#The Taylor element of this doesn't really matter

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

Your stance about politics, do you really think Taylor view on America’s politics is something you can relate to? Because for me, i live in Europe, and her politics is typical rich white girl politics and I don’t think that necessarily in a bad way. Just seen how she uses feminism when it benefits her not when it benefits other women.

So I think I look at politics quite differently from you in a few different ways. I don't think relatibility is important or even relevant when it comes to evaluating other people's politics.

I do disagree with Taylor politically. Her statement about the Equality Act was all about the problems it would create for business. I don't think that's about her identity - rich white women can and do hold a wide range of ideas. We disagree about capitalism (among other things - including the carceral state). That doesn't surprise me - my politics are radical and I expect to disagree with a lot of people.

I also disagree with you anon. I don't know what you mean when you say this: "Just seen how she uses feminism when it benefits her not when it benefits other women." It's not a framework that makes sense to me - either in general, or when talking about Taylor Swift.

Feminism is the collective struggle for liberation of all women. Meaningful politics isn't a charity project - but people coming together with a starting point of their desire to change their own oppression. The strongest politics starts from seeing your own oppression and the way your oppression is intertwined with other people's oppression and building bonds of solidarity on that basis.

If you're not talking about feminism as a political movement - but feminism as a set of ideas - then women using feminist ideas to make sense of their life is what is supposed to happen. That is very much the point.

Turning the way other women engage with feminism into yet another thing that women should be judged on doesn't fit with . If there are specific political actions that Taylor Swift has taken that you disagree with - then talk about that. I just don't have much time for casual and unserious dismissing people for engaging with feminism wrong - with no specifics. I think it ends up reinforcing, rather than resisting an individualised version of feminism, which I oppose.

[unproduciblesmackdown]

as "let's see if will roland's birthday prompts any billions production clues from posts castmates may make about it" continues to yield "no one's posting about it, while some castmates post about other people's birthdays," already having more thoughts abt [i'm sure he'll show up in at least one episode even if only to be written out] type things like:

a) would be insulting if winston is fired to serve a subplot about philip and taylor having some difficulty in finding their footing re: working together as coheads, like, we're good at anticassandraing things and have gone "lol what if philip & taylor disagreed abt quants in that philip preferred winston. which he feasibly could," so what if instead it's philip arguing that winston should be fired to streamline things or because everyone who's not taylor will want him gone b/c they dislike him, and in learning how to successfully work together, taylor's like well alright. like, don't pit these elements against each other the insult is instead just Anyone, higher ups or lower downs, wanting winston gone b/c they dislike him, so he's fired

b) winston getting bullied by anyone or everyone is seen as him distracting them &/or provoking it with his presence, so he's fired winston being friends w/tuk is seen as a bad influence of loserdom on the latter (or distraction, or annoying, or w/e) so he's fired some Problem that needs solving or otherwise some need to fire Some people that really doesn't have much to do with him gets him fired anyways. like 5x05 all over again, isn't it always. or even if he's particularly involved in some problem you know it'd be something other people could get away with just fine. see:

c) what's even "a problem" like that despite everyone being in a hostile workplace, winston is especially, and we're so graced with dollar bill back on the premises who has already harassed and threatened and assaulted him (not only limiting the lattermost to something like "did he hit you, and like, closed fist, and i mean pretty hard. well that's just what he's like, you're fine." or the way like sabotaging a toilet is just epic pranks and only a problem if something looks bad to theoretical investors and we should talk about what tmc people might be doing to deserve it) while rian has been holding down the fort bullying and using winston. perfectly in line with everything if this kind of thing prompting any hostility in turn is like, nobody blinks at the other stuff, wherein if anything everyone keeps trying to fix dollar bill's feelings for him and talk about how who he's being awful to needs to appease him asap, and rian simply Wanting to use winston as a chew toy is just taken in stride while separately people have already been motivated by theoretically looking out for her / supporting her in various ways as well. whereas if winston Acts like he regards her as a hostile party, which she is, rather than seeming to operate in good faith that they can have regular constructive basic respect interactions, which he does while those decent interactions seem to come through rarely and unreliably, then i'm sure he'd be seen as mean / starting shit / out of line / etc, especially when it seems him Disrespecting the Rules & Social Hierarchy that should disallow him from like, speaking unless it's to self-flagellate, means people see him as aggressive or whatever. basically the classic scenario like, kid's bullied at school, they're supposed to just ignore it or it's otherwise "not that bad" / stuff gotten away with, even if supposedly it's like well just tell an authority figure here, that won't/doesn't work, any resulting obvious tension/dislike between the kid and whoever is like "uh oh, a Both Sides problem" at best, same if there's a physical fight or something or else it's like well That was unacceptable and if it was initiated by Your reaction to all other kinds of terrible treatment for however long, you're the problem. not that i expect winston to throw a punch about it, but, figuratively / parallel to this scenario

d) winston is sick of his deluxe hostile environment, doesn't actually like whatever coheading changes, sick of rian and/or dollar bill specifically, and/or doesn't appreciate some other goings-on, like one that results in him even being threatened with firing, and gets to just quit as has regularly seemed like something he might want to do anyways since 4x11 and intermittently on

e) not really another Way to imagine they kick him out but was thinking how like, Is a reason we're shown that taylor and rian hugging in the middle of an office was seen by i guess winston alone gonna be further relevant at all and about him making anything of it, which, he really couldn't possibly be wrong about any inferences. but going :/ at the taylor and rian dynamic just as a spontaneous, contained event would be self-explanatory too. but had the thought of like, maybe it's all "well taylor's been here 5 seasons and is in a more prominent position than last season, throw a PR problem at them for the first time for real, just as a shakeup / something that throws them off" wherein like winston wouldn't even have to be there to be cited in something like yeah i was fired or quit or whatever else and my former boss is dating an employee i think. or seems to have a real personal preference for them if not personal somethingship. which is true lmfao like? even if winston ""wrongly"" assumes they're dating like "oh sorry these claims are ridiculous, i only proposed as much to this employee who i already was informally mentoring and do favor such that she was promoted offscreen after like half a season to be able to make trades and this only came up when her using that capacity to do some shit she could've been fired for had me like 'but i'll take the heat for it' b/c any feeling that i'd wanna fire you is worth working through as a personal problem, and that employee turned me down not only just b/c apparently dating through work is too much (but not hooking up through work) but because she's afraid of how much she could love me, and now we're further personal somethings or who even knows what's ever been going on and so who can say if we were supposed to have fully closed the door on dating or not, even." wherein like....someone then doing further research consulting with every named tmc employee, in this hypothetical (and ignoring any hypothetical new, named/dialogued hires) scenario all now Former employees except rian who clearly won't have been firedor quit at the start of season 7, b/c yknow god forbid lmao....like, oh i'm taylor's best friend so no comment except that when i'm mad at them i'll apparently say that i always thought they inhumanly don't have feelings and all, very helpful. then there's like, oh yeah i was taylor's employee and dated them until business misalignments lead to a less than ideal breakup, and then kind of an aftershock of that for fun i guess. and then yeah i was also taylor's employee and knew they were dating another employee and i disapproved if only b/c i told them it could look bad but then also one of the reasons leading up to my quitting was having difficulty getting in touch with them while the other employee lived with them at least part of the time and i didn't seem to be a fan of that bonus access re: discussing business getting in the way of the formal structure / chain of command or whatever at work as well which is part of what i was already there to file a complaint over, so....even just the "it does look bad / people do think you leverage status for access to sex through employees" like no but that's My boss though. but also just that yeah taylor has at least tried to date employees twice, and their personal preference does affect professional matters, though that's also just like, pick any place of work and any slice of it, may not be a meritocracy after all versus how much it matters that some people are popular and/or liked by the right people while others can be recognized as Good Employees on paper but be left where they are or antagonized by peers or higher ups b/c of "failing" at the popularity contest aspect. and this could just be some new Kind of problem for taylor, and/or their just having to question themself more. or else go "ugh leave it to winston" and shrug it off once whatever's smoothed over.

f) winston isn't fully written off but rather it's something zany like, the twist is dollar bill coming back (god forbid he didn't either) while mafee, who evidently sees taylor outside work despite it all, is like eh we'll get dinners sometimes too, and does not likewise return despite saying he's the one who'd consider it. winston, being fired, or having quit, or just being unhappy w/things enough to consider it, is like well you're kind of regular at me sometimes and can't yell at me abt loyalty to taylor if neither of us work for them and you have weird confusing ideas about how they should be loyal to you if anything, and i can do the work of 50 phds, and i know you don't know shit abt the math and quanting but if you just leave it up to me entirely, that's pretty much been my work experience thus far anyways. then he'd be filming on different sets, possibly more rarely, and also dan soder has been likewise elusive but is also on site on the two even vaguely or implicitly [s7 production] related pics will's turned up in.

g) idk billions feel free to prank us where once again between seasons we worry winston could be written off but then he isn't, but elusivity paired with suddenly now castmates w/no mention of him for [march 5th] and [we are doing any bday acknowledgments] overlaps that otherwise get posts, especially. weird even if he Was written out in ep one but okay then

[goldenmotive]

Undersiders as WoW players:

Rachel // Tauren Hunter

Beast Mastery Hunter. Rolled a male Tauren because she thought they looked tough. Usually sticks with the coyote she tamed at level 10. Has a surprising variety of pets otherwise. Mostly plays solo and grinds professions (you only see her on raid night where she's top DPS). Picks an endgame zone as her territory and bullies out anyone trying to quest or grind. Gets mad when people won't shut up in guild chat. Struggled because she can't read quest text but got really into it after Taylor installed questhelper for her.

Aisha // Undead Rogue

Combat Rogue. Absolute menace. Ignored IRL but makes up for it by being infamous on her her server. Ninja looter, will roll need even if she can't use it. PVPer, will kill you when you're fighting a bunch of mobs then teabag you. Griefs her own team in battlegrounds just fucking around while she's holding the flag. Spends all her downtime ganking lowbies in STV, but she's actually really good at her class. kills you on your main too

Alec // Blood Elf Priest

Shadow Priest - rolled the same class as Lisa to fuck with her. Really only plays to screw around with Aisha. Has Aisha's password. Used to multibox on his siblings accounts but burned out. Doesn't do dailies, doesn't do professions, relies on guildies for free potions and food. Surprisingly into transmog. He's right there ganking with Aisha and mind controls kid win off a cliff. Stands in the fire.

Lisa // Blood Elf Priest*

Disc Priest but she's a huge altoholic. Toxic trade chat queen, starts shit and baits other players into getting banned. She's got a character in every major guild on the server - she's the one to invite a fill when they need another head. Okay at every class but she'll end up filling healing and crowd control - someone's got to keep this guild from self destructing. Recruited Taylor to the guild, helps Brian run shit outside of raid bosses. She's tracking everyone's DKP.

Brian // Orc Warrior

Prot Warrior. Guild Leader. Tanks because it's the manliest role. Kind of basic - he'd be a human warrior if the rest weren't horde. Maxed mining and blacksmithing because someone told him it's just what warriors do. Knows raid boss strats, knows what's BiS for each class, knows that none of it matters if they aren't going to listen to him. Pulling his hair out trying to run raid nights. Always marks himself with the skull raid icon. Pays for everyones consumables, also pays for the vent server. Quits for a bit, but comes back next expansion to reroll death knight.

Taylor // Troll Shaman

Elemental Shaman. Addon queen. Her screen looks like an excel sheet and you can barely see her character. Rerolled horde after her ex-guildie logged onto her account and deleted all her characters. Skips school to play. The biggest minmaxer you'll ever play with. Has to stop herself from telling people how to play their class. Hasn't noticed she's not even having fun anymore.

[camilledlc]

Because I love relating songs to characters and analysing why it works so well, I just have to rant about how So Long, London by Taylor Swift is Vanessa's perspective of her break up with Wade. This one is reaaaally long, so be ready for that if you still chose to read this. It is 4,5k of a weird analyse no one asked for. You have been warned :

I think the main reason why Vanessa (that I will from now call Ness) ended things with Wade was because of how bad he was doing. She tried to be there for him, but there's only so much you can do for someone who doesn't want to be helped. So really, it is quite evident as to how this song can be related to their story. I'll go in order of the lyrics, and really dive in with the meaning of the song. I'll write this as if Ness wrote the song herself, kinda. But despite me relating it to Ness, it will also kind of be a study of the song in itself, if anyone is interested in that.

The opening line "I saw in my mind fairy lights through the mist" shows two main things that to me will be crucial to understand exactly how it all went down and Ness' state of mind. The two central element being obviously the fairy lights and the mist. The mist represents this gloom, this sadness that had surrounded Wade, and therefore herself. He was extremely depressed because of the Avengers' rejection, and didn't seem to be able to pick himself back up. Everything for him became a mist, but it also made everything for Ness turn into a mist. Always being around a deeply person, to whom you're entirely devoted, it will take a huge tole on you. Their sadness become yours, etc. And by that point, you may think that there was no reason for her to stay, but no. That's why the fairy lights are here. The fairy lights doesn't represent the exit, the ending of this relationship that would finally brought her peace. This early on in the song, it wouldn't make sense. The author is still too deep into this relationship. The fairy lights are probably the reason why they are still together by that point, despite all the pain that it's causing Ness. Because while the relationship can generally be associated to a mist, there are moments of happiness, of "fairy lights through the the mist". Not all moments are bad, and they are occasions where Ness can see the old Wade, and what they used to have. And she wants to fight for that. Because deep down, they love each other in ways that can't be matched, and they loved each other for so long.

And so, this leads us to the next lyrics : "I kept calm and carried the weight of the rift / Pulling him tighter each time he was drifting away". Because Ness can see that not everything is bad in her relationship, that there are still pieces of what they used to be left to fight for, she tries. She tries to "[keep] calm", to be the rock Wade is in desperate need of. For Wade, it feels like his world is falling apart, as he can't seem to find a purpose for his life, a way to matter. He falls more and more into depression, unable to pull himself back up. The only thing stopping him from "drifting away" is Ness. But on the other hand, she can't keep carrying them both on her shoulders. It "weights" on her, and understandably so. She wants to be there for Wade, and she tries as much as she can to save him. But maybe it's a responsibility that's too heavy for her, and so, the come the next lyrics.

"My spine split from carrying us up the hill / Wet through my clothes, weary bones caught the chill". Those are pretty easy to understand and very explicit. The weight of Wade's sadness is becoming too much for us, and she is breaking under it. By being the only one trying to lift them up, she's going to end up even more broken than Wade. I of course think that "wet" references sadness in general. Sadness is often paired with deep blues, cold colours and a general theme of water--because of tears. With the "mist" being also a metaphor for this sadness, it isn't surprising. But this means that this sadness that Wade carried, this "mist", finally got to her. The "mist" finally reached her and made her "wet", meaning that his sadness started to become her sadness. She "caught the chill", she started to feel depressed too, because always being around someone depressed--especially if you're the only one lifting them up--makes you depressed too.

"I stopped trying to make him laugh / Stopped trying to drill the safe". Another easily-understandable set of lyrics, yet devastating in the context of Deadpool. We know a handful thing about him and how he is generally perceived by others, and one of his main traits is that he's funny. He is always one to laugh, or crack a joke, the one that makes you happier when things are bad. He is the one supposed to make other laughs, but with how bad he feels, the roles are reversed, and Ness has to try and try and try to make him happier, to "make him laugh". It must have been really heart-breaking to see the dynamics in their relationship change this much, see a person she knew like the back of her hand becoming a ghost of who they used to be. And eventually, he started to close up too much to her. He would be 'somewhere else, not fully there'. He wouldn't let her in, tell her what he was truly feeling--despite the fact that she could sense how bad he was doing. He became a "safe", a total stranger that she couldn't figure out, until she eventually had to give up. This is even more depressing when you know that Wade has had tendencies to lie to protect himself and push people away, which he could've also done here with Ness.

All of this leads her to start being angry, and confused, and wanting answers from him. Not the Wade she saw before leaving him, but her Wade, from before all this. She wants to understand : "Thinkin, how much sad did you think I had / Did you think I had in me?". I see this as both a rhetorical question, telling him that she can't handle all of his sadness and that she has to leave him behind at some point. That she doesn't have this much sadness in her to support him. But I also believe it has some genuine aspects of an earnest question, always waiting for an answer. Yet, she will repeat this multiple times, probably alluding to the fact that she doesn't have any. Because Wade doesn't have an answer to that either. She wants to know just how far Wade was willing to let himself fall down while thinking that Ness would stay, that she would pick him up. In a way, I think she felt betrayed and hurt by the way he was treating her, waiting for her to be there for him while he purposefully let himself drown in his own misery. So, eventually, she's angry and demands answer, demands an explanation to all of this, because this isn't the Wade she fell in love with.

And that's why it's so tragic : "Oh, the tragedy... / So Long, London". In this, we see just how heart-breaking their entire story is. It wasn't supposed to end this way, yet at that point in time, she saw no other issues. She didn't want to leave him, but she had to. It was tragic because it couldn't have been avoided, yet she felt as if it wasn't fair, and it wasn't meant to be this way. She can only constate that their ending is tragic, and she has to accept it despite the evident pain and sorrow (the punctuation). And so, she leaves. All of this, only could lead to that conclusion. She went through all stages, from loving him, to trying to support him, to giving up on helping him, to being angry at him, to giving up on them altogether now. She isn't fully saying goodbye, as she still feels as if their lives are too intertwined for them to not see each other again eventually. They both love each other too damn much to never do so, to truly end things here. By that point, she accepts that she must leave, and that their story ends, but she knows the love hasn't completely disappeared yet.

But when she says "You'll find someone...", she does admit that while love may persist, the relationship is over for good. By that point, she only includes him in the finding someone part. I think it's because she herself hasn't moved on from him, and she isn't sure by that point that she can. They know they can't date anymore, but she doesn't think that she'll fall in love as hard as she did with Wade with anyone else. But for him, she wants him to move on and find someone who will be able to handle Wade. In a way, she may feel guilty for leaving, despite knowing that it was killing her on the inside to stay. So she wishes for Wade to find someone who, unlike her, will be able to help Wade, or at least carry his burden with him without splitting under the weight.

I feel that the next part is a bit trickier, so if my ramble doesn't make sense, feel free to ignore it! But otherwise, I think that the lyrics "I didn't opt in to be your odd man out / I founded the club she's heard great things about" are definitely laced with bitterness. To me, it really represents that moment of Wade getting better, and how Ness will view herself into that. One the one hand, she knows she isn't entitled to anything regarding Wade anymore because she chose to leave, but on the other hand, she feels as if she didn't have a choice to leave. Everything was so awful that she had to leave for her own sake, so she didn't opt out of his life. She didn't want to be his friend, but she couldn't be anything else. Yet, everyone--including Wade--will make her feel like it was her decision. Even though they respect it, she feels that they don't understand that it wasn't truly her decision, and that under other circumstances, she would've never left Wade. If it wasn't for her survival, she would still be with him. But now, she is purposefully being left out of everything regarding Wade and all of his accomplishments. People will say that it's great to see him better again, to see him happier, and a true hero that wants to matter, etc. And yes, he did that on his own, but it does feel to her as if it invalidates everything she went through. She helped him for so long, and eventually had to give up. So he got better on his own and is praised for it, but what about all of her efforts? Don't they count in his recovery? Isn't her support the foundation of the person he is today? She is one of the reason Wade found his spark back, yet because she left before he did, she can never say as much. And it must feel bitter to see how much time and energy and love you lost trying to help someone who got better after you left them, after you've had enough.

Which is why we have "I left all I knew, you left me at the house by the Heath". Because, yes, she may have been the one who left Wade first officially, but Wade had left her way before that. When letting himself become a shadow of who he once was, he left Ness to fend on her own, the only one keeping their love, their home alive. The "house by the Heath" represents this home that they made for themselves, it was their lives, their futures. But Wade abandoned that mentally. Yet, it falls on Ness when she decides to abandon it physically. In this whole verse, she is feeling bitter, and angry, and regretful. She left everything behind, because Wade felt like her everything. But she wasn't the first one to do so, and Wade had actually done it before. She had in the past tried to support him when he had cancer, only for him to leave her to bear this alone. So, actually, she was the only one trying actively not to leave, not to let this relationship die.

"I stopped CPR, after all it's no use / The spirit was gone, we would never come to". It implies that for a long time, she tried to maintain their relationship alive, but it was for nothing. "The spirit" of their love had left when Wade did too, when he metaphorically left the relationship. It couldn't be brought back, and even if they had tried, it would've been too late. Their relationship was already too damaged to be salvaged. There is no use to perform CPR on a dead body.

The next lyric is heavily marked by the voice of the singer, showing the anger and resentment growing : "And I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free". For this one, I think it's crucial we remember the context of both who they are in general. Ness is a woman in her mid-thirties/forties, meanwhile, Wade is an immortal guy who can't age nor die. Wade still has the whole eternity in front of him to do whatever he wants, to be someone great. But Ness spent most of her life with him, and now she's getting older. No matter who she ends up with it will be a very recent and new relationship, and it will take time to grow, and so she may have trouble later having the family she'd wanted. For her, it may feels like as if she's spent so many years with Wade, only to be back at square one. Except that for him, he can take the eternity to move up a few square, but her, she doesn't have that time. She doesn't have eternal "youth", which is why she may be so pissed, both at herself and at Wade. It can be very easy to start resenting someone when you feel like you have wasted so much time on them, for nothing to come out of it eventually. And it would be better if Wade was in the same boat as her, because then they would both have wasted time and it would be no one's fault. But she is alone in this, she is the one who gave her "youth for free".

The "For so long, London / Stitches undone / Two graves, one gun" only reinforce this idea. She gave her youth "for so long" and now she's feeling resentful. In a way, it feels like her decision killed them both. She knows the negative impact their breakup had on Wade, of course. But here, she also acknowledge just how much it affected her too. With "one gun", aka her decision to leave, she killed the both of them ("two graves"). Kind of in a "you had to kill me but it killed you just the same kind of way". And now, the relationship that she carefully spent time stitching up each time it split is now completely broken, the "stitches undone".

And so, she accepts that she has to move on : "I'll find someone". She knows how bad her decision also affected her, and how hard it will be to get back everything she lost to this relationship. But she can't stay down, and she has to find a way to move forward somehow. And she knows that it's possible, that eventually, she'll find someone else, she'll fall in love again and that life goes on. It's a way for her to try and find peace, to definitely put her relationship with Wade past her. And by the beginning of Deadpool and Wolverine, she believes that she has found that someone, she found Dermot. Someone good, who is different yet someone she is really happy with. She can fully move on, and so wants to try and befriend Wade, as a way to really put this all behind. Because despite knowing they can't ever get back together, she still has a lot of love for him--whether it's romantic or now platonic, she'll always love him, as he is one of the most important person for her. But it's clear that while she's almost moved on completely from him, he hasn't done the same. And because of the way he still holds out hope for them to be together again, she feels as though he thinks she abandoned him all over again.

So in a way, the upcoming bridge is her way of defending herself. "And you say I abandoned the ship / But I was going down with it" is literally her reiterating that she wasn't the one who left first, she was actually holding onto that relationship even more than Wade was, even though it was killing her, "My white knuckle dying grip". The singer's voice is by then really angry, and I think Ness is too by now. It feels unjust to be blamed for leaving a relationship. I don't think they are blaming her consciously, because Wade would never want to make her feel bad about it. But the sole fact that he's still holding out hope that they work out put the blame on her for the fact that it isn't working out. In a way, him still wanting her and not being able to move on makes her even now the responsible for Wade's misery, which is unfair because she already had to bear it and suffer from it for long enough in their relationship.

The next lyrics will all be analysed as a whole, so sorry for that : "Holding tight to your quiet resentment and / My friends said it isn't right to be scared / Everyday of a love affair / Every breath feels like rarest air / When you're not sure if he wants to be there". This may be a bit triggering, se be careful, but I think that while the original song may be talking about not wanting to be there in a relationship, from Ness' point of view, it will be more like there at all in this life. Wade is canonically a character that has a severe mental instability, a lot of traumas and issues, and he is one of the character who tried to off himself the most--even before having a regenerating factor. He clearly has always struggled with his mental health, and it was even worse during his depression. So when Ness feels scared that because she's "not sure if he wants to be there", she's talking about being scared that Wade would take the opportunity to off himself if he could die. It is extremely scary to be in a relationship with someone who doesn't wish to live anymore, when you never know if they are faking their smiles, planning on leaving it all behind, if you're not sure you'll wake up and they'll still be there. Even while knowing he can't die, it is still a terrifying thought. So now, their entire relationship, their "love affair" is completely overtook by this fear that it will all end at any moment, and also by this need to take every good thing in because they may not last, or there won't ever be any other good thing afterwards. Every moment of true joy "feels like rarest air". Because now, everything in her mind revolves around Wade's sadness, his "quiet resentment" of feeling like he doesn't matter, of not finding his purpose in this world.

But there's only so much that one person can take, and so, eventually, she is back to asking "So how much sad did you think I had / Did you think I had in me? / How much tragedy?". This times, it really feels as though she exposed previously during the bridge every arguments in her favour as to why she had to leave, and now she's showing him all of those arguments and telling him 'see?', and in the words of the song "Just how low did you think I'd go? Before I'd self-implode / Before I'd have to go be free". And those two last sentences summarize pretty much everything : she was self-imploding, so she had to leave and be free. This relationship, despite still having some good moments that guilted her into staying, was more like a prison to her by that point. In this bridge, she seems finale with her explanation, and feels a certain form of validation of her decision. By then, she is certain she made the right choice, and she is trying to show others, and especially Wade, that she had to move on and that still holding hope for a relationship together was just invalidating everything she went through (even if Wade isn't necessarily wanting that, or even realizing she might feel that way. He can't help but love her, but respects her decision nonetheless. There is no bad guy here, just a very complicated situation).

The very end of the song is definitely right by the end of the events of Deadpool and Wolverine. Wade tells her explicitly that he still loves her, still wants her, wants them. But when he tells her he still loves her, all she can think of is : "You swore that you loved me but where were the clues? / I died on the altar waiting for the proof / You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days". She may know, realistically, that Wade really did love and still do, but during the end of their relationship, she couldn't feel it. Everything in Wade's life was now centred around his sadness, which is here represented by the "gods of [your] bluest days". Their relationship was too much, and so he "sacrificed" it, because in his mind, there was no room for anything other than his depression. Which is valid and comprehensible, but extremely hard to live for Ness. She was desperately waiting for him to show her that he cared for her, that he still loved her, that he was still with her, like shown in the flashback when Cassandra Nova peered through Wade's mind. She asked him directly for proof of his love, and she eventually had to leave the "altar" because she was dying there otherwise. Wade was feeling so awful that he couldn't remind Ness just how much he loved her, so even now, she can't accept that he still does.

Besides, we know she has supposedly moved on, as she is happy with her new boyfriend Dermot : "And I'm just getting color back into my face". After everything, she eventually felt like a lesser version of herself, beaten up by this tragic relationship. Wade's constant sadness got to her. But now, it's been a while, and she had time to move on, to find her own new happiness. It might be different colours than when she was with Wade, but she has colours nonetheless. She is happier out of the relationship. Yet, she can't help but be mad : "I'm just mad as hell cause I loved this place / For so long, London". It is quite obvious that despite being happy now, she had also been happy with Wade before all this. There had been so long where she thought she was gonna marry Wade, found a family together, that he was her soulmate. She knows it's for the better, but there's also something so frustrating about having to leave something that brought you joy for so long because now it has soured. The lyrics "Had a good run / A moment of warm sun" reminds that. Before Wade got depressed, there relationship was truly and utterly an happy relationship. There was so much good in it, and for a long time, it seemed like it would last. But it didn't.

"But I'm not the one / So long, London". She is here fully letting Wade go, and letting their romance go. In admitting that she isn't the one for Wade, she is admitting that they weren't soulmates who were meant to be, and that maybe it's better this way. She is admitting that even the earlier stage of their relationship was extremely good and happy, it was not enough. She isn't the one for him because she could love him at his best, but couldn't at his worst. And there is no shame in that, she knows now that some people aren't meant to be, despite being perfect for each other in every other aspects. For example, when she sees Logan, she understands that he can handle Wade at his worst, that he can lift him up. At the same time, it's a bit bitter because she wished she could've been the one, but she is also really grateful to be out of this relationship, and yet knowing that Wade's got someone else that will be there for him. She can leave peacefully knowing that.

Then, we have another repetition of "Stitches undone" which symbolize definitely the end of relationship, with nothing holding it together anymore, and "Two graves, one gun". Personally, I always heard something else and liked what I heard more, which is "Two graves, one gone". Here, it would be a representation of how they felt during Wade's depression. He was so sad that he was almost dead, which killed her on the inside too. They were "two graves". But some graves aren't meant to be side by side. She left the graveyard, found happiness again somewhere else. She brought herself back to life by leaving. Now, there is one grave that is "gone". But by using the last sentence "You'll find someone...", she is in a way giving him permission to move on from her as well, to leave the graveyard that was their relationship. She hopes for him that he'll find someone who will bring him back to life to, and she even thinks that Wade found that person already, found that in Logan. Now that she let go, she's telling Wade to do the same. To let her go.

The three different instances of "you'll find someone / i'll find someone / you'll find someone" really represents the progression of the breakup and the healing from it. At first, it's a way to convince herself that she has to leave, that she isn't made to handle this. By then, none of them have moved on. Then, it's her finding her own way of happiness, admitting that she's moving on. And the last one is her telling Wade to move on too. By the end of the song, their relationship has definitely ended, it's over for good.

"So long, London".

[wumblr]

there's this thing going on with the taylor swift criticism where everybody seems to assume the album's worst sin is that it's bad, and maybe we've all been blinded by a solid decade of calculated mediocrity in major label music, but i would just like to point out you're all kind of outing yourselves as fake music fans with that. bad albums can be good. the best producers are almost never the best lyricists, the best lyricists only know twelve guitar chords and you put up with them being solo acoustic because they're that good, both types have tried something that didn't work, and if i'm being honest it's a miracle anybody gets an album finished and released given the state of the industry

the reason this album is so noticeably uninspiring and difficult to relate to (things that bad albums can't be in order to be good) is because we all know her dad bought shares in the record label that distributed her debut. that's why she's in the industry, she bought her way in. there cannot be a coherent underdog narrative, the work she puts in couldn't matter less because the album's going to chart quality regardless, there's nothing to be proud of her for having done, we're not seeing any risks being taken and we're simply not learning anything about her. did jack antonoff or aaron dessner produce this one, who was the stylist, does it matter? that kind of ambiguity would never occur in a cult following

you can call the lyrics insipid all you like but that really isn't the point, some of my favorite albums are deeply insipid but the production or the concept was interesting or it displayed a surprising amount of growth or it broke ground on a new genre. it has none of these elements, risks that other people take because it can make or break a career, because it doesn't need them in order to sell. she doesn't have to try anything new in the studio because distribution was assured when she bought the job

[lover-of-mine]

you did the really great detailed post about green/blue colour theory right? do you have thoughts on buck and eddie’s blue/green phone cases in s6 and how eddie’s switches to black when he calls M?

Yeah, that's me! I made a few actually, here is the first one using just clothes, here's a more in dept one using more elements of the scene, here is another one that complements that because I didn't think to use Eddie and Shannon before.

Also, don't get me started on the phone cases oaksoaksoaks, my first meta was on the phone cases when mixed feelings aired.

But, yeah I have thoughts and they have evolved since that first post, so thank you for the excuse to talk about it. Realistically, Eddie's phone case being black when he calls Marisol could just be due to the fact that that scene is probably a reshoot and they didn't have the original green phone chase at hand when they had Ryan in for that.

But I'm not known for being realistic with my metas, so let's talk about it. Eddie had a generic plastic black phone case for s2 and s3, and no phone case for s4 and s5. And Buck has a darker color, black or charcoal up until 5a, they switched his case after brawl on cell 911 to a navy one, considering the plot of the episode it makes sense.

Then in season 6, we get the matching blue and green cases. And Buck's is significantly lighter than usual. There's no mistaking that is blue. There are also a lot more scenes of Eddie on his phone than usual, he is on his phone a lot, and a lot of the time the phone is angled in a way we will see the phone case.

The phone cases are there the whole season, including the beginning of pay it forward.

So the cases are a prop we are supposed to see, because they are turned to us, even when Eddie is texting here, his phone is slightly tilted, so we are seeing the case.

So we get to the Marisol scene. Not only the case is black, but Eddie himself is blue.

His shirt is blue, his flannel is blue, his jeans are blue, his damn couch is blue. And Eddie is NOT the blue character when it comes to the blue and green thing. If we believe my madness with Shannon and the detailing on her character, or Ana, or even Buck. He's green.

He is blue with Shannon on merry xmas, but he is blue because of the uniform, so there's wiggle room there considering the way they can't change the color of his uniform.

He's also blue for Chris' birth, and there's less wiggle room here, but medical stuff is usually blue, no matter the circumstances, so it could be just because it was more convenient to make Shannon a green gown, like they did for Chim so that he and Maddie could be blue and green after Doug, because everything else in the room is blue, gloves, blankets, like, he could blue for convenience.

But, still, he's mostly green, there is a lot of blue in his color palette, I'm not saying he doesn't do blue, because he does, he's just usually green while love interests. So, him being blue from head to toe is also a choice, because he's legit monochromatic, and that's odd.

Because they could've put him in green, yk, Eddie making this call in a green henley would make perfect sense for his character without the "army green armor" implications of a green jacket. He could've also been wearing brown or grey, other colors he wears a lot that don't have the romantic love implications but are the wrong color for him, and again have the same effect.

I have conflicting feelings about this and just believing it's a coincidence, because the show is very careful and they left openings even if they believed the show was gonna get cancelled. But Eddie being in the "wrong" color could be an indication that the relationship is wrong or bound to go wrong or whatever because switching colors mid-crisis is a thing the show does with couples. Maddie and Chim on Boston for instance, Maddie starts as blue and Chim starts as green, but they switch by the end of the episode.

There's also the way Buck and Taylor switch when Buck kisses Lucy.

So it could be an indicator that Eddie and Marisol are going nowhere.

But at this point, I think we need more information about Marisol as a whole, I don't think the relationship is gonna last anyway, but she doesn't really exist for us yet, so it's hard to make assumptions involving her.

[greenerteacups]

this might seem v random but, if you haven't come across it already, i would really recommend tavi gevinson's latest online zine 'fan fiction' -- not because of the fan fiction element of it, though, but because of your evident love of taylor swift (who it's about) and your impeccable literary taste. and would love to hear your thoughts!

This was an excellent recommendation, and I loved it. I will admit that the RPF segment had me leery (RPF throws me for reasons I have yet to intellectually inspect but believe may relate somehow to the concept of voyeurism) but I'm glad I finished it, because she pulls it together very well. The dialogue in the last segment is especially great, particularly these parts:

And this:

And this:

Because this gets at what I find so Gordian about Internet conversations among even relatively respectful/measured people about Swift's work and presence: we can't seem to figure out what it is we want from her. There is no right way for a woman to be more famous than most presidents. Do we want her to need us or not? Should she care about our approval or shouldn't she? Is the fact that she doesn't "feel" authentic to us the consequence of having demanded authenticity for so long she literally had to shape her personality to fit what "felt real" to millions of people, and in the process, of course, of course, inevitably, produced work that felt authentic to no one?

And then also, like. To what extent do fans use her autonomy/consent as a lever for bad behavior? I.e. does the "invitation" of personal information in her songs license us to speculate about her like she's a character on a TV show? Where is the line of appropriate speculation in an autobiographical medium? I was talking to my friend at dinner just tonight about how it's gross that people can't seem to give her the credit of writing songs that aren't 100% always About Her, and my friend pointed out that she invites comparisons to her own life by teasing names and iconography we identify with her public persona. It's like Brett Easton Ellis writing a book about a character named Brett Easton Ellis. Sure, they're not the same person, but you've invoked a symbol, and people are not being ridiculous for trying to analyze that symbol in the context of the work. In order to do that, they need to understand what the symbol is. Which means the biographical stuff actually is relevant to the text, and Swift's obvious irritation at her fans for failing to just... fuck off a little bit and let her live, while an entirely fair and morally defensible human response, is complicated by the way that her art is produced to resonate best for those who care most. Folklore and Evermore prove even Taylor is on some level aware of this, because she uses the third-person mechanic (and again in "Bolter") to differentiate those protagonists from the narrative construct of "Taylor Swift" in her other first-person work — i.e. pulling apart the Swift who is speaking and not the Swift who is singing (if that makes sense).

And then, finally: "The irony gets a bit tired. You can just say you like music. It's fine." What a deliciously recursive little bit of irony, considering it's a criticism being offered by a character whose ironic distance is itself being criticized. And the fact that the author is putting her own self-criticism in the mouth of a non-existent popstar who's deliberately flattening her take on her subject matter? Mingling valid with invalid criticism to establish a protective distance from her flaws and prove her smarty-pants intellectual self-awareness while also implicitly disowning the faults in her work, an (ironically) childish gesture of insecurity that stands at odds with the mature intellectual persona? Trying to have about seven or eight different cakes, and eat every one of them? "The irony gets a bit tired." Fucking perfect. I laughed.

[kineticallyanywhere]

dndads avatar au thoughts

Beary: Earthbender Autumn: Firebender Henry: Firebender (so steeped in denial. s1 is him crawling out of the denial mud he's neck deep in) Mercedes: Waterbender Sparrow: Firebender Lark: Waterbender (no this does not stop the twins from impersonating each other. they are VERY good at it) Rebecca: Waterbender (uses it to make ice cream!) Hero: Firebender (prodigy; non-practicing; secretly the Avatar) Normal: Waterbender (kinda garbage at martial or artistic techniques, much more adept at spiritual/healing elements but doesn't have a teacher)

Willy: Waterbender (Bloodbender, obvs. Can pull freaky stuff with spirits) Ron: Waterbender (nonpracticing) Samantha: Earthbender (nonpracticing) Terry Jr.: Earthbender Veronica: Nonbender Scary: Her biodad is a (bad) firebender, but she's ever been able to do it, no matter how hard she tries. That is, until she met Willy. (she could Earthbend, like her monther's mother, if she tried.)

Darryl: Nonbender Carol: Earthbender Grant: Earthbender (pretends to be non-practicing) Marco: Nonbender Link: Nonbender? (might actually be an earthbender? it's strangely unclear)

(now idea how TF this family works in an au, but) Bill: Airbender (used for weed smoking) Glenn: Airbender (can make his voice carry so far) Jodie: Earthbender Morgan: Firebender Nick: Firebender Cassandra: Nonbender, air heritage Taylor: Airbender (he hopes he's the avatar, but he really just moves other elements around with wind)

The Likelies are all Spirits, including Hermie

[likeadevils]

2004 Lover Diaries Transcripts

Feb 14, 2004- Wyomissing, PA

Today was Valentine’s Day — but seriously I never would’ve known. I don’t have a boyfriend or a crush — There’s no point in even acknowledging V-day when you don’t have those key elements. So, I woke up and perfected/tweaked this song I wrote yesterday called Someone Loves You — It basically says that no matter what you’ve done or where you are in life, somewhere someone loves you. I wrote another one called Outside — It’s about being left out in the cold and being — well, an outsider. I don’t know if it’ll go anywhere, but it made me feel better.

Apr 20, 2004- Hendersonville, TN

I <3 SCHOOL! Today was the talent show, it was @ 9:30 am in front of the whole school. I was toward the end. When it was my turn, I sang Beautiful Eyes on my 12-string koa. It went well. I got a standing ovation and everything. After school, Mom and I went into Nashville and met at the label. I played Angelina and Beautiful Eyes for them. They told us that we have to pay for any demos we make before the deal … We didn’t know about that. Afterward, we went to RCA Cafe. The people who played were really good and I want to write with a girl named Liz Rose who played.

Nov 5, 2004- Hendersonville, TN

Hey, Yesterday was Friday, and instead of going to the movies or something I fell asleep. I needed it! This last week was CRAZY. Ok, so Capital Records doesn't think I'm ready right now and I could get a deal right now with them, but not the deal I would want. So on the other hand, there's Scott Borchetta, who we met w/ at Universal. And you know, I really loved all the stuff he said in the meeting, and he stayed for the whole Bluebird show. And he's SO passionate about this project. I think that's the way we're gonna go, I want to surround myself with passionate people. I'm not sad about Capital, b/c I don't want to be lost on a big label, like with RCA. Taylor Swift

(2003 • 2004 • 2005 • 2006 • 2007 & 2008 • 2009 • 2010 • 2011 • 2012 • 2013 • 2014 • 2015 • 2016 & 2017)

[septembersghost]

What do you think is the actual deal between Harry and Taylor? Because they seem to be each other's muses- and with the lyrical back and forth that's been going on, EVEN AFTER A DECADE- it can't be nothing. They give off major soulmates vibes (musical-wise) and even relationship-wise (although they could also be star-crossed lovers) with such shitty timing everytime 😂 i've supported joe and taylor for years, but I've got this inkling in my mind like someway and somehow, H and T might still find their way back to each other. Joe just seems meh :/ tbh.

i almost feel like i shouldn't answer this because it's a bit loaded, but it's 3:30 am so why not 😅💕

i'm going to first defer to my friend @cowboylikedean who said:

"they can be soulmates, but not romantically. Consider: their whole relationship has been leading to a friendship which was always destined, but needed a contextual foundation that only an ill defined on again off again/only communicating through sex then song could create. Consider that. Joe is Taylor's forever person. doesn't mean Harry has to be nobody."

we don't know if they've forged a friendship behind closed doors or not, and whether we ever know anything about that is up to them. their interaction at the grammys was warm and familiar, which at the very least speaks to their feelings of respect and kindness towards one another as artists and people. taylor's support for him was clearly genuine (though you could say that of her support for basically everyone in that room). i think it's really important and meaningful to acknowledge that there are a vast array of dynamics that can be considered a soul connection - not only romantic, but familial, platonic/friendship, artistic, those can all be transcendent and vibrant relationships too. i personally feel there's a soul element and connection within their music that needed to exist as a spark to get them where they are today. (had they not been what they were to each other, what would their careers even look like? what would 1989 be? what would hs1 be? etc) and they were also, in many ways, peers when they were together, and in unique positions of fame at a young age that most other people couldn't understand. their timing was consistently wrong/off, but that connection in their hearts and art still came through clearly. to me, it's part of the invisible string - they had to meet and have that complicated on/off thing and have love for one another to be on the paths where they were supposed to go, in different ways, and to be able to stand in a room together where they're both succeeding and both feeling gratitude for what all of that meant.

i think it's a disservice to joe to...not pay attention to what taylor has explicitly said about him, and why that relationship is so different and profound for her. i've seen a LOT of commentary lately about him being boring and not "getting" their connection, and it strikes me as somewhat unfair because we don't see it, we're not privy to it, and we shouldn't be, that is very much by their design. (she did say romance isn't dead if you keep it just yours!) but because someone like h is sparkly and charismatic and a musician, and joe is somewhat more reserved and less obviously visible and an actor, there's this sense that we "know" him less, which can easily seem less interesting, but keep in mind that how any fan sees him and how taylor herself sees and describes him are totally different. he's home to her, he's that gorgeous dream to her, he's the daylight to her, and that's what matters. he's who she's built her life with and found her peace with for many years now, and vice versa. h hasn't found that yet, but i hope he does. but that doesn't necessarily mean harry has to be nothing to her. whether that's fondness and recognition of their influences on one another and gentle nods to the past, or whether that comes in actual friendship, i think it's really important and valuable to acknowledge that the soul connection can happen and NOT be romantic, or initially be romantic/sexual and then transform into something else later, and it's no less of a cosmic pull. in one way or another, they'll always be connected, even if it remains in lyric and melody - and that's also always going to keep having a life of its own.

[queer-and-nerdy]

this has been tumbling around in my mind for the last week so now i have to expose all of you to it. shoutout to @wellgoslowly for listening to this in person

lockwood LOVES listening to classic rock and metal (as well as a few older pop-punk but he'll never admit to it). anything from the seventies and eighties (he pretends that no other era of metal exists and if you even say the phrase "nu metal" around him he WILL see red and draw his rapier). it doesn't matter who the band is or what subgenre they are, as long as the song was released pre-nineties he loves it, although he tends to prefer more mainstream bands and artists (respect) like ozzy osbourne, judas priest, kiss, etc. the only band he will break this rule for is metallica - they are his all-time favorite band and i will die on that hill. and when i say he WORSHIPS james hetfield... that is an UNDERSTATEMENT. james is like a pseudo-father to him. he doesn't want to put posters on his walls so he keeps a scrapbook of pictures cut out of old magazines of james, lars, kirk, cliff, even jason and rob. he is a number one dave mustaine hater and will defend lars's drumming skills until he's blue in the face. lucy got him a signed copy of ride the lightning for his birthday one year and george didn't see either of them leave lockwood's room for a week. there are only three things he loves in this world: his family, his friends, and james hetfield.

lucy, i feel like, has the most whiplash taste in music. like, yes, we can all agree lucy is your average indie pop listener and i am a major supporter of that hc (i know what linnie’s playlists sound like) but i guarantee you when she shuffles her most-listened-to playlist it goes from crane wives immediately to cannibal corpse. she loves death metal, deathcore, goregrind; the nastier the better (except for black metal - iykyk). the era doesn’t matter to her either although she tends to gravitate toward the older stuff. think opeth, cryptosy, morbid angel, deicide, obituary, venom, slayer, even xavlegimaofffassssitimiwoanindutroabcwapwaeiippohfffx - she loves playing the “can i figure out the name of the band given the logo” game and if she loses she listens to them. she finds it a great way to unleash her stress and anger without hurting herself or others or even taking it out on a case. she doesn't like to mosh (autism) but she loves watching people in the pit at concerts. she drags lockwood and george to the store to help her pick out plushies to give to corpsegrinder. one night she goes to a taylor swift concert and rushes out at the end to make it to sanguisugabogg in time. she's also a big female-rage/female-led fan (fem supporting fem yk how it is). if there is even a single fem-presenting band member she is instantly ride-or-die (within reason, of course). any time conquer divide/castrator/cyrpta do an eu tour she essentially becomes a roadie.

george. oh, george. my beloved kin. the only one who understands me and i him. his taste in rock and metal is... i don't know a better way to describe it other than neurodivergent fruity. it needs to have some kind of element to it that he can latch onto other than just the music - costumes, over-the-top production, detailed lore, etc. like lockwood, he doesn't really care about the subgenre; as long as he likes the sound he'll listen. he tends to frequent more of the nu/prog/melodic/symphonic side of metal, though. he's your average autistic ghost fan and makes it everyone else's problem. he knows all the lore and has dedicated his life to every incarnation of papa (primo is his favorite but he loves them all). he can tell the ghouls in every era apart in an instant and is a consistent quintessence ghoul kinnie. he will not hesitate to get into twitter beef to defend his opinions (bro's in the trenches of toxic ghostwt). he's one of the most well-known ghost accounts on every social media platform and actively writes fanfiction (about the characters, NOT the real people), character analyses, and essays. he's also a HUGE sleep token fan (he understands their lore better than vessel himself and has created a youtube commentary channel just to break down each of their songs) and ice nine kills fan (he's a number one ricky armellino lover and has forced lockwood and lucy to watch all of the horror movies that the silver scream one and two are based off of). he loves avatar and made his own ringmaster costume (lucy walked in on him trying to recreate johannes's makeup and slowly backed out of the room; the situation was never mentioned again) and when chris motionless unveiled his new hair he screamed so loud that the others thought someone had broken into portland row (lockwood had to restrain him while lucy hid his laptop to prevent him from ordering purple hair dye). he has a ziplock bag of (definitely expired) marshmallows that he calls his “rammstein concert care package.” he pretends to be a gatekeeper but the instant someone mentions even a passing interest in any of his favorite bands he will burst into tears.

skull enjoys smooth jazz.

[gyllenhaalstories]

Hey :D I watched a few movies with Jake and I was wondering what are your fave movies and your least fave? Just curious!

hi anon!!! i hope you've enjoyed the movies you've watched so far!!! 💖 i've made it through almost his entire filmography, i think i'm missing 2 of them? yeah, that's about right. i'm avoiding nocturnal animals like the plague so maybe one day i will be brave enough to watch it and complete jake's whole filmography. it was pretty easy to select my 3 least favourites, but my top 3 had me questioning everything. i just love so many of his movies, it's not my fault! thank you so much for asking this question! i love rambling.

TOP 3 FAVOURITE MOVIES

Demolition (i remember watching this movie and i loved it so much that i watched it a second time right away. it holds such a special place in my heart and it always will!)

Brokeback Mountain and Love & Other Drugs (it feels criminal to put them at the same level but i just love them too much okay!!! they both make me cry a river)

Road House (yeah <3 jake has so many amazing movies but the rewatchability factor is very important to me and i've watched the movies mentioned above SO MANY TIMES and what's the other one that i also watched an alarming amount of times? road house. it's funny, it's pretty, it's not boring, it's not too long, it's got some depth, it's just so good. ambulance would also qualify, i love it so much too. if i was smart i would put wildlife because it gave me a similar gut punch as demolition did the first time i watched it, but i'm not smart so my vote goes for the gyllentitties)

TOP 3 LEAST FAVOURITE MOVIES

The Sisters Brothers (i love john morris & his multiple accents so much and there are elements of the movie i liked, but... it's so long... it's so boring... it's so yeehaw gold rush... it's one of the few movies of jake i have on DVD and i can assure you it won't be played very often <3)

Highway (call me boring and lame and everything you want, but i don't like alcohol and weed and stuff centered around those topics so it's kind of obvious that this movie wasn't for me. pilot's cute, i like him, but yeah. it took me forever to find this movie online in english and not spanish or russian? for some reason? so the intensive research was not all that worth it. if i ever watch it again, it's for pilot)

Life (i love david jordan and his yo-yo!!! i love him so much!!! i watched 2 alien movies in my life and they were essentially the same and i did not like them. why do they always let the aliens inside the spaceship??? aren't astronauts supposed to be smart? it's so stupid that they just think it will end well. it never ends well! so yeah i'd rather watch accidental love than life and that says A LOT.)

honourable mention for spirit untamed. i will never watch spirit untamed. i grew up watching spirit: stallion of the cimarron and my spirit would never!!! i can tell that jake's voice acting improved a lot between this movie and strange world and that's all that matters.

as a bonus, i'll give you the 3 movies that pleasantly surprised me! moonlight mile (i wasn't expecting much? i don't know, i thought it would be pretty meh but it was so good! i really liked it and it's definitely one of my rare comfort watches because jake hates me and doesn't do enough movies i can just watch easily), end of watch (it's so... intense. i almost threw up because of a certain scene, i thought i would have stopped watching before the end but i loved brian taylor so much) and stronger (one of jake's most underrated performances like woah this was so painful and so good and so yeah! i really liked it. you can tell that jake was passionate about telling this story and it deserves a lot more recognition). i'm done rambling now, thank you again for sending this! 💖

[thoughtsbyharu]

Guts and Guts (spilled) Album Thoughts

My thoughts about Olivia Rodrigo's 2nd album, Guts!

Hi everyone! Long time no post! A lot has happened for the past months and I haven't posted a lot :(

Anyway, so Olivia released an album last September! This review is sooo long overdue haha but at least I could also review the new songs released on Guts (spilled) which is kind of like the deluxe edition of Guts.

I am very excited for this album because her previous album, "Sour" was one of my favorites. I listened to this on its release and it did not disappoint! So let's talk about my thoughts about it.

1. all-american bitch

Rating: 9/10

Memorable line/s:

"I don't get angry when I'm pissed. I'm the eternal optimist, I scream inside to deal with it"

"I'm grateful all the time (Grateful every f*cking time)"

Thoughts:

Way to start an album! The song is very catchy and the pop rock elements just hits up my alley. I heard that she used some American pop culture references in this song so I did some researching to know the meaning of them (since I am not American lol).

The overall tone of this song is somewhat sarcastic. I think the song is about how people expect her to be the "perfect American woman" when some of that ideals are quite destructive. Take for example the line:

"All the time, I'm grateful all the time I'm sexy and I'm kind I'm pretty when I cry"

and the line

"I don't get angry when I'm pissed I'm the eternal optimist I scream inside to deal with like "Ah""

It's like even if you are upset or angry, as a woman, you are expected to be calm and mature and handle things gracefully like a proper lady. Basically, bottling up your feelings because you, having negative feelings and expressing them doesn't sit well with people.

These types of expectations are toxic and unhealthy. Keeping your thoughts internally because people will be inconvenienced is such bs. Having emotions isn't a crime because guess what, women are people too. We should be able to laugh when you're happy, cry when you're sad and get mad when you're angry.

Overall (before this section takes too long), I like the song and it's meaning. I especially love the outro. Oh! and have you guys seen her performance of this song on SNL? It was amazing!

2. bad idea right?

Rating: 8.5/10

Memorable line/s:

"Seeing you tonight is a bad idea right?"

"I only see him as a friend (The biggest lie I ever said)"

This is like hearing the thought process of your friend who can't leave their ex or move on 😂

It's a fun song and really catchy. I love the build up before every chorus hits. It's fun to sing along to.

It's funny because this song reminds me of one of my friends and his on/off relationship with a girl. Like, he keeps ranting about her but he just keeps coming back to her. Saying things like, "Well, we're still friends so we're still hanging out" but then regrets it later when stuff happens. This song reminds me soooo much of him. No matter how much advice we give him he always does the opposite.

Anyways, to my friend out there, hope you move on already!

3. vampire

Rating: 9/10

Memorable line/s:

"I used to think I was smart but you made look so naive"

"You can't love anyone, 'cause that would mean you had a heart"

So this song was said to be about a previous boyfriend but others said that this is about Taylor Swift, but I think I'd go with the former. I did some research and she did have a former boyfriend that fits the description so maybe it's about him?

The lyrics is kind of like "All Too Well" all over again. Not saying it's bad but it's really weird to think that a lot of young women can relate to it. I mean, why do these men always go after young women who's like, years their junior? The line "Went for me and not her, 'cause girls your age know better"?? Like dudes, why can't you find someone your age? Young women in their late teens to early 20s are still figuring out life, leave them alone 😂

Anyways, the song is quite good and pretty hard to sing so kudos to Olivia! I watched her live performances to this song and it's just so amazing.

4. lacy

Rating: 7.5/10

Memorable line/s:

"I see you everywhere, sweetest torture one could bear"

"People are people but it's like you're made of angel dust"

"I despise my rotten mind and how much it worships you"

This is definitely about envy. It's the kind of envy where you admire someone because you can never be like them. Do you guys get it? (haha)

She puts "lacy" in a pedestal because she's basically perfect; which is something that she (Olivia) thinks she could never be. Basically, "Lacy" brings out her insecurities and this is frustrating her.

I think most of us has their own "lacy". Maybe it's an idol, actress, friend, etc. and I get it because I also have my own. The thing is, you are your own person and that lacy is also their own person. You will never be them because you are you. It's alright to acknowledge the feeling of jealousy but don't let your life revolve around it. Do things that are best for you.

5. ballad of a homeschool girl

Rating: 8/10

Memorable line/s:

"I'm on the outside of the greatest inside joke"

"Each time I step outside, it's social suicide!"

This is not a ballad, this is an anthem!! 😂

I have to say, this ain't just for the homeschool girlies but awkward and socially inept people too (like me). I am laughing all throughout this song when I first listened to it because it is TOO relatable for my own good.

I love how chaotic it sounds, like a mind of a very confused and anxious girl who does not know how social stuff works.

P.S. can't find a fitting gif for this sooo bear with me

6. making the bed

Rating: 8/10

Memorable line/s:

"Well sometimes I feel like I don't wanna be where I am"

"Every good thing has turned into something I dread"

"I got the things I wanted, it's not what I imagined"

This is such a very personal and emotional song. I've been watching BoJack Horseman recently (I'm on Season 4 pls no spoilers) and this song reminds me of him. This song could be about her rise to fame but it could also be interpreted as facing the consequences of your own actions thus the title.

9. logical

Rating: 8/10

Memorable line/s:

"No, love is never logical"

"I know I'm half responsible and that makes me feel horrible"

"i fell for you like water falls from the february sky"

Another ballad~ It's about how she wished she left an unhealthy relationship sooner. She reminisced about how she ignored all the red flags because she loved him. This is probably about that guy on vampire because some lyrics talks about how he took advantage of her because she was young. And yes, when you are young, immature, and inexperienced, love is not logical. She seems to blame herself over it as well which made me want to give her a hug :(

The song makes me sad.

10. get him back!

Rating: 9.5/10

Memorable line/s:

"But I am my father's daughter, so maybe I could fix him"

"Wanna kiss his face, with an uppercut"

"I want sweet revenge, I want him again"

This feels like the continuation for "bad idea right?". Get him back is a song about having complicated feelings for an awful ex. She wants to get back with him but at the same time she wants to get revenge or get back at him for breaking her heart.

Song is very catchy and I hope I could hear this live soon! (Olivia please come to the Philippines) One of my faves in this album.

11. love is embarrassing

Rating: 9.5/10

Memorable line/s:

"My God, love's embarrassing as hell"

This is logical but in a lighter tone or when you are at the stage that you've moved on but you suddenly remember what you did and you get second hand embarrassment for yourself 🤣 It's giving "What the hell was I thinking, tf did I do that for??"

This song is so fun and I found myself singing it from time to time. One of my favesss

12. the grudge

Rating: 11/10

Memorable line/s:

"You took everything I loved and crushed it in between your fingers"

"My undying love, now I hold it like a grudge"

"I takes strength to forgive, but I don't feel strong"

"How could anybody do the things you did so easily?"

"It takes strength to forgive but, I'm not quite sure I'm there yet"

Ngl, this song made me cry. Every time I try singing it I always end up tearing up or crying. It's like you are trying to move on and forgive someone but that pain still lingers and it hurts so much and you can't bring yourself to come in terms with. To anyone who is in the situation, give yourself time because as they say time can heal all wounds. If you must cry, then there's no shame in crying.

13. pretty isn't pretty

Rating: 10/10

Memorable line/s:

"There's always something in the mirror that I think looks wrong"

"...I could try every every lipstick in every shade, but I'd always feel the same "

"You fix the things you hated, And you'd still feel so insecure"

Seriously Olivia. Why should you always write songs that are so personal and relatable?? I gotta be honest, but this song made me cry again haha. I dunno, I just can relate to this song soooo much. I love how Olivia wrote this because it captures the struggles of being an anxious and insecure individual. Anyway, on a lighter note, I love the guitar and the bridge of this song. This is one of my faves.

14. teenage dream

Rating: 10/10

Memorable line/s:

"When am I gonna stop being wise beyond my years and just start being wise?"

"They all say that it gets better, it gets better, but what if I don't?"

Another ballad and yes, I am crying because of this song yet again. If I have a song I want my teenage self to hear, it's this song. I am an eldest daughter in an Asian household so this song just pulls my heartstrings so much because it makes me feel heard and my feelings validated. I am expected of many things so this song comforts me.

The slow buildup to a rock tone during the outro is also such a nice tone.

15. obsessed

Rating: 10/10

Memorable line/s:

"You both have moved on, you don't even talk. But I can't help it, I got issues, I can't help it baby"

You don't know how guilty I felt when I heard this song for the first time hahaha. At one point in my life, I've been soooo insecure at my boyfriend's ex and the lyrics just hits me like a damn truck because my thoughts are exactly the same!! I mean, sometimes you just can't help to compare yourself from an ex you know?

I love the contrast of this vs. the other 3 songs because this is pop rock. I love the instrumentals for this!

16. girl i've always been

Rating: 8/10

Memorable line/s:

"And I can't say I'm a perfect ten. But I am the girl I've always been"

A country song! I love how lively this song is. The lyrics is kind of empowering in a way because it feels like Olivia has accepted that she is flawed and is not pretending to be that perfect girl anymore.

17. scared of my guitar

Rating: 7.5/10

Memorable line/s:

"I can't lie to it the same way that I lie to you"

"So we'll stay together 'cause how could I ever trade something that's good for what's right."

Another sad song (please Olivia I'll run out of tears!). I think Olivia is pertaining to her songwriting skills here and how she uses it to express her raw and authentic self. She compares how honest she is with her songwriting versus her relationship with others. It is implied that she isn't transparent about her feelings with other people, possibly because she is protecting herself.

18. stranger

Rating: 10/10

Memorable line/s:

"I cried a million rivers for you but that's over now. You're just a stranger I know everything about"

"You are the best thing that I'll ever keep so far out of my life"

"If I'm not enough for you, you're not enough for me"

This song is so uplifting and positive for someone who already moved on. I love the lyrics of this as it speaks about moving forward and forgiving someone but never forgetting. Oh! and I love the reference from "enough for you". I also love the guitar on this one.

19. so american

Rating: 9/10

Memorable line/s:

"He's like a poem I wish I wrote"

"Oh god, it's just not fair of him to make me feel this much"

"I'm probably gonna marry him if he keeps this shit up"

"I really love my bed but man it's hard to sleep when he's with me"

"I don't wanna assume this stuff. But ain't it love? I think I'm in love"

Guysss we finally have a love song!! This is such a perfect way to end an album together with "stranger" because it feels like a chapter has closed and another one has opened! This is her first love song since her debut right?? It's sooo good. The lyrics are so cute and makes me smile. She describes this guy as the best thing that's ever happen to her and that makes me happy somehow? She sounds sooo inlove and adorableee! I really love the bridge it makes me all giggly ><

-----

My Top 5 Picks:

stranger

the grudge

love is embarrassing

obsessed

pretty isn't pretty

-----

Overall Thoughts:

I gotta say, kudos to Olivia and her team because they manage to create another good album! It's great that they are consistent with pop rock and ballads and I especially appreciate that they added a little country touch on the song list!

Overall, like Sour, I love how this album is so personal. Ngl, this made me cry more than Sour ><

-----

[thesinglesjukebox]

MEGAN THEE STALLION - "HISS"

We have now arrived at our last song of the month. We will not be covering any other songs this month. See you in March!

[7.73]

Wayne Weizhen Zhang: As a lifelong Barb, it saddens me to see Nicki enter a paranoid, truly despicable frenzy. The only upside? We get songs like this.  [9]

Anna Suiter: Megan might have created a brand new season! [9]

Nortey Dowuona: Megan said one line and ended Nicki's career in one fell swoop, rendered Cardi B irrelevant for another year, and notched another hit. I expect you all to be at the next tour. And be there early! [10]

Jacob Sujin Kuppermann: It's a category error to think of this as a diss track – it's more a supernova-level airing of grievances, as comprehensive of a litany of disdain as I've heard in rap. It loses something in listenability as it goes on -- Lil Ju & Bankroll's beat feeling a little like an endurance test as it grinds you down -- but maintains its fundamental appeal no matter how many times you loop it. Megan's charisma, both as an instrument of inward love and outward spite, shines true. [7]

Will Adams: It's not a tour de force, it's a tour de ferocious: Megan's near non-stop onslaught is a marvel to listen to, no matter the beat's plainness or the mid-point spoken word bit that trips up the momentum. [7]

Thomas Inskeep: Is any rapper right now better than Megan when she's on one? Based on "HISS," maybe not. Also, she doesn't get the credit she deserves for her little vocal tics, her "ah!"s and "ha!"s, which are nearly as good as Michael Jackson's. [7]

Ian Mathers: Delightful throughout, but I must admit I giggle like a small child every time I get to "when I'm in the gym I think about bitches that I'm shitting on." [8]

Joshua Minsoo Kim: The energy is undeniable, but the moment when the beat drops and she talks only dampens the mood. Ultimately, this isn't a song I care for, but I appreciate that it makes me want to root for her. [5]

Katherine St. Asaph: The fury and virtuosity are both undeniable, even if I'm not really sure whether I like this or just support it. [7]

Leah Isobel: It is very satisfying to hear Megan in firebreather mode, especially since it's so well-deserved; she's gotten a raw fucking deal over the past couple of years, and if anyone has the right to let off some steam by shit-talking everyone else, it's her. She has the technical ability and linguistic smarts to back up her aggression, too. But as satisfying as it is to see her skill and subtlety send one of her adversaries into a week-long tailspin, there's also something a little disheartening about the spectacle. "Cobra" pushed at the edges of her art, trying to articulate her real struggles within the frame of her party-starter persona, and did an admirable job of inverting her usual performance of sexuality and strength into vulnerability and entrapment. By contrast, "HISS" feels boxed in, not just by the constraints of her public image but by the constraints that the perception of her public image places on her actual selfhood. When she raps, "Say he fucked Megan, and now he the topic / These n***** thinking they lowered the value / All this free promo, I'm turning a profit," the video shows her nude with her hands tied behind her back: her body, constricted, defenseless, and presumed to be available just because it is visible. That's the real anger that animates "HISS": anger that her humanity is not and will never be enough, because of what other people think about her body. But people don't want to hear that, so instead, we get beef. Yum. [7]

Taylor Alatorre: "Um. Miss... Thee Stallion, ma'am? I'm... not entirely sure if you have a full and accurate understanding of all the processes that factor into the monetization of social media clicks and page views, as well as certain other key elements of the modern attention economy. If you would like to register for my quick-and-easy 6-week course, you could soon be earning a-- oh. I see. My bad. I-- I'll just be going, then." [9]

[Read, comment and vote on The Singles Jukebox ]

[notesonartistry]

Where's the compassion for the poor minority fans who can't save up and simply go to somewhere which is near where they are and are still mad-sad they can't go? even if they secretly understand why?

Oh anon, I have sympathy for any person who isn't able to attend. I know that, especially now, many people are struggling to just meet their daily expenses and keep themselves and their families fed and with a roof over their heads. The dream of going to a show may be the motivation people need to keep going at really difficult times. Even those who have managed to save up enough to treat themselves to a ticket are going to struggle to get one. It's not fair, and of course many people who have been waiting for these shows are going to be upset, even if they do understand why things work the way they do.

Hopefully, many people who are really big fans whether they live locally to the venues or they will need to go to the extra expense of travel and accommodation, will be able to get tickets. Sadly, anyone who can't get them (for whatever reason) will need to follow online or just need to wait until the tour movie is released.

No matter the reason someone is unable to attend or how mad-sad they are, I still think it's unacceptable to say Taylor doesn't care or that she's being lazy, or she could just add x number of shows or only cares about profit. As unpalatable as it may be, touring is a business and it's Taylor and her team's job to balance costs, negotiate with partners and maximise their return. There are innumerable elements that Taylor adds to her shows that affect her profit, but she does them because she wants to put on a spectacular show - and that comes with compromises/demands in terms of the venues she plays at.

All of that is wholly separate from a fact that I've repeated a lot recently: Taylor is a human being. She's not a robot, churning out content for us to consume. She's a woman who is amazing at her job, but who also deserves to live her life. She physically cannot do 3.5 hour shows without taking some breaks and setting hard limits on her schedule. There are many examples of artists (and people in other jobs) who suffer physical, mental and emotional repercussions of trying to do too much. Taylor herself took physical risks during the 1989 Tour by continuing to perform in heels despite tendonitis and was lucky not to do lasting damage. She is not obliged to run herself into the ground to meet our demands no matter how much of her music we consume.

[adamwatchesmovies]

TMNT (2007)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

In some ways, TMNT is a better film than the previous live-action installments in the series. Unfortunately, it still suffers from major shortcomings. This makes it less fun than even the worst of the ‘90s adventures because there’s nothing nostalgic about it and no elements that are so bad they can be kind of fun despite themselves. This movie is doomed to obscurity - theatrical release or no theatrical release.

3,000 years ago, a warlord named Yaotl opened a portal whose energies granted him immortality but turned his four trusted generals to stone. The portal also unleashed 13 monsters into our world - previews of the army the portal would unleash the next time someone opened it. In present day, Leonardo (voiced by James Arnold Taylor), Raphael (voiced by Nolan North), Michelangelo (voiced by Mikey Kelley) and Donatello (voiced by Mitchell Whitfield) have grown apart. Leonardo has been sent away to South America to train and his brothers have either taken on mundane jobs or become masked vigilantes. When Yaotl resurrects his generals and begins gathering the monsters with the help of the Foot Clan, it can only mean trouble for New York and its shell-wearing protectors.

While there’s a certain charm to the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies and their practical special effects, making the next chapter in the series an animated film was a good idea. It gives the characters freedoms they never had before and they're the most expressive they've ever been. Too bad they have nothing interesting to say and the plot is a complete mess. There’s just way too much going on here. Why 13 monsters to collect to open up the portal? Eight of them are captured during a montage and the turtles only interact with three of them, making that number way excessive. In fact, why are there monsters in the movie at all? Isn’t a villain that's trying to open up this portal to a dimension of demons with his four granite warriors - none of which get more than a handful of lines - enough?

Let's examine this story deeper. The portal only opens up once every 3,000 when the stars align, and only if the creatures are arranged in a circle. Yaotl sure was dragging his feet gathering them then, wasn’t he? They’ve been around for longer than Christianity and he’s gotten exactly NOTHING done before the plot kicks in. Thankfully, the monsters are - for reasons that are never made clear - hanging out in New York city, waiting to be scooped up like Pokémon. This entire plot is so muddy and so full of holes you just don’t care about any of it.

Not helping are the titular heroes. Splinter (voiced by Mako) has sent Leonardo away to train to be a better leader. Did he really need to go to a different continent to do this? Speaking of bad ideas, the “Nightwatcher” subplot makes NO SENSE. Raphael has been wearing a disguise and sneaking out at night to fight crime. Why? The turtles live in secrecy in the city's sewer tunnels. He has no civilian identity to protect. The disguise fools no one anyway - well, except his brothers, who take forever to put two and two together. As if the huge humanoid with three fingers and a big shell on his back jumping around doing martial arts wouldn’t be immediately recognized by them. And if he is going around fighting crime as a vigilante… so what? The turtles have always been vigilantes! So is their friend Casey Jones (voiced by Chris Evans)!

Once again, the plot centers solely on Leonardo and Raphael, with the other two turtles given nothing to do. You’d think with the years of comics and television series, someone would’ve figured out a way to give everyone involved some task crucial to defeating the villains. Donnie could hack into a security system, April (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar) could gather intelligence or put on a disguise, Mickey and Casey could distract the guards, that kind of thing. No. We get hammered by themes of family and brotherhood over and over but all the siblings do is argue until the final act when they finally put their differences aside. None of it is any fun, and certainly not with the quality of the jokes we're subjected to. The entire picture only contains one funny moment, which makes the brisk 87 minutes feel like an entire season of a TV show you’ve been forced to sit through.

Despite all my criticisms, I must admit that an 11-year-old who loves the ninja turtles would probably love this movie because the ridiculous story seriously (too seriously, I’d say) and feigns a grim and gritty theme throughout. Nothing about the story or visuals will date TMNT like its predecessors but it’s hard to imagine anyone fondly looking back at this 2007 film. (March 26, 2021)