#“special talent” can not be a reason for putting children in dangerous situations simply because that is a subjective metric

[schumigrace]

"I think there should be exceptions to the age limit rule for special talents" that is not how this works karun

[ailinaline]

The Untamed: unsorted

Well... I am nothing, if not eccentric, after all. Why not publish a huge post all of a sudden? :)

The Untamed (СQL) is an abyss, and I am still falling, grasping at some scattered thoughts... that tend to arrange themselves in equally chaotic blocks of thoughts, which, in turn, multiply questions successfully.

Spoilers ahead, I guess...

I.

The timeline of СQL is more than a little blurry, and when I try to calculate, how old Wei Ying was, when he died, I come up with the sorrowful conclusion he couldn’t be more that 21, probably younger. Which, in turn, means that the post-time-skip Sizhui is, actually, of the same age or even older than Wei Ying and Lan Wangji were, when they did a lot of things I honestly can’t imagine the new generation pulling off, even physically/magically, let alone psychologically (although I wouldn’t go as far as to call young LWJ and WWX mature - they clearly were not, and that was a huge part of the tragedy foundation, in my opinion). The young disciples are referred to as ‘children’, and they truly are. Compared to 16-17 year old LWJ and WWX, they are very, very young, inexperienced and not especially capable – while still being quite skilled and smart. And it’s both fabulous and painful to watch. Fabulous because it’s a very vivid and authentic demonstration of how exceptionally gifted LWJ and WWX are (and were); and painful because, unfortunately, not all of their greatness comes just from inborn talents.

II.

I am easily charmed by languages, but СQL, being the third Chinese dorama I have ever watched, is still the first one to so profusely tempt me to learn Chinese – in order to translate the songs and to understand the subtleties of the dialogues.

III.

I can’t get rid of the impression that the concept of rules/order breaking and punishment/atonement is fundamental for СQL (and its world). As far as I am aware, the Chinese culture does tend to be quite severe in this regard, but right now I am considering the symbolic layer of the process rather than the harm/good/efficiency of any particular method.  And I wonder, whether I am imagining things or Wangji’s history of ‘transgressions’ and punishments within his sect is really openly symbolic and not merely coincidental.

My interpretation certainly lacks some special cultural insight because I can’t help being of European origin, so I read all the codes as a European would, first, and only then make an attempt to switch lenses and decipher the message, taking into account my scarce knowledge of the Chinese (and Asian) culture.

And yet...

The first time (drinking) Wangji is not only completely innocent, but also a ‘victim’ of Wei Ying’s careless (and questionable) mischief. They share the punishment (and we encounter the number 300, by the way), but Wangji is obviously (and rather fiercely) on his own here, and evidently by choice, despite Wei Ying’s sincere efforts first to exclude and then to include him. Wangji, just as obviously, truly believes he deserves the punishment – not for drinking as such, I think, but for lowering his guard and being not attentive enough: internally, he substitutes one transgression with another, and the equation works for him (actually, it might be unfair, but quite fortunate for their future relationship that Wangji blames himself or, at least, blames himself more than Wei Ying). To put it in a nutshell, for Wangji, the system and order are intact and non-contradictory: he is understandably upset, even angry, but hardly shaken, and simply intends to do better than that in the future, so to say. It’s hard to speculate, if this is Wangji’s most unpleasant experience so far or not, but in any case, the psychological pressure is minimal and reproach is rather mild (and I am really surprised, Lan Xichen didn’t find all that story highly suspicious… or was it his indirect method of showing WWX that he hadn’t been told on?..)

The copying of the rules happens after a considerable amount of… experience, if not time. And the transgression is not specified, but hinted at very heavily. I also wonder, if Lan Qiren realized an additional message he conveyed through his choice as well as through his general treatment of his nephew during that meeting: a strict reminder that, a war hero or not, LWJ is still too young to have an opinion. Wangji accepts the book of rules reverently, accepts the punishment… the word, that springs to mind is ‘habitually’: he doesn’t disregard it, per se, he doesn’t devalue the fact his uncle is not happy with him, he still wants to do better, but… there are things of greater importance to him now, and LWJ is so focused on them that he makes the request about the restricted books at the least suitable moment, really. (And I believe this dismissal does cut him rather deep.) The system still works, but the seed of the conflict is already planted.

The third episode seems pivotal in itself: we actually don’t know, what the punishment for letting WWX and the Wens go was, except for having to kneel, while being lectured, but this time this is a result of a conscious choice to do something that definitely wouldn’t be approved. And I can’t remember a single second of the screen-time, when Wangji would look repentant: conflicted, upset, slapped (when Lan Qiren mentions his mother), stressed (his uncle uses some pretty cruel techniques that border on manipulation, to my mind), but not sorry at all – not for letting the fugitives go, at least.  And comparing the shades of Wangji’s silence here and on the previous occasion, this one seems somehow more determined. And closed-off. And there is no intention to do better, in regard to this transgression: the alternative he is being pushed to is unacceptable.

Kneeling again, for the whole day, in the cold, lifting a… what is it, as a matter of fact? It does look like a slightly smaller version of ‘the discipline whip’ we’ll see later, and if it is really so, then it’s beyond prophetic symbolic – it looks more like a promise on Lan Qiren’s part. :/ Anyway, my impression is that, for the first time in the series, LWJ is actively absent from the scene of his own punishment: he doesn’t reflect on it (I think he expected something like that), he also doesn’t mentally substitute one transgression with another to restore the balance (his inability to help Wei Ying is not something to atone for by kneeling). He simply endures. And thinks. And feels. Just not what he is expected and obliged to be thinking and feeling at the moment. And through all of this, Wangji is utterly, hopelessly and stoically alone and unaccepted. His concerns have been dismissed and care rejected by Wei Ying. His actions and decisions have been castigated by a significant authority figure (whom he loves and respects). If I am not mistaken, in the special edition Wangji’s loss-and-loneliness are somewhat artificially heightened through the pseudo-contrast because his moments are mixed with the moments of Wei Ying’s drinking with his new family, who values and appreciates him. (In reality their situations are just the same: they are both in anguish and feel helpless to change things they wish to change.) And, a cherry on top: we don’t know, what has been said initially, and by whom, however, we see that Wangji is released not by his uncle, but by some adept (or disciple). It might be a normal procedure, but it completes the picture of being unequivocally separated from any supportive figure and hints at a lack of closure, in a way, as there was no forgivenes-and-reconnection after the punishment.  

I am struggling to verbalize, why exactly, but to me, this scene is, in a sense, more bitter than the next one, despite the circumstances.

During the next punishment Wangji is as actively present as he was absent during the previous one. And if then he was frozen in sadness, now he is all fire (fueled by grief, and guilt, and fury, and despair, yes, but fire, nonetheless). And the system and order get burned down: what Wangji re-builds during his seclusion is his very own set of rules. They do coincide with the Gusu Lan set, but not fully. And this is a point of no return because, filtered through Wangji’s own system of values, now they are more than just the elders’ lessons learned and tested – they are the only valid reference point for recognizing transgressions and ‘living with no regrets’.

(On another level, I am more than a little puzzled by several details here:

1) linguistics: do they really call this thing a discipline ‘whip’ in Chinese?

2) cultural message: as literally nothing could get in the way of filming a beating with an actual whip, the type of instrument has to make some sense, doesn’t it? (For now, I can’t think of any reason to choose this tool, though. Except the number 300 as 300 lashes are hardly survivable, even with a golden core.)

3) application: I can understand, why Wangji has his shirt on (although this is a more dangerous and torturous option: such a thin layer is no protection at all, but it will be hell to clean the wounds afterwards), but why is his hair down his back like that?..

4) consequences: the scarring looks rather odd, considering. (And again: it was definitely not a problem to paint whatever they had to, so – why?)

The only (and vague) explanation I can come up with is that the type and form of the tool is not important at all: it’s the intent and sentence that count, so the wounds and pain would be the same, even if the instrument looked like a rod or a cane. (Still doesn’t explain the hair, though.) And as for the scars, perhaps, not all of them have to stay forever, especially if the cultivator is very strong.

Well, no: unsatisfactory...)

IV.

I wonder... My first impression after watching the scene, where Lan Wangji cuts off Jin Guangyao’s  arm, was that he was actually saving him from Baxia, separating Guangyao from the mark on his hand. And the only reason, why the spirit of the sword attacks Jin Ling next, are the drops of the bad/damned blood on the boy’s shoulder. But after the special edition I am not so sure.

V.

Lacunae and plotholes (or what I subjectively perceive as such) are extremely challenging and thought-provoking in this series. Right now, I wonder about the Wens: Wen Qing clearly stated she had asked one of the clansmen to look after WWX, so not all of them were going to surrender. Could it be that they were attacked at the Burial Mounds, when seeing the siblings off, and taken away by force?

...Enough. For now.

[thousandbirds]

hatake kakashi’s tropes ( as seen in canon ) are as follow :

--- the Ace. someone who is ridiculously good at what they do, whatever that happens to be, and everyone knows it. people look up to them, envy them, and are in awe of them. they have a reputation for doing the impossible, and may be Shrouded in Myth, as people are unable to separate their real accomplishments from unfounded rumors. they'll probably be extremely talented at everything they try. in direct relation to this, he is also affected by the Broken Ace trope. he's tall, charming, strikingly good-looking and extremely skilled, but underneath all that his inner self is a mess of self-hatred and parental issues ( more on the Broken Ace trope later on the list ). 

--- Always Someone Better. the character who is the best-of-the-best with a supporting cast that Can't Catch Up. more powerful than the super hero, or more skilled than the ninja, or smarter than the professor, and so on.

---  Achilles' Heel. any seemingly Nigh Invulnerable character will inevitably have some key weakness that can and will be exploited. in kakashi’s case, this is his massive stamina issues, exacerbated by the use of his sharingan, which demands a ridiculous amount of chakra when used. almost all of his major battles have ended with him fainting or bed-ridden for over-expending his energy.

--- Badass Bookworm. these characters are quiet, smart, and seemingly physically unimposing, but with Hidden Depths of formidable physical and practical skills. naruto calls him as smart as shikamaru, which, combined with his status as the most elite ninjutsu specialist in konoha, would make him this easily.

--- Badass Teacher. they are just a regular teacher, until you threaten their students. after that you might want to start praying to whatever god is out there for mercy. you do not mess with their students. also related to the Sink-or-Swim Mentor, as seen in his bell test, which doubles as a Secret Test of Character for his students.

--- Bishōnen. the term bishōnen simply connotes a really, really attractive male. it is seen as somewhat of a gag through the manga, but the truth is that an unmasked kakashi is seen to give nosebleeds, provoke swooning, blushing, and in general cause strangers to stop and stare. related to this is the Even the Guys Want Him trope, as both the few females and males who have seen him unmasked are, well, very impressed to say the least.

--- Blessed with Suck. when a character is given a special ability that seems to cause nothing but trouble for them. because he isn't an uchiha, he can't deactivate the sharingan and it rapidly drains his chakra reserves whenever he uses it, leaving him bedridden after extended use. he keeps the eye covered when he doesn't need it in order to prevent this. the mangekyō sharingan, in particular, places a great strain on kakashi, and precipitated the deterioration of his vision until eventually his eye went blind during the fourth shinobi world war.

--- Broken Ace. kakashi talks about his broken past to sasuke, to try and convince him that revenge isn't everything and that living with the pain of his losses, while difficult, is possible. it doesn't work. later, in the battle against kaguya, kakashi tells obito that losing obito, rin, and minato all within the span of a year all but completely broke him, going on to state that there was nothing stopping him from completely sinking into despair except for the fact that obito had entrusted his sharingan ( and thus, his dream of seeing the future together ) to him. given the amount of characters that turned to darker paths for similar reasons, it's a bit of an eye-opener as to how close kakashi could have been to completely losing himself as well.

--- Child Prodigy. as youngest genin and chunin, kakashi graduated at 5 years old from the academy and went on to become the most accomplished shinobi of his generation.

--- Cool Teacher. team 7 was the first team that he ever passed, because they're the first one to catch his lesson on putting each other's safety ahead of the mission. look underneath the underneath.

--- Deadpan Snarker. always has a straight face on, no matter the absurdity of the situation. the mask probably helps in this department. [ kakashi: naruto, you can't kill the client. that's not how it works. ]

--- Despair Event Horizon. the line that, once crossed, destroys any last remaining sense of hope. it could be for a cause, a person, a situation, or simple survival. a character has given up on it, and there is no going back. it can lead soldiers to despair — or even suicide, if they don't simply lose the will to live. it can turn an ideal hero into an anti-hero or an outright villain. it's in his time in ANBU ( during and after the kyuubi attack ) that kakashi was dangerously close to this after the death of his sensei, leaving him the last living member of his team. it's implied that the reason why kakashi wasn't a big part of naruto's life until he became a genin was because he was so mentally anguished that he couldn't be trusted around small children, even if they were his sensei's son. he was barely able to take care of himself ; there is no way he would've been able to handle taking care of a baby jinchuuriki at the same time. it took a lot of time and support for him to move past this, and it wasn't until he was assigned to team 7 that he really began to heal.

--- Everybody's Dead, Dave. his backstory can be summed up in this one trope. when sasuke threatens to kill someone close to him so kakashi can understand his pain, kakashi replies that everyone he cares about is already dead.

--- Failure Hero. this is how he sees himself after watching his childhood team die and later on when he failed to talk sasuke out of defecting.

--- Friendly Rivalry. proud partner on the ultimate rivalry with maito gai, lasting from their early childhood, up into adulthood, and still very, very intense and showing no signs of slowing down.

--- Generation Xerox. this trope takes following in your parent's footsteps to a whole new level. they haven’t just inherited their parents' character traits and superpowers — they've inherited their entire life story. kakashi was mentioned to greatly resemble his father sakumo hatake, Konoha's White Fang, which made his enemies tremble in fear of him even when he was just about 13 years of age, mistaking him for his father. he's also a generation xerox of jiraiya. he lost his teacher, lost his student to the dark side, his closest childhood friend turned into one of the most reviled criminals in history and was indirectly responsible for their teacher's death, and has a near pathological Heroic Self-Deprecation as well.

--- Heroic Self-Deprecation. he literally calls himself trash when talking to obito. learning that his childhood friend obito, his idol and hero, the person who kakashi has modeled his entire life after, is responsible for nearly every tragedy that has befallen him over the years, starting with their teacher's death, all but broke him completely — the amount of self-hatred he felt after that revelation was almost insurmountable.

--- Hidden Depths. from naruto's point of view, he has this generally cheerful, constantly tardy teacher who is a Flat Character, someone he doesn't really think or worry about all that much. however, during the fight with obito, it turns out that that same tardy, cheery guy who's been protecting naruto all these years is indirectly responsible for creating the main villain of the story, and he has one of the worst background stories of all the characters in the series.

--- I Let Gwen Stacy Die. specifically, he killed rin himself... because she chose to jump in the way of his raikiri rather than become a Trojan Horse and be the catalyst of her village’s destruction. 

--- Instant Expert. they are almost universally capable of instantly figuring out how to use their stolen powers, typically to the same level of skill or effectiveness, or even a greater level, as the character who had the power first.

--- The Leader. even though his students outclass him strength-wise during the fourth shinobi world war, kakashi remains their leader. sasuke tries to take over, but his strategies against kaguya fail miserably. kakashi comes up with an alternative plan in minutes, making use of his students' skills as well as his own, and it instantly succeeds. afterwards, even the Sage of the Sixth Paths compliments his leadership ability.

--- Mask Power. is never seen without a mask on. and in fact, he’s never seen with his whole face revealed. not for eating, not for drinking either. some distraction or accident will suddenly occur so that his face remains private. team 7 is shown trying to see under kakashi's mask but when they finally get him to remove it in front of them, underneath is... another mask. according to pakkun, he hates being photographed without it. when he becomes hokage, his face on the mountain still has the mask on.

--- Obfuscating Stupidity. kakashi is first shown as a goofy teacher who falls for one of naruto's unbelievably idiotic pranks, but he soon reveals himself to be badass. his enemies do know he's dangerous, and treat him as such, but he's far more dangerous than most of them have been led to believe. he makes deliberate misleading first impressions, which cause people to underestimate him, and then makes uses of that fact to his advantage.

--- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! in the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum, that's true, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum.

--- Shell-Shocked Veteran. he lost his father to suicide, his childhood friend to an enemy attack, his teammate rin, who he himself killed, and his mentor minato to the kyuubi. the reason kakashi was always late for his training sessions with his genin team? every morning he spends hours just standing in front of the konoha memorial to honor his comrades' memory. in immediate aftermath of rin's Heroic Sacrifice kakashi suffers Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. he keeps seeing rin die by his hands, having nightmares, and as a result becomes far, far more withdrawn. due to the trauma he couldn't use his chidori anymore since he kept thinking of rin. it's stated that during his time in ANBU, kakashi became so depressed that gai literally begged the third hokage to either allow gai himself to join or to release kakashi from service altogether. it was only after his jounin instructor transfer and with gai's persistent friendship that kakashi's mental health started to improve for the first time in years.

--- Shrouded in Myth. a Living Legend, mysterious and untouchable. rumors and hearsay seem to surround their every word and deed.

--- The Stoic. probably the hardest character to get a rise out of in the entire series, except when the Icha Icha series or his dead childhood friend is concerned.

--- Team Dad. the opposite to the Team Mom, more often than not the disciplinarian, lead-by-example-kind of character. he tends to be strict and gruff, but he never hesitates to put his life on the line for his team members. sometimes the facade might even crack and he'll show undisguised pride over his kids.

--- Wise Beyond His Years. kakashi graduated from the academy at five, passed the chunin exam one year later, and became a jonin not much later. all through his childhood, people remarked how mature he was, an outlier from his peers.

--- Wishful Projection. kakashi is a strange case in which his projection was on someone who he thought was dead. obito, who is the one death he has never managed to move past. somewhere down the line, he went from deceased childhood friend whose last wishes I need to honor, to idol whose memory and ideals I need to live up to. a lot of kakashi's baggage stems from his over-idealization of obito ; some part of him genuinely believes that obito always would've succeeded where he failed. kakashi is subconsciously projecting his prodigious abilities and genius reputation on to obito, since it was his sacrifice and ideals that kakashi lives on for. learning that obito became the Big Bad almost broke him, but it was also the event that contributed to him seeing obito as a person again and finally being able to move on with his life.

[dalekofchaos]

What I love and hate About Moffat’s Doctor Who

Much like I did for RTD’s Era, I will be listing my What I love and hate about Moffat’s Doctor Who.

What I love

Eleven. Ten will forever be my Doctor but Eleven has a special place in my heart!  I will always remember him in my heart, I will cherish the memories I had that he was The Eleventh Doctor, I will always remember his epic sense of fashion, his triumphs and sad moments, his eccentric childishness both as him and as a way to trick you and then you realize Eleven is truly terrifying. I will always remember Eleven as The Doctor!

Twelve. I love Twelve. He may have had some poorly written episodes given to him, but Capaldi still handled it like the professional he is. Twelve brought back the sternness of One and the dark manipulator of SevenI Capaldi’s ability to portray the extremes of human emotion make him, perhaps, one of the most skilled and diversely talented actors to take on the role. One of the most joyously mesmerising facets of Capaldi's interpretation of the role is the level of sincerity and gravitas with which he approaches every scene - it doesn't matter if the Doctor is being funny, Capaldi plays the Doctor with a sense of naturalism and realism which has breathed new life into the part. While Smith and Tennant each had a wonderful sense of humour in the role, Peter has taken the opportunity to play the straight-man when it comes to scenes involving a degree of comedy, making the Doctor all the more funny for it. I also love Twelve because I liked the fact that his sheer introduction brought back the idea that older actors (and now actresses) can play the character. Having been a lifelong fan himself, Capaldi would have accepted the role knowing full well that his life would never be the same again. Aside from this willing acceptance of the renown that comes with the role, Peter seems to be one of the warmest and most genuine actors to adopt the guise of the Time Lord. He regularly speaks warmly and at length of the entire history of the programme, not just the series since he joined. His knowledge and passion for the shown and it's fans is truly moving as Capaldi is regularly warm and inviting to those fans that speak to him in the street. Some actors can be somewhat short with their fans, especially if they're having a tough day, but Peter seems to be welcoming and charming regardless of the circumstances. In short, he's nothing shy of the perfect ambassador for the show. The Doctor was indeed in safe hands and we will miss Peter dearly.

Moments like The end scene of Vincent And The Doctor and Twelve’s brilliant anti-war speech in The Zygon Inversion. 

Amy Pond and Rory Williams I loved Amy and Rory.  Amy Pond is an incredibly layered, wonderful, and flawed character. She is brave and independent, she is scared of abandonment and commitment, she is rude and yet compassionate. She has a knack for creative problem-solving and can make connections other people can’t, whether it is realising the truth about the star whale or figuring out how to defeat the Weeping Angel.She has had a difficult life, but Amy is always changing and growing, as she holds onto the contradictory pieces that make up her own histoy. We watch her learn to love and to trust. We see her struggling with keeping up with both her travels with the Doctor and the normal life she comes to value. She experiences joy and loss and she just lives, passionately.What is so exceptional about Amy’s ending isn’t that she chooses Rory; she likely would have made the same choice two seasons earlier. But for the first time it feels like a decision that she can be happy with. Because she no longer is “the girl who waited” - and the Doctor didn’t keep her from growing up, he just became part of her story to get there. Rory is awesome. He’s one of my favorite companions ever, despite being on and off at times because of small things like being dead. Rory is smart, cool, actual husband material, and he keeps The Doctor humble.  I adore their relationship. Amy and Rory loved each other. Their relationship is what made series 5 and 6 great. Beautiful soulmates and The Ponds are beautiful.  I think my favorite part about the Eleventh Doctor, Amy, and Rory’s time together was the fact that most of the other companions in New Who were always talked down to. Not that the Doctor didn’t respect them. He did, immensely. But he was always the one to explain something, always the one looking smart, always the leader, always the one saving the day. But in the case with the Doctor, Amy, and Rory, the Ponds were the ones figuring things out and saving the day while the Doctor tripped as he tried to simultaneously put on a bowtie and eat a fishstick. And that’s beautiful.

Clara Oswald Clara Oswald is a perfectly ordinary sweet natured girl, who’s compassionate and caring, who has shown herself to be quite independent on several occasions, who takes care of children simply because she knows perfectly well what they are going through, and saved the Doctor on so many occasions just out of the goodness of her heart. Clara Oswald is a scared but very clever girl, who becomes very good at playing the most dangerous of situations to get advantage and gets addicted to that thrill. From the beginning, she parallels the Doctor, with her whole era basically being a female Doctor origin story.

Bill Potts.  Bill was wonderful. Finally, a companion who is not a forced plot device, Bill is finally a companion who is special just because The Doctor considers her special cause she’s The Doctor’s friend. Bill is a proud gay woman of color. Her introduction is brilliant, hella adorkable, Has immense respect for the Doctor without ever defining herself around him like so many other companions, strong and stands up to him without ever seeming condescending or ‘you may be the Doctor but I know you better than you know yourself’ and all the slapping him. The Doctor and Bill have the healthiest Doctor/Companion dynamic. Has a clear inferiority complex but never takes it out on the people around her. Her first reaction to seeing depressed Heather is to sit down and ask her what’s wrong, because that’s what she feels is right. Basically so incredibly kind and selfless to everybody. I love Bill so much

The Paternoster Gang. Anytime Vastra, Jenny and Strax are on screen, it’s instantly gold. A  trio of associates to the Time Lord who didn't have hokey origins or contrived resurrections. They emerged fully formed and unexplained; Vastra was a lizard serial killer, Jenny was her servant/lover and Drax made some funny jokes about not being able to understand human biology.

Missy Michelle Gomez was so deliciously and hammy evil. I loved every moment she was on screen, it’s a shame The Doctor Falls ruins it. In her first two appearances she was firmly established herself as a force to be reckoned with. Suffice to say, you wouldn't want to meet this renegade Time Lord in a dark alley. She'd sing "Oh Missy you're so fine" and then obliterate you on sight. After taking a selfie with you, of course. Plus Missy always looks her best when she’s ready to destroy the world!  When she gets her lipstick out, you know that something rather unfavourable is about to hit the timey-wimey fan. Anyone can kill someone but it takes a special sort of person to do it with as much attitude as Missy. After all, if you're not going to zap someone to death looking your best, you might as well not do it at all. It's rule one, guys. Though I do wish they just called her The Master. If Moffat doesn’t think she couldn’t keep calling herself The Master, I’m pretty sure he’d rename Thirteen The Nurse.

Simm!Master’s glorious return! Simm!Master returned and it was perfect! It was both what the fans of Classic Master wanted and what Simm wanted. John Simm always wanted to play a dark and evil Master, it was RTD who wanted Simm to play a dancing and giggling lunatic who acted like Frank Gorshin’s Riddler on crack.  Pure and utter hatred for The Doctor and no regard for anyone but himself. Absolutely glorious. It’s just a shame that Simm!Master will not return and an even bigger shame that the surprise of Simm!Master’s return was spoiled by the trailer and bad make up and inability to hide Simm’s voice. 

The Guest episodes in RTD’s era and the new monsters. All the guest episodes are great. Moffat is good at writing monsters. Moffat is responsible for creating the best monsters in New Who. The Weeping Angels, The Empty Child, Vashtra Narada and The Silence were all good. The sad part is Moffat is good at writing guest episodes. 

What I hate

Plots that go nowhere and abandoning established ideas for his plots and just making up as he goes along. Moffat tends to introduce plots and either never intends to go back or explain them or abandons them altogether. In series 5, it’s introduced that Th Alliance, a group of The Doctor’s worst enemies all worked together to put The Doctor in the Pandorica, who brought them altogether, when and how are they joined together and when are they gonna return? Never brought up again....Okay? When we all heard “Silence Will Fall” it gave us a sense of wanting more. And in the series 5 when River went to Amy’s house in The Pandorica part 1 ending, I saw Omega symbols everywhere. This led me to believe that Omega is tied into the cracks in the universe and The Silence and maybe we would see Omega in series 6 and maybe The Silence were created by Omega. It never happens. The Silence are a religious order. It STILL could’ve worked because there were STILL Omega symbols all over in A Good Man Goes To War. And once again, nothing, I don’t know if Omega was ever planned to return but something was dropped. Moving on. I thought that the reason why The Doctor’s name was shown to be this terrible thing in New Who is because The Doctor used his real name to Timelock The Time War and saying it would unleash The Time War on the universe and...his name is dropped like it’s nothing. The Silence with a flip of a hat decide to join The Doctor despite it being their goal to kill him because...reasons. So glad that was resolved so easily. How did The Doctor and Clara escape The Doctor’s timestream? Never addressed. John Hurt’s character. I always thought he was gonna be The Other considering the 50th was coming up and it might be the Cartmel Masterplan. He’s a Doctor between 8 and 9 and was the one who fought in the Time War? Okay. Okay when Missy started appearing and when she talked about Clara “I chose you well” I got the hint that who this big bad was, that she created  Clara to use against The Doctor, this led me to believe that Missy was The Rani. “Oh she’s the Master, but instead of calling her The Master we call her Missy now”....kay? The Master chose their name like The Doctor, I’m pretty sure they would not change it because The Master changed genders, but whatever.  The Hybrid. Something so horrible that The Doctor left Gallifrey “it was The Doctor and Clara” are you fucking kidding me? Oh it gets better, The Doctor doesn’t even care that he found Gallifrey, all he wanted was Clara back despite Clara being content with dying. No seriously you fucking asshole, you wasted my fucking time with either dropped storylines or shit you made up cause we all fucking know you did not know what you were doing. 

River Song The issue with River Song is she is simply an awful character. River stokes The Doctor’s PTSD really bad. She is a character forced upon both the audience and The Doctor. River is a character who kills at the drop of the hat and makes a Dalek scream for mercy. Yeah, call me old fashioned but showing mercy to a Dalek is more compelling. She encourages The Doctor to kill, and reveres him as some untouchable genocidal god, and constantly pushes herself onto him sexually, even though he pulls away. River Song is Steven Moffat’s Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. And there’s the fact that River is predatory. If it was a male character constantly coming on to the much physically younger female character, and being naked and doing so despite being asked not to do that like.... people would have freaked out and called River out for being a predator and had a fit, but because she's an older female and he's a younger bodied male this is... somehow badass and empowered? Oh and let’s not forget the fact that River is somehow part Time Lord? Being born in the fucking TARDIS does not make you part Time Lord. Jesus fucking christ, JENNY is more Time Lord, at least that makes more sense. And the revelation that River is Amy and Rory’s daughter makes no sense. Rory was erased from existence. How can River still be their daughter if Rory died at that point? But moving on.  I hate that she is used as a plot device. Oh, by the way she can fly the TARDIS, and oh by the way, she can flipping regenerate. I’m sorry, but River Song should, by NO means, be able to regenerate. She pops in to get the Doctor in and out of trouble and then disappears to who-knows-where/sometimes prison. And fixed points in time? Excuse me? No. I mean, really. That was absurd. Special rules do not apply to her. Moffat is just trying to make her look cool and I am not sacrificing good writing for image. River Song is a sociopath whose entire life revolves around The Doctor, there is not ONE SINGLE decision she has made for herself. She goes around with a gun, shooting things, causing genociide and we’re meant to believe the Doctor is actually ok with that? Giving her a gun does not make her a strong, independent woman. It makes her a sociopath with a gun. Her smugness annoys me to no end. Fucking spoilers. Fucking hello sweetie. Her sensuality is forced. She has no chemistry with Matt Smith. Her line in the wedding of River Song. I’ll suffer if I kill you-more than the entire universe-yes. How selfish can she get? She is constantly rubbing in her knowledge in not only the Doctor’s face but the companions. It’s like when Moffat took over he wanted to one up RTD so he made River who lets everyone know how awesome she is, how well she knows the doctor, how she can fly the Tardis so well (you turned the “handbrake” off, congratulations) She has no reactions to her parents dying. And finally she is meant to be this brainwashed sociopath who exists to kill the doctor and in the space of literally 30 seconds she changes her mind. A lifetime of brainwashing and trauma and pain and she gets over it in 30 seconds. Like I said, I shit you fucking not River Song is Moffat’s Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way. And yes, the marriage. It was forced. The Doctor flat out states that he doesn’t want to marry her and she pressures him into it because it’s the only way she’ll let him touch her. If there is any kind of pressure, blackmail or abuse to get someone to marry another person, the marriage is forced. The Doctor was absolutely pressured into participating because not participating would’ve ended the universe. Here’s the difference between Rose Tyler and River Song.  Rose Tyler was a character who existed and had a romance with the Doctor. There was NO love at first sight. it was not Predestined, or anything like that; it was just some crazy old alien being like “oi, you wanna go and see all of time and space?” and rose was all, “yeah, why not!” and they were BEST MATES FIRST. they were just two best mates flying around in their stolen TARDIS, having a laugh, and then when the Stakes Were Raised rose kind of went - oh fuck. i love him. and the doctor went - oh fuck. i love her. it was just a natural, mutual caring and it was just two nerds, both of whom would raise HELL for the safety of the other while saving the universe together.  River Song was a character who existed TO have a romance with the Doctor. We are instantly told, not shown by the first meeting that River is important to The Doctor.  Someone The Doctor would give his screwdriver to and tells her his name. And eventually  they meet again and she kills and The Doctor is okay with it...for reasons. No one ever bats an eye that another genocide happens, but whatever. “Never be cruel or cowardly” apparently The Doctor overlooks why he chose his title when River is around. Honestly, The Doctor would never fall in love with someone who would risk THE ENTIRETY OF SPACE AND TIME because she didn’t want to kill him, i.e. river. he would NOT love someone like that, much less he would certainly not marry her because of it.  Okay. Why is River the only one who knows The Doctor’s name? You might say that River does have a life outside The Doctor cause she’s an archaeologist, yes, but that is barely shown. What do we really know about River? Even though she’s not consistently characterized, we do see that she’s violent, crazy, arrogant, overly sexual, sassy, and even bossy. Not much is known about her that makes us actually love her except that we are supposed to love her because of the Doctor.   If I could change River’s character, it would be this.  River should have been like a future companion who was mentored by The Doctor. Like Seven mentored Ace. In which he becomes like a father to River. She is hateful to him at first because of the conditioning done to her by The Silence. The Doctor saves her from herself and makes her a better person and slowly mentors her, I kind of got that impression when she told Rory about herself in The Impossible Astronaut.  I would have prefered a father/daughter relationship more than a romantic one. And River getting over trying to kill the doctor in just one episode (Let’s Kill Hitler) didn’t really take advantage of the weapon turned companion plot, and it was such a waste! It’s so frustrating how much potential there was there to really tell a story, and instead they just rushed it and made it into a nonsensical mess, rushed into a mystery and rushed into a forced romance. And we will never be free of River, as long as Moffat guest writes for Doctor Who, River will always be there. Even when she is being sent to her death, River Song’s presence is forced upon us in series 10 and no matter how much we want her to go away, River will never leave. Fuck Moffat for forcing River on us.

Moffat’s perception of The Doctor. Moffat sees The Doctor as this angsty vengeful authoritarian god. The Doctor is important because They are the one being trying to make a positive impact in the universe not because they’re a god/angel/cosmic authority/vengeful deity

The Doctor’s Name. Since when does the Doctor’s name matter so much? He chose his own name, Doctor, for a reason. It stands for everything he believes in.  and that’s what matters, not his birth name, they weren’t gonna do the Carmel Masterplan, so it really doesn’t matter. Furthermore, how could the Doctor’s name bring about the end of the universe? I just…I don’t understand? I’m really trying to and I can’t, because it makes no sense. Before Steven Moffat took over, The Doctor wasn’t this prophesied space messiah that all the evil beings in the universe were hell-bent on destroying because they knew that his name had catastrophic properties. Never explained why and all mentions of why his real name is important is thrown away, thus once making something built up entirely pointless.

The Silence Genocide. Here’s the difference between how genocide is presented with the Ninth, Tenth and Eleventh Doctors. The Ninth Doctor has the opportunity to destroy the Dalek Emperor’s fleet with the delta wave generator, but it would be at the cost of the humans and Jack on the game station. He couldn’t bring himself to commit genocide a second time, he would choose to be coward over a killer anyday. With Ten, he had no choice but to destroy the Racnoss and commit genocide, but he was ashamed of himself. The Silence had been on earth for thousands of years and had influenced human history and helped get humanity to the moon. One of them killed a human.  The Doctor sanctioned a genocide of an entire race with a smile on his face and turned on by his psychopathic future forced wife(jesus I wish I was making this up) and the humans just go along with it, The Doctor might as well have just told Cletus to burn a cross on The Silence’s yard. What was The Silence’s crime exactly? furthering Man's achievements? I can only assume that no one knows about the killing of Joy in the toilets, but if the Doctor did its a bit harsh to wipe out a whole race because of the actions of one. I mean, holy shit we have a jail that is capable of holding aliens established in the beginning of the episode and apparently killing them all instead of holding them all away is preferable. 

Apparently sexual assault is funny if a woman forces herself on a man. If someone forces themselves on you without your consent, it is assault. It happened with Amy(while she was on her way to being married), it happened with River, it happened with Clara, it happened with Tasha Lem,  and it happened with Missy. It was not funny in absolutely any time, yet this immature fucking jackass always plays assault for laughs. If this were an older man forcing himself on a younger woman, there would be outrage. and the creepery of women who meet fully grown men as little girls falling hopelessly in love with that same grown man, usually throwing themselves at him and forcibly advancing on him.  And him sexualizing them when they're adults when literally like 5 minutes ago for him they were children, it’s really vile.

Moffat’s inability to break the New Who companion formula with Clara. When we were first introduced to Oswin Oswald, I sincerely thought we were finally getting a new type of companion, FINALLY a companion from the future and not just another modern girl from the UK. Then Oswin was revealed to be a Dalek and she died. Sad but I thought she was a great character and I really wanted her to start traveling with The Doctor, Oswin and Eleven had great chemistry and unfortunately it was wasted potential. Next, we get Victorian Clara. Finally, a companion from the past. Her story was so great and once again good chemistry with Eleven and once again I wanted Victorian Clara to travel with The Doctor and she dies. What happens next? We are once again forced to have a “the companion must be special to travel with The Doctor plot device” and we have Clara Oswald from modern UK. Okay, fuck you. You complete and utter fucking moron. Not every goddamn companion needs to be from the modern UK. The Doctor has traveled with companions from the past, from the future and even aliens, hell, two of his companions were Cybermen. The Doctor traveling with a companion from the past or future works. 

Moffat believes companions should only be female. Gee, it’s not like Ian Chesterton, Steven Taylor, Ben Jackson, Jamie McCrimmon, Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart, Mike Yates, John Benton, Harry Sullivan  Adric, Vislor Turlough, Mickey Smith, Captain Jack Harkness, Rory Williams and Danny Pink don’t exist or are important. Seriously fuck you, the male companions are just as important as the female companions. 

Death always being teased but never executed upon and made ultimately pointless in the end. Rory has been dying in three fucking seasons until he actually dies in series 7. His death in series 5 was actually great. Then, when Amy and Rory ACTUALLY die in Series 7, it makes absolutely no sense and there are so many plot holes around it, it can be avoidable and The Doctor could simply just travel to a different part of the country in the TARDIS and just go back to New York on plane or car. Their death is completely avoidable and comes off as Moffat saying “He can’t save them because shut up” The Doctor let Amy and Rory go at the end of series 6. That is all you had to do. LET THEM GO, their deaths were avoidable and if you wanted to write them off, let them go. The most interesting Claras died and the last Clara died but was stupidly brought back despite the fact that Clara was content with dying. Ashildr had a great death protecting her people and of course deus ex machina technology makes her immortal. Even Heather, a girl from one episode had a good emotional death, is brought back in the finale. Bill Potts had possibly the worst possible fate. Bill was shot and everyone was shocked. Like damn, Bill is dying and the next thing we know is she is being converted into a Cybermen and who knows The Doctor is being forced to deal with the fact that he led his friend to a fate far worse than death. The emotional pain is there...and it’s ruined. Bill is fine and gets a happy ending like Clara and Ashildr. River is dead AND WE ARE STILL NOT FUCKING FREE FROM RIVER SONG! I don’t know why the fandom perceives Moffat as bad as George R.R. Martin, Moffat is a coward when it comes to death and never sticks with death, everyone HAS to come back and the deaths for every companion is undone and makes their deaths and sacrifice completely pointless. The reason Adric dying worked SO WELL is because he stayed dead and Adric’s death was a sacrifice and it worked. If Moffat was headwriter for Earthshock, I’m pretty damn sure he would find a way to undo Adric’s death. Death has no consequences in Moffat’s Who.

Until Bill Potts, every companion ALWAYS had to be special because the plot demanded it. Amy was “the girl who waited” River was River and Clara was “The Impossible Girl” no one could be special cause they are special to The Doctor, they had to be related to the plot

Day Of The Doctor was not celebrating 50 years of Doctor Who. It celebrated New Who and The Time War. It only celebrates The Time War and Moffat’s Who. It makes Not only that, it makes it black and white, it makes The Daleks the true evil of The Time War and erases the culpability of The Time Lords. Remember  it wasn’t just the Daleks who were the cause of The War, it was The Time Lords themselves who started The Time War when they convinced Four to try and stop the Dalek creation in Genesis Of The Daleks, it’s very important to understand that it wasn’t black and white and make the Time Lords the innocent party. And Day Of The Doctor ignores that and ignores that Rassilon wanted to erase all life and make The Time Lords beings of higher consciousness at the cost of all life in the universe.  

Mishandling The Time War itself. Throughout series 1-4 The Time War was built up as this horrible war that was so horrible that if it did not end, it would’ve destroyed life itself. The Time War NEEDED  to be more than a generic Sci-Fi battle. in the novelization of the episode Rose, 

The Time War was meant to be bigger and more horrifying.“this wasn’t a fight like laser guns and spaceships and explosions, this was a filthy, stinking war that changed reality itself.” Instead, it became a generic Sci-Fi action movie. Instead of the enormous time-traveling, inconceivable concept that was painted. The Time War prior to the 50th was something that we COULD NOT CONCEPTUALIZE because it was not fight like a normal war, it spanned galaxies and time. The true tragedy of it wasn’t that the Daleks were going to destroy Gallifrey or Arcadia, it was that THE DALEKS AND TIME LORDS BOTH WERE RIPPING THE UNIVERSE APART WITH THEIR WEAPONS. You cannot show that. So instead, we got shitty action movie explosions. When I got real interested about the Time War before series 6, a fan trailer showed a concept that The Daleks wanted to capture the Eye Of Harmony and insinuated that the Daleks went to war with the Time Lords to gain Gallifrey’s resources so they can gain mastery over space and time. That alone is more compelling than “Daleks just wanna exterminate the Time Lords” it was lazy writing, even more so by portraying the Time Lords as the innocent party. The Time Lords tried to get The Fourth Doctor to stop their creation and The Seventh Doctor manipulated Davros into destroying Skaro. There is no innocent Time Lords, retconning their actions throughout classic who and ignoring Rassilon and the High Council’s plans was complete and utter lazy writing. Rassilon and the High Council were as scary and menacing as the Time Lords from War Games and  Rassilon was a fearsome genocidal demigod. Choosing to ignore that was seriously dumb. Let’s go over Moffat’s depiction of children of Gallifrey and how he portrays the Time Lords waging War. Ignoring the concept of looming is dumb. “children of Gallifrey” I was just so mad when I heard about this. looming made Time Lords more alien and it is an interesting portrayal of Time Lords being asexual. Ignoring that, the concept of Time Lord Children is really dumb, Time Lord children carry stuffed rabbits. Because Time Lords children = Human children. Oh wait. Then Moffat’s concept of how The Time Lords would wage war.  Time Lord soldiers have helmets.  Time Lord soldiers have helmets to protect them from the rubble. There is rubble.  Things are burning. No, I mean things are literally burning.  Things are burning because the Daleks are shooting ray guns and the Time Lords are shooting back using their super advanced … ray MACHINE guns!!!!  Just to remind the audience, the Time Lords are a superior race with power over time itself.  The Time Lord soldiers have walky-talkies. No really, they do.  When Time Lords make art, they make it in 3 dimensions.  When Time Lords make war, they make it in 3 dimensions.  “Have you ever thought what it’s like to be wanderers in the Fourth Dimension?” Masters of time and you decide to make them have ray-guns? This isn’t the fucking Terminator. And also, it ignores the fact that The Doctor witnessed Gallifrey burned. The way The Time Lords were portrayed in DOTD, was just lazy.     

Sonic Sunglasses. I believe that the sonic screwdriver needed a long break. It worked for Five-Seven so it would work for Twelve.  I like the sonic screwdriver but I hate how they constantly made Ten and Eleven dependent on it and turned it from a time lord device that can open any door to a magic wand that can perform a deus ex machina. What happens instead of Twelve relying on his intelligence and wit? He gets a downgrade and gets himself Sonic Shades. It worked like the screwdriver, with a few added bells and whistles to justify this downgrade.  One of the most noticeable problems with the glasses was that, unlike the screwdriver, their effects weren’t visible. Doctor Who is ordinarily a visual program that has always drawn attention to its colorful sci-fi/fantasy moments. Also, unlike the screwdriver they weren’t exclusive used by The Doctor, making them far less special. Clara, Ashildr and Osgood all donned the specs during the limited number of episodes in which they appeared. In series 10, the glasses committed their greatest sin. After the events in Oxygen rendered The Doctor blind, instead of having him deal with the extent of losing one’s vision, he popped on his magic glasses, thus cheapening the experience. While they didn’t restore his vision, the tech provided him with enough guidance to dramatically lessen the full extent of his blindness. Sadly, if the writers had allowed The Doctor to go 100% blind, the sheer vulnerability of such a powerful character could've made the Monk Trilogy a much stronger arc.

Hell Bent undid Clara’s sacrifice and made Day Of The Doctor completely pointless. Hell Bent STILL leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. All this mystery around The Hybrid and it was completely pointless. Gallifrey was completely wasted. We were given hope that The Doctor would see his home and his people again, but instead of The Doctor restoring Gallifrey, finding Susan, Romana, Leela and Ace again, Gallifrey is reduced to background noise and The Doctor doesn’t even care that he’s home. It was all just to bring back Clara. Clara was content on dying to save Rigsy. Clara paid for her mistakes by trying to emulate and be The Doctor. Heaven Sent was brilliant, it showed The Doctor trying to struggle without Clara, it was emotional and brilliant. Not only is her death undone and Gallifrey is reduced to background noises, Clara is rewarded by her actions by becoming a faux Doctor with a TARDIS and her own companion in Ashildr. This is the complete opposite of what should have happened. She gets rewarded for trying to become The Doctor when she shouldn’t be. She should be paying for it, that’s the whole point. Clara isn’t The Doctor, what makes her different is her primary strength and that’s why they need each other. Clara dying was the only good way to end this character and it ended up as a copout. It took her agency away and because Moffat could not let her go he had to bring her back, thus making Face The Raven and Day Of The Doctor completely pointless

Because Moffat STILL will not let River go, he has a portrait bigger than his own granddaughter’s Susan Foreman. There is no way within time and space that The Doctor will never believe River Song is more important than his own granddaughter. In my opinion, he should have picture frames of Rose, Jackie, Mickiem Jack, Martha and Donna, The Ponds and Clara along with Susan, but only River gets the big special picture. Fuck Moffat and his petty favoritism

Nardole For the majority of series 10, The Doctor was followed around by a cue-balled whiny crying cyborg known as Nardole. He first appeared in the 2015 Christmas episode with a purpose and then proceeded to just sort of hang out afterward with no discerning purpose. Then midway through series 10 in the episode Extremis, his purpose was explained. He was just a reminder that River Song is still there. We can’t be free of River no matter what and because of that we have to sit through this unbearable, annoying screaming robot. Kamelion is better than him and that should show you how bad Nardole is, but unlike Kamelion who had issues cause the robot malfunctioned and only lasted a few episodes,  we suffered through the entirety of series 10 because of Nardole.

Bad make up and giving away Simm!Master in the teaser ruined the reveal. The series 10 trailer spoiled that John Simm would return as The Master at some point. However, since he didn’t appear in the first ten episodes, it became a given that’s he’d appear sometime during the two-part series finale. And while they might have been saving him for part two, it was likely they’d want to utilize him for the entire story arc. So with all that in mind, a character that looked and sounded like John Simm in heavy makeup appeared about 15 minutes into the penultimate episode, The World Enough and Time. Some viewers may have been as shocked as The Doctor and Missy were by the reveal, but it could’ve been handled better. Simm did his part by disguising his voice and mannerisms. Yet it feels like a lost opportunity with an easy enough fix, if anybody had cared. The whole thing could’ve been avoided by either not including The Master in the trailer, or by disguising Simm in even more makeup and prosthetics.

Ignoring Simm!Master’s character arc in End Of Time. I don’t like End Of Time for a majority of reasons, but even I understand that Simm!Master had an arc in End Of Time. Sure, he mostly wanted revenge for what Rassilon’s done to him, but he still saved The Doctor, he considered The Doctor’s offer and had a realization that maybe he doesn’t have to be bad. Simm!Master had sane moments in his insanity which all had in some way the Doctor involved, showing him listening, with tears in his eyes. And in The Doctor Falls, he is completely unchanged. Acts as if the character arc never happened, Simm!Master is sexist for no reason.  Time Lords have no real concept of gender inequality. The Master had respect for Jo Grant, Nyssa, Tegan and Martha Jones and never harbored sexist attitude for them, he had ill feelings as an enemy, that’s it. Made to hate the Doctor so much he’d rather die than standing with him - Ignoring the fact that’s exactly what he did in The End of Time Part 2 and also the fact that the Master’s main goal over everything else was always his own survival. So he dies unredeemable, learns nothing, uncaring asshole, and completely disregards his character development in "The End of Time and all just to make Missy look good.

Missy had no reason for wanting to change and my annoyance at the name change. I don’t see or understand why Missy wanted to change. Obviously they are gonna give her a redemption story for...reasons. What are the reasons you might ask?...Shut up. Well, we obviously need her to fight her demons so why not give her absolutely no reason to want to change (except “I want my friend back” which apparently wasn’t enough reason for any other Master) I seriously do not understand why Missy would want to change. Missy/Master would want to fight a common foe with The Doctor and later betray The Doctor later and their game would go on as it always goes. Missy had no motivation, every chance The Doctor gave her, she always went back to her old ways. Missy’s “change” simply comes off as “let’s praise Missy She’s changed!! Why? Who cares. Motivation? Character development? Nuances? I can’t do that, I can only create a contrast between new and old so crass, everyone will see the change! Shut up and stop asking questions!” If Missy returns, I want  them to stop calling her Missy. Call her The Master. The Master chose their name like The Doctor, I’m pretty sure they would not change it because The Master changed genders. You don’t just change that name. She can very well still call herself The Master, there is no reason why, they cannot call her The Master. Changing gender is not a reason to change the title The Master chose to be called as such as they believe they can rule and subjugate the universe. But The Master should at the very least return as a villain, despite the forced change.

The Daleks and Cybermen are misused and overpowered. The problem with the Daleks is that Moffat has no idea what he wants to do with them. This video explains it perfectly. When the Daleks returned in series 5, they returned with an awful new look but they are still the biggest threat in the universe and the emotional trauma and hatred with the Doctor is there. Then, The Daleks go away and nothing is done with them. In series 7, Asylum Of The Daleks they return. They are not treated like the unstoppable force they were once in Classic Who or in Davies’ Who or even in Victory Of The Daleks. They are instead treated like another monster of the week. It’s not a big deal for The Doctor to face them anymore, he doesn’t seem to have any kind of reaction to them still operating or prospering in the universe. So now with no explanation Skaro is apart of the universe again despite the fact that it was destroyed in Remembrance of the Daleks,  there is a Dalek parliament, thousands of them exist, they have their own asylum(apparently the Daleks are too scared of their own malfunctioning Daleks) and they have death camps. Dalek death camps and The Doctor doesn’t care. Dalek death camps and The Doctor has no reaction to nor does he want to help anyone in the camps. While the execution of Evolution of The Daleks wasn’t very good, Dalek Sec was right that the purity of the Daleks would always destroy them in the end and must change if they are to survive, but that is no longer relevant. The tone of the Dalek appearances after Victory Of The Daleks shows their menace is no longer there. The Doctor goes from being enraged and consumed by grief by seeing The Daleks, to not feeling anything nor caring that the Daleks having death camps across the universe. The Rusty thing just didn’t work. The only thing that did work was the “you are a good Dalek” line. The Daleks have lost their menace and if The Doctor doesn’t care or show any fear or hatred towards them, then why should we as an audience care? As for the Cybermen. The problem is they are just the Cybus Cybermen with the symbol removed, the same monotone “DELETE” the only difference is they are too overpowered and well they are apparently Iron Man now thanks to the Nightmare In Silver all rocket boots and detachable limbs and superspeed. In  Dark Water/Death in Heaven they are nothing but Missy’s slaves with no autonomy of their own rather than a true force to be feared. It hasn’t helped that more often than not, modern Doctor Who has repeatedly decided the only way to beat the Cybermen is to overwhelm them with the power of love, a trope the show falls back on far too often. What made the Cybermen scary in Classic Who is when they were first envisioned, they were meant to be a chilling extrapolation of what creators Dr. Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis saw as the future of prosthetics and cosmetic surgery, humankind chopping bits of itself until what was left was more machine than man. Only their very first incarnation, the Mondasian Cybermen has ever tangibly captured the gruesome, tragic roots that sit at the heart of the concept behind them as monsters. Tomb Of The Cybermen also showed them as a true threatening monstrosities.  So when the Mondasian Cybermen do return, Bill is converted and what happens? Bill retains consciousness and apparently it’s not enough to have the Mondasian Cybermen, Moffat just HAS to bring back his overpowered Iron Man knock off Cybermen. No true and utterly terrifying new designs, just the overpowered Metallic Gary Stu Iron Man Cybus Cybermen. So as usual Moffat has a genius idea and manages to ruin it in the end.  

Moffat’’s sexist garbage ruined The First Doctor in Twice Upon A Time. I have seen EVERY First Doctor serial and One is not sexist at all. I get it, the sixties were a different time, Since the First Doctor was of that era, he wanted the audience to laugh at how different things were back then. Especially with the constantly horrified reactions of Twelve at his former’s self’s behavior. So what’s the problem? Short answer, it’s because the First Doctor wasn’t like that. Not even remotely.  And this is the story that takes place before One’s regeneration, apparently Moffat doesn’t care about all the character development One went through with Ian and Barbara, he just wanted bad humor that goes against One’s character just so he can appear as the better party “see? My Doctor is better than Classic Who” no, asshole, The First Doctor was not at all like that One wasn’t a walking ball of sexism, he was a curmudgeonly grumpy old space grandpa who lightened up with his first human contact, grew warmer and closer to them and learned to help rather than… eh.. smash people’s skulls with rocks.

The real problem with Moffat is that  Moffat is a good writer, capable of being a great one at times, but a terrible showrunner. Steven Moffat was a man who in the beginning had some marvelous ideas, and much like another BBC writer Terry Nation. When writing scripts once or twice a year were completely brilliant, but when stretched to almost write an entire series single handed, the outcome suffered. Doctor Who used to be a show full of heart, courage, emotion, character driven, cared more about the heart of the show and character than the concept of the over-complicated plot that will eventually be dropped at the end of the series. And honestly sometimes Moffat’s fans sound like Rick And Morty fans “To be fair, you have to have a very high IQ to understand Moffat’s Doctor Who." that’s what most of y'all sound like.  After watching the teaser for series 11, I am finally really excited for Doctor Who. It feels like everything it used to be, everything that made Classic and Davies’ Who great. 13 and her new friends I cannot wait and finally it feels like Doctor Who

[pooma-unvolunteers]

VALUE-BASED EDUCATION VERSUS INTELLECTUAL-BASED EDUCATION: THE MYTH

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The term “education” has broader meaning and concepts. It is a manifestation within, and a journey of transformation that makes one best of the best in society in terms of knowledge, purity, love, happiness, peace, bliss and power.

Education is a balance of knowledge and wisdom. One ought to be mindful that knowledge without wisdom is more or less like a driver without control. Such a situation could lead to disaster.

The moral value-based education is life-relevant that enables one to explore self-identity. Real education begins from our home and that determines our personality.

Furthermore, education essentially means expanding horizons, which helps enlarge the scope of life.

Bertrand Russell in one of his essays “Knowledge and Wisdom” says the purpose of education should not be only making students acquire knowledge but should also help them to become more insightful.

Knowledge is not power. What is the difference between a person who cannot read and a person who can but does not read? As Ben Franklin said, “Not a whole lot”. Learning is like eating. How much you eat does not matter; what matters is how much you digest.

Knowledge is potential power; wisdom is real power. Education has always had two objectives: on the one hand to give skill, and on the other, to impart wisdom. The role of skill has become much larger than it used to be and is increasingly threatening to oust wisdom.

Although scientific skill is necessary, it is by no means sufficient.

A dictatorship of men of science would very soon become horrible; skill without wisdom may prove to be purely destructive. For this reason it is of great importance that those who receive a scientific education should not be merely scientific but should be insightful with wisdom. If you wish to secure adequate prosperity for the whole human race, science will tell you what you must do. But it will not tell you whether one of these ends is more desirable than another.

Nor will it give you that instinctive understanding of human beings that is necessary if your measures are not to arouse fierce opposition which only ferocious tyranny can quell. It cannot teach you patience, sympathy and sense of human dignity. These things in so far as they can be taught in formal education are most likely to emerge from the learning of history and great literature.

Today, education has become so suppressive. The whole education system as it is right now could in many ways be totally destructive to human beings. Why dozens of children commit suicide? Because of their failure to get good grades? It is simply because of the way education is delivered. Some teachers have strong judgmental attitude and they discriminate against students on the ground of grades.

Similarly, parents’ continued pressure on their children to perform “better than others” constantly puts extra pressure on young minds, resulting in depression and low self-esteem. The most important thing to understand in this context is every child is special. It is teachers’ duty to explore students’ subject of interest and encourage them to do best in that particular field. Parents then should work to brush up their children’s talent without exerting pressure on them.

In that course, we should strive to make education life-relevant. According to Steven Muller, president, Johns Hopkins University, universities are turning out highly skilled barbarians because we don’t provide a framework of values to young people, who more and more are searching for it.

Intellectual education influences value-based education with fundamental traits of character such as honesty, compassion, courage, persistence and responsibility.

A person who is morally educated will be a lot better equipped to move up in life than a morally bankrupt person with excellent qualification.

In a nutshell, educated persons are those who remain wise and courageous under all circumstances. If they choose between wisdom over foolishness, good over bad, virtue over vulgarity—regardless of the academic degrees they have—then they are educated.

Value-based education influences the heart and intellectual education influences head. In fact, education that does not train the heart can be dangerous.

If we want to build character in our offices, home and society, we must have qualities like character, commitment, conviction, courtesy, courage, and most importantly positive attitude.

Cosmos Ennu Kwaw

UN Educationist, Ghana

B.Ed, M.Ed, ADR(Cert), L.L.B

[the-record-columns]

Jan. 15, 2020: Columns

Magic in plain sight...

By KEN WELBORN

Record Publisher

During the first week of January of each year, the N.C. Association of Agricultural Fairs has a meeting in the Raleigh/Durham area to preview acts, hold seminars, and generally have a great time catching up with old friends and making new ones.

The Rotary Club of North Wilkesboro as you know, has put on the Wilkes Agricultural Fair for the past 40 or so years and the club's Fair Manager, Mike Staley, and me attend the event.

This year was a very special one for our trip as the Wilkes Agricultural Fair received a statewide award from the association in the area of Innovation for the clubs "Wednesday at the Fair."  On this day, the club opens the fair at 10 a.m., and hosts over 500 Special Needs children, adults and their caregivers for their special day at the fair.  At this past September’s fair, the Rotary Club served 600 meals at the Special Needs Children event.  At last week’s meeting, club President Teresa Minton and Staley recognized Rotarian Jim Beckwith for his 27 years of managing the Children's Day event.

The fair convention is a truly special event—you can literally book a full three-ring circus for your kids birthday party if you've got the money.  Both ends of the banquet hall had vendor booths and entertainment venue displays for the attendees to browse and folks to speak with.  At each meal, two or three acts would do a brief "showcase" to highlight their particular act or venue and I want to share a bit about one of them today.

This couple was new to the Fair Convention, a pair of Illusionists named Reed and Ashton Masterson.  Their showcase event did several sleight of hand and disappearing tricks and was very well received by the audience of convention goers.  But it was later in the day as I perused the various booths that I had my eyes opened.

There was a slow spell about mid-afternoon, and I was in the banquet/exhibit hall looking around.  After stopping by Michael Garners Gold Medal Popcorn booth and getting a box o the best popcorn in the world--no exaggeration--I stopped to visit with the Mastersons.  He was petting a dove he had literally took care of before she hatched--and yes, he could tell the girls from the boys.  After a few minutes, Reed asked me if I would like to se a few tricks.

"Of course," I replied and he put the dove away and began to amaze me.  He did things I simply couldn't believe--and I was standing less than a foot away from him--not 50 feet like at the lunchtime showcase they put on.  But the one that I liked best was a card trick--sort of.  Reed showed me a deck of cards, fanning them out.  I figured they were all marked, but I was still interested.  He then handed me a black Sharpie marking pen, like the one in the photo with this column. 

I held it, turned it over and noted the logo on both sides of the barrel of the pen.  He then started fanning the deck of cards and told me to say when to stop.  I did and pulled a card out and held it next to my stomach with my hand covering it completely.  He then held the Sharpie and asked me to give him the card being careful not to let him see which one it was.

I did and he placed the card on the barrel of the pen like the one in the photo and began to slide the card down the barrel of the pen.  To my amazement, it did not read Sharpie any more, but instead clearly read Six of Clubs.  He flipped the card over and, you're right, it was the Six of Clubs.

I will admit to being a simple guy, but I was less than a foot away from him.  I touched the pen and it was dry--as though manufactured with the Six of Clubs on it.  Blew me away.

I couldn't help but remember one of the late Bob Gresham's favorite expressions, "How doooo they do that?"

 Immigration: Is the ‘Melting Pot’ separating?

By AMBASSADOR EARL COX and KATHLEEN COX

Special to The Record

Many reading this article will recall being taught to understand America as a “melting pot” – a blending of cultures, faiths, hopes and aspirations which, when fully combined, resulted in a delicious American pie where the sum total was more desirable than any of its individual parts. This was during a time when America was proudly defined as a “Christian” nation.  However, faith is no longer a key component of America’s identity.  So, what does it mean to be American?  What defines America’s national soul? It may be possible to begin forming an answer by asking another question, “What does it mean to be Israeli?” 

Since the beginning of time, Israel has had to fight just to exist. Many times throughout history the Jews were pushed to the precipice and on the brink of extinction.  In AD 70, the armies of Rome destroyed the Temple of Jerusalem, seized the city and captured the entire nation.  A small band of Jewish revolutionaries fled to Masada where they took their last stand.  Other Jews were left to wander the earth settling in foreign lands and among foreign people. So, how did they manage to stay identifiably connected when separated geographically from their fellow kinsmen?  It’s because they retained, whether naturally or supernaturally, a common thread - their Jewish faith and therefore their Jewish heritage and identity. 

In 1948, Israel was reborn as a nation.  Prior to and ever since, the Jews have been returning to their homeland in droves from every corner of the earth.  Today, Israel is fighting hard for their right to exist as a Jewish state.  Those Jews making Aliyah (immigrating) to Israel are from France, Germany, Ethiopia, Spain, Nigeria, Australia, Uganda, China, Japan, the Americas, Russia and just about every other place on the map.  Yes, they are bringing with them their various cultural identities, but they are embracing and strengthening that which unites them as a nation – their Jewish faith and heritage.  And, they are learning and adopting their ancient and once common language, Hebrew. 

Ironically, the concept of America being a “melting pot” was created back in 1909 by a British Jew who wrote a play about a fictional Russian-Jewish immigrant intent on moving to the United States after his family died violently in an anti-Semitic riot in Russia.  It dramatized how people around the world were aspiring to come to America because it was a place that offered promise and possibility.  It was a place where diverse cultures blended in a joyful marriage forming a public national identity called “American.”  But, what does this mean today? 

At the turn of the century, the answer would have been similar to defining what it means to be Israeli.  Americans were a people who culturally identified as believing in God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and who viewed the practice of Christianity as the hub of the wheel.  After all, America’s first immigrants arrived on her shores seeking a place of refuge from religious persecution.  

But, in today’s world, definitions are becoming blurred. America’s growing population is viewed in terms of multiculturalism void of any common core identity. People from a great number of ethnic and religious backgrounds have set up shop in the United  States.  The common threads which once held us together as a nation and formed the foundation upon which “united we stand,” are being stretched to the brink and are unraveling.  We’ve diluted or deleted our core values in favor of “y’all come.” 

America is plagued by great divisions among her people and leaders.  Immigration is a very important issue requiring vision, foresight, maturity and agreement in order to formulate a solution.  Yes, we welcome “the tired, the poor and the huddled masses yearning to be free,” but we must have clear guidelines and safeguards. Not everyone who comes to America has good intentions. Many even distain our Western culture and reject our traditional values. For instance, to whom do those immigrating pledge their allegiance?  For Muslims, their first allegiance is to Allah.  What does this mean should America be forced to fight against an Islamic foe?  Will we be undermined from within much like the story of the Trojan horse?  It is for this very reason that Israel will not compromise on her right to exist as a Jewish state nor give an inch on the Palestinian demand for the fictitious “right of return.” They know the dangers inherent in, “y’all come.”   ”We the people” must agree on what it means to be an American and understand what we would be fighting for and against should the situation arise. There are already a few Trojan ponies feeding in U.S. government stables. When election time rolls around, cast your vote as though America’s very existence depended on it ... because it does. 

Radio Talk

By CARL WHITE

Life in the Carolinas

It was a good week to talk with storytellers. We had an on-camera visit with Francene Marie Morris, better known as Francene Marie on the Beasley Broadcasting (formerly CBS Radio) stations in the Charlotte Region. With 23 years in the broadcast industry, she has clearly established herself as an extraordinaire storyteller for a broad and diverse audience.

The Francene Marie Show is on multiple stations and brings to life community stories that are important to almost everyone. People in the broadcast are unique, they see life a bit different than others do

When you spend much of your wakening hours developing stories around the lives of others, over time you see and hear just about everything. The good and the bad.

I have great admiration for radio people because they bring everything to life with words and sounds. TV people have the benefit of the visual. However, radio people are faced with the task of captivating listeners with their voice talents and the drama support of suitable music.

On-air talents often make their way out of the studio for community events. It’s all about connecting with listeners and further building the relationship. Sometimes it’s for a sponsor, and sometimes it’s for charity. No matter the reason entertainment is undoubtedly the objective.

Francene is not one to shy away from the public appearance. She has a solid foundation; her mother was an elementary school teacher and classical pianist. While Francene learned many things from her mother, the piano was not among them. However, she did learn to present herself properly.

This awareness served her well as she became a model and eventually discovered the broadcast world. Born in Illinois, later lived in Kansas City Missouri, where with much delight she discovered BBQ which she says, “must be ribs.” Francine ultimately moved to the Charlotte area where she found the radio business.

While she has not interviewed everyone in the Carolinas the numbers are in the thousands. It’s a Who’s Who list of community people. Her guest love being on her show and I am glad we showed up with cameras to share a bit of her story.

As it turns out our editor for the segment on Francene Marie also has an 18-year history in Radio Broadcast. Tim Vogel first set behind the big board at the age of 13. He would work part-time while in school and later full time.

Tim shared the story of meeting Charlie Daniels at a performance the station was sponsoring. That meeting would come in handy when Tim was at WHHO AM/FM in Hornell, NY. Tim pitched the station manager on an idea for a show. He was given the go ahead if he could sell the show to advertisers.

With this challenge, Tim went to work on producing his first show. He called Charlie Daniels and asked him to be in the show, he said yes. The studio call was made, the planned 30-minute call turned into 3 hours. Tim said they just talked and talked, it was when Charlie was working on the Blue Moon Album.

The recording was not a digital file like today, it was on Reel to Reel and editing was done with a razor blade and tape. A 30-minute show as produced, and the advertisers loved it. Tim was forever hooked on the creative process, and I am glad.

We have many friends in the Radio world, and it is a beautiful part of the Carolinas. There is something for everyone. While things have changed a great voice is hard to beat.  

Thank You Francene for the great stories.

Signing off till next time.  

 Carl White is the Executive Producer and Host of the award-winning syndicated TV show Carl White’s Life In The Carolinas. The weekly show is now in its 10th year of syndication and can be seen in the Charlotte market on WJZY Fox 46 Saturday’s at noon and My40. The show also streams on Amazon Prime. For more information visit www.lifeinthecarolinas.com. You can email Carl at Carl@lifeinthecarolinas.com.

[melblogsgfreethruptsd]

Asperger's vs. Narcissism There continues to be debate in the psychiatric community regarding the differences between Asperger's and Narcissism, and many have been positing that Narcissism belongs on the Autistic spectrum. Asperger's syndrome is a high functioning for of autism; you may know people personally who have it and not be able to tell, because they actually are "normal" people who happen to also be on the spectrum. (There are many who also believe autism to be a genetic difference and not a "disorder" in and of itself; I'm personally one of them.) To be clear, a key difference between Asperger's/Autism and Narcissism is that even with apparent lower empathy cognition, a person on the Autism spectrum is generally capable of learning and improving their empathic skills and abilities, as well as how to treat others, and learning why. They may not learn it easily like a non-autistic person might, but when they do learn it, they tend to "get it" and do it, and often with a much deeper understanding of the how and why than the average person. When they understand the reasons behind it, they will be apt to follow through. And they typically LACK the desire to FAKE empathy, fairness, care, courtesy and kindness, unlike most non-autistics. Those with Narcissism, on the other hand, tend to see faking as a SKILL and an asset. They also tend to see social interaction as a MEANS to an END, for their personal benefit. They tend to actually believe they're not only superior to others, but that others DESERVE TO BE MISTREATED because of their "inferiority". (And this is regardless of their position in work or life; and their "inferiority" labeling includes children, the elderly, and the sick or disabled.). When they don't get their way (with anything), they aren't just frustrated like ASD, they're enraged and feel "victimized", and will often plot revenge against whom they think has "victimized" them. This is part of their entitlement problem. Narcissists don't just want to be treated with consideration, respect and care, they want to be seen as ABOVE and SUPERIOR to others (naturally and intrinsically), and therefore deserving of MORE of everything than others, especially attention, praise, privilege, money, special care, and authority, (Most on the Autism spectrum don't even realize others think this way, nevermind think it themselves; they tend to want to be treated with genuine respect, courtesy and consideration, as well as deserved credit, but not more than is reasonable or due; This is where a lot of people get confused who don't have a good grasp on boundaries, fairness, or consideration of others; they tend to see the Autistic person who is standing up for themselves against unfair or poor treatment as the same as a self-centered person demanding extra attention, privilege, control or praise. But those who have firm boundaries and healthy confidence are well able to see the difference.) The Narcissistic don't WANT to learn about the reasons for fair, courteous or kind social interaction or empathy, because they don't CARE, and actually tend to believe it's a "weakness". (Which is obviously another cognition problem). They also think of learning about "people-stuff" as something they only need to do in order to better manipulate others or gain for themselves... and further, they think of kindness and fairness as BURDENSOME. ALSO~ The talent, skill and ability the Narcissist possesses is his or her ticket to the SPOTLIGHT and the NUMBER ONE SPOT. They tend to have contempt for others who share their abilities, and toward those who have abilities they don't. They don't want to have KINDRED SPIRITS, they want to be the ONE AND ONLY who gets all the accolades. They're "spotlight whores", but their lack of self-awareness will actually cause them to believe they're being VICTIMIZED by those who have recognition-worthy ability, just by existing. The only exceptions to their desire for the number one spot would be one of their "idols", whether they know the person in real life or not. But after a while, the Narcissist is likely to compete against them too. This is very different from most on the Autism spectrum who only want consideration and DUE credit regarding their special interests, talents and accomplishments. And they're typically INTERESTED IN those who have similar interests, not contemptuous or envious. One similarity is that both Narcissists and Autistic people can become enthralled with a person they admire, especially those who are famous, and associate themselves with the person. But there is still a difference; the Narcissist will tend to believe he or she deserves star treatment from those around them because of their similarity to the famous person, while the Autistic person is simply fascinated by the person or their work, but doesn't expect others to SEE them as that person's associate, twin, or "brother from another mother". Both autistic people and Narcissists are inclined toward bias for one sex over the other, (not all), but those on the Autism spectrum are mostly capable of learning and understanding MORE about bias and false stereotypes, and adjusting their beliefs and behavior with their knowledge ~ while Narcissists will typically stay firmly in their biases, especially when they use the biases in their culture for control and domination. Autistic people are also inclined to GIVE credit where it's due when they recognize it, ...whereas Narcissists tend to try to SABOTAGE those who deserve due credit, and sabotage the goals, work, reputation and career of others, and may also often try to STEAL the work of others and claim the credit for themselves. (Most on the Autism spectrum would be appalled by those behaviors.) Basically, autistic people are capable of humility and what comes with it, as well as empathy, for most, even if they need to consciously learn the social interactions and the reasons behind them. ~While for the most part, Narcissists avoid anything to do with humility and anything that's related to it, even to the point of trying to twist it into something that gives them more popularity, prestige, power or other gain. You can't trust a Narcissist, but you can usually trust an Autistic person once you've formed a relationship with them and they trust you. ~~~ There are obvious differences between Asperger's and Narcissism that are apparently being ignored. Even if a person can have both, it's still an important distinction, probably moreso. ~~~ Additionally: One of the problems with putting Narcissism on the Autistic Spectrum is that there will be a VERY high risk for clinicians as well as lay people to lump Narcissism in with the rest of the Autistic spectrum. In other words~ there will probably be a LOT of people who will categorize anyone on the Autistic spectrum as having Narcissism. This is obviously very dangerous. Ironically, (or not so ironically), Autistic people including those with Asperger's seem to be walking triggers for people with Cluster B Personality Disorders such as Narcissism, most likely because: ~ those on the Autism spectrum are typically either non-responsive to manipulation and intimidation ploys and social signals (which are common for those with Cluster B P.Ds), which means they just keep on trucking in spite of others' attempts to bully, control, and thwart them (this enrages manipulators and intimidators) ~ or they easily notice such social signals and behaviors and "call them out", thereby exposing them and the person doing it (also enrages manipulators and intimidators) ~ or they are easily manipulated by others because they believe others are "good", but react with anger and strength when they realize what's been going on. (also enrages manipulators and intimidators) Also, those on the Autism spectrum are prone to being more focused than the average person, and often have certain intensified abilities, talents or skills, (gifts), or a combination of them. This of course also "triggers" envy, jealousy, resentment and even rage in many with Cluster B Personality Disorder traits. Even further, those on the Autism spectrum often DO NOT follow along with the "gender cues" that others follow in their culture. It's not that they have sexuality issues, it's just that they simply don't follow along with others regarding stereotypes or social roles, because they don't see the point, nor why people expend time and energy on it. They typically don't think about it muich; they simply are the sex that they are, and they can have a hard time understanding why anyone would try to "prove" which sex they are to others with behaviors, jobs or appearance, since it's already pretty obvious without any of those things. This eschewing or ignoring of gender expectations within a culture easily triggers those who use gender stereotypes and expectations to navigate social situations OR to control and manipulate others. (For example, a heterosexual, masculine-looking man who styles women's hair or runs a daycare, or a heterosexual, small-framed woman who does construction, fixes cars or Th People who have "high-functioning Autism" appear mostly "normal" to both the average person AND to those who lack empathy function, so their "differences" are often misinterpreted severely as intentional and about the other person. (Also common in Cluster B Personality Disorders, especially Narcissism; everything others say and do is taken as being about them or affecting them, so even what another person does for work, or what another person eats, or how they arrange their own bedroom or wear their hair will be taken as "affecting" the Narcissist or being ABOUT the Narcissist.) ~ The point about Cluster B's (especially the Narcissistic) being easily triggered by the mere presence of a person on the Autism spectrum, often EVEN IF THEY DON'T KNOW THE PERSON HAS AUTISM, means that those with Narc. traits in the Mental Health and Medical field (and there are plenty), will be VERY LIKELY to diagnose a person on the Spectrum with Narcissism Disorder, because it's a stigmatized disorder that, in their mind, would give them an excuse to mistreat the patient. And whenever a psychiatric diagnosis becomes stigmatized in the psychiatric field, it becomes stigmatized in the entire mental health field, and then in the PUBLIC with lay people, including family members, communities, and the MEDIA. Paranoid thinking? Catastrophizing? Not at all. This stigmatization and poor treatment has already been going on for decades with those who have been diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia. Not only are patients OFTEN MISDIAGNOSED with one of these illnesses, but the diagnosis is often used to "label" the patient "defective" or even "inferior" or "bad", by both health field workers and lay people in their lives. And then used as an excuse to treat them poorly. ~ It's possible, and probable, that those on the Autism spectrum are better able than non-Autistics to communicate what autistic people are actually LIKE, and what they each think and feel. Rather than non-autistics in the mental health fields appointing themselves as authorities on the subject. It would be great if the same could be said for Narcissistic people, to describe what it's like and how they think, but Sam Vaknins are rare; most Ns will simply say and do whatever they think will get them more of what they want, including more power, money or recognition, and what will help them avoid consequences and criticism. Regardless of the field they're in. ~ S.J.Cole

Stella James Cole, Facebook.com

[spryfilm]

“The Mist” (2017)

Fantasy/Horror

10 Episodes

Produced by: Guy J. Louthan and Amanda Segel

Featuring: Morgan Spector, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Luke Cosgrove, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner and Frances Conroy

An unexplained mist slowly envelops the city of Bridgton, Maine, creating an almost impenetrable barrier to visibility. The residents of the town soon learn the situation is even more precarious as hidden within the mist are numerous monsters of various sizes that attack and kill anything that moves.

Episode Four: “Pequod”

Directed by: T.J. Scott

Cinematographer: André Pienaar

Episode Five: “The Waiting Room”

Directed by: Richard Laxton

Cinematographer: André Pienaar

Episode Six: “The Devil You Know”

Directed by: James Hawes

Cinematographer: André Pienaar

Episode Seven: “Over the River and Through the Woods”

Directed by: Matthew Penn

Cinematographer: André Pienaar

All I could think while watching these four episodes of the television show “The Mist” was, does Stephen King like this series or is it something he does not care about or for. The reason for my thinking is that this is not a good episodic television show at all, which I think the channel as well as the producers know as you can almost see their thinking within these four parts – attempting to right a ship that is most of the way under the surface.

The narrative and plot have not changed from my initial review, although there is a part of one episode that has some hastily looking shot flashback scenes involving Eve and Jay as well as Jay’s brother that hints at some early strife between the couple caused by some comments from the community as well as an unruly past – it is a vain attempt to humanize both principal characters as the story they are involved in within the ‘present’ is going nowhere fast – you can’t blame the mist for that.

After watching seven episodes my main concern as well as critique of the show is that I am really unsure of what it wants to be. My second issue is the quality of the acting, which is not great, in some cases I feel like I am watching a melodramatic soap opera. Now, I realize that all television drama no matter the genre includes elements of melodrama, comedy as well as some kind of real actual human emotion. There are some television shows that are able to over time deliver some meaningful insights into the human condition, politics as well as something about the world we live in. This show finds itself self important as well as taking what was an absolutely great idea and premise but fails to deliver any kind of result that would give some reason as to why this show exists.

After seven of the most uneventful episodes we are no closer to discerning what the mist of the story is than when it started. This in itself does not have to be a make or break aspect of the television show, but with uninspiring characters as well as even more uninspired actors, exceptionally mismanaged tropes, the audience needs something to hang its hat onto – because at this stage we have nothing. I feel the need to compare this show to the movie of the same name, even less than a quarter into that film there was some kind of explanation about the phenomenon and where it possibly originated from – if only we even had a hint of where this mist came from it would keep me interested, but I am going to finish the season then see where it ends up – I am not expecting a second season at this stage.

It is unfair to compare the film “The Mist” (2007) to this version of the same short story, that film was written and directed by one of the supreme talents to ever translate not just one Stephen King work to the screen, but multiple ones, successfully as well as Oscar nominated. However when you do decide to take a work already translated to the screen you had better have a great idea as well as an even better execution of that idea – this show has neither.

It even began to play on my mind that perhaps “The Mist” film had not been as great as I remembered, so I went back after watching seven episodes of this, viewing the  black & white version just to test myself. I can tell you now that even with a relatively minor budget (US$18 million) some extremely ropey special effects it is not only one of the greatest horror films this century but one of the great King films ever produced. The main reason I love this film is because it is about fear, plain and simple. The fear of the unknown as well as the known, the fear of how we live as well as how we want to live, it was about the environment in which it was made, it can also be seen as the environment that we live in now.

Why mention all of this? Simply put, this series has nothing to say, at all, about anything. Actually scratch that, it does have things to say but most of them are hollow, vacuous, and meaningless as well as being a small part dangerous. Wait did you say dangerous? Yes I did and it’s all about the ‘Episode One’ revelation of the possible rape of Alex by Adrian that has not yet been resolved, I don’t think it ever will be. What this storyline, which is endemic of the show, is saying is that a girl is raped but the event is so small and overshadowed that it will not be a big deal if she is not only trapped with her rapist but she flirts with him, invites him to stay with her, then seems to want to be with him. That seems to be a male fantasy played out large on the small screen, one that should be killed in its tracks – just for the record there is one female writer on staff out of eight, and people wonder where these sexist storylines come from. There is also the storyline involving Eve about her ‘sordid’ past which is so hokey it hurts, either she is being slut shamed by her small town, or being conniving and gung ho about her situation, there is no realism to her or her family. These are just needless sexist archetypes that shouldn’t exist in modern horror or television; they are lazy as well as pathetic attempts to make audiences feel certain ways as well as offering titillation where none should exist.

While the look of the show should be commended the locations of the shoot as well as the sets themselves are fairly amateurish, they look like they were put together by school children working on a project for school. There is no feeling of world building or an authentic small town feeling to it. Almost all sets are one level, the mall is the worst, the people there are low on food but I don’t think I have ever seen a mall that did not have a supermarket attached to it, especially when almost everyone refers to the mall, it must be the major shopping center. I am not going to go into all the plot holes and inconsistencies, as this would be superfluous, its just safe to say that if you have not watched this series yet or were going to I would give it a miss.

“The Mist” is streaming now on Netflix.

Frances Conroy stars as Nathalie Raven a modern day ecological martyr and prophet with a little knowledge and a lot of faith in Spike TVs THE MIST, based on a story by Stephen King, which premieres on Thursday, June 22 at 10 PM, ET/PT.

Eve Copeland (Alyssa Sutherland) r tries to protect her daughter Alex (Gus Birney) l safe from the dangers both inside and outside the mall when a mysterious mist arrives in their Maine town in Spike TV’s THE MIST, from a story by Stephen King. Episode 3 of THE MIST airs on Thursday, July 6 at 10 pm ET/PT.

Streaming review: “The Mist” (2017 – ) “The Mist” (2017) Fantasy/Horror 10 Episodes Produced by: Guy J. Louthan and Amanda Segel Featuring: Morgan Spector, Alyssa Sutherland, Gus Birney, Danica Curcic, Okezie Morro, Luke Cosgrove, Darren Pettie, Russell Posner and Frances Conroy…

[jessecoody-blog]

Jesse Coody Shared: 10 Sure Ways to Attract People to You

Jesse Coody: Every time I've bought this subject up in conversation, there has been disbelief that it can actually been done. On the other hand, whenever it's been scheduled in a seminar, the module has taken longer than anticipated. Here are what the highest earning professionals do that you may not be doing.

1. Focus Your Attention on the Other Person

Everyone wants to be the centre of attention. To focus all of your attention onto another may not be possible. However, great results can be achieved if you only make people feel special in your presence. Most people love to talk about themselves. So ask questions that cause people to tell you about their passions and problems. If you do, it will enhance the possibility of them becoming attracted to you - and you already know how that's done. Try to understand others from their point of view. Ask them about their children, careers, hobbies, what they like to read and what they do in their spare time. Whenever you get people to reveal their private world to you, they become more confident in your presence, and in most cases you'll be considered a terrific conversationalist - and consequently, be thought of as a very attractive person to be near.

2. Compliment People and Their Abilities

Pay people sincere compliments and then acknowledge the compliment. Here's a way you can make it work for you. Say you compliment an associate about some new office furniture they just bought. Most of us would probably say, "Your new furniture looks good and suits the office." On the other hand, the professional that understands the power of complementing the individual would say something like this. "Your new furniture looks great and really suits the office. I think you have a natural talent for decorating. But you've never taken decorating lessons have you?" Everyone can give a compliment, but only someone really interested in people knows how to pass on a compliment that will make the hearer feel really special. ( Jesse Coody)

3. Focus on the Things You Have in Common

Another basic way to attract people to you is to find the things you have in common with them. The areas of commonality between you and them could be based on work, family, sports, social and/or business contacts, hobbies, interests and so on. Here's a hint. Have a pre-prepared card with space allocated on it for work, family, sports, social and/or business contacts, hobbies, interests etc. That way there will be no need to go out of your way to acquire this information. You'll be able to do this as part of your contact. Alternately, you can simply ask whatever questions come to mind, or are relative to the conversation. But remember, don't just listen - hear what they say.

4. Talk About Third Party Success Stories

A common mistake too many salespeople make is to tell other people how successful they are. Generally most people you've just met don't care about your successes. Other people only care about how they can benefit from the short interlude with you. It is for this reason the top professional salespeople concentrate on third party stories and successes. They tell others what their company, product or service did for their customers, how they helped them get over a hurdle, fixed a problem or made those clients more successful.

• What stories do you have that others would be pleased to hear about? • Can you convey the situation a third party was in before you helped them? • Can you describe their predicament in detail without giving away too many personal details?

Then once you've done that, can you provide a good-luck story relating to your third-party reference as a result of doing business with you? ( Jesse Coody)

Here's a hint. Make a list of all those you have helped. Then physically write down those "before" and "after" stories. Refine, rewrite and perfect the story, then keep on refining, rewriting and perfecting the story until you're happy with it. You'll be amazed how powerful these personal stories sound - even to you. The danger here is you could make the stories sound "too good to be true," and when you do that, those stories will sound too overdone. So remember this, if it sounds amazing to you - it will most likely sound even more amazing to them. Be careful.

5. Don't Just Listen - Hear What They Say

Most of us tend to give our listening skills little more than merely basic lip service. Just hearing another person's words (when they're talking to you) is not really listening effectively. Most of us think it is, but a seasoned professional salesperson knows it's not.

So how does a seasoned professional salesperson listen? They do this by listening to someone without thinking of what question they're going to ask next, not thinking about their own agenda and not focusing too heavily on making a sale at that point. They know and understand that when they just listen and focus all their attention on your prospect, the prospect will automatically be drawn to the seller - because the way you listen to the answer appears to the prospect to be both genuine and intense. Do it right, and you'll find an exchange of dialogue will take place that is both rich and engrossing. Then when that happens, the communication between two people causes an irresistible attraction. ( Jesse Coody)

6. The Most Important Person on This Earth

America's motivational father, Earl Nightingale, used to say, "If you want to be successful, treat every person you come into contact with as the most important person on earth." Modern-day American motivator, Zig Ziglar says, "No-one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care." True sales professionals, and those who understand this one point, focus all their energy, attention and care on the person they're with. They've learned to take themselves out of the equation and give others unbelievable attention without any hint of an ulterior motive or manipulation. They know we respond favourably to those that make us feel special in their presence. They also understand that to the people who go out of their way to make us feel extremely important, we will give them our respect, our friendship, our knowledge and our business - and we will do it for life, or as long as they keep making us feel extremely important.

7. Offer To Be An Information Resource

Here's another valuable hint overlooked by far too many within the selling profession. No. Better still. Let's call it one of the most valuable selling tools available to you to attract attention to yourself. So why isn't it used more often? It's because it usually takes more effort to make this one resource work more than the majority of the other resources available to salespeople. That's why then true sales professionals approach it in a systematic way. Once the salesperson knows something about their potential prospects, they clearly see ways to provide information of value to them based on that something they have been made aware of. What they hone in on could be articles relating to their prospects hobbies, emails about things they have in common, or websites about ways to help them improve one or more aspects of their business. It could even be information related to their community, their children or their other infatuations. Top salespeople know that their target audience will appreciate hearing from them when they provide information the prospect can use. So here's a very important hint. Do not try and do any selling whatsoever when you first contact the prospect - just provide them with the information they ask for. When you do this, chances are that they will come to you when the time is right - and that's the power of this one point.

8. Send Your Good Customers Business

A personally recommended referral that could lead to a potential sale is the one thing that no-one in business will ever say no to. In fact, no-one in their right mind will ever turn it down - especially if it's a good referral. The salesperson that finds business for their prospects is very likely to build a good relationship, and because of this they will always take your calls. They'll even be glad to have lunches with you, and they will be more likely to give you more referrals on a regular basis. That's right. They'll reciprocate by giving you their business and pass on even more referrals simply because you first sent them referrals that they could work.

9. Develop a Strong Personal Foundation

Amongst top end sales professionals there is a belief that they have either learnt to develop, or are able to naturally acquire a special something that attracts others to them. In fact, to outsiders, it's considered to be a kind of special energy that either draws attention to them, or, at the very worst, repels others away from them. Many of the sales experts working in the training sector tend to call this a "Strong Personal Foundation." And that foundation becomes a personal substructure for those sellers to succeed at whatever they put their mind to. The one's who possess this "Strong Personal Foundation," are the ones that know how to instinctly "balance" the key areas of their life, including health, money, environment, family, friends, fun, recreation, career and personal and spiritual growth. Moreover, many of the ones that have learned to develop this "Strong Personal Foundation" tend to do so by grading each of the above areas of 'balance' between one and ten. A ten grade denotes excellence. Any mark below ten is then worked on until the necessary "balance" (aspiring to be a ten) is achieved in all of the other sectors previously graded to be out of balance.

10. Specialist Knowledge

It is a fact that every top professional in every profession works hard at being a specialist at what he or she does. In fact, the top income earners in every field of endeavour are specialists at what they do. Because of the hard work that they undertake to become a specialist, they become the best, the most in demand, the highest paid, and the most sought after individuals because of their specialised knowledge. Top professionals work hard at knowing more than others in their chosen field. They understand that if they acquire expert knowledge about something that people want to know about, that can make them particularly attractive in the field in life they have chosen to work in. So what are you good at doing presently, or what are you willing to get good at doing in the very near future? Are you prepared to become even better at what you are doing now and specialise in your field of work? The fact is, the better you get, the more others will be attracted to you, and the better you get at what you do, your clients, peers, superiors will be attracted to you - and that includes your opponents as well. At the very least, they will know about you and how well respected you have become in your craft. To have others become aware of you, all you have to ensure is they know that you exist and that you have the skills they need. The rest is up to you, together with the other skills you have acquired to make them want to do business with you.( Jesse Coody)

[amongushq]

Welcome (back) to Among Us, RORY! HARTLEY MORGAN ( with the faceclaim of NAT ZANG ) has found shelter in NEW ATHENS, where we hope HE will fit in nicely. Please make sure to check the “after applying”section of our navigation here!

It is infinitely difficult to point out the best part of this application. The writing style makes it a great read, which is important when an app gets so wordy. However long it took you to type Hartley’s story, it was well worth it, as we have a complete view of his background, how it shaped him -- but mostly, how he always was himself to begin with. As you worded it in the application, Hartley’s personality doesn’t change as much as it evolves, still giving us a glimpse of the child he used to be. His opening up once at camp, his thoughts on the Olympians; everything has a reason and is believable. Hartley is complete and three-dimensional, and it’s obvious you know him well and can make him grow without losing sight of who he is as a person. Someone with his opinions and talents will, without a doubt, add diversity to the group; all in all, we can’t wait to have him around and see who he will associate with, and how his feelings towards the gods will play out.

AND YOU ARE…?

I.

It seems to be an accepted unquestioned fact of the universe that children of Gods, little beings called Demi-gods, will not have a happy childhood. Will not have a happy or fun life, will not get much back for being placed on the Earth as tools, mere weapons at times to be used by the Gods. Left at birth to a single parent, often times one that doesn’t care enough for the child, holding hatred in their heart for being left alone with this thing. Their origin stories are laced and sewn together with neglect and fear. Young children running away from those who they are meant to call a family, feeling too much like a black sheep to stay. Or running for fear of getting hurt, be it from the monsters that lurk in the night or their relatives. There are exceptions to this fact, as there are with any other fact. Kids who grow up loved and adored by their one parent, sometimes two, a step-something in the midst who doesn’t know any other way but to love a child. Then in situations such as these, the beginning of the end always starts with one thing. Camp.

When you’re the child of one of the bigger gods, in the Greek terms, the Olympians, in Roman terms, the Dei Consentes, you can very easily be dubbed as important. ‘Important’ can mean many things in this case, maybe you’re just the child of one of the Big three, the gods who fancy themselves as the best and those in charge. Except Hades, because he’s not an Olympian, that would be absurd. Right? If this happens, it’s quite likely you’ll be the focus of much attention, be it good or bad, depending on the person who decides to take a look at you in that moment. Being dubbed important has a cost, as all things do, and it’s likely that you’re set to die or come close in some grand fight for your Godly parent or the good of all the world. There’s a good chance you may be part of a prophesy. Count your blessings if this is the case. If you’re the kid of one of the other 12 main gods, it’s still easily to be noted, to be important, to hold others interest for quite a while. You’ve always had a place to stay at Camp, there has always been a cabin dedicated to your parent.

Good luck if you’re the kid to any other God or Goddess, you can easily be dubbed as disposable.

II.

When the sun began to set on November 15th, 1998 in a small town known as Lancaster Village in New York, there was a storm beginning to brew. There was an eerie feeling that blanketed many of the residents that night, the intense feeling that something was wrong. They would never learn what this feeling truly meant, as many blamed it on the large storm that came. As it began to near midnight, and the sky opened up with a fury, a baby was born, or shall I say created. This baby would come to be known as Hartley Lynus Morgan. A quiet baby, set to grow into a quiet child. Hartley, as he got older and could understand the words spoken around him, was called one of the ‘lucky ones’. He didn’t understand this, but then again, he was just a child, and children shouldn’t have to analyze what others say.

Hartley could have been called an odd child. ‘For starters,’ a neighbor whispered as he and his father pass on one of their strolls one Summer day, ‘The boy is seven and I heard he hasn’t uttered a single word.’ Which is only partially true, Hartley could speak, and he did so to himself in his room plenty of the time, but he hadn’t yet spoken outside, near others. He had talked around them, yet not with words, as he preferred to keep his thoughts to himself and his father, and use sign language instead.

He could also be called odd due to his intense interest in literature. ‘Well there’s a reason,’ his fourth grade teacher had said to another parent one afternoon, ‘his family doesn’t have tv or a computer or anything,’. Unlike the rumor that went around about him two years prior, this one was completely true. Hartley had no television, he didn’t watch anything, and his apartment didn’t have a computer. So he read, he read as much as he wanted and more, because it was the one thing his father would splurge on for him. At first it seemed his father would though he would have trouble reading, but no, he could be considered well ahead of the curve. One of his favorite things to read about was Greek, Roman, and Norse mythology. There was something about the stories that he quite enjoyed.

Hartley, as a young child, wasn’t ever a fan of socializing with his peers. He always had the feeling that something was off. Like he simply wasn’t like the other children, he wasn’t as excitable, he wasn’t as loud, and he rarely spoke. But he was a very happy kid, there was rarely a moment when he didn’t have the ghost of a smile on his face. And while many adults thought he was weird, or that his family was abnormal, the other children liked him well. He wasn’t close friends with any of them, not that he minded, he had one best friend, his father Asher, and that was enough.

III.

Asher Morgan was 16 when his little sister, born from a different mother than he, was taken away to a Camp specially for people like her. The daughter of Apollo, he would come to learn. Demi-gods, he learned, and he also learned that he was as normal as they came, bar one thing. He could see through ‘the mist’, the one thing that protects the world where monsters and gods really exist. One could assume he was bitter at not being special, but he was more thankful than anything else. His sister told him stories, of some of the things that happen, and he saw them sometimes himself. He wouldn’t want to be involved in that world, and that thought was only further cemented when he got news that his little sister had died.

He kept his own personal promise for a long time, but all stories need a good beginning, and this one starts when Asher fell in love. He didn’t mean to, but does anyone mean to feel anything? He knew who she was, she didn’t keep it a secret from him, but he couldn’t deny how he felt about her, and when she revealed she was pregnant a few months into their relationship, he knew he had to do everything in his power to protect his child. Asher was fully aware of what his son was, and feared for the future he believed fate had in store for him. This knowledge fueled his overprotective nature, and the rules that he would put in place as his son got older.

Hecate had told him the potential things Hartley could inherit, and kept his son away from anything magic related, knowing as long as Hartley believed the spells he spoke would work they would. As a result, Hartley was strictly forbidden from reading anything magical, especially Harry Potter. Asher made sacrifices to keep Hartley safe, moving away from the city, disconnecting himself from television and the internet. But he knew just that wouldn’t be good enough. Hecate also told him of the other gods and goddesses, and Asher started to grow disdainful of them for scorning her. And he began to fear they would scorn his son in the same way.

He took it a step further to protect Hartley. He taught the boy everything he knew about self defense, fighting, and using weapons. Under the guise of bonding, he took him out hiking and camping, he taught him how to use a knife in defense and more, slingshots, daggers, and even guns once he reaches the age of 12. He would feel bad if Hartley hated it, but Hartley took to learning all Asher had to teach him like a fish to water. He would never let Hartley get hurt, and this was the best way to help protect him, even after he’s gone.

When Hartley was nearing his 15th birthday, Asher was sure no one was ever coming for him. That maybe his son could live a normal life, a safe life. There had been no monsters, no danger, no satyrs coming for his son. Maybe he thought this all too quickly, because just days after he first let these thoughts into his mind, a satyr showed up at his door. It was time.

IV.

Hartley grew up and grew into who he was as a person. His personality didn’t so much as change as it did evolve. He was still a relaxed teenager, not a do gooder, but he wasn’t labelled as a bad child either. On the surface, to those around him, Hartley simply didn’t do much. No one saw him or his father around town unless it was late runs to the grocery store, he didn’t hang out with anyone but another quiet boy in his math class, and people rarely heard anything about him. If it wasn’t for his odd demeanor, he could have easily blended into the woodwork.

At home however, Hartley was a much different person. He was excitable, quickly talking about his interests with his father, jumping from topic to topic with glee. Of course, there were moments of silence, when Hartley was thinking about who knows what, or reading his new book that he’d eventually describe in detail. He was surely more mature, though he was never immature per say. He was more open with those around him, not talking about anything of importance, but still, now he was talking. Great bounds from where he had been as a child, when whispers of ‘problems’ followed his every move.

There were still whispers, maybe more malicious, maybe not, it all depends on perspective, but Hartley did his best to never listen to closely, willing himself not to fall into the trap that is rumors. He heard them though, people wondering if something was wrong with him, why doesn’t he ever do anything, isn’t he a bit creepy, things of such nature.

Hartley could dissuade these thoughts with ease if he so desired, he could tell them of all that he does, of the books that he reads, of the training he had partaken in with his father the night before. Yet, he had no desire to do so, he never understood why, but he had a feeling that life was much more than what people in your class thought of you.

V.

When Hartley was 14, he thought his father was having a mental break one evening after school. Now, he isn’t one to usually have such thoughts, but he figured it was quite warranted as his father told him about his mother, a Greek Goddess, Hecate to be exact. This, to him, was a clear indication of something wrong with his father. He didn’t voice his concerns at first, and just listened to his father, and the more he spoke, the more Hartley began to listen. He learned that he once had an aunt, a lovely girl with wild blonde hair who was talented in many things. He learned that she wanted to be a doctor.

He learned that he would have to go away, to somewhere called Camp Half-Blood, to learn more, to be protected. He thought that was absurd, he could protect himself as is, but when a man came out of his father’s room, and further explained things. Things like monsters and the dangers that would follow him, he understood. Maybe he was accepting this too quickly, but it made sense to him, like something inside of him shifted, and began to make him more of himself. His father also told him of what happened to his mother, and the way the camp worked.

Hartley was hesitant as he packed a bag of things to take with him to the camp, sliding in a few of the weapons he kept in his room inside. The satyr, a nice man named Marchun, promised to tell him more on their journey. Hartley was worried, he was only a kid, and he was being thrown into a world he knows nothing about. It would be easy to resent his father for never telling him, but Hartley was never a fan of easy. He was happy his father loved him so much that he would try to protect him from the dangerous world in which he belonged. Or maybe didn’t belong, if the words spoken about his mother and the way some gods were pushed to the side were any indication.

The father and son parted with the promise to write to each other, and for Hartley to visit whenever possible. It was only a few hours after Hartley came home from school, unaware that it would be his last day doing so, when he set off with a satyr, to a place he never could have imagined existing.

VI.

It takes him a couple of days to settle in, albeit unhappily, or maybe not unhappily, more confused. He learns the moment he steps into the camp grounds that yes, he is indeed a son of Hecate. He also learns that his mother only recently got a cabin. Previously, there had only been cabins for the main 12 gods, which Hartley thought was a bit ridiculous, the thought that other demi-gods somehow didn’t deserve one dedicated to their godly patronage. Other gods and goddesses had to have had children of their own, as he knew, just based off of who he was, that there was no rule stating that they couldn’t. Maybe this is where Hartley started to have feelings towards some of the gods.

He talks with some of the other campers, and is further informed of all the things that potentially come with being a child of Hecate. That being magic, mist control, limited necromancy, and limited prophetic abilities. None exactly guaranteed, but promised he should have at least one. So another cabin member, a daughter of Hecate, took him out to a field to see what he would have an affinity for. After giving him a couple of tips, pointers really, he set off on trying each of the domains. Even if they could only truly test three of the four, as prophetic capabilities couldn’t be forced.

They found that he was quite skilled- powerful is the word she used- in mystiokinesis and mist control. Though his control lacking a significant amount, which the girl, his sister, he was quick to say, chalked it up to it being the first time he was trying. A few weeks went by when Hartley realized that he was smiling around many more people than usual, and that he was genuinely happy around his peers. He had a family, siblings that he was already starting to love.

He was shown the armory after his initial magic testing, and surprised his sister by falling in love with most of the weapons there. Hartley’s chosen weapons ended up being a dual set of daggers, one made of celestial bronze, the other made of silver. He knows magic, but if he learned anything from his father, it’s that he should be able to protect himself when he has nothing but a weapon in hand. He wants more weapons, but he knows he has the ones from home, and with magic, he can probably learn to make more. All that matters is that he can defend himself.

He doesn’t forgot his thoughts of the Gods. He would never hold anything against their children, for they are not the one’s who have the real power in this world. His feelings multiply each time he learns another friend’s story of how they came to camp, of what their life was like before it. He says nothing on the thoughts that go through his head in those moments, and pushes them off for a later date. Maybe they’re too dark at times, but he doesn’t think they’re any darker than the actions of some of the Gods. He stays at Camp year round.

Interlude.

His father dies. Car accident, he is told when he finally reaches the hospital, too late to do anything but decide what he wants done with his father’s body. Cremated, he decides, and has his father’s ashes formed into a gem, pressed into a necklace that he vows to never take off. Later, when he returns to camp, he sits in his cabin, alone. There’s something happening in a different part of camp, he didn’t bother to learn what it was. He puts the gem on the table and starts to work, setting about a protection spell on the gem. His father would want to protect him, even after death. It’s the least Hartley could do for him.

VII.

Three years have passed since that fateful day in his old home when he was whisked away to a land of magic, mystery, and destruction. He’s grown more in this time than he thinks he ever could have if he never found out who he is. Hartley is now far more open than ever, willing to talk with anyone at camp, and always happy to welcome new Demigods to camp. He still falls into quiet periods, some habits are hard to break, his thoughts running faster than usual. It’s in these moments that his mind festers on his beliefs in the Gods. Of how cruel and terrible they can be. He does his best to ignore these thoughts, but sometimes it’s easier said than done.

Hartley is currently splitting his time between New Athens and Camp Half-Blood. He lives at Camp and is the Head Counselor of the Hecate Cabin, and his proud that he holds the title, despite the comparably short amount of time he has spent at camp. He welcomes any and all new members to the Hecate family with a smile, and a silent vow to keep them as safe as he can. He goes to New Athens for University, majoring in Literature, letting his long held love for it become something more than a mere hobby. While it’s exhausting, splitting his time between the two places, along with keeping up the protective barrier, doing work with the Labyrinth, his classwork, his head counselor duties, training, and any other passing thing, he’s content. He keeps busy with all his responsibilities, and when he does have a moment of quiet, he likes to spend it in thought.

Hartley has gotten better at controlling his magic as the years went by, though there have been mishaps due to his lack of, he is only getting better. He likes to practice by himself, but he will gladly accept if a sibling wants to do any sort of magical sparring or practice with him. After all, it is part of his duty to help them as well. He continues his weaponry training, and has expanded his horizons to other weapons, even swords, which he finds fun to use, but usually not his first choice. While not known to most, he carries multiple concealed weapons on his person at any given time, always prepared to defend himself or others. He will note his disdain of not being allowed weapons inside of New Athens.

VIII.

{ When you’re the son of a Goddess, but a Goddess that has been snubbed, and whose hand has been forced, sometimes you start to see things you might not if you were the son of someone important. }

Prior to the Recall, Hartley was planning on moving away and going to Cornell University for schooling, and starting a new chapter of his life in the normal world. He was planning on visiting Camp, and all of the friends he had made, as well as his siblings, but his plans were put to a halt with the announcement of the Recall. He was all ready to give up his duties as Head Counselor, everything ready for him to sign off. The Recall is something he has many thoughts on, all linking to his prior ones about the Olympians, but he won’t ever speak them aloud. He knows they aren’t above punishing those who go against him.

Bitter isn’t the right word to use when describing how he feels about this new situation, or the Gods in general. Maybe affronted would be better, or incensed. It’s just another notch in his notes of how much the Gods, particularly one, rule their lives with an unrelenting hand. He can’t say a thing however. He isn’t important in the grand scheme of things, he’s well aware of this. He’s the son of Hecate, who the Gods aren’t particularly favorable towards, he knows he has been marked as disposable. He could be wiped off the map before he finishes his sentence. So he is going to continue playing their game. He’ll follow the rules, as he always has, maybe it’s him biding his time, he really doesn’t really know yet.