the time anyway.

So flash foward to second semester, I get my schedule and I’m IN HIS CLASS, but i forgot about his name so i forgot who he was. I saw my Geometry teacher walking by and i was like “im not in your class anymore :(( I’m in some person named F” and she was ljke “aww but you have an amazing teacher now”

But i didnt know. im only in his class bc he has like one level geometry class

Third period rolls around and I walk up to the room and there he is, tall, dark hair and in thise fancy ass clothes that he always wears and he glances at me and says, “are you so&so” and im just shook and nod.

Apparently he got my name from my old teacher when she said how lovely of a student i was so i was happy.

He starts teaching a lesson and I’m just over there already done with the notes and I was the first to get done with the homework. and he is like standing over me because he was seeing if i was getting the right answers and i was like lowkey nervous but wasnt at rhe same time.

I kept finishing the lesson before he even started it the next day and he told me today, “you can just let me hand you the homework before class so you can do the homework” and i was like “okay thank you”

He kept noticing i was getting 100% on literally everything so he came up to me while everyone left and i was packing up my things while my friend was putting away our calculators and he was like, “why arent you in advanced classes? If you think you aren’t smart enough then get rid of those thoughts because you’re damn smart enough” I was shocked by his words and nodded, “oh my gpa doesnt agree” and that was thaf.

I wanna tell my friend but she would act disgusted and say “he’s old” but he is actually only 11 years older than me. Like he could never actually be my dad (i dont like men that old like 20+ years older than me) but i really like him and he makes me feel so happy

Sorry for how unorganized this is. I’m actually really sad rn because i put in for a schedule change to go into sciology and the only available class periods are 3rd and 1st and i might be taken out of his class:( also he isnt married thank god

[theabominableblogger]

Rewatching “Revenge of the Sith”

Ohhhh yeahhh, I’m going there.

My apologies in advance because this post is so long...

*silently boogies out to 20th Century Fox jingle and ends up throwing popcorn everywhere*

*mouths along to opening theme*

WAR!

“Evil is everywhere.”  Dude, this is Star Wars we’re talking about...

Just a heads up, I am so freaking glad that we have The Clone Wars because honestly, it has a lot more flowing character development when it comes from jumping from “Attack of the Clones” to this movie, especially Anakin.

Lens flare!

Holy snot how many Republic ships are there?!?  Did the Separatists come with every single ship imaginable?  Is that why?

Aaaaand that’s a dead body.

The hell are those things?

“Nothing too fancy.”  Says the man [Obi-Wan] who dramatically drops his robes whenever possible.

*imitates the buzz droids*

“IN THE NAME OF-”  Finish the sentence, Obi-Wan!

R2′s taser thingy looks like the Twelfth Doctor’s sonic screwdriver.

What if they didn’t notice the shield in time?

Boom!  End of saga.  Cue end credits music.

Ohhhh this asshole.

WHAAAATTT’SS THE SITUATION, CAPTAINNNN???

*imitates the droids saying “Roger roger”*

How come Anakin and Obi-Wan aren’t getting jostled around when the elevator car first stops?

*quotes the entire “No loose wire jokes” conversation in the elevator*

Is that the same freaking chair that’s gonna pop up in “Return of the Jedi?”

Anakin and Obi-Wan fight Dooku but every time their lightsabers clash, it’s Obi-Wan going “Hello there”

Did Dooku just backwards kick Anakin away?  Oh my God...

DEW IT

 *Anakin kills Count Dooku*  Well done, prequels.  You done didn’t use your Christopher Lee effectively enough.

ALL BATTERIES FIRE, FIRE!

Wilhelm Scream!

*imitates droid saying “Reversing stabilizers...”*

Holy crap, you can actually see Grievous’s face kind of twitching with anger when he commands the droids to level out the ship.  Dang.

Freaking Obi-Wan’s little yell of horror when he wakes up...

*ugly cackles*

*quotes the entire ray shields scene*

I cannot freaking believe that the TV show took the time to make freaking sure that Anakin never met Grievous until this movie.

Actually, yes I can.  They have a goddamn script continuity department.

How come one of them didn’t take one of the electrostaffs?

The Separatist flagship just tore in half when it entered the atmosphere and yet I remain completely unfazed.

“8 plus 16...”  Pfftt, what the heck does that mean?

Guys, I think I found the origin for the Dramatic Hair Flop of Angst in TCW

Pretty sure that’s the Millenium Falcon at the bottom hangar

“Oh, I’m not brave enough for politics.”  *cough cough*

Obi-Wan gets a whole freaking bus to himself.  Chaos will ensue.

How has no one noticed Padme just hanging out next to one of the pillars?

“There were whispers... that you [Anakin] had been killed...”  Really?

Anakin’s reaction to Padme telling him that she’s pregnant is actually really good.

Wasn’t there like a deleted interaction where Anakin first accused Padme of sleeping with someone else while he was gone but then they decided that was not that great of an idea?

The music that plays when Grievous exits the shuttle is pretty sweet

*imitates Grievous saying “Yes, Lord Sidious?”*

*claps with each word*  This is not how you write romance, [George] Lucas!

Oh I didn’t realize that you could actually hear Anakin’s robotic arm move when he puts his face in his hands

“How long is it gonna take before we start being honest with each other?”  You [Padme] should have asked that before you two got hitched in the first place.

Ladies and gentlemen, the absolute worst therapy lesson in the history of Star Wars:  Yoda telling Anakin to basically get over himself and accept the sudden, incoming death of the people he loves.

“What must I do, Master Yoda?”  MOTHEREFFING IGNORE HIM!

“Train yourself to let go of everything you fear to lose.”  NOOO, OH MY GOD...

There’s actually a whole video by Pop Culture Detective that went into detail how terrible the Jedi Council were when it came to giving Anakin emotional support.

“Be careful of your friend Palpatine.”  And your pal, Friend-patine.

I just noticed that there are less chairs in the Jedi Council room

“The Council doesn’t like it when he [Palpatine] interferes with Jedi affairs.”  Then why the heck don’t they confront Palpatine about it?

Holy crap, I just realized that this movie came out 13 years ago.

“Hold me, like you did by the lake on Naboo...” Was that really “holding” though?

Anakin’s delivery of “At last!” sounds like Darth Maul when he said “At last we will reveal ourselves to the Jedi” in the first movie.

This entire opera scene should be a dead give away to Anakin learning about Palpatine being the Sith Lord.  The minute Palpatine even said the word “Sith” should have raised a few red flags...

This entire Darth Plaguesis explanation is so good and ominous.  Just the minute Palpatine finishes the story and tells Anakin that there are other ways to gain that sort of power, you can just gradually feel the dread setting in for the rest of the movie.  You just know something bad is gonna happen (besides Anakin becoming Darth Vader)...

Look at the way Obi-Wan’s sitting in his chair!

Oh my God... the Wookies just did a Tarzan yell...

Headcanon:  he’s [Anakin] checking for updates about the Siege of Mandalore

OK, everyone craps on the Utapau storyline with the fight scene between Obi-Wan and Grievous but I actually think this is one of the best parts in the movie.

I love the design for the Pau’ans

GUYSSS I LOVE BOGA SO MUCH YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!!

Someone get me a plush animal of her on my desk pronto!

HELLO THERE!

GENERAL KENOBIII... YOU ARE A BOLD ONE...

That pose though!

That spinning helicopter move Grievous does while stalking toward Obi-Wan was always really cool to me.  A little extra, but still cool.

ARMY OR NOT... YOU MUST REALIZE... YOU ARE DOOMED!

Oh I don’t think so!

*imitates Obi-Wan using the Force to throw Grievous*

Wait, so how many times has Cody had to hold onto Obi-Wan’s lightsaber when Obi-Wan freaking drops it?

Death Star plans?

Big question:  so how old is Anakin here?  He’s 19/20 in “Attack of the Clones” and there’s at least a one or two year time jump in S3 of TCW.

Yo, that means he was like late 30s/early 40s when he died in “Return of the Jedi.”  Well shoot, man...

Yeah, Obi-Wan, let’s freaking kick the crazy homicidal cyborg.  Great idea.

Is Grievous just covered in gasoline or something because he just went up in flames *snaps* just like that.

Ohhhh this scene with Anakin and Padme looking at the windows of their respective places is really good...

Look at freaking Anakin here! 

George Lucas deserves any and all sins for the bad dialogue for Anakin because Hayden Christensen can really act when he’s not given any dialogue and he’s just told to react. 

So, with that, henceforth, there shall be no dissing Hayden Christensen on my blog.

I AM THE SENATE!

Dramatic window break!

Palpatine’s lightsaber just freaking deactivated as soon as Windu kicked it out the window

Wowwww... the prosthetics on Palpatine look.. bad....

UNLIMITED.... POOWEEERRRRR!!!

I just realized that Anakin kind of walks over to Palpatine on his knees before he pledges himself to Palpatine

Why Darth “Vader” though?  Is there any special reasoning for that?

AN:  Holy crap, there’s an hour left and Anakin has just turned to the Dark Side...

Pfftttt....

THESE SHOTS THOUGH

Man, I need to download more tracks from this soundtrack...

You can tell that that’s green screen behind Cody

*in best Palpatine impression*  Execute Order 66!

Nooooooooooooo, Boga!

Aaaaand everyone dies and it sucks now!

Ughh, Aayla Secura...

NOOOOOOOOOO PLO KOONN!

What planet is that?

Here’s my question:  in Rebels, how the heck did Thrawn get Gree’s helmet?  Was there an imperial campaign out on Kashyyyk and he found it somewhere?

That small matte painting shot of the Jedi Temple burning is actually really pretty now that I see it again

Yooooo can we talk about this padawan though?

Kashyyyk has twin moons...

So what happens to Chewie after this and before the Han Solo movie?

Heeeyyyyyyy I know that kind of ship!

“Have faith, my love [Padme]...”  Uhhhh... Padme should have picked up on how... off that line was

How has NO ONE in the Senate (besides Organa and probably Mon Mothma) picked up on Padme’s pregnancy?

*imitates Palpatine*  Mustafaaarrrrr....

“Could be a trap.”  It’s Star Wars.  There’s always a trap.

What’s that planet right next to Mustafar?

Random xylophone scales!

Yoda is taking no prisoners!

Where are the lightsaber/balster holes in the younglings?  Yoda said that they were probably killed by lightsaber so where are the marks on their bodies?

Yellow eyes...

“So this is how liberty dies:  with thunderous applause.”  Best.  line.  Ever.  Someone send flowers and chocolates to Natalie Portman.

“I've recalibrated the code, warning all surviving Jedi to stay away.”  Aaaagghh and we see it in Rebels and in the Last Padawan comic!

Don’t mind me casually dying

I just noticed that gradually throughout this movie, you can see Obi-Wan get grey hairs in his sideburns

*Obi-Wan sneaks onto Padme’s ship to Mustafar*  Where did he come from?!?

“You [Darth Vader] have restored peace and balance to the galaxy.”  *in best Anakin voice*  OK... now what?

“And together, you [Padme] and I [Anakin] can rule the galaxy! We can make things the way we want them to be!”  Wow, “The Last Jedi” is just smackin’ me in the face right now

Anakin... you’re breaking my heart!

That is just extremely bad timing on Obi-Wan’s part

YOU HAVE DONE THAT YOURSELF!

Your new Empire?!?

DEMOCRACY!

“Only a Sith deals in absolutes.”  A what?

That’s a pretty nasty lisp you have there.  Might wanna do something about that.

You know how this Yoda vs. Palpatine fight could be more amazing?  Just add helium

Honestly, for the BIG DEAL fight between Anakin and Obi-Wan, it just goes on for a little bit too long.

Plus when it’s intercut with the Yoda vs. Palpatine, the latter is way more entertaining (hello, two most powerful peope going head to head with actual Force lightning being involved?)

Are they [Anakin and Obi-Wan] just kicking each other with the Force now?  Wow...

NOT EVEN HITTING EACH OTHER!

Seriously, they’re just banging their lightsabers together and calling that a fight.  C’mon... actually try to hit the opponent!

Duel of the Fates!

*Palpatine throws the Senate chairs at Yoda with the Force* So I threw the Senate at him!

Honestly, you could cut out this whole balance thing on the sinking balcony and mining buildings/walkways

Commander Fox?

ExPLOsions...

Noooo... cut this out...

“Into exile, I [Yoda] must go.  Failed, I have.”  And yet people complain about Luke doing the exact same thing in the sequel trilogy

You’re not even trying to hit each other!

FROM MY POINT OF VIEW, THE JEDI ARE EVIL!

IT’S OVER, ANAKIN!  I HAVE THE HIGH GROUND!

YOU WERE THE CHOSEN ONE!

“You were my brother, Anakin.  I loved you.”  Uuuggghhhh....

I actually read somewhere that Ewan McGregor actually asked George Lucas to change the line to past tense instead of the original present tense.  Which is sad, so thanks Ewan.

Can’t you just put out the fire with the Force?

How did 3PO and R2 get an unconscious Padme on board?

Where is this?

*Palpatine’s shuttle lands in Coruscant*  It was a dark and stormy night...

Y’know, at this point, me comparing Anakin being repaired and transformed into Darth Vader and the creation of Frakenstein’s monster is almost inevitable at this point...

Stupid question, but what’s the significance of the names “Luke” and “Leia” concerning the themes present in the movies?  Or is that up to people like me who enjoy the meta to find that out?

He [Darth Vader] just killed that medical droid next to him...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

Do not want....

“...[Qui Gon] learned the path to immortality...” In the TV show!

I like how the last line in this freaking movie is “Oh no!” and it’s from 3PO...

Triceratops rams!

The design for Padme’s funeral garb is actually Iain McCaig’s favorite concept art

How did they develop TIE fighters so quickly?

Oh my God, the dude they got to play Tarkin... oh God...

Definitely not Peter Cushing

*gasp*  Leia’s theme!

Random eopie noise!

Oh my God, “Binary Suns”...

Obi-Wan’s like “Great, now I gotta help a pair of random, separate Force-sensitive teenagers and their astromechs in the near future...”

Wait, they put Ewan McGregor in top billing?

“With Samuel L. Jackson as Mace Windu”  Thamuel El Jackthson!

Holy crap, I forgot Joel Edgerton plays young Uncle Owen

[woodys]

✸♡. Where would I be without   🎶  F R I E N D S  🎶  !! .♡✸

In the last few years i’ve always come to love and look forward to the summertime. It always seems to be the time of year I have the biggest adventures, funnest moments, and get into the craziest things. For instance, I got the once in a lifetime chance to see my favorite musical, Hamilton, live. At the same time, Magikarp became one of my top favorite beloved water Pokechildren, right after that I played myself getting tripped into infinite video game hell with four losers on a road trip in my first Final Fantasy game. I watched my favorite speedy hedgehog and his friends RISE BACK to their glory in a True Blue™ revive and just when I thought all dreams couldn’t be reality TOY STORY shows up in KINGDOM HEARTS ya’ll. TOY STORY GONNA BE IN KINGDOM HEARTS YA’LL.

That said, with all of those things, I took notice how just about everything this summer’s offered me has had some unifying line of friendship tucked in it somewhere. And as I rode out Hurricane Harvey, I realized just how great friends are and—just like the many video game characters I adore and love—how good are the ones that motivate, encourage, and surround me. As many of you do or don’t know by now i’ve always gotta close my a one great summer send off post! And though this one’s a bit LATE no thanks to Hurricane Harvey craziness, I couldn’t let the tradition die! For third year in a row ( ♫ WITH THE HELP OF HYPER POTIONS YET AGAIN ♥ ♫ )  here’s another commemoration a huge summer of growth in my life and a big thanks all of you for being a friend! Whether you realize you’ve been one to me or not! ♥ 

✨ — OLD FRIENDS!  

After all of my years saying that my summer commemoration posts aren’t follow forevers, ya’ll are the ones who finally make this post an Official™ “Follow Forever”. Cause I really have followed you for two to three years now! And I probably will again if I remade another blog! And a blog after that! Ya’ll make my dash HOME and the time that I waste here on Tumblr is always worth it because I get to see you. Thanks for being so epic for all these years! 

☼  @kiliroleplays ☼ @skiwalkerrey ☼ @kataaras ☼ @disappointedwrites ☼ @lucasdelcs ☼ @fitzsimmonsofrp  ☼ @jodiewrites ☼ @nickwldes ☼  @sweetpandarps ☼ @clairetvmples ☼ @jessicuhjcnes ☼ @billsprestonesquiree  ☼ @haywilliams ☼  @crystalreedwrites ☼ @atalantaa ☼

🌱 — NEW FRIENDS! 

I picked up a handful of you before the summer, but it doesn’t mean I love you any less. You’ve added new shades of color to my life and every time I see your url or when we talk it’s always the best reminder of why the days so far this year have been that much more brighter!

✧  @lizzyxrps ✧ @karlasouzawrites✧ @blu3crystalbrax ✧ @pastelseasidedancer✧ @reputationwrites✧ @qvakewrites / @starswritten​✧ @beverlymvrsh ✧ @tulirps ✧ @ladymacbeths ✧ @robertsonwrites  ✧ @trishwvlker  ✧ @kazdarling  ✧ @yourmuseco  ✧

👋🏾 — THE ‘YOU’VE GOT A FRIEND IN ME TOO’ FRIENDS!

Our posts are so very different, but here you are anyways! Though we hardly talk or chat, when we do there’s always a sparkle in my eyes because you’re always so kind to me and are all such wonderful people who I love to follow along with on my dash. If you ever need anything, i’ve gotchu! Because yes! I every much consider each of you as distant friends. ♥

@steinfeldofrph ✿ @victnam ✿ @dannyphantomrps ✿ @bobbybrigs ✿ @ofmymuses ✿ @queenchiddy ✿ @perfectxplaces ✿

There’s plenty more super special friends i’ve acknowledged under the cut, because I didn’t want this looking too long on your dashboards. But again, to all I say, thanks for another fantastic summer and even MORE thanks for being a Friend™! ♥ 

—Another special shoutout to @pandora-box-of-mind for the two wonderful, adorable, commissions that are apart of the gifs in my graphic. I can’t wait to commission you again, Pandora! ♥ (The art in middle graphic though, belongs to me y’all!! 😩 🙌🏽 )

🌻 — THE ‘ROYAL AVENUE’ FRIENDS

Ah yes, another year, another space to tag all of you in. Royal Avenue™ sounds fancy, but actually it’s just the name of a Pokemon theme I jam to all the time ;u;  Das because I love y’all and you’re my jam.♥   I probably tell some of yall that all the time by how much we talk. But now like this everyone can see me say it.  And most of you are my partners too and I’m sorry excessive yelling over video games kept me away from replies this summer.

❀ @pixiedustrps ❀ @maliatating ❀ @xkatiewrites ❀ @partycrouchwrites ❀ @elenaqilberts ❀ @fireheartwrites  ❀ @sherihollcnd  ❀ @whatsernamerps  ❀ @horan-rps  ❀ @alaskawritcs  ❀ @wcmanizer  ❀ @mezzymuffin  ❀ @asoftsounds  ❀ @maddybunny  ❀ @fist-of-derp  ❀

👾 🎮 — THE SUPER GAMING CREW FRIENDS

For as long as i’ve associated myself with the RPC I always used to feel so self conscious about posting gaming content because of how it didn’t meet whatever weird “aesthetic and FC” standard I felt RP blogs should have. I’m probably making a big deal out of nothing, but as i’ve finally grown to confidently reflect my interests onto my own blog, you three are the ones are the first i’ve personally ever seen in this community to do so with beauty and grace and it’s inspired me everyday to feel it’s okay not to post what everyone posts and love what you love! I love seeing the games you love, and I love talking with you about them too! I’m glad they led me to you!

@xgarnetwrites​ ϟ @arcvnums​ ϟ @flowerhelps​ ϟ 

💕 — THE FAMILY I NEVER KNEW FRIENDS!

I remember the first time Chris asked me to join the group chat back in y’alls Skype days and honestly, I can’t believe I went so long in my life without all of you. On nights I felt like endlessly crying, you made me laugh until my sides ached. On days I felt like giving up, all of you were there to cheer me on—even when you had your own burden of problems. They say friends are the family you choose for yourself, and i’m so blesst™ all of you chose little ole’ me. ☺️

♡ @jeauxlyne ♡ @josukegod ♡ @sharkmama ♡ @sauceaonmyballs ♡ @shinjiswhatever ♡ @sir-introvert ♡ AND OFC ALWAYS YOU @aeoneon ♡

And now for a set of LET ME HOLLA AT YOU FRIENDS

[ Taylor Swift’s Best Friend ( @starshineswrite ) ] - I know what you’re thinking: ‘wtf mimi we’re not even that close for me to earn this space’ but THAT doesn’t mean i’m not making this space for you anyways!!! I adore you so much Kat. You’re so strong even when you have to go through the stupidest stuff. I love when we talk. I loved earlier this year when we got to heart to heart. I just wanted to remind you again just how amazing you are and how much I love you. I’m actually high key excited to experience Reputation with you. :’D

[ The Ladybug Friend ( @pcnnywises ) ] - Even though I don’t say it as much as I used to, and when you doubt that I do, I love you so much bbgirl. I’ll never forget the day you messaged me and we talked the whole day nonstop and after being mutuals I was so happy that you did. I adore you. And all your 654654654651 celeb crushes. You’re wonderful and don’t you forget it. ♥

[ The Friend from the Lyon’s™ Den ( @b-almighty ) ] - Kay it always amuses me so much that I found you through your amazing Empire liveblogs and we ended up having RIDICULOUSLY so much more  in common. I know we hardly talk, but I really appreciate you and I love watching you blog about everything else you love. 

[The ‘dang I wish I could be you, Friend ( @plumwrites ) ] - For years now your posts have made me laugh and your no nonsense attitude has been a delight in my life. I love reading the posts, your tags, and responses you make to things and just thinking ‘dang I wish I could be like bridge about things’. I just love how real you are and I wish I can get some guts to be like that one day. I know you’ve been going through some things recently, but you’re always on my mind. ♥ If you need anything just shout!

[ Lady’s Best Friend ( @amcthystwrites) ] - I’m really sorry this summer wasn’t one of our best ones. That’s mostly on my part, but already I see things shaping back together as they were before and I never doubted that it’d happen that way.

[ Dearly Beloved™ ( @naaatalie ) ] - [ DOING THE 400 CHARACTERS OR LESS CHALLENGE ] I try my best not to get sappy on you often, but I do want you to know how happy you make me and that I can’t express how grateful I am for you. ♥ I’m genuinely so honored and fortunate that after these years you made the choice to Keep™ me and now we’ve got TWO giant, amazing, universes filled with the hugest variety characters that i’m far beyond excited to see grow with you. You’re the Umbra to my Pryna, my penpal, my bestie, The Ruthless Angst Master™. I’ve got so much to thank you for. ♥

TILL NEXT SUMMER YALL!!! ♥

[blake-noble]

Hey, WaPo Express, Maybe Y’all Should’ve Picked Up Your Stinkin’ Phones, Too

Perhaps bidding the world the most bitter of adieus, The Washington Post’s free daily tabloid — the Express — ran the following headline last week on its final cover: “Hope you enjoy your stinkin’ phones.”

Those who chose to set their stinkin’ phone down, pick up a copy of the final Express and turn to the Eye Openers section of the publication were also met with the following:

“In news that scandalized a nation, The Washington Post Express abruptly shut down Thursday, citing falling readership and insufficient revenue. Apparently everyone riding the D.C. Metro now looks at their phones instead of reading print newspapers. Express editors will miss the newspaper and its readers very much. It has been a pleasure and an honor to provide commuters with this daily dose of odd news.”

Uh, wow? Someone needs to order up a large fry, stat, for the WaPo Express crew. (Or, rather, its survivors, considering.) They’re going to need something else to pour their giant mountain of salt over besides miserable D.C. subway passengers.

But honestly, really, it all begs the question: Why didn’t they get with the program, pick up their stinkin’ phones and start doing things the 2019 way? I can only think of one reason why.

So let’s get this out of the way first: Although I once might have aspired to work in journalism, and maintain a great respect for the profession, I also find I’m easily annoyed by publications (and their teams) that choose to whine and complain about Lord Internet, The Great Disruptor and his buddy Prophet Messiah Stinkin’ Smartphone, instead of choosing to adapt to them. 

It shouldn't come as any shock, then, that I don’t have any sympathy for the Express’s moaning and bellyaching. My pity well is bone dry.

The simple fact of the matter is this: The Express had a chance to go digital. It could have decided to relaunch as a blog (which — hey! — can be managed from a stinkin’ phone) or at least grabbed its own section on the Post’s website. Instead, it appears it chose to bitterly and foolishly be a print-only affair.

It’s currently September 2019. We’re staring 2020 dead in the eyes now. Love it or hate it, the internet has been around forever now and is here to stay (barring some catastrophic nuclear war or something). Surely the team of journalists, writers and editors working at the Express could see the writing on the wall a great distance away before the decision was made to shut things down. 

Why they didn’t choose to transition into another format almost baffles me, almost. See, I also think I might know the reason why they foolishly chose to hang on to their print-only format until their ship sank into the icy Atlantic beyond a penchant for troglodytism. (That’s a fancy way of saying, “Holdin’ on to them good ole days when folks got their news from buying a paper for a whole got-danged nickel.”)  If you’ve read this blog before, you should also know by now the reason I’m about to suggest, so get ready for it...

Money.

To explain, I think that at some point the Express indeed knew it had a choice to make when it came to the matter of digitizing itself. And so, like any big-name publication part of a bigger publication, it had one of its accounting bureaucrats sit down and crunch the numbers for doing so. What that accountant came back with probably wasn’t promising.

Ad revenue, the accountant’s findings would have pointed out, for an online-only Express probably would have suffered compared to the print version. Despite the fact readership would have been higher, online ad space goes for less than print ad space. (The Houston Chronicle, for example, points out that one print ad costs around $100 while online ad space can be purchased for half of that per month.) And because online ads also charge per click, advertisers do tend to see them as less valuable than print because reach can be highly variable. (According to Stanley Baran on page 87 of Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture, anyway.)

It all spells out this: A hypothetical online-only Express could have been, in theory, not much more or maybe even less profitable than the print version.

Now, to be clear, I don’t have a source that proves my little theory beyond the basic facts I shared on how online advertising works versus print advertising. (Which, as we all know, advertising is how an outlet keeps the lights on and its staff paid.) But, still, everything considered, I can see that scenario unfolding so easily that I would be just as surprised to hear it didn’t happen.

Moving on, while I see how a WaPo Express blog could have been less profitable, I still say it would have been better long-term than staying print-only and going the way of free tabloid newspapers for D.C. Metro riders. 

Also, you know, considering how the Express seemed to have a taste for snark going by that last cover, maybe it could have also repositioned itself as cooler alternative to the WaPo and expanded beyond D.C. Metro riders to appeal to younger readers. If successful, that could also have helped its finances. In the end, I still say it still had a choice to go digital and have a future.

John Kelly, in a recent op-ed for WaPo, also wrote about the Express’s demise where he whined and moaned about smartphones taking the place of newspapers. Yeah. Know what I gotta say to that?

I mean, if you want me to be brutally honest, that entire piece didn't have much more substance than one of those “back in my day, we drank from a hose and didn’t wear seatbelts” posts you see your Uncle Darryl sharing on Facebook. All I could hear was someone in their late 50s* complaining about how they thought new technology was ruining the world by making things more convenient, and that grates on my nerves just as much as a newspaper crying, well, about the same thing, really.

(*Kelly claims on his Facebook page to have graduated college in 1984, so assuming he was in his early 20s when he graduated, that means he was born sometime in the early 1960s. Anyway, moving on.)

Thinking about it, I’m also sure that if you asked John Kelly to take his phone out of his pocket, it probably wouldn't be the dumbphone he mentions he had about a decade ago in the op-ed. You know, I’d almost bet good money it would be a stinkin’ smartphone.

Sources: The Washington Post, The Washington Post (again), The Houston Chronicle, Twitter, Introduction to Mass Communication: Media Literacy and Culture by Stanley J. Baran.

Lede Image Credit: The Washington Post (...again)

[haich-slash-cee]

Notes on “Spider-man: Far From Home” and other Spider-man movies from someone who maybe half-likes the MCU

Hey, who out there is like me -- maybe half-likes the Marvel Cinematic Universe at most? Ie, you go see the movies wth friends as a social event. Maybe you like Thor 1, Thor: Ragnarok, Black Panther, the Spiderman movies. OK this is for you. Come along for the ride.

Alright, so I went to see Spiderman: Far From Home. Yep it’s fun -- I was entertained for 2hrs, it’s fun to see with friends, I kind of forgot everything by the next day, it’s a solid MCU movie, go see it. 

Stuff I liked (mild spoilers ahead)

*Honestly? The scenery is really pretty. That’s not usually the first thing I talk about, but Venice waterways and those European forests and cities with carnivals? Serious eyecandy. I mean if Disney’s gonna throw money at something, I appreciate these beautiful set locations.

*Classmate interactions with Peter Parker. Fav parts of the movie. Cut out 7/8 of the CGI battle scenes and tech stuff; add more classmate stuff instead, thanks.

*Okay but out of the endless CGI stuff, the dream-sequence-ness was pretty cool.

* The bridge scene w/ Peter Parker and MJ. Peter doing an abrupt turnaround decision and blurting out his secret identity. MJ being 67% sure. The quips in the movie are good, as with a lot of the MCU movies. They know how to do funny lines.

* MJ Actually Not Being Here For It At All re: swinging across town with Spidey. I appreciate this because, honestly, who amongst us would have any other reaction than MJ’s.

H/C angles -- Hm, not actually the most interesting part of the movie for me, in this case. Anyway, Spidey/Peter Parker gets physically whalloped a bit, limps around, etc. Also there’s a lot of mourning for Tony Stark which I guess could be emotional hurt/comfort for some audience members. Too bad I’m sick of MCU Tony Stark and I would be okay not seeing his face or character again. So most of the movie was me being like “aaarrgh”... because guess whose face, in fact, kept showing up or being talked about.

Other notes (major spoilers ahead)

Alright, this is where everyone who is maybe only half-interested in the MCU -- because the MCU is mostly about men and mostly white men at that and it’s  these processed corporate stories with like 7/8 more CGI fight scenes thrown in your face than needed and everything is packed into a breakneck pacing and there’s always some Alien Warcraft In Space and every movie is like the same. dang. thing. every time. -- Anyway, this is the space for ya’ll.

Okay, there are times that I did like MCU’s CGI fancy tech stuff -- like Black Panther’s afrofuturism. Very cool. Lots of designs I haven’t seen before. And subversive against a lot of media tropes. Also Thor: Ragnarock with Taika Waititi putting aboriginal flag colors on the ships and other indigenous people references through the movie. Also, in general, I liked those movies ‘cause they were being made with PoC and colonized people viewpoints.

Since I’m on the topic -- the appeal of the first Thor movie is, for me, that it feels like a weird Shakespeare story in Space with Epic Costumes and locations. (The director has indeed made a bunch of Shakespeare movies.) Also the movie has some romance book elements -- the women feel like solid characters and the lead woman demands the male protag to act better and he actually does become a more appealing, good person.

Also, MCU Spiderman. Because I’m here to watch Fun Superhero movies. (Not superhero movies where women get thrown off cliffs repeatedly as plot points. And where a first-year ecology student or a natural resource manager could give like 20 examples of why Populations and Ecology Doesn’t Work Like That and Also That is Some Seriously Racist and Colonizer Views You’re Helping To Spread Through A Mainstream Movie. You know, if the MCU producers or Russo brothers or whoever would have listened for like 2 minutes. Guess which blog writer didn’t think much of Infinity War or Endgame.) ANYWAY, so out of the MCU movies, the Spider-man movies are what I’m more interested in.

Oh, note on Tony Stark. The only MCU Tony Stark I like is in fanfiction. Fanfic people write MCU Tony Stark and write the IronDad SpiderSon thing in a way where I’m like, “Oooh okay I get the appeal now”. Fanfic writers, doing all the good work as usual. Otherwise, eh... I never liked the Tony Stark half-adopting Peter Parker thing. It just felt weird. Towards the end of Spiderman: Far From Home, you see the movie setting up Peter Parker being a mini-Tony-Stark as he messes with CGI holograms and assembles his own suit. And I’m like “Nooooooo, leave Peter Parker alone, don’t turn him into Stark.... And also blaaahhhh more CGI generic holographic tech sequences blaaahhh”.

Also, seriously not cool to all put this responsibility on some little “Haven’t Even Taken all His AP Classes or Started Applying to College” highschool kid. Honestly, earlier in the movie? I was thinking, “Yeah Peter you give those fancy (Likely-Weapons-of-Mass-Destruction) Glasses to there Fishbowl-Head-Man. You deserve better than this mess, MCU Peter Parker. Seriously, the kid probably doesn’t even know how to drive yet.” I was on-board with this plan. But, no, the plot had different ideas. I continue to blame Tony Stark or Fury or just all the adults in this situation honestly.

Also, TBH, as the credits were rolling, what I thought was, “Oh this makes me miss the 2000′s Spiderman 1 and 2 movies.” This shows which movies/versions of Spider-man I imprinted on. 

I did re-watch the 2002 and 2004 Spider-man movies two years ago (after the first MCU Spiderman movie Homecoming came out). The 2000′s movies are still solid movies. A few notes:

Nostalgia Glasses OFF. Wow, Spiderman 1 movie = very White. We are in NYC, right? Why are all the students white? On this point, the MCU Spiderman movies and also the Sony Miles Morales spiderman movie is better and more interesting. (Actually... I’m putting the Miles Morales movie a smidge above MCU spiderman movies, honestly -- the animation is cool, there’s some weird jokes I dig, some really weird macabre jokes I dig, I like the main character a lot, I like that he’s mixed race and we get some references to that, and I like that we get to feel our Feels a little more thanks to more breathing room in the pacing.) 

Also, 2002 spiderman movie, your homophobic joke about Bonesaw was never cool and hasn’t aged well.

What I Still Like: Ya know I just really appreciate some pacing and direction where we get to feel stuff, you know? Also, a standalone story for a movie! We focus on the main protag and a few other people. I like that the main character in this version is moving from senior year of high school to college and young adulthood and a lot of the serious themes about responsibility and stuff are overlapping with this. The way this is done feels more quietly grounded and real.

H/C angles -- Gotta say the whump and emotional hurt/comfort is still really solid in Spider-man 1 + 2. Very earned. Oddly, this time around, what stood out for me was Harry Osborn’s grief at losing his father. Especially that scene where he’s about to kill Spider-man in grief-revenge and he pulls off Spider-man’s mask and it’s his best bud Peter Parker, and Harry’s just whalloped. [Whumpy clip from Spiderman 2 with all that, YouTube]

What I also still like: So I guess the people making Spider-man 1 didn’t have all that much money? There’s a close-up scene where MJ is embracing Spiderman as they swing across the city. I think I read later, the actress playing MJ said the production team had to use a mannequin in that scene, so she had to hug the mannequin and pretend it was Spider-man. I didn’t notice this until I read it. But since then, whenever I see that scene and pay close attention, Spider-man does look a little off and I start laughing.

Also, Willem Dafoe hamming it up. No, really. Hamming. it. up. So good.

[scaraxmouche-blog]

|| you know.. This fandom doesn't seem strict with rp at all and it makes me so happy? If not the fandom then you ppl I'm interacting with. I feel like rp here is like how it USE to be. Where you don't have to worry about your writing, where everyone sends everyone asks, where you're not judged, where you're kind to one another and don't take one look at a blog shoo it away b/c it doesn't have some kind of fancy header or nice icons. Where you don't have to do specific formats and everything else. It just. Feels so good?? I've never felt this good in so dang long.

[kamuwrites]

In the Bag - Ch 3/10 - a One Piece gen cat fic

Fic Summary: 

All pirates have hordes of treasure. It just so happens in this life, cats are the treasure in Luffy’s.

Chapter Title: Fancy Talky Things

No Pairings

821 words

(ao3 link in blog description)

One of the guards approached her as she was preparing breakfast.

“Miss Kaya,” the guard greeted.

“Yes? How are you?” Kaya stood up and met him halfway.

“Rather well. I came here to inform you that you have a ‘guest’ in the cat garden.”

The guard need say no more. Kaya was already off toward the back entrance of the mansion, where Merry had installed a utopia for the resident outdoor cat. The guard who informed her followed quickly at her heels.

“Usopp?” Kaya called out nervously as she entered the garden.

No resounding chirp replied back. If she strained her ears, she might hear something…

“Shishishi,” came a quiet laugh a little ways deep into the foliage and miniature forest.

The guard by her side rested a hand on his baton. Kaya held her hand out and ushered for them to move toward the sound of human laughter slowly.

As they crept closer, the laughter grew louder. Besides human, there was the distinct and familiar chirp of Usopp nearby.

“Oi, you two can come play with us, too! People might be a bit too big for kitten play but we can make an exception,” a boyish voice said toward their location.

Kaya nodded and the guard obediently stood up. As his eyes widened, Kaya nervously asked, “Well? Is it safe?”

“Ah, er,” the guard said a bit stiffly. He helped her up. “Yes, Miss Kaya. More than safe.”

“Really?” Kaya said.

The guard pointed behind her. “See for yourself.”

“Oh!” Kaya was pleased to find a familiar and very welcome face in her garden. “Luffy-san! You’re here!”

“Oh, diamond lady! Hi!” Luffy waved. Usopp and the pretty tabby of the two guest cats leapt after the feather toy jumping with his hand.

Kaya smiled and sat near the dozing cat across from Luffy. “What brings you here today?” she asked. Her smile grew as Usopp successfully pawed at the feather, only to have it tickle his nose and make him sneeze.

“Uwaa, I know I should have called but this couldn’t wait,” Luffy said with a huff.

“It’s alright. What did you need?” Kaya had a number of things she could provide Luffy, but she already knew his personality enough to know he was unpredictable in these things.

As he expertly jogged the feather toy around, Luffy leaned his cheek onto his fist. “I just need your permission to kidnap Usopp.” Luffy shrugged. “Just a tiny favor.”

“Kidnap?” Kaya repeated.

“Dang, I should’ve used ‘catnap’ instead! Flower guy would be so disappointed,” Luffy lamented woefully. He saw Kaya looking, a frown on her face. “I heard something from Merry-guy.”

Kaya nodded, her concern lightening a bit. Merry wouldn’t let bad news sit for too long.

“I don’t want to make you choose,” Luffy was saying, “but when it comes down to it, their happiness is more important.”

She suddenly remembered two days ago, the morning after Merry had gotten off the phone with the vet after Klahadore had thrown up for the third time the day before.

“Klahadore has FIV,” Kaya said into the silence that had fallen between them. It was coupled with the purr of the one-eyed roan cat and the angry growls from the pretty tabby cat. Usopp didn’t make a sound, which meant one of many things.

Kaya didn’t know when the news had affected her so much.

“I don’t want Usopp to leave,” she murmured into her hands. Usopp padded over and nudged her arm, rubbing his ear against her comfortingly.

“He has to.” Luffy’s voice was strong and non-demanding. “I can’t take in Klahadore. I love Nami and Zoro.”

Kaya contemplated that and accepted something that had been warring within herself.

She straightened and gazed at Luffy straight on. “I give you permission,” she said with conviction Merry would be proud of.

Luffy blinked and grinned, thoroughly pleased. “Shishishi!” Luffy reached over and patted Usopp’s head. “Hey, Usopp, this is great! You can play with Zoro and Nami more often, now!”

They burst out into laughter as Usopp looked downright offended at the notion.

Kaya wiped at her tears. Luffy was right. It wasn’t what she wanted, it was what they needed. Between a human’s love and a cat’s happiness, the latter was the obvious choice. Syrup was a small shelter mainly hosting old cats and few kittens. The cats with special needs had to have foster homes fast or else…

Everyone and everything deserved a chance; that was her creed.

Her wet smile said, “I’m sorry” while Luffy’s signature wide grin beamed, “Any time!” as he handed over the feather wand and walked past her.

“Hey!”

Kaya turned and found Luffy standing by the propped open garden gate, hands clasped at his nape and his straw hat framing his head like a crown. His feline friends walked ahead, knowing or not caring that their human had stopped following.

“Do you have an Instagram?”

TBC