#Mikes speech

[buoryok]

Ladies, gentlemen, gentleladies, men and others here!

Introducing you…

✨ A B B Y ✨

[ophliee]

Quick sketch GANG IS ALL HERE!!!

[kitxvoss]

"And we're the problem?"

[gayofthefae]

Never shutting up about how there are two separate plotlines in season 2 that directly parallel Mike and Eleven in season 1 and Mike calls both of stupid, crazy, and immature.

He thinks having a crush on Max is rash and can't happen in just a week. And he thinks caring for Dart is an irresponsible decision with no justifiable reasoning.

Insane choice for the *only* character in the show to canonically hate the Mike and El trope to be Mike.

[millionsknives]

i don’t think i’ve rewatched atla since becoming a committed pacifist and i just finished what was probably my tenth rewatch and i have never loved aang more. i've seen it so many times but i still came away with a new appreciation for the way the end of the story was handled. aang is the only survivor of a genocide and he is clinging to the last remnants of his culture and religion, and everyone is telling him the only way to save the world is to kill the dictator whose regime is responsible for the genocide, but to do so would abandon the deeply held beliefs of his people. if aang goes against his beliefs and kills ozai, his people's way of life dies completely and sozin wins.

aang knows it would be wrong but he can't see another way out so he prays for an answer, and the universe hears him and the spirits send out the lion turtle, and the creator answers him. and here's the thing that i never put together before today: aang would not have been able to energybend ozai if he had given in and wanted to kill him. the lion turtle tells aang that only the incorruptible can bend another’s energy, or else they will become corrupted themselves. and i think that aang, because of his love for the fire nation as he had once known it, was never corrupted by personal hatred for the fire lord or the fire nation. he was able to expertly hold two conflicting beliefs in harmony better than any adult could, the belief that ozai is a horrible person and the world would be better off without him and that he's still a human being with a life that is sacred.

and i don't think it's a matter of selfishness like some people make it out to be. aang is not some immature little kid who doesn't want to kill because killing is for bad guys. he's an incredibly wise and spiritual person who was shaped by airbender beliefs and upholds airbender beliefs, and he can see beyond the scope of this war. the balance of the world depends on the existence of the four nations, and aang does not just represent the air nomads, he IS the air nomads. he's all that's left.

despite many people’s interpretation of the four past avatars’ advice, none of the past avatars outright tell him to kill ozai. they tell him to be decisive, to bring justice, to be proactive, to be sacrificial. but none of them tells him definitively to kill him. he doesn't disobey or ignore their advice, he follows their ancient wisdom while still staying true to his beliefs. yangchen actually comes the closest to outright telling him to kill ozai (even more than kiyoshi, surprisingly) but what she fails to account for is that aang is not just the avatar, he is the last airbender, and being the last airbender is far greater a burden than being the avatar. no matter what happens, once he dies, there will always be another avatar. but if he is not careful to preserve the airbender way of life, there will be no more airbenders. yangchen could sacrifice her air nomad way of life for the sake of her duty to the world because there were thousands of other air nomads to continue their traditions. aang has no such privilege.

and it's not that he doesn't want to kill, it's that he actually doesn't think he can do it -- both that he won't be able to emotionally bring himself to kili someone, and, prodigy that he is, he doesn't have the raw bending skill to overcome a comet-powered master firebender. and then it turns from 'i don't think i can do it' into ‘i can’t do it.’ and when the avatar state gives him enough power to actually do it, he changes the answer to ‘i won’t do it.’ he overcomes all the combined power of his past lives to say no, i have found another answer and i will remain incorruptible. to kill is to maintain the power struggle of the fire nation and to reject air nomad wisdom and without airbenders the world CANNOT be brought into balance.

the only thing ozai cares about is power, and that's what the entire fight with ozai is about, physically and ideologically, because ozai only sees power in terms of force, fear, threats, and violence. to ozai, aang (and his entire people) are weak and undeserving of life because they are largely pacifists, but he fails to see the magnificent power that the airbenders do hold, spiritual wisdom and mastery of the self and contentment and joy and harmony and a deep understanding of the world that a man like ozai could never obtain. to kill ozai would ratify ozai’s worldview that power as he defines it is the most important pursuit in the world and the only way to assert one's right to be in the world is to be cruel and violent like him. i think to ozai, becoming powerless might be worse than being dead. he wants power, or he wants death, and aang gives him neither. it upends everything he believed in. aang, the avatar, but more importantly, the last airbender, armed by his past lives' power and his people's love and the spirit world's blessing and the lion turtle's omniscience (and toph's mastery of true sight through neutral jing), ends the war 100 years to the day after the air nomad genocide, in the way that his people taught him, with power that goes beyond force and violence, with spiritual wisdom, with an incorruptible soul, with mercy -- mercy that is not weakness, mercy that brings justice.

[lunabug2004]

Will never not be crazy to me that the s4 monologue is not only full of lies but that it's also built on lies, and yet people still claim it's romantic.

[lonesomedreamer]

WILLIAM SHATNER in Insight: “Locusts Have No King” (1965; aired 1967)

I think of myself as a principled man. What good are principles if you don’t act on them? How solid is a belief if it isn’t worth fighting for?

[justinspoliticalcorner]

David Badash at NCRM:

As U.S. Rep. Mike Lawler’s town hall at a local high school unraveled Sunday night—despite strict rules that some critics suggested could risk violating First Amendment protections—President Donald Trump urged Republican lawmakers to “immediately eject” constituents he called “disruptors and troublemakers.” Congressman Lawler, a New York Republican elected during the 2022 midterms that flipped several key Democratic-held seats, presents himself as a moderate—despite voting with his party 99% of the time. Other critics mocked Lawler for having “more rules for a town hall than a strict boarding school,” and a list “longer than the Bill of Rights.”

Some of the rules included:

Attendees must live in Lawler’s district and be prepared to show proof.

Questions, limited to 30 seconds, could only be asked when a moderator called on an attendee.

No taking of photographs or video, a questionable “rule” given the public nature of the event and First Amendment rights.

Also: No shouting, screaming, yelling, standing, bags, signs, or face coverings, and ��No outside noisemakers, bullhorns, or megaphones.”

Any violations would subject attendees—Lawler’s own constituents—to removal. Despite the rules, Lawler’s town hall still descended into chaos. ABC7 called it a “heated town hall” that was “drowned out by boos from dissatisfied voters.” The Bloomberg News headline at local New York radio station 1010WINS read: “NYers boo and jeer GOP’s Mike Lawler at circus-like town hall.”

[...] No one, that is, except President Donald Trump, who 42 minutes after Lawler’s town hall start time unleashed an angry missive. “The Radical Left Democrats are paying a fortune to have people infiltrate the Town Halls of Republican Congressmen/women and Senators,” Trump baselessly claimed. “These Great Patriot Politicians should not treat them nicely. Have them immediately ejected from the room – They are disruptors and troublemakers.” Implying only GOP voters are supposed to attend GOP lawmakers’ town halls, Trump appeared to not know that members of Congress represent all voters, regardless of party. “You must allow your audience to know what you are up against, or else they will think they are Republicans, and that there is dissension in the Party. There is not, there is only LOVE and UNITY. Republicans are happy with what is taking place in our Country. We all love America!” Trump claimed.

Despicable anti-American traitor Trump calls on Republican Congresspersons to remove “disruptors” from town halls “immediately.” This nonsense from him is about squelching freedom of speech.

See Also:

Daily Kos: Another GOP lawmaker gets heckled by his handpicked crowd

[whynotimtired]

There's something in Finn wolfhard being a breakout star in s1 and humongous names like Steven Spielberg saying that the kids changed the limitations of child acting bc they're so good. And then suddenly Finn wolfhard after S4 being known generally as the worst one, as the guy who can't act, just "not as good" as everyone else. Because of the monologue. The monologue the writers praised and hyped up as his best work, as something they didn't know if he could do bc he hadn't ever done it before, generally something they were really proud of.

So, if his supposed "best work" is something that people come away from feeling like it's his worst? That means there's a disconnect in the way the writers are looking at the scene vs the way the general audience sees it, which is funny bc if we look at that scene at face value, he's confessing his love. So if theres something deeper about the scene that changes the meaning, that changes that scene from bad acting to great acting, from a love confession to...

[tiredgaycrisis]

it's so funny to me that the cali gang's plot in s4 is so irrelevant to the supernatural/main plotline that the only mention of any of them in the s4 summaries on netflix are:

chapter 2- "a plane brings mike to california"

and chapter 6- "the california crew seeks help from a hacker."

like those four are so far into their rom-com/roadtrip adventure that they don't even bear mentioning in the plot summaries lol

their whole plots' purpose this season is to further mike and will's relationship dynamic, and ppl are still saying byler would come out of nowhere.

[chirpsythismorning]

El being *12 hours earlier* than the Cali timeline when she arrives at Nina. Will saying ‘it’s been 9 hrs’ in the scene following his monologue in the van.

We know that at some point their timelines merged when they arrived to save her…

But we don’t know when exactly those alignments took place when they were still apart… which just makes you wonder…

[gayofthefae]

The van scene is insane in how direct it is when you break down the structure and themes.

Mike: I love El so much that I don't want her to leave me even if it's better for her

Will: Well, I love you so much that I'd rather you be happy without me and me be in excruciating pain than be even a little bit less happy with me.

They really said "which do y'all pick"

[chasedeys]

Steelers' coaches on Burrow and Chase

[paladinsbrainrot]

one thing that pisses me off that people don't seem to grasp is that EL LITERALLY GOT THE STRENGTH TO SEND HENRY TO DIMENSION X BECAUSE OF HER MOTHER SAYING I LOVE YOU TO HER BUT COULDN'T SAVE MAX AND FIND THE STRENGTH TO FIGHT VECNA WHEN MIKE SAID I LOVE YOU TO HER. ALMOST LIKE SHE KNOWS IT WASN'T TRUTHFUL AND THAT IT DIDN'T MEAN ANYTHING TO HER ANYMORE WHICH IS WHY IT DIDN'T HELP. HOW COME IT WORKED ONE TIME BUT NOT THE OTHER. HMMM. I DON'T KNOW. MAYBE BECAUSE SHE REALIZED SHE WAS FOCUSING TOO MUCH ON ROMANTIC LOVE (MIKE) TO REALIZE THAT SHE REALLY NEEDED THE STRENGTH TO FIGHT THROUGH PLATONIC AND FAMILIAL LOVE (HER MOM & MAX)

[whitestnoise]