#Vespa's critique

[starkjoy]

andor is fucking incredible. the mature tone, the slow burn espionage plot, the grounded dialogue, the nuanced characters, the realistic production design, the practical effects, the already iconic nicholas britell score—it’s the most cinematic, intelligent disney plus show to date and the best star wars content since rogue one.

it may not be the usual disney plus star wars fare, but that’s a good thing—it’s a breath of fresh air after the vespa spy kids gang manbaby fanservice easter egg grogu overload we’ve been getting lately. genuinely impressed with disney for being this bold.

my only critiques:

d+ needs to stop with the short episodes that clearly are chopped up from a larger script

bummed that this will only be 2 seasons give me more of THIS star wars

[pangolin-404]

So I finished The Penumbra Podcast (Juno Steel edition) season 3 so here are some thoughts

under cut because it's kind of long

adding in right here right now that Peter and his interactions with Juno annoyed me since season 1 because I'm very much not an enjoyer of this type of romance, where there's no build-up. and because most of their onscreen interaction is them being sappy or intimate I ended up despising Peter whenever he appeared. that's not an in-depth or coherent critique, that's just my preference

I really liked season 2 because Peter wasn't there and Juno was really improving by himself and with new friends. anyways

I was really excited when Juno started reconnecting with Rita! The whole Newtown plot was really interesting and I love Rita I'd kill for her. the whole eye thing was vaguely horrifying and while I want to know what happens to Hyperion City I'm also very glad Juno Packed Up and Left. While I was suspicious about Buddy, I loved Jet from the start. really fond of his monotone demeanor and his weird car child.

Season 3 had to have been my favorite, because it offered a glipse into other perspectives and showed how much everyone grew. except Peter, who's in debt for a mystery reason and never grew close with anyone except Juno, for some reason; and while he seems to know a lot about the other crew, the others don't seem to feel as emotionally close to him. his and Juno's relationship was a bit more tolerable because there was an established year time jump, so it's more understandable why they'd be so close, and why Juno would consider his relationship with Neureyev on par with that with the rest of the crew.

I really like Buddy and Vespa!! at first I found the whole "we are a family now. do not fight this" thing funny but then it got genuinely wholesome as they grew closer. Over time revealing how Buddy's got one leg in the grave, through her necrosis and faulty heart and engine stomach, was very anxiety-inducing, and I began to check the content warnings for death every episode, to prepare myself in case she actually died. If I had a nickel every time I consumed media where a marriage between two women was interrupted by a massive spaceship, I'd have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice (first time was steven universe)

The goal of Dark Matters interests me because 1) it was very funny seeing Sasha and Juno playing 4d chess with each other, and 2) what the hell are they going to do with the Curemother Prime and the Rube 7? lock them up? like Sasha's obviously twisted from her time in Dark Matters, but she believes she's doing good. the Aurinko Family already had plans with the Curemother Prime, to end the pharmacutical monopoly; I feel it'd be very awkward if Sasha realized Buddy was 100% down for using the Curemother for good. there's a good chance I probably missed this somewhere actually

Juno is just COLLECTING these alien organisms at this point. first the martian thing, and now he had the curemother prime splattered on him. he's definitely absorbing that thing come on

My first theory was that the Ruby 7 was the first self-aware AI but since the last episode that is. definitely not the case. I want to say it's something using the car itself as a shell, partially-fused with the technology? But knowing this podcast it's probably something wildly different

CONCLUSION: please please Juno save all your friends and reunite Jet with his car child please. I don't care if the car is somewhat organic (Jet probably knows this. I'm calling it) and hyperintelligent just let it be part of the family. let Buddy and Vespa retire they're both very tired and deserve to peace out into the sunset hand in lovable hand

aaaand it is at this point in the review I realize that season 4 is out, just not on youtube. I will also listen to that. peace out

[just-being-leonest]

So one thing has been bothering me about the Loo Loo Land episode.

How Stolas treats his daughter.

I know most people think “He treats his daughter just fine!” And I used to think that too but... yeah.

Now don’t get me wrong, I do genuinely think he loves his daughter. I just think he’s letting his selfishness take priority over his daughter.

Now let me put a disclaimer right here: I know that Helluva is just starting off, and that there is much more room to grow. I get that I really do, but it feels like the issues presented in episode 2 between Octavia and her dad might stay in episode 2. Now I could be wrong, and I will gladly be wrong if there is an episode where Stolas does address his selfishness in full with Octavia. This is just my opinion.

More under the cut

Let’s establish something right here and right now. When you’re a parent, you don’t come first anymore. Your kid does.

Now Stolas is cheating on his wife, which is a very bad and selfish thing to do. Granted, we don’t have much information regarding why he’s cheating so I won’t comment much on this other than it’s severely affecting Octavia. Which raises the question for me: how badly do you need to have intercourse (because that’s all it is now) with Blitzø that you must keep doing it, to the point it’s hurting your daughter? Can you not wait for 1-2 years (I keep forgetting if Octavia is 16 or 17 sorry) and she turns 18 and moves out of the house/palace/whatever to then pull that stunt? At least so your daughter doesn’t have to wake up to your wife throwing things at you?

Then there’s the whole sexual comments in front of Octavia thing. I get it’s played off for comedy but... I’ve been somewhat in Octavia’s place. My dad has made sexual comments about women in front of me, has talked about the strip club he provided security for in detail (while talking about tits), talked about how to run a successful strip club in front of me (16 years old), my little brother, and my little sister. Not to mention the movies like American Pie he has forced me and my little brother to watch. So I can say with 100% certainty, don’t make sexual comments in front of your kids. Her “what the fuck dad” was completely called for.

Now... onto the theme park actions. Stolas flirted with Blitzø... the entire time. Which would be uncomfortable for any kid, but especially because the whole reason for Stolas being there is for Octavia. He’s not even listening to her, he’s instead flirting with Blitzø. Blitzø’s whole job was to be a bodyguard. Stolas was overstepping professional boundaries, but that’s a whole different thing. Point is, he shouldn’t have flirted with Blitzø the entire time.

Then the apology. It felt... weak but I’ll address that when I review the second episode. (Review for the first episode is on its way!)

And next.. the ending. Stolas didn’t need a bodyguard. The whole point he got a bodyguard was to flirt. To flirt. During a trip that was supposed to be about his daughter.

And finally.... Octavia doesn’t like Blitzø. She (kinda rightfully) sees him as a home wrecker. She doesnt like him nor should she have to. If your child doesn’t get along with/doesn’t like who you’re dating, stop dating them. Simple as that.

Sorry if this wasn’t very concise, it’s 00:18 here ^^;

[novis-musica]

Binaried people saying Juno is bad rep when he was literally created by a nonbinary person... might be what finally gets me off this site. BINARIED PEOPLE saying that him being a lady is a transphobic joke when it's the real experience of plenty of nonbinary people may actually kill me. Is Penumbra perfect? No. But if binaried people could PLEASE avoid critiquing enby rep, ESPECIALLY enby characters by enby creators, I'd really appreciate that. Thanks

[lost-in-sokovia]

what disney movies i’d make the danny bunch watch with me

me: soph you have so many good, promising wips in your drafts!! finish those first!! also me: im sad and tired and i just buried two of my grandparents i need this🤍🤍 lol i apologize in advance and im so sorry i haven’t come out with much, it’s been a long 2 weeks

zemo: WE’RE WATCHING FROZEN 2. FOR WHAT REASON? IDK I JUST LOVE THAT MOVIE AND WANT TO EXPERIENCE IT WITH HIM. i think zemo would recognize it’s absolutely phenomenal and breathtaking cinematography like i do because ✨he’s an observant and appreciative babe✨ also what if he can translate “all is found” into like, sokovian?🥺🥺 and it’s probably funny because he probably gets into the habit of humming it and one day sam hears him and is like “…is that frozen 2?” and zemo’s like “…maybe it is…” and sam would just kinda look at him and nod and just move on. but yes im watching frozen 2 with zemo (also side note sam is probably one of those people who thinks frozen 1 is better and i would definitely work my ass off to convince him otherwise)

alex kerner: treasure planet treasure planet treasure planet. i mean come on- he’s got that whole space obsession thing going on and plus alex has got MAJOR jim vibes. i think he would enjoy that movie (even though he would probably claim he doesn’t) but like im sure on the inside he wishes/imagines he’s jim and is doing all the space stuff that happens in the movie. you’d probably come home one day to him watching it with paula and you’d be like “hm, thought you didn’t like this movie that much?” and he’d be like “well i mean… i-it’s a kid’s movie, so…”

niki lauda: i know what you’re thinking; cars. nope. i absolutely refuse. this man will be watching luca with and will be respectfully keeping his mouth shut the entire time. there will be no disrespect coming out of that mouth during the course of the movie, and he will let me soak his shirt in tears at the end when im sobbing against his chest. he’d probably ask questions like “why didn’t the boy just run away sooner? it seems easy enough” or like, critique the vespa driving abilities of children (“niki these are fake children, calm down”), but he would probably like it on the inside and would warm up to it the more he watches it

jan weingartner: okay we’re watching the emperor’s new groove. it’s a classic and it’s just really funny, and the easiest for you to somehow relate to capitalism for him when he asks what the point of watching this movie is. “not that i don’t love watching movies with you, but remind me what significance this movie has to capitalism?” “well… like,,, uh,,- kuzco like, wants to move pacha and his family and their village out so he can build his summer home, and that’s like, really crappy. and plus he like, is a bitch to everyone in his kingdom or whatever, so…” “that was a major stretch, but you’re lucky this movie is cute i guess”

laszlo kreisler: I’D MAKE THIS BITCH WATCH COCO WITH ME. HANDS DOWN. i think he would think the songs and the representation of the culture are beautiful, and tbh he’d probably cry just as much as all of us did when we watched it for the first time (and im assuming y’all cried too because if you didn’t then im gonna have to question your character). i think considering everything he deals with, having a movie like this to go to would almost like, give him comfort because even though not everyone celebrates dia day los muertos or believes that that’s where people go in the afterlife, it’s something for him to kinda cling on to? anyway, this man is a coco bitch and i will accept no arguments

andrea marowski: tangled for this baby. i think he would like the absolutely BEAUTIFUL music, and would like the plot and the characters. i think “i see the light” would make him cry and i think he’d learn “the kingdom dance” on violin because uhm hello it’s beautiful? i think that movie makes that baby’s serotonin boost because, i think he’s like a rapunzel variant almost. he gives me her vibes. they both just have hearts of gold and i think he would love watching that movie and it would become a comfort movie for him

[dilsdelights]

reading the statement now and i have a couple notes.

allesandra was drawn like a man. not like a pro wrestler. most pro wrestlers who are women look like muscular women. she was ungendered, fullstop.

theres no mention of the other criticisms people had regarding nureyev, buddy and vespa, or the art for the second citadel. those were the bulk of the critiques of this artist.

'no demographic is a monolith' means that just because the people you know who by virtue of being involved in the decision making will be biased are okay with it doesnt mean that all or even most people in that demographic will be okay with it. yes, people can give conflicting suggestions, but the question is who is giving what suggestion, what are their biases, and are they saying something you do or dont want to hear. you may come out the other side realising this is a minor criticism or that its not a widely held belief but if youre writing a statement, clearly this is something that a lot of people who dont have a financial interest in not changing the artist have thoughts about.

ive seen a lot of posts from people reading this statement as an apology. its not. apologies require a change in behaviour, and they dont intend to change. it is an insistence that there is nothing to apologize for, and an explaination for why they shouldnt need to apologize. i suppose i respect them for dying steadfast on their hill, but i cant help but wish it was a better one. in hindsight, considering the fact that they retroactively made their characters poc, acknowledged that they are now committed to those descriptions, and then didnt make an attempt to add any semblance of race within the story, this isnt that surprising.

in conclusion, hire a sensitivity reader.

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

anyway, nothing the penumbra’s statement said actually went into any of my critiques. if they were so certain ellison had fixed their art, why only talk about allesandra’s design when what people (at least as far as i could see) were really complaining about was focused mainly on buddy, vespa & peter? even if they say that some of the designs were tweaked after the initial post, that doesn’t negate the fact that their quanyi design was posted in 2021 & it’s racist now. saying you “would never hire someone [you] believe to be bigoted” doesn’t automatically make that better, or the fact that the hiring managers very likely saw the art in question and thought that was still worth asking them for a portfolio

[ernmark]

The Heart of it All (pt 1) Reaction

Spoilers under the cut

The episode begins with a sound like a mechanical heartbeat, like an EKG. I like that.

----

A year. A year timeskip since the last episode. Holy crap.

First of all, that’s a hell of a long engagement-- far longer than necessary, I think, and I think Vespa observed as much, too. Buddy’s putting off the big mission (and in turn, the wedding) because she’s scared of what comes next. I feel like she needs to have a conversation with Juno about that-- about running away from the things you want most because you’re scared, except she does it with more style.

I love the soft, gentle way Vespa talks to Buddy-- and the way she starts to babble when she gets excited-- and then when Buddy puts her off a little bit of that raw roughness creeps back in. I’d want to hug her if I didn’t think it would kill me.

Also, I love the montage of moments in between-- there’s plenty of room for fanfic in this year, no doubt about it. “Bad Cops 4: Guns Are Illegal, So They Use Swords Now”. Juno being pissy that they skipped his favorite in the series, the fact that Jet thinks car crashes are too violent but people getting murdered to death is totally hilarious. Rita calling Buddy “Mom”.

----

The moment in privacy with her and Jet was really telling-- and not just the evidence of just how much of her is robotic. This is a side of her we just don’t see elsewhere. She’s fronting, she’s evasive, she laughs nervously and without that controlled glamour she always has. She’s never this vulnerable around anyone else, even Vespa. (And you can bet Vespa can sense that there’s something Buddy’s hiding from her, and a secret layer of rawness that she isn’t allowed to touch, and you can hear how much that hurts her). And for all this closeness, Jet still catches her off guard-- and he’s been picking up perceptiveness from Juno, which I love. 

----

“Damn. She’s a quick one, that Buddy Aurinko. Ever a thorn in my side.” It’s telling just how many times we’ve dealt with our POV characters speaking of past and future selves as different people. It’s very much A Thing, and I want to see it manifested physically by the finale, because I’m obvious like that.

-----

One of the things that makes me really frustrated with Buddy is that by trying to protect Vespa, she’s making her more nervous. Vespa’s not an idiot, she knows something’s wrong-- but without Buddy to help her understand it, Vespa’s stuck trying to guess randomly, and her mental illness is going to supply all sorts of worst case scenarios that Buddy wouldn’t dream of.

And Vespa? Vespa fell from a hundreds-story building and lived. Do you really think she managed that without some really intensive self-surgery? It’s not impossible that she has some bionics of her own. And even if she doesn’t, do you really think she’s never worked with machines and bionic parts before? And if she hasn’t, don’t you think she of all people-- the assassin, the thief, the master medic-- would be able to figure something out? Or find someone who could? 

Buddy’s fear and pride are sabotaging her happiness. And that makes sense, because her pride is the first thing we knew about her. It’s one of her best features. Of course it would be her greatest flaw. 

-----

I love that Buddy has to write out her speeches ahead of time, and critiques herself for repeating lines even when nobody else can hear them both.

(And immediately I wonder what she’d have to say about how much I repeat myself, and immediately I can think of her reply: “Nonsense, dear. If there’s no room to improve then you’re doomed to get worse or go stale. Make your mistakes so you can learn from them and then go make some new ones.”)

----

I find it so interesting that Buddy is impeccably organized and Peter is just a big ol’ mess-- to the point where you literally can’t tell whether his room is booby trapped or just that sloppy (And even if he is Just That Sloppy, who the fuck keeps an unsheathed knife just lying there, in the open? Really, Peter.)

(Also, I think it is official that all their “poetry readings”, “therapy sessions” and “whatever” happen in Juno’s room, at least after the first couple of weeks. What the fuck.)

----

“Jet’s danger is nothing compared to what lies ahead”. 

In typical tiered dungeon story style, we’ve eliminated Rita (at the door) and Jet (upon being shot). 

That leaves theoretically three tasks for Vespa, Juno, and Peter. 

These three characters specifically are each love interests in a major established, endgame couple, which would ordinarily be a quick way to suss out who’s in which role.

Also, there’s a weird triangle of protagonist/antagonist going on here. Because Juno’s thwarted Vespa to protect Peter, but Vespa’s major gripe is with Peter, not Juno. And Juno believes and trusts Vespa, despite their bickering. And as much as he loves and trusts Peter, he has on multiple times arrested, thwarted, and called him out. 

It’s like this whole situation is designed to thwart trope-readers like me.

My guess is that Vespa is going to have the be left behind/turn back at the end of this episode, when Buddy tells her the truth about her heart. That’ll leave Juno and Peter alone in the next chamber, when Juno finally confronts Peter about what he’s figured out thusfar (as the POV character, of course). 

Or Vespa runs back early to rescue Buddy from heart failure with Jet, gets furious with Buddy for keeping this Very Big Thing from her, and then goes back to Juno and Peter to finish the job in a seething (and possibly murderous) rage. 

[fanfiction-dot-rec]

Appoggiatura

READ HERE

By:  frostandcrow

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Word Count: 8262

Chapters: 1/1

Series: Espansivo (Part 1 of 9)

Rating: Teen 

Category: Gen, M/M

Archive Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Summary:

Their first heist as a team, featuring A Classic Juno Steel Plan™, insensitive art critiques, nefarious uses of biochemistry, several thousand volts of electricity, and more heart-to-heart conversations than Juno feels should be allowed.

TAGS AND MY OPINIONS UNDER THE CUT

Tags:

Peter Nureyev & Juno Steel, Juno Steel, Peter Nureyev, Jet Sikuliaq, Buddy Aurinko, Rita (Penumbra Podcast), Vespa (mentioned), Heists-gone-wrong, Salvaged heists, heists as a plot device to justify uncomfortable but necessary conversations, Juno and Peter try to get closure regarding That Night, (you know the one), (spoiler: emphasis on "try"), poisoned character, Hurt/Comfort, the most complicated of Facebook relationships

My Opinions:

This whole series is absolutely delightful, but for now I’m just going to focus on this first part of the series. It has heists, injury, and emotional conversations that certain characters fail to avoid. This was written after Juno Steel and the Soul of the People but before The Man in Glass, so it’s not exactly canon compliant. But frostandcrow brings up a few interesting points about the whole “Juno leaving Nureyev in the hotel room” thing. This is a very well written work, and very fun to read. 

[cellobis]

Vintage

je crois que j'en ai assez de tricher

avec vous tous.

Ça fait des mois

que j'vous dois la vérité

J'aimerais encore jouer un peu, mais

je crois qu'il faut tout vous dire

qu'il faut enfin me mettre à poil

qu'il faut écrire le vrai

avant de mourir pour de bon

car ça arrivera bien

un jour viendra.

Il y a peu de temps

mes enfants se sont cotisés

pour m'offrir une vespa

à peu près dans cet état là

vintage

comme moi.

Oh, ils m' l'ont pas dit

mais j'l'a sentu...

une qui va pas très vite

comme ça je ne me ferais pas

trop mal qu'ils ont dit

et ça ils l'ont dit ;

pcq j'avais dit qu' à la retraite

je m'achèterais une vraie moto

une Ducati, une italienne avec du sang

et que je ferais le tour de « Ma »Corse

au milieu de la mer

milieu des terres

depuis l'Antique.

Ils m'ont pas pris au sérieux

avec leur cadeaux à eux

qui marche pas

même pas à 16 à l'heure...

Hier en dépassant un camion

j'étais un peu surpris

160 qu'elle marquait

ma pure sang

ça fait deux fois 80

tout de même, et

ça coûte combien ?

C'est vraiment pas bien

d'accord, d'accord

j'ferme ma gueule

et j'dis plus rien.

Et Vintage

c'est quoi la définition ?

20 ans d'âge ?

Si j'ai ben compris

ou pas bien en vieux cancre.

Je n'ai pas encore eu le temps

de tourner et retourner en Corse

pcq j'ai repris du travail

pcq ils m'ont rappelé

mais en moins speed

pcq que j'écris un bouquin

plutôt la nuit

et qu'à cette heure

il est en lecture

qu'ça prend du temps

chez des vrais vieux lettrés, eux.

Pcq j'écris des poèmes

et que vous êtes sympa, vous :

des fois des piques

souvent des cœurs

à tel point qu'mon coeur

est comme un carreau cassé

avec lequel on s' coupe

et que des larmes coulent

et qu' je fini par croire

aux trèfles à quatr' feuilles.

Je brouille toute les cartes de ma vie

la vie qui n'est pas un jeu, mais

qui offre tous les jours des matins

et tous les matins... je rêve :

y'a les images des uns des autres

et comme tout le monde

j'ai mes chouchous

desesseinte poroussoul

tristjuvenes parmi d'autres

et les textos drôles du fruit de sa pensée

et la si belle écriture de

jesuisunoiseeaulibre, et puis tous les autres

il y a tellement de talents

tellement chez tous ces apôtres

innombrables vous êtes

Il faut que je vous dise un truc les gars

vous êtes formidables

vous tous des as

vous êtes des pro

vous êtes les meilleurs.

J'ai réalisé petit à petit

j'ai pas l'âge de votr' père

mais de votr' grand père.

Quand j'étais petit

je ne m'entendais pas avec mon père,

j'étais complice avec mon grand père.

J'ai un problème

un gros problème

je ne m'entends pas trop avec

les gens de mon âge

ils sont la plupart du temps chiants

avec leur auto

leurs soussous

leurs vacances

leurs absences

leurs critiques

leurs convenances

tellement loin du p'tit Prince.

Je ne suis pas en phase

pas du tout.

Et mon pote

qui a quarante ans de moins

que moi et mes conneries

lui et moi on est comme ça

en phase et en silence

on n'a pas besoin de parler

on n'a qu'à s'écouter respirer

on n'a qu'à se regarder

en train de se regarder

surtout sans rien dire

sans rien dire du tout

sans rien dire

sur l'avenir

qui va nous séparer

surtout sans trop pleurer

Concernant mon petit moi

sachez une chose

vraie, pure, si j'ose :

vous m'aidez à vivre

vous m'aidez à respirer

vous m'aidez à m'envoler

vous m'aider à écrire

vous m'aider à oublier de vieillir

vous m'emportez dans les plus beaux rêves

tous les jours avec vos mots, vos images sans trêves...

là, je me mords la joue

c'est tout

voilà

dsl.

[just-being-leonest]

Murder Family Cons

A.k.a, things I disliked about it. Pros are here. Friendly reminder that this is just my opinion, thank you!

Now here are the things I will address under the cut: -Comedy -Art -Character Development -Lore/Writing

Comedy

I will admit, it is very easy to make me laugh, I’m easy to entertain. Although I did find some jokes in this episode to be funny, a good half, maybe more, fell flat. For example: The children all fainting, Moxxie’s mob boss joke, the Stolas button (which I will go more into detail with under Character Development), and Blitzø’s doggy treat joke. Now I’m no expert on comedy, but I’ve been (forced) to watch many, many shitty comedies with no replay value. From what I’ve seen, to truly make a joke land is it’s timing and relevance to either the character’s personality and/or plot. These jokes offer nothing, there’s no set-up (like with Moxxie’s mob boss joke/impression hehe imp), not relevant to the plot or character’s personality, or just bad. I’d say the main joke-killer in this episode was the severe lack of set-up. Jokes coming out of nowhere can be funny, I personally found Ms. Mayberry throwing the girl into ceiling funny because it was out of nowhere, but that is very hard to pull off and just using the same formula is very tiresome and repetitive. 

Good comedy tends to have a lot of different types of humor, like Rise of Teenage Mutant Turtles (rottmnt is my latest hyperfixation sue me) has a variety of humor like slap-stick, one-liners and puns, and visual gags, all of which have proper set-up and relevance to either the plot or the characters. Granted rottmnt and Helluva are very different, and rottmnt is not in any way perfect but it does execute comedy that is funny to not only it’s target audience (9-12 year old boys) but to many adults/teens as well, something that Helluva struggled to do even with it’s target audience.

Art

I personally liked the art on Helluva so no comment.

Character Development

Strap in your seat belts, this is gonna be a long one and it’s mostly about Stolas.

Stolas is... not the best character in this. For one example, on a list of buttons that Blitzø is implied to have as “panic buttons” has Stolas on one of them. That implies that Blitzø panics or is severely uncomfortable when Stolas is in the room, which is not a good thing to have, if your end goal is to have them get together. 

And then his phone call with Blitzø oh good lord... it was very sexually charged, unnecessarily so, especially since Blitzø was being very clear on how unwanted the sexual undertones were. He repeatedly said “now is not the time” or something very similar, which Stolas completely ignored. All that is telling me is either Stolas sucks at picking up hints (which I highly doubt and would make no sense with his character arch) or he just doesn’t give two fucks. I’m more inclined to the latter, considering he was still talking when Moxxie ran by, telling me that he didn’t care if Blitzø was listening. Honestly, Stolas in general makes me uncomfortable with his sexually charged comments, and I’m someone who’s used to this shit both from movies and irl from my dad. 

Lore/Writing

So... the human world, huh? Genuine question, is it purposefully portrayed as this shitty for lore/plot or is it for the sake of comedy (which falls flat). If it’s comedy then... not a really good joke, it’s a very overused trope that I’m tired of seeing. Same thing regarding if it’s just for plot/lore, it’s very overused and depressing.

The voice acting was... kinda meh, especially for Martha’s husband but that’s just me being nitpicky so take it with a grain of salt if you want.

One thing that has bugged me for a little while is how Ms. Mayberry knew Martha survived and got famous. Didn’t she commit suicide? If so, how did she figure it out? And why did the police explode the house? Did Moxxie inform them about the stuff going on? But that would warrant investigation, not immediate explosion. And there are kids in that house. I get that cops can be, will be, and are shitty, but they still have laws and rules to follow and just straight up bombing a house is not allowed in any situation, not with the children there and how little information and proof there was.

Also the atmosphere of Moxxie discovering how vicious and evil the family was very jarring, and I really can’t tell if that was the intent or not :/

The ending... was horrible. Everyone ignored Moxxie’s feelings and it just felt so fake. To be fair, I hate endings where everyone laughs and laughs. Unless you’re MLP, that shit usually just makes me wince from the fakeness.

Also why the sex scenes? It could just me being ace but having Martha being fucked while being called a hero was... not necessary at all.

Overall, I’d give the episode a 6, maybe 7 out of ten. It wasn’t the best, but it wasn’t the worst. It’s a good start to the series.

[voituresetmotos]

Voyons toutes les grandes voitures françaises dans la remorque pour The French Dispatch de Wes Anderson

Jason Torchinsky Hier 18h00 • p Star Cars 4.6K 22 2 Un nouveau film de Wes Anderson sort, et il semble être, au moins visuellement, fait de wesandersonium pur et non coupé de qualité militaire. C'est bien, car j'adore les visuels de ses films et je pense que tous ceux qui aiment se moquer de lui cherchent juste une raison d'utiliser le mot «twee» dans une critique. L'homme fait ce qu'il fait et il le fait bien, et cela comprend une excellente coulée de voitures. La bande-annonce vient de sortir, alors voyons quel genre de bon fer français nous avons ici. Vous voudrez probablement regarder la bande-annonce en premier, oui? Heureusement, j'en ai une copie ici: Oh mec. Beaucoup de bonnes choses ici. Il est clair qu'Anderson se soucie vraiment des voitures qu'il utilise dans ses films, et pas seulement à cause de ce que nous pouvons voir dans la bande-annonce - sa quête pour trouver les bonnes voitures a fait la une des journaux en France, car Anderson cherchait désespérément Renault. 4CV, Dauphines, R8 et R10, ainsi que des Simca 1000 et Peugeot 404 à utiliser comme voitures de police précises pour le film. L'homme, la France a certainement utilisé beaucoup de voitures de police à moteur arrière à l'époque. La remorque est très lourde Citroën, ce qui n'est vraiment pas surprenant. Si je devais choisir une marque et une époque de voiture qui ont le plus séduit Wes Anderson, je pense que les Citroëns des années 60 devraient être en tête de liste. Dès le début, nous avons ici un trifecta Citroëntastic; de gauche à droite, nous avons un Ami Break (vous savez, ce qu'ils appellent des wagons), un fourgon de type H et un 2CV. Je pense que le scooter est une Vespa? Celui-ci est assez délicat; Je pense que nous examinons une bétonnière Autocar DC quelque part dans les années 1950, mais je ne suis pas certain. Il y avait aussi des camions blancs qui ressemblaient beaucoup à ça. C'est l'un des rares véhicules non français qui semble également figurer dans le film. Dans cette scène d'émeute chaotique, nous pouvons voir une malheureuse Citroën AK 350 Fourgonette - essentiellement, la version fourgonnette de la 2CV. Il peut y avoir plus de 2CV détruits derrière? C'est difficile à dire. Voici une intéressante: ce petit charmeur élégant là-haut est une Vespa 400. Vespa / Piaggio était une entreprise italienne, mais ces petites voitures Vespa ont été produites en France par la société ACMA. Il s'agissait en fait de petites microcars assez sophistiquées, avec un moteur bicylindre en ligne refroidi par air qui leur est propre, une construction monocoque et une suspension indépendante tout autour. Ce n'est qu'une photo d'une voiture, mais je peux aussi le souligner; un 2CV jaune un peu étrange est sur le mur dans la grille de couvertures, aux coordonnées cartésiennes 4,2, où 0,0 est en haut à gauche. Voici une autre 2CV, qui semble avoir connu des jours bien meilleurs. Je ne suis pas vraiment un expert en cyclomoteur, mais il semble que ce soit une Motobécane Mobylette AV89 des années 1960 - la garniture de réservoir de carburant chromée est le cadeau là-bas. Je pense que c'est le Type 2 car il a une lampe frontale rectangulaire. Cette lumière ressemble en fait à un modèle 50V plus récent, mais, encore une fois, je ne suis pas un expert ici. Voici une autre fourgonnette HY, réalisée en livrée de police. Si vous regardez autour de vous sur le Web, vous pouvez trouver beaucoup plus de photos de ceux-ci, car le tournage du film à Angoulême, en France, était l'une des plus grandes productions hollywoodiennes jamais tournées là-bas, alors, bien sûr, les habitants ont pris des photos. Photo: je suis curieux de voir si tous les Renaults et Simcas et Peugeots nécessaires provenaient; le film semble bien garni de Citroëns, au moins. Si rien d'autre, cela ressemble déjà à une grande lettre d'amour aux voitures françaises du milieu du siècle, ce qui, si vous me demandez, est une raison suffisante pour tout film.

[goodeveningtraveler]

Appoggiatura

by frostandcrow

Their first heist as a team, featuring A Classic Juno Steel Plan™, insensitive art critiques, nefarious uses of biochemistry, several thousand volts of electricity, and more heart-to-heart conversations than Juno feels should be allowed.

Words: 8262, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: The Penumbra Podcast

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Juno Steel, Peter Nureyev, Jet Sikuliaq, Buddy Aurinko, Rita (Penumbra Podcast), Vespa (mentioned)

Relationships: Peter Nureyev & Juno Steel

Additional Tags: Heists-gone-wrong, Salvaged heists, heists as a plot device to justify uncomfortable but necessary conversations, Juno and Peter try to get closure regarding That Night, (you know the one), (spoiler: emphasis on "try"), poisoned character, Hurt/Comfort, the most complicated of Facebook relationships

from AO3 works tagged 'The Penumbra Podcast' https://ift.tt/2TofDAZ via IFTTT

[aqueouswaltz]

Almost (maybe)

My job is still as amazing as ever. I love what I do and going to work is fun. Still perfecting my recipe and trying to convince chef to let me have my way with the sauce. Slowly but surely its working. I became the pastry consultant by accident. The pastry chef now brings her creations to me to critique. Me and the sou chef seem to be her go to people. I start motorcycle lessons on thursday and am getting my motorcycle license so I can ride my new Vespa which I affectionately named Violet. We signed the lease on a house yesterday so the move is gonna happen real soon. Our move in date is the 1st. Once settled I can go back to my online and offline social life. Dream job: Check Beautiful home: Check Even with the little hang ups, the stress and anger I can say all of this was a huge success and my life is going great even if it is chaotic.

[redazione-rosebud]

Della ridicola satira “politica” di fine regime. Su perché Marco Vukic fa quattro Giannelli

(more…)

[ilovequantitativeresearch]

A Critique on Lauren Martin’s Opinion Article: Why Women Need To Start Asking Men Out…Because Men Have No Balls

                With issues such as gender equality, being built around discussion and narrative, sound analysis and logical consistency must be of paramount value. Unfortunately, in this text, Martin posts unabashed drivel and unfounded opinions on how she thinks the world should work. For whatever reason, it always seems to be in her favor. A large percentage of the article highlights on the fault of the male gender, not once giving them merit or displaying any sense of objectivity.

               The author seems to highlight the problem as something between a man and woman; making constant references to the behaviors of past generations, yet only putting the blame on one stakeholder. In reality, this is has nothing to do with that. This only has to do with horrible, muckraking, sensationalist “journalism”. It is shallow ideologies and thought pieces like these that make it much harder for true feminism and gender equality to gain a foothold in society. This is the very undermining of its true meaning. We delve further into this by dissecting the work in terms of Aristotle’s Appeals, type of claim, logical fallacies, and intertextuality.

The author begins the argument build by displaying the kind of behavior men show.

               “They'll make eye contact with you in the bar, but never come over. They'll get your number, but never call. They'll offer to buy you a drink, but never pay. They'll say a girl is hot, but never hit on her. They'll text you for a week, but never ask you out. They'll do absolutely everything but make a move. I've watched men pine over women, talking about them like future wives, yet after staring at them for two hours, let them walk away. I've watched men chase women down for their phone numbers, yet wait a week to text them, acting like it's something they simply forgot about. I've watched men spend an entire night talking to a girl, yet never get up the nerve to ask for her number”

               Consistently, she repeats the fallacy of Reductio ad absurdium. She blows the situational analysis out of proportion. What’s even more contradicting was the disclaimer she noted before going on the absurdium rampage. “Well — to be fair here — not all men, but a lot of them”. While this could have been a great opener for objectivity, providing credibility to the piece, it had been completely destroyed and off-set by the countless other fallacies which will be tackled further on.

In terms of logical fallacies, the author draws close to a slippery slope.

“(if A)We're dealing with a new breed of men here and it's not the kind we grew up dreaming about. It’s the want-what-I-want-but-don’t-know-how-to-get-it type; it’s the sweet and cuddly mama’s boys who grow up terrified of making the first move; it’s the guys who have so much to say but don’t know how to say it. (then B) Now, the unfortunate paradox for a woman is that she must be the chased and the chaser. She must be the target and the shooter. She must play coy and simultaneously pursue him. (then z!)Anyone notice the problem here? Yet again, women are left to do all the work. We're left playing both sides of the game because they've simply forgotten how to play. “

            Notice how the paragraph concludes the sequence with “left to do all the work”. Yet again, the author draws up the situation out of proportion. The author draws on and on about how the woman now has to be the “hunter” and the “target”. Is there really anything wrong about this? Essentially, feminism and gender equality is founded upon the equal standing between the sexes. With this slippery slope, the author left with it a question up in the air: should women then continue to simply look pretty, provide nothing to the equation and leave themselves as objects for men to select on shelves? This is the exact notion that feminism seeks to eradicate in modern society.

“This leaves women making all the moves. We must tell them what they want if we're to get anywhere close to the goals we had for ourselves. But it will never be as we fully imagined because, in our dreams, men weren't timid or scared little boys; in our dreams, men are the ones with the balls to ask us out.”

            Once again, the author coats on the same dressing: oversimplification. In this piece, men are still perceived to be useless and unproductive, with the only supplementary evidence being nothing but the author’s personal anecdotes. The tone set is final and all-knowing,

“Men aren't these masculine displays of strength and perseverance. They aren't these persistent characters created by Nicholas Sparks and John Green. They aren't going to catch your eye and spend all night convincing you why you should be with them. They aren't Noah Calhouns. They aren't Augustus Waters”

             Martin cites problematic allusions to back the article. References are made to John Green and Nicholas Sparks. These authors are the very creators (and sometimes critics) of the manic pixie dream girl archetype. Most of the women in their novels serve to the character development and fulfilment of the male protagonist however, more often than not, forget their own. The role of the female in their novels is to be the muse and inspiration for men to change and take action in the world, rather than they themselves take action. An example would be Jamie Sullivan in A Walk to Remember and Alaska Young in Looking for Alaska.

“It's said that the male ego is as fragile as a woman's heart and unfortunately for women, men won't take the chance of letting it shatter. While women willingly put themselves out there, men stand back, scared of the tiniest bruise on their overinflated self-image. So yet again, women must be the strong ones. We must put ourselves out there and risk rejection. Because if we don't do it, bars will soon be exactly like those middle school dances: boys on one side, girls on the other.”

               Although the text in its entirety appeals to emotion, pathos is most evident in this paragraph and so is the oversimplification of the situation. However, one must give credit to the author’s consistency- of making a functional, give and take adult relationship sound like a chore, rather than a common decency and standard of social behavior.

“Men, on the other hand, always seem to be waiting for something better. In the age of Facebook and Instagram, there’s this constant filtered delusion that a hotter girl sits just an inbox away”

Another case of Reductio ad absurdium in which the entirety of a gender is being thrown into a singular notion- a notion constructed by the author.

“In a sad, but not all that surprising, report by Nickelodeon UK, men are 11 years behind women in maturity. While women reach maturation by 32, men aren't fully matured until 43. While this study garnered much attention, women everywhere were less than surprised. Didn't we already know this?”

              Nickelodeon is an entertainment company, targeted to children. Clicking on the link, one is greeted by SpongeBob- who is known to live in a pineapple under the sea. This is an example of false appeal to authority. When seeking reputable and credible data on maturity and gender behavioral studies, Nickelodeon should be considered as the least of the options available. Regardless, maturity differences correlating to gender is a well-known fact. However, this only refers to biological maturity. Meaning, men start puberty earlier and also don’t stop growing until much older either.

Furthermore, the real problem of this article is the complete generational bias the author notes to conclude the thought piece.

“To add insult to the few dates you have yet to be asked on, men are also getting married less than ever before. According to a study by Pew Research Center, only 26 percent of Generation-Y is married.

Compared to the 48 percent of our parents at this age, there's no denying that men just don't have their sh*t together.

We’re dating less and thus, marrying less. And the downfall picks up speed with every failed attempt to ask a woman out.”

            Looking at the social aspects of the situation, the conclusion is downright erroneous. While couples are getting married at a later age, they are actually getting married sooner in their lifespans. This is according to the U.S. Census.

              Should we analyze this in the true spirit of feminism, marrying later on is actually a positive indicator for women everywhere.  More women are working, and less are ready to start a family as early. Women are valuing careers more and more, less willing to be stay-at-home moms. A rise in independence, an increase in financial freedom and desire to be more as an individual before becoming a couple means both sides of the aisle are marrying less because they choose to.

               Lauren Martin’s opinion article clearly exemplifies the difference between opinions founded on solid, logical reasoning and opinions founded on shallow, misconstrued concepts- with it inclining more onto the latter. An article teeming with logical fallacies and plain sexism, it serves no higher purpose. It answers no valid questions and problems, and only proves itself to be counterproductive to the discussion and discourse of feminism and gender equality.

Maritin, L. (2014, September 9).  Why Women Need To Start Asking Men                     Out…Because Men Have No Balls [Web log post]. Retrieved February                28, 2017, from http://elitedaily.com/dating/men-pssies-women-need-                 start-asking-men-dates/746965/ 

Vespa, J. (2014, February, 2014) Marrying Older, But Sooner? [Web log post]. Retrieved February 28, 2017,                                                           from http://blogs.census.gov/2014/02/10/marrying-older-but-sooner/

Word count: 1,550