#YOURE AN ASIAN FISHER TOO

[minecraftrelatedrandomness]

pirates smp parenting tier list as a tumblr post because i can't be bothered to take and edit screenshots

everything is roleplay, obviously. also, this list counts parental substitutes and adoptive parents.

warning: this post is NOT family-friendly. it covers child maltreatment in canonical contexts. i might also be a bit biased in my judgement due to lived experiences and varying levels of lore knowledge. i may be an archivist but i am not omniscient.

note: ratings could be subjective to change if/when i watch and rewatch more vods

S: Actually Good parents (from what we hear)

jojo's parents: automatic S tier for both being alive and present. mila gets extra points for being a badass totalitarian dictatorship survivor and escapee

A: decent from what we hear

kyle's mother: from what little i possibly remember, she's actually supportive of her son's interests and is concerned for his safety and happiness(?), which is more than i can say about his father

michela's parents: wanted michela to be a teacher at first but eventually sent her off to join aimsey (her friend that she loves dearly) so i at least vaguely trust that they want their kid to be happy

B: probably okay

aimsey's parents: friend with michela's parents and that's about all we know about them

olive's parents: not mentioned much, didn't let olive drink alcohol but that's hardly an issue imho

shelby's parents: based purely off of the little i know of schitt's creek; shelby's counterpart in that series, alexis, has at least well-intentioned parents who become better people over the course of the series (from what i've read?) and may get concerned when their daughter gets up to weird escapades, so i'm gonna assume something similar for shelby's parents?

C: not mentioned, or never knew them

apo currently doesn't have a clear-cut backstory as of time of writing; will get back to this after the backstory drop hopefully

grunt hilda: oli's wife & juniper's mother; i mean, she's at least reasonably educated and probably buff from her fisher's work, but that doesn't necessarily mean she is a good parent

oli's mother: she might be dead. sources are inconsistent

seapeekay's parents: all we know is that he's related to the recruitment officer but we don't know how exactly

cleo, eloise, eret, graecie, martyn, puffy, red, ros, scar, sniff, tubbo, and water's parents: i don't think we know anything about their parents or family in general

C: too dead to judge

oli's father: bruh

sausage's parents: would probably have been S or A tier if they weren't dead, judging by how much saus loves them, but again, don't know enough about them to judge

will's mother: no surprises here

D: not great from what we hear

bek's parents: we don't hear about them enough but if bek was raised as a kite, i am assuming their parents also live on the faction isles but her family's described to be "distant" and if your kid is lonely enough to make friends with some rando's corpse statue instead of going to you for emotional support, you got issues

guqqie's mother: saying it's unladylike to throw up from being seasick? more like it's unladylike to discourage your child, raised as a PIRATE, to go out to sea at all like what the fuck (or maybe i just want to beef with gender roles and guqqie's canonical elitism idk)

kuervo's parents: they could have been A tier (docked points for spoiling the kids) but they literally support a totalitarian regime and i ain't into that

kyle's father: saying your kid's interests are annoying to their face and being a workaholic that barely, if ever, spends time with his family is just a big red flag to me. only reason he's not lower is because i'm east asian and have gifted kid syndrome a la "are you satisfied" by marina and am perhaps a bit biased, so i have my sympathies (but my parents are better than the stereotypical asian parent, i think)

oli von steel: father of juniper; i mean, he clearly loves his son dearly, but i'm a bit concerned because he kind of ended up on the faction isles for anywhere between several months and a couple of years because he was DRUNK DRIVING HIS YACHT??

capitán santana: sausage's uncle and substitute parental figure after his bio parents died. they clearly care about each other, which would normally warrant at least a B tier, if not an A or S. main reason for why he's this low down is because apparently sausage learnt that classism bullshit from him and that's just bad morals to impart onto the younger generation, y'know. sausage has a heart of gold but he's also kind of an asshole, especially for first impressions, so i'm blaming his uncle for being a bad influence.

shep's parents: bro who the fuck abandons their (at most aged 7) child on some random dock "to find work" like at least get someone to take care of the kid while you're away. only reason they're not lower is because i don't know if they were forced to leave their kid behind, because that would at least get them some sympathy points, and i'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt (i've read a whole novel about orphans and adoption, so i at least vaguely know some potential nuances regarding child abandonment and/or giving up children for adoption.)

E: horrible from what we hear

the denholm parents (acho and scott's parents): they don't even appear in canon but like bro you can't just treat one kid "alright" and the other like shit. if one of your kids doesn't feel at home living with you and literally ran away because they felt like they didn't belong, then you've fucked up as parents. also… even if we're not counting acho, giving your golden child gifted kid syndrome and tremendous pressure to live up to is kinda shit too and makes them D tier at best. the only reason they're not on F is because they haven't shown up on-screen and i have no canonical evidence to show they deserve to get kicked down to F. trust me, i'm waiting on the acho mega episode/movie; one misstep and i'm yeeting them down.

owen's parents: character intro sequence, full stop. homophobic assholes, the lot of them. also i KNOW the arranged marriage thing is just a theory but if that ever turns out to be canon, they're on thin fucking ice at best.

F: may the gods have mercy on your soul, if you even have one (on tv tropes, we call this the moral event horizon)

captain elyas merton (basically shep's adopted parental figure and possibly unofficially for will too): let's see, corporal punishment threat (re: short story #1), yeet the child off the ship for having the gall to *gasp* not obey and try to make friends his own age; raise other child to be royally fucked up as well (re: the murders), what can't a man do? if he doesn't have a VERY GOOD REASON for what he did (i know there are future lore drops and i am waiting on those), or if he's a cultist associate, then he's the one getting yeeted to F

ajax suarez (ivy and iris' father): magi-technological experimentation on YOUR OWN CHILDREN is fucked up to the extreme in itself, as well as aiding and abetting your cult leader daughter for decades, AND the fact that the only thing his daughters could agree on was his terrible parenting. also "a new wife, new children", anyone? the ONLY thing that spares him from F-tier right about now is that he actually felt regret for what he did and, if towards the end of his life and post-mortem, gave our anti-heroes the knowledge and truth about the isles to let them have a fighting chance against iris

no one… at least, not yet. i just don't have the proof to throw anyone down here yet. we sure do have several contenders, tho

gavin renais (will's father): he's on thin ice for being implied to blame his literal kid's existence for his mother dying in childbirth like bro, that's fucked up (YOU knocked her up in the first place, good sir). if he doesn't have any further justifiable excuse (context dependent) + didn't stop his kid from getting kicked off the ship, i'm kicking him down to F tier too and not even cc!will can stop me // update: it appears that cc!will did intend for this guy to go down here. now let's throw rotten tomatoes at our first F-tier parent!!

[natashasfilms]

Chapter Ten - The Fisher King: Part 1

Summary: FBI agent Leila faces a profound life change after giving birth to a baby girl, supported by her loving husband. Despite the challenges of motherhood, Leila returns to her role as a dedicated agent a few months later, ready to confront gruesome and haunting cases with the BAU team.

Pairing: BAU!Fem!OC x Male!OC , EVENTUAL Aaron Hotchner x BAU!Fem!OC (Like much later)

Warnings: This story contains mature themes such as sexual content, strong language, violence, mentions of alcohol and drugs, blood, gore, and death. All the usual Criminal Minds stuff. And there is NO CHEATING.

Note 1: I imagine Leila Kade as South Asian but I have decided to let you, the reader, imagine her appearance, hence the reason why I have not given her a face claim. However, her race does not affect the story, whatsoever. You, as the reader, are free to imagine her however you want. If you don't see her as South Asian, then that's fine. It won't affect the storyline. I also imagine the OC!Male as South Asian, but again, it won't affect the storyline.

Note 2: The team will consist of the main cast (Emily, Derek, JJ, Spencer, Penelope, Aaron, and Rossi) but will also include Elle Greenaway and Jason Gideon because they were some of my favorite characters and I wanted to include them with the rest of the team. Basically, Elle and Gideon never leave when Emily and Rossi join.

Note 3: There will be multiple time skips throughout this series. For example, the first chapter will begin on the first season and episode of the show but then there will be a time skip to later episodes (because there are obviously way too many episodes to write this series on and I wanted to include specific episodes that would help the plot of this story). This means that this series will be a slow burn romance but I believe it to be better this way. This will also stray from the actual show a lot, so don't expect it to follow the plot precisely.

Series Masterlist

Season 1, Episode 22

Leila's excitement peaked upon learning that she would finally enjoy a long and refreshing break from work. Aaron's decision to grant the entire team two weeks off filled her with anticipation. All she could think about was being able to devote her undivided attention to her family without the burden of a new case weighing on her mind.

As she ensured she had everything she needed from her office packed into her bag, she let out a sigh of relief. Rushing out of her office, she almost accidentally collided with Aaron, who had also just emerged from his own office.

"Hey, ready to leave?" Aaron's bright smile greeted her. It was the happiest Leila had seen him at work, and she couldn't help but feel that this break was the best thing to happen to them in a long time.

"Two weeks with no contact from this place? It's like a dream come true," Leila said giddily as they descended the steps. "And now it sounds like I hate my job."

Aaron chuckled, reaching the last step. "I don't blame you. It's nice to finally have some time away from here." As they approached their cubicles, they noticed Elle and Derek. "Hey, don't knock family. I'm going to get nothing but for the next 336 hours," Aaron remarked.

Derek hummed with a smile on his face. "Good for you."

"Haley's got a list of chores a mile long and I can't wait," Aaron exclaimed excitedly. "The biggest decision I gotta make is what I'm gonna do first."

"I bet she has a thought or two about that as well," Elle responded, sharing a grin of her own.

"Bring it on," Aaron said loudly, walking away from them.

"Bye guys, have fun!" Leila waved goodbye, rushing out the doors.

"Thank you, Grace. Please enjoy the next two weeks off," Leila expressed her gratitude, cradling Jasmine as the little baby babbled happily. "You're the best."

Grace returned her appreciation with a warm smile, gently patting Jasmine's head before bidding them farewell. "You three enjoy your two weeks off. You guys really deserve it."

"You're the sweetest, drive safe!" Leila called out as she watched Grace leave the house. She then looked down at Jasmine, who was still babbling away. "Let's wait for daddy to come home from work, and then we can have lots of fun, okay sweetie?"

A few moments later, Leila heard the garage door open, indicating Zaid was home. As soon as he walked in, Leila rushed over to him, still holding Jasmine. "There's my two gorgeous girls, come here," he greeted warmly, wrapping his arms around Leila, being careful of Jasmine in her arms. "Both mommy and daddy have two weeks off from work, so we're going to make the most out of it, alright Jas?"

When Leila had told Zaid that she was getting two weeks off from the BAU, he didn't hesitate to take some time off from his job as well, wanting to spend as much time with his family as possible. "Mhm, and I know a few ways we can spend it," Leila grinned, giving him a quick peck on the lips. Zaid winked before gently taking Jasmine from her arms, twirling her around as Jasmine giggled joyfully.

After dinner and some playtime with Jasmine and her favorite toys, Leila and Zaid finally settled their baby down for the night. Ensuring she was comfortable, they quietly exited her room. As they left, Zaid playfully grabbed Leila's waist, causing her to squeal a bit too loudly. He quickly covered her mouth with his hand. "Shh, you're going to wake her, honey."

She scoffed, gently pushing him away before turning to face him. "Well, then don't give me a reason to scream."

Realizing what she had just said, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as Zaid began to chuckle, his hands coming up to gently cup her face. "I think you're underestimating me, love," he teased affectionately.

Leila rolled her eyes before Zaid leaned down to capture her lips with his own. He pushed her against the wall, his hands reaching for their own bedroom door before opening it and pushing her inside. Zaid swiftly picked her up, Leila wrapping her legs around his waist as they fell onto the bed.

Their lips continued to move against each other while Zaid tugged at her shirt, his hands moving under it to touch her skin. Leila hummed against his lips as he tugged at his hair. "You gotta be quiet for me, honey. You can do that, can't you?" Zaid muttered against her skin, detaching his lips from hers to move down her neck. She tried to speak but couldn't, her mind focused on the pleasure he was giving her. Instead, she nodded her head. "Good girl," he chuckled, and the two fell into a world of pleasure soon after.

The ringing of the phone in the middle of the night jolted Leila from her slumber. She lay on top of Zaid, his arms encircling her, and her frustration grew as the phone persisted. With a groan, she reluctantly reached out to the nightstand, not bothering to check the Caller ID before answering. "Agent Kade," she mumbled into the phone, trying her hardest not to fall back asleep.

"Agent Kade..." the voice on the other end spoke, but Leila was too tired to register whose voice it was. "You need to focus on what truly matters. There's someone in danger, someone who needs your help. There have been many destroyed relationships in the family, don't get lost in the details. Remember, everything starts at the beginning. Time is of the essence, and the youngest holds the key. You must find a way to save her. Can you do it, Leila? Can you be the hero she needs? Can you finally do what's right?"

Leila furrowed her eyebrows as her eyes shot wide open, sitting up on the bed, still holding the phone against her ear. "Who's speaking? What are you talking about?" The sudden change in Leila's demeanor caused Zaid to become worried, who had awoken after she picked up the phone.

"Save her before it's too late," the voice said once more before the line cut off.

"Who was that?" Zaid asked with concern, his eyes scanning his wife's face.

She looked at him with furrowed eyebrows, shaking her head. "I have no idea."

Leila glanced towards their bedroom door and swiftly rose, hurrying to Jasmine's room, with Zaid close on her heels. Relief flooded her as she laid eyes on her sleeping baby, Leila's fingers instinctively clutching the crib's bars. Zaid approached, placing a reassuring hand on her shoulder, prompting her to look up at him. "What's going on?" he asked, concern etched in his voice.

She swallowed hard, stealing one last glance at Jasmine before guiding Zaid out of the room. Leaning against the hallway wall, she crossed her arms tightly. "I just got a really strange call. Some guy insisted that I have to find a way to save a 'her.'"

"Her? Which her?" Zaid asked, his eyebrows furrowed with concern.

"That's what I don't know," Leila replied, exhaling heavily and shaking her head. "But there was something else." Zaid nodded, encouraging her to continue. Leila took a shaky breath before speaking. "He said something about a family, Zaid."

His confusion deepened, knitting his eyebrows together. "What do you mean?" he questioned, seeking clarification.

Leila pursed her lips, pinching the bridge of her nose. "He said that there have been many destroyed relationships in the family and proceeded to finish off by asking if I can finally do what's right." As soon as those words left Leila's lips, Zaid's eyes widened in shock. "There's no way, right?"

Zaid shook his head, gently rubbing her back in reassurance. "I'm sure it was just a prank call, honey. Don't worry." Despite his comforting words, Leila couldn't shake off the unease that settled in her mind. Her heart skipped a beat when the phone rang again, causing her to jump in fear. "Hey, it's okay. I'll answer this time, okay?" Zaid offered, his voice calm and soothing as he grabbed the phone. He answered the phone and listened intently to the person on the other end. Nodding in acknowledgment, he glanced over at Leila, who still wore a concerned expression. "Yeah, she's right here," he said into the phone before handing it over to her, silently mouthing that it was Aaron who called.

Leila furrowed her eyebrows, her concern growing as she brought the phone to her ear. "Hey," she answered, waiting for Aaron to speak.

"I just got a call from Derek," Aaron spoke, his voice tense. "The Jamaican police arrested Elle for a suspected murder."

"What?" Leila exclaimed, her voice tinged with shock.

"I honestly thought it was just a stupid prank call, but he called you too?" Leila asked in disbelief. "And now Elle has been arrested. What the hell is going on, Aaron?"

As the two FBI agents were en route to Jamaica to meet with Derek and Elle, they learned that Elle had been framed for a murder. The authorities had discovered a blood trail leading to her room at the resort where she and Derek were vacationing. The victim had been decapitated, making identification impossible thus far. Aaron ensured to bring in bureau lawyers and a crime scene unit as they didn't know what they were dealing with.

"I don't know," Aaron sighed, rubbing his temple. "So much for two weeks off." The two sat across from each other in the jet, grappling with the unfolding situation. Leila was certain that Elle was being framed. It was out of character for her to commit such a crime. "You didn't have to come, you know?" Aaron remarked.

Leila rolled her eyes. "Like hell I wouldn't." Aaron couldn't help but smile, chuckling softly at her response. Leila tilted her head, narrowing her eyes in confusion. "Why are you laughing?" she asked, puzzled by his reaction.

He shook his head, reassuring her that it wasn't bad. "You're a good friend," he affirmed, knowing that she would always stick up for everyone on the team no matter what. "We're all lucky to have someone like you on this team."

Her lips turned up into a smirk, laughing at his response. "Aw, Aaron. Don't get so sappy on me," she teased. "It's not good for your image." The comment made Aaron roll his eyes.

They soon arrived in Jamaica, driving to where Elle was currently detained. Upon meeting up with Derek, he explained everything to them to the best of his ability. Once they arrived at the location, the three of them walked into the room where Elle was being questioned. Aaron presented evidence to the investigator, proving that Elle was not even present when the murder occurred. Reluctantly, the investigator handed over the keys to unlock Elle's handcuffs.

They left the room, and Leila immediately enveloped Elle in a tight hug, relieved to see her freed from the unjust ordeal. "Are you okay, Elle?" Leila asked, gently rubbing her back in comfort.

Elle pulled back slightly to answer, her expression a mixture of confusion and exhaustion. "I don't even know what the hell just happened." 

The four of them walked away, ready to depart for Quantico, eager to find out what was going on and who was sending them strange messages.

Once back at Quantico, they were informed that the headless victim's head had been sent to Gideon. The victim, identified as Marty Harris, had been rooming with a man named Frank Giles at the resort. Giles was revealed as the murderer but had fled Jamaica, prompting a search. Meanwhile, the unsettling individual who had called Leila on the phone had been sending cryptic messages to the entire team, repeatedly urging them to save a girl.

"So, clearly we have a psychopath intent on drawing us into his game," Aaron stated, the team gathered in the conference room, attempting to piece everything together.

"Playing with us," Gideon finished, his tone grave.

Elle chimed in with determination. "Then let's return the favor."

"He kept telling us repeatedly to save her. What 'her'?" Derek questioned, his brow furrowed in frustration.

Gideon pondered for a moment. "The items he's sent must be some kind of clues."

"We should put them all up on the board, then," Leila suggested, prompting Aaron to nod in agreement. JJ grabbed a marker to start writing on the board.

"I got a Nellie Fox baseball card from 1963 and I got a head in a box," Jason began.

"I got a rare butterfly in a shadow box," JJ spoke, turning her head towards the team before she turned back around to write the clues onto the board.

"And repeated messages to 'save her,'" Aaron added.

"He called me and said that 'There have been many destroyed relationships in the family,'" Leila retorted, shaking her head, her initial thoughts when she first heard the message gone from her mind. "Whatever that's supposed to mean."

"I got the decapitated body," Elle said, walking back and forth in the room with her arms crossed. "And a nice visit to the Jamaican Police Headquarters."

"Reid called from Nevada," Gideon informed them. "He's on the way back here with a skeleton key and a note he got, too."

"And the guy who called me said, 'The youngest one holds the key,'" Aaron finished off.

Elle raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "That's Reid."

"Okay, but wait a minute. UnSubs, they don't contact us this way," Derek began, shaking his head. "I mean, they might taunt us, dare us to catch them, but they don't drag us into their fantasy."

JJ turned to look at Derek, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. "Why not?"

"Because they're sexual fantasies," Derek responded, waving his hand. "I mean, taunting us is a show of power, but making us the object is…" he paused, shrugging, before clasping his hands together. "I don't know what the hell that is."

"There's something else about the baseball card," Gideon started to say. "Nellie Fox was one of the stars of the 1959 White Sox. I went to almost every game with my father that year. Fox was my hero." Leila tilted her head, her mouth slightly parted as she tried to comprehend everything. "So is it a coincidence that he sends this to me, or does he know how I feel about him?"

The little story made JJ pause, turning her head back around towards the team when she realized something. "I collected butterflies when I was a little girl. That's how I knew what butterfly was in the box."

Derek tilted his head. "So then he knows us?"

"I got an anonymous message," Aaron said, shooting down the possible idea.

"I got a police raid," Elle added.

"And I got––" Leila paused, her breath catching in her throat for a moment, everyone else in the room staring at her before she continued. "I got a random phone call in the middle of the night. So I guess not."

"But he knew exactly where we were," Derek continued, paying no mind to the sudden hesitation in Leila's voice. She let out a silent breath of relief, but her eyes locked with Gideon's, the older man staring at her as if she was hiding something. She quickly looked away as Derek continued to talk. "Hotel in Jamaica, Gideon at the cabin, Reid in Vegas, you two at your homes."

Suddenly, a certain blonde walked into the room, her expression somber. "He got that from the Bureau computers. Your locations are always logged in there so they can locate you if necessary," Penelope informed them, holding a piece of paper in her hand. The team turned their attention to her, urging her to continue. "And I checked the log. The hacker was definitely in the personnel folders. There were room numbers for the hotel in Jamaica, the address of Gideon's cabin... There's a lot of information in those databases."

Aaron, maintaining his usual stoic demeanor, questioned her. "Have you figured out how he was able to breach the Bureau's computers?"

Penelope swallowed hard, her voice trembling. "I'm still working on that."

The team noticed the tremor in her voice, sensing that she was holding something back, a realization that struck Leila as hypocritical, given that she was doing the same. "Garcia, if you know something…" Aaron prompted, his tone firm.

"No, it's, um…It's just…I…" she stuttered, struggling to articulate her thoughts. "I was playing a game yesterday. An online game."

Gideon raised his head. "A game?"

Penelope quickly interjected to clarify. "Not on the Bureau computers, sir. On my own personal laptop."

Derek sighed, leaning forward. "No, Garcia. No, no, no."

"I don't understand," Aaron said, clearly puzzled. Leila released a breath, realizing the implications. She knew Penelope didn't mean any harm, but she couldn't help but pinch the bridge of her nose.

"Wireless Internet," Derek explained succinctly.

"By wirelessly hooking into the Net here to get online, the hacker could have accessed my computer first, and I have far less protection on my own laptop," Penelope clarified.

"And he could have infiltrated the entire Bureau computer system this way?" Aaron inquired, his brow furrowed and his arms still crossed.

"Yeah, it's possible," Penelope confirmed solemnly.

"Playing a game?" Gideon shrugged, standing up from his seat. "How could you be that stupid? Information, files. You have a responsibility," he said frustratedly, and Leila noticed the hurt on Penelope's face.

"I know, sir. I'm so sorry," Penelope apologized, her voice breaking. The team looked at her with sympathy, but then she spoke again. "But I found him."

"You what?" Elle questioned, disbelief evident in her tone.

"I know who he is, the hacker. His name is Giles. Frank Giles," she rushed out, unfolding the paper in her hand. They all looked at each other as soon as she revealed the name, their eyes widening. "He lives in Arlington, Virginia, four miles from here. I have his address."

Leila stepped forward. "Garcia, you said Giles?" she asked, seeking clarification.

They soon went to Giles' address to apprehend him, only to find him murdered in his room, stabbed with a sword. A chilling note, written in his blood, adorned the wall, stating, 'Here thy quest doth truly begin.'

Searching his room for any clues, they discovered a bag of money on his dresser. They assumed that Giles had carried out the murder of Harris as instructed by the unsub, who, in turn, rewarded him with money. However, the unsub had turned on Giles, ultimately killing him. The unsub continuously left them clues, using language reminiscent of the medieval times.

They found a CD the unsub left for them, watching it once they got back to the BAU. He named them one by one, including pictures of them, making it clear that only the team was to complete the 'quest.' Despite the unsub's instructions to exclude anyone but themselves from the case, Gideon was adamant about holding a press conference.

After the press conference, they continued to sift through the clues. Leila glanced over and noticed that Elle had fallen asleep on the couch. "Someone's really tired," she remarked, her gaze fixed on Elle's sleeping form.

"Can you blame her?" Derek questioned, giving Leila a sympathetic look. "She hasn't slept for thirty-six hours."

Aaron entered the room and immediately noticed Elle asleep on the couch. "Elle?" he called out.

The brunette quickly shot up. "I'm awake."

"I'm sending you home," Aaron told her firmly.

"No," Elle sighed, resisting.

"You need to get some rest, and we won't do anything without you," Aaron reassured her.

"Elle, seriously," Derek spoke up. "We're not any closer than we were. Get out of here. Go home."

"But––"

"It's an order." Aaron gave her a pointed look.

Elle turned to look at Leila, who nodded in agreement. "You need to sleep, Elle. Go home and recharge, you'll feel so much better."

With a defeated breath, Elle stood up from her spot on the couch and walked away with Aaron. Leila, Derek, and Spencer continued to work on the case, but nothing seemed to be coming to mind. Leila's eyes focused on the rows of numbers on the paper the unsub had sent them. The unsub told them that they needed a specific book to decode the message, but they were unsure of which book to use.

Leila ran a hand over her face, massaging her temples as she felt another headache coming on. She stood up from her chair to take a break, letting the team know that she would be back after a few minutes. Exiting the room, she headed towards her office but then noticed Haley with Jack in the stroller sitting in Aaron's office. She was only here because the unsub dropped off a note at their home. 

Knocking on the door, she heard a faint "come in" and she walked inside. She gave Haley a warm smile as she hugged her. "You look really tired, Leila. Are you doing okay?"

Leila chuckled, nodding. "This unsub is really kicking our butts right now. We still feel like we're getting nowhere with all of this."

Haley gave her a sympathetic smile, putting a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay, you guys will eventually figure this out, just like you always do." Leila returned the smile, but then her eyes moved over to the stroller. "Jack's still asleep. Aaron told us to stay here until it's safe."

"And he made the right call," Leila responded. "I'm going to get back. I just needed a small break from being in that small room."

"Of course, I'll see you later, Leila." Haley waved goodbye as Leila exited Aaron's office. Leila decided to walk to her office and try her best to think of anything that could help.

She sat in her chair, her mind drifting to Elle, who was likely already sleeping in the comfort of her own home by now. She felt a pang of sympathy for her best friend, knowing everything she had endured over the past day, from being arrested to the unsettling games the unsub was playing with them. She was relieved that Elle had finally gone home to get some rest.

Yet, despite this, she couldn't shake off the strange feeling that something was about to happen.

[laiqualaurelote]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love ❤

1. World Enough And Time (MFMM/Doctor Who, Phrack, 51k)

This will always be my favourite of my fics. It's the Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries/Doctor Who crossover where Phryne is a Time Lady, Dot is from the past, Mac is from the future and Jack is just trying to work out what is happening. It's an AU that contains eight other AUs (including a Regency AU, a Mad Max Fury Road AU and a fake-marriage-with-aliens AU) and it represented an enormous milestone for me in my writing.

2. all the men and women merely players (Ted Lasso, Ted/Trent, Roy/Keeley/Jamie, 50k)

The Ted Lasso Station Eleven post-apocalyptic AU in which, in the wake of a devastating global pandemic, American comedy actor Ted Lasso leads a Shakespearean theatre troupe across the ruins of England. It combines my love of Ted Lasso, Station Eleven, Shakespeare and theatre, and it's probably the fic I've worked hardest on.

3. I Live And Lie For You (Good Omens/James Bond, Bond/Q, Aziraphale/Crowley, Adam/Eve, 13k)

The fic in which Wensleydale grows up to be Q. Features avocados, cats named after mathematicians, car chases in the Bentley, questionable ice-cream flavours, far too many spies at St James' Park, the Antichrist in his fuckboi era and tardigrades. I don't even like James Bond but I loved writing this.

4. The Legend Continues (Rivers of London, Michael Cheung/Sahra Guleed, 8.5k)

A closer, canon-compliant look at how a hijabi cop might have inadvertently apprenticed herself to the legendary swordsman of London's Chinatown and then started dating him. I always wanted to write an wuxia in English! Features my holy trinity of subtle Asian traits: bubble tea, passive-aggressive aunties and an original character clearly based on Michelle Yeoh. Fun fact: this fic was named after an actual Chinatown restaurant called Leong's Legend Continues, a spinoff of Leong's Legend (ironically Leong's Legend is still around but the Legend Continues has since, well, failed to continue).

5. Best Revenge Is Your Paper (Daredevil/The Punisher, Frank Castle/Karen Page, 15.5k)

In which Karen Page gets a bunch of bylines, pisses off a lot of people, tries not to fall in love with her newsmaker and fails. Kastle was the ship that brought me back to fandom after a five-year hiatus, and Karen remains one of my favourite fictional reporters of all time (the others are Trent Crimm, of course, and Hildy Johnson from His Girl Friday). It's been another five years since this fic and oh, I've had such a time.

Thank you for this ask!

[konpeiiito]

. . . ⇢ scarab, 27yr, egyptian, third gender xe/xem. . . . ⇢ 21+ partners preferred for smut themed things. . . . ⇢ i write most of my characters as trans, be okay with that, or don't write with me. your characters do not need to be trans !! ( unless my ad says otherwise !! ) . . . ⇢ don't mind somewhere between rapid fire replies, or once every few days replies. super chill vibes. ( i'm currently down to 1-2x a week replies ) . . . ⇢ probably talk ooc quite a bit too between writing and replies. i like making friends with people i write with !! . . . ⇢ i use irl fc's, you don't have to. you can also request for me to use an animated fc, i'll gladly find one !! . . . ⇢ discord server writing only !! . . . ⇢ smut / nsfw are welcomed !! . . . ⇢ dark themes are things i'm v chill with, i don't have a lot of triggers !! . . . ⇢ silence doesn't mean disinterest, if you talk to me ooc, i will reply, i just don't always have juice for ic stuff !!

canon fandoms i write and characters i write are in bold:

demon slayer: tanjiro kamado, yushiro, muichiro tokito

sally face: sal fisher

assassination classroom: nagisa shiota, karma akabane, maehara hiroto, isogai yuuma, sugino tomohito, itona horibe, ritsu, karasuma tadaomi

tokyo revengers: manjiro sano, baji katsuki, kazutora hanemiya, nahoya kawata, souya kawata, chifuyu matsuno, rindou haitani, akuun/atsushi sendo, mitsuya takachi, takemichi hanagaki, sanzu haruchiyo, hakkai shiba, inupi seishu

my hero academia: izuku midoriya, jin bubaigawara, shinsou hitoshi, mirio togata, shoto todoroki, amajiki tamaki, shoto aizawa, hizashi yamada, eijiro kirishima, denki kaminari, hanta sero

toilet bound hanako-kun: hanako-kun/yugi amane, kou minamoto, mitsuya sousuke, tsukasa yugi

promare: lio fotia, gueira, meis 

hxh: kurapika kurta, killua zoldyck, feitan portor, shalnark

disgaea series: flonne, mao, adell, zed, laharl, almaz, taro, emizel, yukimaru, zeroken, christo, raspberyl

dc: klarion bleak, garfield logan, billy batson

monster prom: damien lavey, sawyer, oz, brian

dream daddy: damien bloodmarch

bleach: ryunosuke yuki

buddy daddies: rei suwa

blue exorcist: rin okumura, amaimon

saiki k: saiki kusuo

night in the woods: greggory lee

camp camp: david, daniel, max

resident evil: rosemary winters

tokyo mew mew: bu-ling huang (purin), taruto

zom 100: akira tendou

ranma 1/2: ranma saotome

persona 5: joker, mishima yuuki

hades: hypnos

dragon ball: supreme kai, trunks, tapion, tarble, dende, android 17

the boy and the beast: ichirohiko

ouran high school host club: mitsukuni haninozuka, haruhi fujioka

magi: the labyrinth of magic: cassim, aladdin, alibaba, jafar, judal

panty & stocking with garterbelt: stocking anarchy, briefers rock

soul eater: soul evans, chrona

sonic the hedgehog: shadow the hedgehog, sonic the hedgehog, silver the hedgehog, mighty the armadillo, miles “tails” prower, espio the chameleon

check, please!: eric bittle

league of legends: ezreal (heartsteel)

+anima: cooro, husky

if i reach out to you about any fandoms that AREN'T on here, that doesn't mean it was a mistake or i don't actually rp them, i just rp them so little, i didn't think to list them !!

i have an extensive list of ocs, here are basics !! most of my oc’s are asian or arab and some are trans !! i rp regular verses, and abo upon request !! dark topics, nsfw, and heavy things welcome !!

vampire ocs

about 20 different angel ocs

lab experiment ocs

assassin ocs

cult ocs

a bakery shop owner

7 different mafia gangs

[mercyfullkate]

Tag Game To Better Know You! Send this to people you’d like to know better!

Tagged by @irithnova, thanks!

What book are you currently reading?

I just started reading The Secret History of the Mongol Queens by Jack Weatherford and like it a lot so far. It's very well written.

What’s your favorite movie you saw in theatres this year?

"The Woman King," which also happens to be the only movie I saw in the theatre this year (or in 2021). It was really good, though.

What do you usually wear?

Jeans and band shirts. To work I wear jeans and blouses that are marginally nicer than band shirts. I have a single hoodie I got in Alaska in 2012 that I wear when it's too cold for a t-shirt but not cold enough to need a heavy coat. When I don't have to leave the apartment, of course, I wear pajama bottoms instead of jeans.

I have a really nice pair of boots I love, but I need to get them repaired so I just wear sneaks mostly.

How tall are you?

5'3" or just a tad above that.

What’s your Star Sign? Do you share a birthday with a celebrity or a historical event?

I'm a Libra and share my birthday with Carrie Fisher! Also Kim Kardashian but pffft.

Do you go by your name or a nick-name?

I go by any iteration of Katherine that people want to call me, except for Kathy. I have an aunt Kathy whose name is short for Kathleen, so in my mind Kathy isn't ever short for Katherine, only Kathleen, and I was very vocal about this when I was a kid.

Did you grow up to become what you wanted to be when you were a child?

*cries* No.

I wanted to be a zookeeper and ballerina AT THE SAME TIME so it was probably a lost cause anyway, but as I grew older I wanted to be a rich and famous writer and that also hasn't happened. At one point I wanted to be a chauffeur but I think that was because I saw a movie where a chauffeur was wearing a nifty little cap and I also wanted to wear a nifty little cap and drive celebrities around.

Are you in a relationship? If not, who is your crush if you have one?

No, I'm comfortably single. I do sometimes miss having a partner to do things with, like attend conventions and move furniture that's too heavy for one person. I don't have a crush right now because every crush I've had lately turns out to already be married with kids, and that's boring.

What’s something you’re good at vs. something you’re bad at?

I'm actually really good at crafts but I'm bad at organization and let me tell you, that is a terrible combination because it doesn't matter how many pairs of scissors I buy, I can never find a pair when I need them.

Dogs or cats?

Cats but I also like dogs.

What’s something you would like to create content for?

This question just reminded me that when I was in high school, I really really really wanted to work in the Muppet workshop and actually make Muppets. That didn't happen either but if I could create content for anything, it would be the Muppets.

If you draw/write, or create in any way, what’s your favourite picture/favourite line/favourite etc. from something you created this year?

I write and published a nonfiction book and a novella this year! I did some of the illustrations for the nonfiction book so here's one I did that I especially like. It's a glyptodon.

What’s something you’re currently obsessed with?

Mongolia, because of The Hu, but the more I learn about the country and its people, the more I want to learn. In fact, my ten-year goal, which has become more of a two-year goal now for reasons, is to move to Bloomington, Indiana to attend Indiana University and get a degree in central Asian studies with an emphasis in Mongolia. I have no idea what I'd do with another B.A. but I'm not using my current B.A. (English lit) or my M.Ed (Curriculum & Instruction K-8) so why the hell not?

What’s something you were excited about that turned out to be disappointing this year?

One of the conventions I went to this year was just awful. It was a very small one that I didn't talk about much online. I only sold one book, almost no one talked to me, and the dance on Saturday night was run by an astoundingly incompetent DJ.

What’s a hidden talent of yours?

*thinks really hard* uhhh I don't know, losing scissors isn't exactly a talent.

Are you religious?

No.

What’s something you wish to have at this moment?

A million dollars but I would settle for an ice cream sundae tbh.

Tags: anyone who wants to do this!

[jingjingxuan]

Entry 3: Orientation week

We had our orientation week on 14 February, they also called it O-day. In the morning, we sit through a speech given by the dean, the Tasmanian University Students Association (TUSA), people from the student services and lastly the counsellors from the exchange program. I felt more secured and less worried after hearing all the services and assist the school provides, I am glad there’s many associations I can go to when I need a listening ear or when facing problem. Afterwards, we went on a school tour at the Sandy Bay campus, and that marks the end of our first day of orientation. 

My school accommodations, John Fisher College also held their orientation party. It’s a casual BBQ dinner where everyone gets together to meet and greet each other since we will all be staying in the same building for the next few months. Everyone was very friendly and nice, but I feel that there are still some boundaries between races. For example, the Japanese students will stay in their own bubble, the locals will stay in their own circle. I think there is still a barrier between every races, we’re are too used to finding our own comfort zone, not wanting to step out of it. In the end, we did made some friends from different country like Japan, Korea and Australian, we also met some fellow Singaporeans. Initially, I did not expect a lot of Asians because Tasmania is a small island with only a population of 500,000 residences, but seeing so many students from different cultures makes me happy because I feel that this is my opportunity to get to know more about the cultures. 

On 16 February, I went to the orientation my course had organised in Hedberg. It was newly renovated back in 2020, so the structure and the interior design are very modern and pristine. Although the auditorium is smaller and more cramp than SIA Theatre in Lasalle, it makes the whole setting looks more intimate. There are around 20 practise roomS and 7 of them has grand piano. I am very eager to practise now because the room is so spacious and there’s a window for natural lights to shine in! There’s also a pantry area for students to heat up their meals or to wash any cutleries or plates, I guess it is a norm to prepare your own lunch to school because eating out is too pricey. 

I am so excited for the first week of school!

[snailg0th]

here’s my giant leftist to-read list for the next few years!!!

if a little (done!) it written next to the book, it means i’ve finished it! i’m gonna try to update this as i read but no promises on remembering haha

Economics/Politics

Property by Karl Marx

Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (done!)

Wages, Price, and Profit by Karl Marx (done!)

Wage-Labor and Capital by Karl Marx (done!)

Capital Volume I by Karl Marx

The 1844 Manuscripts by Karl Marx

Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Fredrich Engles

Synopsis of Capital by Fredrich Engels

The Principles of Communism by Fredrich Engles

Imperialism, The Highest Stage Of Capitalism by Vladmir Lenin

The State And Revolution by Vladmir Lenin

The Revolution Betrayed by Leon Trotsky

Fascism: What is it and How to Fight it by Leon Trotsky

In Defense Of Marxism by Leon Trotsky

The Accumulation of Capital by Rosa Luxemborg

Reform or Revolution by Rosa Luxemburg

Discipline and Punish by Michel Foucault

The Conquest of Bread by Peter Kropotkin

On Anarchism by Noam Chomsky

Profit over People by Noam Chomsky

An Introduction to Marxist Economic Theory by Ernest Mandel

The Affluent Society by John Kenneth Galbraith

The Postmodern Condition by Jean François Lyotard

Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher

The Socialist Reconstruction of Society by Daniel De Leon

Anarchism and Other Essays by Emma Goldman

Socialism Made Easy by James Connolly

Race

Biased: Uncover in the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do

Blindspot by Mahzarin R. Banaji

Racism Without Racists: Color-blind Racism And The Persistence Of Racial Inequality In America by Eduardo Bonilla-Silva

How To Be Less Stupid About Race: On Racism, White Supremacy And The Racial Divide by Crystal M. Flemming

This Book is Anti-Racist: 20 Lessons on How To Wake Up, Take Action, And Do The Work by Tiffany Jewell & Aurelia Durand

The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism For The Twenty-First Century by Grace Lee Boggs

Tell Me Who You Are by Winona Guo & Priya Vulchi

The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race by Jesymn Ward

Class, Race, and Marxism by David R. Roediger

America for Americans: A History Of Xenophobia In The United States by Erica Lee

The Politics Of The Veil by Joan Wallach Scott

A Different Mirror A History Of Multicultural America by Ronald Takaki

A People’s History Of The United States by Howard Zinn

Black Theory

The Wretched Of The World by Frantz Fanon

Black Marxism by Cedric J Robinson

Malcolm X Speaks by Malcolm X

Women, Culture, and Politics by Angela Davis

Women, Race, & Class by Angela Davis (done!)

Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis (done!)

The Meaning of Freedom by Angela Davis

Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde

Ain’t I A Woman? by Bell Hooks

Yearning by Bell Hooks

Dora Santana’s Works

An End To The Neglect Of The Problems Of The Negro Women by Claudia Jones

I Am Your Sister by Audre Lorde

Women’s Liberation And The African Freedom Struggle by Thomas Sankara

W.E.B. DuBois Essay Collection

Black Reconstruction by W.E.B. DuBois

Lynch Law by Ida B. Wells

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

Sula by Toni Morrison

Song Of Solomon by Toni Morrison

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Paradise by Toni Morrison

A Mercy by Toni Morrison

This Bridge Called My Back by Cherríe Moraga

Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America

So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Black Feminist Thought by Patricia Hill Collins

Eloquent Rage: A Black Feminist Discovers Her Superpower by Dr. Brittney Cooper

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

Black Skins, White Masks and The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon

Killing of the Black Body

Revolutionary Suicide by Huey P Newton

Settlers; The myth of the White Proletariat

Fearing The Black Body; The Racial Origins of Fatphobia

Freedom Dreams; The Black Radical Imagination

How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

An Argument For Black Women’s Liberation As a Revolutionary Force by Mary Anne Weathers

Voices of Feminism Oral History Project by Frances Beal

Ghosts In The Schoolyard: Racism And School Closings On Chicago’s South Side by Eve L. Ewing

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon To White America by Michael Eric Dyson

Why We Can’t Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Fatal Invention: How Science, Politics, Big Business, Re-create Race In The 21st Century by Dorothy Roberts

We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race & Resegregation by Jeff Chang

They Can’t Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era In America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery

The Common Wind by Julius S. Scott

Black Is The Body: Stories From My Grandmother’s Time, My Mother’s Time, And Mine by Emily Bernard

We Were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy by Ta-Nehisi Coates

American Lynching by Ashraf H. A. Rushdy

Raising Our Hands by Jenna Arnold

Redefining Realness by Janet Mock

When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira Katznelson

Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affects Us and What We Can Do

Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine

Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life Of Black Communist Claudia Jones by Carole Boyce Davies

Black Studies Manifesto by Darlene Clark

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

The Souls Of Black Folk by W.E.B. Du Bois

Darkwater by W.E.B. Du Bois

The Education Of Blacks In The South, 1860-1935 by James D. Anderson

The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery And The Making Of American Capitalism by Edward E. Baptist

The Color Of Money: Black Banks And The Racial Wealth Gap by Mehrsa Baradaran

A Black Women’s History Of The United States by Daina Ramey Berry & Kali Nicole Gross

The Price For Their Pound Of Flesh: The Value Of The Enslaved, From Womb to Grave, In The Building Of A Nation by Daina Ramey Berry

North Of Slavery: The Negro In The Free States, 1780-1869 by Leon F. Litwack

Black Stats: African Americans By The Numbers In The Twenty-First Century by Monique M. Morris

Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls in Schools by Monique M. Morris

40 Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, And Redemption of The Black Athlete by William C. Rhoden

From #BlackLivesMatter To Black Liberation by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

A More Beautiful And Terrible History: The Uses And Misuses Of Civil Rights History by Jeanne Theoharis

Medical Apartheid: The Dark History Of Medical Experimentation On Black Americans From Colonial Times To The Present by Harriet A. Washington

Working At The Intersections: A Black Feminist Disability Framework” by Moya Bailey

Theory by Dionne Brand

Black Women, Writing, And Identity by Carole Boyce Davies

Slavery By Another Name: The Re-enslavement Of Black Americans From The Civil War To World War II by Douglass A. Blackmon

Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin

The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

Some Of Us Are Very Hungry Now by Andre Perry

The Origins Of The Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality In Postwar Detroit by Thomas Surgue

They Can’t Kill Us Until They Kill Us by Hanif Abdurraqib

Beyond Containment: Autobiographical Reflections, Essays and Poems by Claudia Jones

The Black Woman: An Anthology by Toni McCade

Double Jeopardy: To Be Black and Female by Frances Beal

How We Get Free: Black Feminism and the Combahee River Collective by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor

Indigenous Theory

Colonize This! by Daisy Hernandez and Bushra Rehman

As We Have Always Done

Braiding Sweetgrass

Spaces Between Us

The Sacred Hoop by Paula Gunn Allen

Native: Identity, Belonging, And Rediscovering God by Kaitlin Curtice

An Indigenous People’s History Of The United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz

Why Indigenous Literatures Matter by Daniel Heath Justice

Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, And The Pursuit Of Justice For Missing And Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls by Jessica McDiarmid

The Other Slavery by Andrés Reséndez

Seven Fallen Feathers by Tanya Talaga

All Our Relations: Indigenous Trauma In The Shadow Of Colonialism by Tanya Talaga

All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward by Tanya Talaga

Everything You Wanted To Know About Indians But Were Afraid To Ask by Anton Treuer

Rez Life: An Indian’s Journey Through Reservation Life by David Treuer

Latine Theory

Borderlands/La Frontera by Gloria Anzaldúa

Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of Pillage of A Continent by Eduardo Galeano

Inventing Latinos: A New Story of American Racism by Laura E. Gomez

De Colores Means All Of Us by Elizabeth Martinez

Middle Eastern And Muslim Theory

How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young And Arab In America by Moustafa Bayoumi

We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future by Deepa Iyer

Alligator and Other Stories by Dima Alzayat

API Theory

Orientalism by Edward Said

The Making Of Asian America by Erika Lee

On Gold Mountain by Lisa See

Strangers From A Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans by Ronald Takaki

They Called Us Enemy (Graphic Novel) by George Takei

Yellow Peril!: An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear by Edited by John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats

Yellow: Race In America Beyond Black And White by Frank H. Wu

Alien Nation: Chinese Migration In The Americas From The Coolie Era Through World War II by Elliott Young

The Good Immigrants: How The Yellow Peril Became The Model Minorities by Madeline H. Ysu

Asian American Dreams: The Emergence Of An American People by Helen Zia

The Myth Of The Model Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism by Rosalind S. Chou & Joe R. Feagin

Two Faces Of Exclusion: The Untold Story Of Anti-Asian Racism In The United States by Lon Kurashige

Whiteness

White Fragility by Robin Di Angelo (done!)

White Kids: Growing Up With Privilege In A Racially Divided America by Margaret A. Hagerman

Waking Up White by Deby Irving

The History of White People by Nell Irvin Painter

White Like Me: Reflections On Race From A Privileged Son by Tim Wise

White Rage by Carol Anderson

What Does It Mean To Be White: Developing White Racial Literacy by Robin DiAngelo

The Invention of The White Race: Volume 1: Racial Oppression and Social Control by Theodore W. Allen

The Invention of The White Race: Volume 2: The Origin of Racial Oppression in Anglo-America by Theodore W. Allen

Immigration

Call Me American by Abdi Nor Iftir

Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist At Work by Edwidge Danticat

My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero

The Devil’s Highway: A True Story by Luis Alberto Urrea

The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio

Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario

Tell Me How It Ends: An Essay In Forty Questions by Valeria Luiselli

Voter Suppression

One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy by Carol Anderson

Give Us The Vote: The Modern Struggle For Voting Rights In America by Ari Berman

Prison Abolition And Police Violence

Abolition Democracy by Angela Davis

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis

The Prison Industrial Complex by Angela Davis

Political Prisoners, Prisons, And Black Liberation by Angela Davis

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (done!)

The End Of Policing by Alex S Vitale

Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea J. Ritchie

Choke Hold: Policing Black Men by Paul Butler

From The War On Poverty To The War On Crime: The Making Of Mass Incarceration In America by Elizabeth Hinton

Feminist Theory

The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir

A Vindication of the Rights of Women by Mary Wollstonecraft

Bad Feminist by Roxanne Gay

7 Feminist And Gender Theories

Race, Gender, And Class by Margaret L. Anderson

African Gender Studies by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

The Invention Of Women by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

What Gender Is Motherhood? by Oyèrónkẹ́ Oyěwùmí

Feminism Without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity by Chandra Talpade Mohanty

I Am Malala by Malala Youssef

LGBT Theory

Gender Trouble by Judith Butler

Performative Acts and Gender Constitution by Judith Butler

Imitation and Gender Insubordination by Judith Butler

Bodies That Matter by Judith Butler

Excitable Speech by Judith Butler

Undoing Gender by Judith Butler

The Roots Of Lesbian And Gay Opression: A Marxist View by Bob McCubbin

Compulsory Heterosexuality And Lesbian Existence by Adrienne Rich

Decolonizing Trans/Gender 101 by B. Binohan

Gay.Inc: The Nonprofitization of Queer Politics by Merl Beam

Pronouns Good or Bad: Attitudes and Relationships with Gendered Pronouns

Transgender Warriors

Whipping Girl; A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity

Stone Butch Blues by Lesie Feinberg (done!)

The Stonewall Reader by Edmund White

Sissy by Jacob Tobia

Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein

Butch Queens Up In Pumps by Marlon M. Bailey

Black On Both Sides: A Racial History Of Trans Identities by C Riley Snorton

Go Tell It On The Mountain by James Baldwin

Ezili’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley

Lavender and Red by Emily K. Hobson

[whatmiraculousshouldvebeen]

Miraculous Voice actors/ actresses

I think that the voices in the miraculous are iconic and easily recognizable, which is a great thing when it comes to voices, and any acting period. However, I think certain voices should be different in this series. Also I think the representation of each characters ethnicity would be ideal. So in our version of miraculous, here is the official-unofficial cast.

Disclaimer: I am still learning about ethnicity and culture, so if I say something wrong or offensive, please educate me. I want this to be a safe space for everyone and would never want to unintentionally hurt someone. Thank you :))

So I think that Karen Fukuhara would be an awesome fit for Marinette. Known for her roles as Katana from suicide squad, Glimmer from She-ra, and Kipo, she has had a lot of acting experience. She has a youthful sounding voice, as does Marinette. Her cartoon characters she plays always sound super chipper and sweet. As the main character, she would be a perfect fit. Not to mention she is an Japanese-American, so she can speak English while also carrying Marinettes Asian ethnicity. Although Marinette is Chinese, she is Asian, and I think that Karen Fukuhara is not only perfect for capturing her youthful energy, but her culture as well!

Here is an example off her voice work in the show She Ra Princess of Power as Glimmer!

Credit (YouTube) - hollertubes

So my next casting would be Dove Cameron as Rose. Dove has much experience already with being in disney shows, so I think she wouldn’t have much a problem being on another one. Her high pitch voice and happy sounding characters are a perfect fit for a character like Rose because her powers are literally positivity. I personally think that Rose’s high-pitched voice is a bit too forced. Since Dove Cameron has a very natural sounding high-pitched voice, this is why I think she is a good fit for this character.

Now, finding a good fit for Alya was a bit tough. At first I considered someone like Camilla Cabello because she was of Cuban decent. However, Alya is a Martiniquan girl, so I thought a better fit would be someone from the Caribbean area. Tatyana Marisol Ali is highly known for her role on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Her voice is a bit deeper than the others, but it is still youthful and can pass as a high schooler. Her voice is very calm and already sounds a lot like Alya, so this is why I would cast her in my version of miraculous :)

In my search for a voice actor for Adrien, I just came to realize that literally no one else could capture Adrien as well as Bryce Papenbrook did. His experience as an anime actor in shows like Blue Exorcist, Attack on Titan, and Seven Deadly Sins really paid off. He is able to sound like a teenager but also expresses Adriens emotions well. An honorable mention as a possible cast would be Max Mittelman, who voices plagg, but also does other good voice work on Your Lie in April and Seven Deadly sins. He also has a very strong and confident voice like Adrien, but Bryce fits the role of Adrien so well that I would personally just keep it the same!

I know that Nino’s voice actor has changed already in mid season 4, but I can’t help thinking that both of the voice actors for him just weren’t doing it for me. I think personally that the first one was too low and villain like, while the second one just sounds forced and too high pitched. I think that Jordan Fisher is not only a good match with his ethnicity, but a good match with his character type. The laid back side character / love interest is what both Nino and Jordan are known for being. Jordan’s voice is a bit on the deeper side, however, his voice can still be made out as the age group that his character is in.

And there you have it! I obviously am not going to do all of the characters in one post, but I may make a part 2 in the future!

[dear-indies]

can you please suggest your favorite south/southeast asian fc’s? sorry if that’s too broad, but honestly anything would be amazing thank you

Non-binary:

Alok Vaid-Menon (1991) Indian - non-binary, gender-nonconforming, non-binary transfeminine - they/them.

Travis Alabanza (1995) Black British (nationality) African-American, Filipino / Unspecified - non-binary trans - they/them - queer.

Kevin Ninh (1996) Vietnamese - non-binary - he/him.

Ian Alexander (2001) Vietnamese / European - non-binary - he/him. 

Fox Fisher (?) Indian / Unspecified - trans non-binary - queer -  they/them.

Shiva Raichandani (?) Indian - non-binary - queer.

Vineeta Maruri / kumari_seshasai (?) Indian - non-binary - they/she.

Kindness / Adam Bainbridge (?) Indian / White - non-binary -  they/them.

Jada Alberts (?) Bardi, Wardaman, Yanyuwa, Filipino, Dutch - non-binary - they/them - queer - actor.

Ashley Mandanas (?) Filipino - non-binary. 

Jazmin Bean (?) Filipino, Unspecified Other(s) - non-binary - they/them.

Women:

BB Gandanghari (1967) Filipino - trans. 

Malaika Arora (1973) Malayali / Indian.

Shelley Conn (1976) Portuguese, Burmese / Indian.

Ivory Aquino (1977/1978) Filipino - trans.

Maggie Q (1979) Vietnamese / Irish, Polish. 

Kulap Vilaysack (1980) Lao.

Celina Jaitly (1981) Afghan, Punjabi Indian. 

Rain Valdez (1981) Filipino - trans.

Aaradhna (1983) Samoan /  Indian.

Indila (1984) Algerian, Egyptian, Indian, Cambodian.

Nadiya Hussain (1984) Bangladeshi.

Geena Rocero (1984) Filipino - trans. 

Tsokye Tsomo Karchu (1984) Bhutanese.

Unoosha (1985) Maldivian.

Anjali Lama (1985) Nepalese - trans. 

Trixie Maristela (1986) Filipino - trans. 

Meaghan Rath (1986) Goan Indian / Ashkenazi Jewish.

Alexandra Bounxouei (1987) Lao / Bulgarian.

Parineeti Chopra (1988) Indian. 

Archana Akil Kumar (1988) Indian.

Summer Bishil (1988) Indian / Mexican, German, English, distant Dutch.

Richa Moorjani (1989) Bangalorean.

Harnaam Kaur (1990) Punjabi - has polycystic ovary syndrome.

Kevin Balot (1991) Filipino - trans. 

Patti Harrison (1991) Vietnamese / Unspecified - trans. 

Wawa Zainal (1991) Bruneian, Bajau Malaysian,Tausug Filipino

Tanaya Beatty (1991) Daʼnaxdaʼxw / Himalayan.

Kanya Sesser (1992) Thai - born without legs.

Melinda Shankar (1992) Indo-Guyanese.

Julie Vu (1992) Vietnamese - trans.

Davika Hoorne (1992) Thai, Belgian. 

Asmi Shrestha (1993) Nepalese. 

Ashley Argota (1993) Filipino.

Louriza Tronco (1993) Filipino.

Tahirah Sharif (1993) Pakistani / Afro-Jamaican. 

Myo Ko Ko San (1994) Burmese - trans. 

Geraldine Viswanathan (1995) Tamil Indian / Swiss.

Simone Ashley (1995) Indian.

Pinda Rika Dorji (1995) Bhutanese.

Lulu Antariksa (1995) Indonesian, German.

Neelam Gill (1995) Punjabi Indian. 

Zun Than Sin (1995) Rakhine / Burmese.

Sophia Taylor Ali (1995) Pakistani.

Prilly Latuconsina (1996) Moluccan Indonesian, Sundanese Indonesian.

Anya Chalotra (1996) Indian / English. 

Maris Racal (1997) Bisaya Filipino.

Sweet Qismina (1997) Malaysian.

Sonita Alizadeh (1997) Afghan.

Brianne Tju (1998) Chinese / Indonesian.

Star Slade (1999) Vietnamese, Metis - pansexual.

Sab Zada (1999) Filipino, Chinese, Unspecified Hispanic. 

Vivoree Esclito (2000) Bisaya Filipino. 

Maitreyi Ramakrishnan (2001) Tamil Sri Lankan.

Sarennya Srimugayogam (?) Malaysian [Indian].

Men:

Naveen Andrews (1969) Malayali Indian.

Waris Ahluwalia (1974) Punjabi Indian. 

Sendhil Ramamurthy (1974) Kannada and Tamil Indian. 

Conrad Ricamora (1979) Filipino / German, English, possibly other - gay. 

Shahid Kapoor (1981) Punjabi Indian. 

Sunny Suwanmethanon (1981) Thai, Singaporean, White.

Mahesh Jadu (1982) Kashmiri and Mauritian Indian.

Manish Dayal (1983) Gujarati Indian. 

Ice Seguerra (1983) Filipino - trans.

Iko Uwais (1983) Betawi Indonesian. 

Charles Michael Davis (1984) African-American / Filipino. 

Sacha Dhawan (1984) Indian - has Crohn's disease.

Rahul Kohli (1985) Punjabi Indian.

Sidharth Malhotra (1985) Punjabi Indian. 

Clayton Cardenas (1985) Mexican, Filipino.

Arjun Gupta (1986) Indian. 

Manny Jacinto (1987) Filipino.

Henry Golding (1987) English / Iban Malaysian.

Ritesh Rajan (1988) Indian.

Jesse Rath (1989) Goan Indian / Ashkenazi Jewish.

Chai Hansen (1989) Thai / Unspecified Australian.

Raymond Ablack (1989) Indo-Guyanese

Dev Patel (1990) Punjabi Indian.

Win Morisaki (1990) Burmese. 

Fawad Khan (1991) Pathan Pakistani.

Abbas Jafri (1991) Pakistani. 

Avi Nash (1991) Indian.

Jake Zyrus (1992) Filipino - trans. 

Sushil Shrestha (1994) Nepalese. 

Nik Dodani (1994) Indian - gay. 

Kittisak Patomburana (1994) Thai.

Sky Teotico (1994) Filipino - trans. 

Elfira Loy (1994) Malaysian / Javanese.

Brandon Perea (1995) Puerto Rican / Filipino.

Kao Jirayu (1995) Thai.

Evan Mock (1997) Filipino / Unspecified. 

Junior Roberts (2000) Indonesian. 

Aric Hidir Amin (?) - I think he’s Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian.

Sivakumar Palakrishnan (?) Singaporean-Indian.

Praneet Akilla (?) Indian.

Jean-Paul Ly (?) Cambodian, Chinese. 

With thanks to @consultthemuses and @lewistan! 

[slythereeen]

Book Review: Why Man Want Sex and Women Need Love

Pengen liat cowo yang beneran tulus tanpa menilai dari wajahnya. Ada?, - Screenshot twittter @hali_halaa 

Pernah kepikiran gak kenapa si beberapa cowok itu selalu nyari yang cantik parasnya kebanding cantik hatinya (beautiful heart). Padahal kan gak tau ya even cantik parasnya, tapi ternyata kelakuannya naudzubillah gitu, terus ninggalin si cowok kalau si cowok udah bukan sultan lagi, udah gak punya kerjaan lagi, udah gak punya status lagi dan lain lain. Padahal kan cantik itu gak abadi, waktu terus berjalan. Seiring waktu kecantikan itu perlahan mulai pudar. Kenapa si . . .

Siang ini saya mau bahas review buku yang judulnya cukup wow. Apa itu? Why Men Want Sex and Women Need Love (Lagi-lagi dari Allan & Barbara Pease, Penulis Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Maps). Disclaimer dulu kalau buku ini bukan cerita tentang namaku andri, umur 18 tahun dan akhirnya harus ikut meneduh karena saat itu hujan (Anak twitter can relate), tapi buku ini nyeritain perbedaan antara cowok sama cewek dari segi biologis. Kenapa cowok suka nyari yang cantik (eh ternyata yang cantik nyarinya yang b aja. ini jadi bahasan kita di lain hari. why hottest girl dates an ugly man), emang kenapa cowok hubungannya sama sex? terus kenapa yang butuhin cewek itu cinta?"

Ada satu cerita menarik yang harapannya bisa nge gambarin perbedaan cowok dan cewek secara stereotipikal. Gini ceritanya

Empat cowok pergi buat mancing, mancing ikan ya bukan mancing cewek lain di Mall. Udah satu jam duduk di tepi sungai, si A bilang "percaya gak gue harus ngapain biar dapet izin istri buat kesini. Gue ngasih janji ke si bebebz buat nata ulang tiap ruangan di rumah"

si B bilang "hilih niti riwing di rimih, gitu doang lu. Gue harus janji ke doi buat nanem rumput di belakang rumah terus ngebuat ayunan buat bocil bocil"

si C senyum "eh lu ya, lu beruntung namanya kalau cuman gitu doang. gue harus janji ke pacar gue buat renov dapur sama ngebuat saung-saungan (pergola) di halaman. Huh pasti capek ini mah"

Ketiganya lanjut mancing, terus mereka sadar si D itu diem diem aja dari tadi. Mereka penasaran dong apa janji yang harus ke ceweknya biar bisa ikut mancing "Jerry, lu harus bilang apa ke doi biar bisa pergi ke sini. kepo dongs"

SI Jerry yang diem-diem aja dengan santai bilang "simple si, gue atur ulang alarm jadi jam 05.30, terus pas alarm bunyi gue matiin. Doi bangun, gue peluk istri, terus nanya 'memancing atau 4646? (Men Want Sex)', doi ngebalikin badan terus bilang jangan lupa suruh gue bawa jaket (Women Need Love). Udah haha"

Dr Lucy Brown dari Einstein College of Medicine & Helen Fisher mindai otak cowok sama cewek. Dalam penelitiannya itu bilang pas seseorang jatuh cinta, bagian otak yang bernama Nukelus Caudata sama Ventral Tegmental itu langsung aktif.

fyi, Nukleus Caudata itu bagian otak yang terkait sama ingetan, emosi, dan perhatian. Sedangkan Ventral Tegmental itu bagian otak yang nyalurin sel-sel dopamin ke bagian otak lagi. Makanya katanya pas kamu (cowok atau cewek) lagi ngebucin itu kaya orang T0L0L (dimabuk cinta), ventral tegmental bakal menuhin nukleus caudata dengan dopamin.

mereka ngasih foto pacarnya 3000 mahasiswa yang jadi objek penelitian. Dari hasil pindai MRI didapet kesimpulan kalau cewek lebih banyak pake bagian Nukleus Caudata, Septum (otak yang disebut pusat kenikmatan) sama korteks parietal posterior (produksi citra mental dan pengalihan ingatan). Sedangkan kalau cowok lebih banyak pake korteks visual di wilayah otak including yang relate sama rangsangan seksual. Makanya proses jatuh cinta cowo ke cewek itu ada di matanya (bagian visual). liat yang glowing langsung auto fokus. liat selebgram di explore auto ditahan duluscrollingnya. Sedangkan cewek jatuh cinta ke cowok itu terletak di ingatan yang disimpan otaknya

Perbedaan yang disebutin dibuku ini tuh katanya cowok pake mata mereka sebagai alat utama buat nilai cewek yang miliki potensi seksual. mean while gitu ya, cewek bakal pake ingatan buat nge nilai karakteristik si cowok yang dianggap punya potensi jangka panjang. 

Terus ada satu hal unik disebutin, tau ga sih kalau cowok bisa lebih cepet jatuh cinta dari pada cewek. Cewek gak tau kan ini hayooo. it’s our secret. Bibit bibit pelakor exists nih hati hati haha. Ko bisa? Next lah

di biology of love, katanya cinta itu semacam reaksi kimia yang terjadi di otak. Gak lain karena ada nya dopamine sama norepinephrine (yang nge create effect of love pada pandangan pertama), oxytocin (dikenal juga sebagai hormon pelukan, hormon yang ngebuat jatuh cinta), testosterone dan oestrogen (hormon sex yang nyebabin dorongan buat ngedesak kebutuhan fisik, dorongan sex, nyiptain nafsu dan ketertarikan seksual terjadi). Inget pelajaran biologi SMA lah ya, bab reproduksi. Bab yang kalau dibahas cowok-cowok yang biasanya ngantuk jadi semangat belajar

Ko cewek butuh cinta? bukan sex?

ini gegara cewek punya level oxytocin yang lebih tinggi kebanding cowok, makanya cewek lebih dalam dalam hal cinta. semakin banyak oxytocin yang diproduksi, semakin dalam ikatan si cewek sama si cowoknya. denger nama doi aja udah aduhai langsung kepikiran, atau dengerin lagu yang kamu sama doi banget itu ningkatin oxytocin. Biasanya di cie-cie in pipinya langsung merah soalnya hormone nya pompa darah ke pipinya terus pipinya panas dan merah deh

Ko cowok bisa dengan mudah jatuh cinta?

Hasil riset juga nunjukin kalau cowok ngeliatin aktifitas yang lebih tinggi di dua daerah otak: the visual stimuli (ini ngejelasin kenapa cowok suka sama cewek glowing), dan satu lagi penile erection, cowok ngelakuin itu pas ngeliat cewek buat ngukur kemampuan mereka buat ngukur kemampuan mereka ngehasilin bayi yang sehat, ini ngejelasin kenapa cowok suka kaya lagu RAN, cinta pada pandangan pertama

Terus gimana kalau cewek? studi bilang area otak yang erat sama memory recall jadi aktif pas nge evaluasi cowok, tertarik atau engga gitu. Maksudnya? cewek bakal inget semua detail dari kelakuan si cowok, atau bahkan ia bakal nyari semua data. kepo lah sampai jejak digitalnya juga dicari, dia jujur gak ya dia bisa dipercaya ga ya, kalau dia ngasih semua tentangnya ke si cewek. 

Saya pernah jadi mata-mata temen buat nyari tau semua tentang si cowok. Gils itu yang namanya harus detail parah, bener bener detail sampe niatnya apa dan lain lain

Dah kepanjangan. itu tadi cuman sekian kecil yang ada dibukunya. Chapter lain sih bilang kenapa kita dicintai dan mencintai itu penting sama adanya hubungan antara dicintai dan kesehatan buat hidup lebih lama. Ada juga sih katanya 7 tipe cinta dasar kaya romantic love, pragmatic love, altruistic love, common love, sama familial love. Itu kita bahas setelah ini yaw.

Segitu dulu, judul bukunya unik sih tapi pas dibuka isinya bukan tentang 4646 doang, tapi lebih ke hasil riset. overall bagus ko buku ini. Cocok buat masuk wishlist 

Kesimpulan

Jadi ada cowok yang tulus gak liat wajah? tadi udah dibahas ya gimana reaksi kimia di otak bekerja. Kalau kata saya sih gak perlu insecure kalau misal gak ngikutin standar cantik sekarang. Fokus perbaiki personality atau nambah cerdas aja. Soalnya banyak juga cowok yang liat dari sisi lain kaya sosok keibuannya, personality nya, agamanya, diamnya, tulisannya (katanya banyak tumblr couple ya haha), cerita strugglenya. Istilahnya yang inner beautynya dapet. Atau malah yang sapiosexual, yang suka karena kecerdasannya.

sedikit fakta, tau gak kalau pemenang Miss Korea tahun 2018 itu termasuk Miss Korea yang kontroversial? Ko bisa? Jadi mba Soo Min Kim ini yang kalau kata saya cerdas banget (keliatan dari cara ngomongnya) itu dapet banyak komen positive pas diumumin jadi juara. Tapi banyak juga yang negative. Katanya she is too fat to be Miss Korea. Tinggi mba nya 173 cm, biar dia acceptably skinny by Korea Standar itu 47-48 kg (kata si mba nya). At the same time, si mba nya 58.9 kg (deket 60). Ini kontroversi karena gak ngikutin standar acceptably skinny. More bisa diliat di “Meet The Controversial Winner of Miss Korea 2018″ dari ASIAN BOSS. Intinya yah berat sih kalau selalu ngikutin standar fisik mah. Semangat be your self

[hiheyimhuy]

Movies/TV Shows

1 Roman Empire -Season 1 -Theme Funny -Golden Age

-Birthdays -Jayden Kouli Spring -Ian Spear Summer -Rex Woodbury Fall -Taylor Phillips Winter

-Jennie Mayer “Type 1” Insults -Arlene Williams “Type 2” Conversation -Tina Fey “Type 3” It’s Not Funny, But It Is Funny -Alison Kang “Type 4” Fighting

-Annie Bucher -Bayley Lichtenberg -Brenna Harrington -Briana Jackson -Carley Wood -Christine Baker -Ellie Hoekman -Emily Dugan -Emily Ross -Heather Bateman -Heather Stams -Jessie Torlai -Kailyn Pennock -Katie Fischbeck -Katie Theisen -Kirsten Brewer -Kristen Kemper -Kylie Barrett -Kyra Pennington -Lexi n Abby Klinkenberg -Meg Mullen -Meressa Mamon -Mia Torlai -Nicole Silver -Rebecca Nixon -Samantha Holler -Tahlia Carchedi 1/2 -Taylor Green 1/2 -Tessa Acay -Zoey Golden 1/2

-Austin From Gardenscapes -Kevin Hill

-Season 2 -Theme Suffering -50 Years After The Golden Age With New Complicated Rulers/King And Government Officials -Nice People -People Who Likes To Play Games -Hard Living -Ancient Technological Society -Consequences -Crimes -Passion of the Christ Roman Guards -Green River Teachers -Guys from Han Tinh Phan Kim Lien -Rating 100% -Jessica Clarke -Kelley Flanagan -Hannah Ann -Lindsey Allemeier -Julia Newell -Annika Brauer -Catherine Berner -Olivia Carlson -Louisa Dunwiddie -Emma Linde -Savannah Billedo -Danielle Brady -Jackie Robinson -Rachel Keyser -Angela Zhang -Megan Williams -Maia Lee -McKay Njos -Tylar Philpott -Vanessa Chukri -Dan Mitchell -Brett Goldstein -Brendan Welzien -Jackson Zariski -Adam Newton -Toro -Richard Ferguson -Jared -Royals Friends -Josh Brueckner -Katie Betzing -Matt Howard -Abby Howard -Charli D’amelio -Addison Rae -“Too Hot To Handle” IGTV video guys -Jacqueline Miller -Eileen Bruns -Johannes Huebl 2/3 -Matty Carrington -Franky Cammarata -Ben K Bowers -Colton Underwood -RJ King 2/3 -Graham Davis -Willem De Koch -Brian Pruett -Gigi Meyer  -Henry

-Hailey Napier -Blake Napier -Alex Knutson 2/3 -Elle Petschl -Sam Petschl -Anna Lynch -Ana Rae Miller -Brenna Hudson -Madeline Huletz -Claire Kennedy -Connell O’Brien -Max Tychsen -Dylan Inman -Austin Budke -Cameron Sackett -Elliot Knapp -John Mark Lambert -Colby Franklin -Season 3 -Theme Conquering -Depicts The Fall Of The Roman Empire -Combat Tactics -Strategies -In Places That Trigger Fear -“X Ambassadors - Renegades” Feel -Austin Olson -Chris Torlai -Kevin Hall -Matt Mead -Max Liebl -Nathan Lantz -Nathan Rodland -Oak Griffith -Sean Redmond -Stefan Andonian -Tanner Patnode -Travis McGuire -Wes Concepcion -Ben Affleck -Christian Bale -Tom Cruise -Cavill -Simon Pegg -Sam Quinby -Garrett Yrigoyen -Ben Higgins -Peter Weber -Jack Weber -Chris Harrison -Arie Luyendyk -Jason -Blake -Jared Haibon -Chris Soules -Jordan -David -Joe Sessa -Josh Canova -Graham Bennett -Kevin Park -Aaron Park -Julien Isnardon -Armie Hammer -Maurice Laab -Keegan Selby -Tyler Pichette -Season 4 -In Heaven With Henry And Malcolm

-Season 5 -Reunion Live “Maplestory - Ergoth’s Throne” “Maplestory - Orbis Tower” “Maplestory - Ludi PQ” -“Imagine Dragons - To Exist” 2 -“Imagine Dragons - Darkness Lies Above” 3 -“Imagine Dragons - Fear Is In Your Eyes” 3 -“Imagine Dragons - Only Way Across Is Cold Water” 3 -“Alesso - To Live Without Music” 1 -“Alesso - Watery Feels” 1/2 -“Bastille - What Keeps You Awake At Night” 2 -“Bastille - Every Time You Close Your Eyes” 2 -“Benny Blanco - The 4 Amigos” 1 -“The Chainsmokers - Wishing You Can Untouch” 2 -Might Change Title When I Have Time -“Charlie Puth - Day And Night Changes” 2 -“Coldplay - To Make You Wish You Don’t Have A Soul” 2 -“DNCE - The First To Arrive And Last To Leave” 1 -“Linkin Park - Rather Fall Than Surrender” 3 -“Kaskade - Your Voice Is All I Need” 1 -“Lana Del Rey - The “H” Word” 2 -“The Lumineers - A Cold Winter Morning” 2 -“Major Lazer - Gets You Off The Ground” 1 -“Major Lazer - Hard Bed, Soft Together” 1 -“OneRepublic - Rather Whisper Than Say” 1/2 -“Selena Gomez - Hope You Can Make It Back To Me” 3 -“Selena Gomez - I Need To Give You” 3 -“Shawn Mendes - If I Was Your First Lover” 1/2 -“Shawn Mendes - Fulfill Your Wishes” 1/2 -“Taylor Swift - February Missing You” 3 -“Taylor Swift - Waking Up And You’re Not Here” 3 -“Tove Lo - Roses In Water” 1 -“X Ambassadors - Repentance” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - Remorses” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - Regrets” 2/3 -“X Ambassadors - In The Woods” 3 -“X Ambassadors - No One To Be Found” 3 -“X Ambassadors - Only Nature Exists Now” 3 -“X Ambassadors - When You’re Lost” 3 -“2AM Club - I Still Remember You” 1

2 Killer -Henry Farm Childhood -Tom Cruise -Henry Cavill -Simon Pegg -Kelly Hu -Mila Kunis -Chiaki Kuriyama -Amy Johnston -Connell O’Brien -Yugioh Main Characters -Yugi -Joey -Bakura -Pegasus -Marik -Mai Valentine -Weevil -Rafael -Dartz -Charli D’amelio -Matt Howard -Alessandro Dellisola -Johannes Huebl -Sean O’Pry -Taylor Swift -Shawn Mendes -Girls Non-Killers -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -“Finger 11 - Paralyzer” IGTV video -Excluding Claire Miller -Abby Howard -Armie Hammer -Chace Crawford

3 Witches History on Earth -Malcolm in Heaven -Hocus Pocus -Vietnamese Girls -Trang Nguyen -Nguyen Ha My -Yen Nguyen -Written By Henry And Malcolm

4 Paris by Night in Modern Time -Presidents -Ben Affleck -Leonardo DiCaprio -1/4 Europeans -Brody Jenner -1/4 Asians -Japanese -Chiaki Kuriyama -Substitute -Cheyenne Stacey Powell -Administration -Nia Nguyen -Stephanie Che -The Bachelor Girls -The Bachelorette Girls -Clothes -Elementary And Middle School -Less Normal -High School -Fashion -College -Travel After College -Love

5 Ancient Forests -Josh Brueckner -Katie Betzing -“131 Tall Tree Guys” IGTV video -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -The Bachelor -The Bachelorette

6 Toys

7 Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD) -Inventions -Movable Type Printing (1041-1048 AD) -Gunpowder (1000 AD) -Compass (1100 AD) -Paper Money (11th century) -Arts -Music -Literature -Philosophy -Theme Romance -Marco Polo -Born in Venice -Silk Road -Visited China (1275-1292 AD) -Father and Uncle -Lingchi Torture -TVB Actors/Actresses -Kenneth Lam -Kacie Lo -Chloe Tsang -Clarissa Chan -Jessica Yi -Danny Shin -Joyce Lin -Shin -Alex Landi

8 Ancient Egypt -Theme Revenge, Ruling, Warfare -Pharaoh -Pyramids -Sphinx -Nile River -Farming -Hieroglyphics -New Kingdom (1570-1069 BCE) -Kings Are Called Pharaohs -Golden Age -Wealth -Prosperity -Power -Wars -Burned alive -Thrown into river with crocodiles -Charli/Dixie D’amelio -Addison Rae -“Roosevelt High School” IGTV video -Andrew Mead -Austin Perlatti -Bret Johnson -Carter Rey Johnson -Casey Manso -Christopher Wilson -Clay Barton -Colby Foss -Connor Bennett -Dalton Bond -Derek Pedersen -Hayden Njos -Jake Zylstra -Jared McAboy -Jeff Seid -Jett DiPalma -Jordan Kirkland -Ken Williams -Kevin Brown -Kevin Hall -Kevin Kennedy -Kramer Fairclough -Leo Trotz -Marco Amalfitano -Max Liebl -Michael Leverenz -Mike Suguro -Mitchell Booth -Nathan Lantz -Nathan Rodland -Matt Fisher -Nick Fisher -Nick Watson -Oak Griffith -Ozamataz Buckshank -Pabi Dhaliwal -Pat McGuire -Pierre Groenewald -Roddy Hanson -Ryan Johnson -Scott Andrew -Seth Gunning -Seth Shields -Sheldon Stober -Stephen Bishopp -Tanner Patnode -Taylor Tinney -Wes Concepcion -Zane McCanless -“Soft, Tender, Delicate” IGTV video -“INNA - Amazing” IGTV video -Elizabeth Rodland -Armie Hammer -Chace Crawford -Franky Cammarata -Johannes Huebl -Sean O’Pry -Blake Horstmann -Jan -Joe Sessa and his friends -Matt/Abby Howard -Taylor Dean -Kelley Flanagan -Jessica Clarke -Madison Prewett -Lindsey Allemeier -Katie Betzing -Ben Higgins -Hannah Ann -Ian Spear -Laguna Beach -Lauren -Kristin -Stephen -Talan -Jessica -Taylor -Adam Newton -Sean Lowe -Catherine Giudici -Brianne Schmidt -Connell O’Brien -Tyler Pichette -Hannah Brown -Max Tychsen -Dylan Inman -Tyler Cameron -Taylor Phillips

9 Mesopotamia -Daily Life -Learning To Be A Scribe -Ziggurat -One Of The Seven Wonders -Hanging Gardens -The Fertile Crescent -Invented The Plow -People Of The City-States -Nobles -Priests -Merchants -Scribes -Craftworkers -Free Farmers -Enslaved People -Farmers Who Did Not Own Their Land -Cut One Hand Off -Women’s Legal Status

10 Ancient Greece -Philosophers -Socrates -Plato -Aristotle -Mathematics/Science -Euclid -Archimedes -Eratosthenes -Hippocrates

11 Greek Gods/Goddesses -Athena, Goddess of Wisdom -Parthenon Temple

12 Alexander the Great

13 Medieval Europe (500-1500 AD) -Theme Suffering -Boiling -Baking -Burning -Brazen Bull -Cooking -Stretching Bones -Sleep Deprivation -Quartering -Children’s Crusades -Castles

14 Islam -Muhammad -Arabia -Persia -Pillars -Architecture -Learning -Astronomy -Algebra -Medicine -Mapmakers -1001 Nights Book

15 India In The Middle Centuries -Taj Mahal

16 Central/South America -Theme Coming of Age -Maya -Toltec -Aztec -Tenochtitlan -Teotihuacan -Olmec -Inca -Cotton -Maya Calendar -Maize Corn -Metal -Writing -Soccer -Rituals -Religious Ceremonies

17 Europe (1400-1750 AD) -Peasant Revolts -Wars -Renaissance -Coldplay -Exploration -North/South America -Slavery -Imperialism

18 Industrial Revolution (Late 1700s AD) -England

19 Nations in Conflict (1775-1921 AD) -Revolutions -Independence -Nationalism -Ending Ancient China

20 1900s Conflict -Hitler -Russia -Japan -Westernization -Communism -World War I -World War II -Cold War -Berlin Wall -Technology -Advancements -Independence -Space Race

21 1900s Fun -China -Shanghai -David Kangmeng -South Korea -Fashion -Music -Recreation -France -Coffee -Restaurants -Sex -Hugh Jackman -Germany -Hugh Jackman -Spain -Hugh Jackman -Great Britain -Hugh Jackman

22 United States 1970-1990 -Fraternity -Fun -Matt Damon

23 Adulthood in the United States -The Bachelor -The Bachelorette -City -Country -Jobs -Relationships -Financial Problems -Making It In Hollywood

24 Masculinity -Male To Male Friendships And Siblings -Domination -Dealing With Girls

25 Comedy PBN Part 2 “Spin Off” -Continues After “Paris By Night In Modern Time” -Age Around 30+ -Van Son Cast -Similar To “Adulthood in the United States” And “Virtues of Harmony II” But Different

26 Countryside “Que” In VN -Theme Suffering -Financial Problems -Hard Living -Making It As Singers -Dating Singers -Accidents -Human To Human Crimes -How To Get To The United States

27 Physical Buildings And Transportation -Thailand, Malaysia, And Singapore -Hotels -Motels -Apartments -Bars -Clubs -Supermalls -Supermarkets -Companies -Motorcycles -Taxis -Trains -Airports -Gambling

28 Companies And Corporations -India And The Middle East -Work Time -Play Time

29 Modeling -Brazil, Portugal, And Spain -Amazon Rainforest -Rio De Janeiro -Marcello Alvarez -Jobs -Pay Less -Require Effort -Tired -Time Consuming -High School Drop Out -Saving Money -Criminal Offenses -Competition

30 Hierarchy In Society -Mexico -Poor -Rich -Cartels -Illegal Immigration To The United States -MTV Reality And Game Shows -Cabo San Lucas -Travel To The Caribbean

31 Route To Antarctica -Theme Living With Air Pollution 1990s -Chile -Santiago -San Antonio -Argentina -Buenos Aires -Andes Mountains -Lake Titicaca -Atacama Desert -Tierra Del Fuego -Tip Of South America -Cape Horn -Herding Farm Animals -Biking

32 High School In Vietnam -Movie Length Duration -Fun During School -Hard Times Outside Of School

33 United States Road Trip -Washington -Oregon -California to East Coast -Variety Of Climates -Route 66

34 Girl Pornstars -Hot Girls -Hard Past -Family -Friendships -Relationships -School -Money -On The Street -Need Food -Need House -Need Home -Models -Real -Instagram -Victoria’s Secrets -Pornstars -Feelings -Resentful -Fearful -Anxious -Apprehensive -Insecure -Suspicious -Trust -Travel -Making It In The Porn Industry

35 Guy Pornstars -Straight Guys -Gay/Bi Guys -Henry Pheet -Malcolm -Random Grindr Hookups -Travel -Making It In The Porn Industry Leonardo DiCaprio Robert De Nero John Travolta Tom Cruise Henry Cavill Simon Pegg Christian Bale Hugh Jackman Keanu Reeves Edward Norton Sean Connery Matt Damon Mel Gibson George Clooney Tom Hardy Orlando Bloom Guy Pearce Heath Ledger Robert Redford Paul Newman Scarlett Johansson Rachel McAdams Amanda Bynes Japan -1900s WWI/II -Westernization South Korea -1990s K-POP China -Song Dynasty -Ending Ancient China -1900s Beijing Vietnam -School In United States -Travel -Love -Comedy -Countryside “Que” Thailand, Malaysia, And Singapore -Physical Buildings And Transportation Drama India -The Middle Centuries Taj Mahal -Companies And Corporations The Middle East -Companies And Corporations Europe -Medieval -Renaissance -Exploration -Imperialism Italy -Roman Empire France -1900s Great Britain -Industrial Revolution Mexico -“Hierarchy In Society” Brazil -Modeling Portugal -Modeling Spain -Modeling

[thebraingremlinsaremad]

Daily Blog #15: August 22, 2021

Dollar Tree is honestly pretty fucking awesome 👌👌👌

I set my alarm for like 6:25 this morning, but it took 6 minutes for the "Horsin' Around" theme song instrumental to wake me up. I was pretty tired lol. I just dismissed it and went back to sleep.

I only went back to sleep because I knew I had another alarm set for 7:00. That got me up.

I should mention that this was still in the RV over an hour away from the house.

After I got up, I went to go get a shower, and did so successfully.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten my brush this time and had to do it afterwards after my hair had a bit of time to dry, which did make it a little more difficult lol.

I got dressed and grabbed my stuff, putting it into my car.

I made it a point to see and say "see you later" to my grandparents before I left for the flea market.

My dad insisted that I stayed to say goodbye to my mom, so I left.

I did NOT have cell service up there, as was mentioned in my previous 2 blogs of which I could only post today, so finding my way was a tiny bit difficult until I got some service to ask Google to take me to "...".

It worked and I got there.

On my drive, I listened to 1 by Simple Kid, a CD I had previously purchased at a Dollar Tree location.

I got a call from the guy at the flea market saying that I had some people there waiting for me. He asked how far away I was, to which I said "about 10 minutes." Ironically, that call made me miss my exit, as Google couldn't talk during the call, and added about 3 minutes to my arrival time lmao.

I did sell the Xbox that he said someone was interested in. I got $40 for it. I spent 27¢ on it. Pretty good return if you ask me.

I couldn't sell it with anything other than a power cord because the controller and AV cables I had been using to play it there were for my personal console. I'm just glad I can actually hook my Xbox up and stop having to drag them to the flea market along with a small library of games.

Not too long after I sold the Xbox, someone came in and asked if I wanted to see some electronics he had in his car. I went out with him. It was a pair of 3ft speakers and a Pioneer audio system with dual cassette decks (although neither of them works) and a 25 Disc CD-changer, as well as the standard AM/FM tuner. Additionally, there was a Fisher amplifier and AM/FM tuner as well as a Fisher Direct Drive turntable. He said he wanted $60 for em, but before that he casually, and probably accidentally, dropped that he was just gonna take em to the thrift store.

Big mistake.

I got em for $35 lmao. THERE GOES MOST OF MY PROFIT.

Oh well.

I tested everything. As I mentioned, the cassette decks don't work, but everything else does apart from the turntable needing a new stylus.

I posted some new photos of the shop to Facebook, and someone soon DMed me about a stereo system.

I priced everything, and it turns out I have about $300 worth of equipment from that deal, the Fisher amp and tuner being worth about $150.

The buyer will hopefully show up next weekend, for he wants to buy the Fisher stuff ($185 with the turntable), the 3ft speakers, an 8-track deck, and a Kenwood deck we've had for a week or two.

The speakers are listed for $50 (and are worth around $100-150), the Kenwood Deck for $50 as well, and the 8-track for $35. That makes it about $320 in equipment. Since he's buying so much, I'll knock it down to $270 and essentially give him the speakers or cassette deck for free lol.

Apart from that stuff, not much happened at the flea market. I sold some records, cassettes, CDs and I think 2 DVDs. One person bought a VHS tape? That money was the other guy's though. Oh well xD.

I can't say that I didn't miss my wonderful partner while on the trip. I actually brought along the stuffed animal they gave me (who's name is Greg) and snuggled with him both nights.

I was very happy to hear from them UwU.

They let me rant and I let them rant.

I honestly give them too much responsibility over me xD. I'm like, "Okay, I'm gonna do this. HOLD ME TO IT."

I know I can't hold myself to anything I personally say (this blog being the only exception apparently), but I listen to them pretty well I think 🤔. If they tell me, "No, you don't need that VCR," so long as it's not some weird specialty thing, like a worldwide VCR 🥵, I'll be like "Yeah, you rite bro."

I love you man xD. You control my craziness pretty well. I'm so thankful for you UwU.

#relationshipgoals

So part way through the flea market day, I went over to Dollar Tree to buy some snack, but ended up looking through the CDs to see if there was anything good. I took photos of about 18 CDs and flipped through them online for the remainder of the flea market day.

I deleted the photos of the ones I didn't want and kept those that I liked. Surprisingly, I ended up buying 13 CDs there, but not before dropping them on the floor like the dumbass I am.

Also, sorry for all the nerd shit I spilled on your lap earlier. No one cares about amps and tuners xD.

I'M LISTENING TO ONE OF THE DOLLAR TREE CDS RIGHT NOW THO.

I already transferred over to my online library on iBroadcast and put the disc into my CD changer, which is now holding 164 CDs.

Its max capacity is 300 discs 🥵

WHY AM I NERD

Oh well

I like being a nerd gurl

Also maybe a technosexual 👀

I get really excited over some electronics. Like. REALLY excited.

Some editing VCRs are like "Holy shit that is SEXY. Look at those goddamn VU meters 🥵. And hhhh there are like 7 inputs on this thing and individual controls for left and right audio gain, not to mention Hi-Fi S-VHS recording. Hhhhhhhhhhh please gimme 😭. Why are you so expensive?"

I uh, mean, uh, *cough* look, pretty lights.

Oh yeah, I was gonna say the album I was listening to xD. MAN I GOT SIDETRACKED.

It's 37 Everywhere by Punchline. Def give it a listen; it's pretty heccin good.

Another notable album I picked up was Page One by Steven Page. I very much like the first track, "A New Shore." It's quite catchy and he has a great voice imo.

Also at dollar tree, I bought a regular bag of Fieras and 2 bags of Fieras Sticks, which were marked down to 75¢/bag because they're expiring soon.

I honestly like the generic Dollar Tree version of Takis more than actual Takis. They're a lot more flavorful when it comes to the lime, but also hotter at the same time.

Don't get the hot nacho ones tho. Hot nacho? More like hot pile of shit.

HAH

Goteem.

They're not that good xD.

THE REGULAR ONES ARE FIRE THO

"How do you do fellow kids?"

I got home and started working on putting the CDs onto my computer, and then onto iBroadcast, but not without first adding The Music Man to my digital library, something I had neglected for a month or two. The CD had just been sitting there lol.

I also switched my digital file for "The Black Parade" to that of the uncensored CD, which I had purchased before I event started working over 2 months ago.

MAN I'M LAZY

I eventually get around to shit tho lol. I guess it's just a matter of priority.

What usually takes priority is digging through everything to find something that I forgot about but then remembered, making a mess in the process that I would then have to clean up, at least partially.

I think the album just ended. I've been writing for a while xD. I'ma start "I Made You Something" by The Island of the Misfit Toys.

I'll tell you where that album came from in a minute.

In the meantime, where was I?

I kinda lost my train of thought despite reading up to see where I was. Oh well. On I go.

I ate dinner and kept working on those CDs, eventually putting my clothes from the week into the washer.

I FORGOT TO PUT MY SHAPING UNDERWEAR IN. FUCKING HELL MAN.

I wanted to wash em for this week 😭

No tight pants for Leonna I guess qwq.

Meanwhile, the box of my CD album cases is overflowing. I need another box.

I keep all of the album artworks in a big CD folder. That's almost full.

I wanna fill my entire CD changer. That's one of my big goals in life. Idk why, but I just wanna legitimately fill the entire thing.

My clothes are in the dryer now. I don't think I have the time (or energy) to fold them tonight. I'll leave that for tomorrow morning before work.

And God. Fucking. Damnit. I start school again on Wednesday. NOT looking forward to that, and neither are my 2 coworkers. We already have low enough staff, but only the two of them working is gonna be a pain in the ass.

I'll still work Saturdays.

I need to contact my guidance counselor to get out of the gym class I signed up for. I scheduled this shit before I found out I was trans, and I don't wanna deal with the fucking locker room situation 🙄 I have far more important matters.

Okay so anyway, the album I'm listening to came from a cassette. I bought this cassette a few months ago at the flea market along with a few others. The reason I bought them? They were all newer cassette releases from the 2010's, and they're all actually pretty good music from very indie bands.

Currently getting mad at iBroadcast's compression algorithm. It's unnaturally fucking anything over -10db up. Oh well, there's not really anything I can do about it.

I have like 13GB of music on my phone btw. That's about 3.5k songs on 268 albums.

I'm kind of an audiophile, but I'm too cheap to pay for a lossless service. Oh well.

They do actually have a lossless service on iBroadcast, but once again, too cheap.

Someone just sent me a friend request who legitimately posted that BLM and the democratic party are hate groups.

BLOCK.

Goodbye ho.

I don't get that. They call the democratic party a hate group when they hate people like me, and I, being more of a democrat although not fully because the 2-party system is fucked, think nothing more of them than they're very wrong about certain things, especially, as shown, that black people, as well as asian, Indian, native, and people of all ethnicities and backgrounds, are not equal to white people.

Yeh.

Totally.

You go buddy.

Anyway, yeah, I can, and do, convert music and video from analog formats to digital files in order for me to archive and listen to whenever and wherever I please. I've actually made a bit of a business out of it, but I don't get too much work from it. At least I'm not overloading myself xD.

I honestly have so much more to say, but I should probably go to sleep soon.

A few final shoutouts to the following people and companies:

-Dollar Tree

-Steven Page

-Broken World Media

-The Island of Misfit Toys

-Simple Kid

-Punchline

-My incredible partner QwQ I love you so much. Thanks for being the best all the time. I hope I can give you the best life ever.

Anyway I suppose this is goodnight. Lmk if you want a full list of the CDs I bought today! I'll link that song by Steven Page here.

And here's a good song from Simple Kid

I really like music lol. Enjoy these pieces.

Anyway, goodnight lol.

Lots of love,

-Leonna.

[stina-is-a-punk-rocker]

‘always and forever, lara jean’: a bungled mess of my thoughts while watching the movie

Alright, cards on the table: I never finished reading the book. I got bored a couple of pages in, so I just read up the summary on Wikipedia and called it a day.

Not gonna lie, I expected better from the movies. I loved the first movie; it was cute, it was fun, it hit all the right places. The second movie was… eh. Jordan Fisher is cute, so that’s a plus.

And then we got the third movie; the final in the To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before trilogy.

And it was somehow even worse.

Maybe I’m exaggerating. Despite its shortcomings in the plot and character development-related departments (the fact that Lara Jean wrote addresses for letters she never meant to send is something that will bother me on my deathbed), the movies have their merits. They’re cutesy and charming and enjoyable, overall; movie-LJ is sweet and unashamedly a girly-girl, which is a refreshing change from the #NotLikeOtherGirls, pick-me girls and bruh girls we had in loads of other YA movies growing up. Peter’s pretty cute, too; he’s not a possessive freak like so many other love interests (The Kissing Booth, After, Anna and the French Kiss), and his and Lara Jean’s dynamic is cute, too. Not to mention- we finally have an Asian lead whose Asian-ness isn’t the whole focus of the story!

Again, maybe I’m being extra with all this. The series is, at its core, solely for entertainment purposes. Not every piece of media has to have an underlying message and you shouldn’t need to read between every goddamn line to find something worthy of enjoying. They’re certainly helpful for whiling away a couple of hours; perfect for bingeing with a pint of ice cream in hand, and all of this is in good fun.

Also, it goes without saying, but: spoilers ahead.

The film beings with Lara Jean scribbling a postcard to Peter while she’s in Korea with her family. The inclusion of that little snapshot of Asian culture made me so happy- seriously, fuck everyone who says diversity in media doesn’t matter. I’m not even Korean, and I was overjoyed at seeing a couple of scenes just from the same continent I’m on. The K-pop music in the background was a fun touch, too (although all Korean music isn’t K-pop, but that’s a rant for another day).

(Also: Blackpink has so many more suitable songs than Pretty Savage that go with the theme of the movies. Kill This Love in the second movie while Lara Jean is getting ready to go to her boyfriend’s match is bad enough- they’re supposed to be in love in that scene, goddammit.)

One thing that bothered me throughout the movies is how obviously non-Korean Lara Jean and Margot look. It’s like whoever chose the cast went for any random Asian- Lana’s Vietnamese and Janel Parrish is half-Chinese, and it’s so obvious. You seriously couldn’t find two Korean-Americans who even vaguely resembled each other so they could pass for sisters? The actresses do a stunning job and I don’t want to shit on them, but I just wish they didn’t go with the ‘all Asians look the same, what’s the difference?’ mindset.

Also, a nitpicky thing I’ve noticed in movies with characters who read a lot: no one holds their books up while they’re reading. Your arms start to cramp, which is why you keep your book in your lap while you’re reading, or you rest on your belly and hold the book in front of you. My spine and shoulders didn’t suffer years of torture as a chronic reader for you to include characters who hold their books up while reading.

A major gripe I have with Always and Forever, Lara Jean is how the characters are almost jarringly out of character- not from the books, but from the two previous movies, too. Lara Jean didn’t have much of a character to begin with, so I can’t say much about her (she dissed Oasis at one point; it’s okay for me to be mean to her), but the rest of them are either caricatures of themselves or just totally different people.

Movie Peter >>> Book Peter. He’s almost too perfect (except for the fact that he unironically loves The Fast and the Furious, which… ew), almost too much of the ideal boyfriend. Not that my perpetually single arse would know. How do boyfriends even work? I wouldn’t know the first thing to do with one; how often should you feed it? Do you need to take it on walks?

(In the notes I’ve written towards the end of the film, I’ve complained about Peter being immature and making Lara Jean feel bad about following her dream to go to NYU. He confuses me.)

Not to mention how distractingly adorable Noah Centineo is from some angles and under certain lighting conditions (other times, he reminds me of the human version of Shrek and that bothered me). King of weird Tweets and Instagram captions though he may be, he’s got a really nice smile, and his gravelly voice is both parts sexy and disturbing.

But I digress.

I’ll never forgive the directors for what they did to Kitty and Chris- two of my favorite characters, from both the books and the movies. Kitty’s annoying to the point of being borderline unlikeable- gone is the occasionally snarky comic relief we all came to love; in her place is an annoying brat whose every line comes out forced. Also, making soap is fun; fuck you, Kitty.

Chris is essentially Dixie D’Amelio’s character from that TikToker Grey’s Anatomy ripoff; the main character in One Direction fanfiction from 2012 who doesn’t want to go to the concert but her best friend gets a ticket for her so she can’t bail but Harry Styles sees her in the crowd and falls in love at first sight and 50k of mutual pining and misunderstandings late, they get together. She’s cynical and snarky and hates capitalism and consumerism and prom (because of course she does), but secretly, she’s into it (because of course she is). My guess is that she’s there to appease all the arseholes (including myself) who accused the characters of being too one-dimensional, but it seems too out of place in a movie that doesn’t have much plot to begin with.

I really, really hate how Lucas was done dirty- throughout every single movie. Of course, it’s Lara Jean’s story so not every side character has to be fully fleshed out- but you’d think three. entire. movies. would be enough to give Lucas a bigger role than the GBF and the token black guy for the diversity brownie points. Every single time Lucas shows up, it’s to push Lara Jean and Peter’s story forward. I would’ve liked to see a romance for him pushed forward instead one for Chris- especially because he says, at one point in a previous movie, that it’s hard to find other gay boys, so it would’ve been sweet to see him find love- and Chris’s character arc could’ve been focused on reconciling with Genevieve. Instead, we see the OG Reggie from Riverdale be the one to show Chris the bright side of monogamy, and Lucas gets a date to prom as an afterthought (another darkskin black dude, so no one thinks the film is racist).

Genevieve’s character in this movie gives me whiplash. Look, I’m all for girls supporting girls- healthy female relationships are something way too many YA movies lack- but she goes from bitch queen extraordinaire to friendly the moment the next scene calls for it. Her character isn’t consistent. A redemption arc should be executed cleanly and believably; you can’t have a character be a total prick one moment and then suddenly be, “Hey, if you get into NYU, let me know,” the next.

And Genevieve’s still an arsehole to Chris; at one point, in NYC, while they’re at the NYU campus grounds (I knew that Lara Jean was going to go to NYU the moment she saw all the banners; I fucking called it), Genevieve tells Chris, “University is for people who actually have a future,” and I recoiled. I’m not the nicest of people and yet that was going too far. Chris doesn’t hesitate to shoot back a, “You peaked in high school,”, but still. Y i k e s. You can’t convince me someone’s turned over a new leaf when they say something like that.

Lara Jean’s dad (forgot his name; gonna call him Dr. Covey) is as unremarkable as ever, and his new wife (forgot her name, too… Trisha? Trina? Eh, something like that) is… unsettling. I mean, I get that they’re all loved up and twitterpatted, but there’s something about all the smiling they’ve got going on that chills me to the bone.

Also, Trisha/Trina kinda looks like TikTok’s ThatVeganTeacher and it bothers me.

Another huge problem with this movie even being made is that the series never had enough plot to continue onto a trilogy. Lara Jean’s letters are what the plots of the first and second movies revolve around; the third only mentions them in passing. The final love letter from Peter was a cute callback, but there’s a massive continuity issue with the first two movies and this last one- both character and plot-wise.

Maybe I’m not articulating this clearly enough, so I’ll use an example: take Harry Potter, for example. Harry’s main goal throughout the series is defeating Voldemort. And it takes all seven books for him to get there, to finally achieve this.

Lara Jean’s goal in the first movie changes midway; from keeping up the façade with Peter so she can avoid the crap with the rest of the letters getting out, to making her fake relationship real. It forms a bridge with the second movie; the letter that went out to John Ambrose, and her dithering between Peter and perfection (I’m not sorry). But what does the third movie have to do with any of this?

There were way too many music montages. You couldn’t go five minutes without a random pop song playing in the background, and it was annoying as hell. Don’t Look Back in Anger was w a s t e d on this stupid film. The artsy scenery shots were even worse- no, I don’t give a fuck about the New York skyline or a bird’s eye view of whatever vehicle Lara Jean is in. A few shots of Seoul would’ve sufficed; the rest was overkill. This movie is way too damn long already (almost 2 entire hours!!!); cut out a couple of those. No one cares.

I thought they’d pull the whole Aladdin trope with character-A-keeps-trying-to-tell-character-B-the-truth-about-a-lie-B-believes-in-about-A-but-B-keeps-interrupting, but Lara Jean (typing her name out is annoying, why couldn’t she have a single name, like both of her sisters?) comes clean earlier than I expected. Peter’s reaction about LJ not getting into Stanford is… uncharacteristically mature? No “Why did you lie to me?”, no accusations, not an ounce of betrayal. Which I did not expect from a guy who’s a little bitch for the greater part of book one (I really don’t like Book Peter, in case you couldn’t tell). I know fuck-all about book three’s Peter, so I can’t tell if he really did adopt this mature, well-adjusted persona, or the movie did it to make Peter seem like less of a dick (like they did it with the sextape-that-wasn’t-a-sextape in the first installment).

On a sidenote, how do these main characters in YA books get into really good colleges with zero to no visible effort? These arseholes fuck around for the entirety of the story and have way too much going on to actually do schoolwork, but they waltz into Ivy Leagues at the end. And apparently, I’m not the only one bothered by this.

There’s something to be said about how the movies don’t really sexualize minors (characters who are minors, to be fair. None of the MCs look anything like teenagers), though. It’s almost weird to see them not getting drunk and partying and having sex all the time. Maybe that’s why Lara Jean trying to get her hand on Peter’s dick felt so stilted and awkward (I cringed so hard when she kept trying to touch him and he kept pushing her hand away, holy shit).

And the kissing. It’s to be expected from a romance film, but there was so. Much. Kissing.

The amount of product placements (… actually, I could count only two: Apple and a pair of Beats headphones Lara Jean puts on at one point, but the movie shoved so many iPhones in my face that I’m obligated to exaggerate) would’ve made anti-capitalist Chris mad.

I’m guessing this all takes place in a parallel universe, sans the coronavirus. Still, being in quarantine this past year and being socially awkward for every other one, it was agonizing seeing everyone so close together in NYC. When Peter kissed the ball (lol) (I have the sense of humor of a straight boy in middle school, don’t judge me) when him and Lara Jean go bowling, I had a visceral reaction. And what are the odds of Peter meeting his estranged dad at the very same bowling alley?

Speaking of Peter’s daddy issues (I’ve written “Hardin but diluted” in my notes; I watched this movie at, like, 1 AM; I’m not entirely sure what was going through my head at that point)- I hated how they guilt-tripped Peter into giving his father another chance. In the wise words of Hannah Montana, everybody makes mistakes- but leaving your wife and two kids for another woman is pretty far from a little oopsie on Mr. Kavinsky’s part. I don’t blame Peter for hating him, and I’m not in a place to judge whether Mr. Kavinsky (does he get a first name?) should be forgiven or not, but I feel like they let him off too easy and made Peter seem like a misunderstood teenager with anger issues for not accepting Mr. Kavinsky’s (crappy) apology at once.

And it adds nothing to the story at all; Mr. Kavinsky peaces out after having one (01) coffee with his firstborn, and he’s never seen again. If you’re going to introduce a subplot, make it tie into the main storyline- the very least you could do is make it an important enough part of the story to have more than 10 minutes of the run time. It makes no sense as to why they’d bring up Peter’s dad in this last film, when he’s already gone through two perfectly fine. I guess it was a ‘tying everything up’ part… even though no one cared.

Lara Jean’s handwriting is surprisingly ugly for someone who’s written that many love letters. And her styling took a definite nosedive; her outfits in the first movie were so effing cute, but now they’re just… meh.

There are so many conversations and lines that the writers must’ve thought sounded good enough for someone to type out the quote in curly font and slap it on a screenshot from the movie to post on Instagram, but when it comes to the actual delivery, they just sounded… weird.

Peter says one time near the beginning of the film, “You know what I’m looking forward to the most in college? Never having to say goodnight,” because he expects him and Lara Jean to get into the same college.

But I guess the word they should’ve used was ‘good-bye’, because this just makes him sound stupid.

At one point, Lara Jean asks Kitty how much Kitty’s gonna miss her when she goes off to college, and Kitty says, “A four.” Later on, she confesses, “I’m gonna miss you a twelve, Lara Jean,” and all I could think was, “But we’re endgame, Archie!”

(In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t let people know I’ve watched Riverdale; it lessons my credibility.)

Still, there remains some good to be found: all the baked goods looked very delicious and made me crave chocolate chip cookies. Peter wearing the socks Lara Jean gifted him at the beginning of the movie was a cute gesture, and Lara Jean giving Peter her teal hatbox? The one she kept her love letters in? Was so? Cute? Help?

And hey, it’s a cliché that’s been done to death, but I’m always a sucker for that part in movies where the girl walks down the stairs in a pretty dress with her hand on the banister and the boy turns around and his mouth falls open and all he can say is, “Wow,”- and this film did not disappoint! Not to mention how cute both Lara Jean’s and Chris’s prom dresses were.

Dr. Covey and Trisha/Trina’s wedding was cute, too- I struggled to decide whether Kitty wearing a necklace that says ‘feminist’ and a tux is a bit too on-the-nose, but I’ve decided that it’s nothing to get my knickers all in a twist about (for clarification: it’s not the necklace or the crossdressing that made me debate this; I just wish they didn’t make a big deal out of it- I wish they didn’t have Kitty and Lara Jean get into an argument about her not wearing a dress, if that makes sense?).

And the final letter- the one from Peter to Lara Jean- I ate that shit up; it was so, so, so cute.

In conclusion (why is it so easy for me to crank out 3k about my thoughts on a Netflix movie and yet when it comes to English Lit. at school, I’d stare at a blank sheet of foolscap for ages?), did I enjoy the movie? Not really. There were parts of it that I liked, but it was overall too boring and I kept wishing I’d watched the new SKZ Code episode instead every few minutes.

But that doesn’t mean that it was bad. I kinda feel a little sad, actually, now that Lara Jean and Peter’s story has come to a close; To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, the first movie, is one of my favorites, and bitch though I might about them, the kinda grew on me… like an innocent plant, at first, but then like a fungus. Not a parasitic fungus, just not mutualistic, either… kind of like a commensal.

Maybe I should stop with the biology similes.

[brimstone-and-helianthus]

exalted secret santa hell yeah

details below the cut!

The Phantom Apiarist, a No-Moon lunar. Caste/favored are intelligence, wits, appearance, and dexterity. He/they

I’m still trying to figure out a mortal name, but he was born in a group of villages in the southeast, where the riverland and forest begin to shift to mountains. His community worships a bee goddess, whose domain is fertility, community, and death. The Phantom Apiarist aspired to be a shaman under her guidance. Her tutelage culminated in the Heart Swarm, wherein he sacrificed his heart to show her devotion to her. After deeming it worthy, she placed a queen from her colony into his chest to start a new hive. This was his initiation into terrestrial sorcery. He’s really glad it worked, because if his goddess finds your heart lacking, she eats it and you die!

He is grateful for his Exaltation, but expects that Luna wants something in return, and is worried it would conflict with his own priorities. Which are keeping his home safe from an increasing number of raids and generally causing havoc to any Realm passersby. His control spell is blood lash, and his magic focuses on body transformations, insects, and necromancy. He has a fun thaumaturgy ritual where he tells bees secrets in exchange for their knowledge of the dead. His Tell is the beehive implanted in his chest. Where his sternum should be, you can see the nest and bees coming and going, which are his familiars. His anima banner is sweet-smelling honeycomb dripping blood and the feeling of a hot, oppressive summer’s day.

The closest real world ethnicity to match him would be North African, I’d say. His hair is very curly and goes past his shoulders. It’s normally pulled back with a few loose curls for flair. His eyes are dark, and he usually has at least a small smile on his face. He’s on the shorter side, and nothing really stands out regarding his physique. His moonsilver tattoos are the major veins and arteries of his body. His main colors are navy blue and forest green, with bits of red-orange accenting. He wears a large sun hat with flowers continuously blooming and dying on it.. I’m not good at coming up with clothes, but he tends to wear things that are sheer and flowy. Feel free to do whatever with them. He’s trans, and since exalting has given him a body he’s way more comfortable with, he is very excited about all the loose, open shirts he gets to wear now. I imagine a lot of plunging necklines revealing his beehive. His main weapon is a giant war fan with a honeycomb pattern.

The Bride Veiled in Ruin, a dusk abyssal. Melee supernal. She/her

The Bride Veiled in Ruin stands alone in the battlefield. Gore clings to the crevasses of her mighty pillar. Leftover sorcery evaporates like fog at sunrise, but a red mist settles over the quiet battlefield, reluctant to leave. She feels a sense of deja vu, one that she has felt many times before as she stood among the dead. Unlike these faint memories, the Bride feels like she’s winning.

What few memories she has come in fleeting glimpses such as these, spurred forth by a desire to recreate what little shreds of the past she has. But no matter how often she lifts her mighty pillar, she cannot fill the cavernous sense of loss deep in her gut. She cannot quench the sourceless rage, choking the life out of her words. Sorrow etches scars across her face so deep that mortal minds shatter upon its viewing.

The Bride meets her groom Death at the altar. She speaks her vows, and they are thus: “To love is to prostrate oneself and plead for mercy. Mercy is a spider web in a monsoon.” She lifts her veil, and she swings her mighty pillar, the Foundation of Your Undoing, and it is an act of love.

The Bride has a pretty Dark Souls aesthetic going on. She is a ten foot tall necromancer warrior from the north with a zombie Irish elk mount. Her main look is an extremely beat up chest plate/chainmail combo. She is never seen without her tattered embroidered veil, which is topped with a circlet of braided silver. Her face is pretty much indistinguishable, but you can still feel the intensity of her stare. Her color scheme is mostly white and grey, with occasional patches of rusty red, either from her aged armor itself or dried blood. She has two main weapons: a pretty nondescript soulsteel spear, and The Foundation of Your Undoing. The latter is a pillar ripped from the temple she was murdered at on her wedding day. It’s made of white jade, and the cracks are filled in with soulsteel. Her anima banner is a bloody mist and tolling bells, unseen and sonorous.

Nessiliphora, a fire aspect Dragon-Blooded. AKA Nessie the Loch Ness Mobster. Physical/Social focus. She/her. (picture courtesy of @mechanicalriddle​)

Nessie is a recently exalted beastfolk from the southwest coast. After being kicked out of their ancestral waters, her family joined with the Lintha and transitioned from fishers/divers to pirates. Nessie exalted on her birthday, her transition to adulthood, when the Lintha demanded a child (hostage) to begin uniting her family more fully with Lintha ways. Nessie refused to let this happen, and in the ensuing battle, her houseboat was sunk, the fates of her family unknown, and Nessie on the run from pirates who don’t take too kindly to deserters. A suspicious old man comforted her and directed her to Gloam, which she is not trapped on, because no ships have left port in months. Nessie would like to reunite with her family, wipe out the Lintha, and become one of the most powerful pirate queens to ever live. But also be nicer than the Lintha? Can pirates be nice? She’s still trying to figure that out, she’s like, 21.

Nessiliphora is a crocodile/plesiosaur centaur. Her bottom half is crocodile, and she has a long neck for grappling. She looks southeast asian, with wavy black hair and cool-toned, medium brown skin. She likes jewelry, and she likes to look good. Her general color scheme is gold, red, and olive green. She likes clothes with patterns/embroidery/beading/something fun. Nessie’s main weapon is herself, and her hobbies include but are not limited to: wrestling, singing, and causing mischief.

[fallenrepublick]

Alright so I like hoe the sequels look like the scene where all the star destroyer rised from the depths of Exegol? YES. That scene whre they flew over thr surface of Crait? Beautiful. Even the Star Killer scene was nice to look at. But the story is bullshit to out it simply. I honestly think that TFA was a good start, not great but good, whereas TLJ destroyed that and TROS tried to fix everything 🤔

Valid takes. I think Star Wars has always been the type to be at the forefront of the visual effects game for the time period each trilogy is released in, and as far as I’m concerned, they work well with what they’re given. And the sequels are no exception to the rule. The well-developed graphics are enough to immerse practically anyone in the setting, and it’s something I have to applaud them for.

All this being said, I understand what you mean about the plot. Oftentimes we describe the sequels as one big collective issue as we do with the OT or PT, but in this case I’m inclined to claim that it’s more complicated than that. I don’t hate The Force Awakens. Not most of it, at least. In fact, I found the majority of the movie pretty enjoyable, and my initial thrill at adding a whole new trio to the existing collection played a big part in it. Then the end of the movie hit. What? She kicks his ass? Just like that? I take a walk around some stores advertising the movie. Why do the promo pictures have Finn holding the lightsaber? They gave it to him for an upwards of two minutes. Okay, I think, maybe it’s foreshadowing for his role in the next movie. I get excited again. Two Jedi? The rise of a new Jedi Order?

It is not foreshadowing. There are not two Jedi. It’s The Last Jedi and now I have to balance the main three, in addition to Leia and Luke. But they also added a new character. Rose. Cool, an Asian female! Not cool. She’s flat, one dimensional. There’s too much going on with all the other characters that the writers don’t bother developing her past a tragic backstory. Okay... How’s Luke? Oh, he’s a carbon copy of Yoda, now? Okay... How’s Leia? Oh, we don’t know? Okay. Who’s the chick with the purple hair? Oh she’s dead now? Alright. The main villain isn’t a villain? Oh he is the villain? Wait, now he isn’t. But he is. Then the big plot device. Rey Nobody. That isn’t too bad, in my opinion. Anakin was basically a nobody as well, until he was given a chance to become something more. I like that idea. Wait a second, Luke’s dead?? When did that happen??

My hopes for The Rise of Skywalker, in my opinion, were not astronomical. I wanted real, sassy friend-group interaction from the main three. I wanted Finn with a lightsaber like the posters promised me all those years ago. I wanted development for newly introduced characters that I saw myself in, and therefore had hope for despite the backlash. I wanted to see the moment in the main villain that Vader had in ROTJ when everything clicked. When he realized why he was still alive and what he had to do with the time he was given. And finally, I wanted a proper tribute to Carrie Fisher. Instead, Poe and Rey argued with a familiarity that was never shown on screen. I got “Somehow... Emperor Palpatine has returned...” (what?). Finn never got the lightsaber back. Hell, I don’t remember most of his lines. His force-sensitivity was hinted at, but required an official statement from Disney to confirm those theories (never a good sign). I saw Rose maybe three times. Did I get the click? No. Some may argue I did, but I didn’t feel it. The weight landed on Han, when it should not have. That emotional weight belonged to Leia through and through. The click relies on seeing your family hurt by your direct actions and deciding to stand against it. Leia was hurting. Han was already dead. Was it a proper tribute to Carrie Fisher? No. This was supposed to be the Leia movie. TFA was for Han, TLJ was for Luke, this should have been hers. Instead, the last scene has her share the spotlight with Luke, a character that Rey had practically nothing but negative interactions with. Why? I have no idea.

The Last Jedi pulled the trilogy off of the path it should have taken. But TROS ruined it even more. It was a last ditch effort to un-fuck everything that TLJ had done, but crudely and poorly put together. Writers and directors weren’t on the same page, and by the time the novelization came out, it was clear the authors were desperately trying to salvage plot-holes in a movie that glossed over details and existing world-building worse than a child taking an ungraded quiz. Maybe I’m being harsh, and sure, the other trilogies have issues that I could write a whole book about. But it’s been 43 years for god sakes. They’ve had plenty of time to work out the kinks.

[crdenhart]

15 for ‘19: My Favorite Films of 2019

Here are my top 15 movies of 2019 and my brief thoughts on each or better yet, my attempts to say more than just “this movie is really good and you should check it out.”

15. A Marriage Story

Stellar performances by Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson and the rest of the cast. Quite realistic depiction of a married couple going through a divorce.

14. Rambo: Last Blood

I like how this film changes the formula a bit from the past several Rambo movies by having Rambo at home in America and not sent on a one-man-army mission to a foreign country. Stallone gives another great performance as John Rambo even in his old age, and I would like to see him continue the franchise.

13. Us

Creepy, edge-of-your-seat thriller! Interesting commentary on the differences between social classes. I actually have vacationed in Santa Cruz where the film takes place so it was cool to see it on screen!

12. The Peanut Butter Falcon

Shia LaBeouf (who has not starred in anything significant for awhile) gives a good performance. Heartwarming story and fun to watch! There needs to be more “small” movies like this that are just about the adventures of “normal” people and not big spectacles all the time.

11. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Tarantino brings the 1960s alive by perfectly recreating the look and feel of the era! When I first saw the movie, I wasn’t sure what to think of it, but after dwelling on the movie since I have come to realize it is a brilliant film.

10. The Two Popes

Incredible performances by Anthony Hopkins as Pope Benedict XVI and Jonathan Pryce as Pope Francis! I like that the film displays the religious ideological differences between the two popes and presents history of Pope Francis I did not know.

9. Richard Jewell

One of director Clint Eastwood’s best movies in recent years (it’s incredible he able to still produce such great work at nearly 90 years old). Intriguing true-life story I knew little about before the movie!

8. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie

An immensely satisfying continuation to the Breaking Bad series! Aaron Paul gives yet another fantastic performance returning to the role of Jesse Pinkman. Also, this film marks legendary actor Robert Forster’s final performance; may he rest in peace. I am anxious to see how the events of this film will impact Better Call Saul and future entrees in the universe.

7. Under the Silver Lake

I really like how the movie is essentially a modern Alfred Hitchcock thriller with similar style, tone, and music to films like Vertigo and The Man Who Knew Too Much. Andrew Garfield gives a good performance as well. I would like to see more cryptic mystery thrillers like this film.

6. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

Yet again more great performances by Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce. I myself am an independent filmmaker so I gravitate towards films like this one in which filmmaking is a major plot point. Filmmaker Terry Gilliam (Monty Python, Brazil, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) continues the style and tone of his previous work, so if you like his films, definitely check this out. The film had been in development for over 20 years so it is wonderful to see it finally completed.

5. Toy Story 4

I have followed this series since I was 2 years old, so these films are very important to me. Toy Story 4 is a very satisfying conclusion to the series (assuming this is the last one)! It was so emotionally enthralling when Woody and Buzz decide to part ways in the end. I also like how the film continues the series’ tradition of pushing the boundaries of computer animation with this film having the most realistic CGI I have ever seen.

4. Doctor Sleep

When this movie was first announced, I screamed “No, please don’t ruin the legacy of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining!” Boy, was I happily surprised to find Doctor Sleep to not only be a great movie but one that enhances the original film! I love how the film is stylistically identical to Kubrick’s Shining in many parts and that it uses spot-on lookalike actors instead of resorting to uncanny-valley CGI replacements (i.e. Carrie Fisher in Rise of Skywalker). When this movie eventually comes to home video, I want to watch it back-to-back with The Shining to see the “complete” work.

3. Joker

Joaquin Phoenix deserves awards for best actor for his powerhouse performance as The Joker! I also like that the film reminds audiences of the Occupy Movement since politics/media in recent years has tried to make everything “ant-Trump” instead of focusing on issues related to income inequality, which I believe is a more realistic problem our nation needs to address.

2. Parasite

One of the best modern Asian films I have ever seen! Really captures how desperate people can get to improve their livelihood and how people of different socioeconomic classes perceive life.

1. The Lighthouse

Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson give incredible performances as keepers of a lighthouse in the late 1800s who gradually descend into madness. The cinematography is incredible with its use of black-and-white and 4:3 aspect ratio to make the film appear like it was shot in the era in which it takes places. Movie also is rich in symbolism and esoteric meanings that I will need watch again and again to pick up on. Definitely best film of the year!